keskiviikko 29. marraskuuta 2017

Path to Glory: Blades of Khorne

Our Path to Glory campaign has ended. I didn't do so well in it, but at least I painted all of these!


tiistai 17. lokakuuta 2017

Shadespire minis

We got a demo kit of Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire last week, and I spent the weekend painting the minis. I'm going to take these to our Age of Sigmar game night and show the game to everyone interested.










lauantai 7. lokakuuta 2017

Adeptus Mechanicus Review: Warlord Traits and HQ

Welcome back. Now let's read through the Warlord Traits and see what kind of HQ options AdMech has.


Warlord Traits


Monitor Malevolus: A chance to get back Command Points every time anyone uses a Stratagem. Very nice ability to have. It's like starting the game with extra one or two Command Points. Oh, and a single reroll for your Warlord as a minor bonus.

Magos Biologis: Reroll failed wound rolls against non-vehicles for your Warlord. Can be useful if your Warlord first shoots at some big Tyranid monster and then charges into it while swinging the Omnissian Axe or something. Situational at best.

Mechadominator: A cool name for the trait, but that's about it. More protection against enemy vehicles trying to shoot your leader.

Necromechanic: Now this one has both a cool name and a nice ability. Very useful if your Warlord is hiding behind a Knight or in the middle of a group of Dunecrawlers or Kastelans.

Chorister Technis: Poor man's Cawl. Another chance to get that Shroudpsalm.

Prime Hermeticon: It would be nice to have this for a close combat army, but how can your Warlord keep up with Sicarians? Could be useful if you run Corpuscarii Electro-Priests, as you'll get rerolls for ones in the Shooting phase and reroll everything in the Fight phase. Would be better if AdMech had any transports... Forgeworld, I'm talking to you.


Forge World Traits


(Note, these are the traits you can/should use if you want to stay true to your Forge World's lore.)


Mars: More range for your reroll bubble, yay. Cawl has to use this.

Graia: Shoot assault and rapid fire weapons even while in close combat. This benefits mostly Rangers and Vanguards, but most of them will be dead after the first Fight phase anyway.

Metalica: This is useful if your opponent tries to lock your shooty units into close combat.

Lucius: +1 to your Warlord's invulnerable save. That's 4+ for your Dominus and 5+ for Enginseers. It's nice if you have Dominus as your Warlord.

Agripinaa: Damage reduction against weapons that deal more than 1 damage per unsaved wound. But completely useless against massed bolter fire.

Stygies VIII: Die, Xeno scum!

Ryza: More strength and damage for one of the Warlord's weapons. Nice.



HQ Units


Adeptus Mechanicus is really limited in HQ choices even after the codex gave us a third (or second, if you don't play Martians) HQ unit to choose from.

Belisarius Cawl

Probably the oldest, and most brilliant, Tech-Priest alive in the Imperium. He helped the Emperor in the development of the black carapace, served as a Forge Lord, Lexico Arcanus and as Magos Biologis, and now he wants to be the Fabricator General of the Mars Forge World. Best buddies with Guilliman himself.

Cawl does everything you want. He dices, he slices, he hands out rerolls for Martians, he lets you modify the dice when rolling for Canticles, and even heals himself while doing all that. All this for mere 13 power. And that's not all! He even carries Solar Atomiser, a BFG, with him. And he makes additional 2D6 S5 close combat attacks with the Mechadendrite Hive. The only downside is that you need a Mars detachment to field him.


Tech-Priest Dominus

They are the commanders of the Cult Mechanicus, ruthless leaders of Skitarii Legions, Electro-Priesthood and Legio Cybernetica.

This is your go-to HQ character. He heals himself and can also fix Knights and other AdMech units. He gives rerolls to hit rolls of one in the Shooting phase for units near him (Knights don't get the reroll).

Equipment:
Omnissian Axe, which is a slightly better Power Axe.

Volkite Blaster or Eradication Ray. The latter seems like a better choice; it's Heavy D3 vs Heavy 3, but comes with AP-2, and even better AP and Damage when shooting short range.

Macrostubber or Phosphor Serpenta. The Macrostubber is a pistol weapon, so it can't be used with other weapons, but it's cheaper and has more shots.


Tech-Priest Enginseer

The engineers of the Imperium, maintaining and repairing the engines of war, and also caretakers of the machine spirits, soothing them with binaric prayers and rites.

The cheaper HQ choice for filling out the HQ requirements of battalion (or even brigade) detachments. Can fix units, but doesn't have the reroll aura, or any equipment options.



That's it for the limited HQ choices the army has. Next, the Troop choices of Adeptus Mechanicus.

tiistai 3. lokakuuta 2017

Adeptus Mechanicus Review: Canticles and Dogmas

After reading and watching few reviews of the new codex, some positive, some really salty, I wanted to write my own take on the book. I'll start with the Canticles and Dogmas and continue with the units and stratagems in future posts.

Official Errata and FAQ 1.0: https://whc-cdn.games-workshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Codex_Adeptus_Mechanicus_ENG.pdf


Canticles of the Omnissiah


At the start of each battle round you either roll on the Canticle table or pick one you haven't picked before. Any extra rules the activated Canticle gives your units will be in effect immediately. All but one of these are pretty straightforward, more on that one later.

Incantation of the Iron Soul: Your army gains ATSKNF. It's a fine rule to have, but it only helps with full sized Skitarii, Sicarian and Electro-Priest units. Those units gain more from other Canticles, so this one is situational at best.

Litany of the Electromancer: This is the weird one. Does it only work against enemy units in close combat at the start of the battle round or does it work whenever enemy unit comes within 1" of your units? The first FAQ doesn't address this issue. Or maybe I'm the only one who doesn't understand this? Anyway, roll a D6 for each enemy unit in close combat and on a result of 6, deal D3 mortal wounds to that unit. Not great, unless you manage to lock your opponent's entire army into close combat at the beginning of a battle round and then get few lucky rolls.

Chant of the Remorseless Fist: Reroll hit rolls of one in the Fight phase. Good for melee army.

Shroudpsalm: This is what you almost always want; everything counts as being in cover. You'll get the +1 to armor save even with vehicles! No need to have them at least 50% obscured by something. This is the Canticle to pick on first battle round, usually.

Invocation of the Machine Might: More strength for your units. Good for melee army.

Benediction of the Omnissiah: Reroll hit rolls of one in the Shooting phase. Great backup if your Dominus dies or gets lost somewhere.


Forge World Dogmas


Mars: This one is good if you want to fish for that elusive Shroudpsalm every turn, or if you want to include Cawl in your army. Both of those work well with the other...

Graia: FNP, but different. Use this if you play lots of Skitarii and Electro-Priest units. With this rule, Electro-Priests have 5+/5+/6+ saves against everything!

Metalica: Advance and shoot assault weapons (rapid fire becomes assault, too) without penalty. Skitarii horde, anyone?

Lucius: More durability for your units against Bolt Rifles, Heavy Bolters, Autocannons and such. It's great if you mostly play against Marine armies.

Agripinaa: Doubles the effectiveness of your overwatch. Probably the worst of the Dogmas.

Stygies VIII: This is the Dogma for power gamers. It makes your whole army more durable in firefight.

Ryza: If you want melee centric AdMech army, this is great. I painted my army with Ryza color scheme during seventh edition, so I'm sticking with this Dogma.


Next time I'll take a look into Warlord Traits and HQ units.

lauantai 19. elokuuta 2017

Fate of Konor: 1000pts tournament

Few images from a small tournament I organised. I played AdMech as a backup if there would have been odd number of players.



+++ AdMech 1000pts (Warhammer 40,000 8th Edition) +++

++ Patrol Detachment (Imperium - Adeptus Mechanicus) ++
Rules: Canticles of the Omnissiah

+ HQ +

Tech-Priest Dominus: Macrostubber, Omnissian Axe, Refractor Field, Volkite Blaster
. Rules: Refractor Field

+ Troops +

Kataphron Destroyers
. Kataphron Destroyer: Heavy grav-cannon, Phosphor blaster
. Kataphron Destroyer: Heavy grav-cannon, Phosphor blaster
. Kataphron Destroyer: Heavy grav-cannon, Phosphor blaster

Skitarii Rangers: Omnispex
. 3x Ranger (Arc Rifle): 3x Arc rifle
. Ranger Alpha: Arc maul, Arc pistol
. 6x Skitarii Ranger: 6x Galvanic rifle

Skitarii Vanguards: Omnispex
. 6x Skitarii Vanguard: 6x Radium Carbine
. 3x Vanguard (Plasma caliver): 3x Plasma caliver
. Vanguard Alpha: Arc maul, Arc pistol

+ Heavy Support +

Kastelan Robots
. Kastelan Robot: Incendine Combustor
. . Heavy phosphor blasters: 2x Heavy Phosphor blaster
. Kastelan Robot: Incendine Combustor
. . Heavy phosphor blasters: 2x Heavy Phosphor blaster

Onager Dunecrawler: Broad Spectrum Data-tether, Cognis heavy stubber, Eradication beamer

Created with BattleScribe (https://battlescribe.net)

maanantai 10. heinäkuuta 2017

lauantai 11. helmikuuta 2017

Belisarius Cawl

The biggest problem with the "GW hobby" is that they release so beautiful miniatures. My Iron Warriors project has been set back by yet another great release; the Triumvirate of the Imperium.





torstai 12. tammikuuta 2017

Techmarine and rebasing genestealers

When inspiration hits, you have to paint. I've had this techmarine sitting on a shelf for some time now just waiting for some paint. Then few days ago I had a day off from work and I saw the techmarine there, still waiting. So I grabbed it, and started painting, and here it is, finished. The freehands are horrible, but at least I'm getting some practice with them.






Also rebased a squad of eight genestealers. They look much better on 32mm bases. These are actually one of the first Tyranid models I painted, some years ago now, so the color scheme isn't quite the same I use for my army these days.



And a rebased broodlord. Removed the sand and cork mixture and used GW's Armageddon Dust instead, like for the rest of my army.