AJAX 2. Horus Heresy event. Sweden. Iron Warriors. Armored Breakthrough.

So, this years AJAX event is over for this year. I meet new and old Heresy friends. I did see some incredible armies and had some great games.

This year I took my armored breakthrough list. A relatively small and elite army list. Something that would be easy to bring and easy to setup.

++  Spirit of Tallarn ++

3500pts

Traitor 

Iron Warriors 

Armored Breakthrough 

+ HQ +

Master of Armour [225pts]

. Sicaran Battle Tank: Accelerator Autocannon, Armoured Ceramite, Lascannon Sponsons

+ Elites +

Contemptor-Mortis Dreadnought [185pts]: Extra Armour, Kheres Pattern Assault Cannon x 2

Terminator Squad, Legion [470pts]

. Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour

. Land Raider Phobos: Armoured Ceramite, Shrapnel Bolts

. Terminator Sergeant, Legion: Chainfist, Combi-Bolter

. Terminators, Legion: Chainfist, Combi-Bolter

. Terminators, Legion: Chainfist, Combi-Bolter

. Terminators, Legion: Chainfist, Combi-Bolter

. Terminators, Legion: Chainfist, Combi-Bolter

Terminator Squad, Legion [465pts]

. Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour

. Land Raider Phobos: Armoured Ceramite, Shrapnel Bolts

. Terminator Sergeant, Legion: Combi-Bolter, Power Fist

. Terminators, Legion: Plasma Blaster, Power Sword 

. Terminators, Legion: Combi-Bolter, Lightning Claw

. Terminators, Legion: Chainfist, Combi-Bolter

. Terminators, Legion: Chainfist, Combi-Bolter

+ Troops +

Predator Strike Armoured Squadron, Legion , Compulsory [100pts]

. Predator Tank, Legion: Extra Armour, Heavy Bolter Sponsons, Predator Cannon, Shrapnel Bolts

Predator Strike Armoured Squadron, Legion , Compulsory [100pts]

. Predator Tank, Legion: Extra Armour, Heavy Bolter Sponsons, Predator Cannon, Shrapnel Bolts

Predator Strike Armoured Squadron, Legion , Compulsory [100pts]

. Predator Tank, Legion: Extra Armour, Heavy Bolter Sponsons, Predator Cannon, Shrapnel Bolts

+ Heavy Support +

Artillery Tank Squadron, Legion [155pts]

. Medusa, Legion: Medusa Siege Gun

Leviathan Siege Dreadnought Talon [325pts]

. Leviathan Siege Dreadnought: Armoured Ceramite, Grav-flux Bombard, Heavy Flamer, Heavy Flamer, Phosphex Discharger

. . Leviathan Siege Claw

Tyrant Siege Terminator Squad [885pts]: 

Tyrant siege master

8x Tyrant Terminator, 3x Chainfist

. Spartan Assault Tank, Legion: Armoured Ceramite, Dozer Blade, Flare Shield, Quad Lascannon Sponsons x2, Twin-linked Heavy Bolter

+ Lords of War +

The Primarch Perturabo [490pts]: After Istvaan

Background:
The surface of Tallarn would forever be dead in the aftermath of the 4ths assault on the planet. Ten thousand years in the future the gore and mud world be transformed into a cracked dessert. Dust will once more be dust. The bones of victims, tyrants, heros and villains would form clouds in the sky, slowly covering the planet in a blanket of honor and shame.

The resolve and courage of the Tallarns will be spoken about for millennia. Beaten but not broken. Crushed but not ended. The 4th will always bear the defeat. A campaign without a point. A wasted opportunity and a darkness replacing what little humanity that was left.

That is what will be recorded but not what will be remembered. 

Sons following a father. Brothers forever loyal to their purpose. 

The millions lost on Tallarn was just a handful of souls lost for the warriors of iron. The 4th had for years feed the stars with there brothers. Given their life for the idea of an imperium. Unsong heros of a misguided crusade. Built upon lies and violence. 

But yet this is not what would be remembered between brothers. The bonds between warriors fighting and the tactics drawn from hundreds of engagements. The elite tank crews that would leave the Tallarn surface would decent once more. Carrying the spirit of Tallarn with them. As the sand of the dead planet is ingrained in hull and armor. So is the creed of the crews. Brothers until death. Iron within, Iron without.

The concept behind the list was to bring something armored heavy but yet without spamming sicarans or predators. I wanted to include infantry in the list, both to be inline with my background but also to soften the list up a little. I don’t want to exclude my opponents units, like bolter marines and so on.

I believe that we have a responsibility every time we interact with someone els. And when we play games with toy soldiers one of those responsibilities is to do our best to make sure our opponents have a good time playing. One way is to try to bring a fair army.

This doesn’t mean to give up or to give a way the victory. It basically means to not be an asshole. So bring some units that is less points efficient than others just because you like them is better then spamming unbeatable WAAC armies. That is my opinion. This is a game, based around the randomized nature of dice. If you take that to seriously maybe you should find another hobby.

With all of that said it turned out my list worked much better then what I was expecting. By including two units of terminators in land raiders I was hoping to ease up the list a little. Land raiders by them self is hard to destroy but doesn’t hit that hard. Terminators is of a similar nature. But by including these units it added a dynamic to the list that seemed hard for some armies to handle.

I would never tribute my victory’s to my tactical genius…I have none ;) . But I was quite lucky in some occasion at the right time that turned the games in my favor.

The terminators worked as close combat support, mopp up crew and objective holders. By having these units in my list I gave all my other units breathing room to be as effective as possible. I had not expected that this combination would work as well as it did.

The list ended up winning 4 out of 5 games.

Two of the games was crushing victories, two was very tight nail biting games that could have gone in any direction and in the last game my ass was handed to me by turn 3.

I will not cover any of the games in any details but I meet some really nice people and had great opponents in every game.

Here follow some random pictures from the event :) . Lastly I want to thank everyone at the event for making the weekend great. And a big thank you to the organizers! I know how hard some of you have worked and I am truly grateful for all your work.

(Click the image below to slide through the images).

I tried to take pictures of every army. I apologize if I have missed someone. If you where in the event and you don’t see your army represent, but you want to be represented, just send me a message and I will add you :) .

(Click the image below to slide through the images).

Adeptus Titanicus. Pallidus mor. Warlords. Part8.

The Warlords is done. Time to get started on the Knights!

Adeptus Titanicus. Pallidus Mor. Warlords. Part7.

First wash is on. They are far from done but they start to look like something :) . 

Adeptus Titanicus. Pallidus Mor. Warlords. Part6.

Final step before the oil washing.

Adeptus Titanicus. Pallidus Mor. Warlords. Part5.

So that is all things assembled. The two sisters rising. 

Next up will be fixing all the trims, clean up and transfers. 

Adeptus Titanicus. Pallidus Mor. Warlords. Part4.

It have been a while since I did anything on my Titans. But after months of doing a lot of other fun things, it is time to finish these behemoths. 

I have four weeks of vacation plus another four weeks of parental leave, starting from yesterday. I am officially committed to finish what I have for Adeptus Titanicus before work starts again! 

Iron Warriors. Horus Heresy. Perturabo.

The Swedish Horus Heresy event, AJAX 2 is around the corner. In three weeks I will be taking my armored breakthrough list to battle and it will be lead by no other than Perturabo.  

In preparation for the event I took out my primarch to touch up his color scheme a bit.  

This is the first model I painted for Horus Heresy and I feel like a lot have happened with my painting skills between then and now.  

For some time now I have been considering to buy a new model of Perturabo and paint it to whatever standard I can pull off now.  

But eventually I decided not to do that. I am a bit of nostalgic person. This model mark the beginning of my first steps with the my Iron Warriors and Horus Heresy. It might not be the best painted model in the world, the coat of paint is to thick, the face is messy, the model is poorly assembled, but it is my favorite in my whole collection. 

With some oil wash and highlights I feel he looks good enough to take part of the event :) . 

Necrons Kill Team. Pretorians. Lychguard. Kill Team Elite. Part3.

The roster is complete, for now :) . I like how they turned out. I was a little worried they would turn out to different to the rest of the kill team, but they fit right in. 

Necrons Kill Team. Pretorians. Lychguard. Kill Team Elite. Part2.

A couple of work in progress pictures. Started to experiment with oil washes, I don’t think I’ll ever go back ^^ .

Necrons Kill Team. Pretorians. Lychguard. Kill Team Elite. Part1.

I seem to have lingered in the world of kill team. I want to add some elite choices to my necron war band for an upcoming game.

Grey Knights. Knights Errants. Kill team. Part2.

There we go. The five grey knights/knights errants is done.

 I like how they turned out.  Will be fun to try them out in kill team :) .

Grey Knights. Knights Errants. Kill team. Part1.

I had to pause my Argel Tal project meanwhile I was wanting for some paints I ordered to arrive.

 I have since kill team was released wanted to start a grey knight team. But I could not come up with an angel I wanted to go with. 

 I feel the current grey knight range is a little old, nothing wrong with that, but it didn’t feel like it would make for an interesting kill team. 

 I love when you have a interesting story behind your force, a theme that captures what, why and how. 

Kill team allows for very unique forces, I find it lets you explore small nuances within 40k in ways that would otherwise be difficult with a full blown army.

My grey knights arch’s back to the Horus Heresy. After Istvaan 3 and Horus culling of loyal elements within his own and other traitor legions marks the beginning of the Knights Errants. Lead by Nathaniel Grro and on the orders of Malcador the sigillite the Knights Errants is what later would form the core of the grey knights at the late hours of the Horus Heresy.

The Knights Errants was a hand picked few from both loyal and traitors legions. Individuals that would be considered the best of the best among the Astartes. Devoted to the imperium and the Emperor. 

They were organized in small strike teams or sent off on independent missions individually, linking up with loyal legions fighting an unseen war against chaos. This was a war long before the horrors of the warp was fully known or before the extent of chaos had fully evolved.

My Grey Knight kill team is still part of this secret organization within there secret organization. Operating in much the same way as the Knights Errants of old. Dressed in the armor of the old and early heroes they fight the silent and unseen war against chaos. With relic weapons and the purest of minds they deploy deep within enemy lines and bring the wrath of the emperor to the enemy of man.

 The most fun about this little project was to keep within the boundaries of Horus Heresy and the army list of the Knights Errants. Giving the team the correct gear for that timeline as well as equipped them according to the kill team army list.  

This is why, for example, why they have Combi bolters instead of storm bolters. 

Right now I will finish these five members but I have plans for five more and some terminators.  

Word Bearers. Argel Tal. Part1.

So, there comes a time for every word bearers collector when you come across the stories of Argel Tal. For me this was in the book Betrayer some years ago. I came to love that character like most others. 

For me he is a driving force in why I started with word bearers in the first place. 

 I thought it was time to envision him so I could put him the battle field.  

Word Bearers. Gal Vorbak. Part4.

Calling them done. I am happy how the grey came out and I like how they work with my first five gal vorbak even if they are different.

 I do have five more gal varbak unassambled and unpainted. I might go straight to them and finish the final five. We will see. 

Word Bearers. Gal Vorbak. Part3.

Almost there. Just details and the bases :) .

Word Bearers. Gal Vorbak. Part2.

I have been on a roll this weekend. Been able to get some good hours in on these wonderful sculpts.

Word Bearers. Gal Vorbak. Part1.

So, being the hobby butterfly that I am, I am pausing the updating of the world eaters and is instead painting up some Gal Vorbak for my Word Bearers.

Going from one type of violence to another :) . 

World Eaters. Chain Axes. Tactical squad. Part2.

So I continued with the chain axes this evening. And in the process I brushed up some of the color scheme of the first squad. 

That was 10 chain axes painted and added to 1 squad. Time to continue with the second squad :) . 

Iron Warriors. Armored Breakthrough. Battle Report.

Yesterday I had my first run with my armored breakthrough list against a walker heavy iron hands force.

The 3000p of walking death featured:

3 leviathans. 2 Contemptors. 3 Contemptor cortus. 1 predator. 20 immortals and 2 squads of marines in rhinos. Just a small disclaimer, my friend mixed up some of his game ceases and was missing half of his force. To fill up his list he borrowed some of my contemptors and a predator. That’s why you will see some mixed color scheme in the iron hands force. He got a really nice looking army so it was a little sad he couldn’t display all of the force this time.

As for the iron warriors, this is what would resist the iron hands road forward:

Deployment was clash of the line. Not ideal for either one of us. And mission

Blood feud. The mission statement says that each army picks a unit type in secrecy and in the end of the game earns victory points for each unit of that type destroyed. With him being dreadnought heavy and me tank heavy there where no secrets about who picked what.

The iron hands won the initiative so after deployment all I had to do was to weather the storm as the lumbering machines crushed forward in cover of night.

First turn went relatively painless. We traded some shots. Pinged of some hull points. The best result was done by my contemptor mortis that unleashes a hellstorm of gunfire into one of the leviathans and manage to immobilize it.

Second turn and the iron hands was still coming, releasing more and more gunfire as they came closer. I had up to this point played it cool with my land raiders and terminators. I figured I needed to get as many turns of shooting done before the the armored lines meet. But I was split between two choices. Either head up with the land raiders, intercepting the walkers and trying to destroy or tie them up. Holding them off of my back lines. Or stay in place, let the land raiders get assaulted and counters punch them back with the terminators. The reason I went with staying in place was to allow my own leviathan to get in range earlier. This was a gamble but I needed as much firepower in range as possible as quick as I could. The outflanking tactical squads also arrived and started to threaten my back lines. Lucky for me everything survived with only some hull points lost.

One of the iron hands leviathans coming around the corner of the ruins managed to unleash his phosphex discharger and the Melta lance into my tyrants. Resulting in 5 being lost. A significant loss I needed to make up for. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to get much done. Some hull points here and there. A rhino destroyed but nothing that was stopping the oncoming assault.

Turn three. One of the iron hands leviathans and two contemptors smashed into the land raiders with full force. Crushing them with ease. The terminators inside, despite their transports exploding walks out of the wreckage unharmed, wading through fire and molten metal.

On top of this the tank commander got the main gun of his sicaran blown off at the same time as the outflanking marines opened fire on one predator and the Medusa. The weight of fire was to much for the two tanks rear armor to withstand and just like that the iron warriors lost two more tanks.

I need to make this turn count. If I flunked this turn that would be the game. Opening up with everything I got left on the front ranks and charging head first against the hulking machines pulled me back into the game. The two contemptors got gunned down and the leviathan got wreaked by my own leviathan.

Turn four. The enemy predator have slowly been beating on my lines turn after turn. Finally he makes the killing blow on my tank commander. The last of the predators fall and the terminators is gone. There is not much left of my army at this point. But I still have some good firepower left. The mortis, spartan and leviathan is undamages. But the left flank is about to get hit by the iron hands. Two contemptors and a leviathan is now to close to avoid.

The surviving tyrants and my delegatus takes cross fire from the two contemptors and then assaulted by the closest. One tyrant dies but the rest pinns the contemptor in place. In response I sends in my leviathan. The claw ripping through the contemptor like nothing. The spartan turns and end the last contemptor standing. My tyrant and warlord slips into cover behind the wreckage of the sicaran.

Turn five. My leviathan gets assaulted by the second leviathan. Not only does he survive but also manage to reduce the attacker to one hull point. The spartan is desperately trying to end the immobilized leviathan in the ruins but with no luck as the immortals starts to flood its hull. Ripping off all but one hul point. My warlord hiding behind the burning sicaran with the lone surviving tyrant traded shots with one of the tactical squads. He is winning that fight for now.

The final turn. This is still anyone’s game but it is going to be close. Like some divine intervention my leviathan finish the enemy leviathan without getting destroyed himself. The spartan weather the assaults and manage to explode the final immobilized leviathan. A massive explosion rips through the ruins and collapses the broken building. When the dust settles the fight is over. The warlord manage to overwhelm the tactical squads with shots, forcing it to flee and with that the game ends.

Like almost every game of Horus Heresy, this was a brutal game. So much death and destruction. When the final victory points was accounted for the iron hands had lost by one point. 7-8 to the iron warriors. Super fun game!

I really enjoyed my list and it will definitely be something I will run more frequently.

Just the mix of tanks and heavy infantry is just up my alley. I will run this list once more before I make any changes. It is hard to make any conclusion after only one game, but so far it preformed as it was intended.

A big thank you to Björn for putting up a great fight. Luck was on my side this time but I am sure it evens out in the end.

Daemons of the ruinstorm. Concept. Part3.

I think this little study is done.

All and all I think the concept looks ok. But I like the color scheme more than the model to be honest. 

 I will probably make some more concepts before deciding which way I will take. 

 I am pretty tempted to just go with nurgle as a whole but we will se :) .