Alpha legion HQ conundrum and progress

So I've actually managed to do some more progress this year, will the everyday miracles ne'er end?

one of the first things i really wanted to get over and done with was doing some touch-up and finish the basing for my 2K points. Now this is the kind of thing that i usually put off forever, and it never get's done, but i recently had a couple of hours for myself, so i decided to touch up the the base rims with a black layer, and do some quick snow bases. below is the last veterans for my PoTL 2k list. I also got around to giving everyone a combat blade and pistol holster. So as to have WYSIWYG on them too. 

And with that in mind I've found a good way of really streamlining my snow basing, and i chose to put together a quick walkthrough.

Materials that you'll need 

So first up, try to get some cheap acryllic texture paint. I ised the "studio acryllics" brand from the closng sale of a crafts store, but you can use whatever. The concrete parts from Army painter and the GW mordheim work well so as to give the base some character when you spread the valhallan blizzard on it. But first things first. 

 Take the intended bases. Base them with a black color (whatever brand) to make sure that the texture paint sticks. Then liberally add the texture paint. You'll see why below

 This is when it dries up. As you can clearly see, it's pretty porous and as such you can see through it in places.

 After that you can just drybrush it what a grey colour. Do a light drybrush with the intended purpose of just showing some contrast. If you want to have a black sands base you can simply stop here.

Personally i did a light white drybrush. Then added some turf and or concrete with PVC. and when it dries, cover it with valhallan blizzard. And done. The end result is below

I have also gotten around to actually finish the Cataphractii i wanted for my army. They are intended to cruise around with my new Praetor in the land raider phobos i have since earlier. 

I decided to go with a pretty muted color scheme in contrast to the candy blue of the base layer from my airbrush. The black helmets gives a connection to the same scheme that i have on the veterans from the same detachment, which is my simple way of making sure that there is a coherent style for my army. And for the isolated 108'th Navigationary expedition. From there on out the scheme pretty much defined itself. I used mainly leadbelcher for rivets and details and silver highlight and some details. Since i was so happy with the basecoat i wanted to to use the details in dampened colors so as to draw attention to it, rather than detract from it. This was also why i went with the chain on the one pauldron and the double X on the other. I think the end result was pretty good actually.

and here is the entire squad in it's entirety. Three chainfists, one powerfist and one sword. As well as one combi-melta and a banner.

Since these are going to be a command squad i thought it best to have a mixed unit approach. So that i can chose what four models to use, and also have two "variants" of a sergeant or character, All in all i'm really satisfied with the way the squad worked out.

Mandatory pointy IC

Beyond that i also managed to finish up the contemptor mortis i had on the to do list. This will cover for my AA needs and also do support duty on light AV vechicles.

This is actually the first contemptor i ever assembled, and as such it was a rather static pose, so i tried to use the details and positioning of the head to get a hunting look to is, as if it was searching for targets. The shield is in place since it has a number of purity seals on it's left hand side, and i felt these were out of touch with the astethic of the army. lookign back i'm pretty happy wit the shield with the omega sign on it, it gives the models some character. That is actually the same reason as to why i had the cyclone missile launcher on top. Since the contemptor only get's a "havoc" launcher in Horus heresy, i doubt that it will do much but it did add to the look of the mini itself. 

And with that i now have a decent well rounded PoTL army that i can use in a couple of different configurations. The only issue remaining is sorting out my HQ's, which i'll cover next time. 

Commitment of 2016- Finished lessons and knowledge garnered

So here we are


i had originally hoped to conclude everything connected to 2016  before the actual end of the year, but still, one day late doesn't seem to bad.

Going into this the bet was that i would finish an "army" of approximately 1850 points before the end of 2016, the caveat being that if i did indeed NOT finish it, i had promised my significant other that i would purchase NO hobby supplies, minis or even paints for the remainder of 2017. for osme reason i had a knee jerk reaction of buying a metric crap ton of Gene stealer cults that i got a REALLY good deal on during the last days of December '16, so expect to see that pop up here rather soonish.

Anyway, getting back on track, The goalpost moved a bit since i realized that 1850 points isn't really an applicable points level for a "regular" 30k game so about August i decided to bump it up to a round two thousand. Now, by my humble calculations i hit 2000 points around Mid november. But with the predators i just finished up i have an actual playable army, that i have no doubt i will alter, reorganize or otherwise tweak. But now, at least, i have the models to do such alterations. It comes with getting multiple weapon options from Forge world, and the SEVERAL Calth boxes i have bought into. Without further ado. Here is my complete alpha legion thus far

getting everything into one single picture was nigh impossible with my crappy phone camera

and as such i split it into two separate sections, the left handed one has my two separate veteran sections, the one  with two heavy bolters in a rhino, and one with two meltaguns infiltrating. There is also a five man plasma squad in a Rhino with a Multi melta, just for some versatility, or in in case i want to give a group of veterans Machine killers and give it to the HB team.

There is also the sicarian, two preds and my landraider phobos.

The right hand side, containing most of my older models, has my ten man strong despoiler squad, and the ten man volite caliver squad and twenty boltermarines with a vox and and combi melta sergeant with melta bombs.  

And of course the rapiers and my ten man squad of recon marines. 

Now, by conservative estimates this puts me at around 2700 Pts taking into account that i cannot field all troops choices simultaneously, nor will i want to really field everything at the same time. But it does mean that i have tactical options available and can be used as i deem fit, it also gives me a couple of heavy support and elite options to play around with. Particularly as i can't decide on a couple of things at the moment

* are the Apothecaries viable in an outflanking Veteran squad, probably not
* do i want large groups of infiltrating AL legionarries?
* are the volkites really worth it?
* should i switch the Praetor for a Terminator clad one? and pop them all in the Land raider phobos?

The only one i have a clearcut answer to is the last one, where i feel like i really want to put my honoured Praetor, clad in all his honours, in a suit of cataphractii armor, swinging the paragon blade consilium this is of course the other part of the  Praetor pack you can buy from forgeworld, which is very evocative of the style of the heresy.



So, beyond these quandries, what lies ahead?

Let's count

• Leviathan siege dreadnought
• ten destroyers 
• a last predator to round out the squadron properly
• a twin kheres contemptor mortis with a havoc launcher (base coated) 
• five terminators with a praetor (basecoated) 
• a Shadowsword 
• and a final rhino, wherein i will need to get around to using an actual deimos kit 
• An assault squad (for versatility) 
• and a ten man squad of autocannons to use as iron havocs 

As noted above i am building up to using the coils of the hydra. Meaning that i need to have three solid troop choices that are either infiltrating, or all suited up in transports (which assault troops circumvent as they have no dedicated transport option). Alternatively, the Veterans used in a pride of the legion could outflank, but their punching power is far too dependent on their ability to come in from reserves, with which i would like to get a damocles command rhino to get that comfy +1 to reserves. 

Beyond the painting that is going on i actually got in my first two games of heresy this year, and i have to say it was really fun. But i'd like to find a group i can throw down with regularly, so i am on the cruise for dudes to play. 

my fifteen man tactical squad about to get REKKED by eidolon and his buddies

and my alpha legionairres advancing to charge a group of iron warriors. 

The games so far have taught me a couple of things 

• actually managing to infiltrate ten or more models is a real logistics issue if there are a lot of bodies on the board, as you need to take care of both distance, line of sight, and Equipment that just keeps you away
• Close combat without a clear advantage (like +1 ws or similar) is a drawn out and not particularly effective way. In the game above i had twelve marines, a praetor with a Pragon blade, digi lasers, power dagger and accompanied by a Apothecarie, and they stayed in combat for three turns and were locked towards the end of the game 
• There is no such thing as too much anti tank. as a rule of thumb. 
• Contemptors are good, but needs to tactically adapted to what you want them to do, or they will play second fiddle to both tanks and infantry. 
• Spartans are just.....hard to handle. I managed to wreck it with a lucky roll of 6, but the contents RUINED my day there after. There is a reason the spartan deathstar still lives. 
• Master of Signal bombardment is really good, like....REALLY good. I managed to get of two shots of ordnance S8 AP3. And took out three grav rapiers on turn one. Now,you can't expect consistent results on that, but still. 

I look forward to getting in more games, particularly now that i have an actual army to swing with. And hopefully '17 is the year i find a good gamegroup for Heresy. Or pull my real group into it. 

Also, for painting. it feel kind of good going from this 

on to this

and winding up with this

it kind of gives me a good clear progress picture of what i've accomplished, and i wonder what my army will look like in another year and change


Finally, a look at what is to come