Adepticon Calth Bash: The Revenge!

Last night, we played a great game at the house of one of my fellow Greying Legion (The Adepticon and NOVA Heresy Team) veterans. We played through our "Calth Bash" that we ran at Adepticon this year, and are planning to again. It's a pretty great little set up. The armies essentially are restricted to what you can get in the Calth box, plus your legion rules. That's it. So, each side has 30 marines, 5 terminators, a contemptor, and a character. There are points restrictions for upgrades on each of those things, and the only model not from the box that is available is a single bare rhino. To make things interesting, we add in the Calth dice, which gets rolled every turn. You can then use the various results to do things like add models back to squads that have taken casualties, or get extra shots with various weapons. We also use a fancy version of Meatgrinder. Each time you recycle a unit, you give your opponent your Meatgrinder token, which they flip over and becomes a Vengeance token. You can use those to do things like count as a one shot combi weapon, or juice someone up on combat drugs!

Overall, it's a blast, and basically results in total madness and huge numbers of casualties that keep getting followed up by more fresh meat....which is exactly what the Heresy is to us!

We racked up my Alpha Legion and Salamanders against the birthday boy/host's Death Guard. Really, his army is made up of Istvaan III loyalists, so it's got Sons of Horus, Death Guard, Emperor's Children, and World Eaters in it. For simplicity's sake, they were all Death Guard.

In the end, the Death Guard won by a single Victory Point, 23-22. VPs were based on a check-list of accomplishments during the game, some silly, some game based. Things like destroying a unit, destroying a unit in a sweeping advance, making your opponent laugh, and contributing to capturing objectives all got you VPs.

Since it was a weeknight, we ended up cutting the game short, but we had a great time, and got a couple people a little more familiar with the rules.

Salamander Pyroclasts

Well, I said they were up next, and here they are: my first five Salamander Pyroclasts. These models are super dense with details, so I tried to keep the color scheme as bare-bones as possible. I've got 5 more of these dudes to paint, and then my 2,000 point list will be complete! These dudes have been brutal in the zone mortalis and tactical strike games I've used them in.

Salamander Contemptor done!

...for now.
My second contemptor for my Salamanders is all set. Like the rest of this army, I'll be going back and adding decals and some more weathering once I actually get the decals. I had planned to pick them up at Adepticon this year, but they didn't bring any. Of course, instead of filling out the order sheet for them, I spent that cash-money on Arena Rex models.
Anyway, here's my dude! Pictured with my other Salamander contemptor.

More Pre Heresy Salamanders in the works!

I spent some time last night working with my airbrush. I manged to get the green down on my 10 Pyroclasts, another land raider, another contemptor, and Vulkan  himself. I am excited to paint him. He's got an Emperor's Children Contemptor head for a helmet, and I reposed his arms just a smidge.

After the airbrushin', my wife and I decided to watch the first Mission: Impossible, which it shocked me to realize is 20 years old now. While we watched it, I managed to get everything you see done on my contemptor.

This will put my Heresy Era Salamanders up to 2500 points, when they're all done!

Pre Heresy Salamander Calth Bash Force!

Here are the models I'll be bringing to the Calth Bash at Adepticon this year! I'm super pumped with how these dudes are coming out. I will be adding transfers and weathering, once I actually have the transfers in-hand.

Pre Heresy Salamander WIP

Back again with some more dudes!
First, I am just about done with the pre-transfer stage of my Delegatus/Centurian/Praetor model:

He's made from all kinds of stuff: Tyberos the Red Wake, a tiny shield from Master Crafted Miniatures, a Lizardmen jawbone, Spellcrow scaly tabard, a tartaros shield, etc etc.

Next up is the batch of stuff I just got into the airbrushin' booth yesterday: My first five Firedrakes, and a Contemptor. His arms are magged so I can swap later. For now though, I love the brutality of a chain-fist/heavy flamer+plasma canon robot death machine.