Chaos Pirates are going to war!

First battle of my Pirates will happen in less than 24 hours. We'll have to finish the game in 2 hours sharp, so we agreed on 750pts game (initially it were 1000pts).

My army will be very small one. As a HQ choice I'll use Daemon Prince with Mark of Nurgle, Power Armour, Black Mace, Wings and 3 Mastery Levels. Almost half of my poits spent into this one guy, but I think he might be quite usefull. Besides, that's the HQ I'm willing to take to the tournament in just few days, so I need to battletest him.

Troops, troops... The great disaster in CSM codex. I'll try both possible options, Marines and Cultists. Therefore, my troop choices will be: 4 Marines with Flamer plus Aspiring Champion with Power Sword, Bolt Pistol and Melta Bombs, whole squad riding Rhino with Dirge Caster, and squad of 10 cultists with pistols and a flamer.

There'll be no Elites nor Fast Attack choices, I can't afford any of those in such a tiny points limit.

However, when it came to Heavy Support, I took two units. Vindicator with Daemonic Posession and one Obliterator with Mark of Nurgle.

That's it, 750 points, I hope my guys will spill some blood and crack some armour gaining me victory :).

Chaos Pirates

After quite a few battles in Warhammer Fantasy realm I must admit I got a bit bored by killing everything on my way using Vampiric Deathstar :).

Therefore I've decided to resurrect my Chaos Space Marines force. I haven't played WH40k since Grand Tournament 2004, eleven years ago. So, after purchasing the codex, and looking at our local forum, I chose the tournament that takes place on 28'th February. About a week to build and paint a 1600pts force.

My idea is to build a force of pirates, guys who don't exactly care about Chaos Gods that much. Instead, they care about getting rich, preying on various ships and settlements that are unlucky enough to get picked by one of my captains, or admiral himself.

First models I began to build are:

Sorcerer Rakan

He's one of two brothers, who are magical apprenticies of more powerfull magicans in the force. Armed with Lighting Claw, he usually supports a squad of Space Marines or Plague Marines.

Fangor, leader of Fangor's Dogs

He leads the unit of Space Marines into combat. Armed with classic Power Fist + Bolt Pistol combo.

Classic Chaos Spawn

I found him among my old models, washed the paint away and sprayed him once again, to get painted in nurglish oily-green colours.

Chaos Raptor

First model of Ishtan's Scorchers, small unit of pyromaniac Raptors. I've purchased the box yesterday, and must admit, it's one of the best sets GW has released last few years. My plan is to use at least two units, maybe even more.

Apart from those almost-finished models, I began building my favourite Heavy Support unit, the Obliterators. As much as I like the unit, I hate the models that GW offer. I have two ideas, first, the Iron Warriors style, second, Ogre-like, nurglish design. Both (in very early WiP) are shown here:

I haven't decided which one I like more yet. Some ideas? :)

Fighting the short guys

It's really rare for my ghouls to look at somebody from above, but that was the case. Well, would be, if I used ghouls in this battle :)

Lost Legion stood against Dwarf army led by Kamil.

Lord, Thane, Runesmith, Warriors, Crosbowmen, Ironbreakers, 2 Ballistas, Catapult, Cannon and Organ Gun. I must admit I feared more artilery and shooting units...

My army deployed a bit wider than usual.

Big unit of Skeleton Warriors with Tamara van Dorst, second, smaller unit with Necromancer and Liche Priest, 2 units of Dire Wolves, Spirit Hosts, Vargheists, Varghulf, Casket of Souls, that's my right flank. On my left I've put Godrick van Dorst, the ghoul king, second Necromancer and Terrorgheist.

Kamil got first turn, and managed to shoot 3 ghouls and 3 Wolves, all other machines missed.

My line moved forward, reaching for warm bodies to consume.

Wolves were charged by Warriors...

...and swiftly dispatched. Dwarfs decided not to overrun.

Strigoi with his magic sword, along with Terrorgheist and Casket's bound spell destroyed most of crosbowmen.

Turn of shooting later (not much damage) my main charges began.

Spirit Hosts charged Warriors, Vargheists - organ gun, Strigoi attacked remaining Crosbowmen with Runesmith, Wolf - cannon, and Varghulf - ballista.

Ghosts held the unit in place, Strigoi and Vargheists overran, and ran off the board, to return later. Both machines were destroyed, and remains of the Dwarf army stood waiting for my main unit to hit them.

Terrorgheist flew to shout at Lords retinue, Varghulf finished the remaining machine, and Strigoi with Vargheists flew back to the table.

Lord charged my main unit, Vargheists, Strigoi and remaining Wolf charged Warriors. Lord was dead even before he could swing his axe, sadly, that's the case when somebody tries to hit the girls. At least one particular vampire-girl :).

Remains of Warriors flew from combat and were caught by Vargheists.

Nice, quick battle, first time I used Varghulf, and I must say, I'm impressed by the beast's performance. I seriously think about adding the second one to my army!

New Year!

Hi there!

December was a pretty dense month, so I had very little time for painting my models, not to mention playing Warhammer. Of course, that didn't stop me from some new purchases, expecially new Blood Angels. Anyway, I couldn't paint all the models I wanted, so finally I've decided to convert and paint Strigoi Ghoul King and Casket of Souls. The former is already done, for 3 weeks actually, but the later, well, it's barely cut out of sprues and designed, and deadline is tomorrow. I guess it's right time to finish the model.

I'll post some photos of the Casket tomorrow, for now - fear the mighty Godrick van Dorst, Strigoi Ghoul King!

Werewolves

I think it's a big mistake made by GW, not to put any Werewolves in the Vampire Counts army. Of course, there are Dire Wolves, but those are more of a undead-dogs than actuall werewolves. Proper werewolf should be much bigger, stronger and be able to change his form.

Good for me, I don't have to use exactly the models GW provides for my army. Therefore I chose to make some werewolves, and deploy them using rules for Crypt Horrors.

Only one problem remained, there are no Werewolf models. I'll have to convert something instead. Choice of head was pretty obvious, most wolves would do. As for body, I had no ides, so went to GW store to consult the staff. Olek, who works there, and actually plays Undead Legion himself, explained to me the most obvious solution (which, of course, didn't come to my mind). If I use werewolves as Crypt Horrors, why not use those models?

Here's how the model looks after assembly:

Torso and legs from Vargheist, arms (after removing all spikes, nails and bones) from Crypt Horror, head and tail from Fernrisian Wolf. Of course some sculpting was nececcary to make it work, but it wasn't hard to do.

Now I have to make two more and paint them. 'Till next time!

First month's summary

Yesterday was the campaign meet-up ending first, and opening second month of End Times campaign in GW store.

I've brought all the models I've painted during this month, and wooah, that's quite an army! Wight King, 3 Spirit Hosts, 48 Skeleton Warriors, Necromancer, Liche Priest, mounted Vampire and Tomb Princess. All models were aproved, granting me total of 51 points after first month, and placing my army as first in the campaign!

I gave it quite a thought what to paint next. My army lacks shooting, that's for sure, but also lacks mobility and hard hitting, fast units. I couldn't work on all those aspects at once, so decided to add some fast counter-attack and improve my current units.

First choice was the unit of three Tomb Kings Chariots. They are not the most powerfull unit in the game, that's for sure, but most enemies will think carefully before they expose one of their units to 3D6 S4 hits. And if chariots miss their charge? Well, it's just 165 points, not a big deal :). I've already began working on them, as my mail order finally arrived (after ~3 weeks). The most ugly models I've ever seen, will need some serious conversion before I will deploy them.

Second and third choices are 12 Crypt Ghouls and Strigoi Ghoul King. After adding them to the unit I already have (27 ghouls) I'll have the second horde in my army. After puting the Strigoi in that unit, I get not only a seriously hitting unit, but a very in-spirit-of-the-game one. Ghoul King with his retinue, tearing those pesky elves into pieces...

Fourth choice is the unit of three Vargheists. I'm not sure how will I use them, as they are too weak to attack whole units, and to hard-hitting to play artilery-killers. Of course, after they charge the imperial or elven firebase, there's nothing left, but Fell Bats or Carrion do that as well, and are much cheaper. Vargheists proved quite good at hunting down Chaos Chariots, before they have a chance to charge, maybe that will be their purpose, plus hunting for lone wizards, small shooting units etc. We'll see.

Fighting big guys

Last Thursday I've played a friendly game with Paweł, our local GW Store manager. His Ogres tried to stop the killing-spree of the Lost Legion.

Paweł deployed his forces in one long line. From my left to right, Bulls, Ironguts, Mournfangs, Maneaters, Leadbelchers and cannon pulled by Rhinox.

My army was way smaller. Skeleton Warriors with Vampire, Wight King and Tomb Princess, Crypt Ghouls as the bodyguard of my Necromancer, and Spirit Hosts as a screen.

I got first turn, and managed to summon Hexwraiths and Vargheists.

Ogres advanced at top speed.

Hexwraiths charged the Mournfang Cavalry, managing to inflict a single wound and break the unit.

Vargheists, who missed their charge, were attacked by Ironguts with the Butcher. Mournfangs kept running, closing towards the table's edge.

As my Vargheists died, I had little choice but to summon them once more, along with Terrorgheist. Ghosts charged Bulls, hoping to hold the unit as long as necessary. Tamara van Dorst, my Vampire Lord, ordered her unit to march forward.

Hexwraiths charged Maneaters, proving to be quite usefull unit against low-Ld units.

Ironguts charged my main unit, but were swiftly dispatched.

Ghosts broke Bulls and ran them down, Hexwraiths killed Maneaters and overran into Leadbelchers. Terrorgheist flew closer, to ensure that Mournfangs do not return, but they'd ran off the table.

Hexwraiths broke Leadbelchers and ran them off the battlefield, and Terrorgheist flew closer and shouted at the cannon crew, killing them all.

Lost Legion can freely march on in their conquest!

BTW, I'd like to thank Paweł for a very nice game, I hope we'll play again quite soon!