Black Templars in Action

*Squeek*

Recent goings on...

First Black Templar Battles. A couple of games of 40K...

I used my (bought-painted) Black Templars as my main force, with Tau allies, for the first time in two games against my regular Tyranid opponent. Neither of us had played 6th edition before.

Here are some pics. List below this:

Black Templar Commander faces down the enemy (but dies...)

'Gaunts V. CC Terminators

My lists are below. My reasonings for going with these were:

a.) Using Black Templars as something different - I had only used Tau before this.

b.) Tau allies to help with Horde army crowd control. My regular opponent plays mainly as Nids and Orks. The Hammerhead sub-munition and Commander's Airbursting Fragmentation Launcher help out with that, and the Crisis suit Missile Pod Launcher can help crack open 'Nid monstrous creatures or smaller Ork vehicles.

Here is the list: (every chance there are errors here!)

Main force: 1250 Pts - Black Templars Roster (1249)

HQ: 

x1 Castellan 

x1 Emperor's Champion (with Accept Any Challenge)

x1 Reclusiarch (with Bolt Pistol)

Elite: 

x1 Venerable Dreadnought ( with Furious Charge, Extra Armor and Smoke Launcher)

x1 Sword Brethren Terminator Assault Squad (with Furious Charge)

      3 Terminators with Lightning Claws

      2 Terminators with Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield

Troops: 

Crusader Squad Alpha

      5 Initiates with Bolt Pistol and CCW, + Assault Grenades 1

      4 Neophytes with Bolt Pistol & CCW, + Assault Grenades 1

      1 Rhino (Power of the Machine Spirit + Smoke Launchers)

Crusader Squad Bravo

      6 Initiates with Bolter + Assault Grenades 

      1 Initiate with Flamer + Assault Grenades 

      1 Initiate with Missile Launcher + Assault Grenades

Crusader Squad Charlie

      4 Initiates with Bolt Pistol and CCW

      1 Initiate with Plasmagun

Fast Attack: 

Land Speeder Squadron (2#, 140 pts)

   x2 Land Speeder Typhoon.

Allies: 500 Pts - Tau (499)


HQ: 
Commander Shas'o (Airbursting Fragmentation Projector+ Hard-wired Blacksun Filter + Twin Linked Missile Pod)
      x2 Shield Drones

Elite: 
Crisis Battlesuit (Flamer + Hard-wired Blacksun Filter + Twin Linked Missile Pod)
      x2 Shield Drones

Troops: 
x7 Fire Warrior (Photon Grenades)
x1 Shas'ui, (Photon Grenades)

Heavy Support: 
Hammerhead Gunship (Railgun + Two Burst Cannons + Disruption Pod + Multi-Tracker + Blacksun Filter)

So, in both games played, there were a couple of things that came to the fore for me from losing:

1.) I have no idea how to play a Close Combat oriented army! After all I have spent the last couple of years as a Tau commander trying to stay OUT OF close combat. I really need to get the hang of timing charges with the Black Templars...

2.) My dice still suck. (BOTH outings in CC I rolled an abysmal hand for the Emperor's Champion. Would you believe triple ones to hit?) Lol! :-)

3.) Playing with a different force really means you have to be careful with rules. I was so focused on everything else that I totally forgot about the BTs having to do a leadership check and consolidate towards the nearest enemy if they take any casualties to ranged fire. 
(It wouldn't have made any difference though. When my Crusaders got caught in the open after their Rhino popped, the Twin-Linked Devourers on the - I think - Hive Tyrant destroyed the entire unit in one round of shooting.)

4.) The Land Speeder Typhoon is an absolute beast. Heavy Bolter AND missile launcher at 70 points? Can fire both due to new skimmer rules? Sign me up for these...they were blowing away 'Nids like nobody's business!

5.) Neophytes make really handy meat shields. With the new rules about removing casualties these guys should always be in front. 

6.) I like "Look Out Sir!"

7.) "Focus on the Candy!" just as before, stay focused on those mission objectives - that is what wins the game! (Playing a new army it is too easy to lose sight of that as you wrestle with new rules etc.)

Just 'coz it is New Year, here are a few more pics:

Termies and Typhoon close in on an objective.

Early game, Rhino at bottom left has exploded. BTs now on foot.

End game, the remnants of the Gaunts make it onto the Tau objective.

Mid-game, Land-speeders stand off and plink at long range.

The red tide makes its way across the board.

Happy Holidays!

*Squeek*

Chaos Space Marines Troops finished.

*Squeek*
Busy week at work...must...go..to...bed...
...but before that, I wanted to post a couple of units of Chaos Space Marines that I more or less finished tonight.

Around 10 with bolters, 10 with CC weapons (Bolt Pistols and Chainswords) and finally a pack of guys with heavy weapons.

Pics below:

Actually, thought they were finished, but seeing photos on the screen means I can immediately see lots to do!
-heavy weapon barrels need boring out.
-I must bring myself to do the power weapons.
-layers on the flesh rather than just a wash.
-sprucing up the bases to make them more interesting (skulls? weapons? the battered bodies of the vanquished?)
etc.

a warlord's work is never done!
:-)
*Squeek*

Black Templars and Chaos Update

*Squeek*

Fellow warlords, it has been some time since my last scratchings, so I thought I should report on the progress of the Chattering Horde once more. I am embarrassed to say that I have been lured (or seduced) into following the ways of another great power in the weeks since I last posted, and have done little but work on painting an army of Chaos... 
... Chaos Space Marines that is! 

May the Great Horned Rat forgive me! 

m(_ _)m 

After finally managing to get my act together and get hold of some Citadel Black primer spray, I got the bases very roughly done and have moved onto playing around with some base colours. As seems traditional with the forces of Chaos, I have gone for metallic colours (as you can see), by which I mean lots of Boltgun Metal, not just for weapons, but for a main colour. 

In addition, I am using Dwarf Bronze and Shining Gold mix on shoulder pads etc. For the first time, I am also using some of the "new" Citadel Paints range. In this case, Leadbelcher, Screaming Bell and Hashut Copper (conversion chart here). They give good coverage and seem pretty easy to work with. At first I was quite surprised by just how "Red" the Hashut Copper was. As you can see in the images below it is very distinctive!

Screaming Bell/ Hashut Copper

Dwarf Bronze/ Shining Gold 

Screaming Bell/ Hashut Copper

Dwarf Bronze/ Shining Gold

Screaming Bell

A unit of Chaos Space Marines

The names that have come to mind so far for these units have included:

"The Bronze B@stards"
"The Brazen B@stards"
"Black Jack's Brass Legion"
Lots of "Brass" and "Bronze" etc, but I believe "Steel Legion" has already been taken....

I am a bit concerned as to how these will all come out in the end.My Skaven, Tau and High Elves never really saw any metallics used aside from on blades and breastplates etc. I am hoping though that applying some washes and then layers/ highlights should make them a little less garish. One question I am a is whether to use a black wash or an earth wash on the metallic? For weapons where I have used Leadbelcher I think Nuln Oil (Black) should he good, but what about shoulder pads? Agrax Earthshade? Also, as most of the Space Marine armour is simply black, would I wash those? And if so which washes would be best? Questions, questions! (all advice appreciated by the way!)

As well as working my way slowly through the CSMs, I also ordered two Rhinos and a couple of Landspeeders on eBay. Today I resprayed the Rhinos black and kitbashed a Lascannon turret and a Heavy Bolter turret so I could field a couple of Razorbacks if I wanted to (they aren't glued on). You can see them below:

"Old Style" Rhino w/ updated hatches (and smoke launchers?)

Twin Linked Lascannon

"Old Style" with Twin-Linked Heavy Bolters

Chaos Rhino

Landspeeder Typhoon

Landspeeder Tornado

My plan is to keep the Rhinos both black and relatively unadorned. That way (as the group I game with are very relaxed) I can use them with both the Chaos Space Marines and my Black Templars. 

The final recent addition was a small force of Black Templar terminators, again from eBay. I picked up 5 and the seller added in a couple more at a reduced price. These models have Forgeworld shields and were very nicely painted.

Lots to do then, including more work of the imperial "Fortress of Redemption"!

Cheers, 
*Squeek*

40K Fortress of Redemption Update #2

*Squeek*
Got some more work on the Fortress done over the last few nights. This was mainly applying some Devlan Mud washes over the Tamiya Grey undercoat. This was a bit of an experiment as I had no idea how it would turn out...

  

 

Sorry for the poor photos. Basically, the wash on the walls didn't work as intended, and it looks a bit thin, probably because it is in stark contrast with the very dark parapets and gantry that are up top. I was pretty disappointed with this at first, but I have a feeling it will look better with another wash as that should darken it down even further. I will also paint some Badab Black into the deeper recesses and apply some more details, both physical (shell damage) and specific washes (rust on some strategic metal areas that will also have stained the walls etc.)

I also started putting some base coats down on the main tower (statues and wings).

It took MUCH longer than I thought. Next is basecoats on the rest of the tower. I don't want to overdo the skulls at the base of the tower, so I will probably keep them a dark grey with washes etc. That should keep the focus on the "Angels of Death".

Getting very busy at work, so may not be able to do this for while. In the meantime hoping that the new Chaos Space Marines Codex I pre-ordered will arrive!

Cheers,

*Squeek*

40K Scenery-Fortress of Redemption update #1

*Squeek*

As part of the Black Templar haul that I was lucky enough to get second-hand the other day, I also got a Games Workshop Fortress of Redemption. As I have almost no 40K scenery (other than some scratch-built bunkers) I was pretty stoked to lay my hands on this.

Twin-Linked Las Cannon Interceptor at left...(removable)

Missile Silo

At the time I got it I thought, "Wow, this thing is big and is going to take quite a lot of painting!" 

Looking around, there are number of different paint schemes that seem popular, but the most popular ones seem to be either a "Dark Angels Green" or green or grey for the walls, and a dark grey or black for the giant Angel of Death statues on the tower. What to do?

As I don't have any Chaos Black undercoat to hand I decided just to use a grey Tamiya surfacer as the undercoat (the undercoat in the image above). Having done that, I ended up with a very light grey. Impatient type that I am, I have decided that I will see if I can use washes to darken the undercoat and see what we end up with. Although it might be cool, I have decided not to do the whole thing as a Black Templar base in black and white. I will be using some black though (probably on the Angels of Death) so it should still tie together with any Black Templars who end up defending it. 

After a couple of late-night sessions over the last week, I have got base colours down on the gantry-way, decorations, and skulls. Here is where I am now:

Dark Angels chapter icons (No, I am not going to convert them to BT)

A bit difficult to see, but the gantry is painted in Bolt Gun Metal

All I can say is, if only my Skaven had a hidey-hole like this!
(or maybe they can? mwahahaha!)

:-)
*Squeek*