Saturday, July 25, 2015

I like to play fast assault armies. Blood Angels/Space Wolves at 2k

Going into the final week of an escalation month (next month is all ITC 1850) I have built the final version of my BA/SW Deathstar list.

What can I say? I find that if you are going to play assault, what you need is SPEED.  That is where the Ork bike list is at it's best...run forward and then punch  you in the face.

In order to do that with something else I needed a fast, hard-hitting unit. There simply are not many of them, but in this case I found that Thunderwolves do the trick.

But you can't get FNP from the Space Wolf codex.

In comes Blood Angels.

I've shown my Sanguinary Priest and Librarian on bikes.  Dante is a LoW but is absolutely worth every bit of it..he's a pure beast.  If I can get The Quickening off he is potentially I9 with 9 attacks on the charge at S7/AP2. what?

I add in a liberal use of Drop Pods to make sure I can get objectives and/or get some decent shooting where I need it and away we go!

So here it is:

Primary: Combined Arms.

HQ: Sanguinary Priest (91).  Bike, Auspex, Bolt Pistol, Meltabombs
HQ: Librarian (110): Bike, level 2

Troop: 10 Tactical Marines (205)
Melta, combi-melta, heavy flamer, drop pod

Troop: 10 Tactical Marines (210)
Plasma, combi-plasma,heavy flamer, drop pod

Elite: 5 Sternguard (185)
3x Combi-flamer, heavy flamer, drop pod

Fast: 4 Bikes (124)
Combi-Grav, 2x Grav gun

Fast: RAS (100)
Meltagun, meltabombs

LoW: Dante (220)

Allied Detachment
HQ: Wolf Lord (215)
Thunderwolf mount, runic armor, storm shield, power fist

Troops 10 Grey Hunters (215)
2x meltagun, ccw, drop pod

Fast: 5 Thunderwolves (325)
5x Storm Shield, 2x Power Fist.

That's 4 drop pods, 3 with ObSec, and the Deathstar running at you full speed.  3++/5+ FNP!
I was originally going to do flyers (like 2 stormravens and 1 stormwolf) but that got way to expensive. 

I might still try to do that list, but I'll have to wait until I can afford a SW flyer.

Thursday, July 16, 2015

Showcase: Blood Angels Librarian

Another project complete, something I put together at the last second for no particular reason. Now I'm glad I did. Already played him in a game, giving Dante The Quickening for a ton of attacks!  Brutal!


I used the old "shoulderpad as psychic hood" trick and used several bits from the Blood Angels upgrade frame that recently came out.  The sword is magnetized and I would like an axe but all the axes are right-handed.  Sword is good enough.

Time to crunch on more Blood Angels, starting with Grav-bikes.

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

More Thunderwolves!

Got the final varnish on the Thunderwolves today, while working on my Librarian.  Two of the guys have magnetized arms for power fists and chainswords. I did want a frost axe but all the axe bits are for the other arm. So when/if I get a 6th model I'll magnetize the right arm instead.



And a group shot!  Now lets see if I can actually win a game with them lol!


Still plodding along with the Librarian. If I get him done enough I might just play him tomorrow.

On the Bench: Blood Angels

It's time to finish off my unpainted Blood Angels. problem with that is I keep adding more!

I am almost done with the Thunderwolves, so I'm starting in on my Biker Librarian. After that I'm going to be concentrating on the remaining models: 4 bikes, 5 Sternguard and 5 Death Company (all with lots of magnetized bits). Plus two used Drop Pods I'm not sure what exactly I'm going to do with them yet.

There are just so many bits with these guys it gets annoying. heh.



I don't have much left to paint for my Orks (just a single Trukk) and no plans to add much to my army at this point. I think I'd like 2 more battlewagons and 2 more flyers (for the formations) but that's not a goal, just something I think I'd like to try.

So anyway the progress will be slow as I put my BA to a much higher standard then my Orks, but I will crunch through it all.

Thursday, July 9, 2015

Showcase: Roadkill's General Mayhem in 1/25

So with just my 2nd non-Warhammer model in about 20 years or so, I've finished Roadkill's General Mayhem. I'm pretty darn happy with how it came out.

It's a Revel Master series 1/25 1968 Dodge Charger I bought at the Salvation Army for exactly $2.90.  For the price it was unbeatable no matter what I did with it.

Then came the ScaleModelAddict's 2015 Big Spring Contest, which I've entered before.  And on top of it, the theme for the contest is "dirty" so it was obvious to me to build my own General Mayhem.

The interior is missing so I modified or scratch built the panels to represent the sheet metal structure, loosely based off pics of the parts I found online. I might someday replace the grill if I can find something more suitable, but this one is scratch-built from .020 square strips.  It's hard to get pics of the interior.

So anyway, pics!






If your into cars at all and have not seen Roadkill, head on over to the Motor Trend youtube channel and check it out.

Next up is more Thunderwolves, I got another box and they are well under way. Then I will try to finish off my remaining unpainted Blood Angels models - 5 Sterrngaurd, 5 Death Company, 5 bikes and 2 drop pods.

Monday, July 6, 2015

For the Greater Good...Tau Titan!!

Holy shit saw this pic today and omg it's awesome. From Forgeworld open day:






The sign says KX139 Ta'unar Supremacy Armor.  Bigger then a Knight Titan..and just a few guns.  4 missile pods, 4 burst cannons, the arm-mounted Gatling ion weapons and then the tripple-shoulder mounted weapons of ..awesome.

Man, I can't afford much but this is absolutely on my short list.  A Tau Titan is one of those things I always wanted GW to put out.

Now Forgeworld needs to tackle the Great Gargant. :)

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Requiem for Zhadsnark 'Da Rippa'

Over the last couple months every list I've played has included Zhadsnark.  But that time is drawing to a close.  I still have OFCC left later this month I'm playing Zhadsnark with the Bully Boyz, and I could play him in league through the end of this month but I want to break out my other armies.

Other then a single game the day of the BA codex release, I've been playing Orks exclusively since the codex came out.  Sure I have used allies, but still mainly focused on Orks.

1. Zhadsnark himself is pretty damn good. 
The I4 S10 power fist with 4 base attacks at WS5 is completely amazing.  The skilled rider he grants to his unit is exactly what the Ork bikes need. I have never once scouted his unit, I simply see no need to do so.  He is totally worth the points and then some.

2.  Warbikes are simply the best unit in the codex, of that I have absolutely no doubt. 
Especially if they have a painboy to tag along.  The speed, resilience, firepower, and close combat ability all combine to what is as close to the perfect unit as you can get.  Being able to sink all your points into these guys instead of having to "waste" some on infantry makes Orks so much better.

3. An Ork warbike army has little need for a supporting cast.
Sure, you can have some variations with Bully Boyz, or a loota/mek gun fire base, but in the end they are really not needed.  I don't think I found any game where I was wishing I had more firepower.  The one exception to this is maybe some outflanking Defkoptas or Warbuggies... those fit in the theme and provide additional backfield pressure which could help if your bikes get mired in the middle.

4. More units is better.
The one flaw I found is having only large units of bikes.  This didn't give me enough units to deal with objectives over the course of a game.  That is why I started running 2 large units and a unit of 3.  I think 2 full units with painboys, and 2-3 units of 3 is the way to go in the future.  I just didn't have enough models to do more!

5. Orks need a formation to do a Warbike army without Zhadsnark.
This is really the most disappointing thing about the Ork book, especially compared to all the other books that have been released since then. The complete lack of formations, especially clan-based formations. After seeing the Ravenwing formation in the DA book - that's EXACTLY what I want for Orks (10 FA slots).  Most of the formations released for Orks in things like the Red Waaagh! are ok, at best.

Orks do need fixing to be truly competitive with books released since it came out.  Not anything major, a few tweaks and new formations would do it.  It was the first book of 7th, and it shows.