Last Month's Painting: Lost Patrol

For this November I’ve being trying to paint the entirety of the Lost Patrol boxed set. As one of Games Workshop’s smaller releases, this wasn’t a huge task and I managed to successfully paint the entire set in slightly less than a month.

Not that many models, but for me, that's
pretty good going for a month.

Lost Patrol was a game released a few years ago as part of Games Workshop’s seemingly endless slew of board games based on its properties it was putting out at the time, and like the slightly-too-obsessed collector that I am, I had to have them all. Some were better quality than others, and from what I understand the actual game isn’t one of Games Workshop’s better efforts. Like Space Hulk before it, it was once again a small group of Space Marines vs a much larger swarm of Genestealers, trying to find the macguffin before they all die, though in this game they are Scouts rather than Terminators. Unlike Space Hulk, however, there were no new models designed for it – they were all currently-existing models. The game used a very simple rule set aimed at younger players, a noble idea, but it had the effect of stacking the game quite heavily in favour of the Genestealer player. And even though there are a huge number of ways the map can be arranged, there is only one scenario which limits its long-term appeal. The latter two are things I’ve heard, by the way. I haven’t actually played the game yet.

The Scouts were a lot of fun...

But we’re here to talk about the painting rather than the quality of the game, and here I faced some… not necessarily new challenges but re-visiting some old ones. I have, of course, been painting Space Marines for pretty much the entire time I’ve been invested in the hobby, even if most of them were Chaos. Tyranids have been less frequent though regular readers will recognise the aesthetic at least from the Space Hulk set. The only time I’ve ever done Space Marine Scouts before, though, was  nearly 10 years ago where I had the idea of building a scout army to represent the rebuilding of the Black Consuls chapter, and I’ve painted Human faces intermittently since then (I tend to prefer helmets.) I didn’t do a terrible job but my lack of experience with painting faces shows, I think – some of those eyes are very sloppy indeed! If painting is a skill I’m looking to develop, I might consider doing an army with exposed faces to give me a little more practice! Elsewhere, the Scouts were painted in Blood Angels colours, which was nothing new to me since I’d painted the Space Hulk set in the same way and my Word Bearer army is roughly the same colour with different trimmings.

And painting Genestealers this way is a
quick and effective paint scheme.

The Genestealers were interesting. As presented on the box art and the photographs on the back, they appear to be a splinter fleet of Hive Fleet Kraken; largely a bony white colour with red claws. With Hive Fleet Kraken, the carapace would usually be red, and the flesh would be more of a sepia-colour, but this way gave them a more skeletal appearance that would be terrifying in large numbers. After watching a video guide on Youtube and buying a red wash, I was struck by how little time it took to get an effective-looking set of models – to game standard, at least; I wouldn’t expect to win any painting competitions with this – and decided that if I ever chose to paint a Tyranid army in any significant numbers, this is how I’d do it. I’m pleased with the overall result, and I’m glad I now have an idea of what a large Tyranid army might look like for me, should it become an option to paint one.

I think what’s great about these boxed sets is that it gives you the opportunity to try painting models you wouldn’t normally paint. I wouldn’t normally choose to paint Tryanids but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed painting the Genestealers from Space Hulk and Lost Patrol – and expanding my horizons on where I can take my painting can only be a good thing. I’m not short of them but don’t know what the next one will be yet, we shall see…

Last Month's Painting: Completed the Space Hulk set

Finally... the set is complete

This week I finally came to the end of my journey to completely paint my Space Hulk set. For those of you who have been following this blog for a while, you’ll know the story already: I obtained Space Hulk when I worked for Games Workshop in 2009, and even though I opened it and played it a few times with my mate Dave, I never got around to painting it. The reason for this is that I played the vast majority of war games in what was then Games Workshop, and what is now the Warhammer stores (though I’ve yet to play a game in one of those!) where there is a certain expectation for your models to be painted, or at least have some sign of progression, if you use them in the shop. The problem is that Games Workshop stopped supporting Space Hulk after the month it was released, so as I wasn’t going to play any games in the shop, it wasn’t a priority to paint them – not at the point where I perpetually had a tonne of Chaos Space Marines, Empire and Haradrim (one army from the three core game systems that it was expected I would have as a member of staff) that I needed to be painting! Dave, of course, didn’t mind the models not being painted, so even though we’ve really enjoyed playing the game in the past, the models remained unpainted for eleven years.

All the Terminators were very highly detailed...

That all changed when Lockdown began, and I found myself with a little (though surprisingly not much) more than the usual amount of spare time on my hands. I’d painted all the Chaos Space Marine Raptors I had for the Black Legion army I was working on, and while I did get some more eventually, I didn’t see any sense in going to any of the hobby shops to buy them while we were in lockdown. I had some of the old boxed sets in the loft of the flat I used to live in and decided to get the Space Hulk set down and paint them. I started with one squad of Terminators, then painted the twelve Genestealers that looked the most straightforward to paint. Both appeared in previous editions of the blog. I then painted the remaining squad of Terminators – including the dead one – and the leftover Genestealers, these didn’t make it on to the blog because I didn’t know what to say about them without repeating myself.

...and the Broodlord was a lot of fun!

Moving on, I painted the Librarian and the Broodlord. Both presented an additional challenge for me: As most folks who play 40K know, a Librarian’s armour is always blue no matter what chapter they’re attached to so that was a break from the red I’d been painting hitherto. I also went into a lot more detail with the weapons, face and armour than I did with the other models, as this was the “centrepiece” of the Terminator force in Space Hulk. With the Broodlord, this was much the same as the Genestealers I’d been painting up to that point but with an extra layer of colour on the flesh and carapace. There was also a lot more than the usual number of skulls and Terminator helmets that needed painting, and it took me a while, but I’m pleased with the result.

The finishing touches.

Finally, I painted the last little bits – the Artefact and the C.A.T. I didn’t spend a huge amount of time on these, but it was a lot of fun doing the jewels on the Artefact.

I’ve bought quite a few “build and paint” games in the last 10-12 years and this is the first time I’ve managed to do both with a complete set, so I’m pleased with that. Both factions presented a fresh challenge: The colour I painted the Blood Angels Terminators was the same as the colours I’d been painting my Word Bearers, but with more of an emphasis on the gold than the silver. The Genestealers were an altogether different experience, as I haven’t painted Tyranids many times before, and when I have, it’s never been in any significant numbers. Space Hulk is a great set, and I’m glad to have completed it.

Warhammer World Invasion: April 2013

It took a while to get there but for me, the 2013 season is now on! Last week at Warhammer World I finally got to play some full games of the new edition of Warhammer 40K. It was an Invasion event that runs there from time to time, particularly in the school holidays, and it being a doubles event I partnered up with Dave and took the Iron Scars clan to their inaugral tournament. Here's how it all went down:

Because I wanted to use a new army for this, I designed a new Chaos Space Marine army around a god that is used far too little - Slaanesh. Granted, they lack the brutality of Khorne, or the reslience of Nurgle, but having cut my teeth on Dark Eldar way back when I first started the hobby, I am very well aware of how useful that extra initiative can be. Here's my army list:

	Components	Points	Total Points	Total Army
HQ	Chaos Lord	65	120	600
	Jump Pack	15
	Lightning Claw (2)	30
	Mark of Slaanesh	10
Troops	Chaos Space Marines (6)	88	161
	Lightning Claw (2)	30
	Close Combat Weapon (5)	10
	Plasma Gun	15
	Veterans of the Long War (6)	6
	Mark of Slaanesh	12
	Chaos Space Marines (6)	88	155
	Lightning Claw (2)	30
	Close Combat Weapon (5)	10
	Plasma Gun	15
	Mark of Slaanesh	12
Fast Attack	Raptors (6)	112	164
	Meltagun (2)	20
	Plasma Pistol	15
	Melta Bombs	5
	Mark of Slaanesh (6)	12

Quite a lot going on there for a small army. What was supposed to happen was the Raptors deep-strike onto the battlefield either straight away or 1 turn in, use their Melta guns to destroy either the vehicles or whatever the enemy had sunk the most points on, and harrass the rest of the army until the end of the game, contesting objectives if at all possible. The rest of the force would support them by holding our objectives, firing plasma shots at hard targets, and in the case of the Chaos Space Marine Lord, jumping into any combat that needed supporting. Dave had taken a swarm of 75 Orks lead by a Big Mek, going on the assumption that whatever damage they took, there'd still be plenty more where they came from. We entered battle with all this in mind, and campaigned to aid the Dudley store in their victory...

A quick note about the games, as there were elements common to all of them:

• The games were all supposed to be Doubles games, with 600pts per player, using the standard force organisation chart. Now, the chart can be applied somewhat loosely in small-point games, but in this case the rules stood firm to stop people taking dirty, cheesey armies to what was supposed to be a friendly tournament.
• The games we played were all fast, dirty and scrappy, and with just the right balance between competitiveness and friendlyness; we couldn't have asked for a better set of opponents.
• Regular games of 40K can last for up to 7 turns, and more commonly 5, but because of the limited time constraints, none of our games lasted longer than 3 turns each.

Round One: Chaos/Orks vs Grey Knights/Blood Angels

When we found ourselves up against Grey Knights and Blood Angels, including some Death Company, I was convinced we were going do die a quick and horrible death. The scenario was Big Guns Never Tire (Objectives (in our case 4) with Heavy Support counting as scoring units as well as granting victory points) with Hammer and Anvil deployment, so we had a long way to go before we got into any kind of fighting. The Grey Knights, funnily enough, had a pinkish tint to them, their commander Ben attributing this to the time they spend fighting Slaanesh, and I was eager to continue the Rivalry!

They hadn't counted on the Raptors, and it was a good day for their Champion as he dispatched a Blood Angels Assualt Sergeant in Black Rage and a Grey Knight Justicar in single combat; not always a wise move to make but a necessary one since Chaos Champions have no choice in the matter. This cost our enemies the game, since the rest of the combat has no effect on the participants of the challenge, so by the end of the 3rd turn their objective was still contested as the Champion was still alive where his comrades had fallen. Elsewhere, the other objectives remained bitterly contested as the remaining forces of the Space Marines arrived via Deep Strike, but it was not enough firepower to move either the Orks or the Chaos Marines from their objectives. In the end, Dave and I won on Secondary victory points, and while it was not the decisive win we would have chosen, it was enough to get the day off to a promising start.

Final Score: Chaos/Orks win 2-0.

Round Two: Chaos/Orks vs Necrons/Tryanids

This was a battle we were dreading. The only thing worse than an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object is having to take on a combined strength of an unstoppable force (the Tryanids) AND an immovable object (the Necrons.) To make matters worse, we'd landed a 6-objective Scouring scenario (Objectives, with Fast Attack counting as scoring units and awarding victory points) and the 1 specialised unit that we had was Fast Attack (the Raptors.) This wasn't going to change my game plan, but we'd have to watch our step carefully...

Losing the first turn to a seize of initiative cost us dearly, as we found several large blast templates on top of us courtesy of the Necrons which wiped out a significant number of the Orks before we'd even got started. My Chaos Marines made an immediate grab for 2 of the objectives while we concentrated fire on the Gargoyles. We wiped the unit out, denying the enemy a fast scoring unit and earning us a couple of victory points.

Notwithstanding the arrival of the Raptors, it then became a war of attrition, which with so many guns supporting an onslaught of Tyranids was always going to be a struggle to win. However the balance of power literally came down to the last 10 minutes of the game where 1 of 3 things had to happen in order to win:

1. The skeletal wreck of one of my units of Chaos Marines needed to score a high enough Run roll to get to the objective on the left hand side of our deployment zone,
2. The Orks holding one of our objectives needed to pass a leadership test forced by the presence and attacks of a Zonathrope,
3. The Raptors needed to defeat a squad of 6 Necrons in close combat and force them to flee from the objective they were holding.

Sadly, none of these things happened, and Dave and I lost that battle right at the end.

Result: Necrons/Tryanids win 7-5.

Round Three: Chaos/Orks vs Dark Angels/Space Wolves

While we'd never be so arrogant as to suggest we had this one in the bag, we did approach this particular battle with a certain amount of confidence. I had the firepower to take out heavily armoured units, and Dave had the numbers to overwhelm them. So much so that, even with Vanguard deployment (imprecise and hard to strategise,) Emperor's Will objectives (1 objective each) and staring 2 Vindicators in the face right at the start of the game, we were confident that we'd do a good job with this one.

We could not have been more wrong. Due to some appalling deployment on my part, 1 of my squads of Chaos Marines was left out in the open and was shot to pieces in the first turn, giving our enemies first blood. My Chaos Lord was not long in following. Dave had mercifully granted Outflank to his leader during the Warlord Traits stage, and he seized the opportunity to wreak havoc on the left flank of the Space Marine forces, with it must be said some success. We also put up a fierce defence of our own objective. The Raptors arrived behind enemy lines as planned, but were rattled firstly by the squad of Space Wolves in a Razorback, and secondly by the Vindicator they were desperately trying to destroy blowing up in their face and wiping out the entire squad. Both sides managed to hold on to their objectives at the end of the game, but the secondary victory points meant that the Space Marines managed to win the day quite comfortably.

Result: Dark Angels/Space Wolves win 7-3.

Final Result

Well, even if there was more than 1 position of Store Champion, we were never going to get it with only 1 win out of 3, so well done to Chris and Mason for their well-deserved victories!

However, after a gruelling and even battle, the Dudley store eventually won. It was level-pegging up until the last 5 games, which swung it in Dudley's favour, so well done to those guys for covering the tracks of those who didn't do so well!

What have I learned?

Because it wouldn't be proper to write all this without taking something from it...

Given that it was the first time either me or Dave had played a full game of 6th edition 40K, we were caught out by the rules changes a surprisingly small number of times. There were occassions where we made some tactically poor decisions that we could learn from, so here's a few things that had a significant impact on what was eventually decided, and how we can learn from it:

1. Objectives give you points, Secondary Victory Points win games. What you have to do in order to collect these secondary points (be the first player/team to wipe out 1 unit, kill the enemy commander and finish the game with models in the enemy deployment zone) appear to favour aggressive tactics, and while my Raptors were conducive to this, the other squads weren't doing much more than hold on to the objectives. That's fine; everything was useful to one degree or another. Just keep in mind that the game now seems to favour agression. Use it!
2. It didn't always help but the Mark of Slaanesh was a real bonus against the Grey Knights and Blood Angels. The higher initiative gives you an edge; a way to tip the balance against two fundamentaly similar stat lines. Space Marine Armies are never going to be large, which means losing even 1 of them will hurt. If they're lost before they've even had a chance to fight back, it's worth the extra couple of points that the higher initiative will give you. You won't necessarily hit very hard - giving a Power Fist or such like to a model with the Mark of Slaanesh is meaningless - but power weapons and lightning claws should work well enough for most situations. Build on it!
3. One thing I didn't realise about my Raptors is that they cause Fear. While this doesn't cripple you in quite the same way that it does in Warhammer Fantasy, it can still be effective in reducing the weapon skill of your opponent. Given the opponents we faced, it would only really have helped in the Tyranids/Necrons battle, but it's worth remembering for the future, I think.
4. The next stage for the army is to add some more Raptors, which will come as no surprise given how much I've been banging on about them throughout this blog. I discussed my 'Tank Hunter' tactic above; it worked, but not well. I simply couldn't bring enough firepower to one squad to do enough damage to a vehicle to take it out in one turn. The solution? Another squad of Raptors. Arming them in the same way will double the firepower I can bring, and if one of them gets a mishap during Deep Strike, at least my tactic isn't totally lost. I'll also be taking their Melta Bombs away, as their firepower makes it less than necessary, and also I'm taking Veterans of the Long War away from the Chaos Space Marine squads. It's a useful rule against Space Marines, and brings your leadership up to 9/10, but it didn't make much difference in practice. I'm not saying they'll never have it again, but I want to see how the new Raptors work out first...

So, there you have it! My first few games of 2013. Looking forward to seeing how the next ones go!