Talk about getting 2015 off with a bang! So far I have managed to squeeze in a cracking gaming session and completed my first model of the new year – the first of four Valkyries towards making the Airborne Assault Formation (from the Militarum Tempestus codex) for my knightly scions:

This is the first time I have made a GW model without any conversion work at all – my Scions are all pretty much ‘as intended’ (apart from the medieval vibe with the troops), so not too much thinking to do here. The Valk is a lovely model and I did feel bad about skipping all the internal detailing, but I can live with that – I do have 3 more to do after all! Here are some more shots:

 

I also got an awesome day of gaming in with my pal Ross and his Stormbringers. We bodged the Stormclaw missions with our own armies – I had the Ork side with Straken in for Grukk, 10 Scions instead of Nobs, a 10 man infantry squad for Grots, and 2 sentinels and a Wyvern instead of Killa Kanz. Ross had the Spacewolves side, with a Herald on disc instead of Krom, 6 Fiends instead of Terminators, and 2 big units of Horrors instead of Grey Wolves and Blood Claws.

The first scenario ‘Green tide, grey fog’ was brief and bloody – Ross had a unit of horrors that had to escape from the centre of the board, while I had my HQ, Troops and Elites to stop him… My deepstrike deployment was perfect and I stole the initiative, so the unfortunate horrors didn’t even get a move before they were shot up and charged by Straken… a short and bloody 1-0 to me!

The second game scenario ‘Fortress 26’ was a very different affair – I had my Heavy Support and Troops choices on the board, while Ross had his HQ, Elites and a Troops choice. He had to be 4 kill-points ahead by the end of the game to claim victory – my units got to re-spawn once they were destroyed. The Wyvern was as lethal as always, pummelling the Herald into the dust, but not before a trio of Rot-flies were summoned. It was a close call, but once the Fiends and Rot-flies got into my back line they got busy splatting my heavies for one kill point each (though the Sentinels proved surprisingly resilient). It was close, but Ross won the game for 1-1

The final game was a straight up kill-point battle with our whole forces on the table. I got off to a good start by pummelling the Herald again with the Wyvern – netting me 3VP’s for slay the warlord, 1^st blood and a kill-point. This lead was mathematically unassailable, so Ross now had to table me to snatch the win… he came so close, but in the end Straken was the only human still trucking at the end of the game, giving me a tight 2-1 victory!

 

I really enjoyed playing these scenarios – they were small, simple and fun, and I would recommend this approach to anyone. We managed to balance the sides very nicely – the Wyvern was a bit over-powered, but this was offset by the Daemonic summoning shenanigans, so the end result was an extremely close affair. On a side note, I really enjoyed Straken – I don’t think he would make it into many of my mainstream lists, but he was great fun for this game… I need to come up with my own steampunk ‘man of adamantium’ conversion! Anyhow, here are some pics from the game – enjoy, and all the best for the new year:

My stand-in Straken… kickin’ ass!

 

Standing to!

 

The enemy warlord… an absolutely classic model!

 

Fiendish Fiends, doing what they do!