Hobby Sunday 31/07/16- White Scars Vanguard Veterans

A while back, I picked up some Vanguard Veterans for cheap on ebay. I really liked the models and the new Raven Guard rules gave them some great formation bonuses in the game. I finally got round to painting them up as part of my effort to complete my White Scars army. 

When painting these, I used Agrax Earthshade as the wash for the red colour, rather than my usual Carroburg Crimson. This gives a much better contrast between the base red and highlight. Thanks to Nick (the Burning Eye) for the tip, it works way better!

Caledonian Revolution 2016: Game 5- White Scars vs Tyranids

Welcome to the battle report for my final game of day 2 of Caledonian Revolution 2016. After scraping a minor win in the last game, I found myself playing at the same table once more against William and his Tyranids. 

The mission for game 5 was Big Guns Never Tire (5 objectives), with Tactical Escalation for the maelstrom mission (one card on turn 1, two on turn 2, etc.). The deployment was Hammer and Anvil. 

My army consisted of:

Scarblade Strike Force

Hunting Force

Khan- Moondrakken (with CS)

Command Squad- Bikes, Apothecary, 4 grav guns, 4 storm shields, Banner of the Eagle (CS)

6 Bikers- 2 grav guns, sergeant with power axe and meltabombs (BS1)

6 Bikers- 2 grav guns, sergeant with meltabombs (BS2)

Attack Bike- Multimelta (AB)

6 Scout Bikers- 2 Grenades launchers, sergeant with meltabombs and homing beacon (SB)

Stormbringer Squadron

5 Scouts- bolt pistols, combat weapons, sergeant with meltabombs (S1)

Landspeeder Storm- Heavy Bolter, Cerberus Launcher (LS1)

Landspeeder- Multimelta, Typhoon Missile Launcher (L)

Combined Arms Detachment

Chaplain- Bike, Hunter's Eye, Meltabombs (with CS or C2)

5 Scouts- Bolters, sergeant with meltabombs (S2)

Landspeeder Storm- Heavy Bolter, Cerberus Launcher (LS2)

3 Bikers- 2 meltaguns, sergeant with meltabombs (BS3)

3 Centurions- Grav cannons and grav amps, hurricane bolters (C)

Drop Pod (DP)

Stormhawk Interceptor- TL assault cannon, Skyhammer missile launcher, Las-talon (SI)

Khan was my warlord.

Caledonian Revolution 2016: Game 4- White Scars vs Imperial Knights/Space Marines/Daemons

My fourth game of the Caledonian Revolution tournament began nice and early on the Sunday morning. I found myself on table 20, going up against Mark and his unholy alliance of Imperial Knights, Ultramarines and Chaos Daemons.

The mission was Emperor's Will (one objective each) with Conact Lost as the maelstrom mission (one card for each objective held).

My army consisted of:

Scarblade Strike Force

Hunting Force

Khan- Moondrakken (with CS)

Command Squad- Bikes, Apothecary, 4 grav guns, 4 storm shields, Banner of the Eagle (CS)

6 Bikers- 2 grav guns, sergeant with power axe and meltabombs (BS1)

6 Bikers- 2 grav guns, sergeant with meltabombs (BS2)

Attack Bike- Multimelta (AB)

6 Scout Bikers- 2 Grenades launchers, sergeant with meltabombs and homing beacon (SB)

Stormbringer Squadron

5 Scouts- bolt pistols, combat weapons, sergeant with meltabombs (S1)

Landspeeder Storm- Heavy Bolter, Cerberus Launcher (LS1)

Landspeeder- Multimelta, Typhoon Missile Launcher (L)

Combined Arms Detachment

Chaplain- Bike, Hunter's Eye, Meltabombs (with CS or C2)

5 Scouts- Bolters, sergeant with meltabombs (S2)

Landspeeder Storm- Heavy Bolter, Cerberus Launcher (LS2)

3 Bikers- 2 meltaguns, sergeant with meltabombs (BS3)

3 Centurions- Grav cannons and grav amps, hurricane bolters (C)

Drop Pod (DP)

Stormhawk Interceptor- TL assault cannon, Skyhammer missile launcher, Las-talon (SI)

Khan was my warlord.

Caledonian Revolution 2016: Game 3- White Scars vs Dark Angels

Game 3 of Caledonian Revolution saw my White Scars taking on Lee's Dark Angels army. Lee's army was absolutely stunning as you will see in the photos below. The third mission had The Scouring as the primary mission and Deadlock as the maelstrom mission (6 cards on turn 1, 5 on turn 2, etc). 

As a reminder, my army consisted of:

Scarblade Strike Force

Hunting Force

Khan- Moondrakken (with CS or K)

Command Squad- Bikes, Apothecary, 4 grav guns, 4 storm shields, Banner of the Eagle (CS)

6 Bikers- 2 grav guns, sergeant with power axe and meltabombs (BS1)

6 Bikers- 2 grav guns, sergeant with meltabombs (BS2)

Attack Bike- Multimelta (AB)

6 Scout Bikers- 2 Grenades launchers, sergeant with meltabombs and homing beacon (SB)

Stormbringer Squadron

5 Scouts- bolt pistols, combat weapons, sergeant with meltabombs (S1)

Landspeeder Storm- Heavy Bolter, Cerberus Launcher (LS1)

Landspeeder- Multimelta, Typhoon Missile Launcher (L)

Combined Arms Detachment

Chaplain- Bike, Hunter's Eye, Meltabombs (with CS or C2)

5 Scouts- Bolters, sergeant with meltabombs (S2)

Landspeeder Storm- Heavy Bolter, Cerberus Launcher (LS2)

3 Bikers- 2 meltaguns, sergeant with meltabombs (BS3)

3 Centurions- Grav cannons and grav amps, hurricane bolters (C)

Drop Pod (DP)

Stormhawk Interceptor- TL assault cannon, Skyhammer missile launcher, Las-talon (SI)

My warlord was Khan.

Caledonian Revolution 2016: Game 2- White Scars vs Necrons

After my absolute crushing in Game 1 of the tournament, I found myself banished to table 32 to play Simon and his Necrons, after he had as good a start as I did. 

The ETC mission for this game was The Relic as the primary and Spoils of War as the secondary (3 maelstrom cards per turn, you can steal your opponent's secure objective cards).

As a reminder, my army consisted of:

Scarblade Strike Force

Hunting Force

Khan- Moondrakken (with CS)

Command Squad- Bikes, Apothecary, 4 grav guns, 4 storm shields, Banner of the Eagle (CS)

6 Bikers- 2 grav guns, sergeant with power axe and meltabombs (BS1)

6 Bikers- 2 grav guns, sergeant with meltabombs (BS2)

Attack Bike- Multimelta (AB)

6 Scout Bikers- 2 Grenades launchers, sergeant with meltabombs and homing beacon (SB)

Stormbringer Squadron

5 Scouts- bolt pistols, combat weapons, sergeant with meltabombs (S1)

Landspeeder Storm- Heavy Bolter, Cerberus Launcher (LS1)

Landspeeder- Multimelta, Typhoon Missile Launcher (L)

Combined Arms Detachment

Chaplain- Bike, Hunter's Eye, Meltabombs (with CS or L2)

5 Scouts- Bolters, sergeant with meltabombs (S2)

Landspeeder Storm- Heavy Bolter, Cerberus Launcher (LS2)

3 Bikers- 2 meltaguns, sergeant with meltabombs (BS3)

3 Centurions- Grav cannons and grav amps, hurricane bolters (C)

Drop Pod (DP)

Stormhawk Interceptor- TL assault cannon, Skyhammer missile launcher, Las-talon (SI)

Khan was my warlord.

Caledonian Revolution 2016: Game 1- White Scars vs Tau/Grey Knights

Welcome to my first battle report from my games at the recent Caledonian Revolution tournament. The tournament was held at the North Western Gaming Centre down in Stockport and featured 75 players. 

I decided to take my White Scars to the tournament and had been practising with my list for a few months with varying degrees of success, so was feeling ok about my chances in my games over the two days of the tournament. Ideally, I wanted to win at least 3 of the 5 games and finish in the top half of the rankings table.

Overall, I had a fantastic time at the tournament. I play 5 very challenging games over the two days against some great opponents. The guys organising the tournament were fantastic, all the games ran on time with plenty of time for each match, and everything was run efficiently and with good humour. A big thanks to all of my opponents and everyone I got chatting to over the weekend for making it such a fun event.

A big bonus for me was how many players over the weekend recognised my army from the blog and how many people said that they read and enjoyed my blog and battle reports. It's great to get that kind of feedback from people I haven't met before and really makes the effort that I put into the blog worth it. I also got a few compliments on my army, which was great given the very high standards of painting you will see in the Armies on Display post. Over the weekend I got several comments along the lines of "it's so unusual to see a White Scars army actually painted up as White Scars", which made me chuckle.

I did not win any raffle prizes, but got a bargain of a sale. One of the winners decided he did not want to take his Betrayal at Calth prize with him on the flight, so I snapped it up for only £50! My resistance to starting that Emperor's Children 30K army is slowly diminishing as I type.

It was a really fun weekend and I got to meet some great new players and hopefully get a few new readers for the blog in my game opponents. 

After a disastrous drive down the motorway on the Friday (more on this in a later post) and a lack of sleep on the Friday night (my hotel decided that 5 am was the perfect time to use the industrial dish washer located directly below my room), I got my army ready to see what table I would be playing on. I was due to play Matt and his Daemons in my first game, but he had to drop out of the tournament. I was informed later that he had actually won the last Caledonian Revolution, so I was not too upset about this. 

My opponent for the first round turned out to be Sid with his Tau, Grey Knights and Assassins army. Things were already looking up, as Sid had only come in second at the last Revolution.........

My army consisted of:

Scarblade Strike Force

Hunting Force

Khan- Moondrakken (with CS)

Command Squad- Bikes, Apothecary, 4 grav guns, 4 storm shields, Banner of the Eagle (CS)

6 Bikers- 2 grav guns, sergeant with power axe and meltabombs (BS1)

6 Bikers- 2 grav guns, sergeant with meltabombs (BS2)

Attack Bike- Multimelta (AB)

6 Scout Bikers- 2 Grenades launchers, sergeant with meltabombs and homing beacon (SB)

Stormbringer Squadron

5 Scouts- bolt pistols, combat weapons, sergeant with meltabombs (S1)

Landspeeder Storm- Heavy Bolter, Cerberus Launcher (LS1)

Landspeeder- Multimelta, Typhoon Missile Launcher (L)

Combined Arms Detachment

Chaplain- Bike, Hunter's Eye, Meltabombs (with CS or C2)

5 Scouts- Bolters, sergeant with meltabombs (S2)

Landspeeder Storm- Heavy Bolter, Cerberus Launcher (LS2)

3 Bikers- 2 meltaguns, sergeant with meltabombs (BS3)

3 Centurions- Grav cannons and grav amps, hurricane bolters (C)

Drop Pod (DP)

Stormhawk Interceptor- TL assault cannon, Skyhammer missile launcher, Las-talon (SI)

Better Know A Blogger- Part 17: Tabletop Apocalypse

This week's Better Know a Blogger features Will (AKA Blazmo) from Tabletop Apocalypse. 

Will is another relative newcomer to the world of 40k blogging, as Tabletop Apocalypse only started in March of this year. I first spotted Will's blog when a picture of his Emperor's Children Palatine Blades appeared on the blog roll on Faeit 212. I still had Rob's review of the 30K Emperor's Children on my mind (the temptation to start this army is still strong with me!), so was impressed by what I saw in the tiny thumbnail beside the blog title. I clicked on the link and I have not been disappointed since. 

Tabletop Apocalypse is very much a hobby blog, showcasing Blazmo's amazing painting and modelling skills. His work includes a wide range of different armies including his Chaos army, his Grots army, Space Marines and unusual orange Necrons. I did not think that Orange would work well as an army's primary colour, but somehow it just looks great. 

He also does some great conversion work, a stand out being his MASSIVE Deff Dread conversion that towers over mere regular Walkers. 

Not only interested in 40k, Will also dabbles in other systems such as Fantasy and Infinity. 

One of my favourite articles recently has been his How to be a Better Painter- Basics. This provided me with some very useful tips that I have begun to incorporate into my own painting. I look forward to seeing if this series develops and hope to glean some more tips from him in the future. 

Based on the quality of his work on the blog, it's a travesty that more people have not found this blog yet. I urge you to go now and add yourself to his "Followers" tab located on the blog. Tabletop Apocalypse does not deserve to be "The Hobby blog that nobody reads". Go on, I'll wait.......(plus, if I get him a ton of new readers, maybe he'll do a tutorial on his Emperor's Children paint scheme for me!). 

So here are Will's answers to my questions:

Sorry this picture is a bit out of date, but I’m writing this in my lunch breaks at work, so it’s all I’ve got. Just try to imagine that its 4 years later and I have short hair (damn you socially acceptable work-standards!)

1. What age did you get into gaming and what started it off?

I think I was about 8. It was my brother who first got me interested after he went to secondary school and everyone there was playing Warhammer (your brother and I went to very different schools- Mike). It was right in the prime of second edition too, in the heady days when White Dwarf was a magazine worth reading and you had to save up your pocket money a pound at a time to get a Saurus Champion. Oh, the memories!

Later as I got older I lost touch with all hobbying. It wasn’t until I picked up a copy of Dawn of War on the PC that I realised I missed it so much. It was a slow slide back into full-blown obsession.

Hobby Sunday 24/07/16- White Scars Grav Cannon Devastators and Dreadnought

This week's Hobby Sunday features my Grav Cannon Devastators and my White Scars Dreadnought. 

I bought the Devastators from ebay back in February. I stumbled across them and there were 4 Devastators with Grav Cannons and a Sergeant with a combi-grav going for only £15! An absolute bargain. I snapped them up instantly and have finally got round to painting them. I have only used them once in a game and they are awesome, I will be using them much more in the future. 

The squad came on the new 32 mm bases. I must admit, the marines actually look really good on the 32 mm bases. I was intending to swap them to 25 mm bases to fit in with the rest of my army, but the new Devastators have been practising their power stances for air guitar and won't actually fit on a 25 mm base. 

Better Know a Blogger- Participants Wanted!

Do you have a 40k blog? Are you not currently on my blog list? Am I missing your awesome work because of this?

If so, please comment below and let me know the name of your blog. I am always on the lookout for new blogs to follow and great new content to read. I can't promise you fame and fortune, but I can promise you at least one more regular reader.

In addition, I am always on the lookout for new bloggers to feature in my "Better Know a Blogger" series. What better way to get some new readers and followers, than by letting them know a little bit about yourself and your blog. If you would like to take part, please contact me at corrm83@gmail.com

If you are already on my bloglist and have not taken part and wish to do so, please contact me.



Better Know a Blogger- Part 16: St Andrews Wargaming

Welcome to the latest part of my Better Know a Blogger series. As you can see from the title, this week the blogger in question is me! I thought it was only fair that after all the people who have taken the time to answer my questions, that I had best answer them myself.

Me. In my traditional Scottish wedding garb. 

No long intro for this one, if you are reading this then I assume you know about my blog. Join me as I sit in front of a mirror and perform a self-interview.

1. What age did you get into gaming and what started it off?

When I was 11-12, I got two copies of the D&D Dragon Quest game for my birthday. I absolutely loved it and pored over the rules, cards and board for months on end. I spent ages making up quests for the game and writing intricate backstories and scenarios. Despite all this, I only played the game half a time. After weeks of pestering, my Dad, brother and sister agreed to play a game. I explained the rules and we started the first quest. We got about two hours into it when it was time for bed, we were supposed to finish it the next day, but no one wanted to! That still didn't stop me from devoting a lot of free time to the game after that.

When I was about 14, my best friend in school told me about an awesome game that he had just got for his birthday- Warhammer Fantasy (it was the 5th edition boxed set). He lent me the rule books and I was hooked. I loved the miniatures, the rules and the artwork. At 14, many young boys start to take an interest in girls. Unfortunately for me, the girls I was interested in were Dark Elf Wyches and Bretonninan Sorceresses.

We played a few games with the stuff in the box and I decided to start my own army. I have been playing GW games ever since.

We both progressed from fantasy to GorkaMorka and then 3rd edition 40k when it was released.

My best friend stopped playing after we left high school, I guess the allure of alcohol and women was too much for him. What a fool!

I'm getting flashbacks of long summer days, acne and Sunny D......