SUS continued.

Some more work on the SUS. Did a hand-rubbed gloss coat made from gel, retarder, umber and a rag. This deepened up the tone a little bit; I had wanted a warmer tone than what boot polish could provide.

The rag, and the egg poaching cup where I mix most of my paint.

Its okay to use waterslide on terrain, I think.

I rubbed the paint off the surface of the signs.  The signs were applied with PVA glue, and a thin wash of the glue was spread across the surface.  This allows me to paint with an acrylic on top, and rub off what isn't needed when it half-hardens.

The radar dish points directly to the Standard Process Drone Signal Satellite (SPDSS) positioned in synchronous orbit with the SUS.

SUS work.

The SUS. Seen years earlier in the blog, this piece of terrain will be used in the upcoming Big Game event this year. The control panel modeled by the hive ganger will be used as an in-game objective that will communicate with the planetary defense network drones. These drones have been commissioned by Central Services and funded by the Narendra Corporation ( now dissolved).

We had our first run at Shadows of Brimstone tonight. We didn't get very far, K and Moira and I. However, I found myself impressed with the mechanics of the whole thing, the combat is clean and avoids pitfalls of target allocation (done after hits are resolved) and variable weapon damage (almost everything does a d6). I think I can love this game. Void Spiders are a helluva lotta fun to kill, especially when the Marshall flashes his badge at the Gunslinger. Difficulty remembering some gear modifiers and what-nots, I kept forgetting to use my locket with my ma's photo in it to catch my breath a bit more. This will improve with familiarity of the rules, I'm sure.

Merry Christmas. My first matting of a Christ face came today, as well as reflections upon the local clergy, and their curious translation of the Christmas Spirit. I hope the holiday, whatever your beliefs, brings you joy.

The bound feet of the travelers in the Road to Emmaus panel were certainly influenced by the footgear of Grots. How could I not?

Happy Birthday To Me. Arrived serendipitously via UPS today! Can't wait to unbox and play through!

new acquisition from eBay. Scored a third predator tank, simply for the Chronos fluff list and for apocalypse formations, because they are so damn cool. The model is in great shape, I should be able to prime it without much ado. I'll keep it armed with Autocannon and twin las cannons, keeping my other predator as an option and my annihilator complete. Wheeee

Apoc Luck from the NGC pt. 2

On to deployment for the Madison Narrative Gamer's Club Apoc Luck Finale for 2014.

For the first part and some close-up shots of the participant models please follow the unfortunately named link: http://excursionsbeyondthecall.blogspot.com/2014/11/i-got-to-participate-in-frequently.html


On to deployment.  I got to deploy right-in-the-middle-a-little-bit-to-the-right.  The Eldar player was next to me, offering me good support.  It reminded me of being on the edge of mosh pits back in the day.  I'm a slight fellow, and I'd always look for an Anchor-of-the-Pit to stand next to just so I wouldn't be bowled over when gravity and momentum would swing toward me (I'm lookin' at you, Alpine Valley).

Early deployment.

The Eldar anchor next to me.

Some of my Errants in terrain.  Also, some Imperial Fists behind them that I was given to play to "even out the teams."

Early turn one.  I deployed some scouts and flat-outted a speeder to the central objective, lying gracefully in a crater.  I'm sure earlier in the battle, before we got here, something was destroyed here and really needed to be recovered.  This would be the only objective I would fight for this day, really, and a few times I held it.  The objectives had an NGC 40 text on them, and on the flip side they read, "GO BIG OR GO HOME."

Some of the cool themed terrain for the event.  The campaign was titled "The Honoured Sons of the Collatus Sector."  Note the NGC 40K text on the billboard.  Of course, I had to station my new scouts upon it!

The other side of these excellent terrain pieces, obviously this event was supported by Mechanical Warhorse.  If you guys are out there, MW, give my blog some love, will ya?

To the right of me.  A strong showing of marines in bastion, and flyers swooped in formations.

Eldrad and some wraithguard and some other things were in this Eldar flyer.  It got shot down turn one, and everyone on board died.  Not so great.  In this shot, note the helldrakes flying across the board making a bee-line for my massed marines in my deployment zone.  Also, note the landraiders to the left, Marneus Calgar had "Camoflage" for the first turn, giving me an invaluable 3+ cover save when I used my smoke launchers.

Turn one, my Imperial Fists Scouts and Landspeeder tried to hold ground against the Chaos advance.  They didn't fare so well, but at least soaked up some bullets.  So it is in the 41st millennium.

Chaos forces on my right flank streak across the sky with interceptors.

Marneus Calgar, the Honor Guard, a Chaplain and a Librarian pile out from the Landraider Redeemer and step forth to challenge the Brass Scorpion.  Marneus tosses a Vortex Grenade and nails the critter on its tail; four hull points were removed when it made a direct hit.  Marneus would charge the creature in his assault phase.  The Brass Scorpion killed two honor guard (including the chapter champion, could have used him later for sure) but then Marneus tore the Brass Scorpion to pieces.  The machine detonated, and the rest of the honor guard stood firm.  Fun stuff.

In our backlines, scores of marines find out what three helldrakes feels like.

This didn't got down so well...

A shot of the table at the end of turn two.  Note that the Brass Scorpion ahead of my marines is missing...

My venerable dread finds itself ambushed by a Chaos Lord deepstriking behind him.

While he should have been supporting the Veterans.  These vets mopped up a Chaos Marine Squad, but then found themselves outmatched by the Chaos Dreadnaught.  Due to a bad "Look Out Sir" roll, the Sergeant with the Melta Bombs and Relic Blade had fallen in the previous combat; all that was left were lightning claws and chainswords.  That doesn't do well versus armored juggernauts like these.

At points in the battle, large debris from a space cruiser came hurtling down to the planet's surface.

When it impacted, the concussion was felt across the battlefield.

Anything it touched was removed from play...

...and what was left was a smoking crater.

That deepstriking Chaos Lord?  We decided massive amounts of gunfire would do the trick.  It did.

Meanwhile, Marneus Calgar and the Honor guard had moved to that central objective.  They withstood heavy amounts of firepower by calling down terminators to deepstrike around them to absorb the firepower.  Their plan would have worked well, but then Abbadon and a bunch of really bad, bad dudes teleported in right next to him.  Challenges were issued.

Marneus and Abaddon face off in the challenge...

And it was almost no contest.  Marneus already had taken a wound before, and it was the wound that broke his back.  Taking three wounds before he could attack, the Chapter Master was cut down in his tracks.

The game was won by Chaos, 5 to 3.  I'm not quite sure how all the points played out, and who recycled what units, but that's not important. 

I enjoyed the event immensely.  I really felt like my army represented to some amount, despite not having a single apoc unit or formation out there.  I took a hard lickin' but kept on throwing units at that single objective.  There was a tally of units killed and I actually claimed more units killed than any other player (however improbable).

This was the best Apocalypse game I've played in, the timed rounds were nice and it was pleasing to get home in a timely manner.  J and I even had time to shop in the store afterwards.

Good job, Peter.

Apoc-Luck from the NGC pt 1

I got to participate in the frequently occurring Narrative Gamer's Club Apoc Luck battle.  This one was the end of the run for this year, J ( http://apostlesofcontagion.blogspot.com/ ) came over early on a bus and we jetted across to the West Side to play at Pegasus Games ( http://www.pegasusgames.com/ ).  I used to be a Last Square patron, but since they've moved to who-knows-where I've started going to Pegasus.  I've gotta tell you, I've received nothing but excellent customer service at Pegasus, so much so that I'll drive all the way across town to be engaged by the sales staff, asked if I would like to pre-order items, be given a discount anonymous VIP card, and be exposed to a clean and well stocked store.

Cutomer Service.  Misty Mountain Games, this is what you lack, FYI.

Anyways, I had a great time.  Let's start with some deployment.

J's Iron Warriors on full display.  My 5,000 points are behind his.  The scout titan isn't mine, it was assigned to me at the beginning of the battle to even out teams.  I was also given 2k of Imperial Fists!  Most of my points were sunk into expensive HQ and veteran squads loaded aboard landraiders.

The battlefield before deployment.

The squadron of Thunderbolts.  Awesome stuff.

An amazing Eldar army, wonderfully painted.  And some Mountain Dew.

A mix of some of the chaos and ork forces.

For my hardware-store friends, wonderfully simple conversions of cannons made from spark plugs.  This particular ork player cannot say more good things about ork artillery units.  He uses them extensively.

Some more Chaos forces...

Nurgle...

...kept getting more and more frightening...

Plague drones.  I love these models.

Some of the painting was outstanding.

As were the conversions,

...with really excellent details like these.

Obliterators.

Tables teeming with orks.  Grey ones.  Ethmongul should take note that Zazdakka has spread his genes unwittingly around the galaxy.

Next post will highlight some of the battle action.