2.28.2010
Big Whit's Chaos Space Marines
Got my new camera so now I can start adding posts with pictures of figurines and not just old 80s wrestlers. Here is my daemon prince and my greater daemon. My greater daemon is almost done, all I have to do is paint the base. I didn't do so hot on this last tournament I finished 6th and I've done a lot of changes to my list. So far I'm not all that impressed with the new list. I had to take out the greater daemon, and I can definitely tell that he is missing. I have to play3 games with this list and if my games don't get better then I'll change my list up some more. I want an in your face army and the problem is that if my land raider gets blown up in the first turn then the Berzerkers are useless, and my rhinos don't have much chance of survival. I may take out the Berzerkers and I may try to find a way to put back the greater daemon.
I tried to copy this from a PDF file and it came out screwed up. I hate being computer illiterate. The berzerkers are in the land raider.
1750 Pts - Chaos Marines Roster
HQ: Daemon Prince
1 Daemon Prince @ 155 Pts
Wings; Mark of Slaanesh; Close Combat Weapon; Fearless; Lash of Submission (x1)
HQ: Daemon Prince
1 Daemon Prince @ 155 Pts
Wings; Mark of Slaanesh; Close Combat Weapon; Fearless; Lash of Submission (x1)
Troops: Plague Marines
6 Plague Marines @ 281 Pts
1 Plague Champion @ [63] Pts
1 Rhino @ [55] Pts
Troops: Plague Marines
6 Plague Marines @ 276 Pts
1 Plague Champion @ [63] Pts
1 Rhino @ [50] Pts
Troops: Khorne Berzerkers
6 Khorne Berzerkers @ 192 Pts
1 Skull Champion @ [61] Pts
Heavy Support: 3 Obliterators @ 225 Pts
Heavy Support: 3 Obliterators @ 225 Pts
Heavy Support Land Raider @240 Pts
Total Roster Cost: 1749
2.27.2010
BoLSCon 2010, Double Down!
...the uncontested King of Eldar...
...has agreed to allow me to run as his ally and aim a Brightlance at the barbarian Monkeigh.
I doubt I'll take my Eldar into the weekend tournament though - I've been working too hard on my Daemons not to put my trust in them.
I'm not affiliated with BoLS in any way, other than as a fan with a blog-link. I say that to say this: I couldn't have had a better time last year - in my almost 20 years of gaming, it was by far the best event I've attended. Make plans to go, man! (Oh, and you girl-gamers, too, I guess - that's the in thing now...)
2.24.2010
Orks: Count Me In
http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m970066a_2010_Orks_FAQ
It seems like currently the consensus is, at least on Stelek's site, my go-to for stuff like this, that nothing much has changed. Well, when they're wrong, they're really wrong. The Def Rolla now affects vehicles. The Orks have a reliable way to destroy vehicles, up to and including AV14, that fits with the character of their army... sorry folks, you can't get away from the fact the Orks now have access to tough tournament options.
That said, I do not think the Def Rolla is Gork and Mork's gift for their boyz against AV14... d6 is usually 3 or 4 hits at Str. 10, and that's still only a 50/50 shot for a chance for damage, but outside of Melta weapons and Ordinance, there is nothing in the game that much more reliable. It's more of a leveling move, I think - but that's good enough.
I'm going to attend Hard Boyz again this year, and I've been trying to decide if my Daemons are tough enough. While I'll still probably put my trust in that which I'm practicing with, I've always loved Orks and have a huge amount of painting minis... I might just go green again.
Damn, it's tempting...
2.22.2010
Evil Homer vs. Mikey's Meatgrinder
So leave it to our buddy Mikey to bring the cheese. My list gets labeled as bad but I think his is worse. Long of the short is 12 missile launchers, 4 razorbacks, the ability to target 10 vehicles on turn 1, oh and he understands targeting priority too. Great.
So we played for 4 objectives spaced evenly like a + sign around the center of the table, no objective in the center. Dawn of War deployment, cityfight style table w/ multiple 2 story and a large 3 story building amongst numerous others. The secondary objective involved searching ruins for the secondary, each time a unit entered a ruin roll, on a 6 the objective is there. I hate this secondary but what are you gonna do? You got to play what's handed to you.
I should point out I elected to pick table sides and deploy, I needed to hide the Mantys and there was a perfect corner to do so. Unfortunately it also meant I had to go first and in DoW I would rather go second. So first turn to me.
I start 1 chimi w/ vets on the table in some ruins. He started all off table. I roll on hard, pop-smoke which in hindsight I should have waited a turn to do. The Vendetta’s screamed on to grab the 4+ and hugged some of the taller cover to limit LoS. He moved on and set up the Long Fangs in cover, made a parking lot with good shooting lanes and started shooting. First shot of the game from a razorback nailed a vendetta. See how these things work?
So the rest of his shooting involved some stuns. Nothing spectacular.
The rest of the game revolved around a lot of jockeying for shots and position on the objectives. I advanced the chimis to grab 3 objectives and moved the CCS down the left side to babysit one of the chimis and threaten a long fang squad. He moved to counter my moves on objectives.
The game was a lot of maneuvering. Neither of us cold really get the shooting game going and I was avoiding letting him get into CC with me. I shot a lot of squads but could not kill marines in cover. Mikey seems to make a 4+ cover save on demand. Me, I fail em all the time.
Anyhow in the end he controlled 2, I controlled 1 and we split the 4th. I owned the secondary (he downed another bird and squad inside hoofed it to the nearest cover, finding the secondary waiting for them). I think Mikey made a mistake, he had a razorback in some cover and he could have moved on the secondary for 2 turns to deny me the secondary. It was a naked guard squad, they weren’t going to be able to stop him.
I screwed up in my last turn. At the end of my turn I controlled 3 objectives and knew I was going to lose 1 of them. I knew another would be contested. I left him an easy out though, I neglected to move a bird into position to back up a naked guard squad I had left holding an objective. He assaulted with his 10 man GH squad as expected. If I had moved the bird there’s a good chance we draw the game as I would have had 1, he had 1, and 2 would have been contested. Then again he could have assaulted both and killed them but it would have given me another out.
Other than the dice no really cooperating for either of us in a decisive manner, I think our targeting was spot on and I was overall really happy with the game played out. It was tense, we knew the winner was in good shape to take the whole.
In terms of points it went 5-4 to Mikey, his army gives up 16 and mine gives up 17, as you can see the dice gods were not giving us decisive results.
I expect Mikey to make some improvements to his list going to 1750 (more damn missiles…) and I am making improvements to mine as well. More on that Wednesday or Thursday when I have to turn my monthly list in.
-Brent feel free to insert pics to break up the Wall o' Text
-EH
2.21.2010
To Bloodthirster Or Not To Bloodthirster...
Well, the 1500pt. level tournament was yesterday. I don't know the final results; I'm either 3rd or 4th place, with 3 major wins and 1 major loss on the day. Evil Homer and his mech guard is either 2nd or 3rd place, with the same score but posting two more victory points. Unless the last game turned out much different than expected, Little Barrera knocked it out of the park with his mech Space Wolves. His army was the one that handed both myself and Evil Homer our only loss.
He kicked my ass sooooo bad. I got a bit complacent this month, I think, coming off a good tournament win last month. I took a list dominated by my new Bloodthirster and Great Unclean One. Problem is, I gave up too much to do it. I'll do a more in depth analysis later today or tomorrow, but I'll say that the Bloodthirster never came close to earning his points in any of the 4 games: he was just too tempting a target, and my opponents did everything necessary to kill him the moment he hit the board.
The Great Unclean One was a good workhorse, soaking up fire like nobody's business before finally falling, riddled with missile launcher holes. The difference is, he was 160pts compared to the 'thirster's 290....
Yea, I foolishly invested in the extra strength and Death Strike, so let that be a lesson: don't over invest in wargear.
Anyway, a good tournament, a good lesson. The best match of the day may have been Evil Homer Vs Little Barrera, Mech Guard Vs Mech Wolves. It was razor close: a good 5E match. Hopefully Evil Homer will tell us a bit about it.
2.19.2010
Beastmen: Bye Bye Pestigors...
Now, I love the new book: it has legs, and I imagine I'll enjoy using it for years to come. But c'mon! I had to learn with the release of Warriors of Chaos that my Shaggoth couldn't roll with my army.
Now, don't get me wrong, overall I'm happy... 'cause you know, maybe I'll start winning some games...
Wish me luck in my 40K tournament tomorrow.
2.18.2010
In my case I have my list ready to go. As normal I'm not completely happy with it. There is something about the List or maybe the codex in general, that just doesn't do it for me. Not sure what it is. I think it's because I keep trying to make changes to my list but can't really justify it. Like I won't give other units an honest shake or something. I put a PBS in my monthly list only to be paired against 2 fearless, and 1 mostly fearless army, so much for playing leadership games. It makes me inclined to not put it in my tournament list because I just haven't seen how its going to work so it got axed. My monthly also ran 2 IST squads to make the vendetta's scoring, they have been replaced by base platoon squads. So here it is.
1500 Pts - 5th Edition Roster
HQ: Company Command Squad (6#, 167 pts)
4 Company Command Squad @ 167 pts (Flak Armour; Frag Grenades; Close Combat Weapon x4; Plasmagun x4; Chimera)
1 Company Commander (Flak Armour; Frag Grenades; Refractor Field; Close Combat Weapon; Bolter; Senior Officer)
1 Chimera (Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Turret Multi-Laser; Heavy Flamer)
HQ: Inquisitor Lord (4#, 83 pts)
1 Inquisitor Lord [OM] @ 83 pts (Psychic Hood)
1 Familiar [OM] (Close Combat Weapon)
1 Mystic [OM] (Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon)
1 Mystic [OM] (Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon)
Troops: Veteran Squad (11#, 155 pts)
9 Veteran Squad @ 155 pts (Flak Armour; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Close Combat Weapon x9; Lasgun x6; Meltagun x3; Chimera)
1 Veteran Sergeant (Flak Armour; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon)
1 Chimera (Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Turret Multi-Laser; Heavy Flamer)
Troops: Veteran Squad (11#, 155 pts)
9 Veteran Squad @ 155 pts (Flak Armour; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Close Combat Weapon x9; Lasgun x6; Meltagun x3; Chimera)
1 Veteran Sergeant (Flak Armour; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon)
1 Chimera (Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Turret Multi-Laser; Heavy Flamer)
Troops: Infantry Platoon (26#, 200 pts)
1 Infantry Platoon @ 200 pts
4 Platoon Command Squad (Flak Armour; Frag Grenades; Close Combat Weapon x4; Lasgun x1; Flamer x3; Chimera)
1 Platoon Commander (Flak Armour; Frag Grenades; Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon; Junior Officer)
1 Chimera (Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Turret Multi-Laser; Heavy Flamer)
9 Infantry Squad (Frag Grenades; Close Combat Weapon x9; Flak Armour; Lasgun x9)
1 Sergeant (Flak Armour; Frag Grenades; Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon)
9 Infantry Squad (Frag Grenades; Close Combat Weapon x9; Flak Armour; Lasgun x9)
1 Sergeant (Flak Armour; Frag Grenades; Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon)
Fast Attack: Vendetta Gunship Squadron (1#, 140 pts)
1 Vendetta Gunship Squadron @ 140 pts
1 Vendetta (Extra Armor; Searchlight; Twin-linked Lascannon x3; Heavy Bolter Sponsons x2)
Fast Attack: Vendetta Gunship Squadron (1#, 140 pts)
1 Vendetta Gunship Squadron @ 140 pts
1 Vendetta (Extra Armor; Searchlight; Twin-linked Lascannon x3; Heavy Bolter Sponsons x2)
Fast Attack: Vendetta Gunship Squadron (1#, 140 pts)
1 Vendetta Gunship Squadron @ 140 pts
1 Vendetta (Extra Armor; Searchlight; Twin-linked Lascannon x3; Heavy Bolter Sponsons x2)
Heavy Support: Manticore Rocket Launcher (1#, 160 pts)
1 Manticore Rocket Launcher @ 160 pts (Storm Eagle Rockets; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Heavy Flamer)
Heavy Support: Manticore Rocket Launcher (1#, 160 pts)
1 Manticore Rocket Launcher @ 160 pts (Storm Eagle Rockets; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Heavy Flamer)
Total Roster Cost: 1500
=I= and the 2 infantry squads get vendetta's. This should allow me to operate the melta vets more aggressively than in the past as the number of scoring units has increased. I don't want to use them as sacrifices but sometimes things have to die. The CCS is my reserve unit, whenever there is a gap in the lines, there they go, 4 plasma's work on this unit.
There are 1-2 armies that I am actually a little worried about this month. Mikey's Space Wolves are going to be a beast to beat. Razorback and Missile Launcher spam makes short work of AV 12. I may to play the reserve game with the vendetta's for that one and hope the manticore's get lucky and take out 1-2 Razorbacks each on my turn 1. While that's happening push the chimera's up the table. I can't outrange that army with this build. We'll have to see how it goes. Maybe I get lucky and his dice go to hell...hmmm...prayer circle anyone?
Tyranids are the other army (if they show) that is going to be interesting, and that alone forced the inclusion of the =I= to hopefully provide some defense against dropping Zoe's and other gribbly BS.
Oh and I did something stupid this week, I am participating in the B&C Librarium Painting Challenge. Seems I have to paint 1 squad of Thousand Sons and Rhino before the 31st of march. So much for working on the Guard....
-EH
2.16.2010
Daemon's Help! What's Behind...
As I noted in my last post, I've got a 1500 point tournament this Saturday. I won at 1250, so there's a bit of pressure to perform well. Against as many tough armies as I'm likely to face, the field is wide open - anyone can break out and take it.
In my army, the Plaguebearers, Tzeentchian Daemon Princes, and Fiends are all constant performers and and will certainly be in the final army. I have some ideas for the final draft, but my question to you folks is...
What unit in the Codex has worked for you?
2.15.2010
7 Random Armies...
Anyway, I have a 1500 point tournament this weekend. I won at the 1250 level, but this event will be much harder, I daresay. First of all, we're back on regulation sized tables. Second, we're now at a points level where all armies are able to afford their goodies. It can be argued, with merit, I think, that some armies just aren't as good until 1500+ points. So, what to do?
Well, in my test list this month I included two Slaaneshi Heralds on mounts to accompany each unit of Fiends. Man, but that was a large waste of points. Pavanne isn't useful when you've got a BS of 3, especially when you have to give up a run move to try it out. So some changes are needed. The only question is, do I make a slight change or a major one? Do I even know the army well enough to make a major change at this point?
(to be continued...)
2.13.2010
Happy Greg The Warhammer Valentines Day
2.12.2010
Updating Older Armies... Or Not?
What I mean is this: what happens when your painting skills outstrip your finished armies? Do you repaint it or leave it alone?
Here's an example of what I'm talking about, my Homage Space Marines. I'll probably do a full army feature at some point, just to hit the nostalgia button for some of you long-time gamers. Fact is, I love the RTB1's and all the old, first edition Space Marine. Hell, I love all the old models - there's something there that appeals to me. I remember how excited I was when I first got involved in the hobby, and this old range brings that back every time I use them.
Anyway, I grabbed the first layer from their box and set them up for these pics. Basically, should I bother updating the paint job? I can strip 'em and repaint them fairly quickly, or perhaps touch up each model, defining the highlights and inking the green areas... but is it worth it? They're done, after all.
So my question is, how many of you have gone through the same thing? Do you have the constant urge to update or repaint all your old models?
2.10.2010
Wolf Lord in Progress
Mike is working on his Space Wolves: I snapped this shot of his work in progress. He's an extremely talented painter, thought these last few years he's been more interested in finishing armies than over-painting each model. He uses simple techniques, well-applied, to yield great results. He could turn this model into a Golden Demon showcase - he's that good - but from 4 feet away who cares?
I really appreciate all the great painting blogs, but in the spirit of my 'Flamers in an Hour' article I'm going to showcase models achievable by the rest of us.
That said, if I could get the Master Manipulator to actually write an article you'd see an example of top-notch technique... probably not going to happen.
Take care - Brent
2.07.2010
Tournament Softscores?
It's always an interesting subject; I piped in with my 2-cents.
Brent said...
Man, soft scores are a tough call. I believe limits are okay, as long as you know about them in advance. I also don't mind rewarding painting and conversions, but I have a differing opinion about two things.
1) Composition. Personally, over the last few years I've changed my mind about this: I'm okay with any legal list a Codex can produce. I tend to think fluff is rewarded off the table for the most part.
2) Soft scores... that are too subjective, that is. I don't mind grading my opponent, but I think it should be limited and strictly controlled. The worst abuses I've seen in tournaments involved friends vote-blocking each other. That can be difficult to overcome.
Your advice about big tournaments is great. I've seen the same things, and my big-event experience doesn't match yours. You've got to advocate for yourself and get a judge involved if necessary.
So I hate to steal his topic, but it looks like I'm stealing his topic... Thoughts?
2.04.2010
So....What's Up Next
So what to consider...I have a Thousand Son army have assembled. I need some Rhino chasis and have to convert some oblits and then it will be finished to the 2k mark as well. I played it early last year with a little bit of success but I just can't see it being that competitive. It will however look fabulous. There is something to be said for style points. The only that looks better than a whole Thousand Sons army is an SoB army.
Then again, there is also a chance that 8th ed. fantasy comes out at around the time we are completing our monthly build up project. I have Demons based for 40k, but I could see myself turning into my fantasy army instead. When I put them together I intended to use them for both systems so there's that. Problem is it doesn't scratch the 'new toys' itch. Figmentia, we all have it.
That brings me back to a new 40k army. We don't really have SoB player right now, though the Master Manipulator has them as an army, and we don't a DE player either. I have this notion in my head to do something with Lizardmen models and the DE list but don't have a solid idea for Raiders, and can't really decide how to do ranged weapons for those models (style, not posing, I can do the modeling its just converting the weapons themselves that is the issue).
I also wonder if Immo spam sisters will actually work in the new era of IG, Razorback spam marines, and ugly nasty Nids. The list lacks the long range punch to deal with the first 2 I think the Nids would be manageable though.
Thoughts and more thoughts...
Any how feel free to comment. This message brought to you by idle hands, the devil's plaything. (I really should be doing homework right now..)
-EH
2.03.2010
Daemons Vs Orks... For The Win
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