Jodrell Plays Games

During A Sector Ablaze I realized that I was getting frustrated by a lack of suitable counters for void shields and wounds. It’s very easy to just put a dice down to indicate the remaining void shields or wounds on a model, but then how do you distinguish between them if the model has both? Having an unambiguous symbol reduces the mental load of playing the game.

So I created these, using my laughably poor 3D design skills, using bits and pieces taken from Cults and printed them on my Anycubic Photo resin printer. They have turned out quite nicely, although it took a few iterations to get the design how I wanted it. They painted up quite well, too.

Top-down pictures below the fold.

After 48 hours I’m more-or-less recovered from the physical and mental onslaught of A Sector Ablaze, however I’m still struggling to find the words to describe it. So rather than writing an essay, instead please enjoy this photo diary, which begins below the fold.

I had a fantastic time, despite several calamities, and despite only managing one draw and four losses, I had loads of fun. It was also really cool to meet online acquaintances face to face, notably Tetsugakusan (aka Miles), TKEPaints (aka Rick) and The Unrelenting Brush (aka Chris), whose work has appeared on this site before ([1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]). I was lucky to have four* very pleasant and very good opponents, who were very nice while they wiped the floor with me.

I did not have the best start to the event: upon arrival at Warhammer World I realised that on my way out of my house, I’d left behind a box containing a Warhound titan, and the Xiphon Interceptors and Forward Operating Bases I mentioned in my last post! That left my lists in disarrary, and did not enhance my calm. However, after five minutes of swearing I was able to rejig my lists (made more difficult because I’d only brought the models I thought I was going to use, which gave me very few options) and get back into the swing of things.

I was also very, very lucky that another competitor, the estimable John, lent me a Warhound to replace my missing model, which made a huge difference.

If you’re interested, check out the campaign pack and the missions. I wasn’t a big fan of the secondary objectives (or of secondary objectives in general) but I quite like the Battle Honours, although I think if I were going to do something similar, I’d issue laminated cards at the end of each game to reduce the amount of paperwork players needed to do. But these are minor complaints.

Anyway, enough of the waffle. Photo dump below!

In about 72 hours, I will arrive in Nottingham, ahead of the start of the 2-day narrative Legions Imperialis event, A Sector Ablaze, happening this weekend at Warhammer World.

As a lifelong fan of the Epic scale, being able to participate in this event is a dream come true, and I have been getting progressively more hyped about it as the date of the event has drawn closer!

I have been busy getting the Covenant of Ruin ready for battle. This has mostly involved painting new models to replace the 3D-printed models I started out with, for example, these Xiphon interceptors:

While I was at it, I also finished off this pair of Fire Raptors:

Participants in the event have been asked to produce a pair of custom objective markers representing Forward Operating bases. These are mine (still a WIP):

Apart from finishing my objectives, I’ve also got to finish lists (I need four), pack a bag, and re-read the rulebook so I don’t make a total arse of myself on the day.

On the slim chance that anyone reads this who’s going to the event, drop me a line, let’s hang out!

Now that the Covenant of Ruin is at a healthy size, I decided to branch out a little bit, and so I’ve started on a small force of Dark Mechanicum to accompany them.

The first models are these Stalker Constructs. They are painted to be quite similar to my Necron constructs - the idea is that this particular Forge World has delved a little too deeply into the data vaults associated with the Dragon of Mars.

These are lovely models, but boy, are they fiddly to build and keep in one piece during painting. They have tiny contact surfaces to the bases as well, so I suspect they will need some maintenance in the future. They look awesome though, and I hope they expand the range.

More pictures below the fold…

Earlier today I finished the latest batch of models for my Word Bearers and thought it would be fun to put them all out on parade and OH MY GOD I HAD NO IDEA HOW MUCH I HAD DO I HAVE A PROBLEM.

More pictures (and a video!) below the fold.

Last weekend, Rob and I fought another 2,000 point Legions Imperialis game, but now that he’s repainted his army as Ultramarines, we can now situate our battles in the Shadow Crusade, the classic “red vs blue” conflict of the Horus Heresy.

Rather than decide on the mission and secondary objectives on the day, we rolled for them in advance. This allowed us to tailor our lists accordingly, which made for a more thematic game.

The mission we played was Conquest:

Fortuitously, Rob rolled Breakthrough for his secondary objective, while I rolled Defiant. This meant that we were set up for a classic attacker-vs-defender battle: if he was able to penetrate my deployment zone, he’d win, but if I could maintain control of it, I’d win.

Accordingly, I created a very defensive list, consisting of two Legion Garrison Forces, filled with Deredeo dreadnoughts, tarantulas and rapiers, a Legion Armoured Company, a Legion Demi-Company and a Warlord titan. Rob’s army was highly mobile, with lots of Scimitar jetbikes, Sicaran tanks, and Predators.

In the end, Rob was unable to penetrate the wall of iron I’d built around my deployment zone, and when my Leviathan dreadnoughts demolished the building his Reaver was hiding behind, and my Warlord destroyed it in a single salvo, he conceded the game at the end of the third turn. Victory was mine!

More pictures below the fold…

This Friday, Mark and I will kick off a year-long BattleTech campaign, using the Chaos Campaign: Succession Wars rules.

We’ve each built a company of ‘mechs (three lances of four ‘mechs each), that will change and grow as the campaign develops.

Some of my company will come from a new force of ‘mechs, which I’ve painted in a sneaky camouflage scheme, which you can see here. This scheme is extremely quick and easy to paint, using contrasts paints and washes, and looks great on the table.

I will share updates on the campaign as they occur.

Close-up photos below the fold!

This game was a rematch of the last one - same opponent, same venue, but we downscaled to 2,000 points, which I actually think I like a bit more than the 3,000-point standard game size.

We played the “Confrontation” mission, and both rolled the “Breakthrough” secondary objective, meaning that we both had to try to reach each other’s table edge before the end of the game.

I managed to score a win, thanks mainly to a mistake on my opponent’s part, as he hadn’t appreciated that the assault troops and Sicaran tanks that were on his side of the board were heading for his table edge, and not trying to outflank his garrisoned positions.

The smaller game size made for a less cumbersome and more enjoyable game. We have another game planned for next month, and I’m going to suggest that we roll for mission and secondary objective beforehand, as I think being able to tailor your list for the mission will add some depth to the game.

More photos below the fold!

A couple of weeks ago I pitted 3,000 points of my Word Bearers against a combined force of Sons of Horus and Iron Warriors. The venue was the superb Mug and Meeple in Gravesend.

I won’t say that I played with a great deal of tactical acumen, but I held up pretty well despite the occasional blunder and it was still a load of fun.

Plenty more pictures below the fold!

This summer has been pretty light, hobby-wise, due to holidays and such. My next game of Legions Imperialis is in a couple of weeks, so now that a more normal routine has kicked in, I’ve been trying to finish a set of Legion Vanguard units to slot into my army.

You may not that the Land Speeders from the box are not shown: I really dislike those models and decided not to paint them. Perhaps they will make an appearance one day in the future.

Close-ups of the individual models are below the fold.

Background updates

I thought it would be fun to create some fluff for my Word Bearers army, so (with a little help from ChatGPT) I have created a page that describes The Covenant of Ruin. Check it out!

I also used ChatGPT to flesh out some of the empty parts of my 40K background documents: because ChatGPT had already crawled this website and had absorbed some of what I’d written previously, it was able to draw upon it to fill in those gaps while remaining consistent to what was already there. That’s a neat way of using ChatGPT that I will keep in mind for the future.