Bolt Pistol Prop from Comic Con

Admittedly I'm behind the times in the 40k blogosphere and current events, so excuse me if this has already made it's rounds. Here's the link to a replica Bolt Pistol used for the 40k display at Comic Con: Volpin Props. Make sure to check out his post history for more props!

This guy has the job I always wanted to do... if I were talented, lol. It's like "aw man, that movie was awesome" or "that video game rocks" and you want to bring it to life and this guy just reaches into the screen and pulls out the props. Do want!

Also, I shall be back later this week with a new battle report with *gasp* my Necron!

No, I'm not dead.

Hey, it's been awhile since my last post and just wanted to drop by. My interests change in spurts over time, so sometimes I'm dedicated to 40k, sometimes video gaming, sometimes movies/TV, hiking/disc golf, so I come and go into my hobbies, but never let any of them go entirely. Right now I'm playing lots of Bad Company 2 multiplayer and Fallout 3 single player. But I'll be back into 40k eventually of course. I did take my league winnings and primed them all with my Ruddy Brown spray and cut them from their sprues, ready to be built. Still no one really to play regularly tho a handful of people have expressed interested in one off games. I'd also need to maybe hit up the local shop again for some pick up games to get me going again. But that'll be after I get tired of video gaming.

Do You Deepstrike?

(Deepstrike marker from Dawn of War)

This was a question brought up by Sgt. Brisbane of Sons of Thunder and I thought I'd lend some of my insight. This stems from the fact that after building some BA lists around Mech because that's all the rage in 5th Edition and fighting enemies like melta heavy Plagues and basically any Tau formation I kept finding vehicles to NOT be that useful. Heresy, I know. Transports are about the best you can do since they are cheap and have one purpose: to move. Tanks however, even with the Fast rule just have not been stellar. Even with high armor(and even on a glance), 5 out of 6 results of the dice keeps you from shooting, which is their one purpose. So this made me look at an all Jump Pack list, which the Blood Angles can pull off nicely. Just about anything can add a JP at a cost, except certain named HQs or support units. Hell, even our Dreads get Wings, but they are ruled out of a JP list as well. But the point here is that you will be laden down with troops, around 40-50 in an average game, and the enemy will be kitted out with lots of 1-shot weapons. Sure their meltas will tear thru a marine, but that's a single 16-18pt model, vs a single hit penetrating and wrecking a 175pt Dread that never got into assault and made it's points back. Basically everyone is building mech lists with anti-mech capability. I say exploit it and bring all troops and make their load out more ineffective. In my lists, I also build in redundancy, ususally making a mirrored list, so that if any one unit is destroyed by an unlucky turn of dice, I have another one, and this is reflected in HQ down to Heavy Support.

My first mistake when taking the first steps on learning to fly was dropping in usually to fire off my two meltas in each full 10-man squad at something in hopes for a mini-alpha-strike. This lead my units dropping individually all over the board with no common objective. This lead to getting charged or shot down to 6 guys before I ever got to assault, ruining my efficiency. This also leads to units falling outside either Libby cover saves or Priest FNP bubbles. This took a number of games to start getting better at it but I am by no means a master of the descent. To get it out of the way, let me say the biggest caveat (that people always ignore) is that you have to be a smart player first for this to work. Regardless of stats and die rolls, always have a plan, stick to it, and avoid pit falls. For example, I can't just say "Always DS behind their lines" or "always deploy on your side of the board". Know your enemy and their capabilities and figure what is best. If they are charging forward to take objectives on your side of the board, your DZ might be cluttered when it's your time to DS, so land in their zone instead. Or if they are a gun line and want to play it slow, use the cover on your side as shot blockers. Be adaptive is what I'm saying. If you think it best, start everything on the board; it just matters on the objective of the game and your enemy's capabilities.

As I wrote on Brisbane's blog, what I use DS for now is a more unorthodox deployment, rather than surgical strikes. This is partly because I don't use Vanguards in my list for support outside my core ASM, but rather Devastators, and this is only in the above 1500pt range of games. Again, ASM are not surgical striking elites. They are front line troops that have better than average mobility, that is all, so don't try getting fancy with them. One type of deployment is a sort of mid-game/mid-board castling. I will DS in a unit with my Libby first as he will be my anchor, landing troops all around him so everyone gets cover if the enemy has lots of AP3 weapons. If not, then I might start with the Priest group, as he will be even more beneficial as anchor. If I can, they will be behind area terrain or even behind stuff that blocks LOS as a sort of staging area. Building on my "unorthodox deployment" is that DS'ing everything forces your enemy to move without knowing what you're doing. He can sit still for at most 2 turns, but that could be a waste in an Obj game or he could fan out but leave something unguarded and rear armor exposed, but that is up to him to get right or wrong and you play off that. In my League game, my IG opponent moved his tanks up, leaving me space to drop 3x Honor Guard unit into his rear armor, letting me pop it. These HG got blasted next turn, but then more ASM dropped in behind that tank, and eliminated it, take out most of his heavy punch, leaving the guardsmen to get ground to dust.

Which brings me to the next point that people underestimate the range of JP troops, even the general leading them. Remember this to help keep you from trying to DS in so close to the enemy. Drop in somewhere in a sweet spot that will draw the enemy into moving forward, trying to get a clean shot on your boys, but still gives cover and not close enough for them to assault you. Then on your turn, their jaw will drop as you measure out 12", fire everything, and then measure another 6". If they retreat instead, just jump forward using terrain to block shots or give saves. Don't just run after them into the open, so use what you can, even if it's just a little 5-man ASM unit to give cover to the more important 10-man unit.

»Sorry for the long rant, but there you go. The answer? Yes, I deepstrike. How about you? Think I have valid points? Think I'm a heretic for being anti-mech? Let me know why you think mech is the way to go.

League Winnings!

So I took some time to think about what I wanted to pick up with my FLGS winnings (provided by Games Workshop) and settled on something finally. I thought about more Dark Angels for Honor Guard or grab Devastators for my support choices. Also thought about some Vanguard, but found they were metal with certain load outs modeled and that's just not how I roll, haha. I even toyed with the idea of a Fantasy Army, but realized that I have friends with 40k armies that don't even play me much, let alone the fact that none of them have a Fantasy army, so I'd have to rely on the FLGS for any play whatsoever. So, it came down to one thing, I need more boots on the ground, so I went with another set of Death Company, which will be broken down basically to hand out icons and weapons to stuff like the HG and my Sgts. They were nice enough to just call it even on my choices because the winning were for $45, but the total for my stuff is $50. I guess basically whatever the person chooses in winnings, GW will ship an equal replacement to the store to make up for the items, so I didn't have to pay the difference! Anyway, the box is just near perfect, except I don't like all the body molds that much. But it has jump packs, power packs, melee weapons, bolters, and 20 should pads! Just the stuff I need to turn my vanilla and DA marines into BA marines. I also picked up the new Lemartes blister as the old Lemartes one is so god awful in comparison. He'll stand in for my Reclusiarch in my lists for now or actually get used if I ever play a fun game of an all DC, non-scoring army list. :-)

(League loot!)

Battle Report - 2000pt BA vs Tyranid - League Play 4

Well, tonight wrapped up the local escalation league game in a 2000pt pitched battle where Victory Points were king. Normal VP rules, plus objectives, table quarters, and ICs were all additional VPs. The difference between VPs per side would determine the scale of the win. I had to play the Nid guy as we were both in the running for first place, so we set up quick and got to it. My list was:

• 2x 10-man ASM (PF; 2x MG)
• 1x 10-man ASM (PW; 1x Fm)
• 2x 5-man Honor Guard (Blood Champ; 3x MG)
• 2x 10-man Devastators (4x ML)
• 2x Priest (JP)
• 1x Libby (JP; Shield, S10)
• 1x Reclusiarch (JP)

My opponent's army was 5 Tervigons (2 of which were HQs) and 3 Tyrannofexes and a whole table of termagants, so basically it was a Nid gunline. Here's some pics!

It was short and sweet really as he didn't want to get torn up and give up easy points, and I didn't want to be meat for the grinder (the grinder being tons of MCs). I had my Devastators lined up the whole time and aimed for the Tervigons most of the time, taking out 2 and then getting a 'fex down. My strat was really to play the game of extras and aimed to take table quarters and objectives mostly instead of committing to slugging it out. I used my HGs and ICs as a screen, eating up 'gants and tying up MCs in CC. The game ended up in a Minor victory for me, as he got a good number of points for taking 2 squads to half, and holding 2 objectives. I held 3 objectives and 1 table quarter (all the others were contested), and killed the MCs and some 'gants, but they were such little point value it didn't help get me that far ahead.

After the points were tallied, it looks like I was the clear winner for the League! Other games were still going, but it was to determine 2nd/3rd at that point as I had some 60-some points and I know the Nid player had about 49. I had a draw, a minor victory, and 2 massacres, plus some bonus points for bringing in my own terrain and extra game objectives. My reward? GW provided 45 bucks of in-game credit (for any GW product)! Not bad for a free league and it forcing me to go to my LGS, which I never did before this. All the guys were good players and sports, no discrepancies or rules lawyering went down. I might stop by again for little pick up games in the future. And I think there is a Apoc game next week where each player can bring up to 2000pts and it will be team game.

Anyway, thanks for following me thru my first league play and I will probably get back to painting and other hobby work for awhile so my men look better for the next tourny.

»Now... what to do with that 45 bucks? More marines for my BA? Get a box set and drum up some readership with a free give-a-way like all the other blogs? Start a fantasy army? Lemme know what you think.

Battle Report: 1000pt BA vs Guard - League Play 3

Last night was Game 3 of the local League here in town. Showed up on time like usual, but we had to wait for people to trickle in so we could make pairings. A different Plague player than the first one I fought was there, and I was not looking forward to fighting that again. Then the regular Nid player showed up, also not thrilling me on the prospect of battle. When a Imp Guard player showed up we figured it was time to pair up and start the fun. I guess technically I was supposed to fight the Guard at the last game but he wasn't there, so we decided to match up this time, which I was actually okay with. My list was:

• 2x 10-man ASM (PF; 2x MG)
• 1x 5-man ASM (PW; Fm)
• 1x 5-man HG (JP; PW; 3x MG)
• 1x Priest (JP)
• 1x Libby (JP; S10, Shield)

1000pts even and the plan was to DS everything. His list was:

• 2x Leman Russ (Battle Cannon; Las-cannon; Heavy Bolters)
• 1x Leman Russ (Plasma Cannon and sponsons)
• Command Squad with Medic
• Platoon with PF Commisar
• 3x Las-cannon HW Team

He won the roll off and deployed first, and we had 3 objectives to take.I held back and DS on turn 2, but the dice pointed at laughed at me when only my HG rolled in...

There you have it; ending in a massacre with max bonus league points. The guy was a good opponent and very nice about things. Some highlights were my kamikaze HG that used their 3 meltas to explode a tank and on the next turn weathering about 14 wounds from the main plasma cannon via cover, but then die from 4 wounds from the side sponson since I got no cover from it. The rest worked like clockwork, with my meltas popping tanks and transports and wiping units with assault. I gotta say, I toootally love the S10 sword now. Auto pens on rear armor, 4 attacks on the charge and still causes instant death on most things w/o the need to cast his force sword ability. Plus since my other power is used on the ENEMY turn, I can use the shield to save my butt and then charge in and take stuff out without having to be an Epistolary.

Right now I have about 1500pts as is, unless I change to units like Mephiston or Dante to eat up points, or go Mech, but I don't wanna do that. To plan for a 2000pt game I may need to think about expanding my list for more support and the whispers I hear about JP list support is Devastators, but I will investigate some more and build an updated list. Otherwise, happy with my guys today and my list in general. Other than that, the next two weeks will be filled with time spent magnetizing everything and ordering some Battlefoam to transport more guys? Jury is still out on that one.

»Any comments on my list? I know I shouldn't have let my HG die like that, but it worked out in the end. Devastators for support, or just add more killy in my 2000pt list? Battlefoam or save my money to spend on more models?

Expanding my ranks

Just a little update to keep the blog moving. I have the 1500pt League game this Friday at the local store. What I'm thinking right now for my army is to use the Honor Guard for my semi-beat-stick. Not as tough as say, Termies or Sang Guard, but still have access to good weapons and is a force multiplier. Their biggest asset, to me, is the Priest that can't be singled out. In the last few games, my IC priests have been getting sniped in CC at every attempt. I won't drop the one I have in my list, but I just need more redundancy and will include two units of HG in my 1500pt list. This also gives me a more interesting modeling prospect. Right now I'm using my Death Company box set to be my veteran Sgts and sprinkling BA icons into other units as well as Dark Angel icons. If I could have a custom icon for my chapter, it would be simply the BA angelic wings with the DA sword, instead of the blood drop BA use or the sharp DA wings.

Anyway, I see Honor Guard being draped in robes, being a bit more mysterious and demanding of respect, as they are captains-in-training. In comes the DA Veterans box set. I like their robes and hooded heads, plus their add ons are pretty cool like their differently shaped daggers and swords. I also purchased a DA Company Master model to represent a Blood Champion if needed. With his tall winged helm and robes draped over his shoulder, he's an impressive sight. As for the Sang Priest model, I took anything from the DC set that has a grail on it (including the helm, pistol, and JP/Power Pack) so that he would easily be seen as the Priest amongst his brethren. Since he technically can't be upgraded with weapons, I glued him in place and is pretty much ready to be painted. The others will be fully magnetized to accomodate either meltaguns if I want to make a shooty drop unit of doom or maybe Storm Shields and power weapons for an assault beat-stick. I also used my Priest as a test bed for my massive initiative of magnetizing all my assault marines to accept either power pack or JP. The hole on the JP and PP are slightly less than 1/8th inch, and putting the drill bit to them only shaved out a bit of plastic, but that's all that was necessary to fit in a 1/8th inch disc magnet in snuggly, with a dab of glue to keep it more in place. I lopped off the nub on the model's back and drilled into the back with the bit til the magnet was flush with the back. Worked like a charm, but I only had 2 1/8th magnets, haha! So once I confirmed this worked, I ordered a ton more magnets and hope they arrive soon. I will also be using these for the arms, as I was using 3/16th sized discs (in my previous blog posts) and they have proven to work, but be a pain to get right. I'll post pics and updates after I get these magnets in the mail.

Thankfully, the DA box set was only like 21 dollars and the Master was 11 at the local store, since DA aren't that popular (the DC box is 33, and stuff like the Sanguinor was 19) and for being in the league I get double the customer points. Ya know, for like every so many points you get a dollar off your next purchase sort of thing. Since I didn't have to pay shipping and I got it in my hands right then and there, plus more points, I couldn't resist.