Monday 22 April 2019

"Your Curiosity Will Cost You Dear, Human."

"The creature's tongue drills a tiny hole in Johnny's skull. Then it feeds upon his brain."
These additional four 31mm tall plastic pre-painted Dire Wraiths by "Wizkids" are all number 010a from the "Marvel" Guardians Of The Galaxy "Heroclix" range, and are based upon "the main opponents of Rom the Spaceknight." Created by Bill Mantlo and Al Milgrom for the December 1979 issue of "Rom", the extraterrestrial species "are Skrullian Deviants engineered by the starfaring Celestials. 

Having removed the "stocky and troll-like" aliens from their clicky-bases and super-glued onto "Citadel" 40mm circular bases, they were all primed with two coats of "Vallejo" Heavy Red, and enthusiastically washed with "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade. In the past when I've painted these villainous shape-shifters I've actually undercoated them using a layer of "Vallejo" Squid Pink first, but with hindsight don't believe the vibrant Game Colour ever had any effect on the model's subsequent hue so missed this additional step out completely.

Instead these particular "demons from distant space driven in defeat to our shimmering planet" were simply dry-brushed with more "Vallejo" Heavy Red, before having their tiny heartless eyes 'picked out' with a spot of Heavy Ochre. As I wanted these sorcerers' merciless pupils to especially stand out, I didn't bother washing them either, and instead just tidied their edges up with some additional "Citadel" Abaddon Black.
The Intercessors start out well, taking control of an objective and slaying the Bloodletter's Warlord
Alongside my painting, I have also managed to host a 'skirmish' game of "Warhammer 40K", with my Bloodletters taking on a 159 points of Intercessor Ultrmarines, including a Primaris Lieutenant (and using the "Chapter Approved" 2018 costs). As you can imagine with such a low costing confrontation, a couple of home rules were employed to allow the individual models plenty of independence from one another, yet we were still able to follow the vast majority of the miniature wargame's principles as found within the "First Strike" core instruction booklet.

Settling upon the "Slay and Secure" victory conditions, both forces fought over four primary objectives dotted about a ruined Imperial city, with my Khorne warriors suffering an immediate set-back by having their warlord, a Bloodreaper, gunned down during the first phase of shooting without even yelling out a command in anger. Fortunately, my startled Slaughter-kin survived the necessary Morale check, but the Primaris space marines had already snatched D3 Victory Points by slaying my leader during the battle's opening salvo.
A pair of Bloodletters continue to tie-up the majority of the Imperium's forces
Luckily for the Blood God, his foot soldiers "Daemonic" ability to roll a 5+ invulnerability save subsequently proved invaluable time and again during the ebb and flow of the conflict, even surprisingly deflecting three simultaneous wounds on more than one occasion. This incredible run of fortune saw just a couple of meagre Bloodletters tie-up half the Primaris party, including their Lieutenant, for most of the game, allowing me to overwhelm the rest of the scattered space marines through sheer weight of numbers.

Equally as impressive was the daemons' Hellblade, which as a melee weapon with -3 Armour Piercing allowed my Khorne combatants to consistently carve through the Adeptus Astartes irrespective of their impressive 3+ saving throw. Add the fact that "any attacks with a wound roll of 6+... have a Damage characteristic of 2 instead of 1" and you have a mighty melee weapon which not even the Intercessor Sergeant could resist for too long.
The Primaris Lieutenant charges another Bloodletter, as the remaining Intercessor captures an objective
Of course, even though the Ultramarines' number slowly fell to the point where they could no longer hope to contest all four primary objectives, the day could still have partially belonged to the Emperor if their Lieutenant, capable of a whopping 4 attacks in close combat, had actually managed to hit anything during the fight. A couple of Bloodletters did finally begrudgingly fall beneath his Power sword towards the end, but by then time was badly against the officer and his remaining men.

A few Khorne charges later, tapping into the daemons' "Unstoppable Ferocity" which provides the heartless creatures with +1 Strength and Attacks until the end of the turn, all except the Primaris Lieutenant and a single Intercessor were left alive, with the Imperium only holding one primary objective to the Bloodletters' three. This resulted in a 6-4 victory to the forces of Chaos, and the promise of an escalated re-match to come in the near future...

22 comments:

  1. Always gratifying to see the `Ultrasmurfs' fall beneath the unholy might of Khorne..... even if their gun barrels are drilled !!!
    The Direwraith synchronised dance troupe look very impressive as well.

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    1. Thanks very much Phil. Obviously the well-drilled Ultramarines weren't mine ;-) I think the tactical error the game was the space marines trying to mix it up hand-to-hand with a Hellblade - that's a frightening weapon with its -3 AP. Better to stand firm and get a couple of Shooting phases in first with their improved firearms.

      I needed to get some more Dire Wraiths done so I could bulk their numbers up a bit for another encounter with my Howling Commandos of SHIELD - the BatRep will be coming soon :-)

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  2. Great work on the Dire Wraiths Simon, interesting game Simon, surprised the marines didn't do better, but the fickle dice gods can always throw a curve ball ! LOL

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    1. Cheers Dave. The amount of Daemonic Invulnerable 5+ saves I rolled was incredible, plus I had a fair 6's show up for wounds, which with a Hellblade actually causes 2 wounds. Whilst the space marines kept rolling 1's and 2's to hit most of the game :-)

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  3. intriguing game and nicely fought. Sometimes even unswerving belief in the Emperor isn`t enough to carry the day. Perhaps there was some doubt, like a dark shadow, creeping into the minds of his adherents.. time to investigate and send in an Imperial Inquisitor.

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    1. Thanks Steve. We're escalating our forces to around 350 pts for the next game, so I'm planning on doubling my Bloodletter numbers and adding a Herald of Khorne to lead them. I understand a Knight will be joining the Imperial Forces for that one!! :-)

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    2. If he's taking a knight Simon, you may want to consider taking a demon engine in your force

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    3. I'm bulking up on Bloodletters for now Dave, as I don't think I own a demon engine, and just want to build & paint the minis I presently own. I think it'll be awesome to see what a Knight can do, and whether a few daemons tapping at its ankles will bring it down!! LOL!!

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  4. Thanks for a fun game. It was a gentle way to get to know the rules and now I just need to get some more 40k minis on the painting table to expand my forces. Your daemons were absolutely horrific in close combat, so lesson learned!! Your dice roles were good so the blood god must have been smiling on you. Looking forward to another match and I hope my baby Knight performs well.

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    1. Cheers Undercoat. The Blood God was certainly smiling upon me in our game, that's for sure. Looking forward to seeing all that mass firepower in our next :-)

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  5. Nice work on the Dire Wraiths mate. :)

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  6. Cracking work on more of these fearsome looking creatures, not sure I want them sucking my brains out though - not enough to spare!

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    1. Cheers Michael. LOL!! I have a few more to paint, but they are absolute swines to cut from their clicky bases, so these should do for now.

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  7. Nice work they all turned out great!!

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  8. Great looking critters, pit they're allin the same pose - but they do look the biz!
    You skirmish seemed to be a close run affair and very evenly balanced and it was good to see the Marines getting their comeuppance.

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    1. Thanks very much Joe. I'm afraid the Dire Wraith sculpts are a little too unwieldy for conversion too, imho, so when I paint up some more, they'll be in the same pose too.

      Our "Warhammer 40K" skirmish was indeed close, despite the Blood God clearly favouring me during the majority of the match.

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  9. Goodness, these things look ... disturbing 😁.

    Good to hear your daemons had a great time slaughtering some of the Emperor's finest!

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    1. Cheers Wouter. I've enough Dire Wraiths now for a rematch against my Howling Commandos of SHIELD. I too was delighted with the Blood God's blessing during my latest game of "Warhammer 40K". More of those to come too.

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