Armies on Parade: Skaven

Finally here are all the rats arranged for inspection!

I have tried several times to make a picture of the whole army together and have not succeeded so far.

The first time I used white background and two sources of light, then there were too many shadows on the picture and the units looked blurry.

Then I tried using a background with some colour, but none were big enough so mixing several rendered weir results.

In the end, I just put a black cloth and I believe this is the best I can do for now.

The first picture is a bit from afar, but at least it's a group picture of the whole Army arranged together. Then I made some close-ups.

Magnetising Marines from Betrayal at Calth

For the same reason why I magnetized the Terminators I wanted to do it with the Marines: maximum flexibility for the weapon options.

Even though I have already painted a couple of Sergeants, for the remaining ones I wanted to have the option to field them with Power Fist and Boltpistol or with Bolter.

Same thing for the Centurion, that I sometimes field simply with a Sword and Boltpistol.

All options arranged.

Centurion with Boltpistol and Chainsword

 I also modified the Centurion from the box so that the original weapon can be used in addition to any weapon used by any of the other Sergeants, so the polarity of the magnets is carefully considered to allow for all weapons to fit in all arms.

Combi-weapon and Power Sword

Original setup

For the regular Marines I wanted the option to field them with different special weapons. Therefore I put magnets on the Melta, Flamers, Volkites and regular Bolters.
Basically because Melta, Volkites and Flamers are not going to be part of my regular options, but I might use them, therefore when I do not need those, they will use Bolters.
Additionally I added magnets to the Vexillas, so I can decide when and how to use them.

Example of each type of weapon and Vexilla

And lastly I added magnets to the Traitor Librarian in Terminator Armour. Basically because it is impossible to store and transport if you glue it together.

Magnetising Cataphractii Terminators

As you may have seen from my previous post, I have gone totally crazy with magnets!

After checking the great models of the Betrayal at Calth I decided I wanted to have maximum flexibility with the Terminators. I did not want to glue the arms in place as I wanted to be able to field different combinations.

In the end, after checking multiple sites and blogs that have different approachs, such as using pins instead of magnets, I settled for using magnets on the arms and gluing the shoulder pads in place. That should leave a bit of a gap sometimes between the arm and the shoulder, but it is difficult to notice.

First of all, I wanted to customize a bit the figures, so I went through my bit box to create unique weapons. Here you can find some of them. I created some power weapons using chaos bits and guitar string. I also customized some of the bolters adding a small chainsword below as I have seen in the Justaerin from FW.

As I have two boxes of Betrayal, I can field 10 Terminators that you see below assembled for battle with different combination of weapons.

 Here are a couple of pictures where you can see where do the magnets fit.

Close-up of magnet on shoulder

I also magnetized the grenade launcher.

 In this picture you can see all the options available and all the Terminators without weapons. They are also easier to store like this.

Free hugs!

Before going back to painting, I still have another post in the work for more magnet craziness for regular troops, looking to maximize options as well.

Imperial Knight: Magnetising (I)

As I showed in a previous post I got a Knight a while ago, so of course as soon as I had time, after finishing the skavens, I started to assemble it.

I wanted to make sure I have all possible combinations available, so I would need to use a lot of magnets.
I have to say that probably the Imperial Knight is the best kit from Games Workshop I have ever prepared, most of the parts would not even need glue, they are just designed so that they fit perfectly.

Before I started to work on it, I browsed the web looking for information on how people have configured their Knights so that they can change the weapon combinations.
I found out lots of information, but these two were the best in terms of clear pictures and instructions:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nxudVNVbUU
• http://www.theindependentcharacters.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6858

After gathering all info, the only remaining part was to start preparing it. It took me about 4-6 hours to prepare all pieces, and add green stuff and magnets.

Here is an explanation of what I did, in case somebody finds it useful.

First of all, an overview of all the pieces of the Knight.

I have not glued the shoulders in place to the upper body, so that I can paint them easily, but those would not have a magnet in the end, they will just be glued.

I found out a common problem with the Knights that are not glued together, that is, that the union of the upper body and the legs is quite weak and they tend to move a lot. So I went ahead and created a plasticard structure inside the body to ensure that the connection is firm and snaps in place, without any flexibility.

There is one magnet in the legs, and another one in the upper body, just on the crossing of those two pieces of plasticard, you can see the detail in the pictures.

You can see the magnet inside the body from here

 The legs were the simplest part, I just glued all components and put a magnet on top. In order to make the union more secure, I put a big plasticard stick so that it fits into the hole of the upper body.

Legs and body attached

I also put magnets on the carapace so that I can decide if it will have any weapon on top.
In total I used five magnets in this part, as the rocket launcher has two kinds of rockets, shown on the right side of the picture.

The arms are the trickiest part of the whole Knight.
After watching many videos, I decided to go for sawing the upper part, drilling a hole big enough for the magnet and making sure any arm combination could fit in both magnets. Make sure you get the polarity correct.

For the arms I just filled with greenstuff the upper part and stuck a magnet on top.
There are four arms and five combinations. That means that you have three arms that are always stuck in same combination, which is the Ratling, the Power fist and the chain sword, that are the easy ones.

Example of arms attached

Then you have the difficult part, which is ensuring a single arm will work for the Battle Cannon and for the Thermal Cannon.

This is how I did it.

Make sure you put the magnet on top to attach the arm as the rest of the arms, then try out all possible combinations until you find out good spots for attaching magnets in all parts.
You would need to cut the cable of one of the parts of the Thermal Cannon, as it must go inside of the structure, and you would not be able to remove it once the structure is in place. Make sure you try out all parts and put magnets in all of those before gluing them together.

All parts that would need a magnet in order to make the Battle or the Thermal Cannon.

You can see on the left the magnet for the left side barrel for the Battle Cannon and on the right, inside there is a part for Thermal Cannon, with another magnet.

 Then you attach a magnet for both the Battle Cannon and the Thermal. As they both come with a plastic piece inside that you are supposed to remove, I recommend not removing it and reusing it for your magnet.

 Example of Battle Cannon attached.

Example of Thermal attached. As you can see it does not fit 100% fine, so I need to tweak a bit the position of the magnet on the Thermal side.

The last thing I magnetized was the multi melta and the heavy stubber that go on the side of the head, that is a pretty straight forward job, since you just need to cut the top and place a magnet on both sides.

Example of a fully magnetized Knight, although some parts are missing as they are not glued yet for easier painting.

This is the base, after adding some texture to it. The base will also be magnetized, along with the feet, so that I can store it easily.

World Eaters vs Sons of Horus 1500 Points

This is my first match of the Betrayal Campaign we are playing.
We are currently in the Phase I: The Ashes of Treachery, which means:

• loyalist can get 3 fortifications as allied detachments
• traitors can leave infantry, jump infantry or walkers in reserves and use Deep Strike. Additionally, in the same turn they appear, they can assault.

We decided the battle would be World Eaters, Traitors, vs Sons of Horus, Loyalist, for 1500 Points.

Sons of Horus Army

Since I got the Knight I have wanted to try it in battle, so I decided I will use it, even though I believe 1500 Points is not enough points to spend 375 on a Knight.

The Army consist of:

• Consul with Combi-weapon, melta bombs and artificer armour
• 2x 15 Tactical Squad with Vexilla and Sargent with melta bombs
• 2x Apothecary
• 6 Tactical Support Squad with Plasma Guns in Rhino
• 2x Cortus Dreadnought with Kheres Assault Pattern Cannon
• Paladin Knight

The Warlord trait was Child of Terra.

Sons of Horus Army

World Eaters Army

The Army consists of:

• Praetor with Paragon Blade, Power Fist and artificer armour
• 8 Tactical Squad, Sergeant with artificer armour
• 10 Tactical Squad, Sergeant with artificer armour
• 10 Tactical Squad with Chain axes and bolt pistol
• 1 Apothecary
• 5 Cataphractii Terminators with 2 chain fist, 1 power weapon
• Dreadclaw
• Deredeo Dreadnought
• Contemptor Dreadnought with Multi-melta
• Deimos Pattern Vindicator with Laser Destroyer

World Eaters Army

The Warlord trait was Child of Terra.

Battle

We rolled for mission and we got Blood Feud. The deployment setup was to be on two long sides of the table.

I won the roll, so I decided to place my troops first and then take the first turn, unless he seized the initiative.

Deployment

My basic plan was to place one squad and dread in each side of the table, Rhino in cover to react to any Tank or Termi threat and the Knight to shoot anything that it can.

This is the deployment, as you can see, two big blocks, each one behind a big building.

Loyalist deployment

This was his deployment. The Dreadclaw was in reserve to make a Deep Strike attack. Then a squad in each side, supported by either the Deredeo or the Vindicator. The squad with the Praetor would advance to tear apart anything placed in their path.

Traitor deployment

Turn #1

He did not seize the initiative so I got to start.

The first turn was easy, just advance with both units to the cover and place the Knight with line of sight to his troops.

Turn#1 the Knight wipes out a complete squad!

The shooting phase was quite successful as the Knight wiped out a complete unit, that was standing next to the Vindicator. Sons of Horus get the first blood!

Then it was up to his first turn, and here already the problems started!

In his shooting phase he throws everything that can shoot towards the Knight, that saves all possible attacks and stands still.

Then as expected, he made a Deep Strike with the Dreadclaw as close to the Knight as possible. It was scattered 10" backwards, so I had a bit of hope... but then the Terminators were able to move and assault just enough to get in touch with my Knight... two Chainfists incoming!

As I was fearing, the Terminators killed the Knight, that failed to kill any Terminator in return. Then it exploded with an Apocalyptic Mega-Blast Template (great name) and killed two Terminators and one Space Marine. The terminators consolidated towards my Tactical Squad.

What a turn! We are just starting and the Knight is out... this does not look nice for the Sons of Horus.

End of Turn#1 the Knight is dead!

Turn #2

Beginning of Turn #2

In the second turn I decide to advance full speed with my Rhino towards the Deredeo, as it does not make sense anymore to try and defend the non-existent Knight!! Then I make the second big mistake of the game, which is advance with the tactical squad on my left flank and take positions for a possible Fury of the Legion on my next turn.

On the right side I shoot with everything at the Terminators and wipe them out of the table, vendetta for the Knight!

Turn #2. Terminators are killed

My opponent then decides to fly over my tactical squad with the Dreadclaw, that manages to kill two marines (with S5 AP5!). Then advances on my right flank with the Dread and squad.

On my left flank I pay dearly for my previous mistake. He advances with the Praetor and his squad, and then assaults my unit, because of my movement, they are just too close. Then of course the insane amount of attacks just kills everyone on the squad, and then they consolidate, after bathing in the blood of the Sons of Horus. Sorry, no pictures for this one, but you can see the result of this Assault in the turn 3 pictures. The Praetor has only one wound left, but it seems there is nobody alive who can kill him on this flank.

Additionally the Deredeo shoots against the Rhino and manages to immobilize it, so the squad with Plasma cannot get any closer!

There it goes any hopes of destroying the Deredeo.

Turn #3

Although it seems that all is lost, as only two Dreads, one Squad and a Rhino is left, the Sons of Horus keep on fighting.

Beginning of Turn #3, right flank

Beginning of Turn #3, left flank

At this point of the battle, my goal was to try to kill as much as I can in order to make some points for the Campaign.

On the left flank the Plasma Squad goes out of the Rhino and then shoots at the Praetor and his squad, wiping all of the marines, but the Praetor still stands.

The plasma squad wipes out a few World Eaters

On my left flank I put the squad on the building to get a 4++ cover and move the Dread towards the left to shoot at the Praetor. The squad cannot shoot as they did Fury of the Legion in the previous turn.

Right flank takes cover on the building

My opponent is just cleaning up the board in this turn.

He turns the Deredeo towards my remaining Dread and destroys it. Then shoots all of his right flank against my squad, that somehow manages to survive.

On the left flank, the Praetor assaults the plasma squad and I manage to kill two of my marines during the oberwatch shoot, so all the Praetor needs to do in the assault is kill the remaining three. It was really a pity that 10 plasma shots were not able to deliver a single wound to the Praetor!

We are headed for the last turn of the game...

End of turn #3: a single Sons of Horus squad remains

Turn #4

It is my last turn, I only have one squad and a Rhino left.
I make a Fury of the Legion shooting on my right flank against the World Eaters killing roughly half of them.

Turn #4 and the last Fury of the Legion of the game

My opponent assaults with the Dread on my right flank and wipes out the whole squad.
On the left flank, the Rhino is destroyed by the Dreadclaw.
The game is finished with an absolute massacre for the World Eaters!

Turn #4 the last Sons of Horus squad is wiped out

End of turn #4

Result

Once again it has become even more clear, if possible, that the battles in Horus Heresy are short and brutal. In this one even on turn one there was massive destruction. One whole squad and a Knight. By the end of turn two, the battle was already decided, and turn three-four is just about wiping out the remaining units.

For me it is still a re-learning exercise, as I am new to Horus Heresy and I have been out of the gaming area for more than five years... I still believe that two big squads is a must, as they can hold their ground, but they must remain at a distance, in order to benefit from their firepower with Fury of the Legion. I was quite happy with the plasma and Rhino combination.

Next steps for me are, finish building my Terminators to add a bit of close combat capabilities, and decide which Tank I should buy to add more firepower.

Although it was a clear defeat for the Sons of Horus, we checked the result for the Campaign using the Victory Points.
It was 18 for the Traitors vs 9 for the Loyalists.

The Campaign results so far are:

• four battles played
• two wins for the Loyalist, two for the Traitors

Campaign results

Emperor's Children (Loyalists) vs World Eaters (Traitors)
Scenario: Blood Feud
Result: Traitors 6, Loyalists 16

Emperor's Children (Loyalist) vs Emperor's Children (Traitors)
Scenario: Onslaught
Result: Traitors 10, Loyalists 1

Emperor's Children (Loyalist) vs Emperor's Children (Traitors)
Scenario: Shatter Strike
Result: Traitors 0, Loyalists 6

Sons of Horus (Loyalist) vs World Eaters (Traitors)
Scenario: Blood Feud
Result: Traitors 18, Loyalists 9