GOD ENGINES

So this is a bit of a sneaky project that, if you've seen Pooch's blog from last week and my swathe of waterslides, you might have figured out that we've been working on. Over this year, I might have built and painted a bit more than the Cerastus Knights and a single Warhound Titan for the Apocalypse stupid.

I might have done a whole bunch in fact, including 3 Reaver Titans and a Warlord Titan, all armed like they are ready to hit things in the manner of any kind of Khornate worshipper, God Engine or otherwise!

The God Engines of Legio Vulpa

For completeness' sake, the three Banners of knights of House Hyboras who will accompany my titans into combat:

Cerastus and Questoris Knights

Gaming?

So having painted a whole bunch of God Engines, we could hardly not get them out for a run. Blogger Pooch and I ran our Warlords and Blogger Tank brought out his....Ordo Sinister Psi-titan.

The Psi-titan gave me quite the hiding in the first couple of turns, nearly tearing off one of my legs, so I ducked and weaved away and it went off to go and chase the Legio Astorum Warlord. This gave me the wiggle room to cross the board. Pooch did a fair whack of damage in a firefight with the Psi-titan and then my Warlord arrived and the resulting combat round ended thus: 

Mors Aerea tears off the Psi-titan's head!

 After that, I ran my Warlord down the long table to try and engage Pooch's Warlord. I almost succeeded until my Voids failed and Pooch's Mori Quake Cannon damaged my stabilisers. That spun my poor Warlord around 180-degrees and got him shot repeatedly in the back:

Right before Mors Aerea was shot to bits

 Pooch and I went on to play a second game, 3 Reavers vs. a Nemesis Warbringer and 3 Warhounds, and it was....less destructive than we thought - I damaged two Warhounds and Pooch destroyed one Reaver. Here's a couple of pics just to whet your appetite for more competent Titanicus in 2021: 

Pooch's insanely quick Warhound, right before it ran straight past my Reaver

One of my Reavers engages a Warhound, only to have his chainfist shot off!

 We got a sense of how nimble Pooch's titans are, but at the cost to their reactors (two of his Warhounds overloaded his shields more than once!) and a Reaver, even with only one functioning weapon system, can still do a lot of damage. 

  Thoughts? 

It's a really cool game. Pooch and I both went through the rules afterward and realised how many things we got wrong (no surprises in the first playthrough) and how those would have improved the experience no end. It's definitely easier to learn the game once you have some experience to hang the rules on.

I really like the Titan command terminals, the order mechanics are fascinating (that there is a genuine benefit to not giving your Titans orders) and I enjoy how challenging it is to respond to your opponent  given the movement and firing arc limitations, especially on the bigger titans. It's also got a really interesting turn sequence that is integral to the tactical decision making. Terrain matters and line of sight and good positioning are really valuable. Ranged attacks seem well balanced against the incredibly destructive capacity that Titans have in close quarters. I also like that there's nothing to stop you firing while engaged in close combat, just using a lower skill. There's a lot of nice flavour differences between the Traitor and Loyalist sides as well as the different Legios and the titan formation choice tacks on some tactical benefits.  

Dislikes? Only one really. GWs seeming pleasure in it's boxed games (at least in AT and Necromunda) of separating core rules and advanced rules and then not providing a rulebook index. That's a real pain. I get the reason for separating them out for accessibility's sake but jeez it's a pain for experienced gamer. 

I have high hopes that there'll be some more Titans in future. There are enough rules that exist and no models to use them that presages some neat stuff. I really really would love (we're firmly in "shut up and take my money" territory here) a Banelord upgrade kit for the Warlord.

Ghosties

I have been doing a bit of work moving the Ghostie project towards completion. I've got the last 16 models to go to finish up the army and am currently exploring some options for some contrasting basing. In the meantime: 

 

These are my Large Cavalry, the Dreadblade Harrows in GW-land, Soulflayers in Kings of War.  They were a lot of fun to do and I learned a bunch of lessons from doing the Knight of Shrouds about making sure I could paint the interiors successfully before assembly. These were GW Easy-builds and they're held together by paint and plastic putty! Amazing.

Next Time

A bit more workbenching I suspect and a preview of what's on the blocks for 2021. I've got a couple of Christmas projects that I want to have done before the end of the break as well so will be getting into those before I head back to work in Jan. 

Pooch's December

So here we are, at the end of 2020. And it has really been a year. I'm positing this early, due to me going on holiday.

I did still set myself twelve goals (with one swapped out early in the year, which was darn handy when lockdown would have ruined it!) to paint, build and game my way through the year. It's fair to say that lockdown was quite good for me in making progress- it got me to finish my Kings of War goblin army, certainly one of my favourite things I finished this year. 

But enough pre-amble, did I get all of my goals done?

1. Paint a Kings of War Army- DONE

2. Create a table of terrain to support a game- Finished

Ok, so I have now, finally finished a full table of terrain to support a game, in this case, it is a full table of terrain to support my 6mm Apocalypse gaming! I got a great deal earlier in the year for a bunch of the Adeptus Titanicus terrain, which I built into a variety of buildings, of different sizes. They are enough to cover a table, and some of them a more than big enough to hide Titans!

I also bought a big cloth of calico, which I attacked with a variety of colours of spraypaint to provide the basecloth. I'm quite happy with how it all worked out!

The whole table

Shrine to the Saint

Some converted missile bunkers

3. Complete the 6mm Apocalypse Challenge- Finished

Titans you say? Well, how about another Titan?

This time, it's a Nemesis Warbringer, armed with a Mori Quake Cannon, a Laser Blaster and a Volcano Cannon. 166 Pl of amazing, amazing model completed!

I nabbed some little Plaugebearers, with a Nurgling as a Demon Prince to go on the base, fighting some of my Guard. All insignificant in comparison to the power of the Warbringer itself!

Oh. So. Cool.

4. Run a narrative campaign for the group- DONE

5. Add a new detachment to one of my 40k armies- DONE

6. Buy a starter box and paint all of it- Finished

So, this got done too. What box did I choose?

Ok, so there was a theme to this month's post!

That's right. MORE TITANS!

A Warlord....

STOMPY

A Reaver....

ALSO STOMPY

And a whole family photo:

So much blue and yellow!

And of course the Knight family too:

But wait, there is more yellow!

Guess I am playing Adeptus Titanicus then!

7. Paint a Space Marine Heroes Series- DONE

8. Update a 15mm Napoleonic army for Battaile Empire- DONE

9. Paint a stand alone force- DONE

10. Update and improve a table of terrain- DONE

11. Paint a Flames of War Army- DONE

I finished up the last infantry for the third platoon, plus the 75mm artillery battery, meaning that I have completed the full Paratrooper formation for both mid and late war entirely using the lovely new US paratrooper models. 

Guns left!

Guns right!

I also took them to the Remember December competition, and did ... averagely. But that did make four tournaments for my year of US paras, two for Team Yankee, two for Flames of War. Which for an inconsistent player like me, is a great achievement!

Cav recon looking cool!

And paratroopers defending buildings...

12. Finish what I should have finished last year- DONE

So 12 goals attempted, 12 goals achieved!

Now what should be on next year's list?

Pooch

Morty is impressed at all twelve completed goals, but disappointed that the Titans are loyal to the False Emperor... 

Worst. Thumbnail. Ever.

 I assume that sweet thumbnails in your blog previews are something that attracts traffic so this one is sure to attract no one. Ever. 

I have been sticking waterslides on things. I might also be the first gamer to ever need to buy a *second* bottle of MicroSol as I dumped mine in my lap in the middle of setting a couple of slightly convex ones. Not impressed.

So did I actually do anything useful? YES! 

 

I finished painting a pair of Knight Armigers I picked up in January (and models that I have been jonesing for since they came out.) It took me a while to find a knight house that is sufficiently different from the screeds of red and black I've been painting for the past couple of years in the 40K space and the forest green of House Cadmus was the one that I settled on. Pretty happy with how they've come out, especially the yellow panels which were a bit of a challenge to get right.

So I'll need to add one more Knight to complete the attachment which, because it's me, will almost certainly be based on the Epic classic Knight Errant - powerfist and thermal cannon - and I'm not too terrified of painting more big yellow panels either.

Next Time

 The astute among you will realise that that much waterslide backing can't just be for a pair of Knight Armigers and you, astute people, are correct. Today was a day long heralded as the 'transferrening' as I was preparing a number of things for a game next week. You'll get to see that project as part of a batrep once bloggers Pooch, Tank and I have played the game. Otherwise, I think I might do a bit of a 2020 retrospective and get to thinking about what's on the blocks for 2021.

December Rememberance

 I love hooning around with Mid-War Italian armour. It's a lot of fun. I still think it's a bit good and sometimes it's obscenely effective, especially in period like this.

Game One v Bob

Honeys vs M14s. What a game. Bob's dice were horrific and his Stuarts went down in a bit of a hail of Italian HEAT shells.

Hurricanes inbound!

My dice, on the other hand, were stupid. For two turns, Grants shot an M14 platoon and bailed three tanks in two rounds of shooting. So then I charged the Grants in order to shoot them in the flanks and Bob's dice, just for a moment, came good, and the whole M14 platoon evaporated!

Sneaky tanks appear on the flanks

In the end, I rolled onto both objectives and Bob's Honey army broke about the same time. Turns out the 5+ Last Stand rolls are really tough and while the Honey is a good match for the M14, I just had too many tanks for too long.

Game Two v Blogger Pooch

This was a silly game in which Pooch attacked me in FFA and I spent most of the game trying to gun down his bazookas in buildings so I could hoon around the table willy nilly. I threw A LOT of MG dice in this game and was frequently rewarded but my Semoventes being used as artillery weren't as effective as they needed to be...

Fort is fortified!

...and I didn't redeploy them fast enough to take on Pooch's Lees, which had one critical round of shooting that turned the game on it's head. So I hammered my remnant armour onto the objective where I was promptly shot to pieces by 37mm guns and overrun by the last few Paras.

I took the objective, briefly.

Pooch won it 8 - 1 but that was one of those games where a couple of die rolls falling another way and it would have been a lot closer.

Game Three v Steve

This game was a rough one for Steve. Running US rifles with a Sherman platoon in support, he needed that platoon to do a lot of heavy lifting. It lifted an M14 platoon off the park before it had a VERY rough turn getting shot in the front by Semoventes and in the rear by M14s. Steve's saves there were really not what they needed to be.

Sneaky bazooka teams

 Steve's sneaky bazookas were incredibly effective and he played them really well given that he only had two. That bazooka team above basically accounted for an M14 platoon by himself.  The platoon on the other objective had a very torrid time. I threw at least 45 MG dice at it for 7 turns. Steve failed an entirely average number of saves and I passed ONE firepower roll on a 6. It was unreal. I was lucky to be able to shove a half platoon off an objective with the Semoventes in assault to win in time.

 It was a fun day out, as ever, to hang out with the lads, eat some pizza and play some games. It's an entirely appropriate way to remember our friend Nick.

Next Time

We head into the holidays in the Antipodes so it'll probably be a lot of painting and workbenches through to the new year with some occasional gaming in that period. There's a few cool things and a lot of prep on the work programme for 2021 so neat new toys are inbound! 

There's no theme to this workbench

Nope. Not a one. 

As the weather gets better (!) and the silly season begins, I'm not getting a lot of painting time and I'm not really using the time I am getting all that well! There's lots of stuff half done so I figured that I'd get a couple of things finished with the hope that'll give me a bit more motivation to keep working. 

First off, these two models who'll be accompanying my 40K Inquisitors into combat. I've never understood who it was at GW who thought flying cyborg babies was a motif they should run with but these things creep me out. He was a fun little model to paint though. The scribe was nice and simple. In game terms, they'll be acolytes with laspistols as they're really just ablative armour.

 

 

The other completed work was this pair of old Malifaux models to add into my Drac Am model pool. The classic Ramos sculpt, on the left, screams Arcanist - the magical fire and the carpet bag are a stunning combo - and could lead some interesting visual variations on a number of the Drac Am warbands. Taelor, on the right, was one of my favourite models in Malifaux 1e, especially in a Viktoria crew, but honestly never loved the tank top outfit. A lot of those original sculpts are a bit "chainmail bikini" and it's always seemed a bit daft. I'm not sure where I'd fit her into DracAm but I enjoyed repainting her regardless.

 Next Time

The performance of my Italians at Remember December. I'm still janking about with lists and am within a hairs breadth of falling back on armour and moving on with my life. I am about 85% convinced that MW Italian infantry just doesn't sing at lower points values. I've also got lots of part-finished stuff on the workbench and the next few models for the 'Oops All Humans' Frostgrave Wizgang being based up although the desire to paint in the evenings is frequently subsumed by the desire to BBQ instead....

Pooch’s November

Ok, well.... that's the end of November. One month to go in 2020 and how am I doing?

1. Paint a Kings of War Army- DONE

2. Create a table of terrain to support a game- In progress!

Errr.... still no progress...... I'd better get onto this tonight!

3. Complete the 6mm Apocalypse Challenge- In progress!

You know how last month I painted another Warhound?

Well... it seems like I might have a slight weakness for Warhounds. In that I keep buying them....

Canem Victrix walks!

Note the dead Warhound head, thanks to McZ

The whole crew of Warhounds

At least they aren't 40k sized ones?

4. Run a narrative campaign for the group- DONE

5. Add a new detachment to one of my 40k armies- DONE

6. Buy a starter box and paint all of it- In progress

Ok, still not done. BUT OH SO CLOSE......

7. Paint a Space Marine Heroes Series- DONE

8. Update a 15mm Napoleonic army for Battaile Empire- DONE

I managed to keep up with my goal of painting a bit each week for this month too. I finished up another unit of Cavalry (the Empress Dragoons!), as well as another bunch of command figures, and touch ups on other bases of infantry. I had originally set them up to be units of six, but Battaile requires units of 4, so with a few more command stands, I ended up with a whole lot more infantry!

The Empress Dragoons

All the cavalry...

And all the infantry, artillery and generals!

9. Paint a stand alone force- DONE

10. Update and improve a table of terrain- DONE

11. Paint a Flames of War Army- In progress

Ooooh now I am close to this one. This month I finished up a unit of 4 37mm guns for my Mid War Paras (they will be in action in a couple of weeks at Remember December), as well as painting enough infantry to have a short 3rd Para platoon. 

37mm guns, with Para crew

3rd Para Platoon, almost at full strength!

All that's left is a 75mm gun battery, and the remaining infantry for the 3rd platoon. The end is in sight!

12. Finish what I should have finished last year- DONE

Well, knocked off one more from the list. So with that, and with one month to go, I still have four of my 12 still in progress. That's.... worrying. I'd better get cracking!

Pooch

Morty is watching for completed goals next month....