Hydra Dominatus Brothers

G'day all Toby here again with the first few parts of my force to show you.

I've been playing a few games with Wadey and Keepy lately and been having a great time getting into the swing of a new game (despite my absolute tabling today ;)).

But I digress, back to the photos of my Alpha.

First up is my converted headhunter unit.  I've used secret weapon Oni masks superimposed onto mk6 helmets, more for the rule of cool rather than any solid fluffy reason but they turned out looking quite nice regardless.

 



The one on the left has transitioned from his rifle to knife and is about to hook into someone backhand style.  On the right is the units banestrike heavy bolter, the whole unit also has scales sculpted onto various parts of their armour, primarily their chests.

And three more, two standard and the Headhunter prime who's run out of ammunition and switched to his pistol.  He has a greenstuff symbol on his shin and his right shoulder is scaled up.  I use a very simple method of making scales that I'll do up a little tutorial for sometime soon.

 Up next is my obviously WIP contemptor, although what you see is done he just needs his arms finished up.  His eyes are done with watered down coats of vallejo fluros.  I reckon the Alpha Contemptor is by far the nicest in the range, chock full of nice little armour details.

Using parts from Autillon Skorr, Mk6 marines, Mk3 marines, EC Palatines and Anvil Industries is my Praetor, Tavi Psi.  He has neato minotaur transfers of the greek letter Psi adorning his armour.  I love how this guys pose has turned out, just a chilled out badarse.

So as you can see I'm slowly getting there one Legionnaire at a time, but I feel like my batch painting is getting better, something I don't normally do.

I'd love to hear any feedback you have on them.

FOR THE EMPEROR?

TACTICA VETERANS

Hey guys the Dice Wizard is here again to go through some tactics and some ideas I have had with load outs regarding the Veteran Marines.  The veterans can be used for many different roles depending on mission and what your up against.

So the biggest thing about the vets is the special rule you are allowed to choose for them.  Going into a little detail on what I believe are pros and cons of the rule, this will also include equipment load outs regarding them.

Furious Charge.
This special rule for those who don't gives you +1 Strength on the charge.

Pros on this rule are quite simply if you want your vets to be better in close combat then other marines on the board go with this rule.  In saying that it will be only on the first turn of charging so you will want to maximise your gear toward this.  I personally like a mix of power weapons when going for Furious Charge, especially power axes.  Power axes give you +1 Strength and AP 2 but down side is unwieldy.  Team that with furious charge and you are now Strength 6 on the charge and wounding most things on 2,s.  Like I said I do like a mixture of power weapons so a couple of power swords in there wouldn't hurt either due to hitting at initiative.

Now the Cons to this set up slash rule.  You have to fork out some points to make it worth your while.  I wouldn't suggest equipping everyone in the squad with a power weapon due to making a 5 man squad go from 125 points base to 175 points base and your 5 men short of a tactical still.  So in short the load out can get expensive if you want everyone to maximise this rule.  The other downside is you have to charge.  Simple as that if you get charged you lose out on your bonus and can really hurt if that is what you planned this unit to do.

Fearless.
The special rule that makes your veterans ignore pinning and morale checks.

Pros for fearless is that your unit can now hold the line quite well, due to ignoring 25% shooting casualties and morale checks in combat.  The load out for this is mainly what ever you feel like.  I would like to throw in a heavy/special weapon such as a Plasma Gun or Missile Launcher and maybe a power weapon or two just to give them a rounded arsenal.

Cons for fearless is you cant go to ground and also Our Guns Are Useless rule cant come into play.  So if a blender contemptor comes and assaults your veterans with no way of hurting it, well lets put it this way the veterans will be there for the long run if no help arrives.

Outflank.
The special rule that allows you to come on a side board edge from reserves.

Pros for this rule are very few sadly.  I don't want to bring this down too much since well it requires 2 rolls to get your vets on, which could also leave them in reserves until turn 4, and arriving on the wrong board edge you require them.  This rule could work in a couple of situations though, for example.  If you have the wrath of angels Rite of War you can now have outflanking storm eagles with some choppy vets in there.  Getting certain tanks into a better position can be helpful, but then your really paying 125 points to give your say land raider outflank.

Tank Hunters.

The special rule that allows re-roll of an armour penetration roll.

Pros for this is if you have a squad with certain load outs such as 2 meltaguns or 2 plasma guns.  This would be the prime rule to use if you are deep-striking a vet squad in to get a cheeky tank kill or to even deter those contemptors away with some nasty guns.

Cons is quite simply your maximising your anti tank potential of the squad and making light to medium tanks your priority. 

Sniper.
The special rule that allows you to wound roll to cap at 4+ and any 6 roll to wound counts as AP 2.

Pros this rule is what I like to call god tier.  With this single rule you can dish out hurt in a ranged scenario most days of the week.  This unit of vets are now capable of culling even the biggest Toughness models such as castellax from mechanicum.  Having the ability to have a 50/50 chance to wound is a very big bonus to the squad, but not only that have the chance to get an AP 2 shot off which makes terminators less scary as well.  Now the load out for this rule depends on the legion your running to be honest.  Salamanders with heavy flamers are scary, due to a Strength 6 template that ignores cover and on a roll of a 6 removes your marine no saves except of course invulnerable's and feel no pain's.  Imperial fist would go with heavy bolters due to the ability to hit on 2's and have a longer range.  I personally like missile launchers and using frag missiles since any 6's are AP 2 and your firing a small blast at 48".

Cons to this rule is you give up close combat overall since the sniper rule only applies to the guns the models are firing.

There you have it guys a wall of text that may or may not be useful to you in the future.  I hope people like seeing these types of posts since I like writing these along with theory crafting.  Once I get enough done or if people want me to do it earlier I will delve into what I look for in making lists.

Also like to acknowledge the pictures are sourced from google images and like to thank the artists since they look so cool, also they're Ultramarines "GLORY AND HONOUR".

Until next time peeps.

Iron Warriors Contemptor Talon

G'day folks, Macca here with another quick update on my Iron Warriors. Today I finished off my second dreadnought, so both the dreads I have are built, painted and based.

 Overall, I'm happy, however these models tend to suffer from a little 'too much going on'. What do I mean? Well, there are very prominent hazard stripes sculpted onto both shoulders, both greaves, one knee, and in two places on the torso. Enough of the hazards already! In order to make them work, I had to play around with a few powders, weathering and damaging them in order to subdue them into reality. To be honest, I probably won't buy this kit again, I'd rather a Death Guard Contemptor and I would just add my own hazards.

I actually brought the chainfists from Forge World, thought they looked like ass, and lazy ass at that, (normally I wouldn't bag a sculpt, but when I can grab a chainsword from my bits box and perfectly replicate the result in 5 seconds, that's a lazy sculpt) so, I decided to use the same trick off my Raven Guard and used bolter chain bayonets to create a 'jaws of life' scissor effect.

When it came to the bases, I used cork, textured paint from Vallejo, small shrubs from Army Painter and Secret Weapon's snow effects. To see how I did the snow, there is of course this video I made right here. Oh, and as another nod to Paramar, I used one of my 'ruined contemptor' casts, giving my contemptor something to stomp on.

That's all she wrote, see you next time,

~Macca

Iron Warriors: Iron Havok Squad 2

Hello! Macca here with the latest addition to my Iron Warriors Legion project. Today, I have some more Iron Havoks, this time equipped with Autocannons. The new camera lens I am using takes super detailed images, so every speck of dust, every missed paint stroke, it's all proudly on display!

The unit itself is converted from the Iron Hands tactical squad kits, and the Autocannons have actually been modified slightly: I removed the belt feeds and added drum feeds by using the spare heavy bolter mags from the other Iron Havok squad. I like the effect, no matter how useless in battle such a modification may be!

There has been some back and forth among the crew here at AGIF about the pose on these guys. Basically I'm all for these cocky guys leaning around on their guns and mocking their enemies, however the guys are right.... it looks a bit strange with such oversized kit, so I may have to heat and end these guys in future.

The squad markings are straight out of Book III: Extermination. The triple devestator chevron looks very sexy once in place.

 
Up close you can see the imperfections in my hazard stripes. These will get some gently battle damage soon, but I wanted to show them off as they are now, imperfect. I do not paint perfect hazards, "Dammit Jim! I'm a man not an airbrush!".



There it is, two of my FOUR heavy support choices, with the infantry leading the way. I have no AP2 or AP3 here, in fact, they are kinda weak choices (the heavy bolters that is), but I like the infantry and the theme, so if I lose games but stick to my theme, so be it!

Until next time,

Macca

Headscratcher: Where Are My Iron Warriors Headed?

 G'day folks, Macca here with some pondering and some questions for those who may be reading. For some time now, I have been working on my Iron Warriors project, and it is coming along pretty nicely. However, I have hit some snags.

The Background:

The force is based off the descriptions in Book III: Extermination about the battle of Paramar. Basically, a small Iron Warrior force, a segment of the 77th Grand Battalion, is ambushed by the Alpha Legion who are trying to conquer Paramar. The 77th having been isolated from their Legion for some time, are furious at the betrayal and commit their forces en masse to bolster Paramar against the Hydra.

As they were only a few ships and a small compliment of warriors, the Iron Warriors did what they do best: dug in and fortified the hell out of the planet, even as the vastly superior Alpha Legion moved in. During the land phase, the Iron Warriors emerged from concealed positions and engaged the Alpha Legion armour at point blank with dreadnought rush and with all the armour they had available. In the end however, the Alpha Legion won the battle, but Kyr Vhalen survived, dragged spitting blood and curses from his shattered command bunker.

Cool.

HQ:

At the time of writing this, I have Kyr Vhalen, a Siege Breaker (or Praetor), a Master of Signals (magnetised to also act as a Primus Medicae) and as of last night a Librarian. These are of course backed by a formidable command squad.

The commanders are probably the best organised segment of the army, because I find building and kitbashing HQ's to be immensely rewarding.

Elites:

With the elites, I am very well endowed, with a full squad of Tyrant Terminators, a small squad of Destroyers, and a pair of Contemptors. There is room however to expand here, as I doubt I will use the Destroyers much, and I would rather focus on my Dreadnoughts and Terminators here.

I would like to either:

-get more Dreadnoughts
-get some Rapiers
-both?

Troops:

The troops area is the most bland area. At the moment, it's just a couple of tactical squads. I will eventually add a third tac squad, and maybe a tac support squad or breachers, but for now, I am using them to provide numbers of line troops.

Fast Attack:

What is this slot?

Heavy Support:

I am pretty full on with ideas here, and it's where the real snags occur. I have two Iron Havok squads at the moment, one with shrapnel heavy bolters, and one with autocannons. The shrapnel heavy bolters suck, but the autocannons are amazing. The whole thought process here is that when Kyr deployed his troops, every heavy weapon he had was put on the line. I like the idea of these units, not their function in-game.

The problem is however, I now have TWO slots still to fill. What do I take? I don't want Artillery. It's Iron Warrior-y, but it isn't Paramar, they weren't pulling a Krieg here, they were sending all the grunts into the trenches and rushing the Alpha Legion with massed armour. I'm thinking:

-Vindicator, maybe two?
-Deredeo Dreadnought, maybe two, one with plasma, the other with regular dakka.
-Predator squad with plasma? I can't remember if I can take that or not in 30k...

My thinking here being that the army desperately needs AP2 options, as every ranged option so far is ap3 or worse. If the other guy has artificer armour, or terminators, I'm in the ouch zone.

Lord of War:

So far, I have just one: The Tormentor. It's cool and all, but not present in the battle, as Perturabo was busy team killing on Istvaan V. I'm thinking a Typhon would be the best fit here theme wise and game wise.

So, can anybody give me ideas? My poor Iron Warriors are in desperate need or more dakka!

Citadel Crusade Case Review (WARNING: picture heavy)

G'day folks, Macca here and today I am going to take some time out of my very busy moving schedule (I'm moving house across the state!) to talk about the new Citadel Crusade Case in depth.

The Size and Design:

The case is quite large, and very solid. It has several locating lugs located on the outside which allow it to interconnect with other figure cases, which would allow easy stacking and storage. This is a marked improvement over the older style case, which stacks poorly (the cases can slide off each other as the logo protrudes from the surface!).

Size wise, the new case is almost twice the size of the previous generation cases. This means you can actually transport a whole army in one case!

The clips on the outside are a concern. The old case (left) has significantly larger clips than the new case (right). These clips are known to be brittle, and I'm wondering if the smaller clip will be able to cope long term. In my mind, 4 clips of this size would have been the better alternative, but this is really a non-point.

The design of the internal foam is also significantly different. The older style used large sheets, formed specifically to fit 20-25mm based miniatures. The new style however offers a lot more freedom.

In the old days, in order to get a bike, or cavalry into this foam, this is what you had to do. Cut the foam and make a larger compartment....

...however, with the new foam, you can easily part the foam to allow larger miniatures.

This is due to the fact that the foam zig-zags (allowing it to stretch without breaking) and it's also not secured to the base of the foam 'box'.

As you can see, it stretches quite a bit! This is excellent for those large and cumbersome miniatures.

The Actual Storage:

This is the inside of the Crusade Case. It allows 8 sets of the foam showed above to slot into it.

In this tray, I have 12 power armoured marines on 32mm bases and 10 terminators. There are some issues to keep in mind however;

1: The bases have a tendency to slide under the zig-zag foam, meaning that delicate details on top of the bases may risk catching and being torn off.

2: The base only really allows models that are 'marine sized' to fit comfortably standing up. The minute you have something taller, it sticks out dramatically and risks snapping off.

As you can see, the banner sticks out nearly half of its length. I would not trust this in transport, so this miniature has to lay down, reducing the storage capacity significantly.

In the next tray, I have a small squadron from my Battlefleet Gothic as well as Ferrus Manus and a Contemptor all stored. This isn't how I'd really do it, but it's a good test to see how the foam shapes. I am actually quite happy with how well Ferrus is protected.

3: This case does not fit my Shadowsword. Yes, although you can see it in there, it's NOT a good fit. In fact, I have the vibe (cynical however it may be) that Games Workshop deliberately showed the Baneblade in their product video, as the Shadowsword clearly doesn't work. Now, why?

As you can see below, the muzzle is clearly butted up against the plastic, (the fuel tanks at the opposite end are bulging through the foam as well). The down sides of this are pretty bad, with either snapping the whole barrel off likely, or damaging the paint (a worse sin!).

When removed from the case, the foam loses its shape due to the deformation caused by the Shadowsword. This isn't a big drama, it's just something to be aware of (a hobbyist could catch his sleeve on this and drag the whole mini over the edge of the table...).

This is the damage caused to the barrel just from testing the fit, as you can see, the light grey line around the base of the muzzle is pretty clear evidence of bad news.

A further problem with the foam is that the foam trays no longer can connect together, thanks to the large size of the tank. Compare the left (normal) and the right (tank).

Oh, and the barrel still sticks out..... so you can't make the tray even fit if you put it upside down!

This is how much the vehicle sits above the surface. It's roughly from the underside of the barrel up. This is absolutely no good, and will likely lead to snapping parts in transit if you just placed more foam on top. Even foam can exert pressure.

Overall, I really like the design of the case, HOWEVER, I would suggest custom foam for anything larger than a Rhino chassis, as the depth of the foam trays is a real limiting factor. My suggestions are either Laser Touch (here in Australia) or perhaps KR Multicase for the European and American market. As I have used both these products, I know I could make a tray to fit the Shadowsword with ease.

As for the actual storage capacity, I would suggest no more than 40 'marine' sized miniatures in any one tray. You could likely fit more, however, the foam is very deformed by that stage, and I highly recommend that you don't try to overfill it. If you stick to this figure, a 'horde army' would safely fit 320 miniatures into the case (40 minis on 8 trays).

I hope this review is of some help to anyone looking to purchase a figure case in the near future,

~Macca