Happy Christmas from the Vault

Another year almost done, and that means time for another Christmas Hobby Challenge. This year's theme was "Giving", and I went with the best gift in the 41st Millennium; Nurgle's Plagues.

The rules were essentially paint a model which grants some sort of buff (gift) to other troops or units. This should be for a force we own so we can then play them in a group game in the new year. Bonus points awarded for Christmas colours, snow or other festive nods.

So I chose the Biologus Putrifier for the Death Guard. This guy grants his unit Lethal Hits, and the grenade racks where just asking to be painted brightly as Christmas baubles.

 

Pestilential Painting: Planetary Empires Campaign Day

 Welcome back to the Vectorium! Last weekend the mighty Death Guard participated in a narrative campaign day at First Founding; a loose coalition of Chaos and Xenos forces sought to invade the Hive Capital of an important Imperial World. Could the Imperial Defenders repulse the attack?

Nine players participated and were divided 4 and 5 between the Defenders and Attackers. Neil provided a Planetary Empires map; the Imperial Defenders initially held all the tiles but a successful Attacker game result would "flip" a tile to the invaders. If the Attackers could flip an inner defence tile then there was a chance to take the capital itself.

The initial round saw players face off in individual matches as the attackers moved across a broad front, but the later rounds would see forces link up.

I found myself drawn up against Dave's Ad Mech in a 1500 point Tempest of War Game:

Pestilential Painting: Chaos Spawn completed

 Welcome back to the Vectorium! The summer of Chaos is truly upon us; the Chaos Space Marine Codex is finally here, and I've been poring over the book. There are some juicy looking datasheets and I've already started on the next round of model building.

Next weekend I'll be playing as part of Team Chaos at First Founding's campaign day, using my Death Guard. Much as I'm looking forward to playing the Iron Warriors I want to get some practice games in before I take them to an event.

I will be taking some new units to the event; the Plague Surgeon will finally hit the table top, and the Chaos Spawn have been completed.

Pestilential Painting: Spawn work in progress

 Welcome back to the Vectorium! This week has been very hectic with Real Life stuff, but I have managed to get a decent painting session in. My next gaming "event" is a one-day Planetary Empires campaign at the club open day in early July, and I've been allocated onto Team Chaos. 

Whilst I'm still waiting for the Chaos Codex to appear so I can get the Iron Warriors onto the table, this means I'll be running the Death Guard. An event is always a great excuse to add a new painted unit or two so I decided to get something Nurgley-done!

The big boys from the Gellarpox Kill Team are perfect to "counts as" Death Guard Spawn, so I've had a happy few hours getting the initial coats onto these horrors!

Pestilential Painting: Finishing the Infected Rhino

 Welcome back to the Vectorium! 40K is very much the focus of my hobby time at the moment; I've played another game since last week's Doubles and I've also been painting some units over the last fortnight or so.

First off the paint bench is a Rhino Transport for the Death Guard. I started this project last year, and then promptly got distracted by other units! 

Pestilential Painting: The Doctor will see you now

Welcome back to the Vectorium! I've had a couple of productive hobby sessions this week; first up I've completed the Death Guard Plague Surgeon.

Pestilential Painting: Plague Surgeon Work In Progress

 Welcome back to the Vectorium! This week has passed in a blur, but I have managed to squeeze a brief painting session in. I'm working on a Death Guard Plague Surgeon, which has been a lot of fun to paint.

The model is a great juxtaposition to the normal Plague Marines as he's relatively "uncorrupt"; presumably due to his medical skills! Here's a few pictures of the painting so far.

Pestilential Painting: Morslug

 Welcome back to the Vectorium!  I received an invitation to play Kill Team (2018) at First Founding with Neil and Kanan, so I decided to bring along the Death Guard. I like to use a gaming event as an excuse to paint a model or two if possible, and so this was the perfect opportunity for a new Plague Marine to join the roster.

 I've had the Series 3 Heroes in the pile of opportunity for a while, so these were the ideal candidates to choose from. I have plenty of shooty and choppy Plague Marines painted, but none with the infamous poo cannons; so the mighty Morslug was selected for duty!

Pestilential Painting: Send in the Drones

 Welcome back to the Vectorium! Like a lot of hobbyists I have a list of projects, and a vague plan/painting order in which I want to complete them. For example I've got a unit of Deathshroud Terminators all primed which will take my Death Guard to 2000 points, and a whole bunch of Dark Eldar Coven models for the Hero Forge Challenge.

But some days you just need to say screw it, and see where the hobby butterfly takes you! I really enjoy painting the Death Guard Daemon Engines, and so the recent painting sessions have been spent on another Foetid Bloat Drone.

Octoberfest 2021 After Action Report

 Welcome back to the Vault! Last weekend saw the return of Octoberfest; First Founding's annual autumn 40K tournament. This was the first club 40K event post lockdown, and 28 eager gamers turned up at the hall keen to move models and roll dice.

I piloted my Death Guard Highlander list in a series of three games; all Chapter Approved Missions, but with a twist that each player had to take the (usually optional) mission specific secondary objectives.

I remembered my models, dice, rules and all the gaming gubbins, but forgot my phone! Luckily Duncan had his camera in the car and let me use it to take a some pictures during the day. How did I get on? Well let's see if the Tallyman kept notes...

Pestilential Painting: The Inexorable Advance

 Welcome back to the Vectorium! Today is list submission day for First Founding's Octoberfest Tournament and I've dutifully sent in my selections. I've made a few amendments from the list I've been playing recently, which will give me a few more options, and shows off more of the variety of units of been playing.

The force is definitely *not* cut throat meta in terms of selections, but does contain a lot of models I've enjoyed painting. It's a bit of a Highlander force as well; every unit is a one-off apart from two units of Plague Marines.

So who is going be waging war?

Pestilential Painting: Blight Haulers

 Welcome back to the Vectorium! I've been struggling with a horrible cold this week (thanks Papa Nurgle), but have recovered well enough to slap some paint on a model. In my push to reach 2000 points of painted Death Guard I wanted to add another Daemon Engine, and given how happy I've been with Stuart the Blight Hauler's performance I thought he deserved a playmate.

Meet Frank aka Ol' Blue Eye.

Pestilential Painting: Spreading the Sickness

 Welcome back to the Vectorium! Octoberfest is approaching fast and the Death Guard are mustering for war! I thought it would be fun to create some themed Objective Markers to use at the event. The Death Guard have a secondary objective called "Spread the Sickness" which thematically involves corrupting objectives so what could be more appropriate than some pools of filth and nurgley grossness! 

First up are the chewed up remains of an Emperor's Spear and some sort of larva emerging from the pool having feasted upon the yummy marine bits nearby.

Yes Dave. I went there.

Pestilential Painting: Poxwalkers

 Welcome back to the Vectorium! I've taken advantage of my weeks holiday to paint up the next unit for the Death Guard; a batch of Poxwalkers. I have to confess I was not looking forward to painting these but I actually found the process enjoyable. 

Painting the models allowed me to examine the sculpts in more detail and they've grown on me (like a Nurgley rash); there's quite a lot of character to them, and not an overly insane amount of detail for what is ultimately a chaff unit.

Pestilential Painting: Blightlord Terminators

 Welcome back to the Vectorium! Today's post celebrates another Death Guard milestone as I've now painted over 1500 points with the latest addition of a unit of Blightlord Terminators. Observant readers may have noticed them in the Warhammer World report, where they appeared in an unfinished state, but I've not got completed the last elements (helms and bases).

First up is the Plague Champion, armed with Combi Bolter and Axe.

Pestilential Painting: Infected Rhino Transport

 Welcome back to the Vectorium! Today's post is both early and short! I'm off to Warhammer World tomorrow with some of the First Founding 40Kers, and we are making a full day of it. I'm taking along the Death Guard as we've got a table booked for a multiplayer game, and we'll still have plenty of time to visit the Exhibition Hall, go impulse shopping in the store, and eat lunch in Bugmans!

I have a couple of units on the hobby desk at the moment; a unit of Blight Lord Terminators are almost complete and I've started a second Rhino Transport. In true Death Guard fashion I've been modifying the stock Rhino kit to show Papa Nurgle's blessings.

Pestilential Painting: Secondary Objectives

 Welcome back to the Vectorium! This weekend I've played my third(!) game with the Death Guard, this time against James's Death Watch Space Marines. I'm starting to get to grips with the Death Guard rules, and I'm now thinking about how Secondary Objectives affect my army.

Secondary Objectives are a great addition to the 9th edition missions; each game you pick 3 secondaries from a list and you can score up to 15 Victory Points in each. However! (Of course there's a However) Not every Secondary is suitable for every army, and every opponent. I thought it would be useful to go through the list of Secondaries, and how useful they are for my 1K list.

Pestilential Painting: Dark Cravings

Welcome back to the Vectorium! I've had a great weekend of gaming and hobby related fun; D&D on Friday night, followed by a game of 40K on Saturday. I enjoyed the game so much it inspired me to paint another unit for the Death Guard; a fearsome Bloat Drone.

Dave's Emperors Spears faced off against the Death Guard in a 1500 point game. The marines deployed an all infantry force (which greatly outnumbered Nurgle's warriors) whilst I supplemented my 1000 point list with some additional units I wanted to try out: 

• Tallyman
• Foul Blightspawn
• 5 Blight Lord Terminators
• Bloat Drone with Flesh Mower  

Oh my goodness the Bloat Drone is amazing; munching his way way through a Combat Squad of Incursors before heading off to debuff a unit of Intercessors with Contagion to aid long range shooting.

In fact I enjoyed mowing Marines down so much it motivated me so much I decided to get the Drone painted in a single session!  

Pestilential Painting: The Death Guard hit the table!

Welcome back to the Vectorium and what a week its been! First Founding re-opened on Friday and the I jumped at the opportunity to bring the Death Guard out to play. New recruit VC Firefly brought along Raven Guard successors and we passed an enjoyable few hours acquainting ourselves with the 9th edition rules.

Pestilential Painting: The Tallyman

 Welcome back to the Vectorium! This week's hobby time has been spent on painting another addition to my growing Plague Marine force in the form of The Tallyman. He's another of the elite Foetid Virion support characters, providing buffs for the infantry units and potentially generating those lovely lovely Command Points.