Horus Heresy Project: Xiphon Interceptor Complete

Emperor's Children Xiphon Interceptor

The Xiphon Pattern Interceptor is one of the newest flyers available to the Legions Astartes. I had just recently finished one for my Emperor’s Children and I am itching to use it. Typically I struggle in my 40K games when someone takes a flyer and I don’t quick have a counter to it in my army. For 30K I thought that I would go ahead and include one since one of my friends is planning on taking a fire raptor eventually. The Xiphon is designed to take out other flyers and it’s 3+ jink ability will help it survive against incoming fire.

 

 

 

This is the first model that I’ve used the Chemos Purple airbrush spray from Forge World. I was hoping that the color would be closer to Liche Purple, but it is noticeably paler, which is unfortunate because the rest of my army is painted in Liche Purple and I will likely stop building up my 3^rd Legion once my last paint pot runs dry. I went to great pains to ensure the techmarine in the cockpit was detailed, sadly it is hard to fully appreciate once the canopy is in place. I also added some weathering to the Xiphon too. I considered not doing so based on the Emperor’s Children meticulous upkeep of the aircraft, but it didn’t look quite right so after doing to paint chipping and exhaust effects I was much more satisfied with the end result.

 

 

Horus Heresy Project: Phoenix Spear Conversion

I was looking for a helpful conversion article on making Phoenix Spears because I was building an Emperor's Children veteran unit out of the Horus Heresy: Battle for Calth boxed set. I definitely wanted to have an outflanking unit of vets with a Phoenix Spear wielding sergeant that would strike vulnerable units unexpectedly. Sadly I found nothing so I started pouring through my bitz bin to see if I can throw something together.

After plenty of searching I decided to use a Dark Eldar Venom banner pole for the haft, a talos blade bit for the cutting edge, and a crozius bit from the BoC chaplain. After some cutting and gluing I had my Phoenix Spear. It is not quite as ornate compared to the Phoenix Guard termie's, but it fits well in the hands of a powered armor marine.

 Tactically speaking, taking some Phoenix Spears for your various sergeants and champions is a good idea when paired with the sonic shrieker upgrade. You will usually strike first on the charge at AP2, which will typically take out a few marines or win you a challenge. It is one of the few advantages the Emperor's Children generals have compared to the other legions.

Hopefully you know someone who plays Dark Eldar and has some of these bitz laying around. It was give you a cheap and effective upgrade for you Emperor's Children Legion!

Horus Heresy Project: Second Contemptor

I'm back with some more heresy action! I have my second contemptor dreadnought ready to go. One of the best ways to field a contemptor is in a talon of 3 and a can check off #2 at this point and I will soon have #3 ready after having purchased a Betrayal at Calth set. I personally would not want to be on the receiving end of 3 contemptors!

My hope is that I will stop getting stomped on by Firedrakes when running a complete talon. Firedrakes are tough to deal with and I didn't really have a good counter in my army since most of my units can only deal with basic marines.With any luck I will get more Horus Heresy games in since the price of entry has just been lowered with the introduction of Betrayal at Calth. That set is perfect for those people who wanted to play, but didn't want to sell a kidney.

Ancient Rylanor and friend

What is Forumware?

Something that I have been delving into more in relation to my hobby projects is forumware. This term defines any small scale independent production of miniatures that are typically used for an existing game system such as Epic Armageddon or Warhammer 40K. If you look hard enough on certain fan forums like Tactical Command (hence the term “forumware”) or individual hobby blogs you will encounter this product. If you can find someone producing their own you can sometimes purchase it for a modest price or alternatively if it’s no longer being produced (like Otterware) then you can sometimes spot it on Ebay going for a hefty price.

 

Forumware Grey Knights for Epic

 

I wanted to show off some of the forumware that I am working on for my Epic Necrons. I recently acquired a Ghost Ark that is being used as a Warbarque in Epic. I have also included a pic of a rare Otterware Obelisk for Necrons. As of the timing of this article you can still purchase the Ghost Arks off of Ebay at a reasonable price.

 

Trolls Ghost Ark

OOP Otterware Obelisk sans corners

 

 

Forumware is the gaming communities’ answer to filling the gap that Games Workshop left after dropping specialist games. Just because specialist games are no longer supported doesn’t mean that you have to resort to the secondary market to build your army. So far the people that I have dealt with when purchasing this product have been reputable and the quality of the miniatures are top notch. If you are looking to purchase some for yourself be patient because the process takes a bit longer than your normal web purchase and be sure to use a paypal account for your transactions just in case the deal turns sour.

The Merits of Kings of War

 

 

After reality has set in that Warhammer as I knew it was no more I considered my options. One was to stick with 8^th edition and find like minded people who were ok playing with a “dead” set of rules or I could branch out and try other systems like Mantic’s Kings of War Game. One thing that was appealing about Kings of War is that it was developed by some ex-GW designers that worked on my favorite edition of Warhammer (6^th ed). Another appealing factor is that eventually all of the old Warhammer armies will have a playable list within Kings of War. Having made up my mind I decided to try it out.

 

Turn 2 demo game

 

 

It was easy finding some people at my LFGS to teach my how to play KoW. My first game was more of a demo-style match where I brought my Chaos Dwarves… er, I mean Abyssal Dwarves. It was low points so I can grasp some of the basics. One thing that I had to get used to is that I no longer needed to remove individual models. In KoW your whole unit suffers wounds that stack and you roll a “nerve” test whenever wounds are taken. Sometimes this may cause your unit to route because the more wounds you suffer the harder it is to keep your nerve and stay in the fight. My demo was a win (of course!) as I was able to route the elves off the battlefield mainly due to my most powerful Obsidian Golems (used K’daii models).

 

Turm 4 demo game. Finishing off the elves

 

 

My luck didn’t quite hold up in my second follow up game where I played a larger 900 point game. My opponent was the same, but this time I brought more toys to the battlefield like a Great Mortar (used a Hellcannon) and Slave Orcs (Hobgoblins). I made an early error when positioning my army and paid dearly for it as my slave orcs were overextended and couldn’t quite hold my flank. The elves had superior magic and shooting. I lost my entire army by the end of the match and inflicted little damage in return.

 

After having played two games of KoW I ended up liking it as an alternative to Age of Sigmar. The game is more simplified than 8^th ed which allows for faster games, but still retains some of the tactical elements that I liked from the Warhammer style of game play like unit facing, point costs, terrain inhibitors, and regiments. On top of that the rules are also free! I would suggest giving Kings of War a try if you are seeking an alternative to Age of Sigmar.

If you would like to see some more battle reports for Kings of War check out Jason Zmuda's YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCESR150chkbfxXSaWfcl_KQ

 

 

Horus Heresy Project: Fulgrim the Illuminator Complete

I feel like a mini celebration is in order. I have completed the Emperor's Children Primarch after hours of meticulous detail work. After many months of waiting until I had painted up some other legion marines I thought the time was right to tackle Fulgrim. He will definitely be the centerpiece of my growing army.

 

 

At first I had completely assembled Fulgrim before painting. After making some progress I decided it would be better to partially disassemble in order to catch the details easier. 

 

I am a big fan of Vallejo paints and used the copper metallic as a basecoat for my gold. The purples are done using old Citadel Liche Purple which has just the right hue that I was looking for. Everything else on the paint conversion charts doesn't quite match exactly. I also applied a lot of washes on most of the model, the exception being the pteruges, the hair, and the feathers.

The Forge World Primarch's out of the character series are some of the most impressive models I have seen. I look forward to finally using one of these legendary characters in my army after years of wishing Games Workshop would make them playable.

Warhammer: Age of Sigmar first battle and initial reaction

Age of Sigmar has been a contentious topic as of late since this has been one of the most drastic rules reboots since Warhammer 40K 3rd edition. I thought that I would withhold my judgment until I at least had a chance to play a game to see what it was like. I can remember not liking 3rd edition 40K when I first saw the rules, but in time I grew to like it and couldn't quite justify sticking with 2nd edition 40K. The only thing to do now is play a game.

I had a friend over and we had to establish some ground rules since AoS is a really loose set of rules. We based our forces off of a leaked set of tourney rules used by a Games Workshop store. We were allowed to take up to 5 Battlescrolls, max of 2 characters, no duplicate named characters, and only one monster per army. Each unit could have no more than 15 wounds. Seemed fair enough!

I decided to field a purely Tzeentchian daemon army while my friend brought his Skaven Plague Monk army.

My army consisted of:

Lord of Change
Tzeentch Herald on Disk
Pink Horrors (10)
Flamers (7)
Screamers (5)

 

My opponents army consisted of:

Lord Skrolk
Plague Furnace
Plague Monks (15)
Plague Monks (15)
Plague Monks (15)








We set up per the normal instruction and deployed along the short table edges. The Skaven finished setting up first so they got the first turn. It was a sudden death mission because the Skaven outnumbered me by over 1/3. I wanted to utilize the mobility of my army and made the sudden death choice of having my Herald on disk survive 6 turns. Knowing this after set-up didn't give the Skaven many options so they all moved forth knowing that the target was within my deployment zone.

My 1st turn was more eventful. Most daemons have the ability to allow chaos wizards to summon that unit being fielded. I decided to summon another Lord of Change since I had a spare in my collection. My roll was successful and much to the chagrin of my opponent I got a free greater daemon. To add insult to injury I was also able to summon a unit of 3 flamers. I moved the rest of my army into position to delay the Skaven horde and kept my Herald back on the arcane graveyard that helped with spellcasting.

On the next turn we had to roll off. I was hoping to get the high roll thus getting back to back turns, which would be quite devastating for my opponent. I ended up losing the roll and waiting for the Skaven to position for my impending charge.

The Tzeentch daemons set forth on turn two and I was going for a strong right hook with most of my army while my horrors bought me time on the other side of the battlefield. I had no successful summoning on turn two, but the flames caused 6 wounds to a nearby plaque monk unit before the screamers charged in to cause another 6 wounds. The Skaven didn't cause any casualties to my screamers so my battleshock roll was an auto success. The plague monks weren't so fortunate. They auto failed due to the high amount of wounds taken and lost the remainder of their unit.

Turn 3 saw the Skaven counter attack. Again, they won the roll off and got to start the round. The next nearest unit of plague monks charged my screamers and managed to cause a fair amount of wounds. I had two screamers left to counter attack causing three wounds. After battleshock I had one screamer left and the Skaven lost 3 more plague monks. On my 3rd turn I disengaged my last screamer to do a fly by attack and positioned to wither the plague monks with another round of shooting attacks.

It was by the end of turn 3 that my opponent wanted to concede the game. With having taken so many losses and not able to keep up with my summoning he didn't want to continue the uphill battle. I was in agreement. My army was cheesy mainly because of the summoning. It was too easy to pull off.

Unfortunately without points this system lends itself to some easy abuse. It may work out well right out of the box, but for established players of Warhammer more fine tuning will definitely need to take place. I don't feel completely negative about the game however. It does have some merit. I like how it's fast paced and the rules are free.

Here's a quick summary of the pros and cons:

PRO

Free rules
Fast paced
Easy to comprehend

CON

No structure for army building
Over simplified all phases of the game
Too much randomness

After the game I had a conversation with my friend and we both felt that Age of Sigmar would have been a good addition to the GW lineup of games, but it is not a suitable replacement for the Warhammer Fantasy we have played all these years. I won't be playing any more AoS for now. I hope to see more structure added to the game and then I will reconsider. If no changes are made I foresee a lot of veteran players dropping off in favor of other systems.