Chaos approaches

Reivers and Terminators in reserves

Captain Alocarius Sostus and his forces marched into a clearing, their objective in sight. Secure the bunker and wait for reinforcements. His soldiers would not be trapped here for much longer. The area looked safe, his scouts reporting nothing in the distance.

The tank rolled forward, troops in line beside it. Librarian Laenicus Wyrdrix left his troops he stood in command of, a group of Primaris along with a dreadnaught waiting in the woods. He made his way to the Captain to give the all clear when a warning came to him. There was a tank on the move, and a great force of Chaos arriving to the north.

The Ultramarines dug in, readied their weapons when the forces of Chaos burst forward from the forest to the north, weapons firing towards them.

Perhaps this would not be so easy.

Most of the 1250 points of Chaos

The forces of Chaos consisted of Rubric Marines, Tzangors, Terminators, Chaos Lord, Demon, and a Vindicator.

Most of the 1250 points of Ultramarines

The forces of the Ultramarines are lead by Primaris Captain Alocarius Sostus, his battle brother Primaris Librarian Laenicus Wyrdrix, a Venerable Dreadnaught, two squads of Intercessors, a Tactical Squad,a squad of Hell Blasters, a Razorback and a Devastator Squad.

The first turn saw the Chaos forces advance, take out one Hellblaster, and everything else miss. Turn one for the Ultramarines saw them wipe away a unit of Rubric Marines, as well as a few other models. Quite a good turn.

Turn two saw Chaos wipe out the squad of Hell Blasters, except for the Sergeant, and the Demon and Tzangor's advance forward. Turn two for the Ultramarines was very lackluster, dealing only a single point of damage, and removing a Rubric Marine.

Turn 3, the forces of Chaos decided to call in the Terminators, who fired all their shots into the Intercessors. The results of that are detailed in the picture below.

The results of all the Terminator shots. One point of damage!

Things looked bleak for the Ultramarines. The Reivers came out of hiding and sprung themselves upon the Chaos Lord, but his power was too much, they proved to be just a simple distraction. The Intercessors and the Venerable Dreadnaught fired into the Terminators, and wiped all but one off the table.

At least the Reivers tried...

Things were not going well, the forces of Chaos continued their psychic assault, the Ultramarines could only stop so much of the psychic bombardment, but the Demon laughed from the bunker, issuing his troops forward.

The shock troops underestimated the strength of the Chaos Lord, and the Tzangor's moved back to surround the Reivers. Soon there was nothing left but scraps of power armour, guns and combat blades. It would be up to the Dreadnaught and the Intercessors to fight for the eastern flank.

The Warlords enter combat

The Demon leaped from the bunker to attack the most powerful psyker the Ultramarines had, but the Librarian fought back, managing to hold of the onslaught of the Demon. Captain Sostus went toe to toe with the remaining Terminator, but his eye was on his friend who had fought on numerous worlds with him. His friend looked for help, the psychic powers of the Warp powered the Demon, making each blow stronger. Captain Sostus knew he had to finish off his foe or his friend would be lost.

The battle may begin to turn...

The Intercessors rushed over to help their Captain take down the last Terminator, but they were too late, their Pysker had fallen. Seeing the Demon injured, the remainder of the Ultramarines turned their attention to the Demon. The forces of Chaos and the Vindicator (finally hit!) and destroyed the Devastators on the west flank.

Bring out your dead, Ultramarine style

Bring out your dead, Chaos edition

DIE!!!!

The last turn of the game saw the Demon surrounded by the Ultramarines, They fought bravely for their fallen brothers, but their forces dwindled. But soon the Demon fell and the forces of Chaos were on the run.

The brave survivors

The marines thought they were safe, but the few remaining forces continued their attack. The Vindicator moved forward, so damaged it needed 6 to hit with its attacks...

and it rolls 3 6's

One the second turn of extra turns, the Ultramarines are victorious, Chaos is destroyed, the bunker is secure and the forces of good survive.

The survivors...

All in all, a great game and the Ultramarines came out on top! Heavy casualties to the Ultramarines led me to believe I may not win, but in the end, all the Chaos models were off the table.

A great game, and found some strengths and weaknesses in the units I chose (Librarian was next to useless, should be replaced by a Lieutenant in this list).

Hope you all enjoyed and look forward to more!
 

Time to get heavy

Hell Blasters 

Probably my favourite heavy support unit is the Hell Blasters. I know I do love my Devastator Squads, but these guys just always seem to do great work for me or other people when I see them played.

They are always able to blow up units quite fast, and work as a distraction unit as well. My opponents seem to always want to attack these guys first fearing their fire power.

I have equipped mine with just the basic gear they have from the Dark Imperium box set, since these are the mono pose models from that purchased from eBay. I have not tried them with any loadouts from the Codex yet, just used them as is. Most recently I tried these guys over a Stormtalon Gunship, and found they seemed to hit a bit harder, but that could have been my dice which were on fire.

Devastator Squad 

The deadly Devastator Squad. I love these models, and enjoyed painting the, This is only one of my squads, the other squad has the same loadout, with the exception of the sergeant which has a lightning claw and grav pistol instead of the combi-melta.

These models were a blast to paint, but putting them together I did run into trouble being an amateur model builder myself. I thought it would be real cool to have the heavy bolter marine kneeling instead of the missile launcher like the instructions call for (I have enough missile launchers already in my Tactical Squads). So I did need to put him on some cork, cut and hack away at the magazine where it connects to the backpack and lots of glue to put him into the position he is in now. In the end I am happy with the pose and like how the squads turned out.

I have not had much luck with the Devastators on the table top however, they seem to die quite quickly, even when sent up in a Razorback, and the best game I have had with them was the doubles game detailed in a previous blog post, but maybe I just need to learn how to play them (and remember to use the cherub).

The Predator

Ahhh, I love this mode, but I still have yet to play it on the table. I saved this model from a friend and managed to get most of the glue(?) that was on the body of the model. I did a bad thing (or at least most players would probably say it is) and glued the autocannon on the model instead of leaving the option for the lascannon (currently in my bits box). I felt that with the lascannon sponsons that the turret could be an autocannon, and not to mention it is already expensive enough in points to put on the table top.

Doubles Battle Report!

Deployment

Welcome to another battle report! This one here is a custom scenario that was a playtest for a doubles portion of a tournament that our club may put on in the future (it has been a while since a tournament was hosted by us).

The forces in this battle were my Ultramarines led by a Captain in Terminator Armour with the Sanctic Halo for his relic. I used the Stormtalon Gunship, Tactical Squad, Assault Squad, Venerable Dreadnaught, and Devastator Squad. This game was a 1,000 points/player game with my teammate playing Deathwatch. His units did most of the work this game, but it was entertaining to see. Our opponents were Tyranids and a mixed Chaos force.

Game Scenario

The game was a test of the Wall of Death Scenario in the image above. We rolled off for sides, then the teammates rolled to see who would be set up in which deployment area on their sides. I feel as if I did get lucky by being deployed at the back as it allowed my teammate who had better units in melee to to get in and start squishing some bugs as the Tyranids got the middle of the table as well. We did use the rules for Night Fight for Turn 1 for each side, making firing long shots far more difficult.

I did find it fun and almost a little overwhelming playing a doubles game as my second game ever in 40k, but why not dive right in right!

Action!

The forces of the Imperium begin their march forward to stop the threat of the Tyranids and their reinforcements in the form of agents of Chaos. The Deathwatch move up and begin to smash into the Tyranids, creating all sorts of mayhem and carnage. I begin to move my forces slowly forward, with the Stormtalon flying up the table firing at cultists, just making quick work of them with the heavy bolters on the ship. My warlord, the Captain in Terminator Armour is still floating around with the Chaos warlord, waiting to come into the game from deep strike.

The speed of the Stormtalon and the hitting power of the Deathwatch strike fear into the hearts of the forces of Chaos, and the Tyranids push forward, hoping to overwhelm the marines.

Yes, we do have adult beverages while we play.That night it was Forty Creek Copper Pot

Bugs begin charging forward, hoping to make quick work of the Deathwatch, and the Chaos forces try to attack the Stormtalon and move up, but their rounds are no match for the speed and armour of the Stormtalon.

Those Deathwatch are in trouble

Genestealers move up and into melee with the Deathwatch who the Tyranid player hopes can take a few models out, but realizes how tough the Kill Teams are with Terminators in them. 

Damn that is a big bug

A fearsome Tyranid moves on the table, imposing fear upon a new player such as myself, but the Deathwatch does not seem to care, realizing that the Tyranid is a speed bump in the road to victory.

pew pew

The Stormtalon continues flying around the battlefield, getting my team the Linebreaker achievement, and taking out more Chaos forces after that. The dreadnaught goes toe to toe with the large Tyranid in the middle of the table, and the shooting of the forces of the Imperium manages to get rid of the Tyranids in the middle of the table.

We complete our turn, and manage to have our opponents concede on turn 3, as their forces are nearly gone for the Tyranid player, and the Chaos player is in a bad spot with the Stormtalon behind them, Devastators putting wounds into their tank and going to be cut off by the Deathwatch.

At the end of the game, the Imperium succeeds in purging the heretics, and pushing back the grip they had on this world.

Our opponents found that a slower moving army would have trouble moving up the table if their opponent had a fast strong shooting army and could be met with resistance in the middle should the other team manage to break through his allies lines. So we did decide that there may have to be some tweaks to the scenario, but hey that is what playtests are for!

First look at troops

The first of my Ultramarines and the basic troop choice, the trusty Tactical Squad. These 10 Ultramarines are set up for 2 squads of 5 Tactical Marines.

The first squad has a sergeant with grav pistol and power sword and meltagun. The rest are armed with the standard bolt gun, bolt pistol and krak/frag grenades.

The second squad has a sergeant with combi-melta and a marine with a missile launcher. The rest like the first squad are equipped with their basic weapons.

These guys were the first 10 that were stripped and repainted from my Facebook find, so they were my guinea pig unit where I tested colours on and it shows compared to the later units I have painted. Their skin is too dark, their shoulder pads don't have the correct squad markings on them (before I understood the lore). I look at these guys and think that they were a good starting point, and happy I have improved.

The first of the Primaris units! These two 5 man Intercessor squads were super fun to build (ya ya easy build, mono pose models) and paint. I actually have one more model that came with a broken barrel in the mail from France when I ordered them, so I bought the GW magazine with the miniature to replace the broken one. The broken one is still painted, and it sits beside my computer/paint station and helps me when deciding what I want to do for colours.

This set of Tactical Marines was purchased from a friend for $10 and all I had to do was finish the bases, some lines on the lascannon and add the shoulder markings. I liked this unit because it gave me some options with the plasma gun and lascannon to take on some stronger units with more AP. They are sadly on 25mm bases, but I have thought of getting the base extenders to bring them up to the 32mm that new marines are on.

The last of my Tactical Marines, a mish mash of weapons to use in various squad combinations. The sergeant has a plasma pistol and chainsword, there is a plasma gun, missile launcher in here as well. I like the white helmets, and thought that this squad could use one, so the squad gets another one here. This is the most recent of the Tactical Marines I have painted, and you can see how the new skin paint colour is a large improvement (as well as my painting improved as well I hope!)

I do love the flexible Tactical Marine, and in my most recent game, the sergeant of this squad performed extremely well, and the missile launcher fellow next to him did some serious damage.

I hope you enjoyed the look at my basic troop options which I hope to expand in the future with both some sniper scouts and close combat scouts.

A first taste of 40k

My first foray into the grim darkness of the far future was not even with my own Ultramarines. It as in fact a game with a friends soon to be Crimson Fists against the powerful and annoying Necrons. 

The game was just after the Space Marines Codex was released, so I got to try some of that. So much for my purchase of Index Imperium I (at least it let me look at model options and build some lists).

The Crimson Fists face off against the Necrons

I played with some Intercessors, Inceptors, Hell Blasters, and Lieutenant. My opponent had some normal Necrons, Immortals, Cryptech, Ghost Ark, Scarabs and another ship with lots of fire power.

We played the Open War Misson with the Domination Objective. It was a game based on Power Levels, and we were both just learning.

The forces advance upon each other, each trying to get as many points early as possible

 The Immortals wiped a squad off the table, but not before we gained a few points from the objective. My Inceptors took out some Scarabs to get some more points.

 My forces kept firing at the Necrons, but they kept coming back with reanimation protocol.

 The Crimson Fists suffer some more casualties, but keep playing the objective game, scoring those precious points.

The final turn, and the Crimson Fists advance to win the game

So my first game was not with my own army, as I believe in playing a fully painted (to the best I can in the time before the game), and I just didn't get time to do it. I learned a lot this game, like Necrons are brutal to play against and that the game is super fun.

My opponent was a great sport teaching me the game, and thank you to my friend for lending me his army to try the game out after he had just played against Tyranids before.

All in all my first foray into 40k was a victory, although only by 1 or 2 points (it was a while ago). It certainly did hook me.

Look for more battle reports in the future featuring my Ultramarines, and in much more detail as they were more recent than this report was.

How I paint my Ultramarines

My Ultramarines are nothing too fancy, as I am not a super talented painter, nor do I have an abundance of time to paint working full time, having a family with a small child and dog. 

My goal with my Ultramarines was to get something painted on the table to play as I don't like the look of bare plastic on the table. There is something jarring about it and takes me out of the game.

So to make sure I get my models painted fast enough to get on the table (although not always finished as you will see in some pictures in my battle reports), I came up with a way to speed paint my marines.

I use the following paints for my Ultramarines:

Vallejo Light Grey Primer

Macragge Blue (Ultramarine Blue for Primaris Marines)

Blue Tone Ink

Drybrush Macragge Blue (Ultramarine Blue for Primaris Marines)

Drybrush Altdorf Guard Blue

Drybrush Russ Grey

Glaze of Gulliman Blue

Glorious Gold

Flesh Tone Ink

Drybrush Glorious Gold

Drybrush Vallejo Chrome

Army Painter Black

Vallejo Chrome (sometimes Steel or Army Painter Plate Mail)

Drybrush Vallejo Wolf Grey

Secret Weapon's Armour Wash

Drybrush Necron Compound

Linen White

Wash Soft Tone Ink

Khorne Red

Red Ink

Highlight Screamer Pink

Tanned Flesh Now I used Ryn Flesh

Flesh Tone Wash

Highlight Barbarian Flesh Now I use Vallejo Light Flesh

Cloaks are done with whatever colour combination I feel like at the time, and I have since changed how I do power swords from the blue above in the Terminator Captain to using a Vallejo Chrome basecoat, Vallejo Green Shade, Gulliman Blue glaze after.

For the bases I prime using Vallejo Black Primer, base in Khorne Red, Martian Ironearth, drybrush any rocks in Stormvermin Fur, drybrush it again in Martian Ironearth, drybrush everything in Tau Ochre. The rim is done in Doombull Brown.

I then hit everything with Army Painter Matte Varnish to protect the minis. For tufts I use Army Painter Wastelands (I believe) and some tufts from Gamer's Grass.

Hope that gives some insights into how I quickly paint my Ultramarines (some variance is allowed, but that is the base I use).

My thought process

My decision to paint my space marines as Ultramarines was a bit of a surprise to a few of my friends in our gaming group (let along playing 40k, and not choosing something like Necrons). They questioned my choice as they called the Ultramarines the good guys and why I would want to do them when I could do something cool like Dark Angels or really anything else.

So why did I choose Ultramarines you may ask.

I like blue. It is my favourite colour. Not much more to it other than that. All of my miniature armies (except my Protectorate of Menoth, which was fully painted when I acquired it) have blue in them in some capacity, so it made sense to continue with that. My Kings of War undead army has all their cloth a light blue. My Kings of War dwarf army all their tabards are blue (and berserkers have blue hair). My Kings of War twilight kin (or elf depending on how the rules end up) are mostly purple, but their trims of their robes and armour have a rich blue to them.

So there you have it, I like blue. There was no real reason for me not to choose Ultramarines, as I had next to zero knowledge of the lore of 40k, and most pictures were of the Ultramarines that I had seen, so to me a space marine should be blue.

The bases are something that I felt should contrast with the blue of the power armour, so I went with a nice Martian colour (base in Khorne Red, Martian Ironearth, some Stormvermin Fur, more Martian Ironearth, Tau Ochre). It is fast and simple, just like how I painted my Ultramarines since I don't believe in playing with bare plastic.

Next time I will show off an early picture of an HQ unit in my army, talk about my paint colours and soon detail my first battle!

alea iacta est

With the release of 8th edition 40k, I finally decided to dive in. I had been turned off by the prices before, thinking they were rather high for plastic models. 

I dove in when a lucky find on a Facebook sale page turned up a Start Collecting box with some extras for only $15! With the release of the Index Imperium I for a reasonable price and some extra money off from an online retailer I purchased it and was in the hobby now.

I painted up my small force, learned the rules (from a rulebook, dice, ruler and fold out rules from eBay for only $35)  and was ready to go into the grimdark future and roll some dice.

The marines eventually expanded quickly (whether by donations or purchases) to include a large force and fully built and nearly completely painted. As of now I need to only finish paint a Primaris Lieutenant, Stormhawk, and Land Speeder Storm.

With this blog I hope to chronicle my journey through the hobby and into this game and what seems to be a great edition. I will post pictures of my models, detail battles fought and my thoughts on these battles.

I will leave this first blog post with my first five marines, the beginning of the journey into the grim darkness of the far future where there is only war.