There's lots and lots of updates coming! The conclusion of the IHRH series, some updates on a side projects and many more, but also this little building log, detailing my construction of a gaming table for use by me and my cousin mostly. Expect quite a few pictures and tips that I will learn durin the process.

It's actually not the first gaming table I'm making. We used to have one before, made a bit differently out of (I am unsure I'm using the right word, but that's what the dictionary is pointing me at) a harl board. It was cut to a proper size, it had sand glued on it and painted and it looked like this:


Uh yea, it is ugly. Mostly because the paint we used wasn't really what we wanted and in the case of the yellow one, we simply ran out of it and haven't bought more since. It had a lot of other isses though. It was huge, meaning storing it anywhere was a big problem. It was also pretty damn heavy and carrying it around was annoying at the least. We were thinking of cutting it in half and adding hinges, but that wouldn't really reduce the weight. After some consideration I decided just to scrap the entire idea and make a new one, using different, lighter materials. Also make it modular, just like the GW's Realm of Battle board.
Speaking of which, I was also considering purchasing one. I heard a lot of good of it and how it's worth the money and everything. Still, it might be worth the money, but I just don't have that money. With its price being £146.80 and the polish price tag of 649 zł (Which with the current exchange rates is actually cheaper..) it's just a tad too much for me to handle, at least now. Sure, my cousin could pay half of it, but he was reluctant to do so and so was I. In the end I decided to plan out making everything on our own. Guess what? All the materials cost us aproximately 100 zł, being roughly £20. Fun, huh? I'll actually post a price breakdown at the very end and now, on to the beginning of the work!


First a list of materials used for the table itself with the tools used.

First, a 4'x6' plywood board, 3mm thickness. A first problem appeared here, as I ordered a board cut in such dimensions, in centimetres being roughly 122x183. To be on the safe side I ordered 125x190. Guess what I got? 121.5x190. Yep, smaller than 48". Luckily I got that problem fixed
Cost: approx. 26 zł = £5,35


4 styrofoam (Wikipedia whispers its called: Extruded polystyrene foam) boards, being slightly over 2 meters square. The edfes of it are L-shaped to allow placing one on another, and that edge helped me to offset the missing 0,5 centimeter.
Cost: 36,78 zł = £7,57


Finally the tools: a modelling knife and a bottle of PVA glue. The one show here is actually too big, half of it would probably suffice.
Cost: approx. 13 zł = £2,68 (for the glue, I'm sure you have a knife!)


The process of production was actually quite simple. Basically, glue the styrofoam to the plywood. I decided to use the L-shape to my advantage, by both making it stick out from the longer table edge adding to the incomplete 4' (Making it slightly over that, but that's not a problem!) and helping the quarters come together (though due to the size of the boards it was only possible on one edge). I put the styrofoam on the garage floor, covered it with glue and put the plywood on it. As you can see I put some firewood on it to weight the plywood down so that it connects better. Later on I also used a smaller piece of mentioned before harl board for that.


Here you have a shot of a single quarter finished. It might look slightly uneven, the gap between two styrofoam boards is visible, but it will all go away once I glue the sand onto it and actually sculpt some terrain in it.


The same piece as seen from the edge, being an intersection of the table.


And a shot taken the next day after the glue has totally dried out of the entire table as it is now:

Next step is to sculpt some terrain into it, like slight crevises (I bet I mispelled that), craters and such, then to glue the sand onto it. It will probably increase the weight of the entire thing quite a bit, but without it there won't be any texture to the table and it will horribly.

And that's it for today. Keep an eye out for, as I mentioned at the beginning, there's a lot of stuff coming up!


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I suppose it's about time to post something else than just pictures and modelling articles. Time for the first article, in a possible series, genuinely named Tactica Imperialis. This one will mostly focus on saying a few words about pretty much everything in the new Guard codex as I find them on the battlefield.

This series will consist of three parts. First one will focus on weapons available to the Guard, second the units and third the possible combinations of the units. I hope some of these informations you will find helpful and they will aid you in constructing a list that will bring glory to the God-Emperor many times! Remember to keep in mind though, this is entirely my own opinion based on my experience. Yours may vary depending on your tactics, meta-game and many many more.



Let's begin then.

1. Special Weapons
   
   • Grenade Launcher
     Ah, the humble Grenade Launcher. It doesn't really excell at anything, but it's a good all-round weapon. In my opinion, if you take and infantry squad it has to have this weapon at the very least. If its not made for some specific task the Launcher costing only 5 points is a must-have even if only to make that single S6 shot. Don't expect miracles out of it but it's still a small boost to effectivness of the squad. It's a viable option for every unit, though I do prefer more specialised weapons for BS 4 vets. I put those on every infantry squad I field.
     
   • Flamer
     The second cheap weapon in our armoury, the flamer is much more specialised than the Grenade Launcher. First of all it requires you to be up close and personal, which isn't the best idea for your fragile guardsmen. Second thing is their effectivness raises tremendously when stacked on a single squad. Third is that they do not use BS and as such are great choices for low BS guardsmen but not so good for BS 4 vets. I tend to stick them onto special weapon squads and the Platoon Command. The other good use I can see is a few combined Infatry Squads.
     
   • Melta Gun
     One of the best special weapons nowadays and the single best anti-tank weapon (aside from Multi-melta of course) in game. It's drawbacks are short range and single shot. I such they're best utilised on BS 4 that's somehow made more mobile. The best in my opinion is a squad of vets or a Company Command Squad in a Chimera. That way they're protected from most harm, have an effective range of 26" (20" on short range) and can be where you need them to be. Second choice would be Stormtroopers with Airborne Assault deployment - second good way to put the weapons exactly where needed.
     
   • Plasma Gun
     The bread and butter of Guard in previous edition, now somewhat receeding. With its cost up to 15 points it's quite a serious investment. In my opinion you should only use it on BS 4 units where they can make the most out of those weapons. They're still good for opening light vehicles and taking down MCs especially with Bring it Down! order, but I'm fielding only 3 of those, when I used to field 12 and some people used to have more...
   • Heavy Flamer
     Seemingly a great weapon, though somehow limited in which units have access to it. After you see the hefty point cost however it stops being so great. As of now it's only place is on vehicles for me, though I suppose fielding it on Vets isn't that bad of an idea. On the other hand using it on a Command Squad is a waste in my opinion. For the price of one you can have 4 regular Flamers, what do you think will cause more damage? Sure, you could field 3 and one heavy but I think it's a waste of points that could be put to a much better use.
   • Sniper Rifle
     I still haven't used that weapon, so in fact I have no experience on how it performs. I did hear however that it's quite effective, though again it has to be stacked to do anything good. The ability to pin combined with Psykers nearby can however be a deadly combination to an enemy killer-unit. They too should be put on BS 4, Ratlings work all too well for those.
   • Demolition Charge
     Aaah, one of my favourite weapons. Once it hits it more or less obliterates the enemy unit, but it has to hit first. With only 6" range and very few units who can take those it's not that easy. Doesn't stop me from taking four on two SWSes though and it sure is a great laugh when they scatter back onto your owno unit... Still, back in 4th Guard needed some kind of unit that would act as a cc-counter. Nowadays a demo charge is all unit need, hide it behind the to-be-slaughtered unit, watch it die and enemy helplessly consolidate within the range of the dreaded "briefcase"
     
   • Boltgun
     Well it is a kind of a special weapon for the Guard is it not? In my opinion - a waste of points. Take it only for fluff reasons and the coolness-of-model factor.
   • Bolt Pistol
     As above, turning that single 12" S3 shot into 12" S4 AP5 shot won't really do much difference. Pick only for fluff reasons or to fill in missing points.
   • Plasma Pistol
     A "slightly" more lethal upgrade for a pistol this one more noteworthy. However it's point cost is rather high and it has the annoying tendency to kill your character (and Guard sergeants are much more than they used to be, having 3(!) base attacks). It still could find its use to add a bit more punch to the unit, but myself I tend to steer clear of these, though I did use to field them under the previous codex in the plasma-bomb-veterans-of-doom.
     
2. Heavy Weapons
   
   • Mortar
     A cheap, versatile and very handy to get those pesky enemies that are hiding out of los, possibly sitting on an objective. Even after the recent additions and changes of the codex Guard isn't the most mobile army around and sometimes you just have no way to reach that objective. Personally I haven't fielded those, but I'd sure wish to try one day and I heard lots of good about them.
   • Heavy Bolter
     Another weapon I haven't really fielded on the squads. I prefer to keep it to the tanks. With the same point cost as the Autocannon there really isn't a reason to field the Bolter with less Strength and less range even though it has one shot more, other than you liking this weapon in itself.
   • Autocannon
     The best heavy weapon in my opinion. Cheap and effective can both through light vehicles (up to AV12) and some infatry (wounding nearly everything on 2+ does help). Again I field all my Infantry Squads with one of these.
   • Missle Launcher
     A strange weapon, to be honest. Personally I don't really like it. On one hand it's versatile allowing you to shoot both nearly every vehicle (Only really weak against AV14, though the single shot does hurt) and infantry with the blast. On the other it is just single shot and the small blast isn't going to hit lots of models if your opponent know how to play. I find myself preferring the Autocannon to it, though I surely can see why people would field Missle Launcher.
   • Lascannon
     Quite expensive but still a decent heavy weapon, however I do not field any on my infatry anymore. Two Vendettas carry more than enough Lascannons for the job and they are more resillient and hit much better. Some claim that Lascannon on BS 3 is one of the worst AT weapons mathematically and I suppose there's some truth in it looking back at what they used to do. Still Lascannons are more-or-less mandatory in the list somewhere, so if you do not field Vendettas you'll need some for the long-range AT quality.
3. Melee Weapons
   
   • Power Weapon
     In most cases melee weapons are rather useless in the Guard. Power Weapons might take away the enemy high armour save but it doesn't change the fact that the wielder is only S3 and against a lot of opponents he'll wound on 5+. It's not really worth the 10 points looking at it competetively. They do however have their use when combining squads. 3 or more combined Infatry Squads with a Commissar fully outfitted with Power Weapons have from 12 to 16 no-armour-save-allowed attacks which can deal serious damage to the enemy. The combined squad is also too big for nearly any enemy to kill the sergeants before they manage to make their blows.
   • Power Fist
     A much more interesting choice costing only 5 points more. I seem to be noticing lots of people put Fists onto every Veteran Squad of theirs. being 10-man strong it's hard to kill the sergeant before he makes his attacks and he's going to bring at least one enemy down. Sure it doesn't cause instant death like Marines PFs but it still does wound on 2+. Right now I'm looking into way of fitting these into my list and I'll let you know how they fare once I've tried them out good. I did field them yesterday against Dark Elder, but the vet unit never got into any combat and had no chance of testing them out. On the other hand the fist on command squads or, even worse, Commissar Lord is a total waste of points and your commander. The 5-man command squad is very unlikely to get a chance of using the weapon, unless you have a myriad of different advisors there, though that does make the squad quite overpriced. Commissar Lord being IC is definitely going to die before his chance.
4. Other
   
   • Medi-Pack
     30 points for Feel No Pain on a squishy 5-man unit? Mh, not really, thanks. Though I suppose if you do not field your unit in a Chimera, or have many advisors and maybe plenty of plasma guns it can have its appeal. Though I still think 30 points can be spent much better, sadly, as I really like the old metal Medic model.
     
   • Regimental Standard
     Now this is an interesting thing. Re-rolls for morale tests are really good stuff, especially since you do not have to re-roll if you do not wish to. The sad thing is they don't work from inside the Chimera and I'm unsure why do I field one. I guess I just love the looks of standards in general, though it isn't really visible anywhere when it's inside. I guess it will have to go in some variants of the list, though in my opinio it's a must-have for a Company Command Squad that's on foot.
     
   • Platoon Standard
     This standard on the other hand is quite useless. The 5-man platoon command will be slaughtered by nearly everything that will assault it and counting as dealing one more wound won't help. It may actually hinder you as otherwise they squad could've safely disengaged and combat ending during your assault phase is a great threat for the Guard army. I wouldn't field it even though I love standards so much.
     
   • Vox-Casters
     On voxes I do have mixed feelings. If you wanted to outfit entire army in those they turn out quite expensive. Re-rolls for orders are nice, but in all honesty I haven't really had that many problems with order. Usually I actually have no units to issue them to, playing a more mechanised list! In my opinion they're a bit of a waste as they are now and I could only see the use if you have a specific unit that's meant to work with order and you can't afford it to fail. But frankly, I don't believe such situation will come up on the battlefield often.
     

And that's it. I hope you enjoyed the read and will benefit from it one way or another. As with IHRH if you have any specific wishes go ahead and express them in the comments and I'll do my best to answer. Finishing, here's my 1800 pts list that I've been using with slight modifications here and there. It still lacks that final polish as I'd like to add the Fists, another Chimera and the Astropath, but still haven't got to it.

Imperial Guard 42nd Cadian - 1800

HQ
Company Command Squad
Officer of the Fleet, Melta Gunx3, Regimental Standard
Chimera - Multi-Laser, Heavy Flamer
190

ELITE
Psyker Battle Squad(10)
Chimera - Multi-Laser, Heavy Flamer
165

TROOPS
Infatry Platoon
Platoon Command Squad
Flamerx3
45

Infatry Squadx4
Grenade Launcher, Autocannon
65x4

Special Weapon Squadx2
Flamer, Demolition Chargex2
80x2

Veteran Squad
3xPlasma
115

Veteran Squad
3xMelta, Power Fist
Chimera - Multi-Laser, Heavy Flamer
155

FAST ATTACK
Vendettax2
130x2

Scount Sentinel Squadron(2)
Multi-laser
70

HEAVY SUPPORT
Leman Russ Battle Tank
Sponson Bolters
170

Leman Russ Demolisher
Sponson Plasma Cannons
205

1800


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I promised it a while back and here it is. At first I wanted to just show you the new additions to the Infantry Platoon, but in the end I decided to just take shots of it all once more, especially since last time it wasn't quite finished. Here we go!

You know, looking at nearly fully painted army (just a few tidbits remaining, really! Of course till I make more purchases *cough*) is really a great sight. I always find something to criticize when I look at my own minis but when they're all put together it surely is a great sight! I'm really happy I can share it with you. Let's get started then!



This is the first family shot of the entire platoon. It's really hard to take a pic of such a vast ammount of minis at the same time, so just one such. As usual, click below for way more shots.


Here's the command of the 2nd platoon. As you may notice my FW officer has swapped commanding positions. Nowadays I don't field 1st Platoon at all. I don't really have use for such a huge ammounts of plasma and Lascannons and since I love the model I moved it to where he can see the action.


And here the 1st and 3rd.


Here's the 2nd and 4th Infantry Squads.

That's Special Weapons Squad A:


And B. Both totting twin demo charges and a flamer. That's quite some destructive power, just sometimes they have a problem of getting where they're needed.

Now for slightly more detailed shots. The commanders of the 2nd Platoon, the Platoon Commander and his sarges!



The demolitionists from both SWSes.



And the flamers from the command squad. I really like the way these turn out, just like I love grenade launchers.



And lastly, the heavy weapons of the Platoon - Autocannons!





Aaaaand that's it for today. Sorry for slow updates but I've been busy with some things like preparing a Warhammer Fantasy RPG adventure and laying out plans for my (or rather my and my cousin's) wargaming table! I'm going to report progress on how's it going along, but if you're interested in this subject as well I really reccomend this post by Itkovian, it's a great source of information!

Out of the other news, the final installement of IHRH is coming soon. The very last guardsmen will be finally finished too! Okay, okay, I know, I even am building an additional vet squad but that's going to take a while more. Actually, if you know where to get a left-handed power fist that could fit a guardsman please let me know! Also, if you ahve any suggestions/questions/requests regarding further or current IHRH aricles please let me know!

I also promised to post something more about that side project. And to write some fluff. Gosh, so much work, the toil for the good of the Imperium never ends! But that sure is pleasant toil.

Thanks for reading and until next time!


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Phew! Guests are gone and now I've got time again to post up some stuff instead of acting as a driver all time. And quite a significant thing, the Regimental Command Squad of the 42nd Cadian!

I've painted them a while back but didn't have a chance to show them to you before. After all this long time finally I get to field a painted HQ, weee. Also as it stands now I only have 14 more guardsmen to paint (Well, I am planning a third vet squad but it's still a bit off). Then just Valk, psykers a sentinel and Chimeras I'm yet to buy and I've actually painte pretty much my entire collection! (except for odd things I'll never field, like old metal JOs, standard, vox and such) Quite shocking actually, what will I do next? Oh well I got plans for that actually...

I know you probably want to see the pictures so here goes, I can blabber more later! Here you go.



As usual, clicky clicky.

And of course some more detail shots. I exceptionally like this fella. So much character in this mini!


This one is using the excellent wounded arm and melta from the new command squad.


The old metal meltagunner finally put to a great use!


A medic. He was actually painted for like half a year, just didn't have an opportunity to present him to you. Back then he was a regular member of the CS, nowadays he just sits there on the shelf patching the squad up between the battles. Sadly I do not have 30 points to spare for rather useless (at least for my application of the CS) piece of gear. Too bad as I really love this model, it's way better than the new plastic one in my opinion.


Last (or is it?) but not the least - the Regimental Champion proudly carrying the standard of the 42nd Cadian to battle. In the end I was actually slightly disappointed and maybe I should've put some more work into him. What I mean is the other standard from the set has brilliant battle damage on it, but poor iconography (at least for something as important - it'd make a great platoon standard). This one has great iconography but not sign of damage at all! Also it lacks my favourite purity seals, gah!

But in the end he turned out well!


Some details of the banner:



Ooops, looks like the standard bearer wasn't actually the last thing! The one last "member" of the squad - it's dedicated Chimera!



A close-up of the tank commander. It's actually the only vehicle I ever assembled with one leaning out of the cupola.


But that's not everything! Perhaps if you paid attention (especially to this) post you might remember something about an ambitious plan in regards to a Chimera. Well that's the Chimera!



Yup, it has an interior! Took quite a while and I'm quite pleased with the result! Here's a better shot!


Aaand that's it for pictures. Or is it?

The 42nd Cadian has gone a long way. It travelled on a high-speed highway nearly to the end. But as with every Guard army (or isn't it every army) there is no real end. There's always this one more things you want. However now we have driven off a highway to a smaller countryside road where you can drive slowly and enjoy the views. Or we will make that turn when I get those elusive Chimeras at last.

What then? Obviously that won't be the last thing I buy for Guard, I'm not as naive to believe that. I still want to pick up one (or two *coughcough*) of these fancy new Hellhounds. I still want a Manticore (Which apparetly is a very nasty piece of broken vehicle. Mwahahahah). I wouldn't mind picking up some special character in the end as well (and the upcoming Straken mini is great!). And of course, there's always room for some really heavy support. As such there's no worry there won't be anything happening here any time soon!

But relatively soon there might be some other place to look at. I jsut have to figure if I need to buy grey or blueish paint...


And as the finishing word. A snapshot of a side-project I've done over the last few days. I'll post something about it soon, but meanwhile if you want to know more you have to... dig. Deep. Drax, it seems you have some experience in that now? I'll just point at the archives tab on the side..


*salute* Until next time, gentlemen!


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Finally! I managed to finish first of my pair of Valks. And let me tell you it was quite a painful process. A large model with tons of details and definitely deserving a good paintjob. And there's still one more to do. Oh well, at least I can show off this one a bit!

Of course I'm not entirely happy with it, like always. I did screw up a couple of things I'm really angry about and can't really do anything. First tip: Do not use plastic glue to glue the frames onto transparent pieces. Second: careful when you paint the ramp, if paint dries out on the moving parts... (Thanks to this post by Corbania Prime for the rescue!)

Anyway, enough about my clumsiness, on with the pics!




And, as usual, click below for more!

Here's a shot at the base. I decided to leave it "plain". Gives you a better feel of how actually the surface of the planet 42nd is fighting on looks like, than the small bases do. The second one might actually get something happening on its base. And who knows maybe I'll add something here too. I can't make the bases too complex though - I won't be able to fit the Valks to the carrying case.


And now the details shots, first some interior shots. The pilots:

I decided to leave the top detachable. Let's you peek inside and makes it easier to put those Heavy Bolters in if I ever decide to field her with those. Still have them unpainted along with the missle pods, I'll be fixing that soon.

Anyway, with the top detached a shot at co-pilots controls:


And now the cargo bay itself:



And a few detail shots of my clumsy freehands. The nameplate (notice the burn on the hull!)


The warning signs:


The badge of the Thor squadron - part of the 64th Imperial Navy Detachement.


And the insignia of the Imperial Navy.


And concluding: one more shot of the Vendetta that just brought the high command to the field!


Aaaand that's it! Thanks for watching and, as always, I'm waiting for your comments! In case you were wondering the Lascannons to make the Vendetta are our good ol' heavy weapon teams Lacannons sticked together with the batteries attached at the sides. Same goes from the frontal Lascannon, which is the one from Valk with additional barrel added from the heavy weapons.

And now.. onto the HQ. I was a bit dragged into Mass Effect I purchesed recently (Great game, by the way, I reccomend it!) but now that I managed to play through it twice I can focus a bit more on painting... Finally...

Oh, and 42nd suffered its first defeat (under new rules, under the old it barely won anything) against the Tau. A very narrow might I add, only reason it wasn't a draw is that my opponent actually managed to roll double ones for Leadership, geez! I had no clue Tau can do things like that (never played them before), quite scary. Still, I have to say, even if I repeat myself, I love the new codex and the way it plays! No matter win or lose I have tons more fun than I had before and that's what it's all about, isn' it?


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