Back to the Guard - Bane Wolf completed

...And it's about time too! I've been neglecting the Mordian 7th of late and figured it was high time to rectify the situation! In order to ease back into it, I decided to finish off the Bane Wolf that has been sitting forlornly primered on the 'to-do' shelf. I went with an homage to my previous Hellhound inasmuch as rather than doing the standard grey/red scheme I went with a black/red combo that makes the tank look a bit more menacing. The Hellhound (and variant) crews are known for being a bit individualist (if not completely mad) so I felt the tank should look a bit different than the rest. It doesn't hurt that a predominantly black paint scheme is rather quick to do when it comes to tanks!

I definitely enjoyed building this model much more than any Chimera variant that I can remember. I will definitely say that the re-cut kit goes together like a dream, but even so, I was disappointed that GW has seen fit to 'dumb down' the kit's contents. I truly feel that the customization potential of the kit has been significantly reduced with the loss of the individual track and bogey style of its predecessor. On the up side, fearing this to be the case, I'd stocked up on the old kit for use in future projects. I really need to do the same with a couple Leman Russ kits before they're superseded as well... Following this I intend to finish up a couple models to fill in a few gaps in the painting chart, before I turn my attentions back to the remaining Crimson Fist vehicles.

I had a chance to play a game against my friend's spanking new Blood Angels codex list this past weekend, though once the game got going I neglected to take any pictures. There was so much going on looking up new rules and such that it completely slipped my mind until we were packing up and I realized the camera was sitting unused in the corner! We ended up playing a 3500 point game of Planetstrike, as it seemed only fitting that the inaugural game with the new BA codex should be one most suited to their style of play As the defender, I decided we'd be fighting over a spaceport, and included a couple models for terrain purposes - the Aquila Lander, the Thunderbolt and of course the new Old Crow models. I definitely think they added a little flavor to the battlefield.

Suffice it to say the Blood Angels more or less butchered my army by the top of turn 4, though the Mordian 7th did manage to give them a pretty good kicking before they were essentially wiped out. The new codex is brutal, though some of the brutality is likely a function of playing a high point game where the marines can really bring some of their more frightening models to bear. At a more reasonable 1500-2000 points I think the guard may have stood a better chance - I basically ended taking 2000 points of a 'hardcore' army and 1500 points of fluffy albeit questionably tactically sound units that the BA tore through like a bag of wet leaves. Ah well, as a guard player I don't get too worked up over losing. Hah!