Yearly Archives: 2010

Painting Progress – 20100311

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I haven’t done one of these in kind of while… mostly because painting the Bloodthirsters was unsatisfying.  Haven’t been eager to post pictures of them.  Might as well get it over with.

Well, there they are.  I’m not especially happy with them: what worked, I think, quite well with the Bloodletters didn’t really come together for this big sucker.  I’m on a schedule, though, so done and imperfect is better than not done.  When I get around to running multi-god, and I don’t need two ‘Thirsters, I’ll probably do up the FW Khorne Daemon Prince as a Bloodthirster and just run that.

I’m slogging through the Bloodcrushers, which I’m somewhat more pleased with.  Progress has been way too slow, however.  I’m going to have to power through them tonight to have them done for tomorrow.  That’s a week behind schedule, and only leaves a week for the Daemon Princes before Battle for the Cure.

Still, things could be worse.  I might actually be able to pull this off.

In other news, I’ve signed up for the NoVA Open.

40K Skirmishing

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I’ve been thinking a lot about playing skirmish games with 40K lately.

This is, I think, entirely the fault of Battle Missions.  I’ve yet to get in a game of Kill Team myself (in fact, I won’t be able to pick up my copy of the book until this evening), but I’m very excited about giving it a spin.  I expect I’ll be able to play a few games at Madicon, for sure.

Sons of Taurus has a pair of KT battle reports that are worth checking out.  (They’re also a great example of why I much prefer that format to video battle reports.)

It’s also stirred up a lot of interest on RPG.net’s Other Games Open forum, my primary gaming forum.  A number of alternative options for playing with skirmish games with 40K figures have come up, and I thought I’d share them here.

I haven’t played (or really read all the way through) any of these, but I’ve flipped through them all.

Thunderhawk Down requires the 5th Ed rules, but Brutal Conflict and Death Squads appear to be stand-alone.  Thunderhawk Down and Brutal Conflict appear to have pretty complete sets of armies, while Death Squads is a little light (with several listed as “Coming Soon!”).

For the heck of it, I threw together a chart comparing armies each game supports:

Army
System
BC
DS
TD
13th Company
Y
Black Templars
Y
Blood Angels
Y
Chaos Daemons
Y
Y
Chaos Marines
Y
Y
Daemonhunters
Y
Dark Angels
Y
Dark Eldar
Y
Y
Eldar
Y
Y
Y
Imperial Guard
Y
Y
Y
Kroot Mercs
~
Lost and the Damned
Y
Y
Necrons
Y
Y
Orks
Y
Y
Y
Space Marines
Y
~
Y
Space Wolves
Y
Y
Tau Empire
Y
Y
Tyranids
Y
Witch Hunters
Y

I’m definitely going to give Brutal Conflict and Thunderhawk Down a read-through (Death Squads is a bit too verbose for my tastes, and I don’t have any of the armies it supports) and will probably give them a spin when the shiny-newness wears off of Kill Team.

Skaven FAQ

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GW has posted a FAQ for the Skaven book.

Some things, as usual, were pretty obvious.  Some things are silly.  (Master Moulders in the front, for example.  I’ll give you RAW, but it’s silly.)  Some things I like (Unit Strength on a Bonebreaker Rat Ogre is 3(+1).  Vindication!)

War of the Ring

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While poking around this mess called The Internet, I stumbled across Fear and Loathing on the Tabletop‘s collection of understandings his gaming group had come to for War of the Ring.  I though I’d mention them here. 

I find it interesting/satisfying that his group came to pretty much the same understanding re: the extremely controversial (to understate) Epic Strike interaction with Heroic Duels that several of us (though not all of us) came to.  It’s been a while, but I seem to recall having a different interpretation of how other Epic actions happen, however.

I can’t say that I’ve done much thinking about War of the Ring in the past nine months or so.  Not since getting disgusted with the contradictory, ambiguous rules or ridiculous balance issues.  There’s a neat game there, but those things are just too hard to ignore.
I hope Battlehosts fixes some of that.  If doesn’t, in some way, FAQ those issues (or come at the same time as a FAQ), I suspect that will be the death of the game.  ‘Round my parts, I don’t see much WotR action and what I do see often comes in the context of, “They need to FAQ it.”  If they let the opportunity pass… who knows?
I’d personally love to see some things rebalanced (sorry GW, but Fight is not the same as Courage, and neither are anywhere nearly as key as Defense)… but some clarifications would be a great start.

Microposts

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A few random things, smushed together into a single post:

I’m officially sick of the Soul Grinder model.

On Tuesday, I noticed that some of the leg blades on one of them had broken off when I’d dropped it a few weeks ago.  Uncool!  Especially because I’d vacuumed that area just a few days before having this realization.  Fortunately, I was able to turn up both blades (which means I must not have done as good a job cleaning as I’d thought I had).

Closer examination of the Soul Grinder legs reveals some chipping, both on the blades that had gone AWOL and some that hadn’t.  Ugh.  The model’s been painted for less than a month, and already it looks like it’s been ungently used by years by a middle-schooler.

Finally, on bringing them in from gaming, I stabilized the foam tray I’d bought hours before (specifically to protect these stupid models)… and in doing so snapped off another leg.

This is frustrating.

I’ve gotten all of two games in in the past month: too busy with work and painting Daemons.  Both games have been against John C.’s Tyranids

I’ve come to the conclusion that, with my mono-god Khorne list, if I see a Tyranid army on the other side of the table, I should shake hands and thank my opponent for the game before we roll for mission.

I’m hope this is a little different with more diverse daemon lists… I’d be surprised if it weren’t.  But with all Khorne, it’s too much of an uphill battle.  Against Khorne, Tyranids have:

  • Faster, more mobile units
  • Too many models to kill
  • Too many dice being thrown around for a 5+ invul save to weather
  • Monstrous Creatures that out-Monstrous Creature my Monstrous Creatures, for fewer points
  • A vulnerability to cover that I can’t leverage
Tyranids don’t really care about Hellblades; their saves aren’t all that great, and they have enough wounds or bodies that I can’t spit out enough attacks.
I also think that using cover to your advantage is key to defeating Nids… but I can’t do that.  No grenades and little-to-no shooting means I can’t hunker down in, or assault into or out of, cover.

Bloodthirsters are expensive chumps compared to Tryanid MCs.  Trygons have higher Toughness, more wounds and vomit out more attacks than a Bloodthirster, for 50 fewer points.
The key, I think, is recognizing and resigning myself to this upfront.  Knowing that winning just ain’t gonna happen means I can just put that aside and focus completely on having a good time and khorninating what I can.

Due to what is almost certainly a combination of the above two points: I have no energy for painting Daemons.  I’ve hit burnout point.  I’m hoping to just power through the Bloodcrushers over the weekend but… I’m just tired of painting.

That puts me at:

I’m excited about Battle Missions.

I expect many of them will be… meh, but Kill Team looks like fun.  I have every expectation that, within the next few months, I’ll have allowed it to seduce me into building a Kommano team.

I think there’s a lot of thinking to be done about Kill Team.  How the format will require different sorts of lists. For example, each of my first cut lists have included something like a Klaw or a Powerfist because, you know, that’s just what you do… except there are no hidden Powerfists anymore.  That sort of thing.

Running the Numbers

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Earlier today, I made the claim that I felt like “[Bloodcrushers are] more resilient than Bloodletters.”  3+/5+ vs. 5+.

I took a moment to doodle out the math.  I don’t fetishize Mathhammer or anything; there are a lot of factors that it can’t weigh (and likely just as many factor’s I’m too lazy to try to include), and it’s sloppy statistics.  It’s inevitably built around flat percentages, no accounting for standard deviation, &tc.  It’s another tool in the toolbox, though.  A quick and dirty way give you an idea of whether something’s better, or worse, or about the same… even if it doesn’t immediately appear that way.

Anyway, the numbers:

For starters, 1 Bloodcrusher clearly cannot eat as many bolter shots (as good a metric as any) as 8 Bloodletters.  But he’s 2/3rds as resilient for less than 1/3rd of the cost.  Still, I was wrong about that.

Bump it up 2 ‘Crushers, though, and they’re still considerably cheaper and we’re talking something much more resilient… even before factoring in Would Allocation Shenanigans (which I have no doubt can be calculated, but it’s been a few years since I took a discrete math class).  They’re also possibly killier (another claim I probably need to verify).

I think that, instead of running 3 ‘Crushers in my list from earlier today, I’m probably only going to run 2 in a single unit, just in the interests of kill points.  The points left over from not buying the third will go towards Icons and Fury on some models, I think.

Shrinking the List

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Just learned that the Madicon 40K tournament is going to be 1,500 points.

Now, there are a few things I could probably say, but I think I’ll leave it at: “1,500?  Really?”

Of course I haven’t thought through a 1,500 point list.  I’ve thought through a 1,750 list that I can sort of ham-fistedly bloat up to 1,850 and 2,000… but nothing a 1,500 points.

On the one hand, this is vexing.  On the other hand, this is an opportunity to run a list that’s somewhat tuned instead of a tuned list (as I consider my 1,750 list to be) plus points wasters.  I’m going to choose to be positive about this.

So, give me your opinions!

The first cut is my 1,750 list – 250 points.  Fundamentally, that’s going to describe all of these 1,500 lists, but this is the most direct path.

I drop the Bloodcrushers entirely, as well as Karanak and an Icon.  I pick up a Fury of Khorne on the larger Bloodletter squad to hit 1,500.

MAXIMUM KHORNAGE
Chaos Daemons – 1,500 points

HQ
Bloodthirster
Bloodthirster

Troops
Bloodletters x16 – Icon of Khorne, Fury of Khorne
Bloodletters x8

Fast Attack
Flesh Hounds x8 – Fury of Khorne
Flesh Hounds x8 – Fury of Khorne

Heavy Support
Soul Grinder – Phlegm
Soul Grinder – Phlegm

Pros: I can run this right now.
Cons: Bloodletters suck, and having fewer units does me no favors.

This next list is very similar to the previous list: it just splits the big Bloodletter squad in half.

MAXIMUM KHORNAGE
Chaos Daemons – 1,500 points

HQ
Bloodthirster
Bloodthirster

Troops
Bloodletters x8 – Icon of Khorne
Bloodletters x8 – Fury of Khorne
Bloodletters x8

Fast Attack
Flesh Hounds x8 – Fury of Khorne
Flesh Hounds x8 – Fury of Khorne

Heavy Support
Soul Grinder – Phlegm
Soul Grinder – Phlegm

Pros: I can run this right now.  More targets than the list above.
Cons: Bloodletters remain the weakest unit in the army.  8 is really fragile, too.

I can’t tell if this final list is The Way to Go or Silly.

Instead of paying for more Bloodletters than the bare minimum, I can buy Bloodcrushers.  They’re the cheapest thing I can put on the table (while sticking with the powers-of-two number scheme of 0, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 that Khorne likes), and feel like they’re more resilient than Bloodletters (I’ll do the math, later, to see if that’s true or not).  They’re also More Units, which means More Targets, which makes the overall army that much more resilient.

I could shift the Bloodletter upgrades onto the Bloodcrushers. Not sure if I want to do that or not.  If I do that, I’ll have to model up and paint another Bloodletter.  (Only have one octet without an Icon.)  Without doing that, I think I can fudge the Fury, unequipped, and Instrument Bloodcrushers as just regular ‘ol Crushers.

MAXIMUM KHORNAGE
Chaos Daemons – 1,500 points

HQ
Bloodthirster
Bloodthirster

Elites
Bloodcrusher x1
Bloodcrusher x1
Bloodcrusher x1

Troops
Bloodletters x8 – Icon of Khorne
Bloodletters x8 – Fury of Khorne

Fast Attack
Flesh Hounds x8 – Fury of Khorne
Flesh Hounds x8 – Fury of Khorne

Heavy Support
Soul Grinder – Phlegm
Soul Grinder – Phlegm

Pros: More targets!  More resilient targets!
Cons: Bloodcrushers have A Reputation for being really ‘Ard and Killy, so this could look bad.  I don’t think that’s they’re going to be too hard and killy run on their own, however.

What do people think?

Painting Progress – 20100224

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I got a lot done over the weekend but, thanks to training, I’ve gotten nothing done this week.  Fortunately, that means I’m actually pretty much on schedule (yay!) instead of somewhat ahead of schedule (boo!).

I stuck the wings on the rest of my Daemon Princes, and did the greenstuff gap filling on them.  In retrospect, I’m really glad I did this with resin wings: I was able to reshape the wings to better fit the backs of the minotaurs in ways I simply couldn’t have with plastic or metal wings.
I also based the Daemon Princes, and put Rubber Steel on their bases, as well as Karanak’s.
Spent the bulk of the weekend powering through the Bloodthirsters.  If I’d been able to finish them, I’d be a week ahead (I expected it would take me two weeks to paint both of them, instead of just the one).  I’m close: I need to do a couple of details here and there, as well as do the flesh highlighting on their wings (non-trivial), and that’s it.  Pics when they’re done (maybe Friday, I hope).
On another note, Jay and Bill, have started up a hobby gaming podcast.  If you’re into that sort of thing, you should certainly give it a listen.

Bits Suggestions

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I need a head.

Specifically, a head that could be converted to look like Benjamin Franklin’s, in ~28mm, without too much sculpting.  An angry Ben Franklin head is not only acceptable, it’s preferable.

Any ideas one where to look?

Painting Progress – 20100217

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I’ve made some progress… and had a setback.

I wrapped up Karanak in no time at all over the weekend.

I can’t help but feel like I need to get him with a bit of blood somewhere, but I’m not quite sure where.  It’s low priority to me, though: I can always come back and do that later.  I’m also waiting on some more Rubber Steel to show up in the mail so I can transport him in the drawer.

As noted in my last post, I’ve started on the Bloodthirsters.  The model is… making it difficult for me to motivate myself to paint them, but at least it feels like I’m making progress on them… unlike the Soul Grinders which seemed to live at the “drybrush Shining Gold” stage for forever.  I doubt I’ll have them finished by this weekend, but I’d like to get them most of the way there by then.  That’ll leave me with the Bloodcrushers (and the Daemon Princes).

Last week, I’d mentioned that I couldn’t think of a good way to put wings on the Minotaurs/Daemon Princes. Conveniently, Casey had some Tyranid Wings he needed to get rid of.  That’s great, because it means my “Daemon Prince – Mark of Khorne, Death Strike, Instrument of Chaos, Iron Hide” x3 can become the equally unhealthily expensive but significantly more useful “Daemon Prince – Daemonic Flight, Iron Hide” x3.

I’ve already stuck one pair on one of the Minotaurs.

They went on with extremely little work.  A pin in each wing, plus a tiny bit of green stuff to smooth things out.  I think I probably still need to come back through and do a bit more gap filling with greenstuff, but I’m pleased.

I did hit a minor setback last night, though: I got a game in last night (vs. Tyranids, got tabled) and, while bringing my stuff into the house, the foam tray with the Soul Grinders sitting in it (still need to do actual foam trays for transporting them) tipped over.  They fell, and some legs broke off.

Repairable, but I’d rather it hadn’t have happened.

Anyway, progress from this morning (discounting the totally painted but needing-attention Soul Grinders):