Doubles Round-up: Land Raiders and Helldrakes!

 

 Frosty and I entered in a doubles event this past weekend.  Each player brings 1000 points and we combine into a standard FOC.  Basically, our list consisted of 3 Land Raiders, 2 Helldrakes, a Stormraven and a Demon Prince...and required troops blah blah blah. Blood Angels and Chaos Marines.  We basically were counting on lots of players with the new marine book and grav guns and for no one to bring melta-guns.

Here's how things played out.  First game was against Grey Knights and Blood Angels.  Dreadknight, couple of Stormravens, Furioso and troops.  5 objectives and 1 player from each coalition was marked for death.  We picker their blood angels and they picked our chaos marines.  This was a hard fought game that we ended up getting a moderate win out of.  We made a lot of smart decisions and lucked out by having the Stormraven with the Durioso in it, not show up until turn 4.

Game 2 was against Black Templars and Tau.  This game went as well as to be expected.  Templats had a LRC w/ a multi-melta and a few squads of crusaders, w/ melta guns. We lost a pair of Land Raiders promptly and the missile sides pounded the flyers.  We got 0 points from this match.  This was one of those match ups we were just hoping not to get.

Game 3 vs. Nids and Guard...at this time in the day and considering how game 2 went we were tired and had no chance of placing.  Instead we concerned our selves with having a good time.  My Librarian went straight for the the MC bugs with his force sword and the raiders went full speed into the hordes.  Both the Crusader and Redeemer ate up guard and bugs left and right....which is good because the Nids were spitting out 15+ more termagaunts a turn.  Frosty got his land raider blown up right off the bat and his demon prince got popped quick failing saves against a manticore. So I had to carry the day...which I did not do.  I ended up clearing off tons of models and prevented anyone from holding the relic in the middle of the board when the game ended.  We had a great time though on both sides of the table.

Next up looks like it may be a 2500 double force org...

First Impressions of Space Marines

 

I'll leave it to every other site and blog out there to the hard core break down of the book, say what is good or bad, and to do an in depth analysis of the codex.  What I will way of it is this.  It is what I expected it to be, with one or two exceptions. I expected the model costs to be on par with Dark Angels and for the most part this was correct.  Scouts were modified just enough to be worth taking, which I was really pleased about.  It was something about the DA book that rubbed me the wrong way...after I buy camo cloaks they cost the same as Tactical marines???  Glad to see that minor change there. Librarian Level 2 upgrade is a bit cheaper as well.  Though I'd rather have access to divination for the difference!

Another deviation from the DA book is the Artifact section.  Each piece of gear looks either fun to use or really fun to model.  Both the Artificer Armor and the Stormshield are considerations if I did not want to run a named character in the HQ.

 The biggest shock for me was the point cost (I won't touch on the $$$ cost) of the centurions.  Without the ability to deepstrike or have an invulnerable save they are not worth the price per model.

While I am not blown away by this book it is what I exepcted it to be.  Not top tier competitive, but a nice update to what the marines have been, mostly as a result of the decrease in unit costs. I'm going to try them out proxied anyway to be thorough, but not expecting much for the results of that trial.

Unlike the DA book I've already got a list in mind that I am excited about running in the first week.  I'll post it sometime Friday, after I get to play it Thursday night

1500 Tournament Results

I ended up brining Guard with Dark Angels this past weekend.  Two platoons, two Psyker Battle Squads, a manticore and Azrael.  I won one of the three games, which is what I was expecting seeing as I knew what the issues were with the list and just didn't want to over adjust it to the point where I did not know what I was doing.

Game 1 Nate playing Demons with Orks (Nate went on to win the tournament)

Cool list that was short on troops, but very in your face.  Bloodthirster, great unclean one and Ork Boss on Bike with Biker Nobz all deployed center and came at me.  I tried using the Manticore and PBS to blast the troops, but it just didn't work out.  One Bike survived and hid out of LOS on an objective and I just could not inflict enough wounds on the Horrors or plague bearers.

I took out too many Lascannons and put in too many Autocannons. I was concerned about flyers and not concerned enough about monsterous creatures.  This ended up being a really big deal.  Didn't hurt that the Bloodthirster was rolling with a 4+ FNP either.

I didn't make a whole lot of mistakes during this game.  My target priority was sound, deployment solid.  I was dreadfully under-prepared for this kind of list.  Big mistake, the flying circus is something everyone should be prepared for.  Even though these guys were not flying much I still need to be prepared for MCs and this list was not at all.

Game 2 Tyler and hs space puppies

I like Tyler's play style.  Puppies all in your face, either via drop pod or on bikes.  This was not an optimal min/max, or spam list.  Rather a bunch of tools for many situations.  I could tell he had been playing the list a while and was comfortable with what it could and could not do.

Deployment sucked big for me on this one.  Hammer and Anvil, scouring and 6 objectives worht different points.  Points are revealed after sides are chosen....so yeah all the points on a long table are in my opponents zone.  This game was over before it started.

Tyler took advantage of a very small area right along the table edge to drop his drop pod....just close enough in range of my manticore.  Really stupid on my part since the melta popped the manticore before my first turn.  The game went down hill from there.  In order to have a chance I was going to need to take out the 10 puppies before leaving my deployment zone.  My blob moved back and took care of them, but that one turn was enough.  By the next turn I needed to deal with the lone wolf...then the other lone wolf, and by this point was hemmed in.  Another game where my opponent got near max points.


Game 3 Steve with...Guard and Dark Angels

I made a few mistakes in this game (tired and probably more than a little lazy given my record for the day) but luckily they did not cost me the game.  I chose night-fighting with the warlord power and went first...now I should have popped his manticore with his HQ right next to it on the first turn after night fighting...instead I dropped it on his Ogryns that t had a 4++ from the Chaplain's Power Field Generator.  Was hoping to double them out.

So he drops his manticore on Azrael directly.  Azrael fails 3 of the 12 look out sirs.  Then gets 3 ones...thansk dice, one of those was enough to double him out.  So the next turn I learn my lesson and hope it is not too late. I take out the chimera and his HQ with the next shot and the PSB destroy troop after troop.  I really felt at this point like I was getting the hang of them.  I ended up winning my last game handily and Steve was another great person to play against.

I had three really enjoyable games and turned out my opponetns agreed since I was tied for sportsmans' prize.  On top of that the Guardsmen took home the best painted.  So I liked to think I won everything that had nothing to do with the playing the game.

I'm excited for the new vanilla book next week and finding a way to take the models I have and try and get back into serious competition, hopefully the new book will present me with some options that are competitive and fun, or at least competitive and I already own them!

Guard vs. Wave Serpeants....giving up on the game....

Bill needed some more Nova practice so I quickly added some points to the 1500 I have been gearing up for so he could get another game in.  He's got 5 Wave sepreants and the Supplement giant HQ dude.  I brought a blob, some autocannon teams, manticores the two Psyker Battle Squads and the defense line.  The game was over after two turns.  My shooting first turn was decent, but with the pen to glance rolls, I just ended taking hull points off of whatever was in range.

Next turn the torrent of fire came down and I took most of my army off the table.  I took the rest of it off the next turn.  This is not a complaint against the Wave Serpent List.  Yes it is a slice of cheese, but my frustration has much more to do with the armies I own and the current rule sets that apply.  Dark Angels got a very fluffy fun book that has no business at a competitive event.  Regular marines are overdue for an update (not bitter, just a couple more weeks there). Blood Angels time has passed.  Guard just don't bring the bang at all like they used to.

I could try out GK or Wolves with the models that I have, but I'd be plugging holes in a doomed ship.  So what am I to do?  I'm not reinvesting in the game at this point for a new army...but I really need to see something in the Vanilla Marines book that tells me they will be competitive and not just like the Dark Angels book where they dropped the prices for models, added some overpriced artifacts and pushed it out the door.

I've always been about power armor and assault, clearly this is not the edition for me!  I'm not giving up.  I'm going to take the one gimmick out of the DA book that works and try and make it work for me.  Azrael blob here we go?

WIP: Psyker Battle Squad

Here's how the PBS is coming along.  I have all 20 modelled up, tails and snouts chopped off and the hooded cloaks from green stuff are in place.  I feel like the robes and tattered armor would be out of place if I added strictly las pistols and future cc weapons, so I stuck with the orginal skaven weaponry for the most part.  A few have las pistols and more than a few have space marine helmets as trophies impaled on the spears to give it more of a 40k feel than fantasy.  The first hood probably took me 20-30 minutes...by the time I got it down it was closer to 3.  Here's what they are starting to look like, forgive the iPictures quality.

Psyker Battle Squads

Been working on the 1500 list for the next tournament and already overhauled the list by taking out the entirety of the Dark Angels.  Straight up Guard. They are certainly a struggle as a main detachment and even more so without allies, but I feel like this will not be as big of a problem at lower point levels.

First thing's first I needed two Psyker Battle Squad and a Defense Line.  My DIY defense line was taking too long and was too far down on the priority list, so I caved and bought the kit.  Just need to scrape the aquilas off and it is good to go.  If I have time I'll do some free hand on it, or maybe add some guard kits and gear around the bases to look like it is an active defense at all times.

The Psyker Battle Squad was a challenge.  I'm not up for buying and painting 20 metal models. So I grabbed a box of Skaven instead...because they have the same number of models in one box that I need.  Good logic right?  Here's the first one remodelled all the way through.  Heads gone and tails removed since rats as guard has already been done, and done well in my gaming circle, I thought I'd go another way with these models...

Just going to have the two overseers with the banners so I can pick them out.  The rest are going to have CC weapons or pistols per the wargear.  The most will have trophies they carry of the space marines they have defeated, helmets or weapons.  Going to get trade off between modelling the others and getting some paint on this fella.  The hoods take a while to model and cure, so there is time in between to get a paint scheme started.  I was thinking of doing the tan robes I have always done for the Dark Angels models, but now leaning more towards the blue or yellow that I have been using for the rest of the Guardsmen's armor instead, to liven things up a bit.  More to come!

Gearing up for 1500

Working on a much different kind of list for the 1500 at the end of the month.  DA and Guard was  bust last time around, so I am really mixing things up with Guard and DA.  I'm hitched to the Azrael Blob.  I love how it works and finally feel I have a handle on it and didn't want to give up on that element.  That being said there were several other things in the list not working out well at all, so time for a mix up at lower levels.  I am not giving up on DA w/Guard entirely, just feel like that is better for me to work out at 1850.

Here is what I'm looking at for 1500...

Company Command Squad with Lascannon
Azrael
Platoon Command with Autocannon
40 Blob of Guard with axes, Autocannons and Flamers
Penal Legion
Scouts w/ Snipers and Cloaks
Psyker Battle Squad x2
Deathwing Hammers x2 and Plasmacannon
Lemun Russ Eradicator
Aegis Defense Line w/ Quadgun

Should be getting in my first practice game with this on Friday and working on it all week to get it painted up.

1. Assemble Quad Gun
2. Remove Aquila from Aegis Line
3. Make sure Snipers are wysiwyg
4. Test subject for the Psyker Battle Squad - need to make sure the hoods look good....
5. Fix center of the display board
6. Paint Penal Legion
7. Clean up DW Terminators
8. Finish Azrael
9. Clean up CCS
10. Clean up PCS
11. Clean up the Blob
12. Assemble Psyker Battle Squads with green stuff hoods/cloaks
13. Details to the Aegis Defense line, then prime and paint
14. Clean up the LR Eradicator

Looks like I have quite a bit to do...you'll notice that I have left the harder parts until the end.  If I don't love the list I may just finish painting a few bikes and run an all Ravenwing list instead which would compete well for best painted and be fun to play.

40K Shark Week

Playing lately has been a disaster so ere going to focus on modeling this week and it happens to be Shark Week so....

Here's the chapter master of the Shark Marines! This is a left over I have been meaning to get to for months but couldn't find a proper sized shark. Helping clean out my mother in laws attic two weeks ago we came across this and BAM!

Next up I'm taking a hand at painting a necron....

Tournament Recap

Well, more planning went into the list and more test runs than usual and it ended up being a total disaster.  Here's the run down.

Game one against Necrons with Chaos Marines.  Demon Prince, 3 Tesla gun cron fliers and a chaos fire chicken.  I have Flakk missiles and tons of twin linked las cannons, piece of cake right?  I spent 5 turns shooting and only knocked off a single hull point from the 4 fliers.  This game was a little all over the place.  It started with Vanguard deployment with a ton of line of site terrain mid table.  He pretty much stayed in his corner, got good lines of site and shot at me at his max range with his whole army for the game.  Rather than redeploy my ranged units and suffer through snap shots, I kept shooting at the fliers.  In retrospect I should have ignored them and gone after everything else.  Lesson learned.  Also, had a bad roll with the Blackknights failing a hit and run check.  It's going to happen, but would have been better to not happen against a Demon Prince, who happened to already make 5 out of 5 invulnerable saves.

Game 2 was against Troy and his drop pods all over the place.  I played the first couple rounds well staying castled up, weathering each landing and shooting back.  As soon as I tried to spread out fo objectives things went poorly.  The pods ended up coming in a couple each turn through turn 4, which actually worked out really well for him.  As soon as I started to move towards objectives with the troops I had left, he would drop a couple pods in front of each one.  I should not have over extended so soon and recognized as pods were still in reserve that I should have pushed later or dedicated more units towards each objective.

Game 3 was just about learning how the new eldar work for me.  My opponent was not on his game and frequently asked to go back to do psycic powers after finishing the movement or shooting phase.  I let him, since we were at the bottom of the barrel, but the game would have been quite different had I not.  I got very lazy and he was kind enough to remind me of a few things as well, so it worked out pretty well.  I think the problem was I would fall asleep during the time it takes for all 300000 psykers in the list to cast their powers each turn!  protection and fortune is just stupid sauce that I'll need to start accommodating for, going to need a bit more AP.

As poorly as I played I had a great time as usual.  I came back ready to scrap the list completely and start from scratch...but after cooling down I decided to adjust instead.  I did finally get the hang of the Azrael blob and used it effectively in all 3 games.  The Black Knights were great in game one immobilizing a maulerfied and if they had hit and run, would have wasted a demon prince as well.  I need to be a little less aggressive with them and should start to get the hang of how they operate. 

Terminators were another interesting point throughout.   They survived better in all 3 games, but still never really did what I wanted them to do, which is to either absorb enough fire power to let something else live, or smash something apart.  I think better use of them will be as an objective holding deterrent.  Keep them on or near an objective that an opponent would need to over commit to.  Either they need to bring so much firepower to bear to kill them that everything else of mine can survive, or they let me have the objective.  Kill points I need to completely re-think, because these guys just give up the point without taking anyone with them.

Devastator Squads were too utility like.  Flakk missiles, lascannons and plasmacannons was too much everything, and not enough useful.  I cut one out the flakk squad and change the other plasma to las.  Still don't know how I am going to deal with fliers, but going to try the ignore and absorb approach.

Next tourney is small points either 1250 or 1500. We'll see how that goes!

Dark Angels/Imperial Guard 1850 Tournament

I'm working on my 1850 DA/IG list for a tourney at the end of the month.  Had a couple of games already, both losses, but this is fine since I've confirmed some issues I thought might come up with the list and made some more adjustments.

Here's what we are looking at right now...

HQ

Azrael

Company Command Squad (4) Lascannon

Troops

Deathwing Squad (5) Thunder Hammer x3, Plasmacannon

Ravenwing Bikes (5) Plasmagun x2

Ravenwing Bikes (3) Meltagun x2

Platoon Command Squad (4) Lascannon

Infantry platoon Squad x4 (40) Poweraxe, Meltabomb, Flamer, Lascannon

Fast Attack

Black Kinghts (6) grenade launcher

Heavy Support

Devastator Squad (5) Lascannon x3

Devastator Squad (5) Lascannon x3

Devastator Squad (5) Lascannon x3

 

 I tried running Ravenwing Command Squad instead of the knights, but the Ravenwing Banner and Apothecary ended up as wasted points: upgrades that slow down losing are better spend elsewhere.  The Knights do all the same for the most part and have a 6th rider for the same emount of points.

I'm running 5 Deathwing instead of 6+.  I had been running into trouble with 5, keeping them alive and useful, so I kept adding more.  Instead I should have been focusing on how I was using them.  Anything that can kill 5 with ease, can kill 6 or 7 just as easily.  Instead I should be making better use of them.  Rather than meeting other elite units head on and losing, these guys should be walking over a couple of troops units, or just sitting on an objective daring anyone to come at them, they are scoring after all!

The Plasma bike squad was always just shy of doing what they needed to and unlike with the terminators I felt like 2 more bodies would make a difference.  5 vs. 7 is very different than 3 vs. 5, especially when they are not fearless.

For the Company and Platoon Command I stopped getting fancy and just gave them each a Lascannon.  No more Plasma and Chimeras or trying to work in Creed to scout the blob forward.  This area was sucking up too many points that weren't doing enough.  I know the Lascannons won't do much easier, but am ok with that considering the cost.  

The Infantry Squad I bumped up to 4 units instead of 3 and went with the Lascannons instead of the Autocannons.  AP4 doesn't do a whole lot for me right now and I feel like this is more effective anti-air.  Giving these guys a re-roll order to hit against flyers, plus the other ranged weaponry should do the trick, without having to blow points on flakk or quadgun.

The devastator squads are the biggest divergence from the other list versions I have been running.  I'm usually running one of these squads, sometimes with another that has Flakk Missiles, and sometimes with Plasmacannons.  The risk I m taking with this is to run them without the Librarian.  Not sure if I am making the right move with this or no and feel like this is where I need the most advice.  65 points gets me a divination librarian.  Guarunteed to get re-roll to hit and could also get ignore cover, full BS overwatch, or make opponent re-roll sucessful saves.

I ended up opting for another lascannon squad instead of the librarian, streamlining much like I did with the bikes and the command squads.  Is this the right call or should I add the librarian back in...with mastery level 2...with a force field generator?

Commission: Cleric of Good Part III

Here's the final product for the Cleric of Good that I delivered last Tuesday.  Sorry for the delay, but I spent the rest of last week on Cape Cod with the folks, wife and kids.  Great weather and a very relaxing break!

Only a little more was done from the last update: mostly cleaning up the fine highlights on the skin and on the hammer. I also made sure to get the eyes and all of the gems adorning the outfit and book. Another 30 minutes worth of work

It took another 5 minutes to get this guy sealed.  Interesting side note...I used a matte varnish for this guy and a satin varrnish on Gundam John's devel fish at the same time.  The satin one was apparently a little older and left a terrible filmy coating on the model, which would not wipe off...pretty much ruined it.  I stopped by the store to watch Frosty and Gundam John play a game and was telling them about how the satin finish messed up the model...then from across the store says, use a q-tip and some olive oil to take that off. John and I both turn, "Thank you mysterious stranger!"  This worked like a charm!  Should have taken before and after pics in retrospect.  I can't explain how much time and effort this saved me.

Any way... I was thrilled with how it came out and thankfully so was the client.  I'm always nervous to see how it goes.  So far my commissions have been face to face transactions through word of mouth, which is fantastic, but I get anxious waiting for the clients' reactions when they see what they are paying for, even when I'm happy with how it looks.

I was really happy with how the primary colors worked out overall.  The blue was an after thought since I thought it was looking too drab.  The red doesn't scream good guy to me, but since that was the customers request I wanted to tone that down by adding in the blue and the white.  This was a nice escape from the grim dark future, but with an 1850 tournament around the corner, I'm excited to get that army in gear as well.  I'm using much of what I brought to the doubles tournament, so those bikes are set to go.  The devastators are also complete.  I just need to get the guard squared away and get started on a librarian on a bike, wielding the Mace of Redemption.

Cleric of Good Part II

More wrk on the cleric today. Wish I had taken a few more step by step pictures but didn't want to break up the rhythm.

 

Got color all over and then wash. Following the I did some gradual dry blending on the cape. The cape surface was not flat enough for me to get clean wet blend so I went dry and very gradually layered up with brighter red then added some orange for the highest parts. 

I originally went with a bone hammer head since it looked like horn or bone. But ended up going back and making it good.  There were not a lot of specifications by the customer for this piece but making the hammer look flashy and stand out was part of the request. I liked the bone better for my taste but it was too subtle for what was requested. I'm happier with this and thinking it is closer to what the client wanted!

Skin and eyes need a little more detail. Needs a varnish seal after that and we are done. Took another 20-30 minutes to get the base coat finished. 5 minutes to wash. The blending and highlights took just under two hours, not counting time for wash and layers to dry. 

I could t be happier with how it looks so far. Will get a few more shots when all the details are wrapped up. 

Doubles Results

Brian and I had a great tournament on Saturday at the Battlegrounds 2000 team event.  This was Brian's first 40k tournament so my main objective was making sure that we both had a fun day.  We played Ravenwing and Chaos marines.  Nothing over complicated, fancy or tricky.  I brought Sammael, a command squad and a darkshroud to compliment the regular bikes.  Brian brought a demon prince, marines, cultists, a defiler and the fire chicken of course.

Game 1

 

Our first match up was again Wyatt and Rick, both playing Chaos marines.  They certainly outplayed us and came with a really tight list.  Great balance of survivability and attack.  I won't recap the game since they beat us quite handly, but will point out some highlights.  Demon Prince on Demon Prince action was amazing!  They both rolled ones for the extra attacks, then proceeded to beat each others face in.  Ours was down a wound going into the fight and that proved to be the difference, since it was an epic, close assault!  I think this was a big take away for the whole day for Brian.

Some things we learned from this game...target priority.  I got caught up on taking out the Land Raider and we should have instead been pummeling troops.  If we had used the defiler on their zombies from turn 1 and sent our prince after the marines, we could have tied the primary.  Instead they ended up beating us soundly, though not quite max points since the Victory Point differential was not quite enough.

Game 2

Game 2 was against Seth and Steve.  Each team had 1 objective in their zone and kill points was the secondary. These two guys were definitely there to have fun and were not concerned about placing.  Eldar and Dark Eldar.  Mind you neither of us has read the new Eldar Book and I doubt Brian has looked at the DE one.  I was excited to see that they brought 3 fliers.  With them not having much on the board to start as a result I thought we would have a great advantage. This was not the case.  They went first and proceeded to take out 1 of my 3 bike squads (other was in reserves), leave just one bike in the other and most of my command squad.  The demon prince took a wound and I made some really lucky jink saves on the Darkshroud 5 out of 6, so only a glance got through.

We were completely deflated and just about done before we even got to start playing...but then I realized the Eldar player had moved towards me considerably with his troops to take out my bikes, combined with my scout move and them having first turn, I was in assault range.  Sammael split off from the command and wiped out a squad and the command squad brutalized another.  On the other side of the board the Eldar jetbikes had also overextended and 8 or 9 of them got immediately removed by the demon prince.  All of a sudden we were back in the game.

By the end of turn 3 I only had 4 models on the table.  Two bikes on our objective, Command Biker with the Ravenwing Banner and the darkshroud. 

The biker had an amazing series of events...assaulted and killed 5 out of 8 wyches, then killed 2 more on their turn, hit and run out and assaulted the 10 guardians on their objective. The Guardian leader challenged me and lost, then failed leadership and the squad fell off the table.  The biker then dodged the attacks of a void bomber before finally getting gunned down by a couple of luck shots by a pair of wyches.

We ended up both getting 9 kill points on the primary for the draw.  We won the secondary of objectives and got a few bonus points on the VP differential.  A fun game and definitely nice to get a win on the day.

Game 3

Third game was against Brad and Steve Blood Angels and Minotaurs (Imperial Armour).  This game was very exciting and really close until the very end.  Table quarters needed troops from each teammate in order to hold.  Secondary was 5 objectives, score as normal.

We kept most of our troops in reserve for this game 2/3 bikes and both cultist squads.  We knew it was going to be difficult to keep them alive.  Our opponents put all their troops on the table.  From turn 1 we focused on taking out the troops, but could not avoid the two dreadnoughts and death co that made this much harder than expected since they arrived via drop pod.  We needed to turn around and deal with them.  Bikes took out a dreadnought and finished off the death co. after the defiler punished them.  The demon prince took a beating from the Furioso with claws, but managed to come out of it alive (lots of 1 on the smashes).

Hit and Run was huge this whole game.  Sammael and the command squad kept shooting, running in, smashing face and after the opponents turn jumping out and taking on a new squad.  I had a couple plasma gun bikes following them up to finish off the stragglers that were left.

We ended up killing off all of the Minotaur troops and I kept one bike squad alive and well back to claim a quarter.  We ended up with 3 objectives to their 2, since their troops were never out of their deployment zone.  We almost maxed out in points, fair VP differential, but no bonus points.

It was a great day, lots of fun, don't want to forget I got 3rd for painting as well.  Looking forward very much to the next one.

Latest Commission: Cleric of Good

Through my connections at FLGS I got a new commission for a Reaper mini Cleric of good.  I'm really excited for this one for a few reasons.  First off I enjoy taking a step away from the grim dark future and instead a typical fantasy stetting type model.  This cleric is as typical as it gets, robes, big hammer and a holy symbol.  There are a few sunburst symbols too, clearly marking him as a good guy.  The other reason I'm excited about this, is that this is for a character that is about as a old as I am...not the fictional age of the character mind you, but the gentleman that commission the piece has been playing the same character in the same campaign for over 30 years.  It is important to me to do a great job on this piece, since the player clearly has a deep attachment to the character and this is the representation he and the other players will know him by.

I was provided a few pictures of the mini currently being used, as a reference point.  The mini is a bit crude, but the main take away is the color scheme, particularly the red robes.  More than anything else I want to match the color on the robe so that the players at the table who have been looking at the same mini for so long don't get confused by not seeing what they expect.  If the players can't readily find their cleric, who knows how many adventurer's lives could be lost!

I'm going to use this mini to talk about my creative process quite a bit and to also track the amount of time that it takes to paint.  Many people are surprised to when they hear what it costs to paint a single mini at a high level (for me it starts at $20).  To that my response is to consider the hourly wage as opposed to the single cost of a finished piece.  If you consider you are commissioning an artist to work on your project for anywhere from 2-5 hours, $20 doesn't sound like that much.  Best case here we're in the ball park of minimum wage!

So what goes into a commission?  The first thing I did was discuss what the customer wanted, giving some them some things to consider...

Bright colors vs. dark
Tattered and worn vs. clean
old weathered armor or pristince glowing magic weapons etc.

Other considerations are the basing and any customization.  Special basing is not usually a big deal and would not effect the price much, but converting the models can depending on the changes.  Not a big deal to swap out one weapon for another, but if I need to sculpt a cloak or change the stance of the model, it could be a really big deal.

This model required no conversions or special basing, so we're looking at base cost and not too much prep time...or so I thought. First is to scrape off the mold lines (this model had barely any). I did the usual cleaning with soapy water that I do for resin and metal models.  There is a powder on them, so that they come out of the cast cleanly, that can make the primer and base coat look a little funny.  This only takes about 5 minutes with a gentle toothbrush, then let it air dry.

There was minimal assembly out of the package. I just needed to glue on the arm holding the war-hammer.  Litte bit of zap a gap does the trick...well it usually does when the cast is clean.  This one was just a bit off and the forearm would not quite stick into the elbow.

 I ended up needing to drill into the arm on both ends and add some piping in, to pin it in place.  The fit was just not clean enough for the glue to hold them together.  Also, the metal bends easily so I had to be careful not to snap the hammer or bend it too much while drilling and holding together for the glue.  No issues with any of these steps, but definitely not time I had anticipated. 

The next step is priming.  This is another very simple step and not overly time consuming, but these add up: another 5 minutes in this case.  I spray outside and usually just place the model on some cardboard.  For priming I like to use as little paint as necessary on the model.  The more primer you use, the more details on the model are filled in with paint.  When I spray, I point the nozel on the cardboard and lightly drag across the model in short bursts, being careful to never begin or end the burst on the model.  When you start and finish a burst there is residue that can come out and clump on the model.

I usually start with the most recessed areas first and move out when painting.  This way I can clean up the messy lines as I work my way out.  I took a slightly different approach with this model though.  I have been focused on the color of the cloak and wanted to make sure I matched that first. The reason being is that the other colors I use are going to purposefully contrast or compliment that color.  If I start with the recesses and get to the cloak last, I may find that the other colors I used are off, which presents a whole bunch of problems, ranging from having to repaint an area (wastes time and you lose the details of the model with each coat, to having to strip the whole model and start from scratch).

Here's the first few colors of the base coat on the model. The red cloak, yellow sunburst tabard, brown base, metal armor and flesh tones on one hand and face are applied.  The base coating on there right now is about 25 minutes worth of work.

The next step is to finish the base coat, meaning there will not be any white primer showing anywhere on the model and each color is essentially mapped out on the model.  From there I'll wash some areas to help with the shading, like the cloak or to make it look aged, like the greaves and pauldron.  After that I'll do some blending on the cloth to create more dimension.  I'll get some scratches and dents on the armor after that.  Then highlight the face and hair to make it pop out. There are several areas in the armor where there is a gem.  I need to figure out the best color for these then work on getting the light reflection looking realistic.  The last point will be the hammer and the holy symbol.  The symbol needs to be glowing and the hammer really needs to stand out as special artifact.  I'll have more pictures to follow the progress soon!

2000 points doubles prep

Almost ready for Saturdays team event. Rave being teaming up with Chaos Marines. Lists are set and I've got all models WYSIWYG. Just need some basing done and to paint a few weapons.

If time allows I'll add some more detail and work on the new display board as well. 

Doubles Struggles: Imeperial Guard and Chaos Space Marines

Had a really fun doubles game last night to prepare for the tournament.  Glad we got a game in since there were so many holes in our plan that we're going to be taking a really fresh look today at what we bring.

Was really excited for the Guard as I liked the 1000 point venue....I found that its a glass cannon and would not stand up to any kind of real damage...nevermind a seize the initiative and their first round of rolling 1-2s for shooting.

Back to the drawing board, looks like Ravenwing.  On the plus side, the Ravenwing are all base coated and washed.  It would not be hard at all to get some moe details and highlights on them....let's hope we can get a couple games in with the new list and see how it goes!

Beep beep I want a Jeep!

I actually have a wrangler already, but my IG don't. Started working on one this weekend. Counts as heavy weapon squad if I can get it close enough to the base six. Here' some mock ups using poster puddy to keep the bits in place as I figure out how it's going to look. It is much more of a buggy or "Warthog" but good enough!

Crisis Suit and Tau Armor (WIP)

Most of my updates lately have been about my Dark Angels and my slow adaptation to 6th edition. In a complete change of pace and keeping with the times, here are some Tau I have been working on for Gundam John.

First off is a Crisis Suit based off of some Gundam Wing guy or another (I love how they look and like the shows, but never enough to remember which is which!).  This one was done a while back but it was one of the first Tau I had done and needed some cleaning up as my technique has improved since. Here's a look....

 

The highlights are much improved and I added some nice details to the plasma gun to make it stand out. Very excited on how this came out.

 

Also, working on this bad boy with all the options.  I'm still cleaning up the edges and trying to get the white nice and crisp. This is tedious but I am rather enjoying the focus and attention it requires.  More to come on this as it progresses.  I still need to clean the lines, highlight a bit and get a nice glossy finish on before all is said and done.

Helldrakes!

Played Brian last night at 1850.  He brought the double flying fire chickens, something I (and everyone else) is learning to deal with.  Seems that two helldrakes and anything else is the new Chaos Marine build and damn is it effective.

I won the roll to go first.  We're playing 5 objectives, Kill points and the 3 add ons. I pretty much tore him a new one before he had a chance to get started.  Took out the squad of 10 cultists, 2 raptors, 2 obliterators, a hellbrute, several marines and 2 hull points off the defiler.  I was feeling really good about my first round of shooting. 

Brian maneuvers a bit to keep away from the terminators and starts laying what fire power he has left into the blob.  The demon prince assaults Azrael and friends.  Az and most of the blob are too spread out to swing back on the first round.

Round 2 I take off another would off the defiler....which it had recovers the previous turn. I finish off the last obliterator and another marine or two, definitely now what we saw for shooting in the first round.  I take out the demon prince in close combat from the previous turn.

One of the drakes show up and rips up the blob pretty good along with the defiler.  I manage to take it out with a luck lascannon snapfire the following turn...I still have yet to take out a flyer with Flakk Rockets.  No drake the next turn thanks to the Officer of the Fleet: such a no brainer for 30 points to add to the list.

The other drake comes on and nearly finishes off the blob.  I end up losing both my tactical squads to the Defiler and consistent bolter shots from his marines.  At the end of the game Brian manages to kill all the guard in the blob leaving Azrael by himself on the center objective.  His marines make a push out of cover on his side to take on of the objectives on his table edge and on the other side they push over and contest the guard covering the one on my right. 

The terminators which I misused are sitting idly on the objective in Brian's deployment zone on my right.  We each have one, so we tied up there.  I won the kill points by one or two and I got all 3 bonus points for a decent win. 

I had added 3 terminators to the list to make them more survivable...this ended up having a completely different effect.  Rather than surviving they became something to ignore and out run.  I was not at all prepared for this.  The fire power they usually soak up was completely thrown at the blob instead, which did not last nearly as long as it usually does.

This is not a problem with the list, but I definitely need to play it better.  I was expecting to have everything go at the terminators leaving the blob to run free as usual, which was not the case at all.  I should have instead put the terminators to the far right near the obliterators and chaos marines.  There was no terrain on that end to play effective keep away and I would have been able to take out a troop that was sitting on an objective with ease, instead of just sitting on an objective.

I should play the blob and the Deathwing such that they are an equal threat to take out troops and score and not assume one or the other is going to take the brunt of the attacks.....though this does make me consider if I should take two 5 man squads of terminators instead of the one squad of 8....something for me to think about.

Desptire a devastating first round of shooting Brian hung in there and played a great game.  If the second drake had not been delayed by the Officer of the Fleet, it actually may have gone much differently.

Game on! 1750 Tournament

It has taken me far too long to get to this battle report, but better late than never.  I really wanted to make sure that I got this in because I felt like the list I was running really has some potential.  I have already made changes to it based on how this went and I am really excited to try it out.  I haven't been this excited about what I have been running since Blood Angels Mech at the end of 5th edition.  That was a list I really felt like I had figured out and could face any other list with...I'm starting to feel that with the new Dark Angels/Guard.

Here's the list that I was running.  It has two key elements Shooting (tank, devs, lascannons), resilient troops (Guard blob and the deathwing).

List:
Azrael
Librarian power field generator
Company Command Squad with Officer of the Fleet and Lascannon

Deathwing Squad (5) plasma cannon and 2 thunder hammers
Tactical Squad (5) plasma cannon
Tactical Squad (5) flakk missile launcher
Platoon Command Lascannon
Platoon Squad x3 power axe x3
Heavy Weapons Team lascannon x3

Devastator Squad Lascannon x3
Devastator Squad Flakk Missile Launcher x3
Devastator Squad Flakk Missile Launcher x3
Lemun Russ Eradicator

I was a little concerned going into this event because of the start time 1230 on a Sunday.  Typically the tourneys at this venue run long and I was worried about being out late on a Sunday night, what with work the next day and getting home with enough time to get myself and help my wife get the girls ready for the week.  Turns out this was not a problem at all.  The event was well organized, started on time, round times were respected and everything went smoothly.  I was home by 8, 45 minute drive and all!

Small field for the event, I think there were 8 of us total.  I am not used to this at all.  My local store hasn't had a tournament with less than 30 people since they started running them.  I have to say this was a very pleasant change.  I got to talk with everyone that was playing, look at their lists and even glance at most of the games as they were going on.

All of the games were a combination of scenarios from the big book.  Each one gave you victory points. The difference in victory points between the two players was then referenced against a sliding chart to determine that number of battle points earned for that match.  Fully painted armies received an additional 5 battle points for the event.

Round 1: Rob and Orcs
This was objectives and objectives.  We each had an objective in our deployment (which was Vanguard by the way) and there were 3 more going diagonally across the no mans land.  The TO made a point of letting me know that Rob was new to the game and to play accordingly. He knew I would beat him, but wanted to make sure that both players had fun in the process, which is right up my alley anyway.

Rob won the role to deploy and go first.  He set up with 2 trukks to my left, 2 wagons center and a horde of stormboyz (never seen these in a tourney before) to my right.  I deployed as far back to my table edge as I could with my entire army except the blob, which I left forward a bit.

Rob took the bate and pushed everything towards the blob except the stormboyz which he brought further to my right and towards me a little.  Rob got terrible rolls for his lootas the entire game, so there is little worth mentioning about his shooting.  Once he brought everything forward, I collapsed the guard back and did first rank second rank to give them all 2 shots.  This also left everything of his with nice lines of visiton for all my ranged guns.  I dropped the terminators between him and his objective, making it impossible for him to get back to it as well.  I pretty much secured a total victory in the first game turn.

The next few turns I made sure we had some fun.  My blob was far enough back to not be in assault turn 2 either, so I got in another great round of shooting.  The rest of the game was assaults and I think Rob had a much better time once we got to this.  He kicked the teeth in on my devs, but once the blob was finished with him it was over.  Max points for me.

Round 2: Terra and Daemons w/ Chaos Marines
It says Chaos Marines, but there were 0 marines on the table: daemons, cultists and a Helldrake instead.  This was the test I was waiting for.  Chaos flying circus and me with 7 Flakk Missile Launchers!  long story short, the missiles did nothing, I deployed poorly (too far forward and too spread across my zone).  I got stomped.  The only thing that went well was the blob shooting a daemon prince out of the air, a nice crash and then the lascannons finishing him off.  Also, Terminator Sergeant challenging the Badass Khorne HQ and making his 3++ shield saves was pretty epic.  When things went bad after round two I went for better lucky than good and tried to make things happen.  Instead I should have strived for a minor or medium loss to get just get a few points.  In such a small field it would have made a huge difference. 0 points out of round 2 and I had the opportunity to mitigate this to a minor or medium loss instead of major.

Round 3: Ted and Vanilla marines
Ted was running Lascannon marines.  2 Preds with las sponsons, 2 tactical squads with las and plas, 2 Sternguard squads with 2 las each.  Kantor, Aegis w/Quadgun, scouts, and a thunderfire to round out the list.  Solid gunline.  The scenario was an objective in the middle of each quarter and the relic in the center.  Ted deployed his scouts almost on the objective with infiltrate.  I put everything except the blob in ruins or cover to hide from the las.

Turn one the scouts grab the objective.  He starts shooting and doesn't do much.  The thing with relying on lascannons is that when they miss, it is a lot of wasted points and with so many, you are missing a third of the time, which adds up quite a bit.  Ted seemed disappointed with their performance, but numbers wise I didn't think it was that far off of expected probability. I should have been shooting at the thunderfire from round one....instead I tried picking off the squads.  This was a mistake.  There were plenty of tactical and sternguard guys to take the wounds before any of the lascannons could actually get hurt.  I should have also focused on the predators, taking these out and the thunderfire would have been a much better approach.

First turn I drop my terminators down right between his scouts and the rest of Ted's army.  I advance the blob as far forward as I can towards the relic, running them as well.  I know that the terminators won't last long against the las, but hope they buy enough time for the blob to get to the relic.  The Lemun Russ clears most of the scouts, and the Terminators guns finish them off.  Round 2 I get the relic easily with the blob.

The rest of the game is simple attrition.  I continue to shoot marines instead of tanks and artillery and he keeps trying to whittle away ay my blob.  I had the objectives and the relic nicely tied up on turns 3-5.  Turn 6 the blob is nearly gone, just Azrael (minus 2 wounds, note he made 2 FnP) and one guardsmen left, hiding out of LOS.  On turn 7 Ted has had enough rounds to shoot me off of one of my objectives.  I win the relic and we tie on the objectives.  I get a minor victory, but needed a medium vitory to pass Ted for third place in the standings.  I could have easily gotten those points in round 2 if I had not been fighting for glory instead of fighting for points.

4th place overall, which was just fine by me, considering I got crushed round 2. I had a wonderful time. Didn't lose to a noob, got beaten by a good player and beat a good player.  Considering the relaxed attitude I had going into this, it was as much as I could have asked for.

Things about the list that need to change...The flakk missiles are expensive and do very little. I have enough ability to twin link my heavy guns that I should be using those.  I removed one dev squad with the flakk.  I'll keep the other and the single flakk launcher in the tactical squad.  I needed to add a couple more terminators to the squad.  5 did not cut it.  By the time they are able to assault there is only 1 or 2 left.  I found this to be even more so the case against Gundam John last week.  The Tau and their intercept left me with 1 terminator left on the charge, who promptly died to overwatch.  The terminators have been amazing for taking all of my opponents firepower for an entire turn, freeing up the blob to run rampant.  The combination is great and actually having a couple terminators left when I charge would be a nice bonus.  I don't think they have ever lasted 3 full turns.

Lemun Russ Eradicator continues to be so choice.  Round 1 vs. Orcs it decimated boyz and nobz.  Round 2 against the plague bearers super cover saves, it was great, round 3 against the scouts one turn 1 it secured me the relic.  I really have no idea why I have never seen anyone else running this...maybe people are stuck on it being useless against MEQ still?

At 1850 I have adjusted it so that there are 8 terminators, only 2 dev squads and the Platoon Command has flamers and hangs out in a chimera.  I had toyed with adding more to the blob, flamers, autocannons etc. but they don't shoot all that much, rarely get charged and it seemed a waste of points, so spent them elsewhere.  I want to get in a few more games to see if anyone can actually take out that many anyway.

Hoping to get in a game this Thursday, but not sure yet. If so it will be against multiple  Helldrakes again, something I know I need to figure out with more consistency if I am going to do well at tournaments.

Dark Angels Vs. Tau

Gundam John and I got in a game yesterday and I got my first taste of the new "Greater Good."  John brough some Grey Knight Allies and I had my guard as well of course.

We played a simple game with standard deployment, 5 objectives and kill points.  I won the roll and elected to go second.  My range is much more limited than his, so I wanted to make sure that I was not wasting time repositioning and moving while he got 2-3 extra rounds of shooting at me before I would be able to respond.

He put his Aegis line in the middle and deployed evenly across the board, broadsides, 2 suit teams and the ethereal center followed by Fire Warrios squads, pathfinders and Hammerheads on both sides, in that order.  I decided to counter by putting all of my ranged shooting on my left, the blob with Azrael in the center and one squad of tacticals on the right.  For reserves I had Marbo, 5 Deathwing, Platoon Command w/ Flamers in a Chimera, and the Lemun Russ Eradicator.  I usually don't like to start games with so much in reserve, but with the range and firepower the Tau bring, it is better for these to arrive late than to get shot off the board before I see a turn.

Ultimately, I won the game because of this deployment.  It left me with just enough advantage throughout the game to take advantage of John's static gun-line.

The first round of shooting took out my Lascannon Heavy Weapons Team, and the Company Command Squad, with the exception of the commander himself.  My turn I blasted 2 of the three broadsides off the board with lascannons.  Terminators came down on my right.

Turn 2 I lose the terminators to rapid fire and plasma/fusion suits.  I also lost a few marines, but the only one with a special weapon I lost was the Plasma Cannon to gets hot!  Chimera comes on, but no Marbo or Lemun.  I have another solid round of shooting where I clear off the 3 suits that had just killed the terminators...not a fair trade, but I'll take it.

Turn 3 the the chimera gets popped and the blob of guard is wittled down to 3 guys and Azrael.   Lemun and Marbo show up.  Marbo wastes most of a Fire Warrior Squad and the Lemun takes out another.  Things are picking up for me at this point big time.

we only have turn for another round so we agree to call it after 4.  I lose the blob and Azrael in this turn, Marbo gets shot up good from overwatch, but the Lemun takes out another squad and I pick off enough from another with the devastators to make some run.  I end up winning objectives 2 to 1 and kill points 7 to 6.  It was interesting because a turn earlier and we would have tied objectives and I would have lost kill points by a good deal.  I made some really choice moves with target selection late in the game and did a really good jobs of not giving up 3 squads that were decimated by hiding them out of los.

I expected a bit more out of the new Tau book.  I think part of this was that John was running pretty much the same thing he has been but with a couple suit teams and hammerheads instead of broadsides.  I think there are a lot more toys and upgrades, that he has up until now previously ignored because they were bad in the old book, that will make a bigger difference.  I think I'll be more afraid as the adjustments start being made.

Tournament Results and why the new Dark Angels book sucks!

First tournament with my favorite faction (I did not say codex) under my belt.  The new book is a nightmare in this edition for anyone that wants to actually play with the units in the Dark Angels codex, that sets the chapter apart from regular marines.

Terminators: the Deathwing are not much different than they were in 5th edition.  Stats are the same and the cost is a little higher. Twinlinked shots on the deepstrike and the split fire are fun, but not good. Between the point cost going up and the prevalence of plasma guns throughout every opposing army these guys are shelved.  The one area I would have liked these guys would be against helldrakes.

Bikes: I ran a Ravenwing/IG list at the tournament.  I assumed with the hit that the terms took that the bikes would get the boost...not so much.  Again the issue here is point cost.  I don't think bikes themselves are overcosted in the book, seems fine.  The issue is that DA is about the wings and people want to build wing armies. Ravenwing can't pull this off by themselves and I was not able to make it work even with the cheap guard backing them up.  The bikes come off the table all too easily.  They just are not survivable enough in the tournament scene in my area where there were at least 15 drakes on tables at any given time.  While their survivability with the Darkshroud is decent, one bad hanful of dice just makes too much of an impact on how many models I kept having to sweep off the table.

So the two wings are over-costed, ineffective and nothing to write home about.  The flyers are a disaster.  One of my favorite models and despite the $ was interested in getting a pair of them...am I ever so happy I waited to see the point cost and the stats before I through that money down the drain! 

I still think I can make many of the other parts of the book work, just not either of the two wings that are what makes this book different than Vanilla.  The regular units (tacs, devs, etc.) have an improved point cost and a little more versatility (not having to buy a Vet serg or taking heavy weapons in the 5 man squad). I'll throw in some bikes or terms as compliment to the list, but I can't see either wing bringing anything to a competitive scene.

I won't do a battle report on any of the games, but will summarize.

Game 1: Helldrakes are stupid good.  I don't like to call them broken, because I know what they do and I didn't take enough time to figure out how I would counter them effectively.

Game 2: Game was fun though I felt like I lost to a really bad list. Very interesting in that I was getting almost maz points on turn 5, about a tie on turn 6 and a solid loss on turn 7.  It means the game was close throughout, but I think there was a couple of stupid things I did spacing out my troops that could have kept me in this for 7 rounds...I honeslty didn't expect it to go that far and should have assumed it was possible and started to maneuver troops to hold objectives sooner.

Game 3: I played and beat some one under 10 years old...go me? 

Well, the day was harldy a complete loss as I did win the best painted army with the newly painted bikes.  I was definitely thrilled with this!

Dark Angels at 1850

I've been working on (painting and playing) my Dark Angels army with Guard allies for a couple of weeks now, getting ready for an 1850 on the 30th. The first game went well against Chaos marines with 2 Drakes.  What I am running...

Sammael
Ravenwing Command Squad (Ravenwing Banner and Grenade Launcher, Champion, Apothecary)
Librarian Power Field Generator and Nightvision

Ravenwing (5) 2 plasma guns
Ravenwing (4) 2 melta guns, multi-melta attack bike

Darkshroud

Devastator Squad (5) Lascannon x3
Devastator Squad (5) Missile Launcher x3 (Flakk)

Company Command Squad Lascannon, Officer of the Fleet

Infantry Platoon (3) Lascannon, Meltabombs x3, Autocannons x3, Power Axe x3
Commisar w/Power Axe
Heavy Weapons Team 3 Lascannons
Veteran Squad 3 plasmaguns, Chimera

I'm considering finding room for either one more bike squad, a Manticore, or a Lemun Russ Nova Eradicator...if I can get a few more games in we'll see.

Most important part of this is that with the exception of the Darkshroud everything is painted well enough.  No highlights or blending yet, but everything is colored and washed nicely.  So a much better start for me than previous events.

Right now the Darkshroud is the focus. I am using a Land Speeder Storm that I never got around to using.  I'm going to paint up the boarded scouts to match the ravenwing bikes to keep the theme going and add a bunch of icons on the top to balance it out well for a proper "counts as" feel. 

After that I need to fix the magnetization on the Sammael model I made.  Kit bashed bike, with bits and lots of green stuff...pics to come.  I ended up adding too much the front after the initial design and the magnets are too far to the back for it to stay on the base properly.

I'm also planning on overhauling the display board from Templecon.  Got some inspiration from playing Halo 4 yesterday that I think will be perfect!  Plenty of wIP pics coming in the next few days.

Templecon Recap: Day 2 and 3, GT

Grand Tournament started Saturday morning.  I end up facing Dan and his GK who is the same fella that stomped me first round at the Battlegrounds invitational in January.  This game went much like that one did, even with some changes to Dan's list, which was now sporting a bastion and a Vindicare to go along with the Draigo, Coteaz with Paladins Deathstar.  I had a lot of fun this game despite getting stomped.  I learned quite a few things from our first game and didn't make the same mistakes.  I was not prepared for the Vindicare sniping away my characters all game at all.  Dan made sick amound of feel no pains on the Paladins.

Game two was a disaster.  This was the least fun game of warhammer that I have ever played.  My opponent was a great guy...Aaron I believe.  The dice completely crapped out.  I'm not the type that complains about dice and am quick to note when I make strategic mistake in the hopes that I won't repeat it, but the dice killed me this game.  I failed a half dozen armor saves in one round on the Sternguard....who's drop pod scattered 12", the Stormraven came on turn 4, failed a 4+ save on a pen them promptly exploded onto my blob guard and killing all the marines inside. Vanguard Vets scattered 6" then rolled a 3" charge when I only needed 4.  It was awful...when your opponent asks if you need a hug, you know it has been a rough day!  This is a game that I felt I should have won if the dice had been probable, but that's part of the game!

Game three was Tau with Chaos Marine allies. First turn I kill both squads of pathfinders and my opponents starts to crumble.  Without the ability to strip cover off me, the plasma and railguns do next to nothing the whole game.  Vanguard Vets whiped a couple of fire warrior squads when they dropped in and mopped up after that.  Kharne gave me some trouble, but I had enough bodies to outlast him. The blob with the axes and presience finally did him in.  I nearly maxed out on points, just missing a few on the VP differential scale.  Needless to say after the first two games, I needed this win to keep me interested for Sunday.  There was no hope of placing, but at least I could go into the last day trying to make a good showing...

Game 4 Sunday morning.  People drop and I end up with a bye.  Ringer is there so I get to play a game and it ends up being the most satisfying of the weekend.  Mike is playing GK and it is quite similar to what spanked me around in round 1.  After getting stomped by paladins twice hard I'm starting to get the point on how to take these guys out.  First I concentrate on killing everything that is not a paladin.  I go after the dreads and the strike squad first.  I have to sacrifice the Sternguard to whipe out the 10 man strike squad, but considering the the whole GK army is 27 models to my 70+ I'll trade 1 to 1 any day of the week.  I made a couple of mistakes in this game, but nothing I would regret.  The blob ended up taking out the Dreadknight after a few turns of waiting for the sergeants with the meltabombs to pile into range.  This worked perfectly.  We traded models and I forced Draigo to split from the rest of the paladinds, once this happened the las cannons chewed through the paladins. I then charged Draigo with my blob.  I kept him bogged down by challenging with the 3 sergeants and Commissar for 2 full game turns while I shot up the pallys.

Game 5 was against Necrons.  This was a great matchup for me.  The flyers really don't bother me too much...especially when none come in on turn 2 and only 1 on turn 3.  The other 2 waited until turn 4 to show up.  By then the Lemun Russ Eradicator had chewed up almost all of the warriors and the lascannons had killed most of the wraiths.  We were playing a modified objective game where points for the objectives were tallied each round rather than the end of the game.  After two rounds my opponent asked that I stop tallying them and conceded the objectives to me for the rest of the game and we should just play out the secondary and tertiary.  I was amused by this!  I nearly tabled him after 5 rounds, we rolled to play another and he declined going on.

Ended up with two wins, two losses and the bye (technically a win, but whatever).  The weekends was great and I had a wonderful time playing Blood Angels with the Guard and probably for the last time now that the DA book is out!  I'm already working on the DA+IG list as we speak!