40k Combat Patrol: Wrapup

Well the Combat Patrol has come and gone, i wrestled my way to a 3rd place spot overall and managed to come away with Best appearance trophy which was a nice surprise given that while i'm not a terrible painter i would call myself a "looks for any loophole" painter.....that is to say i don't go the extra mile unless it's 100% worth it, and black wash is myfreind =)

Overall i had a great time at the tournie for sure, everyone was chill as usual with only a few exceptions that weren't that big a deal.  My list is below and i'll go ahead and give some post tournie thoughts on their performance, followed by a quick and dirty of the 6 games.

List:
5 Man Grey Hunters w/Flamer 
5 Man Grey Hunters w/Flamer

These guys did what they were supposed to do, better then average space marines in close combat and at medium to close range.  Given that most of my army was much more threatening they didn't get shot at much overall.

40k Combat Patrol: Ready2Drop

I am finished with all prep work for this Saturday's Combat Patrol Tournie.  After a lot of consideration i finally settled on the list below, i also discovered upon entering it in Excel that i in fact had 10 points to spare.....not sure how that came about but i tripled checked all my numbers and in deed i had a dime to spend.  More about the changes after the list.

Feel free to click the pics for some seriously big versions.

Mulling it over: 40k Combat Patrol

Life's been pretty hellishly busy lately with college, work, pregnant wife, and of course...3 year old.  What little time i have had for gaming iv spent either on Halo or Warmachine, so with a combat patrol tournament just 2 weeks away im well behind the curve.

Traditionally i like to get lots of practice with a force and fine tune it the way i want, but so far iv only played a measly 4 games with the force i drew up nearly a month ago.  Firstly for those who are wondering what a combat patrol tournament is, check out Adepticon's website for the rules:
http://www.adepticon.org/?page_id=680

Please if you dont know the restrictions in place for this go read them, they're quite extensive.

My own little Nightmare

Continuing my explanation of my new experience with Warmachine, this time we'll go over my force.

In Warmachine there are 5 Factions, and 1 "merc" faction.

1. Cygnar, blue guys, they're the good guys with the best tech.  Think America...their armies tend to be all about staying away from you and causing lots of little damage either at range or in mass.  One very cool mechanic they often sport is Lightning based weaponry, when many of these weapons attack they arc lightning to the next closest model from the target, doing another hit to them(friend of foe...though many of their units are also immune to lightning damage).
2. Khador, Russians.....They sport serious armor and serious damage.  In exchange they tend to be slower, tend to be easier to hit for the enemy.  If you want an army where your models are not likely to go down easily this one's for you.  initially this is the army i wanted to play, but i got my Wife into Warmachine as well and she said she liked them.  Being very eager to get her involved i bowed out, after buying the first part of my force she decided Cygnar was cooler.....
3. Menoth, Church Cult if you will, they really like lighting people on fire...a lot.  They tend to have a mixture of very cheap and likewise ineffective units that are then made worthwhile through proper tactics and synergy, and a few very good units.  They also tend to follow a denial path, preventing the enemy from doing things or being able to use things on them.  Did i mention they can light people on fire, shoot they can make you explode and light your freinds near by on fire....
4. Retribution, Elves, think space marines.  Most of their units tend to be effective in all things, but expensive points wise.  They also have a good number of ways to move you around...  theyre the new guys in the new edition of the game.
5. Mercenaries, it's an entire book of "allies" each one has certain other factions he/they/it will work for, so for instance not every Merc will hire on with your cygnar army.  You can also simply field an army of them, theyre all over the map so it's not easy to sum up what they do. 
6. Cryx, the Undead pirate nation/corporation.  This is my army, they're glass cannons.  They hit hardish, they're fast across the board, they tend to be hard to hit and good at hitting you.  They also tend to not play a straight forward game, using odd tricks or assassination attempts to win.  My units can't take a hit though, well one can, but the rest can't.

It's also worth noting that Hordes, the sister game to Warmachine, is 100% compatible to play with/against.  Hordes has some changes to the way the armies work, but all the core mechanics are the same and they are balanced on each other.  Warmachine represents the major city states of the world, where Hordes represents the Barbarian areas not yet fully civilized.

So on to my force.  First my list, click any picture for a huge version to see my terrible paint job up close!

First is my Warcaster:

 Skarre, Queen of the Pirate Coast.

Skarre actually has two versions of her available to play, both have different rules and models.  Rules wise they are Similar only to an extent, this is actually very common and the idea is that my Skarre is the new version of her as the Story line has progressed and she has changed during it.  Unlike 40k, Warmachine's story is happening now which i must admit....i like a lot.

Machine of War

Over the last month i have been knee deep in Warmachine, so with my interest peaked i thought i would use this blog for what it's meant for....a place for me to rant about what i am into at the moment.  So on that note i will be putting together a group of articles to bring my friends from Hammer of War into at least a decent understanding of the fundamentals of Machine of War.  Including a run down of my personal force.

Step 1: Basic's of the Game, i.e. what makes it different from Warhammer?

Bug's, T-Fex Vs Carni

So the question i am wondering is....TyranoFex or CarniFex for Tyranid Heavy Support/Heavy Tank busting?  I would bring 1 Trygon already, but would rather not spam them even though i think they're pretty awesome for the points.  Mawlocs don't impress me much, Old one eye is poop, and Biovore's are good but probably not something i want for lots of little reasons.  So two HS slots are open......

Status Update, Puppies

After a brief obsession over the monster hunter game i have recently been back at work with my wolves.

  I set out to paint up my 15 terminators, and would call myself about 60% done.  Basecoating is done, the whole model received a blackwash, the shoulder pads got their final yellow color and the runes have been filled in.  I still need to do all of their armor the right color, i need to retouch everything with a ruin as their so small theirs plenty of excess paint spilled from their sides, some other details like gems and eyes and transfer, and once those steps are done comes highlighting then basing which i do last.

Their bases now have random stuff on them, but what they dont have is the mix of black/grey pebble material, smattering of tan grass, and snow that will basically cover them only showing the items on their now a bit.

Nid Angel FAQ's out

I'm sure most of you already know that the Nid and Blood Angel FAQ's are out, but sense i have been SUPER lazy with putting anything up i'll take the chance to throw out a post on what is pretty significant about them.

Mulling it over: 'Ard Boyz list

So first off here is the exact result of our 'Ard Boyz, huge grats to Jeff and his Orks!  He had played exactly one game with Orks before stepping into 'Ard Boyz.

1st:  Cole (Space Wolves):  60
2nd: Dan (IG):                     57
3rd: Ron(IG):                       50
4th: Tim(Eldar):                   48
5th: Jeff(Orks!):                   39
6th: Chris B(Dark Eldar):     38
7th: Andy(SM):                    33
8th: Drew(Chaos):              27
9th: Chris M(IG):                 25
10th: Tyson(Dark Angels):  22
11th: Danny(Chaos):          19
12th: Jeb(Tau):                   4

'Ard Boyz aftermath

'Ard Boyz was this weekend, and boy what a great time it was.  Our local scene is pretty chill overall, but there were still some healthy 'Ard Boyz style lists to be seen.

The exact list will be out later this week, but for now the top three were:
1. Me and my Space Wolves
2. Dan and his Imperial Guard
3. Ron and his Imperial Guard

Emperor's Dilemma: Mystics

When i started playing 40k again after a 5 year break i came back with a truck load of random space marine stuff, and a fully fledged Daemonhunters army.   Complete with no less then 30 grey knights, 10 grey knight Terminators, 3 God hammer land raiders, 1 land raider crusader, 2 Inquisitors, loads of minions, and both Characters from the book.

So Naturally i took them up and played with them for a bit, added a few figures and even got second place in a local 1k tournament with them.

Puppies List

Had my first loss today with the puppies, while i certainly look back and see a few choices made that could have helped, lady luck was most certainly against me.

Grey Hunters painted

So i'v finished the paint job's on my grey hunter's.  I choose them first because while cool i wanted more practice with the paint scheme before i moved on to the terminators and lastly my HQ's.

Overall i think it came out well, they look great from game distances (so like 2 feet away) and still look pretty darn good close up, though that depends on your personal taste i suppose.  I favor a dirty well used look to my paint jobs, not only is it easier....which i won't lie is a big plus in my book, but for me anyone going to war isn't going to be sporting prestinly perfect armor.  I'm no amazing painter, after all this time iv picked up a good few tricks and tips, but most of mine focus on getting the miniature playing quality quickly instead of being microscope quality.

Anyway take a look, click the pics for big versions.

Angels Vs Puppies Batrep

Finally got to take my wolves list for a spin today at the local comic shop, and low and behold i got to face off against blood angels!

My list was:

Logan
Njal w/Termie armor
5 Wolf Guard in Termie armor
4 Wolf Guard in Termie armor (w/ Njal)
6 Wolf Guard only 1 with Termie armor and Assault Cannon
7 Grey Hunters (one of the power armored wolf guard above joined them, with a PF)
6 Long Fangs
Dreadnought W/MM and HF
5 Drop pods, and 1 Rhino(grey hunters)

Apocalypse Rehashed

So our recent Apoc game came and went this last weekend.  Feel free to see the last post on my army comp ect.  Otherwise ill just rehash how it went with some lovely pictures for your viewing pleasure.


Here's my army first of all:

Apocalypse

This weekend we have an Apoc Game happening at our local warhammer group, something tells me its going to be crazy because our local forums have been buzzing with activity about it and seems like everyone is going.

Not only this but there have been a large amount of home made data sheets up for community approval and lots of questions about "how many big nasty things can i bring?".  Which leads me to the first part of my post subject which will be followed by my IG list ill bring to this game.

Puppies Test run

so on Friday night i picked up my 50 odd space wolves deal.  The next morning i had plans to play again at the local comic shop, and that morning i decided i was going to play the wolves....

Now i dont mind Proxy'ing, it really doesnt bother me.  But that said i dislike doing it myself whenever possible and so i set out to make a 1750 list out of the models i had, that were assembled, despite what they might have or in my case not have..

The end list was something like

Puppies win over Angels!

So after reviewing both codex's more i'v decided i'll go with Space Wolves.

Puppies or Angels?

So i have tons of extra marine models sitting around, literally around 50 standard marines, maybe 10-15 jump marines, couple bikes, speeder, rhino, 2-3 dreadnoughts.... loads of random.

Because of this i'v always known i would start up a marine army, and i wanted it to be a CC army to provide a different playstyle from my Guard and to compliment them in Apoc games.  Plus the price to start up a new force would be lessened by the amount of models i already had.  I dont really intend on them being my tournament list, so im not keen about math hammering out the best possible list.....but i like winning too so its important whatever force i do build is at least capable against most opponents.

Battle Missions: Double Battle Report

So in a streak of crazy i managed to get Wed. afternoon off and attended my local comic shop to throw some dice down with the regulars.

I ended up playing through 2 Battle missions.

Game 1: VS Vanilla Marines
We randomed off and pulled up the Battle mission "War of Attrition" for the IG.  This meant it was table halves with deployment all the way to the middle line, and any troops destroyed could re-enter battle from reserves.  Victory points decided the winner.

Vehicle Squadron Cover Saves

So After this last tournament i noticed there was a lot of misconception about the way vehicle cover saves work and instead of continuing the discussion in comments i decided ill just throw up a post about it.

so the BRB says
"use the rules for vehicles to determine if each squadron member is in cover(ignoring other members of the squadron, as if they were not there), and then the rules for normal units to work out if the entire squadron is in cover or not."


So there is a two part process here.

1. Determine if each member of the squadron is in cover, ignoring the other members of the squadron for this.
2. Determine if overall, the unit is in cover or not.

1750 Tournie Wrapup

We had our 1750 Tournie today, had a great turn out of i believe 16 people.  We played the 40k Championship scenario's you can find on Adepticon's website if your interested in the full details of each, ill sum each battle up below though.

http://www.adepticon.org/wpfiles/2010/201040KChampPrimer.pdf

My List, so you dont have to go back to other posts...

Sentinel Conversion Project Set 1 Complete!

They are painted, they are based, the first squad of 3 Armored Sentinels is Complete!

Im no super pro painter, but i think they look pretty good.  As before the pictures are huge if you click em.

Tournie Prep

In prep for the 1750 tournie iv run a few test games, and have been painting up all the mini's i need to fill out the list.

For the tournie i needed:
a Penal Legion squad converted/painted
4 grenade launcher guardsmen converted/painted
1 astropath finished paint job
3 Sentinels converted/painted

Battle Missions: IG Missions

Battle Missions is here finally, and overall im very happy with it.

I played this weekend and we Random'd on the table, pulling up the Tau Mission Vertical Envelopment.  It was my IG vs. Vanilla marines and we rolled to see who was the enemy, which ended up being the marines.  Essentially the mission was Annihilation but with slightly larger deployment halves, no reserves for the enemy, and "Tau" skimmer reserves were forced to come in on the enemy table edge.  It would have been fun i guess to bring in my Vendettas as such, but in the end i need them on the table from turn 1 to put down armored threats so really the mission didn't really feel all that special for us.  Im not saying it wasn't a neat idea or that the mission was bad, it just didn't end up shaking it up for our two forces.

Sentinel Conversion Project V

Sorry for the long delay, its been nuts around here sense i got back from LA and while iv gotten a lot done i haven't really sat down to write it up and take pictures ect.

1750 Tournie Prep

So coming up here soon is a 1750 tournie, and i would like to get a new force setup and tested as soon as possible.

The current list im considering would be:

Skull...

so after being away for 2 weeks in LA i come back just in time to make sure i dont miss another of my super important classes at the University.

Sentinel Conversion Project IV

Nearing completion of the prototype.

i bulked up the legs quite a bit, as well as the fore arms.  I left the backside mostly open, it is afterall still armor 10 back there, and it already looks super armored on the sides (which are 10 still as well.... but oh well)

Sentinel Conversion Project III

So i updated it a bit more.

added shoulder pads , added magnets for hands, along with a single "finger" though there will be more probably just made from cut sprue.  added a cockpit of sorts, i felt the pilot was way too exposed, and his leg compartment has had its foundation work done.  The plasticard on the sides of it need some details, but i have to keep telling myself ill do details last.... i tend to get carried away =)

Sentinel Conversion Project II

The local hobby shop finally restocked and i was able to grab a sentinel box to get started.

Iv made great progress on the initial prototype, and so far am very happy that i have kept the parts within it from only 2 kits, as i will be building it out to a full 10 sentinel stompa hunter force.

Team Tournie Wrap up

This weekends Team Tournie is done, and while i dont have conclusive numbers ill go ahead and go through the battle reports.  Here is the post with lists if your interested. http://08ak1.blogspot.com/2010/01/team-tournie.html

Battle 1:

Primary: Kill Points, but you track it for each team member and the lowest of your two is the teams score.
Secondary: Control the middle point with a scoring unit.
Tertiary: Destroy the opposing teams most costly unit.

Colonel Straken

Just a quick shout out for the talk of the IG town these days, iv used him for some time now even before the SW FAQ threw him smack into the spotlight of everyone.

Colonel 'Iron Hand' Straken

Arctic Apocolypse III

So lets move on to force list for the Arctic Apoc. game, even though i haven't posted how the game went ill go ahead and put in both a pre game and post game comment on each unit and how they did.  Hopefully this might be helpful if your thinking of including them in your own apoc games.

My list ended up as

Sentinel Conversion Project

Now that i have a large force completely painted and ready to play even Apoc sized battles, its time to start a conversion project and put real time in on each model it produces.

Given how much fun Apoc is i wanted to give myself more toys to play with in future battles, especially if they end up being larger battles allowing me to field more then 3500-4000 points.  The problem is that most of the Imperial Guard formations require crazy amounts of particular models, many of which would never see the light of a normal 40k table.

Arctic Apocolypse II

So now lets talk Forces and the Tactics that were talked about for team Vikitim before hand.

First off, the big stuff!

The first bit of info we knew, was that team Bug had at its desposal no less then 3 Heriophants.  If your not sure what that is let me clue you in, they're the really....really big bugs. On top of this we were told they had access to a myriad of the other smaller biotitan/forgeworld stuff.

Team Tournie

On the 30th is a Team Tournie here in Anchorage

It's 1000 points a person, 2 people a team.  You can bring 1 HQ, 1 Elite/Fast/Heavy choice, 3 Troop choices, and are only required to bring 1 HQ and 1 Troop.  You then get a floater choice, so you can take an additional Fast Attack for instance, or Elite, but your team mate can not take the same choice as you.

Arctic Apocolypse

So my first post, everyone always tells me to do this blog thing and i do love to chatter on and on about whatever is on my mind so perhaps coming out of my introverted shell would be a good idea after all. Something tells me this first post will be more robotic then i usually write, but give it a post or two and i should lighten up.

So we'll start it off with an extended write up on an Apocalypse game i played in this weekend.