First Vassal Battle will be...

Our first Vassal 40K battle will be GK's vs. Dark Angels (maybe DeathWing) at 1000pts. We will probably do it on a 4x4 table, since 1000pts on a 6x4 isn't a lot of models, and we'd spend most of the game walking around, not necessarily doing a lot.

I think I've got my list down. I promised no crazy inquisitor dakka squad with anti-deepstrike mystics, and we've both agreed to no LandRaiders. Both Chambers and I wanted a simple game for our first one. GK's have simple enough rules, and so do DA's. Esp. if Chambers does Deathwing.

With GK's there's not a LOT of variation. At least 1 squad with psycannons, and possibly a termie retinue for the GM with a psycannon or two.

It should come down to Marines in termie armor getting beat on by GK's in power armor. He'll have nasty Assault cannons, I'll have not so nasty Psycannons.

I'm hoping we can get the game started mailing back and forth this weekend. That is, if working on the new house, and moving doesn't get too much in the way.

I'll put up lists for each force when we start playing.

Trying something New out...

We're going to try something new out shortly, Chambers and I are gearing up at full-tilt molasses speed to do some Vassal40K battles, and get those reports up for tactical analysis. To let you guys tell me how dumb I am for charging too close to Chambers too soon.

We're going to try to e-mail the game to one another, and take our turns. Then we'll take time to talk about what we chose and why. Hopefully, we can get some good tactics discussions going, and everyone can learn something.

I'm hoping this might become our weekly big post, or biweekly regular post.

It should also allow us to try out some experimental theoryhammer, and/or help us to discuss how to deal with 'problem' lists. (that might be after the 'ard Boys, so we can see what the true cheddar this year really is... will it be a Lysander boy party? or lil dudes in outflanking flying tanks?)

any thoughts? requests?

Odds and Ends in the Wee Hours

Tourneys always take a lot out of you. Work and chores pile up. And the family wants some attention too after you've ignored them for a few days. So, I'm essentially grounded for the week while I get everything caught up.

But, I've still got a bit more than an hour to myself in the late evenings before I go to bed. So I've been using that time to work on all the little things that are unfinished on my models. Things like weapon conversions on my tanks and Sentinels. I usually give them at least a base coat and a wash. But eventually I need to go in and finish up by doing some drybrushing before I pick out the details.

And so, I finally finished off my old 2nd edition Scout Sentinels on Monday and Tuesday. The bodies have been done for a while. But I was waffling between autocannons and lascannon conversions for them. Post-Tourney, I've finally settled on the lascannons (Though most people wouldn't blink if I called them something else.). And so I finished them off with a nice paint job.

The cannon models are metal 2nd edition infantry lascannons with the backs cut off and some greebling added. While the teeth plates are a piece of Chimera track guard held on by one of the hydraulic supports for an IG snow plow. The teeth plates started as a justification for the hardened veterans doctrine in the IG4 codex. The idea was that the plate would push forward at the command of the driver and knock an enemy to the ground where the could be stepped on. When IG5 came out and HF went away, I took them off. But I liked the look so much that I brought them back. If anyone asks, I'll just say they're for scaring orks. Grrrrrr!!!

Well I Suck, But in a Good Way!

The FLGS-South had it's tourney this last Saturday. They had 36 people show up to play 40K, which was 16 more than had signed up the previous Sunday. I don't know how many of those extra 16 players were walk-ins, but I know that Buckler was very surprised at the great turnout. Fortunately, he and his team were well prepared. So we had relatively few problems, apart from finding the place. Google was NOT helpful.

All of the missions were objective based. With some bonus objectives thrown in to provide opportunities for extra points. In all, I felt that the missions were very solid, and I had no complaints while playing them. Though I do hope that Buckler follows up on his plans to have more original scenarios for the next mixed objective/KP tourney.

Here's the list I took:

HQ
135 Company Command Squad w/Lascannon, 2 x Plasma, Krak Grenades, Astropath, Fleet Officer

Troops
135 Veteran Squad w/3 x Plasma, Lascannon
135 Veteran Squad w/3 x Plasma, Lascannon
155 Veteran Squad w/3 x Melta, Chimera (Hull Flamer)
155 Veteran Squad w/3 x Melta, Chimera (Hull Flamer)

Fast Attack
150 3 Scout Sentinels w/Autocannons
145 Hellhound w/Hull Multi-Melta
145 Hellhound w/Hull Multi-Melta

Heavy Support
180 Leman Russ Demolisher w/Hull Lascannon
165 Leman Russ Battle Tank w/Hull Lascannon

Game One - Tyrannids
5 Objectives - Dawn of War Deployment

My first game was against a shooty Tyrannid army in a dawn of war setup with 5 objectives. I'll call him Nidkid. He was fun to play, and seemed like a good guy, but I did have some problems with him that I'll go into a bit further down.

I rolled first turn, so I set up my HQ and 2 Las/Plas foot vet squads in the center of the board about 12" in. My plan was to lure him into concentrating his advance on the center, where I would shoot him to bits before advancing on his objectives. Depending on which side he favored, I would run one of those foot vet squads either left or right during the late game. While my Chimeras and Hellhounds would try and take/contest one or both of his corners.


This plan worked almost perfectly. He deployed his Hive Tyrant with 2 Tyrant Guards and a unit of gaunts right on the other side of the center ruins. When my tanks rolled on, I massacred him. The Hellhounds took care of the gaunts. While my Las/Plas squads took his Tyrant down. I'm sure Farmpunk can sympathize. :)

On his first turn, he brought on 4 Carnifexes and two units of warriors. He also brought on 3 more units of gaunts. One of which grabbed the objective on his left, leaving 2 units of gaunts to grab the objective on his right. That's when things got nice and killy. I was dropping warriors and carnifexes left and right with my Tanks and Sentinels. I just decimated his center. And this is where things get complicated. Because Nidkid was playing his shooty Carnifex on the right all wrong.

This didn't come out until after the game, when I was talking about NidKid's tactics to some other guys from the south store. He had bought two barbed stranglers for his shooty 'Fex. But he was using them to shoot twice, while the Tyrannid codex says that buying two weapons makes them twin-linked. So he was throwing 2 twin-linked pie plates per turn at my infantry in the center from the same 'Fex. Which ran my command squad off the board and killed the other two squads outright.

Now Nidkid thought that the codex rule had been updated in a FAQ to allow this, although he didn't have a printout of it with him. Buckler however, did. And after consulting it, the general consensus was that the FAQ allowed you to fire 2 weapons separately only if the weapons themselves were twin-linked to begin with.


So... see those two dice by the big rock on my side of the board? Nidkid and I decided afterward that there should have been at least one surviving troop squad there. Now back to the game.

Turn 5 came, and I wasn't quite done killing 'Fexes yet. So instead of running full-speed at the left objective with both Chimeras, I held back and shot up the lone Carnifex on that side. I ran my headless Hellhound right up in front of the Carnifex on the right. Hoping to either block a charge to protect my foot vets, or run right past him in the next turn to contest his objective on my right.

The left-hand HTH 'Fex survived the melta onslaught with one wound left and ate a vet squad after one of Nidkid's Zoanthropes finally popped the Chimera nearest to him. The shooty 'Fex on the right simply side-stepped the Hellhound and shot up my foot vets with the illegal dual-twin-linked pie plates. However, I was still in a position to pull a draw or a minor win by running the Hellhound at full speed into the right objective, and by running the Chimera on the left up into his gaunts on the right. With the "correction" we agreed upon later, that would have been an assured minor win with a chance of a major win.

But, the end of the turn came and he rolled a "2". Game over. Major (later corrected to minor) win for him. (Sigh) That's how it goes. I gambled and lost. NidKid would go on to have his rear handed to him by Farmpunk in the next round.

List-wise I started wishing at this point I'd had a couple more Chimeras to bring along. Even if only to run them forward empty to block with. I usually use the Sentinels for that, but they were doing such a good job killing warriors that I didn't want to stop and bring them over to provide cover from his shooty Carni until it was too late to protect them.

Result: Minor Loss

Game Two - Space Marines
2 Objectives - Spearhead Deployment

It's kind of odd how Farmpunk and I traded opponents in these first two rounds. Anyway, Ship and I went at it in a spearhead deployment. I failed the roll for first turn, but he decided to let me go first anyway. So I put the foot vets, Sentinels, and Russes on the board, with the Chimeras and Hellhounds in reserve. Once again, I killed a Thunderfire cannon with my first shot of the game. Some day maybe I'll get to see one in action. :)


The rest of the battle was razor-edged. You can see the parking lot of dead and immobilized armor that wound up in the middle of the table. The game came down to one unit of marines on his objective vs. one unit of dismounted Melta Vets on mine. Both his unit and mine ran once and managed to rally back to the objective. Finally, on the bottom of the 7th turn, he managed to make my guys run off the board. I made a last ditch attempt on turn 8 to run my Demolisher at top speed towards his objective to contest it, but the darn thing immobilized itself on the dead Sentinels in front of it. I then fired everything I had left at his two remaining marines, but I rolled ones to wound with my lascannons and the Demolisher cannon scattered wide. He was safe.

My earlier yearnings for more Chimeras now intensified. There was area cover on my side of the board, but it wasn't in places that I could effectively fire from. To get effective fire-lanes for my lascannons, I had to put my foot vets out in the open on the right, where they were killed off by bolter and autocannon fire by turn 4. It got so bad that I finally had to run my HQ over to the cover you see them in just to deny him a bonus point.

Given how ineffective my infantry was, I feel like I fought that battle with one-third of my army tied behind my back. If those foot vets had instead been 2 Chimeras with troops and a Commissar Lord inside, I would have had no problem taking his objective away from him. Oh well.

Result: Minor Loss

Game Three - Space Marines
1 Objective - Pitched Battle Deployment

When Farmpunk and I were discussing the vulnerabilities of my list, one of the things we decided was that I might be vulnerable to a shooty Marine or Guard list. Well, here it was. Shooty Marines. Lascannons ahoy!

I'll call my opponent Bigdie, since he was using some awefully large dice. He had four especially large ones that were almost an inch on a side, with barely distinguishable glyphs for the one and six. I almost called him on that, but I decided to let it slide. We were both in the bottom brackets by then. So his "special" dice obviously hadn't helped him that much.

I rolled first turn. Since I was facing a wall of lascannons, I decided to put everything on the board for a quick rush rather than come in piecemeal. Though I did hug cover where I could.

Then the bottom fell out of my plan. He rolled a "6" (Hmmn...) and stole the initiative. He then rolled a couple of 6's (Hmmn...) and knocked the turret off my hull-down Demolisher. Which was a 1 in 50 shot at least. As he started taking apart my armor, I got pretty sullen. But I remembered Farmpunk's come-from-behind victory from a few weeks back and pressed on glumly.

On turn 4, things started to go a bit more my way. My Hellhounds and Surviving Chimera opened up with heavy flamers and inferno cannons on his marines, COMPLETELY clearing the middle of 2 scoring units. By turn five I was hoping to end the game on a draw with no units from either side within 3" of the objective. So as soon as my turn ended I rolled a die before he could and got a "2". Game over. The water-lady had gone home by this point and my head was throbbing. I was just glad it was over so I could get something to drink. :)

Bigdie was looking sullen himself. "Well, you won." he said.


Huh? He was right. I'd forgotten that you were supposed to count every scoring unit within TWELVE inches of the objective. I had 3. He had 2. It had literally come down to one lone guardsman that he couldn't kill. If I hadn't forgotten the 12" rule, I could have run another squad over for a major win.

I'm bringing water with me next time.

Result: Minor Win
Final Standing: 24 of 36 (Bottom of Middle Third)

Conclusion

Well I suck, but in a good way. Meaning the path to improvement is obvious and do-able. With some slightly better luck in either of the first two games, I probably could have scored in the top 50%.

My tactics weren't perfect, but my problems there paled in comparison to my list problems. Which were obvious and consistent thoughout the day. My armor, especially the Hellhounds, performed brilliantly, but my Las/Plas vets were getting shot up too easily. I'd been worried about them being so dependent on cover, especially after my experience in Lafayette where there wasn't any at all in the deployment zones. But I didn't have much choice, really. I only had 2 Chimeras to bring. And the Hellhounds were a more pressing addition than more transports.

Given around 8 - 10 pieces of terrain, I can go toe-to-toe with Farmpunk or Red Eye using this list, both of whom placed in the top third for the day. But most of the tables were only sporting 5 pieces of terrain arranged in an X formation. I was actually pretty lucky that the first 2 tables I fought on had a bit more than that. Buckler admitted that the terrain had been stretched tight by the high turnout. But that's always going to be the case at any large event. So I need to remove that dependency from my list. That means going full-mech. Which is where I was headed anyway, but these results just confirm that I'm on the right path. On the way home I used my winnings from the painting contest to help buy 2 more Chimeras at the South Store.

So... what was the winning IG list? You'll laugh, it went something like this:

Commissar Yarrick
5 Ogryns
1 Griffon Mortar
1 Scout Sentinel w/Heavy Flamer
Tons and tons of 50-point infantry squads

Yep, IG infantry spam with Yarrick as the tip of the spear. He broke just about every rule I know about army composition. Which makes me feel silly for trying to craft a balanced list for an objective tourney. But my goal was to see how my all-comers list stacked up against other players. Which I did. When the mixed KP/Objective tourney comes up, I should do much better as a result of my experience here.

What's really funny to me is that I think maybe I could have taken him with the heavy flamers, inferno cannons, and pie plates I had. I'm absolutely certain Farmpunk could have with his Sisters.

Luck of the draw, I guess. Anyway, despite the problems I had a lot of fun.

1250 at the Gopher

This weekend I drove up CU to attend a 1250 tournament at the Gopher.
I had not been to a tournament since they moved into their new location, and I was impressed with how much space there was. In the old store they had troubles cramming in three 6x4 tables, in the new location they fit in five 6x4 table with plenty of room to move around.
I also have to say that this was one of the smoothest run tournaments that I had the pleasure to attend for quite some time.

The matchings were done by random lottery with latter two games paired according to victory points . You got six points for a win, three for a draw and nothing for a loss. Tie breakers would be decided by over all killpoints gained through out the day.

Of the ten players there was one Nid, one Necron, and one Tau player. The rest of the armies were marines with the majority I believe falling to the spiky variety.

Here a quick list of what I brought:
HQ- Squeaky Bobo – DP with wings and MoN
Elite- 2 Dreadnoughts with DCCW and Missile launchers
Troop- 8 berserkers in a rhino (w/ second bolter) with a fist champ
7 PM with dual plasma and a fist champ
10 CSM in a rhino (w/ havoc launcher) with dual melta, ICU, and a fist champ.
HVY- two oblits in one squad
total points was 1249

In my first round I faced off against another Chaos player who brought:
HQ- Lash DP w/ wings
Troops- 10 berserkers in a rhino (w/ second bolter, EA , and dozer) and a pw/ p pistol champ
15 1ksons with doombolt/melta bomb sorcerer
Heavy- 5 obliterators broken into two squads of two and one by it self

The mission was killpoints and the setup was pitched battle.
The table was a cites of death table with many of the buildings being solid so that was going to be hard to draw line of sight across the board. This table had a retro feel to it, almost like we were playing fourth edition again.
He won the roll to go first and set up in the center of the board spread out over three feet of the six feet available. In response I anchored my center w/ the plague marines and oblits in the highest ruin that I could and every thing else went on my extreme right flank.
He came on in a wave with the 'zerkers leading the charge and the daemon prince shifting to cause havoc in my center. While the terrain slowed his progress I focused my fire power on his oblits and stopping his one rhino.
By turn three I got on to his flank and hit it with most of my mobile forces still left. And that is where I stopped, his daemon price stood up to my zerkers, the remaining dread, and my price for three player turns. By the time it died I had lost my dread and over half of my berserkers. On the center flank I had traded my oblitorators for one of his and all of his berserkers. From that point on I spent the rest of the game trying to take out his large squad of 1ksons with my daemon price, dreadnought, full csm squad and reduced zerkers, to no avail he keep on making save after save. When the game ended on turn seven he still had three of the dust buckets left.
In the end he killed off one dreadnaught and the oblits, while I netted a DP, squad of berzerkers, and two squads of oblits.
Giving me the win at 4 to 2

The second match was against another CSM army , this time it was a pure slaneesh force.
His force was the following:
HQ- Lash sorcerer with doombolt added on
- Summoned Greater Daemon
Elite- Plasma cannon Dreadnought
- three terminators with IoS, x2 combi-plas, 1 set of dual LC and all as asp champs
Troops- 2 units of six noise marines with sonic weaponry
- one unit of 12 noise marines with champ
- six lesser daemons

The mission was capture and control with five objectives, the deployment was dawn of war.
The board was set up with two bunkers at opposite corners each holding and objective marker. The center of the table was dominated by the ruins of a warhound titan, a very nice, very large piece of scenery that held the remaining objectives.
I won the roll for first turn and placed Squeaky in the warhound and the csm w/ rhino as close to the op4 bunker as possible. First turn I made a full court press against his bunker taking the unit of NM closest to it down to two while the dreads and 'zerkers moved flat out towards it. While my oblits and PM secured the home objective in my base Squeaky ran through a squad of NM and a dreadnought.
In the end I was able to hold my home objective and contest the daemons objective(which was the only other scoring unit left on the table) with my rhinos.
Had the reserve rolls not been horrible to my opponent I don't think that I would have been able to pull of the win and would have gone into round three with a tie, but as it was I went on to play the only other undefeated player.

In the last round I face off against the Imperial Fists.
HQ- Lysander (joined to sternguard)
Elite- 10 sternguaed w/ 2 meltas and a fist in a droppod
Troops- two 10 man tac squads with las/plas and fist(?)
- one full tac squad in a rhino with fist, ml, and flamer
HVY- Thunderfire cannon

The table's mission and deployment was randomly determined for each game. We rolled Annihilation and pitched battle.
I won first player and chose to go second.
The board was set up with craters for the most part except for the two massive wall sections one on each side of the board. After seeing my opponent deploy I set up everything behind a wall section out of line of sight of his entire army.
First turn Lysander and friends dropped in and stuck one inch away from my mess of units, they quickly took down squeaky with poisoned rounds. In response I shot out four marines with oblitrators and assaulted with the zerkers and both dreadnoughts. Due to the tight space only one dreadnought and five of the zerkers were able to get into combat, but the upside was that lysander was also kept out of the fight as well. On the following player turn Lysander got into play and started to get his own back. Meanwhile the rest of his army is making a beeline towards my forces.
By my turn two Lysander is on his own and I mange to mass assault with both the CSM and the PM thanks to a poor difficult terrain roll. So at this point I have just shy of 1000 points in combat with Lysander and it still takes me two rounds to finish him off. I do so however just as the rest of his forces are reaching my lines and I am able to mount the wall and start thinning his forces.
By the end of it I was able to hide my decimated berserkers and only lost one dreadnought. While I was able to claim a far sized portion of his army.
Giving me the third win of the day at 7 – 2.

The overall standings ended up as:
Me in first place w/ traitor marines
the Imp fist took second
and Iron hands took third place by edging out the Tau by one KP.


Reflections and Impressions:
I had a great time, which had little to do with my winning and much to do with how well the tournament was run. Coupled with the relaxed atmosphere and great players I think that the 2 ½ drive was worth it. I am looking forward to the next tournament that they hold, barring illness I will be there.

I have never given the 1Ksons much thought seeing as Papa Nurgle won me over back in third edition, but they defiantly lived up to their fluff. They proved to be imposable to get rid of even with the majority of my forces beating on them.

It doesn't matter how good your list is if the dice or the mission/board are against you it is going be nigh impossible for you to win.

Lysander and a full unit of sternguard in a pod is a sick unit. Combine the rerolling bolters with the combat monster that is Lysander, and you have a group that will remove one unit from the game when they land and force you to commit far more than their points to get rid of them.

mine goes to 11th

My girls in action.

Fireteam Nova Tournament:
Buckler and the boys did a great job to put together a large tournament like this. There were a lot of people signed up. I believe there were 34 entered to play, and a few more showed up to watch.
I had a good time, playing against some nice guys. It's also refreshing to see people at adjoining tables having good times as well. Even if their army was getting a thorough thrashing.

I faired well. Not as well as I had hoped, not as high as I COULD have been if I'd been a little more bloodthirsty, and vicious with faith. I had a good time, and my opponents all said they did too.

I don't have an official breakdown of the number of specific armies. I know there was 1 Eldar, no Dark Eldar, 1Tau, 3 Tyranid, 3 WitchHunters, 1 DaemonHunters, 4Imperial Guard, 1 Daemon, and 3Orks (I think)
The rest were Marine or Chaos. not a bad mix, I think.

The top placing armies were:
Imperial Guard, Imperial Guard, and Orks

IG being the new codex made a strong showing. I was hoping to face more psykers than I did. My psychic hood went mostly unused again. I got some excitement with 'nids, but no real action, like Daemon Princes, or Farseers, or IG Psychic Choirs. I was hoping to get to use the hood to block IG psycher squads. I woulda been good at it too.

my list was as such:
1500pt WitchHunters list for FTN Tourney
I wanted a balanced list, that would be a good all-comers style list. I wanted at least 3 troops, 1 disruption (callidus) which also happened to be my elites choice, 2 Exorcists, some anti-psyker, and anti-DeepStrike (Inquisitor Lord Dakka squad). I knew I'd need a Fast attack, and I would need more anti-tank, which became the IST's fallback role, after holding my home objectives.
Thanks to Chambers for helping me sift through my 3 forces, and come to a list that could be a good all-comers multi-purpose list.

Game 1: Marines
My first game was Marines. Dawn of War, capture and control (5objectives), Ship didn't know the rules real well, but we actually didn't have any problems in our game. We both were pretty straight forward with what we were doing. I pulled a punch or two where I shouldn't have. I had one opportunity to use Divine Guidance on a tactical combat squad, but didn't, thinking the weight of fire from a full SoB squad could kill them off, and there wasn't a power weapon or powerfist in them, only a melta. none of them died to my fire, and they bogged me down, keeping me from claiming one of his objectives. He also did a smart thing, and jetted a razorback onto my objective with IST's on it. The razorback got lucky, and withstood 2 meltas, and an exorcist to be immobilized, but still contest my home objective, otherwise, I'd have pulled out a Major victory for claiming 2 of the 5 objectives, and contesting 2 more. He had none. He would go on to be Sandwyrm's 2nd game.
Minor Victory




Game2: Tyranid
My second game was big bugs and gribblies. This guy was Sandwyrm's first game. I was glad to see bugs with corner deployment, and 2 objectives. I knew I could probably leave my IST's parked on my home objective, and if he DID charge me with troops, the Inquisitor could shoot them to bits. easily. The Zoanthropes I thought might cause me trouble, as might the shooty tyrant with guard. The shooty 'fex was going to have to go as well. The Exorcists were going to serve me well on this game. Shelia was the suprise star however. as the bugs kind of hunkered down in the building on his objective, She tore things up, killing 2 Zoanthropes, a bunch of spineguants, and putting some smack down on an elite CC fex. It took 16 hits to take Shelia down. She was on fire. definately earning her gold cookie, by distracting much of his force, while the exorcists shot things up, then one SoB squad charged forward to torch spineguants and contest his objective.
Major Victory


Game 3: Orks
I was very glad to see that my final opponent was a balanced ork list.Uumlok's trukk Krashaz. He had a few large blocks of boys, and burnaz in the battlewagon (quite an impressive scratchbuild.) With a warboss with nobs in an old armorcast trukk, and more boys in another nice scratchbuild trukk. Uumlok told me he'd been playing orks since just before 3rd ed. I loved seeing the old models, rather than more BlackReach (I like the BR models, they're really common though.) The IST's earned their keep exploding the Battlewagon, and falling to a boys charge, which let the SoB's and shelia kill off the burnas and boys. Uumlok made what he thought was a tactical error taking his 2 trukks around the side blocked by a large solid building, to charge the Inquisitor. It turned out to be fine, as both of those were troops I wasn't going to be able to kill, because I couldn't shoot their trukks until they were next to me. (the exorcists were busy with the Deff Dread, and Killa Kans.
Draw


Summary:
overall, I came in 11th. I think I brought the right list for this time. I might take some inducted Guard Vets next time. I did pretty good with Army comp anyway. It's good to know more what the army comp rules are, and what the paint standards are. I need to put gravel on my bases, so they look better, and get a few more points. I did get compliments on the black and cream color scheme. I had been tempted to strip it all and quick paint all of my sisters light cream with a brown wash. I might actually push ahead with my original colors, and keep the black and scarlet for the transports. It's interesting how compliments, and my desire to have an impressive looking army can possibly override my want for a quick paint job.

I'm still thinking of priming my GK's in reddish brown, and paint them cream, with perhaps a pearlescent overcoat.

I TOOK FIRST!!!

No, not the in the tourney. Not even close. But I did win first prize in the painting contest with my old-school Demolisher (above). Which is funny because until the night before, that tank, which I originally painted in '99, had a gaping hole in both sides from where I pulled the sponsons off.

The tourney was a lot of fun. I'll do a full write up on it later, as will Farmpunk. But for now I thought I'd brag a bit about my "big win". :)

Uumlok's Trukk Krashaz

This is the 3rd opponent I had at the FTN tourney on the 13th. Fun list to play against. Warboss joined nobz in their trukk, Burnas were in the Battlewagon.

HQ:
Warboss (Pklaw, slugga, Stikkbombs, 'eavy Armor, Attack Squig) (105pts)

Elites:
6Burna Boys, 2 mekboys (6 Burnas, 2 Kustom Mega Blastas, 2Mek tools) (120pts)

Troops:
6Nobz (2PKlaw, 4 Choppa, 3 slugga, 3 tw-link shoota, 'eavy armor, Waaagh! Banna) (330pts)
Painboy (Urty syringe, 'eavy armor, Dok tools)
Trukk (armor plates, Big Shoota)

11 Boyz (Choppa/slugga) (147pts)
Boys Nob (Pklaw, Slugga, 'eavy Armor)
Trukk (Big shoota)

18 Boyz (Choppa/slugga) (148pts)
Boys Nob (Pklaw, Slugga, 'eavy Armor)

20 Boyz (18 Shootas, 2 Big Shootas) (140pts)
Boyz Nob (Shoota)

19 Boyz (17 Shootas, 2 Big Shootas) (145pts)
Boyz Nob (Slugga, Big Choppa)

Heavy Support:
Deff Dread (2Dread CCW, 2Skorcha) (85 pts)

2Killa Kans (Dread CCW, 2Grotzookas) (90pts)

Battlewagon (2Big Shootas, Kill Cannon, 'ard Case, Armor plates, Red Paint) (190pts)

Big Bugs and Gribblies

This is the second army I faced at the FTN tourney. It was the first one Sandwyrm faced.

HQ:
Tyrant, (Venom Cannon, Lash Whip Bone, Warp Blast, Warp Field) (175pt)
2 Tyrant guard (90pts)

5Warriors (1Barbed Strangler 4Deathspitters w/enhanced senses, extended carapace.) (137pts)


Elite:
CC Carnifex (2x scything talons, adrenal WS, Tusked) (115pts)

CC Carnifex (2x scything talons, adrenal WS, Tusked) (115pts)

Warriors (1Barbed Strangler 3Deathspitters w/enhanced senses, extended carapace) (110pts)


Troops:
Spinegaunts (1spine fist, 4guants) (55pts)

Spinegaunts (1spine fist, 4guants) (55pts)

Spinegaunts (1spine fist, 4guants) (55pts)

Spinegaunts (1spine fist, 4guants) (55pts)


Heavy Support:
3 Zoanthropes (Warp Blast, Synapse) (195pts)

Shooty Carnifex (2x Barbed Strangler, enhanced senses, reinforced carapace, extended carapace) (173pts)

CC Carnifex (Scything talons, crushing claws, extended carapace, mace tail, adrenal WS, tusked, miasma) (170pts)

induction junction, what's your function?

I was reading the new 'ard boys rules, just having learned that apparently they're still happening this year...

and I wanted to know what was allowed for armies and forces, since that seems to be one of the more 'official' places to look.

and I saw something that made me almost squeal with glee..
2009 'ard Boys Rules

With new Space Marine and new Imperial Guard codexes out there, I was wondering what GW decided to say about induction. I wondered if they'd treat the changes like Bell of Lost Souls Con does. (allowing platoons, and upgrade characters, scout sentinels, but not armored sentinels, and 1 Leman Russ suqadron)

lo and behold, I think 'ard boys might have done me an even BIGGER favor. Veteran Squads can be taken as a troop choice. kinda like the old Armored fist, but cheaper and better! Armored AND Scout sentinels can be taken, and 1 squadron of Leman Russes.

sweet. I might have more justification to make my armored list OF DOOM!

I'm really thinking of trying this out now. WitchHunters as the parent list, 2 exorcists, 2 Russes, 2-3 Rhino squads.. maybe some armored sentinels for higher armor saturation....

I might be able to make my dream armor list after all.

A Neat Trick For Painting On Rainy Days

If you read my last post, you know that I have a couple of Hellhounds that I wanted to get painted this week. Problem is, the weather's been wet here. I was able to get the gray undercoat done yesterday, but then the thunderstorms rolled in overnight, and it continued to rain all day. If you've ever tried to use an airbrush in the garage on a wet day, you know that the paint just pools on the model and never dries.

Which was frustrating, because if I was going to get my Hellhounds minimally painted for the tourney, I had to get the base color coat on today. So that I could dip them and let the floor wax dry overnight. For reasons of marital continuance, I couldn't use the airbrush in the house. So I came up with neat solution that I thought I'd share with you.

I dried the models in my car.

Yep, that's it. You just start up your car and crank up the air conditioning to full blast. The AC will suck all the moisture out of the air in the car. Once you've finished applying a coat of color, just lay the models in a shoebox lid or some other tray on the front seat and wait. Your model will be dry in 5-10 minutes and ready for the next coat. While you're waiting you can even give your kid wagon rides in the driveway. :)

IDIOT WARNING: Running a car in the garage with the door closed is a sure way to die. So don't do it. I don't want to hear about some kid in Idaho who asphyxiated himself priming the Space Marines from his new Assault on Black Reach set after reading this. So make sure you open all the doors and windows in your garage *before* you start the car. Or better yet, move the car out of the garage and into the driveway first.

War Dogs Don't Have To Be Ugly

Like Farmpunk, I've been getting ready for the tourney this Saturday. Part of that has been the process of getting my new Hellhounds ready. They're just too useful a tank not to have, and I should have gotten some a long time ago. But I just could never bring myself to buy the stupid looking model that GW makes. You know, the one with the goofy metal turret bits and the barrels stuck onto the top. Especially not for a $10.00 premium over the Chimera model it's based on. So I continued to ignore it, even though I was losing to Ork hordes on a regular basis.

I toyed with the idea of buying one of the Forge World versions, and they are better. But they're really expensive, and they still have a goofy looking promethium tank on the back. Every real life flame tank I've seen pictures of looks like a perfectly normal tank. They put the fuel storage on the *inside* where it's less likely to blow up when the enemy is shooting at you. Fancy that.

Then the new codex came out and not only did the Hellhound get a boost, but there were some new illustrations which hinted that a new model was in the works. Woohoo!, I thought. This time they'll get it right and I can buy!

Well, maybe not. Click here if you haven't seen the new model yet.

Now there's going to be hoses coming out the back of your turret. Which, it seems to me, would ah... interfere with the whole idea of TURNING THE TURRET AROUND!

(sigh)

So it became obvious that if I was going to get to use some Hellhounds and keep my self respect I'd just have to convert my own from some Chimeras. And here they are. Enclosed and a bit smaller than a Chimera. Which, you know, they should be since a Hellhound is a fast tank and the Chimera isn't.

The inferno cannons are a combination of the autocannon and heavy flamer from the new Sentinel kit, with some plasticard added. The Multi-Meltas are made from plasticard cylinders added to chopped down heavy flamers bits. The melta slots were made by heating up a small precision screwdriver with a candle and then pressing it into the cylinders. I also added some brass wire to simulate a hose underneath since most Multi-Meltas seem to have that. The turret also had to be raised a bit to accomodate the larger weapon. Which is the reason for the armor band around the bottom.

The fill connections for the internal promethium tanks is below the rear glacius, where I used some bits from the heavy weapons teams to simulate an external fuel pump and electrical box. The diesel drum and crew gear bits were added to help visually separate these puppies a bit more from my Chimeras so that my opponents don't have cause to complain if they get the two confused.

Enjoy the pics. I won't have them fully painted for the tourney. But I should at least be able to get a simple base color on them with a MinWax wash before then. That will give me something presentable that I can refine using my usual tank painting methods later.

getting ready to rumble!

Ahh. I love the smell of fresh tournaments in the morning.

Sandwyrm and I have been gearing up for a tourney put on by a local gaming club, Fireteam Nova. I know Chambers has been getting ready for traveling to, and playing in Urbana on the same day, June13th.

It's a bit nerve wracking to try to figure out how to put together a perfect 'all-comers' list. one that can handle all-infantry orks and IG, as well as not too do badly against Mech IG, and Marines with 10TH/SS termies and 3 Land Raiders. That's not even getting into the psyker armies with Eldrad in a Grav tank, or Dual flying lash Chaos Princes.

so far there are 30 people signed up for Saturday's tourney. It's a lot of people, and a lot of variety in forces. I hate to say it, but the Metagame might be as daunting as the play itself. I'm expecting to see some fairly unbalanced lists. They always throw a wrench in the best laid plans.

so how do I deal with it?
I go for lists that can take a lot of types of opponents.

• long range shooty
• mech infantry
  
• assault elite
• assault horde
  
• armor company

I sprinkled a little of the flavors in there, but I think it might come down to assault, shooty, armor for the basis, and hoard vs elite for the troop type, with mech infantry being a hybrid of assault/shooty/armor

You can take a hybrid list, mixing a few of the types of forces. Many commanders will tell you you need pure, single strain forces to overwhelm your opponents. all assault Blood angels, and gunline guard are good examples of two pure style lists.

pure style forces can overwhelm an opponents ability to deal with a particular aspect of your army. They can be easier to play due to a single theme for the entire force. All out assault or all out shoot. These lists can easily fall flat when met with a counter force, or a well balanced force that can cope with the saturated threat category.

An all assault force can have a bit of a problem running into the face of Demolisher and plasma fire to the point that it's not too scary by the time it gets there on turn 2 to eat some sacrificial squads, and get shot up again on turn 3.
Likewise, IG gunlines can be hampered by maneuverability and infiltrating assaults.

Warhammer 40K can be a sort of rock-paper-scissors game with single tactic forces.

I may take time to write something about using mixed element forces. In the future. They can be difficult to master. Amost as much as trying to create a force that pushes the envelope in the armor, or horde directions, and still tries to be able to take out everyone.

bring in the little men

Last Wednesday night I tried out WH using Inducted guard for the first time with the new IG codex. I played protem with his infantry marine army.

I played the list linked here:
WitchHunters with inducted platoons and Russ

Protem had 2 Techmarines with thunderfires
1 tac squad with Lascannon and flamer and powerfist sgt.
1 tac squad with multimelta and melta and powerfist sgt.
1 Sternguard w/missile launcher and powerfist sgt.
dreadnaught with multimelta and ccw
5 TH/SS termies
5 Twin lightningclaw termies
Librarian w/ null zone, and power that boost his Str

not too bad for me.
we rolled annihilate and dawn of war. fair for me, and not bad for me. I actually liked the idea of him walking most of his stuff over, and having a chance to beat up on the forward deployed combat squads.

I combined my platoons into 2 20-man units with autocannons. I figured combined fire would win my day, and save me a few killpoints. Protem combat squadded all of his marines, to split up their abilities.

He won deployment, and put out 4 tac combat squads. I wasn't thinking, but he should have only deployed 2. Which would have actually made a difference. They deployed as far forward as possible, and the Lascannon went in a building.

I put the inquisitor Lord squad on and around a building, surrounded by a 20-man squad, hunkering for cover, and put the other 20-man squad in another nearby building for cover.

Turn1:
all of his stuff walked onto the board, and ran. So did the squads up front. the lascannon tried to shoot, but missed.

My force rolled onto the board, and couldn't see a lot because of nightfight. The two SoB squads moved 12" in their rhinos and disembarked, then shot up the center Marines with a flamer and powerfist. the IG unloaded into the Libby squad in the center, to the right of the center squad. I knew some charges would probably come from the other two combat squads, but figured the Cannoness could mop them up in the next few turns. She'd have a fun time with the melta powerfist squad with the libby in it.

Turn2:
So he charged with his multimelta squad into my left SoB squad (which would be a nice tarpit for 5 marines), and then into the right squad with the Libby squad. The multimelta squad and SoB's pushed combat for the rest of the game. The Libby tied into the right SoB squad, and got tied up himself. The lascannon fired, and wrecked the right SoB squad rhino. The thunderfires shot into the IG, and did some wounds, and one to the Inq. squad. Everyone was cool with the Cannoness propping up their Ld. The Sternguard missile shot, but failed to wound, and the Sternguard combat squad with 2 termie squads ran forward.

The Russ decided the thunderfires shot enough, and scattered enough to land hits on both cannons, destroying them. The exorcists unloaded into the lascannon squad, taking them down with some help from the Inq. Lord, and the IG. The left SoB rhino moved around to give cover to the cannoness.
The cannoness leapt forward, eager to lay waste to the Librarian, only to fail a faith roll. She ate Librarian force weapon, and died quickly. The power fist killed off a few more Sisters, but they hung around.

Turn3:
The termies, sternguard combat squad all moved forward, as did the dread. the Sternguard stop the rhino in the middle, immobilizing it. The Techmarines run forward, the Melta dread takes a shot at the russ, but is out of melta range, and does nothing. The Librarian and powerfist finish up the right SoB squad.
One exorcist kills off a techmarine, the other finishes the Libby and powerfist in cover. The Russ blows away 4 of 5 sternguard advancing on the right. the IG right squad moves forward out of cover, and lays fire into the lightning claw termies using 'first rank fire, second rank fire', along with krak grenades from the two Plat Com's. the left SoB squad and multimelta marines slog longer.

Turn4:
The lone sternguard hides in the building where my 20 men had been. The termies catch the large squad of men, and do stupid amounts of wounds, but leave 3 men. One of them actually killed a Lightning claw termie, and earned a silver star. having lost the combat by 17, I expected to run. then rolled snake eyes. just exactly what I DIDn't need. Apparently guardsman Bobbo was to hopped up on killing a termie to even THINK about running. I had REALLY wanted to lay a plasma cannon down on their heads too.
I used one exorcist to kill the dread, the other to kill a techmarine. one techie was in cover still. The inquisitor lord squad whiffed at the sternguard, as did the other large platoon. the two Plat Com's moved up, and shot the last sternguard, preparing to die by termie.
The sisters and multimelta pushed again.

Turn5:
the termies continue their rampage, making an end run through terrain to get a possible charge on the other platoon, which they do. taking out the 2 pla com's and the platoon. The techmarine runs closer to the exorcists. the multimelta is still fighting....

I think the Russ shot at the sternguard in the back, as did one exorcist, leaving 1 lonely sternguard bolter. the inquisitor lord didn't do much vs. the termies. They would get eaten on turn6.


turn 6 wound down, and I believe the sisters ended up still bogged with the multimelta. there were 4TH/SS termies, and 1Lightning Claw termie and 1 sternguard left. he'd taken down 1SoB, 2platoon 2PlCom, 1inq. 1inq ret.
I'd taken 3combat squads 2techmarines, 1sternguard, 1 dread.


I was so close to a win. only a few rolls the right way, and I'd have won. oh well. I had fun, and tried out the platoons. I think next time I'll try to get 2 lascannons instead of autocannon. I think autocannon served me well enough in this game though.