Assault on Mondus Gamma

Imperial Fists' Assault on Forge Entry of Mondus Gamma

In the early stages of the Heresy, Rogal Dorn was urged by Malcador the Sigillite to secure the Mondus Gamma and Mondus Occulus Forges on Mars. These two mighty forges were the primary production for many of the legions arms and armour so the importance of the mission was paramount.

Rogal Dorn tasked First Captain Sigismund with the mission to land in force and secure the two forges amidst the schism forming in the mechanicums ranks. This battle report tells the short story of Praetor Andreas leading elements of the 52nd Vanguard company to secure a secondary forge entrance to Forge Mondus Gamma. Standing in opposition to him and his forces is a Magos Dominus of the Dark Mechanicum, leading a small host of Castellax Battle Automata with a Thallax cohort in support.

The battle field was dominated by a wide canal, of which the mechanicum had blown the two bridges crossing it. Fortunately for the Imperial Fists, ruined factoriums provided good cover in which to advance behind and launch the attack.. The imperial Fists objective was to take the central building the the Mechanicums deployment zone by turn 6......The mechanicum simply had to prevent this to win.

Imperial Fists Turn 1.

Macca's Mechanicum Army3

G'day folks, Macca here with an update a long time in the making. Today I have for you the first playable Mechanicum forces from Calleb Decima's force. The detachment uses a combination of the rules from book I and III, and it is very legal. The only downside is Decima himself hasn't arrived yet, so *unamed techpriest number 4400036827* is taking his place for now.

The colour scheme is supposed to represent burnt and battle damaged automata, to contrast with the rich reds and bronzes of most Mechanicum armies. Unfortunately with this exposure on the camera, it's quite hard to see the battle damage as pale silver on pale white does tend to blend.

On this Thanatar, the damage is far easier to see. I am still undecided on if I will weather the decals, although I probably should for realisim...

Every Thallax has the same hand-painted tarnished metal on their bodies, as well as heat-tempered engines and thrusters, with varying shades of blues and purples suggesting the heat they put out.

Believe it or not, this plasma mortar is mostly painted with washes, that's because I couldn't decide how I would get a glow effect. The base was laid down with an airbrush of Guilliman blue, then drybrushed a couple of times, and washed again. I think it's a neat effect.

I just love the secret weapon bases, I have gone on and embellished them in order to help break them up, in this case I added shell casings, barbed wire etc. The tutorial on it can be found here.

Of course, if you think the army lacks colour or power, as a mate Eddie said, "what about the knights?" Well, I have 3 of them so far, so that adds a teeny tiny tad more muscle to the army... because y'know, Thanatar and the Krios are sooooo terrible...

Lastly the objective markers are straight out of the packet from Secret Weapon Miniatures. They fit the feel of the army I think.

That's all for now, I hope you enjoyed seeing this army. If you have any suggestions on what you think I can improve, let me know in the comments below!

~Macca

Armies on Parade 2014: Macca

Well, it took me long enough, but here it is, my Armies on Parade entry for 2014. Most people don't show theirs prior to the competition, but for me, winning or losing doesn't matter, as it's a competition based on the votes of the friends and family of those involved. That said, winning feels good, and if I do make the finals, do feel free to vote for me!

The basic board is a Forge World realm of battle board, with a custom built crane (that was a b%&ch) and manufactorum complex. The theme is a small mechanicum force patrolling down the streets, which is ironic as the force is mostly very big guys.

The Krios Tank and Paladin Knight impose.

Custom crane: such a nightmare.

Of course all 3 Knights have the cockpits I kitbashed and installed, which will display on the day.

So that's that. Please wish me luck on Saturday, as I don't have many friends or family, which limits the people voting for me!

~Macca

Mechanicum Krios Venator and Thallax Test

Macca here with a tiny blog update.

Over the weekend, the chaps played in the 'Like a Sir' 30k Tournament. There are some great happy snaps and some videos floating around, go check them out over at the Traitors Hand here.

Anyway, whilst the lads were at that, 3200 KM away, I was busy working on this bad boy (as well as screaming at the fail-tacular Roosters and laughing at the Swans in the footy). Thus, the first complete unit has been built for my new Mechanicum side project. I'm not set on the colours or markings yet, but the theme is all about the survivors of Calleb Decima's small loyalist Mechanicum contingent. I wanted to stay away from the typical reds and metallics of the Mechanicum, and instead I have focused on a very worn and ashen colour scheme.

As well as the Krios, I also did a couple of Thallax up with multi-meltas, because, reasons.

That's all for now, check back soon as I believe Wadey actually has ANOTHER post to go up.

Considerations when choosing a force in HH games: Part 2

Welcome back. In Part 1, we covered the Legion choice, Troops, Heavy and Elite slots on the Force Org Chart. This time out, we will look at Fast Attack, the HQ slot, and some thoughts on Mechanicum Taghmata.

Note: This is an 'in my opinion' article, it's not saying you MUST or SHOULD, it only is saying that you can use what's written here as a reference. In the end, always do what YOU want with your army, because it's your expression.

Note: This is a BIG, WORDY article. Prepare to read and read and read.

Warning: Strong Language throughout. I'd apologise, but in a game of beer and pretzels, if you're old enough to build a Forge World army, read fluff about Slanneshi followers doing what comes naturally to them, then the word fuck shouldn't blip on your radar.

Politically correct warnings. Love it.

Fast Attack:

"I got a fever. The only cure, is more cowbell."

When it comes to selecting Fast Attack, you're as spoilt for choice as you are with your Heavy Support slots. The funny thing about Fast Attack in 30k, is that they can actually hit harder then most units in every other slot! Don't believe me? I have a mate who has a White Scars list with Jetbikes which will cause cancer upon seeing it.

Jetbikes: 2+ armour saves. Toughness 5. Armed with heavy bolters as standard, but able to take 1 in three bikes upgraded with either a Volkite Culverin, Plasma Cannon or Multi-Melta. Fucking badass. A full squad of 9 of these bad-boys with 3 volkites will put out 18 heavy bolter shots, and 12 volkite shots. Just season with a Primus Medicae HQ option on a Jetbike for an extra heavy bolter and Feel No Pain, cook on high in the oven for approx. 30 minutes, garnish with the tears of your enemies. (note: don't actually cook your minis. I accept no liability if you are dumb enough to season and garnish you minis..)

Ironic as this is a 'White Scars' thing, and the dude asking Conan the question looks like a White Scar. Just sayin'.

Legion Seekers: Tool em' up. Moar Dakka. Drop Pods. Marked for Death. Special Issue Ammo. These guys are pretty versatile if you use them right. I recomend it, as they get the Legiones Astartes bonuses, and can help take the edge off having lots of tanks and bikes.

Legion Outrider Squads: The less cheesy-tho-still-somewhat-cheesy option to Jetbikes. You take these when you want to win, but don't want to seem like an asshole when you do it. Pick of the guns is plasmas, and reliable since they are twin-linked, just be prepared to sell a kidney to get a set.

Legion Attack Bikes: Why take these when you have jetbikes? Ever?

Land Speeders: Fast, reliable. Usually dead by turn 2 or 3. Situational, not exceptional, especially as you don't have access to the typhoon missiles. Can squad them tho, so you can fit a lot into that one slot.

Javelin Speeders: Bigger, better, stronger, tougher. Just keep in mind, these are the size of a Rhino and float, not exactly easy to hide, but it can be done, and they go hard.

Planes, Trains, Automobiles: Storm Eagles. This category should begin and end here, but apparently Legions use Lightnings too. Take a pick, cheap flier, good at tank hunting and killing other fliers (lightning) or a armoured ceramite transport with MOAR DAKKA and a machine spirit (Storm Eagle). Both have their merits, it's up to you to pick what suits your list more. IF you already have a bunch of transport options, a Storm Eagle might be a waste. Conversely, if you lack transports and you want that multi-role flier, it might be for you.

Dreadclaws: Drop pods which take up a fast attack slot unless you have certain Rites of War. Can be useful, because they zoom zoom fly around after landing, (Kharbdis was left out of Heavy Slots in the last article, as it basically does this job, so I decided to put it here). If you want to max out on assaulting-from-transports, these units are great, but that turn after arriving, you are a big fat target. I'm neither yay or nay on these units, but a bunch of terminators in a Kharbdis zooming around when there are mortis contemptors with lascannons on the opposite side is a sure fire way of sending half a grand in points crashing to a fiery death. #ThingsToKeepInMind. #HashtagsAreForTools.

Tarantulas: Sentry Guns. Can take a skyfire option. Overall, a bit meh, but can be useful if you're wanting some support in the rear echelon for cheap.

Characters:

Situational, not exceptional perfectly describes most of the HQ options. These situational chaps, in my opinion, are: Stock Centurion, Chaplain, Champion, Vigilator, Forge Lord, Siege Breaker.

On the other hand, the Praetor, Librarian, Master of Signal and Moriat are badass.

So I am going to basically ignore the situational chaps, because what they do, you can do better if you set your mind to it. Forge Lord? You're only taking this guy if you're an Iron Hand, Iron Warrior or a Salamander. In which case, why aren't you taking a Praetor with a servo arm and a bad attitude instead? Legion Champion? Oh, you mean 15 point cheaper Praetor with less wounds and wargear options? Vigilator? Oh, you mean Sniper Joe? The Alpha Legion have a better version of this called Exodus, I'd take him if I wanted to use this option, otherwise it's a waste. Siege Breaker? If you took him in a squad of Legion Heavy Support troops with Lascannons, then he's the most expensive way to get Tank Hunter ever. Chaplain? Zealot and a Power Maul. So, basically a Centurion, but you pay 15 for the power weapon anyway, so it's a 20 point upgrade that gives Zealot. Pfft, next. Stock Centurion= waste of this slot's potential.

Done and fucking dusted.

Now for the good HQ's.

Praetor: When you want to absolutely, positively win in a challenge without resorting to Special Characters and Primarchs, you take this chap, give him a thunder hammer or Paragon Blade, Iron Halo/terminator armour, Digital Weapons. Jetbike optional, tho it does pretty much mean immune to instant death except when dealing with thankfully rare S10 challengers. For bonus points, you take Salamanders or Imperial Fists, give him a Storm Shield, watch the lols as your enemies futilely swing against you. For bonus-bonus points, Take Kharn or Sevetar, for triple-bonus points, take Sigismund. See meme below for Sigismund's opinion on challenges.

Librarian: Simple, =Force Multiplier.

Moriat: You run Salamanders? I have bad news for you, you're missing out on one badass. Of course, your two-wound storm-shield terminators and tanks with invuls make up for this handsomely, so, whatever really. Two plasma pistols, jump pack or infiltrate him. Everything about his guy is asshole. He basically fires his two pistols, and for every hit, he gets to roll an extra shot. Cue 2nd ed chain fire, after about 30 seconds of firing, he has successfully paved the way for Tau in years to come.

Master of Signal: D3 5" large blasts, can I have them in S8 AP3 'fuck yo' marines' form please? Did you say "I want to take an allied force for an extra Sicarian and need to pick a HQ that doesn't break the bank?" do you see where this is going? 85 points baby.

Primus Medicae: When they wrote this entry, they basically said "apothecaries are an interesting choice for an Elite Slot, but we limited them due to the lack of Terminator Armour, Jump Packs and Bikes." They then remedied this by including the White Scars must-have (possibly any jetbike command squad too for that matter), this guy. What has two thumbs and gives no fucks? This guy. What wakes up in the morning and pisses excellence? This guy.

Another HQ option: the Command Squad. Do, or do not, there is no try. Yoda has it right, when it comes to command squads, you either go balls to the wall, or you don't do it at all. Jetbikes, power weapons of various kinds, Terminator Armour, whatever floats your boat. Also, some of the BEST conversions for the hobby I have ever seen in 20 years of wargaming are in people's Command Squads.

The Last Word on HQ's: Special Characters:

Special Characters in 30k are like their counterparts in 40k. They buff your army usually, tho their Warlord traits often are a bit meh. Notable examples are: Kharn, Sevetar and Sigismund, for the aforementioned character killing, also Eidolon, because he can actually swing his fuckhammer at full initiative and insta-gib most challengers, especially with sonic shriekers. Only down-side is his slip into Slaaneshi worship gives him the Lindsey Lohan treatment. Make of it what you will.

Other notable SC's worth taking are Alvarex Maun (auto-arrival from deep strike, none of your units within 18" of him after he is in play scatter when deep striking, so yeah, terminator spearhead, assault marines, destroyers, jetbikes, Thallax allies (fucking mechanicum deep-striking with precision whatever, fuck you) MASSIVE boon.), Abaddon, because, boons and quite killy, Cassian Dracos (Salamanders Super Dreadnought HQ. Think a Land Raider+Daemon Engine combined together, then inject it with hero steroids. I love him).

Of course, the point of note on all HQ's, regular and special is you have to pick them to amplify your force. If you're just taking them to fight challenges, then you sure as shit want to make sure they are going to get there for one, and two that if they do get there, the challenges are worth fighting. If you're a dakka-World Eaters force, why are you sending Kharn running across the battlefield on his own tooled up with Gorechild? For that matter, why are you dakka-World Eaters? Because... reasons? (meh, do what you want, it's just a game ~Macca)

Lords of War:

Another link back to the past. Here is the article I wrote on LoW. It's old, a few rules have changed, but I will show the article as it is, most of it is still relevant.

Fluff vs Crunch:

This is the most important bit of all. In the past we have spoken about this in other articles, but it's up to you to decide if you want to play super fluffy and just pick what looks nice, fluffy but still have some competitive edge, (Spraggy on this blog), kick ass but fluffy enough, or balls out cheese-monger who goes to Games Workshop and challenges 10 year old kids, before destroying their hobby dreams, aka Keepy from this blog (we ALL saw your mechanicum 1000 point list, you asshole).

At the end of the day, anyone can manufacture fluff to suit their army, but it's sort of a done thing in 30k that fluff is what's in the books, and if you greatly deviate from it, you shouldn't try to make your own up. Just accept you are deviating for whatever reason, you opponant won't try and be a bitch about it unless you start telling them how in your 'alternate universe, Sigismund was a Sorceror' or some shit.

Note: This is an 'in my opinion' article, it's not saying you MUST or SHOULD, it only is saying that you can use what's written here as a reference. In the end, always do what YOU want with your army, because it's your expression.

I added that AGAIN, so you don't miss it, because there is always THAT GUY who misses that point and goes on to abuse the writer in the comments because they take offense to an opinion.

General Thoughts on the Taghmata:

I recently acquired a small Mechanicum army, around a lazy 1500 points. For a really in-depth analysis, I am going to leave the floor open to Keepy, as he knows all about the Mechanicum on the table top.

In my personal opinion, the Taghmata is nastier the lower the points limit, as there is less you can bring to the game to try and counter the high toughness, multiple wounds they can put on the board. At higher levels, your options open up and you can take far more units who will pump the Mechanicum.

For the Taghmata fans themselves, you have the advantage of cheap AP 2 and 3 weapons, and your high toughness means that your low armour saves aren't as bad as it would seem on the outside. The key to winning games is to target units that can hurt you at range, and that if you are going to get involved in combat, it's almost always better to charge first. If you don't the generally low attacks of the mechanicum, and paper armour of most units mean you will end up losing. Chain axes will end Thallax so fast you won't even have time to blink. If you play your army right, you will be disgustingly powerful. How disgusting?

Pretty fucking disgusting. If you don't get it, you don't want to.

Plus side is, most Horus Heresy gamers are blind to the Mechanicum. They know it's there, they just don't think 'what if I come across them at a tournament?'. They end up stacking up on Ap3 weapons, which whilst neat, rarely trouble T7 and T8 Monstrous Creatures with 2 up armour saves. That's when you have to think outside the box as the Legion player and figure out very quickly how to cheat make your bolter armed chaps anything other then cannon fodder.

Well, that's all I have for now, I will actually do up an article which focuses on the different Rites of War and how you must adapt your list accordingly.

Thanks as always bloggers, ~Macca

Imperial Knight support loading vehicle.

Hey all, just a quick one today, I have just finished up work on my Imperial Knight loader conversion. This tank is obviously based on a Leman Russ, I basically chopped away the turret ring, and built up a crane setup using the side sponson of the Russ. The paint job and markings are designed to echo my Imperial Knights, completed waaaay back the very week the kits were released, as well as making it onto the White Dwarf daily as the feature of the day.

These models will all be on my upcoming Armies on Parade board, so if you see my army... y'know, feel free to vote...

New Mechanicum from FW open day / Netherlands 2014

Gday Guys,

Keepy here with another post regarding FW updates. Eamon has been kind enough to grab some more pics for us of the new Mechanicum models, namely the new Magos and the Urthrax. No more talk. Pictures!

So what are your thoughts on the new Mechanicum? Let us know in the comments below!

Keepy

Mechanicum 1000pts - Completed!

Gday all,

Keepy here again this time with the final instalment of the Mechanicum 1000pt army saga. The army was actually completed last weekend and competed in the The Emperor's Legions tournament, and it managed to win first place overall and will the title of "Lord of War"!

Really happy with how these guys turned out. I used some Iron Hands transfers to get the Mechanicum symbols on the red shoulder pad and on the right, I have used an alternate Sons of Horus icon to indicate their allegiance to the Warmaster.

So to photos!

The first Castellax Battle-Automata off the production line

A maniple of Castellax Battle-Automata with Mauler pattern Bolt Cannons and Flamers

Castellax Battle-Automata maniple with Darkfire cannons, Enhanced Targetting Arrays and gauntlet Boltguns

The 1000pts Mechanicum force in its entirety, finished at last!

Castellax Battle-Automata with Darkfire Cannon and Boltguns

The Mechanicum army making a show at the "Emperor's Legions" tournament in Brisbane

Close up of the Thallax Cohort

Action shot of the Castellax Battle-Automata with Mauler Bolt Cannons about to go into battle

I had a couple of pro photos done by Troy Schmidt at the Emperor's Legions tournament as well:

Castellax with Flamers in a photoshopped 3D effect

Magos Dominos, probably the only good photo I have of him!

Close up of a Thallax

The whole gang

 And now my pathetic attempts at over-exposed photography!

Well I hope you enjoyed this pic heavy post with the completed Mechanicum army, I have some more posts with battle reports from the recent Emperor's Legions Tournament coming soon.

As always your comments and criticisms are welcome.

Cheers

Keepy

Links:

1. Mechanicum 1000pts List
2. Mechanicum WIP 1
3. Mechanicum WIP 2
4. Mechanicum WIP 3 - Basing
5. Mechanicum WIP 4
6. Mechanicum 1000pts Completed!