BAALS-2-the-WAALS

Minecraft massive Creeper Monument

2012-03-15T23:05:00.001-07:00

A 52 block tall creeper monument I built on the mountain next to the owe I built my main house.base on...as tribute, on a bit of a minecraft phase while I paint my VC. I will post my Colonial GT final list soon, since I do not expect to win at all....a game will make me happy lol.....anyway that took about 3 hours to make so enjoy....anyone else a minecraft junkie? nice to take a break from skyrim....probably go back after the Colonial.....

Rules Corrections Online: Helpful or Destructive

2012-03-08T21:47:00.000-08:00

Hey all, sorry about a lack of non-posting (if you actually read me consistently). Work and school have kept myself from gaming with nothing to comment on. Yet I have a fairly signifigant topic to talk about today. It happens to do with the great resource we all have which is the internet. More specifically I am talking about battle reports. Since the internet is a way for us joes/janes to get a point across without any face to face restitution. I am here to comment on rules correcting on battle reports and videos all across the web.

Now when it comes to 40k I generally have a fairly commanding knowledge of the game, yet as a human I do get rules wrong from time to time. Heck I wrote an article about some jerk getting a rule wrong awhile back and really I was just wrong all the time. I try to be humble so I admit wrong at these times yet as a signifigant issue is this a case?

Awhile back I was commenting on a BTP video correcting Shawn on a simple rule he got wrong and I had some guy start internet raging against myself telling me that I was everything he hated and wished I would die. Now Shawn stated in many videos before to correct him on the issues so he would play a better game to help advertise. I also, in my attempt to get better, welcome all critics on rules I get wrong since I would rather get things right rather than wrong.

Yet I do have to state, sometimes it can get out of hand...for gods sake people we are playing with toys....

So I am here to state we should correct each other when wrong, yet we need to be civil. I hold nothing against any haters on myself getting rules wrongs, or people hating me for correcting, or sometimes incorrectly correcting, my fellow colleages online. We should all be civil and correct problems yet it does not need to be an emotional matter....now as for players that get corrected and then get mad at those correcting them and refuse to play the game correctly I will admit to having an issue with. (One time I met a guy stating he refused to let anyone play his chaos space marines without letting him use his storm raven since he didn't like how the rules worked and did not care)

We also run into players who get stubborn in tournament play. I am always glad to get corrected at tournaments. Some players get angry and toss dice then refuse to play and bomb you on sportsmanship. Now there is a fine line from rules lawyering and correcting. Basic rules corrections shown in faq's or the brb need to be embraced without emotional anger and outbursts.....yet we shall always face this problem.....what should we do interwebs....help our fellow gamer, in a non douchebag way of course but in a reasonable adult way, or let ignorance be bliss? An issue with many sides, thanks for reading m8's

Silly Rules Shenanigans Debate Episode 1: Fantasy swift reform jumping

2012-02-15T00:28:00.000-08:00

Ok so at the start of BTP's newest fantasy BatRep an actual tournament met buddy of mine, from last years colonial with his awesome cinnamonids, Ben showed a rules shenanigan to be able to jump his units forward to enter a building in the center of the table. Now I like Ben and he is a good non-waac cat in general so I trust his explanation. He claims that using swift reform, by passing a leadership check, he can reform his unit essentially in a conga line forward before he moves. then since it is a swift reform he can move forward, or sideways I couldn't really tell by the explanation, essentially into the building in the middle of the table. Now this is useful since you cannot march into a building yet you still can move twice your movement and get into the building this way. A commentor pointed out this could be technically legal as long as you do not move more than twice your movement. I can see this since the only rule covering anything like this is that a model cannot reform more than twice its movement. Yet it is a shakey move as it does sort of bend the rules stopping marching units from entering buildings. Also another commentor pointed out that is it not the case that the standard, muscician and champ all need to be in the front rank? Well I can say even if that is the case can they not just do a conga line facing to the side so essentially you just do a sideways move into the building.....My one thing that makes this seem illegal? Can you reform to twice your movement and still move? Is there not a rule that says you cannot move more than twice your movement in the movement phase no matter what? (as magic can move you)

So why is this something to worry about? Well in a tournament if a watchtower scenerio pops up you essentially can jump up to the watchtower turn 1....which is fairly cheesey.

So I am trying to get a forum of debate here from my fantasy readers....Is this legal in general? How can we make it legal? Is this just a little too beardy for your tastes?

New Vampire Counts 2nd Wave Releases up for Pre-Order

2012-02-11T10:14:00.000-08:00

Ok everyone GW just put out for pre-order a new watchtower that is VC themed called the Deathknell Watch (pictured above). They also are putting out a new battallion box including 20 skelies, 20 ghouls, a corpse cart and 10 dire wolves....not bad for a battallion. With two of these you almost have all of my starting core in my army. Things like this give you the opportunity to still get an army for around $400....so if you wanted to start VC with the new book and did not want to buy things under the standard price just wait a little while for this release. Check the GW website for more details...Would you call this a true 2nd wave although? I am expecting some new boxes come march or april...hopefully new zombies boxes

The Terror Bomb: My list's specific version of the Vampire Count fear bomb

2012-02-06T22:23:00.000-08:00

Off Topic fun fact: Seriously most of those^ shows, including the movie, are based of New Jersey myths, legends, and folklore. Also that show seriously made you $#!^ your pants sometimes if you are a 90's child like me

Ok all, I'm here again to talk about Vampire Counts. Now I know I am not the originator of the idea on the web first but reading through the Vampire Counts specific wargear and special rules a hugely synergetic combo pops out...and that is the fear bomb(I believe Duke or someone first posted about it but idk who coined the term). It is a general combo of certain vampiric traits and special wargear that force mots opponents to take a statistically impossible(well improbable atleast) to pass fear test. Now you can further the effects of the bomb by including the banner of the barrows and putting it in a GG unit. You can also give a special character in the unit glittering scales (lol sparkle vampires ftw? I feel my lord will somehow be named after twilight) to cause your opponent to hit the character on 6's. Here is my personal set up combination of a ogre blade-red fury lord and the fear bomb unit.

Lord. Vampire Lord, lore of Shadows, level 2, fear incarnate, aura of dark majesty,

Red Fury, ogre blade, glittering scales- 420

Hero. Wight King, BSB, Screaming Banner- 119

Hero. Cairn Wraith- 60

Special. X25 Grave Guard, seneschal, musician, standard bearer, banner of barrows- 355

Now before I get the question I only have 25 GG in the unit to meet requirements for the Colonial GT's cap on the unit. Also I did not give them great weapons for one the unit is killy enough as is, and two by being such a small little hammer unit I need it to be a little more survivable with the +1 to armor and parry saves.

Still look at how this unit works. It forces you take a terror check (cairn wraith causes terror which is huge with all of the fear causing units that would ignore this in the game) on your unit at -1 leadership with 3 dice pick the two highest and if you pass the test you have to reroll it (because of fear incarnate, aura, and the wailing banner)...Then with the banner of the barrows if you fail I hit you on 2's while you hit me on 5's (6's if you attack the lord from glittering scales)....Also my now Strength 7 Lord with all of his attacks gets an extra attack for every unsaved wound (-4 to your armor save also). My GG still have killing blow with good attacks from my BSB and great weapon armor, armor ignoreing cairn wraith.... Shadows is honestly in there to cast mystifying miasma as my first spell to be dispell dice bait....also shadows is so common since it is such a good lore....oh and they all have regeneration from my mortis engine....

Downsides to my little deathstar? It is a lot of points sinking me 954 points! (&#@@#$!!!!!) Still in fantasy that kind of points generally goes to lords as they can be pricey and I would ask you to match this up against the majority of units and tell me it will not win most combats. It does rely a lot on invo repllenishing my ranks as I expect every turn to be having the kitchen sink thrown first followed by everything that can shoot in the shooting and magic phases. Now for question time I know I cause terror from the wraith....but would the unit take terror checks since the majority of the unit causes fear not terror?

All in all a beast of a unit and I love the synergy....thoughts?

Colonial GT bound..but for Fantasy?!?! /My Competitive Vampire Counts List

2012-02-01T09:41:00.000-08:00

So last week I went to buy my Colonial GT ticket for 40k and sadly it had just closed that day. So when I got an email saying it would open back up for some slots I got kind of excited yet I was on a buisness trip so I had to wait a day before I could buy my ticket. I went online to get it and only saw fantasy was available....now I had thoughts of playing 40k at this event but I have been drawn to fantasy ever since I got back into 40k. I finally indulged and purchased my fantasy ticket.....so whats the problem?

I have never actually played a game of fantasy in my life....ever.

Yet I will admit I have been slowly building a VC army for about a year now, and immediatly jumped on buying that codex as soon as whispers were out and about the web.... Let me say I love the book (look for a readers review later....after I actually play some games)

Now the one reason I feel intimidated is not that I have not played a game before. I have played 40k for over a decade and competitively for years now with multiple tournament wins. The mechanics are similar and I have read all the rules multiple times and watched many games of it played. I have a good understanding of the mechanics and tactics of fantasy. I actually like how fantasy is palyed a lot more than 40k, I have just played 40k a lot and my home base has less fantasy players than a hill billy has teeth. Heck I just met one guy who plays....probably won't see him again. Out of the Colonials 3 VC players last year they all finished 1st, 6th, and 8th......thats a pretty high honor role. Honestly I know VC kind of got a lot of haters with the last book as it was fairly OP. I am not a bandwagon jumper for the new book either as Ive always loved this army. Anyway the new book is following a nice trend of the 8th fantasy books all being fairly balanced (Ogres are in review for slightly beardy)

Anyway fantasy is my new crack.....and i love the new range with the tactics it presents. The only issue is I am loking at painting 200+ models in the next 2 months (GRIPE#1)...now I like painting skeletons and zombies since I am a halloween nut but damnnnnnnnn.....thats a little much for me. It was my primary reason I wasn't gonna play fantasy at the Colonial this year with thoughts of it last year. Anyway heres an early draft of my list....I am open to suggestions and critique of it but I lvoe the synergy of the special wargear, vampiric powers, and model abilities mixed with the vampire lore to give this army an almost warmachine style buffs system.....explanation as followed

2499

Lords

1. Vampire Lord, lore of Shadows, level 2, fear incarnate, aura of dark majesty, Red Fury, ogre blade, armor of fortune- 430

2. Master Necromancer, level 4, lore of vampires, master of the dead, gamblers armor- 220

Heroes

1. Wight King, BSB, Screaming Banner- 119

2. Vampire, level 1, lore of vampires, dispel scroll, book of arkhan-145

Core

1. X40 Skeleton Warriors, champ, standard bearer, musician, banner of swiftness- 255

2. X20 Ghouls- 200

3. X20 Ghouls - 200

Special

1. X25 Grave Guard, seneschal, musician, standard bearer, banner of barrows- 355

2. X5 Hexwraiths, hellwraith- 160

Rare

1. Cairn Wraiths x3, tomb banshee -175

2. Mortis Engine Blasphemous tome- 240

Ok stating off with the Lords/heroes I have my personal favorate shadows lord. He is not ment to do much but be a combat beast (red fury and ogre blade? yes please) built into the grave guard (limiteed GG as the colonial caps them at 28). Why shadows? I like the buffs it can give, he is not ment to be a spellcaster like last edition but be part of my cool new fear bomb gem the book gave us. combine him with my bsb in the unit and we have unit that makes you take a fear check at -1 leadership while rolling 3 dice and getting rid of the lowest....and if you pass you have to reroll it.....combine that with banner of the barrows and I hit you first on 2's while you hit me on 5's......boom that is nasty.

Now the MN is my vamp lore guy, he is there for all that goodness at a wayyyyy lower cost than a LVL 4 lord. He hides with the skeletons boosting all the units nearby. Also in the unit is the LVL 1 vamp with the book of arkhan for vanhels shananigans and also a dedicated invoc caster as he will almost always drop his rolled spell for the signiture.

My core comes with 40 skelies and two units of ghouls....now I know ghouls are not as coola s large skelie blocks these days but they are good flank hitters as I ride them along my flanks. The skelies get boosted from invo at the start since my master necro has master of the dead and can boost them beyond starting size....by the time im in combat they will be around 55 strong.

Now for rare you see me rocking the Mortis engine....it boosts my magic rolls with +2 which is good since vamps live and die in the magic phase....also it is a huge threat to my opponent as the longer it lives the stronger it gets....It will also give my necessarilly compact army all regen for the most part as well as lashing out with attacks from banshee screams, its built in aura, and its ghost horde if in combat....all together I couldn't deny it entry being only 240 points....it hides behind my two main blocks dead center for maximum coverage....I also have a small wraith unit.....why? Well for one I love the oop models for them and grim reaper-esqueness (I know that is not a word). It is a nice redirecting unit/flank hitter that hits with a strong ethereal punch.

The last part of my list is a unit a lot of people do not see as worth it....and I agree they are a huge liability with a single fireball wasting the unit without a save easy.....but I love the models for them and think they can be protected easily.....see the hexwraith unit I will hide on my right flank behind my blocks of infantry so when I get into combat they can use thier march move, and vanhals....to go through my unit and my opponents block (ghostly evil attacks while I move through) then reposition for a rear charge next turn....all in all I like the idea...so my army looks like this advancing forward....farily balanced and strong with magic

                                          CAIRN
GHOULS SKELIES GG GHOULS
HEX               MORTIS

All in all it is a fairly solid army IMHO....a lot of buffs and neat little shenanigans with some cool ethereal elements mixed in with all being legal for the tournament. PErsonally I am excited (except for painting 10 models a day almost every day for 2 months)

time to go build some mantic skelies! more on this later! (for sithis!!?!?!?!?? ...........bad skyrim joke sorry)

BOW Lets loose another duece about the "Heretics" 40k Book

2012-01-26T20:45:00.000-08:00

So the corporate sellouts we all love to hate and love at the exact same time, the beasts of war team, used their supposed high end connections at GW to find out what the 6th leak, or as they say the "Heretics Rulesbook" (Has anyone actually called it this besides them till this point? I can picture Warren saying those words with his characteristic sickly smug smile while nodding his head and his eyes closed......*shudder*)

(btw the title was a joke and I atleast thought it was funny)

here is what the BOW team has to say....

The 40K Heretics Rulebook is Real… Only it’s Not!
Yes… you heard that correctly. After a lot of digging and snooping around the inside of the great citadel (or should that be Citadel) that is Games Workshop, we have some very interesting news about the so-called Heretics 40K Rulebook… or the 6th Edition Leak for those with little flair for the dramatic!
It turns out that this is in fact an actual early version of the 6th Edition rules… but not quite. Apparently the Design department were let loose on the 40K system… they were allowed to try anything they fancied… we’re told that nothing was off the table. This “no-holds-barred” version was then edited down with the truly unworkable ideas removed and those that could prove to be exciting or contentious left in to be play-tested… so was born the Heretics 40K Rulebook!
This version was sent to trusted play-testers. Who like all trusted minions… were turned by the promise of power… or in this case internet notoriety and likely splurted the document all over the web!
I actually found this explanation to be not just more plausible (than the lone gunman theory) but a real breath of fresh air from the ‘Ivory Citadel’, and to me at least it shows a high level of innovation within the design team, and also shows that there is no shortage of ideas knocking around in there.
Word has it the design team had a real blast with this iteration of the rules (loved it apparently) but spotted alot of potential for asshats to ruin it for everyone else with unbalanced lists etc.
And there you have the crux of the issue the design team face, they could probably create a massively fun game at the drop of the hat, and simple folk like me wold love them dearly for it, but alas there is a whole other side (some say dark, Darrel says only!) to our hobby and that is the competitive win at all costs play.
So, fun as they may be, they’re not the final (or indeed likely to be anything like the complete) rule set for 6th edition… but what were we told about the actual 6th Edition Rules?
Well some really interesting stuff. For a start here’s what will not be included from the Heretics Rulebook:
Evasion Values are Out – well this was a given… I’m sure every Dark Eldar player was praying for the day that their skimmers and flyers didn’t fall over in a stiff breeze, but that’s not all. Our Man in Havana has told us that Dark Eldar players will be very pleased with the 6th Edition updates.
Could that mean an overhaul of the skimmer rules… could it mean more deadly flyers?
Of course it could mean one, both or neither. However, more robust transports would make the Dark Eldar much more deadly… so keep your eyes peeled for more revelations.
The Turn Sequence will remain the same – The biggest shake-up and the one that would mean a rewrite of Assault weapons and the death of certain “shooty armies” ( Tao ), was the turn structure that put charging/melee before shooting. I would say it was unrealistic, but in a world of extra-terrestrial and supernatural horrors, where mankind has moved to the stars… that’s probably a bit redundant.
Anyway… the turn structure will remain the same as it is now.
No Unit by Unit Activation – Yup that was pretty disappointing for me, (but who knows everything we have been told could well be misinformation too!) I was sooo looking forward to faster more intricate games with that option.
Gargantuan Creatures will remain with Forge World & Apocalypse Games – That’s right… probably no supersized tanks and critters for the main rulebook… but does that mean we won’t get any Aracknarok-sized monsters?
Well it hasn’t been ruled out, and as Land Raiders are already that size, it’s doesn’t take a genius to think we’ll be getting more big kits.
In fact that was one of the discussions… we all like to gripe about GW prices.
However, it was explained that GW are investing all the time in new kits, new moulds, more people (sculpting team is largest its ever been apparently) and a bigger and better gaming experience… you can take that at face value if you wish… but if it means more plastic kits (and fewer Finecast), and more big bad creatures and machines is it worth it?
So who will be writing this new 6th Edition Rulebook I hear you cry?
Well as you can imagine the creation of a new rule set of this scale is a team effort… but some poor soul has to captain this vessel… so who is it?
Well… that really is top secret and even we couldn’t get the name (and you can’t use thumbscrews these days!)… but we did find out who it isn’t.
So here are a few names who might be involved, but won’t be the lead writer… Matt Ward, Robin Cruddace and Phil Kelly… but if not one of them… then who?
Will you need an update to your existing Codex when 6th Edition launches?
We’re told that the new rule book was written to take into account the latest releases and so there’s no need to post a massive errata.
However, we know that there are many codices that need a revamp. So I’m very sceptical that there will be “no need for an FAQ”.
Although I’m always prepared to be proven wrong.
So, there you go… that was an interesting conversation… and it doesn’t stop there.
We got some more great bits of info that we’ll be able to share with you… but not quite yet… you’ll need to be patient.
However, until then… feel free to speculate all you want… or post a question. Perhaps we can call a few guys and see if we can get you the inside track.
Big caveats on this guys, in that while we’re confident that the contents of the article are accurate you are relying on our sources, and… well… there could be many ways in which it may not be accurate (not necessarily deliberate by a source either!) so take it that its just part of the business these days that while we do our best, there are no guarantees!
All of that aside, is the Heretics 40K Rulebook good enough, different enough to warrant a following of its own? (I’m so tempted its unreal!)
BoW Warren

Well personally I would love to know, besides their insides with the online discounting giant Wayland Games (I am a fan of Wayland) how they always get these inside pieces of info? It is a cool thing to see and I do believe that this is probably the case. All I know is I hope the changes to reserves stick. I'd like to thank the guys at BOW for this but really guys? Can you share your source to provide credibility?

The Conflict GT in Review

2012-01-17T14:14:00.000-08:00

Hey all Kevin reporting in about The Conflict GT after a few days of mulling over the events. In this article i will post about the event in general, who won, the list breakdown, the meta game, and my personal experiences/games. First lets start off with the list breakdown of the event.......and man has the meta changed in the major tournament scene in the past year....

Lets just say razorspam is a long gone thing of the past. Outside of the GK armies, the last razorspam, and Dark Eldar Venom spam mech is cut in half. I think with my two razorbacks I had more than almost all of the marine armies there. If there was mech, and there were a couple identical builds like this, it consisted of tri-predators with a couple dreadnoughts and mabye a razorback or two.....or rhinos. Also besides mine there were a few multi-land raider lists. Regardless it seems that GK really forced the game to switch to a high AV list with about half as much mech than the past. So these heavy/smaller mechanized forces are whats in. I also ran into quite a few heavy foot lists on the marine side....so the breakdown of Codices came as such and the breakdown of the top tables that everyone would want to read....

42 Players Overall playing 40k

Grey Knights-8 (1st and 3rd respectively Overall)
Vanilla Space Marines- 8
Necrons- 7 (2nd place overall with Alex Fennells pink flower necrons, almost took the event)
Blood Angels- 5
Dark Eldar- 3
Daemons- 2
Tyranids-2
Imperial Guard- 1
Dark Angels- 2 (no deathwing ironicly)
Sisters- 1
Space Wolves- 1
Tau- 1
Eldar- 1
Orks- 1

Absent Codex from event - Chaos Space Marines

So the top table in the final round was Alex Fennell, who was top table the entire event with his pink flower and butterfly necrons knocking out Rich Thorkorn's Sisters army round 5, and then in round 6 a very good daemons player Bill Souza. They ended up getting a very common tie in the event leaving it open for Andrew Gonyo, the returning best overall, and his Grey Knights to take the event. His list looked something like this (I didn't get a look at his list just what models he had and a small discussion with him after the event so I may be wrong)

Alex Fennels 2nd Place Necron List (EDITORS NOTE: He held in there neck in neck until Andrew took the lead after 5 and cemented it with Alex getting a tie round 6 and Andrew winning)

Alex's list (from Andrew's memory)

Anrakyr on Command Barge
Overlord on foot, phaeron, warscythe
2x Cryptek (1 a lance-tek with solar pulse, 1 a voltaic staff/lighnting field)

9x warriors (with Ghost Ark)
10x immortals
5x warriors

7x Scarabs
6x Wraiths
2x2 Spyders, each with a gloom prism
1x Monolith
Andrew's 1st Place GK List (EDIT: Thanks Ordo Bob and Andrew himself for giving me the actual list)

GM - Incinerator, Psychotroke, Rad
Coteaz

5x 3 Acolyte in Razorback, Psybolts
1x 5 DCA/4 Crusaders and an empty Razorback with psybolts/sl

3x Psyflemen Dread (non-ven)

10x Purifiers: 2x hammer, 2x incinerator, 2x psycannon, in a rhino with dozer/sl

1x Stormraven (tl mm/lascannons) with sl

Sprinkle in a sl or two more on the basic troop razors to make 1750, i cant remember if one or two had it.

The top 10 players and codices were as follows....

1. Andrew Gonyo- Grey Knights
2. Alex Fennell- Necrons
3.Brookie Andrews- Grey Knights
4. Bill Souza- Chaos Daemons
5. Rich Thorkorn- Sisters of Battle
6.Jorge Ruiz- Blood Angels
7.Sean Nayden- Tyranids
8.Andrew Rubino-Grey Knights
9. James T- unlisted(?)
10. Ragnar Arneson- Blood Angels

The Conflict Cup winner (Best team/club)
Cold Steel Mercs which included Ragnar, Alex Fennell, and gang

Overall a very good list. He came back into it from behind since he was on the lower tables after an early first day draw. This kept him off of Alex Fenell who was (cold steel) Mercing people all day with a very odd Necrons list including everyones new favorate dirty necron deathstar which is The Traveler in a command barge getting his sweep attacks, taking over a vehicle and mercing another vehicle, then jumping about destroying another vehicle in assault....and the command barge shooting up another vehicles rear armor.....a real pain the @$$. Anyway it also included some scarabs, a few spyders, a monolith, some warrior squads and wraiths. He ended up taking down another necrons list, a daemon player, a grey knights player from my knowledge (I played next to him in almost all of my rounds).

So overall the event was a 1750 point tournament with no restrictions. Since the tournament was a single mission win/tie/draw with no tiered winning levels this tournament was full of draws. I personally tied half of my games! The scenerios themselves came off a little funky with scattering terrain and low objective missions. There was only one killpoint game as well as a retro 3rd edition recon mission and table quarters (which was kind of wierd that any unit could contest any corner making it an easy tie game). In general I do not know anyone at the event who did not tie atleast one game. There were no big issues and no real rules disputes and there was a lack of scarab farming other than fritz who chose not to use the cheesey way to enterprite the rules anyway.

So as for myself I brought a list I changed about a month before the event and only got two practice games in with (Every gamers number one mistake). It consisted of 2 land raiders with unupgraded 5 man tac squads. 2 razorbacks(one las/plas and one tl las) with unupgraded 5 man tac squads. a tl las/ dccw/hf dread. a mm attack bike....and my biker command squad.....I thought that with my two recent tournament 2nd place finishes with my duel land raider chaos lists I could change my marines to go with this theme. Now I had an feeling this list would'nt work before hand and after the 3rd round I had confirmed my thoughts. See with my defensive back line scoring land raiders and my razorbacks I had a lot of lascannons but with the lack of mech in this meta I had nothing to deal with anything else but my biker command squad. I went 1-2-3 overall in the event knocking myself out after 2 draws in rounds 1 and 2. I ended up 31st out of 42 overall in another dismall personal performance at a GT....sigh always next time....I really have to start bringing not crap lists to these events.

I played a tau army (draw) a cocheese gk list (draw) a very young but apperently extremely good necron wraith based list (loss) a daemon player (loss) a tri land raider and storm raven blood angel list( draw) and a adeptus mechanicus themed vulkan vanilla marines list (massacre win).......Terraina t the event was fairly meh with little to no los blocking terrain and we could place it (so I always put the los blocking stuff on the table edge making it an open battlefield for my lascaanons). Still it was a nice event with some cool games. Look later for a video of the event......more on this later....

6th Edition Leak Rundown: Fake or Real? If Real then What is in store for 40k

2012-01-12T20:41:00.000-08:00

Hey all, as everyone probably knows by now a possible leak of 6th edition with the codex revisions has released online in the now to be famously coined Pancakes Incident. So a couple of debates are popping up. One is of the possible changes as we see them unfold in front of us, some are drastic....the other is, of course, is this real or one of the most elaborate hoax's we have seen in the fake rumor mill.....So examining the document it is plagued by a lot of grammatical and spelling errors. Yet a lot can be credited to an early draft as we have seen to be leaked (The Grey Knights Leak for instance). Also a lot of rules, if read, kind of trail off without actually telling you what they do or how they work but this can probably be credited to rules not being linked together well with reference pages and page numbers. So can this be real? At first I highly doubted this being pragmatic yet the more I read the more I can see that it is possible. In reality if this is real it is probably the 2011 playtest edition from the begining of the year or last summer. So in reality if this is an early playtest it will be full of errors, changed rules, updated rules, and missing new ideas. So as was the case with the dreadknight from the GK codex take all of it with a grain of salt as all is subject to change. Be completely sceptical about it as well.....

So on to the leak itself. Lets pretend it is a playtest copy and go over what the content means for the new meta to be formed. All in all it seems to be a hodge podge of elements and mechanics from the current editions of 40k and fantasy, as well as a recollection of popular old rules from all previous editions of 40k.

One of the first, and most notable changes we see is a complete re-ordering of the turn sequence putting the assault phase before shooting like as in fantasy. This could be huge because with running being moved back into the movement phase different options can arise allowing units to assault a unit and then shoot another. This does however make it hard to blow up a tank, and than assault the contents.....yet that may not matter since models inside can take critical hits causing instant death with only invul. saves allowed. Also with more elaborate options available in the movement phase units can be a lot faster since running is now double your movement instead of a d6 extra inches...This can give a concrete ability such as with fleet beasts can now assault 24 inches in a turn. Now in general we have always had the same turn sequence through every edition of 40k. This would be the largest change to the game.

We also have some old rules coming back. Including the extremely popular Overwatch ability which alows certain units to shoot, in your opponents movement phase, if your opponent moves within 12"s of the unit. This was a hugely popular rule with certain terminator units way back from before my time starting in the end of 3rd edition. We also see a cool return of terrain that can block line of sight called dense terrain. In the past all terrain blocked line of sight regardless since TLOS did not exsist. Instead a unit could only see 6 inches through a piece of terrain yet some units could see through more. This could be cool as tournaments could dictate a few dense pieces of terrain on the table that blocks line of sight entirely which is a tactical asset.

Another new element is the inclusion of strategic assets, similar to the apoc varients. These add in a level of stradegy in a game where people complain that games can be bland with little to no stratedgy other than who can blast thier opponent off the table by winning the roll to go first. Now as we see with some fantasy items many of these, such as the bunkers you can build and such, will probably be banned....Also since I am talking about things that will probably be banned it seems that the rumors are true and imperial armor will be allowed including titans....so don't expect every army to be including a titan for one they will probably be banned in general at major GT's. Also superheavies, in fact will take up more than one spot. An example given was that a baneblade will take up 2 heavy slots so you would not see multiples of any of these units anyway and at a large cost....

Also being returned to us is the older version of wound allocation which is by armor type. Se expect again, as in the old games, to roll all the dice for a squad and always have the sarge, special weapon, and heavy weapon always remarkably be the last ones to die in every squad (so give me that meltagun you jerk I have a family and need to live!). Also it makes diverse squads useless without our current wound allocation system. Also with the new rules models with multiple wounds try to heal themselves, so you can gain a wound in your new consolidation phase, but also leave behind the most wounded by killing off one of your own models.....I don't think this rule will hold ground if these rules to turn out to be an early set.

Personally I like the way the pdf has changed reserves. It uses a similar mechanic to fantasy magic giving you a reserves "pool" of dice equal to the units you have in reserve. You can roll up to three of these dice for any particular unit and even combine reserves into "strike forces" to be rolled for all at once. Personally this adds so much tactical and strategic flavor to the game and the reserves game in general....

Now these are just a few examples of how the game will change if we see this rules set as real. Yet even if we do we will probably see massive changes in the final set of rules. So I guess it can be healthy to give these a look over yet I would'nt go changing entire armies over this pdf. The number one defense people have that the GW denial is just damage control since apperently the pdf has a custom font that no one can use. Yet fonts can be made and there are similar fonts to the one GW uses available online. Still some people are getting very debative on the issue since these "leaked" rules seem pretty cool....more on this later....thoughts?

2nd Annual OSDD Charity Doubles Tournament "The Fight Against Hunger":The Original Wacky Doubles Event!

2011-12-29T09:05:00.000-08:00

Hey All, Kevin here with details of my clubs annual Doubles tournament at TempleCon. We decided to drop all of our previous events for just our infamous doubles tournament format which has one praise online and copycats all across the country...unfortunatly I will be stuck at work in New Jersey this year or I would attend (ironically its on my birthday so it would have been sweet, but its also the boss mans vacation...darn)...Still we intend to run our event with all of the bells and whistles loved last year with even more awesomeness and an extremely juicy set of models up for our auction this year including some fairly well known painters including Jawaballs and many of our clubs hobby enthusiasts.....here is the Press release made by Melonhead, our TO and club leader.....so on to the details!

Ocean State Dice Devils

2^nd Annual “Fight Against Hunger”

Charity Doubles Tournament

Where: Templecon.org Crown Plaza, Warwick, RI

When: 12:45 PM on Friday February 3^rd, 2012. Be there at 12 for registration.

What: A Doubles Team Tournament to benefit the Rhode Island Food Bank. A fun and extremely broken tournament. Remember it’s for a good cause and a good time.

Cost: Free with a TemplCon admission. Although donations of cash and/or canned goods will be accepted on behalf of the RI Food Bank.

Points/FoC: 2500 per team (1250 per player). Shared FoC. Each player MUST have 1 HQ and 2 Troops. All other FoC slots divided per team discretion. All codex limitations in effect per team (ie: no 2 M. Calgar(S) or 2 Vindicare Assassins per teamare allowed.), all other codex limitations, such as the 0-1 rule will be in effect per team, etc. Shared rules within a team ARE allowed. Yes, this means the possibility for some seriously broken shenanigans, your all welcome ;)

Rounds: Three rounds = 2 hours and 45 minutes per round. Dinner break after the first round.

Items: Bring five (5) copies of your teams Army List. 1 for the TO, 1 for you and 1 for each of your opponents. Dice, Pencil/Pen, Tape Measure, Templates. All Codices, FaQs, Rule Books that you plan on using rules from. Army (Duh), WYSIWYG in effect. No painting requirement (But encouraged).

Armies: Only current and legal GW Codices are allowed (including White Dwarf Codices). FW vehicles and units ARE allowed with the following exceptions. Gargantuan Creatures, Super Heavies and/or Fliers will NOT be allowed. The player using any FW model(s) MUST have the pertinent rules and FAQs to use the model(s). Only current and official GW/FW FAQs will be used.

Prizes: There will be Prizes for First, Second and Third Places. Each round will also have a Bonus prize to a single team.

Donations: We will have a variety of ways to donate, here is the run down.

Walk-Ins, Anyone (participation in the tournament not required) may donate cash or canned goods. As well as purchase any tokens, raffle tickets, orbital bombardment etc. ALL proceeds go directly to the charity, we keep zero of the funds/cans (last year we raised $750.00 and an unspecified amount of canned goods for our charity).

Re-roll tokens, usable to reroll any single die roll at any time. Buy as many as you want. The normal limitation of only re-rolling a die once is NOT in effect, if you have a re-roll token you may use it! Tokens will cost $1.00 each, 6 for $5.00, 13 for $10.00 or 30 for $20.00.

Orbital bombardments, can also be purchased for $5.00 each. Buy as many as you want! Use it on any table, even on a game you are not involved in. Spectators may also purchase orbital bombardments to use on any table. These are treated as a S 10 AP 1 Large Blast Ordinance template.

Smoke grenades, $2 each. A smoke grenade token allows one model/unit to "pop smoke" during the shooting phase instead of firing any weapons (model/unit may still "run"). "Smoke" grants that model/unit a 4+ cover save. This save lasts until your next shooting phase. May be used once per game per token

Raffle, We will be holding a raffle (licensed), tickets will cost will cost $1.00 each, 6 for $5.00, 13 for $10.00 or 30 for $20.00. Various gamer related prizes, to include but not limited to, 3 FW items (smaller than a Titan bigger than a Grot), Airbrush and Compressor set, Pro Painted Single Models and much more!

Special auction, There will be an special auction before each Round for the following “items”.

Round 1: Universal Special Rule, the auction winners will choose which USR will be applied to any one model/unit of the auction winners choice.

Round 2: Hellstorm Strike, Use the inferno template rules from Apocalypse. Strength 7 AP 3. One shot. If the strike sells for $24.00 or less it MUST be applied on the auction winners table. If the strike sells for $25.00 or more then it may be applied to ANY table the auction winner choses.

Round 3: "MIMIC", "MIMIC" allows one model/unit to gain the ability to "MIMIC" any ONE enemy model/unit’s profile. The ability only functions when your model/unit is in hand to hand combat! Only non-vehicle model(s)/unit(s) may be chosen. The choices must be made prior to the start of the game, but after both sides have deployed and will last for the ENTIRE game.

The Colonial GT

2011-12-28T20:58:00.001-08:00

Hey all Kevin here with some more food for thought.

It seems awhile ago but last year I attended the Colonial GT in Princeton NJ to play in its first 40k GT, as it is the Nova Open equivelent for Fantasy on the East Coast. I remember awhile back writing reviews for this GT with a sour after taste still in my mouth....So lets jump back into the memory pool to go over the highs and lows of last years GT, as I try to be a man of facts and reason.....So in reality the entire weekend was fairly epic. I personally love Princeton as it is a beautiful town with an awesome shopping/restauraunt scene. My friend Marcus and I showed up friday night to some awesome open gaming on the fantasy tables after eating some awesome food specially made for the GT attendees. After a few too many glasses of pinot noir I had an awesome conversation with the Overall Tournament Organizer, online tag being Mastermoulder, about how pumped I was for the GT and that Jawa and I would be writing reviews on his blog with a so far awesome review. The GT went on with some pretty sweet games the next day (I played horrid 40k with just a single win) but it was still fairly fun. All opponents army lists were waiting at the table b efore you even got to the game on army builder and terrain was pretty balanced. I went into princeton that night with marcus for some fine dining and a cigar around the Princeton college campus....so why did the event as a whole get a bad review online? It made no sense with what I said above....realistically every single event that gained it bad reviews for the 40k side came from the final 20 minutes of the GT.....with just 3 miss steps....

See there had been a mix up with the awards which ended up giving the second best prize, best general, to the player who had come in 8th place overall, I believe but may have been lower....Now this was an honest mistake since the Overall TO had nothing to do with the 40k event as it was run by a completely different group....now this group had a fairly contreversial set of painting judges, with some bad backgrounds with a few other attendees leaving an open set of bias....now speculation can arise and I will not name names or point fingers but quite a few people, including myself, were fairly upset over the painting scores as it seems bias did come forward with friends of the 40k paint judges getting higher scores than some other attendees and some particularly excellent displays getting passed over without reward.....

Yet with all of this in mind none of the above fairly effected myself in a way to give thought over. It was after the event was over trying to get pointers on how to get a higher appearance score from the 40k judges that I actually got yelled at and made fun of by the 40k judges running the event after the fact. Now after discussing this with my fellow gamers a majority of the field decided not to attend next year over these last few minutes....which is kind of a shame really...

In reality the event was pretty awesome yet we allowed some guest judges to get in the way of a fairly awesome event....Recently I was running an article on why I was excited to go to the Conflict GT and bypass the Colonial and I got this comment from the TO, Mastermoulder

"Hey guys, This is the Overall TO for the Colonial, and I am sorry for the very late response. A friend of mine pointed out this blog so I can respond. Not sure who the person is that was supposedly "jipped" out of something, but this situation was not brought to my attention during the event. I apologize for any misgivings that this created. I am happy to announce that Mike Diccio, formally the manager at GW in Voorhees will be running the 40k side of the 2012 Colonial GT. He is a well-respected GT gamer and individual in our community, and I am sure that he will bring a high level of competence and gaming awareness that is expected out of any quality GT Judge or TO. I am also working on a new location for the Colonial to be able to bring down the price, as well as ensure that the prizes are the same level as they were last year. Please be patient as the site is being worked on, a couple of bugs came up, but we are working those out. Make sure that you all pay attention to the Qualifiers that I am running for the Colonial, as you will have the chance to earn free tickets to the 2012 Colonial GT! MM "

After this comment I really got to thinking about why I did not want to attend the Colonial the following year....Really I was letting an outside group effect my oppinions of the event as a whole.....minus the final minutes I had a blast (with only a shockingly high hotel bill that followed being the only realistic blemish)....I feel I owe it to MM to give this GT another chance and I can be proud to say the Master is an awesome TO and I can trust he will put on a great event....especially with a new group running the 40k side of things....now as for myself will I be playing 40k? Actually I will have to say no....I have been fantasy curious for awhile now while building a vampire counts army for almost a year....with the new release a couple weeks away I have to say I need to play in the main fantasy event....and I am actually psycked (as I am actually more pumped for this Tournament thant the Conflict for 40k in a couple weeks).....Now with new info stating that the GT will be helf in a American Legion building, instead of that super pricey hotel, is kind of shocking after last years response...yet since I know the price was a little high I commend the TO's for moving the location and even dropping price by 33%! I dont like not having a bed within an elevators ride from the gaming room but I can manage.....still I am excited to play regardless as my first fantasy GT....

For all of last years nay-sayers I say give the GT another chance for 40k....with a new 40k command squad and a good Overall TO I intend to give them another chance.....expect me to also have my Storm Wardens along for a pick up game or two somewhere in the between.....I am excited and optimistic about this years review and I hope to do good in my first fantasy GT overall....(way better than last years first 40k GT lol)....more on this later (are you pumped for VC?)

Overall a great event for a Privateer Press Ganger! DO we have any good stories from last year or some attendees for this year as readers? If so drop a line....I hope to get some pick up games myself...any thoughts on VC? PErsonally I am excited for the ethereal fast cav grim reaper-esque hexwraiths!

Vampire Counts: Thoughts on the new release

2011-12-27T12:35:00.000-08:00

Hey all, remember way back last summer when I said it was the summer of the undead for me? Yeah it kind of went limp and died....made way for my chaos resurgence and my Storm Wardens....Still Fantasy recently has me enthralled...

Why? Well I almost bought a high elf army a few days back....luckily I lost because the next day we got a date for Vampire Counts in a couple weeks....now I am excited for a release that finally effects me again....

I still plan on using Mantic undead for my main forces (only ghouls/zombies/skelies/GG) with everything else being GW (Wayyyyyyy cheaper and cooler skulpts imho.....1/10 of cost)....But lets go over some cool things...

Hexwraiths that look like the extremely better old cairn wraith sculpts on specteral steads.....Im sorry but that model is too cool ....and ethereal fast cav that cause S5 hits on units they pass through? I am sorry but that is worth every penny as I am planning on buying 10 (converted price being about 30 bucks for a 5 man box...not too shabby and in with the current GW price range...I could use the black knight parts for conversions)....I also plan on getting new Vampire models and a new wight king bsb.....now as for the rat ogres that got romantic with ghouls for our new large ghouls.....if they manage to be a good block unit I may also pick up a unit fo them...but lets wait...I still am pissed about cairn wraiths being heros and not a rare choice unit.....it makes them fairly situational and hard to use...I still prefer the banshees being heros as thats show I like to use them.....still all in all I am excited for the new book...the majority of units are now cheaper with a lot of changes in the lore of vampires....I do not like the changes I saw to the vampiric powers..but the lore is much better with a way better version of invocation and the ability for units to regain bodies with each successful casting of any spell.....This makes up for the newer lack of summon horde which I have yet to see mentioned....Yet all in all I am excited to get these guys on the table...possibly a colonial GT showing....yet first the conflict and the storm wardens are priority....

Competetive 40k: Why it is Important to us Gamers

2011-12-22T01:35:00.000-08:00

Fellow Gamers, Kevin here with some fighting words. I just finished watching "A Game of Honor" on Showtime. It was a documentary on showtime depicting this years Army Navy Game. I know few of you watched that game or have seen this show but it does hit home with me as my brother played for Army football as a starting player the past few years and it got me thinking.....

Now for a little while longer I will talk about my past, as well as our past, and then get to how it relates to 40k. I come from a family of prestige. Besides some excellent accomplishments from my parents I come from a family of 3 children. My brother and sister are twins. Both were in the top 10 scholars of our high school with one being captain of the football team and the other being a state champion pole vaulter, in a state we did not even live in, as well as record holder for the most district gold medals(and school record holder for almost every event she competed in....my brother as well being a star competitor in track and field). One went on to be an ivy league graduate and athlete....the other a Division 1 football player and West Point Cadet who you can still turn on ESPN or CBS and watch playing football on TV....this is a hard task to live up to.....I was never much of an athlete or scholar...constantly living in the shadow of my brother and sister twins. I was in the bottom of my graduating class and an inconsistent athlete. I tried for my stake in family fame by leaving the soccer field my junior year to pursue my higher skill on the hockey rink. I remember my first game of varsity Ice Hockey my sophomore year with my dad telling myself to keep my head down in a league full of physical players and penalty box bullies....I scored two goals that game.....This set me up as the right winger of the first line on my team with two of the best forwards in the league....Going into our final game before the playoffs against the best team in the other division, which was set to be on television, who had won the league championship every year previously that we were suppose to lose....In the third period we were down 5-2 and I had the puck strafing up the right side boards and fired a shot in after sneaking around the defense and it went in the net on television.....setting a personal victory of 5 straight years scoring against this "best team" in a row and starting a 3rd period comeback with another quick goal allowing us to pull our goalie in our opponents zone with a minute to go, on tv, in a shootout for pride....we did not win that game and lost to our ever present rival in the championship game 5-4 in the playoff final....fast forward to my senior year in my final high school competitive game against the league leader in a game to see if we made the playoffs. We were winning 3-2 with 2 minutes left....all of our star players were injured with me the final center left on the team not injured. The opposing team stacked their final line with the best players in the league. I had battled this center all game and knew what to expect. I had one a rare face off against this player but they won it back and scored.....45 seconds left and the game was tied....I saw our best player with a hurt leg on the bench in pain...yet again I faced off and the other team won it....With less than 5 seconds left they had an amazingly nigh impossible goal and won the game....I ended the final competition of my senior year game in shame in a game I had till then played well.......so what does this have to do with 40k?

Well it has to do a lot. I had just saw my brother lose to his rival, Navy, for not only his 4th straight year at the academy but, the 10th year running. We as players in a game that ends with a winner and a loser strive for competitive glory. We all want to be undefeated and win that glorious championship that we all have strive for in our careers as competitive gamers. It is understandable in a game that we play competitively that we want all of our efforts to be vindicated. We have spent tireless hours assembling, painting, and practicing our lists...spent hundreds of dollars laying out our teams and painting our jerseys for a game not played on a grid iron...or an ice rink....or even a pitch but a 6' by 4' table with our players being barely 2 inches high and made of plastic....we have assembled our rosters with a larger than life group of candidates and special characters/players....We play practice after practice game trying to see if our thoughts and ideas work just to bring them to the tournament scene. I remember my first tournament....I was a nervous wreck at a local FLGS tournament just 2 years ago....I had put some thought and practice in but this would determine if I would make or break it.....I went 2-0-1 and won that very first tournament in a store I would be happy to win on game in against a rival I had never beaten......I remember my first GT at the colonial ready to pump DE to the top of the barrel wit a strong finish and went 1-2-2......

Now as a gamer of fluff past and competition present....from a family I competitive greatness with myself being a bottom tier I understand why we want to win as gamers....this is our competition....this is our championship game and super bowl....this codices and lists are our teams......these paint schemes are our jerseys and we wear them proudly.....IT is a good thing to want to win...can we go overboard, yes of course, but a way for our competitive nature to come out and to seek glory on our 6 by 4 field is important to us....I sit on the verge of my next GT with the will to win....I hope I do not disappoint myself....more on this later....

Get your own Tournament Display Board Here Now for Warhammer 40k, Fantasy, etc.

2011-12-18T21:15:00.000-08:00

Hey all Kevin here to show you my new tournament display board prototype I made for my Storm Wardens Army I hope to bring for the Conflict GT. After a lot of thinking I have decided to throw out there that I am willing to do a few more boards for commission. The board you would get would be a 23"-17" bi-leveled display board that has been textured, painted, and flocked. This board can fit up to 2500 points (of course depending on your style of army) and is less than 2 pounds so it is perfect for tournaments. I can personally pick up this board with one hand with my entire army on it. It also has a good grip on the base of the models so a little leaning will not send your army tumbling on to the floor like some other smoother boards you might see being used. I will be selling the basic painted and flocked (2 color) bi-level 23
-17" display boards for only $60 and $75 with some basic terrain, such as trees, shrubbery, etc. (all plus shipping and handling)

So why buy a board from me when you can get boards from other comapanies? Well my boards are signifigantly cheaper with the only company selling boards for a similar price coming unpainted or textured so you end up spending another $20 on paint, flock, and other features jsut to get it up to spec. This as well as any painting commission services for other boards running up into the 3 digit price range for thier cheapest prices.

I am willing to do other specifications as a Tier 3 project including some buildings, trenches, advanced terrain, as well as even some blended in static models for a more cinamatic experience. These boards will be done seldomly but I am willing to commission a few. A price will need to be quoted on a case by case basis as including other model kits will cause the price to fluxuate. (Tier one being basically textured, painted and flocked while tier 2 being with small terrain features such as trees, shrubbery, etc...)

All in all you will get a good quality, lightweight display board for tournament play and to display your army on. I am willing to use a variety of color scheme and flock types to match your army. I am ready to either duplicate the prototype shown (tier 2 deadworld) as well as do a standard GW brown texture with standard color flock (same as GW grass mat... Tier 1 Standard).....Anything else will come as per request and eventually I hope to have a good list of the different boards I can do...Want to commission one? Leave a comment below...send me a youtube message at youtube.com/kevinmcd28 or email me at the email address shown on the right side of the blog in the contact me section. So contact me and set up a project today....more on this later...

Rules Lawyering from my Perspective

2011-12-17T09:38:00.000-08:00

Hey folks, here is my oppinion and response on rules lawyering....

Well in my oppinion I try to avoid abuing rules without a FAQ, such as can a librarian gate out of an assault in which I disagree with it, as I believe an OFFICIAL gw faq is the only reasonable way to resolve an arguement but I have had many situations where I travel to a tournament and the local gamers have a different interpretation of said rule.

Now most of the time I will let them play their way as it is the way they design their stradegies and form their play. Yet if I am certainly sure that I am correct I will nicely pull out my rule book and walk over to my opponents side and read the rule with him and show him my way of thinking or the majority/internets view on it. A lot of the time I get long "ohhh I see" comments and we play the right way, and if not a roll off will suffice but I try to avoid these as it may be game changeing to the guy who loses the roll off as his stradegy may have been relient (not in a cheesey way but more simply your normal play) on the rules interpretation. For instance I came back to my home town in New Jersey for a tournament with my old gaming group. In my first game I caused a unit to fail morale and run in his turn. When my turn came I told him to roll for the distance to run again since he could not rally. He told me that he only runs away on his turn not mine so I got the tournament organizer and he laughed in my face over the situation with general agreement from the room, except for marcus I believe.

Now I showed him in the rulebook it clearly stated that you run away in the phase your broke, and EACH CONSECUTIVE MOVEMENT PHASE, but they still did not agree. I told the organizer that I never have seen an enterpritation like his and he told me he "saw where I was coming from, and mine makes sense but I don't want to play it like that". Now this pissed me off as it caused him to win the game, and tournament, in another case where he only had to make half as many running away rolls...especially since noe one in the world plays this rule like him...so In this case I needed to rules lawyer but it came up in vain...So I always see this as a case by case situation.

Now a jerk over rules lawyering is always annoying. I myself have been one sometimes but now I only try to act this way anymore ONLY IF my opponent is a known WAAC player or a known consistent malicious cheater in which case I only show those people the same treatment they give others....more on this later....

Rules Lawyering (Guest Post)

2011-12-15T20:06:00.000-08:00

Hey all Kevin here, my very witty, articulate, and funny 40k buddy Marcus from The Tuxedo Fex wrote a post (probably with a few beers mixed in the middle) for me to throw up on the blog on rules lawyers and what he thinks of them.....just as a warning its a little EXPLICIT...so enjoy....

Lawyers, as a whole, are total disreputable assholes.

Let me explain my credentials for making that claim: two of my closest friends and roommates are law students, and I have therefore been exposed to the habits, mannerisms, and thought processes of lawyers on a daily basis for quite a while now. And as frustrating as it can be to be proven wrong on semantics, protracted pseudo-logic, or just plain old-fashioned black magic, eventually you have to realize that being proved 'technically wrong' is exactly the same thing as being proved 'regular wrong'.

One of the most hated groups of 40k players are those soulless bastards known as 'rules lawyers'. You know the type; arguing with you over the definitions of the terms in the rules, exploring every possible interpretation of the written wording of even the simplest-sounding processes and happenings, and bringing a new level of clarity to the contentious and convoluted rules of our beloved hobby.

Wait, what was that last part?

Yeah, that's right punks. I just said rules lawyers are good. Now, this comes with the obvious caveat that taking anything too far is bad; Johnny Cochran is a bit dubious, but not every defense attorney is an unscrupulous prick, yah? Yah.

Break it down with me, daddy-o; we play Warhammer 40,000. This is a game that has rules. Those rules exist primarily in written form, the interpretations of which are obviously dependent on the meanings of the words with which they are expressed. The definition of each word in each rule has to be clearly and consistently defined in order for this game to make any sense. Take, for example, the seemingly simple word 'turn': according to the main rulebook FAQ, this only means a player turn, and not a game turn (two player turns). That's a big fucking deal: that's the difference between a Grey Knight Squad casting Hammerhand in your turn as well as his, instead of just half the time (or him not being able to cast Might of Titan in your turn. Have I cashed in on GK paranoia enough, here?). The word 'turn' could arguably be used to refer to either 'game turn' or 'player turn' based on the fact that both those concepts use the same word, but here we have a ruling that says that only one of these interpretations is correct. Might it not be the one you had personally thought was right? Too bad. In situations like this, the annoyance of arbitration is secondary to the necessity of clarity. In order for games of 40k to make sense we all have to agree on what all these terms mean ahead of time. Even if the FAQ didn't have an explicit ruling on whether the word 'turn' refers to player or game turns, we'd still have to come to a definite conclusion on which one of these definitions is right in order for the rules of the game to be consistent. Is being on the wrong side of one of these rulings frustrating? Bet your corduroy jacket it is. But 'broken' is worse than 'frustrating', and it's because of rules lawyers that we can make that distinction.

Let's take a look at a more relevant and unresolved issue: two of the premier tricksy combos in the Necron codex are using Orikan the Diviner's Temporal Snares ability in conjunction with the C'tan Writhing Worldscape Ability, or alternately using the Tremorstave of the Harbingers of Transmogrification in conjunction with the same. Both operate on the same principle: make terrain difficult, which then becomes dangerous by way of the C'tan's ablility. But even though they appear very similar, there are differences in the wording of the rules used that has to be inspected before we can say this tactic is k-k-k-kosher.

Here's the wording for Temporal Snares (pertinent bits bolded):

"During the first game turn, all enemy units that move count as moving through difficult terrain. If they are actually moving through difficult terrain, then a unit can move the lowest D6 result of their difficult terrain test, rather than the highest."

And here's the Tremorstave, more specifically the Quake special rule that has the actual effect:

"Quake: All enemy units hit by a weapon with the Quake type treat open ground as difficult terrain during their next Movement phase."

Finally, here's what Writhing Worldscape says:

"Whilst the C'tan Shard is on the battlefield, all difficult terrain is also dangerous for the enemy. If the terrain is already dangerous, the Dangerous Terrain test is failed on a 1 or a 2."

Now, what we are tasked with doing (at least until the FAQ comes stomping through) is figuring out which wording means what. One, or both, or neither could be legal combos, and the only way we have to decide is by being rules lawyers. To me, the phrase 'counts as' implies a change to the way the TERRAIN ITSELF is handled. The open ground becomes sort of a facsimile of actual difficult terrain. It takes on the attributes of difficult terrain, without actually becoming it entirely. We still make the distinction that it is really just plain ol' open ground with a funky temporary makeover. On the other hand, a unit that 'treats open ground as difficult terrain' is much different. In this case, we handle the way the UNIT IN PARTICULAR behaves. It treats open ground exactly the way that it would difficult terrain, every time, all the time, in every way and in every circumstance. As far as the unit in question is concerned, the two are absolutely identical while the Quake rule is in effect.

So, we can logically conclude that based on the specificity of the Quake rule, all units that move through open ground while subject to it invoke every single provision of difficult terrain, which includes counting that terrain as dangerous if the C'tan is fuxxing with it.

The more difficult question remains, does Temporal Snares do the same thing? As far as I'm concerned, no it does not. Despite the fact that the wording of Worldscape seems to refer more to the terrain as opposed to the units moving through it in the same vein as Snares, the phrase 'counts as' kills this one in the crib. Open ground 'counting as' difficult terrain is still just open ground. It may mimic difficult terrain, but it can only do so for normal circumstances, and with the normal ruleset for it. I don't believe that any special circumstances imposed by other rules would affect it. It's too much of a shallow, tenuous relationship for Worldscape to lay its hurt on. This is of course just the interpretation of a single deranged gentleman, but until the FAQ comes out or somebody rebuts my argument by threatening to punch me repeatedly in the arm (I HATE that), I'm sticking to it.

In summation, folks, the reality of the situation is that a game based on rules has to have those rules scrutinized and examined. They can't be left open to personal interpretation; they have to be debated and reasoned through frequently if there isn't a black-and-white FAQ ruling to pour some decision-milk into our bowls of anarchy cereal. Ask yourself, as much as you hate getting into semantic debates in the middle of a game, would you rather play a dude who bends rules according to the situation and takes advantage of any available ambiguity? Or an opponent who insists on a strict and clear meaning for each rule and abides by them himself, regardless of whether you're on board with it?

Now, do yourselves a favor and troll me to pieces.

Bolter Resistence Efficiency: How to determine the toughness of your unit using mathhammer

2011-12-13T23:25:00.000-08:00

Hey all, Kevin here again to bring to you how I determine the odds of another unit killing my unit, or in general terms how tough a unit is....and I call this Bolter Resistence Efficiency (From a MEQ)....So what is BRE? Well basically it is how many bolter shots it would take, from a MEQ, to take down a model or a unit in a game of 40k. So how do we determine this? Well we determine how many wounds it would take to kill a model. For instance a marine with a 3+ save would stop 2 out of 3 wounds before it dies so therefore it takes 3 wounding hits to kill a marine and 15 wounding hits to kill a squad of 5 marines (statistically). A MEQ with a S4 Bolter and BS4 would fail 1 out of 3 shots therefor it would take 45 shots to cause 30 hits to cause 15 wounds to kill 5 marines. So therefore a squad of 5 marines has a Bolter Resistence Efficiency of 45. This is a simple concept to determine how tough a unit is. So lets look at another popular unit, a 5 man unit of Terminators. A terminator with a 2+ save effectively needs 6 wounding hits to kill it on average. So a unit with 5 of them needs 30 wounding hits to fell it coming from 60 hits and 90 shots. So a unit of 5 terminators, saying statistically only, needs to take 90 shots from bolters, or bolter equivelents, to fell it. Now weapons with higher strengths and lower AP's definatly splices this number while units with lower BS's and lower strengths will need a lot more shtos to take down. For instance my Biker command squad which, for all purposes of this arguement does not need the full kit out (4 storm shields and a bunch of save ignoring weapons for instance) all have FNP from an apothecary and T5 with a 3+ (also 3++) save while their are 5 of them. So it would take 2 failed saves, because of FNP, to down one of my CS bikers. Meaning it takes 6 wounding hits to cause one FNP wound (effectively as good as 2+ armor). Since the biker is toughness 5 it takes 3 hits to cause one wounding hit (From a bolter)....aka 18 hits to kill one biker...or 27 shots.....So times this by 5 and it takes 135 bolter shots to kill my biker command squad....not including my captain.....My captain, with FNP while in the squad, has a 2+ save and T5 as well with 3 wounds has a rating of 108 BRE or 108 bolter shots to kill him. This gives my biker command squad (as a whole unit) a BRE of 243.......Which is fairly tough and hard to kill.....So the next time you think about assaulting a unit or shooting a unit determine how tough it is and how many shots it will take to down the unit.......now I am not a math major nor do I have a degree in statistics so my hypothesis is just a theory using a standard statline from a very common weapon but you can figure this ot from every weapon in the game using the method I descibed...mathhammer for the win...even if the dice never like to agree with you...more on this later....

Chapterhouse Studios Article Follow Up- The Facts

2011-12-07T22:33:00.000-08:00

Hey all, Kevin here with a folllow up on a very contreversial post I had thrown up here as part of my "Middle Ground Moderator of Reasoning" series (FYI I keep that as a folder and is not an actual series up here). When I write these articles I try to take an unbiased look at some of the issues in the hobby today and try to show a pragmatic look from the facts and reality. Now Nick from Chapterhouse Studios chimed in with this comment...

"It is amazing how little thought and research went into this post..

Chapterhouse Studios has never made a wolf or thunder wolf type model among other critical points.. "
-"Nick of Chapterhouse"

Now I wrote the article, as is most of my articles, based on word of mouth and second hand accounts. I should have stated that GW was afraid to release a thunderwolf model based on the fact so many other companies and sculptors made 3rd party models for conversions. REALLY what model I should have used as an example was the Tervigon conversion kit from which the lawsuit was based seen here from the Chapterhouse website...http://chapterhousestudios.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=81_84

Now since I like to be a man of facts, and since I was challenged by the owner of the company I was using as a clear and blatantly obvious example of the point I was trying to get across, which was that 3rd party companies were making conversion models as well as stand in counts as models and then selling them online with the exact title as in the codex putting GW in legal harm and causing official models to be delayed or canceled all together, and was told that I "put little thought into" the previous article I would like to point out the facts I should have placed in the previous article. I read over the court documents between GW and Chapterhouse, here is the link to the document of the GW lawsuit against Chapterhouse itself, as well as looked over the Chapterhouse site to see what possibly could cause GW to sue them over IP infringement....here is what I have found. (A lot of paraphrasing fyi)

In the lawsuit document it stated that Chapterhouse was blatently infringing IP on thier website with too many examples to count. They stated that the parts were made directly for Warhammer 40,000 and Fantasy itself and we can see this for ourselves. Immediatly on their site you can see conversion parts for Eldar, Space Marines, Imperial Guard, etc.... If you even look through the website you can see their parts on a Predator itself. Chapterhouse sells kits specifically stated for 40k units with the actual names of the codex enteries all over its site which was the basis of useing them as the example for my article. The lawsuit also stated that some of the parts were not very good quality as well as they easily break. Now I have no experience with Chapterhouse pieces and am only stating what the court document as well as many other second hand oppinions of the products.

Now the point of the last article was to point out how 3rd party sculptors and model producers were underhanding GW, as well as the fans of 40k and fantasy, by releasing models with names of specific units in codices released by GW putting GW in a legal bind over the release of an official model for the game when these companies can make these models with alternative names which GW itself has shown little care for over their offical games day conversion rules. A great example of a company that does this legally in a way all of the other 3rd party model producers should do is puppetswar with all of their conversion peices. This is a simple and easy solution that does not directly create IP issues that these companies can cause and by doing so HURT THE HOBBY. This is a very simple point I pointed out. Personally I actually like Chapterhouse Studios conversion kits (That tervigon peice looks fairly sick as well as their imperial jetbike). They make some pretty cool sculpts themselves. In my last article I use their non-exsistent thunderwolf model as an example in my arguement in which I was wrong and I do apoligiz. Yet we can honestly come to the conclusion that we do not have a Tyranid wave including atleast the tervigon, but also possibly the ymgarl as well as other unpresent models do to the actions of Chapterhouse Studios which in turn hurts the hobby...which is the point of the last article and the thought of many other bloggers and wargamers with countless blog and forum posts across the internet...which is all I am trying to say.. I hope no more on this later but 'tis possible.....

In other news I try to normally not respond to comments as I take my writings not that seriously {and I take a lot of abuse from abuse puppy which btw i love your comments they make me laugh at myself sometimes, your a good critic mate thanks :) } ...but please people, play nice :)

Why Chapterhouse Studios hurt the hobby and why we should defend Games Workshop.

2011-12-05T23:49:00.000-08:00

Hey all, Kevin here to write about a topic I, as well as many underground gamers, have been avoiding. I have had enough talks with gamers that think t, ashe same way, as well as a few game store owners, on the topic to come to my conclusions. First of all lets talk about something the online wargaming community loves to do, which is hate Games Workshop. Why might you ask? Face it or not people love Warhammer Fantasy and 40k. Games Workshop has increased prices and have been very paranoid about protecting their Intellectual Property. In turn by being very protective of their IP and constant price hikes tends to hurt us as gamers as it makes us harder to play a game we all love. We have tended to demonize Games Workshop at every turn by being a Corporation only looking out for its stockholders profits and not the gamers. Yet we have to be honest, although we may not want to admit it we need GW to be successful for if not our game would not exist. BoLS would diminish and die and Game stores would shut down (without thier number one money maker in the game anymore). The hobby would die without the company. We also need it to protect its IP because without protecting its line GW would be swamped by the second party . We have all become idealists and have let pragmatism go by the wayside. I know a world with $20 boxes of 10 marines and dozens of other companies making alternative models sounds great but it is unrealistic. Truth is for our game to expand we need GW to be successful in an extremely niche hobby. Games Workshop has been martyred day in and day out, even by myself, for every single financial decision it has made and a lot of us will still hammer them for every dollar price increase and every civil suit made. By why are we pointing a gun at our own source of continued fascination and enjoyment. What would you do if we never saw a new codex come out. What would Goatboy do if he ran out of models to put goat heads on? What would you do if every single GT shutdown as an old, out of date, hobby fizzled without new players and updates. Why are we shooting ourselves in the foot?

Awhile ago we were again outraged as Chapterhouse came under GW legal scrutiny for some IP infringement. We immediately called GW evil for attacking a 3rd party company we all loved for making some sweet conversion pieces. How dare Games Workshop! was shouted from the roof tops. Yet did we realize then that we were hurting ourselves. This put GW in a legal dead end. According to US copyright law you cannot copyright a phrase or name in a book as your own IP and could only copyright a specific unit in a codex by making a named model for the army. Now many 3rd party companies legally make alternative models for the GW range whether it is "futuristic imperial soldiers" or ""giant spacebug seed pods" it did not hurt the hobby as a whole. Chapterhouse went ahead and made models from the codex entries in the Space Wolf and Tyranid ranges very specifically being their thunderwolf calvary. By doing this they put GW at this legal trouble since if GW released, as an example, their own Thunderwolf Calvary model they could be sued by Chapterhouse for attacking Chapterhouses IP! By doing so a few results have come out of this problem, some good and bad. This quite literally screwed tyranid players looking for newer models. It also left the door open for any model to be made by any company for a codex entry that does not have a GW published model and then sue Games Workshop. This could financially cripple the company and end 40k and Fantasy as we know it. IT also resulted in Games Workshop releasing a model for every codex entry it can as soon as possible. This did, however, benefit the hobby as we saw almost the entire Dark Eldar range come out soon after the book hit the shelves. Although this might seem good we can safely say that Chapterhouse set a precedent that can hurt the hobby as a whole, and royally screw tyranid players, in general.

Now no matter what you say, or think, Chapterhouse was at wrong to us by releasing actual named models. Now I try to be a middle ground person between fights and look for the factual right thing to do. I believe in the free market, the pursuit of happiness and, the right for a man, woman, or company to achieve financial greatness. I am fiscally conservative and like to find reason and practical paths through problem solving and solutions. Yet most importantly I believe in the rights of a business,complete fairness to all parties as well as every persons destiny should be achieved through thier own actions and will to thrive and should not be decided by another person or establishment. Did Chapterhouse make this move on purpose? I would say no as I believe everyone will try to have good faith intended in their actions but as we all know this might not be the case. I would hope a settlement comes out of this case and GW learns from the events listed. I would also hope, as our small hobby is very fragile in its existence, Chapterhouse would not sue GW for making its own Thunderwolf model and copyrighting it. I would hope Chapterhouse, if it can, would change the names of its line and refrain from cherry picking new codex options by making its own models before GW does. I know a lot of people will read this with prior thoughts have ill will against GW but I hope after reading this the fine folks of our hobby will think these things through logic and pragmatism. I also hope people will try to think things through the next time something like this happens. I also hope people will give a little more good will towards the source of our enjoyment Games Workshop itself as I believe they do not like some of the bad thoughts given to them over their actions for the betterment of their company. More on this later...

Letter to the Greek Paper about the Anti-Wargaming article claiming us all nazi racists.

2011-12-03T10:55:00.000-08:00

Just go check BoLS for the article from the greek paper, its all over the place....this is my response....

To whom it may concer,

Your paper recently had an article about miniture wargaming and a few quotes kind of shocked, and insulted, myself as a reader. From an english translation

"A large percentage of their population compared with their average number (5 out of the 15 interviewees) had some racist and xenophobic ideas and had been involved with the study of Nazi texts, including "Mein Kampf" by Adolf Hitler"

"Have you noticed that a percentage of the players belong to the extreme right wing?" we asked 35 year old Takis,
a middle school teacher who claims to be "left wing". "Yes, but I don't know why. Maybe they are fascinated by the
epic, heroic or even the racist elements of 40K. Because there is a lot of racism in the game."

"...which through cutting down our freedoms and though fear can create a structure in order for that new world to function.
In 40K there is a mixture of western imperialism and eastern fundamentalism."

..."I have seen in the US the ideology of the army and the player matching to a dangerous degree. I've even seen a player
with swastikas tattooed all over his body". So many contradictions they could win a Guinness world record."

For one I do not appreciate being called a "racist" or a "nazi". This is slander against an entire genre based on some horribley bad
journalism and narrow minded oppinion. I also do not appreciate the comments about westerners being imperialistic and all of the players being
part of your "extreme right wing". All of these things are completely arrogant statements based off of little to no facts and some outragiously spun interviews
a greek tournament. The game itself is based off a science fiction tragedy with elements based off of history that show the fears of many generations and the fear of the unknown.
Now of which is any of this racist in the ways we consider racism in our current society. Besides it is still a story in a game. To make such blank statements about myself in others is extremely insulting.

Also in our society a person with swastikas tatooed all over his body would never get along in our society as he would be banned as any hatred of that nature is not tollerated.

I would hope that the editor of your estimed paper would not tolerate such articles to be published and we as a community expect the writer to be fired from her position or to retract all fo the statements made with
an equal sized article of apology to the community. Or atleast write a front page article on how the socialistic greek society does not understand with by having so many welfare and entitlement programs while not paying
large taxes themselves with an equal ammount of no funding to pay for these programs they run themselves into the ground and tend to wonder why the greek financial system is in shambles. Then equalize themselves with the likes of Lenin and Stalin,
your societys real heroes apperent. Since I highly do not expect you to post such an article about why your society drove itself into the ground and then blames everyone else when your own leftist lazyness is to blame
I do not expect you to write an article of apology so I must just say this, thanks for your time.

-Kevinmcd28
Community blogger

Conflict GT Set in Stone

2011-11-30T14:32:00.000-08:00

Hey all, just bought my ticket and got the days off so Ill be at th Conflict GT at the Palisades mall in the middle of Janurary. I will have my Storm Wardens army done by that point and I amvery excited to get back into the GT circuit after an extremely horrible performance of mine at the Colonial last April, which I may just attend again this year because MasterMoulder is a pretty awesome guy and Event Organizer...just the cost currently scares me from last years hotel bill lol and since they got a new group to run the 40k side of things since I, as well as many others, had issues with last years 40k staff makes me only see bright things for the 40k half of that awesome GT...and who knows mabye Ill play in my first fantasy event with the new probably Vampire Counts book....

So I am also excited about the Conlifct as I get to use my new army specifically built for it. I ran it in a few test games and the hybrid mech/static shooty design with the biker command squad has won me all of my test 1750 games so far. So who else is attending the GT...its so close with such early ending and late starting times I am debating actually just commuting the hour+ change there and back each day but I might get a hotel and visit my bro at West Point which is just down the road......regardless it will be a fun time for all....also I may be looking for a team to go with me...any takers?

The Necron List to beat (1850)

2011-11-29T19:43:00.000-08:00

Ok here again to mash up a few thoughts about necrons after a few games against them...For one I probably will not buy this army atleast anytime soon this is just based of the facts, some playtesting and some hard thinking........For one they are a lot better on table than on paper (BTW the command barge is way worse on the table than on paper as its impracticle and hard to get off those sweep attacks and by then you get blown up and waste a good 175+ unit including lord..anyway)....After some thinking I will throw out the tournament list I'd be buying (as of a FAQ to back it up without a nerfing first) as of now.....first a list...(hmmm looks familiar to something a few posts back....)

Total 1850

1. Imhotek the StormLord- 225

2. Destroyer Lord, mindshackle Scarabs- 145

*Court

-Cryptek Harb. Of Destruction, solar pulse - 65

-Cryptek Harb. Of Destruction- 45

-Cryptek Harb. Of Eternity, Chronomotron – 50

Troops

1. X5 warriors- 65

2. X5 warriors- 65

3. X5 warriors- 65

4. X5 warriors- 65

Fast Attack

1. X10 Scarabs- 150

2. X10 Scarabs- 150

3. X6 Canoptek Wraiths, x5 particle whips- 265

Heavy Support

1. X3 Canoptek Spyders- 150

2. X3 Canoptek Spyders- 150

3. X3 Canoptek Spyders- 150

Ok this list takes a simple concept and expands upon it.....it comes in waves....

Wave 1.) Scarabs and Wraiths/D Lord deathstar...honestly I do not need to talk about scarabs....although as my friend plays it, and I concur, the scarabs would attack upon the weakened armor not on the original armor (before entropic).....which eats any armor it touches....Also the scarabs tend to get knocked on the internet by only being beasts and not jetbikes but that 6"+ D6"+12" assault is pretty quick...but they cannot go up levels in ruins which is kind of funny...regardless a tough and fairly fast unit without the spyder adding more to the front congo line shenanigans which will get FAQ'd obviously fairly soon...The wraiths and the D Lord just pillage anything they tend to touch.....the whips as well as mindschackle scarabs realisticly makes this unit win every single combat no matter what.....Now Wave 2.) The wall of Spyders......these monsterous creatures of course do thier spawning thing pumping out up to 9 scarabs (realisticly atleast 7) a turn.....This wall of spyders, by being monsterous creatures, forms a wall of very hard to kill models with very good mop up potential.....they also screen Wave 3.) Which is all of the warrior units each with a cryptek with an eldritch lance to fire off some odd S8 shots at vehicles as they move as well as the Stormlord with the Chronomotron cryptek just in case we lost the thing that really makes this list scary....night fight.....night fighting is key as it makes the first wave almost impossible to stop (realisticly it gets into combat usually by turn two....at most turn 3....regardless the solar pulse is there to make sure it continues so that by the time its gone your opponent is missing most of his army...Also the 4+ to sieze thing...yep..some might complain that the msu warriors is too little but by being the least threatening unit....as well as being behind a wall of monsterous creature cover....these guys will not take too many shots if any at all.....All in all this list is a machine of optimisiation...it is very scary and I would buy it now if I had the funds... something similar to this will deliver us our first reported Necron Tournament wins..speculation away....this of course has my flavor added by having the wraiths and D Lord instead of more scarabs but thats my spin.....more on this later.....

Now Commissioning Tournament Display Boards

2011-11-24T09:16:00.000-08:00

Hey all Kevin here to show you my new tournament display board prototype I made for my Storm Wardens Army I hope to bring for the Conflict GT. After a lot of thinking I have decided to throw out there that I am willing to do a few more boards for commission. The board you would get would be a 23"-17" bi-leveled dispolay board that has been textured, painted, and flocked. This board can fit up to 2500 points (of course depending on your style of army) and is less than 2 pounds so it is perfect for tournaments. I can personally pick up this board with one hand with my entire army on it. It also has a good grip on the base of the models so a little leaning will not send your army tumbling on to the floor like some other smoother boards you might see being used. I will be selling the basic painted and flocked (2 color) bi-level 23
-17" display boards for only $65 and $75 (all plus shipping and handling) with some basic terrain, such as trees, shrubbery, etc.

So Why buy a board from me when you can get boards from other comapanies? Well my boards are signifigantly cheaper with the only company selling boards for a similar price come unpainted or textured so you end up spending another $20 on paint, flock, and other features jsut to get it up to spec. This as well as any painting commission services for other boards running up into the 3 digit price range for the cheapest quality.

I am willing to do other specifications as a Tier 3 including some buildings, trenches, advanced terrain, as well as even some blended in static models for a more cinamatic experience. These boards will be done seldomly but I am willing to commission a few. A price will need to be quoted on a case by case basis as including other model kits will cause the price to fluxuate. (Tier one being basically textured, painted and flocked while tier 2 being with small terrain features such as trees, shrubbery, etc...)

All in all you get a good quality, lightweight display board for tournament play to display your army on. I am willing to use a variety of color scheme and flock types to match your army. I am ready to either duplicate the prototype shown (tier 2 deadworld) as well as do a standard GW brown texture with standard color flock (same as GW grass mat... Tier 1 Standard).....Anything else will come as per request and eventually I hope to have a good list of the different boards I can do...Want to commission one? Leave a comment below...send me a youtube message at youtube.com/kevinmcd28 or email me at the email address shown on the right in the contact me section. I will only start commission ing boards if I get 3 requests...if not it will not be worth it unfortuantly. So contact me and set up a project...I will probably be running this for atleast the winter....more on this later...

Menoth Army for Sale!

2011-11-21T21:30:00.000-08:00

Hey all, there are days in your life when you realize you have too many projects and not enough funding to get them all done....today is one. I am looking at trying to support the Storm Wardens and all of their future expansions with the probable expansion of my Chaos army after GW nerfs anything we do have left next summer as well as the probable realigning of my Vampire Counts army when I start to play them after they get their update this year. Currently I am looking at getting a new Marines, vampires, and black templar update (with Dark Angels not far behind) as well as the realiginment of power after 6th edition hits that will probably cause expansions in all of my armies....its nice to get updates but when they come all at once it can be a pain.....so enough moans and groans....I am looking at the need to drop a project and with little time to devout to them, as well as looking at not playing them at all anytime soon I see myself forced to sell off my Protectorate of Menoth Army. It is 44 points + warcasters currently and up for sale on ebay....above are some pictures and below is the link to the ebay auction.....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/150703557339?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

A Full Warjack heavy Protectorate of Menoth Army for Warmachine and Hordes with a retail value of $300. Included is the following
High Allegient Amon Ad-Raza
2x Crusader Heavy Warjacks (one fully painted and professionally painted and one plastic)
A Vanquisher Heavy Warjack (unpainted)
A Revenger Light Warjack (partially painted)
A Devout Light Warjack (partially painted)
A Repenter Light Warjack (partially painted)
A full 6 model unit of the new Choir of Menoth (unpainted and rand new product)
A full 6 model unit of Daughters of the Flame (unpainted)
A Vassel Mechanik (unpainted and new)
A FULL Protectorate of Menoth Faction Deck including multiple cards for every model above
A full set of Amon Ad-Raza counter tokens
A Kreoss model (missing weapon, will include if found and partially painted)
Will awnser any questions about listing.

Current price is $275 as buy now with the bid at $200...a fairly good deal since you get a very warjack heavy Amon Ad-Raza menoth list.....with this sell I plan on funding the tail end of my Storm Wardens for the Conflict as well as the Conflict itself and mabye fund an expansion for the Storm Wardens.....I just finished painting my display board so look for that also with the possibiliy of starting a display board making buisness...look for that soon....so check out the auction and leave any questions in the comments below.....as well as if you are looking for a blog to write at I am currently looking for other authors....more on this later...

First Game vs. The New Necrons

2011-11-21T08:34:00.000-08:00

So I played a game the other day against my buddy Marcus at the Dragonhead in Bethlehem, Pa, whule a proffessional wrestling match went on upstairs. He was testing out some new models with a list that kind of looked like this.

Basic Overlord in Command barge, warscythe

3x10 warriors each with a cryptek with an eldritch lance

10 Immortals with a cryptek with an eldritch lance

8 scarabs

9 scarabs

2x Doom Scythes

3 heavy destroyers

First of all I really did underestimate a lot of the units in the codex. Those eldritch lances made fairly ignorable units pretty annoying and even though the new scarabs are not jetbikes being beasts makes them fairly fast....yet they cannot go up levels in ruins which is kind of funny. They did not even need to weaken any of my vehicles as just thier own attacks with entropic touch ended up wrecking a laundry list of razorbacks. I ran my Conflict list and I had some issues from the start. I would've lost if it not were for my Biker command squad saving the day yet again. The Doom Scythes can be very scary, especially against vehile lines and bunched up death stars. I would say they got one good solid shot before they get shot to death so I am gonna agree with my compatriot that keeping them in reserve or on deepstrike is good in some scenerios where you know they will get shot up. The command barge I see as overated a little bit. It suffers from being defendable against as the sweep attack only has 24 inch range and if you play your cards right the model cannot finish its move with enough room so it cannot move in a way to get off these attacks, and even then it would just get shot up..... I won't write a batrep up because we ended up screwing up the game a little bit near the end. I am going to have another battle first before I do a write up.

New Vampire Counts Codex Next Year!

2011-11-17T10:41:00.000-08:00

Ok everyone I was talking to the owner of a local FLGS of mine. He tends to be fairly spot on to predicting codex releases based of feedback he gets from GW. From what he tells me GW has stopped production and selling of all Vampire Counts codex's and models to independant retailers. GW only does this when a new codex is set to be released within 6 months (up to a year at the extreme maximum)...So that is the fact speculation would set this up as a probable March-May release (prior to 40k 6th edition release in the summer)...From what I know this contradicts a lot of rumors, mostly putting Wood Elves and Brettonians next....yet if this is the case with the VC then this throws a monkey wrench into the gears of one of those codices......I do play Vampire Counts so I am currently stopping production of that army until I see a good set of rumors or even a codex for that matter.....please take all with a grain of salt as the above is speculation based on one single fact....that production and selling to retailers has stopped with them.......more on this later...debate in comments!

Anyone know anything on the Conflict GT? Bloggers WANTED!.... and other news....

2011-11-16T11:07:00.000-08:00

Hey all normally I do not seak information on the blog, I will probably have an article up later tonight if not tommorrow morning. I am looking for info on the Conflict GT at the Palisades Mall in New York state this january. There website lacks info on how much it will cost and I am trying to plan out my 40k finances for this winter. Also if anyone is going to be at that GT let everyone know in the comments. Also any feedback from previous years would be cool as well. I had a decent experience at my last GT at the Colonial but it ended with a sour note with a tournament orgaizer getting pretty pissed off at the overall event organizer and taking it out on my friend and I when we asked how we could do better with our presentation (not painting) scores....I don't want any more A-H organizers taking out frustration on me when I am spending a lot of money for an event and a good time. I've heard good things about the Conflict and would like to know more on usual attendees and who runs it. I've been to the location it is at quite a bit and love the place....

In other news I am revitalizing the blog, anyone interested in submitting some freelance work or even come on as an official guest writer let me know in the comments as I am always looking for content. Also since there was a large gap of time where I lost a lot of readers from my lack of posting I need to get the word out that I am back into the writing game so any blog plugs, or blogroll adds will be appreciated and I will do the same back happily. Thanks everyone for reading. I hope to soon hold contests for some models or prizes soon enough if subscriptions reach certain levels or I get a good constant reading basis like I had a year ago. So please everyone throw me some thoughts and ideas and I will be happy to include you. I am gonna redo a majority of the layout and images since recent additions...also I am pretty sure my blog art violates someones copyright....look for that soon... Thanks!

40k Tactics: How to Play Any Space Marine Counter-Meta Army in the Current Game [Oppinion]

2011-11-15T13:53:00.001-08:00

Hey all welcome to another discussion that has been coming up in a lot of my articles recently. It started with the Chaos Space Marine article update here and later I included some thoughts on the subject in my Land Raider article here. With Grey Knights taking the top seat in competitive play the older marine books need to compensate. For the purpose of argueing I am gonna be talking about Black Templar, Chaos Marines, and Codex Mrines in this post. It is of my oppinion that a defensive LAnd Raider build is one of the toughest anti-meta game lists that can currently be run as GK tend to lack a good way to compitently get rid of AV14 and most armies, exception to this rule being Dark Eldar which is the scissor to this paper, have a hard time of getting rid of AV14 when it is used as a defensive bunker instead of as an assault vehcicle. I have run lists like the following since GK has been incepted with a great degree of success. If you refer back to my chaos article I have had two straight 2nd place results with a duel defensive Land Raider build. So it is of my oppinion that building a list around a couple of Land Raider ment to hold scoring units on objectives, while providing fire support in the form of anti-tank shooting, is vital to throwing a monkey wrench into the machine that is the current meta. Lets start off with your basic build....using lets say Codex: Marines.....

We need to start off the army with someviable shooting....unfortunatly we lack the mroe efficient ability for small 5 man squads to take cheap lascannons like BLack Templar.....I am a fan of combos so our current choices include small 5 man RB squads or 5 man scout teams with cloaks, snipers and a missile launcher.....I always tend to run a mix so lets say for now a 2x2 mix is good for our troop support. A scout squad with the above profile is 100 points on the dot per unit. A 5 man razorback squad with a TL Lascannon is 165 points per unit....so we take two of each....now you cannot get a reliable ammount of spammed out S8 shooting from a basic marines dex cheaply. So I tend to run with an above average ammount of lascannons to promote more efficient shooting....From thier on out lets take 2 75 point cheap scout squads to hide inside of the two Land Raiders that each cost 260 points with a multi melta. From here we need a good counter to the all so common assault land raider...I am a fan of multi melta attack bikes but speeders work...a unit of two bikes costs 100 more points. From here we need a good counter assault unit to hide amongst the Land Raiders to jump out just in case our opponent decides to assault us....a terminator librarian with a storm shield for 140 points and a Termie assault squad for 200 points fills this gap...At this point it tends to be all filler. I like to add twin linked lascannons to add efficiency on dreadnoughts with flamers attached to the DCCW for added anti horde as well as mech and a good unit to tie up enemies making a move on your bunkers. Another temie added in as well as some cloaks or a missile or two on the extra scout squads rounds this army up to a nice 1850.

Black Templar can run a more efficient version of this list with their 95 point 5 man crusader squads with pistols and ccw's with a lascannon....with some basic crusaders to hide inside of the Land Raiders. This combined with the emerpors champion and a reclusiarch in a terminator squad handing out preferred enemy and furious charge as an even more effective combat unit. They also can have regular termies with a couple cyclones and tank hunters effectively giving you 4 S9 shots from an 2+ save unit.....

As long as you elimate any Storm Ravens, or other random melta, in the GK army this runs very well against the GK armies of today, as well as many other armies that have a problem of getting rid of AV14 at a range. This type of army tends to be weak against Dark Eldar and Tau but both tend to be more rare, atleast in my area, as a matchup these days. Now this is all in my current style and I tend to run the lists above, with a few changes, very effectively and I believe you can too. So dust of your favorite vanilla flavored dex and go searching in a dig site for those fossils, Black Templar and Chaos Marines, of a codex...more on this later....oppinions welcomed

The Proper Use of a Land Raider

2011-11-14T13:49:00.000-08:00

Hey all, here again to talk about a sore topic of competitive discussion...the Land Raider.

Now the once popular, then unseen, now suddenly again popular AV14 vehicle that seems to be in every persons power armored army has always been used as part of the death star....and lets face it, it can be good at that.

Who doesn't want something that can hold between 1-16 models (depending on pattern) and drive forward their probable assault terminator squad forward unmolested, and for awhile that worked. This seemed to always work until you ran into a guy sporting a dozen meltaguns and then your AV14 suicide tank just seemed a waste of points. Heck I can say I have been dillusioned in the past by filling up my favorite Land Raider Crusader full of dudesmen in big boy armor to drive down my opponents throat. Whether it was the above LRC, or the Vulkan happy Redeemer this can work....but only in games where the matchup is good can the death star delivery system work....and it can be expensive...

Yet melta still exsists and it does punish your taking of a 245+ point model now and then. So where can we find a strength for the AV14 gun boat?

IT seems to be that the Land Raiders only weakness tends to be melta....the only other (in terms of the most common enemy of marines) weapon that can damage it is the S9 lascannon.....this is unreliable as it still needs a 6 to penetrate the Land Raider and with the typical abilites for Land Raiders to become resistent to shaken and stunned results we can leverage the lack of long ragned anti-AV14 out there.... We also have the nice mobile bunker of the lesser to be seen Godhammer pattern Land Raider. Being equipped with power of the machine spirit as well as two twin linked lascannons and a TL heavy bolter (also the probable multi-melta) this is a bunker that should be more utilized. We can utilize this as a viable option by haveing a scoring unit hide inside of the Land Raider. This gives us a scoring AV14 vehicle that is for the most part only vulnerable to melta weapons which (unless they come in in deepstrike form, which has its defences against as well) has to go through a good bubblewrap to get into 2D6 range. This is also a good way to counter grey knights because as soon as you eliminate any possible Storm Ravens they cannot touch your Land Raider easily, minus luck, at all giving you an edge.

With a couple scoring land Raiders holding up our backfield the marine player definatly has a defending advantage. With some good anti-melta practice you can keep these now scoring vehicles shooting thier lascannons downrange and holding a good position. I have ran many duel Raider lists as both Chaos and Marines and now rarely lose one of them....This can give us an advantage in Capture and Control as well as Sieze ground missions...also do not forget these are two hard killpoints in a probable tough killpoint army....more on this later.....

Lists Heard 'Round the Web Part 1: Necron "Flying Circus"

2011-11-13T13:02:00.000-08:00

Hey all Kevin here starting a new series on Lists, a majority will be necrons, I have heard around my FLGS's that people will be taking to tournaments....

First up to bat is what I have been hearing as the Necron Flying Circus....here is a breakdown of the basic list...at 1850

1.Imhotek- 225

Troops

1. X11 Immortals, Night Scythe- 270
2. X10 Immortals, Night Scythe- 270
3. X10 Immortals, Night Scythe- 270
4. X10 Immortals, Night Scythe- 270

Heavy support

1. Doom Scythe- 175
2. Doom Scythe- 175
3. Doom Scythe- 175

My first thought is wow that is not that much. The army relies on the supersonic special rule coupled with the Stormlords ability to have night fighting continue throughout the begining of the game. It also relies on the ability for the Doom Scythe to "dry fire" since it technically does not need to target a specific unit and therefore does not need to be able to see it.

It zooms up 36" turn one into places relatively safe due to night fighting. Turn two it moves into position and everything jumps out to start shooting while the doom scythes get into position to blast lines of vehicles. Then the immortals shoot up the contents. Hopefully night fighting continues until turn 3 or 4 and then everything opens up....The Tesla destructos bruning up remaining vehicles witht he deth rays and large Immortal groups target infantry.

Nice things about the list? Very mobile while being technically the fastest list in the game, for the most part. This coupled with continued night fighting makes it very hard to pick off your vehicles with flat out saves. The Doom Scythes take advantage of night fighting and thier death ray rules, which need an faq, slaughter whole chunks of vehicles....Also large sets of 10 immortals are hard to push in general.....A very simple list while being sort of competitive.....It does lack a large ammount of compitent long range anti-vehicle shooting as well as any assault prescense what so ever.....I see this as a nice shock list that can take advantage of some players never seeing something like this before....but not top tier in GT competitiveness....thoughts?....more on thsi later.....

Why Black Templar Can Still Win Tournaments

2011-11-13T10:02:00.000-08:00

Hey all Kevin here sitting in New York Penn Station and hating every minute of it, but hey I am a Rangers fan...Anyway that's pretty off topic today I am gonna talk about why Black Templar players currently do not want a codex update and how they can still win after the recent win of Nick "Darkwynn" Rose at the Feast of Blades.

Almost a year ago we saw the big FAQ shakeup greatly increasing the viability of both the Dark Angels and Black Templar books. Now we were all greatly mystified at the new shiny Deathwing viabilty and saw the Dark Angels come back on to the tournament scene with the now ever so typical Deathwing build of 5 or so thundernator squads equipped with a cyclone missile launcher, a chainfist or two with some fast melta in either speeder or attack bike form. This for the most part distracted the online community as we saw these lists do fairly well for a small period of time, one of these lists with in the first week of the FAQ won the Templecon Singles tournament with ease and skill. We all did kind of ignore a new power house back of the line book still abusing some of the cool things from 4th edition with new updated wargear options. We can see this with some awesome Black Templar builds.

How many of you would love 5 man tactical that can still take a cheap lascannon? how many of you would love the ability to still have tankhunters on their missile launchers? How many of you would still love lightning claw terminators with furious charge and army wide preferred enemy? Then why are you taking Black Templar?

Now the newer Blood Angels book is a good signal for what will happen with the Black Templar book when it comes out. An ability to still take heavy deathstars with a lack of the cool old abilities and a few new units. Lets go over what you get with Black Templar compared to a vanilla marines equivalent.

For 95 points you get 5 crusaders with a lascannon. To even get a lascannon in a marine aquad you need to buy 10 marines first and then a expensive lascannon running you up to 215 points....and your vanilla marines dont have preffered enemy and access to a razorback that can take power of the machine spirit and extra armor effectively making it a fast unstunable/shakeable vehicle.....although for a hefty price of 120 points.

speaking of which this codex actually makes vindicators really scary with a combination of power of the machine spirit and extra armor letting them move 12 inches and still fire while ignoring shaken and stunned results for all realistic purposes. You also have the ability to get a LRC with blessed hull...the ability to stop the things that easily penetrate AV14 can be huge....

Did I mention you can have a squad of terminators with a couple cyclone missile launchers and tank hunters effectively getting a terminator squads with four S9 shots a turn....

Also we see the ability to take Terminators in a drop pod. with a lack of an ability to get your terminators into combat early and safely this could be a way to work out easy/early assaults for your terminators.

For my 1850 list this is about what I take....granted not as efficient as it can be..

Thunder hammer/storm shield Reclusiarch in Artificer armor

Emperors Champ, AAC

4x 5 crusaders with lascannon, one with a TL LAS POTMS/EA razorback

5 Sword Bretheran Terminators with x2Cyclones and tankhunters

5 Sword Bretheran Assault Terminators w/2 LC's and 3 TH/SS, Furious Charge inside of...

Land raider Crusader w/Blessed Hull

Vindicator w/ POTMS/EA

This list leverages a lot of S9 shooting and some pretty good death star punch. The one thing this book still has is cheap troops but expensive assault options....It is an issue as much as a blessing.

Still with some of the old abilities still lingering around this book can play fairly competitive against the current meta....It will have trouble with Death Cultists although....In my opinion it still has enough where it counts beat a lot of the msu transport spam of today....more on this later....

1750 Conflict GT Codex: Space Marine List

2011-11-11T11:13:00.001-08:00

Ok all, Kevin here to lay out my 1750 Storm Wardens Army. I have been building and painting this army in secret since August as my new project. After a few games I have hammered out the list I will be running, saying things get cemented in, at the Conflict GT in January. here it is...

1750 point Space Marines

HQ
1. Space Marine Captain, bike, artificer armor, power fist, digital weapons - 185
-Command squad, bikes,
1x Apothecary
1x Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield
1 x Melta gun/Storm Shield
1x Storm shield/lightning claw, melta bombs
1x Storm shield/lightning Claw -335
Elite
1. Dreadnought, Twin Linked Las, heavy flamer/CCA -145
2. Dreadnought, Twin Linked Las, heavy flamer/CCA -145
Fast Attack
1. X1 Attack Bike, x1 multi melta -50
Troops
1. Scout Squad, camo cloaks, x4 snipers, missile launcher -100
2. Tactical Squad, powerfist -190
-Razorback, TL Las
3. Tactical Squad, combi melta -175
-Razorback, TL Las
Heavy Support
1. Devastator Squad, x2 lascannons, x1 missile launchers -175
2. Devastator squad, x2 lascannons x1missile launcher -250
-Razorback, Las/Plas

Ok the first thing most people will notice is I am using a Biker Command Squad.....I get a lot of wierd looks for running it to. It is a unit I have wanted to run ever since I got back into the game a few years back but was always scared of the points and conversion cost. Let me say one thing to all of those that say this unit is overated....used in a proper way this is one of the best units in the entire game. It is very mobile so it lets me choose my battles. Each model in the unit has unique warear to help me in wound allocation and it is loaded with T5 3+ 3++ 4+++ love. I have yet to lose this unit in a game and for my oppoenent to just knock out one model is a hard task. I got assaulted by 60 ork boyz in a tournament and I wont he combat with only losing one biker...I will save all the details and tactics with the unit for it's own article in the future.

We also see my prefered three scoring units.....typical two small msu razorback squads and a camo cloaked scout sniper unit. I have always been about castling up on one or two objectives and holding them with more than one scoring unit being protected by my refered pattern of dreadnought (tl las and heavy flamer/dcc arm) in which you see duplicated in the list as well as some solid static shooting in which we see the the two devastator squads. I like the dev squads because the signum lets me shoot one of the lascannons with BS5, by the way which is probably the most forgotten about piece of wargear in the book.

With this list another detail comes out, what is with all of the lascannons? We have 9 lascannons in the list, 4 of which are twin linked. I can explain using such a expensive peice of wargear due to my year with Dark eldar....after you cannot manage to peetrate anything with S8 spam you tend to get annoyed with anything S8. I still have a bunch of missile launchers in the army but the lascannon is the most prominent weapon in the list. In all my practice games with this army I have yet to lose a game. It is very similar to my old "poor mans" Imperial Fist Army I ran a couple of years ago in hich I always had a ton of success with.

So why Storm Wardens? Wel I have always loved painting blue and if I was ever to paint another marines army it was going to be a blue and silver army. Plus I had some awesome inspiration from a ton of great painters on the web. I used the Storm Wardens Army project as a good starting point and went on from there. I also wanted an army that was not legion based so I can run it with Black Templar as well as Dark Angels when they came out, since the Wardens have an unkown history and founding.

...well more on this later, including BatReps and unit breakdowns.....

Making Chaos Space Marines Competitive in 5th Edition: UPDATED!

2011-11-08T16:47:00.000-08:00

Ok all, Kevin here to discuss once again, as a follow up to an older, very popular, post about how to make our current old Chaos codex work, atleast for the last 6-12 months of it's existence. The other day I took a solid second place at my FLGS tournament, which does boast a lot of GT contenders including some fairly seen club members. I was using a list concept I have been running since August. My background in Chaos solely lays on the latter half of 5th edition. I have played the army for two years and honestly have had more success with this army than any other of my armies with tournament victories and a handful of 2nd places. Overall My win loss percentage is around 3 victories for every defeat I have had with this book...In this article I will discuss the codex' weak points, its few strengths, how it stacks up to current books and what we can do to counter them until we get the legions book next year..... But first lets look at the codex' issues...

For one we are dealing with what is becoming one of the oldest books in the game. It deals with the older 4th edition concepts of minimization, simplicity, and high points costs. Also it lacks a good counter to the current meta without a cheap scoring unit on an effective weapons platform of a transport. This is probably the biggest problem with the army as we have no solid way to mimic or counter the current razorspam filled market. Instead we get expensive troop units that can only take rhinos with no solid way to spam vehicle laden heavy weapons. Also a few of the tricks it use to abuse are out of date and not as potent with our current meta...such as duel lash....

So we have to take a step back and look at our current meta in order to find a decent way to counter it. Yet, lets look at our strengths.....We still have lash and it can still work....there is nothing wrong with two winged princes with lash.....its one of the few things we can still abuse as a special ability almost exclusively with our book (the other being the weaker daemons ability)....we also have the untestable daemonic possession (downsides being a pricey points cost as well as a BS 3 downgrade)....if our codex is gonna have a small model count it needs to be durable and all of our weapons need to be able to shoot every turn they are living. This can be leveraged with a durable AV14 as well as the twin linked weapons offsetting the BS3 with an actual higher probability of hitting than a BS4 normal model. We also have the slightly expensive, but best, option for heavy support....the obliterators.....we have the ability to swap between lascannons at range, plasma cannons for groups of tough baddies, and twin linked weapons for close range rapid fire....as well as the buffers of 2+5+++ and 2 wounds....Lastly we have the ability with the marks to add new, yet expensive as per usual, upgrades to units.....so how do we leverage these abilities against current codices?

Well today we face Grey Knights, razorspam/longfang spam space wolves...blood angel deathstars, etc.....One major feature in tournaments is an efficiency model of maxing your force org. chart with msu of troops with light transport and a high number of S8 shooting....

So what I see out there is a high amount of AV11 and S8.....we do manage to see what strengths we can leverage in these cases...to counter the AV 11 spam I suggest a high level of lascannon to easily de-mech our opponents....I also would like to point out with such a high reliance onS8 we need to leverage land raiders with daemonic possession. AV14 can only be glanced by these weapons and glancing rolls of 1-4 do nothing to our land raiders which still get a 75% chance of hitting with twin linked 4+ to hit rolls. With a proper bubblewrap of durable foot units we can protect these raiders from melta countering.

In August I ran a duel Raider chaos list in a 1500 point tournament. I nearly had a flawless tournament coming out with a tied second place finish. The entire tournament I did not lose a single Land Raider....So how do we get the Obliterators needed with Land Raiders as heavy choices? I had a new concept of running small 3 man terminator squads with reaper autocannons.... using them as tough/small anti av11 spam defence as well as a way to fit both Raiders and oblits int he same list. With a combo of either the Tzeentch or nurgle marks we can leverage my prefered T5 nurgle icon or the 4+ invulnerable from tzeentch....What this gives us is a good bubblewrap screen of small t5 terminator units in front unshakable/unstun-able duel land raiders and a few obliterator squads.....This backed up with LAsh princes to throw away melta coutner units as well as rounding up units for the oblits to punk is a great combo. People tend to run land raiders as death star deliverers when the greatest strength a land raider can run is as a weapons platform that is unmovable as a scoring unit. We do this by loading the Land Raiders with small plague marine squads. The only threat we see at this range for the most part is lascannons which have a dismal chance of destroying the Raiders....we can do this with little risk of melta as normal. Finally backing this up with a handful of khorne berserkers to act as counter attack we have a very tough rock of an army...Now we have an army leveraging a lot of T5, 2+ saves and AV14...all with a lot of lascannons....this army is a rock to try and move as it is very hard to shoot this army to death and can hold its own using a combo of lash and good assault units to counter attack anyones moves against it. It also has good field presence with a strong core...as well as it is good with nova style tournaments by being a low/tough killpoint army that can manage to succeed very well in these games....so this is about what we are looking at

one or two lash princes with wings
2 land raiders with daemonic possession
2x5 plague marine squads
A 7-10 man khorne berserker unit
2 or 3 squads of obliterators
2 or 3x3man termie units with IOS or ION with reaper autocannons

In conclusion it leverages all of the strengths we still have in the codex left that we can abuse against a lot for the current meta. I have had a lot of success with builds made up of these elements and while not being too exclusively new it has some concepts not normally seen in the normally assault heavy chaos book.....I'll add more on this later...Now go change your assault minded thoughts to those of a tough/armored/strong rock of an army.....

The New Competitive Necron Tournament List

2011-11-08T11:26:00.000-08:00

Here is my personal flavor of the new Necron GT List.....comments to follow

"Canoptek Crusher" List

Total 1849

1. Imhotek- 225
2. Destroyer Lord, mindshackle scarabs- 145

Troops

1. Immortals x6- 102
2. Immortals x6- 102
3. Immortals x5, tesla carbines- 85
4. Immortals x5, tesla carbines- 85

Elite

1. C’Tan Shard, Writhing Worldscape, Lord of Fire- 220

Fast Attack

1. X10 Canoptek Scarab bases- 150
2. X10 Canoptek Scarab bases- 150
3. X6 Canoptek Wraiths, x6 particle casters, x6 whip coils- 305

Heavy Support

1. X2 Canoptek Spyders, x1 gloom prism, x1 tl particle beamers- 140
2. X2 Canoptek Spyders, x1 gloom prism, x1 tl particle beamers- 140

Alright so we have a very simple concept army that does what almost all competitive lists currently do...which is only one thing and very well....The concept is Imhotek keeps the darkness up while scarabs jump forward, start to eat tanks in a multi assault while the spyders feed them more bases...Once in range, and out of night fighting, the Immortals easily punk the then very low armor value targets in front of them. Then the Wraiths with the Destroyer Lord sweep forward and clean up abusing the fact they go at higher initiative than everything from the whips......very simple, clean and efficient. The Spyders also offer some fire support and psychic defence... Only 2 sets of Spyders due to only haveing two sets of scarabs.....Destroyer lord is just there to boost the wraith squad and nothign more...easily instead could be substituted from some rez orb lords or crypteks to be more efficient....The C'Tan is just there to hopefully punk some flame weapons before they kill all of the scarabs and writihing worldscape can discourage castleing armies as well as those looking for the benefit of cover....He also can easily be replaced in the list for it to be more efficient

This is just the 1850 version....and you can expect to see a few lists similar to this for atleast the rest of 5th edition on the GT circuit.....Ways to defeat it? IF you can sweep the scarabs there is little this list can do and relies on them.....the spyders just have to be ignored, avoid combat with anything against the wraiths as they can even steal the lunch money of death cultists....I am not a huge fan of Imhotek because of his points cost I just need his ability to enact night fighting....his other abilities are good although...I am more of a fan of Trazyn myself but this list is designed to win gamesand can be boring......Once the scarabs are gone the spyders are pointless and just assault the immortals to easily get rid of them.....So find a way to kill a 30 wound unit under the cover of night fighting and being very low to table easily getting cover and this list can go down....more on this later.....

A Not Very Competitive Necron Army List 2000 Points

2011-11-04T21:38:00.000-07:00

(Editors Notes: In Retrospect this list sucks, I wrote it the day before the codex came out...meh its more fun than anything...please go to my main page for a real competitive 1850 list)
Don't ask where I got the list or rules.....this is legit though

Trazyn the Infinite -175

*Royal court- 265

-Cryptek of despair, veil of darkness, nightmare shroud

-Cryptek of destruction,gaze of flame, solar pulse

-Lord, Rez Orb, hyperphase sword

-Lord, Rez Orb, hyperphase sword

Troops

Immortals x5, night scythe- 185

Immortals x5, night scythe- 185

Immortals x5, night scythe- 185

Elites

C'tan shard, lord of fire, writhing worldscape- 230

x5 Lychguard, swords/shields- 225

Fast Attack

x5 scarab bases- 75

x5 scarab bases- 75

Heavy Support

Doom Scythe-175

Doom Scythe- 175

Canoptek Spyder- 50

Simple Air assault list....using trazyn with the shroud cryptek to jump forward into the enemy...scarabs eat stuff with spyders crankin out more....attach lords and other cryptek to immortals.....other than that shoot shoot and shoot.....pretty fun and balanced list but this new necron book is wayyy too elite for its own good in the way that it goes against the endless legion mindset....I would say the cost limits the overpowering but still a good threat to GK ad current meta...more on this later....

Megaforces Make Me Happy

2011-10-27T13:27:00.000-07:00

Hey all, just chiming in again because GW made me happy.....in a time where all GDubs does is make people sad and cry....why?

I missed megaforces....

disclaimer, I never actually bought one.....

Regardless I love them, Occaisonally I still see a CSM megaforce hanging around and I always think, wow thats basically an entire, not too bad, army staright up....A good 1500 point force....Also the price was always good around just above $220.

Probably the cheapest and easiest way to get into any army....anyway I am still waiting to see another of the even older 3rd edition Massive army boxes that were about the size of a dozen battleforce boxes...I know some of you gues remember those things.

GW dropped all of thier milk bottles recently with the weight of a former 3 months worth of leaks all packed into a week.....So we see the brand new DE and Space MArine Mega Forces that will be available for the probable Christmas season, as well as a High Elf and Skaven that stay mysterious in picture, but high in model count....

I probably will pick up the Space Marine force to help bolster my own model count....Now most of the models I really dont need, pistol scouts and command squad....but that is typical of any battleforce box...but the drop pod, crusader/redeemer, dread and general bonus of marines is awesome....the DE comes with an absurd 9 reavers, raider, ravager, venom, 20 Byches, 10 warrios and 5 scourges.....A very good bonus to anyone trying to start a DE army....minus 75% of the vehicles but you get a good troop count and reaver count....good for any wyche spam in raiders list builder...

Now one thing that is depressing is that it shows every price but the American dollar (WTF americans always should come first $#^$#^$#^ joke rant aside)(SARCASM BUTTON PUSHED)

It does show every other dollar ammount, including NZ and Australian just to give a finger to the market they killed down there for thier minitures...etc...

Traditionally these boxes come in for somewhere in between $220-$250 American...yet a conversion of any of the listing prices.....based off current conversion rates shows it anywhere from $209-$245 dollars....I predict a typical $239.99.....but thats a really rough estimate

Any nerd rage? Id rather, in a large way, have terminators in the Marine box....but GW is smart and always gives you a 50/50 ix of stuff you want/need and stuff they cant sell because it sucks or doesn't work in thier boxed sets...

Except for CSM which kicked some serious @$$....Defiler, Raider, bunch of CSM's, 2 rhinos, a vindicator, some termies and a lord....which was an awesome deal.....even the older Space Marine force had a better line up list wise with a predator, RB, some assault marines, 15 marines, CS, dread, captain, and some sniper scouts....So i still have my groans but any mega force is awesome these days...IT makes a great prize for a tournament....a good gift idea for a friend to get trying to get into the hobby....and its a lot cheaper, generally running a good $75+ cheaper than buying each box individually....also it helps GDubs clear excess stock of models that dont sell and save them packageing costs....happy to help....And overall if you ever wanted to start a new army a brand new 1500 point force is always welcome...

This makes me happier than necrons....more on this later....

Deadman's Gun

2011-10-19T20:35:00.000-07:00

Such a Good game, great soundtrack

Feast of Blades: Impartial Missions/Tournament Review/Preview

2011-10-10T22:02:00.000-07:00

Ok folks, since my GT season this fall came to a sudden unexpected empty void I decided to pull a Kirby/Tastey and do tournament coverage/review work....Since I am sidelined and starnded I will be doing impartial reviews of presented formats and missions for the upcoming Feast of Blades Open (not invitational)...

First off if I was in Denver around the time of the tournament, which actually was originally planned for a year ago today, I would be attending this tournament. Here is a blurb from the tournaments site about the FOBO...

"Feast of Blades is an annual wargaming convention in Denver Colorado held the first weekend in November. Though the Invitational is our main line event we have several other events that weekend including an Open WHFB GT, a Narrative 40k mega battle, and an Open 40k GT (For people who didn't qualify for the invitational, or people who travelled with a qualifier...or simply someone who just wants to play in a tourney). There are also dozens of "after hours events," including pod racing, character gladiator battles, and mega floor battles, chariot races and myriad other things to keep you gaming 24-7 (yes, that means ALL NIGHT gaming!)"

-(feastofblades.com)

This 5 round tournament will take place in Denver, a personal 2nd home of a city for this Jersey native, on Nov. 4th-6th...Recently the terrain was posted and here we can see my initial critiques...Excellent job from what I have seen and read online. I am a fan of equal terrain and types for every single table in an event, especially a competitive one like the invitational. We see....

LOS blocking hills....check

large ruins and buildings to hide large vehicles.....check

obligitory AT tree clumps....check

What do I see missing on a nearly flawless table? Any impassable terrain....this is a short critique and I will get into army vs. army breakdown with the rules and missions.....Also I would like to see ruins and trees in both deoplyment zones only because of kroot and bolster defences rules being a big part of some armies....but thats a small preferencial critique...

Overall on terrain, based on pre-tournament posts and pictures.....B++...very nice job FOB team...

now only if roads and buildings were commonplace.....hahahaha

So on to the missions packet release...I will not go into reviewing all of the primer missions but the missions as a group, the rules, the format/layout, and how all of these factors impacts each army....

Overall it is nice to see a variety of primer missions come out for the tournament....since 8 were released for a 5 mission tournament I expect a lot of the similar missions to be cut as is common practice....As for the layout we get a Primary/Secondary BP format...one thing I like about this set up is the lower margin of points between getting a Massacre and a regular victory....It puts winning secondary on a higher priority since effectively with a possibility of the loser winning secondary and BP's to actually come out on top...nice touch...Also we see only regular victories and massacres....with a non-automatic massacre from tableing....these are two points I like to see in tournaments today....Also a couple of things I like to see is the 4+ BP's from atleast getting to turn 5...a nice touch to discourage slow play....

Now on to some of the other impacts of the format...For one we see a large margin of love for armies that lvoe to get into someones face...In fact the format extremely discourgaes long distance shooting/castle armies....this extremely hurts Guard/Tau/Current Necrons/Castle Marine armies....we see this in a lot of the missions forcing you into an offensive action...Also the BP's tend to tilt the balance further with bonus' going to those with few things left in thier deployment zone (less than 3 units in fact for a +1 BP)...as well as a bonus for having more units towards the center of the table...Small details like this massively improve some armies chances, such as Nids and Orks....Also with terrain not being ill towards a deepstrike army DOA BA come into mind....The only problem I see is that it does penalize certain armies and builds...which I do not like to much in tournaments no matter the meta (A guardsmen is sad somewhere right now)

There is also an imbalance with this in some of the missions, for example Mission 6 is the infamous 6 objective game where you need to take your opponents 3 objectives on his side of the board....this mission tends to favor an assaulty/deepstrikey/ central dominance army while it hurts other lists....now overall other missions tend to balance this out...

I also have to point out Mission 4, "Dusk Raiders", that is objectives with night fighting on turn 5-7...this coupled with the fact you get bonus points by reserving two units almost makes this an auto win for dark eldar.

We also see every mission either being spearhead or Pitched....no diagonal or DOW deployments.....I am a fan of total variety so with only two base deployments I tend to frown...

Regardless of mission balance you see some clear cut favorate armies to make the top 4...here is my prediction....Overall you will see any aggressive army do well such as DOA, Deathwing, Orks, Nids, Grey knights, DE, etc...while armies like Tau, Necrons, Guard, Castle armies, etc do poorly....I can see very midfield minded GK armies, such as Crowe Psyback/psycannon spam doing very well....Also with such a high priority of objective missions with bonuses for reserving makes Dark Eldar very viable with DOA and Deathwing close behind....I also see assault armies making a surge, like Nids and hybrid Orks...

Overall any strong midfield army has a good shot at the title....my prediction for top 4 is a Nid player (this being our wild card pick and upset favorate).....with a list involving tervigons and masses GS's and big bugs.....Next up I see Crowe GK, over the more popular Coteaz builds only for psycannons and thier midfield domminance....clear cut favorite by being so popular and trendy currently....with missions and BP's giveing a slight advantage to fast, contesty armies I see a common venom spam Dark Eldar player making into the top 4......For my final Top 4 pick I have to show some love to Descent of Angels....a lack of impassible terrain and such a high quantity of undangerous hills I have to give these guys thier props...mission favorable and slightly trendy......Overall I see it going between the DOA and GK with GK being the number one seed.....other armies recieving votes are Battlewagon Orks (24)Mech Blood Angels (17) Vulkan 'Nilla Marines(9) Deathwing(4)...

Overall I give Missions a B+...In comparisoon to other tournaments and thier layouts/scoring/missions I easily give the FOB a solid A....its nice and refreshing with a lot of the battle point reforms I would like to see put in place.....awesome job FOB team

All in all I like the format and missions and I only wish the best of luck to the organizers and attendees with a job well done to the TO's and designers.....more on this later...

The Conflict GT News & Such

2011-10-07T12:16:00.001-07:00

So since my entire fall GT schedule fell through (sigh no BFS, 11thCGT, or Mechanicon for me) I am looking into what I can compete in the first half of next year. The Colonial was fairly pricey putting it towards the back while the SVDM at Showcase Comics near Philly being a no excuse to play in event for myself this year. College up in New England always has its downsides with so many scheduleing conflicts......

....This leaves me with the Conflict which is being held at a mall semi-near my old stomping ground...which I do go to quite a bit....grrr a possibility?

Anyway according to thier site as of yesterday the tournament went from 2000 points to 1750 for 40k.....which puts it into my personal point level of comfort (1500-1750)....As of now in tournament games, off memory, at 1750 and below I am 9-4-2 while games above its somewhere around 6-9-5....probably worse at the below......at 1500 I am 5-1-1 and is my preffered level for any fun/tournament game....yet on this side of the Atlantic you do not see many 1500 point tournaments or GT's...... For my 2011-2012 season I am dead at .500 ...With a new army being clinked around I hope to have ready for the first half of 2012 GT season....

The Conflict itself starts ticket sales in a week....Since both start times are at 9am with a place to stay for free only being less than an hour and a half away this tournament does seem attractive.....the time off could be an issue with working as a chef being a horrible job to have in this hobby.....fridays/saturdays being the buisiest times....

....Time to do some thinking....more on this later.

The Phantom Ballistic Skills: Conspirisy of 6th!!!

2011-08-30T19:22:00.000-07:00

Ok Lads, Gents, Chicks and Ladies....I bring to you a thought many never really give a second thought to....

Why do models without shooting weapons have ballistic skills? Now lets delve into the past....much like the bowl thing in Harry Potter.....to last October (que cool dreamy music).....

Dark Eldar was just about to come out....I was sitting in (RIP) the old great Veteran's Gaming, RI... with no other than Decio "The Decent" "The Rock... Man" "Melonhead" Terra flippin through the stores Black Box copy of the new threat to the Meta....what everyone feared...then laughed at calling it crap, now fearing again....the new shiny...slightly creepy...Codex: Dark Eldar...while flipping through its dark pages I happened to stumble upon a picture of a quite beautiful evil looking space Elf in High heels.....Lelithe herself....Now stumbling through her stats she is a combat beat....she has the highest ballistic skill in the book at BS8....but wait...she has no gun to shoot.....??????????

I remember having a discussion with Terra about how this was pointless but put no other thought to the matter....

Here we are....almost a year later and another set of chicks have arrived to our sausage fest of a game....We see our Patron...the Saint...Saint Celestine....awesome character....has her own phantom IC indecesiveness...etc.....yet she also has a high ballistic skill....yet no shooting weapon (pardon the heavy flamer that doesn't use BS)....WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?!?!?

We are close to 2012 after all...

So just one thought of speculation....it has long been known that ever since Codex: Bugz every book has been designed with 6th Edition in mind....so this leaves all of these phantom skill sets in this time period....could this have been with to intent to have a new rule based on bs in the new game...what could this be? Toss-able grenades? borrowed BS? I certainly cannot tell....but the voices in my head, who normally complain about being hungry, are telling me this means something....

So any speculation...personally I think its aliens....more on this later....

Cohorts II Mini-Con, Bethlehem, PA Friday Sept 2nd-Sunday Sept 4th

2011-08-24T00:12:00.000-07:00

Ok folks, If you happen to be a fan of Flames of War or Historicals in general there is a nice little convention called Cohorts II, ran by the local gamestore/the head of my Penn. Gaming club. With a 40k Apoc game and a lot of other fun this event attracts over 100 people every year which is a lot for a Flames of War centered event. So it is a must for anyone into FOW within a couple hours drive. Even better the mini-con is only $5 to enter. Below is the event listing for the weekend...

Cohorts II Preliminary Event Listing

At Dragon Head Dis. 1205 Broadway, Bethlehem Pa
$5 for the whole weekend. Raffles and Fun to be had!!!

Friday September 2nd

Set-up and Opening gaming from 12 noon to 8pm, possibly later depending on when Steve wants to go home.

Saturday September 3rd

9am till end Flames of War Late War Western Front Tournament
Organizer Mike Proctor

10am -> 2pm Battlefleet Gothic Imperial vs. Tyranids
GM: Dan Whitaker

10am -> 1pm A Changing of the Guard
GM: Paul Wilson
Rules: Check Your 6! Jet Age
Date: August 9th, 1952Description: Commander Peter 'Hoagy' Carmichael led a mixed flight of Hawker Sea Furies of 802 squadron and Fairey Fireflies of 825 squadron NAS. The flight was returning to HMS Ocean from a train busting mission when it was jumped by North Korean MiG 15s. Carmichael’s No. 2 Carl Haines spotted the approaching aircraft. While the flight leader could not initially locate the aircraft his No. 4 “Smoo” Elis did and called "break" allowing the Navy pilots to turn around and get into a fair defensive position. The Sea Fury FB.11 arguably represented the best, and last, piston powered air superiority design. The MiG 15 was the first of a second generation of jet fighters. Can the skill of the FAA pilots overcome the technological advantage enjoyed by the KPAF fighters? You will decide. In Check Your Six: Jet Age it’s the man not the machine that matters.

1pm -> 5pm Boots and Saddles in Bastogne
GM: Michael Bowker
Rules: Red, White, Blue, Yellow, Green, Black Home Rules
54mm World War II Battle of the Bulge game,
As Patton advanced to Bastogne, the 6th Cavalry Group moved ahead and to the flanks of the 4th Armored to scout out German positions and to protect the flanks. Often these light, mobile troopers would run into heavy opposition that they were forced to fight. This is one such fight. Can the jeeps and light troopers defeat the Germans in the icy Ardennes? You Decide!!

1pm -> 4pm Off to the Races
GM: Kelly Kreible
Rules: Home Brew
Who didn’t want to be Ben Hur growing up? Racing chariots, getting women, being forced to row a boat… Forget that last part and go for the glory!!

1pm -> 4pm Battle for Midway (or Matapan)
GM: Mike Fatovic
Rules: Axis and Allies War at Sea
It’s a naval battle, we all know they’re neat to play out, so play the game, sink some ships, bring fame to your boat and watch out for dive-bombers.
Possible replay from 4:30 -> 7:30 as well.

3pm -> Close Wings of War Aces Tournament
Organizer: Dan Whitaker
Rules: Wings of War

Sunday September 4th

9am -> 4pm Casey’s Redoubt
GMs: Tom Zimmerman and Bob Mills
Rules: Regimental Fire and Fury
In May of 1862, General George McClellan's Army of the Potomac was advancing up the peninsula toward Richmond. The Confederates retreated before larger numbers. Two federal corps became isolated from the rest of the army due to a sudden rainstorm flooding rivers. General Joseph Johnston ordered a rebel attack, which struck the forward Federal division under General Silas Casey. Casey improved his position in one of the few large clearings in the area with an abatis, rifle pits and a redoubt, but manned by largely inexperienced troops. Historically, both sides claimed victory in the battle marked by heavy casualties. Can you decisively halt the rebel attack or lead it on to glory, beginning the destruction of the Federal army?

10am -> ??? Super Mega Apocalypse Game!!!!
GM: Dan Whitaker
Rules: Warhammer 40,000 Apocalypse
Come join the carnage in the 41st millennia, wipe out the alien threat, kill da ‘oomies, BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!!!! Fight for the survival of your race, and most of all have fun!!

??? -> ??? Firestorm Armada Demo Game
GMs: Herb and Friend
Rules: Firestorm Armada
If regular naval games weren’t enough, and you didn’t get your fill on Saturday, then a naval game in space is just what the doctor ordered!!

??? -> ??? Nazi Zombies in Fallujah
GM: Matt Fridirici
Rules: Ambush Alley/Z Mix
If insurgents weren’t bad enough, and zombies are worse, then Nazi Zombies in the midst of all of it makes for one heck of a mess. Special forces on a mission.

Also possible throughout weekend:
Board Games
Warmachine Demos
More Board games
With other scenario games possible as well.

Something Culinary Related

2011-08-21T23:43:00.001-07:00

For those of you who do not know I am in the culinary field...We as gamers love food...It also happens to be what makes me money...so I thought I'd post something about food. My cousins wife once asked me how to make one of my favorite foods...risotto....here is what I sent her...

ok a basic risotto is a mushroom risotto but NO worries! If you do not like mushrooms just take out the mushrooms and you have a plain jane risotto...a mushroom one is just such a basic risotto in itselft that it could be served by itself...but as well as a good side dish with a nice beef related entree since the mushrooms pair well with beef...anyway (this is off my head btw)you need....half a stick of butter A cup of aborio rice 3 cups of chicken stock or broth (low sodium! regular is too freakin salty when reduced like this!)5 or 6 food service mushrooms (white mushrooms) ir as you would see baby bella (really have another name, i got yelled at in class by calling them baby bella lol)3 cloves of garlic a shallot half a cup of white wine (pinot grigio is nice, personally im starting to lean toward chardonnay...any works)S & P! (salt and pepper, any other seasonig you lvoe really...i personally love paprika)1 qrtr cup of heavy creamhalf a cup of parmesean gratedrisotto is roughly translated as cheesey creamy rice....aborio exactly....so basic one just has butter...stock...aborio...cream and parmesean....but minus the mushrooms for the above is lovely....ok so dice your shallots finely and slice your mushrooms about a qrtr inch thick with stems removed since they are stringy with half of your butter cook them in a saute pan on medium heat...dfont brown or burn them just soften....add garlic minced and 30 seconds (never! have garlic in a pan like this for more than 30 seconds or it burns) and add your wine...in a seperate pan toast the aborio rice with the rest of your butter...this is important as it melds the butter flavors into the rice and gives it a nice crunch for the later process...also make sure the butter is unsalted (get rid of your salted butter! salt is added not already suppose to be in your ingredients!)...when the wine is reduced halway add your rice into your wine, shallots and garlic mixture.....make sure your stock or broth is in another pot and simmering...hot broth or stock is important....add about a qrtr cup at a time and constantly stir your rice at medium low heat so it is simmering just barely...add more stock or bfroth when it is absorbed....constantly stirring is important as the stacrch develpoment is important....continue this process until the rice is fully cooked with a little give....dont overcook rice...then add your cream and cheese.....serve within the minute as risotto doesnt hold at all no matter what.....personally shrimp or other proteans can go good with risooto...im eating risooto with paprika added and chorizo for a spanish flair....hope to see you soon...btw nutrition class food tasted the best of all the food i made...if you want something really healthy and delicious....enjoy...

So the next time you play 40k at your house with a buddy...hand them a bowl of this....then as they are distracted by good food win your game! ...probably nothing more on this later lol.... bon apetite! (BTW the picture is a show plate of a culinary practical back in culinary school of mine...I wish there was a 40k related food picture but aperently no one eats in the 41st millenium!

40k Douchebagery: What Type of Player Constitutes this?

2011-08-16T10:34:00.001-07:00

Salut mon amis...another post by me (blankly stares at the only guy in the comedy club in the back going woohoo)...

What is a douchebag in 40k? We constitute many things in this category but really it tends to vary a lot. In this article I'll go over what the different types of mind game players, since that is essentially the broader term for who may be a complete douchebag, or not...so lets get to it...

Does playing a netlist or a good army make you a douchebag? Now even I use to consider any and every Space Wolves player was my mortal enemy and a complete jerk....now to be fair they all really weren't I just didn't like the codex...not because I always lost to it (I am about .500 competitively against the Wolves) but because the player behind them had a mentality of superiority.....now my friend Marcus got flak n' dakka for starting GK but really he started it before they were thought to be good and he is a fluffy bunny who loves the GK fluff....and his other two armies are necrons and 'nids sow ho blames him....So does playing a good list or codex make you a douchebag? No, not at all, now taking a ard boyz leafblower to a fluffy bunny filled FLGS full of 15 year olds who never heard of a GT and doesnt know why his multi-colored all warrior necron army isn't good and smacking them all around just to win a 15 buck certificate and make kids cry as they leave the store can be....but thats an exception

Does staying strictly to the RAW and being picky about every single move and every single micrometer make you a douche (rules lawyering)? Now I did tend to be like this....I would be anal abut every single millimeter moved...every single scatter dice exactly how the arrow fell.....I felt very picky about the rules and played competitively in this way.. I even had one guy who was playing a daemon army on a table covered 50% by impassible terrain threaten to follow me home after the tournament because he wasnt following his scatters into the impassible terrains when it was obvious, but he was the greatest example of a douche for playing unsportsmanlike, read on later.... (why isnt that certain normally a Wolves player banned from the club for threatening my life? lol)......Although after racking up Black Matt, of Black Matt's Black Legion Blog and BFS fame, and getting him extremely angered towards me after saying his 3 termies wouldn't give him cover by standing in front of the side of a Land Raider as well as a few other things.....I thought to myself, "is it worth that one degree of scatter or one extra millimeter pissing off people?"....I stopped the game, apoligized expressing how I'd rather be friends with people than make them hate me...Then later on I became not so anal about the small things and we had an awesome game and were friendly....what was a case of bitter anger became a light hearted afair of laughing and fun, and I'm glad I did that...yet like a crack addict I still want to be anal about that extra inch....Anyway does this make someone a douche....well technically they are being anal about people following the rules of the game....my head says no but my heart says it can be overdone....It is really a context thing and situational.....verdict is up to the scenerio....

Does playing mind games make you a douche?...You know the player, the guy who sharply intakes a breath for every move you make.....who questions you after every move saying "are YOU SURE you wanna do that, I wouldnt".....Now it is a competitive game we play in the Tournament circuit....a little psycological (sorry spellcheck isn't working today)warfare can be a good thing...Yet like all things excess can be too much.....if intentionally made to piss someone off to throw them off thier game it can get out of hand....like the guy who just ridicules you from across the table and spits back "you mad?" after seeing you fuming....personally I wanna punch that guy int he face when I see him...but luckily that extreme of a player is extremely rare and will not survive...

Is being a chronic cheater or manipulator of the ignorant a douche? Do I really need to awnser this one? We have one at my local store who goes by the nickname Stewie (because he always tries to take over the world)....He is a known cheater and will cheat in every game he plays....or takes advantage of another player not knowing his rules...an ego maniac.... Everyone knows this and everyone avoids him....but the thing is even though this is his practice, and he jumped on every single bandwagon...he actually never wins.....karma makes me happy.....

Is playing unsportsmanlike make you a douche? Well in tis broad category I am talking about the player across from you trying to make sure he is not your friend and he is only here to win....WAAC as it is commonly known to us.....Yes this player is kind of a douche (see example above about that certain Wolves player)...These guys will stop at nothing to win and when they do win rub it in your face....you know this kind of player and no one likes them....let them love themselves as they sit alone after the tournament they won while everyone else goes over to Johnny Last Place's house for the after party without them

Collusion....manipulation....making sure you win by having someone throw a game....this makes you the ideal of all the above douche's.....this has no place in our game and I do not need to say anything else about it.....

Now it really all comes down to context.....Malicious intent is a required ingredient in my personal oppinion.....Everyone makes mistakes and everyone wants to win....but it can get too far....So any other things I missed that can make you a 40k Douche? ...more on this later...

August White Dwarf part 2: Sisters of Battle

2011-08-05T12:31:00.000-07:00

Well part Uno of the new sisters White Dwarf has appeared with very little for us to run with...

TANGENT ALERT: First off let me say that I am no sisters expert, I have only ever played 4 games against them myself in my career, all were competitive games against our local Girls Guru Simon Leen, our top GT playing member, ranked the #1 American Sisters player for those who care about RHQ, and top finisher at the BFS, Colonial GT as well as many other GT's....He's no push over and I am .500 with him so far. He Runs an 8 Immolater list with guard allies for scoring and about 20 melta guns....a very simple list that does one thing very well, get across the field, pop smoke, melta and then burn the insides.... anyway back to the WD....

...this is why you are not seeing any reviews or anything really about it covered online...it really only gives us the front half of the book which is just the army wide rules and unit descriptions....hooray fluff...

Yet it does give us an overview of every unit, leading me to believe this is everything in the codex army list so nothing else is hidden...There are a few key things that we can conclude from this dex so far...

GDubs seems to be streamlining and simplifying all of their systems to make them more new player friendly. In my oppinion the faith system was weakened overall by being simplified. Units can only be given faith that they personally have which differs between units. The most common faith being a 6+ invulnerable save which I do believe is weaker than an older invul save=to armor.......a major decrease

Another weakness is the extreme lack of guard....of course allies would be dropped yet the only guard currently included in the book are henchmen....yet the only henchmen listed to be allowed in thier squads are arco-flaggelents, death cultists, and crusaders......not that you needed acolytes for melta like the GK book but come on.....the lack of reliable heavy seapons support really shines in this book posting a lot of relience on Excorcists or Retributors....or in Simons case melta guns....now to be fair weapons options are not shown except for in pictures....Retributors, as always, can have multi-melta's so I see a huge relience on melta in this book.....What is good is with the inclusions of death cultists and Confessors allowing reroll to hits I see a couple death cult bombs tearing apart almost anything in the game in future games....so they do have an excellent death star...

What is also nice about Retributors is that thier act of faith gives thier weapons rending....this is of course great if they can include missile launchers being able to penetrate Land Raiders....or heavy bolters for that matter....yet with the meta shifting from grey knights forcing a lot of multi-raider lsits I believe the heavy ammount of melta Sisters have streamlined in thier army should let them do fine against an average build of today....

A Dominions faith makes thier weapons twin linked, so those multiple melta units of dominions are extremely deadly and efficient

No new units to my knowledge and all old models which is kind of depressing, hopefully more plastic than finecast.....

Only 3 special characters, nope there isnt Coteaz, Saint Celestine, Kyrinov, and Uriah are included......Nothing to great or new in that section....

Penitent Englines look fun, 11/11/10 armor makes them what Dreadknights should be...equiped with heavy flamers and Dreadnought CCW's make them quite useful if you can get up close, thats a big if...they do ignore shaken and stunned results automatically which is a cool ability that everyone in the game now has.... yet a random D6+1 attacks and I3 can hurt them....also they are open topped....ehh they still look freakin awesome in my oppinion....

One cool thing the army has is all the vehicles have the Act of Faith shield of faith so a only slightly worse than DE 6+ invulnerable save.....meh the faith still sucks....

Overall the army got more basic and streamlined....they still can turn out awesome Immolater lists full of way too much melta....not too many extreme changes just enough annoying ones to piss off the current Girls player....now if the whole "everyone takes land raiders to combat GK meta" actually happens you can expect multi-melta and twin linked melta lists backed by twin linked heavy flamers and angry dreadknight wannabe's can be very effective... But who knows with the army list section still in the dark, we could be looking at a lot of key elements missing to make them especially effective as wlel as some cool new weapons options, hell mabye they have super psycannons we don't know about yet....I still expect Simon to win a GT one of these days with this army....Good luck all of the Sisters players, I have faith in you (cost one faith point XD)...more on this later next month....

August White Dwarf Part 1: Vampire Counts

2011-08-02T15:41:00.001-07:00

When it comes to White Dwarf i only ever buy the magazine in a store and only when it has information pertinent to me. So when I saw a combo edition including Vampire Counts, which is my fantasy army, and the new Sisters Dex I felt inclined to buy it while trying out 2500 point game at my local FLGS. Since both parts are pertinent to my gaming I'll split it by square and round bases....

Ok so a VC update took the cover art for this months White Dwarf, which does seem wierd when there was an entire codex (front part of one atleast) in the back of the issue....hmmm....

Inside the update it gave some cool, new terrain rules for using new undead terrain....pretty cool but most will probably never use these rules for any petinent game anyway...It also included a new unit and replaced an old unit with new rules...

I'll get my nerd rage out now with the unit that got replaced...Cairn Wriaths...wtf GDubs, wtf...

Ok so Gdubs took the Rare choice Cairn Wraiths and split it into two different hero choices. So instead of it being a skirmishing unit that can include 3-10 Wraiths for 50 points a pop with the 25 point option of upgrading one to a tomb banshee you can now take individual tomb banshees and Cairn Wraiths as Hero choices for 60 points per Cairn Wraith and 95 points per tomb banshee....So why nerd rage?

Well for one thing there was a signifigant points increase. Wraiths now cost 10 points more which I can understand since the only change to either unit besides force org and individuality was a new rule to allow the wraiths to subsitute thier attacks for one attack that wounds automatically with no saves allowed if hit which does make the Wraiths decent monster hunters since they are ethereal....Yet for no new abilities or even stat increases a 20 point increase for banshees...Why?

Now for those who really don't know much about VC's you need vampires for your army to work, they are its life blood. Vampires are also hero choices...Most players won't have the point allowences to allow these models into thier armies anymore as well as since now they are individuals with very little for themselves to attach to, other than spirit hosts from what I can tell, they can do very little for your army....They were one of my favorite units in my army and now I feel that I have to need to take the banshee tax to run them....meh moan gripe moan...

What is now cool for really small games that you intend on losing you can have a grim reaper leading your undead army....cool beans

What replaced their Rare slot was probably one of the cool new toys for the army...

The Terrorgheist is a 6 wound monstrocity that is based on what I can tell the same size based as the orc giant spider base......aracnosomething....anyway its part of Gdubs new thing of giving every army so new giant 70 dollar kit....now the model looks fairly cool and it does give you the option of running it as a zombiedragon with lord or a terrorgheist with a possible ghoul king mount....now one thing I think GDubs dropped the ball on was making the ghoul king its own entry as a choice instead of just making it a Vampire Lord with Ghoulkin....the whole option to use the 225 point super bat as a mount for an expensive lord highly unusable outside of 3000+ point games.

OK so the Terrorghiest has M6 WS 3 S5 T6 W6 I3 A4 LD4....It has death shriek which is effectively the same shooting attack as a banshee except it comepares 2D6 + Wounds over enemy leadership to figure out the enemy dead which is a neat trick to thin ranks before an assault...typical thunderstop for a monster.... It has fly, large target as is typical as well as a cool 6+ regeneration but as is usual no real save other than that but relies on high toughness and high wounds...... it also has the option of getting poisoned attaks for 10 points as well as essentially blowing up into a thousand angry bats when dieing causing 3D6 S2 attacks against all models in B2B....now I can see myself fitting this beast into larger point games around 3000 points...2500? Probably not....It is still a beast none the less and I would love one for fun now and then.....

All in all cool update...I am not a fan of the new banshee models and the wraiths look kind of wierd....one of them has a cool skull face yet I can see better cairn wraith options out there....look for Part 2 delving into the new sisters teaser (since it really is not a codex lacking points and force org slots, yet all the units and special rules are there from what I can tell, yet no weapons profiles)...more on this later

The NFL and Warmachine!?!?!?

2011-07-28T23:02:00.001-07:00

Sorry about the lack of posting (for anyone that cares, I personally wouldn't care for my writing myself). I was browsing on yahoo a little while ago and came across this article about The Vikings punter.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/If-McNabb-wants-5-he-8217-ll-be-promoting-a-p?urn=nfl-wp4056

A funny little read really. But on closer inspection look at the twitter picture for Chris Kluwe, the Minnesotta Vikings punter.....

GASP! Is that a Privateer Press miniture?!?!?!

here is his twitter feed..

http://twitter.com/#!/CHRISWARCRAFT

On closer inspection a post he put up 6 hours ago states he plays warmachine at tower Games (Twin Cities gamers please tell me where this is? Assuming he lives where he plays which is common)

Well after a recent discussion that no one famous is into our little hobby corner in which I stated no one does.....I must retract that statement...we have an NFL punter....wooooo...for what thats worth...we can all think we are a little bit cooler in the publics eye now that we have someone famous on our team...mabye now we can bring this up the next time our team plays the vikings and come out of the closet to our buddies we wargame...personally if I see the man I'm gonna have him autograph my army transport...since his name is ChrisWarcraft I must assume he plays warcraft.....but who cares about that anyway?

...more on this later....I want a game with this guy and my Menoth!

Grey Knights FAQ Breakdown

2011-06-13T10:58:00.000-07:00

So did the boys n Grey bg boy pants get nerfed? Lets see (I'm skipping a few of the ovbious ones btw)

ERRATTA

Page 96 – Weapons, Unholy Gaze
Change the AP value from “-” to “4”

Well this just seems random, odd mix up or an arguement at the office? we may never know

FAQ

Q: What counts as a Daemon? (p21)
A: Everything in the Chaos Daemons codex, Daemon
Princes, Possessed Chaos Space Marines, Obliterators,
summoned greater Daemons, summoned lesser
Daemons, any vehicle with the daemonic possesion
upgrade, Daemonhosts, Mandrakes, Kheradruakh the
Decapitator, the Avatar.

Well this just nerfed my CSM. Another nail in the coffin of that codex. The funnny thing is that, specifically daemon princes as an example, they technically are not daemons in thier troop type....unlike the bunch. Now yes it is in thier name and fluff but rules wise thier is nothing to make them daemons. This is example #1 of two instances of ths codex leaning towards Rules As Intended instead of the INAT Rules As Written standing.....And Dark Eldar are not daemons, they are super anti-psycher and anti-chaos yet why are they included? Since when are Olbits daemons too?

Q: If a walker is the target of Unyielding Anvil, from
the Grand Strategy special rule, can it claim objectives
even though it is a vehicle? (p22)
A: Yes.
Q: If a unit is the target of Unyielding Anvil, from the
Grand Strategy special rule, and it splits into combat
squads, can both combat squads claim objectives? (p22)
A: Yes.

These both just proved Psyflemans can be annoying on two fronts and not just one. also the combat squading point is interesting as I never really thought of UA in that way.

Q: If a Grand Master gives a unit with personal
teleporters the Scouts special rule, can they use the
shunt move as a part of their Scouts move? (p22)
A: No.

Probably one of the only instances in the FAQ of a tactic being nerfed, sorry Goatperson....your strategum just got pwned....

Q: Personal teleporters make the unit with them jump
infantry. How does this affect a Dreadknight with a
personal teleporter? (p28)
A: It is a monstrous creature that moves like jump
infantry.

Now I always thought this was funny since the jump infantry would technically replace the MC part...so dreadknights that could get cover anywhere and get into storm ravens was a comical thing to think of. an obvious ruling but atleast it was made...

Q: Does a Dreadknight with a Nemesis doomfist strike
at Strength 6 or Strength 10 in close combat? (p34)
A: Strength 6, as it is not a walker.

I talked about this with my Grey Knights buddy, and Marcus you were right...interesting since most people thought the ruling would go the other way....

Q: Can models in Terminator armour embark onto an
Inquisitorial Chimera? (p51)
A: Yes.

wow....that was from left field...who knew a chimera could hold termies and not rhinos....I can see a lot of terminator characters attached to a bunch of storm shield wielding guard guys as protection...

Q: Do Nemesis falchions count as 2 close combat
weapons and thus give +2 Attacks in close combat (+1
for their special rule and +1 for wielding 2 close
combat weapons)? (p54)
A: No, they just give +1 Attack.

Yeah aother rules arguement from prior games/discussions. I still think it should be ruled the other way since isn't a Falchion 30 points and for only 1 extra attack? Not worth it....

Q: Do you take into account the strength increase from
the psybolt and psyflame ammunition vehicle upgrades
when working out if a weapon is a defensive weapon
or not? If a vehicle has either of these upgrades, must
you use them? (p62)
A: Yes to both questions.

I still think its not worth it to equip a LR Crusader with psybolt. It takes away a lot of its punch....

Q: Does the effect of servo-skulls stack? For example
would it reduce the scatter distance by 2D6 if you are
within 12" of two? (p62)
A: No, it would still only be 1D6.

Aha! Marcus I was right....This isnt much of a nerf but it does effect some stradegies.....

Q: What counts as a plasma weapon for the Ulumeathi
Plasma Syphon? (p62)
A: All Plasma weapons, as well as Eldar missile
launchers firing plasma missiles, burst cannons,
starcannons, all Tau pulse weapons and any weapon
described as using ‘plasma’ as its effect or in its special
rules.

Probably the 2nd reference to RAW vs RAI debate. A lot of these weapons are not plasma in rules but just have plasma in the name or description....Tau got nerfed a little by this...

So no nerf really. If anything a few things got a boost, and two other books got worse.....It's nteresting to see GW lean towards RAI instead of RAW in that debate....any thoughts. emember this is only about half the FAQ

(All text in pink writing is a direct quote from Games Workshop and is not owned by me. Quoted from http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m1830601a_Grey_Knights_v1_0.pdf)

The Tuxedo Fex: Let me feed your ear-toasters some strudel-words.

2011-05-31T22:06:00.001-07:00

Here is a post from my gaming buddy friend/scholar/poet/mind-melter Marcus. He is a mad funny general xeno player who just got into grey knights for the fluff and fun of it all. He writes at his new place for his thoughts and infinate(infamous?) wisdom... enjoy -Kevinmcd28

http://tuxedofex.blogspot.com/

Thought for the day: If a racist hates somebody based on their race, and a sexist hates somebody based on their sex, does a hobbyist hate somebody based on their hobbies? I think yes.
Here's the thing about the way I, you, or anybody else plays 40k: nobody likes to win.
That is, nobody likes or respects victory in and of itself. There's a psychological connection between winning at checkers and happiness, but it's more related to what you felt as a kid when you got a gold star on a spelling test: you're happy you won because you see it as a reward for doing well. The tough distinction to make here is that it's easy to get your cause and effect mixed up. If you win a game by fielding a steroid netlist, manipulating loopholes and cheesy RAW interpretations, and rolling handfuls of 5's and 6's all day, you'll find it's quite easy to look at the fact that you won as justification for any and all methods that you used. It's a matter of perspective. It's how our brains are wired; when it comes to our world views we like to pretend that good guys always win and that the winners are always the good guys. It's called the Just-World Fallacy. The basic idea is that we are inclined to believe that if you win a game, it's because you deserved to win it. But the word 'fallacy' is in there for a reason. Every single gamer has had games where they won because their opponent failed one single morale check at the end of the final turn, or games where their painstaking tactical maneuvering was thwarted by uncooperative dice. It's simple enough, right? People mistake enjoying a victory with enjoying a well-earned victory. Of course, most people would be able to look back on a game they won purely by luck and realize that it was just that, and I'm not particularly interested in the few that can't. But the fact remains that because of this misconception we're programmed to have, and the tendency of some people to not think beyond it, that a couple of grievances arise.
I'll get the obvious problem out of the way first: people treating pickup games like 'Ard Boyz. At my local gaming store there are horror stories about a disreputable dude who bends some rules, breaks others, and takes advantages of rookie players' inexperience in games originally meant to 'show them the ropes'. For him, the means aren't so much backseat to the ends as they are gagged and bound in the trunk. Clearly he's an extreme example of not being able to distinguish between rosy rationalizations of why you think you won and why you actually did, but he's hardly the worst I've ever heard of. People sometimes lose sight of the fact that they can deserve a win or a loss. Their credo is along the lines of 'if I'm gonna win, I might as well massacre', which is a bit of a bloodthirsty attitude to have while you're just kicking it around locally, no?. People like this are pretty easily identified, usually by their power-built GT level lists that they bring around to friendly shops on weekdays to table casual players while grinning like a horny hyena.
But this kind of thing also propagates a different stereotype. While you might be correct in assuming that a power player would field a power army, seeing somebody with, for example, a Grey Knights army doesn't necessarily mean they're a baby seal clubber (hint: I'm talking about myself here). Since I started playing games with GK the general consensus people have when seeing a storm bolter being placed on a table is that I'm a jackass who shelled out $400 for an army, spent hours clipping and gluing and cussing at magnets, and then came to the store solely with the intention of mercilessly squashing anybody who is foolhardy enough to step to my Mat Ward-powered queso-fiesta army. There's always some self-righteous kid champing at the bit to call me a mercenary front-runner n00bz0r, and decry my obvious plans of running gaming tables against my hopelessly underpowered opponents. Good guess. When the GK rumors started circulating on the 'net and I made the decision to make them my first Marine army, it wasn't because I wanted to run MSU Psyback Spam, or fill Chimeras with Multi-Melta Servitors and Storm Shield Crusaders. I wasn't looking forward to Shunt Punching my opponents silly or fielding three Psyrifle Dreads every game. It wasn't because I'm clairvoyant and I knew GK would be projected to fill 8 of the top 16 slots at the Nova Open. I decided to start Grey Knights for the same reason I continue to play them now: because I think Grey Knights are bitchin' sweet. I read the codex leaks and weapon lists and thought of a backstory for my personal chapter. I planned out the color scheme. I started thinking about goddamn names for the squad leaders. I liked how the army sounded and I ran with it. That's as much thought as I put into it. Despite that now every major 40k blog (like this one LOLJKROFLCOPTER) has broken the codex and found the most retarded combinations that are all but unstoppable by normal means, I don't play this army because it gives me any particular advantage in a competitive sense. I'm of course not saying that it doesn't (power-armored armies don't seem to be able to suck), but that's beside the point I'm trying to make. The fact of the matter is that people simply assume everyone else is playing purely to win, and that makes it that much harder for either player to enjoy the game as a whole.
And that brings me to my central point: the color behind the armies, not certain armies' ability to let you dominate on the tabletop, are what truly make this game fun. Think back: the fluff of your army is most likely the factor that sparked your original interest in playing it, not it's delightful smoky gouda flavor. I like space bugs that eat worlds, so I play Tyranids. I like zombie robots that with guns that zap people into technicolor skeletons like Mars Attacks, so I play Necrons. I like psychic ghost-hunting space monks with broadswords and halberds and guns attached to their forearms, so I play Grey Knights. Do I win more games with Grey Knights than I do with Tyranids or Necrons? Of course I do; they're an extremely powerful army, more so than anybody predicted. But don't see me playing and automatically assume that their newfound competitive strength was even a factor in my decision to start the army. If there is anybody reading this who picked an army whose fluff they hated because they thought, "Well, I can win games with this", I will shake your hand and agree to completely disagree. In this deranged gentleman's humble opinion, wargaming is meant to be a very immersive experience, and to completely ignore everything but the gaming itself is to rob yourself of the majority of the enjoyment you can get from it.
And so I will always advocate fluffy lists, themed lists, lists with character and personality and fan-fiction personalized backstories, and above all fun lists above the soulless, run-of-the-mill tourney netlists. There's a weird trend I've noticed where super-optimized lists are considered the norm and casual lists the exception, which I feel is totally backwards. You can have all the MathHammer and predatory instinct you want but at the end of the day it's you and your little plastic tanks and soldiers against the world, and I think you can afford a nonchalant chuckle or two along the way. Do yourself a favor; write up a goofy, sub-optimal list, proxy and counts-as all the characters you've never used before, and while you're writing your list, remember to please get off the fucking internet. Would you rather read a novel and enjoy the art of it, or read the SparkNotes and learn just enough to pass the exam?
And most importantly, remember to meet me at the gaming table, where I'll be doing the exact same thing.

Competitive Grey Knights:What I See works

2011-05-17T16:50:00.000-07:00

Ok GK have been out for a little while now and they are proving to be a lot better than I originally believed. Goatboay with a Crowe/Psyfleman Dread list came in 2nd in the Alamo GT. So they have proven thier mettle (BTW a Dark Eldar player, the infamous DashofPepper of dakka dakka infamy, won that tournament...proving DE are viable tournament contenders if played correctly)...The internet is split on the core of the competitive GK army...which is a crowe based rhino list or a general psyback spam list......Psyfleman dreads continue to prove thier dominance as always an excellent choice for HS....now as I usually am I believe a compromise will win the day and throw out the best possible list...now I am not saying a Crowe based Psyback army yet a mix of full rhino squads and a decent ammount of Psyback support. I see the problems in the psyback list as a lack of viable assault prowess....5 man strike squads are pretty squishy when faced with a decent assault unit...so on to the list...

First of all we need a good HQ choice...Grand Masters themselves are good but too pricy for our needs...so we shall go to the swiss army knife of the book by using a Librarian....This Libby will be by himself to be a mostly Psyker/psychic defense option by throwing up stealth/cover as well as some nice other psycker abilities....

Next we need the meat....how about four strike squads wuth a psycannon and MChammer each in a psyback.....a relativley good cheap unit in a codex full of expensive options....

3 Psyfleman dreads....no questions asked....

Now for elites I am at a stand off....I want some Purifiers for thier assault ability as full squads in rhinos yet I need something to kill land Raiders....venerable dreads with multi-meltas are a nice addition to a mid-range shooty army and will take a lot of shots away from the Psyfleman dreads...so two of the dreads and one of the purifier squads...lets look at this puppy....

2000 Point GK List

HQ
1.Librarian- sanctuary, shrouding, summoning, quicksilver, daemonhammer -175

Elites
1. Venerable Dreadnought - 175
2. Venerable dreadnought- 175
3. Purifiers x10, x2 psycannons, psybolt ammo, x5 halberds, x1 hammers, rhino- 330

Troops
1. Strike squad x5, psycannon, MC Hammer, razorback, psybolt ammo -185
2. Strike squad x5, psycannon, MC Hammer, razorback, psybolt ammo -185
3. Strike squad x5, psycannon, MC Hammer, razorback, psybolt ammo -185
4. Strike squad x5, psycannon, MC Hammer, razorback, psybolt ammo -185

Heavy support
1. Dreadnought, x2 autocannons, psybolt ammo- 135
2. Dreadnought, x2 autocannons, psybolt ammo- 135
3. Dreadnought, x2 autocannons, psybolt ammo- 135

2000 points on the dot...I think it will work fine too.....someone try this out, out of respect for my buddy I will not be playing GK.....well atleast not for awhile if i do.....more on this later

Repost:A Letter to GDubs From Kirby(3++)

2011-05-16T22:19:00.000-07:00

Out of goodwill and agreement I am reposting this letter to GDubs from Kirby at 3++ is the New Black concerning GDub's company embargo on certain UK stores selling to overseas customers...specifically I believe it is a 30% price added on to any Wayland Games (this is my speculation no one wants to deliver proven actual facts on the specific added on price or the distributor but it seems kind of obvious who and what these increases are placed on...hence Wayland and 30%) sales to Australia in addition to the annual knife in the side price increases starting a week from friday. Basically your $22 item that got its price increased to $30 and costs the boys down under now $40...when it was $22 kast week....ouch...now I am all for the free market but GDub's is, and always has been, very aggressive with thier buisness practices and IP...(Chapterhouse Studios suits and embargo on online shopping carts in the USA)...tisk tisk...I can do nothing but agree for our pink friend so here is his article.....I won't moan on about the price increases...we could see this coming with everything released since Warhammer Fantasy 8th and all of the prices on Games Workshop prices since then...dark Eldar really weren't hit all that badly aside from warriors and wyche increases (Hellions went up a quarter or something so no complaints there)...but did the army books need to go up $4 a pop? Between both of these reports Neil from the Warstore better have a grin on his face because he is about to get double his buisness in Australlia and around the world....good thing I went Mantic for my VC's... on to Kirby's post!

To Games Workshop,

Why? No seriously, why? I'm sure the excuse of cutting off Australasia and other countries (Canada, India, Korea, South American countries, etc.) to benefit the independent and GW store sales in Australia sounded good but unless you cut the prices here to not be a ridiculous 200% higher price than overseas, it's not going to happen. Let's look at this logically. You've stopped us from buying from stores like Maelstrom and Wayland with an embargo agreement in your Terms and Conditions (remember globalisation? how's that going btw?). Does this mean we are going to now buy at RRP in Australia or other countries? No.

There are other outlets overseas we can buy from which are still much cheaper (hi America), other companies which you cannot touch without raising a helluva lot of crap (hi ebay) and people who are willing to ship to us overseas (hello family and friends) without the 200% tax. We won't be getting as huge a discount as before but it's much better than buying here at RRP. The other option is of course going to be quitting which I imagine some people are going to do. Check out this thread on WargamerAU where a lot of people are indicating they are. The ultimate bottom line? Your bottom line suffers (more people leaving) and the retailers in Australia do not benefit.

Now I'm all for one in supporting the locals. I buy all my products such as spray paint, paints, plasticard, magnets, drills + bits, modelling putty, brushes, etc. from Australia. As an aside, do you actually stock good quality merchandise for all of those options? I don't see you selling plasticard, magnets, good sized drillbits, custom bases, etc. I'd be happy to pay a 5-10% premium on these objects compared to other stores to support your business but then again, I don't really want to support your business currently do I? The point of any business is to make a profit but the problem with your business model is you do not do this whilst concurrently supporting your customer base. We don't ask for much but a short list would look like...

not raising prices every year, without fail, regardless of the economic situation or inflation rates

basing prices around the world upon exchange rates (I wouldn't be averse to paying 20% more in Australia compared to the UK or America locally but I am adverse to paying twice as much) - there are circumstances in each country that make operating there more or less expensive but you need a base retail price for your product which is then translated by exchange rates at a given time (i.e. quarterly) rather than a price set many, many years ago. It's part of being in a global market.
regular and quick FAQs - you've done a fantastic job IMO of creating some pretty balanced books for 5th edition, fix the grey areas quickly.
official erratas - man up and admit you've made mistakes (hi Tyranids) and work on erratas that are official and re-print the books with these amendments. Admitting a mistake and fixing it isn't a problem and I'd applaud you for it. Ignoring a problem is.

fix Fantasy - you did it with 40k, why go backwards with Fantasy?
don't think your customer base is moronic - the resin re-cast to be cheaper than metals whilst hiking prices, not fooling anyone.
Ultimately people in Australia and other countries go overseas for their Games Workshop products for a reason: it's significantly cheaper (I.e. half price). What motivation is there to therefore buy from our locals when you aren't treating your customers with loyalty and support? People will walk away and your bottom line will hurt. A simple solution: care about your customers. Change the Australian (and other countries) prices so they are at least similar to the UK and US. This doesn't have to be the exact same price but some parity would be greatly appreciated.

Here's a quick example. If you could buy a similar product for $45 compared to $150, what would you do? How about if the product was the exact same but if you ordered it overseas it was $80 compared to $150 by the time it reached your door step? I'm pretty sure you'd want to take the cheaper option correct? For you as a company, you make your profit margin through the reseller regardless of where it is purchased. You may make more money off a direct sale at an Australian store compared to an Internet sale from the UK but you have already achieved the profit margin from the Internet sale already. The Australian stores may be hurting but this is down to the initial price you have set, not market trends. Simply put, you are alienating customers from a large and developing market.

I and many of the readers here obviously enjoy your game. We've played it through thick and thin (4th edition...) or come back thanks to an improvement game balance (5th edition) and don't want to leave. We will though sooner or later if you keep piling on idiotic choices on us. Other companies like Privateer Press did very well in the early to mid-2000s for a reason and people will migrate to other gaming systems if you continue to mistreat them and their loyalty.

As it stands I question why you do the things you do. Raising prices every year annoys me but I cannot complain too loudly as your products are a luxury item but you do not provide excellent customer service one usually expects with such goods. I certainly find minimal fault with your staff or when your product is damaged/faulty but your overarching business model seems counter-intuitive to maintaining a customer base. Even if you are getting a large amount of new customers imagine how much better off your company would be if you had maintained a significant portion of your repeat customers. The model you are running currently to me does not seem sustainable as your turnover rate in customers is just too high. I applaud your efforts in making 40k 5th edition a more competitive game but what you've done to Fantasy 8th edition doesn't bode well for the future.

Please, look to satisfy both the shareholders and the customer rather than just the former.

Kirby.

No More Metal?

2011-05-16T09:18:00.000-07:00

So are the days of metal armies done? GW has dumped the pewter metal line for new plastic/resin evil hybrid set.....yay? The price seems to be going up....just a buck or two from what I can tell...Wasn't the main two reasons metal models were so expensive that A.) shipping that heavy a weight and B.) The price of metal was high? Hmmmm is our hatred of metal and love of plastic strong enough to embrace this change? MY DE army only has 2 metal models in it....so I am not being impacted that hard....oppinions? ..more on this later...

New Dark Eldar Models

2011-05-12T10:38:00.000-07:00

Well Folks Dark Eldar 3rd wave has come if you didn’t already read every new source before stumbling upon mine. I feel obliged to talk about them….
For one I was very much hoping the razorwing would come with this….pictures are out but no model for sale….shame… I want one to make a voidraven…
Venoms are cheaper than Raiders! In terms of money….Im actually surprised….looks like the picture in the book so the venom conversions really aren’t all that off….Its cheaper to just buy the kit….I may want two of these puppies…sigh eventually…
Now the Scourges models are….extremely good…looking….It is a viable build to have a squad of 5 with 2 heat lances or 2 blasters….It is also only 132 points…..25$ is not too shabby either price wise….I see my list changing a bit
The talos/cronos….meh I think it looks weird…too muscle-ish….not in my list regardless
So probability dictates Ill get some scourges soon and adapt them in…..followed by a couple venoms and a voidraven….I still need to crunch the numbers…more on this later
Maybe incubi as well…but that defiantly nulls out one Hekatrix quad….hmmmm

40k Editorial: Objective vs. Subjective Paint Scores

2011-05-06T00:50:00.000-07:00

What up all! Kevin here from the land of Rhode Island is here talking about my experiences with Paint judgement and how it should be done. Its been awhile since the last tournament I was in and it really does take awhile to think and plot through every detail of any grade of criticism.

More specifically I would like to talk about paint scores and how it should be done.....mostly drawing from my own clubs extremely basic paint rubric grading system to a GT level system....first of all there are two types of grades someone can get....an objective and subjective grade....An objective grade is one based on goals and guidlines to be ment, a subjectiv one is decided via an oppinion based bias. I talk to you about this since this system seems to be blurred....

The last tournament in question was the Colonial GT....I brought my new dark Eldar, an army I had just finished painting to my requirments, with room to grow with detaila nd free hand, expecting a decent score since it was a rubric based objective paint/presentation score. This was a selling point for the tournament since I am no Michael Angelo and am just getting into highlighting my figures....the Rubric gave out 32 (I believe off memory) possible points.......I got 6.....

I remember being perplexed at this, when consulting the rubric getting 15 would be low and 12 at the bare minimum....but 6....i was shocked...after past drama discussed insueing I learned that half of the score was subjective and there was a heavy bias on the actual paint judgement...no BS aside (pardon mon francias) this is a great example in the current bias showed in an objective system.

In any good panel based system there is a standard still....so one way to determine a standard to be reached with a plus or minus system based around it....this is an understandable method to judge yet when a rubric is used is it not ment to be used? I know Cpt. Jack himself it may be more like guidelines but who is not to say the judge likes Red more than blue? It can bomb people on score....Ive felt its pain and refuse to play in any payed for events by a specific group/store because of it (3 guesses who).....lets say we have a 10 point scale based off this rubric....

4 points for painting range, this is divided up between players with the top 25% recieveing four points and every 25% level lower based on the judges oppinion being 1 point less......even though this parameter is subjective it is still objective in a way catagorizing the players based on all of the players themselves and not on a judges particular whims to give one player a 4 and one a zero

2 points for basing....one point is given to a player for basing all models and another for above and beyond work....a fair system with rewards for more work....

3 points for conversions.....one or 2 is a point while a lot is full...rewarding players for content not punishing them on thier own stuff....

2 points for display board....such as if you have any its a point while a 2nd for above and beyond.....

this is a small scale but it is a guidline to fairly judge....whic is the point...I go to a fairly biased University where grades can be very subjective and find it annoying at the least....leave it out of the game,,,,

Now overall best painted should be a judged thing between a panel....this I never argue, best painted and painting battle points can mean two completely different things...

Battle For Salvation RTT 5/21

2011-05-01T15:54:00.001-07:00

Well I payed and am set up to play the day after I move back to Jersey in White Plains....Dark Eldar 2000 point revamp? Well I am taking my revised DE list and beefing it up for 2000 points. And Jawaballs you may have escaped me first round of the Colonial im calling you out on this tournament, considered the gauntlet thrown down, you win and I'll buy you a beer the next GT I see you at. Should be interesting Details are 2000 points, Nova Open missions, $20 admission, at the Salvation Army in White Plains.....So not that far of a drive and my bro lives nearby so this could workout well. They are giving out a Brothers Grimm GT ticket...which even though I kind of have mixed feelings about the Brothers Grimm Ill take it if I win it which would be nice since I was originally planning on attending... vague

So Dark Eldar at 2000 points? This I have mixed feelings about..... Now dont get me wrong Dark Eldar are better the higher up in points you get yet I do not have the models I would want at this level.....for one I lack a voidraven, which is agreed by the majority of tournament DE players who have been playing this dex since it came out that I talk to a necessary tool at the higher points levels, and do not even have a 3rd heavy choice available to me. The best I can do is boost up my weak warrior squads since I sliced them up to make room for a duel dark lance equipped trueborn unit.....

The competition isnt slim at BFS. They aregueably have a bastion of well known GT players as well as the blogging elite on the east coast. Players like Jawaballs, Fritz, Black Matt, Danny Internets, BC James as well as many other lesser known competitive players flat around the ranks of thier club. My chances of taking the event? slim at best.....I have been out of practice since the Colonial and if my luck streak for 2011 continues I might as well throw in the towel....(my dice have been warned they will all be sent to the microwave if they prove bad in anymore games)

This tournament starts out my 2011 summer tournament circuit which will probably include quite a few roadtrips into New York and the Media, PA bunker.

I also plan on attending either the Battle for Salvation itself or the war store weekend. Both would be awsome but the cost and the proximity to each other knocks that out. Especially with Mechanicon being on my watch list as well and a return trip to the colonial to play in the fantasy GT with my new Vampire counts hoarde.....well more on all this later....

(Vampire Counts) Summer of the Undead: Part 2

2011-04-28T23:42:00.000-07:00

Ok so I've rummaged the interwebz of all its undead glory and decided on a a couple lists based off what I am getting or have. First of all I'd like to plug Wayland Games. I ordered a Mantic Undead Alternative Warhost and not only did they fix my shipping details, since I messed them up, within a day but sent it out and I got it in a week....from England....as well as getting a massive discount (70 figs for $50!) They gave me 10 free ghouls for some odd reason too......the last time I got something from england it took 2 months to get here. I started building the skeletons and they look great. I also battled it out on Ebay and bought 3 vampires and a necromancer.....this is wargaming at its cheapest level.....here are my two lists.....

Vampire Counts Army Possibly

Total—2500

Lords

1. Vampire Lord, +1 Magic Lvl, Flayed Haubark, Carstien ring, Master of the Black Arts, Dark Acolyte -435

Heroes

1. Vampire, dispel scroll, scepter de noiret, lord of dead, Dark Acolyte -195

2. Vampire, ghoulkin, summon ghouls, cadaverous cuirass, talisman of protection, biting blade -175

3. *BSB* Wight King, sword of Kings, avatar of death – 145

Core

1. X50 Skeletons, musician, champion, standard bearer, banner of endless nightmare- 425

2. X20 Crypt Ghouls, Crypt Ghast – 168

3. X20 Crypt Ghouls, Crypt Ghast – 168

4. Corpse cart- 75

Special

1. X40 Grave Guard, seneschal, musician, standard bearer, banner of the barrows -555

Rare

1. X3 Cairn Wraiths, tomb banshee- 175

Vampire Counts Army Possibly

Total—2998

Lords

1. Vampire Lord, +1 Magic Lvl, Flayed Haubark, Carstien ring, Master of the Black Arts, Dark Acolyte -435

Heroes

1. Vampire, dispel scroll, lord of dead, Dark Acolyte, biting blade -175

2. Vampire, ghoulkin, summon ghouls, cadaverous cuirass, biting blade -150

3. *BSB* Wight King, sword of Kings, avatar of death – 145

4. Necromancer (on corpse cart*), scepter de noiret – 80

Core

1. X60 Skeletons, musician, champion, standard bearer, banner of the endless nightmare- 505

2. X30 Crypt Ghouls, ghast– 248

3. X20 Crypt Ghouls, ghast– 168

4. X30 zombies- 120

5. Corpse cart- 75

Special

1. X40 Grave Guard, seneschal, musician, standard bearer, banner of the barrows -555

2. Spirit Hosts x3 -195

Rare

1. X3 Cairn Wraiths, tomb banshee- 175

I like both lists....the 3000 whips out over 160 models inside 8 units with 5 characters while the 2500 puts out an equally impressive 139 models in 5 units with 4 characters....both utilizing the Wight BSB with the sword of kings and a heavily upgraded vamp lord..... both big on the ghouls with a bunker of skeletons to hold units down. Both sport a big block of grave guard to smack enemies around..... Cairn Wraiths are just mean and I added spirit hosts in 3000 just because I need them for the psychic powers I can use that make them. Both sport a couple special banners...the grave guard barrows banner can be just plain mean. I plan on having the BSB and the vamp lord in this unit. I have a cc and got a necro on ebay so might as well use it.....the 3000/2999 point army is just plain mean.....I hope to use this army by mid summer in a tournament....more on this later

I Hate Army Builder (Rant/Explicit Warning, Paincakes inbound!)

2011-04-20T23:25:00.000-07:00

Swallows? mabye.... got your attention? might as well read on =]

Now thats out of the way its just my oppinion... Here are my reasons...

1. Its full of errors...now dont get me wrong, its a cool tool to toy around with when coming up with an army idea and looking around through the rules and stats.....but they do get it wrong too much for comfort..so just check the codex before refering to the 3rd party program

2. You need a PHD in English, and 40k for that matter, if you are not familiar with it.....I've been playing this game over half my life, and over a decade fyi, and I still dont understand half of what its trying to say...

4. It breaks up units so you cant even tell what is part of what half the time. Whenever I get an army builder list I just put it down and ask my opponent to explain his army to me in front of me and if I see something I dont know I ask for a statline or what it does exactly

5. A clear, clean piece of paper is much easier to read. Especially if set up like any army list on my blog. It takes 15 seconds to read and its way easier to spot things on it which you dont know so if you do run into something unfamiliar its easy to ask what it is instead of shuffling through the 6 or 7 pieces of paper reading through half of the crap on the list to see what it does (if its even correct in the first place)....which takes me to reason #6...

6. It posts upgrade wargear with standard wargear.....how the hell are you suppose to tell which is which when reading the list to tell if its correct....amongst the other jumble of filler...

7. People preach army builder is easier and makes it so you dont need to buy every codex to check rules on the spot.....well I always thought you and your opponent need to bring your repective army's codex to the game..."oh wait except all the rules here are correct and not assumed to be right"

8. Its a 3rd party source, not GW.....if GW made this a part of the game I'd understand but callling someone a cheater by not having an army builder list ready for you and you dont know what a unit does and you lose a game makes you a douche.....a royal douche (la douche de royale for my french friends :] ).....and if anyone ever said that to me id let them know that and find someone else to play...if its a tournament ill accept thier forfietureof the game due to refusing to play me.....and thank them for the battle points you get from a massacre...then go make fun of them at the bar :)

9. It costs money...people generally spend more than they can on this hobby...this includes me....this is why I never got the program in the first place....no cash....literally zero at first....now technically negative do to student loans.

10. If you feel the need to know every single ability of every single piece of wargeer for one specific army go on AB and make a list based on everything in the book for you to reference....oh wait I though GDubs made something like this except its easier to read....and is in color....and has pictures too =D....I think it starts with a C but I dont remember its name....mabye its Cofex.....or Cedix.....hmmmmmm

11. I can do everything Army builder does with a calculater, some good hobby thought time, my nice colored detailed codex...and a comfy chair.....all for the good price of free....

Ok stop now if your skipping some of the above to troll me in the comments here and listen!

Army Builder isn't a bad thing at all. I listed my reasons above why I do not use it and I believe in those things. I shouldn't be forced to buy an independant program just to play the game with you....It is a cool little source for at home info but it belongs as a home source for game knowledge and quick list building...but not official listing...Now I will get army builder if....

1. they include before the list is detailed out like they have it now a bare bones list similar to how I write them on this blog....just the units, the upgrades, and the points....no more....and without all of the boxes....a simple list...no more

2. Its free or cheaper....get an ad service on it or something...just dont charge me for something that is free to do with a codex

3. They stop breaking up squads so you can't tell what is part of what

4. GDubs endoreses it or they admit on the list to not use as official rules since it is unofficial and error prone...please debate the single fact that it is unofficial and error prone and say that it should be the direct source of info at a tournament....

none on this later...well mabye....tollers beware! (now back to my nice happy articles, trust me Im a nice guy)

Summer of the Undead?(Vampire Counts)

2011-04-17T18:35:00.000-07:00

Ok Im a lover of computer strategy games and a veteran of the total war series...games like fantasy are always sucking me in....but since mantic exists I can play it starting in the summer....summer of the undead....possible to play in next years colonial fantasy GT?

{BTW my grasp of Fantasy rules is fairly mediocre at best, please correct me for anything that breaks the rules or is just plain stupid....and yes I know skeletons and zombies suck so stop chanting GHOULS! GHOULS! GHOULS! ;) }

Vampire Counts Army Possibly Total-- 2500

Lords

1. Vampire Lord, +1 Magic Lvl, Flayed Haubark, Carstien ring, Master of the Black Arts, Dark Acolyte -435

Heroes

1. Vampire, dispel scroll, scepter de noiret, lord of dead, Dark Acolyte -195

2. *BSB* Wight King, sword of Kings, avatar of death – 145

Core

1. X50 Skeletons, musician, champion standard bearer, spears, banner of endless nightmare- 485

2. X25 Zombies, musician, standard bearer – 114

3. X20 Crypt Ghouls, Crypt Ghast – 168

4. X20 Crypt Ghouls, Crypt Ghast – 168

5. Corpse cart- 75

Special

1. X20 Grave Guard, seneschal, musician, standard bearer -270

2. X20 Grave Guard, seneschal, musician, standard bearer -270

Rare

1. X3 Cairn Wraiths, tomb banshee- 175

Based around a Mantic Undead army I think this list is pretty good. I wanted at least 3 characters and I have that...although another vampire would be good I know a BSB Wight King is a good option....obviously the vampire and BSB with the massive amount of skeletons in the middle....Skeletons are not very good but with the wight king bringing in one or two a turn as well as the vampire giving me 1-6 more per turn makes this unit fairly hard to kill (I hope its mad expensive in points!).....a unit of 25 zombies just because who doesnt like zombies? (and they come int he kit so I might as well get my moneys worth.....they can jump in front of enemies to roadblock them.....obligatory two units each of grave guard and ghouls...both are the better infantry units in the army....and they are fun and tactical.....vamp lord goes with one of the grave guard units...... I would have another corpse cart or two but I ran out of points.....Im also neglecting a black coach yet Im going for a horde look.....I would possibly add one for 3000 points....the vamps in general are built around adding more bodies to my army and adding zombies to roadblock my opponents fast units on the flanks since I lack wolves or fell bats which were originally in but had to be dropped... the vamp lord was built around being as magically capable as possible being a LVL 4 Wizard that gets +2 power dice to any magic he does....with the ring and a 2+ armor save Im trying to make him as hard to kill as possible.....Cairn Wraiths are just BAMF's that can step in front of big enemy units with no magical attacks and just break dance to hammertime...also a banshee just for fun.....I like the army and believe it can be semi competitive...any thoughts? With using a mix of sources and using Mantic Army deals and warstore prices on some mantic pieces and a GDubs corpse cart right now I can get this for 200 bucks.....that's a deal...See this coming in june possibly

...more on this later....

If I were to run Grey Knights, This is what I'd run

2011-04-17T01:07:00.000-07:00

If I really Wanted to Play Grey Knights....call it Tactical Dreadnought Fun.....

Total- 1850

1. Librarian, x1 servo skulls- 155

Troops

1. Terminator squad, Psycannon, x3 daemon hammers, -225

2. Terminator squad, Psycannon, x3 daemon hammers, -225

3. Terminator squad, Psycannon, x3 daemon hammers, -225

Elites

1. Venerable Dreadnought-heavy flamer, TL Lascannon- 205

2. Venerable Dreadnought-heavy flamer, TL Lascannon- 205

3. Venerable Dreadnought-heavy flamer, TL Lascannon- 205

Heavy Support

1. Dreadnought, x2 TL Autocannon , psybolt ammo -135

2. Dreadnought, x2 TL Autocannon , psybolt ammo -135

3. Dreadnought, x2 TL Autocannon, psybolt ammo -135

Now the dread spam list can be quite effective, people know this......lots of S8 shots....BS5 TL lascannon fun.........16 terminators.....its quite fun and only 21 models to paint.....about 350 dollars...... not much to kill a land Raider BUT if tis a land raider it generally has something assault oriented inside meaning it wants to get close...if it does it will get smacked by a daemonhammer in hammertime mode....it would be more fun than competitive but fun it would be! I always wanted a dreadnought list and a terminator list...this is both....mabye something more on this later......

TheoryHammer: Summer small points lists conundrum

2011-04-15T10:27:00.000-07:00

Ok so I want to head down to the Showcase bunker in Media, Pa in the middle of this summer for a 4 or 5 round tournament that is undetermined between 1250 or 1500 points. If you've talked about the subject with me in person I love these points level. Heck the only two tournaments I've won happen to be a 1500 point one with my surprisingly competitive at that level "Poor Man's" Marine list and a 1250 point one with my Khorne Blitz Chaos Space Marines. With a notch in my belt a both these levels, also with a current streak of these games being the only ones I can win with a large margin I am left with a conundrum...do I take my Dark Eldar army which is my focus or do I revisit both winning lists for the event. It really all depends on the points level. Ill post the four lists for your viewing....

1250 Tournament Winning Chaos Space Marines

1. Daemon Prince- Wings, Warptime - 155

Elites- NONE

Troops

1. Khorne Berserkers – 265 -X10 -210 -Skull Champ 15, plasma pistol. P fist- 50 -icon -5

2. Khorne Berserkers – 265 -X10 -210 -Skull Champ, plasma pistol, P Fist- 50 -icon -5

• x2 Rhino- 145 total -Daemonic Possession- 20 each -Havoc Launcher- 15 each - 1(!) with dozer blade -5

Fast Attack- NONE

Heavy Support

1. Chaos Defiler- 150

2. Obliterator Cult- x1 -75

3. Obliterator Cult x1 -75

Summoned Daemons

1. X9 Lesser Daemons- 117

1250 Dark Eldar

1. Succubus- Agoniser, blast pistol, haywire grenades - 105

2. Haemonculus Coven

–Haemonculus Ancient- Animus Vitae, stinger pistol, Shattershard - 115

Troops

1. Kalabite warriors x8, blaster, Sybarite, agoniser - 207 - Raider, Night shield, flickerfield,

2. Kalabite warriors x8, blaster, Sybarite, agoniser - 207 - Raider, Night shield, flickerfield,

Fast Attack

1. Reaver Jetbikes x3-, heat lance, cluster caltrops- 98

Elite

1. Hekatrix Bloodbrides x8 , shardnet/impaler, hydra gauntlets, haywire grenades, syren, blast pistol, agoniser-286

- Raider, Night shield, flickerfield, enhanced aethersails, shock prow, torment grenade launchers

Heavy support

1. Ravager, night shields, flickerfield -125

2. Ravager, night shields, flickerfield- 125

So neither list is all that bad, the Chaos being a lot more resilient and beastly in combat. It lacks as much shooting as Id like but I know it works. I feel this would be favored over the Dark Eldar yet it will be determined in practice....

1500 Point Tournament Winning "Poor Man's" Imperial Fist Space Marines List

1.Librarian- Plasma Pistol, The Avenger, gate of infinity -115

Elites

1. Terminators- heavy flamer- 205

2. Legion of the Damned x5- Plasma Cannon, flamer - 195

3. Dreadnought- TL Lascannon, Dread. Close combat/flame - 145

Troops

1. Tactical Squad-+5 marines, Missile Launcher, melta gun, combi-melta- 185

2. Tactical Squad- +5 Marines, Missile Launcher, plasma gun -180

Dedicated Transports

1.Razorback (Tac. squad 1)- TL Lascannon -75

2.Land Raider Crusader (Terminators)- 250

Fast Attack

1.Bike Squad- melta gun, attack bike, multi melta- 150

1500 Dark Eldar

HQ 1. Succubus- Agoniser, blast pistol, haywire grenades - 105 2. Haemonculus Coven –Haemonculus Ancient- Animus Vitae, stinger pistol, Shattershard, power weapon - 125 -Haemonculus, venom blade, liquefier gun, casket of flensing -75

Troops 1. Kalabite warriors x8, blaster, Sybarite, blast pistol, agoniser - 222 - Raider, Night shield, flickerfield, shock prow, enhanced aethersails 2. Kalabite warriors x8, blaster, Sybarite, blast pistol, agoniser - 222 - Raider, Night shield, flickerfield, shock prow, enhanced aethersails

Fast Attack 1. Reaver Jetbikes x3- arena champ, power weapon, heat lance, cluster caltrops- 118

Elite 1. Hekatrix Bloodbrides x8 , shardnet/impaler, hydra gauntlets, haywire grenades, syren, blast pistol, agoniser-286 - Raider, Night shield, flickerfield, enhanced aethersails, shock prow, torment grenade launchers 2. Trueborn x4, x2 darklances, plasma grenades -97 Heavy support 1. Ravager, night shields, flickerfield -125 2. Ravager, night shields, flickerfield- 125 So both of these lists are pretty good at this level. The Space amrines work a lot better than listed yet the paint on them is crap and mixed so I dont like using them. I can easily run both lists tommorrow if I had to and I probably would. both so with confidence. Since I am into Dark eldar right now Im inclined to run with them since this list really has a lot in it for that low of points....yet for 1250 Im leaning towards chaos....there is much to be determined.....more on all this later...

Armies of The Colonial GT! Pictures/Video!

2011-04-14T17:23:00.000-07:00

Dark Eldar List Revisions after the GT

2011-04-13T22:01:00.001-07:00

So I played in the Colonial GT this past weekend with my 1850 Dark Eldar list that looked a bit like this....

HQ

1. Baron Sathonyx – 105
2. Haemonculi Coven
-Haemonculus Ancient- Animus Vitae, stinger pistol, shattershard- 105
-Haemonculus – casket of flensing, hex rifle- 75

Troops

1. Hellions x9, Heliarch, stunclaw- 159
2. Kalabite warriors x10, dark lance, blaster, Sybarite, agoniser, - 240
- Raider, Night shield, flickerfield,
3. Kalabite warriors x10, dark lance, blaster, Sybarite, agoniser, - 240
- Raider, Night shield, flickerfield,

Fast Attack

1. Reaver Jetbikes x3, heat lance, cluster caltrops- 98

Elite

1. Hekatrix Bloodbrides x9 , shardnet/impaler, hydra gauntlets, haywire grenades x9, syren, blast pistol, agoniser-289
- Raider, Night shield, flickerfield, enhanced aethersails
1. Hekatrix Bloodbrides x9 , shardnet/impaler, hydra gauntlets, haywire grenades x9, syren, blast pistol, agoniser-289
- Raider, Night shield, flickerfield, enhanced aethersails
Heavy support

1. Ravager, night shields, flickerfield -125
2. Ravager, night shields, flickerfield- 125

Now I had some horrible dice rolls and a few tactical errors. I thought this list was fully optimized yet a few flaws in it showed pretty quickly. First off the hex rifle did nothing at all in the list. I was better off leaving the haemonculus with it in the aquad and using him in close combat. So inn the future I am switching around the wargear for my haemonculus to take up the extra points and to be more suitable for close combat. Next off was the dark lances were always moving in the warrior squad so they never got too shoot. For 60 points this was kind of a waste. To fix this I was originally gonna change them out for splinter cannons which have a heavy 6/Assault 4 profile which better suits my Warriors needs yet I am cutting the unit in half and putting the two lances into a trueborn unit with 3 trueborn. The reasoning behind this was I lacked enough firepower to do anything usefull, especially when the Ravagers went down. eventually I want to add a Voidraven into the list to make up for the fact that a dark lance is still only S8 and has trouble penetrating armor regardless of being a lance. I like the reavers still but unless you get into 9 inch range a heat lance wont do anything for you. The night shields proved thier worth tremendously at the tournament. It messes with an opponents mind when he visualizes how far he can shoot. It also nerfs melta guns and brings enemy rapid fire weapons inside of my own range. i also noticed the need for advanced aethersails in the warrior raiders since they are scoring. finally I desperatly needed the ability to tank shock as proven over the weekend so shock prows for the raiders. It also opens me to the ability to use kamakaze raiders. The last thing changed was a power weapon for the stun claw with the hellions since the claw was useless in a unit that basically would wipe out any unit it touched before it could grab anything.

So until I get a voidraven model, as well as more models with blasters and a venom done i will be using this list. Hopefully if any Grey Knights pop up that crucible of malediction will be fun even though it only takes out the seargents in the squads instead of every model....pity

Total Points- 1849

HQ

3. Baron Sathonyx – 105
4. Haemonculi Coven
-Haemonculus Ancient- Animus Vitae, stinger pistol, Shattershard, - 115
-Haemonculus – casket of flensing, liquefier gun, venom blade, crucible of Malediction- 95

Troops

1. Hellions x9, Heliarch, power weapon- 159
2. Kalabite warriors x5, blaster, Sybarite, agoniser, - 180
- Raider, Night shield, flickerfield, shock prow, enhanced aethersails
3. Kalabite warriors x5, blaster, Sybarite, agoniser, - 180
- Raider, Night shield, flickerfield, shock prow, enhanced aethersails

Fast Attack

2. Reaver Jetbikes x3, heat lance, cluster caltrops- 98

Elite

1. Hekatrix Bloodbrides x9 , shardnet/impaler, hydra gauntlets, haywire grenades, syren, blast pistol, agoniser-294
- Raider, Night shield, flickerfield, enhanced aethersails, shock prow
2. Hekatrix Bloodbrides x9 , shardnet/impaler, hydra gauntlets, haywire grenades, syren, blast pistol, agoniser-294
- Raider, Night shield, flickerfield, enhanced aethersails, shock prow
3. Trueborn x3, x2 darklances, plasma grenades -86
Heavy support

1. Ravager, night shields, flickerfield -125
2. Ravager, night shields, flickerfield- 125

No extra lances yet more dispersed to allow more shooting which I need as the vehicles get taken down too quickly for thier own good. Poisoned 2+ weapons for the haemonculus in case he runs into something his S3 cant handle. I like static anti-tank squads, hide them in cover and shoot away.....gives those lances from the warriors a use, at 30 points a lance in a normal squad the unit costs no more than a normal warrior unit. Now I am worried the Raider warriors will die too easily yet with a blaster they still can do something....more on this later....

A Commentery About Possible Grey Knight Lists (Video Review Upcoming!)

2011-04-05T00:37:00.001-07:00

Ok so I haven't had too much experience with the new Grey Knights dex but from my experience I forsee two major lists forthcoming.....Psycannon spam (ugh pointing out the obvious is very....grey for a lack of a better term)and GreyZilla/DreadZilla/MatrixZilla/GundamZilla (whichever you prefer)

So first of all I compare these lists with my marines, guard, Chaos and Dark Eldar armies...particularly my DE since it is my current GT army. First up is DreadZilla aka any list containging 3 dreadknights. A very expensive option that needs a clever use of shunting and out right mean close combats to be effective....too me this option has a feel of a tri-Prince chaos daemon list except it does the same idea better for more points cost at that. For this list to be effective you need to try and fit as many troop squads in as possible...whether it is a henchmen/inquisiter version or a straight up strike squad version is up in the air of oppinion. I see this as the less effective but way more fun version of GK. A good/clever opponent can use this competitivley but I do not believe it will be the main tournament list used...

Psycannon spam I believe will be used the most in tournaments.....simple idea (hmmm sounds familiar...oh wait I know razorspam XD)....a typical mech build except with a mix of rhinos and razors throwing as many psycannons as possible in these puppies...and yes there will be many....for as many squads/vehicles? Well until someone wins a tournament with one of these lists (and people base thier lists of that one....ugh netlisters =] )is yet to be determined.....good basic clean(and straight forward) idea....Move up to midfield and pop out....then commence to rip the enemy to shreds with massed ammounts of Rending Strength 7 fire.... a very deadly list at that....it more than likely will lack a death star as this is a very elite codex where points are valuable...mabye some versions will work in a dreadknight or paladin squad but these will not be as optimized with sacraficing shooting...

A few minor lists from here on out....henchmen/inquisiter lists can be interesting yet I cannot see how these play yet do to a lack of knowledge....Paladin lists will also be seen as no one can resist a termie army yet deathwing will always do this better (atleast now they will)...

A final list, as well as a popular one, will always be the hyrbrid....this will see our major use of storm ravens. A few dreadknights will be mixed in with a Raven...probably a dreadknought....probably a small group of termies...filled out with two or three small troop squads (depending on the mech makeup)....this list will be common imho....very fun and utilizing all the tools...competitve? mabye....I need more experience fighting these guys....this is a very similar list to jawaballs current blood angel army in feel....

I believe the dreadzilla lists will be aces at killpoints as long as they can survive. Since the low killpoint count, yet strong makeup,of this army. Any objective based games will be hard to near impossible to win without a clever use of the army....just too few troops with already small model counts. Psycannon spam will be the opposite....killpoints can be a pain but thats true for any mech army....with a good, solid troops comp this army will be a decent mid board objective holding army...especially since rhinos packed with gk are pretty decent in combat as well as fire support bases.....

this weekend is the Colonial...more than likely the last GT without the new dex....I will be doing a full review of the codex with my buddy marcus who is starting this as his new competiitive army. He has been studying it non stop and I intend on rading it on the car ride to the GT....Also expect a full review of the Colonial GT on the jawaballs blog....more on all this later...

Some Quotes to Fire the Blood on the Dark Eldar Competitive Presence at Adepticon

2011-04-03T22:40:00.001-07:00

These are from TastyTastes excellent coverage on Blood of Kittens network of the Adepticon 40k Championships...The following comments were made about how DE did not make the top 4 tables yet Nids and Orks did..... here are the quotes....

from SinSynn ....

"... Totally unsuprised about the poor showing for the Dark Eldar….as much as people seem to like that Codex, the whole army is made of paper, and I just don’t see the ‘competitive’ in it"

from Sorrowshard

" Shame, would have hoped to see some kinda DE presence in top comp by now, I can get them to win but the lack of hammer coupled with copious glass would indicate they made a not so great army which the following book just laughed allover in every possible way….it is suprising to see nids and orks up there, well done chaps! "

comment responding to Sorrowshard from SinnSynn...

"Like a lot of other people, I think the DE codex IS fun, and well-written….
Unfortunately, it’s an army of strength 3, toughness 3 dudes, without the Imperial Guard benefit of Armor or Large Template weapons, outside of the two flyers- which are laughable when compared to Vendettas, Valkyries and Stormravens, price-wise, armor-wise and weapons-wise.
And as amusing as ‘Power from Pain’ is, those tokens don’t really help units that have 2 survivors left….

I’m a big fan of ‘underdog’ armies, and I’ll ALWAYS be a Xenos player, so I almost started a DE force to go with my Tau and ‘Nids.
After spending some time with the Codex and Army Builder, I decided against it. Nothing I could make from that Codex would stand up against Netlists from any 5th edition book, including my ‘Nids.
I have yet to lose with my ‘Nids against a DE force, regardless of the poison weapons…the army is just made of paper, and running away and shooting doesn’t win games…"

I hope to prove these two players wrong but respect thier current oppinions, they need a reason to think otherwise....more on this in a week at the colonial...back to painting (que musix)

Space Marine Biker Death Star List

2011-04-01T14:49:00.000-07:00

Ok time for a silly list. If for some reason I randomly win an army in the next year I'd like to redo my marine army (mostly so I can play it as Dark Grey Blood Templar Wolves of Ultramar)....most likely would either go with some new army paint scheme....I highly doubt I'll ever make this but hey, its fun to think of....its a fun list and a death star command bike squad has always been something I've wanted to do.

Total- 2000

HQ

1. Pedro Kantor- 175
2. Captain, Storm shield, relic blade, melta bombs, bike -180
- Command Squad company champion, company standard, bikes. x2 TH, x1 melta, x3 storm shields, x3 melta bombs (not on one thunder hammer)-365

Elites

1.Dreadnought x2 TL Auto cannons- 125
2.Sternguard Veterans x8, x2 plasma guns, x5 combi-plasma - 245
- Rhino, extra armor- 50
3.Sternguard Veterans x7, x2 melta guns, x4 combi-melta- 200
- Rhino, extra armor- 50

Troops

1.Tactical Squad, melta gun- 95
-Razorback, lasplas- 75
2.Tactical Squad, melta gun- 95
-Razorback, lasplas- 75

Heavy Support

1. Devastator Squad, 4 missile launchers -150
2. Predator, lascannon sponsons- 120

With four scoring units and a solid scary T5 3+/4+FNP bike squad full of storm shields and thunder hammers....its not used much do to it costing 550 points but it is viable.....lots of plasma for fun and a melta squad for something different....Pedro rides with one of these guys.....I wanted more devastators but ran out of points....an autolas pred for more fire power.....Rifleman dread for kicks.....not too many models but a good ammount of fire power...would make a good small elite Crimson fists army (kind of fluffy?)

It would be fun to play.. which is its point...more on something later (probably not this, if it is that bike squad will be maddddd cooollll)

Video Battle Report! Dark Eldar vs. necrons

2011-03-22T22:09:00.000-07:00

New Dark Eldar Model? Sneak Peak from GDubs and Guesses

2011-03-21T17:15:00.001-07:00

Well, as anyone who reads BoLS knows...or subscribes to the GW email newsletter knows some hint pictures showed up from our favorite love to hate company with some zoomed in pictures of the next wave....Heres the first picture....
Well before we discuss what it more than likely is let me first say the email was headed off with a cool sketch of Urien Rakarth and it talked about the Haemonculi.....So intuition points out that we need to look to what is related to the Haemonculi Coven. This first picture is more than likely either a Wrack or Grotesque head....this was very obvious since it is very much like either of the heads seen in the pictures of the models in question in the book. Since it lurches forward more than likely ths is our first look at a grotesque.....next image...

Well first impressions say its an obviously armored/spiked piece here.(no $#** right?) Now at first I believe'd this to be part of either a new Talos or a model for the Cronos but knowing my luck its a shoulder plate for a new model.....I investigated a little and since GDubs is still delling the old Talos model online its probably not a Talos....also since its in my oppinion Gdubs wants to make a Talos/Cronos duel plastic kit (probably for something ridiculous like $50 or $60) I doubt it is either of those..

So I believe it is either a Grotestque/Wrack shoulder pad....(makes sense)...But I wouldn't leave out a special character or something else random. Since GDubs ("Claims") that all of the Dark Eldar Range will be released by this summer ("of flyers") I would expect an actual (50/50) Voidraven/Razorwing kit (something similar to the Forgeworld razorwing which is nothing more than a glorified old Reaver with some wings). I'd also expect around the sametime a Talos/Cronos kit with mabye the scourges released around the same time with some special characters.....this new release that is happenening next with the new mystery models I expect Wracks, Grotesques and mabye a new haemonculi.....hopefully in plastic with all the new upgrade options but thats straight up (probably non-exsistent) wishfull thinking.....

My list is dead set on the current range....except for a probable Venom model which I will buy a few of......I expect that in the summer release with the Scourges/probable indie character/Talos-Cronos kit release....but that is just a prediction nothing else....more on this later....

Video Battle Report! Dark Eldar vs. Tyranids

2011-03-20T23:49:00.000-07:00

Game one of Colonial GT practice against Marcus and his Nids.....My list is modified from this one that I am running with Reavers added and a few augmentations.....more on this later....enjoy

The Colonial GT!

2011-03-06T22:38:00.000-08:00

Alright Kevin here bringing you another post. I just paid for and locked my position into the Colonial GT in the awsome town of Princeton, NJ home to that prestigious college everyone wants to get into. I go to the theater down in that town every christmas season and love it, very historical and an awsome town to visit. Im scheduled to go down with my ever so loyal buddy Marcus and his Genestealer Shock list as well as hopefully my club and cousin clubs major GT players. I have already signed in to compete with my Dark Eldar army which I have just finished bringing up to the required 1850 ammount with a list I believe is competitive. I do plan on auditing it after a few games to switch around wargear and such. Here is the basics of the list without wargear and specifics.

The Baron

2 haemonculi with an assortment of weapons

two squads of 10 warriors each in a raider

two squads of 9 hekatrix bloodbrides both in Raiders

9 hellions

2 Ravagers decked out with darklight love

I plan on auditing the wargear and squads with as many practice games I can fit into the next month with playing as many missions from the GT as possible. I am about at all built and primed with just over half fully painted and 2 units fully based. I hope to play head honcho Melon_head...yes Terra Im calling you out....a couple of times in as many armies as possible (he owns every army my bud Marcus doesnt have, so thats a good thing) Expect a few batreps with the new DE coming your way as I have two such reports and a pregame going over my current list on schedule to open on youtube soon....hopefully tommorrow.

After many RTT's and local game shop tournies, with a couple of wins under my belt and over 11 years of experience, I am going to my first GT (took me long enough) but I believe it will finally be worth the investment. Expect a full recount and review of the GT on either my blog or the other place I post, the famous warhammer40kbloodangels.blogspot.com aka "Jawaballs blog", after I compete as long as army progress and Batreps until then. I am attending a couple tournaments before hand. Check my youtube channel for more content, look for the link on the sidebar to your right in my info...

As always....more on this later...

The Escalation Tournament Part 2: The Clock Strikes Back!

2011-02-21T20:25:00.000-08:00

Round 2: Two Troops mandatory, Spearhead, Capture and Control, 1 Hour time limit.
*Bonus for troops in enemy deployment as well as killing the enemy HQ

Ok on to round two. Now before our lunch break I foundout my opponent was the only other Wolves player in the tournament.....I dont like Wolves... I got to meet my opponent and eat some chinese with him and his buddy with which he came with, Matt, who played his beautifully painted Necrons at my Meat Grinder Event at TempleCon and I already knew. Regardless of the Wolves chasing me down I was fairly confident with a some what better list containing my two core elements in my Marines army, the Hammer and anvil. The mission was capture and control with the set up being Spearhead. Here was my list.....

Imperial Fist Space Marines- 1000 Point Tournament List
Total-1000 pts

HQ

1.Librarian- Plasma Pistol, The Avenger, Gate of Infinity -115

Elites

1. x5 Terminators- heavy flamer- 205

Troops

1. Tactical Squad-+5 marines, Missile Launcher, melta gun - 175
2. Tactical Squad- +5 Marines, Missile Launcher, plasma gun -180

Dedicated Transports

1.Razorback (Tac. squad 1)- TL Lascannon -75
2.Land Raider Crusader (Terminators)- TL Assault Cannon- 250

Anyone familiar with my 1500 point list will recognise this as the main half of it.....Anyway here is his deployment ...

He won the roll to go first and castled up on his objective in the 2nd floor of a ruined building with the typical low points set up of grey hunters nearby and his wolf Lord in front (Giant wolf in picture below). His list contained the Wolf Lord, a Squad of Long Fangs, two grey hunter units in razorbacks, one with a TL Ass. Cannon and another with a TL Lascannon. This was all summed up with a unit of scouts outflanking.....

Now here below I show my deployment

I like C&C with this list because I do my typical set up with combat squading all of my Tac. Marines and leaving the two Missile Launcher halves as well as the plasma gun half surrounding my objective with leaving the melta gun half in the razorback. This firebase is extremely potent at this low of points because my opponent would have to remove 3 scoring units from my objective in terrain with limited firepower. I also deployed my Land Raider with Termies and Librarian in the middle of the board to hit anything that comes at me as well as make a move on his objective.

Here below I show my opponents first turn...

Now my opponent moved up his Wolf Lord as well as moved his Razorbacks out to try and keep out of my line of fire. He managed to stun my Razorback but was limited to just that....Below is my first turn...

A rather uneventful turn. I moved my Raider up to threaten his Ass. Cannon RB while I managed to shake his tank in the back. Things looked good as I was threatening him with a unit he couldn't deal with and he did not have enough fire power to get rid of the units on my objective.... I did manage to imobolize my Raider on a piece of terrain, but atleast it was facing towards units attacking my base that were in rapid fire range so I was not worried...

His turn saw his wolf lord assault and blow up my Razorback, he managed to kill one marine with one of my missile squads in the explosion, He also moved up his Ass. Cannon razorback in an attempt to push my 20 marines off my objective.... I then gated my librarian and termies into his objective building and just let loose killing all but one Long Fang. I also used every single shot in my army to kill his wolf lord...but he would counter....
In a last ditch effort to win his scouts came on behind my objective and assaulted the missile launcher unit. He also disembarked his grey hunters and made a move on my squd in the crater. as well as moved his grey hunters from his other razorback back towards his objective.. He also moved his Ass. Cannon RB back to my termies to try and kill some ..His game plan was to obvously contest my objective and try to atleast get rid of my termies with rapid fire weapons....It was a long shot but it was baals-2-the-waals (lol)...

Above are his scouts (with sniper rifles not WYSIWIG fyi) and below is the view from his razorback trying to get rid of some termies....

Now here is when things kind of got dicey and I got a little angry...

Above was the view of the battlefield on the bottom of turn 4 when I was about to go. This game was suppose to last 6 rounds and I was setup for the possible massacre. I managed to kill off everything over near his objective easily and decided to focus fire all of my stuff on his grey hunters while my missile launcher unit kept his scouts tied down. This all happened while my opponent kept quiet and smiled.....I was wondering why this was happening since I was about to table him. Below is the look as I jsut entered my assault phase.

As soon as we started this phase tim called time on the game and my oppenent sayed thats a tie......I immediatly looked at my objective and saw one scout had snuck into contesting range during pile in moves when I was finished.....now this sort of thing happened to me a tournament a year ago and this is the sort of thing that shouldn't happen in these types of games. Now first off let me say I should have kept better track of time in this game since this had happened to me before. Is it bad sportsmanship not to mention the fact that there is 5 minutes left until you finished shooting? Is the fault on the tournament organizer for not giving a time warning through out the game? If I saw this coming I would have blitzed everything at his scouts and probably won combat, or atleast kept him from sneaking into contesting range. I got pretty angry since this was the 2nd time that I was going to table someone in a tournament with the game ending early and leaving me with a tie or a loss.

Now trick me once shame on you, trick me twice shame on me....I told myself before the last tournament to keep better track of time and I let it slip with the sights of an easy victory ahead of me. I take the blame for letting this be a tie. This did basically put me in the position of needing back to back massacres to win the tournament that I had gone into with the objective of winning. But there is no need to cry over spilled peanuts. I went into the next round determined to win at my favorate points level with my best record...1500 points with my favorate 1500 point army up and I was primed for the challenge. A rematch from TempleCon in a game I won with my Guard.......more on this tommorrow.....

Two be continued with Part 3: Revenge of the Fists......more on this later....

The Escalation Tournament: Part 1

2011-02-21T17:45:00.000-08:00

Hey all Kevin here and back again in the first part of Battle Reports from a recent Escalation tournament at my FLGS, veterans Gaming, in Warwick, RI. First let me explain the format of an escalation tournament in general and then the wierd rules behind the one I attended. An escalation tournament is a tournament where you take multiple lists and the first game you play you start at a low or atleast the lowest points level list and you increase the points allowed each game. Generally escalation tournaments I have seen start somewhere in the 1000-1500 point range and then do 1750 and 2000 points. It provides a level playing fround for armies that necessarilly do not do good at high levels but are better at lower levels and vice versa.

Now this tournament was a little different. There were four games and the first game started at 500 points with the only FOC mandatory slot to be used being a Fast Attack choice. The next game was a 1000 point game with not including any units from the first list, and 2 troops were mandatory. The third game was a 1500 point game that combined lists one and two. The final game was a 2000 point game which was your third list with an added 500 points.

Sounds confusing right? Not as much as you would think. Basically everyone made a 1500 point list and did thier best to divide it into two parts. It made you have to think about what made your list competitive in the first two games without sacraficing a decent list in the last two games. The interesting part was trying to do with with the Fast attack and troops restrictions. Since I am a huge fan of 1500 points and pretty much exclusively use my "Poor Man's"
Imperial Fist Army at this level I had to bring these boys to the table again.

Game 1: 500 Points, Fast attack Choice Mandatory, DOW/Killpoints.
*Bonus being getting your fast attack choice across your opponents table edge

Ok this was an interesting set up with killpoints being the objective and everyone packing only about two or three units a piece. The fluff behind it was that your 500 point list was trying to warn your main force of an enemy attack and met enemy scouts on the way. I do have to say the 500 point list got the essential "Flavorings" of my 1500 point list. Here is the army/list....

Imperial Fist Space Marines 500 Point List
Total- 500

Elites

1. Legion of the Damned x5- Plasma Cannon, flamer, combi-flamer - 205
2. Dreadnought- TL Lascannon, Dread. Close combat/flame - 145

Fast Attack

1.Bike Squad- melta gun, attack bike, multi melta- 150

Simple List Right? If you have not read my Poor Mans articles on my 1500 point list then go through my archive and it is one of my fir
st posts. Very simple set up. If I was going to win I would have to be lucky and make a lot of saves as well as my guys would have to kill A LOT of stuff fairly early.....especially with the fact that I only have 10 models in my list.....is this what playing the new Grey Knights would be like?.....My opponent was a Space Wolves player named Mike. He had a couple units of grey hunters and a razorback as well as a long fangs unit packing 4 missiles and 1 Lascannon. He finished up with some fenrision wolves and a rune priest.....

Anyway I won the roll to go first and here was my set up....

Ok so I set up my dread behind the middle of a ruin so depending on the side he deployed I could move it behind cover or even charge it up. I set my bikes up so they couldmove behind that Temple of skulls piece on the top left and move in to harass my opponent with bolter and melta fire. The game plan was to stall with the bikes till the legion arrived then rush everything in and have the legion wipe out a unit on the drop, then have everything fall in......I was set up for a decent game at this point....... Here is his set up...

He siezed the initiative.... !!!^%&%^&%^&%!!!! this was the 3rd game in a row that I elected to go first and this happened.....fml.....

So he preceded to open up on me, and with a grin on my face I watched how he failed to hit or wound on every single shot in his army except for one lucky heavy bolter round wounding my attack bike. He even rolled double sixes for his phsycic test for Jaws.....lol....Now this was tremendously lucky on my part so I moved in on the attack...

From the way he deployed in a fire base position based around that terrain piece with hsi Grey Hunters in a position of counter-attack I needed to move in and start popping his vehicles and kill some units. I had only 3 killpoints so I could basically kill his Razorback as well as pick a few other things off and then run like hell with my bikes and hide then win the game...

I moved in and basically wiffed on my shooting. My melta's missed and also failed to kill anything with my TL bolters on his fangs and my TL Lascannon failed to do anything as well against his RB. I was hopeing on weakening his LF's to make them too small to worry about and pop the RB.

He would not have as bad of shooting turn two....

My bikes were reduced to only a wounded attack bike and my Dread was stunned. I moved up and tried to do something with my bike against his RB but only obtained a weapon destroyed result...ugh

He moved his grey hunters in for the kill and it died to some bolter fire....Next turn would see my Legion of the Damned come down and completely wipe out the Grey Hunter unit you can see Mike moving right now

My last hope was for the Legion to sweep over a couple of units since we were looking at turn 4 at this point. unfortunatly he fired 6 bolt pistols, wounded tiwce and I failed to 3++ saves back to back......ugh...He would rush in with some Fenrission wolves and kill off two more legionairres
while making two 6+ armor saves on his wolves......super ugh....This game would sadly not be mine...

The game ended with him wiping me off the table with a 1-3 killpoint loss for me. He came off getting all points but the bonus for having his FA choice get into my zone. I was expecting not good results this round but this was dreadful....

Look for round 2 in tommorrows post!....more on this later.......

TempleCon 2011 Video

2011-02-07T23:20:00.000-08:00

Here is the video and pictures I took of TempleCon 2011, Sorry i had more but my camera got stolen so I only have the stuff I took on my ipod. Look for further video and articles on Jawaballs blog Sorry about the lack of material, more on everything and my experiences later!

-Kevin

and now your feature presentation....