Quick update

Just finished a battle report with Helios Raven for Battle Fleet Gothic. It was a really fun game that i will try to write a brief summary on later. In short it was his Eldar pirate fleet against my Tau exploration fleet and well i made some bad moves and he just played spot on and wrecked me. i have to say BFG is a great game and if your interested in it check out the GW site for the rules (hooray free stuff!!!!) and Helios Raven's YouTube account for painting tips and our battle report, which he will be releasing in episodes over the coming weeks.
well its 2am where i am so
Until Next Time,
May the Emperor Protect

making markers for BFG

OK so i haven't been on in awhile.. again... its a good thing no one really reads this or i would feel bad. OK so i actually finished the sentinel from the last post and the arms for 4 death guard dudes, as well as start on the last sentinel for the squad. and when i'm done with it i'll post the whole group.

anyways, i have been playing a lot of BFG recently. HeliosRaven has been doing a nice painting class on BFG (Battle Fleet Gothic for those unfamiliar) on his youtube site which is quite good. anyways he asked me to play a match or two with him so we can show off the game and some of the basic rules to those viewers of his blog that have expressed interest. He will be posting some rules stuff and what not soon i think. Anyways, for BFG i have a small Tau fleet, and with out going too much into it Tau rely on torpedoes and bombers to win the day for them. So this post is a quick tutorial type thing for making some really quick and easy markers for torpedoes and other ordnance.

OK so first what you will need:
a print out of the ordnance marker PDF,

some PVA glue,

a piece of plasti-card or card stock,

Scissors,

(by the way i have a Degree in Biology and as such have lots of dissection kits which are great for model work which is where these babies came from. i love this type of scissor for modeling. they are small and very controllable. if you need a scissor for modeling these are my top pick)

and some bomber/fighter models (if you have 'em).

so this first you cut out some of the torpedo marker strips and glue them to the card stock. I actually was out of plasti-card so i just used a whiteboard from my comic book stack ( in the future plasti-card does hold glue better so go with it over other card-stock type things).
After they dry just cut out each strip and then divide them up if you choose. the strips are normal 6 torpedoes wide so i keep two of those and cut other in various ways to give me a couple of 4, 3, 2, and 1 width torpedo markers which will cover most of my torpedo wave sizes (easy stuff right =))

(all of our markers Glued and ready to be cut)


(here are the finished torpedoes.. easy peasy lemon squeazie)

For the fighter/Bombers/Assault Boats it is ever so slightly more complicated and i stress the slightly. just cut out one or two of the fighter/bomber template.

(our template and all of its now cut up brothers)

Glue it on to the card stock and let dry. once it is dry just cut it out and then use this as a template to draw and cut out a bunch more of these. if you have a good straight edge you can save your self some gluing and just cut out a bunch of 2cm x 2cm squares. once you have your squares just glue on whatever you are using as models, i used some forge world BFG mantas for the bombers but you can use whatever you want that fits appropriately on the base (as in fits on it with out hanging over the edges). just make sure they all face an edge so that you can tell which way they are going in game. next just paint them which takes all of 2 seconds and that's it,

(some of our finished guys with one unfinished marker all next to their mother ship)

Quick easy legal sized good looking markers for BFG and the whole thing takes 30 to 45 minutes for 12 bombers and 36 torpedo markers (including paint drying time).

And there you have it.
Most posts to come though i am very busy right now. with work and my other project.....


Well that's it for now.
Until Next Time.
May the Emperor Protect.

progress update.... or rather lack of progress

ok well over the past two weeks i have been super busy. with uping my self to almost 50hrs a week at work plus trying to study for the GRE and trying to catch up with old college friends and working on my other hobbies (fencing primarily) i have had basically no time for painting this makes me a sad inquisitor.

anyways here is what i am working on at the moment... that is of course when i have a moment.

so lets start this off with the overall pic.


this is everything i am actually in the middle of painting ( i have a little case of painting ADD)
ok so there are 5 projects here one of which is kinda two projects.

so first off a tau XV8.

pretty standard guy all i have left for him is really attaching him to his base and well doing the base. oh and his sept marks.. i need to get my actually camera working and stop useing my phone becasue this thing just doesnt take good pics of metalics and i need to work on my lighting for that matter.

Second i have my test model for my dark elf scheme.


this guys is a very simple paint job. i am trying to just figure out my scheme for these guys and a way to do it simply so i can use it for a full army. so this is really his first coat of paint. i still need to add high lights and some washes and finish the details. after much thought i have decided to go with purple and basic metal as the primary colors for this army. One, because i havn't done a purple army yet and Two, because it looks surprisingly badass on these guys. also still trying to figure out a base, been thinking maybe snow.

Next, my current work for the Hera 51st Mobile Infantry (imperial Guard army) Sentinels.
this is the first Sentinel i have done and is in the same urban-esque camo as the rest of the army i rather like how the model cam out though i dont really like what i did for the base. not really use to haveing all that empty space to fill.



and this is the base and cockpit for my second sentinel. hopefully this base will look better than the first one. though still not super happy with it.

And now for long term big project. Death Guard.
I like these i guys i really do. i have had a group of plague marines for a while now and have been slowly working on them forever and then my friends got my some forge world death guard upgrades (terminators and marine upgrades) i had to start work again. though i have not made it very far and i am not sure how to base these guys at all. i want to do a corrupted ground thing but not sure how to do it.



And Finally my super long term project.
The one and only Inquisitor Lord Karamazov.

i love this model and really dont want to screw it up so i have been slowly working on it for like almost a year now. just every so often working on just one section until it is right not rushing anything about it. i should finish the legs next time i work on it and the feet will be a quick thing and then i am just left with my usually question. how to base it.



Ok well thats all i got for now. maybe i will actually finish something soon.
thanks for tuning in and as always
May the Emperor Protect

Space Marine Scouts

and now for my first post in awhile, and for that matter my first post on the Adeptus Asartes.

Scouts:

Ok so for me i would have to say that my favorite unit for the standard SM codex would be the scouts. i love scouts i think they look cool and all and all add some nice flavor to a space amrine army. now these are the first 5 scouts i have offically done ( i did make some inquisitorial storm troopers with shot gun once but i never really finished all five and i dont think i am going to) and i do like how they came out. now if you look back there is a pic of them from months ago but if you notice there are only four of them because i hadn't finished Tellion yet but i finally based him yesturday so now they are now finished, because i model is never truly done until you base it. so now that the into is done lets talk about these dudes

So what are Scouts?

Well Scouts are basically your new recruit marines fresh from train cutting their teeth on combat for the first time. so of course they are not as experiance as a full battle brother which is shown by their lower BS and WS but other wise their stats are the same as a standard marine. they also don't wear power armor, and this is for several fluffy reasons. first power armor is reserved for full fledge members of the chapter (which scouts do not count as) whom are fully trained and capable of being entrusted with these holy relics. and second scouts are supose to learn the arts of tactics, tracking the enemy, recon, and stealth (and well power armor is not very stealthy i hate to say). as well as learn to not rely on their equpiment to get them through conflicts but rather their strength of will, ferocity, intellect, or strength or blah blah blah whatever.

the point is these guys are suppose to be your first line troopers finding the enemy and reporting back to hq as well as support troopers helping the primary troops in any way they can... so they are basically the interns of the far flung future.

What can they do?
well for starters they have the same basic equipment as normal SM except they have carapace armor so only a 4+ save and all the same special rules plus move through cover, infiltrate and scout. these rules make them very versitile basically allowing you to start them anywhere on the board or just outflank the enemy with them. with scout or infiltrate you can basically set your scouts up for a possible turn one assault if you do it just right (though this is risky).
Scouts also get some fun add on. first they can get camo cloaks which gives them all stealth which greatly increases their survvability. and they can also take sniper rifles which as you can see my scouts have both of. i feel that scouts make wonderful support snipers and are very well suited for this roll.

i mean setting up anywhere on the board with a +1 cover save and a sniper rifle is just a good idea in my opinion. they can aslo all take shot guns (for some fun quick shooting) or comabt blades for a more melee orientated squad. they can also take eithe a standard missle launcher or a Hvy Bolter. the nice thing about the M launcher is the versitily it allows by being a good anti tank and anti infantry weapon. the Hvy Bolter also is killer because of its option to also shoot hellfire shells (HVY 1 blast, 4+ posion) which is another fun horde killer. though they dont have the best bs or ws (both being 3) they still excel at either roll as long as you remeber they are a support unit so use them as such. don't spear head an attack with them unless you want them to die. have them float on the flanks wiping up weaken squads or sniping enemy troops from a safe distance.

Tellion

Probably my favorite part of the new scout entry is their special character upgrade. the guy can make your scouts better at any of their rolls but you know with his load out that he is meant to be in a sniper squad. the guy is almost a vindicar assassin but with a squad of dudes to back him up. first off the tellion model is awesome.
i love it, the grizzled old sarge look is great and once you get rid of all those ultramarine U's he'll fit in any SM army. the really nice thing about him though is his BS6 and the fact that he can give that to any squad member for a turn if he choses not to shoot (like say that missle launcher dude who you might be depending on to pop that enemy rhino so your assaulters can get at the juicy infantry center). If you do choose to shoot with him though he may declare who he is shooting at (much like the vindicar) so he can kill sargents or Hvy Wpn guys while the rest of your squad just massacre things.

All in all i think Scouts are great. they start off 3 points cheaper than standard marines and only have really two draw backs from that. 1) +4 instead of +3 save, 2) can't take a dedicated transport. i really dont see their ws3 bs3 as that mush of a disadvantage honestly i mean if they are equiped with sniper rifles A. they technically still have the same chance to hit as they did in 4th ed (+4 to hit) and B. if they have rifles they shouldn't get into assault unless things go sour and even then ws isnt as important as S, T, I which are all 4 or armor which is their real week spot in CC.


Well Until next time...
May the Emperor Protect

(up next.... Sentinels...... i think)

returning soon

after a small departure from the world of model painting i shall be returning soon. on my desk right now are the 50% completed Inq Karamazov (who has been that way for about 6 months now but ill finish him soo i swear!), my first deathguard terminator as well as eventually 4 of his friends. sergeant Tellion, who i am finally basing so he can look awesome with his home boys, and my second sentinel. one of these things i plan to finish in the next two weeks. and from there i will try to finish everything else on the table then do my last sentinel and my first valkyrie (been putting off the IG for too long) and then after that hopefully i will find a tournament or something else to finally motivate me to make the changes to my Sisters of Battle that i have been meaning to make. anyways pics in the next post of whatever i finish and probably everything else still sitting on the table.

THE PAINTING LIST: (the stuff i either have started to make or am planning to do in the near future)

-IG sentinel (lascannon)
-IG sentinel (plas cannon)
-IG Valkyrie
-CSM Terminators (5)
-CSM plague marines (~17ish)
-TAU broadsides (2) (one forge world one normal)
-WH INQ karamavov
-WH put tracks on my second exorcist already
-WH another immolator
-WH another Dominion Squad
-DE Reapeter Bolt Thrower (heh i bet you where expecting dark eldar or something but nope it is time to start some WFB in the near future)
-IG stormtrooper (using FW elysian drop troops for em)
- redo my IG HQ will explain later

well thats alot of stuff and in no particular order and thats just what i have laying around (yeah i am really behind i should be finished with all that ig stuff right now oh well)

and eventually more PEs and some other fun things from the WH codex.
well untill next time
May the Emperor Protect

the Engine of Penance

PENANCE:
Sorry for not posting in some time, real life got in the way a little and I have not been able to finish any new projects for awhile now. In fact today I am going to talk about a model I made quite some time ago The Penitent Engine!
Now the Penitent Engine is one of those models that I think any one that like to just build and paint models should have. Its big, it’s unique and just full of all those things that just scream 40k. I will say that it is by far one of my favorite models. The only two major short comings of it are that it is not very customizable out of the box, and you really really really should pin this thing or it will most likely fall apart. For customizability all you really have are two different “pilots” for it, and male and a female, I chose to use the female mostly because tried to use the male pilot for a kit bash of something else and failed horribly. And you can also mess with the arms and legs a little to affect the pose but that’s really it. So if you have more than two of these guys, unless you've added stuff on from other sprues and what not, they are going to all start looking alike. The shape of it also makes it very fragile, like I said earlier you really need to pin it or it will fall apart. For pinning I would recommend definitely pinning the torso hip joint and the arm joints if you can. Though the later can be hard since you might have to drill through three separate pieces to really secure the arms right.
Since we have looked at some ok pictures and gotten an idea of the model itself you might be wondering “well, how good is it in game?” To that I say, well what do you want it to do?
First off let’s look at this baby’s stats.


STATS
First off this thing is an open top walker with front and side armor of 11 and rear of 10, which sounds kind of fragile but you will soon see it makes up for this a little bit with its special rules. Next we see that the darn thing has a BS of 2 which sounds like total bull crap but fortunately the engine only has a template shooting weapon so the crap BS is not a big deal. Ok but hey WS4 that’s decent and hey look it gets D6 attacks and has S5 (10) so this thing can totally lay down some beats… but wait ohhh it only has I3 so it’s a little slow.
So all in all stat wise it is at best ok really just being a scout sentinel with close combat skills so now let’s see if its equipment and special rules might make it better

Weapons
Ok so here we have not one but two dreadnought close combat weapons (which is why it has a (10) in strength. Unfortunately it does not get an extra attack for two weapons... oh well. It also has two flamers which fire as one heavy flamer (score!) which is pretty cool. Now the part I really like about its weapons is that the rules tell you how it losses weapons (in other words if your opponent scores a weapon destroy on this thing the rules say what goes not the opponent). So on one destroy it losses one arm which reduces its attacks by one (to a min of one) and brings it to S5 and only a flamer instead of a heavy flamer, and On the second destroy roll it losses the flamer minuses another attack (still to min one) and no longer ignores armor (cause you just lost both your dread arms). So all in all so far for 80pts a model your getting an off the bat heavy flamer and D6 S10 power weapon attacks which isn’t half bad. But now let’s see if the special rules make the engines any better


Special Rules
ok first we got rampage. This rule helps a lot because it means the engine ignores all shaken and stunned results for vehicle damage. Which considering it’s a low armor open top thing will happen pretty often. So this helps your close range beat stick get to the fight. Always a plus.
Next we have battle frenzy. All this does is force the engine to always fire its weapons if in range (and did not run) and lets it roll a D6 for number of attacks each turn as shown in its stats. So all this really does is force you to be a little aggressive with it, but frankly you were going to be aggressive with it anyways so this doesn’t affect much.
Last we have holy rage which has been changed in meaning several time on the WH fact and at this time should go with the book version though sometimes games workshop switches it for the rage universal special rule. Anyways what holy rage does is if the model is not already in close combat they move an additional D6 towards the nearest enemy which is not affected by difficult terrain and they must always charge if able to do so. As a note according to the last time a read the FAQ this extra D6 is done during movement phase so the engine can still run if it so chooses (as in if nothing is in range to be fired at) though of course if it runs it can’t charge. But this rule does make the engine very fast allowing it to go anywhere from 7 inches to 12 just in the movement phase giving it a minimum max distance of 8 inches and a max speed of 18 make the engine one of if not the fastest walker in the game.


Discussion
all an all I say that 80 point per model for a one to three vehicle squadron as a heavy weapon slot with all of this stuff is pretty cool. Though are a bit fragile, easily killed and hard to control with them running at whatever is closest at the time, when they do get into combat they can potentially do some pretty awesome stuff. I would say that the key to this is deploying them well in the beginning to face off against basic troopers or light to medium vehicles. They also make a good distraction since they have to run at the enemy you might as well let them and hope you opponent wastes some fire at them or makes the mistake of ignoring them and gets slammed. The only real down side I see to them is that you must take a priest in your army to allow you the option to use them. And well I feel the priest is usually a point sick and there are only a few squads really worth attaching him to so it can rather constrain your list a bit (I will discuss the priest at some later date and all my feelings him).
All in all I say if you what something fluffy and unpredictable I say yeah take a penitent engine it will be loads of fun. its a pretty decent though not great assault walker that i would say would probably more effective in squadrons that way you can hopefully have a few to die off and assure that one makes it into close combat. i will say staring down 4 or more of these guys from across the table could be a pretty scaring thing. And well if your more into cold long term planning and tactics you might just want to paint this one up and put it on the side or have it count as a chaos dread for your slanessh army or something because its rage rules will force it to move in specific ways which you may not want it to. then again this could make for some interesting strategic planning on your part.


Well until next time
May the Emperor Protect.

Today I shall go over the basics of faith in 40k and no I don't mean the religious values of the different races I of course mean that ever cool mechanic unique to the adeptas sororitas.

THE BASICS
so first off how do you get faith? simple put every sister's specific HQ, seraphim squad, celestian squad, and every veteran sister superior (sergeant upgrade for all sister units) gives you a certain amount of faith points, usually about 1 point per with the hq units giving you a little more, 1 for palatines, 2 for canoness, and 3 for the living saint.
So now we have our army and we have our faith how do we use it? Well first we declare we are using a power and spend a faith point then you roll 2d6 and compare the number to the size of the squad using the power. if you succeeded the role the power goes off if you don't you still use up a faith point and can't use that power again on that specific squad in that phase.
That’s the basics now we will go over each of the powers and discuss how and when to use it
FAITH POWERS
Some the SoB have 5 faith powers they can use two of which you have to roll equal or under your squad size for and the other 3 you must roll equal or higher to succeed obviously lending the first 2 to large units and the latter 3 to small units ( oh and by the way independent characters have to roll a Ld check instead of the squad thing if they are by themselves)

Mob powers
These powers are the ones meant for big squads and they are Hand of the Emperor and Divine Guidance

HAND OF THE EMPEROR
This little power pops your squad +2 strength but drops your initiative to 1. Now this power is what is my normal answer to t5 enemies such as well any kind of biker that comes my way and charges me. frankly S3 doesn't cut it against T5 (u need 6's to wound and that is not good enough) so choosing to go last, which frankly in a lot of cases you are going to anyways, and get a chance to wound on 4+ is great. Frankly whenever you get stuck in against someone with a I6 or higher or a T5 or higher this is a good choice. also if you have a eviserator in the squad it goes from being a S6 power weapon with 2d6 armor pen to a S8 power weapon with 2d6 armor pen and the I1 draw back does not apply because you are already I1 so this works well with the emergency charge of a land raider or the needing to kill of that big'ol monstrous creature. I do not recommend this power for use against anything you can easily wound (T3 or lower) or in situations where you really want to go first obviously).

DIVINE GUIDANCE
This is probably the most flexible power you have at your disposal in my opinion. What you have here is that after you roll to hit in either the assault or shooting phase you may choose to use this power. if you do all your rolls to wound of a 6 either count as AP1 for shooting or power weapon wounds for assault, either way you deny armor saves and that’s what’s important. the nice part is that you get to choose after rolling to hit so you really save this one until you roll lots of hits, say with your dominion squad with its 4 flamers dropping all their templates to cover the same 5 man tac squad 4 times over for 20 wounds. in this example if you do so first off your doing an average of 10 wounds just in general (which is why this kind of squad is the awesome) but for every 6 you roll you basically just killed a marine since they get no armor save from the power and no cover due to template rules this makes from some killer awesomeness. This power of course works well with hand of the emperor or with the passion either giving you decent strength or high initiative power weapon-esque hits in close combat. Though I will say I never roll enough hits with my sisters to really warrant the use of this in close combat but hey if the dice gods are nice do not pass up the opportunity.

Elite Powers
These next three powers our those that your need to roll equal or over the squad size for so obviously these work best with small squads like seraphim, dominions, and whittled down battle sister squads. These powers are Spirit of the Martyr, the Passion, and Light of the Emperor.

SPIRIT OF THE MARTYR
This power is probably the one I use the most. Basically at the begging of either yours or your opponent’s shooting or assault phase you can activate this power which gives the unit using it a invuln save equal to their armor save, so basically it gives you a 3+ invuln save for those sticky situations where your girls are either being hit with serious artillery or power weapon toting assaulters. This power is pretty self explanatory the hard part of it is figuring out which units should use it when because you must choose who is going to use it at the beginning of the phase (in other words before your opponent decides to shoot or assault anything). It serves to note that if you intend to use this power that you should ask your opponent as soon as their turn starts to state when they are going to start their shooting and assault phases so that you don’t miss the chance to use the power. In close combat it is easy to tell if you want to use this power. First is your unit being or about to be assaulted and if yes is it with power weapons (or an equivalent). If no then don’t worry. If yes then you must decide whether or not it is worth attempting to keep the unit alive a little longer. Remember you can’t make an omelet without breaking some eggs. Also you can use this as a “denial” strategy to an extent in the shooting phase. If you think a unit might get shot with some low ap weapons and you don’t want them to die then obviously use this power because if your opponent still shots you got that 3+ no matter what, and if they decide not to shot that’s great too because you just scared your opponent into not even trying to shoot what may be a key part of your strategy… though they may then decide to shot another weaker target instead so watch out for that. I can also say that this power is responsible for keeping my canoness alive for more than 4 turns of close combat and has there by slowed down and mudded up a section of my opponents army all because she went from have a 2+ regular save to having a 2+ invuln which will stop just about everything that swings at her.

THE PASSION
The Passion is yet another combat enhancer power giving you a +2I (this may not be combined with hand of the emperor just so you know). I personally use this power with reckless abandon against elder guardians and imperial guardsmen letting me get the drop on then and smash them in their faces before they can respond and also against most other elder infantry since it will allow me to go at the same time as them (I5) therefore increasing their losses in close combat. I also use this all the time with my seraphim just because they have so many attacks and this pumps them to I6 making for certain they beat most MEQ to the punch (pun intended). The hardest part about this power is figuring out whether you want to use it strength of the emperor or nothing at all in close combat and only your personal play style and experience will be able to answer that

LIGHT OF THE EMPEROR
This last power is usually over looked by many. At the start of any phase you use this power and the selected unit if successful will become fearless until your next movement phase. Now there is the obvious use of it to make sure your units do not turn tail and run while under heavy fire but the thing I use it most for is regrouping. You see the SoB do not have the marine’s wonderful “and they shall have no fear” rule allowing them to regroup even under half strength, nor do they have war gear like tau bonding knives which do the same thing. Instead they have this because as stated in the WH40K book “if a unit that is falling back suddenly gains this rule, it will automatically regroup at the beginning of its next movement phase, regardless of all normal restrictions on regrouping.” (Warhammer 40K pg 75). So basically instead of having a unit with a built in we always get to roll or an unit what can by war gear to make this possible, you have a unit that may choose to spend its built in power in this way if it has to. And frankly just based on this if your sister squad is below half strength (so we will say 4 sisters assuming a 10 sister squad) you only need a 4 on 2d6 to have them get back in there and hold that objective to win the game. And hey if your down to just the veteran sister superior then well technically she is not an independent character so she is just a squad of one meaning that she will always pass this test as well as the tests for the passion and spirit of the martyr for that matter making her one tough cookie to take out.

Well that’s pretty much all there is to using faith the rest you just have to figure out on your own, which is really just faith point management and when to use them to be the most effective. Sorry for not posting this about 2 week ago but I was kept away from the internet by real life which hopefully won’t happen again soon. Next week should either be another tau bfg post or maybe an introduction to my Imperial Guard army the Hera 57th mobile infantry.
Until next time
May the Emperor Protect.