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Quick update: Battleforce came, and I'm up to my eyebrows with sprues. I figure that this puts me at a 2k army WITHOUT WARGEAR.

The magnetizing of the lychguard is going alright. It's difficult to get the staff arms positioned correctly without gluing the shoulder joint. One in particular never looks right (I've seen this guy in pictures... even the 'Eavy Metal team can't get him to look right).

I'll have a lot of time over Easter to work... but I promise pictures before then (maybe tonight).

Great job. I love all the battle reports you have going. The necrons look a little heavy with sliver. Could just be the pictures. Either way i love the color scheme. Good job and keep it up.

PapaPiggy wrote:Great job. I love all the battle reports you have going. The necrons look a little heavy with sliver. Could just be the pictures. Either way i love the color scheme. Good job and keep it up.

Thanks for the feedback! A couple of questions for you, what do you like about how I do battle reports? What do you think I could do better?


WOW! I made it to page 2! I promise pictures of my recent work.

Just realized yesterday that I'd been forgetting to wash the mold release off some of my recent kits. That includes my Deathmarks, tesla immortals and some of the crypteks that I've painted. Oh well... the primer isn't seeming to have a problem with them. Promising myself to do better in that area to. Tonight may just be a washing kinda night.

Ok, here's an inventory of what I need to prime in the next few days.
5 Tesla Immortals - normal
5 Deathmark/Warrior conversions
7 Lychguard, 3 w/magnetized arms, 2 sword and board, 2 warscythes
1 objective

Hey, I suggest getting 2 pots of Badab Black (Citadel Wash) and using it. Heavily. Washes are like liquid talent. Try it and watch your models improve alot! But even without washes, for just starting, you already paint better then me XD

I haven't been doing washes yet, true. That may be the next technique that I tackle.

Here's the objective my daughter helped me with... those are authentic toddler teethmarks on the legs.


Since I don't think that Necrons are the 'rescue the fallen comrade' type of people... I'm thinking about adding something for him to be guarding. Ultimately, I want to have a few more themed objectives. A few that I've thought of so far include a large C'tan shard and a Necron reliquary. If it'll fit on a 40mm base, I'm thinking of turning the Celestial Hurricanum top piece from the new Empire kit into a piece of that celestial observatory from in the Codex.

Here's a shot of what I have ready to prime. I've been a busy guy in the last few days.


I will tell you this... I'm hating the shoulder plates on the new necron models. They never fit without leaving a seam. I have figured out that you can fill it in with liquid green stuff, and then buff them out. Problem is that the liquid greenstuff needs to cure for at least 1 hour.

Here we have a test for the Immortal color scheme. I wanted it to be very similar to the warriors scheme, but with a little more.




Not finished yet... I really need to figure out the orange for the Tesla. This already has 2 coats on it. It seems too thick, but it doesn't cover well at all. I've watered it down some... I may end up switching to a different brand of paints for this color.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Thanks

So a few more battle reports @750 points

All games are spearhead deployment for kill points.

Pre-game
I'm concerned about this game against chaos space marines. He has termies and their stinking 2+ armor. He has only 5 kill points to my 7... and to be honest, my small squads struggle against marine type shooting and assaulting (see the game against BA last month!).
He had a chaos lord in terminator armor, and a group of 5 terminators. In addition, he had a large group of chaos space marines and a group of 7 khorn berserkers riding in a rhino.

Deployment:
I won the roll-off, but I gave him first deployment. The center of the board is open except for some hedges. There are a variety of hills and large trees spread about. He deployed forward in his table quarter, the rhino in the middle of the short edge. The terminators with lord in the middle, and the csm on the long edge of his deployment zone. I deployed my scarabs forward, the Overlord w/CCBarge behind some cover on the short side of my deployment zone (Lower middle). The warriors on either side of the hill in the center of my deployment zone. Deathmarks are off the table, of course.
The goal is to get a few kill points early in the game, and then run away.
I roll to steal initiative, and I win it.

Necron 1:
I move the scarabs forward, losing a few inches going around the hedges. The CCBarge turbo-boosts across my deployment zone. I run the scarabs a lousy 2 inches, and firing from my crypteks take down one of the terminators (yippee!) In the assault, my scarabs end up about 1/4th of an inch short on assaulting the rhino. (Yikes!!!)

CSM 1: He disembarks the Berserkers. She starts a sweep maneuver with his CSM, moving them on top of a hill on the lower left of the table... moving towards my lines. He doesn't move his termies. In assault, the Berserkers rip into the scarabs... but the scarabs manage to hold out. I forget to have them take fearless wounds.

Necron 2: Deathmarks don't come in. I move my second unit of scarabs behind cover as a screening unit for the rest of my army. The CCBarge continues to move, ending up with the rhino between it and any of my opponents shooting. The warriors scuffle around to get a little better shooting for the future turns. The Crypteks miss on the termies. My scarabs hold out a little longer (once again, I forget to have them take fearless wounds... the would have fallen much faster had I remembered).

CSM 2: He moves his Termies a little more forward. He continues on with his sweep of the hill with his CSM's. The rhino turns to fire at the CCBarge, but I remind him that it is AV13 and he can't damage it with his bolters. Scarabs hang on.

Necron 3: Marking his CSM, the Deathmarks come in behind his ranks and scatter a very short way. I sweep attack the rhino and.... shake the crew. More ineffective cryptek shooting (actually some of the warriors are able to join in on the bouncing of shots off the termie armor), and his berzerkers eat more scarabs. The deathmarks and VODtek take out all but 5 of his CSMs.

CSM 3: He turns the Termies to shoot at the CCBarge. He moves the CSM off the hill to try and assault the CCBarge as well. He finishes off the scarabs.

Necron 4: The CCbarge sweep attacks the Termies and manages to put wound on his Chaos Lord. I move the deathmarks to make better use of the VODtek's flamer template. More ineffective cryptek shooting. I don't get the CCBarge far enough away from Termies! The VODtek finishes off the CSM's. 1 more termie goes down to shooting from afar.

CSM 4: Realizing the the rhino is his easiest kill point, he moves it away... The berzerkers line up to charge the deathmarks, and the termies move in to assault the CCbarge. I loose 1 deathmark to CSM shooting. He assaults the CCBarge with 2 termies w/powerfists, 1 with normal, and 1 the Lord with Lightning claws. He hits twice, but somehow doesn't do damage (later he claims that he wasn't doubling the strength due to the powerfists... I don't remember). The berzerkers run 2 inches (ah ha! it goes both ways!)

Necron 5: We are now tied on Killpoints and I'm able to save my Deathmarks, I deepstrike them into an open space on the upper right corner of the board. The CCBarge also hightailes it away from the Termies (with an ineffective sweep attack on the way out). I move the scarabs farther away from the termies in case he has the idea of assaulting them. I don't know how long it would take him to take out the scarabs, but I guessed that it would be quick enough to give him a kill point. One cryptek is able to shoot the rhino, and shake the crew. The deathmarks try shooting the rhino, but don't manage to do anything.

CSM 5: He doesn't have anything to shoot at... he doesn't have anything to assault... he runs the termies and berzerkers towards my warriors. Will the game end before he gets here???

THE GAME GOES ON

Necron 6: I see the rhino as my way to victory. I continue to move away from his infantry. Sweep attacks manage to keep the crew stunned. Deathmarks don't add anything, and the Cryptek misses.

CSM 6: He runs the termies and berzerkers...

AND THE GAME GOES ON

Necron 7: I sweep the rhino again... I hit 3 times... and roll 1's and 2's on the vehicle damage chart! Deathmarks don't add anything either. Shooting from the crypteks and the few warriors that can add reach don't add anything either.

CSM 7: He is short of assault range... game ends with a tie.



Reflections:
I forgot to use the Solar Pulse. He had such little shooting and the shooting that we did have was at rapid fire range. I don't know when I would have used it. I could have been more aggressive with the deathmarks at the end. Rather than retreating with them, I could have DS them and taken a number of berzerkers out (marking that unit with the Hunters from Hyperspace rule on the redeploy).
This game basically reinforces my insecurity about the size of my warrior squads. The next 250 really needs to beef up those squads to the point where they become effective.
Not having played in a month definitely caused me to struggle with the basics of the rules. My opponent wasn't much help in that area either and I ended up relying on M (see my first 2 battle reports) for a lot of rules clarification. In addition, things like not moving the CCBarge far enough away from the Termies is a pretty basic mistake.
As far as my opponent... he wasn't aggressive enough. Had he basically trusted the rest of his army to handle my offensive threats and used either the berzerkers or Termies to rundown a chew up my warrior squads there wouldn't have been much I could have done about it.

Second battle was against IG

His army was light on upgrades but long on bodies... a double squad blob w/Lord commander w/powerfist, a single squad, a squad of Ogryn and a squad of 3 walkers (Must be armored sentenals).

Once again, I win the roll off and choose to go second.
The board has a large, chaos temple in the middle of the board... rock pillars, hills, and bombed out vehicles make up the rest of the terrain. He deploys the larger squad behind the temple. The ogryn are hugging the edge of his deployment zone (upper middle). The smaller squad is hugging the other edge of his deployment zone. He just faced another Necron player (3 out of 9 armies there today were necron, 2 chaos, 3 IG, and a dark eldar), so he deployed his sentenals far back in his table quarter.

My goal is to sweep the right side... eat the small unit of IG and go on to his walkers. I have 7 kill points, he has 5. I deploy the scarabs and CCBarge lower middle (behind some pillars so his main group can't target them). The deathmarks go into deepstrike reserve, and the warriors are pretty forward near the temple midboard. I failed to seize initiative.

IG 1
He moves his large blob to the top of the temple. The ogryn run forward around the temple. His small group shoots up one group of warriors... I lose my cryptek and 3 warriors. His large squad shoots at the same unit and wipes it out. Cryptek doesn't make his RP.

Necron 1
I run the scarabs and can't quite get a sweep attack off on the small unit. My whole unit of warriors moves to take some rapid fire shots at the Ogryn, and he looses a base.

IG 2
Basically, he doesn't move his units. He runs the Ogryn to try and assault this turn. He shoots one qroup of scarabs and takes out 1 base. His large squad shoots my remaining warriors and knock over 3 of the warriors. One manages to get back up, and the Ogryn are out of assault range by a hair. His sentenal takes a pot shot at the ccbarge but doesn't do anything.

Necron 2
Deathmarks don't come in. I sweep attack the smaller squad on my way to the walkers (I take the head off of his officer on the way). My warriors strategically turn tail and run for some cover behind them. Since I won't be able to get the scarabs to the walkers, I want to make sure that that squad is off the Overlord's back... so I assault them with both units of scarabs. Here I remember my fearless wounds, but I only lose combat by 1 and make the save. Over the rest of the game, the scarabs slowly chew their way through this unit. Combat resolution eventually swings my way, but he never does fail his leadership test.

IG 3
Ogryn shoot and kill of my last warriors. His large squad moves toward my CCBarge. His walkers shoot the CCBarge, and manage to stun the crew (I fail the Living Metal save). His blob squad is out of assault range on the CCBarge.

Necron 3
I use the force of my Will to bring the deathmarks in... but fail utterly. The Overlord disembarks the CCBarge (because it can't move or shoot... grr) and gets into assault with his walkers. In assault, I immobilize one of the walkers... score! It's a squadron vehicle and so that one gets removed from the board. Another one gets stunned.

IG 4
His Ogryn are out of position... he spends the rest of the game running them to try and make use of them. He tries to shoot at my Overlord with the Sentenals... until I remind him that they are locked in combat with my Lord. My Lord explodes 1 of the Sentenals. The Large blob surround and explode the CCBarge due to their Krak grenades. (I think that he is playing this wrong... he gave every model grenades for 10/squad... I need to do more research on that.). He explodes the CCBarge and it takes a large chunk of his squad with it... including the normal commissar and putting a wound on the Lord commissar.

Necron 4
The Deathmarks come in! I mark the large blob, and scatter slightly. He didn't consolidate after exploding the CCBarge, and I only hit 3 with the Abyssal Staff, but knock down a few more... enough to cause a leadership test (he passes easily). In assault, I blow up the last walker!

IG 5
His not-so-large-anymore blob squad guns down the Deathmarks and none of them make their RP roll. I concede the game. I loose 5 kp to 1... yikes!

Lessons:
Once again, I didn't use the Solar Pulse... and I should have on his turn 1. It may not have done much, but it had a chance of saving my first squad.
My army just doesn't have the power to stand up to horde armies... I need a much higher volume of shooting and the best way of getting that is to beef up my troops.
I also didn't think that he would bring his horde over the terrain in the middle of the board.

Looking ahead:
I need to maintain or expand my current units. Just a review of what I have currently:
Overlord
Royal Court
2x Warrior squads
Deathmarks
2x Scarab swarms

I'm looking for advice on which way to take this... I'll cross post in the Army List forums.

Quick update on the hobby side of things:
The next time I sit down at my hobby table it will be to seal 10 tesla immortals, 6 warriors, 4 scarab bases and my objective marker.
Pictures forth coming!

Still stymied by the deathmarks. I have 10 in primer, and my flgs hasn't been able to get it in because it's back-ordered at the distributor.

Here's a copy of a review I did of my army list two months ago (wow! doesn't seem like that long!)

A Quick update:
I've played 4 games with my 500 point list

Overlord w/warscythe and CCBarge
2 Lanceteks
2 groups of 5 warriors
8 scarab swarms

I'm sitting at 2-1-1
The wins happening against BT and another necron list (with 3 min warrior squads), the tie against a foot guard (barely!), and the loss against another necron list (with 12 man warrior squads).

A quick unit review:
The overlord on CCbarge is a beast. I'm not even afraid of running him up to most troop choices. The only thing to fear is a power weapon of some type in assault. Rounds he spends chasing the CCBarge is rounds not firing at my troops.
The scarabs are great, as long as they don't go up against things that can ID them or units that have more bases then they do.
My lanceteks have been weak so far. They roll way too many 2's to hit and way too many 1's to wound. It's just not fair.
I am unhappy with the minimum squads of warriors. They just suck.
I also need a better way of dealing with a lot of weak enemies at range.

I also listed several options for what to do with the next 250 points, but those don't really matter because they weren't correct point wise. I added the Death and Despair squad (term I picked up at BoW) that included 5 deathmarks and a VODtek, added a few scarab swarms and split them into 2 groups. In several ways, I made a huge mistake in going that way. In other ways, I'm glad that I headed in that direction. It was a mistake, because my warrior units suffered as a result. They simply didn't have enough in the way of bodies to survive what my opponents could bring (particularly the blob IG). I couldn't be aggressive enough with them and that hampered me. Secondly, I added three subsets of rules to things that I needed to keep track of (reserves, deepstrike, and sniper weapons). There were benefits though too! Namely, that I had to learn about reserves, deepstrike, and sniper weapons, and therefor learned better what other armies can do!

Looking towards my 1k list (as I cross posted earlier) I'm going to be beefing up my warriors (and ignoring the shiny things coming at the start of May).
Dropping 1 lancetek for a Orblord is high on my list, as is beefing up the warrior and scarab squads. Alternately, I may go out and get some spyders... I'm hoping that they are less than $20 a pop, but who knows at this point.

Objective Done... For now. I really wanted to model the green flowing out of the hose and onto the ground around the warrior. Maybe that's something that I'll experiment with the GW water effects just announced.



I also have the Tesla Immortals finished.



Updated pic of the army. Nicely equipped at 1373 points. It includes:
Overlord on CCBarge
Lord
2 Crypteks
21 Warriors
10 Immortals
19 scarab bases
5 Destroyers 2w/heavy gauss cannon

I've started assembly on a few more warriors (7 more), 1 more base of scarabs, and a Ghost/Doomsday ark. I'll need the warriors for my 1k and 1250 lists, and the 1 base of scarabs is for symmetry's sake. On the Deathmarks front, I've decided to skip the cloaks for right now. I may go back and add them later. It's amazing what a difference picking out a different color on the head makes.

I have just 2 weeks left to work on my 750 point army before judging. That means I have a few touches on some crypteks and the deathmarks to finish up. On that day, we'll start with our 1k lists.

1k List
Overlord w/warscythe, MSS, and CCBarge 195
Overlord w/warscythe and Res orb 75
Pulse Tek 55
VOD tek 60
5 deathmarks 95
16 warriors 208
10 warriors 130
6 scarabs 90
6 scarabs 90
Total 998

It strengthens the core of my army, and gives me enough bodies. It's really what I should have done at 750, rather than the Death and Despair unit. For my 1250, I'm seriously thinking about upgrading the Court Lord to another Overlord, and doubling up on Royal courts... I may wait until after I throw in 6 wraiths too.

Don't have much to say at this point, but just wanted to let you know I'm definitely keeping an eye on this blog with interest..

JBrehaut wrote:Don't have much to say at this point, but just wanted to let you know I'm definitely keeping an eye on this blog with interest..

Thank you, JBrehaut.

If there is anything anyone would like to see more of, let me know. I'll try to oblige!

I've decided that I'll continue with my homebrew wraiths. I have 2 made already. (pictures soon) I've ordered about $8 worth of bits, and between that and what I already have in my bitz box, I'll be able to make a full squad of 6. I haven't figured out what I'll do for the whipcoils... maybe pick up some DE agonizers or try to greenstuff my own.

Greenstuff should be in either this week or next week.

Battle Report... 1k vs. Dark Eldar


Witches suck.
His list includes:
Haemonculus
2 units of Witches in a Raider, a homocluls
1 unit of warriors with a Raider
Ravager
4 Wracks in a Venom

Ok... I need to do a bit more research for/Dark Eldar.

The Mission
We used some army specific missions... ours ended up being a Necron mission.
3 Objectives, 1 in each of the center of the short table 1/3. Objectives can be claimed by any scoring unit at the end of that player's turn as long as they are uncontested.
Deployment is within 2" of the short table edge
All scoring units who are not fearless receive the stubborn USR.

The Board: The supply depot
Buildings occupy the lower left, upper left, and upper middle table 1/6's. The lower middle and upper right 1/6th have supply containers in them. They are impassible terrain. Along the center of the right table 1/3 is the Imperial Starport/Launch pad. One objective ended up on there, #2 ended up in the open at the center of the table, and #3 in the open between the two buildings on the far side.

Deployment:
I lost the roll off, and he had me deploy on the starport end of the table. My large group of warriors w/lord is up on the starport. The smaller group is down below. The scarabs are on either side of the containers in the upper right corner. The CCBarge is in the lower right, looking for some shelter.
The DE deploys along his back edge... troops in the upper left and elites and HS in the lower left. He's staying out of range of my shooting. He rolls a 6 for his combat drugs... that gives him a pain token to start with.

Necron 1:
I move and run the scarabs trying to get into cover of the building on the upper middle. CCbarge moves full out, behind the containers... trying to get more cover.

DE 1: A unit of witches move up and disembark. The warriors and the other witches move up so that they can shoot at the CCBarge. The Ravager and Venom move to the objective on his side of the board and the Wracks (scoring due to his HQ) are able to claim it. Shooting at the CCbarge is ineffective due to the 4+ cover save. My scarabs take 4 wounds do to shooting from the Ravager and Venom.

Turn 1 status: Necrons 1, DE 1

Necron 2
Deathmarks don't come in. The CCbarge makes a break for it, heading towards the Ravager and Venom while trying to say in cover. Since the disembarked witches effectively block my scarabs from getting to the Raiders and I need to tie up the witches before they can claim the middle objective I charge the witches.The Pulsetek tries to shoot at the Raider that still contains his HQ, but rolls a 1. Both units of scarabs get into contact with the witches... I roll a decent amount of wounds, but because they already have feel no pain, they don't take any wounds and I lose combat by 8.

DE 2
The HQ Raider moves to the upper right 1/3, so that he can harass my large unit. The other Raiders preposition to stay in cover or to get a better shot at my CCbarge. In shooting, he manages to blow up the CCbarge, but my Overlord avoids injury. He also takes a few warriors off my smaller unit. The melee between the witches and the scarabs continues as expected.

Turn 2 status: Necrons 1, DE 1

Necron 3
Death and Despair squad comes in. I place them in the upper right 1/3 near the Raider after taking dangerous terrain tests and losing one. (I thought that the raider had his warriors in it... it was only his HQ). I targeted the HQ. The smaller squad of warriors moved toward the center objective, but are just short of claiming it. The disembarked lord moves to within charge range of the ravager. Here I make a mistake. I shoot the Raider with the D&D squad... I should have used the large warriors first. Anyway, no effect from the sniper weapons, but the warriors wreck the raider. There is nothing in range of my small squad of warriors. In assault, the Overlord explodes the ravager. He manages to wipe out the already damaged squad of scarabs, and brings the other one down to 2 bases.

DE 3
He moves the venom back 6" after debating with himself about it. The witches that killed the scarabs move through cover to get towards the front of the building they were near. He sees that to win, he'll need to wipe out my unit that will be on the center objective next turn. His HQ moves into Flamer range of the D&D Squad. He flames the unit, and I lose 3 deathmarks but 1 comes back. His venom takes 1 wound off my Overlord. The warriors in the Raider shoots the Overlord and finishes him off. The vehicle fires at my warriors near the center objective, but are ineffective. The Overlord makes his RP roll. :-)

Turn 3 status: Necrons 2, DE 1

Necron 4
The overlord moves to assault the Venom. The warriors move to claim that center objective and the cryptek manages to do nothing with his missile launcher. I debate moving the large unit down to the ground so that they can help the other warriors, but I decided not to... he still has a Raider full of witches that could claim that objective too easily. The D&D fires, and manages to take 1 wound off his HQ (who has 1 left). The warriors up top fire and manage to kill it. In assault, the Overlord explodes the Venom, and the resulting blast kills the 4 Wracks inside!

DE 4
He is able to move his witches through cover to get them into assault range of my smaller warrior squad. His witch squad in a Raider moves up (but still out of range of my large warrior group. His warriors shoot and kill the Overlord (again), but this time he doesn't make his RP roll. He assaults my warriors and I only lose 2 warriors, but 1 gets back up.

Turn 4 Status: Necrons 2, DE 1

Necron 5
My warriors up on the platform look down at their brethren at the mercy of the witches, and do nothing. A few more warriors die, some get back up. No witches die. I stay due to getting Stubborn from the mission rules.

DE 5
He is able to get 3 of his other squad of witches into the combat... bringing me down to 1 warrior... who makes his moral check. One more warrior gets back up.

Turn 5 Status: Neecrons 2, DE 1
Roll to see if the game continues... and it ends. Narrow Necron Victory!

Lessons:
#1. Witches suck
#2. Put the larger, more resilient unit in harms way... rather than the smaller unit. It doesn't matter if the small unit has the long gun... DE aren't going to really let you use it in the first place.
#3. SW would have been worth the points

Overall, I like the changes that I made to this army. I do think that a unit of wraiths are the next thing needed.
To be continued:

I really like the colour of your crons. Its simple, like machines should be but it still has accent colours. Well done!

Thanks for the complements, Tobi... one of the reasons I started necrons was that they were simple to paint. And then they went and changed the models on me!
I'm still learning techniques like basecoating, drybrushing, and highlighting.
I really do need to get some more pictures up, because I have been busy!

So it's been a long time since I posted (2 weeks). I've been busy with end-of-the-school-year things. I have been working on getting models put together for an 1850 RTT at my FLGS in two weeks.
I've assembled 8 warriors, a CCBarge and Overlord, and finished assembly of my wraith conversions. Add that to the ark that is assembled, I have a lot of plastic to prime.

Here's my RTT list
2x Overlord, w/phaeron, scythe, SW, and orb (330 points)

Royal Court #1
Lord w/scyth, SW, MSS, and orb (105 points)
Harbinger of Destruction w/ Pulse (55)
Harbinger of Destruction (35)

Royal Court #2
Harbinger of Despair w/Veil (60)
Harbinger of Destruction w/ Pulse (55)
Harbinger of Destruction (35)

14x Warriors (182)
14x Warriors (182)
8x Immortals (tesla) (136)

5x Wraiths (3 whipcoils) (205)
4 Destroyers (2 HGC) (200)
6 Canoptek scarabs (90)

Annihilation Barge (tesla)
Annihilation Barge (tesla)

Overlords make the warriors relentless, and a pair of destructeks tag along. The lord and Veiltek make the Immortals a scoring deep threat.
Comments are welcome.

Had an RTT at the local game store today, and I had a rough time. Honesly, my brain is fried so I'll just give a bare summary instead of a turn-by-turn.(There were 4 necron players there!!! wow!)

Game #1 I played the eventual winner (CSM)... and lost badly. I played strategically, but we were playing for table quarters (the most victory points wins), and I was just too spread out. I played too defensively with one of my large warrior squads, and the I didn't support the wraiths like I should have. The immortal/lord/veiltek unit nearly took out a 3 man obliterator squad... nearly. But I just couldn't handle the amount of plasma shooting that he was sending my way.

Game #2 was much better. I played very well, It was against a Blood Angels player. We were playing kill points, and I got out to a quick lead; I exploded his dreadnought with scarabs and using my Immortals/Lord/Veiltek nearly destroy a scout squad (down to 1 guy... grr). Then half of his army came in, and I beat a hasty retreat. I nearly blocked a unit inside a wrecked rhino with my scarabs, but I thought better of it. We ended up tying on all the tie-breakers.

Game #3 was irritating. It was played against TFG... TFG is 14, plays foot-guard (with something like 36 lazcannons). He has amazingly loose definintion of true-line of sight, and he doesn't tell you what he is doing (or even what unit is doing it). I've played him before, and I've struggled with him before. Well... I played well... my Wraiths and Annibarges wrecked about half of his lazcannons... we were playing over 4 objectives and I had 2, he had 1, and I'd blown another of his units off of the last 1. Stupid me... I thought that units within 6" contest. Had I moved my destroyer slightly differently, I would have won. Instead... I lost on the tie-breakers.

Overall lessons:
I didn't learn much from my game against the good player... which makes me sad. Game #2 was the most enjoyable
The destroyers were much less useful that I'd hoped... I plan on replacing them with another unit of wraiths when I can get them built.
The wraiths got better as I figured out how to use them... they are great in ambush.
Scarabs make great distractions... I need to fill them out more and have a unit of Spyders to support them.
I made TONS of 4+ Reanimation Protocal saves today... so the Res Orbs were definitely worth it!

Not quite sure what a Rogue-Trader tournament is, but sounds like bad luck on your part.
I recently played a game against a Blood Angels player. We didn't finish the game, but he was pretty much hammering me with a Storm Raven and assault troops. What was your experience like?

Here's as much as I've figured out... Rouge Trader Tournament (RTT) is a 1 day event... Grand Tournament (GT) is a 2-3 day event.

My round #2 guy didn't have assault squads, per se... he had a small Death Company with Lemartes, and he had a squad of Sanguinary Guard with Sanguinor. In either case, I got to shoot them up pretty good before they got into assault range. The Death Company was down to Lemartes and 2 of the 4, when they got the assault off and ran my warriors down for their kill point.
I got the better of the Sanguinary Guard. I tesla cannoned a bunch of them down with my Immortals before deep striking out of assault range for the next turn. He spent another turn chasing them before getting into assault. I was able to move my Lord into Base-to-base with Sanguinor... and due to Mindshackle Scarabs, he force weaponed the rest of the squad. Impossibly, the lord's and Immortal's attacks got through his 2+ save and I claimed a few more kill points.
He had two more units in rhinos... they didn't play too much of a roll (other than one nearly getting blocked into their destroyed rhino).
His Dreadnought did take out one of my Annihilation Barges :-( but my scarabs got the charge off and destroyed it in 2 rounds of combat.
After playing too aggressively with my Wraiths in round 1, I played too conservatively with them in round #2. They were at full strength, and probably close enough (through terrain) to take out the weakened death company, but I was fixated on getting them into combat with the Sanguinary guard. I think it would have been a different game, had I been able to wipe out the scouts and avoided loosing the warrior squad in that combat. I would have won by the required 3 kill points.

He didn't have a Storm Raven. I don't have any advice on dealing with one. I guess I can say this: we have a lot of guns that can glance AV12 if you can get past the 4+ save for going more than 12", and if he is going more than 12" an immobilized result is very bad for him

Here (finally) are some WIP pictures of my Wraith Conversions. Why not buy the awesome GW models?!?

I'm still hesitant to use Finecast.

$47.00 for THREE

Conversions are looked upon with favor on the hobby rubrics in my area

And finally

$47.00 for THREE!!!

I've used the Praetorian back on the top, the Deathmark back on the bottom. The arms are the curved Praetorian spines and a cut Voidblade, and the tail is two of the Ghost Ark warriors pieces and the tail from the Praetorians. For the first 5, I spent $8.00 beyond what was in my bitz box. The total for the next 5 will be less than $14 from bitz vendors. I do plan on doing some green stuff whipcoils (and some extra surprises ) I did have to extend the rod after the GW versions came out... well, that just leaves a little space for hinted at surprises.

Here are my first 5.

Hey Anpu!

I have been reading your progress for awhile now. I have a very similar life with the little one. I am fond of the very detailed battle reports. I havent played a game yet as Im hoping to field all painted. I enjoy the painting aspect a lot. Im a little leary to go into the local store becuase its very small amd cramped and has a high volume of win at all costs kinda guys. Im living vicariously through your games to learn what I can.

For some painting tips I can only offer limited knowlege. Ive only been painting for about a year so I have ALOT to learn still. One area I think I can help in is the grainy looking texture on your minis. Since your planning on doing alot of necron I would recommend getting the cheap GW spray gun. Its a simplified airbrush. Your can base the models in black quickly. Then using boltgun metal or equivlent blast literally everthing with it. Super smoothe even coat of metal. Then take and unwatered down shade like nulian oil and just hit all the models with it. Very quick and dont worry about being sloppy. At that point you could consider being done bit if you want some quick highlighting do a very light drybrush of your base metal color over the raised areas. Poof...quick, easy, and they look spiffy. I would do the guns in black with either a controled drybrush if Shadow Gray or Codex gray as a highlite.


Hope that helped. If I get a spare warrior I will do a tutorial for you if you want. Will be my first one :-!

@FatBoy
I'm very interested in using Airbrushes, but that's a bit down the road... I want to finish my Necrons first.

I think that the graininess is a combination of the paint I'm using and the photography setup I have. That's one of the reasons I'm so interested in your Light Box. I'm also planning on upgrading the paint I use for my next army/project.

I'm very impressed by the quality of your work, considering that we've been painting for about the same amount of time.

As for a place to play, I do recommend the local shop. If you can encourage them to start a paint and play league (like the one I joined). With the change over to 6th, there will be a lot of people trying to figure out the rules.

Thank you for the compliments about my painting.

The classes I took at my local store when I was interested in becomming a better painter were very basic. Fortunatly for me the voulenteer teaching the lessons thought I had some potential (or so he said) and started teaching me some more advanced techniques. Feathering, wet blending, etc etc.

The only things I wish he would have taught me before he got stationed somewhere else (was canadian military) was weathing, and OSL. I found a tutorial on OSL and did a little to the eye areas of my necron but am leary about doing it on the other glowie bits. I think I will practice it on some marines I have from the Black Reach box.

As for the paint and play I'd love to find something like that. My time is so limited though with a 10mo old and being on call most the time. (paramedic)

I think I will have to finish painting everything before I can focus on escaping the clutches of my wife to go play a game or too. Hopefully soon she will be playing too. Im teaching her how to paint he Orks from the black reach box. Shes showing promise

Thanks again Anpu and have a good one!

Well, actually, the wraiths are in plastic form, but I do understand your frustration at having 3 for $47.00. Anyways, very nice conversions! I bet they costed a lot less than the actual ones. Been reading your blog for a bit without comment (and I apologize). How were the details on your game with the Blood Angel Player? I am curious, as I played against one myself, and got the short end of the stick during the match.

@Temujin - Yeah, the wraiths are plastic. my bad. As for total cost for 5 of my conversions, here's how I've broken it down:
$33 for a Lychguard/Praetorian Box
$2 for a pack of the ghost ark spine bitz
$2 for extra Praetorian spine bits
Green Stuff

That's about $40 for 5 Lychguard and 5 Wraiths... much better for my self-esteem and pocket book. Besides, it also keeps me in the hobby longer as well.

Here's the basics of my fight against the Blood Angels player. To be honest, I don't remember much more for details anymore.

My round #2 guy didn't have assault squads, per se... he had a small Death Company with Lemartes, and he had a squad of Sanguinary Guard with Sanguinor. In either case, I got to shoot them up pretty good before they got into assault range. The Death Company was down to Lemartes and 2 of the 4, when they got the assault off and ran my warriors down for their kill point.
I got the better of the Sanguinary Guard. I tesla cannoned a bunch of them down with my Immortals before deep striking out of assault range for the next turn. He spent another turn chasing them before getting into assault. I was able to move my Lord into Base-to-base with Sanguinor... and due to Mindshackle Scarabs, he force weaponed the rest of the squad. Impossibly, the lord's and Immortal's attacks got through his 2+ save and I claimed a few more kill points.
He had two more units in rhinos... they didn't play too much of a roll (other than one nearly getting blocked into their destroyed rhino).
His Dreadnought did take out one of my Annihilation Barges :-( but my scarabs got the charge off and destroyed it in 2 rounds of combat.
After playing too aggressively with my Wraiths in round 1, I played too conservatively with them in round #2. They were at full strength, and probably close enough (through terrain) to take out the weakened death company, but I was fixated on getting them into combat with the Sanguinary guard. I think it would have been a different game, had I been able to wipe out the scouts and avoided loosing the warrior squad in that combat. I would have won by the required 3 kill points.

Overall, I like the mission formats. They create close games.

Alright...
Pre-ordered the new rulebook and another box of Triarch Praetorians/Lychguard for my Wraith Conversions, and used up all my hobby money for July.
Once I get my Praetorian box, I think I'll hold off on making the actual Praetorians until after I get my next box of Immortals. I want to see if you can combine the parts to make both sets of Immortals.

Interesting idea! I think there will be a few parts missing if you go that route, but you could easily get them via eBay or the Bitz Barn.
Thanks for sharing about your battle with BA, though.