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Ha ha Plague Marines!!! Sorry they made you go through hell, but Ol' Father Nurgle must be celebrating that tonight...

Any hint about the new list? Sternguards still up?

Gitsplitta wrote:
@CL: I would be happy to do that, but I'm so far backed up in my trades that I can't in good conscience accept any more at this point. I'm such a slow painter that it just takes me forever to get anything done.

ok no worries, if you get it cleared send a pm my way.

I don't know about you Gits but I have long ago given up trying to pop landraiders, and my guard army has 6 lascannons and 3 battle cannons! Its just not worth the wasted shots, they are far better used on smaller transports and termie units. I tend to slam a chimera full of multimeltas into an LR's face and try and stall it. Lets face it, people are always going to put some killer unit/character in a LR and holding it in the middle of the table turns it from a threat and obsession for you into a source of frustration for them ....when it works of course....

Problem is the landraider was the only model on the table, everything else was in reserve or in the land raider. It rolled right up and deposited the super character in terminator arm and variable attacks (but usually 10 or so) which wiped out a squad a turn (two combats), then charged the next squad, wiped that out and so on.

I never got a chance to shoot at anything save the LR.

@C-Lion: will do!

It all about the right thing at the right time.

The army list:

Yeah, no problem... it's not like anyone is going to specialize vs. my little quarter of our team.

MoTF (stock)
Iron Clad (stock) - pod
5 Sternguard w/ combi-meltas & PF - pod
2 tac squads in LC+TLPlas razorbacks w/ power weapons
Rifleman dread (stock) - pod

MoTF, sternguard and Iron Clad pod in on turn 1, causing major problems in one small area of the board (potentially 6 melta shots at two targets, plus a TL plas pistol or flamer & 3 storm bolters). I could I suppose, give the srg a power sword & melta bombs and save 5 points but gain initiative, but the PF gives me and advantage if I'm facing a big critter of some sort or a vehicle. While in the rear, dread and razorbacks provide supporting fire until it's time to run for objectives. Last pod comes down empty.

Kind of a brutally simple 1-2 punch. I've been running my regular mantis warriors like this (without the razorbacks of course) and it works pretty darn well. Trick is to not sacrifice your podding troops foolishly... pick something that's isolated, or hit him on a flank where he's not well supported and you can bring all your strength (which is considerable) to bear on it. At the least it usually manages to derail their battle plan for several turns and in some cases you can execute a crippling blow on turn 1. Even if you can't get into a good "killing blow" position, it effectively allows you to delay your deployment until after his first move, which at least for me is a big advantage (deployment is my weakest stage of the game).

Neat thing for you guys of course is you get to see me struggle through 3 converted pods, two Mk-1 razorbacks and the iron clad, not to mention 10 green marines and all 5 sternguard.

Now if I had 150 more points I could cause some real chaos...


The other interesting thing about yesterday's game is that we played on what my opponent called an "Adepticon table", which is a standard table with 4 or 5 scraggly little terrain pieces on it, so there is very little cover and effectively nothing blocking LOS, which is quite different that what we usually play on at the FLGS or I play on at home.

is that army list going to be the entire stuff you will make for your mantis warriors, or should we expect more things as well.

One of the biggest complaints from the from last years tournament was the lack of terrain that blocked LOS. Unless you get on one of the themed boards which is then almost over crowded.

Oh more, this is just for this one tourney...

Gitsplitta wrote:
The other interesting thing about yesterday's game is that we played on what my opponent called an "Adepticon table", which is a standard table with 4 or 5 scraggly little terrain pieces on it, so there is very little cover and effectively nothing blocking LOS, which is quite different that what we usually play on at the FLGS or I play on at home.

Ugh! We play with more terrain as well, I can't decide if less terrain would help my guard to zapp stuff from range or a lack of cover would leave them too exposed. TBH I am the last person to be talking about tactics....I generally just thump my infantry platoon in the biggest piece of terrain I can find, flank them with my tanks and hope to get the first turn

I'm sure I have read about it before but why do you bring the last Pod down empty? I am eventually going to play with my Sabres of GK and I am interested in the reasoning.

Thats a pretty good list, interested to see how you fair!

@BH: Im pretty sure the empty pod is just so the clad and sterns can both come in on turn 1...

Why not use deathwind drop pods to cause some fairly cheap area denial?

Or use a few rhino's as mobile terrain.

I usually max out my SW with melta goodies, i used to like plasmas, but after consistently having them all blow up in the first 2 turns put me off. Its gack when you cause more casualties to your own troops than the opposition do.

Having seen your list i am now curious as to what havoc a 10 man wolfguard squad could wreak if drop pod delivered with combi-meltas ...... hmmm.

Vitruvian XVII wrote:@BH: Im pretty sure the empty pod is just so the clad and sterns can both come in on turn 1...

That's it exactly. When you take pods, half of them (rounding up) come down in turn 1, so you always take pods in odd numbers so you control the arrival of your troops the best. I don't want those autocannons wasted in a pod until god knows when, so I just put him on the table and then drop the pod whenever. It's just an extra kill point to give away so the longer it stays aloft the better.

@dantay

Why not use deathwind drop pods to cause some fairly cheap area denial?

No points... this is a 100 pt list and already cut to the bone.

Or use a few rhino's as mobile terrain.

I need the long-range firepower that the razorbacks provide, these are just rhinos with big guns!

I've had similar experiences with plasmas... no plasma-armed Mantis Warrior ever survives a battle, and usually dies on turn 1 or 2. Besides, my sternguard are made to take out heavy armor as they'll be podding into the midst of the opposition. My earlier version of this list had combi-plasmas, but they were useless as they never got to fire at anything save the land raider (which the couldn't hurt).

@Vitruvian: Thanks... I'll have a lot of practice with it long before the big tourney in Chicago, so we'll see how it works. I'll finish the ven dread and sternguard first, then probably practice like crazy with my air brush (assuming it actually arrives this time) before tackling the pods.

I'm currently working up my first combi-meltas made with the umbra pattern bolters. Should have something to show by tonight or tomorrow.

Gits

Cool, cant wait to see the combi-meltas.

I have to admit i like to use the redeemer to charge things and 2 pods of greyhunters. Its a bit beardy, but the redeemer is a great marine killer

Thanks, that clears that up.

I only have one pod so far so I guess it will come down when I want it...man its going to be weird to play with troops that do more than sit in a static gun line and hope not to melt under fire

Here is the first Sternguard with combi-melta. He is unique as he's a very old beakie melta gunner but in a great pose. So I took an umbra pattern bolter, cut it up and glued it above the melta, added my sniper barrel made out of copper rod & brass tubing. I moved the clip to the side & added a scope (also hand made on the other side).

Barrel and scope are very easy to make. Still some dressing up to and and cleaning up of rather lousy green stuffing... but I think it'll work as an easy first go.







I think this will look much better when painted, I just left it bare for the photos so you could see all the component parts. The only really tricky bit is that the old boters are just about the same width as the sniper barrel, so I invariably blow out a wall drilling the hole. Little green stuff fixes it up just fine. (It's really messy in the pic but I'll clean that up presently).


The rest will actually be individually constructed weapons. I'm mostly done with one, as soon as I finish it up I'll post the results.

Gitsplitta wrote:Oh more, this is just for this one tourney...

wonderful! what do you plan on making!

Well... modern (post crusade) Mantis Warriors for one... using the chapterhouse pads and blackhands heads and jump packs.

Also...

2 LS Storms
Swamp Scouts (just for fun)
HtH scouts for storms
Scout bikes using the old RT era SM jet bikes
modern MoTF
vanguard
assault squad(s)
Inquisitorial Rhino for GMS marines
wider variety of sternguard, perhaps 2 units ultimately
chapter master
other miscellaneous characters
command squad


And I'll have to re-paint 3 land speeders and 3 dreadnoughts.

OH, and two terminator squads.

That enough for you?


Alrighty then...

These next photos are of what I expect to be my standard combimelta for this list. It has 4 parts...

1. Umbra pattern bolter (original beakie, trimmed)
2. Chapterhouse combiweapon melta add-on.
3. Scope from a sniper rifle.
4. Home made barrel.

Enjoy!

thats a ton of stuff! those combimeltas are looking good!

Thanks Sage!

So here's the final shot for the evening. both guns with their new owners. Guy on the right will be my Sternguard sergeant. He's probably going to get a makeover before it's all over... new head, new legs, right arm needs to be repositioned, Imperial bling, etc.

Those guns are slick Gitsplitta, truly unique but still recognizable as imperial tech, very cool.

Love the extended barrels on the bolters. Excellent work.

Minor difference of opinion, in that I think it would look better with the bolter mag curved forwards, or with a short bolt pistol style mag.

Actually I thought about that wolfshadow... don't know why I put them facing backwards. I guess the clips would normally be curving forward wouldn't they?

Easy to fix... tomorrow...

Thanks gents!

I agree, was just about to mention spinning the magazine around, it will look a bit like the clip from a ww2 sten gun, it looks much better that way than for example top mounting the mag or it would look a bit otky.

Also will stop it looking like half a crossbow

Very nice conversionns though, i particularly like the side mounted scope, looks cool and unique, can imagine the shell casing shooting straight up into the air

That was my thought... just too lazy to try and make the shell ejection port.


I think I'll work on the basing tutorial today. When I'm done I'll post it in the appropriate section of the blog, but will make a not of it here so anyone interested can check it out.

The combi-melta's look pretty sweet. I think the first one looks better than the second though. Although I think you need to turn the clip around the other way on the bolter part of the Combi-Melta's IMHO.

I'm looking forwards to seeing all of the new items you will be painting (and the basing guide which will be very helpful for my planned 40k Slann army).

Hey GS, thanks for stoppin' in. The clips are already turned around, did that this morning. Unfortunately that first figure is a one-of-a-kind in my collection so I can't repeat it.

First time builds are always a little sketchy. Let me make the next combi-melta and see if my execution isn't a little better. Working with the umbra pattern bolters is very difficult as they are quite small when compared with the modern counterparts, really limits what you can do with them, however I may experiment with other variants. I look at combi-weapons as very off-the-cuff constructs... with rare exception, most are just two weapons slapped together with the marine equivalent of chewing gum and duct tape, probably custom ordered from the chapters tech marines... so each would have it's own unique look based on the skill and preferences if the tech who built it. So I am by no means confined to making each one look identical.

... especially since in the midst of rebellion, these Mantis Warriors would have been cut off from their normal lines of Imperial support & would have needed to "make due" with what they had on hand, scavenge or capture.


As to the tutorial: I have 10 photos uploaded already and I haven't really gotten past the first step. Crazy thing is it's a stupid simple process, but when you're trying to document everything well enough for a novice... the photos tend to multiply. Hope to have it done by day's end though.

Ahhhhh....

...I see.

I do like the second one as well, I just had a preference for the first. I'm sure that what ever variants you make, they will look cool.

Well the tutorial will be usefull for me no matter what, although I do understand what you mean about making/demonstrating tutorials. I volunteered to teach my younger brother's friends how to paint to a "table-top" standard and I was surprised at how many steps I take in painting a "simple" model.

I do like the profile of the CH Combimelta bit. Did You magnetize yours to swap it out with plasma? Does Chapterhouse let you order just the melta bits?

Edit: What diameter of Brass tubing are you using for the bolter barrel?

this is awesome!!! =)