Epic Necrons In Progress

I have been slowly building up some Necrons for Epic Armageddon. I really liked the idea of running Necrons in Epic since it’s my most complete 40K army to date and wanted to do a 40K/Epic campaign down the road (time permitting). I have been fortunate to have acquired some hard to obtain forumware Obelisks, Monoliths, and Tomb Spyders. My Shapeways Pylon isn’t quite to the scale I would prefer, but it will do. The infantry are Edenites from Exodus Wars and make perfect Necrons. What I’m using as a warbarque is the Trollz Ghost Ark. So far I’ve added some paint in the coppery color scheme that matches my Necrons in 40K. The copper that I use is from an old Ral Partha copper metallic paint and it is ideal for that “shiny penny” look that I so much like. Sadly, this paint is all I have left and nothing else comes close to that coppery sheen.

 

Pylon, Monoliths, and Warbarque (Ghost Ark)

The great thing about building an epic army is how easy it is to paint it up. I have only spent a few hours working on this army and have made some good headway. In the mean time I would like to re-familiarize myself with the rules and get some games in.

Obelisks, Lord, and Warriors

 

 

My all time favorite copper paint

 

Warhammer 40K Old School Inquisitor

Get Ready for some Old School! Every now and then I will pick up an old mini or restart a half completed project out of my collection in order to wrap up some loose ends. Despite its age I still really like the old Ordo Malleus Inquisitor in Terminator armor. I remember back when this was one of the few inquisitors available out of the whole citadel collection. I’ve had it for years in a half painted state and decided to dust it off and finally finish it. Although I am not a big fan of painting white I thought it looked well on the inquisitor mini range so I had to apply the same treatment to this termie.

 

 

If you have any old models just sitting around waiting to be painted go and grab one to finish it up. It is surprisingly satisfying to clean up these loose ends.

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