Games!: 2nd Edition Warhammer 40K (Angels of Death vs. Tyranids)

Nearly 5-6 years ago, some buddies of mine and I decided we should try some co-op 40K from 2nd edition --- all of us painting up some space marines to face a collective horde of Tyranids (owned by two of the three of us).

 

I slowly painted up some models, and we finally played the first game.  The concept was pretty simple:

 

• Blood Angels and Dark Angels each have 750 points, will fight co-op against Tyranids.
• Each chapter gets two explosive devices, assigned to squads or characters - these must be used to blow up two generators (which in turn will cause the overheating of an orbital defense platforms' reactor).
• Tyranids are generated randomly each Tyranid turn using four separate nodes, and some random tables.  Tokens are generated - and when spotted, we used a D20 table to place random Tyranids.
• Tyranids activated using a simple beahviour table (mostly consisting of "eat their faces").

The end result was that the Blood Angels managed to blow up both generators, though they lost 19/21 marines in the process.

 

The Dark Angels held off many Tyranids including a Carnifex.  They made it out with 9 marines...so not too bad.  Some random pics from the game.

 

 

Breaking my own rules...(Space Marine Bikes)

Deciding to finally maybe actually play some modified 2E 40K that my buddies and I have been planning for...maybe 4-5 years, I broke one of my own rules and bought some (poorly) assembled Space Marine bikes off ebay.  I normally don't mess with pre-built plastics, but these were too cheap to pass up.

 

While I wasn't happy with the state of them (ended up with a ton of cleaning as the minis were - expectedly - poorly built with too much glue, weird components, etc.) I can 'cope' with using these.  Similarly I hate painting stuff assembled, so this was annoying.

 

 

Forgotten Angels

I painted up these five Blood Angel terminators the other week - but forgot to take pictures or post them.  I'm not overly pleased with them - the sculpts are okay, but the prints were...mediocre.  A decent Etsy purchase though at half the cost of normal GW product.

These are an interpretation of the classic 'Saturnine' terminator from Rogue Trader days.  I wanted something different for 2nd edition, so these'll work.

The Forgotten Scout Squad

 I forgot I was waiting for some decals to dry on this Space Marine Scout Squad from 2nd edition when I posted earlier.  Another five models (10 total) for use with Scrapheap and/or a possible 2nd edition 40K game we've been kicking around lately.

All aboard the struggle bus! Wooo woooo!

 Been struggling to be motivated to do anything lately.  However, I had primed these five assault marines a while ago.  My enthusiasm for 40K has all but diminished, but I will try to see through this small 2nd edition force project.

Oldhammer: Blood Angel Space Marine Scouts

Struggled to get a good picture of these guys for some reason, but a squad of nice old metals, recovered from eBay minis.

Slightly...rough when picked up off eBay.

Stripped, cleaned, re-based, repainted.

Some ancient heralds, and some ancient Space Marines

 I had two leftover cavalry I decided to make into stand-in heroes, and stand-in couriers (which can be used to guarantee command rolls once a game) for FSF.

Given the cheap Horus Heresy Mk6 space marines all over eBay I grabbed a few sets to make some marines for possible 2nd edition games in the future (my buddies and I have been talking about doing some cooperative bug hunts).

Not overly stoked with the results, but Space Marines are Space Marines.  Amusingly the very first "expensive" thing I bought at age 14 with my first job was a painted squad of the original RTB01 Beakie marines from a local hobby shop.  They happened to be painted red, so this is all coming full circle now.

Games!: Warhammer 40K

Last night I played a brutal game of 40K, continuing the evolving narrative campaign involving my buddy John's Dark Angels, my Eldar and Chaos Space Marines (and soon to be John's Tyranids).

In this instance the Dark Angels were trying to use mobile plasma generators to fire up the final power plant which would activate a defensive ring around the planet  - hoping to use the ancient Imperium world's defenses against the inbound battle barges of the Wandering Sons (Chaos Space Marines).

In the end the Dark Angels failed by a few feet - a lone Ravenwing biker managing to get a plasma generator within feet of the door of the power plant station before Eldar reinforcements blunted the attack.

Oktos, Exalted Champion of the Wandering Sons

...or something like that.

This is Oktos, an Exalted Champion.  Like the unnamed Sorcerer in my army he sports the homage-armour of the Death Guard appearance.  He's the primary opposition to Chapter Master Khyrum Saal - having embraced the attention of the Chaos Gods.

The small faction of my army which has accepted the Chaos Gods will be primarily white-armoured and will be the ones predominantly bringing in daemons and directing cultists.

It is a mystery, even to Khyrum Saal himself, why Oktos and the "true believers" have not overthrown him.