Progress

Been working on my Praetorians:

My target is about four squads of Praetorians to use as Veterans, then bulk up with Cadians, in the same colour scheme, organised in Platoons. Am also thinking of getting this commissar:
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?prodId=prod1160042a
...and converting him into a count-as Yarrick. Basically replacing the bolter with a storm bolter and the sword with a hammer of some kind. Not quite sure what I will be using for Bale Eye.

Praetorian Guard

I am pleased, I am very pleased. I have finally managed to get my hands on some Praetorian Guard models. No, not the Necrons version - the special edition Imperial Guard Praetorians! I have wanted some for ages, but they have tended to sell for far more than I have been willing to pay.
I managed to get hold of 10 for a reasonable price, and have another 10 coming. These are the ones currently in my possession:

They will make nice veterans allies for my Grey Knights army. Basically I want some long range fire power to support my GKs, and the Leman Russ is such a nice tank: cheap, tough (apart from the back) and with a massive punch! So, a couple of Squads of Praetorians as Veterans with a Leman Russ (picked up from Salute 2013).
I want to paint them in the classic Zulu style, which is after all what they were meant to be:

I had a Praetorian Sergeant lying around for a while so used him as my trail run:

I am never going to be a great painter, but I think he has come out alright. I am looking forward to getting both squads done and fielding them along side my GKs.

3x3 500p Relic Scrum

Darksphere is continuing its slow-grow still on 500p. This week the card players nicked three of the 40k tables leaving three. Eight people turned up, so something had to be done. That something was one 1-1 game, and one epic 3x3 game: Grey Knights, Ravenwing and Codex Space Marines on one side and Chaos Space Marines x 2 and Dark Eldar on the other.
We rolled for mission and came up with Relic. Predictably, the game rapidly moved towards a massive scrum around the relic, and much fun was had all round. Below a few pictures detailing the action.

Deployment took about an hour. Deploying a total of 3000 points across six people takes an impressive amount of time.
White Hat Forces are deployed along the left side. Black Hats along the right side.

The hill right at the back (Chaos Hill) became the home to about 20 Chaos Marines for most of the game. The relic would be the scene of the most intense fighting of the game.

An Inquisitor and his warband supported by Codex Marines awaits the Chaos onslaught. The green dice is the Relic (below).

Turn 1 involved Chaos (with the initiative) surging towards the objective - and the imperial forces considering the merits of a target rich environment (below).

The Chaos Marines at the back on the right start their occupation of Chaos Hill - where they would remain most of the game until failing to walk off it towards the end (difficult terrain roll fail).

Dark Eldar play interference as a line of Chaos marines (in the distance) move to claim the Relic (below).

Chaos and Xenos close in (below).

But, that's all right. Str 6 Ap 3 Psychic Barrage from teh Inquisitor's warband will make short work of the hordes of enemies, right..?..
Wrong, the big enpty space behind the inquistor is where the psychers were before being eaten by the Warp (below).

Space Marines and Grey Knights are taking heavy casualties, the Inquisitor and his warband are locked in combat with an overwhelming force of ... two ... wyches. Then is a cloud of dust, the bikers arrive (below).

"Go get em boys. The Inquisition's got your back" (below).

At the end of Turn four both sides are deadlocked around the relic with Chaos Marines stuck on Chaos Hill and Chaos Termies slowly plodding towards the scrum from a problematic deep strike. (both off picture). Everybody has to catch trains to game ends with a draw (below).

Slow grow at Darksphere (record of battles)

Pictures to be included when I get the time.
Day 1 (500p).
Game 1 vs Guard:
Lost badly, Psykers flopped badly, only actually shooting once. Lots of bad rolls (especially reserve rolls), bad placement of Strike Squads. Inquisitor ruled with Psycannon.

Game 2 vs. Orks:
Won big, all units did quite well, Crusaders absorbed a Huge amount of damage, Inquisitor rules with Psycannon and Nemesis Daemon hammer.

Game 3 vs. Chaos marines (with lots of cultists).
Lost by 1 point (damn), Psykers started out well until they all died to Perils in round two, Crusaders again absorbed lots of damage, and the Inquisitor ruled with Psycannon and hammer (killing the Chaos warlord).

Lessons: need to get better at placing Strike Squads when deep striking; really must remember to actually case prescience; Crusaders are great at absorbing damage; psycannons rock (especially when I remember they are Rending).

All, in all I am happy with the list (will upload when I get time) as it stands.

New model, yay

The excellent Darksphere people are running a slow grow (starting at 500p) this year. I am really looking forward to that. Based on Facebook chatter there will be a good spread of good people there with a nice mix of armies.
Now, 500p for Grey Knights is a tricky list to put together. What do I hear?? Is that you screaming 'Coteaz! Coteaz! Coteaz!'?? I hear you, BUT whilst that might make sense, I tend to run lists based on what models I am currently in love with.
Aaaannnd, right now I am in love with this guy:

I was reminded of this model by: Master Crafted
That is a lovely coversion and I am not claiming that my efforts come anywhere near, but I am quite happy with my pait job on this.
The reason I am particularly in love with this model is that is it reportedly inspired by Ian Watson's Inquisitor:

This was not only the first 40k novel I read (and Games Workshop's first novel), it was also this book which inspired me to get back into the Hobby.
So, my slow grow will be built around this model. I do think I have a good list lined up. I am determined to make a full record of all my Darksphere slow grow games on this blog, so watch this spave for more...

On cursed dice

So, as per a previous post I bought new dice because the old ones were cursed.
Hmmm, trying to wound with a Psycannon having managed two hits (needing 2+ to wound)

See, this may have worried me, had my honourable Eldar opponent not manged to do this with his nasty will-kill-everything cannons (needing 2+ to insta kill):

Yes, that is a 1/216 chance right there. I guess dice are just like that...

Expanding that losing feeling

So, managed to lose another game, but in a new and creative way: this time I decided it was a good idea to get up close and personal with Eldar. I forgot that Eldar weapons are short ranged, and got far too close. Having seen the results of close range fire I still pressed in. Basically, when the Eldar player pulls back, do not run in after him (you idiot). However, the Eldar player, whose name I have momentarily forgotten, was one of those one of those Good Gamers that makes losing a fun and learning experience. In short, a good evening.

What was interesting was that my only surviving models this evening were from the Inqusitor Warband that I added to my list. They are the guys in the red circle.

They had just taken out the crew of the Eldar cannons and were about to stomp on the Rangers.

I will most certainly continue to explore the use of warbands, especially using Coteaz.
I do not much like the Coteaz model. It is quite nice but the massive ermin and the eagle are off putting. So, I have been using my own version. Here he is moments after the Terminators he was with got blown away by a massive cloud of shuriken, and moments before he charged the Wraithlord (yeah, like, whatever, leave me alone, it could have worked...



...although on this particular occasion it did not...)
In conclusion, warbands will be The New Black (especially in combination with the Dreadknight that may be under the Christmas tree... more on that later...).