On The Table - Deathwatch Techmarine And Others

While I am waiting for my next commission to get here in the mail, I am putting some work in on these three Deathwatch Marines. From right to left there is my take on a Iron Hands Techmarine, the second of my Storm Shield and Shotgun Marine and an Iron Hands with a Heavy Thunder Hammer.

I am cannibalizing the Deathwatch: Overkill box and converting each mini. I knew that I wanted a Techmarine to in my army and it was a little upsetting to see that Techmarines have no place in the Deathwatch.They feature so heavily in the RPG and to not have them at all in the table top game seems to be an oversight and missed opportunity. Until they fix this 30 years for now when we get another Deathwatch Codex, I plan to use this guy a just a Marine with a very fancy Power Fist and I'll use a Servo-arm to represent this. I know that I have the Servo-arm from the Iron Father mini saved somewhere, but no idea where it got to.

I love shield walls. Maybe it was seeing 300 when I was younger, but the images of a phalanx thrill me. I had the idea of three Marines standing in a shield wall with weapons pointing out. It is a silly dream but it is my dream. On the table top, these guys would make a good addition to an assault-based Kill Team. The Bolters are Assault weapons so no good for mowing down enemies and then charging. The Shotguns are a compromise as they are Assault weapons.

I don't know how I feel about Heavy Thunder Hammers but I like the minis. I never would have considered giving a HTH Marine a Storm Shield until after I saw it in the FAQ. After that, I just wanted the option to. I learned a trick from magnetizing the Thunderwolf Calvary of putting the magnet int he palm of the hand so the shield fits on top of it seamlessly. The only downside is that you need to get the magnet in place before assembly.

Deathwatch RPG - Getting The Band Back Together

So much has happened since I last wrote about the Deathwatch RPG group over 6 months ago. We had a few games together in which the party progressed through the sewers and into the Imperial Mansion. There they found the Lord-Governor, Thornsholt, who was acting like a big baby. He was decked out in golden Power Armor, that was more for form than function, and shooting at stand up target with a practice Bolter.

They then ransacked the Inquisitor's quarters and got another piece of the Xenocult clues, a ring and a  fancy sword.

Returning to the main hall, they were ambushed by Genestealers. This combat ran long and my players needed to get to bed. I had to truncate it considerably but this was a good lesson in not over-building combats. KISS!

The Lord-Governor's armor was ruined but other than that, it was just a few ticks of ammunition. I still don't think that I was doing Genestealers correctly. At least I remember to give them their Armor and Toughness reductions in damage and additional attacks. I know that the Lordsholm Genestealers don't get additional attacks but I needed to make it interesting. Basically, I would only take a max of 2 hits or one if they penetrated the Armor. Regardless, the Deathwatch chewed them up.

The Kill Team met Epirus Pyrrhus (a reversal of the historic Pyrrhus of Epirus) in the Lord-Governor's chambers. I will admit that this entire character was totally improvised from conception to execution. I didn't even know that I was going to have a character like this before I was role-playing him. The Lord-Governor ran to him sobbing like a child whilst Pyrrhus consoles him like a parent.

Deathwatch Final Sanction Part II

Yet another snafu prevented us from starting on time. When we last left our crew, they had entered the the sewers under the Thornshalt Complex. As they navigated the tunnels, they detected the sounds of construction further down the tunnel. The team sent Rufus, the Wolf Scout, ahead to check things out. He reported back that he say some Cultists trying to cut their way through an armored door. There were two people cutting, several people standing around and one giant Aberrant. The Aberrant looked angry and flustered. It ended smashing a a piece of the control mechanism and a cultist in its rage.

This might strike someone that is very familiar with Genestealer Cults as slightly odd. Typically, the Genestealer Cult is linked both genetically, through somatic mutations passed down through generations, and psychically both through the nodal link provided the Genestealer Patriarch and the gestalt psychic link that all Genestealers have. This would prevent this kind of infighting. One Genestealer would never attack another or even a Cultist.

This is a subtle hint at something that is going on behind the scenes, but I don't think my players picked up on it. It was very subtle. I have to be careful what I write here because at least one of my players reads this blog. I plan to point out this contradiction by having the Kill Team find an entry of the Inquisitor's journal, which is an element that I have already established. Event his might be too subtle for them. Regardless, this is not a crucial part of the adventure.

Buying Bits for Deathwatch Project

I just placed my first order from Shapeways, a 3D printing bits and mini company. I am going to try out some Deathwatch Terminator shoulder pads (pauldrons) first before placing additional orders from them. My friends that use Shapeways for X-wing minis seem pretty pleased. I initially thought that I would try and make a new friend that was a good sculptor or caster from 40k social media, but that proved to be a fruitless endeavor. I had two people that did casting in Seattle but one was a flake and the other was creepy and unreliable. They both did good work tough and I still have a lot of it both painted and still in bits.

These 10 Terminator shoulder pads are more than I need to complete my project. I had only planned on 5 termies total but this will give me the option of 11 or more if I shoehorn in some Grey Knight pauldrons.

There really are no no better options for Deathwatch Terminator shoulder pads. The only other ones are in the Overkill box and the blank Terminator shoulder guard pictured to the right. I think the black shoulder guard is ugly and breaks my head cannon in that it lack the text on the background.

I also ordered some bases for these Terminators and for the future bike too from Amazon.

Finished - Space Wolf Head

I put the finishing touches on the Deathwatch Tactical Marines and this head. I didn't take finished pictures of the Marines though but they were basically done. 

They turned out great. I can't wait to keep going on the Deathwatch project. 

Finished - Genestealer Cult Aberrant

I have to be careful what I post about the Deathwatch game because I know that at ;least one of my players reads this blog. 

I need a mini for a "Genestealer Cult Champion" for the Deathwatch game. The Final Sanction calls for a General-type but I thought it might be fun for the Kill team to square off against a hulking monstrosity. As I am painting the Deathwatch: Overkill game, I have a Genestealer Aberrant available. 

I painted him up with flesh tones but worked in some purple wash to certain areas. It was a good experiment to test out the color schemes that I plan to use on the rest of the cultists. I think the mini turned out over all very dark so it may need a little extra highlighting on the skin. For the most part I am pleased. 

Deathwatch Final Sacntion

We have had our first Deathwatch game last week and it was awesome. I ran the free downloadable adventure, Final Sanction. 

Charles played Konrad the Black Templar Assault Marine. New friend Kevin played Lucian Tyco the Blood Angel Sanguinary Priest. I brought Ulf'yngve "Rufus" Blumgren the Space Wolf Scout. 

After a small mix up with start times (I had said to meet at 4pm but the place did not open until 5pm), we got down to business. In three short hours, I set the scene of Avalos, a planet in flames. The team's transport, the frigate Invincible, was destroyed shortly after entering orbit by Tyranid Hive ships (but I failed to make the joke about the Invincible not living up to its name). 

The module of Final Sanction starts with a box of flavor text and the team deploying via Drop Pod into a battle on Lordsholm. Before letting them deploy, I made them some a small problem. To make the danger seem real, I had the corridor to reach the chamber with their gear collapse. I wanted them to come up with a way to solve it on their own but perhaps it was too soon to make them think creatively. They ended up going through the obstacle with the brute force. 

Finished - Deathwatch Wolf Scout

We have our first game of the new Deathwatch RPG group next week. Of the 5 other people that expressed interests in playing all but 2 canceled. One was a seasoned GM but knew nothing of the 40k setting. I was really sad to see him drop out and hope he comes back. We are going to start with two solid players and hopefully add two more. 

I had rolled up a character even though I see myself being the GM until a challenger appears. I strategically chose the Wolf Scout advance for the Tactical Marine so that when I don't want to role-play him, I can have him sneak off to "scout" leaving the PCs to do the heavy lifting. 

The advance costs 200 XP and allows the player to use Perception for Concealment, Shadowing and Silent Move so that they can benefit from the Wolf Senses Solo Mode Ability. It also take some of the emphasis off of the social aspects of the Space Wolf. I am not particularly adept at playing a "face" character and would feel uncomfortable in that role. 

What It Means To Be A Space Marine

It looks like the Deathwatch RPG group is getting started again. I have wanted to write this article for a while and it will serve as a primer for players that are new to the Fantasy Flight system and 40k setting. It details all the ways that a Space Marine differs from a human in the fluff but most importantly in the RPG system. This information is spread all around the main book and it is difficult to keep in your head. The goal of this list is to try and keep it all in the same place.

Finished - Deathleaper Lictor

Long ago, I had a dream about starting a Tyranid army. It was going to be a first wave of a bug invasion. A Deathleaper as an HQ, Genestealers as Troops and Lictors as Elites. None of the Tyranid creatures that are normally associated with a later invasion. 

I scrapped that dream in early 2014 when I traded all my Tyranids on Bartertown for some Forge World Terminators and a busted Baneblade. 

I resurrected it when I started Greg's Genestealer Cult minis. I used my Space Hulk Genestealers as test minis for that project and just kind of kept going. The minis were turning out so well that I dug out some Lictors that I had not been able to trade for a good deal and painted them up too. The plan is to use the Lictors with some special rules in Space Hulk or in Deathwatch RPG but before I knew it, I had an almost 300 point Tyranid army painted. Now, I am starting to think that I could make this happen after all. 

Deathwatch RPG - Final Sanction

What if James Cameron made RPGs.

I posted a while ago about how excited I was about Deathwatch RPG and how much I wanted to play it. In the last few months, thanks to an ad I had up , I have gotten some interest in the game. Last week, we had our first game run by yours truly. It was the free first adventure called Final Sanction and it went pretty well.

I had that ad up on RPG Game Finder for ages when two people messaged me within a month. . I was floored. One, Ryan, looked like he was going to shape up well, but ended up wanting to drive the bus a little too much for my tastes and flaked out. The other is Kris and he seems like a good egg. He is a little bit of a stoner but a good RPer and a decent guy.

The Next Best Thing to Having Tiny Metal Men...

...is being one!

I picked this book up at Borders on a trip to Portland last year after hearing the d6 Generation reviewed it. It sounded great! I had been waiting for "Space Marine the RPG" since I got into 40k. This book was like a dream come true. I read the crap out of but never sat down and rolled dice due to lack of folk that are interested.

I'd do a review but the kids at Bolter and Chainsword covered it better than anyone could. Also, there is a video from the Fantasy Flight kids that covers all the bases:

What makes this game great? First, Space Marines. Nuff said. They are the last work in furious armored death and it is nevermore apparent than it is in this game. Next to a Dark Heresy character, a Space Marine is almost ridiculously unstoppable like Superman next to an ant. The down side is that a Space Marine is going to be outnumbered regularly. when they are outclassed, it is by orders of magnitude.

What else does this game have going for it? Not much. It is a pretty standard system using d10s. There are traits, skills and perks. It is fairly complex and allows for detailed character creation without getting to bogged down in the minutiae of rolling on 12 tables to get a background. That being said, I think they boiled down the Chapters to cliches.

I posted an ad for a gaming group (it only stays up for a few weeks so I doubt it will still be up when you read this) and am going to check out an established Deathwatch game that runs Saturdays at a FLGS.

I can't wait to play!