Northern Invasion Practice Game 2

Practice game 2 was against Necrons, again at 1500 points and slimmed down tournament lists. This time I left the Repulsor and stern guard and a intercessor squad at home. 

This was a good test of several units, namely the blade guard and bikes l, and thought me a few things.

I forgot to take a picture of deployment but you get the general idea from the T1 picture below.

Turn 1

Turn 1

Another Turn 1 picture

Turn 3

The long fight, I think this lasted 3 full turns

Sanguinary Guard doing there thing, turn 3

End of Turn 4, I think?

End game

 

This ended up being a very close game and reminded me how annoying the Necrons can be! At one point, at the end of Turn 1 I had the Doomsday Arc down to three wound, by the end of the game it was on 8. After a turn of great shooting by the Land Raider it then failed to do anything, either missing or my opponent making his invulnerable saves. I didn't even bother attacking the C'tan

Overall I was happy with the game, although the blade guard showed some issues, one that I was already aware off to be honest. While they are good they are not an excellent combat unit. They don't hit as hard as I would like, S5 is good but only 4 attacks is not great. It's not terrible either but they just seem to lack something. They did however do their job, so that was good. Like I said, overall I felt the lost was good and was happy with taking it to Northern Invasion this year. 

With the few practice games over it was time for the real thing!

Eagle Knights characters

I though that I would start off the Eagle Knights with some of the characters, important for running the Angelic Inheritors detachment. Here we have a Combi-weapon Lieutenant, Librarian and Ancient plus a Sanguinary Priest seen further down. All four are conversions of AoS models, some more so than others. 

The three amigos 

The Combi-weapon Lieutenant is based off of a underworlds model, Farasa Twice Risen of the Ember guard. The Librarian is based off another underworlds model, Averon Stormsire, of the Curse breakers. 

Both had had some conversion work done, with new heads and power packs, plus some other minor work, like removing some iconography and the like. 

The Combi-weapon Lieutenant got some extra work done, to remove the weapon on his back and replace it with a combi-plasma from the bits box. It's not overly obvious but it makes the model more complete. He also gained some additional bits and pieces, mostly grenades.

Along side the Ancient we also have a Sanguinary Priest. 

The Sanguinary Priest is a conversions of Stormcast Knight Arcanum. He (or she as it originally was) needed a bit more conversion work doing to remove various bits of.kits and fill in the holes. The Chain sword for example came from an assault intercessor Sgt. He also gained a aquilla on his chest plate. 

The ancient is a proper mash up, with the body of a stromcast, not sure which one, just one of the standard models, the standard itself is from a Brentonian Knight of the Realm, on a Stormcast arm.

He also gained a rifle and various other packs and grenades. I liked this banner as it already had the shield sculpted in, making painting up the symbol quite easy. 

I may well add some additional details to the banner, some extra symbols or number, or I may just leave it plain, I haven't quite decided yet.







 

Northern Invasion Practice Game 1

Even though we are well past the event now, (a whole month in fact!) we shall start at the beginning, with the first of two practice game. Yes that’s right, I had two practice games before going to a 24 player tournament!

The first game was against my sons Orks at 1500 points. Both lists were skinned down lists we would be taking to the tournament, so had dropped the Land Raider and Blade guard and I can’t remember what my boy dropped but I think it was some Deffkopters and a Deffdread plus some other bits.

I honestly can't remember to mamy details about this game, as it was quite a while ago now, 14th September apparently!

Deployment 

Orks

Marines

Turn 2 maybe?

Combi lieutenant in trouble

Repulsor swarmed by boys

Turn 4 possibly?

Turn 5

End game I believe.

Scorecard 

While the details of the games are a little hazy there were some things I definitely took away from the game. The ability to fight on death (Orks is never beaten) is really annoying, it means that charging or fighting first holds no advantage. I also think that I am lacking a bit in heavier hitting shooting units, I have plenty of anti-infantry firepower and combat power but lacked some of the anti-vehicle, but this should be helped by the addition of the Land Raider. I really enjoyed this game against my son and feel that the list, while not optimised will work as I want. One point of note is that this game was technically a win for me and not a loss, as my son's Orks are not actually battle ready but I gave him the points as they would have been ready for the tournament and so we played it as such, however, he didn't actually get them ready for the tournament, so maybe I should take the points back and call it a victory!

Emperors Disciples Land raider

 After a period of not posting, there will hopefully be a period of activity, posting twice a week for the next couple of months, as I play catch up with all ths building amd painting plus games before and at Northern Invasion. We’ll start with the Land Raider, that while not 100% finished is tabletop ready.

The model is just missing some transfers to finish it off. I haven’t actually looked at all to see if I even have any suitable transfers to add this unit to the Emperors Disciples but that is where it is going,, to be the transport for not and his honour guard and their blade guard companions.

I didn’t want this to be just a Ultramarines clone, so I won’t with blue highlights on the black base and I really like the results. I kind of wish I had gone for black with orange highlights for the Eagle Knights transports now!

The model is not quite WYSIWYG as there is no multimelta or stormbolter for the commander, but that’s fine, no body minds. There is however the cool little HK missile!

Northern Invasion 25

As I mentioned in then last post, by the time you read this, the tournament will be over and done for another year and we will be home and settled with minimal travel delays , disruption and sickness! (Plus a trophy! )

This year for the tournament, I have decided to try out my new Blood Angels army! First time I have ever taken a non-guard army to a tournament. The list is not optimised at all and is formed of units that I have built over then past couple of years, all of which have been built and painted as I think they're cool.rather than rules or tournament results.

The detachment used was the Grotmas Angelic Inheritors, mostly because I wanted to run lots of characters, and this at least gave me some benefits to doing that. 

CHARACTERS

1x Ancient - Bolt pistol, Bolt Rifle, Close combat weapon

To go with one of the Intercessor squads and sit on my home objective, for deep strike denial and points scoring though actions.

1x Apothecary - Absolver Bolt Pistol, Close combat weapon, Reductor Pistol

With one of the Assault Intercessors, to give them some survivability during the games.

1x Captain with Jump Pack - Relic Weapon, Plasma Pistol, Warlord, Blazing Icon

With the Sanguinary Guard to form one of the main hammer units. The blazing icon mean that they can drop in without worrying about getting blasted of the board before they get to do anything by denying overwatch.

1x Chaplain - Absolver Bolt Pistol, Crozius Arcanum

With the other Assault Intercessors, to give them a bit of a combat boost.

1x Chaplain on Bike - Absolver Bolt Pistol, Crozius Arcanum, Twin Bolt Rifle

With the Outriders, again to give them a combat boost, as these will be thrown forward quickly in games to grab objectives and get some first strikes in.

1x Judiciar - Absolver Bolt Pistol, Executioner Relic Blade, Troubling Visions

Will go with the Bladeguard to add fights first to give the Bladeguard a chance to actually hit whatever they charge / are charged by before they die. Troubling visions gives the ability to gain all the detachment abilities rather than just the two picked.

1x Librarian - Bolt pistol, Force Weapon, Smite

With the Sternguard to add some additional fire power and survivability with his psychic abilities.

1x Lieutenant - Master-crafted Power Weapon, Bolt Pistol, Master-crafted Bolter

With the second Intercessor squad for his lethal hits ability to increase the damage output of the squad.

1x Lieutenant with Combi-weapon - Combi-weapon, Paired Combat Blades, Ordained Sacrifice 

He will get thrown forward early to take objectives and just be generally annoying. Ordained sacrifice should mean he is very resilient and hard to kill.

BATTLELINE

5x Assault Intercessor Squad - 5x Heavy Bolt Pistol, 5x Assault Intercessor

With the Apothecary.

5x Assault Intercessor Squad - 5x Heavy Bolt Pistol, 5x Assault Intercessor

With the Chaplain.

5x Intercessor Squad - 5x Bolt pistol, 5x Bolt Rifle, 1x Power Weapon, 4x Close combat weapon, 1x Astartes grenade launcher

With the Ancient on the home objective.

5x Intercessor Squad - 5x Bolt pistol, 5x Bolt Rifle, 1x Power Weapon, 4x Close combat weapon, 1x Astartes grenade launcher   

With the Lieutenant.

OTHER DATASHEETS

6x Bladeguard Veteran Squad - 6x Heavy Bolt Pistol, 6x Master-crafted Power Weapon

In the Land raider, with the Judicar. These will be one of the main 'hammer' units sent after some of the tougher units.

6x Sanguinary Guard - 6x Encarmine Spear, 4x Angelus Boltgun, 2x Inferno Pistol, Sanguinary Banner

With the jump Captain, held in reserve to drop in and wreck something. They should be able to take out pretty much all infantry they come in to contact with,

5x Sternguard Veteran Squad - 5x Close combat weapon, 5x Sternguard Bolt Pistol,1x Power Weapon, 5x Sternguard Bolt Rifle

With the Librarian. These will find a point somewhere overlooking the centre of the battle field and try to dominate or at least harry anyone in the table centre.

3x Outrider Squad - 3x Astartes Chainsword, 3x Heavy Bolt Pistol, 3x Twin Bolt Rifle

These will be with the Chaplain on bike and they will get thrown forward right from the off to apply early pressure and probably die.

1x Land Raider - Armoured Tracks, Godhammer Lascannon, Hunter-killer missile, Multi-melta, Storm Bolter, Twin Heavy Bolter

To carry the Bladeguard forward and make use of the Assault ramp to get the maximum threat range. 

1x Repulsor Executioner - Armoured Hull, Heavy Onslaught Gatling Cannon, Icarus Rocket Pod, Ironhail Heavy Stubber, Repulsor Executioner Defensive Array, Twin Heavy Bolter, Twin Icarus Ironhail Heavy Stubber, Heavy Laser Destroyer

Mostly this will be used as a mobile bunker, to try and dominate part of the battle field, probably one of the flanks. It will mostly have a squad of assault marines inside to keep them safe for a bit. 

So that's the basic idea of what's going to happen with the units. The basic plan overall is to push up the blade guard on to an objective and hold it with them and the land raider, while the Repulsor and assault intercessors push for another objective. The intercessors and stern guard will take shots from afar and Sanguinary Guard will drop in and chop something to bits. The bikes will charge forward and die early, hopefully drawing something out of pinning something back in the process.

Trophy time!

 So yeah, this happened!

Granted it was only a 12 player 1000 point tournament that the organisers run on day two for the less competitively minded and new players, but three Deathwatch boxnoughts brought it home. Ok, two really as one of them couldn't hit a barn door even if you painted it pink and stuck it right under his sensors! But I'll gomon to that later. For now, I'll just go sit in the corner and stare lovingly at my trophy!

Blog update

 So it's been a while since I've posted but fear not! I have been busy in the back ground, modelling and painting. 

It has been a busy few months with the wee one, working and dealing with life in general, so I haven't had a great deal of time to sort out pictures and get posts written. However, things have settled down a bit now and I'm finding some more time to blog. I have been getting painting done of an evening, half and hours here and there but it means that models have been moving along.

Also, it's that time of year again, when me and a few.other brave souls venture across the seas to the Northern Invasion tournament. I'll have a few posts up with a couple of warm up games and list considerations, plus the actual tournament itself, as it's literally hours away when this post goes live!

Hopefully, if all goes to plan, I will have a number of posts up soon leading to the run up to Christmas. 

A new recruit

So the blog has been a bit slow recently, and for good reason! The family and I had been sat at my mother in-laws house for several weeks, awaiting the arrival of the latest recruit. Naturally, the wee fella decided to take his time and arrived 15 days late! The NHS may not be the most efficient service around but when it comes to the maternity care we have received, they have always been excellent, and this time was no different. 

Anyway, we arrived down on the 8th June, and we headed back on the 6th August! Partly to see family but partly as the ferries are useless and we couldn't actually get a berth!

I have been busy building and painting WW2 Italians and have some Krieg models bashed together but finding time proved challenging! I will try to get something up and hopefully normal service will resume at some point soon but it most likely won't be for a couple of weeks yet.

Les Grognards

So in my quest to collect them all, all the guard that is, I have purchased some more Les Grognards from Wargames Atlantic for conversion in to DKoK command squads, heavy weapons and engineers

 I plan on getting hold of a box of DKoK Command Squad, Engineers and also a Heavy Weapons Squad and using the extra bits to build more squads. 

Looking through the various bits in the command squad I think this will be the hardest one to bash together as it’s designed to build only a limited number of models, although I think there will be several bits that can be used to build at least two, if not three additional models (using Les Grognards bodies)

The heavy weapons squads will be a little easier, while there will only be enough bits in the box to build three weapons platforms, it should be easy to convert up three more from the heavy weapon options in the Les Grognards box. The will also be bits left over from the Les Grognards box to build three more heavy weapons teams, built as mortars (played as cadian HWTs) to add some extra support.

The Engineers is actually going to be the easiest to convert up. The box contains enough weapons to build five models with club and pistols or 5 with shotguns plus a remote mine, flamer and Sgt, also with several options. This means that the box can build at least 13 models, possibly 16, so it should be easy to build three 5 man squads with the bits in the box and Les Grognards bodies. With a few extra bits, building a couple of remote mine operators and flamers will.also be fairly easy. 

I have yet to get the DKoK boxes but I'm hopeful to grab them soon, although given current event, it might not be as soon as I would like.

Subductors squad 2

 So this is the second squad of subductors. Very similar to the first squad with only a couple of minor differences in the poses. Again, there are 11 guys to give those options of using the flag or not. 

The main difference between the two squads, apart from the poses are the colour reversal, both on the tabards, shields and the standard.

Again we have a trooper reading the paths or battle litanies but we also have a 'medic'. Ok, you can't actually take a medic as part of the squad but I think it's a cool little detail, after all what squad is not going to go in to battle without someone who knows how to use the sticky plasters.

There is another gun wielding book worm among the squad as well, although this one has a significantly smaller book.

Above book guy two with two shield and pistols and below are three board and mauls

Again we have the three "characters", board and icon, Proctor-Subductor with Nuncio Aquila and the standard in the centre. 

So that's the two squads sorted and done, minus doggo's. I will get the dogs done at some point soon, plus I need to figure out the transports, as I really would like these guys in transports, ready to keep up with the knight. 

Subductors squad 1

Following on from the Station Forge character models, here we have the Station Forge Royal Guard Templars. This is the first squad of models, although the second squad is pretty similar. There are actually 11 models here, and doesn’t include the doggo, which is still in training (AKA not painted yet). There was one model that I decided not to use, mostly as that model looked very tricky to glue to a base as it was running with only the front foot section of one foot on the base. As I had enough models without that model, I decided to not bother with it. 

I only need 10 models for the squad, I decided to build the 11 models as for competitive play, having a giant flag in the squad is not a great idea.  

These two models are basic troopers, however I really like their poses. One is reaching round to grab his pistol from his holster, the other reaching for a grenade. You can also see their shields laying on the floor, which is a nice little detail I think.

Next up are the three formed of two with shields and pistol and one with book and shield. I can imagine the book wielding trooper reading out the rites of battle or the oaths sworn to the Laird of Fellengarde (my knightly house).

More classic board and swords type of guys (or rather board and stick). 

Lastly are the "characters". The standard bearer, which had no effect in game, apart from presenting a big target to shoot at, the Sergeant, or Proctor-Subductor, with Nuncio Aquila and last, dude with little icon thingy. 

These are not painted to the highest standard, but they are certainly table top ready, minus the basing obviously. I intend to play them at some point when I actually get around to a game. Next up will the the second squad, same as the first but different!