A Campaign of Silence?

   Starting in August, one of my friends and I will be beginning a campaign leading up to a large point apocalypse game in late December, or early January.  It will be a mix of Battle Fleet Gothic and Warhammer 40,000 spread across a sub-sector of Ork controlled space.  In the weeks to come I will be switching between blogging about models I am working on, and various aspects of this coming campaign.  I am going to try to weave fiction in with the various battle reports, army lists and happenings of the campaign.  Below is a bit of fiction to kick things off:

    The flight deck was over crowded, as men and servitors sought to shift equipment and material as it came aboard the Resurgence from Macragge below.  Towering above everyone except the largest load lifting servitors, stood a cobalt armored giant, his right shoulder pad marked with the inverted omega of the Ultramarines.  Choreographing the dance, his orders beat time to his harsh, staccato voice; his focus never leaving the data slate in his outsized hand.
     "Progress report sergeant" ordered the voice of Captain Ixion over the vox.
     "Proceeding to at acceptable parameters" replied the sergeant as he broke from his cadence to address his superior.
     "I am counting on you brother"
     "It shall be done Captain" replied sergeant Julian.
     With a click, the conversation had ended, and Julian continued his logistics assignment.  A part of his brain wondered why the chapter was not utilizing one of its own strike cruisers for this mission.  But it was not for him to decide.  Only to execute the orders.  Soon the flight deck had cleared enough that a trio of Storm Talons, escorting a pair of Storm Ravens could all dock with the Resurgence.  Nestling in close by a trio of Thunderhawks, the Ares and the Artemis, and their companion lander, the Athena.
     As the engines of the Storm Ravens began to power down, the front boarding ramp opened, and down marched six Ultramarines.  At their head strode Captain Ixion of the 7th company.  His cloak swirling behind him, each step the measured stride of powered armor.  His command squad followed, apothecary Marius, ancient Diomedes, company champion Artorius, veteran sergeant Acostius, and veteran brother Eusebius.  Brother Julian came to attention as his captain strode toward him.
     Only a few strides from the Storm Raven, the vox channel of the Ultramarines opened company wide.  "Brothers, our final moments in Ultramar are upon us, we march to war.  For the Emperor!  For blessed Guilliman! and for Macragge!"  The words of Captain Ixion echoed in the minds of his men for a long instance.  Then his voice broke through again.  "Brothers, there will be a company wide briefing in two hours, before then, all sergeants to the Strategium.  Courage and honor!"

First Game of 7th Edition

I got to play my first game of Warhammer 40,000 7th edition the other day.  For this game I chose to take A terminator captain with power fist and combi-plasma, a terminator squad with a cyclone missile launcher, a terminator squad with an assault cannon, a lightning claw terminator squad and a thunder hammer and storm shield terminator squad, a terminator librarian, a land raider, land raider crusader and a knight paladin.  My opponent had a sisters army with Saint Celestine, Cannoness, Inquisitor with rad grenades and psychotropic grenades, 2 exorcists, two immolators with multimelta, an immolator with heavy flamers, an avenger, a knight paladin, two squads of ten sisters of battle, 10 Seraphim and 5 dominions.

This was an interesting game, using one of the Maelstrom of war scenarios.  My opponent had the new objective cards and psychic power cards, which I neglected to purchase being unsure of how often I would be able to game.  So far, it looks like a good choice as I have only played this game.  My initial impression revolved more around the wackiness of Lord of War choices more than anything, as when both of our Knight titans exploded in titanic proportions, large swathes of the board were emptied, especially my opponents newly arrived Seraphim squad.

I found that focusing on the objective cards gave me a good chance at victory, in fact I had managed to cash in enough by the end that i would have won had I not been tabled.  The psychic phase was fairly ineffective as well.  My biggest take away was that Inquisitors with rad grenades and psych out grenades are ridiculous.  It was one of those moments where the old me would have known the meta and expected it.  My current rules knowledge is fairly low in terms of what the different armies offer other than Space Marines.  I've known it for a while, but I am no longer a competitive player, more a hobbyist.  Something I need to keep in mind as I continue to play games.

Ultramarine Centurions

Having only recently begun to get back into gaming, I've been paying more attention to the meta on the 40k forums.  Especially for unit optimization, where in the past I've always been more concerned with what i thought looked cool.  Enter some Grav equipped Centurions.

This is the second squad of Centurions I've built, and just like the first go around, the trickiest part for me was the weapon hosing on the back.  For one thing, the instructions are only for two builds, and don't show the third model.  So your assumed to be able to figure it out from the first two.  I can do this, but it makes it a little harder to insure the arms are posed properly.

Just like the Limited Edition Captain, these models are painted as members of the Ultramarine's 7th company, and follow the layering that i have been using with the current line of GW paints.  Once painted, they were sealed with Testor's Dullcote, and then had tactical insignia applied to their shoulder pad.