Christmas Reinforcements!

Well my next venture into my parent's bank account has proved very handy, but it's only because I convinced them to spend £250 to gain free postage!

I wanted to add a Caestus Assault Ram to my collection, and that was the fist thing that I placed in the basket, expect countless posts about this bastard kit (from what I've found on YouTube) later on. I also wanted to add some Cataphratii Terminators to my army, but when my parents went to place the order they were out of stock... enter thoughtful mode. When the Deimos Pattern Predator Infernus was first released my first response was that I wanted at least on of these beauties in my army at one stage, so with the Cataphractii's out of stock, I decided to throw in a unit of 3 of these, just because they fit the flaming fluff of the Salamanders. With £11 pounds to spend to gain free shipping, I was stuck with what to do, all my infantry weapon sets are complete, all my characters are built at the moment, so there was nothing that I desperately needed. Fluff wise my Contemptor Dreadnought Talon aren't the best, so I thought it would be appropriate to have the option to have two multi-melta's within the talon.

Order arrived yesterday, and I cannot help but want to open to box and start to dry fit all the kits together. I'm going to magnetize the multi-melta's for the dreadnoughts, and see if I can magnetize the predator turrets for added variety, but I'm presuming it won't be possible though... as for the ram, this will not be my priority over the next couple of months, at least I'm not planning for it to be, as the predator's will be as they will give me a gaming style that I've never played before - Tank Squadron.

Pictures of the building process' will appear after Christmas, and I'll try and put up some images of everything I've got so far before Christmas, but there are no promises!


Daniel: You're an evil git and I hate you. Luckily I have planned for this eventuality....
I shall also try to do a whole army post before Christmas, just the assault squad to make now.

Battle Report, Salamanders vs Night Lords, 1000 points, part 2

The first turn started with me advancing one of my tactical squads to the right to take control of a second primary objective. The Command squad advanced up the middle, whilst the Seeker squad encroached on the Contemptor. My other tactical squad sat on the primary objective in my deployment zone. In the Salamanders shooting round, I was able to kill of 3 of the Night Lord tactical marines that were advancing towards the objective on my right. The Seeker squad sergeant shot at the Contemptor, blowing it up before we remembered that he had a 5+ invulnerable save, and of course this saved him...

Daniel followed suit with his turn, but was less successful with his shooting, killing a couple my Seeker squad with his Kheres patters assault cannon. His tactical squad then failed to cause any wounds on my Command squad, mostly thanks to my 2+ armour save keeping them alive, and I'm glad they did! Daniel thought he could rectify his poor shooting my charging, but his tactical squad and Contemptor both fell short in their charges.

With Daniel's failed charge with his Contemptor, I manoeuvred as many of my Seekers to its rear as possible   in hope of glancing it to death... everything else stood still, and the command squad unleashed bolt rounds into the Night Lords tactical squad who were two inches away, failing to kill any. The seekers faired a tad better, causing a glancing hit with a bolter shot. On the charge, my Command squad entered combat with the Night Lords tactical squad, and the Seekers charged the Contemptor. With the Command squad all being Characters, I issued a challenge with a normal member of the squad trying to flush out the Night Lord Champion, but instead found a sergeant waiting. The Champion then surfaced issuing his own challenge, which was happily greeted by my Praetor. My veteran killed of the sergeant and my Praetor sliced the Champion to death with his Prator blade (Murderous Strike causing Instant Death on a 6). The rest of the squad then killed another member of the tactical squad before running them down as they tried to escape. Over with the Contemptor, the Night Lords were fairing a lot better, killing three and suffering no wounds, locking the two units in combat.

The Night Lords second tactical squad then advanced to take the place of the first squad, and the Destroyer squad positioned itself for a charge in the near future if needed too. The tactical squad was able to kill of one of the command squad before charging in, while the Contemptor killed another two Seekers, but lost a hull point in the process. The tactical squad was again outmatched by the command squad with veteran accepting the sergeants challenge, but failed to kill him. The rest of the squad faired little better apart from the Praetor who killed three, but the squad did take a casualty at the same time. The Night Lords used hit and run to retreat after the combat, and the Salamanders followed behind them, but headed towards to Destroyer squad on their left on the way. The Destroyer's charged to command squad followed in by the returning tactical squad. The Contemptor killed the rest of the Seeker squad and advanced on the Salamanders tactical squad sat in their deployment zone still. In the Command squad combat the destroyer sergeant tuned down a challenge and lost two of his squad because of it, whilst the tactical squad's sergeant survived another challenge but also lost two members of his squad. The command squad again took no loses thanks to a 2+ save. The following turn, the Seeker squad redeployed because of the special building rules we rolled, and appeared just behind the Contemptor and shot it to death the same turn.The Command squad charged the Destroyer squad, with the Praetor slicing the sergeant to death in a challenge and the rest of the squad being chopped down by the remainder of the squad, but lost another of their number.

The Night Lords remaining tactical marines made a tactical retreat towards the objective that was in their deployment zone, and the command squad followed. Shooting at each other caused no casualties until the penultimate turn when the last regular Night Lord was laid low by a bolter, Leaving the sergeant to run to the top of the building to avoid being charged. Having failed to be shot down, the sergeant then returned to the ground level to claim the objective just before the game ended, leaving the final score as; Salamanders 8 (2 Primary objective, First Blood and Slay the Warlord) Night Lords - 3 (1 Primary Objective)

Both Harry and Daniel said after the game that a Command squad would work their way into their lists as soon as it was possible as they near enough won the game for the Salamanders single handedly.

Battle Report, Salamanders vs Night Lords, 1000 points, part 1

Last night Daniel and I played our first legion on legion game! Having limited space we opted for 1000 points, and both of us went for infantry based forces. I used the following list;

Praetor with a master crafted paragon blade and an iron halo
5 man command squad
10 man tactical squad with sergeant in artificer armour
10 man tactical squad with sergeant in artificer armour
10 man seeker squad with 5 combi-flamers, sergeant with a power fist, plasma pistol and artificer armour

Daniel: For anyone who is interested, my list was;
Legion champion with master-crafted power sword, artificer armour and refractor field
Contemptor with assault cannon and extra armour
5 man Destroyer squad with plasma pistol and power fist
10 man tactical squad with power weapon, artificer armour on sergeant, legion vexillia and nuncio-vox
10 man tactical squad with lightning claw, artificer armour on sergeant, legion vexillia and nuncio-vox
Now back to Paul


We used some of the battlefield special rules so ended up with a building in Daniels deployment zone which forced him to re-role successful armour saves, I had one where loyalist marines had to pass a leadership test to move into, and a building near the centre which allowed the first destroyed loyalist infantry unit could be redeployed within six inches of its edge. We also had 5 primary objectives to claim, but both of us only had two scoring units, so the game balanced on who could wipe out a scoring unit first.

Daniel took a contemptor, which in the end could only be taken out by my seeker squad sergeant! Knowing this I deployed my seekers as close to the edge of my deployment zone as possible, in hope of Daniel hunting them with the contemptor to keep them away from his Champion who was marked for death. I deployed my tactical squads on the objective in my deployment zone, and the second moving towards the closet one after that. My command squad and praetor where heading up the middle of the board.

Daniel had a similar idea, sticking his tactical squads on the closet objective and moving towards his second closest, this time with the champion accompanying them. His destroyer squad was held at the back of the board waiting to pounce on a target when they were in range. His contemptor was sent after my seeker squad, which I thought would be the turning point of the game, how wrong I was though!

Part two will talk you through the game itself

Reinforcements Inbound... And my foray in An Unexpected Journey

So yer, I haven't been slacking on building as you can see below but a slight increase in work hours  has reduced hobby time and motivation in the past week or so. But it should all be good now, at least until the Christmas rush hits, crap. But anyway, the VIIIth have been reinforced a bit since the last update.

I feel I should also give you a brief piece of background for the army and an explanation of the army's look. This is or will be the XIVth Company of the Night Lords, during the compliance action against the Cherautii Republic, or more specifically the battle for Osmium as briefly depicted in The Dark King audio drama. The XIVth Company were made up heavily of Terran marines including much of the command structure, a fact that would cause the company's allegiance at the time of the Heresy to be highly suspect, even among the rest of the Legion. I'm yet to decide exactly which way they will end up going, it's certainly true that evil guys have more fun so yes.... we'll see.

Brother Algron, late of the Atramentar and his 'pet'. Some poor Cherautii is currently bleeding out all over him. He would assign himself to XIVth Company during the battle for Osmium where he would devastate all who made the mistake of approaching him in combat.

Not an easy pose to build, a lot of green stuff on him or more specifically the dying Cherautii. Though I have another idea for the Republic's forces look so he may end up being Imperial Army.

Legion crest made from a Dark Elf shield bit, a good find. Lucky I have a whole army of them to plunder if needed.

Various chains etc, makes him look more brutal and less plain which realistically he would have been otherwise. And some stretched skin on his shoulder, should look good when painted.

"Hello, what do we have here?" 

 3rd Claw, XIVth Company fighting their way through the streets towards their objective

 9th Claw, posed breaching Cherautii defenses outside the Senate House in the dying hours of the battle

 I quite like the sergeant's pose, he looks like he's scanning for threats as they push forward

 Brother Zal Mazlon, Champion of the VIIIth Legion. He would be at the forefront of the Imperial assault on the Senate House, slaying 6 Cherautii commanders over the course of the action. Severally wounded at its climax, rebuilt with bionics he would fight on in the legion's service right up to the Heresy.

 Support-Commander Helate. Like Mazlon, Helate would link up with XIVth Company during it's advance on the Senate House, where he would coordinate the different Imperial formations involved and provide fire support missions against Cherautii targets.

 A as of yet un-named Legion Libarian. All I have so far is he is XIVth Company's attached Libarian and that, like many of the commanders, he's probably Terran.

 My newest HQ choice, a Legion Vigilator, also un-named but he'll get one soon. I really like the pose, has a clear sniper shifting position look to it.

10th Claw, XIVth Company burning Cherautii forces out of cover. Only finished them tonight (technically yesterday) hence why they haven't been undercoated yet. They're also the first squad I've done which is led by a Nostraman. Terran officers get horsehair crests to mark them out, Nostramans will get little bat wings when I work out how to do them.

Next up is the missile launcher armed Heavy Support Squad, and then the 10 Assault marines. Hopefully I'll have the Heavys built by Wednesday and after that, any assaults are a bonus right now. I'm on the home stretch with that mass order, and will soon be ready for the next one, maybe a Fellblade....

And my other current project is the White Council from the new Hobbit range.

The wizards, not really my main focus

Which would be these two. Since my small LOTR force is elves, and these sculpts being amazing, I'll be working on these two as rapidly as I can. It'll be a bluey-grey scheme for them, same as the rest of the army. 

Of course, the VIIIth take priority over these four, especially if the three of us actually manage to get a game in on Saturday  I think I'm going to need all the marines I can get, especially if it ends up being a Legion on Legion battle as I suspect it will be. I may need some serious luck to beat the Salamanders, we'll see...

As always, C+C's welcome and I hope to update again soon.