Friday, December 21, 2012
Blasts from the past
Here's a few pics from a commission I just finished up. These are the WIP pics and I totally forgot to take final pics before dropping them off. There was only a little more detail. The details on the battlecat armor were done in silver, Thundarr was highlighted a bit more and the skin tone for Ariel was blended out to a lighter shade. The Ariel project was the most interesting since she isn't modeled with any clothes on. I did some shading to hide the fact that it is painted on. I'm pretty pleased. Might even get a call from SI asking if I'm intersted in painting on swim suits for the next edition...?
Tau Wolves vs. Blood Guard
Gundam John and I played an 1850 game last night, each sporting our first drafts of Allied lists. Gundam John has the usualy Tau with a compliment of Space Puppies, while my Blood Angels found some Guard to tag along with. We played a scenarion from an upcoming local invitational. Primary was 5 objectives, 1 in the center and the other 4 were placed anywhere else not within 12" of another objective, each player alternating placement. The secondary was to end the game with your warlord in the enemy deployment zone.
5th edition Spearhead deployment.
Turn 1
I got the first round and started by giving my las cannon devastators the ignore cover blessing, re-roll to hit to the las heavy weapon team and re-roll to the autocannon HWT. The Devasatators then blasted off a few long fangs in ruins, the two heavy weapons teams took care of same grey hunters and fire warriors in the open. This was followed by a few minutes of me figuring out how my manticore works like a total noob and then taking out another half dozen fire warriors.
Puppies and fire warriors advance and with rapid fire end up taking 20 of the 30 man guard blob off the table. Both Broad side teams fail to destroy the manticore...just two glances. Bad rolling on his part and a lucky save on the penetrating hit on my end. With 5 objectives on the board I should not have combined the blob. They should have been spread out and one completely hidden/reserved.
Turn 2
No Stormraven this turn...this is becoming a theme...more re-rolls for heavy weapons and more ignore cover for the devastators (las cannons ignoring cover was fantastic all game). I can't reach his braodsides with me las cannons, so I just ignore them, the most they can do is kill 4 things a turn. This turn was much like the first, I just keep picking off the low hanging fruit, fire warriors and grey hunters in the open and use the ignore cover to finish off the long fangs.
This round of shooting takes another 5 off the blob, takes out the chimera and the infantry command squad. I also lost a couple of scouts...which again should have been out of line of site near that objective. The Lone Wolf walks forward and finishes off the blob with ease, despite me having several poweraexes in the squad, the 3++ shield did its job.
Turn 3
No stormraven...and more of the same shooing as the previous turns. Again I am picking squads apart, but not finishing any of them off that well. The honor guard and las cannons did take care of the lone wolf, which I should have been focusing on a turn sooner.
The manticore didn't last this round, finally succumbing to the broadsides. John used the attached wolves for extra movement to sling shot the wolf into combat more effectively. Definitely a nice move for someone that has never played an assault army.
Turn 4
The Stormraven gets to play and promptly kills 4 marines in the open, causing a check that they fail and move back a bit. The assault marine stay on board. At this point I finally start causing some checks on the squads and am having a little more success with my shooting. Unfortunately, I no longer have the models for enough rate of fire to turn the tide. When John starts his turn, I start to see that he is suffering the same way. With no clear targets for the broadsides, and most of the fire warriors out of rapid fire range, John focuses on killing off my troops, which he does pretty well. by the end of turn 4 I have 2 scouts on an objective, a hwt no where near an objective and 5 assault marines in the Stormraven. He has at least 5 partial fire warrior squads still on the board, might have been more, and two beat up grey hunter squads.
Turn 5
Stormraven goes to hover mode, the assault marines get out and slaughter one of two fire warrior squads on an objective. The flyer and honor guard finish off the Rune Priest and his Grey hunters neatly as well this turn.
Farsite starts walking across the board seemingly aimlessly, I'm a little confused by this and don't question it...because I totally forgot about the secondary objective. The fire warriors near my assult marines do nothing, but I lose 2 to the broadsides....roll a 12 on my leadership check and roll 3 dice to jump right off the board. I needed this unit to get a win. They should have easily killed another squad and hid on this objective. No such luck, the best I can hope for is a tie now, assuming we get a turn or two more.
Turn 6 and 7
I was getting tired and things got a bit fuzzy here, though we both played quite well despite the hour and length of the game. I am able to successfully remove all of his fire warriors from objectives. Because I used all my fire power doing this, John is able to walk his warlord right across the board with nothing that I can do about it. When the game ends, neither of us has a single objective, John has the secondary, and the tertiary is a draw (victorty points differential) since we are within 75 victory points of each other.
The game was a total blood bath! We were so close the whole game with some great rolls and fun moments. We both left really happy with how the lists performed with only some slight adjustments needed.
Looks like the Wolves are going to consider a drop pod for improved mobility.
I may need to add a few more power armor bodies to the table for improved survivability. 5 assault marines don't quite cut it when everything else is 4+ or 5+ armor, regardless of the number of models. this was a major adjustment for me as well. Taking off 20+ casualties off the board in a single round is far more than I am used to and was a bit demoralizing....but that should happen to guard so I'll need to get over that quickly, or add more models!
5th edition Spearhead deployment.
Turn 1
I got the first round and started by giving my las cannon devastators the ignore cover blessing, re-roll to hit to the las heavy weapon team and re-roll to the autocannon HWT. The Devasatators then blasted off a few long fangs in ruins, the two heavy weapons teams took care of same grey hunters and fire warriors in the open. This was followed by a few minutes of me figuring out how my manticore works like a total noob and then taking out another half dozen fire warriors.
Puppies and fire warriors advance and with rapid fire end up taking 20 of the 30 man guard blob off the table. Both Broad side teams fail to destroy the manticore...just two glances. Bad rolling on his part and a lucky save on the penetrating hit on my end. With 5 objectives on the board I should not have combined the blob. They should have been spread out and one completely hidden/reserved.
Turn 2
No Stormraven this turn...this is becoming a theme...more re-rolls for heavy weapons and more ignore cover for the devastators (las cannons ignoring cover was fantastic all game). I can't reach his braodsides with me las cannons, so I just ignore them, the most they can do is kill 4 things a turn. This turn was much like the first, I just keep picking off the low hanging fruit, fire warriors and grey hunters in the open and use the ignore cover to finish off the long fangs.
This round of shooting takes another 5 off the blob, takes out the chimera and the infantry command squad. I also lost a couple of scouts...which again should have been out of line of site near that objective. The Lone Wolf walks forward and finishes off the blob with ease, despite me having several poweraexes in the squad, the 3++ shield did its job.
Turn 3
No stormraven...and more of the same shooing as the previous turns. Again I am picking squads apart, but not finishing any of them off that well. The honor guard and las cannons did take care of the lone wolf, which I should have been focusing on a turn sooner.
The manticore didn't last this round, finally succumbing to the broadsides. John used the attached wolves for extra movement to sling shot the wolf into combat more effectively. Definitely a nice move for someone that has never played an assault army.
Turn 4
The Stormraven gets to play and promptly kills 4 marines in the open, causing a check that they fail and move back a bit. The assault marine stay on board. At this point I finally start causing some checks on the squads and am having a little more success with my shooting. Unfortunately, I no longer have the models for enough rate of fire to turn the tide. When John starts his turn, I start to see that he is suffering the same way. With no clear targets for the broadsides, and most of the fire warriors out of rapid fire range, John focuses on killing off my troops, which he does pretty well. by the end of turn 4 I have 2 scouts on an objective, a hwt no where near an objective and 5 assault marines in the Stormraven. He has at least 5 partial fire warrior squads still on the board, might have been more, and two beat up grey hunter squads.
Turn 5
Stormraven goes to hover mode, the assault marines get out and slaughter one of two fire warrior squads on an objective. The flyer and honor guard finish off the Rune Priest and his Grey hunters neatly as well this turn.
Farsite starts walking across the board seemingly aimlessly, I'm a little confused by this and don't question it...because I totally forgot about the secondary objective. The fire warriors near my assult marines do nothing, but I lose 2 to the broadsides....roll a 12 on my leadership check and roll 3 dice to jump right off the board. I needed this unit to get a win. They should have easily killed another squad and hid on this objective. No such luck, the best I can hope for is a tie now, assuming we get a turn or two more.
Turn 6 and 7
I was getting tired and things got a bit fuzzy here, though we both played quite well despite the hour and length of the game. I am able to successfully remove all of his fire warriors from objectives. Because I used all my fire power doing this, John is able to walk his warlord right across the board with nothing that I can do about it. When the game ends, neither of us has a single objective, John has the secondary, and the tertiary is a draw (victorty points differential) since we are within 75 victory points of each other.
The game was a total blood bath! We were so close the whole game with some great rolls and fun moments. We both left really happy with how the lists performed with only some slight adjustments needed.
Looks like the Wolves are going to consider a drop pod for improved mobility.
I may need to add a few more power armor bodies to the table for improved survivability. 5 assault marines don't quite cut it when everything else is 4+ or 5+ armor, regardless of the number of models. this was a major adjustment for me as well. Taking off 20+ casualties off the board in a single round is far more than I am used to and was a bit demoralizing....but that should happen to guard so I'll need to get over that quickly, or add more models!
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Doubles Results
It's been entirely too long since my last update and much has happened for me in the gaming world since then, most notably Gundam John and I at the 2000 point team tournament. This is a few weeks back now, so I'm a bit hazy on details, so I'll sum up.
First round was against Demons and Chaos Marines. The game looked much closer than it ended up looking. Both John and I are very attentive with objective missions and not losing whole units. Primary was objectives which we won, don't recall the secondary, but we got that as well. Tertiary for all games was a scaling system based on VP differential, which I am a big fan of. So not quite max points, but a good start. Best part was definitely a demon prince assaulting John's broadsides and getting a pair of over-watch railguns to the face!
Round two against Keith and Mike was a strange game. Great first round of shooting, followed by several rounds of us not doing much of anything. We made some really smart moves and with a little luck ended up winning this match as well, unfortunately by only a very small margin. Given how the game went we were definitely lucky here. A few things went our way in the last two rounds.
Round three was Brad and Brian Blood Angels and Sisters. This was my first match against Sisters since the WD (shows you how popular it is in the area). Both teams are definitely in the hunt for placing at this point, so what happens? John and I pull off a minor win resulting in Keith and Mike from our previous round leap frogging us to place. John and I end up in 4th overall, 1 point behind 3rd and not much behind 2nd (no where near first which maxed out all 3 rounds).
We had a great time. Opponents were great in all three rounds and we ended up with three wins, so there was nothing to complain about. I was excited we finally balanced our lists correctly and found a way to work together.
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention placing 1st in the best painted army category. Tough competition as usual, but I think I won out based on the consistency of how the army was painted. Everything was at the same level, with great detail, where as a few other armies that were close had a few pieces that weren't up to par with the rest of their army. I'll take it!
On a related note the store just put up an amazing display case, myself and several others have been invited to put some of our best painted models on display. I'm just figuring out which to have added.
More updates to come...commissions...my allied unit....Gundam John conversions and more....unless I end up overworking again like I have the last few weeks :(
First round was against Demons and Chaos Marines. The game looked much closer than it ended up looking. Both John and I are very attentive with objective missions and not losing whole units. Primary was objectives which we won, don't recall the secondary, but we got that as well. Tertiary for all games was a scaling system based on VP differential, which I am a big fan of. So not quite max points, but a good start. Best part was definitely a demon prince assaulting John's broadsides and getting a pair of over-watch railguns to the face!
Round two against Keith and Mike was a strange game. Great first round of shooting, followed by several rounds of us not doing much of anything. We made some really smart moves and with a little luck ended up winning this match as well, unfortunately by only a very small margin. Given how the game went we were definitely lucky here. A few things went our way in the last two rounds.
Round three was Brad and Brian Blood Angels and Sisters. This was my first match against Sisters since the WD (shows you how popular it is in the area). Both teams are definitely in the hunt for placing at this point, so what happens? John and I pull off a minor win resulting in Keith and Mike from our previous round leap frogging us to place. John and I end up in 4th overall, 1 point behind 3rd and not much behind 2nd (no where near first which maxed out all 3 rounds).
We had a great time. Opponents were great in all three rounds and we ended up with three wins, so there was nothing to complain about. I was excited we finally balanced our lists correctly and found a way to work together.
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention placing 1st in the best painted army category. Tough competition as usual, but I think I won out based on the consistency of how the army was painted. Everything was at the same level, with great detail, where as a few other armies that were close had a few pieces that weren't up to par with the rest of their army. I'll take it!
On a related note the store just put up an amazing display case, myself and several others have been invited to put some of our best painted models on display. I'm just figuring out which to have added.
More updates to come...commissions...my allied unit....Gundam John conversions and more....unless I end up overworking again like I have the last few weeks :(
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Commission Updates: Thundarr and Griffon
I've been working on two projects since the tournament, both of which have gone much better than painting my own models!
The first which is a WIP, is a Griffon for Simon. This is actually just a converted Basilisk. I chopped down the barrel and added a lot more armor plating around the sides. I also converted the back so that it sits much lower and has a side entrance rather than back for the ladder. The back part is more of an effort to make it more distinctive from the Basilisk design at a glance.
Since these Guard are part of a Sisters themed army overall, I added some decorations to the front to tie this in with the rest of the army and have done the same to the two Manticores as well, which are also assemlbed and have some green on them. The conversion took a lot more time planning than it did to execute, and I could not have been happier with how it turned out. I really feel like no one could mistake this for a Basilisk once it is fielded.
The other project that I just wrapped up is Thundarr and Ookla themed paint job for some Reaper barbarians.
Ookla for me was all about working on creating realistic battle damage with metallic metals. This is really about using combinations and blends of washes over a metal paint. To get this look I actually used blue, purple, brown and black washes. The purple and blue don't show well in the picture, but it gives a shimmering effect that enchanted armor might posses. The brown and black layers help to give it an aged look. I started using Chainmail, then washed that with black. Then I used Mithral silver to put on the faded scratches and chips that you can see on the interior of the surface. Next came the blue and purple, followed by brown to age it. More silver along the edges to get some highlight. The last step was to wash it with a watered down black before doing some more silver highlights that are the bright, obvious ones on the edges.
The cloak didn't come out quite as well as I would like. Wet blending from black to gray is much harder than I had thought. It still looks solid. While that didn't work out as well as I would have liked the gray fur pelt ended up just like I envisioned it would. Dry brushing the grays and blacks was much more successful than the blending.
The other half of the set was Thundarr! All muscles and leather the figure was looking really drab by the time I had gotten all of the base coats on and started adding some wash to the fur and chest. I had planned to paint the stones hanging from the fur in a granite earthy look, but they would have just faded into the rest of the model. Instead I thought some bright Jade pieces would pop out nicely. They bring a little more story to the character.
Thundarr would not be complete without his Lightsaber Sunswords. The character has just one but the model has two, so the model is twice as awesome as the character right? Really looking forward to dropping these guys off this week or next to see how well they go over for the customer.
With the Thundarr and Ookla done, I'm considering pushing a bit more to see if anyone else wants single model commissions done. The quality above is my top of the line work and I find I really enjoy spending that much time on single models. I still have way too many models of my own and for friends' armies to consider doing armies or squads on a commission basis, but the change of pace of putting everything I have into a single model is really satisfying.
Next on the list is a female Marbo for Simon and another special Gundam Broadside for Gundam John.
The first which is a WIP, is a Griffon for Simon. This is actually just a converted Basilisk. I chopped down the barrel and added a lot more armor plating around the sides. I also converted the back so that it sits much lower and has a side entrance rather than back for the ladder. The back part is more of an effort to make it more distinctive from the Basilisk design at a glance.
Since these Guard are part of a Sisters themed army overall, I added some decorations to the front to tie this in with the rest of the army and have done the same to the two Manticores as well, which are also assemlbed and have some green on them. The conversion took a lot more time planning than it did to execute, and I could not have been happier with how it turned out. I really feel like no one could mistake this for a Basilisk once it is fielded.
The other project that I just wrapped up is Thundarr and Ookla themed paint job for some Reaper barbarians.
 |
| Ookla the Mok |
The cloak didn't come out quite as well as I would like. Wet blending from black to gray is much harder than I had thought. It still looks solid. While that didn't work out as well as I would have liked the gray fur pelt ended up just like I envisioned it would. Dry brushing the grays and blacks was much more successful than the blending.
The other half of the set was Thundarr! All muscles and leather the figure was looking really drab by the time I had gotten all of the base coats on and started adding some wash to the fur and chest. I had planned to paint the stones hanging from the fur in a granite earthy look, but they would have just faded into the rest of the model. Instead I thought some bright Jade pieces would pop out nicely. They bring a little more story to the character.
 |
| Thundarr |
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| Sunswords |
With the Thundarr and Ookla done, I'm considering pushing a bit more to see if anyone else wants single model commissions done. The quality above is my top of the line work and I find I really enjoy spending that much time on single models. I still have way too many models of my own and for friends' armies to consider doing armies or squads on a commission basis, but the change of pace of putting everything I have into a single model is really satisfying.
Next on the list is a female Marbo for Simon and another special Gundam Broadside for Gundam John.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Next 1850 List BA with IG allies
Nothing schedule for 1850 right now, but have been throwing around some ideas based on how the last one went and making an effort to explore allies more thoroughly.
BA
Libby w/ Jump Pack
Honor Guard Plasmagun x3, Jump Packs
Assault Squad (10) Meltagun x2
Assault Squad (10) Meltagun x2
Scout Squad (5) Camo-Cloaks
Sternguard (10) in a Drop Pod
Stormraven
Company Command Squad Plasmagun x3 in a Chimera
Infantry Command Squad Plasmagun x3 in a Chimera
Infantry Squad Plasmagun in a Chimera
Infantry Squad Plasmagun in a Chimera
It's a parking lot list, and not all that creative of one, but I think this will get the job done for my style of play. This is a mix of some net lists with what I have been playing BA as for a bit. I think the combination is very complimentary. Jumpers can hide behind the Chimeras to counter or for protection before launching their own assault. Should be enough plasma to take care of 2+ units and the meltaguns take care of any sill Land Raiders someone still thinks to bring along.
BA
Libby w/ Jump Pack
Honor Guard Plasmagun x3, Jump Packs
Assault Squad (10) Meltagun x2
Assault Squad (10) Meltagun x2
Scout Squad (5) Camo-Cloaks
Sternguard (10) in a Drop Pod
Stormraven
Company Command Squad Plasmagun x3 in a Chimera
Infantry Command Squad Plasmagun x3 in a Chimera
Infantry Squad Plasmagun in a Chimera
Infantry Squad Plasmagun in a Chimera
It's a parking lot list, and not all that creative of one, but I think this will get the job done for my style of play. This is a mix of some net lists with what I have been playing BA as for a bit. I think the combination is very complimentary. Jumpers can hide behind the Chimeras to counter or for protection before launching their own assault. Should be enough plasma to take care of 2+ units and the meltaguns take care of any sill Land Raiders someone still thinks to bring along.
1850 Tournament Results
I had been gearing up steadily for the 1850 tournament that was on the 13th. I had been tweaking the list for a month and was getting in regular games, at least one a week leading up to it. Usually, with preparation like this I set myself up to be in a great place for the tournament...not so much this time. I had an epic collapse from top to bottom. Anything that could go wrong did.
Painting: I had the list figured out for the most part 5 weeks in advance. In order to be ready I needed to have 10 models painted a week to compete for best painted. This is well within my ability to do on a normal basis, but sleeping schedules were a mess and work has been very mentally taxing over the past couple months. The Wednesday before the tournament I called it quits. I still had 10 models to paint nothing was based and the army was way too big for the display board that I had built way back and was planning to use. It just wasn't meant to be.
1850, not 1890: Lists were due a week before the event. That night I start double checking my point costs and realize I wasn't paying enough for the Assault marines squads. I had them down for the cost of a tactical instead. That's a difference of 40 points (20 off for each squad).
I had to make last minute untested cuts to the list and in retrospect I know that I cut out the wrong things. The key element of the list that made it work so well in all of the games I had play tested was the 10 Sternguard in a drop pod. So what did I cut...5 Sternguard out of the list.
What's the difference 5 guys make, you might ask? In this list it is everything. I have a foot slogging army that relies heavily on my opponent being completely distracted by at least a full turn on the Sternguard and for them to commit significant shooting to it. 5 guys is a nuisance, 10 is a threat. 5 Sternguard can put a dent into a squad for sure, but not enough to cause an opponent to commit to them. 10 is another story. With 10 Sternguard I can annihilate an entire squad, or split them and cripple two squads with ease. This gets your oponents attention. They need to move forward for an assault or commit more shots to take out this threat early. This distraction allowed for my 20 man Death Co. Squad to foot their way across the table with out getting shot up and has a chance of drawing my opponents troops closer to assault range if they try to assault the Sternguard. Since the Sternguard weren't the distraction I needed them to be my opponents were able to fall back as the DC moved forward and pick them off as they came across. This ended up happing in all 3 games. 500 points (DC and Libby) that is ineffective for three games...I don't need to spell out how that day went!
Considering the bad last minute change to the list, I played it out pretty well. I can see the first two games that I lost, going very differently if the list had not been butchered at the last minute. Here's a synopsis on how the games went.
Game 1 vs. Eldar
This was a mess, my perfectly formulated and practiced plan with the Sternguard didn't work out, because the 5 guys couldn't take out the guardian squad on an objective by itself on the far left in my opponents deployment zone. This forced me to commit 5 assault marines to try and finish them off and at least contest the objective. That never happened, the assault marines were too easy to pick off after the Sternguard were wiped out. Ideally, 10 Sternguard should have killed all troops and then started to push across the deployment zone into the main fore, with the assault squad able to swoop on to that far objective, in cover, and keep it with ease for the rest of the game. I then just planned on bogging down the middle of the board and trading the other objectives. Some high strength long range shooting and AP 2 shots would have also made a big difference in this game.
Game 2 vs. Grey Knights w/ Space Wolves allies
I ended up having the same issue with the drop pod in this game. It took entirely too long for me to kill an isolated group of SW troops, about 4 turns instead of 1-2. This was further complicated by the Spearhead deployment. The DC just had too far to walk and my opponent withdrew properly to keep them at bay the whole game. If I had another turn or two 7 and 8? I would have had the time to properly take out enough KP, but the slow walking infantry just can't get where they need to be in time. Given that two of the three the out of book deployments are long walks, I need to make some changes in range and mobility to accommodate this.
Game 3 vs. Salamanders
Me and Pat the Hat in last and second to last place...battle for Smokin Boots (award for last place). Pat and I had a really fun game. Neither of us had any particular blunders, but nothing genius either. It was a long day and we were more interested in having a fun game than a serious one, and we did. Most enjoyable moment for me was marking his Captain on a Bike for death, as one of the objectives and having him throw down with my librarian. He challenged my librarian and then rolled a bunch of one's and two's. I did the same, but go to re-roll (thanks Divination). I landed an unsaved wound and Pat was introduced to the force weapon! We ended up tying the primary objective as Pat's flyers chewed through my troops in a 7 round game. My theory on flyers for the day was to ignore them, but 6 rounds of shooting is more than anyone can handle.
On the plus side, I had three very pleasant opponents who I enjoyed hanging out with for the day. I also get to take a step back from furiously painting at top speed. Which is great since I got 2 commissions done and started on some tanks for Simon that are looking really good, more to come on those.
Painting: I had the list figured out for the most part 5 weeks in advance. In order to be ready I needed to have 10 models painted a week to compete for best painted. This is well within my ability to do on a normal basis, but sleeping schedules were a mess and work has been very mentally taxing over the past couple months. The Wednesday before the tournament I called it quits. I still had 10 models to paint nothing was based and the army was way too big for the display board that I had built way back and was planning to use. It just wasn't meant to be.
1850, not 1890: Lists were due a week before the event. That night I start double checking my point costs and realize I wasn't paying enough for the Assault marines squads. I had them down for the cost of a tactical instead. That's a difference of 40 points (20 off for each squad).
I had to make last minute untested cuts to the list and in retrospect I know that I cut out the wrong things. The key element of the list that made it work so well in all of the games I had play tested was the 10 Sternguard in a drop pod. So what did I cut...5 Sternguard out of the list.
What's the difference 5 guys make, you might ask? In this list it is everything. I have a foot slogging army that relies heavily on my opponent being completely distracted by at least a full turn on the Sternguard and for them to commit significant shooting to it. 5 guys is a nuisance, 10 is a threat. 5 Sternguard can put a dent into a squad for sure, but not enough to cause an opponent to commit to them. 10 is another story. With 10 Sternguard I can annihilate an entire squad, or split them and cripple two squads with ease. This gets your oponents attention. They need to move forward for an assault or commit more shots to take out this threat early. This distraction allowed for my 20 man Death Co. Squad to foot their way across the table with out getting shot up and has a chance of drawing my opponents troops closer to assault range if they try to assault the Sternguard. Since the Sternguard weren't the distraction I needed them to be my opponents were able to fall back as the DC moved forward and pick them off as they came across. This ended up happing in all 3 games. 500 points (DC and Libby) that is ineffective for three games...I don't need to spell out how that day went!
Considering the bad last minute change to the list, I played it out pretty well. I can see the first two games that I lost, going very differently if the list had not been butchered at the last minute. Here's a synopsis on how the games went.
Game 1 vs. Eldar
This was a mess, my perfectly formulated and practiced plan with the Sternguard didn't work out, because the 5 guys couldn't take out the guardian squad on an objective by itself on the far left in my opponents deployment zone. This forced me to commit 5 assault marines to try and finish them off and at least contest the objective. That never happened, the assault marines were too easy to pick off after the Sternguard were wiped out. Ideally, 10 Sternguard should have killed all troops and then started to push across the deployment zone into the main fore, with the assault squad able to swoop on to that far objective, in cover, and keep it with ease for the rest of the game. I then just planned on bogging down the middle of the board and trading the other objectives. Some high strength long range shooting and AP 2 shots would have also made a big difference in this game.
Game 2 vs. Grey Knights w/ Space Wolves allies
I ended up having the same issue with the drop pod in this game. It took entirely too long for me to kill an isolated group of SW troops, about 4 turns instead of 1-2. This was further complicated by the Spearhead deployment. The DC just had too far to walk and my opponent withdrew properly to keep them at bay the whole game. If I had another turn or two 7 and 8? I would have had the time to properly take out enough KP, but the slow walking infantry just can't get where they need to be in time. Given that two of the three the out of book deployments are long walks, I need to make some changes in range and mobility to accommodate this.
Game 3 vs. Salamanders
Me and Pat the Hat in last and second to last place...battle for Smokin Boots (award for last place). Pat and I had a really fun game. Neither of us had any particular blunders, but nothing genius either. It was a long day and we were more interested in having a fun game than a serious one, and we did. Most enjoyable moment for me was marking his Captain on a Bike for death, as one of the objectives and having him throw down with my librarian. He challenged my librarian and then rolled a bunch of one's and two's. I did the same, but go to re-roll (thanks Divination). I landed an unsaved wound and Pat was introduced to the force weapon! We ended up tying the primary objective as Pat's flyers chewed through my troops in a 7 round game. My theory on flyers for the day was to ignore them, but 6 rounds of shooting is more than anyone can handle.
On the plus side, I had three very pleasant opponents who I enjoyed hanging out with for the day. I also get to take a step back from furiously painting at top speed. Which is great since I got 2 commissions done and started on some tanks for Simon that are looking really good, more to come on those.
Friday, September 28, 2012
Adapting to 6e
I've managed to string together some games a few weeks in a row now and finding steady progress with the performance of my list with the changes that I have been making. This week I trimmed out the Aegis Defense line with the Quad gun and the scouts and added in a full Sternguard squad in a drop pod. There were also so minor gear swaps.
The full Sternguard, it turns out, is exactly the unit I needed to make the rest of this list work. It is impossible for any army to ignore 10 sternguard in rapid fire range. I've also got them tooled up with combi-meltas and combi flamers. They split out of the drop pod and should do damage to two different squads or serious damage to one. The combi-meltas are for dealing with AV14. The combi-flamers are for overwatch, because there is a good chance someone is going to try and deal with these guys with an assault as a counter.
This seems like a lot of points to throw right into enemy deployment first turn, and it is. However, it is enough points at a low risk. With proper placement, these guys will likely be in rapid fire range and even if they aren't they can still get off a single shot up to 30" now. Oppoents cannot ignore Sternguard, because these veterans can effect anything on the board: stuff hidden in cover, poison MCs, 3+ with vengeance, or 2+ with the combi-meltas. 10 Marines need a heck of a lot of attention put on them to wipe them out, usually two turns of shooting. This is all the time that the Death Co. needs to cross the board walking. If this plays out, it is all I need to take the game. The DC take any serious threat head on, while the assault marines and tactical squads engage anything else to keep them occupied.
The other half of the tac squads sit back on objectives and put the plasma cannons to good use. If my oppoent spreads out, it makes picking units apart with the assault squads easier and if they stay clumped up the plasma cannons take care of them.
Things that I need to be wary of are template weapons on the DC. 20 models is a big blob and I need to remember to keep them spread out a bit. I'm still trying to figure out if I have enough to weather flyers, since I'm not bothering to bring a counter to them. I think 76 PA bodies is enough, but not having gone against a Necron air force, or Chaos flying circus, I still have some concerns.
Looking to get one more game in at least in the next two weeks to get a better feel for how to run the list. In the meantime I have plenty else to keep me occupied. I just ordered a model to make a Sisters counts as Marbo, to make up for Simon, that I'm quite excited about. Not to mention at least a dozen or so other models of his that he needs touched up. I have a commission for a couple of reaper minis to look like Thundaar and Ookla, which are going to be fantastic. I'll have a post up on them this weekend. I have the models cleaned, primed and started to get some color on them.
My own models are in a complete state of disarray and with everything else above going on I am contemplating just putting them on hold and playing the next tourney without competing for best painted. Really depends on how much sleep and free time I get...which is difficult because these are both competing for the same time blocks right now. The the wee little one did sleep a solid 7 straight hours last night, so we may be on to something there! This is very ambitious, so we'll see how it goes...
20 Death Co. - All need details and highlights
20 Tactical Marines - Not yet primed
5 Honor Guard - Need to redo the arms on all of these. I originally did them with two plasma pistols for a gunslinger look....before I knew that gunslinger would be a real rule.
4 Assault Marines, need their arms redone. They all have 2 infernus pistols for counts as melta guns...see above
5 Sternguard - not yet primed
5 Sternguard - Need to get 4 more guns and magnetize the arms
Drop Pod - primed
New Display Board - The board that I made for my 1850 point Deathwing, which is less than 30 models, will definitely not fit twice that number.
The full Sternguard, it turns out, is exactly the unit I needed to make the rest of this list work. It is impossible for any army to ignore 10 sternguard in rapid fire range. I've also got them tooled up with combi-meltas and combi flamers. They split out of the drop pod and should do damage to two different squads or serious damage to one. The combi-meltas are for dealing with AV14. The combi-flamers are for overwatch, because there is a good chance someone is going to try and deal with these guys with an assault as a counter.
This seems like a lot of points to throw right into enemy deployment first turn, and it is. However, it is enough points at a low risk. With proper placement, these guys will likely be in rapid fire range and even if they aren't they can still get off a single shot up to 30" now. Oppoents cannot ignore Sternguard, because these veterans can effect anything on the board: stuff hidden in cover, poison MCs, 3+ with vengeance, or 2+ with the combi-meltas. 10 Marines need a heck of a lot of attention put on them to wipe them out, usually two turns of shooting. This is all the time that the Death Co. needs to cross the board walking. If this plays out, it is all I need to take the game. The DC take any serious threat head on, while the assault marines and tactical squads engage anything else to keep them occupied.
The other half of the tac squads sit back on objectives and put the plasma cannons to good use. If my oppoent spreads out, it makes picking units apart with the assault squads easier and if they stay clumped up the plasma cannons take care of them.
Things that I need to be wary of are template weapons on the DC. 20 models is a big blob and I need to remember to keep them spread out a bit. I'm still trying to figure out if I have enough to weather flyers, since I'm not bothering to bring a counter to them. I think 76 PA bodies is enough, but not having gone against a Necron air force, or Chaos flying circus, I still have some concerns.
Looking to get one more game in at least in the next two weeks to get a better feel for how to run the list. In the meantime I have plenty else to keep me occupied. I just ordered a model to make a Sisters counts as Marbo, to make up for Simon, that I'm quite excited about. Not to mention at least a dozen or so other models of his that he needs touched up. I have a commission for a couple of reaper minis to look like Thundaar and Ookla, which are going to be fantastic. I'll have a post up on them this weekend. I have the models cleaned, primed and started to get some color on them.
My own models are in a complete state of disarray and with everything else above going on I am contemplating just putting them on hold and playing the next tourney without competing for best painted. Really depends on how much sleep and free time I get...which is difficult because these are both competing for the same time blocks right now. The the wee little one did sleep a solid 7 straight hours last night, so we may be on to something there! This is very ambitious, so we'll see how it goes...
20 Death Co. - All need details and highlights
20 Tactical Marines - Not yet primed
5 Honor Guard - Need to redo the arms on all of these. I originally did them with two plasma pistols for a gunslinger look....before I knew that gunslinger would be a real rule.
4 Assault Marines, need their arms redone. They all have 2 infernus pistols for counts as melta guns...see above
5 Sternguard - not yet primed
5 Sternguard - Need to get 4 more guns and magnetize the arms
Drop Pod - primed
New Display Board - The board that I made for my 1850 point Deathwing, which is less than 30 models, will definitely not fit twice that number.
Friday, September 21, 2012
The BLOB!
If 5e was a game of mech, I'm firmly convinced that 6e is all about infantry. I'm sure this is intentional from a GW sales point as it will sell more models. For an 1850 point game in 5e running my blood angels, I would have had between 25-35 infantry, 4-6 transports, a couple dreadnoughts and a couple of tanks. Last night running a dedicated infantry list I still felt like I was not running enough bodies, with almost 70 infantry models on the table... (5 Scouts, 10 Tactical Marines, 20 Assault Marines, 5 Honor Guard and 25 Death Co.) At the end of the game I was trying to figure out how to keep the models I had alive longer, or how to add more into the list...I felt like this was not enough scoring units!?
It has taken me a a great deal of mental power to adjust. It isn't that I couldn't figure out how the game had changed, or even what I needed to do to adapt to it. Rather it was finding a combination of models that I have and units that I would enjoy playing to make 6e work for me. I'm finally on the right path. I love running the mob of Death Co. on foot with Bolters. I'm not a big fan of tactical marines, they are flexible or tactical enough for the way I like to play. I want options, every time I play tactical marines I feel like I am picking between shooting or charging and the math in my head tells me quite clearly that I need both to take out units. I'm not worrying about this at all any more. Death Co. do either or both with relentless and can counter against any Deathstar unit out there. Death Co. don't have the 2+, 3++, power-weapons or anything else fancy, but how many other death star units have 25 wounds with FNP?
I had a great game with Bill last night that I really should have won, not going to blame dice or anything. But as good as Death Co. if you have them all base to base with each other directly in front of two vindicators...and don't learn your lesson after the first round of pie plates, then you're a moron, or over tired.
Despite getting smacked around by the vindis, I did get to unleash the Death Co. on Lysander and a squad of Sternguard that dropped behind my lines via drop pod turn one. The sternguard picked off a few after the pie plates did their thing, leaving me with 9 Death Co., Librarian and a Chaplain.
Lysander is big and scary, but I knew I needed to charge. I strung out the Librarian and the Chaplain so that neither was in base contact at the start of combat, making them not eligible to be challenged by Lysander. It took a while...and the local rules judge to confirm this would work. The short of it was that Lysander is going to roll enough ones to bite it when he has to roll 26 armor saves.
This is a really big shift away from how I play. I love small elite units with lots of gear. For me that I what the space marines are all about, one man armies that can handle anything. However, probability can come into play all to often when your elite 5 man squad has such a small dice pool. 25 Death Co. make sure that the pool brings things closer to average...divination to allow re-rolls to hit, and a chaplain for re-rolling to hit and wound on the charge, ensure a much higher rate of success.
So the real point here, I needed to make sure that I wrote down what a noob I was with my blob placement so that I don't keep making that same mistake. Bill was pretty much ready to concede after I whiped out Lysander and the squad, until he noticed that I group up the remaining Death Co. again Like I had them during the first round of shooting. A couple more pie plates and it was just the librarian and 1 or two of the DC left. Bill decided to keep going after that and we ended up with a tie.
It has taken me a a great deal of mental power to adjust. It isn't that I couldn't figure out how the game had changed, or even what I needed to do to adapt to it. Rather it was finding a combination of models that I have and units that I would enjoy playing to make 6e work for me. I'm finally on the right path. I love running the mob of Death Co. on foot with Bolters. I'm not a big fan of tactical marines, they are flexible or tactical enough for the way I like to play. I want options, every time I play tactical marines I feel like I am picking between shooting or charging and the math in my head tells me quite clearly that I need both to take out units. I'm not worrying about this at all any more. Death Co. do either or both with relentless and can counter against any Deathstar unit out there. Death Co. don't have the 2+, 3++, power-weapons or anything else fancy, but how many other death star units have 25 wounds with FNP?
I had a great game with Bill last night that I really should have won, not going to blame dice or anything. But as good as Death Co. if you have them all base to base with each other directly in front of two vindicators...and don't learn your lesson after the first round of pie plates, then you're a moron, or over tired.
Despite getting smacked around by the vindis, I did get to unleash the Death Co. on Lysander and a squad of Sternguard that dropped behind my lines via drop pod turn one. The sternguard picked off a few after the pie plates did their thing, leaving me with 9 Death Co., Librarian and a Chaplain.
Lysander is big and scary, but I knew I needed to charge. I strung out the Librarian and the Chaplain so that neither was in base contact at the start of combat, making them not eligible to be challenged by Lysander. It took a while...and the local rules judge to confirm this would work. The short of it was that Lysander is going to roll enough ones to bite it when he has to roll 26 armor saves.
This is a really big shift away from how I play. I love small elite units with lots of gear. For me that I what the space marines are all about, one man armies that can handle anything. However, probability can come into play all to often when your elite 5 man squad has such a small dice pool. 25 Death Co. make sure that the pool brings things closer to average...divination to allow re-rolls to hit, and a chaplain for re-rolling to hit and wound on the charge, ensure a much higher rate of success.
So the real point here, I needed to make sure that I wrote down what a noob I was with my blob placement so that I don't keep making that same mistake. Bill was pretty much ready to concede after I whiped out Lysander and the squad, until he noticed that I group up the remaining Death Co. again Like I had them during the first round of shooting. A couple more pie plates and it was just the librarian and 1 or two of the DC left. Bill decided to keep going after that and we ended up with a tie.
Monday, September 10, 2012
FAQ: Old News by Now
This is old news by now (three days) for the blogging community, so rather than talk too much about the heavy FAQ handed down from on high in detail, I'm going to talk generally what it means to the community and how it will be effecting my lists directly as I prepare for a 1850 in October.
First off let's talk about GW and their release of this FAQ. The extent of clarification provided is astounding in two ways...
This is a complete turnaround of GW to recognize the validity of electronic rules update, by releasing an unprecedented series of corrections and clarification. Not only were the rules that were addressed, exactly the ones that the online community has been mulling over since the release of 6e, but the
FAQ came in such a short time since the release. A testament to the GW attentiveness to what is going on with the game competitively.
The second astounding point is, why the heck was this even needed in the first place? There are two major changes that have completely changed global meta as a result of the FAQ. 1. How Look Out Sir works, and the redefining of Nobz and Paladins as characters. I would like to point out that I agree with these changes because of the balance it provides and it helps to speed up the game. The problem here is really, who, if anyone really tested these rules out?
I am sure that the rules were play tested, but I get the impression based on how every article on their site is written and the scenarios in the books are designed that it was done with the casual approach to the game from designers we are used to. I get the impression that a bunch of fluffy lists with "cool" units were used and the rules were worked out that way. I don't get the feeling that rules were really analyzed with the approach of, "How can I break the game with this?" Working at a software company, believe me, this is critical in both the design and testing of a complicated system. The bugs, if you will, need to be found by the designers and testers, not the customers!
At the end of the day, I am happy that the FAQ was released promptly and so much has been clarified. I hope GW takes this as a lesson for the codexes going forward to the next release. Also, hoping we do continue to see this kind of prompt attention to rules going forward, that at least has been quite refreshing!
So what does this mean for me? It has the potential to completely change what I had planned to bring to my next tournament in Oct. Grey Knights are all over the place where I play and I expected at least a handful of Draigowing. Orcs are always on the scene and I was expecting 2-3 Nob Biker list as well. Because of these I was toying around last week with a Vindicator for the first time. After how that first game went with it I was planning on adjusting to bring in a second one. Now I'm less user about the second one. With both of those lists completely hamstrung, I don't think I'm going to need quite that much Str 10.
From everything I have heard this weekend, people are swapping out the bikes and pallys for mobs, mobs, mobs of guard. Vindicators take them out just fine as well, but there are so many other options at AP 4 or 5 that take out guard blobs just as well, if no better. Regular old Flamers for example. I'm toying with changing the honor guards plasma guns to flamers and sticking with the single Vindicator I am running already, instead of adding another vindicator.
Still struggling to balance fire power and scoring models in the list. I can't image doing less than 30 scoring models, but am struggling to field the plasma, flamer and anti air elements in all of this at once.
First off let's talk about GW and their release of this FAQ. The extent of clarification provided is astounding in two ways...
This is a complete turnaround of GW to recognize the validity of electronic rules update, by releasing an unprecedented series of corrections and clarification. Not only were the rules that were addressed, exactly the ones that the online community has been mulling over since the release of 6e, but the
FAQ came in such a short time since the release. A testament to the GW attentiveness to what is going on with the game competitively.
The second astounding point is, why the heck was this even needed in the first place? There are two major changes that have completely changed global meta as a result of the FAQ. 1. How Look Out Sir works, and the redefining of Nobz and Paladins as characters. I would like to point out that I agree with these changes because of the balance it provides and it helps to speed up the game. The problem here is really, who, if anyone really tested these rules out?
I am sure that the rules were play tested, but I get the impression based on how every article on their site is written and the scenarios in the books are designed that it was done with the casual approach to the game from designers we are used to. I get the impression that a bunch of fluffy lists with "cool" units were used and the rules were worked out that way. I don't get the feeling that rules were really analyzed with the approach of, "How can I break the game with this?" Working at a software company, believe me, this is critical in both the design and testing of a complicated system. The bugs, if you will, need to be found by the designers and testers, not the customers!
At the end of the day, I am happy that the FAQ was released promptly and so much has been clarified. I hope GW takes this as a lesson for the codexes going forward to the next release. Also, hoping we do continue to see this kind of prompt attention to rules going forward, that at least has been quite refreshing!
So what does this mean for me? It has the potential to completely change what I had planned to bring to my next tournament in Oct. Grey Knights are all over the place where I play and I expected at least a handful of Draigowing. Orcs are always on the scene and I was expecting 2-3 Nob Biker list as well. Because of these I was toying around last week with a Vindicator for the first time. After how that first game went with it I was planning on adjusting to bring in a second one. Now I'm less user about the second one. With both of those lists completely hamstrung, I don't think I'm going to need quite that much Str 10.
From everything I have heard this weekend, people are swapping out the bikes and pallys for mobs, mobs, mobs of guard. Vindicators take them out just fine as well, but there are so many other options at AP 4 or 5 that take out guard blobs just as well, if no better. Regular old Flamers for example. I'm toying with changing the honor guards plasma guns to flamers and sticking with the single Vindicator I am running already, instead of adding another vindicator.
Still struggling to balance fire power and scoring models in the list. I can't image doing less than 30 scoring models, but am struggling to field the plasma, flamer and anti air elements in all of this at once.
Friday, September 7, 2012
Blood Angels vs. Chaos Marines 1850
Frosty and I had another enjoyable game last night. I brought the list posted yesterday, and he brought something like...
Sorcerer - lash
Demon Prince - lash
Chaos Marines 10
Chaos Marines 10
9 Beserkers
Land Raider
Defiler
3 Obliterators
Nothing too fancy here, but solid enough power armor setup to have a good game. Clearly, he's anxious for the new book before really deciding what other models to pick up and really work on a competitive list.
We had the diagonal deployment with Crusade (4 objectives). He placed both of his objectives in ruins firmly in his corner. I placed one in ruins fairly close to those two, and the other on the opposite side of the table, midway across the board, still in my DZ.
He went first, placing a marine squad in each ruin on each objective, and the defiler behind them for ranged support. The obliterators and land raider were as much front and center as you can with the diagnal deployment.
I deployed very conservatively. I placed the scouts on the far lone objective and hid my 4 combat squads of assault marines out of line of site. Devastators were close to the middle of the board in cover. I left the LRC, Librarian, Death Co., Stormraven w/ Honor Guard and Vindicator in reserve. Still not overly fond of the limitation of only up to 1/2 of the units being allowed in reserve, but combat squads certainly helps meet this requirement.
Then I seize the initiative...I shouldn't have even rolled and realized it as soon as I rolled it, there was no advantage to me going first at this point. I would have been much better off letting Frosty start to maneuver and play his hand a bit. I only had the snipers and plasma cannons to shoot with so there wasn't much benefit there. Given that it was objectives, I would have been happier having the game end after my turn instead of his later on as well. A mental slip, but was glad it didn't end up costing me the game.
Turn 1
My first turn I didn't move anything. I shot the snipers at the obliterators and the plasma cannons took a would off of the demon prince, that's it. His shooting whiped out the plasma cannons and took out 3 marines from one of the combat squads. His land raider moves front and center.
Turn 2 the vindicator and my land raider both come on. I bring the vindi on to my far right, out of LOS of the obliterators. The LRC come on in the middle with enough cover for a save.I try to lure the Land Raider with the zerkers over. Since I don't get out he'll likely be out of charge range and need to cap the land raider to get at the DC inside. The vindicator glances his LR for a HP. I keep sniping, ineffectualy at the oblits.
Frosty falls for the feint with the Land Raider and cruises forward about 8" away from my LRC. He manages to take a hull point of of it with a Las shot. His Termiantors also deep strike in and shoot up 4 assault marines from the other combat squad I had in the area. This leaves me with a 1 and 2 man assault squads for troops on the right side of the board, where there are 3 objectives. This is not where I wanted to be!
Turn 3 Stormraven shows up and the honor guard float down. I take out several termies and knock another hull point off. Death Co. get out and get ready to take out the Zerkers in the LR.Vindicator repositions to hit the terminators and clip his LR for another hull point. MM on the LRC at point blank range to get at the zerkers and I roll a 1 and 2 to pen. So there I have my DC sitting in the open with nothing to do.
Frosty lights up the DC with the obliterators, the defiler and some shooting from the zerkers before they charge in. This was devastating. Enough DC survive to lock him down for a few turns, but I'm pretty demoralized at this point. The terminators whipe out the 2 man squad on the objective.
Turn 4 The honor Guard plasma the terminators off the board. a 5 man squad assaults the obliterators. Seerg inflicts a wound, but the other 4 die. Stormraven takes out the defiler.
Chaos doesn't do much during the shooting phase. During the assault the oblits whiff and the Sergeant manages to finish off the first oblit and wound another.
Turn 5 I move my honor guard in to contest one of his objectives and try to shoot his marines off the other with the Stormraven. I managed 4 kills, but the pass their morale test. At this point I can tell that I am in a great position for a turn 5 win with a 50/50 chance on turn 6.
His 5 he is spread too thin to contest either of the two objectives I am holding. In CC my sergeant finishes off the oblits...this is a regular assault sergeant, with no wargear BTW. He consolidates just shy of one the Chaos objectives.
Game ends on turn 5. Another really fun game. I have 2 objectives (6 points) to his 1 (3 points), he has first blood, units in my deployment and slay the warlord. I have the unit in deployment and slay the warlord so I'm up 8 to 6.
I was really happy to try out several units in 6e for the first time, LRC, DC with bolters and Plasma Cannon Devs. The only one I am not sold on is the LRC. This was also my first game ever using a vindicator. Absolutely loved it. Might try to fiind room/points for a second one.
We talked a lot after the game about what worked well and what didn't for each of us.
Chaos
1. Obliteratos and Lash, its what they do well...until the new book comes out.
2. Zerkers needs the LR and don't need the Sorcerer attached
3. 10 man squads can't sit on objectives for 5 turns and do nothing else. They need to engage early then fall back later in the game. There was nearly 400 points of spectators that really could have made a difference early on when he had a clear advantage.
Blood Angels
1. If you bring an Assault unit that's main strength is in the charge...make sure you get the charge. In this case bring more reliable anti tank, maneuver better, or I should have baited the zerkers out of the LR with a sacrificial unit.
2. Vindicators did a great job getting things done.
3. 5 scoring units was completely necessary. May need to find a way to get the same effect with less points or find points to give them gear so they are more effective than just objective holding.
4. Need to test more with the LRC to decide if I should keep it or swap out for another vindicator and DC, or a hell of a lot more DC.
Sorcerer - lash
Demon Prince - lash
Chaos Marines 10
Chaos Marines 10
9 Beserkers
Land Raider
Defiler
3 Obliterators
Nothing too fancy here, but solid enough power armor setup to have a good game. Clearly, he's anxious for the new book before really deciding what other models to pick up and really work on a competitive list.
We had the diagonal deployment with Crusade (4 objectives). He placed both of his objectives in ruins firmly in his corner. I placed one in ruins fairly close to those two, and the other on the opposite side of the table, midway across the board, still in my DZ.
He went first, placing a marine squad in each ruin on each objective, and the defiler behind them for ranged support. The obliterators and land raider were as much front and center as you can with the diagnal deployment.
I deployed very conservatively. I placed the scouts on the far lone objective and hid my 4 combat squads of assault marines out of line of site. Devastators were close to the middle of the board in cover. I left the LRC, Librarian, Death Co., Stormraven w/ Honor Guard and Vindicator in reserve. Still not overly fond of the limitation of only up to 1/2 of the units being allowed in reserve, but combat squads certainly helps meet this requirement.
Then I seize the initiative...I shouldn't have even rolled and realized it as soon as I rolled it, there was no advantage to me going first at this point. I would have been much better off letting Frosty start to maneuver and play his hand a bit. I only had the snipers and plasma cannons to shoot with so there wasn't much benefit there. Given that it was objectives, I would have been happier having the game end after my turn instead of his later on as well. A mental slip, but was glad it didn't end up costing me the game.
Turn 1
My first turn I didn't move anything. I shot the snipers at the obliterators and the plasma cannons took a would off of the demon prince, that's it. His shooting whiped out the plasma cannons and took out 3 marines from one of the combat squads. His land raider moves front and center.
Turn 2 the vindicator and my land raider both come on. I bring the vindi on to my far right, out of LOS of the obliterators. The LRC come on in the middle with enough cover for a save.I try to lure the Land Raider with the zerkers over. Since I don't get out he'll likely be out of charge range and need to cap the land raider to get at the DC inside. The vindicator glances his LR for a HP. I keep sniping, ineffectualy at the oblits.
Frosty falls for the feint with the Land Raider and cruises forward about 8" away from my LRC. He manages to take a hull point of of it with a Las shot. His Termiantors also deep strike in and shoot up 4 assault marines from the other combat squad I had in the area. This leaves me with a 1 and 2 man assault squads for troops on the right side of the board, where there are 3 objectives. This is not where I wanted to be!
Turn 3 Stormraven shows up and the honor guard float down. I take out several termies and knock another hull point off. Death Co. get out and get ready to take out the Zerkers in the LR.Vindicator repositions to hit the terminators and clip his LR for another hull point. MM on the LRC at point blank range to get at the zerkers and I roll a 1 and 2 to pen. So there I have my DC sitting in the open with nothing to do.
Frosty lights up the DC with the obliterators, the defiler and some shooting from the zerkers before they charge in. This was devastating. Enough DC survive to lock him down for a few turns, but I'm pretty demoralized at this point. The terminators whipe out the 2 man squad on the objective.
Turn 4 The honor Guard plasma the terminators off the board. a 5 man squad assaults the obliterators. Seerg inflicts a wound, but the other 4 die. Stormraven takes out the defiler.
Chaos doesn't do much during the shooting phase. During the assault the oblits whiff and the Sergeant manages to finish off the first oblit and wound another.
Turn 5 I move my honor guard in to contest one of his objectives and try to shoot his marines off the other with the Stormraven. I managed 4 kills, but the pass their morale test. At this point I can tell that I am in a great position for a turn 5 win with a 50/50 chance on turn 6.
His 5 he is spread too thin to contest either of the two objectives I am holding. In CC my sergeant finishes off the oblits...this is a regular assault sergeant, with no wargear BTW. He consolidates just shy of one the Chaos objectives.
Game ends on turn 5. Another really fun game. I have 2 objectives (6 points) to his 1 (3 points), he has first blood, units in my deployment and slay the warlord. I have the unit in deployment and slay the warlord so I'm up 8 to 6.
I was really happy to try out several units in 6e for the first time, LRC, DC with bolters and Plasma Cannon Devs. The only one I am not sold on is the LRC. This was also my first game ever using a vindicator. Absolutely loved it. Might try to fiind room/points for a second one.
We talked a lot after the game about what worked well and what didn't for each of us.
Chaos
1. Obliteratos and Lash, its what they do well...until the new book comes out.
2. Zerkers needs the LR and don't need the Sorcerer attached
3. 10 man squads can't sit on objectives for 5 turns and do nothing else. They need to engage early then fall back later in the game. There was nearly 400 points of spectators that really could have made a difference early on when he had a clear advantage.
Blood Angels
1. If you bring an Assault unit that's main strength is in the charge...make sure you get the charge. In this case bring more reliable anti tank, maneuver better, or I should have baited the zerkers out of the LR with a sacrificial unit.
2. Vindicators did a great job getting things done.
3. 5 scoring units was completely necessary. May need to find a way to get the same effect with less points or find points to give them gear so they are more effective than just objective holding.
4. Need to test more with the LRC to decide if I should keep it or swap out for another vindicator and DC, or a hell of a lot more DC.
Thursday, September 6, 2012
1850 for Thursday Night at BG
This is a rough list of what I plan on bringing tonight. I want to try a few ideas that are new to 6e for me.
Librarian (divination)
honor guard with jump packs and 4 plasma guns
Death Co. x15 in LRC w/MM
Assault Squad
Assault Squad
Scout Squad CC
Storm Raven
Devastator Sqaud PCx4
Vindicator
I haven't used a Land Raider in ages, so this is going to be quite an experiment. The versatility of being able to bring it in via deepstrike so that it can come in with the Stormraven is appealing. Also, having both come in on the same turn should force my opponent to make a more difficult choice of target priority, rather than the LRC getting blown off first turn and the Stormraven whenever it comes in. I'm also hoping that witha Stormraven and a Land Raider on the board the vindicator will get over looked and get more than a round of shooting in. I'm planning on reserving or hiding it to start the game, so that the three heavy armors are on the board at the same time.
I'm thrilled to be using a mob of Death Co. and really feel that the LRC delivery is ideal. I really need to guarantee that they get where I need them to be.
The other big change for me is going back to Devastator Squads. I know that I am going to match up against things like Nob Bikers, Paladins and Broadsides on a regular basis. Assuming I can get some good placement I think these should thin out all three of those rather nicely for the DC to finish them off.
Scouts are deployment area objective holders, and the gearless Jump marines will combat squad for any other objectives. I plan on keeping them out of LOS or in reserve as needed so they won't get shot up by turn 5-6.
As far as scaling up for 2000, for tonight I'll just change the Librarian for Mephiston with Divination if I need to. Everything is packed and too busy to change the list, so that's what it is going to be. More tomorrow on how this goes. I'm really going to try and remember to take some pics of the match.
Librarian (divination)
honor guard with jump packs and 4 plasma guns
Death Co. x15 in LRC w/MM
Assault Squad
Assault Squad
Scout Squad CC
Storm Raven
Devastator Sqaud PCx4
Vindicator
I haven't used a Land Raider in ages, so this is going to be quite an experiment. The versatility of being able to bring it in via deepstrike so that it can come in with the Stormraven is appealing. Also, having both come in on the same turn should force my opponent to make a more difficult choice of target priority, rather than the LRC getting blown off first turn and the Stormraven whenever it comes in. I'm also hoping that witha Stormraven and a Land Raider on the board the vindicator will get over looked and get more than a round of shooting in. I'm planning on reserving or hiding it to start the game, so that the three heavy armors are on the board at the same time.
I'm thrilled to be using a mob of Death Co. and really feel that the LRC delivery is ideal. I really need to guarantee that they get where I need them to be.
The other big change for me is going back to Devastator Squads. I know that I am going to match up against things like Nob Bikers, Paladins and Broadsides on a regular basis. Assuming I can get some good placement I think these should thin out all three of those rather nicely for the DC to finish them off.
Scouts are deployment area objective holders, and the gearless Jump marines will combat squad for any other objectives. I plan on keeping them out of LOS or in reserve as needed so they won't get shot up by turn 5-6.
As far as scaling up for 2000, for tonight I'll just change the Librarian for Mephiston with Divination if I need to. Everything is packed and too busy to change the list, so that's what it is going to be. More tomorrow on how this goes. I'm really going to try and remember to take some pics of the match.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Avengers and Firey Bases
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| Cap |
But more on Gundam John's exploits later. This was a great chance for me to use several colors I would not use for my own arm. The purple for the Hult especially helped to ease me out of my usual earth palette and really add some contrast. I intend to take advantage and add increase the range of my palette as a result and I am really excited about this.
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| Spidey |
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| Iron Man |
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| The Hulk |
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| Thor |
Monday, August 20, 2012
First 6e Tournament
I've been trying to finish several posts about painting and modelling over the last two weeks and failing miserably and have just ended up scrapping them. Family life has been crazy between one sick kid and another teething (no one gets more than 2 hours of straight sleep with the screaming).
This doesn't mean I haven't been painting, modelling or list building. I just haven't had the mental capacity to do those and keep up with this. But regardless I got in a great practice game last Thursday before going to my first 6e tournament on Saturday.
Practice game on Thursday was fantastic. I played Frosty and his Chaos marines and got tabled...It was great because I enjoy hanging out with Frosty and it was nice to see that the list I was planning on bringing with me that weekend was total garbage and I would at least have a few days to clean it up. I had been running Deathwing with a detachment of Blood Angels. I thought scoring terminators, a Stormraven and a few Ravenwing squads would work well. It didn't. I'm still building 5e lists.
So instead here is a run down of what I ended up bringing with me on Saturday.
Librarian Divination
x2 Assault squad (10) with power fist and 2 meltaguns
x2 Assault suad (5) plasma pistol x2 and plasmagun
Death Co. (5) jump packs and 2 power swords
Scout Squad with power weapon, sniper rifles and camo cloaks
x2 Priest with jump packs
Sternguard (10) in drop pod
Bike Squad (3) plasma pistol and x2 plasmagun
Stormraven
Notice anything about this list, it's pretty 5e as well. Couple things to point out, first is that the scouts are there because the store typically does a single model best painted judging and the scout sergeant is my best so far. I took the power weapon because it was the look I was going for. They decided not to do any painting awards.
First game was against Templars. This game was great fun and hard fought, tie for kill points and tie for table quarters. There were a bunch of minor points to get, we tied these as well. Really what happened was two good players missed the boat. One brought an army horribly out of date for cost and the other built a list to compete against other 5e lists. Still a good time.
Second game was to control different sections of the board and 4 objectives. I played against Vanilla Marines. Vulcan, Tigerius, lots of scouts, flamers and melta. His list really worked out well for him. With 30 scouts on his side I ended up losing sergeants and priests to the precise shots on my way across the board. I also lost 3 bikes and a librarian to Overwatch in a series of improbable rolling.
The main problem ended up being that I was using too many small units attempting too many assaults. I was too spread out for the plasma guns to effectively soften up the units I needed to assault. When I did assault, I didn't have the numbers to overcome some great Overwatch rolls. Where I played back in the first game, I over extended in the second game trying to compensate. I was nearly tabled. The one really good moment came on the first turn when I placed the Sternguard drop pod right behind the Aegis line w/ Quad gun. Hellfire rounds lit up the gun easily and the Ignore cover rounds killed most of the Scouts that were manning the gun. It was clear sailing for me Stormraven for the rest of the game.
By game 3 there was no chance of placing at all. With a gentleman's agreement we would forgo the objectives and just mass kill points to determine the winner. Not usually something I would do in a tournament, but since there was 0 chance of the way either of scored effecting the awards...golden rule. Another wonderful moment for the Sternguard as they come in and wipe out a max squad of Lootas behind the Aegis line. After that the mega noz and warboss just tear me open. I was again too spread out and killed 3 of my own guys with Gets Hot.
The day was great fun. I'm waiting for Gundam John to post his bat reps so I can throw a link in here somewhere since his Tau did exceptionally well.
Lessons learned. MSU assaulting is no longer the way to go. There are so many death stars out there I need to have either an effective counter or equally effective deathstar...again thanks to Gundam John I now have something in mind. More on this as the list rounds out around the the deathstar. The only consistently effective units were the Sternguard and the Librarian with Divination. I'm still not quite sure why there are things that are not divination. The stormraven wasn't bad. No one was quite able to bring it down, but I brought it to take on other flyers...and didn't face any. There weren't more than 4 or 5 in the whole tournament.
Everyone squealed about how awesome the defense line is with the quad gun. I found it extremely easy to neutralize the gun, and the wall is the same as deploy in ruins. Weapons that ignore cover, or just flanking take care of anything hiding behind it with ease. I think I can find a much better way to spend 100 points thank you. At least until other people actually start fielding flyers on a regular basis.
So I'm still going with Blood Angels for the forseeable future. I may toy with Chaos if I can swap in enough of my DIY guys as chaos and not buy anything. Still waiting on the Dark Angels Codex, before dropping any real money though.
I'll have some pictures up this week on the Avengers Project, a new Jump Pack Librarian, WIP of the scouts and 30 other models....
This doesn't mean I haven't been painting, modelling or list building. I just haven't had the mental capacity to do those and keep up with this. But regardless I got in a great practice game last Thursday before going to my first 6e tournament on Saturday.
Practice game on Thursday was fantastic. I played Frosty and his Chaos marines and got tabled...It was great because I enjoy hanging out with Frosty and it was nice to see that the list I was planning on bringing with me that weekend was total garbage and I would at least have a few days to clean it up. I had been running Deathwing with a detachment of Blood Angels. I thought scoring terminators, a Stormraven and a few Ravenwing squads would work well. It didn't. I'm still building 5e lists.
So instead here is a run down of what I ended up bringing with me on Saturday.
Librarian Divination
x2 Assault squad (10) with power fist and 2 meltaguns
x2 Assault suad (5) plasma pistol x2 and plasmagun
Death Co. (5) jump packs and 2 power swords
Scout Squad with power weapon, sniper rifles and camo cloaks
x2 Priest with jump packs
Sternguard (10) in drop pod
Bike Squad (3) plasma pistol and x2 plasmagun
Stormraven
Notice anything about this list, it's pretty 5e as well. Couple things to point out, first is that the scouts are there because the store typically does a single model best painted judging and the scout sergeant is my best so far. I took the power weapon because it was the look I was going for. They decided not to do any painting awards.
First game was against Templars. This game was great fun and hard fought, tie for kill points and tie for table quarters. There were a bunch of minor points to get, we tied these as well. Really what happened was two good players missed the boat. One brought an army horribly out of date for cost and the other built a list to compete against other 5e lists. Still a good time.
Second game was to control different sections of the board and 4 objectives. I played against Vanilla Marines. Vulcan, Tigerius, lots of scouts, flamers and melta. His list really worked out well for him. With 30 scouts on his side I ended up losing sergeants and priests to the precise shots on my way across the board. I also lost 3 bikes and a librarian to Overwatch in a series of improbable rolling.
The main problem ended up being that I was using too many small units attempting too many assaults. I was too spread out for the plasma guns to effectively soften up the units I needed to assault. When I did assault, I didn't have the numbers to overcome some great Overwatch rolls. Where I played back in the first game, I over extended in the second game trying to compensate. I was nearly tabled. The one really good moment came on the first turn when I placed the Sternguard drop pod right behind the Aegis line w/ Quad gun. Hellfire rounds lit up the gun easily and the Ignore cover rounds killed most of the Scouts that were manning the gun. It was clear sailing for me Stormraven for the rest of the game.
By game 3 there was no chance of placing at all. With a gentleman's agreement we would forgo the objectives and just mass kill points to determine the winner. Not usually something I would do in a tournament, but since there was 0 chance of the way either of scored effecting the awards...golden rule. Another wonderful moment for the Sternguard as they come in and wipe out a max squad of Lootas behind the Aegis line. After that the mega noz and warboss just tear me open. I was again too spread out and killed 3 of my own guys with Gets Hot.
The day was great fun. I'm waiting for Gundam John to post his bat reps so I can throw a link in here somewhere since his Tau did exceptionally well.
Lessons learned. MSU assaulting is no longer the way to go. There are so many death stars out there I need to have either an effective counter or equally effective deathstar...again thanks to Gundam John I now have something in mind. More on this as the list rounds out around the the deathstar. The only consistently effective units were the Sternguard and the Librarian with Divination. I'm still not quite sure why there are things that are not divination. The stormraven wasn't bad. No one was quite able to bring it down, but I brought it to take on other flyers...and didn't face any. There weren't more than 4 or 5 in the whole tournament.
Everyone squealed about how awesome the defense line is with the quad gun. I found it extremely easy to neutralize the gun, and the wall is the same as deploy in ruins. Weapons that ignore cover, or just flanking take care of anything hiding behind it with ease. I think I can find a much better way to spend 100 points thank you. At least until other people actually start fielding flyers on a regular basis.
So I'm still going with Blood Angels for the forseeable future. I may toy with Chaos if I can swap in enough of my DIY guys as chaos and not buy anything. Still waiting on the Dark Angels Codex, before dropping any real money though.
I'll have some pictures up this week on the Avengers Project, a new Jump Pack Librarian, WIP of the scouts and 30 other models....
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Stormraven: WIP
The Stormraven has been assembled, primed and based grey (original chapter color scheme) for about 6 months. It has also been sitting on the shelf after trying it in three games and failing miserably in 5e. So with 6e out and flyers being the rage, I decided to revisit the paint scheme again. Going with the chapter emblem of the sunburst, I decided to go with that for the Stormraven. Here's what it looks like so far.
The base coat here wasn't difficult. I started off with blue for the entire top. Next I taped off where I wanted the sunbeams to come out from and added the yellow. Last I went back and added the half circle to the tail.
The next steps are to add some significant blending to both colors. Then getting some shading in the recesses. After that I need to decide what I want to do with the sides and bottom. I want it to have a completely different look based on the angle.
The base coat here wasn't difficult. I started off with blue for the entire top. Next I taped off where I wanted the sunbeams to come out from and added the yellow. Last I went back and added the half circle to the tail.
The next steps are to add some significant blending to both colors. Then getting some shading in the recesses. After that I need to decide what I want to do with the sides and bottom. I want it to have a completely different look based on the angle.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Iron Hands Librarian
Gundam John had a unique request for a commission: Iron Hands Librarian with a Jump Pack. He's taken to bringing Blood Angels as allies to the Tau. As he's not much of a fan of the Blood Angels and a huge fan of all things machine, doing counts as Blood Angels with Iron Hands is the way to go. Basically, I got this from a lot of drilling, paper clips and wire. There are a few in progress shots before the final.
I started out with the legs from the bikers and cut the leg at the knee.
I then put some drill holes through the top, sides and back.
Next I drilled a 1mm hole straight down into the foot, Straightened out a paperclip and placed it stright down so it runs the length of the interior of the calf. After that I wound some wire around a 1/8" drill bit and then pulled on it to create the coils (really easy).
This picture is terrible. I cut a space marine jump pack up to get a singlethruster. I added the plate from the front of a bike as wings to the side of the thruster. More coils and springs and lots of plugging gaps and holes with green stuff for this.
Again I struggle with the camera, this is the jump pack upside down. I created a green stuff Psychic hood and attached it to the inside of the jump pack, rather than to the Librarian himself. I really wanted to be able to see the librarians head clearly and thought separating it a bit, floating above, would help.
Gundam John couldn't decide what kind of force weapon, but wanted a hammer as well. So I just ended up using the hammer and will have him go "counts as" for whatever it needs to be. In place of a pistol I used a scout shot gun. This is one of my favorites so far and the picture really doesn't do it justice, but will have to do!
Oh and coming soon: Avengers Terminators!
Oh and coming soon: Avengers Terminators!
Monday, July 30, 2012
Blogging is Hard/Henchmen Complete
I rarely am at a loss for words and coming up with content to write about for the blog comes pretty easily with all of the projects that I have going on. Remembering to take pictures of said projects while I am working on them, or before I deliver the commission is another another matter completely.
I recently finished up a huge commission for my friend Simon. Simon was looking for some very unique henchmen for his Grey Knight Army and I can happily say that unique is what I delivered. In my mind I was picturing a world that had been settled a generation ago by the Imperium recently under scrutiny by the inquisition. When the Inquisitor arrives up loyal fanatics of the Emperor rise to his call from all walks of life; former military, sanctioned psykers, anyone that could hold a weapon, monkeys, crazy legless Ogryn cyborgs, etc.
Below are a few snapt shots that Simon's roomate Matt was kind enough to take for me since I had already dropped these off! Many of these are finished versions from the previous post on this project.
.JPG)
This is just a handful of the 75+ models I did. I'll be adding a few more pictures later this week of some the counts as non-GW henchmen that I did, as well as a summary of how my second 6e game went this weekend and the 2000 list that is in process.
I recently finished up a huge commission for my friend Simon. Simon was looking for some very unique henchmen for his Grey Knight Army and I can happily say that unique is what I delivered. In my mind I was picturing a world that had been settled a generation ago by the Imperium recently under scrutiny by the inquisition. When the Inquisitor arrives up loyal fanatics of the Emperor rise to his call from all walks of life; former military, sanctioned psykers, anyone that could hold a weapon, monkeys, crazy legless Ogryn cyborgs, etc.
Below are a few snapt shots that Simon's roomate Matt was kind enough to take for me since I had already dropped these off! Many of these are finished versions from the previous post on this project.
.JPG)
This is just a handful of the 75+ models I did. I'll be adding a few more pictures later this week of some the counts as non-GW henchmen that I did, as well as a summary of how my second 6e game went this weekend and the 2000 list that is in process.
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Time off
Down the Cape for a bit, but brought some models and paints with me. Here's a look at today's "table."
Monday, July 9, 2012
Friday, July 6, 2012
First Taste of 6e
By turn 2 I had my answer, pretty much nothing! I wasn't surprised, but really nothing from the traditional mech elements from my list was working at all. I had thrown in some Assault Marines with Jump packs as a bit of a twist and these performed adequately as expected, but everything else was a mess. This is a shooting game now and transports afford 0 protection for my MSU, which get dumped out and shot up, well before they got where they needed to go.
I wasn't shocked with how the game went, but needed to see the list I had had so much success with get stomped down before giving it up. I've been working on the new list already since last night. It isn't overly imaginative or creative, but includes units I like to play with, that I think will mesh a little better with 6e...except for how to handle flyers...
Running my Edge of Dawn Chapter as Blood Angels....
Librarian Fear the darkness and unleash rage
Librarian Fear the darkness and unleash rage
Honor Guard with Flamer x3
Honor Guard with Plasmaguns x3
10 Assault Marines with jump packs and powerfist
10 Assault Marines with jump packs and powerfist
10 Assault Terminators with 6 Hammer
10 Assault Terminators with 6 Hammer
5 Terminators with Cyclone Missile Launcher
Monday, July 2, 2012
Ogryn Servitor w/ Plasma Cannon WIP/6e Impression so far
Still working on all the henchmen for Simon's "Grey Knights" list, though there isn't a single Grey Knight in the list. The latest is a plasma cannon servitor that goes with the Techmarine. Still a WIP but I'm so excited I had to get some shots up of it.
The entire army is a eclectic combination of different models and kit bashes. The henchmen are a ragtag group that is fanatically following the inquisitor from all backgrounds. This one is hardly the exception. The plasma cannon was from an older dreadnought and obviously metal, which made this a bit of a challenge. I needed a pretty sturdy support which is why I chose the fantasy ogre torso and head. The track was something that Simon suggested when I was going through the bits. He also tossed some strange gears and claw bits from a random accessory kit he won in as well. Good thing the custom bases are metal as well, otherwise I would have had a really hard time given the weight of the weapon. Even still I had to pin the torso, down through the track, into the base to keep it from toppling over. I also had to pin it a bit over to one side, because it would still tip even when pinned it was so side heavy!
The last bit of priming for Simon's models should happen tonight, then it is on to painting the bases. I prefer doing them in a batch so hopefully I can get through those in just a day or two. There are still about 20 models that don't have a speck of painting on them, so I'm not even thinking about being done. However, with Simon moving at the end of July, I do have an inherent deadline that I need to make, which keeps me motivated!
I did finally get my hands on the 6e rulebook last night and am pouring through it. Since I haven't gotten through much of it yet, all I have seen that is knew is the shooting wound allocation, Overwatch and the split of the assault into sub-phases. So far I really like what I see. I can't say for sure but from the little I have read, having a torrent of shooting seems more important than ever. I'm sure I'll have much more to cover as the week goes on about the new rules. First 6e game should be this Thursday night at the FLGS, probably 500 point games.
The entire army is a eclectic combination of different models and kit bashes. The henchmen are a ragtag group that is fanatically following the inquisitor from all backgrounds. This one is hardly the exception. The plasma cannon was from an older dreadnought and obviously metal, which made this a bit of a challenge. I needed a pretty sturdy support which is why I chose the fantasy ogre torso and head. The track was something that Simon suggested when I was going through the bits. He also tossed some strange gears and claw bits from a random accessory kit he won in as well. Good thing the custom bases are metal as well, otherwise I would have had a really hard time given the weight of the weapon. Even still I had to pin the torso, down through the track, into the base to keep it from toppling over. I also had to pin it a bit over to one side, because it would still tip even when pinned it was so side heavy!
The last bit of priming for Simon's models should happen tonight, then it is on to painting the bases. I prefer doing them in a batch so hopefully I can get through those in just a day or two. There are still about 20 models that don't have a speck of painting on them, so I'm not even thinking about being done. However, with Simon moving at the end of July, I do have an inherent deadline that I need to make, which keeps me motivated!
I did finally get my hands on the 6e rulebook last night and am pouring through it. Since I haven't gotten through much of it yet, all I have seen that is knew is the shooting wound allocation, Overwatch and the split of the assault into sub-phases. So far I really like what I see. I can't say for sure but from the little I have read, having a torrent of shooting seems more important than ever. I'm sure I'll have much more to cover as the week goes on about the new rules. First 6e game should be this Thursday night at the FLGS, probably 500 point games.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
50 to 1
Big shift from last week where I was working on 50+ models all at once. This weeks focus has been on a single model for my Vanilla Marines fun list. The list includes Assault Scouts and Landspeeder Storms, which is not something I would be bringing to tournaments, but definitely to Thursday night open gaming. This is the first of the 5 that is done. Two of them are pretty basic, the sergeant has a heavily modified weapon, and the last regular scout is an even more dynamic pose than this one. The pictures aren't great sine I didn't really capture it well. The scout is leaping off a rock, sword drawn, with his cape billowing behind him. Check it out and let me know what you think!
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Been Busy, Henchmen
Work has been busy, so posting has been suffering as a result. Definitely grateful to Simon for the guest spots! So, speaking of Simon, here is what I have been working on lately.
Yeah, that's a lot of Henchmen. Sadly the custom bases didn't come in soon enough for me to get them based proper, but good enough to play with. I may be able to get these taken care of for Saturday morning so that Simon can bring them down to RI to wreck some face. Here are a few close ups...
Donkey Kong, or Jaekero Monkey?
(look at the base, this thing is Huge!)
Warrior Acolyte 1
Warrior Acolyte w/ StormBolter and Crossbow
Warrior Acolyte 2
Once the henchmen are done, it is on to some custom bases for Matt and very special Broadside Suit for Gundam John. I'm holding off on doing anything else of my own until I have the rulebook in hand. I missed out on btoh tourneys this month and next month looks like an off month for the FLGS. So it may be a while before I can get in any serious games. On the bright side this will give me plenty of time to adjust to 6e. Next Scheduled event is August 4, 2000 points. I'm thinking that I will actually check with the wife before registering this time, to avoid the scheduling disasters of May.
Check in next week for the Broadside Project...
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