Friday 8 September 2017

An Unkindness was gifted

Well Fathers day has been and gone, and thanks to my lovely wife my Flames wolves has an air force now. Adding speed and firepower to my force I am now the proud owner of a StormRaven gunship.


My Unkindness has a population of one.
At this stage my hobby time consists of playing 40k, getting used to the rules and slowly tweaking my army so that it better suits my play style. My current tally for for 8th edition is 6 wins and 14 losses. Not a bad score for the time being, will post soon with updates of my Raven being built etc.

Cheers
Lupus

Sunday 20 August 2017

Adding the old Aeldari to the blog.

For a while my other blog has languished , due to not being given any time, love or interest.
My Eldar Blog can be found Here. I have decided to consolidate them into the one. So going forward my musings on Eldar will also be here.

Maybe there could also be something worth while reading, I mean there is bound to be.

So without further preamble, I introduce the Craftworld Mael Dannan.


May  Khaine, Ynnead and the laughing god protect.

Cheers
Lupus

Saturday 12 August 2017

How many command points for 2000 points, and their uses.

This is something, that I have struggled with since the inclusion of Command Points or Cp as we have started to call them. How many Cp to you include in a 2000 point army?

Of course, there is no hard and fast mandate that you need to include any Cp past the initial three you receive because you are battle forged. Your army could use only the patrol detachments and other detachments that do not issue Cp bonus's, that is entirely up the the individual and the Army they design and play. I intend to focus my rambles on my army of Flame Wolves for this article.

First I think that 6-7 Cp is about the most that I can squeeze into my army design process. Currently I seem to be taking a Battalion detachment (+3Cp), and either a Vanguard/Outrider/ Spearhead detachment (+1Cp) and occasionally a Auxiliary support detachment (-1Cp). These detachment choices for my Flame Wolves seem to be my optimal setup, I do not currently use any Lord of War choices or fortifications.

The next thought I am trying to think through is the uses of the Cp themselves. I always use a Cp to re-roll the seize roll so that I can go first, that reduces my allowance to 5-6 Cp, and the remainder I uses for critical re-rolls in game.

Is this the best use of my Cp?
To be honest I do not believe that it is. My play style, experiences and usage of Cp will become better  the more I play, with the new Space marine Stratagems and Chapter tactics from the Space Marine codex there are new better ways to meaningful spend the Cp's besides re-rolls.

With this in mind I think the Salamander chapter tactics suit my play style and the fluff of my marines the best.

Whilst this does not help vehicles at all, it will go some way to reduce my reliance on Cp re rolls. 

Okay the next stage of reducing reliance on Cp uses for re-rolls, is of course including units that passively buff the army. Some of these are Captains, Lieutenants and others. I think that I will leave for thoughts on army design to another article, when I feel the urge to put my thoughts down.

Anyway I know this is a somewhat inconclusive end, so let me just finish with, If you design your army to maximise Cp generation, always address what you seem to use your Cp for and see if there is a better way to gain that ability.

Cheers
Firelupus.

Friday 11 August 2017

The Flame Wolves are going to Cancon 2018


Well it has happened, my lovely wife has agreed to send me away for the weekend in January to play with my lead and plastic marines at that Gaming paradise of Cancon.

An fine gent that I played last time at Cancon, I have forgotten his name but the good memories of that game remain.

The above picture gives an indication of how many gamer's of different ilk go to this event. So what does this decision mean for me?

Well honestly, this means that my next five months of free time will be used either playing 40 K or painting my 40 K army. And by painting, I mean to a standard that I shall not be ashamed to play with it.

This is not a bad thing, as all the armies that I have painted in the past have all been to play in a tournament. I need this push, as I have been struggling to put brush to miniature for some time now.

With this in mind, I will be setting myself monthly painting targets, and will need to ensure I complete them in order to have my force battle ready.

But painting is not the only requirement that I will need to ensure I complete. I will need to enter some events prior to Jan next year to ensure that my gaming standards and skills are up to snuff.

To add another dimension to it, all of this must be accomplished on a Uni students budget both in Time and Money.

Regardless of my intentions however, I know I will be doing more hobby in December whilst on Uni holidays, then I will in any of the months preceding it.

Cheers
Firelupus


Thursday 10 August 2017

Army Update- The Changer of Ways

Whilst it is on my list to eventually make a thousands sons force. I mean who among us, doesn't want to own every army they can.
First things first, I need and want to finish my Flame wolves.

Here is a current picture of my forces, be warned these are not excellently painted figures, this post is first and foremost intended to remind myself that I need to actually paint my army, and in some cases, strip and repaint it.
The Shame begins.

Random paring of DT and Troops.

Random characters

Apothecary yet again, stamping his foot for paint.

Bikes awaiting hellish amounts of love.

Centurions awaiting magnets

2 random bolter guys, just chilling.

This is what happens when you run out of undercoat.
It helps my process to put these pictures up. It is always great to see how far my army has advanced in such a short time. Still I will be putting in a big push over the next few months to get these and more ready for Cancon 2018.

Thursday 20 July 2017

Flame wolves. A change of Faith, but not direction.

And thus an unscheduled faith change has occurred.

An unscheduled change of faith.
In my local gaming meta the sons of Dorn are well and truly represented, and in force. Imperial Fists, Crimson Fists and Black Templars are all being played on a regular basis. So in order to avoid future confusion by myself and my opponents, I have decided to change the name of my Chapter.

This is still my chapter symbol.

Because I will still be using the Kjarl Grimblood great company symbol. I went through a few options for names, but in the end I decided to go with  The Flame Wolves Chapter.



So whilst it is just a matter of fluff, I like to be consistent with what I call my bits of plastics and lead. My blogs name is actually the name of my Vampire counts army, The Breathless Host.

Cheers
Lupus.

Land Style Part Two

Hi All,

My Landraider is progressing slowly, I have built the main chassis, and now have blue tacked the sponson weapons into place until they are painted and then I will of course magnetise them.

 My Redeemer Sponsons.

Left view

Right view

Rear view.
Next is the front view, as I mentioned in my last post, Mt assault ramp is missing, lost in time. So I have started to fashion a new one.

After about 6 hours of curing, this green-stuff was still flexible enough so I could practise fit it. 
Not sure if my green ramp looks quite right? What do you think?

After the practise fit, I found it sagged in the middle, enter the reinforcement of sprue.
So with the practise fit underway, the width of my green-stuff ramp is correct, the height however needs work. But that will have to wait a bit.

I still need to assemble my lascannons and heavy bolter sponsons, but they can wait a bit, I am way behind in my painting vow in B&C Here.

Cheers
Lupus.


Tuesday 18 July 2017

Kit bashing Space marine Captain.


Hello all.

I completed this captain a while ago, but never got around to sharing him.With out further ado my kit bashed captain of the 6th Company.




Parts have come from various plastic kits.
Space Marine Vanguard Here
Legs, relic blade and right shoulder pad.

Space Marine Command squad Here
Left arm pointing

Space Marine  Tactical Squad Here
Mk6 plain shoulder pad.

Space Wolves pack Here
Front torso, back torso and wolf head.

Space wolves upgrade Here
Backpack

All these combine to make my own captain.

Again the photos are not the best, but eventually, when i am no longer a Uni student i will have the resources to organise a light box.

Cheers
Lupus.

Adding some punch with Land style.

Hello all,

After all the work over the last couple of weeks getting my marines ready to paint. I decided my army could do with some punch. This was actually fairly easy to decide, whilst putting together my marines, I found a kit that I forgot that I had.

Enter the Landraider.
It is missing some parts, probably used for other projects, notably the engine panel and front ramp. The engine panel is not a major deal as the doors will be closed, but I will need to make a custom door for the front, and I will be giving my green stuff skills a shot with this  and see what happens.

Missing the Internal engine panel, and the front assault ramp pictured..

The above photo is from James Wappel's awesome blog Here, a talented painter, and one that I actively follow, I highly recommend that if you haven't yet, check out his Blog, you will not be sorry that you did.

So after that plug, here is the current state of my Land Raider.
Side panels assembled

Sections cleaned and ready for assembly.
I have all the components to make all three variants and at this stage i will not be gluing them in, I am awaiting an order of magnets, so that I can do all three.


Cheers
Lupus

Becoming battle worthy

Over the last two weeks, I have concentrated my hobby time and efforts in getting my army of wolves battle ready, or in my case paint ready.

This meant assembling my marines, some models that I have had since 2nd edition days.

So here is what I have been doing with my hobby time.

Devastator Sarg, 2nd ed figure. Empire banner topper as Cherub.

Dreadnought with forgeworld assault cannon, and custom heavy flamer.

Close up of my heavy flamer

Close up of assault cannon

Kitbashed Chaplain



5 Bolter marines

6 bolter marines, 2nd ed metal and plastic hybrids

2 sargeants with combi weapons and 1 bolter marine

Dev sergeant again 2nd ed. And cherub.

4 missile launcher devs

So there we go. Nothing really special, but the bones of my army is now ready to base coat.

Cheers Lupus.

Tuesday 11 July 2017

Dorns wolves reinforcements


Holidays are simply the best thing in the World, being able to indulge in my hobby is the cherry on top. That is not to say that I have not been painting rooms in my house or gardening or reading, well you get the gist of what I am getting at.



So anyway, whilst sorting through my bits box today, I was looking for bolter arms for my tactical marines to finish them. Inspiration struck I started to put aside bits and before I knew it, this happened.


Presenting Brother Chaplain - Heredulic, keeper of the faith attached to the 6th company.




I did not intend to actually to this today, but he just sort of happened, as such I have no individual pictures of his parts, but here is the list.

Chaos Warriors Sprue
Head, orbs for the crozius

Vanguard Veterans
Thunder hammer arm, Legs and jump pack

Space Wolves Pack
Chest, shoulder pads, left plasma arm.

Space marine tactical squad
Purity seals.

Here are some different views, the lighting is not the best, and his jump pack is not glues on, I intend to paint them separate.





Cheers
Lupus.

Monday 3 July 2017

Reclaimed Rhino 2- The Internals of my Death Guard rhino .

Inspiration has struck, although to be fair the rhino did need something to help make it apparent it was part of my XIV Legion force of Death Guard.

I have always liked that a Rhinos rear ramp can open, so I thought to add a possessed feel to my Rhino with the aid of some green stuff, left over tentacles and bits from a spawn I made years ago.

So here she is so far.
The front of the Rhino with an eye and two mouths in the shape of Nurgles icon

The rear internal transport bay, again with tentacle.

A more in focus look at the ramp.
As you can see, it is not a major conversion, as I do not have the skill, but when the same is done with the Landraider that is going to be added to my Death Guard army, together they should look fairly good.

Cheers
Lupus

Thursday 29 June 2017

Another two games under my belt, and another two losses.

I had an opportunity today to play another couple of 1500 point games today, this time against Leigh.

 I did enjoy today's two games, they were very good games, with laughs and luck on both sides.

My list I fielded for both games was as follows

Battalion of Dorn's Wolves

HQ
Brother Captain Firelupus
Master crafted boltgun, power sword

Librarian
Force axe bolt pistol

Elite
Apothecary

Company Champion

Dreadnought, 2 x twin linked auto-cannons.

9 Vanguard Veterans with jump packs
Sergeant- Thunder hammer storm shield
2 vets- twin lightning claws
3 vets - chain swords and bolt pistols
1 vet - storm shield and plasma pistol
1 vet - power sword and storm shield
1 vet power axe and storm shield.

5 Stern guard
with special issue boltguns.

Troops
9 scouts
sergeant- chain sword boltpistol
4 scouts - combat blade and bolt pistol
4 scouts- shotgun

5 Scouts
sergeant- chain sword boltpistol
3 scouts - boltgun and bolt pistol
1 scout - Heavy Bolter

5 Tactical Marines
sergeant- chain sword boltpistol
3 marines - boltgun and bolt pistol
1 marine - Heavy Bolter

Fast Attack
5 assault marines with jump packs
sergeant- power sword boltpistol
3 marines - chainsword and bolt pistol
1 marine - flamer.

Heavy Support
Disco Predator
Twin lascannon and two lascannons.

5 Devastator marines
sergeant- chain sword bolter
4 marines - missile launchers
1 cherub. - nil

Game 1. Questor Traitoris
Mission : Eternal War Secure and Control.
Deployment: Dawn of War.
Detachments: Super heavy detachment
List: 3 Renegade knights with a mixture of weapons.
Three of these bad bad boys.
The game was quick, I learned a lot in this game and I even managed to almost destroy one of these fellas in close combat with my Vanguard Veterans.



Game 2. Typhus and his Death Guard
Mission : Eternal War Secure and Control.
Deployment: Dawn of War.
Detachments: Battalion and Super heavy auxiliary detachment
List:
Typhus
The man, the myth, the host of the destroyer hive.

Plague caster
7 plague marines with 2 blight launchers
20 pox walkers
20 pox walkers
2 Foetid Bloat drones
1 Renegade knight

In this game , my vanguard veterans forgot to bring the batteries for their power weapons, with not scoring a single wound, and only 3 attacks actually hitting the death guard squad in close combat.

I very nearly took down the Renegade Knight and these two games both showed gaps in my list.
My rifleman dread, disco predator and devastators all scored multiple hits on the Knight, but was unable to bring it down, before it did what it does and smeared the units.

List Improvements


No, I am not going to run Ultramarines chapter, but will instead start putting together my centurions to bring their firepower to the table.

I am going to retire the members of the 8th and 10th company's from my list for a while, instead I will replace them with bikers and tactical squads from the 6th company instead and see how the list develops. I have not played enough games , against enough opponents to make any definite decisions about anything.
What I do know is I need more manoeuvre elements to my army, it is too static for my liking.


Anyway that is enough rambling from me.
Cheers
Firelupus