Epic - Battle Report - Ghaz Orks vs Adeptus Astartes - 3,000 points

Had a game to test out allowing Epic-UK powerfield upgrades in the NetEA Ghaz Orks list. Apologies in advance for the poor photo quality; there's a lamp placed just over the table that played merry hell with pictures.

The orks' list, very heavy on battle/gunfortresses, with 9 activations:
- 415 - Warband: 2 Nobz, 7 Boyz, 3 Grotz, Flakwagon, Battlefortress w/ Oddboy and Power Fields
- x3 355 - Warband: 2 Nobz, 6 Boyz, 2 Grotz, Battlefortress w/ Oddboy and Power Fields
- x2 325 - Blitz Brigade: 2 Flakwagon, 2 Gunwagon, Gunfortress w Oddboy and Supa-Zzap
- 570 - Stompamob: 3 Stompas, Supastompa, 2 Flakwagon [BTS]
- x2 150 - 3 Fighta Bommas

...vs the marine list, which was relatively straightforward/traditional, with 11 activations
- 450 - 6 Tacticals, 1 Hunter, Rhinos, Supreme Commander [BTS]
- x2 400 - 4 Terminators, Chaplain
- 150 - 4 Scouts, Rhinos
- 225 - 3 Land Speeder Tornado, 2 Land Speeder Typhoon
- 250 - 5 Land Speeders, Chaplain
- x2 200 - Thunderhawk
- x2 275 - Warhound
- 175 - 2 Thunderbolts

Objective placements marked in red.

Orks - deployed in a line across their midfield with the stompamob in the woods on the blitz.
Battlefortresses rolled 4,3,3,2 for powerfields, stompa got 2.

Marines - Terminators in thawks, tacticals in ruins on the blitz,
scouts, titans, and speeders all clustered behind the woods.

Turn 1 - Marines win initiative
M - CAP T-bolts
O - Blitz brigade on far (Ork's) right doubles and targets Scouts. Kills 1 stand for 2 blast markers
M - Warhound advances and targets the activated blitz brigade, killing 2 gunwagons for 3 blast markers
O - Warband doubles up past the corner of the cathedral and targets unactivated warhound for a blast marker
M - Tacticals advance further into the ruins, target the activated warband for a blast marker and strip 1 power field
M - Retain w/ t-hawk and air assault the just targeted warband. Lose 1 terminator and the t-hawk in exchange for the entire warband except the battlefortress
O - Warband doubles and targets warhound - takes down a void shield and adds another blast marker
M - Warhound rallies - targets warband back, stripping a power field and adding a blast marker, then removes a single blast marker of its own
O - Deja-vu: warband doubles and targets warhound - takes down a void shield and adds another blast marker
M - Speeders advance to within supporting fire range and target warband, stripping a power field and adding a blast marker
M - Retain (SC re-roll) and engage w/ second speeders, pulling in speeders and terminators as supporting fire. Strip all power fields and do 2DC to the battlefortress in exchange for 1 speeder. Orks lose 2 boyz to hackdown
O - Stompamob advances, fires at speeders, 2 kills, 3 blast markers, catches terminators under BP for another blast marker
M - Scouts fail to activate and instead remove all blast markers
O - Last warband advances and disembarks to target speeders, killing 2 and breaking them
M - T-hawk goes on CAP
O - Blitz brigade advances and targets unshielded warhound, misses, breaking it w/ a blast marker
O - Fightabombas ground attack the broken speeders with defective bombs, doing no damage after the t-bolts intercept and splash one
O - Fightabombas ground attack broken speeders. This skwadron remembers how to fire and wipes them out.

Ork end phase - both fightabombas fly off the ork edge. Everything but broken battlefortress rallies.
Marine end phase - T-bolts fly off the ork edge, taking a blast marker, t-hawk stands down. Everything but the broken Warhound rallies

Battlefield at the end of turn 1

Turn 2 - Marines win initiative
M - Warhound sustains on blitzbrigade, killing 1 flakwagon
M - Scouts retain and double onto the objective behind the woods, targeting the blitzbrigade and breaking it
O - Stompamob sustains targeting the speeders (and clipping the terminators) but rolls 4 ONES! Blast markers placed
O - Warband retains, engages terminators in btb; kills all three for 3 boyz, a nob, and a grot
M - Speeders marshal, targeting the warband that just engaged, stripping the last power field and adding a blast marker, then removes 2 of their own blast markers
O - fightabombas on CAP
M - Tacticals sustain on unshielded battlefortress w/ warband inside, 3 hits, 3 failed saves, a single  stand of Nobz emerges cursing and broken from the flaming wreckage
O - Fightabombas ground attack scouts, killing a rhino and placing 2 blast markers
M - T-hawk ground attacks unactivated blitzbrigade, kills a flakwagon and places 2 blast markers. Fightabombas intercept, losing 1 to the tactical’s hunter, and put a damage and 2 blast markers on the t-hawk
O - Blitzbrigade engages speeders; wipes them out for loss of 1 gunwagon
M - T-bolts ground attack blitzbrigade, trade blast markers
O - Warband doubles onto the objective behind the woods and shoots scouts for a blast marker
O - Warband engages scouts with just the battlefortress within 15. Scouts wiped out for no loss.

Ork end phase - fightabomas leave without further harassment, both blitzbrigades rally, neither broken warband remnant does (SC re-roll), but they move to allow for T3 objective contesting
Marine end phase - t-hawk takes heavy flak on the way out, but no damage, warhound finally rallied (SC re-roll)

Battlefield at the end of turn 2

Turn 3 - Marines win initiative
M - Warhound sustains on warband, rolls abysmally again, and kills 2
O - Fightabombas fail to go on CAP and stand down
M - Tacticals double to claim blitz and a second objective; fire on blitzbrigade for a blast marker
O - Fightabombas go on CAP
M - Warhound advances, targeting blitzbrigade; kills a gunwagon, a flakwagon and puts a damage on the gunfortress, breaking it (this was wrong, I think as damage should be to WE or non-WE targets) 
O - Remaining blitzbrigade doubles to the two woods objectives and shoots at warhound, placing a blast marker and stripping a shield
M - T-bolts ground attack a warband, taking flak on the way in and destroying the damaged battlefortress
O - Warband doubles (staying on the objective) and targets warhound, adding a second blast marker and stripping the last shield
M - T-hawk and terminators air-assault the unactivated warband. CAP fightabombas and flakwagons make a valiant effort, but the damaged t-hawk stays alive long enough to deliver the terminators into combat, where it is promptly SHOT TO DEATH BY GROTZ. Unfortunately for the orks, that’s the only casualty they inflict, while the terminators rip the battlefortress to shreds with their powerfists and mow down a few orks for good measure. When terminators up by 5 and kill another 4 with hackdown
O - Stompamob doubles, maneuvering themselves to contest 2 objectives and get into the marine half, bringing marines from 3 victory conditions to 0. They target the tacticals, destroying a rhino.

Ork end phase - fightabombas fly off, the lone nob behind the church from a broken warband rallies, the other broken formations fail to do so.
Marine end phase - everybody rallies and the t-bolts fly off

(sadly I forgot to take a picture here)

T4 - marines win initiative
M - Terminators march to the blitz
O - Warband doubles next to the warhound and fires, stripping a shield and giving it a blast marker
O - Retain with blitz brigade, double behind warhound, miss with zzap gun, warhound breaks anyway
M - Sustain on broken battlefortress, put one damage on it with a blast marker, 2 hits take down power fields
O - Stompamob decides to engage the tacticals, because ORKS. They kill 2 marines in exchange for a stompa, making a tie combat. They win by 4 on the roll-off through, hacking down two marine.
M - T-bolts ground attack, killing the rallied nob, which cleared the objective for the warhound and racked up some more points
O - Desperate fightabomba run against the terminators on the blitz, blast marker
M - Warhound fails to activate, fires on the battlefortress for another automatic damage
O - Desperate fightabomba run against the terminators on the blitz, blast marker

Ork end phase - fightabombas move off, and a miracle set of rallying! Broken gunfortress rallies to contest the blitz, broken battlefortress rallies, only 1 warband left broken.
Marine end phase - t-bolts move off, everything rallies to contest both ork-held objectives.

(and this picture was blurry enough to be completely unusable)

Final result: 0-0 win to orks on VP (1650 vs 1420)

Final thoughts: the marines were a little hesitant with the second t-hawk after the first one's Leroy Jenkins move got the terminators stranded and later wiped out, both of which hurt their game plan. On the orks' side the warbands did pretty well for themselves. Powerfielded battlefortresses are expensive, but very useful, and certainly seem like a viable choice. As T2 proved, you certainly still need to think about whether to leave the boyz embarked or not after weathering that first turn of shooting. After the game I also took a look at the UK ork list, and it seems that the list I played would have been a legal UK-Ork list, except that the UK stompamob would have been 25 points cheaper. There's really not a lot of difference between the EA and UK lists as things stand.

Final conclusion: definitely allow the powerfields upgrade for EA Ghaz.

Epic - Dark Angels 3K Army Done!

Wooo! Adepticon army finished! Here they are, 3,000 points of the Emperor's Angels of Death.

Turns out a phone camera isn't the beeest for picking out whole army shots.

This is the battle mat that inspired the new basing scheme. I think they match it pretty well.

 

For reference, here's the list. It's pretty close to a standard marine build, which should be a good way to learn the army.

450 - 6 Tacticals, 1 Hunter, Rhinos, Supreme Commander [BTS]
400 - 4 Terminators, Chaplain
400 - 4 Terminators, Chaplain
150 - 4 Scouts, Rhinos
225 - 3 Land Speeder Tornado, 2 Land Speeder Typhoon
250 - 5 Land Speeders, Chaplain
200 - Thunderhawk
200 - Thunderhawk
275 - Warhound
275 - Warhound

175 - 2 Thunderbolts

The final puzzle piece: Thunderhawk #2.

 

A bit less ostentatious than the first one, but the huge angel status do give it a certain something.

And, of course, there are still plenty more marines to build and paint, but they'll get pushed toward the back of the queue for now.

Cheers!

Epic - Dark Angels T-hawk & Titan

Needs MOAR skulls! Two more war machines finished for my Epic Dark Angels, which means only a single Thunderhawk to go before it's time to shift gears and paint something else for a while.

"You know what would be a good idea?"

"Rows of skulls as tall as a man?"

"It's like you can read my mind."

"Mind reading? Heresy!"

*bolter fire*

Tall base is tall. Juuust short enough to be stable. Sort of.

Landed base variant, just tall enough that it can hover over friends and enemies in BtB if necessary.



"What are we going to do tonight Brother?"
"The same thing we do every night Brother. Purge the enemies of the Emperor!"



Cheers!

Epic - Dark Angels Warhound

Okay, I'm pretty excited about this one. A secret, ancient relic of the mysterious Dark Angels 1st Company strides forth once more to war!



Dark Angels relic Warhound in all it's grimdark glory.

I might go back and add lines of "text" to the scroll, book, and loincloth later.

Calling it good for now though. 

 

Okay, the red DA symbol looks a little flat here. Hmm...

 

Shot from behind. Strut your stuff!

 

Bird thoughts, "Good target for pooping?"

 

Magnetized weapons for the first two Warhounds. I need to acquire some Vulcan Mega Bolters (because WYSIWYG obsessions) and some Inferno Guns (in case I make more and run them in AMTL).

 

And finally here it is with some little friends. Titan Deathwing, please meet Tiny Deathwing.

Try not to step on your new friends.

Cheers!

Epic - Astartes War Engines (WIP)

Very small update here mostly just showing that I'm still alive and kicking. I've got the base colors blocked out on one of my Thunderhawks, and most of the white base for one of the Warhounds.

Here you can see that the T-hawk has two magnetized bases, one for flying and one for landed mode.

(The Warhound is missing its arms because they're also magnetized and I forgot to put them on.)

Just these two to go, and then another pair of the same, and that's a finished 3K list. Sweet, sweet progress.

Cheers!

Epic - Ravenwing Speeders and Fliers

And progress marches on; 3 more formations finished (although to be fair, one of them was only rebased).

Rebased land speeders. The plasma destroyers will be counts-as typhoons in Codex Astartes lists

 

These are (mostly) new though. I think the darkshroud should work well as a chaplain.

 

Taaaaaaaaaaaaaall

 

The shapeways models are kinda hard to see details on until they're painted; I thought I was doing

nephilims, but turns out I grabbed the dark talons. They're still close enough to stand as t-bolts in a pinch

1,650 points finished, 1,350 points to go. Halfway mark has officially been passed!

Cheers!

Epic - Scouts and Tacticals

It's been a productive weekend; progress aplenty on the Epic Dark Angels! Supreme commander stand and a hunter both finished, as well as re-basing done on the Scout and rest of the Tactical formation. I'm really liking the new basing, almost makes them feel like a whole different army.

For the Lion!

Classic marine BTS/blitzguard, Dark Angels style

Shhh, be vewy vewy quiet, we're huntin' heretics!

I should probably make another unit of these. Does anyone actually use the sniper upgrade?

Next up are landspeeders (some new, some being re-based) and a pair of flyers, all currently in progress. After that it's 2 warhounds, 2 thunderhawks, and another formation of deathwing to make 3K. 

Cheers!

Epic - Deathwing Terminators

First formation of Deathwing done! These were pretty fun to do, although I forgot how fiddly it was to try to paint markings on marine shoulder pads. Overall, pretty happy with 'em (although the crux terminatus on the left shoulders turned out pretty janky) and the new basing scheme.

Terminators are the Novan Elites - Affray Heavy Armor from Vanguard Miniatures' Defeat in Detail range. The Chaplain is from the Novan Elites - Heavy Siege Armor Command, converted slightly with some shoulder wings.

 

 

Cheers!

Epic - Dark Angels Conversions (WIP)

After a bit of a hiatus for other projects, I'm back to working on Epic stuff. Currently on the work table are Dark Angels. Since Photobucket decided to eat everyone's image displays, here's my Minigeddon list as it stood:

Tacticals and Scouts, plus Speeders and Bikes with experimental DA list upgrades

I'm planning on bringing these to Adepticon, which means I need to switch gears a little away from the experimental units and into the Codex Astartes framework. The Darkshroud Landspeeder, for example, is going to be used as a Landspeeder with Chaplain (not an optimal choice, but it looks extra grimdark, which is really what matters here). Also planning on redoing the bases to a more overgrown outdoorsy theme (similar to my Saga Vikings). That's enough rambling though, so here's the next wave of wip gothmarines:

Hunter (with Shapeways turret) plus Supreme Commander

Landspeeders

Shapeways Nephilim, aka "Thunderbolts"

Everyone loves deathwing! (Vanguard Novan Elites Affray Heavy Armor)

Ancient Chapter Relic Warhounds

I kept asking myself "How can I make these more ostentatious and ridiculous?" as I was building them.

Thunderhawks need bling too (Shapeways model)

Let's just casually put 6-meter tall angel statues over the wings. They're aerodynamic!

Cheers!