A Savage Maw and a Bloodied Nose

As I looked out of the window this morning and saw a layer of freshly-fallen snow on the ground, I couldn't help but think it was a good omen for my Fenrisian warriors as they prepared to fight their first ever battle.

The last four weeks has seen me spending hour upon hour painting the basecoats on my army - at the moment a humble 1500-odd points' worth - and I thankfully managed to finish them a day before battle.

They weren't pretty, they weren't finished, but they were ready to fight.

In the end, my opponent and I agreed on a 1200 point battle which meant that I had to take a fairly bare-bones force in order to boost the number of models on the field - one special weapon and one heavy weapon in total, the rest mainly boltguns.

I did however manage to field a Wolf Guard pack with Jump Packs and twin Wolf Claws which weighed in at a massive 350-odd points for the five models.

We played a fairly basic scenario with five objectives to capture.  No bells and whistles for our first battle, just a straight fight with a clear mission.

And my enemy?  None other than our fellow battle brothers, the Blood Angels!

My Wolf Guard squad worked against me numbers-wise as my twenty-nine models were faced with around forty Space Marines across the board.  Given that I had a combat-geared army, the sheer number of bolters bearing down upon me was a great concern!

To cut a long blog short, we lost in then end - 3 victory points to 2.  It was a close call, but the weight of numbers and some shocking tactical decisions on my part led to something of a massacre.

My enemy fielded a small unit of just four Death Company, and they were complete monsters in combat!  Things started well for me when I charged my Wolf Guard into combat with one of his Assault squads and completely massacred them in one round!  I was quite impressed, but he answered by cutting through a nine-man pack of Blood Claws like they weren't even there!

I wasted one of my Assault Cannon-armed Terminators by putting him with a pack of Grey Hunters and spending the entire game guarding one of the objectives - the only thing that came into range of my one heavy weapon was an empty Rhino - which of course he destroyed.  Still, this warrior had no real effect on the game whatsoever.

Njal performed well, but I managed to lose the game with him in the last turn by forgetting to use the Chain Lightning result on the Lord Of Tempests table on the one Assault Marine that was holding one of the objectives.  If I had managed to kill him with it, the game would have been a draw!!

Still, it was a fantastic game which flowed really well considering neither of us have played 40K in ten years (and therefore never with these rules), and I can't wait for my next battle.

Now to finish those paint jobs...

Not Quite Dead...

Just a quick update for today.

Having spent the last thirty-six hours in bed suffering from lots of shivering, vomiting (and various other inconveniences) - not to mention a severe case of Too Much Information - I have now lost two nights of painting.

Still, no need to panic yet.  I'm back on my feet - almost fighting fit - and ready for a nice relaxing afternoon of catching up.

It's not the end of the world, as hopefully my years as an amateur film producer will give me the ability to shift around a few things on the schedule and get right back on track.  Note the word 'hopefully' there...

Sorry there's nothing more exciting to report at the moment, but I really have to get back to the brushes!

Hopefully I'll be back soon with a more promising update.

The Glory So Far...

For the last few days, I've been throwing myself into basecoating my Space Wolves army in preparation for their (and my) first battle on the 27th November.

And what better place to cut their teeth than Warhammer World, in the heart of Games Workshop's HQ?

We really are looking forward to our first battle, despite the main fight being with the rulebook!  It's been over ten years since either me or my opponent have played 40K, so obviously we've never played with this current rule set.  I think I might have to bookmark the important sections of the rulebook, like how to use a Range Ruler* and what the difference is between a chainsword and a lascannon...

*(As a complete aside, a friend of mine recently mentioned that the Games Workshop Range Rulers are not the most accurate measuring devices sometimes.  He took two of them and placed them next to each other, and by the time he got from the base to the tip, there was about half an inch difference between the measurements on them!!)

In all seriousness though, I don't think it'll take us long to pick it up again, especially as our armies don't have much in the way of complicated weaponry or rules.  We'll probably only have one tank on the battlefield - and that's a Rhino, if you want to call it a tank...!

But before that, I have quite a tight painting schedule to stick to.  So far, I've painted the black areas and most of the metallics...

Alright, they don't look like much at the moment (if you read my previous posts, I'm sure you can see the problems I had with the spray gun - meaning hand-painting most of the armour is now on the cards), but I'm pretty confident they'll look good when they're done.

As I said, I have a fairly tight schedule, and here it is...

(DRUM ROLL...)

Wednesday 3rd: Finish metallics

Thursday 4th: Fur, gun straps

Friday 5th: Animal skins & tongues

Saturday 6th-Monday 8th: Bone, stone and parchment

Tuesday 9th: Hair and faces

Thursday 11th: Plasma & power weapons.

Friday 12th-Monday 15th: Reds (AWAY)

Tuesday 16th: Yellows and Purity Seals

Wednesday 17th: Crux Terminatus, Scout trousers, gravel bases

Thursday 18th: Paint bases

Friday 19th-Thursday 25th: Power armour and any extra bits.

 

I'm pretty sure this list covers most of what I need to do, but there will inevitably be the odd bits and pieces that I haven't accounted for.

 

The only unknown element is how long the armour will take to paint.  I've given myself just short of a week, but on thirty-four models, that's still nearly six a night, so I might get a bit pressed towards the end.  The best thing I can try and do is to claw back some time on the smaller, easier bits and then maybe I can get a day or two extra.

 

Of course, that's not even taking into consideration the Drop Pod...