Nothing really important

I did a photo dump from my cell phone as I accidentally crushed it today...... long story, I found some game related stuff in there, nothing important or anything though.

Battletech w/ Heroscape

Some Tau

Painting Table Chaos

More of my Tau

Interesting

Fancy Arbys we always stop at on our way to game in Richmond

More of the Fancy Arbys

A long needed real update

So, In the past few months I have been up to some stuff. I cant quite recall how much I have gone through so, here are my updates.

Warhammer 40K
So, last y'all saw I was working on my Nids I was going to sell, last update was this:
http://rowed2oblivion.blogspot.com/2012/07/more-painting-updates.html

In all honesty, the nids haven't budged an inch since. Probably because the Warmachine models I had took precedent over them. That and I really hate painting the little buggers, the sooner they are gone the better.

As for the game itself I do plan on picking up the new boxed set which is 99 bucks and gts some models for 2 small armies for my friend and I to re-learn this new edition. This will also allow him to expand his Chaos Space Marine army for 25 bucks more then the cost of the rulebook itself.

Warmachine
Well, a few months back I had built a small Khador colection for Warmachine which included:
Kommander Sorscha
Karchev the Terrible
Juggernaut (Plastic)
Juggernaut (Metal)
Destroyer (Plastic)
Devastator (Metal)
Beast 09
Greylord Ternion
MoW Shocktroops (Max)
MoW Bombardiers (Max)
Battle Mechaniks (Max)
Manhunter
WidowMakers
Widowmaker Marksman

I then made a purchase for 300 dollars for mid paintjob stuff of:
Karchev the Terrible
Kommander Sorscha
Vlad Tzepseci, The Dark Prince
Kommandant Irusk
The Butcher of Khardov
Kommander Orsus Zoktavir
Old Witch and Scrapjack
Destroyer (Plastic)
Destroyer (Metal)
Juggernaut (Plastic)
Juggernaut (Metal)
Kodiak
Devastator (Metal)
Spriggan (Metal)
Behemoth (Metal)
Berserker
MoW Kovnik x2
MoW Drakhun w/ Dismount
MoW Shocktroopers x4
MoW Demo Corps x3
1 Sqd Doom Reavers
Fenris
Manhunter Female Variant
1 Sqd Battle Mechaniks
Widowmaker Squad x2

So, I turned around and took the plastic juggy from my 5th border legion, stripped him and repainted him along with Sorscha, Karchev, Plastic juggernaut and Destroyer, The Mechaniks, a Kovnik, and a squad of Widowmakers in my Khador "Red Army" Theme as can be seen here:
http://rowed2oblivion.blogspot.com/2012/08/khador-red-army.html

Everything else except one of the Widowmaker Squads is in the process of being painted in my 5th Border Legion scheme. I picked up another metal Juggernaut which I will be painting with the Widowmakers that cant be used because of thier FA in the scheme of the Unbreakable 111th. As for what I have painted, but not necesarilly based fully, I forgot to take pics but I got the kit for Black Ivan for the metal Destroyer I kept and also picked up Harkevich and he is done too. Take a gander at the pics below:

Demo Corps

old Witch and Scrapjack

Kodiak

Butcher of Khardov

Harkevich angle 1

Harkevich Angle 2

MoW Shocktroopers

Female Manhunter

MoW Drakhun w/Dismount

Metal Juggy and Destroyer

Different Angle

Metal Devastator (Closed) and Spriggan

Different Angle

Behemoth

Kommandant Irusk

Of models, Historicon, and game stores

Well,

I just wanted to update everyone on my progress on.. well... everything.

First of all I have to say, I had a great time at Historicon. I ran 2 games, both of which were great. I also played in Wicked Day which was interesting. I had never dealt with Car Bombs in BattleTech before. I also played in the Grand Melee. All I have to say is I have fallen in love with the Pariah and I think I will have one already painted and based to try and win the Melee next year.

As for what I am up to now, I am running a BattleTech demo at The Game Vault on August 18th. Basically I'm planning on doing some small basic games, hopefully getting some people interested in the game and see where it goes from there.

On to the painting front.

Right before Historicon I had to finish all my Mechs for Historicon which put everything on hold. Since then I have felt kind of worn out and now on my work bench, I have four different projects I keep switching between so that I don't get bored with any of them.

They are:

Tyranids..... I know..... I have been working on these forever. They are pretty nice even though I really don't care for them. I still have to finish the Hive Tyrant, 15 Genestealers, and a Lictor and they are done. Woot!!!!

Nids Almost Done

Next up on the list is a Khador Army made up of a purchase I made for 300 for tons of Khador stuff. This army I will be selling consists of 2 Juggernauts, a Destroyer, Karchev, PSorscha, a Full Mechanicks Squad, Widowmakers, and Man-O-War Kovnik. They are all being done in a generic Khador Red.

the Khador "Red Army" sans a Mechanik, Sniper, and Juggernaut who are all on the worktable

Keeping with the Khador Theme. I have a worktable covered in my army and my in progress pieces. In the back of the pic you will notice my current army which consists of :
Karchev, p-Sorscha, Plastic Destroyer - who will be converted to Black Ivan, Devastator, Classic Juggernaut, Beast-09, Full Man-O-War Shocktroops, Full Man-O-War Bombardiers, Greylord Ternion, Manhunter, Widowmakers, Widowmaker Marksman, Full Mechaniks.

I am using them as reference for the very large expansion of my army which includes:
2 Classic Juggernauts, Classic Destroyer, Kodiak, Devastator, Spriggan, Man-O-War Kovnik, Man-O-War Drachun with Dismount, Min Man-O-War Demo Corps, Min Man-O-War Shocktroops plus one additional guy, Doom Reavers, Fenris, War Dog, Berserker, pIrusk, pButcher, eButcher, pVlad, Old Witch and Scrapjack, Behemoth, Harkevich, Kayazy Eliminators, Female Manhunter. If you haven't noticed, except for character jacks and new models that weren't built in metal, I'm trying to go as much metal jacks as possible.

The 5th Border Legion Expands......some Khador Red guys at the bottom of the pic.

Alright, now we move on to my final job int he line.... Battletech:
DCMS - Strider, Raptor, Avatar
General Camo - Pariah
CCAF - Men Shen, Phoenix Hawk Reseen
LCAF - Jumping Atlas, Atlas, Arctic Fox, Cyclops
SLDF 2750 - Spider, Hussar, Champion, Bombardier, Exterminator, Osprey, Shadow Hawk Primitive
WoB - Buccaneer, Grand Crusader, Red Shift, Initiate, Initiate
AFFS - Thunderbolt 9NAIS, Hammerhands

BattleTech and the XBox360 games

Finally, I would like to say that I had the pleasure during Historicon of hosting Paul Sjardin here at my house. Great guy, fun to talk to, and has good taste in Chinese food. I hope to have him back here next year.

I would just like to finally end the post in some pics of my game room, a constant work in progress

Wall Art

The table, mostly clean and set up for Warmachine

The messier end of the room

My car collection

Even more waiting to be done.....NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Better shot of the table

Jethro and Captain Jack Sparrow

Augie

Dont forget to visit your FLGS

www.thegamevault.net

www.ftwgames.net/

A long, somewhat lost 5th ed 40k vs Warmachine rant...Letshope 6th ed is better.

Before you read this. I was upset and angry and wanted to go find Stelek and smack him with the entirety of the internet when I wrote this. I still hate Stelek, the ugly living under the bridge troll that he is, but I though I would let this rant finally see the light of day and ask, Does 6th solve the problems I bring up in my nerd rage induced diatribe, or only enhance them?  

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I find myself writing this in a self question; What is the intrinsic value of a game, or an army for that matter? I guess the answer is how much enjoyment you get from playing it. Well going by that definition, then the intrinsic value of my Warhammer Guard army would be lower then anything, hell, most of our "armies" sit in disuse in cases not being deployed or used except in one off situations.

    I have a very large and formidable Tau army. It is a decent army considering the codex is behind the times and that they haven't received any new models in a long while. Even that army though has fallen by the wayside in recent months as I have begun playing Warmachine.

    I think the first problem lies in the games themselves. I look at what I need to tote around to play a pick up game of Warhammer 40k and what I need to tote around for Warmachine and the differences are staggering.

For 40k I need to keep available the following:
70 Fire Warriors
6 Devilfish
2 Hammerhead Chassis with 1 Skyray, 1 Ion Cannon, and 2 Railgun Turrets
1 Pihranha
16 Crisis Suits
2 Crisis Suit Commanders
1 Farsight
3 Sniper Drone Team Leaders
9 Sniper Drones
20 Kroot
6 Kroot Hounds
8 Vespids
3 Broadside Suits
8 Pathfinders
14 Gun Drones
14 Shield Drones
1 Ethereal
5 Objective Markers
Templates
Tape Measure
Codex
Rulebook
That is 189 Models carried in 4 multi-layer Pistol Cases

For Warmachine I need the following
Karchev
Sorscha
2 Juggernauts
1 Destroyer
1 Devestator
Beast 09
4 Widowmakers
1 Widowmaker Marksman
6 Mechanics
8 Man O War Bombardiers
8 Man O War Shock Troops
1 Manhunter
Templates
Tape Measure
Rulebook
that is 35 Models carried in a small 12x15 plastic case

    So for Warhammer 40K my "pick up game" equipment includes my entire collection, and to transport them it takes up the trunk of a small car. My Warmachine pick up game stuff on the other hand only takes up the area that I need for a tinly case which is smaller then my laptop bag.

    I know there ae those people who will say that I should take only wht I need, but the problem is that I might need a crisis suit army to fight army X and a fire warrior army to fight army Y, then a mix of the two to fight army Z. Honestly one of the reasons I got away from playing casual 40K outside my home was because of the simple fact that I did not, and still do not, enjoy toting around 4 pistol cases wherever I go. Instead I can condense what I need to 2 or 3 for a tournament. While I loose a great deal of flexibility at a 40K tourney I gain easier transport.

    I think the format for competative 40k though is different and irritating. I played competative 40k for a couple of years. I found it to leave a sour taste in my mouth, more on that later though. Direct comparisons though of competative 40k and Warmacine though lead me to lean towards Warmachine as being the game built for competative play with its very strict and deliberate scenario rules as opposed to 40k where the players can and will, interperet or manipulate the game and rules to thier needs to win. I can draw 2 direct examples of this, well no, 3.

1-Objective placement
    In Warhammer 40K the objectives at most lower level tournaments (and casual play) are placed by the players unless the TO has scenarios which state otherwise. This creates and issue for alot of players in that if I know my army plays well at range but sucks when you are in close, I can place my objective in a position that is adventageous to me and will allow me to defend it better while my opponent whi plays an assault army can place thiers in a position that they dont have to defend because they will likely end up with assets in that are anyway on thier way to get me.

    In Warmachine that scenarios all clearly define where the objectives are on the table. They do not deviate from that position and any scenario you may play at any store or tournament is regulated by these guidelines so that no matter where you play, you will play scenarios from the same selection of scenarios all of which have very rigid guidelines on objective placement and control.

2-Objective Control
    This one is pretty clear cut, but also isnt. Since it is shorter I will go Warmachine first. Warmachine the objectives can only be controlled by wehatever the guidelines in SR2012 (Steamroller 2012) are and they have a defined control area.

    Now on to Warhammer 40k. Yeah....... 3 Inches, has to be a troops choice. Simple enough. It is thouse 3 Inches though which make the problem even more difficult.

the Warhammer 40K rulebook states:

"At the end of a game you control an objective if there is at least one of your scoring units, ano no enemy unit (any uit, whether scoring or not), within 3" of it. As different objectives vary in shape and size, it is important to agree at the beginning of the game exactly where this distance will be measured from"

So, what is covered under Page 91 is:
Scoring unit within 3" of the objective
No enemy units within 3" of the objective
Players need to agree on where the objective is measured from
And, both Seize Ground and Capture and Control asy I cant put the objective in impassible terrain.

What isint covered:
Where on the model do you measure from?
I would assume the base. Why?
Because on Page 3 it states:
"A Model is considered to occupy the area of its base, so when measuring distance between two models , use the closest point on thier bases as your reference points."

There are those who would argue otherwise though.

I have been at tournaments where people have argued the volume of a model counts towards being within 3 inches of an objective where the objective was on a different floor of a bulding.

Since Games Workshop provides no rule stating the volume of the model counts for ranges I cant and wont accept that.

This one subject could go on forever, so I will turnicate it right here.

I all honesty, the first 2 wore me out so much, well speaking about the second, that I have completely forgotten whatthe third was. I am sure this headache I have from writing more then anyone ever should have to about the inticacies of an objective and measuring to it isnt helping.

For those who may be curious though I have always been in the camp of the objective is 3" from a point on the board in an infinate column. this negating the while spherical objective marker nonsense you get into with when it is on a floor in a building.

Essentially what I am getting at here is what is the value to me as a gamer though of Warhammer 40k when I have options out there like Warmachine, Hordes, Malifaux, BattleTech, Heavy Gear Blitz, Dystopian Wars, Mercs, and god knows games that look good which are still in development or that I have overlooked. While each game may have its ups and downs, they are all good in thier own right and quite often they dont require the sheer volumn of space as Warhammer 40k.

I will not argue the investment monetarily in a game, as each game might have diferent price points and quite frankly, I know they have different price points. I know that the games which I play might be considered pricey by someone who likes to play a different game. I could argue investment, but in all honesty, it would probly make me feel bad about all the money I have spent on my hobbies over the past decade alone.

I guess what it all boils down to is this:

Games Workshop, I like the models for 40K, I also used to love the game. Over the past 2 years though I have met some great people in tournament and casual play. I have also met many more though who turned my stomach by using the term "competitive play" to justify being a complete ass hat. Please, do me, and those who also might be disillusioned about this game a couple big favors and do two things. First, admit that this is not a tournament style competitive game due to how you handle releases and rules and second, bring the game down to a manageable level where I can carry around stuff for a pickup game without needing a baggage train.

More painting updates

I am approaching an end to the long and difficult task of painting tons of nids.....thank god. I am also painting a "Khador Red Army" of 21 points with a good number of go-to units for the faction as well as stuff for my own 5th Border Legion.

Nids done so far:

30 Gaunts on hand made bases, Carnifex and Tyrant Guard on Resin Bases

WiP Nids:

Hive Tyrant Front

Hive Tyrant Profile, he also has a custom made base

Tyrant Guard, Pre-wash

Tyrant Guard's resin base

And also my Khador WiP:

Kommander Sorscha, Juggernaut, Destroyer, Widowmakers, Battle Mechaniks, and a MoW Kovnik. All will be done in a glorious red scheme for the Motherland..... then sold.

The rest of my very large trade being assimilated into my 5th Border Legion scheme.

Yeah.... the table has become kind of a mess lately, I need to clean it up.

The Nids im working on

Allrightm, I gave you a look at the bases and at the nid, now, what do these look like painted and together???

I present to you the nid on base:

Building nids on the side

So, I have been working on a nid army on my off time that I am really just building to sell. I started using a alien invasion set of bases from Micro Art Studios then they stopped making them, so.....

my shale alien invasion bases wip

And an example of the bugs that will go on them:

Just what I have been up to lately

Just some interesting stuff...

my Kroot Catachan Hybrid I call aKrootachin. I am tryign to put together a squad of 20...

And my painting table..... 30 Gaunts, some Genestealers, Battletech stuff for historicon... a paper mache house I bought from Hobby Lobby for 3 bucks which is just the right scale for Warmachine......Yeah, I am always busy painting....

I guess more later.....

really gw?

Welcome to June... The birds are singing, the kids are getting all antsy because schools almost over, time to start getting them into the games stores to spend...... huh?!?!?!? $82.00 for a Stormraven...... $75.00 for a Land Raider...... I don't play marines thank god, and unless you completely change the Tau Codex I think my 6 Fire Warrior Squads, 2 Kroot Squads, Vespids, , hammerheads, devifish..es, and full farsight bomb number of crisis suits, plus a lot of other extraneous Tau stuff should hold me over for a good long time to come. Good luck getting new players to buy in with those kinda prices when they can get into a few other games at a Tournament level for a fraction of the cost of a 40K army.

Dear Games Workshop,
   
     Your department that determines pricing has apparently been drinking on the job.

Thank you
-John Q. Public.

P.S. You can price yourselves right out of a market, its been done in a lot of industries and it is very hard to recover from. That kinda rep sticks.

Sorry, this was supposed to auto post June 1, 2012......

Where has the battle gone?

So, for the past 2 years I have been a participant in something I consider to be the kickoff of my gaming year. It is an event called "Battle for the Cure" run by the Iron Fist League out of Northern Virginia. Usually this has already come and gone though. Yet here it is, early may, and there has been nothing posted about it. Well, me being the greedy git that I am and enjoying my local tournaments. I thin I will have to add trying to organize a BftC style tournament to my to do list for this year with the proceeds going straight to the Susan G Komen Foundation. I will have to track down the rules for the past two years and see what they were then see if I can build support for this at either The Game Vault or at FTW games, possibly even both, and maybe even work it up to a two weekend or 2 day event with both Warhammer 40K and Warmachine.

Here is to gaming for a cause.

    Well, one of the few things I had hoped to hang onto with Warhammer 40k has been pushed to the side. Ard boyz. With it though, and quite unexpectedly, we also lost the entire GT circuit. While I have mentioned in the past that I have not had the best experience with Warhammer tournaments I think this is a major mistake on their part.

    Pulling tournament support from major cons for 40K had some writing on the wall last year when it was announced you could simply buy your way into the throne of skulls (ToS) tournament. In a way they had already invalidated their own GT system and it was like they were hoping to simply let the system die on its own in a year seeing as how you didn't need a GT to get into ToS. I guess though the slow death either bothered them or they were just wanting to get it done with and pull the plug.

     I'm sorry though, when companies such as Catalyst Game Labs and Privateer Press, who are smaller fish in this big pond, can still offer prize support in some way, shape or form at Cons which don't just push their own wares, how is it that Games Workshop, the great and monolithic giant among gaming companies, cant keep offering prize support. I don't get it, and I don't think that GW does either.

Warhammer needs a crash cart

    I find myself writing this in a self question; What is the intrinsic value of a game, or an army for that matter? I guess the answer is how much enjoyment you get from playing it. Well going by that definition, then the intrinsic value of my Warhammer Guard army would be lower then anything, hell, most of our "armies" sit in disuse in cases not being deployed or used except in one off situations.

    I have a very large and formidable Tau army. It is a decent army considering the codex is behind the times and that they haven't received any new models in a long while. Even that army though has fallen by the wayside in recent months as I have begun playing Warmachine.

    I think the first problem lies in the games themselves. I look at what I need to tote around to play a pick up game of Warhammer 40k and what I need to tote around for Warmachine and the differences are staggering.

For 40k I need to keep available the following:
70 Fire Warriors
6 Devilfish
2 Hammerhead Chassis with 1 Skyray, 1 Ion Cannon, and 2 Railgun Turrets
1 Piranha
16 Crisis Suits
2 Crisis Suit Commanders
1 Farsight
3 Sniper Drone Team Leaders
9 Sniper Drones
20 Kroot
6 Kroot Hounds
8 Vespids
3 Broadside Suits
8 Pathfinders
14 Gun Drones
14 Shield Drones
1 Ethereal
5 Objective Markers
Templates
Tape Measure
Rulebook
That is 189 Models carried in 4 multi-layer Pistol Cases

For Warmachine I need the following
Karchev
Sorscha
2 Juggernauts
1 Destroyer
1 Devastator
Beast 09
4 Widowmakers
1 Widowmaker Marksman
6 Mechanics
8 Man O War Bombardiers
8 Man O War Shock Troops
1 Manhunter
Templates
Tape Measure
Rulebook
that is 35 Models carried in a small 12x15 plastic case

    So for Warhammer 40K my "pick up game" equipment includes my entire collection, and to transport them it takes up the trunk of a small car. My Warmachine pick up game stuff on the other hand only takes up the area that I need for a tiny case which is smaller then my laptop bag.

    I know there are those people who will say that I should take only what I need, but the problem is that I might need a crisis suit army to fight army X and a fire warrior army to fight army Y, then a mix of the two to fight army Z. Honestly one of the reasons I got away from playing casual 40K outside my home was because of the simple fact that I did not, and still do not, enjoy toting around 4 pistol cases wherever I go. Instead I can condense what I need to 2 or 3 for a tournament. While I loose a great deal of flexibility at a 40K tourney I gain easier transport.

    I think the format for competitive 40k though is different and irritating. I played competitive 40k for a couple of years. I found it to leave a sour taste in my mouth, more on that later though. Direct comparisons though of competitive 40k and Warmachine though lead me to lean towards Warmachine as being the game built for competitive play with its very strict and deliberate scenario rules as opposed to 40k where the players can and will, interpret or manipulate the game and rules to their needs to win. I can draw 2 direct examples of this, well no, 3.

1-Objective placement
    In Warhammer 40K the objectives at most lower level tournaments (and casual play) are placed by the players unless the TO has scenarios which state otherwise. This creates and issue for alot of players in that if I know my army plays well at range but sucks when you are in close, I can place my objective in a position that is advantageous to me and will allow me to defend it better while my opponent which plays an assault army can place theirs in a position that they don't have to defend because they will likely end up with assets in that are anyway on their way to get me.

    In Warmachine that scenarios all clearly define where the objectives are on the table. They do not deviate from that position and any scenario you may play at any store or tournament is regulated by these guidelines so that no matter where you play, you will play scenarios from the same selection of scenarios all of which have very rigid guidelines on objective placement and control.

2-Objective Control
    This one is pretty clear cut, but also isn't. Since it is shorter I will go Warmachine first. Warmachine the objectives can only be controlled by whatever the guidelines in SR2012 (Steamroller 2012) are and they have a defined control area.

    Now on to Warhammer 40k. Yeah....... 3 Inches, has to be a troops choice. Simple enough. It is those 3 Inches though which make the problem even more difficult.

the Warhammer 40K rulebook states:

"At the end of a game you control an objective if there is at least one of your scoring units, and no enemy unit (any unit, whether scoring or not), within 3" of it. As different objectives vary in shape and size, it is important to agree at the beginning of the game exactly where this distance will be measured from"

So, what is covered under Page 91 is:
Scoring unit within 3" of the objective
No enemy units within 3" of the objective
Players need to agree on where the objective is measured from
And, both Seize Ground and Capture and Control say I cant put the objective in impassible terrain.

What isn't covered:
Where on the model do you measure from?
I would assume the base. Why?

"A Model is considered to occupy the area of its base, so when measuring distance between two models , use the closest point on their bases as your reference points."

There are those who would argue otherwise though.

I have been at tournaments where people have argued the volume of a model counts towards being within 3 inches of an objective where the objective was on a different floor of a building.

Since Games Workshop provides no rule stating the volume of the model counts for ranges I cant and wont accept that.

This one subject could go on forever, so I will truncate it right here.

I all honesty, the first 2 wore me out so much, well speaking about the second, that I have completely forgotten what the third was. I am sure this headache I have from writing more then anyone ever should have to about the intricacies of an objective and measuring to it isn't helping.

For those who may be curious though I have always been in the camp of the objective is 3" from a point on the board in an infinite column. this negating the while spherical objective marker nonsense you get into with when it is on a floor in a building.

Essentially what I am getting at here is what is the value to me as a gamer though of Warhammer 40k when I have options out there like Warmachine, Hordes, Malifaux, BattleTech, Heavy Gear Blitz, Dystopian Wars, Mercs, and god knows games that look good which are still in development or that I have overlooked. While each game may have its ups and downs, they are all good in their own right and quite often they don't require the sheer volume of space as Warhammer 40k.

I will not argue the investment monetarily in a game, as each game might have different price points and quite frankly, I know they have different price points. I know that the games which I play might be considered pricey by someone who likes to play a different game. I could argue investment, but in all honesty, it would probably make me feel bad about all the money I have spent on my hobbies over the past decade alone.

I guess what it all boils down to is this:

Games Workshop, I like the models for 40K, I also used to love the game. Over the past 2 years though I have met some great people in tournament and casual play. I have also met many more though who turned my stomach by using the term "competitive play" to justify being a complete ass hat. Please, do me, and those who also might be disillusioned about this game a couple big favors and do two things. First, admit that this is not a tournament style competitive game due to how you handle releases and rules and second, bring the game down to a manageable level where I can carry around stuff for a pickup game without needing a baggage train.

GW v PP Price Comparisons

So, I saw an artile on BOLS about Warhammer 40k on the cheap. So, I naturally decided that I should compare my 2 hobbies and see what kind of price differences we are talking about. First I made a Tau list that I could like playing and then 2 Warmachine lists I woudl like playing, both at their standard tournament force sizes, 1500 and 35 respectively, and got current costs, plus taxes, and compared them. The Warhammer 40k list came out to 432.84. not bad for a Tau list at 1500, Warmachine came out to 307.57.

Now breaking it down, just to the starterboxes if you want, the Tau one can support 689 points by itself, i omitted the stealthsuits from the 1500 as i have never found a use for them. The Khador battlebox supports 11 points by itself. Everything in the Khador box though has a use, and at 49.99 vs the Tau box at 110.00 it seems a better deal. I included copies of the rosters below in case anyone wanted to compare for themselves.

Tau 1500 point list

-------------------------

1500 Pts - Tau Empire Roster - Sample Roster

HQ: Commander Shas'el
-1 Commander Shas'el - Bonding Knife; Hard-wired Drone Controller; Plasma Rifle; Twin Linked Missile Pod
--1 Crisis Bodyguard - Hard-wired Drone Controller; Missile Pod; Plasma Rifle; Targeting Array
---2 Shield Drone - Shield Generator
--1 Crisis Bodyguard - Hard-wired Drone Controller; Missile Pod; Plasma Rifle; Targeting Array
---2 Shield Drone - Shield Generator
--2 Shield Drone - Shield Generator

HQ: Commander Shas'el
-1 Commander Shas'el - Bonding Knife; Hard-wired Drone Controller; Plasma Rifle; Twin Linked Missile Pod
--1 Crisis Bodyguard - Hard-wired Drone Controller; Missile Pod; Plasma Rifle; Targeting Array
---2 Shield Drone - Shield Generator
--1 Crisis Bodyguard - Hard-wired Drone Controller; Missile Pod; Plasma Rifle; Targeting Array
---2 Shield Drone - Shield Generator
--2 Shield Drone - Shield Generator


Troops: Fire Warrior
-6 Fire Warrior, 155 pts - Pulse Rifle x6
--1 Devilfish  - Burst Cannon; Landing Gear; Disruption Pod; Flechette Discharger
---2 Gun Drones - Twin Linked Pulse Carbines

Troops: Fire Warrior
-6 Fire Warrior, 155 pts - Pulse Rifle x6
--1 Devilfish  - Burst Cannon; Landing Gear; Disruption Pod; Flechette Discharger
---2 Gun Drones - Twin Linked Pulse Carbines

Troops: Kroot Carnivore Squad
-12 Kroot Carnivore Squad, - Kroot Rifle x12

Heavy Support: Broadside Battlesuit
-1 Broadside Battlesuit - Twin Linked Railgun; Smart Missile System; Drone Controller; Team Leader
--2 Broadside Battlesuit - Acute Senses; Twin Linked Railgun; Unit Type: Infantry; Smart Missile System; Target Lock
--2 Shield Drone - Shield Generator

Heavy Support: Hammerhead Gunship
-1 Hammerhead Gunship - Railgun; Landing Gear; Targeting Array; Two Burst Cannons; Disruption Pod; Flechette Discharger; Multi-Tracker

Model List

3 Broadside Battlesuit 3@ 35.00ea (105.00)

2 Tau Crisis Battlesuit Commander - 2@ 30.00 ea (60.00)

4 Crisis Bodyguard - 1 Box Set, 3@ 24.75ea (74.25)

2 Devilfish and gun drones - 1 Box Set, 1@ 35.00

12 Fire Warrior - Box Set

1 Hammerhead Gunship - 1@ 49.50

12 Kroot Carnivores - Box Set

14 Shield Drone - 12 convert from Gun Drones with Suits, 2@ 2.99ea (5.98) (Warstore ebay store gun drones to convert)

Tau Empire Battlebox box set - 110.00

Tau Codex - 24.75

WH40k Rulebook - 57.75

Total: 412.23
VA Sales Tax (5%): 20.61
Subtotal: 432.84

Khador 35 pt list:

List 1 (35pts)
35pt Khador Roster (Standard Game)

Selections:

* Warcaster
* Kommander Sorscha
    * Warjacks
    Beast 09
    Destroyer

* Unit (19pts)
* Doom Reavers (Ldr and 5 Grunts)
* Man-O-War Shocktroops (Leader and 4 Grunts) 
* Widowmakers (Ldr and 3 Grunts)

* Solo
* War Dog 

List 2 (35pts)
35pt Khador Roster (Standard Game)

Selections:
* Warcaster (22pts)
* Karchev the Terrible
    * Warjacks
        Beast 09
    Destroyer
    Juggernaut

* Unit
* Man-O-War Shocktroops (Leader and 4 Grunts)
* Widowmakers (Ldr and 3 Grunts)

Model List
Kommander Sorscha - Battlebox Box Set
Karchev the Terrible - 49.99
Beast 09 - 54.99
Destroyer - Battlebox Box Set
Juggernaut - Battlebox Box Set
Man-O-War Shocktroops - 44.99
Widowmakers - 19.99
Doom Reavers - 32.99
War Dog - 9.99

Warmachine Rulebook (Softcover) - 29.99

Khador Battlebox - 49.99

total: 292.92
VA Sales tax (5%): 14.65
subtotal: 307.57

125.27 difference

Warhammer Learning Tournament

This past weekend I played in a Warhammer 40k tournament which pitched veteran players against new players to help them learn. I have to say that I had a mixed experience with it. The first game I played was against a blood angels player. I cant remember the specifics of what he was running but I was running a Farsight list which was very suit heavy and had very little troops (2 6 man teams with fish). We ended up drawing as I didnt play very agressively, the points limit was 1500 and 2 hours per round. We just made it past th first turn. My turns werent too long, his turns though dragged through. The second game I had to play the judge as we had an odd number. We have a rivalry between his Necrons and my Tau. The third game was against a Deathwing Termie list which ended up with no land raiders by the 2nd turn and almost no one left alive 3 turns later.



Overall a good day, felt kinda guilty though about almost tabling my opponent.

Models, Models, Where does it end

Ok, so I know that Games Workshop is the "Evil Empire bent on controlling us and subverting our will so they can sell us a stick and call it a model". Quite frankly though some of their more recent offerings have been very well done and, setting personal opinions about Finecast aside, downright beautiful. I know that it is probably borderline sacrilege, certain models such as the Rhino and the basic Land Raider I am never going to find beautiful at all. The basic box just doesn't appeal to me. Some of the other older stuff such as Eldar Wave Serpents and the common Devilfish/Hammerhead/Skyray chassis is just as alluring as a woman in black stockings and heels....

I'm getting off track though.

In the past year there have been some beautiful vehicles released and some which I wouldn't touch with a nine foot pole. I think the creme of the crop though has been the new necron toys. I know we are still waiting on the Doom/Night Scythe model, but lets face it, the new Necron vehicles have this whole Egyptian techno evil feel to them that no metal box, flying or otherwise, can ever come close to matching. The only thing I think that scares me about them is their implied fragility from not having an outer skin and being so skeletal in their construction.

I have seen a couple in person and I will say it is awkwardly disappointing when you do see them. The model seems to carry off a sense of being larger then it is in photographs. I still have to say it is impressive to see. Unfortunately I probably wont be playing with one soon though as the rigors of real life intervene on my escapism. Oh well. I still have my Tau to hold me over until things fall back into place.

Tornament woes

Well, I am back with my internet ramblings about gaming. I recently had the good fortune to play at a tournament at FTW games again in Richmond Virginia. It is a great store with a great owner and I am glad to be able to play there. I have a couple of little nitpicks from the tournament though, maybe every tournament I have gone to but just never said, nothing major, just small stuff.

1 - Imperial Armore Apocolypse II

    Ok, this is a great supplement, it gives you more options for armies then what is already out there and they do have some amazing models. They also though are a form of expansion rules for Warhammer 40K that most people will not have access to. In the rulebook there is some confusion surrounding the whole use of the Warhammer 40K and the Apocolypse icons used in the book. My understanding of the point behnd those two symbols is that you can tell at what kind of level they should be played at. There are some though who believe that this is an indication that the models witht he "Warhammer 40K" stamp are intended for normal use and tournament play. I need to personally look through the book myself one of these days but I do recall that it has been said that there is a small blurb that still states that the units in the book still require yoru opponents permission just like with any other version of an IA supplement.

    The only real reason I bring this up, had it beenknown that IA Apoc II was allowed in the tournamant then I woudl have been prepared with a much better tau Commander then my standard suit. I also woudl not have had a OMGWTF moment when I faced 2 huge squads of Grot Tanks and some kindof mad max looking ork vehicle that I had no idea what it was as well as 2 gigantic Killa Kans that looked like they were some awwful spawn of a Dreadnight and a Killa Kan.

2 - Gamer Funk

    This is sort of self expanitory, but unfortunately needs to be said. You are goingg to an enviroment where the humidity will be high there will be tenson and sweating, a great many peopel will be bumping into each other and shuffling around, yelling and talking and the tempature will get pretty high. Shower first. If you smell like any kind of bodily fluid, wash yourself before attending. If you are in a mood not to wash yourself, not to clean yourself up, not to smell halfway decent at the beginning of the tournament, then please, dont come. you make the experience very poor for those of us who are forced to play next to you or against you.

    The reason I bring this up is that at any venue I have been to there have been players who, for one reason or another, feel that they they are exempt from the common courtiousies of modern society which includes being clean and not smelling like thier own excrement, or of horrible BO, or like Onions. I understand life is tough, I wont take depression or "I dont have a job" or "I smell from my job" as an excuse, I am unemployed and a pretty good candidate for zoloft right now, when I worked I was working in a very dirty enviroment, depressed, not depressed, bad or good mood, I shower before going to the game store or a tournament. I am not trying to be a mean sprited person. I have played games where the people I play against havent bathed in a long time and at the end of that 8 hours they can overpower an entire table with thier odor.... I know nurgle can grant Noxious Touch and Cloud of Flies, that doesnt mean you have to have them in real life.

3 - Scheduling

    This isnt so much for one side or the other about runnign in a timely manner or playing in a timely manner as much as it is somethign for both and can be cut down into a few little sub sections.

There are a few basic rules I woudl suggest

Player Scheduling -

Make sure you have enough time to play through the whole tournament
Emergencies happen and people have to leave sometimes, but when you know you go to work at 5 and the tournament begins at 12, dont sign up or play, all you are doing is messing up someone elses experience when mid game you tell them that you have to leave and go to work leaving them hanging mid game

Dont run over the break
Not alot to say here, the breaks are the length they are for a reason

Dont slowhammer
Slowhammer is just stupid, slow, boring and rude.

Venue Scheduling -

Start when you say you will
I have been many places and played a good number of events, it always starts to suck late

Players running over breaks
If you have a player or pair of players running over breaks, they just dropped for that round and get a draw score if they do happen to show up for round 3. Starting late sucks, having rounds shortened and goign home really late really sucks after spending 8+ hours in a packed store with a ton of other gamers and by now everybody is covered in Gamer funk.

    I dont want people to think I am just rambling and ranting to rant. I enjoy myself at most of the tournaments I have attended. I love my local stores FTW Games and The Game Vault and fully believe in supporting both of them as it helps the local economy and gives me and my friends a place to play.

Support your local stores
Support your favorite games
Support your gaming community
and most of all, have some good CLEAN fun

Restoring old Crons

today I am delving into something which annoys me, bugs me, drives me absolutely insane, and in all honesty needs to be answered. a Friend of mine plays Necrons. He just got his new codex and through some trading he got some very damaged Warriors, a monolith ,a banged up tomb spyder....errrrr....canoptek spyder, and a bunch of scarabs.

The scarabs are in decent shape, not really too much you can do to screw those up. the warriors...... not so much. The guy had about half of them crawling on the ground and the other half standing. Ok, so about 30 warriors just became trash. The Spyder is missing 2 legs. Easy enough to fix at a later date. We finally reach the monolith. This thing is beyond ugly. The walls are so poorly put together that you can look through it from one corner to the other, the crystal is messed up, the gateway is pretty well mauled, this thing was toast when I got my hands on it. I was able to pop out all the clear green pieces and take the entire monolith apart to rebuild it. The edges on the pieces all had to be shaved and sanded and then after it was assembled Green Stuff had to be used to fill any slight gaps and get a true squareness to the outer edges of the body again. The crystal had a giant gap in it and all the sides were pretty well messed up, so some more Green stuff and a lot of sanding and it is the right shape again. The crystal was primed, painted Snot green and using a mixture of snot and scorpion green now has the look of lightning running through the crystal. The gateway will probably get the same treatment and finally the monolith is probably going to be black with scorpion green in the crevices and metallics where appropriate with a 'ardcoat finish......

All of that rambling though brings me to my point. Why didnt GW just opt for either solid colored pieces for the crystal, gateway, green tubes and so forth, especially given the fact that now the different necron dyntasties appear to use different colors. I understand that the argument cant be made of "well they didnt know they were going to do that" Ok, I will concede that point, but what about just some good ole replacement parts being made available. I mean honestly, I am sure that if they were to sell just a ton of green tubes, the crystal, and gate for a monolith you wouldnt see some of the hack jobs that exist out there now on these things after they have been painted over about 10 times.

Well anyway, I think with the rise of the necrons as it were they should explore the options of releasing a monolith crystal and tube kit simply because there will be a number of Monoliths on the secondary market changing hands and quite frankly I would rather be in the market to make some money off the secondary market and people attempting to restore the broken down monliths they get in trades instead of sitting on the sideline offering only the full kit for peple to purchase. I guess the only kind of comparison I can make is this. While GW doesnt really want to support a secondary market to repair broken down models as much as just sell new ones, Car manufacturers dont really want to do it either. They do though because to not do it makes it much easier for aftermarket companies to step in and fill the void and make a profit on someting you developed in the first place if you dont make parts available, or has GW not learned its lesson from the Thunderwolf Cavalry.

What the Fudge?

I was poking around last night and:

1 Squad Vanilla Marines, 4 missile Launchers with a Las Plas Razorback is 225, 75 for the Razorback and 150 for the Squad

1 long Fangs Squad, 4 Missile Launchers with a Las Plas Razorback is 190m 75 for the Razorback and 115 for squad

Special Rules and Equipment
Long Fangs have Acute Senses, TSKNF, Counter Attack, Fire Control
The can re roll night fighting distances, if the pass ld when being assaulted the have +1 attack each, your normal TSKNF for Marines and if the Sgt doesn't shoot can split fire between two targets

Space Marines Have TSKNF, Signum
Standard TSKNF for Marines, If the Sgt doesn't shoot one guy can shoot at BS5

Statlines
   
LF - Vanilla Marine, 1 Better Ld
LF Sgt - Vanilla Marine, 1 Better Ld, 1 Better Attacks

SMD - Vanilla Marine
SMD Sgt - Vanilla Marine, 1 Better Ld, 1 Better Attacks

Wow!, what a way to make foot based anti-tank so unpopular for the Space marines. You have guys who cost on average 30 points for the vanilla marines with only 1 real special ability, the capability for one guy to shoot on a bs of 5, compared to guys who cost an average of 23 points who have a higher leadership, can see better at night, and can split fire between 2 targets if their sgt doesn't shoot. How is that fair?

In all honesty I have a friend who is really interested in playing Marines. I don't think the whole runes and wolves appeals to him so much, to my fiance, yes it does, but to me, no. Anyway. He has seen the effectiveness of the LasPlas razorback in Space Wolf lists, he likes the vehicles, just don't think he is into the runic Celtic-American Indian-viking vibe the SWs give off. So, here is my conundrum. I want to get him something nice for Christmas (Las Plas Razorback). I understand I will have to build the turret, ok, completely doable, but I don't want him to look at it then look at the points costs of the Devastators and say "ouch man, why is your lady's Long Fangs sooo much better then my Devastators at almost a third of the cost?"

I know, your saying well why doesn't he just use the Razorback to run some scoring guys around anyway? well, in time I am sure there will be enough of them to do it. Until then though, the setup supports Devastators really well and he likes Devastators, so who am I to argue?

So, unless AB is wrong (I would verify the points costs though my SW codex but it is in a box somewhere still not unpacked yet) I smell a conspiracy to get the boys in blue to run with Whirlwinds and Land Raiders all day long.

Ard Boyz 2011

I made it to the second round of the Ard Boyz this year. This is a short wrap up of the second round as I didnt do one for the first.

I played at the Game Vault this year in the second round. I know I hae mentioned it before but it is a great store and if there is anyone coming by Fredericksburg they should swing by. I digress.
First of all my army going into round 2 consisted of:

After Action Report

Well, I have just finished the Battle For The Cure at The Game Vault. The tournament was ok. It was for a good cause so I cant complain too much. The first scenario was against Matt. He played a Nid army. The army itself wasnt overpowering, the scenario though was a different story. Pretty much you ended up with an Attacker and a Defender. The attacker had to sit in the middle of the table on an objective. The catch was that in order to move you had to make a morale check to move if you werent fearless. For his nids that wasnt a problem since most were fearless, for the Tau though it was a paralyzing rule.

The second game ws a long range sniping game with a guard player which ended up being a tie. The final game was against a Chaos army which was very well designed and was very very close.

I am sure I will go into more detail later, right now though it is just late and I honestly dont have the energy to go into detail. I did pick up 16 kroot for 17 bucks at the auction after the tournament and a few DE for 10 bucks too. They are the old DE but Michel is interested in learnign to play them, or at least in collecting them.

I am considering running a list with 1 squad of 20 kroot and 12 kroot hounds as one squad. I figure a giant blob of pissed off kroot coming at someone might keep them from assaulting my fire warriors and crisis suits.