Finished basing and Re-starting efforts on the Death Company

Hello readers!

Been a very busy week for me so far so sadly very little hobby progress. Though I do have the third (and fourth sort of) of my narrative games tonight between my force of Black Templars and my opponents force of Orks. After this battle my Blood Angels will become the major players allowing me to use more of my collection, but also necessitating more of it being painted!!

The battle tonight will have 2 different parts to it. The first will be played on a 4x4 board with a central comms relay that will be surrounded by my Black Templars, soundly beaten in the last game on objectives they have had to run and summon reinforcements from allies in the sector. In order to ensure their allies timely arrival they must defend the comms relay for the entire game and hold it at the end.

The pursuing Orks, raging for more fighting after their victory will be coming on from any board edge which they choose and they must hold the relay at the end to delay the arrival of the Blood Angel allies, the closest in Imperial space, in the next two games.

This is going to be a small 750 points game so it should be quite frantic and bloody! I painted up my Templar Neophytes specifically for this game to give me some cheap bodies to throw around and shield the relay with. Plus it represents the dwindling numbers of the Templars and the Neophytes now make up a third of their force as they are whittled down by the aggression and insanity of the greenskins. 

At the same time, on the other 2x4 bit of board we will have a special tunnel board set up which will represent an underground facility by the comms relay. We will be playing a pseudo kill team game here (we are ignoring specialist etc because its not something either of us have played and time is a premium so we want it simple) where 150 points of Orks will face off with 150 points of Templars and the victorious team will get the chance to set off some bombs underneath the relay which will hopefully aid their comrades above.

It promises to be a fun game! And because I now have my dedicated hobby camera I should be snapping away like a madman and have lots of pictures for battle reports  for you!

Finally, here is some WIP pictures of Death Company who have just had Khorne red added so far after a heavy drybrush of eshin grey.

And also some pictures of Raphen's Death Company and Lemartes who I have finally updated their bases with some slightly better pictures in general with my new camera!

Tune in on Sunday for hopefully the report from the tunnels game and more hobby progress too!

Peace out,

Rob

Death Company Storm Raven - finished

Hi again!

More productivity from me today but again a short blog post as I want to get some cleaning done around the house and then crack on with some hobby stuff this evening and further fight back the plastic tide.

I really struggle painting big flat panelled vehicles and so I tend to keep vehicles to a minimum overall, perhaps why I favour deep striking units or fast units in general. In my nearly 6000 points of space marines I have 1 landraider, 2 vindicators, a storm raven, a baal predator and 3 drop pods which I think is a pretty light AV count for that many points. Thoughts?

Anyway, that was basically a big preamble to me saying I'm a bit shit at it. I had a go at weathering and try to making this thing look mucky and oil smeared but I'm not terribly happy with the attempts, but I am happy enough with it and think that it won't stand out from my better painted infantry too much that it can go on the table. I am actually very happy with the base! Its a lone devastator from my Templar brethren taking refuge in a ruined bunker with an activated homing beacon which my Blood Angels have responded too and have come screaming to the rescue!!

It still needs a matt varnish (as do all my space marine models) but other than that and possibly any of your suggestions it is finished.

Pictures now.

I hope you like and will tune in later this week for some conversion work and maybe some more WIP painting!

Peace out,

Rob

Black Templar Neophytes - Finished

Hello readers!

After my recent ramblings were back to a good old honest hobby post. I've finished up the first 10 of my 20 neophytes that will make up my large crusade squads in my Black Templar army.

I have to admit that I am desperate to get this army done so it can sit pretty and be played with. With that in mind I haven't put the same effort into these as I have in my other recent endeavours such as all my Blood Angels models, so I have skipped painting a few details here and there. On the whole though I am pleased with how they have turned out and look forward to finishing the other 10 in the future.

The Templars are likely to take a back seat for a month or two though as the tournament I was going to take them too has been cancelled and postponed to next year, this is a real shame as I thought the rule set was excellent. If you want to read it, head over to "From the Fang" blogspot and search for fluffageddon. I encourage people to have an open mind and consider it for next year if you are in the UK.

Anyway, enough prattle, have some pictures!

I'm currently building and painting my flyer base for my Storm Raven so hopefully some pictures of that will grace my blog in the next day or two, I've tried to make a little diorama out of it, but we will see how well that turns out!!

Thanks for tuning in again so see my offerings,

Peace out,

Rob

Leaders of the Chapters - A comparison of Chapter Masters and Captains - Part 2

Welcome Readers to part 2 of my review and comparison of the leaders of the Chapters in playable form!!

Today I will go through the remaining 6 characters and then at the bottom have my ranking from best to worst, if you agree let me know! And if you disagree, contemplate on your wrongness and let me know!

Ultramarines

Marneus Calgar - The big blue cheese papa smurf. Shudder. Along with Azrael, Dante and Logan, this is the other Lord of War character in the list rocking in at a whopping 275 points! For only 20 more points you can get yourself a sodding wraithknight. Le sigh. He is however a badass in his 

own right. Chapter master stats, a 2+/4++ with eternal warrior and he has orbital bombardment AND as well as his special power fists, for some reason he actually has a power sword as well. Thats nice but who on earth opts to use the power sword!?

Warlord trait - The God of War special rule means that like Azrael, Marneus can choose whichever warlord trait from the space marine book that he likes. This gives him great tactical felxibility and means he can give himself FNP if he feels like it. (And in this list it is dished out like its going to become unfashionable).

The Gauntlets of Ultramar! The last word in bad ass fistery it must be said. Strength x2 and Ap2 AND at initiative! Holy cow thats good! He could single handed mulch through a squad of teminators no problem. Hang on a second! He can fire the fists too! Assault 2 with a 24 inch range! And these bad boys are strength 4 and AP2 which is delicious. 

His terminator armour isn't any old armour either. It is the Armour of Antilochus which allows Marneus to sweeping advance and has a built in teleport homer for that precision dropping goodness indeed. 

Finally he has the special rule Master Tactician (Same name as Azrael so one is lying - hint its Azrael), which allows him to enact a single extra combat doctrine once per game that affects all ultramarine in your army - not even detachment - the whole army. That is huge and provides a massive amount of tactical flexibility, it really is fantastic.

Verdict: I don't like Ultramarines, they are the goodie two shoes of the 40k universe and they get all the good shit. However I think for what he does and for his price, Marneus is a very well written character indeed and worth his points if you can fit him in the list. And if you can fit a wraithknight in you can fit Marneus in! 

Salamanders

Vulkan He'stan - The forgefather of the Salamanders hunting for the 9 artefacts of Vulkan, relinquishing his own identity to follow this path till his death. Weighing in at 190 points this already seems steep for a none chapter master character, but lets see what he's got shall we. 

So we have a regular captains profile but this comes with a 2+ armour loadout as standard but no iron halo. The reason he has no iron halo is because he has Kesare’s Mantle, and this bad boy gives Vulkan a 3++ invulnerable which is a big boost over the regular 4++. In addition to this he has the Gauntlet of the Forge, essentially a wrist mounted heavy flamer with built in digital weapons! Very 

neat indeed and very handy. Finally he has the Spear of Vulkan, a +2 strength mastercrafted two handed AP3 power weapon. Can't bite through those 2+ saves but will mulch most anything else and mastercrafted should mitigate any poor rolls that occur.

Vulkan also has the warlord trait iron resolve like lysander which gives him the same 2+/3++/5+++ loadout, except Vulkan doesn't also have eternal warrior meaning any strength 8 wound will turn him into a green smear like any other marine. 

Furthermore he has the salamander chapter tactics and he has the rule The Forgefather which grants all meltaguns, combi-meltas, and multineltas in his detachment the mastercrafted rule. Massively increasing the chance of popping vehicle or just melting some poor buggers face.

Verdict: Now Vulkan cost 190 points and he provides a very salamander specific buff to his entire detachment which is great and isn't situational as it applies to any shots, equally he carries a powerful flame template which grants good board control near him particularly against weaker horde armies like Orks, Tyranids and Guard (Though I'd be careful of flaming yourself out of charge range). He also can mulch regular troops very decently with his additional strength and AP3 goodness. And aside from his lack of eternal warrior and 1 wound less this is mounted on a very survivable chassis. He is very much worth the 190 points. 

ASIDE - so tell me now, if I told you there was a relic that for 40 points granted your character 1 extra wound, 4 extra strength at AP1 AND eternal warrior would you call that fairly priced? Vulkan is well priced, but compared to lysander he is very expensive I feel. Really think Lysander should cost a bunch more.

Raven Guard

Shadow Captain Shrike - The 3rd Company captain of stealth rolls in at a relatively low 185 points, but what do we get for this? Regular captain stats but only a 3+ armour save as standard with a 4++ invuln. This seems like a very raw deal compared to the comparably priced Vulkan, Pedro and Helbrecht who all come with a 2+ artificer save and 2 of them come with FNP. Marching on he also gets a jump pack obviously and then we are on to his special weapons.

No ranged weapons here but he does have The Raven's Talons. The Talon's are a set of master crafted rending and shredding lightning claws; given that he has 5 attacks on the charge he has a good chance of mincemeating any 3+ save gribblies but rending does give him a fighting chance against 2+ saves if purely reliant on luck, still better than the Khan and Helbrecht and Vulkan to an extent, with Vulkans extra strength on his weapon mitigated on Shrike by shred.

As well as Ravenguard chapter tactics Shrike only has 1 special rule as well as his Warlord trait. His warlord trait is Angel of Death which grants Shrike the fear special rule and fear tests must be made on a 3D6. Great! Except a large portion of the 40k world is actually fearless or at least pseudo fearless. So pretty pants compared to the horde of iron resolving feel no painers out there. 

His unique special rule is called See, But Remain Unseen. This grants Shrike stealth and infiltrate and he can only join units of jump infantry BEFORE DEPLOYING. This seems to quite strongly imply that Shrike is intended to infiltrate a unit of jump infantry with him, otherwise why specify the before deploying part? It would just say "Shrike can only join units of jump infantry" otherwise. I know this is a bone  of contention with many people. But I firmly believe, in this case at least, that Shrike can join and infiltrate a unit of jump infantry and I would have no problem with a player doing this against me.

Verdict: I'm afraid Shrike really isn't all that, other than the debatable ability to infiltrate a jump squad he doesn't bring much to the table for his army and he certainly isn't going to set the world on fire with his combat ability. These points are better spent elsewhere I feel personally.

Black Templars

High Marshall Helbrecht - The Chapter Master equivalent for the Black Templars rolls in at 180 points. Stats wise a chapter master with a 2+/4++. Not a great deal of special rules on these guys, just Black Templar Chapter tactics and a rule called Cruasade of Wrath which can be activated at the beginning of an assault phase. It grants hatred and fleet to all units with the Black Templar chapter tactics rule. Which is a fantastic force multiplier but in a game where assault is not the big bad boy in the room and given you can only use it once per turn it not often going to be the rule that wins the game I feel. 

His Warlord trait is The Imperiums Sword which grants furious charge to himself and his unit which is actually really nice and should be taken advantage of as much as possible. Again as fluffy as this is though, assault is not all that easy to manage particularly on a man who doesn't have a jump pack.

A big squad of termies in a land raider crusader with an apothecary would however be fairly dishy, but a fast army will still just leg it, or a weak army can just throw a speed bump unit in the way that you will crush in a turn and be left open to shooting death. 

Wargear wise Helbrecht has a combi-melta and the sword of the high marshalls forged from the shards of rogal dorns shattered blade. This is a strength user AP3 sword that is mastercrafted and has the special rule Legacy of Dorn which grants D3 extra attacks on the charge instead of 1. Nice but he's not the kind of carrier that can really take advantage of those extra attacks particularly when its only at his base strength 4.

Verdict: High Marshall Helbrecht is a great character in the fluff but he is just so bland on the table and really doesn't bring anything to the table that you can't trump with a custom chapter master for decent points. Other than furious charge for his squad and a very situational 1 turn boost army wide he brings very  little and he isn't in any way a beat stick in combat even against regular 3+ guys. His points are better spent elsewhere, if you are desperate for Templar flavour I heartily recommend Grimaldus, a much better force multiplier, not a great deal less survivable and saves you 30 points to be spent elsewhere.

NB - also, why does the chapter master of AN ENTIRELY SPACE FLEET faring chapter not have an orbital bombardment attack!? Also I don't like his model. Gah. 

Crimson Fists

Pedro Kantor - Chapter master of the Crimson Fists, the other illustrious second founding chapter split from the Imperial fists, weighing in at 185 points. Chapter master stats with a 2+/4++ save loadout, he also come equipped with a standard power fist, nothing special there. And he comes with Orbital strike!!! But Helbrecht doesn't... say what!? Anyway his ranged weapon his his only named special, called Dorn's Arrow, its a stength 4 AP4 assault 4 24" range storm  bolter. Nice, but nothing all that special. 

Like Lysander and Vulkan (so obviously popular), Old Pedro here has iron resolve as his warlord trait granting FNP, again making him a survivable bugger beyond the lack of eternal warrior. 

Other special rules wise he has chapter tactics Imperial fists being a second founding chapter that isn't somewhat self flagellating like the Templars are! He also has the Oath of Rynn which grants all models in Pedro's detachment preferred enemy against Orks. It also gives all models within 12 inches of Pedro +1 attack. Now this sort of make it sound like it has to be against Orks but a written its just any model in Pedro's detachment within 12 inches gets +1 attack. Very importantly that is models not units so careful positioning is required if you want to make best use of that. 

Finally he has the special rule Hold the Line. This is a fantastic special rule which grants Sternguard veterans objective secured. Sternguard already mesh very well with  Imperial Fist chapter tactics and if you have some kind of reserve manipulations that allows you to guarantee drop podding sternguard near objectives it could be a real winner indeed. 

Verdict: Overall I like Pedro Kantor, he isn't exceptional by any means and I think like Helbrecht you can make a better overall Chapter Master for the points, but unlike  Helbrecht, the fact that he grant Sternguard objective secured all game long is something you can really build a strategy around, objectives mean points and points win you games. I like him, but I think he is just a tad over cost and would like to see him for 170-175. But if you run Crimson Fists, I think he is a must take for fluff and is a strong contender for competitive as well particularly at higher points costs when you can afford a decent second HQ.

Flesh Tearers

Gabriel Seth - basically take everything I lauded on Dante above and imagine the opposite. Flesh tearer fans got a real bad deal with Seth taking up a lord of war slot, he just isn't at the same calibre as any other Lord of War that crosses my mind, even with his cheaper price tag of 155 points. Ok he has a chapter masters stats but only a 3+/4++ and no eternal warrior so any S8 hit will insta gibb him, so a dark lance shot or a power fisting character would leave him with a 50:50 chance of living if he was caught on his own for example, relying entirely on his iron halo 4++. Seth will have 6 attacks 

on the charge (4 base + 2 from rage) that are S9 (4 x 2 from his blood reaver eviscerator and + 1 from furious charge) That are AP2 and rending. To hit rolls of 6 also cause a single additional hit each.

Verdict: He is a brilliant horde smasher but you want to keep him out of the way of anything nasty! Plus for his cost you can get 2 sanguinary priest with jump packs and have 5 points to spare (off the top of my head... correct me if I'm wrong) or thereabouts anyway. Sadly there are better options if not in a themed force. He should either have been beefed or not be a Lord of War, with my preference being the latter particularly given the status of Helbrecht or Pedro Kantor for example as regular HQs. Bah humbug!


Conclusions

So there we have my impression for each of the leading characters for the main loyalist legions. No Iron Warriors character sadly, but then we all know how strong you can build an Iron Warriors character if you want one, but it would be nice if they got some love from the fluff really.

Below is how I rank them from top to bottom, this is a table that reflects their overall worth for their points, it was very hard to make a decision on a few of them and they could jump up or down a place very easily I think.


1. Commander Dante
2. Vulkan He'stan
3. Marneus Calgar
4. Azrael
5. Kor'sarro Khan
6. Darnarth Lysander
7. Logan Grimnar
8. Pedro Kantor
9. Gabriel Seth
10. High Marshall Helbrecht
11. Shadow Captain Shrike

My main trouble here, was where to put Marneus in, he is really good, and I have great respect for the rules that represent him, but he is just so bloody expensive. I would be happy if people swapped him and Dante round to be honest. That top 3 in general are exceptionally good.

Vulkan is considerably less beefy than the others, but he is very cheap for the great level of synergy he brings to the Salamanders, I think he is possibly the best written of all the characters. Dante is an absolute powerhouse for his points in combat and also synergises well with many of the Blood Angels rules and detachments and IF you couple him with jump pack units it is golden, but I will concede there are flavours of Blood Angels where you might not have many jump pack units.

At the end of the day, all of these characters become greater or lesser dependent on the context you place them in, they must be utilised as a part of the whole, the head of the snake so to speak, they cannot carry the fight alone and must be used wisely.

But some are just plain better!

I hope you have enjoyed reading these articles as much as I have enjoyed writing them. I promise I will reply to all comments on all my posts but already there are two on my last post which have got me thinking and I look forward to replying to them.

If there is anything anyone would like me to write about, please do make suggestions below and I will try and work them into something in the future :)


Peace out,


Rob

Leaders of the Chapters - A comparison of Chapter Masters and Captains - Part 1

After writing my recent review of the Blood Angel codex and getting a little bit too excited by the sheer bad ass Awesomeness of Commander Dante I thought it would be interesting to do a quick comparison of all the available Chapter Masters or the highest ranked character available for a chapter and see how good value they are for their points and also how adequately they fit the fluff of their chapter.

As of writing this introduction I firmly believe Dante to be one of the best there is. It will be interesting to see how much my opinion shifts whilst going through the list!

For the sake of the fluff I will be going through the original legions chapter masters first in numerical order, so that I am not led down the dark path of favouritism by putting the most effort in at the beginning with character I like compared to ones I already think are pants :P! I will then crack on with subsequent founding chapters such as my beloved Black Templars or the Flesh Tearers.

Dark Angels

Azrael - So for a 215 point Lord of War what do we have here then? We've go your standard chapter master stats with a 2+ save a 4++ invulnerable from the lion helm, and feel no pain. With 4 wounds a decent invuln and FNP he is a tough cookie. But any strength 8 AP2 wound will leave him with a 4+ invuln or face instant death as he has not got eternal warrior. 

However his Lion helm confers the 4++ invulnerable to all models in his unit and any vehicle he is embarked upon. So a big squad of terminators or vanguard veterans in a landraider would make him very survivable beyond high strength precision shots which he would get a 2+ look out sir from. But very expensive if you were running something like that anyway. 

He also has the sword of secrets a +2 strength AP3 mastercrafted sword. Which is very nice but AP3 is not all that impressive these days.In addition to this he also has a master crafted combi-plasma which you can't complain about.

He has5 other special rules which include the generic for Dark angels, Grim resolve and Deathwing. Which grant stubborn with BS2 overwatch and fearless and hatred (Chaos space marine respectively). These are nice and flavourful in general. 

However where it gets really good are his specific rules. Master tactician grants a +1 to siezing the initiative. Rites of Battle grants all Dark Angels the ability to use Azraels leadership making them more resilient than usual. And finally (phew) Supreme Strategist allows him to choose any warlord trait from the Dark Angel specific traits that you like. This works very

well with the +1/-1 to reserves warlord trait if you want maximum tactical flexibility.

Verdict: Overall Azrael is solid in terms of combat but has a fragility that others don't with a weakness to instant death. Given his Lord of War status I would have expected him to be given eternal warrior and maybe a 25 points boost for it. As is however he is a great force multiplier with his sharable invulnerable save, siezing the initiative boost, reserve manipulations and shared leadership. If you take him, you should build around him to make the most of these benefits, but in isolation and even more so in the context of the strength and depth of the Dark Angels Codex (here is a link to a nice review of it) he is excellent value at 215 points and I rate him highly.

White scars

Kor'sarro Khan - the master of the hunt. A regular HQ and The captain of the white scars third company who is tasked with hunting down specific enemies that have wronged the imperium, or more importantly, the white scars in the past. So we shouldn't expect a Chapter master style of beast. Unlike below with Logan Grimnar, I will look at the Khan with the assumption that Moondrakken, his bike, is taken as an upgrade. Because everyone does. Pretty much anyway. This round him out at 150 points total. He has a captains stats with a 3+/4++ to keep him alive. But moondrakken will give him a +1 toughness that make him harder to dislodge and instant death.

Equipment wise he has moondrakkan which as well as the +1 toughness also grants him D3 hammer of wrath hits on the charge instead of the usual 1. His sword, known as Moonfang is a regular power sword apart from the rule Prey's Bane which grants instant death on any to wound roll of a 6 which is nice despite the AP3.

Special rules wise he has furious charge which will help wounding as the sword gives no strength benefit and he also has Master of the Hunt which grants friendly white scars models in a rhino or razorback or on a bike, the scouts special rule. However, this only comes into effect if he is your Warlord!! It also grants you D3 extra victory points if you slay the opposing warlord in a challenge on top of slay the warlord. He also has all the regular White scars chapter tactics rules.

Finally as well as gaining Master of the hunt when he is your warlord you also have the Warlord Trait Champion of Humanity. This causes all friendly units with the imperium faction with 12 inches of the Khan to re-roll failed morale, pinning and fear tests. With space marines generally good leadership this will only really come into play often with allies I feel.

Verdict: For 150 points, he gives a hell of a lot of bang for your buck in terms of force multipliers, with scout, as most will know being especially powerful when utilised correctly. I personally would use him to harass weaker units as he really is very fragile if he comes up against any sort of tooled character. There are plenty of characters that could take him out in a round of combat that cost less than him. But they don't provide the massive buffs that he does, and thats why you take him, not for wrecking face. Fully recommended for an all white scars list and unsurprisingly you see him quite a lot!

Space Wolves

Logan Grimnar - This big bad wolf weighs in at 250 points and is a Lord of War like Azrael. He has the option of taken the Sleigh and Rudolf but I'm just going to be looking at his on foot profile for now. Ok so we have a standard Chapter Master profile but with an additional base attack at 5. He has a 2+/5++ from his terminator armour and the belt of russ (which gets around in this codex to be honest) grant him a 4++ invulnerable on top of that. Most importantly he has eternal warrior to deny any instant death dealing weaponry. 

Special rules wise he has stubborn, acute senses which is nice and fluffy, ATSKNF and counter attack which gives him a distinct advantage over others expensive characters when he is charged. And why on earth would you charge him! He has the Axe of Morkai which grants him either +2 strength AP3 OR x2 strength AP2 two handed and unwieldy. Along with counter attack, eternal warrior and a 4+ invulnerable this makes him a tough cookie to bring down in a challenge or in regular combat if he has a buffer squad. He is definitely kitted out for combat. He also has a storm bolter but meh.

His warlord trait is saga of majesty which means friendly space wolves units within 12 must re-roll failed morale and pinning checks. This is nice but given space marines high leadership base and ATSKNF not that much of a game changer. 

He is monstrous in combat against any 3+ saves there are and he is very survivable especially if you can get him FNP from any source (of which there are a few so its not hard). However the fact that his AP2 comes at I1 could spell death when fighting a points equivalent character or monster or such like. His survivability makes him more likely to still be around to strike back but it still relies on the luck of the dice for that to happen. Even the Emperor's champion has AP2 at initiative and he's just

a rank and file marine that is tripping absolute balls on a battlefield!! 

Verdict: I like him, I really do. But I do think he is overcosted by about 30 points. Eternal warrior is great, but any at initiative AP2 weaponry or massed I1 AP2 weaponry will bring him down fairly well despite his awesome endurance. I recommend that you use him to mulch 3+ units and direct fire at the 2+ units to make maximum use of what would be 7 attacks on the charge using the AP3 profile to decimate squads. Though he can mix it with the best to be fair and that is probably an over cautious estimate

Imperial Fists

Darnarth Lysander - the 230 point regular HQ brute in all his glory. Lysander is the imperial fist 1st company captain, who, if any of the fluff is to be believed is a bit of a dick actually, regularly sacrificing tactical advantage for rage filled revenge and sacrficing space marines in the process. I'm not a fist fluff buff though so do feel free to correct me on that. Despite his position he has a chapter masters stats but only has 3 attacks. He has a 2+ normal terminator save and then has an iron halo for a 4++ that is made defunct by the 3++ invulnerable provided by the storm shield he wields.

He's pretty low on special rules actually for the price. He has regular imperial fists chapter tactics and then has a rule named Icon of Obstinacy (AKA Icon of refusing to admit he's wrong and goes off in a huff to smash things). Like others this makes friendly imperial fist units within 12 inches to re-roll failed morale and pinning tests. A common theme so far and not one I'm overally bothered by to be honest. 

His warlord trait whilst we are on rules is Iron resolve. Which.. wait... sweet jesus it gives him FNP!! 2+/3++/5+++ Lysander. Oh buggery. 

Anyway his weapon should be Ok I suppose. The fist of Dorn. .... .... +6 strength!? How on earth does a hammer give that much extra strength.. it just looks bloody silly to me. Anyway it is also AP1, master crafted, concussive, unwieldy and a specialist weapon not that that matters really.

4 attacks on that charge that will kill most anything on a 2. Penetrate a land raider on a 5 and blow it on a 5 too. Fair odds. Especially if the land raider is immobilised. 

Verdict: This man is not a force multiplier, he is a force unto himself and he wants to get in there and make blood flow while he crushes skulls under his feet. He's imperium right...? I can't really justify it, but I don't like him. He shouldn't have eternal warrior is someone like Azrael doesn't, I just can't stomach that a First company captain is more bad ass survivable than the grand master of the First chapter. the +6 irks me as well, would much rather is was x2 as the AP1 is already a nice bonus against vehicles for exploding and he would still be able to pen anything other than AV14 all round. Really I think he is undercosted by 15-20 points for the amount of smash face mother hubbard you get on such a survivable frame, especially if he is in a squad of buffering hard asses. 

But I will admit I am being biased here. He is a good choice but only if you want to push the close combat envelope hard. A fast attacking army like dark eldar which can pour wounds into him with splinter fire will just dance around that approach. So as good as he is, you have to consider whether or not your going to make those points back in conjunction with the points you have to spend to make him work. 

Blood Angels

Commander Dante - he is as he rightly should be, an absolute beast for 220 points. Not only as an indpendent force that can maraud and wreck face (which he can) but also as a potent force multiplier for certain play styles. Firstly lets look at his stats and load out. He has a chapter masters stats, but has eternal warrior and furious charge making him strength 5 on the charge, but he also has the axe mortalis which grants him +2 strength making him S7 on the charge AND still striking at his high initiative of 6 and weapons skill of 6. If taken as part of the the Baal Strike force Detachment and in a squad with a sanguinary priest you are looking at SIX (4 base +1 for charge and + 1 for 2 x CCW) strength 7, initiative 7 (+1 from red thirst), weapon skill 7 (+1 from blood chalice) AP2 attacks on a toughness 4 2+/4++ 5+ FNP (from the priests nartheciums) eternal warrior frame. As much of a badass as he should be? I think so! But ladies and gents that is not all, oh no sir-ee! 

He also gets Descent of Angels as his automatic warlord trait, this sweet trait grants re-roll of failed reserve rolls for jump, flyer and skimmer units AND reduces scatter to D6 for jump and skimmer units that are deep striking, allowing for near perfect tactical precision drops on a jump heavy force. But there is more! In a tactical objectives mission he also get to roll on the tactical traits table in addition to having descent of angels! Perfect in maelstrom! Oh and he also has a mask that causes fear and all enemy units locked in combat within 6 of Dante must pass a fear test at the beginning of 

the fight sub phase even if they are not locked in combat with Dante, which is cool but situational.

Verdict: Dante has got everything he needs to really ruin a persons day and all for an exceptionally well priced 220 points. He is my favourite chapter master awesome sauce special characterness to me. But I'm bias ;)

OK so I will end part 1 here with 6 more to go in Part 2! I should get that up tomorrow some time so please do tune back in for more of my ramblings and I will also give my rankings to all 11 characters and we'll see who comes out on top and who sits in the dunce corner.

Peace out,

Rob

Age of sigmar Conversion and Black Templar Neophytes

Good evening readers!

I have been reflecting tonight on how much my hobby productivity has increased in the few short months since I started blogging in April (which btw seems bloody ages ago!). It really is a motivating factor to have people help guide your hobby through advice and encouragement which makes the actual hobbying easier, particularly when sharing problems that everyone seems to come across; but also it has given me a drive to put content out there to try and entertain and inspire readers and hopefully develop a bit of a following.

In short, blogging is ace! And the community of bloggers that I have met so far, including all who comment on my blog and many whose blogs I comment on are bloody nice guys and gals to boot.

Sigmar - Sanguinary Guard Conversion

Anyhoo, today I have my first attempt at converting a Storm Cast Eternal Prosecutor (the flying ones...) into a sanguinary guard. This chap has been given the Blood Angel specific Terminator banner and a generic terminator power fist, along with a Sanguinary Guard death mask.

It was a bit of a bugger getting the pose to work so I have in the end just bent the scrolls he is floating on and it seems to have worked out.

And the pictures:

I made a few mistakes here and there and the wing were a bloody nightmare to glue together to be honest, wasn't a fan of the wee connection that joins them, but hopefully these will make the other 4 a lot less painful to put together.

I managed to remove all of the Sigmar specific makings except for the wing comet which will be painted as fireballs and a small hammer in the centre of the wings which got mangled enough from glue to not matter. Though I have an order of purity seals coming so a few of them will make it on to him and probably cover that up anyway.

Templar Neophytes

In a further burst of activity tonight I have done all the basecoating for 10 Black Templar Neophytes that are now drying from a wash of Agrax as I type.

More pictures!

I am always surprised how much detail some of the older miniatures hold and these were no exception. The only bit to not be washed with agrax will be the hair which will get a nuln oil wash as it will be painted as white hair eventually.

I'm hoping to get these done by Sunday night and based ready for a game with them next week!

After these fine fellows are painted I will have 10 more to do and then 5 Vanguard Veterans and Grimaldus before all of my Black Templars are done!

I have no plans to buy anymore until at least one of my Blood Angels armies is complete.... Or I may start another army ahem...

Anyway, happy hobbies,

Peace out,

Rob

Chaplain and Sanguinary Priest Conversions - WIP

Hi Readers,

A productive week for me blog and hobby wise, which is to be expected when I am off work I suppose! Its been a much needed holiday and has seen a good amount of work made on my hobby to do pile. 

But as always where progress has been made, more models must be bought and built and converted like some horrible compulsion! Today I have a few pictures of a converted Sanguinary priest with some forgeworld bits I grabbed off eBay and also a converted Chaplain using on of the new Age of Sigmar models.

I have a bunch of these Age of Sigmar models and I think they are fantastic. I am going to be spending some time converting the winged ones in Sanguinary guard at some point, but I have to psyche myself up for that! I have however purchased some more hobby item such as better clippers and a craft knife to aid this process.

Without further ado here is the Chaplain:

And the Sanguinary Priest:

I'm pleased with both of them and hope to get them undercoated fairly soon. The sanguinary priest is more important in general as it will be accompanying Dante and the converted Sanguinary guard to give FNP goodness to them.

In slightly annoying news I have actually finished painting my Death Company Storm Raven but I accidentally hit the "Delete All" button on my camera, thus abolishing all of the WIP pictures I had taken of it. Curses.

I will just take pictures of it fully complete with base now, but that only arrives this Wednesday so I will be keeping it in the bank till late this coming week in case I don't get much hobbying done.

Thanks for all the support as always,

Peace out

Rob