Friday, 26 April 2013

Praetorian Civil War! The Battle for Spyral Prime 2

Another pic heavy post (the best kind of post surely?! Also I've made them slightly bigger, if this messes up peoples browsers etc do let me know and I will revert to the smaller sizes) with all the action from The Praetorian v Praetorian battle on the City fight board Spyral prime.

Continuing from the last post lets get stuck in to the action!

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The opening salvos from the IV mechanised decimate the red coats sheltering behind the aegis. The Thudd guns alone account for 20+ guardsmen!

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As the explosions cease Gravis' artillery ready themselves to return fire.

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The macharius hunts for targets...

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The few remaining guardsmen from half a dozen squads regroup.

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Another platoon sheltering in a ruined building are saved the worst of the artillery fire and take up firing positions ready to ambush the advancing mechanised units.

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The demolisher slowly rumbles forward while the guardsmen in the street batter the door down on the building to left heading for an objective high up on a walkway.

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Gravis' right flank remains untouched by the bombardment and maneuvers into position.

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The medusa, rightly feared by the enemy tanks, had been targetted by all weapons that could be brought to bear. However a combination of cover and wildly scattering ordinance meant it survived unscathed and the following turn with its bastion breacher shells destroys the malcador in one shot!

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The Dragoons get the charge on the enemy cavalry.

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The two cavalry officers engage in one on one combat!

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Much of the red coat lines lie in tatters, buoyed by their success, the IV mechanised advance on enemy lines,  claiming objectives as they go and putting bayonet to the surviving guardsmen they encounter.

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Gravis' Leman Russ tanks prove difficult to shift, however once again due to wayward shots and cover their shots fail to make their mark on the IV armour.

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A flanking squad of vets try to take the fight to the enemy and encounter stiff resistance.

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The Vendetta arrives and finally starts to take down the IV armour as the hydra rapidly redeploys to get line of sight on the gunship.

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Heavily fortified infantry guarding one of the objectives.

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High above the conflict below on the spire of a hab block the brave red coat sergeant stands firm, his squad all killed by the ruthless Life Guards. Not only did he stand firm but in his ensuing charge he managed to cut the Life Guards down and win combat!

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More infantry dismount to claim objectives.

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The Highlanders make it to the landing pad to claim another objective as the Vendetta continues hunting.

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The IV mechanised finally destroy the Leman Russ and the advance continues.

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Captain Caine dismounts and hunts down the last survivors of Gravis's army.

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The last objective is claimed and the game ends with a resounding Praetorian Victory!

Huzzah!

A massive thanks to Gravis, an epic game with some great moments.

Stay tuned for my next post where I will be posting some photos of our two armies on parade!

Thanks for reading!

Thursday, 25 April 2013

Praetorian Civil War! The Battle for Spyral Prime

The eagle eyed among you might have spotted who my guardsmen were facing in the pictures from my previous post. None other than Col. Gravis' Praetorians!

Last weekend Col Gravis and I attended Warhammer World Vidar's Fate campaign weekend, and to kick the weekend off on the Friday we played a 2.5k a-side Praetorian v Praetorian 40k game on the beautiful new 6x8 40k board at WW, Spyral Prime. We each used 1 super heavy with the Macharius and Malcador taking to the field, played a simple objective based mission with 5 objectives (one in each deployment zone, though no more than 12" from no mans land to keep it central, and 3 in no mans land), diagonal deployment and common sense rules for the terrain and buildings with a few counts as elevators and no need to roll for difficult terrain unless it was clearly very difficult (no rolling for buildings to encourage mobility). I won the roll to deploy first and off we went!

Here is my list (more or less, I've forgotten what else was in it and can't find the original!)

HQ - 
Command tank exterminator (bs4) with hb sponsons 180
Troops -
leman russ 150
Armoured fist squad 105
Armoured fist squad 105
Armoured fist squad 105
Armoured fist squad 105
Armoured fist squad 105
Commans Section, chimera 80
Fast -
Hellhound 130
8 rough riders, melta bombs 90
Elite -
salamander command 60
Stormtroopers, flamer 90
Heavy 
medusa with bastion breacher 140
Thunderbolt 180
3 thudd guns 150
Colossus 140
Death strike 160
Macharius with heavy bolters 335
2500



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The tanks of the IV mechanised wait in the behind the cover of the buildings for the order to advance to be given.

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The brand new Thudd guns on their first outing.

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The chimera in advanced positions, ready to advance on the objectives.

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The fortified line of the Red coats.

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The imposing form of the Macharius is spotted in the distance.

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The Malcador and the Command HQ ready to engage the enemy.

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The rough riders ready to counter attack the enemy.

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A medusa waits in the shadows

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Praetorian guardsmen take shelter in the buildings.

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The storm troopers infiltrate into an advanced position.

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The thin red line readies itself for the incoming armour.

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Stay tuned for the next post and what happens in the game!

Thanks for reading



Monday, 22 April 2013

Transmission intercepted from Spyral Prime

+++INCOMING TRANSMISSION+++

DATE: 994985.M41

ORIGIN: SPYRAL PRIME

SECURITY CLEARANCE: THETA SIGMA FIVE

AUTHOR: PRAETORIAN IV RECON - LT ROOK

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COMMIT TO IMPERIAL RECORD CMD 19/W4X13

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: OBEDIENCE IS BLIND.

+++TRANSMISSION ENDS++

Thursday, 18 April 2013

Ready for Vidar's fate

Finished!

I've managed to finish off all that I wanted for Vidar's fate and am ready to take to the tables at Warhammer World for this weekend's campaign.

The latest recruits are 6 extra guardsmen to enable me to swap out heavy and special weapons, 3 Thudd guns and their 9 crew.

Other units making their first appearance at the campaign will be Captain Caine, Thunderbolt and the Techpriest.

Sadly no photos to accompany this post, but you can certainly expect a bumper post upon my return, including photos of the illustrious Praetorians of Col. Gravis and the countless foes that the brave guardsmen of Praetoria will be facing over the weekend.

Wish me luck!

Tuesday, 9 April 2013

A special post!

Welcome to a very special post!

Today has marked without a doubt the most popular day my blog has ever encountered! At last count I have had 1479 hits today and have acquired several new followers which has pushed me over the magical 100 followers mark! Huzzah!

This sudden boon in hits is a lot due to Faeit 212 which is an awesome blog full of all sorts of hobby goodness (well worth subscribing to), so thank you Faeit!

Also thank you to all of my existing followers for your continued support, comments and general greatness! When I started this blog back in November 2011 after many years out of the hobby I never thought I was amass such a collection of thoroughly upstanding Praetorians and get over a 100 like minded people following my blog.

To celebrate, I escaped work at a reasonable hour and set straight to painting...

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The fully finished Captain Caine of the Praetorian IV Mechanised Infantry! The model is of coursethe beautiful Victoria Lamb sculpt with a couple of hand swaps and the addition of epaulettes.

Thanks again for following, here's to the next 100 followers and (hopefully!) getting the rest of the models done for Vidar's fate!

Sunday, 7 April 2013

Getting ready for Vidar's fate

Today I have finally been able to put a good few hours into painting some models!

I've been busy with a couple of professional exams the past month or so, this has unfortunately meant I've barely had sight of a paint brush. That dark time has now come to and end (for the time being), and I find myself with a mountain of models that need painting!

The big event on the horizon is Saturday 20th April where I will be teaming up with none other than Col Gravis at Warhammer World's campaign weeknd Vidar's Fate where on the Sunday in a 5k a side Apocalypse doubles game, the my mighty Macharius and Gravis' Malcador will be teaming up along side well over a 100 guardsmen and 20 odd tanks!

As per usual I have left myself with it all to do painting wise before I head up there. Grand plans of adding things to my tanks, changing bits here and there, painting a platoon of Tallarns... have come to naught. I've had to revise my plans somewhat and will content myself with 3 Thudd guns, the 9 crew, 6 regular guardsmen (to give me some options weapon loadout wise), 5 possible counts as ratlings and Victoria Lambs Captain Caine who I have converted a little bit.

Here are some photos of where I've got to so far.

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The three Thudd guns are done. They have all been based using resin parts from the citadel basing kit to help add some interest to the large bases and to make the guns look less lonely. There are also a few hidden 'easter eggs' as this one has a crux terminatus hidden under the carriage.

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Here we have a range finder I put together from a monocular and the heavy weapon missile launcher stand.

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This one has a servo skull floating around, no doubt relaying targeting data to regimental command. There is also an Eldar rune on the base of this one hidden among the tall grass.

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Here you get a good look at the little tractors and the classic squat carriages these weapons sit on. I will certainly need to get some Trojans for these guys at some point in the future!

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Here is a better picture of the tech priest. I'm not sure if he will ever get much of a game as struggle to see how I would really use him tactically, nonetheless, awesome model and he'll be getting an Trojan as his transport soon along with a load of servitors. (The Imperial Armour 1 second edition updates these guys and gives him the option of a Trojan personal transport)

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My Captain Caine with hand swaps and added epaulettes.

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My riflemen who may well become counts as Ratlings and possibly dark green cuffs and plumes to mark them out from the rest of the army.

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Some regular guardsmen so I can swap heavy weapons out of units if needed. I've developed a much quicker 4 stage method for the uniforms on rank and file so hopefully I won't need to spend to long getting these guys up to spec.

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The crew for the Thudd guns. A motely collection of various heavy weapon crews led by the gunnery sergeant front left who is holding a map/communication (probably with coordinates scribbled down) and has goggles on his helmet.

So all of the above needs to be finished by the time I go to bed on Thursday 18th April. Can I get them finished in time? Fingers crossed! At the time of posting this I have already almost finished Captain Caine, and can I just what a model, a delight to paint. Expect to see him in the next post and an update on the rest.

Thanks for reading!