I took my Blood Drinkers to last years championship 1850 tournament and instead of starting a new army afterwards I decided to spend one more year with the angels improving my skills with the brush and the dice. After a glorious summer tournament season with my 2000 list I have returned to the dreaded 1850 point range and found dropping 150 points out of my list completely impossible. So a few months back I took a hard look at what I was doing and scrapped it almost completely. My play style cannot consistently win against Gray Knights with my MSU Blood Angels. Better generals than I can I am sure, but this fellow is getting off that train, at least at 1850 :P

So regardless, my actual goal is to simply score better in painting this year than I did last year taking into account the point modifier changes. Here is what I have so far.

I picked up a Battle Foam X-Board and had a friend help me get the basic texture going. I have a lot more in store for this board than simply dry brushing, by Adepticon it should be fairly awesome.

I started reworking the weathering on my vehicles, the gray ashey look I had before I want to rework into more of a red planet dirt look, nothing too severe but I think has more potential.

My old 10 man assault marine squad with 2 melta guns and a powerfist ditched their Land Raider and picked up some jump packs. I thought wings would look a little cooler, especially since they hang out with the Sanguinor.

I figured these guys would look more impressive without helmets and a little extra attention to their highlights. I tried a layering effect for the blonde hair, a new trick I had to figure out.

My Rape Train terminators finally picked up a bit more decoration on their shields.

My old squads from last year are still kicking, although my painting has improved to the point where they almost do not match.

And my Sanguinious, oops I mean Sanguinor, towers over Mephiston. I think that is how I think it should be :)

Thanks for looking

The first year I did not tie for second and end up with the sportsmanship award! Although I ended up like 5th or 6th (3/1 – stupid death cultists)

I took these pictures outside hoping that more light would make this better, unfortunately it looks worse :/

More pictures of this model are here: http://www.dzer0.com/?p=1779

So here is my gold armor technique in its evolution, again the light distorts the fade effect slightly, but at least you can sort of see where I am going with this Sanguinious.

Almost two primarchs down, next up: Horus or Mortarion?

So far I like how the armor is coming out, it needs a few more washes and layers (the light here throws off the highlighting a bit) but overall so far so good. The cape here was just base coated so far; hopefully I can make some magic happen here instead of being a blah -ish darkness. The sword needs some bling treatment as well.

So my Sanguinious/Sanguinor has been a long time coming.

The gold came out quite nicely, and the cape is off to a good start (the front looks beautiful) but the wings and gems are barely touched; the silvery bits are merely base coated.

The back of the cape needs some more blending, but the gold armor turned out really nice.

Back from my end of semester hiatus I am ready to get back to my painting desk. I have a lot to discuss since October (two podium finishes, 1^st & 3^rd), but wanted to start with what is currently on my table ready to see some paint. While I feel my list is solid at 2k+, I have never felt comfortable with it at 1850 and below so a complete overhaul has been in the works for some time now.

I am keeping:

• Terminators/Priest/Chaplain/Storm Raven (all at about 80% completion)
• 10 Assault Marines/x2 Melta/Fist (Finished)

And that is about it. No Land Raider, no Las/Plas, not even a Razorback or a basic Librarian.

I have a lot of work to do; Coastal Assault is only a month away with Adepticon following right behind it and then it’s the ATC and the summer circuit. I need to pick up the pace and get these models into a serviceable working condition and ready for action by the end of next month!

Also, I want to submit a model to the Coastal Assault painting competition but still cannot decide on what to enter. I can either paint up a new impressive model, or take the same time and really go nuts on something that is partially completed already.

P.S. I need to finish up my Yu Jing army for the Infinity tournament at Adepticon as well, what am I going to do!

After playing my list at 2k all summer I have finally settled into my standard tournament list that I will be taking to the next few events.

Chaplain
Sanguinary Priest: Power Weapon
5 Assault Terminators: 3 Thunderhammer/Storm Shield, 2 Lightning Claw
Storm Raven: TL MultiMelta, TL Assault Cannon

Librarian (Unleash Rage/Sanguine Sword)
Sanguinary Priest
10 Assault Squad: Fist, 2 Meltas
Land Raider Crusader: MultiMelta

5 Assault Squad: Melta, Power Weapon
RAS: LAS/PLAS

5 Assault Squad: Melta, Power Weapon
RAS: LAS/PLAS

5 Assault Squad: Flamer
RAS: LAS/PLAS

Baal Predator: Assault Cannon, Heavy Bolters

Baal Predator: Assault Cannon, Heavy Bolters

Reclusiarch vs Chaplain

I seriously want to squeeze 30 points to upgrade the Chaplain back into to a Reclusiarch. The +1 Initiative alone is worth it (I6 OTC is worth its weight in gold these days), and the +1 Wound, +1 Attack statline changes are always great, especially if you consider that I thrust him into combat by turn 2 every single game. If this Independent Character is still alive when the game ends, I have probably tabled my opponent.

I may run some war gear change test games to see if I can lose a few other important pieces. I could drop the Multi-Melta off the Crusader, drop one Power Weapon, and turn 1 more Melta gun into a Flamer, but I am not convinced that I *need* it.  The Terminator squad is quite capable by itself and I can always deploy the Librarian with them if I really need to. The Crusader’s Multi-Melta is either completely awesome, or a lame duck so while I think its one of the smartest (and easiest) 10 point upgrades in the codex, I could live without it to turn the squad from nasty to heinous. The other changes are more situational but are a useful second layer of defense and makes the 5 man assault squads viable assault threats.

Honor Guard vs Terminators

It took me quite a long time to let go of my Honor Guard. I have played Howling Banshees with Eldrad for 3 years and it was probably my favorite unit in the game. The ability to jump into assault and simply destroy anything they touched made the game fun regardless of win/loss. The Honor Guard are like a mini Banshee squad and play exactly the same way, here are some stats at a glance.

Honor Guard Squad – On The Charge (with banner of course)

8 – Lightning Claw Attacks (x2 LC/SS HG)
10 – Power Weapon Attacks (x2 PW HG)
5 – Regular Attacks (Sanguinary Noviate)

5 – Power Weapon Attacks – Chaplain
5 – Power Weapon Attacks – Librarian (This could be S10)

28 (S5, I5) Power Weapon Attacks on the charge
5 (S5/I5) Regular attacks
2 Storm Shields
7 Assault Grenades

This squad deals 33 attacks at Initiative 5, Strength 5 (reroll hits) even through cover, which punishes everything from Plague Marines down to 30 man Ork Boy units. The Librarian helps it against Dreadnaughts, or Monstrous Creatues with the S10 (not 100% reliable) and the FNP ensures they typically will not die to small arms fire.
 

Assault Terminators – On The Charge

8 – Lightning Claw Attacks (x2 LC Term)
9 – Thunder Hammer Attacks (x3 THSS Term)

4 – Power Weapon Attacks (Sanguinary Priest)
4 – Power Weapon Attacks (Chaplain)
4 – Power Weapon Attacks – Librarian (This could be S10)

20 (S5/I5) Power Weapon Attacks on the charge
9 (S9, I1) Thunder Hammer Attacks on the charge
3 Storm Shields
3 Assault Grenades

So this breaks apart combat into initiative steps which is good and bad. If I had the Reclusiarch I resolve at I6, then I5 before the opponent (typically) gets his I4 rolls unless there is a character involved and then we both get I1 if anything is left. I only lose 4 attacks, but everything is now power weapon status so opponents cannot stack the Noviate wounds on the same guy to save him. I get an extra Storm Shield, but the I1, and lack of Assault Grenades can be rough, the 2+/3++/FNP means they typically will not die to small arms fire. The big thing here is the S8/9 Thunderhammers which is what pulls this unit above and beyond the Honor Guard. Instead of dancing around dreadnaughts and MC’s I actively pursue them -and take their lunch money. This enables me to deploy the Librarian with the 10 man Assault Marine squad giving them Preferred Enemy (or S10) and creating a second mini hammer unit which rounds out the army a little better.

Change Long (From v1.1 to 2.3)

//I wish I could take 3 powers, but the Unleash Rage makes the 10 man squad so much better
~Librarian: (-)Sanguine Shield -> (+)Unleash Rage

//I found a new love for this flamer, he adds more on the table than it appears on paper
~5 Assault Squad: (-)Melta, (-)Power Weapon -> (+)Flamer

//I will miss having the assault grenades and the ridiculous amount of attacks
-Honor Guard: 4 Power Weapons, 2 Storm Shields, Chapter Banner

+Assault Terminators: 3 THSS, 2 LC      //The S8+ is the big push here

+Sanguinary Priest     //power weapon will go with the Terminators

I don’t really care to discuss the trip, the event, the people, the beer, etc as this would take all day to point every awesome thing/person out.I just want to quickly record what I remember about the games and move on.

Although I do want to say that Phoenix Games in Orlando put on a great tournament, I think the count was over 50 and they kept it professional and on time all day.

Blood Drinkers: Ard Boyz 2011

Mephiston

Reclusairch
Sanguinary Priest: Power Weapon
5 Terminators: x3 Thunderhammer/Storm Shield, x2 Lightning Claws)
Furioso Dreadnaught: Blood Talons, Heavy Flamer, Meltagun
Storm Raven: Assault Cannon, Multi-Melta

Sanguinary Priest
10 Assault Marines: Power Fist, x2 Meltaguns
Land Raider Crusader: Multi-Melta

5 Assault Marines: Power Weapon, Meltagun
Razorback: Las/Plas

5 Assault Marines: Power Weapon, Meltagun
Razorback: Las/Plas

5 Assault Marines: Power Weapon, Meltagun
Razorback: Las/Plas

5 Assault Marines: flamer
Razorback: Las/Plas

x2 Baal Predator: Assault Cannon, Heavy Bolter Sponsons

Game 1: vs Orks

Deployment: Pitched Battle
Mission: Victory Points + Messenger

My first opponent was Mason who is an absolutely great guy to play with a great list.I think I gave him a card for Costal Assault (at least I hope I did) and hopefully will see him sometime in the future. His list was somewhat of a hybrid from what I am used to seeing with Orks but nothing outrageous or unconventional. Typically I either face all mechanized Ork lists with x4 wagons or all horde, the mixing of the two without trucks, koptas, or bikes was interesting for sure.

The List:

Ghazghkull
Big Mek: KFF
x15 Burnas

x15Lootas
x15 Lootas

x20Boyz: Choppa, klaw, etc
x20 Boyz: Choppa, klaw, etc
x20 Boyz: Choppa, klaw, etc
x20 Boyz: Shootas, klaw, etc

x25 Boys Choppa, klaw, etc
x25 Boys, Choppa, klaw, etc

x3 Battlewagon: Plank, Armor, DeffRollas, Red, etc

Pre-Game Thoughts:

One of my greatest strengths as a 40k player is my ability to rationalize movement and follow through with precise assaults that result in victory through baiting, terrain, consolidation etc. I play a very tight movement phase which results in my natural affinity towards Blood Angels that demand that specific attention to detail more than most armies. That being said I have always enjoyed playing against Orks because so much of the game is trying to take away the charge from them while not letting the counter assault happen on the next turn. Picking not only what to assault, but when and where.

So I am feeling pretty confident going in this game, my Blood Drinkers are absurdly close combat based and I have plenty of Ork fighting experience under my belt. Furthermore the board has plenty of area terrain to slow the mob squads down and allow me to outmaneuver the big units by boxing them in by stunning his vehicles and using mine for the same advantage. Most of my shooting is anti-tank and so letting boys hug cover to avoid dying to my bolt pistol shots is fine with me as long as they keep rolling those 1’s for movement. I refuse flank to the far right and send the Raven left to tie up some squads separating half of his force from the side that will be fighting mine.

Fail #1

So since the ArdBoyz missions were posted I have repeatedly said to myself: “All I need to do is stick my 10 man assault squad in the Storm Raven and flat it out on turn 1 with the messenger to get the advantage.” I settle up to the table and I see the battle wagons and I say to myself: “Ah this is perfect, I want to strafe the Storm Raven far left to get side armor on the wagons anyway so it double works.” Where this plan goes wrong in the 30 seconds it takes to botch things up I will never know. Turn 1, I realize that somehow this amazing plan I had was completely forgotten and I had not only deployed in my usual fashion, but openly declared the terminators in the raven and the marines in the slow as possible Land Raider. What happened? I realize my mistake after moving the Storm Raven for the side armor shot putting the terminators out of position. His turn 1 the lootas knock the Raven out of the sky with an immobilized result that turns it into a wreck from the flat out, I disembark the Furioso and the Terminators just out of assault range (7-8”) but set myself up for a nasty turn 2. So now my army has to deal with Gaz and the burnas without Hammernator help which leads me right into…

Fail #2

So this has to be the biggest mistake I have made in the last 2 years of playing 40k. This is actually embarrassing, but perhaps someone will share a laugh with me at this egregious error. So turn 1, I move Mephiston far forward with his jump move and run to hide midfield behind a large los blocking terrain feature, and in the same turn drop the Battle Wagon holding the burnas, kff, and gaz onto the floor. By turn 2 after his turn 1 terrain roll the squad is still fumbling along in the wreckage but teetering on the edge almost half on and off. I start worrying about what I am going to do against Gazghull because I do not want to disembark troops to try and swarm him in assault, and all of my heavy shooting will be lost in the cover. I think to myself quickly that Mephiston could quite easily assault into that squad and sacrifice himself to take out the kff and gaz. I am not that fond of Mephiston as it is, and in one assault with the S10 I can take down both guys, and even possibly take no wounds from the burnas because of the T6; I could go for the glory and possibly reap a huge reward. I push everything forward and make my move perfectly eyeballing the distance and indeed engaging everything exactly like I envisioned it. Powers go off, preferred enemy, 4 S10 wounds on Gaz, 2 S10 wounds on the KFF –Instant Death, get off my table, plan executed perfectly! Oh, wait, Gaz can call the wagh on my turn? Oh, wait, Gaz has eternal warrior? Big Mek dies; Gaz saves 4, 2+ invuls and proceeds to deal exactly 4 wounds to Mephiston with the Burna Boyz adding 1 wound of their own. Yes, take a second to laugh at me. That was a noob mistake and I know it. I gave up 250 points to kill a Big Mek with a Kustom Force Field…

The Rest of the Game

So now I am sort of reeling. Mephiston went down too easily, and while my list does not necessarily depend on him the lost in victory points is painful. My Terminators are nowhere near Gaz and his squad and a whole bunch of boys are ready to tear my vehicles open and start eating guys. I had rushed forward to setup for a nice turn 2 and in return put myself into a hard place.

The Furioso is worth its weight in gold against mobs killing 30 boys in one round, and 15 Lootas in the next round. The Terminators do what they always do and start wrecking face against as many things as I can possibly multi assault. The Baal and Land Raider pull Gazghkull’s unit apart and the Las/Plas take care of the man himself. I destroy all of the Wagons easily and start chomping boys with flamers and my assault marines.

He fails an important movement roll and a charge with his large squad against several of my MSU’s giving me an extra turn to get a flamer and a good assault of my own. I fail an important assault against his messenger unit with my 10 man squad.

Game ends on turn 3: 1386 to 1283 with me being up 103 points. Neither of us got the messenger across, nor killed the opponent’s messenger.

MVP: Furioso Dreadnaught

Outcome: Straight Tie.

Game 2: vs Chaos Space Marines

Deployment: Pitched Battle
Mission: 1 Objective in the center of the table, more troops than your opponent

My second round opponent was my good friend Hilmar who unfortunately had asked me for list help and advice several weeks before the tournament.  Unfortunately we are both playing assault heavy lists working on who could get who first. He has T5, FNP troops, but I have Furious Charge and Power Weapons everywhere. He has Oblits, I have LAS/PLAS Razorbacks. He has Berserkers with Kharne, I have Assault Marines in a Crusader with a Priest and Mephiston. It goes back and forth like this.

The List: (From Memory)

Terminators in a Land Raider (mark of Khorne?)
x3 Obliterators
Greater Summoned
Kharn, Berzerkers, Rhino
x2 Plague Marines w/melta, fist, rhino
suicide chosen w/melta, rhino
x2 Vindicators

Pre-Game Thoughts:

Step 1: Take down the Vindicators
Step 2: Torrent of fire the Obliterators until they fail armor/cover saves
Step 3: Utilize terrain to posture for assault

Plan: My Terminators to his berserker/Kharn/Summoned Daemon and Las/Plas to his Terminators. My assault marines will pump melta guns into his plague marines and assault with furious charge, power weapons, fists to mop up. Mephiston and the Furioso will stay loose and aid combat where they are needed. Hopefully shoot the missiles off the Raven before it dies.

This game had a few lucky rolls go my way.

#1 Lucky Situation: Terrain was good for me

I do not get turn 1, but there is a tall LOS blocking piece of terrain that I can actually hide my Storm Raven behind. I put it and one Baal to the far left and the rest of my army behind buildings they can drive around towards the center. I know this is going to be a bloody battle so I position everything to just hold the center. I pushed my Baal forward during the scout move towards his Chosen just far enough to make it a juicy target, but not enough to give up Melta range if he comes after it with the rhino move and disembark, and I pop smoke. I do the same with the second Baal but this is shielding Razorbacks against his Oblits. Turn 1 he plows forward with his chosen to wiff and do nothing against my Baal leaving them exposed and out of position. The Oblits take some shots at the other Baal and do nothing, the Land Raider take Las shots against the Storm Raven but does nothing (cover saves, miss, etc). The Vindi’s get into position but deviate and do nothing.

Turn 2 Storm raven Drops a Vindicator and positions towards the center of the board to start interference if his forces push for the center. My far left Baal shoots and kills most of the chosen, my far right Baal goes after the Oblits and through failed cover saves and Las/Plas I do 3 wounds to the squad. I ignore the Land Raider (as I always do) and start blowing up rhinos. Trying to keep his troops away from the center.

#2 Lucky Situation: Storm Raven is wrecked instead of destroyed

When pushing my Storm Raven forward I usually position it in an incredibly awkward location so that if (when) it blows up I will have a nice chunk of terrain between my forces and the opponents to stop them charging the guys in side (if I can). This worked out even better because since the wings count as the hull I was able to really get the squad inside where I needed them to be, just out of assault range of his Berserkers and Kharn the almighty godslayer. On my next turn the Terminators move further towards the center leaving his berserkers alone and I leave the lone Furioso to take care of the squad and posture my Land Raider into position to counter assault the Berserkers on the following turn when they start trying to move through all of the difficult terrain and around my other units. To my surprise, Kharn flubs his rolls against the Furioso and with Furious Charge from the nearby priest, the Dreadnaught plows through the entire squad of Berserkers in a single turn. Kharn dies to fearless wounds. Wh-What?

The rest of the game was bait and switch. I was able to get his nasty Terminator squad to assault me through cover letting my brutal hammer to go first taking them down (the Reclusiarch is boss). The Plague marines are tough and even after assaulting a squad with 3, 5 man squads I lost combat, got away, rallied, shot moremelta guns and assaulted again to finally overcome them. Hilmar is one hell of a player, the entire game he is outmaneuvering me with his tanks, tactically boxing me in (making my Land Raider worthless) and playing a great movement phase in each turn. I had some lucky rolls early with the Vindicators and the smoke Baal’s, and since we are both playing assault heavy armies it could have gone either way from the beginning. I was able to put the pressure down early and keep pushing until everything was dead.

I actually had all 5 of my troop choices within the center objective at the end of the game plus all of the other extras.

Outcome: Massacre.

MVP: Furioso Dreadnaught

Game3: vs Space Wolves

Deployment: Spearhead
Mission: roll on turn 3 and see (turned out to be terrain features for us)

I walked up to the list of match ups, and saw my name across from my good friend Carter. I took a second look, this couldn’t be true.

Carter is another one of my good friends with whom I constantly talk 40k with so this was sort of a bummer to go into. Our armies are sort of counter to each other and there is always a lot of built up tension over how games could go between us. I have all of these vehicles, and his list is designed to eat vehicles. 10 minutes before the pairings he was even saying “Oh please let it be someone with a lot of vehicles.”

The List: (From Memory)

Logan, Long Fangs with Multi-Meltas, Rune Priest, Wolf Guard, Drop Pod
Arjac, Wolf Guards, Drop Pod

X2 Wolf Guard Terminators, Drop Pod
x3, 10 man Grey Hunters, Drop Pod
DDM-Venerable, Drop Pod

3 Long Fangs with 2 Missiles, Drop Pod

Pre-Game Thoughts: (This is going to be a hard game)

This is going to be a long report, but I want to really hash out how this went down.

As I said, Carter is one of my closest friends and we talk nonstop about 40k. Unfortunately I have spent hours considering how I would play against his army and had still not decided on what the best route should be. He has a powerful Alpha strike. With 9 Drop Pods, turn 1 he gets 5 in which will be loaded to the teeth with Melta action and a whole host of his baddest dudes ready to take the blunt of my return fire. Because this is spearhead I am sort of screwed, I am forced to box myself into a corner which will enable him to drop his pods between terrain features and close me off to the rest of the board. My knee jerk reaction is to go all in reserves and come in off my table, forcing him to go first and let me respond to his deployment. He wins the roll and chooses to go first giving me the one quarter of the board that has a big house, which is LOS blocking terrain for my Storm Raven. It’s on. This became one of the longest deployments I have issued in my 40k career, in hindsight I probably looked nervous as I tried to figure out the best situation to take the melta beating and position myself for a first turn assault.

I deploy spread out, leaving 6” on the backside of my units giving him room to deep strike aggressively behind me if he wanted to chance scattering off the board (he did not try). I spider web my force across my zone leaving no gaps for a stray pod to land so as to divide my units. The terrain itself is key in this game because there are several sets of area terrain that are perfectly placed for him to make a clean landing and setup a camping fire base if he wants to.

Things I Know: (or at least bet on)

I know that if I expose my vehicles (instead of reserve everything) that his first wave will be Logan with the Long Fangs as the first pod, most likely at the spear tip of his assault. He wants to drop everything around that to get maximum use of his once per game ability and also several squads for the Independent Characters to jump into if he needs them. So obviously I need to deploy my Land Raider (the second juiciest target for x4 Multi-Meltas) on a flank that he will probably not be interested in going for and have intervening models to give cover saves if he still goes for it.

I know that Arjac will most likely drop next to Logan, because quite frankly who doesn’t think those two guys in the same assault would be anything but pure joy. The Terminators will have some combi-meltas, but more importantly the extra support in a counter assault role.

I know that the DDM will drop against a single vehicle with the MM and wiff. I think he would prefer putting it somewhere on a flank that will not enable me to get rear armor on subsequent turns but can assault vehicles if the MM fails further.

I know that two, 10 man squads with Melta guns will also drop. One of them will probably backup Logan while the other may pair up with the DDM.

My Deployment: (all 15 minutes of it)

As I said all of this probability started calculating itself through my mind along with the actual trig equation based on where he deployed the Long Fangs. I put the Storm Raven behind the house, about 12” away from where I assumed Logan would drop to get a first turn assault on them.

I put the Land Raider on the extreme left corner, on the opposite side of the house hiding my raven. My plan was to force the fight on that side of the house so as not to present too many good targets in one corner. I deploy a lonely Razorback in front of the Land Raider to give a cover save from where the best drop site would be.

I spider web  the rest of my vehicles around forcing the fight outward but enabling my troops plenty of movement between the wrecked vehicles that where about to be.

Last, I deploy the two Baals outward from the group where I think his Dreadnought will probably want to go.

Result:

Basically things go as I imagined except the dreadnaught went after the LandRaider instead of the Baals. Perhaps this was to tie up the 10 guys inside instead of assault vehicles. Some drifting occurred, but nothing major.

He drops in and blows up a Razorback, a Baal, takes a weapon off the other Baal, and I think maybe stun or kill one more razorback.

Turn 1 my Storm Raven jumps the house and I assault Logan and the Long Fangs, unfortunately it is through cover and only the Priest and the Reclusiarch have grenades (but they kill all of the fangs). At I1, all of my Thunderhammers flub (both wounds and saves) but I deal some wounds to Arjac’s squad (which I pulled in through multiassault) to try and hold them from attacking my assault marines. I lose the combat but manage to hold with a wounded Reclusiarch, and Sanguinary Priest.

Error #1: Laxidazy or just plain lazy (Still turn 1)

I assault his 10 man squad with my Land Raider Assault Marines w/Priest and carelessly do not properly position my Sanguinary Priest. Typically what I will do when I disembark is put him on the opposite side of where the combat will be so when he rushes in to fight he is not in base to base with any of the enemy unit. Usually, instead of Mephiston I roll these guys out with my Librarian that can cast Preferred Enemy so against 10 Grey Hunters I do not stress. I just threw them in all willy nilly and end up turning what should have been a slaughter (with the Librarian) into a complete grind fest. His powerfist goes up against my priest, he loses combat but not enough to run. I only lose about 3 but they are stuck their until the next turn.

Bonus #1: (Still turn 1)

The Furioso separated from the Terminators and assaulted 10 Grey Hunters killing all of them (and he could have kept going).

The rest of the game was me destroying everything on my side of the table and completely forgetting what playing the mission even means in 40k. Mephiston is jumping squads tearing them apart, my assault marines are mopping stuff up, by the end of turn 3 there are no Space Wolves left on my side of the table and I am looking pretty good. I have 4 troop choices alive, I was able to rally a feeling Sanguinary Priest with some vehicle blocking shenanigans and things are looking very good.

Bonus #2: (Turn 3)

He drops his second squad of Wolf Guard Terminators in to deal with my Land Raider and fellas. He gets an immobilized result but it is facing a good direction. I bring Mephiston up directly behind them, get the assault marines into position and fire all of their bolt pistols and 2 meltaguns just for kicks and kill all 5 Terminators. -Mephiston looked very disappointed.

Error #2: Mission? What mission?

Turn 4 Carter drops his last Terminator Squad and a 10 man Grey Hunter squad waaaay across the table. I throw a challenge down; Space Wolves do not run from Blood Angels, bring your guys back to this side of the table and fight like a Space Marine! He just laughs and reminds me that the mission is terrain features and starts running his guys out to hold multiple features in his zone. All of a sudden I take a look at the board and see that his two troop choices can easily hold like 8 different terrain features at the same time, and on my side of the board his stupid Drop Pods are contesting every single one of mine. Oh Noes!

Mephiston starts flying to his side of the table, and in 2 turns I kill 7 drop pods with melta guns to spare.

On the last turn of the game I fail Mephistons flight spell but get a decent run and contest 3 objectives on his side of the table, winning the game and getting max points.

Outcome: Massacre

MVP: Mephiston

So, overall 4th place. I really wish I wouldn’t have made such a noobish mistake on the first game but likewise I would not have faced Hilmar in round 2 and would have to go through a Dark Eldar Venom Spam or Grey Knight Purifier bs and might not have done so well int he second two games.

PS: 15 Skulls!

So here is the unit at a glance:

2 Lightning Claw, 3 Thunderhammer/Storm Shield Terminators with a Reclusiarch and a Sanguinary Priest usually in a Storm Raven or Land Raider Crusader.

I have quite a bit more work to do on these guys, but they are based and table worthy in the meantime. Originally, my bump from 1850 to 2000 was simply replacing my Honor Guard with these guys, but after 20 or so games with them they have become a more permanent staple in my list.

I lightly drybrushed some of the details with boltgun metal just so they would stand out a bit, I will energize the power weapons with some layers of blue lightning to match the rest of the army and start pulling out the bits here and there. I am not sure exactly what to do with the shoulder pads yet, I’m thinking since I always run a reclusiarch or priest with the squad I may as well color all of the skulls with a matching color. A priest is always attached to this squad as well so perhaps more white and gold pieces also.

These are man sized shields and really look like what a fierce vampire terminator would wield. When building these models I used pins and greenstuff to attach the arms a little wider and farther apart to give the figures even more bulk than normal. You can sort of see it above on the last LC picture in the shoulder joint and below with the sergeants arm.

These shields need a bit of work, I will most likely free hand the Blood Drinker logo onto these.

So, for the time being I must get back to the army I actually play. Terminators incoming!

For a while now, I have been running a squad of terminators in place of my honor guard to get some experience with a more well rounded unit.  I hastily painted up some extra models up to a three color standard just to get them on the table. Now that I have a little more love for the unit, I am finally going back to give them the attention they deserve.

Here are some pictures of the terminators I am currently using (except they are actually painted 3 color standard). The models are basic, nothing special except I put some Scibor shoulder pads I had laying around. I will eventually go back over them with extra highlighting and make them blend into the rest of the terminators I have.

After messing around with the generic Space Marine terminator kit and being completely underwhelmed with the Blood Angel options (of which there are none) I decided to use some of the old Chaos Space Marine terminator kit I had laying about. For the heresy stuff I was in the habit of sanding off all of the chaos icons but my Blood Drinkers are dark and sinister so the rest sort of fits. Here are how they look in their current status, sometime later this week I will prime them up and start the base coat. I hope to have them done by the end of September depending on how much homework I end up with.

2 Lightning Claw, 3 Thunder Hammer, Storm Shield

These are just pinned at the moment, but I attached them to the bases they will end up on when constructing the poses.

These Shields where left over from my Honor Guard, I sanded some of the weird logos off and will put a nice big Blood Drinkers symbol on the front. Shields are from HITECH Miniatures

The Sergeant with a cloak from the Warriors of Chaos sprue. It looks a little funny in this photo because of the angle, but I think it will look really good once it’s fully painted. I have his head already painted so I will attach it later.

Shoulder Pads are from Scibor’s Monstrous Miniatures

But I am ready to move on to the next thing so for now he is done! Still working out the kinks with the lightbox, so hopefully you can see the shading.

The Thousand Son Legion I am working on will be featured with sand/desert themed bases.

I took around 300 pictures of this face and it just does not illustrate it well.

The cloak came out very well, I touched the edges with the desert sand to give it a slightly dragging on the ground look.

Some more angles of the cloak, the lighting is weird but you can see the emphasis on the high and low lights.