Phase I Week 3

The holiday weekend made it possible for me to get the GK terminators about 95% done:
Still to do: painting the bases, the shoulder shields, and another round of highlights for the black areas.

In gameplay I found that the GK grandmaster is just too vulnerable to str8+ power weapon attacks like hidden powerfists. One shot and a bad invulnerable, and you lose a 200+ point character. A brother-captain, in contrast, is a cheap and effective extra attack with a psycannon. So I decided to ditch the grandmaster from my list and go instead with 2 Elite shooty GK terminator squads. They mesh really well with the guard/stormtrooper gunline, standing back as countercharge insurance and at the same time preserved from a lot of shooting by the shrouding.

So the change in the list leaves me with an open HQ slot.

Also in gameplay I noticed that, while the Culexus is worth his weight (last game he shot the crap out of an uber-expensive SM librarian while the librarian was still in a unit--if the unit hadn't broken and fallen back, he would have charged in and finished him off at initiative 11 with the Life Drain power) he does create a drawback in that he makes my stormtrooper squads leadership 7. It's a non-issue for the Ironwilled inquisitor squad and for the guard units that are LD7 anyway, but when pinning shots (like whirlwinds or fury of the ancients) come over the horizon, my stormtroopers tend to get pinned.

So a quick review of the witchunter rules reveals that the Book of St. Lucius is the answer to what I need. Although the culexus still makes the book-bearer leadership 7, everything within 6" of her--including the model herself--gets to test on her unmodified leadership.

I have an old Seraphim model that I got as part of an old grab-bag deal from GW mailorder years ago, and I always hung on to the model, and now it pays off. A bit of cutting and provision of a giant book, and we have a canoness (assembled and primed):


At 102 points with jump pack, blessed weapon (str5 master-crafted power weapon) and the book, she is also a solid countercharge unit. Best of all, though, she allows my Culexus to hang back around the area where he's needed to make fast-moving enemy army leadership 7, while both my guardsmen and stormtroopers are testing for pinning and panic against her leadership 10. Best of both worlds.

The bulk of my work this week--not shown because it's boring--was cleaning, assembling, basing and priming the 20 inquisitorial stormtroopers and their 2 rhinos. Hopefully I'll have a test model to show for next week.

I had thought about taking a week off from Dust Devils to paint another wave serpent and some more dire avengers for my 'ard boys semifinal round army, but I think I'll continue with my commitment not to paint any Eldar models for my 'ard boys army, but just to go with what I already have painted. It worked out really well for round one...