Inspiration!

I get my inspiration for my armies from several different areas of the 40K universe. Sometimes it is from blogs... it could come from some cool pictures... a thread at a website... and even something as simple as a conversation with Rik.

My very first inspiration for MY chapter came a couple years ago by reading a simple line in the SM codex...

If you don't want to paint your army as one of these famous Chapters, but rather want to create your own heroes of the Imperium, the examples given in this book should pose a great source of inspiration.


At this time I was not a "regular" at my local gaming store. I mean, I guess I looked really mean (so they say) so no one would talk to me. As I look back on that, and I look at my current demeanor, I would have to agree with them. (haha) Now painting is not very easy. To become good at it, or even paint to a table top quality, is something that takes a good amount of time. I am also like everyone else out there, we see what we do as better than it really is. This leads us to biting off more than we can chew. My only source of painting advice came from a friend of mine, Jimmy. He worked at the store and was the reason other people started talking to me. (haha He prolly told them I wasnt going to murder them even though I looked like I would.) Jimmy, god bless him, would never say my painting was bad. That is a double edged sword. He would say it looks nice and I would be all happy like a 12yr old, skip back to my bar stool and glow with happiness. I would paint the same and my painting never got any better. I realized this one day when he turned to a kid who looked to have dipped his model in a paint pot and Jimmy gave him the same praise. I was like "Dude, that is the same shit you say to me." and he shrugged and smiled.

When I came to Jimmy telling him I was going to paint white, he was honest and said "White is really hard to paint, homey." to which my response was "Fuck you, I am a painting god who has painted for two months!" I really wasnt a painting god, I had just been hyped up like I was. :) Well I went home, built myself up some assault termies and painted them up to take to the store a couple days later. I set them out and asked what Jimmy thought and his response was awesome... "What do you think of them?" I looked at them again and they looked like shit. Complete and utter shit. Like I had dipped them in a white paint pot. :) They were then stripped and turned into Raven Guard. :)

I have never gone back to painting white. I did paint some white helmets on my Raven Guard vets... and all the chests... but never a complete model. It is something that would still be a great challenge to this day.

That is the story of my first thoughts into the inspiration of MY own chapter. My current inspiration comes from something we all should take time to do... Read books. :)

The Sweet Home Brew...

So lately I have been itching to write some stories and things like that... and like most other things that I do, I ended up circling back to 40K and more specifically Space Marines. What started this was the Necron release. I read their new book and found it to be quite cool. I really liked the idea of their new fluff. I liked that they could have personality. That inspired me to make many lists and start some background for a Necron army... but the thing is... if I am going to be anything in the 40K universe, its going to be a Space Marine.

This brought me back to what I am currently doing in the hobby, which is nothing. I looked at the ass ton of Space Wolves I have and determined that I didnt want to play the army. Nothing wrong with them, and I love their fluff, but there are many other Space Wolves armies out there. I then fell back into my first love, the Raven Guard. I really love the fluff of the Raven Guard, but that army is kind of retired. After all of that, I remembered a chapter I wanted do from way back when I first got into the hobby.

When I first thought of this chapter, I saw it as all white with secondary colors. I began to paint up my terminators and quickly came to the conclusion that white was a color I was not ready to paint. :) Then the Raven Guard army was made and that was that... Just recently I began toying with the idea again. Making my own chapter to use and thought up another color scheme. It just didnt do it and then, I picked up an old White Dwarf and spotted my chapter colors.

And there they were...

BRAN REDMAW!

As some of you may know, my company of Space Wolves is the First Great Company led by the great Bran Redmaw. AND as some of you may know, Forgeworld is making the Bran Redmaw model... and boy it looks sweet. This brought about a discussion with my pal Rik.

My stout compadre knows I have a serious jonesing for Furious Charge. I mean, I like it... I like it a lot. :) Rik believes that Redmaw will not have FC. He's about 100% sure for no other reason than he hates me. I, on the other hand, believe he will... for no other reason that I love it. :)

What do you guys think he will do? I think Wulfen will be cheaper or free or something like that. Perhaps some other ability. One thing is for sure, he is still way cooler than Morkai... and even though Kip paints like 8000 times better than me, my great company kicks his ass. :)

Aches and Pains...

It has been a while since I updated anything and there is good reason... Three weeks ago I had knee surgery and with that comes me being ultra lazy. :) Days before I had went back and removed all the basing from the marines I had done before and got them all ready for repainting... They are all still on the table... 70 something marines. lol... Actually, as I look over at the table now, they are all missing. My wife musta got sick of looking at them for weeks.

But after three physical therapy sessions I am feeling a bit better. On the 22nd I get to start walking and when I get to walk, I will get to start hobbying again. I really want to get this army done because I cannot start another until it is... and Grey Knights are looking interesting again. :)

Everyone take care. Hope you are all having fun. :)

So the new color scheme has been chosen...

It will be fenris grey (I use sombre grey), wash it black then dry brush sombre, then 50x50 sombre/Space Wolves and then a real light dry brush of Space Wolves.

That is some fast marines. :) Gunna remove the basing from the ones that were done and then make Rik put the base paint on all my marines. ;)

Will get some pics up of some done marines here soon.

Taking steps to get this damn army done!

So I sit back and look at my hobby table all the time... and just think... I dont want to paint another 70 effin marines. Hell man, I'm having a hard time painting one. lol... But that is how many marines I have waiting to be painted... Over 70... and thats not counting my Land Raider, 2 Preds and 4 Rhinos. I see that and it makes me puke a lil in my mouth.

The newness of the army and playing it is gone. I dont know if you know what I mean, but I can only compare it to a video game. So you buy a new video game and you play the hell outta it... not even beating it, just play the shit outta it for like a week. Like NCAA 12... played the hell outta Michigan and building a crap school into something good... and I havent touched it in forever. That is what happens to me and armies. I get all excited, drop hundreds of dollars... build it all... play some awesome games with it... and then get bored.

So to take steps to finishing my army, I think I am going to repaint even the 20+ I have done and come up with a much faster and easier paint scheme. Something with a base coat that I dont have to mix three different paints for with a heavy wash and a dry brushing. I dont normally dry brush things and perhaps that will help me become a better dry brusher.

Anyone have any ideas on a quick paint scheme? I like the idea of a more blueish color, but I'm also leaning towards a dirty grey... maybe a lighter grey with a black wash? Anything that will look decent, really. haha

Take care!

Sky Claws are done!

So I changed up what my army would look like at the end. I finished making 10 Sky Claws... cause I really dig Jump Packs and the aspect of suicidal troops is good for stories. :P So that means there were less Blood Claws. I made the Blood Claws a pack of 15... cause I just dont use them at all. I mean why would I? Grey Hunters are so much better for the same price.

So my final Space Wolves army will be...

Bran Redmaw
2x Wolf Priest
1x Rune Priest
10x Wolf Guard in Termie Armor
7x Wolf Guard
1x Dreadnought
15x Wolf Scouts
4x 10man Grey Hunters
1x 15man Blood Claws
1x 10man Sky Claw
4x Rhinos/Razorbacks
7x Devestators (2 Lascannons, 3 Plasma Cannons and a Missle Launcher)
2x Lascannon Predators
1x Land Raider Crusader

Now I have to prime them and get them base coated... theeeeeen I might get them all done up. lol I'm struggling to paint! I'm trying to change the way I live... getting up earlier and planning to start working out.. things like that. Now I just have to get back into painting and getting this army done. :)

Now that I look at it, thats a pretty decent army. What, around 2500 points or more? Pretty good stuff.

Have fun.

It was a draw!

Chase and I played to a draw... A Chaos Lord with his Deamon Weapon was just too much at some points and the furious charge from the Khorne Berzerkers really dealt a lot of damage. I was pretty lucky to get a draw to be honest... Pictures and a video! :)

And the vid....

The Rout Hunts...

Tonight we are all playing at the Battlefoam Saloon and I'm taking on my son and his Corsairs. Should be fun. He has learned to play his army well and all his battles have been close. I just like spending time playing with him cause hes getting to that age where his sense of humor and personality are really coming out. Ya know, becoming a man and all that.

I've hit a rut in my hobbying. I havent painted in a lil over a week and havent finished my blood claw building. I have to get off my fat ass and get  this stuff done. Well at least get it all base coated for crying out loud.

When I first got into the hobby I started a Raven Guard army. I liked their fluff and everything like that. So I bought a shit ton of it and started building and painting. The major thing that made me get that entire army painted was that I wasnt going to play it until it was all painted. That made me want to paint through the dull parts and push to get it done... and when it hit the table it looked really nice. I really should have taken that direction with my Space Wolves.

You see I have my vices just like everyone else and my vice is computer games. Not console games, computer games. I love playing MMOs (which are massively multi-player online games) like World of Warcraft. Currently I am waiting for Star Wars: The Old Republic to come out and that will really put a damper on my hobby, not my playing, just my hobby. I dont think I could quit playing again like I did a year ago. So you see why I have to get this stuff painted.

But I dont want to rush it and make it look bad. That would make me even more angry. I like the big highlights I put on my wolves to make them stand out, but I'm not really getting any better as a painter because of how fast I do them. Its a catch 22. I wanna go fast, yet I wanna get better. Ugh... anyways... I have work to do so gotta go. haha :)

I won!

So I won the objectives contest which rocked! I must say that my competition from Matt was quite good. He had some banners on big bases and a floating deamon rock or something that looked cool. My son voted for me which was nice. :) I didnt even have to threaten him! haha So I picked a box of Assault Marines to use in my next army. I'm going to make my first second founding chapter and make it my own. Already have the color scheme in mind and will use the rules from a guy in Imperial Armor 10... where all my units get furious charge and my tactical squads can take a close combat weapon instead of a bolter. Should be cool. :)

Rik and I are heading over to Battlefoam tonight to say hello to Romeo. I havent been over since his shop opened and Rik is making me go... cause I made him go to my in-laws. haha What friends make friends do... haha I have nothing I want to pick up there, but will be nice to see Jama and Romeo.

Objectives!!

A while back, Kyle over at Distant Battle Grounds gave our little play group a competition to build the best five objectives. So I went to work a couple weeks ago to build some great objectives because, well, I wanna win. :)

I was going though the several boxes of sprues that I have and was cutting them up into a much better plastic holder and I came across a Land Speeder that I had built a while ago... and I hated. haha So it popped into my head... "MIKE YOU MUST DESTROY THIS LAND SPEEDER"... and I did... and with the pieces I built a couple objectives. So here they are... hopefully you all like them. :P

Objective one is the back half of the Speeder. I tried to make it look like it dug into the ground and skidded across. The door by the base is removed and fire and burning went across towards the back.

The next objective is of a hurt marine... bloody stumps in all. I'm still choosing what pack he is a part of yet. :)

Two smaller objectives for a larger games. A munitions base and a relic from a fallen Dreadnought.

The final objective is the front of the Land Speeder. It also looks like it skidded across the base. The driver is dead and the passenger is climbing out. I turned his hand around to look like he was grabbing the middle column.

So there they are. Hope they inspire yas and I hope I win. :) I want a box of assault marines. hehe :)

Pics from last night...

Here we go... they are as the game goes so should be easy to follow. (Starting at the bottom of turn 2)

The Wolves were covered in Blood!

Rik and I played last night and it went 7 turns.. which normally isnt too bad, but when you are out in the heat that 7 turns makes it a marathon. :) Rik brought his normal list (he posted it on Kyle's blog a while back) and I brought a somewhat different list. I removed some stuff and added a group of Long Fangs. We rolled up spreahead as deployment and capture and control as the mission. I won the roll to go first. The following is what I remember of the massacre.

Turn 1 -
I moved some Grey Hunters in a rhino towards his table edge and moved a rhino with Grey Hunters and a Rune Priest towards his objective. I had to keep a certain distance as Rik has 25 Jump Pack guys and I didnt want to get charged. I shot a lot of lascannons (i was playing with 8) into a Rhino, blew it up and killed a couple guys inside. I then shot living lightning into them and killed maybe one more.

Rik went and drop pod'd his Dread into my deployment zone behind the rhino that i moved towards his table edge and in front of the rhino with Redmaws group of doom in it. He then moved the Tactical Squad now in the open into some trees. He moved a multi-melta attack bike up and wrecked the rhino with grey hunters in it. His dread shot off the stormbolter from the rhino (good for me). He moved his rhino with a full tact squad towards my deployment zone. He then moved some jump pack guys around, but not closer to me as it would put them in the open to be shot at.

Turn 2 -
My scouts come in behind him and shoot at his assault squad along his table edge killing a couple even through feel no pain. They then assaulted and killed a couple more while losing the same amount. My group of grey hunters in the open shot into the back of the dread and made it immobile. I moved redmaws rhino next to the dread and made it so it couldnt shoot the next turn. Fired several lascannon shots into it and they missed. I fired a pred at his attack bike and killed it. I fired a pred at his remaining Rhino, blew it up and killed five guys in the inside at which point Rik threw his dice away. haha I then shot into them and hit them with Muderous Hurricane and two remained.

Riks Stormraven did not come in. He brought his second assault squad down to help in the assault of the scouts. They missed quite a bit leaving me able to get my Wulfen attacks off on his small squad and out of six attacks I rended on three. lol So his unit was down to the apothecary and Seargent as my scouts died... but did their job which was hold his squads back. He shot a missle into my rhino with the Priest and did nothing. He had nothing really to shoot so that was his turn.

Turn 3 -
I shot and killed his 2 remaining tact squad in the middle of the table. I moved the rhino up next to the terrain with his tact squad in it, got out and shot at them killing maybe 1? Was awful. Shot lascannons and everything else into the Dread and blew it up. I didnt move anything else out of fear of his assault troops that could come.

His Stormraven came on and went flat out to the middle of the table and machine spirited a shot at the side armor of a pred and made it immobile. He moved his remaining big assault squad back around his objective and moved his tactical squad towards it. He moved the seargent/apoth combo to the objective too. He hadnt moved Dante and his guard at all the entire game so far.

Turn 4 -
I shot all I had into the Stormraven and knocked off the melta guns and made it so it couldnt shoot. I moved my hunters through the terrain a bit and fired 6 shots on the assault squad and hit them murderous hurricane to stop their wanting to move. I moved the rhino with Redmaw in it towards his objective. The footslogging hunters followed the rhino.

Rik moved the Stormraven flat out over to my objective. He then moved Dante behind some cover along his back table edge closer to my footsloggers. He shot into my grey hunters but didnt kill any of them.

Turn 5 -
I moved my grey hunter unit up towards his objective and split the rune priest away from them. The priest used murderous hurricane again on the assault marines and the hunters shot at the tactical squad. I moved Redmaw's Rhino and the footsloggers towards his objective and moved my 5man grey hunter unit with my long fangs around mine to secure it. I shot into the Stormraven and blew it up.

His turn Dante and his asskickery assaulted my footsloggers and killed them all before I got an attack back. He moved his apothecary and seargent towards my Rhino and blew it up with an infernus pistol. I placed my unit behind the rhino and he couldnt assault them. (I'm a dick like that. haha) He shot his assault squad into the rune priest and he saved his melta wound but rolled snake eyes against two bolters. hahaha

Turn 6 -
I turned my squad of asskickery upon Dante's and killed all but Dante and the apothecary. He ran, I couldnt catch and new that would be bad for me. lol I moved my grey hunters over and double assaulted the small tact squad and the apothecary and seargent duo. Redmaw roared and they were furious so I killed most of them while losing little.

Dante and his apothecary charged back into Redmaws unit. Dante brought down Redmaw and then fell to a Wolf Guard and PW Hunter. The Apothecary and Wolf Priest dueled it out and the Wolf Priest won. I consolidated towards his objective. His assault squad assaulted into the grey hunters and in the end my hunters died and he consolidated to his objective.

Turn 7 -
I shot everything into his remaining assault squad killing all but three. I moved my last group of priest, guard and hunter into range and assaulted them and killed them ending the game.

I won 2 objectives to none... and Rik needs new dice. Pictures to come! :)

There will be blood...

Tonight I get to play my pal Rik and his silly Blood Angels. My mighty wolves are going to crush him... or so I hope. Haha

My Objective markers are done. They look pretty good imo. I'm hoping I win that free box of crap... and my luck no one else will be making objectives and mine will be used in every battle... thats normally how things go. haha

After this 40k campaign, some in the group were wanting to start a Fantasy one. I guess the armies would start with at a low point and scale up. Rik and his hobby ADD have me thinking about a fantasy army now and I have chosen the rats. I think Skaven are pretty cool and much better than the shitty Beastmen I bought back when their shitty book came out. Damn man I still have that giant army in my closet... what a waste of cash that was. I havent played any games with the new rules so it will be fun to learn the game again.

I'll have some pics of our mighty battle tonight. The camera is charged... maybe a video? I dunno. Something different is in order I think. haha

Working on Objective markers....

Kyle over at Distant Battle Grounds has offered up a bounty of a $35 box of 40k to the best objective makers in our little play group. I have taken this as one of the things I could prolly compete in, so I have been working on a couple for the past couple days and they look sweet.

I cant show any pictures of them cause I dont want to give away their awesomeness, but I have to have them done by Tuesday cause of our business trip next week. They are due the 23rd so pics will go up then.

Here is to hoping I crush the competition! haha :) Just an update of what I have been up to. :P

Helsreach...

What can you say about Aaron Dembski-Bowden? The man can write some serious novels. Another one of his that I just finished was a Space Marine Battle book named Helsreach.

Going into this book, I knew nothing of the Black Templars and how they acted. This book showed me quite a few things that made Black Templars an army I want to play. They care for one another and strive to keep their honor and their oaths. Grimaldus and all his anger for what he thought his end might be on Armegeddon and his new role of Reclusiarch. His retinue and their differences between one another were well done. The Master of the Forge working on an anchient weapon and his difficulties getting through the defenses of the installation were something new to me.

The major thing I think he did well were the humans and Mechanicus characters. He didnt spend a lot of time on them, but he spent enough to where you were interested and cared if they lived or died. Some writers spend too much time with the humans which takes away from the Astartes, but this book had the right mix all the way up until the end where you dont know if one man's love lived or not. Sort of a readers choice... which is a great way to finish.

I think you all may really like this book and I highly recommend it. It is really worth reading and gives some insight into the Black Templars. For me, it made me want to make the Templars my next SM army once their new book is released. Their anger is something that sorta fits me. :)

What has happened to 40k Radio...

Now I would listen to 40k radio every now and then when I was farting around on the interwebs and tonight I loaded it up as I was making an army list to rip Rik's face off and was really disappointed.

First I would like to say that I have the great fortune of being able to hang out with Kyle and Rik. I dont really have to listen to 40k radio to get a taste of their knowledge and input. When it comes to 40k, I dont think there are many people that know more about the game, industry and lore. When Rik left the show, I didnt miss out on anything since I hobby with him all the time and shoot the shit about everything Space Marine. Kyle I see twice a week and his need for the argument is what makes me laugh. I mean, he knows everything about... well... everything... well he would like to think. :) As for Romeo, I am nice and rarely hang out with him. Romeo is like a bad drug or good beer... some people love him, some people dont... and you cant take too much of him at one time or you will hate him the next day. For instance, we have this gaming group and he is not in it. Why? Because Romeo would rather ruin your game and win than have fun during a game and lose. I have played him twice and I dont ever want to play him again. He would attribute this to a fault of mine and not him. That is fine. :)

So I was listening to 40k radio and all I heard was Romeo whine about GW and push other game systems. That is not what anyone tuning into 40k radio wants to hear. I dont tune into 40k radio to hear someone complain of their finecast. I bought a finecast model, it wasnt good so I called GW and they sent me a second one free in two days. Big deal. At least I know not to head into his store to pick up any in the future.

I also liked how he said there was no reason for a price hike... lol this coming from the man who only had 7 black 720's left so he jacked up the price on them on his website. WTF BRO.

That outside the box thing is also being added to the show because the man doesnt even play 40k. He cant even talk about it. He knows no rules, he knows no lore and he doesnt play. So how do you fix that? Add a 10 minute waste of time for 40k players and have him talk about some other game. The prices for these table top miniature games, no matter what system you choose to play, is all the same. You wanna spend a couple hundred on Infinity to buy an army? Or a hundred or so for a twenty-ish point army for Warmachine? Cool. Good luck to ya, just dont talk about it on a 40k show cause I could care less about what you do outside of 40k. I'll tune into an Infinity or Warmachine podcast if I wanna hear that, understand? Besides, who wants to listen to you talk of games you know half the rules of and none of the lore? Wait we already do that with 40k so might as well do it with other games.

Thank god Kyle is on that show so someone knows something.

Rant off I guess... oh and Kyle mentioned me when they talked of the Flames of War bit... It was Kyle and I against Romeo and Rik... to learn the rules... and Romeo didnt give a shit about learning anything... he just wanted to win. It got so bad... he cried so much that Rik and I sat next to one another and fucked around waiting for the hell to end. Romeo ruined it for me too. lol I havent tried that game since that mess.

Off to get the models off the roof of my car... how stupid is that? Man people are stupid.

Brothers against Brothers...

"Maim, do not kill." Is what Bran Redmaw said over the company wide Vox channel.

The packs of the first great company were moving into the lands of their brothers in an effort to strengthen their efforts of conquering this forsaken planet. The strength of the other company was dwindling and if the wolves grew stronger, it would benefit the Legion. Removing weakness grows strength.

The first great company moved onto the field in a spearhead attack with five objectives to take. Soon after taking the field, two Space Wolf drop pods came down behind three of our rhinos and in front of our Predators. Perfect Space Wolf placement. Our Lord, surprised at the maneuver, proceeded to shred the Wolf Guard and their Wolf Lord, leaving their hearts beating so they my fight another day.

As this was happening, a group of our Grey Hunters lead by Longfurr moved north on the table trying to outflank our brothers. His Rhino came to a halt under the fire of several long fangs to the east. A group of Blood Claws led by Haakon Skruud moved in their rhino to the east to try and take an objective that was swarming with the enemy. Following his rhino was a pack of Sky Claws led by Wolf Guard Brein Darkclouds moving in unison to keep cover behind terrain. They exploded from behind cover assaulting the enemy in full force and decimating them to secure the objective. The Sky Claws then took to the skies towards the Long Fangs to the northeast.

Our Wolf Scouts moved on behind the Long Fangs and charged into them the same turn. It was a great battle lasting several minutes. In the end, several of the enemy fell along with a mighty Rune Priest and a couple of our Scout brothers fell back into some woods. Those two scouts regrouped and charged a rhino making in immobile and saving it from getting to and objective we controlled.

A pack of enemy Grey Hunters moved into contention of an objective close to our Lord and in turn his pack removed them... Our Lord removed eight by himself. In all, our Lord killed four Wolf Guard, a Wolf Lord and eight Grey Hunters.

In the end after much blood was spilled, the first great company held two objectives while their brothers held one, securing a victory for the Allfather and for Russ.

--------------------------------

Since last week I lost a territory to Bill, I wanted to try and take back something this week. I had the third pick to fight and so I picked Steve (Space Wolves) and Rik (Blood Angels). My only other pick was Kyle... but I figure Steve and Rik would give good battles.

So Steve and I set up. He had only three territories so he got a lot more points to play with and I got an extra 50 and got to give my scouts preferred enemy.

From what I remember, he had two Long Fang units, three units of Grey Hunters in rhinos and then 2 drop pods with 5 wolf guard in one and 4 wolf guard and a wolf lord in another.

For me. it was three packs of Grey Hunters in Rhinos, a pack of six Sky Claws, a pack of Blood Claws in a Rhino, a pack of 10 wolf scouts and two preds all lascannoned out. All were led by wolf guards, two Wolf Priests and Lord Bran Redmaw.

We rolled seize ground and spearhead. Steve set his army up on his left and I on mine. After setting up, Steve got first turn.

TURN 1 -
Steve dropped a drop pod in right behind a line of Rhinos I had set up and in front of my two Predators. Five Wolf Guard popped out. He moved a set of Long Fangs in a Razorback to his right and then disembarked them. He moved a Rhino with Grey Hunters and Wolf Priest towards my middle objectives. He then moved a Rhino across the table to my right to take an objective there. In his shooting, he blew up my Rhino in front of his Wolf Guard killing a couple inside. He then shot a couple more with his Wolf Guard and that was his turn.

On my turn, I moved my Blood Claws and Sky Claws, that were on the right of my deployment zone, only my table edge to my right. I moved the Grey Hunters that were now in the open, around to the right of his Wolf Guard. I moved a Rhino of Grey Hunters directly across the table to Steve's right. I got Bran Redmaw, his Priest and Grey Hunters out and they assaulted the Wolf Guard and Redmaw killed all but the Stormshield terminator and the terminator somehow lived through the entire engagement and fled the battle. My Preds shot and wrecked the Razorback the Long Fangs were in.

TURN 2 -
He rolled on his terminator and he moved two inches so he would still be running next turn. His next drop pod then came in right next to the first and he deployed four Wolf Guards and a Wolf Lord. His one unit of Grey Hunters stood in his deployment zone able to take or secure an objective as he wished. He removed the Grey Hunters from both his Rhinos and moved both sets towards objectives. He was scoring the one objective to my right, and the unit in the middle was close enough to shoot at the Grey Hunters in the open. He then moved his Rhinos to be able to contest if needed. His Long Fangs then shot into both units of Grey Hunters killing a couple in both, killing one in the Sky Claw unit and making my Rhino unable to move or shoot.

My Wolf Scouts came in right next to his Long Fang unit and moved into assault range. My Sky Claws jumped over the terrain and into assault range of the Hunters to my right. The Blood Claws went around the terrain to do the same. I moved my Predator over to the right 12 so he could fire upon Rhinos. The other Predator stayed where it was. I proceeded to shoot all the Wolf Guard dead. I shot into the Grey Hunters with the Blood Claws and killed two and shot into the Long Fangs with the Wolf Scouts and killed maybe one. I then assaulted the Wolf Lord with both my Grey Hunters and Redmaws unit. Why? Cause I needed to get my Grey Hunters away from HIS Grey Hunters. lol Redmaw killed his Lord before anything else happened, but I rolled low on both consolidations. :( The Blood Claws killed all but one Grey Hunter on the objective to my right. The Scouts put one wound on the Rune Priest and killed two others while I lost five.

TURN 3 -
Steve moved his Grey Hunters into assault range of my dwindling Grey Hunter unit, but they were in range of Redmaw and his Wolf Priest. He moved some Rhinos around and shot all his stormbolters. The Long Fang unit to his right, once again made my Rhino with Grey Hunters still in it unable to move or shoot which was really annoying.  He shot my Grey Hunters and then they broke and because they were next to two drop pods, ended up running off the table on my turn. The assault with the Blood Claws ended quickly with the death of his powerfist Hunter. My Sky Claws consolidated towards the right table edge towards his Long Fang unit. The Blood Claws consolidated around the objective. The assault with the Long Fangs and Wolf Scouts ended with me losing three men to his one, I failed my leadership and I then ran back three inches.

My turn, my Wolf Scouts ran another 6" into terrain. Redmaw then moved into assault range of his Grey Hunters. I moved the Sky Claws towards his Long Fangs and then ran them. I put the Blood Claws into their Rhino which had moved around the terrain. I shot into a Rhino with a Pred and wrecked it. I then assaulted his group of Grey Hunters with Redmaw... Redmaw had 8 attacks and wounded with all 8. Was crazy. His remaining two then died and I consolidated.

TURN 4 -
Steve's Stormshield terminator regrouped, moved and assaulted my Rhino with Grey Hunters. He shot almost everything he had into Redmaw's group and killed all the Hunters and Wolf Priest making Redmaw independent and unable to take an objective. The Blood Claws lost a claw when Steve blew up their Rhino. He removed the last Grey Hunter unit from their Rhino and moved them to the objective in his deployment zone. He then ran the rhino towards the objective held by the Blood Claws.

On my turn the scouts regrouped and moved towards the Rhino moving towards the Blood Claws. I moved Redmaw towards the Long Fangs on Steve's right. I moved my Sky Claws towards the Long Fangs to the northeast, they shot but could not assault as I rolled too low. My Wolf Scouts assaulted the Rhino and immobolized it. My Grey Hunters assaulted the terminator and killed it and consolidated behind cover and a rhino. Lascannons on the Preds missed.

TURN 5 -
Steve moved his Hunters to have his objective secure. He shot into the Blood Claws with the Long Fangs and killed one not making a morale check. He shot all of a Long Fang unit into redmaw and he fell.

On my turn I moved my Grey Hunters to secure my objective. I assaulted the Long Fangs with my Sky Claws  keeping them in combat. He killed two and I killed two. I shot my lascannons again and missed.

The game ended. I had two objectives to his one. He had one mobile Rhino, two Drop Pods, a group of 10 Grey Hunters, a group of 3 Long Fangs and a group of 6 Long Fangs on the table. I had a group of 7 Blood Claws, 4 Sky Claws w/Guard, 7 Grey Hunters w/Guard, a Rhino and two Predators left on the table. Was a blood bath and a great game. The assaults were awesome. I think I got a couple pics before the camera died so I will post them later.

The Wolves went down!

Last night I finally played Bill and his Orks brought about defeat to the mighty Bran Redmaw and the First Great Company of the Space Wolves. I should have taken better care of my body before going to Kyle's for the game, but I didnt. I didnt eat anything and all I had to drink the entire day were three Rockstars. After turn 1, I got a raging headache and it never let up until I got home, drank a full glass of lemonade and 2 full glasses of water while eating an entire tuperware bowl of noodles and chicken. lol

I was surprised to see what Bill brought to the table as he used three baneblades and a land raider as looted wagons. He also used 10 of Kyle's Terminators as Ork termies... I dunno their names so thats what I'll call em. Now I dunno if any of you have seen a baneblade on the table, but a baneblade is pretty GD big. I would say it is double the mass of a land raider. Now imagine three of those things on the table. It doesnt leave much room for many other things.

Now I was told that this was an advantage for me because of no cover saves for him. I'm not complaining as I believe I had fun, but how the hell is a gigantic vehicle that the orks can assault out of a bonus to me? Hell man, even a regular wagon is thinner than a land raider. lol I had no where to drop pod into and first turn one went off the table lost. haha I could handle the troops and my major weakness was using drop pods, but the sheer size of baneblades taking up so much room is crazy.

I would like to thank Bill, for his help. I normally can assess and maneuver very well in 40k. I sorta take pride in being somewhat tactical and I rarely lose. (not being a dick... I mean I rarely lose lol) He actually had to help me with shooting... I was that out of it. He was helping me with tactics and things like that, saying it was from a vet... I havent had any help from anyone since I started... I couldnt keep track of kill points... I couldnt wrap my head around what to assault... I wont be making the mistake of not preparing myself again.

No more troops in drop pods... thats it for me. lol...

Tonight I am going to bring out some differnt things. I want to try out some Sky Claws even though they suck imo... but Jump Packs are kinda cool. lol... and a large pack of scouts... the 5 man pack just isnt cutting it... we will see how it goes.

Oh and before I go, I wanted some of your input on proxies. For instance, I dont play things I dont actually have. One maybe two things, but entire squads? Do you guys do that kinda stuff? I spent all day wednesday and thursday building 30+ blood claws to use on Friday... sure they werent all complete, but they all had arms and were able to be put on the table. What say you? :)

The army has grown...

Alright... so I hacked up all my sons models and was able to make 2 groups of 15 Blood Claws, a group of 7 Sky Claws and a bunch of Wolf Guard in terminator armor that I still have to rip apart. I have to build 2 drop pods yet and modify the 2 razorbacks to be able to be both rhinos and razorbacks. So here are some pics of the new size of the army....

And our current painting table... haha :)

The Wolves are back!

Well, tomorrow will mark my first game in quite a while. I will be taking on Bill and his Orks. During this down time I have been trying to strip and get some other models ready for my army and that has gone pretty well. For Bill I will be bringing a lot of unfinished models which I normally dont do, but meh... I'm allowed to be lazy every once in a while.

So for Bill I am bringing a bunch of troops and 2 dakka preds. By a lot of troops, I mean 3 drop pods of Blood Claws (unfinished boo hoo) and 3 Rhinos of Grey Hunters. It should be a massacre... one way or the other. lol Each pack will have their own wolf guard and I am bringing Redmaw and 2 Wolf Priests. Should be quite a site.

Over the past couple weeks I have been reading like normal... I read a Star Wars: The Old Republic book named Deceived. A good book about Malgus... serious badassery in that book imo. I also started reading a Black Templars book named Helsreach... so far it is a pretty good read. Orks dying is a good thing. :)

So after today I will take some picks of the new Blood Claw groups and some of the new Terminators and scouts I am still changing over. Bunch of stuffs been going on. Check yas later. :)

Pictures from the past couple gaming nights...

There were two games this past Saturday... one between Matt and Digger and one between Steve and Chase. Matt and Steve pulled out the victories. Here are some pics from the festivities...

(here is one of Rik and Kyle from last Thursday.)

A couple of my wife and daughter who went to see bridesmaids at the movies and still had to wait for Kyle and Rik to finish their game... hehehe

Territory selection from Saturday...

Various game shots...

Fun was had by all and we learned some new rules like falling back and regrouping by Space Marines and how to properly split the fire of a Long Fangs units. Both things we did wrong on Saturday but know for the future which is helpful. The first, we space marine players were automatically rallying our troops after we got out of 6" of an enemy which is not the case. You rally at the beginning of your movement. As for the Long Fangs, they were splitting the fire of the Long Fangs during their shooting phase instead of at the start of shooting... essentially firing the unit as if it were two units instead of one. An example; Firing half of the Long Fangs unit to blow up a rhino and then the other half to shoot at the passengers inside which had to get out. Which is wrong. Targets are picked at the start of shooting. Good things to know. :)