Wh40k

I’ve been working on my new Dark Angels force for around six months, whilst theres been plenty of activity on my Flickr feed covering my progress I’ve been slow to write up any of the progress in any meaningful way. This is the first in what should be a series of posts hoping to correct this. When I started painting the tactical squads I had available it was with one purpose in mine; Force Organisation Chart requires two Troops choices for a legal army, and Tactical Squads are the stalwart of any Space Marine list. After finishing work I’ve come to really like the look of the unit both in pictures and on the tabletop; and after a handful of games I’ve found my mundane core troops to be far more reliable than the more exotic elite options in my force. ...

I’ve finally finished HQ for my Necrons, just in time for their next outing at the weekend: 1750pts vs Tau. Not completely happy with the finish; with the benefit of hindsight I shouldn’t have forced through the end of my Skull White spray can, the finish isn’t as smooth as it should be. Planning to strip and repaint at some point to correct, but for now I need fully painted and based units on the table-top. ...

Annihilation Barge [slickr-flickr tag=“AnnihilationBarge”] Like the Ark kit, the barge kit can be made into two different nits; the heavy weapon platform Annihilation Barge or Command Barge, both are AV13 skimmers making it fairly difficult to deal with quickly. I like the strength of both units, but am currently favouring the heavy option, especially as it’s only 90pts - bargain. The twin-linked Tesla Destructor has the potential to dish out some serious hits; S7, assault 4, and as it’s Tesla it triples wound output for any to-hit roll of a 6. If that’s not enough, if it generates at least one hit, the Destructor can ‘arc’ into any unit (friend of foe) with 6" of the target unit on a 6, causing additional damage to secondary units. ...

I love the Necron Ark kit, one of GW’s first multi-option kits. That is, until I started building my first Ark, this kit lives up to it’s reputation as one of GW’s trickiest kits. Ghost Ark [slickr-flickr tag=“GhostArk”] The Ghost Ark forms the core of a Necron warrior phalanx, providing transport, firepower and even the ability to re-animate fallen warriors. Getting the Ghost Ark into a premium firing position can be tricky as the vehicle’ weapons can only broadside so you risk exposing rear armour to the enemy, but as the Ghost Ark is open-topped it also allows a full unit of warriors (or Crypteks *cheese*) to fire from the platform. The pay-off is if you can position the Ark between multiple enemy units the volume of fire can be withering; in my last game it took out a full SW blood claw and long fang unit in a single turn, not a bad damage output. ...

Triarch Stalker [slickr-flickr tag=“TriarchStalker”] The Stalker is, in my opinion, a very cool looking model; and thankfully it has some useful abilities on the battle field. I’ve provided mine with the weapon loadout unique to the Stalker, the Heat ray. Like the Doomsday Cannon, the Heat Ray has two alternate firemodes, providing some great levels of tactical flexibility: Focused Beam: 24", S8, AP1, Heavy2, Melta - Perfect for popping heavy armour Dispersed Beam: Flamer template, S5, AP4 - Perfect for handling infantry hordes If the heat ray wasn’t enough, the Stalker adds to Necron’s pool of AV13 armour AND if the heat-ray hits an enemy unit, all other Necron units targeting the same enemy unit count their weapons as twin-linked thanks the the Stalker’ target relay ability. Synergy FTW. ...

To get inspiration for my Word Bearer host I read Anthony Reynolds excellent Word Bearer Omnibus. As the Necrons are the recurring antagonists it sparked my curiosity in the futuristic undead, they became an obvious choice for my next project. Despite the ease of painting (and my own shortcomings in the area) one thing I want to avoid was a monotone metallic force so went off in inspiration of alternatives. Fortunately the GW site has an article challenging a selection gamers and modellers to design a new scheme for a Necron force in just one day. Dan Harden’s attempt immediately caught my attention due to a distinct lack of metal, serving as a great design base I swapped out Dan’ purple (which I really liked) as I wanted to continue to make use of the translucent green gauss barrels from the warrior set. ...

Since about 7 years old I’ve been a table-top gamer, with game of choice being Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000. I’ve not actually played for many years since my weekly club closed (if any fellow alumni from Tudhoe/Spennymoor’ Friday night group are about, say Hi), and anyone who ever played with me will know I was never much of a painter, either in quality or quantity. For the last couple of years I’ve been trying to change my painting habits, starting by building up a force of WordBearer Chaos Space Marines. Several of the units started life as test cases, so the quality currently varies from unit to unit, but I have started to find a style that works for me. I’m not liable to win any Golden Daemon awards any time soon, but the end result is better than I’ve had in the past, and more than acceptable for gaming with. ...