GrimDark Blood Angels Blog 24/09/19 *new warlord conversion*

[Lynnean]

Very, very nice accomplishment, congrats brother!

[papaplopalot]

Very well done - amazing result!

 

Also thanks for the answer to my questions (I thought of trying to skip the yellow layer and rather using a dark green and light yellow under shade - but then realised that it's actually going to be much easier to just use the recipe as is.) Still trying to get consistent colour across the models but am definitely inspired by the results so far.

 

Thanks again - really appreciate all your pictures, updates and battle reports.

[Pearson73]

Well done on your high placement, good to see that staying soup-free is an option even at high level.

 

The reanimating Knight sounds ridiculous!

[Charlo]

You should be very proud with your result mate, taking a very underrated army and getting 9th in that sort of environment is incredibly well done!

 

Great reports too. If you have time it would be great to see some analysis on the units, what they achieved and where they fell short?

 

Primaris are still new to everyone and seeing things like this paints them in a new light.

 

ALSO - how did you almost table 120 Gaunts?!  

[synthaside]

Speaking as one of Joes regular opponents /practice punchbag, have you ever had the all the non lascannon bits of 3 repulsors fire at yer ;-) 
They basically delete whatever they point there a  very good if quite expensive unit primaris marines played correctly can really work in the ITC format.

 would recommend as many people come to these kind of events as possible while there are some utter filth lists * looking at you Ynnari * .. I'ts a fantastic time ... I took my pure ad mech with the aim of just winning a single game ... to place 80'th which blew me away.

What he's also not telling you is about his dedication to you lot, He wrote this on the easyjet flight back from Amsterdam ... on an ipad with his models under his seat because putting them in the hold wasnt exactly an option ....  he also won a raffle prize ..

 

[neonmole]

You should be very proud with your result mate, taking a very underrated army and getting 9th in that sort of environment is incredibly well done!

 

Great reports too. If you have time it would be great to see some analysis on the units, what they achieved and where they fell short?

 

Primaris are still new to everyone and seeing things like this paints them in a new light.

 

ALSO - how did you almost table 120 Gaunts?!  

 

Hey Charlo, sorry took a couple days to reply to this, had a busy one!

 

Thanks a lot, I was really happy with the result!

 

The army works on fairly basic principles - primarily saturation of armoured threats. It's not that a good army is incapable of dealing with 3 repulsers and 2 redemptors, more that it makes target priority quite challenging, especially in the early turns.

 

Take the Redemptors for example. They are pretty bad units actually, but that stems from their lack of invul, degrading statline etc. In other words their lack of survivability. However in this army your opponent cannot prioritise them. As overcosted (relative to knights etc) as Repulsors are, you simply cannot have more than one of them shooting you at full output for more than a couple of turns. The firepower they kick out is just too much. That means the Redemptors cannot be prioritised, which circumvents their weakness. When they can work unmolested, they actually do serious work. 30~ shots, and wounding even a knight on a 2+ in combat for d6 dmg is no joke! For this reason the redemptors were actually my MVPs this event, they were always the last things to die (nor not at all) and would routinely manage to walk their way up the board, sit on an objective, and do a bit of damage on the way.

 

A big part of why this army works is more fundamental, and one of the principles that I believe defines good armies, above and beyond the faction or specific units. I am referencing where it wants to be on the board to be most effective... I don't think good armies tend to win the game when A) do best when sitting in their own deployment zone, or B ) do best when they manage to get to the opponents deployment zone. There are exceptions of course, but I think the best armies are those that do their best work when they are occupying the centre of the board. This is of course because when you occupy that space you have the opportunity to control objectives, control movement, and of course deny those things to your opponent. You struggle to do that when in order to be efficient your army needs to hang back, or go ham. This army operates on that principle very well, it wants to move forward, occupy the mid board - and stay there.

 

I would also offer a comment on the perception of the meta more broadly speaking. I think its VERY easy to get caught in the "bubble" of what the internet deems to be good, and bad, based on the current meta. I am not disputing that some units are better than others, but nevertheless, I do think that views on such things become too extreme in that echo chamber. These "bad" units do still DO something when they actually hit the table, flawed/overcosted or not. Take the Repulsor for instance, is it overcosted/underpowered relative to Eldar stuff - yes of course, but when you get it on the table, and you get the chance unload with it, that Eldar player will feel it, bad unit or not (he is probably having trouble at that point processing the fact that he's losing to a "bad player with his bad list" because the internet told him it was rubbish!). I guess what I'm saying is that the internet produces very extreme views on what is good/bad, what works/doesn't and actually if you design a smart list, with good synergy using "off-meta" units, and you play the mission well, then you will probably do a lot better than you expect!

 

Thats a pretty broad set of statements, not sure if it answers the questions but those are some of the things I'm thinking about right now!

 

Cheers!

Edited November 28, 2018 by neonmole

[Charlo]

No problem at all, thanks for the analysis mate - great insight in there! Look forward to more reports with this beautiful force!

[Panzer]

A great example of the sum being greater than the individual parts I guess. ;)

[brother_b]

Neon what a wonderful post handy both tactically and as a way to remind us that the Internet offers extremes when it comes to actual play.

 

Well it offers extremes in everything but yeah.

 

Most of all it shows what a person committed to tactics, and running the strengths of their army can do. This is been quite the thread, very informative, and motivating.

[Boyadventurer]

Thanks for the tactica Neon. Would you see it performing much different as another chapter? I'd suppose the red thirst would help boost the effectiveness of the intercessors since it's a pretty aggressive army, but besides that are you relying much on BA-specific rules/goodies?

[Semirhagge]

Now I want to buy some Repulsors! Edited November 29, 2018 by Semirhagge

[Firepower]

I imagine part of the strength of the army is the tried and true philosophy of redundancy as well?  If everything is the same, there's no easy answer to target priority, as you said.  No (barring the HQ) light vehicles or walking infantry or other stand outs in that gorgeous army of yours.

Edited November 29, 2018 by Firepower

[Are Verlo]

I´m most impressed.

 

Both by your painting and attitude towards gaming and the meta.

 

Right now you have a new fan; I´m a 40 years old man playing with toy soldiers ;-P

 

Your battlereps have (to me) the perfect combination of pictures, details and overview.

 

When I looked at your pictures I thought to my self "What are those repulsors doing so close to those infantry blobs?!" - then I remembered the FLY keyword. Charge when needed and fly out/over/back to shoot next turn.

 

Blood angels repulsors- charging fools since 2017

[BolterZorro]

And the good news: with the repulsor beeing way cheaper in CA (and idem for redemptor), you will be able to free more than 350 pts meaning adding:

- more repulsor + 1 intercessor unit

- more redemptors (yes plural = 2)

- more specific units or QG for terrain occupation or more speed/impact.

 

I'm confident that in the very near future, primaris will become top tier especially with the addition of  CA, marneus calgar & bodyguards, and phase 2 primaris.

[Lynnean]

And the good news: with the repulsor beeing way cheaper in CA (and idem for redemptor), you will be able to free more than 350 pts meaning adding:

- more repulsor + 1 intercessor unit

- more redemptors (yes plural = 2)

- more specific units or QG for terrain occupation or more speed/impact.

 

I'm confident that in the very near future, primaris will become top tier especially with the addition of  CA, marneus calgar & bodyguards, and phase 2 primaris.

oh jeez, thats huge

[Lemondish]

Any plans for the army following CA, neonmole?

[Firepower]

Any plans for the army following CA, neonmole?

More. More of everything! Feed my eyeballs more happy red murder goodness!

[neonmole]

Hey guys!

 

Firstly, thankyou for all the lovely comments, I’m so glad you guys enjoy this, it really means a lot to me.

 

...So yeah, definitely pressing on with the army post-CA!

 

The estimates above were a little bit generous, but my 2k list (the one I took to Amsterdam that you can find above) did drop about 220pts, which is pretty huge. With some tweaking, that list is now my 1750 list! I actually believe I can do quite well with this...

 

I’ll be taking that to heat 4 in the early new year, as well as to the SN GT in gibratar, in March. I also have the London GT 2019 booked in, but I think I’ll probably use the time till then to do something a little bit different!

 

So I’ll definitely be adding new stuff in the coming months, but probably at a slower pace than I have been due to not being under event deadlines! I’m quite relieved to be honest, as the pace was draining me a bit. The bright side is that not painting to an event deadline means I can start working bits and pieces that I wouldn’t necissarily include in a list like that, but really do want to paint - Reivers are the first thing that spring to mind, had a box of them since July!

 

One big dissapointment that I have (and I’ll actually make a separate thread about it) is the fact that blood angels cannot use the Indomitus Crusaders special detachment, and I has some really really cool ideas for that! Check out the thread I am about to make on it, I would like to get as many of us as I can to email the GW faq address to highlight this.

 

Cheers guys! If I don’t post again before, then a very merry Christmas and happy new year to you all!

[Panzer]

Can't wait to see you painting Reivers. I'm really looking forward to it!

[Lemondish]

I absolutely love your stuff neon, and I'll be ceaselessly trying to emulate it in the coming weeks after receiving my very first airbrush and an Imperial Fist Battleforce - only I'm looking to take your technique and go blue for crimson fists instead of red.

 

I see the steps you took on Luther's blog, and for the most part I understand the purpose for all of them. Do you think it'll work well with other primary colours by chance? I imagine the yellow step may not be needed, but the rest may work well I think. Any suggestions before I sacrifice a few of the ETB Intercessors and some tactical marines to the testing gods? Not trying to hijack the thread but super excited to get started.

Edited December 25, 2018 by Lemondish

[keeblerartillery]

So the techniques described in the blog are essentially ways of creating highlights and shadows on a model. There are lots of ways to accomplish this. For crimson fists, I suggest you check out the lil legend patreon for his ultramarine series - the best blue I’ve ever seen. Done slightly differently than Luther’s red. But the concept is the same - using layers and colored shadows to create a dynamic mini.

[thundrchickn]

I'd just like to thank you Neon for making this thread.  I love the paint scheme and the overall project.  It has reinvigorated my desire to paint my new army.

[neonmole]

@Lemondish

 

Absolutely the concepts are applicable to other colours! The key parts of the process really are the preshade, and the black wash. Both of these can absolutely be useful when painting colours other than red. The yellow intermediate layer is purely because the final red used is quite pink, so the yellow layer ensures you end up with a true red, so that step is very specific to this particular colour, and definitely not needed if you were doing something else.

 

@thunderchickn

Thankyou for reading and taking the time to post! It’s so cool to hear that anything I’ve done has been an inspiration and contributed to you (or anyone else’s) hobby! Hope your new army gets off to a flying start!

 

 

As for the next steps I will be taking...

 

So I have decided to do some psykers for the army!... 3 in fact!

 

I’ll be working on a Primaris Librarian, a custom build Librarian Dreadnought, and a revised and upgraded version of my original Mephiston conversion from last year! This should be a ton of fun, and a big challenge with the amount of conversion work involved. Can’t wait to get stuck in as soon as my bits arrive!

 

Will post some build process when that happens!

 

Cheers

[Majkhel]

Ooooh, I'm currently building a Libby Dread (contemptor-based) myself! Can you share some thoughts on how do you want to build yours?
Cheers!

[neonmole]

Ooooh, I'm currently building a Libby Dread (contemptor-based) myself! Can you share some thoughts on how do you want to build yours?

Cheers!

Oh nice! Do you have any pics? Would love to see how you are approaching it!

 

I’m going for a contemptor base too, though I’m going to cheat a little... I’ve been eyeing the Custodes Achillus for a while now as the base for this idea, so I have that guy on the way!

 

I was pondering using that for a while, as I have a couple of reservations-

1. I really, really hate resin!

2. It has a lot of iconography that doesn’t work.

 

I’ve decided to try and get over problem 1. Problem 2 is where the conversion work comes in. The big chest Aquila is fine, that’s pretty ubiquitous, but I don’t like all the filigree and lightning bolts etc. Very custodes. With that in mind I’ve decides to try and sand down/polish out quite. A lot of the detail, leaving just the “chasis” as the basis, which I can then blood angel-ify!

 

So a pretty big project, and one that I am quite aware might end in tears... but let’s see! I’m pretty confident what I have in mind is possible, and I think will look great if I can execute!

 

Cheers