Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Holiday gaming!

I got in 2 games on Memorial Day with my Blood Angels, using my shooty style lists.  Both were very solid wins, and I had a lot of fun with all the firepower I brought to the table.

First game was 1500pts:

HQ: Captain, Dual LC, Jump Pack
Troop: 10 Assault, 2x Melta, Fist
Troop (x2): 5 Assault, power weapon, melta, Las-plas
Fast (x2): Baal; HB
Fast: Attack Bike, MM
Elite: Priest x2, 2 power weapons, 1 jump pack
Heavy: Pred, LC
Heavy: Devastators, 4x ML

I played against a super elite Blood Angels list.

HQ: Sanguinor
HQ: Astorath
Troop: 10 Assault, 2 melta, Sgt with plasma pistol and power weapon.
Troop: 6 DC including Lemartes, jump packs
Troop: DC Dread, talons
Heavy: Stormraven, Typhoon

It was Annihilation, DoW.  He put Sanguinor on the table and moved him up a little. I deployed a MSU squad far enough away to avoid the charge.  First turn he moved up a little. When I rolled on, my Baals and jump pack guys killed Sanginor, and the Predator and razorbacks downed the stormraven.  The Death Company and dread did a lot of damage though, killing the devastators, the attack bike, the captain, both priests and jump pack guys, and one of the MSU squads with their razorback.  The re-rolls Lemartes gives them is just amazing, he alone killed 7 assault marines on one charge.

In the end though, I just had more bullets then he had guys, with the Baals putting on average 8 wounds each every turn.  I completely tabled him.

Second game was against Codex Marines @1750

HQ: Pedro

Troop: Tactical, lascannon, melta, rhino with HK
Troop: Tactical, lascannon, flamer, rhino with HK

Elite: 5 Sternguard, 5x combi-melta, las-plas razorback
Elite: Venerable Dread, plasma cannon
Elite: 5 shooty terminators, Assault cannon

Heavy: Devastators, 4x ML
Heavy: LRC, MM

I added a Librarian and 6 DC in a Rhino with a power weapon, and dropped the Attack Bike. Game was pitched battle, capture and control.  I parked a MSU squad on my objective, he parked the Sternguard razorback on his almost directly opposite.  He combat squadded the tacticals, lining up the lascannons and devastators in a firing line.

I got to go first, and took both weapons of the razorback, and stunned a rhino.One MSU with priest and DC rhino ran up the field towards his firebase. He kept the Dread and LR with termies in reserve, which ended up hurting as the dread didn't come in until turn 4, and the LRC on turn 5.  By then I had killed everything else on the table, and lost the jump pack unit to shooting (plasma cannons = bad) and assault from the Dread. The termies came on and were only able to take out a MSU squad and DC rhino before the game ended with me still camping on my objective.  I doubt he could have gotten to me anyway. Having to wait so long for the LRC really ended up being his biggest problem.

Overall I'm very happy so far with my shooty list.  I will be playing my 2k Mephiston version this week, getting ready for OFCC. The best part is if I take this list, I don't have to finish the Stormraven..:)

Monday, May 30, 2011

Finding myself disillusioned by Stormravens..

I *love* the Stormraven model, unlike most people I guess.  However the more I play it, the more I realize just how fragile it really is. It's a big investment in and of itself, not including the passengers. I was planning on taking 2 of them to OFCC, and I might still but I need to play it some to see if 2 is really better then 1.

But in the meantime I've come up with a new 2k list, which is quite a bit different. No stormravens, no termies, no dreads at all!  Just lots of long-range and medium range shooting.

HQ: Captain, jump pack, dual lightning claws, meltabombs
HQ: Mephiston

Troops: 10 Assault Marines, 2x melta, fist
Troops (x3): 5 Assault Marines, power weapon, metla; Razorback, searchlight, Las-Plas

Elite: 2 Sanguinary High Priests, one with jump pack, both with power weapons

Fast (x2): Baal; Heavy bolters
Fast: 2 Attack Bikes, MM

Heavy: Predator; LC sponsoons, searchlight
Heavy: Devastators; 4x ML

1999pts

This provides me a nice firebase with 3 lascannons, 1 predator and 4 ML all under shield and FNP.  FNP devastators are actually quite hard to dislodge from cover, especially if the roll for red thirst. They stand up to Venoms quite nicely.  The Baals are serious anti-infantry firepower, and take the place of Blood Talon dreads.  The jump pack squad can come in almost anywhere with DoA with 12 FNP Marines and cause a whole lot of trouble or at least cause all guns to turn around away from my firebase.

I think it is a lot more effective then the dual flyer list.  I will be playtesting a lot over the next 2 months. We'll see..

Friday, May 27, 2011

Another loss at the hands of Dark Eldar



But it was a much, much better game then last time.

My list:
HQ: Captain, Dual LC, Jump pack
HQ: Librarian (Shield, Unleash rage)

Troop: 10 Assault marines, 2x melta, fist
Troop (x3): 5 Assault marines, melta, power weapon; Las-plas razorback

Elite: Sanguinary Priest x2, one with jump pack and power weapon, one with power weapon

Heavy: Predator, LC sponsoons
Heavy: Devastators, 4x ML

Fast (x2): Baal, Heavy bolters

So what was so different? Well basically I dropped the stormraven and passengers (termies, dread) for more firepower.  It worked really well against the Dark Eldar, especially with seizing the initiative.  I felt like I could do enough damage (and I did), so that I was able to keep my opponent on his heals. It took 3 full witch squads to take out my jump pack guys..which is a more then I thought. Even at that I could have stayed stuck in one more turn if I had made one more save.  Interesting, eh? 

After the game my opponent and I had a big debate on weather or not I should have moved out of my castle sooner.  Like turn 2.  My side was that running strait into 8 blasters and 20 haywire grenades was no way to win.  I still lost, but a couple of rolls another way would have made it at least a tie if not a win.  It was a loss I didn't feel was a bad loss..just like when I was playing Blood Angels with my Orks at the last tournament. 

I might have been overly focused on destroying vehicles.  Maybe. Maybe I was overly concerned about running up into still formidable firepower. I don't think I could have played much different, except re-position my jump pack guys so they couldn't be assaulted by 2 witch squads the first turn.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Stone Alter terrain done




Finished the stone alter - swamp terrain to match the tree stand I made a while ago. Simple build, quick and fun to make.  The tree stand was pretty epic, took a lot of time and effort. This was super quick by comparison. The stone tablet is plaster, I made my own mold from plasticard and hot glue. I was originally going to break it for a ruin, but I liked the smoothness so much I left it as-is lol.

Monday, May 23, 2011

1500pt tournament afterthoughts



Another Sunday tournament down at Ancient Wonders in Tualatin, Oregon.  This was the same place that last time I went I took my meta-denial list and completely smashed face. So this time I wanted to tone down my army a bit.  I went with..battlewagon spam!!

HQ: Warboss, Cybork, PK, Squig, kombi-skorcha
HQ: Mek, KFF, Cybork, Burna

Troop: 3 Meganobz, 2x kombi-skorcha
Battlewagon: Deffrolla, armor plates, riggers, kannon, big shoota
Troop: 20 Shootaboys, 2x Rokkit, Nob w/PK&BP
Troop: 19 Sluggaboys, Nob w/PK&BP
Troop: 19 Sluggaboys, Nob w/PK&BP

Elite: 15 lootas

Heavy: Battlewagon: Deffrolla, armor plates, riggers, kannon, big shoota
Heavy: Battlewagon: Deffrolla, armor plates, riggers, kannon, big shoota

This was the first time I really played such a list, and it's only like the 4th time I've ever played meganobz lol.  I have to say it is quite effective..if you can make your cover saves early.  It only takes a turn or 2 of movement to get everything over to the other side of the table and start beating face.  I can see the lootas are extraneous, but not useless. For the same points I can take another battlewagon and still have a few lootas hanging out for a distraction.  But I do really like having that unit of boys on foot, they work great as objective campers allowing the mobile units to get the job done.

The first game was by far the best, and despite losing completely on objectives, I nearly tabled him (just 8 infantry and 2 vehicles left).  It was such a great game though I didn't mind losing that much.  I brought this list to have fun, not to win.  If I had moved my lootas to contest the objective instead of shooting the Razorback, it would have at least been a tie.

The other two games though, had a lot of rule issues..like trying to rotate an immobile dread and taking saves on firewarriors one at a time.  It kind of got frustrating, and I felt like I was coming across as a dick, when in fact I was just trying to follow the rules...especially since I was completely dominating both of the games.  Live and learn.

The truth is this list is really fun to play, especially when rolling over vehicles. But it is completely dependent on luck..make those KFF saves, you can't lose. Fail and ..you're in world of hurt.  Need Snikrot or some other way to mitigate the luck factor. Not sure if I will keep trying this style or stick with the nob bikers.

Friday, May 20, 2011

All or none..



 It seems my Blood Angels are a fickle army. Sometimes they just don't want to work right.  It wasn't dice, it was just simply my list was outmatched. Maybe if I had been a tad less aggressive.  Or maybe even more aggressive.  I'm not sure. I honestly have no idea how or if I could have played this game better. If I had kept my jump guys back a bit more I would have been out of charge range, and that might have changed the game enough to give me a chance. At least I would have been able to shoot a meltagun..maybe.  I thought my list had enough long-range shooting.  But the more I play I realize a lot of that is tied up in the Stormraven..

I like the Stormraven model so much, it's hard to drop it...not sure yet.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

XV-9 Hazard





My two XV-9's one with burst cannons, one with phased ion guns. I would love to actually play these guys someday..

Monday, May 16, 2011

I think I figured it out..

Vampire Counts, that is. I got in another game of Fantasy last night, playing 2000pts of my Vampire Counts vs Warriors of Chaos. Sure, WoC is one of the best armies and the troops are just crazy good so I might have simply been outmatched from the start. Grave Guard vs Khorne-marked guys isn't something I want to happen again.

So there are two things I learned. First, I need to use my magic to take down opponent's units with Wind of Undeath and Curse of Years instead of relying on close combat and Nehek. Second, I learned I can't rely on magic. Which is a big problem for VC it seems to me. Nothing in the army book is that strong, able to go toe-to-toe with tough CC units, so nehek and vanhel's are must-haves..but due to the 8th magic rules, magic isn't strong enough to support these needs.

I am finally understanding why VC are not as powerful as they once were.

That leaves me with my fledgling O&G army, which from what I've read isn't very strong either. It's not like I'm looking to smash face every time I play, but I don't want to lose before even putting the models on the table either..

On the project front I did finish my XV-9, got a good idea for a terrain piece for another youtube challenge, and I'll be moving forward with both the razorback and stormraven. I've decided to at least try doing the interior, and I can always glue it shut if it does not work out.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Play like you have a pair..



This was a game of ups and downs. I went second, and ended up losing my Stormraven before it even moved. Not a good start. However I decided that my army was good enough to go toe-to-toe with the worst that 18 fiends could throw at me. I immediately ran full bore at what I had in front of me. And it worked. First my terminators were able to take down fateweaver, on his turn to boot. What a great way to start a comeback.

The real turning point though was when both harolds moved over and used wind (breath?) of chaos on my assault marines. Out of 13 template hits, he only killed 4 guys. Epically bad rolling. lost a couple more to the S5 AP3 shooting, but the unit held. A couple more fell to the demon prince assault, but I was able to take out the prince with the furioso. If the dread had survived that, it would have been a much worse game then it already was.

My terminators were freaking ace once again. Helped I made a ton of saves though lol. after wiping out the harolds, the terminators took a charge from a unit of fiends. He had to go through terrain so I was able to kill one before he hit. Still, I had to take almost 20 saves ..and made all but 1! I made all the invul saves on my storm shields, and failed 3 armor saves, 2 of which were saved by FNP. FNP terminators is just..OMG. They survived those fiends, then were being whittled down by another unit of fiends when we called it (there was only 1 fiend left). Another good roll, was making 1 invul and 3 armor saves on my priest. Gosh I would kill to give him a storm shield..

My big move though was when a unit of fiends mishapped, and I got to place them. I went for it, and placed them right in front of both Baals and the las-plas razorback. Baal predators are amazing at putting wounds on infantry. With shooting I killed all but 1, and he only had 1 wound left. I then assaulted with the 4 marines, survived, and wiped it out. Amazing yet risky move on my part.

Anyway more projects. Almost done with the XV-9, video part 2 soon. Staring a terrain piece for terrainoob's challenge (it's a small one, won't take long) and making progress on both the stormraven and last razorback.

I also got offered to do a commission. I was really surprised, doing a whole DE army to a tabletop standard. I am way busy, but I told him after OFCC we could talk about it. I could use a few extra bucks!

Monday, May 9, 2011

I had a great day..


Saturday May 7th, I got a few hours off. Off life, off reality, off from everything. I didn't intend it to be that way, but it worked out for me.

Real life is sucking big right now, mainly due to cars and money. well cars sucking money. I'm sure everyone knows what I mean.

Saturday my cousin was going into my FLGS to buy and futz with new Tomb Kings stuff. He has a substantial army already but needed new toys. I got to get away from the family and hang out with him. It was awesome.

First, I brought my vampire counts and went through and fixed all the broken models I had and made a few bases of fillers for my skellies and crypt ghouls.

After that I played my cousin's Deathwing in a game vs Blood Angels. It was a fun game, I can really see the appeal of Deathwing...it is a LOT of fun to play. This is the list I ran @1750:

HQ: Belial; TH/SS
HQ: Interrogator Chaplain, Terminator armor, combi-melta

Troop: Upgraded Deathwing, Banner w/TH/SS, apothecary w/TH/SS, Cyclone w/TH/SS, 1 guy with LC and another TH/SS guy.
Troop: Deathwing; Cyclone, 3xTH/SS, 1xLC, 1xChainfist/SB
Troop: Deathwing; Cyclone, 3xTH/SS, 2xLC

Fast: Speeder; Typhoon, MM
Fast: Speeder; Typhoon, MM
Fast: Speeder; Typhoon, MM

Heavy: Predator AC/HB
Heavy: Devastators 4xML, TL-Las Razorback.
Heavy: Vindicator

Mission was roll dice and tie with dawn of war. He placed scouts on his objective and I placed the dual-lc unit on my objective in opposite corners. I then dropped the non-command squad next to his objective and turbo-boosted the speeders there as well. The idea was to bait in his LRC full of assault termies, priest and libby to kill off my deathwing sqaud leaving them open to MM the LR and vindicator the squad.

He took the bait, but I made so many saves the combat lasted 3 turns before the last guy died. I did end up killing the land raider though. Then the command squad didn't show up until turn 4, but was able to wipe out his termies. I was about to assault the scouts when the game ended on a roll of 1 at the end of 5. 1 good turn of shooting took out almost everything I had (including a sniper scout improbably exploding a speeder).

In the end I only had 1 immobilized speeder and 5 termies left. My objective was contested and I was out of range of his, giving him the win. It was a great game that went back and fourth from turn to turn with dice luck playing a huge factor!

After the game I sat down and started assembling my second stormraven. My biggest decision is to paint the interior or not. I have not fully glued it together yet for that reason. But it was great sitting there without any kids bugging me to play barbies or mario party 8 and just talking warhammer and sniffing plastic glue..

I would like a 4th 40k army sometime. I am waiting patiently for Tau - which could be even before the end of the year - before I decide. I am considering deathwing and the henchmen-heavy Coteaz hybrid list posted earlier.

Anyway long post with a wall of text. I finished assembling my XV-9 with phased ion guns and will probably be painting that over the next week for the Freebootaz challenge. I love these models, so easy to pose!

Friday, May 6, 2011

Warbuggy build done





Yep all finished with the build. I thought I had until the end of may to finish, but it's the end of June. I might even do a 2nd entry into the SMA contest..maybe the Stormraven, maybe I'll pick up a model car kit and do that with acrylics and the airbrush.

I put work into my XV9, first FW kit I've touched that I bought in February. Wasn't much cleaning to do, but I could do more if I wanted. It's almost assembled.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

What? Grey Knights? Kinda..

I am really liking the henchmen rules in the GK codex. Talk about cheap, effective and really cool units. Not like I have the money to build a new army, but I would like to try this out somehow.

HQ (170): Librarian; Titan, summoning, shrouding, halberd
HQ (100): Coteaz

Troop (311): Strike Squad, 2x psycannons, MC Hammer, psybolt ammo
-Razorback, psybolt, searchlight, warp stable field
Troop (139): 12x Warrior Acolyte, 3x plasma
-Chimera, spotlight, warp stable field
Troop (169): 3x MM servitors, 2x Jokaero, 2x warrior acolyte (Coteaz goes here)
-Chimera, spotlight, warp stable field
Troop (211): 5x Death cult, 5x Crusader (Libby joins one of these)
-Chimera, spotlight, warp stable field
Troop (211): 5x Death cult, 5x Crusader
-Chimera, spotlight, warp stable field
Troop (139): 12x warrior acolyte, 3x melta
-Chimera, spotlight, warp stable field

Elite (145): Vindicare

Heavy (135): Psyfileman
Heavy (135): Psyfileman
Heavy (135): Psyfileman

2000pts exactly.

Lots of scoring units, pretty good cc punch with titan on assassins, and lots of cheap expendable guys! I think this list has a lot of good combos (like hiding dreds behind chimeras then using shrouding to give them a 3+) and has the elements to deal with a lot of different things.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Yay!

If you didn't know I've been posting my videos on miniwargaming.com. I did it mainly to enter their contest, but it has really been a good thing. I've been getting a lot of views there, to people who have never seen my youtube channel. It's great! I would recommend doing it to all the 'smaller' youtubers out there.

I also noticed one of my vids is on their 'top content' list, my artic ork test model. I'm lovin' it!



I plan on playing Blood Angels this month. I played them on Saturday and really enjoyed it.