Nothing gets me in that Chistmas Mood…
...like having someone break into my house earlier today.
I was having a great day up until the Sheriff calls me to let me know. All-in-all, my wife and I are fine (which is great), but my laptop and game console are AWOL. If it wasn't for my horrible job with wires behind the TV, that would probably be gone with other assorted AV crap that was too tangled up to get out (they tried though).
The thing that just bugs me though... I had just traded my IG for CSM; and while nearly everything is still there, they took 2 CSM models form my work area; Ignore the big metal ones and the box box of them, just take the 2 that I had just assembled. It just adds insult to injury.
Still, it could have been worse. Neither my wife nor I were home, and all 3 cats stayed inside and just hid. I lost stuff, but nothing irreplaceable.
So, I probably won't be updating much for a little while (not that I'm a frequent updater anyways)... However, I did work up a quick change to my CSM list for the upcoming FLGS leage. More fluffy this time, but I think I have an uphill battle in terms of competitiveness:
HQ: Abaddon the Despoiler (275 pts)
Elite: Terminators (190 pts): 4 Terminators (Combi-melta x2; Combi-plasma x2) & 1 Terminator Champion
Elite: Chosen (165 pts): 5 Chosen (Chaos Glory, Meltagun x2) & Rhino (Combi-melta)
Troops: Chaos Space Marines (245 pts): 9 Chaos Space Marines(Chaos Glory, Meltagun x2), 1 Aspiring Champion, & Rhino (Havoc Launcher)
Troops: Thousand Sons (259 pts): 8 Thousand Sons (Icon) & 1 Aspiring Sorcerer (Doombolt)
Troops: Khorne Berzerkers (263 pts): 7 Khorne Berzerkers (Icon) , 1 Skull Champion (Power Weapon), & Rhino (Combi-melta)
Troops: Plague Marines (296 pts): 6 Plague Marines (Icon, Plasmagun x2), 1 Plague Champion (Combi-plasma), & Rhino (Havoc Launcher)
Troops: Noise Marines (155 pts): 6 Noise Marines (Icon, Sonic Blaster x6)
Heavy Support: Obliterators (150 pts): 2 Obliterators
Skipping the obvious: I know Abaddon is a big points since and Daemon Princes are most cost-efficient, but I want to runt he big guy for the fun of it. The Terminators will be painted each one as a different Chaos God markings (the Champion will be undivided representing Abaddons personal guard). I also have lots of Icons in their to help with Deep striking.
Should be fun to play, and that's what I want out of the league.
I Now Have Chaos Space Marines!!
Thanks to John from Santa Cruz Warhammer, I now have no more Imperial Guard left, but I do have a heafty army of Chaos Marines.
This came at a great time too as my FLGS is about to start a campaign/league called Mittennacht. If I wasn't able to trade away my IG in time, I was going to run my Daemonhunters (which are always good for a sure loss). Fortunately, I will be running my new CSM.
I've worked up a quick list to try out. I'm a bit short on time (and the holiday season isn't giving me more time), so I need to get some list-testing done ASAP to weed out any problems and get used to the new army quickly. Here's my initial list (trying to be somewhat fluffy too):
HQ: Daemon Prince with MoK & Wings (140 pts)
HQ: Daemon Prince with MoN & Wings (150 pts)
Elite: Dreadnaught w/ Plasma Cannon (105 pts)
Elite: 4x Terminators w/ 2 Combi-Meltas & 1 Reaper Autocannon (155 pts)
Troops: 7x Plague Marines w/ 2 Plasmaguns, Champion w/ Power Fist, & a Rhino w/ Havoc Launcher (281 pts)
Troops: 8x Khorne Berzerkers w/ Skull Champion w/ Power Fist & Rhino w/ Combi-Melta (268 pts)
Troops: 10x CSMs w/ Aspiring Champion, Icon of Chaos Glory, & Rhino w/ Havoc Launcher (225 pts)
Troops: 10x CSMs w/ Aspiring Champion, Icon of Chaos Glory, & Rhino w/ Havoc Launcher (225 pts)
Troops: 10x CSMs w/ Aspiring Champion, Icon of Chaos Glory, & Rhino w/ Havoc Launcher (225 pts)
Heavy Support: 2x Obliterators
Heavy Support: 1x Obliterator
Total: 1999 Points
That gives me 60 models with at least a 3+ save that should be a task for any army to whittle down. I wanted to keep everything Khorne & Nurgle (and in their sacred numbers no less) and originally I was toying with 2 of each Cult Troops instead of just 1 each (too few models for my taste though). I'm going to go back through in a bit to try to see if I can find a bit of room to make to give the DP with the MoN a Psychic Power (possibly Nurgle's Rot since I want him up close and personal, but Warptime is awesome too).
What sucks a bit is that I really like Lucius the Eternal and alot of the Slaanesh stuff, but I also really like the Berzerkers. Mixing the 2 would kinda kill the fluff thing I want to keep, but it's be fun. For this, I want to keep a bit of fluff going, but in a future fluff-be-damned list, I may play with them together a bit more.
Another list I'm playing witht hat I think would be a really fun list to play is a Black Legion army fielding 1 of each Cult Troop in their respective sacred number (Tzeentch,= 7, Khorne = 8, Nurgle = 7, Slaanesh = 6). Fill that out with other units divisible by 4 (to model evenly amongs the Chaos gods) to get more support and a bit more variety. I've toyed around with it a bit, but so far, no list I rally love yet.
Trading Imperial Guard for Chaos Marines
I've been thinking about how I play and the armies I run for a while, and I've decided that I'd like to drop Imperial Guard and switch to Chaos Space Marines. A big part of this is IG not really meshing with how I play. I learned to play on Tyranids and the whole quantity over quality approach, but over time, I got to where I really enjoyed games with smaller, elite armies instead (Daemonhunters still being my favorite).
Also, one of the things I really want to do for 2010 is to field a full 2000 pt. game witha fully painted/based/etc... army (ideally against the same). Looking over my unpainted guardsmen, I know I'm a slow painter, and I get overwhelmed thinking about them. That's not a feeling I want associated with this game. I've been spoiled by my FLGS having no requirements or push for painted models as most of the players have largely unpainted armies. I do however subscribe to so many Warhammer blogs that feature painted armies and beautiful battle pictures. Having seen those reminds me of what originally got me into this hobby to begin with. Sadly though, this is not something that I can do with Imperial Guard.
I'm leaning towards Chaos Space Marines based on my past experiences playing them and thumbing through the codex. They go together well with my Chaos Daemons army already and I really like the appearance of the models and the large array of options in the codex. Also, I can easily see a variety of elite armies being built form the codex (Plague Marines and Thousand Sons spring to mind and look impressive). I also think this might be a good step back into the Fluff of the game for me (somethign I never really managed with IG).
Anyways, here's the details on the models I have up on the chopping block and what I'd like to get in exchange: Imperial Guard Up for Trade (for CSM)
Please email me if you have any questions or are interested in trading. Thanks.
Update: I finally gota few pics of the IG have have up for trade. I also have a few trades pending, so updates are on the way (Friday).
What’s My Must-Take Chaos Daemon Unit?
Bloodcrushers.
I NEVER leave home without 3+ of them. For a mere 40 points each, you get a Power-Weapon wielding, 3+ Armour Saving, Furious Charging, model with a WS that means you'll nearly always hit on 3s and wound on 3s (often on 2s). On the charge, these bad boys have a better Initiative that SMurfs, and get 4 attacks each that hit on 3s, wound on 2s, and deny armour saves.
Yeah, you probably won't always be fighting marines, but I think they're a good standard to compare killing power. I mean, if you can rip through SMurfs like butter, what odds does a guardsman (or Gaunt or Tau or Ork) have? You even deny Plague Marine's their ever so evil Feel No Pain save.
When I run my Daemons, you can be sure that I make sure to save at least 120 points for these guys to come along. Their only drawback is that they are a fire-magnet the turn the Deep Strike, so you have to be careful to protect them (you did take Chaos Icons to avoid scattering disasters, right?). Once they touch down though, the can mow through pretty much any other unit on the table.
Mnly complaint with Bloodcrushers is their models. Yeah, there's awesome; but it's hard to vary them enough to make them look distinct from each other. I've found that I can use some of the Fantasy Warriors of Chaos models as a stand-ins, and they've been great looking so far.
Here's one of my Fantasy models used as a Bloodcrusher (I still need to finish the head and base, but he's more finished than most of my work):
‘Dawn of the Dead’ Scenario Game
Friday, we had a 'Dawn of the Dead' scenario at my FLGS from around 6 till closing (although ACTUALLY, we only played until about 9:45). BASICALLY, the scenario was that you get 2 Troop choices to score points for killing zombies and other nasties. Once your models are killed the 1st time, one of your units would come back as zombies and score points for killing living models. TECHNICALLY, we could attack fellow players from Turn 2 onwards, but we were all too busy dealing with the zombies to do that (although, plans were made, but never executed).
We ended up having seven players involved; they were:
- A Chaos Daemon player with 15 Bloodletters and 17 Daemonettes (me)
- Another Chaos Daemon player with 30 Bloodletters
- A Imperial Guard player with a Platoon (~40 guardsmen) and allied Sisters of Battle in a Rhino
- A Deathwing player with 2 squads of 5 Termies
- A Space Marine player with 2 Tac Squads in Rhinos
- A Necron player with 2 groups of Warriors (what else?)
- A Chaos Space Marine player with 2 Squads (one was in a Rhino... maybe both)
I made a quick Battle-Report of this here: Dawn of the Dead Battle Report
The pictures are here:
If you were there and have corrections for any of my notes though, shoot me an email and I'll make the fixes. This is all based on my memory which ain't what it used to be.
If You Only Had 2 Troop Choices (Scenario What-If…)
My FLGS is having a Scenario night this Friday and the theme of the month is (apropriately): Dawn of the Dead.
The basic premise is we get 2 troop choices from our army limited to 250 pts. each (500 total). No special characters. You play twice... once as the living and again as zombies (a bit curious about this mechanic, but it's being kept secret).
I have the ability to field 3 different armies: Daemonhunters, Chaos Daemons, or Imperial Guard. I'm not quite sure which I will be running yet.
Daemonhunters:
Pros: Good Shooting, Good Assault, True Grit, Power Armour, Nemesis Force Weapons, Incinerators, just good in general...
Cons: EXPENSIVE. Basically, I'd be fielding about half as many models as any other option I have.
Chaos Daemons:
Pros: Good Assault (Khorne), Good Shooting (Tzeentch), Good Staying Power (Nurgle), Freakily Sexy (Slaanesh), Invulnerable
Cons: Very little shooting aside form Tzeentch. Too-specialized.
Imperial Guard:
Pros: Good Shooting (Vets.), Good Quantity (Platoon), Vehicles, Cheap
Cons: Platoon is cheap, but really just lives for the quality of quantity, Vets. are a bit pricey (though not like GKs), Weak Assault.
So tha's my thoughts on the options. I'm pretty much decided that I won't be using IG for this (although I'm rethinking Vets. in Chimeras, but I'm told the zombies will have an effective method of dealing with vehicles). I'm leaning pretty heavily on Khorne + Tzeentch though for the Daemon side of things. I don't see Slaanesh really being any better than Khorne; and Nurgle would live the longest, but I think the victory will be based on zombie kills more than survival. I think Going pure Tzeentch would be suicide and Khorne would lack shooting and likely take a big hit on turn one. Grey Knights are expensive, but they are also extremely well balanced. With True Grit, I don't really care about getting the charge (whereas Khorne needs it for Furious Charge), so I can hold back and use my Storm Bolters or Incinerators. Once the GKs do end up in assault though, I think they'd still be formidable.
So that's the dilemma that I have to decide before Friday... Any thoughts on what might be a good option?
Do You Have Enough Terrain?
I was reading this article over at Galaxy in Flames, and it reminded me of what things were like at my FLGS not that long ago.
I don't think we were too far off form the 25% mark, but we were frequently under by a bit. I had begun using the same method described in the article of filling 1 quarter of the board full of terrain and then dispersing it and that helped me get better at recognizing when we had enough terrain.
This has been a big boon to my 40k games since I started that, but inversely, it's killed my Flames of War games. It's one of those things I'm going to have to work on since it's not the terrains fault my army works better with less terrain. It's a army building and tactical correction I need to work on. For 40k, then benefit comes form being IG and loving my cover saves. For FoW, though, my Tank Company suffers when I can't kill my opponents b/c they re entrenched in cover.
I had learned to play with less terrain than normal, so now that I'm getting better at making sure I hit the 25% mark, I'm finding that I have to adapt the way I use to play and force myself to lose old habits I used to have. in hind-sight though, I used to play Tyranids and had a HORRIBLE losing streak... Thinking back now, this was back when most of the games were on under-populated tables, so I don't feel as bad (although I know I made alot of bad decisions myself back then too).
Is anyone else going back and looking at terrain they used to play with and noticing that they too were under-populating the table?
As Promised… Col. ‘Iron Hand’ Straken
As I promised earlier today, here's my Colonel 'Iron Hand' Straken model, fully painted. It's not great compared to some of the amazing painters on other blogs, but it is a big step up for me. Here's the pictures:
Straken was hand-primed with Chaos Black and base coated with P3 Paints (I don't recall the exact ones, but I'll try to remember to look them up and update this post). Once that was done, I gave it a wash of Badab Black). Once that was done, I went back and touced up a few spots to lessen the darkness of the wash (which I guess is kinda like a highlight).
I do need to read up on getting pictures taken. Getting clean, sharp images was HARD. The 2 pics above are the best I got, and I'm not quite as happy with them as I want to be. I'll read up and practice a bit before Harker, so maybe I can improve my photography skills and painting skills. Reading all these blogs with great painters makes seeing my own work kinda painful, but I am learning alot...
Coming a bit later, I'm hoping to have Gunnery Sgt. Harker painted (and then I'm done with special characters and moving onto the rest of the army).
2000pt Capture and Hold – Daemonhunters vs. Space Marines
Another quick and dirty Battle Report from the escalation league I was in. I had added some non-Grey Knights by this point so I had officially changed to Daemonhunters instead of referring to my army as Grey Knights. It was a sad day.
No major updates still on the Wordpress plug-in. I've done the database schemas and basic grunt work to get it going. I'm working on using the Battle Reports I've already done to give me some sample data to get the display done and from there to move on to adding functionality it input them without hacking the database directly.
Since I'm sure you're not here to listen to me go on about me coding stuff, here's the Battle Report after the jump...
Battle Report: 1000pt Capture and Hold – Grey Knights (Daemonhunters) vs. Imperial Guard
Just a quick note... I play both Daemonhunters and Imperial Guard. This was an escalation league game I was in as the Daemonhunters, but up until the 1500pt. games, I ran purely with Grey Knights. Sadly, I don't have pictures, but I'm workign on remembering to take pics more in the future.
Also, I am working on coding a plug-in for Wordpress to make creating and posting Battle Reports simple and easy. It's still early in it's progress, but as I get it up and running, I hope to have it unveiled for viewing this Winter. I'm aiming to have it open for outside contributions early 2010. More details to come, but feel free to read the Battle Report following the jump...
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