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..

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.

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!

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!

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.

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.

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.