Campaign Update - Turn 5 and 100 posts

So according to my stats, this entry is the 100th article to be published as part of the Triple Helix Project.  While it is a relatively small milestone for many of the more established blogs such as Fresh Coast 40K, Miniature Tim and From the Warp, but it is a milestone nonetheless. I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has visited this site and made this all possible.  You guys are epic and I look forward to hearing from more of you in the future.

With the festivities out of the way, it's time to move onto the main topic of the blog.  As my regular readers will know, I've been running a 40K campaign for my local gaming club.  For those who would like to refresh themselves on the previous turns, I've included links here and here.  Since my last report, the campaign has covered another 3 turns, two of them spanning a two week stretch due to the intervention of real life.  In that time, both sides of the conflict have made advances in stops and starts with special events assisting in the conquest of a number of sectors throughout the city.

As was touched upon in previous articles, it has become apparent to not only me as the campaign organiser, but also to the other players that in games that only involved a single faction as the attacker and the city acting as the defender, the City was proving to be more stalwart then we originally anticipated; racking up victory after victory and generally proving to be a pain in the ass.  In response, I created an event that ran for a 2 week period that awarded faction players a bonus for every victory they gained in each sector.  Essentially this meant that every victory they gained would count as two, while each loss only counted for one.  By doing so, this resulted in a 50% increase in the number of sectors actually captured by each faction, allowing both sides to push towards the centre of the city, bringing them ever closer to direct confrontation  with one another.

The second event I held was integrated into Turn 4 of the campaign and was dubbed  'Operation: Head-hunter'.  This was an event that rotated purely around the identification and destruction of character models as a means of disrupting the command structure of either side. For every 20 characters killed during campaign games, the faction commander would be able to attribute a win to any location currently being sought after by the faction as a whole. The Forces of Disorder performed exceptionally, racking up an impressive 35 heads while the Forces of Order only managed to collect 22. On the upside, both sides secured an extra sector for themselves, allowing each side to push deeper into the city, swiftly closing in on the front lines on the opposing faction.

Now, after 7 weeks of hard fighting, the opposing factions have finally made contact - clashing on the outskirts of the Spaceport and securing a victory for the Forces of Order.  In addition to the special events, a series of mega-battles have been played on a regular occurrence, always involving multiple generals commanding armies on the same table.  These multi-player battles have been always close-fought events, with each game hinging on one or two Victory Points.  I though I'd take the opportunity to show you a couple of shots from our latest Mega-battle, a 2 vs 1 game, where the Salamanders and Space Wolves stood against a mighty force of Chaos Space Marines, specifically the renegade contingent of Red Skulls that are currently leading the assault against the City of Vogen.

So at the beginning, our battle-lines looked were set up pretty defensively, with the objective being to capture as many buildings as possible.

The battlefield looked like this:

The deployment zone of the Forces of Order looked like this:

The Forces of Disorder deployment was as such:

Now for some of the highlights - The Daemon Prince took a very offensive position, swooping towards the main concentration of Loyalist forces on the northern flank.  Before he was able to make his assault however, he was engulfed by heavy fire, forcing him to return to land heavily in front of the fortified Hab-Block.

Here he was engaged in mortal combat with a mighty Wolf Lord, the appointed Warlord of the Space Wolf contingent present on Khai-Zhaan.  A mighty battle was fought, with both combatants taking many wounds before the Daemon Prince was banished back to the warp.

While both sides traded heavy fire the Wolf Lord continued on to engage not one but two Hellbrutes, armed with flailing power-scourges.  With titanic effort, he destroyed both, shattering their warp-forged hulls and banishing the evil contained within.

But not all was to go well for the Forces of Order.  The Red Skulls possessed enough heavy weaponry to dominate the field, systematically decimating tanks and Marines alike.  Not even the mighty Wolf Lord was to be spared as a Predator's Lascannon finally felled the mighty warrior.  While not slain outright, the Wolf Lord would play no further part in the battle that was to come.

For the Loyalists, the southern flank was not as strongly defended, with both Vindicators being destroyed before they could effectively suppress the renegades with their devastating (however limited) ordinance.  In a cruel twist of fate, the mighty Warlord of Khorne that led the sortie was rewarded time and time again for his prowess, indiscriminately ending the lives of enemy commanders and their Lieutenants with ease until he was unceremoniously transformed into a gibbering spawn-creature whose existence was ended in a hail of mass-reactive shells from numerous bolters.

As the dust settled, the points were tallied, and it was discovered that the Forces of Disorder had secured victory by a mere 2 VP's.  A tight game indeed!  Many thanks to Dan and Ryan for participating in the event, I cannot thank you guys enough.  Hope everyone enjoys reading about the game, I know it's not a full battle report, but I hope it was still fun to read.

Catch you all later,

Trev

Salamander Update - Creating Master Librarian Vel'cona

Very soon after completing my version of Mir'San with Lightning Claws, I began working on a new Librarian to replace the one I made at the beginning of this year.  To be honest, the only issue I have with the old one is the tendency it has to topple when caressed by a light breeze which isn't conducive to maintaining a good paint job.  Considering the amount of enjoyment I got while painting the blue armour I jumped at the opportunity to build another Librarian.

It's about this point that I decided to splurge a bit and purchase a number of plastic components from a number of plastic kits that were combined in an attempt to make a unique whole.  As is usual for my IC's, I've used the legs and chest-piece from the Sanguinary Guard box, as well as an axe head from one of the Glaive Encarmines to create his force axe.  The haft of the weapon, the psychic hood, the right arm and the majority of the accessories came from an assortment of Grey Knight boxed sets.  These can be picked up from Hoard 'O Bits for a song (at least for us Aussies anyway).

With a bit of work and some creative placement of greenstuff, Master Vel'cona was ready for base-coating.  Unfortunately I was a little over-eager when I was building him and while applying the first layer of paint and I've forgotten to take WIP shots, so unfortunately he's at quite an advanced stage in the pic above.  Originally I had him armed with a force staff, but I decided the in-game benefits weren't worth it and changed it to an axe.  Never underestimate the glory that comes from wielding an AP 2 force weapon.  You might strike last, but whatever you hit will pretty much die screaming.

Here's how he stands currently, patiently awaiting another session "under-the-brush".  More armour has beren painted and I've spent some time working on the extra details present on the model.  I'm not sure why, but I'm really enjoying painting this guy.  Maybe I just enjoy painting blue...

Catch you all later

Trev

Salamander Update - Sternguard Edition

It's been a while since I last wrote about these guys.  Since last time, I've spent a good bit of time working on two new members that will make up the first demi-squad of Sternguard for my Salamander army.  The first of these is a standard marine armed with a bolter.  Nothing special and yet I feel he stands out nonetheless.  Perhaps it's the silver arm that does it.  For me, there's something about the fairly standard 'I'm-going-to-gun-you-down' pose that's particularly fitting for these guys.  This model also uses Forgeworld MK V 'Heresy' pattern armour on the arms and backpack, as it matches the plastic chest piece that comes with the standard plastic boxed set.

The next fellow has been recently completed and continues the use of combi-weapons to enhance the fire-power available to the squad as a whole.  With this guy finished, my merry band of veterans have swollen to a hefty three members.  Hopefully over the next week or so I'll be inspired to paint the next two veterans needed to complete the demi-squad.  Another combi-weapon and a Sergeant will be perfect additions I think.  Now to get them built and painted.

With this guys finished, the updated stats are as follows:

Miniatures Purchased: 8
Miniatures Painted: 41
Points of Painted Salamanders: 495 pts

Catch you all later

Trev

Community Awareness - Caring for Club Terrain

 

It seems that everywhere I look on the online community I'm treated to views such as the ones above.  Spectacular tables that are filled with mind-blowing terrain that is well built and painted to a spectacular degree.  Let's be honest here, if you're reading this article, you're most likely looking at the pics above, wishing your local club had terrain so damn good and I don't blame you one iota (if you're local club HAS this terrain, you're a lucky bastard and I'm very jealous right now...).  I mean, look at them! Each table is filled with mesmerizing details that allow you to immerse yourself in a world of your own imaginings.  Players become gods among men, striding the battlefield while putting their foes to the sword.  And yet when we go to our local club for a game, this is what we find...

Can you see the Marines?

This is our reality.  Dull, unpainted, basic terrain whose greatest achievement would be allowing players imaginings to be played out in vintage black and white.  Why must we be subjected to games with unpainted and crappy terrain?  Why can't we have something nice too?

The simple answer is: You don't deserve it

Countless are the times I've opened boxes of club terrain only to find some new piece that's been damaged by careless gamers or have been dented and warped after being thrown haphazardly into a random box.  Last Sunday saw the greatest example of this I've ever seen.

As you can see here, some careless gamers has thrown another gamer's personal terrain into its box without thinking about storage pressure and the power of gravity. As a result, part of the ruin has actually sunk into the pond and become stuck.  The subsequent removal of said ruin resulted in the creation of puncture marks marring the relatively smooth surface of the water feature that this gamer worked so hard to achieve.  This raises the question: How can a club trust players to care for their own terrain if the players themselves cannot respect the terrain created by their peers!?!?!?!?!?  Personally I don't think its too much to ask that you treat all terrain with respect, especially since you didn't have to pay for it in the first place.  THIS IS THE REASON WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS!!!!!!

I guess the point of this article is to get you to think about the terrain at your game club and how you treat it before, after and during your games.  We all want great looking terrain to put on out own tables, but first we need to prove that we can look after the terrain we already have.  Just because we don't own something, doesn't mean we can treat it like garbage.  Quite the opposite actually, it means that we need to treat it all the more carefully.  If we don't, then we might not have any terrain at all...

Catch you all later

Trev