Thursday, May 31, 2012

Doubles Results

Doubles tournament recap. I'll start by saying it was fun, but I was not satisfied at all with the first or second game.

First game was against Space Puppies and Vampires.  They were rolling with a few of the Forge World variants since the tournament allowed them; Assault drop pod, dreadnought with a Flamestorm Cannon and the Achilles Landraider.  Gundam John glanced the Achilles into a wreck first time, because broadsides can do that.  The game's primary was objectives, 2 in each players deployment zone.  Those in your own zone were worth 2, in your opponents zone were worth 8.  We ended up each getting 2 points.

I over extended with my assault marines in two locations and it cost us the scoring units needed to hold their objectives by turn 6.  We easily won the secondary of kill points though.  I blame myself for this one and would for the same reason I would in the 3rd game and did in both practice games...over extending with the assault marines.  In truth I'm still not use to using them. A whole 5 games is not quite enough to bear something through my skull on how to use it properly.  However, I'm considering this lesson learned at this point.

Game 2 was interesting, 2 Black templars.  Primary was Objectives again, secondary was kill a unit of your opponents that you specify ahead of time. Tertiary was kill points.  I may have the order here mixed up a bit...They were running a pair of land raiders, 4 land speeders (3 were typhoons), 3 terminator squads (2 regular and 1 assault in a LRC) and some crusader squads.

This game went the way it should.  I if I used my assualt marines in every game like I did in this one, there is a good chance we would have tabled our opponents the first round and at least made a good show of the last round.  I plowed forward with the terminator squad right from the start, and brought out the honor guard into cover on the other side.  I kept all of the assault marines within range so the would counter assault anything that went at the terminators.  Turn 1 got a great run 6" and they were out in the open ready to get hit by 3 different squads on turn 2 if they took the bait.

Turn 1 Gundam John tries to take out the land raider we marked and immbolizes it on their table edge in the corner...there it would stay otherwise unharmed for the rest of the game...seemed like a great idea...

Anyway on turn 2 I pull the terminators back a hair, making the the distance for assault on their turn pretty questionable.  They argue back and forth if they should assault or not.  I'm trying not to laugh.  One want to assault and the other wants to ignore the terminators and get closer to the broadsides.  Both of these are the wrong answer.  At this point they are both so exposed to my TDA and assault marines, the only smart thing would have been to pull back about 6 inches so the assault terminators could catch up and be in the fight next turn.

They chose to ignore the terminators.  Next turn the kroot come on from the side and hammer the assault termiantors against my TDA anvil.  I multi-assault into the ranged TDA and some crusaders.  We win the assault and all that remains is on of the Black Templar Assault terminators, PERFECT.  We can't get shot up that turn.  We easily finish him off during their assault then recover to take out the crusaders that ignored my terminators.  We end up with Victory points and the objectives, but tie on the secondary to kill the marked for death unit.

Game 3 was a horrid mess from the start.  We were both mentally capped to start

First Commission Part I

Well it is not exactly my first commission, but it is the first work I'm doing that isn't for someone that wasn't a friend before they were a customer.

Here's the mini, an Orc assassin.  I have free reign on this one to paint it however I see fit.


First process is to remove all of the mold lines and any excess metal bits with a file.  After that a quick soap and rinse.  After that I let it sit overnight to air dry.  Using paper or cloth towels can sometimes leave residue, so best to let it sit. 

is a quick soap and rinse of the model and then leave it overnight to air dry. Next I addressed the sword and the claws.  Metal is malleable and these things were bent all over the place!

I used the other end of a paint brush to separate the claws to a better angle.  I followed this up with a grey primer.  When I don't have a complete color scheme mapped out, I prefer to use grey.  This way I can go light or dark without having to do excessive base coats.  It turned out I could have gone with black, but it would have been more of a time benefit than any effect on how the model looks.

My base coating is not very clean, but since there are several layers on top of this, it doesn't need to be.




I ended up having a really hard time with the claws.  I wanted it to have slick, poison coated lick, but the fancier I got with it, the worse it looked.  It got so bad I actually had to scrape off the layers of paint and start from scratch.  I went simple and was please with the end look.  It isn't fancy, but solid.


Here I am starting to get into the details a bit more.  I also decided I wanted to the shirt under the armor to pop a bit more, so I added a base coat.  This is where having things planned out would have helped a lot.  Getting stripes on the white, with everything around it already based and washed was tough so it took longer than I would have like to get through this step.  The brown leather and grey leather armor get some highlights as well here. 

The metal armor gets a layer of wash (I skipped these pictures and am disappointed that I did since I think the metal armor was the most successful parts of the model. 
1. Base Black
2. Layer Boltgun
3. Wash with Black
4. Highlight with Chainmail
5. Wash with brown
6. Wash with Black after brown has completely dried
7. Silver scratches are added all over and on the studs
8. Wash with Black
9. More silver scratches (this gives it more age, new and old damage)






 And here are the stripes!  More green highlights, I started to add a little yellow to the green at the end.


Look I remembered that my phone has a flash.  Probably a little too much light, but it makes the color scheme a little clearer.  At this point I am about 90% done.  I want to go back and make sure there isn't any primer or under coats peaking through in the joints.  I also want to take a shot at aging the leather pieces a bit as well.  Neither of those will be difficult or time consuming.

Next up on the list, Psykers and Warrior Acolytes, tons of them!

Friday, May 25, 2012

Doubles is tomorrow...am I ready?


Not really, but close enough.  As usual the army is not quite finished and will not be 100% by tomorrow morning.  I still need to shade 10 assault marines,  25 marines need to be based, 5 honor guard need some touch up and the bases themselves need to be finished...The good news is that I don't have to model or paint the piranhas Gundam John was going to use.  Something about the version if IA they are from isn't allowed, so he'll be using Pathfinders instead.

To do list
Dip Marines
Highlight Honor Guard Wings (using Sanguinary Guard models)
Add snow to bases
Add models to bases
Highlights on Apothecary
Shoulders on Honor Guard
Company Standard...I'm drawing a complete blank on this, might need some outside input quickly!

Bases
Another hidden gem is the bases I started last night.  I have had the idea for months and just hadn't gotten around to it. Slate.  Roofing slate to be precise.  My mother has been painting welcome signs on slates for years so I took a few of the broken chips from the pile.  Chipping them down further to the size of  about an infantry base.

First I used white glue to get sand on the base, followed up with a quick black spray paint coat.  I dry brushed a couple of shades of gray onto this to make the texture pop a bit more.  After that dried  I started gluing on bits of slate.  I started with a small piece on one end of the base, then placed a larger piece over it so that one end of the large piece sits on the base and the other end is angled up.  The Death Co. Models are all angled so that they are looking down or a little hunched over with the jump packs.  I found it hard to see the details of the paint job on the front of the models with them flat on a base.  With the slate angled  it will be much easier on the eyes to take in the paint job.

This is where I am, about to add the models to the base, but remembered that the board I am working on is also going to be covered with snow.  I'll try and get some snow on the edges of the slate tonight before getting the models attached...This actually is getting me worries since I am not sure how well the plastic and slate will stick...something I should have tested out before getting 25 of these bases assembled...we'll find out tonight.

Narrative
On a side note to the model preparation, Gundam John and I have been collaborating on a narrative to go along with the list.  A little extra flavor or fluff to bring along with us for our opponents to read while they wait for us to setup.  Once we have that finished, I will be adding it here along with the WIP history of my DIY chapter "The Edge of Dawn".

Expect an update this weekend on how things go tomorrow.  I'm looking for us to win all three games and to table at least one player. 




Monday, May 21, 2012

Doubles Practice Game II

John and I got in another doubles practice game on Thursday night against Simon and Bill.  Same lists as last time.  We played spearhead/kill points this time.  To make a long game a short story, we didn't fair much better. 

They seized the initiative and stuck a wicked first round of shooting that I was not able to recover from.  I was positioned correctly for cover saves, but had we gone first my honor guard would have jumped out of LOS, rather than being knocked off the table before things even began.

I was really counting on the honor guard to make up some more kills this time around.  They were supposed to jump around back easily able to stay out of LOS for two rounds and would have been in a prime position to multi-assault a psyker battle squad and heavy weapons team.  However, no such luck.  With them gone before things started, we were consistently, just shy of accomplishing anything the whole rest of the game.  It also really hurt to not have that other priest on the board.

The terminators were fantastic as usual.  Though I am thinking of dropping one more to bring it to 8 and giving the Librarian TDA and a shield.  Once they're are in CC he is far too vulnerable to power-fists and power-weapons.

There were no gaping wholes in either list for team: "For the Greater Booze", but definitely some adjustments in play style.  It is definitely important that I position the assault elements well to close within the shortest amount of time, but not at the expense of being left in the open, or over extending and getting assault first.  Target priority was really good for the second game in a row.  At this point if we get 3 mech opponents in a row at the tournament I am convinced we will dominate. 

We're not going to get in another game before Saturday, so we'll have to go with what we have been able to learn in the last couple of weeks.  I have plenty of painting still to get done before then so keep your eyes open for some WIP pictures coming around before Saturday!

To do:
2 Piranhas (primed)
10 Assault Marines (base coat complete)
5 Honor Guard  (base coat complete)
1 Sanguinary Priest (base coat complete)
Bases for everything but the terminators

Part 1 of ‘Balance is Bad’

Guest Author Simon Leen 
 

It is quite common to hear that everything else being equal, the more balanced a list, the more likely you are to win a tournament with it and that we therefore ought all to be taking balanced lists to tournaments. The reasoning behind this claim, as I understand it, is that if you bring an unbalanced list, there is a high percentage that at some point over the course of a tournament, you will run into a list that counters yours and therefore lose the game and fail to win the tournament. Taking a balanced list does not ensure that you win the tournament, but it does ensure that you’ll have a shot at doing so. It has long struck me that this advice is only applicable to a certain narrow band of tournament players and that it is more reasonable for the rest of us to be taking unbalanced lists.

For the sake of clarity, allow me to idealize tournament games such that a game between two equally skilled players playing the same army is just as likely to be won by one as the by the other. There is any number of factors that might shift the probability in favor of one player or the other, but I am here only interested in two. First, they might be playing different armies, and this may or may not have an effect on who is most likely to win. We can argue about whether lists have absolute quality, but they clearly have relative quality. That is, there are pairs of lists such that one of the two is more likely to win against the other than to lose, given equal general skill.
An army that is what we will call ‘perfectly balanced’ will not impact the ability of the general running it to win any match, while what we will call ‘perfectly imbalanced’ will ensure victory half of your opponents and ensure defeat against the other half

The other variable is player skill. The more skilled I am relative to you, the more likely I am to win our games. While this is not obviously the case, I believe that the impact relative player skill has on games is partially a function of relative army quality. My assumption, which I will only defend with examples, is that the closer the armies are in relative quality, the more relative player skill matters. Take two generals, A and B. A is moderately more skilled than B. Suppose further that A and B are running perfectly balanced armies. A will, I submit, win more games by a comfortable margin. Now suppose A and B are playing perfectly imbalanced armies. If A is playing the better army, he will still win all of his games, and if he is playing the worse army, he will still lose all of his games. We see in the first example that relative player skill has a large effect when the armies are evenly matched and no effect when they are very poorly matched. This should make sense; generalship has a larger effect on the game as the general has more control over what happens, and we should expect a general to have more control over a game as the effect of other variables is minimized.

The point of all of this is as follows. Suppose you are an excellent general. If you bring an unbalanced list and pull good match-ups, you win. If you bring an unbalanced list and pull bad match-ups, you lose. If you bring a balanced list, it doesn’t matter what sort of match-ups you pull, as you can be assured that your army will, at worst, only be slightly out-matched. And, since you are an excellent general, you stand a good chance of overcoming a slight army mis-match. So, for an excellent general, bringing a balanced list is a good idea.

Suppose, however, that you are, like me, a mediocre general. It is quite likely that you will, at some point, run into a better general. Suppose I run into a better general with my balanced list. I am quite likely to lose. Suppose however, that I brought an unbalanced list. If his list is a bad match-up, I lose. But if his list is a good match-up for me, I stand a decent chance of winning. I need the imbalance in list quality to make up my deficient generalship.

To use a real life example, Ben Mohlie, Alex Fennell, and their ilk play at the tournaments that my local store puts on. By the time the last round rolls around, I’m frequently playing on one of the top tables against one of these guys. Baring extreme luck or a bad army match-up for them, they’re going to beat me. I can’t control the luck, but I can control how likely it is that my army will be a bad match-up for theirs. The more one-dimensional my list, the more likely I’ll get lucky and the tools to deal with his army. And if I get unlucky with my unbalanced list and pull a bad-match up early against a worse general and don’t even make it to the final tables, well, the end outcome isn’t any worse than I had brought a balanced list and lost on the top table in the last round.

Friday, May 18, 2012

Primed!

I didn't get nearly as much done this or last week for 40k as I would have liked, but with yard work, Mother's day and little one not sleeping through the night...I can't complain that everything I need for the 1250 doubles is at least primed.

I've been struggling with modelling the gear configuration all week.  With the majority of the list having jump packs I really wanted to keep the Vanguard (not the unit, but actually military formation) feel to the list.  Instead of doing melta guns and plasma guns, I have been modelling each with two plasma pistols or two infernus pistols.  I love the look, but have wysiwyg concerns for the tournament.  No where in the list am I using either type of pistol as a pistol, so they cannot be confused in that way, but I can still see how it is confusing at a glance to someone.  I'll be running it by the tournament organizer this week to be on the safe side and make sure to explain the setup as well.

I put some special effort into the hair on the Honor Guard, that I am thrilled with. I just need to figure out how to work up the highlights on it next.  Everything else got primed...except for two should pads I forgot to add to the melta gun for the second assault squad.  I'm planning on doing this squad of assault marines just like the second one which will speed the process along.  The terminators and first assault squad are done already, so I'm more than half way there.

On a completely different note, expect to see a series of guest articles coming out here. Simon has been too lazy to start his own blog, but looking for an outlet for his many thoughts and unique perspective on the game.  Look for the his bio and first entry later this week, along with more pictures of the 1250 list in progress!

Friday, May 11, 2012

First Doubles Practice Game

Gundam John and I had our first doubles practice game last night.  I'm suffering from some sleep deprivation so the order of events and details could be a little off...or completely fabricated.

The mission was 5 objectives with a pitched battle deployment.  We won the roll for objectives and placed two in our deployment zone and the other midfield.  Tau and BA vs. Guard and BA.  Both of the lists we were facing were nothing like what we usually run into and definitely not what our lists were prepared to face.  There was well over 120 guard on the table, and about 50 marines.  The number of models looked closer to 2000 than it did 1250.  Thankfully, I'd also switched to a de-meched style with lots of bodies, and Gundam John was running a couple big Kroot squads to help even out the model count.

We did something we don't do a whole lot of as teammates and actually talked during the deployment and movement phase *GASP*.  Rail guns in the back with cover from the terminators, suits and assault marines behind cover in case of a seize.  We through the two piranhas and a squad of jump marines on the far left away from our castle on the right near the objectives.

The first two turns didn't go so well for us,  I lost 7 guys from a marine squad from an AP 2 Psyker Blast, even with cover.  I also misjudged range when advancing my honor guard and ended up placing them in assault range of Simon's Assault marines.  Ended up losing all but the priest before my 10 man squad came to bail them out.  Marines moved forward and ignored most everything that hit them.  Tau fired a bunch of shots and Simon's marines failed a few cover saves.  It wasn't enough damage to make me feel like we were making progress, but over the course of the game the rate at which power armor came off the board proved to be adequate.

Round 2 was much like round 1 with us killing a few things and us losing more than I would have liked to.  But by round three the terminators hit their wheel house midfield and started chewing up assault marines.  Also the Psychic hood started really earning it's keep against the Guard Psyker squad, shutting down several shots.

By the end of round 4, there were only 5 Blood Angel models on the table, all mine.  Tau shooting and Terminator Assaults had cleared them off the table.  Also, so bad leadership checks got them running, with my keeping within 6 to jump them off.

We were in a really stong position going into turn 5.  We had 3 objectives to their 1.  However, at the bottom of 5 some great shooting cleared us off two of the objectives and the game ended.  Not much we could have done at that point except pray for another turn.  The further the game went at that point would have favored us heavily; but at the bottom of 5, Kroot on one objective took 25% casualties and ran, while the one assault marine left on another objective took a Lascannon shot to the face.

I was thrilled with how both of our lists performed.  We could have done a couple of things differently that would have made a difference.  The lone marine at the end, was part of the AP2 Blast round 1.  I was too agressive moving these forward first turn...a mistake I made against Simon last time we played that apparently hasn't stuck.  If I had held them back out of range I would have been in a much better place to hold objectives with them later on.  Alternately, if they were split into combat squads, I could have held 5 back and still pressed ahead with the others.

The part of the game where I felt we dominated was definitely midfield control.  In an objective game like this it was crucial.  We were successful in keeping them pressed into their deployment zone most of the game. 

I'm very excited to see how this list plays out against the more traditional armies that will be at the tournament.  I know we'll see plenty of Necrons and Grey Knights.  I don't see either of these being too much of an issue since the Tau shooting counters both of these rather nicely.  Also, our lack of armor is something most opponents are not prepared for.  I'm planning on making some minor changes to the list, mostly wargear swaps, nothing major.

Lots to paint for this tournament and two weeks is not as long as it sounds. 

My to do List:
Greenstuff hair for 2 Assault Marines and 3 Honor Guard
Paint 5 Honor Guard (Banner for the Honor Guard Priest and more distinctive shoulder pads)
Paint 10 Assault Marines
Repaint Shoulder Pad for Librarian
Base 6 objective Markers
Base 20 Assault Marines and 5 Honor Guard


Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Revised Doubles List

This week it has been all Repentia, Acolyte Warriors, and Pskyers for Simon...who I am still waiting on Bat Reps from Adeptican.  Repentia are nearly done, just need the finest highlights.  Warriors and Psykers are coming along...there are 48 total models.  I have them all assembled and primed.  The base coating is going to be assembly line. First step was skin, which is done.  I'm now about a dozen models in doing red clothe and robes.  No idea how long this will take, but I am actually enjoying the process.  The models are each very unique, so even though they are assembly line each model is getting different attention.  Simon picked up some more Death Co. with prize money from a recent tourney for painting trade.  Since I need the 5 more models for the doubles list I need to get a good amount of these done for him sooner rather than later!

Speaking of the doubles list, here is what I am looking at so far...

Librarian - Unleash Rage and....maybe Shield or Fear the Darkness?
Honor Guard with plasma guns x3 and jump packs

Assault Marines 10 Fist meltagun x2 and jump packs
Assault Marines 10 Fist meltagun x2 and jump packs

Assault Terminators 10 6 claws, 4 hammers
Priest

37 models at 1250 is plenty for me.  The flexibility of the 10 man units to combat squad means having enough troops for objectives will be a piece of cake.  John's planning on brining 3 troops choices anyway, so that is covered.  Between melta guns and Broadsides, heavy armor is now worries.  Missile pod crisis suits should chew up transports and the terminators with the libby and priest can handle just about everything.  We really just need to get in a a bunch of practice games.  Of course this week is not looking very good for that.

The list also needs lots of painting work so as soon as I get that rolling I'll be adding some pics.