One Last Blade

This week we had the most classic of classic matchups in these parts: Grey Knights vs Thousand Sons. Psyker vs psyker. Loyalist vs traitor. Brother against brother, both in lore and real life since these dusty heretics belong to my actual brother.

Now unfortunately, this game was three days ago so my memories of it aren't as clear. I've had a couple of busy days since. This is going to be less of a tactical write-up and more of a highlight real. But there were some really juicy highlights in this game!

We played the Strike Force mission Frontline Warfare. It's a pretty straightforward game, with the only real switch-up being the bespoke secondary Vital Ground. Neither of us took that secondary, so I will discuss it no further!

Grey Knights list at the bottom of the page.

I switched up my list a little bit here. No Paladins this time. I've found I rely on them a lot and they just eat Command Points for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I decided to try out a list without them and with a weird plan. You'll notice I'm bring along my recently finished Land Raider and my Techmarine. For my secondaries I chose Psychic Ritual. Normally the idea of sacrificing a psyker character's entire Psychic Phase is appalling, but here I brought along Inquisitor Felencia.

If I'm absolutely honest, I love this model but she never really does anything. That changes with this game! She jumps into the Land Raider Redeemer alongside a Terminator squad and the Techmarine. The goal is to push the Land Raider to the center, surround Felencia in Terminators, and have her start performing the Psychic Ritual secondary while the Techmarine keeps the Land raider alive with the Aetheric Conduit.

Thousand Sons list at the bottom of the page.

My brother brought along two detachments: one of Thousand Sons, and another of Tzeentch Daemons. He also left a couple hundred points in reserve so he could summon new daemons or pop his Pink horrors. The big standout in this list was his Lord of Change, the warlord Almakhadie, who is rocking Incorporeal Form, the Impossible Robe, and the Aura of Mutability. What this all amounts to is a Lord of Change with a 4++ invulnerable save, who subtracts 1 damage from incoming attacks, and who ignores wounds on 6s (and even more annoyingly, heals 1 wound whenever he makes this feel no pain roll). On top of this he's got all of his psychic powers at +2, backed up by 30 Rubric Marines.

My deployment. Terminators and GMNDK in space.

My Brotherhood Champion there has the Blade of the Forsworn, so he's ready to take out some daemons.

Rubric Marines scout deploying onto an objective.

My brother secured first turn and predictably hurled his Helldrake into my line. He planned on getting his murderous Daemon Prince up there as well with Warptime, but my careful use of The Aegis and my Chaplain shouting his Refrain of Convergence stopped the Daemon Prince from ripping my Dreadknights apart. I am really liking Refrain of Convergence as a go-to litany for my Chaplain. Being able to almost certainly deny a single power every turn has been very important.

Because of deployment I didn't have very far to go, so it was a simple matter to get Felencia and the Terminators within 6" of the center to start enacting the Ritual on my turn.

We charged the Helldrake and my BroChamp's Blade of the Forsworn tore clean through it.

... But the Helldrake exploded, dealing a total of 9 mortal wounds to pretty much everyone in my army.

Tagging Rubrics so they can't shoot on my brother's next turn.

My Chaplain's Refrain of Convergence was instrumental to me surviving as long as I did.

The Lord of change Almakhadie cast Bolt of Change on my BroChamp, killing him and turning him into... whatever that is up there. Chaos Spawn! Neither of us had ever actually seen this successfully happen, so it was really interesting.

The Chaos Spawn turned right around to try and take out my Techmarine who was keeping my Land Raider Redeemer healthy. My Techmarine made some really fortunate saves here. He would not fall to his mutated brother.

This started out as a unit of ten Pink Horrors. No matter what I did I couldn't cut a path to the sorcerers.

The Land Raider incinerates the Chaos Spawn.

Charging the Horrors, hoping to start making a dent. But they just keep popping into more!

Taking an objective.

My God, this moment here. Almakhadie cast the Chaos version of Vortex of Doom on my Land Raider. He got a 12 with his +2, which meant that Chaos Vortext of Doom was doing d6 mortal wounds to my Land Raider and everything within 3" of it. Utilizing my Chaplain's Refrain of Convergence and The Aegis, I rolled a 14 to deny. What a moment! But the next turn, my brother did the exact same thing with his Lord of Change, and I lacked the Command Points to do The Aegis again. I imagined the entire ruin transforming into a pillar of blue flames as the Chaos Vortex of Doom (which is actually called... Infernal Gateway? I'm pretty sure?) killed three Terminators, took four wounds off of my Land Raider, and killed Felencia, before she had a chance to complete the Psychic Ritual! The worst part of this is that Almakhadie Perils'd on his attempt and also took damage from Infernal Gateway, but his Aura of Mutability triggered three times and effectively ignored 6 wounds from all of that. He only lost 1 wound during all of this nonsense.

No, I take that back. The worst part of this is that I denied his first attempt at this, spent all of my CP, and then just let my brother try this again. This was my fault!

Almakhadie standing victorious where once a Land Raider stood.

But my Sons of Titan weren't going to let this injustice go unanswered.

At this point I was pretty much just playing HeroHammer and started charging my characters at different units all across the board. They all performed admirably! My brother had spent all of his reinforcement points and had no way to keep making more Horrors. Through perseverance and rage, my Grey Knights began slaying daemons and sorcerers like nobody's business.

No more Lord of Change.

No more Rubrics.

No more Exalted Sorcerers.

Unfortunately, my late game victories weren't enough. The tide of daemons had secured so many objectives early on that I just couldn't catch up. My brother held three objectives for three whole turns, maxing out on primary points. He spent the next two turns trying to deny me points wherever he could, and it was successful. Stopping me from completing the psychic ritual definitely secured him his victory. Maybe I should've taken Slay the Warlord!

Grey Knights list:

++ Battalion Detachment 0CP (Imperium - Grey Knights) [64 PL, 1,166pts, 10CP] ++

+ Configuration +

Battle Size [12CP]: 3. Strike Force (101-200 Total PL / 1001-2000 Points)

Detachment CP

+ Stratagems +

Armoury of Titan [-1CP]: 1 Additional Relic

+ Agents of the Imperium +

Inquisitor [4 PL, 70pts, -1CP]: 4) Mental Interrogation, Blackshroud, Inferno pistol, Ordo Malleus, Power sword, Psyker, Puritan, Stratagem: Inquisitorial Mandate

+ HQ +

Chaplain [6 PL, 113pts]: 1. Litany of Faith, 4. Refrain of Convergence, Edict Imperator, Storm bolter

Grand Master in Nemesis Dreadknight [11 PL, 225pts]: 4: First to the Fray, Dreadfist, Dreadknight teleporter, Heavy Psycannon, Nemesis Greatsword, Sanctuary, Warlord

Techmarine [5 PL, 77pts]: Aetheric Conduit, Empyrean Domination, Power maul, Storm bolter

. Servo Arms: Flamer, Plasma cutter

+ Troops +

Terminator Squad [11 PL, 190pts]: Gate of Infinity

. Grey Knight Terminator Justicar: Storm bolter

. . Nemesis Force Sword

. 2x Terminator (Halberd): 2x Nemesis Force Halberd, 2x Storm Bolter

. 2x Terminator (Sword): 2x Nemesis Force Sword, 2x Storm Bolter

Terminator Squad [11 PL, 190pts]: Hammerhand

. Grey Knight Terminator Justicar: Storm bolter

. . Nemesis Force Halberd

. 4x Terminator (Halberd): 4x Nemesis Force Halberd, 4x Storm Bolter

Terminator Squad [11 PL, 206pts]: Hammerhand

. Grey Knight Terminator Justicar: Storm bolter

. . Nemesis Force Sword

. 4x Terminator (Falchions): 8x Nemesis Falchion, 4x Storm Bolter

+ Elites +

Apothecary [5 PL, 95pts]: Inner Fire

. Nemesis Daemon Hammer: Nemesis Daemon Hammer

++ Spearhead Detachment -3CP (Imperium - Grey Knights) [45 PL, 834pts, -3CP] ++

+ Configuration +

Detachment CP [-3CP]

+ HQ +

Brother-Captain [7 PL, 118pts]: Storm Bolter, Warp Shaping

. Nemesis Force Sword

Brotherhood Champion [5 PL, 93pts]: Armoured Resilience, Blade of the Forsworn, Storm bolter

+ Heavy Support +

Land Raider Redeemer [15 PL, 288pts]: Storm Bolter, Twin Assault Cannon

Nemesis Dreadknight [9 PL, 160pts]: Dreadfist, Gatling Psilencer, Nemesis Greatsword, Sanctuary

Nemesis Dreadknight [9 PL, 175pts]: Dreadfist, Dreadfist, Gate of Infinity, Gatling Psilencer, Heavy Incinerator

++ Total: [109 PL, 7CP, 2,000pts] ++

Thousand Sons list:

++ Battalion Detachment -3CP (Chaos - Thousand Sons) [70 PL, 1,215pts, 7CP] ++

+ Configuration +

Battle Size [12CP]: 3. Strike Force (101-200 Total PL / 1001-2000 Points)

Cults of the Legion: Cult of Duplicity

Detachment CP [-3CP]

+ Stratagems +

Relics of the Thousand Sons (1 Relic) [-1CP]

+ HQ +

Ahriman on Disc of Tzeentch [9 PL, 170pts]: Prescience, Temporal Manipulation, Weaver of Fates

Daemon Prince of Tzeentch [10 PL, 200pts, -1CP]: 3. Aetherstride, Diabolic Strength, Magister, Malefic talon, Warptime, Wings

Exalted Sorcerer on Disc of Tzeentch [7 PL, 125pts]: Dark Matter Crystal, Death Hex, Infernal Gaze, Inferno Bolt Pistol, Power sword

+ Troops +

Rubric Marines [12 PL, 190pts]

. Aspiring Sorcerer: Force stave, Glamour of Tzeentch, Inferno Bolt Pistol

. 8x Rubric Marine w/ Inferno Boltgun: 8x Inferno boltgun

. Rubric Marine w/ Soulreaper cannon: Soulreaper cannon

Rubric Marines [12 PL, 190pts]

. Aspiring Sorcerer: Force stave, Glamour of Tzeentch, Inferno Bolt Pistol

. 8x Rubric Marine w/ Inferno Boltgun: 8x Inferno boltgun

. Rubric Marine w/ Soulreaper cannon: Soulreaper cannon

Rubric Marines [12 PL, 190pts]

. Aspiring Sorcerer: Force stave, Inferno Bolt Pistol, Temporal Manipulation

. 8x Rubric Marine w/ Inferno Boltgun: 8x Inferno boltgun

. Rubric Marine w/ Soulreaper cannon: Soulreaper cannon

+ Flyer +

Heldrake [8 PL, 150pts]: Baleflamer

++ Patrol Detachment 0CP (Chaos - Daemons) [22 PL, 440pts, -1CP] ++

+ Configuration +

Chaos Allegiance: Tzeentch

Detachment CP

+ HQ +

Lord of Change [14 PL, 280pts, -1CP]: Flickering Flames, Gaze of Fate, Infernal Gateway, Rod of Sorcery, The Impossible Robe, Warlord, Incorporeal Form

. Exalted Lord of Change: 5. Aura of Mutability

+ Troops +

Horrors [4 PL, 80pts]

. 10x Pink Horror: 10x Coruscating flames

Horrors [4 PL, 80pts]

. 10x Pink Horror: 10x Coruscating flames

++ Total: [92 PL, 6CP, 1,655pts] ++

Often I see beautiful paintjobs that are marred by a single flaw: the barrels of their guns aren't drilled. It is such a simple thing that really detracts from the finished look of a model. Often guns are the focal points of our figures, and if the barrel is just flat plastic then the dangerous end doesn't look dangerous. I'm not sure if it seems daunting or if it's just forgotten, but it always makes me sad when I see otherwise gorgeous models missing this one little feature.

Here's a short tutorial on how I drill out the barrels of my storm bolters. It is ridiculously easy and improves the look of the model by magnitudes.

Here is a storm bolter fresh off the sprue. First we need to trim the bit of sprue that is still on the barrel. I've never been certain what metrics GW uses to determine where a given piece attaches to the sprue, but sometimes they really don't make sense. The barrel is such a focal point that I don't understand why you'd make it such a high-risk spot.

As always when trimming flash or mould lines, get a fresh blade on your hobby knife.

Cut the flash until all the plastic is flush and even.

The next step is important to getting that machined look.

Above is an example of Sad Gun Barrels. This was the result of just going at the barrels with my hand drill without a guide. It looks all wonky and terrible.

To avoid this, take your hobby knife and poke two small holes into the end of the gun. Center these holes, and you will have a perfect guide for your drill.

This is my cheap pin vise drill. It cost me eight dollars at my FLGS and came with a set of drill bits. This is not an expensive investment, if that's what has been stopping you from drilling you barrels.