Emperors Children Siege Breaker - aka "Do I need another character?"

It is well known that I have too many HQ choices…(Brother Handro: Isnt it near 12 now…) but with the Narrative event of Purging of Melos coming up soon (July 2019) we need an ‘event character’.

This character will be discussed more closer to the event, but essentially is a stock centurion with 11 upgrade points. Other than this they cost nothing to the army list, and can progress during the event by surviving.

In my case i wanted a warlord that would fit with a Kakophoni heavy IIIrd company elite list. I also wanted him to be vaguely siege themed as (If I paint hard enough) I was going to have my Death Korps of Krieg Imperial Militia as a siege regiment with Ordo Reductor support (Der H: ….lets see how that goes eh?)

Behold my progress…

As you can tell there are a few bits from a few sources. The torso is from the Palatine blades kit. The head and left arm are from GWs own Slaaneshi upgrade kit. We have a right arm, pad and sword from the legion praetor set and a MKII Emperors Children pad on the shoulder. Some GW plastics in for the form of a chaos backpack, and a AoD dagger and Horn round him out. Phosphex bombs in hand and mag-locked to his legs complete the look!

I was going for a vaguely Joshua vibe from the battle of Jerico… double edged sword, spear (see below) Ram Horn, and suitable Slaaneshi parts to match. Leading a IIIrd company elite RoW force he fits in well, and depending on what else is in my list he may well see some action!

Because magnets are cool, I’ve equipped him to have paragon blade inter-changable with phoenix power spear - depends on my mood!

What do we think? Good? Bad? Ugly?

Der h

So you want to build ANOTHER storm eagle...

(Der H: Well not quite…he isnt that insane…but maybe I am…)

Soon after the crushing defeat that was game 5 of Throne of Skulls day 2 I went to the shop and bought the things…

Now, usually that is how the things would stay for, say, 6-8 months. But this time I wanted to build ALL the things. A day off gave me an afternoon free between the chores of adult life so I sat down to build some models. After a quick character-related warm up, I set about building a Storm Eagle…

As you can see the Krieg were pushed to one side, and the parts clipped, sanded, washed, and bent back into shape. Dreading the warp (Brother Handro: I see what you did there…) so frequently associated with this kit I straightened things during the wash and had both hair drier and heat gun at the ready. The first steps were easy enough, plastics fit into resin panels with ease if they can only fit one way! Pretty soon i was at the vital stage of fitting the door; now comes the serious work.

You may recall that at the Throne of skulls event last month we met Wrights Adventure Guild with an Emperors Children/Alpha Legion combo. James’ Storm Eagle was my new favourite thing ever….and although I’d seen the Shrine of the Aquilla conversion before, I thought James’ was perticularly good.

I had my wish list:

1) Eagle prow (obvs)

2) Maintain the ability to open/close the front door

3) Painted interior (at least the front)

4) Access to the rear interior.

The initial fit, after much swearing, gave a good cosmetic result, but the door wouldn’t really open anymore! The issue was one of the lower edge, and on opening it tended to foul the underside.

A little more whittling gave it the range it needed. At this stage the door was heavier and wouldn’t stay shut…to the magnets!

When approaching the rear I hit a snag. I couldnt seen any way of (easily) making the rear door open/close. The hinge wouldnt be that much of an issue, but the door was oversized by 4 mm, the hinge not the sturdiest, and the rear required some encouragement to align properly - massively helped by gluing the door. This poses two problems:

1) In order to see the inside of the rear portion the rear door must open OR the roof must come off.

2) If the roof comes off it is less sturdy, and the rear is likely to look less well aligned.

Options:

1) Build a new hinge for the rear door, paint separately, glue roof

2) Leave door attached, leave roof detachable, never look at the rear again

3) Leave Door attached and, after painting the front interior, glue it up for ever!

…Tricky descision.

This is how we currently stand! She is looking very tidy (Brother Handro: If you say so yourself…) and the door sits open nicely for a hot ‘combat drop’ from hover mode…

When sitting on her landing struts the door, unfortunately, doesn’t open; Ill have to put this down to a style thing…

She still needs a plan for the rear hatch, lots of filling and a base to be built, but we arn’t that far off! What do you all think?

Der H

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

Instagram progress!

So, real life is in the way again. Der H is approaching his last (Der H:   “hopefully...”  ) post grad exam, and Brother Handro is merrily churning through thousands and thousands of points of Sons of Horus before Decembers  Scouring of Melos event in Stockport. 

This will be our first ever event weekend - late to the party as ever - and will see Brother Handro’s SoH and Der H’s EC battle it out with 18 other North-West heresy fanboys. Having played some of these guys before we’re expecting tough competition. The whole thing is organised by the Road to Terra guys; they’re awesome guys so check out their podcast.

Progress! 

There has been some! 

Brother Handro has been merrily painting his SoH. 33 infantry this week, and 33 to go....(Brother Handro:   “....and the vehicles” )

Meanwhile, Der H has been assembling Phoenix Terminators....after the mammoth task of relocating his modelling desk out of the city of Rapture...aka the basement of damp.... 

Hopefully it all come together for December! 

Check out our pages on Instagram:

@brotherhandro and @thehobbybutterflies 

Brother Handro & Der H 

Another year, Another ETL...

Behold - in the nick of time - my finished ETL 2018 vow to complete 6 Scimitar Jetbikes as a Sky Hunter Squadron, with a sky Hunter Sgt with Phoenix power spear of total value 270 points! Its a shame I couldn't do a second pledge, have a lovely purple Dreadclaw that is gathering dust!

For those that dont know, over on Bolter and Chainsword there is an annual event called the ETL ("E Tenebrae Lux" - Or for us peasants, "From darkness, light"). It is popular, and as such is now in its 6th year.

Pledges are made to a particular faction on the boards, and their points cumulative to that faction's grand total, 270 points is a poor show in all honesty, but real life does get in the way.

These are my first jetbikes. I have one more being built as a legion champion for Maru Skara shenanigans....but that can wait...

I even put details on the control panel - a rare treat for me!

In the works are a Dreadclaw, 2 10 man tactical squads, 5 more phoenix terminators, a librarian (for the IIIrd you say?!) and some more HQs.....oh, and a Spartan!

[Brother Handro: "That's basically 2 years' work right there...."]

Der H

Progress! ETL Progress

We actually had a hobby day! Brother Handro made some progress on his new knights, and I pushed on with my ETL vow! 

Gorgeous sunny day in Manchester so we were outside, made the paint dry faster!! 

Six jetbikes near finished! They all had Halfords grey primer, then a three stage airbrush (dark/mid/light purples and a wash) then silver.  

After that it’s gold and brass with details. 

The majority of the jetbikes use a white triangle on the front armour plate:

Whilst the Sergeant has a band instead: 

I have plans for a champion on jetbike so stay tuned!! 

 Der H & Brother Handro

NW30K - The Coronid Deeps - Character profile

Time for the main man! Praetor Lucius Tredecimus Brutus!

A game of poor rolling for Ld tests - even with an apothecary, champion and 7 palatine blades the deathsworn and magic Wolves champion, apothecary chap cut them down and a spectacularly failed Ld (5 & 6) meant they ran off the table - 6" deployment zones be damned!

Better luck next time!

Der H

NW30K - The Coronid Deeps - Character Profile

To follow on from my last post, now that I've played two campaign games its time to show off my campaign characters - today its Brother Chaplain Exurdo!

Exurdo didn't fare too well in his first game - his tactical squad was wiped off the board and he was left in combat with the Scars' praetor and his whole squad! Exurdo hit hard, and in teh challenge left the praetor concussed and one wound down. However, hit and run with jetbikes meant he ran, doubled back and cut him down on the charge.

Post battle he gained an attack but was captured. This is fun in and of itself; it means next month we'll have a Liberation mission to play!

Glory to the IIIrd!

Der H