1750 Points in 1 week!

Hey guys, long time no see, I was busy with my life and it took place on my hobby time but I guess you all know how it works. And I just end up with this situation : I have to pint my all army in one week.

Knowing that I will have to work my ass on for this project I decided to do some small investment I been to the closest handyman shop and bought two lamp with light bubble to have no shadows and real colors to work with.
Here how my set up looks like :

Then I made myself a Wet Palette, which is a must to anyone who have some paint job to do, I could keep my paint wet for a week!

After that let's get painted! Having only a week to do my job, I can't have too high expectation so I'll follow this mindset : first have a global look on my army, then if I got time I'll get more in details for each unit. Pretty simple you might say but I think it's important to do something like that and don't get too focus on the details for now.

Some of my Lava bases in their process, I stop them after I got a simple transition of colors (which you can't see on this picture), I hope I'll get some time to add more details like lava flow.

Here my 3 barges after a first dry brush, I used the new Dry paint from the new GW line, I'll give my thoughts on the new line later.

Here after a first wash.

So I have to come back to my paint job, and for sure this time I'll keep you tuned with my work, because I have to!

Did you guys also had such a short deadline to paint an army, feel free to share your experience and tips.

Dark Eldars Vs Necrons Battle Report

Hey guys, I was playing with the Idea of WWP list with Grots. When I checked synaps3 blog and he's beautiful army I just get this bump of "I want to do something like that as well". So I started to make a 1750 list taking in account his advices, and ended up with something like that :
Archon : Agonizer, Blast Pistol, Combat drugs, PGL, Haywire Grenades
Haemonculus : liquifier, WWP
Haemonculus Ancient : Agonizer, Casket of Flensing, WWP
8 Grotesques : Abberation with Scissorhand.
5 Warriors : blaster
5 Warriors : blaster
7 Wyches : Hekatrix with Agonizer
7 Wyches : Hekatrix with Agonizer
5 Scourges : 2 blaster
5 Scourges : 2 Heat-lance
Beast Pack : 3 Beast Master, 1 Clawed Fiends, 5 Khymera, 2 Razorwing Flocks
Talos : chain-flails, TL Heat-lance
Talos : chain-flails, TL Heat-lance

I asked my buddy if he could play this army (lot of proxy of course) against my 1750 tournament list which can be found here. So let's check how both army works.

Fairly cover on all the table, Seize ground with 4 objective. One center, one on the left and two on the right. Spearhead deployment, DE win the roll off and decide to go on the right bottom corner, letting the Necrons with the less cover corner. 

Drugs : reroll to wound, DE deployment, Grotesque Haemi, and Archon deploys as much in front as possible, spreading to get a Haemi on each side of the pack.

Necrons deployment, 

Scarabs in front in cover ready to shield. Both AB in front to shoot. One squad of warrior in cover on the back with GA on the side. On the Center, a little bit in the back Warriors,GA, DL and praetorian + C'tan to counter charge.

Flayed Ones, in reserve

No size

DE Turn 1 : Grotesque pack advance 6", both Haemi unleash WWP, one is close to center objective, the other on the right side.

Necrons Turn 1 : WA, GA, DL & Praetorians, C'tan move to the right. CCB Zoom on the right, Scarabs spread to shield AB. The rest stay stationary

All the shooting kill a Grotesque, The Abberation lost a wound, the normal Haemi lost a wound, and a grotesque is down to one Wound.

They're really resilient

DE turn 2:

Reserve roll : One wyches, one kabalites warriors, Scourges with Heat lance, one Talos get in.

Grotesque move forward center, Wyches goes form the right WWP to get cover close the upper right objective. Kabalite come from table edge to get the bottom objective later. Talos come from left WWP.

Wyches run 6" in cover. Grots, Kabalite, Talos run 5" forward. Scourges destroy the CCB, Overlord pass pinning check.

Necrons turn 2 : Flayed Ones come. They go on the right where the Kabalite are in the open. Both AB move back. WA, DL & Praetorians, C'tan move backward a little bit. Overlord move in cover on the right close to the wyches  Scarabs move to engage the grots.

C'tan and Wa shoot to death the Scourges. Both AB, 3 Wa squads shoot at the Talos but only put 3 Wounds on him. GA rapid fire the Wyches in cover killing 2 of them.

Flayed assault the Kabalite unit, killing them all without loosing any of them.  Overlord assault Wyches killing one of them and don't get any wound on him even with the reroll!

Scarabs assault the grots, the Haemi/Archon/Grots put 10 wounds on them before they can attack, all the attack of three bases go on the archon, he fails one of his save, his Shadow Field is gone. Then one more dies and an other is down to one wound because of fearless save. But they've done their job, the grots are locked for the next turn.

DE turn 3 : 

Reserve roll : everything comes except for the second wyches unit.

Talos comes from right WWP to charge the Overlord in combat with Wyches. Beast Pack come from the left WWP. Kabalite come from table edge to shoot the Flayed ones. 1st Talos move toward the AB. Scourge comes closer to the GA on the left.

Talos shoot Heat-lance at the AB destroying it. Kabalite rapid fire the Flayed killing one who didn't come back. Beast Pack run 5" forward. Scourges don't succeed at doing anything to the GA

Wyches put a wound on the Overlord, then he put one on the Talos eventually dying from the Talos attacks. Talos and Wyches consolidate in direction of the objective. Grots finish off the scarabs and consolidate forward.

Necrons turn 3 :

C'tan come closer to the Talos on the right objective. AB, WA, DL & Prae move backward. GA get in position to rapid fire the wyches on the objective. The other to rapid fire the beast pack. Flayed ones move to charge Kabalite.

C'tan shoot at the Talos but he saves thanks to FNP. GA and WA inside shoot at the Wyches in cover killing them all. Cryptek from WA on the top of the board finish the last wound from the first Talos. AB shoot the grots and kill one. One squad of WA, GA and the WA inside shoot at the Beast Pack and Scourges , killing 3 Khymera and putting a wound on Clawed Fiends and both Razorwing Flocks, the scourges die from the firepower.  The beast Pack pass moral check.

C'tan assaults the Talos, then both inflict a wound on each other. The Flayed Ones assault the Kabalite and wipe them out consolidating a little bit backward in case the wyches comes from the portal.

DE turn 4 :

Wyches comes from reserve. Grots move forward. Beast get closer to the warrior squad in cover. Wyches get in cover on the bottom right objective. 

The Ancient Haemi shoot his Casket of Flensing at the WA in front of the DL & Praetorian. But roll 1 to the Dice for wound. Even the blast pistol from the Archon doesn't wound the squad.  Beast Pack run in direction of the WA in cover.

Beast Pack needed a five to assault the WA but only get 4 out of three dices. C'tan and Talos look at each other but don't put succeed to wound the other one.

Necrons Turn 4 :

GA on the right move to get the Wyches which came from reserve in range.  Flayed ones move toward the Wyches. Left GA move between objective to get Beast Pack in rapid fire. AB move backward. DL & Praetorian get close to the Grots to charge.

One wych dies from the GA. WA + WA/GA rapid fire on the Beast Pack killing all the Beastmaster, Clawed fiends and putting several wounds on the razowings. They don't pass the moral test and fall back of 7".  WA/AB/Praetorian shoot the grots, killing one and normal Haemi. 

C'tan put a wound on the Talos, he's down to one, the Talos pass ld check.  DL move to engage the Archon and Abberation, the mindshackle choose randomly between Anciant Haemi, Abberation and Archon, get the archon and fail his test. He finishes off a grots. Then grots and  Haemi Ancient attacks killing the DL and two Praetorians. Praetorians kill the Archon. One dies from fearless but then DL and 2 Praetorians get back up. Flayed Ones don't succeed to assault the Wyches in cover.

DE Turn 5 :

Wyches move to engage the Flayed ones. Beast Pack can't rally because of the GA less than 6" away and fall back 12".

C'tan and Talos fail to wound each other. Mindshackle a grot who puts a wound on his buddy. Ancient Heami kills the DL with his Agonizer, then the grots attacks the Praetorians, and none of them are dead. Praetorians passed 8 3+ saves and then finish off a grot. DE loose combat but pass ld check. DL doesn't come back. Wyches charge Flayed Ones wiping them out and consolidate back in cover on the objective. 

Necrons Turn 5 :

WA in cover move in direction of the left objective, WA from the center GA disembark and move on the center objective. The GA move 12" in direction of the right Wyches to get in range. RIght GA get in range of Rapid Fire. Top Warriors move clove to the Big Assault.

GA on the left and Rapid Fire from GA/WA don't kill any wyches with their 4+ cover save and FNP. Left WA run and grab left objective.

C'tan and Talos still look at each other. Grots and Haemi Ancient finish off the Praetorians and consolidate on the left objective. 

We roll off to see if the game end and it's a 1. So at the end it's 2-1 objectives for the Necrons.

So a really close game, with a lot of stressful moment. Like always my Necrons surprise me, when it comes to the first 2-3 turn I always think how I'm gonna pull off something from all the threat that are in front of me? But Necrons being pretty resilient if you apply coordinate fire power they can really shine. About this game I think I've done pretty good choices to hold back as much as I could and play the mission. I focused on the troops of my friends because I know they're not that tough. I also used my superior speed with my GA which is pretty ironic when you think that my Necrons were faster than the DE. My luck in my dice especially when the Praetorian charged the Grots and hold them longer than I expected really helped. I'm learning more and more every time I'm playing my Necrons (which doesn't happen as much as I would like to), theory hammer is nice but nothing is better than experience. 

About my DE list, I also learn quite a lot, I think I will wait until the 6th edition before buying for more than 100€ of Grots but I really enjoyed how the army turned out. Even if my friend made few mistakes with the army, it's normal for a first time playing it, I would have done the same. There is so much possibilities on the deployment thanks to WWP. The grots mob is really hard to put down even if it's sooooo slow. The DE are really a glass canon army, when they strike they strike hard but can't get much fire power back at them. After I finish my Necrons for the different tournaments I should participate I will have fun painting. I will probably paint a Tyranids unit then DE units so I don't get bored about it. 

And here some WIP of my Ghost Ark, this guy take forever to paint with so many pieces to paint separately. Hopefully I'll finish it this week.

Praetorian and lava bases test

Okey guys still working on my necrons army, and for those who checked my schedule, I might say I was quite optimistic. Mixing my life being a student and this amount of Hobby is pretty hard. In two weeks I'm going back home for a work placement, so I will have much more time to put on my painting.
Anyway, I'm working on my praetorians now. I love the model, I love their fluff, I love a little bit less the rule but I still found a use for them. Without waiting, here the pictures :

So I decide to go with the green/gold and all the energetic part will be in purple. I like the combination of green and purple because the purple still make a contrast with the green but don't catch too much of the attention like a red would do. This model was nice to paint (I think any model is nice to paint when it been such a long time I haven't been painting) but for all of those who want to build their Praetorian, I recommend to keep the "jump pack" part before painting, because I couldn't access to the main "power orb".
During my painting session, I came up with a problem, my fine detail brush is dead. I was trying to do the highlights with a bigger brush, but it didn't end up as clean as I wanted and I was spending more time swearing that actually doing the highlights. I'll order my new brush today, hopefully I will receive it before I move back to my place... Anyway, after doing the green highlights I was so pissed agains my brush, I just decided to stop with highlights before I get my brush that's why the gold parts are not finished yet.

Now I will need your help guys, I don't know how to paint the pistol part. Do I go for metallic, green like the armor, gold, purple, I really struggle to make a choice. So it would be you my dear readers who's gonna choose for me!

Now let's move to the lava bases, here the pictures :

I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, I tried different stuff on this awesome product from Dark Art Miniatures. First they were much more red oriented, but as much as I was checking pictures on the net, I just said that being hotter the color should go more toward a yellowish one. Like I said, pretty happy with the result and I think it's really pop more than a basing sand/tufts base. And thanks to the Salamanders army out there it gave me the inspiration for my green necrons on lava bases.

What do you think about all of theses, any advises, criticism. Being a pretty rookie painter any feedback is welcome.
And of course I'll keep updating as much as the army goes.

1750 Pts to paint up in less than one and half month

The title is pretty explicit, I got a tournament in April 14th and after painting really few of my necrons I just decided that I didn't like much my paint scheme, so I'm going for an other one. After some tweaking I changed my list for the incoming tournament so here the list of stuff I need to paint :
Destroyer Lord & 5 Praetoriens
Command Barge & 2 Annihilation Barge
20 Warriors, 4 Crypteks
30 tiny Scarabs (6 bases)
5 Flayed Ones, C'tan
And all the bases that comes with it.

When you have such a short deadline you have to plan how and what you will paint. That's why I planned some painting time EVERY single day. My painting time will be split in two part, one part for the troops and one part for the Vehicles. That why the army can build up constantly and I can manage more easily if I make some changes in my schedule.
For example : now here you can see my schedule for this project :

As you can see, I will be quite busy but that might be expected for such a short deadline. Here you can see that I got few days where there is few or nothing to do at the end. I will use that time if something went wrong and I need more time to finish up some stuff. It's better to plan a shorter deadline and if you messed up you still can manage (somehow) to finish in time. 

So far I'm following that schedule, but I just started yesterday so it's still quite easy!

I'll keep you tuned with pictures as soon as I finish anything. 

Until then, I would like to get some insight of people who had such a project of really short deadline painting.

Dark Art Miniatures Lava Bases Review

Hey guys, now that my girlfriend is back to her country I can focus on the Hobby. For my ongoing Necrons army I decided to go for some resin bases. It's the first time I'm using some of them. I ordered quite a lot of the Lava Bases from Dark Art Miniatures. Let's have a look on them.

Two things made me chooses them. They have a lot of different cuts and doesn't look to much like each other (one of the problem I found in other companies) and the price which is really attractive for resin bases. They propose a bundle which make them even cheaper.

Something like two weeks later I received my order at my place and was really excited to open the bag.

So far I'm really pleased with this product. There are really few amount of mold flash. There are some small casting issues like air bubbles but when I see the overall quality of this product I can't complain. I'm currently painting some of them to have an idea of how it's turn out. The pictures will follow really soon.

So once again I can just recommend you to have a try for resin bases and this particular company. It's really looks better than just some sand and tufts on a base. For sure there are some really nice DIY bases but if you're like me and your modeling skills are quite limited just go for it, you won't be disappointed.

Now a question for you guys. I got those 60mm bases that I want to use for my flyers and my Destroyer Lord but I don't know how to drill the base. What tool should I use for the drilling part? Should I wait before painting them? Or I can just paint them and drill afterward? 

Please share your experience with me!

Battle Report 1750 pts : Necrons vs Khorne Daemons

So here once again a battle report for my next tournament. Today will be an other mission so test out and an other army both for my opponent and myself.
So first thing first the mission : 3 objectives on the middle line, one in the center and two at 18" from the center one on each sides. Any unit which is not vehicle can pick up an objective if it touch it during its movement phase. Embarked unit should disembark to pick it up. Each objective held is worth 1 point and 2 points if it has been brought back to our deployment zone. A unit can only grab one object. Special rule : Night Fight starting at the 5th turn. Deployment : Pitched Battle
Pretty interesting mission from my point of view. I decided to change a little bit my list because my tournament being in april I want to be sure to have all the model ready before it. I've been proxying my Wraiths until now. I'm not sure if GW will release them before april and I don't want to convert six of them so I have to do with what I got. So I came up with the Destroyer Lord + Triarch Praetorian combo.
Here my list :
HQ :
Overlord : Catacomb Command Barge, Warscythe 180 pts
Royal court : 4 Cryptek of Destruction with one solar pulse 160 its
Destroyer Lord : Mindshackle Scarabs, Resurection Orb 175 pts

Elite :
5 Flayed Ones 65 pts
5 Triarch Praetorians 200 pts
C'Tan : Lord of Fire, Pyreshards 210 its

Troops :
5 Warriors + Ghost Ark : 180 pts
5 Warriors + Ghost Ark : 180 pts
5 Warriors : 65 pts
5 Warriors : 65 pts

Fast Attack :
6 Canoptek Scarabs : 90 pts

Heavy Support :
Annihilation Barge : 90 pts
Annihilation Barge : 90 pts

My opponent brought a Khorne Daemon list because I know that two people are bringing Daemon lists (one full Khorne and on other one full Slaneesh) so I can see how its fare and give me more experience against Daemons in general.
His list :
HQ :
Bloodthirster : Unholy Might 170 pts
Skulltaker : Juggernaut 175 pts

Elite :
4 Bloodcrushers : Fury of Khorne, Chaos Icon, Instrument of Chaos 200 pts
3 Bloodcrushers : Chaos Icon 145 pts

Troops :
15 Bloodletters : 240 pts
15 Bloodletters : 240 pts
15 Bloodletters : 240 pts
15 Bloodletters : 240 pts

I won the roll off and decided to go second so it will give more option end game and give me one more turn of shooting against the red horde.
Deployment : D-Lord, Overlord, C'tan deployed behing a big piece of terrain in the center part of my deployment zone. Ghost Ark and Annihilation Barge on each side of them. One unit of Warriors went on the left close to my D-Lord. The other went to the very right side in a piece of terrain. And the Scarabs on the very left side ready to go in cover.

Daemons Turn 1 :
Movement : He rolled for his wave and got a 2 so it's gonna be his second wave. Bloodcrushers + Skulltaker wanted to land just behind the terrain in front of my center line but scatter 7" backward. The Bloodletters landed right were the BC+Skull wanted to land. The other Bloodletters unit landed in the middle of the board on the right flank behind terrain but scattered 6" inside and he lost 4 BL due to dangerous terrain.
Shooting : He just ran forward

Necrons Turn 1 :
Movement : On the right side my Ghost Ark move 12" to have a clear shot on each of the BL. Everything move 6" forward to have LoS except for the right Warriors who stayed put to shoot. The Scarabs on the left move in cover.
Shooting : Right Ghost Ark open fire on both units of BL killing 5 and 3 of them. Warriors on the right and C'tan kill three of the right BL. The left Ghost Ark + embarked Warriors kill 4 of the center BL. The left Warriors, and both Annihilations barge succeed to put down to one wound all the BC and Skulltaker include. I felt really bad for my opponent at that moment because despite the fact that he had a cover save he just couldn't pass them.

Daemons Turn 2 :
Movement : Two units of BL and the last unit of BC land center with the Skulltaker unit Chaos Icon to put a lot of pressure on my line. The rest move forward. One of the BL pick up the right objective.
Shooting : One of the BL run in cover. An other ran forward but keep enough place for the Skulltaker unit to charge the right Ghost Ark. The rest just run forward.
Assault : One of the BL charge the D-Lord and Praetorian (I really made a mistake letting them here) wiping them out even if the Mindshackle kill two of them. They consolidate forward and the D-Lord pass his Reanimation Protocol. The Skulltaker unit assault the right Ghost Ark and only succeed to glance it once destroying on of its gauss flayer.

Necrons Turn 2 :
Movement : The Flayed Ones stayed in reserve. The Overlord fly flat out over the BC unit putting 2 wounds on them. On the left part everything move 6" backward. In the center, the D-Lord move to charge the BC unit, the C'tan ready to shoot and charge the remaining BL. On the right, the Annihilation Barge move 6" Backward and the Ghost Ark 12". The Scarabs spread out to make a wall in front of the left flank.
Shooting : The C'tan shoot at the BL and my opponent did 4 six for his saves. On the left, Ghost Ark + 2 Warriors unit rapid fire a BL unit killing only 4 of them. The left Annihilation barge put one more wound on the BC and kill one. The right one kill two BC from the Skulltaker unit.
Assault : I charge the BC just to use hist Mindshackle and kill one or two of them. Mindshackle passed putting one wound and killing an other one. The BC don't hurt him and he finished them off. That was a big surprise. The C'tan assaulted the BL killing 2 of them and getting one wound back. One more dead due to fearless. Only one BL remain.

Daemons Turn 3 :
Movement : Bloodthirster landed on the center right thanks to the Icon. The Skulltaker unit grab the center objective. One unit of BL move in cover close to the D-Lord. The other unit move to assault the Scarabs wall. The right BL move forward.
Shooting : The right BL run 5" forward to put pressure on the warriors. BT and Skulltaker run in cover.
Assault : Multi assault from the BL on the C'tan and D-Lord. Mindshackle passed : 1 dead. C'tan kill one and D-Lord two. Then the BL killed the D-Lord and the C'tan passed all his saves. 2 more dead due to fearless. The D-Lord got back up.
The BL wipe out the scarabs and consolidate forward.

Necrons Turn 3 :
Movement : Flayed ones stays in reserve. D-Lord flys toward the Bloodthirster. The Overlord fly over the Skulltaker unit killing one BC, only the Skulltaker with one wound remains. The right Annihilation Barge move to get LoS on the Skulltaker. The right Warriors move forward to rapid fire some BL. On the left flank everybody move to rapid fire the BL.
Shooting : On the left the combination of two units of Warriors, Annihilation Barge and the Ghost Ark finish off the BL unit. On the right, the Ghost Ark and its Warriors finish off the BL. The right Warriors kill the Skulltaker. The Annihilation Barge put a wound on the Bloodthirster.
Assault : D-Lord assault the Bloodthirster but the Mindshackle doesn't succeed so the Bloodthirster kill him and consolidate on the center. The D-Lord got back up. The C'tan kills 3 BL got no wound back and 3 more died due to fearless.

Daemons Turn 4:
Movement : Bloodthirster move to engage the C'tan.
Assault : Bloodthirster put two wounds on the C'tan. The C'tan kill 2 BL but loosed his last wound. Both BT and BL consolidate in cover.

Necrons Turn 4 :
Movement : Flayed ones arrive on the left flank. Everybody move to shoot at the last units.
Shooting : I finished them off and wipe out his all army.

Interesting game : the Daemons can put a lot of pressure and I think the game would have been completely different if I wasn't that lucky with my D-Lord. So I will continue practicing with this army to get more used to the Praetorians+D-Lord combo.
Keep tuned

Triarch Praetorian

Hey guys, been a while, like everybody I got an excuse for not getting post in time, this time it's my girlfriend who came to visit me. But back to the main subject : Triarch Praetorian. When I first saw the model I was like wow they look so nice with their special jump pack. But as soon as I rode their stats line I just though that I will never use them. I mean when we see their point cost and what they do the normal reaction would be why this guys do even exist when the Wraiths can do everything they do and better? So point for point it's pretty obvious but the last few days I just came back with an idea I had for a while : using Praetorians with Destroyer lord.
So yes this unit is expensive at 390 pts a pop but it really impressed me so far. I use Void Blade and Particle Caster on my Praetorians and I put Mindshackle Scarabs, Weave and Res orb on the D-Lord. This unit is really a good answer to pretty much everything. I mean it can take after vehicles and infantry. Yes I said infantry. Everybody says that they suck, and by themselves I agree but with the D-Lord they become much scarier.
This unit can use the pistol so soften if lucky the unit they want to assault. I will usually got my full squad to the opponent face thanks to the high mobility they got (here avoiding landing on terrain is important because at 40 pts a pop you don't want to lose a guy for a miserable roll of one). I don't care if I assault through cover or no because anyway they will hit last. They will probably loose a couple of guys before striking back and they can kill a couple of guys as well with their attacks.
But it's not where they are interesting, it's because they bring along the D-Lord. He's the one who's gonna make the damage with his 4 attacks on charge with preferred enemy (everything) you are sure to land at least 3 attacks and with strength 7 it's most likely to be 3 dead guys. Then you have Mindshackle which can wreck havoc for you opponent because a main force of his unit is used against him adding more damage.
What I've been reading is the Praetorian sucks because they can't assault energy weapon units and I say why not?! Sure if it's a unit of 10 I wouldn't try but a normal unit of 5 I'm not afraid. With the mindshackle of the D-Lord and the toughness 5 of the Praetorian it's unlikely that the whole squad will get slaughtered. Even if I loose combat the Fearless come in handy. And then I got the Reanimation protocol on 4+ thanks to the D-Lord.
This unit became really useful for me because my Necrons army being pretty shooty sometimes I have to buy myself a turn or two when something is closing the distance between both battle lines. And this combination just fill that roll perfectly for me. Sure it's expensive but it's can really surprise my opponent and it's more of a swiss knife.
It takes an Elite slot which free up a Fast Attack one. I think (like a lot of people out there) that the Fast Attack slot is the more interesting one of the codex so having one more of there is still welcomed.
The only thing that I need to be careful is the casualty this unit can take, I mean if I feel that they can kill the 5 of my praetorian in the same phase I won't bet them. Because I need at least one of the guy standing up to use my Reanimation Protocol, other than that I'm really pleased by this surprising unit.
What do you guys think about that? Still not worth Wraiths? Or just too expensive? Just leave a comment on your thoughts
Keep tuned