Raiders and Raiders

I’m a firm believer of making Army lists (for Warhammer 40000 I mean) with the models one has on hand… Which is why I’m tickled at the challenge of trying to fit my newly-completed (though no detailing, weathering, or sealing just yet) Land Raider Crusader into my usual list. Normally I use twin Vindicators, but hey, it’s something different for a change.

I’ve thrown in my other mk-I land raider in for kicks as well. Because, really, the Crusader is kind of lacking against any kind of vehicle. That said, having AV 14 will help somewhat with its survivability, and as long as I keep away from those nasty melta-bearing units the pair of land raiders will probably last a good chunk of a game.

Anyway, here’s what I’ve come up with so far, using the models available to me:

2-Raider  1750-point Casual List

HQ

Librarian in Terminator Armor, Storm Shield (The Avenger, Might of Ancients) – 165 points

Powers will change depending on the opponent of course. Epistolary upgrade only taken at higher-point games, to maximize the psychic power use.

Elites

 Assault Terminator Squad (3 Thunderhammer/Storm Shield, 2 Lightning Claw) – 200 points

6-man Sternguard Squad – 1 power fist, 1 missile launcher, 5 combi-melta – 205 points

In a larger game the Sternguard squad would probably have their own transport, but in this case they’ll probably just hitch a ride in one of the rhinos. The Terminators plus the attached Librarian, will of course jump into the Crusader.

Troops

Tactical Squad 1 – Power Fist, Plasmagun, Lascannon – 215 points

Tactical Squad 2 – Power Fist, Plasmagun, Missile Launcher – 205 points

One might note the fact that I’m not using the more popular meltagun, and instead opted for plasmaguns for my squads’ special weapons choice. It’s simple really, since I don’t have any Tacticals modeled with meltas, and indeed I only received a pack of ten meltas recently. Besides, the plasmagun will help somewhat against armies with Marine-like saves, particularly Terminator-level threats.

Fast Attack

Land Speeder Typhoon – 90 Points

Land Speeder Typhoon – 90 Points

Heavy Support

Land Raider – 250 points

Land Raider Crusader, multimelta – 260 points

Transports

Rhino – 35 points

Rhino – 35 points

Yeah, it’s not exactly a killer list, and melta-heavy armies (or ones with tons of brightlances) will slag those land raiders very quickly, but this isn’t really set up for the local metagame here anyway. Just something I can throw down on the table when the folk want a simple game.

So, how about it?

P.S. Sorry about the lack of pictures of the Crusader itself. I just finished adding some paint-chipping and mud effects on it tonight. I think I’ll add a few more details, like name scrolls or purity seals and maybe some decals as well, hit it with a layer of matte varnish, then take a picture of it and post it here.

P.P.S. Added pictures. Oh yeah.

Surprise Detours

I went on my usual jog today, and thought I did pretty well. I was able to jog through a good part of Live A Live (yes, the Suzumiya Haruhi episode), and only had to stop only twice during the whole circuit. However a friend sent me a SMS about playing a game of Warhammer 40k over at his place. Since I haven’t played in a while I figured why not, and it was on the way back anyway so I figured that I wouldn’t stay long (one has to remember I still have work tomorrow).

I ended up staying for the good part of three hours. There was pizza and soft drinks to be had, which meant that whatever calories I managed to burn I just gained back in one fell swoop. Oh well, I was able to get a game out of it (using my friend’s army, a funky 1500-point Imperial Fist list that was obviously for casual gaming), so I suppose it’s not really a loss. I promised to bring my own army the next time I visited, but that’ll probably be after the final submission of my class project.

Speaking of which, I really need to finish that. I’ll have to focus on that after work tomorrow.

Not Seeing Things Through

I have a lot plans that normally don’t go beyond the concept stage.  Early this afternoon for example, I thought to do some reading after I finished putting the details on the Rhino I mentioned yesterday.  When I finally finished giving the model a coat of matte varnish however, I found that I felt drained for some reason.  So I set up my alarm, and took a later afternoon nap.  Two and a half-hours later, what do I do after dinner?  Play Dawn of War 2: Retribution, instead of following up on my earlier plan.

Yes, lazy, lazy, LAZY.

At the very least, I’m gradually whittling down the number of partially-painted and/or assembled Space Marine models I currently have.  With the rate I’m going, it’s possible that I’d have a fully-tabletop quality army before classes start again.  Hmm.  One of these days I’ll do a census of just how many points of models I actually own, since I think I passed the minimum mark required for an Apocalypse-sized game a year ago… not that any Apocalypse games are played here in the local Tabletop scene.

Doesn’t do much for my creative output however, but at least it’s something.

Addendum: Librarium Painting Challenge Vow Complete!

 

Let it not be said that I neglected the deadlines of some of the stuff I do.  I’ve been devoting those hours where I’d hit a wall during my draft rewrite to finishing my entry in the annual Bolter and Chainsword Librarium Painting Challenge, and somehow it turned out alright.  Much like everything else in my life, it really came down to the wire, but hey, with this done I have one less thing to worry about when I’m busy with the revisions of my other submitted draft.

As per practice, I named my Chapter Veterans based on some of the people I know online.  In this case it’s The BigN from Drastic My Anime Blog, Myst1ord from That! Animeblog, Setsuna_San from Atalude, Owen Saturnine, and Bluemonq.  So congratulations guys, you’ve found a place in my Space Marine army!

Trial And Error

After yet another afternoon, I can’t really say that I’ve made any tangible progress in my Pixiv project.  I was still experimenting with Shading, and I’m still having a rough time at it, but while doing so I’m struck by moments of clarity.  Now the difficulty I have with shading is the fact that I’m too used to the coloring style used by many mainstream or budget anime, which is a very basic three color pattern where you have a base color that is given an illusion of depth by a shade color and a highlight color.  While this makes the process supposedly easy, providing you find the right shade and highlight color for each segment of your picture, the transitions between the three are too often in my case very sharp and obvious.

The effect that I want to achieve though is where you have the colors transitioning into each other smoothly, where the highlight blends into the base, which in turn blends into the shade.  It’s a technique that many of the people on Pixiv and Deviant Art have mastered, apparently involving brush strokes of varying opacity building upon each other bit by bit.  If done right, the end result seems like something out of an oil or watercolor painting, like this fanart of Sayaka (from Madoka Magica):

The level of blending shown above is far beyond me at this point though, so I’ll have to stick to the basics, which means the abuse of the Blur and Water tools (and a bit of fudging with the opacity settings).  These help soften the transitions between the shades of colors I’m using, but I won’t be able to fully utilize them until each part of the work has the requisite three layers of color to it.  And that is taking me a while to do.

Hilariously enough, all the trial and error I’m doing with my painting software reminds me of my other hobby, which also involves painting: Warhammer 40k.  Many players get by with having an army that’s simply tabletop ready (that is, each figure has at least three colors on it), but people like myself prefer to have something that’s a little more presentable, and as a result go through all the trouble of bothering with shading and highlights.  Given my level of skill though, I’m happy to make do with dipping (in dark varnish) for shading effects and ‘hard’ highlighting to make a model stand out.

Like most Pixiv art though, the really good-looking models feature some sort of blending (wet blending, to be specific), but this technique is so time-consuming it’s used by only the most diligent hobbyist.  Sadly, free time is something I don’t have in abundance these days.

Of House Rules and Personal Foibles

Trust me, this is only because of the holidays, which pretty much means I have a lot of free that I normally wouldn’t have… Which means I have actually have time to waste thinking of subjects related to my hobbies. This could range from the gamut, from books to anime to, not surprisingly, Warhammer 40000.  What follows concerns the latter.

This might be just a pet peeve of mine, but I’m more than a little disappointed at the lack of options for customization for the Chapter Masters of a ‘vanilla’ Space Marine Chapter.  While they’re not lacking in options equipment-wise, I they’ve been thoroughly shafted in terms of ability.  Compared to the Company Captain, the only real difference they have stat-wise and ability-wise is the Chapter Master’s ability to call down an Orbital Bombardment once per game (for 25 points). That’s… not very impressive, really, for someone who’s supposed to be the leader of the Angels of Death.

It’s no wonder why the Captain is a better deal, points-wise.

Of course there’s always the route of assigning house rules to represent the ‘uniqueness’ of the Chapter Master of your personal Chapter, but without a clear baseline of abilities to compare to it’s very easy to create an over-the-top character that might more or less count as an extension of the term “I’m Awesome!”.  If a player somehow manages to restrain themselves from adding over-the-top abilities to their custom Chapter Master, there’s still the issue of getting the opponent to agree to having the model fielded in a game.  I suppose it’s not a problem in a casual game though, but not all players one meets in a store will be so amenable.

Speaking of baselines, let’s compare how the Chapter Masters of the big-name Chapters measure up to each other in 5th Edition:

Marneus Calgar of the Ultramarines: A 250-point monstrosity, Calgar has 1 more wound than your ‘vanilla’ Chapter Master, as well as the Eternal Warrior trait, which means that he can’t be killed by so-called ‘instant death’ attacks.  He has two skills: Titanic Might, which lets him re-roll To-Wound attempts from damage he dealt via shooting or close combat; and God of War, which allows him to voluntarily pass or fail any Morale Check he has to make, and as long as he is on the table all units with Combat Tactics can do so as well.  He allows two more additional Honor Guard squads to be taken during a game. Finally, he has a unique weapon (the Gauntlets of Ultramar), and the option to take a suit of Terminator Armor with a built-in Teleport Homer.

Pedro Cantor of the Crimson Fists: Cantor weighs in at a relatively more reasonable 175 points. He uses the standard Chapter Master stat array. He gives the ability to make Sternguard Squads scoring units, and any friendly unit within 12 inches of him gain an additional attack, although he himself isn’t affected by this ability. He also has a unique weapon (Dorn’s Arrow).

Logan Grimnar of the Space Wolves: Grimnar is another 200+ point monster (275 points to be exact), who has Acute Senses and Counter-Attack (innate for all Space Wolves), as well as the Eternal Warrior and Stubborn traits. He has two unique abilities: Living Legend, which is similar to Cantor’s ability, but instead of just 12 inches every friendly unit within eighteen (!!) inches gain an additional attack for one turn, though this could only be done once per game; and The High King, where he can confer a unit with one of the following abilities for a single player turn–Tank Hunter, Fearless, Relentless, or Preferred Enemy. In addition, he makes all Wolf Guard units Troops.  Much like his contemporaries, he has a unique weapon (the Axe of Morkai).

Commander Dante of the Blood Angels: At 225 points, Commander Dante is less pricier than his fellows, and like Calgar has an additional Wound point more than the ‘default’ Chapter Master array. Because he comes equipped with a Jump Pack, he access to the Descent of Angels trait. He has two abilities: Tactical Precision, which mean he and the squad he is attached to don’t scatter after Deep Striking; and Surgical Strike, where he and the squad he is attached to have the Hit and Run ability. Dante allows Sanguinary Guard to be taken as Troops. Finally, he has two unique pieces of wargear (the Death Mask of Sanguinius and the Axe Mortalis).

Gabriel Seth of the Flesh Tearers: Much cheaper than Dante, Seth comes in at a mere 160 points. He has one more Wound point than the vanilla Chapter Master stat array, and comes with two abilities: Whirlwind of Gore, which allows him to automatically hit all enemy models in base contact with him; and Ferocious Instincts, where any enemy units unlucky enough to roll a 1 to hit Seth get automatically hit with an attack at Seth’s base Strength. He has a single unique wargear equipped (the giant chainsword Blood Reaver).

I won’t mention the Chapter Masters that have been featured in Imperial Armour 9: The Badab War part 1 yet, as I’m still waiting on the second part, but given the examples given above it’s easy to see how merely having Orbital Bombardment does not a flavorful Chapter Master make.

Gamer’s Talk: Casual List Building

It would be extremely remiss of me to not post at least once a year about something, so I might as well do it about something I’m interested in. Like my cousin I share a love for the Warhammer 40000 universe, which by extension having a love of the tabletop wargame that it sprung from, although unlike her I happen to be attracted more to the modeling and gaming aspect instead of the background itself.

This time around, I was thinking about List-building. Given our financial situation (like or not, Warhammer 40000 is an expensive hobby for a Filipino, even for one with steady work) it’s not really possible to throw together a tight and competitive list that features super units, so we’re more or less forced to use what models we’ve managed to accumulate in the 2-odd years we’ve been in the hobby for our army lists. It’s no surprise that we normally end up with an army geared usually for friendly and casual games. While it is nice to win every so often, WAAC-all comers list will normally wipe the floor with us.

For the curious, this is what we normally field.  Although the point limit for the local Philippine metagame seems to be at 2000, I prefer to start from 1500 points and just add units when needed to make up for the points. The list below is crafted with the latter point value in mind, and finishes off with around 33-odd points to spare.

Myssa and Hyperion’s Casual Gamer’s List:

Headquarters:

Space Marine Librarian (Epistolary)

Equipment: Force Weapon, Psychic Hood, Terminator Armor, Storm Shield.

Powers: The Avenger, Might of the Ancients.

190 Points

Elites:

Terminator Assault Squad

Notes: Sergeant and two Terminators equipped with Storm Shields and Thunder Hammers, remaining Terminators equipped with Lightning Claws.

200 Points

Dedicated Transport:

Land Raider with Extra Armor and Multi-Melta

275 Points.

Troops:

10-man Tactical Squad

Notes: Sergeant Equipped with Power Fist and Combi-Flamer, 1 Marine with Flamer, 1 Marine with Missile Launcher.

141 Points

Dedicated Transport:

Rhino

35 Points

10-man Tactical Squad

Notes: Sergeant Equipped with Power Fist and Combi-Plasma, 1 Marine with Plasmagun, 1 Marine with Missile Launcher.

151 Points.

Dedicated Transport:

Rhino

35 Points

Fast Attack:

2 Land Speeder Typhoons (2 squads of 1 speeder each)

Notes: Heavy Bolter and Typhoon Missile Launcher combination.

180 Points

Heavy Support:

2 Vindicators (2 separate units)

Notes: Extra Armor

260 Points.

As one might notice this isn’t exactly a list that packs a punch.  I tried to put in some semblance of redundancy (notice that units come in pairs), but in the end a tailored list will hammer this one into the ground.  Definitely not hardcore.

For a 1850-point Skirmish, I normally throw in this squad to add a bit more ‘oomph’ to it.  Not much though.

Elites:

10-man Sternguard Squad

Notes: Sergeant equipped with Power Fist and Combi-Melta, 4 Veterans equipped with Combi-Melta, 3 Veterans equipped with Combi-Plasma, 2 Veterans equipped with Missile Launchers.

325 Points.

Points allowing, I’ll get the squad either a drop pod or its own Rhino to carry it across the battlefield.

I’m sure a more hardcore player can make a tighter list than the one above, but it’s the best that we could come up with using the models we currently have. I have to say though, it’s fun to play, but as previously mentioned it’s not something you’d regularly win skirmishes with.