Finished Second batch of Kabalites and Archon

Nothing much done on Saturday night as my team had a fantastic win over Liverpool (Stoke City 6 - 1 Liverpool) so I had to watch the match in full again in the evening!

I did manage to get the second batch of Kabalites with the Archon finished on Sunday/Monday evening though and it feels good now that at least I have a minimum CAD painted up! (I do have 8 Wyches painted too but the less said about those the better...)

I'm not sure about the Archon, I'm kinda happy he's done, but I'm also regretting just lumping him in with the Kabalites as a batch paint job rather than spending some extra time on him.

Maybe at some point I'll go back over and give him a little more love but at least I can put a painted HQ choice down on the table for now.

I've a 1000pt game on Friday evening for which I'm going to try and field as much as I can painted so will try and take some pictures of everything I have together at that point on my new board.

At the moment then my painted Dark Eldar list looks like this:

HQ: Archon with Shadowfield, Huskblade, Soul Trap
Dedicated Venom with 2 x Splinter Cannon

Troop: 5 Kabalite Warriors with Blaster
Dedicated Raider with Dark Lance and Enhanced Aethersails

Troop: 5 Kabalite Warriors with Blaster
Dedicated Raider with Dark Lance and Enhanced Aethersails

Troop: Troop: 8 Wyches with Hekatrix (Agoniser and Haywire Grenades) and Wych with Hydra Gauntlets
Dedicated Raider with Dark Lance and Enhanced Aethersails

Fast Attack: Razorwing Jetfighter with 2 Dark Lance and a Splinter Cannon

Fast Attack: Razorwing Jetfighter with 2 Disintegrator Cannon and a Splinter Cannon

Fast Attack: 3 Reaver Jetbikes with 1 Blaster and Cluster Caltrops

Assembly Progress and a Start on Painting my Eldar

Got my Dire Avenger assembly finished last night and then didn't have long left so didn't fancy carrying on with the last batch of Kabalites/Archon.

Heads are cleaned up but I'm keeping them off for now to spray separately before attaching once painted.

Models are all just pinned to the bases for now so I can remove them to paint the bases easier.

Instead of the Kabalites I grabbed the new Autarch and quickly popped a basecoat on him to see what the colour looks like on the model (Falcon Turquoise)

I was surprised to see the Autarch comes with a 32mm base which threw me as I don't have any scenic bases for that size, for the time being I've pinned him onto on a 25mm one and then magnetised that one onto a larger 32mm base.

I'm not sure whether to rebase him entirely, just run him on a 25mm, or keep the 32mm underneath it as it is and play with him like that?

The turquoise is a bit darker than I expected but hopefully after a wash and then bringing it back up with highlights it'll start to become brighter.

Don't think I'll get a game in this Wed (might play some X-Wing) but I'll pick the Kabalites and Archon back up on Thursday night I expect and try to get them finished so they're out of the way.

Does anyone else find it really difficult to go back to a project after you take a pause partway through?

1000pt First Week Results // Further Eldar Assembly // Imperial Assault Frustrations

1000pt Results (Maelstrom)

2 Games last Wednesday to tell you about, my list was as per last week's update:

Medusae
··Raider [Dark Lance]

Kabalite Warriors with Blaster
··Raider [Dark Lance]

Kabalite Warriors with Blaster
··Raider [Dark Lance]

Scourges with 4 Haywire blaster

Scourges with 4 Haywire blaster
Solarite with Power Lance (Warlord)

Venom with 2 Splinter Cannon

Ravager [3 Dark Lance]

Ravager [3 Dark Lance]

Ravager [3 Disintegrator cannon]

First game was Cloak and Shadows against a mechanised Imperial Guard army with a HQ Tank, 3 Troops Tanks and a Tank Destroyer thing with a massive gun, plus a Vendetta

Took out one of the tanks early on and the scourges dropped in turn 2 and over 2 turns took out another tank each, Lost one of the Ravagers and the Scourge units both died once they'd done their job but generally I flew around and claimed objectives whilst firing off lances and haywire at tanks.

I felt a bit bad for Chris as he's a nice chap but my army is pretty good at taking out armoured targets, and even with the Venom and Medusa being useless in this matchup I had plenty of tools for taking out the tanks. The Vendetta did cause a bit of a problem but my Ravager with DC's got behind him the turn after he showed up (Turn 3) and then followed it around firing shots into it's back armour and forcing him to jink, making it pretty ineffective.

Ended up winning the game 13-2, the mobility of the army really helps for Maelstrom missions!

Second game was Cleanse and Control against a friend's Scout army (Sentinels of Terra)

He ran something like:

ML2 Librarian
5 Bolter Scouts
5 Scout Snipers
5 BP + CC Scouts with a Heavy Bolter
3 Scout Bikers with Grenade Launchers
Mortis Dread with 2 x twin Auto Cannon
Dread with Assault Cannon and Heavy Flamer Power Fist
Vindicator
Landspeeder with Heavy Flamer and Multi Melta
Landspeeder with Heavy Flamer and Multi Melta
Aegis Defence Line

Good fun game and really close until turn 5 as I had to jink less and less as threats were taken out I was able to take the game away a little and ended at the end of t5 with a librarian and a couple of scouts left. Ended up winning 7-4.

Overall I was fairly happy with my list, I think the Ravager with Disintegrator Cannons definitely has a place and came in useful both games. There was plenty of anti tank whilst still retaining some decent infantry killing between the kabalites / venom (28 poison shots and 2 blasters in close range) plus the Disintegrator Ravager and the Ap3 Flamer from the Medusa. I'm not sure how I'd cope against a horde army like Nids or Orks but I think I'd still give it a good game.

Scourges I don't think I'd deep strike again, both games they came in and did something but they were pretty much suicide squads which is potentially fine, but if I can take out their targets without getting them killed then even better. Nice to have the option though I suppose.

I think two games in a night is starting to be a stretch now though so I'm likely to only get one game in a week from now on.

-----------------------------

Assembly

Just to keep a track of progress here, I managed to get 6 Striking Scorpions and a Support Platform done over the weekend, the Striking Scorpions took ages as the finecast was pretty bad and had to be very careful cutting bits away, will need to go back over these with green stuff at some point.

The Support Weapon Battery I enjoyed making and I really like the figure, nice to have the options without having to magnetise as well as they just slot on top.

-----------------------------

Imperial Assault

Had another game of this on Friday and we're now on about the 7th mission I think? We played the "Sorry about the Mess" side mission and it just felt impossible for the Imperial Player, I think the Story missions are balanced fantastically well but the Side missions just don't seem to have had that same thought go into them, much less detailed and they don't scale.

If we'd have played this Side mission as the first mission, the Rebels may have had a challenge, but as the 5th? Side Mission they just blew through it.

We'll need to think of a way to balance out the Side Missions I think, or I'll have to play more of a GM type role and add in things randomly to provide that challenge.

Oh well, I'm just a bit disappointed after my initial enjoyment of the game, I still hold high hopes for the Skirmish version though as that seems to be balanced well with a good variety of missions and the deck building element of it looks great too.

Assembly Progress // 1000pt Dark Eldar list

Hi guys,

Apologies I haven't posted for a while, been busy trying to get everything finished for my 1000pt list in the Escalation League and reading through the new Eldar Codex.

Some quick assembly pictures below for my Scourge and final Ravager

Scourges:

The plan is to do 4 with Haywire and 4 with Blasters then make the other 12 with Carbines and I will use them as two units of 6 Swooping Hawks in my Eldar armies for now as I prefer the Scourge figures.

Trying to therefore do all the Swooping Hawks with the Hawk Wings and the Special Weapons with the bat like wings but sadly I'd already made one of them up with Bat Wings so that one will look a little out of place for now.

Ravager:

I probably should do this with Lances but I do like the Disintegrator Cannon version (9 S5 AP2 shots) and I hopefully will have anti tank covered at 1000pts with 2 other Ravagers, plus the Raiders lances, plus two units of Haywire Scourges. This one is therefore my MEQ and TEQ hunter, going after elite infantry and wreaking havoc hopefully.

For those of you interested, this is my current thoughts for a 1000pt list.

Court of the Archon (85pts) [Medusae]
··Raider [Dark Lance]

Kabalite Warriors (120pts)
··Kabalite Warrior with Blaster
··Raider [Dark Lance, Enhanced Aethersails]

Kabalite Warriors (120pts)
··Kabalite Warrior with Blaster
··Raider [Dark Lance, Enhanced Aethersails]

Scourges (120pts)
··4 Scourge with Haywire blaster

Scourges (120pts)
··4 Scourge with Haywire blaster
··Solarite [Shardcarbine]

Venom (65pts) [2 Splinter Cannon]

Ravager (125pts) [3 Dark Lance]

Ravager (125pts) [3 Dark Lance]

Ravager (110pts) [3 Disintegrator cannon]

Finally a small update with a start on assembly for my Eldar:

Airbrush Stencilling // Hobby Update // 1000pt Dark Eldar vs Crimson Fists this evening

Hi guys,

Quick update with some progress, I'm afraid most of it is pretty boring but just got some progress on assembly / priming.

Before...

Got the airbrush out last night and primed some more of my Dark Eldar bits as well as spraying over some I had bought second hand on ebay. I also managed to get some of the characters primed for my Harlequins so that I can get started on those when I feel the urge.

After...

Managed to Prime:

Dark Eldar Scenery Piece
Archon
12 Kabalites (3 Blasters, 1 Sybarite, 1 Splinter Cannon)
2 Ravagers

Solitaire
2 Death Jesters
2 Shadowseers

Drop Pod
Marine w. Heavy Flamer
Dreadnought

I do find the airbrush a much better way to prime then the spray cans, you're able to direct the spray much better and can put a much lighter coat on them. It is a bit of a pain having to get it all out and then clean and put it away afterwards but I think it's worth it.

I also managed to have a play around with some stencils and I'm quite happy with the results, the stencils are from a recent kickstarter I backed from Anarchy Models and are the Dragon Scale pattern ones, I really like the effect and think it'll look good once they're painted up. I have some hex ones for the Aether Sails of the Ravagers as well as some Diamond ones for the Harlequin vehicles

The picture at the top is a better close up and you can see the one on the right I had a bit of splatter from the airbrush with so I'll need to clean that up, they also look much brighter than they are in the flesh, for a better idea of the colours/brightness look at the army shot.

For anyone interested in how I used the stencils I just held them over the area I wanted to put the pattern and sprayed over with some white paint, then went over the area with a purple shade (Druchi Violet) afterwards to try and tint the white and blend it in a bit more. Might need to put a couple more coats of this on to make the effect more subtle but wanted to consider it rather than just do it on the night then regret it.

------------

Following that I managed to get another batch of 4 Kabalites started last night and I'm painting my Archon along with them. (Not going to put a lot of time into this model as I plan to convert my own eventually but I'd like to get him on the table painted for now)

That would put me on the following painted:

Archon in Venom
5 Kabalites with Blaster in Raider
5 Kabalites with Blaster in Raider
8 Wyches with Hekatrix and Hydrae in Raider


Feels like I'm slowly getting there with the army and I have a few other bits at various stages of completion like the two jetfighters above, a unit of 3 Reaver Jetbikes and a second Venom that just need to be finished off.

------------

1000 pt Game this evening

I also have a friend coming round this evening with Crimson Fists for a game at 1000pts playing a Maelstrom mission. He normally brings quite a competitive list so I'm going to try out the list I wanted to use for the league once it kicks up to 1000pts in May.

Archon with Blaster and Haywire Grenades in Venom (2x Splinter Cannon)

5 Kabalites with Blaster in Venom (2x Splinter Cannon)
5 Kabalites with Blaster in Raider (Dark Lance)
5 Kabalites with Blaster in Raider (Dark Lance)
5 Kabalites with Blaster in Raider (Dark Lance)

Razorwing Jetfighter (2 x Dark Lance and 4 x Monoscythe Missiles)

Ravager (3 x Dark Lance)
Ravager (3 x Dark Lance)

Hopefully has the tools to deal with a variety of lists, with 9 Lance shots initially and extra as the Blasters come into play and the Razorwing arrives. Not sure the Razorwing is worth it but it's my only anti air if he brings any flyers.

Will try and take some pictures this evening and post them up some time in the next couple of days, possibly as a battle report if I've time, if not then just a few pictures and a brief overview of the game.


Sorry for the info dump, I view this blog as somewhere I can dump my own thoughts so I can look back on it as much as anything and I am aware it's content may not be the best format for everyone!

Rich

Last week of Combat Patrol with Dark Eldar

Hi guys,

quick update, Wednesday night I played two more games at the club against the 1st place and 3rd place players (I was 2nd)

First game was against the guy in 1st who was a nice guy and we'd played before and had a good time so I enjoyed the match.

He had something like:

Inquisitor with 10 guys, Plasma Cannon and Heavy Bolter Servitor things in this unit.
10 Guardsmen with 3 Plasma Guns in a Chimera with Multi Laser and Heavy Bolter
5 Guardsmen with Plasma Gun in a Razorback with TL Assault Cannons
5 Guardsmen with Plasma Gun

First turn he advanced and got a shot off with the Assault cannon but the rest was out of range and/or missed.

My turn I moved onto an objective and shot everything at the Razorback, blowing it up and killing all but 1 of the unit inside between everything firing into them (couldn't see the Chimera)

His Turn 2 he moved round with the Chimera, fired the lone Plasma Gunner into one raider exploded it, The Chimera took out a second raider, and the Guys inside fired 3 plasma guns and 2 bolters at the other Raider and destroyed that.

Not a good couple of turns...

So from there I didn't really have much of a chance, two units with Blasters were pinned, all my units were disembarked, and he had his Inquisitor and 10 guys on a 4 pt objective in the far corner... Not happening.

Nice guy though and sometimes the dice just don't work for you, I couldn't pass a jink save for toffee and that Chimera was just absolutely BRUTAL (4 S4 Bolter shots // 3 S5 Heavy Bolter // 3 S6 Multi Laser // 6 S7 Plasma Gun all re-rolling 1's to hit for an objective...)

Second game was against Necrons and this guy was the chap I'd lost as he walked over everyone at Kill Team. (9 Tomb Blades with Ignores Cover Gauss all in single model units at 200pts is crazy)

His list was something like:

10 Tomb Blades with Ignores Cover and 3+ Saves (2 S6 Blast Weapons in here)
5 Immortals
5 Immortals

Dice went horribly for me again and first turn 4 Lance Shots on 2's to wound, and 9 DC shots on 3's to wound, all with no save (didn't jink) and then 36 poison shots left... 2 dead Tomb Blades.

Then to add insult to injury, my Venom holding an objective rolled sabotage, then a 1 for it to explode, then 5 S4 hits, which then blew it up... At this stage I'm thinking this isn't going to be my evening.

Anyway, over the next couple of turns I finished off the bikes for the loss of 2 Raiders and 1 of the units inside them, and one unit of Immortals that had walked across by now. We called it on T4 as he couldn't stop me boosting over to his side of the table for linebreaker without moving his Immortals off the objective which would make the loss even worse, giving me the game at 5-4 (Objective // Slay The Warlord // Linebreaker vs Objective // First Blood)

The dice were horrible to me throughout the game but eventually after firing approx 30-35 AP2 shots and dozens of poison shots the Bikes went down, and the rest was much easier from there, I was saved by the fact that he could only take out 1 target a turn.

After the league table was updated I'm now at 5th with my first opponent still top and the Necron player just below me in 6th. So far I've won 5 of my 6 games but my objective points aren't high enough to lift me any further sadly as some of the games I've won with low scores. (The league is ranked by Objective Score Rate, gained by dividing the amount of Primary and Secondary objectives you have got so far by your win rate)

---------------------

Thursday night I went back to my Raiders and did the bases before I move on to the Kabalites, as the ones I'd done "yellow" (Don't ever try and shade this with Nuln Oil) had just gone a slimy green. I think they look much better with the light grey and it makes the Purple stand out a lot more, I'm pretty happy with these now and I think once I've gone back and done the crew they'll look pretty good. (Or at least to a level I'm happy with! :) )

Kabalite Test Figure Complete

Finished the test figure last night and I'm pretty chuffed with it for a quick scheme..

Took a bit longer then I thought to finish off as I started to base it by line highlighting the Alien Temple base but I didn't like the look of it and felt it was taking focus away from the figure so I went back and painted it grey in the end which I'm satisfied with.

Things I'm not quite sure about:

The brown pouch, could be grey instead to limit the palette as it looks out of place?

The red ribbons (For want of a better name) I'm not sure about either, I like the idea of putting a bit of red on the model but I'm not 100% sure this is the right place for it.

Overall though, I'm happy that I can replicate these results at a decent pace and at a standard I'm happy with as I've never been a great painter.

I'm going to try and get another few of these painted up next week as a batch of 5 to see how quickly they can be done and hopefully I will be able to post about my success when I get back from our holiday.

Just as a heads up, as a result of going on holiday next week I'm unlikely to be posting here until the end of the month now (Potentially a quick one on Thursday to let you know how my latest round of the Escalation league went - Last one at 400pts for me this week before the jump to 750)

Kabalite Test Figure // Second attempt at first play through Imperial Assault

Friday - Imperial Assault

Spent Friday evening starting the Campaign for Imperial Assault with a second group on Friday night, this being a group with mates I normally game with on a Wednesday rather than the previous group which was guys from work who were interested in trying it.

It went down much better this time and we had a blast.

A couple of the guys weren't able to make it so there were 3 of us total in the end with 2 Rebels and me as the Imperial. I'd read that the missions are more balanced with 4 hero's and this gives us the option of other people joining in future missions, so each player chose two heroes and we skipped the tutorial to start with the first mission - Aftermath.

The rules were grasped very quickly and the mission went well, with the Heroes quickly blowing away the forces outside the building and getting in, only to have two of them trapped inside and surrounded.

The party fought their way out of trouble though and despite my exploding Probe Droid antics, the final terminal went down on the last round, with a couple of actions to spare.

We then went on to Diala's story mission and I won't pop any spoilers here, but it was awesome, the Rebels seemed to breeze this one a bit but it could have been a lot different at the end when I thought the last Imperial was alive to attack back with 1 health left, only for Diala to use Force Push and smash him back against a wall for the kill. 

By the end of the evening the guys were both asking when we could get the next game in and were very excited about the combination of advances and equipment they now had. (Diala with a lightsaber and Balanced Hilt looks like she'll be nasty)

----------------------

Saturday - Airbrushing (Apologies for poor pic)

Saturday evening I managed to pull the airbrush out while my wife worked on a dress for the girls for Easter, I managed to pull my airbrush apart and clean it and finally found what was causing some niggling problems, the Nozzle had some dried paint in it and once that was cleared it was much better again (although I'm still finding it clogs up very quickly and I have to pick paint off the needle every minute or so to prevent splatter)

I got some Kabalites primed black and did my Flying Bases black as well as I have started to prefer that since I did it with my X-Wing mini's.

Then I thought I'd make a start on the flyers themselves and a Venom so I sprayed on a thin dusting of Vallejo "Alien Purple" before going in and trying to pick out the edges and raised bits with the same colour. 

With my Raiders I had previously used "Drakenhoff Nightshade" to wash over them through the airbrush and this had worked well but I had seen a video tutorial that used the Vallejo Purple Ink instead so I thought I'd give that a go.

In the end I definitely prefer the first method using Drakenhoff Nightshade, with the Vallejo Ink I found that the ink coloured by itself, more than blended my colours together which I think is what I liked about the GW version. I'm sure that's working as intended, but for my purposes it wasn't quite what I was looking for so now I'm not sure whether to leave as is, or to do them again with the Drakenhoff Nightshade.

For now I'm edging towards "they'll be ok" but I'll have a look at them next to the Raiders before deciding.

----------------------

Sunday - Kabalite Test Mini almost finished

Sunday was Mothering Sunday in the UK so we bought takeaway in the evening from a nice curry house locally, my wife obviously didn't trust me cooking for her and probably a fair shout that.

Didn't have too much time left in the evening but I wanted to test the colour scheme for my army on a Kabalite, given that I seem to be moving away from a Wych Cult and more towards Kabal.

I found a good tutorial on a quick paint scheme here and used that with some changes in colour for my own Kabal. (Subbed the Turquoise for two drybrushes of Alien Purple and then Dechala Lilac for the final highlight, before washing with Draknhoff Nightshade // Eyes were done with Teclis Blue / Lothern Blue and then washed with Asurmen Blue)

It's not quite finished yet but I'm happy with how it's coming out, I did about 1.5 hours on this last night and another half hour it should be finished which for me is pretty quick. I think if I did them in batches of 5 I could do 5 in 6 hours, which is about 3 evenings painting for me.

Hopefully I'll be able to post up the finished Test Mini tomorrow

Harlequin Baby Steps // Imperial Assault first play

So still haven't managed to get my Raiders finished as I spent Friday evening playing Imperial Assault with some friends from work and didn't get much time for hobby bits Saturday/Sunday evenings.

My willpower did however fail on Saturday evening and instead of pulling out my paints to put some finishing touches on the Raiders and start on their bases, I pulled out some of the new Harlequins to start assembling instead.

Managed to get two normal troupes and a Shadowseer assembled over the two nights and was impressed with the kits and how well they go together, while similar in form to my Wyches, the shoulder pads come together much nicer and are far less fragile.

One thing I did notice is that the weapons I had hoped to kit out my Harlequins with, I'm not going to be able to do without conversions and/or buying bits online, as you only get 2 Caress in the box. (I wanted 4)

For those interested, there appears to be 2 Caress, 2 Embrace, while there are plenty of Swords and Kisses.

For the first box I'll probably just do the Troupe Master with Sword (Storied Sword) and 2 Caress with the rest being Kisses, as my conversion skills just aren't likely to end up looking good and I don't want to mess these guys up.

For the rest of my Troupes though, only being able to do 1 caress plus the TM with Caress is not going to be great, any ideas where I could get extras? Most of the bits sites I can find in the uk seem to either not have them in stock, or not even have them listed yet.

-------------------

On a separate note I played Imperial Assault for the first time on Friday, initial thoughts are that it's a decent game, but the time limitation on the Rebels makes it really tough and they kind of have to power through as quick as possible to achieve the mission.

We played through the tutorial before moving onto the first campaign mission Aftermath, which was fun, they used the characters from the tutorial so we had 2 melee and 2 ranged, with the Jedi and Wookie as melee, and the Smuggler and Veteran as ranged.

Came down to the last action of the last hero to smash the final terminal and win the scenario for the Rebels so couldn't have been closer really.

Second mission was a Side mission and the group chose to go for Fenn Signis' class mission "Bushfire", this was a really tough mission and it felt next to impossible for the Rebels to win it within the time restriction, perhaps if this had been done with a more experienced group later in the campaign it would have been easier.

Overall I think it will see some play, and I'm interested in my next session on Friday as I'll be trying it with some friends I normally play 40k / X-Wing etc. with so it's something of a change of pace. If that group enjoys it then we'll likely play through the campaign, if not then I'm not sure this will get pulled out again and may end up being ebayed.

I think it's got potential, and we did enjoy it, but I'm not quite sure why it's got the rave reviews it has from some quarters unless it's purely because it's Star Wars.

Anyone else played this?

Thoughts on sources for Harlequins bits?

Harlequins // Raider Update // Imperial Assault

Hi guys,

Not a massive amount done over the weekend as I had offered my services to the in laws putting up some bizarre metal frame to stick a chicken coop inside at their allotment... Fun...

Anyways, got a bit more done on my first Raider and thought I'd throw a picture up (and the sails/gun for the 2nd and 3rd but no pic I'm afraid)

I'm really happy with how they're turning out given my very basic abilities. I normally spend ages painting something and then the end result looks like something someone could do in a couple of evenings, doing things this way however it will only have taken me 3 evenings to get all 3 raiders to the stage above which although I've still got a lot of work to do picking out details and washes etc. but at the moment I think it looks reasonable enough to put down on the table at least while I continue working on it.

I also received a few packages over the end of last week and this weekend using the proceeds from the sale of my Tyranid army.

Firstly:

Tech Dice Tower by Q-Workshop

Hardly exciting I know, but I'm forever lobbing dice off the table, or into scenery, and this makes it much easier to be rolling 10-20 dice at a time without them going all over the place. I tried it out Saturday and there were claims of it somehow making my rolling better too so an added bonus there!

Secondly:

The Harlequins are definitely growing on me, I've always liked the style and fluff for them but when the figures came out I think I was overawed by the paint job on the troupes and so put off slightly, then the Void Weaver came along and... Meh, I just don't like that backwards facing gun, looks ridiculous to me.

The troupes have grown on me though and the Death Jester and Shadow Seer are fantastic, I also like the Star Weaver and Sky Weavers and flicking through the codex, the art is gorgeous.

I'm really looking forward to the project now though and even the Void Weaver is slowly growing on me. Reading through the fluff there is a masque called the Soaring Spite that are depicted joining in with the Reavers in the arenas of Commoragh which fits in perfectly with my Wych Cult so that's the paint scheme I'll be following.

Soaring Spite:

Anyway, picking up most of the rest of my Masque on Wed (All but the Death Jesters and Shadow Seers), a mate from Kirton Games is bringing them along and if you're looking to pick up some Harlequins they're doing some great deals currently, (And free shipping from £15)

Thirdly, this is due to arrive today so not got pictures of my copy yet but the last of the money went on:

Really looking forward to getting a couple of games in of this and dwelt on it for ages should I shouldn't I, even ordered it then cancelled it before shipping once as I was worried I'd spend a considerable amount of money and then never play it. Finally gave in and ordered and have a game arranged for 13th March which we got a full group for pretty much straight away so I needn't have worried!


Lastly, 4 of us played some games of Combat Patrol on Wed and I was trying out two new "mats" I'd ordered from pixartprinting  (Actually just images that were printed on 4 by 4 Vinyl) they're obviously not as good as a £40 + gaming mat but they look decent enough and they cost very little in comparison (£7.50 delivered at the time as it was half price)

Looked good with all the terrain on and very happy with them (sorry got excited about playing and forgot to take pics after setup)

The games themselves went well for the Dark Eldar, I used:

Raider - Dark Lance - 5 Wyches
Raider - Dark Lance - 5 Wyches
Venom - 2 x Splinter Cannon - 5 Wyches
Venom - 2 x Splinter Cannon (Fast Attack)

First game against an Imperial Fists scout list something like this:

5 Scouts with 4 Snipers and 1 Missile Launcher
5 Scouts with bolt pistol / CC weapon and Heavy Bolter
5 Scouts with Bolters
3 Scout Bikers with Grenade Launchers
Dreadnought with Assault Cannon and Heavy Flamer Power Fist

Tabled them turn 5, really struggled against the Dreadnought as I'd only the two lances that could touch it but finally took it down last turn. Wyches did very little, two units stayed in their transports while one had it's Venom shot down then the remainder charged last turn into the last Heavy Bolter scout and killed him.

Second game against Blood Angels with this (I think this was everything? Seems small):

Whirlwind
Razorback - Heavy Bolter - 5 Tactical Marines
Drop Pod - 6 Sternguard - 1 Multi Melta and 1 Heavy Flamer

Mission was Purge the Alien.

I had first turn but couldn't draw a bead on either tank and passed straight to my opponent so he could bring the drop pod down (I still wanted first turn because of power from pain)

Drop Pod came down and Heavy Flamer toasted 3 Wyches in one venom, while the Venom jinked the MM. Whirlwind dropped ordnance on the Venom but again was jinked.

Raiders blew up the Drop Pod while the Venoms and Wyches together took out the Stern Guard Unit over the next two turns.

Eventually ended Turn 5 with the score at 5-4 to the Dark Eldar (First Blood, Line Breaker, 3 KP vs 3 KP and Line Breaker)

Conclusions: I need more Anti Tank. I just had no way to take down any armour other than the two lances, which were on platforms that most of the time I needed to jink with. Still not sure how to get more Anti Tank in the list without just switching out and going with Kabalites which obviously would be much better but are not fitting with my theme.

Scourges with Haywire Blasters perhaps?

Any suggestions?

Overdue Update // Dark Eldar Wych Cult // Escalation League // Kill Team & Combat Patrol

Hi guys,

Still alive over here just had a little less time to post recently as I've been busy gaming/painting.

Back to 40k for a bit now I think as the escalation league I've been thinking about for a while has kicked off at the start of Feb.

Since I wasn't able to make it down to the club last night with Charlene being on a night shift, I managed to get the airbrush out and throw some paint on 3 of my Raiders that will be acting as transports for my Wyches in bigger games. I'm reasonably happy with how they turned out although I had some problems with the airbrush again, having to pulse it to get any paint out regardless of how many times I cleaned it out which as you can imagine made painting difficult!

So hull and the sails are, I think, done for now and will just need to go in and pick out the details which hopefully shouldn't take more than a couple of nights.

If anyone knows how the heck I rotate that pic please let me know, as it's fine on my computer before I upload it!

*edit* Managed it

Sadly as my wife works shifts I've not been able to make two of the Wednesday nights at the club and missed the Kill Team tournament that kicked it all off as well but I did manage to make one week and am expecting to be there on the 25th as well.

So far it's gone well and I've enjoyed both my Kill Team games although we are finding out how brutal bike lists can be at this point level (and in 1 man units)

This is the list I've run for both of my first two games:

Arena Champion with Cluster Caltrops
Reaver with Blaster (Master Crafted)
Reaver with Heat Lance (Infiltrate)
Reaver (Fleshbane)
Reaver with Blaster
Reaver
Reaver
Reaver
Reaver

First game I played against Inquisition and we rolled up the mission with Night Fight throughout the whole game... it was Brutal,T5 bikes (Combat Drugs) with 2+ saves all game due to Skilled Rider and Stealth while I had Night Vision to negate any advantage the opponent might have gained from it. Ended up tabling the opponent turn 3 and feeling very bad - Only lost one Reaver when my opponent charged a Death Cult Assassin in and chopped him in half.

Second game against Eldar Corsairs using the Imperial Armour list was interesting. I won the roll off for first turn and deployed aggressively against what I think was:

Venom (5 Harlequins)
5 Corsairs (One flamer, one shuriken cannon)

He then promptly seized the initiative, fired the Shuriken Cannon at my leader (Ignores Cover) and I was down a Reaver straightaway. Venom advanced on the Heat Lance jetbike I'd "cleverly" deployed 18" from him but thankfully I jinked away the hits.

After that it was similar to the previous game, I took out the ignores cover  Shuriken Cannon  first turn and then danced around the Venom trying to deny him shots with Eldar Jetbike Move and took it down turn 2. After that I could take my time and use the superior manoeuvrability of the jetbikes to shoot the Corsairs and Harlequins down whilst keeping away from retaliation. (Tabled turn 4)

Since then I've not managed to get down again but the way that the league works I'm doing well because of my average VP's, That is likely to change next week though as I've a game booked against the current league leader who's destroying everyone with his Necron bike list. If anyone has ANY ideas how to beat this with Dark Eldar please let me know:

9 Tomb Blades with Gauss and 3+ saves (Twin Linked, Rapid Fire, S5, Ignores Cover)

Combat Patrol

After that, had Fred round Saturday night with his Blood Angels for a couple of games of Combat Patrol to get our lists ready for the next round (400pts) starting in March.

I ran this first game:

6 Reavers, Arena Champion with Agoniser, 2 Blasters with Cluster Caltrops
3 Reavers, Blaster with Cluster Caltrops
5 Wyches, Hekatrix with Agoniser and Haywire
Venom with Splinter Cannon and TL Splinter Rifle


Fred ran something like:

7 Death Company
5 Tac Squad with Missile Launcher
5 Sternguard with Heavy Flamer and Combi Flamer

Quick report: (No Pics Sorry)

BA T1: Blood Angels move forwards with Death Company on the left, SternGuard Centre, Tac Company Right.

DE T1: Venom moves up onto ruins to shoot at Death Company, 3 Jetbikes zoom over behind the Tac Marines, 6 Jetbikes jump out to shoot at DC and between everything kill 1.

BA T2: DC move to prepare a charge up the building at the Venom, Sternguard move forward to fire at Reavers, Tac Marines jiggle around so everyone can fire at the 3 Jetbikes. DC fail to glance with shooting and fail charge (7") Tac Squad kill 1 jetbike, Stern Guard kill two with ignores cover ammo.

DE T2: 2 Jetbikes move behind Tac marines and snap fire, killing one then charge in killing 4 with Impact hits from Caltrops/Bladevines. Venom moves down and Wyches disembark, all firing into the Death Company killing 2 (4 left) then charge in killing 1 before losing 1 in return. Bigger unit of jetbikes shoot into Sternguard killing 1 and then juimping behind cover.

BA T3: Sternguard move forward and shoot at the couple of jetbikes they can see poking out and kill 1. Combat continues and Wyches fail to kill anything before losing 3 more leaving just the Hekatrix who runs away but stays on the table.

DE T3: Hekatrix rallies. 2 Reavers who killed the Tac Squad move to shoot the Sternguard and Kill 1 before jumping back but not far enough to get into cover. 3 remaining Reavers from the large unit as well as the Venom shoot into the Death Company and then charge in finishing them off with HoW hits.

BA T4: Sternguard move back towards the small unit of Reavers who failed to jump behind cover and one flamer is in range but fails to wound, normal shots fail to hit/wound.

DE T4: Everything jumps around the Sternguard and fires into them finishing them off.

Game Two

I changed my list as the Agoniser in the bike squad seemed overkill and in dropping the Agoniser I was able to add the second Splinter Cannon to the Venom, a Wych with Hydra Gauntlets, and with the spare 10 pts throw grisly trophies on the Venom (nothing better I could think of)

Fred changed  his list up and went with:

6 Devastators 4 with Heavy Bolters
5 Tac Marines with Flamer
5 Sternguard (I think, may have been more)

We called this after turn 3 as the Venom killed 3 Devastators a turn while they failed to damage it, and the Jetbikes boosted away from his Sternguard who had deployed on one flank so both of my units of Reavers could concentrate on killing his Tac Squad before the Sternguard could footslog it over. Pretty brutal and showed the manoeuvrability the list has to great effect. (Although Fred couldn't roll for toffee this game either.

I'm fairly happy with the list for Combat Patrol but would welcome any feedback on it, obviously I'd prefer to run 3 units of 3 bikes but can't do that in Combat Patrol as only 1 Fast Attack slot and 1 "Swing" slot.

Christmas Goodies // Infinity N3 // Terrain // Painting Progress

Hi guys,

Trust everyone had a good Christmas and New Year, I enjoyed spending some time with family and friends and found a little time for hobby in there but not as much as I was expecting.

Popping a quick update today of the bits I've received / got done over Christmas and a couple thoughts on the games I've had.

First of all, this is my Christmas loot, I traded a lot of this in for my Tyranids which I sold most of just before Christmas but thought it'd be nice to put the new bits away until Christmas and save us a bit of money.

I also got some extra bits since then as I sold my Pan Oceania from the Op Icestorm box, adding some money to it and buying:

Kasym Beg

Tunguska Interventors

Intruder MSR

Zero Hacker

Zero

2 Wildcat combi's

That should round out my Nomads for now quite nicely and give me plenty of options while I had to get the new release for Haqqislam as it looks awesome :)

Over Christmas then I got all the above assembled except the Bounty Hunter and the Scourges for 40k. I've also assembled some of my other Nomad bits I had yet to do and started on the new bits by assembling both the Zero's.

Some work in progress bits below:

The 3 Story building now has a floor on the bottom level as well, I forgot to put it in before I'd put the 4 walls on so I had to cut the tabs off two sides and then glue it in, which wasn't difficult and it seems plenty sturdy enough now. All floors have internal walls for a playable interior and should look nice once painted up.

I also spent a bit of time thinking about my board which is still to arrive having originally been estimated for last May (Such are the pitfalls of a Kickstarter) I've been pulling together some scatter terrain to see what I've got currently and whether any additional purchases may be required. This is what's currently available:

I figured I could do with more as Infinity really is pretty terrain intensive so I've got a few extra bits coming, namely:

Zen Terrain

Guard Booth and Barrier x2

Military Outpost

Food Stall

Conversion Kit

Warsenal

Commanche Barracks

Spetsnazs Tower

Angled Planter Island

Square Planter Island

Hopefully that should be me entirely done for terrain once this is added to my Micro Art mdf kits and Deadzone terrain. (may need more scatter, but I'll assess this once I've got the board laid out)

Also got some work done on Tarik and I'm reasonably happy with him at the moment, I'm quite chuffed with the freehand faction symbols on the newspaper and his chest, but I don't know how to do his sword as I'm useless at power sword style effects but I want to make it stand out. Potentially going to have a go with the airbrush but still thinking on this atm.

Apologies for the quality of the pictures, once I've got some finished bits I'll take proper pictures but at the moment I'm just snapping quick progress updates with a crappy mobile phone camera.

In terms of gaming I got in two more games of N3 and used Nomads for both of them which I really enjoyed. I'm now split for the Winter Challenge event as I'd love to use my Nomads but my Haqqislam list would be completely painted wheras I haven't started the Nomads.

The list I used was:

Intruder LT

Grenzer Sniper

Spektr Hacker

Zero BS

Alguacil

Alguacil

Alguacil

I won one game and lost another and overall I really enjoyed the Zero so the list I'm thinking of running now is taking that theme further:

Intruder MSR	43	1.5
Spektr Combi	31
Hellcat Combi	22
Zero BS	17
Zero BS	17
Alguacil LT	10	1
Alguacil	10

Has a decent sniper with MSV2, a TO infiltrator with mines and two Camo infiltrators with mines. A drop troop, and 2 line troops. Hopefully just good fun to play with and using co-ordinated orders with the mines to be a pain.

Apologies for the lengthy post and variety of topics, wanted to catch up on everything so I can spend Wednesday popping down some thoughts on the N3 book and on 3rd edition Infinity generally. Hopefully getting another two games in on Tuesday night and then perhaps a practice evening on Saturday ahead of the tournament the week after so I'll need to start to nail down the list I'm taking.

Preparing the way // Infinity N3 // Christmas Schedule

Christmas Schedule

Hi Guys, wanted to check in and apologise for the lack of battle report on Friday, I've been doing a bunch of Christmas related stuff and had little time to get it typed up whilst trying not to fall too far behind on my painting schedule.

On that note until the New Year this will likely be a weekly update of hobby progress and unlikely to include any battle reports until things get back to normal in the New Year.

Apologies for those who were enjoying the battle reports but they take several hours to type up which I can't really commit to over the next few weeks.

Infinity N3

For those of you who are interested, Infinity is getting a new version (N3) which I should get my hands on tomorrow.

I'm really excited about this and having been playing with a 2.5 ruleset since I started playing a few weeks ago, it'll be really good to get stuck into the new version in full.

I'm really interested in seeing what the points recosts will mean to my Haqqislam lists and will likely include a post at some point with my reworked lists as well as letting you know my thoughts on the new edition once I've got some games in.

From what I've seen so far my Janissary goes considerably down in cost which may mean I get to field him for the first time ever.

I've also got a Nomad list I'm putting together after expanding my Operation: Icestorm Nomads with the Corregidor Starter, an Iguana, and a Wildcat Spitfire. I'll let you know how my experiences go with these, I'm hoping to get them painted up to the best I can to try and stretch myself (still not great I know!)

Preparing the Way

Not particularly exciting update but I've been busy making sure I've closed off the rest of the Haqqislam I had sitting around in boxes so I made sure I assembled and primed everything I had left so at least it's ready to start putting paint on when I feel like it. I sold some of my Tyranids so I've some more bits coming tomorrow including a box of Odalisques, Saladin, a Hassassin Farzan, and a pair of Hafza that I think for now at least will complete my Haqqislam as it'll put me around 750pts (Far more than I'll ever need for a game but I have tons of options)

While I had the airbrush out I also had a play at trying to use it to do Tarik Mansouri's cloak but I wasn't really happy with how it turned out (I've a lot to learn about the airbrush I think) so I went back in with a brush and changed a good amount of it. I've included some random shots below for anyone interested.

Ready for Priming

After Airbrushing (Not sure how to add more depth, it seems like it's just basecoated!)

I even got some Sewing in!

Lovely weekend with my daughters

Bit more done on Tarik but overdid it with the washes so will need some Cleanup

Rear view of Tarik after washes

Random Wednesday - Guard House Scenery // Reaver Jetbikes // Infinity tonight

Well quite a random post today, which was kind of expected from my Wednesday's as it depends what I've had chance to do, if anything, over the last couple of days.

I apologise for the particularly bad quality of today's pics, one was taken in the evening just as I'd finished it and the other quickly this morning before leaving for work. I'll work on getting better photos up in future.

In this case I managed to get the Guard House I picked up at the Infinity weekender built as well as getting some more done on my Reavers.

The Guard House took me a couple of hours to put together so not bad at all and no glue required, some initial hiccups getting bits pushed in (they can take some force) however in the end I got the knack of it.

One thing I would mention is if you are a bit of a fool like me and put one piece in upside down it can be really difficult to pull it apart without damaging the pieces so ensure you take the time to double check whether bits are facing the right way (etching on the outside) and aren't upside down.

I managed to pretty much fix up the bits I'd broken and there are a few spare bits in there (didn't realise this until I'd botched the bit I'd broken)  but if I put together another one I'm sure it'd be much easier.

Overall for a night's work I was pretty chuffed with the look of it and it's a good way to get some quick, cheap terrain down for Infinity (or 40k!) I think this one is about £12 ?

The Reaver's I've now got the basic colours down on the bike and done a bit of highlighting on the bodywork, I'm not spending too much time on the purple as I've some stencils I'm going to use once I've got all my vehicles/bikes ready which should make them much more interesting.

My schedule says these should be finished by Saturday however I'm probably a bit behind already as I've not started on the riders yet. I imagine I'll get them completed by next Wednesday so I can get started on airbrushing the first Raider.

Tonight I'm popping down to my local gaming club for some more Infinity and will be taking along my scenery and Haqqislam. I'm not sure I'll get a game in myself as there are three of us but it's a fun game to watch anyway and either way I'll take some pictures for a post on Friday.

I'm taking the following list in case I do get time for a game:

150pts Haqqislam

Ghulam Lietenant	13
Naffatun Heavy Flamethrower	12
Naffatun Heavy Flamethrower	12
Halqa	16
Halqa	16
Halqa Doctor	20
Hunzakut Sniper	25
Djanbazan Heavy Machine Gun	36

Random Wednesday - Post Schedule // Painting Plans

Just a brief update today with some thoughts on a post schedule and a quick insight into how I plan my painting projects in case anyone else finds it useful.

Post Schedule

One of the pieces of advice I've received when setting up the blog (from The_Burning_eye at The Dark City) was to set a post schedule in order that people know what to expect and when, and so that I can plan around what I'll update and when.

This seems a great idea and I've given it some thought before coming up with the following:

Monday: Painting Update

Gives me time to paint over the weekend and I can write the post Sunday night before posting before work Monday

Wednesday: Random Wednesday

I often have a game Wednesday night (It's the club night at my local club, Rygas Roughnecks) so this will either be thoughts on lists and my opponent for the evening, or general bits that don't fit under painting or gaming.

Will sometimes have an additional Work in Progress picture if I've managed to get much done Mon / Tue.

Friday: Battle Report

I will not always be able to do this one as I don't manage to get a game in every week, but when I was thinking about it I figured if I don't get one in myself, I'' do my best to link to a Dark Eldar one that I've seen elsewhere on other blogs or youtube etc.

I'll be trying to follow that for the next 4 weeks and I'll then review how it's gone and see if any changes need to be made.

Painting Plans

For anyone who's not seen this yet I recommend that you take a look at Kanban Flow 

It's a project management tool but it's free and really easy to use and I find it very helpful for keeping me on track.

When I started my Dark Eldar list writing I wrote down everything I'd need to paint then plugged it into Kanban Flow in manageable chunks before setting dates around when I wanted to start and complete each task. It means that I now know what I need to paint and when to be on track for hitting the various stages of our escalation league with a fully painted army.

I'll include a couple of shots of what I've done below, it's very simple to setup and use though, if anyone has any queries or comments about it, please let me know.

Any thoughts on the post schedule or painting plans?