Iron Hands: How Not To Play Them

Don't mind the red solo cup... I was proxying in Drop Pods...

Don't play Purge missions if at all possible. Iron Hands may be more durable than some other marines MSU armies... but it wasn't enough.

So anybody who thinks Orks can't be played effectively haven't met my friend. He plays orks, always has, and always will! Yesterday we played a 2500 point game, in which I brought my Fist of Medusa detachment with as many tricks as I could muster. He brought a double-CAD with a formation, which consisted of a nasty number of Nobz in Mega Armor, a massive Bike Squad, a Stompa, and lots of Painboyz.

You know what kills my Iron Hands quite efficiently? Lots of Str 8 or higher. Most of his Mega Nobz had Powerklawz, which was a hard counter to my FNP rolls. He also took lots of high-strength shooting with his Stompa, which spat out S10 Massive pie plates that would decimate entire units wholesale as they exited their pods.

I usually play my Iron Hands with a single Deathstar of some kind. It usually involves a Captain with the Gorgon's chain, a command squad with an apothecary and special weapons, and in this case also a Chaplain with the Tempered Helm (pseudo-preferred enemy to the shooting attacks of the unit). Unfortunately, I used a drop pod as the transport for the unit. This means that where I dropped them, they had to hoof it from then on. This didn't work out so well. I tried to killbox his trucks with meganobz by blocking them in a tight street with drop pods. It was not terribly successful... my dice rolling was pretty abysmal and my scatters took my pods off on tangents. But I still got them in there, I just made a pretty big mistake. I had hoped on effective shooting being able to kill the orks well enough that they would be unable to effectively charge... and I hoped wrong.

Powerklaws made short work of any unit they charged. Even my poor Centurions holed up in some ruins.

I'm going to be making some big changes to my list. We'll see what I can come up with to make this less of a one-trick pony.

What's On.... I mean, It's my Table: 5/26/2016

I haven't been working on models much lately. The weather is good, and there is lots to do. I still try to get games in, but my hobby progress is somewhat diminished. So today, I decided I was going to do something hobby related, while still enjoying some sun. Enter the resurfacing of my game board! Used several cans of spray paint to give it a new finish. I'm working on finishing up a couple of my old-style ruins to spice it up.

(Still using my old method: Step 1, Step 2, Step 3, and Finishing Touches)

A lot of my old ruins got thrown away in the many moves I have made over the years. They were too cheap to justify keeping in a limited space arrangement! Now I am making new ones, bigger and better!

I really need to crank out more of these puppies. They fill up the board well and look good while doing it.

Anyway, that's what I have been up to. I will try to get a few in-game pics at tomorrow's game, we'll see if I can remember that or not!

An Overdue Update: Chaos Rises - What's On My Table: 5/19/2016

The Khornate Masses

So this update has been long overdue. Mainly because I was thinking of implementing the switch of gears, from my Iron Hands successors to Chaos, but I wanted to make sure that I had the element of surprise on my side! My opponents frequent my blog. So I went to work in secret...

Much red. Such anger! The Khornate masses near completion as I change schemes. From Black Legion, I decided to go with Khorne colors so I can switch between CSM and KDK codexes as needed. Also it will require less work, as I have less to repaint into Khorne as I would have to repaint for Black Legion.

New Raptors

I also picked up new Raptors. These little fellas are important to a new Crimson Slaughter formation I have decided to try alongside my Black Legion formation. The new list I am working on is quite a 1-2 punch!

Just for fun, a new toy!

 Last but not least, my girlfriend picked me up a surprise when she was in the city the other day. With the new flyer book being out, I wouldn't mind beefing up my flyer collection so this was a great start to that! I was very excited to put it together. Now I just have to get it in a list!

Expect to see much more red paint in the coming weeks!

Blood is Decorative

I am trying out a new basing technique for my Bloodletters. The first one to receive the treatment is the Herald, when I created with extra pieces left from the Skull Cannon. Agrellan Earth with some grass tufts, and a colorful scenic item.

Can you tell I don't care much for Ultrasmurfs?

Blood for the blood god! Skulls for the skull throne!

On My Table: 5/6/2016

On my table this week is a whole mess of black power armor... which takes horrendously long to line highlight! I spent a solid 8 hours on this combat squad, fixing up all the highlights and washing them back down to take the edge off them a little bit. My Deathwatch/Iron Hands mixup is going pretty well though, and I am pleased with the results. The helmet-less guys came out especially well. If anybody is wondering how I achieved the shaved-head look:

1. Regular flesh (flesh color, flesh shade wash, base color highlight or drybrush)
2. Grey paint (dealers choice) about 50% mixed with medium
3. Nuln Oil wash
4. Profit!!!

As you can see, basing them helps contrast the armor pretty nicely. Although you would think black power armor would be easy to paint, I counted the individual colors I used to paint the squad... I wound up with quite a few.

1. Primer
2. Black Base Coat (for consistency)
3. Leadbelcher (arm and weapon)
4. Dark Grey (craft paint, used for highlights)
5. Bright White (craft paint, used for hard edge highlights)
6. Cadian Fleshtone
7. Reikland Fleshshade
8. Ghenna's Gold (Or Shining Gold, dealers choice)
9. Khorne Red (Or old Mechrite Red, for purity seals)
10. Stirland Mud Texture Paint (for bases)
11. Mournfang Brown (for bases and undercoating purity seals/tabards)
12. Ushabti Bone (for bases and purity seals/tabards)
13. Nuln Oil (wash for entire model, except flesh)
14. Argax Earthshade (For bases, and over gold bits)

Above the 3-color minimum? I'd say so.

At my local gaming store, they are restarting the "Tuesday Night Fights League" in which you gain points for showing up and playing, but also for painting progress. It's to encourage new players to get down to the store and actually start playing, and it's a great venue. The last couple weeks have been fairly packed, with at least 10 players a night. A few weeks ago there was closer to 20. The format is that you bring a single detachment, 600 points, and just play! It's really fun, and I am looking forward to it.

The painting progress is going to be scored in a new fashion. The standard 3-color minimum will net you 1 point per Character or Unit, but going "above and beyond the 3 color minimum" will net you 2 points. I am hoping to show up with 2-3 newly painted units by Tuesday, and secure a decent number of points. Anybody who knows me, also knows that I don't typically win my games! This may be the only chance I have to secure a decent lead in points!

I have one more Tactical combat squad to paint, as well as a Command squad, which I might be able to finish over the weekend. Today, however, is my weekly 1850 point game with my long-time friend. So I'm off to stomp whatever he is deciding to throw at me today, be it Wulfen or Meganobz!