Poor Boris the Besieger, fired already...and the Mechanicon getting sooooo close

 

My newly painted Chaos Lord, Boris the Besieger hasn't seen much action yet.  Maybe three or four games goofing around at the corner store, and just one Tournament at Jester's Playhouse (took over-all at that oddly enough).
Don't get me wrong, I like him enough, I think he fits well with the look and feel that I was shooting for with my Iron Warriors army, it's just well...

He isn't this guy

 My army just must be led by the new WarpSmith.

Oh but that is not all folks.  Under the current Codex, my army stands at about 1150 painted, with just a few hundred more points to go.  The Mechanicon rules state that they will be using any Codex out prior to October 7th, with the Chaos Codex release date set for October 6th, that means I'm in with the new book.  Now, this is good and bad.  Good in that I get to use all those fancy new rules, and hopefully get some of the new models painted in time for the Mechanicon.  On the bad side, I've only got a few weeks to make adjustments to the army and have the list finalized and emailed to the Mechanicon staff by October 20th.  An exciting time with some self induced stress just for fun!

I would be even more excited if I could find out if Chaos Terminators still have the option to take Land Raiders as dedicated transports.  If yes, then I'm in good shape, if no, then I have some serious thinking to do.

Here is a rough estimate of what I have planned for a list:

HQ: WarpSmith
Elite: 5x Terminators with a couple of Combi-weapons, and one Chain-fist
Land Raider Transport (I hope)
Troop: 10x Marines with 2x Melta, Champ with Fist and Combi
Rhino Transport
Troop: 5x Marines
Troop: 10x Cultists
Heavy: Forge Fiend
Heavy: Defiler
Heavy: Vindicator
I should have some points left over, maybe for a Dread or Aegis Defense line with Quad gun
Light on Troops, but heavy on what I feel makes and Iron Warriors army look like Iron Warriors.

Oh, I did get some pics taken at the Tournament the other day, but have been too lazy to post them.  Well not really too lazy, just been spending all my free time in a painting frenzy, trying to meet my personal set deadline for Mechanicon.

Which reminds me I gotta go, have painting to do...

Iron Warriors First Blood

I finally got enough of my Iron Warriors finished for a game, well, a small game anyway.  I challenged my son to a game of 900 points.

My list (army pictured above)
Chaos Lord in Terminator Armor, and Mark of Nurgle
Squad of 6 Chaos Marines with a Melta-gun
Squad of 7 Chaos Marines with a Melta-gun, one upgraded to Aspiring Champion with Combi-Melta and Power fist
Land Raider
Defiler with Havoc Launcher
Aegis Defense Line with Quad-gun

Below you can see the Battle Field we set up at Aether Storm Games, a Game Store down the corner from my house.  Mike is the owner and a great guy, he always keeps an area open for us WH40k guys, regardless of what events he has going on.

 My son chose to take his Dark Eldar, this shocked me a bit as I fully expected him to field the Imperial Fists he has been working on.  He managed to put 8 Dark Lances into this small force.

I rolled my Warlord trait using the Command Traits table and got the Dust of a Thousand Worlds, giving my Warlord and any friendly unit within 12" the Move Through Cover special rule.

Rolling for the mission we got The Emperor's Will, with a single objective marker in each deployment zone.  and our deployment would be Dawn of War.

Rolling for board sides and first turn, I won the roll-off and began to deploy my forces, opting to take the first turn.  You will note that as a house rule, we deploy fortifications with our deployment, and in our deployment zones, we have found that this works well for our gaming group.

 I deploy my forces in a tight group on my right board side, then in shockingly, my Son deploys his forces directly opposite of me.  This would prove to be a huge error, he knows better, he will be crushed for this mistake...
Chucky (my son) fails to seize initiative, and I begin to open fire, focusing on the two ravagers.  The combined fire power of the Land Raider, Defiler, and Quad-gun destroys one, and immobilized the other.

Chucky responds by rushing forward with his two Raiders packed with Wyches.  He scoots his two Venoms on the other side of the board to gain a good field of fire on the unit behind the Aegis Defense line.
Shooting with his Dark Lances, he doesn't even scratch the paint on any of my Vehicles, the Venoms manage to kill a couple of Chaos Marines.  The Dark Eldar are proving to be quite ineffective.

In my turn, I decide I'm going to hit the Dark Eldar while they are weak,  my Lord bails out one side of the Land Raider, while the squad bails out the other, splitting up to hit more targets.
Shooting from the Land Raider and the Defiler drops both Raiders, and one of his squads of Wyches is pinned in the process!

The Chaos Lord charges and declares a challenge, killing the leader of the Wych Cult squad, they break and flee, the Lords heavy Terminator Armor prevents him from giving chase.

Not much for him to do in his turn, his fleeing squad rallies, but wont be much help, the pinned squad can't do anything this turn (we forgot that pinned units can snap-fire, but that would have been of little consequence anyway)
On the other side of the board, his Venoms continue to harass the squad behind the Aegis Defense line.
In my next turn, my lord re-engages the Wych Squad, my combined fire power destroys the other Wych squad that was pinned the previous turn, and also contained his Warlord, the Quad-gun also drops one of his Venoms.

  In my eagerness to utterly destroy the enemy, I almost lost sight of the primary objective.  Chucky attempts to take advantage of this and moves his lone surviving Venom forward taking up a position of cover, preparing to make a play for my Objective marker, behind the Aegis line.  His other squad the one that disembarked from the destroyed Venom moves back to control his home objective.
He had been attempting to lure me into a trap, keeping me busy with the Ravagers and Wyches while his Venom squads moved in on objectives, sneaky Dark Eldar...
His Venom opens fire and forces a moral check on my Marine squad guarding the Objective which they pass.

In my turn I decide they will pay for trying to take a fortification from the Iron Warriors, I open fire on the Venom and destroy it, forcing the squad inside to disembark.  My remaining fire power finishes off the squad.

Realizing he cannot win, Chucky decides to call the game.  5(1 for 1st Blood, 1 for killing the Warlord and 3 for having an objective)-3(the Dark Eldar held an Objective) an Iron Warriors victory.

A small game I know, but I think it gave me an idea of how to use some of my units in this army.  It's play style is going to be quite different from my Space Wolves force.  As for Chucky, I think he made a critical mistake in his deployment, by deploying right across from all of my fire power.

Over-all though a blast for both sides, next time he says he is bringing his Imperial Fists, I say "bring it"

I am soooo pumped, New Chaos, new DA all in one new 40K starter box

I don't care what I have to do, that new Hell Beast, Dread thingy is going into my IW army...

In fact, I think most of the above models with a little conversion work are going to make the cut.

Not to mention I'm gonna be putting some cultists in,
looks like I'm going to have some work to do...

More progress made, and an updated list.

Believe it or not, I am actually on schedule with the pace that I set myself with this project.  Well sort of, basically the schedule I have set myself is forcing me to call certain things finished even though I would like to spend a bit more time on it.  I may go back and do some final highlights, and maybe even weathering at a later time, but I am forcing myself to the next unit when the timer rings.  For example, I allowed 20 hours of paint time for the Defiler.  It actually turned out to be more of a beast than I thought, so I didn't really get to finish all of the highlighting on the metals.  Oh well, it is just going to have to be good enough.

Here is a list of what I have done so far,
The Defiler
10x Chaos Space Marines, with 2x Melta-guns and the Champion with Power Fist and Combi-Melta
(doesn't seem like much but it is quite a dent)
Here is WIP,
the Warsmith (Modeled primed and based, will be done by Sunday)
5x Chaos Space Marines with Bolters (Most of the colors blocked out, highlights and washes started, will be done tomorrow)
Next up,
2x Rhino Transports, (I am going to build both of these, so I can paint them at the same time.  I think this process will be much faster and make the two look uniform)

If I stay on schedule, I will have an army ready for some play to start using these guys on the battle field, albeit a very small force consisting of
Chaos Lord
10x Marine Squad
5x Marine Squad
Defiler

I did let my son talk me into one game with my Chaos army at 1000 points, but I hate using unpainted models, so I wont talk about the game, other than to say, I love the Defiler...

Well let us move on to some pictures,
First up here is a WIP of Boris the Besieger my Warsmith

 Next up we have my painted models arrayed all together, so you can start to get a feel for what the army will look like on the table top

 next a close up of one of my standard marines, nothing really special about him except that I think he is cool.

 Finally a picture of my Defiler after 20 hours of painting, he is just going to have to do for now...

After some discussion with my son Chucky and his buddy Joe, my list has changed once again.  I don't think it's particularly strong, but I think it even better captures the look and feel of the Iron Warriors.

Iron Warriors Ver.4
Warsmith with Terminator Armor, Power Lance, Combi-Bolter

10x Marines with 2x Meltaguns, Champion has Combi-MG and Power Fist
Rhino with Dozerblade and Havoc Launcher

10x Marines with 2x Plasmaguns, Champion has Plasma Pistol and Power Sword
Rhino with Dozerblade and Havoc Launcher

5x Marines

4x Chosen Terminators with 4x Combi-Plasma, one has a Chainfist (I haven't decided on the Power Weapon load out of the other 3 yet)
Landraider Transport

Defiler with Havoc Launcher

Vindicator

Aegis Defense line with Quad-gun

Hopefully this will be the final draft of the list, because I already have everything for this list, and soon I will be pretty far into building and painting and changes will be more of a set back time-line wise.  Though with my luck the new Codex will be out soon and that will force me to revamp the whole list...

Iron Warriors WIP, the Defiler

Hi all, just a few quick pictures of my Defiler, it is still very much a WIP but I feel is coming along nicely.

More to come very soon!!!

The Iron Warriors project...

Well, I have finally got some real work done on the Iron Warriors project.  I have always liked the Iron Warriors, and in fact this is the 3rd Iron Warriors army that I have painted.

The trick this time around was that I really wanted to try and do them justice, but how do you make dry-brushed bolt-gun metal, with yellow and black stripes, stand out and "pop" on the table top?  

Don't get me wrong, I have seen some very good Iron Warriors armies over the years.  Unfortunately I have also seen a lot of crap...

I did a lot of research, and talked to a few of my friends to try and come up with a solution to my problem, How do I paint an Iron Warriors army to my Tournament Standard?  To be honest, I didn't like what I was hearing, the most immediate answer was usually to do the entire army in a NMM scheme.  Ouch, that wasn't going to happen.  For a couple of reasons.  1. I like the look of metal paints.  2. I have never attempted NMM before and to attempt it on a whole army seemed a fools errand for me.  3. If it is not done well, it will just look like a "Grey colored Chaos Marine army"

Then it dawned on me as I was trying to figure it out and was looking at a test model I had done for the Grey Knights I was so intent on painting.  I just need to add a little more color.  I have done this in 2 ways throughout this first squad.

1st. I used a blue wash on some of the creases of the armor, this was to give the armor a highly polished look and a bit of a color tint.

2nd. I decided on using Red for my banding instead of gold.  The gold while a nice color blends to much with the yellow and black banding that is so common in most Iron Warriors armies.  Red I feel adds a nice contrast, and is the Color of the Mechanicus, and of US army Combat Engineers.  All of which fit in with the theme of the Iron Warriors.

Below we have the first five of these Warriors...

First up a standard Bolter Marine, no real conversion work here, just what I hope is going to be the "standard" for paint across this army

Next we have a Melta-gun armed Marine, one of two for this squad.  Note the old metal Legion of the Damned back pack with skulls, it was sitting in my bits box and I thought it too cool not to use.

Next we have the Squads Aspiring Champion, armed with a Combi-Melta and a Power Fist.  He wears Red Robes (as will all of my squad leaders) has the Warsmiths right arm, a Terminator Fist arm, a helmet from the possessed.  I really think that this model well represents the look and feel that I am going for through the entire army.

Next we have another Bolter Marine, this model was just assembled on a whim when I was bored one night, and he was elected to be the test bed for the paint scheme.

Yet another Bolter armed Marine

 
And above we have the whole squad formed up and ready for battle, well I guess I shouldn't say the whole squad, as I have the other 5 men assembled and in various stages of finish.  I expect they will be done by the end of the week.

Then its on to the first of the Rhino Transports.
I know that this paint scheme may not be to everyone's taste, but I really think that it accomplishes what I am setting out to do.
Of course all comments are welcome, and thanks everyone for reading.

Damn my army A.D.D. now I'm working on Iron Warriors...

I wish I could focus, but my mind has been everywhere of late.
I currently have 3 projects running all at once (4 if you count the one that I'm just making purchases for and haven't even begun yet).  Lets do a quick run down...
1. Warriors of Chaos for WHFB, I have been enjoying building and painting this army, but with 6th ed. for 40k just being released my interest in Fantasy has been waning, I'm sure my fire will be stoked once the rumored new army book is released for these bad boys.
2. Elysian Drop Troops, I have been making progress, and I like the way the army is coming along, but with so many changes to the rules in 6th edition, I want to wait until I get a better grip on things before I press forward.
3. Iron Warriors, the rumored new codex has me stoked, and I have been building and painting Chaos Marines as fast as I can (which is not very fast mind you) it now looks that this may be the army I am going to take to the Mechanicon this year, if all goes according to plan.

All this painting, army list constructing, wish listing for the new book, converting, and so on has led me to looking back to the early days of 40k, and my previous brushes (see what I did there? brushes?) with the forces of Chaos.

Way back in the early days of 2nd edition, I had built a Chaos force.  Mostly Iron Warriors, and that primarily was Terminators.  Then 3rd edition came along, and with that a new codex.  I found that the new codex lacked character, and for a long time I shied away from Chaos.  That was until the 3rd Chaos Book came along.  This third installment of the Chaos Codex is in my humble opinion the best Codex that Games Workshop has ever put out.  It had everything in it, lots of cool wargear options, rules for the legions, the list goes on and on.  There was no reason why any two Chaos Warbands should look the same. 

So, once again I took brush to model and painted up my second Iron Warriors army, and I had many battles and much fun.  That was until the release of the bland piece of shit we call the current Chaos Codex.  Are you starting to see a trend here?  If the trends follow suit I am expecting great things from this new book. 

In my humble opinion, there is much at stake here as well, not just Chaos Marines, but a trend to be set for 6th edition as a whole.  The current Chaos Codex was written during a "dumbing down" of Warhammer 40k, which left the book bland and lifeless, I thought they would have learned their lesson with the 3rd edition book, but it seems history was destined to repeat itself.  Anyways, with this new 6th edition rules set so full of character, and focused on narrative, and grand heroic battles I am really looking for this, what is rumored to be the first codex of 6th edition to really be a grand affair.

So, I have gone out on a limb and put together a full 10 man Chaos Marine Squad, five of them are already painted, and I have the second five assembled and primed waiting to be painted.  (I will post some pictures up later this week)

I have made a rough list, to give me something to paint towards, but was sticking with basic Chaos Marines, in case the new book had some shiny new toys I wouldn't be able to resist.  Unfortunately it looks like the new Chaos Codex isn't going to hit the shelves in August like I thought, which means that more than likely, the old Codex is going to be used for Mechanicon.

So my plan is to push forward,

Here is the list I came up with so far:

Chaos Lord in Termie Armor, with Combi-Weapon, Deamon Weapon, MoN (I know, but I really want that T5)
4x Terminators with Reaper AC
Land Raider Transport
5x Terminators with Reaper AC
Land Raider Transport
Squad 1: x10 Asp Champ, PF and Combi-MG, 2x MG
Rhino with Dozer, and Havoc Launcher
Squad 2: x10 Asp Champ, PW and PP, 2x PG
Rhino with Dozer, and Havoc Launcher
2x Defilers

a small list and probably not very competitive, but I think it looks very "Iron Warriorish" and should be loads of fun to play.  Of course the list will probably change ten times between now and then, and if I get bored I may change armies all together.

Now, since my Fantasy Army isn't going to be done in time, what the hell do I take to Blob's Park?!