Antonius, Hero of Tenkath Hive

“Go, go, go!” shouted Antonius. At his command, sixth scout squad burst from the forest, bolters blazing. Their withering fire was directed towards the bunker held by the traitors. Up until five seconds ago, the bunker had been a brutal combat between the traitor Marines and Eldar forces. The Eldar had, finally, been slaughtered, but the Traitors now had only two men standing. A bolt of hideous red plasma scorched the ground at Antonius’ feet.

“Spread formation! Keep suppressing fire on that window!” Antonius ordered. That plasma pistol had to go, or his meager squad of five scouts would not have a chance across this open ground. Sure enough, Xian’s torso disappeared in another plasma blast. Antonius cursed loudly and redoubled his bolter fire into the building until his clip was dry.

“Knives!” Antonius shouted, and was answered by the rasp of each scout drawing their long steel blades. A Chaos Marine popped up to fire his bolter and Antonius dove through the narrow window of the bunker and clothesline tackled the traitor to the ground. The traitor instinctively rolled and kicked upward, sending Antonius flying. Antonius landed hard on his back. He opened his eyes to see the muzzle of a bolter in his face. He winced as he heard the bark of a bolter, and felt warm blood spray all over him. The Chaos Marine above him howled in pain as his arm and part of his torso were disintegrated by a bolter blast. Antonius flexed his back and jumped to his feet. The last traitor, cornered by Joel and Nbutu, swung his glowing red power sword wildly to keep the two scouts at bay. Jolath rushed in to try and close the gap forming between Joel and Nbutu, and keep the traitor pinned. He was neatly sliced in half for his efforts. Antonius screamed in wordless rage and hurled his combat knife. It spun end over end and clanked into the traitor’s wrist, forcing him to drop his power sword. Nbutu took advantage of this and quickly sunk his combat knife under the Traitor’s breastplate. Joel finished the traitor by slashing his neck.

“Are you OK sir? Joel asked.

“I’m fine. Find that beacon and shut it down.” Antonius said as he surveyed the battlefield from the relative safety of the bunker. It was a charnel house. Chaos, Orks, Eldar, and Azure Flames Space Marines littered the grounds surrounding the bunker in all directions. Antonius tried to understand how so much killing had taken only a few short minutes. Orks had made the first move, and were soundly cut down by fire from three sides. Eldar and Chaos had then taken out the forward emplacements of the Azure Flames, leaving only Antonius’ Scout Squad hidden in the trees. The only three warriors on the battlefield left standing were Antonius, and his two squadmates.

“Antonius to Vigilance, emergency Thunderhawk extraction at my coordinates. Send Apothecaries.”

“Confirmed. Medivac flight enroute. How bad is it, brother?”

“Not good. ETA on medivac?”

“Fifteen minutes. Sit tight.”

Antonius turned and addressed the remaining Scouts “Evac in fifteen. Secure the area. What the hell did we come here for?”

“This.” Nbutu said, holding up a sheaf of parchment. Antonius perused it, and his breath caught. It contained security details and shield harmonics and schematics for the planet’s main hive.

“Throne of Terra! Antonius to Vigilance! Priority one warning! Security at Tenkath Hive has been compromised! Advise them to rotate shield frequencies randomly and double their security details at the main shield generators. They have been infiltrated!”

Double Dare 40,000

Found this old story on Lexington’s site.  I wrote it when bored at work.  Enjoy!

(wa-na na!)

Marc Summers: On your mark!

(Wa-Na-Na!)

MS: Get set…GO!

Announcer: Watch as these two teams of tiny titans duke it out in the super-sloppiest battle for the fate of the galaxy in the 41st Millennium. It’s Double Dare 40,000!

A Guardsman, a Fire Warrior, and an Eldar Guardian, in red jumpsuits fire a spray of brightly colored seltzer at a Space Marine in a red jumpsuit with a funnel on his head. On the other side of the blue tiled room, a Necron, a Chaos Space Marine, and a Dark Eldar fire at an Ork with a funnel on his head, all wearing blue jumpsuits. The Double Dare theme blares in the background as Mark Summers shouts out what happening.

MS: Looks like the read team is doing good, and the blue team is doing better! Just have to get the soda past the line! Oh, the Ork is leaning back. He’s trying to catch the soda in his mouth! No, you have to get it past the line in the bucket! Well now he’s drinking from the bucket. Not a very good strategy! *buzzer sounds* OH! The red team wins! Let’s start the show.

Both teams go over to their podiums as Genestealers clean up the mess.

MS: Welcome to Double Dare 40,000! I’m your host, Mark Summers. Let’s have a round of applause for the red team, The Goody Two Shoes! *audience applauds* and the blue team, The Evil Kinevels! *more applause* Now to explain the game for the viewers at home. We ask a question to one team. They can either answer it, or if they think the other team doesn’t have a clue, they can dare them to answer it for double the amount. But be careful, because they can double dare you back for four times the amount. Then you can either answer or take the Physical Challenge. Goody Two Shoes, you won the opening challenge, here’s your first question. What are the three names of the defense stations around Armageddon?

The Red Team confers with each other.

Guardsman: Dare!

MS: Alright Evil Kinevels, what…

Ork: DUBBA DARE!

Chaos Marine: Moron! I knew that one!

MS: OK, Goody Two Shoes, do you have an answer?

Space Marine: Dante, Mannheim, and Yarrick.

MS: That’s right for two hundred Imperial Credits!

Ork: ARGH! Dat’s no fair! Dey woz supposd ta take da fizukul challunge!

MS: Next question, when can you re-roll a re-rolled die?

They confer again.

Eldar: When a master crafted weapon stacks with a psychic power?

MS: Ooooh, no, I’m sorry. The answer is: never.

Ork: HAR HAR HAR!

MS: Evil Kinevels, control goes to you. What three loyalist legions were slaughtered at the Istvaan drop site massacre?

They confer.

Dark Eldar: Dare.

MS: Alright Goody Two Shoes, Which Legions?

Tau: Double Dare.

MS: Evil Kinevels, do you have a…

Ork: FIZUKUL CHALLUNGE!

Genestealers drag out a bizzare apparatus.

MS: OK, Necron, you sit here.

Necron: …

MS: Now, the Necron will toss these slime-filled balloons to the Dark Eldar, who will catch them with this funnel that pops them and catches the slime. You then pour the slime into the Chaos Marine’s bucket, and he hands the bucket to the Ork, who pours it into the container up top. If you can fill the container to the line in 60 seconds, the bucket will empty on the Necron. Ready? GO!

The Necron initially has a tough time aiming, and the Dark Eldar gets slimy, but they establish a rhythm, and the Ork laughs mightily as the Necron is slimed just before the buzzer.

MS: WOW! We’ll be right back after these messages.

Antonius’ First Battle.

Antonius crouched in the brush of a forest. Nearby, he heard the roar of an enemy jetbike. Sergeant Daniel raised his power sword, and in unison, Antonius and his scout squad stood and readied their shotguns with a loud KA-CHACK.

“Alright, move up and stay out of sight.” Daniel ordered, pointing with his sword. Antonius took point, with Daniel and the rest of the squad trailing. He ghosted from tree to tree, and paused at the edge of the forest. He saw that 3rd Squad had engaged the enemy Eldar, and were severely outnumbered. Antonius yearned to join them as a full Space Marine, but he had at least a year of surgeries and training. He motioned for the squad, and they cautiously moved out of the forest. Suddenly, an Eldar appeared before him. It was red and had a large backpack that resembled a beetle. It raised an exotic looking weapon to him.

“Hit the dirt!” Daniel shouted. Antonius did. The alien’s weapons discharged a weblike stream of gossamer thread. Antonius heard screams behind him. He shouted in wordless rage and pushed himself up off the ground. He discharged his shotgun at one of them, but it had no effect. He ran at another of them, and kicked it in the torso. With a fluid motion, he drew his knife and plunged it into the alien’s throat. Another came at him and exploded. Daniel appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, and ran another through with his power sword. The fight seemed to take several hours, as Sergeant Daniel and Antonius fought back to back, slaughtering the aliens. Antonius fought with even more ferocity as he saw the rest of his scout squad, torn to ribbons on the ground behind him. Soon, not one of the teleporting aliens lived. Daniel turned to him.

“We’re not through yet lad! Charge!” Antonius followed him into combat with the aliens fighting 3rd squad. He fought side by side with his brothers in power armor, who stood a foot taller than him and Daniel. One of the aliens raised the butt of its shuriken catapult to Antonius’ temple and he blacked out. He awoke to Daniel slapping him gently in the face.

“Need an Apothecary lad?” He joked.

“No, I’m alright.” Antonius answered.

“Course you are!” Daniel shouted. “So, now you’ve seen action, what do you think of it?”

“What about the rest of the squad? Antonius turned to see an Apothecary standing over them. One was being carried away in a stretcher. The others had sheets draped over them.

“Joshua made it. The others weren’t so lucky. Care about the dead later. We’ve got a war to win.” Daniel clapped him on the shoulder. Antonius nodded. There would always be a war though, Antonius thought. If we stop for each casualty, we’d never get anywhere. Antonius and Daniel joined the remnants of 3rd squad aboard their Rhino, and returned to base. Antonius quietly reflected on his squad mates on the way back to base.

Rough Ridin’ with Daemons

Been a bit busy breaking in my new laptop.  I did some research on Epic strategy with Lost and the Damned, and most lists contain traitor Rough Riders.  Was going to just bu regular Guard Rough Riders when I realized I had a bunch of Daemonic Cavalry from the old Chaos sprue.  So, I sawed the Chaos Space Marines off and replaced them with Beastmen to fit in with the rest of the army and be more fluff-worthy.  After all, Rough Riders are not as good as Space Marines!  Here’s three formations, dedicated to Khorne, Slaanesh, and Tzeentch.  Nurgle didn’t have old cavalry.  Oh well, I got more where this came from if I need it.

So far, my Lost and the Damned contains:

-Four formations of Cultists, with Demagogues (Dark Wanderer, see previous Epic post)

-Four formations of Mutants, with Demagogues

-Four Stands of Chaos Space Marine Aspiring Champions (to swap out)

-24 Land Transporters (third party, from Brigade Models, will add chains, spikes, etc.)

-12 stands of all 5 types of Lesser Daemon

-One of each Greater Daemon

-8 stands of “Big Mutants” (Old Chaos Minotaurs and Trolls with Gothic Imperial Masts that look like laser pistols in their hands)

-36 square bases with the old shield-and-axe Beastmen that count as Plague Zombies (dedicated to Khorne)

-3 Hydras (to be chaosed-out)

-Two Lords of Battles

-Three Khorne Doom Blasters and One Khorne Deathdealer

-One Slaaneshi Questor scout titan

-Four Slaaneshi knight titans

-Four Imperial Guard Bombards, modded into Nurgle Plague Engines (in progress)

-2 formations of 4 Defilers from Otterman (looks just like the 40K defiler!)

-4 old Cannons of Khorne (counts as Undivided Hellfire Cannons)

Now all I need is some Tzeentch flyers and Silver Towers, possibly scratch built as regular ones are rare.

Edit: DERP!  Rough Rider formations contain SIX STANDS NOT FOUR!  I’ll get the other stands done in a bit.

On My Plate: 4-9-12

Recently re-mounted my old whiteboard, and I realized how many dang projects I have.  Here’s a re-hash so you can pity me.

-Azure Flames: YES, they’re back!  Low priority, but I still have to make a Kor’Sarro Khan stand in, add another Scout Bike, and start the Antonius Project, making Antonius my Marneus stand in.

-Orks: Gotta paint some lads!

-Imperial Guard: Low priority, but I’d like to make a 1500 pt. Creed list and paint it up.

-Warmachine: On hold, pending possibly getting out of WM entirely.  I love the minis, but hate the way the game is going: toward even bigger things.

 -Epic Marines: Still have to paint almost 9 companies, plus tanks, Navy support, and the Reaver Titan.

-Epic Orks: High priority is to finish the 3000 pt. list.  Then, just paint lads!

-Epic Lost and the Damned: Thanks to Lexington and a few ebay auctions, I have a good host of infantry and daemons.  Now, I need the more exotic things such as Daemon Engines and Chaos Altars.  A lot of this might be scratch-build.

-Gothic Dark Eldar: All built, and ordnance is printed and laminated.  Now I need to paint.  I’m thinking Teal with purple running lights and boltgun metal blades with a Mithril Silver highlight.

Necromunda: Need to choose a color scheme for the Delaques, paint my starter gang, and then paint all of the other misc. gangers.

Blood Bowl: Gotta model some cheerleaders and Coaches for the Scrappaz, possibly some Bloodweiser Babes, Apothecaries, etc.  Then, paint the Scrappaz.  Also, I bought the old “Astrogranite” styrofoam Blood Bowl board, so I’m going to create, print, and laminate custom End Zones for the Scrappaz and the Monitors.

Epic Eldar: ON HOLD.

If Lexington could just shoot me now that would be great.

New Epic Army: The Cult of the Dark Wanderer

So it seems that Epic Beastmen are pretty easy to find on ebay.  As a result of several auctions I’ve impulse-bid on, I now have the start of a Lost and the Damned army for Epic.

The above custom demagogue base forms the fluff for my army: The Cult of the Dark Wanderer.  Yes, it’s blatantly ripped off from Diablo, I admit that.  But it’s a great theme.

Now the more pertinent question: why would I want to collect the hardest army for Epic to collect?  BECAUSE IT’S THERE.

Dark Eldar Escorts

16 escorts separated into five different makes, three of each (except one that gets four).  Currently though, the one with the engine on top has only one, as I’m waiting for one more ebay auction to complete the other two.

As you can see, each escort has two magnets, just like the cruisers.  The weapons also have two each.  Now once the auction arrives, I’ll only have to drill 4 more holes and then the fleet is BUILT.

By the way, I have a new secret project or two.  Details next!

I’ve been bad: New Dark Eldar fleet for Gothic

 So I’ve been a bit busy at work.  Recently, I was bad and bid on a great Dark Eldar Battlefleet Gothic fleet.  I won.  I won too much actually, winning the five cruisers shown above.  I planned to sell two.  That didn’t happen, so I had to buy more escorts to compensate (currently shipping).

It was painted terribly, so I stripped it (and gave myself a chemical burn with paint thinner.)  I then thought: hey why not magnetize it?   It can’t be that hard.

Then I did the math.

108 holes to drill, 108 magnets to use.

*sigh* I’d better get to work.  Next: Escorts!

Love Letter to Grendel

BOLS posted this guy’s website, but I need to do so as well.  He’s been keeping a modeling blog since about 2000.  He has a lot of excellent looking projects.  Check him out:

Edit: Looks like Grendel took his site down.  Balls.

Battlefleet Gothic Teaching Game with Lexington

Lexington of Dice Abide was in town, and wanted to learn about Battlefleet Gothic.  I thought of it as a perfect time to show off my Battlefleet Gothic teaching so I headed on up to Lansing.

Bozeman – Imperial Navy

-Admiral (Ld8) with one re-roll.

-Lunar Class Cruiser True Heart

-Lunar Class Cruiser Blind Faith

-Gothic Class Crusier Verisimilitude

-Tyrant Class Cruiser Belligerent

Lexington – Chaos

-Chaos Warmaster (+2 Ld) with one re-roll

-Slaughter Class Cruiser Swiftboat of Truth

-Slaughter Class Cruiser Traitor’s Blade

-Murder Class Cruiser Domination

-Carnage Class Cruiser Overkill

Setup

Scenario: Cruiser Clash.  Zone: Outer Reaches.  Upper left had one gas/dust cloud.  Lower left had a large planet with two rings of asteroids and one ring of gas/dust.  Lower middle had two asteroid belts.  Lower right had three asteroid belts.  Asteroids were moved more towards the center of the board at both players’ agreement.  Sunward edge was at the top.

 I set up at the bottom, with the two Lunars between the planet and asteroids, and the Gothic and Tyrant between two asteroid belts.  Lexington set up at the top, with one Slaughter to the extreme left, Murder center, Carnage slightly to the right, and the other Slaughter to the extreme right.

Turn 1 – Imperial Navy.

I moved forward and turned with the Lunars.  This was a tactical error, I sould have turned the other way.

Turn 1 – Chaos

Lextington went on All Ahead Full with the Traitor’s Blade.  Other ships moved up.  Long range shooting brought down one shield on the Gothic class.

Turn 2 – Imperial Navy

The Gothic and Tyrant went on Lock On, while the Lunars wheeled to rejoin the battle.  Some minor damage to the Chaos Slaughter, forcing a Brace For Impact.  I miscalculated the distance to move the Tyrant, and so fired its torpedoes ineffectively.

 Turn 2 – Chaos

The Slaughter moved around behind the Gothic and Tyrant, while the rest of the fleet closed in.  The Tyrant was crippled.  The other Slaughter fails a leadership check when clipping the edge of an asteroid field, but a re-roll saves it.

Turn 3 – Imperial Navy

I disengaged the Tyrant.  Gothic moved up into base contact with the Carnage.  Lunars moved closer, and one went on Lock On.  The Lunars tore up the Slaughter Class Swiftboat of Truth, while the Gothic turned its guns on both the Slaughter and the Carnage, firing torpedoes as well.  The torpedoes did nothing, thanks to a poor roll, and the lances brought down the Carnage’s shields but did little else.  The Slaughter went on Brace for Impact.

Turn 3 – Chaos

Ships re-positioned to regroup.  Fire at the Gothic class forces a Brace For Impact. 

Turn 4 – Imperial Navy

Ships regrouped.  Fire lowers a shield on the Swiftboat.

Turn 4 – Chaos

Murder goes All Ahead Full to get around the asteroids.  Slaughter goes right through the asteroids, hides inside.  Carnage and other Slaughter put enough damage on the Gothic to cripple it.

Turn 5 – Imperial Navy

Disengaged the Gothic class.  Lunars bash the Slaughter, causing a BFI and crippling it.

Turn 5 – Chaos

The crippled Slaughter disengages.  The other Slaughter pops out of the asteroids and makes one of my Lunars Brace For Impact.  Does little damage.  Murder near the bottom fails to Come To A New Heading.

Turn 6 – Imperial Navy

Lunars open up on the Slaughter, crippling it.

Turn 6 – Chaos

Carnage moves to just outside the asteroids, fails to do damage to a Lunar.  Murder successfully goes on Come To A New Heading.  I forgot to take a picture for this turn end.

Turn 7 – Imperial Navy

Lunars close on the Carnage, causing it to Brace For Impact.  A Critical Hit smashes the brige, causing a permanent -3 Ld.  The Lunar that fired torpedoes Reloads Ordnance.

Turn  7 – Chaos

The Carnage fails the check to go through the asteroids, but luckily Brace For Impact saves against damage.  Fire is ineffectual.  Murder moves up to join.

Turn 8 – Imperial Navy

One Lunar goes on Lock On, other goes minimum distance, turns.  Damage to Carnage is minimal, but causes a Brace For Impact.

Turn 8 – Chaos

Fleet disengages.

Final Victory Points: Imperials: 128 – Chaos: 91.

Final Thoughts: The teaching game worked well.  I made an early mistake by splitting my forces.  I should remember Imperial doctrine: focus on one target until it is obliterated, and then move on.  Got a bit lucky near the end.  Next time, hopefully we won’t be so restricted and Lexington will have his Ork fleet done.

As an epilogue, me and a bunch of the guys chipped in for an xmas present for Lexington!  Behold stompy goodness!

He tried to eat it.