Onslaught Bat-reps

Another great GT at Templecon this year.  Communication about assignments between rounds was a very cool improvement. Moving the table numbers between rounds though negated the benefit, very confusing.  I'm being a nit picky bitch though as this was the only complaint I had.  Went very smoothly and was very well organized.  I think they could have taken advantage of the emails and included start times for rounds, when day two started and stuff like that, but that's just a thought.

Game 1: Troy - Space Wolves

    This game was every bit as difficult as I feared it would be.  The entire army is drop pod, with a ton of plasma and preferred enemy.  I was at a huge disadvantage since the drop pods negate my scouting and maneuverability.  I deployed devastators to my far left.  The Centurions with the Librarian were center, and the tactical squad was split, but both in their rhino.  Sternguard were in the pod with the scouts and all of the bikes set to outflank.

    I gave him first turn so that he would have most of his pods on the board before my bikes came on. I was hoping to play hit and run and use outflanking to start off far enough away from  his troops.  Troy got first blood without an issue blasting off the librarian and the centurions when he came on.  I countered with the drop pod on turn 1 by putting them in range to do some damage to 1 squad, but too far away from the rest to take much return fire.  I had enough on the board that when the other pods came in on turn 2 I could weather the storm until my bikes showed up.  This proved to be the case since only 1 of his pods came on.  This made surviving the turn great, but again it allowed for him to place the other two pods after my bikes came on.

    My turn two only one bike squad did not come on.  Scouts and the troop bikes came in on opposite sides, which was great as it gave me access to the two objectives in his deployment zone.  I recovered pretty well and took out several squads.  In the end the two pods that came in on turn 4 made the difference for him since I couldn’t out maneuver and failed a critical hit and run to win back an objective.  Though it still would have only mitigated the the loss as Troy got all 3 of the extra VP.

    Given my expectations going into this match I was satisfied that I executed my plan well and made a good fight out of it.  Solution to this matchup would have been to ally in Coteaz and stick him with the Centurions.

Game 2: Simon - Sisters w/Inquisition

    Usually, it is a disappointment to play good friends at a GT that I have played against so many times before, but with Simon moving around so much lately, it has been a long time since we hung out and even longer since we had a match, so no complaints this time.  This game was two objectives and a relic.  Simone used his servo skulls to negate my scout move and I deployed a little further back than I normally would since his landraider with DCA could scout forward.  The details of the game are a little blurry, but we basically slugged it out in the middle of the board, constantly denying each other access to the relic.  At the end of turn 5 Simon was able to get on his objective and grab the relic with his two remaining troops (I had none left at this point).  Game ended on 5.  I was desperate for turn 6 since I was sure to take out both of the troops he had left.  3 sisters against the 3 devastator centurions and 3 henchmen against the chapter master on the bike.  Another tough loss!  Simon outclasses me in experience and tactics, so I still felt satisfied playing a close game against him.

Game 3: Mark - Chaos Marines w/ Demons

    I went from playing to well seasoned veteran GT players to a gentleman that has 0 helldrakes in his chaos list and introduced himself as the guy without helldrakes in his list.  It was that kind of game and I almost felt bad about it.  He had a huge unit of the demon hounds that I wiped out before his turn 1.  Also, immobilized his land raider in his deployment zone early on.  The rest of the game was like that.  He was a really cool guy and I liked the idea for his army, it’s just too bad the non-helldrake parts of that book just do not hold up.  I was able to get to the objectives (scoring during the game) early and hold mine and the center for most of the game and then got across and wracked it up last 2 turns.  Also, did well with the kill points.  Ended up with max points.

Game 4: Lucas - Orcs

    Orks!  I struggle against orks generally...I know that sounds like I am a noob, but I tend to make really bad decisions against any list with deathstar units. This guys was running two super nob squads with bosses, one on bikes, the other in a wagon.  CRAP! I let him go first and tried bating his bikes with a squad of my bikes and because I wanted last turn to hop on objectives at the end of the game.   I tried using the Chapter Master’s Orbital Bombardment to take out bikes first turn, but got a terrible scatter.  Sternguard were supposed to end up in his backfield behind the boyz and next to the grots...but 11” scatter put me right at midfield instead.

    Lucas wasn’t aggressive, which I found odd for an orc player.  He was content to move a turn instead of charging in blindly to be in a better position next turn.  He lucked out that it took all of my shooting to take down the wagon so that it was stuck midfield.  I didn’t have much left once it was down and since everything was shooting at it, I couldn’t charge anything first turn.

    The orcs pummeled the bike squads pretty hard, while I countered with the tactical squad on the foot nobs, meanwhile the chapter master went after the bike nobz.  I had the warlord trait that gets extra VP for Warlord on Warlord take out and was gunning for it!  First round he accepts with the pain boy. Then on his turn boyz join the assault and he challenges me with the nob from that group.  I accepted with the Apothecary and took him out.  I then had to hit and run out to escape the mass of attacks that were coming from the rest of the boyz once they caught up.  I jumped one way, he consolidated the other and put the boyz between us.  

    By this point I had just the apothecary, chapter master, scouts and sternguard on the table, but that was enough.  The scouts picked up a relic, the sternguard shot up all the remaining grots and boys, and the chapter master assaulted one squad of nobs then the other to to table the orcs.

Game 5: Brad - Imperial Guard w/ Inquisition

    Saved the best game for last.  Not because I won (actually I got tabled), but easily the most fun I had all weekend.  2 full blobs of guard with lascannons.  Inquisitor in one and coteaz in the other. This was rounded out with a couple heavy weapon teams, command squad, a chimera and 3 Vendetta’s.

    He fills up his deployment zone which is great in Hammer and Anvil, since I’ll get in plenty of close range shots first turn.  He only has one servo skull so I just scout around it.  He fails to seize twice and I go.  Sternguard end up within 12” of the Coteaz blob and I no longer have Sternguard….this pretty much was the difference in the game.  I’m confident considering how close it was that if I had not messed this up it would have gone differently.

    I shoot up one of the blobs and take a few guys off, really not much to talk of for my first turn.  Nothing really for the Centurions or devastators to take out, but I leave them back anyway because of the vendettas.  Also, the chapter master makes about 20 armor saves, 5 invulnerable saves and 4 FnP saves after all the shooting he still has 3 out of 4 wounds left.  

    On turn two all of my shooting goes into the Cotez blob, getting it to about half strength.  I then assault the other blob with the Chapter Master with the Ravenwing Command squad.  I win by a few, he’s stubborn of course...but rolls an 11 and I sweep 40+ models off the table. Brutal stuff here! He returns with the psyker battle squads, who rip into the bikes squads, bringing both down from 5 to 2.

    Turn 3 both bike squads take out both psyker battle squads.  Chapter Master assaults the command squad and locks up with the astropath…Vendetta’s come in and take out the rhino, a centurion, and the librarian.  Things continue to swing his way.  

    We end up goign 7 turns with things being really close on 5 and 6.  By the end of 7 though the flyers are uncontested and end up barely tabling me, it was a close thing.  I only ended up taking off 160 out of his 170 models.  It was defeat, but a glorious and entertaining one!

My take on the event as a whole was, as expected, a great time.  I played 5 great players with 5 different armies and went against precisely 0 riptides.  Apparently, there are non-Tau players out there still.

Painting was interesting.  I did not remember that some of the scoring was based off of other players picking which army was their favorite and submitting a vote...if I had, I would have remembered to leave it setup earlier and not just long enough for the paint judge to look at it.  I also wasn’t thrilled with my score. It was quite high, but there were many subpar armies with very high scores as well.  Didn’t quite feel that the gap between mine and some very average armies got was right.  Lots of armies that were very cool seemed to do as well despite lacking highlights, fine details, free hand work, or any kind of blending. I’m a painting snob so whatever.  Mine was not the best and the one that I thought was, took home first.  So I was happy that worked out the way it did.

For the doubles tournament I can recall only the last game.  We bribed the judge to allow us to deploy in the same zone as our opponents.  We then paid tokens to re-roll seize the initiative.  Our opponents bribed the judge to use their tokens to make us re-roll any successful seize the initiative rolls.  We had a lot more tokens and still seized.  For some reason 10 orbital bombardments then took place...some of them D strength.  We shot and charged and tabled our opponents on the top of round one...it was stupid and awesome.  Also, Gundam John and I got like half the stuff from the raffle, it was legendary.  We were proud to improve on our second place finish last year, by winning it all, but there was so much Whiskey that I don’t clearly recall much of it and I’m sure much of what I am recalling is inaccurate.

Been a while...

 Been more than a while since my last post.  Life gets in the way of wargaming, then wargaming gets in the way of blogging and here we are months later.  I may have been quiet, but also been busy.  Here's some WIPs.  Love the Centurions that I have modified pretty heavily.  Also, been working on an O'Vessa for Gundam John.  He kitted this up real sweet with 6 LED lights, now time for me to work my magic!











I love the Centurion models, but thought the amount of under-slung weapons was excessive.  Went with an extended barrel grav-cannon and shoulder mounted the amp.

Haven't done any highlights on this guy yet, but he's coming along rather nicely.















Templecon is in two weeks.  The last few years it has been a mad dash for me to get everything done on time, lists, models etc.  This year is different.  I have been playing my list with few changes for about two months now and pretty set on it.  Submitted it for checking officially this morning. We had a primer at the BG this past weekend and I placed the best I have in the last 2 years at third.  Really starting to get it together.  White Scars with Dark Angels Allies.  Will get the list posted soon

 On top of that the army is painted for the most part (some highlights and lens and that sort need touching up).  List done, army done, well what else is there....a multi-tiered water featured, sound system, lighted display board?  YUP  This thing is a beast and way more than I should have tried to tackle, but if I'm not scrambling at the last minute I wouldn't feel like I was prepping for a convention now would I?

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.