Tweaking the Beatstick

Beatstick courtesy of Bell of Lost Souls

A week or two ago I decided to take a look at a fun BA list that provided quite a few combat threats that were reasonably hard to neutralize for an opponent.  It also included a unit of asssault terminators because of my deep-seeded love for the models.  I dubbed it the Blood Angel Beatstick.  After that, I took it out for a spin against a friend's Grey Knight army for a Black Friday Beatdown. The results were a completely lopsided victory on the part of the Beatstick.  Of course, it's my belief that this occurred due to my opponent's list being severely unoptimized and because of him forgetting to use defensive grenades with his large purifier + character deathstar in the one assault that mattered.  Ultimately, I was able to wipe his whole army save a single strike squad sitting on top of a building. The image was perfection!  My entire army was rapidly moving towards his single strike squad and the game ended with my friend's concession when the building was completely surrounded with his strike squad pouring psycannon and psybolt ammo down from above to little effect due to FNP and 3+ or 2+ saves. 

So, all of the backstory aside, I have been thinking.  Though it was a completely one sided game, one thing I noticed is that my terminator mini-star didn't have as much oomph against WS4 as I wished it would.  With 12 lightning claw and 6 thunder hammer attacks on the charge, I still only land half of those statistically and in real life, my dice hate me, so though the unit is scary as all get out, it really is more of a pushover against other elite infantry which it is supposed to take out. 

My thought would be to add in a chaplain to the unit, either power armored or terminator armored, but I am having a bit of trouble finding the points.  Here is the army in its original iteration:

Mephiston- 250pt.

5 Assault Terminators- 3x lightning claws, 2x thunder hammer, riding in a Crusader with pintle melta- 470pt.
3x Sanguinary Priests- 2 naked, 1 with a jump pack- 175pt.

10 Assault Marines- 2x meltaguns, powerfist- 235pt.
10 Assault Marines- 2x meltaguns, powerfist- 235pt.
10 Assault Marines- 2x meltaguns, powerfist- 235pt.

Landspeeder Tornado- multi-melta, heavy flamer- 70pt.
Landspeeder Tornado- multi-melta, heavy flamer- 70pt.

5 Devestators- 4x missiles- 130pt.
5 Devestators- 4x missiles- 130pt.

2,000pt on the nose

The army, as it stands now, has a good deal of nice threats.  The only place I could think about removing points for a chaplain would be to remove the landspeeders, but they provide a good deepstrike/fast threat in my opponents' backfield.  Granted, I was very lucky with them in my previous game, but they usually die quickly due to AV10, so I am not necessarily fussed about it, but I think I might miss the melta threat they provide.

That said, I don't want to mess with anything else.  Everything else really makes the army.  In my previous game, the terminators went with a priest in the LRC and it was used as mobile terrain to shelter Mephiston and a single assault squad forward so that they could lay down the smack when I got close enough.  This left me two more squads to come via deepstrike and provide a bit more pressure. 

What would you suggest?  If I dropped the speeders, I would have 140pt. to spend on either an elite or HQ chappy.  Both have merit. The Reclusiarch has better number of attacks and wounds and can take a hand flamer with the additional points (130+10) to be an annoyance.  The elite chappy is cheap enough to to take terminator armor and meltabombs which would make him more survivable in regards to armor save.  Either is good. 

So, please comment and tell me what you might suggest.  The overall goal is to allow the terminators to overcome their "shyness" when facing WS4 and I think a chaplain would be the best fit for the job.  I await your thoughts.

Some Battle Reports:
Space Wolf Razorspam vs. Horde Orks- a Vassal Report
Sanguinary v. Grey Knights
Vulkan Ain't No Joke
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Is the Land Raider Obsolete?

My own Templar Land Raider Crusader

Last week, I posted my thoughts on a real Beatstick Army using my Blood Angels. It includes only a single vehicle in the form of a Land Raider Crusader, which serves as a launching platform for assault terminators and as mobile terrain and cover for Mephiston and an assault squad.

Conventional 5^th ed. wisdom says that this is an outright stupid choice as with a single vehicle, you stand a great chance of losing it early to alpha-strikes or the plethora of melta/high strength shots available to armies these days.  That got me to wondering though, is a single Land Raider really a bad option?  Is it really that easy to kill? 

The premise of my army’s strategy is to get as close as possible, as quick as possible and then multi-assault the crap out of my opponents’ armies.  If I lose the LRC, that’s fine as in most scenarios, it will at least make it to midfield before being stopped.  This means that my terminators, mephiston, and assault squad are halfway across the board unscathed and in fair reach of my opponents’ armies.

We also know that Land Raiders are virtually immune to most guns unless there are a plethora of them or they are melta or AP1.  The biggest argument against taking these behemoths of cool is that just about every army has access to melta and melta can easily slag a LR with little effort. 

Thus, I set out to do the math.  A meltagun in melta range will perform in the following manner if used with BS4.  It will hit 66% of the time and glance 13.89% and pen 58.34% of the time.  Due to AP1, it will wreck the LR roughly 1.5% of the time if you glance while it will destroy the LR roughly 19.5% of the time if you score a pen.  So, a single melta shot stands roughly a 21% chance of destroying your LR and only 10.5% chance if you use cover or intervening models to get a cover save.

The other side of the coin is that your average marine army takes around 8-10 meltaguns and some extreme armies like IG can take many, many more.

Again, I think this is a situation where Mathammer scares people out of taking a model.  I think a LR can be used wisely and not be destroyed.  In fact, some top tier armies may really struggle to handle a LR.  Grey Knights for instance, hope and pray for 6’s on their psycannon rolls.  Still then, you only destroy it about 9.8% of the time you shoot it per psycannon.  My buddy learned this the hard way in our game on Black Friday in which he only managed to immobilize my Land Raider in a position to assault his two big combat units and ultimately wipe them off the table. 

Of course, there are the other results like immobilization which is a pain, but still leaves a viable weapons platform sitting in the midfield free to shoot as many as two targets a turn.  Weapon destroyed results aren’t that scary either because Land Raider have a plethora of deadly weapons to use and even if one is destroyed, you generally still have a few more pretty nasty weapons.  Finally, power of the machine spirit really helps against shaken and stunned results meaning that the Land Raider largely ignores these results with minimal consequences. 

The key to bridging the gap between the math/theoryhammer and actual game play is to remember that while that Land Raider is 250-260 points of your army, you have an entire 1,750pt. of army left to put pressure on your opponents with so that they don’t have the luxury of laying down full concentrated firepower on the LR alone.  In my Beatstick list, I have deepstriking landspeeders and assault squads to add pressure to my opponents’ backfield elements.  I have devestators to apply long range anti-infantry and anti-mech pressure.  I have Mephiston who gives most people a coronary just thinking about him.  This means that my opponents generally have the quandary of taking care of my expensive tank, but then having the units benefitting from its shielding abilities to deal with shortly thereafter, or they can dilute their shooting to deal with the multiple threats I present.  Either way, it applies pressure. 

Disclaimer: This article doesn’t mean that I think this list is a super competitive list or would even do well in tournaments.  I do know that it can present a strong showing, though.  Heck, Jawaballs has done pretty well with a similar army managing to beat a handful of tough armies at NOVA this year.  that said, a canny opponent will neutralize this threat fast if you aren't careful.  As we all know and few preach, it really is how you use the army and not how the averages tell you it will work out that decides victory. 

Anyway, I hope this article was somewhat enlightening.  This little foray into the math of Land Raider viability has restored some faith in how this tank can work for me. 

Other random articles for you to peruse:
Strictly Average
For kicks
Heading in another direction
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Black Friday Beatdown- BA v. GK

Jawaballs' Mephiston Conversion

In my last post, I talked about the fact that I have few new commission jobs slated for the holiday season of which one is a continuation of a Grey Knight army I am working on for a friend.  He had to drop off a final piece to me today, so we used the exchange as an excuse to play a game of 40k.  I have been really excited to try out my Blood Angel Beatstick list, so I decided that the Angels would roll out today.  I had no idea what my buddy would be taking, but I should have guessed it would be Grey Knights since he was dropping off GK models to me. 

So, if you didn't check out the link above, I was taking my beatstick list which contained:

Mephiston

5 Assault Terminators- 3x lightning claws, 2x thunder hammers, LRC
3 Sanguinary Priests- 2x naked, 1x jump pack

10 Assault Marines- 2x meltaguns, 1x powerfist
10 Assault Marines- 2x meltaguns, 1x powerfist
10 Assault Marines- 2x meltaguns, 1x powerfist

Landspeeder- multi-melta, heavy flamer
Landspeeder- multi-melta, heavy flamer

5 Devestators- 4x missile launchers
5 Devestators- 4x missile launchers

My buddy took a somewhat interesting list which I am dubbing the psybolt candy list:

Grandmaster- warding stave, psycannons, blind and rad grenades
Librarian- teleport homer, shrouding, sanctuary

8 Purifiers- 2x psycannons, 3x daemonhammers, psybolt ammo

10 man Strike squad- 2x psycannons, psybolt ammo
10 man Strike squad- 2x psycannons, psybolt ammo
10 man Strike squad- 2x daemonhammers, 2x falchions, 2x halberds, justicar with warding stave, psybolt ammo, rhino
6 terminators- 4x halberds, 1x sword, justicar with daemonhammer, psybolt ammo

Stormraven- assault cannon, heavy bolter, psybolt ammo

So, quite an eclectic list with a lot of interesting choices.  My buddy has always made interesting lists that work well for him. This one can really punish an army from the midfield and then counter assault with terminators and purifiers. 

My own strategy involved moving my LRC up as mobile cover for my terminators, Mephiston, and an assault squad.  If they can close the distance, they will jump out of hiding and assault everything within sight, hopefully using a sanguinary priest to give out FNP and FC.

Our tabletop had two buildings in each quarter of my side about equidistance from the edges.  There was also a building in my opponent's side about a third of the way from my left side. There was a two tier hill in the middle of the board and a scattering of over debris and forests.  One forest, directly in front of the left building on my side would hold one of my opponent's strike squads. As a resource, I have added a simple Vassal picture for reference.

We rolled annihilation and spearhead for our game.  My opponent took the upper left hand corner while I had the lower right hand corner.  It is good to note that all ruined buildings were at least 2 stories tall if not three. 

My buddy put a strike squad in the building, the rhino squad behind the building, and the final strike squad in the forest.  His GM and libby went with the purifiers in the stormraven behind the strike squad forest.  He put his terminators into reserve for deepstriking. 

My devestators deployed with a sanguinary priest in the ruined building for good fields of fire across the table. My terminators went in the LRC with another priest next to the building behind the hill and I put Mephiston and an assault squad behind the LRC.  My other two assault squads, sanguinary priest, and landspeeders went into reserve. 

My opponent won the roll for first turn and I failed to sieze. 

This game really centered around the middle of the table with his purifiers w/GM and libby and his terminators and my terminators and Mephiston.  Things happened elsewhere but the main action happened to the immediate left of the hill. 

My opponent sought to come in aggressively with the stormraven moving forward at full speed to just southwest of the hill and shooting to no avail with it's assault cannon.  In response, I shot the LRC's mult-melta and 4 missiles at it which caused an immobilized result.  Since he moved forward flat-out, it counted as wrecked.  However, I wasn't aggressive enough and when the squad got out at the back of the raven, I couldn't close the distance to assault it.  This turned into a 1-2 turn stand off until my opponent allowed me to assault. In the meantime his terminators came in to the direct left of the hill.  Shooting would take my assault squad that shadowed the LRC down to two men who would fail morale, flee, rally, and then use the LRC for cover for the rest of the game.  The LRC was also immobilized by a lucky psycannon shot. 

The big moment came when Mephiston made a big move around the south side of the wrecked raven to assault the terminators while my terminators and priest moved around the north side to crisscross Mephi's path and assault the purifiers who I had shot down to about 4-5 purifiers and the two characters.  This combat saw my opponent fail to remember to use his blind grenades (forgot that he had them) until too late.  This cost him 2 purifiers, a dead librarian, and a wound to his GM for only a single lost lightning claw terminator on my part.  The fearless wounds killed another purifier or two leaving only the GM and a daemonhammer left.  In Mephiston's assault, psych-out grenades cost me the initiative and my opponent rolled well enough to get hammerhand off.  Luckily, Mephiston suffered no wounds from the 10 halberd and sword attacks coming at him.  However, the daemonhammer knocked off two wounds.  I killed a single terminator due to some great invul saves, but passed my morale test. 

In the next round of combat, Mephiston took out all but the daemonhammer who failed to add any wounds, but passed all of his fearless saves after failing morale and being swept.  In the other combat, I was able to take out the final purifier and when the GM failed to wound, I was able to break him and let him run.  

The final straw came when my immobilized LRC was able to use its multi-melta to insta-kill the GM as he fled.  The terminators then assaulted into the lone daemonhammer terminator and killed him easily. 

While this epic scrum happened, I was able to immobilize his rhino strike squad as it advance on the right.  I then was able to drop an assault squad and a landspeeder in front of it to take care of that flank. The strike squad got out and shot at my assault marines, only killing 1 or 2.  In reply, the landspeeder flamed and melta-ed the squad down significantly leaving only 3-4 models of which the assault squad was able to easily mop up in combat. 

On the left, my final assault squad with priest came in and helped shoot up the strike squad in the forest.  it would flee and rally only to be shot again the next turn and flee again with two remaining models that would again rally at the board edge. 

At the end of turn 4, my opponent had a rhino that was immobilized with no weapon, 2 fleeing strike squad members, and a lone strike squad holding a building as my Blood Angels surrounded the building preparation for assault.  We called it there.  In the end, the score came out to a landslide 6-0 kp advantage to the Blood Angels!

This game was fun and helped me to start being a bit more aggressive with my armies.  I tend to be a cautious player, but the Beatstick was meant to be played aggressively, so I pushed forward into my opponent's face and he could handle my units when I got there. 

Psychic powers were really hit or miss with Mephiston and the librarian canceling out quite a few of the powers played.  Funnily enough the rhino strike squad failed its very first psychic test and lost the warding stave justicar to a perils of the warp.  Otherwise, there weren't many adverse effects.  We mostly just experienced the headache of having our powers canceled when we needed them most in combat. 

The real kicker for my opponent was forgetting that he had the blind grenades until after the turn that they counted.  Had he remembered my terminators would have had many fewer attacks and wouldn't have had S5, I5 for that first round of combat when I took out a good few of his purifiers before they could attack.  That really cost him big time.  Otherwise, I think my Blood Angels were just better at getting to grips with his army and using their combat ability to shred things.  Mephiston is a beast and can easily handle whole units on his own. I threw him into the terminators knowing that he would be able to weather their attacks easily and begin to knock them out a few at a time.  That second round of combat was insane with me scoring 5 successful wounds and then his daemonhammer hitting twice, but rolling two 1s to-wound.  Once the purifiers and terminators were taken care, the game was set for me and it was a matter of mopping up.  I think my opponent should have played a bit more aggressively as he was relying on high initiative attacks and grenades to save the day and then he didn't remember to use those things. 

The Beatstick is super fun to play and I love furious charge/feel no pain terminators and Mephiston.  They are just a nasty, nasty combo. 

Other Battle Reports:
Space Wolf Razorspam vs. Horde Orks- a Vassal Report
Sanguinary v. Grey Knights
Vulkan Ain't No Joke
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Celebrating the Completion of a Job with another Job

But this one is my own model! I posted two days ago about how it is essential to balance hobby work with hobby hobby. 

I have officially finished the largest commission job I have ever done.  A friend of mine had me paint a Fantasy Chaos army for his son that is around 4,000-5,000pt.  It contained something like 180 models.  Suffice it to say that I haven't painted a model of my own for something around 5-6 months. 

So, to celebrate my completion, I pulled out a model of my own!  Awhile back I bought the GW jump chaplain model.  I love the look of him.  He is epically posed and looks like he is about to lay down the smack.  I have wanted to have an elite chaplain for my BA jumper army for some time and this guy fit the bill.  So, I took some time to paint him up and he looks pretty sweet.  Here is his internet debut.

I'm pleased with the highlighting and the gold accents came out well too.  So, I just wanted to share him as it was way cool to have another of my own models to paint.  I now have 9 models of my Blood Angel army painted!  Now, back to finishing a Warmaster Dark Elf army and some more Grey Knight stuff (3x psyflemen, draigo, crowe, coteaz, and three razorbacks). 

Other Blood Angels I have painted:
Dante, Lord of the Angelic Host
Sanguinary Guard- A Different Look
Blood Angel Librarian
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Laying Down the Beatstick, Blood Angel Style

So, I've really been missing my terminators.  Currently, my two most played armies as using power armored troops more than their more heavily armored brothers.  In my Space Wolf army, I generally use a single cyclone missile terminator and my Blood Angel army uses assault marines and Sanguinary Guard. Of course, I always use my terminators in my Black Templar lists, but I just haven't been in the mood to get those guys out lately. 

That got me to thinking about how I could put them into a Blood Angel list, as that is the easiest army I play to include them in currently.  To that end, I wanted to put together a nasty beatstick army.  Of course, Blood Angels are already a beatstick, but I wanted to go whole hog.  This is what I came up with.  Thought will follow afterward.

Space Hulk Terminators courtesy of dakkadakka

Mephiston- 250pt.

5 Assault Terminators- 3x lightning claws, 2x thunder hammer, riding in a Crusader with pintle melta- 470pt.
3x Sanguinary Priests- 2 naked, 1 with a jump pack- 175pt.

10 Assault Marines- 2x meltaguns, powerfist- 235pt.
10 Assault Marines- 2x meltaguns, powerfist- 235pt.
10 Assault Marines- 2x meltaguns, powerfist- 235pt.

Landspeeder Tornado- multi-melta, heavy flamer- 70pt.
Landspeeder Tornado- multi-melta, heavy flamer- 70pt.

5 Devestators- 4x missiles- 130pt.
5 Devestators- 4x missiles- 130pt.

2,000pt on the nose

So, why is this a beatstick and how does it work? 

It is meant to force close combat.  There is enough pressure from my anti-mech elements to force my opponent to move to midfield to engage.  8 missiles, deepstriking assault marines and 2 deepstriking multi-meltas will force opponents to either turtle and pray I don't get to them with my combat troops or they will have to come forward or spread out to negate the effectiveness of my guns.

The real core of this army though are Mephiston, the terminators, and the assault marines. I am basically going to use the LRC as moving terrain to block LoS to my assault marines and Mephiston, moving everything forward at full speed.  Then when I am close, the units jump out and kill stuff.  Plain and simple.  Pretty one dimensional, but definitely fun to play.  I am betting that most armies won't be stupid enough to move within retaliation range to melta my LRC, because if they do, counter-assaults and consolidation moves will move my pissed off marines into their faces.  To that end, the LRC will move up as fast as possible every turn, so that if it does get shot down, it is close enough for everything to jump out and start the killing. 

Ideally, the LRC will deploy the shortest distance from the bulk of my opponents' armies and move forward.  Mephiston and a single assault squad will shadow the LRC to get cover and benefit from the Sanguinary Priest's aura (he'll be riding with the terminators).  The other foot priest will babysit my devestators making them very unappealing to shoot at.  Finally, my speeders and other 2 assault squads (with jump priest) will deepstrike in to cause as much damage as possible with their meltas and then in assault. 

It's simple and straightforward.  I know that occasionally, I will run into trouble, but I hope to have enough threats on the table that even should one die, the others will make it to combat and cause some damage.  It isn't the most balanced list, but it sure looks fun to play.  Let me know what you think, especially if you have played a similar list before.

I'm sure some of you are wondering about my progress with coming to grips with Dark Eldar.  I hope to have a proposed playtest list soon.  More on that at a later time.   

Some Battle Reports:
Space Wolf Razorspam vs. Horde Orks- a Vassal Report
Sanguinary v. Grey Knights
Vulkan Ain't No Joke
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Descent of Angels v. Eldar- A Real Life Battle Report!

This week, I have gotten two games in!  That is amazing.  One was the Vassal game I reported on earlier this week. The other was an actual, real life game.  I haven't had one of those in ages!  I had to take some commission jobs up to my LGS to drop them off and get paid, so I brought up my Blood Angels opting for a list similar to Blood Hammer from 3++.  I played a 1,500 point battle against an Eldar player. I took:

Libby-jump pack, sword, lance

3 Sanguinary Priests- 2x jump packs
5 Sanguinary Guard- chapter banner, 2x infernus pistols

10 Assault marines- 2x meltas, power fist
10 Assault marines- 2x meltas, power fist

5 Vanguard Vets- glaive, power weapon, power fist, 2x ccw

5 Devestators- 4x missiles
5 Devestators- 4x missiles

My opponent took, what I think was (didn't see an army list):
Eldrad
Maugan ra

9 Harlequins- troupemaster w/ power weapon, shadowseer, 2x fusion pistols, harlequins kisses on 7

3 eldar bikes- 2x shuriken cannons
3 eldar bikes- 2x shuriken cannons

5 swooping hawks- exarch w/sunrifle
5 swooping hawks- exarch w/sunrifle
5 swooping hawks- exarch w/sunrifle

Nightspinner- holo-fields
Fire Prism- holo-fields
Fire Prism-holo-fields

Which it turns out looks like it is about 1,650 or so.  If I drop all upgrades, it is still quite a bit higher than 1,500.  I also discovered that my opponent was giving Eldrad 2 base attacks +1 for pistol instead of 1 base +1 for pistol.  That made a difference. 

Overall it was a fun game which came down to the wire at turn 6.  We played capture and control with spearhead deployment.  I set up my devs with a priest in a building in my corner and waited to shoot some stuff.  They didn't do much all game aside from contest my home objective.  I deepstruck everything else: libby and priest with sanguinary guard, priest with an assault squad, and assault squad, and my vanguard vets.  One devestator squad and the sanguinary guard got red thirst. 

My opponent deployed his harlequins forward-ish in his quarter behind some impassable with Eldrad and Maugan Ra inside.  His nightspinner and fire prisms went behind in the very corner of the board. 

I stole the iniative, which I probably shouldn't have done.  Not much happened in turn 1, with me only losing squad leaders in my devs. 

In turn 2, my sanguinary guard, and two assault squads came down in his quarter and wrecked the fire prisms.  He then counter assaulted into my sanguinary guard.  His shooting took out all but the chapter banner, the libby, and the priest.  When assaulted, everything died except the libby who took a single wound.  He dealt two back allowing him to lose by 1 and he passed his test. 

In turn 3, both of my assault squads went in to the harlequin combat to seal the deal there.  In the assault, I lost about 12 models, but luckily was able to take out the entire harlequin squad and Maugan Ra (died to 2 power fist models).  I actually lost the combat, but stayed put and piled in to Eldrad. 

Turns 3-6  The whole game his hawks dropped templates and jumped back up into the air until turn 5.  The templates did very little, taking out maybe 2 devestators.  My Vanguard vets came on turn 4 and plastered a unit of jetbikes and then b-lined it for his objective.  They got very close and then were hosed down by the nightspinner, a unit of jetbikes and a unit of swooping hawks. 

The big deal was that in the combat with Eldrad, I had about 8 models, including a priest and two fists.  I couldn't put a wound on him due to his fortuned 3++ save.  However, the extra attack my opponent gave erroneously paid off in dividends, taking care of all but one power fist model over the course of turns 3-5.  On turn 5, my last remaining power fist lost combat when the sanguinary priest was finally killed and actually broke from combat.  He wasn't caught and Eldrad moved away from him.  He then rallied and found some cover in jump range of my opponent's objective in turn 6, but the game ended there. 

In the end, it was a victory for the Eldar, but I take some solace in the fact that I was out-pointed and fought in some unjust combats.  Excuses aside, I really enjoyed playing a majority DoA list.  I actually didn't get much play out of my devs in this game as he kept the harlequins and tanks away from them.  I might actually investigate going full DoA because when everything came down and started mopping up, it was a thing of beauty.  I really enjoyed having that much concentrated pressure on my opponent, turn 2.  One of things that really messed me over was losing my Librarian so early.  If he has survived (perhaps in an assault squad), he could have helped to prevent some of Eldrad's powers as when he was alive he blocked all but a single psychic attempt. 

Again, this was a fun game and I really enjoyed getting to play a real-life game with real models with a person, face-to-face.  Hopefully, I will get a chance to do so again soon.

Other Battle Reports:
Space Wolf Razorspam vs. Horde Orks- a Vassal Report
Sanguinary v. Grey Knights
Vulkan Ain't No Joke
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How to Paint White Part 2: Off White

This article will be Part 2 of my series on how to paint white.  You can see Part 1: Bright White here. I shared in that article that the real secret to painting white is what you put under the actual white and most of the time, it takes many coats of white to get a full, smooth finish.  If you have ever painted a room of a house white from some other color you know what I mean.  The absolute key to painting white though, is to be patient. 

Today we are going to talk about how to paint off white or what I think of as an antique or dirty white.  This is pretty much identical to my method for painting bright white, but I add one additional step to my process.  I will be using the powerfist model from my Sanguinary Guard unit again to show us this method.  Check out the link as I have finished the unit and it looks sweet!

The key to getting an antique-y white is simply to change the base coat color.  I generally use a light brown to start off.  From there we will also change our middle tone, but then go back to white.  Check out these pictures of my powerfist model. 

I start the method off, as last time, with my basecoat.  This time I am using the GW foundation Khemri Brown.  You can also see that this is how I begin my method for painting scrolls and bones as well. 

I didn't add a picture for the next step, but after the initial basecoat, I diverge from my previous method in that I apply a wash of Devlan Mud around the edges of the areas I am painting.  On the shoulder pad above, I washed around the borders of the shoulder pad and around the circle icon in the middle.  This helps deepen the brown and makes a nice contrast.  I usually add Devlan Mud after I have done the basecoat AND my first coat of dwarf bronze on the metal portions as I use it for both processes. 

For this next step, I chose to use a bone color.  These colors usually have some brown tone in them but are quite close to white.  You will notice I am still doing the same thing for the scrollwork and the shoulder pad.  For this step I used Reaper Master Series Aged Bone.  It is a nice darker bone color. 

Here is where the departure between the two portions occurs.  On the scroll I continue with a brighter bone color, Reaper Master Series Polished Bone, while for the shoulder pad I begin to apply my white.  Just like in the previous article, the white will let some of the bone color below show through so use that as an intermediate step and slowly highlight up to pure white only at the hight points to give a good finish with good color gradient. 

And here is he is finished with the white.  Notice the slight, but noticeable difference between the shoulder pad and the powerfist, helmet, and wings. Also notice that the scrollwork still maintains a bit more brown hue to it.  Forgive my crappy camera work that makes it harder to see. 

This off white is great when you want "bone" colored armor or robes that aren't pristinely white.  As a matter of fact, I think this is what I did on my Sanguinary Priest model. 

Using these two types of white will get you pretty far, but remember, you can hightlight up to white from any basecoat with varying results.  In the case of a model that is mostly blue, you might try highlighting up from red or yellow to provide some contrast. Either way, if I haven't said it enough, be patient!  White is tough to do well, but with a little practice you can create a nice, smooth, full white finish to any model.

Some Sanguinary Guard Battle Reports for your entertainment:

Sanguinary v. Grey Knights

Dante vs. Khan- An Ugly Mess

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First Unit of Sanguinary Guard, Complete

I managed to find some time yesterday and today, in-between commissions, to work on my first unit of Sanguinary Guard.  They are going to be part of my Blood Angel army.  If you have been keeping up with my work on this army, you know that I am going with an alternative color scheme for the Sanguinary Guard as I can't stand to paint 15 models completely(ish) gold.  So, I have gone with black armor and it really makes a slick looking squad.  Without further ado, here they are.

Looking slick and ready to kick some butt, Blood Angel style.

The model on the right was my tester model.  He blends in perfectly with the others.  I'm glad I chose a simple color scheme that is easily repeatable. 

You can see my powerfist model here.  He is the model I am using for my painting white articles. 

The other side of the squad.  The guy on the left has an infernus pistol.  There is another model with infernus pistol in the unit to give them a bit of additional threat.

There they are.  I just have 10 more models to paint like this.  I may go ahead and work on another unit to break things up a bit.  This unit has gotten me really stoked to finish off the army.....If only I had the extra time, hands, and energy.  Stay tuned for more updates. 

Other sweet blood angel models I have finished:

Blood Angel Librarian Complete

Dante Gets a Facelift
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Look Who Just Came to my Front Door

I am really excited that I finally got my hands on this guy. 

I am so stoked to get my hands on this model finally.  I don't know how much I will play the Sanguinor, but I am really excited about painting him up and seeing how he looks with my alternate paint scheme for my Sanguinary Guard army and my power weapon method.  All that aside, I am sure he will be fun to play with occasionally as well.  Anyone out there care to share their Sanguinor models?  Leave a comment with a link or blog title and I will take a look at them. 

Other favorite models I have painted:
What a difference a base can make
On the Workbench this week

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Sanguinary Guard- A Discussion on Deployment Do's and Don't's

If you have been reading my posts lately and think they are a bit everywhere, I would totally agree with you.  Having a new baby really makes your head spin.  As such, I have had a collection of random ideas come to my mind as I blog.  I have bounced from painting my Sanguinary Guard army to working on commission pieces, from rants about competitive armies to modeling tutorials.  It has been a bit of an interesting June and July so far. 

Hoping not to disappoint, I thought I would throw out a tactical article I have been thinking on, namely on what I've learned about deploying Sanguinary Guard. 

If you know anything about Sanguinary Guard, you probably know that they are a textbook example of a glass hammer.  The unit comes with multiple power weapons and multiple attacks per model and can be given furious charge and feel no pain if within 6 inches of a Sanguinary Priest.  They lay down 15 attacks on the assault which can contain powerfists, but mainly consist of master crafted power weapon attacks.  Suffice it to say that they mince all but the most elite of infantry (again, yay hammernators....). 

The downside to them is that they have a max of 5 models in a unit and only a 2+ save with no hope of an invul save, though they can get FNP if within the priest's bubble. 

So, why is this relevant to deploying Sanguinary Guard?  For multiple reasons, really.  Mainly, that they shouldn't deepstrike*.

Sanguinary Guard's unit size really prohibits them from being behind enemy lines operators like Vanguard Vets or Double Melta Assault Squads. Vanguard Vets have the heroic intervention ability which allows them to deepstrike then assault all in the same turn.  This makes them very viable deepstrikers, especially if they can get into a unit that they can tie up until your next turn.  Assault marines can pack up to two meltaguns and an infernus pistol which basic statistics say will kill a tank.  On top of this when they deepstrike in, they can fire 2-3 melta weapons and then have 10 bodies and possible FNP to soak incoming fire enough to be a real threat in the next turn.

Sanguinary Guard have neither.  Though they can take infernus pistols, their true purpose is to get into combat.  Deepstriking deprives them of this ability until turn 3 at the earliest and makes that a risky prospect.  In order to deepstrike, they need to remain in reserve until turn 2 at the earliest.  Then, when they come in, they have to sit on the table until turn 3 before they can move and assault something. That is if they survive your opponents' guns. All of this supposing your dice work out for you and they come in on turn 2.

That leads me to believe that the best deployment method for Sanguinary Guard is the standard deployment.  Place them on the board like normal.  They can even be deployed in dawn of war deployment if you take Dante to make them troops.  This allows them the opportunity to get into combat by turn 2, a whole turn earlier than if they arrive by deepstrike.  I generally, deploy my Sanguinary Guard separated enough  to have multiple lanes of advance, but close enough to benefit from a Sanguinary Priest's FNP bubble.  Take a look at the picture below:

See how I did this very deployment for a game I played a few weeks ago against a Grey Knight player.  My one criticism of this specific deployment is that it could leave me susceptible to templates. Luckily my opponent had no template weapons and very few guns with low AP. 

This brings me to my next point about deploying Sanguinary Guard.  They aren't a unit that can afford to be held back.  They don't handle attrition very well, so they need to get into your opponents' lines quickly.  To do this, deploy them forward with good lanes of advance to your opponent.  In the picture above, I had the option of going north or south of the central piece of impassable terrain to get to my opponent.  In this particular game, my deployment allowed me to send my Sanguinary Guard straight into main advance of his army and they did some pretty nasty damage.  Sanguinary Guard's best protection is getting them into combat.  If they are in combat, they generally will outclass most opponents (especially with FC and FNP).  They can't get shot in combat and they stand a good chance of weathering a handful of attacks rather than lots of enemy fire focused on one unit at a time. 

*With a few exceptions.  There are always exceptions.  In this case, if you are ever forced to deepstrike or reserve an entire force, Sanguinary Guard stand a better chance of not getting singled out, but otherwise, I would seriously dissuade anyone from trying to deepstrike individual units of Sanguinary Guard as it really does cut down on their efficiency on the battlefield. 

There you have it.  Deploy Sanguinary Guard normally and forward with good lanes of advance so that they can get into combat quickly and cripple your opponents.

Other articles you might find interesting:
Sanguinary v. Grey Knights
Codex Review: Blood Angel Sanguinary Guard

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Dante Gets a Facelift

After posting my original pictures of Dante, I just really didn't like the white face.  Then, one of my dedicated readers said that it looked like he was a mime.  The chaptermaster of the Blood Angels can't look like a mime! 

So, Dante got a facelift.  I decided to paint a golden deathmask like the norm.  Here is a quick shot of him with the new deathmask.

The gold deathmask is a significant improvement and still allows Dante to look pretty cool with the alternative paint scheme I am using with the black armor.  So, what do you think?  Is this an improvement.  See the link below if you need to compare.

Other articles that might interest you:
Dante, Lord of the Angelic Host
Sanguinary Guard- A Different Look

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Blood Angel Librarian Complete

The juices have still been flowing for my Blood Angels Sanguinary Guard army, so I decided to pick up my Librarian model and work on him.  He is a complete kitbash with me even making his psychic hood from a shoulderpad.  He has parts from an assault marine, the AOBR captain, a Sanguinary Guard head, book from a High Sorcerer, and Dante's original jump pack.  I am fairly please with how he turned out.  Let's take a look shall we.

I really like the aggressive manner that the assault marine legs give him.  He looks like he is launching off of a rock to pummel someone.  You can also see the High Elf book he is toting.  That is my tongue in cheek reference to his being a Librarian. 

I feel that I am really starting to get a handle on painting power weapons.  I will attempt to do a tutorial sometime soon.  I also like the look of the glaive.  It's a bit different from the other weapons you normally see on Librarians.  I made this from the AOBR captain's sword and a piece of brass rod. 

 Dante's backpack.  It just helps tie in the Blood Angels theme. 

The other side.  You can see a shoulder pad that I made using Instant Mold.  The stuff is pretty neat. The shoulder pad didn't come out perfectly, but it's passable. 

The blue turned out a bit more teal, but I think he looks decently.  Next, I hope to finish off my very first full squad of Sanguinary Guard.  It should be fun. 

Other articles you might find interesting:
Dante, Lord of the Angelic Host
Sanguinary Guard- A Different Look

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Dante, Lord of the Angelic Host

Well, I have been anxious to see what I could do using my new alternate paint scheme for my Sanguinary Guard. The next model I decided to do was my Dante model.  I have to say, I am liking the black armor, though I am not sure about the face mask.  I'm thinking I may need to just paint it gold which wouldn't be too hard at this point.  Let me know what you think.

One thing I am totally pleased with is how the wings are coming out.  They are really striking and they look great on the tabletop.  I commented in my last painting post about how I did them, but I thought I would repeat those steps.  First, I color the feathers using the GW foundation Fenris Grey.  I covered them all the way.  Next, I used the GW foundation color Astronomican Grey leaving a bit of the Fenris Grey showing.  Finally, I added consecutive layers of pure white, adding additional layers as I got closer to the tips of the feathers.  This has yielded a blue to white highlighting scheme that looks amazing, much to my surprise. 

 Side view.  Another great rock base!

Those beautiful wings and a back view of the work I did on his axe blade. 

So, there it is.  What do you think about the white face?  Should I go with all gold for the mask?  I am on the fence.

Other articles you might find interesting:
On the Work Table: Blood Angel Sanguinary Guard Army
Sanguinary Guard- A Different Look



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Sanguinary Guard- A Different Look

So, if you have read my stuff, especially here, you know that I like to do things alternate to the norm.  The same holds true with my current army.  I don't like the idea of golden Sanguinary Guard. The problem was, it seemed like it was the only color scheme that worked.  Well, I alluded to the fact that I was going to experiment with something different in my last post, here. 

That "something different" worked, in my opinion, and I wanted to share it here with you good folks.  Also, at the end, I will share with you all my ideas on overall army color scheme.  So, it should be fun. 

Without further ado, my black Sanguinary Guard.

Here he is in all of his glory.  I have to admit that when I first started, I didn't think the black armor would work, but when I began to add details, it really started to come together.  There is also just enough red in the model to make him cover together with the rest of the army.  Take a look below for a side by side comparison with my Sanguinary Priest model. 

This is my first true attempt at the coruscating energy power weapon look.  While not totally smooth, I think it looks great at arm's length (i.e. on the tabletop) and will really make my Sanguinary Guard stand out.  You can also see how the red in the model really balances out the blue of the blade and warms up the black armor.

Speaking of which, do you like that awesome rock back that he is jumping off of?  You do?!  Use my simple tutorial for Rock Bases on the Cheap to achieve the same result! (shameless plug, I know.)

Another cool, dramatic pose as he launches from the rock into the enemy.

Here is a comparison picture of how this model looks with a model sporting the Angels Sanguine color scheme.  I think they really blend well.  There is enough black in the Angels Sanguine scheme to allow the Sanguinary Guard to be all black and look good as part of the army.  (Yes, I know that Angels Sanguine paint their SG armor white, but I don't care.) 

So, as far as army color goes, it will be Angels Sanguine colors meaning half red (on the right) and half black (on the left).  Helmets will be colored various colors to differentiate squads.  Any members of the Sanguinary orders will have white helmets as pictured above.  Normal grunts like devs and assault marines will have yellow helmets.  My Vanguard Vets will have gold helmets. 

I am leaning towards painting Dante in the black color scheme as well. I think that would look really cool.  I was thinking about make the face of his deathmask white with veins of green or blue through it like it was made of marble.  We will have to experiment.  My libby is going to be more traditional with blue armor and blood angels accents.  The jump chaplain will be a normal chaplain in black armor as well. 

So there's the scheme.  It took a long time in coming, but I think it is going to look pretty slick.  As a matter of fact, it has really got my excited about painting this army now.  I am also thinking about how I could make a nice looking display board for the army, but that is months off.  Heck, Blood Angels might have a new codex by the time that happens. 

I am keen to see what people think about the color scheme.  Please leave comments and criticism.  I don't mind either as long as you are nice. 

Other articles you might find useful:
On the Work Table: Blood Angel Sanguinary Guard Army
Painting Halfway Decent Power Weapons

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First Model for Sanguinary Guard

I have found a day or two in between some commission work that i have to work on a few models of my own, so I thought it would be prudent to start nailing down a color scheme for my Blood Angels Sanguinary Guard army. I finally decided on an Angels Sanguine color scheme.  I really like the halved color scheme with red and black.  So, I decided to start with a Sanguinary Priest.  Here is my first model. 

As you can see, I kitbashed the model using a Black Templar tabard front, with a regular marine, a Sanguinary Guard jump pack, and the Apothecary arm.  All in all, I think he turned out well. 

You can see him standing on one of my Rock Bases on the Cheap.  This basing scheme is really going to give my models some "height", making them feel like they just hit the ground from a jump.

I decided to make the jump pack's engines ignite with blue heating.  I think it helps balance out the red in the model. 

I also took shoulder pads from the Sanguinary Guard sprue to finish this guy out.  He is suitably blinged, I believe.

Next up is my first Sanguinary Guard model.  I am running him as a tester.  I am actually thinking about doing black Sanguinary Guard.  Instead of gold armor, they will have black armor with white helmets.  In my head it looks cool.  I will hopefully get the model done tonight and tomorrow and be able to report on whether or not this particular scheme works.  Stay tuned for that.

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Blood Angel Assault Squads and Mixed Special Weapons

As I have worked towards getting the modelling done for my Blood Angel Sanguinary Guard army, I have been doing a bit of net perusal for interesting articles on BA descent of angels lists and their tactics.  As many of you know by my writing, I'm a big fan of 3++.  Kirby has some really good ideas on how things should work.  However, the newest blog to catch my eye is Terminus Est.  It's a blog written by Black Blow Fly who happens to be a contributing writer over at Bell of Lost Souls.  There is some great stuff on his site.  I encourage you to check it out. 

To the point, I have noticed that BBF often likes to use assault squads with both a meltagun and a flamer as their special weapon choices.  Now, I have been steeped in the tactical tradition that doubling up on special weapons is the only way to go. So, if you are taking meltas, take two. If flamers, then two of those.  However, I like what BBF is doing with his squads as he has a great way of providing more duality in his units.  His other reason for doing this is that he usually takes a character with an infernus pistol in the unit as well. 

This got me thinking about my own army.  All of my Sanguinary Guard units have 2 infernus pistols.  My assault squad has two meltas and is usually joined by Dante so that they can deepstrike in and slag something with fair certainty.  So, I am wondering if I could get away with going BBF's route and taking the meltagun/flamer setup due to the fact that Dante is joining that unit. 

What do you think?  Is it a smart move?  I think in isolation it probably isn't, but since I am adding an additional melta weapon into the unit and giving that unit the ability to deepstrike so that it is always within melta range of both weapons, it might be okay.  It will also provide me with a way of dealing more damage to infantry, namely horde units.  Give me some feedback. What do you think?

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On the Work Table: Blood Angel Sanguinary Guard Army

I decided this weekend to dedicate my time and energy to getting my Sanguinary Guard army on the road to completion.  To that end, I assembled, based, stripped (paint), magnetized, and greenstuffed to my heart's content.  Every model is accounted for, though some still need a bit more assembling (the devestators) and some need to be attached to bases (the rest of the scouts).  Anyway, here is the outcome of my work this weekend. Pardon the crudity of the shots.  I didn't feel like setting up lights, etc. at 8 am this morning.

Here's a group shot.  On the left are the bases for my scouts, the jumpers are in the middle, and the priests and devs are on the right. Speeders are in the back. As you go through the pictures, you will notice the bases I have made using my cheap rock base method that I posted about earlier. 

Here is my assault squad.  I gave every member a set of Death Company legs to bling them up a bit.  You can see some Sanguinary Guard in the background.

Here is one set of Sanguinary Guard. I gave them all swords and this squad all has a winged shoulder pad to differentiate them from the other two squads.

Here is my Chapter Banner squad.  The whole squad has uncovered heads, axes, and winged shoulder pads to differentiate them. I also magnetized the arms of the banner bearer so I can give him a powerfist in the event I don't take the chapter banner.

Final Sanguinary Guard squad.  They have all swords, but no winged shoulder pads.  Every squad has 2 infernus pistols.

Here are Dante and my Librarian. I did quite a bit of greenstuffing on the libby.  Dante is missing his jump pack because I have a Sanguinary Guard jump pack coming for him.  I like the wing look and who better to have it than the chaptermaster himself.

Here are my Sanguinary Priest.  I took three old Black Templar models that I had laying around and used them as the basis for the models.  I cut off and filed away all of the templar markings and greenstuffed some Blood Angel icons on their tabards and shoulder pads.  The two on the left are also getting sanguinary guard  jump packs to keep the sanguinary theme.  The one on the right is my foot priest who will go with the devestators.

Ahhh!  Here are my super cool devestators.  You will noticed that they are devoid of arms, heads, weapons, and backpacks.  I am waiting on a few more pieces before I finish modelling these guys but they will be two squads of 4 missile launchers when I am done.

So there you have my army.  It is coming along nicely.  I will show some more closeup pictures of my greenstuff work in an upcoming post.  I am also thinking about doing a tutorial on DiY shoulder pads.  I have tons of blank shoulderpads collecting in my bits box and this is a great way to repurpose those and add character to them in the mean time.  Let me know what you think.