Hobby Update 27/06/17- Deathwatch Watch Master

Today's hobby update showcases my completed Deathwatch Watch Master. 

This was one of the first models that I purchased for the Deathwatch army, but it has taken me a while to finish put some paint on him and get him completed. For painting him up, I used a similar colour scheme to my Watch Captain Artemis model, taking a bit of time on him as he is a centrepiece for any Deathwatch force. 

Battle Report 103- 2000 pts Deathwatch vs Primaris Marines/Astra Militarum

This week's battle report sees my Deathwatch take on Will's Primaris Marines with Astra Militarum allies. 

My second 8th edition battle report saw me bulk my army out to 2000 points. I was working on a list for Caledonian Revolution, so was keen to try out my army and see how it would perform. The game was the Scouring. 

My army consisted of:

Battalion Detachment- 6 Command Points

Watch Master- Guardian Spear (WM)

Librarian- Force Sword, Bolt Pistol (L)

Kill Team 1- 5 Veterans with Stalker Boltguns, Terminator with Power Fist, Storm Bolter and Cyclone Missile Launcher (KT1)

Kill Team 2- 5 Veterans with 2 Frag Cannons (KT2)

Kill Team 3- 5 Veterans, Terminators with Assault Cannon and Power Fist (KT3)

Kill Team 4- Black Shield with Power Sword, Sergeant with Power Sword, Heavy Thunder Hammer, two Veterans with Power Swords, Vanguard Veteran with Pair of Lightning Claws (KT4)

3 Bikers- Teleport Homer, Power Axe, 2 Power Swords (DB1)

3 Bikers- Teleport Homer, Power Maul, 2 Power Swords (DB2)

3 Bikers- Teleport Homer, Power Maul, 2 Power Swords (DB3)

5 Vanguard Veterans- 2 Pairs lightning Claws, 2 Heavy Thunder Hammers (VV)

Rhino- Storm Bolter (R)

Dreadnought- Heavy Flamer, Assault Cannon (D)

Corvus Blackstar- Auspex Array, Hurricane Bolter (CB)

Hobby Update 28/06/17- Deathwatch Vanguard Veterans

Today on the hobby update, I have a unit of Vanguard Veterans for my Deathwatch army. The new rules for Kill Teams for the Deathwatch give some nice bonuses for adding a Biker, Terminator or a Vanguard Veteran to the unit. 

I wanted to have some cheap, basic Vanguard Veterans that I could add to units in my games. I happened to have five spare Veterans lying around in my unpainted pile, so I quickly got them painted up and added to my army. 

Three are armed with Bolt Pistols and Chainswords, one has a Power Sword and one has a Power Fist. 

Hobby Update 27/06/17- Deathwatch Bikers and Teleport Homers

Today's Hobby Update features my Deathwatch Bikers and some Teleport Homers for the unit. I purchased these Bikers a few months ago and finally got round to painting them up. Deathwatch Bikers seem to be really great in 8th edition, getting four shots at short range with their special issue ammunition, as well as unit-wide access to cheap power weapons. 

Here are the five Bikers that I painted up. 

Hobby Update 26/06/17- Deathwatch Rhino and Terminators

This week, I have been making another push on my Deathwatch army. With Caledonian Revolution coming up, I am planning on taking my Deathwatch army to try them out in 8th edition. In order to keep as many options as possible open, I decided to try and paint up the rest of my Deathwatch forces. 

With the release of 8th edition, I purchased another Rhino to ferry my forces to battle. I have three Drop Pods for my army, but they have taken a bit of a hit in 8th edition for my Frag Cannons, as well as a big points hike, so though some more armour would be useful to me. The Rhino was painted up to match the first in my force.

Burning Eye Commission- Terminator Librarian

Today I have photos of a painting commission carried out by Nick at the Burning Eye. This model was completed ages ago, but I've only just gotten round to taking photos and getting it up on the blog. 

Last year when Nick was first looking to foray into the world of commission painting, he was looking for volunteers to send him models and give feedback on the process. Being the utterly selfless soul that I am, I decided to take advantage of his offer of free painting to get a nice character model completed for my various Marine armies. I had seen the work that Nick had done on his own Librarian models and was very impressed, so this made it a natural choice to send. 

Summer Massacre Tournament- Armies on Display

There were some great armies at the Summer Massacre tournament at the weekend. Here are some of the photos of the armies on display. 

First up, we have Graham's Death army. Graham has some fantastic armies, you can find more of them at his twitter page, @PaintedbyG . Graham was judging the painting competition, so was unable to win it (which he would likely have done given the standard of his force). 

Battle Report 102- 8th Edition, Deathwatch vs Black Templars

This week's battle report is my first game from the brand new 8th edition. This game took place at Heaton gaming club and sees my Deathwatch army facing off against Kyle's Black Templars. 

After checking out the 8th edition rules, I was eager to give them a shot in an actual game. I made up a 1000 pts list for my Deathwatch using a number of different unit types. Once I had my army made up, I calculated the power level of my army and Kyle matched it with his army. 

My army consisted of:

Chaplain- Crozius Arcanum, Bolt Pistol, Rosarius (C)

Kill Team 1- 5 Veterans with Stalker Pattern Bolters, Terminator with Power Fist, Storm Bolter and Cyclone Missile Launcher (KT1)

Kill Team 2- 5 Veterans. 2 Heavy Thunder Hammers, Black Shield with Power Sword, Sergeant. (KT2)

Kill Team 3- 2 Frag Cannons, Vanguard Veteran with two Lightning Claws (KT3)

Rhino- Storm Bolter (R)

6 Bikers- 4 Power Swords, Power Maul, Power Axe, Teleport Homer (DB)
Dreadnought- Assault Cannon and Heavy Flamer (D)

Summer Massacre Tournament Photos (Pic Heavy)

The Newcastle Warlords gaming club recently hosted Summer Massacre, an Age of Sigmar tournament for 22 players. 

They were after some to cook the barbeque lunch for the tournament, so I volunteered to help out. Fortunately, it was a really nice day, so I got to enjoy the sunshine while I cooked. I was also able to take some photos of the event that I can share now. Hope you enjoy. 

8th Edition Rules Review: Part 1- Core Rules

Welcome to the first part of my review on the new 8th edition rules for 40k. In this part, I will be taking a look at the core rules and my initial thoughts on them. 

Rule Length

One of the huge differences between 7th and 8th edition is the length of the core rules for the game. Seventh edition featured a huge number of rules, so many at times that they were hard to keep track of despite having played the game for years (does anyone know what Soul Blaze did even now?).

In 8th edition, the core rules are condensed into 8 pages, making it really simple to read through them and learn them quickly. Now, I know that much of the USR-type rules and intricacies will be covered in the datasheets for units, so there is not such a huge reduction in the number of rules, but it is nice to be able to learn the rules for the main game in under 10 minutes.

I picked up the Dark Imperium boxed set and was very happy to see a small booklet containing the core rules of the game. Great for referencing during a game or if you don't want to take the main rulebook with you all the time. Overall, I am a fan of this new format. I would love to see GW release a smaller rulebook with just the core rules and rules for the different scenarios in it. As much as I like the background section, I don't really need it in the rulebook and would much prefer a smaller book to take with me to games.