Oop Eldar and "the plan"

Before the release of the new Eldar Codex I pulled my Eldar models out of the Closet Of Doom and thought about getting in a couple games before my codex was out of date. I worked on some models but didn't get any games in before the new Eldar Codex was here. I prowled the rumour pages and after the codex dropped took a few looks through it and came up with "the plan".

I would detail "the plan" but as parts of it are still a bit hazy to me, I will show you a few things I am working on.

The old school metal Eldrad. From what I hear he is no longer the auto include he was under the last codex but I think he still has a place.

Another oldie but a goldie, the oop Necromunda Farseer. He was supposed to have a couple fire Dragon bodyguards but in the golden days of mail order bits I picked up just the Farseer, as I already had several Fire Dragons. I was thinking about using him as a Spiritseer under the new Eldar Codex. Of all the new Eldar models I am most tempted by are the new Wraithblades. I have a bunch of the oop metal Wraithguard from my incomplete Iyanden craft world army but I am really considering adding a squad or two of the new Wraithblades to the force and would need a Spiritseer to get the most out of them.

A squad of the Oop Dark Reaper models. I have a couple of the old Dark Reaper Exarchs with a Web of skulls somewhere, I just have to find which box it is in. A full sized squad with the snazzy new missiles will be a bit pricey and they will draw a bunch of fire but it will be fun to see them on the table.

A oop War Walker squad, I picked these up a while back for less than a single war walker now costs. The only missing part was one of the antenna units so I made one from some surplus Eldar bits and will call it the squad command vehicle. I traded to get enough of the old style scatter lasers to equip all three with two. After some more thought I am leaning toward a scatter laser and possibly a bright lance for the squad. With the new scatter laser rule it will make the bright lance even more effective.

A part of "the plan" included three ten model squads of Swooping Hawks lead by the Phoenix Lord Baharroth. After a bit of wheeling and dealing I have acquired enough Swooping Hawks to put the three squads on the table. That was in the early stages of "the plan". I will still field some Swooping hawks but with the improvements to the Warp Spiders I might have to factor a squad or two of them into the fast attack section of "the plan".

ColKG

Oop Eldar Fire Dragon conversion/repair

As part of a trade I picked up a squad of oop metal Eldar Fire Dragon aspect warriors.

The models had seen much better days. A previous owner had removed the muzzles of their fusion guns and the end of the Exarchs Fire Pike.

The only reason I could see to remove the tips was to use them to convert some Harlequins with Fusion pistols. I thought about sculpting muzzles but instead came up with a different option.

After a bit of research I decided a 6mm x 4mm bicone bead would be a reasonable match for the missing fusion gun muzzles. Thanks to She Who Must Be Obeyed and a sale a local craft store, she brought home a string of copper beads just right. The first attempt.

All the warriors with a new muzzle. The beads are different but almost dead on size wise. I think once they are painted and mixed into a squad they will only add character. I also thought that I could use them as exarchs with a fusion guns if I ever need to field several so equipped.

I still need to fix the Exarch with a Fire Pike but I have a could ideas for that too.

ColKG

Cygnar reinforcements

It seems that Warmachine may be coming back around. Some of the guys over at Gaming Underground have stated an interest in learning the game. It has been two or three years since I played so I will be learning the game also.

This will be my second squad of Gun mages and my second Sentinel warjack. I already have a Gun mage Captain that lets me field more units of Gun mages, thus a second unit.

The Sentinel is just too cool not to have two and has a great double duty a a steam contraption for Victorian Science Fiction gaming.

ColKG

Strigoi Ghoul King and Ghoul Horde

A buddies disgust with warhammer fantasy has benefited my Vampire counts army. He whom will not be named has decided that he will no longer play GW games and has put his extensive collection on the auction block. I wanted to pick up much more but by breaking the hobby budget, managed to pick up some nice models.

I have made much progress on my Vampire Counts since last October. Zombies, Scarecrows and a Wraith Oh My. The initial motive was to field an army for a 3rd edition fantasy battle game of Undead verses Chaos against ChuckarooBob. After the game I kept working on the Vampire Counts. I turned the idea toward fielding a Vampire Counts army using the current 8th edition book. Since I don't have the current Vampire Counts book, I went to the forums and watched a few local Vampire Counts players. With the models I have I could make a few competitive builds but one thing I lacked was a horde of crypt ghouls.

I lack no longer. With the twenty or so of the old oop metal ghouls I already had the new lot will give me over sixty ghouls to work into a list, and if you are going to field a bunch of ghouls who better to lead them than a Strigoi Ghoul King.

Thanks to extra bits from a Terrorgheist I picked up at a local game day swap shop, I had the bits to the Strigoi Ghoul King from that kit. The pose was made to go on the back of the terrorgheist and not fit on a 20mm base. I repositioned one leg and arm so it would fit on a regular base and be able to rank up in a unit.

The Strigoi Ghoul King ready to lead his horde of ghouls in search of flesh.

I guess I am going to have to buy the army book eventually, but I will get these painted first.

ColKG

Austerlitz by Marshal Enterprises

Hi Kids, Got something a little bit different today:  La Bataille D'Austerlitz!!!!!!  This version is from Marshal Enterprises. I think they printed up about 1000 copies of this bad boy in 1980, and those lads from the Yadkin* Valley** Wargamers*** are just the bunch to play it!  Just think of it guys, a game which doesn't involve 1000+ miniatures costing $2000+ and taking 3+ years to paint!  Yeah, I could get behind that.  There are about 6 guys in the group right now, it fluctuates wildly depending on health, wives, kids, jobs, the phases of the moon and gaming preference.  They've been playing every Monday night since about 1985.  They've done everything from SPI's "Highway to the Reich" to Mayfair's "Family Business" card game.  Anyway, here's the situation:

IIRC, this is looking southwest, you can see the lakes, the blue counters are French and the rest are Austrians and Russians.  They've only been playing for two or three sessions, its early in the day and the armies are just moving into position.  Counters are usually battalions and regiments, or generals.

 Blue, so this OB is for the French.  These are reinforcements.

Same again for the other side.

The lads just finished playing Lutzen, and it looks like they are on a Nappie kick.  I suggested they play the battles out in timeline order, but I think they are more interested in just doing whatever they feel like after this one.  Last year they spent 10 months playing AH's "The Longest Day."  And also played the Some Turkey Games' classic "A Fistful of Turkeys," so their interest pretty much runs the gamut.  In fact, one of the lads converted Turkeys and SJG's "Globbo" to miniatures and ran it at a con last year.  Those two appeal to kids of all ages!

If you want to join the fun, just leave a comment.  The more the merrier!

* For those "not from around here," the Yadkin is a river in North Carolina.

** Personally, I do not think the Yadkin River has a valley.  Maybe further up in the mountains, but not around here.

*** I wanted to call the outfit something cooler, like the "Winston-Salem Warlords," but was shouted down by more robust lungs.  I mean, damn.  At least some people have heard of this town, even if they just think it's the name of two packs of cigarettes.  Nobody more than 25 miles from it has ever heard of the Yadkin River.

Titanium Duke Warhound Titan from Armorcast

Hi Kids, Here's one near and dear to my heart, the first ever Titan I bought; the Titanium Duke.  This thing actually came from a store!   A comic/game store in Birmingham AL (name forgotten) had so many of these on the shelves you could pick the exact weapon load out!  At the time I thought US$80 for a single fig was outrageous!  So I only bought one.  But it's like eating potato chips and breaking windows; once you start its hard to stop.  Unfortunately most of the rest of my titans have come from Bartertown or ebay, although in my travels it was not unknown to come across one in a store, like the Dragon's Nest in Boone, NC.  It took me about a year to paint this guy, not working nonstop obviously.  But painting this much surface area is completely different from 25mm infantry.  I had to buy HUGE brushes.   And that old style resin could soak up paint like a freakin' sponge!!!!

Yep, I hand painted that famous quote on the small flag, I think it took about one hour per side.  My hand was so cramped up I waited a month to do the other side with the same quote.  The other flag is the motivational poster "Diplomacy" from the Star Trek TOS.  I tried to get pictures of the flags but would have had to climb three flights of stairs and search for a different lens.  Yeah, I'm slack.  And yes, he has pierced ears, but the earrings disappeared while he was out on loan for an Apocalypse battle.  Ya pays yer nickel, ya take yer chances! 

Land Raiders from First Edition

Hi Kids,  Seems I'm stuck in a rut, nothing new to post.  I just finished painting 3 15mm Old Glory T34/85's, and now I'm working on 10 25mm Tiger Minis Spanish snipers for the SpAm War.  But no pictures yet.  Howsabout I keep posting old stuff?  Here's some tanks from WAY on back.  GW used to sell them $20 for 2 IIRC.  The new ones are about $80US each now.  I kept one of the newbies, sold the other 5 on ebay.  I bought all the newbs when I was dreaming of Apocalypse, which I foolishly thought would be simplified 40K for big battles.  Little did I know it was the exact opposite.

 This first one is painted up for the 8th Shock Assault Legion, aka The Imperial Dicks.  No, that's not weathering, its covered in dust.  I guess you could say that's Mother Nature's weathering.  A lot of guys tell me it must be French since it has the colors of the Tricolor.  Ignorant!  Red White and Blue is the United States of America!  In RT days they were about 700 points, while an Eldar D-cannon was 50 and could blow it up if the template touched a millimeter of the track.  Disappeared into the warp!  Rules like that are why I never painted up.....

...The second of the matched pair.  Twins I guess.  All the vital small parts are inside the hull.  The hatch ring pops out so it's not that much trouble, not like breaking a piggy bank.  Not sure who built this thing, it wasn't me.  I'd have painted it while building it, otherwise it's too big a pain to get into all those corners.  Man, that's a lot of corners!

JTFM is going to produce a 1:56 Pershing Tank!!!

Hi Kids, here's a new project you can get behind.  I'm in for one!!!!  RUN TIGER BOYS RUN!!!!!!!
Muwaaaaahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaa!!!!  Just what this world needs: more US tanks for more Disposable Heroes games!



http://igg.me/p/430120
They have already achieved their goal, so production is a certainty.  You can still pile on for an M26 and get some perks or suggest a new tank to be produced in the future.
God Bless America!!!!
Play large!  Play often!
Check out their massive selection of 1:56 (25mm) vehicles:

http://www.diewaffenkammer.com/index.html

Ork Dreadnoughts that time forgot

Hi Kids, Well, we might as well give the Orks equal time.  I might have lost a few dreads over the years, I used to have 7 official GW ones.  Oh well.  I think these things used to retail for about $7.00.  Isn't that about 25% of a fine-cast(TM) hero now?  Yoinks!!!  I used to play Orks all the freakin' time, it made me a extremely popular opponent since most of the time they were 95% helpless.  I think my overall record would be something like 3:4288.  People would actually fight each other to be my opponents, especially in tournaments.  I think a lot of them had never seen an ork player before.  Yeah, that's me, right next to the dog-faced boy.  Rarer than honest politicians.  I remember one Carnage tournament in particular, the two guys on either side of me were having so much fun blowing the living crap out of me that the fourth player diagonally away from me walked his Chaos Marines onto the central objective and had never been shot at.  Go figure.  And yes, I readily admit I usually have no idea what I'm doing and my luck rivals Larry Brom's for worst on the planet.

 

 One of the first I built, named after one of the units in AH's game "Caesar's Legions,"  the world famous 10-3 Heavy Mob.  If that's not an orky name I don't know what could be.

The first of the full sized dreads, which means I paid an extra $5.00 and got the extra body section and two more arms. I always wanted to build a 4 combat armed model and a 4 weapon armed model, but I never got around to it.  I'm sure  all you hardcore Rogue Trader fans remember the 10th SS Drop Legion from the original book!!!!

 Another unit from The Book, the 251st Iron Stompers!

 Of course, a guy gets tired of painting back banners....  Heavy plasma gun? Check!  And I even used some art medium to make the flock.  Textured gesso or something like that.

 

 When a guy also gets tired of painting everything in sight red....  Why not a red/purple/black camo?  And maybe a switch up is in order, put the guns on the top arms.  Hmmmm.  I think I like the other layout better.  This unit is the 23rd Perennially Indignant (on the back of the banner) and their motto is "Jail Us, We're Drunk!"  No, nobody wins anything for naming the author who came up with that one.  Although he's one of my favs. Another hint: "Vacations in Hell."

 Late additions to the ork armored forces, these might be from Demonblade.  Or not.

 I can't keep track of everything.  My memory is all sorts of crappy lately.

A few Space Marines await their turn on the painting table.  Yeah, it could be awhile.  Yeah, those are loose figs in the bottom two inches of these Tupperware containers.  And yeah, I have even been reduced to brown bagging some.  Yeah, some Warzone Capital dudes mixed in for variety.  Those are indeed beaky sprues in the corner of the left container.

Old Dreadnoughts for 40K Rogue Trader

Hi Kids,  It seems there is a trend toward "old stuff is cooler than new stuff" in the world of miniature gaming.  I'm not really sure why this is, considering how many improvements have been made in casting, sculpting etc etc....  Maybe it is just because everything was so freakin' cheap 20+ years ago.  Although we didn't think so at the time.  With this in mind I figured I'd take some pix of my Space Marine Dreadnoughts.  This was way on back in the stone age, when a dread was about $7.00 or so.  I think they were named things like Chuck, Fred and Ed or something equally amusing.

 The first dreadnought I ever built, I was horrified to see it only had a single bolter in its right hand.  So I did what every red-blooded American lad would do, fitted it with a surplus heavy weapon; in this case the dreaded "Conversion beamer."  This weapon was so bizarre I'm not even sure there were rules for it.  Still not a tenth as hellish as the Eldar D-cannon.  I'd tell you about it but would probably burst into tears from the memory.  I hand painted all the banners on aluminum foil.  I'm sure hardcore sci-fi fans recognize the Mobile Infantry unit from Starship Troopers, along with the quote from the Rogue Trader book.

 By this time I had come up with my own Legion ("Chapters" are for the wannabees, real men have Space Marine Legions!!!!).  The Eighth Shock Assault Legion, aka The Imperial Dicks.  Yes, everyone is named Richard.  No, nobody wins anything for recognizing the famous quote on the banner.  No heavy weapon, what was I thinking?!?!

 This is one of the shorter dreads. They also were wide bodies and narrow bodies.  You could pick out the details in the blisterpacks.

Another without a heavy weapon? Eye-yi-yi....

 

 Getting tired of black?  Howsabout a nifty tiger stripe pattern?  I know, I know, where are the heavy weapons....  Also tried out artsy stuff for basing.  All my Marines have color coded squad bases, so I never flocked any of them.

 I'm out of the "black period" now painting all sorts of flash and details.  I was also  a big fan of the TV show "The X Files."

 A little light camo, I think it looks pretty suave.  This might be the only dread with a rocket launcher.  Why not a missile launcher?  In the immortal words of Tuna, "Missile launchers miss, but rocket launchers rock!"  Now don't try to tell me you don't know Tuna....

Another one with a lascannon.  So why do I have so many dreads?  Cause they're cool of course!!  There were games where I used all of them, usually huge games at local conventions.  Although I must admit there were Carnage tournaments where I would field 2 five-man scout squads and six dreadnoughts.  It did mean I had to toss my standards in the crapper and play that Ultra-cheesey What-in-God's-name-were-they-thinking-when-they-came-up-with-this-crap Blood Angels list.  The Death Company? Oh Puh-lease......   Remember the only reason GW invented Necrons was to give BA players something to complain about.  Always snub all BA players as power gaming junkies.  "Contempt and slight regard," as Shakespeare would say.  All my marines are vanilla.

 

Just as an aside, a long time ago (at least three or four editions) I did the math and found out a normal marine had a 0.8% chance of killing a Death Company marine in one on one combat.  Good thing they cost the same!

Flames of War Soviet ISU-122 built

It has began, I finally acquired the last couple ISU-122 heavy assault guns to field a full sized Guards heavy assault gun company for the  Leytenant S Rat warrior team to lead. With the IS-2 and ISU-152s I already have, now I will be able to field a Tyazhelyy Samokhodno-Artillyeriyskiy Polk (Guards) from Red Bear.

This will be the command heavy assault gun with Leytenant S Rat in the hatch giving orders. ever since I first read the rules for Leytenant S Rat I have been wanting to field him. His ability to give his unit an extra save against shooting and his personal abilities will make the German Heavy Tank platoons cry.

I don't have any good anti aircraft vehicles yet so I have added 12.7mm aa hmgs to all of the ISU-122s. I tried gluing them on but ended up pinning all the 12.7mm aa mgs to the assault guns.

A full unit of  ISU-122 ready to punch holes in some Tiger tanks.

ColKG

Genestealer Cultist unit on GW site

I was pointed over here White Dwarf Daily 05June13 by a guy on the Genestealer cult yahoo group.

If you scroll down you will see this

As part of a Warhammer 40k Weekend you can choose a Genestealer Cultist unit for your army.

I played a Genestealer cult back in the day and still have all the model and then some. The last time I fielded them was back in 2012, with a battle report here Rogue Trader Cleanses Genestealer Cult The regular Genestealer cult army has gone away from 40k but they are still alive in the minds of gamers.

ColKG

Flames of War Soviet IS-2 verses Konigstiger

Another battle report from the Charlotte Flames of War game day on 25 May 13 at PBKW.

This time a change back to Late war and 1500 points. My list was a Guards Heavy tank company with eight IS-2s with tank escorts, a pioneer platoon and a Zis-3 artillery batalon. Against me a German late war army lead by a Konigstiger and backed by Stuka air support.

I moved up the IS-2 behind the building to get cover from his Panzer IVs and double timed the pioneers to keep up with the tanks. The German player got his air support and killed several of the pioneers.

The other group of IS-2s move up playing cat and mouse with the Konigstiger in the center of the town. His Stuka returned and I managed to drive it off with IS-2 companies AA machine guns.

The Konigstiger moves up to shoot the IS-2 but it line of fire is blocked by the pioneer truck.

The Konigstiger caught in an IS-2 crossfire. The lower IS-2 aims at one flank and another IS-2 aims down the tracks at the other while the Pioneers get ready to assault. Both IS-2s miss and the pioneers fail their morale so don't assault. One Is-2 assaults the German infantry, wins and they pull back.

The German player takes his turn doesn't move the Konigstiger and destroys one IS-2. Then he withdraws the infantry unit next to the objective. He fails to storm trooper move the Konigstiger and that leaves me in control of the objective. So my turn starts and I win.

It was an interesting game but the German player seemed distracted and gave me the win.

Things I learned, Konigstigers can't be touched from the front by anything the Soviets can field.

Thanks for looking
ColKG

Flames of War Early War French defend town against Italians

Another Battle report from the Charlotte Flames of War game day at Parker Banner Kent and Wayne on 25 May 13. This was a four player game. Chuckaroo and Tom playing the French Fusilier defenders deployed in the town against Brian and Chris fielding the Italian armor onslaught. They played for over three hours but finally finished the game.

The sleepy hamlet filled to the brim with French infantry.

Italian armor rolls on from one flank

More Italian armor rolls on from the other flank.

French infantry await the onslaught.

French light tanks wait in the town center.

The Italian armor moves into range.

Italian infantry advance into the French machine gun company with bad results.

Italian armor burning.

Italian tanks press the flank.

End game, the French hold the town while the wave of Italian armor breaks on its walls.

I really enjoy seeing well painted armies on great terrain.

ColKG