Late night update.

Hello there lone reader, just a brief update as I realise it has (once again) been a great deal of time since my last update.

Firstly, I'm happy to announce the addition of a mighty Heldrake to my army. I've only had a brief chance to play test him against a Khone themed Daemon army and I'm proud to say he kicked as much ass as I had hoped. Between Meteoric Strike and the Baleflamer, there isn't much a Heldrake can't do. More on that another time.

Next up I'm going to mention the green stuff work I've been doing on my second Chaos Marine squad. I wanted to Nurgle them up a bit so I've been making sores, boils and big drippy guts to give them that really rotten look. Ive Got a rather blurry image I'll upload below, but hopefully there will be more pics to follow in my next update.

Finally I've begun work forging a story for my army. I want to write up a series of short, silly stories Chronicling the Dark Lord Bukimimaru and his rise from frustrated Space Marine to Lord of his own Legion of the dammed. I'm hoping to write up some missions to play against my friends that will run along side the short stories. 

Well that's all from me for tonight, not much of an update I know, but it's all I can offer at the moment.

Take care trusted reader, stay evil. 

Last few games; My Quick and Dirty 800 Point List.

Good evening, good evening, good evening. Of what ever time of day it is that you're reading this. It is, as always, a pleasure to have you here trusted reader.

As I've mentioned in one of my recent (hah) blog updates I was beginning to feel a little despondent towards my beloved disease spreaders due to several lost matches in a row. I'm glad to say my beastly warriors are finally starting to get into the swing of things and have done very well in their last few matches.

It's very late and I don't intend to go into any great details, but here's a quick run down of my latest quick and dirty 800 point list:

Typhus 230

3 Chaos Terminators: heavy flamer. 105
5 Chosen: Chosen Champion (melta bombs); 4× flamer; flamer; Mark of Nurgle. 170
• Chaos Rhino

17 Plague Zombies 78
17 Plague Zombies 78

1 Obliterator 70
1 Obliterator 70

801 points

Now I know what you're thinking: "Typhus in such a small points game? Are you quite mad?"

Under normal circumstances I would whole heartedly agree that any single model costing way almost 30% of the entire list is absurd, but in casual games he works a real treat.

If you want a serious list against experienced players, this is not for you.

If you want a tournament list to bring the pain against an old rival, this is not for you.

If you want a quick and easy list that's going to be fun to play and will leave inexperienced players weeping into their boots, then maybe this is worth a read.

The basic run down is as follows:

The Obliterators will just do what they do best. Grab a good vantage point and rain bloody death down on walkers, vehicles and special characters. These are the guy that will get you the First Blood and Warlord Killer points early on in the game.

The two squads of Plague Zombies are used as turn one's distraction. Either stomp them both up the middle into a wide open space and dare your opponent to do their worst, or keep one unit to one side to camp on top of an objective. You should be expecting to loose most of these guys pretty early on, but they are surprisingly hardy guys and might take a lot more dakka than you might expect.

The Rhino should be moved up the board full of our Chosen flamers. Either keep them behind the cultists or, even better, out of the enemies' light of sight. Out of sight, out of mind.

On turn two, drop Typhus in via Deep Strike with his Terminator Body Guards. The Terminators might not last the enemies shooting round, but it's unlikely that in such a low points game your opponent will have the firepower to deal with 3 Terminators AND Typhus. If you get lucky rolling Typhus' psychic powers you can curse the nastiest looking nearby enemy unit with the Gets Hot special rule, relieving some of the pressure from not being able to assault straight off the bat. Once dropped in this unit will be focus fired like nobody's business, but that's fine because its affording the Rhino and Plague Zombies time to get up field. If the Termies die, then that's to be expected, if they survive then its an added bonus. They are really just bubble wrap to make sure Typhus gets a chance to swing his scythe around for a bit before he gets capped.

With the Obliterators still spewing bullets and the Zombies getting ever closer, turn three should really have your opponent on their toes. The Chosen Marines can bail out of the Rhino, flame big blobs to death or (as I've done the last two games) run up to the biggest, meanest looking MC or vehicle and stuff a Melta-Bomb up it Arsehole/exhaust pipe. Between Typhus, any remaining Terminators, what ever is left of the fearless zombie Hoards and the Flame Unit, your opponent won't know who to deal with first and usually, by this point, most of their worst units are either tied up in combat with the Man Reaper or a smouldering pile of Melta/Flamer ash.

Again, this isn't the greatest list in the world, and an experienced opponent with know which units to cripple with focus fire rather than trying to spread themselves too thin, but if you want a list that's really good fun, then by all mean give this a whirl. It's brought be victory in my last 3 games and they were all really enjoyable games.

That's all for now lone reader, but there will be plenty more updates from me before long. I've been on a painting spree and I've done some cool Green Stuff work on my old Dark Vengeance Terminators. Pics to follow before long.

G'night Y'all.

A Work In Progress. From the above to the below:

The Traitor Legion Showcase

Welcome back trusted reader.

As usual I'll start with my traditional apology for the length of time it's been since my last post.

I've been very lapse in my attempts to take over the universe lately and I'm ashamed to say my poor marines have spent the best part of this month in my shed.

I must be a very fickle Chaos Lord, every time I lose a few games in a row I get despondent and end up frustratedly putting my models away in a cupboard somewhere until something inspires me to get them back out again. 

I played a game against Cowboy the other day which has got me back into the spirit of things, so I've got my entire army out and started painting up the many, many unfinished models in my collection.

First of all I'll start with my tanks. I STILL haven't finished painting this LandRaider that I converted several months ago. I need to pick up some tracks from Forge World and properly attach the bulbous growth growing on its back. Once I've finished building it I'll (hopefully) get finished painting it.

Next up is the first Rhino. This is another Space Marine tank that I've converted with a bunch of Green Stuff and some spare Tyranid parts. This is the only Tank in my army that is completely finished.

 

This is one of the two real Chaos Rhinos that I have. For some reason the other picture has disappeared from my camera, but they are both in a similar state of half-paintedness. I've been very lucky to have picked both of these vehicles up for such a cheap price. I got them both pre-owned from a local hobby Store at a ver reasonable price. All being well I hope to pick up a few more vehicles (a few Predators and a Vindicator) in the near future.

I finally got around to finishing the whole paint job of my Marine Tac Squad this afternoon. They've  been half painted for so long I never thought I'd get round to completing them. I'm very happy with the way they came out, they stand apart from my Plague Marines but still look suitably Nurglesque. 

My Daemon Prince is another example of a model that I've had for ages, started painting but never got round to finishing. As it stands its one of my favourite units and I guess I'm too scared to keep painting it in case I ruin the work I've already done.

My Helbrute is officially my favourite thing that I have ever painted. I know it's hardly 'Eavy Metal material, but it's great for an amature like myself. It's a shame the actual unit isn't very useful when playing the game because I rarely get a chance to show him off.

My second Helbrute is in the middle of being converted. I was lucky enough to be given this second Helbrute by a friend who picked up the Dark Vengeance set but didn't have a use for many of the Chaos bits. I wanted to try and make it look as different from my other one and practise messing about with Green Stuff. It doesn't look like much at the moment, but when I've finished with it and painted it up I'm sure it will look cool.

Another great pre-owned purchase from my local hobby store, the magnificent "Worcester Wargames". I was always a bit peeved that you could only buy Chaos bikes one at a time direct from the Games Workshop, but I managed to pick up all 5 of these bad boys at a reasonable price. I've modelled two of them to carry Plasma Guns and I've given the Captain a rather funky looking power fist. Not even started painting these guys yet and I've had them for some time, but after painting my loyalist army bikes I know full well just how awkward they can be to paint.

The Havok Squad is one of the few units that is completely finished (except for the bases which need flocking.) and its also one of the units I have used more than any other. I find the Havoks to be one of the most reliably hard hitting units in the new codex.

The Possessed unit I have has seen very little action because I've read nothing but negative things about them and I've never had the courage to field them often enough to figure out their potential. I've only finished painting the three guys at the front, the two guys at the back have only had their first coats.

My Plague Marines are all fully painted and look pretty sweet if I do say so myself. I've used them in almost every game I've played since buying them, but to be honest I've yet to have any real success with them. I've heard nothing but good things about them, so I'm sure they've just been unlucky so far. I will eventually get a few more squads of these to either field a larger unit, or several units of 7 in Rhinos.

My Chaos Lord remains completely unpainted, the model itself looks so bad ass, I can't bring myself to start painting him in case it all goes horribly wrong. Sooner or later I'm gonna have to man up and make a start, after all The Lord should be setting an example for the rest of my Army.

A couple of metal Havok marines I bought of a frien of mine called Birdy. I tend to shy away from metal minis these days as they scratch easily and the weight of the models means they could easily break plastic minis in transport between games. However, these two are pretty cool and will look great when I've finished painting them. I might use them as part of a Chosen squad or even stand them in the the special choices in the normal Marine squad if I feel like mixing things up a bit.

The Aspiring champion is another model that looks so freaking cool I can't bring myself to start painting incase I make a mess of it. I really should get him done soon as I always have a use for more marines in a Tac squad. One of the reasons I love playing Chaos is that I have the option to run 20 Marines in one squad, effectively doubling out any Loyalist units I might have to do battle against.

The chosen unit came with the Dark Vengance set I picked up almost a tear ago. Although the models themselves do look really cool, I'm in no rush to get them done as Chosen are a bit over priced in the 6th edition Codex, so I won't be needing them to field in a game any time soon. It doesn't help that each model is kitted out with specific gear, meaning I more or less have to run with whatever each model is carrying. As it stands I have no use for such an in-focused selection of war gear.

Khorne Bezerkers up next as as you can see its yet another unit that's barely had anytime on the painting table. From my experience fielding them, I know first hand just how useful this unit can be, so I need to get on and finish painting them a.s.a.p. rather than going for the typical Khone Red paint scheme, I wanted something to fit in the the fluff of my Nurgely themed army. I decided to try and make it look like their armour had begun to rust and decay, and the reason for the units high attack and Rage special rules would be due to a Nurgle virus causing some kind of Super Rabies. 

Typhus here with a few custom made Plague Zombies. Mostly made up of old Warhammer fantasy Zombies and Skeletons mashed up with plenty of green stuff. I've got another 10 to put together so I can run them as a nice big shambling hoard. typhus himself is a very impressive looking model with some equally impressive stats. I can't wait to run a game with him in the near future.

Not much to say about the terms. They are clearly Space Marine Terminators from the Dark Vengance set, but I need to get my hands on so,me spare parts to customise them a bit and make them look rotten and diseased. I've found Chaos Terminators to be a little overpriced points-wise so I've not had a chance to field them yet, but I'm sure once I've gibbed them out a bit and painted them up I'll let them have a run across a few battle fields and see what they can do.

Finally I've got my mob of Cultists. 40 of them is my current count, and I'll be mixing them up with my plague zombies to run 2 or 3 large squads for bubble-wrapping and tar-pitting purposes. Unfortunately, due to the sheer number of models, it's going to take me a LONG time to get them all painted. As units go, this isn't a top priority for me, but I'm doing them one at a time between other projects to stop myself from getting bored with them.

Well, that's it for now lone reader. As always, thanks for you time and if you ever want to drop me a line, ask any questions or give me some tips, either use the comments box below, or send me a tweet at @hobofox.

May you sleep well each night without being assaulted by bears.

Another Nurgley victory!

Praise Papa Nurgle!

The more I play with my Chaos Marines, the better I seem to do, although I can't honestly claim to have won this one by myself. Perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself, lets start from the ... Start.

Since my last update I've invested in not one but TWO new Rhino tanks, my total vehicle count skyrocketing from 0 to 3 in little over a week. Best of all the total price of these boxes of death is a very reasonable £11.50. Thank the Dark Gods for boxes of old bits and green stuff.

I've been looking at the most popular competitive lists that Chaos players have been running in recent tournaments and making note of the trends. I've no interest in making some over powered cheesy / beardy army, after all I only play casually with friends and the collecting/painting side of things is more my thing anyway. However, it doesn't hurt to know what works for others and if I can strengthen my forces without making the game seem unbalanced / unenjoyable to my friends then so be it.

I'll start off by addressing the whole "2 Helldrakes = broken army" issue that seems to have the power nerds all in a tizzy. From what I hear there are many people out there that would say that the Heldrake is an overpowered piece of kit, and those that field 2 of them are taking advantage. Firstly, I'd point out that just about any army has some kind of cheesy rule exploit that the douche-bags out there will want to use. The only remedy I can suggest is don't play with this kind of person. If a person is only interested in putting together the most poxy, rule exploiting army list to repeatedly win without putting any effort into the tactics, then clearly this person isn't someone you should spend your precious game time with. After all, If it isn't fun, why do it?

For the most part, the most common competitive lists focused specifically around the whole Nurgle theme involves 2 or more squads of Plague Marines in Dedicated Transport. This is a pretty straight forward and obvious choice, with the PM's toughness, Feel No Pain Saves and ability to rock 2 Plasma guns and a Powerfist in a 5 man squad, what's not to love? Durable, great at both mid range and close combat with the Plague Knives poisoning your foes on a 4+ coupled with the speed of a Rhino means they are perfect objective takers. Once you park them on an objective, they can be a real bitch to move, especially in larger squad sizes. (I like to keep mine in medium sized squads of 7 as this is traditionally Papa Nurgle's lucky number and I am something of a superstitious Space Pirate)

The HQ slot is usually a Chaos Lord with the MoN which allows the Plague Marines to be taken as troops (they are normally elites). I found from today's battle experience that you can't get much better than equipping him out with The Black Mace, which is a seriously cool bit of kit and will give most units a good run for their money.

Next up we usually find Obliterators in the Heavy Support slots. I have never fielded these myself, but the do look suitably bad ass from a load-out perspective and quite good for the points cost as well. I seem to be in a minority regarding the actual models themselves as I think they look pretty cool, but the rest of the world seems to really dislike them. 

Finally we will, more often than not, see the infamous Heldrake. Again, I don't have one of these to field (yet ;D) but the Games Workshop haters have all got their torches burning and pitchforks sharpened in protest. From what I hear the combination of the beasts weapon load out (more specifically the "Bale Flamer") combined with the the new 6th edition rules for flyers has apparently made this quite a handy little unit to have. Sadly I don't think it looks very Nurgely, and being the fluff-bunny that I am, I can't get into the idea of fielding one with my otherwise Nurgle-centric army. I know there are plenty of ways to convert them (my favourite is the one made from the fantasy zombie dragon) but I don't have the money or the skill for a project of that magnitude.

So, after all this snooping at other people's lists, I decided to build up a semi-competitive list using all I had learnt combined with only using the models I actually own. After a bit of back and forth I came up with this:

Chaos Lord: The Black Mace; Mark of Nurgle; jump pack; melta bombs

Helbrute: power fist. Heavy Flamer. Multi Melta

7 Plague Marines: combi-flamer; 2× plasma gun
• Chaos Rhino
7 Plague Marines: power fist; combi-bolter; 2× plasma gun
• Chaos Rhino: Havoc launcher.
5 Chaos Space Marines: chainaxe; Mark of Nurgle.

5 Havocs: heavy bolter; 3× missile launcher.

999 points

I must say, this list worked out very nicely for me. The 2 squads of Plague Marines drove to the nearest objectives and camped the crap out of them. One of the units was eventually destroyed by some nasty Necron Hq and his entourage, but both units dished out some real damage so they were worth the points. The 5 normal marines sat on the home objective and kept it safe for the entire game and the Helbrute did a great job of being a human (?) shield for my HQ until he could get close enough to jet pack over to a Tau Hammerhead and Sellotape a Melta Bomb to its hull. The Havoks did what they do best and sat at the back raining Krak Rockets down on anyone silly enough to step out of cover. All in all it was a great game. We won, but that was largely down to it being an objective match and if the game had gone on much longer I have a feeling we would probably have been shot up too badly maintain a good hold on many of the objective markers.

Well, that's all from me tonight. Farewell trusted reader. As always, feel free to comment below and happy gaming.

Land Raider! >:D

Greetings lone reader, how good of you to return.

As promised, I've made a good start at converting my old space marine Land Raider into a Nurgley box of death. I'll post some pictures below.

Since finding a few more friends who are getting into the hobby I've been quite busy painting, reading and building a suitable army list. Cowboy has been expanding his Ork army with some new vehicles and troops, Brad has invested on a really cheesy Iyanden Eldar list and Stone is working on an equally cheesy all-terminator Dark Angels army. Another friend, Birdy, has invested in a new Tau army and Wolfy has been working on his Tau army as well. With Sye's Khorne themed Chaos Marines to top it all off, there are plenty of armies out there just dying to use my diseased space pirates for target practise. 

In addition to all the new armies on the scene, I have been fortunate enough (thanks to Birdy) to come across a new hobby store in town. "Worcester Wargames" is a new store that stocks Games Workshop models without the irritating "buy something or get out" attitude of the actual Games Workshop store. It was here, on my first visit to Worcester Wargames, that I picked up some spare parts for a Chaos Land Raider for a modest price of £1.50.

Since then I have kitted the tank out and started painting it up in a wonderful grimy green. As usual, I can't contain my self to one project at a time, so I've also got my Plague Marines fully painted with a nice new Melta Gun to boot. Between coats of paint on the Land Raider I've also been trying to get the 3rd member of my 5 Possessed Marines fully painted too. Last but not least I've based ALL of my remaining models. My army is far for complete, but we are getting there.

What's next? Well, come payday I'm hoping to pick up Typhus, Host of the Destroyer Hive and if I'm really lucky maybe some Obliterators as well. Realistically speaking the last thing I need is another elite unit, but I am tempted to try and convert my Dark Vengeance Space Marine Terminators into gribbily Nurgle Terminators, either to accompany Typhus or to drive around in my new Land Raider. 

I'm planning to host a large game this bank holiday Monday, teaming up with Wolfy's Tau forces to tackle Stone and Cowboy's Necron/Ork alliance. I'm also trying to set up a big free-for-all game with anyone who wants to come along. I'm hoping for a few more friends to take up the hobby with the opening of the new tabletop store, I know there's at least interested.

Well, that's all for now, I'll be sure to update when I've finished off the Land Raider and when/if I make a start on the Terminators. If there is anyone interested in joining our little troop and you live in the Westmidlands, drop me a line in the comments below.