GW Releases '09 'Ardboyz Scenarios

While checking out the GW site just now I noticed they had added the scenarios they will be using for 'Ardboyz this year. Check it out at this link: http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m200036a_40KArdBoyzRound1Scenarios.pdf

Looks like the scenario names are Land Grab, Head Hunter, and Drawn and Quartered. Haven't really had time to look at to much because still at work.

Land Grab is said to be a modification of Sieze Ground and Annihilation that automatically has 5 objectives, that lasts for 6 turns, Pitched Battle deployment, Night Fight on turn 1 with a few bonus points available.

Head Hunter is said to be a variation of Annihilation with special value killpoints(HQ=5, wow), uses Dawn of War deployment, six turns and a few bonus points available.

Drawn and Quartered is said to be a modification of Annihilation and Capture and Control that lasts six turns, uses Spearhead deployment with a few bonus points available.

I know my descriptions are vague, I just wanted to get this link out there so you can check it out for yourself. I may post what I think will be important for each scenario later once I have had more time to study these.

CSM: '09 'Ardboyz List

Having worked the last 12 days straight, 12-14 hrs per day I haven't had time to work on any models or post much on here or spend time with my family, but I thought I would go ahead and do a quick post of the 2500 pt list I plan on using this year at the 'Ardboyz Tournament. Myself and co-poster, gaming buddy(cousin), reklawsj plan on trying out the preliminary round at one of the stores about an hour away from home. There are a couple stores to choose from, neither of which we have ever played a game at. Our games we play are all reserved to playing at home. So going in we really don't know what to expect because neither of us has ever played in a tournament. The list I am going to use will be taken from Codex: Chaos Space Marines and will be a mixed bag using what I have built, mostly, with a couple things I still have to build when I get a free minute. I haven't seen the scenarios yet so I still may tweak this list a bit, but probably not. Reklawsj will be using a Vulkan-led Salamander list that hopefully he will post soon. That is, if he ever finalizes it. Okay enough of that, on with the list.

And before you look, yes it is a dual lash prince army with plague marines, but hey this can be a very effective build and it is 'Ardboyz. I would never run lash princes in another tournament, I prefer nurgle princes personally, but with the edition of the two vindies and 3 obliterators they can be very effective. I've built this army around some of the toughest units in the book. I want the opposing player to look across the table and have little idea of what the best target is, because all are potentially dangerous and all will take heavy focused firepower to vanquish from the battle. A couple plague marine squads and a vindie are pretty tough to move off an objective. The plan is to lash the nasties into the open then focus templates into them until they disappear. If some are left they are to be mopped up by termies. Being fully mechanized with three monstrous creatures I plan on staying in the fight for a while at least. Having never been in a tournament, especially 'Ardboyz, I want to be prepared with a strong list that can handle most things I should come up against.

HQ
Daemon Prince X 2
Wings
Mark of Slaanesh
Lash of Submission

Elites
Chaos Terminators
5 Terminators
Mark of Nurgle
Heavy Flamer/Chainfist
Combi-Flamer/Powerfist
Combi-Flamer/Powerweapon
Combi-Melta/Powerfist
Combi-Melta/Powerweapon
Dedicated Transport
Chaos LandRaider
Extra Armor
Dirge Caster

Troops
Plague Marine Squad X 2
7 Plague Marines
2 Meltaguns
Champion
Powerfist
Meltabombs
Personal Icon
Dedicated Transport
Rhino
Combi-Melta

Plague Marine Squad X 2
7 Plague Marines
2 Plasmaguns
Champion
Powerfist
Meltabombs
Personal Icon
Dedicated Transport
Rhino
Combi-Melta

Heavy Support
Obliterators X 3

Vindicator

Vindicator

Other
SummonedGreaterDaemon

2499pts

2009 40k 'Ardboyz Tournament

This may be old news, but yesterday I was surfing the GW site and found the dates for the upcoming 40k 'Ardboyz Tournament and got pretty excited. I have missed the last two due to not having an army I was excited about playing built in time. Although the prelims are on my wife's birthday I think I may actually get to try it this year. Only this time I have a different dilemma, which army to play. I have recently built a huge Space Marine army and am making good progress with Project DeathGuard. I don't know if I want to add some more points to my 1500pt list of Project DeathGuard or add to my Khan led 1500pt all outflanking Space Marine list posted previously. Anyone have any opinions on which I should choose and what to add to these lists to make them more competitive. I have a decent idea of what I think I should add but would appreciate some other opinions. Here are my ideas. Add to Project DeathGuard two vindicators, another winged prince, greater deamon, and either LR with nurgle termies or 2 units of 10 CSM in rhinos. Add to Khan army Librarian Tigurius for reserve help and thats about as far as I've gotten with this one.

Project DeathGuard: Paint Scheme Finalized

I know I'm posting my finalized paint scheme after the test models are finished but I didn't know my final color choices until a model was finished. Even so, some of the things will be varied as I get bored or change my mind on slight color variations throughout the project. Usually I paint my models(marine models anyways) in a clean, line highlighted style with ink wash glazes to tone down and blend the lines. I started with a layered highlight style on the first test model, then began to use more of a long brushstroke method on the second to give the armor kind of a woodgrain effect. This is easier to do on the legs than elsewhere, so that is where this style is more prominent on the champion. I usually am not a fan of this painted style of plague marine, but now that it is on my models it is growing on me a little bit.

Since I haven't painted in a few years I decided to pick up the new wash set from GW and give it a try instead of my inks I was used to. At first I didn't like them to much because they just seemed to be a really watered down version of the ink I'm used to and forced me to wash, wait, wash, wait, wash, etc. So, I have compromised and am using inks on some parts where I want a quick shade and washes on other parts where a gradual buildup of washes looks better. Okay on with the color selections.

Armor
Basecoat Catachan Green leaving black in recesses
Highlight Catachan Green : Camo Green (1:1)
Highlight Catachan Green : Camo Green (1:2)
Highlight Camo Green
Wash multiple times with Devlan Mud

Armor Trim, Weapon Metal, Misc. Metal Bitz
Basecoat Boltgun Metal
Wash with watered down Brown Ink(armor trim)
Wash with Badab Black(bolter metal)
Wash with Thraka Green(swords all of above)

Skin, Exposed Brains, Guts, etc.
Basecoat Ice Blue
Highlight Ice Blue : Skull White (1:1)
Highlight Skull White
Wash Asurmen Blue

Bolters/Red Bitz
Basecoat Scorched Brown : Scab Red (1:2)
Highlight Scab Red
Highlight Scab Red : Blood Red (1:1)
Wash Badab Black
Wash watered down Brown Ink

Misc. Metal Bits
Basecoat Tarnished Brass(Reaper Master Series Paint)
Highlight Tarnished Brass : Boltgun Metal (2:1)
Wash Gryphonne Sephia or Chestnut Ink Watered Down

Wooden Barrels
Basecoat Scorched Brown
Highlight Scorched Brown : Bestial Brown (1:1)
Highlight Bestial Brown
Wash slightly watered down Brown Ink

Leather Pouches
Same as Barrels except additional Highlight Bestial Brown : Snakebite Leather (1:1) before wash

Steel Drums
Basecoat Boltgun Metal
Add Rust with watered down Blazing Orange : Bestial Brown (1:1)
Wash with Badab Black
Wash with Devlan Mud

Misc. Hoses and Wires
Basecoat Coppery Orange(Reaper)
Wash Gryphonne Sephia

Bases
Basecoat gravel Scorched Brown
Drybrush Bubonic Brown
Light Drybrush Bleached Bone

Paint rim of base Catachan Green

Basecoat Marsh area Chaos Black
Add Static Grass and Matte Varnish model before brushing Gloss Varnish on Marsh area

Okay, I think that's everything. Seems long winded once I actually got to writing it down. I hope to get the painting time down to under 1 1/2 hours as I progress through this project which is going to be slowed dramatically(have to work a couple 80+ hour weeks at least starting now, so probably no painting for a while). Gonna wait til reklawsj post his two 1500 pt Salamander list before posting a quick battle report of our weekend games.

Project DeathGuard: Test Models Painted, Finally!

Over the weekend I had a rare day to paint and game. I finished my first test model for my DeathGuard on Saturday morning. The Plague Marine below with the bolter and wooden barrel was the first model. The champion below was painted Saturday night because he insta-killed Vulkan in one of the games I played earlier that day. Now I think I have my color scheme sorted out and should be able to move along a little quicker with them. The first model took about 2 1/2 hours while I think I squeezed the champion in under 2 hours. I hope to get these times down to a little over an hour because I have very little time to paint(usually only when baby is sleeping). I am mostly satisfied with how these models have turned out, though I want to get faster and a little neater on my highlights. These are the first models I have painted in about 3 years, so I have to get back in the groove. I've decided to finish the current unit then begin working on my rhinos because they are on the table the most during test games.

Having played a couple test games with this army I am pretty happy with their competitiveness and play style, I just need more practice with random scenarios to get my tactics down. I may post a little something about Saturday's games later this week.

Project DeathGuard: Forgeworld Package Arrives

Finally, yesterday I came home and my wife handed me a small box full of Forgeworld goodies that I had ordered over a month ago. Opening the box I found that the models were even greater in person than they look on the website. I have a few ForgeWorld tanks for my Imperial Guard, a Grey Knight Dread and a Night Lords Dread and would like to have a lot more. It is a rare occasion that I actually order anything from them, but felt I wanted to make my DeathGuard army a little special. So I ordered the DeathGuard Dreadnought with the huge banner on top. To this I added the twin-linked lascannon Nurgle arm and the close combat arm with the long claws. This model is awesome and I can't wait to start building it. I also ordered two of the Nurgle Sorcerer models, one of which I plan on building as ForgeWorld intended, and the other I wanna convert to have a powerfist. Both of these will of course get the barrel backpack treatment to match the rest of my army. Also included in this order were two packs of the Nurgle Terminator torsos, well seven of them at least, the other 3 are going to the Ebay soon. These will add some great Nurgle goodness to the army.

I have my first 1500 point list primed and attempted a test model. The results were less than spectacular so he was reprimed and is awaiting test number two. Now if I can keep my hands off the ForgeWorld bits I hope to get him painted again by the weekend and get a pic up soon after that. Also over the past weekend I built a few Nightlord models to flesh out my units to 10 and built 3 terminators for Abaddon's retinue as well as a Nightlord Terminator Lord.