Armageddon Steel Legion!

Finally painted some of my Armageddon Steel Legion for 40k! And here they are. I've wanted some Armageddon Steel Legion for a long, long time, and now I've got some! I already had some tanks painted in that scheme, but I've finally finished a full squad of infantry, on this rainy, dull Sunday.

Hopefully next weekend, we'll be able to have people over and play some 40k. 

The Battle for Hypatia Hive

The Achilus Crusade began in 777.M41, to reclaim the Jericho Reach from the sway of Xenos and Heretical forces. Under the command of Lord General Militant Solomon Tetrarchus, vast army groups of the Imperial Guard, Naval Fleets, Legions of Skitarii and Titans of the Mechanicus, and even the mighty Adeptus Astartes, march to war, to drive out the enemies of mankind.

The Crusade is taking place over three salients: designated Canis, Acheros, and Orpheus. The general Imperial strategy is for the Canis salient drive towards the core of Jericho Reach and crush native resistance while Acheros and Orpheus salients move swiftly through uninhabited rim worlds, encircling the core and disrupting Tau activities in the area.

In the Cellebos Salient, a bloody war of attrition grinds on against both secessionist and Tau forces. The world of Khazant has changed hands several times. The latest Tau counteroffensive, bolstered by newly arrived hunter cadres dispatched from the Sept of Velk'Han, has wrested control of three of the four primary hives on Khazant from the Imperial Defenders.

After nearly a week of bloody street fighting, Brigade Command withdrew all forces from Hive Hypatia to regroup and refit. Theater Commander General Erasmus Grachev, under intense pressure from Crusade Command, struggled to reorganize his shattered battle groups and launched a hasty counter attack on Hypatia.

Elements of the Cadian 1059^th Infantry, Armageddon Steel Legion armored korps, and Krieg 143^rd Siege Regiments were re-designated Task Force Cardogan and tasked with breaking through the Tau lines to establish a foothold back into the city for follow-on forces...

We started the above scenario the other Sunday at my place. We got one and a half turns in before we ran out of time and steam. There was an issue with timing, we got started late, and had a player unfamiliar with the rules. I didn't get any pictures of the game either. 

We decided that, story-wise, the Imperial counterattack, an armored thrust supported by heavy amounts of Death Korps of Krieg artillery, was far more than the Tau strike force had expected to reorganize so effectively. After suffering heavy losses, the Hunter Cadres pulled back, looking for better ground upon which to make their stand. Imperial forces will no doubt find their armored advantage nullified in the confines of the ruined hive's narrow streets...

At Long Last, an Update! Necrons and Krauts

Hello, loyal follower...s? I haven't updated in a couple of months, just haven't had much drive until recently. I don't have much word content at the moment, but enjoy some pictures!

The Necrons belong to my wife, some of them from my friend Derek. The ones that are originally Ria's are the ones with Purple stuff on 'em, while Derek's are from a wide time period, during which he experimented with different techniques and paint schemes, etc. etc. So it's a very eclectic look, at the moment.

 

Hell hath no fury like the vast robot armies of a woman scorned!

 

Legions (well, like 72) of Warriors! Observe their many different colour patterns etc.

 

Stalwart Immortals do their thing, etc. I don't know if you can see it, but it's a nice blend of new plastics and old metal models, with the old models upgraded with the new weapon arms. They blend pretty seamlessly.

 

Flaaaayed ones! 

The pinker, more uniform ones are Derek's, while Ria decided that her Flayed ones preferred a more varied diet. The one on the right is wearing an Ork, while two spaces to the left is a Flayed One that ate a Tau.

 

ehhh some Lords and a named character or other, with some scratch built Crypteks behind them.

 

A catacomb and or annihilation barge! I don't know the difference, tbh. Necrons aren't really my thing.

 

Ahhh yes, and a terrifying... Thing! Treeeemmmmble before it's wraaaath!

 

I wish I had an airbrush, you can do some really cool stuff with the glow effects.

 

"Face the enemy, Sergeant!"

 

"There's just too many of them!"

"They won't die!"

"Game over, man, game over!"

And now finally, my WWII Germans! I love Flames of War, and it's only recently that I found a paint scheme for the tanks that I really liked. Pictured below is my Panzerkompanie: Panzer IVs spearheaded by fearsome Panther tanks, backed up by StuGs and Wespe Self Propelled Artillery, and a mechanized Panzergrenadier company (in halftracks)

 

StuG Assault Guns, collected from all the various starter sets I've gotten from this and the previous edition. The Germans made a bunch of them on the Panzer III and Panzer IV chassis because it was far easier, mechanically, to build than a 'true' tank (what with the turret and all). I have a soft spot for them, historically, but it's easier to work with turreted AFVs.

 

My Scout/Recon elements. Infantry scout teams can be taken with most any german list, and these late war guys have been upgraded with Sturmgewehr Assault rifles for some added punch. The 8-wheeled vehicles there are nicknamed Pumas, and I really just got them to spice up an otherwise kind of monotonous Late War armored list.

 

Besides, they look cool. And their main guns are pretty solid for recce vehicles.

 

Company HQ. Not my best paint work, but they were among my first 15mm models ever done, wayyy back in... god, what like 2009? Geez...

 

A grenadier Mortar platoon. Intended for a straight-leg infantry company, but most of that company isn't painted, so they're just chilling here in the group shot. One of my favorite things about FoW is that you really need to use the various elements of your force together to achieve objectives/triumph. You can't just rely on one death star unit or named character to insta-win your way to victory *cough WFB* (and sometimes 40k, too)

 

MG-42 Machine Gun Platoon. Love these guys, almost any german infantry company can take two and mix them in with their other infantry platoons to really beef up their firepower.

 

The massed ranks of Panzer IVs, the German workhorse of the latter half of the war. Slightly better than the M4 Sherman and definitely better than the (basic) T-34, the German armored superiority is mostly thanks to special rules and higher levels of training/motivation than their allied counterparts. Until of course, you take into consideration...

 

The PANTHER TANK! What would have been considered a Heavy tank to the Americans was merely the superior medium tank for the Third Reich. Though they didn't produce nearly as many Panthers as they did Panzer IVs or StuGs, the Panthers were used to equip the very best Wehrmacht and SS armored formations.

 

Back when we played a lot, we didn't have too much in the way of air power in play. Still, there's no harm in coming prepared, and these quad 8cm guns have a prodigious rate of fire that can make a mockery of light vehicles and infantry formations alike.

 

"Mit donnernden Motoren, so schnell wie der Blitz,

Dem Feinde entgegen, im Panzer geschützt
Voraus den Kameraden, Im Kampfe ganz allein, (Ja ganz allein)

 So stoßen wir tief in die feindlichen Reih'n!

 

I had a fully painted Grenadier company at one point that I sold once I got my hands on the new starter set. The new plastic infantry models are MILES ahead of the old pewter ones. I'm no professional painter, but I think they turned out okay. Besides, the 3-foot rule is, as ever, in effect.

 

A slight footnote, all German infantry were granted the honorific title "Grenadier," which had been used in almost all European armies for centuries to denote Elite formations. Grenadiers were infantry, Panzergrenadiers were mounted in trucks and military cars to keep pace with the Panzers, and in FoW, Gepanzertepanzergrenadiers are Panzergrenadiers mounted in armored Halftracks.

 

That's all for now, folks. Next time: Imperial Guard, terrain and maybe something else, too!

Guess Who Finally Took Pictures For My Blog? Me it was me I'm updating finally

My entire collection. Hard to get it all in one shot, haha.

Another attempt at the whole collection.

A group shot from the flank.

These are the models that I have fully painted, I mean 100% done. Cadians with green armor and grey BDUs, and my Ice World Guardsmen. Most of the rest of my army IS painted, just... not to this colour scheme. A whole lot of Cadians still need grey BDUs, as seen in this next picture, my painted models that require further work:

See? Most of them fully painted to my old scheme. Gonna take a bit of effort to update them all, but not as much as it'll take for the following group:

Entirely unpainted.

Anyways, here's some more close-ups of my Ice Worlders:

Man I love these guys. I've got a whole bunch of Cadian bitz. I'm going to build about 75 more of these guys once I can afford the other neccessary parts, and use the 45-odd spare cadian bodies I've got to build some Mordians/Praetorians. Can never have enough infantry.

 Anyways, the final count is 305 small infantry base models, and I want to say 30-something heavy weapons, 9 Leman Russes (one not pictured), 3 chimeras, 1 basilisk, and 3 sentinels.

Games Were Played!

We still exist as a gaming group! Haha. We haven't played 40k nearly as much lately as we used to. I just got an Imperial Sector for my birthday (from the most amazing fiance in the world) and, while I don't have pictures up of it yet, over my birthday weekend, I had some of the gang over and we played 40k. Fun times were had!

My fiance is a huge fan of sci-fi and robots, so it's only natural she decided to try Necrons. She's 3-0 so far. HOW!? HOW, DICE GODS?!? Ugh, so unfair. Haha. Anyways, without too much commentary, here are a few of the pictures I took.

Hilton (left) Evan (center) Victoria (right) going through an introductory game. 540 points per side meant 1 assault squad, 1 tac squad, and a captain vs 20 Necron warriors and a Lord.

                         Here, Hilton explains something or other. Probably how cover saves work.

A squad of implaccable, soulless killing machines zaps and blasts their way through a squad of Space Marines.

Be aware, Imperial Citizens! This is the face of the Xenos! Also, Chaos. Multiple xenos, come to think of it...

Evan (blood angels) and Robert (Sisters of Battle) face each other for a brother against brother battle the likes of which haven't been seen since the War between the States! (With less tragedy.)

Jump pack troops face off. Also: UNPAINTED MODELS BRING SHAME UPON YOUR GROUP. SHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAME!
 

What's his name, of the Flesh Tearers, faces off (with 1 wound) against the Living Saint and posse.
                                                                       (He dies.)

In my... 1000 pt game? Against Ria's (Derek's) Necrons, I turtled my guys up. It would have worked better if I hadn't made some stupid mistakes. And also, if Ria's dark pact with the dice gods hadn't worked as well as it apparently did. IT'S UNCANNY. SHE ROLLS BETTER THAN HILTON. HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE

                          This was the last sight of many a brave guardsman that fateful day...

Speaking of brave Guardsmen, this is how my new paint scheme is coming along: (one was with the flash on, and one without. I couldn't decide which one I preferred, so here's both)

Coming up next time: Pictures of our new terrain.