Gold Arrow Squadron has arrived to support the 444th over the battlefields of the grimdark Warhammer 40k universe. The Army of General Oadius expands its scope once more with this weeks installment from the MURDER Factory: Imperial Guard Vendetta Squadron.
Starting with 'ole Whitey here, the 444th bring some much respected Air Power to the tabletop:
The Vendetta Squadron, or parts of it - is perfect for bringing 444th Allies along on almost any size mission.
Hunting Mutants back home on Baal or just generally murdering the enemies of the Wolfbrothers - Whitey is ready to go!
It's true.... from a prestigious field of 56, including: Darth Vader himself(Casey McNamara[grats new pappa!]), Ben Vaughn(Da Vinci..the renaissance reincarnated), Darth Maul(Ryan Thalen), Mad John(THE ork of California), Santa and lots more worthy generals, General Oadius(me) came out with a 1st place OVERALL. I've never managed to place 1st at the Contest of Champions and it's a very sweet victory, I must admit. It pleases my vanity to think that you all might want to know what list I played so here goes...
Throne List - General Oadius' Grey Knights @ 1750 points, CoC comp format
Inquisitor Karamov
Inquisitor Coteaz
5 x Paladins
1 MC Halberd
1 MC psycannon
1 psycannon
1 MC daemon Hammer
1 warding Stave
10 x Grey Knight
3 x Halberd
3 x Sword
2 x psycannon
1 x hammer
1 x justicar
rhino
10 x Grey Knight
3 x Halberd
3 x Sword
2 x psycannon
1 x hammer
1 x justicar
rhino
11 x Henchmen
2 x Assassin
2 x Crusader
6 x Henchmen
1 x Melta
Chimera
6 x Henchmen
1 x Assassin
1 x Crusader
3 x Henchmen
1 x Flamer
Razorback w/psybolt ammo
Dreadnought
2 x TL Autocannon
Psybolt ammo
Dreadnought
2 x TL Autocannon
Psybolt ammo
So that's that.... Basically Karamov held the middle with the Pallys(foot slogging). Karamov chooses to pass or fail and is T5 with 4 wounds. He is relentless with a MC Multi-Melta and a MC Power Sword at S5. He allows rerolls for all friendly units within 12" on all morale and pinning tests. That allows for the rhino's to flank him and stay near middle longer. His no scatter orbital bombardment is key though...he threatens far away targets, all while holding fast to the middle.
The Grey knights like to stand still inside the rhinos and fire hvy profile psycannons...also moving 12" and jumping out to torrent something with stormbolters and assault profile psycannons is very effective and usually not expected. These are the meat of the army and fulfill several different roles. They will usually take a charge as bait for those that would venture too close to the paladins.
Coteaz jumps into the Chimera with the mean henchmen unit to run into any fast attack and flankers. He also provides a powerful counter attack tool.
The Razorback is usually reserved and wants to run in around turn 4 or 5 to grab a defensive objective or is placed at the start of the turn to contest an enemy objective in the backfield. The flamer and assassin can do some damage.
The Dreads blow up tanks and make Obliterators take double toughness saves... they can also tar pit no grenade units who would dare to get too close to my objectives..they are usually quite close by.
There in lies the insight into my list that I will allow knowledge of....
Game 1 vs Nids
great game super close...my opponent papered the board like a champ. A little luck and persistent attack on his objective contested his and a persistent defense(and some luck) protected mine. 1 objective to 0 General Oadius scores 17
Game 2 vs Eldar
Wraithguard, Warlock and a Farseer held the middle for nearly 4 turns until paladins finished them off. Dreads took out all the Vypers, War Walkers and Wave Serpents. Nearly tabled him.. General Oadius scores 20
Game 3 vs Space Wolves
Classic Rhino list with a Rune priest and long fangs. Paladins held middle with great shooting and a turn 5 tank shock almost turned game into a tie. A lot of fun to play this general(Mr. Andrew B.). Game went to 6 and I got lucky and cleaned up the mess in the middle. General Andrew holds 1 objective and I held 2. General Oadius scores 17
Thanks to General Shotdownmind for painting such a pretty army for me.
Thanks to Great Escape Games for holding an amazing tournament(6 TIMES A YEAR!)
Well folks, every dog has it's day, especially dogs of war. HOOOOWWWLLL!
Death to the enemies of the Wolfbrothers! TILL NEXT TIME......PLAY WELL, ROLL BETTER!!!
That's right wolfbrothers....Shotdownmind and I, General Oadius, do hereby announce the date for our next primer tournament as February 25th. A primer tournament for the meanest GT on the West Coast, the Bay Area Open GT. It is our (SDM and I) to train ourselves for the competition ahead by defiling the armies of our fellow Wolfbrother's. It is our greatest desire that you bring enough Johnson (mean list) and attitude (no soft scores) to give us a real fight and prepare us for the upcoming tournament.
As usual there will be tons of raffle prizes and tons of prizes for the winners (for murder and cruelty do have their rewards).
Here are the rules:
1. Bring 1750 points of the meanest shit you can possibly think of. a. No Paint Necessary b. Be WYSIWYG or very close to it. 2. Compete with murderous intentions and a heart full of cruelty a. there is no sportsmanship b. leave your sensitivity at home, General Oadius will have none for you.
STAY TUNED TO THE BLOG, FACEBOOK, 40K NATION AND EXPECT TEXTS FOR LOCATIONS AND MORE DETAILS.....
General Oadius was skeptical when I first told him I wanted to base his army in Mud. I am sure things got worse on his side of the conversation when I then told him I didn't know how, but would figure it out. Some spackle, water, and inks or dyes I said then. Pretty sure he did not believe me then, I remember talking about tall grass that night...
We were on the lookout for something to put the finishing touch on the Army of General Oadius. We were kicking ass and taking names at Great Escape Games, Sacramento and made it back up into the mountains with a huge pile of loot. Besides a few Blood Angels and Dark Eldars along the way, we stocked up on Secret Weapon Products using our hard earned winnings - and right there in front of our faces was the Mud & Water bundle, it was obviously exactly what we wanted!
Very easy to use and compared to other basing kits and the raw materials, its dirt cheap ($21.50 online.) If you are interested, you can find a full tutorial at the Secret Weapon Miniatures website. It comes with plaster, sand, realistic water, and 3 brown pigments. You slap it down in easy frosting like layers and drop in the water where you like, and presto, you have very realistic mud and water. I am sure I would have ended up with something similar but not as great - for at least two or three times the cost if I had gone with the raw materials in my original idea.
After completely finishing General Oadius' 2500pt+ army and 5 Tablewar Army case model trays, I have around 1/3rd of the kit left to mud even more stuff, like the next 2000pts of the Grey Knight menace. You can see the finished product, a long with a review and sample of a few other Secret Weapon products here:
I based the entire army one night and the model trays the next day. Starting with a small batch, the three dreads, the vindicare, the techmarine, and the objective markers. I already worked out a test run on a couple terminators.
The main tip I learned was that the real key was the Realistic water. How much or how little is really the main control on how thick your mixture is and how fast it drys. Plaster/sand ratio matter also, but to a lesser degree.
I used a couple measuring spoons to keep my various layers consistent in color and consistency from batch to batch. Also distilled water to mix up each batch, and then add in to some of the larger mixes later when the plaster starts to setup. You get the hang of it real quick.
I ended up with 4 layers on all of the small bases and a 5th layer on the larger dreadnought and stormraven bases. The "stand alone" objective markers also got a little of the fifth layer to stand them out a bit. I used tiny drops of the realistic water during the 1st and 2nd layers to install the leaking and pooled water.
On some of the larger bases and model trays I needed more then drops of the realistic water, and then pulled the stuff around in many instances to get the final effect. Everything changes color as it drys, and its still workable in many respects until fully setup. By the time I got to the large model trays I had quite a bit of practice, so it was easy and fun to work with knowing where I was going with each part of the process.
I kept the vehicles nearby, as you apply the mud effects in opposite order on a operational vehicle, and also so I could drive the chimera through the mud on the stormraven and a couple of the model trays. I also had a spare terminator and dreadnought leg/foot around to help make some of the imprints and pooling in the mud.
Most of these pictures are taken wet. The mud on the trays is also not dry yet, you can see through the layers how the mud builds up, and the texture and color changes.
The final layer of "Clay brown" is basically dabbed on and is a very wet mixture, then I pushed/pulled it around a little with a stiff brush. These are the raised, dry crusty areas on the larger bases.
All in all the Mud & Water bundle is an awesome product with a huge range of possibilities. Lucky for me it turned out to be exactly what I envisioned, which is really the default baseline of what you could do with this stuff. We have two HUGE vehicle trays that need landscaping for the Grey Knight army in the Tablewar case, that will be an amazing followup project for everyone...
Been working tirelessly to complete the Army of General Oadius to a very high standard. Definitely these models look fantastic and the hard work has paid off!
I know that General Oadius has approved of this lot, what do you think?
Everything is in there as envisioned and beyond in many cases. Super-highlights, Object source lighting, weathering on top of weathering, awesome mud basing, and of course Shiny Silver Armor of the Emperors Finest!
AND Shiny Gold Armor too! Coteaz is in his element, and so is General Oadius! Watchout at a Tournament Near You!
Of course we have Draigo and friends ready for Murder also! In addition to all of the elbow grease, we have used Secret Weapon Miniature technology all over the army, but specifically the Mud and Water basing kit for the Army-wide bases, and on the scenified TableWar Army Case model trays.
In the spirit of all the effort put forth by Shotdownmind and Ultraraider to build a sensational Grey Knight Army, I decided to paint a model all by myself. Yes, I know it's crazy but I did it anyways.
The fact is when I saw this Finecast model, I just had to have it. Karamov has some super neat fluff and can be a bastard in actual game play too(orb bomb, MC PW, MC MM, relentless, chooses to pass/fail moral/pinning and gives units within 12" a reroll).
