Warhammer 40k Orks (and more)

Breaking out the Blood Angels..

2012-02-08T07:43:00.000-08:00

Monday I remembered to grab an army for when I swung by Red Castle Games after work. I broke out my Blood Angels, which I haven't played since early December and was actually able to get a game in.

Played against Tyrannids. It was Dawn of War with 3 objectives. I played my OFCC list.

Roughly he had:
Hive tyrant w/sword/whips
2 Tyrant guard w/whips
Prime with sword/whips

8 ymgarls
8 ymgarls
Doom in a pod

Tervigon
Tervigon
10 gaunts
10 gaunts

3x Trygons

What struck me though is most of his models had no upgrades. Tervigons were stock - to glands, sacs, or even catalyst...all of which would have helped tremendously.

The objectives were placed roughly in the middle length-wise, with one on my left and the other 2 on the right. For deployment he put a tervigon on the middle-ish objective, and I put a Razorback with libby behind a rock on my left. He failed to steal initiative.

BA turn 1:
I rolled on everything 6" to shoot the tervigon, except the devastators which come on next to the razor on the left. I failed all my searchlight rolls, but was able to knock off a couple wounds. DC blast up the middle.
Nid's turn 1:
Everything walked on. 1 Trygon was right in the middle, then another trygon to it's right, then the deathstar, then the 3rd trygon. The tervigon and gaunts moved to the objective on my left. Tervigon that was already deployed spawned 10, but rolled doubles, then moved back. Everything ran as he had no shooting.

Based on the way he came on, I came up with a plan.

BA turn 2:
Dante fails to come on even with the re-roll. I shuffle all the tanks around, including going flat-out with the libby to the parking lot in order to shoot the tervigon. Shooting, the devastators take 3 wounds off the middle trygon, and I am able to get the tervigon down to just 1 wound. DC move to the objective on the left.
Nid turn 2:
One unit of ymgarls comes on and wrecks one razorback (passed pinning) and shakes another while removing the plasmaguns. Everything else moved up and ran. 2nd tervigon spawns 12.

So here is the plan: kill the tervigon and gaunts on my right, then slaughter everything on the left leaving the one objective open and my opponent with no troops...

BA turn 3:
Dante comes in, drops on his board edge on my left. Tanks shuffle around again. Shooting the tervigon on the right dies, and ends up killing all remaining gaunts as a result. One Baal kills the ymgarls outright. The 3 meltas on the jump pack unit do 2 wounds to the tervigon. The wounded trygon that was in the middle dies. The DC jump out and assault a unit of spawned gaunts, wiping them out.
Nid turn 3:
Everything moves up again. The Doom drops in, but scatters away enough that nothing is within 6" so it runs. The ymgarls move on, killing the 5 guys from the wrecked razorback. They also assault the libby's razor, but it had moved 12" and they completely failed to damage it. The remaining tervigon spawns 12 more without doubles. It then assaults the death company, I get 2 wounds in and he kills 2. The 32 gaunts shoot and assault the jump pack guys, I lose 2 to shooting but none in assault, resulting in most of them dead from damage + no retreat. Dante's unit hits and runs out of combat.

BA turn 4:
Dante splits off to assist the DC. The other jump pack guys get ready to assault either the gaunts or Doom. My tanks then start moving to my left, getting away from all the nasties. Doom goes off, killing a DC, but the other 2 units make the LD tests! Shooting wipes out the 2nd unit of ymgarls, does a couple wounds to the 2nd trygon (which is the only other thing that is a threat to the left objective). I shoot a bunch of S8 stuff at doom, but he passes all the saves (which is a theme for the rest of the game). Assault phase I move in against the doom, but can't kill it ..he makes a ton of saves and nothing on my side dies. Dante and DC brings the tervigon down to 1 wound, and stay locked in combat.
Nid turn 4:
Stuff moves up and runs. The trygon blows up a Baal Pred. The trygon spawns 11 more gaunts and he uses them to block the objective. The doom kills an assault marine and the last 2 DC, but does nothing in the assault phase again. Dante finishes off the last wound on the trygon and does some damage to the gaunt units but they all stick around due to synapse from Doom. Again, a bunch of saves on the Doom keeps the combat going.

BA turn 5:
I continue to shuffle the tanks to the left. The libby and assault marines move out and kill off the gaunt unit on the objective. Dante finishes off the biggest of the other gaunt units, and shooting kills another. That leaves 2 gaunts remaining that have gone to ground. The doom kills 2 assault marines, and in the assault phase is able to kill the priest (thanks to being S9 so no FNP). Missiles kill the pod for lack of anything else to do.
Nid turn 5:
The wounded trygon moves to my left, hoping to get over there in time to do some damage. The doom's combat continues, I pass my LD and I'm able to do just 1 wound to it.

We roll for a turn 6.

BA turn 6:
All my tanks move up and block the objective from the trygon. Dante has just 1 wound remaining, all from the doom's power and failed invul saves so he kinda stays away. The libby's unit gets back in the razor and sit on the objective. The assault continues with the doom.
Nid turn 6:
The trygon moves up and blows up the 2nd Baal. The doom kills another marine but finally falls to the power fist!

Roll for turn 7 comes up a 3, giving a 1-0 objective win to the Blood Angels!

I knew I cold not handle his list in combat, too many MC's, he had just too much and I don't have the bodies to deal with the number of wounds I'd suffer. Being able to isolate the much weaker troops units and concentrate on them for shooting and assault was the key here. I played the mission instead of trying to go toe-to-toe with an obviously superior combat force, and the result was a solid victory.

Farsight bomb returns!

2012-02-03T02:54:00.000-08:00

For some reason the store owner wanted to bump the league to 2500pts. Just for fun, I decided to bring out my Tau army again. Farsight, of course.

I finally got to play against the new necrons and oh boy what a great game.

here is the list I took:

HQ: Farsight HQ: Bodyguard (all have shield generators, HW target lock, HW drone controller. Suits with 2 systems have HW multi-trackers)
1: TL Plasma, 2x Shield Drone
2: TL Missile Pod, 2x gun drone
3: Plasma, Airburst, 2x gun drone
4: Plasma, fusion, 2x gun drone
5: Plasma, missile pod, 2x shield drone
6: TL Fusion, 2x shield drone

HQ:Shas'el: TL Missile pod, shield generator, HW target lock, HW drone controller, 2x shield drones

Troop: 6 Firewarriors, Shas'ui
Troop: 8 Firewarriors, Shas'ui
-Devilfish, Multi-tracker, disruption pod, flechette dischargers
Troop: 6 Firewarriors, Shas'ui
-Devilfish, Multi-tracker, disruption pod, flechette dischargers

Fast: 8 Pathfinders, Shas'ui
-Devilfish, Multi-tracker, Disruption pod, flechette dischargers

Fast: 2x Piranha, 2x Fusion, disruption pods

Elite: 2x XV8
1: Team leader, HW drone controller, HW mult-tracker, HW target lock, TL plasma, missile pod, 2x gun drone
2: TL Missile, flamer

Elite: 2x XV8
1. Team leader, TL Fusion, flamer
2. Target lock, TL fusion

Heavy: Hammerhead, railgun, multi-tracker, disruption pod, flechette discharger, SMS
Heavy: 3xXV88 3x A.S.S Team leader with HW drone controller, HW target lock, 2x shield drone, HW Blacksun

The Shas'el goes with the broadsides. I found this little gem on the 11th company, and love it. Not only does it give the unit 2 more shield drones, but also LD9. Plus he can still fire at a 3rd target.

Still not convinced on the piranha. I don't like them, and I remember why. They don't do anything. If I want sacrificial fusion guns I'll use XV8's. But so many points sucked into something that is only there for tricks?Does not seem worth it to me. I'd rather have a 2nd unit of pathfinders.

But here is where I went wrong. I was sure the wraiths had warschythes! I don't know where I got that idea, but that was my downfall. I poured all my fire into them, not wanting them to touch Farsight. But once I realized that there where no such item, it was too late. I can attest how they would have done when they were fighting my broadsides. I should have ran the wraiths over with the bodyguard and poured all my fire into the scarabs. I would not have killed them, but I would have greatly reduced the number (since every shot would have been a whole base) and that would have made the difference. Live and learn!

Not sure if I will stick with Tau for the whole month. I'd like to play my other armies at 2500 as well.

More Orcs and Goblins assembly

2012-02-01T03:13:00.000-08:00

So close to being done with the assembly stage

The 2800pt army has to be done by June 23rd. So much work to do! But at least I'll be able to get some games in real soon. Probably on the 12th will be my first full 2800pt game.

Magnets on the way as well. I love the K&J Magnetics surplus section. Great deals for random sizes which is perfect for basing.

Pics! Laters!

Continuing to build..

2012-01-25T02:19:00.000-08:00

So yay finally finished building my Barracuda! This is going to be my February challenge model on the freebootaz forum. For now I'll just go for a basic paint job to match the rest of my Tau, and may add weathering later if/when the Tau codex drops and I start playing them again. I am still really, really hoping this makes it in the codex. Fast skimmer with supersonic and Ariel assault, disruption pods, and it's pretty well armed with an ion cannon, a TL missile pod and 2 burst cannons. That's quite a bit of firepower.

Starting to finish up the last few 40k projects. Not much left to do..that is until the Tau codex. I'm sure there will be a lot of new stuff to buy!

Other then that I've been building Orcs and Goblins. Finished the Finecast rock lobber, which instead of snowball it will be throwing ice. I found a great ice tutorial in a Wyrd pdf, so I'll be following that pretty close for it. Should turn out awesome. The 2nd doom diver ski jump is coming along nicely. Crew are done, marker is done, and starting in on the jump itself.

Also finished building all my night goblins. I now have a block of 50 spearmen and 35 bowmen.

Not much left to assemble. Need to do 20 more boys with weapon/shield, the big spider, and get some more shaman models..both Orc and NG. I will be looking forward to a day of dry weather for a massive priming session! Once everything is together I can start getting in some practice games as I paint them up over the next few months.

Mangler Penguin number 2!

2012-01-18T03:18:00.000-08:00

Finished building my second manger penguin. Made it a sort of diorama, with an angry and broken loose penguin about to squish a night goblin abusing his friends.

Also slowing working on my 2nd doom diver, crew are built and marker is almost built.

Spent most of the night though on my Barracuda.

Cybork KFF Mek

2012-01-14T01:03:00.000-08:00

Ya all done! I did get the skin like I wanted. It got a base of fortress grey, then wash of thraka green. First layer was fortress grey and then a 2nd layer of the grey with just a hint of purple.

Weekend of hobby ADD

2012-01-09T03:39:00.000-08:00

Had a lot of time to work on stuff this weekend, and got a lot done. Just not on any one project.

Finished the unit of 40 night goblin spear-men. Started by re-doing the snow angel guy, recessing it into the base instead of sitting on top. Much, much better. The 2nd unit filler is a mushroom farmer.

Next I pretty much finished building the helicopter. Bought some Testor's clear parts glue. Works great, but hard to work with. Need to either mask the windows or just brush it. Has been very enjoyable to work on.

Lastly started in on my Cybork Mek. I did some experimenting with the skin, because I want a pallid servitor-like color with a bit of green. Need some more experimenting..

So lots going on. Over the next week I'll be concentrating on the mek, and after that assembly of the Barracuda and Orcs & Goblins. I want to get the Orcs at least completely built asap.

First post of the new year!

2012-01-07T00:49:00.000-08:00

So I said I was going to write stuff up about what happened in 2011 and what's going on in 2012. Well I changed my mind. The videos were pretty good so I'll let them do all the typing.

I'm going to be working on the mek, get it at least 3 colors and based in the next week or so. I'm also working on Orcs and Goblins construction. I want to get everything put together as quickly as possible so I'll be hitting it all pretty hard.

Oh, and my truck got wrecked going home from gaming last Wednesday. No one got hurt, and it wasn't my fault.

So Vampire Counts is coming out in a couple weeks. All the new stuff looks awesome. I will end up with at least 3 or 4 boxes of hexwraiths, a dragon box and 2-3 boxes of the monstrous infantry. Might have to wait for taxes though.

Lastly, here is a unit filler for my NG spearmen. I didn't come up with this, saw it online.

New year

2011-12-30T03:30:00.000-08:00

So 2011 is coming to a close, and 2012 is fast approaching. It's that time again to reflect where you've been and look at the road ahead.

First, I found my camera. It was on my kid's table. Out in the open. I'm going blind faster then I thought lol.

I've been working on the last of my black orcs. Mainly because they are super fast and easy to paint. I have one left to do, which I will be doing for a tutorial on youtube.

I just need to varnish and base 6 of them.

Also been working on the copter, with the interior painted and glossed, waiting for decals. Also doing some gap filling with GW Liquid GS.

The group build which I'm doing the jeep for is halfway over. Need to bust out the rest of that sometime. Painting it will be pretty easy, everything is olive drab lol. Some washing, some details, some weathering and done.

So that is an update on where I'm at. I'll be both posting here and making videos about 2011 and 2012 in the next couple of days.

Just great..

2011-12-28T03:52:00.000-08:00

somehow my one and only camera with a decent macro focus has gone missing from Christmas photo taking. So I can't show off my work that I've been doing.

Painted the interior of the helicopter. Almost done with my Black Orcs. But no pics for now, sorry. It's really starting to piss me off, I want to put up pics!

Aimlessly doing stuff.

2011-12-22T06:34:00.000-08:00

Yep, totally not focused on any one thing.

I have 4 black orcs almost done

Been working a lot on my SMA group build M151A2. Photoetched stuff is both fun and hard.

Also picked up a super cheap helicopter model I've started as well.

I'm saving my KFF mek for January and the start of the 2012 painting challenge.

Plus I've been super slammed at work, and with the other tech going on vacation I expect it to only get worse. Good thing I have to work on my birthday..

Anyway..sudden pics.

Time to relax?

2011-12-17T01:52:00.000-08:00

Well not like anyone can really relax during the holiday season.

But I finished up both the last 2 Night Goblins and my Battlescape, which was done for the freebootaz challenge. Pics to come soon on that. Until then, check out my videos on miniwargaming.

http://www.miniwargaming.com/channel/sorienor

Well now I'm in a low point in painting, with noting pressing I need to do. There is a lot of stuff I could do, though. I have a lot of Orcs and Goblins to assemble, I have a handful of 40k projects to do, which I sorta started in on with weathering some of the battlewagon. But I'm not sure I want to do much right now.

Anyway more to come, someday..

What a weekend!

2011-12-13T02:59:00.000-08:00

As a last hurrah of wargamming before holidays and family really kick in, I got to play in two tournaments this weekend. That's 7 games of warhammer!

First was a 1500pt 40k tournament at Other World Games, which is someplace I've never been before. This was not that great of a showing, going 0-3 with my battlewagon spam. I attribute a lot of my failures to the terrain and not being able to use my lootas pretty much at all.

I still had good opponents though, and the location was pretty convenient to get to so I might get out there more often. The highlight of the day was finding an Orcs & Goblins spell card set on the rack for retail, so I grabbed it not having to spend $20 on ebay.

Then Sunday was a 1250pt 4-round fantasy tournament. Top prize was an actual sword! This was the end of the escalation league I've been in since September and would help decide the winner.

My Orcs had a great showing going 2-1-1. The first 2 games I totally tabled my opponent, first one was lizardmen and the second was demons.

The first game pretty much ended on turn one. He dispelled my vindictive glare at a salamader unit, thinking that bad moon wouldn't reach him if I got it off. Well I rolled 17" for the distance, devastating his main unit of skinks/kroxigors. It killed 17 of them the first time, then he failed the panic test and fled through it again, killing a few more. It did rally later but by then it was too late. My chariots killed off the skirmishers, shooting killed off the salamanders and by the time the kroxigors got to hit my big'uns it was too late.

Second game was called "master mage" where you got loremaster and added up to 3 ranks to your spellcasting. Combined with magic mushrooms my mage was simply unstoppable. I chose the way overpowered lore of life as did my opponent. I was able to pretty handily take him out in hand-to-hand once I got there, especially with T8 Orcs with a 4+ regen. Say it slowly..toughness eight orcs...

Third game against skaven. Never played skaven before. Didn't go well at first for either of us. First shot from the doom diver wrecked itself, and casting bad moon I blew up my wizard and the archers fled as a result. On his side he did 3 wounds to his own doom wheel after moving too far to do anything. A chariot impact hit finished off it's last wound. However my bad moon never went away, and all the scatter dice fell in my favor. Bad moon and the mangler took a unit of 50 slaves down to 3 models, both hitting it at least twice. The spiders finished off that unit with bows.

The best moment of that game was when I went to charge a unit of skaven. The slaves were dead, the other unit with grey seer was well out of position. So I tried to hit the other unit with my big'uns, a chariot and the spiders all at once. Well the chariot blew it self up on terrain and the spiders rode the river off the table..and the big'uns got slaughtered! Still ended in a tie however ..

Last game against Dark Elves. Two units of corsairs with lots of shooting. This was a brutal back and forth game. He put a unit of scouts in a building, and my spiders were close and charged them first turn, eventually taking them out! I actually got use their rule lol! His hydra breathed 20 goblins off the table but they held. It was looking pretty good, but I went for it all at the bottom of the last turn and grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory (or tie anyway). My wizard blew himself up casting, and I charged in just 7 corsairs with my last 7 biguns, lost 5 to stand and shoot, and then failed to kill them off, losing the whole unit of big'uns (and 302 points) in the process. I would have been better off doing nothing, but as they say go big or go home! In this case I went home...lol.

That last move dropped me from 3rd to 4th place overall. Considering I wasn't expecting to win a single game, I was extremely happy with the outcome. Of course I have to give most of the credit to generally favorable dice rather then my own tactical genius..

I was really hoping for best painted but fell just short there as well, getting 2nd in 2 of the 3 painting categories.

I also ended up 2nd overall in the league.

I now consider myself the Salieri of Warhammer fantasy...

A new Ork model..

2011-12-07T01:07:00.000-08:00

My first new Ork model since the buggy last summer. I wanted a 2nd KFF mek but with a PK. I started a very long time ago with an AoBR nob body and was going to scratch build a KFF but nothing I came up with I liked. So I picked up a Finecast KFF mek and just used the KFF off it.

Busted out wire, watch parts and other stuff tonight to finish it up.

My favorite part by far is the head. Enjoy!

I don't care how bad Finecast is..

2011-12-05T04:12:00.000-08:00

...it's still a thousand times better then metal.

I've always hated metal minis. They are hard to work with, hard to clean the mold lines especially where files don't fit, hard to keep the paint on during years of play and finally very hard to convert.

Finecast has none of these issues. Especially the converting part. Sure, finecast has it's own issues, that's for sure. Mainly when it breaks on very fine details.

First it has to be said that the quality has really gone up. I picked up a finecast KFF mek this week only to have it nearly flawless, with 2 tiny bubbles in the whole thing (one of which I didn't even see at first). I am putting the kff itself on a Black Reach Nob to be my PK Mek (vs a burna on the other one) and finecast really makes the conversion so easy.

The last 2 finecast models were equally well made, those being a Dante and a Black Orc Boss.

Remember it does not matter when you buy the model, but when it was made. Later castings are vastly improved.

So much GW hate on Youtube lately. Maybe I'm just a fanboy and don't realize it, but I still love GW games, I still buy their stuff and still love going out and playing whenever possible.

Which brings me to skirmish games like Malifaux. Sorry, not interested. I like putting 100+ models I've painted on the table. Playing a game with 5 models and no customization has zero interest to me. At that point might as well just play fucking Monopoly.

Polar Bear Chariot number 2

2011-12-03T21:32:00.000-08:00

Here are the pics from the second chariot. I added the chain. I tried to kill the shiny with paint, pigments and matte varnish with moderate success. Painting chain isn't fun.

Polar Bear Chariot number 2

2011-11-30T22:58:00.000-08:00

Finished the 2nd chariot and the last 2 boys from the unit with two hand weapons. More and better pics to follow, but I wanted one more post in November..;)

What? A whole week?

2011-11-26T04:57:00.000-08:00

Ugh it's been a whole week for a post? wow I'm slacking. Not just here either!

Lots have been going on, that's for sure. First I was approved into the miniwargaming partner program beta, and have already made a new video just for MWG. We'll see how that works out over time.

Wednesday was open play instead of a league night because of the holiday, so I got in a 2k game with my Orcs & Goblins. I wasn't too impressed with the Orc Shaman, maybe because I'm too use to magic mushrooms. Talk about an amazing ability!!! A couple of dice rolls went against me, resulting in a complete tabling of the Orcs vs my cousins tomb kings. Not much to say about the game, manglers and bad moon ripped stuff up, but failing a re-rolled LD8 stubborn test with my big'uns really turned the game against me.

I've had a few real-life things get in the way. Mostly thanksgiving of course, but also spent some time trying to fix my PVR/Bedroom tv and getting some stuff on ebay. Meh. It's ok I was kinda burned out on painting anyway.

What spare time I have had, I used on my Jeep project over at SMA. It's coming along nicely, and It's quite the change of pace from wargamming stuff.

So ya that's about it. I've been working on the last 2 guys for my big block of 2 hand weapon Orcs and on the second chariot. I hope to get both done before Sunday, I'll be painting during the Civil War..Go Ducks!

A rare 40k project..

2011-11-19T11:55:00.000-08:00

I needed a model to paint for the 40k radio forums challenge, and didn't have anything myself that was ready to go...other then the stormraven and no way I was going to get that done. So I bummed my cousin's Disciples of Caliban Master of the Ravenwing and painted it up for him. The only thing I didn't do is line highlights on the green, and that's because I wanted it to match the rest of his army. If he gets around to doing highlights on the rest of the models, I'll go back and do this. At least is has some nice shading.

Guardian Cup II results and reports

2011-11-15T07:58:00.000-08:00

Finished 6th with a record of 2-1-1. Nothing I could have done in the 2nd game would have turned the tide I think, and I needed some luck in the 3rd game (aka another turn) to turn that from a tie to a win.

Overall I'm very happy with how the army plays. This list really requires more time investment to figure out some of the finer details. Ghazzy is simply a beast, just killing everything he touches. I'm going to stick with the Kan wall for the next few weeks, as I am still learning that list as well.

I was worried about not being able to reach anything when Ghazzy comes on. That really does not seem like much of a problem, considering you have a 18" possible charge range from all edges of the board. If everything the opponent has isn't in range, that means they sit in a box in the middle in loota and shooa range. Speed? I thought the lack of speed would be an issue. Speed isn't really needed when you cover half the table in models to start with..

1750 tournament list..

2011-11-12T02:26:00.000-08:00

Guardian Cup time! Tomorrow is a 1750pt, 4-round tournament called The Guardian Cup, held at Guardian Games in Portland. I was really undecided on what to play, right up to the last second. I could either play Orks and try to win, or play Blood Angels and try for best painted.

I decided to go with Orks. Even then I couldn't decide what to play! I went back and forth between a paired-down version of my normal list, or something a bit different. In the end I decided 4 nob bikers wasn't good enough, so I went with a completely new approach..

HQ: Ghazzy

HQ: Mek, Cybork, KFF

Troop: 20 Sluggas, nob w/PK&BP

Troop: 30 Shootas, 3x rokkit, nob w/PK&BP

Troop: 15 Grots + Runtherd

Elite: 13 Lootas

Elite: 14 Kommandos, 1x Burna + Snikrot

Heavy: 3x Lobbas, 3x ammo runts

Yep, I'm going to try the Ghazzy + snikrot thing. Untested. In a tournament lol.

I was thinking just a normal warboss, which would have meant more boys, but fearless is just too good to pass up. I keep thinking about what I could see, and simply put Ghazzy should completely wreck face as long as he actually makes it on the table. The only army I might not put him in reserve is against DE..they don't tend to sit on the table edge too much.

We'll see what happens. What I'm really worried about is not having enough cash on hand to make sure I have enough food/water for the day..it's going to be a LONG day. Such is life. Maybe I'll take some MT:G cards in to get a few bucks. :)

Necrons..

2011-11-08T13:39:00.000-08:00

So I got a chance to really read the new codex, and unlike a lot of previous releases, I'm confused.

Nothing in the codex seems completely cut and dry. Unlike Venoms or DCA's, which are obviously amazing just by looking at them, very little in the necron codex screams "gotta have". However just hovering below the surface I feel like there are combos in there that will break out and really produce an army of high caliber. I keep digging, but can't quite put my finger on it.

As far as Orks go, it looks good. There is nothing in there that ignores cover, very little shooting that is ID for nob bikers, and of course entropic strike does nothing to Ork boys (unlike poor GK terminators).

The downside is the same as before..all that glancing has a good chance to stop Ork transports due to the open-topped. But that is nothing new, only the Necrons have more of it.

Two of the big combos in there is the constant night fight and making everything dangerous terrain. The first is no biggie for mostly assault armies, but will shut down lootas for the most part. The latter won't hurt battlewagon spam, but could potentially kill a lot of boys. Smart play is required there.

Video soon on the subject. Ya I know I keep promising GK and DE talks too, but I have Orcs to paint..:)

It only took 4 months...

2011-11-06T15:47:00.000-08:00

..to be able to paint a boy after the contest in June. I got this stuff down now, so it does not take very long .

Going to be working on a few more boys and a 40k project in the next week or so.

The cap to the fantasy escalation league is a 1250pt tournament. That is what I'm aiming for, both painting and gaming. The list I'm planning on as of right now:

Lord: Night Goblin Great Shaman, Talisman of preservation

Hero: Orc Big Boss, shield, Gambler's armor, Ironcurse Icon
Hero: Black Orc Boss, BSB

Core: 28 boys, extra hand weapon, big 'uns, full command, Lichebone pennant
Core: 10 Spider Riders, bows, musician
Core: 30 Night Goblins, bows, musician

Special: Orc Polar Bear Chariot
Special: Orc Polar Bear Chariot

Rare: Mangler Penguin
Rare: Doom Diver

The icon and pennant gives the big block of boys a 6+ ward against warmachine and magic, which should allow a few more models to make it into combat. I wanted to take a dispell scroll but just couldn't work it in, unless I drop 10 night goblins. I like it. I was sold on Black Orcs but the big'uns are just as good for 3/4 the points.

Black Orc BSB

2011-11-04T01:55:00.000-07:00

Finished the BSB! What I need to do is figure out what to put on my banners. I need to come up with a symbol for my icy orcs. I'm thinking Gork and Mork split by an icicle. Not sure if I'm up to that though.

Doom diver!

2011-10-31T02:06:00.000-07:00

Continuing to expand and plan with the Orcs and Goblins.

This time I built the base of the first Doom Diver Ski Jump. Pretty basic stuff, just traced out a frame on paper, cut the wood to fit and glued together. Had to wet and clamp down the balsa ramp. The goblin turned out perfect. Had to reposition and pin a foot, pin the rocket and fix some missing rope. The skis are just plasticard with green stuff straps. Made a ski pole out of brass rod and plasticard.

Just detail left. Need to add rivets to all the joints in the wood. Some rocks or something on the base, then finally need to come up with crew for it. I might have to break down and buy a goblin regiment so I have enough models for everything I need to do.

Anyway, pic!

Mangler Penguin!

2011-10-30T02:25:00.000-07:00

Finished it. Really not much to do, paint one night goblin and then basing. The OSL came out really well I think. Overall, love it.

Polar Bear Chariot

2011-10-26T00:13:00.000-07:00

Ork vehicles?

2011-10-21T02:56:00.000-07:00

I post this in the form of a question because let's face the facts: ork vehicles are not very good. The trukk isn't cheap enough any more (it was fine at 35pts vs a 50pt Rhino) but needs to be cheaper now that other transports are cheaper. Not to mention just how fragile it is. The battlewagon is just over priced as well, despite the AV14 front. If it had more stock wargear for the 90pts, then sure but having a naked box for that price is hard to justify. The only vehicles that are any good are Kans.

Which is why I've been playing without vehicles for a long time.

In fact, I've only played 4 games with Ork vehicles in a year. In fact this battle report was the last time I even played Kans:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKuIjF7GGYQ

The other 3 games were at a tournament, that, to be honest, does not usually have the highest level of players. I figured I would have fun with triple battlewagons and took 2nd, losing by 1 point.

But I figured my painted Jet Battlewagon deserved some table time.

My list:

HQ: Warboss, PK, Cybork, Kombi-Skorcha
HQ: Mek, KFF, Cybork, Burna

Troop: 3 Meganobz, 2x Kombi-skorchas
Troop: 20 Boys, Shootas, 2x Rokkits, Nob w/PK&BP
Troop: 19 Boys, sluggas, Nob w/PK&BP
Troop: 19 Boys, slubbas, Nob w/PK&BP

Elite: 7 Lootas
Elite: 8 Lootas

I forgot my list so I had to right it out at game time. Usually I ran one unit of 12 Lootas but somehow came up points short so I added 3 lootas and split them up. Not sure if I like this configuration. With 1 big unit, they can only hit 1 target but can take a whole lot more shooting.

In the tournament the meganobz didn't do anything. Usually if their ride gets popped, they end up pinned and thus sitting ducks. This game however they actually did something, killing a razorback and the dudes inside. Not bad. Of course a missed melta shot sure helped.

I know Adepticon 2nd place was battlewagon spam. Still not convinced of the viability of this army style. It seems to me the basic strategy of this list is not rolling under a 4 for a turn...

Battlewagon process

2011-10-17T08:24:00.000-07:00

Made some progress on the battlewagon. Over the hairspray I sprayed on Vallejo model color Red, followed by highlights of bloody red and light red. With all the various panels and areas sprayed, I have about 4 hours of airbrush work in at this stage.

Really not as much left as it would seem. A few more details like the dashboard and pole on the turret, then lots of paint chipping (but not as much as say the buggy or flakkatrukk) and some other weathering.

But it's pretty low priority now. Need to work on O&G, either paint or assembly but I would like to make some good progress on that army.

Also picked up another project (wtf is wrong with me) joining a group build at the SMA forums. Picked up this great little kit for $11.

I have until February to finish it, so I'm thinking about picking up some photo etched brass for it.

Jet Battlewagon WiP

2011-10-14T04:33:00.000-07:00

Ya I started on my battlewagon for the Freeboota challenge. The driver is done, and I've done the base coat, rust and hairspray on the model. I have a tourney on Saturday so I'll be just getting it to the minimum for gold..which pretty much I already am.

I am going to be airbrushing red on the whole thing, then highlighting individual panels with lighter colors. I won't be pulling off a lot of paint for the rust, but I did the whole model anyway. The only thing that will be really rusty is the deffrolla.

So not a lot of Orc progress this week because of this project. Hopefully I'll have the chance to make a new Grot painting video in HD this time using the rigger model. Depends on how tired I am Saturday night.

Mangler Penguin!

2011-10-11T23:08:00.000-07:00

Finished building my first mangler penguin (counts as mangler squig).

Got lots of greenstuff magic mushrooms that may get some OSL like my shaman. There is a pit in the back which will be an ice/water pool.

Very happy with how it came out.

Spider rider unit done

2011-10-08T02:38:00.000-07:00

Finished the last 5 spider riders tonight. Came out pretty good, very happy with everything.

Figuring out the basing finally really helps. mixing in liberal amounts of very runny glue with the flock really makes a difference.

Mangler penguin coming soon :)

Not sitting still..

2011-10-06T23:00:00.000-07:00

..but not much 40k action either.

First I got my prize from the SMA spring contest, my buggy got 3rd in it's category! But I need to buy an adapter to fit the Badger brush on my airhose. bummer. I was going to use it on my battlewagon this weekend. Oh well.

Next built my first polar bear chariot. Went so much faster then I thought. only took a couple hours. It's getting primer soon.

I just don't have many 40k projects left, literally like 5 models to do plus redoing my stormboyz. It feels weird. But I do have tones of O&G left to build much less paint.

More Orcs and Goblins..

2011-10-01T12:15:00.000-07:00

Making good progress on my spider riders. Need to varnish, then get out the snow and ice. I really wanted all 10 done by now, but hobby time is greatly reduced with school starting, since I have to get up so early to get the kids out the door.

I've been playing in an escalation league for Fantasy, so I've been playing a lot. Starting at small games, I got 3 in last week! Once thing I can say, is that WHFB has a lot more rules in general then 40k, it's not that it's more complex per se, but it just has more rules lol.

Next week is 850pts, and a special rule were you have a "master mage" which you pick a caster that has loremaster and other special rules. I still only have 1 caster, so he gets to be it!

My list for the week:

General: Orc Big Boss, Shield, Great weapon
Hero: Night Goblin Shaman, Level 2, Talisman of protection

Core: 19 Night Goblins, Bows, musician
Core: 29 Boys, extra hand weapon, full command
Core: 10 Goblin Spider Riders

Special: Troll
Special: 14 Black Orcs, full command

First finished O&G model since June..

2011-09-23T02:00:00.000-07:00

Finished my BfSP night goblin shaman. Experimented with OSL, trying to give both they eyes and magic mushrooms a glow. Looks better farther away!

Still pretty happy considering it's only my 2nd try at OSL, and very happy overall with the model.

'ard boys is over..

2011-09-17T20:53:00.000-07:00

..and I failed.

First round I got a bye, but still played the ringer. Fatecrusher Deamons. Ended up killing everything except fateweaver. Over 2800 victory points.

Second round was whichhunters (not Sisters of battle) which started out really good, but after the first couple turns I simply could not kill the scoring units..he had 10 of them! I did a LOT of wounds but he just made most of his armor and/or cover saves. I couldn't push al'raheem's units to the center fast enough. Major loss. Only 906 victory points, but only gave up 820.

Third round vs Dark Eldar. Completely tabled, only giving up 790 victory points.

Ended up with 49 battle points, not even enough for top 6.

I didn't take much video, but what I did take I'll put up soon. Looks like youtube is being glitchy though.

Toys for Tots Chimera and infantry squad pics

2011-09-14T07:26:00.000-07:00

Everything is done and ready to ship.

Lots of paint chips, rust, and mud applied. I really like the results. I finally figured out a way to do pigments lol! Instead of using plain water to set the pigments I mix in a small amount of white glue. Not enough to really thicken the water at all, but the small amount holds the pigment in place. This is after varnishing the model.

Final 'ard boys IG list

2011-09-06T15:09:00.000-07:00

After playtesting I've made a couple tweaks to the list. Dropped the autocannons from Al'Raheem's units and the demo charge from the vets to give the blob power weapons. Should be much more deadly of a unit now, and make more people think before blindly assaulting in. Especially against something like GK where they don't have an invul save or not much of one.

Even though I've only played it once, I'm a big fan of the Al'Raheem outflanking with Chimeras. It is a lot of bad stuff suddenly in your face or in your backfield.

So here it is:

HQ: Lord Commissar; Cammo Cloak

HQ: Company command squad; Straken, medic, 2x Meltagun, astropath

-Chimera, subber

Troop: Platoon

Platoon command squad; Al'Raheem, 2x meltagun

-Chimera, stubber

Infantry squad; meltagun

-Chimera, stubber

Infantry squad; meltagun

-Chimera, stubber, HF

Troop: Platoon

Platoon command squad: Power weapon, meltabombs

-Chimera, stubber

Infantry squad x3: Lascannon team, power weapon

Infantry squad x2: Lascannon team, power weapon, vox

Troop: Vets

3x Meltagun

Troop: Vets

3x Meltagun

Troop: Vets

2x Flamer, heavy flamer

-Chimera, stubber

Fast: Vendetta

Heavy: Manticore

Heavy: Colossus

Infantry squad done; colossus conversion

2011-09-04T01:52:00.000-07:00

Finished the infantry squad. Looks great. Might still add some pigments to it, depending of if I do any on their Chimera.

I plan on using a colossus in the IG army for 'ard boys. Didn't have one, but my cousin did have a beat up and abused old Basilisk. Going to add something around the barrel, cloth or GS, not sure which. The tube is 1" in diameter. Compensating for something?

Non-caucasian skin tones? Really?

2011-08-31T04:31:00.000-07:00

So tonight I was working on my guard squad for charity, and a couple days ago I had decided to do a couple in non-caucasian skin. Well I forgot until I got to the last guy, so onto the mighty google I go, looking for a guide.

There are none.

I spent about 20min looking for something, found a couple hints in threads and this one blog post:

http://blog.brushthralls.com/?page_id=3680

But that's it. I was pretty shocked this was not a more common subject. I found a lot of people asking, and many links to an article on Coolminiornot ..that isn't there anymore. Sigh. I don't usually inject real life into my hobby time, but this is not a good thing to find out about our community.

I had to come up with my own. Used a base of Dark Flesh, washed with badab black. First highlight of dark flesh then mixed a little talaran flesh into the dark flesh for a final highlight.

I like how it came out even if not as realistic as I would like.

Anyone have some tips on non-Caucasian skin?

2011 Toys for Tots underway.

2011-08-23T03:22:00.000-07:00

This will be the 3rd year that the members of the 40k radio forums have painted, donated and auctioned off an army or armies to benefit the Toys for Tots organization. Last year we raised over $2000 with 5 separate Ultramarines armies. This year is all guard. My donation is a full infantry squad and matching Chimera.

Chimera is fully magnetized.

Started working on the infantry, following one of the 3 optional color schemes chosen by the members. This is the one I picked. Sergent is just about done, looking good so far I think.

Stompa done!

2011-08-19T21:48:00.000-07:00

Post of pics! Questions, please ask!

Sometimes it's better to be lucky...

2011-08-17T12:13:00.000-07:00

So I went 4-0-1 over the weekend.

I wish I could credit some sort of tactical genius but no, I have to admit I got lucky at least once in every game.

Game 1: Failed morale test on Dante's unit after coming in. Rolled an 8 on 3d6 and barely stayed on the table.
Game 2: opponent failed 1 warpquake, which gave me the much needed opening to drop in my guys.
Game 3: In my fist turn of shooting, I blew up his vindicator, immobilized and took the cannon off his defiler, and immobilized the land raider with Abadon in it.
Game 4: In one turn of shooting, I took out 2 chimeras, the vendetta, one of the devildogs and took the cannon off the 2nd. In retaliation a manticore scored a penetrating hit on all my tanks, and I made all but one shield of sanguinius save.
Game 5: Not only blowing up a land raider with an assault cannon, but a couple times his vindicator was just out of range on key shots.

One very interesting note:

-Out of 5 games of at least 5 turns each, with 3 assault squads with meltaguns in razorbacks, I fired the meltaguns exactly 6 times.

OFCC 2011 all done!

2011-08-16T09:53:00.000-07:00

Took me a day to recuperate but 40k OFCC 2011 is done!

It was a great event, run very well. Thank you Jeremy!

Videos are coming. I have the 2nd day bat reps to post, but that is it.

First video in the series:

Enjoy!

OFCC day one in the bag!

2011-08-13T23:38:00.001-07:00

Went 2-0-1, team went 7-3-2. Not bad.

One of the paint judges told me my army was in the top 5 at the event, which really made me happy.

Video soon, had a lot of brainfarts with the recording.

Stompa update

2011-08-11T01:18:00.000-07:00

Been working on the Stompa on and off.

I realized there is so much stuff on the body that I'm doing it in areas. So far finished the front light area and the exhaust stacks. Once I get to the pigmentation the stacks will get a lot more rust.

So far so good.

Well I have until Tuesday off, OFCC is this weekend! Doing something last second which I didn't want to do, but I'm converting one of my HB razorback turrets to las-plas and changing my captain for Dante.

So final OFCC list is:

HQ: Dante

HQ: Librarian, Shield and unleash rage

Troop x3: 5 Assault marines, power weapon, meltagun, Las-plas razorback w/Searchlight

Troop: 6 DC, 1 power weapon, Rhino w/SL

Troop: 10 Assault marines, 2 melta, fist

Elite: 2 Sanguinary priests, both with power weapons one with jump pack

Fast x2: Baal, HB

Heavy: Predator, Lascannon sponsoons

Heavy: Devastators, 4xML

Can't wait for the weekend!

'ard boys list

2011-08-07T21:14:00.000-07:00

After much deliberation thinking about different forms of battlewagon spam, I decided on a simple expansion of my 2k list. I know it very well, and adding more of the same should work out fine. After filling out all the units I had a few points left over, so I added in some deffkoptas. This will give me another harassing unit, and more potential anti-tank. The low killpoints is sure to help out as well, since only 3 of them are any where close to easy to kill.

HQ: Warboss, Bike, pk, cybork, squig, bosspole
HQ: Mek, KFF, cybork, burna

Troop: 7 Nob Bikers, all with cybork and stikkbombz
1: Slugga/choppa
2: PK
3: PK, Bosspole
4: Waggh! banner, Big choppa
5: Painboy, grot orderly
6: PK, kombi-skorcha
7: Big Choppa, kombi-skorcha
Troop: 30 Sluggas, Nob w/PK & Bosspole
Troop: 30 Shootas, 3x rokkit, Nob w/PK & Bosspole
Troop: 30 Shootas, 3x rokkit, Nob w/PK & Bosspole
Troop: 14 Grots + Runtherd

Elite: 15 Lootas
Elite: 15 Lootas
Elite: 15 Kommandos, 2x burna + Snikrot (ya for faq update!)

Heavy: 3x Lobbas, 3x ammo runts

Fast: 3x Deffkoptas, 2x Rokkits, 1xBuzzsaw

2498, only 12 killpoints.

Hobby updates

2011-08-07T01:36:00.000-07:00

Lots of pics of Dante in progress:

I also realized that I was short a Kommando! Yes I had only ever built 14 assuming that Snikrot was required to fit in the unit size of 15..well the FAQ changed that so I needed another dude lol.

Backpack is made from a bit I pulled off an IG accessory sprue, I think it came with the hellhound I use as a looted wagon. Filled it with greenstuff then pressed it against his back so it fits perfectly.

2011-08-01T01:38:00.000-07:00

Been ramping up again. First I finished going over the 12 'ard boys that needed it. They got mold lines cleaned up, repainted, washed and highlighted plus some pigments. Much better now. I have only one unit left to tackle, the stormboys.

I also finished the stompa arms. I will be doing bits of the body slowly as I get bored with other projects. Eventually it will get done.

The only thing I have left to do for OFCC is re-basing several of my marines. Jumped into that today, and I'm almost finished. Added more ballast to my Death Company as they are the metal ones and greenstuffed into the bases. I didn't want to try cutting them off. I then painted and pinned 8 assault marines to resin bases. The only thing left is adding ballast to my Devastators just like I did the DC.

For my August challenge on the freebootaz forum, I will be doing my most recent purchase, a Finecast Dante.

That's it for now.

Hobby update videos.

2011-07-28T05:32:00.000-07:00

So I've made some good progress. I also picked up a Finecast Dante finally, and it's nearly perfect - 3 airbubbles 2 of which will never be seen. Much better then my Zagstruck. Wasn't too expensive either, with the 20% off I get playing in the league at my FLGS. Cleaned him up tonight, but assembly will probably be done after painting.

Finished the first stompa arm, sans pigment. Was not as much detail as I first thought, so I might hit that hard and finish it completely.

So I'm not sure what I'll be doing next, I am thinking about changing out my Captain for Dante but I have not yet decided. It requires dropping the attack bikes, but Dante brings so many more toys to the table it's hard to pass up. The other upside is I have 35pts left over, just enough to upgrade my 3rd Razorback to Las-Plas, so I think it's a win-win all around.

40k Tactics: "The Second Front" aka My little Italy - Part 3

2011-07-21T21:33:00.000-07:00

For the final part of my tactica on how I play my Blood Angels, I will give some examples.

Example 1:

Game vs Tyranids. It was 2 objectives, and pretty much it was a textbook example of how my game plan works. He castled in a corner, protected by terrain. I couldn’t do much to him on the way in because of this, which created the situation at the end. He then proceeded to push everything right at my objective. I had enough firepower, cc ability, and resiliency to take whatever he put out..for a while. However I was staring to get whittled down.

Then he realized he had my jump pack squad, 2 attack bikes and a predator pushing for his objective. He literally turned everything around to deal with all this, leaving nothing but 3 genestealers behind which were quickly killed. The result was that I was able to hold my objective, but he had too much left and was able to wipe out my advance. If I had been able to shoot more at the start, or if he had not committed everything to defend his, I probably could have won that game.

Example 2:

This was against a far superior army. By all accounts, I should have been tabled. Ending on turn 5 was what really helped more then anything. But again, the jump pack guys suddenly appearing in the back made my opponent turn his Thunderwolf Calvary away from my objective and deal with them. I was able to delay them long enough for the game to end. I should note here my army isn’t build to be a hyper-competitive army, but is built specifically for a comp tournament held every year which is the most important event around. So being outmatched in general play isn’t anything new to me.

Example 3:

Again, matched up against a far superior army. However I was able to stall his advance by immobilizing a large portion of his army, plus concentrating on taking out the weaker scoring units left me at an advantage I didn’t realize I had at the time. Breaking off the 2^nd Purifier squad to deal with the jump pack guys left him with not enough army left to push me off objectives. Combined with a little luck (a single lascannon shot taking out a land raider) gave me a solid victory. Even if the game had gone on past turn 5, he would have wiped the jump pack guys but he had only 1 scoring unit left while I still had 3. I think I could have held out for nothing worse then a tie even with 18 Purifiers left on the table.

To reiterate, the key points in my “little Italy” list are:

Create a solid, mutually supportive firebase to act as ‘bait’ to bring my opponent’s main force to me, leaving weaker support units behind.
Bring in a decent threat to that support system as early as possible
Have some of my opponent’s army turn around to deal with the new threat.
This will sufficiently divide his forces so that my firebase has enough power to take out his main push while;
Leaving whatever he sent to take out the jump pack guys horribly out of position.

Countering the plan.

The main counter to this is simply not to take the bait. Either don’t push forward at me, or don’t worry about the jump pack guys. The first solution leaves me with nowhere to utilize the jump pack squad, as I like. If I think I might face this kind of army, I will deploy the jump pack unit.

The second solution is a lot tougher for me. Just a few weeks ago, my cousin did just this with his Deathwing. Having the choice of sending a unit of terminators to an objective or to move away from it to assault my jump pack unit, he chooses the objective. This was a great move on his part. Even though it gave me the charge on him, TH/SS termies are good enough where the fight was a stalemate and the objective contested. If he had gone after the jump pack guys, it would have left the objective open to one of my fast vehicles.

Summary.

I’ve found the most important thing when building an army is that finding one you’re comfortable with and able to utilize to the fullest extent is more important then playing on sheer power.

40k Tactics: "The Second Front" aka My little Italy - Part 2

2011-07-19T23:20:00.000-07:00

This is a 12-man unit, consisting of my Captain with dual lightning claws and meltabombs, a priest with a power weapon, 2 meltaguns and a power fist on the sergeant. With Decent of Angels I have a 75% chance of coming in on turn 2, plus the amazing 1d6 scatter. It would be better but more expensive with Dante. The regular captain has been doing very well for me, with WS6, 5 attacks at I6 on the charge with re-rolls to wound, plus a 4+ invul. Since they are jump packs, it gives me a lot of speed back there to deal with whatever I need to.

This is a unit that can’t be ignored. Depending on who I’m playing, I will drop them where I can melta down an important vehicle such as a Psyfleman dread. Now my opponent has two choices, ignore them and let me trash his backfield and take any objective I want (after all they are still troops) or suddenly stop his advance, turn some or all of his army around to stop me.

Every time, it’s been the latter.

Which is exactly what I’m hoping for.

This unit instantly takes pressure off my firebase. Now I can start to maneuver out of my protective area since I won’t have as much to deal with. Especially considering my vehicles are fast, I’m able to move and shoot, or move far enough to suddenly put pressure on whatever is left coming at me or to contest objectives. I do have enough firepower and threats that my opponent’s thrust is greatly reduced, and then having to lose a portion of that to deal with the jump pack unit on top of it suddenly swings the advantage in my favor.

Some examples of how this has worked will be part 3.

40k Tactics: "The Second Front" aka My little Italy - Part 1

2011-07-18T04:08:00.000-07:00

In 1943 the British and American military agreed to open a second front against the Germans to alleviate some of the pressure against Stalin and the Russian forces in the Eastern Front. It worked, diverting German resources away from the Eastern Front. Ultimately it was a success, driving past Rome into northern Italy, but the point to remember is, that it didn't need to be.

I’ve been playing a bait and switch, passive-aggressive style with my Ork army for quite some time now. Using screening to protect the main force of 60 shoota boys, while putting out as much firepower as I can muster. While this is going on, Nob bikers and Snikrot are in your face either forcing you to maneuver away/around them or at the very least to take firepower off the boys.

It seems this kind of trickery is the way I play best. I tried to play my Blood Angels as an all-out assault army, which failed miserably. Even with FNP TH/SS terminators I never really could pack enough punch to accomplish what I wanted to do.

So I changed.

I’ve pretty much set up my Blood Angels to play very similar to how I play my Orks. It is about using my units to control the flow of the game as opposed to controlling areas of the game. About baiting my opponent to do what I want, instead of what they want.

The basic premise of my Blood Angels army is to set up a self-supporting parking lot with all my ranged firepower, using a FNP bubble provided by a Sanguinary priest and a 5+ cover save bubble provided by my Librarian’s Shield of Sanguinius power. This gives me a lot of firepower concentrated in a small area. I will use my Baal Predators to protect or maneuver around to accomplish what I need to. Especially in an objective game, I find time and time again my opponent pushes right for me, even if they are a primarily ranged army. While my firebase does not go undamaged by this, what it does is open up my opponent’s backfield in a way that weaker objective-holders or static shooting elements are vulnerable.

This is where my jump pack assault squad comes in.

To be continued in part 2

My first Finecast experience

2011-07-17T13:30:00.000-07:00

I picked up my first Finecast model, a Boss Zagstruck. I'm planning on trying out some stormboy tactics to add some more speed to my meta-denial list, including trying out this guy.

Here is a pic of all the flaws in the model. Mostly they are either invisible (all the bubbles on the bottom where no one will see them) or irrelevant (an Ork rocket pack has an exact look how...?). The one notable exception is his chin. That is something that can't be overlooked. But still, they are all small flaws and don't really effect building, painting or playing with the model..but because of the chin I will be calling up and getting a replacement.

Now that the process problems are discussed, let me talk about the material. It is a dream to work with. Easy to file and scrape, very light, and way easy to glue. A drop of CA and parts are bonded, no pinning no bullshit. I can't imagine having this guy in metal, what a pain that would be to clean and assemble! Another note is is base, where he is basically standing on a small piece of broken pipe coming out of the ground. I expect this may break someday as it is a weak spot in the piece, it is very flexible as-is. I'm planning on getting a Dante as soon as my FLGS can actually get one in, and a Mad Doc as soon as it is released. Not to mention a couple rock lobbers for my O&G. I really do like the Finecast material, a lot. They just need to fix the process.

I'm also going to have to find another stormboy (the old metal ones to match my current ones) because I plan on running a full unit of 21 models when I take Zag thanks to the new FAQ. That is a lot of points, and I'm not sure where I will get them..that's why I need to play test :)

I can has parody

2011-07-14T22:58:00.000-07:00

Keeping up the work

2011-07-08T23:23:00.000-07:00

Continuing to hobby. Slowed down a lot, only 6 models painted in a week :) I know a lot of people barely paint that in a month..but I really don't do anything else and I have a few hours every day after the kids go to bed. So I paint.

First, going through my 'ard boys. I replaced the big shootas with all new guys. Didn't have to open my new boys box. Then I need to wash 12 of them to finish off the unit completely. I'm still thinking about building a unit of 30 'ard shootas.

Next I finished my goblin fanatics. So officially I have 591pts painted. I will probably knock out the 3 black orcs. I did pick up a new box of black orcs so that's 23 total, might wait unit those are ready to paint. Need 1 more. Still trying to figure out my heros and lords for my 2k army.

I'm thinking about changing the list up so I can have some cool winter conversions. Like making snowmobile pump wagons. Already going to make goblin snowball lobbers :) should be fun.

I also picked up a finecast Zagstruck. I plan on starting in on redoing my stormboys shortly, so wanted him as well. He had a couple of minor imperfections, but nothing major.

Lastly cut off all the sprues from the Barracuda, straitened the bent pieces and washed it. After it dries I'll probably dive into that.

Then there is always the Stompa...

I did it..

2011-07-02T04:44:00.000-07:00

Ya it's been a few days since I posted, but I basically spent the whole time painting. Finished with hours to spare, including all the layers, pigments and basing. Sometimes I impress even myself :)

Here's the strange thing. I'm not burnt out. At all. Not even a little. I have spent pretty much every spare second for an entire month with a brush in my hands. Not doing some hobby stuff seems..well strange. Like I should be doing something when I'm not.

Wierd, huh?

So after finishing what I would call an epic achievement (considering I have a full time job and 2 kids), taking pictures and video, editing, encoding and then uploading to youtube what do I do? Take a break of a couple hours then start right back in it. I started by cleaning up the pile of crap from the contest. I first clipped all the bits off the sprues and bagged them, then I opened and built the 3 goblin fanatics I had on the pile. I also had 3 black orcs from a trade a while back I had built, so I based them to rank up with the guys I have. Didn't take long of course, but I still kept going..

Tonight I'm short a kid (spending the weekend with gramma) so I was able to do a few things around the house I've put off but even those didn't take long. So I finished off the big shootas and skorcha for the warbuggy. After that I sat down and read the O&G book, trying to decide on army composition. I want to run Grimgor...he sound freaking bad-ass.

What's next? Mainly waiting for contest results. I figure it will be a couple weeks before voting even starts on the SMA contest, so will probably be a couple months before I know the results of that. My apoc game got postponed but I'm still going to paint the stompa. It will give me more ideas on what I need for my jet battlewagon. I do have some re-basing to do with my Blood Angels for OFCC, and I still need to do my Hawk Lords mini for MAC.

I plan on finally doing my talking about orks videos for dark eldar and grey knights, now that I have a bit more experience against them.

Instead of the apoc game, I'll be going to another tournament on the 30th. I'll be taking the same list as last time. It works well, and I've got a lot of practice in with it. I see no need to change.

I am thinking about diving into redoing my stormboys, and getting a finecast zagstruck. I think I could make a viable variation on my meta-denial list with them.I also need to touch up a few 'ard boys plus replace the 3 big shootas I have in there for some unknown reason. That's easy though.

I still have a lot of O&G new in package. I need to be working on those in and among other project to get them done by next June.

Sorry for the wall of text ramble, but I had a lot on my mind.

Warboss and Troll done, boys under way..

2011-06-27T02:35:00.000-07:00

Will only 4 days left I accomplished everything I had intended today. I completely finished the warboss and troll, and based the Black Orcs. I airbrushed the bleached bone onto the boys and even dived into the first set of 5. I might just pull this off after all..

For the ogre blade I decided to just do a glow effect instead of lightning or the like. Many layers of very thin reds, red-orange and yellows built up to a nice effect. I was hoping it would brighter, but I'm still satisfied with the result.

I really like all the pigment used on the troll's legs, like he's been sloshing around in the mud.

Too busy painting to update..

2011-06-23T16:50:00.000-07:00

LOL I'm still fucking crazy. Black Orcs are nearly done, and I have plans do to a lot of airbrushing and washing with the boys to make them go super quick. Plus I'm taking the last 3 days of the month off to paint them Damnit, I'm gonna finish.

Oh, ya, and I'm playing in a 2k 40k tournament on Saturday. I should be painting, but..

Anyway I got a new video camera. Not a great one, not even "new". I picked up a RCA Small Wonder from a local pawn shop for $40. It takes really decent video for being only VGA. It runs off 2 AA batteries (which I have lots of NiMh rechargeable already) and uses a MicroSD card. Check it out:

More to come!

Goblins are done!

2011-06-19T16:10:00.000-07:00

Finished my unit of goblins last night. Oh boy this is a lot more work then I anticipated and I'm really not sure if I can finish. We'll see...

Does anyone still think they can win in the assault phase?

2011-06-16T03:38:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking a lot lately about 40k and the so-called "meta game". If you had not noticed, the game has become dominated by the shooting phase. When 5e first came out, there was a lot of talk about how deadly assaults were compared to 4e, even despite losing the sweep into a new assault.

The first big list of 5e was nob bikers. Capable of wiping an entire army in assault. And it worked. Nob bikers actually caused a shift in the meta game, a shift to more shooting. Very few units, much less armies, can deal with Nob bikers in assault. However a lot of armies can field a crap ton of S8 shooting, giving nobs a real big problem. Also, it turns out, anything that is a threat to Nob bikers also does really well against vehicles.

Next in evolution, there was the mech IG lists often (if not frequently mistaken) called "leafblower" lists first made popular on BoLS. The idea of the list was pretty simple, a whole lot of downrange firepower from many sources each of which isn't that crucial and has lots of redundancy. They worked, and still work. Melta vets in a chimera runs a wopping 155pts. Really? Manticores, hydras, etc, all with the purpose of making you roll as many dice as possible. However, IG really lacks any defense against CC, and if you can get there, you can win.

It wasn't long before a decent counter came out: Space Wolves. Space wolves came and presented similar firepower with long fangs + razorbacks yet didn't fold like wet tissue in assault. If used as a primarily shooty army, with cc as "mop-up" only, Space wolves are hard to beat to this day.

Even I have abandoned CC as a primary source of damage with what is probably the only pure CC army in 40k...Orks. I've gone to a heavy, heavy shooty meta-denial list and play style. And it works. Fabulously!

Now we have Grey Knights which is on par with Wolves in shooting (if shorter range) and even better at the CC mop-up due to the all power weapons thing. GK continue to excel not as an assault army, but again primarily shooting with enough CC ability.

What can we conclude from all this? The current state of 40k is simple. Games are won or lost in the shooting phase. Roll better on the vehicle damage table, you are likely going to win more often then not. Does not matter on the rest of the rolls, just the ones on the damage table. For example, just tonight my cousin was playing Deathwing vs DE. He lost, not because he played bad or shot bad, but simply could not roll enough wrecked/explode results on the DE vehicles. They were stunned a lot..but who cares (especially since it was annihilation).

I'm not saying that you can't take out vehicles in assault, in fact I depend on being able to do so. What I am saying is that you can't win a game just from assaulting things. You have to be able to shoot at least as well as you assault..and vice-versa.

What does this mean for 6th? That somehow the shooting phase needs to be toned down, while at the same time making it easier to take out vehicles with average rolling. In other words, fewer rolls on the damage table, but taking a vehicle out of the game more often per roll.

Warbuggy done!

2011-06-14T02:37:00.000-07:00

Razorback done!

2011-06-11T04:52:00.000-07:00

I've had this lingering for over 6 months! Finally done! I only have a stormraven left to paint for my Blood Angels and that's been moved to a back burner now. After OFCC.

One down..50 to go..

2011-06-10T03:26:00.000-07:00

So I finished the first night goblin. So far I'm really happy. The cloak is the best part as far as I'm concerned. The skin is the right color, but I need a lot more practice with it. The rest of the details are done pretty basically (bow, quiver). The base especially turned out exactly like I wanted. Once the cloak and skin are done, the rest of the model is quite fast. Even the glazing used on the cloak is a pretty quick process. Should not have any trouble finishing the unit in a reasonable time.

Upcoming Apoc Game!

2011-06-07T02:13:00.000-07:00

July 23rd will be my first Apoc game. Taking Orks of course, using as many toys as I can. I was limited to 5k, and had to back off and redo my list when I realized I was over 6k..this is what I'm bringing:

HQ: Ghazzy
HQ: Mek, KFF, Cybork, burna, bosspole
HQ: Warboss, bike, pk, squig, cybork,

Troops: 4 meganobz, Battlewagon w/Deffrolla, armor, riggers, big shoota, cannon
Troops: Da Green Tide
114 models including 9 rokkits, 4x Nob w/PK
Warboss w/PK, cybork, squig, 'eavy armor, kombi-skorcha
Troops: 25 'ard boys, nob w/pk
Troops: 8 nob bikers, wound allocated

Dread Mob:
Stompa w/force field
2x Dred: 2x Skorcha, armor
3x 3x Kans, 2 with rokkits, 1 with grotzookas

15 Lootas
15 Lootas
15 kommandos with 2xburna and snikrot
8 burnas

Flakkatrax

Sqiggoth

More changes to the Blood Angels..

2011-06-06T08:58:00.000-07:00

I'm really starting to enjoy playing the MSU style lists. When something dies, it's not as important anymore unlike losing a stormraven with all it's now footslogging passengers. I played the mephiston list last week and he ended up doing well, but some of that was luck (avoiding an instant-death wound from the archon). He is a huge point sink which I'm not sure I need. I'd rather have more stuff I think. So my latest iteration:

HQ: Captain, jump pack, dual lightning claws, meltabombs

HQ: Librarian, (shield and unleash rage)

Troops: 10 Assault Marines, 2x melta, fist

Troops (x2): 5 Assault Marines, power weapon, metla; Razorback, searchlight, Las-Plas

Troop: 5 Assault Marines, power weapon, Melta; Razorback, searchlight (might do HF if I can convert one up).

Troop: 6 Death company, 1 power weapon, Rhino

Elite: 2 Sanguinary High Priests, one with jump pack, both with power weapons

Fast (x2): Baal; Heavy bolters

Fast: 2 Attack Bikes, MM

Heavy: Predator; LC sponsoons, searchlight

Heavy: Devastators; 4x ML

If I had the money I might go full-on MSU: 6 MSU las-plas squads, 3 dev squads with las-plas with libby and a priest that comes to roughly 1900pts leaving me some wiggle room. Can BA do MSU better then SW? No, but they can do it differently enough that they don't play the same. Grey Hunters are better then assault marines, but I can get FNP & FC. FNP devastators (especially if fearless) isn't something to discount either. Basically the SW version is better, but BA can be more survivable.

Bucket of Orcs!

2011-06-06T08:17:00.000-07:00

Making good progress. Everything is assembled. Black Orcs and goblins are primed. Boys are washed ready for primer.

Waiting for primer to cure, continued on the Razorback. All that is left there is the final highlighting and some detail on the storm bolter.

Also worked on the buggy driver. He does not have much left. Bought some Vallejo Model Air gunmetal metallic. Going to try the hairspray thing again, but with more contrast.

Contest day 2

2011-06-04T02:11:00.000-07:00

Black Orcs assembled. They were a royal pain to rank up. Going to dive into boys soon, and work on some painting tomorrow.

Contest day 1

2011-06-03T03:55:00.000-07:00

Assembled warboss. Used great weapon head on the hand weapon handle to create the Ogre Blade. Cleaned up and based the night goblins. The champ and warboss are going to get some basing work.

Sleep time..

50+ models in 30 days!

2011-06-02T16:56:00.000-07:00

OK I'm completely freaking nuts. Building, painting a 500 pt army in 30 days. I'm not talking a table-top quality army either. I want my O&G army to really, really shine. I almost didn't throw my hat in, but I'm just crazy enough to try it. I honestly don't think I'll get everything done.

The list I'm buliding:

Orc Big boss: Shield, Orge blade
19 Boyz, additional hand weapon, command
20 Night Goblins, bows
10 Black Orcs, command
Then either a troll or 2 goblin fanatics.

50+ models. New in box. 30 days. Plus 2 other things to paint as well (buggy, razorback - it's so close I might as well just finish it). I don't need sleep, right?

Yay I finally beat Dark Eldar!

2011-06-02T02:16:00.000-07:00

..only because of how little damage my opponent could do for 3 turns.

Pretty basic mission, killpoints and pitched battle. I honestly spent like 10 minutes at first trying to figure out a deployment and movement strategy. I think I really hate playing against Dark Eldar mainly because I don't know how to play against Dark Eldar.

I'm still liking my shooty list a whole lot more then the Terminator/Stormraven style I had before. I am thinking about dropping Mephiston for a regular Librarian and more bodies. I could add another assault squad in a razorback (with heavy bolters) or more Death Company or another attack bike (I'd have to paint it though). There are a lot of things I could add with 150pts.

Oh and a treat from the game next to me..another Blood Angels vs Dark Eldar slaughterfest:

Talk about a mess!

Holiday gaming!

2011-05-31T08:09:00.000-07:00

I got in 2 games on Memorial Day with my Blood Angels, using my shooty style lists. Both were very solid wins, and I had a lot of fun with all the firepower I brought to the table.

First game was 1500pts:

HQ: Captain, Dual LC, Jump Pack
Troop: 10 Assault, 2x Melta, Fist
Troop (x2): 5 Assault, power weapon, melta, Las-plas
Fast (x2): Baal; HB
Fast: Attack Bike, MM
Elite: Priest x2, 2 power weapons, 1 jump pack
Heavy: Pred, LC
Heavy: Devastators, 4x ML

I played against a super elite Blood Angels list.

HQ: Sanguinor
HQ: Astorath
Troop: 10 Assault, 2 melta, Sgt with plasma pistol and power weapon.
Troop: 6 DC including Lemartes, jump packs
Troop: DC Dread, talons
Heavy: Stormraven, Typhoon

It was Annihilation, DoW. He put Sanguinor on the table and moved him up a little. I deployed a MSU squad far enough away to avoid the charge. First turn he moved up a little. When I rolled on, my Baals and jump pack guys killed Sanginor, and the Predator and razorbacks downed the stormraven. The Death Company and dread did a lot of damage though, killing the devastators, the attack bike, the captain, both priests and jump pack guys, and one of the MSU squads with their razorback. The re-rolls Lemartes gives them is just amazing, he alone killed 7 assault marines on one charge.

In the end though, I just had more bullets then he had guys, with the Baals putting on average 8 wounds each every turn. I completely tabled him.

Second game was against Codex Marines @1750

HQ: Pedro

Troop: Tactical, lascannon, melta, rhino with HK
Troop: Tactical, lascannon, flamer, rhino with HK

Elite: 5 Sternguard, 5x combi-melta, las-plas razorback
Elite: Venerable Dread, plasma cannon
Elite: 5 shooty terminators, Assault cannon

Heavy: Devastators, 4x ML
Heavy: LRC, MM

I added a Librarian and 6 DC in a Rhino with a power weapon, and dropped the Attack Bike. Game was pitched battle, capture and control. I parked a MSU squad on my objective, he parked the Sternguard razorback on his almost directly opposite. He combat squadded the tacticals, lining up the lascannons and devastators in a firing line.

I got to go first, and took both weapons of the razorback, and stunned a rhino.One MSU with priest and DC rhino ran up the field towards his firebase. He kept the Dread and LR with termies in reserve, which ended up hurting as the dread didn't come in until turn 4, and the LRC on turn 5. By then I had killed everything else on the table, and lost the jump pack unit to shooting (plasma cannons = bad) and assault from the Dread. The termies came on and were only able to take out a MSU squad and DC rhino before the game ended with me still camping on my objective. I doubt he could have gotten to me anyway. Having to wait so long for the LRC really ended up being his biggest problem.

Overall I'm very happy so far with my shooty list. I will be playing my 2k Mephiston version this week, getting ready for OFCC. The best part is if I take this list, I don't have to finish the Stormraven..:)

Finding myself disillusioned by Stormravens..

2011-05-30T02:04:00.000-07:00

I *love* the Stormraven model, unlike most people I guess. However the more I play it, the more I realize just how fragile it really is. It's a big investment in and of itself, not including the passengers. I was planning on taking 2 of them to OFCC, and I might still but I need to play it some to see if 2 is really better then 1.

But in the meantime I've come up with a new 2k list, which is quite a bit different. No stormravens, no termies, no dreads at all! Just lots of long-range and medium range shooting.

HQ: Captain, jump pack, dual lightning claws, meltabombs

HQ: Mephiston

Troops: 10 Assault Marines, 2x melta, fist

Troops (x3): 5 Assault Marines, power weapon, metla; Razorback, searchlight, Las-Plas

Elite: 2 Sanguinary High Priests, one with jump pack, both with power weapons

Fast (x2): Baal; Heavy bolters

Fast: 2 Attack Bikes, MM

Heavy: Predator; LC sponsoons, searchlight

Heavy: Devastators; 4x ML

1999pts

This provides me a nice firebase with 3 lascannons, 1 predator and 4 ML all under shield and FNP. FNP devastators are actually quite hard to dislodge from cover, especially if the roll for red thirst. They stand up to Venoms quite nicely. The Baals are serious anti-infantry firepower, and take the place of Blood Talon dreads. The jump pack squad can come in almost anywhere with DoA with 12 FNP Marines and cause a whole lot of trouble or at least cause all guns to turn around away from my firebase.

I think it is a lot more effective then the dual flyer list. I will be playtesting a lot over the next 2 months. We'll see..

Another loss at the hands of Dark Eldar

2011-05-27T03:32:00.000-07:00

But it was a much, much better game then last time.

My list:
HQ: Captain, Dual LC, Jump pack

HQ: Librarian (Shield, Unleash rage)

Troop: 10 Assault marines, 2x melta, fist

Troop (x3): 5 Assault marines, melta, power weapon; Las-plas razorback

Elite: Sanguinary Priest x2, one with jump pack and power weapon, one with power weapon

Heavy: Predator, LC sponsoons

Heavy: Devastators, 4x ML

Fast (x2): Baal, Heavy bolters

So what was so different? Well basically I dropped the stormraven and passengers (termies, dread) for more firepower. It worked really well against the Dark Eldar, especially with seizing the initiative. I felt like I could do enough damage (and I did), so that I was able to keep my opponent on his heals. It took 3 full witch squads to take out my jump pack guys..which is a more then I thought. Even at that I could have stayed stuck in one more turn if I had made one more save. Interesting, eh?

After the game my opponent and I had a big debate on weather or not I should have moved out of my castle sooner. Like turn 2. My side was that running strait into 8 blasters and 20 haywire grenades was no way to win. I still lost, but a couple of rolls another way would have made it at least a tie if not a win. It was a loss I didn't feel was a bad loss..just like when I was playing Blood Angels with my Orks at the last tournament.

I might have been overly focused on destroying vehicles. Maybe. Maybe I was overly concerned about running up into still formidable firepower. I don't think I could have played much different, except re-position my jump pack guys so they couldn't be assaulted by 2 witch squads the first turn.

Stone Alter terrain done

2011-05-24T22:18:00.000-07:00

Finished the stone alter - swamp terrain to match the tree stand I made a while ago. Simple build, quick and fun to make. The tree stand was pretty epic, took a lot of time and effort. This was super quick by comparison. The stone tablet is plaster, I made my own mold from plasticard and hot glue. I was originally going to break it for a ruin, but I liked the smoothness so much I left it as-is lol.

1500pt tournament afterthoughts

2011-05-23T02:15:00.000-07:00

Another Sunday tournament down at Ancient Wonders in Tualatin, Oregon. This was the same place that last time I went I took my meta-denial list and completely smashed face. So this time I wanted to tone down my army a bit. I went with..battlewagon spam!!

HQ: Warboss, Cybork, PK, Squig, kombi-skorcha

HQ: Mek, KFF, Cybork, Burna

Troop: 3 Meganobz, 2x kombi-skorcha

Battlewagon: Deffrolla, armor plates, riggers, kannon, big shoota

Troop: 20 Shootaboys, 2x Rokkit, Nob w/PK&BP

Troop: 19 Sluggaboys, Nob w/PK&BP

Elite: 15 lootas

Heavy: Battlewagon: Deffrolla, armor plates, riggers, kannon, big shoota

This was the first time I really played such a list, and it's only like the 4th time I've ever played meganobz lol. I have to say it is quite effective..if you can make your cover saves early. It only takes a turn or 2 of movement to get everything over to the other side of the table and start beating face. I can see the lootas are extraneous, but not useless. For the same points I can take another battlewagon and still have a few lootas hanging out for a distraction. But I do really like having that unit of boys on foot, they work great as objective campers allowing the mobile units to get the job done.

The first game was by far the best, and despite losing completely on objectives, I nearly tabled him (just 8 infantry and 2 vehicles left). It was such a great game though I didn't mind losing that much. I brought this list to have fun, not to win. If I had moved my lootas to contest the objective instead of shooting the Razorback, it would have at least been a tie.

The other two games though, had a lot of rule issues..like trying to rotate an immobile dread and taking saves on firewarriors one at a time. It kind of got frustrating, and I felt like I was coming across as a dick, when in fact I was just trying to follow the rules...especially since I was completely dominating both of the games. Live and learn.

The truth is this list is really fun to play, especially when rolling over vehicles. But it is completely dependent on luck..make those KFF saves, you can't lose. Fail and ..you're in world of hurt. Need Snikrot or some other way to mitigate the luck factor. Not sure if I will keep trying this style or stick with the nob bikers.

All or none..

2011-05-20T15:21:00.000-07:00

It seems my Blood Angels are a fickle army. Sometimes they just don't want to work right. It wasn't dice, it was just simply my list was outmatched. Maybe if I had been a tad less aggressive. Or maybe even more aggressive. I'm not sure. I honestly have no idea how or if I could have played this game better. If I had kept my jump guys back a bit more I would have been out of charge range, and that might have changed the game enough to give me a chance. At least I would have been able to shoot a meltagun..maybe. I thought my list had enough long-range shooting. But the more I play I realize a lot of that is tied up in the Stormraven..

I like the Stormraven model so much, it's hard to drop it...not sure yet.

XV-9 Hazard

2011-05-17T07:08:00.001-07:00

My two XV-9's one with burst cannons, one with phased ion guns. I would love to actually play these guys someday..

I think I figured it out..

2011-05-16T07:42:00.000-07:00

Vampire Counts, that is. I got in another game of Fantasy last night, playing 2000pts of my Vampire Counts vs Warriors of Chaos. Sure, WoC is one of the best armies and the troops are just crazy good so I might have simply been outmatched from the start. Grave Guard vs Khorne-marked guys isn't something I want to happen again.

So there are two things I learned. First, I need to use my magic to take down opponent's units with Wind of Undeath and Curse of Years instead of relying on close combat and Nehek. Second, I learned I can't rely on magic. Which is a big problem for VC it seems to me. Nothing in the army book is that strong, able to go toe-to-toe with tough CC units, so nehek and vanhel's are must-haves..but due to the 8th magic rules, magic isn't strong enough to support these needs.

I am finally understanding why VC are not as powerful as they once were.

That leaves me with my fledgling O&G army, which from what I've read isn't very strong either. It's not like I'm looking to smash face every time I play, but I don't want to lose before even putting the models on the table either..

On the project front I did finish my XV-9, got a good idea for a terrain piece for another youtube challenge, and I'll be moving forward with both the razorback and stormraven. I've decided to at least try doing the interior, and I can always glue it shut if it does not work out.

Play like you have a pair..

2011-05-15T00:57:00.000-07:00

This was a game of ups and downs. I went second, and ended up losing my Stormraven before it even moved. Not a good start. However I decided that my army was good enough to go toe-to-toe with the worst that 18 fiends could throw at me. I immediately ran full bore at what I had in front of me. And it worked. First my terminators were able to take down fateweaver, on his turn to boot. What a great way to start a comeback.

The real turning point though was when both harolds moved over and used wind (breath?) of chaos on my assault marines. Out of 13 template hits, he only killed 4 guys. Epically bad rolling. lost a couple more to the S5 AP3 shooting, but the unit held. A couple more fell to the demon prince assault, but I was able to take out the prince with the furioso. If the dread had survived that, it would have been a much worse game then it already was.

My terminators were freaking ace once again. Helped I made a ton of saves though lol. after wiping out the harolds, the terminators took a charge from a unit of fiends. He had to go through terrain so I was able to kill one before he hit. Still, I had to take almost 20 saves ..and made all but 1! I made all the invul saves on my storm shields, and failed 3 armor saves, 2 of which were saved by FNP. FNP terminators is just..OMG. They survived those fiends, then were being whittled down by another unit of fiends when we called it (there was only 1 fiend left). Another good roll, was making 1 invul and 3 armor saves on my priest. Gosh I would kill to give him a storm shield..

My big move though was when a unit of fiends mishapped, and I got to place them. I went for it, and placed them right in front of both Baals and the las-plas razorback. Baal predators are amazing at putting wounds on infantry. With shooting I killed all but 1, and he only had 1 wound left. I then assaulted with the 4 marines, survived, and wiped it out. Amazing yet risky move on my part.

Anyway more projects. Almost done with the XV-9, video part 2 soon. Staring a terrain piece for terrainoob's challenge (it's a small one, won't take long) and making progress on both the stormraven and last razorback.

I also got offered to do a commission. I was really surprised, doing a whole DE army to a tabletop standard. I am way busy, but I told him after OFCC we could talk about it. I could use a few extra bucks!

I had a great day..

2011-05-09T02:36:00.001-07:00

Saturday May 7th, I got a few hours off. Off life, off reality, off from everything. I didn't intend it to be that way, but it worked out for me.

Real life is sucking big right now, mainly due to cars and money. well cars sucking money. I'm sure everyone knows what I mean.

Saturday my cousin was going into my FLGS to buy and futz with new Tomb Kings stuff. He has a substantial army already but needed new toys. I got to get away from the family and hang out with him. It was awesome.

First, I brought my vampire counts and went through and fixed all the broken models I had and made a few bases of fillers for my skellies and crypt ghouls.

After that I played my cousin's Deathwing in a game vs Blood Angels. It was a fun game, I can really see the appeal of Deathwing...it is a LOT of fun to play. This is the list I ran @1750:

HQ: Belial; TH/SS
HQ: Interrogator Chaplain, Terminator armor, combi-melta

Troop: Upgraded Deathwing, Banner w/TH/SS, apothecary w/TH/SS, Cyclone w/TH/SS, 1 guy with LC and another TH/SS guy.
Troop: Deathwing; Cyclone, 3xTH/SS, 1xLC, 1xChainfist/SB
Troop: Deathwing; Cyclone, 3xTH/SS, 2xLC

Fast: Speeder; Typhoon, MM
Fast: Speeder; Typhoon, MM
Fast: Speeder; Typhoon, MM

Heavy: Predator AC/HB
Heavy: Devastators 4xML, TL-Las Razorback.
Heavy: Vindicator

Mission was roll dice and tie with dawn of war. He placed scouts on his objective and I placed the dual-lc unit on my objective in opposite corners. I then dropped the non-command squad next to his objective and turbo-boosted the speeders there as well. The idea was to bait in his LRC full of assault termies, priest and libby to kill off my deathwing sqaud leaving them open to MM the LR and vindicator the squad.

He took the bait, but I made so many saves the combat lasted 3 turns before the last guy died. I did end up killing the land raider though. Then the command squad didn't show up until turn 4, but was able to wipe out his termies. I was about to assault the scouts when the game ended on a roll of 1 at the end of 5. 1 good turn of shooting took out almost everything I had (including a sniper scout improbably exploding a speeder).

In the end I only had 1 immobilized speeder and 5 termies left. My objective was contested and I was out of range of his, giving him the win. It was a great game that went back and fourth from turn to turn with dice luck playing a huge factor!

After the game I sat down and started assembling my second stormraven. My biggest decision is to paint the interior or not. I have not fully glued it together yet for that reason. But it was great sitting there without any kids bugging me to play barbies or mario party 8 and just talking warhammer and sniffing plastic glue..

I would like a 4th 40k army sometime. I am waiting patiently for Tau - which could be even before the end of the year - before I decide. I am considering deathwing and the henchmen-heavy Coteaz hybrid list posted earlier.

Anyway long post with a wall of text. I finished assembling my XV-9 with phased ion guns and will probably be painting that over the next week for the Freebootaz challenge. I love these models, so easy to pose!

Warbuggy build done

2011-05-06T02:01:00.001-07:00

Yep all finished with the build. I thought I had until the end of may to finish, but it's the end of June. I might even do a 2nd entry into the SMA contest..maybe the Stormraven, maybe I'll pick up a model car kit and do that with acrylics and the airbrush.

I put work into my XV9, first FW kit I've touched that I bought in February. Wasn't much cleaning to do, but I could do more if I wanted. It's almost assembled.

What? Grey Knights? Kinda..

2011-05-05T13:03:00.000-07:00

I am really liking the henchmen rules in the GK codex. Talk about cheap, effective and really cool units. Not like I have the money to build a new army, but I would like to try this out somehow.

HQ (170): Librarian; Titan, summoning, shrouding, halberd
HQ (100): Coteaz

Troop (311): Strike Squad, 2x psycannons, MC Hammer, psybolt ammo
-Razorback, psybolt, searchlight, warp stable field
Troop (139): 12x Warrior Acolyte, 3x plasma
-Chimera, spotlight, warp stable field
Troop (169): 3x MM servitors, 2x Jokaero, 2x warrior acolyte (Coteaz goes here)
-Chimera, spotlight, warp stable field
Troop (211): 5x Death cult, 5x Crusader (Libby joins one of these)
-Chimera, spotlight, warp stable field
Troop (211): 5x Death cult, 5x Crusader
-Chimera, spotlight, warp stable field
Troop (139): 12x warrior acolyte, 3x melta
-Chimera, spotlight, warp stable field

Elite (145): Vindicare

Heavy (135): Psyfileman
Heavy (135): Psyfileman
Heavy (135): Psyfileman

2000pts exactly.

Lots of scoring units, pretty good cc punch with titan on assassins, and lots of cheap expendable guys! I think this list has a lot of good combos (like hiding dreds behind chimeras then using shrouding to give them a 3+) and has the elements to deal with a lot of different things.

Yay!

2011-05-04T12:27:00.000-07:00

If you didn't know I've been posting my videos on miniwargaming.com. I did it mainly to enter their contest, but it has really been a good thing. I've been getting a lot of views there, to people who have never seen my youtube channel. It's great! I would recommend doing it to all the 'smaller' youtubers out there.

I also noticed one of my vids is on their 'top content' list, my artic ork test model. I'm lovin' it!

I plan on playing Blood Angels this month. I played them on Saturday and really enjoyed it.

Death Company Dreadnaught

2011-04-29T23:57:00.000-07:00

I actually finished a project! My plastic Furioso kit is finally done, as a Death Company. This was a pretty easy model to paint, being black ;) Details all went pretty fast. I'm thinking about redoing the blood talons on my other two dreads, but I might keep this one unique.

The Perfect Storm

2011-04-28T04:05:00.000-07:00

A perfect example of meta-denial, passive-aggressive play that my list was designed around. First, the cyclone missiles were severely neutered, only doing some sporadic frag damage to lootas and boys. The tank-killing speeders were regulated to running and gunning down nob bikers, which is hard to do when I get a 4+/4+ on the warboss against a krak.

I didn't want to send the nobs headlong into 20 TH/SS terminators. That isn't a fight they can easily win. But speeders are an easy target, plus taking away any mobility and chance at last-second contesting. Sure it might have seem like a waste of points, but the rest of my list was perfectly suited to deal with his list.

Lobbas proved themselves again (of course, good rolling helped) by shaking the whirlwind twice before my nobs could get there and finish it off. It never got a shot off. Niether did the shooty dread..it was always at least shaken or locked in CC.

Finally my pull back and shoot, controlling tactics really shone through. I backed up away from the termies, getting an extra round of shooting and getting the assault off. Worked perfectly. The mission didn't help, with only 1 objective, so he had to move to me.

The sacrificial boys unit, again worked exactly as it should have. Taking out Belial with the klaw helped a lot there, but it's just the way things worked out..the closest models to each other were him and my nob. But the unit held for the first turn assault, and died in his turn, leaving it open to my shooting.

In the end, I couldn't be happier with the way my list worked, and the guy I played was just an awesome opponent. Considering I almost didn't make the game night due to some food poisoning, I had a great time.

Biker Orks are fun!

2011-04-22T23:06:00.000-07:00

Getting in a couple games with bike-heavy Orks tells me two things: 1. They can't put up with a lot of shooting, and 2: they are a LOT of fun to play. Zipping all over the board, laying down a ton of S5 shots and still having a punch.

I really like playing them, but I'm sure I'll move on after next week. Back to a more solid list, more boys, fewer nob bikers. I might even consider going back to a kan wall for a change. Been a very long time since I've played an Ork vehicle.

297 videos uploaded..

2011-04-20T15:17:00.000-07:00

So as I approach 300 videos, I'm trying to figure out something cool to do. I might do a give away, if I can find something to give away lol.. I really, really don't have any ideas.

So tonight is league night, yay! I get to remove myself from reality again for a little while. I find myself needed to escape more and more to fend off depression. Money is super tight and both cars have issues so real life is sucking hard right now.

I printed off my super elite bike list, changing the grots to 10 shoota boys. Not sure what I'll play or play against. I just want to have fun.

There are still so many things I want to do for youtube. seems like I can't ever focus long enough to get any of them done. I did finally force myself to do the rhino interior videos though, so there is hope!

lastly I've been adding videos as content on miniwargaming to enter their 40k contest. So far it's working out great! getting more views all the time. I'll probably add a few videos a day ..maybe even the entire talking about orks series if it continues to go well.

Extreme listbuilding

2011-04-16T04:14:00.000-07:00

By extreme I mean taking the idea of the list to the highest extreme possible. If something is good, then more of is always better, right? :)

So I propose 2 lists in opposite extremes at 1750pts, first the biker list:

HQ: Warboss; Bike, pk, squig, cybork, bosspole
HQ: Wazdakka

Troop: 12 Bikers, nob w/PK&BP
Troop: 8 nob bikers, all with stikkbombz and cyborks
1: Pk
2: Pk, bosspole
3: Pk, kombi-skorcha,
4: painboy, Orderly
5: wagh! banner, big choppa
6: big choppa, kombi-skorcha
7: Slugga/choppa
8: Big choppa
Troop: 17 Grots, runtherd

Elite: 15 lootas
Elite: 15 lootas

Pretty crazy elite list. Grots are basically a points filler that have the added bonus of scoring. I could replace them with 10 plain shoota boys..that might work. This could be a lot of fun against armies that don't have an outrageous amount of shooting like IG...

Now, the exact opposite (also 1750):

HQ: Mek, burna, cybork, KFF, Bosspole
HQ: Ghazzy

Troop: 30 Shootas, 3x Rokkit, Nob w/PK&BP
Troop: 30 Shootas, 3x Rokkit, Nob w/PK&BP
Troop: 30 Sluggas, Nob w/PK&BP
Troop: 30 Sluggas, 3x big shoota, Nob w/PK&BP

Elite: 15 lootas
Elite: 15 lootas

originally was going to keep to just the Mek, but ghaz just adds so much to this kind of army it's hard to pass him by.

The greatest come from behind ever..

2011-04-14T07:32:00.000-07:00

So I tried out my bike list last night, but ended up playing Blood Angels.

His list:

Seth
Honor Guard, Champion
7 Death company, fist, infernus pistol, lemartes
5 assault marines, melta
5 assault marines, melta, TL-Ass cannon razzorback
Death company Dread (talons)
Baal Pred Ass cannon/HB
Baal Pred, Flamestorm
Stormraven, MM, ass cannon, hurricane bolders, armor
Stormraven, MM, Las, armor

He of course scouted up both Baals..and then siezed the initiative! I had placed my 2 units of lootas on opposite sides of the table in terrain, the lobbas and boys behind the terrain on my left, and all the bikes in the middle with the warboss on the bikes and wazzy with the nobs.

In his first turn, he killed 6 lootas, 5 bikes. I then proceeded to fail all my LD tests (11 twice on the bikes) and they all ran off the table! Ugh! 500pts just gone!

I was quite despondent, but I kept playing because, well I still had my nob bikers!

My first turn I immobilized and took both TL weapons off the death company storm raven which was right behind the predators in the middle. The bikes moved in an among the preds hoping for a multi-assault but Wasdakka's cannon blew up the flamestorm Baal so I couldn't assault anything. Oh, ya, and the lobbas only did one thing..wound a nob! It was looking mighty grim.

His 2nd turn all the DC and DC dread got out of their useless stormraven and everything shot and assaulted the nobs (except the baal, which killed 3 lootas). This is actually where the turn around really started..the way it turned out on the board is that most of his guys ended up in base only with Wazzy. Also having WS5 meant the DC dread was only hitting on 4's, which was a huge help as he ended up only doing 3 wounds before petering out on the talons. Most of his attacks landed on wazzy which died horribly..but also meant most of the attacks were basically lost. My 6 PK attacks blew up the DC dread. The first round ended up a push!

My 2nd turn my shooting was ineffective so jumped into assault. I got down the death company to just lemartes.

His third turn he had moved the red stormraven around until he got seth and the honor guard into assault range of the boys. Shooting got the lootas down to 5 guys, but they passed LD again lol. The assault didn't turn out well for him, he killed only 6 boys (rolled tripple-1's for seth's wounds) and I killed seth with my PK! Lemartes finally died.

My third turn I assaulted the jump pack guys, killing down to 1 man but he held, took the gun off the razorback. Killed off a couple more guys in the honor guard.

His 4th turn he shot the lootas down to 2 guys, held again! He threw the 5-man from the razorback (who had FC from red thirst) into the nobs. I killed all 6 models. Down to just 2 guys of the honor guard, killed no orks in return.

My 4th turn I blew up the baal pred with my lone 2 lootas with side armor shots, and the nobs wrecked the immobilized dc stormraven. Honor guard finally died. Took the missile launcher off the stormraven.

His 5th turn all he had left was a stormraven and a weaponless razorback. The stormraven took out a lobba and 1 loota, but I rolled LD again..double 1's lol.

My 5th turn the nob's dakka guns blew up the razorback.

Game went on to turn 7, I had taken all the weapons off the stormraven and it was SMF'ing around the board doing nothing.

Final tally: Orks 9 killpoints, Blood Angels 4 killpoints.

My dice got pretty hot, making a whole crapton of armor/invul/FNP saves on the nobs and his got cold, especially when trying to wound. I still think the biggest moment of the game was the first DC assault when half his unit was rendered useless by being only able to attack the IC.

Next week I will probably be up against the Mechdar I thought I would face this week. I might take a very, very strange list..or Tau.

Another strange list..

2011-04-12T23:47:00.000-07:00

So tomorrow is another league night. I will most likely be playing mechdar or deathwing. Either one does not sound like fun, so I might run something completely unorthodox and be an easy win for someone!

HQ: Warboss; Bike, pk, squig, cybork, bosspole
HQ: Wazdakka

Troop: 8 Bikers, nob w/PK&BP
Troop: 30 shootas, 3x rokkit, nob w/PK&BP
Troop: same 7 nob bikers

Elite: 11 lootas
Elite: 11 lootas

Heavy: 3 lobbas, 3x ammo runt

Lots of speed, lots of shooting @18". The idea with this is control. Control range, control areas of the board, control assaults. Use my speed and firepower to keep the game going as I want. No idea if any of it will work, but I'll be running all over the place trying! Either that, or I'll run the same list I did last week.

Also finished my grots. I now hae 33 grots, 4 ammo runs, 1 grot oiler and one grot orderly plus 2 runtherds. I should have enough to run a unit plus a couple units of big guns.

More Nob Bikers..

2011-04-10T03:09:00.001-07:00

Finished my 8th Nob Biker tonight, the one with just a big choppa. So I thought I'd get them all out, hit them with some dul-coat and take some pics. What can I say, I'm really liking Nob Bikers.

Also a couple pics of my last two, the kombi-skorchas..one with PK one with BC.

Also did 5 of my 10 grots for the April Freebootaz challenge. Just need flock. Using the wash technique they go so fast!

A bit of fun for the night..

2011-04-09T01:43:00.000-07:00

Last night I was painting and my daughter asked if she could paint. It was too late, but tonight I got out some guardsmen that was in my Tau army when I bought it. I tried to help them out a bit but basically just let them go and have fun. Recorded some of it on video too. was a fun and relaxing evening.

Rock, papper, scissors..

2011-04-07T06:58:00.000-07:00

Sometimes 40k can come down to matchups. Some armies play well or have weaknesses against certain builds.

Last night I got to come up against what I would call the "nightmare" build vs my army: Grey Knights with all Purifiers. Purifiers, if you don't know, have a power "cleansing flame" that every model in the combat with them takes a wound on 4+ before combat begins. Not models in base contact, but all models...and the wounds count toward combat res!

I can't think of anything worse for Ork Boys. Even though I played a smart as I could, I still could not avoid getting boys stuck in. It basically only happened once but that was still enough to kill 11 out of 18 boys in the combat. I knew I had whittled down the unit enough to wipe them out, which I did, but it was at a heavy price. Purifiers are guys that MUST be shot not assaulted!

Combined with massive psycannon shooting really took a toll on the boys. Against the poison-heavy Dark Eldar at least I can still get in assault with whatever boys remain and have a darn good chance of winning..not so much against Purifiers.

I think I actually got distracted by spending too much time worrying about controlling assaults. The psybolt-ammo rifleman was a big problem against the nob bikers with those S8 shots..I should have shot that first, before the rhinos, because it did a good deal of damage. I only blew it up after Nobs were already in assault.

Paladins also present a problem. The thing is though, Orks is pretty much the only army that will have a problem with them. Anyone able to pack melta or lascannon fire won't be worried about them at all, so hopefully we won't be seeing them all that often.

What's better then Nob Bikers?

2011-04-06T00:49:00.000-07:00

More nob bikers!

I'm taking the 1500pt list I played in the tournament and adding 2 more nob bikers and more lootas. I had a few points left over, so I added a runtherd to the lobbas. 1750pts, 8 killpoints. Love it.

So I'll see how things goes. Here is the 1750 list:

HQ: Warboss, pk, squig, cybork, bike
HQ: Mek, KFF, burna, cybork

Troop: 7 nob bikers, all with stikkbombz and cyborks
1: Pk
2: Pk, bosspole
3: Pk, kombi-skorcha,
4: painboy, Orderly
5: wagh! banner, big choppa
6: big choppa, kombi-skorcha
7: Slugga/choppa
Troop: 30 Shootas, 3x rokkit, nob w/PK&BP
Troop: 30 Shootas, 3x rokkit, nob w/PK&BP

Elite: 12 lootas
Elite: 13 lootas

Heavy: 3x Lobba, 3x ammo runts, 1x extra crew, runtherd

Yay I got in a game of Fantasy!

2011-04-04T07:11:00.000-07:00

Went over to Western Oregon Wargamers Sunday for Ordo's fantasy game night. I have not been there in a while, but I felt like dusting off the Vampire Counts.

Only played 1250, which is a strange point level for WFB but it was still a lot of fun.

I got to watch a couple games going on before I played.

My list was:

Lord: Vampire Lord; Lord of the dead; Flayed Hauberk, tomb blade, helm of commandment

Hero: Necromancer, +1 spell, nightmare shroud, dispel scroll (Nehek, vanhel's)

Core: 15 Crypt Ghouls; crypt ghast
Core: 15 Crypt Ghouls; crypt ghast
Core: 19 Skeleton warriors, full command, banner of hellfire
Core: 3xBat swarm bases

Special: 18 grave guard, full command, banner of barrows

I played vs a goblin list with 2 big blocks of goblins, a combat lord, a shaman, and a hero BSB, and one of the new spiders.

I continue to forget about my banner of barrows. For like 3 or 4 combat rounds I forgot not only to use it (I would have been hitting on 2's with re-rolls) but also forgot about the re-rolls from vanhels! lol. By then it was too late as 1 unit of ghouls and my grave guard had been ground down by the spider.

One epic fail was near the end. I had just the ghast left against the spider and one unit of goblins. I got off 3 neheks and rolled a 1 for all 3! sigh.

In the end I was able to charge and wipe out the unit of goblins with the lord and bsb, giving me a narrow 800-675pt win.

It was a great game. I really, really like the VC magic phase able to cast over and over again. Having the 2nd caster was a huge benefit.

SMA Contest is going on again!

2011-04-01T21:36:00.000-07:00

Last year I entered a Vendetta in a contest at Scale model addict. Didn't win, but I get a random prize of some nice airbrush paints for military models.

Well It's starting again, today in fact, and ends in 2 months. I'm thinking about looking a tank kit I have into a wartraxx.

We'll see.

Nob bikers are still ridiculously good.

2011-03-27T22:47:00.000-07:00

Played in my 2nd tournament of the month.

Modified my list slightly, dropping 2 lootas for a 2nd pk and kombi-skorcha in the nobs. Final list was:

HQ: Warboss, pk, squig, cybork, bike
HQ: Mek, KFF, burna, cybork

Troop: 5 nob bikers, 2xpk, 1x kombi-skorcha, painboy, wagh! banner, big choppa, bosspole, grot orderly, wound allocated.
Troop: 30 Shootas, 3x rokkit, nob w/PK&BP
Troop: 30 Shootas, 3x rokkit, nob w/PK&BP

Elite: 9 lootas
Elite: 9 lootas

Heavy: 3x Lobba, 3x ammo runts, 2x extra crew (had 6pts left over).

I wasn't quite happy about not having a screening unit, but I came to the conclusion I would use 1 unit of shootas to screen the 2nd if worse came to worse.

However I completely, utterly wrecked face getting 48 out of a possible 51 points, with 2nd place having 37.

First game vs Mech IG. Dawn of war, I had my nobs just outside meltagun range of stuff coming on the edge. I then got a 2nd turn multi-assault and proceded to wreck half his army with just the nobs. Won on objectives as one of the boys were basically untouched. I lost 1 nob, and 27 models out of 1 boy squad.

Second game vs CSM. The nobs killed off 2 demon princes and 5 terminators before finally falling themselves. It was the only unit I lost the whole game. All he had left was a blastmaster and 2 oblits. Won on killpoints 7-1.

Third game vs Mechdar. I got first turn, lootas brought down 2 tanks before they even got to move. After that it was all downhill. He called it at the middle of 5, as all he had was an immobilized falcon, a stunned waveserpent and 4 pinned firedragons. I had lost only my lobbas and 1 unit of lootas. Won on objectives.

The nob bikers were completely over the top the entire day, totally obliterating everything they touched and refusing to die until it was far too late. The lobbas were again, completely ace. First game wiping out 2 infantry units. 2nd game putting a crapton of wounds on thousand sons, eventually killing 7 out of 9. Third game wiped out a unit of Dire Avengers and pinning firedragons.

Time to face the music.

2011-03-25T16:32:00.000-07:00

Yep. I might need glasses. I guess it happens when you get old. I am having intermittent trouble focusing on my models when painting. Problem is I can't afford glasses...I don't have optical coverage on my health insurance. I haven't needed it before!

Last night I was painting nob bikers without any real problem. So it's kinda freaking me out that sometimes I can see fine, other times I can't focus on anything small hardly at all.

Anyway..next week..

Terrain done.

2011-03-21T02:20:00.001-07:00

Wow this was way more work then I expected. The trees which were the inspiration were not that bad, the clay work on those didn't take long. The rest of it though was far more time intensive then I wanted.

The biggest time sink was probably the vines and plants. After getting the base done with Spackle, I decided that having just trees wouldn't work. So I spent the next few hours sculpting, baking and gluing plants, leaves and vines. Ugh. However the result was more then worth it.

I don't know how people crank out terrain. This was days of work, for just 1 piece.

Anyway next project is a Hawk Lords marine. After that more razorback, nob bikers and death company dreadnought.

And finally a unit of Firewarriors move through the swamp