A Little Time Off

Dear Readers,

It's time for a little holiday to enjoy the Summer(*) until the New Year.
Hope you have a good holiday season and look forward to more interactions with you all in 2012.

Cheers,
Jabberjabber

(*) Yes, it is Summer in the Southern Hemisphere.

Grey Knight Terminator

They're sorcerers.  That's my excuse.  No really.  Okay, I really am toying with the idea of a Ghost Knight army... more on that on a different day.

This "sorcerer" is a standard Grey Knight terminator with little significant conversion work applied.  The curved/tilted shield on the left shoulder pad was a bit fiddlesome to get in to place, but I think I got it in place right in the end.  Just got to drill out the holes for the ammo to come out of now and decide how I'm going to base this guy (maybe on some of these Scribor bases).

Merry Christmas

A slightly belated Merry Christmas to you all! (unless you're near the American side of the Date Line...! -- here Down Under, we're running out of daylight on Boxing Day already).

Necron Kill Team

Thinking about necron killteams / killzone squads is no longer a straight forward task thanks to the shiny new codex that is packed full of cool ideas and upgrades.  I've been toying with a couple of ideas and themes, but here's one that I like, based on models that I have (or might be likely to purchase) rather than uber-competitiveness.

7 necron warriors (91 points)

2 canoptek scarab bases (30 points)

2 deathmarks (38 points)

1 lychguard (40 points)

total = 199.

The main weakness is a reliance on gauss weaponry to inflict damage on armoured targets or troop transports.  I just hope that they're going to be uncommon!  The scarabs are there for the beast rule and entropic strike, whilst the death marks deal with any target that looks likely to do significant damage (terminators and the like).  The lychguard is the all-rounder in this team and also the fire magnet, running during the shooting phase and wanting to get in to combat quickly.  

I'd quite like to see how this list would fare against some daemons killteams (especially a Tzeentch killteam, but also a Slaanesh themed killteam might be a good testing ground).  But that's a tale for a different time.

Of An Old Plastic Space Marine

To remind myself about how far both miniatures and my painting style has come, today's post is about a (VERY) old plastic space marine miniature.

This chap is from the old Rogue Trader classic plastic sprue (RTB01).  The sculpting on the miniature is nowhere near modern standards, but analogues to these parts are now sold by Forge World.  This particular miniature is assembled with a flamer and a sergeant's head -- six parts in total would you believe!  (Although there were options to add on ammo clips, etc., this marine doesn't possess such ornamentation...). The old RTB01 boxed set is something of a collectors item these days, but I have long since assembled, painted, and sold away the majority of such miniatures I once had.  

For the paint scheme, as you can probably see, this guy is an Ultramarine.  I don't quite know what possessed me to paint up a bunch of Ultramarines back in the day -- Grey Knights would have made more sense (they use sorcery after-all, right?), but they fought regularly with my friend's orks over rugs and book-pile hills.  There's not much to be said about the painting: it is a blue undercoat, followed by old-school blue ink (check out the "shine" from the inked parts -- the old ink really did glisten in the right light, I still have a few pots, but only tend to use the green ink on plaguebearers for deliberate effect) and some blue drybrushing for the main part.  

Whilst I'm a little nostalgic about the old marine, the present day space marines are superior in sculpt, and much nicer to paint!

Dark Eldar: A Cause for Re-Thinking Marks of Chaos on Raptors?

For a squad of chaos raptors, an icon of Khorne seems optimal from a previous analysis (see: parts I and II).

However, in recent times, the advent of dark eldar has got me re-thinking this conclusion.  Lots more players are taking dark eldar (and there's still the die-hard eldar fans ... much like I'm a die-hard chaos marine and daemons player - kindred spirits). So, should I reconsider the Icon of Khorne?

I'll resurrect the three options that I was toying with originally: the raptor champion armed with a power fist, twin lightning claws, or simple baseline raptors.  I'll put them up against ten dark eldar cabalite warriors instead of the usual space marines).

Let's look at each Icons in turn, and assuming that the raptors get the charge in.

Khorne.

With a Khorne Icon, the raptors gain an extra attack each, but they strike second.

Khorne Case 1: Baseline Raptors.

The kabalite warriors need 4+ to hit and 5+ to wound from 9 attacks.  This results in 1.5 wounds, of which, 0.5 stick.  The sybarite has a power weapon with 2 attacks.  S/He also hits on 4+ and wounds (without a save) on 5+.  That results in 0.33 more wounds, making 0.83 total.

The raptors hit on 4+ and wound on 3+ from 41 "normal" attacks (total) if everyone was still alive.  Let's assume one is dead from the dark eldar.  That means there are (only!) 37 attacks.  That gives 8.22 wounds.  (i.e. dW = 7.39).

Khorne Case 2: Power Fist.

Again, 0.83 wounds incoming from the first-striking dark eldar kabalite warriors.  Assuming that one of the regular raptors perished, they get 8x4 attacks on the charge that results in a total of 7.11 wounds. The aspiring raptor champion gets 4 attacks (2 base, 1 charging, 1 from the icon), of which 2 hit and 1.67 kill.  This gives 8.78 wounds (and dW = 7.95).

Khorne Case 3: Lightning Claws.

As above, but the champion has 5 attacks and 2.5 hit. They wound on 3+ with a re-roll for failed wounding rolls. This gives 2.22 more wounds for a total of 9.33 (and dW = 8.5).

Slaanesh.

For a Slaaneshi Icon, the chaos raptors strike simultaneously with the dark eldar.

Slaanesh Case 1: Baseline Raptors.

The raptors are still taking 0.83 wounds, but now strike back without losing anyone.  On the charge, they get (9x3)+4 = 31 attacks.  That gives 6.89 wounds (and dW = 6.06).

Slaanesh Case 2: Power Fist.

Assuming the aspiring champion survives, the raptors get 9x3 regular attacks, plus 3 power fist attacks.  The regular attacks cause 6 wounds; the power fist yields 1.25 wounds.  That's 7.25 wounds in total (dW = 6.42).

Slaanesh Case 3: Lightning Claws.

Again, we'll assume the champion survives.  The regular attacks again cause 6 wounds. The lightning claws have 4 attacks, of which 2 hit and 1.78 kill.  That gives 7.78 wounds (and dW = 6.95).

Conclusion.

The Icon of Khone is still superior.  The extra attack still outweighs the increased initiative.  Good job since I've already modelled the Icon of Khorne and don't particularly want to change!