Enemy sighted, enemy met

This weekend was the fruition of a great deal of preparation and planning.  My good friends Jason Woodburn, Eric O'Dell, and Peter Franke were all able to participate in the staging of the skirmishes on Rynn's World.

We waged the Battle at the Farm and the Battle for Jadeberry Hill.  We used the rules found only within Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader (Space Marines, for instance, were still Toughness 3).

While both scenarios were a bit wonky, they were loads of fun to play.  Thrugg was beaten down by a wounded Pedro Kantor, and the Space Marines survived the encounter with heavy losses.  Pedro Kantor went on to reach New Rynn City where he led the defense of the last zoomway into the city.  Pedro was able to pull back into the city with five of his marines, the rest fell to heavy fire from wave after wave of orks.

In non-scenario play we tested out the vehicle rules as well as the psyker rules.  In keeping with the scenarios, we didn't really follow a point value, we just played with a vehicle for each player to get the hang out of how they worked.

Both vehicles and psykers made for some very interesting skirmishes, and their rules are likewise a bit strange.

Things I'd forgotten about:

Scattering Area shots *before* actually rolling to hit.
Push Backs in Close Combat (you know, where you fall back before you fall back).
Power Fields and Power Field Syncrhonizers.

Eldar!

I've gotten some work done on my Eldar, here are some pics!

They are done!  I've finished the Crimson Fists and have moved on to working on my Eldar.  Here are some pics.  There is one Modern Crimson Fist pictured here: Pedro Kantor.  The rest, over 100 marines and vehicles, are all 1st Edition models.

 Here's the army about 2/3 finished.  Note the Grey Knights, Inquisitor, and Assassin.

Imperial Assassin.

The complete army, without Grey Knights.

 I configured two squads to work as Tactical Squads in 1st Edition or as Sternguard Squads in modern play.  They are at either end of the front block of models, one squad is featured here just to the left of the Terminator Assault Squad.

 Terminators, Chaplains, and Librarians.

The converted Whirlwinds along with the original Land Speeder and Furibundus Dreadnought are what make this army special.

That's a Devastator Squad with the original Space Marine Missile Launcher and Lascannon sculpts.  Just behind them is a squad of Scouts.  Sadly there were no rules for Scout Squads until 2nd Edition.

The backbone of the army are the Tactical Squads and their rhinos.  While I can't field all of these squads in 1st Edition without house rules, I had a blast painting these guys up.  It was a challenge building squads that satisfy both 1st Edition and modern rules.

Recent Developments

I've started painting Eldar and Crimson Fists in earnest.  I also started dabbling in 6th Edition.  It's about what I expected, so I will probably stop playing modern 40K again in about two years when 7th comes out and ruins everything again (as all odd numbered editions have done since 3rd, really).

But in the mean time I'm working hard on my Rogue Trader Era stuff.  I recently found around 15 or so RTE Space Marines to add to my Crimson Fists, all single piece models with Bolt Guns, one with a Heavy Bolter, and two Multi-Meltas.  I inadvertently destroyed their backpacks while stripping them, but was lucky enough to score a large set of RTE backpacks on Ebay, among other things.

What other things?  Well, a Space Marine RTE Land Speeder for one.  Also got 5 RTE Grey Knight Terminators, who along with my Inquisitor model will make a great Ally force for the Crimson Fists while still keeping it RTE appropriate.  I also got four more Striking Scorpions so that I can have two squads of them in either format of play.

I did pick up a Wraithknight recently to supplement my 6th Edition Eldar.  I only own a few models that don't translate back to the Aspect Warriors Army List from WD #127, so I don't feel too terrible about adding them in.

I've really been enjoying the modeling and painting of the old models quite a bit.  My next project is to have both copies of Rogue Trader spiral bound.  The hardcover edition I have is in pretty bad shape, and the softcover version is getting worse.f

This summer it looks like I'll be getting to play against some Imperial Guard as Jason Woodburn has agreed to try out 1st Edition with me again.  Still have to expand the House Rules Agreement so that we aren't casting "Temporal Distort" on each other over and over again...

Painting Log

Here's a list of models that I've painted thus far for this project:

Crimson Fists:
All completely painted




Eldar:

Avatar of Khaine (the original version)
Warlock with Singing Spear
Karandras (2nd Edition)
Asurmen (2nd Edition)
Jain Zar (2nd Edition)
Baharroth
Fuegan
Maugan Ra

3 Dark Reapers
Dark Reaper Exarch

7 Fire Dragons
Fire Dragon Exarch

9 Swooping Hawks
Swooping Hawk Exarch (conversion)

6 Dire Avengers
Dire Avenger Exarch

5 Howling Banshees

6 Striking Scorpions
Striking Scorpion Exarch

5 Eldar Scouts (counting them as Guardians with Lasguns)

Painting Has Commenced!

After finally finishing every Warmachine and Hordes model I own, I've begun work on the Crimson Fists.

I'd originally painted a command squad of these guys back under 5th edition rules right before I quit playing altogether.  I've had to reintegrate those models into my command structure and into the tactical and devastator squads.

I'm a little more excited about this project now that my painting schedule has opened up more, and once I get some more models done I hope to post some pics.  Ideally I'd like to get a lot of work done so that I can maybe take them with me to Adepticon this year and show off my old 'beakies' to everyone.

I've been discussing playing games with a few friends and it looks like some kind of house rules document needs to be developed for first edition.  Psychic Powers, Vortex Grenades, and various other things (not to mention army list issues that I've posted about before) all need to be ironed out so that we can have some fun moving models around and shooting each other.

If first edition seems good enough, I'll simply use it all the time when playing.  Otherwise it will probably end up being second edition.