Death Guard Detachment

After The Signal and Rise Up! Campaigns are completed, we are planning another short campaign that will take place on a Daemon World in the Eye of Terror. Daemon Prince Darfongdong is inviting four champions - Heretic Space Marines from four different Renegade Chapters, representing the four Gods of Chaos; Khorne, Tzeentch, Slaanesh and Nurgle.

Each Force is to have one Champion - a headquarters character that would be the players champion/warlord that will lead their force through the trials. No named characters, no Daemons or Daemon Princes... They are allowed to bring along a small retinue of followers - maximum 25 Power Level - in a Patrol Detachment.

I, of course, have the Emperors Children, representing Slaanesh. Oliver has World Eaters, representing Khorne. Ian Is putting together a small force of Thousands Sons - just for this campaign - who pledge their allegiance to Tzeentch! And that leaves Nurgle... and the Death Guard... Conveniently, I happen to have a small collection of older metal Plague Marines - that could be the core of a force that Finnegan could use... But what to use for a champion....?

Then I remembered I also had a spare Chaos Space Marine Captain in Terminator Armour! Sure, he's not one of those fancy-schmancy new Death Guard characters, like thePlague Marine Champion, or the Biologus Putrifier, or the Foul Blightspawn, or whatever... but he actually matches the Plague Marines that I actually HAVE so... Kind of works out!



Death Guard Lord in Terminator armour.



Finnegan has named this guy Slugbottom the Vile, Belcher of Woes, Duke of Downright Dirtiness, Prince of Decay, and an overall Cool Dude.

I cranked him out at breakneck speed using, mostly, Contrast® Paints! And, y'know... I don't think he looks half bad, considering...



while I was at it, I finished up the last of these older Plague Marines!



The entire Death Guard force.

I have enough here to field a pretty big Patrol Detachment. I'd need another HQ element to be able to field it as a Battalion - though, in 9th edition, there is no really NEED to try and field it as a Battalion as there is no Command Point benefit to doing so! It would only be if I wanted to field these in a larger number of smaller squads.

Death Guard Patrol Detachment (CP Cost: 2, Command Bonus: +2 CP)

Headquarters
Slugbottom the Vile - Chaos Lord in Terminator Armour - PR6

Troops
Plague Marines (10) - PR11
Plague Marines (10) - PR11
Plague Marines (10) - PR11

Power Level: 39


For this campaign, however, we are limited to 25 Power Level, so this is how that's probably going to look...



Slugbottom the Vile and his retinue for our Daemon World Championship campaign.

Death Guard Patrol
Death Guard Patrol Detachment (CP Cost: 2, Command Bonus: +2 CP)

Headquarters
Slugbottom the Vile - Chaos Lord in Terminator Armour - PR6

Troops
Plague Marines (5) - PR6
Plague Marines (5) - PR6
Plague Marines (5) - PR6

Power Level: 24

I got wondering, though, if there was someway to make it 25 Power, exactly. By putting the Plague Marines into two squads of seven (the Number of Nurgle!) that comes to 16, plus the Champion at 6, leaves 3 which is exactly what a squad of either Cultists or Poxwalkers is!

Initially I was thinking Cultists, and could possibly use my Chemical Commies - Cold War Soviets in NBCD Suits!? There are even Heavy Stubber or Flamer options there! I feel like I'd probably need to rebase them to fit with the others, though... so...

I don't have nearly enough Necromunda Scavvies to use as a squad of Cultists - though I wish I DID! I DO, however, have enough old Necromunda plague zombies that could possibly be fielded as Pox Walkers...?

So, alternatively, the force could be fielded as follows...



Death Guard Patrol
Death Guard Patrol Detachment (CP Cost: 2, Command Bonus: +2 CP)

Headquarters
Slugbottom the Vile - Chaos Lord in Terminator Armour - PR6

Troops
Plague Marines (7) - PR8
Plague Marines (7) - PR8
Chaos Cultist (10) - PR3

Power Level: 25



You DOOM has Cometh!


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Tomorrow Da Boyz are coming by again for Round Three of the Rise Up! Campaign, So I'll probably have a game report for that later in the evening or the following day.

I have a few other things that I'll probably finish up painting this evening or tomorrow that I'll be posting presently.

Later in the week (Thursday), Finnegan and I are planning on forging ahead with Game Three of The Signal Campaign.

The boardgame played has slowed since the early days of isolation... (as have the bike rides!?)... so I'm not sure if I'll be posting a part one and part two of July's games... or just a look back at the whole month in a couple weeks...? Probably the latter, considering the game reports I'll be working on.

PLAGUE MARINES!

With Grandfather Nurgle spreading his contagion around the world, it seemed apropos to work on a few of these guys...



Plague Marines!

Seven of these are metal, two are plastic. Not the prettiest paint jobs, but, whatevs... They're done. Don't think Plague Marines are much concerned about fashion, anyway...



I now have twenty of these...

I have another ten or eleven to do - and a Malignant Plaguecaster, for a headquarters unit to make this a proper allied battalion detachment (at least in Apocalypse, which is probably the only time these would show up as an allied detachment... in regular 40K, I'd need a second HQ element).


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Another instalment in our rebooted Blackstone Fortress campaign! Amanda and I started a second expedition into the Fortress yesterday, but didn't have time to finish it up. Hopefully we'll get a chance this evening and I'll post the report afterwards... or... tomorrow...?

Painting has been going slow... I've been doing a lot of assembling and priming/prep work. Amanda found the furniture and door sets I'd ordered for Hellboy during the Kickstarter - so I spend some time painting on primer while watching some TV on the computer with Keira last night (signed up for a free trial month of Amazon Prime - so she could continue watching Supernatural - we HAD been borrowing the series on DVDs from the local library, but they've been closed for a couple weeks now and Keira's been beside herself not being able to keep up with that!)... They're not SUPER huge priority, but it was something easy to bring upstairs and do while watching TV shows on the computer.

NOISE MARINES (and a Plague Marine and some Epic Bone Krushas)

I finally finished up a full squad of Noise Marines!



I'm a little torn about how to organize these. Squads of five or ten...? Initially, I was feeling like five, because then I thought I could try and paint them like iconic rock/metal/punk five-piece bands... but then when I went looking for colourful icon costumes for rock/metal/punk five-piece bands, I wasn't coming up with much. Other than KISS's iconic face paint (and maybe the Misfits)... it's mostly a lot of studded black leather... which is LAME. I was thinking bright, gaudy mismatched colours. Almost like Dazzle camouflage but even MORE colour!

I did find one band pic to base this first squad on...



Can anyone guess the band...?  



Maybe now....?



Look close.



Or this one...?



maybe if I turn it around the right way...?

Here's another *HINT*

Let me know in the comments if you figured it out and what gave it away...

So... units of five?  Like bands (whether they are inspired by actual bands or not)? or ten? If they were in fives like rock/metal bands (I don't know too many punk bands with five...? most seem to be three or four...) I could give them names! These could be the Twysturd Cysturs (Oooh! Another Hint... although that sounds a little like a Death Guard band....?)

Speaking of Death Guard...



Another Plague Marine - this time metal and armed with a Melta Gun!



Brother Bloatus!

He happened to be available from one of the eBay sellers I was picking up Noise Marine bits from... and there is another batch of metal ones on the way from another seller - again, the main purpose was picking up Noise Marines... but then there were good deal on older Plague Marines. These just aren't in demand - with all the fancy-schmancy plastic ones available now! I did pick up ONE plastic one - a Malignant Plaguecaster - So I could have an HQ element to lead the Death Guard Detachment...

And now for something completely different...

(but still 40k-ish...)



and a pair of Epic Ork Bone Krushas

FINALLY I have some TANK-like-things for my epic ork force. everything else I have is infantry, truks (like the original, boring plastic ones) and Stompas/Gargants. Not that I have any of the Truks or Stompas or Gargants painted yet, but I also stumbled across these on eBay from a seller I was picking up Noise Marine (and other) bits from, so I snatched them as well... and... since they were here, I painted them...



I thought I'd try painting one with gore trailing behind from those it's crushed... but I didn't totally love it, so I didn't bother with the second..


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

We were originally going to play Power Grid last night (Friday), but both of the other players I'd originally lined up to come and play with us bailed... both sick. Then Keira admitted she was hoping they'd show up so she wouldn't HAVE to play - which would have been nice to know earlier, otherwise I could have arranged for MORE players... as it was, it was just going to be me and Amanda for Power Grid... So I thought I'd offer to set up a game of Hellboy. Keira IS apparently interested in playing THAT still - as long as she's playing Liz Sherman! So we set that up.... It was a good thing too, because I really had NO IDEA about many of the rules - luckily Finnegan joined us and HE remembered EVERYTHING, and it was really more like HIM running ME through a game! I did take some pictures, but not really enough to warrant a post on it's own about it. We are planning to play again tomorrow (Sunday) evening, so perhaps I'll do a double game report...

After that, Tuesday is the big Wargaming Birthday Bash Necromunda Game. It is the same game I'm running a week and a half later at ToonCon. I was thinking of this Tuesday's game as another Play-test... but I think I've MOSTLY hammered it out and... really... Tuesday's game has become a beast in its own right. I have six people actually threatening to show up! (only ONE seems to be registered for the game at ToonCon, so far!) It should be a good time... if any hiccups appear, I have a week and a half to sort them out before ToonCon...

Plague Marines, Beastmen, and Other Chaos Characters

It was a productive weekend at the Workbench. I didn't play as many games as I'd have liked, but I did get some stuff painted that I'll be able to play games with NEXT weekend - the long weekend. I'd like to finish up the rest of the Blackstone Fortress stuff by then - or at least ENOUGH of it to PLAY!



Beastmen for Blackstone Fortress.



More Plague Marines.



ALL the Plague Marines. I still have 13 to do. I'd like to pick up a Plague Marine Character/HQ Element to lead them in a detachment. There seems to be enough of Lords of Contagion and Malignant Plaguecasters (from the Dark Imperium boxed set) floating around on eBay, that I should be able to pick one up relatively cheap. (I should probably check the local miniature buy and sell - I'm sure there are local dudes that bought multiples of Dark Imperium - because the starter boxes are a always such a good deal- and might have an extra or two kicking around)



Chaos Space Marine Characters: a Chaos Lord in Terminator Armour and a Chaos Sorcerer.

The date for Battleforce Recon 2020 has been announced and so I've been getting excited and planning and preparing. In itially I thought it would be fun to roll out with a Daemon army, but there is just no way I'd be able to without buying another couple hundred worth of miniatures... maybe next year. I DO have enough Chaos Space Marines that I might be able to pull it off!

It's a small tournament - only 1000 points - which is why I like it. The games are basically large skirmishes. No one takes it too seriously.

Currently I'm looking at brining:

Emperor's Children Battalion Detachment

HQ
Daemon Prince of Slaanesh
Chaos Lord in Terminator Armour
Chaos Sorcerer

Troops
30x Daemonettes
8x Noise Marines
5x Chaos Space Marines
15x Chaos Cultists

Elites
5x Chaos Terminators.

Currently I HAVE all of these items, but most still need to be painted... The exact numbers aren't certain just yet... have to play around with the points. In addition to only being 1000 points, we are limited to a single detachment, the "Rule of Three" and NO MORE THAN 60 Troops! Unfortunately in an Emperor's Children detachment, Noise Marines count as Troops (Normally they are Elites!?) - other wise I would have taken 20 cultists and 30 Daemonettes.

The Daemonettes can't actually be included as part of the Emperor's Children detachment, and we're only allowed one detachment... BUT they CAN be summoned onto the table and JOIN a Emperor's Children detachment!? Of course there is a chance the won't... at all... if I, y'know, roll poorly (What are the odds MY dice would do THAT to me!?). It's a HUGE gamble - and one not likely to pay off - even if they DO show up!? I just think it's fun to think whoever I'm playing against is showing up to stop some cultists and chaos marines from attempting to summon a pile of Daemons - can they do it before I get lucky!? (Probably!)

I'll probably have to do some converting of the Terminators, as three of them have Reaper Autocannons - two of the older variety, one of the newer. I hope I can figure out a way to turn the older ones into some sort of combi-weapon.



What I have so far.

I may try to pick up another another two Noise Marines - just so I can field TWO blastmasters, which will give me SOMETHING to deal with more heavily armoured opponents.


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

More Blackstone Fortress!

Plague Marines!

Not really part of THE PLAN....

Sure, a Daemons of Chaos army WAS part of the plan... but that mostly involved painting up the stuff from the Wrath and Rapture box set... and maybe a few more Slaanesh items I picked up on Boxing Day...

The short version of a long and convoluted story was I was looking on eBay for something specific - that WAS kind-of, sort-of related to THE PLAN... and stumbled across... other stuff... Included in that "other stuff" was a lot of old plastic Death Guard Plague Marines - and they were dirt cheap! Like 20 for the cost of buying three new ones... so... How could I resist THAT action. (I guess people do't dig on the old models now that there are newer, fancier ones...?)

I should just never even LOOK at ebay...



Death Guard Plague Marines - with Icon of Despair.

The Icon bearer is actually a metal figure and wasn't part of the main lot - but from the same seller and still, pretty cheap... cheaper than buying a single new plastic marine - let along some sort of individual character model!

I tired to paint them very quickly with Contrast® Paints. I think they look pretty awful... but they're Death Guard... They're SUPPOSED to look "awful"!?



Since there will only ever be 21 of them, and are most likely to just be used in Kill Team, I gave them all names and painted them on the back of their bases.



With the lot I got an original box and some decals. I've never really used decals, but I thought I'd give it a go with these. They looked terrible. So, I scraped most of them off.

I also didn't use the bases that came with them. The "standard" for space marines, these days, are 32mm bases... so I stuck them down to a few of those I had kicking around. I'm running short on the 32mm fancy bases, but I DO have a load of plain bases (because I've had a bunch of figures that I put on fancy bases and didn't use the plain base that came WITH the model!).

In retrospect, it was a bit daft to pick these up. I really have no desire to build some "Chaos Soup" force, and Nurgle is my least favourite of the Chaos forces. These will likely only ever be used for Wrath &Glory (the 40K role-playing game) or maybe Kill Team or possibly a 40K game where there is a narrative reason to field them... or I'm trying to put together an Apocalypse force and need one more Chaos detachment...

I should probably keep a weather eye out for an old metal Nurgle/Death Guard champion and/or sorcerer, though - to be a detachment commanders for this small force. I actually have 21 of them (including the icon bearer) which means I could field three units of seven - three units is what is needed for a Vanguard Detachment in both 40K and Apocalypse, and SEVEN is the number of Nurgle!

I noticed the that new Death Guard Squads are actually sold in boxes of SEVEN! I was pretty excited to see - just a little bit - that the army organization was matching the fluff in some small way... I was disappointed to find, then - in the data cards for Apocalypse, at least - that the standard size for a Death Guard squad is still grouped in fives... five for Power Level 4, ten for Power Level 7... (you can get a "reinforcement" set of three - to make a squad of ten.


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

um... more Chaos stuff...?

Daemons or Death Guard (I do have another 16 of these... and they are pretty quick to paint with the Contrast Paints!)

Or possibly some Blackstone Fortress stuff!