Transcendent C'Tan

This commission is for Frontline Gaming.  Tier 3 painting and basing.  The client wanted Dr. Manhattan from The Watchmen with the earth splitting apart and some rocks beginning to defy gravity.

Red Riptide

This is a commission for Frontline Gaming.  Level 3 painting.  I have to do the basing, but will be doing it there w/ their materials.  I will snap another picture after basing and provide an update, but I won't have it in my studio for formal photos.

edit: revised and based

models for Pathfinder

This commission was done for Frontline Gaming.  The Drake and Crossbowman are tier 1, while the others are tier 2.

Retribution of Scyrah Battle Box

I also finished up this commission for the Retribution of Scyrah Battle Box.  I was technically contracted by Frontline Gaming, and if they like my work I may be another painter in their stable, but we shall see.  I was instructed to follow the box, with the exception of the warcaster having "realistic pink" hair.  No basing was required.  I enjoyed painting these miniatures and they have grown on me, as I was not a fan of this faction beforehand.

Camo Copy

Hey everyone, I've had this small side project kicking around and finally gave it the time needed to finish it.  I was tasked with copying the paint scheme of the Steel Legion trooper (which I did not paint).  The owner bought a huge army 2nd hand, and has had other painters try to recreate it without success.  My attempt is the Cadian on the right.  The photo doesn't do it justice, but I will wait to see what the owner things next Saturday.

Kill Team reflections part 2

So my Buddy and I played another handful of games.  The mission we hadn't played yet is an attacker/defender and we played twice, switching roles as attack/defender.  Again, another solid mission.  Target priority is big with these.  I only won as the attacker as my rhino was ignored and my one model not in combat jumped in and was able to drive off the board (you get a point for every model off the board, defender gets 1 for every 3 destroyed).

Another issue I have is the removal of brotherhood of psychers/sorcerers.  I feel they could of modified this rule pretty easily, similar to how the Dark Eldar Power from Pain rules were tweaked for KT.

There really isn't much else to say that I haven't already said, so I will keep this post short and sweet.

Kill Team reflections

This is a follow up after the games I played last night, I wrote up some Batreps of those here:

http://crispmini.blogspot.com/2014/01/kill-team-1st-game.html

http://crispmini.blogspot.com/2014/01/kill-team-2nd-game.html

http://crispmini.blogspot.com/2014/01/kill-team-3rd-game.html

My buddy and I played a couple more games, but we were drinking and I was tired of taking notes and photos between turns.  His luck did change and his legion of the damn beat up a noise marine list we put together.

That is one thing we both really enjoyed. You can quickly put together a new list on the fly, assuming you have a 40k army.  Even if you run the same list, changing your specialists can change the way you play the list.

I really like the way specialists are selected.  You get 3 specialists and they each select a different category.  From that category they may select a special rule.  It's pretty open, but w/ the categories that the rules are broken into, there is a bit of thinking.  It also balances as there are good rules for any list from multiple categories, but not allowing a list to take rules from the same categories keeps things from becoming over the top.  Maybe sometime I'll experiment with removing that restriction, but the other part of me shudders thinking of some of the possibilities from other armies

There are two major things you have to think about when designing a kill team.  First, be sure you will have something to deal with a vehicle and/or a high toughness multi-wound model.  Second, having something that is long range is well worth it.  As you saw in the games I posted, this can create a one-sided fight quickly.  The last key to victory is playing to the mission.

We played 5 of the 6 missions, and we will being playing more later today.  The missions have been different and fun.  Keeping your eye on the prize is paramount to victory, as it always is in these games we play.  "How am I trying to score more than my opponent?" "How is my opponent trying to score more than me?" are important questions to keep in mind while playing.  The objectives have not been redundant at all.  The mission we have yet to try is Infiltrate the Camp, which is the only attacker/defender mission and involves the attacker getting models across the table and off the board.

Kill Team is awesome.  It's refreshing to play a handful of small games, because there are less rules to remember.  You can quickly put a new list together so each game is different.  My buddy and I had a new list every game and we were only prepared to play 3.  There is a lot of potential in this for small tournaments and small scale missions for campaigns.  We also think we will use this to help teach our friend, and possibly his young son.  The only complaint we came up with is the loss of the experience and leveling system that previous incarnations of Kill Team had.  This is a small complaint as you could easily adopt the old system or create your own.  I will be back with some more tomorrow hopefully.

Kill Team: 3rd Game

Game 3, Secure the High Ground (get models on the central hill to score points)

Chaos took 16 Cultists, 1 with heavy stubber, 13 with autoguns

3 Spawn of Nurgle

Specialists: Heavy Stubber Rends, one autogun has poison 4+, and another is fearless

Leader is a specialists too, gains Stealth

Marines took 2 Tac squads of 6, one with Lascannon, other with Heavy Bolter.

Specialists: Heavy Bolter is Relentless, Lascannon is master crafted, and model with sword has Feel no Pain

Leader has extended command range

Deployment

Deployment

So my buddy finally had first turn... Seize! So Chaos to act first again.  I advance with the spawn up the left, my heavy stubber is hiding by the piece of aegis wall, and the rest of the cultists advance behind the wall (though a couple are having too much fun in the swamp and keep wallowing about).  The heavy stubber sprays at the lascannon in the forest and gets a rending wound on him.  The cover save is failed and he gets me first blood (this heavy stubber was uncanny, the first 3 turns he would hit w/ all 3 shots).

Cultist taking the initiative? HERESY

Marines advance and shoot at the fast approaching spawn, managing to put 2 wounds on the blue one.

Chaos advances with cultists, the real action is the spawn, but no action this turn.

Marines are spraying bolters at the spawn.  The wounded spawn is killed in combat, as is the Marine Heavy Bolter.  I stopped taking careful notes as the spawn were just too tough for the marines to down (T6 meant they needed 6's to wound).  

The rest of the pictures tell the story.  One spawn goes on to kill his leader.  At one point one spawn has 8 attacks, hits once, and doesn't wound).  The cultists eventually get on the hill and start shooting at the marines not in combat.  

Chaos wins by a lot.  Chaos scored all secondaries and they also get a point for every model on the hill, feel free to count it up.

After the game and a short break, I realized that the Marine player should of been using his krak grenades to wound the spawn, rather than his bolters.  We will be playing again, and I plan to run another list that utilizes spawn of nurgle to see how they fair when they are taking krak 'nades to the face.

Kill Team: 2nd Game

Game number two!  Here are the lists:

Chaos took 5 chosen.  Auto Cannon, 2 Plasma Guns, in Rhino w/ Havoc Launcher.

Specialist: Master Crafted Auto Cannon, Plasma gun (w/ horns) has Preferred Enemy, Plasma gun has Feel no Pain.

Leader: Outflank for 5 models (I do not outflank and deploy all in rhino)

Marines have 6 Sternguard, 1 Meltagun, and an attack bike with multi-melta.

Specialists: Attack Bike has splitfire, Melta has stealth, Stern guard (w/ sword) has Feel no Pain

Leader: Also has outflank for 5 models (his melta and FnP stern guard outflank)

No Night Fight and Head Hunt mission (leaders worth more, specialists also worth a point)

Deployment

Deployment

Chaos goes first and hangs back to utilize the range of the Autocannon and Havoc Launcher.  The Havoc puts a wound on the Attack Bike.

Marines advance as fast as possible and taking cover.

Marines advance on the Chaos Rhino

Chaos scoots back a bit and shoots again, but is unsuccessful.

The Melta marine outflanks next to the Chaos rhino and the Attack Bike moves up into long melta distance.  And they both miss... I'm sure everyone reading could of predicted that after reading the lists.

I've got you now!

Miss and Miss

Chaos deploys a plasma gunner, a chosen, and chosen champ (leader).  The Chaos kill team is able to take down the Melta and Attack Bike, removing the threat from the Marines.

Marine turn 3 and Chaos turn 4 saw advancing and shooting, but no casualties.  In Marine turn 4, a Sternguard lines up an AP3 shot on the Chaos leader, but he hits the deck and saved on a 6.

The rest of the game is a bunch of shooting.  Marine passes break tests on 5.  Havoc Launcher takes his leader out in 6, but the Marines take out the Chaos leader w/ an AP3 round (doesn't get lucky again).  Finally, in turn 7, the Autocannon drops the last marine.

Final score was 8-4 Chaos (First Blood, Leader, 3 specialists, and break tests VS Leader and 1 specialist)

After this game we started using the random game length as called for in the missions.  There was never a turn limit previously in Kill Team, plus the games go so fast, that we forgot.  Even if it had ended on 5, Chaos would still have won.

Kill Team: 1st game

So I finally got around to playing some of the new Kill Team last night and took notes and photos to do a few BatReps.  I will do reflection on Kill Team in a separate post.  W/o further delay, this is our first game.

Chaos took 10 cultists (9 with autoguns), Spawn of Nurgle, 5 CSM (Plasma gun, Gift on Champ)

Specialist: Plasma Gun has Ignore Cover, CSM model w/ chainaxe has infiltrate, CSM model w/ choppa has Feel no Pain

Leader rolled trait that allows him a specialist rule and I took Shred

Space Marines took 5 assault marines (flamer, rhino, sgt. has lightning claw), and 5 tactical marines (plasma gun)

Specialist: Flamer has rending, Plasma has Feel no Pain, assault marine model w/ sword has furious charge

Leader rolled trait that Seizes on a a 4+

Night fight first turn, Supply Drop mission (6 obj, but only one is the real one).   Here is deployment:

Deployment

Deployment

No Seize from the marines, so I move and check 3 objectives in and close to my deployment zone (my infiltrator set up on the 3rd).  I find the objective in the center of my deployment zone.

Found the supplies in the Chaos deployment zone

My Plasma gunner moves up and shoots his rhino, blowing it sky high.  First Blood!  No cover is dirty.  My other marines use their boltguns to down the flamer, his leader, and an assault marine.

Heavy casualties

With the objective discovered in the Chaos deployment zone, the marines have little option but to advance.  Unfortunately, they are unable to return the favor and Chaos begins turn 2 having taken no return causalities.

All forward!

I move up to engage in a fire fight with the remains of the Marine kill team.  One of my cultist takes the marine plasma gunner out w/ his autogun, and a Chaos Marine kills a Tac Marine w/ his bolter.  The spawn advanced but failed a long charge.

Chaos takes firing positions while the spawn divides their line

The Marines have to take break tests and 3 fail, but luckily we remembered that ATSKNF lets them reroll and they all decide to stick around.  He bolters down 2 cultists.  2 assault marines then assault the spawn, each doing a wound!  The spawn does none in return.

Exchange of fire

Marines coming into their own in combat

Chaos turn 3 saw lots of nothing.  No wounds from shooting or combat.  The highlight was my Cultist Champ making his charge against a Tac Marine, and then not dying immediately.

Battle rages on.

Cultists Chump? I ain't no chump!

Tac Marine downs a Chaos Marine w/ bolter fire.  The spawn, with his mighty 1 attack, takes one of the marines down (I rolled 1 for his number of attacks all game).

Chaos shoots another Marine and the Aspiring Champ (leader) charges to help the Cultist Champ.  The Marine and Chaos Leader kill each other before the Cultist Champ swings.

The last marine falls to the spawn, as the spawn remembered how to fight and rolled 5 attacks.

End of game

Game ended in 4 turns, score was 3-1 Chaos (leader, first blood, break test VS leader).  I forgot and moved away from the objective so I did not score for that.  Plasma gunner was hands down the deadliest man of the match, taking out the rhino for first blood, and then downing another 2 marines later in the game.

MVP: Plasma gun that ignores cover