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So close, yet so far...

2012-03-05T08:51:00.000-05:00

I finished base coating the army today, but with 5 days left until the tournament, I will not be able to fully finish it. The tournament is just a monthly 3 game event so it's no big deal, but it still makes me a little sad that I missed the deadline. It's still not bad progress for only 3 months from start until now, and with another tournament coming in May with heavy paint scores and DaBoyz GT 2012 in October, I still have plenty reason to keep working towards finishing the army.

The army features a beast pack made with fantasy models and hellions saving me a ton of money over the metal and finecast models. The khymera are mostly red and orange, the razorwings are shades of blue, and the clawed fiend is purple. As a whole unit, they reflect every color seen in the rest of the army.

There's also a unit of 10 grotesques converted with talos bits, sculpted guts, and freehand tattoos. Finishing touches will also include filling their "gut windows" with water effects to add another medium. There are also two converted haemonculi which used bits from fantasy flagellents, ghouls, talos, and warrior kits.

In the back you can also see the custom webway portals I made with metal rings and water effects. Once the army is completed, it will be my best chance to go after painting/theme awards with a ton of conversions, freehand, air brushing, dry brushing, washes, and water effects. It may not be the most competitive army I've ever built, but it is a lot of fun to play and look at hehe.

Saturday is the tournament at Millennium Games. It's my first tournament in 3 months and I'm super excited to get out of the house and throw some dice, even if I lose all 3 games. I'd love to see all my local readers there and I'll post up my battle reports in the following week.

Endless Joy

2012-02-25T00:30:00.002-05:00

It's been a long time since I've had a chance to write. I assure you, it's not because I have nothing to write about. My stamina to paint for endless hours has run dry due to the sleep deprivation that everyone warned would accompany the arrival of our child. With a major painting tournament just two weeks away, I've been spending my little waking free time painting. I haven't played a full sized proper game in months so there's been little to write about or share my thoughts on other than hobby stuff. The guy pictured above is my son Lucian, now seven weeks old, who keeps me from getting bored painting. Now, on to the 40k stuff...

But wait, that's a fantasy vargheist. Except I plan to use them as razorwing beasts in my dark eldar army. The models are just so awesome I couldn't resist. It's very large, but still suitable for representing a multi-wound/multi-attack model. And no, I won't use it's size to claim cover in an advantageous way. That's not the way this army will work.

More fantasy models OMG. These guys will be my khymerae. Fantasy hounds of chaos with a couple tyranid bitz. Much cheaper than the finecast crud.

Here are some wyches I've been working on also. I tend to drift when I'm painting from unit to unit. I'll paint one or three models from one unit then switch to another to see how they will all look together. The army is very bright for dark eldar, but I'm really enjoying the final products. For those who haven't been following since the conceptualization, the army will represent a troupe of traveling entertainers (evil circus) from the twilight kabals who steal entire stars and drag them into the webway, leaving entire systems to die in darkness. The color scheme is supposed to represent "twilight's edge" and every color you could see in a fading sunset.

Here's a sampling of models from several units.

The army and bases probably won't be finished in two weeks, but I can at least get three colors on everything by then. I'm starting to get inspired with basing schemes now that so many models are complete and I can analyze which colors would complement them the most. The guys here are running a 2,000pt tourney in May with heavy comp and painting scores so I will adjust my goal to have the army complete by then.

Tell me what you think! I won't have much time to write until after the March 10th tourney, but expect some colorful battle reports shortly after that. Thanks for reading~

Six Grotesques Down

2012-02-04T23:11:00.001-05:00

I apologize that all of my recent articles have been dark eldar hobby, but that's literally all I have time to do anymore. Here's a rundown of my 40k hobby progress this week.

If you've been following my progress since November, you'll remember that grotesques were the first models of the army. I wanted to do these conversions and paintings so badly that I designed an entire army list to make the unit work. The final army will feature a huge deathstar of ten with three independent characters as a centerpiece. Unfortunately, I have an attention issue when it comes to painting as I jump from model to model and rarely finish a unit from start to finish without deviating. This unit still needs some finishing touches, but the original box of six ogres is now complete until I do bases for the whole army.

This was the first grotesque conversion and paint test model. He's gone through several changes to achieve a scheme I was happy with. This shot was taken from the side to show the detail work on his gauntlet.

This one will serve as the aberration/champion. He has the proboscis head and two tentacles to differentiate himself and represent the various wargear upgrades.

It's worth noting that these models are lit from both directions for these photos. The shadows under the muscles and wrinkles in the fabric are hand blended.

I tested a different tattoo scheme on the liquifier model in an attempt to match the glyphs on my venom. I haven't yet decided if I will leave it or change it to match the others. This was also my test model for battle damage on the face plate and blood on the bandages.

I wanted every member of the unit to be unique so each one has totally unique tattoo placement and patterns from his brethren. On this one, you can see how I sculpted guts in the hole where the ogre gut plate would go. One of the final steps will be to fill the holes with water effects. The goal is to represent a portal of sorts that the haemonculi use to access their organs.

If you look close enough at the guts, you'll see they have tiny veins painted on and glistening reflections. This guy has his tattoo on his back.

I spent just as much time shading the fabric on the pants as I did on the flesh since this is the side of the models I see the most. The pants alone are base coated violet purple, shaded with thunder blue down to pure black in the darkest points, and highlighted up with dove grey.

I'm definitely pleased with the way the unit is shaping up. Their huge mass is very intimidating as they tower over their dark eldar brethren. They're converted and every model has at least 10 colors and freehand work. Hopefully the painting judges like them as much as I do. That, and I need to figure out how to make the unit work on the table.

The Kabal Grows

2012-01-30T18:22:00.000-05:00

No, those aren't the same warriors I posted last week. I was actually able to paint 10 warriors in 7 days which is really cool. My original list was actually going to be a haemonculi coven with the genetically altered units, but after some proxy testing I didn't like 3 man wrack units and felt I was lacking some ranged anti-tank. As a result, I added an archon, two units of trueborn, and several warrior units.

Here's a shot of the growing Kabal. I'm still searching for a basing inspiration so feel free to suggest anything that would look good with my color scheme.

Kabalite Warriors

2012-01-27T01:41:00.000-05:00

Well, my son is two weeks old now and we're well adjusted to the new routine. After work, I hang out with Lucian and mommy and hear all the ridiculous stories about bodily functions. Then when mommy and Lucian are asleep, I get to paint. I'm on call for bottle and diaper duty until 2am these days so I'm actually able to get a respectable amount of painting done.

I'm getting accustomed to the technique of applying this scheme which is very different that my other two armies. The combination of airbrushing, washing, and dry brushing makes things very quick and I was able to paint these five guys in just four days. At that pace, I may actually be able to finish this project on time. I'm also very pleased with the finished models. I hope you guys do too!

Angels Sanguine

2012-01-23T17:46:00.000-05:00

No, I'm not starting a new army. My friend Gerry is though, and I'm giving him a hand starting out his blood angel army. He decided to go with the Angels Sanguine black and red scheme. I offered to paint a terminator or two for him.

This Week's Successes and Failures

2012-01-22T22:16:00.000-05:00

I was able to get in some painting and games in this week, which was real nice. I'm falling behind in the painting league so I hope I can finish the army by March for the final tournament. Here's a haemonculi I've been finishing up.

I was also able to work on my scratch built webway portals. Here's one painted and mounted on a base. Still trying to figure out if I wanna leave the ring bare or kitbash some bitz onto it. I'm also struggling with a basing concept so speak up if you have any recommendations.

Here's a shot of the growing army in various stages of WIP. If you look closely, you may notice slight differences in the schemes. This is mostly because I find my final scheme often by trial and error. My final scheme will be like the archon, trueborn, and talos. I just haven't updated the grotesques yet.

I also had the chance to play some 750pt games for the league this week. Here's a shot against Trevor's wolves.

That poor haemi was so lonely while my grotesques and talos remained absent.

When my grotesques arrived, they smashed through 10 grey hunters, but I lost my haemi in the process. I was able to survive the counter assault from another 10 grey hunters (with all the bells and whistles) until my talos arrived, killing all the grey hunters as my last grotesque fell. The game ended on turn 5 with me down kill points 2-4 after I lost my trueborn to a tank shock and wracks to some unlucky cover saves.

Next I played Kevin and his new Eldar army.

Two objectives and Kevin elected to go first.

Kevin deep strikes in some warp spiders on turn two. Against all odds, I fail four reserve rolls on my turn two and four reserve rolls on my turn three. The good news is five grotesques with my archon and haemonculi survived four eldar shooting phases while doomed (good cover saves + FnP).

When all of my reserves arrived on turn four ( I had rolled 11 consecutive 2's for reserves), I quickly chewed through his units to his objective. However, my 3 man wrack unit lost a single model to warp spider fire, failed their morale test, and ran off the board. The game ends turn 6 on a draw.

So, after all my league games up to date and proxy tests at 2,000pts, my dark eldar are 0-7-1 haha. I just was talking to Black Blow Fly about how reserve lists are unreliable and I experienced that this week. The list is still very fun to play and I'm sure I will be able to master it by the time it's fully painted. Until then, just enjoy the eye candy hehe.

Newborns and Trueborns

2012-01-16T23:42:00.000-05:00

Well, I've been a daddy for nearly a week now. I spent 4 days and 3 nights in the hospital with my wife following her c-section and the birth of my son. We've been home a few days now and are adjusting to the insanity that is newborn sleep deprivation. Here's a shot of my little masterpiece, Lucian.

I'm still managing to find some painting time throughout the night between feedings and diaper changes. I was able to finish painting a small trueborn squad with blasters over the past two days. I'm really starting to get excited about painting this army so my productivity level has been high. I'm really pleased with the way these models are turning out.

I was also able to talk Nids with Black Blow Fly about his reserve list while I was in the hospital trying to keep my sanity for 4 days. I didn't turn it into an article for this blog, but you can read up on our lists and theory HERE.

That's all for now. More dark eldar hobby projects are on the way. I may showcase some blood angels I will be painting for a friend, as well as share some thoughts on the 6th ed. rumors (which I mostly believe).

Last Day as a Free Man

2012-01-11T22:47:00.000-05:00

Epic title huh? Tomorrow we have a planned C-section to deliver our first child at 11:30am. I won't bore you with real life dramas, but along with the associated excitement and uncertainties of having my first child comes the 40k dilemma.

In a perfect world, I would be able to maintain my full time job, take care of my wife and baby, and still have time to paint, game, and blog. In reality, I will probably have to give up some of my 40k time or squeeze it into baby nap times.

Dark Eldar will be my hobby project until they're complete. Then I will be stripping and repainting the Tyranids. If I'm able to handle the new routine and keep up, the Dark Eldar will be done for the painting tournament on March 10th and Tyranids will be done for the 6th edition release. If I'm not able to handle the new routine, those projects may take a year each.

I already know I'll have to miss half of the local tourneys due to my new work schedule, but one thing I can promise is a battle report for every game I am able to fit in. I'll also keep posting Dark Eldar progress although they will be less frequent.

Thanks again for all your traffic and support over the past 18 months. I'll leave you with the last model I painted before becoming a daddy.

I finished this Archon last night and I'm pretty pleased with it. By using the airbrush, washes, and dry brushing I was able to finish it in under 3 hours. By using warrior bitz and a fantasy cape I was able to keep it extremely cheap. It may not be the most grandiose Archon ever, but will be the only model in the army with that helmet and back fin.

Dark Eldar Progress

2012-01-09T21:10:00.000-05:00

I'll be the first to admit that I've been slacking on my painting schedule for the escalation league, but it's hard to focus the week before your first child is born. I was able to get out of the rut last weekend and get some work done. Just to preface the pictures, here's a list of some of my goals with this army:

1. Increase my paint score potential above my Grey Knight army with many more conversions. Grotesques, beasts, and haemonculi will all be converted.

2. Test the theory that more colorful armies draw more attention and possibly higher scores. My Grey Knights are black and white, so the Dark Eldar will use bright colors. The scheme was actually used when I played an army dubbed "Twilight's Edge" and is supposed to reflect the colors of a sunset fading into darkness.

3. Save money on the build cost by converting plastic kits to avoid finecast when possible. Finecast beasts run about $1 per point, so anything less than that will be good also. Haemonculi and an Archon will also be converted.

4. Cut down painting time by using new and more efficient techniques. My Grey Knights were entirely hand-blended. The Dark Eldar will be airbrushed, washed, and dry brushed.

With all that in mind, here are some progress pics from this week.

This is a batch of infantry that includes 10 warriors, 6 trueborn, 1 archon, and 2 haemi's. To illustrate how fast air brushing is, I base coated these 19 models orange, red, purple, black, and shades of blue in 3 hours flat. Finishing colors, washes, and dry brushing on my test model took 2 more hours, bringing the time investment to about 2.5 hours per model. Compare that to 6+ hours per Grey Knight!

This is a trueborn with a blaster I finished as a test model. I ran into an issue with my build as it needs 11 blasters but each infantry box only comes with one. This blaster is a dark lance with the barrel cut off. It's simple, looks decent, and saves money. I was able to make 10 warriors (2 blasters), 6 trueborn with blasters, and an archon with a blaster using just 2 warrior boxes and extra bitz from the scourge box.

Here's the Archon in progress. At this point, I've airbrushed the armor and agonizer. The undersides of his arms, legs, and blaster have been washed black. This guy's blaster is actually a shredder with the tip from a blast pistol. He probably needs an hour to finish with some brown and gold on the gun, black lining the upper armor plates, and dry brushing grey.

Here's a haemonculi whose agonizer and hover board I've airbrushed. His hunched form makes it hard to airbrush, so his body will be hand painted. I finished up the hover board with brown and gold on the high points and left the recesses blue in hopes it would look like an internal glow.

So I was able to do all the painting pictured above in two sessions on one day. I'm pretty happy with the results and it gives me hope that I can finish the army in the 2 months I have left until the painting tournament.

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T10:26:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to say Happy New Year and thank you to all my followers and readers. It's been a crazy year for me both in the 40k world and the real world. I began 2011 trying to finish my tyranid army for the ATC in May.

At the same time, I was also preparing for a trip to St. Lucia to marry my soulmate Kristyn.

Our team took 3rd at the ATC and in out of our prize pile, I chose a nemesis dreadknight which began my Grey Knight adventure.

I also found out in May that my wife was pregnant! Her morning sickness and evening fatigue left me plenty of time to paint, which I did furiously from June until October when I finished the army for DaBoyz GT.

The army didn't fare well at the GT, but has won me several RTT's. I had burned out on painting white power armor, so I began rolling the prize money into a new Dark Eldar army which would feature a large amount of conversions, freehand painting, and airbrushing.

The end of the year has just gotten crazier for me with the arrival of the "chocolate holidays" which will be keeping me busy from now until Easter. For those of you who don't know me, I make chocolates for my day job.

We also got a call from the Food Network last month to audition for their show Sweet Genius! Unfortunately, we had to turn down the offer as they would be filming in NYC when my son is due. I haven't had must time to work on 40k recently as my neighbor also commissioned me to paint a portrait of his dogs for Christmas.

So here I find myself at the end of once crazy year just hoping next year will pass at a slower pace with a little less insanity. It's looking doubtful though with my first child due in two weeks. We also spent all day yesterday in the hospital trying to rotate him as his current presentation will demand a c-section delivery.

I did get a couple hours to paint last night so here's some progress on a new look for my grotesques. I'll be doing the metals like aged bronze and doing some finer tattoos to match the glyphs on the venom.

My resolution for 2012 is to finish the Dark Eldar army in time for the March painting tournament. It may be a lot with a new child, but I'm banking on the increased productivity thanks to the airbrush and him sleeping a lot hehe. I'm not planning on traveling to any big tournaments this year due to the increased financial drain, but I'll be participating in every local tournament that I can. If things look good, I may try for Wargames Con in Texas, we will see!

Thanks again for all the traffic and support of the blog and my hobby adventures. I wish you all a happy, safe, and fruitful New Year!

~ Aaron Stiebitz / hyv3mynd

2011 Invitational, Game #3

2011-12-24T07:44:00.000-05:00

Following two major victories with max battle points, I head to the top table to face Trevor's Space Wolves who took down mech Dark Eldar in round #2. Trevor also took first at the 'Ardboyz semi-finals here in Western New York with his wolves and won the free army. This was going to be a challenge!

Trevor's list (approx):
Rune priest w/chooser, JoTWW, lightning
Rune priest w/chooser, JoTWW, murderous hurricane
Lone wolf w/ terminator armor, storm shield, chain fist, 1 pet wolf
Lone wolf w/ terminator armor, storm shield, chain fist, 1 pet wolf
Wolf guard x4 w/ power fist x4, combi-melta x2, combi-flamer x2
Grey hunters x8 w/ standard, mark, melta, rhino
Grey hunters x8 w/ standard, mark, melta, rhino
Grey hunters x8 w/ standard, mark, flamer, rhino
Grey hunters x8 w/ standard, mark, flamer, rhino
Thunderwolf x1 w/ shield, fist
Long fangs x6 w/ 3 missiles, 2 lascannons
Long fangs x6 w/ 3 missiles, 2 lascannons

My list:
Hive Tyrant + armored shell, old adversary, hive commander, devourers x2, paroxysm, leech essence
Tyrant Guard x3 + lash whips
Tyranid Prime + boneswords, toxin sacs, regeneration
Hive Guard x2
Hive Guard x2
Hive Guard x2
Genestealers x20 + broodlord w/talons
Genestealers x8 + toxin sacs
Genestealers x8 + adrenal glands
Gaunts x16 + devourers
Tervigon + catalyst, adrenal glands, toxin sacs

The mission was: kill points - primary, objectives (5 set one in the center, 1 in each quarter 12" from each edge) - secondary, table quarters - tertiary. This was potentially a very bad match for me with his lone wolves skewing the fight for kp's. The good news is this match is very similar to my GAME VS GOATBOY in both scenario and lists. I think I can pull this off, but it will take some serious thinking. I won the roll and chose to go first to get off FnP and force Trevor into a reactionary position.

Trevor places one chooser in each empty table quarter to try and prevent infiltrators. I deploy an "onion" formation of layered cover saves on the front, using a central forest to cover my gaunts, deathstar, and hive guard. I put the tervigon way back in a ruin trying to prevent a kamikaze JoTWW out of a rhino. I will infiltrate the unit of 20 genestealers and outflank the units of 8.

Trevor throws a wrench in my plan by reserving both priests in their rhinos and the thunderwolf. He deploys 2 grey hunter units in their rides, long fangs in front of them, and lone wolves in front of the long fangs. This choice could be really good for me if his reserve rolls are bad, or really bad for me if I make any movement mistakes and create any weaknesses in my formation as he can come on anywhere on his long edge.

I infiltrate the big unit of genestealers forming an arrowhead in front of my formation into the forest. Trevor's choosers are far enough apart to allow a narrow line of genestealers up the middle, lead by the broodlord. He tries to seize the initiative and fails. I move the tervigon up to give the genestealers FnP. The whole blob advances. I'm careful to only cross into thunderwolf threat range with the genestealers and tyrant who will also try to block JoTWW 's. I won't have range this turn with anything since Trevor didn't deploy up very far, so everything also runs.

Trevor brings up the lone wolves and moves each rhino up to screen the long fangs from the flank. He goes for easy kill points and puts 3 wounds into a hive guard unit, almost wiping them out.

My furious charge genestealer arrive in Trevor's deployment zone at the top of turn 2. I give the big unit of stealers FnP again and they move up and run into position. The blob formation advances around the forest using it for cover but not entering so they don't get tripped up. The broodlord's unit multi-assaults both lone wolves, but I don't get many in because of poor terrain and fleet rolls. The outflanking genestealers multi-assault one lone wolf, long fangs, and a rhino. Combat is unimpressive as I kill both wolf pets and a couple long fangs, take a couple casualties back, and pile into a combat that will get very ugly.

Trevor rolls for reserves... and gets nothing! Very lucky for me. He unloads both rhinos and piles in to the assault with both units who pop their wolf standards. An extremely large combat ensues and I roll a very generous amount of rends, wiping out many grey hunters and long fangs, but not finishing any units. Trevor kills several genestealers, but combat will soon turn to my advantage as his banners are spent and he will have less attacks next round.

My last unit of genestealers arrives and sneaks behind a rhino to get at his second long fang unit. I advance a little more , but stay central to jump into any quarter as needed. The tervigon is filling up the backfield with gaunts who are running to grab objectives. Hive guard immobilize a rhino. I claim the first kill point by slaying the last long fang in the main assault. Trevor is running out of grey hunters and the lone wolves can't kill genestealers fast enough. The toxic unit assaults the unengaged long fangs but fail to kill them all.

Trevor rolls for reserves again... and only gets one rhino unit with a priest. He risks driving through a forest to get perfect placement out of SiTW, but in range of the tervigon which I moved up too far. He sends out the jaws and hits my tervigon at 23.5". Against all odds, I roll a 2 and my tervigon lives! In assault, I finish off all grey hunters and long fangs giving me a healthy lead in kill points.

The tervigon continues to spawn gaunts who take objectives and table quarters. My devil gaunts and tyrant dakka down 7 members of the priests unit, but they don't run. My hive guard can't get past Trevor's cover saves on the rhino in the forest. In assault, the broodlord's unit finishes off both lone wolves.

Trevor finally gets his thunderwolf and last rhino unit with priest. The rhino dives up to my consolidated genestealers and double flamers shoot out, killing the adrenal genestealers. The thunderwolf goes after the toxic stealers, takes a wound, and kills a couple. The first priest jumps back in the rhino with survivors and they zoom towards my table quarter and pop smoke.

My shooters begin chasing his rhinos. All my hive guard wiff, but my tyrant is able to stun the rhino on the left flank. My genestealers finish off the thunderwolf and consolidate towards rhinos.

Trevor's one mobile rhino on the right flank zooms up and smokes.

My deathstar assaults the rhino on the left and wrecks it. Hive guard on the right immobilize the last rhino.

We call the game there. Trevor is down 8-3 kill points and I have nearly every objective and table quarter locked down. I earned 21/21 battle points and 63/63 for the event. I ended up with Best General as Chris P's nids earned 57/63 battle points and much more in the painting and comp departments.

I was very happy with the way the list played out and with myself making very few mistakes this time out. Trevor's combination of reserves and bad dice helped me win this game for sure. It easily could have been his game if everything came on turn 2 and I had to deal with 20 more space wolves. Instead, I had nearly wiped out half of his army before the reinforcements arrived and he didn't have enough punch left to turn the tide. The event as a whole was great. It was also my highest placing ever with nids and gave me renewed hope in them. I'm actually pretty excited to strip them and re-paint them after my dark eldar army is done, hopefully in time for 6th edition!

2011 Invitational, Game #2

2011-12-20T22:52:00.002-05:00

I had some interesting conversations after round #1 during the lunch breaks. Only three of us earned full battle points during round #1. One was Trevor (Space Wolves), a team mate from DaBoyz GT team event who also won Western New York's 'Ardboyz semi-finals. The other was Allan P who had a Dark Eldar list with several raiders and a couple venoms and ravagers. I wasn't excited about playing either of them, and luckily I didn't!

Instead, I found myself facing Joe Johnson yet again. He was a team mate from the ATC and we've played each other a few times. Joe also took 2nd Renaissance Man at NOVA this year and his "skittles marines"/salamanders have won painting and appearance awards all over the country. He brought his ATC list minus a few marines so I was intimately familiar with it and how he plays it. This was probably a bad match for him, playing a drop pod army that needs to get close against a close combat army.

My List:

Hive Tyrant + armored shell, old adversary, hive commander, devourers x2, paroxysm, leech essence
Tyrant Guard x3 + lash whips
Tyranid Prime + boneswords, toxin sacs, regeneration
Hive Guard x2
Hive Guard x2
Hive Guard x2
Genestealers x20 + broodlord w/talons
Genestealers x8 + toxin sacs
Genestealers x8 + adrenal glands
Gaunts x16 + devourers
Tervigon + catalyst, adrenal glands, toxin sacs

Joe's List (approx):
Vulkan
Master of the Forge
Sternguard x10 + 9 combi-melta, 1 combi-flamer, drop pod
Sternguard x5 + 5 combi-melta, drop pod
Terminators x5 + hammer/shield x5
Tactical Squad x10 + multi-melta, melta, drop pod
Tactical Squad x10 + multi-melta, melta, drop pod
Tactical Squad x10 + multi-melta, melta, drop pod
Ironclad Dread + drop pod

I probably butchered that list but you get the idea. This mission ranked objectives (5 fixed, 1 center, 1 in each quarter 12" from each edge) as primary, kill points secondary, and table quarters tertiary. Joe won the roll and gave me first turn. I deploy the main bulk of my army centrally, infiltrate 20 genestealers to the half way mark in cover, and outflank the smaller squads.

I move everything forward and run during my first turn. Genestealers get FnP. Again, I'm sorry about the pics. I left the memory card out of my camera and my phone's camera isn't the best.

Joe chooses to drop the ironclad (top middle), a 10 man tac squad with the MoTF (center), and Vulkan with 10 sternguard (bottom). He tries to alpha-strike the tervigon, but only manages 4 wounds. The tac squad and dread kill a few genestealers, but FnP and cover mitigate most of the damage.

Both of my outflanking genestealer units arrive, one on my right and one my choice. I bring them both in right next to Vulkan's sternguard. The broodlord's unit heads for the tac squad. The tervigon spawns a smallish unit which spreads out in the backfield to try and stop another podded unit from finishing the tervigon. All 6 hive guard fire at the ironclad and wiff. My tyrant wrecks the ironclad's drop pod. I inflict heavy casualties on the tac squad and sternguard, but both combats continue.

Joe gets 2 more drop pods, 1 of which mishaps off the table and back into reserves. He tries to bring the ironclad over the wrecked drop pod to assault the broodlord's unit, but immobilizes it on the wreck!

I tear up his units in assault, but Vulkan remains to hold the right flank.

With Joe's army arriving piecemeal now, it's pretty easy for me to hit the units with dakka and then assault them as they arrive. The ironclad could have thrown a wrench in my plans, but it would not be able to influence the game while immobilized. When Joe's terminators arrive, I'm able to spawn another unit of gaunts, drop 3 with shooting, and hit them with a wave of furious toxic gaunts.

When the teminators and Vulkan fall, Joe concedes. With one tac squad, 5 sternguard, an immobilized dread, and some empty pods left, there's no way to come back and draw any of the objectives. I earn 21/21 battle points bringing me to 42/42 and I'll probably be on the top table depending on how the others do. We finished early enough for me to watch Chris P's nids take down blood angels for a minor victory and Trevor's wolves nearly table the Dark Eldar player.

Looks like my next game would be against Space Wolves played by an 'Ardboyz finalist...

2011 Invitational, Game #1

2011-12-17T23:19:00.000-05:00

I'm actually going to do some batreps out of order since I still have five Grey Knight reports recorded, but you guys respond so much more to Tyranid content.

Millennium Games held its invitational tournament on December 10th, finishing their 2011tournament season. To earn a spot, you must have placed in the top two in one of their monthly tournaments. I took best overall twice during the year with my Grey Knights, but I have been playing them so much that I needed to mix it up.

The format would score table quarters, kill points, and objectives (5 fixed every game) with rotating order or priority with primaries worth 12bps, secondaries worth 6bps, and tertiaries worth 3bps. Comp was also player scored with 6pts for each "favorite opponent list" votes or 3pts for each "second favorite list" vote. Painting was worth 3pts/2pts/1pt voted by the players.

Since I have been playing my fluffy Grey Knight army so much, I decided to go back to my roots and put together a "harder" Tyranid list. I would lose points in the comp and painting departments, but I wanted to max out my battle points. I weighed the options with my two painted armies and just knew my painted Tyranid collection would handle table quarters and 5 objectives much better. I took a modified version of my ATC list which ended up being:

Hive Tyrant + armored shell, old adversary, hive commander, devourers x2, paroxysm, leech essence
Tyrant Guard x3 + lash whips
Tyranid Prime + boneswords, toxin sacs, regeneration
Hive Guard x2
Hive Guard x2
Hive Guard x2
Genestealers x20 + broodlord w/talons
Genestealers x8 + toxin sacs
Genestealers x8 + adrenal glands
Gaunts x16 + devourers
Tervigon + catalyst, adrenal glands, toxin sacs

This list was designed primarily to "play the missions", going up the center with the deathstar to jump into table quarters, go after flank objectives with genestealers, and score the backfield with the tervigon and gaunts. I like the table presence of triple hive guard units so I wasn't worried about the extra kill point.

When I arrived at the shop and helped set up terrain, I knew it was going to be a tough tournament with the best of the best locals including Jay, Shaun, Chris, and many more talented generals. The field of armies included 2 GK, 2 BA, 2 DE, 2 Nids, 2 SW, 3 CSM, 2 SM, and 1 Eldar.

My first pairing was against Paul P's GK which I have played twice before in June and in April. My record against Paul isn't good, but I'm getting accustomed to his play style and tricks. His list was approximately:

Coteaz
Henchmen - 5 assassins, 5 acolytes + 2 melta, chimera
Henchmen - 5 acolytes, 3 plasma guns
Purifiers x6 + 6 halberds, rhino
Terminators x10 + 2 psycannons, psybolt ammo, 4 halberds, 2 hammers
Strike Knights x10 + 2 psycannons
Strike Knights x10 + 2 psycannons
Nemesis Dreadknight + hvy incinerator
Purgation squad x5 + 4 incinerators, 1 hammer, rhino

Pre-game: His list has a lot of potential to hurt tyranids, so I have to play smart and hope he makes mistakes. Fortunately for me, the combination of a tyrant deathstar running up the middle and outflanking genestealers tends to force people into making mistakes. This mission would be diagonal deployment with primary being table quarters.

I won the roll-off and opted to go first so I could get FnP off and take less shooting casualties. In my packing frenzy, I left the memory card out of my camera so pictures are from my cell phone. As such, there won't be many and they aren't the best quality, so I apologize.

I deployed in my table quarter centrally, using a gaunt screen and smoke stacks to cover everything in case I lose the initiative. Surprising me, Paul deploys deep into his corner, probably trying to save his rhinos from my hive guard. This may give me an opening to pull him apart with lucky outflank rolls and a strong frontal assault. He puts the plasma squad in the left point of his deployment zone. I infiltrate the big unit of genestealers and outflank the small ones.

The game begins and I decide Paul probably won't pull his entire army across the board to go after genestealers, so I FnP the devil gaunts. This would prove to be a big mistake for me! Everything moves and runs to get better distance next turn instead of risking some long shots this turn.

Here is a shot after my first movement phase. You can see Paul's terminators and two strike squads up front. His three loaded rhinos are in the back. I decide my genestealers won't do much damage to his wall of bodies, so they will go after the plasma henchmen and then fall back to hold that quarter and objective.

Paul surprises me again, pulling every unit except the far right strike squad towards my genestealers.

The grey knight army pours everything into the genestealers, who started the shooting phase with no cover or FnP due to my poor placement. I lose more than half the squad after all the dice have fallen. The stationary strike squad kills a few gaunts.

Both units of outflanking genestealers arrive, the furious charge unit on the right within reach of the strike squads or rhinos. The poisoned unit arrives on the left, away from the action but fully capable of holding an objective and quarter. My deathstar, devil gaunts, and hive guard move up nearing midfield with a huge amount of dakka dice. I believe the fusillade killed 6 terminators and a few marines. The terminators broke and fell back. On the left, my genestealers steamroll the plasma henchmen. On the right, 8 genestealers assault 10 strike knights, manage to kill 6ish, and finish the unit off with no retreat wounds.

Paul's terminators, still with both psycannons, rally and head towards the left to chase after my genestealers and that table quarter. The dreadknight and remaining strike squad also head left. All three transports drive towards the middle, with the incinerator unit jumping out to fry genestealers on the right.

I lose the right unit to the quadruple incinerators. On the left, Paul shoots his entire army into the broodlord's unit and reduces it to two models who fail morale and fall back into synapse range. This event is important because it denied Paul a kill points and will force him to shoot them again next turn.

I continue to push to the middle with the shooty units. My tervigon is busy filling up the right quarters with gaunts. My shooting is on fire and I explode the lead (purifier) rhino and wreck the second (purgation) rhino. I then pump the purifiers with devourers and kill half of them.

Paul pulls his purgation squad and purifiers away from the middle and my tyrant. He probably doesn't like the math in assault and wants to preserve his vp's to hold a quarter. His shooting finishes off the broodlord's unit, half of the poison unit, and a bunch of devil gaunts.

I split the deathstar and send the tyrant to the right to gun down the purifiers. The prime joins devil gaunts to help bolster that kp. I spawn another unit of gaunts and prepare a big multi assault on the dreadknight with poisoned gaunts and poisoned genestealers.

Paul makes every save versus my shooting this turn, and his dreadknight survives my big assault.

He continues to back out the purifiers and purgators and puts a couple wounds on the tyrant's unit. His terminators jump into the fray and I start losing that battle. He dumps Coteaz and the henchmen out in the middle to drop some melta shots, but fails to do much damage.

The game wears down as my tyrant is able to shoot down the purifiers and pound the purgation squad in assault. Paul eventually beats down my last genestealers and gaunts in the middle, but I counter by assaulting the dreadknight with my prime, killing it with poisoned power weapons. My tervigon assaults Coteaz and instakills him before he can swing. Hive guard end up immobilizing the chimera, sealing the game.

At the end of 7 turns, I pulled ahead to win with 3 table quarters, 3 objectives, and 1 more kill point for 21/21 battle points. The game was a lot closer at turn 5, and we probably would have drawn on primary and secondary objectives had the game ended then. Paul's dice were also a bit behind the curve, especially with his terminators which averaged casualties from my devourers more suited to their 3+ brothers. This game was decided by the dice as both of us made a few mistakes which we both capitalized on. It was a fun game and Paul was a great sport even when his dice went on vacation.

This Week's Hobby

2011-12-15T23:27:00.000-05:00

Well, it's been a crazy week and things won't be calming down for a while. Last week's two tournaments and painting league kickoff left me with little time to paint or convert. This week has been all about Christmas, doing shopping, and dealing with the extra work load.

This week wasn't a total loss though as I started playing with some new models for the painting league and the next 250pts of my escalation army.

Acting on a suggestion from my friend Tim, I converted a couple plastic haemonculi so I'm not restricted to the finecast one.

For these conversions, I used legs from a flagellant sprue, torsos from a ghoul sprue, heads and daggers from the venom kit, and extra arms from the talos kit. I feel like hovering is important to the new haemonculus image, so I used the soul vortex from the talos kit as a hover disc for them to stand on.

I also started on some home made webway portals.

For these, I used a metal ring I found at the craft store. In the middle, I poured water effects mixed with some paint. I'm still playing with these and will probably add more water effects to try and create a layered swirl look. I plan to stand them up on a 60mm base to look like a stargate, It could turn out well or may suck, time will tell.

I've also started on the talos, blending his shell to match my venom.

The talos, haemonculi, and webway portal make up the next 250pts of my escalation army and I need to play those games before January 9th so stay tuned for more progress shots. I'd also like to finish more of these battle reports as time allows.

Warhammer Weekend, Part 2

2011-12-11T22:16:00.000-05:00

Today was event #3 in my crazy 40k week. I took my Grey Knights out to Boldo's Armory 15 year anniversary event. The format was a simple 1250pt event with book missions and no comp. This was my list:

Hereticus Inquisitor + psyocculum, 3 skulls
Henchmen - 2 plasma cannons, 2 melta guns, jokaero, 2 bare acolytes + Chimera
8 Purifiers + 2 psycannons, 2 halberds, 1 hammer
5 Terminators + Thawn, psycannon, banner, stave, hammer
5 Strike Knights + Razorback + psybolt ammo
NDK + hvy psycannon
Rifleman dread + psybolt ammo

Here's where the irony begins. Most people assume tyranids are bad and GK are good. I had the opposite experience this week. Coming off of yesterday's perfect battle point score, I had a fair amount of confidence in this list.

My first match was against the new SoB, which was my first game against the new codex. My opponent had Jacobus, the Saint, 10 seraphim, 2 battle squads in rhinos, and a conclave with 6 assassins and 3 crusaders. NASTY! His exorcists shot my NDK off the table and his dual flamer wielding rerolling-to-wound seraphim roasted my purifiers. In the end, I barely managed a draw when Thawn got up and pulled a huge distraction move on an objective in the middle.

Game two was against the new necrons, which was also my first. My opponent had the Orikan/C'tan combo for first turn dangerous+difficult everything. It was spearhead with two objectives so I just deployed my NDK and rifleman and reserved everything else. My terminators deep struck on a servo skull, survived a round of guass spam, wiped out a unit of warriors, then got stuck against Orikan for 4 assault phases. They then spent 6 assault phases locked with warriors which I couldn't break and they kept coming back. I was able to drive the chimera across the table to contest his objective to pull out a win.

Game 3 was against a very good Nid player who brought 33 poisoned genestealers, a flyrant, some hive guard, and zoans. DoW and Annihilation. Easy win for GK right? Nope. I got tabled when my full salvo only put 1 wound on the flyrant, NDK failed to activate force, and gargoyles crushed my terminators in assault. I hate blaming dice, but I feel somewhat vindicated that my opponent felt pity for my dice hehe.

So, I finished 1-1-1 with the GK but I did manage another box of DE with the "Best Painted" award. For those keeping track, Nids took best overall twice, and best general this weekend in local events. Three different players in two entirely different fields, formats, and points levels. Don't believe what the internet tells you. Play what you like the most and perfect it. Time is better spent practicing on the table than trying to discover the "magic list".

I have a fresh view of tyranids again and will definitely make repainting my collection top priority after the painting league runs its course and my DE are done.

Warhammer Week: Invitational Results (spoiler)

2011-12-10T22:19:00.000-05:00

Today was the second event in my 40k triple play week with the Millennium Games Invitational. This event was invite only, requiring you to place during the 11 monthly tournaments to qualify. This was the best of the best of our locals and included ETC players Jay W., Shaun K., and famous painter Joe J. (2nd renaissance man, NOVA 2011). List breakdowns included 2 GK, 2 SW, 2 DE, 2 Nids, 2 BA, 1 Eldar, 1 SM, 2 CSM.

I brought my nid list which can be found in THIS BATREP. It's pretty much tailored to the format in a similar way that my ATC list was. The format was KP's, quarters, and objectives (5 set) with primary, secondary and tertiary rotating each game.

Game #1 was against Paul P's compy(ish) GK with Coteaz, henchmen, 10 terminators, purifiers, purgation squad, and dreadknight. I started out with a strong lead, killing 6 terminators with my various devourers. Paul fought back and nearly pulled out a draw with perfect placement of his surviving units to hold table quarters, but the game went to 7 turns and I was able to finish off 4 units. I won barely on tables quarters, objectives, and kill points for 21/21 points.

Game #2 was against Joe J's drop pod salamanders with Vulkan, 6 drop pods, and 5 hammernators. This is a good match for nids against marines that want to get close fast to use their melta and flame weapons. I spread out and took over half the table before Joe dropped, then picked him apart after nearly losing my tervigon to a sternguard drop unit. I won on objectives, table quarters, and kill points for 21/21.

Game #3 was against Trevor H's space wolves with 2 JoTWW priests, 2 lone wolves, long fangs, and 32 grey hunters. I took first turn and infiltrated a narrow row of genestealers in between his two choosers. Trevor reserved 2 rhinos worth of hunters with both priests, and an thunderwolf to be able to strike more aggressively (spearhead deployment). I was able to get my 20 genestealers stuck in along with 8 ouflankers before his reserves started arriving peacemeal. He did get off one jaws on my tervigon with a long shot hail mary that was almost out of range, but I made my roll to survive =) I won kill points 8-3, table quarters, and objectives for 21/21 again.

I ended up taking Best General with 63/63 battle points and a couple comp points. Chris P (the other tyranid player) ended up taking Best Overall with less battle points, but more comp and painting than me. Yes, nids took best overall and best general in a tournament with GK, DE, BA, and SW! It's also worth noting Chris took overall last year as well with nids. He may even grace us with his list and some thoughts again...

Anyways, that's the short version. Longer batreps will follow once I finish the two tournaments worth of reports I'm still sitting on. Tomorrow, Boldo's Armory is hosting a 1250pt event and I'll be taking the Grey Knights out to try and wrangle some additional prizes for the Dark Eldar project.

Winter League Mini-Reps, Week #1

2011-12-07T00:18:00.000-05:00

I played my 3 league games tonight. It was good to get out of the house, see familiar faces, and play some non-tournament games where it's OK to lose. As with trying any army out for the first time, I lost all three games hehe. I did have fun though.

It was good to see the difference between grotesques on paper and grotesques on the table. They weren't quite as resilient as I would have hoped. T5 and FnP is nice, but a lack of armor, move through cover, and grenades makes them a difficult unit to get value out of.

Anyways, here are some pics from tonight's games.

Here's me losing to Chris B's daemons. Terrain was crazy this game. I didn't want my venom to get glanced to death by a huge unit of horrors so I hit it in ruins. A bit too deep and it immobilized itself on my first move of the game. Then my grotesques moved 2" and ran 2" which was awesome. I also missed a key assault by 1" and ended up eating a furious charge from the bloodletters that finished me off.

Here's me losing to Rob M's space wolves. As it turns out, that lone wolf at the beginning of the grotesque chain took 1 wound, dealt 3, and ran the grotesques off the board hah. Next period HQ's are allowed so I won't have to sweat their ld4.

My last game was against Patrick O's space wolves. It started out looking pretty good.

I took an early lead earning two tokens and making my grotesques fearless.

And then 20 grey hunters punched me in the face and my army disappeared.

Anyways, it was nice to catch up with some of the guys and throw some dice. I still think I can make grotesques work, perhaps next period when I can use 2 haemonculi and a webway portal. If not then, maybe during 4th quarter when Lady Malys arrives.

Winter Painting League, Week #1

2011-12-05T19:14:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow begins the first period of Millennium Games 40k winter painting league.

We're allowed the next two weeks to play up to 3 games with a 500pt, fully painted (doesn't need to be based) army and record the results. Each win/draw/loss is worth points towards a final loot auction once the league finishes at 1850pts.

This week I've been getting everything base coated and batching some shading and highlights. Here's my first 500pts. No force org was required for this period, but no HQ, t6, or av13+ is allowed.

All the infantry needs another round of shading and highlighting to match the test grotesque on the right. I plan on giving everything some freehand work; either tattoos or runes on the armor. I sculpted and painted guts inside the belly hole where the ogre symbols would have gone. After the models are sealed, I plan on inserting some water effects to make it look like a portal into their innards. Here's a closer look at the freehand flickerfield circuitry on the venom.

I may post mini reports on the battles as the league progresses. Stay tuned for more WIP tutorials. Haemonculi conversions and scratchbuilt webway portals are on the docket for next period.

Batrep: 1850 Tyranids vs Space Marines

2011-12-04T14:16:00.000-05:00

Yes, you read the title correctly. Next week is "Warhammer Week" for me with the kick off of a winter painting league Tuesday, the Millennium Games Invitational Championships on Saturday, and a 1250pt tournament on Sunday at Boldo's Armory. The painting league is encouraging people to begin new armies so I will be playing my newly painted Dark Eldar for that. My compy Grey Knights actually fit well into 1250 as that was also the first tournament level I won with the army. That leaves the invitational at 1850pts.

The format includes painting and player judged comp. The kicker is NOVA-style missions where objectives, table quarters, and kill points are ranked and scored each game with battle points instead of win/loss. This can be a deceivingly difficult format where you need to win on three fronts to earn max points each round. My grey knight collection is quite small, elite, and would have a hard time in this format against players with collections large enough to tailor a list to the format.

As a result, I've gone back to my roots for this event and will be bringing my Tyranids with a list variant similar to what I took to the ATC. The army is painted but I won't win any awards for it and player judged comp is a concern, but I'm sure some of my peers will bring harder lists so I'm hoping for an average comp score.

Anyways, this list is designed to go for max battle points. It's similar to my ATC list with some minor changes. I split one of the big genestealer units in half to outflank since the objectives are set 12" from each edge and table quarters are easier to grab that way. I also dropped the tfex to bring the list down to 1850 and added a prime to fill out my tyrant deathstar.

The final list:
Tyrant + armored shell, hive commander, devourers x2, leech, paroxysm
Tyrant guard x3 + lash whips
Tyranid prime + boneswords, regen, toxins, rending
Hive guard x2
Hive guard x2
Hive guard x2
Genestealers x20 + broodlord, scything talon (bl only)
Genestealers x8 + toxins
Genestealers x8 + adrenals
Gaunts x15 + devourers
Tervigon + toxins, adrenals, catalyst

My buddy Andy came over for an airbrushing demo and brought his marines so I was able to get a practice game in. His list:

Lysander
Terminators x10 - 8 hammers, 2 claws
Tac squad x10 + melta, multi-melta, rhino
Tac squad x10 + missile, flamer, plasmaback
Tac squad x10 + missile, flamer, razorback
Typhoon + hvy flamer
Typhoon + hvy flamer
Vindicator
Vindicator
Thunderfire cannon

We rolled up scoring to be KP's primary, objectives secondary, table quarters tertiary. Deployment was DoW, Andy won the roll and decided to go first. He deployed his melta squad at the half way mark with Lysander. A combat squad with missile launcher was behind them in terrain. The other combat squad, thunderfire, vindicators, and speeders would come on turn 1. He decided to deep strike the terminators and reserve the two razorbacks.

This was a friendly game, but I'm still practicing for an invitational tournament, so I deployed to take full advantage of his choice to deep strike the terminators. The tyrant deathstar deployed near the center mark and spread out at max coherency so the prime can join it turn 1. We use INAT around here so the tyrant + guard count as 1 unit. I placed my troop tervigon down behind a tree and infiltrated 20 genestealers within striking distance of Andy's table edge and stretched it out to cover the deathstar and receive FnP.

Nids don't like going second in KP games so I tried to seize and succeeded! My gaunts and hive guard walk on. Both smaller units of genestealers are outflanking. The big unit gets FnP and advances a little with bad terrain and fleet rolls. Several units spot the marines in the center and I drop 3 with focused dakka.

Andy brings on both vindicators in the gap.

Lydander pulls his squad back a bit from the advancing genestealers.

Both speeders fly up to flame some genestealers. In the distance, a combat squad climbs the tallest hill.

Andy spotlights the genestealers and his whole force targets them. I lose 6 models and a wound off the broodlord. They are also now in dangerous terrain from the thunderfire.

Turn 2 arrives with the toxic genestealer on the far flank behind Andy's lone combat squad.

Everything moves up again but not very far as terrain trips me up. The big unit of genestealers get FnP again. The tyrant, devourer gaunts, and hive guard give lysander's unit a full broadside.

Lysander is left standing alone and takes a wound. I move up the big genestealer squad to line up a big multi-assault and lose 1 from dangerous terrain.

I make declare my assault on the lead vindicator and want to multi onto both speeders. I roll 4" which gets me to the vindicator, but lose the 3rd and 4th genestealers in line to dangerous terrain which prevents me from multi-assaulting and retaining coherency. The 2 that are able to strike on the vindicator fail to damage it.

Andy's turn 2 sees a razorback squad and empty rhino arrive. He brings them on the far flank to gun down my outflanking genestealers. He guns down 5 of them, leaving 3 who pass morale. This is a "siphon" maneuver where 1 of my units has pulled 4 of his away from the main fight in the center and right flank.

On the right, his speeder line up for better flamer shots and vindicators shift so I don't auto-hit him. Lysanderdakka.

He kills many more genestealers in the ensuing firefight. The vindicators bomb my deathstar, putting 2 wounds on the tyrant, 3 on guards (killing 1), and 1 wound on the tervigon.

My remaining genestealers up top continue to chase the vindicators. The tyrant guard and prime jump into cover and get FnP.

On the far left flank, the unit of genestealers with furious charge arrive to back up my siphon unit.

My tervigon spawns 8 gaunts which forms a new screen to advance in front of the tyrant. The devourer gaunts and hive guard advance into final firing positions.

The tyrant is able to gun down Lysander, sneaking 3 wounds through his armor. The devourer gaunts drop 3 of the central combat squad including their missile launcher. Hive guard are able to wreck one speeder and one vindicator. The broodlord's unit assaults the remaining vindicator and he is able to immobilize it at tear off the demolisher cannon by himself. On the left flank, I assault the unit on the hill with 3 toxic stealers who lose combat and flee (for the rest of the game). The adrenal unit assaults the disembarked squad and the rhino, also losing combat but they remain locked.

Andy gets his terminators. He's in a tough position now down on kill points with much of his firepower destroyed or locked in combat. He decides to keep them as a single unit and drop them in my backfield. It's a risky placement, but the only option to set up a large multi-assault and take out my support units. The dice take the unit 7" towards the table edge and they mishap, getting destroyed in the process. The remaining razorback squad arrives and sets up to shoot down my genestealers.

The marines and razorbacks are able to finish off the broodlord's unit. The thunderfire cannon chooses to ignore cover and blasts the spawned gaunts, killing 5. In assault, my adrenal genestealers finish off the combat squad they have been fighting.

Andy decides to concede at this point. Losing the terminators to a mishap was a make-or-break move and it just didn't work out. I'm up by 3 kill points, he has very little firepower left, and my hive guard and devourer units are about to hit mid-table and rain down on everything else. Plus, my pregnant wife came home early and was starting to get antsy ;)

This game was a great exercise in practicing the fundamentals necessary in succeeding with tyranids. It was an optimal situation from the beginning. My opponent deployed first, so I was able to counter-deploy in a way that benefited me the most. His central unit pushed me back, but could not stand up to 57 devourer shots a turn. It was so far forward that it was unsupported. Stealing the initiative was very lucky also, forcing my opponent into a reactionary stance which almost never ends well. My siphon units pulled just enough of his support away from the important battle. The terminators were the nail in the coffin, but I probably could have handled them between paroxysm and devourer gaunts.

Overall, it was a fun game and my first with Nids since the 'Ardboyz prelims. Hopefully I can do just as well at Saturday's tournament.

DaBoyz GT - Main Event Game #3

2011-11-30T10:24:00.000-05:00

After a minor victory in round #1 and a major victory in round #2, I knew I was in in for some tough matches. As soon as I saw the pairings, my fears were confirmed. I would be playing one of USA's ETC players, Paul M. and his mech guard.

My list and game #1 can be found HERE.
Game #2 is HERE.

Paul's List (approx, I'm bad with the guard codex):
Commissar
CCS + melta guns, chimera
Stormtroopers + melta guns
PCS + melta guns
Platoon w/ 8(?) lascannon teams, 2 plasma squads, 2 chimeras
Veterans + plasma guns
Vendetta
Valkyrie
Manticore
Hydras x2
Colossus

The mission was "Pokerface". Six objectives, three evenly spaced 12" up from each long edge. Each player secretly ranks three of the objectives to be worth 3, 2, and 1 point. During turn 4, each player reveals their objective rankings. Primary victory is scoring more total points of objectives you ranked for yourself, secondary is a "poker hand", claiming a pair of objectives worth 3, 2, 1, or a straight of one of each.

This was pretty much a worst case scenario for me. Out of all the armies out there, guard is the one I have the least amount of experience against. I don't even know how all their units work and I was asking Paul tons of questions as we deployed and played to make sure I didn't miss anything. Plus, his army had 9 vehicles and a lot more scoring units than me so I'm at a distinct advantage list-wise. Did I mention he's been to Europe twice on our ETC team? Yeah, I went into this game playing to draw and hoping to get any points I could manage.

Deployment was DoW. I won the roll and had to choose to get off the first shots or go second for contesting. I seriously doubted I would have any vehicles left against Paul's 11 lascannons, hydras, manticore, plasma, and melta guns, so I decided to go first and try for a minor alpha strike. I deployed one combat squad in cover mid table with the librarian and servo skull to push Paul back and hopefully use for vortex of doom shots. The other half of the combat squad was on my right in cover and on an objective. FWIW, I ranked my central objective 3pts, my left 2pts, and the one in Paul's DZ left side 1pt. Paul deployed a 20 man blob with the commissar on the left and a lascannon team on the right. Everything I have left is coming on turn 1, the same with Paul except his stormtrooper unit which will deep strike.

I begin turn 1 by bringing everything on in the center and left side. NDK jumps up on the left. My halberd squad moves up behind a hill in their razorback. Chimera moves up with the rifleman behind it. Storm raven goes flat out for cover.

Paul brings on his army spread across his table edge. The colossus comes in on the left behind a hill. In the center, he moves on a lascannon team and 3 chimeras with the CCS and two plasma platoons. All 3 chimeras pop smoke. On the right, both birds fly on going flat out. The PCS is in the valkyrie and the vets are in the vendetta. In the right corner, he drives on the hydras and manticore behind the forest.

My turn 2 begins with a shunt move by my NDK to burn some guard and apply pressure to his weak flank. Razorback moves up 6", combat squads shuffle up in terrain. Chimera moves up 12" and smokes. Storm raven moves up to put the tallest tree between it and the hydras. In shooting, my NDK burns 7 guardsmen down from the big blob. My razorback ends up being 1/2" short from insta-killing some lascannon teams. The rifleman, storm raven, and psycannon are able to shake both skimmers and the manticore. Not a great turn, but at least I suppressed some of his shooting.

Paul's stormtrooper unit arrives right between my storm raven and rifleman. He goes flat out with both skimmers up my right flank. His blob heads towards my NDK.

His storm troopers explode my rifleman with melta shots. The rest of Paul's shooting dice are depressingly bad (for him not me heh) all those lascannon and hydra shots blow off the lascannons from my storm raven. Between his dice and my cover saves (some 3+ from shrouding), I only lose a marine or two. He assaults the NDK with his blob and I kill a few but we lock thanks to the commissar.

It's now the top of turn 3 and we have about 60 minutes left so we're starting to play as fast as we can. I push up the henchman unit and jump them out to draw fire and maybe melta something. I move the storm raven towards the left and get the terminators out, but leave my techmarine inside.

Here I have some huge targeting priority issues between the skimmers on my flank and storm troopers in my backfield. I shoot the combat squad on the left at the storm troopers and they go to ground, making almost every cover save. I decide to ignore them with the rest since they can't do anything next turn. The rest of my psycannons and storm raven are able to suppress Paul's skimmers again and I think I took a lascannon off his vendetta. Up top, I'm able to kill 2 lascannons from the lone team, but he passes morale and stays on the table. My techmarine repairs my storm raven's lascannons. In assault, the NDK kills several more guardsmen but we remain locked.

It's now Paul's turn 3 and he brings up his valkyrie and dumps out the vets in front of my storm raven. Two of his central chimeras move up towards my henchmen. He pulls his vendetta back and dumps out the PCS to star moving towards his right flank objective.

I lose a few henchmen in the firefight up top. My storm raven survives another ridiculous amount of fire, but he blows off my lascannons again and shakes it. Random fire also drops one marine from the central combat squad and one from the left. Here we have about 30 minutes left at the bottom of turn 3. Paul gives me my turn and I move a couple units when he realizes he has forgotten to fire every embarked unit in his chimeras (lots of plasma). I offer to let him go back but he declines and eats his mistake.

Now I realize I've forgotten fortitude on my storm raven and have to eat it also. Running out of time and fast-playing had us both making a lot of mistakes this game. I flat out my storm raven to contest his right objective. My chimera moves up 6" to contest his central objective. Henchmen aren't in position to assault anything valuable so I stand still to fire some heavy weapons. Terminators go after his vets on my right and razorback moves up and dumps out the halberd squad to get a couple more psycannon shots off.

In shooting, I'm able to finish off his vets on the right, kill 1 storm trooper (went to ground again), explode his valkyrie, and wreck both chimeras in his center (he was failing a lot of cover saves). NDK is still beating down guardsmen but he's making his morale tests every time.

It's now Paul's turn 4 and we will barely have enough time to play a turn 5. He doesn't move much, only moving the disembarked units to gun down my henchmen.

I lose several henchman in the firefight. Against all odds, my storm raven survives his remaining lascannon and hydra shots. This was the last picture of the game due to time constraints. My NDK finally finishes off his blob and heads towards the center.

My turn 5 will be my last. The NDK can't reach the center so he heads towards the colossus. I string my terminators between the right and center objectives. I jump the halberd squad back in their razorback and move 12" straight for the objective on the top left in the terrain. I make a big mistake here and tank shock one of Paul's disembarked squads on his objective. He passes morale and hits me with a DoG melta, exploding my chimera. I should have just left it in contest range, oh well. My NDK explodes the colossus. My henchmen assault the other disembarked unit and I win by several, but he makes his morale test again.

Paul makes his final moves, contesting the objective on my right with his vendetta going flat out. His shooting finally pays off and he explodes my storm raven and snipes my techmarine who went to ground on his objective. My henchmen strike, but are unable to kill one last guardsman who passes morale and keeps me from consolidating onto his central objective.

The game ends due to time with each of us holding our own 3pt and 2pt objectives. My razorback ended up being 1/2" away from the top left objective. We draw on primary and secondary, but there is no draw scoring on the secondary, so we walk away with 10 battle points each. This was a really fun game, mainly due to the camaraderie Paul and I had. Paul's dice were uncannily bad during the first few turns and we both forgot key things when we started fast playing due to time running out. I do think I could have eeked out a win with one more turn as my NDK would have rampaged on his central units and my razorback would have claimed the top left objective. Of course, Paul still had his hydras and manticore so he also could have dropped some of my scoring units. Either way, I walked away with more points than I thought I would get and it's always a pleasure to play one of our ETC members.

Dark Eldar WIP's: Scourges

2011-11-27T10:00:00.000-05:00

My adventure with a new army and new painting techniques continues this week with some scourges. I airbrushed the base colors with these like I did with the grotesque and venom, using it as a glorified primer coat to paint over. Here's a bit of a step-by-step.

I did the wings first. I wasn't super inspired with a color scheme for these guys. I figured I would match the "Twilight's Edge" scheme that I used on the venom on their armor. For the wings, I decided to do something blue similar to Picster's Greater Daemon. For the shading, I sprayed the top direction down with Aqua and the bottom direction up with Pure Black.

The finished wings also incorporated Cobalt Blue and Thunder Blue in the shading. I was demonstrating the process for my friend Gerry at the time, but all 5 sets of wings took about 60 minutes along with our chatting.

Next I started the armor with Autumn Leaves on top.

Then Barn Red mid way down.

Then Violet Purple on the legs.

I finished with Pure Black on the feet.

Base coating the whole squad took just over 2 hours. After that, I assembled the models and started applying washes to shade and dry brushing to highlight.

I thought the wings were a bit too bright for Dark Eldar so I gave them some light black washes. The armor plates got a few washes also.

The highlighted the wings with Dove Grey and a little wicker white. They will probably get one more dry brushing for more contrast.

Here's a test model I took nearly to completion so I can plan everything out.

My favorite aspect of airbrushing is the amount of time it saves. I started this unit last Wednesday night, putting in about 2.5 hours to base coat them. I put in about 2 hours a day since and the unit is nearly complete. Compare that to my Grey Knights which received 6+ hours per model and I'm saving about 20 hours per squad of 5. Not bad huh? The time saving allows me to indulge my painting ADD and jump around a bit.

I decided to try some freehand glyphs inspired by Yellow One's Eldar Vehicles on CMON. It's definitely not on par with his work, but I think it will look real nice if I finish trimming the whole vehicle.

And here's a shot of the total progress I've made to date on the first 500pts of my winter painting league escalation army.

I have 5 wracks and 5 more grotesques to knock out and about 10 days to do it until the escalation brackets begin. I should be able to get everything base coated, shaded, and highlighted in time with help from the airbrush. I enjoy free-handing the tattoos and glyphs enough to want them on every model so that will have to wait until after everything meets the painting minimums to play.

Dark Eldar WIP's

2011-11-22T07:52:00.001-05:00

Still chugging along painting 500pts of Dark Eldar for a winter painting league at one of the local shops. I took a 3 week break from painting after the GT and I really started missing it. It's becoming very zen to me; painting these little guys is great relaxation after a long day at work and working on the nursery for my son who will arrive in 8 weeks.

I'm still airbrushing a lot and enjoying it immensely. I wish I would have experimented with it earlier as it would have saved me dozens of hours on my GK army. This week will serve as a tutorial of sorts of how I've progressed on a venom.

I started with Krylon White Primer which I'm using now as a cheap alternative to GW primers. After that, I airbrushed a coat of Autumn Leaves (Folk Art) down the center. I'm using a color scheme from a Dawn of War army I played online many years ago that I named "Twilight's Edge". The colors reflect a late sunset with oranges, reds, purples, and the black of approaching night.

Next I did a coat of Barn Red blended against the orange.

Then a coat of Violet Purple blended into the red.

I finished up the top of the hull with black on the wing tips.

For the undercarriage, I painted the whole piece black then hit the front of the pilot with an Apple Green. I want to create an OSL glow coming from his instrument panel onto his front side.

Then I used Medium Grey to bring up the black a bit on the grate, engines, and anti-grav ribbing.

After that, I assembled the two halves and started black lining the panels by hand. It's still a WIP, but I will be finishing the highlights and detailing by hand. The benefits of airbrushing are immediately apparent. Great blending effects and this whole process took only 90 minutes.

I also did a little work on my test grotesque, adding some tattoos. I wanted to break up the fleshy areas a bit.

That's my progress for this week. Two weeks left to finish the first 500pts so stay tuned for more progress pics. More batreps from the GT will be on the way also.

New Adventures: Dark Eldar

2011-11-17T08:44:00.000-05:00

Well, I was going to take things easy after DaBoyz GT, but I'm weak when it comes to peer pressure. Millennium Games is one of our 3 local shops and they're running a Painting Escalation League starting next month. My original intent was to expand my compy Grey Knight collection so I can make a really hard list. However, GK fever is peaking around here and 3 out of the 14 at last week's RTT were GK and I know several more stayed home. To top it off, 3 of my peers who are interested in playing on DaBoyz ATC team are working on GK armies so I figured my best chance is to create a new option for myself. Plus, I had $75 in store credit burning a hole in my pocket from taking 1st at last week's RTT and a really motivating theme I've been mulling over for a Dark Eldar army.

Something that came up during the appearance judging for DaBoyz GT was conversions. I received a lot of compliments on my GK army, but when the judge came around I didn't have any conversions in the army. At the GT, I tied for 4th in appearance and probably would have been in the top 3 with conversions. I'm always pushing myself on all fronts from hobby to tactics execution so I want an army that has conversions so I can push into the top 3.

I've also been browsing through CMON and some of the inspiring artists there. I really want to take a break from power armor and force weapons and want some larger surfaces to work on my zenithial highlighting. Weathering powders really intrigue me also so I'm going to try to work in several new techniques.

If you read my hobby articles, you know I don't follow the mainstream with army builds or appearance and this will be no exception. My theme for this army will be "Malys's Dark Circus". It will be a haemonculus coven themed like a travelling circus/freakshow for Lady Malys's personal enjoyment. I think there's a lot of potential with grotesques which I never see on the table so I'm going to try and make them work. I'm going to use webway portals, harlequins for portal deployment, and Lady Malys for redeployment shenanigans and to make the grotesques immune to psychic powers.

The final key to making this work is the plastic fantasy ogres. The new finecast grotesques are $20 each which will not fly on my budget, but 6 ogres come in a box and the talos kit comes with 5 extra heads. Here are my first conversions before I patched some spots with green stuff.

So these are just ogres and talos bits. I'm going to leave the hole in the center for a secret surprise to come later. I gotta give props to my friend Doug who turned me on to Krylon Primer. Keeping with a low budget theme, I needed a new alternative to the $14 GW primer. Krylon white primer worked great and comes in at $5 a can at Michaels.

I'm also starting my first official foray into airbrushing. I have a lot of experience with the tool as my degree is in Special Effects Makeup, but I've never tried something on this small of a scale. I experimented a lot with pressure and paint viscosity and came out with a couple tests I'm happy with. Again, I'm using $1 per bottle Folk Art paints also from Michaels.

These guys were based with Tapioca, then shaded with Honeycomb, Ballet Pink, Heather, and Violet purple to hint at raw and bruised flesh. After that was done, I airbrushed from the top with Tapioca again as a zenith highlight color.

For the next step, I used a similar technique used in this tutorial for shading and creating dark areas in the flesh.

The lighting washed the pic out but it's a WIP pic and I didn't want to set up a proper shoot. The model on the left has been shaded with washes of Honeycomb, Dark Brown, and Pure Black. I've also done a non metallic metal on the mask trim and some highlights on the grill.

That's all for now. The painting escalation league starts December 6th and I need 500pts painted by then. I'll be blogging my progress and experimentation with new techniques so follow along and thanks for reading!

DaBoyz GT - Main Event Game #2

2011-11-13T23:15:00.000-05:00

My army list and game #1 can be found HERE.

My second opponent of the event was Eric and his CSM. I was a bit relieved to see a CSM list after a game against GK and knowing that GK and BA were the most popular armies at the event. However, I'm coming off a minor victory so I know Eric is also and I don't want to underestimate him or the codex. Coincidentally, Eric got my top vote for favorite opponent as he was really chill and our game was relaxed. My wife and friend showed up just after we started and were able to sit, chat, and share some beers while we rolled dice and moved our soldiers around. The whole game was relaxed and enjoyable.

Eric's List (approx):
Daemon Prince + nurgle, wings
Terminators x3 + combi-flamers x3
Dreadnought
Plague Marines on foot + plasmas, fist
Plague Marines + meltas, icon, fist, rhino
Plague Marines + plasmas, icon, fist, rhino
Raptors x5 + meltas
1 Chaos Spawn
Oblits x3
Defiler
Havoks x5 + autocannons x4

The mission was "Ear Collectors" which featured a kill point mechanic where each unit earned a marker for killing another unit. If a unit holding an "ear marker" was killed the unit destroying it earned one market plus whatever the dead unit had earned. Normal kill points were the secondary objective. Deployment was spearhead.

Eric won the roll-off and elected to go first. He chose a table quarter with a large wall to hide most of his army behind. He deployed fairly defensively with only the havoks, oblits, and dread out in the open. He reserved the spawn and will deep strike the terminators. Everything else was behind the wall.

I didn't want to lose my storm raven on the first turn so I reserved it with the terminators and techmarine. I crammed as much as I could behind my LoS blocking spires and hoped that shrouding would help. I put the librarian with the henchmen and strung them out to maximize firing angles with the melta guns on point.

Eric sends up the dread and everything else stays put and fires. His shooting either misses or gets shrugged off with 3+ cover.

I shuffle over my rifleman, jump my 10 knights into the chimera and shuffle it over also. The NDK jumps up in front of the pillars hoping to draw the oblits off my vehicles. My shooting is only slightly more effective as I immobilize Eric's dread, kill 1 havok, and 1 oblit.

I'm expecting him to push forward, but he holds back. This mission heavily favors late game kills and he may also be waiting to see where the storm raven comes on. He is able to explode my razorback giving the oblits 1 ear and kill 1 henchman.

My turn 2 arrives without the storm raven, which I guess is OK for now. I send the dread and chimera more towards the left and keep them covered from the oblits. I send the NDK up to finish off the immobilized dread. My henchmen kill another oblit. The chimera and psycannon on foot drop 2 more havoks, leaving only one autocannon. My rifleman blows the battlecannon and reaper off the defiler. In assault, the NDK wrecks the dread and earns an ear.

Eric's shooting is severely crippled at the top of 3 so he starts bringing up the backfield units. Most of his army is still behind the wall but repositioning for a rush. The defiler runs around to lead the charge. He's able to put two wounds on the NDK and kill another henchman, which will force me to move the unit since I spread them out so far that every casualty puts me out of coherency.

My storm raven arrives at the bottom of 3. I could go flat out towards his wall, but he has those raptors with melta that are discouraging me. Instead, I see one autocannon and one oblit left for long range firepower and decided to bring it in safely away from melta and plasma so I can make a big move next turn. I bring the NDK back towards safety because I don't want to lose any ears. The storm raven is able to snipe the oblit (and earn 2 ears), but everything else I have cannot take down the lone autocannon havok.

Eric's terminators arrive close enough to henchmen to flame a few. His jump infantry and prince finally commit and come over the wall. Believe it or not, his one lone autocannon havok explodes my storm raven and earns 3 ears.

I pull everything away from the advancing prince and raptors. I pour a lot of firepower into that lone havok and the 5 man strike squad gets the kill and 4 ears. The dreadknight and henchmen are unable to kill the terminators with shooting and I decide not to assault them with the NDK as I may not be able to consolidate far enough away from the advancing plasma squad and he only has 2 wounds left.

Eric rushes everything forward again. His terminators assault my henchmen and kill a bunch, but stubborn keeps me in the fight.

I finally unload the 10 man squad into firing position on the left. I pull back the 5 man squad that has 4 ears to hide them. Terminators head up to save my henchmen. My shooting is able to kill two raptors and put a couple wounds on the prince, but both units survive. The rifleman finishes off the defiler. In assault, his terminators kill my inquisitor and claim an ear, then my librarian kills the last terminator and grabs two ears.

I'm able to shoot down the raptors and we call it there. I have a bunch of ears and he doesn't have enough shooting or speed to run me down. I had ears and kill points for a 35pt massacre.

This was the most fun game of the GT for me. We had some real back-and-forth turns and epic moments, especially his one autocannon shooting down my storm raven and the final ear swaps. Eric was a great sport and for one game, I didn't feel the hardcore pressure of a competitive event.

Millennium Games: Final Open Tourney of the Year

2011-11-11T08:54:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is the final open tourney at one of the local shops before their invitational finals in December.

The format: 1850pts, no special characters, all units in the codex are 0-1 except troops, 2 dedicated transports max.

It's pursuing a similar goal as DaBoyz GT, but with hard limits instead of a comp rubric. As such, my GT list is fully legal, but I wanted to make a few changes based on things I didn't care for in my original list. Here's what I'm taking:

Librarian + sanctuary, shrouding, might, quicksilver, vortex of doom
Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor + psyocculum, 1 skull
11 Henchmen - 2 crusaders, 1 assassin, 2 plasma cannon servitors, 1 hvy bolter servitor, 2 melta acolytes, 2 naked acolytes, 1 jokaero
Chimera
Venerable Dread - basic
10 Strike Knights + 2 psycannons, psybolt ammo
5 Strike Knights + 2 halberds, 1 hammer, 1 psycannon
Razorback + psybolt ammo
5 Terminators + 1 banner, 1 psycannons, 1 hammer, 1 halberd, 1 stave
Storm Raven + lascannons, typhoon missiles
Nemesis Dreadknight + hvy psycannon
Dreadnought + autocannons, psybolt ammo

So I dropped the techmarine and personal teleporter on the dreadknight for a venerable dread and hvy psycannon on the NDK. I wasn't a big fan of the psykotroke grenades on a techmarine as half of the possible results are usually useless in any given situation. Without a true hammer unit and without an invuln save on the techmarine, I was lucky if I used the grenades in half of my GT games.

I love the teleporter on the dreadknight, but it created some issues for me. I usually overextended him and lost him early. The lure of shunting first turn to burn something proved too strong for me often and was never a good investment. Plus, it was too difficult keeping a 235pt unit alive for late game contesting when it's equipped with a short range weapon. I decided to leave him on foot and give him a longer range gun which I'll try to synergize with my servo skull.

With the extra points, I added a venerable dread to ride in the storm raven. This gives me more anti-mech with a multi-melta and str10 in cc. One of my worst games in the GT involved 4 turns of everything in my army shooting at a land rader (including the melta henchmen and vortex of doom), so I figured the second dread would be more effective than the techmarine.

This event will be a good one for those of you who like seeing non-spammy armies and I highly recommend it if you're reading this and in the area. I've already qualified for the invitational, so if I place tomorrow my spot will pass down.

DaBoyz GT - Main Event Game #1

2011-11-09T22:59:00.001-05:00

My list:

Librarian + shrouding, sanctuary, might of titan, quicksilver, vortex of doom

Hereticus Inquisitor + servo skull, psyocculum

Henchmen - 2 crusaders, 1 assassin, 2 plasma cannons, 1 hvy bolter, 2 melta, 1 jokaero, 2 acolytes

Chimera

Techmarine + psykotroke, rad, blind grenades

10 Strike Knights + 2 psycannons

5 Strike Knights + 2 halberds, 1 hammer, 1 psycannon

Razorback + psybolts

5 Terminators + banner, psycannon, halberd, hammer, stave

Storm Raven + typhoon missiles, lascannons

Nemesis Dreadknight + teleporter, hvy incinerator

Dreadnought + autocannons, psybolts

This was the first match of the 6 game main event. My list for the team event used the same core units so I did get 3 games in under my belt and felt pretty good. My first opponent was Matt S. who was a member of the BC Adeptus team.

His list was (approx):

Grand Master

10 Purifiers + various weapons

10 Strike Knights + 2 psycannons, rhino

10 Terminators + 2 psycannons, various weapons

5 Strike Knights + psilencer

Storm Raven

Dreadknight + teleporter, hvy incinerator

Dreadnought + autocannons, psybolts

So, our lists are

My list:

Librarian + shrouding, sanctuary, might of titan, quicksilver, warp rift, vortex of doom

Hereticus Inquisitor + servo skull, psyocculum

Henchmen - 2 crusaders, 1 assassin, 2 plasma cannons, 1 hvy bolter, 2 melta, 1 jokaero, 2 acolytes

Chimera

Techmarine + psykotroke, rad, blind grenades

10 Strike Knights + psybolts, 2 psycannons

5 Strike Knights + 2 halberds, 1 hammer, 1 psycannon

Razorback + psybolts

5 Terminators + banner, psycannon, halberd, hammer, stave

Storm Raven + typhoon missiles, lascannons

Nemesis Dreadknight + teleporter, hvy incinerator

Dreadnought + autocannons, psybolts

So, our lists are very similar. The mission was Dwindling Supplies. Start with 5 objectives and remove 2 on turn 3. Units may start running out of ammunition but you may cancel the effect once for each objective you currently control. The 3 remaining objectives are primary, kill points are secondary. I win the roll to go first and take it.

Matt's list has several less kill points than mine and potentially more scoring units. This could get real ugly for me on my first game of the GT. Sorry for the blurry pics! I place my servo skull in the center, just on my side of the halfway mark. I deploy most of my forces on the left with 2 combat squads, the henchmen, and dreadknight. The rifleman goes dead center.

On my right, the techmarine joins the terminators in the storm raven with a combat squad below on the objective.

Matt makes his dreadknight scoring, deploys it with the rifleman in his backfield. His grandmaster joins his 10 terminators and form a line. He reserves everything else.

My movement phase goes quick as I only jump up the dreadknight to provide a front line blocker and move the storm raven to drop some missiles on Matt's GM.

Nearly my entire army fires on the terminators and I'm able to kill 8 of them and put two wounds on the GM. Matt shuffles his survivors out of sight and wiffs with his shooting.

I'm forced to move almost everything to get better firing lanes and my few shots don't do much. Matt fails all of his reserve rolls and runs away more. He is able to wreck my storm raven despite my flat-out save.

It's time to remove 2 objectives. I take out the one closest to his terminators and he takes out the one closes to mine (both right side objectives). Everything moves up to try and control the center. My shooting does absolutely nothing.

Matt gets communion off and all of his reserves. Everything comes in on the left. His dreadknight shunts up the left flank out of sight behind the building. His shooting stuns the chimera and blows off the turret.

I send everything towards the storm raven. If I let those purifiers in my ranks, my whole army will fold.

It takes most of my firepower, but I'm able to take down his storm raven. My dreadknight burns the purifiers and assaults them, whiping them out with fearless wounds.

Matt drops the hammer. His dreadknight jumps over the building and eyeballs the henchmen. He moves his rhino over to the right and jumps the knights out.

Will you believe I lose 3 out of 5 terminators to his strike squad's bolter and psycannon shots (no rends)? His DK burns and assaults my henchmen and I lose them all with the inquisitor and librarian who had joined the unit.

I'm actually starting to get in trouble here. We each have one objective and Matt has a rhino in range to take mine away since he went second. He has a dreadknight in my backfield and is already up on kill points. My terminators, techmarine, and combat squad keep pushing forward on the right. Everything in the middle and on the left needs to put 3 more wounds on his DK or he will crush my only scoring unit on that side.

I'm able to put two wounds on the DK, but it survives the round. My knights on the right kill a couple of his. At this point, Matt points out that I fired my closest psycannon on heavy mode and cannot assault the DK. That was a pretty huge mistake on my part. At this point, we're starting to run short on time and I really need 7 turns to even stand a chance.

Matt does everything he needs to, pulling my left scoring unit off their objective, loading his rhino and zooming up to contest the center. He kills my last terminator. We roll and the game goes on to turn 6.

I send up the techmarinepsycannon are unable to dent the rhino. My amazing techmarine blows it up with his plasma pistol, but dies in the explosion! The unit inside also pins. That was an epic set of rolls.

Matt finishes off the leftmost combat squad and jumps up to bang on the chimera. We roll for the end and will play a 7th turn. At this point, I have 0 objectives and have no way of catching him on kill points.

My last turn goes relatively well as I'm able to take the last wound off the dreadknight. My knights up top shoot down some of Matt's and wipe them out in assault, consolidating onto the objective. Matt makes a last turn blitz with his terminators, but doesn't get close enough to contest as I blocked the way with razorback and dreadnought.

The game ends 20-15 in my favor with me holding objectives and Matt crushing me on kill points.

Not a terrible way to start the GT, it could have been much worse for me. Matt would have had a massacre victory if the game ended on turns 5 or 6. I got too cocky with a strong start and Matt capitalized at every turn.

Necron Reactions

2011-11-08T21:40:00.000-05:00

Wow, what a hot topic right now huh? I think every blogroll around the world right now is dominated by Necron thoughts, reactions, lists, cheering, and crying. I've already seen a battle report on dakka where "overpowered codex" was used in describing the new Necrons. I am not going to build a Necron army, but I am happy about the release for several reasons.

#1 New Shiny Toys. Literally with the models and figuratively with the new game mechanics they will bring. Some will love them and some will hate them, but overall I think the changes will be positive for the hobby community. I also can't wait to set up across from a fully painted Necron army with some of the new models. Some won't like the fluff, but the storyline needs to progress somewhere. The Imperium is treading water, the first wave of Tyranid Hive Fleets has been beaten back, and Ork WAAAAGH's are so predictable in some sectors that the Imperium has them timed and uses them as training exercises. The galaxy and the hobbyists needed a new fluffbomb to rally around and get excited about. Some won't like the new models, but I think they bring a little needed flavor and all the grunts still look mindless and evil enough.

#2 A Decline in Mech and MSU? So they're an elite shooting army that are also resilient to shooting. They keep standing back up until you wipe out the full unit, which is a lot harder to do with shooting than sweeping them in assault. Their weapons can hit more than one unit. They have anti-tank units in every force org slot thanks to crypteks. Scarabs can wreck a tank without ever rolling on the damage chart. Then when it's your turn, they turn out the lights and you wish you bought those extra searchlights. That sounds pretty grim for MSU mech to me. I bet within 6 months someone rolls a GT with a Necron list tailored to crush razorspam and becomes the next "Draigowing" fad list. The meta will change and adapt and we'll start seeing foot lists gain popularity for a while.

#3 Tyranids Rejoice! Still bruised from the Dark Eldar release and their insane poison and lance torrents, still traumatized from facing an army of force weapons and storm bolters, Tyranid players clenched their collective assholes and flipped through the newest book. Now that you've read through it, are we really any worse off compared to the last two books? They shoot you about as hard as guard but with better accuracy and less bodies. They fight at I2 and will stop standing back up if you wipe them out in combat. Did you learn how to get your gribblies into an IG parking lot? The same goes with Necrons. They have a couple things that can sting you in close combat, but nothing like having to deal with paladins or even hammernators. The C'Tan shards can poke you in the eye, but we're all familiar with the fragility of MC's by now. There's the one guy that can "cleansing flame" all genestealers in assault, but you still get your armor and FnP. Oh wait, they have no psychic defense either? God, it may even be worth using hive tyrants again.

Maybe it's just me, or maybe the feeling that each new codex slaughters Nids in evil new ways is legit, but I don't think my bugs will break a sweat pounding the new shiny robots into the ground. They will do evil things to all the treadheads and I will thank them for what they do, but for once I'm happy there's a new army that doesn't fill me with despair and dread when I look at my Tyranid collection.

What do you think?

Hobby Crossroads

2011-11-08T09:21:00.000-05:00

Lately, I have been getting a lot of comments, concerns, and feedback on my recent focus on my Grey Knight hobby army and how it relates to my previous focus on Tyranids.

I'm currently having a lot of fun with Grey Knights, just like I had a lot of fun with Tyranids over the past year. They're more mobile, survivable, and can actually kill things with shooting. It's also nice to play an army that doesn't run out of time all the time. It also won't be the last army I enjoy. I eagerly await the Tau and Chaos releases and the changes 6th ed will bring.

I still carry a torch for the bugs, but every new codex outshines them with fun factor and interesting new mechanics. It's hard to get excited about furious charge and poison when they release a new book like Necrons with 20 new and unique mechanics. There is one thing that excites me still about Nids, repainting my entire army haha!

Yes, I'm serious. I've been playing with an airbrush on my GKs and it's fast and fun compared to some of the outdated techniques I used when I originally painted the army. It's also killing me; the amount of comments like "I can't believe how good your Grey Knights came out compared to your Nids". So I came up with this crazy idea: strip the bugs and airbrush them from scratch using blues and purples of the original Nid artwork, before there were different hive fleets. A sort of blending of old school colors with new models.

Anyways, there are a lot of factors in play right now and only a few combinations will allow me to do this. I have a baby due in 2 months so mu hobby funds are nearly non-existent. ATC 2012 is still 9 months away and I haven't heard if DaBoyz are going yet or if I will be on the team. If both of those things happen, I will probably be rolling any tournament winnings up into more GKs for a competitive list or a new Tau army. If I don't make the team and don't bring home any tournament winnings over the next several months, I will take another look at my Nids and move forward with repainting them.

This blog will progress as a hobby blog instead of focused on Nids. I know this will upset a lot of you, probably most, but I just can't continue with the one army that doesn't come close to its newly released peers in terms of complexity and enjoyment. I appreciate any that will continue to read and follow and promise to keep bringing colorful battle reports and hobby articles.

On the bright side, if any of the rumors about movement and deep strike in 6th ed are true, Nids may see a huge power boost and I'll be coming back strong with them.

DaBoyz GT - Team Event Game #3

2011-11-01T22:46:00.000-04:00

This team event consisted of 4 players per team with an ETC style pairing system. Each player must use a different codex and there was no comp for this event. I didn't get enough practice time with my GK's as I was painting so much so I decided to bring them even though the list was designed for comp.

My list:

Librarian + shrouding, sanctuary, might of titan, quicksilver, warp rift, vortex of doom

Hereticus Inquisitor + servo skull, psyocculum

Henchmen - 2 crusaders, 1 assassin, 2 plasma cannons, 1 hvy bolter, 2 melta, 1 jokaero, 2 acolytes

Chimera

Techmarine + psykotroke, rad, blind grenades

10 Strike Knights + psybolts, 2 psycannons

5 Strike Knights + 2 halberds, 1 hammer, 1 psycannon

Razorback + psybolts

5 Terminators + banner, psycannon, halberd, hammer, stave

Storm Raven + typhoon missiles, lascannons

Nemesis Dreadknight + teleporter, hvy incinerator

Dreadnought + autocannons, psybolts

My team is going into round #3 with one huge win (71/80) and one huge loss (11/80). We need four massacres at this point to even place. Our opposing team was the "Beaver Club" made up of several guys from Canada. I don't remember all the lists, but I believe they had Ork, IG, BA, and Eldar players. Several good and several bad match-ups for our team in there. My list actually had the worst possibilities and our table set didn't have any ruins for me to bolster, so I put myself in the champion position and ended up with my worst possible pairing: orks. My opponent was Nate.

His list (spprox):

Ghaz

Mek + KFF

5 Mega Nobz + diversified kombi's, battlewagon w/ rolla

12 Burna Boyz

5 Lootas

6 Lootas

20 Choppa Boyz + klaw/pole

30 Shoota Boyz + klaw/pole, 3 big shootas

10 Grots

3 Kannons

Battlewagon + rolla

One nightmare of a list for GK with ~100 bodies to the 40 models in my army, plus Ghaz's badness and 3 wagons. Luckily, my good buddy Gerry plays a very similar list and I have more experience against Ghaz's wagons than any other army or build.

Oh, did I mention the mission was seize ground (3 set objectives - 8bps), cap'n'control (4bps), and vp's (8bps). Not only am I outnumbered almost 3-1 and without purifiers, but I'm looking at 5 objectives with 20 scoring bodies. I'm comfortable playing against orks, but I don't know if my list has the tools to fight this match.

I win the roll-off and elect to go first and try to shut down some wagons. Here's my army deployed in spearhead. Terminators are in the stormraven with my libby and the razorback squad with tech marine are reserved.

The strike squad in the bottom is combat squadded. Nate sets up his av14 wall with two foot mobs mostly out of sight.

I know my army has zero chance to stop all those orks in a head-on rush so my plan is to use some of my speedy and non-scoring units to siphon off some of his army and roadblock him. Here's something new I learned this game: even though a dreadknight can place the heavy incinerator out 12" and hit units 19" away, the primary target still needs to be within 12" or else the shot does not have range and you don't place the template.

So turn 1 begins with me burning my shunt move or else I wouldn't get to flame anything because I started the dreadknight so far back. This also requires me to be in assault range of the orks, but they're in a river so I try to shunt ~11" from his boyz and hope the terrain trips him up. I kill around 5 orks. The stormraven wiffs on side shots on Ghaz's wagon. I decide to break try and break the lootas with my riflemen and not waste shots on av14, but Nate's cover saves were hot and morale tests were cool. I kill 2 lootas and he passes his test. My alpha strike turn earned me about 7 dead orks.

Nate rolls up all 3 wagons and the shoota boyz head for my dreadknight. He's actually able to put a couple wounds on it with an ungodly amount of ork shooting. My stomraven gets stunned. Turn 2 arrives without my razorback squad, but I do get fortitude off. I've got to throw everything at those battlewagons to protect my scoring knights.

The chimera zooms up and blocks two wagons. The henchmen get out and prepare to melta. The stormraven moves up using the branch to shield it from the lootas on the right and the terminators jump out to contribute more psycannon shots.

My dice were hot and Nate's were not. I wreck Ghaz's wagon and he jumps out with burnas. I explode the mega nobz' wagon and they pin! My dreadknight flames several more orks and then assaults, surviving with 1 wound after Nate's nob also wiffed. That was a pretty lucky turn for me. I was also able to pop another loota, but he passed morale again.

Ghaz breaks off and comes after my terminators. The burnas line up to fry my henchmen. Instead of rolling my chimera, Nate sends his last wagon out on a flank.

Nate declares his waaaagh! He burns down all of the henchmen except the inquisitor and one crusader. I pass morale. My stormraven get stunned again along with my chimera. I get sactuary off and the burnas fail to assault the henchmen. Ghaz however smashes into my terminators and turns the libby and a couple of his buddies into jelly. I think I was able to get a wound or two onto Ghaz. A full squad of 30 boyz jump into melee with the dreadknight and it goes down.

My razorback squad arrives at the top of 3 and they jump out to get off maximum shots. At this point I'm still pretty pessimistic about the outcome of this game, so I'm just trying to keep stuff alive to contest. I fail fortitude on the stormraven. My inquisitor and crusader jump back in the chimera. With another bit of luck, I'm able to wreck the last wagon with a glancing shot from a dread. In assault, my warding stave and terminator justicar are able to hold off Ghaz and give him another wound.

Nate pushes over all 3 objectives. In a freak ork sniping incident, he picks off my tech marine and all his wonderful grenades. My stormraven survives more loota fire. The manz assault the stationary chimera and explode it. The burnas assault in to save Ghaz and in another freak instance of "beat those odds", my terminators kill Ghaz and win combat, breaking the burnas (who are still above half strength).

I've got to keep him running, so I bring the stormraven up and jump the last terminator in. I think he's overextended himself on the left, so I send up one squad and a dread to try and tarpit him and pull him away from that objective. My surviving razorback squad jumps back in their ride and moves up to contest the right.

I'm able to put the burnas under 50% with shooting so they will continue to run. I pop one of the manz with a rifleman, but Nate passes his morale test. The stormraven unloads 6 missile templates (4 mindstrike, 2 frag) into a cluster of boyz and kills several, but not enough to change the tide on the right side. I assault the boyz from the wagon on the left.

He kills 4 marines, the 5th runs away, but the dread holds steady. We're running out of time and can only play one more quick turn. Nate wiffs on my razorback and kills the inquisitor and crusader in assault. On the left, my dread takes a beating from the nob but remains intact.

On my final turn, I zoom up the razorback to contest the right and the stormraven holds the middle with one terminator inside. I kill one more meganob and Nate finally fails a morale test and the last one runs. He fires at the stormraven again and is finally able to destroy it. However, he is unable to kill my terminator. On the right, the boyz cannot destroy the razorback and on the left, they are unable to finish the dread (who is immobilized with no weapons).

The game ends with me holding 1-0 of the seize ground objectives, we both hold our cap'n'control objectives, and Nate is up by a bunch of victory points. The final score was 13-7 in my favor. Our teams were very evenly matched and we ended up 41-39 for the round. We didn't place, but I was flying high on my minor victory over an army I didn't think I could beat. Nate's a top-notch player and went on to take 2nd Overall in the main GT.

DaBoyz GT - Team Event Game #2

2011-10-29T21:36:00.000-04:00

My list:

Librarian + shrouding, sanctuary, might of titan, quicksilver, warp rift, vortex of doom

Hereticus Inquisitor + servo skull, psyocculum

Henchmen - 2 crusaders, 1 assassin, 2 plasma cannons, 1 hvy bolter, 2 melta, 1 jokaero, 2 acolytes

Chimera

Techmarine + psykotroke, rad, blind grenades

10 Strike Knights + psybolts, 2 psycannons

5 Strike Knights + 2 halberds, 1 hammer, 1 psycannon

Razorback + psybolts

5 Terminators + banner, psycannon, halberd, hammer, stave

Storm Raven + typhoon missiles, lascannons

Nemesis Dreadknight + teleporter, hvy incinerator

Dreadnought + autocannons, psybolts

After scoring 71/80 as a team during round #1, we went to the top set of tables and end up pairing off against a nightmare of a team. Greg Sparks (ETC) and his eldrad/maugan footdar, Jon W. (ETC) and his GK, Mike M. (ETC) and his logan bombs SW, and Brandon V. (stillfrosty) and his white scars. After the rolls and pairings, I would be fighting Jon's GK. Last year when we paired off at the GT, I eeked out a very minor victory with some insanely lucky dice. This year we both have different armies and some new tricks I'm sure.

The mission was cap'n'control (primary 8bps), kill points (4bps), and victory points (8bps) with pitched battle deployment. Jon won the roll and elected to go first.

His list (approx):

Grand Master + psyko, rad grenades

Librarian + several powers

Tech Marine + psyko, rad grenades

Purifiers x9 + 2 psycannons, 6 halberds, hammer

Strike Knights x10 + 2 psycannons, rhino

Terminators x10 + 2 psycannons, 2 hammers, banner, 7 halberds

Stormraven + multi-melta, lascannons, extra armor

Dreadnought + autocannons, psybolts

*Pics are blurry because we were in a darker corner on a black table so I apologize. Jon's army is a beautiful fully-converted admech "counts-as" GK. The pictures suck so there's no real point explaining which models count as what.*

Jon bolsters one of his ruins and deploys his 2 dreads and 10 terminators with GM inside with his objective. He uses grand strategy to make one dread and the purifiers scoring. He reserves the strike squad. The libby, tech marine, and 9 purifiers go in the stormraven out of sight on the left.

I reinforce the ruin on my left and put my objective and 10 strike knights in it. Both dreads are there with an empty chimera and henchmen in the crater. I realized too late that the central ruin has no windows and my bs10 servitors will not have many shots all game. My dreadknight and razorback with 5 knights are on the far right. I put the 5 terminators with the techmarine in the stormraven in reserve.

The pic above is actually during turn 1, where Jon moved his stormraven 12" over and dropped 4 mind strike missiles on my librarian, removing him in the first 2 minutes of the game. Wow that was a noob mistake on my part.

During my turn, I'm able to kill a couple terminators with the bs10 (psyocculum) henchmen. His stormraven makes a couple cover saves, and my only damage result is a stun (but he bought extra armor). Oh yeah, my dreadknight took a wound jumping into ruins also.

Jon's turn 2 sees the stormraven zooming up 24" straight for my lines. We start a dread on dread firefight and he immobilizes and stuns one of my riflemen.

His 10 man strike squad arrived from reserves and unloads to try for some psycannon shots. He stuns my chimera.

At the top of my 2nd turn, my stormraven arrives with reinforcements and I fly it right up to his and unload the unit inside.

I literally pour my entire army into that stormraven. I get a couple damage results with weapon destroys and immobilize it. I end up having to assault it with my terminators and wreck it, but now I'm standing like an idiot 1" away from all his purifiers.

Jon puts another wound on the dreadknight and wrecks my razorback. He sends in the purifiers with libby and tech marine and I pull the second noob mistake of the night, blowing up my tech marine trying to cast hammerhand. My terminators disappear.

This is a turning point in the game. I fire my entire army into his purifiers including mindstrike missiles and kill his libby and 7 purifiers, leaving 2 and his tech marine. I try to assault the survivors, but have to roll for the guys on the first floor and only get 3" which isn't enough.

We continue our shootout and my dreadknight goes down. Jon assaults my 10 strike knights with his 2 purifiers and tech marine. His grenades make my guys hit each other, he kills 3 with cleansing flame, and 3 with halberds. I kill his tech marine, lose by 5, and my last scoring unit on this half of the board runs away.

That pretty much sealed the primary objective for him. I tried to get my chimera and stormraven over to contest his objective, but he shot them both down. I was able to get his terminators, purifiers, and one dread. At the bottom of turn 7, I was down 1 kp and got 2 pens through cover on his last rifleman, but was unable to wreck it.

I ended up losing objectives and kill points. Jon had me slightly on victory points so I was able to get 3 points at least. It was a close game in the beginning, but Jon outplayed me. Losing 10 strike knights to 2 purifiers and a tech marine really hurt! Greg's eldar ended up beating Joe's eldar 20-0, Brandon's white scars beat Trevor's SW 20-0, Mike's SW pulled a minor victory over Andy's SM earning 12-8, and my game was 17-3 in Jon's favor.

DaBoyz GT - Team Event Game #1

2011-10-25T12:15:00.001-04:00

My list:

Librarian + shrouding, sanctuary, might of titan, quicksilver, warp rift, vortex of doom

Hereticus Inquisitor + servo skull, psyocculum

Henchmen - 2 crusaders, 1 assassin, 2 plasma cannons, 1 hvy bolter, 2 melta, 1 jokaero, 2 acolytes

Chimera

Techmarine + psykotroke, rad, blind grenades

10 Strike Knights + psybolts, 2 psycannons

5 Strike Knights + 2 halberds, 1 hammer, 1 psycannon

Razorback + psybolts

5 Terminators + banner, psycannon, halberd, hammer, stave

Storm Raven + typhoon missiles, lascannons

Nemesis Dreadknight + teleporter, hvy incinerator

Dreadnought + autocannons, psybolts

Our first match was against the "Arvard Ard Boyz". After the roll-off, I was paired against a compy BA list (good for me), Trevor (our SW) was paired against a compy SW list (good for him), Joe (our Eldar) was paired against horde orks, and Andy (our SM) was paired against a 5 vendetta guard list.

The mission was DoW deployment, KP's primary (8bps), 3 objectives secondary (4bps), VP's tertiary (8bps max). My BA opponent was Seb J. from London, who was an awesome guy to play against. He also won 3rd best opponent (sports) for the main GT and scored in the top 10% in painting.

Seb's list (approx):

Librarian + jump pack

3 Priests + 2 jump packs, 1 terminator, some weapons

Furioso Dread + frag cannons, hvy flamer, drop pod + homer

Assault Terminators x5 + 4 hammers, 1 claw

Assault Squad x10 + 2 flamers, fist

Assault Squad x10 + 2 meltas, hammer

Assault Squad x5 + laserback

Tactical Squad x10 + lascannon, plasma + laserback

Baal Pred + ac's/hb's

Typhoon Speeder

Predator + auto/las

Seb won the roll and chose to go first. I bolstered the ruin on the left that straddled the middle line. Seb then pointed out that it also benefits his units and happily deploys his 10 man Tac squad in cover and on the objective. Will this prove to be my mistake or intent? We will never know!

He puts one assault squad in the ruin on the right with the librarian. Seb is going to deep strike the terminators and second assault squad. His baal is outflanking.

My servo skull is in the middle and I don't deploy anything, but will bring everything on turn 1. Seb brings his razorback unit and predator in on the left behind the bolstered ruin and decides to smokes anyways in case I pull storm raven side shots.

His drop pod aims for my side but scatters back a bunch. He jumps up a sanguinary priest to join the libby's unit and zooms up the typhoon next to them.

I bring nearly everything in on the right. I decide to fight the librarian's half of the army to take out his psy defense.

My henchmen got +12" range (24" meltas now) so they zoom up and disembark. I smoke the chimera and use it to cover one dread from Seb's firing lanes. Everything else uses the forest for cover, the raven flat-out's, and the dreadknight hugs the table edge to out-range his lascannons. Shooting on that side explodes the furioso. On the left side, I've brought in the 10 man strike squad in hopes to distract his forces. It may be a sacrificial KP or it may be able to grab an objective. They spot the tac squad and kill the plasma and sarge.

Seb: 0kp, 2 objectives, Me: 1kp, 0 objectives

Seb's baal comes in from reserves.

His second assault squad and terminators also arrive off the homer on the drop pod.

He can just about assault anything in my cluster with the librarian's unit and decides to go after the henchmen.

He double flames the unit, scores 17 wounds, 9 die, I fail my ld10, and 2 kp's run off the board. Seb stuns the chimera with melta and is unable to damage the storm raven. His baal kills a few knights on the left.

Well, my null deployment forced him to react to me and now I'm forced to react to his reserves because I know how fast BA can tear through armies.

The storm raven jumps 12" over the chimera and unloads the terminators and librarian. The dreadknight jumps up to the libby's unit, the 5 man strike squad jumps out of the razorback to shoot. My shooting kills a few marines, immobilized and de-weapons the speeder. On the left, my stationary psycannons blow off the turret of the baal. A rifleman dread explodes the razorback, kills 2 marines, and they pin.

I assault the libby's unit with the dreadknight and the assault squad the DS'd with my terminators. The dreadknight kills a couple marines and takes a wound. The terminators kill 5 marines and lose 2.

Seb - 2kp 1 objective, Me - 1 kp 0 objectives

Seb brings his terminators up to save the day. On the left, he continues to gun down knights.

He assaults my terminators and chimera. He's able to kill the librarian and most of my terminators, but the warding stave survives and I kill his priest. His hammer explodes the chimera.

I move up my surviving strike marines and shoot down more of his tacticals.

On the right, I bring up the 5 man squad with techmarine and prepare to have a grenade party.

The storm raven puts 4 mind strike missiles, 2 frag missiles, and the lascannon into the 3 man squad and finishes them. My dreads are able to explode his predator and speeder. In assault, I'm able to kill 2 more priests, the librarian, and half of the assault squad on the right. Seb is unable to kill the last terminator.

Seb - 4 kp 1 objective, Me - 9 kp 0 objectives

Seb lost a lot of stuff last round and he knows he is in trouble now. He tries to tank shock the knights on the left with his baal, but immobilizes on terrain. He tries to gun them down with his remaining tacticals, but several survive. In assault, my dreadknight and strike squad finish his assault squad. His terminators kill my last one finally. My knights on the left assault and break the remaining tacticals, consolidating onto the objective.

He makes one last push for kills.

Seb is able to kill the dreadknight. My turn brings the demise of the terminators, last assault marine, and tactical squad. Seb concedes with an immobile baal and pod left.

I end up with kill points and objectives. Our VP difference gives me 6-2 so I earn an 18-2 victory. Trevor's wolves win 20-0, Joe's eldar beat horde orks 20-0, and Andy's marines win 13-7. We get 71/80 possible and are the top seed team going into round #2. Seb was a real pleasure to play and a true sport even with his dice failing him all game. I'm glad I got to have a fun round with him before things started going downhill...

DaBoyz GT - Quick Recap

2011-10-23T20:19:00.000-04:00

The event is over and was a success in my opinion. I got to meet gamers from Texas to Boston and one cool dude who flew in from London for the GT. It was great to see John, Wyatt, Greg, Nick, and Paul from the ETC team and catch up with them. Some other bloggers were also present such as Goatboy (BoLS), Stillfrosty (White Scars), and Empchild (Akersminis) and it's always cool to chat it up with other bloggers from around the country.

Long story short, I went 2-2-2 for the weekend. The actual scores were 20-15, 35-0, 10-10, 10-25, 10-25, 17-17. My pairings were against Grey Knights, Chaos Marines, Imperial Guard, Grey Knights, Space Marines, and Eldar. My third and fourth games were against some of the ETC guys, Paul and John and were the toughest games of the weekend. I'm surprised I got any points at all those games.

The good news is I comped in a 98/110 and 55/70 in painting which put me up to 14th overall out of 92 players. I did end up winning two awards which were player voted which is cool, 2nd best table (terrain), and 2nd best army theme. I ended up with two boxes of ruins/terrain, a trygon, and a carnifex. That's right all you haters, my Nids will get some love soon.

I'll be entering GT recovery mode for a week or so as I avoid even thinking about anything 40k and cleanse myself. Thanks to everyone for the well-wishes and compliments on the army. I was extremely happy with my awards. I built and painted my GK army to fulfill a long time fantasy of playing a future-police army and didn't even think I would be in the running for theme against the caliber of hobbyists that attended.

Grey Knights: DaBoyz GT 2011 Project Army Complete!

2011-10-20T01:16:00.001-04:00

With 2 days left until the GT begins, I've finally put the finishing touches on the army I've been building for this event since May. This week, I created some smoke clouds to use as wreck markers for my 4 vehicles. There is actually a flickering LED in the base of each cloud so they look like a burning fire. They also jazz up my display board a bit.

I also painted a chimera for my henchman squad.

My razorback got a magnetized hunter killer missile.

I slapped some ruins bitz on my storm raven base. I'm actually pretty pleased with the outcome. I dry brushed in some teal patches on the bronze to resemble a patina like some of the new fantasy ogres have in the recent White Dwarf photos. You probably can't see it here, but check it out in person if you pass me by at the GT.

I finished all the infantry bases, added some faint OSL glow/reflections on the bases closest to the force weapons, and finished the army with a finecast techmarine (grenade dispenser). I gave him a blue weapon like the henchmen have as it's just a power weapon. The libby also has blue so you can tell him apart from the normal terminators easier. I wanted the army-wide impression to be black and white with red and blue weapons to give a strong police feeling.

Anyways, that's all of it. I hope you enjoyed following my progress as much as I enjoyed painting the army. I should be able to pump out battle reports from the event over the next few weeks as I recover from the 40k burn-out I will no doubt experience after 6 months of solid painting and the 9 games I'll be playing.

As of Tuesday morning, there were 96 registered for the GT and 12 teams of four signed up for the team event with many more looking to join up. We may break 100 players for the GT and 14 teams by the time all the laggers get in the system or show up at the door. This will make it the largest showing ever and should be a great time!

DaBoyz GT - BoLS Deep

2011-10-18T11:26:00.000-04:00

Well , GT week has arrived! The icing on my GT adventure is an interview with Brent and army discussion on Bell of Lost Souls! Check it out *HERE*. Jay also answered some questions about the GT and you can see some pics of his famous "creamsicle nids".

I also released my super secret army list in the interview. Feel free to discuss it. Can you spot the stealth cheese?

Librarian + sanctuary, shrouding, might of titan, quicksilver, vortex of doom
Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor + psyocculum, servo skull
Henchmen - 2 crusaders, 1 death cult assassin, 2 plasma cannon servitors, 1 heavy bolter servitor, 1 jokaero, 2 acolytes w/ melta, 2 naked acolytes, chimera
Techmarine + psykotroke grenades, rad grenades, blind grenades
5 Terminators - 1 warding stave, 1 halberd, 1 hammer, 1 psycannon, brotherhood banner
10 Strike Knights - 2 psycannons
5 Strike Knights - 2 halberds, 1 hammer, 1 psycannon, razorback w psybolt ammo, hunter killer
Storm Raven + typhoon missiles, lascannons
Dreadnought + 2x tl autocannons, psybolt ammo
Nemesis Dreadknight + teleporter, heavy incinerator

I finished the army! I just need to put finishing touches on the storm raven base and then I'll be grinding out some terrain up until the event. This will probably be my last post until after the event. Wish me luck and introduce yourself if see me or my army at the event!

Grey Knights: DaBoyz GT 2011 Project Army sneak preview

2011-10-11T10:01:00.001-04:00

Just a quick update this week. I was finishing bases until 2am last night for an interview with Brent/BoLS so keep an eye out for that. I figured I would share the pics I took for the interview with you guys first. I'll discuss the list and theory later. Click the pics for larger versions/zoom.

Grey Knights: DaBoyz GT 2011 Project Army T-14 Days

2011-10-07T18:07:00.001-04:00

Two weeks from today I will be rolling some dice, moving around some toy soldiers, and enjoying one of the highlights of 2011. I squeezed in a couple practice games last week and a friend said something interesting to me. Someone had asked him if I had the army commissioned because it looked so good. What a compliment huh?

Anyways, this week's GT prep article focuses on painting one model from start to finish so y'all can see how I go about it.

I start with the model primed skull white. I usually prime the entire sprue lightly, then assemble it and prime it again.

Then, I block out the area that will be dark or silver with pure black. I use the cheap Folk Art paints from the hobby shop. Some of the areas are painted with solid black, some are washed (see the banner).

I dry brush the arms and legs with metallic gunmetal.

Then, dry brush them with sterling silver as a highlight. Here's the back where you see more silver.

Next, I paint in the gold areas.

Then I wash the gold with a 1:2 pure black/water mix.

Here I've started the red areas with barn red (multiple coats).

Then I paint all the books, parchment, and purity seals with dark brown.

I highlight the red areas with autumn leaves.

I use honeycomb to start lightening up the books, parchment, and purity seals. Here I've also painted the knight on the banner with medium grey and dove grey. His cloth is cobalt blue and aquamarine.

Then I use tapioca to finish the parchment and books. Gold areas get highlighted with a 50/50 mix of gold and silver.

I finish the model with blues in the eyes and psycannon. All books and purity seals get fine lines of text. Stripes are added to the psycannon and black areas are highlighted with medium grey and dove grey. I dry brush a blend of blues and whites around the lower right side of the model to serve as blue glow from the psycannon.

Here's my wet palette and dry palette (and my foot!). No fancy paint station for me, just a $6 lap tray from the craft store, a goose neck lamp, and my recliner in front of the TV.

And here's the finished terminator squad on Battle Ready Fig Tech bases.

There you go, one model start to finish. That guy took 3 days, about 12 hours of free time. The army is nearly finished now so stay tuned for more finished units and pics.

October Blogroll

2011-10-06T13:44:00.000-04:00

As most of you know I've been super busy this month with final painting and preparations for DaBoyz GT. Despite my lack of blog content, the gears are still spinning at full speed. I just haven't had a moment of free time to sit down and write any theory or tactics articles.

Several of the bloggers I follow are producing articles which verbalize some of the thoughts I've been having recently so I thought I'd highlight them. Give them a read if you have a chance, it's all good stuff.

From the 11th Company regarding tyranids <click>.

11th Company on fighting Grey Knights.

TGM from the Back 40k takes tyranids to a tournament.

Yermom (NOVA Invitational winner) takes tyranids to Blob's Park and earns top battle points.

Zenith highlighting on From the Warp. This is the technique I'm using on my GK.

Also, stay tuned for an interview with Brent from Strictly Average and possibly a spotlight on BoLS!

Grey Knights: DaBoyz GT 2011 Project Army T-19 Days

2011-10-02T23:17:00.002-04:00

It's coming down to the wire now with just 19 days until we set up terrain and commence the Team Event on Friday the 21st, then move on to the 6 game GT on Saturday and Sunday. We have some tough competition coming up in the form of some current and past ETC members (Greg S., Paul M., Shaun K., Nick R., and Wyatt T.) as well as Goatboy from BoLS and Stillfrosty from the White Scars blog. There's still room for a lot more with 70 registered and room for 120 so get crackin' and sign up if you're still on the fence.

I've been trying my best to paint during every free second of the day. To be honest, I've been pushing so hard that I've burned out and I'm just doing it to get it done at this point. I'm nearing completion with just 1 henchman, 1 terminator, 4 marines, and a chimera left to do. After that, I'll do the bases in a large batch and call it a year hehe.

This week I powered through some of the easy stuff. I knocked out a razorback for a small strike squad. If you've been following my progress, you know my concept is a police/SWAT themed army. This was my inspirational concept for the vehicles.

Here's the razorback I painted this week.

The photo washed out a lot of the white areas which are actually heavily shaded with 2 shades of grey up to white. Did you notice the red and blue OSL glows from the headlights and spotlight? Here's the strike squad with their ride.

I also speed painted a bunch of henchmen. Here's two warrior acolytes with pistols and chainswords (the red shirts).

And two warrior acolytes with melta guns.

And two servitors with plasma cannons.

The unit is built to fit the theme of ISWAT (Inquisitorial Special Weapons and Tactics) by incorporating all sorts of different weapons and uses. Here's most of the squad which will eventually have 2 crusaders, 1 death cult assassin, 1 jokaero weaponsmith, 2 plasma cannon servitors, 1 heavy bolter servitor, 2 melta acolytes, and 2 naked acolytes with an attached inquisitor (click the pic for a big version).

It's a motley crew and not nearly optimized for anything, but decent at everything. I designed the unit more for theme and the comp spirit of the event and will have to use them with cunning and skill to see their true value realized.

That's it for now. More updates will come if time allows. If not, stay tuned for the 9 batreps I should get out of the GT with a couple practice games I've been playing along the way to figure out the army I designed.

Grey Knights: DaBoyz GT 2011 Project Army T-4 Weeks

2011-09-23T20:19:00.000-04:00

4 Weeks, eeeeek!

I'm in full panic mode trying to paint every chance I get. 4 weeks is definitely enough time to finish painting the army, but I'm not sure if I can make 2 more tables, a new display board, and flickering smoke plumes. Oh, and I'm still trying to fit in practice games both at 1850 and 2000 for the GT and Team Event.

Anyways, on to the models. This week was henchmen week. I had to mix it up because I was getting bored of the power armor. Next week may be transports heh. Sorry, these don't all have bases yet as I do those in batches.

Jokaero Weaponsmith

Yeah, the model is kinda lame, but being a metal model still means I'm not chopping his head off to slap it on a cadian as a conversion. Keeping with the SWAT/police theme, I need to keep my palette in black, white, blue, and reds. So, the monkey got blue fur. What can you do. I am pretty happy with the eyes which I shaded from red to orange, free handed the pupils and reflections.

Crusader

I used a cadian like I did for the assassin and added a shield from the thunder hammer blister and a sword from the strike squad sprue. Check out the blue glow from the sword on the shoulder and feet.

Servitor with plasma cannon

This dude likes to stare into the plasma cells lol. This is one of the finecast servitors with a plasma cannon from the storm raven kit.

Here's the motley ISWAT team so far. Still need some bases and to add glow to the assassin.

That's it until next week.

I just want to drop another reminder for DaBoyz GT. We have 4 weeks left, ~70 players pre-registered (room for 120+), and at least 7 teams for the team event. Primer missions are up on the 40k GT page so read them, test them out, and prepare yourself for the big show. Let us know what you think about the missions and how they could be improved. Don't forget that the best general from the GT earns a spot on America's 2012 ETC team. We're also featuring an ATC/ETC style team event Friday 10/21 if you can wrangle some friends and come up to Rochester a day early.

GT Website: http://www.daboyzgt.com/Home.aspx

DaBoyz Forums for questions and feedback: http://daboyzateam.proboards.com/index.cgi

Inbox: Ardboyz Results

2011-09-23T13:41:00.007-04:00

From Evan:

"I've been following your blog for a bit and I wanted to get your thoughts on the results for the 'Ard boyz semi-finals. From whats been reports, roughly 60% of stores or so, Grey knights have 25 armies that place in the top 3 with guard getting 13 and space wolves getting 9. From most of the talk its seems Grey knights are winning either through the strong lists or that the codex is still new enough that not enough players haven developed effective counters to them. unless I'm mistaken one of your own local stores had a semi final location and I wanted to get your opinion on the following:

What do you think about the Grey Knights dominating the field?

Do you think the power has shifted to Grey knights from space wolves and guard?

How did your local tourney turn out, if you were there? I've heard you have a few solid players with Grey knights so I assume they made a showing at the top 3.

Based off what happened at the semi's, would you say it was skilled/cunning players or those with the most powerful armies that got to the top, as I can guess from your battle reports there are some very strong armies in your area ( Nasty Drop dread BA, Lash+oblit Chaos, Mech Guard). I know you have several big names in the area with 2 ETC members, maybe you could give a rundown of what kind of players won your locations placing, such as what kind of skill level they are, were they playing broken lists, did they get lucky dice/match up, what their semi finals mass/major/minor records were etc.

P.S. I know you're busy prepping for a GT, so if you wanted to make a blog update based on this subject that might make decent filler content.

Thanks, Look forward to hearing your thoughts"

Here's my thoughts.

I didn't qualify at the prelims this year (I did last year with Nids). We have 3 local stores that hosted the prelims and I know the most competitive players spread out so they didn't have to all compete for qualifying spots. The store I played at for the prelims had 12 players; 2 BA, 2 CSM, 2 SW, 1 DE, 1 Nids. That's all I can remember, maybe there was an IG or two, definitely no GK. Top 3 from out location were DE, BA, and CSM. The second location's top 3 were: Orks (Shaun from ETC), GK (Jay from ETC), and SW. I think their field was 16 players.

I was working the day of the semi's, but I made it to the shop to watch the final round. 26 players showed up and I saw 1 GK (Jay), 1 Ork (Shaun), 2 Nids, a couple SW, several IG, a couple BA, 1 Daemon player, one BT, and a couple SM. The top 3 for the semi's were SW, IG, and Orks (Shaun). Jay's GK were on the top table for the final round against a long fang/gh list with a couple lone wolves. The SW player blocked almost every psychic power Jay attempted, and his lone wolves scored multiple KP's each. At one point, I saw two lone wolves annihilate two full strike squads, making all their invulns. The next turn, the lone wolves made a ridiculous amount of armor saves and the player rolled six 6's at one point for FnP.

It's hard to say how things went across the country. My general feeling is that all things being equal (skill, dice, terrain), more players representing an army will mean more chances to see them in the top 3. Relating to your question about GK dominating the field, it's my belief that it's a numbers thing. New codex, new mechanics, new models, lots of interest. It's generally the same with each new codex, but more so with marine books.

I don't think power has shifted at all, just player representation. GK are a balanced book despite what people say. Generally speaking, the guys that take interest in a new army and play with it regularly will learn it quickly. The guys playing against them will generally take longer to learn how to combat the new units and mechanics.

Altogether, this creates an interesting effect on our gaming environment which is why I wrote THIS ARTICLE. When a new codex is released, we see a swell in army representation followed by players learning the new army quickly and altering the tournament scene. My first tournament in March 2010 featured 6 Nid players out of 32. This swell will be followed by growing complaints about new units and mechanics. Then people eventually figure out how to beat the new stuff, the gaming environment changes and adapts, and people stop complaining.

All of these variables will be different from city to city. For instance, Nids were viewed as overpowered in my city for a good part of last year. Granted, we have some of the best players in the country using them. Things like hundreds of points worth of free units (4 tervigon lists), FnP anywhere you want it, portable cover/defensive grenades/dangerous terrain, and trygons and hive guard in general were viewed as "broken". Nowadays, people laugh at you if you bring Nids to a tournament. The codex is definitely not written on the same level as others, but I think the pattern remains the same, if not just on a different time line.

I remember a discussion about Wargamescon last year where they received 20+ requests alone for people to use "counts-as space wolves" armies. We saw a similar swelling of IG armies and tournament sweeps last year. BA and DE had smaller showings, but the pattern is still there.

I'm willing to bet Necrons will be a big deal at the end of this year and into next. Unlike others, I believe almost all the rumors floating around. The rumors were nearly 100% accurate before BA, DE, and GK releases so I have no reason to doubt them now. They will change the gaming environment just like the previous codexes did. Entropic strike in particular has the potential to take a lot of steam out of the mech trend. Scarabs (rumored to be beast swarms) with a 24" threat range and 3+ cover (stealth) will nearly be able to auto-kill any vehicle that isn't fast moving. Take an environment full of loyalist mech players, introduce a xeno codex that melts tanks with little effort, and you'll have forums and blogs flooded with complaints before 2012 arrives.

My advice is this:

Don't get caught up in the emotional roller coaster of new armies and the perceptions of a vocal minority. Learn the new armies when they come out by playing with them or against them as often as possible. Don't expect a list built before GK (or necrons or whatever) to be as effective after the tournament scene is flooded. Be the first to adapt and you will be amongst the first to reap the rewards.

Hope all this helps! Thanks for the email.

Yes, it Hurts (so bad it gets deleted).

2011-09-22T21:46:00.001-04:00

So I don't usually get sucked into blog wars, but this one really irked me today.

It started here, with Stelek taking shots at the terrain at NOVA 2011:

http://yesthetruthhurts.com/2011/09/nova-open-the-laundry-list/

The gist of it is NOVA 2011 actually had BLoS terrain where it didn't in 2010. In my opinion, he was butt-hurt over having to play his 85% shooting army differently, but I didn't come out and say it like that. My comment is #32 in the list. I said:

"hyv3mynd says:

September 22, 2011 at 2:12 pm

Nothing I’ve seen in any of your NOVA reports looks like more than 25% terrain with a mix of types including BLoS pieces, just like the rulebook recommends. Every table looked balanced to me and fun to play on.
Looking back, just about every report that shows your deployment shows 3 units of long fangs deployed right next to each other. This means if one unit can’t see what they want to shoot, none of them could. Is it the BLoS terrain’s fault that it’s blocking LoS, or the guy who deployed all his missile launchers in one place? That indeed seems to me like a playstyle issue and not a terrain issue.
Didn’t something like 93% of those surveyed respond favorably to the terrain?"

Stelek takes that comment and starts this thread, based on my comment and MVB's response:
http://yesthetruthhurts.com/2011/09/special-attention-terrain/

My thoughts after all of that was: #1 He's not actually used to playing on tables with BLoS terrain, his play style was hampered and suffered, and he blamed it on the terrain. I put my thoughts together, replied, he called me an idiot, then deleted my post. Note in the original article, he said:

"Note if you ‘jump’ on Mike, I’ll just delete your comments. I don’t give a shit if you jump on me, I’m used to it. But if you can’t be adults, I’ll empower myself to remove stupidity."

Did I jump on Mike? Did I sound immature and deserve my "stupidity removed"? You be the judge.

Here's the original article I was able to cut and paste before he deleted my comment. I know there's a lot of mixed feelings about his blog. I read it for the lists and tactics, but being disingenuous about your intentions and actions make his blog useless to me now.

*copy and pasted from the article before deletions*

Special Attention: Terrain

Analysis, Tournaments, Warhammer 40k Add comments

Sep 222011

As requested, special attention must be paid to terrain.
First, time for a tune, cause it’s how I feel after writing all of this. So click play, and enjoy. Or don’t. Whatever.
Second, a bit of amusement:
Nothing I’ve seen in any of your NOVA reports looks like more than 25% terrain with a mix of types including BLoS pieces, just like the rulebook recommends. Every table looked balanced to me and fun to play on.
Looking back, just about every report that shows your deployment shows 3 units of long fangs deployed right next to each other. This means if one unit can’t see what they want to shoot, none of them could. Is it the BLoS terrain’s fault that it’s blocking LoS, or the guy who deployed all his missile launchers in one place? That indeed seems to me like a playstyle issue and not a terrain issue.
Didn’t something like 93% of those surveyed respond favorably to the terrain?
Mike said:
Hyvmynd, that is accurate. 93% of respondents would like to play with the same amount of LOS blocking terrain again. This doesn’t INVALIDATE the 7%, but it tempers our analysis.
Reply:
Aside from the fact you are wrong about what it looks like, which I will gladly explain in picture format so you can ‘understand’: You don’t see terrain like that in local stores, at GW stores, at most GT’s, or in most games.
Barring the playstyle issue, which it isn’t–it’s a terrain issue. Your understanding of good terrain placement is poor, at best. Which is understandable, most people think slapping terrain down is just fine.
Wow, 93%! Statistics are awesome. You can finesse them any way you want. How many people actually responded? Oh, was it 93% of 300, or 93% of 100? Ah, the latter? Then probably those who had a favorable view of your event, actually responded. You know that’s how surveys work, right? It’s very difficult to get negative feedback, because the very first feedback someone gives you is…that’s right, they don’t respond. Like I didn’t. What was the question? Was it a simple one? Did you like the terrain? Hey, I liked the terrain plenty. I thought there was too much of it and it was placed wrong, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t like the campaign terrain. Which is what that terrain is. Or was it, did you like the terrain in comparison to last year? Or was there a meaningful breakdown of questions? I don’t know the answers to any of these, but thinking your terrain was awesome because 93% of respondents played on good boards and 7% of respondents played on the shitty ones, isn’t actually worth a hill of beans. If everyone but me responded, then you have my apologies. I sincerely doubt they did, but hey I’m often wrong.
Time to add another comment, and see how factual it is, frankly I think it’s also not worth a hill of beans, but we’ll let the pictures do the talking:
Mike said:
Every board had 3 LOS blockers – 1 large one in center, 2 md-large ones in opposing corners. Then there were 2 large ruins/area pieces in the other 2 corners, that only partially blocked LOS as a general rule. Then there were 2 large ish area pieces in the middle along the long edges.
Let’s review those boards, shall we?
Note I did this quickly, but if you want more CONSTRUCTIVE and ACCURATE feedback, you let me know I’ll do the other half dozen.
What you THINK is very often NOT what actually happens.
So let’s take a look:

Hmmm, lots of space between terrain pieces. Sadly, with only one LOS blocking piece of terrain I can hide ONE razorback behind it. The rest of my army just has to take it on the chin. This is improperly deployed terrain. Don’t think so? Well, let’s see.

Hmmm. So, again, it’s a shooting field. I thought we weren’t going for shooty open fields here? Note the red arrows indicates places where either a Rhino won’t fit, or you can’t drive 2 abreast. In this case, even 2 speeders won’t fit in the gap on the right, and in the middle, not even a Rhino can pass.

What…the…? All of the terrain is in this 4 foot by 4 foot box. There’s a huge gap on the left side (the right too, but it’s out of the picture, so it’s a DAMN LIE). Again, lots of places vehicles cannot pass. Note the completely unplayable ‘house’ without a roof, and no LOS out of it’s lower floors. Sure I guess I could stick my Fangs up there so they can be boltered to death on turn 1, but I try to be a ‘great’ player and not merely a mediocre one.
Note that due to my range and how he deployed his Long Fangs, even if he krak missiled me out in the open, because the only place HE could deploy his fangs would be more than 2″ inside terrain, I’d get cover saves standing in front of him, mooning his troops. Because the big ass terrain piece is area terrain, and not just a hill. Btw, this was the game where less than 15 Marines survived on every match, my vehicles had constant cover but I still lost every last one of them. He also had cover, but I only managed to kill that one on top of the hill (and I fired meltas/missiles from everywhere) early. I killed another on turn 4. Not because of the shoddy terrain placement, but I couldn’t stop a Rhino with 4 meltas and 9 missiles. Hey, I suck, what can I say. =P Spearhead, absolutely horrible on terrain setup this way.

Hey my Fangs can actually see things (blue lines).
The yellow areas are unplayable to infantry. No, I’m not going to imagine my Fangs on top of the tower and then draw imaginary LOS to his carefully balanced tanks on top of the buildings across the way. This is not a very good shooting board as very little LOS is blocked, but what is blocked is completely blocked and you can’t go over it unless your army begins with an E. Yes, I know what the rules say, but I have zero interest in breaking my models or using hordes of dice to ‘represent’ where I say my shit is. Playable terrain please, not unplayable. So Kudos on using Warhammer Fantasy terrain. Again, mentioned last year, and used again this year. Do you hear me? STOP USING FANTASY TERRAIN, IT IS INAPPROPRIATE FOR 40K. Note the ‘buildings’ are so far forward, I can either deploy my Fangs in the open, or I can deploy them in the middle. See hive, I can’t alter my ‘playstyle’ and ‘cheat’ by ‘deploying’ inside buildings (not allowed) or my favorite cheat, ‘outside of my deployment zone’. This is more bad terrain placement. Note that barring game 1 of friday/saturday/sunday, I had a judge verify the terrain was ok in every game I played. Why the hell is it placed so freaking randomly then? No?

So, I can’t deploy in the building on the right, because it’s not (A) a building, and (B) it’s not IN my deployment zone! So it’s the trees, or the hill on the left. Thankfully, my opponent decided to hide in the building on the far right, which is handy as it completely blocks LOS.
He could have easily hid himself behind the piece of terrain in the middle. I could barely see Belial standing 2 inches away from that building due to the middle piece. Note the terrain pieces in the middle are set too far forward, especially the one on my side. Why is the hill on the left so far from center? Again, a judge setup the terrain. This clusterf— of terrain being on top of each other is an assault armies favorite thing to see. You can literally bunny hop from terrain piece to terrain piece. Except the first couple of boards, where you can’t.
Here are the rest. No lines drawn, I’ll just comment on them:

Spearhead, again. With terrain not setup in any way that makes sense. The terrain piece in the upper left isn’t on an objective. The piece in the lower right is barely on it, on it’s left side. The piece in the bottom left is not centered on it. The piece in the upper right is. That big ass hill? Yeah, that’s two hills, and it’s too big. Look at how many vehicles I have hiding behind it. Dude, it’s my whole army. Ok 7 Razorbacks, all but one of which is getting 3+ cover. That’s NOT normal.

Hey my game against Blackmoor. How can I shoot those guys in the back left? How about the guys hiding behind Draigo? Yes, Draigo kills TWC, in case you were wondering. How can I shoot any of them? This is, again, Spearhead deployment. If it was a normal setup, where do I setup? On the left? So I can’t SEE anything? I can’t deploy on the hill on the right because it’s not IN my deployment zone. I can barely fit some guys in the little emplacement in the middle of the board. Again, the terrain is just setup so incredibly poorly. Note how the 3 hills make a line. If only mother nature could be so kind. Note I can’t see ANYTHING behind those hills. From anywhere in my deployment zone, in the upper right quarter I would have to get ass raped by Paladins to get shots, and in the bottom left there’s a narrow field of fire. Which I can’t setup in, because it’s SPEARHEAD.

Instead of offsetting the hills, they are in a straight line. Note how I have terrain that clogs my deployment zone (center, bottom) but my opponent has clear paths out and around. The center hill wasn’t g-d awful this time, as the yellow hills on my side of the board were tall enough I could get some shots off (but not past the other hills in upper left, which is fine).

This is the game of two games. I split my force, he split his, and I crushed his center while he fucked up my left and my fangs (bottom left corner, hiding from Venoms, in, you guessed it, spearhead) until I broke that part of his army too.
Note the huge ass terrain pieces. I have literally no place i can drive Rhinos 2 abreast. Except on the far left, because there is no terrain on the board edge (and there should be some on the sides). Do I need to go over how the terrain pieces, despite some uniformity, aren’t placed correctly? Look at the objectives. Look at how the terrain is one movement phase from the next. This isn’t a good thing to be able to hide behind a hill and then assault into the next terrain piece. That’s some 4th edition crap right there.

Hmmm. I see 3 LOS blocking pieces of terrain, and despite a judge ‘fixing’ the terrain, they aren’t placed properly. Note how far apart they are. So where did the Tyranid player aim? The center of my line, the only piece of terrain he could ‘cross the gap’ into in a single movement phase. Where could his MC’s even GET cover? Only behind the hill. This is a board improperly setup. Do I want assault (or skimmer) armies to be able to leap across terrain to the other side while completely hiding? No thanks. That big ass hill is a DE players dream (as you can see on the previous board, he hid everything with ease). This guy was almost able to completely hide Tervigons from me. Thankfully they were a little taller than the huge piece in the middle, but if that parapet had extended all the way across, trust me, I would have been unable to shoot him. And hey, I split my long fangs. Hurr, I’m bad, oh…is that a Mawloc? =|

Er, that’s 4 pieces of LOS blocking terrain. Sorry, one window for 1 tactical marine to stick his missile launcher out of is not worth a hill of beans. The hill on my right is OUTSIDE of my deployment zone. So I can deploy, again, where? Right, my TACTICS are being decided by BAD TERRAIN. Sorry, should I deploy in the building with 2 windows I can see out of with 1 guy? Clever. Note my TWC are deployed far forward, because by now I’ve figured out if I go first, I can run them to the other side of the hill and play hide-n-seek.
These boards look nice, but were not fun to play on. It has nothing to do with playing a shooting army, or a belief that assault is an effective method of destruction (it isn’t, compared to shooting, anyway). Terrain laid out wrong, on every single board. Forced to deploy foot elements in the same spot on every board, because half the LOS blocking terrain was unplayable (is there a roof on that building? No? oh, well, let me deploy infantry BEHIND my Razorbacks because that’s smart) and the other half you were either denied shots, or they had 3+ cover saves every day of the week.

3 Responses to “Special Attention: Terrain”

hyv3mynd says:
September 22, 2011 at 4:53 pm
Sorry, still don’t see a problem.
Does the rulebook say somewhere that there should be clear driving paths for vehicles so they don’t have to roll dangerous terrain? I thought that’s why skimmers are good as long as they don’t end up in terrain, and why you have the option to buy dozer blades, siege shields, reinforced rams, etc.
Only the 3rd picture looks like an issue with terrain placement. To me, that table looks like 1-2 previous players moved some terrain over so they could fit their display boards somewhere. I remember reading that space for display boards was an issue on Jawaball’s blog and others.
Only the final picture has potentially more than 3 BLoS pieces depending on how you played them. Still, units don’t block LoS for other models in their own unit, so you could put one long fang in the window and line up the other 5 behind him for clear shots through one window.
Nothing forces you to deploy long fangs in cover when you have 10 razorbacks. You can use your /\ formation to create a firing window for the missiles, still move the razorbacks <6" each turn to shift the window and create a new firing lane.
Different spacing between terrain pieces isn't bad, it gives value to actually winning the initial roll and choosing a DZ that has some benefit to your army and build. If everything was static and perfectly symmetrical, winning the roll would only be valuable for alpha strike abilities.
What's wrong with BLoS on a tervigon? The book doesn't say BLoS terrain should apply to infantry only, not MC's and vehicles. It just sounds like personal preferences that some units should be blocked and not others. God forbid you actually have to move one of your 3 long fang units and give up a round of firing for better shots next turn.
Like I said, it all still looks like great terrain and placement to me and I'd be fine playing on it. It's some of the most true-to-book terrain I've seen from a large tournament and MVB should be praised for it IMO. Just like 93% of his responders said. 93% of 100 or 200 doesn't matter. Constructive criticism helps improve events and people shouldn't be afraid to offer it with the intent of improving a future event. If only 100 out of 200 responded with the other half afraid to because of negativity, the silent ones aren't helping improve next year at all. As it stands now, you are still a vocal minority Stelek.
My opinions are just as subjective as yours, but nothing I've seen here has come close to looking like "bad tournament terrain".
Stelek says:
September 22, 2011 at 5:12 pm
You’re an idiot.
hyv3mynd says:
September 22, 2011 at 5:14 pm
Ahh, now that’s what I was waiting for. I’m surprised you gave my comments so much time and attention before you came out with the insults. I take it as a compliment that that’s the best reply I get.

40k - Summer 2011

2011-09-21T20:10:00.000-04:00

There are 100 titles I could give this article and none would cover all the bases with just a few words. I'm writing this all down for several reasons.

The first is that a lot has happened in the 40k community this summer. People are figuring out Grey Knights and tournament representation has peaked as the "flavor of the month" army. 'Ardboyz and NOVA featured this new codex performing quite well in the competitive community and the aftermath has seen many forums and blogs inundated with heated debates, bitter whining, flame wars, and drama.

The second reason is with 4 weeks left until DaBoyz GT 2011 (click it!), I've switched over from painting individual models to batch painting, and I won't have many new pictures to share of my work on the new army. No new pictures and no new content gives me big time lazy blogger guilt. I do appreciate those that still stop by to check the blog in this content drought, and this article has applications to both Tyranid and Grey Knight armies.

I'm going to try and cover a lot of bases here and I tend to go off on tangents, so I apologize in advance if this article is hard to follow.

I'm going to start with Grey Knights. We all know marine codexes are more popular in the hobby community than xenos. Not only are they popular amongst hobbyists, but also with competitive gamers as they tend to be more forgiving and balanced then most xeno codexes. NOVA featured 30+ (more or less, sorry for not going back and pulling exact numbers) Grey Knight players out of their 200ish participants. A couple made it to the 4-0 bracket for day 2 and one even finished second overall (Alan/blackmoor). 'Ardboyz 2011 also featured many GK armies qualifying both in the preliminary and semi-final rounds.

Shortly after these major events, blogs and forums around the world started depicting Grey Knights in a negative manner. It doesn't take much looking to find the complaints and criticisms on blogs like Bell of Lost Souls and Yes, the Truth Hurts. Forums such as DakkaDakka are also swimming in negative comments about GK lists and players.

I mention this for two purposes; to help bring perspective and transition into my next two topics. I believe we, as a community, need to step back and take a deep breath for a minute. Just as people are throwing around terms like "bandwagon" when referring to GK players, let's not jump on a "bandwagon" of our own by bashing, flaming, and trolling them.

It wasn't long after the release of the newest Imperial Guard codex and subsequent sweeping of 'Ardboyz by the infamous "Leaflower" that the tournament circuit was swamped with fresh guard armies. Last year was largely dominated by Space Wolves in the tournament circuit with similar numbers representing that codex as did IG the year before and GK now. People saw the potency of the respective army builds, built a collection of their own, won some tournaments, and now many have moved on. It's the repeating cycle of new codex releases and the consequent swell in representation and results.

In the same manner, didn't we hear moaning and groaning about IG in the past? What about SW and all their "ridiculous" units and strengths? Now people are all upset about GK. It's highly possible (though there are doubters) that 2012 will be the year of the Xenos, with Necrons, Tau, and possibly Chaos Legions receiving new books and the associated swell in representation and results.

Now, some people love the word "meta" and some hate it. From here on, I'll just call it the "gaming environment" for simplicity's sake. A vast majority of 40k players in the USA stick to local events, and are only accustomed to their local gaming environment. Some are fluffy, some are more competitive. I am blessed with a good mix of both with a large annual GT that always has and always will feature heavy emphasis on composition. I am also very lucky in that two of America's ETC team members (Jay W. and Shaun K.) live just a few miles away and are usually willing to stomp my army into the dirt when I get too stuck in the comp mindset and forget what it's like to play against more optimized lists.

Another aspect of our gaming environment is a lack of "bandwagon" players. In my 18 months of playing local 40k tournaments, I've never seen more than 3 SW, 3 IG, 3 DE, or 3 BA players at any one of our smaller RTT's (smaller meaning 12-32 players on a monthly basis). I've never had the opportunity or misfortune of playing against a true leafblower, razorspam, or similar popular netlist. Another side effect is there's only 2-3 serious GK players, nobody is running really abusive lists, and the complaining about the GK codex is almost non-existent in our gaming environment. My experiences are subjective, but aren't those of the loudest complainers also? Just as we don't have many "powergamers" around here rocking 10 razorbacks, wouldn't those complaining about GK's the most have a different experience if they played outside their region?

Let me built on the "meta" or gaming environment perceptions as they relate to more specific complaints. My favorite one right now relates to Draigowing and sounds something like this:

"Most armies aren't equipped to deal with Draigo and a Librarian attached to 10 Paladins."

Does that make the codex or unit broken? Does that make it unfair or warrant the complants? How about back in the day when people started using diversified Nob bikers. How effective are they today? Is the change due to "codex creep" or people adapting their armies to handle that build? What about Fatecrusher, Leafblower, and Dual Lash lists? Did codex creep kill them or did players learn, grow, and adapt?

GK have been out since April and tournament legal since May. Who do you think learns the new codex best, those who use it exclusively 2-3 times a week or those who get to play against it once or twice a month? Is 5 months enough time for the average gamer to figure out how to combat a new codex in the tournament circuit?

The point I'm trying to get at here is that there is in fact a "meta" or quantifiable gaming environment. It is fluid and changes regularly to reflect the armies, lists, and play styles of the participating players. Is Draigowing broken because "most armies aren't equipped to deal with Draigo and a Librarian attached to 10 Paladins", or are most armies not equipped to deal with it because the codex is relatively new and players haven't played against it or adjusted their lists to incorporate the right tools?

Army lists must change and adapt to compete within a gaming environment. Many outspoken competitive gamers and bloggers consider Land Raiders to be an uncompetitive unit due to its cost and vulnerability to melta weapons. Two weeks ago, I played in the DaBoyz GT primer tournament which features a comp matrix with required minimum score to play. It just so happens that the matrix allows for lists with two Land Raiders (one as a dedicated transport, one as a heavy support selection) to score max comp points. People being smart and competitive by nature figured this out and 3 people out of 11 showed up with dual raider lists. My army being GK had only one melta weapon. I was paired against two dual raider lists and lost both games because I didn't have enough countermeasures. Those two players also placed first and second.

Do I think land raiders are overpowered now? No. Did I go home and change my list to include more melta weapons and psycannons? Yes. I fully expect several dual raider lists, they were successful at the primer so why not expect them to be successful at the main event.

Nob bikers, fatecrusher, and leafblower haven't passed out of popularity because newer codexes are disproportionately strong, it's because people figured out the tools and tactics they need to defeat them and changed their collection and play style accordingly. As such, you can't take an army you've played since before the GK codex was released to a current tournament with a large amount of GK players, and expect that list to perform as well as it used to.

New codexes change the game environment by introducing new units and game mechanics. Without this, there would be no point in writing them. GW needs to maintain interest in their system by introducing change in the form of new rules editions, new armies, and new models.

The people complaining about GK just haven't learned how to beat them yet. They expect their pre-GK armies to perform just as well against a new army with new mechanics, and gt upset when this doesn't happen. That is my opinion and what the previous 3,000 words were building up to.

GK are shiny and new with units and mechanics people haven't yet become accustomed to. If GW can write the Necron, Tau, and whatever other codexes that are on the way as well, next year people will be complaining about those armies. I encourage everyone to step back, take a deep breath, and focus on changing their own game and adapt instead of wasting energy complaining.

I intended to transition this article into some Tyranid based content for what few Nid enthusiasts I have remaining, but my pregnant wife is giving me the evil eye and getting cranky, so this will have to be a 2 part article. Again, thanks for staying with me while I finish preparations for the GT and I promise to provide more regular content after the event.

Grey Knights: DaBoyz GT 2011 Project Army T-5 Weeks

2011-09-16T10:12:00.000-04:00

Let me start off by apologizing for a lack of updates. As we get closer to DaBoyz GT, things just keep getting crazier and crazier. On top of a shrinking timeline, last week I got the flu for the first time in 5 years, Millennium Games hosted DaBoyz GT Primer, and this week they're hosting a Kill Team lock-in tournament. I lost a couple painting days when I had the flu so now I'm trying to squeeze 7 hours of painting into each day around work and my pregnant wife.

I finished my 4th terminator (above) and I'm really starting to like the way they're coming out. The good news is I'm getting more comfortable with the blending and lighting effects. The bad news is my attention to detail is starting to take more time on each model. I just have one terminator left with the brotherhood banner (ugh!) and then I will base the whole unit.

I also finished up two more strike knights for the Kill Team lock-in.

This one shows the white to grey shading on the armor plates very well. I want them to give the impression of black and white resembling police vehicles, but I want them to have heavy shadows because I love my grimdark! This guy actually has some OSL glow from the force sword across his back.

Something I enjoy about the models and my painting scheme is each knight is holding his weapon in a different position so I get to do glow effects differently on each one. Here is my Kill Team for this weekend's event fully painted and based on Battle Ready Figs bases (click the pic for a larger version).

So, with 5 weeks left I have 4 more marines, 1 terminator, techmarine, 2 transports, and a bunch of henchmen left to paint and base. I also need to finish 2 more tables to meet the quota of 6 I volunteered to provide for the GT. It would be cool if I could make a new display board to match the army, but that may not be realistic at this point. I also picked up a moonscape set so I have real craters for my explosions and I have a set of flickering LED tea lights I'd love to use if I can paint up some smoke clouds. I intend to write an article about flickering smoke clouds for wrecks using the LED tea lights. One of the guys at the ATC last May had them and it brought a whole new level of reality to the table so I decided my GK must have them!

Anyways, thanks for sticking with me during this period of no content on the blog. I put together a team with some of the local guys for the GT Team Event, so I can promise 9 really nice batreps (3 from the team event, 6 from the GT) in the end of October and into November.

Hobby: Tidal Flats Table

2011-09-05T09:12:00.000-04:00

My judgement was obviously compromised when I told the guys I could supply 6 tables at our GT this year, along with assembling and painting a new GK army in less than 5 months. Those of you who know me well know I love every aspect of the hobby from painting to converting, basing, building terrain, and writing scenarios. Some people have army a.d.d., but my attention issues encompass all aspects of the hobby. Some days I feel like painting, then I need a break and build some terrain, then I build lists and write for the blog.

This week I was inspired to build terrain. We've been hitting up the pet stores and hobby shops that have been advertising sales and sending us coupons, so I've built up enough supplies to make 4 new tables. If you've been reading long, you're familiar with my snow and jungle tables.

Here's the thing about me and terrain. I want it to look nice while being cheapish to build and functional to play on. No, I don't have the cash to buy 6-8 boxes of GW ruins at $25 a pop. There's enough ruined cities out there anyways. I prefer to create alien planets for my battlescapes. You know by now my armies are painted with unusual schemes and I like my tables to be unique too. In the grim dark of the 41st millennium, there is only war, but all wars aren't fought on the same planets and same battlefields every time. I want my armies to experience the sights and scenes of the planets they conquer.

Anyways, I start with a sheet of fleece fabric which is usually $10/yd and I watch the sales and they're 40% off quite often. The tie-dyed patterns appeal to me the most as they have some interesting patterns that make a more appealing field than flat-colored mats. My first two tables were designed and terrain pieces built before I started shopping for a cheap mat. Recently, I let the fabric patterns and colors inspire my table designs. I bought four new sections of fabric last week and I've been waiting for inspiration. Something came to me this week while lying in bed so I decided to tackle it while the vision was fresh.

I noticed some aquarium plants on sale at Pet Smart and decided to try something new. I wanted to see if I could take the most brightly colored aquarium plants and whip up an alien planet. Thus, Por'cea was born; the ocean moon of Sa'cea, deep within the the Tau empire.

This ocean moon is dwarfed by the planet it orbits. So dramatic are the contrasting forces of gravity, they create tides that shift nearly a dozen meters. Por'cea's orbit and rotation are such that the drastic tide shifts from high to low over the course of 6 months. This has caused the floral life to evolve into an amphibious state, able to survive under meters of water and on dry rock. Many of the plants have developed photosynthetic capabilities in the form of neon chloroplasts adapted to an intense ultraviolet spectrum. Others have evolved toxins and predatory instincts to gather nutrients when light is absent.

So there's the concept, here's the execution. I started with some blue tie-dyed fleece from JoAnne's Fabrics. I cut out a gross amount of 1" thick foam shapes last week, so I chose several and nearly filled a 2'x3' (25% of a table) with different pieces. I also fooled around with Great Stuff spray foam insulation and made some rocks with it. Here is the table with 25% terrain measured out.

I painted it all black, dry brushed it with medium grey and then dove grey. I cut up the aquarium plants and glued them into the foam terrain pieces. I made some tall pieces to count as impassible terrain. They're large enough to provide cover to even the largest monsters.

There is some rocky area terrain with a high enough profile to cover most transports and MC's with proper positioning.

Dense area terrain to cover your advance.

And multi-level area terrain to provide better firing positions and cover support units.

Here's what 25% coverage with multiple terrain types looks like.

Did I mention I did all this in 3 nights? I know it's not the most detailed table, but it's interesting and was quick and affordable. Here's the shopping list:

Blue tie-dyed fleece - 2 yards - $12 on sale
Assorted aquarium plants - 4 large, 4 medium, 4 small - $44
Great Stuff spray foam - 1 can - $5
1" Insulation foam - 1 sheet - $14
Folk Arts Paints - pure black, medium grey, dove grey - $3

$78 and 3 nights for a fun table with lots of materials left over. I have 3.5 tables done now and making this table gave me some great new ideas as I was playing with the foam. Stay tuned for more terrain articles on my final two concepts and a six table showcase before the DaBoyz GT in October.

Grey Knights: DaBoyz GT 2011 Project Army T-7 Weeks

2011-09-02T21:09:00.001-04:00

Well... this was one of those "good news, bad news" weeks.

The good news: We're having a boy!
The bad news: "Honey, the washing machine is broken and I need to do 4 loads of laundry!"

The good news: I got a lot of work done on terrain for 2 of the 6 tables I volunteered to provide at this year's GT.
The bad news: I didn't get as much painting done as I wanted.

Here's what I did accomplish:

Terminator with halberd

Nice OSL huh? I'm loving the orange glow on the bodies from the force weapons. It's kinda fun to do too.

Terminator with hammer

You'll notice that the armor looks white on the top of the model and grey down by the feet (duh). This is partially from the lighting, but the white armor plates are actually blended to light and then medium grey to add a dramatic lighting effect. I think I did such a good job that it looks like the figure is casting shadows on its own lower areas.

Terminator with sword

This was one of the first GK I painted. This week I went back and shaded the whites up top down to greys on the legs to match the new terminators. The brighter colors on the sword are new and I added the orange OSL glow down on the body.

The good news: I've done tons of thinking and planning for future articles and content. Don't worry, I'll still be writing about the nids. GK are my focus right now for the GT in two months, but so many people have already done so much blogging about GK, I'm not going to come up with valuable commentary that hasn't already been beaten to death. Maybe I'll do some GK articles if I end up near the top at the GT, otherwise it's back to the bugs in November. I'm actually thinking nids will be my competitive (LOL) army and GK will be my comp army for local tournaments. As such, my GK collection is limited to a 2,000pt list with no redundant units. My bugs total well over 4,000pts and I can field most good units in duplicate or triplicate.
The bad news: There's less than 2 months until DaBoyz GT, and I've entered my panicked hobby mode where every free minute literally goes into painting, basing, or building terrain. As such, my blog content sucks, I apologize and appreciate those who are still reading despite my stalling blog. I went through a similar phase before the ATC in May so my long-time readers know updates are going to be sparse for the next 7 weeks. I still promise to do one army update per week on my GK's and their batreps from the GT.

I have also been working a lot on terrain this week to meet my 6 table quota. Here's a sneak preview of my newest concept (with my current GK force).

Welcome to the tidal jungle!

My concept is an ocean moon orbiting a massive planet in a system with an ultraviolet star. The gravity of the massive planet creates immense tidal shifts over 20 feet. The orbit and rotation of the moon is such that the huge tidal changes last 6 months each; high tide and low. The flora has evolved to survive 6 months under water and 6 months above. The plant-like life forms have developed neon chlorophyll to better harvest the ultraviolet light of the star and most species have developed poisons and/or predatorial characteristics to survive long periods of pure darkness. The table is designed to be played with the water as open (very shallow) with area terrain defined by flora clusters, or to treat the water as difficult terrain and the area terrain as dangerous. My plan is to make signs for each table with simple and advanced suggested treatments of the terrain.

I'll show the full table sometime next week. The local shop may run a GT primer tournament and I wanted to finish one new table for that event.

In other GT news, some of us local guys formed up a team for the ATC style Team Event. I'm pretty excited for this as I think team events in general are always more fun for me than singles. The team event however, is 2000pts (the GT is 1850) and no comp (the GT has a heavy comp rubric). As such, I'm still on the fence as to which army I should play (I know you guys would love to see more nid action). After we sign up our team, they should have 8 or so teams, so this is looking to be a great weekend. If any of my readers are within traveling distance of Rochester, NY I highly recommend coming up October 21st-23rd for DaBoyz GT. It's a top notch event with great terrain and fun missions. They're bumping the main event up to 6 rounds this year and the team event is 3, so grab some friends and come for a great weekend of 9 games. Two of the local guys, Jay W. and Shaun K. are also on the American ETC team so you can chat them up about their trip to Switzerland this year. Also, don't forget the best general at DaBoyz GT 2011 earns a spot on USA's 2012 ETC team!

Grey Knights: DaBoyz GT 2011 Project Army T-8 Weeks

2011-08-26T08:48:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the lack of updates recently. I'm literally spending every free minute painting and preparing for DaBoyz GT . I recently looked over my unpainted models, did some math, and realized I need to finish 3 models per week to get the army done on time. That's a lot at my pace. Luckily, the henchmen go a lot faster than the knights with all the white. I also volunteered to provide 6 tables this year so I need to build 4 more sets of terrain, and I'd like a new display board if that's even possible.

I'm not a fan of batch painting after doing so many tyranids. I like to paint single models from start to finish now and I tend to get bored easily, so I tend to jump around a lot. Last week I painted some knights and henchmen so this week I wanted to get some big models out of the way. I was able to finish my dreadknight and dreadnought.

I'm pretty happy with how they came out. The large bases I got from Battle Ready Figs are especially nice.

I love the dreadknight model. It was the first GK I picked up as it was in our prize pile when we took 3rd at the ATC. That being said, it really doesn't look like the rest of the army. It's hard to notice until it's standing next to other models, but the design of the armor plates doesn't share any similarities with marines or dreadnoughts. The only thing tying it in with the rest of the army is the terminator strapped in front and the exhaust pipes in the back.

Here's my obligatory rifleman dread. It's a comp tournament so this is my only one.

The feet are a little wonky, but I originally assembled it on the GW base with cracked stone. I wasn't able to break the glue on the ankle joints and reposition them, so I needed to get a little creative when relocating it to the 3rd party base.

After spending 4 days per walker, I'm heading back to infantry models next week. I also took a small break and started making some terrain.

You probably can't tell, but that's a 2'x3' area (25% of a table) filled with some finished pieces and WIP's. I hope to write a terrain article or two as I build the tables for the GT.

On a final note, America's ETC team (which took 3rd this year of 24 teams!) announced it will be using DaBoyz GT as a qualifier for one spot on the 2012 team. Details can be found HERE. This is especially exciting for me and I'll definitely be bringing my A game this year!

Grey Knights: DaBoyz GT 2011 Project Army T-9 Weeks

2011-08-18T09:41:00.000-04:00

Now with bases!

With just over 2 months to go until DaBoyz GT , I still have a long way to go so I need to get serious about the painting grind. I also volunteered to provide 6 tables worth of terrain this year so I need a week or so at the end to whip that up. The good news is I hope to get a hobby/terrain article or two out of the process.

This week has already been a busy one with me, finishing 3 new models and basing 10.

Several readers have inquired about the washers I use under my bases.

The small ones fit perfectly on infantry bases and the big ones fit terminator bases. I also put a big one under my MC/Dreadnought base and several under the large oval. I find the extra weight helps keep light plastic models on their feet. I also use a magnetized handle for painting so I can hold the models without putting my fingers on them.

I decided to use BATTLE READY FIGS for my bases. My concept for the army is (keep an open mind here) ISWAT which is an Inquisitorial Special Weapons and Tactics team (yes, you can lol) on assignment to police a hive city and cleanse it of heretic cults, mutants, and minor daemon incursions. As such, I wanted a base theme reminiscent of Necromunda. I decided to go with TECH BASES .

I painted them gold with a heavy black wash, dry brushed them with gold and a mix of gold/white, then stippled them with a mix of brown/red to add the look of rust. Once the models were on the base, I dry brushed some orange and yellow to add to the OSL effect from the force weapons. Here are the individual models on the new bases.

Justicars

Halberds

Psycannons

Swords

Hammer

Heavy Bolter Servitor

So that's the news for this week. I need to finish about 4 models per week so that will be consuming most of my free time. I also need to help play test the GT missions for revision so that means very little tyranid content for the next two months. I apologize to all my hardcore nid fans, but I know many of you understand that after focusing on one army for over a year, it's nice to have a side project.

Happy 'ArdBoyz Day!

2011-08-13T00:05:00.000-04:00

I know it's lame, but I get excited for tournament days. I'm lucky to get one game in per week and I thoroughly enjoy it whether I win or lose. I reckon I've played 100 games since getting back into 40k in March 2010. One hundred games, each entirely different from each other due to the incalculable combinations of terrain, mission, deployment, opponent's codex and build. Even playing the same opponent twice in a row and only changing who takes the first turn can create two opposite outcomes.

Two hundred and fifty hours of sci-fi battles on alien planets and I'm still learning new tricks and ways to avoid tricks on the battlefield. If I replayed all those games starting at dawn and playing until dusk, it would take three weeks and I have yet to face even half of the popular competitive lists. I recently faced a Kan Wall for the first time at the ATC. I faced dual lash for the first time last week. I still haven't had the pleasure of setting up across from razorwolves, decent of angels, deathwing, draigowing, or venom spam.

I know lack of experience is my biggest weakness as I'm usually able to overcome an opponent if I practice against them enough. In response, I'm bringing a list that nobody around here has attempted or played against in all likelihood. I will face opponents who have played ten times longer than I, and try to put them in my shoes and take them out of their comfort zone.

I look forward to tournament day as I would Christmas if it came once a month. Three games in a row to further increase my library of experience and tactics. Three chances in a row to meet a new hobbyist, get a rematch with your nemesis, or goof off with a friend when you both end up on the bottom tables. Last month I missed out on our local tournament so I'm jonesin' for these three games.

The army is packed along with two tables worth of terrain. Lists are packed in with templates and the codex. My energy drink is in the fridge and the gas tank is full. Today will be the second best day of the month. On the 24th, we find out if we're having a boy or girl!

I hope to post minimal updates through the day either before or after each game, if anyone will be following along. Wish me luck, as I wish all of you luck on 'ArdBoyz Day!

'Ardboyz Practice Nids vs CSM (Abby)

2011-08-10T08:42:00.000-04:00

I had my second and final practice game before this weekend's coming 'ArdBoyz prelims. KEVIN accepted my challenge and came over to the man-cave toting Abbaddon for a rematch.

Kevin's List (approx):
Abbaddon
6 Terminators + 2x combi-melta, hvy flamer, fist
3 Terminators + 3x combi-melta, fist
Berzerkers x10 + fist, icon
1k Sons x9 + sorc, doom bolt, icon, rhino, combi-flamer
Marines x10 + champ, fist, melta x2, ICG, rhino
Marines x10 + champ, fist, plasma x2, ICG, rhino
Lesser Daemons x10
Havoks x8 + autocannons x3, missile, ICG
Obliterators x3
Land Raider + possession

My List (same as LAST GAME):

Tyrant + armored shell, hive commander, heavy venom cannon, paroxysm, leech essence

Tervigon + adrenal glands, toxin sacs, catalyst, cluster spines

Ymgarl Genestealers x9
Ymgarl Genestealers x9
Ymgarl Genestealers x9
Termagaunts x10

Tervigon + adrenal glands, toxin sacs, catalyst, cluster spines, crushing claws

Genestealers x5 + toxin sacs, broodlord/scything talons

Harpy + tl heavy venom cannons

Tyrannofex + rupture cannon, cluster spines, desiccators larvae
Tyrannofex + rupture cannon, cluster spines, desiccators larvae
Carnifex + heavy venom cannon

We decided to test out Mission #1 from the 'ArdBoyz packet (kp/traitor). I won the roll to go first and took it. I deployed my forces split, one on each flank. I'm not going to spend a lot of time explaining the finesse behind this list, but splitting forces does some interesting things here. One tfex, carnifex, and HQ tervigon go on the right flank.

Tfex, tyrant, and harpy go on the left flank and behind a forest. Kevin deploys in a refused flank favoring my right side. Berzerkers are in the land raider. 1k sons in the middle, one unit of marines on each side. The traitor is in the rhino on the far right. Abbaddon is deepstriking with 6 terminators, as will the squad of 3.

Ironically, this counter-deployment actually works into this list's plan. I have the broodlord commando squads outflanking with the troop tervigon. Depending on which side they come in, I could sweep directly into him or play KP denial. I choose to place two ymgarl units in the central forest and one directly in front of my Mc's on the right. My traitor is in reserves with 9 gaunts. Kevin fails to seize.

I move the units from the left flank towards where the action will take place on the right. MC's on the right shuffle for better cover or LoS. Tervigon gives itself FnP.

Kevin's cover saves are nearly perfect. I only get a single "stun" through on the land raider which it ignores due to possession.

Kevin moves the land raider up 6", and the central rhino up 12". Everything else stays put and fires into the tervigon. After cover and FnP, it takes 2 wounds.

Turn 2 is my favorite of each game with this army; it's like christmas! I get the gaunts with traitor in from reserves and bring them in the left corner, across the whole field from Kevin's forces. Now I just need to keep them safe from the deep striking terminators. I get one commando unit of stealers on the quiet side.

Ymgarls wake up in the center, are still cold from the snow, and don't get very far. I want to grab the oblits, but I'll need a good fleet roll.

One commando squad comes in on the good side and runs behind the traitor's ride. I'm actually going to ignore that for now and go for the havoks. I hope to take out all his long range shooting in one turn. Another unit of ymgarls wakes up in front of my MC's on the right, and spread out to screen them from the land raider full of berzerkers. They also get FnP.

My shooting does absolutely nothing for a second turn. Ymgarls in the center get a poor fleet and won't be able to reach the oblits. They morph for t5 and wrap around the rhino.

27 attacks later I manage to explode the rhino and take out one marine. In the back right corner, a broodlord leads his toxic stealers into the havoks in the forest. I hypnotize one marine, lose one stealer before I can swing, and kill several, but we lock.

Kevin only gets his lesser daemons in and decides to use them to save the marines whos rhino just exploded.

He moves up the land raider and rhino with traitor. I guess he thought the havoks were beyond saving. 1k sons zoom up in their ride and oblits shuffle for position.

His oblits target the harpy and only score 1 wound. Ymgarls in the middle survive a bunch of bolt pistol shots (still t5). Lesser daemons and marines assault the ymgarls. I'm able to kill several of each, but get smacked down to 2 models, break and run away. The combat with havoks starts swinging in my favor but we're still locked.

End of turn 2 - Kevin 0kp, Me 1kp

My last unit of ymgarls wake up in the center (I had 2 units dormant there). This time I will get those oblits!

On the right, my outflanking troop tervigon arrives to spring the trap.

The 2 surviving ymgarls continue to flee and everything on the right shifts up to trap Kevin's forces. The HQ tervigon spawns 9 gaunts (no dubs) to add to the screen. Everything on the left moves towards the right. Gaunts fail their IB roll and hunker down with the traitor.

My tfex's either fail to hit or fail to pen the land raider. My HVC's are out of range, so they go after a rhino and shake it. Ymgarls in the center morph for t5 and assault the oblits and daemons.

I kill an oblit and some daemons, win combat, and do more wounds thanks to fearless and we lock. The broodlord finishes off the havoks in the woods before his buddies can even swing.

Kevin fails both reserve rolls for his two terminator units. He jumps the berzerkers out of his land raider and puts the traitor's unit in.

In the center, his surviving marine chase after the 2 fleeing ymgarls. 1k sons zoom down and unload to rapid fire. Berzerkers fire pistols into gaunts killing a few. Being the sneaky git that I am, I remove the closest ones. Now he still has assault range, but if he wants to multi onto the ymgarls, he will need to roll difficult terrain and possibly fail altogether so he assaults the gaunts alone and wipes them out.

His shooting kills the ymgarls and harpy.

End of turn 3 - Kevin 3kp, Me 3kp.

It's time to drop the hammer. I think I have enough on the right side to deal with the berzerkers, land raider, and marines, so I give the ymgarls FnP and send them after 1k sons in the middle. Genestealers up top also get FnP and everything heads into the fray. I spawn gaunts, but only get 4 and burn out so I keep them back to save the KP.

Tyrant and tfex move up to shoot the marines in the forest. Cluster spines from the tfex actually scatter onto the 1k sons, killing a few, and putting me in danger of missing my assault with the ymgarls.

Luckily, I get a good fleet roll.

The ymgarls morph for t5 and rush in. After attacks, rends, and no retreat wounds, only the sorceror survives. On the right, my tfex, carnifex, tervigon, and genestealers prepare to stampede the berzerkers. The tervigon with claws prepares to ram the land raider.

I'm able to wipe them out losing one genestealer and a wound on the carnifex. The tervigon with claws gets 7 attacks assaulting the land raider and explodes it. Ymgarls up top finally finish off the daemons and oblits.

Kevin gets his termicide squad, but Abbaddon and his 6 terminators stay out with a "1". He brings on the terminators to try and save the traitor. His last rhino zooms behind cover. His marines in the forest try to save his sorceror.

He pumps combi-meltas and plasma into the wounded tervigon and kill it. Marines jump into ymgarls in the middle. I morph for attacks, kill the sorceror and several marines, then sweep the rest.

End of turn 4 - Kevin 4kp, me 9kp

I think I have this just about wrapped up, but Abbadon's unit has a small chance of assassinating the traitor with a lucky deep strike for their heavy flamer, so I bring the tyrant back a bit. Gaunts fail IB again and have to stay put.

On the right, my remaining tervigon spawns 16(!) gaunts who prepare to stampede along with the carnifex, 3 surviving genestealers, and ymgarls that just cleared the center. Gaunts get FnP.

Everything assaults in.

I'm able to smash the terminators and the traitor, but despite the onslaught, 2 marines survive. There's too many bodies so after pile-in's, the ymgarls are left unengaged.

Abbaddon arrives (automatically) to find nearly his entire force consumed. Kevin tries for the assassination, but mishaps. I get to place the unit and decide to put them close to the bulk of my force in case the game goes on. I want to give him a chance to get in the fray (as well as a chance to get a full tabling muahaha!).

Kevin moves the rhino up to the 4 gaunt squad and burns the combi-flamer, taking out 3. The terminators get lucky and wipe out the ymgarls up top despite them being t5. In assault, I'm able to take down the remaining marines on the right. Kevin rolls and the game ends!

Kevin's list had 14kp and 3 survived so I scored 11 plus the traitor for 16kp. He killed a 2 units of ymgarls, gaunts, harpy, and tervigon for 5kp. I get the massacre!

Well, this game was ruled by the dice. It could have gone badly for me if my outflankers came in on the side Kevin refused. Instead, I got 2 out of my 3 outflankers on the right side and his terminators failed their reserve rolls until turns 4 and 5. This game would have been very close if Abbaddon had arrived turn 2 instead of turn 5. My shooting did absolutely nothing for the first 3 turns (really all game), but my assault dice were on fire. Some of my ymgarl batch rolls literally only missed 2-3 out of the lot.

I've gotta thank Kevin for coming over for the practice. He's a true joy to play and we're able to laugh about everything throughout the game no matter how ridiculous the dice can be. His army is also masterfully painted and I apologize that the lighting and camera angles didn't do it justice.

I know I have some doubters of my list, but this is really how it's supposed to work. Generally speaking, the closer you are to your enemy, the faster you will lose models. In its purest form, this list is designed to take that away from my opponents. All of my deployed units are t6 and will have 2+ armor or 4+ cover and can shoot 36"+. Splitting my deployment into each corner brings my opponent closer to my outflankers (at least in mission #1 where they are allowed) and hopefully into my ymgarl traps. I don't need to hide them in my opponent's deployment zone and risk losing them because now I've forced my opponent to come to me. In most shooting matches, I will prevail in early turns (except against DE) as I will have cover against lascannons and my list isn't afraid of missiles. My MC's can't be stunned and while HVC's and rupture cannons aren't solid at destroying vehicles, they are decent at suppressing them. Even if my ymgarls arrive mid-table, they have a huge threat range. T5 and FnP makes them very hard to kill and if I can tie up shooty units with them and force my opponent to use resources in reaction, my MC's all of a sudden get ignored and are allowed to run rampant.

I know I've only practiced twice and only against CSM, but I'm still pretty confident with this list. Obviously SW, DE, BA, and GK will pose different threats, but I believe the list's flexibility and options will help me put up a competitive fight.

This was my last chance to practice so my next reports will be from the 'ArdBoyz preliminaries. Wish me luck!

Grey Knights: DaBoyz GT 2011 Project Army T-12 Weeks

2011-08-05T08:42:00.004-04:00

Here are some painting tweaks and WIP's for this week.

I've been spending a lot of time on my Storm Raven. This is the first vehicle I've painted in 11 years so it's been a (re-)learning experience. My goal was a blending of a police cruiser and a SWAT truck. (I know some of the pics are too large for the column, I just wanted the largest size so you can see the detail)

I'm trying to get the pilot and gunner to look like they're lit by blue and red glow from their control panels so in a way, it looks like the blue and red flashers on police vehicles.

I still have to put in the cockpit plastic and framing, but I want to seal the model first so I still have a little work to do.

I also mentioned last week that I was repainting the force weapons and adding some OSL glow on the marines. Here are some updated models (you can click the picture for a larger version).

Progress is slowing a big because of 'ArdBoyz prep and play testing with the Nids, but I hope to get back on track after next week.

Stay tuned!

This Week's Inbox

2011-08-04T09:24:00.000-04:00

From my friend in the Phillipines:

"Hi

Soon here and i need your advice on this list. Unfortunately i can't change this list anymore so this is what i got. I need your help with the tactics. This is what i brought

Swarmlord

2 Tyrant guard with lash whips

elites

6 ymgarl genestealers

3 Hiveguard

2 zoanthropes on spore

troops

10 toxin stealers

9 toxin stealers and broodlord with toxin

15 devilgaunts

tervigon with catalyst toxin and adrenal

hev support

Trygon prime

I will be against GK, SW, BA, and DE. What can i do against them. Thanks and more power to you site"

Soon~
I like the list even though the someone people will criticize the lack of redundancy. GK, SW, BA, and DE can be the most difficult pairings for Nids depending how the lists are built so you'll have some very tough games.

I've been practicing with *Jay* for his trip to Europe to the ETC and I can tell you Nids can do a lot better against GK then people think. You need to apply a lot of pressure very fast so they can't pick you apart with storm bolters and psyriflemen don't do much against our MC's with FnP. The best way to avoid force weapons is a multi-assault where you lock down most of the force weapons with stealers or gaunts and put the swarmlord/trygon in so only one GK can strike on them.

Not many tactics are needed in fighting BA, just solid target priority. They'll either be shooty or assaulty. Assaulty BA won't be a problem for poisoned stealers and the swarmlord. Shooty BA often feature assault cannons which play right into your hive guard range.

Hopefully you've had enough practice against SW to know how to deal with them now. JoTWW, TWC, and long fangs are their trump cards. You only have one MC vulnerable to JoTWW, Swarmlord can handle TWC, so max long fangs are the biggest threat to your list IMO. I'm sure you know ymgarls morphed for t5 can handle long fangs even in terrain, so use all of your stealers to put pressure on them and make sure your monsters have cover and FnP the one you think he wants to missile the most.

DE can be a big problem for us. Just remember the board is finite in size and each stealer unit has a 18" threat range in each direction forming a 36" diameter threat bubble. By spacing the models out 2" and infiltrating the units across the board, you can create a wide net to catch skimmers that are jumping around. Just like against GK, you need to be very aggressive with your fleet units in asserting table control. Devilgaunts can actually be quite effective in suppressing DE skimmers also.

Good luck and tell me how it goes!

From Matt:

"Howdy,

I've been following your blog for a while, and I'm learning so much. As a novice player, it gives me a lot of hope that Tyranids can be competitive. Anyway, I've noticed that you've recently changed your list, and I'm curious why you've made these changes, what gaps did you feel you were missing. Now you seem to be going all Ymgarls vs Hive guard, and you've got a few HVC, is that mainly a range change? HVC is good enough for suppression, and Ymgarls are great for early assaults? Your past two matches seem to have worked well, so I'm not saying its a good idea, just something different.

Cheers, and thanks so much for the blog!
Matt"

Matt ~

My list changes for every tournament. Most of my recent reports were from my ATC trip and preparation. If you aren't familiar with the format, it's a 5 man team even where the captains take turns with pairings. Each mission included KP's, 2 cap'n'control objectives, and 3 seize ground objectives. Because of all these factors, I designed my list to:

1. Limit KP's
2. Assert table control by infiltrating 38 genestealers backed up with FnP and preferred enemy
3. Not worry about JoTWW in hopes my captain would never pair me against SW.

My most recent reports have been in preparation for 'ArdBoyz. The inclusion of HVC's and Ymgarls is a response to the scenarios and current shift in the meta. It's my practice to design the lists for each tournament specifically. There are some very well written Nid lists out there that just won't do well in certain scenarios, or against certain armies.

When designing the list with 27 ymgarls and 6 MC's, I looked at these factors:

1. Mission #1 is KP's, so my MSU list designs would be at a disadvantage. My current list features 3 MC's with t6 and 2+ armor giving cover to the other so no "easy" KP's there. Ymgarls usually get into assault before they get shot so they work out well also.

2. Mission #2 is 5 objectives, but nothing can infiltrate or outflank. This means my previous use of ~40 genestealers would be pointless for this entire mission. However, I took the time to paint all of them so I still wanted to use them. This was actually the starting point of the list as I thought: "How can I use all my beautiful genestealers as Ymgarls, and still survive without hive guard".

3. Mission #3 is DoW deployment. This means no fex stars (carnifex+tyranid prime), and no Parasite of Mortrex (my other consideration) + gargoyles. Even though they're fast. Tyranids start with the speed disadvantage of no transports that can move 12" and disembark. It's my consistent practice to always deploy units in DoW, even if I'm going second to assert board control from the beginning. Ymgarls also break DoW deployment in a way as they aren't deployed on the table, but still appear and assault without having to cross the board and get shot.

Rupture cannons and HVC's aren't super for destroying transports reliably, but do you think two turns of shooting is enough to at least stun or immobilize a couple? Rending genestealers are solid against vehicles that haven't moved last turn. If my hive commander bonus pays off, I should get 2 units of ymgarls and 1 of my commando units on turn 2, right in my opponent's face. This creates a shift in focus for a bit, also known as "disruption". All of a sudden, my opponent is forced to deal with these and before they know it, all my MC's are knocking on their front door.

People talk about synergy with Nids a lot. The thing to remember is this doesn't always mean buffs. There is synergy in list design also in how it plays out on the table. This list synergizes the game flow in this way: shoot and survive turn 1, disrupt turns 2-3, drop the hammer turns 4+.

Hope that helps!

From Magnus:

"hi¡¡

I always read your blog, its brilliant, you are helping so much to hiveminds¡¡¡ . well sorry but my english isn't the best, i hope you can barely understand me :).
well I see this list in yes the truth hurts, stelek (everyone know him so no need presentations i guess) compose this list for ard boyz.

if you have some time it would be great that you can talk about list composition and your thoughts, I am interested in this because i think you are one of the best hivecommander blogger and the list its really diferent as you usually used.

Well the list :

1 Tervigon (Catalyst, Toxin)
1 Tervigon (Catalyst, Toxin)
1 Venomthrope
1 Venomthrope
10 Termagants
10 Termagants
10 Termagants
1 Tervigon (Catalyst, Cluster, Adrenal, Toxin)
1 Tervigon (Catalyst, Cluster, Adrenal, Toxin)
1 Tervigon (Catalyst, Cluster, Adrenal, Toxin)
3 Carnifexes
3 Carnifexes
2 Carnifexes

thanks :)"

Magnus~

I knew this one was coming hehe. I don't take the time to criticize other blogger's lists on their blogs because I think it's poor form. The thing about Stelek's list is it plays the rock/paper/scissors game. It will steamroll some armies and get steamrolled by others. However, pairings in tournaments can either be very lucky or terrible so his list could get lucky enough to sweep 'ArdBoyz to the top, or get eliminated round 1 because it isn't very balanced.

Space wolves with one or more JoTWW pose a really big problem for this list. People say that build isn't the best or most popular anymore, but it doesn't change the fact that it still happens. I played a list with Njal and 3 priests last year which would knock out 600+pts a turn of MC's from this list.

Grey knights also pose a potentially big problem here with the ability of killing 3 carnifex's with force weapons before they even strike.

Dark eldar can zip around and focus fire the tervigons very quickly.

Mech lists in general can sacrifice a couple empty transports, moving them fast and blocking your movement. This forces the above list to sacrifice movement and entire assault phases clearing the way.

Dawn of war deployment (and mission #3 in general for this year's 'Ardboyz) poses a huge problem with 1280pts invested in carnifex's which have to walk on and cross the table without fleet. With no shooting whatsoever, I anticipate this list will "auto-lose" scenario #3.

All of that said, *Jay* took 1st in our local 'Ardboyz prelims and 1st at the regional semi-finals with a very similar list last year:

(approx):
Tervigon
Tervigon
Hive Guard x3
Hive Guard x3
Venomthropes x2
Tervigon
Tervigon
Gaunts x10
Gaunts x10
Carnifex x3
Carnifex x2
Trygon

It bears a lot of similarity to Stelek's list, but it's far more balanced with shooting units and more speed from the trygon. At the end of the day, it also comes down to pairings. Jay and I played at the same store. I drew the SW list with Njal and 3 priests and he didn't. Luckily, I only had 2 init1 MC's so I was able to beat the wolf list whereas he could have lost that match.

Hope some of that makes sense and thanks for the email!

synaps3

So close, yet so far...

Endless Joy

Six Grotesques Down

The Kabal Grows

Kabalite Warriors

Angels Sanguine

This Week's Successes and Failures

Newborns and Trueborns

Last Day as a Free Man

Dark Eldar Progress

Happy New Year!

2011 Invitational, Game #3

2011 Invitational, Game #2

2011 Invitational, Game #1

This Week's Hobby

Warhammer Weekend, Part 2

Warhammer Week: Invitational Results (spoiler)

Winter League Mini-Reps, Week #1

Winter Painting League, Week #1

Batrep: 1850 Tyranids vs Space Marines

DaBoyz GT - Main Event Game #3

Dark Eldar WIP's: Scourges

Dark Eldar WIP's

New Adventures: Dark Eldar

DaBoyz GT - Main Event Game #2

Millennium Games: Final Open Tourney of the Year

DaBoyz GT - Main Event Game #1

Necron Reactions

Hobby Crossroads

DaBoyz GT - Team Event Game #3

DaBoyz GT - Team Event Game #2

DaBoyz GT - Team Event Game #1

DaBoyz GT - Quick Recap

Grey Knights: DaBoyz GT 2011 Project Army *Complete!*

DaBoyz GT - BoLS Deep

Grey Knights: DaBoyz GT 2011 Project Army *sneak preview*

Grey Knights: DaBoyz GT 2011 Project Army T-14 Days

October Blogroll

Grey Knights: DaBoyz GT 2011 Project Army T-19 Days

Grey Knights: DaBoyz GT 2011 Project Army T-4 Weeks

Inbox: Ardboyz Results

Yes, it Hurts (so bad it gets deleted).

So I don't usually get sucked into blog wars, but this one really irked me today.

It started here, with Stelek taking shots at the terrain at NOVA 2011:

http://yesthetruthhurts.com/2011/09/nova-open-the-laundry-list/

The gist of it is NOVA 2011 actually had BLoS terrain where it didn't in 2010. In my opinion, he was butt-hurt over having to play his 85% shooting army differently, but I didn't come out and say it like that. My comment is #32 in the list. I said:

"hyv3mynd says:

Special Attention: Terrain

3 Responses to “Special Attention: Terrain”

40k - Summer 2011

Grey Knights: DaBoyz GT 2011 Project Army T-5 Weeks

Hobby: Tidal Flats Table

Grey Knights: DaBoyz GT 2011 Project Army T-7 Weeks

Grey Knights: DaBoyz GT 2011 Project Army T-8 Weeks

Grey Knights: DaBoyz GT 2011 Project Army T-9 Weeks

Happy 'ArdBoyz Day!

'Ardboyz Practice Nids vs CSM (Abby)

Grey Knights: DaBoyz GT 2011 Project Army T-12 Weeks

This Week's Inbox

Grey Knights: DaBoyz GT 2011 Project Army Complete!

Grey Knights: DaBoyz GT 2011 Project Army sneak preview