End of 10th edition - Alpha Legion vs Iron Warriors

It was a tough day for Alpharaddon/ Omegaddon as his Alpha Legion took on the Iron Hands in our last game of 40K 10th edition.

The Iron bros took the early lead with favourable secondary objectives and some poor card draws for the Hydra. 

Losing legionaries did not stop the Master of Execution and the forgefiend hitting a blocking unit of possessed but were unable to take them all down due to early losses from the yellow and black attack of those damn iron boys.

The chaos bikers avoid the blocking possessed and charge the termies. The enhanced charge bonuses did not deliver enough damage before they were destroyed.

When Kravek Morne and his terminator brothers took down the master and his supporting forgefiend things were looking desperate.

The Obliterators used their deep strike to infiltrate the battlefield and despite their successful charge into the predator, three wounds from a failed dark pact and some poor dice rolling meant the infantry killing tank remained. A counter charge from legionaries killed off the last of the mutie gun machines.

Out of his personal landraider Heaven and Hell (we love you Dio). Alpharaddon/ Omegaddon emerged with his personal chosen body guard emerged to send krab head (as he was called) and his termies back to Medrengard.

Alas this left the big A/O open to combined fire and charges from legionaries and an Iron Master of execution, sorcerer and more chosen.

As expected the big guy was the last to fall.

The Iron Warriors may have taken the battlefield but of course this was the plan of the Alpha Legion all along.

Iron Sultanate vs Eire Rangers

 Great game with the rangers taking the win but man of the match was the assassin who grenaded a berserker and then stabbed a warrior priest to take them out.

He was later taken out by the sniper priest. 

The Irish successfully held more objectives but the Iron bros did get one glory deed with a double charge by the assassin. 

Awesome game with some amazing terrain.

Alpha Legion Chaos Bikers

With the imminent release of 11th edition 40K I am steadily getting though the backlog of my Alpha Legion.

After finishing my Ravenwing army I have enjoyed using bikes so when I saw a marketplace ad for some chaos bikers I decided some fast attack was needed for the Hydra. 

Painting followed my usual Alpha Legion approach of kroxigor contrast paint over chrome. The one difference was the chrome was painted over a black undercoat. Not sure this made a huge difference but did make some of the black parts on the bikes easier to paint.

I am pretty confident the kit will be upgraded so I kept the bases pretty basic in case I need to rebase.

I have three more bikes, two armed with flamers and the other with a chainsword, next on the painting table.

I am not sure how they will play in 11th but I reckon I will at least get in a charge in before they get shot up.

Khorne Warriors of Chaos vs Vampires

Had a cracker of an Old World game with my khorne warriors beating up some vampires.

My opponents only had their blood knights left at the end of the game.

My list was full aggression with magic resistance where I could find it. I only lost some dogs, the marauder horse and a couple of chosen to his big skeleton and zombie blocks with characters in each unit.

The khorne characters were a match for the vamps and wight lords with the undead infantry crumbling due to the number of wounds these frenzied bros and their buddies can dish out.

The massed block of skeletons made it into the marauder infantry who held. My chosen then took them in the flank after killing his lord and his zombie baggage unit.

Not a friendly list but may be worth a tournament run.

200 - Aspiring Champion, Halberd, Shield, Mark of Khorne, Battle Standard Bearer, Banner of the Dark Powers, Crown of Everlasting Conquest

156 - Aspiring Champion, Lance, Shield, Mark of Khorne, Daemonic Mount, Talisman of the Soaring Eagle

307 - Chaos Lord, Shield, Mark of Khorne, General, Meteor Hammer, Daemonic Platemail

197 - 5 Chaos Knights, Lance, Mark of Khorne, Champion, Standard Bearer, Rampaging Banner

257 - 30 Chaos Marauders, Shield, The Cult of the Fell Raptor, Marauder Headman, Standard Bearer, Musician

35 - 5 Chaos Warhounds, Poisoned Attacks

35 - 5 Chaos Warhounds, Poisoned Attacks

213 - 10 Chaos Warriors, Additional Hand Weapon, Mark of Khorne, Champion, Standard Bearer, Banner of Rage, Musician

77 - 5 Marauder Horsemen, Cavalry Spear, Marauder Horsemaster, Standard Bearer, Musician

120 - Chaos Chariots, Mark of Khorne

401 - 15 Chosen Chaos Warriors, Additional Hand Weapon, Full Plate Armour, Mark of Khorne, Champion, Standard Bearer, Totem Of Wrath, Musician

Master of Possession

The character ranks of the Alpha Legion have increased with the addition of a Master of Possession.

Painting followed my standard Legionaries paint scheme with a little more red for the cloak and gloves. I added a series of runes over the sides of the cape to break up the red. These were straight off the legionaries transfer sheet and look appropriate for this bro.

The skulls and bones over the mini were painted with ivory, bone white, skeleton contrast paint followed by bone white highlights.

I added the little flame dude from an old tzeentch kit who like the flames, got my yellow green paint job with a little white highlights on the high points.

I will add this bro with either my melee legionaries or chosen to benefit from his abilities.

Inceptor reinforcement and new Dark Angels paint scheme

 After a couple of years of painting Dark Angels using this paint scheme I decided it was time to try something different with a lone inceptor I had picked up to increase my unit to six bros.

 

As I got this dude second hand he came as is seen in the pictures and I chose not to change up his assembly. This meant I kept his painted flight stand that I repainted in an ivory/ bone white finish. Due to his assembly the flight stand is relatively hidden so I don’t think it distracts too much from his paint job.

I had painted my first four Inceptors and their Sergeant and therefore my sixth bro’s paint job needed to fit in with my old scheme.

Dropping the bolt gun metal base coat I switched over to a black undercoat. Using a makeup brush I first dry brushed white followed by a lighter second dry brush using goblin green. My shaky hand never lets me do edge highlights very well so I consider this to be the shaky hands approach to highlight those hard edges. 

Next step was a slightly watered down Absolution Green speed paint. I would definitely recommend this paint to be used with a damp brush if you don’t have any medium or thinner of some sort.

 

This approach worked extremely well and kept the harder edge highlights whilst toning down some of the messier drybrushing. Sorry I forgot to take some work in progress pics but will remember on my next reinforcements for the Unforgiven.

Unlike the pics in the above links, I painted the ammo and cables to the bolter a blue mix. This was achieved with Vallejo falcon turqiouse and plasmatic bolt speed paint. This matches the other bros that I have since updated and the blue on my Plasma Inceptors weapons.

Game wise I have always enjoyed using these dudes and it was a good opportunity to try a new paint scheme that I think has come out better than my former approach.

And even more Alpha Legion Cultists

 In preparation for the release of 40K 11th edition my goal is to finish painting all my current chaos space marines and have the mighty Alpha Legion ready to take on all comers.

With these nine bros finished I now have about 30 ready for close range combat.

Painting for these dudes followed the approach of my other Cultists that included as many dirty browns and leathers across the cloth material as I could find.

Some of the various browns were achieved with brown speedpaints and highlights of Vallejo leather brown and off whites. The dude in the full body cloak came out really well so I tried this approach across a few other guys who had larger panels of leather.

I also wanted the skin tones to reflect that these bros don’t have the intestinal fortitude to resist the whispers of the dark gods. To achieve this, the skin started with crusader skin speed paint and highlights of pale flesh. I added extra watered down washes of various browns, purples and sepia to mix up the skin tones.

Game wise, the Cultist’s job is to infiltrate, take objectives and then die- it’s a tough gig in pursuit of the goals of the Alpha Legion. I used two units of 10 in my last two game tournament and that’s exactly what they did.

Next up for the Hydra will be some chaos bikers that have always been one of my favourite units in 40K.