More Custom Jobs! - The Field Test'as

So, during our Kill Zone tournament which was so much fun we had several people really get into the scheme of things and build custom models.  This week I will share photos from Erik who finally got me some good photos of his excellent orks and their custom jobs!  But first - his wonderful narrative which won him a prize in the tournament:

Field Test'as

Warboss Grimscar Skullsmasha was anxious, and not too pleased with anything to boot.  There had been some great strides in ensuring his Waaaaggghhh! would be ready to get off this stinking rock and would be able to sweep through the humies with little trouble.  He felt his time had come and it was time to show what a proper BloodAxe was capable of, with the proper planning and cunnin'.

And yet…

There was still much to do.  And now this, this, … inconvenience.  If he could have pronounced it, let alone understood it, he would be pleased with how it described the current situation that required his attention.

As he stomped through his Command Bunka, his mood grew fouler along with the air quality.  He knew he was nearing the areas used by the Meks and Painboyz.  The atmosphere smelled of ozone, boom powder, blood and other less appealing juices.  An occasional *Whiz*, *Pop*, and wet splat punctuated the poorly lit corridors.

“Alright, mek, whatta yuz gotz ta show me?” he snarled as he entered the Worky Shops.

Fixit Biggit looked at his leader with a glance of mild annoyance.  He had been responsible for some of the boldest innovations this mob had, and he was still treated little better than a grot scrounga.

“Kommanda, we got a great new idea fer da ladz; it’ll help us against all gases and dem bloated chaos humies and everythin'…”

“Hummmpphh…”

“Yuz simply put dis baggy ting ova yer noggin, looks out dez eye holes, and (wif a little bit of luck), yuz goes about crumpin’…”

“A bag?  On yer 'Ead?”  Skullsmasha resisted the urge to exercise his name on the mek’s noggin.

“Well, dats de ‘Mark I’ vershun, so yeah.”

The silence was deafening.

“Of course,” Fixit added quickly, “we’ve already made modifikashuns; added filters, or implants, iffin da price is right…”

“And whooz got des ‘implants’?”

“Well, Snaaga’s got de Mk I vershun of implants; Ve put da' Mk 3 in some of de ladz in the lab…”

“Whooz ‘we’?”

“Oh, dem pain jockeys next door down and …”

“Mk 3?  Where’s da Mk 2?”

“Oh, over der, up on da ceiling, and a bit of ‘em is still in dos hard to reach corners.”

Skullsmasha looked at the gear on the tables.  His mind was beginning to tinker with the possibilities and cunning plans that could be carried out on less than optimum target worlds that they usually passed by.  Every BloodAxe worth his blade understood the term casualty rates.

“What we really need boss is some field testin’,” Fixit piped in.

“Field testin’?”

“Yep.  Been talkin' to da crazies in da star pen and dey found us a nice world, humies world to boot, just waitin’ fer us to try sum'fin on.”

“And how do yuz suppose we get dere?  Just take one of me kroozers and go dashin’ into humie space?”

“Naw, we launched a teleporta unit 2-3 moons ago, just in case such a situation ever came up.”

Skullsmasha blinked.  The mek had acted without authorizin’ or proper plannin’; but with cunning even he respected, and suspected.  Dis one would bear watchin’, very close watchin’.

“So, everyfin ready ta go?  Da teleporta works and all?”

“Well, it works…We sent a couple of homer squigs an' grots through it.  Da Squigs came back, all fat and happy like.  Still waitin’ on da grots though…”

“How many ‘volunteers’ do uz need?”

“Oh, no more’n 20, or less…less probably.  Dat way we can put da gear through proper field testin’ and da ladz can still get some crumpin’ in.”

“Fewer dens a proper mob…Ok, I’ve got a few ladz in mind, trouble makas de lot of dem.”

“Well, we can include Snaaga…for leadaship and all.”

“Why?  He’s one of me best ladz.”

“Well, when he came in da last time all shots up, we did slap de Mk I on, and he is one of yer best…”

“Riigghht…well den, if he goes, he goes.  Make sure ya include one uv yer own meks and a Kan fer some proper crumpin’ and you’ll not have to go yerself.”

“Well, Wrencha has the Mk 3 already…coupla burnas for scrap collectin’…Kan…Snaaga…”

“Add 2 or 3 boyz to boot and some kommando fer skulkin’ about all quiet like.”

“Right you are, Boss...”

“And Fixit?”

“Yeah Boss?”

“Tell anyone, or do anyting like dis again; you’ll find yer guts in the hard to reach corners and yer head on me Bosspole, Savvy?”

*Gulp* “Yessir.”

Photos from Friends - Grey Knigts by Gary Arno

Hello again everyone:

I am sorry for the delay in my updating the blog this past month!  I've been busy with work which will culminate tomorrow at the Change of Plea hearing on a sex offender I am prosecuting in my day job.  Sufficie it to say, that loads of work goes into preparing for trial and this case was unlike many others because it involved kids.  So, with a huge sigh of relief on a plea agreement - tomorrow is change of plea day and then we can go forward with sentencing!

So, on to more important topics for today's non-work blog update!  I participated in a Kill Team tournament with 12 other participants in a four-round tournament which pitted each team against another players team through four different scenarios and through four different terrain layouts in our game club.  The tournament was a fun one because most people had fully painted armies which was fun to see.  Only a few players didn't have fully painted and only one player fielded bare metal (sigh! you can try to get them to only field their painted stuff, but it seldom works!).  At least, I only recall one player with bare metal, my opponents all had fully painted armies with one exception and his were primed because his painter had "forgotten" to get his stuff done for the tournament!  By armies I mean squads of troops - between 5-20 models.  Mine were detailed in the last post with the exception of one new model which I sculpted, painted and finished in three days for the tournament!  Whew, that was a hectic week!  It was followed by a ton of work and little time to get to this meagher blog to post you with a fun update.  So, on to the pictures and the storyline:

 So, to get into the first game:

My first game was against my good friend who recently returned from deployment overseas in Qatar.  He was running his Space Marine chapter - in this case the Lamenters who we worked together on to get them ready for the tournament.  He worked feverishly until around 2 a.m. to get them done and we both went to work at 0800 the next day at work.  However, they looked good on tournament day!  His force was a full 10 man squad of Lamenters - not veterans, not Sternguard, or anything special - they were just plain old Space Marines!  Kitted out with a few goodies from the armory, but still, just a tactical squad!  In any case we fought on a section of trench lines and he graciously permitted me to be the "defender" which gave me a huge advantage - I got bunkers!  In the end, the game was won by the Imperial Guard - but ONLY because I got double kill points for every member of his squad that I killed - which was rather an unfair scenario condition as he wiped my small band out to a man!  If he had chosen to be the defender - it would have been a massacre by his small band of marines versus the best I could muster - it wouldn't even have been close.  So, kudos to Justin for being ever the gentleman and graciously giving me the defensive high ground!

The second game was against Jarred - who ran a fully painted Chaos Daemon army to great effect.  I managed to squeak out a victory over his forced with a few good die rolls and the perseverence of my commander and my ever faithful and ever effective Lascannon operator - I know, I know, using a Lascannon as a "sniper weapon" is really the epitome of "unfair" in this game!   So, my two plasma gunners managed to kill off one daemon a piece before becoming food for the Warp!  My banner bearer was the winner of the game as he managed to run to the center of the board, recover the documents on the Chaos Spacemarine's body and return them to our camp while the heroic  commander managed to kill a daemon in close combat and my remaining team members managed to hold on long enough for the lascannon gunner to obliterate any opposition in their way.  It was a tough game in reality - nail-biting to the extreme as each turn brought my numbers down, and my opponents numbers down!  In the end, it was a few bad die rolls which cost my opponent dearly and resulted in my victory in the second round.

The third game was the true nail-biter extreme and the game was hysterical in some aspects.  First, my opponent was Gary Arno - one of the nicest guys you could hope to play.  Second, I was Imperial Guard facing off against the Grey Knights - all of them in Terminator Armor.  So, the back story  goes something like this for game three:  My band of Imperial Guard Grenadiers were vested with the duty of recovering a member of their team who had "gone astray" out in the hinterlands of some chaos infested planet.  They were sent by their Commissar to recover 1st Lieutenant Gottapeek, who had wandered off with some very important documents and iconography which needed to be studied by the Imperium's Collegia Scholastica Arcana to determine what the dread powers intended to do on this apparent Chaos shrine world.  The documents were discovered on the body of a Chaos Space Marine who had been killed earlier and when the Chaos Daemons attempted to recover his body, they were shot down mercilessly by my small band of dedicated warriors!  The 1st Lieutenant was placed in the center of the board and moved randomly.  He was supposed to move in a random direction - but we misread the rule on the distance - so he move randomly 2d6 inches every turn after turn one.  I deployed my lascannon gunner in a position to cover the other members of my squad from the cover of a low rise in the ground.  The lascannon gunner was deployed with a few members of the squad to give him some close in support.  On turn one I thought it was going to be all over as two Grey Knights stormed forward and unleashed hell in the form of four stormbolter shots - all of which it their targets!  Fortunately for me, my stalwart lascannon gunner passed all of the required armor saves (3 of them at 4+) and survived the end of turn one.  The return fire from my guard squad was disturbingly devastating as our fire silenced the two Grey Knights leaving it time for the 1st Lieutenant to move!  Of course the bastard ran away from us and toward the Grey Knights side of the board - which led my troops to begin the "chase" across the board!  Turn two was a bit of moving and scouting out cover by both sides as the devastating effect of the plasma gunners and lascannon were felt all to well by the Grey Knights.  The managed to kill off one guardsman who was wandering around out in the open and trying to make it to cover!  Our return fire was ineffective as the Grenadiers were now running to get into positions to gain cover from the devastating volleys of stormbolter fire.  By around turn 4, the Imperial Guard Commander and his force had inflicted more serious losses on the Grey Knights, the plasma gunner killed one, and the other plasma gunner killed another, leaving only ONE Grey Knight left on the table.  He easily passed his morale checks and then we engaged him in close combat hoping for a lop-sided die rolling event.  Well, in hind-sight it seemed like a good idea at the time - I had an activation card which gave my power weapon wielding commander Furious Charge and off he went - only to whiff horribly, before being squashed by the Daemon Hammer of his stalwart opponent.  Thus begins the epic chase scene!  Que minor key!  The Grey Knight then charged and managed to get into close combat with two more guardsmen, killing them both.  Attempts to slow the beast down met with little success, even from my best close combat killers!  In turn, my unit ran - where you may ask?  Naturally after the 1st Lieutenant who was now perilously close to the Grey Knights table edge!!!  My troops managed to reach him with several run moves and a charge - which now allowed me to move him at a whopping 3 inches per turn!  The Grey Knight was gaining on us - and moved to a position where we were trapped in a corner!  The Grey Knight commander was now commanding the only two avenues to get back to my side of the board.  I had to think quickly - over the commlink the Lascannon Gunner was ordered to cover a lane of retreat from close to his position.  The remainder of the unit moved to get within line of sight of the lascannon gunner.  The Grey Knight moved to remain in complete obscurement from everyone, but to a position to intercept us should the remaining Grenadiers try to make a run for it carrying the Lieutenant.  So, it came down to this - the Lascannon sniper went into Overwatch covering the lane of retreat and the two other remaining Grenadiers made a run for it down the board edge toward the Lascannon gunner!  It was akin to the wide receiver running along the sideline with the touchdown in sight as the hulking form of a pro-bowl Linebacker is bearing down upon him!  As soon as the Grey Knight broke cover, the Lascannon Gunner unleashed his shot - he had to kill this model now, or it was game over, and a complete loss for my side!  Fortunately his shot was dead on and hit and wounded the Grey Knight commander (who previously had been hit no less than 4 times by Lascannon and Plasmagun fire and survived with nary a scratch!).  This time, fortune smiled upon us as the Chaos Gods determined that my small band of Imperial Guard Grenadiers would bring back the Chaos documents which would unfortunately unleash hell on some unfortunate planet!  The Grey Knight commander had a re-rollable 5+ save, and he failed BOTH of them and he died.  Thus ending the game as there were no more Grey Knights on the table - and my remaining band of three Grenadiers carted off the by now crazed 1st Lieutenant back to camp where he was immediately taken into custody by the Inquisition (most likely heretical inquisitors gone bad, but that is another story!).  What a finish - down to the last turn with the last few models - and it came down to a single die-roll.  Victory or death for both sides rested with the single throw of one save!  If he made the save, he would have charged head-long into two unprepared Grenadiers who were not equipped for close combat and killed them both, and then taken custody of the 1st Lieutenant!  It would have been game over for me - fortune smiles on the bold sometimes - and I walked out of the game with a victory - which by the point scores would NOT be possible without that one die roll going my way!  Thanks Gary for the incredibly awesome game!

The fourth round game pitted my force in a defensive position to prevent the enemy forces from fleeing off board through my zone of control.  My forces were off table but arrived on turn one by moving on to the table on a 4+ die roll.  Fortunately, all of my forces but one arrived on turn one - two of which ended up in the enemy deployment zone - they managed to kill one model before they were cruelly cut down by the Necron Lord and his retinue.  The rest of the game was pretty much a "snipe hunt" as the Necrons moved from cover to cover attempting to flank my positions - only to be caught out in the open and destroyed by some well-placed plasma gun shots.  In total, my Lascannon gunner accounted for 13 kills over the course of the four games - he was the high- scoring model of my army and more than paid for his point cost!

So, here are the models of the Grey Knights - superbly painted by Gary Arno - the man who would have been king, but for a die roll!  Wow, what a fun day - I am looking forward to going at it again with these fellows in the future!

 Well, what would you do if facing off against Edward the Fifth in Terminator Armor with two power weapons?!?  "I'd drop a sixteen ton weight on him!"  In the end - this model was the scourge of my forces accounting for the deaths of my commander, and six other models out of ten!  The other three survived, but only by the skin of their teeth and the fateful shot of the now nick-named "God" who manned the Lascannon and sniped down the foes of the Grenadiers without mercy!

A nice shot of all five of my foes - take a look at them by clicking on the photos - they are very nicely done - and his scriptwork free hand paint on the scrolls and names is pretty darned good - some of the best I've seen around here besides my own troopers!

From another friend - this is Jeff's Fire Warrior who was hunted down by Andrew's Warp Spider Exarch - and survived for the entire game - including FIVE - count them - FIVE rounds of close combat against an Exarch with a power weapon!  Incredible!  We laughed, we cried, we told Andrew to buy new dice!

Cheers and enjoy!

<M>