First Howling Griffons game

My first five-man squad of Howling Griffons now means I can start playing games with my new force.  I did just that on Tuesday with a 450-point game at the school club.  My entire force was up against two five-man tactical squads, a captain and a dread.  As we rolled four objectives, that pretty much occupied all the troop choices on the board, whilst my assault squad quickly chewed through one squad and then the other for a comfortable debut victory.

Keen for some more practice with Space Marines, my Salamanders had an overdue outing at GW Newbury's Veterans' Night on Thursday, playing a 1000pt battle against Tom's Necrons.  With a big hill in the centre of the board, I made the mistake of advancing my Devastators for better LOS, only to be jumped by his Tomb Stalker (which he has modelled bursting through a wrecked landspeeder).  Some atrocious armour saves early on also cost me half of the Tactical Squad on my objective.

After the initial setbacks I recovered to kill the Tomb Stalker and two Annihilation Barges.  I even got as far as contesting his objective, before being ground down and losing 2-0.

Despite my poor rolls on amour and also leadership throughout the game, I did seem to have more luck against his Mindshackle Scarabs, making my first three Ld tests on 3d6 before missing the fourth one.  I also tried out a Librarian with Might of the Ancients.  Again, I failed to make two psychic tests (although I avoided perils), before wrecking one of the barges.

With new White Dwarf out this weekend, complete with new flyers, I am contemplating how useful a Stormtalon would be, given that I already have a Fast Attack choice.  The Escort Craft rule makes it quite interesting with reserves and a 36" Supersonic move would be very good for last-minute contesting objectives.  However, I didn't like the model at first glance.

Sniper Scouts plus wasp

The next unit of Howling Griffons are nearly done.  I've been working on 5 Sniper Scouts this week.  I left the gun arms and heads on the sprues for ease of painting, before final assembly.  I normally build the models completely prior to undercoating and painting, but the cloaks and big guns would have made it harder to do the quartering and details.  Now that they are assembled, I am not sure I've got the head poses right.  Hmm...

I haven't used snipers before, so I'm interested in how to get the best out of them.  I'm still deciding on my Carnage list, but now have a Space Marine battleforce, as I want to do Armies on Parade as well.  I could expand the two current units, but instead next up will be a Tactical Squad, 5 at a time, so I can start getting some legal games with a mix of units.  I will definitely be adding a Scout with Heavy Bolter at some point, too.

Off topic - I seem to have been sharing my shed this weekend with a wasp.  I wondered why it kept coming back, then noticed that it had started building a nest!  I felt mean removing its WIP, but it hasn't given up yet.  Any suggestions on discouraging it from starting again?  And no, I don't plan on lighting a fire in the shed to smoke it out...!

Back from Germany

I've just spent a few days in Germany leading a school trip. I managed to spend a bit of hobby time over there and visited the GW stores in Darmstadt, Mannheim and Frankfurt. The Mannheim one had a particularly impressive Armies on Parade winner on display. It featured Dark Angels defending a ruined chapel, with some great details, like a lone Fallen Angel lurking around the back.

Whilst away I read the rest of the Soul Drinkers Omnibus, which has grown on me a lot. The idea of modelling Tellos and some purple, mutated assault marines with Khorne Bezerker rules seems like fun. Apparently the fourth part 'Chapter War' is no longer in print, so I shall probably download the e-book from Black Library, instead of waiting for the second omnibus.

In Frankfurt I picked up a box of Sniper Scouts, to add to my Howling Griffons Assault Marines to start making a viable 800 point army for Carnage next year. Quinn has also persuaded me to do my own Armies on Parade entry. The idea of Howling Griffons defending a Griffon statue comes to mind, based on the new Empire monster.

Oh, and I finally got one of these...