Battlefleet Gothic: Imperial Fleet

OK, time for something a little different. I'll be putting a game display into the local public library this November, and I want to get some space ships into it. I'm a big fan of Battlefleet Gothic, and have a sizeable Chaos fleet. However, I have a ton of Imperial ship models I've never built. Now is the time!

I dug into the mountain of unopened boxes of I have down in the basement. Here are the 33 Imperial ships I put together over the course of two evenings. Many of them are one-piece resin or metal models...but the battleship and cruisers took a little time to assemble. This is the entire fleet, with several cruisers mounted on a painting stick just before I start priming.

I want to get a lot of ships done quickly, so this is prime airbrush territory. I start with the ship completely sprayed with black primer.

Then an overspray of dark sea blue-grey.

Then a quick down-spray of light grey.

And a final dusting of white. The airbrushing went very quickly and was the least labor-intensive step of the painting process. The multiple over-sprays give the model depth while popping out all the great molded-in detail.

The final painting passes consisted of putting on a red prow with gold highlights, a set of weathered bronze engine exhausts, silver highlights on the guns, rams and antennas and orange-yellow running lights.

Before you know it...an Imperial fleet appears. Just over a week from start to finish.

All the support vessels, which consist of freighters, tankers, escort carriers and so on, were painted with the same process, but using sets of different colors.

I hope this might inspire you to get a project out of storage, bear down and knock it out.

'Til next time!

Terminus vs pVlad: A Very Quick BatRep

Some battle reports are short, because one side gets wiped on turn 2...here's an example!

Elliot and I get together again for another 45 point Year Long League game. The starting board position. Elliot's Khador is on the left, my Cryx is on the right. The scenario is Overrun...so this will just be a big mash-up in the middle of the map.

Elliot is running pVlad (Blood of Kings/Signs and Portents) with Conquest and a bunch of Man 'O Wars.

I'm trying Terminus for the first time and load him up with infantry. Undead, nasty infantry.

I go first and surge forward. I'm trying this for the first time and want to see what Terminus can do...so it's everyone for the middle of the board.

Elliot's force is a little slower than mine (OK...a lot slower), so he runs everyone up while the Conquest advances and knocks out 9 Mechanithralls with AOEs. Corpses were collected...bwahaha. Elliot also lays down a couple of covering fire templates to gum up the board center.

My turn 2. Undaunted, I pass some Mechanitralls through the fire templates, survive, and get a meat wall up in front of where I want Terminus...which is right in the center of the board. Can't find out what he's made of unless I stick him in the thick of it. I flank the Banes and Knights around to the left, ready to mow down Man 'O Wars on turn 3. Oh, wait, that's not going to happen. Never mind.

On my right flank I send around some Bile Thralls to purge onto Elliot's Bombardiers on turn 3. Again, another pleasant fiction to keep myself happy.

On Elliot's turn two he uses the Bombardiers to blow away the meat wall in front of Terminus. Then, the full-focus Conquest charges into Terminus and those Pow 22 fists grind my armor 24 'caster into the dirt. I told you it was quick!

And, unfortunately, not very entertaining. But it was educational. Every time you try out a new 'caster, there's an adjustment period where you figure out what he can handle and where he is safe (or in danger!) on the board. Lesson learned.

'Til next time.

Helldivers...and the end of Cryx

Well, this is it for Cryx miniatures. These two Helldivers were at the bottom of the pile. I can now safely say 20 months into painting and playing Cryx...this is the end of it. Any Cryx lists I want to play until the end of this year (at least...if not much longer) are going to have to come from the bag and a half I now have full of 'casters, units, 'jacks and solos.

The little 30mm bases you see off to the sides in the photos are the "burrowed" versions of these light Bonejacks.

As I've said, I'm going to go back to playing Menoth next year...but I think I'm going to take a side trip into Cygnar just to get a taste of the only Warmachine faction I haven't painted or played. Stupid hobby.

'Til next time.

Darragh Wrathe

Unbelievably, I'm getting very near the end of my Cryx inventory. Just a few models left to go.

I picked up Darragh Wrathe from a friend selling off part of his Warmachine inventory several months back. Now it's time to paint him. I'm always a little intimidated by cavalry pieces because they inevitably involve more work that you'd think. This one went pretty fast though, since the horse is mostly covered with armor.

Darragh Wrathe (really...how is that pronounced?) is a dragoon figure...meaning he has a mounted and unmounted version. Generally, you paint both models at the same time so that you get identical colors on each.

Well, nothing much to say about this guy, other than I plan to use him in my Terminus list, and that's about it. He makes enemy living models hit less hard, and that's good for attacks on Terminus.

Can't believe I'm almost done with Cryx!

'Til next time.

pSkarre vs Vlad3

Elliot came over for a game last night. This was a 45-point match. It's an odd point level, but we are in our local game store's Year Long League, which increments match sizes by 5 points every two months. So, September and October matches are at the 45-point level.

Anyway, Elliot has been playing a lot of Vlad3 recently, and brought his army out for a spin. I've just decided to start learning prime Skarre, so here she comes.

Opening set up. Elliot's Khador is on the left. He has lots of cavalry, some Doom Reavers and a Gun Carriage. I'm on the right playing pSkarre's infantry spam. The scenario is Destruction...so you can see the starting positions of the two monolith objectives (they have the spiky bronze bits sticking out of them).

My starting line...lots of undead. I also have brought out the Blood Witches with the Hag...just to try out the "no tough" ability.

Here is Elliot's starting line. He will use his Gun Carriage (nice tank conversion!) to deny access to his monolith, while his cavalry will sweep around to get at my monolith.

Elliot goes first. This must be about the fastest Khador army ever. He had claimed the center of the board and his cav is within easy striking distance of my monolith.

This is what I'm facing on my right flank. Most of the game's action will occur here.

And here's what I see on my left flank. The Gun Carriage is getting into position to block his monolith.

OK, my first turn and time to unleash the undead horde. Banes are heading to my left to deal with the tank and hopefully get to the scenario's first objective. Mechanithralls are going right to jam Elliot's cav and the bulk of his Doom Reavers.

Reverse angle. Vald is backing up the Great Bears, who are getting ready to clear out the central circular structure on the board.

Reverse angle. The Gun Carriage faces down the Banes. Elliot will spend several turns laying down rough terrain templates to slow the Bane Thralls down. This works, as I only get a couple of Banes into contact with the tank before the end of the game.

In the center of the board, I send Mechanithralls to their doom. I'm attempting to jam the middle to block the egress of Elliot's Drakhun, Great Bears and some of his Reavers.

Elliot's turn 2. His cav and Doom Reavers have killed all but one of my right flank Mechanithrall unit, and they have handily blown away the first objective monolith. Elliot has scored his first scenario point.

My turn 2. Skarre feats and the remaining Mechanithralls and the Blood Witches (and...well, everything else within 12" of Skarre) lay waste to Khador units. This is my first time playing pSkarre and I am caught off guard by the power of her feat. Anything my units get in contact with blow up. I was playing conservatively and really over-committed on a number of targets. Markov, the Drakhun, several Uhlans and Doom Reavers disappear. However, I can't get to Drago, so Elliot's only 'jack is unscathed.

On my left flank the action is less interesting. Bane Thralls continue to slog towards the Gun Carriage. However, on Elliot's 3rd turn, he brings the Great Bears into the central building and they lay waste to all the Mechanithralls I have in there (even under the armor-boosting effects of Skarre's feat). However, on my 3rd turn, Tartarus passes into the building and threshers all three Great Bears...killing all of them in one blow! Amazing success. I create three Bane Knights out of them.

Back to Elliot's turn 3. He charges the Brute Thrall I have screening Skarre, kills it and Runs Riot to get in contact with my 'caster. However, he has run out of focus dealing with the Blood Hag who is still in his melee range, and winds up doing little damage to Skarre. On my turn 3, the Blood Witches, a Brute Thrall and Skarre knock Drago down to a cortex box. Backlash puts a chunk of damage onto Vlad as a consequence.

In the mean time, the Bane Knights I made out of Elliot's Great Bears have charged out of the central building and engaged Vlad and his War Dog. I miss the attack on the dog, so that makes Vlad pretty impossible to hit. I'm outside of Skarre's Dark Guidance range, so no damage is delivered to Vlad. Boooo.

On Elliot's turn 4 he doesn't have much left in play so he goes for the Hail Mary assassination attempt. Drago has a cortex box, so he loads the 'jack with focus and then disengages Vlad from my Banes. He get's Vlad close enough to Drago to stick Hands of Fate. Although Drago's arm/weapon systems are out, he has a good chance of hitting and killing Skarre, who's standing within melee range. Drago stands up, lands a hit, does some damage...but that's as far as he gets. Further hit attempts miss; with the damaged arms he just can't seal the deal (but it was close).

With Vlad swinging in the wind and a good chunk of my army in close proximity, Elliot concedes the 'caster kill to me. Skarre wins.

Elliot played a great game, and we had a lot of fun.

'Til next time.

Another Mechanithrall Unit

On the Warmachine-Cryx front, I've been pretty much been playing eSkarre and Mortenebra all year. Not that I'm bored of them, but I've been wanting to get experience with a few other Cryx casters. Right now, I'm looking at pSkarre and Terminus, both of which are infantry-centric warcasters. With those two in mind, I figured I needed another unit of Mechanithralls.

Well, they are pretty quick to paint up...so, presto.

Pretty standard undead flesh, rusty metal and pink rubber hoses.

Here are both units together...the old unit on the left, the new one on the right. I think they mix well together, with the new ones being distinguished by different colored hoses.

'Til next time.

Iron Lich Overseer

Happy Labor Day weekend. Just one fellow walked off the hobby table this week...the Iron Lich Overseer, again from the Warmachine Cryx faction.

At this point I'm just really filling out the collection, rather than painting pieces I'm intending to use in-game. I'm sure the Overseer has his uses, but I can't see putting him in a list anytime soon.

The tournament season is coming to a close, and my mind is wandering back to Menoth. I've been playing Cryx steady for a year now, but it's time for a change. I'll finish out 2012 continuing to paint and play Cryx, but next year it's back to my original faction.

'Til next time.