land speeders assembled and primed

One last group photo before I rip apart the land speeder and warthog to combine them into what’s on the right.

land speeder + warthog = land sporthog? Wart speeder?

Last pic before they’re primed, to show the different plastic parts that make them up. Basically everything up front is warthog and the bed of the truck is filled with land speeder bottom. You can see my yellow plastic making up the closed canopy, hopefully I’ll find a way to make them look like they fit in.

Check out the finished but unpainted product! Sure there are some rough edges, some parts I could attack with green stuff, but for now I’m priming them and calling them done version 1. If I nitpick and perfectionist they’ll never be painted, and I’d rather fix some paint later than leave them unpainted and unused forever.

Check out the front of the one on the left. I thought I would mount the weapons to the inside fender, but suddenly I realised it’s the perfect place for a jet style air intake. So I cut out the fender panel along the lines the toy gave me, and put part of a hair comb behind it for an intake grill and to hide the ugly plastic innards. I’d like to do this for the other one too, thankfully it’s screwed shut rather than drilled shut, another benefit of working with toy models!

 

Next post on these babies will be them painted! Not sure what color scheme my army will be still, so I may do one red and one blue to test. Probably half silver like grey knights colors.

Land Speeder Warthog v1

Step 1, disassemble warthog and land speeder.  The warthog unscrews into several parts.  My land speeder was model glued, so I was worried I’d have to carve it up, but it just sort of split apart when I started prying on it.  I cut open the bottom back of the land speeder to use upside-down as engines in the warthog’s back.  This makes the warthog look less like a truck and more like the Delorean time machine, pretty badass IMO. 

I got a yellow no-trespassing sign to use as cheap plasticard and used it to close the cockpit and to pad up the engines to make them fit flush with the warthog.  I spent entirely too long working on the windows trying to get them to fit and bend.

I think the land speeder model is the ugliest new-generation model they make, but turning it from a flying car to a flying warthog makes it look pretty awesome I think.  I cut windows in the doors and put some tape as clear window, but I’m not satisfied with the job done with the doors.  It’s hard to manufacture parts that match the excellent detailed McFarlane warthog, but I thought completely closed doors would look off considering the size of the front window.  I’d like to put scouts inside the cockpit, since in my army all vehicles are piloted by scouts, not full space marines.

Not sure exactly where I’ll mount the weapons, but of course they’ll be magnetized.

Stormraven Gunships are awesome

Stormraven Gunship, 200 points. BS 4, armor 12 all around, immune to Melta
Fast, Skimmer

Transport:
Can deep strike in carrying 12 models / 6 terminators or jump troops (!), and 1 dreadnought (!) clamped on underneath
I'll restate that: it can carry 12 dudes AND a dreadnought
If it doesn't deep strike, units disembarking can assault like it was a land raider
If it moves flat out (24") units can still disembark by sort of falling out along the path it took

Weapons:
just like a land raider can fire 1 more weapon than usual and at a separate unit

1. first weapon system:
   - twin-linked heavy bolter
   - twin-linked multi-melta
   - or upgrade to typhoon missile launcher for 25 points (48" Heavy2 normal missiles)
2. second weapon system
   - twin-linked assault cannon
   - twin-linked plasma cannon
   - twin-linked lascannon
3. third weapon system: 4 bloodstrike missiles: 72" S8 AP1 One-Shot
4. fourth weapon system: optional hurricane bolter sponsons (6 twin-linked bolters, that means either 24" heavy 6 or 12" heavy 12, all twin linked) for 30 points, making it a land raider crusader that can deep strike

So you can kit it out for long range with the typhoon launcher and the free lascannons, or you can kit it out for extreme twin-linked dakka with hurricane bolters, assault cannons, and heavy bolters. Typhoon launchers and hurricane bolters can both fire as defensive weapons too, so thats moving 12" firing a bloodstrike missile and frag rockets across the table or moving 12" and unleashing assault cannon and hurricane bolters into a horde of enemy and dump a dreadnought and squad of 10 guys and 2 ICs to shoot and then assault

Their only weakness seems to be their fairly weak 12 armor, even though they're protected against melta they're extremely juicy targets and there is a lot of stuff that can shoot them right out of the sky, so they'll have to use their flat out cover save and threat management carefully to be effective.

Theres no model for it yet but I'd love to make one out of a Valkyrie http://s13.photobucket.com/albums/a251/wildernesscamX/Z_IG_Valkyrie_749.jpg . I can imagine mounting the dreadnought upsidedown on the back with its legs folded up, so its armor would blend into the ship for atmosphere entry, and it would hinge down and drop to land facing forward and right side up

I like what I see so far, and the cool part is the codex fluff hints that grey knights are the only other unit to use the Storm Ravens, so perhaps next year when daemonhunters get an update they can use it too.

Blood Angels are awesome

I picked up the blood angels codex and it's pretty badass. It's got almost every option the vanilla marines have plus a whole lot of neat things that nobody else has, so why would people play vanilla marines? Blood angels have death company guys, a better (IMO) set of psychic powers, cooler chaplains, and all their rhino chassis tanks (rhino, whirlwind, predator, razorback) are Fast and only 15 points more expensive. Aside from that difference, they seem to have every single vanilla marine unit except for the thunderfire and master of the forge (blood angels don't get along well with adeptus mechanicus somehow despite their awesome hardware). The thing is that on top of all the old reliable choices they have awesomer versions of all of them, like the coolest jump troops, the badassest dreadnoughts, death company guys, baal predators..

Baal Predator has twin linked assault cannons or a S6 flamer turret and is 115 points without optional side sponsons. it's Fast, and it can make a Scout move meaning it gets a free 18" to start or it can outflank, and it's Fast Attack so heavy support is free for my new favorite 40k vehicle, the Storm Raven, for which there is no model yet

I'm definitely interested in playing blood angels as my grey knights host army and making my Blood Knights better

all about deffrollas: da rulez

1. battlewagon wants to ram
1. has to move maximum speed
2. cannot shoot
3. turn in desired direction
4. declare intent to ram
2. move forward until a unit is contacted
3. if wagon meets friendly unit
1. stop
4. if wagon meets non-vehicle unit
1. tankshock
1. deffrolla deals D6 S10 hits immediately
2. unit takes morale test
1. if it fails, it immediately fall back
2. if it passes, unit MAY nominate one model in the path of the wagon to death or glory:
1. deffrolla deals another D6 S10 hits immediately
2. model makes 1 single attack against the rammer's front armor, automatically hitting
3. if attack stops the rammer (stun, immobilize, wrecked, destroyed), done.
4. if the attack does not stop the rammer (stun, immobilize, wreck, destroy), the model is removed, no saves or anything possible
2. continue movement
3. if wagon would end up on top of previously tankshocked model, move out of the way by shortest distance and maintaining unit coherency
4. if wagon would pass the unit completely they do not have to move out of the way
5. if wagon meets walker
1. tankshock
1. deffrolla deals D6 S10 hits immediately
2. walker must choose to brace for impact or attempt death or glory attack
1. brace for impact: walker is treated like a vehicle and rammed, goto 6.2
2. death or glory: (can't do this if walker was rammed in the back)
1. deffrolla deals another D6 S10 hits immediately
2. model makes 1 single attack against the rammer's front armor, automatically hitting
3. if attack stops the rammer (stun, immobilize, wrecked, destroyed): done.
4. if the attack does not stop the rammer: walker is treated like a vehicle and rammed but against its rear armor, goto 6.2
2. continue movement
6. if wagon meets vehicle
1. tankshock
1. deffrolla deals D6 S10 hits immediately
2. ram
1. rammer takes hit against its front armor
2. rammed vehicle takes hit against rammed side
3. if rammed vehicle is still there even if wrecked, done.
4. if rammed vehicle is destroyed, continue movement

So there you have it, step by step! Turns out its a very bad idea to be in front of a deffrolla.

orks vs marines 2000points

Orks: Nobwagon w/ KFF PK bigmek and 7 nobs, painboy. Burnawagon w/ 12 burna boys, 1 burna bigmek with KFF. 15 lootas. 2x30 shoota boy squads w/ two big shootas and one rokkit. 3 kans with grotzookas, 1 deff dread with 3 DCCWs

Marines: captain with command squad with champion, all power swords. 10 sternguard in droppod. 2 ironclad dreadnoughts in droppods. 3x tac squad in rhino, fist sgt. vindicator. predator lascannon on top, heavy bolters on sides.

annihilation, pitched battle, nick goes first

nick’s list is way more mechanized than mine ever was (6 tanks and 3 pods!), so foam from my army trays stand in for rhinos, and the rhino with the hatch open is the command razorback. vindicator and predator are as pictured.

1st turn, nick

movement:
sterno can drops near cover to let the dreadnought pods come in later

 

shooting:
predator exploded burna wagon! deffrollas 0, marines 1.
vindicator learns how short 2 feet is.

1st turn, ben

shooting: lootas blow up the vindicator’s main weapon, yes!

2nd turn, nick

movement:
sternguard hide behind bunker
ironclad drops right in front of nobwagon
tanks shift up a bit

shooting:
a few burnas killed
dreadnought blew the kannon off the nobwagon

2nd turn, ben

movement: everyone but lootas moved up. wagonless burnas hide in the ruined building
nobwagon decides to drive through the dreadnought and into the vindicator: deffrolla immobilizes the dread and blows both arms off, the newly armless dread couldn’t do anything but explode as the wagon drove over him (ram attack vs vehicle after defrolla attack). the wagon trundles its 13 inches and touches the corner of the vindicator’s oversized bulldozer blade, exploding the whole tank. deffrollas 2, marines 1.

shooting: lootas blew the storm bolter off a rhino, boys shot two sternguard who weren’t hiding well enough.

3rd turn, nick

movement: rhinos decide the nobwagon is a problem and scoot away from it. one rhino ends up immobilized right in front of it and so poops its marines so they can run

3rd turn, ben
movement: nobwagon tries to ram the rhino and some others, but gets stuck too! cursed difficult terrain! it poops nobs who swarm around the rhino. the boys run up to both other rhinos
assault: the boys blew up one rhino, not the other
lootas forget to shoot! i guess they rolled a 0 for how many rounds they get to fire

4th turn, nick
movement: dropped last dread behind boys, disembarked command squad
shooting: a few boys killed
marines shot flamer and 15 bolter rounds and predator at nobs: 1 dies (lascannon)
sternguard fire a barrage of rapid fire 2+ poison rounds at boys, kill only 6

4th turn, ben
movement: boys advance over the flaming wreckage of the rhino and up towards the predator, kans are finally in range of something!, wagonless burnas retreat away from the scary dreadnought towards the lootas
shooting: lootas blow another storm bolter off a rhino
assault: nobs erase a tac squad without a scratch

5th turn, nick
shooting: two marine squads and sternguard shoot all the ork boys dead
assault: command squad vs nobs: 5 wounds put on the nobs, everyone but captain and the apothecary dies

5th turn, ben
movement: kans move up, they shouldn’t have deployed in the corner because they’ve been running all game.
shooting: lootas shake dreadnought
assault: nobs all have a wound now but command squad is no more

6th turn
every marine in the chapter shoots or stabs the nobs and wipe them out. game is mostly over, so even though the die comes up in favor of turn 7 we call it and count up kill points

nick lost 9 kill points, ben lost 5
orks win!

ben consistently rolled way too lucky with dice, at one point the nobs rolled iirc 6 6s in a row for nob wounds, and the lootas rolled Heavy 3 every single round. nick consistently rolled below average, as is unfortunately his wont!

bad ork performance: the kans got to shoot just a bit at the end, the deff dread didn’t do anything at all, and the burnas were useless and hiding without their wagon.

good ork performance: the nobs cleaned up. the lootas did their job well. the deffrolla won so many awards for completely wiping out 265 points in one ram.. the image of a battlewagon literally driving over and chewing up an ironclad dreadnought is a michael bey moment.

ork lessons learned: more boys wouldn’t have helped, but some grots would have been nice. the wagons don’t need a KFF in each if they roll 6” from each other, this means a warboss can ride with the nobs and free up an elite slot for some more lootas or whatever. deff dread and kans really need to deploy front and center to make sure they can actually reach combat. burnas need a power klaw with them or they’re completely useless even when right next to enemy vehicles. lootas and deffrollas are the champs, i think my wagons are just right except for the possible extra KFF. against marines the burnas could have been subbed for.. anyone, even just boys. i do like the burna wagon a lot, but some tankbustas might have been nice vs marines.

Orks

I've been collecting a force over the last month, buying used via ebay, so far I'm almost at the list I want and am at an average of 51% MSRP spent on it, not including extra bitz and broken pieces that came with the auctions. Buying used is the way to go. List later, pics now.