Thursday, April 24, 2014

Word Bearers + Lord Of Skulls Vs. Minotaurs + Imperial Knight 3000 points

This past weekend, I went over to my friend's house to play some 40k and grill out.

He had a number of people over mainly because one of our mutual friend's, wolfman, was in town from the Great White North.

Several tables were set up and 3 games were going on at one point simultaneously.

I played chaos101 and his Word Bearers.  Since I wanted to play my Knight and he wanted to play against it, he also brought his Khorne Lord Of Skulls.


His list was approximately:
Belakor
4 10 man Marine Squads with 2 meltaguns
2 Heldrakes with bale flamers
2 Forgefiends with Hades autocannons
3 Obliterators
1 Khorne Lord Of Skulls

My list was:
Asterion Moloc Chapter Master of the Minotaurs
High Chaplain Ivanus Enkomi
Ordo Malleus Inquisitor in Terminator Armour
3 10 man marine squads in rhinos
1 5 man marine squad in a rhino
2 landspeeders with typhoon missile launchers and heavy bolters
2 Rifleman Dreadnoughts
2 Predators with Autocannons and 2 heavy bolters
10 Vanguard Veterans
Land Raider Redeemer
Imperial Knight Paladin


This would be a tough fight.  I knew this going in, but I made several key mistakes at deployment.

Anyways, here is my Imperial Knight stalking down city streets seeking the Chaos scum.


We decide to roll randomly for mission.  We get The Relic Mission and Dawn of War Deployment.

I won the roll of and deployed first as well as went first.

This was my biggest mistake, I should have let him deploy first.  I could have responded to his deployment and I probably would have done better.

Here is my deployment:


And from another angle:


Turn 1 I move up my entire army.  I see his Lord Of Skulls deployed across from my Knight and decide it would be a good idea to run straight at it.


In the center my Terminators move forward along with my Land Raider.


Unfortunately not much happened on my turn 1.  My shooting was ineffectual.

In his turn he decided it was time for the Lord Of Skulls to do its thing.


After the combat:


He moved his Forgefiends around the building to fire at my Predators


His Rhinos shuffled around turn one as well.


Lord Asterion Moloc leads his terminators into the Lord of Skulls and they get slaughtered by its D attacks.


My Land Raider and rhinos continued their advance and one of his rhinos was destroyed.


And then the Heldrakes arrived.




And the Word Bearers shoot their meltas and blew up my Land Raider.  The good new is I am right there ready to assault.


On the Minotaur's right flank things begin looking grim.  The two Forgefiends are unaffected by the Minotaur's Predators and Dreadnought and continue to move and fire.  They blow up one of the Predators.


High Chaplain Ivanus Enkomi is undeterred by the rest of the battle.  He leads his Vanguard Veteran Assault Squad into a squad of Chaos Traitors.  The cowardly champion of Chaos challenges and the Chaplain steps up.  Wielding his Crozius Arkanos he swings it through the air decapitating the stunned Champion before he can even respond.


As Heldrakes fly over the battlefield things begin to look grim for the Minotaurs.


Belakor flies over to the Minotaur side of the city, still high up in a ruined building.  The Lord Of SKulls prepares to crush some Space Marines under foot, but not before they fire off some melta shots.


Belakor then flies across the street to a different building.  The Minotaur tanks circle around to face him and open fire.  He falls to the ground with a thud.  He is injured but not dead.


One lone marine opens fire on the Lord Of Skulls with his trusty meltagun.


The Word Bearer Marines move forward and disembark from their rhinos in an attempt to take the Relic and smash the remaining Minotaur marine who is trying to take it.


The two Forgefiends fire down the length of the street at the meager forces remaining from the Minotaur's army.


Chaplain Enkomi hunkers down in a crater as Obliterators open fire.  He takes two wounds but continues to fight.


The lone Marine with his meltagun takes off the last Hull Point on the Lord Of Skulls.  A huge explosion rocks the city and kills the brave Space Marine who pulled the trigger.


Chaplain Enkomi assaults and destroys the Rhino with his powerfist.  He is not amused by the Word Bearers.


The Word Bearers eventually take the Relic.  The Minotaurs have been beat back today by the forces of Chaos.


At the end of the battle the Minotaurs withdraw to lick their wounds.  The feud between the Word Bearers and the Minotaurs continues.


Until Next time.......

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Minotaur Flyers and Army lists for the weekend

I've been working on my Storm Wing for my Minotaur Space Marines.  I have two Storm Talons assembled as you can see below:


I am going with lascannons because even though they have strafing run, I want these to hunt other flyers.  I want them to shoot them down no matter what their armour is.

I didn't include the little sensor spines on their backs or their front landing treads on purpose.  I like the way they look right now.  If you look inside their cockpits, you will notice no pilots.  I will be painting the canopies so you can't see inside and I will save the bits for future projects.

Below is my current progress on my Storm Raven:


I am going to have the landing gear up just like my Storm Talons.  This one will be kitted out with twin-linked lascannons and twin-linked multimeltas.

The giant air intake on the top of the Storm Raven will not be included on my model.  The turret with windows will not be on this either.  I have never liked the look of those two features.

My plan is to use an automated turret on the top.  I really like the look of the Forgeworld Razor Back turrets and I may go that route.

I will keep the blog updated as I work on these more.

With that being said, this weekend I will be playing at least one game at my friend's house.  I want to use my Knight and he wants to try to take it out.

Here is a list I was thinking of bringing:

Space Marines (Minotaurs Chapter Tactics) 2500 points.

HQ -

Asterion Moloc Chapter Master of the Minotaurs
235 pts.

ELITES -

9 Vanguard Vets
1 Sarg with power axe and meltabombs
210 pts.

Ironclad Dreadnought
135

Ironclad Dreadnought
135

TROOPS -

9 marines - flamer
1 sarg - power sword melta bombs
in rhino
200

9 marines - flamer
1 sarg - power sword melta bombs
in rhino
200

9 marines - meltagun
1 sarg - power fist
in rhino
210

9 marines - meltagun
1 sarg - power fist
in rhino
210

FAST -

Land Speeder - Typhoon missile launcher and heavy bolter
75

Land Speeder - Typhoon missile launcher and heavy bolter
75

Heavy Support -

Predator - Autocannon and 2 heavy bolters
95

Predator - Autocannon and 2 heavy bolters
95

Land Raider Redeemer with Multimelta
250

ALLIES -

Imperial Knight Paladin
375


I am still trying to figure out how best to use the Minotaurs with their new chapter tactics.  I don't know how well this list will work but it will probably work better if he is playing with Space Marines, which he may do.

I will take pictures and post something next week about this weekend.

Until then.....

Monday, April 14, 2014

Imperial Knight - Done!

So I have finally finished it, probably.

Here are some pics:


The Exo-Skeleton.  

 I think this is going to be great as a Chaos Iron Warrior Knight.

Here is the back. 



 Here, I've started painting the armour.



It is an Imperial Knight, so I have painted it to mesh with my Minotaurs Space Marines.   I think the color scheme I chose for it will work with the Minotaurs.  

Here it is all done:


As you can see, I put a Greek letter on its shield, hoping to help tie it in to the Minotaurs.


As you can see in the pics below, I have left it poseable.  In fact right now the top is not attached the the bottom, I will eventually magnetize it.





I think I may work on its base a bit yet, but otherwise its done!

I hope you all like it.  Let me know what you think.

Until next time......

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

The War On The Floor Imperial Knight Vs Eldar Battle Report Part 2

Check out part 1 here


And now for the exciting conclusion....


The Dire Avengers from the stricken Wave Serpent advance and begin firing on the 5 man marine squad in the ruins.


The other Dire Avengers squad disembark from the other Wave Serpent along with their leader and Warlord, the Farseer Sarek.


A 5 man marine squad scurries to get into the ruins and grab a penny objective.


The Warp Spiders make their move and jump into the forest ready to blast the 2 remaining marines into bits.


I charged Sarek with a Dreadnought, hoping to keep him occupied and / or kill him.  He ends up putting his Singing Spear straight through the Dreadnought and blows it up.

My marines open fire on his Dire Avengers killing a few of them.


After the Dire Avengers shoot and kill a few marines, I open fire and return the favor, dropping her squad to only 3 strong.


At this point I am still feeling confident although she is starting a comeback.


At the end of turn 5, night falls and the game continues.



The Dire Avengers charge and kill the 2 remaining marines, and also taking the objective.


The Warp Spiders, after despatching two marines in one squad, jump and fire then assault another marine squad who is on an objective.


At the end of turn 6, the Eldar have almost destroyed all of the Marines, but the Marines still have a chance to pull off a win.


Sarek rejoins the Dire Avengers and take a penny objective.


The final 10 man marine squad takes a quarter objective.


The Dire Avenger's Exarch dies to shooting but the two last squad members don't run.  They take a quarter objective.


This quarter objective was abandoned by both the marines and the Eldar.


The other Penny objective in the building ends up being contested by a single Warp Spider and 3 Space Marines.


At the end of the game, the Eldar pull out the win.


The Eldar take the Primary objective scoring 4 points.

The Eldar also get Line Breaker for 1 point.

The Minotaurs got First Blood for 1 point.

The Minotaurs also have Line Breaker for 1 point.

The Final score: 5 - 2, Eldar Victory.



Thoughts -

The Imperial Knight seems to be quite nicely balanced.  I don't see any issues with having one in an army.

Having more than one may be over-powering against a number of armies.  I think including an Imperial Knight in a small game, say 1750 to 2000 points is fine.  This may shift the 'meta' in the tournament scene and I think that is a good thing.  The knight could make people play more honest again, taking long range anti-tank may finally be back.

I can't wait to play with it again and I have more plans in the future as well.

I want to buy another one for my Iron Warriors and another one for  new army I am contemplating: a 30k Mechanicum army.

Until next time....