Zulu War Project Introductions. Daveco and CommiTzarSmith

It would be fair to say that on this Blog I am the "Historical Guy" despite having 3 Heresy Armies and having a back ground in 40k for the last 20 years. On this blog page I do tend to post up the "other stuff" you see. I have a passion for history as regular readers will know and I enjoy many different time periods. Our newest Blogger CommiTzarSmith is also very passionate about all things history! So we got our heads together and decided on a "NEW PROJECT" The Idea came to me when watching that classic film - Roadhouse. Patrick Swayze's gave me a light bulb moment! ZULU WAR! (Don't know why)

Thank you Dalton, Bars are always safe when you are the Cooler

So I organized with CommiTzarSmith about factions and units we would need.

The First 70, ready to assemble.

Naturally I would need Zulus, CommiTzarSmith would take care of the British. Luckily for me both Warlord Games and Perry Miniatures cover the Zulu war. So I bought sets from both. A Wagon (to plunder) and for some reason some brilliant 28mm Chickens from a company called Warbases. Either way in the next weeks and months Me and CommiTzar will be documenting our progress on the miniatures and eventual battles we will fight. For now know I have 176 Zulus to build and paint...

From the film - Zulu. These Warriors were brave and much feared

What Rules to use? Dont Know.

What Size of Games? Dont Know, but you never see a Handful of Zulus do you? NO you see THOUSANDS OF EM!

Again from the film Zulu. This is what will happen to CommiTzarSmiths lines, completely overrun!

See you later

Daveco's Scourge Fleet - Drop Fleet Commander

Hello Blog fans,

This article is all about Drop Fleet Commander, a space ship battle game that is not 100 miles away from GWs Battle Fleet Gothic.

Written by Andy Chambers and David J Lewis (It is not the same game as Gothic but it has a certain feel of Gothic) This game is fun and involving shot on the space battle genre, with so many different layers of game play it sometimes becomes a true delicate balancing act of tactics and cunning that you never feel 100% sure of victory.

The Fleet.

Overview:
The battle in most scenarios take place above a planet, you are normally attempting take control of the planet via atmospheric invasion. Using your drop ships you land armoured and infnatry formations in the worlds cities.

There are four layers to the combat;

Orbit - this is the space part and is often the domain of your capital ships, I will explain why later.

Low Orbit - this will inevitably be where most of your ship to ship happens as you attempt to escort your vulnerable landing ships into the atmosphere

Atmosphere - in this layer only certain ships can enter, Only specialised frigates (drop ships) can survive the re-entry process.  If larger ships are forced into atmosphere (by damaged engines for example) they are destroyed in re-entry! Yep that's right, huge bristling with plasma weapons battle ships destroyed by going too low! It happens more than you want!

Ground - once you have landed your forces they will battle it out on the ground vs you opponents landing forces

Head on attack, the Scourge need speed and surprise to overcome the foe

Cruisers and Frigates supported by Fighter and Bombers

All of these layers combine too, you can shoot up or down (with penalties naturally). Shooting has no range but us measured by yous ships scanner range and the targets energy signature. So an enemy ship burning engines or shooting its weapons will really light up on your scanners and thus attract more fire. It is a supremely clever system to use. Sneaky or shooty, up to you but the louder you are the more you attract the attention of enemy targeting systems

Capital ships, so much fire power but what a fire magnet!

 This level of tactical complexity would be a nightmare if not for the smooth and innovative game system. All of the units on the table are grouped together and are sorted via tonnage (Battle ships to Frigates) the Lighter the tonnage the faster they are. Each action has a phase and is done in order. The game runs smooth, it takes a little effort to get used to but after you do you fly through it.

Bulk lander's deploy thousands of troops to the planets surface

My Chosen fleet is the Scourge, a mix of TV and Film's Goa'uld and GWs Dark Eldar. A parasite race of conquering raiders with fast ships and a taste for Plasma death and nighmare razor worms!

To paint them was so very simple:

1 Upoll Black undercoat
2 Vallejo Model Air Chain-mail Silver (airbrushed on only the top surfaces)
3 Vallejo Model Air Hexed Lichen (airbrushed in thin stripes over the silver)
4 Vallejo Model Air Green Zinc Chrome (airbrushed in tin stripes over the silver, making sure to leave some silver showing through)
5 Vallejo Black and Oiled Earth washes 50/50 all over. (applied through the air brush with 25% air thinner added to the mix)
Lights, Lasers and Engines. Citadel Scorpion Green.
AND that's it! Very fast but effective.

That all for now. I hope you enjoyed it.











 

Daveco's Escher Gang - The Sector 7 Sump Cats

Hello blog followers,

Its been a while since you heard from me. I know Abe and I made a battle report but nothing directly for a while. Well I have been in one of those "hobby black holes" where I can’t figure out what to do or when to do it. But All that is gone now, my new project is an Escher Gang from Necromunda.

I have never palayed Necromunda before, having no good or bad habits with the game I set off to build my gang and then paint them.

Wargear: Tough call for me, Im a veteran of the GW game Inquisitor (best thing since sliced bread in my opinion) So on that knwledge pool I drew my basis for the gang. A well quipped Leader and then a functional and cheap equipped gang. Lasguns were a must because the Escher ones look great and I would have to take the Clans signature toxin thrower weapon.

What do they look like?

Well I was aiming for a gang of women, I drew inspiration from Mad Max 2 (who dose not really when making post-apoc things). In particular the 'Warrior Woman' played by Virginia Hay. To me is the archetype Escher.

House of Escher indeed.

So The finished results. I went with Purple and Yellow for the gang colours but kept the white armour plates. I wanted them to look striking but also keep within the dark and gritty under-hive theme. The women are tough remorseless fighters who live in a nightmare underworld. That said they take great pride and effort with their gang colours and weapons to keep them in the best condition possible.

I think they go well with the terrain I have and look a very striking and brutal force on the tabletop.
I have got, Goliaths and Orlocks to do next. They will be along in good time and hopefully with compliment these Gangers.

Until then see you later. 

Horus Heresy Weekender Day Two- New Releases

We attended a fair few seminars today, mainly the new releases for necromunda and Horus Heresy. So here’s few pics from those. 

Heresy wise, aside form the actually releases of Dorn and co. I suppose the big news is the upcoming release of Alpharius and also the long awaited Lernean Terminators for the Alpha Legion. We have a member who should be posting some Alpha Legion soon, no doubt he’ll be keen to add these to his army.

Is this really Alpharius?

These look to be nice figures, long awaited for many Alpha Legion player

Next up there was a lot of necromunda stuff. This game is shaping up to be a great continuity game, lots of background, an evolving ruleset and extra stuff for each gang (like pets for your leaders, bounty hunters and new settings). After today I am far more excited about Necromunda and really glad I painted my Delaques!

Those new Escher weapons packs look great, I’m waiting until they come out to build my gang!

Lastly, some of the other stuff coming out this year for HH was far more esoteric and exciting with the return of a few old favourites.

I love the Termite, what a fun model this looks!

You will need a pretty big hole for this mole!

An auxiliary transport so you don’t need a Gorgon!

Maddest spider body since the Soul Drinkers!

Heresy Weekender- Day 2, Slate is clean, time for hobby fun

Here we are at day two of the Heresy Weekender, despite its best attempts, we beat Friday, today will be better!

A brief thank you to my long suffering fiancée, who a year ago agreed that I could carry on going to he Weekender this year, despite our baby being about seven weeks old on the dates in question. I do feel a bit guilty being away, but only a bit! So big thanks to her for letting me keep the sequence going, having been to all of them so far. I’ll pay her back with my time, she’s set for a spa day over the next couple of weeks so there’s a start. Here’s what I missed of my new daughter yesterday:

Clearly musical frogs are better than toy soldiers

Lots of seminars today to attend and stuff to buy. Abe and JB are a bit bummed that there’s nothing Dark Angels wise going on for a while, I’ll cover some of what went on in the next post, but we are more of a hobby blog than a news site, so I’m sure you’ve already heard about most of the stuff, never the less I’ll give my take on it and maybe you’ll see some stuff you didn’t elsewhere....

Horus Heresy Weekender 1- an unexpected journey, the lament of Abe and Stonedrose

Well, today was day one of our road trip to Nottingham for the Horus Heresy weekender and an auspicious day it was.....

Abe tries to start his car...

So the Weekender nearly ended early for us, let me relay the story....

We all got to Warhammer World at around eleven today. Abes car died..... of course it did, it’s Abe. Needless to say we carried on, we had gotten there and we had a game to play, Abe decided to test his car afterwards.

JB And Stonedroses glorious world eaters

We went back in time. Playing Istvaan III, with World Eaters vs Loaylist Death Guard And Sons of Horus (SoH commanded b6 our friend JP, who was with us for the Weekender). The fighting was bloody and I got to try out my Mastodon and new chain axes for my world eaters (anvil industries- highly recommended as they don’t snap!).

Daveco and JPs loyalist Death Guard And Sons of Horus 

We suffered some early losses when an assault squad and legion champion perished to a deep strike mishap, but my caestus assault rams and mastodon really helped get our ravening hordes in close. Kharn also got chopped up by a leviathan dreadnought!

The caestus prepares to send Legion veterans into the heart of the Death Guard formation 

The mastodon is so tough! It really helped to keep my squishy infantry locked up tight until the right moment, it also killed a few things too!

Chicken?

The world eaters won the day, holding a few extra objectives and just genrally killing more stuff! Thanks to the Warhammer World staff for getting us tables at short notice! We will have to plan ahead next time.

So, we check on Abes car, no dice... we jump start the car, no luck. Abe calls the RAC and we are trapped at Warhammer World for a bit. A burger or so later- it was a simple blown fuse and Abe Is back on the road, our fleet of three is ready to go...

My car battery is dead...many thanks to Dave, another gamer at Warhammer World from Cardiff, who tried to give me a jump start....this failed so I called the breakdown, they fixed the battery and advised me to drive ten miles, hence the “unexpected journey”.

We’re all in our respective hotels now, everything is ok. It’s been bit stressful and somewhere i appears to have lost a mastodon lascannon sponson so if anyone sees it at Warhammer World or can help, please let us know!

More tomorrow!

SR

The First Battle Report! Abes XVIII Legion vs. DAVEs VIII Legion

Hello and Welcome to our first Blog Battle Report. Daveco vs. Abenormal

We hope to bring back the good old days of these once treasured articles in White Dwarf. Our game of Choice at the Club is Horus Heresy. In the Dark days of the early Imperium battles are fought not against humanities many foes but against its very protectors.

Siege of the Von Strann Manse

On the war-torn world of Austellus Arbiea in the capital city Primus, battle is joined between two of the Emperors Legions. This planet was once a jewel in the crown and the very epitome of a complaint Imperial world. First discovered and brought into the Imperial fold by the XVIII Legion this world flourished thanks to the Salamanders efficient and gentle rule. After the Atrocities of the Istvaan system war soon found this world.

Jealous, hateful eyes regarded this prize as an affront to the true nature of the Imperium. Soon the sons of Nostromo Launched an attack with all the merciless and calculated malice of the Night Lords.

Daveco’s Army

Naturally being a good (bad) Son of the Sunless world, I wanted to teach the Imperial dogs a lesson in humility. This world was built on a lie and it will be torn apart by the truth… well my terror squads and raptors but that is beside the point.

I have a huge Night lords force almost 10k and counting, so for me it is hard to narrow it down to just 3500. I wanted the classics. So, three Terror Squads and one Squad of Night Raptors make up the starting point of the Army. These units are pretty useful at both shooting and combat, Terror squads have preferred enemy and make a mess of weaker enemy infantry. Raptors kind of do what they say the tin and kill stuff. After that I took a tough back line with two Terminator squads in their own Landraiders, to tie it all together A Large Tactical squad for my Praetor to live in (he was never going to lead from the front, was he?). A legion support squad with Volkite Claivers to add that bit of extra pop against my opponent’s harder infantry units. Two Storm eagle gunships and a Sicaran tank make up my mobile back up to act as a swift hard-hitting reserve.

I deliberately made the Night Lords legion look like a disorganised mess, they are after all an army of units that don’t really get on well with each other. All of my squads have names too, and background to go with them. Any questions feel free to ask.

15th Company under Avros Jasster

HQ:

·         Legion Praetor – Avros Jasster, Paragon Blade, Digital Lasers, Iron Halo and Melta-Bombs = 180pts (Master of the Legion – Terror Assault) 1

ELITES:

·         Legion Terminator Squad – Bedlam Krypt, Sgt with Pair of Lighting claws and grenade harness, 4 Terminators with, 2 Power fists, 1 Chain-fist, 1 Lightning claw, 1 Combi weapon and 1 Reaper Auto-cannon. Mounted in a Landraider Phobos Korsh (Armoured Ceramite) = 487pts 2

·         Legion Terminator Squad – The Head Takers, Sgt with Power fist, 4 Terminators with 2 Power fists, 2 Chain-fists and 1 Plasma blaster. Mounted in Landraider Phobos Movetium (Armoured Ceramite) = 470pts 3

TROOPS:

·         Terror Squad – The Red Skulls, Headsman with Power weapon, Melta-bomb and Volkite Charger. 9 Executioners with Volkite Calivers. Mounted in a Dreadclaw Drop pod = 355pts 4

·         Terror Squad – The Brotherhood of Duplicity, Headsman with Lightning Claw, Melta-bomb and Bolter. 9 Executioners with 4 Bolters = 230pts 5

·         Terror Squad – Third Claw, Headsman with Power Axe and Melta-bomb, 9 Executioners with 2 Bolters, 5 Volkite Chargers and 1 Rotor Cannon = 249pts 6

·         Legion Tactical Squad – Midnights Storm, Sgt with Lightning Claw and Melta-bomb, 18 Legionaries with Additional Combat blades = 273pts 8

·         Legion Support Squad – The Faceless Murder, Sgt with Augry Scanner and Volkite Caliver, 9 Legionnaires with Volkite Calivers = 225pts 7

FAST ATTACK:

·         Night Raptors – The Sunless Host, Hunt master with Chain-glaive and Melta-bomb. 9 Raptors with 1 Chain-glaive, 1 Melta-gun, 1 Plasma Pistol and 1 Power weapon = 315pts 9

·         Storm Eagle Gunship – Korvash-ull (red tail fins), Las-cannons and Missile Launcher = 255pts 10 

·         Storm Eagle Gunship – Nishallitha Valas (white tail fins), Multi-melta and Hell strike missiles = 245pts 11

HEAVY SUPPORT

·         Sicaran Tank – Vallia Vor, sponson mounted Las-cannons and Auxiliary drive = 215pts 12

Army Total 3499pts

I hope you enjoy the Battle and AVE DOMINUS NOX.