Hrossey Mechanised Yeomanry

 The Hrossey Mechanised Yeomanry are my armoured force, comprised of mostly vehicles with only minimal infantry, in the old force these were here to just help hold objectives or they were specialised troops with very specific roles. The old list, shown below, was mostly about the objective secured Leman Russ Tanks.

Primaris Psyker

Tank Commander

Master of Ordnance

Ministorum Priest

Hellhound

Leman Russ Battle Tanks (x3)

Company Commander

Lord Commissar

Command Squad: Heavy flamer, Regimental Standard, 2x Plasma gun

Ogryn Bodyguard

Platoon Commander

Veterans: Heavy flamer, 3x Meltagun

Veterans: Heavy flamer, 3x Grenade launcher, Missile launcher

Heavy Weapons Squad: Heavy bolter (x2)

Chimera (x3)

Hellhammer

However, like then other lists this needed to change and unlike the other two list which changes to make them better or more efficient rather then out of pure necessity, this change mostly out of necessity. The new list, while retaining many elements of the old list, is quite different;

Platoon Command Squad: Platoon Commander, Regimental Standard, Heavy flamer, Plasma gun, Grenade launcher, Ogryn Bodyguard, Astropath, Master of Ordnance

Platoon Command Squad: Missile launcher, Heavy flamer, Grenade launcher

Tank Commander: Battle Cannon

Death Korps of Krieg: 2x Grenade launcher (X2)

Death Korps of Krieg: 2x Meltagun

Commissar

Regimental Preacher

Hellhound

Leman Russ Battle Tank

Leman Russ Demolisher 

Leman Russ Vanquisher

Wyvern (X2)

Chimera (x3)

Hellhammer

This list is around 2500 points in total, there are really two ways of playing at 2000 points. The first is without the superheavy hellhammer, while the other requires the removal of the wyverns, preacher, commissar and the second command squad, along with the master of ordnance from the first command squad.

The biggest issue with the change has been the troops. Before I had 2 vet squads and a command element, all of which fitted in the three chimeras. However, I now have 3 squads and two platoon command squads, which do not all fit in chimeras. This isn't too much of an issue, but it does mean that at least one unit will be sitting at the back. Overall this won't make to much of a difference to the way the army plays as the main armoured elements are still present. 

The big issue I have at the moment is with the hellhammer. The rules changes mean that one set of sponsors are free and I really would like to add a second set, however, I don't have a second set and I don't want to fork out a load of money to get a second set. In addition the wyverns moving across from the Hjaltland list is more in keeping with the armoured style of this list, but I'm less sure of the rules for these units now, as although the strength and ap got better, loosing the rerolls to wound will hurt.

I think overall that this list hasn't felt to much of a change in terms of overall firepower or ability, as there really haven't been that many changes. The play styles will be discussed next and will be a longer post due to the two way this list can be built but overall I'm still happy with this list and the options I presents.

Toddler issues

Having Children can be s wonderful and enjoyable experience, most of the time any way. Sometimes however, it is less enjoyable, like when they "make your tank beautiful"

Beautiful tank, after the worse and still wet paint has been removed!

Paint everywhere!

So, you can image my surprise following my littlest in to his bedroom to find my prized super heavy sitting on the floor, covered in yellow and red paint. While I was busy washing the still wet red paint off, my wife was more concerned with the paint on the carpet, which to be fair probably was a more pressing issue.
Luckily I have varnished this tank, although it was with GW's spray varnish, so I'm not sure how it will react when I try and clean the paint off. Being kids paints the easiest way of removing the paint it to wet it and then scrape it off, as it becomes soft. This was done by placing paper kitchen towels all over it and soaking them with water. After leasing it for several hours, I started scraping the paint off with a bamboo skewer, chopping every so often to keep a sharp-ish point on it. 

After a few hours work in front of the TV, the results are not to bad, not perfect but not bad.

As clean and tidy as can be

Some remnants still visible

Hard to remove paint

Some areas, especially the hard to reach ones like the engine and in the gaps between the various hatches and panels, paint is still visible and also around all the rivets, while not hard to remove, were very tedious. I probably could have done more by soaking the whole thing under water but the varnish and paint held up very well with this technique and I didn't want to push things and ruin the whole thing! As far as I'm concerned, it's back to a usable condition, so I'm happy.

Still handless!

The only other issue is that the commander is now missing a hand! He originally had his pistol out but it's disappeared somewhere in my son's room and I cannot find it, it's most likely be sucked up by the hoover and binned.

I think we have moved past the painting daddy's models stage as we're quite happy painting every spare model that can be found, usually blue, red or green and occasionally yellow, even though he has a whole tub full of paint pots collected from various craft activities in a whole range of colours more extensive than my own paint collection!

Hjaltland LI operation.

 So last time I talked about the updates to the list and which units have changed or been removed and now it's changed again. After writing the last post and pondering a few options I have decided to go with most of those options, dropping a command squad, and changing the 4 infantry squads for 2 Cadian and 2 DKoK squads. The army now makes more sense and the way that it will (hopefully) operate will be a little closer to how it operated before. Below is the "final" 2000 point list that I will most likely run in games:

Platoon Command Squad: Platoon Commander, Master-Vox, Medi-pack, Regimental Standard, Heavy Flamer, Master of Ordnance, Officer of the Fleet, Ogryn Bodyguard

Platoon Command Squad: Platoon Commander, Grenade launcher, Flamer, Plasma gun, Sniper Rifle 

Platoon Command Squad: Platoon Commander, Grenade launcher, Flamer, Plasma gun, vox-caster

Primaris Psyker (X2)

Cadian squad: 2x flamer, voxhcaster (X2)

DKoK squad: plasma, 2x melta 

DKoK squad: voxhcaster, 2x grenade

Infantry Squad: Flamer, Vox-caster, Autocannon (x4)

Commissar

Regimental Preacher (X2)

Scout Sentinels (x3)

Field Ordnance Battery: 2x Bombast Field Gun

Field Ordnance Battery: 2x Malleus Rocket Launcher

Heavy Weapons Squad: 3x Missile launcher

Valkyrie

Vendetta Gunship 

Now, let's go through the various elements of the list. 

The main command squad, the one with MoO and OotF, and the non vox equipped command squad plus the 4 heavy weapons infantry squads and all the heavy support options sit at the back in my deployment zone early on, only pushing up later in game, say turn 3 onwards. In addition one of the psykers and preachers also remain back to give out buffs where necessary. This section form the anvil, the solid line of guns that pound the enemy by shear firepower. They will look to role up the field later in the game, once the other units have done their jobs. 

The second section formed of the last command squad and the Cadian squads, supported by the commissar, preacher and psyker will look to move up early game, at least turn 2 if not turn 1, and more in to the centre of the board, either to hunker down on an objective or harass the enemies units. 

The last section is the mobile part of the list, the two flyers and their DKoK cargo. These units are for either pinpoint drops in the enemy rear, character assassination or even late game objective grabbing. 

In addition to these sections the Sentinels will be stalking around. Their job is mainly pre and early game, pushing forward in deployment to push the deep strike bubble out as far as possible and also causing a distraction by grabbing objectives in the middle of the table or absorbing enemy fire.

In theory the game should play out something along these lines;

Deployment, sentinels push up to form a line in the middle table, pushing deep strike or enemy infiltrators back up the table, away from my lines.

Turn 1, base line units hammer away at anything and everything they can see or hit, doing maximum damage through Born Soldiers and orders (take aim or FRF,SRF). The Cadian section move up slightly, while also lending their lasguns to the fight. Sentinels hide if possible, keeping the deep strike bubble going. 

Turn 2, base line keeps firing. Cadians and sentinels push up in to the middle, taking objectives where possible and ensuring deep strike denial. Flyers drop on to the table and  start picking on high priority targets.

Turn 3, the base line starts to move up or pivot to start taking more board space. Cadians keep holding the midfield objectives. The flyers keep circling and picking on high priority targets. The DKoK may drop out to take back field objectives or character hunting.

Turn 4, moving to the end game and the base line continues pushing up the board, the cadians leave the midfield as the base line moves to take over l, and push up into the enemy deployment zone. The DKoK move to claim enemy home objectives. Flyers continue to circle and support.

Turn 5 and all remaining units move towards objectives and consolidate, hunkering down for the end 

And if it ever goes as simply and as well as that I will be delighted! However I suspect that things will not go according to plan very often and most of the time I will be having to react on the fly. In this case both the cadians and DKoK become counter punch units, moving or dropping in to fill holes or counter enemy movements.

I'm really looking forward to trying out this list and seeing how well it will work. 

Dagr Ormr reinforcements

As I have mentioned a few times, with the new guard codex there have been a few changes to my armies, mostly just shuffling units around but the scions needed a little bit extra. As such a new box of models were purchased and a plan was hatched.

The reinforcements

So, a number of extra models were needed, most of which were special weapons or equipment, as I had all the basic riflemen that I needed.

First up were some new leaders, one of which will be a Tempestor Prime, even though they cannot take two weapons these days! One will definitely be a standard Tempestor as the primes can't take power fists!

Plasma!

Only two new plasma were needed, as I already have a number of plasma gunners. I quite like the plasma gun strapped to the back and how the coils are "cool" and dark, compared to the other gun being held and readied.

Hot Shot Volley Guns

There are also only a few hotshot volley guns needed, due to already having several spare from the old command squads.

Bio Titan!

The "new" kittens are very cute but also very inquisitive! He tried to sit down just after this was taken and took some persuasion to go and find somewhere else to sit!

Flamers

While flamers are useful and I like them, for scions they are a little bit subpar. They don't make use of the higher BS skill or the higher ap of their other weapons but I feel like some flamers are needed, especially if I come up against other guard, tau or similar T3 models.

Grenade launchers

The biggest group of weapons was the grenade launchers. There are 6 of these guys, who will be split across 3 squads to add some longer ranged light anti-armour or anti-light infantry. 

Modifications of the grenade launcher

One thing I found was that I didn't have enough grenade launchers for my ideas and after hunting around for bits, both in my boxes and online, as well as searching for alternatives I finally settled on the spare DKoK grenade launcher I had. Having only one gave a bit of a problem, however some green stuff and Blue molding material later, I had a number of launchers to pick from. Not wanting them to all have the same pose, I cut and spliced several to get a number of poses, from the original (just on the left above) to open but empty (middle) and closed ready to fire (on the right). I think these launchers are actually more suited to the scions than the big magazine'd versions that are standard across the guard.

A couple of specialists

 Lastly we have a couple of specialists, a second medic and a vox caster for a command squad. The medic is an almost exact copy of the current medic and the vox is using the DKoK vox set as it was the only non-catachan one I had spare. 

With all these models now complete, apart from there dip in quick shade, the scions are now complete for a second time!

Hjaltland LI

 So to start my talk through of the changes I've made to my armies, I will be starting with the Hjaltland LI, the original guard army I started many many years ago. Now, I will warn you that this and the various posts to follow will most likely be very wordy, with few pictures. Hopefully you'll be able to follow along as I ramble about my little men.

The old force was considerably over the 2000 point mark, up to about 2500 points I think and had a number of units that didn't really get used much but I had for the versatility. I t eh force were:

Company Commander (x3)

Platoon Commander (x2)

Command Squad: Heavy flamer, Medi-pack, Regimental Standard, Vox-caster

Command Squad: 4x Plasma gun

Primaris Psyker (x2)

Lord Commissar

Master of Ordnance

Officer of the Fleet

Ogryn Bodyguard

Commissar

Ministorum Priest (x2)

Infantry Squad: Flamer (x4)

Infantry Squad: Flamer, Autocannon (x4)

Veterans: heavy flamer, 3x Meltagun

Special Weapons Squad: 3x Sniper Rifle

Special Weapons Squad: 3x Grenade launchers (x2)

Special Weapons Squad: 3x Flamer

Heavy Weapons Squad: 3x Missile launchers

Wyverns (x2)

Scout Sentinels (x3)

Valkyries

Vendetta Gunship 

For reference the numbers before (eg 3x plasma) mean the number of something in the squad, the numbers after (x3) means how many of that unit.

The new force however looks very different in places but very similar in others:

Platoon Command Squad: Platoon Commander, Master-Vox, Medi-pack, Regimental Standard, Heavy Flamer, Master of Ordnance, Officer of the Fleet, Ogryn Bodyguard

Platoon Command Squad: Platoon Commander, Grenade launcher, Flamer, Plasma gun, Sniper Rifle (x3)

Primaris Psyker (X2)

Infantry Squad: Flamer, Vox-caster (x4)

Infantry Squad: Flamer, Vox-caster, Autocannon (x4)

Commissar

Regimental Preacher (X2)

Scout Sentinels (x3)

Field Ordnance Battery: 2x Bombast Field Gun

Field Ordnance Battery: 2x Malleus Rocket Launcher

Heavy Weapons Squad: 3x Missile launcher

Heavy Weapons Squad: 3x Heavy bolter

Valkyrie

Vendetta Gunship 

This force is actually just under 2100 points so some units would be dropped to get under the 2000 point mark. Most likely to be dropped are a command squad or heavy bolter heavy weapons squad. 

There are some key changes to note, the introduction of the field ordnance Batteries is far more thematic than optimal, as I always thought having two vehicles in a fully infantry list was not ideal but I have nothing that I could replace them with but with the FOB's I do! I don't know if these will be as effective, mostly as the rocket launchers don't have the ability to fire indirect, which is a shame. This means that I only have the field guns to take out troops hiding in cover but it should be an overall increase in firepower.

In addition to this the loss of the plasma command squad and the melta wielding vets is a big hit and I don't really have anything in this current list that can replace them. These units were core to the operation of the list and had a big role in how the army played. One option that I have is to replace the 4 non heavy weapon infantry squads with other squads, namely 2 Cadian and 2 DKoK squads. The two Cadian squads would be equipped with two flamers, to act in the same way the the standard infantry squads did. Why Cadian and not Catachan if their carrying two flamers? Well, because Catachan are more expensive and you loose the exploding 6's to hit when shooting, which is better than exploding 6's in the combat I will be avoiding. The two DKoK would be armed slightly differently, one with plasma and melta and one with vox and grenade launchers. These would be DKoK squads to get the extra special weapon in one the squads and the extra rules to make them a little more resilient when they attack. 

The three command squads are also very sub optimal and I really don't know if I actually need that many. With the way orders now splash across units I could probably cut down the number of command squads by one or even two. The command squads weapon options are also very sub par, being made up of what I as to hand, rather than what would have been good. I really wish I could get more snipers in there, as one sniper is just useless, with at least 3 it might actually be worth while taking. I may have a rejig of some of the command squads anyway to try and get some more vox casters in there, to give me some redundancy for pushing orders out further if needed.

Overall the whole feel of the army has changed, moving from an elite core supported by massed infantry to a more general infantry list. I am not sure that I like this new feel but there is little else that can be done with the guard codex to change that feel without significantly changing the composition of the army or the idea behind it. 

Techpriest and servitors

 Following on from the AdMech post last time, I thought I would.post about my new Techpriests and attendant servitors. 

I have always wanted a techpriest to go with my Mechanised forces, namely the Hrossey Mechanised Yeomanry but I've had to wait a while to get some and so now I have two! I have gained one of these through the start collecting box, mentioned in the last post and I also gained a metal one in amongst the models donated to the wee one. 

Alongside the wish to have a techpriest, I have always wanted to have some servitors, as I always imagine them.like little worker bees following along at the heels of their master. However, with the cost of proper servitors, I have never felt that I could justify buying them and I didn't have any ideas about how to build them. With the start collecting box and coming across some Valkyrie door gunner bodies I had a bit of a brain wave. One of the things that I do not like about the proper models is the robotic arms, which always seemed far to big and chunky to be of any actual use when fixing engines or equipment. So with this in mind, I went down a different route and dug through my AdMech bits box and found some suitable arms, mostly half mechanical ones, but at least 1 full mechanical. 

I also decided to add some firepower to the unit, just for the fun of it, so I also dug out a plasma gun, to act as a plasma cannon and the melta gun from some vehicle and placed it as a multimelta. Granted they don't look the same, but they are obvious enough that people won't get confused.

So there we go, a couple of techpriests and some servitors for the collection, just in time for servitors to be completely useless! 

Astra militarum army updates

 So, I have finally go around to getting all my troops out and rearranging them in to their new homes, which are mostly the same as their old homes just shuffled around squads. There have been a few promotions, a few demotions and a few sideways steps but in general there have not been many new additions or losses. 

I think overall, there has only been one squads added to all three armies, adding another squad to the Dagr Ormr's supporting PDF forces. A couple of other squads have been reassigned to a new army, mostly from the Hjaltland LI to the others, as with the loss of the veterans, there were some extra troops that needed new homes. 

There have been some losses overall, about half a dozen troops have now been placed in to reserve, mostly as they are specialists, either with special weapons, Sgts or vox casters.

I'm not going to go through all the changes here, as this is simply an introduction to the next series of posts that will come out over the next 6 or so Tuesdays listing all the details of the old and new lists and how these will have changed the armies and how they operate.

I'm also working on a number of posts going through all the various units, both new and old, in the codex and my thoughts on the new rules. I did this when the last book came out, many many years ago and I found it quite helpful and hopefully some others did as well.

AdMech reinforcements

 So, I have finally got around to building my AdMech start collecting box that I brought months ago, just after they released the updated start collecting box, before they released the combat patrol box! 

This box, the original start collecting bix

I wanted this box rather than the newer box as it has the tank \ transport in it rather than the dune crawler. I had initially thought I would run it as the transport but have since decided that the tank with the more anti-infantry weapon is the better option, as I'll be running this with my two armiger warglaives, which are very much anti-armour platforms. With this box I will be able to field the Scorpius Disintegrator, two 6 man vanguard squads, two 10 man ranger squads, two techpriest Dominus and two armiger warglaives for a 1000 point army. 

I may look to add some more vanguard to boost those units up to full 10 man squads and I may also look at add some additional units, such as electro-priests or sicarians for some additional close combat ability. I don't envision this force getting above the 1500 point mark, at least not with out the addition of a knight and some more armigers.

Anyway, the new troops;

The Rangers are made up of basic troops to boost the existing squads up to 10 men and enable to multiple special weapons that exist. There is one alpha and 9 rangers.

The vanguard's are a lot limited in number, only 3 in total and are there as I had addition troops to use up. These will just be added to squads to boost the numbers up a little bit. In hind sight I maybe should have built one of these as a skitarii marshal and to be honest I'm still tempted to go back and do it, as it shouldn't take much effort to do.

The Scorpius Disintegrator, to add so longer ranged heavy anti infantry capacity, although with the design of the weapons, you can easily switch the main gun back and forth between the two options. I have also just noticed that I haven't painted the missiles at the front or the head lights! I will have to go back and paint these.

Lastly we have the two Dominus. One for each section of the army, armed (hopefully) with corresponding weapons to support their troops. 

One thing you might have notices is that all the units are different colours, not like the standard AdMech force which is all one colour defined by the forge world. I have finally settled on some lore for these guys and they are not going to be a main forge world but a knightly household detachment, once part of a forge world but now split and operate solely on the behest of the household (namely House Vandrad, the Laird's of Tunglland, loyal servants of House Krast.) The difference colours are defined by their roles in the house both by tradition and also to make it easier to identify for the Knights pilots. I'll need to write up a proper lore for the AdMech and Knights some time soon, alongside all the other lore updates I need to write!