Custom Models for Dummies

I'm one of those lame modelers that like the models they way they are. I love the Grey Knights, even though the poses are limited. I love the Cadian models. I think the Leman Russ doesn't need any improvement. And the Chimera is just awesome.

I know. Lame.

I got a Chimera in a trade that looked like it actually was in battle. The thing that bothered me was that two of the lasguns were broken. What to do with it was bothering me for at least a week. Thoughts of antennae or banners ran through my head, but I'm not that good at customizing.

I was cleaning up some boxes within boxes the other day and came across the missile pod to a Whirlwind (no idea where the Whirlwind is - all that was left was the missile pod). Then it hit me - MANTICORE!

I never really thought of fielding a Manticore before. It has D3 pie-plates of S10 AP4 fun, but I like to see an AP3 or lower on the weapons on my armor. After thinking about it for a bit and seeing as I had everything I needed, I reread Brother-Captain Angelus' article on recycling and went to work.

This is custom modeling for dummies.

I drilled a 3/4" hole where the turret was. Even though I used a drill bit made for wood, it worked remarkably well on plastic.

Then I cut off the lasguns and started filing them down. That wasn't working, so I decided to drill the hole. It didn't take much for the lasgun to pop into the inside of the Chimera.

Now I had to do something with the six holes on the side of my armor. I tried green stuff, but that didn't work. Thought about cutting a plastic piece to go over them, but that looked ridiculous. Then I found the answer in my spare bit drawer.

Space Marine shoulder pads!

I can hear Marines players groaning now. It makes the Chimera look like it has vents. I had to file down the raised marks on the lasgun holes, but the shoulder pads fit like they were meant to go there.

I have a bunch of dozer blades, so I figured why not add one to this puppy. I also added the smoke launcher to keep it consistent with the rest of my armor.

I primed, top-coated, and painted and here are the results:

Incoming! Hellhound

GW unveiled the new all-plastic Imperial Guard Hellhound at Games Day Spain this morning.

The Hellhound has three variants: the normal Hellhound we all grew up with that has the Inferno Cannon, the Devil Dog that has a Melta Cannon, and the Bane Wolf that has a Chem Cannon.

This kits has the pieces to make all three! It should be released in August.

Hell Hound

Bane Wolf

Devil Dog

The Battle for Lyseria

a War for False Hope Battle Report

Either the Emperor was dead or the silence from the Astronomican would break and The Jokers would be reunited with the rest of the Imperium. Either way, it was Colonel Ciath’s duty to ensure the False Hope sector stayed together. This meant landing in other systems and reuniting them with his Imperial forces or, if needed, taking them back from whatever had plagued them.

The Lyseria System was almost silent. Only the fourth planet showed signs of civilization, and even that was faint. Ciath landed his forces in the midst of the ruins of a recent war and started searching for the psychic beacons that had led him to the system.

As the platoon closed on the beacon’s signal, he noticed movement within the ruins. The platoon fanned out and the heavy weapons team deployed in a half destroyed building.

‘Betcha it’s just a herd of grox’, Lieutenant Gorvinsk’s voice said over the comm-bead.

‘No bettin today, Gorv. I’ve got a bad feeling about this’, Ciath responded.

‘Come on, colonel. Two ration bars says…WHAT THE FRAK IS THAT?!’

Ciath looked out the destroyed door frame and saw the dreadnought. He couldn’t seem to focus on it for some reason. He then noticed the large figures in the shadows of the building across the road. At first he thought they were the Plague Marines they encountered less than a week ago. But as their forms seem to go in and out of focus, he felt his bowels loosen when his brain finally made the connection.

Grey Knights.

The 501st has fought alongside Inquisitors and Grey Knights long ago and he knew their capabilities. It was a force of Space Marines with psychic abilities and never-missing bolters attached to their wrists as naturally as a hand is.

The light of the Astronomican going black didn’t scare him. Plague Marines didn’t scare him. Dying didn’t even scare him.

The forces of the Inquisition, however, terrified him.

There was no pulling back now. Even if he ran out of the building with a white flag they will still kill him. They were clearly in a defensive position and whatever the 501st came across was not meant to be found.

He heard a voice issuing orders to fire. Fire indiscriminately. Fire at the damn Dreadnought which was getting ready to level the building we were in. Fire the Russ! Shoot!

It took him a moment to realize the voice he heard was his own.

The Hambali 501st played a 750 point game against Brian’s Inquisitorial Expedition Force Arrakia. My first army was Deamonhunters, so I knew how difficult it is to play less than 1000 points with this army.

He brought two squads of Grey Knights, two Dreadnoughts with twin-linked lascannons and missile launchers, and a Brother-Captain terminator.

I thought about bringing a command squad, two veteran squads, and two Leman Russ tanks, but figured that would be considered “power-gaming” and decided against it. Instead, I brought a command squad, a platoon with three heavy weapon squad (two missile launchers, one autocannon), a veteran squad and a Leman Russ. My previous game taught me that all-infantry armies don’t have the stamina to take out the tougher armies. My system advantage was a Forge World, which allowed me 75 points for armor. That is the exact cost of a Chimera with a hunter-killer missile and pintle-mounted storm bolter. This gave me two Chimera to use as mobile cover units.

The mission I rolled was Firebase, so I only had to hold one objective. Brian rolled Hold the Line, so he had to have more of his units in his deployment zone than me at the end of the game. He only had five units, I had nine. This should have been a no brainer.

His army was completely painted and mine wasn’t. In a tie game, the army that is completely painted wins. So I had to not only claim an objective, but I also had to have more of my units in his deployment zone.

I set up the three heavy weapons squads in a tall building with a squad on each floor and the company commander on the ground floor. The veterans were deployed in their Chimera, the platoon command squad and two infantry squads were deployed behind the other Chimera and Leman Russ.

Brian deployed a Dreadnought dead center in his deployment zone. The two squads of Knights and Brother-Captain were hidden behind a building. The other Dreadnought was on the side of the building.

I won the roll to go first. And that’s when I lost the game.

For those who haven’t looked at the new Imperial Guard codex, I should explain how awesome it is. Company commanders and platoon commanders can give orders during the shooting phase that drastically improve the basic guardsman. Heavy weapons can count as twin-linked. You can force cover saves to be rerolled. You can even get an extra shot with the lasguns.

However, these orders must be given in a specific order. Before any units shoot, then company commander must issue his orders, then the platoon commanders must issue theirs. If you don’t do this in the right order, you lose the ability to issue orders.

All of my missile launchers had a clear line of site to the Dreadnought in the center of his deployment zone. I got so excited about such an easy kill I instantly started issuing orders and shooting. I didn’t move. This isn’t the first time I shot before moving.
The company commander issued the “Take It Down” order and the missile launchers were twin-linked. The Dreadnought exploded. The autocannon squads barely had line of sight to the Knights behind the building and they took their best shot, but the Knights made all their saves. I ran my infantry squads towards an objective that was closest to my deployment zone on the side of the table.

The Dreadnought on the side of the building moved to get line of sight to the veteran’s Chimera and immobilized it. A Grey Knight squad moved to the same side of the building as the Dread and took out three men in the infantry squad with their storm-bolters.

The veteran squad jumped out of the immobilized Chimera and started heading across the board. One of the infantry squads jumped into the other Chimera and maked a run for Brian’s deployment zone.

The missile launcher squad on the roof of the building unleashed into the Dreadnought, stunning it and taking out the lascannon. The infantry squad on the objective got the “First rank fire, second rank fire” order and unloaded lasgun fury into the Grey Knight squad, but the flashlights did nothing but light up their power armor.

The Leman Russ then barked for the first time in the game, stunning the Dreadnought and taking out a Grey Knight that got caught in the blast.

They Grey Knights shot into the infantry squad again, killing two more troopers. They failed their moral test and ran off the battlefield.

On turn three I got all excited about issuing orders and forgot to move again. The missile launcher squad immobilized the Dreadnought and the Leman Russ caused it to explode. The explosion took out three Grey Knights with it.

All of the Grey Knights moved behind the building to deny me any line of sight.

I started moving everything except the two missile launcher squads toward Brian’s deployment zone. I knew I could easily capture both objectives, but I needed to cross that line with at least three units or the game would be a tie. The trick was dealing with the Grey Knights hiding behind the building. They had clear line of sight of my squads once they entered no-man’s land.

When my Chimera and Leman Russ got within range, the full Grey Knight squad jumped out from behind the building and multiple-assaulted them. They Grey Knight Nemesis Force Weapon have a strength of six. This makes them can-openers against Russ’ and Chimeras. Both weapons on the Leman Russ were destroyed and the Chimera exploded. The explosion took out half the veteran squad that was beside it and they started running toward the table edge. The squad that was in the Chimera lost five men and were pinned. The explosion even killed a Grey Knight.

Every heavy weapon and lasgun unloaded into the Grey Knight Squad, killing all of them except the Justicar. The Justicar assaulted the company command squad that was sprinting toward Brian’s deployment zone and surprisingly nobody managed to inflict any wounds.

The veterans regroup and sprinted toward the deployment zone and managed to get a leg over the line. The last platoon squad was sitting on the objective in no-man’s land. The platoon command squad was stuck in close combat with the Justicar in the middle of no-man’s land.

The Brother-Captain stepped out from behind the building to shot at the veteran squad. All heavy weapons shot at him but to no avail. There wasn’t any weapon that could overcome his armor save.

The Justicar killed the company commander, but was killed by the four guardsmen in return.

This left me holding two objectives and Brian having two units in his deployment zone where I only had one. It was a tie game. His fully painted army was the tie-breaker and he claimed victory.

I have since typed up a cheat-sheet for orders. It describes each order that can be given, who can give it, and what advantages each order provides. The top of the sheet has the following four words in bold:

DON’T FORGET TO MOVE!

The Grey Knight Justicar raced toward Colonel Ciath with his glowing sword held high above his head. When the blow finally came, Ciath managed to block it but the force drove him down on one knee. He spun around to gain momentum and came up swinging his sword at the Justicar neck. The Justicar easily blocked the attack and the swung down. Ciath took a step back to avoid the sword and brought his weapon into a low arch toward the Knight’s leg. They Justicar blocked the thrust and spun with speed that was unnatural for a man of his size. Caith stepped in toward the Justicar and blocked the obvious attack but didn’t see that the sword wasn’t the attack he needed to worry about. The Justicar’s armored fist slammed into Ciath’s chest and he felt his ribs crush as he flew backwards four meters.

Before he lost consciousness Ciath saw Corporal Bragg jam his bayonet down into the fitting under the Justicar’s helmet. The Knight flung Bragg off of him, but in doing so the bayonet only dug deeper and managed to almost sever his head. The Justicar howled as he fell to the ground.

Lt. Gorvinsk ordered a full retreat and most of the men made it back to the drop ship. Ciath remained unconscious for the duration of the trip back to Sebation’s Strait. Upon returning to the Forge World, however, Gorvinsk came under attack by a Grey Knight strike cruiser which had beaten them there.

The 501st was forced to retreat again.

In an effort to unite another system to their cause, they managed to lose the Forge World in Sebation’s Strait.

What's this a Mk. I landraider.....

Well back at it again my local Forgeworld has seen fight to grant me with a sneak peak of their latest creation from a battle long ago in a galaxy far away…..

LOL seriously I know I told you guys I would do the weather article next but I need this tank for upcoming games and might put off the weathering one until all the tanks are done. I had this Landraider sitting not in the scrap yard but it was a model out of an army I no longer play. Plus this Landraider deserved something more since it survived an entire apocolypse game with taking any damage. After my work with the whirlwind I decided to rip this glorious mountain of plastic armor apart and refurbish it into something the machine god would be proud of. So after the ritual blessing, sacrifice of a dozen or so cuts to my fingers, and consulting my emperor’s tarot (Imperial Armor books). I was blessed with this wonderful project.





Now I wanted it to be an older Mk. I version so I had to find the correct mounting system for the lascannons on the sides. While more experienced modelers go for a complete scratch build on this I am not to that level yet. I did happen to have several twin linked lascannons from predator models sitting around. So I had the guns now onto the mount, I wanted boxy but after I tried them on I wasn’t quite sure and my wife walked in and asked why I had coffins on the side of a tank.





So I needed to come up with something to “trim” it down so to say. Well why not cut 45 degree angles into the front corner and see what it looks like. I was very happy with the result and stuck with it.







I wanted to add in the Forgeworld doors I recently ordered and realized after dry fitting them I would need to cut off the top “crown” pieces they had. No problem I don’t like them anyways, and figured it would look different with them missing anyways.



After getting the basic dry fitting done I needed to start adding some minor details to the housings for the cannons so I went for a type of dragon scale armor. I figured most incoming fire would be coming to the hatch as the troops would come out. So the armor is configured backwards to the normal way of thinking. I also want to have different surfaces to place decals and what not’s that I have sitting around to make it look like an ancient war relic.



After I was pretty happy with the side weapons I began work on the front of the tank.
After a quick read of IA: 2 I saw a Helios pattern Landraider that was an Mk. I and knew it would fit well with the army theme. So I set about a plan to make the tank multitask with the plan to be to swap out parts depending on the game. Now unfortunately I tore the Heavy bolters out and was unable to save them and didn’t want to buy some after seeing how much people were charging for them on bits sites. So I came up with the idea that it is an older raider so it wouldn’t be completely automated. I recently got some heavy bolters from a deal on eBay with some land speeder storm parts left over. I then went about building a manned cupola twin linked heavy bolter.



Using the same technique I created a sensor insert as well.



I dug around in my bits box and found the cities of death parts with the eagle buttress things and instantly thought of tank guards. I am in the process of making them so you will only see a little bit of them at this point. I also chopped of the headlights on the front of the raider and will probly find something later to replace them and added more armor plate. My thinking on this is that the main armor has been added too over time. Also that it is an older tank so the crews undoubtedly would add extra in between battles.



So that’s where this beast sits as of tonight and I am going keep working on it over the weekend. I anybody has any questions on how I did what just leave a comment and I will read over it.
Until next time have fun and watch out for sharp knifes…..

The Battle for Sebastion's Strait

a War for False Hope Battle Report

Colonel Ciath looked across the field, past the ancient ruins long abandoned, at the two Rhinos that moved out of the tree line. ‘They reek of chaos’, he said, handing the monoculars to Major ‘Ordy’ Ortinez. Ortinez took the looking glass as a bright beam of light came from the sky and caused the second squad of first platoon to disappear in an explosion.

Everyone threw themselves to the ground as lance strikes from an unseen cruiser hit all around the ruins. After what seemed an entire afternoon the sky stopped barking and the men cautiously rose from the ground. Ciath looked down at Ortinez, who was lying on his back and not making any effort to get up. Without looking, he reached his arm out, picked up the still shouldering cigar that flew out of his mouth, and took a long drag from it.

‘Is that all they can frakkin’ give?’ he asked to no one in particular as thick smoke came out of his mouth. He spoke softly into a small transmitter that was built into his mechanical arm and took another drag from his cigar.

A few moments later the ground shook as a melta torpedo from an orbiting ship struck the tree line behind the Rhinos.

‘Try again, Ordy’, Caith laughed, then started barking orders at the heavy weapon teams that surrounded him.

In my first game for the campaign, I played against Keith’s Plague Marine army Pestilence of Depsair. I’ve played against Plague Marines before and expected them to be tough to kill and they all have the “Feel No Pain” rule. I also knew they were expensive and a 750 point game would place some serious limits on him.

The Hambali 501st brought the command squad with a mortar, a platoon loaded with heavy weapon squads, a special weapon squad, an additional squad of vets, and some stormtroopers in reserve. And, of course, I brought the Master of Ordinance. At 30 points, how could I resist?

For my system advantage I had a Forge World, which gave me 75 points extra for armor. That is the exact cost of a Chimera with a pintle-mounted storm-bolter and a hunter-killer missile.

Keith had a sorcerer and two squads of Plague Marines he tucked inside Rhinos. To say I was overconfident is an understatement.

My mission was to control his objective marker. He had to ensure that he had more of his units in his deployment zone that I did.

Keith chose a system advantage that gave him an Orbital Bombardment. He rolled for each of my units and on a six the unit takes D6 wounds. One squad was hit and three men died. The squad was then pinned for the first turn.

The command squad issued the “Take Down the Big One” orders to the two missile launcher squads, making all the missile launchers twin-linked. The Rhino in the far corner of the board was destroyed instantly, leaving the Marines stuck on the wrong side of a hill away from all the action.

The infantry squad ran toward the objective which was within their reach. The Master of Ordinance shot, scattered, and missed.

The Sorcerer and Plague Marines got out of their Rhino and started toward the objective that the guard squad was aiming for. The Marines start taking out infantry and the Sorcerer used something called the “Winds of Chaos”, which uses a flamer template. It didn’t do any damage, so the Sorcerer assaulted. The guard unit and Sorcerer each took one wound.

The stormtroopers were delayed and the missile launchers all missed the second Rhino. The hunter-killer missile on one of my Chimeras, however, took out the second Rhino. The Sorcerer killed four more Guardsmen in close combat, but they refused to fall back and run.

The Master of Ordinance shot, scattered, and missed.

The Plague Marines took out the platoon command squad, leaving only the lieutenant and radioman standing. The Sorcerer took out two more Guardsmen at the objective, but they were still locked in close combat as the Guardsmen refused to withdraw.

The Plague Marines that were stranded at the table corner finally made it over the hill and took shots at a Chimera with their meltas, but didn’t do any damage. The Chimeras, missile launcher squads, and special weapons squads started to slowly whittle down the Marines, but their “Feel No Pain” ability made slow work of it.

The Master of Ordinance shot, scattered, and scorched the back of a Chimera.

The remains of the platoon command squad and infantry squad assaulted the Marines squad nearest the objective. They were hoping to hold them in close combat for a turn or two, but when the swinging stopped only the lieutenant was left standing in the midst of seven Plague Marines. Needless to say, he didn’t survive the next round of close combat.

The Sorcerer and the Sergeant were still locked in close combat until the end of third turn.

The veterans that were riding in one of the Chimera disembarked and shot at the Plague Marines that just finished off the lieutenant, but not a single Marine was killed. The Marines, in turn, rushed the vets and killed every one in a single round of close combat.

The other Plague Marine squad destroyed the special weapons squad, but continued to take loses from the Chimeras and missile launcher squads.

The Master of Ordinance shot, scattered, and missed.

On turn five the stormtroopers finally showed up and started unloading into the Plague Marine squad. Only one Marine was killed. A missile finally killed the Sorcerer, who was looking at the stormtroopers like a snack.

At this point it was obvious that I wasn’t going to be able to claim the objective as there were no scoring units anywhere near it.

The Chimeras and missile launcher squads finally took out the remains of the Plague Marine squad that was stuck in the center of the table. This left two Chimeras in his deployment zone and he only had one unit left. There was no way he could complete his mission either.

The game was a tie.

The remaining Plague Marines started backing away toward the tree line. Major Ortinez ordered another strike, but it missed. Colonel Ciath shook his head as he inspected the scorch marks on the back of his Chimera. ‘You didn’t hit a damn thing, Ordy’, Ciath said.

‘Hey, I hit the ground didn’t I?’ Ortinez responded, straightening his greatcoat and taking a flask from his side pocket. ‘You know how many times I’ve missed the ground before?’

You’ve recycled it now you need to slap some paint on that tank....... MONKEY!!!

Well now that we have found a hulk, stripped it faster than my cash at the local gentlemen’s club, and rebuilt it like the mad genius the divisional Mechanics knew we had in us it needs some cover. So how on earth are we going to start? I like many of you suffer from what I call “Great ideas on what it should look like but never turns out that way.” Syndrome. So in order to move that along come up with a basic and easy paint scheme for your models I mean since we all pay like 9 bucks to read white dwarf and see what the heavy metal team can do we should be able to do it right? Well plain and simple no, we can’t otherwise we would be working for GW doing that while some poor slob worked a grueling 9-5 hoping he could do what we could. So with that in mind off we go…






First step is to make sure that your model is completely ready to go since once we primer we paint with no delay. Also please wait to primer the model at least a day since you want to make sure that the glue is dry. Now keeping that in mind I primed my model with a flat black paint, I use to use white but found I had to cover the model with many coats of paint which in turn created streaks in my painting and the clump effect. So after laying down a nice even coat of primer I take an old paintbrush that I have sitting around that is extremely soft and brush my model. What this does for me is wipe away any dust, ash (I prime on top of my coal furnace), and the regular sloop that ends up hitting the model at times. After doing that I put the model down and decide if it needs anymore primer sometimes I miss spots on the model as you can never get the entire model covered from position.



Sorry but just picture the model all black!!!!


Second I found a can of testers French blue high gloss paint that I wanted to use to create a shiny first layer to my paint. I do not cover the model but allow the paint to “drop” on in a quick fashion so that there is a small amount of black primer still visible. Now this may seem weird but bear with me as this will make sense and you will see the results. You must allow this coat to dry for 24 hours until doing anything else.






Third step is where we start laying on the paint, I use Games workshop regal blue because it has a nice deep color to it and will allow a second layer of shadowing to the model. I put some paint on the brush with a dab if water mixed in and then paint my table with it to flatten the brush and paint. This seems to help with the bubbles that occur with the next step. I quickly move the brush in a motion that it hits the flat parts of the model. Once that dries I go over it again as needed in different directions. Using this method I do not apply a heavy coat of paint but build it up in layers. This may require two or three coats depending on your model. Do not worry about covering the model 100% as this is only the middle coat of color we are putting on it.






After that is dry we can begin the fourth step of the main color process which is Games workshop’s Ultramarine blue using the above method. While doing this do not worry about covering all the surface area the idea is use the previous layers of paint to add the shadowing to our model. Complete this step as you did the third until you have a paint job that is acceptable to you.






Now allow to dry and then add our secondary color for me this is white. I begin with a very watered down mix of white and apply in layers to the model. You will need to do touch up later as everyone seems to hit spots on the model that they do not mean too. After that is done I will go over the model with boltgun metal and then begin the touch up process.










Now at this point I apply my decals since I want the first step of the weathering process to be next and include the decals. I apply all the decals at once using a paint brush and micro sol do a Google search for it and buy some it will save your life.






After you are comfortable with the paint so far we will begin the first steps of weathering which I will cover the later steps in another article in the future.



Until then have fun and enjoy the hobby tank monkey's....

Campaign Update - 5/27/2009

Wednesday, May 27th
The Battle for Lyseria

The Hambali 501st Regiment attacked Inquisitorial Expedition Force Arrakia in the Lyseria system. After the Deamonhunters beat the Guard regiment, they took the opportunity to claim the unoccupied Sebastion's Strait.

Watch for full battle reports within the next few days.

Armies registered for the campaign:
1st Company Tyrannic War Vets
Inquisitorial Expedition Force Arrakia
Hambali 501st Regiment
Hive Fleet Leviathan
Lunar Fangs
Pestilence of Depsair
Sword Angels

Follow the links above to see each army. The army pages will be updated with each battle.

To see an overview of each army (wins, loses, ties), follow this link:
http://berkswarhammer40k.webs.com/ArmyStatus.htm

To see the status of all the systems in the Lost Hope sector, follow this link:
http://berkswarhammer40k.webs.com/WorldStatus.htm

REMEMBER: Register your games by sending an email to berkswarhammer40k@hotmail.com. If you don't register the game, it will not count towards the campaign.

If you need to download the rules, click here:

Campaign Thoughts…

The campaign has already gotten off to a great start. We’ve seen some of the more experienced players of the group tie up games without winning or losing. And we have seen Ray, who has only played one game before, take the first decisive win of the campaign.

We have been playing 750 points games so far for a couple of reasons. First, many of the players don’t have their armies built for higher point games. The campaign doesn’t allow proxies, so this presents a problem with “trying” a unit out.

The second reason is we are all still getting use to the campaign rules. A 750 point game allows us to learn more about the different missions, different board set ups, etc.

The third reason is so we can get as many games as possible played in the shortest amount of time.

At 750 points, we play on a 4’x4’ board, which allows us to play two games at the same time on the 8’x4’ board at Hobby Town. This means that the distances for the deployment charts in the campaign rules need to be halved. This is not a lot of board to play on.

It also allows us to put some pretty powerful units on the board. The problem is that at 750 points, the game falls under the “small game” rules. Bigger units, especially the Tyranids, can be significantly hampered. Expensive armies, such as Deamonhunters, have a difficult time fielding enough troop choices to claim an objective.

The campaign rules for smaller games were taken from the “40K in 40 Minutes” rules. They work really well for 400 – 500 point games, but for 750 point games they start breaking down.

Our options are to either add army specific rules for small games or use some general guidelines and agreements for smaller games.

If you feel that you would be significantly hampered at 750 points with the small games rules but do not want to risk two systems, then ask your opponent to play a 1000 point game, but only use one system and one objective marker per side, and play on a 4'x4' board. This way you will not be restricted by the small games rules.

Alternatively, you can play a 400 or 500 point game. While this may not seem appealing because you won’t be able to add that extra member to your HQ retinue or mount that power-armored freak on a bike, you have to put it into proper perspective: your opponent won’t either.

The point is that campaign is designed work for each of us: the players.

The Battle for Havaria

a War for False Hope Campaign battle report
by Inquisitor Lord Raylem

The mission for the Ultramarines was simple after the field was set “hold out”. On my mission role I ended up with the same mission as my previous game. So with that in mind the game was afoot with my opponent “Ray the Nid” ending up with sabotage. So my army needed to hold my objective marker and the Nid’s needed to destroy it.

The armies as I recall them:

The Nids
2 warrior squads – 1 was the HQ I believe
2 Hormagaunts Squads with 14 models in them I believe
1 Carnifax
3 Zornathropes

Ultramarines
Space Marine Chaplain on bike
1 Dreadnought in drop pod with inferno cannon and drill arm and heavy flamer
1 Tactical Squad with 5 members and a Sgt. Mounted in a razorback w/ Heavy Bolters
1 Scout Squad 5 Man mounted in a Landspeeder Storm with Assault cannon
Predator w/ Lascannon and heavy bolters.

So after deployment the Landspeeder storm made be beeline for the objective marker and commenced a quick strafing run on the 1st mob of gaunts while the scouts inside began chewing up the same mob with great effect. I managed to kill 9 gaunts with this one unit alone let me tell you I was very happy at this point. I also had moved my razorback and commander in what I believed to be a good position to reach my objective. While on the other side of the board the carnifax was moving up the middle of the “street” heading for the objective marker near my side of the board. My predator made a lascannon shot on it and scored a wound.

Rays turn began with him moving the swarms around the buildings and trying to get his second one which was still intact (how did that happen) towards my objective marker realizing that his objective mark on the board had little significance. The only shooting that occurred was from zornathropes which managed to miraculously not do any damage to landspeeder storm. I am beginning to think my opponents will begin shooting this out of the sky immediately in games. There was no assault to be done so back to me and turn two.

I decided to bring in Brother Mallues in his dreadnought armor and drop pod so I placed the drop pod in the center of the board and rolled my scatter for a direct hit. Out comes the pain, right in front of the second swarm of gaunts that were still at full strength. Well out comes the brother and on comes the promethium. I wiped out 12 gaunts with the flamers and the drop pods storm bolter took out the remaining 2. The Predator moved forward targeting the Carnifax again and scoring a wound. The razorback and commander on bike were still making their way to the objective marker and took shots at the remaining gaunts from swarm one and took them out. This is the part I screwed up; I wanted to kill the zornathropes so bad that I move the landspeeder in the middle of them. I managed to score a few wounds but Ray saved them with his 2+/4+i.

So I did not have much to worry about or so I thought going into the next turn. All three zonrothropes turned on the landspeeder storm which I put right in the middle of them. Luckily nothing happened to them but still I realized the harm I put my prized unit in. Other than that Ray move his troops around and tried to shoot by dread with his venom cannon but only scratched the paint. Now this point in the game cost me as well, that pesky canrifax came running right up on Brother Mallues. Now I did get to hit first and managed to wound him once more but being a monsters creature he walloped me with his extra attacks. I ended up with no less than 3 damage results which caused him to be destroyed out right. There was a huge grin on Ray’s face at this point. Plus I didn’t realize that Ray got his warriors into range to destroy my marker. So he achieved his goal of the game and denied me a chance to win mine. There was only one option left to the ultramarines and that was to kill everything.

After seeing Brother Mallues reactor go super critical and explode the crew of the predator took a chance to avenge the fallen dread and kill the still moving monstrosity that ended 1200 years of fighting experience. With a righteous fervor the lascannon struck with righteous effect killing the creature responsible for this tragic blow to the chapter. Upon this victory the marines began decimating the Nids taking them down in to the final turn with only one Zornothrope model on the board with one wound left. While Captain Waering who lead the marines into battle was severely wounded and taken from the battle to waiting strike cruiser.

So with a heavy heart the remains of the dreadnought lost in the battle were salvaged off the field while a deathwatch kill team was prepared to hunt down the last nid of the battle. This stain of losing the valuable specimen container has cast a shadow on the chapter the marines of the battle walked away with the knowledge that a serious blow had been done to the Hive fleet.