+++Rescue Mission Battle Report+++

Welcome back to Obsidian Tower! Today for your enjoyment is a battle report of our custom rescue mission, featuring Lt. Varras. 

Left: The Battlefield    Right: The Bunker

The mission is simple. Escort Lt. Varras to the friendly deployment zone before time runs out. If he dies, Space Marines lose. If time runs out, Space Marines Lose. The Space Marines are on the clock this time. They desperately need to complete their mission before their off-world transport is overrun!

 Deployment

With the mission in mind, Zac's 62nd Cadians Square off against the Ultramarines 2nd Company. Ready to rip into their armor with a ferocity and firepower the Guard are known for.

Turn 1

 Slow Open

Not much happened turn 1, both armies started quite far apart. So the opening turn was utilized to maneuver to more advantageous firing positions. This gave the 62nd a chance to lockdown their firing lanes before a drop pod touched down!

Turn 2

"Blast 'em!"

The 62nd were quick to react to the threat on their frontline with a withering volley of plasma fire!

Left: Colonel 'Iron Hand' Straken fires the final shot and destroyed the Dreadnaught

Right: Immediate re-enforcements touch town to fire anti-tank into exposed rear armor!

The vanguard of the Ultramarines focuses on the 62nd's powerful tanks in an early gambit to cripple their overwhelming firepower. Out of the two speeders meant to touch down, only one managed to find his mark. The other suffered a terrible accident!

Leman Russ Executioner is destroyed!

Turn 3

Left: The 62nd Cadians maneuver their Taurox to block Lt. Varras inside the bunker!

Right: Scions deep strike mishap and find themselves far away from the battle.

In a particularly cunning move, the 62nd Cadians attempt to prevent Lt. Varras from leaving the bunker by physically blocking the opening! This certainly complicates the mission for the Ultramarines.

Left: The Ultramarines form a firing line in an attempt to rout deep-striking Scions.

Right: Ultramarines arrive at the bunker amidst heavy resistance.

Turn 4

The Veterans of the 62nd fire into the Ultramarines Rhino and destroy it!

The Taurox is a powerful vehicle indeed; but with the additional firepower of the Veterans inside, the Rhino didn't stand a chance.

After suffering significant casualties, the backfield Scions form a counter attack!

The Punisher.

Zac's punisher certainly didn't want that land speeder shooting it's rear armor! It killed it 6 times over.

Desperate push!

Lt. Varras found himself essentially trapped inside the bunker now. As a response, the Ultramarines unleashed their veteran Terminators to clear out the Guard and make way for Varras. The survivors of 2nd squad pushed up the left flank to hold off incoming attackers.

Left: Scions engage in close quarters combat

Right: Ultramarines move to secure backfield

The First Company unleashes the fury of Ultramar on a defiant Taurox!

Ultramarine Terminators manage to clear the way. Cadian Veterans fall back and take up defensive positions in the face of a ferocious foe.

Turn 5

Counter Attack!

The 62nd Cadians make one last push forward in an attempt to halt the Ultramarines.

Lt. Varras sprints to the Land Raider!

Left: The Terminators make one last push in an attempt to cover the retreat.

Right: The Land Raider fires at the enemy command tank!

Left: A small skirmish keeps the remaining Scions right of deployment busy

Right: The Land Raider races against the clock

The Ultramarines are on the brink of victory, however they are a turn behind schedule. Due to the keen positioning of the Taurox, Lt. Varras is outside the deployment zone at the end of Turn 5!

Left: Ultramarines bog down anti-tank Scions in their deployment zone.

Right: The Last Stand of 1st Company

The Turn 6 Dice is rolled and...

Game Over!

The Ultramarines were too slow Rescuing Lt. Varras. The Thunderhawk waiting just south of the battlefield was overrun and Lt. Varras did not escape! I hope you enjoyed, more to come!

Custom Mission

In my last post you might have noticed the old Lieutenant Varras model from The Battle for Macragge. While I was painting, I had an idea for a fun mission that could use Varras. Since I couldn't find any rules for him online, I took the liberty of writing up some rules to use in a custom scenario.

Custom rules for Lt. Varras

So it's a rescue mission for the Space Marine player. Each player starts out with a 1' deployment zone on the short table edge.

Deployment

Varras starts out inside a bunker just outside the enemy deployment zone. The bunker cannot be targeted, so essentially Varras is safe until the Space Marine player chooses for him to leave the bunker. Once he leaves the bunker he cannot re-enter the bunker. The fate of the mission hinges on whether or not the Space Marine player can safely guide Varras to his deployment zone table edge alive. If the enemy army successfully kills Varras, the mission is over and the Space Marine player loses.

I'm looking forward to trying out this mission and possibly tweaking some of the rules if it proves to be either too easy or too hard.

Breaking into the hobby & reworking old models

Today i'd like to talk about how to break into the Warhammer hobby on the cheap cheap.

It's time to get NASTY

First off, you might think the hobby is expensive if you are to buy new, straight from Games Workshop. While this is true, almost no one does this when they start collecting. Recruit a friend and try to go in 50/50 on a starter box to offset that cost. But if you already have some friends in the hobby, try to bum some old shitty models. Everyone who's been playing for any significant amount of time has those models that they could live without.

Interrogator Chaplain on a Bike

Out of all the old models I was able to collect through various sources for free, i've managed to put this guy together. So always keep an eye out for a bargain.

Now that you have some models, it's time to paint em'. While many a doofus will try to convince you "Simple Green" is the best way to strip a bad paint job, don't listen. The only reliable way i've found to strip that shit off is Pine Sol. Try to get the lemon kind since the smell isn't as strong. And NO it won't melt the plastic. This is a common misconception.

Okay now that you've let your dudes soak for a few hours, scrub that shit off with an old toothbrush till it looks something like this.

The tattered forgotten soldiers of the 41st millenia

Now it's time to paint! You're first paint job is going to suck. It's just a fact of life, but, since you got your models cheap it's okay. It's a great way to learn, and if you hate it later, you can always strip it and try again when you are better at painting. 

So you want to know how to paint huh? Well, I could tell you. But it's way easier to let someone who is an expert show you! So I highly recommend THIS guy if you are just starting out. SDub is one of the best painters i've found on youtube. He is a wealth of knowledge that will definitely cut down on your learning curve. I wish he was making videos when I started!

Remember, keep at it. Your painting will improve with practice. 

Okay that does it for now, more to come.

The Deathwing

In my last post I mentioned how I was painting the last member of the deathwing command squad and gave you a little teaser with my Converted Apothecary. Well, i've finally finished the squad. Now that the glue is dry, it's time to show them off!

Somebody say Cypher?!

Not all the terminators are done yet, but those that are look good! Once I get those Deathwing Knights painted up I'll have all the terminators done. I can't wait to play with these guys!

Converted Deathwing Command Squad

So here's a closer look. Finished not even an hour ago. Entirely converted from the Dark Vengeance and Command Squad kit. The banner was really fun to paint, and I really like how my Champion turned out.

Deathwing Terminators

Here is a closer view of the regular Dark Vengeance Terminators in case you forgot what they look like unmodified.

 Cypher and Interrogator Chaplain

For those of you with a keen eye, you may have spotted cypher in that first picture hiding amongst the Deathwing. Here is a closer shot of him and his hunter, my Interrogator Chaplain.

Well, that'll do it for this update. Keep an eye out for more to come.

Conversions

I've always like conversions. They are a subtle way to add a bit of unique flavor into your minis. So today I think I will show off some of mine.

 Captain Sicarius Iron Halo Conversion

The banner on this guy was really poorly painted and made me cringe every time I looked at it. So what better way to fix that than to clip the dumb thing off? Plus, he fits a lot better in the travel case now.

 Assault On Black Reach Captain Conversion

This model was actually a repaint as well. Once I had all the paint stripped off, I figured I might as well add a helmet and change his backpack.

Space Marine Librarian Helmet Conversion

Terminator Librarian Storm Shield Conversion

Simply adding a helmet or modifying the wargear to make your model wysiwyg is a great way to start converting your models.

Red Corsair Plasma Gun Mutation Conversion

Obliterator Terminator Helmet Conversion

Now I can't honestly take credit for these two conversions, but that plasma gun arm is pretty sick. And hey, if you have a spare terminator helmet laying around, look how good it looks on the obliterator!

Havoc Launcher Conversion

Now I do love to magnetize my weapon options, so this conversion was done to make my rhino options wysiwyg. Plus, since it's magnetized, it even swivels around!

Dark Vengeance Apothecary Conversion

So since Dark Vengeance terminators are so abundant at the moment, I decided to take advantage of the cheap offers on ebay and buy too many. Since I also managed to acquire some Deathwing Knights via a friend, I had the spare bits left over to make an entire command squad. I'm actually painting up the last member of the command squad at the moment. (keep an eye out for that update.) Anyway, look what can be achieved from just swapping a few arms around!

Grey Knight Space Marine Librarian Conversion

This last one was done by my friend Corey. It is a custom librarian made from a grey knights kit! What a great idea! This certainly gives you a lot of options for modeling wargear. I may just make my own librarian in the future.

Anywho that's all for now.