Iron Warriors WIPS and new Terrain WIPS

Current WIPS.

In my previous post I mentioned that I had two terrain projects I was working on.
The first one is a zone mortalis board.

The Zone Mortalis board will look similar to my friend Joe's board.  He was able to make the corner pieces and walls that he gave me.  He also ordered a number of wide Zone Mortalis doors for me as well.
 

Joe's Board

For my board I will still need to figure out what I want the base to look like.

This is my Zone Mortalis Terrain, some of it still needs to be painted.

The second terrain board I will be working on is a trench board.  I haven't begun work on it yet but my friend Dale has.

Dale and I are planning to play a number of games on a large trench warfare board.  He has begun making 1' square sections for his Orks.  I will soon be making Iron Warrior sections.  I kind of want to make larger sections, like 2' by 2' but we will see.

 Dale's WIP Trench sections.

 A prototype trench section.

It should be an interesting board having both well-made trench works (Iron Warriors know how to do that sort of thing.) and not well-made trench works (Orks don't really care how pretty their things are.)

My 30k Iron Warriors are coming along.  I am not sure what I want to buy after my current batch of minis are done.  I could buy a few Dreadclaws or a Spartan, either of which would be useful.  I could continue to buy old models like old vindicators and predators.  All I know for certain is I will continue buying the small red books from Forgeworld and possibly some of the larger leather-bound books from them as well.

 Work In Progress Medusa and Rhino.

 Work In Progress Rogue Trader-Era Tactical Squad.

Work In Progress Tactical Support Squad.

That's it for now.  See you next time when I should have more updates.

Big Game 2016 review

Well the 2016 Big Game has come and gone.  I want to talk a little about the game and the weekend in this post.  I will talk about the good and the bad, up first is the bad.

The bad.

It was held at the same hotel as the past few years.  Two years ago and even last year I would have put the hotel in the good category but this year was different.

In the past the hotel was kept up and the people who ran the place were responsive to our needs throughout the weekend.  This year we found the hotel hallways and rooms to be rather run down and late at night on Friday as I walked down the hallway to my room, I felt like I was walking down a hallway from an abandoned hotel in one of Dan Bell's YouTube videos.

There also used to be a bar and restaurant immediately beyond a door from the room we booked for the game, making getting food and drink quite easy.  This year there was no bar or restaurant.

The reason for the changes no doubt were because of an ownership change.  We were all in agreement I think that next year we will need to find a new venue.

The room itself was fine, but everything surrounding the room was an issue.
(Photo from used with permission from Excursions Beyond the Call of Duty blog)

I honestly don't have any other gripes about the weekend.

The Good.

The Friday night games.  I had two great games on Friday night.  The first was a showdown between Perturabo and Conrad Curze in a 30k mission.  In the end, Perturabo with some help from a few predators and his terminator command squad, killed Conrad in close combat.

The Night Haunter out in the open.
(Photo from used with permission from Building for the Future blog)

 Perturabo and bodyguard charge Curze.
(Photo from used with permission from Building for the Future blog)

Near the end of the game, Perturabo is running wild and the Iron Warriors have control.

(Photo from used with permission from Excursions Beyond the Call of Duty blog)

The second game was a 3 way game between my 30k Iron warriors and 40k Chaos and 40k guard and Chaos.  It was another great game with one friend whom I hadn't gamed with in years and another friend who is always a good opponent.

The Saturday game was again Perturabo and his 30k legion along with the Tzeentch and Slaanesh Chaos player from Friday against Necrons and Blood Angels.  This game was 12,000 points per side and lasted all day.

 The Iron Warriors and their Chaos allies face off against Blood Angels and Necrons.

One of the highlights for me was that I was able to assault the Tesseract Vault with two Contemptors and Perturabo and destroy it after several turns of it being a pain in my patoot.

 Closing Thoughts.

This year's game was fought on the planet of DORIC-ar1.  The game was actually a series of games.  There were 5 tables that each had a different theme to fit the location on the planet they were representing.  Each table had one game with matched players that had to be fought at some point during the weekend, when that one pivotal game was not being fought on that table then it could be used for another game.

The games fought over the weekend affected a large hex map of the planet.  Each game affected a number of hexes equal to the size of the game played.  Each hex was 500 points.  At the end of the weekend the Chaos forces had done quite well for themselves even though I lost my game.

This is the pre-Big Game map.

The best thing about this Big Game and something I hope will set a precedent, is that this game was the kickoff of a new year-long campaign.  I am excited to play some games for the campaign and forge a new narrative for my new Iron Warrior army.

Future Blog Posts.

 I hope to blog more often from here on out.  I have a lot of things to blog about I just have been lazy.

Since the big game ended, I have painted up a squad of Rogue Trader-era beakie marines and an old rhino to go with them as well as a vindicator.

I have also begun another beakie squad and rhino, tactical support squad and a Medusa.

To finish off my current batch of 30k Iron Warriors I need to paint the following (Not including the units listed above):
- Another Medusa
- A Malcador Defender (it is already painted but I need to repaint it to match my 30k IW)
- 2 Land Speeders with heavy bolters
- A six-man Iron Havoc Squad with lascannons
- 2 Cataphracti terminators
- Another old rhino

Other things I am working on:
- A Zone Mortalis board
- A modular trench board
- More ruined buildings

Next time I will have an update on the terrain and the Iron Warriors.