1500Point - Play the Game, Read the Story GT Report - Games 1 & 2

     July in Syracuse means it’s time for Play the Game, Read the Story’s annual GT. Last year I managed to snag 2^nd overall, so I was looking forward to this year’s event and hoping for a repeat performance. This year’s event was a single day, 5-round, 1500point tournament, bringing in just over 30 players. The scoring weighed heavily on battle (0-9/game), but also included soft scores: Paint (0-10), Sportsmanship (0-5), and Comp (0-10). Having attended a few of their events over the past year, I felt that I had a good grasp on what they were looking for in comp, and what kind of armies I’d likely see.

Here’s what I brought:

HQ

Tyranid Prime w/ Lash Whip & Bone Sword, Toxin Sacs

Elite

2 Hive Guard

5 Ymgarls

Troops

12 Termagants

Tervigon w/ Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs and +2 Powers

5 Genestealers w/ Broodlord

Fast Attack

5 Shrikes w/ Lash Whip & Bone Sword, Toxin Sacs

Heavy Support

2 Carnifex w/ 2X Twin Link Devourers

3 Biovores

Total: 1496

In the past 3 years, I can only remember squaring off against 3 other Tyranid players (2 of which are my co-authors Hyv3mynd & DaCock), but somehow I managed to draw 3 on this day. Below the fold are bat-reps from my first 2 games. 

Gaming, terrain, and theory - oh my!

The last couple of weeks have been a mish-mash of hobby related activities so I figured I would share some of my experiences and thoughts as I get back on track with terrain building and gearing up for the Da Boyz GT in November. Next week I will try to get up a battle report or two with a game I have scheduled with Hyv3mynd for tonight. We are both running lists that we want to test out for the next monthly tournament at Millennium Games and depending on how the games goes I would like to work in a narrative element into the report along with the awesome pictures Hyv3 always takes during the games. But until then here is a brief recap of what I have been doing the last few weeks.

CSM Painting Update

I initially wanted to write this week a bit about the the Warp Storm table since it  represents one of the signature rules in the Chaos Daemons codex.  Normally it is viewed as something to be managed and/or endured as the cost of playing Daemons as your Primary Detachment.  However, assuming the 'Lord of Unreality' Warlord traits can be attained, there is significant potential to use the Warp Storm as a catch all army wide weapon/buffer.

To guarantee the 'Lord of Unreality' trait, however, an army must include Kairos Fateweaver in its list - which is not a bad idea in the first place.  After I reached this point I realized my thoughts on using Kairos were not really fully developed yet - I spent a significant amount of time in front of the keyboard trying to work it out.  Part of it might be I have only had the chance to use him (her in my army) twice in games.  Given how closely tied Kairos is to the Warp Storm table through both his Warlord Trait and his one dice reroll - it is difficult to then discuss the Warp Storm without having a strong understanding of Kairos.

For this week, I am going to showcase my most recent miniature as part of my 'one mini a week' goal for painting.

Painting and Thinking

Just a quick painting update today with some 40k related thoughts and reflections at the end.

Parkhammer Bat Rep: 1500 Point 40K Nids vs Space Marines

     I have a few Bat-Reps built up from the past few weeks of gaming. This past weekend a few of the guys made it out to Play the Game, Read the Story in Syracuse for their annual GT. Overall, the 4 of us that made it out all placed in the top 10. I’ll be covering those games in the next few weeks. This week, I’ll cover the game I played at Parkhammer against my Co-author Crimthann.

The last time I went up against Crimthann, he took out my Nids like they were kid's toys. 

     First off is my game against Crimthann and his Space Marines. The last time I played Crim was at the 2010 Da Boyz GT in the 4^th Round. I was flying pretty high, right up until he smacked me down. As it turned out, this was probably the best thing that could have happen as he got a hard final game, while I got a big win in my final. Combined with a good Comp score, I received 2^nd overall that year.

More below the fold,

Da Boyz GT List and Painting Updates

Although it seems like a far way off, the Da Boyz GT has a way of sneaking up on me each year. Normally that has the affect of my army being partially incomplete by the time the tournament rolls along.  Recently it has the added bonus of me partially neglecting my wife and daughter while I frantically paint to get to a point where my army is partially incomplete.  Speaking of painting, I neglected to post updated painting progress with the last two weeks of posts.  Here is my most recent Chaos Space Marine.

The Waking

I have a funny way of playing Warhammer 40K.  I take a codex that interests me and play it until I get bored of the army.  Usually it takes about 2 years, but that is my typical cycle.  Lately I have been playing Grey Knights. Before that it was Tyranids.  I have several armies, but typically play one army at time for a long period.  Maybe I don’t get bored because I am always trying a different unit or different combos within the codex.

Too big to fit in one photo

1500pt July Tournament - hyv3mynd's Game #3 and Results

The July tournament at Millennium Games was a 1500pt format with judged painting and player ranked sportsmanship & comp.  The breakdown was 15/7/3 battle points for win/draw/loss with up to 15pts for painting and 15pts for sportsmanship/comp.  The new Eldar codex (and wraithknight in particular) was calling to me so I put together this list.  My goal was to use as many painted models as possible with no special characters or duplicates (cept 2 rhinos) to max my soft scores.  Game #1 can be found here.  Game #2 can be found here.

Farseer + spirit stone of anath'lan (game #3 warlord : -1 enemy reserves, prescience, guide, fortune)
Ordo Malleus Inquisitor + terminator armor, psycannon
Henchmen - acolytes x4 w/ melta x2, jokaero
Chimera + searchlight
Guardians x10 + bright lance platform (DE warriors proxy)
Rangers x5
Strike Squad x5 + psycannon, hammer
Rhino + searchlight
Strike Squad x5 + psycannon, halberds x2
Rhino + searchlight
War Walkers x3 + scatter lasers x6
Wraightknight (stock)
Nemesis Dreadknight + teleporter, hvy incinerator

Eldar, Tournament Afterthoughts

Two weekends ago Millennium Game ran a 1500 point comp themed tournament and this would be my first time using my Eldar in a tournament setting. I placed 8th out of 14 players with a total of 47 points while the top player earned 71 battle points. This was advertised as a comped event so I planned my list accordingly and the only duplicate unit I brought was two guardian squads. Since I want to either run a full Eldar list or a Eldar/Tau list for this fall's Da Boyz GT, I figured I would start tinkering with some combinations. 

Here is the 1500pt list I brought:

1500pt July Tournament - hyv3mynd's Game #2

The July tournament at Millennium Games was a 1500pt format with judged painting and player ranked sportsmanship & comp.  The breakdown was 15/7/3 battle points for win/draw/loss with up to 15pts for painting and 15pts for sportsmanship/comp.  The new Eldar codex (and wraithknight in particular) was calling to me so I put together this list.  My goal was to use as many painted models as possible with no special characters or duplicates (cept 2 rhinos) to max my soft scores.  Game #1 can be found here.

Farseer + spirit stone of anath'lan (game #2 warlord - acute senses, prescience, guide, terrify)
Ordo Malleus Inquisitor + terminator armor, psycannon
Henchmen - acolytes x4 w/ melta x2, jokaero
Chimera + searchlight
Guardians x10 + bright lance platform (DE warriors proxy)
Rangers x5
Strike Squad x5 + psycannon, hammer
Rhino + searchlight
Strike Squad x5 + psycannon, halberds x2
Rhino + searchlight
War Walkers x3 + scatter lasers x6
Wraightknight (stock)
Nemesis Dreadknight + teleporter, hvy incinerator

Upcoming Event: Last Man Standing

Grubnards here with a quick reminder that next week (Saturday, July 20th) we will be running a last man standing lock-in at Millennium Games in Rochester, NY. If you live in the western NY area and have nothing planned for the night, stop in and join us for a fun night of 40k with your friends. What is a lock-in event? Well, it's basically just what it sounds like. We start gaming around 7:00pm and play throughout the night, usually until 3:00am - 4:00am. Food is provided as part of your registration fee as well as a midnight snack of doughnuts. Mmmmm... doughnuts. 

1500pt July Tournament - hyv3mynd's Game #1

The July tournament at Millennium Games was a 1500pt format with judged painting and player ranked sportsmanship & comp.  The breakdown was 15/7/3 battle points for win/draw/loss with up to 15pts for painting and 15pts for sportsmanship/comp.  The new Eldar codex (and wraithknight in particular) was calling to me so I put together this list.  My goal was to use as many painted models as possible with no special characters or duplicates (cept 2 rhinos) to max my soft scores.

Farseer + spirit stone of anath'lan (game #1 warlord - furious charge, prescience, guide, mind war)
Ordo Malleus Inquisitor + terminator armor, psycannon
Henchmen - acolytes x4 w/ melta x2, jokaero
Chimera + searchlight
Guardians x10 + bright lance platform (DE warriors proxy)
Rangers x5
Strike Squad x5 + psycannon, hammer
Rhino + searchlight
Strike Squad x5 + psycannon, halberds x2
Rhino + searchlight
War Walkers x3 + scatter lasers x6
Wraightknight (stock)
Nemesis Dreadknight + teleporter, hvy incinerator

Parkhammer Painting Competition: Tzeentch Sorceror

     A few months ago I remembered a feature that I'd seen in an old White Dwarf. GW had released a limited edition SM Captain with a power axe, and had given everyone in the design studio a copy to convert and/or paint. Rolling with that idea, I thought it would be a great idea for all the authors of the blog to try their hand at something similar. After a little bit of discussion, we decided that we should open it up to anyone who wanted to give it a try, and make it an event for Parkhammer.

    We put up suggestions on our forums, and after voting we went with this guy: 

    At the Parkhammer event, votes were cast and Grubnards came out on top by a handful of votes. I'll have picture of all the models, and some thoughts from their creators below the fold.

Daemon Codex - Heavy Support - Chariots

Although it has taken several months to work through the Daemons codex, this post marks the last look at the non-named options from the codex.  Coincidentally, all of these options are also chariots of one type or another - which makes them a bit of a showcase for 6th editions new chariot rules.

A quick comment on the chariot rules - in general they are not favorable to chariots.  Hull Points attrition, WS 1 and being unable to stay locked in combat makes it very difficult to use them effectively.   Also, they are generally open topped which makes them inherently vulnerable to being taken out by penetrating hits.

Parkhammer Wrap-up

     The second annual Parkhammer event is in the bag. First off, thank you everyone for coming out and making it a great day. I know everyone's time is precious as we're all pretty busy, but I do appreciate you coming out. For the last couple of years, it has been a real highlight of my summer seeing so many friends in one place, and having a great time. Thank you.

     Over the course of the day, we had 50+ people in attendance. On top of 40K & Fantasy, people were rocking board games, card games, and Mordheim. We also had a ton of great food. There were a handful of Chili contest entrants, and 5 entries in our mini painting contest.

     I'll hit the high points below the fold, but you can expect a few battle reports and a full rundown of the Tzeentch Sorcerer painting challenge in the next few weeks. Enjoy!

It was sunny for most of the day, with spots of rain. Even so, we were protected in this covered pavilion. 

Tyranid Terrain: Ripper Pads

Tyranid rippers are small organisms created to spawn in the latter stages of a tyranid invasion for the sole purpose of consuming all matter on the surface of the planet. When they cannot eat anymore matter they immerse themselves in the many digestion pools to be broken down and digested, along with all matter that they have consumed, and sucked back up by the hive fleets so that the DNA can be assimilated by the fleet. In this series I wanted to create one of the many ripper pads that spawn on the surface of the planet during an invasion. I wanted to make these pieces large than the previous tyranid terrain projects and I also wanted to include imperial elements in the terrain as wreckage that has been overrun by the invasion. So without any further ado, lets get started.

Hyv3mynd vs Calypso2ts - Parkhammer Slugfest

Leading up to The Grand Strategery (TGS) Parkhammer event (link to the TGS board here) I challenged Hyv3 (or did I accept his challenge..) to a 1500 point game.  This game was in preparation for the 1500 points tournament at Millennium Games on July 5.  To make things more interesting I proposed a wager for the game.  A Hyv3 victory meant I would purchase and wire LED boards for him to incorporate into one of his newest terrain projects.  A victory on my part meant I would be the recipient of some of Hyv3's great looking terrain - a sample is shown here.  The sample is actually the same board we played on for our Mandulian Chapel Feature Match.

Hyv3 outlined his list - Dark Eldar/Eldar last week in his battle report.  This gave me a little bit of a sneak peak at how his army worked and a bit of a chill as he utterly dismantled a Tyranid army.