Regimental Reporting: First Founding Doubles 22 After Action Report

 Welcome back to the Officers Mess! Yesterday I attended First Founding's Doubles 40K Tournament, and had a fantastic day out! My write up will be briefer than usual; I'm recovering post COVID, and my energy levels are low at the moment. Enthusiasm and copious cups of tea saw me through the day.

I had teamed up with Scott who brought a Genestealer Cult force to run alongside my Guard. The sneaky cultists provided plenty of movement, tricks and close combat to complement the straight forward nature of my heavy guns.

Regimental Reporting: Parade Ready for Doubles 22

 Welcome back to the Officer's Mess! First Founding's Doubles 40K tournament is almost here, and as today is the deadline for list submissions I've mustered the models to ensure there are no breaks to repair, etc. and take a few pictures.

I'm partnered with Scott and we've gone with a fairly thematic pairing of Genestealer Cult and Imperial Guard. Colonel Staysback seems to have a bit of a strange glassy look in his eyes these days...

Regimental Reporting: Mustering for Doubles

 Welcome back to the Officers Mess! I've blinked and January is almost over; by the time I've blinked again it will be First Founding's Doubles Tournament at the end of February. I've partnered with Scott for the event and we are going with something of a themed pairing. Scott is bringing his Gene Stealer Cult whilst I will be wheeling out the Imperial Guard.

I've written a draft list and it needs some bits and pieces painted for it; primarily some Scions and some new weapon options for my Leman Russ Battle Tanks. I'd like to try out some Demolisher Cannons, and I decided to paint the Punisher Gatling Cannons at the same time. 

The Demolisher variant turret has this funky bayonet fitting so it's incredibly simple to secure a new option onto the model.

Regimental Reporting: Lord Castellan Creed

 Welcome back to the Vault! Today's post is another "show and tell" as I've completed another 40K model. One of the joys of collecting a 40K force from one of the established factions in the lore is that many of them have "Special Characters"; the heroes and villains who participate in the myriad background stories that you can have join your models in the table top. There's also great satisfaction in generating your own characters as well of course (Colonel Staysback of the Cadian 82nd is widely regarded as one of the greatest if not the greatest heroes of the Imperium within my play group. Ahem.)

In fact Colonel Staysback reputation is so amazing that Lord Castellan Creed has decided to go on campaign with the 82nd to see what he can learn from the Colonel.

Regimental Reporting: Octoberfest Debrief

Welcome back to the Officers Mess! I recently attended First Founding's Octoberfest 40K tournament with my Cadian 82nd Imperial Guard army.  I had a great time, but alas did not cover myself in glory, losing (albeit narrowly in some cases) all my games.

Rather than going into full blown battle reports I thought I'd share a few pictures and words from each battle, then some ideas for improving my performance going forward.  Cadia will arise again!

Game 1 was against Andrew's freshly painted Primaris Space Marines in a modified Four Pillars mission:

Regimental Reporting: The Octoberfest Offensive

Welcome to the Parade Ground my fellow Officers!  I've finished painting and basing the new units for the upcoming Octoberfest tournament at First Founding, and I thought it would be fun to share a few army pictures.

The list submission deadline is not for a week or so, but I've decided to publish the post with the list early to stop my indecision, second guessing and last minute list changes!

First up are the characters:

Colonel Staysback and friends

Regimental Reporting: The final push

Welcome back to the Vault once more!  The Cadian 82nd have been furiously preparing for the upcoming offensive on Octoberfest, and the muster is nearly complete.

I've finished up the paint jobs on the half a dozen remaining infantry models.  First up is the Tech Priest Enginseer:

Regimental Reporting: On the paint desk

Welcome back to the Officers Mess! I am writing this post later than originally planned, but the delay is worthwhile; I've had a long weekend and indulged myself in a couple of painting session.  The focus has been on the remaining models for my current Guard list, and I'm pleased with the progress.

I have finished the Hell Hound:

Regimental Reporting: Unleash the Hounds!

Welcome back to the Officers Mess once again! My hobby eye is firmly upon Octoberfest and I'm using my limited hobby time to finish off my tournament force.  There are still some choices in flux but I am certain I want to take a pair of Hellhounds!

I've had Lucky Lambda painted up for some time, but I have swapped the hull mounted Heavy Flamer for a Heavy Bolter:

Regimental Reporting: Prior Proper Preparation Prevents Pretty Poor Performance

Ahem.  I may have word smith'ed the age old 7Ps military adage for a more friendly version, but it's very true and applies to many situations, 40K included.

Unless you are hiding in the 40K equivalent of a shack in a swamp, you'll no doubt be aware that there has been a new Space Marine codex released.  It's a great book, and a lot of my gaming circle are furiously writing army lists and working out all the fantastic combinations.  I'll do this in due course for *my* Space Marine armies, but for the moment I'm focusing on playing the glorious Cadian 82nd Imperial Guard and killing the afore-mentioned power-armoured warriors.

Pro Tip Number 1: Plasma is still your friend.

Regimental Reporting: Reinforcements on the hobby table

Welcome back to the Officers Mess.  This year's summer excursions began with a trip to Warhammer World and I've finished my vacation with a hobby session building some of the kits I purchased whilst away.

Warhammer World has a lot to offer a 40K enthusiast like myself; wonderful dioramas and models in the exhibition hall, plenty of gaming space, great food and beer from Bugmans, and of course lots and lots of opportunities to buy new toys.

I had decided to reinforce the Cadian 82nd with a few kits from the Direct Only range, the most important being a new Hell Hound to be added to my Octoberfest list:

Regimental Reporting: Last Stand at Glazer's Creek Part 2

Welcome back to the Officers Mess!  I've been preparing for the upcoming Glazer's Creek game by painting some more Cadian models; my labours resulting in a shiny new Infantry Squad.

The Glazer's Creek scenario uses Power Level for the army selections, so it's a great opportunity to make use of some of the more thematic upgrades for units and models. First up is the Missile Launcher Team:

Regimental Reporting: Making the most of the Cadian kits

Welcome back to the Officers Mess!  The focus of my recent hobby time has been split between slapping paint on some more random fantasy models and readying the next Cadian Infantry Squad for the paint table.

It's very simple to buy a Cadian Infantry Squad kit, build all the 10 men and say "done", but unfortunately you don't necessarily get all the options you want for your squad in that box! In simplistic terms a fully equipped Infantry Squad will contain:

• One Sergeant
• One Vox Operator
• One Special Weapon Trooper
• One Heavy Weapon Team (2 Troopers)
• Five Lasgun Troopers

The Cadian Infantry Squad itself contains 2 sprues which will each build a Sergeant, Vox, Special Weapon (albeit flamer or grenade launcher only), and a varying number of Lasgun Troopers depending on how many of the other options you build.

Sarge, Flamer, Vox

Regimental Reporting: Last Stand at Glazer's Creek Part 1

Welcome back to the Officers Mess! I've mentioned in previous posts that I'm participating in the "Siege of Falx" 40K campaign at the First Founding club, with my battle hardened Cadian 82nd Regiment.

The campaign organiser (and blogger) Neil is an Ork player and massive 40K fluff fan. Last summer White Dwarf published an updated version of a classic Battle Report, "Last Stand at Glazer's Creek" in which a beleaguered Imperial Guard force fight off wave after wave of assaulting Green Skins; this article was a lot of fun to read and Neil and I have agreed to play the scenario ourselves as part of the campaign.

This is a narrative, power level based game so I've decided to add a couple of units to my collection which are more fluffy than I might usually choose!

Some old Ork Boyz I painted up ages ago playing around with different schemes

Regimental Reporting: Learning From Experience

Time for another well earned visit to the Officers Mess my fellow Commanders.  I've played a few more games with the Cadian 82nd and I thought I'd re-visit my earlier After Action post to add more meat to the bone with regard to lessons learned.

The 40K games have gone well with a number of wins under my belt. However in other gaming news, I have been soundly thrashed in a series of hands of Bananagrams by my family.  Undaunted by the experience I've stolen the Bananagrams tiles and hidden them from the kids. That'll teach em.

And hopefully the following Bananagram-inspired pictures will help me remember useful stuff in future 40K games!

Scrabble Score: 14

Regimental Reporting: Enjoying the new Tour of Duty

Welcome back my fellow Commanders, it's time for another visit to the Officers Mess. This week has been very enjoyable hobby wise; I was invited to participate in a mid-week multi-player 40K game so I brought the Cadian 82nd along to take part. Whilst victory was not to be mine, it was great fun and change of pace to the more usual one on one fare.

I'm finding the Imperial Guard army a very different beast to the Kabal of the Sand Viper (the faction I've played most often in 8th edition), and exploring different list builds, tactics and approaches to missions is stretching my gaming brain.

So with a massive 2 games under my belt what have I learnt. First up, people really don't like the Mortar Squads. Secondly I really like Mortar Squads; they are dirt cheap, and whilst not having a massive damage output, the ability to shoot with out Line of Sight is incredibly useful.

(As an aside I've been painting up the Mortar Squads. I had a single Mortar Team completed for 7th edition used as part of a cheapy ObSec Platoon Command Squad and now I have two whole squads. The models are all done bar the basing).

Regimental Reporting: Cadia Rises Defiant!

Welcome back to the Officer's Mess! I've been enjoying the lazy Bank Holiday weekend, and that's meant plenty of time to get some games of 40K played. Friday evening started with a slug fest between the Deathwatch and Dave R's completely ridiculous Nemesis Dreadknight / Bane Hammer mash up in which pretty much everything died, followed by a much smaller 1K game where the Cadian 82nd faced off against Paul's Salamander Successors.

Regimental Reporting: Introducing Commander Vasquez

Welcome back to the Regimental Mess my fellow Officers! I'm still riding the post-Mayhem wave of hobby enthusiasm and have been thinking ahead to Octoberfest. I'd like to take one of my other armies to the table top, and I'm realistic enough to know I probably won't paint a whole new force before the event.

I've come up with a cunning strategy; play my Imperial Guard force (the mighty Cadian 82nd) in them mean time as they are pretty much painted, and work on the Space Sharks in slower time. If the Carcharodons Astra get finished then I have another army to choose from!

There is rumour of a 40K campaign starting at First Founding (all the work of Neil @ Table Standard) and the rules pack includes an option for Characters to "level up" using a variation of the Custom Character rules from Chapter Approved 2018).  This was all the excuse I needed to start the Imperial Hobby Machine once more and kit bash a new HQ model.

Commander Vasquez reporting for duty!

Regimental Reporting: Tank Company 'Righteous Fire" After Action Report

It's time for another well deserved trip to the Officer's Mess! I've mentioned recently that I've been thinking about taking some Leman Russ tanks to the upcoming Octoberfest tournament, and I've played a game to try out the draft list.  

This was the first run out for my newly painted tanks: 

Leman Russ Executioner

Kill Team: Should Scions take the Vox-Caster?

Welcome back to the Officer's Mess!  My last post discussed how I might expand Gaunt's Goats in the future, and how I'd like to explore mitigating Nerve Tests for my pure Scion Kill Team. The most obvious way of doing this is to take a Vox-Caster on a Scion, but it is a very expensive piece of Wargear. We must therefore ask the question "Is the Vox worth it?"

Not Goats, but these are Stormies!