Roadmap to summer...1500pts ZM
Lockdown is ending!!
.So it appears we have a road map to summer and the end of COVID restrictions. Clearly this is an ideal scenario type gig - my quiet Jan/Feb (due to COVID escalation rotas) is a testament to plans not quite going as…well…planned.
At the current rate, however, we are on for games in the not too distant future. (Brother Handro: “Wait…does that mean we need to paint something?…”)
Zone Mortalis
Some time ago Der H bought some ZM tiles on Last Chance to Buy, they sat unused for a time and eventually found some paint last year!
So hey…why not use them.
Both of the Butterflies have Legion goals with new forces that haven’t quite taken off, and so we decided that a great way to start would be planning for a set of 1000pt ZM games following the Hit and Run Blood in the Void rules against an escort. Mission one being Void Strike. depending how it goes, and depending on progress we can do mission 2 and 3, and push to 1500 pts.
Der H will be running Iron Warriors
Brother Handro will be pushing the Imperial Fists…
….Roll on Phall!
The first phase…
Der H’s list is a tidy 23 models, with Praevian, 2 Castellax and 20 Breachers, whilst Brother Handro has gone for the squishier Champion, 2 Apothecaries, 10 Tacticals, 10 Breachers and 10 Warders.
Stretch Goal…
1500 adds 10 more Breachers and 10 Iron Havocs for Der H and 5 Vets plus 5 Terminators for Brother Handro…evening out the squishy somewhat!
The idea is that, missing our usual event-driven progress, we can make our own event of it…and drive some progress….
…of course, knowing one’s opponent might mean some subtle changes before list day….
#returntoisstvan
Warhammer World - Exhibition - New and Exciting
Warhammer world events usually come with free exhibition tickets….what’s not to like!
Signus!
The entrance way dio is now Signus Prime! This board is stunning. Mostly Khorne, but some other deities are represented.
The terrain effect is very cool. A dry, dusty/rocky board is scattered with stoney spikes and openings in the ground. These openings are largely blood pits, and various daemons can be seen emerging from them. Awesome work.
The main man himself, Sanguinius!
Titanicus has a display in the hall also! A titan column assaulting a fortification is such a nice idea, and the scene just makes me want to finish my titanicus stuff (Brother Handro: I’m waiting….)
I love the retro section. I hadn’t spotted the Slann previously; the old nids and harlequins are oldies but always nice!
Retro time!
On the retro theme, there was an army which highlighted the flexibility of the Militia list…
One display that always catches my attention is the Krieg/Blood Angels defensive line….no words needed….
A new display, to us at least, is outpost 402; Dark Eldar attacking Imperial Guard in the jungle by an Eldar portal… beautiful terrain, and a great theme!
That about does it for our new spots. As always the Exhibition hall is stunning and makes me very keen to paint, build and play this great game. Check out our old post on the Warhammer World Museum, and keep your eyes peeled for more progress in the next few weeks!
Der H & Brother Handro
Throne of Skulls - a retrospective
Well, it’s been a week since our first tournament at Warhammer World; time to reflect…
Duncan emptying his desk now that Citadel Contrast is being released…
We completely failed to comment on our first night…the highlight, other than buying things, was seening Duncan in the flesh! Albeit from a distance, and walking away from us….he was holding a bag…maybe contrast has indeed ended the reign of Two thin coats.
We also spotted a minion crossing from the main building to the office carrying a stack of older GW texts, including the 54mm Inquisitor source book….what on earth could that mean….
First off, any mild/minor sourness about lists/tactics/competitiveness has dissolved. (Brother Handro: Speak for yourself!) I enjoyed all the games, and on reflection I wish I’d enjoyed the last game more. I feel that the sudden appearance of two Primarchs and their terminator fan boy squads made me dread the game and that carried on. But the Heresy is all about hordes of guys, and their badass Primarchs. The chance to fight two of them on the table, see the awesome power of Magnus, and to see first-hand the power they bring to their legions is epic! Hell, Der H even got the chance to go one on one with Magnus with a Delegatus and STRIKE FIRST thanks to the epic IIIrd legion Initiative buffs.
Secondly, the opportunity to play against some competitive lists highlighted the bits that are missing in our own Legion forces. Our lack of anti-psyker, anti-air, army-wide buffs, (Brother Handro: Is that all?) and failing to play to strengths were all punished - hard.
For Der H, the fact that initiative bonuses to the IIIrd can mean even a lowly, non-combat ready Delegatus could go toe-to-toe with Magnus (Brother Handro: He did get mulched though, right…) is awesome. By this point Magnus was on one wound. The guy we were playing could have hidden him, denied the challenge, avoided the fight, but even in a competitive event there is that little voice in our (heresy players’) heads that says…..do it, it’d be epic….two hits, could easily have made one wound, and a lucky rend could force an invulnerable save. (Der H: I mean, it didn’t…. but hey!). In my next event, I’m going to try and utilise the initiative buff to better effect. I usually have a unit of Phoenix terminators or Palatine Blades to do my cutting, I think I’ll go back to that and see what else they can do. The Kakophoni as troops in a IIIrd company elite RoW are a thing of beauty, but with my next list planning including an Army of Dark Compliance I’m not sure I’ll get the chance!
For Brother Handro the main highlight was the event itself. Good people, good games, good atmosphere, and some beautiful armies. Equally, having an event to attend usually generates vast amounts of progress. Nearly 1200 points’ worth this time! As a not particularly competitive player (Der H: you do surprise me!) I was pleasantly relieved to find games played for the most part in great spirit, and equally pleasantly surprised to find that our lists were vaguely competitive. We were in with a shout approaching the final turn in all bar the last game. The revelation that we came mid-table in our first ever competitive event, and that people actually liked our armies, and us as players, was really heartening. With a bit of luck, list-tinkering and experience (Der H: so not much then…) we might even challenge the top half of the scorecard one day!…
In the end the event was fun, not as gamey as anticipated, and was a good opportunity to meet people. We had the joy of meeting the awesome couple that are Wrights Adventure Guild with their nomination for best army (Der H: They were robbed in my opinion…) with an Emperors Children/Alpha Legion combo. Great army, and James’ IIIrd put my guys to shame! Lucy won Icon of Legend with her Alpha Legion Contemptor and James’ Storm Eagle is my new favourite thing ever….(Brother Handro: Is that why you bought one?) We were also privileged to play against the tournament’s most popular duo, Iron Talon. These guys won more events than sin with at least 3 awards including a new one just for them having won a best game and best army vote from every opponent they faced - this put them 3rd with a gaming score of ‘only’ 12! Great guys, great army, great fun!
Speaking of results…. we weren’t as shit as we thought! With the results published on the Facebook Warhammer World page, we can see our team The Bolter Wanderers placing 37th out of 65, 6 points for wins (Brother Handro: That’ll be 1 then….) with 3 favourite game and 4 favourite army votes! This means that of our opponents, only one didn’t vote for our army, and 3/5 thought we were a fun game!
Invigorated by this news, and the feeling that we aren’t completely shit, we shall push on toward our next event, The Purging of Melos, in July…..how many thousand points shall we paint in order to do this…..well, let’s find out!
Brother Handro & Der H
Throne of Skulls - Day 2
After a fun-filled quiz, in which we did poorly, the Hobby Butterflies returned for a second day of battles in the Age of Darkness.
Game 4 saw us come up against an opponent who, it turns out, was a crowd favourite! The Boys of Iron Talon, Raven Guard and Iron Warriors, brought a gorgeous list. A deep strike/outflank Raven Guard force with Fire Raptor and an armoured Iron Warriors force with Medusa and Minotaur!
The diagonal corners deployment that everyone hates came up, and we squeezed into our edge. We quickly immobilised and weapon destroyed the Medusa, reducing it to a glorified tarantula. We moved up the board and tried to head towards the objective.
The Iron Warriors were the main played turn 1 with some movement up the table and some early fire from the Minotaur. The Raven Guard Dreadclaw arrived and started to cause its usual havoc in our back field.
Some lovely destroyed markers!
Meanwhile the Kakophoni took great joy in killing most of their own!
The last few turns saw a pair of fliers arrive and wreak havoc in our lines. An outflanking Javelin hit hard and the Fire Raptor was a machine!
We had a brief moment of tactical genius when two empty Rhinos rushed up the board causing much confusion for Iron Talon (Der H: I did tell them before they assaulted! Especially considering they were being very sporting in considering how gamey it would be if they charged it at the table edge....true gentlemen! )
In the end we couldn’t hold the objective, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable game! Iron Talon went on to win 3 awards (Brother Handro: at least!) including one made specifically for them winning every favourite game possible!
Game 5 was an interesting matchup given our 1 win and 3 losses; a dual Primarch list with Pertuabo, Siege Terminators and cataphractii representing the Iron Warriors and Magnus with two squads of Sekhmet.
Null deployment meant a useless first turn for us. Perty landed and blew our Predators off the table, and the Terminators hit the volkites hard. Our return fire didn’t really hit home. Our Kakophoni and Vets rushed the objective in the supposed opponents’ deployment zone.
Then Magnus happened...a long psychic phase later and all but one Rhino was destroyed and most squads took 2-3 casualties.
The rest of the game was an excercise in our remnants trying to wound an army with buffs galore, invulnerable saves, multi wounds and long psychic phases. Nothing stuck. We managed to get Magnus to one wound, and despite not being a close combat list my Delegatus got a charge. Thanks to Emperors Children shenanigans, and a charnabal sabre, I got to strike first with two hits and no wounds being punished by a stern punch to the neck from the primarch of the Thousand Sons.
We weren’t tabled, but lost on VPs with two slay the warlords, attrition and fewer units on the objective.
We ended the weekend on 1 win to 4 losses, and a last game that was simultaneously awesome (going up against two Primarchs) and tedious (not being able to take part in a phase of the game and being completely out matched).
The weekend showed us that our tactics and list planning were evidently consistent with a pair of gamers who, despite being in the hobby for years, have only been really playing since December!
Some quick impulse buys, an award ceremony and a 2 hour drive home saw our first Throne of Skulls complete!
Now we just need to play for the next phase of the Melos campaign in July!
(Brother Handro: To the painting table!)
Der H & Brother Handro
Throne of Skulls - a Prelude
So, tomorrow is the day! Throne of Skulls! Our first doubles event and our first event at Warhammer World!
We drove down in the mean machine that is Der H’s red and white Citroen 2CV6 (Brother Handro: I can confirm that my ears are bleeding…) and set up camp in a nearby well known hotel #notsponsored.
A quick trip to Warhammer World for supplies, beer, and a cheeky practice game and we have our armies ready for war!
Game 1 was Tide of Carnage with Dawn of War deployment. Emperors Children started strong hitting the rapier laser destroyers hard, and shaking the Whirlwind - snap shots FTW!
The veteran tacticals of the Sons of Horus moved up slowly, taking out both Rhinos in close combat, but they were beaten back by Kakophoni. Bio-psychic shock gives D6 wounds at AP2 instant death, no cover saves allowed. On occasion this does nothing, but a poor side roll for Ld followed by a 5 or 6 just destroys units....like it did for Brother Handro...
before...
...after...
Eventually, the relentless heavy 2 Kakophani, the sicaran and the Whirlwind were just too potent. With some particularly harsh shots from the sicaran at Brother Handro’s Delegatus leading to the death of the Sons of Horus warlord.
Game 2 was Dominion using the Vanguard Strike deployment. Brother Handro seized the initiative and promptly destroyed a predator, hull pointed the other. Turn two he destroyed the sicaran, and a rhino before the scorpius scored 19 strength 8 AP 3 wounds on the squad, killing all 10 occupants! Things were not going well. Der H’s scorpius survived all 6 turns but without Vox cover the scatters were significant!
Brother Handro
I’ve gone for a chosen duty list. My plan is two Rhino mounted veteran tactical squads each with a Nuncio Vox to provide reliable firing solutions for the Whirlwind scorpius. Two rapier laser destroyers hit hard when needed, and the list is rounded out with a 5 man volkite culverin squad, 5 man tactical support squad with plasma guns. All led by a basic delgatus. 1247pts all in, and ready to go!
The practice games with Der H were mixed. If the laser destroyer and scorpius get hit, it all falls apart. Der H got lucky game one with his Kakophoni rolls (Der H: well...you rolled the D6 instant death dice....) but it was going south before that! Placement is the key me thinks, and protecting the heavy stuff without sacrificing their LoS is going to be the trick.
Der H
I’ve gone with the ol’ faithful Kakophoni as my base, built around the IIIrd company elite RoW. This allows sonic shriekers for nearly everyone of note, Kakophoni as troops (with relentless to boot) allowing 17 heavy 2 Strength 5 biopsychic shock attacks per turn. Apothecaries are near-vital for this unit as without they have a HILARIOUS ability to wipe themselves off the table (Der H: you’d be surprised at how many 1’s can be rolled with 20 D6… Brother Handro: No…no I wouldn’t….). A Delegatus makes this possible, but he has to be cheap. Sicaran battle tank and Scorpius make a nice dual-threat armoured section. I toyed between using 6 Jetbikes with 2 multimeltas or rolling up with 2 predators, eventually settling on the latter!
Let’s hope they perform as well tomorrow!
More updates on our Instagram throughout the day, and on here at some point too!
Look out for our updates via MyMiniReport, and a full review of the app next week!
Der H & Brother Handro
We have awoken!
Good lord it has been a long time again! It’s nearly the end of May, and we’ve not posted anything since November! Since then there has been much painting (Brother Handro: Ha!), two events, and a great deal of buying!
The time has come to try harder to deliver some more frequent content to motivate our progress through our respective (Der H: ever expanding…) legions of grey.
Der H is now post-exam, with NO MORE EXAMS in the foreseeable future (Brother Handro: I’ve heard that before) and now that real life is a little more settled, has promptly bought more models than sin.
Brother Handro has, again, flitted between several options, but has fleshed out the Sons of Horus to an extent never seen in our little hobby bubble (Der H: Don’t forget your rapidly expanding Instagram account Brother! Brother Handro: Linky linky)
We’ve been quite happy dishing out tempting pictures on Instagram, but haven’t really frequented our own blog…today that changes!
The plan…
Over the coming weeks we’re going to be more diligent at posting our exploits, starting with a veritable plethora of posts due this weekend when we attend…
We’re heading down this Friday for a fun-filled weekend of Heresy gaming, and the old allegiance of the Sons of Horus and the Emperors Children will be put to the test (Brother Handro: Not really a ‘fair’ test though is it….). We’re planning on discussing our list over the weekend, and already have a sneak peek of some of the competition through our operatives (Der H: Ok…its Facebook), but more on this in our Throne of Skulls - prelude post later this week.
Following that we will be reviewing the much anticipated Battle report app MyMiniReport when it is released this week. This is much anticipated so head over to their Kickstarter for details of the (now closed) campaign, or head to their forum for general chatter.
Going forwards…
Following that we have a huge backlog of blog posts to churn through, from a review of the December 2018 Scouring of Melos event hosted by the Road to Terra Podcast, to a look forwards to their next event in July. We will discuss Der H’s exploits in Durham at the Company of Legends, and will be going through and showing all the lovely plastic/resin crack we’ve been buying…
In the mean time check our our official Instagram here…
…and Brother Handro’s instagram here…
Der H & Brother Handro
Thought for the day: “Heresy grows from idleness”