Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

 Gitsplitta wrote:
Solar_lion & I had two fantastic games today. Marine vs. marine... mano y mano. Of course his army was stunning on the table. Mine was considerably less so as I was using partially painted centurions and a very old, metal dreadnought that's not really up to standard. We had a lot of fun though. Lots of grousing and whining about dice and luck. His army had an insane amount of fire-power and mobility. Mine not-so-much, but still decent enough to give it a go. We played maelstrom missions which I'm convinced are vastly superior to the normal ones when it comes to the fun quotient. We tied game one 11 to 11, and I eked out a victory in game two 16 to 13. Mainly owing to tragically bad dice luck for SL and above average dice luck for me. My stand outs-were the lone Thunderfire Cannon and a 7 man assault squad. Yep, just regular old assault marines. So glad they're useful again. Also my land raider which might not have killed more than a razorback or two, but absorbed dozens (not exaggerating) of las-cannon and melta shots over the two games without ever being destroyed. OH, and I used the Mantis Warrior librarian and chapter tactics. Very interesting.

Took a ton of photos. Will post them when I can. Thanks SL for making the long drive down here, I had a blast!!

You did well for not playing in a long while. It was two great games. I 'll need a rematch for sure. Also many thanks for the family meals.

Ah, you know my sweetie.... no guest goes unfed (kind of a bonus for gaming at my house).

I should also mention that in the second game the centurions were also really great (no surprise). Game 1, not so much as the terrain & cagey playing by SL really limited their utility.

Can a (converted) thunderfire cannon/rapier be part of the base for my Techmarine?

@steinerp: Final figure needs to be smaller than a dreadnought. I just want to keep everyone on a more-or-less level playing field. Centurion or attack-trike sized is fine though.

Guess I better scrap this Mantis-Knight.

Remember there's no limitation on base size... so if you want to have a centurion-sized figure standing atop a 6" tall pile of slain enemies... that works for me.

@WM: You build a Mantis Knight... you can enter it. But ONLY if I get it when you're done!

So started painting the base for my Mantis Warrior, and got that scale shot for you Gits.



The base is actuality lighter than whats in the picture.

Nooo! That poor beaky! Have you no mercy?!

Honestly I really don't like the beaky helmets. I don't use them in my army at all. But I did make one beaky marine just to say I have one.

I think they look good on assault marines.

Kind of adds to the bird like nature of the squads role.

Looks great deadmeat... not over-the-top, just right. Thanks for taking the extra pic!

 deadmeat85 wrote:
Honestly I really don't like the beaky helmets. I don't use them in my army at all. But I did make one beaky marine just to say I have one.

Oh, I'm a huuuge fan of Beakies. if you don't know what to do with the old ones, i'll gladly take 'm off your hands. For Science!

 Meph wrote:
Oh, I'm a huuuge fan of Beakies. if you don't know what to do with the old ones, i'll gladly take 'm off your hands. For Science!

Likewise, my first ever box of Space Marines was the RTB01 box

I'm in as well. These are to me what I was first introduced to in 40K so I'm all in on the beakie. My new favorite is the one with the vents ( the new DA ones ) wish I had more of these.

Almost all my marines are equipped as such. Just like all my vehicle operators have the ' tech mechinacus' Helmet. It's just a theme with me.

Meph.. if your'e in dire need beakies, let me know.. I can spare some.


Anyway back to Mantis Warriors.. Not sure I'll have time with my GK deadline. But I'll keep it in mind!

I know I promised you guys some battle reports... but it dawned on me as I was looking at the nearly 1GB of photos that I took of the games I had with SL that with the maelstrom missions... it's nearly impossible to produce a logical battle report without taking a ton of notes (which I didn't do). So instead... I through together what I thought were some of the best pics... some with comic book captions as inspired by Polythemus. Enjoy!

Game #1

We're deploying on the short edges of the board and have drawn the mission where you start with one card and keep drawing up to the number of the turn. This is the first 40k game I've played in many months so Solar_lion is doing a lot of teaching. As a result, he misses some early opportunities to put the hurt on me & is generally playing under his normal abilities (thanks SL).

The Lamenters... spurred on by Kahn (because you know... Lamenters are actually a White Scars successor chapter ) pour through the towards the center of the table and their first objective!



The Lamenters sternguard drop on another objective, only to be assaulted and wiped out by Mantis Warriors (who then admire the tastefully finished interior of the Lamenter pod... no such luxuries for the Mantis Warriors... they just bounce around on a bare floor like a can of dried beans).



Kahn leads his elite guard into the mandibles of the awaiting Mantis Warrior land raider.



Unfortunately, before they can make contact... a Mantis Warrior scout bike squad with storm talon escort arrives behind them and kills the squad members who have a good chance of damaging the land raider. Leaving Kahn to search for better prey.



The Lamenters bikes are all over the center of the board like a swarm of angry bees. The podded tactical squad must take refuge on a derelict ork construction platform in order to stay out of reach!



Though wanting to join the frey... the tac sqad must settle for firing down off the platform into the swirling mass of bikes below.



Meanwhile in the Lamenter rear, a tac squad looses it's means of transportation... but emerges undaunted.



Kahn and his bikes of doom close on the Mantis centurions and terminator psycher. Things do not go well for the boys in green.



The Lamenters air-superiority is starting to take it's toll... and the very plucky TFC is finally laid low. (Note the awesome objective marker the SL did. He's got them numbered 1-6.)



In the last turn, the lone surviving scout biker (the sergeant) skims around the massive ork facility and secures one final objective... also securing a TIE GAME!



Final Score:
Lamenters: 11
Mantis Warriors: 11

Very lucky to pull a tie here. This was my first experience using the maelstrom mission cards and I must admit I really loved it. Generates a very different game than standard missions which is much more free-wheeling and fun. You also have to be good at thinking on your feet to deal with the unexpected curve balls the mission cards throw you. My stars of the game? The land raider... for tanking an amazing amount of las cannon fire & never actually wrecking. The assault marines who took out the sternguard, a tac squad and jumped on an objective or two. Lastly the thunderfire cannon which was just a pain in the butt for the Lamenters... accounting for a few casualties every turn which can really add up. This was also my first time using the IA rules for the Mantis Warriors and their one named character Ahazra Redth. I like it... but it'll take a bit of thought and practice to get good with the rules.


Weeeee! That was fun.... and a lot more interesting to do than my usual "play-by-play" battle report. What do you guys think??

This post gets two thumbs up!

Brilliant Batrep, love the feel of it, and it definately looks like you had fun. That was the most important bit after all.

Glad to see you back at it, and the armies look fantastic on the field.

Thought they were Blood Angel desendants.

You're right Dee, they are. I was just poking fun at SL.

According to the fluff.. maybe when the new BA codex comes out they;ll be good again and not get nerf'd . oh who am I kidding!

Yourself?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Why not make the commander from the AI 9 boon

Game 2:

DOW deployment, we share cards (3 per person but can score any. SL deploys first & spreads across the board but his scary command squad is on my far right. I refuse the flank (deploy far left) with the exception of the snipers who deploy on an objective on my far right... hoping to get a called shot at one of the characters while scoring the objective.

... and so it beings...


The Lamenters have a list that's designed for an alpha-strike and decide to bring the pain. Nearly everything scouts forward then makes a dash for the center of my lines. The vanguard of the charge is the Lamenter bike squad. The attack bike is looking to add another land raider to his kill tally.



The Lamenter sternguard pod in close to an objective and focus their substantial firepower on the "sitting duck" land raider.



Meanwhile the scouts are chillin' on the objective.



Unfortunately for the young scouts... their sergeant couldn't be more wrong. Kahn sees them and realizes their importance to the mission.



The assault squad that had sheltered behind the as-yet-not-destroyed land raider, took exception to the actions of the Lamenter sternguard.



Some flamers, bolter shots and an assault later... it looked like this.



Unfortunately for the Lamenters, the alpha strike didn't have the hoped-for results, leaving the large bike squad open to a hail of fire by the centurions, the land raider and the thunderfire cannon. Many casualties resulted.



A Mantis Warrior tactical squad podded near an objective in the Lamenter rear, hoping to get a quick predator kill. Unfortunately the predator was shaken, but not stirred.



Back on the left, the Lamenters had moved forward aggressively and a tactical squad was looking for some payback. Unfortunately shooting was somewhat less effective than advertised and they were caught in a pincer between the assault marines and a dreadnought approaching from the south-west.



Then the Lamenter air power arrived and cut the big tac squad in half, threatening to route the only Mantis Warrior incursion deep into their lines.



The remnants of the squad held, and fell back (in good order) to the relative protection of a ruined tower which held an objective. That was a close one!



Having dispatched the scouts and scored the objective, the Lamenter command squad was ready to press the assault. However it was at that point where the objective card "witch hunter" was drawn. The Mantis Warrior librarians were tucked safely away on the second and third floors of a ruin, surrounded by a bubble-wrap of centurions. This left the Lamenter psycher feeling very exposed.



The Mantis Warrior scout bikes arrive on the Lamenter left and a salvo of astartes grenade launchers leave the second Lamenter predator a smoking ruin.



They then seek out one of the Lamenters tactical squads and keep them busy in assault for the rest of the game... safely away from any scoring objectives.



The Mantis Warrior storm talon arrives to take out one of the Lamenter flyers, saving the tac squad on the objective from certain destruction.



The surviving members of the Mantis Warrior assault squad use their jump packs to claim one last objective.



Lastly, the Mantis Warrior talon hovers over the librarian and claims the "witch hunter" honors!



Final Score:
Lamenters: 13
Mantis Warriors: 16

It should be noted that SL's dice luck was tragic in this game, while mine stayed pretty good throughout. Solar_lion really bet everything on the success of that first alpha-strike, and when it failed the center of his line was so exposed that they just got eaten up by my centurions and land raider. Nothing wrong with his strategy, just horrible dice. He also immobilized 3 out of 4 vehicles on terrain. That severely limited his ability to scoot around and pick up objective points. Stars for this game were the centurion star (with both Redth and another epistolary psycher with terminator armor and a storm shield) who had a centrally located, elevated platform with an objective on it from which to lay a swath of devastation. The assault marines who basically did exactly what they did in the first game and in the same order! The TFC which just kept relentlessly whittling away at everything and finally the little storm talon who served up some lethal and timely fire when it was really needed. Actually, everything performed really well come to think of it. The scouts drew his command squad away, effectively keeping the out of the entire game. The podded in tac marines finished off a razorback and sat on an objective. Even the scout bikes played a solid role and once again the land raider tanked an amazing number of las cannonn and melta shots without being wrecked (though it was down to 1 hull point).

Thanks for reading!

Enjoyable reads, Gits'.

Good to see these models in their natural environment.

"By the power of greyskull" A-HA! Khorne traitors!

No really I L'dMAO when I read this.

These battlereps are very entertaining! Just throw in an overview shot of the theater and give the scenes' positions via numbers, and you couldn't do better anymore. Plus, it is a pleasure to view two so very beautifully devised armies. Army shots and such are nice, but to present them figs in their "natural environment" is so much better.

And I'm up to date again! Looks like I've dropped back in at a great time too. I always enjoy that style of short and snappy bat rep as I'm not much of a gamer, nice and easy for me to follow. Not to mention the 2nd Annual Mantis Maker! Every one of last years entries was super and I see this one is already on track to bring more of the same.

Adepticon looked like a blast, hopefully I'll make it out one day and meet all of you good fellows. Oh and your steam train-esque Thunderfire Cannon is really nice and well recovered from an unexpected paint effect. I really, really struggle to get even a little bit on board with Centurions but you've done a great job on them and that is so far the most acceptable variation I have seen.

Can't wait for more!

Nice battle reports and easy to understand for the simple of minds

Started to pain my mantis boy, here is the progress,
Never was a big fan of bright colors so this guys color will be darker than normal Mantis warriors


Sorry for the blurry bolter

Actually Jehan, if you were to look in the IA Badab War books, you'd see them represent the Mantis Warriors in very subdued colors. So your interpretation is spot-on. I just like the old-school screaming-green that I was attracted to back when they first debuted. I will not be basing my judgment on which green the contestants choose.

Well, I started working my bits, rigging them to contain fiber optic strands and the LED. Will get some pics up hopefully tomorrow night. As soon as I get the legs, I can finish the rigging and begin applying green stuff. Maybe start priming/painting this weekend???


Also ordered a Macro lens for my tablet so hopefully that will arrive in time for final pics =D

@Hruotland: That's a very good suggestion. I'll try that next time. Have some games lined up with my kids so maybe I'll try it then.

@Solar_lion: Would love to have you in the competition brother, but I know you're up against a hard deadline with the Grey Knights. Still, I'll keep my fingers crossed.

@GamesEtc: Very excited to see what you've been up to! Sounds quite intriguing!

So worked on the Sergent today and got the base done. Also started on the Sergent with base armor color and wash.