Euryalean Stoneborn plog

[CyderPirate]

Cheers guys!

 

Yeah. the tank could do with some more work. I always struggle painting tanks, especially with washes/highlights. Even watered down, the washes tend to be ott.

The chimera does have one wash, just to pick out the recesses, but its not very clear in the picture.

[WarriorFish]

Bit of dry brushing picks out vehicle edges nicely, it's really easy too :)

[Carraigf]

Hey Cyder - just to say loving these guys and having serious fluff envy :)

Also loving the war-birds - remind me of the Struthid cavalry from the Guants ghost novels.

I've been tempted by these brocks for Finreht with maybe the big guy as sgt but unsure on including rough riders in my fledgling force - one to consider for the next 500ot block maybe.

Quick Q - where'd you get the b*stard sword for 'Arevy' - that's an idea I might have to steel

[CyderPirate]

Cheers Carraigf  - the feeling is mutual! I've kind of written myself into a bizzare corner with names mostly coming from Greek mythology, but the culture and look of the army being celtic(ish). Its unique, but its not easy to grasp or understand.

 

Oh man, I did not need to know Mantic did those! As soon as I heard the Big Yin pop up in the most recent Hobbit film I wanted to go off and make a Dwarf army, complete with Pig/Goat cavalry, but badgers would easily do instead!

 

 

The sword came from these guys - I just shaved the left hand of the handle so that it looks like he's resting it on his shoulder.

http://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Empire-Free-Company

[WarriorFish]

There's nothing wrong with that, just because your regiment's culture comes from one place doesn't mean that the language they speak isn't from another. 38,000 odd years is a long time for things to change from our time ;)

[Carraigf]

Plus to stick on my history hat celt stems from the Greek Keltoi, the greeks heavily colonised along the iberian penninsula before the Romans showed up,and the hellenic influenced keltoi from spain and portugal are often linked in Irish history as the the Fir Bolgs, who ruled before the Tuatha De Danan, ancient irish celts of gallic descent....plus medusa heads look awesome in any millenia and fits the whole 'did that rock just move?!!!' piece nicely

[Carraigf]

Cheers for the link,I can see a brock mounted, giant sword armed rough rider commander making it's way onto my list,that things easily long enough to count as a lance lol

[CyderPirate]

Some more fluff, and army pictures for you fine folks:

Training, Doctrine and Equipment

The Stoneborn excel at close quarters engagements and their training and doctrine focus on that strength, with drills concentrating on firing lasguns whilst on the move, whilst bayonet and long-knife practice features prominently in the regimen. The Euryaleans make extensive use of non-standard equipment in hand-to-hand combat, including hatchets, trench clubs and even picks and shovels. Whilst the practice is officially frowned upon, it is in practice encouraged, with most commanders preferring that their soldiers use the weapons that they are most familiar and comfortable with. In many cases, weapons are family heirlooms, or have some cultural significance to a warrior’s clan. Most iconic of these, though, are the enormous two-handed swords, known as claidheamh-mòr (or Claymore in High Gothic), wielded by the regiment’s officers and veterans. The blades require incredible strength and practice to use effectively and are devastating in the hands of an expert, capable of even slicing through ceramite. A mere initiate, however, can be a greater threat to his friends, so their use is strictly monitored and limited generally to veterans and officers, although if a guardsman can demonstrate that they have the necessary skill, they will be given special dispensation to carry a great sword.

The Stoneborn have an almost unhealthy obsession with fire and make extensive use of flamer and melta-based weaponry, including both personal and vehicle-mounted variants. Hellhound tanks are a common sight on the battlefield, whilst almost all of the regiment’s transports are fitted with hull-mounted heavy flamers. The regiment’s pyromaniacal tendencies are another hangover of the perpetual subterranean Ork war. Flamerthrowers are devastating within the confines of the mines, and the flickering pilot lights are reassuring in the dark depths. More importantly, though, scouring the rock face with flame seems to be the only way to eradicate Ork spores, and provides the only hope of eventually ending their terrible presence on the planet. The importance of melta weaponry to the legion, however, is far more practical. The melta guns of the imperial guard have a lot in common with many of the mining and extraction tools on Euryale, enabling soldiers to replace and repair faulty gear with relative ease. Meanwhile, the Stoneborn’s fascination with wire extends to a number of other more exotic pieces and ammunition. The regiment uses a steady supply of carcass munitions, volatile incendiary variants of shotgun and mortar shells which excel at eliminating more resilient or entrenched enemies but have a tendency to backfire and kill their user.

Much of the standard imperial arsenal is either eschewed by the Euryaleans or simply unavailable to them. Grenade launchers, for example, are widely ridiculed by the Stoneborn, who carry packs of frag and krak grenades as part of their standard battle gear, finding it laughable that other regiments would use a special piece of equipment to grenade an enemy from a distance. The Stoneborn would rather get close enough to their foes to shove the grenades somewhere unpleasant, than cower behind barricades with a child-sized mortar. Plasma rifles, are another matter, however. Whilst many Euryalean commanders would dearly love to secure access to such resources, they are inevitably intercepted, commandeered, delayed or ‘lost’ en route to the regiment. Curiously, regiments raised by the Vitharri seem to have an abundance of the weapons. The lack of such high-powered gunnery has pushed the Euryaleans towards other, more esoteric weaponry, and the Stoneborn are rapidly developing a fascination with poison and acid-based equipment.

The army as it stands now...

And what's currently awaiting a proper paint job

[hendrik]

what are those supposed to be? crusaders? death cult assassins? perhaps you could give the sallet and bevor a more futuristic look by adding some air filter units to the bevor or some tubing?

[Father Mehman]

Greatswords in space? Yeah. That's Grimdark right there !

[CyderPirate]

They're going to be the HQ command squad (I can never remember whether its Platoon>Company or Company>Platoon), but that's a good point about the shortage of sci-fi stuff. I'll have to have a wee rummage in the bitz box and see what I can dig up.

[hendrik]

i think adding some rebreathers can help a lot, as well as painting the armour in some sort of carbonblack. maybe attach some power cables to their powergreatswords, connected to a powersource on their back? (you could use the cadian grenade launcher ammobag for that)

[WarriorFish]

Rebreathers always make something sci-fi :P They're coming along very well so keep up the hard work :D

[Captain Antonius]

Awesome work! Love the rough riders. Great back story and it shows through in the individual models. Keep up the good work!

[CyderPirate]

Orpheus System

Hive World Kitora

++++++++

“Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!”

The now all-too-familiar warcry was heard echoing throughout the ruins of the city. Between the bloodthirsty cries came the trembling sound of revving engines. Whether the noise came from bikes, tanks or chain-bladed weapons was unclear, but irrelevant. It mattered little what made the noise: whichever it was, it could only mean one thing.

As the unmistakable shape of the World Eaters stepped out of the haze, the Imperial guns opened fire. Through the racket of the Euryalean's opening volley, a single, one-word order was issued. “CHARGE!”

++++++++

Codex: IA12 Death Korps Assault Brigade

Army List: 1500pts

Mission: The Relic

Death Korps Command Squad – Carapace Armour, Power Sword/Melta Bomb (Company Commander)

Infantry Platoon

Platoon Command Squad

Infantry Squad - Flamer

Infantry Squad – Melta Gun

Infantry Platoon

Platoon Command Squad

Infantry Squad - Flamer

Infantry Squad – Meltagun

Death Riders – Melta Bomb

Combat Engineers x6 – Hades Drill, Carcass Rounds, Meltagun, Melta Bomb

Griffon Strike Battery – Carcass Shells

Rapier Destroyer Battery x2

Field Artillery Battery – 2x Heavy Mortars, Carcass Shells

Field Artillery Battery – 2x Heavy Mortars, Carcass Shells

Medusa Siege Tankx2 – Camo Netting, Bastion Breacher Shells

Enemy Forces

Mike's Khorne-themed CSM

Chaos Space Marines

Chaos Lord – Jump pack, torrent flamer, power weapon

2 Units of Berserkers – Mixture of chainswords and chainaxes, power fist/plasma pistol in one, plasma pistol in the other.

Raptors – 2 Meltas, Combi-melta

2 Large units of bikes – (8 and 9, I think) both with icons, champion with lightning claw in one, and power maul in the other.

3 Obliterators

Deployment (can't really tell from the photo)

As I was using the Unstoppable Advance special rule for the first time in this game (allows you to recycle your platoons once they die, but requires you to capture an additional objective in your opponent's deployment zone), I wasn't too worried about losing the infantry, so I had both platoons as far forward as possible directly in front of the Relic, with the command squads just behind them to issue orders. Way too either side I put the artillery batteries in some ruins, with the Griffon mostly covered by another ruin on my right flank. On the left, looking down a central corridor and over the Relic I had the Medusa squadron, with the death riders around them, ready to counter-charge the bikes or the Obliterators.

The chaos marines had a unit of bikes on either side, with the two mobs of 'zerkers in the middle and the raptors and lord on my right flank.

Mike won the roll to setup first, but I stole the initiative and got a couple of cheap shots in before his bikes ran me over.

I didn't take notes or anything, so this may be a little out of order but the general gist is right.

Euryalean Turn 1: 1^st turn saw the artillery knock a few models out of each of the bike units, but some decent jink saves and a couple of bad scatters basically negated the worst of the damage. The infantry surged forward towards the central ruins, and the cavalry stayed put.

(I didn't take these photos, they were lifted from the Facebook page of our local store, Kirton Games)

World Eater Turn 1: Both bike units surged forward, the unit on my right opting not to shoot so that it could guarantee the charge, but the unit on my left opened fire and wiped out all but 3 of the first infantry squad. Both units charge successfully, killing their targets before they could hit back!

FIRST BLOOD TO THE BLOOD GOD (or Mike)

The zerkers advanced and shot a bit, but they didn't really kill anything. Most of the shots missed and those that got through pinged off of the cover. The raptors bounced onto the central tower, losing one man on the way to the terrain.

E Turn 2: The Hades arrives near my bonus objective, scattering onto a berzerker sergeant who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Even though they berzerkers are still at pretty much full strength, the surviving squadron from 1 platoon move towards on to the relic and shot the bikers (no effect), whilst the other intact squadron moves back, and FRFSRF's the bike unit on the right (also no effect). I put a tremendous amount of firepower into those puppies this turn, and I think only one or two actually died. The Medusas scattered off course, as did several of the heavy mortars and the few hits I got were shaken off by the armour. The death riders charge the bike unit on the left, and although I lose my sergeant in a challenge, I kill all but two of the bikers, who break and flee (they never manage to rally and are off the board shortly afterwards).

WE Turn 2: One of the Oblits turns up, and murders all but one of the death riders with an assault cannon. The raptors blow up the Hades, but otherwise stay put. The front unit of berzerkers charges forward and murders the hell out of the unit with the relic, while the second takes out the supporting squad next to them. The relic gets dropped, but the 'zerkers can't pick it up yet.

The bikers on the right meanwhile charge the platoon command squad and wipe it out immediately (3 falling to hammer of wrath alone!), the champion adding gaining a second boon from the gods (well, one in this case), +1T – making the evil blighter T6! On the left, the bike squad charges into the remnants of the other infantry squad and finishes it off.

E Turn 3: In what must be one of the worst appearances in 40k, my little squad of engineers popped up, opened fire with their shotguns at the raptors, and killed 2 of their own men from overheats! The melta shot liquefied on of the raptors and a shotgun shell put a wound on the warlord. Fire from the rapiers managed to take out the first obliterator, and the Medusas knock out most of the surviving bike squad. Having been wiped out last turn, the first of my platoons returns, and opens fire with two lots of FRFSRF, actually knocking a few of the bikes (hurray for flashlights)! Stupidly, I also threw the last of my death riders into the berzerkers in a suicide run. If I'd left him alive – realistically, he was never going to scratch them – he could have picked up the relic later and possibly won it for me...

The most devastating firepower came from the heavy mortars, though. I got several solid hits from these guys on the zerkers, and the two units just melted. Lots of hits, lots of wounds, and some bad saving throws from Mike and 7 guys from one unit just went up in smoke. S5 with shred was fairly rubbish against the bikes, but against T4 models it makes such a difference.

The turn ended with Mike's heavy-hitting units reduced to a handful of models each.

WE Turn 3: Vengeance! 2 more obliterators arrive, immobilising one the Medusas

The now extremely lonely biker champion heads towards my Company Command Squad at full throttle, again forgoing shooting to ensure the charge. He makes it in to combat, but the higher WS of the commander make it difficult to land a hit, and a wounding strike is deflected by the warlord's refractor shield. Eyes were still on the prize though, and the surviving berzerkers grab the relic and leg it back through the ruins towards safety, with the sole survivor from the other unit diving for cover nearby. In the back field, the Lord splits off from the raptor unit and annihilates the engineers, barbecuing them with the flamer before charging in and finishing them off at close-quarters. The rest of the raptors make their way around to the front of the building, in an effort to take out some of the artillery.

E Turn 4: No more reserves for me, the newly arrived troops run forward to try and get as close to the relic as possible. If we can make the berzerkers drop it in time, we might just be able to get there and seize it. The mortars manage to do some serious damage again, practically wiping out the berzerkers – but not quite! The recently-arrived platoon command squad charges in to help relieve the company commander, but fail to do anything except annoy the chaos biker. The fight is a draw once more (technically an Imperial victory thanks to the command squad's banner, but the biker stayed put).

WE Turn 4: The obliterators really start to earn their keep, wrecking both Medusas with a combination of melta fire and close combat. The surviving berzerkers keep moving away with the relic, whilst the one guy from the other squad moves out to pick it up if they drop it. The raptors finally make their presence felt, peeling a hull point off the Griffon with long range melta fire before making a long charge to finish it off in combat. The guard commander finally lands a lucky shot on the biker with his power sword, and he and his retinue make for the raptors.

E Turn 5: Still running to catch up the World Eaters, its obvious now that I'll need a turn 6, potentially even a turn 7 to get to it in time – assuming the chaos lord lurking at the back doesn't jump out. Fresh from killing the biker, the Company Command Squad charges the raptors, killing all but one, which attempts to flee and is caught. Firepower from the rapiers and the surviving artillery manages at last to wipe out the berzerkers, but my platoon is still too far away to pick it up.

WE Turn 5: Desperate to kill off as much of my long range firepower in case we get a sixth turn, one obliterator aptly obliterates one of the heavy mortar teams, whilst the other injures a rapier with plasma, but fails to make the charge into the unit.

At this point, neither of us have the main objective, and although down to just 3 models, Mike is ahead on secondaries - 1^st blood and linebreaker – with a bonus point from my Unstoppable Advance objective. If we get a turn 6, I stand a very good chance of turning that around. Mike makes the die roll............

…...

…..

…..

…..

…..

and the game ends! Victory for the World Eaters!

A fantastically bloodthirsty game and extremely tense – one or two dice rolls or decisions could have completely changed the outcome.

This is the first time I've tried the approach of drowning my opponent in template weapons, and I actually found it quite effective. As frustrating as it can be when the first mortar round scatters, and you know the second one will also be useless, when they actually find their mark they can be truly devastating. Flashlights were as ineffective as ever. Without the buffs or the opportunity to group up squads to make the most of FRFSRF, infantry shooting was extremely lacking compared to standard AM/IG. As always, the Hades/engineers were more of a comedy unit that an effective force. I like using them because...well its a massive forking drill and the engineers get to throw acid bombs. Acid Bombs! Who else gets toys like that?!

***Edited to fix images***

[CyderPirate]

Apologies for the prolonged absence on the plog front.

While I've been working away on stuff steadily, I haven't really been happy with a lot of it.

I've almost completed another platoon, using Kromleck models rather than Victoria Miniatures and I really didn't like using them. A couple of the sets of legs were prone to breaking extremely easily, and some of the kilts make the guys look like they're wearing ye olde dresses they stick out so far.

Anyway, here they are:

Rapier destroyer team (combination of Anvil and Curious Constructs bits)

And some WiP artillery crew men/artillerist advisor.

The command squad is still very WiP as well

[WarriorFish]

Good to see your models, they look great! Sounds like you had a blast in your game must have been all the better for such a nice table to battle on :)

[CyderPirate]

Cheers, Fish - yeah it was a great game. As pretty as the table is, its a bugger to roll dice on, and being a clumsy git that I am I kept knocking the terrain over!

 

#firstworldgamerproblems :p

[WarriorFish]

A box lid for rolling or some such works well, like you're playing a board game :P

[our_baz]

Really nice looking army you have. You've achieved a good look on the tartan, it must of been pretty tricky to paint.

[Carraigf]

Hey Cyder,

 

Your guys are looking great - especially loving the CCS - still pretty sure I'm going to steal those mahoosive swords for some of my boys!

 

The Hades looks like a total monster, shame it lucked out on the field, but suits your fluff so well - shame there's no way to take it as a dedicated transport that would rock.

 

On a more practical note how do you find the mortars - looks like they performed well in game - are you planning on adding more tubes the fill out the batteries? Considering taking a pair in my 1500 list with an Aegis but may increase to 3 barrels for the same points cost if I can convince myself they won't get chewed over without a wall to hide behind.

[CyderPirate]

Cheers Carraigf!

 

Yeah, the mortars are great. At the lower point games they were pretty naff, but at 1500-1850pts they've been really good. 

I did have another battle report to put up, but I ended up closing the window after nearly finishing it! Argh!

In that game I used two lots of two mortars, and they did a great a job of putting wounds on my opponent's necron bikers, and they were brilliant at clearing out warriors camping on objectives. The carcass rounds give you a lot of flexibility as well, as the S6 can hurt vehicles, or you can use the shred/ignores cover to take out high T units or units in cover with crappy armour saves.

 

I also used one unit of three in another game (against eldar corsairs), and they were more sketchy. If the first shot scattered too far, I'd get nothing. The big downside of taking two smaller batteries was that it eats into your heavy support allowance where there's already a lot of competition. Even though they can put out a lot of hurt, my opponents tended to ignore them for the most part. T7 with 5 wounds (2 on the artillery plus 3 crewmen) make them really hard to budge with shooting - although if they've got something that can get across the board and into combat quickly - *cough*demonkin*cough* - you're in trouble.

 

Hope that helps!

[Carraigf]

Cheers for the tip, got one for my birthday and was going to paint it up as an emplacement, complete with 'tam the gun' but toying with the idea of sitting a couple or two behind an ADL. If I do add them in think I'll add some tow bars to the taurox so my boss can haul them onto the field.

[CyderPirate]

Time to necro this thread!

 

I've done a lot of work on this army since I was last posting, and with a narrative map-based campaign due to kick-off later in April/May I've got plenty of stuff lined up on my workbench.

 

Since I was last posting, I've jumped ship from the Assault Brigade to the Siege Regiment for rules, mainly because of the rules for the Hades. Ideally, I'd just cut/paste the rules for it into the Assault list, but its such a massive change, I don't think that's really fair. So I lose my beloved carcass rounds, but get access to more Death Riders and more artillery, swings and roundabouts.

 

At the moment, I'm running an army that looks something like this@

 

 

Company Command, Power Sword, MoO

 

Infantry Platoon, 2x Flamer

Infantry Platoon, Flamer, Melta Gun

 

5 Engineers, Hades, Melta Gun

 

3 Rapier Laser Destroyers

 

3 Quad Mortars

 

5 Death Riders

 

Colossus

 

+ extras - been toying with Russes and AC/LC Heavy Weapon Squads, lately.

 

 

 

Ultimately, though, I'm building to something along these lines:

 

Company Command, MoO, MotF

Death Rider Command, Power Sword

 

Death Rider Platoon (min-sized)

Death Rider Platoon (min-sized)

 

Infantry Platoon

2-4 Squads w/flamers, HWS w/AC or LC

 

3 Quad Mortars

2-3 Earthshakers

 

Engineers, Hades, Melta Gun

 

3 Rapier Laser Destroyers

 

 

The plan is to keep most of the footsloggers and cavalry in reserve, template as much stuff as I can from out of LOS on the first turn, and have the infantry arrive in time to clear away anything that gets too close to the artillery from T2 onwards. 

 

I'll get some updated pics up tonight, and hopefully do a brief bat-rep (sadly pictureless) on a recent encounter with Ad Mech/Skitarii.

[CyderPirate]

Ok folks, so here's how the footsloggers are looking at the moment.

You might have noticed that there's some chaps on the right there that are breaking the dress code (

). Basically, I still had a heap of Cadian bits to use up. They're going to serve as a couple of things, depending on the situation. Fluff-wise, they're more recent colonists that have been drafted into the PDF, rather than the professional soldiery that makes up the rest of the army. In game terms, they'll either be another platoon, conscripts (when I want to play standard IG), or crew for the big guns.

Apart from those guys, I'm also working on -

Death Riders:

As much as I like having the weird looking death riders, the models aren't ideal for making larger units, or even platoons of them. They're just too expensive and the company that makes them is fairly infrequent in re-stocking, so I can't be sure how much longer the models will be available for.

So with those guys out of the picture, I'm working on using Victoria Miniatures' riders, with some horses from Warlord games. I'd tried to use the Scottish lancers set they do, as Death Riders but the models just look too small. Some of the other bits from that kit will no doubt work their way into the army somewhere, but they just didn't look right for the army.

Bassies:

I'm currently wrestling two of these things together to use as Basilisks. They're going to look great when they're done, but they're definitely not built for wargaming. The kits are insanely fiddly, and have been a colossal pain in the backside to put together so far. A damn sight cheaper than the FW kits, but not a lot of fun to build....