Campaign - Ardan V. Mission 3

With their Autarch Elarique Dawnrunner and Farseer Yvaine Sundancer dead, the Eldar had suffered a mighty blow at the hands of the Space Wolves, but they had managed to incapacitate the humans psyker sufficiently to stop him working out why they were on the planet. Farseer Arandril Starsong would have to lead the final assault on Ardan V and close the cursus once and for all.


For the Space Wolves, Lord Fjolnir sent out several packs of his Wolf Scouts to monitor the position of the invading Eldar. The signs all pointed to the xenos searching the planet for some artifact but, whatever the item may be, Fjolnir would not let it fall into the enemies hands. This was one battle that the Wolf Lord would not miss out on. He could smell the xenos blood and now he wanted to spill it.


The remaining few Pathfinders had scouted a ruined industrial complex which still housed a huge storage tank of highly explosive material. Near to the complex was a river which almost sprang out out of nowhere. As they were being pursued by the Space Wolf scouts they could not determine for certain where the cursus was, but they could tell it was in this general area. They quickly reported back to Arandril Starsong as the Wolf Scouts also made their report back to their Wolf Lord. The scene of the final battle was set, the hunt for the cursus was to begin.

Main game: 3000pts. Capture and Control

Two Force Organisation charts can be used to assemble each army.
 

The Space Wolf player must not take Ornulf Windtamer (Chief Rune Priest) and must take Fjolnir Lightning Wolf. Any other HQ is allowed, but if a further Rune Priest is taken they cannot have Master of Runes.

At least one Lone Wolf must be taken to represent the lone Grey Hunter from the first/pre-second mission.

As the Long Fangs have taken heavy casualties only one squad may be used in this battle. 

The Eldar player must field Arandril Starsong (Farseer).

The Eldar force must also include at least one Troupe of Harlequins. 

The objective is to find and hold on to the cursus. As the cursus location is currently unknown six objective markers are to be placed randomly on the table in locations at least 12" apart. When a unit gets within 1" of the marker the area can be searched. For the first location to be searched the cursus will be found on a roll of a 6, for the second searched it will be on a 5 etc until the cursus is found.

However, once the cursus is found the gate to the warp will become active. On the roll of a 6, rolled in each player turns shooting phase, 10 Lesser Daemons will spew forth, attacking the nearest unit to their position.

The abandoned storage tank is also a significant threat. Any shots that are fired that cross over the tank are liable to ignite its contents, causing a huge explosion. If a shot is fired that misses its target it automatically hits the tank. The tank has AV12 all round. If penetrated it will explode automatically in 2d6" in all directions, causing Strength 8 AP - wounds on all affected models.

The game is of random length. There are no further stipulations.

Travelling the Immaterium - 1 year old today.

Wowsers people. It has been a year exactly since this blog began. A year and 81 posts and it is still going, getting many more views than I thought I would ever get, so a big thank you from me to all of you who have looked through the site.

Many thanks also to all of you who have left comments over the year, those on the modelling posts have been helpful and informative, while comments on the pictures of my models that I have put up on here have helped drive me on to produce more.

Just looking back over the posts it is amazing how much stuff I forgot I had even put on the blog. For instance my Blood Claws were the first unit that I completed and put on the blog. Completely forgotten for some reason.

Most of 2011 was dominated by battle reports, of which the very first battle report I compiled, Space Wolves vs Blood Angels, is by far and away one of the most viewed pages on the blog.

From a personal point of view I think my most favourite model painted and posted up on here cannot be just one model. It is a three-way tie between Urien Rakarth, Chaos Defiler and Space Wolves Thunderwolf Lord. In a very close contest the Chaos Sorcerer recently completed and my Trollbloods Skinner just miss out on the top billing.

With the first year complete what can I hope for in the second year? I would love to get more followers, put up pictures of a fully painted Space Wolf army (may be later than planned with the impending release of the Stormtalon) and the Immateriums journey into 6th edition.

Exciting times lay ahead for both this blog and for wargaming in general. I will hopefully be around to provide simple feedback on how I am finding the new grim dark future.

Thanks for reading and hope to see you more over the next 12 months! Ian

Wolf Guard Terminators - Update

So, my work has begun on the terminators I built back around Christmas time. It's coming along slowly as I have a few interviews to prepare for this week, but all in all I am pretty pleased with the progress so far.

The unit load out is - 1 with combi-melta and chainfist, 2 with combi-plasma and power sword, 1 with combi-melta and wolf claw and 1 with heavy flamer and power sword. Squad cost: 210pts.

Outside of the base layers there is still a lot more to complete on these guys. All the red areas are pretty much complete except for little areas of highlighting. This still leaves me a heck of a lot of work to do on them, such as adding in all the bone colour on the chest and wolf tooth necklaces, completing all wolf tails, faces and hair, power weapon details... The list could go on and on!

More updates as soon as I make some more progress!

Winds of Chaos - Completed Sorcerer

With the new Chaos codex rumours putting that release sometime in the foreseeable future, I cannot see me doing much more work on my Slaaneshi/Emperors Children force before the end of the year.

I have, however, finished the one HQ unit for the current codex that I have never used. The Chaos Sorcerer with force staff and plasma pistol. Currently I am considering running him with a familiar, mark of Slaanesh, Winds of Chaos and Lash of Submission. Should be entertaining if nothing else.

Anyway, the pictures seem to have come out darkly once again so I may have to invest in some extra lighting to brighten the place up a bit. I swear it seems brighter than the sun when I am in the process of taking the photos. One day I will sit down and learn how to do this photography thing decently.


Here are the rest of the pictures for you all to see:

That is all for now, but I'll be back in the next few days with updates on some Space Wolf Terminators I am working on. Thanks for looking!

Campaign - Ardan V, Mission 2 Battle Report

Wolf Guard Battle Leader Hjorvard Gunnarsson and his last remaining Grey Hunter, Hallkjell quickly located their Wolf Lord, Fjolnir Lightningwolf, deep in conversation with Ornulf Windtamer, the highest ranking Rune Priest the Space Wolves had on Ardan V. Following a very detailed but brief description of events from Hjorvard, Fjolnir and Ornulf decide the Rune Priest will hold a forward position with a substantial force, while the Wolf Lord will prepare a larger force as a last line of defence against the xenos invaders.

Battle Report - 2,000pts  

Ornulf's Primary Defence Force

Ornulf Windtamer - Runic Armour, Master of Runes, Chooser of the Slain, Wolf Tooth Necklace, Wolf Tail Talisman. Living Lightning, Tempests Wrath.

Wolf Guard Battle Leader Kollsegg - Runic Armour, Thunder Hammer, Storm Shield, Saga of the Beastslayer, Wolf Tooth Necklace, Wolf Tail Talisman.

Wolf Guard Squad - Frost Blade and Combi-Melta, Wolf Claw and Combi-Melta (x2), Powerfist and Combi-Melta, Power Weapon and Combi-Plasma, Razorback.
Dreadnought - Heavy Flamer, Wolf Tooth Necklace, Wolf Tail Talisman.

Grey Hunters - 10 Men, Rhino, Standard, Powerfist, Meltagun x2.
Grey Hunters - 10 Men, Rhino, Standard, Powerweapon, Flamer x2. 
Grey Hunters - 6 Men, Razorback, Standard, Plasma Gun, Plasma Pistol.
Grey Hunters - 6 Men, Razorback, Standard, Plasma Gun, Plasma Pistol.
Blood Claws - 15 Men, Flamer x2.

Long Fangs - 6 Men, Missile Launchers x5.
Long Fangs - 6 Men, Heavy Bolters x5, Razorback.

Additional Reserves - Grey Hunters - 10 Men, Rhino, Plasma Gun, Flamer.

Elarique Dawnrunner's Primary Assault Squad

Autarch Elarique Dawnrunner - Eldar Jetbike, Laser Lance, TL Shuriken Catapults.

Yvaine Skydancer  - Rune Armour, Ghosthelm, Runes of Warding, Spirit Stones, Witchblade. 

Fire Dragons - 10 Men, Wave Serpent
Howling Banshees (10) - 9 Banshees with 1 Exarch, Wave Serpent.

Guardians - 10 Guardians, 1 Warlock, 1 Bright Lance weapons Platform.
Guardians - 10 Guardians, 1 Bright Lance weapons Platform. 
Pathfinders - 5 Men.
Dire Avengers - 9 Avengers, 1 Exarch, Wave Serpent.

Shining Spears - 4 Jetbikes with TL Shuriken Catapults and Laser Lance, 1 Exarch.

Dark Reapers - 4 Reapers, 1 Exarch with Crackshot.

 Ornwulf positioned himself in the middle of the battlefield, with a clear view of all approaches the Eldar could take toward his position. Pushing all his Razorbacks forward, the Rune Priest was hoping he could slow the advance of the xenos warriors until his Long Fangs squads could get clear line of site shots at the enemy. Today there was no retreat, today the only path for the Wolves was to victory.


Elarique Dawnrunner, along with the accompanying squad of Shining Spears moved quickly down the Eldar right flank, trying to locate the psyker who would bring an end to this planet if he was not stopped. Dawnrunners progress was quickly halted though by the presence of two transport tanks, with large heavy bolters swiveling round toward their position. Moving in to cover, the Autarch watched as 6 of the grey armoured warriors rushed forward toward their position in cover. Spotting the charge, Dawnrunner sent the Shining Spears forward to meet this assault head on. 

Unfortunately for Elarique Dawnrunner he had underestimated the tenacity of the approaching enemy, who managed to throw back what seemed like an endless flurry of attacks, landing wounds on Elarique and three of his companions. There was no escaping the fury of the remaining four Wolves, who gunned down the other two Shining Spears as they attempted to escape and gave pursuit of the Eldar Autarch who seemed to be fleeing the battle.


On the opposing flank, Saemund the Ancient Dreadnought marched forward, unleashing volley after volley of blasts from his assault cannon on any enemy targets and locations he could see, while also covering the advance of a 10 man strong pack of Grey Hunters. The Ancient was amazed at the progress this squad was making, a new saga was being written right in front of him and he would be proud to retell the story to the new recruits for years to come.

The Grey Hunters, having had their Rhino transport immobilised, proceeded on foot toward the encampments of the Eldar Pathfinders. Under hail of fire from the Pathfinders and supporting Guardian units, the Grey Hunters were slowly being eroded down, 10 men became 7 which soon became 6. The Hunters were then within striking range of the Pathfinders and ferociously set about ending their part of this battle, and this they did without taking another casualty. Unfortunately, as soon as the last Pathfinder lay dead at the bottom of the crater they were hiding in, a torrent of fire rained down upon the Grey Hunters, which saw another 2 brothers fall.

Moving quickly as their numbers became ever smaller, the Grey Hunters, now numbering only 3 men, assaulted 10 Guardians and their Warlock who were hiding in cover. The hurting Space Wolves lashed out with precision, taking four Guardians down and, ultimately, chopping every last man of their opponents down as they attempted to flee. With their immediate opponents finished, the Wolves hunkered down in cover, and assessed their options, which appeared to lay in facing off against another 10 man Guardian squad.

 As the remaining three came under heavy fire it appeared their time had come as another of their number fell. The Guardians were lining up to attempt to blast the Wolves from their hiding hole, when the survivors sprang from where they were pinned down and launched what they assumed would be their final assault. In the ensuing melee three Guardians fell, but amazingly the Wolves stood strong and once again chopped down their fleeing opponents. Barely aware of their victory the Wolves then found themselves in the sights of a few remaining Dark Reapers who took but a few seconds to aim and pull their triggers, finally finishing this Grey Hunter rampage.

In matters of the rest of the battle, Elarique Dawnrunner was finally cut down by the plasma fire from the Grey Hunters in pursuit of him, the final wound killing the Eldar Autarch and leaving him beyond the help of any known remedy. 

The Wolf Guard Battle Leader and his Wolf Guard assaulted a Wave Serpent having missed with all their melta shots. It was Kollsegg's Thunder Hammer which caused the destruction blows on the Serpent, the explosion spreading for several metres all around the vehicle. As the smoke cleared an horrendous amount of melta fire poured forth, killing every single Wolf Guard present, leaving Kollsegg standing alone against the emerging Fire Dragons.

Taking the charge of the Dragons, Kollsegg stood firm, deflecting blow after blow until he could work an opening for himself to strike back. His Thunder Hammer obliterated three of the Fire Dragons. In the ensuing carnage of wiping out the Fire Dragons to a man, Kollsegg came under fire from some Dire Avengers who had disembarked from a Wave Serpent along with Yvaine Sundancer, Farseer and now the highest ranking Eldar on the battlefield.

As Kollsegg finally fell to a heavy weight of fire, he also watched in horror as Saemund the Ancient collapsed to the floor, a smouldering wreckage that would be able to do no more this battle.

With Kollsegg and Saemund down and the Eldar left flank completely crushed, Ormunds attention was drawn to a single Wave Serpent moving at speed down the Eldar right flank. Ordering his remaining Long Fangs to unleash their missiles to halt the vehicle, his wishes were duly obliged as the vehicle lost its engines and its nose ploughed into the ground. A high pitched wail suddenly began emanating from the vehicle and soon the Howling Banshees poured forth from the stricken vehicle and carved their way through a full squad of Grey Hunters before moving directly toward Ornulfs position.

With the bloody battle taking its toll on both forces, the Rune Priest had little option but to take his eyes from the battlefield and concentrate on this very real, very close proximity threat. Ordering his Blood Claws to unleash all their firepower, Ornulf was amazed to see only two of the Banshees drop in the face of 13 bolt pistol shots and 2 dousings in burning promethium. He was sure he had seen at least 15 potentially killing shots connect with this xenos threat.

 Having little in the way of options, Ornulf and his Blood Claws lept in to action, jumping at the lightning quick Banshees, hoping to cause some form of damage. Eventually the Banshees fell silent as the last of their number was caught on the end of chainsword, but not before a terrible toll of 9 Blood Claws had fallen to the xenos power weapons. Even more worrying was that Ornulf had also fallen during the battle, thankfully the great Rune Priest was not dead but fallen deep into a coma from which his body may never fully recover.

The last remaining battle saw the Grey Hunters who had taken down the Eldar Autarch Elarique Dawnrunner ambushing the Farseer Yvaine Sundancer, killing the Eldar psyker with accurate plasma fire. The only remaining Eldar on the battlefield, 3 Dark Reapers, seeing the battle was well and truly lost, melted into the ruins and vanished. The Space Wolves had won this confrontation, but at tremendous cost to both sides.

Campaign - Ardan V, Pre-Mission 2 Battle Report

The Pathfinders were closing the gap between themselves and the fleeing Space Wolves quickly, soon they would be able to take sight with their rifles and put an end to this chase. Just a few more metres.

Hjorvard could see the xenos warriors pursuing them, getting ever closer, ever more dangerous. They needed to clear the outskirts of the city, disappear into the denser wreckage of the city that once was Baston, the capital of Ardan V, and ensure safe passage of the news of this Eldar invasion to Lord Fjolnir before he was set upon by a surprise attack similar to the attack Hjorvard himself had been subjected to. Failure was not an option for these Space Wolves, the message had to get through.

The Pathfinders split in five different directions, each with specified targets that they had to take down. Moving quickly and skillfully into position, their rolling formation allowed one three to take aim while two rushed forward. The first round of firing saw two shots hit their mark brilliantly through the ruins, but could not stop the Space Wolf movement.

Hjorvard vaulted over ruined walls, crashing through debris without stopping, determined to make it to the city in double quick time. Once or twice he felt the ping of shots ricocheting safely from his runic armour. Behind him he could hear the distinct roars of fury from the two Grey Hunters who had escaped the camp site massacre with him.

Hallkjell was determined to level the playing field in this chase and doubled back immediately, launching himself at the first Pathfinder, crushing the fragile Eldar warrior before he could manage to do any damage back. With the taste of xenos blood he threw himself quickly into combat with a second, which again ended with the death of yet another Pathfinder. His remaining Grey Hunter brother, Alfgeir, ran his chainsword through his closest opponent, the blood of the xenos fighter spraying up the front of his armour and dripping from his sword as he deactivated the blade. Hallkjell could only watch in despair as one of the enemies bullets finally found a way through their defences, with Alfgeirs head snapping back violently, the lens of his right eye shattered and blood pouring from the hole.

As Hallkjell watched the  body of his friend waver on its feet for a second, before crashing down to the floor, he realised he had now seen the end of each member of his pack. Looking across the ruins he could see no signs of Hjorvard and interference on their vox units made it impossible to discern whether his Battle Leader remained alive or not. With long, piercing howl Hallkjell began at a jog and proceeded into a full sprint to close the gap toward the remaining pursuers.

The two Pathfinders had been trying to land critical hits on the running Wolf for some time now, his agility and resilience commendable, but allowing him to escape was ultimately problematic. The Space Wolf had managed to get to the maximum range of their rifles and showed no signs of slowing. Suddenly one of the other Space Wolves had attacked a position to the left of them, leaving him in the open. Taking careful aim from such close range, the Pathfinder found his target, and watched as the unnatural humans head jerked backward, with the body collapsing to the floor moments later. A quick glance back toward the leader of these Space Wolves brought an end to this skirmish, he was out of the range of their guns, they could not catch him before he made it into the city wreckage. 

A long howl in the direction of their one and only kill brought the Pathfinders attention back to the Space Wolves who had turned around and assaulted them instead of trying to warn their leader of the potential threat. Knowing their mission was failed, the two Pathfinders melted into the ruins to report their shortcomings to the Farseer Yvaine Sundancer and leave the Wolves to their own devices for now.

Hjorvard could see Hallkjell charging toward the last known position of the Eldar pursuers. Lighting a flare to let Hallkjell know of his whereabouts, he tossed the brightly burning light to the floor and moved into the wrecked city to wait for the lone Grey Hunter before moving on toward the camp of the Wolf Lord Fjolnir Lightningwolf to warn of the coming storm.

Chaos Sorcerer - Progress Update

As a quick break from painting the remainder of my Space Wolves, I decided to get stuck into one of the HQ choices from the Chaos Codex - the Chaos Sorcerer.

The Sorcerer is the one with the Plasma Pistol and Force Staff and will be one of my HQ choices alongside the Daemon Prince, Lucius the Eternal, Fabius Bile and a Terminator Lord.

So, this work in progress up date is to show how far I have got with the Sorcerer and what is left to do.

Firstly the tabbard, gloves and back pack need highlighting with some pink (to fit in with the rest of the Slaaneshi theme of the army). The armour needs highlighting with a mix of Dwarf Flesh/Bleached Bone. I am thinking about painting eyes into various areas on this armour to mirror the Shrieking Souls armour that Lucius has.

The picture to the right shows the tabbard/gloves areas based with Gory Red (VGC), washed with Leviathan Purple, then painted on the raised areas with Blood Red.

The main armour areas and all bits that will end up as gold were painted with Scorched Brown. The armour areas painted Scorched Brown have been washed down with Agrax Earthshade.

Once dry, the red areas were highlighted with Rose Pink (VGC) and another light wash of Leviathan Purple was applied over the areas.

The armour sections were painted with Dwarf Flesh to pick them out better from the black of the armour before I get to highlight them as mentioned above.

Trollbloods- Work Completed

I am slowly starting to get a decently sized Trollblood force together, with my general aim of keeping up with the painting as I get more models for the army.

I have also included in the pictures below a couple of shots of these Trolls during the painting so you can gauge for yourselves where I was coming from and going to. Hope you enjoy them!

 

Thunderwolves - Complete

My Thunderwolves are complete and just require snow adding to their bases now, much like the rest of my Space Wolves. The guy with the Thunderhammer and Storm Shield is magnetised so that I can switch him round as I want. Current options for him are Thunderhammer/Frost Blade in his right hand and Storm Shield/Bolt Pistol in his left.

Also completed alongside these three were the three remaining Fenrisian Wolves I have. With these complete it now leaves me with 14 Terminators and an Iron Priest to finish to finally complete my Wolves and move on to painting up all the Dark Eldar models I have collected over the last few months.

So, there are a fair few pictures so I will stop the yakking and so you can get a look at these Wolves: