Err day we be Lamentin'

Nothing too exciting happening on the painting front. I'm slowly chipping away at the Skaven. I'm also gearing up for an Apocalypse game in a few weeks. I'll be joining the Imperial side of things with my Iron Hands, so expect some lists and pictures of the boys in black in the near future.

Today though, rather than the boys in black, I figured I might do some musing on the boys in red.
And by red, I clearly mean yellow.
Yellow with black and white checks.

I've never been a terribly big fan of the Blood Angels. I blame the last vestiges of faction loyalty from my nerdarific childhood. Back when me and my brother were first getting into the hobby, we both had space marine armies (of course). He had Blood Angels, while my allegiance was with the Ultramarines*. This is probably the same reason why I always favour Dark Elves over High Elves in Fantasy**. I digress, however.

When the book came out, however, I dabbled in it with some proxy-counts-as marines***. I ended up getting distracted by the Eldar (a story for another time), but the book itself was great fun to play with.

I've also long had a desire to paint up a yellow army, but have never quite had the nerve to go for it. Imperial Fists, Craftworld Iyanden, Bad Moons, all awesome factions. Lamenters are sweet, too. I especially like their whipping boy status. It's cool that despite being the finest genetically engineered super soldiers that mankind can produce, luck can still screw them over, repeatedly. I've always had a thing for the underdog, I suppose.

One day, I'll step up and paint myself a Lamenters army (possibly inspired by Aventine's dudes), but for now I just like to kick about the occassonal list. Which is really the point of this whole post.

Pretty much just theorycrafting with a little bit learned from my battlefield experiences with the book, so I make no promises about it being anywhere close to playable. Ready?


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LAMENTERS, 1500 POINTS

HQ:
Librarian, Jump Pack, Sword and Shield
Reclusiarch, Jump Pack

ELITE:
2 Priests with Jump Packs

TROOPS:
10 Assault Marines, 2 Flamers, Fist on the sgt

10 Assault Marines, 2 Meltas, Fist on the Sgt

5 Scouts, Pistol/Blade, 1 Missile Launcher, Fist on Sgt

7 Death Company, 2 Power Fists, 2 Power Weapons, Rhino

FAST:
2 Flamestorm Baals

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The idea behind this army is that it's an entirely deepstrike/outflank/reserve force. The HQs and Priests obviously run with the assault squads, drop down, then eat things. The baals outflank and set stuff on fire. The scouts outflank too, hopefully fisting an oportune target. The launcher is there so they can sit on an objective and shoot, or else keep out of the way if it's a KP mission. Death Company simply drive straight at the enemy and hopefully distract them long enough for the rest of the force to do it's thing.
Like I said before, it probably needs a decent amount of work to be viable on the tabletop (it lacks some serious anti-tank, for one thing), but I reckon it would be a pretty fun force to play.




*What can I say, I prefer blues to reds.
**There is also the scientifically proven fact that High Elves are pointy hat wearing ponces and totally lame.
***Yes yes, I know.

Warpfire Thrower Team, and Rattagantz

The sun was out today and the lighting wasn't too horrible, so I took a few more pictures of what I've been painting.



The Warpfire Thrower Team. Maybe one day they'll get to shoot something!





Warlord Rattagantz! The pose on this guy makes him tough to photograph.

Now these guys are done, it's time to wade through all those clan rats I've been putting off.

First blood with the rats

Well, had the first 2 "official" league games with my rats this week, which makes a grand total of 4 games played with skaven, ever.
First up was against some High Elves. The game was far closer than it had any right to be, due to some decent rolling from me and some fairly abysmal rolling from my opponent (obviously the new warchief dice I was using!). High point was a motley unit of clanrats holding their own against some swordmasters. In the end though, it ended as it always seems to, with the tattered remains of my army routing from the board.
Second game was against a cool looking (no pun intended; they were snow based) Dark Elf cavalry army. 3 units of Dark Riders and some Cold One Knights. I knew I was in trouble but held up a little better than expected, seeing off a unit of riders and the knights before I was finally outmanoeuvred and out shot. Not enough bodies or fire power to really contend with fast cav. Something to keep in mind for future blocks, I think. The other notable point of this game was it was the first time (in a total of 4 games with my rats) that a weapon team hit something that wasn't my own men! It failed to kill anything, but it's a start at least.

So, 2 losses, and unfinished painting as well. Not a very good start, but hey, the only way from here is up!


Here are my thoughts for expanding to 1k:
2 more pack masters, 4 more rat ogres.
10 more clan rats for each unit
Quezla, level 2 warlock with warp energy condenser
upgrade Rattagantz to a Warlord, give him a Warlock enhanced weapon.

So my list should look like:

LORDS
Rattagantz, Warlock Weapon

HEROES
Quezla, lv 2, WEC, Pistol

TROOPS
30 Clan Rats, Spears/Shields, Warp Fire Thrower

30 Clan Rats, HW/Shield, PWMortar

SPECIAL
6 Rat Ogres, 3 Pack Masters
987 points (Enough left over for an Enchanted Shield for my lord, perhaps?)


Adding a wizard seems like a solid choice, both from a fluff perspective and also from a game play one. Quezla is the core of my army, providing all the fun weapons I'll be adding in at larger points values, and a bit of extra ranged spell damage wont go amiss (or more likely it will, with disastrous consequences).
30 Clan Rats should hopefully help me maintain my rank bonus a little longer, and see each unit be that little bit more survivable. Hopefully.
Upgrading mr.Gantz to a lord is for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it's still quite early in the league so whilst skaven lords are not the combat monsters some are, the extra fightiness should help out quite a bit (with the warlock weapon he can dish out 5 strength 5 attacks at a decent I and ok WS). Secondly, bumping him up to a lord frees up some of my hero % points, so I can probably squeeze a cheap BSB into my list next block. Finally and most importantly, the extra point of LD is sorely needed!

Progress!

Slowly creeping towards my first 500 points of painted skaven. More rats have been painted, namely the first unit of clan rats. Not very exciting, but I'm hoping quantity will make up for the fairly basic paint job on these guys.


Finished unit of Rat Ogres. In my next 500 point block I plan to bump this unit up to 6. As a long time Dark Elf player I've never really had the chance to play about with monstrous infantry, and I think a mob of these guys barrelling across the battlefield will be great fun.





First weapon team done!


Up next are my Warpfire Thrower, and Chieftain Rattagantz himself. Then it's back to more clan rats!

Also, a quick note on bases. At present they're just a grey drybrush and nothing more, but at some stage in the future I intend to go back and fancy them up a bit with some flock or something. For now however I'm concentrating on speed over fanciness!

Tokyo Blogging

Well, here I am. 10pm local time, sitting in a cyber cafe messing about on the internet. An hour in here actually turned out a lot cheaper than buying a phone card to ring home as well! The keyboard keeps trying to make me type in Kanji though. I do not know Kanji, so this is a problem.

We landed yesterday, and the 11 hour flight kicked our assess a lot harder than anticipated. Getting lost in the middle of Tokyo didn't help much. Still, when in doubt, hail a cab. Tokyo is so crazy. It's busy, of course, but it's so intense. With the multi level arcades and shrines hidden away in between shops, everywhere you look there's something different going on. It's awesome!

Yesterday evening, just before passing out, we made a list of all the stereotypes and cliches that might come to mind when you think of Japan that we'd already seen/experienced.
Overly confusing toilet? Check.
Japanese School girls in sailor outfits? Check.
Japanese School boy with satchel slung over one shoulder? Check.
Engrish? Check (Best so far is Jamocan Coffee)
Lady in Kimono? Check.
Cute cartoon animals? Check.
Gloriously atractive hair all round? Check.
Packed but orderly subways? Check.
Stern looking Japanese doctor with a facemask? Check.
Arm bands signifying someone in a position of authority? Check.

The best one, however, is the television. Specificially the adverts. Beyond parody, everything you can imagine is true.
I love it!