Yearly Archives: 2010

Tuesday Gaming

I got to play a pair of games on Tuesday:

I started out the afternoon running through a game of Malifaux with Chris.

By the end of the game, most everything had come back to me, which was nice. At some point, I might actually feel comfortable with the game. I screwed up in a number of ways, though: paying for my Master (so I played 4 Soulstones down) and only drawing five cards (six is a weird number!).

I really appreciate that Chris keeps putting Rasputina up against my Sonia Criid: it’s a really bad matchup for him / good matchup for me. I’m sure he’s doing it because he likes running Rasputina, but I have a hard time believing he’s not, in some way, intentionally throwing me some easy (well, easier) games.

Then, I got in a game of 40K with Jay.

Jay ran his Howling Griffons (Space Marines w/ White Scars build), I ran my Khornate Daemons.

As usual, my army has kind of a hard time dealing with other armies that pull the same “We’ll all come in turn one” or “We’ll all come in from reserves” trick that they have to. So much of the army’s “mobility” comes from that initial Deep Strike. Also, I blew my “Daemonic Assault” roll (which is usual for me).

Jay kept everything off the table, and rolled a Land Raider (with Assault Termies and a Librarian0 and a Rhino (with a generic Tactical Squad) on the table turn one. Speeders with Heavy Flamers came in from Reserve and everything else Outflanked.

The game was… I won’t say it was close, but I definitely had him on the ropes. If I’d been able to knock out a Speeder, it’d have gone differently, I think… but I was unable to hit once with something like 10 charging Bloodletters. Those Heavy Flamers really fried my Troops.

In the end, he won with three objectives to my none; if we’d had more time to see if we could get in more rounds (we stopped at Round 5 since the store was closing), I probably could have done something about a couple of his Troops… but probably not enough to turn it into a win.

I did take a couple of pictures, since I had my new camera with me and everything was painted. Here are the rest of them:

‘Ard Boyz 2010 – Preliminaries

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So… I’d typed up a fairly lengthy post about ‘Ard Boyz at Game Vault on Sunday and, in a first, Blogger ate it.

I am… displeased.

Because I don’t have the energy to rewrite everything, I’ll summarize. Fortunately, I typed up the army lists in notepad so I can salvage them, at least.

Got stomped, hard: Minor Loss, Minor Victory, Massacred.
Had a great time: three good games against three great opponents, despite the stomping.
Didn’t play any MEQs, which is a shame, as I’d have done better against them.
Did poorly against IG, Chaos Daemons.
Game Vault was, as always, great.
The guy running the tournament did a lousy job.

My list:

Deathwing ‘Ard Boyz
2,500 points

HQ
Belial – Sword of Silence, Storm Bolter
Grey Knight Grandmaster – Nemesis Force Weapon, Storm Bolter, Psychic Hood, Ungents of Warding

Elites
Deathwing Terminators x5 – Cyclone Missile Launcher
Deathwing Terminators x5 – Lightning Claws x1, Thunder Hammer, Heavy Flamer
Deathwing Terminators x5 – Lightning Claws x1, Chainfist, Assault Cannon

Troops
Deathwing Terminator Command Squad x5 – Apothecary, Standard, Lightning Claws x3, Thunder Hammer x1, Chainfist, Heavy Flamer
Deathwing Terminators x5 – Cyclone Missile Launcher
Deathwing Terminators x5 – Cyclone Missile Launcher
Deathwing Terminators x5 – Cyclone Missile Launcher
Deathwing Terminators x5 – Lightning Claws x1, Chainfist, Assault Cannon
Deathwing Terminators x5 – Lightning Claws x1, Chainfist, Assault Cannon

Game 1:
Got a Minor Loss against Hunter’s Imperial Guard; four models left on the table, contesting three objectives.

HQ
Company Command Squad x5 – Straken, Meltagun x3, Medic
– Chimera
Company Command Squad x5 – Plasmagun x3, Bolt Pistol x1, Medic
– Chimera

Elite
Marbo
Stormtroopers x7 – Meltagun x2

Troops
Veterans x10 – Grenade Launchers x3, Autocannon x1
– Chimera
Veterans x10 – Meltagun x3
– Chimera
Veterans x10 – Plasmagun x1, Flamer x1, Grenade Launcher x1
– Chimera
Veterans x10 – Flamer x1

Fast Attack
Hellhounds x2
Hellhounds x2 – Multimelta x1
Vendetta

Heavy Support
Leman Russ Demolisher- Lascannon, Plasma Cannon Sponsons
Leman Russ Demolisher- Lascannon, Plasma Cannon Sponsons
Leman Russ Demolisher- Lascannon, Multimelta Sponsons

Game 2:
I pulled out a Minor Victory against Beau’s Imperial Guard. It’d have been a Major Victory had my ninth squad come in before we ran out of time.

HQ
Company Command Squad x5 – Straken, Medic, Regimental Standard, Voxcaster
– Chimera
Commissar Yarrick

Elite
Stormtroopers x10 – Flamer x1, Grenade Launcher x1, Plasma Pistol
Stormtroopers x10 – Flamer x1, Grenade Launcher x1, Plasma Pistol

Troops
Infantry Platoon
– Command Squad x10 – Meltagun x3, Voxcaster
– Infantry Squad x10 – Flamer x1, Grenade Launcher x1, Plasma Pistol
– Infantry Squad x10 – Flamer x1, Grenade Launcher x1, Plasma Pistol
– Infantry Squad x10 – Commissar, Power Weapon, Voxcaster
– Infantry Squad x10 – Commissar, Power Weapon
– Infantry Squad x10 – Commissar, Power Weapon
– Infantry Squad x10 – Commissar, Power Weapon
– Special Weapons Squad x10 – Grenade Launcher x1, Plasmagun x2
Veteran Squad x10 – Heavy Bolter, Plasmagun x3, Voxcaster
– Chimera
Veteran Squad x10 – Meltagun x3, Plasma Pistol, Voxcaster
– Chimera
Veteran Squad x10 – Flamer x3, Grenade Launcher x2, Plasma Pistol, Voxcaster
– Chimera

Fast Attack
Hellhound x1

Heavy Support
Leman Russ Battle Tank – Lascannon
Leman Russ Battle Tank – Heavy Bolter Sponsons
Leman Russ Demolisher – Lascannon, Multi-melta Sponsons

Game 3:
Dan’s Chaos Daemons Massacred me.

HQ
Fateweaver
Bloodthirster – Blessings, Death Strike, Unholy Might

Elites
Bloodcrushers x4 – Fury, Icon, Musician
Bloodcrushers x4 – Fury, Icon, Musician
Flamers x5 – Bolt

Troops
Bloodletters x20 – Icon, Musician
Horrors x5 – Bolt, Changeling
Horrors x5 – Bolt
Horrors x5 – Bolt

Heavy Support
Daemon Prince – Mark of Tzeentch, Bolt, Daemonic Gaze, Unholy Might
Daemon Prince – Mark of Tzeentch, Bolt, Daemonic Gaze, Unholy Might
Daemon Prince – Mark of Slaanesh, Flight, Iron Hide, Unholy Might, Pavane

Daemon Lists

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Rattling around in between thinking about Tau Empire (Chris K. knocked me upside the head with a huge info dump about them that I need to process before I post about Tau again) has been some thinking about my Daemons.

Tournament List

I’m going to NoVA Open (ticket #7) and I’m also considering going to Battle for Blob’s Park, both will 2,000 point events.

I’ve got a 2,000 point list: I put it together for the Battle for the Cure about two months ago. That event had some non-standard composition rules (that discouraged the inclusion of vehicles). Plus, I’ve slowly accrued enough Bloodcrushers to field a second quartet of them. So, I’ve been thinking about how to adjust my 2,000 point list for something somewhat more competitive. This is what I’m eyeballing now.

Maximum Khornage
2,000 points

HQ
Bloodthirster – Unholy Might
Bloodthirster – Unholy Might

Elites
Bloodcrushers x4 – Fury, Icon, Instrument
Bloodcrushers x4 – Fury, Icon, Instrument

Troops
Bloodletters x8 – Fury, Icon
Bloodletters x8 – Fury

Fast Attack
Flesh Hounds x8 – Fury
Flesh Hounds x8 – Fury

Heavy Support
Daemon Prince – Flight, Iron Hide
Soul Grinder – Phlegm
Soul Grinder – Phlegm

This looks a lot like the list I ran at BftC, but with 16 Bloodletters (instead of 24), Soul Grinders instead of Daemon Princes, and a Bloodcrushers doubled down. No Karanak, but I’m okay with that.

I could easily drop the Daemon Prince. A third Soul Grinder in its place would be nasty, but I only have the two and don’t feel like building a third. Plus, I like that I have this Khorny, factor of two thing going (things come in 0, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16); 1 Daemon Prince and 2 ‘Grinders fits that pattern better than 3 ‘Grinders.

I could do a third squad of Bloodletters, but they’re really the weakest unit in my list. Otherwise, I’m pretty happy with the list. What do folks think?

This means that I need to assemble, convert and paint four Bloodcrushers between now and August (for the NoVA Open) or June 5 (for the Blob’s Park). Totally feasible.

Kill Team

I’ve also been thinking about what I’d put on the table for Kill Team. I’ve been excited about this variant since learning about it, but I’ve yet to actually be able to play it. A big part of that is because I haven’t really considered what I’d put on the table for it. So, two first cuts of what I’d do.

Khorne Team

Bloodcrushers x3 – Fleet x1, Feel No Pain x1, Hit and Run x1
Bloodletters x5

Khorne Team

Bloodcrushers x1 – Fleet x1
Bloodletters x5 – Feel No Pain x1, Hit and Run x1
Flesh Hounds x5

The first list loads up on ugly, violent Bloodcrushers. The second only takes the one (as a baby HQ) and goes for a higher model count. In both cases, I take USRs that compensate for Khorne’s weaknesses: a lack of mobility (Fleet, Hit and Run) and a lack of staying power (Feel No Pain). Most USRs don’t do much for Khornate Daemons: they already have it (Furious Charge, Fearless, Eternal Warrior) or don’t really benefit from it (Stubborn, Counterattack).

I’m sure these could be tighter, but I’m okay with that. At least I know what I’d pull out of the case at this point.

Better, Faster, Cheaper

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I’m listening to Jay talking to the 11th Company folks.

You know what makes me laugh? Space Marine players complaining about how Blood Angels do everything they can do, only better and/or cheaper.

I mean, I’m just sayin’.

(I think I need to add a tag called “Storm Shield Envy.” :) )

State of the (Future) Greater Good

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So: Tau. I’ve been thinking about them.

I’ve taken some folks’ advice and juggled the lists around a bit.

(lists go here)

So, assuming that’s what I run at 1,500 points… what do I need to buy to put it on the table?

Surprisingly, kind of a lot.

My plastic Tau infantry is all fully painted. I’ve never had much success stripping plastic. So, I’d have to buy the Fire Warriors and Kroot from scratch. I’ve got an unreasonable number of unpainted, but assembled Crisis Suits… which would be great except my plans call for heavy conversion of the XV8s. So, them, too. I’ve got a primed Hammerhead I could use… except I didn’t know what the hell I was doing when I put it together… so it looks okay, but not great. Plus, I have notions of not putting the doors on them and having smooth sides instead of hatches on the tank that has no transport capacity. I need more Broadsides, and have decided to go with the Forgeworld ones because they’re much nicer and cost something like $2-$3 more than GW ones.

What do I have? A ton of XV15 suits, which I like just as much as XV25 suits… maybe a smidge more. I’ve got a couple of metal Pathfinders, but not enough. I might just convert them from Fire Warriors. I’ve certainly done it before. I’ve got a primed Devilfish I might or might not use: conversion’s not necessary here.

I also have the resin, ready to go. So, that’s the Barracuda and the Remora Drones.

The current plan is to put them all on Dragonforge Lost Empires bases.

Because my brain works like that, I’ve dumped all of this into a spreadsheet that tells me all of this (if I don’t reuse the Hammerhead and Devilfish), I’m looking at ~$350. Ouch. I mean, armies aren’t cheap, and I’m certainly at peace with that, but that’s kind of a steep ticket for an army I already have.

What does this mean?

I’m going to tinker with paint schemes. I’ve got a a mini assembled and ready to go for this.

If and when I get something I like the look of, I’ll assemble and paint the Forgeworld stuff and play with what I have: most of it the existing stuff. If I decide I like things, I’ll probably slowly replace units. It’ll be unit by unit… I just can’t swallow dropping that much on a new army I already have, you know?

So, this will be something approached in the long-term. NOT a buy-it-all-at-once, paint it over 3 months project.

On thing I am excited about is that I’m talking to the awesome Thomas Wynn about the feasibility of cutting out some alternative sept symbols. I’d like to replace all of the T’au symbols with symbols from Elsy’eir symbols:

You can see an attempt at doing this with greenstuff on the mini above. If that isn’t proof that I’ll have to do this with plasticard and not greenstuff, I don’t know what is.

I think that was the last straw

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My FLGS, The Game Parlor, has been charging folks to play in the store for about a year now, give or take a few months.

To play in the store for however long costs each player either $2 or a ticket given out with every $20 worth of purchase. So, basically, if you play in the store, it’s kinda sorta a 10% discount.

The new policy caused a lot of heartburn when it was announced, and a lot of the complaints were legitimate I think. Now that there are two GW stores within 15/20 minutes of GPC, there are places you can play, for free, on tables that have terrain (without having to bring your own). The store was asking for folks to pay for something they used to get for free.

I was, with some reservations, okay with it. I get a lot out of being able to play in the store; there’s a community there. It’s clean, open, and well-lit. You don’t have salespeople constantly interrupting your game. Game Parlor’s a part of the area community in ways Games Workshop stores could never be. Cindy, who runs GPC, is possibly the nicest person I’ve ever met. There is a value to playing in the store.

My reservations really boiled down to to points:

Try other things, too. The store keeps screwy hours, for example: being open when it’s dead at best while closing so early, professional folks in the area don’t have time to play a game. Charge for tablespace if you must, but it’s not going to be the whole answer to the store’s financial woes.
They’ve now put a dollar value on supporting the store. Before, the decision to shop in the store vs. going online was always a tough one. “Support the store… or save $30… Hrm.” It’s not as hard now. So long as I shop in the store enough to generate enough tickets to play in the store… it feels like I’ve discharged my duty to the store.

The table fees have had an effect. It’s chased out all of the people who used to just hang out in the store but never buy anything. I suppose that’s a good thing; I can’t see how it could be a bad thing. Unfortunately, in the IFL, it appears to have chased out a couple of people who did shop in the store. Some folks don’t show up in the store as often as they used to (of course, the screwy hours are more likely the cause of that.)

I learned last night that, somewhat recently (I haven’t been out to a Game Parlor in about a month thanks to surgery and recovery), the policy has changed. They’ve run out of tickets, see. People buy stuff in the store, get the tickets and don’t redeem them to play in-store… so they’ve run out. Now, you’re supposed to just, you know, hang onto your receipt and have them mark it off on the receipt.

For me, this is the last straw.

I suck at hanging onto receipts. I do. I also tend to buy a heap of stuff there (building up a number of tickets at once), and then nothing for a while. That means there’s no way I’m going to be able to take advantage of the “buy stuff in the store, get to play for free” policy; those receipts are going to get lost. This system does not work for me.

This is made even more frustrating because they have a system, in their computers, that tracks purchases: their old loyalty point system. In the old system, you’d accrue points equal to a percentage of your purchase that you’d then be able to treat like cash. I’ve been told that that system wouldn’t work for this but, and I say this as someone who writes code for a living, I can’t imagine why not.

So, instead of leveraging a system I know they have, they’ve devolved into this messed up, screwy system I know I’m unable to effectively participate in.

What does this mean? If I’m going to play in the store and need something that’s between $20 & $25, I’ll buy it in the store and immediately redeem the table fee. Otherwise, I’ll pay the $2, shop online, save heaps of money. I want to support my local store, buy they’ve now made it too hard.

‘Ard Boyz Practice Game

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I finished assembling the last 99.99% of the Deathwing Terminators I need for this weekend’s ‘Ard Boyz. All I need at this point, really, is a hooded head from the Veterans sprue for a sergeant and I can call it done. (And, for the purposes of ‘Ard Boyz, that’s not a biggie.)

That’s it. All 47 models I’ll be using at ‘Ard Boyz.

I stopped by Game Parlor Woodbridge yesterday to drop off the Sternguard Veterans and, while I was in town, get in a couple of games with folks with whom I don’t normally get to game. Since it’s on my mind (and sever other folks’ minds), I brought the Deathwing.

Unfortunately, instead of getting in the two, maybe three, games, it was just the one. I like chit-chatting, and taking it easy… but I really should start working on getting games to move along at a better clip: I think it’d improve my performance at tournaments and (more importantly) help ensure I get to play more games outside of tournaments.

I played against Steve Schweitzer’s Salamanders. His list (from memory) was something very much like this:

HQ
Vulkan
Librarian – Terminator Armor, Storm Shield, Avenger, Null Zone

Elites
Assault Terminators x9 – Thunder Hammer / Storm Shield x9
– Land Raider Crusader – Multi-melta, Storm Bolter
Sternguard Veterans x10 – Heavy Flamer, Combi-Flamer x4, Meltagun, Combi-Melta x4
– Drop Pod
Sternguard Veterans x10 – Heavy Flamer, Combi-Flamer x4, Meltagun, Combi-Melta x4
– Drop Pod

Troops
Scout Squad x10 – Telion, Sniper Rifle x8, Heavy Bolter
Tactical Squad x10 – Flamer, Multi-melta, Powerfist
– Drop Pod
Tactical Squad x10 – Meltagun, Multi-melta, Powerfist
– Drop Pod

Heavy Support
Devastator Squad x5 – Plasma Cannon x2, Lascannon x1
Thunderfire Cannon

I’m pretty confident that that list is off, since it prices out to 2580. Not sure what I’m remembering that wasn’t there, though. My confidence in the loadouts of the Tactical squads is particularly low.

I was running the list I talked about here.

Since it was ‘Ard Boyz practice, we randomly rolled for a mission from the list of scenarios, and ended up with #3: “Kill Da Fast Ones.” Basically, Annihilation with Pitched Battle deployment, save that models that can move > 6″ in a round are worth 3KP and HQs are worth 2KP.

The game was incredibly brutal.

His Assault Terminators ate two and a half squads of Deathwing Terminators: taking hardly any casualties until the Deathwing Command Squad started puking up Lighting Claw wounds that allowed probability to start catching up and getting through the Storm Shields.

I made a huge mistake and put Belial (and five Terminators) up against Vulkan (and five Sternguard). Poor rolling didn’t help, but they didn’t really stand a chance against Vulkan, who took damn near everything threw at him. Only finally, in the next-to-last round of the game, was the Grandmaster able to get a single wound through Vulkan’s Kesare’s Mantle. It was a Force Weapon, though, so thankfully that’s all I needed. That’s good, because he died at the same time.

I made another mistake at the end and assaulted a tactical squad with two terminators in the last round of the game. I didn’t have to. They couldn’t have killed the whole squad. Instead, they were wiped out and gave up another KP.

I had two mishaps: one was a lost in the Warp, the other allowed him to place the squad. (The remnants of whom I just mentioned crashing against a Tactical Squad.) When your entire army is Deep Striking, you must make peace with mishaps… but it’s a lot easier to swallow when the squad mishapping only costs ~160 points and not ~250. Could have been worse, though.

The Grandmaster was a champ. He killed Vulkan, and shut down half of the Librarian’s psychic powers. A Strength 6 Force Weapon with (4 base + 1 charging + 1 Deathwing Company Standard) 6 attacks ain’t no joke, son, either. I need to decide if I think I can get away with just using my Librarian model, or if someone’s going to give me grief that he’s not a Grey Knight on Sunday.

At the end of the game, I had 2 models left on the table. Two models, one in each squad. I gave up 11KP and took 13KP. It was a brutal, bloody fight: excellent.

In terms of results, I copped a Minor Victory, with probably +2 Battle Points (I’m 99% sure I killed 1,000 points worth of his guys and I had a scoring unit in his deployment zone). He got +3 Battle Points (he killed 2,000 points of my guys and he had some scoring units in my deployment zone).

A really, really good game.

What’s next

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This weekend, in addition to wrapping up the last of the Sternguard, I also managed to put together all of the Deathwing Terminators I need for ‘Ard Boyz: 16 of them. They’re all done, except I need another hooded Dark Angels veteran head for one of the three sergeants I put together. Since it’s just ‘Ard Boyz, I’m not too worried about it for now. The key is having the wargear accurately reflected.

Watching Iron Man 2 really stoked my fire and locked in my resolve to redo my Tau. I’m debating keeping with my current paint scheme, which I both love and think is really unique (a bright, clean turquoise, with light grey as a secondary color), or switching to a realistic battleship grey scheme that leverages Vallejo Model Colors.

At the same time, having just put together so many damn terminators, though, I think I’m officially burned out on assembling models. So, for the short term, I’m done putting stuff together. I need a break. I’ve got to focus on 1) gaming and 2) painting. That means I’ll probably finish painting my Dark Heresy mini and then maybe do some Malifaux stuff or something.

Sternguard Veterans – 10/10

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Well, I’m finally done with the Sternguard! I hand them over on Tuesday!

Last week, I got a new camera, a Canon PowerShot SD780IS, as my old camera doesn’t hold a charge and takes minutes to process pictures. For point-and-shoot photography, this thing is like night and day. For the macro photography required when taking pictures of minis… I need to learn how best to do it with this new thing. That’s okay… but it’ll take a little bit.

As a result, the following pictures have had to go through Picasa for touching up. They’re not necessarily my best pictures.

Battle Brother VIII: