Photos for battle report are uploading, God knows how long that will take. I'll post a link when it's done.
Without spoiling anything, Luke and I spent quite a bit of time talking about the army afterwards and we're going to tweak it so that I can play it in our next local tournament (next weekend). Luke wrote up a list for me that includes nearly all the figures in the army, but that takes better advantage of the good units and rules in the demon dex. Most of the figures were able to be included in the competitive list which I was very happy about. The casual list will still include everything of course. The tournament has a single FOC restriction, so the Chaos SM units needed to either be dropped or re-purposed... but we were able to keep nearly everything including all the principle monsters.
Couple of thoughts after two games...
- The army looks fantastic on the battlefield and is just fun to play. So glad I added the skeletons as they're really great looking en' masse. Well worth the monumental PITA that it was to assemble them.
- Karanak (the werewolf) isn't necessarily bad... but he costs about 40-60 pts more than he's actually worth. He's more of a Khorne Hound support character, but you pay the points for much more than that.
- Furies are bad as an assault unit and have no guns. However in small groups as objective grabbers that can easy sneak around terrain (because of the small number of bases) or deep strike, they may still have value.
- Dice rolling aside (see Drac in the battle report) everything else did OK given the circumstances, though I am really excited about the suggestions that Luke has made. Having a cool looking, themed army is great. Having a cool looking, themed army that works well would be fantastic!
- Luke says I need more "Things"... Ramos Asura, I'm looking at you!
Solar_lion wrote: Ramos is now thing 3.. congrats on getting your figures painted for free. "
Thanks son!" It'll probably be cheaper to adopt than pay him.
Wouldn't I qualify for Thing 0, seeing as Im a wee bit older than the Things? Ooh Or perhaps I predate the Thing system... Creature Zero...? Entity Zero? The mind boggles...
BatRep was a great read, Gits. Sounds like it was a really fun game. Sounds like you've got a great guy to help you refine the list. Looking forward to what the army turns in to!
Gitsplitta wrote: - Luke says I need more "Things"... Ramos Asura, I'm looking at you!
They were a fun little project and shouldnt be too hard to replicate, should you have the need. Just lemme knooooow!~
It was very fun and Luke is indeed very helpful & fun to play.
A couple of folks had asked about the competitive list... here's what we (mainly Luke) came up with.
1850 pts, single CAD, chaos demons
HQ: Great Unclean One, 3 rewards, L3 psycher (Frankenstein's monster)
HQ: Chaos Heralds
- Skulltaker on Juggernaught (Headless Horseman)
- The Changeling (Thanatos / grim reaper)
- Herald of Tzeench on Disc, L3 psycher (witch)
EL: 5x Flamers of Tzeench (ghosts)
TP: 10x Bloodletters
TP: 3x Nurglings (goblins)
TP: 3x Nurglings (goblins)
TP: 3x Nurglings (goblins)
TP: 11x Plaguebearers (mummies)
TP: 20x Plaguebearers w/ plague banner (zombies)
FA: 5x Furies (bats) - note: Dracula has been demoted to a fury
FA: 5x Furies (bats)
FA: 11x Flesh Hounds (wolves) - note: werewolf has been demoted to a flesh hound
HV: Demon Prince, nurgle, 3 rewards, wings, L3 psycher
So, lot's of Nurgle stuff which is very survivable. Three beat-sticks in the GUO, Skulltaker & Prince, ObSec troops, some fast objective grabbers & a lot of psychic support. Should be decent once I figure out how to play it competently.
@Ramos: Picked up a bunch of the dogs cheap off e-bay & have an idea how to make my own tentacles. When I get the builds done, I'll be in touch.
That looks good! The only thing I don't like (although I know it's necessary for single CAD) is the loss of Dracula as a character and the Comtemptor as a dread.
For when you can run single CAD + allies, I suggest taking the GUO points and adding an ally of CSM with Dracula as HQ, skeletons as a troop, and Contemptor as elite. Does it need a pod to be useable?
Remember this is specifically for a competitive build. I could do all those things, but then the army wouldn't function as well (and for this tournament I can only have one FOC). For casual play, there will be a chaos SMCAD.
I start painting the mummy "sergeant" (a mummified liche-priest) tonight, as well as starting to work on more elements for the display board. I have to be very disciplined again this week as getting the headless horseman built and painted in time is going to be a challenge. Luckily I already have an appropriate base all made up, so all I have to do is paint the figure (the bases themselves can take quite a while to do). After taking a few days off I think I'm ready to go again.
For the build, I like to run "semi-competitive" sometimes . The Contemptor just doesn't seem like the best GUO to me, and you have a really easy way to get it in there - but I was wondering about how the rest of the list functions to see if that fits. Are most things "deep striking" in? Because then it would seem like the Contemptor might need a ride to get in the action.
I'm not sure I understand what you're getting at. Most of the army could deep strike, not sure that's the plan though. It proved to be very problematic in the last game.
I'm talking about your "normal" list (not for the single CAD event). It'd be nice to have it as competitive as possible, so running all the heralds in a single HQ category like you did, downgrading Karanak to a flesh hound, etc are all great changes even for your normal list.
But I'm just wondering what is needed for the CSM allied detachment to be more competitive in your normal list, so maybe you could pick his brain on that when you see him! A jump pack HQ, troop unit, and dreadnought would work great as an allied detachment, but just wondering strategically how to use the dreadnought. I don't think CSM have pods so he would need a Dreadclaw to deepstrike, so maybe he's better off just walking on?
I have found that putting a chaos lord on a bike with MoN with a group of spawn works well. Could easily put the jump pack chaos lord with them he is fast enough to keep up and if you run from cover to cover should get into the thick of it pretty quick.
As for the Contemptor dread with out some ranged weaponry you are forced to move him forward, and dreads are just not that easy to get into combat. Mine get shot up before they get close, if your opponent lets you proxy weapons put 2 kheres assault cannons on him that will allow him to take out infantry, light vehicles and flyers.
Have to put some thought to it. Unfortunately with the prevalence of grav, vehicles are ridiculously easy to immobilize. I could get a dread claw, but that pretty much shoots the whole Halloween theme out the window. I do have a missile launcher thingie for him. At least that would allow him to shoot after being immobilized.
Have to put some thought to it. Unfortunately with the prevalence of grav, vehicles are ridiculously easy to immobilize. I could get a dread claw, but that pretty much shoots the whole Halloween theme out the window. I do have a missile launcher thingie for him. At least that would allow him to shoot after being immobilized.
Gitsplitta wrote: The great pumpkin is supposed to rise up from the pumpkin patch... not come hurtling down on top of it from the sky!
Frankenstein's Monster... FROM SPACE!
If you don't like the Great Pumpkin (I do... I really really do) a giant casket with lightning striking it would be a cool Dread Claw drop pod. Throw on Ork KFF bitz all over.
Okay, I just love the idea of the great pumpkin or giant casket preferably giant casket! He's the mini that started it all... needs a home!
Yorkright wrote: I have found that putting a chaos lord on a bike with MoN with a group of spawn works well. Could easily put the jump pack chaos lord with them he is fast enough to keep up and if you run from cover to cover should get into the thick of it pretty quick.
There you go! That's the Headless Horsemen, Dracula, and The Things all with a home in a competitive CSMCAD. In fact, it gives you a pretty nasty "hammer" to go with all of your tarpit units. Frankenstein's Monster just needs a ride and it's set!
***Pumping creative juices in Gits' general direction***
Edit - Some thoughts on the details:
Spoiler:
The only downside I can see is the Dreadclaw is a fast attack unit, as are chaos spawn, so you'd need a full CAD instead of an allied detachment. But that would also give you a second HQ slot to run the headless horseman as a chaos lord on juggernaut... which he just seems to be begging to be. There is a certain amount of laughs to be had running a "headless" model as "skulltaker"... but he just looks like a lord rather than a daemon, and would fit right in with that deathstar unit next to Dracula.
To run it as an allied detachment, you'd probably want to keep him as skulltaker (and maybe attach to the flesh hound unit, since I don't think daemon ICs can join CSM units) and you'd have to choose between the spawn and the Dreadclaw. Here's a cool article on the spawn btw, hopefully it's still current since it's been a while since CSM were updated?
http://bloodofkittens.com/blog/2012/12/06/its-like-tactics-chaos-spawn-review/
That mentions not being able to join daemon ICs to CSM units (would be good to double check that with your expert friend, though!)
It would be nice to up the competitiveness of the fluffy list (meaning the one with everything included). Taking another CAD is fine, honestly there's no real advantage to an "allied" force unless you're just trying to grab min units in order to get some key advantage. It's a matter of efficient points expenditure really. If I put points into a bunch of CSM stuff, I have to nerf my beat-sticks, which puts me in exactly the same position I was in the last battle. It's entirely likely that I'll end up with multiple versions of this army... some having a CMS ally with spawn-based death-star and some not. I'm fine with that, gives me lots of interesting options for play.
For the dreadclaw... perhaps a giant coffin on an appropriately sized base would be an adequate nod to the army theme?
Finished the mummy-priest this morning before heading off to work. Unfortunately no time to take a photo. Will get you something tonight. I think it turned out pretty well. Also finished another of the large trees. I start on the Headless Horseman tonight. Need to get the build done and at least primed, perhaps even some base colors down. Also need to start my graveyard that will be add-ons for the display board (like the trees).
Dreadclaw is specifically for the Frankenstein's Robot?
Have you ever seen/read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein? (The movie's pretty close to the book), instead of just the Hammer film or pop-culture versions? Because Adam (the Monster) was brought to life not on an open mesh platform with a direct lightning strike, but in a giant copper tub filled with amniotic fluid that then had the lightning's charge sent through it.
So not so much a coffin (that's more Dracula's thing) as a huge electrically-powered device. If you could figure out how to model a lightning bolt striking it, that would be awesome. Maybe have a little Igor next to it.
I was just grabbing at something easy and thematic. I like your idea but I'd need a lot more to go on for a build. The problem with the tub is that it's totally the wrong shape/profile for a drop pod, and I would like to keep things reasonably recognizable as possible.
I'll think about it. Maybe wander through the hardware store and see if I get inspired by something.
Well you could use a normal drop pod, and then steampunk it up with plenty of wheel handles and lightning conductors, maybe some "windows" to show the fluid inside. etc.
Doesn't have to look like a giant copper bathtub with a screw on lid. Just take that aesthetic and do up a drop pod.
That's actually not a bad idea, Dr H! You could totally "weird science" up a drop pod. There are even a few alternative drop pods out there that might lend themselves to it.
Nicely done. The mummy priest fits perfectly with the squad, and the headless horseman looks perfect!
How are you planning on painting his “head” area? Just treat the shoulders/neck like nothing happened? Eldritch glow/OSL? Flames? Anything special in store for his pumpkin?
Mummy priest looks great, gives that unit a bit of color. Are you running him as a sorcerer or sgt for squad? Headless horseman is going to look great, cant wait to see him painted up.
Keep in mind that I'm on an extremely tight deadline (so much so that I'm concerned I won't get it finished in time). Figure needs to be ready to go for a tournament on Saturday so this is likely to very much limit what I can do with it. It's also not going to be an easy paint job...
The neck area poses an interesting problem. I could build up a small area of neck base out of GS & paint it appropriately. Otherwise I can leave the depression but paint the little nib sticking out white and do the area around it in dark reds and flesh tones. I'm not sure which and will likely put this step off until the very end (as getting the rest of the figure done by the deadline is more important than neck detail, which can be added later).
The Jack-o-lantern will definitely be glowing like the others in this army... but I can't make any promises beyond that. I've never been a fan of "magic OSL" that has light bending around 90 degree corners, given that the light is emitting from somewhere inside the pumpkin I think that having "lighted" carved out sections will be the extent of the effect.
@Yorkright: He'll be the sgt upgrade for the squad. Remember earlier in this blog we had a big discussion about who would command the mummies? In the old movies there's always a priest of an Egyptian god behind it. Rather than just finding a priest, I found a mummy priest, best of both worlds eh?
@RiIides: Yes, 60mm I think for a Jugger?? The square base is just for painting purposes.
I guess I’m a little rusty on the headless horseman lore. What’s in his collar? Bloody stump? Evil magics? Mummified corpse? With the built up fur pelts this guy is packing, there would be surface for light to shine on if there was something emanating from his neck. Which is why I was thinking about OSL. And if you do glow the neck, it might be a nice way to tie things together is you light a similar glow inside the jack-o-lantern.
If he’s just a walking (well, riding) corpse, it’s obviously out of place. But the way the mini is built, it looks like a good spot for a touch of appropriate OSL.
I like the build as-is (without building up a neck or anything). If it was me, I would just leave it as an empty suit of armor sort of thing - I remember there usually just being a black collar / black hole that suggests you don't know what's beyond. Makes it more interesting than just a severed neck!
This is a really nice side effect of the transition to resin (even if it's finecast) - sculpts like this are actually possible to convert without breaking out the jackhammer
Looking good. I really like the work on the Priest (your experience with Necrons may be showing...)
I've seen the headless horseman as both a spectral being and as a reanimated corpse. I think I prefer the spectral side of things myself, but I can see if you wanted to keep things more corporeal.
Sorry if off tangent as I haven't been around much lately . I saw dread claws listed and drop pods, how about using giant purple works for your delivery vessels. They dig up through the ground instead of crashing down to the ground. If the purple work is not your thing how about the grabbers from the movie tremors .
RiTides wrote:I like the build as-is (without building up a neck or anything). If it was me, I would just leave it as an empty suit of armor sort of thing - I remember there usually just being a black collar / black hole that suggests you don't know what's beyond. Makes it more interesting than just a severed neck!
This is a really nice side effect of the transition to resin (even if it's finecast) - sculpts like this are actually possible to convert without breaking out the jackhammer
Actually, adding a collar of some sort would be quite easy and would help define the space a bit. I think I'll go with that. Thanks RiTides, you continue to be a source of excellent suggestions and guidance for this list. I'll be honest, I'm not a fan of the GW resin. It's fragile, soft, had far more gates than needed in a well planned casting increasing prep time, and of course there are persistent problems with finecast.
Anpu-adom wrote:Looking good. I really like the work on the Priest (your experience with Necrons may be showing...)
I've seen the headless horseman as both a spectral being and as a reanimated corpse. I think I prefer the spectral side of things myself, but I can see if you wanted to keep things more corporeal.
My mental impression of the horseman is that portrayed in the movie "Sleepy Hollow". Scary as hell, but corporeal.
Theophony wrote:Sorry if off tangent as I haven't been around much lately . I saw dread claws listed and drop pods, how about using giant purple works for your delivery vessels. They dig up through the ground instead of crashing down to the ground. If the purple work is not your thing how about the grabbers from the movie tremors .
I assume you mean a "purple worm"? Interesting idea, though purple worms are more of a D&D thing rather than a Halloween thing. The Graboids are another interesting throught. Problem is neither has anything to do with Frankenstein's monster. At least the drop pod can be modified to represent the birthing chamber (even if it is kind of a sketchy reference).
Spacewolverine wrote:I do like what you did with your Headless Horseman Git. Mummies turned out really nice too! Love there leader.
Thanks! Very happy with the way the Priest of Karnak turned out, especially since I cranked him out in one evening. The Horseman looks the way I'd hoped. I really need another night to clean up the build... but I don't have it.
and at first glance I thought that was just a bought model of the headless horseman. It's only after reading and looking again I noticed the differently coloured hand that gave it away.
Works perfectly.
If I get it done at all. Things aren't looking promising at the moment.
I just had to do some GSing last night, so the only progress I made was that and priming. I did work on three more elements for the display board. Two more trees & a small grave yard section (4 graves). Saying that I'm a tad bit concerned that the figure isn't going to get finished is a gross understatement. I *must* finish whatever airbrushing I'm going to do tonight at the very least.
One way or the other I'll get you pics of whatever progress I've made tonight.
And here's the WIP of my Headless Horseman. He won't be done by tournament time (Saturday), but the goal is that he's done enough not to hurt my paint score.
How much detail are you going to put on the HH or how table top will he be? I could see the eyes of the pumpkins with some OSL and perhaps even some on the steed
Wow... just wow. I can't see how anything that you leave undone could hurt your score on the horseman.
The zombie banner makes me think of some of the protestors I've seen.
Lead Zombie: What do we want!?!?
Zombie Horde: Brains....
Lead Zombie: When do we want them?!?!
Zombie Horde: Brains....
LOL Anpu! Thanks for making my morning... going to be a very, very long day (tough day at work, lots of driving... followed by frantic painting and army prep).
I put another round of black wash on the horse before going to bed last night to darken him up a bit. To the eye he's not as grey as the photo seems to indicate... harsh lights in the light box and all. If I can get the rider's armor, eyes and mouth of the horse & the pumpkin he's carrying done tonight... I'll be ecstatic. Mrs Gits said I need to differentiate the fur from the cloak more. She's right, the fur turned out a lot redder than I was aiming for. Careful highlighting with a yellowish brown might do the trick.
Sorry, that was a poor choice of words. I was not going to attend the tournament to support my wife who is having family problems. But, she sent me anyway.
I won best painted & came in third overall. A very nice showing for a brand new army. Have pics and more details later. Thanks for the support guys. It's been kind of a rough week, be we seem to have survived. First two rounds were against guys who normally run demon armies (but weren't) so they helped me a lot. By the thrid game I had a pretty good handle on what I was doing. Really like the army. Has some serious weaknesses, but over all is pretty stout & fun to run.
I'm not going to do a full battle report, but I do have a handful of pics for highlights.
Primary: kill points
Secondary: maelstrom
Tertiary: standard
Deployment: vanguard strike
With a full pod army, John didn't deploy anything. I took full advantage of this and with my infiltrating nurglings and fast moving furies... by the end of my turn 1 (I went first), I owned every objective. This would be a very good decision as it gave me an advantage in scoring the maelstrom points that would hold the whole game.
Then it went down hill. Pods filled with marines, centurions and dreadnoughts rained down from the sky. The cents and dreads landed close to me, which you might have thought would be a good thing with a demon army. However I really only have two figures in the army that have AP2 or weapons that could damage something like a dread. So most of the game, my army was fighting things in assault that I really couldn't hurt (or could hurt but really slowly).
My demon prince duked it out with the dreadnought... and lost.
The zombies tried to lend a hand.
They were persistent... and did a good job of tying up the cents for a few combat phases.
Frankenstein's Monster (GUO) took on pretty much everything it could get it's hands on (I think it did manage to kill the dread).
As previously mentioned... the little nurglings proved to be an amazingly effective part of the army. Nearly impossible to shoot off the objectives and one group was actually beating a combat-squad of marines in assault when the game ended!
Luckily for me, John is a long-time demon player and gave me lots of good advice. In the end I just didn't have enough punch to really compete for the primary, but I snagged the secondary and John said I'd done a decent job playing. All good.
Game 1: 8 of 25 pts. (max score possible was 25)
Lunch was provided by a fantastic local BBQ business called The Pickle Jar. Just so happens that John is the OWNER of The Pickle Jar. Paint judging took place during lunch but I didn't really notice as I was stuffing my face with heavenly BBQ pork, chicken and homemade pie! Anyway, got max points for painting (25). I'll take it. And for those of you who think I must breeze through the local painting comps... nothing could be further from the truth. We have a lot of excellent local converters and painters... they just don't have as big an audience to show off they're stuff. So whenever I do win... I really appreciate it. I think I heard the judge say I won by 1 point, so even with this army, I just squeaked by.
More later. Camera battery died so the other pics I have are on my phone. Will try and get them uploaded over dinner.
Pictures look good reminds me of stills from old horror movies. Can't wait for the next batch. Going have to start a Kickstarter so Gitz can have plenty of batteries for his next tourney. ;- P
Army turned out so well!! So happy you won best painted. Sorry if what I said came out bad. You just worked so hard on the Army. I hope everything with your wife's family problems are all good now.
Army looks great on the table too, excited for the rest of the pictures and reports!
I only have one photo of game 2 vs. orks... but it pretty much says it all.
Primary: kill points with extra points for killing FA or HV units Secondary: maelstrom Tertiary: standardish Deployment: hammer & anvil.
I think this shot was taken at the beginning of T3. Three battle wagons filled to the brim with boys came charging down my left flank, while a giant mob of orks with character support (Big Mek, Pain Boy, etc) moved to occupy the central ruin. For my part, I'd pulled the same goblins/nurglings on objectives shenanigans as I did in game 1, which once again secured me the secondary (with the help of some just stupidly lucky maelstrom draws). I had my larger group of plague bearers (the zombies) refuse left... just to keep the battlewagons more-or-less at bay. My werewolves with the headless horseman in tow, charged down the right flank & cleaned up two units of gretchin hiding in his rear (remember, kill points). My characters & flamers (ghosts) moved forward and a giant scrum ensued in the center of the table... which was eventually joined by the wolves & the horseman.
While it seemed like a fairly close game, the furies & nurglings were easy kills for the dakka jets (volume of fire), and with the furies being worth 2 points each and the demon prince dieng in assault... the extra points he gained from killing heavy and FA units was insurmountable. I should note that for two games in a row... the Horseman couldn't roll for beans. He was killing, say... one boy per assault phase. I just couldn't work my way through the giant mob of boys and characters fast enough to do any good.
It's always a tough game with Hammer and Anvil. Seems like when we need our characters to roll well they don't. Great pictures again! A lot of people say Orks are weak but they can be awfully tough especially if played right.
I'll work on him tonight! Unfortunately your link doesn't take me to a post with a pic. Looks like it might have been made unavailable??
Time for the final game summary from last weekend.
Game 3 vs. Monty's Necrons Primary: 6 random point value objectives Secondary: kill points Tertiary: standard Deployment: dawn of war Night Fighting: No
There were 6 objectives, each randomly determined for it's point value at the beginning of turn 2. Two would be worth 1 point, two worth 2 points and 2 worth 3 points. Amazingly enough, we each had a 1 & 2 point objective in our deployment zones with both 3 pointers in the middle. A middle which I had luckily dropped a couple of infiltrating squads of goblins/nurglings on. Unlike maelstrom, you didn't get the points until the end of the game, so I had to hold on to them! Monty set up first and deployed heavily to his center and left. Not wanting to face any more firepower than I had to (and counting on my fast units), I deployed to MY center and left. See below (and sorry for the rubbish pic). There were objectives on all 4 buildings on my side of the table, and two in the open on his. I got the impression that he planned to move foreword. The pic is actually taken some time during the Necron turn 1 as you can see three wraiths threatening the middle of the table & my goblins holding the center 3 point objective. OH, and I put the furies in reserve. I put my fast units (with the exception of the demon prince) in the center and the small group of plague bearers over on the right to hold the 1 point objective. Figured it might not be worth his diverting his forces for just 1 point & I might sneak by holding on to it. I put a couple of slow units on the far left... where they pretty much stayed the whole game... not that I wanted them to stay there... but they're Nurgle... so they move only 6" per turn unless they can charge something. Actually I DID want the zombie hoard to stay there as Monty had two squads of outflanking flayed ones and I didn't want them arriving into the middle of my highest concentration of objective points. While I didn't roll either Iron Arm or Invis (two demon standards)... my demon price got something (gift??) that gave him armor-bane... so he took to the air and proceeded to wreck the face of every Necron vehicle on my left flank (barge & ark). This was a very lucky thing for me as it really hampered the Necron's ability to move and contest objectives, especially with a horde of monsters heading towards them as quickly as possible & exposed the contents of the ark to subsequent charges.
The Necrons had the first turn & moved forward cautiously, with the arks hanging back to use their amazing anti-infantry fire power. He did however, send a group of 3 wraiths right down the middle of the table at my poor little nurglings on a 3-point objective. With the oncoming wraiths (see center table, above pic) threatening to really muck things up... my werewolves/hounds of Khrone (center, behind building) ran around the building and along with the Headless Horsemen/Skulltaker, charged into the wraiths, killing them in 1 combat phase (not a good thing). The rest of the army moved forward as quickly as it could, which included the demon prince taking out an anni barge with a vector strike.
In response, The Necron Lord "Montyus" unleashed the cold precision of his legions and the wolves were wiped out. Luckily however, the Horseman survived having received only a minor wound. They also gunned down many of the bloodleteters leading the charge on the left side of the central building, and did their best to shoot down the demon prince and managed to get two wounds on him!
The Halloween horde continued to move forward. The demon prince wrecked the nearest ark, exposing it's contents to malicious assault. The ghosts/flamers jumped forward along with the witch/herald on disc... flamed then charged one of the units of warriors while Thanatos/the changeling dropped back to join the remaining bloodletters. Between the flaming and assault, the Necrons were nearly eliminated.
During Monty's turn, the blood letters were whittled down to nothing by a group of three destroyers that were moving in from the right. On my far right, the Necrons were doing a pretty good job of knocking out the mummies/plaguebearers on my 1-point objective, but they still held. More shooting at the flying demon gave no joy for the Necrons. During the assault phase, the ghosts with the witch and Horseman in support wiped out the Necron squad.
On my next turn, the demon prince took a swipe at another ark, but only managed a single hull point. The ghosts and Grizelda (the witch) moved to attack the second group of warriors (the guys in the crater in the previous picture) while the Horseman broke off to attack the Necron destroyers.
In turn, the Necron flayed ones arrived on my right flank & threatened the mummies holding the 1-point objective on the building. There was more shooting & I think I lost a ghost and perhaps a nurgling here or there, but my lines held.
The Horsemen also proceeded to whittle down the destroyers until he ultimately defeated them and most of the necron forces in the table center were eliminated. The battle at my right between my mummies and the flayed ones was fierce, but eventually... the flayed ones were victorious.
Game 3: 24/25 pts. (I don't recall getting slay the warlord)
Playing Monty is too much fun. Not just because I beat him, he's just a great guy with a nicely painted army. I also started to figure out what the heck I was doing by game 3... which made a big difference I think. I was remembering my psychics, my gifts, the warp storms, etc. Made a big difference.
@Anvildude: Yes, but they really don't match the theme of "classic Halloween". When I originally through of this army I was going to draw units from all over 40k, but now I think I'm restricting it to things that are either fantastic in origin (for the demons dex) or clearly CSM derivatives (for the CSM dex).Not that I won't stretch this at some point... but I'm not sure the flayed ones models give me enough in return for breaking the pattern. The other question would be what would they represent in the army? Probably just more plague bearers or cultists... think I have those covered already.
Sorry for not having a painting update today. I started cleaning my studio last night instead. It's a pit. Probably weeks to go before it's actually clean, but at least I made a start. I will be painting over the next several days and intend to finish up the Horseman 'er Monday comes.
In the mean time I've been thinking what to do with the army for our next tournament. It's a 1750 pt "White Dwarf style" tournament where you lose "fluff points" (actual points) by duplicating units (with exceptions made for armies that only have 1 troop type). You're allowed two sources (CADs, detachments, formations) and 1 super heavy. I think I've come up with something pretty cool that allows me to field some of the units that get left out of the last list. I've run it by Luke (my chaos mentor) and with a tweak it passed muster.
Chaos Demon CAD: HQ: Great Unclean One, L3 psycher (Frankenstein's monster) HQ: Heralds - Skulltaker (headless horseman) - Herald of Tzeench on disc, L3 psycher (witch) TP: 20x plague bearers w/ plague banner (zombies) TP: 5x nurglings (goblins) FA: 9x hounds of Khorne (werewolves) FA: 10x furies w/ "demons of slaanesh" which gives them rending (bat swarms) HV: demon prince, wings, L3 psycher
Chaos SM Allies: HQ: chaos lord w/ power axe, jump pack sigil of corruption, gives him a 3+/4+, gift of mutation & melta bombs (Dracula) TP: 30x chaos cultists (skeletons) FA: 3x spawn (things)
The only question mark is that I could replace the 3 spawn with probably... 4 or 5 flamers of tzeench (not sure about the points). Jumping flamers are very nice and with two wounds each they would provide a nice bit of bubble wrap for my witch (who is a very important character). The "things" however would be an excellent escort for the Horseman (though he could run with the dogs too). Not sure where to go with this one. I don't think the army needs the flamers... I've got plenty of infantry for anti-horde... but the flamers really proved their usefulness (when used correctly) in that last game against the necrons so I'm reluctant to write them out of the list completely.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
OK, did some research on-line. If I drop one fury or Dracula's gift, I can add 4 flamers. That should be enough to get the job done.
On Dracula's escort unit (CSM spawn or Daemons hounds), I had seen this in an article 3 years old:
Remember unlike other Battle Brothers Daemons ICs cannot join with Chaos Space Marine units under any situation.
Not sure if that's still true or out of date, just wanted to mention it just in case! If it were still true, he'd have to go with the Spawn.
The only thing I don't like in the list is the Frankenstein's monster as GUO! You've got an elite slot open in your CSM allies for him... it's just such a better fit to use him as a dread of some sort!
RiTides wrote: On Dracula's escort unit (CSM spawn or Daemons hounds), I had seen this in an article 3 years old:
Remember unlike other Battle Brothers Daemons ICs cannot join with Chaos Space Marine units under any situation.
Not sure if that's still true or out of date, just wanted to mention it just in case! If it were still true, he'd have to go with the Spawn.
The only thing I don't like in the list is the Frankenstein's monster as GUO! You've got an elite slot open in your CSM allies for him... it's just such a better fit to use him as a dread of some sort!
Well, taken literally... a Daemon IC is NOT joining a CSM unit. It's the other way around, which would seem is not prohibited.
As to the dreadnought... yes, I could take him for what he is. But he sucks that way. I'd rather this army not suck unless absolutely necessary.
Well that is totally understandable . I don't want it to suck either, which is why I was scheming about the Dreadclaw... but yeah, having taken short-ranged foot dreads before, it just doesn't work!
He is green and is a frankenstein creation, after all, so is not totally unsuitable to his new role . Just wondering if there's any modeling way to make it a little clearer (a base label could work - or something creative like your did with your zombie). What just hit me is, what if he had some green / translucent slime dripping from his outstretched hands? That would really convey "unclean" to me, and he's already "great"! Translucent green slime would blend right in with the paint job and not look out of place (he could even be tracking some behind his feet, too ).
Having the list not suck means you'll actually play it, which is much more worthwhile than having it be a perfect fluff-bunny sitting on the shelf! I really like the list construction, especially the fact that you could fit in the CSM as allies (rather than a second CAD) since that will be usable in the vast majority of tournament formats! Also, that is a HUGE unit of cultists, which is awesome - is that what your friend recommended, a big unit to flood part of the table with / possibly use as a tarpit?
Actually RiTides, I was thinking over lunch. I might be able to work him back in as a chaos contemptor. My thought was to give him an ML rack so he has some long range capability, shift the demon price back up to an HQ unit (which I'd have to do as the GUO unlocks the DP as a heavy). With the points left over, I could take Thanatos as a herald of tzeench (L3) and it could hang in the back providing spell support (hopefully invis) to the contemptor and/or the unit it's with (perhaps the skeletons). I won't know for sure though until I get home and can sort out the points.
Originally I was going to use two groups of cultists so I could field a CSMCAD (needing two troops). The bits just happened to come in lots of 30 (as per the original boxed set), so I just painted them all up. I really like the idea of a massed unit of crap infantry. If I could just find a way to make them fearless, I'd be all set. The zombies and skeletons really look great in large groups, and they take up a lot of space on the table, which gives me some deep-striking opponent protection.
Well that sounds great especially if it made room for Thanatos, that model looks awesome! How reliably would one of your wizards roll up invisibility, seems like a good plan to put it on the Contemptor (and deprives the opponent of any armor to shoot at!).
I like it . Especially if you can model the missiles as some sort of electrical coils on his back, I feel like Frankenstein's monster is always brought to life that way
Also Skulltaker as Headless Horseman is a great pun waiting to happen
I believe the Typhus CSMIC allows the cultist to actually be zombies, They then gain the fearless trait. Not sure how or if it works with your current list. I just remember playing against the zombie blob in the past.
That's been mentioned before I think... but isn't typhus a nurgle character? Not very vampire like if so. (unfortunately). Besides, I already have a good spot for the zombies.
Sounds like it's going to be a hard decision Git. I have to agree on the Contemptor being a Contemptor either that or include it and decide on a cool conversion for a GUO like an Abomination of Frankenstein. Two creations
Thanks. If I remember correctly, that's wet blended rather than airbrushed. Kind of crude as far as wet blending goes, but still decent enough. Airbrushed and then blended to bring down the darks and bring up the highlights. Can't remember now.
Well done. A very suitable addition to the theme and you have painted it so damn well. So is this the end of the Halloween themed army or are more additions planned?
Just wanted to say that I've had a couple of the most enjoyable games with this army vs. Thing 1's Necrons. Upon hearing that I'd beaten the 'Crons in the last tournament, he took it as a personal challenge as determined to "set the record straight" and whoop up on me. We played 1750 pts with the restrictions of the upcoming local tournament (only 2 sources, 1 SH max, no more than 2 units of any one type & extra point for no duplication). I modified my list to include a small allied formation of CSM with a better variation of Dracula as the champion HQ and the full contingent of cultists/skeletons. The weedy git pulled Necron shenanigans and thumped me good. Took a number of pics and will post a "skeleton" (meaning not blow-by-blow) batrep soon.
Started a second, 1500 point game last night with some rather unusual builds (no flyers, no MCs, no vehicles). At the moment we're tied with each of us having 5 maelstrom points and each of us having a unit that the other is having an extremely hard time dealing with. I experimented with summoning this game & so far it's worked very well (though it hasn't made a big difference in the game yet). Unfortunately... I've forgotten to take pics (we're on turn 4). Hopefully will finish tonight.
Love love LOVE that Horseman!! Exceptional work on the cloak, especially.
Pretty sure its my favorite model youve done so far. Just so much character and a beautiful paintjob to boot!
Great to hear about the games with Thing 1. Looking forward to hearing about your win tonight
The Necrons waited patiently for the swarms of flesh creatures to descend. These were less uniform than most of the flesh armies they slaughtered, but flesh was weak... no matter the form.
As the foe drew near, the ancient guns of the Necrons opened fire... thinning the enemy's ranks.
In spite of the casualties, the hordes crashed upon them like waves against a rocky coastline.
The battle was joined and flesh-creatures an mechanical warriors fell.
A giant of the flesh-creatures challenged and defeated the Necron's Overlord... but it was to no avail, the Necrons had clearly won the day, leaving their foe to skulk back into the ether from which they had emerged.
Nope, army isn't done. Have had some new insights based on some modifications I've made to my list & input from friends that are pretty exciting. The advent of summoning in my lists has changed things greatly. I don't actually need to pay for everything up front when I can summon units in. This frees up a lot of points for "special projects", one of which I'll detail in a bit. For those of you who are unfamiliar with how demon summoning works, I can summon both units of basic demons *and* heralds. Both are things I can choose rather than having to roll randomly for, allowing me to leave key units out of my basic list... then bring them in later in the game. This also allows me to set points aside for CSM allies, so Dracula and the skeletons can be regular components of my lists.
Troops I can summon: bloodletters nurglings (goblins) plague bearers (zombies and mummies) pink horrors (I've found some appropriate figures I *could* use as pink horrors... but I'm not sure if they'd add anything to the army (haven't looked at the rules yet)
Heralds I can summon: I can summon any heralds, but after thinking about their place in the list, I've narrowed it down to two types: Herals of Khorne - very good stats for assault and I'm allowed a 30 pt upgrade, enough for a greater gift which can always be translated into a powerful weapon. (i.e. mini beat-stick) Heralds of Tzeench - come as L1 psychers, with 30 pt upgrade I can make them L2... which adds significantly to my spell support capabilities
The glory of the summoning thing is that it allows me to pull in all kinds of 1-off monsters that would be difficult to bring in otherwise. The three I have on order at the moment are...
Reaper's "classic werewolf"... yes, a proper Lawrence Talbot will be in my army! Seems a natural for a Herald of Khorne.
Reaper's "vampire noble". This represents "Lucy", the gal that Dracula turns into a vampire before VanHelsing shows up and ruins the fun. Was originally going to be a Herald of Slaanesh, but unfortunately that really provides little benefit to the army. I'm excited about this mini as I've long want to try my hand at "sheer clothing". As "the lady in white" (as she was called in the original movie, dressed in a white nightgown), I think this will be an excellent opportunity to give it a go.
Four A miniature's Creature from the Black Lagoon, who will be another Herald of Khorne.
I'm looking for "The Bride of Frankenstein" but there just isn't one out there. There was one made at one point but it's OOP now and frankly wasn't all that great a representation to begin with.
Thinking out of the box: A friend of mine then had what I think is a brilliant suggestion.
What's an army of monsters missing?? VanHelsing of course! This is based more on the modern movie of the same name rather than the doddering old Swiss doctor of classic horror. Why is he there? Well, to take down the monster leaders of course, but he has his own Church-decreed agenda and whomever I'm fighting is obviously interfering with it! I take VanHelsing as a come-the-apocalypse imperial Callidus assassin ally. He (well, she) never gets anywhere near the rest of my army (or VanHelsing attacks) and just appears next to a key unit or commander of the opposition and takes them out.
Reaper makes a great female vampire hunter in VanHelsing clothes. This combines the look of the monster hunter on a female frame, appropriate for the female callidus assassin. From a gaming perspective, it gives me the kind of reach-out-and-touch-someone unit that I'm sorely missing. She also provides a -3 to the opponent's first reserve roll which is critical for an army like mine that needs to get across the table in-tact in order to be successful.
Need your help! Last but not least, I'm looking for a Cthulu figure... large... to play the part of a Bloodthirster. Haven't found what I wanted yet, so if any of you are so inclined, please keep your eyes out.
I like the idea of running the army as a summoning army and that certainly lets you play around with some more cool things!
Have you decided how you'll normally be running Frankenstein's monster, and if as a GUO will you be adding some green goo to the hands / etc? Not needed if you're going to run it as a dread, of course!
I really like the idea of Van Helsing, and the fun heralds. If you can swing it, it might be nice to have some (attractive?) base labels to help folks keep track of things. Once I have mine done for the gator army I'll show you what I've done (will be laser cutting them). I was surprised when you said it was "effectively done" and this seems like the absolute perfect way to continue work on the project at a nice pace - painting up fun characters (heralds!) and making room in your list for the awesome stuff by summoning in your heralds / troops.
Between those two choices, I would run Cthulhu as a bloodthirster - although note this could also be perfect for your GUO if you were using your dread as a dread and not "goo'ing it up"! Will keep an eye out
Unfortunately RiTides, the dread is a non-starter. The missile rack that was going to give it purpose is really bad in the chaos list. So I think it's the GUO for the nonce. I'm not going to goo him up as he has other armies that he can play with as a regular contemptor. Also, goo isn't very Frankenstein's monster. No one I've played so far has hand *any* issues remembering what he is. I'll still do a missile rack, but if he's running with a normal (loyalist) army, that rack will actually be useful as opposed to the drek he's allowed as a CSM.
Labeling the bases is a great idea and one I intend to do before the next tournament.
If you need to help people remember what’s what, how about wanted posters? Either full sized sheets of paper, or little card sized reminder play-aids.
Wanted
(by order of the inquisition)
<picture of unit>
--Name--
--couple lines of fluff--
(counts-as XX, list wargear that might not be obvious)
As part of the fluff you could list the crimes they are wanted for, such as reserve manipulation or assassination. (to give hints as to what the unit does for those not familiar with it) or something as blatant a crime as impersonating a caladus assassin.
Just some thoughts. Looking forward to seeing this army grow. tons of character here.
Well with base labels I don't think it will be an issue and it is better to have an army that works together reasonably well, because then you'll actually play it! So, if the dread is staying as GUO I would definitely pencil in Cthulhu as a Bloodthirster.
I think there are two good options for a *large* Cthulhu that I can think of:
I might lean towards the Scibor miniature, but they are both very nice models... not sure how you could get a hold of the second one without buying the game, though (did they offer a way to get a spare in the original Kickstarter?).
Summoning works great for your army. Keep in mind, that there is also Renfield... a thrall of Dracula in the original book and movies. He would also be a great Herald of Khorn. (Though I he was trying to consume life... catching flied to feed to spiders, catching birds to feed the spiders too and then eating the birds. That could be seen as spellcraft). I would look in the Malifaux line (Seamus perhaps). He would also do if you were going for a Jack The Ripper motiff. Another Herald of Tzeench might be Elisabeth Bathory... the Blood Countess... she was known for torturing her serving girls, draining them of blood and bathing in it and using it for spells to maintain her youth and beauty.
Vanhelsing is an awesome idea, and from what I understand of the game anymore, your plans sound pretty solid. Lucy sounds like an interesting project, too. I've never done sheer clothing myself, but I've seen it on some competition pieces. Really really difficult, but damn man. Does it ever look good!
Really excited to see you do up the Scibor mini, too- really really like that sculpt.
Ramos Asura wrote: Really excited to see you do up the Scibor mini, too- really really like that sculpt.
Agreed, that's awesome! Between that and the heralds, it will add some really character models to the army which works great because you've got all the grunts done (really quite a horde of them!).
So... I've got some major problems with the lists.
As I've been boning up on rules, I discovered that I can't run Dracula with the furies as they have demonic instability and he does not. This leaves him without an escort or purpose, and them without any real punch. I could add some spawn to act as escort, but that's another 90 points I'd have to come up with. I could just attach him to the skeletons or DS him in alone... but those are both poor solutions. If I drop the CSM all together, I lose drac and the skeletons from the army, which will really hurt the feel of it, but adding those 90 points is going to cripple something else in the list. If I drop the furies, I lose a lot of mobility as well as the aesthetic of the bats.
My current solution is to drop Drac & a flamer and replace them with a cheap chaos sorcerer (will use the liche priest figure) for the CSM and an exalted flamer for the demons. This keeps 3 flamers available for summoning, gets Thanatos back on the table as the exalted flamer, greatly increases the LD of the cultists & adds to my psychic dice. Not a perfect solution, but the best I could come up with. Sorry to lose Drac (from this list anyway) but it really couldn't be helped. A 150 point character with no purpose just isn't a good choice.
... aaaaaand... the wife doesn't approve of any of this with the exception of the creature from the black lagoon. Ah well. I like it.
Just remind her that sequels are never as good as the original.
You did cover pretty much all the high points in the main list, not a lot of space to grow from there, unless you diverge a little. And it’s not like you are veering wildly off-tpoic.
Good luck sorting tweaking the list. I’m not up on chaos enough to help fine tune them. I’m sure you will work something out, if not, you can always shuffle things around until it works.
Well, I guess that's one of the things I really like about the list... it's got lots of moving parts that can be easily switched around. Losing Drac with the furies is a significant blow though, they were a nice combination once I figured out how to use them correctly.
No, the bases don't work out at all and spawn are quite expensive.
However... I've come up with an alternate solution that I'm liking a little better.
Drop the bats, sorcerer & 1 nurgling, add 3 spawn and a slightly cheaper version of Drac back into the list. Keep the flamer group as-is so I have the option of summoning in another group of 3 and Thanatos is still in as the exalted flamer. I'll miss the bats from a fluff perspective, but without Drac they're not as effective as a unit.
What point value is this for, Gits? I figure Dracula should definitely be in at 1850, but obviously for lower levels you have to cut somewhere! I think the skeletons are really good for the visual of the list, though (all these cool characters you're adding will look best when surrounded by a horde of minions, after all ).
1750 I definitely don't want to get rid of the skeletons for just those reasons. I think my current solution is a good one. The spawn are beasts and as such very mobile and on-balance they pack more punch that the furies do. At 1850 the furies go right back in though as their rending ability gives them a broader utility vs. armored opponents (and they're pretty cheap).
... and no, jarring as it may seem, I think they frame the figure nicely and tie in with some of the inner detail. Call it artistic bias if you like.
I don't envy you the decisions involved in list tweaking. Although I am so far from competitive play I still struggle with my 2,000 point lists to get everything I want into a list.
Good luck with it, but my two cents is purely visual and Drac is just too cool to miss out.
I suppose the issue you're having now is that, so far, you've stuck to classic Horror Movie Halloween, and you've pretty much run the gamut there. The way I see it, you could continue with the 'kitschy Halloween' theme, and maybe start to expand into sort of 50's Monster Movie stuff, with giant animals/people, robots, psychics, big-headed aliens, all that.
Or, go towards 'Modern' Halloween, with Slasher flick serial killers- wide enough variety there.
Or look at other sources of Horror- you're already doing a little of that with Cthulu there, and look at other sources of psychological unease- the slightly-off cultists (wonder what those could count as?), glowing sigils, unmentionable creatures beyond the ken of man- the trouble with that is that it starts going too close to 'conventional' Chaos.
Or, start diving further into the dark Folklore. The blue-skinned demons of Christian and Etruscan frescoes, skin the color of rotting flesh- the Krasue, hungry bodyless ghost woman, Krampus or the Joulupukki, companion of St. Nicholas who eats the naughty children, stuff like that.
There's a huge wealth of specific mythological monster references that Warhammer hasn't already used- not sure how they'd fit in your lists, but I suppose that's your job.
Or look at deeper religious or philosophical 'evils'- Time, traditionally depicted as an old man bearing an hourglass and a scythe to take that whose time had come, the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse, various harbingers of the end of the world from other mythologies.
Remember. Everything in this army has to adhere to the Halloween / Horror theme pretty closely.
Expanding on Camkierhi's comment you could do them as brides by using D Eldar heads from the Wyches and giving them gargoyle or the non feather wings from the Scourges instead of jump packs.
I'm not sure I understand graven. I know another demon kin dex is coming out for a different god. That doesn't do me much good though.
All of those ideas are interesting, but for me they're all too much of a stretch. The beauty of this list is that all of the counts-as are pretty intuitive. You look at it and you can pretty much figure out what it is. While the suggestions are interesting, none hit that mark in my mind. I have gone a bit off the reservation with a few models... but only a few and not very far off. Cthulhu, while not a classic "Halloween"-associated monster... is a classic monster from the 1930's, and I live about 15 miles away from Arkham Publishing... so his presence in the list works on a number of levels.
One of the things I really like about this army and the people who follow it is that you guys make me think. I don't always agree with you, but you challenge me and make me consider other ideas. Some of these ideas, either on their own or with the proper tweak... turn out to work really well. I think the following falls into that category.
Early on, the Raptors came up as a possible solution for a Drac escort. I did some poking around & I think chaos raptors with their claws & the bat-like winged jump pack that Drac is currently sporting... with an appropriate stone-like paint job would make for excellent gargoyles. The stone skin of the gargoyles making for an excellent reason for the figures to be armored. I don't know what the claws do... I assume it is some variation of a lightening claw... but I think I could make a small squad work & it's gets Drac back into a visually and functionally complementary unit.
Thanks guys. Consider this one a lock. Anyone have any spares of those Possessed wings? They're kind of expensive to get off a bits dealer.
One thing I didn't follow, is do you plan to run the Raptors instead of Spawn? The Spawn seem like they'd be a fine escort for Dracula and I would've thought take the same spot / points as the Raptors?
I would have thought you'd paint them as vampires, but gargoyles sound interesting! Especially if they were transitioning from stone somehow (in the basing + painting - seems like your airbrushing could convey this, but would be challenging for sure).
They do, but they're only in conflict if I'm taking CSM as an ally as opposed to a CAD. I've got enough skeletons to take two squads of 15 cultists if I want rather than 1 squad of 30. The spawn are a good escort, just not as appropriate visually. I do think you're over-thinking the paint job... shades of grey either airbrushed or drybrushed should cover it. Since these are supposed to resemble animated statues, I don't feel the need to go nuts on them.
In regards to the wings when I get round to doing my Night Lords I'll be using the standard jump packs but will be adding Nid gargoyle wings, would that work for your guys as well?
I like the fact that there is actually an engine on those other wings, yet it has a very small profile so they do look like wings. I do allow my Chaos SM units to have technology, so it works OK. Luckily I'm just looking at a unit of 5, so I don't need all that many.
Practiced with my 1750 pt army for the tournament this Saturday. Had a very fun game vs. Brian and his very pretty CSM army. Took a few pics which I will try and weave into some semblance of a battle report. I apologize for the poor quality of the pictures, my phone camera was having a bad day.
Unfortunately I forgot to take a pic of the initial set up. Dawn of War deployment, maelstrom mission (draw cards based on the number of objectives you own). Most objectives are in my half but CSM plan on charging forward aggressively so it works for both of us. I am designated to deploy first & then choose to have my opponent go first. The CSM move forward at maximum speed. Most notably his Lord on a jugger with spawn escort take out my infiltrated nurglings holding down an objective on top of the central bridge, earning them first blood.
My turn started out well with the warp storm wiping out a small group of 3 bikers. I moved everything I could to be in a position to attack the CSM warlord and his escort, and managed to successfully cast 3 spells, including summoning a group of bloodletters to help deal with the CSM berserkers loaded in an oncoming rhino and land raider. Everything that could assaulted the CMS commander...
The Horseman called out the CSM commander...
... and took his head!
The rest of the CSM Spawn were beaten down by the werewolves, The Monster and my own Chaos Lord and spawn.
Undaunted the chaos forces continued to move forward. A large squad of berserkers exited from the LR and assaulted and eliminated my large unit of plague bearers, though they did take some casualties as a result, claiming another objective. Shooting started piling up wounds on the GUO and winged Demon Prince. A group of cultists moved up onto the overpass in order to harass The Horseman and his werewolves.
The Horseman responded by charging his unit into the cultists, challenging their leader then putting the survivors to flight!
One of the wolves thinks a cultist's head would make a good snack...
Underneath the bridge, The Monster and the remnants of Dracula's shot-up unit assault an 8-strong unit of berserkers trying to establish a beach-head. While they do take damage, they remove the ancient chaos warriors from the battle.
The CSM forces surge again, getting support from an arriving Helldrake. My winged demon prince was taken out by shooting from a critter in a building on the left of his deployment zone and just about everything else focused on the wolf pack in an attempt to get to The Horseman. While the strength of the pack was reduced considerably, The Horseman remained unharmed. More cultists backed up by a warpsmith surge onto the bridge.
In my last turn (3), a shot from my exalted flamer nearly wiped out every cultist on the bridge, leaving only the warpsmith and a single cultist to face the wrath of The Horseman. They charge in annnnnddd... decide to take a 10-minute break. Guess they were tired from all the skull-taking. The do no wounds. None, zero, zip, nada, nil, naught. Luckily they take no wounds in return so at least they don't lose combat.
The monster charges the land raider and though he does 3 AP2 penetrating hits... does not blow the thing up.
Had the above two assaults worked out a little more statistically... I would have earned enough points for the victory, unfortunately... I came up 2 points short. Dem's da breaks.
CSM victory - 6 to 4
Really fun game. Love this army it's just... very complicated to run. Big psychic phase, warp storms, etc. Need to work on speed playing techniques... just to get it down to where we can get a full game in each time.
Thanks gang, it was a very fun game. I think a lot of the delay could be attributed to the fact that we had most of our armies embroiled in assaults fro T1 onwards. Assaults really slow things down.
Played in a small local tournament today. Ended up winning the big prize for the day which was "most White Dwarf-like" (themed, no duplication of units, etc.). Won my first game big, got my butt handed to me by Solar_lion's GKs in game two & tied game 3. Combined the two gift cards that I got as a result of my winnings in the last two tournaments and turned them into this baby! (This is GW's pic, mine is still in the box.)
Spoiler:
While I was much too busy trying to get more than 3 turns in to take a lot of photos, I did take a few. Will post them tomorrow. Really fun time though. Want to thank Eiluj the Farseer for taking the time away from his business to organize and run the event and Misty Mountain Games in Madison for hosting.
I should also note that SL was at top table in the final round and won best painted! I also want to mention that he gave HIS gift card to another guy that we both really enjoyed playing but who didn't win anything. Nicely done my friend.
A few pics from yesterday's tournament. All of the scenarios were Christmas themed. Thanks to Eiluj the Farseer for putting all the thought together and taking the time to make some great scenarios!
Game 1 vs. IG. Won comfortably. Each turn you counted all the objectives you were holding at the end of your turn. Each was an opportunity to send a letter to Santa. Opponent had a really hard time dealing with demon prince (no surprise there). I objective sat (no surprise there either) so did decently point-wise by game's end.
Deployment:
The IG:
Sentinal damage featureing ModCubes!
Game 2 vs. Solar_lions Grey Knights. As you might imagine... facing an army custom designed by GW to beat my army... I was slaughtered.
Gun Emplacement:
Surrounded!
Desperate charge into the terminators.
Goblins escort one of Santa's elves (in essence, a relic).
Zombies protect another deep in the woods.
Game 3 vs. another demon army. This game was a dead tie all along. I eventually lost by 1 point! All of the little superhero characters you see were representing "rebellious Santa's elves" that needed to be put down. a d6 generated every turn from EVERY terrain piece on the table (9). Of course we usually rolled 5 or 6 elves and they were NOT the weedy 40k versions. These were zelot, super Santa variety elves! I actually lost the game because I'd killed one of my opponent's units, putting me on Santa's naughty list.
Midfield scrum. The red razorback in the background is "Santa's sleigh" which we were supposed to get as many units around as possible for the primary, killing elves was the secondary.
Big show-down between Belakor (sp?) and Skulltaker... but my opponent ruined it by giving invis to Belakor which pretty much invalidated the whole show-down aspect of it. :/ ...
My zombies taking on some unruly elves. They did well, taking out 3 large squads (5-6) by the time the game was over.
Awesome food provided once again by The Pickle Jar owned and operated by one of our fellow gamers (who was playing orks).
Thank for the invite. was a fun time and the games were all good ones. As a GK player, I got lucky by drawing the first two games against Demons (as well as a normal demon list as opposed to a heavy demon mech list)
Ended up facing the Stompa and had a hard time taking of 12 HP while fighting swarms of angry elves.
If it wasn't for Eiluj, our local 40k group would more than likely have died when the main 40k store in town closed down (due to retirement of owners). He found us a great new place to play and unified 3 disparate groups of gamers under one roof. He also revolutionized the game locally by making the use of 7th edition rules, FW units and super-heavies regular aspects of our community games... WHICH THEY SHOULD BE.
His contributions to the local scene can not be overestimated & he doesn't get anywhere near enough credit for the time, talent and dedication it's taken to pull all this off.
Gitsplitta wrote: If it wasn't for Eiluj, our local 40k group would more than likely have died when the main 40k store in town closed down (due to retirement of owners). He found us a great new place to play and unified 3 disparate groups of gamers under one roof. He also revolutionized the game locally by making the use of 7th edition rules, FW units and super-heavies regular aspects of our community games... WHICH THEY SHOULD BE.
His contributions to the local scene can not be overestimated & he doesn't get anywhere near enough credit for the time, talent and dedication it's taken to pull all this off.
Nope, he's a vet. So it costs him $$ to not be at his clinic for the day so we all can game.
At least the person who runs the shop usually get's a little scratch in return as people spend money on new toys after the tournament. Not that it makes up for all the extra hours he's got to keep the store open for us, pay employees, etc.
We're damn lucky. That's what it boils down too. I don't think most of our group realizes that.
His army is fun to play, however its a very busy army. You have to deal with all the pre-play rewards, gifts and then all the special rules for instability, the warp storm, boons and psychic's. It's a lot to do in the course of a game turn to turn. I struggle with the GK's, I'm pretty sure I'm not organized enough to run Demons. More power to him though.
I'm sure it was frustrating playing an army that is solely designed to counter yours, Still there was some normal Git's dice rolling Karma in play. I've never seen anyone peril during a game than him.
Yeah, over the course of the day the warp storm segment mainly killed my models... and any time I roll three dice or more it seems I peril. Kind of ridiculous.
My Scribor Cthulhu showed up today. It's an AMAZINGLY cool model. Unfortunately not quite large enough for what I'd hoped to do with him. Might be a good candidate for a new GUO & I'll move the dread back to being a dread (which is unfortunate for him as he's pretty much dead meat/wasted points that way).
He's this odd size that's just kind of wrong for everything 40k. Too small for a knight or FW huge demon... too large for most everything else. I suppose he could take the place of my current demon prince of Nurgle. On a perfectly flat base he might be more-or-less close to the right size... but even that is a stretch.
I'm not exactly sure what a "cyclopean tomb" is.... though I think I looked it up once.
Reaper makes a nice 9" tall Cthulhu that sells for less than half of what I paid for the Scribor model & I can get it locally. Wish I'd have known that earlier. Still, the smaller one is stunning. I'll get it painted and perhaps converted a tiny bit and see if there isn't some way I can work It in when "big daddy" Cthulhu isn't in the army as a SH.
How is it compared to the new Bloodhirster daemon model? If he is close then you could use him as a GUO, as they are bound to release a new model sooner or later. Either way I am sure it will look great.
Yorkright wrote: How is it compared to the new Bloodhirster daemon model? If he is close then you could use him as a GUO, as they are bound to release a new model sooner or later. Either way I am sure it will look great.
He's 14 cm high if I remember correctly. That makes him just a bit too large for demon princes & old BT and a lot smaller than knights or the new BT. I think it would make a good GUO but it's about 2x the height & 3 or 4x the mass of the current one and might not even fit on a 60mm base. It's much more massive looking than the contemptor which serves as my current GUO. I'll give you a size comparison shot tonight once I get home.
Oh man Gits, I didn't suggest the Reaper Bones Cthulhu because as an overall model I really don't like it =/. Sorry if I led you astray, but man I hope you stay away from that one! I could see stealing its head, but the body of it is just not to my liking.
Could you mount the Scibor one up on some rocks to increase the height a bit? I'm surprised it isn't big enough, from the measurement pics it seemed massive but maybe I don't have my scale right. Maybe snap a pic with the intended base to get the Dakka creative juices flowing?
Meh, it's not great... but it's not horrible either. I don't really like the pot-belly... but it's a much more useable size. I also don't think this paint job is particlarly flattering.
That's not mine Anpu, but I appreciate the compliment. That's the picture from the Reaper website.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Here's the size comparison. He's got some vestigal wings that'll stick up a bit on his back, but it's not enough to make him believable as some kind of knight variant.
Yeah, love the model. Considering it only has 4 odd parts it'll take a bit of work to get everything pinned and fitted. The joints aren't the cleanest so they'll all have to be GSed & textured. Really looking forward to painting it though.
My "pink horrors" came in! (the jack-o-lantern headed scarecrows). Might have to sneak these in quickly as they look fairly simple to paint and the PHs are useful. I'm going to guess these are a little on the small side when compared to GW's pink horrors... but if I put a layer of cork on the bases before I mount them they should be fine.
I was hoping to knock off a couple of easy figures... creature from the black lagoon & the original Lon Cheney Jr. werewolf. Unfortunately, Lon has gone walk-a-bout. So, I'll knock out the creature & if Lon is still on vacay I'll dive into those scarecrows/pink horrors.
Finished the Creature from the Black Lagoon (Herald of Khorne).
And here's the next project... evil scarecrows (pink horrors). Not the best castings (lots of flash and mold lines) but certainly workable. I added the stems on top of the heads. Should start (and perhaps finish) these tomorrow.
Or maybe THIS will be the next project... only time will tell.
Creature is great, pretty much how I figured it looking. The fins on the back look almost translucent, very nice effect and the slimy skin gives it that I just crawled out the lagoon look.
Creature looks fantastic! You really captured his slimy greenness.
Really like the scarecrows... You could have fooled me about cast issues. From here they look great! Cant wait to see them painted... Going to do them all alike or different sorts of patterns?
Thanks Ramos. They cleaned up fine, just took more work than most "modern" models would take.
I'm really pressed for time and as such, may make some things (like skin, heads and pants) all the same. I'll try to do the shirts differently though so there's at least some variation in the squad.
How many different scarecrows are there? Looking at the squad pic, they seem very same-y. Of course, metal models are like that, even with different sculpts sometimes you have things like the legs being duplicated.
Love the creature. It might just be my fuzzy memory of classic posters, but it seems like he should be carrying a damsel. Actually that might make for fun objective counters. Get some fainted/screaming/running ladies. Monster goals=capture, Hero's (your opponent) goal=rescue.
Bonus points if you can find them dressed in classic 50-60s outfits.
Nevelon wrote: How many different scarecrows are there? Looking at the squad pic, they seem very same-y. Of course, metal models are like that, even with different sculpts sometimes you have things like the legs being duplicated.
They are still rehearsing the dance number so its a WIP.
CftBL looks goo(d), seconded on the slimey-ness , looks very much the movie monster.
LOLSL.... you broke da rulez man! Funny that if you look at what you typed you just mistyped a normal word... but it set off the vulgarity filter! Silly Dakka...
Making good progress but slower than I'd hoped. No pics as right now they look like a group of 1970 disco dancers. That will hopefully change with the next round of painting.
Well, I color-coded them just for you as well. Don't want you to be confused about what faction they belong to just because they're the wrong color. So the combination of the bell bottoms, the color choices that have yet to be dirtied up and the poses of the figures... it's just too good an association. When I showed my progress to my wife, I told her to think about the song "Stayin' Alive" by the BeeGees, then after a few seconds showed her the figures. She burst out laughing! I should have them done in a night or two. All I need to finish up are the heads, weathering and the bases.
I have a major tournament coming up on the 30th, so I hope to have these, Cthulhu (GUO version) & the blood thirster done by then. That should fill in some gaps that have become obvious and/or tighten up the theme of the list.
Hey gang, I am making progress... albeit slow. Motivation has been flagging a bit, but I am doing a little bit every night so at least I've exercised a modicum of discipline. Finally getting the pumpkin heads started. Really makes a difference to the overall look of the figures. Don't think I'll have any painting time tonight, but I fully expect to finish them up tomorrow. Then it's on the Cthulhu, which should be a very fast airbrushing project. Hope to get that finished up my Monday.
I am keen to see the not pink horrors finished. From the raw shots the models looked incredibly full of character. That can only get better with paint.
Not sure how to fit it into the list, but how about doing a walking mirror. Just a mirror frame with legs to be a "Bloody Mary". I know there used to be a chaos figure (maybe the emperors children special character) that mimicked the opponents. Or you could do the frame as Dorian Grey.
First... you need to click on the following and let it run for about 30 seconds...
Then... once you're groovin' and feeling the vibe, click on the spoiler. Feel free to click the spoiler open and closed along with the beat. It helps the effect.
Spoiler:
Note that in order to help out my good friend and co-conspirator on this army RiTides, the scarecrows are color-coded for tzeench rather than being painted in more realistic farm-clothes (though I did try to make the bell-bottom pants look like faded blue jeans).
Theophony wrote: Not sure how to fit it into the list, but how about doing a walking mirror. Just a mirror frame with legs to be a "Bloody Mary". I know there used to be a chaos figure (maybe the emperor's children special character) that mimicked the opponents. Or you could do the frame as Dorian Grey.
I think using inanimate objects as monsters/figures is a bit of a stretch. However, a mirror of sorts as a summoning portal would be interesting (does chaos do that?).
inmygravenimage wrote:They are tremendous! Get down on the disco farm!
Thanks graven!
Dr H wrote:The creature that wot came fourth from that dark watery place looks very nice. and the party scarecrows look great. Does indeed look like denim.
Thanks Dr H, nice to know I hit the mark.
Yorkright wrote: I am reminded of my disco day, pretty sure I had a similar outfit back in the day. They look great Gitz another great addition!
Yes, I speak from experience as well. If I really get the bug I'll find some tiny gold chains and hang them around their necks!
I'm working my way though Mr. Cthulhu. Random, irregular airbrush projects can be really fun on occasion. Might even have a pic later tonight.
Those scarecrow sculpts really cleaned up! Nice work Gits, and I may look into picking some up now - I've a possibly pumpkin-headed project of my own brewing for Kings of War.
Cthulhu looks grand as well, very substantial feel to him, with a dash of Godzilla in that green
@user: Westwind Productions killer scarecrows. You can always check the OP. I list the figures and their manufacturer there.
Cthulhu is actually one of those figures that looks better on the tabletop then here in the picture. Those bright greens and reds that look a little OTT here are actually just perfect to give him some oomph on a table top in normal light & prevent him from just appearing as a dark mass.
Gitsplitta wrote: @user: Westwind Productions killer scarecrows. You can always check the OP. I list the figures and their manufacturer there.
Cthulhu is actually one of those figures that looks better on the tabletop then here in the picture. Those bright greens and reds that look a little OTT here are actually just perfect to give him some oomph on a table top in normal light & prevent him from just appearing as a dark mass.
bah... I always forget to start at the beginning awesome work btw, so much fun.
Halloween is probably my favorite holiday and every time it rolls around I always think about that Halloween themed army I never started. this is inspiring
Theophony wrote: Not sure how to fit it into the list, but how about doing a walking mirror. Just a mirror frame with legs to be a "Bloody Mary". I know there used to be a chaos figure (maybe the emperor's children special character) that mimicked the opponents. Or you could do the frame as Dorian Grey.
I think using inanimate objects as monsters/figures is a bit of a stretch. However, a mirror of sorts as a summoning portal would be interesting (does chaos do that?).
Hrm- That could be an idea- go with some of the common 'haunted house' accoutrements- hollow suits of armour, maybe do up some flying books and furniture as something- a second swarm to go with your bats? Have you done a Blob Monster yet?
Scarecrows looks so good. Excellent colour choice. The big guy is awesome and i bet he looks good on the table. One look at that and surely even a SM KNOWS fear.
Scarecrows are amazing, Gits. All the hard work you put into cleaning them really paid off. And that color scheme is exceptional. Works for Horrors, and looks really fitting to boot!
Cthulhu looks properly annoyed. Great colors on him!
Theophony wrote: Not sure how to fit it into the list, but how about doing a walking mirror. Just a mirror frame with legs to be a "Bloody Mary". I know there used to be a chaos figure (maybe the emperor's children special character) that mimicked the opponents. Or you could do the frame as Dorian Grey.
I think using inanimate objects as monsters/figures is a bit of a stretch. However, a mirror of sorts as a summoning portal would be interesting (does chaos do that?).
Hrm- That could be an idea- go with some of the common 'haunted house' accoutrements- hollow suits of armour, maybe do up some flying books and furniture as something- a second swarm to go with your bats? Have you done a Blob Monster yet?
How do you think the armor could be conveyed as "hollow" rather than just a dude in armor? I cant think of anything xD Though I LOVE the idea of flying books/etc as something. Poltergeists!! Thin wire to make them "fly", I think thatd look great! No earthly idea what theyd proxy as, though...
Well, you could either go with the GW 'Spirit-stuffing', of course. Or you could use full-plate, with hollowed out heads and stuff. You need the right kind of armour to really sell the look, anyways- the usual GW hodgepodge of periods and styles won't work- you'd need to find full gothic plate for it, and I think it would showcase hollowed helmets well- hollowing out elbow and knee joints as well...
Or else just paint dudes in armour the right way- find some guys with stiff poses, paint their skin and clothes and the non-metal stuff in glowy blue.
I must admit, I really enjoy when you guys just go nuts brainstorming ideas. They aren't all a good match to what I want to do with the army, but they're all interesting and many do end up inspiring me to come up with something new. thank you everyone for all the kind words... keeps me going for sure!
Next on the docket is the giant, modern bloodthirster. I'm trying to fill up my summoning side-board and the BT is a necessary component.
@Yorkright: When I finish the bloodthirster, I'll take a new army pic. it's large enough now that I can barely fit it into my light box.
Is the Blood Thirster model going to have different colors (sorry that I keep asking ). One idea would be to make it darker - not black, but just a really dark. Maybe like this:
Soooo.... that's green. Must be a Nurgle bloodthirster, right?
I'm open to suggestion at this point. I was planning on painting it in a fairly standard fashion.
I sat down with Army Builder last night and tried to sort out my list for the tournament on the 30th. I have two ways to go... either do an all-demon list, in which case most things start on the table with a relatively small summoning board. The second is to pair down the demons enough to add Dracula, a squad of raptors (gargoyles) to escort him & a small squad of cultists (to make the allied army legal). Dracula and the gargoyles are definitely a counter-punching unit. They could DS in, but I'd probably try and hide them in my rear until the fast, small but potent squad could be put to good use late-game. In this case the summoning side-board is quite large. Of course if I'm playing an army like Eldar that can seriously curtail my psychics... I'm pretty boned. However, given the design of the tournament, I don't think I'm likely to face eldar more than once at most.
I agree Archer, and indeed... I did fit them into the list.
So, I have another question for you guys. There's one category of summoning where I don't have anything to summon. This is fairly important as I could roll it and then have a power that would be totally useless.
The options are as follows:
3 Bloodcrushers
3 Screamers
3 Blight Drones
3 Fiends
I can't think of any good monster analogues for any of these. I'd love to include the blight drones from FW, but obviously they don't fit from a model perspective. I need good, fluffy matches... not kinda-sorta-nearly-almost-in-line-with-the-army-theme matches.
Ideas I've had... mostly for bloodcrushers:
Cerberus - can't find any good/correct scale minis.
Nightmare - Reaper makes a nice one but no idea of scale
Minotaur - still looking
Giant ants - from the classic drive-in movie "Them"
Giant bats for screamers - think Reaper makes some
Ideas gang? I'm really reaching. Is there something obvious I'm missing?
Gitsplitta wrote: I agree Archer, and indeed... I did fit them into the list.
The options are as follows:
3 Bloodcrushers
3 Screamers
3 Blight Drones
3 Fiends
FW blight drones- paint purple, add a horn to each "one eye, one horn flying purple people eater" campy monster song Bloodcrushers- 3 giant tomato from attack of the killer tomato
Screamers- spaceship from war of the worlds
Struggling on fiends at the moment, maybe by the morning I'll have something.
FW blight drones- paint purple, add a horn to each "one eye, one horn flying purple people eater" campy monster song Bloodcrushers- 3 giant tomato from attack of the killer tomato
Ah, now these two (especially) have real potential! For the latter it's about finding appropriately sized models. Best of all, I think my wife would approve of both suggestions.
@Archer: Nice model. What are you proposing the medusa as?
@edc: I am compelled to point out that there were no giant flies in "the fly". Just the man-sized hybrid and a fly-sized hybrid.
Theophony wrote:Bloodcrushers- 3 giant tomato from attack of the killer tomato
+1 to crushing tomatoes, that's brilliant
Just poking around for KT models for you, and totally forgot about the cartoon show and the toy line that that flick spawned!
Nevelon wrote:Flying monkeys? You have a green witch.
*golf clap* Screamers up in here - and they even match the Witch's Tizz factor Feel like I've seen a few models for those about, or could be bashed together with wings + monkeys.
Gitsplitta wrote:Cerberus - can't find any good/correct scale minis. Nightmare - Reaper makes a nice one but no idea of scale
If you end up wanting one Cerberus to lead your tomatoes around or something - aka Jugger Herald - Rackham used to make a great, grisly one:
As for Spooky Pony, there's Reaper's "Storm Steed": Though it hasn't made the transition to Bones yet. EDIT: You totally already know about this guy ... but I did see a unit of them used recently in KOW, repping 50mm "Fiends". There are also a few prepaints floating out there as well - various D&D games - if you feel like repainting.
Nevelon wrote:Flying monkeys? You have a green witch.
Flying monkeys as what though? Screamers?
inmygravenimage wrote:How about an all alien invasion B movie theme for these? Tripod walkers, saucers, etc?
Neat idea but it's a matter of scale. Tripod walkers should tower over the table (perhaps a choice for a knight?). That's not what I'm looking for here. Plus I'm not sure I want to expand the context of the army to include SciFi... not yet anyway.
Spacewolverine wrote:I like the minotaurs would be awesome. Giant bats definitely. For a bloodthirster maybe Freddy Cougar with wings?
Freddy Cougar? Is that the love-child of Freddy Krueger and John Cougar Mellenkamp? If you'll note my original question, I'm not looking for a bloodthirster. Classic demons ARE allowed in the list and indeed, I'm working on building a bloodthirster right now.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Ninja'd by Salvage on the Freddy Cougar thing...
I kind of like the Mars Attacks UFO = Screamers idea. Or if you only wanted 3 of them, I perhaps something like the brides of Dracula in hybrid form? Or possibly harpies?
And the flying monkeys would have made excellent count as furies.
I've found three, old metal GW fell bats on e-bay for a reasonable price. Not as cool as the flying-purple-people-eater idea... but cheap and fast. At least it gets me something to summon out of this category. FPPEs are still in the long-term plan.
As far as I can tell, there are no killer tomato models made that would be anywhere close to what I need.
I have sent an e-mail to Rackham asking for a measurement on that awesome Cerberus model to see if it's in the ball-park. I can afford three of them.
I think I like the idea of Medusae as fiends of slaanesh. Beautiful female form corrupted into hideous monster... very slaaneshi. Will think on this one. Needs the right figure obviously.
Not so hip on the flying sharks thing.
Once again... I already have furies. Don't need more so flying monkeys are out.
Got a very prompt answer back from Cadwallon Miniatures. The CERBERUS OF ACHERON is 46mm nose to heel which I don't believe will be massive enough to make a convincing jugger. :( Back to the drawing board...
Gitsplitta wrote: Got a very prompt answer back from Cadwallon Miniatures. The CERBERUS OF ACHERON is 46mm nose to heel which I don't believe will be massive enough to make a convincing jugger. :( Back to the drawing board...
The minotaur idea for juggers has some traction as well, and works with the RHH skeleton crew, IMO. Plus you've plenty of options for minos, including whether you favor feet or hooves or even fooves!
Would just need big enough cow people to fill out a jugger's base - 60mm, right? Many clock in at 40mm or 50mm.
Boss Salvage wrote: The minotaur idea for juggers has some traction as well, and works with the RHH skeleton crew, IMO. Plus you've plenty of options for minos, including whether you favor feet or hooves or even fooves!
Would just need big enough cow people to fill out a jugger's base - 60mm, right? Many clock in at 40mm or 50mm.
I like the GW minotaurs... the ebay ones are expensive or cheesy old ones. I'll see if I can pick up a box of the newer ones locally. Thanks for the links WyFox!
. In fact, it gives you a pretty nasty "hammer" to go with all of your tarpit units. Frankenstein's Monster just needs a ride and it's set! 
. I saw dread claws listed and drop pods, how about using giant purple works for your delivery vessels. They dig up through the ground instead of crashing down to the ground. If the purple work is not your thing how about the grabbers from the movie tremors 
