Age of the Emperor - last minute job!

6 months passes us by and I find myself rushing once more to complete another new army for an event. I began the journey with intentions of taking Dark Mechanicus to the event, but chose to take Sons of Horus, feeling my AdMech need a lot of work and effort, something I didn't want to rush. Marines are a lot quicker to do because there's so few of them!

I haven't yet decided the final line-up for all 4 missions, but I hope to use as many units as possible across them. The core of my force and most complete is currently:

Abaddon
5 Justaerin, including Falkus Kibre (hoped for 10!)
2x8 Bloodletters
3 Bloodcrushers
1 Khorne daemon prince
1 Khorne Soulgrinder
10 tactical marines
Venerable dreadnought
Predator
6 Vanguard, including Ekaddon

In addition to these I am pondering use of the following:
6/12 Scouts
6 jetbikes
Whirlwind
Vindicator
Tzeench Daemons
Ahriman

Another competition.. another trophy!

The second (of the current administratum!) TGC painting competition was held earlier this month and I entered with a late entry due to some last-minute convincing from a fellow painter. I managed to win again, though a close top 2 places alongside Josh, who also entered an Empire figure. It was a surprise win as Josh really pushes the bar, so it was fun to have him motivate me with his efforts and for me to produce something I rarely justify the time to do.

I feel I should refrain from entering next year and set myself some higher targets with my painting, beyond the club. At least if they follow up on their promise to cut off my hands, anyway!

Month 2 complete

A large update for the Daemon forces. I successfully added and painted 3 Flamers, a Soul Grinder and the objective marker to my army for month 2. Un-polished pictures below.

The objective marker was intended to be a daemonic 'claw' reaching from the ground, holding the symbol of the Mechanicus, to represent the joining or rather the daemonic control over the Dark Mechanicus.



The Flamers are a little bland. I already had 4 Flamer models in stock and couldn't bring anything creative to their design, so painted these as standard.


The Soulgrinder oozes with metallic goodness, but perhaps a bit plain. The black on the legs doesn't contrast very well. I chose red skin for the first 'grinder as he'll be heralding a Khorne contingent - plans for month 3! If I add a second 'grinder later, he'll be light blue.

I managed to get in another game using the 750 points list, beating Mat's Space Marines in Kill Points. A dreadnought and Vindicator have been added to the Forge's loot!

Wins: 5. Draws 2

500 vs Monkey (Win)
500 vs Ben (Win)
750 vs Lex (Win)
750 vs Lex (Draw)
750 vs Monkey (Draw)
750 vs Monkey (Win)
750 vs Mat (Win)

Month 2 plans

For the second month of the Tale we've been tasked with adding 250 points to our lists and to create an objective.

Returning to my initial plans, my first choice was a Soul Grinder, a big chunk of the expansion in itself. The rest of the points went towards a unit of Flamers for some much needed mobile firepower.

Additions for month 2:

Soul Grinder
Phlegm

3 Flamers of Tzeentch

These come to a total of 265, adding to the first 500 (482) points to hit the target of 747!

Lord of Change
Master of Sorcery
Instrument of Chaos

6 Horrors
The Changeling

7 Plague Bearers
Instrument of Chaos

Horrors!

The only unit I've been struggling with, mostly due to being a scoring unit and a nasty threat if left alone are the Horrors.

I take 6 to minimise the loss if they do get killed - quite often from combat, although they have managed to hold off and kill an Exarch so far! The Changeling is a brilliant upgrade and in small games has been a threat, particularly against Eldar Rangers (Ld8) and Orks - denying a unit from shooting due to player fear.

Perhaps this is their role to play, but I will endeavour to keep them alive in future games. As the army expands they are likely to be less of a priority target and the Changeling can only be in 1 place at a time afterall.

Battles report!

After a delicious weekend, the Forge of Souls records are so:

Wins: 4. Draws 2

500 vs Monkey (Win)
500 vs Ben (Win)
750 vs Lex (Win)
750 vs Lex (Draw)
750 vs Monkey (Draw)
750 vs Monkey (Win)

Extending from 500 to 750 has opened up 2 very powerful offensive units for my force and most have had trouble dealing with the Soulgrinder. Av11 in the rear, AV13 in the front, shrugging off shaken and stunned results - makes it tough to crack by anything non-specialised. The flamers have been devastating, usually rolling a hit to deploy, they've left Orks and Eldar reeling with no saves.

My force currently has 2 scoring and 5 kill points. The majority of games have been objectives, but I have won 3 through obliterating the enemy. Sometimes the mission really doesn't matter :)

Running objectives lets me deploy the Lord of Change as a bomb. A huge threat, most enemies have targeted their entire army at taking it down leaving the rest of my forces free reign and unhindered. In a few cases they haven't even brought it down despite the focus.

4 of my units can shoot. This may not be everyone's picture of daemons, but I feel the problem of deepstriking and being sitting ducks is easily offset with an alpha strike of shooting.

End of Month 1

Quite a successful month in conclusion, achieving the maximum 5 points for paint all 500 points of my force:

Lord of Change
Master of Sorcery
Instrument of Chaos

6 Horrors of Tzeentch
inc. The Changeling

7 Plague Bearers
Instrument of Chaos

I was fortunate enough to get a couple of 500 pt games played at our club's birthday bash, beating ben's Space Wolves and Monkey's Eldar.

Robo-daemons!

The Forge of Souls rewards a very few elite daemons with physical constructs to possess, enabling them to maintain a presence in the mortal realm almost indefinitely. In return they swear oaths of fealty to defend the Forge above all other allegiances should it fall under attack from forces of the chaos gods.

Most prominantly this eternal deal is spearheaded by the monstrous Soulgrinders, hybrid daemons mounted upon robotic lower bodies and legs. Little stands in the way of these giant warbringers on the field of battle, but their numbers are thinly spread and their sheer bulk prevents them from occupying various positions in daemonic forces.

Lesser daemon hybrids have been sighted alongside the Soulgrinders in the growing incursions. Creatures of all shapes and deformity, part robot, part warp abomination, these daemons seem to fulfil the role of infantry, marshalled into war by their larger brethren.

The Forge of Souls

As a brief introduction, I am taking part in my club's 'A tale of' project for 40k, hosted by Moon - check out this intro post for the project. I chose Codex Chaos Daemons and here is why:

• Many of the models, both old and new, exist within the limbo that is my archived projects (bits box).
• Being part of my bits box means somewhere, some time, I planned to invest in and develop this army.
• I was weak at the Forge World open day and bought a Brass Scorpion, Khorne Daemon Prince and Herald.
  
• Everyone else chose 'samey' armies.

Prior to starting the project, I explored various themes before choosing an army. I honestly felt myself going for Dark Eldar as an obvious choice to the concepts I was outlining. Typically my decisions were short lived and another Codex took stead.

With Daemons I took an interest to a small piece of background material attached to the Soul Grinders. Mention of a neutral daemonic forge within Chaos that produced such engines really grabbed my imagination. Also, being a Pre-Heresy fanatic, this opened a door into another interest of mine - the Dark Mechanicum of Mars. Imagination or not, I think the two are linked in various ways, a way - a path that I have chosen to explore.

Being neutral, I have the freedom to employ he entire armoury of the daemons without repercussions from over-zealous fluff fanatics. The Forge empoys and serves all deities, with the constructs holding strong reverence and oaths of fealty to it. I would like to have a heavy representation of constructs as far as feasible, it's just a shame Obliterators are not within the list.

Drawing inspiration, I have focused upon the works of H R Giger. String impressions of hybridisation between flesh and machine flow well with my plans. The dark metallics and eerie blues are definitely a style I wish to explore. If you look closely at Forgeworld's Brass Scorpion, it seems others have already been influenced by his fetishistic sexual imagery.

Reborn by fire!

*blows away the dusk*

A lot has changed since September. Heck, I even did some more Dusk Raiders, but have been mostly involved in my club's painting competition (won!), Warhammer Tournament (won!) and frantically painting a brand new Lizardmen army for the Carnage tournament (didn't win!).

To put this into pictures, I painted Fuegan (The burning lance) for the painting competition:.
I've had the model for over a decade getting dusty, dug him out with the intention of painting something that wouldn't be immediately obvious as to whose it was. That worked, but more importantly the judges rated it as the best - I can't complain at that!

The Warhammer Tournament was a fun, well-organised event, giving everyone the chance to test their mettle. I hoped to achieve a few things - facing a selection of armies and dispelling the club's belief that Vampire Counts were 'insert cheddary epithet'. I ended up facing them 3 times and won the tournament, so the latter was proven at least.

Carnage was a great experience, if a little tiring. I set out with the same hopes, I got to play 6 new opponents, but sadly 4 lots of Daemons! 3 victories and 3 defeats overall - pretty satisfied for my first big tournament!

Now? The Great Crusade is on the horizon and my marines have changed colour once more. I shall say no more until next blog!