Some Cygnar!

Today I'm posting up Cygnar models I've been painting for a local gamer. So far, I've painted up Thunderhead and eStryker. I really like Thunderhead's model a lot and it was good fun to paint. I've also been painting up some legion lately I'll have to post up!

Menoth Update - 2

Hello again, Andy here with another menoth update! Today I bring you the mighty Vanquisher! 

The Vanquisher is my favorite warjack from the menoth battle box. It has solid ranged and melee capability. But it is most at home from afar. 

So far I've used it in 3 games. It hasn't died yet. And it has killed a steelsoul protector, gorax, Laris, and some shredders. A lot of those kills were two for ones where blast damage at +2 and boosted can still really hurt. And if they happen to live, there is always fire to finish the job! 

I tried a highlighting technique to make my black pop a bit more. I think it worked pretty well overall. It isn't great when up close but it definitely works for table top quality. 

Well, now that I'm moved back to Minnesota and I graduated, I hope I have some more time to work on some models! 

Enjoy!

-Andy

Menoth Update - 1

Hi everybody, Andy here with a Menoth Update.

So I got of got side tracked from the battle box when I found the exemplar errants UA at the local game store. Oops ^_^

I am nearly finished painting the officer and standard nearer, needing only a few small details, mat finish, and to be based. I just got so excited I couldn't help but post! These guys are by far my favorite infantry in terms of looks in warmahordes. I'm so excited to get the full unit and paint them up.

The red and black really just look perfect on them. And the GW technical blood paint is just fantastic, as you can see I went to town on the officer. I also tried to add a "splatter" effect, as you can see little droplets all over his right side. I did this with a coarse brush. I dipped it just a bit into the paint, then flicked it at the model a whole bunch. I think it turned out well!

Oh and if you're wondering, the banner says," Blood for the blood God. Praise Menoth." on the left and right. Then the middle says "By blood do we enter this world, and by blood shall we leave it."

Well now I'm all fired up to finish these guys so expect to see some more posts soon!

- Andy

Andy's new project - Menoth

Hello again, Andy here to talk briefly about my new project I've been working on, Menoth.

As you may have seen, I've been thinking of trying Menoth and after a few battle box, I couldn't resist.

I bought the Menoth portion of the two player battle box and got started painting up pKreoss. I wanted to do an evil looking Menoth, as I don't like painting white, and I thought Menoth can look pretty menacing in dark colors.

Kreoss was painted using a mix of blacks and reds, with some bronze and gun metal to pick out details. It was a really simple paint scheme that made for a good effect. I also tried out the gamesworkshop technical blood paint and man does it look nasty. I added plenty to his flail, and then flicked it all over his chest and face as perhaps you can see.

As for story, I want them to keep their name, but I don't think "high exemplar" fits with his theme haha. So I decided to call him "Kreoss the Blood Quenched". Bad ass, no? Maybe a bit cliché but whatevs haha.

Now for tactics. I think Kreoss is an awesome caster. Purification, along with his feat can end games, and end them quickly. However, I recently played a battle box game against convergence and learned some very important lessons. First, their heavy vector, cipher, is steady. No knockdown for me! He hid his caster behind it and there was little I could do about it. Second, their light vector,... I forget what it's called, has an aoe gun that can knock down. Third, Menoth jacks are very very easy to hit, and when your opponent has an aoe knockdown gun, it is best not to have your caster in base to base with those low Def jacks. Fourth, Kreoss is very soft. Without Defenders Ward and a solid focus camp, he is really easy to kill. And that is just what happened in that game. I got knocked down and assassinated with ease. Oh how the tables turned! Oh well, live and learn.

Well that's it for Kreoss, hopefully I get my jacks all painted up real soon!

- Andy

Battlebox Battle Report – Menoth vs. Legion

Hello all! Andy here and I have a battlebox battle report with me trying out Menoth for the first time against my friend playing my Legion battlebox. I have always enjoyed the aesthetics of Menoth and have wanted to try out a warmachine army, so I thought this was a perfect opportunity! I have to admit, using focus feels like so much more work than using fury haha. So without further ado, here are our armies!

pKreoss - +5

Crusader – 6

Revenger – 6

Repenter – 4

pLylyth - +6

Carnivean – 11

Shredder – 2

Shredder – 2

Shredder – 2

Shredder – 2

I won the roll-off and decided I should go first, as I know my army is going to be pretty slow. I deploy with the Revenger and Crusader to pKreoss right, and the Repenter to the left. My opponent deploys pLylyth right behind a forest with a line of shredders to her left. The Carnivean is deployed at the maximum range of her control.

My first turn is pretty quick, as is the norm with Warmahordes. I pass out focus to everyone so they are able to run, then I put Defenders Ward on the Revenger and walk Kreoss towards the wall directly in front of him. Everyone else activates and basically runs straight ahead.

My opponent’s turn saw him making 3 Shredders go Rabid and walk forward. The last Shredder simply walked behind the rest. The Carnivean advanced directly forward. Lylyth just walked into her forest and cast Tenacity 3 times.

Now things become more interesting. I upkept Defender’s Ward and ran my Revenger forward. My Crusader simply walked forward. My Repenter walked in behind the Revenger. Kreoss just walked up behind the wall.

My opponent now decides he doesn’t much care for that Revenger standing in the front of the rest of my army. Lylyth starts things off by Bushwacking, popping feat, then shooting the Revenger. She casts Parasite on it with her auto-hit from her bow. She drops the last two fury she has. Next up is the Shredders. Each activates and free charges the Revenger due to Blood Lure on Lylyth’s bow. They put some serious damage on the poor Revenger. The Carnivean comes in to finish the job with an assault charge. The spray does a bit of damage to my Repenter. The Carnivean puts the Revengers down with ease. 

Following the devastation of the previous turn, I allocate 3 focus to my Crusaders and two focus to my Repenter. I start off the turn by activating Kreoss (Actually I started with the Crusader, then realized I wanted to feat and to do such a thing, I probably want to activate my caster first. Luckily, it was just a learning game and my opponent was fine with the mulligan). So Kreoss pops feat and shoots a Shredder with an Immolation to soften it up. Then I activate my Repenter and turn towards the two Shredders sitting in front of it. I shoot and boost damage on the closest Shredder and kill it. The second suffers minor damage. I now have a charge lane for my Crusader. My Crusader activates and charges the Carnivean. My Crusader takes the Carnivean down to 7 health. That ends my turn.

My opponent answers, and he answers with a vengeance. He spends fury to stand up his remaining Shredders. My opponent starts by activating Lylyth. She Bushwacks and boosts a shot into my Crusader. He hits my whopping Def 14 in melee no problem. He then casts Parasite and spends her last two to heal the Carnivean. Next the Carnivean activates. It sacrifices its movement to stand up. My now arm 16 is nowhere near enough to save me from a Carnivean and my Crusader gets trashed. The now unengaged shredders charge my Repenter for minor damage.

For my turn, I allocate a full 3 focus to the Repenter. I start off activating pKreoss. He walks forward and beats down both the Shredders. He then tries to fire off a Cleansing Fire and whiffs with double 1’s…. The Repenter activates and charges the Carnivean… And rolls a 1 and 2 to hit…. From there I did a bit of minor damage.

My opponent had no problem smashing my Repenter to pieces with the Carnivean at this points. Victory Legion!

So my first game with Menoth was a struggle. The Crusader not being able to one round a knocked down Carnivean was pretty disappointing. I should have tried to get Kreoss into the Carnivean’s face and take some shots on him. Without the Carnivean, my opponent would have been seriously hindered. I also realized at the end I never casted Lamentation…. It would have disallowed Lylyth from casting Parasite in my control area.

In my opinion, the Menoth battlebox is solid. I don’t really like the Revenger much, but it isn’t bad. It would probably be much more useful if I remembered it was an arc node... The Crusader is quite slow and can hit pretty hard, but needs a bit of help from another jack or the choir. The Repenter is a solid little jack that makes short work of Shredders. I don’t know how well it would perform against light or heavy jacks.

I would much prefer the alternate battlebox from the 2-player starter set. I think some ranged firepower like the Vanquisher would be great (Plus I really like continuous fire). I have the Menoth portion of the box in the mail so hopefully I’ll have it in hand and start painting it soon! I plan on going dark Menoth.

I hope you enjoyed!

- Andy

Aaron's Khorne army blog Update 1

Projects for the Project Throne!

Hey everyone. Here’s my first post about my mono Khorne army that I will be diving into over the summer. After I got a little put off of the Tyranids from the new Codex (that’s another can of worms I’m sure I’ll get in to!), I decided to go back to the Chaos Gods and embrace my favorite deity of the grimdark future – Khorne!

A little history – When I played Chaos way back in the day, Khorne was always my favorite. I played an undivided list but my berzerkers were always my champions on the battlefield. Their ferocity in close combat was what originally pushed me towards playing Tyranids, who were all about the close combat. There’s just something awesome about visualizing these soldiers bashing each other in close combat that made games of 40k so much more fun for me. So when I realized the ‘Nids were gonna hit the shelf for a while, I thought to myself…Aaron, what army do you want to play? Not for making cheese lists, not for winning tournaments, what army do you want to play and have fun with, both painting and gaming?

The answer was pretty obvious.

BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!

So after I made that choice, I wanted to come up with some cool fluff to go along with them, something that drives the story of my warband as my collection of models and units grows. I’ve always loved blue and white pre-heresy colors for World Eaters, so I knew the fluff would have to trace back to the Heresy. I also knew that I really liked all the beast-style war engines that have been coming out, so a few Heldrakes and Maulerfiends are in my future. Strategy and competitiveness is completely out the window, so it’s all Rhinos and maybe a Land Raider or two for every unit. All Berzerkers, nothing else – No cultists, no Marines with the Mark of Khorne, none of that. I may add daemons later, so long as it fits the fluff, but aside from that, I don’t plan on getting too heavy into Khorne daemons in my force. It’s going to be a fast, hard hitting army that just runs at you screaming and the rest is up to the dice. It’ll be a nice change of pace having fewer models, too, as playing a swarm ‘Nids army usually left me with a sore back and not much to show for it.

So, pre-heresy colors. Gotta have Kharn, but I don’t want Kharn himself, if that makes sense. I wanted somebody that used Kharn’s rules that wasn’t Kharn, so I came up with the idea that my warlord, using Kharn’s stats, is actually obsessed with Kharn. Almost like how the Emperor’s Children were obsessed with being perfect, my warlord is striving to match Kharn’s brutality and skill as a killer. I’m not going to get too crazy on the fluff yet, but I promise that I will post more in depth stories soon. The other idea I’m going to roll with is that the warband is open to anyone who is willing to dedicate their lives to embodying Kharn’s brutality. I plan on having one unit themed as renegade Death Company, lead by a corrupt Chaplain. I also plan on having one unit of Space Wolves who fell prey to their feral side and embraced brutality. The army indirectly worships Khorne, they mostly just worship Kharn, so there will be a distinct lack of Khorne symbols in my army (and is also why I hesitate to add Daemons). Khorne is simply letting them worship Kharn and feed off their killing, even though they don’t directly do it for him. I’m still not sure if I’m using Khorne’s number – If I can come up with a reason why my warlord would follow the number that is influenced by Kharn, then I will go fluffy in that direction too.

So that’s what I have in store right now. I’m working on fleshing out the fluff to start my force, but I plan on forming their history through an escalation league I’m taking part in. They will form rivalries and grow in numbers depending (roughly) how my games go.

So that’s pretty much my game plan. I’ll definitely be keeping this blog up to date as I go with pictures and whatnot. Once I get my skills in painting white I’ll probably make a painting tutorial for the pre Heresy World Eaters.

Oh, and one more thing…There will be blood!

Cheers!

- Aaron