Memorial Day

Take a moment to thank someone or just be thankful. Take a break from everything and enjoy some peace and quiet, stop and smell the roses. It's what they fought for. I will be tonight from work and packing for the move to celebrate. In today's world sometimes the best celebration is to just do nothing but sit and enjoy it.

Moving!

I am moving soon! I can't wait. Not only is the house bigger, but it's back in my hometown and I get the basement to work in and have a game room. Between my college back when and my GF's schooling that is just finishing up, I have waited 7 years to finally have my own permanent place and not live out of a suitcase. Many of you know the pain I have been through only being able to get mail once on the weekends when I went home.

On top of that it's no longer in the city. Fresh air..

So I have been going over all my terrain. I didnt realize how much 40k terrain I have. The peices in the little city shot I did for my Krieg are about 5 out of 20 peices, and those are some of the smallest. One is at least 1'x1' and 2' tall. I got them all in an auction a while back and only painted up a few to take pictures on. The rest I had forgot about, stored in seperate places. I also have all those shipping crates..

I am getting back into Fantasy personally, so I have been shopping around for terrain. I posted on Dakka and Warseer, so feel free to follow along and check out sweet terrain with me.

I also bought a good bit of GW terrain: the skull shrine, some plastic hills, and some fences (which was supposed to be another hill, but I will put those to good use.) They are all really nice, and in a recent work order I threw on 2 watchtowers, a chapel, and a LoTR ruin or two. Buying terrain is expensive, but if you think about it you only do it once, it lasts a long time if it is plastic or resin, and it makes your games better. Why spend so much time painting then play on felt and cardboard?

Anyway, no update for this week, I am painting away on a HUGE Space Wolf army that is coming along well. The infantry are about done, on schedule, and after that its off to paint the tanks and display tray.

Until next time..

Blade and Bolter

PLEASE take a moment to check out Blade and Bolter. My good buddy Al is doing all he can to help the flood victims in his area and is looking for others to help as well. He is looking for donations and people to paint and sell models or armies on ebay and donate to the cause, which is a very good one! People in our own backyards have lost their homes and all their possessions.

(5/22/2010) The Cleaved

The Cleaved are a Chaos Space Marine army that I have given my own little twist to. I took the existing fluff of "extra tough marines with weeping armor" and gave it a bit of a John Blanche spin and palette. The marines represent Plague Marines with their Feel No Pain and higher toughness, while the tentacled Land Raiders represent Demonically Possessed rides.

It contains:
2 Nurgle Demon Princes with Wings
6 Nurgle Terminators
3x7 Plague Marines with special weapons and either a fist or a power weapon

3x Demonically Possessed Land Raiders
Rhino

Empire

This is what I am brewin for the new rules. I have always liked Empire but in the world of hard knights and dragons, they just werent good. GW is obviously doing many things to ensure the big block is best in the new edition and I like that. Means I can do empire.

This isnt the whole list just what I know I want for now. Needs more characters and is only about 1800/2250 pts.

BSB on foot banner of Stubborn (if magic items stay)

30 swordsmen
- 15 Halberdiers (break ranks)
- 12 handgunners (shooting in two ranks and maximizing that)

30 swordsmen
- 15 Halberdiers
- 12 handgunners

50 Spearmen (for the horde rule, so fighting in 4 ranks. BSB goes here)
- 15 halberdiers
- 12 handgunners

Cannon
Cannon
Cannon

Mortar
Mortar
Mortar

I am going to wait to see the rules before I even touch the helblaster or helstorm rockets. Problem is the rules for the helstorm are very well defined in the army book so I doubt a sweeping BRB change would affect it much. If it works like a mortar (which will work like a blast in 40k and no partials) I am definitely down.

Benefits that are likely to be given in 8th:
- Step up means as long as I have the models in the unit, every man that can fight, can. In 7th of course if you get charged and lose 9/10 of the guys that can fight you only fight with one.
- Fight in two ranks (3 for spears) just means more attacks and empire blocks can actually do damage back.
- Horde rule means the huge infantry block fights in 4 ranks.
- Need two ranks to break ranks on the flank (hence 15 man detachments)
- Shoot in 2 ranks
- Mortars are like in 40k. You put the template down and roll the scatter die. No partials. This multiplies a mortars effectiveness greatly. Not to mention the fact people are going to be taking more blocks anyway.
- Parry: Swordsmen get either a bonus to save or a 6+ ward in CC
- Armor works like 40k. There is a reason to take 5+ armor now.
- Missions like 40k. This is HUGE. Core needed to win games = best core is hard to kill stubborn core.

(5/10/10) Pirates!

Site updated - a pirate army for Warmachine. This army was a lot of fun to paint and a challenge to ensure each guy was a little different. This is an example of how you can have a hodge podge of colors but also keep the army cohesive overall.

See ya!

2250 Khorne Demons

Through a recent trade I have come into possession of a Forge World Thirster. I spent a long time trying to figure out how to use it in 40k. The problem with all of the options is lack of true representation of the model. I just don't feel a demon prince stat wise represents the model. Neither does a Demon Codex Bloodthirster. For a while I considered just using it as the 888 point Anggrath but he is apocalypse only. I don't play a lot of apocalypse and that is the same reason I don't own any Titans or other superheavies, as cool as they are.

So I decided to apply it towards a fantasy army. The rules in the Fantasy army book seem to represent this model better, at least when compared to the rest of the models he would face. Fantasy also tends to have a lot more "stat upgrade" options.

So here is a rough list so far:

Bloodthirster
- Firestorm Blade
- Obsidian Armor
- Immortal Fury

There are so many options for the Thirster that I imagine I will change them up a lot. For fun games, I see myself taking just Dark Insanity (2d6+2 attacks) and Immortal Fury (reroll missed hits). Thats one angry dude.


Skulltaker on Juggernaught


Herald on Juggernaught
- Armor of Khorne
- Firestorm Blade

I was advised to take some Juggernaughts by a friend. I see their use after thinking it over and they are very tough and hard hitting. 0+ save and St 7 flaming attacks. The skulltaker is just a great deal for the points and a lot of fun.

6 Flesh Hounds
6 Flesh Hounds
6 Flesh Hounds
6 Flesh Hounds

I love flesh hounds, they are just so hard hitting and hard to kill. MR3 is great, and protects them from whatever magic might get thrown at them first turn before the charge. They are your traditional flanking cav unit that is hard hitting enough to handle a lot of units from the front.

10 Bloodletters
-Musician
-Standard
-Icon of Endless War
10 Bloodletters
-Musician
-Standard
-Icon of Endless War
10 Bloodletters

These will be regular Bloodletter models and form the core of the army. Another option is to drop the upgrades and make it 4 units of 10. Not sure on that one, testing will be required.

The overall scheme will be white, pale flesh with purple and red undertones, with red armor and silver trim. The army will be on these resin bases with the green painted red to represent blood:

Kinda silly with 8th coming along and all, but who cares, I don't have a single fantasy army so I will have no excuse not to tweak it for 8th edition.

(5/8/2010) Retribution

Just added this week's project - some Retribution for Warmachine. This army is actually for Romeo at Battlefoam, so don't let him take credit ;)

See you soon. I have been working on a pretty lengthy article I just haven't had a chance to finish it.

Blood Angel AB Update

Army Builder updated to include the new Blood Angels :)


I'm excited, I hate writing paper lists, and its a much easier Vassal reference.

My Ard Boyz List

This is what I would play in Ard Boyz. I think this would do very well. It is something of an expansion of the guard I have now.

CCS 4x Plasma OoTF Astropath
Chimera HHF

CCS 4x Melta (Vendetta)

Inquisitor Hood, Emporers Tarot, Heirophant, 2x Mystics (In Vendetta if enemy has deep strikers otherwise in Vet Chimera

Veterans 3x Plasma Lascannon
Chimera HHF
Veterans 3x Melta Lascannon
Chimera HHF
Veterans 3x Melta Lascannon
Chimera HHF
Veterans 3x Flamer Lascannon
Chimera HHF
Veterans 3x Melta (Vendetta unless I need the =I= in it)
Chimera

Platoon Command 4x Flamer (Valkyrie)
Infantry Squad Autocannon
Chimera HHF
Infantry Squad Autocannon
Chimera HHF

Vendetta
Vendetta
Valkyrie Pods

2x Hydra
2x Hydra
2x Medusa HHF Enclosed

8 Chimeras with heavy weapons screen the 4 Hydras and Medusas

Flamer Valk outflanks. Melta vets and CCS scout, unless there are heavy deep striking elements to my opponents army and then the =I= rides in place of the Vets. Everything else just shoots the crap out of the enemy. LD9 hood helps vs psychic powers, mystics for deep strikers.

I think it would be really nasty. I would make it out of Cadians just for Ard Boyz if I had the time, then sell them later.

Deff Krumpany

I was flipping through the GW site as I often do, looking for excuses to use models for something they weren't intended for, and I realized Killa Kans would be perfect to make Dreads for the list I posted before.

All I need to do is a bit of conversion to get 2x CCW arms on four of them, then an assault cannon and autocannon on two others. Deff Dreads will be the two Furiosos since they have higher armor. Mephiston will probably be a wierd boy unless I think of something better before then.

It will be really cheap too since you get 3 kans per box!

Current Guard List

So I played a game last night. A friendly but competitive game, although there were a lot of shenanigans on both sides (forgetting to do stuff, terrible dice) it made me want to redo my regular list as I tried out a few new things.

New things I tried:
Autocannon/plasma vets
As opposed to the 5 pts cheaper 3x melta lascannon vets. They put the hurt on light tanks and characters. Its a lot of st7 fire. Only problem was I had plenty of st 7 elsewhere. I wasn't that impressed.
Plasma CCS
This was the MVP of the game, costing 110 pts and killing well over 500 points worth of stuff, including thunder wolves, and then terminators that drop podded in (mystics). Mass plasma fire is great, and I like that the unit is nice and effiecient.

PBS
These guys are crap. I swore to never take them a long time ago then I started to lately just for fun. Remembering why I swore way back when. There is too much anti psychic stuff, too much ATSKNF out there.

New List
So with that game under my belt and sleeping on it, here is a new list:

1850
CCS 4x plasma Officer of the Fleet
Chimera
Beast. I would like to try using a medic sometime, but no points for it here. a 5+4+ would go a long way to keeping the unit alive from Gets Hot. I would rather shoot with 3 over the entire game than lose some early. That would require some testing though. OoTF goes here because the other CCS tends to zoom off.

CCS 4x Melta
Chimera HHF
These guys only go in the Chimera if there are NO deep striking elements in the opponents army. Otherwise they go in the vendetta, scout forward 24", and shoot melta first turn. In the vendetta, these are basically my "reach out and poke a tank" unit so my other stuff can eat whats inside. Poor mans Logan/MM Long Fangs/Drop Pod.
Veterans 3x melta Lascannon
Chimera HHF
Veterans 3x melta Lascannon
Chimera HHF
Veterans 3x melta Lascannon
Chimera HHF
Veterans 3x melta Lascannon
Chimera HHF
My favorite type of Veterans. They are efficient in that they benefit from sitting back on the objective, unlike the melta vets you usually see which have to blaze forward in order to do anything. I prefer a guard army that you have to weather through, coming from your DZ, in order to get to the soft stuff. And when you do get there, you have 12 meltas among 11 Heavy Flamers to greet you.

Inquisitor Psychic Hood, Emporers Tarot
2x Mystics
Vendetta
Thanks to my WC buddy Dave I have been playing this since the book came out. If the opponent has deep strikers or is a Demon army, scout forward slightly and then cover the board with the mystics range. ET helps in going first, which is a huge benefit. The hood doesn't stop every power but for the points it cuts down what will get through. If the enemy has no deep striking elements these guys go in the CCS Chimera.

2x Hydra HHF
Anti tank and infantry. I always shoot these first to pop Rhinos and such so the Medusas and others can drop pie on them.

2x Medusa HHF
I like camo netting on them but there are no points for it here. Camo isnt efficient at all but it seems like I roll 3s 50% of the time for vehicle cover saves and it has paid off in almost every game.

Manticore HHF
Delicious pie.

Enjoy!