Piece of the Puzzle

I’ve been busy scouring the Internet, trawling over at the Bay of Ecstasy and rummaging through the piles of bitz websites to put together my vision of Grandmaster Mordrak, the Haunted Knight.

Wotan’s Night Campaign – First Tier Report

We finally finished off the last game of the first tier, Grey Knights vs. Space Marines.

Wotan’s Night Campaign – Draft First Report

We had our first night on campaign, fighting battles of Tier 1 from the campaign aid. This was to be the preliminary engagement over the Frost Plains of the world of Wotan’s Night, where our mutual forces would jockey for an early advantage and test out the Veteran Abilities rules from the BRB.

Wednesday Night Gaming: 3-Player Campaign

Here at Wednesday Night Gaming, we’re big fans of the Broken Alliance 3-player battle setup, as there are 3 of us in the group, this being me (Imperial Guard, Grey Knights), Dougie (Orks, Chaos Space Marines) and Laur (Space Marines, Tau, Tyranids). 

While in most of our games 2 of us face off, with the odd one out invigilating, setting up the terrain and/or doing some painting on the sidelines and resolving rules queries, but all in all we do enjoy the anarchy and fun factor when it comes to the brilliant 3-player battles, especially the randomised game turn which is prone to abuse, with hilarious results.

Lately we’ve been noticing something missing in our games. We’ve been busy playing each other, adapting, list tailoring, but we’ve noticed a stagnation, a lack of development if you will.

Wenesday Night Gaming: ORKS GALORE! Plus, a query.

Last week I had a game with Dougie, pitting my Ghostwing against his (dusty) Orks. Dougie fancied a change from his usual Chaos outings, so out came the Green Tide from the shelves and onto the tabletop. So follows a mini-batrep...

Note: There’s a rules query that puzzled us here at Wednesday Gaming Night, calling all Grey Knights and Ork enthusiasts for assistance! (scroll to bottom if you want to skip the mini-batrep)

Wednesday Night Gaming: How Not To Play Ghostwing

Had a game last week where I faced off against Laur’s Ultramarines (again).

Wednesday Night Gaming: The Ghostwing’s Introduction

Mordrak: I see... Dead people!

Ghosts: Lay off dem pills ya daft junkie

This is an expansion upon my previous article, a more detailed battle report giving interested readers a more play-by-play account of what happened in my Mordrak ‘Ghostwing*’ outing.

My reason for dictating this battle report is that while I’m a keen fan of the fluff and playability of Ghostwing, I am saddened by the lack of detailed battle reports showing how a Ghostwing army is to be applied in games, so I thought I’d give it a go for others to read!

Mordrak's 'Ghostwing'

OR: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Mordrak Bomb

There have been a few prominent army lists, or playstyles, that have developed from the Grey Knight Codex to name a few: Coteaz + Henchmen, Purifier + Psyrazors, Draigowing, Greywing, Psyflemen Dreads, Psycannon spam, etc.  These are the catchy namesakes for the ‘stellar builds’ you see bandied about to identify the competitive varieties of Grey Knights you get in today’s game.

But why no love for the Ghostwing?

Melonhead Reborn

Melon*-headed Feline Limecat Internet Meme

Vs.

Rogue-Trader Era Grey Knight Terminator 80's Design Classic.

Who would win?

*technically a Pomelo.

Ahh. Dem crazy Rogue-Trader design style, pre-dating, anticipating and inspiring lolcats everywhere.

I received one of these 80's-style Grey Knight terminators through the post recently, coming along as an added freebie to a Dreadnought I purchased off the Bay of Ecstasy. Lo' and behold, it was quickly painted up in the Mordrak's Mob aesthetic and is now the latest addition to my Ghost Knights, completing the circle at last.

I added a plastic halberd from the new GK termie plastic kit, as it came with a Nemesis force sword which didn't suit my squad weapons load-out, and placed a larger base at the bottom.

The Grey Knight Codex still surprises me with the versatility of the potential army list builds, as well as the character entries themselves. Mordrak, in particular, I would consider a real gem of a character in that through him one gets to completely revitalise old, classic Terminator models in one's collection with a fresh coat of paint, and field them in a vry unexpected way.

Can't wait to field the completed squad on the (gaming) table!

EASY CONVERSION! GREY KNIGHTS IRON HALO

OR: How to pimp-up your Grey Knight Grandmaster!

Ghost Knight Busters: The New Look

Hello everybody, thought I'd update the look of the blog as it's been over a year since I last did so, complete with new header to reflect my current army interest of late!

As a bonus I've posted onto here a few choice images (floating round the Tinternet. All credit given to original posters/modellers where possible) running along with the theme of Ghost Knight Busting. Enjoy!

MORDRAK’S GHOST KNIGHTS – AN EASY TUTORIAL TO MODELLING/PAINTING

If I'm completely honest, the one unit that sold me to play the Grey Knights is Grandmaster Mordrak, and his Ghost Knights.

Mordrak is a real standout unit in the Grey Knight Codex, a real boon to all old and new Grey Knight players alike. There is nothing quite like him in any other codex, and everything about Mordrak really clicks for me: from the fluff perspective (vengeful, haunted Knight of Mortain out to get his arch-nemesis, Huron, with psychic manifestations of his guilt / actual ghosts?), rules perspective (Ghostly Bodyguard for the win!) the gameplay perspective (First to the Fray and Grand Strategy really appeal to the Deep Striker in me!), and most importantly for me, the modelling perspective.

Modelling perspective? But wait, GW hasn’t released actual models for Mordrak. Perhaps during the 2^nd wave?

GRAY FOR GREY KNIGHTS

100^th post here, so time for a re-cap of what’s been going on:

I have embraced the monstrous..

A chance bid on the Bay of Ecstasy has resulted in me picking up a 2nd army! (much to my girlfriend's chargrin. More toys to paint!).

Clue's in the tee-shirt..

AYO GORKHALI 40K!

Better to die than live a coward - Gurkha saying

Further to my last post, here are the initial mock-ups of my counts-as Gurkha conversions, using the assembled kit of parts (dark elf daggers, cadian bodies, Catachan vox backpacks, some alien suns arms, and maxmini Anzac heads). I think they’re looking pretty sweet!

GURKHA 40k?

Bought myself some Anzac (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) heads from maxmini.eu, courtesy of wargamersworld.com, and am very pleased with my purchase, for you see I fancied making myself 40k-counterparts of the Gurkhas to scour the battlefields of the 41^st millennium! (For those not in the know as to the fearsome reputation of the Gurkhas, please see here, here and here).

Clementine Convict Cadres Complete!

A follow-up to my previous post, I’ve finally completed my 3no. squads of Penal Legionnaires. I know Orange uniforms have been an utter b*stard to paint, but am happy with the results despite the slapdash approach, and have had great fun testing them out in small (750 point) games against Tau and Chaos Space Marines.

Prisoners of War

Photo of the test models for my Penal Legion. Am pretty happy with the way they have turned out painting-wise, as it was a slapdash multi-coat affair to get the Orange to work with blackundercoated models. I then applied my standard Cadian Grey pads, armour plating and weapons, washed everything quickly with black ink for a rough n' ready dirty look, then picked out highlights and added in a splash of green for a bit of contrast.

Models-wise I've refurbished old Cadian models I got off Ecstasy Bay (and when I mean refurbish, I mean cut their heads off, apply a headswap then undercoat black), with a bunch of heads-bitz I've bought off loads of bitz sites (e.g. fantasy flagellants, bretonnians, catachan heads, even the c'thulu head from the Alien suns sprue for a bit of 'mutie goodness), resulting in each model having it's own unique look and possible backstory, much like my vet models. All part of the fun!

Still 27 more models to go! Despite applying a quick-n-easy speedy approach to the painting and stopping and spending more time to carefully pick out facial details, it has been quite an uphill struggle (bloody orange) but the results so far have been worth it!

The Future Is Orange

Back from holidays, fully recharged! Now getting onto the serious business of incorporating squads and squads (and squads) of Penal Legionairres into the Cadian 512th.

Jungle Vacation

The Cadian 512th is off on it's summer holidays for the fortnight! In the meantime, here's a couple of shots of the Jungle-fightin' division of the Cadian 512th in action.

Cadian-Harker loves the smell of promethium in the morning..

See you all in 2 (weeks)!

Plastic Fantastic Stormtroopers

Check out the plastic. yo

I love Stormtroopers. I really do.

Wednesday Night Gaming: Stop Da Breakout

Here at Wednesday Gaming Night, Laur has convinced us to give the recent GW Armageddon mission supplements a go (variations of the existing standard missions).

So being the IG player and Doug being the Orks, naturally we had first crack at this ‘Stop the Breakout’ mission.

Xenos On A Plane

Enough is ENOUGH! I have had it with these motherfethin' 'stealers on this motherfethin' plane!

Easy Conversion! Basilisk / Medusa / Manticore / Hydra

Ever since modelling up my 1st Valk/Vendetta, I’ve been feeling a bit more confident with using magnetised bits (thank the Emperor for Neodynium magnets) so I set about wondering pondering a solution to a problem I had: How do I stop proxying medusas/ manticores/ hydras/ etc , without having to spend extra monies on more models?

Escape Artistry

Tonight at Wednesday Night Gaming  the group has decided to give the Armageddon Scenarios a go, so my IG are going up against Doug’s Orks at 1500 points tonight, with the other match-ups (SM vs. Orks, and SM/IG vs. Orks) to follow.

Group shot! (Note: Ogryns packed in Chimeras like sardines)

So in anticipation of Mission 1: Stop Da Breakout, I had to come up with a lean, fast, mobile list that can satisfy the mission conditions (a point for every unit escaped to me, a point for every unit killed by my opponent).

Billy the Shiv, the Marbo Spiv

In recent games I’ve started using my Catachan Jungle Captain model (Arnie as I call him) as a counts-as stand-in for Straken. Makes sense to me, with the power fist and the bad-ass paintjob.

However, this left me with a lack of a model to use as Marbo, the Human Lictor. So what did I do next?

Relying on the same Predator/Rambo themes that GW have clearly lifted, I mean have been inspired by, for the Catachan range, it struck me that the old Last Chancer ‘Shiv’ model is channelling the ghost of Billy and thus a suitable model for Marbo (I’m not too keen on the official one).

And I’m not the only who thinks so! Sandwyrm has long used his Shiv model as Marbo, and is painted to fit into his Tallarn theme.

I’ve painted the Shiv model in quasi-Catachan colours to distinguish him from my normal grey & black Cadians. His arrival on the battlefield is always hotly anticipated by my opponents (and they rejoice every time he gets killed by his own demo-charge, which happens a lot more frequently than you would expect even with BS 5!) Apt really, as I would say the Cadian 512th's Marbo is as effective as the real Billy from Predator!

At 65 points, Marbo is a real bargain and a lot of fun to play, even just for the psych-out factor. Despite the use as a suicide bomb/free KP unit, I have also found that his Ripper pistol – assault with poisoned weapon-hit & run-repeat combo to be quite a useful harrassing tactic, and thus my opponents always seek to quash Marbo wherever they find him (wisely enough).

Dissident Aggressor

One of the many imports from Ecstasy Bay has risen through the ranks of the Cadian 512th, leading the glorious Infantry Blob Platoons through many a battle!

Brother-Confessor Hackett lives up to his name!

I had converted and painted up this Ministorum Priest from Empire Flagellant bits, some grenades and a Sentinel chainsaw for an Eviserator (why Sentinels don't have Power Weapon attacks like Marine Dreadnoughts, I will never know). This has resulted in a complete change of playstyle, veering away from Full-mech to a mixed list using combined arms and tactics.

Bubble-wrapping artillery, transports and tanks, or using them to intimidate opponents on the 1st turn charge with Straken, the fun is endless! Plus I'm pretty stoked how the model & painting turned out.

More to come!

What Menzies Did Next

Hello all! The Cadian 512th's been quiet of late, but that's only because I've been buckling down at the job, earning monies for more disposable cash to pump into the game of 40K, that game we all know to be a blackhole of money by which plastic crack will always tempt.

I've been pretty busy going on a mass painting spree to bolster my Cadian force and diversify my tactics, and the game itself of late. I'll follow this post with a few picture highlights, but here's the first! My fully-painted result of coming 2nd place to a certain competition...

Yup! This is the fully-painted Valkyrie (seen here with my count-as Vendetta options), a first for the 512th! Thanks bsmoove!

Admittedly, this kit has been a joy unbeholden. The hardest kit I've ever had the pleasure to assemble, paint, reassemble, repaint, detail, magnetise (for both Valyrie pod & missile options, and Vedetta twin-linked lascannons), and repaint! *Phew*

But it is worth it, truly a thing of beauty (in my eyes. After all, anything painted in the 512th colours or black, white and grey will always find favour in my eyes). 2 weeks worth of modelling and painting! But it is such a fun toy to have in an Imperial Guard army, and opens up a whole realm of playing possibilities, I sometimes think to myself "Why did I not get one sooner?"

True, it's definitely a fire magnet, and it's made it's maiden voyage and promptly got blown up the turn after it arrived, but it was so much fun to make and play, I do love it!

Thanks again Bsmoove! The Cadian 512th, we salute you!

Wednesday Night Gaming: A Glorious Mess

As per the last post, these are some photo highlights of the first Apocalypse, and last game of 2010 (that carried on into 2011!). Enjoy!

It was a 6000 point game, Laur with the Ultrasmurfs, and me and Dougie with 3K each, a Chaos/Traitor IG alliance. (this was because Dougie had been building his Chaos force from the ground up slowly, while Laur & mine's colllection dwarfs his, but we fancied an all-out all-inclusive game)

 In the end, Laur's first go, spread out deployment (we were forced to castle due to Apocalypse table division rules), better unit synergy and better dice meant he achieved a near total wipeout! (with the exception of Straken, who survived a pounding from Marines as seen from the picture above).