Uriah Jacobus, Protector of the Faith and Tournament Update

I had a mad rush on to get the last model painted up for my Sister of Battle army for a small Freebootaz tournament which took place at Warhammer World in early February.

The final model to paint was Uriah Jacobus:

The tournament I used my Sisters in was a 1000 points per player doubles tournie (Saturday was singles when I played Chaos). My list was:

HQ:

Uriah Jacobus, 9 Death Cult Assassins (225)

Troops:
Battle Sister Squad, 1 Melta Gun, 1 Heavy Flamer, Rhino (190)
Battle Sister Squad, 1 Melta Gun, 1 Storm Bolter, Rhino (173)

Fast Attack:
7 Seraphim, twin inferno pistols (140)

Heavy Support:
Exorcist with searchlight (136)
Exorcist with searchlight (136)

I had been due to team up with an IG army, but my partner was ill and couldn't make it down. Fortunately, someone else stepped up and I teamed with his Grey Knights which proved to be a pretty good combination (since we won!).

Uriah Jacobus was awesome as a force multiplier, for several reasons.

Firstly, he gives you a re-roll of your dice to generate Faith Points each turn. At 1000 points, I didn't find this particularly essential as I rarely used more than one or two points per turn, but since the Faith mechanic doesn't really scale that well, in larger games I can see the re-roll being important.

Secondly, he carries the Banner of Sanctity. This gives his unit +1A and Feel No Pain. Combined with Death Cult Assassins this is brutal. FnP is handy since they only have a 5+ save (and assuming you can make FnP rolls which I never can), but +1A is also pretty nasty.

Thirdly, he has the Righteous Rage special rule. This is identical to a Space Marine Chaplain's Liturgies of Battle rule, so it gives re-rolls to hit on the charge.

Fourthly, he's Stubborn and Ld10. Being an IC he confers this on any unit he joins.

The unit I ran above (Jacobus and DCA) had 45 I6, WS5, S4 power weapon attacks on the charge, with re-rolls to hit. Against a 5 man GK terminator squad, this ended up causing 27 wounds with no armour saves. Next game, they carved through a SM tactical squad like they weren't even there. The weakness of this unit is that if you can be out Initiatived (like assaulting into cover) you are going to get hurt as DCA are not that survivable. You're also vulnerable to getting left in the open after an assault and then being shot to pieces.

Ogre Rhinox Rider

I've been lax on blogging recently, but I've been doing a reasonable amount of hobbying since Christmas.

This guy has been sat on my painting table since Christmas 2010, so I finally got round to painting him up. A Forge World Ogre Rhinox Rider:


This was a great model to paint, and Forge World have even updated the rules for the beast:

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Downloads/Product/PDF/r/Rhinox.pdf

I've also picked up the new Ogre Kingdoms book and drawn up a list using the stuff I currently own. I just need to convert a Butcher/Slaughermaster and a BSB and I can run it at 2000 points, assuming I can use the Rhinox rider (who seems a bit undercosted to me, but I'm no expert on Fantasy).

Ordo Malleus Inquisitor Conversion

This is something I've been working on on and off for past couple of months. It's an Ordo Malleus Inquisitor for the all Inquisition Grey Knights army I'm planning on doing:

This is easily the most ambitious sculpting I've ever attempted and I've learnt alot about doing it in the process. I'm pleased with the result, and I hope to do a decent paint job on it.

The conversion is based on a WFB Chaos Warrior, with a leg swap to give him a more power armoured look. The head is taken from the Space Marine commander box. The remainder was endless green stuff work.

Two major lessons I learnt from this project:

1- Only ever work on a small part of the model at a time, don't be tempted to do big swathes of it at once or you'll spoil what you've just done.

2- You always need less green stuff that you think you need. Some of the amounts I ended up working with on this model were minuscule.

Hobby Resolutions

It's that time of year again, where I can review what I did (or didn't) get done in the hobby year 2011.

This is what my resolutions were last year:

1- Buy less models, and paint the ones I've got -FAILED

2- Finish my Witch Hunters to the 1500 point list I've written (I technically have more than 1500 points worth) - FAILED

3- Finish my Ogre army - FAILED

4- Play some Malifaux - DONE

5- Play 25 games of either 40K or Fantasy - FAILED

6- Get some work done on my 40K Chaos Daemons army - FAILED

So in all in all not that great a result. Must try harder.

So for 2012, I am resolving to:

1- Get Witch Hunters to 1500 points

2- Get Inquisition army to 1500 points

3- Play more games this year than last year

4- Play Blood Bowl on the table top, paint my BB team

5- Play another game of Apocalypse

Blood Bowl Necromantic Team

The Blood Bowl Legendary Edition PC game was dirt cheap a few weeks back on Steam, so I took a punt and downloaded it. I'm glad I did, as I'd forgotten what a good game Blood Bowl is!

Anyway, it got me fired up again to do some Blood Bowl mins. I've been playing a Necromantic team on the PC, so I went for the same on the tabletop.

Werewolves, mostly Ork/Orc bitz:

Ghouls and Wights, made from the Vampire Counts range:

And zombies:

Malifaux: Legion Of Sorrows so far

It's impossible to only own one crew in Malifaux with some many great models. The models in Pandora's crew were some of the those that got me interested in Malifaux in the first place so I definitely wanted those next:

Baby Kade and Candy are tiny figures (Kade especially) so they're not easy to paint at all. I just need to paint Pandora now and they're done to 35SS. In addition to these, I've got Coppelius and Insidious Madness to add (and some Alps for Coppelius to summon).

Sister of Battle at 1000 points list

I was quite excited when I heard Sisters were getting a new Codex in White Dwarf as I'm a huge fan of the army. They're what I've been playing most in 40K this year of the few days I've been able to play. However, once the thing arrived I was fairly disappointed. Some of my favourite units (Inquisitors for example) were gone, and as I write this GW doesn't seem to making any efforts to bring the cost of the Battle Sisters down at all.

But, since I like the army, I wanted to persevere with it so I sat down and wrote up a list to replace my old 1000 point list:

HQ:
Uriah Jacobus, 5 Death Cult Assassins, 4 Crusaders in a Rhino (260)

Troops:
Battle Sister Squad, Melta gun, heavy flamer, rhino (180)
Battle Sister Squad, MG, Storm Bolter, Rhino (163)

Fast:
6 Seraphim, twin hand flamers, power sword for Superior (130)

Heavy:
Exorcist (135)
Exorcist (135)

From my old list, my old jump pack Canoness is gone (no jump pack available now, plus I don't need her 2 Faith points any more), Inquisitor and retinue are gone, and my small unit Inquisitorial Storm Troopers are also gone. In are the Seraphim, and Jacobus who is pretty much mandatory I think.

I don't want to spend a ton of cash on new units so I'm having to make do with what I've got. Jacobus and his unit I don't own, but I think I can build them from plastics fairly cheaply.

I haven't tried this list yet, so I'll post some feedback once I get to trying it out.

Malifaux: Nicodem Crew completed (for now)

Two months without a post.... I've just been really pushed for time these last few months, and blogging is one things that has gone by the wayside a little bit.

Anyway, I've not been totally idle on the gaming front. I've played a couple of games of Malifaux with my Nicodem crew (1 draw Vs The Viktorias, 1 loss Vs Lady J), and done some Malifaux painting.

My mindless zombie horde is done now....

...giving me 8 Mindless Zombies in my crew. I can really recommend these models from Studio Miniatures, they're really nicely scuplted.

Malifaux being a game that features alot of counters, I decided to knock up proper ones.

Corpse Counters (probably need more of these really):

Evidence Markers:

Treasure and Claim Markers:

And finally some Shafted markers for my Crooked Men:

I'm just short of some dynamite counters and a supply wagon and I'll have a full set.

Malifaux: More stuff

I've been pretty neglectful recently of both the blog and the hobby, as I've started a new job at the end of April, and had a third son which as you can imagine has taken up a fair bit of time ;)

I'm on paternity leave for two weeks though so I'm back in the swing of things and putting more work into the Undertaker's Lot.

Flesh Construct:

I'm not a huge fan of the sculpt for this miniature, the head is just silly looking. It is however the single highest Soulstone cost model that Nicodem can summon so I wanted to include him as a nice meat shield.

Canine Remains:

I've just got the two of these so far, I might bump them up to a pack of 4. With the two, I plan on using them as free corpse counters.

Punk Zombies:



Nice models but the swords bend really easily. The flag on Johnny the Rotten as I'm calling him is a bit shaky but it looks OK from a distance (I nicked the idea for this off someone on the Wyrd forums, kudos to them).

Mindless Zombies:



The first two of 4, these are by Studio Miniatures. The zombies are modern ones, but I think I can pass them off as Malifaux zombies. I have zombie mob 4 as I thought it was the most "non-modern" of them but they've got loads of other cool zombies I was tempted by.

Malifaux: Mortimer the Gravedigger

I'm still plodding along with my crew. Mortimer is now all done, and he got finished surprisingly quickly. I actually finished this model about a fortnight ago, I've just been so busy I've not had time to post him up.

This was an enjoyable model to paint, there's alot of character in the face which I enjoyed painting.

I based up 2 canine remains, a flesh construct, 3 punk zombies and 8 zombies to go in this crew.

Stylish Blogger Award

Imagine my surprise when I heard from Meatball from My Dice Hate Me that he had been kind enough to nominate my inane ramblings for a Stylish Blogger Award! I was both shocked and pleased, especially as I've not been as on top of things in the world of blogging as I should have been in recent months.

The Stylish Blogger Award given from one blogger to another one might say, is like a pat on the back for a good job. It's definitely a viral, zombie-like spread of good will so it's too good to pass up.

There are four rules for the Stylish Blogger Award:

• Thank and link back to the person giving you the award
• Share seven things about yourself
• Select 10-15 blogs who you think deserve this award
• Contact these bloggers and let them know about the award

So first of all, a big thanks to Meatball for choosing my blog. I've been reading his blog (in both his previous and current incarnations) for a long time now, being as he is a fellow Witch Hunter's player. If you don't already, go and check out My Dice Hate Me and click on the Follow button.

So first of all, seven things about me:

1. I like zombies. Anything to do with zombies really. My favourite non-Romero zombie movies are Zombi 2 (aka Zombie Flesh Eaters), Zombieland and Tombs of the Blind Dead.
   
2. I have (almost) 3 sons.
3. The first miniature I ever painted was the dwarf from the Warlock of Firetop Mountain boardgame
4. Having The Hobbit read to me at school when I was about 8 changed my life
5. You can follow me on twitter @tigerstyle40k
   
6. I've been into miniature wargaming since 1989, but I did stop for 12 years between 1995 and 2007
7. Apart from minis and zombies, I also like podcasts, music, Lego and sleep.
   

So here's my list of bloggers to nominate (aside from My Dice Hate Me go and check that out anyway) in no particular order :

1- Standard Template Construct: Roleplayer is a fabulous painter, even if you don't like Space Marines (like me), then check out his work.

2- The Lower Crypt: This is a Malifaux terrain blog, and there's some really great stuff on here. It's a little behind in being updated, but check it out for the awesome terrain.

3- Warpstone Flux: Jabberjabber has been a long time follower and supporter of this blog, and he always impresses me with his regular updates whilst still maintaing high quality.

4- Excommunicate Traitoris: Superb paint jobs focussing on Inquisition armies.

5- The Glorious Works: The guys running this blog provide regular Malifaux oriented posts, which I always enjoy reading.

6- Constantly Risking Obscurity: Consistently excellent and interesting post from Mike, and he's been kind enough to offer advice to me in the past.

7- John's Toy Soliders: Another long time follower, John provides varied and consistent updates, and some nice photos as well.

8- Kantor Base: The Hammer provides excellent 40K coverage and even some Fantasy.

9- Sons of Twilight: 40K and Lego, two of my favourite things.

10- 2 Ton Studios: Wolfy is a friend of mine and a fellow Freeboota so check out his 40K painting blog as well. He's casting some sweet bases as well.

Hope you enjoy reading these blog. If one of these blogs is yours then drop me a comment below to say you've seen it to save me the job of contacting you.

Cheers
Chris

Malifaux: Grave Spirit

More Malifaux stuff, with still more to come.

This time a Grave Spirit and another try out of OSL:


This totem will link to another model and confer them Armor 2, which reduces the number of wounds inflicted. One of these combined with Nicodem for example (who is already Hard to Wound 1 and can assign hits to nearby zombies) makes him tough to kill.

Malifaux: Crooked Men

I've started a new job this week, so I haven't had much chance to paint anything for almost a fortnight, but today the kid's were out all day leaving me with several hour painting time.

So... Crooked Men:



The one in the middle is my first ever attempt at OSL:

I've got the idea I think, just need to work on the execution. I'll be giving this another go with my grave spirit I think.

And this one has a really wierd zombie canary in his hand:

This guy has a flat top to his head like Helicopter Zombie for Dawn of the Dead.



Still to come in this crew:

-Mortimer the Gravedigger
-3 Samurai Punk Zombies
-2 Canine Remains
-Grave Spirit
-Flesh Contrust

Malifaux: Vultures

I've finished the next models in my crew, 2 vulture totems. I'm not I'll ever want to field two (not unless it's a really big game), but when I bought the models second hand I got two of them. They look OK from tabletop distance anyway.




I've had some more models arrive this week for the crew as well: 2 canine remains, 3 punk zombies and a flesh construct. They've been added to my "to paint" list.

The rules manual also arrived on Tuesday. I'm really impressed with it, it makes alot of the areas that the main book is vague on (blast markers and corpses counters are two examples I've struggled with), and it's got a huge section on strategies and schemes. I'm guessing some of this must be taken from "Rising Powers" (which I don't own yet), as there are master specific schemes in there for masters which are only in that book.

Malifaux: Bat rep, Nicodem Vs McMourning (25ss)

I played my first (almost) full game of Malifaux last night. This was at 25ss. I say it was almost full, we just both used the Slaughter strategy rather than flipping for it, the idea being to keep it simple as I'm still learning the game and my opponent was still learning a new crew.

He was my list:
Nicodem, The Undertaker
Mortimer, The Gravedigger
3 Crooked Men
1 Vulture
Soulstone Cache of 7

And the opposing crew:
Dr Douglas McMourning
Sebastian
Flesh Construct
4 Canine Remains
Soulstone Cache of about 5-6

Deployment was just standard across the board.

I kept back, and castled up my crooked men around Nicodem. Mortimer dug up a corpse counter and Nicodem raised a mindless zombie from it to protect himself. My vulture headed forward and I attempted a Decay through it against the dogs, but I was cheated out of it.

McMouring and his crew headed forward fast, McMourning using his scalpel sling off the Flesh Contrust to catapult himself another 6" of so forward, but wounded the Flesh Construct in the process.

Things were starting to look bad around turn 2 or 3. I was really thinking I was going to get kerb stomped as I was not confident in my own crew's melee abilities, but this point was where it turned round.

My Crooked Men used Shafted to block the route between some terrain. This meant the Flesh Construct had to risk it, so my opponent sent his dogs into clear it, wounding them in the process. I dropped another Shafted on my activation in the same place, so he had to send in another dog. His other surviving dog charged and wounded my third Crooked Man. The FC then killed a Crooked Man. At this point, he had two dogs and a wounded Construct (I'd softed it up as it advanced using Cave In) very close together.

Nicodem then used Decay to kill the dog that had wounded my Crooked Man, leaving him free to Cave In the Flesh Contruct, killing it and using the blasts to kill the two dogs near him.

Next turn, Nicodem had what he needed: alot of Corpse Counters. I summoned my Crooked Man back and then raised 6 mindless zombies. Nicodem then used Rigor Mortis to paralyze McMourning. I pretty much managed to keep McMourning paralyzed for the rest of the game, which was just as well, as on the one turn I didn't do it (thanks for a rubbish control hand), he caused carnage, killing Mortimer and a zombie and healing 8 wounds. I eventually killed Sebastian and McMourning resulting in a win, mainly thanks to Bolster Undead making my zombies much tougher.

A great game overall, very tactical and I really had to think about how my crew works, particularly with more of a support caster like Nicodem. I'm not sure how I would have faired in a strategy which required me to move around the board more.