Ultramarine Blues

Yay, I Have Something to Talk About!

2012-01-20T05:31:00.001-06:00

Hey gang!

I often operate under the creed that I write when I have something to say.

Lately, in all the hubbub of the 6th Edition rumors and mysterious files appearing out of nowhere and people trying to figure out if they're real (my Magic 8-Ball keeps coming up with, "Signs Point to Yes", but what does it know?) and all the other goings-on, well, I haven't really felt like I had anything original to say. It's not that I haven't been doing...things...I've been doing book reviews for BoLS lately (the latest being the one for Hammer & Anvil that went up a few days ago). But while that's writing, that's for BoLS and not really content for my personal blog (though BigRed would disagree).

Anyway...what do I have to talk about? What interesting thing that is uniquely mine?

I now own a piece of 40K history.

You see, a while back, Darkwynn (a friend of mine) decided to sell the infamous Leafblower army, the one he won 'Ard Boyz 2009 with, the one that started an entire army genre.

On a whim, I bought it.

I've gotten a couple of games in with it, and even had a learning game against Darkwynn to get a handle on how to play this army. I can safely say it's not nearly as lethal in my hands as it was in his -- in fact, I've joked about re-naming it "Petal Pusher". It plays very differently than my beloved power-armored dudesmen. I have also proven that you can lose, and lose badly, with the army if you don't know what you're doing with it.

So I'm going to chronicle some of my misadventures in learning a new army, and prove that it's really not the list, it's the general that makes all the difference along the way.

Does that mean I'm abandoning my other armies? Tossing aside the GKs? Forgetting my Ultramarines (which this blog is named after)? Nope. But I've been craving something different lately, and this fits the bill perfectly.

Ever feel the need to really switch things up? What do you do when you feel the need to expand your horizons? Does the spectre of public humiliation of losing with what should be a great army ever hold you back?

A Change in the Weather

2011-09-13T00:01:00.000-05:00

So, last time we talked (or so) I discussed moving away from a Draigowing/Paladin heavy army.

I've since been trying out pretty much a list every week or so trying to find one that I liked and that worked as well as I wanted.

The problem, you see, is that I really like Paladins, and so I've been pretty determined to keep them in the army. While it may not be the best decision I've made in terms of points efficiency and so on but I really like Paladins and so for the time being, they're in. :)

So, working off the basis of a 5-man Paladin squad it was time to come up with something to go along with them.

Considering the severe lack of long-range firepower is pretty much the entire GK 'dex, I decided to go ahead and add a couple of "psyflemen" dreads. Yeah, I know, they're the darlings of the Internet right now and having played a few games with them, I can understand why. No, they are auto-game-winners or anything but they definitely do fill a role that really nothing else in a "pure" GK list can do, and shoot across the board reliably.

I like units that are useful in all phases of the game -- this is why I like Paladins so much, they're good in every phase of the game. I tried a few games with GKSS but they were fairly useless in CC -- 1 attack pretty much gimps them to the point where you really don't want to get in melee with them, and that's a shame.

So...Purifiers.

Crowe Purifiers.

You have no idea how badly I don't really want to run them, but point-for-point, there's really no substitute for Purifiers, and being able to take them as troops? Yes, please.

Except...well, I can't quite seem to get the hang of using Crowe. Some of my fellow Austinites love him and use him to great effect but I just can't seem to find anything to do with his odd-duck ass. More often than not I was struggling to come up with a use for him, so...well, I'm thinking he's not going to work for me.

So...I tried to cheat the system.

I created an abomination of a list with 2 Grand Masters and minimal 5-man strike squads, Paladins and 3 units of Purifiers...planning on using the Grand Strategy x2 to get scoring Purifiers without paying the "Crowe tax".

In the end, though, after much discussion, I settled on something a bit more reasonable: 2xPurifiers with Rhinos and Psybolt, 2xGKSS, Paladins, 2xPsyfleman and one Grand Master. I figure I can still use Grand Strategy to make Purifiers (or Paladins, or a Dread) scoring if the game type calls for it, otherwise it's probably time to make some scouting Paladins and/or Purifiers...man I love Grand Strategy -- the counter-attack "power up" rocks as well (mmm, Paladins with counter-attack).

The main strength of this list, though, is in the number of boots on the ground, and then number of storm bolters (32) and psycannons (14) it can bring to bear each turn. That's...a whole lot of shooting -- and it works. Well.

I'm concerned about the lack of a Librarian, though, even though I really haven't missed him the last few games I've played without him.

After a few games with the list (and if I make any tweaks) I'll post the list (though it is very simple, really) and let you know how it works out -- hopefully, somewhat near now I want it to. :)

How about you guys? Ever had a unit that you liked so much you just couldn't drop it from a list, even if "conventional wisdom" said it wasn't the "best"? Ever had to tear down an army and start over? How did it work out?

Draigowing Nuts & Bolts

2011-08-19T09:59:00.004-05:00

Bryce commented on my last post:

"Hmm....

Nice to hear more about a Draigowing, I'm working on 20 paladins, a librarian, a vindicare, and Draigo although he seems lost in the mail.

Any advice?"

My reply:

If you're going to go down the Draigowing road and include a Vindicare, I would say find the points for a Techmarine. He has a couple of uses: 1. Bolster that ruin and park your Vindi in it for a tasty 2+ cover save. 2. Grenade caddy -- though if you use him for this (and you should), make sure you pony up the points to give him a warding stave, it's the only way to give him an invul save, even though it's only there in CC the warding stave gives him a shot at surviving power weapon/high strength attacks (and he WILL be singled out if you don't hide him, your opponents will HATE those grenades). I've run a Techmarine with a paladin squad and done some tests with running him with a DCA/Crusader squad and the grenades really help and the invul keeps him alive. If you do run him, though, keep in mind the Techmarine can NOT deep strike, so you can't use that as your delivery method for the unit he's attached to.

Other than that, keep in mind that Draigowing is the most elite of the elite armies, you have to REALLY know your stuff to squeeze every point of effectiveness/efficiency out of it to win games. Consider a Land Raider or Stormraven to get them into CC (which is where they really shine) but choose every assault carefully. Avoid TH/SS terminator units because you'll struggle against them, soften them up with a few rounds of psycannon/storm bolter lovin' before assault. Definitely kit each one out individually because you'll need the wound allocation shenanigans to keep them alive longer. Always take a Brotherhood Banner, the extra attacks REALLY help. Also, remember if your pallies don't cast hammerhand that turn (the libby and/or Draigo and/or Techmarine can do that for you) you can use the BB's auto-activate force weapons ability to shorten those rounds of combat versus pesky multi-wound enemies (ork nobs, I'm looking at you).

If at all possible, use the Vindi to snipe out rune priests, Njal, librarians, etc. -- anything that hampers your ability to cast psychic powers. While they aren't required for GK to perform (strictly speaking) they definitely make things easier, and with Draigowing, you have to use every trick in the book to make it work. It goes without saying that if you play against Eldar and they have Runes of Warding...well, it's going to suck, and suck hard, and there's no getting around it. However, if you can mange to drop the Farseer with a lucky Vindi shot or chop him up into tasty elven chum in assault, you're in business. Unless you're playing footdar, though, most of the time the Farseer will be safely hidden away in a transport. If you can crack that open, yay, if you can't...well, continue the game minus psychic powers. Psychic powers are great buffs, but (as I mentioned), they aren't necessary.

Remember what I said about a delivery system? Here's the downside: you lose valuable rounds of shooting while embarked. And paladins with psybolts and 2 (or 4, if you're taking a full-size unit) psycannons is a punishing volume of fire. You need it. Maybe think about taking a full-size unit and combat squad them into two units, one with 4 pyscannons and a storm bolter as a firebase, the other all storm bolters. Attach a libby, Draigo and the Techmarine to this unit, embark in a LRC and head off to beat face while the other combat squads shoots, shoots, shoots to victory.

One thing I feel I should warn you about, though. Draigowing is a very unforgiving army. You just don't have the bodies to absorb wounds that any mistakes you might make will cause. You need every model in the army doing everything it can every turn or you'll quickly find yourself in trouble.

If you're looking for some other advice from other (probably much more capable players), I would suggest Black Blow Fly's Terminus Est blog (love that name, being a fan of Gene Wolff). He's been running Draigowing for a while and presents some solid ideas/advice. I got the idea of running combat-squadded paladins split along CC/shooting roles from him.

Finally, I can hear what some of you are thinking (OK, not really, as that would make me some kind of mutant), but I can imagine what some of you are thinking: "Joe, just last post you said you were giving up on Draigowing because you couldn't make it work. What gives with you passing out advice on how to use it?" That's a great question, thank you for asking. Yes, you're right, I decided that I couldn't make it work, specifically in a competitive environment. But I also said that I don't think it's an issue with the list itself, rather, my skill as a player -- all I'm doing here is relating my experiences with a Draigowing list, and hoping that Bryce (or anyone else) can build upon my experiences and hopefully do something great.

I love the concept of Draigowing -- Paladins are everything I think terminators should be (well, actually, they aren't, I think they should be at least T5, but that's a pipe dream). I do plan on re-visiting them after getting better at 40K in general. The list is too unforgiving for the number of mistakes I make in an average game.

Good luck, Bryce. I hope you can take Draigowing to the next level!

What do you think, guys? Have you ever had a concept for an army list that you just loved, but couldn't quite make it work? Did you stick with it, or did you move on to something else? Ever re-visit a list concept? How did it go if you did?

Thinking About How I Play

2011-08-17T21:47:00.000-05:00

So, after the debacle that was 'aaaaard Boyzzz, I've been giving some serious thought to how I play.

I made some pretty serious mistakes that cost me games, or (at the very least) hamstrung my efforts at winning.

Here's a prime example: In game 1, I had a unit of paladins fail a leadership test and scamper (remember my rule about doing well with paladins, "Don't roll 1's"? Well, I rolled a couple of 1's at a very inopportune time, and followed it up with a 5 and 6 on the leadership test...don't you just love those special moments?). In and of itself, that's not so bad. I was only down a couple of guys, and still had 2 psycannons.

I forgot that you can shoot while falling back.

I even commented on it, and my opponent said nothing to correct me -- and that's not his fault, it's a tournament, and it's not my opponent's job to know the rules for me. No, I blame myself.

But by losing that unit's shooting, a good part of my offensive capability was simply not present...but it should have been, and would have been had I known the rules. Would that have turned my loss into a win? Maybe, maybe not. But the fact remains that I blew it because I didn't know the rules.

Second huge mistake: I parked a Land Raider in a place that allowed my opponent to get into position to block enough of my exits that could have lost me the unit should it have gotten wrecked. As it was, I was thinking I would disembark and move to the rear (which was open) all in one move. Faulty thinking? Not remembering/realizing that disembarking and the following movement are two separate moves. As it turned out, I had to sacrifice a unit of terminators to "speed bump" a unit of Logan and his drinking buddies to try for another turn of getting Fortitude off so I could move the LR. Granted, I shouldn't have allowed myself to put the LR in such a situation in the first place, but I didn't think enough about what my opponent was going to do before I did it. So in reality, it's one mistake setting up and then compounding a second one.

Third mistake: I totally forgot to use The Grand Strategy until the start of game 3. My paladins should have had counter-attack, but didn't, because I didn't think about using the ability. Total FAIL! on my part.

What I'm getting at is that my mistakes impair my army's performance and ultimately cost me games -- and I keep making them.

So...I've been thinking about what to do about this.

First thing, I need to play more games. The more I play, the more rules I will be familiar with and the less mistakes I will make that are rules-knowledge-related.

Second, I've actually been thinking of making myself a "cheat sheet" of things I need to remember while I'm playing until those things are drilled into my head and become second nature.

Third, I think I'm going to have to let go of the idea of pure Draigowing being a "great" army (at least for me). It just doesn't capitalize well enough on the inherent shooting strength of the GK army. I think I can get by with just one unit of them as a death star and fill out the rest of the army with either PAGKs or purifiers to dish out a lot more tasty firepower that isn't as susceptible to losing a guy or two and having it hurt the overall strength of the army so much. The sad truth is I'm not a good enough player to make Draigowing work yet. I'm not saying I won't re-visit the concept later, but it's time to move on and try some other things.

What do you guys think? How do you train yourself out of making game-costing mistakes? Have you ever made a cheat-sheet? How about any advice on remembering everything you need to know while playing a game?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and suggestions.

'Aaaaard Boyzzz

2011-08-13T15:35:00.003-05:00

So, I'm signed up.

I'm playing a dual Land Raider Draigowing.

We'll see how it goes. :)

Welcome Caldera!

2011-07-22T16:27:00.002-05:00

My good friend Caldera has started a new blog and is already dishing out some good content. Check him out and give him a follow!

WARGamesCON GT: Round 7, Table 1, Bottom of 3...

2011-07-10T13:54:00.001-05:00

Whoa, foot Orks? Nob bikers? What's the world coming to?

Wargasm!

2011-07-08T12:42:00.001-05:00

WARgamescon in full effect, first team game down, won by 2 points...more to come later.

PTM

2011-06-05T15:05:00.001-05:00

I call it Post-Tournament Malaise. You know, that feeling you get after playing in a tournament -- win or lose, place or not, the next day is a little...blah...for me.

Maybe it's because I had to stay up late getting models in my list ready. Maybe it's the same as spending a whole day doing something you love, and the next day is just not quite as fun.

I love playing in our local tournaments. I learned a few new things that I will definitely be sharing. But mainly, I had a blast playing 40K all day.

Next up for me is a tournament in Killeen, Texas, and after that, WargamesCON.

Nuts. Looks like I have plenty of painting to do...

Citadel Finecast: You Be The Judge

2011-05-31T19:10:00.023-05:00

With all the hubbub about Citadel Finecast, I thought I would present these photos for you to be the judge of "hot or not".

I found myself in need of a new Terminator Librarian (as my metal one has gone missing). So, with the arrival of Finecast, I thought I'd get one and check it out. My FLGS was nice enough to hold a new Terminator Libby for me and I picked it up today.

I took these pics with my phone's camera, which is pretty decent, but not fantastic or anything.

So, without further ado, here's the "unboxing" pics:

If you'd just like to see the Picasa album (and much higher-res pics), here it is.

So...what do you guys think?

Draigowing - Now with Extra Support!

2011-05-23T14:05:00.003-05:00

So I've been thinking about Draigowing with Paladins. Yes, Paladins cost a LOT, but I think they're worth it. The biggest issue with them is they need long-range support, and something to pop tanks from a distance (so they can get at the chewy stuff in the transports, mainly).

Granted, in the modern Grey Knights codex that means "Psyflemen" dreads. I just happened to get lucky and score a ForgeWorld dread body from a friend the other night, and I ordered the auto-cannon arms Sunday. Of course, if I make this list permanent, I'm going to be ordering another dread and auto-cannon arms, but that's OK. I figure if this list works out I can get more resin-y goodness to make the appropriate dread model (I could even use a -- gasp! -- standard dread model instead of a ForgeWorld one and just order the right arms). The really good news about this list is the only other model I need to purchase is (another) Librarian in Terminator armor (as I can't seem to find my metal one). I've got one of the new FineCast ones pre-ordered at the FLGS so we'll see how that works out. I have realistic hopes that it'll at least look good, I don't know how I feel about the whole FineCast thing yet, but I figure I need the model anyway, might as well give it a shot. Right? Right.

Anyway, this list:

HQ: Lord Kaldor Draigo (1#, 275 pts)

Troops: Paladin Squad (5#, 340 pts)
1 Paladin Nemesis Force Sword; Psycannon
1 Paladin Nemesis Force Halberd; Psycannon
1 Paladin Nemesis Daemonhammer; Storm Bolter
1 Paladin Brotherhood Banner; Storm Bolter
1 Paladin Nemesis Force Halberd; Storm Bolter

HQ: Librarian (1#, 180 pts)
Nemesis Force Sword; Storm Bolter
Hammerhand; Might of Titan; Quicksilver; Sanctuary; The Shrouding; The Summoning; Warp Rift

Elite: Techmarine (1#, 133 pts)
Blind Grenades; Rad Grenades; Storm Bolter; Nemesis Warding Stave; Servo Harness

Troops: Paladin Squad (10#, 655 pts)
2 Paladin Nemesis Force Sword; Psycannon
2 Paladin Nemesis Force Halberd; Psycannon
2 Paladin Nemesis Daemonhammer; Storm Bolter
1 Paladin Nemesis Brotherhood Banner; Storm Bolter
1 Paladin Nemesis Force Sword; Storm Bolter
2 Paladin Nemesis Force Halberd; Storm Bolter

Elite: Vindicare Assassin (1#, 145 pts)

Heavy Support: Psyfleman Dread (1#, 135 pts)

Heavy Support: Psyfleman Dread (1#, 135 pts)

...total of 1998 points. Yay.

Here's the plan:

Techmarine will bolster terrain, and the Vindicare will hide out there, with Stealth that'll give him a tasty 2+ cover save. I can live with that. The dreads will hang out near him. I have the big 10-dude Pallie squad as it's the only way I could give all my Pallies a BB, if I *need* to I can combat-squad them and have the Techmarine hop in with them, letting his Rad Grenade dispenser hopefully make up for the lack of +1 attacks they won't be getting from the BB (at least a little bit). Either way it gives me options and that's a good thing. I can DS Draigo and his squad (or another unit of Pallies, taking advantage of Draigo's Psychic Communion) if I really need to get across the board without hoofing it. Lastly -- and I'm pretty sure this'll work, but I don't have my codex here with me at work -- I can use The Summoning to yank the Vindicare out of harm's way should something assaulty get too close.

What do you guys think?

Paladins: Totally Worth It

2011-05-09T15:24:00.020-05:00

Actually, to get an idea of how I say it, you have to imagine me with a big ol' grin giving two thumbs up and saying, "Paladins: Totally worth it."

(BTW: This pic is of my WIP Draigo-led unit of Paladins in my "Draigo's All-Stars" list that I used in this past weekend's team tournament.)

So, I played my Draigo's All-Stars list over the weekend in a tournament, partnered with CrazyRedPraetorian's IG. I have learned a few things about Paladins, and I thought I'd share:

The volume of fire a squad of 7 with 2 psycannons puts out is amazing for such a (relatively) small unit. 8 psycannon shots a turn makes things die.

Librarian + Paladins with Brotherhood Banner = Hammerhand + Might of Titan + Quicksilver = everything you charge in CC dies like a squealing pig before it gets to swing back. Well, almost everything. That's why you have a Paladin with a Daemonhammer for mop-up.

The Apothecary upgrade isn't really worth it. As I'm sure has been discussed, what kills Paladins dead isn't small arms fire, it's anti-tank weapons that you don't get FnP rolls on anyway. The few times I had a Paladin actually die it was to either AT weapons or a DH. The few times I got to make a FnP roll, it usually didn't help (I made exactly 1 out of 5). Yes, that was bad luck on my part, but the fact remains that FnP only has a 50% chance of working in the first place, and you don't get to use it that often with Paladins. Therefore those 75 points are more than likely better spent elsewhere (on more Paladins, I think).

Did I mention that anti-tank weapons make Paladins cry? They do.

Wound Allocation Shenanigans (WAS) with Paladins make them very, very hard to kill.

Mixing in a few NFSs with NFHs lets you spread those CC power weapon wounds around with a 16.67% better chance of making your invulnerable save. Since you have to do it that way for WAS anyway, make the most of it.

I'm still undecided on the Brotherhood Banner. Yes, it does give all your Paladins an extra attack, but it does remove an NFx from the squad. I can't decide if it's worth it, or not. I'm going to have to play some more games with it and see. The BB's other ability -- auto-passing the NFx activation -- would have been perfect had I not already used Hammerhand that round of CC. That's my fault, and not some flaw in the BB, so I'll need to be more judicious in my use of Hammerhand in those times when it would be more useful to have force weapons insta-gank multi-wound models (I'm looking at you, Ork Nob units). Sure, S6 > S5, but not having to deal with someone else's WAS with multi-wound models would be >S6 since you can't get S8 without a DH. Did I mention you really need a DH? Yes, you do. Don't leave the battle-barge without at least one.

The only unit that gave my Paladins issues was...another unit of Paladins, all set up for WAS and including a Warding Stave. Sometimes that 2++ really helps ("Just die, damn you, just die!").

Paladins can and will fail leadership tests when your dice have decided they're done for the day and want to go home.

"Deep striking is for suckers," that's my motto. But if you really need to do it with Paladins, well, they're pretty good at surviving the hailstorm of incoming fire they're going to get. Regardless, I got lucky on both my reserve rolls and DS rolls (hit once, scattered 3 the other). I still think DS is too iffy, though, especially when your Psychic Communion generator (Draigo) is Deep Striking, too. IMHO too many things can go wrong and therefore, I stand by my motto, even though sometimes you just gotta be a sucker. "No balls, no babies," as CRP would say.

Don't roll ones. Just don't. Your Paladins don't like ones. However, the first one isn't usually a big deal. Unless, of course, you're making a save against a krak missile hit. It goes without saying that rolling a second one on the same Paladin is absolutely verboten.

Njal Stormcaller makes your Paladins sad. When you see him across the table, know in your silver-armored heart that He. Must. Die. (And the sooner, the better.)

Paladins assaulting Njal Stormcaller and his boys makes Njal cry hot wolfy tears. Psyk-out grenades are fun when you're the one using them.

Other units of Paladins will make you sad, especially when they get the charge on you. Psyk-out grenades are no fun when used against you.

If you're going to use Grand Strategy to give Paladins an extra ability, counter-charge is good -- especially if you have a BB. Getting 4 attacks when charged (and more than likely going first) helps quite a bit. It will also make your opponent think twice about charging in -- which hopefully results in another round of tasty, tasty shooting from your Paladins before you charge in and wreck shop. I'll have to experiment with the "gains Scouts" ability and see how that works out, but it's not like you're going to get close enough to get into CC on round one anyway...

Frag grenades on terminators, such a pleasant surprise (well, for you, anyway...). "Don't hide from Paladins in difficult terrain, you'll just die covered in debris."

Lastly, expect to see things like this a lot when you play GK (and Paladins as troops in particular):

...in short: Paladins: Always outnumbered, never outgunned.

Oh, how'd we do in the tournament? Made it to Table 2, and lost by 2 KP to a GK/SW team, which cost us placing. Remember what I said about another unit of Paladins? A-yep, that's what did it to me (well, I didn't lose the unit, but they lost CC due to number of wounds caused vs. taken, and then failed the morale check with effin' boxcars...). A dreadnaught drop-podding into our IG-filled backfield didn't help. Every game was fun, though -- we definitely had a good time.

Draigo's All-Stars

2011-04-22T00:45:00.004-05:00

I'm putting together a list for a 1500 points (each) team tournament next weekend, and I came up with this. I don't know if I'll run it, but damn, it seems like a fun little exercise nevertheless...

Lord Kaldor Draigo	275	275

Librarian	150	175
Quicksilver
Might of Titan
Sanctuary
The Shrouding
The Summoning

Paladins x7	385	525
Apothecary
Psycannon x2
Brotherhood Banner DH, halberds x4, NFS on Apothecary

Paladins x7	385	525
Apothecary
Psycannon x2
Brotherhood Banner

DH, halberds x4, NFS
on Apothecary
Total Cost: 1500 points on the nose.

Basic plan?

Use Draigo to give counter-charge to (hopefully) both pally units
Libby with one pally squad, Draigo with the other
Keep units close so they can both suck up that Shrouding magic
Pick things I want to die
Move towards those things, and shoot shoot shoot on the way
Assault those things and watch them die quick painful deaths

My teammate is going to run either IG or Wolves, either of which can pick up the slack caused by the holes that this list has (and yes, it has many).

What do you guys think?

It's like...

2011-04-11T00:07:00.001-05:00

...plastic Christmas.

The new Grey Knights terminator box, that is.

It is stuffed full of all sorts of little prizes, and dripping with exquisite little details!

And since when did GW actually include actual INSTRUCTIONS in their kits? Real live, readable, USEFUL instructions? You know, the kind that actually TELL you what all the parts are, what all the options are....heck, what all those little extra doodads are? It almost brings a tear to this old geek's eye. :)

Oh wow...just....wow!

2011-03-31T16:30:00.004-05:00

This document that was uploaded to Blood of Kitten's "Rumors, Sweet Little Rumors" section REALLY makes me happy.

Happier, even, than the entire GK codex.

Because as cool at GK are, I love SoB even more.

GW is finding new and exciting ways to siphon money out of my wallet this year...

A Bag of Happiness...

2011-03-09T12:53:00.005-06:00

So, the GK black boxes are popping up, and as reported all over the place the rumor-mill can grind to a halt.

Best source I've seen in HERO's blog post, go there and check it out.

Also, the demand to see these must be very high, the GW website has been down for the last hour. :)

Video Battle Report up on BoLS

2011-02-16T22:37:00.002-06:00

I played a game with CrazyRedPraetorian and we made a video battle report from it. It's up on BoLS if you'd like to see proof that I actually do play the game. :)

Latest GK Rumors Reaction: Definitely Aroused

2011-02-15T01:23:00.004-06:00

So, unless you've been under a rock lately you've seen some of the latest GK rumors. Paladins, Purifiers and Strike Squads, oh my! Even the base PAGK is going to seriously rock...and I can't wait. Suck it, vampires and roll over, wolves, it looks like the new kids on the block are going to be fantastic.

And I can't wait.

Why? Because I actually own the old DH codex, and was going to start an army of them until I heard the new book was coming out and decided to wait. Man...I wish I'd gotten a head start back then, because I'm really looking forward to these guys.

One of the things I'm looking forward to is using the Vindicare assassin to find those pesky rune priests with runic weapons and feeding him some long range snipery death so it's hammer...make that HAMMERHANDS time all around. It's going to be good to give some pups a little well-deserved comeuppance.

The question I have is, will having storm bolters/NFW (no matter what the flavor, though I'm thinking NFHalbreds for that special +1I love) make up for not having Counter-Charge (like the wolves do)?

Also: PALADINS. Now these guys are what Terminators should be. WS5 2W with an apothecary for that oh-so-special FNP...plus the ability for each model to take Nemesis Warding Staves for a 2++ Invulnerable Save...good grief I just had a nerdgasm. Granted, you'll be paying out the ass for them, but hey, don't they just sound like fun? Let me answer that for you: YES. :)

We won't even get in to the DreadKnight. I can't decide if I love or hate the model from the blur-a-riffic pics we have of the model, but the stats make me all tingly. 4W MC? Yes, please!

What's your favorite rumored GK tidbit? I have so many I don't think I can count them all. :)

Back in the Game!

2011-01-05T16:47:00.002-06:00

I heard you missed me, I'm back. :)

After several months of being out of the game (literally) I'm back for the attack, baby.

In fact, I played in my first tournament in over a year over this past weekend and didn't win, but made it to table 3...which is where things came off the rails a little bit.

My friend The Dude put up a post about this game, and I thought I'd link to it as proof that I'm actually playing again (and to let you know how things went downhill for me pretty quick in this game).

Anyway...it's good to be back.

Coming up: The much ado'd, but never seen Star Phantoms pic. Really. I promise.

GK.

2010-12-21T11:51:00.002-06:00

I had a talk with a friend "in the know" about the upcoming Codex: GK.

All I will say is...I'm aroused.

An Older Pic...

2010-11-02T09:37:00.004-05:00

...of some stuff in progress. Well, the CSM isn't in progress, he's finished, and he is the "sample piece" from my Army of the Crowing project. The Inquisitor Lord is definitely in the very beginning stages, and will probably find a home with the Sisters. I'm doing something very different with the Inquisitor, he was primed gray and then "spray-lighted" white in an effort to learn and do shading better. We'll see how it works out, hopefully with more in-progress pics when I actually do more work and get things going hobby-wise again.

The rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated, but my absence has been imposed. I'll explain later (most of the Austin crew already knows about it). I'll be doing a LOT more gaming-related things in about a month...but I'm going to be looking through my older pics and maybe posting a few things between now and then. :)

....Sister?

2010-03-10T23:17:00.000-06:00

Hmm. Sister!

Building an Army from the Ground Up

2010-01-14T06:40:00.009-06:00

So, remember that gaming-related content I promised you? This is me, delivering it!

I told you I have two armies I'm going to be sharing with you. Because I want to milk these armies every drop of bloggery-related content I can (hey, at least I'm honest!) I'm going to go over the components and some WIP stuff before I actually drop the army itself on you.

It's no secret that I worked on the Star Phantoms army for the Badab Campaign. The real tragedy is that I never got to play this army, not even once. Remember all those thinly-veiled references to a life out of control in my "back to blogging" post? One of the victims of my life de-railing over the last half-year or so was my ability to participate in the Badab Campaign. I can't tell you how sick it makes me, or how incredibly sorry I am to the guys that ran the campaign that I wasn't able to take part in it.

Anyway...moving forward.

When I began the Star Phantoms, I decided early on that since this was my second Space Marine army, I was going to try and make it my "showcase" -- more accurately, I was going to paint it using the best of my abilities, pushing myself to hopefully get better in all aspects of modeling and painting in the process, with the goal of having something I could really be proud of when I was done.

I'll let you be the judge of whether or not I succeeded after I've posted the pics and all the stuff about it up. But for now I want to talk about the very ground level of your army...the base.

It's become a trend lately to use custom resin bases to really make your army stand out. I wasn't totally sold on the idea at first, since I hasn't actually seen any of the resiny wonders in person. But the fine crew of gaming elite at Austin's very own Battleforge Games made some kind of distribution deal with IronHalo.net and once I saw the Battlefield of Thran set...well, I knew I'd found my bases.

That's right, bases. As in, my goal was to base the entire army on resin bases. Yeah, I know, it's a bit much...but remember, "showcase army" OK?

Anyway, here's a few pics of a couple of sets of the bases I've used. Unfortunately these were taken pretty late in the process and I don't have any "true" WIP shots.

This set of bases has craters and voids and ruts and the like, and since I was already in WAY over my head I thought, "Hey, why not put some water in those holes? That'll look cool!" It took me 2 hours and three hobby stores before I found a "water kit" with these simple instructions: "Pour this crap into a hole and leave alone for a day." Imagine my surprise when it came out looking...well, half-decent, I think

These last couple of shots are a little more close up, and should give you an idea of just how much detail is packed on these bases. You'll notice the pipes in the ground (which was my inspiration for putting "water" in the voids). The rust on those pipes I'm pretty happy with, especially considering the technique I used for them. And by "technique", I mean I brushed over them with one of my new best friends, the "Floquil Enamel Paint Marker" in "Rust" color. One step rusty pipes? Hell, yes! I'll take two please!

...and there you have it, bona-fide gaming-related content!

What little projects have you guys been working on? Make any discoveries lately that turn a complex process into a one-step dream? Ever started a project, committed to a theme and standard...and about halfway through it realize you must have bumped your head just before you made that decision? Well....share it! It'll make me feel better. :)

Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned (or, "I wanted a kickass title for my Back-to-Blogging post but that's all I came up with." Sad, really.)

2010-01-10T06:05:00.010-06:00

So, it's been a while.

It's been too long, really. I'll be shocked if anyone reads this little missive and honestly, I don't blame you if you've filed me under "Missing, Assumed Dead". I filed myself under that for a while....

So, instead of explaining everything that transpired, here's the summary:

Working 60++ hours a week for a few months in a row can have some pretty serious consequences and may result in some very poor decisions being made
Mistakes were made, feelings were hurt
A family emergency that got worse but then got better [additional explanation: wife almost lost her dad, but didn't: modern medicine ROCKS]
The wife and I almost split up, but didn't, and aren't. For the uninitiated: even if you've been married before, even if you've matured and learned a lot...marriage is FUCKING HARD sometimes. Deal with it, live and learn or get accustomed to a life alone.
I really screwed the pooch on an obligation I really, really shouldn't have
Finally, for several reasons I took two weeks off my life -- yes, including the Internet and work
As a result of that and some internal decisions made during this time, I'm more sane than I have been in the last 12 months. Yay me.

And that's that, really. 'Nuff said 'bout all that.

I'll bet your wondering who the songbird in the picture is. That would be Miranda Lambert. I can't stop listening to her new (well, ok, "new" as of September '09) album, Revolution. Would I recommend it to you? Well....that depends. You see...I like country music. Actually, I love pretty much any kind of music. Miranda is a true Texas girl (her first album, an independent release that you won't find anywhere nowadays) included a song entitled, "Texas as Hell". It makes me smile every time I hear it. :) ) But this album is some of the most laid-bare blunt-force-honesty songwriting I've heard in a long while. Yeah, there's a couple of covers on it but damn, this girl can sing and she pulls no punches.

Example: the song "Sin for a Sin" deals with the fucked up shit that runs through your head when you discover your spouse in bed with someone else. (TMI: I've had that particular experience -- not with Bethany, thank God, but with my first wife, SuperDaemonC*nt...er, Ruth. Yep, when you find your wife in bed with your supposed-best-friend and roommate it's not exactly a moment when you're thinking straight...anyway, I digress).

This is Miranda's take on it:

I remember vividly what that vision did to me
You laying with her in our bed
Love can be a tragedy
When you do what you did to me
All I'm seeing now is red

I need to repent
A sin for a sin

Bible told me to forgive
All those who trespass against
Tread their feet on sacred ground
Bad things come with consequence
What feels good hurts in the end
Don't want to think about that now

I need to repent
A sin for a sin

Fire and brimstone
Dirt and a headstone
Bury 'em, baby
All of our sins
Hear the thunder
Six feet under
Hit your knees,
Won't do it again

Guilty pleasure
Ease the pain
Whiskey running through my veins
Too late to save you now

I need to repent
A sin for a sin
Fire and brimstone
Dirt and a headstone
Bury 'em, baby
All of our sins
Hear the thunder
Six feet under
Hit your knees,
Won't do it again

I remember vividly what that vision did to me...

So...yeah. Visceral, raw and real -- and if you've ever been in that moment, well....let's just say there's two people breathing right now because I chose to let them continue breathing, as they were asleep when I found them, and that TEC-9 was right across the hall under my bed and the sound of that sweet 32 round clip sliding home and jacking the bolt back didn't wake them...

Yeah, that's some dark shit and why I'm going on about this on a gaming blog probably means I have to re-think that whole "more sane than I have been" statement I made earlier -- either that, or perhaps maybe I need to quit checking my sanity with a dipstick? (bonus points if you get THAT reference!).

Anyway... Revolution winds down with a soft, gentle landing with a lush, dreamy little tune called "Virginia Bluebell" that's currently sliding out of my Bluetooth headphones, letting me know it's time to drift off to dream.

Besides, she makes this tee-shirt look good:

Anyway...if you're still reading this and you haven't hit the ol' "un-follow" button yet, here's my promise to you: I have some real gaming content to talk about, and pictures of not one, but TWO new armies to share. Painted armies, even! Custom bases and everything! (Though there's some cheating involved in that statement, but not really....you'll just have to stick around and see what I mean!)

So! What's been going on in YOUR lives? Talk to me, Goose! (nuts, another movie reference) We've got a lot of catching up to do!

Surprise! Legion of the Damned!

2009-10-18T09:59:00.003-05:00

Welly welly well, from today's Games Workshop Newsletter (Issue 65):

"Incoming! Legion of the Damned
Today at Games Day Italy we unveiled the all-new metal Legion of The Damned models."

The picture here is from the newsletter (and therefore credit for it belongs to Games Workshop) and I have to say: Damn, I'm surprised and impressed! Oh, I'd hoped to see a new line of LotD models but didn't know this was even in the works (though I've been a bit out of the loop lately and it's entirely possible that everyone else even remotely involved with 40K knew about this, I've been busy, people!).

So...what do you think? Has anyone -- like me -- wanted to included some Damned goodness but hasn't due to the ridiculous prices the (now non-current) models have commanded on Ebay lately? Franly I'm glad to see this new line, and can't wait to get my hands on a box or two.

Stymied!

2009-09-22T02:48:00.007-05:00

Today I bought a Sisters of Battle Squad box -- you know, the one with 10 Adepta Sororitas minis, your basic "troops" unit for a Witch Hunters army. I finally gave up on finding any decent deals on Ebay and/or Bartertown and just decided to do what I should have done in the first place, and that's support my FLGS by purchasing the models through them. That way I'll get exactly what I want, when I want it, and I won't have to waste any of my (increasingly precious and limited) hobby time stripping paint of minis I got in the "aftermarket".

While I'm certain I'm going to drop more cash on this project doing it this way, I find myself asking this question (in a sort of TCO/ROI way of thinking), "Just how much is your free time worth?" By this I mean if you decide to purchase some stuff off Ebay (and I've done it shamelessly and will continue to do so for other projects) you pretty much KNOW you're going to have to spend extra time prepping the minis that you wouldn't have to spend if you just bought new models. Sometimes the time it takes to do all these extra steps -- paint stripping & model cleaning being the major time bandits followed closely by any repairs you have to make, etc. -- can quickly escalate into a pretty significant time investment.

When you add it all up, the man-hours you had to spend doing the extra work will more than likely offset any savings you got in buying the models "second-hand" (as it were). For me it's a simple overall test: I take what my approximate hourly rate is from work and multiply that times number of hours spent doing the second-hand model pre-painting prep work and that gives you a reasonable dollar amount that you add to the price you paid for the "second-hand" minis. If the total of these two numbers (price you paid for minis + dollar amount associated with spending your precious time doing the extra work) is higher than the retail price of the squad/blister/box/etc., well, you screwed yourself and you'd have probably been better off buying new stuff in the first place. :)

[...and holy crap on a pogo stick I just realized I spent a ridiculous amount of time explaining why I had purchased new minis. Ha! Me, a longtime CMBS victim, explaining to a virtual room full of fellow CMBS victims why I...bought...more...models. Talk about "preaching to the choir", huh?]

Anyway, so I get these shiny new models home and give a little show-n-tell for the wife, showing her the few models I'd managed to score over several months of scouring the Auction Hellmouth for bargains). I also explained to her some basic fluff ideas I had to the army...

...but I have been vetoed.

The Wife has informed that I shall not, in fact, be naming my new Adepta Sororitas force "Order of the Glistening Black Iris" (think Georgia O'Keeffe painting here, people -- I'll attach a .jpg of the painting to the bottom of this post so you'll know exactly where I'm going with this one...)

Oh, woe is me, I have been repressed and my creativity has been stymied!

Hmmm...thinkthinkthink....

Yeah, I'm guessing if "Order of the Glistening Black Iris" didn't make it through, I'm pretty sure "Order of Our Holy Pink Tacos" won't, either, and that means "Order of Our Raging Premenstrual Princess" is definitely right out.

What disappoints me most about the Black Iris Ban is I think the painting's color palette would look fantastic on a Sisters army. Not that I can't use that color palette, I suppose, but it just won't be the same. Oh well, I'm sure something will come to me.

So, any suggestions you'd care to share?

Has YOUR creativity ever been stymied? Have you ever had good ideas just sort of "die in committee"? If so, how'd you deal with it? Or...how about sharing a tale or two of heartbroken hopes and desolate dreams -- truly good creativity aborted by some outside force or agent?

Lastly, as promised, I present Georgia O'Keeffe's "Black Iris":

Image Credit/Citation:
"Georgia O'Keeffe: Black Iris (69.278.1)". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

(...see what I mean?)

Darkwynn Removes any Doubt that Guard are the New King of Cheese :)

2009-09-20T03:40:00.004-05:00

According to BoLS, my friend Nick -- a.k.a. Darkwynn -- has won this year's 'Ard Boys competition. I just wanted to take a moment and congratulate my friend -- winning 'Ard Boyz is pretty damned impressive and having played with him and against him...I'm not really surprised. He's one of those guys that can see things several turns in advance...and he also possesses an almost-supernatural ability to second-guess what his opponet is going to do next.

I guess what I'm really trying to say is this: Nick won 'Ard Boyz. Nick slaughtered his was to the top with I.G. (noone is really shocked, not even a little bit). Regardless of what army he's playing, he's a smart, strong player -- and finally, congratulations are definitely in order.

So, Nick my brother, congratulations on this pretty damned impressive achievement. When we see each other next we should take 10-15 minutes to go grab some beers and celebrate properly, like real men...n'shit. :)

(And yes, I still think "'Ard Boyz" sounds like...well, like...gay porn.)

Holy Incredibly Broken Psychic Power, Batman! (Or, "WTF, GW? HAVE YOU BUMPED YOUR FRAKKIN' HEAD?")

2009-09-12T09:17:00.009-05:00

[WARNING: You might say I cluster-bombed the f-word in this post, and committed several other acts of profanity and foulness. As such, this post probably shouldn't be read by...well, anyone, really. Proceed at your own risk.]

So, when I posted my "IT'S A GREAT TIME TO BE IN THE GUARD!" entry, there were a couple of you that said you look forward to my rants that come on after a new codex is released.

I just finished reading the new SW army list that mkerr put up on BoLS, and read about a new psychic power that Rune Priests may take:

"...Jaws of the World Wolf (basically a 24" line that removes models that fail an Initiative test)".

Go on, read that sentence again.

Let those words sink in nice and deep into the ol' brain.

I think you'll agree with me -- SW player or not -- that the first thought that jumped into your head and ran around in circles screaming was "HOLY FUCKING FUCKITY FUCK FUCKING HARE FUCKING KRISNHA JUMPING ON A POGO STICK! What the FUCK WAS GW THINKING? Surely this is bullshit. Surely this is some little gag mkerr is pulling, yanking our collective chains..." (OK...you may not have had that exact thought, but I'll bet the thought you HAD was something similar. If it wasn't...friend, you either love cheesy broken bullshit like a crackhead loves crack served on a stripper's nipples or you've got some sort of mental block that's not letting you see just how incredibly, completely, ab-so-fucking-lutely broken a power like this is...)

After recovering from my apoplectic fit (LOL!) and remembering how to breathe again, it dawned on me that mayhap mkerr the elder chose not to share some details about this new power. Perhaps there's some kind of special test, or save...oh YEAH, there's an INITIATIVE TEST. That'll save ya!

Congratulations, Games Workshop. You've outdone yourselves! You couldn't just take the new C:SW by the power-whorehouse for enough "sessions" to make an entire codex rant-worthy (comical or otherwise).

Oh, NO, that's what we expected.

Instead, you made your opening bid a single psychic power so jacked that it was rant-worthy by itself!

It's really a shame, too, because I was thinking maybe, just maybe GW had gotten a better hold on the whole "game balance" thing and while I expected the new SW book to be very competent, close-combat-wise -- and definitely a "step up", power-wise from the old SW 'dex...I certainly wasn't expecting the steaming pile of wolf turds that this power represents -- unless there are mitigating rules/circumstances/things we don't know about yet that makes even using this power in some way risky to the Rune Priest and/or there is some kind of "save" other than a woefully-ridiculous initiative test.

Now, one thing: notice I didn't say SW players shouldn't take this power. If it's in your book, take it. However, I may very well begin carrying a 2-foot-long crowbar with me to game so that I'll have my own little "24 inch line" that makes things disappear (or collapse in a heap of bruises and pain, which is just as effective) for those special moments when your 200+ point squad gets eaten by an invisible wolf. :)

Smoke 'em if ya got 'em, folks. Inquisitor Lords with the old-school unlimited range psychic hood are now pretty much mandatory unless you enjoy the feeling of wolf johnson in your backside. Actually, a tooled-up Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor Lord with all those nifty "make the enemy psyker go away" powers/wargear...hmm...

OK guys: what do you think of this game balance abortion?

Planetary Empires Strategy Cards

2009-09-08T06:14:00.005-05:00

Lately it seems that GW has been out to impress me.

Just last week we're treated to what I like to call, "The IG FAQ of Win". This week, I see this (OK, granted, it was actually "released" on August 27 but I don't hit the GW web site every day).

What "this" is, is downloadable, free extra content to enhance your Planetary Empires campaign -- a little add-on, if you will. Not necessary to play the game or anything, but a nice little addition you can make to add a little variety/challenge to your campaign.

I'm very happy about these little strategy cards and am hopeful we'll be able to use them in the PE campaign that I joined at Battleforge Games recently...if not, then there's always next campaign, right?

While we're on the subject I'd like to go on record by saying that I approve of any and all free downloadable content that enhances your game. This is nothing new, mind you, video game publishers/producers have been doing it for years (as well as other parts of the software industry) but I can't really think of anything like this in recent memory that GW has actually released for free to download that can actually be a part of the game that isn't an Apocalypse datasheet (please correct me if I'm wrong). I won't say it represents some major paradigm shift on GW's part -- not yet, anyway, they'll have to consistently put little "easter eggs" like this for several months before I think that -- but I will say it's a step in the right direction.

What has GW done lately that's impressed you? What have they done that does not impress you? And while we're talking about PE, has anyone started/joined a new PE campaign since the new set came out?

Fully Functional Parody

2009-09-07T02:25:00.002-05:00

Some days when you travel the back alleys of the Internet, you come across interesting and amusing things.

Today was one of those days.

I submit, for your approval (and amusement): Toymallet 40¢, because "In the grim emptiness of your wallet, you can't afford to play".

The fun thing is, isn't not just a parody, it's a fully-realized (though vastly simplified) wargame. If you nose around the site a bit you'll discover that Jennifer Rietz is also a 40K player -- she has pictures of her Tau army posted there. So this is coming from someone who knows what she's talking about.

Good times!

Anyone have any good 40K humor they want to share?

Sometimes The Funny is Delivered to Me

2009-09-05T16:34:00.005-05:00

Every now and then I take a perusal through the great wasteland of the blogosphere, looking for new blogs to follow. I'm often reminded of the line from Bruce Serling's novel, Islands in The Net: "The Net was a lot like television, another former wonder of the age. It was like a vast mirror, reflecting what it was shown -- mostly, human banality."

But there is good stuff out there, you just have to look for it. If you look at my "follow list", you'll see that I follow -- get this -- 180 blogs. Yeah, that's a lot of blogs. When I want to read some new blog content, damn it, I want to read some new content! The vast majority of them are in the FTW Blogger Group, and there's a good reason: Ron really made something special when he created it.

Now as probably know, there's lots and lots of blogs out there about 40K/WHFB/GW. This is a good thing. They run the gamut from pure painting blogs to strategy/tactics to somewhere in-between (my own blog being a mish-mash of "whatever 40K-related I happen to be thinking about or doing at the time").

However, my latest discovery falls into the realm of...let me think... "40k Internet-related Critic" might be a good phrase. This masterpiece blog is Pathtyphon's Blood of Kittens, and it's a riot. With categories such as "40K Douche Bag" (delivering a verbal slap in the face to certain overblown, self-aggrandizing, those-that-suck-on-the-cock-of-powergaming....douche bags!) with posts that read something like the dialog from your average Jerry Springer episode, BoK has found a special place in my heart. The This Week in 40k Douche Bag: YTTH Edition post made me laugh so much it was almost painful -- and the accompanying graphics were masterful.

Though he doesn't know me, I consider Pathtyphon to be a kindred spirit, a true master of the rant.

If you're not overly squeamish, I say give it a read. :)

What about you guys? Anyone got a blog that you feel the rest of us should be reading? Enlighten me!

Interesting Tidbits from the new IG Codex FAQ

2009-09-04T03:27:00.003-05:00

Welly welly well, GW has released a FAQ for the new IG codex -- in what must be a new all-time record from release of codex to release of FAQ.

Giving it a read-through I can't say there are really any big surprises in it, though a couple of the more asinine things did get the old nerf-bat. Specifically, taking two regimental advisers doesn't made the bonus gained from the adviser stack. So no, sorry, you can't have a +2/-2 bonus to reserve rolls.

The biggest surprise, though -- at least for me -- is GW actually included a section on the Inquisition armies (Daemonhunters and Witch Hunters), and it includes both nerfing and buffing in equal measure.

First off, IG may not issue orders to DH/WH: "No, orders can only be issued to non-vehicle units from Codex: Imperial Guard." Oops.

On the positive side, though, you're free to induct any IG unit in the new codex so long as it's allowed by the "By the authority of the immortal Emperor of Mankind..." rule. This does mean no more Armoured Fist Squads (as they no longer exist as a separate unit), but it does mean you can buy all those nifty Guard units and their Chimera transports, too. Also, special characters that replace Platoon Commanders are allowed, and Sentinel Squadrons can be either Armoured or Scout variants.

Oh, and you can only induct 0-1 Leman Russ Battle Tanks, so none of the new variants.

Aaaaaaand last but not least, my favorite part of the FAQ:

Q. Can allied models in terminator armour,
such as Grey Knight Terminators, embark in
Valkyries/Vendettas?

A. No. The Valkyrie cannot transport Ogryns or
models of a similar size (such as Terminators),
you stupid, power-cock-sucking douchebag.
Did your mom often drop you on your head when
you were an infant, or were you just born dumb?

There may...or may not be some extra words in that answer that differs from the original text.

All in all though I don't really see anything that's going to represent a dramatic shift in the balance of power in C:IG -- so everyone go ahead and take that breath now. :)

What do you guys find interesting about the new FAQ?

Random Pictures from the Floor of BoLScon 2009

2009-08-25T06:39:00.007-05:00

I just downloaded the BoLScon pics from the camera, and thought I'd share a random sampling. I'm not even going to try and comment on them, though if you have any questions I'll try to answer them. BoLScon was amazing -- you'd never have guessed it was the inaugural event, especially with the huge turnout. Hats off to everyone at Bell of Lost Souls for a great job, a fun event, and a fantastic weekend!

Either the Best, or the Worst...

2009-08-19T06:24:00.005-05:00

All right, OK, I know! It's been like a hundred years since I posted anything. I've been busy, guys, very busy, and a lot of that busy has actually been gaming-related (though there's definitely been some work and personal life stuff in the mix as well).

What have I been up to? Well let's see...the biggest Time Consumer has been the Star Phantoms army (whoever guessed them as my "secret project" when I posted the "Palette Portrait", you WIN!...the non-existent prize!). I'm very pleased with how far along I've managed to get with it, despite some false starts and a couple of "new painting method" mishaps that resulted in an entire tac squad going into the Simple Green for stripping (yes, it was THAT bad!). I'll toss some WIP pics up later, as well as the list (which may or may not be seeing daylight at BoLSCON this weekend) for your amusement. I tried a very, very different approach to list building for the Phantoms -- basically the "anti-version" of my current Ultras list...nary a single Land Raider in sight! But they're meant to play in a dramatically different way than my Ultras, too, so hopefully it won't suck. :)

Speaking of BoLS, another thing that's been keeping me on my toes is I've been a moderator on Bell of Lost Soul's new Lounge. So if you've been over there say "hi" (yep, I'm CrusherJoe there as I am here) and if you haven't been over to check it out...SHAME ON YOU! Get off your butt and go check it out -- now! :) And speaking of BoLSCON, are any of you planning on going? I can personally vouch that it is going to be a righteous, rocking con -- there's more prize support than you can carry off in two wheelbarrow trips and the sceanrios, terrain, the whole thing is going to be fantastic. Let me know if you're going so we can meet! I'll be there all weekend long (I won't be staying the night, as I literally live only 3 miles north on I-35 from the Doubletree Hotel) but I'll be there pretty much from open to close. I'd like to get some games in with you guys if anyone's going to be down! Or if not, then we can grab some beers and see some what I'm certain is going to be some very kickass gaming going on. :)

Let's see, what else? Oh, I started BattleFleet Gothic (two fleets finally taken out of their shipping containers and touch up work has begun (4 of the Chaos cruisers spent some time in Simple Green "wetdock") and I've got a starter list ready for my Chaos and Imperial Navy fleets. And if that weren't enough, I've also compiled an Epic Space Marine army, which has grown into a very playable army in a very short period of time (Go go gadget Ebay auction winning tools. There are a few local Epic players and I'm looking forward to throwing down with them very, very soon (as in, after BoLSCON).

So now, we're pretty much caught up with what I've been up to.

However, that's not really what I wanted to post about.

No, you see, I was up late (again), working (yes, *sigh* again!) and thinking a little bit about 40K army lists, maybe even doing a little blog-reading and Lounge modding between tasks...and suddenly, it hit me...Either the Best -- or the Worst -- Army List of All Time:

Converted Sisters of Battle on Space Marine bikes.

We'll call them "The Emperor's Cycle Sluts from Hell" until I can think of a more appropriate act of punnery to make the concept and the name complete (and NOW you know why I chose that leading picture, hmm? Yes, that's the actual "Cycle Sluts from Hell" band. Cute, huh?) :)

Anyway, yeah, these are the things that rattle around in my head late at night.

What's the craziest army list/concept you've ever come up with? And for bonus points: Did you actually build your crazy list and play it? (And know that if you -did-, you've gained a new level in Geekery, please update your stats and choose one more Advantage of 15 points or less!)

IT'S A GREAT TIME TO BE IN THE GUARD!

2009-07-21T13:39:00.003-05:00

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition defines satire as "A work of literature that mocks social conventions, another work of art, or anything its author thinks ridiculous."

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition goes further, defining it thus:

A literary work in which human vice or folly is attacked through irony, derision, or wit.
Irony, sarcasm, or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice, or stupidity.

So, having established the genre of what I'm about to share with you, I want to make it crystal clear that this is not an anti-Guard rant. Personally I'm still very happy for all the IG veterans out there that suffered and persevered for so long and finally were rewarded handsomely for it. You guys got a good book -- enjoy it! But keep in mind, that doesn't mean it's immune to a bit of lampooning...I cranked up the exaggeration and hyperbole to 11 for this one, guys...hopefully you'll find it amusing.

Oh yeah, I feel I should warn you that I work in profanity like some men work in stone or oils. It's my true medium. If "foul language" offends you...you're probably not going to like this, and you should just take a pass on it. If you decide not to heed my words....well, you're on your own. :)

On our local forum, Dielan posted this question:

Subject: Which army

Quote from: Dielan on July 15, 2009, 05:50:02 PM

So finally having finished painting my dwarfs (i thought the day would never come), I've decided to start a 40k army in inspiration of my games at last weeks ard boys. Its down to Marines or the new IG..

Know nothing about the new guard and would like some general description of how they work in this edition and environment.

Thanks
-Dylan W

Good question, I think, but I wanted to give him a little more than the simple, "Oh, the new IG is pretty good" song and dance...and hopefully deliver a bit more accurate picture of how the new Guard plays. :)

This....is my response:

Well, I'm not an IG player but having seen their new codex, gotten in a game or two and having watched more than a few games against the "new IG", I think playing them goes something like this:

START OF GAME

Before the game begins, use your REGIMENTAL ADVISORY NEUROMANCER's "NYAH NYAH NYAAAAAH!" special ability which grants you first turn and forces your opponent to leave his army in the transport case. It's a merciful power, really, as it saves your opponent the hassle and humiliation of getting all those models out only to have to put them all back up really, really soon.

START OF IG PLAYER TURN 1

1. Movement
Shuffle some stuff around. Best hurry though, those 12 tanks won't move themselves -- make sure you have your 24 Chimeras in front of your 4 squadrons of Medusas otherwise one might take a hit which means it could possibly be damaged in some way -- and that's unacceptable in today's IG! Next up, you've got a lot of Valkyries -- if it were real life the sky would be darkened by so many wings! -- so move all 50 of them up 48" and line up those 158,000 twin-linked las-cannon shots on the rear armor of everything your opponent has. Last but not least, there's all those guardsmen, veterans, ogryn, stormtroopers (well, at least the 700 stormtroopers that AREN'T in the Valkyries moving in for a deep-strike assault with STR 10 AP -1 Hellguns (that's right,"AP Negative 1", in case some asshole comes up with something better than a 2+ Save, bitches. The new IG's got everything covered for ya!), psychics and of COURSE your EXTRA-SPECIAL special characters (you're probably running one named ST-RAPIN' and another one named LA FEMME DE RAMBO, we'll get to them in a minute). All told, it looks like you've got 4.5 millions models to move, so get to it! NO ONE SAID WINNING WAS EASY! (Well, except Games Workshop. We're pretty sure they were thinking, "Winning will be easy!" when they were writing the new IG codex...but that's another story.)

2. Shooting
Ah, shooting, the phase every IG player loves like a man ending a 4 year vow of celibacy and winning the lottery just before stepping into the Bunny Ranch loves to party. And ALSO just like that guy, you're going to be shooting -- A LOT! Every tank (and you've got a LOT of 'em) can now move 24" and shoot every weapon. Twice. Did I mention they're twin-linked? Well, they aren't, usually, unless ST-RAPIN' issues the "FUCK 'EM OVER!" order followed by the "BEND OVER HERE IT COMES AGAIN" order, which makes every weapon in the IG army (including the guns on tanks!) Assault 4 and twin-twin-linked (letting you re-roll any misses, and then re-roll any misses from your first re-roll). It also lets you temporarily take command of your opponent's guns, too, because you're IG, damn it, and that means if it's a gun, YOU SHOOT IT! So make those to-hit rolls and then re-roll those misses and then re-re-roll the 5 dice you've got left that didn't hit on the first or second rolls. You'll probably find using a wheelbarrow to just dump all those dice on the floor works best. After rolling for wounds you'll discover that every now and then you're playing against some cheeky bastard that has forgotten his new place in the 40K universe's pecking order and has managed to make a damned cover save or some such shit. Make sure if that happens to use the REGIMENTAL ADVISORY GAME BALANCE GENIE's "SUCKS TO BE YOU!" ability to force your opponent to re-roll any successful armor, invulnerable or cover saves. Remember when I told you the new IG has GOT YA COVERED? WOULD I LIE? NO! So after all that, if your opponent has a model or two left on the board don't worry, there's one more phase left in your turn!

3. Ass-ault
Oh, before you begin this phase don't forget to have your REGIMENTAL ADVISORY NEUROMANCER use his "TODAY'S JUST NOT YOUR DAY, IS IT?" special ability which causes any unit your opponent has brought in from Reserves to be removed from the game -- you can never be TOO CAREFUL! When that's done, go ahead and move up ST-RAPIN' and his 47 member, all-veteran command squad armed with power relic holy thunder eviscerators into ass-ault. Remember ST-RAPIN' grants all friendly squads within 72" range FURY-ASS CHARGE, AIN'T SCARED, FEEL NO WOUNDS, REGENERATE, FOOTLOOSE AND FANCY FLEET and the new IG-only USR, AUTO-SWEEP -- which eliminates all that pesky rolling for hits and wounds business you'd normally have to deal with in a round of close combat and proceeds directly to the SWEEPING ADVANCE. Since ST-RAPIN' also grants his unit I11, you'll be sittin' pretty on a mound of bodies in no time! If your opponent has any models left at this point (INCONCEIVABLE!) use the new Penal Legion "I'M IN UR BACK DOOR, INVADIN' UR SPACE" move followed up with the "DEATH FROM BEHIND" order. If for some reason THAT doesn't reduce your enemy to having a NEGATIVE model count, say the magic phrase, "WERE YOU IN THE 'NAM, MAN?" to automatically bring LA FEMME DE RAMBO into the game. Once you've placed LA FEMME DE RAMBO on the board, roll a D6. On a 1+, LA FEMME DE RAMBO cuts open the nearest enemy model (unlimited range) and shoves the core of a proto-star into his guts, which immediately goes nova, inflicting 4000D6 STR 11 AP -1 hits on every non-IG model on your board AND the 6 boards closest to yours while ALSO lighting LA FEMME DE RAMBO's cigar. THAT'LL TEACH 'EM TO MESS WITH THE NEW IG!!!

So at the end of Turn 1 you've won your game and most likely the surrounding 6 games as well. WELL DONE, GUARDSMAN! WELCOME TO THE NEW IG!

Next week we'll cover the use of the new REGIMENTAL ADVISORY DEMI-GOD models and their special rules which can let you win a game before you've even met your opponent as well as alter the timeline to retro-actively win every game you lost with that old, horrible, I-don't-want-to-ever-see-that-book-again-burn-every-copy-you-find IG codex.

IT'S A GREAT TIME TO BE IN THE GUARD!

...so there you have it. What do you think? There's no hate in there guys, only maybe the ocassional "knowing wink" or two for those moments when you're reading through your new codex and some of the stuff in it makes you tingle all over -- and don't lie, you know your new book makes you tingle in places that haven't tingled in a long while. And that's perfectly fine. You've earned it. :)

Some Non-40K Creativity

2009-07-07T01:14:00.002-05:00

I know this is a bit of a departure -- and in a way something I sort-of promised myself I wouldn't do -- but here's something I've been working on in the background. It's a test render of a panel from a webcomic (of sorts) that I've been working on...for a while now. The character's name is "Dottie" and she's the co-pilot to "CJ" in a story called "Coast-to-Coast Murder Tour". It would seem that Poser and a pile of add-ons finally allow me to create the characters as I've seen them in my head. The next step is to get Cinema 4D running with it's "Sketch and Toon" rendering engine that will turn the wonderfully-detailed 3D world of Poser characters into something resembling...Grand Theft Auto, or a high-end comic book. That's the "world look" I've always wanted to be able to create for CTCMT and I think it may finally be within my grasp.

Will the whole project ever see the light of day? Maybe. :)

Palette Portrait

2009-06-18T04:53:00.003-05:00

I have finally -- finally! -- gathered all the paints needed for my next project. It took a lot longer than I expected it to, because I had some issues getting a couple of colors right -- mainly, the different shades of turquoise for the base and highlight. Then I needed to find a complementary color range to use for things like cloaks and banners (more on how I did that a little later in this post).

Anyway, once the colors were decided and then matched to a real-world equivalent, it became my quest to actually find all the ones I didn't have locally and buy them. I have this thing about buying things locally -- if there's a business in town that carries what I need I'll go there and buy it. Now what with me being a network engineer (well, ok that was my title, before my promotion) that I would be all up in the whole Internet shopping. For most things, you'd be right, but when it comes to hobby-related things, I keep my money in Austin...it's just a thing I do.

Anyway, it took a little time and a little driving about town but I finally got everything I needed and thought I'd share this little portrait of me next project's palette. :)

Now...can any of you guess what my next project is based simply on the colors in the palette? (And no fair telling, fellow Austinites!) I have a feeling some of you just might be able to get it right...

Now let me tell you about a couple of nifty little resources I discovered in my quest to match paint colors to colors in a digital image:

Let's say you have a digital picture or document that has colors you want to match. If you've had artistic training you can probably do it without thinking about it too much. Well...I don't, so...technology to the rescue!

First thing I opened the image in Photoshop CS4. There's a tool in Photoshop that lets you "sample" a color and it will return the "values" of the color in several formats, including RGB "hex" color codes used in web pages. I took a few random samples of the color and then proceeded over to Color Match v1.0. If you've never used this site before...I highly suggest you check it out. You feed it a color -- either one from the extensive list of paint ranges that's available, or by RGB hex value. I fed it the value I'd gotten from Photoshop, unrestricted the paint ranges it would choose from, hit the button and 2 seconds later I"m looking at a graphic of my chosen color surrounded by the six closest matches from it's dat abase (and like I said, it's pretty extensive). After that I used a couple of other sites (that, I just realized, are on my other laptop so I don't have the links for them...let me know if you want them and I'll pop them up later). that will take a color (again, by RGB hex value) and present you with the complementary, contrast, split complement and "box" colors of your color from the color wheel. I think it's pretty bad ass.

Finally, I took the hex values from the color "theme" generating sites and put them back into Color Match and badda bing, badda boom I had the info on the colors I needed.

So there you have it: a portrait of the palette and how I got the paints matched to colors in a digital image.

How about you guys? How do you choose your color schemes? Ever use one of those nifty color wheel thingies? How did things turn out?

Terminator Pics (or, "Screwing Around Trying to Learn the Camera, Light-box and Lighting")

2009-06-06T06:55:00.008-05:00

Holy crap, it seems just like yesterday I was talking about putting up some sample pics that resulted from taking some test pics with the light-box. But it wasn't "only yesterday", come tomorrow it will have been a week since that post -- which means, ultimately, is that I should have been able to smell the FAIL in that idea. :)

Fast-forward through this craptacular week until last night. I was finally had the time to pull it all together and take a few pics with the new gear. Adding new gear into your photo-making world is pretty much like adding a new brush into your painting tools. Sometimes making only a change or two can have fairly dramatic (and sometimes unforeseen) consequences and will take time for you to learn how to use the new tools and smoothly integrate it into your processes. It can also reveal deficiencies in your existing gear, too -- I realized almost immediately that I don't have enough "proper" light sources to use the box most effectively. These photos have fourescent, CFL, and incandescent light sources...and that's probably the worst mix of light temperatures to attempt capturing the subject's color accurately. Don't get me wrong, I knew this going IN to this little "photo shoot" but I made the best with what I had on hand. Needless to say, a trip to Lowe's is in order to purchase more "shop lights" and "daylight" CFL bulbs before I try to take any more pics.

Luckily, it's Photoshop to the rescue (as it often is when you're dealing with digital images). If you're unfamiliar with digital image manipulation software, there's a halfway-decent tutorial on CMON that covers the very basic basics. And if you don't have Photoshop (and it's an expensive beast, I'll grant you that), well that's OK, you can always use The GIMP. It's free, open-source software that works, and works very well (having most of the core functionality of Photoshop).

Like most things, though, do a little research and a little reading and you'll quickly learn how to "clean up" your images with minimal effort.

Also keep in mind that I did VERY little image manipulation on these pics, spending only a couple of minutes on each one. So while they look pretty good...they could look a lot better if I wanted to spend the time to do it -- but for my purposes at this point, I think they're acceptable.

Another trick I need to learn is improving the "detail" shots -- you know, when you want to highlight a specific detail or two on the mini. Planning the shots out before (or while) you've got the camera on the tripod will really pay off. One thing's for certain, you're probably not going to get that nice "money shot" of those details if you didn't take some good pics of them in the first place. :)

Now if only the Blogger editor could handle image placement in blog postings, we'd be in business. But for some reason, it doesn't, and by that I mean, "Yes, it does, but BOY does it SUCK." If anyone has any tips or knows of a way to place images in blog postings using a WYSIWYG editor, please let me know, because the stock editor is FAIL.

Oh, and before you even suggest it: No, I'm really not interested in cranking out some custom HTML code to make pictures display exactly where I want them to. C'mon guys, it can't be THAT had. I'm pretty sure both Microsoft Office and Sun's OpenOffice have word processors that'll do it...get with the program, Google, and suck less! :)

Anyway, enough about that. I mean it's not like you can't place images in the posting at all (obvioiusly, huh?).

This final image is the one I'm most happy with (or should that be, "least disappointed in"?). I did a tiny bit more image manipulation on it (though the background -- at least in the image presented to me in the Blogger editor -- looks kinda like ass and could definitely use some tidying up.

Ah well, that's a project for some other time. :)

So what do you use for taking pics of your minis? Any specific gear? What about where you take those pics? Indoors? Outdoors? In your secret underground lair? What about touching those pics up before posting them? Any specific steps or procedures you'd like to share?

The "Secret Project" to Make Something That Will Make One Part of This Hobby Easier...

2009-05-31T06:54:00.005-05:00

OK, longest post title ever...but it basically sums up what I've spent a few hours working on lately.

Here's a pic (taken with the camera on my phone, which is "eh" at best for this sort of thing) of the almost-completed light-box I built to make taking close-ups of minis easier.

I was going to go the "cut up a cardbox box to make the frame" route, which certainly works and does what a "light box" or "photo box" is supposed to do...but for some reason, that just didn't seem like sturdy enough (and yes, I know just how crazy that sounds). I figured if I was going to take the time to actually build something like that, I might as well make it so I only have to build it once. I know me, and knowing me, I'm pretty sure if I'd built one out of cardboard I would have damaged/destroyed it before getting more than one or two uses out of it.

I had a couple of ideas floating around in my head for a possible design. I was thinking about making the frame out of PVC tubing, or something similar. Not wanting to re-invent the wheel, I paid a visit to one of my most favorite sites in all the Internet: Instructables. A quick search yielded a potential design using electrical conduit, but that seemed perhaps a bit too involved. However a little more searching and I discovered this design, which utilized expandable window screen units and was "folding" for easy storage/travel and actually looked very professional. We had a winner!

I wasn't able to find "squard" window screens, so I had to modify one of the screens with the trusty Dremel to make it square for the back panel, but other than that I followed the plan from the instructable pretty closely.

I'm very pleased with the results. I picked up a "utility light' (basically a light-bulb socket and an aluminum reflector) and a couple more "Daylight" (6500K...supposedly, anyway) compact flourescent bulbs and I can pretty well flood the interor the light box with bight, diffuse light.

All that remains to be done is adding the "diffusing material" (yep, I used a cheap bed sheet, too) to the back panel (which I'm going to do today) and then do some trial runs. I'll post up some the results of the trial runs either today or tomorrow.

Anyway, that's my latest little tangential project to enhance my hobby experience. What little side projects have you taken on make something that will make some part of the 40K/WFB hobby easier, better, or simply more "professional" looking? Have you ever had an idea for something -- a new tool, some object, or maybe even a new process or way of doing things -- that you think would enhance your hobby in some way? If you have....share it! You never know what kind of inspiration you may get -- or give!

Back for the Attack!

2009-05-18T06:45:00.003-05:00

So...it's been a while.

When I last updated, I was talking about getting my motivation back. Well, it's come back with a vengeance! I've been painting or modeling pretty much every night for the last couple of weeks.

What I've been focusing on is "learning to suck less at painting". I've been experimenting with new techniques, new paints, and even -- gasp! -- bought a "real" paintbrush...a Winsor & Newton Series 7 Size 0.

I've learned how to make a wash out of regular ol' paint. I've even learned some very rudimentary glazing methods. The one thing you'll notice in the pic is something "new" I've been working on, and that's highlighting. I'm far from great at it but I'm finally learning how to do it and I'm pleased with my progress so far.

I've spent a LOT of time haunting the Reaper Minis forums, especially the Painting Tips & Advice section. There are TONS of very experienced painters there, and all sorts of tutorials and advice and pretty much everything I've learned over the last few weeks I've gleaned it from there (or followed a link or two from there). If you'd like to learn more about painting, I'd recommend you check it out.

Plus I broke in the wife's new super-sexy Canon SD1100IS camera, and that's why I actually have a picture to show you (along with setting up a little area to actually photograph minis). I have some other things I want to share but I was just trying to get a decent pic out of out it and I think I did all right. Expect more to come in the future now that I have the camera and photo-place more-or-less sorted.

Anyway, about the mini in the picture. He's my new veteran sergeant (well, they're all veterans now, but that's the way I'm used to thinking about them). There's some minor conversion work in there, mainly the arm holding the pistol. I took one of the old "pointing hand" arms from the old Devastator set, whacked off the pointing hand and replaced it with the hand holding the bolt pistol. I had to use some green stuff to smooth out the join to the body, and it's not super-smooth but I'm OK with that, considering it's my first try at something like that. I had the pose in my head as what I really wanted to do and finding that pointy arm was the final piece to the puzzle. I would like to note that while I've heard they actually make one or two models with them, I can't for the life of me find a right-handed power fist! So I went with what I could find and I'm very pleased with the results.

As for paint, I used the Reaper Master Series "Ultramarie Triad" (which contains Ultramarine Shadow, Ultramarine Blue, and Ultramarine Highlight) for the majority of the work, though somewhere in the middle of it I purchased the RMS Blue Liner, and pretty much immediately switched to that for shading/shadows/darklining. The Blue Liner is superb -- dark, smooth, doesn't need much thinning (a trademark of all RMS paints, actually) and it plays very well with pretty much any shade of blue. I also picked up the RMS Clear Blue and did some glazing experiments with it (though not on this mini) and I'm very pleased with it, too.

I still have a couple of touch-ups to do here and there before I'll consider it 100% done, and I'm working on a base that isn't the ol' "rock and flock" (which I've used pretty much exclusively in the past).

I've also completed the terminator I talked about in my last post. I'm pleased with how it turned out, too. I'll get some pics of him up soon. I'm especially happy with his cyclone missile launcher.

On the painting table right now I have one more veteran sergeant and two multi-melta guys. They're very close to done as I worked on them at the same time I was working on this guy. Right now their bodies done, including highlighting, and I'm working on finishing the multi-melta parts and the power fist and bolter arm for the other sergeant and then they'll be ready to go.

When they're done, here's what I'll have left before my current Ultras list is fully painted:

Captain Agemman (A "counts-as" Lysander, so I'm using the Lysander model with some conversions)
8 Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield Terminators
2 Vindicators
1 Razorback
1 Land Raider

The vehicles will actually be pretty easy to do, as I'll fire up the ol' airbrush and knock them out. The TH/SS termis will take a while, but one of the reasons I've taken so long on the 4 guys I have on the table in progress is I've been experimenting and learning with them so doing the termis won't be a matter of conquering a learning curve. I'm not deluding myself, it's going to be a lot of work but I'm actually exciting about doing them now that I feel that my painting had taken a "next step". :)

I've also managed to play at least one game a week (except for last week) since I last updated, and that's gone very well. I've even played against a new guard list and pulled out a win (though admittedly there wasn't much of the "cheaty stuff" in the list, so I don't consider it a "true test"). I'm hoping to play JWolf soonish (note to self: talk to JWolf soon and see about arranging a game with him). I know he'll hand me my ass but it's all about the learning, and I'd like to see just how bad the new Guard is, and I'm pretty sure he'll be happy to show me. Painfully. :)

So, anyway, that's the news. I have quite a few posts planned in my head so stay tuned (or something like that).

How about you guys? What's on your painting table? What have you been pushing yourself to learn lately? What are your hobby plans for the next six months?

Motivation, Part II (Take What You Get When You Get It)

2009-04-11T02:10:00.005-05:00

Following up on my previous post concerning motivation for painting, I wanted to say that I finally, finally got my brush wet with paint (which sounds like innuendo, but isn't) this morning.

After going to see "A Haunting in Connecticut" (Joe's capsule review: "Hide and seek in the House of the Damned", or, more succinctly: "This movie sucks. A lot.") and subsequently overdosing on BoLS and FTW Blogger Group blog posts to cleanse my pallet, I felt compelled to get out one of my already-primed terminators, and lay down a base-coat of Ultramarine Shadow.

Success.

It's a small step, but it's a big one. I actually feel motivated and excited about painting again.

On a related note, I discovered I really, really need to clean my contacts.

I'm going to go with the "take what you get when you get it" school of thought and be happy I'm feeling good about painting again, even if it's only one base-coating one model. Longest journey, first step and all that.

Wish me luck, brothers!

I've Seen the New Guard Codex

2009-04-10T00:47:00.002-05:00

So tonight while at the FLGS I noticed they had their copy of the new Guard codex. Watching that thing travel around the room was a joy, because I got to see these Guard players open it, page through it, and then smile.

I don't know enough about Guard to be able to say what the differences are between the old 'dex and the new one -- and don't ask me about points values because I didn't linger in my looking over it (though I do remember the plasma-packin' Russ, fully loaded with sponsons and everything was well over 200 points). What I do know is this: If you've been playing Guard for years now, and have been eating crap at the tournaments and even during friendly games...your Moment of Retribution is at hand.

There's some broken, broken stuff in this book. Guard are probably going to become a top-tier army, or close to it. You can roll out a TON of tanks. The special characters are awesome. It's a good time to be a Guard player. Enjoy it, my brethern in service to the Emperor, for the good times are here for you at last.

Congratulations, JWolf!

2009-04-04T14:47:00.002-05:00

I just wanted to take a moment and congratulate JWolf on winning the Gladiator event at Adepticon.

Well done, sir! Well done!

It's times like this that I'm especially proud to live in Austin. :)

Motivation (It Comes and Goes)

2009-03-27T02:17:00.004-05:00

I finally decided on an army list that I really like for my Ultramarines.

I finally got all the minis I need for The Army of The Crowing.

I have most of them assembled, more than a few primed, and all the paints I need for both armies.

And yet...I find I'm lacking one key ingredient: Motivation.

I don't know where it went. I'm excited about both armies, and I'm really looking forward to putting them both on the tabletop...but for some reason or the other, what with everything that's been going on with work and personal life, I just can't find the motivation to actually...you know...paint.

This bothers me greatly.

But -- this being my hobby and all -- I'm very much against forcing myself to paint, as I'm pretty sure my lack of motivation would come out in the paint job, and it would look less than stellar (and my painting needs all the help it can get!).

So I ask you: what do you do when you can't find the motivation to paint? What little tricks do you have to get you going? I could really use some inspiration here, guys!

Over the weekend...

2009-03-09T04:32:00.005-05:00

Since Friday night I've been a busy little hobbyist.

Decided to play in a 2K point "Doubles Tournament" hosted by FLGS Dragon's Lair (yes, there will be a much more detailed post on that soon). I teamed up with one of Austin's many great 40K players, Darkwynn, a.k.a. Nick. The tournament rules were each player brings 1K points of different-codex armies, but only one HQ unit between them. Nick wanted to run his Witch Hunters/Sisters of Battle, so that meant I had to bring Vulkan. Now, before anyone cries, "cheese!" keep in mind that DL's doubles tournaments have a bit of a reputation for being very competitive, with players trying to constuct the most hard army-combo lists they can. It was ruled that Vulkan's special rule would apply to the Sisters, so it was definitely Flame On! (and Melta On!) time.

The problem was, I didn't have a Vulkan model, considering there's no "official" one, so that meant it was conversion time. I followed Eek's most excellent Vulkan He'stan Conversion Tutorial, and I have to say the results were very nice. I didn't have a Dark Elf Corsair cloak laying about, so they model as it stands doesn't have one (but I will be acquiring one soon) and I used a lance/arm from a Chaos Knights model to make the Spear of Vulkan. Anyway, I got this thing made in a few hours and also put together a Razorback turret assembly and built 3 scout bikers. All of this was to give us the options we needed to play one of 2 or 3 lists Nick had come up with. Turns out the only model that got used was Vulkan, but hey, that's how it goes. :)

The tournament was Saturday, and it took pretty much all day (as these things do). I'll talk about the results in my full tournament post.

Finally, Sunday I finally got down to doing some basecoating on my TH/SS assault terminators. Not really much, mind you, but at least it's a start.

What did you guys accomplish over the weekend, hobby-wise or otherwise?

The Sickness

2009-03-02T02:03:00.006-06:00

This post began life as a comment on the Santa Cruz Warhammer post entitled "Squid Therapy". After the third paragraph or so, I realized I had a full-blown post on my hands...and so, here it is:

I call the sickness CMBS -- Compulsive Model Buying Syndrome.

Me: "Hi, my name's Joe, and I have CMBS."

Group: "Hi, Joe!"

I only have three armies -- Marines, Chaos Marines and Warriors of Chaos -- and compared to the number of armies talked about in that post on Santa Cruz Warhammer, that's nothing! So, I guess I don't really have a problem (remember: an addict will always deny that they have a problem, and/or attempt to minimize it's impact on his life or the lives of those around him).

Oh, you mean I need to count stuff from Specialist Games, too? Oh that's easy. I only have the beginnings of 2 fleets, Imperial Navy and Chaos. Note I said beginning! I haven't even played the game yet, I just happen to like the idea of it quite a bit and there are some other people that play it here in Austin and they've promised to show me how to play. So if they're going to show me how to play, I should probably at least see if I can pick up a ship or two. I just so happened to find a few auctions where the price didn't go over my self-imposed limit. It's like it was destiny that I won them, then...right? It's not like I searched for hours or anything, I just happened to put "Battlefleet Gothic" in the search field on Ebay because I was curious. Nothing wrong with curiosity, is there?

Anyway, what was I talking about? Oh, yes, how I was overcoming my CMBS. You see, I used to just wander around the ol' FLGS and pick up what looked neat. It was only when I got better at making lists that didn't involve my having to only use models that I own did my symptoms begin to subside. If I bought a model, it was because I needed it specifically to complete a list. My purchases weren't random anymore, oh no, my purchases were the result of my focus on completing an army concept! You're supposed to be WYSIWYG, aren't you? But then I began to make up lists that used quite a few models I didn't have, and some of those were vehicles...so it was back to the FLGS, cash/credit card/debit card warm in my hand, making me feel alive when I checked out with new boxes and blisters of models, glorious models! Um...yeah...but I'm better now, I really don't feel alive inside when I buy new models...nope, not even a little bit. And NO, my hands aren't shaking, thank you very much!

I never wanted to play any other army than Space Marines, either...but then there was this local guy that wanted to sell a complete CSM army for a very, very reasonable price. Was it MY fault I happened on a good deal? I mean, I'd have been a fool to pass that deal up! And even though I knew I was going to have to strip it and re-paint it, and I knew that was actually adding HOURS to the total time to have the army fully painted and table-top ready, I didn't mind, because in the long run I was saving money! Right? And let's face it, even though it was a completely playable army, it didn't have every model I needed to make a list I was 100% happy with. And if you're not happy with your list, you're not really happy, now are you? And let me tell you, I'm all about being happy, and that meant I've had to pick up a few MORE Chaos models. Obliterators? Check! Defiler? Check! Oh, and the Land Raider that came with the CSM army wasn't really a Chaos Land Raider, and I've begun to use it in my loyalist army...but that's OK, I didn't really want to run a loyalist Land Raider in a Chaos army anyway -- it's just not right! So now -- to make everything "right", of course -- I need to pick up a Chaos Land Raider and only use that loyalist one with my Ultramarines. It's the right thing to do! Right? Who's with me?

And what's that "other" game they play at the FLGS? Something about "fantasy battles" or something. Sounds like "fantasy football". I mean don't get me wrong, I used to loveses me some AD&D, but I'm definitely more into the "hard" Sci-Fi world of 40K, no, that fantasy business doesn't interest me at all with it's square bases and silly movement trays! Plus every army has more models in one UNIT than I do in my Space Marine army! Too much work, I'm telling you, and very little reward... ...oh, hey, what's this "Warriors of Chaos" business? Wow, you're right, those are some VERY kick-ass models right there! What are they? "Chaos Knights"? Are they as cool on the table as I think they are? Yeah, sure, I'll get a box...on, and that WoC Army Book, too...oh holy shit, I completely forgot I have a Tomb Kings army! Yeah, that one the kid was selling off, and I traded him an army case or something for it...that's when I bought the WFB book, wasn't it? Hmm, well, at least I don't have to buy that big ol' book again, and now maybe I can actually USE IT! Damn it, "core" choices? Rares? Generals? Heroes? Well let's get crackin', I've gotten a lot better and faster at painting than I was when I first started out! I'll just make a list I'm happy with, post it up and let the local guys critique it, tweak it and then build it, and I will only buy models that I need to make that list. Yeah, cavalry only, baby! Oh, wait, where'd this box of CHAOS WARRIORS come from? Oh, yeah, that was the first box I bought, figuring I was going to need some "core" units anyway...and the FLGS was out of Chaos Knights, so I figured, "Hey, I'll be helping them out, and I'm going to NEED them later anyway, might as well pony up the cash now while I'm here..." We won't mention that "Khorne Lord on Juggernaut" I bought because I thought it would work out pretty cool as a Khornate Chaos Lord in my CSM army...yeah, he'll make a good BSB, won't he? Right!

Come to think of it, I haven't seen that Tomb Kings army since we moved to the new place. I wonder where it is?

When I first got in to this hobby and learned about Forge World, I thought, "No matter what, there's no way I would ever pay that much money for models that don't give you any advantage on the table top! What's the point in that?" I mean, yeah, they look great and there's all kinds of pretty, amazing details...yeah, I have a box of CSMs that I bought a while back, but only took a couple of bits out of. But never mind them, I'm looking for some Plague Marines. Huh, "Nurgle Death Guard Marines Upgrade". Interesting, you can use it with the regular CSM box and get 10 Plague Marines, and wow those bits look fantastic! What, other people are making a big FW order so we can get free express shipping? Well I could use that "Nurgle Death Guard Marines Upgrade" from FW, it's not all THAT much, really, and it would give me those Plague Marines I've been need...er...wanting for that "The Army of The Crowing" CSM project. Since I'm not going to use those CSMs anyway... You know how I know the set is called "Nurgle Death Guard Marines Upgrade"? I'm reading it off the label on the ziplock bag that Forge World ships it in! But man, look how AWESOME those bits are! Hey, Forge World has Ultramarine terminator shoulder pads. Those would look great on those assault temrinators I'm building. Some more guys are putting together another Forge World order...? Sure, count me in!

But at least I can take some solace in the fact that I'm not one of those guys that go all crazy and buy a lot of specialized gear and tools. I mean, I really needed the Army Transport II, it was just so much more convenient than anything else...and who can resist the Gale Force 9 stuff? C'mon, they put that little hole there on the TAC template so you could spin it around on your finger! Oh, that application? It's called Army Builder, and it really makes the whole list building process a lot easier. No, you don't need it to play or anything, it's a convenience. What's wrong with having something that makes a task easier to do? It gives me more time to build and paint minis, I swear. And that airbrush, and the compressor that go with it? Well, you can't count that! I mean, you can clearly use it for SO many other things than just painting minis! I mean...I guess you can, anyway. I've only ever used it...to paint minis. But I COULD use it for other things, so it doesn't count. Nope, not at all...and the Dremel? Hey, my dad gave me that Dremel, so that totally doesn't count! And you can definitely use it for other things! I mean, I'm pretty sure you can...all I've ever used it for is...yeah...model building.

So...anyway, I've gotten a lot better. I barely suffer from CMBS at ALL any more. In fact, there are times when I don't even THINK about buying more models.

I call those times "being asleep".

So...any of you guys have CMBS? If so, how do your symptoms flare up? Have you ever had a serious relapse?

God-Emeperor grant me the serenity
to buy the models I cannot trade for,
the courage to trade for what I can,
and the wisdom to stay off Ebay.

First Picture of AoTC Defiler

2009-02-22T03:22:00.004-06:00

We'll call this a "teaser" picture. I hope you like it, and by all means feel free to comment/critique.

The Army of The Crowing Defiler Completed!

2009-02-19T00:01:00.003-06:00

With the application of the model glue and the placing of the final armor plate over the scratch-build/converted defiler CCW, I'm finally finished with the defiler for The Army of The Crowing.

Pictures, of course, are to follow, as the wife has said she will be happy to let me borrow her super-camera for mini-picture-taking-duties (she's awesome, that wife of mine!).

All I can say is that the defiler turned out to be a much longer and harder project than I've ever done. It being the first chaos vehicle I've ever attempted, I tried to keep it very stock (even though, I know, there are those that feel chaos vehicles need tentacles and slime to make them look "chaos-y"...I'm not one of those people). The first lesson I learned actually came at the suggestion of the wife. She took one look at the first leg armor plate that I completed, all nice and smooth...and said, "It's too clean." She was right, it was, so I had to re-think how I was going to paint the model, and I came up with a base coat of Reaper Master Series Coldstone Grey followed by a wash of Badab Black, then a drybrush of Coldstone Grey again. This process actually evolved towards the end as I realized I could do a basecoat of Reaper Master Series Stormcover Grey and then a drybrush of Coldstone Grey with much the same effect.

The trick is going to be getting the same "look" with the other vehicles in the army (several rhinos, a vindicator, and a land raider). We'll see how that goes, it'll definitely be a very different process than what I do for my Ultras, which involves a nice smooth application of Ultramarines Blue with the airbrush. :)

Anyway, I'm very pleased with how it came out and I'm excited to get some pictures up of it soon so you can critique my work.

What's the most challenging project you've ever completed? What did you learn completing it? How satisfied did you feel showing off your new centerpiece?

tell me did the bones collide? why did the bones collide? little lover's so polite, so polite, so polite.

Painting Background Music

2009-02-18T01:48:00.002-06:00

If you're like me, you put on the headphones and crank something up to a suitable volume level (my preferred volume level is Asteroid Impact) and get to work on with the water and the pigments.

Lately, I've been listening almost exclusively to Silversun Pickups' Carnavas as I find the mix of smooth layered guitars and often-cryptic lyrics a good mental stimulant to keep my fingers moving in the right ways. Little Lover's So Polite and Dream at Tempo 119 are current favorites, though of course the all-time champion on this album is Lazy Eye.

What do you listen to when you're painting? Do you like something that stimulates your mind? Or do you like something that hovers in the background, never intruding? Or do you prefer to enjoy the silence?

it's the room, the sun and the sky

"Run it Up the Flagpole..."

2009-02-15T15:04:00.002-06:00

Call it a social experiment. Call it "Joe got bored with the whole Nob Biker thing and thought he would put this up as his final outlet for it", call it what you will, but here it is:

A petition.

...no, I'm not taking it seriously. No, I don't expect anything to come of it. Yes, it is (hopefully) the last bit of complaining/bitching/whining/etc. I'll do about Nob Bikers.

Sign if you want. Don't if you don't. I'm curious to see just what happens...

Spread the word! :)

BattleFleet Gothic

2009-02-15T04:51:00.002-06:00

I've been itching to try BattleFleet Gothic. Capital ship combat? Yes, please!

I recently made the Ebay rounds, casting my net far and wide, and managed to score for a few pennies on the dollar a few ships, hopefully, enough to at least get to know the game (with some proxies definitely needed). I landed 8 Chaos cruisers, 4 Imperial cruisers, a blister of Shark assault boats, and an Emperor class battleship.

Now all I have to do is wait for them to arrive...

Gesso FAIL!

2009-02-12T17:32:00.002-06:00

Just a word of warning, based on experience...

Gesso does NOT work for vehicles, such as tanks, at least for me. I applied it as usual, and it dried unevenly, leaving brush marks and ripples.

Still works great for minis, though. :)

Dremel Wizards, Anyone?

2009-02-11T01:29:00.002-06:00

Recently my dad gave me a Dremel with a box of accessories, and I'm all a-twitchin' to put it to use.

I have a couple of questions I thought I'd put out there for any Dremel wizards that might be lurking to hopefully answer.

I normally use chopped up paperclips for pinning purposes. I have a tiny pin vise drill bit that I use to make the holes, which is the exact right size. Can -- or should -- I use a Dremel for this? I have some metal models that are going to require pinning and I would much rather use the Dremel for this if possible.

I have Lysander and I need to remove some Imperial Fists iconography (odd for an Ultramarines player to have to grind off icons, I know, and the irony of it hasn't escaped me). I'm assuming I should use one of the "grinding wheels" for this -- either one of the pink or one of the green -- but I'd rather not "practice" with a "production model" if you know what I mean. :) So...what should I use?

Is there an accessory that I can use to polish/smooth some things made of green, brown, and grey stuff? What about regular plastic? I'm thinking with some practice and a steady hand the Dremel could possibly be used for mold line removal chores. Any thoughts on this?

What other uses have you found for this amazing tool? Any hints/techniques you'd like to share?

Subtle Differences

2009-02-06T15:19:00.003-06:00

So while I've been building The Army of The Crowing, I've also been playing around with a new Ultramarines list.

After a lot of thinking about it (and fiddling around in Army Builder) I came up with the following list:

HQ: Captain Cato Sicarius

Elite: Terminator Assault Squad
4 Assault Terminators, 1 Sergeant, all with TH & SS

Heavy Support: Land Raider

Elite: Terminator Assault Squad
7 Assault Terminators, 1 Sergeant, all with TH & SS
Transport: Land Raider Crusader with Multi-Melta

Troops: Tactical Squad
9 Tactical Squad with Meltagun & Multi-Melta; 1 Sergeant with BP & Chainsword

Troops: Tactical Squad
9 Tactical Squad with Meltagun & Multi-Melta; 1 Sergeant with BP & Chainsword
Transport: Razorback with TLHB

Elite: Sternguard Veteran Squad
4 Sternguard Veterans, 1 Sergeant
Transport: Rhino with EA

Heavy Support: Predator Destructor

Heavy Support: Thunderfire Cannon with Techmarine Gunner

Total Roster Cost: 2000

Not too bad I don't think, granted I've shoved as many TH/SS assault terminators into Land Raiders as I can, tossed in Sicarius, and filled in the rest. The results from some limited playtesting resulted in a little list tweaking and I set out to get in another game to see how it went.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to complete the second game as we'd left our Transylvanian Hound (named Ringo...just leave me alone about the name, ok? He came with it and we didn't think it was right to change it) at home with an upset digestive tract so time was very limited. I will say that the few turns I managed to get in, the list was performing quite well indeed...TH/SS assault terminators are amazing if you haven't figured that out!

While I was at the FLGS gettin' my game on, though, I ran into Goatboy (whom you may be familiar with from his articles on BoLS). I handed him my list and said, "Fix it!" You have to understand, Goatboy has a gift for building good lists...it's what he does. If he gives you advice on putting together a good list, you really should listen to what he has to say. So we chatted about this and that for a bit and he made a couple of suggestions.

The result of that discussion is this list:

HQ: Captain Darnath Lysander

Elite: Terminator Squad
4 Terminators with 1 Cyclone Missile Launcher, 1 Sergeant
Transport: Land Raider with EA

Elite: Terminator Assault Squad
7 Assault Terminators & 1 Sergeant, all with TH/SS
Transport: Land Raider Crusader with MM & EA

Troops: Tactical Squad
9 Tactical Marines with Meltagun and Las Cannon, 1 Sergeant with BP & CS

Troops: Tactical Squad
9 Tactical Marines with Meltagun and Multi-Melta, 1 Sergeant with BP & PF
Transport: Razorback with TLHB & EA

Heavy Support: Predator Destructor (AC/HBx2)

Heavy Support: Predator Destructor (AC/HBx2)

Heavy Support: Thunderfire Cannon with Techmarine Gunner

Total Roster Cost: 2000

Basically what it comes down to is focus. My first list was pretty good with the LR/LRC packed with assault termies, but after that, I lost focus (for example, tossing in the Sternguard simply because I want to use them, not because they served a real purpose in my list). So out go Sicarius, the Sternguard and one unit of assault termies to make room for the "shooty" termies and Lysander because they make a good combo with Lysander's Bolter Drill special rule. I added a Cyclone Missile Launcher for a little extra punch while keeping the storm bolter (because Bolter Drill doesn't work with assault cannons). I was also able to add another Predator Destructor (which are an absolute bargain and deliver one of, if not the, best fire volume/points cost ratios in C:SM).

So now the list is shooty as all hell and keeps a big squad of Thunder Hammer swingin' maniacs to deal with anything really big and nasty (or slaughter their way through lesser targets if nothing else is available). I was thinking this list was pretty good, but I was thinking it lacked a good squad eraser.

(BTW, in Joe's 40K Dictionary, a Squad Eraser is defined as a weapon/unit/ability that simply makes enemy models disappear, usually and preferrably in large numbers.)

Now you can argue the merits and risks involved with fielding a Vindicator. Yes, it has a huge neon sign that flashes "SHOOT ME!!!!" on it...but you'll have to admit, in C:SM there really is no better squad eraser. Goatboy and I had discussed including a Vindi in my list last night, and his advice was, "They're really only good if you take two."

With that in mind, I present the third and final list for the day:

HQ: Captain Darnath Lysander

Elite: Terminator Squad
4 Terminators with 1 Cyclone Missile Launcher, 1 Sergeant
Transport: Land Raider

Elite: Terminator Assault Squad
7 Assault Terminators & 1 Sergeant, all with TH/SS
Transport: Land Raider Crusader with MM

Troops: Tactical Squad
9 Tactical Marine with Meltagun and Las Cannon, 1 Sergeant with BP & CS

Troops: Tactical Squad
9 Tactical Marines with Meltagun and Multi-Melta, 1 Sergeant with BP & CS
Transport: Razorback with TLHB & EA

Heavy Support: Predator Destructor (AC/HBx2)

Heavy Support: Vindicator with Siege Shield

Heavy Support: Vindicator with Siege Shield

Total Roster Cost: 2000

Now we have a list that your opponent will look over when you're deploying and wonder how he's going to deal with all the dangerous, deadly and immediate threats to his army...and have to react accordingly. Oh, sure, chances are very good that at least one or both of those Vindis will be gone by the end of turn 2, but that's OK, because they should have managed to drop 1 or 2 turns of some S10 AP1 pie plate lovin' down, and/or managed to attract enough fire that my LR and LRC have been relatively unmolested...and have survived to deliver their precious, deadly cargoes...

Of the three, the 2xVindi one is my favorite. I'm picking up Lysander from my FLGS this afternoon and then I'll need to pick up that pair of Vindis and I'll have all the models I need to make this list a reality.

Hopefully it'll perform as well on the tabletop as it does in my head. :)

So...what do you think? What do you think about when you're building a list, especially a more "competitive" one for tournament play? Do you have model/units that you love, but simply can't find a place for them in your battle plan? When you do...do you keep them anyway, or do you give 'em the flush and stay focused?

Latest Mission Report

2009-02-01T03:26:00.005-06:00

I'm happy to report that my latest major mission has been accomplished and deemed a complete success.

Yesterday (Jan. 31, 2009) Bethany and I were married. Chapel Dulcinea (in the "Wizard Academy", no I'm not making that up) was wonderful in its open-air, hill country vistas glory, the weather was amazingly perfect (clear skies, 72F, little wind) and the bride was radiant, loving and heart-achingly beautiful.

Her finger is now adorned in a white gold and diamonds engagement ring and matching band, and mine sports the coolest wedding band I've ever seen for a man: a tungsten ring encircled with an embedded band of carbon fiber.

The rest of the day was spent celebrating and basking in the love of our family and friends.

I have to admit, it was -- as days go -- about as perfect as one could be. :)

Post-Game Discussion and Thoughts

2009-01-23T16:17:00.003-06:00

I played a game last night using a new Ultramarines list against Jim, who was playing his Black Templars.

My list included 2 units of Assault Terminators, one with 8, the other with 5. Both were in Land Raiders, and the 5-man unit had Sicarius attached. There was also a 5-man unit of Sternguard in a Razorback and a couple of Tac squads with melta gun/multi-melta, one unit with a Razorback. Both Tac squads were broken into combat squads. Rounding out the backfield was a Predator Destructor and a Thunderfire cannon.

Jim's list went something like this:

Terminators. One assload of Terminators. Specifically, 5 units of 5 men with two assault cannons each. That's right, 10 assault cannons. Oh, with Tank Hunters.
2 other units of marines/initiates.
A couple of HQ choices and Emperor's Champion.

We didn't get to finish the game, unfortunately, but I've got a strong feeling if he had I'd have gotten tabled. With both the LRC and the LR dead, and Sicarius and attached Assault Terminator squad wiped out, it wasn't looking good for the Boys in Blue.

Anyway, today, Jim messaged me with his post-game thoughts, and I replied. I thought the conversation was interesting as a collection of thoughts about how Codex Marines play now, so I thought I'd share.

Here's the relevant parts...

Jim:
The Thunderfire is an interesting choice. It is weird that it doesn't really have any low AP mode for taking on Marines. I think though, against Marines, that it is best to shoot the Surface Detonation so that you can wound on 2s. And while looking at the book we forgot that the difficult terrain guys had to take a Dangerous Terrain test from Tremor. It even works against skimmers!

Me:
Yeah, I like the Thunderfire. Well, mostly. What it really needs is an AP1, 2 or 3 firing mode, so it would be effective against marines. Other than that, I think it'll be good for anti-horde -- especially poor armor save horde -- activities. I'll have to chalk up not knowing how to use it best to unfamiliarity, last night being the first time I've ever used it.

Jim:
In my Badab army I originally had 2 squads of Assault Terminators, but I think those work work well with a shooty-based HQ like Sicarius. Even though he has some special CC attacks, I think his re-roll seize the initiative and ability to give a squad Tank Hunters and other stuff makes him more of a shooty/long range army. If you stick with him I think I'd take another Thunderfire on place of the Predator, drop one Assault Termies and put the Sternguard with Sicarius in the other LR. Might have enough points then to grab another Tac squad.

Me:
Sicarius. Yeah. Let's talk about him.

Sicarius is ok. Not good, not terrible, just...ok. He is definitely the epitome of the Ultramarine Second Company (and Ultras in general, I'm afraid) in that he is a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none. Is he survivable? Sure. 2+/4++, FNP and W3 aren't shabby. WS6/BS5 are good even if they are stock standard for a SM Captain. But the closer you look, the less impressive he becomes: T4, S4, A3. Yawn. Those stats really hurt his CC prowess. Sure the coup de grace thing is cool, but way too risky. They should have just given him a relic blade and been done with it. As for him being a "shooty" HQ choice...well, again, nothing special. Being able to give Tank Hunters to one whole unit doesn't really make my heart beat any faster, especially when you look over on YOUR side of the table where they're apparently handing Tank Hunters out like candy. Cheap candy! The kind you get from a guy in a panel van. Infiltrate/Scouts would probably be more useful, and had I really taken the time to think and plan a little better, I probably could have built a unit that would take more advantage of one of them. Lastly, his seize the initiative ability is OK...kind of a gimmick rather than a real ability. Amusing to attempt I suppose, but you can't build a strategy around it because you can't count on it. Sure, when it happens it MIGHT be good, but I also think if you've set up to take that first turn of shooting from your opponent you're probably not going to be in optimal firing positions (at least some or not all of your army, anyway) so you might even be better off not seizing the initiative (at least sometimes). I guess what I'm trying to say is that I feel obligated to play Sicarius, since I am playing Second Company Ultras...but unless I see some much more robust performance from him I think I'm going to explore my options.

Jim:
OR...

Get rid of Sicarius, keeping the rest of the stuff the same and take Shrike. Then he'll give your Assault Termies Fleet, which is nice and you can still put the Sternguard in the LR because Shrike can Infiltrate with one of the Termie squads. Plus he's I5 twin lightning claw guy, so he would go well with TH/SS Terminators.

Me:
Shrike is definitely an option. In fact, either him or Lysander are very appealing, because they actually have special rules that can alter how your army performs where it counts -- in movement and/or assault, or shooting. Lysander running around with a full load of Sternguard would be good, I think, but limited (only helping one unit). Shrike is probably the better choice, IF I decide I want to keep the 2 units of Assault Terminators.

We'll see.

Jim:
I think if you then take an Assault squad and combat squad it then you can run 5 assault guys to go along with each of your Assault Terminators for a little extra punch. Or on foot and use their Razorback as a stand-alone gunboat.

Me:
I've been pondering how things went down last night and I had a few thoughts:

1. My list was basically a one-trick pony consisting of two units of Assault Termies and their delivery systems.
2. I knew -- based on knowing just how ass-kickin' assault cannons are -- that I was going to have problems with your army. Toss in Tank Hunters and you can guarantee a dead tank a turn, maybe even dead tank/turn per Terminator squad. Chances are pretty good that with 8 shots/unit you're going to get at least one rend, and when that happens it's pretty much, "good night, tankie". With my two key units depending on tanks to get them to where they need to be to do what they do...well, I knew I was going to lose both 'Raiders, I just didn't know how soon.
3. Perhaps the best counter to Terminators is...more Terminators. Had I been able to close mine with yours it would have been different, but with the range and sheer volume of fire you can generate, well, you're good.
4. I've flirted with the idea of deep striking the smaller Termie squad. If I do, then I'll need to add some Scout Bikes or give homers to my sergeants (or...something). But the truth is, riding them across the board in a LR is the superior method for getting them where they need to be. Deep strike is undependable (depending on the reserve roll), has inherent mishap risk and perhaps most damning of all, you can't assault after you arrive. It's just not a good option for a unit that doesn't carry a single ranged weapon. In fact, it's terrible option, but I must admit that being able to re-purpose a LR does have it's own appeal...
5. I really do forget what my models are equipped with when they aren't WYSIWYG. Yes, I forgot my Terminators have 2+/3++ saves. I should have just ran them balls-to-the-wall at your Terminators and had faith in my storm shields. It probably would have ended just a badly, but at least they weren't just sitting there taking it in the face.
6. Black Templars are broken. Your version of them is even MORE broken. Oh, it's broken in a succinct, ingenious way...but it's still broken. My hat's off to you for a great, powerful build!
7. My list last night was a HUGE departure from my normal Ultramarine army. I think it really showed in how I played it. Ultras -- no matter how many Assault Terminators you give them -- will never play like (or be as overall good as) CSMs, and I've been playing CSMs so much that I'm still in that CSM "mode". More than once I was wishing for my daemon prince. I really need to remember and focus on what army I'm playing at the moment so I can play them the way they need to be played.
8. Ultramarines -- even with all their shiny new toys -- are still very, very "meh". You have to spend WAY too many points to get the "good stuff" (which, honestly, you really need to be competitive). When you're done getting the good stuff -- which, honestly, you can't get enough of in the first place -- you don't have much left to build a supporting army around. At least, that's my impression after 2 whole games with them under the new codex. I definitely need to get more games in with them so I can re-learn how to play them effectively.
9. My list was lacking synergy and cohesion, and that really hurt how it performed. My inexperience with the new toys didn't help. Also, not having a counter to the sheer number of Termies you had hurt the most.
10. While the Thunderfire was good, and two of them might be better...I'm thinking for just a few more points I could have two Vindicators. My army REALLY needs some unit erasers, and Thunderfires just aren't it against Marines. The two things it has going for it -- range and multiple shots, two with special effects -- don't make up for its relatively poor S/AP and its inherent fragility. Vindicators are good against everything, not just hordes, and are probably harder to kill. The only drawback to Vindicators are their range, which means you have to put them in harm's way to use them -- which you don't really have to do with a Thunderfire. Decisions, decisions...

...and there you have it, a random collection of post-game thoughts and observations.

What do you think? Have any thoughts you like to share about recent games?

You May Not Believe This, But...

2009-01-21T03:56:00.003-06:00

...I finally got my first game in playing Ultramarines under the new codex.

Oh I can just hear the consternation now! "But Joe, damn it, your blog is entitled 'Ultramarine Blues'. You went nuts trying to track down the new marine codex before it was released! You love Ultras...how can it have taken you MONTHS to play under the new codex?"

Well, two things contributed to this, actually. First thing is real life. Between my job, moving to a new place, and getting everything done for my upcoming wedding (Jan. 31 is the big day!) I've had precious little time to get much playing in, especially with the painting/modeling projects I've been working on. The second thing that happened is the Macharian Crusade. I got a chance to play in a BoLS campaign and you bet your sweet ass I took it, even re-arranging my work and personal schedules to play one a week. It was an absolute blast playing in and I definitely don't regret the time and effort I had to put in arranging things to be able to participate in it. The problem with playing in it, though, is that I was playing Chaos Space Marines (as Ultramarines weren't involved in the Macharian Crusade). That meant pretty much since the release of the new marine codex, I've been focused on playing a different army.

...an army that I've grown to love, actually. So much so that I stripped the models (or am in the process of stripping them) to repaint them with my "Army of The Crowing" scheme. Making this happen has certainly taken up the majority of my available "hobby time" lately.

So, now you know the why. I'll get on with it, then. :)

I was going to post up a battle report but truth be known, the game itself was a little skewed. There was a local player that posted up a request to "learn not to suck" and I thought I'd try and give a little back to the community which has been so very good to me over the last year and a half, and help this person out.

We threw down a 1,500 point game, she playing Tau against my Boys in Blue. The final result was a solid victory for me, because I set up some last-turn objective-grabbing "traps" that would ensure I would be at least contesting 2 objectives and controlling 1 (there were 4 total).

During the game, I did a little light coaching the player on what to do, and why. This led to some things that made it harder on me -- such as losing my Land Raider on turn 2 to Hammerhead railgun fire. Keep in mind, though, that this wasn't supposed to be a "real" game so much as a learning experience, and I think in those terms it worked out well. I covered the concepts of prioritizing your targets, and why. Movement and "staying focused on the big picture" were the other two concepts I tried to cover (this is why I laid the last-turn objective-grab "traps"...even though I'd lost over half my army, I still won because I planned on controlling/contesting objectives, even though it meant some of my units didn't see any action once I got them into place).

Finally, I did want to mention that the only "new" unit I used were Vanguard. I took a squad of 8 of them with minimal kitting out (no jump packs, only a couple of power weapons), stuck my captain with them and loaded them up in the Land Raider. Y'know, the one that got destroyed in turn 2? Yeah, that one. So, when the smoke cleared, they were between a rock and a hard place...or, more truthfully: between a big unit of Fire Warriors, a 3-model Crisis Suit team, and nowhere productive for them to hide. It was at this point that I made a very hard decision: I needed to get the heat off a pair of tac squads and a unit of terminators that were busily making their way to objectives on the other side of the board. The Vanguard were on their way to assault the Fire Warriors, but I knew they wouldn't survive the remaining 14" or so on foot, not with so many Tau guns pointed at them. So, I sacrificed them. Ran 'em right out into the open and forced my opponent to deal with them or quickly lose her two FW units. It worked -- The unit drew the fire of eveything she had that could shoot at them. Did they die? Oh my yes, to the man. At the end of it, only the captain was still alive...but that was one less turn of shooting inflicted on my tac squads -- one of which, BTW, claimed an objective for me in the end. Sure, not the most noble and heroic of deaths for my Vannies, but ultimately they served the purpose I tasked them with (even though it wasn't what I had orginally planned on doing with them) and in doing so, helped contribute to the overall success of my army/strategy/plan. I call that success in any book.

Afterward, we had a detailed discussion on what was done right, what was done wrong, and how to do things differently. I thought it was important to do as the final part of my "coaching" gig. All in all, I think it went pretty well. I also pointed out some of the better players that happened to be in the store that night and advised her that she'd do well by herself to seek out their tuteledge. :)

Have you every done any coaching for another player to help them better understand the game? What did you do? Do you think you really helped? Would you do it again?

Allergic to Green?

2009-01-07T04:18:00.006-06:00

A Little Note: This is meant to be funny. It may not be, as some of this was fueled by a bit of frustration. It was certainly not meant to offend anyone, and if it somehow does -- Ork players in particular -- I apologize in advance.

I finally got some "me time" this morning and as usual, I took a bit to check up on the blogosphere. First rattle out of the bag, BoLS is clogged up -- again! -- with more Ork-related news. I say "clogged" because looking over the last few posts, there's lots of Ork-related posts. The new battlewagon. The stompa. Plastic nobz. Other stuff.

I'm going to come out to you all now, ok?

Hi, my name is Joe. I think Orks are ludicrous.

Orks used to be the comic relief of the 40K universe. You know, grown-from-fungus green-skinned punk morons that every now and then -- every third try or so -- managed to fumble their way into doing something dangerous, when they weren't arguing over the supremacy of Mork (or was it Gork?) or shoving squigs in inappropriate and sometimes anatomically incompatible orifices. They were like pets, really. Big, dumb pets that piddled on the galactic carpet at the wrongest of times and then had to have the newspaper applied forcefully across thier snouts while everyone looked on with wry amusement at their cartoonish antics.

But then the new Ork codex came out, and lo and behold it was chock full of cheese, like a barrel of over-ripened limburger. Whoever let the nob bikerz out the door deserves to have their ass kicked. Hard. With a giant, steel boot. Repeatedly. But I digress...

Oh, and that new stompa model? I know it's supposed to be the Ork titan. I know it's supposed to look like an ominous, threatening, mobile monument of destruction. It doesn't. It looks like it was designed and assembled by a group of children -- mainly retarded children (oh, so insensitive to use that word! sorry!) -- that were given a pile of scrap and instructed to make something big and scary. I have one word for it: FAIL. Unless that's what they were going for, and in that case: WIN!

I guess what I'm saying is...Orks aren't my favorite.

Oh, don't misunderstand me. I get the appeal, I do. If Orks happen to be your favorite that's awesome: I don't care what army you play as long as you play, you know? :)

...but that doesn't change the fact that I'll be really happy when this wave or Ork releases (and the hoopla that goes with it) is over. I'm oh-so-very tired of every hobby news story having a big ol' dumb Ork in it somewhere, stinkin' up the place. I mean, come on, isn't there a new IG codex in the works? Can't we focus on that instead? :)

One last note: I was hoping -- briefly -- that maybe Warhammer Fantasy Battles would bring me some relief, until I realzed that the next army book release is Lizardmen. Big ol' walkin', talkin' iguanas. Couldn't they have spent at least another month (or three) on Warriors of Chaos? I'm pretty sure I could bask in that warm WoC glow for at least another month!

Wow, it's late. I think I'm sleep deprived. I hope so, because that's the excuse I'm rollin' with when the Ork-lovin' mob shows up at my door later today. :)

Gesso = Awesome

2008-12-28T01:32:00.002-06:00

Ah, priming.

The bane of my painting existence.

Like most of you, I started out with the rattle-can. Oh, yeah, sure, it works. You hose on the paint and your mini winds up whatever color you've chosen.

The problem is, using the rattle-can is submitting yourself to tyranny.

Spray paint is ridiculously susceptible to variances in temperature and humidity. If you get outside of the recommended temperature range, you're going to have problems. Humidity is even worse. Anyone that's hosed on a coat of primer from a rattle-can knows what I'm talking about.

And then there's the "you've got to go outside" business. Plus, it's messy and time consuming, what with setting up an area to paint, and then hosing it on, followed by the clean up. It's a mess.

So, wanting to free myself from the tyranny of the rattle-can, I investigated paint-on primers. After some trial and error, I discovered Reaper Master Series black primer. Add in some Reaper Anti-Shine Additive and you're in business.

Well, mostly.

You always have to add the anti-shine stuff. And it's expensive, in the long run. Plus, you've got added time and effort involved what with the whole mixing up the primer and the additive. Now, make no mistake, the results are amazing, and I can highly recommend this solution. But I wanted something more, honestly, I wanted to find the ultimate solution to priming minis with minimal effort for cost.

Enter Ron's post about priming with gesso. The funny thing is, I remember reading the original post on WeeToySoldiers.com a long while back and while I thought it was interesting, at the time I was more interested in finding a "paint" solution, and so I filed the whole gesso idea away for later investigation. Ron's post reminded me about gesso, and I thought it was time to check it out.

One trip to the local Hobby Lobby later, I walked out with an 8 oz. bottle of Demco Artist Series Gesso, color black. Cost: $3.99 plus tax. I also picked up cheap-ass #10 shader to glop it on for $4.99 plus tax, making my total investment around $10.00. Not bad for an experiment, right?

This evening I got a chance to try it out.

Here's what I did: opened the bottle of gesso, dipped the brush in, and glopped it on three different test minis: two chaos space marines and one chaos knight horse.

The result?

Pure priming nirvana.

Coverage is ridiculously fast, as in one coat and you're pretty much good. Neatness? Forgeddabout it. Drag your gesso-loaded brush over the mini and be done with it. You'll wind up using quite a bit of the stuff, as it's very viscous. When you're done you'll have a wet, shiny gloss black covered model with some of the detail obscured.

Now set your mini down, and let it dry. Give it a while, as in a couple of hours or so.

When you look at the finished product, you'll be amazed. You'll have a flat black mini that's ready to paint, with no loss of detail. As stated in the other article, gesso shrinks as it dries, and your details "magically" come back. The chainmail on the chaos knight horse? Perfect. Ridges on the helmet hoses on the chaos space marines? Perfect. In fact, setting down the horse I "gesso-ed" and the one I rattle-canned (yes, even I use the rattle-can sometimes...) I can't tell the difference.

The only thing I noticed on the horse was a tiny amount of visible brush stroke on one little part -- and that came about because I tried to "smooth" over a section with my brush. I should have left it alone, as that's what I did with the other side and it's perfectly smooth. Also, there's a tiny "pinhole" or two here and there on the marines where the gesso shrunk, but these "pinholes" are fractions of a millimeter in size and will be easy as pie to cover up.

The best part? It took a total of about 5 minutes to cover all three minis, and a couple of minutes to wash out the brush.

I know what you're all thinking: "Yeah, sure Joe, sounds great. Pictures or it didn't happen."

The good news is, the fiancée got a sexy new camera for Christmas, and as soon as she decides that I can use it, I'll get up some pictures (don't hold your breath or anything, it may be a day or three). If all else fails, I'm probably going to inherit her old camera, which is a damn sight better than the one I have now, so either way, it means good things for photos in my blog. :)

In conclusion: Gesso = Awesome. If you're thinking about giving it a try, DO IT! It's cheap and very time/effort efficient, and the results will blow you away. CJ says, "Check it out."

Merry Christmas Everyone!

2008-12-25T03:17:00.002-06:00

It's late, and I'm about to head to bed...but I wanted to take a moment and wish everyone Merry Christmas.

My wish to you on this day is that you find yourself in a good place, sharing time with friends, family and loved ones...because that's one of the best things in life, and certainly one of the best things about today.

No, no...

2008-12-17T16:04:00.003-06:00

OK, this will barely pass muster as an "update", but I had to share this little moment:

My fiancee took one look at the Chaos knight I was building and said, "Ooooh, it's a PONY."

To which I replied, "No, no...it's an EVIL pony."

...and so now I'm building an army of EVIL PONIES. Oh well...

Normally I Wouldn't

2008-11-27T09:37:00.002-06:00

Since this is a gaming blog, I normally don't talk much about anything but gaming-related things (or non-gaming things that affect my gaming or blogging). Coupled with the fact that my last post wasn't gaming-related, that's two reasons why I normally wouldn't do what I'm about to do.

But sometimes you just have to do things you normally wouldn't, right?

Right.

To my fellow Americans: Happy Thanksgiving. I know there's a lot of commercialization around this day, and maybe even a little controversy surrounding its origins, but never mind all those things: the basic idea behind the holiday is a good one -- take a moment to look around at all you have, what your friends, family and indeed your whole nation...and be grateful. In other words...give thanks.

To my fellow citizens of Planet Earth that don't happen to be Americans: I know this sounds trite, perhaps, but take a moment today to reflect on how lucky we are to be living in this time, right here, right now. No, our world if far, far from perfect...but I think it is still probably the best time there has ever been to be alive.

To everyone: As we take a moment today to be grateful for what we have, also consider the things that could be better...note the things that need to be changed. I encourage you to do one thing tomorrow that helps bring forth even one tiny little change that would help make this a better place.

Imagine what would happen if every single one of us did one thing to help make our world and our lives better? Imagine how much more we would have to be grateful for this time next year...

...it's just a thought.

Pennsylvania

2008-11-20T12:36:00.003-06:00

I got sent to Pennsylvania this week for work, and the hotel they have me in has had some major Internet problems. The good news is I've gotten the work that I was sent here to do pretty much done (one more night of work left) and then I drive to Philly tomorrow and fly home. It was snowing here earlier but seems to have stopped now. What I've seen of PA is very nice -- what I've seen of it, which isn't much at all, really -- but honestly, I'm ready to go home. :)

Vanguard Vets (re-)Visited

2008-11-11T22:58:00.003-06:00

I have a confession to make. There's a little power-gamer lurking in me that wants to find something broken and crush my opponents with it in a relentless onslaught. I'm not proud of this, mind you, and in fact I'm not terribly happy making this confession, but there it is.

Part of me thinks that maybe it comes from living in Austin. You see, I've heard from several sources that Austin has a very -- how shall I put this? -- competitive gaming community. I believe it. There are some very, very good players here, and you either learn to play, and play well, or you learn to lose. A lot. I still lose a lot. :) But that's OK, because I feel lucky to live in a city with such a vibrant, active gaming community. I feel like I'm becoming a better player in the long run because of it. I don't mind losing, because I feel like every time I lose, I come away with more knowledge of how this game is played, what my army can do, and how I can become a better player.

What does that have to do with Vanguard Veterans? Well, it started a couple of nights ago. I was playing my CSM army and unloaded a unit of 10 Khorne Berzerkers out of a Land Raider and charged with them. They did what they do best -- they wiped out the squad they assaulted and that was that. I made the comment, "Oh yeah, Khorne Berzerkers, they're the reason I wanted to play Chaos in the first place. I think -- point for point -- that they're the best CC specialists in the game." Abe, one of BFG's employees piped up with, "One of the best. But point for point, I think the best CC specialists are Vanguard."

Hmm. This got me to thinking, "Vanguard Vets? You mean those over-costed, super-expensive models in the new marine codex? Bah. Marines don't get effective CC specialists, never have, never will." Since I try to never make decisions based on opinions when there's some facts to be had, I thought I'd run some numbers and consider some options.

First off, I'm still of the opinion that Vanguard with Jump Packs are simply too darned expensive.

But you don't have to give them jump packs.

In fact, where Vanguard really shine is in the other options you can give them.

Let's take your bog-standard unit of 10 Vanguard Vets, no upgrades: 225 points. For those 225 points you get 30 attacks -- 40 on the charge -- of which 3 (4 on the charge) are power weapon attacks. That's not too shabby. For comparison, let's consider 9 Khorne Berzerkers and a Skull Champion with a power weapon: 240 Points. Granted, for 15 points more you're getting WS5 and Furious Charge -- and that means that on the charge, the Berzerkers are definitely going to be the better unit. However, without the charge, they're nearly even, and 15 points cheaper.

Now let's make things really interesting.

What makes the Vanguard special is the options you can give them. Consider that you can give every model in a Vanguard unit a power weapon. For 10 Vanguard with a power weapon, you're going to shell out 360 points -- certainly not cheap, but for that extra 135 points, you're getting 30 power weapon attacks (40 on the charge), and this is something that Khorne Berzerkers don't even have the option to do. Run Pedro Cantor with these guys and you've going to get 50 power weapon attacks on the charge. That's officially a wandering band of close combat rape.

Want to make the ultimate band of roving CC slaughter? For a cool 1065 points you can field 10 Vanguard Vets, all with a pair of lightning claws, Pedro Cantor, and a chaplain with Crozius and Power Fist riding to the slaughter in a Land Raider Crusader with EA. That will net you 59 power weapon attacks on the charge that re-roll to-hits, with 50 that re-roll to-wound (with a paltry 47 attacks without the charge, 40 of which re-roll to-wound). Crazy? Yes. Expensive? Oh my yes. Worth it? Probably not. But the fact remains that you can do it.

The only problem I can see with the 10 model unit all armed with power weapons is they'd probably be a little too good at what they do: charge, kill everything in sight, and then be sitting there, power-armored buttcheeks flapping in the breeze, ready to take a turn of fire from probably every available unit your opponent has. This will result in a large pile of very dead -- and very expensive, points-wise -- Vanguard. They do, after all, die like normal marines.

I'm thinking a much more reasonable configuration would be to give half of them power weapons. The sergeant comes with one, so upgrade 4 of them with power weapons and you're looking at a more-than-reasonable 285 points. That nets you 15 power weapon attacks (20 on the charge) and you're only coughing up 45 more points than you would for 9 Berzerkers and a Skull Champ. Toss in a LRC with EA and your total comes up to 550 points -- again, reasonable, for what you're getting. Consider that I used to field a command squad that cost way more than 285 points and got less attacks and less power weapons, I'd say this isn't a bad deal.

I'd like to hear your thoughts and opinions on Vanguard -- or any other close combat specialists you'd like to compare and contrast them with. I'm interested in how they compare with, say, Harlequins...

The Army of The Crowing

2008-11-11T00:06:00.004-06:00

What you see here is the color scheme for my CSM army, what I have named "The Army of The Crowing". If your curious, the name comes from the music of Coheed & Cambria, my all-time favorite band (all of their albums are concept albums, each one a "chapter" in a story, a very interesting sci-fi story in fact).

I had a conversation with a fellow Austin gamer, Robert, who was also my Week 5 Macharian Crusade opponent (if you want to see his Mordian Iron Guard, you can look no further than BoLS "Armies We Like" section, and let me tell you, his army looks amazing -- as good as those pictures are, it looks even better in person). Robert is a long-time Chaos player and he's (obviously) a good painter. He and I agreed that the "Black Legion" was over-represented here and that something new would be a good idea. After the Macharian Crusade ends, I'm planning on dunking my existing CSMs into the Simple Green and starting over -- and when I do, this is the color scheme I'm planning on going with.

I know it's a pretty simple scheme, but that's part of the reason I like it. The idea is to use a gloss finish on the (Merchite) red trim to give it a little metallic sheen, which I think will give it a little oomph. What do you guys think?

P.S.: In case some of you are thinking, "God-Emperor dang it, Joe, the name of this blog is Ultramarine Blues, not Chaos Marine Blues. When are you going to talk about your Ultras again?" the answer to that question is: next post! A conversation with Abe at BFG got me to thinking and re-thinking a unit in the new marine codex that I had pretty much written off: Vanguard Vets...and my next post is going to be about them! Stay tuned!

New Workspace

2008-11-08T10:23:00.003-06:00

Now that the move into the new place is more-or-less complete, I've gotten my new desk set up, and that means my new workspace is finally fully functional.

After a quick trip to my FLGS yesterday afternoon to pick up supplies, I got my hobby area set up and ready to go. I'm not busily working on the balrog/daemon prince conversion, thanks to a bit (look in the bottom right of the frame, it's the long pointy bit) given to me by a friend.

But first...I'm going to the Texas RenFaire with some friends today. So, no modeling today. Modeling tomorrow.

How-To: Play to a Draw vs. Armored Company

2008-11-06T00:34:00.004-06:00

Got to play my Week 4 Macharian Crusade game tonight. My opponent was Bushido Red Panda, and he brought his Armored Company.

This being my second outing against an Armored Company, I thought I'd briefly share my experiences.

I'll give the ending away: the game ended in a draw.

"How does one play to a draw against Armored Company, Joe?" you may find yourself asking.

Great question, thank you for asking.

Here's how you do it:

1. Play spearhead deployment with capture & control mission. That's right, two objectives and table quarters. Guess where your objective goes? If you answered anything other than, "In your own back corner," you've answered incorrectly and must turn in all your models, rulebooks, codex(es), dice, etc. What this means in game terms is the objective you must take (and your opponent must take, too) are the maximum distance away from each other they can possibly be!
2. Park a Land Raider on your objective, and have your opponent literally line the two back table edges with tanks.
3. Lose the "seize the initiative" roll. This will let the Armored Company player go first. This means you don't get to pop smoke on your Rhinos, and that makes them basically sitting ducks for, oh, far too many battle cannons and -- if you're especially lucky -- a Tank Hunter Destroyer. Did I mention 2 Basilisks? No? Well, you can't lose your army to template-y death unless your opponent gives you what I'm going to term, "The Armored Company Full Monty," without 2 Basilisks. I'm happy to say I got "The Armored Company Full Monty" tonight!
4. Lose 2 of your 3 Rhinos by the end of the top of turn 2. Also, lose one of your Havok squads, and have your Land Raider immobilized. Also, your now-footsloggin' Chaos Lord and attached Chosen squad and one of your formerly-Rhino-mounted CSM units should go ahead and suck a big, fat helping of template death, even after "Going to Ground". Good times!
5. When your outflanking Chosen actually arrive on the "correct" side of the board -- you know, the one with all the tanks on it, go ahead and melta that Leman Russ, because you know next turn, they're going to eat a template. Or four.
6. Greater daemons are tough. They are not so tough that they can survive an alpha strike from an Exterminator and a couple of templates. No, that 4+ invulnerable save only goes so far!
7. Deep-striking terminators that actually "hit" their deep-strike target, only to miss with the one combi-melta they have really, really suck. Also, when every gun in an Armored Company dedicates itself to killing said terminators, they will usually succeed -- even if it takes 3 or 4 tries to get it right.
8. One lonely surviving las cannon-armed Havok can actually manage to blow up one tank then destroy the auto-cannons on an Exterminator the next turn if he's left to his own devices.
9. However, to really pull out the draw in style, you have to have a Land Raider with a unit of CSMs inside parked on your objective. The game must run the full 7 turns. Turns 5, 6 and 7 the Land Raider must take the full firepower of the 7 remaining tanks in the Armored Company -- including the Tank Hunter Destroyer with its S10 AP2 Laser Destroyer Cannon and a menagerie of Battle and Earthshaker cannons -- and live, with not one penetrating hit during those 3 full turns of raining template death.

All in all, it was a fun -- if sometimes frustrating -- game. Jay (Bushido) is a great player and I knew it was going to be a good game. I also knew from deployment to game end that unless something really odd happened, it was going to be a draw. There was no way I was going to destroy that "V" of tanks on his back table edges, and he couldn't get close enough with his tanks to take mine.

Next up, for Week 5, I'm facing "Mordian Iron Guard", which I'm not familiar with at all. One thing about the Macharian Crusade, I'm learning a lot about Imperial Guard. These Mordians seem to be a more-or-less "standard" Guard army, so it looks like it's time to break the Khorne Berzerkers back out!

vs. Armored Company Update

2008-11-02T01:16:00.005-05:00

Mike and I got to play our Macharian Crusade game, and I thought I'd follow up with the results.

I decided to take a modified version of the list I originally posted, dropping the raptors, vindicator and daemon prince to allow me to add another unit of Chosen, a Chaos Lord and greater daemon plus giving all the terminators chain fists and Icon of Khorne. I also split up the Havoks into 2 units of 5, each with two las cannons. A few other twiddles and I wound up with two mounted CSM squads, two Chosen squads (one mounted, the other infiltrating/outflanking), one footslogging CSM squad, the terminators and Land Raider. Every squad was packing melta guns and power fists. I felt ready to rumble!

Basically, it went like this:

Mission and deployment: capture & control, pitched battle.

Mike won the roll, and elected for me to set up first.

We both placed our home objectives in the middle of the board, against the back edge.

I parked the Land Raider on top of my objective, and put the footsloggers right next to it (to embark into it during first turn movement), put the the Havoks in hard cover to the left and right of the LR (the best place I could find for them) and put the Rhinos on my left flank. The Chaos Lord joined the mounted Chosen unit in their Rhino. In reserve I kept the terminators (to deep strike) and one unit of Chosen (to outflank), while the greater daemon lurked in the warp, awaiting the summoning that would bring him forth to wreak destruction and death.

Mike deployed a wall of tanks on his board edge. His list was changed, too: he fielded one Exterminator, two Demolishers, and way too many Leman Russes. Three of them (or was it four?) were command tanks, and also had BS4.

Mike tried to seize the initiative, failed, and we began.

Turn one: Rhinos moved forward 12", the CSMs embarked into the LR, and the Havoks and LR fire las cannons. I have a love/hate relationship with my las cannons, be they loyalist or traitor: I love them, they hate me. I swear, I usually hit about every other roll with them, sometimes worse. And then when it comes for the all-important penetration roll, that single pip shows up for often than the five or six. It's my own little dice curse. This game it was no different -- the two Havok units might as well have been two units firing a twin-linked las cannon each. Out of the six (two of them twin-linked), I managed to pop one -- count them, one tank. Yay, go me.

Before I go any further, I'd like to confess that during deployment or turn one I usually say, "I like to make at least one huge tactical mistake early and go ahead and get that out of the way." It's meant to be funny, but more often than I'd like to admit, it's true.

So I'll man up and admit my huge, glaring tactical blunder that probably influenced the game's outcome. Ready for this? I forgot my Rhinos have smoke launchers. To be fair, I've been playing 4E loyalist marines exclusively for a year, and those Rhinos didn't come stock with smoke launchers. Plus, this army is the "acquired" one, the one I didn't model, and the Rhinos don't have smoke launchers on them. (Which is something else I'd like to comment on: they say WYSIWYG is for your opponent. I say it's mainly for me -- I prefer looking at my models and knowing what weapons/wargear they have without having to refer back to my army list.)

Mike moved his Demolishers up, repositioned a tank or two and then got crankin' with the battle cannons. My poor, not-protected-by-a-smoke-screen-like-they-should-have-been Rhinos. One of CSM carrying Rhinos got destroyed and suddenly the spiky boys were standing in the smoking hole where a transport used to be. They got to look around for a few seconds before more templates dropped and when the smoke cleared, the aspiring champ was the only survivor. The other CSM Rhino took it on the chin and was shaken, and the CL/Chosen Rhino lost its bolter. OK, it could have been a lot worse.

Turn two, termies and greater daemon decide now would be a good time to show up, but the Chosen couldn't break away from the Slaaneshi peep show (or whatever it was that was keeping them entertained) declined to enter the battle. This was exactly the opposite of what I preferred, but that's how it goes. I put the termies next to some hard cover and brought the GD in next to the CL/Chosen Rhino, thinking he'd need some cover to survive Mike's turn. My crack las cannon marksmen managed to shake a demolisher and the termies ran into cover.

Mike shuffled more tanks around and then started his template two-step. Casualties: the now-footsloggin' AC, a couple of Havok ablative wounds, the CL/Chosen Rhino (nuts!) and a couple of Chosen. Double nuts.

Turn three: The Chaos Lord, finding himself footsloggin' it with the boys decided that simply wouldn't do for a man of his stature and he ordered the CSMs in the remaining Rhino out so he and his attached Chosen could get in. The termies hiked through the covering terrain and fired their one combi-melta, hit, and rolled a smokin' three for penetration. Awesome! The las cannon specialists mid-field fired (I think) and maybe blew up a tank. Man, those guys just couldn't get their act together! They should be popping at least two tanks a turn! (ok, I know they shouldn't, but in my mind they should!).

Oh, almost forgot the outflanking Chosen. Whatever movie they were watching must have ended and they decided to show up. You know how cool outflanking is? Showing up on the short board edge and all? It's awe-some, right?

Right!

Well, when you get to show up on the short board edge you want, anyway. I guess someone back at spiky-boy barracks decided to prank it up and replaced the Chosen AC's battlefield map with a copy of Tentacle Weekly or something, and these clowns show up on the right side of the board. Did I mention that I really, really needed them on the left? No? Well guess what, I really needed them on the left side of the board -- you know, the side with all the tanks on it. Anyway, they lolligag onto the right side of the board, a good 16" or so from a target. Oh well, at least there was some decent cover between them on closest tanks, and they had to run to get into it.

I'll summarize the remainder of the game:

The GD lumbered forward, and had to pass through some difficult terrain on the charge. Monstrous creatures never have problems with that, do they? Mine did. Rolled a good two inches short. When he got there next turn, though, he committed a very unholy act on that tank.

When the termies finally got out of cover and into charge range, there were only three of them left. However, I split the assault against two tanks, two on a Leman Russ and one on the Exterminator -- neither of which had moved. I'll put it this way: Bigred was right. Khornate chain fist wavin' terminators are Leman Russ can-openers. Three termies, two tanks, one round. Result: two dead tanks. Chaos Lord and Chosen hosed another tank with melta and then got vapped by heavy bolter fire.

Demolisher fire exploded the Land Raider, but the CSMs survived. The outflanking Chosen finally made it through cover and popped a Demolisher. Mike had moved his lone remaining scoring command tank and parked it on his objective. At the bottom of turn five, we each held our home objectives, and my GD, terminators and outflanking Chosen had closed the distance to be in assault range on turn six.

I rolled the die for turn six.

I rolled a one.

Final result: tie.

Epilogue: My opponent for Week 4 is Jay, a.k.a. Bushido Red Panda, and guess what army he's playing in the Macharian Crusade?

Yep, you guessed it. Armored Company.

...and while I haven't seen his army, I've seen a picture or two. Unless I'm totally mistaken, he has a Destroyer Tank Hunter -- armed with a Laser Destroyer (72" range, S10 AP2, Heavy 1 Blast that does not scatter) -- in his list.

Good times! *facepalms*

What Should I Take vs. Armored Company?

2008-10-26T22:08:00.005-05:00

For my next game in the Macharian Crusade campaign, I'll be facing an Armored Company list, that looks a lot like this:

Monash - 183
Leman Russ Exterminator
Hull Heavy Bolter
Smoke
Track Guards
Extra Armor

Hellhound - 133 (x3, one taken as Fast Attack)
Smoke Launchers
Track Guards
Extra Armor
Heavy Bolter

Platoon Command Tank - 218 (x3)
Leman Russ
Hull Lascannon
Heavy Bolters
Smoke Launchers
Track Guards
Extra Armor

Leman Russ - 183 (x3)
Hull Lascannon
Heavy Bolters
Smoke Launchers
Track Guards
Extra Armor

...granted, this is the 1785 point version of my opponent's list, but we'll be playing at 2000 points, so I'm expecting another tank (or two). The rules of the campaign for armored company grant company command and platoon command tanks the ability to hold objectives (in case you were wondering how this list was going to take objectives).

The question is -- having never played against an AC list before -- is what do I use to fight all those tanks playing Chaos Space Marines? My answer is, "More melta! More Las Cannons!"

So, with that in mind, I came up with this list:

HQ:
Daemon Prince
Wings
Doombolt

Fast Attack:
Raptors, 5-Man Unit
Meltagun (x2)
Aspiring Champion with Melta Bombs

Elite:
Chosen, 5-Man Unit (x2)
Meltagun (x2)
Icon of Chaos Glory
Aspiring Champion with Melta Bombs

Terminators, 5-Man Unit
Chain Fist (x1)
Power Weapon (x4)
Combi-melta (x4)
Reaper Autocannon (x1)

Troops:
Chaos Space Marines, 7-Man Unit (x2)
Meltagun
Icon of Chaos Glory
Aspiring Champion with Melta Bombs
Rhino

Chaos Space Marines, 10-Man Unit
Lascannon
Icon of Chaos Glory
Aspiring Champion with Melta Bombs

Heavy Support:
Havocs, 6-Man Unit
Lascannon (x3)
Icon of Chaos Glory

Vindicator
Extra Armor

Land Raider
Extra Armor

...which is exactly 2000 points. The plan is to send the DP with the Raptors for hit-and-run assaults; truck over the termies in the LR and have them bounce out for hot melta action with follow-up chainfisting; send out the 2 Rhino-mounted CSM units for drive-by melta and/or melta bomb assault; and of course infiltrate in both Chosen units -- hopefully in the backfield -- for some rear-armor melta shots and/or melta bomb assault. The large CSM unit will park on an objective with the las cannon, and the havoks will deploy into some kind of cover and shoot, shoot, shoot. The Vindicator is mainly there to draw fire and maybe get in a lucky shot.

The problem, of course, is any way you slice it, I'm going to be facing a lot of tanks, and those tanks will all be dropping templates all over the place and generally making my day less than pleasant. Not to mention all those hull-mounted las cannons will probably make short work of both my LR and Vindicator. That's going to leave me with only 4 las cannons, and that means I'm going to have to depend on tank-busting the old fashioned way: by getting much, much closer than I'd rather be to them and hoping I can get the ol' melta mojo working, in either gun or bomb form.

Any thoughts, opinions or advice? List critique and/or tweaks? Strategy ideas? I'm definitely open to suggestions!

...and now, here's Joe with the weather.

2008-10-24T01:58:00.004-05:00

Now that I finally got the whole Disqus thing straightened out, and have actually had a few moments to breathe (and get caught up on some professional and personal things) I thought it'd be a good time to get everyone caught up.

The last few days have been a mixed bag. I wound up having to miss the last couple of days of work due to being under the weather, but that's what doctors and prescriptions are for. So far, so good on the recovery. Next week is going to be very, very hectic, too, as the long-awaited move to the new place finally happens. What this means is that gaming and modeling are going to have to take a brief back seat, but once the move is complete it should get a lot better as I'll finally have a dedicated workspace. I'm really, really looking forward to this and (hopefully) the golden age of productivity that will come with it. I have several projects either already in progress or planned and I'm definitely excited about getting started or moving forward on them!

All right, let's talk about the Macharian Crusade.

The first game I played went pretty well, all things considered (as previously discussed). I promised I'd do a little "what did we learn" about that game, so I'll get that out of the way.

Khorne Berzerkers are awesome. They are the main reason I wanted to pick up a CSM army to begin with. They're the only "cult" troops I have at the moment, and they're worth their weight in gold in CC. I know this isn't news to anyone, but I wanted to point out that they were as awesome as I thought they'd be.
You can never have enough meltaguns when you're playing against a vehicle-heavy IG list.
I really shouldn't have taken the MoK on the daemon prince. The DP really needs some shooty, and that means psychic powers. MoK will be dropped in the future in favor of Doombolt (hey, same points cost either way).
I could really use another Vindicator or two.
Infiltrating a squad of Chosen into your opponent's backfield is a dirty rotten trick, but definitely the only real reason to take them. I wish I'd given them 4 meltaguns instead of 4 flamers, though. I was thinking there'd be more troops back there for me to barbecue.
Summoned lesser daemons are a neat diversion, and can certainly crank out the wounds in CC, but man do they die quick. Oh, and they can't use transports. Oops.

Week Two of the Macharian Crusade pitted me against Chris "The Dude" Long and his Methalor Penal Legion. Chris, along with being one of the Fly Lords of Terra, is definitely one of Austin's best players (and he has the tournament wins to prove it) so I was really looking forward to this game as we've never faced off before. This game was a little different for me in that it was 1500 points. I can't remember the last 1500 point game I've played, so shaving down the list a little was a challenge but I think I did all right. We played a very tight, very close game and it literally came down to the wire. In the end, I made a couple of mistakes that wound up costing me big. At one point, I held both objectives, with a squad of CSMs on my home objective and my Berzerkers on his. Alas, it didn't last, though. Some good shooting followed up by a brutal round of CC between my remaining 'zerkers and his command squad and HQ (a Crusade-only special character) ended with the Khorne-boys wiped out to the man and a Demolisher close enough to contest my home objective. Oh, but it was a close, fun game the entire time. Chris told me at one point he was "playing for a tie", and considering how good a player he is, I felt pretty good about that. I had a brief post-game discussion with Chris after I'd had time to think about it, and we both agreed that I made a few crucial mistakes:

I should have moved my Land Raider the full 12" instead of 6". It probably would have survived the assault from the unit with the priest and the "guy with the eviscerator". Yup, 2D6 on the penetration roll will go through even AV14. Had the Land Raider moved the 12" and survived, it would have been contesting Chris's home objective.
I mis-directed the final assault of the Berzerkers, not realizing that the SINGLE model accompanying the HQ model was a "troop". I'm pretty sure I could have wounded that "troop" had I directed my attacks towards his unit. Had that model died, Chris wouldn't have been able to claim his home objective (and coupled with the Land Raider, I might have at least been able to contest it).
When Chris moved his Demolisher to tank shock my CSM unit holding my home objective, I originally declared a Death or Glory! with the PF-equipped AC...and then for some reason, changed my mind and backed out of it. Honestly, I probably wouldn't have popped that tank, what with it being AV14 on the front and all, but I really had nothing to lose. If I had, well, then I would have held my home objective uncontested.

...OK, so maybe those post-game thoughts don't mean as much without having a little more context, but you get the idea: I made some serious errors, and it cost me big time. However, even though I've been playing for a year now I still consider myself in the learning stage, and that game definitely taught me some very good lessons. I have to add that Chris is an excellent player and that game was pure fun.

That brings me to current and upcoming projects.

I'm enjoying playing the Chaos Space Marines. They're similar enough to my Ultras that it's not a huge learning curve, but the different units and options really do make it entertaining. They're not going to become my main army but they do make for a fun diversion. Having said that, though, I've decided that I really want to work on my daemon prince. I have a balrog model and I think it makes a great DP. However, there's something about it that bothers me: the little "fire knife" it has for a CCW. I've decided to attempt sculpting an appropriately-large sword for it. I've made a couple of base forms out of brown stuff and have begun the long and demanding task of carving, cutting and filing. I'm using one as my "test" and the second as the "production"...but there's a long way to go before either of them is even near done. BTW, if you're interested, I found this tutorial on sculpting swords that I found most useful. It's a little hard to read at first as it is presented in multiple languages but definitely worth a look.

Last but certainly not least, I have some plans for my Ultras. I have two lists in mind, one that uses drop pods, Sternguard and a libby, and lots of tacs. The other list replaces some tacs for some scout bikers. I really need to decide on my HQ, too -- which is really a choice between Sicarius or Pedro -- and once I've finalized that I need to get the model and get to work on painting it up. Needless to say, I have a LOT of work in store for me with my Ultras but I'm definitely looking forward to getting it all together, painting it up, and then playing with the new codex.

You'll notice the details are a little light on the upcoming stuff for the Ultras. That's because I really haven't finalized a whole lot yet. I'll let you know what I come up with, though.

So, now that I've blathered on for probably way too long (hey, if you made to the end of this long-ass post, thanks!) I'm wondering: what have you guys learned from recent games? What projects are percolating up? What plans have you made?

Thanks to Disqus Support...

2008-10-18T16:54:00.001-05:00

...my template has been patched and I'm able to use Disqus again!

Good News, Bad News

2008-10-14T16:57:00.005-05:00

Well, as you can see, the good news is I managed to find a 3-column blog template to use. Yay, go me (honestly, all it involved was a few simple steps).

That's it for the good news.

The bad news is...Disqus is broken. Their "template patcher" doesn't work with "custom templates", and for the life of me, I can't seem to figure out how to make it work with the custom template, even following the instructions from this page (which the Disqus support page sends you to when the "patcher" figures out it can't auto-patch your template for you).

So...I'm asking for help. I know some of you out there have 3 column blogs and are using Disqus. Can ya help a brother out and let me know how you did it? Or edit my template? Or...something? Please? :)

In the meantime, I've turned the "normal" comments back on. Whee.

Results From Last Night

2008-10-10T13:27:00.001-05:00

Originally posted as a comment, recycled here for your convenience!

The game last night was fun and against an excellent opponent. I lost -- by one lousy contested objective. Massed demolisher, hellhound and battle cannon fire does a number on Khorne Berserkers, that's all I can say. Still, not a bad result for never having played the army before and (literally) making up the army list about 45 minutes before the game started. :)

I didn't really learn anything I didn't already know about CSM, though. Berserkers are ridiculous in CC. Daemon princes are hard to kill and a one-man (daemon?) wrecking crew. Outflanking Chosen should (when playing against a tank-heavy IG army, anyway) have meltaguns and not flamers. I'll do a post about it later with a nice re-cap and lessons learned. :)

Playing Something Different...

2008-10-09T13:39:00.005-05:00

The Macharian Crusade campaign gets kicked off tonight at BattleForge Games. There are over 30 local players involved! (It is great to live in the same city and get to game with the Fly Lords of Terra, yes.)

However, there really isn't a place for my Ultramarines in this part of the campaign (if at all), but I really wanted to take part (and who wouldn't?). So that means I'll be playing on the bad guys team. That's right, tonight I'll be taking on elements of the Fifth Army Group of the Macharian Crusade with Chaos Space Marines.

A little on my CSM army: It was cobbled together over several months with a combination of trades, small private purchases and some luck on Ebay. That's the good news. The bad news is...it's ugly. I simply haven't had time to do anything with this army and it looks...well, disjointed. Pretty much every model in the army needs to be stripped and re-painted. Not to mention my greater daemon isn't even assembled yet (and I cheated: I got a balrog model from the LotR line because I thought it just looked cooler).

Also, I've never -- not even once -- played a game with this army. Oh, sure, I know the basics (CSMs are, after all, still marines at the core) but as for finesse and/or experience, I simply don't have any with it. So...playing with it should prove to be a real learning experience and (hopefully) a lot of fun.

I'll let you know.

Anyone else ever done anything like this? I'm curious to know if you have, and how it turned out!

Comments and Bandwagons...

2008-10-07T13:19:00.002-05:00

I decided to go ahead and switch over the Disqus comment system.

Hopefully, nobody will think this sucks, and everyone will love it unconditionally.

Or...something like that.

Anyway, new content to break in the new Disqus comment system will be coming soon!

Divine Secrets of the Space Marine Brotherhood?

2008-10-03T00:54:00.011-05:00

If there's one thing I believe space marine armies need, it's force multipliers. The two assault cannons you could (previously) take in a 5-man terminator squad was a perfect example of a force multiplier -- having those two assault cannons greatly expanded the damage that unit could do per turn. Now that we've all had a chance to get a look at the new marine codex (and hopefully digest at least some of it), what combinations of units/abilities create meta-units whose total is greater than the sum of its individual parts?

Here in Austin, there are a few favorites that seem to be rising to the top:

Captain Lysander joining a full squad of Sternguard: with his "Bolter Drill" special rule, those Sternguard will be pumping out the Hellfire rounds with re-rolls to hit and re-rolls to wound. Plus, re-rolls to hit means you'll never overheat when firing the Vengeance rounds. Nasty!
Join an epistolary librarian with the Gate of Infinity power (probably coupled with The Avenger) with a full squad of Sternguard. Add in either several drop podding units or scout biker units with locator beacons and it's bounce-tastic, no-scatter, deep-strike-to-where-you-really-wanna-be fun. Every time your movement phase comes up, if your Sternguard aren't where you need them to be (for example, if you need to avoid an oncoming charge or put yourself in rapid fire range), have the librarian cast Gate of Infinity and bounce out. Also, if your Sternguard/librarian get stuck in an assault you really don't want to be in (which is all of them, because every round they're assaulting is a round they're not shooting), Gate of Infinity out to safety (and by "safety," I mean "rapid fire range to the unit you were in assault with"). You don't have to have a few locator beacons around to use this combo, but I think it's very highly recommended to avoid that whole deep strike scatter issue, which can really ruin your whole day (or at least your battle plan). Also, if you're like me, you want to do everything you can to remove the potential impact random chance can have on your army/units. I originally thought this power was used during the librarian's shooting phase, but an anonymous commenter (who may go by the name "lord-o-doom") pointed out that GoI is cast during the movement phase. So while it may be a little less useful than I originally thought, this combo is still my current favorite.
Drop-podding a pair of tooled-up dreadnoughts (either ironclad or venerable) into your opponent's backfield and then opening up with heavy flamers and/or multimeltas/assault cannons/twin-linked auto-cannons. To follow that, charge on in for some DCCW/Seismic Hammer close combat lovin'. Support these dreads with a full squad of Sternguard (probably with a librarian rockin' Gate of Infinity) and maybe a full tac squad (or two) and you're in business. Just make sure you have enough drop-podding units to get all the units you REALLY want in the backfield on the first turn (which probably means you're going to need at least 5 units with pods). Don't forget locator beacons on the pods!
I created a 2000 point list with Pedro Cantor and 90 other marines (3 full Sternguard squads and 6 full tac squads). That makes a total of 91 power-armored marines on the table, and with Pedro...90 of them are scoring. Granted, they're all footsloggin', but I think it would be pretty impressive (and not to mention, hard to kill).
Honor Guard. Yes, they're ridiculously expensive. But let's think about it: for 385 points, you get 10 Sv2+ marines with power weapons, including the company champion and company banner. That will yield 51 S4 power weapon attacks on the charge (4 from the champ, 27 from the others, 10 from the company banner and 10 for the charge bonus) and 41 S4 power weapon attacks during a regular round of assault. If the S4 doesn't float your boat, you can give 'em all (or just a few) relic blades for some S6 power weapon goodness (at the cost of one attack for each model that has one). Giving the entire squad relic blades costs 150 points...and for the same price you can give the whole squad auxiliary grenade launchers for some added shooting power if you like. Granted, you have to take a chapter master to get them, so choosing one with some heavy CC power is probably a given (or not, they can run around by themselves). At first I didn't think these guys were worth it, but the more I look at what they're capable of, I think they're at least worth testing out...

What do you think of these combos? What interesting little gems of space marine goodness have you found lurking in the new codex? Share with the group and discuss!

Black Reach Tacticals to Sternguard (with pics!)

2008-09-10T17:32:00.007-05:00

Due to popular demand, here's how I'm doing the Black Reach tacticals to Sternguard conversions, with pictures (admittedly, very crappy pictures, but hey, better than nothing, right?)!

The first thing you'll need to do is find the bolters that don't come with scopes. There are two in the box that come with scopes, so you can use them straight away. However, for the others, just pick out 3 more. I prefer the bolters with attached slings (again, there are two of them in the box, so you'll need to use one "plain" bolter for the fifth). File a little bit of the ridge that runs along the top of the bolter away to make it flat with the rest of the bolter body. Leave the little raised bit towards the rear.

Next, dig around in your bits box and find three scopes. Since you've probably never used them before, and you get one with every tactical marine frame, you should have plenty!

Glue that scope onto the bolter, and you're in business! Somehow that plain ol' bolter looks like a more specialized tool with the scope attached, doesn't it?

Next up, file off that "tactical squad" arrow from the shoulder pad of each Black Reach marine model, as the Sternguard are both veterans and elites. This photo was taken while in mid-filing. It's pretty easy to do with a good set of files.

Lastly, attach the bolter to the Black Reach marine, prime and paint. Don't forget to use the color scheme for your chapter that denotes veteran status. In my case, they'll be ultramarine blue with a while helmet and white shoulder pad trim.

Compare and contrast to the still un-released Sternguard set:

...and you'll see that about the only real difference is in the pose (they are definitely more "dramatic"), ammo magazine (I suppose you could use storm bolter magazines if you wanted to duplicate them more closely) and a little bling (purity seals, terminator honors, etc.). I will probably go back and add a bit or two to each model to give them a little more "pop" and make them stand out, but honestly, I don't think it's absolutely necessary. The main thing is these guys all have bolters with scopes and slings (well, except for the combi-melta guy) and that's pretty much what we've got with the conversion. Plus, in the Black Reach set there's a couple of marines with "crusade" helmets (the same kind that comes with the company champion model). I've used both of them for my Sternguard, because it just felt right. :)

Anyway, I know that this is a very basic conversion (but the first I've ever attempted, honestly) and there are probably much better ways to do it. Considering Sternguard are basically veterans with "blinged-up" bolters, I think I've covered the basics pretty well. I know that ultimately what will sell this conversion is using the veteran colors/paint scheme, as that will leave no doubt as to what kind of unit they are. :) And hey, you're getting those marines in the Black Reach set at such a bargain, I somehow enjoy the idea of making Sternguard out of them.

All right...what do you guys think? Have any conversion ideas/plans you'd like to share?

Black Reach to Sternguard

2008-09-10T00:06:00.002-05:00

So here's my plan for getting some Sternguard converted up on the cheap.

Take a few of those Assault on Black Reach tactical marines. You know you bought the box, it was simply too good of a deal to pass up, and now you have marines-a-plenty. Pick out five.
Grab your files and get busy grinding off that stupid "tactical squad" arrow. It just doesn't fit on a Sternguard.
Use the two bolters that have scopes attached to them, and then the two bolters that have the slings. Pick a plain one for the fifth.
Look in your bits box and find 3 more scopes. You know you have them. They come with every tactical marine frame.
Attach the scopes to the bolters that don't have them.
Voila! 5-man basic Sternguard squad, ready to go. Prime and paint, not forgetting to use white paint on the helmets and shoulder pad trim (or whatever your chapter color scheme for vets).

What do you guys think? I've already made 4...

Got to Read the New Space Marine Codex

2008-09-06T03:33:00.003-05:00

Swung by the FLGS this evening and gave the new Space Marine codex a pretty thorough read-through (at least in terms of the game mechanics stuff, skipped the fluffy bits entirely).

I both love it and hate it.

Boy oh boy as you're reading through the unit descriptions, your mind begins to swirl with all kinds of possibilities and combinations...there's some raw power in there that will make you weep with joy.

Then you get to the actual army list part.

You read the point costs.

And you begin to weep again, this time bitter tears of sadness for the units that will never see the light of day.

Vanguard Vets, for example. They're stupidly overpriced. One of them with a jump pack will costs you...are you ready for this?

You sure?

...waaaait for it!

35 points.

That's right, 35 points.

Marneus Calgar? 250, with the option to take termie armor for a few points more.

Sicarius? 200, but probably worth it for Rites of Battle and his wargear, which is very nice indeed.

And trust me, you don't want to know what an all-las cannon equipped Predator is going to cost you (though the other configurations are actually very reasonable).

But there are definitely some bright spots...some very bright spots indeed.

Sternguard. 25 points. They are, to me, hands down the best thing in the whole book.

Scout bikes. They're like a Swiss army knife. If only that WS and BS had remained at 4...

Regular bikes are cheaper.

And yes, you can field a captain and attached command squad, all on bikes and including an apothecary (granting the unit FNP), giving you a sort of poor man's nob biker squad.

Other bits of joy:

Cheaper assault marines.

Dirt cheap las cannons for tac squads.

Legion of the Damned.

Ironclad Dreadnought (guess what I'm going to do with the Black Reach dreadnought? Yep, you guessed it...)

Dirt cheap Razorbacks. They're practically giving them away in the TLHB load-out.

It is possible -- though probably not very practical -- to field 5 Land Raiders. That's right, you heard me: 5 Land Raiders.

And oh yes, Scout Sergeant Telion. He's like Christmas morning. One of his special abilities makes him like a Vindicare assassin. He's awesome, and a bargain points-wise.

I'm ashamed to admit it, but I had a serious bitch-fest in the FLGS about the stupid, stupid stuff that's in there:

Chaplains? Nerfed. BS 4, W2, I4 A2. Lame. No upgrades available.

Librarians? Same stat line as Chaplains, and the psychic hood has that craptacular 24" range. Inquisitor lord, here I come. (Have I told you lately how much I hate that damned Doom/Guide/Fortune faucet? Shutting it off truly makes me smile.) At least they're still Ld 10...

GW no longer loves you if you love assault cannons. In fact, looking at it's point cost, I'm pretty sure they want you to forget it ever existed.

I'm sure I sounded like a little bitch while I was venting at the FLGS...but man, some of the nerfings and point costs don't make much sense.

Anyway...

There are definitely no Eldar- or Ork-style win buttons in this book (which -- I'm ashamed to admit -- I kind of wish there were at least one).

Overall first impression? While I have some issues with a few bits, all things considered, it's a great book. The good definitely outweighs the bad. I'm looking forward to using it. Release date can't come fast enough for me!

Things that Seem to be Mocking Me Lately

2008-09-04T10:14:00.006-05:00

In my ongoing effort to make this blog suck less, I broke out a crap-tacular digital camera I've had hiding in a file cabinet in my home office and thought I'd see if it would work for getting a few simple pictures. You guys are lucky! I'm sharing the results of my experiments with you!

As I've mentioned, a series of RLEs (Real Life Events) has kept me from doing any modeling or gaming lately. I've forgotten what the inside of my FLGS looks like. My fingers itch to hold a handful of dice in them.

The problem is -- and this is a strictly personal problem I'll admit -- I feel like when you take such a hiatus from your gaming community, when you come back, you should come back hard, with a large completed hobby project that blows everyone away, as if to say, "See, I wasn't slacking! Look! This is what consumed all my time and kept me away from the game tables!" Which is all well and good if you've actually done some impressive project, but if you're like me, and you haven't, but feel like you should have...see what I mean?

Anyway, here's a few of the things that have been vexing me lately. Things I have at least started working on, but due to the afore-mentioned RLEs, have languished...

Ah, yes, first off is my VERY WIP terminator librarian. As you can see, not much progress. So many little details on this mini! I'm pretty happy with the face, though.

Next up on the ol' Hit Parade of Shame is a trio of the "snap-fit" space marines from the little $8.00 box they're selling now. If you're like me, and you suffer from COMBS (Compulsive-Obsessive Model Buying Syndrome) you really hate to leave a FLGS without buying something. Last trip I made to the FLGS, these were by the cash register. They're all ready to be primed and painted. Oh, this picture has some shame bonus point content, too. In the plastic container these guys are standing on is a complete 5-man tactical squad, also with all mold lines removed and ready for the ol' prime-and-paint.

Ah, yes, these guys. All sitting in their box, still on the frame. *sigh* I was going to build them all with lightning claws. Looks like that's going to change with the improved storm shield in the new codex. With that in mind, I guess you could say not getting these guys done sooner has worked out in my favor.

Last -- but certainly not least -- this is something that will actually help my whole modeling situation. Yep, that's a new desk/workspace. It's still in the box (sound familiar?) but for a good reason. I'm moving to a new, more spacious apartment in October. Since I really don't have the space for it in the current place I thought I'd just leave it in the box for easier moving and then assemble it after settling in. Finally! I'll have a dedicated space to work on my hobby stuff! I can't wait!

So...what's been vexing you lately?

I have not been eaten by a Grue.

2008-08-25T12:25:00.002-05:00

...though from my lack of posts recently, you might think that.

No, lately I've been eaten by a rash of RLEs (Real Life Events) and that has unfortunately taken its toll on my free time.

Things are looking to return to something resembling normalcy, though, so I hope to return to more active bloggery soon.

Anyway...that's my story.

Here's hoping thing are going well for the rest of you!

Photo BatRep: Ultramarines vs. Eldar (Part Two)

2008-07-29T01:28:00.016-05:00

...before I continue, a detail I left out from Turn Two: Jim moved his Wave Serpent near the center objective, and dumped out a squad of Storm Guardians. His Autarch also marched towards the middle, and the Fire Dragons began to spill out from behind the wall. This set the stage for the coming bloodbath.

Turn Three:

Behind the tower, I dropped out my melta squad and attempted to do a little rapid fire loving on the Striking Scorpions...but the melta missed, and the relatively low volume of fire took down maybe one, and I got mentally prepared to receive the charge. The assault marines bounced over to the war walkers, did some shooting and then assaulted. This created a quagmire that would keep both units tied up until the last turn. Opened up on the Warp Spiders, leaving three alive, they bounced around the termies and to take more shooting, break and flee. I pivoted the LRC, moved it through the terrain, and unloaded the Command Squad o' Doom. Shooting damaged the Wave Serpent and caused a wound on the Autarch. I was planning on charging into both the Autarch and the Storm Guardians, but wanted to even the odds a little, and had the CSoD take a round of shooting at the Autarch...and accidently killed him, leaving my squad sitting high and dry with no one to assault. Oops. Both the Storm Guardians and Fire Dragons took turns pumping flamer and fusion guns into the CSoD, and when the smoke cleared, the only survivor was the chaplain. He was promptly charged but made some dramatic saves and barely lived through the round with one wound remaining. The Striking Scorpions made quick work of my melta squad and dodged around to the door of the tower, but a quick rules check revealed they couldn't enter the building as my squad occupied it.

Turn Four:

Top of Turn Four, chappy dispatches a couple of foes before being dragged under. Termies jockeyed for LOS on the Striking Scorpions but couldn't get it and ran, hoping for a better position. The Fire Dragons got into magic melta range on my LRC and despite several hits, only managed to destroy the TLAC. The Fire Prism was up next, but missed. The second squad of war walkers laid down a serious torrent of fire on my middle LC squad, leaving one survivor.

Turn Five:

My assault squad finally dispatched the war walkers, but really didn't have an opportune target.Termies and Striking Scorpions clashed, casualties were taken on both sides, but there was no winner. At the end of the turn, things were pretty deadlocked, with my tower and wall still firmly under my control, and his tower and wall in the same shape. The LRC, still parked almost on top of the center objective prevented Jim from claiming it (amazing just how big a Land Raider is) and so we didn't even roll for Turn Six (at this point, it was getting late).

Final Outcome: A draw.

Next post: What did we learn?

What do you guys think? Do you have any suggestions for either of us? What would you have done differently?

Photo BatRep: Ultramarines vs. Eldar (Part One)

2008-07-26T01:00:00.016-05:00

Thanks to my friend Jim, I present part one of a photo-enriched battle report. Jim and I have been itching to play against each other for a while -- on our local forum, my post header is, "If holofields cost 1000 pts I'd stop complaining," -- and Jim has been wanting to give me something to complain about. :) Finally, we got a chance to square off! We met at Battleforge Games Thursday evening and got down to business.

He was trying out a new list, and I played the same one from BFG's last Hobby Tournament. We rolled the multi-objective mission with long table edge deployment. We wound up with a total of 3 objectives, which after placement was one in my castle, one in his, and one in the center of the board.

The pictures start with deployment and go through the end at the bottom of turn 5. Unfortunately, Jim didn't send me all the pictures that really starred his units, so this is going to be a little one-sided. I'll have to ask him for the rest of the Eldar-specific ones so you can see the whole thing. Anyway, on to it...

Deployment:

Basically, I set up the majority of my forces in the "castle": the LRC with the "Command Squad o' Doom" (Jim's name for it), my termies, one 5-man lascannon squad, the 4 missile launcher dev squad and the 2 HB 1 PC dev squad. The objective is actually in the corner behind the wall and the tower. What you can't see is the TLHB razorback behind the base of the tower. I knew Jim was either deep striking or outflanking pretty much everything, so I wanted both board edges covered. I put my libby on the other side of the board in the ruins, with the assault squad touching the ruins (to get that cover save!) and the remaining 5 man LC squad in the middle, hunkered down in cover and waiting for targets of opportunity.

Jim's deployment was far simpler: one unit of pathfinders (rangers?) in cover, with sniper rifles. Everything else in reserves...

Turn One:

LRC and termies moved up on the objective. Both dev squads, LC squads fired on the pathfinders, with the libby tossing in a Fury of the Ancients at them (it was all I had to shoot at...). That left two of them, which fired at my HB/PC dev squad on top of the tower, rending one and wounding another, enough to cause a morale check, which they proceeded to fail, and fall back to the bottom of the tower. They wouldn't be useful again for 2 more turns.

Turn Two:

LRC and termies closed on the objective. Mass missile launcher fire took out the remaining pathfinders. The rest of the Eldar host arrived from reserves. Two squadrons of three war walkers arrived on my right flank. The first squad (proxied by Tau battlesuits, agreed upon before the game) fired everything at my libby, sending him to be with the Emperor. The other squadron opened up on my assault squad, killing two or three (in the picture, I'm placing dice for wound allocation). A unit of fire dragons took position behind the wall by his tower and a unit of (I think) dire avengers moved into the tower itself to protect his objective. I never saw them, as they remained in the tower the entire game. A wave serpent carrying a unit of storm guardians and a fire prism glided onto the battlefield from Jim's edge, and a squad of striking scorpions outflanked deep in my deployment zone, even with the tower. The warp spiders and their exarch suffered a deep strike mishap, and I got to place them in the difficult terrain of the woods previously occupied by the pathfinders. Some very unlucky 1's took out the exarch and a few warp spiders, who them bounced out, unfortunately in range of my termie's assault cannons and storm bolters...

Coming up next post: Part Two!

First 5E Tournament

2008-07-22T01:35:00.004-05:00

During this past weekend, I got a chance to play in my first 5E tournament, hosted by FLGS extraordinaire Battleforge Games here in Austin. BFG's "Hobby Tournaments" (which emphasize fun army lists as opposed to kill-em-all WAAC lists) are somewhat legendary -- this one had 28 players, and a free catered lunch (not bad for a free tournament, eh? Is it any wonder BFG has earned a large and loyal fan/customer base? It probably doesn't hurt that BFG is the venue-of-choice for the Bell of Lost Souls guys, too).

How'd I do? Well...1 loss, 2 draws. I wasn't in the top ten, but I consider this improvement, as in my first tournament, I lost every match, in my second, I had one loss and one tie (and a bye).

The picture is was taken by Jay, aka Bushido in the 41st Millennium during our match in round 2. If you'd like to read more about that match (and good match-by-match batreps by Bushido for the whole tournament including pictures from each), you should check out this act of bloggery he committed.

You may notice his gorgeous Eldar army in the photo. It looks fantastic, every unit has been lovingly given attention, and his vehicles are as beautiful and elegant as they are deadly. :) You'll also notice my Ultras are outnumbered. This was taken during the next-to-last turn. That loss I mentioned earlier? Yep, this was it.

You may be curious about the top five in this tournament, being is that it is one of the first 5E tournaments ever:

1. Eldar
2. Chaos Space Marines (Nurgle)
3. Imperial Guard
4. (tie) Black Templars
4. (tie) Tyranids

Hmm...looks like even with the new edition, some things have changed all that much. :) Although I should point out that most of the players in the top five consistently win tournaments using different armies (which lets you know they're good generals in any case).

There were a lot of marine armies in this tournament, which led Frank (aka Capt Tyranus on B&C) to comment that he thinks more people are picking marines up again due to the rumors about the upcoming codex, and it's supposed power. Interesting.

Does this mean we are entering into a Marines Ascendant era?

Which leads somewhat to this question: do you think the new marine codex will change the overall "power level" of the army?

Lastly, I'd like to say that having played 2 tournaments under 4E and now one under 5E, I greatly prefer the 5E ruleset. The games seem to have a more even ebb and flow, give and take...dare I say it: balance. I'm really looking forward to the bright times ahead in this hobby.

Wherein I Crash the Storm Shield Party and Interject Some Sobering Thoughts

2008-07-21T13:51:00.006-05:00

I originally posted a form of these thoughts on Bolter & Chainsword in the New Codex: Space Marines, It's going to be huge thread.

Basically, there's a persistent rumor that Storm Shields are going to confer a 3+ Invulnerable Save (sometimes written as "3++"). Supposedly, this rumor has been confirmed as true from multiple sources, but I'm still a little skeptical.

Regardless, I wanted to interject these thoughts:

OK, so I have a box of assault termies and I was SO looking forward to giving them all lightning claws, joining a TDA chaplain to them and on the charge playing "suck on this". Looks like NOW, though, there's an important decision to be made...do I want a CC wrecking crew that can shred pretty much any unit I need it to (can you say Point. Click. Die.?) OR do I want to mix-and-match in some SS/TH termies OR do I want to build a very slow (I1...*sigh*) but VERY durable SS/TH-only squad?

I think it's time for some magnetized arms, myself.

Oh...and while I'm all about a 2+/3++ configuration for termies myself (I think they should all be that way, if they're going to come even somewhat close to matching the fluff) I do want to point something out (even though it's going to sound like I'm parade-raining): that damnable single pip, AKA the 1, has a nasty habit of popping up when you have to roll a handful of dice in response to, oh, say, massed gunfire or Khorne Berzerkers in CC. As sexy as 2+/3++ sounds, Tau/IG/Bladestorm-ed Dire Avenger gunlines will force enough saves for a 1 or 2 to pop up more often than you'd like (which is NEVER, am I right? :) ) and if there's only 5 in a unit...well, even one 1 is one too many. Same goes for Harlequins/Berzerkers/Chosen with a pile of PFs. I know I'd love to think 3++ is great -- oh, and it IS, make no mistake -- but it's not invulnerability. Remember this: every time you have pulled a marine off the board and put him back in the tray -- if you even got to roll beforehand -- you rolled a 1 or a 2.

Sorry for the sobering thoughts...but we're partying like we've been passed out 1+/1++ saves...and we haven't.

Personally, while I hate, hate, hate "the fluff argument" (even though I somewhat ventured into this territory above) I think termies should be 2+/3++, T5 with FNP...in accordance with the fluff. They would then cost 75 points, but I'd pay it, and it might even make me stop preaching that holofields should cost 1,000 points (which they should -- I'm looking at you, tri-Falcon list).

The point I was trying to make is that while 2+/3++ SOUNDS really, really good, it ISN'T invulnerability. It's a damn sight better than 2+/5++, and it will definitely come in handy for those times when you REALLY need an invulnerable save, but without some kind of re-roll-ability (which, come to think of it, with the new FNP rules, wouldn't help for anything you'd need to roll an invulnerable save against anyway) it's really not all that great.

Consider this: Tactical Dreadnought Armor is supposed to be impervious to small-arms fire. However, more often than not, it's massed small-arms fire that usually kills my termies. If you have to make a pile of save rolls, I can promise you that you're going to get a 1, and there you go: dead terminator, at the hands of small-arms fire. I know that game balance demands this, but it doesn't mean I have to like it.

While we're on the subject, I'd like all penetrating hits against a Land Raider to be downgraded to glances, a BS10 Vindicator with 60" range, and a rending pony. :)

Synergy

2008-07-16T14:30:00.002-05:00

I just had a quick thought.

5E isn't about looking at the changes to the rules by themselves. It's more about looking at all of the rules together, and how they interact and balance each other out. Pretty much any one rule change, looked at by itself, doesn't seem all that big, or, if it does, it can easily be mistaken for a buff/nerf, perhaps made arbitrarily.

But if you look at all the rules together, it seems to me that it makes for a nice, balanced synergy of action/reaction, checks and balances.

...anyway, just a thought.

More Marine Rumors-a-go-go

2008-07-15T12:54:00.002-05:00

...this time from Corton on warseer:

I spoke to GW Customer Service rep from the UK this morning who had the Codex in front of him, and picked his noodle a bit. Sounds so odd when they say Good Afternoon and its 7:30 AM here. Got a few tidbits for Iron Hands players:

Master of the Forge:
Current Techmarine stats w BS5 and LD10-100 pts
2+ Sv. no inv.
Servo Harness for free
Large Weapon range options(combi wpns., T-Hammer, etc.)
Can replace Harness w Conversion Beamer(+20pts). The further it is fired the more potent it becomes.
Str. 6 AP4/Blast @ 6" to Str 10 AP 1/Blast at 42" or more
Allows Dreadnoughts to be taken as Heavy Support AND Elites.
Has special rule that allows for one piece of terrain in your Deployment Zone to be given an improved Cover Save by +1 at the atart of the game(fortifications or some-such).

Chaplains are WS 5, BS 4, 3+ sv.
Commanders are WS6, but have limited ranged weapon options.

No Terminator Sgts for Tactical, Assault, Devastator squads. Kind of a bummer, bit I'll live.

Techmarines still have Servitor Retinues(0-4 models), but may leave them as a separate unit. The downside; they only operate on a 4+ if left alone.

The weapon options (free stuff) is correct if taken as a 10 man unit.

You may still have variable squad sizes(6-9), but you get nothing else besides the Sgt n his options. No special n Heavy Weapons.

Enjoy!

The Conversion Beamer sounds sweet, can't wait to get my grubby paws on one. Also, looks like it's a good thing I've already re-structured my army list to include 10 man squads that break up into combat squads...

Work, Sicarius, and a Few Random 5E Thoughts

2008-07-15T01:44:00.004-05:00

So lately, work has been kicking my butt.

In my line of work, sometimes you have quite a bit a free time, and sometimes you really don't. I've been going through a "don't" period over the last couple of weeks, and as a result, I haven't even so much as picked up a paintbrush. This...is not good. Well, it's not good in the sense that I'm not getting any painting done, but it is good in the sense that come the next paycheck, I should have a little more spare cash to spend on models (wait, didn't I recently say that I wasn't going to buy any new models until after I had painted up the ones I already had?...yes, I did...what I meant to say is that I'll have more money to save for when the new SM codex releases so I'll be able to plunk down the cash for the new Sternguard Vets. And a Redeemer. Oh, and a Thunderfire Cannon. And some drop pods. Yeah, that's what I meant to say...).

In other news, I picked up a Captain Sicarius model -- the limited edition Medusa V release one, with the twin lightning claws -- from a local guy and now he sits there, staring at me accusingly, taunting me to paint him. I know I won't be able to resist that siren's call for very long. Hopefully, if all goes well, I'll actually have a decent camera within the next couple of weeks, and if so, I'll be taking some photos so this blog won't be so image-bare.

Having played a few 5E games now, I can honestly say I really, really love the new edition. True LOS rocks -- I never did like the "area terrain blocks LOS" rule. Luckily, my FLGS had a terrain-making party recently and there's now lots of LOS-blocking goodness to be had. It really does add another dimension to the game (if you'll pardon the unintended pun).

Running is probably my favorite "new addition", though, as it gives the occasional tac squad something to do when they're out of bolter/melta range. Just remember that the other side gets it, too (and if you don't, you deserve what happens to you when, oh, say, that gaggle of Khorne Berzerkers makes it to your dev squad...).

My next favorite thing is the change that states that ICs with a retinue count as an "upgrade character" until the retinue is dead. This means no more getting your commander/chaplain/librarian running with a command squad singled out in CC, which is, IMHO, a good thing. Well, at least until the new codex comes out. Hopefully, SMs won't lose the ability to take a command squad...but we'll see, right?

Lastly, I'm happy to report that 5E works seamlessly in Apocalypse games. In fact, it seems to make Apoc games run smoother in general.

Anyone got any 5E thoughts they'd like to share?

Marine-tastic Rumorgasm

2008-07-05T15:39:00.003-05:00

From two posts by turelhim vampire at The Bolter and Chainsword:

I don’t know if this has already been mentioned but I don’t have time to scrawl though 38 pages whilst I am at work. I just got off the phone with a GW employee – this was from ringing GW mail order at Nottingham - who had the book in front of him and gleaned a few tid bits.

Salamanders Special Character:
NOT Tu’shan – his name is Vulkan Estan he is the ex-4th Company Captain and is a kind of wandering champion. Apparently he has almost inquisition like leverage over the Salamander Chapter, as his task is to seek out and recover 9 holy relics made by Vulkan before he disappeared. Apparently if all 9 are recovered Vulkan will return. Estan has recovered 3 and is using them. One is a Salamander Hide Cloak, one is a Gauntlet which counts as a Heavy Flamer and allows him to re-roll to wound. The third is the Spear of Vulkan - a S6 master crafted power weapon.

On top of this he allows any and all Salamanders in the army to replace their “vanilla” Combat Tactics with the Salamanders version – they get Master Crafted Thunder Hammers for free. All Melta/flamer weapons in the army, no matter their source, count as twin linked – also for free.

In addition (this is a general marine rule) Storm Shields now grant a 3+ Inv. Save against shooting and combat. And all Salamanders Terminator Assault squads come with them, and there thunder hammers are master crafted if Estan is present.

Also I heard the Spearhead will include:
Codex
Drop pod
Telion
Cantor
Sicarius
Tank Commander character
Scout Bikes
5 Vanguard
5 Sternguard
1x Speeder (could be a storm)

Just thought I’d contribute.

Second Post:

Right, now work is over and I can talk in some depth, here is what I was told:

-The special characters are designed to be taken by any chapter using "counts as" rules.
-If you give a commander a bike, bike squads are troops.
-Tac squads can have any number of marines - from 5 to 10, but can only have special/heavy weapons if you take a full 10 man squad. They can be split into combat squads during deployment. To make up for the "must have 10 for special/heavies" rule flamers, missile launchers, multi-meltas and heavy bolters are now FREE - you only pay points to take the rest of the options.
-Drop pod assault: Half the drop pods deploy on turn 1 - these half have "deployment beacons" that allow the rest (held as reserves) to come in more accurately. Tac squads choose to deploy as combat squads AFTER they land.
-Scouts in all their forms (including the storm) infiltrate in one of two ways - normally or can come in as reserves from ANY table edge and get to use their free "scout" move when they arrive. Scouts are still troops - Marine Airbourne Cavalry of Doom anyone?
-3 Dread options - Standard, Venerable, and Ironclad - all separate elite entries. Venerables are back to how they used to be and have WS/BS 5. Ironclads have 13/13/10 armour, can take 2x DCCW, Hurricane bolter, twin linked heavy flamer, and some others, I forget now. It also has a rule which could be a weapon option called the "seismic hammer" which counts as a thunder hammer and allows difficult terrain tests to be re-roll as it batters terrain out of the way.
-Dreads are crazy now weapons include - Assault Cannon, Multi Melta, twin Heavy Bolters, twin Heavy Flamers, twin las cannon, twin autocannon, plasma cannon, DCCW, Missile Launcher, and maybe more I have forgotten. Oh, and AT LEAST the twin autocannon can be purchased for BOTH arms.
-Sternguard vets have DW style ammo, 2 can take special/heavies/special CCW - Including HEAVY FLAMERS. biggrin.gif For +5pts each they can also take ANY combi weapon - and still keep the specialist ammo type.
-Vanguard vets are similar but are combat-heavy and can have jump packs as an option. Interestingly, they can be further upgraded to "Honour Guard" if you take a Company Master.
-Scouts and Characters can take Combi-Grenade launchers, which are the same as they used to be but are now RAPID FIRE.
-Crusader is now cheaper but does not come with the multi-melta - but this can be purchased as a pintle mounted weapon - possible for ALL land raiders. Redeemer flame cannons are S6 AP3 but are NOT inferno cannons - the template has to touch the weapon - however the machine spirit now allows each weapon on the raider to fire at a separate target.
-There are 13 special characters in total. White Scars character confirmed. No model as yet for him or Vulkan.

Thats all I can remember.

If you're a marine player -- like me -- your first inclination is to disbelieve these rumors, because they're too good.

However, I'm just hopeful enough that they'll be true to pass them along.

What do y'all think?

Played a little 5E

2008-07-04T03:19:00.002-05:00

I finally got to play a full 5E game this evening.

I played against a mechanized IG army that had more tanks than I had heavy weapons.

It was a blast, went a full 7 turns, and ended in a draw.

I'm really, really liking the changes that 5E brings. True LOS is incredible, I can't be happier that area-terrain-blocks-LOS is gone.

I'll put up a more complete batrep later...it's time for bed now. :)