Guard vs. Wave Serpeants....giving up on the game....

Bill needed some more Nova practice so I quickly added some points to the 1500 I have been gearing up for so he could get another game in.  He's got 5 Wave sepreants and the Supplement giant HQ dude.  I brought a blob, some autocannon teams, manticores the two Psyker Battle Squads and the defense line.  The game was over after two turns.  My shooting first turn was decent, but with the pen to glance rolls, I just ended taking hull points off of whatever was in range.

Next turn the torrent of fire came down and I took most of my army off the table.  I took the rest of it off the next turn.  This is not a complaint against the Wave Serpent List.  Yes it is a slice of cheese, but my frustration has much more to do with the armies I own and the current rule sets that apply.  Dark Angels got a very fluffy fun book that has no business at a competitive event.  Regular marines are overdue for an update (not bitter, just a couple more weeks there). Blood Angels time has passed.  Guard just don't bring the bang at all like they used to.

I could try out GK or Wolves with the models that I have, but I'd be plugging holes in a doomed ship.  So what am I to do?  I'm not reinvesting in the game at this point for a new army...but I really need to see something in the Vanilla Marines book that tells me they will be competitive and not just like the Dark Angels book where they dropped the prices for models, added some overpriced artifacts and pushed it out the door.

I've always been about power armor and assault, clearly this is not the edition for me!  I'm not giving up.  I'm going to take the one gimmick out of the DA book that works and try and make it work for me.  Azrael blob here we go?

WIP: Psyker Battle Squad

Here's how the PBS is coming along.  I have all 20 modelled up, tails and snouts chopped off and the hooded cloaks from green stuff are in place.  I feel like the robes and tattered armor would be out of place if I added strictly las pistols and future cc weapons, so I stuck with the orginal skaven weaponry for the most part.  A few have las pistols and more than a few have space marine helmets as trophies impaled on the spears to give it more of a 40k feel than fantasy.  The first hood probably took me 20-30 minutes...by the time I got it down it was closer to 3.  Here's what they are starting to look like, forgive the iPictures quality.

Psyker Battle Squads

Been working on the 1500 list for the next tournament and already overhauled the list by taking out the entirety of the Dark Angels.  Straight up Guard. They are certainly a struggle as a main detachment and even more so without allies, but I feel like this will not be as big of a problem at lower point levels.

First thing's first I needed two Psyker Battle Squad and a Defense Line.  My DIY defense line was taking too long and was too far down on the priority list, so I caved and bought the kit.  Just need to scrape the aquilas off and it is good to go.  If I have time I'll do some free hand on it, or maybe add some guard kits and gear around the bases to look like it is an active defense at all times.

The Psyker Battle Squad was a challenge.  I'm not up for buying and painting 20 metal models. So I grabbed a box of Skaven instead...because they have the same number of models in one box that I need.  Good logic right?  Here's the first one remodelled all the way through.  Heads gone and tails removed since rats as guard has already been done, and done well in my gaming circle, I thought I'd go another way with these models...

Just going to have the two overseers with the banners so I can pick them out.  The rest are going to have CC weapons or pistols per the wargear.  The most will have trophies they carry of the space marines they have defeated, helmets or weapons.  Going to get trade off between modelling the others and getting some paint on this fella.  The hoods take a while to model and cure, so there is time in between to get a paint scheme started.  I was thinking of doing the tan robes I have always done for the Dark Angels models, but now leaning more towards the blue or yellow that I have been using for the rest of the Guardsmen's armor instead, to liven things up a bit.  More to come!

Gearing up for 1500

Working on a much different kind of list for the 1500 at the end of the month.  DA and Guard was  bust last time around, so I am really mixing things up with Guard and DA.  I'm hitched to the Azrael Blob.  I love how it works and finally feel I have a handle on it and didn't want to give up on that element.  That being said there were several other things in the list not working out well at all, so time for a mix up at lower levels.  I am not giving up on DA w/Guard entirely, just feel like that is better for me to work out at 1850.

Here is what I'm looking at for 1500...

Company Command Squad with Lascannon
Azrael
Platoon Command with Autocannon
40 Blob of Guard with axes, Autocannons and Flamers
Penal Legion
Scouts w/ Snipers and Cloaks
Psyker Battle Squad x2
Deathwing Hammers x2 and Plasmacannon
Lemun Russ Eradicator
Aegis Defense Line w/ Quadgun

Should be getting in my first practice game with this on Friday and working on it all week to get it painted up.

1. Assemble Quad Gun
2. Remove Aquila from Aegis Line
3. Make sure Snipers are wysiwyg
4. Test subject for the Psyker Battle Squad - need to make sure the hoods look good....
5. Fix center of the display board
6. Paint Penal Legion
7. Clean up DW Terminators
8. Finish Azrael
9. Clean up CCS
10. Clean up PCS
11. Clean up the Blob
12. Assemble Psyker Battle Squads with green stuff hoods/cloaks
13. Details to the Aegis Defense line, then prime and paint
14. Clean up the LR Eradicator

Looks like I have quite a bit to do...you'll notice that I have left the harder parts until the end.  If I don't love the list I may just finish painting a few bikes and run an all Ravenwing list instead which would compete well for best painted and be fun to play.

40K Shark Week

Playing lately has been a disaster so ere going to focus on modeling this week and it happens to be Shark Week so....

Here's the chapter master of the Shark Marines! This is a left over I have been meaning to get to for months but couldn't find a proper sized shark. Helping clean out my mother in laws attic two weeks ago we came across this and BAM!

Next up I'm taking a hand at painting a necron....