My new best friend!

I finally got around to buy a new camera, and it's about time I update the blog!

Today I'm gonna introduce you to my new best friend!
I have a lot of friends in my life who have stood up for me, helped me out when I was down etc, but my new best bud is called Zandri Dust Spray!

Look at this beautiful bastard!

Zandri dust and I do everything together - We share a room, watch tv series, eat snacks, he even helps me paint, and then some!

Daemons of Nurgle - on display at Games Workshop Oslo

Can't recall where I got the guide from, but spraying Zandri Dust, washing Athonia Camoshade then drybrushing Underhive Ash is a method I've used lately to paint my Nurgle Daemons, and the result is satisfying!

Repainting in progress

I was so pleased that I went over most of my stuff - even the finished stuff!

1100pts or Daemons, ready for war!

Today I even took my daemons for a spin. Tried out a list that included zero Plaguebearers but included Heralds for summoning.

Peter tries to shoot down the Soul Grinder.

The game went great, but I need to experiment more with the daemons.
Zandri Dust spray worked so well that I started experimenting a bit on my Death Guard as well.
I don't belive I will repaint the Death Guard army, but I might have found a faster way of painting them, with a better result.
So with this in mind, I'v started adding more units!
These will be shown off in the next post!

Until then!
Cheers!

Déjà vu - I think I've had this problem before...

A long time ago, I had a problem which caused me to repaint a small force, my Death Guard.
Luckily, the force was only a couple of figures, a Daemon Prince and 7 Plaguemarines to be exact.
I shouldn't complain because I was so satisfied with the results that I just kept painting more and more Death Guard. It is now one of my main armies, when I just intended it to be a 10 man squad for a Black Legion army.

With 7th edition I am now able to summon daemons for my Death Guard, and naturally that means that I must have several squads of Plaguebearers. So far I have 2 maxed out units. Here's where the problems came back - How the hell do you paint squad markings on something that doesn't use armour!?

You don't.

I decided to repaint one of my squads in a rotting flesh colour, a colour scheme I will repeat on Nurgling bases or Nurglings on bases for my Plaguebearers or Heralds.

The boils and blisters will be painted in the same shade, and both squads have the wounds painted in the same palette to bind the units together somehow. The plagueswords will also be painted alike.

After Epidemius, The Herald from Forge World and Herald from Games Workshop, you quickly run out of figures to use as Heralds. I went for the fantasy Champion of Nurgle and replaced his head with a that of a Plaguebearer. I went for the head vomiting maggots, and added a pile of maggots on the base. This will look better when the figure is fully painted.

And for you who have seen my Facebook posts, you might have caught a glance of this figure:
Scabeiathrax the Bloated! Finally finished. The boils, blister and open wounds was the parts that took the longest time to paint.

Even though it looks diguisting, it turned out perfectly.
I'm currently working on a Plague Hulk, re-painting my Blight Drone, painting my Plague Drones, Heralds, Epidemius and Nurglings, so it will probably be a while before I'm done.
On top of this I'm also considering re-painting my Plague Toads (which I use as Beasts of Nurgle).
When I paint Nurgle skin, I always start with Mournfang Brown and wash Nuln Oil, but I'm considering painting them Castellan Green right away with green washes, to make them more vibrant. Fitting for a toad I think.

That's it for today, I believe I will be posting pictures of my Death Guard next time.

Until then.
Cheers!

Welcome to Zarona - Here be Daemons!

For the first time I'm actually satisfied with my work on a gaming board! My desert table "Zarona" is a big accomplishment for me because - as I've said before - this is the first time I actually finish a gaming table. 5th time's a charm, eh?

I realized that I probably need a bigger table and decided to paint up two more tiles. I now have a 6'x4' table! The timing couldn't be better, with the release of 7th edition...

I'm actually considering adding a generatorum nexus from Forge World, switching out one of the flat tiles for a huge machine. Probably the thing powering up the entire outpost before "the incident".

Generatorum Nexus form Forge World, picture used without permission.

I haven't played any games of 7th edition yet (not on my table at least), and this is the only battle I've played so far. Death Guard VS Space Wolves. My friend Ricardo brought his beautifully painted Wolves (that just entered (and won) several categories in The Fang painting competition!) and managed to end my winning streak. We have a game booked in two weeks, so I'll make sure to kick his ass then.

Speaking of ass-kicking, with the Malefic Psychic powers in the new edition of 40k, I need something to summon the daemons. That's what I'm working on for the moment, amongst other things. More on this as work progresses.

Oh, and if you haven't tried Maelstrom of War scenarios yet - Do it!

Until next time!
Cheers!

After the Age of Apostasy.

With the new Space Marine Codex in store, Mike and I decided to run a 40k campaign based on the aftermath of the Age of Apostasy. The Centurion suits had just been given the "ok" stamp from the Mechanicus, and a good thing too, because they would be needed...

A General declared himself the "True Emperor" and set to build his own empire. Making alliances with various xeno races and pacts with renegade warbands and daemons alike, he carved a bloody path through the Imperium.

The alien races still loyal to their beliefs were intent on punishing the traitors, and joined the Imperium to kill this "True Emperor".

The Death Guard assaults the Space Marine lines.

The first encounter was a space marine strike force, defending their position against the death guard. Will the space marines be able to defeat the death guard before they set up defensive positions?

The two deployment zones. The death guard set up on the hill, and the space marines hid behind an aegis defence line, which in this scenario counts as d3 victory points. The bunker in the center is also worth d3 points. Mike rolled 2 points for his defence line, I rolled 1 for the bunker.

"I plan on making a dash for the objective with my death guard deployed in the woods. The prince will support them with some fire power from the helbrute. The beasts, plaguebearers and lord in the rhino are going to go for the space marine lines." 

Mike had his captain and combat squads in razorbacks, while the centurions and heavy bolter wielding squads took up defensive positions behind the defence line.

The vanguards took up positions in the ruins, ready to counter charge the chaos marines. The land speeders would support them with their cyclone launchers.

The Game begins!

I rolled terribly for my Warlord trait! I got Hatred on my lord and his unit, but giving that I had them upgraded with Veterans of the Long War, they already were full of hatred! Not only that, but my lords Gift of Mutation rolled No Reward, and the champion in his squad got +1 BS. Not very useful, considering he had a bolt pistol.

Mike rolled Iron Resolve for his captain.

Turn 1:The prince cast a malediction on the centurions, but managed to gift them with the Shrouded special rule. All my units lumbered forward. The helbrute managed to destroy the lascannon on the razorback, but not stopping it fully. In return, Mike zoomed forward with his razorbacks. The land speeders managed to destroy the rhino, leaving the lord and his unit very vulnerable.

First Blood: Space Marines

Turn 2:The death guard failed to climb the walls to the bunker. The plaguebearers lumbered forward along with the beasts. The daemon prince managed to give the centurions shrouded once again, and they repaid him by blasting him with their lascannons, leaving him bleeding.

The land speeders managed to get 4 hits with their cyclone missiles, and along with their heavy bolters they inflicted 30 hits! The plaguebearers were tough and only took 4 casualties.

The vanguards charged the death guard, who managed to kill one with their overwatch. The beasts tried to counter chargethe vanguards with their special rule, but failed. 2 casualties were inflicted on both sides, and the chaos lord lost a wound to the hammer wielding sergeant.

Turn 3: The blight drone arrives to save taint the day! Its shooting attack failed miserably though... The daemon prince managed to summon his powers and give the centurions a proper curse! -1 strength and toughness should do the trick! Too bad it would be irrelevant since they were out of charge range...

The beasts toads join the fray! The chaplain is reduced to one wound, and one of the toads suffered 2. We're not really sure what the lord and sergeant were doing... They flailed their arms around alot, but didn't focus on actually hitting each other...

"I don't like you, and I'm not afraid to show it!"

The storm talon arrives and reduces one hull point from the blight drone. The land speeders only managed to kill one plaguebearer with their awesome fire power, and the daemon prince survives the punishing fire from the disembarked tactical squads, razorbacks and centurions.

 Turn 4: The blight drone hummed away and fired on the land speeders, destroying one of them!

 "COWARDS!!"

The space marines had tactically parked the razorbacks so the prince wouldn't have a chance of getting through. Furious, he charged one of the tanks and chopped it to bits! He didn't survive the returning fire of the space marines though.

 "F*** you in particular!"

The storm talon picked a new target: The unmolested helbrute. A wise choise, but futile. The helbrute survived the everything the storm talon could throw at him, and cut it down in the next turn!

 Survivor of the match!

Turn 6: The champion holding the objective survived everything the space marines had! Several bolters, heavy bolters, plasma guns and even lascannon shots!
The plaguebearers finally reached the space marine lines and brought down the last land speeder.

 The chaos lord, now all by himself, charged the enemy lines and contested the objective!

The captain managed to get into combat with the death guard champion. The champion couldn't survive the captains burning blade. My objective was denied!

The plaguebearers made it to the space marine lines, giving me a point for line breaker. Speaking of lines, the space marines made a nice conga-line into my deployment zone and got line breaker as well. The chaos lord was finally slain in close combat, so he wasn't able to deny the marines their objective!

Slay the Warlord: Space Marines

Winner: Space Marines!

(5-1)

Final thought from Mike; What did think of the game?

"For Dorn and the Emperor! The space marines win their first game with the new codex! To be honest though this game was a massive experiment for me having used several units i had never done before, such as centurions, vanguard and most importantly, land speeders! The land speeders were my unit of the match! The typhoon missile launchers proved to be deadly! having killed the blight drone, rhino and a handful of plague bearers they had the highest kill count of the match! The centurions also proved to be worth the outlay in points as they killed the enemy helbrute and crippled the daemon prince but the vanguard will quite likely be getting replaced after failing to charge and defeat the chaos lord and plague bearers."

"It wasn't all smooth sailing though, Mattias' Chaos lord proved to be a tricky opponent, killing no less than 13 of my marines single handedly! And on the other flank his daemon prince who kept casting biomancy spells on himself left my space marines and captain so scared that they dared not get out of their Razorbacks for three full turns!! All in all a good match that was witness to some awesome cinematic moments! I'm now planning my list for the next match!"

What can I say? Nurgle is a really hard army. Given that they all have high toughness and Feel no Pain makes them survive most things thrown at them. I realize I played a lot of units wrong; I should have deployed my plaguebearers with deep strike, and the prince should curse units that was within range. He kept casting Gift of Contagion on the centurions, but they were never the target of any shooting nor assault. I was really unlucky with some dice rolls as well (Sure, blame it on the dice...). The toads failed their counter charge, and the plague marines failed two rolls for getting in the bunker.

Nevertheless, it was fun to see Mike sweating when my prince came lumbering towards him. Next time, I will be using more figures, so my death guard will have to be stand-ins as normal marines with Mark of Nurgle. I was really lacking in the fire power department, so a squad of havocs of two should also do the trick. A heldrake would also prove useful, but I consider it too good to be taken in a friendly game.

Heldrake or not, I'll get you next time, Mike!

Until then.
Cheers!

Showing Slaanesh some love.

If you have been following my blog you might have noticed that every time I play Chaos: Daemons, I usually show Slaanesh less favour.

This is mainly because of two reasons:

1: I've been having very bad luck whenever I field Daemonettes.

2: I never was satisfied with the colourscheme.

I am doing something about the paint job at least. Instead of painting purple and drybrushing white (using the purple as a shade), I instead paint Pallid Wych Flesh, and then shade with Druchii Violet, thinned out with Lahmian Medium. After this, I drybrush with Pallid Wych Flesh to remove any excess purple shade.

So far I have only painted this much on Slaaneshi Daemons: Keeper of Secrets, Daemon Princes, Daemonettes, Heralds and Zarakynel, Daemon Lord of Slaanesh.
Only the flesh is painted, but so far I'm really satisfied.

 

As for the bad luck, I think I have the redemption.

Looking through the codex, I realized that it is just bad luck, nothing more. Maybe a grain of idiocy as well. Who would ever deep strike a unit of Daemonettes IN FRONT of a unit? Well, not me...
At least not again.

I've been favouring Bloodletters instead of Daemonettes, but looking at the stats, they have almost the same survivability rate. Same toughness and invulnerable save.
Not only that, but the Daemonettes are cheaper as well.
Equipping a large unit with a Rapturous Standard and joining in a Herald with a powerful Loci, the unit can deal a large amount of damage.

I even converted my own Herald on Seeker to boost my unit of Seekers. 

And here's a Herald I made with spare parts, wielding a whip from the Chariot sprue.

In other news, I got a full time job at Games Workshop Oslo!! Only worked a couple of days so far, but it's a really good working place!

That's enough for today, I will be showing more of my Daemons very soon.

Until next time!
Cheers!

How to Nurgle?

I've always been a fan of Nurgle. Not enough to field a mono-army, but I just kept collecting various Nurgle units, and now I might have enough to field a Death Guard/Daemons army. A small problem though...

 I usually paint my daemons in a sickly green colour. Looks pretty good in my opinion.

Here's a Death Guard chaos marine. Now he's painted in the same sickly green colour. This also looks great, specially with the rusted metal and oxidized bronze.

Problem: What do I do when I have to paint a Daemon in armour, or worse, a Death Guard daemon prince in power armour? Do I paint it all green? I tried another scheme (as seen above) but wasn't too satisfied with the result...

Solution: Paint the Death Guard in their Pre-heresy colours! Now THIS looks awesome! The figure above is a Forge World Champion from the Death Guard kit. I decided to not use this particular torso for my champions, as it will look wierd with several champions with identical faces and torsos. So this will be my Chaos Lord. His back banner is from the Death Guard Sorcerer from Forge World.

I followed the Forge World guide on how to paint pre-heresy Death Guard with a couple of modification. Instead of spraying white and go straight to washing the armour, I instead sprayed the figure black, painted a layer Rakarth Flesh, drybrushed with Ceramite White, and then went to washing the armour. A thin highlight White Scar will be applied before I paint the details. 

Rusted metal and oxidized bronze, of course.

Until next time!

/Cheers!

Psychic Warfare!

I know I promised you some Black Legion progress, and in a way, that's what I'm giving you.

Mons just started his vacation and got the new Eldar Codex, along with the entire new range of figures. He was up for a match and wanted a larger point limit.

Around 4000 points should do it.

So we met up at my place and set up the terrain, deployed our forces and rolled for an INSANE amount of psychic powers! Like that wasn't enough, I also had several Rewards for my Daemons. 

 The Eldars deployed behind a home-made Aegis defence line with a beautiful converted icarus cannon.

 I tried to do the same, deploy everything with a clear line of sight and in good cover. At 4k there wasn't much room left so I had to leave a lot in reserve.

 First turn, and 3 warlocks dies from perils of the warp! I was in luck!

 The Bloodletters advance with covering fire from the skull cannon. The cannon managed to kill a lot of storm guardians and dire avengers. On the right, the spawn runs into cover, only to be charged by the storm guardians.

 One lucky hit from a wraithguards weapon manages to inflict an instant death on  my flying bloodthirster. A serious blow to my morale!

 The bloodcrushers charges with furious anger. The Rhino with dirge caster denied the wraithguard their overwatch, helping a few crushers to survive the trip.

 The combined fire from the dire avengers and jetbikes cut down all bloodletters and leave the herald to his fate. The spawn, having cut down almost all guardians are charged by the wraithlord.

 A wave serpent carrying 5 wraithguards with low AP template weapons deploys in front of my battle lines. they cut down the entire chaos marine squad and a couple of plaguebearers. The pink horrors blessed the plaguebearers, and together with the plaguemarines they chopped down every single wraithguard! Again, a rhino with dirge caster ensued their survival while charging.

 The portalglyph is deployed and starts spewing out daemons. The spawn, having killed the last of the guardians starts clawing at the wraithlord, and manages to bring it down, but a great cost to their own unit... only one spawn is left. The screamers bite their way through the hull of the wave serpent.

This was some of the highlights of my latest game. The Wraithknight is an awesome figure (and huge!), but i felt it didn't contribute anything major. We'll see on wednesday, when another game with Mons is planned. This time at a 2k limit though...

And I got myself some styrofoam, and using a technique I saw on Warseer, I have started to add texture to the plates, without gluing stuff on. It's still in the very early stages, but given some more texture (And I'll probably add some stuff too) and a decent paintjob, it will be a great board for my city table.

So next post will (probably) be another battle against Eldars!

Until then,

Cheers!

P.S. Totally forgot to mention the outcome of the game - Which ended with an Eldar Victory. 15-9 victory points, but I managed to dish out some serious hurt...