Friday, December 22, 2006

Napariel and Azapiel


Napariel and Azapiel
Originally uploaded by Xadhoom.
These two guys are the two first Chaos Warriors in my new Blood Bowl team "Disciples of Ahriman". I have played in Torshov Touchdown for a few years now, and recently switched from the Lizardmen team "Lounge Lizards" to an experimental Tzeentchian Chaos Team. They are ridiculously expensive, but very interesting to play. Each Warrior (5 4 3 9) and Cultist (6 3 3 8) start with a Random Mutation. This makes them a great challenge to play. I have so far lost four of my six first games, but this only makes the victories sweeter.

Monday, November 27, 2006

My new Blood Bowl team


My new Blood Bowl team
Originally uploaded by Xadhoom.
Wow, half a year just flies by, and no new painted miniatures has appeared on my shelf. My interest in miniature wargaming is obviously like a roller coaster, and I'm on my way up the hill again.

I have started on a new Blood Bowl team, the Disciples of Ahriman. They are from an unofficial team list by Jervis Johnson, posted on the GW website for Blood Bowl, www.bloodbowl.com.

They all start with a random mutation, which is selected by rolling 2d6 and consulting a special mutation chart. I got four guys with Foul Appearance, three with Extra Arms, and an assortment of other strangeness. The minis are converted and awaiting a lick of paint. I have approximately three weeks to paint the team, but this shouldn't be a problem, should it?

Monday, July 03, 2006

Tyranid Gunfex


Tyranid Gunfex
Originally uploaded by Xadhoom.
The Gunfex is the final spoke in the wheel that is my Tyranid army. It makes short work of skimmers, heavy tanks, light tanks and any and all infantry, bar terminators and power armour.

This guy was a major factor in my beating Speed Freeks to a man (an Ork?) in just four turns during Recon. Except for one Trukk, the poor saps didn't even get out of their deployment zone due do the horrendous amount of incoming fire. Of course, the fact that the Venom Cannon can get penetrating hits against open-topped vehicles helped a lot!

PS: I keep missing the "G", writing Funfex instead of Gunfex. My spelling error has a point, this really is a funfex.

Monday, June 26, 2006

Tyranids vs Death Guard


My Tyranids vs Alf's Death Guard
Originally uploaded by Xadhoom.
I played Alf's Death Guard a week ago and took this picture. After posting it on Flickr, I got a question about the number of Tyranid Warriors I was fielding.

bzarcher says:

I'm surprised at the Warriors - do you get good use out of them for the points? Mine never quite feel like they're making their points back.

Xadhoom says:

Yes, they do perform admirably against many opponents, but tend to fall quickly against a prepared opponent. Heavy Bolters, Autocannons, Pulse Rifles and Bolters too often spell doom for a unit of Warriors. There are, as I see it, three remedies:

1: Keep them out of range. Only an option if they have guns, preferably a Venom Cannon and Deathspitters. They won't make a dent in a dug-in Marine unit, though.

2: Keep them out of sight. This is often the best way of ensuring that they are effective. Just sneak up and try get as few turns of incoming fire as possible. This trick works best if the whole army is "revealed" at the same time, which means that there are too many threatening targets for the enemy to kill. More often than not, the Warriors are seen as a lesser threat than, say, a Carnifex or Hive Tyrant, or even better, two Carnifexes and a Hive Tyrant!

3: Get more of them. That's right. Strenght in numbers. If you have a lot, some of them will arrive to do the job. Keeping in mind that they can't be autokilled or routed, they are quite resilient agaist the correct foe (Predator with all Lascannons, Defiler, Dreadnought with Lascannon, Devastator Squad with single-shot weaponry, etc.)

If you see my deployment on this picture (from turn 2, I believe), I have tried a combination of all three tactics. The only units killable to my opponent are the two Carnifexes, gaunts and the Hive Tyrant.

The Warriors on the right are out of range and will try to stay that way until the Death Guard in the left building are occupied fighting Genestealers, the ones on the top left are facing an opponent unsuited to kill enough of them (a Predator with three Lascannons). The Warriors with guns will try to take out the Rhino and Defiler, and the winged Warriors will fly from cover to cover and counter charge the Terminators hiding behind the big towers.

Friday, May 19, 2006

Witch Hunters Penitent Engine


Witch Hunters Penitent Engine
Originally uploaded by Xadhoom.
I got this Penitent Engine for half price, before I knew much about the Witch Hunters. It seems to be pretty poor in game terms, but I just love the model!

The paint job is quick and dirty Chainmail drybrushing on most of the model, but the "pilot" and scrolls have gotten some attention. I tried a "dirty flame"-look for the flamer on the left of the image, but I don't feel quite satisfied with it. I might get back to it in the future, but for now it's into the display cabinet for this model.

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Assassins


Assassins
Originally uploaded by Xadhoom.
I believe I have passed 500 points for my Witch Hunters now, greatly helped by these Death Cult Assassins now costing 160 points. I plan on having two more, taking them up to 240 points. Inlcuding the Eversor Assassin takes the army up to almost 350 points!

Monday, April 24, 2006

Tyranid Warriors

My brother no longer plays 40K, so I have adopted his Tyranids, promising to give them victories and glory (or whatever the beasts crave). Anyhow, some of the Warriors were not completely painted, so I have taken upon me the arduous task of finishing the army. This constitutes mostly of finishing five Warrior's armour plates, as I have painted their skin and claws earlier.

I have tried to match the armour design as closely as I can, but it is clear to me that there will be some differences. The one on the left is painted by me, the one on the right by my brother.

The army itselft sports 21 Tyranid Warriors, not a very common unit type in most Tyranid forces. I expect some turned heads and very few opponents with experience in handling 42 wounds of Warriors, now immune to insta-killing and with a horrendous amount of Rending attacks. >:]

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Eldar Revenant Titans

A few weeks ago I won an auction on eBay for an Eldar Revenant Titan produced by Armorcast. After winning, the seller contacted me and asked if I would like two Titans for twice the price. A few hundred dollars later I am now the happy owner of two Eldar Revenant Scout Titans.

Monday, April 03, 2006

Eversor assassin


Eversor assassin
Originally uploaded by Xadhoom.
I have finally finished the Eversor assassin for my upcoming Witch Hunters Army. Because of work it has taken me about two weeks from start to finish, and unfortunately, this is reflected in the paint job. Still, this is a gaming piece, and as I hope to actually field this army at 1500 points, I cannot let a single miniature's paint job take forever.

This Officio Assassinorum Operative is painted with the technique "extreme highlighting", which I clearly do not yet master. Practice makes perfect, I presume, but at a distance he looks quite nice. It is only up close that the imperfections becomes apparent.

For the army, the next project is boosting the number of Battle Sisters. I have only six of them painted at the moment, with three more on the way. As this army is going to be a rag-tag band of lots of different troop types, I thankfully won't be tired of painting lots of sisters, as i plan on having no more than two dozen of them, including the Canoness.

Sunday, March 26, 2006

Inquisitor


Inquisitor Lord
with Bolter-Stake Crossbow
Currently, I am collecting a Witch Hunters army for 40k. Initially, I envisioned it to contain lots and lots of Battle Sisters, but after pondering over this for a long time, I decided to use all three elites slots for assassins.

However, in order to field assassins I need to include an Inquisitor. As he seems fairly useless on paper, I'll just have to find some use for him. I am thinking of taking him with a lot of supporting wargear; Liber Heresius, Psychic Hood, and letting him stay well away from the fiercest fighting. He is sporting a Bolter-Stake Crossbow and a rather numerous following: Three Heavy Bolter servitors, two Chirurgeons and two Acolytes. I am going to put them all into a Chimera, for a grand total of 328 points.

The Inquisitor Lord's coat is painted Scab Red, washed with Red Ink, painted Red Gore and highlighted with Blood Red. The inside of the coat is painted Bestial Brown, Snakebite Leather, Vomit Brown, Desert Yellow, and finally a mix of 50:50 Desert Yellow and Rotting Flesh. Highlights are a mix of Bleached Bone and Rotting Flesh.

Small steps...

Imperial Priest
Imperial Priest

Well, this is something I thought I'd never do. It would seem that I am exhibitionistic after all, at least in showing my work to the masses. I recently got into Flickr, and seeing as my miniature painting skills have improved by leaps and bounds the last year, I feel a strange urge to show off.

I don't think of myself as a perfectionist, and would rather that I'd paint quicker, not better. Still, the results are pretty good, and I feel that painting miniatures is an ability I want others to know me for being good at.

I am currently enjoying painting a Witch Hunters army, from the game Warhammer 40k, produced by Games Workshop. The "picture studio" is, as always, in front of my computer. This studio also doubles as my paint station. The first miniature on show is a fanatical Imperial Priest. He is not converted in any way, and got a pretty nice paint job. This is the first model I've painted with my new brushes I got for my birthday, three marvellous Winsor & Newton Series 7s, sizes 1, 0 and 000.
My brushes