40k: The Sakar Prime Offensive

The Iron Warriors overseeing the defence of Sakar Prime know their surroundings and how to defend them. The Orks only have one real option if they want to take the planet and capture the mining facilities currently in the hands of the Chaos forces.

Game 1: Orbital Communications

The opening game of our mini-campaign will be a 1500pts battle. We will be rolling for missions on the day but the communications dish will form a large part of the Ork objectives.

Game 2: Citadel Forge

This second game will increase points allowance to 2500pts, meaning we can start to bring out some of the big guns. The outcome of Game 1 will have an influence here – an Ork win in Game 1 will mean they have an easier time of things.

Game 3: Industrial Complex

Our final game in this opening chapter will be a 4000pts game – expect to see some super heavies! Again, the Orks can make their lives easier by winning the early rounds, but either way it will come down to this massive battle. Can the Orks take the planet from the Iron Warriors?

To be continued…

40k: The Sakar Campaign – Introduction

So Bull and I are on the verge of starting up 40k again and this is the background to our upcoming run of games. The first game is less than two weeks away so the preparation and banter will start gearing up from here on in.

The Sakar system is no stranger to conflict. Such a rich source of minerals has been coveted by many a race and as such the system has changed hands many times over the centuries. Currently, Sakar Prime is in the firm grasp of the Iron Warriors. They have fortified the planet in their traditional manner to prevent any potential usurper getting a foothold. The system is on lockdown and the Iron Warriors have the means to defend it. It all seems a little heavy-handed for a legion that cares little for minerals – is something more sinister going on?

However, the Iron Warriors fight their battles on many fronts. Sakar Prime was seen to be impenetrable and consequently the legions of chaos space marines stationed there have slowly been leeched away to fight elsewhere. This has not gone unnoticed and the time has come for a rather wily Ork Warboss to make his move. The identity of this wannabe has not yet surfaced, but with Ork forces massing nearby all will be revealed very soon.

To be continued…

Alternative Zombicide Survivors…

In my quest to find more alternative Zombicide survivors I've 'discovered' some great selections of minis that I previously wasn't aware of. As it's a glorious Friday afternoon I thought I'd share some of my favourites…

Rogue Miniatures:

John McClane

Léon and Mathilda

Travis Bickle

Tony Montana

Dillon, Poncho, Dutch, Mac, Blain, Hawkins and Billy

Studio Miniatures:

John McClane again

Snake Plissken

Alternative Snake

Arnold

Crockett and Tubbs

Faceman, B.A., Hannibal and Murdock

New Zombicide Recruits…

Well, it seems to have got under my skin worse than a zombie virus could. After my game(s) of Zombicide at the weekend with Mr Awdry I've been plotting and scheming was to customise the basic game into a more personalised version.

The Season 1 box set comes with 6 survivors and a host of zombies. Whilst these are great (and the expansion boxes come with even more to choose from) after a few games your imagination starts considering all the other film/tv characters you could include in your games. Luckily there are several miniature companies out there who have already thought of this and have suitable fayre on offer.

I decided to go with a couple of movie favourites… Mel and Mila.

The models are from Hasslefree and I was very restrained not to buy more straight away. They arrived today, just 48hrs after the order, and I'm looking forward to getting stuck in.

I still don't own the game itself yet, but I don't envisage it being too long before that makes an appearance via Royal Mail.

Not one to hang around, I've already downloaded the blank character sheet from the Zombicide website, raided Deviant Art for some imagery, and made up my own sheets for my new recruits. I based their skills of already established characters so that I wouldn't go over the top with choices.

Needless to say, that's two more models to add to the painting queue – alas the paint tray has been put away due to an imminent family visit. This does mean no painting updates, but who knows what else there will be to report…

Zombiefest Saturday

I wanted to thank Mr Awdry from 28mm Victorian Warfare for making the trip to Ashford for an afternoon of Zombies… Zombicide in fact.

Zombicide is a board game that I've had my eye on for a while, much like X-Wing. However, X-Wing was Star Wars based so I needed no convincing to jump in, Zombicide was going to take a little more to bring round. The fact that I love the Walking Dead tv show gave the board game something of a head start, but when Michael and I managed to get a day in the diary to finally play, well, I couldn't wait.

We started with the tutorial mission, as Michael explained the rules and we got to grips with remembering everything. It all started out quite easy and things got rather addictive rather quickly.

After some lunch we moved on to a bigger, more difficult mission and things went down hill very fast. We were quickly outnumbered and it wasn't long before my hero sheriff was toast.

Now down a man, things went from bad to worse as Michael's gamble backfired.

Then soon the rest of the survivors were swamped… game over man!

With lessons learned (and a new set of characters) we tried the mission again. We didn't fair much better, but this second game was full of cinematic moments. We devised a 'distract' strategy – which was working quite well – but the zombies kept coming and soon the distracting team was overrun despite gunning down the walkers in droves. Their final stand was epic and they died heroes.

With both of Michael's characters dead, it was down to my guys to finish the mission – one distracting the (now insurmountable) horde while the other nipped around the back to grab the loot and escape. With a bit of biased interpreting of the rules we scraped through and completed the mission. Yay!

What a fabulous afternoon's gaming. Much fun and hilarity. Thanks to Mr Awdry for making the trip and introducing the game to me. Love the models and the rules are easy to pick up – you have to learn quickly though else it will all end in tears.

I think it's fair to say this game will be on my Christmas list… if I can wait that long!

Imperial Fists Dreadnought

I mentioned last time that I had found one of my old Dark Templar dreadnoughts whilst on a routine sweep of the man-cave. There used to be two of them in my old DT army, both Las/Missile with extra armour and smoke launchers (strangely I cannot find any photos of them in their original dark green).

They were always a solid addition to any army list and participated in quite a few tournaments before I turned to Chaos. However, it was time they found a new lease of life.

I've managed to get some paint on this guy, over the course of nearly two weeks – a little every day. It allowed me to expand on my yellow recipe that I've been developing and bodes well for the vehicles to come. The dread still need some details finishing but he's pretty much there and was a relatively easy win for the new Imperial Fists.

The other Dark Templar Las/Missile Dread 'twin' was last seen a good four years ago on the blog, as part of my fledgling Blood Angel army which saw its way onto Ebay a long time ago.

Alas, with the quick win of the dread, the rest of the painting suffered. The Tactical squad were making great progress up until the dread made an appearance. I have promised myself not to put paint to anything else until this unit is complete, then they'll need their Rhino.

More soon…

Building My Starter Imperial Fist Army…

So the painting of the Imperial Fists continues slowly – snail's pace at the minute due to work and house chores. In the meantime I've been thinking about what I should be aiming for with my fledgling force.

The rule of thumb in the past was always start with a single HQ and two Troop choices. I appreciate that we now have Unbound army lists available, but I like the structure (and new bonuses) of the traditional Force Organisation chart.

As you will have seen I have my 'test' Tactical squad well under way. They were my trial models for my yellow paint scheme so will always look a little rough around the edges but that's all good. I will be building a Heavy Bolter marine for this squad as I'm not sure the Missile Launcher will be the best choice. A second Tactical squad can be built relatively easily with the spares I have already. As for transports, I have one Rhino/Razorback  almost built but will need another pretty soon.

So that was easy enough, but what about HQ choices? I have several available, but not sure which way to go at the moment. Naturally I have Lysander – the monster that he is – but his points costs is quite a chunk for a starter army so I may have to look elsewhere. I do have a couple of Librarians, but I'm wondering if I'm better off with a Captain to begin with. From what I'm reading, something like the Burning Blade would be a good close combat weapon to be wielding, with some artificer armour and maybe a storm shield/iron halo. Either way, with the new Challenge rules (wounds overspill onto unit), having a combat monster in there seems a good idea, rather than a token character who will fall over his own breath in melee. Decisions to be made here, but as it's a single figure it can wait until late on.

I was lucky enough to 'discover' a Dark Templar dreadnought in a box over the weekend. I knew he was about somewhere, but hadn't managed to find exactly which box in the garage was hiding him.

The dread was painted up in the old Dark Templar green and black, quite a rushed job especially on his Lascannon and Missile Launcher arms. Needless to say he has received some TLC and is looking far more glorious and intimidating… as all dreadnoughts should!

Pictures of him, and the evolving Tactical squad soon.

With the first game against Bull's Orks coming up in just less than 4 weeks, lots of banter coming up soon!

Paint Table Saturday: 5th June

Well, it's been a yellow couple of weeks to be sure. I have to say, I've got something of a painting bug at the moment, which doesn't happen often these days. I'm finding time to do some painting every day… even if it's only 10 minutes.

The first ten Tactical marines in my fledgling Imperial Fists army all have paint on them, albeit their at different stages of the yellow process.

Lurking impatiently behind them is a unit of Terminators, who just need a bit of attention on their bases before going through to the undercoat room (the man-garage!).

Behind those in the queue is a five-man Devastator squad, who just need a couple more resin shoulder pads then they can see some spray time too.

Of course all these marines need someone to lead them. Being a person who likes option I have four HQ choices ready to go. Imperial Fist Captain Lysander is still in his blister pack, as is the limited edition marine Captain (a plastic re-make of the 1990 Games Day figure). I also have two plastic Librarians part-built. The Psychic phase of 7th Edition 40k seems to be a big deal, so the more psychics the better it seems. One is the new plastic Librarian (pricey!) and the other is the Limited Edition Dark Angel's Librarian (who will be suitable converted).

On the vehicle front I have a Rhino and my Stormraven part-built and my Land Raider Crusader waiting in the wings.

Exciting times ahead… just wish I had a six week break from work this summer like some of you lucky folk ;)

40k: How To Paint Yellow… part 2

So last time I explained the early steps in my recipe for painting yellow… more specifically Imperial Fist marines.

We finished last time with our model as above: Primed white, basecoat Averland Sunset, then highlighted by adding White to the base colour. I apologise for the pic above – not clever photographing yellow marines under a yellow light!

Once you're happy with your highlights, crack open the Lamenters Yellow glaze from GW. It's like a watered down ink and colours everything in a glorious yellow tone. Easy. For sheer speed this is probably good enough for your rank and file models.

You may decide to add a second glaze layer, or maybe you want to spend a little more time defining the armour. It's me, so I decided to push things a little further!

Next I took some GW Casandora Yellow shade. It's an orange/yellow colour and can make the miniature look very orange if over used. I applied it sparingly in the shadows and corners to add some depth. I then overlaid this with some more Lamenters Yellow to soften the edges.

With that done I just wanted a final shadow and highlight. I watered down some GW Skrag Brown and used a very fine brush to add thin lines in the recesses and to define joins in the armour. I then took White and added a tiny amount of Lamenters Yellow or Averland Sunset to make it more of an off-white. This was then applied to the raised edges, sparingly as a final highlight.

And that's it. The photos do look a little on the orange side (the models are not quite that orange in reality) but the colours used allow you a lot of flexibility. As I paint more and more of this yellow recipe I expect to get into a rhythm and the look will be a lot more consistent.

More examples of the yellow paint scheme coming up… including a vehicle perhaps!