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All posts by belligerentJames

Introduction

With the leaks of 8th edition floating around everywhere and the release just around the corner, we couldn’t wait to get a game in. I quickly prepped some of my favorite unites and some stuff I never play, while Will prepped a lot of his newest stuff. Curious about the Power Level system, we elected to use it and built our armies at Power Level 60. In effect I think it felt like about 1850 in 7th edition.

It’s been a while since I wrote a batrep, so I kept forgetting to take pictures of the board setup, and I didn’t take notes of exactly what happened.

We played the basic mission and rather than role the objective, we selected Dominion. We also setup on my smallish dining table with a play space of about 3’x4′. We decided to play along long edges, and since my army was slightly lower power level (2 points difference), I was the Underdog and got to choose whether to go first. So, first I went.

Dominion calls for setting up 4 objectives, 2 per player placed in an alternating fashion. These are scored at the end of each player’s turn. We placed them roughly in the corners of the map. Unfortunately, I placed mine in spots that were hard to control for both of us.

 

Blood Angels

I hadn’t looked at the rules for any of his stuff so I really didn’t know what to expect. I figured a mix of light and heavy weapons and some strong melee should serve both as an all takers army, and as a good test of many of the new mechanics. Corbulo and Lemartes should help the Death Company stay alive and hit hard, and the Assault Squad in the Razorback should serve as a good anti armor unit. The Scouts should do their job to kill characters, and the Stormraven can mop up whatever is left.

  • Brother Corbulo
  • Lemartes
  • Death Company x10 (Plasma Pistols & Chainswords)
  • Assault Squad x5 (4x Plasma Pistols & Chainsword, 1 Eviscerator)
  • Razorback (Lascannon, Twin Plasmaguns & Stormbolter)
  • Scouts x5 (Sniper Rifles and Camo Cloaks)
  • Stormraven (Twin Assaultcannon, Hurrican Bolters, Typhoon Missile Launcher)

Assault Squad embarked on the Razorback, and Lemartes and the Death Company flying around in the air.

Inquisition

Will brought a lot of anti-psyker and heavy armor. The Custodes in particular had me a little worried.

  • Inquisitor Grayfax
  • Custodial Guard (3x Guardian Spears & Custodes Vexila)
  • Sisters of Silence Vigilators
  • Venerable Contemptor Dreadnought
  • Venerable Land Raider
  • Scout Squad x5 (Sniper Rifles and Camo Cloaks)
  • Null-maiden Rhino

Custodial Guard embarked on the Land Raider, and the Sisters embarked on the Rhino.

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Scibor Archangel 3In building a proper Blood Angel army, one has to always be on the lookout for great looking angel models. Sadly, good stand-ins for these angelic warriors are hard to find. There are custom miniatures aplenty for many of their sibling chapters; Space Wolves and Salamanders are particularly popular. When I came across Scibor Monstrous Miniatures’ Archangel #3 I immediately thought of the Sanguine Angel himself. It’s a sad disservice that Forgeworld has yet to release an official Sanguinius model, but Scibor has handily filled the bloody gap.

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Astorath Front

Astorath is one of my favorite Blood Angel models and is one of the models that originally drew me to the army. The black wings, trailing scrolls and the weird Bram Stoker muscle armor combined with the Ozzy Osborn face and the flying overhead axe pose just make for an amazing over the top model. His fluffy insight into the Black Rage and the buffs he gives to the Death Company have left me wanting to field him since I started. The time is finally close at hand too.

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Headshot

 

I’ve been working steadily on my Sanguinary Priest and its finally time to work on the face. Serendipitously, I found my macro lens for my phone, so we are going to get some extreme closeups. The photos make the surface of the model look a bit gritty, but it’s well within normal.

I always try to paint heads separate from their bodies, just because its easier overall. There is so much detail packed into such a small canvas and it really requires a lot of subtlety. This approach is by no means fast, but it does get results that I am pretty happy with.

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The Imperial Knights are such cool models that I got a bit overexcited and assembled the whole thing before touching the paint at all. This had consequences that have made this painting project more interesting than it would have been otherwise. The articulation was a big selling point for this model, so I left all the joints as mobile as possible and left the shoulders and waist unglued. I also magnetized the base so I could more easily stage the model, but attach him to the base for game play. I plan on playing this model with my Blood Angels, and I just think the red tones just look badass on these guys, so I’m going to paint him up like he belongs there. I learned a lot from my Dreadnought experiment previously and decided to try just layering the reds directly, instead of tinting over greyscale.

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Introduction

This match was a prep game for a 1000pt tournament we are playing in a few weeks which is based on the ITC Bay Area Open rules. The scenario we chose was BAO Scenario 1, which is a modified version of Emperor’s Will including some modified maelstrom rules.

Logan brought his Farsight Enclave and I brought Blood Angels. The board had very little LOS blocking terrain, which was certain to play to the Tau’s advantages.

We both rolled on Strategic Warlord Traits table. Tau got Divide to Conquer, giving me a minus to reserve rolls, harsh with that Stormraven sitting on the side lines. I rolled Strategic Genius, giving a bonus to seize the initiative and reroll reserves, so it balanced out.

He placed his Primary Objective token on his side, I placed mine in a nearly mirror position on my side. He placed the first Maelstrom Objective atop the western ruined buildings, I placed one next to the ruined shrine.

He rolled to deploy first.

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I play Blood Angels so that means lots of big flat red areas. I tried painting a few infantry flat with a wash which seems pretty standard, but it was just dissatisfying. So I tried the zenith highlighting with a red glaze and got considerably better effects.

Blood Angel Tactical Marine with Zenith Highlighting

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The votes were close on the painting competition, but with the community’s help we have finally broken the tie. Our winner is the Death Company with its fantastic blacks.

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The prize for this competition is some Sci-Fi molds for Hirst Arts, specifically molds #301 and #270.

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These molds are featured in Hirst Arts’ Startship Basic Interiors set. With just these two molds you can already create some very interesting scenes.

Copyright Hirst Arts

Copyright Hirst Arts

Previous post: Five man unit painting competition

The Neutral-Evil authors recently held a painting competition for a five man unit. Take a minute to help us determine the winner! Vote Here

Death Company

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Ork Nobz

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Chaos Space Marines

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Grey Knights

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Sanguinary Guard

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