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If you can wait 5 minutes I will make you some.

Just a quicky, is there no way you can work some of thses into your army, they look like they would fit perfectly...

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/270/377728.page

That's a very generous offer Cam, but I already have two brilliant pieces of yours sitting around, waiting to be painted. I couldn't possibly ask you to do another without addressing the earlier work first.

I did go out last night and do some more investigation on a number of models and came up goose-eggs. Finding the right type of creatures in the right scale has proven to be a nearly impossible task. So, I gave up. Went to Wal-Mart and picked up a bag of styrene balls and some goo that's supposed to fill in and smooth out the foam. So I'll be making my own killer tomatoes. And I was right, my wife does approve of the idea.



On the fun side... Played a game yesterday, first time in a long time. Really fun. Didn't get nearly enough turns done in spite of trying to hold myself to a strict 15-minute time limit (that went down the tubes the turn I had 4 assaults). Took a bunch of rubbish pics. No idea why my phone camera has so many issues... it's supposed to be good but in my hands it's total crap. Pics do tell the story though so I'll post them here... kind of a mini bat-rep.

Since I had the day off, I arrived early and took my time setting up the table. Our gaming club invested in some new laser-cut terrain & since I knew my opponent was bringing Eldar, I thought I'd treat him by making an Eldar themed battlefield. He brought a footdar army with an aspect host and healthy amount of guardians. I brought my chaos army with a few important tweaks which I will mention as they become relevant. My two main goals (after having fun) were to play as quickly and efficiently as humanly possible, and see how my list tweaks worked.



One the pristine world if Shinarra all was peaceful and quiet. The eldar world held all the sylvan beauty you might expect, with graceful shrines, altars and monuments gracing an open glade. It is not that this world had never seen strife, evidence of past conflicts was still visible in the forms of old ruined buildings and barricades. Yet for many decades things had been calm, and gentle nature had once again settled over the valley. There was no indication that this pristine place was about to become a battleground between the eldar and the most vile forces imaginable.

Eldar vs. Chaos Demons w/CMS allies
1850 pts
Maelstrom - tactical escalation (you draw cards equal to the game turn)
Hammer-and-Anvil deployment

Here's the table after deployment.

Chaos: My forces are on the right. Some tactical considerations... My witch is my main summoner and one thing she can do is summon in other heralds (which in-turn can be summoners) but she needs something to sacrifice to do that. I parked a small squad of otherwise useless cultists along with the witch so she'd have plenty of summoning fodder. The GUO, while intimidating is stupidly slow. So I parked him as far forward in the center as possible in order to give him a functional threat bubble. I also gave him one spell (the primaris) out of the summoning group (malific demonology) so that if there just wasn't anything for him to do, he could summon a unit in a more forward position (as opposed to my witch who's always in the back). This proved to be a critically important choice almost immediately as the game went on. Tom had a several powerful units that would be deep striking or outflanking, so I wanted a strong reserve (not kept in reserve, just units that stayed home). The flamers w/ witch and Dracula's unit (raptors) fit the bill nicely as they each could project power 18-24". The rest of the army was to move forward quickly and hope the summoned units could help fill the gap. I opted to give Dracula some much better wargear (a demon axe) and raptors as escorts as I just think they're so much more flexible as a unit, especially with the addition of 2 melta guns and a lightning claw champion.
Eldar: The 3 large blobs of infantry stretching across the table from the stone tower down are guardian squads. They're back by thread-spinner artillery and 3 vypers. His farseer and warlock council are by the tower in the lower left. The white blob infiltrated forward on the bottom are actually a nasty group of striking scorpions. Everything else (warp spiders, swooping hawks & war walkers) are in reserve.

Here's Cthulhu's first official deployment behind an Eldar monument.


Turn 1: Pretty uneventful. Eldar go first and kill two of their own guys with scattering EML & artillery fire. Harmless but very funny. Of course I have no guns so I just blaze forward. Wolves and demon prince scream down the lightly defended right flank, zombies move into the large wood to grab an objective and Cthulhu plods forward 6". At this point he realizes that he's facing 3 different units on his own and better get some help. He summons in a unit of bloodletters which he places between himself and two of the eldar units (see pic below). Yay me, giving him one summoning power was useful!

Turn 2: The Eldar get busy. All of their reserves come in at basically the same spot, my left deployment zone. A group of 3 war walkers outflank and try to shoot some nurglings off an objective. Good luck with that. A large group of swooping hawks drop in, their pie-plated does nothing. They also try to shoot up the flamers & luckily only kill one. In the front... the eldar are peeing their pants a bit at the sight of 10 bloodletters and what they might do in assault. A large unit of Guardians at center table opens up on them, wiping them out. HOWEVER... if those bloodletters weren't there, that same unit would have opened up on my wolves & skulltaker, greatly reducing their combat effectiveness at the least. So again... 'speriment #1 worked out well for me.

But.... then this happened...

Yep. Warp Spiders handed Cthulhu his arse in one shooting phase. Such is life.

My half of Turn 2, it was time for a little payback and my earlier strategic planning really paid off. In spite of just losing my 300 point model and war lord... if things went well I *should* be able to shift everything around & put out the fires in my back-field.

Let's start on the right side. My demon prince came out of flight and landed on the big stone tower that you see in the upper-left of the original table photo. There was just enough room to drop him in without getting him an inch away from the eldar ranger unit up there. So my DP is now safely ensconced in the eldar deployment zone in a tower near an objective with a 2+ cover save. He's probably good to go. The wolves and skulltaker make a 90-degree turn to the left and smash into the large unit of guardians that just took down the bloodletters. They wipe them out and are able to consolidate onto the cover of the central platform and claim the objective there.


On my front left, the large group of zombies (plague bearers) shambles out of the woods and smashes into the guardians over there, killing 7 and putting them to flight.


On my rear left, Dracula and his raptors move out of their cover and slaughter the swooping hawks in assault (after meltaing a couple first). Demon axe yields 5 extra attacks (so experiment #2 & #3 seemed to work). Note my raptors aren't built yet, so I borrowed some assault marines from the store's army to represent them.


Finally in my right rear, the flamers & herald jumped towards center board where the warp spiders had gone and killed all but a few. So the idea of keeping two small but potent units in reserve worked out nicely.

We played out turn 3, but nothing really significant happened for either of us. With the eldar alpha-strike now under control and the two big guardian units either destroyed or put-to-flight... it looked like a chaos victory would be inevitable (and we ran out of time as I had to go collect the kids from school). Some lucky rolls on multi-point maelstrom cards had me solidly in the lead points-wise in spite of giving up first blood and slay-the-warlord.

It was a really fun game. Tom is just a great guy & has come a long way in learning how to play his army quickly. He certainly has some killer units. There was a big unit of striking scorpions on my left flank that I was really worried about, but they were never quite able to get into the action (it just kept flowing around them just out of reach). I was delighted that my list modifications and tactics seemed pretty sound, and I really did do everything I could to play quickly and efficiently.

Thanks for reading guys. There will be progress on the big Demon today!

Thanks for the bat rep, Cthulhu and the army in general just look awesome on the table

What is the plan for the Raptors / are they up after the big demon? To be honest I can't remember the models you were using for them, the stock Raptors or something else?

Looks like a fun game.

While getting play sped up is a great goal, recognize that not all game turns are created equal. The mid game, when things are getting mixed up and ugly is going to take significantly longer then the early maneuvering and the late mop up. So don’t feel bad if they run a little long.

That is brilliantly silly. Loads of fun.

Did you make the pumpkins or get them from somewhere?

@RiTides: The Raptors are Raptors that will be painted as stone to resemble (hopefully) gargoyles. They need to be done by next weekend so you'll see them soon.

@Nev: Good point, and very applicable to our game yesterday.

@Elblondino: Thank you! They're from Secret Weapon Miniatures.

Nice one cheers for that will take a look. Keep up the good work :-)

Another great read, nice rep, glad the army is working well!

I'm a bit late (man, your topics grow sooooo fast o_O) but I wanted to say that I really like the swamp thing you posted 3 or 4 pages ago.

I realized that the raptors needed to be my top priority as they are required before next Saturday's tournament. Built 4 of 5 today. Missing the wings on the last one (they're on their way) but I might go ahead and paint the batch anyway as I think I could easily add the wings later on.

Pics tomorrow.

Lovely battle rep, impressive to be able to take out shooty Eldar with demons.

Thanks for the bat rep Gitz, looks like your play style is getting quicker. I think the more you play the army the less time it will take between turns. Can't wait to see the raptors, are you still painting them up as granite gargoyles?

Mymearan wrote:Lovely battle rep, impressive to be able to take out shooty Eldar with demons.

Thanks Mymearan, I'm sure some of that is due to the Eldar being a new army for Tom. He asked me for some advice on his play and I had a couple of minor suggestions, but by-and-large I thought he did well. He didn't have a lot of long-range shooting because of the figures he owns. I'm sure a lot of my success was due to the fact that he couldn't gun me down from across the table as a more traditional army would have been able to do. I'm certain our next meeting will be much tougher.

Yorkright wrote: Thanks for the bat rep Gitz, looks like your play style is getting quicker. I think the more you play the army the less time it will take between turns. Can't wait to see the raptors, are you still painting them up as granite gargoyles?

Yes, they're built and primed and I'm just about to do some basic airbrushing. Hope to have something to show you tonight.

Good to see a daemon victory Git's the chaos gods will be pleased.

Looking forward to seeing the Raptors.

Thanks for batrep. Very enjoyable.

Was telling my wife of your glorious army. She had a couple very good suggestions i have to pass on. Apologies if anyone already came up with these.

Invisible men. Just base with foot prints.

And she asks how can you possibly not have Igor?

@Cam: Those are both excellent ideas that MY wife would approve of. For the invisible man/men... it's a matter of what to call them in the army. For igor, it's a matter of the right figure in the right scale (which has turned out to be a MAJOR challenge all the way through this army) and finding an excuse to field him (i.e. what would he be in my dex?).


Progress on the gargoyles/raptors. Just the basic gradient laid down here... haven't done anything to make them look like stone yet. I have both a "come at me bro" pose and a "don't taze me bro" pose! Really hoping the last set of wings arrives tomorrow.



Didn't get more work done as Thing 2 wanted to play 40k. Had a fun game against his nids.
Table setup:


First deployment of the scarecrows/pink horrors. Only problem was I had NO idea what the heck they do! Anyone have any advice?


Even Cthulhu got into the act! First, by helping to take out a trygon prime... then by getting stuck in with a bunch of raveners.


He was doing about 4 wounds a round... but with the fearless raveners, he would be tarpitted for at least two complete turns.


In the end Thing 2 emerged victorious... 10 pts to 9 pts!

Looks like it was a fun game. 'Nids are painted gorgeously, and close games are always the most enjoyable for both players.

Thanks KK. I agree, close games are the most fun.

The sharp-eyed will notice that this is my first attempt at using the resin rings produced by Secret Weapon Miniatures (?) to expand 25mm bases to the new 32mm standard. They work, but they take a bit of effort to fit properly as the inner gap is often too large and you end up with a significant gap between the original base and the ring. Don't think I'll be in a hurry to do this for all my marines anytime soon.

Gargoyles are looking good.

Looks like you had a great game, thanks for sharing.

EDC

Pink horrors can be used for summoning, camping and I believe have a ranged attack. The raptors are looking good, and 2 batreps in a row. You are spoiling us. ;-D

I've had my morning coffee today Git Battle reports were a lot of fun to read. The horrors look amazing on the table. Gargoyles is a great way to represent the Warp Talons. One of my favorite midevil mythological creatures are Gargoyles. They'll be awesome when they are completed!

This is what I've figured out about pink horrors (having looked at the dex & asking a question of YMDC). In effect, they represent collectively a L1 psycher with access to the malefic and tzeench lists of spells & come knowing the tzeench primaris. They have no ranged attack other than what their psychics give them. And yeah... they look cool.

Hardly a batrep... just a couple of glamor shots really, but glad you enjoyed it. Some other highlights from the game that didn't get a photo... The headless horseman decapitated a Tervigon (which, you know... is pretty darn cool) & a group of plague bearers actually killed a Trygon Prime outright (which is also pretty darn cool). Thing 2 rolled badly on his saving throws and did not appreciate losing both pristine TPs in a single turn of assault. Having that plague banner give 1 phase of 2+ poison can be a really big boost, especially on a charge where you're getting all those extra attacks.

@Spacewolverine: Unfortunately I'm actually running the as raptors rather than warp talons. I love the figures and the warp talon rules are very cool. Problem is that the warp talons are classified as "demons", which means my chaos champion could not join the unit... defeating the whole purpose of having them in the first place.


I have a game tonight at one of the local clubs... we'll see how that goes. Here's hoping for the best!

What happened to partially wound all those bugs around cthulu? (I assume that’s what the dice are for) Normally you designate one mini as the closest one and hand out wounds until he is dead. There are a few ways to evenly distribute wounds, mostly over various turns/phases. Don’t want you getting cheated!

Looks like a fun game was had!

That's what the squad looked like after being shot once followed by two different assault phases... so shooting wounded one guy. Then the assault would kill 1 and leave another with 1 wound. The next assault phase went exactly the same way, killing 1 leaving another wounded. So at the time the pic was taken, there were two dead raveners and 3 gimpy ones (all taking a single wound from a different turn or phase).

What we couldn't remember was if you have wounded models in assault, and they take more wounds later (say in the next turn), do the wounded models have to take the new wounds first, or can you put them on unwounded models as long as they are in base-to-base?

Looking swish Gits!

Having played against Tzeentch and as Tzeentch, I find that horrors only really did three things:
1. Added dice to my psychic pool
2. Captured rear objectives
3. Died horribly as soon as someone looked at them

For added interest, if you boost them up by one model from the base amount you get an extra dice to the psychic pool, very handy when you have 3 squads of them, six dice really do help.

Don't Pink Horrors split into 2 Blue Horrors when killed?

In the fluff, yes. From a game perspective this is represented by a stack of tokens for each pink horror killed, at the end of the fight phase, your opponent takes a S2, AP- hit for each token (i.e. nothing significant).

Granite finish completed. At first glance they just look grey, but actually there's blue, pink and brown in there as well as several shades of grey.



And this is step 3, adding in some cracks (thanks for the suggestion Nerdy!). Only have two out of five done as this process takes a while, but once this step is finished it gets much easier.

I really love these guys, the subtle variations in colour are so the more believable.