40K Space Marine Battle Demi-Company. Ultramarine 2nd Company finished

So finally I have the Demi-Company finished.

Here's the break down.

Commander

Captain Cato Sicarius.

Captain Cato Sicarius

Tactical Squads

Squad Fennion. Squad Fennion is known as "The Immortals" due to the fact that they haven't taken a single loss since 829.M41.

Squad Fennion

Squad Vorolanus. Squad Vorolanus is used for reconnaissance and deep strike missions when Scout squads are unavailable. They are known as "The Thunderbolts".

Squad Vorolanus

Squad Manorian. Known as "The Shield Bearers", squad Manorian is used in the vanguard during chapter and company level assaults.

Squad Manorian

Assault Squad

Squad Strabo - Squad Strabo is responsible for the death of Ork Warboss Bonehamma on the Hive world of Selonopolis. They are known as "The Heroes of Selonopolis."

Squad Strabo

Devastator Squad

Squad Tirian. Also known as "Guilliman's Hammer" Squad Tirian is known for their unwavering conduct in battle.

Squad Tirian

The final chip of the Devastator Squad

Dreadnought

Brother Ultracius. Ultracius was interred inside the shell of a Dreadnought after the Pyra Crusades in 453.M39.

Brother Ultracius

The final Chip of the Demi - Company lead pile

I also have the first squad of First Company Terminators done as an attachment.

Not bad considering how they started out, when I bought them off a kid at a boot sale for £20 . . . .

 
I have several elements to finish off to turn this into a 'Gladius Strike Force' but with the light inproving I think any extra bits will be put back in the lead mountain until November.

So lets look at the numbers for the year.

Miniatures painted / sold this year = 6.

Target 100

Miniatures bought 1 (I made the mistake of going to Dark Sphere and they were having a sale on).

434 miniatures to go!

5 in the black this year.

Blood and Thunder. WHF Campaign Game 1.

General Custoras bloody hated spiders! He hated this particular spider even more then the tiny, sneering, green, miscreant sitting on its' back!

At least the Gobbo had learnt to fear cold, sharp, Imperial steel. Unlike the giant arachnid he was riding which had cowled his beautiful Demigryphs.

Custoras turned away from the baleful, red eyes of the Goblin General and surveyed the other participants of this parley.

The Slink Priest stood there, alien and aloof. Rags had told him that the Priest was probably following instructions laid down millennia ago by their Gods and Sigmar help anyone who tried to disrupt the wishes of their Gods.

The four Generals meet on the large hill in the centre of the battlefield to talk terms. Their armies eye each other warily around the outskirts.

The forth participant was a mystery to Custoras. The Dwarf General was sweating profusely from the climb up the steep hill while wearing heavy armour.

Good let the stuntie, little, bastard sweat!

All four armies had fought each other to a stand still in this cursed isle and this truce had been called to discuss terms.

Custoras glanced over his shoulder at his personal body guard arrayed at the edge of the forest clearing, their beautifully wrought, armour glinting in the rising sun.

Suddenly the trees transform into Dryads and charge into the parleying Generals!

As he was about to turn back to his fellow protagonists, a small movement from one of the surrounding trees caught his eye. His hand had barely touched the pummel of his sword when the forest had erupted into a frenzy of shrieking, wooded demons!

Second School enrichment session. Treasure hunts and detentions!

Just a quick one before a proper post tomorrow.

Another cracking session on Wednesday. One of the lads turned up with his own painted miniature. I had to smile when I saw he had used his Dad's old enamel paints!

Here is how the table looked.

It was a standard 'treasure hunt' scenario. I gave the students some clues about where the treasure was hidden and let them go at it.

Bit surprised when they did not spot the most obvious clue.

Yep the big bloody X. Kids these days!

The winning warband won enough gold to buy their own equipment and recieved their own miniature which they can stick together to represent the kit they buy.

Had to smile when I caught one of the kids reading through the equipment handout I had given him and was working out his equipment in 'prep' class when he should have been working on his additional learning tasks. Had to give the kid a detention but to be honest I would have done the same thing; work or wargaming. . . No contest really! I am supposed to be doing work right now!!

 

One surprise result of the enrichment club is pupils have started spontaneously turning up to school with their own scratch built castles after seeing the gaming board!

We ended up with enough entries to run a compertition!

sorry for the fuzzy photo. You can make out the scratch built efforts in the background if you squint!

 

A little something to start the year with.

First two chips off the Lead mountain for the year completed.

First up is a Scibor Barbarian for my Brothers Dwarf Mordheim Warband.

And he's a blinder!!

Such a gorgeous sculpt and a great way to start the year with the brushes!

Thanks to 'Army Painter, Barbarian flesh, primer spray' he was finished in less then 90 minutes!!

While waiting for the washes to dry I also knocked out this fella. . . .

A tiny little lump of lead (see the first photo) from the Reaper Villagers set I bought ages ago.

My brother and I were discussing a fun little scenario on Friday night which involves a small child NPC.

If it is successful I will give it a run out at the 'Enrichment Club'.

I have also had a couple of miniatures go to better home thanks to eBay. Funnily enough one of them actually ended up being sold to someone in the marketing department of GAMES WORKSHOP! How ironic selling a 1980's Chaos Dwarf back to GW!!

My mental run of luck continues into 2016. Not only did I only lose TWO miniatures in Saturdays battle (more on that later in the week) despite being surrounded by Dryads and Dwarfs, I have also won the prize draw for Chico breaking the 20K veiws over at 'Oldhammer on a budget'.

I great blog (and fella!) which is well worth checking out.

So lets take a first look at the numbers for the year.

Miniatures painted / sold this year = 4.

Target 100

Miniatures bought 1 (I made the mistake of going to Dark Sphere and they were having a sale on).

436 miniatures to go!

3 in the black this year.

Shortshank redemption pt 4. Smash and grab.

Crazy Joe caught Bill's eye and raised an enquiring eyebrow. Bill nodded curtly. It had been agreed last night. Crashart would lead them all to their deaths, Lord Crashart meets his end now! 

"We will do it during our foray tonight" they decided earlier. Just another corpse in a City of cadavers!

Crazy Joe slowly drew his stiletto and approached Crashart from behind with murderous intent.

Suddenly a crossbow bolt flew past Joe's face, missing him by a hairs breath!

"Sod off you lot!" a gruff voice boomed into the night "The treasure is ours!".

Joe dove for the shadows and sheathed his dagger 'Deaths' whisper'.

"Treasure eh!" Joe though "I guess Crashart meets his end after this skirmish. At the very least the fool can act as a meat shield"!

Arise you sons of Sigmar!!

General Custoras peered into the Lustrian mists. Despite the chill of the dawn, Custoras was bathed in sweat. Surely it it just the humidity Custoras thought to himself . . . . .surely!

Despite his bravado Dogstein knew the boy better then he knew himself and could hear the apprehension is his General's voice as he extolled the fighting virtue of his men and the numerous foes they had overcome during their time in Lustria!

The truth was Custoras had never recovered from their decimation at the hands of the lizards when they first arrived on these shores.

Despite his best efforts, the Lizard men had forced his hand and drawn him into combat. Despite his victories and learnt experiences, was he ready? 

With the sun rising to their back Custoras had done all he could to set the field. With one final bellow of defiance towards the Lizard men line he ordered the bugler to sound the advance.

"Sigmar is with us" he bellowed into the mists . . . . . surely?

First School enrichment session. . . A cracking success!

Just a quick one before a proper post tomorrow.

Run my first 'Tabletop Gaming enrichment' session at School today.

As is the case now days, only two of the kids had heard of WHF or 40K before entering the room, but left the room foaming at the mouth and asking me where they could get the game!

Did not take any photos during the game due to Child protection reasons  and if truth be told I would have struggled to take any photos anyway due to trying to get ten kids to boil through a game of Mordheim in under an hour!

Anyway here is the board.

In the end I settled for giving every kid a noble profile so they had half a chance of hitting stuff etc and everyone got 2 wounds so no-one was sitting out after the first turn.

I set the warbands and limited the amount of ranged weapons so the kids were forced to lock horns.

I gave each Warband the same varitey of equipment (i.e. one great sword, one archer, one swordsman etc) and each kid took one figure each and operated as a 5 man warband.

Followed the same turn sequence as Mordheim i.e. all the kids moved their figures at the same time, all kids shot at the same time, then we went through each combat.

This REALLY helped keep the pace of the game flying along.

This is a shot of the end of the game!

I will not let the kids make their own warbands due to the time constraints. What I figure I will do is keep the warbands as they are and set the kids missions to achieve each game (find the treasure, kill the Ogre, etc.).

The winning warband will then earn coins to buy and personalise their own equipment. I will also have them gain EXP over the games so their profiles will progress over the coming weeks.

On a side note B&Q are now doing 3m tape measures for 70p each! Cannot believe I walked out with ten tape measures for £7!

Start the year as you mean to go on . . . . . LOSING!!

Lord Crashart peered out into the gathering gloom through the shattered window of the hovel. The lack of roof allowed the chill of the dusk to envelope them in it's numbing cloak!

"At least I'm not stuck up on the bloody roof like the new fella" Crashart thought to himself with a smirk.

They had found the rumoured Wyrd stone hoard with ease but the fabled treasure still eluded them. They had been frantically searching through the rubble of the Memorial Gardens when the new fella 'Papa' had raised the alarm!

Now several forms could be spied approaching through the encroaching gloom. Crashart slowly cocked his pistols and glanced over at 'Crazy Joe' who covered the doorway, an evil grin crossed his face at the thought of the slaughter ahead!