WH40K: Dark Eldar and Daemons and Orks, Oh My!

Lou, Manuel and Mike, assisted by Dante and Sammy, played a 3000 point standard game pitting Lou's Dark Eldar cabal against an unholy alliance of Manuel's Orks and Mike's Chaos Daemons.

The game was a showdown between the mobile, high-firepower Dark Eldar and the powerful surge of Ork Mobz, with the unpredictable appearance of Chaos Daemons of Nurgle and Khorne


Initial Deployment

The armies faced off across a blasted city scape, the Dark Eldar jet bikes taking the battle to a huge mob of Orks and Kanz from the first turn. Several Chaos Daemons materialized during the game but in almost every case they were quickly dispatched back to the warp

A notable exception was the Great Unclean One, who plowed through several units. Perhaps the silliest moment came when several Dark Eldar leaders overdosed on combat drugs in their frenzy to repulse the daemonic hordes.

The game ended in a drawn position, but it was tense up to the very last splinter cannon shot. Everyone had a great time, and plans were already being made for the next game.

If you are interested in playing a learning game of 40K please let me know: I have several armies for you to choose from, you just have to show up and have fun.

WH40K: Apocalypse Wow!

Two tables, 146 square feet of playing surface, 11 players ranging in age from 9 to 69, 8 hours of play, and 33,000 points of models all came together club on Saturday for a fantastic day of Warhammer 40K Apocalypse gaming.

We had Ultramarines, Dark Angels, Imperial Guard, Witch Hunters, Daemon Hunters, Orks, Dark Eldar, Tau, Chaos Daemons in play, and the day was a wonderful blur from the 11 AM rules briefing to the 8:30 PM game end which saw the players tired but happy, ready to swap battle tales over dinner.

I won't attempt to recount the many tense, exciting, hilarious, silly moments we all enjoyed during the games; there were too many!

More importantly, I'd like to emphasize how the giant gaming project was a group effort by many club members:

James and Tony making sure club was set up and the 'fridge stoked, Alex, Sammy, and Darien for building and painting the great 40K terrain ... and painting L'il Eegor, the scratch-built Ork Stompa (props to Igor for many of the design ideas on this model). Frank for setting up the tables with thematic battlefields, Tim and Manuel for capturing the event in photos http://www.nycwargames.com/Pictures0012.html , and all the players for pitching in during the prep discussions, game day decisions, the game setup and cleanup.

End of the day (literally) the players vowed that "the Fellowship of the Wargamers" (Manuel's term) will meet again on the Apocalyptic battle fields of the 41st millennium.

Warhammer Ancient Battles Numidian Army

When Hannibal supplement came out for WAB it sparked a lot of interest in our club. We now have 2 Republican Roman armies and 3 Carthaginian armies. So, I decided to paint some unusual army to be able to play "in period" against members with Romans and Carthaginians.

Numidian army and models always interested me and for the last 4 months I've been painting that army. One of the advantages of painting Numidians is they are relatively easy to paint. Also, Numidian auxiliaries served in many other armies of the region up to conquering of Roman Africa province by Vandals.

The mainstay of Numidian armies was their excellent light cavalry. I realized that I'll need lots of horse skirmishers for that. It potentially can create a problem on WAB battlefield of units intermingling with each other and I had to plan painting my units carefully. All my cavalry units have some unique characteristic to help to identify them on a battlefield easily. Some units have large shields, some have small shields. Each unit have the same shield color. Members of one unit even had their hair dyed red.

Most of the figures are Old Glory. They make 3 horsemen poses with more poses for horses. By bending arms here and there I was able to create even more poses. Some horses do not have a rope around the neck, so I just painted it.





Unit leaders have some rocks on their bases to identify them. Musician horns were made from extra Old Glory rifles that were in some of their Turkish packs. Unit standards are Ral Partha. Javelins are florist wire.




Army command are from Crusader Miniatures. Army general, Army Standard Bearer and horsemen with a horn can be minor noble. I based those figures on slightly different bases so it's easier to identify them on the battlefield. Army standard is extra from one of the Old Glory Turkish packs.


I felt that elephant models made by miniature manufacturers are too large for small North African elephants Numidians used. Also, I didn't like the lethargic poses with trunks down. I found 2 of the elephants I liked in 99c store and made simple conversions using some model railroad accessories and a thread. Shields are thumb tacks, mahouts are RAFM miniatures Numidian horsemen and crewmen in towers are converted Ral Partha Numidian infantry. RAFM and Ral Partha figures are visibly smaller than Old Glory or Crusader, but as elephant crew it's not that noticeable.





My 3rd elephant is a toy plastic model that I found at flea market. Tower is 4 piece model from some unknown to me manufacturer that I also bought at flea market long time ago.



Numidians also had some infantry. I painted a unit of warriors and a unit of skirmishers. Numidian infantry is of very low combat value, but Numidian army special terrain rules may make it more useful. I plan to use them in close cooperation with elephants. My unit leader has a sword, standard bearer has some sufficiently intimidating "fantasy" standard from unknown manufacturer and musician holds cut down medieval lance that looks like a brass tube.


Numidian warriors have variety of shields from around Mediterranean.



Finally, I feel that Numidian flesh should be a bit darker than I painted. However, I decided to take an artistic licence and paint the flesh lighter as it looks better on the battlefield and provides more contrast with rather drab Numidian clothes.