Forsaken again!

Well its been a busy few days, with a whirlwind trip to Sydney and Uni starting back for the year, yet amongst all that I seem to still find time to get a little hobby in!

My Bird of Prey!

Now some of you read my friends blog "The Arctic Templars" and having done so may have noticed his new Stormraven on the site, For those who haven't here's a pic!

JP's Stormraven, note the Assult cannon and Hurricane Bolter are both relocated

Now both Jon-Paul and I have been reviewing the look of this new model for some time now, with both of us agreeing a long time back that while it was initially hideous it also grows on you... much like a boil or tumor grows on you, or even for a select few other things....

Jp's Stormraven ; Assault cannon

So our sentiments lay with moving the turret from the top of the Stormraven to below and giving it a more streamline look. As pictured above you can see JP has done so and well, while at the same time I have been creating my own bird of prey!

As you can see I have also adopted the under slung assault cannons, I did however keep the original Hurricane Bolters that come with the kit. I have magenitised the weapon mounts bar the bloodstrike missles and multimelta as I figure both of them to be standard loadout on my vehicle!

This mount allows the guns to track both horizontally and vertically!

I seem to be running out of magnets... time to order some more...YAY!

There are of course a few minor adjustments all over the craft and kudos to those who can spot them!
Now to paint the bugger... sigh

As always Good Gaming,

Von Drakin

Raven Company List for 1500 points

So today I figured I put my 1500 point list out there for the world to see,  I'm fairly confident that its not conventional, that allot of people will say its not competitive but that being said the idea for the next project after wolf company was to go beyond the meta game and look at a list that was a challenge on the table to push my skill on the table.

So I've mentioned before the rational for this list is a strike force- more like the 1st wave of a planet assault.

So that means drop pods- no tracked armor at all- dreadnaughts (because I like them) and terminators.

1500 Pts - Blood Angels Roster

Total Roster Cost: 1497

HQ: Reclusiarch in Terminator Armor

Elite: Sanguinary Priest
2 Sanguinary Priest in Power Armour,  Power Sword

Elite: Terminator Assault Squad 5#
2 Terminator with Lightning Claws,
2 Terminator with Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield,
1 Sergeant with Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield

Elite: Furioso Librarian

Troops: Assault Squad 8#,
5 Assault Squad,
1 Assault Marine with Meltagun,
1 Sergeant+ Power Fist
1 Drop Pod,

Troops: Assault Squad 8#
5 Assault Squad,
1 Assault Marine with Meltagun,
1 Sergeant, + Power Fist

1 Drop Pod,

Troops: Scout Squad 5#,
4 Scout, Camo Cloaks
1 Sergeant,  + Camo Cloaks
All with Sniper Rifles

Heavy Support: Stormraven Gunship
+ Hurricane Bolters

Heavy Support: Dreadnought (2#, 155 pts)
1 Dreadnought,  + Twin Linked Autocannon  + Twin Linked Autocannon
1 Drop Pod,

The idea is as follows-  Scouts hunker down on the objective in the back line and snipe units from afar causing pinning tests (hopefully)

Mortis Pattern dreadnaught deploys on table or via drop pod depending on the mission, if its deployed before the game and im dropping an empty drop pod, that pod goes down somewhere as a shot blocker or to add an obstacle to the opponent.

So the other two troops will drop in over time lending support or laying the ground for the storm raven and terminators.

The real focus is that the hammer blow comes in and takes out the heavy units- ive found in play tests that the Furioso Librarian worked really well at tying up or taking out secondary elements and acts as nice distraction while the raven comes in to take out the primary targets.

So far Ive played the list against CSM and Demon lists-  I suspect they where the easy lists and will face issues against gurad and all MEQ lists.

Anyway thats the list- at 2000 points im tempted to get a 2nd raven and some death company.

So what are your thoughts?

cheers

JP

The Sunday Rant

Ive decided to add a regular discussion piece to the blog, which would be a little different from what I post normally.

Hopefully this will happen weekly anyway on with the rant.

The Sunday Rant

Codex hopping!

So there has been of late discussion around this topic, more or less spurred on by Goatboys counts as lists from BOLS with his space goats and the recent drama over the word bearers army he made using the space wolf codex.

Of late also down here in OZ my mate has recently decided to use the Blood Angels codex to run his Khorne Army, and in a recent tournament a player used Dark Angels codex to run a Night Lords Bike army using I think the ravening character  as a counts as.

For the most part no-one complained and the night lords player even got an accolade for the imaginative use and brilliant conversion work.

Yet in the lands of the internetz and blogs there has been allot of chatter about it and allot of it against the idea.

Now myself when I came back to the hobby my decision to create a DIY chapter was based on the fact that while I liked the Cannon chapters I wanted to be able to do something imaginative with time and not follow some standard approach.  Don't get me wrong there are some wonderful codex armies out there with lots of great conversions etc. But something inside me said be different.

So the Arctic Templars where born, originally they where going to be codex marines but then codex space wolves came out, and the nature of how you could build your army appealed to me.  Strong individual characters,  small heroic units etc.  So I went to work on Wolf Company and the bulk of the bog you see today covers that journey of making that 1st army.

SO it was a counts as, it was not a true space wolf list per say, yet all the models where wysiwyg and I always took time to explain to people what everything was and in 2 years have never met anyone who has issue with this.

Now I'm working through Codex Blood Angels for 2nd Company of the chapter. Over the course of the period Ive also developed  style of play that Codex Space wolves influenced but was also derived from the style of army I wanted to play, which in this case was Armored Column of DOOM!
After consideration around what I wanted to do next I decided on something very different, essentially a drop pod assault or more specifically a planet assault force, so blood angels codex allowed me to explore that with free drop pods, gunships and etc.

This then led to a careful review of my collection.  As such I've decided to retire some of my original models and redo the wolf company troop choices to able to swap them in for troop choices in a BA codex list for larger games.

So whats the point thus far? well the recent chatter has made me step back for a moment and consider if I'm doing this because the codex is the newest badest biggest boy on the block? or is it that I'm exploring a different approach to the game?

Now yes true its not me going out and making a guard army and trying something very different but its still different. 

So then the question I have to ask is why so many people take issue with this on the Internetz?

The more I read about it there seems to be a culture of gamers that Ive read about that would not stay true to the rule of wysiwig and at times would even use a tampon found in their sisters sock draw as the new Stormraven on the table if it allowed them to gain the advantage in a game.

Against that there are also those who have an issue with the idea of using one set of rules to represent another set models who have rules already, and seem to use very emotive words about the very idea to the  point that you would be convinced that at one time or another such a choice would be on the same level as selling their 80 year old mother into slave labor just to continue to fund their home loan repayments.

So if we break the two groups down and I'm sure there are other subsets of these groups, (possibly hiding with the lost tribe of pygmies in the Indonesian archipelago) I really have two responses to both.

To the tampon using, unimaginative nitwit who has clearly failed to grasp in my opinion the spirit of the hobby,  If you cant afford the model and cant seem to win with your current army of laundry pegs and used coke cans, don't expect me to be sympathetic just because I also have a counts as army.  My army actually looks like one, and more so to those who take issue with this don't try and use people like myself as a fall guy for these people. It makes no sense on one side you have people who spend the money, pay attention to conventions such as wysiwyg and continue to enhance the rich world of this hobby.  The other really has no place in the hobby in my opinion as they would not even be allowed in tournaments.

To the puritans out there who, cry that the sky is falling in and that the emperor will strike you down where you stand for even considering the idea of Using Codex Space wolves to represent renegades or one of the Traitor Legions.  Take hold of a hand rail or even glue your feet to the concrete and get a grip.  At the end of the day the rules are stat lines, I could call the assault marines in my army the fluffy hippo feet tactical response unit- and they would still move six hit on 4's- its the stat line that is important.  I think there really needs to be less of this agnst against people who are looking to expand their hobby are willing to take the time to model convert and paint those armies.  At the end of the day you have a choice around this and you don't have to play them, but I really don't think you have a right to force your view on them either.

I doubt even GW would take issue with it, so long as the hobby continues to grow.

So with that I'm siding with Goatboy on this I think what he did with the word bearers was fantastic and myself The Arctic Templar's are going to embrace the BA codex for their rebirth at 3000 points and beyond. 





Rant complete!

Stormraven WIP and Terminators WIP

Been a few days but in that time the Stormraven kit arrived from the UK- Thank you Maelstrom Games!

Ive also got on with the business of painting the terminators which are now near completion, March will see allot of painting to be completed for the April competition.


With inspiration from other people on the Blogspehere on tackling the Stormraven i decided to move some of the weapon mounts around to make them more in my mind how they should be mounted on a gunship!

So with that in mind the 1st move was to reposition the top turret gun and move it to the under carriage of the gunship, to do this I inserted a copula and then mounted Landspeeder assault cannons from the Ravenwing upgrade sprue.  This for me already made more sense as a gunship would not dip so dramatically to allow the weapon fire on ground targets.

The next step was the mounting of the hurricane bolters. This to me made more sense to mount them on the wings- similar to most attack helicopters out there. So after some thought i took hurricane bolters from the land raider crusader kit- (i've ordered some of the side shielding you get with this kit as well to complete the weapon mounting as well).

This allows me to add some forgeworld rhino doors when they arrive.

Overall this to me makes the profile allot more aerodynamic and more gunship looking than the original model.

On the painting front here are the WIP shots of the terminators that I hope to aim to have finished by next week, with then moving onto the troop choices.

So Ill hope to have more up in the coming days with the above squad finished and shots of the assault sqauds and scouts mid through being painted.

Cheers

JP

R.I.P FTW

Well im guessing most of you have heard by now that From the Warp is going into hibernation, What has been a conduit of 40k news and information will be no more.

We are the poorer for it this day. Goodbye and Good luck Ron!

In other news my actual post for this day was going to be about the ever growing "Counts as" armys out there and why Codex; Chaos Space Marines is losing its place in my heart.

A lot of you out there will have played against CSM, but how many times in recent history have you played the actual codex? Oh its still there, Hell I've been using it non stop but with the new leaked Grey Knights codex it becomes apparent to me that my legion can no longer compete!

Now I have been playing an army that could really have been a Space Wolf codex army for some time now, but unlike a million fanboiz I just cant feel the love for chaos. Im fielding an ex Space wolf list with a chaos codex but no im seriously thinking of switching to the Blood Angels codex for my everyday chaos needs! Blood angels you say?

To put it simply My main focus has always been Khorne, Nothing to me says Berzerker like Death Company, And while to run a berzerker force with the BA dex you would need astorath the grim (he just screams baddy) and you cant score objectives doesnt that sound right? Imagine if you will your a blood frenzied scary mofo with a huge chip on your shoulder, Would you care about some objective when there are soft squishy blood filled fun times over yonder? would you be able to stand there wiping the froth from your mouth thinking "its safer here in cover" and lets be honest would you care if someone poured lemon juice on that papercut you have?

So for less points per model, with actual weapon upgrades you get to run Berzerkers who still have WS5, Furious charge but now have feel no pain and the black rage?

But its not just Khorne that gets the boost from switching Codex, you could play almost every Traitor Legion with the BA dex, if not the Space Wolf dex or even the Vanilla marine dex. Why you could play a lost and the damned force with either sisters of battle or Imperial guard, and lets go Tzeentch with Grey knights.

So why oh why do we play with the Chaos dex, until the release Traitor Legion to us again and not this watered down light version we have had to endure for so long.

All these points aside I think there is nothing better in the 40k universe than a well executed counts as army, it shows imagination and creativity... something for which this hobby is meant to be about! However having said that there is nothing worse than playing someone who takes "codex a" because he can min max for a win, or if someone doesnt play wysiwig.

Anyway just some thoughts to leave you with today, Get incensed about it, write something about and play something creative. Win or Lose be bloody creative cause you cant win all the time, Life aint fair and its all about the laughs or some shit :D

As always, Good Gaming.

Vondrakin

Grey Knights Oh My

So here they are, the codex or at least the playtest codex was leaked and from what I can see there is allot of cool stuff but in keeping with the idea you work with limited numbers. 

So with that in mind I began to think of a type of army I would like to run. 

You read all sorts of stories in the fluff of Thunderhawk Insertions and the like so my mind defiantly leads to storm ravens as a starting point. 

I want terminators in there as well and paladins and a grand master. 

So as a rough idea 

A Grand Master with a Warding Stave and Incinerator and being a level 2 Psycher 

He comes with a retinue of 3 Paladins with 3 warding staves as well. 

Troops: 

Terminators x 5  

2 ward staves 

2 Falchions

1 Incinerator 

GreyKnight Strike Sqaud x 10 

Personal Teleporters

2 x Pyscannons 

2 x Falchions 

4 x Halberds ( rumour is they add +1 Initiative)

Heavy Support 

Stormraven 1 

with Hurricane Bolters

Stormraven 2

So 

Roughly the plan being GM and Paladins in one Stormraven and the Terminators  in the other, the strike squad combat squad giving me 3 potentially 4 scoring units and possibly some with scout and some with couter attack thank the GM. 

Its a small strike force for roughly 1500 points and may or may not be competitive.  Could drop the paladins for a dread-knight but as a starting point. 

Additionally could drop some upgrades to kit out the vehicles. who knows. 

All I know this codex is on the must buy list and will be the 3rd army I work on later this year for sure. 

Already have color schemes of black and gold working through my head with a deep red for robes and the like.

So what do people think?  Is this going to be the new sky is falling in army?  will Grey Knights break the game like allot of people saying, or will a codex that was not very good (Demonhunters) actually now be a viable competative list with lots of room for good fluff?

Look forward to your thoughts

Anyway should have some WIP's up on the current project later this week. 

Cheers

Forsaken update, questions and a rant

So its been a while, only the 1 post since my triumphed return from Japan and no real hobby incased within. So let me just start this whole post off with an apology!

Im sorry.

Right well you can take that prior statement anyway you want, with sugar and milk for all I care :) Lets get on with it!

So first off the bat is my work in progress new army "The Forsaken" and there has been a little movement on that front. The whole 1500 point army barring the Storm Raven (which is in the mail as we speak) has been assembled and undercoated.I took the time aside from everything else the other night however to work on the dreadnought, who is at 85% complete now.

Thats my take on the frag cannon! Yes I hand made it from Green stuff, cotton swab tubes and the unfortunate Las Cannon.

As you can see I have done free hand flames on his front panels as well as the soon to be dreaded checker (more on this in a minute). All told im happy with how this model has turned out considering I have yet to do major Highlighting, Weathering or complete basing (flock and the like).

Both assault squads have been base coated in the unit colours and as you can see here 2 of the lucky blighters are at 75% complete. As mentioned earlier... the dreaded checker. Every sword and model will have checks on it in some fashion as a theme of the army. That being Ex Lamenters. While its in its rough draft form on this chain sword the Dread has the finished product!

The Sanguinary Guard and Dante have been assembled (sans jump packs for ease of painting), as to how im going to paint them... I have no idea yet, I would like to keep my quarter theme constant if I can and avoid the dip in gold paint look but also would like to give them the "royal" treatment. Ideas welcome at this juncture!

The whole lot of them.

So we move on to stage two of this post, Question time!

I put it to you the 40k community this question,

"If two enemy units are ensconced in the same piece of area terrain (eg. a building) that grants a 4+ cover save and both units have clear line of sight to one another would they be granted a cover save from low AP weapons such as plasma rifles."

Now we can assume two examples in this case, in both cases lets assume that the area terrain is of a large size.
1. Both units are at opposite edges of the terrain piece with no less that 6" of space between the closest model
2. Both units are close to one another in the terrain peice with no more than 2" of space between the closest models.

Would either unit be granted a cover save? I can see arguments for and against on this point, however can think of no direct reference to deal with it (if anyone does no case and point please comment it up!)

Now thats done lets rant!

"Not only am I not learning but im forgetting things I used to know!"

As a full time Uni student who works only part time you would think I have all the time in the world. Oh how much would you get done with 4 months off from the day to day grind (still working 2 days a week) Yet if anything I get more done during the Uni year, when time is at a premium. Why do I have to treasure my time when I have so very little of it!

Needless to say I am looking forward to Uni starting back in the next 2 weeks!

As always Good Gaming!






Von Drakin
 

The Raven Lord

So yesterday I pushed on through with a painting session with Harely, and got the the Raven Lord Finished. With work and stuff its been hard to find time to paint so it was really great to knuckle down just put in a long session of brush work

Stat line wise he is a Reclusiarch for the list, and represent a large number parts from allot of different model kits.

Kudos to those who can guess all the different model parts involved.

Cheers

Honor Guard Finished and WIP of Compay Master and Terminator Squad

So its been a slow start to 2011.

That being said though Im now registered for Melbourne In Flames, one of Victoria's premier tournments so I have to get my skates on and get this new army painted.

So with that in mind ive got on and finished the honour Guard unit and begun in earnest the Reclusiarch and terminator sqauds.

Additionally Im looking at a revamp of the blog of sorts so that It incorporates all aspects of the hobby.  Some may be aware before 40k I was very much an historical gamers and the itch to paint something historical is growing. Just haven't chosen what just yet.  Toying with either French Revolutionary Russians, or English Civil War Royalists.  

Ill post up something soon anyway .

Anyway to the pictures here is the finished squad and some WIP's of the terminators etc..