Categorie: DaanofWar

End of Summer Update Part 2: The Updating

Hey everyone!

You’ll be glad to know that Part 2 of the End of Summer Update is now upon you. In the last post I pretty much talked about some personal stuff, the decimator and the megabattle. Now I’d like to show some stuff I’ve been up to for the past few weeks. First off: Games Day Germany.
Games Day Germany!
The golden daemon cabinets and viewing crowds at Games Day (Image posted at dakkadakka.com)

Yes, yes. I went to a Games Day convention. For the first time as well, I might add. To cut right to the point: I kinda have mixed feelings about the whole experience. Looking back I feel like I had a pretty good time. I went there with a great bunch of friends and things like the Golden Daemon (painting) competition, the seminars and several of the army/store displays were absolutely fantastic. Köln is also a pretty cool city and though we didn’t get to sight see much, the whole thing had a kind of ‘holiday’ feel to it. Getting a limited edition mini was also very nice.

Some Golden Daemon entries were just sickeningly cool.
The world’s most expensive gaming table (left) and the world’s most original ‘huge combined army effort’ (right).

“The guys” doing what they do best: Fail at speed painting competitions (left) and more sick-ass GD entries (right).
Despite these awesome things, most of the day actually consisted of waiting for my friends to get through the forgeworld line and walking around stores that sold stuff we could buy cheaper at home. Pretty much 50% of the convention area was some sort of store and besides enabling you to look at cool stuff, a lot of the rest of the convention wasn’t all that interactive. In fact, the terrain workshop and the scrap daemon (two of the most interactive things of the day) were pretty much picked clean of their bits after the first two or three hours. Also: the whole convention kinda had a Games-Workshop propaganda feel about it that I never really understood about the company. What I guess I’m saying is that the unfortunate fact that GW has a pretty close-knit inner culture, where their own products are never really criticized and ignorance of the rest of the miniatures hobby is encouraged, really leaps out to me at an all-GW convention such as this.
So, despite having had a fun day out with my gaming buddies, I doubt we’ll feel the need to spend our money on more Games Day tickets any time soon. As for other recent developments:

Glimpse of the Golden Age Campaign!

Our store doesn’t usually do very well in finishing campaigns (as might have been deduced by my previous attempts at campaign reports), but this one actually looks like a keeper for once!

The campaign was set up by Str10_Hurts (aka Piers) from our local club and he’s reporting the campaign extrensively on warseer.

Last friday I played my first mission against Scar/Peter (the guy who painted the fortress of redemption from the last post) and his lovely Grey Knights.


Everything looked to be going well at the start of turn 2…

The battle was great fun and it was a challenge to fight Scar’s twin dreadknights. I blame my loss on my lack of experience with the new edition and the unfortunate demise of my warlord/daemon prince. He basically got gunned down by random bolterfire in a single turn, which was a bit of a wierd moment for me, being forced to change my entire plan and go on the defensive.

I’ll be playing another battle this friday against Jordy with his Imperial guard so I’ll be sure to update the blog after that as well. In the meantime:

Death to the False Emperor!

End of Summer Update

Hello Readers! Welcome back to Daan of War!

The past couple of months have been kinda busy. Big thing was that I finally have a proper job! For about a month now I’ve been working as a cell culture biotechnician at a large pharmaceutical company and it’s going pretty well so far.

Another cool thing was the trip to Ireland for the “Magic is Might” conference. Me and my dad (Berry Eggen) wrote a paper on magical objects in Harry Potter and how they relate to the design of intelligent, everyday technology. It’s all some pretty interesting stuff when you think about it and the conference itself was a big hit as well. So big in fact that it got featured in the 9 ‘o clock news on one of Ireland’s main TV stations along with most newspapers and radio shows: http://www.rte.ie/news/av/2012/0724/media-3351559.html

Before that we also got to present the article at the Dutch Technology Week alongside some very renowned scientists, including two Nobel prize winners! http://dutchtechnologyweek.com/nl/events/1/smart-meets-smart-kick-off-dutch-technology-week

Now, with all of that non-hobby-related stuff out of the way, let’s move on to more important things:

I Finished My Decimator!

Yes people, the decimator has been painted and looking exactly like a giant daemonic dreadnought from hell should look:

Also in the background one might notice the long forgotten Fortress of Redemption: A dusty relic of an ancient time (a time when I used to volunteer for Games Workshop and didn’t know what to get for all the free credits I was building up). It has recently been revitalised and painted up properly by one guys at the club. He did the entire thing free of charge on the premise that we’d keep the fortress in the Gameforce for public use. The guy’s online handle is “Scar” by the way and he has a pretty cool painting service that you should check out. How come these two amazing projects have been painted all of a sudden, you ask? Well, it was mostly because…

We Had a Megabattle!

And an epic megabattle it was. Below are some pics:


Thanks go to Marcus for all the great photo’s!
The whole thing was pretty epic and was mainly cool because everybody had a painted army to field. Unfortunately though, we had some issues due to a power unbalance between the two sides along with some weird deployment decisions, which caused the game to come to an end before we were even able to get started on turn four. A bit of a pity, but a lot has been learned and hopefully we’ll be able to do a better one in the future, which basically everyone agreed on that we should.
Well, for now I’ll leave it at this and tip my hat to anyone who’s still reading. Maybe I’ll be able to post up some stuff from my more recent activities tomorrow.
Death to the False Emperor!

Decimated

No big update today. Just a teensy one because I just can’t resist showing off my new toys. Feast your eyes on a brand spankin’ new Chaos Decimator Daemon Engine (it has too many names).

Big mini. Tiny base.

The image was taken before priming. Assembling the model was an enormous bitch as I had to pin nearly every joint and socket in this thing and still had trouble fitting it in a pose that didn’t make it look like it was either standing motionless or tipping over. In the end I feel happy with the result. Only thing that needs to be done is fitting the magnets that I’m going to use for the weapon mounts (I also have a siege claw, butcher cannon and stormlaser for it) as well as the painting. Hopefully more updates on this project as it develops.
Also this:


Coolest. Cover. Ever.

If you have ever even remotely considered the Night Lords to be a cool legion I sincerely urge you to get your hands on the amazing trilogy books by Aaron Dembski-Bowden. Void Stalker is the last installment and I can’t freaking wait to read it.

Death to the False Emperor.

Battle of the Clubs 2012

About a week ago I went to another edition of Battle of the Clubs. I always go to these events mainly to help support and represent my club and not so much because I actually feel the need to compete on a national level. I can count myself lucky though, since it seems almost everyone I meet who does come to compete has something to complain about. It’s either the new scoring system, the increasing number of guard players, the terrain, the overpoweredness of grey knights and space wolves or the sportsmanship scoring system.
So, as said, I count myself lucky and am just thankful for the three cool battles I experienced as a non-competetive BotC attendee.


Nids. Why doth thou vex me so?

First up was a tyranid list. It was a last minute change-up from what originally was meant to be space marines. I always have trouble with tyranids because nobody at our club really plays them and since they’re an army that pretty much has it’s own special rule for everything, I am constantly surprised by what my opponent is capable of. Which is kind of a bad thing if I remember my Sun Tzu quotes correctly. Nevertheless, early in the game I made the completely wrong call to charge defilers into his big monsters which pretty much ended my chances of killing them. The battle was a massacre.


An uncharacteristically heroic unit at the bottom grabs the objective in the nick of time.

The second battle was a minor loss against a counts-as space wolf terminator list The battle ended on turn 5 at a point where I had just been able to move my last scoring unit onto my home objective. I had lost almost everything else in the battle, but thankfully 40k rules state that you’ve only actually lost the game if your opponent has more objectives than you. The tournament rule that a draw becomes a minor loss if the victory point difference is big enough swung through in my opponent’s favor though. Great game nontheless and exciting till the very end.


So much blue on so much orange! This was my least favorite table color so far.

Last game was a draw against ultramarines. This was the first time I was actually winning the match. I had claimed 2 out of 3 objectives while my opponent had only 1. Or that’s what I thought. My opponent had strategically neglected to inform me that a scoring unit that was near my second objective wasn’t actually within the required 3 inches. This made me feel incredibly stupid, but then again:  for me it’s the moral victory that counts. Knowing that you can win a match as long as you remember to keep track of tiny details such as this is good enough for me.

In the end I guess the biggest reason why going to Battle of the Clubs was a good idea is the fact that I have now finally managed to finish all my terminators.


Look at them! They’re so pretty.

So that’s all for now. In a few weeks I’ll be attending another tournament and hopefully playing some campaign battles in the meantime. Catch you later and…

Death to the False Emperor!

The Second Vault / Eye of the Beholder

Blood Angels. 
Another Librarian. 
Vault 681 must be reached.
Weren’t we taxed enough already?
We must accept our fate as the Changer declares it.
I’d rather have the angels accept their fate, daemon.
Achieve this and the day will be ours.
Let’s make it quick then.
An acid rainstorm?
An amusing twist in the Changer’s scheme.
That’s very nice. You know it’s causing warp interference, right?
A challenge presented to us by Fate itself.
You know it will be harder for us to manifest, right?
The Scheming One tests our endurance.
 You know you’re not actually helping, right?
Ok, their transports are blown and their numbers significantly reduced.
You’ve done your best.
Thanks, but I doubt we’ll be able to stall them long enough for the troops to reach the vault.
The Changer knows the value of sacrifice best of all.
Good. ‘Cause where this is going, he’s going to see a lot more of it. 
He knows.
The unit behind us won’t make it and we don’t have much time left ourself.
He will welcome us with open arms.
Let’s hope we’re worth it then.
The Lord of Fate has no use for hope.
“Well… fuck.” Karth Doomfist voxed out loud as the enemy librarian flung The Shadowcursed back into the warp. It took him a moment to realise his squad had stopped firing, in awe of the supernatural fenomenon as they were. “Keep firing, you jackasses!” He yelled again through the vox. Before the squad could properly target their foes, the roar of Blood Angel jump packs was already upon them. “Raaaargh! Damn you fools! I hate you all!” Karth roared as he completely lost his marbles after realising how stupid his squad had been. They were so entranced by the battle between the Daemon and the librarian that, before they realised things weren’t going their way, they had lost their only chance to escape.

Like a cornered beast, a primal instinct seemed to sieze Doomfist as he recklessly flung himself at the aproaching librarian and immediately got his head chopped off. The expression on Karth’s face, as it soared through the stormy air, was one of rabid astonishment. The last thing his eyes had seen was his own powerfist, punching through a librarian’s skull.

So ends another episode of Daan’s Dissapointing Battle Results. A loss against Michael’s Blood Angels was suffered in an Annihilation mission last night. Still a pretty fun battle though. At least the acid rain mechanic was kinda fun (S2 AP3 hit to every model not in cover).
As an excuse for the lack of updates, I spent the last few weeks going through some pretty life changing events. I finally graduated from college (I’m a Bachelor of Science now) and I got my first car. Next on the list is finding a job. Something I’ve been told won’t be the cake walk it should have been due to the current business climate blah blah blah. Further updates on the situation as it develops. In the meantime I kinda like not having to work all day for once and have finally found some time to catch up on all the anime, games and series I’ve been neglecting with my graduation.


“Quick! To the Daanmobile!”

As for 40k… Next week is Battle of the Clubs. I still need to paint a lot of terminators. I might post progress pics later this week, I might not. I will definately try and give a post-Battle of the Clubs report next week. Stay tuned.

Death to the False Emperor!

The First Vault / Eye of the Beholder

“Velkath. Report your status.” A dark voice spoke from within the squad leader’s mind. This voice was very much unlike the patchy vox communications that Velkath was used to getting from his other superiors. It sounded foreboding, ominous and undeniably clear. The voice belonged to the Shadowcursed, a being so above his followers, he did not need to communicate with them through traditional channels. “Events are progressing as planned, Lord.”
It was the first time this battle that Velkath had been able to speak such a sentence. Up until the last twenty minutes or so, the battle had deviated as far from the plan as had been possible. The goal of the battle was to gain access to one of the great vaults of Gorhna Spire III. The door to the vault had been protected by ancient force fields, which were controlled by pair of consoles. In a stroke of bad luck the thrice cursed Ultramarines (choir boys of the Imperium as Hathos liked to call them) already appeared active at the scene. Apparently setting up a base camp at the site before going after the consoles. 
As soon as the presence of the Emperor’s lap dogs had been detected, the entire Shades of Tranquil warband was thrown into a frenzied rush towards the vault doors. Exploiting the fact that one of the Ultramarine’s librarians had temporarily disabled the force field, Chaos Lord Tyrin had led a small group of fighters straight to the vault. Realising their librarian’s mistake and possibly afraid of what Tyrin might uncover, the Ultramarines sent out a massive vanguard of army commanders, dreadnoughts and veteran marines. 
What happened afterwards was lost in the maelstrom of combat. Velkath’s squad had been sent after the first console and the Ultramarine librarian. Getting rid of the librarian with bolter fire, they managed to reach the console. It was then that they recieved their first order from the Shadowcursed himself to bring the force fields back up again. Apparently, the daemon had secured the second console himself and his plan was to trap their foes within the force fields and the vault itself. This would leave the rest of the warband free to raid the base camp. Figuring out how to work the ancient consoles had proven to be quite a task for Velkath’s squad. When they had finally managed to re-activate the force fields, Hathos’s torrent of rage-fueled remarks gave Velkath the impression that it had been a very close call indeed.
“You have my persmission to engage. Velkath.” The Shadowcursed spoke. “Hathos has confirmed that there are no more enemies at his position and will assist your unit in assaulting the base. I am returning to the Gift and I am leaving the battlefield in his hands.”
“As you command, Lord.” Velkath replied back through his mind, feeling great disgust at the thought of having to take orders from Hathos again. Velkath’s next thought then automatically went to: “How much of mythoughts are actually being heard by the Shadowcursed?”, which then led him to “Wait a minute… Did the Shadowcursed hear that thought as well?”. Realising eventually that this reasoning was leading him nowhere, Velkath glared with frustration at the Ultramarine commanders trapped within the force fields. However he hated to admit it, he sometimes envied the loyalists and the blissfull unencumberance of their minds.

Story’s a bit longer this time (Yay?). Second battle of the campaign was a fun draw against Piers’s Ultramarines. The force field rules were fun to play around with (and exploit) as well. I’ve been regrettably absent at the gaming store during the past few weeks though since I had to focus on my graduation report. Everything’s been finished now on that end, so I’m looking forward to my regular gaming fridays again. Yesterday I spent most of the evening designing a list for the upcoming Battle of the Clubs tournament again, so no campaigning unfortunately. Maybe next week there’ll be another battle to report.

In the meantime I’ll be keeping myself busy assembling the following:

Going to need to build the terminators especially if I want to finish my new tournament list in time. The Island of Blood set was acquired mainly for the Skaven. I still plan on restarting that army during the summer holidays. But before that happens…

Death to the False Emperor!

Planetfall / Eye of the Beholder

“This is ridiculous!” Squad leader Velkath voxed angrily to the rest of his squad. “We’re not even on the ground and this battle has already cost us more than we can afford!”.
His remark went unreplied for a moment as heavy tremors, caused by a railgun shell detonation, shook the Thunderhawk that was carrying the ten Chaos Marines and their Rhino troop transport.
“Shut your face Velkath.” Sorcerer Lord Hathos growled in return. “You and everyone else in this vehicle knows damn well we can not doubt the strategies that the Lord of Fate has given to us.”
Another tremor interrupted as the Rhino was detached from the Thunderhawk in mid air.
“By the bloody throne, I will not sit here, my transport getting torpedoed to the ground, to suffer your mindless backtalk on top of it! I expect total obedience when we grab that landing zone. From all of you.”
A solemn and awkward silence descended among the squad for several moments before the rhino impacted the foreign soil of Gornha Spire III with a force that tested even a space marine’s endurance.
“Filthy xenos.” Hathos spat as the squad leader peered through a windowslit. “Make straight for the landing zone.” He voxed to the driver. “We will meet The Shadowcursed there and finally rid ourselves of these wretched aliens.”

So.. a new 40k campaign (named “Eye of the Beholder”) has started up at our local club/store a few weeks ago. The campaign system is pretty fun and besides an interesting system for battle selection and unit upgrades, it features a new, story driven mission each week. First mission I played against Bobby’s Tau and we ended up with a draw. The mission was to secure a center objective while all our units were forced to deploy through deep strike with night fighting rules in effect during the first two turns.

I’m going to try and write a short piece like the one I did above for each battle I play. Try and weave a bit of character into my chaos warband. That’s all for now though. Stay tuned for the second battle as the week goes on and hopefully a third game next week.
Death to the False Emperor!

Mohsar the Desertwalker

So besides some random progres on my second defiler, here’s what else I’ve been up to lately:


Made this at work so in case you’re wondering, that red thing in the back is a pipette balloon.


The back of a model is also important!

The model is Mohsar the Desertwalker from the Circle of Orboros (Hordes/Privateer Press). This guy is definately one of my favorite warlocks and if I were to ever build a circle of orboros warband it’d probably be a Mohsar force. Right now though, I plan on using him to represent my cleric in a D&D game. I was torn up on whether to paint him in colors that would suit my cleric, or just try and paint him as Mohsar. In the end I decided that I wanted to paint him as Mohsar, just in case I ever decided to build an Orboros warband. I’ve seen too many roleplaying groups fall apart, only after I just painted a mini for my character, so this time I’d rather leave myself with something I can still use afterwards.

In other news, I also found out that I need more paints. How annoying is it that you can have over 30 different pots of paint and still need to compromise when you need to paint a model in a specific way? At 3 euro’s a pop I can’t even justify buying more than one or two pots a week nowadays. It’s getting so bad I might even start asking people to get me paints for christmas. Damn these first world problems!

Death to the False Emperor!