Magnus the Red, Daemon Primarch of the Thousand Sons

Hello Again Everyone,

Welcome to the New Year! I hope you all had a happy responsible holidays with much hobby fun had! I myself have been beavering away on my latest project: Magnus the Red! But before we move on I just wanted to apologise for the way the first battle report ended...  In that it kind of didn't... Basically upon getting my phone looked at for a minor repair, it got reset to factory settings and I lost all of the photos of the actual battle,  so there was little point I felt in writing an article without any images. For those of you that want to know how it finished up, The Grey Knights won,  12-8 with both Renegade knights being destroyed and only a unit of blood crushers and a unit of Paladins with Draigo at the end (really need to focus more on getting rid of Draigo as soon as possible). It was an intense battle,  and hopefully I'll have much better luck with getting it posted up next time!

Anyways without further ado onto Magnus!

Magnus the Red,  Daemon Primarch of Tzeentch,  Games Workshop 2016© 

Magnus the Red,  BY ME!!! 

This bad boy has been my Christmas project, and while progressing well (and tabletop ready, sans-basing) I still have to finish off some of the fiddly bits like tipping all the wings with ceramite white.

I cannot espouse the use of the painting tutorial over at Warhammer TV by Duncan and has really helped pulling everything to a level even I am impressed with! I didn't quite follow the paint scheme Duncan used but I am quite happy with it (if you want further details just ask in the comments). Also I suffered from "MUST BUILD IT ALL" syndrome and didn't make any sub assemblies. It speaks to how well this model is designed that this didn't cause too many issues.

For now,  a little rest is needed to avoid burning out on one model (I find this works only if you have one other model to paint not "all the models" as I usually do), so I'll be putting some time into Cannoness Veridyan.  I'll update on her progress as it continues.

I can't wait to finish off Magnus and hopefully in the future get him fielded alongside some thousand sons (Ian over at krakaddict.blogspot.co.uk is building himself some Space Wolves I'll need to attempt to stomp),  until next time,  have a great year!

Jonathan

Inquisitorial Mandate: Information on the Heretic known as Jonathan

Citizen! You have been identified as a person of interest in relation to the Heretic known as Jonathan!

This Heretic was identified upon entry to an EE (Empyric Elite) communications outlet on Glorious Terra! carrying 'fake' pict feeds from the world of Yrlan's Rest, in relation to a Heretic Insurgency. We of His Holy Ordos have removed said images, under the guise of routine maintenance, lest your soul be corrupted by such lies, and capturing the heretic in the process!

You may put your mind at rest knowing that no battle took place.  The world is not in danger. We are here to protect you.

Please report to the nearest Arbites precinct to await Inquisitorial commendation at resisting the presence of such a heretic in our midst. Any further information you may give will help root out further ner'do wells. There will be munitorum approved cake.

The Emperor Protects

Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor
Luther D'Angelus

Narrative Battle Report: Slaughter at Yrlan's Rest Part 3 - The Lists

Hello again everyone!

Now that I've got that story rambling out of the way it's onto the precursor to the main event: Khorne Daemonkin with Renegade Knight Allies Vs The Grey Knights. This was an 1850pt Battle.

So without further ado,  let's look at the lists!

Khorne Daemonkin:
 +++ Garak Gorebiters hoard +++

++ Combined Arms Detachment (Chaos Khorne Daemonkin v2000) (976pts) ++
Rules: Ideal Mission Commander, Objective Secured (Troops)

+ HQ (160pts) +

········Chaos Lord, Axe of Khorne, Collar of Khorne, Plasma Pistol, Power Armour, Sigil of Corruption

+ Elites (140pts) +

········Blood crushers,  3x Bloodcrushers, Upgrade one Bloodcrusher to Bloodhunter

+ Troops (281pts) +

········Berserker s,   7x Bezerkers
············Bezerker Champion,  Bolt Pistol, Chainaxe

········Chaos Cultists 7x Cultists
············Cultist Champion,  Autopistol

········Chaos Cultists,  7x Cultists
············Cultist Champion, Autopistol

+ Fast Attack (170pts) +

········Heldrake,  Baleflamer

+ Heavy Support (225pts) +

········Helbrute [Multi-Melta, Powerfist]

········Skull Cannon

Created with BattleScribe (http://www.battlescribe.net)

+++ New Roster (Warhammer 40,000 7th Edition v2006) (820pts) +++

++ Allied Detachment (Chaos Renegade Knights v2000) (820pts) ++

+ Lord of War (820pts) +

········Renegade Knight (Litany of Destruction)
················Ion Shield
················Heavy Stubber
················Ironstorm Missle Pod
················Reaper Chainsword
················Thunderstrike Gauntlet

········Renegade Knight (Rote of Damnation)
················Ion Shield
················Avenger Gatling Cannon
················Heavy Flamer
················Heavy Stubber
················Thermal Cannon
················Twin Icarus Autocannon

Created with BattleScribe (http://www.battlescribe.net)

+++ GK (1849pts) +++

++ Combined Arms Detachment (Grey Knights: Codex (2014) v2000) (1849pts) ++

+ HQ (315pts) +

········Librarian, Domina Liber Daemonica, Nemesis force halberd, Psyker [ML 3], Storm bolter

········Librarian, Bone Shard of Solor, Nemesis force halberd, Psyker [ML 3], Storm bolter

+ Troops (609pts) +

········Terminator Squad (203pts)
············3x Terminator, 3x Nemesis force halberd
············Terminator, psycannon, Nemesis force halberd,  Psycannon
············Terminator Justiciar, Nemesis Daemon hammer

········Terminator Squad (203pts)
············3x Terminator, 3x Nemesis force halberd
············Terminator,  psycannon, Nemesis force halberd, Psycannon
············Terminator Justiciar, Nemesis Daemon hammer

········Terminator Squad (203pts)
············3x Terminator,  3x Nemesis force halberd
············Terminator, psycannon, Nemesis force halberd, Psycannon
············Terminator Justiciar,  Nemesis Daemon hammer

+ Fast Attack (230pts) +

········Stormraven Gunship, Hurricane bolter s,  Twin-linked assault cannon, Twin-linked multi-melta

+ Heavy Support (450pts) +

········Nemesis Dread Knight,  Heavy Incinerator, Heavy Psycannon,  Nemesis greatsword and power fist, Personal teleporter

········Nemesis Dread Knight,  Heavy Incinerator, Heavy Psycannon, Nemesis greatsword and power fist,  Personal teleporter

+ Lord of War (245pts) +

········Kaldor Draigo (245pts)

Created with BattleScribe (http://www.battlescribe.net)

So chaos might be considered to be at a disadvantage in relation to points but with two renegade knights this should be quite the dust up! Can Draigo and the grey knights stop Garak Gorebiter from summoning his patron Bloodthirster, and sacrifice another world to Khorne?

Find out in part 4!

Jonathan

Narrative Battle Report: Slaughter at Yrlan's Rest Part 2

Hi Everyone,
Following on from yesterday's entry we have part 2.  Hope you enjoy.

*  *  *

Everything flashed into the brightest shade of blue-white. Control panels screamed warning claxons moments before their screens exploded into flames.  Chapter serfs ran in semi-panicked directions before their mental conditioning kicked in,  as one moving to bring the inferno now raging in the Astropathic Choirs' Coliseum.

Screaming echoed from the lofty heights above. Most of the overhanging astropath thrones were occupied,  their incumbents unaware of the fire spreading slowly from one to the next.  They were slowly burning one by one.

Codicier Suor'kah'peth entered the coliseum from under the choir masters pulpit in the middle of room. Runic wards glowed from every surface as the warp tried to force its way into the material realm through the minds of the astropaths. Suor'kah'peth watched impassively as the Chapter serfs one by one gave the Emperor's Mercy to each of the astropaths who's Runic Wards had begun to burn a firey red.  Hitting a Vox comm on the wall the Codicier gave the word to the bridge that an emergency exit from the warp was required.

Time stopped. It always felt like this for Suor'kah'peth. Reentry always felt differently to each of his brothers, not painful or discomforting,  but for the Codicier a moment of peace before the enevitable storm soon to follow.

With a burst of sickly light,  the Titans Rage exited the Immaterium. The Battle Barge dragged contrails of pure emotion behind in its wake. It had arrived in the Yrlan's System...

*  *  *

Suor'kah'peth strode with purpose into the Strategium having ensured that all those astropaths almost tainted by the warp had been dispatched. The Codicier wiped his gloves on a folded tabard from his belt,  a few extra astropaths having been given the Emperors Mercy just in case by his own hands. Less than 70% of the choir remained.  Suor'kah'peth walked towards his brother Company Champion Benefalan.  "Brother,  it is done.  The pacification is complete. Do we know what happened to the wards?"
"I do not know brother", the flickering light from 10,000 candles refracted across his shining silver armour. . His bulk was massive in Tactical Dreadnought Armour,  the runes of warding engraved on every surface had been only just painstaking repaired since his last battle.

The gods of war stared deeply into the turning light of the Strategium hololith as it spun focused on the primary world of seven planet system. "There are no in system contacts Codicier" Benefalan rumbled,  "No system picket ships no, no PDF communiques,  no astropathic songs either. This system seem dead".

Suddenly the doors to the Strategium burst open, a chill wind following inside that even made the Transhuman warriors shiver,  "Its not quite dead yet my brothers, we have work to do" came a calm yet deep voice.  Codicier Suor'kah'peth spun around force staff at the ready, his strike did not fall.

"Supreme Grand Master Draigo...!"

*  *  *

Narrative Battle Report: Slaughter at Yrlan's Rest Part 1

Hi everyone,

So I thought I'd try and start some narrative battle reports for the blog. . This will follow in 3 parts,  an intro for each army and the battle report itself. . Hope you enjoy.

*  *  *

Smoke and dust drifted lazily on the wind, aimlessly floating through the winding alleyways of the Manufactorum District. The morning suns were breaking upon the horizon,  rays of light splitting iridescently through the the tumbling particles in the air.

It could almost be serene. But it was not quiet.  Muffled moans and screams could almost be heard floating in the background,  as the unmanned machines continued to clank and churn from the shells of broken buildings.

Pain throbbed in the air. Garak Gorebiter lifted the commissar off his feet,  eye to eye with the Khorne Lord.  Hot putrid breath steamed out from the base of the Lords helmet.  The last thing the commissar saw was the helmet split vertically into a horrendous maw as it clamped onto this head. With one swift yank, Garak ripped the commissar's skull out of his skin, the white bone glistening as it cracked. Garak strode imperiously to the nearby shrine,  lifting his latest victim overhead to pour the hot viscera over the shattered emblem of the false imperium.

Reality buckled.  Sickening light poured from the floor tearing up the side of the shrine.  First to appear was the great cavalry of the Blood God, roaring past Garak. They did not stop. Splitting wider and wider a Mighty Skull Cannon of Khorne raced into the material realm,  but it was not the last to follow.  Tearing as high as the Manufactorums rising all around a God of War tore itself from the warp. Khorne had indeed blessed Garak as first pulling itself from the tear in reality came Rote of Damnation, and finally Litany of Destruction!  With a mighty blare of their War Horns the Renegade Knights strode to war upon the surface of Yrlan's Rest...

*  *  *

Part 2 arrives tomorrow,  who will the Daemonkin face...?

The New Year Plan... Or lack thereof...

Hi again everyone,

I find myself on a cold Halloween night, brush twiddling between my fingers (not actually painting anything...),  thinking about what the new year will bring for me and my hobby (not that this will be up on Halloween... my scheduling skills still need some work).  I've begun to take stock of this year,  what I have done and think, could it have been better? Did I manage to achieve everything I set out to do?

No. Hobbyists' never seem to reach the lofty heights of truly believing they have completed or achieved everything they wanted to. (I blame Games Workshop and all those damn fine models...). But in my case as in many other boring real life seems to get in the way. So it's time to prepare myself to trim the fat set serious goals for the year ahead. . To this end I've come up with a plan...

OK maybe not so cunning... 

1. Set the target

I am provisionally down to attend a tournament in February next year being run by the brilliant Dave Weston over at Confessions of a 40k Addict (www.40kaddict.uk) (go check it out).

Dave first came to my attention when I started to attend the Blog Wars 40k tournaments run by Alex over at fromthefang.blogspot.co.uk (also definitely worth a read if you haven't stopped by). And with no word on whether Alex currently will be running an event until likely mid year,  I've set my sights on Dave's event.

I love running different armies at each event I go to,  and though not the most fiscally sound decision,  I will likely need a new army to play for the event.

2. The Faction

Currently at previous events I have run Necrons,  Dark Angels and Chaos Space Marines. I had intended to run Khorne Daemonkin at the most recent Double Trouble Event run by Alex at from the fang,  but unfortunately real life scuppered that.

Though I didn't run my KDK at double trouble I'm ready for a new painting challenge,  now I just need to decide what to do (which is harder than it seems with Thousand Sons almost all but confirmed and Sisters of Battle taunting us from afar...

So depending on what gets released between now and Christmas will determine what faction I will have a crack at.

3. Additional Tools 

I have been flirting with the idea of getting an airbrush to try out.  I am enamoured by the effects one of my regular 40k buddies,  John Causton can achieve with an airbrush. His craftworld eldar,  which he recently took to No Retreat in Gibraltar (run by SN Battle Reports),  taking away several painting wins for single miniature and single vehicle, are at the level only some of us can dream to be at. . They look gorgeous to play against,  and are deadly to boot across the table.

I am in no illusion that I will be able to reach these sort of lofty levels,  but if it helps batch painting units it will go a long way to getting myself ready for February.

4. Other things to do 
So with all of the above in mind I think it would be great to try some of the below as well,  and might make for some interesting reading for everyone here:

- My Airbrush Journey; Day by Day entries on my experiences with Airbrush painting,  and possibly some tips from other airbrush users.

- Faction Progression Log; Once I've a faction,  small updates on how they are progressing and what I will be actioning next.

- Battle Reports; Dependant on availability I might get some test battle reports completed in the new year before the tournament,  however depending on how long my army takes this might get pushed back to later in 2017.

- Thoughts on whether to run my own event...; This is a big one,  and I've not put a lot of thought into it yet,  but seeing Dave Weston running a birthday tournament makes me think about doing one as well,  especially as I turn 30 this year and it would be great to see if I could do something mad like this too. Maybe I'm mad,  maybe not,  will have to see how the cards fall on this one.  I have a good relationship with the owner of the local independent retailer so maybe I could sort something there...

5. The Hardest part of all

Paint one unit at a time!  Don't get distracted by all the shinies! 

So what does everyone think? Any ideas on my next faction to build and paint? Anything else you would like to see on the blog?
Let me know in the comments.

Until next time
Jonathan

Bloodreavers: Khorne Cultists in 40k

Greetings Gentle folk!

Today I'm going to be talking about my experiences with using Bloodreavers from Age of Sigmar as stand-in models for Chaos Cultists in Warhammer 40k, specifically when I am playing Khorne Daemonkin.

Looking back upon the release of the first cultists for Chaos that came with the 6th Edition Starter Set, the world was awed by the new sculpts, I myself was one of them, the sculpts for all the Chaos models in the set were amazing.

And yet, upon the release of the Age of Sigmar starter set with the new Bloodreavers, the 40k Cultists started to look a little bit weedy, especially for the scions of Khorne.  Now don't get me wrong, I still think the 40k cultists are great models, and should be used in my opinion for Nurgle (unless they make fat pustulent cult models), Tzeentch and Slaanesh.  However for Khorne the presence they hold just isn't quite the same.  Khorne models should be egregiously muscle-bound, including the trusty cultists.

So I have turned to the Bloodreavers as my go to cultists models for when I am playing my Khorne Daemonkin.  Now as you can see in the images below I haven't converted any of the base models to have autoguns, but this seems very easy to accomplish.  A quick search on Google should help you out if you want to get your hobby knife out.

Isn't his tan just awesome 😝

So what do I do about the shooting phase then, when all my mini dudez are toting knives and axes? I'll tell you... NOTHING!!!
Khorne is most pleased when blood is shed in the joy of close combat when you can see the light fade from your enemies eyes, their head arcing through the air as you claim another skull for the Skull throne!!!!

Hmmm... Might have gone off on one there....

Anyways getting back to the cultists, aesthetically they will slot straight into your Daemonkin army, will similar sizing and themes.  Now I hear you say, "but, but, they aren't on the correct basing size!!!" and yes you're right, when compared to their 40k counterparts.  However from the games I have played so far, the base size has played little to no difference in their survivability or ability to attack a unit.  Blast templates have covered a comparable amount of units, for if each model is 2in apart they will still get hit by both small and large blast templates.  If anything being on the larger base sizes have made it easier to hit my dudez more accurately compared to the smaller!

Another benefit of using the Bloodreavers are that they are currently sold as a larger unit compared to buying cultists on their own piecemeal (Yes I know eBay may be cheaper but not everyone is comfortable or capable of buying models in this way). Therefore you can increase the quantity of cultists you can get a hold, of for less cost overall.  And you really need cultists for Daemonkin, their survivability, and damage output should always be a bonus to the free walking blood tithe point that they are, so keep 'em cheap and small to maximise on the potential for more blood tithe.

Plus there is nothing quite so hilarious as sacrificing a Cultist champion to bring a Bloodthirster onto the field, and if you're very lucky, multiple bloodthirsters over the course of a game!

The plucky lil stabby dudez have served me well so far, and I will continue to use them cackling maniacally as they die for my benefit!


Shameless plug image for bloodhound and Daemonkin project.... 

What ideas have you got for substitute models? Have any AoS models crossed over to 40k or vice versa for you? If you have any how are they working out?  Bonus points for quick and easy conversions! Let us know in the comments.

Until next time
Jonathan