Sunday, January 22, 2012

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.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Some Warmachine under the belt

So, I had an opportunity to play Warmachine last night with my Khador army. I was playing agianst trollbloods... wow, talk about hard to kill. Anyway. I learned 2 things. The first is that I need more infantry then jacks. Yes the Jacks are cool and I still plan on getting Karchev as my second caster.... mmmmmm jacksuit.......aggghhhh. I played with this list last night:

35pt Khador Roster (Standard Game)
* Warcaster (22pts)
    * Kommander Sorscha (22pts)
        * Warjacks (27pts)
                Beast 09 (11pts)
        Destroyer (9pts)
        Juggernaut (7pts)

* Unit (13pts)
    * Man-O-War Shocktroops (Leader and 4 Grunts) (9pts)
    * Widowmakers (Ldr and 3 Grunts) (4pts)

The reason I went with this list is that I already own the Man-O-War units and the Jacks and Sorscha. I borrowed the widowmakers from another player at the store. Both games ended in a caster kill. Unfortunately it was my caster that took the hit. The second game was alot closer though and really came down to poor Focus management on my part as Sorscha nearly killed the enemy caster in hth.

I feel encouraged though as this list did decently well but felt too jack heavy and was similar to the list I want to run of:

35pt Khador Roster (Standard Game)
* Warcaster (13pts)
    * Kommander Sorscha (13pts)
        * Warjacks (18pts)
                Beast 09 (11pts)
        Juggernaut (7pts)

* Unit (19pts)
    * Man-O-War Demolition Corps (Ldr and 2 Grunts) (6pts)
    * Man-O-War Shocktroops (Leader and 4 Grunts) (9pts)
    * Widowmakers (Ldr and 3 Grunts) (4pts)

* Solo (3pts)
    * War Dog (1pts)
    * Widowmaker Marksman (2pts)

In the list I ran last night the Shocktroops didnt do too much with the Shield Cannons but were able to hold thier own against the enemy and I think the addition of another Man-O-War unit would benefit the army greatly. I also think the War dog would make a great unit to go along with Sorscha, as it does for every Khador caster.

I hope I can get this army together before the new League begins this Feb and see how they do. I might end up doing some proxying to get a feel for it though before I ever buy the units to make sure they work together how I would like them to.

Friday, January 20, 2012

My new Distraction

So, I have a new distraction from my distractions. I have picked up the 2 Player battle box and also picked up Beast 09 for the Khador faction. My friend is interested in Menoth so I let him have them and I am building up my Khador force. I am hoping that before the next shattered grounds leage begins I will have at least a 35 point army (already at 31 points). I will try to include some pics of my Khador Army. I am going for a Red Army Feel without as many reds as I have seen in most Khador armies. The majority of the models are an olive green with Sorscha and Beast so far getting the Lions Share of any reds.

I am thinking for a 35 point army I would like to run one of the 2 following types of lists:

35pt Khador Roster (Standard Game)
* Warcaster (22pts)
    * Kommander Sorscha (22pts)
        * Warjacks (27pts)
                Beast 09 (11pts)
        Devastator (9pts)
        Juggernaut (7pts)
* Unit (12pts)

    * Man-O-War Demolition Corps (Ldr and 2 Grunts) (6pts)

    * Man-O-War Shocktroops (Leader and 2 Grunts) (6pts)

* Solo (1pts)

    * War Dog (1pts)


or:

35pt Khador Roster (Standard Game)
* Warcaster (13pts)
    * Kommander Sorscha (13pts)
        * Warjacks (18pts)
                Beast 09 (11pts)
        Juggernaut (7pts)

* Unit (19pts)

    * Man-O-War Demolition Corps (Ldr and 2 Grunts) (6pts)

    * Man-O-War Shocktroops (Leader and 4 Grunts) (9pts)
     
    * Widowmakers (Ldr and 3 Grunts) (4pts)

* Solo (3pts)

    * War Dog (1pts)

    * Widowmaker Marksman (2pts)

The top list is more favorable to my wallet as I can have it with the purchase of a Demolition Corps Sqd and War Dog, the bottom one requires a little bit more money and places all of my firepower in the hands of the guys on the ground leaving my jacks to kill jacks.

Khador Army

A Little bit better



Beast 09 EXTREME CLOSEUP!!!!!!

Beast 09 Front

Beast 09 Three Quarter view

Destroyer - correct axe came in the mail, have to put it on

Juggernaut

Sorscha-P

Monday, December 19, 2011

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

Friday, December 9, 2011

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.

Monday, December 5, 2011

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.