The Glorious Dead

Kaevern Mournsong - Iyanden Spiritseer

In my quest to, it would seem, collect every single force vying for attention in the 41st Millennium, i recently decided after some truly appalling defeats with my Tau that i would go back to one of my old favourite armies.  The Eldar.

And not just any Eldar, an Iyanden Craftworld Eldar army.  As with most new releases from Games Workshop, many mewled and cried and moaned about the price of the new Iyanden supplement, and while they were complaining i was ignoring them as i couldn't hand over my money fast enough. 

To the dark gods of the uh.... Greater Good?

 

XV8 Crisis Battlesuit Commander

So, it all started when the Cities of Death book came out,  This Art from the front cover (the artist of which is evading me through google) blew me away when i saw it.  Easily one of the strongest Games Workshop related art pieces i have seen in years, and as badass as the Vostroyans look (they do look, very badass) what caught me was the Tau in the picture, this White and Red colour scheme is so striking i was surprised it hasn't been replicated onto any studio models before or since.  I always wanted to try my hand at converting it to the real thing (even though the Tau are taking an absolute pasting in the picture and one Fire Warrior appears to have lost a fight with... a spike?).

Live by the blade, Die by the blade.

Chosen Chaos Space Marine of Khorne.

With the release of the new Chaos Space Marine Codex i have been pledging to finally dive into 6th Edition 40k.

The release of the new rules set, though brilliant, left me feeling stranded.  My Entire Armoured Chaos Space Marine force was left feeling decidedly gibbed.  It is clear the importance of troop transports has been reduced greatly in the game, and though while they are useful they now work in an entirely different way to before.  Squads buying transports to get into the fray faster seem better off walking now.

Nights best spent crafting flesh

The first five Wracks stagger free of the laboratories.

This edition of Tower of Snakes comes to you straight from the painting table, i've been buoyed ahead with painting recently, feverishly brushing acrylics/inks/mediums/varnishes onto any Dark Eldar models within my reach and i'm happy with the results so far!

The Coven of the Severed Tongue

Dark Eldar by Adrian Smith

It all started with this picture.

Over the weekend of course the 6th Edition Warhammer 40k Rulebook was released and alongside that came all the inevitable reading, i have to say, i'm a huge fan of the new rules so far and for everything they have taken away, they have given you ten more, pretty excited to get some games in!


Flicking through the army background section of the book i was suddenly floored when i came across this picture, Adrian Smith has always been one of my favourite artists, his style is unique and instantly recognizable, but it struck me that i don't think he has ever painted the Dark Eldar before, and if he has, never in such gruesome and beautifully dark detail, the complete picture shows the bodies of terrified guardsmen strewn across the ground with their eyes cut out and the Dark Eldar standing aloof and alien in the aftermath of battle while a Talos floats broodingly in the background.

I'd always been tempted to do a Dark Eldar Coven based army, but now alongside 6th edition coming into being and waiting for the new Chaos Codex it seemed like a perfect time to actually get into action!

I picked up a box of Wracks and a Talos to get to work on and pictured above is my first wrack, not completely finished yet but coming along nicely, the detail of the models is absolutely incredible and very fun to work with, the skin is a lot nicer to view in the flesh and is an absolute joy to paint.

I used a lot of the new GW paints to paint the model including the Dark Eldar specific skin colours and the dark blue/grey highlight colours, the blood is achieved using Tamiya Clear red ink, this stuff is fantastic, it works best if basecoated with a nice dark red (think GW Red Gore) colour and the subtly worked along, the Wrack models are brutally stitched together in a number of places so i thought it would be great to highlight that, basing usually presents a bit of difficulty for me, i don't like to be too flashy with it as i like the attention to be on the models themselves, i like the idea of the army walking across a desert like area, but i also thought it would be cool to have lots of blood spatter and blood drips to further the narrative of such a horrific army, i used the same blood method as i used on the models and it has come out pretty well, going to paint the first 5 wracks up with the same basing method and see if it bears up across the squad, and if it doesn't look so good i can just rebase them!

The models to the right are some more Wracks from the same squad that i am painting, the one on the left has had a Basecoat of Rakarth Flesh, highlighted with Pallid Wych flesh and then inked with Leviathan Purple wash, the model on the right has had the same treatment, but then a recoat of Pallid Wych flesh after the purple wash, after this i do one more coat of Pallid Wych flesh as a highlight, but mixed with 50/50 with Skull White, and then the work on the rest of the model begins!

I will post some more progress soon hopefully and let you know how i get on!

The Gore-Trodden path

The army arrayed in all its Infernal Glory.

6th Edition 40k creeps ever closer, and every day i hear a new rule or tidbit, no matter how hard i try to ignore them.

Not that i'm not interested, i'm just so excited i want to be sitting with the new book and a cup of tea already god damn it.

There are several huge changes i'm liking already though,  firstly the constant chatter about allies interests me, straight off people have been discussing particularly beardy combos and how to pull them off, but me personally, i'm thinking about how to present unique modelling oppurtunities.

For example, once the new Chaos Space Marine book rolls around, if there is in fact no sign of Chaos Cultists (which i'm desperate for as i think they add a ton of theme to any Chaos army) then i will be quite happy to utilize some Imperial Guard and proxy my own, the allies rules also fix the weirdness surrounding Chaos Marines and Chaos Daemons being two books quite nicely also.

The Second thing that interests me greatly is that armies can now purchase "Fortifications" as part of their Army points allowance, which is pretty nuts, especially when you start to factor in the additional heavy weapons and special rules some of them bring to the field.  But even if this is the case i am pretty excited, i love the idea of never hitting a table without enough scenery ever again, that sounds great!

Gorak, Skull Champion of Khorne.

The Khorne Berzerkers in my army prove their worth nearly every game, the damage output these guys have is phenomenal compared to how they look on paper, the best factor about the whole squad i think is the WS5, those 3's to hit really push the bracket up for how much damage they do.  I've played games where the squad (7 Berzerkers and a Champion with Power Weapon) have charged into a squad of 4 Thunder Hammer Terminators and Vulkan and aced the combat (much to my shock).  The furious charge on the unit allows me to break my habit of giving all sergeants power fists in an attempt to cover and redundancy, there is however the constant threat of Dreadnought attack, but i attempt to stay vigilant against that!  As for the modelling side of things, i wanted the Khorne Berzerkers to stand out in the army and i imagined them viewing themselves as more "Pure" in their worship of khorne, i imagined them amputating any mutations not fitting of the blood god in particular and replacing the mangled limbs with simple combat blades and prosthetic chainsaws, the better to aid them in combat, it turned out pretty well!  The Champion Gorak has had his model taken from an old Games Day Limited Edition Chaos Warrior that i'd had sitting around doing nothing for a while, he just seemed perfect, even though he's holding a Wood Elf (which i like to think of as an exodite eldar or possibly a dark eldar)  the pose is so arrogant it's very fitting for a Khorne Berzerker champion i think!

The rest of my troops choices are rounded out with Chaos Space Marine Squads with the Mark of Khorne, a Power fist and a Meltagun in each, if i'd had the points i would have liked to have taken combi weapons on the chaos champions for the more guaranteed melta fusillade at important times, but even so they have performed admirably, the ridiculous amount of attacks they put out tending to do me a lot of favours up close (apart from the odd game where i'm allrgic to rolling 4+.)  For my next project with these boys i am looking to convert some more icon bearers, i imagined the banners as windows into the realm of chaos, so i would like to hollow out a banner and have a daemon model actually lunging forward from the banner itself, i think that would look really cool (if a little tricky to pull off!)

Blood Disciples

Redmawr the Rancid, Daemon Prince of Chaos

Well, i have been remiss updating lately, but so what?  That's what blogs are for right?

I haven't been dozing in a cave though, i have been doing a fair bit of painting in the mean time, i completed a new army which i took to the local 40k Ashes tournament (for the ashes of the 5th edition Rulebook, what with the new one around the corner and all!)

In the run up to the tournament, i decided i wanted to take an army that is viewed as underpowered within the current meta game, so in the weeks running up to it, i kept hearing people say how rubbish the Chaos Space Marine book is and how it's only any good if you take Lash of Submission, and even then it looks a bit shonky now.

Well, i've always been a follower of the dark gods, my first foray into 40k was with a horrific circus coloured Tyranid army (you know, in 2nd ed. when all the troop types were different garish colours) my next and first solid army was a Chaos Space Marine army built around Khorne.

"Soul crusher" Blood Disciples Vindicator

My old army used to be lead by my Chaos Lord Redmawr Rancid riding a Juggernaut of Khorne so i thought it would be fun to do an army built around him a bit further on down the line once he had attained Daemonhood.

I decided i wanted to do something a bit different from traditional red, and also that i wanted the army to consist of renegades who worship Khorne rather than a straight up World Eaters force.    So i settled on naming my force the Blood Disciples, only realising a little later that there is an army called the Blood Disciples in the codex, i decided my Warband had struck out on their own, self imposed exile under the command of Redmawr himself.

I played around with a couple of lists but settled on quite a nice well rounded force headed up by Redmawr himself, with a squad of 5 Terminators boasting a variety of weapons mounted in a Land Raider (as a dedicated transport) for troops i decided on one squad of Khorne Berzerkers (the most blood mad and elite renegades) in a rhino, as well as two squads of 8 chaos marines in rhinos.  Moving on i spent the rest of my points on Heavy Support, with a pair of Obliterators, a Chaos Predator Annihilator and a Vindicator as well.

 "The Gore Hounds" Chaos Terminator squad

The army performed admirably well in practice games, winning the vast majority, and to my surprise i even managed to come out on top against a couple of lists i pretty much expected to get smashed by.

I utilized a variety of techniques in the painting of the army, but i decided straight off that i wanted everything to look filthy, one of my biggest problems with a lot of Chaos Marine armies is how clean cut they all look.  If you worship dark gods, cavort with daemons and flay the skins of the damned, i don't see that polishing armour and repainting it all the time would be high on your list of priorities, i thought it would also provide a nice counter point to more clean looking Loyal marines as well (and of course hopefully look pretty good on the table top)  this project was also the first time i made use of the new Citadel paints range and i have to say that i am very happy with the new paints, i wasn't too sure how they would manage to improve on the old range, but somehow they have!  Good work GW!

"The Corpsegrinder" Chaos Space Marine Land Raider

One thing that surprised me about the army is just how effective the Terminator squad in Land Raider proves to be, even with the laughable set of abilities of the tank (The glaring omission of anything comparable to "power of the machine Spirit" is really felt a lot of the time) the Terminators themselves often ridiculously overperform, and the one thing i put this down to is the purchase of a single chainfist.  That 5 point upgrade has spelt doom for a whole junkyard's worth of vehicles, often my tactic will be to engage an enemy unit and multi-charge the single terminator with chainfist into a tank on his own.

He nearly always takes them down.

The utility of the Chaos marine units and Berzerkers in their rhinos is very interesting to play with as well, part of the end result of going for a core of Chaos Marine squads instead of pure Khorne Berzerkers is that the Melta Guns have provided them the ability to perform "drive-by" attacks from the top of Rhinos whilst maintaining a certain degree of safety.  This is utility would be lost with a pure Khorne Berzerker force, and while the majority of the army isn't full of whacky abilities (something i think a Chaos Codex should be full of by the way) it is extremely solid and tactical, almost on a par with the Loyalist marine codex.

Blood Disciple Obliterators

One victory that caught me off guard in particular was when i went toe to toe with a Kaldor Draigo-wing Grey Knight list, the Obliterator's Plasma Cannons proved to be a vital counterpoint to the monstrous Paladin squad, stripping multiple wounds off at once (stopping Draigo bouncing them all off on his shield)  across the first couple of turns the paladins were all stripped down to one wound each and then slowly picked off, i even got to use the old "Adamantium Barricade" maneuver with both the Chaos Marine Squad's rhinos, disembarking from both and placing the rhinos an inch or so apart so there was room to fire but they couldn't be assaulted in the ensuing turn, beautiful!

 Anyway, i now look forward to the eminent release of 6th edition, bring it on!