A Closer Look at The Guard

Sooo I have spent some more time painting the ol Deathwing and they are coming along.  I was in the local GW shop and a few guys wanted me to post closer pictures of the infantry (veterans) that go in the Valkyries that make up my aircav army.  This is for you guys...

First up we have the Company Command Squad (I dropped my commander when pulling him out of the case and he is in little pieces at the moment...  Grrr...  The guy on the left standing in for my leader is my version of Marbo)

Below you can see the six squads of 10 veterans with various assault weapons.

 And now some extra stuff:

The dude on the left is my version of Harker.
The guys in the middle go in the back of my converted Medusa when I run this army as a Tank List.
The guy on the right is a generic command type model when I run the list as an infantry list.

Rocket Troops for when I need them...

Additional Assault Weapons and a random Sergeant Model

And there you have it....  A closer look at the guard.

And now I am off to check out Mana Bar Melbourne.  A video game themed bar north of the city.  Details to follow...
(I love school holidays!)

The Highs and Lows of Playing Aircav Guard.

Well, after spending so much time painting and preparing for tournament play with my Air Cav Guard several people have asked me to throw together some thoughts about using valkyrie based guard armies.

I am a big fan of guard armies in general. Something about random dudes in glorified t-shirts facing super human mutant/ aliens carrying only flash lights and supported by your mates and a pile of tanks really appeals to me. Now… Take away the tanks and replace them with helicopter/ plane things… Still cool. Check.

Now following the theme of an all air cav army leads to some fairly universal tactics and inclusions in the list. As valkyries are armour 12 and move around in formations there are certain items you need to include in your army. The most important is (IMO) is the astropath. He gives you a +1 to your reserves rolls and if you outflank you get to reroll the dice. This is important if you fail the roll to go first. While Air Cav armies can hit like a ton of bricks in turn one if you are going 2nd you can really be taking it on the chin before you ever get out of the gate. Also I am really not a fan of Dawn of War with the planes so in the event of either of those circumstances… I outflank everything. Why? Well it robs my opponent two turns of shooting at my very vulnerable flyers and keeps them guessing where I will deploy. With the plus one I usually get two of my three squadrons in turn one. I will usually get my troops where I want them with outflanking putting troops on the side I want in 4 out of 6 times (not including the reroll). I once even let my opponent take the first turn and outflanked because he had two units of fully tooled long fangs in the opposite corners of the board. I came in on the bottom of two with everything and ate his heavy weapons before they had a turn to shoot. Harsh? Yes BUT if you have ever weathered shooting in a Valkyrie you will learn why it has to be this way.

I equip all of my valkyries with rocket pods. All of them. Why? Because they are fast vehicles they move 12, fire their multi-laser and fire both pods (str 4 weapons are great!). They can also move 12 and dismount the squad inside who can also then fire. So my squadron of three flyers will kick out 6 large blast templates and 9 strength 6 shots. True you are hitting on 4’s but throw enough mud and something will stick. As I run a squad of two valks and another of three… That is ten templates a turn. Infantry armies beware. I made a wolf wing disappear purely from making them take a trillion saves.

What that then leaves is anti-tank. Enter the Vendetta. I run a squad of two at 1750 points. 6 twin linked las-cannons exterminate daemon princes, tyranid big bugs and pop most vehicles beautifully. The downside is that to fire all 6 shots they need to move no more than 6 a turn. I’ll get back to this later when I talk about speed. For the rest of my anti-tank I depend on the Vets I run in my Valkyries and Dettas…

My 1750 list runs a command squad (with astropath) and 6 vet squads. I do have a squad with flamers but most squads run two to three meltas or plasma guns. Coupled with my Commander’s orders (he runs in the squadron of three with a squad of three meltas and a squad with three plasma guns) these guys are the real work horses of the army. When I can I drop all three squads as close as I can to the target and try my best to make the enemy disappear. I get close to destroy whatever it is in the hopes that it does not survive to strike back.

Alpha strike is a key to the Air Cav list. Heaven forbid someone gives me the first turn. I can deploy as close to the enemy as possible and scout move 24 inches forward. Get right into some ones face and wipe out half his army before he strikes. (and pray he doesn’t do the same back in his turn one.) Also people seizing the initiative is really bad (obviously). When that happens… it is really bad for the old valkyrie bomb.

Speed is crucial to the list for the reasons listed above. You want to concentrate firepower on wiping out threats early so you can mop up the rest of the army later. Manoeuvre in such a way to maximise this and prevent as much retaliation as possible.

Onle last note moving 12 is great when someone charges you. Getting on 6’s is great! I was once wiped out by an ork command squad that fleeted into my big squad… Never seen so many 6’s in my life. OUCH!

Anyway… Just a few thoughts. Aircav is a list that hits like a hammer. You have to remember that it is a glass hammer. True it is more resilient than a Dark Eldar boat list but as Han said “Don’t get cocky kid!” Know your strengths and know your weaknesses when you engage and play accordingly.

B

Kill Count

After weeks of preparation Kill Count was upon us. Last Saturday morning I pack up my army (no small feat with 7 Valkyries) and headed off to a local suburb (Moonee Ponds) for a weekend of beer, warhammer, and general shenanigans. As I have posted my list earlier and many pictures of my army I will straight into the nitty gritty.

Game 1: Despite the TO declaring a week before the tourney that there would be no grudges for Kill Count I ended up playing my mate Liam (the guy who I was trying to grudge). As I had never played Liam and I really hadn’t played against Tau in 5th ed I was really excited about this game.

Liam won the roll off with a Dawn of War deployment. Two objectives were on one side of the board and one was on the other. Mission. Have more objectives than your opponent. As Liam had a lot of scary guns in his list I outflanked my whole army. In his deployment and first two turns Liam castled his forces in the centre of the board so he could shoot me and then move on to claim the objectives later in the game. My turn two: It all comes on and with the astropath’s rerolls with outflank I was able to put my whole army on the side with two objectives. To some up. I rolled one flank and kept going. At the end of the game I had three objectives and Liam had none. Marbo was a star in this game. He threw his demo charge and killed most of a pathfinder squad and a broadside. Because he went to ground the other broadside didn’t fire turn three. A huge advantage to me. Liam was a great opponent and I look forward to a rematch soon.

Game 2: A few weeks back some of you will recall I played in a 1000 point tourney using Space Wolves. I played Dan’s orks there in round two. Once again round two rolls around and there were Dan’s orks. This game is fuzzy. I got first turn and lined up against his vehicle heavy orks. Rolled his multiple units of koptas and a truck with its contents. I had really hoped to do more with my alpha strike and this would come back to hurt me later.

At one point he called a Waaagghhh and his warboss and nob mob fleeted into my three valk unit needing 6’s to hit and wrecked all three. Some times squadrons suck.

I achieved my secret objective of kill points and being in his deployment zone. Sadly his charge allowed him to assassinate my commander and he held the centre of the board. Tie game.

Game 3: I had never played tourney regular Matt Mitchell before but I had played the nurgle daemon army he was using before and it rolled me in 4 turns. 4 monstrous creatures and epidemus… Nurgle daemons otherwise.

Matt made rings of daemons around the objective which was in an alley between two buildings. I pounded the stuffing out of the army and killed most of it (including most of the scary stuff) but I could not move within an inch of his models. Had there been one more turn I would have easily had it. As the game ended early. Not to be. Matt played brilliantly and I should have started on the board to get more shooting time in. Marbo did sweet F all for a 2nd game in a row.

Beer… Sleep… Public Transportation and I was back for day two.


Game 4: HOLY CRAP! I was facing a Wolf list with four HQ’s including two rune priests with the lightning that kills valkyries dead power and two units of long fangs with rocket launchers. CRAP! Had to figure this one out. Then the mission arrived. Kill points… Good, I am good at that. Then I find out the mission has special kill points where troops were one point. Elites and Fast two points each. Heavy Support count as 3 kills points and HQ 4. SWEET! Then my opponent gives me first turn… HAPPY!

I alpha strike massive amounts of his army off the board before his turn one. He could not recover and I spent the game eating the rest of his army as his reserves came on piecemeal. 23 kill points to 3. OUCH! Great guy. I felt super bad.

Game 5: Wolf Wing. If the last wolf list was scary this one was truly frightening (for me anyway). Logan. Lots of termies with combi-meltas and combi plasma. Dread with assault cannon, Vindi and Land Raider Redeemer.

My opponent got first turn and so I out flanked. Like Liam he castled in the middle of the board. I got three Valyries, Marbo and the Dettas behind his land raider on my turn two. I dismounted everything and fired. I wiped out Logan, his squad, his land raider, the vindi and a pile of termies. Holy crap my dice were hot and his were horrifyingly bad! I was killing termies in droves with lasguns. Throw enough mud at a wall and something will still so I was expecting a few… I was killing whole squads. Not supposed to happen. My opponent concedes two turns later with 5 termies from three squads left. Rematch Linsay?

Game 6: I played BBDave’s Valkyrie list. He had 5 valkyries to my 7 and he had marbo, straken, lots of demo charges, and tooled up everything. It was an interesting contrast to my list. He got first turn. I outflanked but came on piecemeal because of his advisor (who cancelled out mine). Grrr… Great game. He had me at the end of turn 5. I had him at turn 6. So it was natural that after turn 7 we were drawn. Great game. I learned a lot about my list as he had been playing it longer (I didn’t know valkyries had smoke launchers! AWESOME!).

Had a great weekend, playing great guys. Got comp hit a little but not as badly as I expected. Came 9th (out of 66) overall with 89 out of 120 battle points. Sam (the TO) did a fine job of setting up a great atmosphere and a smooth running tourney. I am seriously considering already what to take to Killcount next year.

Til next time gang…

I LOVE THE SMELL OF PROMETHIUM IN THE MORNING!!! (Smells like VICTORY!)

Ok... 7 Valkyries are done. 66 Guardsmen done. Astropath done. Three objectives... DONE!!! Thank God!

I started the planes by hitting them with army painter green spray. I followed that up with a liberal application of devlin mud. I panel painted the green using a mix of a variety of foundations and lots of snot green. I highlighted that with the same colour with a healthy dose of bleached bone.

Didn't have time to snap proper pictures but it had been so long I thought I would get some shots in of something. Here are a few shots of a few of the valks...


I added free hand eagles to the sides of the cockpits and roman numerals on the wings to match the squads inside. (I was having a hard time keeping track of who was in where.)



I also spent a great deal of time highlighting the scopes all over the front of the valkyries. Hope the pictures does them justice.



After watching the helicopter scene from Apoc Now a few too many times I know what my objective had to be. A giant speaker that I can plug my IPOD into. That is right kids... Flight of the Valkyries will be playing during army presentation time. I painted the Eagle motif on the side to match it to the army and a this side up.




My wife will be happy that our living room will stop looking like this:



Off to the tourney this weekend.

Back to The Guard (and some new daemon news)

Spent 4 hours last night touching up chips adding unit roman numerals to my Aircav Guard. It was really nice to take a break from painting valkyries! (I will be back to the flyers tonight though!)

Anyway... Here are some shots...

The first shot shows my Command Squad sandwiched between two squads of vets...
(CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE)

The second shot: three vet squads

Here is where I tried to take a picture of the roman numerals I painted. I really like the way most of the numbers came out but none of the phots worked out. The camera does focus nicely on the troops in the background though so please excuse my hand!


As you can see I really like the SWAT/ Special forces look for my guardsmen. I have another 60 or so painted to this standard and I am really looking forward to a daemonhunters/ inquisitor release to muck around with these boys in a new list. Wonder what a storm raven would look like in the green/red camo scheme? Hmmmmm...

Anyway.... DAEMONS NEWS!!!

The shop I was painting at had some of the new daemon models. I really like the new plastic juggernaut sprue that has five jugger heads, 6 bloodletter heads and arms for rank and file crushers as well as command crushers all in the box for three bodies.

Even better is the new plastic daemon prince. While I hate all three heads the model comes with the rest of the gear is sweet. You can easy go fantasy or 40K with this bad boy and he has three sword arms and multiple empty arms. I have a few of the meatl ones floating around in bitz and I will buy the plastic one just to get bitz for those boys. I will have to sculpt helmets though...

Anyway... off to the football...

A Quick Update

Hey gang,

I know it has been a few days. I have been hard at work panel painting the red and green on my valkyries and dettas. The metallics took a while especially around the canopy. If you are ever going to build an Aircav army do yourself a favour and leave the metallic parts off your kit to paint separately. You will save yourself hours of painting fun. Anyway...

Here is the group shot...


Here are a few shots of the camo scheme as it currently exists. The reds and greens are properly paneled. I have done about half of the bone border between the two. The bone I have done really needs a good touching up as does a few spots of green around the metallics.



Overall I am pleased with how they look (pre-highlight)... I am very tired of painting these models though.

Urrrrgh...

My Aircav List and Fluff

Killcount is around the corner (two weeks away) and last weekend I turned in my army list. Theme is important at this tourney and so I tried to take as obvious a theme as possible. Air Cavalry Guard. That is everything is mounted in something that flys. (i.e. Valkyries and Vendettas) Now I did get into a roll watching the old Rambo movies as I was making my list so I included Trooper Marbo for giggles. Now he strictly doesn't fit the theme but as he is the infiltrating ninja I figure he is calling in the rest of the guys with sneaky intel. Anyway... Here is my "story", my regiment fluff and my 1750 list:


*** Incoming Transmission ***
REF: KTV213/ 475-673 Gamma
Eplisol - 2 Security/ Priority Level
Sender: Captain Barzol, 213th
Morinian Battlegroup, 3rd Company

*** Message Begins: Crashed Argos
Shuttle located and secured -stop-
Astropath Grashow found and
recovered -stop- Landing zone Alpha
and Theta held by hostiles -stop-
Request immediate air evac -stop-
Will proceed to land zone Zeta for
immanent rendezvous - stop- Threat
Level Very High - Stop- Please come
soon… We can hear them coming***
*** Message Termnates***

*** End Message ***
Recomended course of action:
Deploy Valkyries for extraction
Contact Trooper Raddick

The Morinian Air Cavalry has a long and distinguished history defending the Imperium against the worst of the Emperor’s foes. As part of the Morinian Shock Regiment, which is divided into battle groups consisting of nothing but imperial guard special forces units. Seasoned Veterans form the elite core of this guard regiment. Their training makes them more suitable for use in assaults, as fire support troops or as an infiltrating force to carry out special objectives.
These Veteran units are recruited from line regiments, where they have seen action and have proven that their abilities and courage. They are given additional training where they are further indoctrinated and molded into more loyal and dedicated servants of the Emperor. These soldiers are taught superior battle tactics and the use of more advanced equipment than the average Guardsmen.They also have access to more special weapons such as melta guns, plasma guns, and flame throwers and often travel in chimera transports.
The Morinian Shock Regiment’s 2nd Battle Group is designed for close range assault of fixed emplacements and close city fighting where their small unit sizes and specialized weapons come to the fore. They also specialize in hunter killer, rescue and objective grabbing missions judged impossible for regular guardsmen. The 2nd Battle group is often combined with airborne elements from other Morinian Regiments adding long range fire power and manuverability to its already formidable abilities.




Colonel Theadus Barzol with 2nd battle group Command
Company Cmd (50) 3 Meltaguns (30) Krak Grenades (5)& 1 Reg Standard (15) Astropath Golkov (30) Power Sword (10)

2nd Battle Group: Squad Alpha "First in, Last out"
Veteran Squad (70) with 3 Plasma guns (45)


2nd Battle Group: Squad Delta "Delta Force"
Veteran Squad (70) with 3 Plasma guns (45)


2nd Battle Group: Squad Beta "Death From Above"
Veteran Squad (70) with 2 Flamers (10)


2nd Battle Group: Squad Gamma "Death Before Dishonour"
Veteran Squad (70) with 3 Meltaguns (30)


2nd Battle Group: Squad Epilison "Never Leave a man behind"
Veteran Squad (70) with 3 Plasma guns (45)


2nd Battle Group: Squad Tango "Fury of the Emperor"
Veteran Squad (70) with 2 Meltaguns (20)


Trooper Raddick
Troopr Marbo (65)

"Hammer of Justice" & "Bird Of Prey"
2 Vendettas (260)

"Death From Above" & "The Wraith" & "Vengeance"
3 Valkyries (300) with Multiple Rocket Pods (90)

"Death Dealer" & "Grief"
2 Valkyries (200) with Multiple Rocket Pods (60) and Heavy Bolter Sponsons (20)

Here are a few models that didn't quite make the list... BUT I like the conversions...

A Better Look at The Guard

Here are some closer pictures of some of my guardsmen. (as always click on the pictures to make them larger)

Here is my Company Command Squad:

The standard bearer is a converted unreleased catachan metal standard bearer. You can the see the un-altered model on page 73 of the Imperial guard codex on the balcony. I converted mine before I realized he would not be released. Awesome model too. His legs, bionic arm and standard are the originals.



I have decided to use Marbo in my army. Here is my Marbo and my Harker although Harker does not make an appearance in my 1750 point list. I just really like both models.

Fun with panel painting

So I have been playing some games and feverishly panel painting valkyries... I havn't done proper write ups as I have been cranking for time and panel painting takes me forever.

I mixed a pot of paint to cover the Devlin Mud that was over flowing when I was done mixing. I have paneled 6.25 out of 7 valkyries and the pot is dangerously low.

I will take pictures in a proper light.

Next step... Metal... I am trying to get as much done as possible before my wife gets back from her trip so I can go out and have fun. Today is... Okie it is 2AM on Wednesday... My wife comes back Friday morning... Lots to do...

I have included a few action shots from one of my games with Adam's Death guard. As you can see here only one of the valkyries is partially painted, the others are base coated before their multi pot coat of Devlin Mud...

A Change of Gears

The Death Guard are out. I played a few games. I just didn't have enough models. It was slow. I did not have fun... A N D there is no way I can get it done before next week.

So here is the next idea... (and here are a few picts of the 7 Valkyries)




So I have been playing a series of games the last few days. They are mean, fast, and MAN I LOVE GUARD!

The basic troopers look like this: