Rhino

While a rhino is not currently part of my main army plan I recently picked one up, this was mainly done as I had come across some ideas for improving the techniques for painting lighning and I wanted to test them a bit prior to the inevitable purchase of a fire raptor. Here are the results - the model does need more work but I feel the core essence of what I am trying to achieve is visible.

 

I think the effect still needs some work but it is a lot closer to what I want to achieve and it is definitely far better to test these techniques on a rhino over something as focal as a fire raptor which is now coming in to my army plan.

Recent battles have left me feeling the night raptors are simply not working out as well as anticipated and the deathstorm never really lived up to its potential but the fire raptor brings a lot of firepower which can target multiple enemies every turn and it comes with the high mobility that comes from a flyer.

Battle report 3 – Night Lords vs Grey Knights with Inquisition Allies

My friends in my gaming circle have recent been doing tournament play so with their competitive play out of the way I was able to convince one of them to give me a game against my Night Lords. There was some discussion about what I would be facing, Chris who was going to fight me has recently completed the painting of a helldrake and was extremely tempted to bring that but in the end he opted for his Grey Knights since he has not been able to make use of them recently. It also was as he said thus a battle of overcosted marines against overcosted marines.

My Force was as per the latest planned list, Chris brought roughly the following

Draigo, Coatez, Inquisitor, 10 paladins with 4 psycannons – total death star

10 tactical marines (no idea of the name) with 2 psycannons

1 psyfleman dreadnought

1 dreadknight with the flamer and shunt

5 cheap as chips plebs from the inquisitor list

8 death cult assassins plus a couple of storm shield guys in a chimera

We rolled a kill points mission which meant it was going to be a low scoring battle and we rolled the deployment across the shorter table edges. I won the roll for table edge and opted for the side with the majority of the heavier terrain in the understanding that the vast majority of the fight would be fought in Chris’ side of the battlefield. Chris won the roll for first turn and actually opted to go second, in part I feel this was influenced by the fact his subway meal had just turned up and he wanted to focus on eating rather than deploying models.

For warlord traits I rolled void walker giving my outflanking terror squad the deep strike option which I decided to take figuring that being able to drop in would give them more chance of being able to make good use of their volkite chargers.

Chris rolled to seize the initiative, failed and then rolled again due to Coatez but still failed so off we went.

Turn 1 – the deathstorm drop pod comes in deep behind Chris’ lines in the hopes of drawing some of the grey knights backwards and splitting their fire against my main force. The first terror squad dropped in close to the chimera, it scattered to almost point blank against the chimera which was not exactly what I wanted – I would have preferred to keep some more space to give a chance of not being charge by the assassins once their transport was wrecked.

My shooting opened up with the deathstorm penetrating the psyfleman once but only shaking it, its other shots were sent at the dreadknight in what I now consider to be a mistake. If I had gone for the chimera I could have popped it and allowed the terror squad to maul the death cult assassins but I knew it would have a 4+ cover save and I knew I had to drop the dreadknight but the missiles are not really going to achieve much against a dreadknight. The dreadknight was hit twice, wounded twice and passed its saves proving its shots were wasted. The terror squad poured fire in to the chimera’s flank armour, the results were 4 penetrating hits and 3 glancing hits but sadly the best result I could get on the damage chart was wrecking the tank, I had really hoped for an explosion but alas it was not to be. The drop pod did pick off one of the storm shield guys with the assassins now they were out of their transport.

The left hand dreadnought unloaded on the power armoured grey knights and through a mass of shots managed to drop 3 of them including one of the psycannons. The jet bikes then added their fire and dropped another warrior but they passed their panic check against the fire unleashed on them.

The grey knights reacted aggressively, the terminator death star backed off to ensure it stayed out of range of the dreadnoughts for the time being, psychic powers caused a wound on the inquisitor due to perils of the warp but the death star gained prescience and ensured they were going to causing some savage damage. The psyfleman moved towards my right flank and aimed to start trying to take down the drop pod which had delivered the terror squad. The death cult assassins moved in to a position to allow them charge without having to worry about terrain.

Shooting saw the deathstorm carved apart by the death star, the psyfleman took two hull points off the drop pod and the dreadknight incinerated 3 of the terror squad. Shooting from the power armoured grey knights was against the jet bikes and in a truly shocking moment I managed to pass three artificer armour saves and avoid any damage to the command squad.

In the assault phase the dreadknight charged the terror squad and I opted to hold off overwatch firing on it in the hopes it failed allowing me to overwatch the assassins but it made the charge with ease. The death cult assassins followed it in successfully but promptly balked at the sight of the terror markings on the night lords as they failed their fear check. The headsman of the terror squad issued a challenge in the hope of minimising the damage to unit. The result of combat phase was only 3 terror squad members surviving the brutal melee, they broke and were run down by the assassins.

Turn 2 – Well that had not been as good as I could have hoped, I had two victory points due to the death of the chimera and achieving first blood, Chris had gained two from the terror squad and the deathstorm and was certain to gain a third from the drop pod.

My reserve rolls indicated that neither of the remaining terror squads has any desire to arrive at the battle at this time.

I advanced the dreadnoughts in to position to bring all of their firepower on the power armoured grey knights picking them out as a viable kill point.

Shooting saw nothing happen except the whole squad of marines getting slaughtered by the overwhelming firepower getting me my third victory point of the battle. I think the most notable part of them is when the jet bikes opened up scored 8 hits and wounded with all of them to ensure that the only marine to have survived the dreadnought fire finally went down.

Chris retaliated by having his 5 man unit of plebs come in from reserve and star walking slowly up the battlefield. The dreadknight advanced aggressively with the intention of charging next turn in to my right hand dreadnought, it ran to close the distance. The death star returned towards my main army and backed up their potential with more psychic powers.

The left hand dreadnought was hammered by the death star and suffered two hull points in damage and was left unable to move in the next turn and only able to snap fire, the psyfleman managed to finish off the drop pod in a massive explosion which killed a couple of the death cult assassins which for a brief moment broke their morale.

So at the end of turn two it was 3 victory points each.

Turn 3 – still the terror squads had no desire to arrive at the battlefield and remained in reserve which to be honest I was happy with since it meant there would be less time to massacre them.

I moved under the advice of my friends to try and end the dreadknight this turn, the night raptors jumped in to position to assault it, the jet bikes advanced slightly to ensure that they had line of fire to the dreadknight.

Shooting saw the dreadnought inflict 4 rending hits on the dreadknight but it passed a two of its invulnerable saves, the jetbikes then opened up and inflicted 3 wounds one of which was able to get past the armour. The meltagun of the night raptors hit and wounded by was saved by the invulnerable save of the dreadknight.

The assault saw the night raptors go in with the hopes of dropping it through sheer weight of attacks. Sadly the wall of death overwatch fire caused three wounds and I managed to fail all of the saves – my power armour does seem to be defective for the main part. The night raptors then managed to only roll a 1 for their onslaught – so much for the weight of attacks option. The dreadknight issued a challenge which the huntmaster refused to ensure I would get what attacks I could but it was not to be, especially since the night raptors failed their fear check and were reduced to weapon skill one. Two of the raptors were crushed by the dreadknight but I did manage to roll well enough to keep the unit in the fight for the time being preventing the charge for the time being.

Very little happened in Chris turn except the left hand dreadnought was butchered by the sheer weight of fire from the death star giving him another kill point putting me in a bad position, I was running out of things in his force which I could viably kill. In close combat my night raptors managed to ignore the fear the dreadknight caused and the huntmaster stepped forward to try and slay the thing but to no avail, he was smashed in to the ground with ease by the monster. The remaining night raptor tried to flee and managed to roll a 5 to get away but the dreadknight matched it and crushed the poor warrior losing me another kill point.

Victory points now stood at 3 for me and 5 for Chris.

Turn 4 - my terror squad with drop pod came in as desired on my right flank behind the grey knight lines with the aim to butcher the inquisitor plebs for a quick kill point. The deep striking terror squad then managed to scatter eight inches straight towards the death star where it turned out Caotez had been waiting for them and used his better than interceptor rule to allow a round of shooting which saw 9 of the 10 marines slaughtered even as they appeared on the battlefield. Highlight of this was me returning to normal form on artificer saves and failing the first one I had to make. The last warrior passed his save to avoid immediately giving away the kill point.

The jet bikes moved to set up to try and finish off the dreadknight.

Shooting saw the inquisitor plebs get carved apart by the terror squad, 18 wounds caused was more than sufficient to kill all 5 of the enemy fighters. The jet bikes unloaded on the dreadknight and through weight of firepower managed to drop it finally. The remaining dreadnought now had a choice of firing on the psyfleman or the death cult assassins, the psyfleman was under the effects of forewarning giving it a 4+ invul but I wanted it dead since it was the main threat remaining to my dreadnought. I dithered a lot getting all kinds of advice before finally opting for the psyfleman, I got 3 penetrating hits only for Chris to save them all – bugger.

Chris moved the death cult assassins to assault the lone terror squad survivor while the death star went after the whole unit of terror squad, the psyfleman moved to target the drop pod using the burning chimera to protect its rear armour.

Shooting saw the death star butcher all of the terror squad as once again I failed the first artificer armour save I needed to make with that unit. The psyfleman’s heavy firepower smashed the drop pod easily. The death cult assassins charged in to the poor terror squad warrior and slaughter him without loss.

At the end of turn 4 victory points saw me on 5 while Chris was on 8.

Turn 5 – with only two units left I did not have a lot of choices but at this stage I felt I could finish off the psyfleman and the death cult assassins to get to 7 victory points and if I got another turn the jet bikes could get in to Chris deployment zone I would also be able to get linebreaker to potentially get the tie. The dreadnought opened up on the psyfleman and finally managed to take it out, the explosion saw the remaining storm shield in the death cult assassins killed.

The jet bikes then managed to butcher the remaining death cult assassins and give me an outside chance of getting something from the battle.

Chris moved the death star towards the dreadnought and unloaded with everything they had; the end result was a hull point off the dreadnought and it only able to snap fire in the following turn.

So at the end of turn 5 the victory points were standing at 7 for me and 8 for Chris. The roll to end the game came up as a 3 which meant I got the extra turn I needed to try and sneak a draw.

Turn 6 – I did very little except turbo-boost the jet bikes deep in to the enemy lines behind cover to make the chances of a terminator charge as minimal as possible. The dreadnought shooting would not achieve much so I moved it backward and ran it in the hopes of getting behind some cover sadly the movement was not a lot and I was unable to get it in to a more protected position.

Chris unloaded everything he had against the dreadnought; he figured it was a slightly easier target than the jet bikes with 3+ cover saves especially since the bikes were fearless. The shooting saw one rending hit strike the dreadnought but I managed to make the axiomatic shield save against the hit and the dreadnought survived giving me a chance to get the draw. And with that the game ended on a draw – 8 victory points each.

MVP for me was definitely the jet bikes, they did not take much fire, generally they were seen to be a poor option to shoot at compared to everything else in my force, the shooting was consistently good and they were actually responsible for removing the models to get 3 of my victory points as well as having the mobility to get the linebreaker victory point and get me the draw.

I think if I had used the deathstorm slightly better in the first turn and broken the chimera with its missiles instead of going for the dreadknight I may have been able to use the terror squad on the death cult assassins and thus give me a chance of not losing that unit as easily as I did.

Also knowing that Coatez was in the enemy force I probably should not have opted to deep strike the terror squad without a drop pod, if I had kept it outflanking I may well have been able to achieve a lot more with it – I admit the scatter straight in to the 12” bubble around Coatez was unlucky but even with a chance of it I possibly should have tried for something more cautious as I could not really afford to throw away kill points.

Jet Bikes

Sorry it has been so long since my last post but there have been some personal issues which have prevented me from spending time focusing on this project but I am back now and I have made some more progress.

As you see I have a couple of the jet bikes completed now, I am currently holding off on their riders, since they are going to require a fair amount of conversion work and I do not want to mess it up.
I have two more being worked on as I speak but these are the two that I have completed.

I am currently debating add lightning effects to these models, I have put them on most of the models I have completed to date but I am worried that it would clutter the models and detract the finish I have managed to achieve so far on them.

Later this week I will be fighting another battle and I will add the details to the blog over the weekend. I am hoping to be a little more successful than in the previous couple of battles and hopefully keep things like target prioritisation right.

Contemptor

 So time to show off what I have been working on for the past few days while my internet has been down. This is the first of the Contemptors completed, I just need to add the name to the scroll work and I will have him more or less finished.

 I am extremely happy with the look I have achieved, it is not perfect but overall I think I have managed to get a characterful model added to the army.

 The base features my first use of cork on a base and I think the effect is pretty realistic.

I have left off the lightning effects for this model, I felt the ornate nature of the relic contemptor had enough that adding the lightning as well would have overloaded the model and detracted from the final effect. With a bit of touch up work I believe the end result will be a quality addition to the army and for the time being a really impressive visual focal point for the force - now I just have to hope that it will not suffer from the typical new painted model syndrome which my armies tend to suffer from, typically my brand new painted models tend to die in messy ways when they get on to the battlefield.

New arrivals

So I have received delivery of a new batch of models from forge world and while the vast majority of them are still in lots of small pieces and not really suitable for viewing I do have this to show off.

Space Marine Jet bike next to a standard chaos space marine biker that I happened to have lying around from being used as a proxy. I included the normal biker not because it is in my army (it is not) but it is a point of comparison, really brings home how substantial the jet bikes are.
I think my jet bikes are going to be even more substantial when the standard bearer and friends are converted on to the riders, I have received 4 of these and I am aiming to work on their conversion and painting soon.
The main delay in getting these sorted is going to be completing the deathstorm and then working on the other models I received, the two Contemptor Mortis Dreadnoughts with twin Kheres pattern assault cannons.

These additions to the force (assuming I paint them up decently) will provide some very potent focal points for the army and will cut down the requirement for proxies a lot.

Drop pod 2

Well i have completed the second drop pod, in fact you may have noticed it in the some of the photos for the battle report against the Tyranids but here we go with some proper pictures.

 Pretty standard exterior shot showing the ever present lightning effects, this drop pod has had less silver implemented in the paint scheme as it was a bit much in the first one and I think it works.

 Interior shot showing off the glossy hub in the centre of the model

And another close up view

All told not a bad model and a very useful addition to the army. I am currently working on the deathstorm drop pod and hope to have it finished in a couple of weeks.

Battle report 2 - Tyranids vs Night lords

So I managed to get a battle in last night and test out the revised list against Tyranids, I have to admit I went in to this battle somewhat nervous since my army is a close ranged force and I was not sure if I would be able to do enough damage with the shooting to be able to survive the inevitable combat with the big monsters.

The battle had a standard set up in a mainly ruinous terrain with two objectives in the middle of the battlefield in the open – my theory here was to draw the Tyranids in to the open where I could blow them apart with shooting and then charge them to mop up the survivors.

I won the choice for table edge and for first turn and we also got night fighting on the first turn so there was no chance there to use the rite of war special rules sadly.

I did not have that much to deploy with only the raptors, dreadnoughts and jet bikes turning up at the start. I went for a pretty cautious deployment since I really did not want to get up close and personal with the monstrous creatures unless it was on my terms. My opponent deployed in a massive blob in the centre of the battlefield with most of his big guys in a ruin and under the effects of his venomthropes. He opted to not roll to seize the initiative since he really wanted to jump on to the objectives on the last turn, also because he is the dark eldar player who has been wrecked consistently by being seized whenever he plays them which generates something of a dislike of the rule.

 Quick view of the Night Lord drop pods waiting to come on with their proxied passengers

 Deployment of the Night Raptors, the dreadnought in this image is representing my assault cannon contemptor

 Deployment of the lascannon contemptor and the jet bikes, sadly all proxied but one day they will be real

 A portion of the gribbly Tyranid horde waiting to be deployed, the Tyrgons are actually Mawlocs in this battle

 The Tyranid left flank (from my point of view) after deployment, the black monster is representing a dakkafex, the pink horrors are hormugaunts in disguise

Night lord turn one – I am happy with my initial deployment but deathleaper has turned up and I am worried about his effect on the Mawlocs so I assign a terror squad in drop pod to go after him – this was a mistake since it simply put a nice squad of expensive marines within 6 inches of him to guide a mawloc on to. The deathstorm drop pod also came down and I put it quite close the enemy lines which again was a mistake – not used to this drop pod thing and it is showing I feel.

The praetor and his unit move up to bring their heavy bolters to bear while the assault cannon contemptor clambered over ruin walls to get in to range. The raptors pulled back a little more to try and avoid anything nasty until it was appropriate to charge in to the fray.

Shooting saw me go after the tyrant, this guy had a 24” synapse range due to a combination of biomorph and warlord trait and I figured with him out of the way I would be well positioned to wreck the Nid force. Now I should have started with the deathstorm trying to take out the venomtropes, as it was it fire 4 missiles, caused three wounds and my opponent managed to roll 1’s for all of his cover saves so against the venomthropes this would have removed his shrouding bubble completely. Instead I opted to take a wound off the tyrant and two off a dakka-fex which was useful but by no means effective enough.

My terror squad who had dropped in unloaded on deathleaper but the combination of only being able to snap fire on him combined with him going to ground in ruins with stealth meant I only got two wounds through. The rest of my shooting put two more wounds on the hive tyrant leaving him extremely close to death but failing to get me first blood which was more than a little annoying.

Tyranid turn 1 – the majority of the Nid lesser critters swarmed forward while the bigger guys rolled consistent 6’s for their move through cover, it was a general swarm towards the objectives while positioning to unleash what heavy fire power they had. Catalyst was employed to protect the hive tyrant who for the remainder of the game refused to come out of the ruins where he enjoyed his 2+ save.

The Nid shooting saw the deathstorm glanced to death by the dakka-fex giving the nids first blood. The assault cannon contemptor had an arm blown off by the heavy venom cannon held by the tyrant in some revenge for the wounds the beast had suffered. And finally the exocrine managed to melt one of the command squad with his bio-plasma attack, this also put a wound on the praetor. A massive swarm of termagaunts dasahed forward to block the charge on deathleaper, 30 critters is not going to be easy to shift.

The Tyranid right flank (from my point of view) at the end of their first turn

Night Lords turn 2 – well already on the back foot but I am sure I can turn this around… well I may have been able to if any of my reserves actually wanted to come in to the battle this turn, sadly they did not so this was already not looking great. My terror squad moved through cover the full 6 inches to threaten a disordered charge against the termagaunts and deathleaper. The Praetor and his men moved to a position to charge the hormugants who were claiming one of the objectives.

My shooting saw me decide to unloaded with the terror squad in what was a really stupid move, but it did demonstrate how obscene they are against lightly armoured infantry in the open. 20 shots with preferred enemy saw 16 hits, 15 wounds non of which could be saved, then deflagrate generated another 15 strength 5 hits and suddenly I had done 30 wounds, butchered the unit and left my terror squad completely unable to charge. Instead they were stood nicely grouped up for a mawloc to come and saw hello and even better they were in 6 inches of deathleaper so there was no chance of a scatter – brilliantly bad play by me there although seeing someone have to remove 30 guys like that was somewhat fun.

The rest of my shooting went after the hive tyrant and despite causing about a dozen wounds my opponent stubbornly refused to roll any ones on his cover saves and thus denied me the chance to get back in to the game.

My praetor and his lads charged the hormagaunts figuring it was better to be tied up in combat than be constantly shot at by something with BS4, 6 shots, strength 7 and AP2 – exocrines are nasty when you have no immediate answer for them (it has a 2+ cover save and full allocation of wounds so it was not going down any time soon). The hormies managed to get a wound on my unit and I opted to take it on my praetor and promptly failed my 2+ armour save. My lads mauled about 8 of the hormies in return but they were fearless so not going to shift.

Tyranid turn 2 – one of the mawlocs turns up and eats 8 of the terror squad sending the survivors running for their lives. The nids generally consolidate their position, maintain catalyst on the extremely nervous tyrant and enjoy life since they are in control of the battle and both of the objectives at the moment.

Their shooting takes the second arm off the contemptor but does nothing else. Close combat see another wound go on to my praetors unit, again I put it on the standard bearer since my praetor is already on his last wound and I promptly fail that 2+ armour save, joy! I do kill a few more hormies dropping the number of incoming attacks but that does not seem to be stopping my unit from slowly dying.

The terror squad members who are not eaten by the mawloc decide to stick true to the legion principals and get the hell out of there.

Night lords turn 3 – the second drop pod arrives and delivers its terror squad next close to the wounded dakkafex in the hopes of polishing it off with volkite fire. The final outflanking terror squad seem to have forgotten to take a map with them and remain in reserve.

The armless contemptor decides to go and stand on some gargoyles and for some reason I decide he needs the support of the raptors and throw them forward, no idea what I was thinking there since they will clearly win and end up standing in the open in front of the entire nid army and somewhat close to deathleaper. The ravaged terror squad rally and contemplate a short life as the mawloc looms over them.

My shooting is minimal, I fail to do anything to the dakkafex or in fact to anything I shoot at expect for the raptors killing one gargoyle. Assault phase sees the raptors get 3 attacks for charging due to their onslaught rule rather than the normal one and they then absolutely butcher every single gargoyle within range leaving them nicely out in the open, and then they only consolidate 1 inch meaning they cannot get out of mawloc munching position. The dreadnought steps on one gargoyle and holds the three remaining in combat with him. My preator and his lads suffer three wounds from 14 attacks this turn despite the enemy needing 4’s to hit and 6’s to wound but somehow I actually pass all of the saves and my attacks reduce the hormies to 4 models.

Tyranid turn 3 – the nids close the pincers, the last mawloc arrives and eats 5 of the raptors although it does take a wound to interceptor fire from the contemptor. My ravaged terror squad is charged by a mawloc while the other terror squad is shot heavily down to 4 guys and then charged by a dakkafex.

Close combat sees the praetor’s unit emerge from combat without any further damage, the carnifex steps on two marines but takes a wound back but my stubborn lads hold in there. The dreadnought fails to hit with his attacks and the gargoyles cannot damage him. Some hormies charge the raptors and cause 9 wounds, I start rolling against the sarge’s artificer armour and he dies from the first attack, then the last surviving marine dies from the first hit on him – I am really not rolling well for armour saves in this battle. The second undamaged dakkafex charges my armless contemptor, causes three impact hits all of which penetrate and he does not even have the decency to explode the dreadnought which might kill some of the nids….

Night lords turn 4 – the last terror squad arrives and decides to walk on the battlefield on the flank furthest from the fight which is going to limit their involvement.  My praetor decides to go tyrant hunting since I want to get something from the battle.

Shooting sees the heavy bolters from the bikes cause several wounds on the tyrant, one gets through and he fails he feel no pain and finally I finish the job I started on the first turn. It does not help really since his army is still within synapse from the tervigon (which spawned 9 guys on the second turn and rolled a double doing so) and the Zoanthrope.

In the assault phase the terror squad and the dakkafex they are fighting both fail to achieve anything to each other.

Tyranid turn 4 – Both Mawlocs burrow with the hopes of finding new prey. The exocrine melts one of the command squad and then the unengaged dakka fex puts 9 wounds on the unit, my opponent comments that to balance my armour save luck I should pass all of them – I roll two 1 on the first two dice and that takes the final wound from the standard bearer and the praetor.

Nothing else happens except in the assault phase my terror squad headsman finally remembers he has a chainglaive and uses it to decapitate the dakkafex giving him a nice trophy to carry around but at that point I concede as there is no way I am going to achieve anything in this fight.

Overall the fight was really relaxed and good fun although by the end I will admit to getting somewhat annoying with failing something like half the 2+ armour saves I needed to take. Obviously I am too used to playing imperial guard where armour is meaningless.

I learned a lot about the army, the contemptor with lascannons I am sure has his place but compared to the assault cannon build there seems to be no choice, not in the least because the assault cannon build is actually cheaper – rolling lots of dice is good since it means the luck should balance out. I also realise I have to be a lot more on the ball with target prioritisation than I was in this battle, more experience is needed to remember what the big issues for the army are. I do not think it was helped by the fact that I was getting this edition of the nids mixed up with the previous edition and for some reason though venomthropes gave 5+ cover instead of shrouding, this is obviously a massive difference and lead to some major mistakes in the first turn with the use of the deathstorm and lascannon contemptor. If I had gotten rid of the venomthropes I feel I would have been potentially able to gun down one of the big monsters every turn, well at least the ones with 4 wounds any way and that could have made a lot of difference. On top of that there was absolutely no reason to go after deathleaper, he was doing nothing to me until I put some troops near him to be eaten by a mawloc.

Terror squads I have to say are insanely good at slaughtering infantry units, with preferred enemy infantry and deflagrate weapons they are just devastating and I am they are going to have fun whenever they get a chance to go after eldar guardians, dark eldar of any type or even imperial guardsman and I reckon tau fire warriors are going to be somewhat nervous if they might be targeted by a terror squad.