Building a Better Bridge Table Part 1

 After Pete raised the bar with all of his new terrain (you can see it in the latest battle report Might Makes Right), I decided I needed to invest some time to improve the game experience at my place.

For years, we have played games on flat rectangles with a few hills or buildings to break it up, although we have also played a few battles on a circular battlefield for variety. For a long time, I have been wanting to make a table that utilizes the vertical element to a greater degree with more depth. Also, two years ago I built a huge bridge terrain piece and we even played a visually awesome battle with it, but I feel the current table setup to use the bridge is too limiting. 

So I have decided to try to build a table with the following charactersics:

1. Non-rectangular shape
2. Significant elevation changes (not flat)
3. Accommodates the bridge terrain piece 

I sketched out some ideas for hexagon and octagon tables using trusty PowerPoint. Since my dining room table is round, these shapes seemed like a more natural fit to take advantage of the table support than a rectangle anyway (which was always hanging in one direction and leaving extra table in the other direction).

After looking at a few designs, this is the one that I landed on. The grey rectangles represent the road and bridge pieces. The blue rectangle represents the canyon/river/whatever that the bridge will cross. The black circle is the outside of my dining room table. 

The area is quite large at over 36 square feet, bigger than a 9 ft x 4 ft rectangle. I wanted a lot of area to accommodate bigger games and because the bridge piece is so large that it would overwhelm a standard 6 ft x 4 ft table. 

With the rough outline in place, I had to think about how to build it. Since it is so large, I decided to build it in two halves to make it easier to handle and store when it is not setup. With big 8 ft x 4 ft x 1 inch pieces of insulation foam, I could make two half-octagons that were 80" x 40" each, with some scraps leftover to make the hills. I bought some foam and started cutting these shapes out to be the base of the board. 

Now I just need to decide if I want to split the battlefield along the river (vertical cut in my image above) as I originally planned, or if I should split it along the road (horizontal cut in my image above). The advantage of having the two piece come together under the road is that I could leave the road off and then place it down for games to cover the seam between the two boards. 

I have some ideas for how to add elevation and to make sure there are still options for setting up additional terrain on the board. For the "river" the bridge is crossing, I am thinking to make it more of a ravine. A few reasons: I do not know how to get water effects with resin, this table will represent the eastern desert wastes of Xhorik Prime so it does not make sense to have a wide river, I want to ensure infantry can cross the gap in multiple places and not just at the bridge, and I can still come up with some ideas for the bottom that may be easier to model, such as nearly-dried up puddles of water or waste, etc. 

Plenty more planning and building to do! Updates to come. 

The Grey Ghosts: White Scars Recon Squad

The White Scars were the original recon force for the Great Crusade, ranging far ahead of the main forces, so it is only fitting that my army incudes a recon squad. 

Of course, both of the antennae on the vox guy broke. I replaced the skinny one with a wire and replaced the segment that joins the fat one to the pack with a piece of brass rod. The only other change I made was to use White Scars MKIV shoulder pads from Forge World. This was a bit tricky because the vox guy already has a left shoulder pad built into the model, with the cloak covering half of it, so I could not replace that one. Instead I cut a decal in half and tried to line it up with the edge of the cloak. It is the same icon as the rest of the squad, but not 3D, of course. Other than that, I built them straight out of the box with no other modificaitons.

I tried some new painting techniques on this squad to speed things up, including using mostly Contrast paints and washes other than the grey armor and the metal. On the grey armor, I used a shade but no highlights, figuring the battle damage would act as a bit of a natural delineation of edges. Some aspects turned out better than others and some of the battle damage is not my best work, but overall I am happy with them for the amount of effort I put into them. Despite their armor being mostly light grey, they are immediately recognizable as White Scars with the white heads and shoulder icons. I like the way the blue/grey cloaks turned out with dusty fringes. I also like the simple technique of Contrast over metallic for the lenses. 

They came out well enough that I am inspired to try more units with Contrast to try to speed along the painting. I definitely learned a few things about how to make Contrast look better (I have struggled with the splotchy surface finish on most models in the past.) If nothing else, trying different techniques keeps the painting interesting and breaks up the monotony of painting a whole army with the same slow method. Units like this recon squad are the perfect opportunity to try new things since they do not need to look exactly like the other marines, as long as they tie in to the overall army. 

Might Makes Right: 3-Way Istvaan Battle Report

"The strong get what they deserve. So do the weak."

Background:

This battle takes place during the Istvaan III atrocity when the traitors purged their legions of any who would potentially remain loyal to the Emperor, long before the Xhorik Campaign. This battle provides some back story to three of the Traitor leaders before they crossed paths again in the Xhorik System in the middle of the Heresy.

Scenario: Might Makes Right

Might Makes Right Scenario

Belligerents:

World Eaters: Pete

Primary Detachment: World Eaters The Crimson Path

• Praetor Ghrodd the Slaughter Lord: artificer armor, iron halo, master crafted thunder hammer, jump pack
• [Line] Tactical Squad The Skull Collectors: 17 marines with chain axes, sergeant with power fist, artificer armor and plasma pistol 
• [Line] Recon Squad Butcher's Eyes: 5 marines, Nemesis bolters, bolt pistols
• [Line] Rampager Squad The Pit Gladiators: 10 Rampagers with jump packs, 3 with falax blades, 4 with excoriator chain axes, 3 with meteor hammers, sergeant with artificer armor
• Predator Severing Cut: Predator autocannon, lascannon sponsons
• Predator Fires of Hell: Magna-melta cannon, heavy bolter sponsons
• Tartaros Terminator Squad The Red Mist: 5 marines, 4 x dual lightning claws, 1 with heavy flamer and chainfist
• The Red Butchers: 4 x dual power axes, sergeant with dual chain fists
• Transport: Land Raider Organ Grinder: quad lascannon sponsons, twin-linked heavy bolter
• Apothecary Bazrak: jump pack, frag and krak grenades, bolt pistol, chain axe

2000 points

Death Guard: Bill
Primary Detachment: Death Guard (No Rite of War)

• Praetor Wolfgang: Catphractii terminator armor, volike charger, paragon blade, rad grenades
• Deathshroud retinue: 5 terminators with hand alchem-flamers, power scythes and rad grenades
• Tactical Support Squad Folterer: 8 marines with flamers and melta bombs, sergeant with artificer armor. 
• [Line] Tactical Squad A: 14 marines with chainswords, sergeant with power fist and artificer armor and Apothecary Gerhard
• [Line] Tactical Squad B Toddestraffe: 10 marines with chainswords, sergeant with power fist and artificer armor. 
• Transport: Rhino with pintle-mounted heavy alchem-flamer.
• Tactical Support Squad Blitz Schock: 7 marines with volkite calivers and apothecary
• Heavy Support Squad Feuer Sturm: 7 marines with missile launchers
• Predator Mittel Panzer 021 with Predator Autocannon and lascannon sponsons 
• Contemptor Dreadnought Jürgen:  Gravis melta cannon, melta gun, Gravis power fist
• Deredeo pattern dreadnought with Arachnus heavy lascannon battery, twin-linked heavy bolter, Aiolos missile launcher, and helical targeting array

2000 points

Sons of Horus: Phil
Primary Detachment: Sons of Horus Pride of the Legion 

• Praetor Ezman Vyke with Cataphractii terminator armor, chain fist, combi-melta, digilasers, Armor of Pride
• [Line] Tactical Squad (6th Squad, 12th Company): 20 marines with bayonets, vexilla, artificer armor, power fist
• [Line] Cataphractii Terminator Squad Tempest: 10 marines with Cataphractii armor, combi-bolters, 3 power fists, 1 chain fist, 1 thunder hammer, 5 power axes
• [Line] Cataphractii Terminator Squad Hammerfall: 5 marines with Cataphractii armor, 3 power fists, 2 chain fists, 5 combi-meltas
• Transport: Land Raider Proteus The Bladed Hand
• [Line] Veteran Tactical Squad Exomis ("The Remnants"): 10 marines with 2 power swords, 1 power axe, 1 power fist, vox, 2 meltaguns, 1 combi-melta, and artificer armor
• Transport: Rhino
• Contemptor Dreadnought Konax Silat with Gravis-melta and chainfist with inbuilt grav gun
• Heavy Support Squad: 5 marines with lascannons

2000 points