Angry Griffin's Oldhammer

Category: Warhammer 40K

  • Battle Report: 2021-05-15

    Today it was a Raven Guard Successor chapter vs. the Angels of Annihilation (Imperial Fists successor).

    500pt game which was largely decided before the second turn of the first round. A RG smash captain and Bladeguard Veteran squad were Master of Ambushed up the board and successfully charged an Outrider squad, between the two of them taking it out and consolidating into a squad of heavy intercessors, who were forced to fall back rather than shoot in their first turn.

    I think we are finding that 500pt games are sometimes easily decided like this – the Outrider squad was 30% of the total army points, and that’s a blow that would be hard to recover from (at least at our skill level…). As fun as it is to MoA a close combat squad up the board it would be a more fun game at a higher points figure, I suspect.

    We’ll try 1000 pts for next time and see if we can fit it in a reasonable timeframe. Despite the game being over relatively quickly it still took 2hrs to set up, play and pack away. It would have been quicker had it not been months since we last played…

    RG successor won, as you may have gathered. Terrain takeaway: Need more ruins!

  • Painting energy effects on Warhammer 40K thunder hammers

    I’m painting up some Raven Guard Primaris Intercessors squads where the sergeants have thunder hammers, and here’s the recipe I’m using to get the following look:

    The hammer started off being undercoated in Mecha Black and a base coat of Hashut Copper was applied. A wash of Canoptek Armourshade was next and once that dried a heavy drybrush of Ironbreaker followed. The contact face of the hammer then received some White Scar and a drybrush of Praxeti White was applied, brushing from the face back so that it faded the further it went.

    Calth Blue Clear was applied to the sides of the hammer. It dries a little more slowly than the Citadel washes so it’s a little easier to move it around to create a light to dark transition without having to get it right first time around.

    Talassar Blue was applied closer to the face of the hammer to help with the transition, then Drakenhof Nightshade was carefully painted onto the face in the recesses and further back on the hammer where there were still lighter spots visible in recesses.

    A little more drybrushing with Praxeti White and then some careful edge highlighting with White Scar got it to the point you see above.

  • How to paint very weathered Imperial Knights or vehicles

    This is my current favoured formula for very weathered/aged/battle damaged Imperial Knight miniatures. It’ll work on vehicles like tanks or armoured miniatures like Space Marines as well, but it’s probably easiest on the scale of a tank or Knight!

    I undercoated with Vallejo Mecha Primer in black, then base coated the silver section with Citadel Iron Hands Steel. The blue was Citadel Thousand Sons Blue. I used thinned paints to build up a smooth and solid colour.

    Next comes Citadel Rhinox Hide on a sponge (actually a torn out piece of a pick ‘n pluck-style miniature storage case) applied along any raised edges and across the center of any broad surfaces.

    After that, I heavily stippled Citadel Mournfang Brown in smaller areas than the Rhinox hide, generally staying within the Rhinox Hide-covered areas. After that, a lighter stippling of Citadel Evil Sunz Scarlet and Citadel Zandri Dust added in a couple more variations on the rusted look. I’m on the fence as to whether Evil Sunz is too bright or not – the next time I’m going to try something a touch darker to try and make the red pop less.

    A heavy wash of Citadel Agrax Earthshade really took the brightness out of the colours and made the Knight look like he’d been fighting for some time on an acid-rain world.

    For the chassis beneath, I used the same technique but did a heavy drybrush of Citadel Ironbreaker after the Agrax Earthshade wash to differentiate the frame from the carapace.

    After the drybrush I did a light drybrush of Citadel Ryza Rust on select areas such as below the eye lenses.

    More in progress shots next time!

  • Painting a Raven Guard Phobos Lieutenant

    Painting up a sneaky beaky! Trying to mix a road base with the ash-waste style bases of some of the other Phobos RG units I have.

    Marble base piece: Ushabti Bone/Pallid Wych Flesh/Agrax/Terminatus/Longbeard

    Base ash: London Grey/Longbeard Grey

    Armour: Black Grey, edge highlights London Grey, drybrush Dawnstone for the dust, Light Slate Grey pigment for recess dust

    Battle damage armour: Abaddon Black/Stormhost Silver

    Company Colour: 50/50 Naggaroth Night and Warlord Purple

    Eye lenses: Moot Green/Warpstone Green/White Scar

    Vox cable on chest: Black Red/Phalanx Yellow/Evil Sunz Scarlet

    Leather pouches: Doombull Brown/Agrax/Skrag Brown

    Writing on scrolls: Rhinox Hide

    Edge highlight on gun: Grey Knights Steel then smaller Stormhost

    Helmet: Khorne Red for stripe

  • Battle Report: Raven Guard vs. Space Wolves 2020-09-26

    Played a 500pt combat patrol game today with a Raven Guard successor force vs. some Space Wolves. Nobody had a fully painted force and some of the SW were borrowed RG units, so no 10pts for either team.

    The game was a Combat Patrol Incisive Attack and the RG’s secondaries were Cut Off The Head, Domination and Attrition. SW chose Attrition, Engage On All Fronts and Raise The Banners High.

    The RG’s Phobos Librarian warlord deployed in what looked like a vulnerable position, luring a couple of the SW units into deploying in what looked like an advantageous position. The Librarian’s Master of Ambush shenanigans proved to have fooled them, however, as he turned out to be deployed on one of the mid-board objective markers while a squad of Intercessors were placed on the other.

    This board control advantage proved hard for the SW to shake, and the game went to the RG who maxed their primaries along with Domination. The SW warlord was a very lucky Battle Leader who survived being targeted by a Predator two turns running, only being taken out in the very last round and providing the RG with a measly 1pt for Cut Off The Head.

    SW did well with Engage On All Fronts, almost maxxing it via use of Outriders to rapidly move up the board.

    Terrain takeaways – some buildings with higher levels to get up onto that are more complex than stacks of shipping containers would be nice.

  • 9th Ed 40K Battle Report: Raven Guard vs. Chaos Space Marines

    Last night saw the Raven Guard face off against Chaos in a 500pt Combat Patrol game. Raven Guard won on points, though they were certainly losing in terms of casualties.

    Takeaways: The new ruined walls set of six was the MVP as far as terrain goes, with just the one set making a meaningful difference to each side of the mid-board. Tactics-wise the RG were managed horribly. The army makeup was more based around what was painted than what was effective, and it showed – a second lieutenant ended up being wasted points in this particular battle as he didn’t make a single point back for. the ~75pts expended.

    The lack of AT weaponry also hurt when it came to taking out the Rhino, which Mrs. Griffin positioned inconveniently right in the face of one of the Intercessor squads. Auto bolt rifles were disappointingly ineffective against a squad of CSM in light cover (15 shots and one wound? Aaaaaa) yet the Stalker bolt rifle squad of Intercessors kept on rolling 2s to hit. Yeesh.

    Terrain ideas: Need some multi-level ruined buildings to contest in the center of the battlefield. Also, I need to assemble some Eradicators/Hellblasters/Plasma Inceptors/anything that has more shots and better AP.

  • Battle Report: Kill Team 2020-06-29

    Primaris vs. Primaris this time around! Raven Guard took on Space Wolves.

    Takeaways for the Space Wolves – the Easy To Build 3x Reiver + 3x Intercessor squad combo lacks punch vs. a more customised set of Primaris marines.

    Takeaways for the Raven Guard – Thunder Hammer + Intercessor Sergeant = very threatening. Auto Bolt Rifles seem to be superior to Stalker Bolt Rifles, at least in this game – the former dealt out a handful of wounds where the latter didn’t succeed in wounding once.

    The Raven Guard sergeant with the Thunder Hammer took out two of the Reivers single handedly – the AP and damage of that weapon certainly makes it a threat to Primaris.

    General takeaways – need to come up with some rulers and a score counter. Oh, and some tokens.