Full Army Photo
Photos coming soon
Unit Photos
Apologies for the quality, iPhone cameras aren't exactly awesome!
Complete Griffons so far...
Captain leading the left flank.
Into the breach!
The spears tip.
On the back foot.
more photos coming soon!
Army List
HQ
Epistolary 'Vardus' w/ force staff
Captain 'Zane' w/ articifer amour and power sword
Command Squad w/ Standard Bearer, Apocathary, Champion, Plasma Gun
ELITES
Dreadnought 'Vlad' w/ multi-melta
Terminator Squad 'Perseus'
Sternguard Veterans w/ power fist, Rhino transport
TROOPS
Tactical Squad 'Alpha' w/ missile launcher and flamer
Tactical Squad 'Beta' w/ missile launcher and flamer, Rhino transport
Tactical Squad 'Insidious' w/ power fist and plasma gun
Tactical Squad w/ missile launcher and flamer
Scout Squad 'Xenim' w/ heavy bolter (10)
FAST ATTACK
Bike Squad 'Screaming Griffons' (5 bikes and attack bike) w/ power sword, melta gun, flamer, heavy bolter
Assault Squad 'Tiberius' w/ power axe and combat shield (10)
Caestus Assault Ram
HEAVY SUPPORT
Predator Annihilator 'Leon'
SPEARHEAD
Skyfall Spearhead
Land Speeder Squadron 'Phoinex' w/ x3 Typhoon pattern (heavy bolters/ typhoon missile launchers)
TOTAL POINTS: 3000 pts
Why I Started This Army
I started this army after a long time out of the game, although i'd come to a standstill on the modelling and gaming front, i still kept up to date with almost everything coming out of the black library. after seeing the name a few years ago 'howling griffons' seemed to strike a chord with me. as a primarily codex chapter hailing from ultramarine origins the ideas i had on how to form the strike force coming thick and fast. i'm trying to avoid the use of tanks, purely because i find them a little boring to paint. in this way i've found it hard to beef up the firepower at my disposal. reluctantly i included the relatively points expensive predator annihilator as a tank hunter/ armoured troop assassin. i'm planning on increasing the size of the bike squadron with another 3 bikes and have them as a rapid anti infantry force. to include some fast moving anti armour i have a squadron of 3 landspeeder typhoons and the extremely beefy caestus assault ram, the size of which generally strikes fear into any opponent, never mind the magna-melta! first shot from that and the rest of the army tends to go unscathed for the next turn as it soaks up everything!
after reading about the griffons in 'chapter war' i was a little disappointed with the puritanical aspect of them, heedlessly following the imperial doctrine that the soul drinkers oppose so steadfastly. this was offset by the almost obsessive compulsive 'must achieve an end' nature of their attack on the soul drinkers and the basic need to get the job done, whatever the costs. i liked that. stereotypical of guillimans warriors with their tactical accumen etc the golden boys are famed for but still a successor chapter i'm entertaining putting a slight spin on them with a beefed up fast attack option and slight lack of support. we'll see how it pans out, this may change after a few games, my main opponent plays with chaos marines, i may struggle...
at first i found the red/ yellow quartered design to sometimes be irritating to paint, especially in my spare time at work, its quite difficult to paint straight lines and sharp details on a moving warship! i have persevered though and am now finding myself rocking in the opposite direction to ship roll to paint. although finding quarters irritating on occasion, i'm finding the end results very satisfying to see. i'm using quite heavy washes of gryphone sepia for the yellow and delvan mud for the red and they seem to be coming out quite nicely, giving an almost grubby well worn look which i like, i don't want them to appear to have come off an assembly line all shiny shiny. hopefully i'll have some photos up on here sooner rather than later, with my units split between warship and house at the minute its been a while since i've seen everything together.
Update 13/6/11:
From the previous list, another 1000 points has been added to the griffons, with the addition of 15 more marines, 5 scouts, 5 assault, 10 sternguard, two rhinos and an assault ram. still seem to be avioding heavy support but am considering a pair of land raiders so that pretty much the whole force will be mobile. the typhoons have been particularly pleasing in games, generally forcing a complete reorganisation of my chaos friends back line. alongside the assault ram carrying terminators (which gets most attention for obvious reasons) they have been really effective. you have to be realistic with speeders, with armour 10 it doesnt take much to knock them out the sky. with 3, theres always the chance they'll make more of an impact before going down. the assault ram on the other hand is purely lethal! my usual opponent is actually stopping using terminators because they're dying too early! all hail the ram! with the addition of the extra marines/ scouts, my firebases have beefed up considerably. ten assault marines actually do something now instead of getting shot to bits first turn. rhinos are surprisingly hardy too, i forgot how much they got ignored, especially after dropping off their cargo. brilliant for disrupting enemy ranks and jut generally blocking LOS from any high o/p units. for 45 pts a bargain.
deployment was emotional, but managed to get everything painted whilst bouncing around in force 9 storms, all gravy. concentrating on 1500pt catachan force to ally with at the minute but don't think im finished just yet with marines, when to stop though is the question!
any comments are welcome, new pics on their way in next week or so.
ta for reading, bash.
