This...Isn't Quite Right

Last night I spent a couple hours working on Vanguard Vets., highlighting of their armor and then moved on to base coating grey in preparation for white. What you see below is the result. I stopped after the second Marine, because what I was seeing threw me off. (It's a quick and dirty photo, just to show color layout).

Originally, I'd planned to avoid the standard GW Raven Guard color scheme for veterans that uses all white arms and heads. I wasn't a huge fan of it, because I felt that pure white was a poor choice for stealth-oriented troopers. I decided to go with white decorations and pad rims instead.

After looking at the above Marines, I'm rethinking my plan. At this point, they look very odd to me. The scattered patches of white feel like they frame the black too much, especially on the shoulder pads. I selected fancy pads that had both open, flat areas to which to apply Chapter symbol decals, but that also provided white decoration. It's just not working out. I also selected helmeted heads that contained some sort of brow decoration that I could paint white while leaving the main helm black. Again, it looks really odd.

I'm not sure how to fix these guys. My first thought was to rip all the heads off if I can and paint them full white. But I think I'd still be left with the "picture frame" problem of the shoulder pads. So, perhaps solid white pads instead.

What do you readers think? White helmets with silver brow details, or black details? Solid white pads, or white pads with black details? The only thing that is off the table are solid white arms. Keep in mind that the jump packs will be attached eventually, adding more black behind the heads, with silver in the intake grilles.

Corben Beck, Captain of the Raven Guard

After a couple weeks of work off and on, my first Raven Guard HQ model is ready to hit the table. Captain Corben Beck, armed with a power fist and relic blade.

 

 

The model's head is from the Blood Angels Sanguinary Guard kit. I went through a lot of different head options, helmeted and bare, and settled on this one. It just felt right for this character. As usual, I skipped painting eyes on the model, as they're downright miniscule on models of that generation, and you can't see them from table distance anyways.

The chest and legs are from the Forgeworld Shadow Captain Korvydae model. The right shoulder pad is from the Marine Commander kit, while his sword is a Grey Knight weapon. The powerfist is from the Command Squad kit, and the left shoulder pad came out of the Sternguard box. The jump pack is a standard Vanguard Veteran bit. I cast the base myself from my custom made molds, and then decorated it with sand, rock, and moss.

 

The armament might seem strange to some. A powerfist and relic blade really gain nothing in being paired together. In fact, it loses out when compared to other options. Relic blades are Two Handed, so no bonus attack for a second weapon or pistol. The common option to min/max a powerfist on a Captain is to pair it with a lightning claw, as both are Specialist Weapons and would provide +1 attack due to having two of them. Problem is, I didn't want to use the best armament that everyone else uses. I'd written Beck's fluff before I built him. He prides himself on being a flexible commander who can duel at range like a swordsman or pummel an opponent in close like a brawler. So, to embody that he uses a long blade and a powerfist. It looks awesome at least.

 

I have a little fluff piece that I'm writing to accompany Beck into my Completed Projects tabs, but it's not done yet. Look for it in the coming week or so.

 

I've already started work on my Vanguard Veteran Squad who'll join Captain Beck on the table. I armed the sergeant with a sword and shield, and then one Marine with a powerfist and bolt pistol, another with dual lightning claws, and then two who are gunslinging with a grav and bolt pistol each. Then jump packs and melta bombs for everyone. After those are done, it'll be a squad of Sternguard to finalize my Shadow Force formation.

 

My wife bought me a Forgeworld Leviathan Siege Dreadnought for my birthday last week, but he's still in the mail. I can't wait to build that model. I'll be he weighs a ton! I am dabbling with the idea of buying him a Dreadnought Drop Pod to ride in, but am balking at the price. It's a $100+ model. The rules are interesting (the Dread isn't required to jump out when he lands, but can still fire out since it's open topped, and can then assault straight out of the thing the next turn), but I'm not sure if they're THAT interesting.

 

I'm continuing to phase out my Ultramarines, and have sold off all my Tactical Marines. Fifty-plus models with various weaponry. The bulk of my playing force is made up of my Terminators now. Once I can field a full 1500 points or so of Raven Guard, I think all the Ultras will go away.

Raven Guard Landspeeder

The second unit in my Raven Guard army is complete! Here is my first Raven Guard Landspeeder:

The model is fully magnetized for all weapon loadouts. The gunner is removable at the waist, and the Typhoon launchers and doors are magnetized inside the housing. The nose guns attach with magnets inside the gun mounts.

You will probably notice some very inconsistent black on the model. I had never used Nuln Oil/Badab Black on a large model with flat surfaces before, and I ended up with some splotchy areas that I tried to repair by repainting my primary color and then washing again. I thought it helped, but when I sealed the model with Dullcote, all the repaired areas reappeared. I tried like mad to fix it with another coat, but eventually gave up. It's not blatantly obvious at normal viewing distance, and certainly not on the tabletop, so I'm chalking it up as a learning experience. Better luck next time.

The decals were a bit of a bitch to get on. I'd used Forgeworld transfers on my Scout Squad, and had little major trouble with them. The decals on the Marines' shoulders were an absolute bear to get to lay flat, despite slicing the decals slightly at the fold points and using liberal amounts of Microset and Microsol over a gloss varnish on the decal locations.

I did learn that you have to be very careful with how much gloss varnish you apply over the decal areas. If you just apply a little puddle where the decal will be, you may end up with lines around the decal where the varnish sits above the paint. It's like a little plateau. Dullcote hides it some, but it appears to be smarter to varnish entire panels of the model, despite the decal being only on one piece of the panel. That way you don't get the plateau. And certainly never touch the varnish with a brush because you think it's too thick and you need to spread it out. I did that on the area the Chapter symbol is located on the nose, and I ruined the surface of the varnish and had to reapply more. Now I have a plateau with a crater in the middle.

The big numbers on the wings indicate squadron and vehicle numbers. The large number on the speeder's left wing is squadron, and the small one on the right wing is vehicle. I figured it would be much easier to keep track of which speeders belong to which unit, and therefore which models have which special rules, if I numbered them in a coherent way. My plans include multiple formations that use Landspeeders, so keeping them organized is important for and my opponents. I don't want to accidentally nominate targets for a Suppression Force with a Speeder that's actually part of a Stormbringer Squadron.

I'm pretty happy with the model, despite the mistakes I made and the problems I ran into. They're such great models and units on the table.

I have my Captain mostly built. I just need to put some Greenstuff in the neck joint of the Forgeworld Korvydae model I used as the torso/legs, and then I'll mount him for priming and painting.

One-Day Campaign, and a Farewell

On Saturday the 19th, the FLGS ran a single-day campaign-style event instead of the standard monthly tourney. I think folks were burned out on competitive gaming after such a long period of monthlies, culminating in the Standish Standoff last month. I know I was, and it was nice to just throw dice and not worry about winning.

The basic format was that at the end of each game, the winner awarded his warlord and one Troops unit a stat bonus from a provided list. The loser awarded a Troop unit, and on a 4+, his warlord as well. Missions were Maelstrom, but with some alternate secondaries (Second Blood or Last Blood instead of First Blood, Kill Points, etc). No map taking or anything like that.

For the day, I wanted to start phasing out Ultramarines from my list as much as I could and still play. The only thing I have that isn't Ultramarines and actually playable is a full set of Assassins. I took the full Assassinorum Execution Force formation (one of each assassin). Then I took a small Ultramarines CAD with a ML 1 Librarian, Scout Squad, and Tactical Squad. I finished it off with a First Company Strike Force made of two Terminator Squads, each with a chainfist and assault cannon, an Assault Terminator squad with two hammers, and a five-man Sternguard squad (just bolters). Originally, I'd had an Allied Detachment made of Telion, six Scouts, and a Landspeeder instead of the CAD, but I realized that if I did so, I'd have no eligible warlord under the campaign rules, which required you to have a non-special character as your warlord. I was just going to select an assassin, but they don't get any warlord benefits, so I rewrote the list. This also allowed me to get my Librarian model onto the table for the first time ever.

Anyhow, because it was a campaign day, I decided my army's mission was to kill as many of the enemy army's characters as possible in every game, to the exclusion of all other mission rules as far as the Assassins were concerned.

My first game was against Thor, since the tournament software he wrote really likes to pair us up. The story of the game were the Assassins. Their ability to infiltrate really threw a bag of wrenches into the gears of his force. He had to dedicate some inordinate amounts of fire and effort into clearing them out. In the end, I won by just a few points.

Assassinorum Report, Engagement One:
Terminator Sorceror - Target Eliminated, Vindicare Kill
Power Armored Chaos Champion - Target Eliminated, Culexus Kill
Power Armored Chaos Champion - Target Eliminated, Vindicare Kill
Chaos Champion on Traitor Pattern Bike - Target Eliminated, Callidus Kill
Terminator Armored Chaos Champion - Target Elimited - Adeptus Astartes Kill

Callidus Operative - KIA
Vindicare Operative - Recovered
Culexus Operative - Recovered
Eversor Operative - KIA

Game Two was against my last-round opponent from the Standoff, who was feeling much better this time round. He brought his Krieg and their Baneblade again, and he won by a few points. The highlight of this game was having my Vindicare, who'd camped out on the roof of a building at the far edge of the field, take his final shot of the game at three surviving members of an infantry squad. They were lined up along a wall, and I opted to use a turbo penetrator round. After the dice were rolled, I put all three squaddies down with a single shot. We agreed that he'd probably headshotted all three in succession. FYI, Turbo Pen rounds against non-vehicles produce d3 wounds instead of just one on a successful to-wound roll.

Assassinorum Report, Engagement Two:
Company Commander - Target Escaped, Mission Failure
Inquisitor Coteaz - Target Escaped, Mission Failure
Various Guard Unit Leadership - Three Targets Escaped - Mission Failure
Various Guard Unit Leadership - Four Targets Eliminated - Culexus Kill, Vindicare Kill, Vindicare Kill, Adeptus Astartes Force Kill

Callidus Operative - KIA
Vindicare Operative - Recovered
Culexus Operative - KIA
Eversor Operative - KIA

The last game of the day was against a Chaos Marines force with very few models. Just a couple Cultist squads, two Maulerfields, two Daemon Princes with wings and Tzeentch powers, a Hellblade flyer (which was really cool to play against), a Chaos Fire raptor, and a Helldrake. We beat the hell out of one another, and tied for primary points, but he took more secondaries. As usual, Assassins have a really hard time with Daemon Princes. I had no anti-air capability, but that was mitigated by his flyers' refusal to show up until turn four.

Assassinorum Report: Engagement Three:
Daemon Prince - Target Escaped, Mission Failure
Daemon Prince - Target Escaped, Mission Failure
Mortal Cultist Champion - Target Eliminated, Vindicare Kill
Mortal Cultist Champion - Target Escaped, Mission Failure

Callidus Operative - Recovered
Vindicare Operative - KIA
Culexus Operative - Recovered
Eversor Operative - KIA

So the total for the day was five character kills for the Vindicare, two for the Culexus, one for the Callidus, and two for various Astartes units. The Eversor had no character kills for the day.
The Callidus died 2 of 3 games, the Vindicare and Culexus 1 of 3, and the Eversor 3 of 3. About what you'd expect considering their roles of the table. The Eversor, despite being my favorite of the Assassin types, was very hard to get into combat due to the infiltrate rules for line of sight and distance. Perhaps next time I should simply deploy him during setup. The Callidus might benefit from outflanking or arriving from the opponent's table edge as well.
It was nice, relaxed, and fun day. My list was enjoyable to play. I really liked running the First Company Strike Force with Terminators, and I think I'll be creating some Raven Guard Terminators as soon as I can. The list I ran Saturday helped me solidify my army play style for my Raven Guard, as well as the load out for my Captain. What I want my Raven Guard options to personify is a "blade and mailed fist" option. My Captain will be armed with a power sword and a power fist. His method of combat is to present both a fast, agile attack on one hand (the blade), while holding a crushing, mailed fist as a threat. His army around him will be composed of Scouts, Speeders, and Jump units as the blade, while Terminators and Centurions will be the fist.
My thoughts are that if you are engaged in a duel with a swordsman with a long blade in one hand, and a heavy gauntlet in the other, you might try to deny the strengths of his blade by getting inside his guard. But the punches from the gauntlet force you back out, or knock you down entirely. If you stay at arm's length to avoid the punches, the blade takes you apart with stabs and cuts. I know nothing about actual melee combat, but it sounds neat, right?

I'm even more excited about painting up my Raven Guard now, which is great. Previously, I was very focused on formations and being able to use units in multiple formation roles from game to game, but this revised way of thinking about my army is even better. Yes, I'll use formations, but all of them should revolve around the previously-described combat doctrine.
It was a real struggle to decide how to arm my Captain as well. I originally wanted to capitalize on the new Raven Guard relics from Kauyon, with the new bolter or lightning claws as a priority, but I will instead go with non-weapon relics like the jump pack or armor, if any at all. I'm bu8ilding to model to fit the character, not the character to fit the model. I'd complained about people forming their fluff to the army list before, and I feel ashamed I'd fallen into that same pit!

The farewell I mentioned in the post title is for my Ultramarine bikes. I handed them over to their new owner on Saturday. I've sold every painted bike model I have (I kept all the unbuilt models and bitz). I sold them for a price I considered fair, but won't reveal the exact amount. The new owner can tell people if he'd like, but it's not really about the money for me as much as it is seeing them run by someone who'll enjoy them. Dave actually sought me out to inquire about buying all of my Ultras when he heard I was retiring them. It was pretty flattering. Eventually, I'll sell off all of my Ultramarines as I manage to get more and more points of Raven Guard onto the table.

On the Raven Guard model front, I've got my Landspeeder ready for decals, so I'll get some pictures as soon as it's all marked and sealed. Once that's done, it's on to the Captain.

In Progress: Raven Guard Landspeeder

It's always satisfying and motivational for me when I can share actual progress on painted models, so today I have some shots of the Raven Guard Landspeeder I'm working on as part of my Shadow Force formation.

 

 

 

 

Nothing super fancy, but this section of the speeder is just about done. I assembled this section in two sub assemblies, the top hull plate and the bottom and sides. They were primed separately, and then I painted all of the interior of the cockpit before assembling them together and then painting the exterior.

You might notice that the seats are a purplish color. It was originally supposed to be a reddish color (Reaper MSP Red Brick), but it kept coming out pink. After a wash with Badab Black/Nuln Oil, it's a nice purple that looks nice alongside the green of the console and gun casings and the black armor.

 

I'm still working on the Typhoon launchers, Tornado nose guns, side panel doors (that are used when the Typhoons are not), and the pilot. The Typhoon launchers and panel doors had some deep pits in the plastic from where the sprue was clipped off. When I filed the nubs down, there were air bubbles inside the point where the sprue and part met. It's pretty typical of injection molding, I think. I tried to prime over them, as sometimes primer will "skin" over small holes, but these were too big. I was waiting to buy some Liquid Greenstuff to fill the holes, but decided to use a slurry of sprue shavings and liquid cement. The parts were drying last night, so hopefully I can get them filed and primed tonight.

 

After this model is complete, I will be working on my Captain. I'm short on fancy HQ-style bits, so I think I'm going to crack open one of the three limited edition Web Store captains I have kicking around. I'm torn between going for the typical Raven Guard Captain with dual claws and a jump pack, or something more basic like powerfist and bolter. The question basically boils down to whether I want him to join the Vanguard or the Sternguard in games. I'm leaning toward Sternguard. 

 

Time for a Shadow Force

I've made a decision on where to start on Raven Guard.

I'm going to build a Shadow Force. For those of you not in the know, it's a Formation from the Kauyon book that consists of a Captain (or Shrike), Sternguard Squad, Vanguard Squad, and a unit of Landspeeders. The Captain cannot have Terminator armor. The formation as a whole gets Acute Senses, Move Through Cover, and Scout USRs. In addition, the units can reroll their Run moves, or move an additional 6" when going Flat Out.

Very tame, but with a lot of options for deployment and movement around the board. One funny trivia point about the Speeder unit is that if you take three in the unit, you get +6" on Flat Out from the Codex as long as the unit still contains three models. In theory, you could have a unit of Speeders that moves 12" in the Movement phase and then Flat Out another 30" (18" for Fast Skimmer, +6 for three models, +6 for Formation bonus. That's Eldar-level movement without the pointy ears.

I've already started building a Landspeeder. Just putting the last few magnets in it, and then priming the subassemblies. After that will be the Captain, as I need an HQ to make my existing Scouts usable as part of an Allied Detachment until the Formation is complete.

The Captain will get a pair of lightning claws and a jump pack to represent some of the awesome relics in Kauyon. Swiftstrike and Murder are the claws, with standard lightning claw statline, but also Flurry, which gives him a free attack roll for every hit he's already made in assault (but no extras from the extras). So you can have five attacks on the charge, hit all five, and get five more bonus swings.
The relic jump pack makes his Hammer of Wrath hits S6 with Strikedown.

One thing I can't decide on is if I want my Sternguard to have tabards or not. When I first planned to paint Raven Guard, I wanted them to be very sleek and largely undecorated. I figured that ninja Marines didn't do lots of bling and decoration, and I really hated the white arms GW is using for RG Vets these days. But as I looked at the GW models in Kauyon, the fancy-pants Sternguard models started to grow on me. I'm not sure I like the tan tabards and white arms, but I think I might be able to modify the scheme to match my Scouts. It would look a little like THIS. Just more white for the fancy armor bits, and likely a white helm as well. Anyone have any opinions?

Standish Standoff 2015 After-Action, plus Additional Words on Things

Yesterday I attended the fifth annual Standish Standoff at the old FLGS, Crossroad Games. 1850 "semi-competitive" tourney, three rounds, with scores for battle, painting, and sportsmanship as well as a submission-based painting competition.

I put "semi-competitive" in quotes because while it's touted as such by the shop and the organizers every year, some folks abide by the spirit and some...don't.

I brought my Ultramarines on what I declared as their "swan song" as a primary force. Yes, I'm holding on to my Ultramarine models until I can subsume them with Raven Guard, but they'll never be the primary force for my army again. I'll expand on the reasons later in this post.
My list was a Demi Company made of a Captain and Command Squad in a Razorback, three ten-man Tacticals in Rhinos, a 10-man Assault Squad with jump packs, and a 10-man Devastator Squad with missiles. Joining that formation was a Strike Force Command formation of a 9-man Honour Guard unit with a banner, relic-bladed Champion. Half had swords, and half had axes. They were led by a Chaplain, and all rode in a drop pod. Nothing overwhelming, and nothing abusive. I didn't opt to min/max with 5-man squads in a metric assload of free transports, because I'm not a huge fan of 5-man squads, nor do I own any additional transport models.

My first game was against Orks, which I haven't seen on a table in a very long time. The list was several units of Tankbustas, Boyz, and Lootaz in Trukks, a unit of Grots, and several units of Bikerz. The core of the army was a massive unit of 14 Bikerz, joined by a Painboy and Warboss on bikes, all led by another special Warboss on a bike who gave them all Skilled Rider and Scout.
We duked it out for only two and a half turns until time was called, with the win going to the Orks. I was rusty and play terribly slow with such a high points level, so I think I lost sportsmanship points as a result.

Game Two was against Tyranids. I don't remember the exact makeup of the force. I just remember that he had no duplicate units, and had GENESTEALERS. That made my day, seeing Genestealers actually played and enjoyed. We got a full four turns before game end, tied, with the Nids player taking some additional points on secondary objectives.

My last game of the day was against a Krieg army heavy in infantry and artillery units, backed up by a Baneblade. I steamrolled a tired and seemingly uninterested opponent. It had been a loooong day. My Honour Guard killed 80% or more of the infantry in his army single-handedly, though I think he took a bit of a fascination in seeing how many men it would take to drown them in blood and body parts.

I did poorly in battle points, and had less than perfect sportsmanship points. That was a first for me, and stung the whole way home and a little of this morning until I realized it was likely because I was so damn slow in my play. Who knows? Less than half the field had perfect sports scores, which is a HUGE departure from all but the very first Standoff.

I was awarded Second Best Army, which was a collation of Painting, Sportsmanship, Pub Quiz, and Favorite Opponent votes. There was some low grumbling from various players regarding their paint scores in relation to others' scores, and I'll freely admit I had a couple grumbles of my own, but those grumbles have been there for each of the five years the event has run. Anything from "How did an army without 100% of its models fully painted get THAT score?!" to "That guy just uses airbrush and washes!" have been voiced over the years. I've had to judge painting personally on two or more occasions, and it is HARD to be consistent across a 40 point scale. So no shade thrown at the judges by me, just some bruised ego on my part.

I achieved the one goal I had for myself on the day though, that being winning the Best Painted Squad category in the painting competition with my Ultramarine Command Squad. Mission accomplished!

There is one huge, glaring lesson that I take from the Standoff though, and that is that the Space Marine Demi Company formation is the most boring thing that has ever bored a player. I've actually been running a list of that type for several years off an on, and I thought that with new rules that support the build it would be more fun. Wrong. So wrong. The Demi Company (and even moreso the Gladius built with a double Demi), is a big bag of yawns thrown in a river of suck. Does it win games? Yes, it does. Does it appeal to me any longer? Not on your life.

I sat down in each of my three games and explained to my opponents what the Demi did, and what all my Ultramarines Doctrines did, and I watched their eyes glaze over. As I lay in bed last night trying to sleep, I realized that an ObSec Marine with a bolter is the worst thing ever. It has no special skills, no interesting stats/attacks, etc. Its role on the field is to exist, take up space, and not die while either sitting inside a Rhino or moving around 6" at a time and taking cover or pot shots with a mediocre weapon. I don't want to aim to win my games simply by existing, I want to win them by outmaneuvering, attacking, falling back, and generally playing more cerebrally. Ultramarines in a Demi Company play and win by Mathhammer, and I hate Mathhammer.

So, I'll be bidding a fond farewell to my Ultramarines from here on out. I picked up my copy of Kauyon, and will be painting Raven Guard from this point on, no exceptions. Ok, maybe a couple exceptions for the Grey Knight Terminators I still have kicking around here someplace, as well as some Tempestus Scions I'd like to pick up to spice things up as allies to the Sons of Corax.

I had built a squad of five Raven Guard Tactical Marines to add to my existing Scout Squad. Here's a couple WIP shots of two of the squad members (excuse the poor pics, I've still not set up my painting desk and photo area since the move to the farm):

 

 

 

 

Originally, I wanted my RG to be city fighters. Guys who are posed dynamically like they're kicking in doors and clearing rooms. Lots of gear and pouches. I chopped the arms and leg joints on every squad member, reposing them ever so slightly here and there. The sergeant in the first two pics has his legs at new angles and elevations, and the other Marine is about to pull the mag from his bolter. another non-pictured model is high-stepping over some rubble. The models without standard studded pads got scratchbuilt ones made from old third edition pads with the rims filed down and microbeads drilled in as studs. Those five Marines took a week or more of time and energy just to chop and build, and they don't really look all that great to me. The sergeant is too thin in the waist area, and the bolter Marine's hand isn't quite right in its grip or spacing. The high-stepping Marine I mentioned looks unbalanced in his run, like some sort of Khorne Berserker model.

 

When you combine what I feel is a failed first effort at building chop-shopped Marines with the new focus given by the Kauyon book and my sudden loathing for ObSec Tactical Marines, I'm hitting rewind on the Raven Guard machine. The squad will go into a box, and instead I'm building a Land Speeder. There are six different formations in Kauyon that involve Land Speeders. I've had one sitting in a box since the kit was recut in Fifth Edition, so it'll be my starting point. I will either build the Raptor Wing (Speeders and Stormtalons), Shadow Force (Speeder, Captain, Vanguard, Sternguard), Speartip Strike (Speeders and Bikes/Attack Bikes/Scout Bikes), or Stormbringer Squadron (Speeders and Scouts with Speeder Storms). They all have neat rules, and I can't decide quite yet.

 

I'm newly excited about my Raven Guard thanks to the new things Kauyon lets me do with them, and thanks to the realization that I've hit my limit with Tactical Marines, ObSec, and Doctrine rerolls. here comes a new way to play, and it dresses in black!

 

Now I just have to figure out how to fund purchases of so many more Land Speeders...eBay bitz selloff?