And so one of the biggest tournaments in Poland came to an end. 2 days, 5 battles, 70 players, 2100 points and a bucket of fun! Warning - picture heavy post!

Games result - 41th out of 70 people. I guess not bad, although it could've went way better. Unfortunately, I know exactly what I should've done for all this to end better. First, my list:

HQ: Company Command Squad - Std, 3xMelta 95
Chimera - ML, HF 55

Elites: Psyker Battle Squad(9) 100
Chimera - ML, HF 55

Troops: Veteran Squad - 3xplasma 115
Chimera - ML, HF 55
Troops: Veteran Squad - 3xmelta 100
Chimera - ML, HF 55
Troops: Veteran Squad - 3xmelta, shotguns 100
Chimera - ML, HF 55
Troops: Platoon Command Squad - 4xFlamer 50
Infantry Squad - GL, AC 65
Infantry Squad - GL, AC 65
Infantry Squad - GL, AC 65
Infantry Squad - GL, AC 65
Special Weapon Squad - Flamer, 2xDemo 80

Fast Atck: Vendetta 130
Fast Atck: Vendetta 130

Hvy Sup: Leman Russ Battle Tank(2) 300
Hvy Sup: Leman Russ Demolisher - Plasma Cannons 205
Hvy Sup: Manticore 160

First of all shooty Blood Angels suck. They really do. Especially if they begin or worse - sieze the initiative. Manticores popping before they get to fire aren't good at all. Still, most of my firepower works on close ranges and shooty BAs don't have to drive towards me, while I can't really drive towards them, ugh. Also reserves - two times my BA opponents hid their entire armies and nearly everything came out on turn 2, thanks to some lucky rolling. I'm never leaving home without an Officer of the Fleet again.

Oh, the only issue I had - 4 times I played against SMs (vanilla and 3xBA) and once against Daemonhunters, which really are like SMs anyway. Hooray!

On the bright side - squadroned Leman Russes aren't really that fragile as I thought. AV14 works well to scare shooting away from them and a platoon-bumper helps keep assaulters at bay. I'll be sure to consider them in the future. Meanwhile Demo Charges did not fail me - they killed themselves as often as they did the enemy.

Still, lots of fun games were played, with really nice opponents. And since a painted army was required there were quite a few really awesome armies. I tried to catch them all with my camera, but probably failed to do so. There are sure to be other picture sources later on however, which should contain them all.

I think that's it. I don't think I can force myself to remember all the battles now, to write detailed battle reports, I guess not this time! On with the pictures!

Pisałem już na Gildii, dziękowałem wszystkim, mogę jeszcze raz!
Turniej od strony organizacyjnej - mega pro. Nie sądzę, żebyśmy wam dorównali na Fire Frenzy, ale próbować będziemy na pewno!
W sumie mam tylko dwie uwagi "negatywne". Scenariusze i modyfikacja o KP - nie wiem, jakoś mi się to nie podobało, zwłaszcza, że w Gwardii stracić wiaderko KP to nie sztuka. Ale może po prostu ja nie umiem grać. ;) Po drugie - to raczej nie do organizatorów - ludzie, grajcie czymś innym niż Marines. :P

Przeciwnikom dziękuję za wymagające bitwy, zwłaszcza te z BA, dzięki którym sporo się nauczyłem na przyszłość.

Raportów raczej nie będzie. Pierwszy dzień słabo pamiętam, drugi niewiele lepiej. Było krwawo, było wesoło, choć na dobrą sprawę to były same remisy, poza Czaj-nikiem, który mnie zmasakrował, a moje kości tylko mu w tym pomagały no i biednym Mailem, którego DH miały niewielkie szanse. Lemany w squadronie okazały się być twardsze niż się wydawało i generalnie słabość squadronu nie dawała o sobie znać. Zginęły jedynie gdy szalone Bladzie przerwały już wszystkie moje linie, a wtedy nie squadronowane padłyby równie łatwo. Reszta spisywała się tak jak zawsze, oprócz Mantikory, która w dwóch bitwach bezsensownie umarła bez choćby jednego wystrzału. Patrząc po tym co działo się potem dochodzę do wniosku, że ona nie jest jakimś szaloną przegiętością, ale cholerną koniecznością, zwłaszcza przeciwko takim BA. Dobra, dobra, wiem że nie umiem grać. ;)

Za rok na pewno się wybieram, jeśli tylko będę mógł. I tym razem w 100% moją armią, nie dam już sobie obcinać punktów! ;)

Tym niemniej, słyszałem, że na Fire Frenzy będzie jeszcze lepiej. ;)


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Time for the full unveiling of the finished project! Cadian Snipers, which will be count as Ratlings. I have no illusion to mediocre effectivness of the squad gameplay-wise... But I think they're quite damn effective model-wise!



And obligatory group shot!

And onto the individuals...



The simplest one - using the plastic Sniper Rifle that came with the Cadian CS.





You will notice they have different bases than the rest of the army. Considering fluff-wise they're supposed to be a spec-ops squad, I thought it fitting, that they occupy a different area than the rest of the army. The bases however still retain the basic elements used in the rest of the army. I even wrote up a bit of fluff on that. Generally speaking, those are ruins of an old Imperial defensive structure...


A running sniper with a helmet. She is running past a gunport. Perhaps a Heavy Stubber was mounted there once, perhaps something else.


Zemthar Secundus is an arid mining world located somewhere within Segmentum Obscurus. Back in M39 it was a rich world, capital of the subsector, it's southern hemisphere laden with huge mining complexes. Due to it richness and position multiple defensive structures were erected dotting the entire southern hemisphere and protecting the mines and hives alike, by a slightly paranoid governor. Since the sector was always a peacful place, his predecessors never thought it neccessary. They were finished circa 567.M39. It turned out it was just about time...



My favourite - casually smoking a lho-stick while leaning onto a ruined wall. I think you can picture her personality just as fine as I can! She will need to have a Russian name...





Shortly after the constructions finished a vast Orkish Waaagh! Bloodspilla started to pillage the entire sector. Around 590.M39 it has reached Zemthar system, the Imperial forces unable to contain it, due to the great speed in which it conquered weakly defended worlds and moved on.


The first shooting one - my favourite head. I guess I like ponytails.





The Waagh! has smashed into Zemthar Secundus with great force. It however met uprecedented resistance, only thanks to great defensive network. While the north was ravaged, the south has managed to hold for a very long time. It was only when the Orks managed to capture the elements of the local PDF Artillery company were they able to break through the powerful bastions.

Second shooty - this time wearing the hood. It didn't turn out as good as I hoped, but there had to be at least one hooded!



However it was too late. The defence lines have bought enough time for an Imperial Guard task force to arrive and save the day together with the aid of an unspecified Astartes chapter. Zemthar was saved, most of its defenses were ruined however. And it was not the end of bad news.


Lastly, the sergeant. While such a thing does not exist amongst the Ratlings, it sure does in disciplined 42nd! I finally managed to use that nifty laspistol from ForgeWorld, only a power weapon remains, yay.





Not even a century later dreaded reports came from Magos Geologists working within the mines - the rich veins of ore were running dry. The planet slowly declined, with its population either leaving to seek fortune elsewhere or simply dying of starvation. It was estimated that within a few centuries the world will only remain a small backwater colony, if it will not die out entirely... The once mighty defensive structures and mines rusted and were slowly reclaimed by the desert.

And lastly, a group shot of the cloaks. This time I sculpted them using modified Col. Corbane's method.





It was only two hundred years ago that Zemthar Secundus unexpectadly rose as a power in the sector once again. By accident vast deposits of resources were found deep under the northern hemisphere, which was previously believed to be barren. While the planet's economy flourished again, the sector is no longer as safe as it once was and war came to Zemthar system once again...


And that's it. I hope you liked the models and the little background story! What's next? Probably shots of some Wolves I still haven't posted. As for the Guard - another Chimera is finished and more vehicles are to come as soon as I have some disposable income. I really want to paint the snipers too, but unfortunately I ran out of black primer again.

I also have one more fun Guard project - Colonel Mordechai Emmet, which will be a count as for some monstrous special character.

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Right. Still an early WIP with lots of work to do ahead of it, but I though it looks pretty damned awesome, so I should share it!



Without further ado...


Do not mess with Cadian women! Now back to the green stuff...

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First, a new Chimera I purchased recently. I have to say the new kit is great, so much easier to assemble! The refined look is quite good (aside from that Searchlight, I might change that), although it annoys me slightly that now my vehicles will differ quite a bit.



I do miss the accessory sprue, though only for the track guards - vehicles just look better with them. I still have a lot of stowage left and truth to be said, there isn't really a lot of room to stick them to the sides.

Click below to learn more! (I wonder if it's neccessary for me to keep writing that... I do that ever since someone posted a comment indicating he missed the Read More button, but maybe it's about time..)




Here is a Platoon Command Squad of the 1st Platoon undergoing reanimation and finally fitting it to the new codex! While the 1st Platoon itself will still remain mostly useless under the new rules (Plasma Guns? Missile Launchers? Yay for expensive and easy to kill squads!) I could sometimes break the 2nd Platoon into two in my army lists to use two units of fiery death.


The 303rd. Still WIP, but should be done soon. I want to finish them before the big tournament by the end of the month. A blurry shot that doesn't show much - for now!


Aaand more mystery unveiling. I think this should clearly indicate what kind of unit am I doing. But the details of the conversions remain shrouded... Unless you observe the picture carefuly..


And finally the painting chart for the Guard! It spoils the mystery quite well... But also shows what I call the 3rd Expansion Wave. (The 2nd was when I got the Valks and all kind of stuff to enhance onto the new codex, 1st way before that.) As you can see, that's a lot of vehicles. A lot. I wouldn't mind expanding infatry some, but the prospect of painting so many Guardsmen again... Not just yet, ugh. Maybe as a 4th Expansion, that I bet is inevitable in the future and is totally not hidden to right of the Excel sheet beyond sight.




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A quick one this time, to show you another secret project I have been working on for a while! A project that has been on hold for a very long time, due to some issues I had with it, thankfuly inspiration fell from the sky - or rather a fellow blog!

Credit goes to Karitas at Excommuncate Traitoris. Without his work I would've never finished mine, thank you oh so much! I blatantly stole the idea of using a regular Guard torso over flagellant legs which made the Priest instantly look properly 40k - chainsword and shotgun (Which by the way is also taken from 8th Cadian, come back to us!) didn't cut it!


Apparently I also accidentaly used the same head. Oops! There's a few more shots of course.





I really like how he turned out, with the book on his back like the old WH Missionaries (Although they had them on their staves). So much, I decided to name him after my Dark Heresy character - Iacton Leman Thauss! He'll see the brush in near future, though there's still a lot to do.


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After such a long time promising to post it, it's finally here. The third Chimera of the 42nd, one belonging to the Psyker Battle Squad!


As I have said previously, it isn't really that much special. It's converted only slightly. I toyed with an idea of a heavy conversion, perhaps a different paintjob... But then I thought not to.


The first reason was, that I enjoy the sight of a uniform Guard army, with all the units being similar and looking like a proper army! A different color Chimera (I though black or purplish, like the Psykers' robes) would break the uniformity, especially considering I only had 3! Perhaps if I had more...





That didn't stop slighty Psyker-ish conversions to appear all over it however. You can see a funny chain with a skull here.


And obviously lots of parchments and scriptured, to keep their great little minds safe.



A little closeup on the parchments. The idea of using red to break the plain black text was turned out excellent on the Psykers themselves, thus it is used here as well.


Do Not Enter If Your Head Is Not Prone To Exploding Or Demonic Possession notice.



As I said before, nothing so very special but still looks quite good and ties in great with the rest of the army. Now the times changed a little and since I more or less finished the Wolves, I am back to expanding the Guard. If I knew I would do this, I probably would've went differently about this project, especially considering the new Chimeras are slightly different..



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A little break from monotonous Power Armor - special Power Armor! The first painted HQ of Sven Bloodhowl's Great Company - Rune Priest Anliefr Runespeaker.


As you can see Anleifr uses the "real" Rune Priest metal model - the only metal mini in the entire army. What has this world come to? However it is converted slightly - to offset missing pieces (I bought him used) and to make his Runic Weapon more runic, at least in my opinion.



Of course, more angles if you click below!





As the fluff says - all the priests are in fact members of the Great Wolves Company and are only assigned to others as needed. Thus Anleifr is sporting an entirely different company symbol.


And did not take the habit of tattooing his face. I decided to leave his eyes like that. Makes him look as though he is casting a power!


Here is his Runic Sword. I experminted a bit again and refined a technique to be used on power weapons (Which terminators hold aplenty)


And his lower half, including the base.


And that's it. More, that's it for Wolves at all for a few posts! The guns of the 42nd thunder once more as I feel a wave of inspiration. For the first time, I am going to try blogger's post scheduling and have already prepared a couple of IG posts to come up, stay tuned!

Also, for the great mystery I posted? All the answers were wrong. Whatever it is, it's part of the 42nd. More hints will come soonish...


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