1500 Lists, Vote in the Poll

Hey everyone,

I'm bored in Estate Planning, so here are a couple lists that I am thinking of running for a 1500 point Rogue Trader after finals in December.

First we have my Draigo Paladin army that I have been working on since this summer. I just got a finecast Draigo that wasn't too bad, so now I can use the army. The main plan here is to to just say fuck it and throw down 20 Paladins in 1500 points. I can deep strike or scout them if need be, or give them counter attack or re-roll some 1s. I am thinking of splitting them up into 4 squads for multiple objective games, or maybe just have two bricks. I think this will be a challenging list, and will need to find time to practice with it.

GK 1495

HQ

275 Draigo

Troops

630 10 Paladins, 4 psycannons

590 10 Paladins, 2 psycannons

Next we have my tried and true Space Wolves, this has a lot more bodies. It's much more balanced. I am actually including jaws because necrons might be making an appearance. Otherwise I still think it is so unreliable to be almost useless. Tempests Wrath is my favorite power, but I have not seen it be as useful here in Lubbock as it would have been in Austin. It can just bone skimmer armies, or at least make them hesitate, same with jump armies, and that is totally worth it. But I don't see so many of those up here. Therefore living lightning is a good all rounder back up. 

Normally I am all about a thunderwolf lord, but just didn't have the points, I was going to run a WGBL, but you can get two single thunderwolves with storm shields for not too much more, and with the same about of wounds. So, I know they may not be the most "competitive" unit, but I love me some thunderwolf cavalry. 

SW 1494

HQ

100 Runepriest, Tempests Wrath, Living Lightning 

105 Runepriest, Jaws of the World Wolf, Living Lightning, Wolf tail talisman

Elites

129 3 wolfguard with powerfist and combi melta

Troops

170 8 Grey Hunters , meltagun , wolf standard, rhino 

170 8 Grey Hunters, meltagun , wolf standard, rhino 

145 7 Grey Hunters , meltagun,  rhino 

195 10 Grey Hunters, 2 plasmaguns, rhino 

Fast Attack

100 Thunderwolf, Stormshield, wolf claw

95 Thunderwolf, Stormshield, power weapon

Heavy Support

140 6 longfangs, 5 missiles 

145 5 long fangs, 2 missiles, 2 lascannons

So dear readers, I leave my army up to you. Which army do I play in the after finals RT? There should be a poll on the upper right side of the page. 

Also, if you have any ideas on how to improve either of these lists, leave em in the comments, or get a hold of me on Twitter, @bryce963 

Now, back to studying!

Necrons, first look.

Alright folks, here is a list with things that I thought were cool on a first glance. I guess I'll lead off with the list, then talk about the choices and say a bit about the book in general. I will be doing a later post on units that I have not covered here, and more development as I think and read and hopefully watch some games.

Had to make a correction based upon a mistaken fact pointed out on Twitter by @hungryclone. See Fast Attack below. 

1849 points.

HQ

185 Nemesor Zandrekh

Court

55 Harbinger of Destruction, Solar Pulse

25 Harbinger of the Storm

35 Harbinger of Destruction

35 Harbinger of Destruction

Troops

170 10 Immortals, Tesla Carbines

232 9 Warriors, Ghost Ark

232 9 Warriors, Ghost Ark

130 10 Warriors

130 10 Warriors

Fast Attack

120 3 Wraiths, 1 whip coil, 1 particle caster

120 3 Wraiths, 1 whip coil, 1 particle caster

Heavy Support

90 Annihilation Barge

90 Annihilation Barge

200 Monolith

Alright, so Zandrehk is pretty cool. The taking away enemy rules seems just as great if not better than the granting USRs to your own units. The only game I have actually seen Necrons played so far, he took Zandrehk, getting rid of furious charge on Khorne Berzerkers sure takes the piss out of them. He glanced the guy's land raider to death towards the end. 

Zandrehk really adds a lot of verstility, which helps the generalist nature of a lot of Necron units. I am not so sure about his deep strike only counter reserve, not sure what to do with it. 

Now the Court is pretty cool. Well Crypteks are, I don't really see much use for the Lords. You want to be shooting with your Necrons, a small amount of expensive power weapon attacks on a 1 wound model won't help how hard you take it in close combat. 

These guys give more versatility and anti tank to spread around your units.

These two that seem best are Storm and Destruction. Storm gives you an assault 4 12in, haywire gun. So basically this is like another 4 necrons in the squad. Also, it costs nothing to give them the haywire gun!

The Destruction guys are pretty sweet. Cheap for a 36in AP missile launcher basically. A great way to beef up the range and anti tank of a warrior squad. 

Now the coolest part, the Destruction guys get to take a Solar Pulse. That lets you call in or dispel Night Fighting at the start of a turn. Now this is crucial because it does not say game turn. So you can do this to give you cover during their turn, or to take away their darkness and open fire during your turn. 

Now on to Troops. 

Warriors are cool. Yes they are only 4+ save now, but they are 5 points cheaper than before. 

Also, this give me a chance to talk about the new we'll be back, called reanimation protocols. This is now only a 5 or 6. Sounds like a down grade all around huh? Not at all. This coming back can only be negated by either wiping out the unit entirely, or making them run in combat. If they are running in combat the unit is dead anyway. But now, as opposed to before, you don't give a fuck about power weapons, str 8+, or AP 4. Your save is less, but you don't care, you basically have a 5+ Ward Save like in Fantasy or pseudo Feel No Pain. Additionally Resurrection protocols happens at the end of every phase. Oh no you shot 3 guys down before you charged, well 1 or 2 of them got back up. Hey, we actually held against those assault terminators, on hey Str 8 power weapons, whatever, those guys just got back up. 

And if there is a Ghost Ark nearby at the start of the movement phase d3 of them get added back up even if they didn't make it last time. 

Speaking of the Ghost Ark; 115 points holy shit over costed and don't take it! 

That is what I thought at first. But here is what makes this thing tick, AV 13 and Liquid Metal(ignoring Stunned on a 2+, and Shaken on a 4+). Oh you say, but that AV 13 is only until they take a Penetrating hit. A missile launcher needs a 5 to glance and a 6 to pen. If this open topped vehicle get's penned by something it is likely dead anyway.  So  a 115 point  AV 13 all around  transport that can get off 30 shots at 12 inches(including the 5 guys inside and any cryptek), and if you bail the guys out to fire for effect you can get 40 shots at something. This may be the definition of anecdotal, but I saw one of these full of warriors glance a land raider to death. It was cool. Also it can fire at two different targets, this seems like something that would be easy to forget and could get that one more lucky glance and keep something from shooting or moving, or even better taking a weapon or immobilizing it. 

Immortals are basically your old warriors, a point cheaper with better guns. I don't really know about tesla or gauss on them. Both seem good. I would prefer the tesla for consistent range, they seem like better objective sitters. In the above list I use them to babysit Zandrehk and an objective. 

Fast Attack
CORRECTION

Heavy Destroyers suck balls. Still. I thought they had two wounds, if they had two wounds I would give my previous estimation about mobile sturdy lascannons. 60 points for one wound model, no way. 


However, wraiths are made of win. 35 points. Remember that while I talk about what else they have.
 First they don't have reanimation protocols, and are not Necrons for Phase Out (kidding, it's gone, why did that exist in the first place?). 
They are jump infantry( So they can deep strike with Zandrehk). 
They ignore difficult terrain and automatically pass dangerous terrain tests. 
They have 3 Str 6 rending attacks. 
T4, but they have a 3++ invulnerable save, also 2 wounds and fearless. 
They can also take wargear(wound allocation), one of which makes models in base contact initiative 1.
 So they can go first. Also, they can take a pistol that is str 6, and only 5 points for wound allocation. 


So yeah, those are badass. But Destroyers being crap does limit the lists anti tank. 

Heavy Support

Monolith is a bit different than it used to be, not totally as unkillable as it was, but good enough. 

The key here is turning this thing on it's corner, so that 3 of the flux arks can get a shot, looking for 6s on 12 shots isn't that bad odds. Particle whip is nice. Bringing guys from all over the table to where you want them is the big reason I think. 

The Monolith is what you want to be deep striking on their turn with Zandrehk. Oh sorry here is a 4x4 solid LOS blocker that can shoot all around it and bring lychguard or something else nasty in on my turn. 

Annihilation Barge, see the  durability discussion of the Ghost Ark infra . Telsa Destructor, Str 7 Assault 4, two extra AUTOMATIC HITS for every 6 you roll, and a 1/6 change to affect any unit within 6 inches with d6  str 5 hits. That's cool as fuck. But it only has 24 inch range, and isn't fast. However, see the discussion of the Solar Pulse, and it's only 90 points. 

Necrons are pretty sweet. This is just upon a quick glance through. I would love to get some Praetorians in here. I wish someone would have made them or lychguard troops, or even flayed ones. There doesn't seem to be any FOC swapping in this codex, and I was hoping that would basically be a standard feature in this modern era. I think it is one of the best ways to add diversity with the minimum overhead in mechanics. 

They seem like a solid army now. They are still terrible in close combat, but they are resilient, and even more so because the common ways to negate the old we'll be back(powerfists, weapons, rending, etc.) are assault oriented. So even if one guy rolls that snake eyes for his leadership against a unit of assault termies or whatever, all the rest of them get the chance get back into the fray.  

So, as always stick to the Blood Axe Battle Plan(they're the Orks with the strategery) Fight the shooty ones and shoot the fighty ones. Necrons get hosed on both of these counts, but they might just get back up. 

Update of things to come.

(Most 90s under construction non moving .gif I could find)

Hey everyone, long time no type.

Bringing a little law school to the wargaming mix, finals are fast approaching, hence our lack of posts.

However, I have a few new developments on upcoming content. 

1. Today Jack and I are starting with the WarmaHordes Journeyman League at Stormcrow Games. So expect Warmachine content when we get the chance to soon. I have been playing orders of magnitude more WM than 40k or fantasy, it is just what people play more up here in Lubbock.

I've got a bunch of Menoth stuff that I had for years and will finally get some paint on it. Jack is starting up with a Cygnar battle box, we're going to go play later today so he can relearn the rules.

2. There is a 1500 point Rogue Trader the weekend after finals, so I WILL be playing in that. So expect some small points lists for comment and such. Space Wolves or Grey Knight Draigowing? You can get more Paladins than you think.

Which one guys and gals? Wolves or Paladins?

3. Since the Journeyman League includes points for painting, we will be getting some progress or finished stuff up here, it seems we both like turquoise, so there will be a lot of that. 

4. Our lovable Gamemonger Aaron and his lovely business manager/ tech support/ social media officer/ child wrangler/ wife, have asked me to lend my blogging experience(if not expertise) to help them get some content on their blog for Stormcrow Games (The latest post from Sept. has a lot of pictures of the gorgeous terrain we get to play on). So expect some link throughs of perhaps some of the above Warmachine posts.

5. Necrons!!!!! The book looks cool, won't be making an army(I'm serious this time, not like Dark Eldar and Grey Knights, and Ogres), but I will be doing some review posts, and lists.


Oh shit, that's pretty ambitious. And we have these little things called law school finals too. No big deal.

Blog like ya got a pair!

-Bryce

PS- I also do Malifaux on occasion.

GW as the Imperium- Frontline Gamer

Hey everyone,

Today I am merely reposting an essay I just read from Frontline Gamer.

He uses the Imperium of Man as an extended metaphor to talk about the history and current troubles of GW. This is great. Rarely do we get something so far above the petty GW sucks/ WHFB is too random/ 40k isn't for tournaments bullshit.

This is probably the best gaming related essay I have ever read.

http://thefrontlinegamer.blogspot.com/2011/09/is-imperium-metaphor-for-games-workshop.html

Blood Pact!

Another twitter army list challenge from @hungryclone at stabhard.blogspot.com.. It was all boots on the ground, guard with no vehicles.

I stepped up finally with a twist. Since I've been reading a ton of Gaunt's Ghosts lately (Blood Pact, Sabbat Worlds, and Salvation's Reach within the last 3 weeks, all are awesome) I went for an evil Blood Pact force.

This is a just a bunch of crazy stuff thrown in for coolness. Straken to make the blob platoon squad as fierce as they can be, conscripts with a commissar to keep them from running as cannon fodder out front, 30 psykers to cause mayhem with leadership or blasts from behind the advancing blobs, and a few anti tank heavy weapons teams. Those are just the normal chaos troops, the Blood Pact are veterans with meltas that can shoot tanks if they can get close, or hang out with an autocannon and camp an objective, they are for versatility, and the penal legion are to cause back field shenanigans. 

Not the most efficient, or effective, but would be awesome to covert up, especially with some of the Forge World parts, with these Fallen Legionnaire heads from Maxmini and the Oni masks with helmets from Secret Weapon.

1997 points

187 models(unless I missed some)

HQ

365 Kentak Damoguar and command squad

(Straken) Biomancer ( Medi pack), Chaos Icon (Regimental Standard), Vox caster, meltagun, carapace armor, Daemonseer (officer of the fleet), Mutant bodyguard(Nork Deddog)

70 Blood Pact Exoriator(Lord Commissar)

Elites

110 10x Gore Mage squad( Psyker battle squad)

110 10x Gore Mage squad( Psyker battle squad)

110 10x Gore Mage squad( Psyker battle squad)

Troops

962 Platoon

75 Gennel Sirdar, and support troops platoon

30, plasma pistol, 2 plasmaguns, vox caster

120 Squad A, power weapon, Pacted Overseer(Commissar, power weapon), meltagun, vox caster

65 Squad B, power weapon, meltagun

65 Squad C, power weapon, meltagun 

65 Squad D, power weapon, meltagun

-Heavy Weapons

90 Squad 1, 3 missile launchers 30

90 Squad 2, 3 missile launchers 30

90 Squad 3, 3 missile launchers 30

75 Squad 4, 3 autocannons

75 Squad 5, 3 autocannons

152 38 cult troops(conscripts)

110 Blood Pact Squad (Veterans) 3 meltaguns, autocannon

110 Blood Pact Squad (Veterans) 3 meltaguns, autocannon

80 Blood Pact Infiltrators( Penal Legion)

80 Blood Pact Infiltrators( Penal Legion)

80 Blood Pact Infiltrators( Penal Legion)

Magnetize the Stone Horn / Thundertusk Kit

So I sat down with Bryce's StoneHorn and Thundertusk kit and decided that since there was not a great tutorial out there on how to magnetize it I would throw one together.

Things you will need: Stonehorn/Thundertusk Kit, Strong magnets about a half inch in diameter. Glue.

I began by assembling the components that I could.

The body, without the lower back.

And both saddles

I then put a magnet in the back of the neck inside the body of the beast
I then put the heads together with a magnet in the back of each. At this point it is very important to line up the correct sides of the magnets.Next Step is to magnetize the saddles. They will be held by the pull to the magnet already in the neck. Again, make sure that you have the correct sides of the magnets aimed toward the neck.

Then Just stick the lower back on, make you two ogre riders and hazaa!

I hope this helps you guys out. It really was pretty simple when I sat down to do it but It seemed like it was going to be pretty hard. Good luck guys!

Dust is pretty cool.

Last night down at Ye Olde Game Shoppe (Stormcrow) I played and watched some Dust Tactics from Fantasy Flight. This is basically a wargame/ board game hybrid. It's a nice way to do it. The game is played on "terrain" of 2x2 squares of different tiles and features.

The mechanics are actually very simple and easy to use, and a lot of fun. Every unit has a card with all their stats except for a pretty diverse and fun set of universal special rules and special weapons. Such special rules include artillery weapons, and rules for units and characters like "Bad Ass" and "Black Ops".

The newly revised rules can be found free online HERE.

Besides having movement speed, armor, and health on the card, each unit has a weapons block. Each weapon has a range in squares, from 1 being adjacent, to U being unlimited. Each weapon compares unit type and armor, to give a certain number of dice to roll and a certain amount of damage per hit.

Here is an example, these are US armored jump troops. How cool is that? They have a Dual Victory MG as a weapon, it has a range of 4, and can mow down normal infantry. Going to that weapon, go over to the 2 under the infantry section, this is the average toughness for foot soldiers. Each model rolls 5 dice and scores one damage for each hit. Brutal. But they really can't do much to a tank at range. This is where the Rocket Punch comes in. It only rolls 1 die for each model, and only scores 1 damage per hit, but it can hurt even the hardest armor in the game. The MGs are also good against aircraft( these have no been introduced yet, it's just a tease). Also the "Jump" rule allows them to jump over cover and  buildings.

The core mechanic is rolling a number of special hit dice, essentially the game is played looking for a hit symbol (5+ on a d6), though some units like snipers reverse this and look for blank dice ( a 2+ on d6). A hit symbol does a listed amount of damage, each damage takes out a model in a unit, or a hit box on a vehicle or character.
Like I said pretty easy to use.

Each turn starts off with players rolling 3 dice for initiative, or 4 if you have a character with "Black Ops". The winner choosing who goes first. Players then alternate activating units until all units have be activated. A unit can perform 2 actions on it's turn, move, shoot, and use a skill. They can take any action twice except attack, however a unit can "Sustain Fire" by using both actions to shoot, this allows the unit re-roll any non hits that they get.

Here is the start of the demo game I played, I was the US, he played zee Germans.

 I started off well, killing his walker on the far left with 1 shot from my napalm tank, on my far left. The napalm is short range, 2, and gets 1 die against tanks up to 4 or 5 armor, and if you roll a hit, they die. But this was basically the highlight of my game and he stomped me thoroughly. It was a lot of fun.

Here is a picture from the first game I watched, basically I was able to pick most of up from watching that one game.

Ogre Mages Complete

Well, I've built and painted my Ogre wizards that follow different aspects of the Maw. 

First we have the Death wizard, he cares as much about the taking of the life as about the eating of the body. He even makes sure that his prey is dead before he eats it. Quite a blessing for those that he grabs really. 

True to the plans laid out in the last post, I went with a voodoo/ Los Muertos theme, and it came out well I think. This also seems to be the only way to get more power dice using this guy, can't wait to try him out. 

Next we have the Beasts wizard, he is concerned with the beasts that the Ogres hunt and eat, maybe he used to be a Hunter before he felt the call of the Maw.

He will be great for providing +1 S and T to a big ol unit of Ogres and characters, or maybe even better a unit of Mournfangs( the spell is even easier to cast on them!). 

I didn't really have much of an idea what to do with him, but once the owner of our local Stormcrow Games offered that the skull should fit on his head with minimum effort, I took off from there. Aaron while not only being a game shop owner and a great guy, also has a painting service Stormcrow Studios. 

I hope you can see the rusty gut plate. I'm crap at picture taking, sorry. 

Finally we have the eye on the sky Heavens wizard, always on the look out for another comet sent to punish the Ogre race. 

I really think this is a cool lore, not all about offense, but about support, giving wide swaths re-rolls, or making my opponents army re-roll its needed high rolls. But there are a few nice zappy spells, and of course the comet, which is really in keeping with Ogres fluff I feel. Though with me needing to get close and charge for full effect, a big boom in the middle of the enemy night hurt, but it will be cool. 

This guy much like the death one turned out pretty much just like I planned. 

Well, I am going to a review of what I think about the army so far, but I need to get in more games. 

Also, HOLY FUCK I WANT DREAD FLEET. 

Magic Ogre Princesses!

Sorry no princesses, just Ogres with magic. That's what I am going to talk about today, my own amateur take on the lores of magic usable by the Ogres. Gut, Fire, Heavens, Beasts and Death. I currently have a butcher model, and a firebelly model, so I am going to need to make the other three. 

Here are some not quite as bad as I thought sketches of my plans to make Ogres in the other three lores of magic available to the army.  I plan on just converting normal ogres to be these casters, those that follow the Great Maw trust enough to not wear a gutplate, but those who follow other ogre religious philosophies are not so trusting in such a capricious deity. Also less green stuffing.

First the Death butcher,  he will be getting a nice normal skin dry brush, then have all the rest of his skin dry brushed black. Then I plan on drawing nice white bones on him, like a voodoo priest or a halloween costume. A  white skull on his face and ribs, a spine, arm and finger bones to make him look fierce. I might even tattoo the death magic symbol on him in purple or white.

On to the lore-
Spirit Leech- With low Ld the signature spell seems a bit chancy to be effective, but taking out other mages and maybe a standard bearer to help with fear would be nice. Also 12in isn't that far, but that may be the 40k player in me.

The lore attribute here is basically the only way Ogres can get more Power dice as far as I can see.

Aspect of the Dreadknight- We already cause fear, and making enemies run away sounds cool for the boosted version, I'm not too impressed  though. But maybe I don't understand the whole terror/ psychology/ panic stuff enough yet.

Caress of Laniph- Now we're talkin', this will take out wizards and generals and all sorts of things, if you get close enough, yeah 12in for the base version is a bit short, but it allow for more dice too.

Soulblight- Ok, this is cool basically I would need 2s to wound you and you will need 6s to wound me. The boosted version is even cooler. This would be nice on other tough things, like chaos warriors etc.
Doom and Darkness- This would make fear pretty hardcore at -3 Ld, and even the boosted one isn't too high of a casting value.

Fate of Bjuna- More short range character(or monster I guess too) sniping, this one is pretty hardcore, if you can cast it, while in range, and they don't dispel it, you can probably take out most characters, especially if they don't have a ward save. Or that damned reverse ward save Dark Elves get, that thing sucks!

Purple Sun- This sounds cool, but I would be quite worried about casting it and it hitting my guys, or messing up and it hitting my guys, a small template can kill a lot of Ogres and we have shit Initiative. Quite scared of this one showing up across from me.

The Beast butcher, I can't really think of many parts to put on him, and my sculpting might not be up to making a shaggy pelt for him. But I might try. I think I will actually use one of the normally stupid looking bear traps on him, a beast holding a bear trap that works. I want to use as little metal on him as I can, mostly just the gut plate.

Wyssan's Wildform- This is why you're taking the 100 point dude, throw him in a horde with characters and holy crap. Normal Ogres are S and T 5, a Tyrant is 6. That's dragon tough! And it can't be dispelled once you cast it.

Flock of doom, the gut magic version is better.

Impenetrable Pelt- So a T 8 tyrant, also another awesome one taking him in a horde with a tyrant and BSB, they are all super hardy, but that requires him to be lvl 2, and need to cast a pretty high number.

Amber Spear- this is pretty cool, it penetrates ranks, does d3 wounds and doesn't allow saves. A good knight killer if you could hit them on the side, it casts easier on them too. The boosted one is S10, and d6 wounds.

Curse of Anraheir- a pretty cool debuff with long range. Would be nice if there was a lot of terrain. I need to learn the terrain rules.

Savage Beast- Oh my gods  put this on a tyrant or even a bruiser, or hell a unit champion or the butcher himself. Wow. +3 attacks and +3 strength, the attacks more so, the strength will just be icing, you can molly whop a dragon to death.

Transformation of Kadon- This sounds pretty badass, don't know how good it would be. But sounds awesome.

Finally Heavens, this guy is going to have a beard and be looking up at the sky. A dark blue gut plate with a white spiral drawn like it is above. He'll have the heavens symbol on him, and if I can get one of those sextants from an empire wizard kit it will be awesome.

OK, the lore attribute is kind of crap, but could be good against an eagle or something.

Iceshard blizzard- This is pretty cool, with shooting being usually on 5s and 6s anyway, this helps a lot. Also, screw cannons and templates half the time. Negating something that hits 4 or 5 ogres at a time with a 4+, that;s cool.

Harmonic Convergence,- Oh hell yes. Wolf standards for everybody within 24in?!?!? Oh what's up mornfangs, you have a 2+ armor save? If only there was a way I could choose my spells.

Wind Blast- this would be cool if you could have it on multiple wizards. Kinda meh otherwise, but could move someone out of charge range.

Curse of midnight wind- re-roll all 6s, to hit wound and armor saves? Screw all of the other guys stuff on a 20+. With ogres needing 5s and 6s to be wounded by normal troops, and enemy saves being reduced by ogre strength, this is pretty awesome. also 24in!

Urranons thunderbolt- d6, S6 hits 24in range, and 48!( like a missile launcher) for only 3 more on the casting roll? Sign me up.

Comet of Cassandora- This is so fluffy for Ogres to use. Also, random, cool and possibly devastating. Mostly random.

Chain Lightning- this just sounds fun, helpful against lots of small units, or if cast on a horde it will be within 6in of a lot of the other sides units.

Over all I think these lores would be fun and interesting, I can't wait to get more money or trade for some Ogres so I can make those other mages. Now I just need more points!

OGRES!

Alright, sorry for the delay school, family life, PAINTING A NEW ARMY the usual.

What we have for you today is the first two core units and lord choice of the joint Dissentingdice Ogre army.

The Big Horn Mercenary Company. Though I'm sure the lovely shade of orange will get groans from local players. 

You can see it a little closer here. For our international readers( so cool that we have those) this is as close to University of Texas (my alma mater) burnt orange as I could get. After I painted orange over brown on the tyrants pants because it looked good with blue shoes I knew I had to do it. 

Here is a little closer to reality picture without the flash. I've mixed up a whole pot of burnt orange paint, I can't wait to see it all over the army.

Finally a closer look at the tyrant. He has his to go cup Gnoblar, holding a cask of Bugman's (super fine point Sharpie's are great). The Ironguts all have kegs on them as well, they are his drinking buddies. In this picture you can also see the longhorn shape on the Ogre unit champion, I'm not sure how happy I am with how it turned out. Any pointers?

Well, that's all for now. Hook 'Em!

Son of a Bi..attle.

Alright, sisters are ok now. The acts faith got streamlined, but are much weaker now.

Here is my first list that I am thinking might be cool. Comments to follow.

1850

HQ

90 Uriah Jacobus

170 Battle Conclave 4 Crusaders, 5 Assassins, Rhino

Elites

Troops

185 10 Sisters, power weapon, melta, flamer, rhino

185 10 Sisters, power weapon, melta, flamer, rhino

185 10 Sisters, power weapon, melta, flamer, rhino

190 10 Sisters, power weapon,  2x melta, rhino 

190 10 Sisters, power weapon,  2x melta, rhino

Fast Attack

125 5 Dominions, 2x meltaguns, rhino 

125 5 Dominions, 2x meltaguns, rhino

  

Heavy Support

135 Exorcist

135 Exorcist

135 Exorcist 

HQ:
Alright, Uriah will be in every list, he is the most auto include thing that I have ever seen. He is cheap as hell, and gives you your only means to control the amount of faith points you get. Also, put this guy in a unit of crusaders and deathcult assassins, he adds +1 attack and FNP to a unit with nothing but power weapons and invulnerable saves.

Troops:
The nuns with guns don't have as many flashy powers to call upon now. The Acts are divided by unit, the normal battle sisters get a very general, almost subtle power that can be used in every phase. In the movement phase they can use the power to regroup ( in normal squads the powers go off on a 4+) regardless of any normal restrictions, so on a 4+ these ladies are braver than space marines, and can't be chased off. In the shooting and assault phases the power has the same effect and can be used in both, it allows you to re-roll
 to Hit rolls of 1. Not that great, but it helps a bit. Also, Ld 9 basically across the board, and if they take a casualty the powers go off on a 3+
Also, on a related note, why the hell are heavy flamers 20 points? That seems excessive.

Fast Attack
Dominions have scout, so you can outflank with them. Each of these squads has 2 meltas and their Act of Faith makes the meltas twin linked on a 4+. So come around the side, hop out and hopefully blow up something important.

Heavy Support
Same as they were, d6 Str 8 Ap 1 shots at 48in. Armor 13 on the front, for 135 each, take three!

Non used units.
Cannoness, she is pretty cool, not really seeing the point though when you can get Uriah. She adds nothing but some close combat ability, and that is not really something that you need, her power adds +1 initiative and  preferred enemy in close combat, so now you don't strike after space marines, yay!

She also opens up a command squad, which includes feel no pain and a laud hailer(lets you recover successful Faith Points on a 6.) Their power gives move through cover and relentless. This struck me as really odd, until the second part came out and the three celestians in the squad can get multi meltas for 10 points each. Nice. Worth it, maybe? Being a laud hailer bubble and a multi melta bunker in a rhino perhaps.

Saint Celestine is cheap cheap cheap, and pretty cool, she can come back to life  and kinda wreck shop for a sister. One issue, in the unit entries she is an IC, in the army list she is not. Ugh. I'd say she is an IC, throw her in some Celestians and maybe they can do something cool.

The other preachers are not worth mentioning, Jacobus is as far as you need to look. However the Battle Conclave is awesome. Deathcult Assassins, Crusaders, 15 points each. There might be another unit in there, but by brain blocked it out for uselessness.

Elites

I don't know where you would put the Preachers, maybe a celestian squad? Normal sisters are already 10 strong. They give re-rolls to hit when charging. Really only useful to the battle conclave and seraphim(though they can't join this unit) and Jacobus provides this to the battle conclave that he can take.

Celestians seem to be your assault unit, they can take two weapons no matter the size, have WS 4, and get +1 Str and Fearless in close combat. So these ladies seem made to be with a cannoness. So then you are hitting like a space marine with a chaplain in the squad with T 3. After two faith points spent, that go off on a 3+, or 2+ if they have taken a casualty.  At only 80 points for the squad base, they are not that pricey.

Sisters Repentia. Well, they are almost usable now, they have a 6++ invulnerable save like all the other sisters. They have fleet, rage, feel no pain and fearless, with Str 6 strikes last attacks, 2 each. If they are killed before they can strike in the turn they get one attack after combat before they are removed. for 90 points for 4 plus the leader, and the power going off on a 4+, if you can get them to combat, not bad. Not good at all, battle conclaves are what these are when they grow up.

Troops:
Just battle sisters, they can get two weapons for reasonable cost unless you want heavy flamers. They are 12 points each, I think this is reasonable, 10 would have been too cheap, and they are not worth the 15 of a grey hunter.

Fast Attack
Seraphim, I love this unit. I really want them to be awesome. They can shoot both pistols, and get to inherently re-roll failed acts of faith and the 6++ save they get too. Their act of faith allows failed wounds from just shooting. Then they get to charge, with probably a power weapon from the superior, and then they go last against the average opponent. Sigh.

Dominions
They get two specials per 5, that is pretty nice, so you can get 4 in a full squad, also scouts. They can have twin linked weapons with their act of faith. A nice back up to normal sisters.

Heavy Support
Exorcist, front armor 13, 48in d6 S8 Ap1 shots for 135 each. 'Nuf said.

Retributiors
They can have 4 heavy per squad, Heavy Bolter, Multimelta, and Heavy Flamer. Their act of faith gives rending. Sigh. However, on heavy flamers, damn also only 5 points here.

Penitent Engine, only 85 points, Ws 4, two dread CCWs, both with a heavy flamer, it ignores stunned and shaken, can be taken in units of three and each of it's d6+1 attacks that kill it gets another attack, not infinite. It's open topped, av 11, and a 6++ save. Cool, but meh. Also rage.

That rounds out the unit choices.

We have a Rhino, same as always. It gets a 6+ invulnerable save, something you must remember that.

And the Immolator, it is no longer fast, and the heavy bolters with re-roll to wound is 65 points or the standard twin lnked heavy flamer. Meh, I'd rather have larger squads and use points on more weapons.

Not fat. Big Boned.

It's been a while, school started and all that. 

JACK AND I ARE TAG TEAMING AN OGRES ARMY! 

So, now we have to learn to play fantasy and it is all this guys fault. 

Coolest mini ever. I will probably need two. From the battle report and Beasts of War, they are pretty cheap points wise. Actually all the characters seem to be fairly cheap to start with. Which is a nice balance for the high points costs of the core fat boys themselves. 

So hopefully I can puts lots of magicy and fighty characters in with my blocks of ogres, though with this army the split is not so exact. 

The main box comes with 6 ogres, 6 ironguts, and 4 lead blechers. So that appears to be a nice balanced start to an army. I want at least 1 more caster, a BSB and maybe a big smashy dude. A couple more blocks of ogres and some monsters and one of those multi shot cannons should round it out nicely. 

Also the thunder tusk is a pretty bad ass model, appearance and stats wise, it adds some shooting to the army with an inherent stone thrower and a guy shooting from it's back, and has a 6in aura of always strike last, a BIG help to the slow and steady ogres. 

So expect a lot of fantasy stuff in the near future. 

Feast of Blades

Alright, as it appears that the Draigo I ordered on ebay has been lost in the mail, I am going to take space wolves to this weekend's Feast of Blades qualifier here in Lubbock.

Here is what I am thinking. Yes it is pretty stripped down with only 2 long fangs squads, but I really did like having the two priests this past weekend, though if it is the same people they didn't have much in the way of things to be screwed by tempests wrath, but it did make people rather cautious. This time I will be more aggressive and go for the throat if I can. I got stuck behind early dead rhinos and blocking vehicles.

Space wolves

 1999 points

HQ

255 Wolf lord, thunderwolf, rune armor, storm shield, frost blade,  Saga of the Bear

100 Rune priest, tempests wrath, storm caller

105 Rune priest, tempests wrath, living lightning, wolf tail talisman

Elites

129 3 Wolf Guard, powerfists, combi meltas

80 5 wolf scouts, meltagun (WG)

Troops

185 8 Grey hunters, meltagun, power weapon, wolf standard, rhino (WG, RP)

185 8 Grey hunters, meltagun, power weapon, wolf standard, rhino (WG)

130 6 Grey hunters, melta gun, rhino (RP)

195 10 Grey hunters, 2 plasmaguns, rhino

Fast Attack

235 3 thunderwolves, 2 storm shields, powerfist

60 Speeder, multi melta

60 speeder, multi melta

Heavy Support

140 6 long fangs 5 missile launchers

140 6 long fangs 5 missile launchers

Medium 'Ard 1

New Beginnings
Alright, yesterday was the Ard Boys prelims here in the US. It was also the opening day for the newest and only wargames place in Lubbock Texas, Stormcrow Games.  Aaron, a local gamer, has opened the shop, and I wish him the best of luck and success. I even bought something yesterday.

It still had that fresh store smell, and an ENORMOUS terrain collection, as their backroom is now the home of the terrain collection for the Lubbock Wasteland Wars tournament.

They had 6 tables set up with varying terrain set up, though only 5 ended up getting used as we had 10 players show up. 

 The Tournament


Now onto the reports, I'm going to cover the first game today and the second and third tomorrow along with thoughts and comments.

My first and third games were against a really great kid named Skylar, he was a little wargammer Bro, and a lot of fun to play.
The first mission was kill points and involved a traitor model that we needed to kill, the missions can be found HERE in my last post.

First turn he castled up in the corner, and used his crazy Blood Angels speed to come forward, I did immobilize one of the vindicators, trapping the land raider in the back field for most of the game.

Turn 2
I got first blood, taking out a rhino, but he went full bore at my long fangs and killed 5 over the three squads.

Turn 3
There was much slaughter, he killed 2 of the three thunder wolves in one squad with vindicators, and wrecked a rhino into being in the way. He also assaulted my three long fangs squads all over the board, taking all three down in one turn. Tempests Wrath kept Astorath and his jump troops bottled up with the land raider in the back field.
But, my revenge was sweet, the final Thunderwolf with a power fist charges and gets into contact with both vindicators, which couldn't move and destroys both of them. The scouts come in from the back and with two meltaguns blow up the land raider. We are back at 4-4 on kill points. The Thunderwolf Lord killed a devastator squad that I think we forgot about when totally kill points.

Turn 4
 With the raider gone and lots of thunder wolves getting close to his guys he moves the assault marines around  to take out the super thunderwolf that just punched two of the best thunderwolf killing tanks to death at the same time. Due to Tempests wrath the sanguinary priest dies! The lone thunderwolf finally dies after taking 10 wounds, and only fails 2, but that is enough.
In my turn 4 the lord and the three other thunderwolves assault the assault squad, killing most of them. There are also lots of shenanigans going on with the traitors trying to kill each other and hoping into rhinos and running away from each other, with the blood angels having the speed advantage.

Turn 5
The thunderwolf lord takes down Astorath, then dies to more death company in my turn 4. Those re-rolls all over the place are brutal.

Turn 6
The remaining Thunder Wolves and death company kill each other.

It ends up a minor loss (possibly due to miscounting, but that would be a draw), with almost equal battle points because I went for secondary stuff like a mo fo. I lost by 1 kill point, it was back and forth the whole game, and a great time. I killed the HQ+1, got my traitor into his deployment zone +3 and controlled the most terrain +1. All in all it was a great game, and I wish I had take better notes, it's a shame that Skylar doesn't live here, he was a fun guy to play, and I'm glad he got the win, his second game he got massacred about about hour before time was called.

Tournament Product Placement

Put away those stolen Burger King trays and tea service carriers, have I got a transport for you. Just in time for 'Ard Boyz Saturday too!

With a keen eyed suggestion from my girlfriend, I grabbed this at Target today. 

It snaps together, and can be expanded, though too much and it would be unwieldy I would think. The boxes are fairly large, and can even fit the model I was worried about, the Thunderwolf waving his hammers around over his head. It could be a hard fit for taller models and maybe eldar tanks, things with flying stands etc. 

As you can see it fits 4 rhinos easily, with room for all the guys in them, you could probably get 2 land raiders in there with plenty of room to spare. 

Here is a shot of the box closed, it would be quite the good carrier from the car to the table, but for storage and long transportation, a foam case is a lot safer. But to carry around at a tournament(if displays don't matter) it would be a great case. 

One last product plug, here is a shot of my custom dice bag from Dragon Chow. It's flat on the bottom to stand up on the table, hell I might use it for wargaming too as I do that more often. It's orange on the inside and has PBR on the outside, the opposite of me most days. The ONLY complaint is that she couldn't get University of Texas Burnt Orange fabric, but that is a minor quibble, she even asked me about it and showed me the current mottled orange that is in there. Now that is customer service. 

Lyndsay ( she's Canadian, how exotic) makes them by hand, and even gets you custom fabric if need be, the PBR cans she designed and had made herself. It was $17 including custom fabric for a hand made dice bag( could be more depending on fabric). That's even cheaper than the bottle of Crown Royal (also Canadian, I see a theme), that it takes to get a bag that way. As far as I can tell she can make anything. You can also find her on Twitter as @GeekyLyndsay. 

I'm 'Ard, are you?

Alright boyz and girlz, next weekend is 'Ard Boyz, let's do this!

Here is a run down of the missions by Thomas d/b/a Goatboy, basically kill the fuck out of shit. Also, I concur on the WTF victory points, I don't like math.

My Grey Knights won't be finished in time, and I don't have enough to get that extra 500 points out of them. I can swing up to 2000 with them.

On to the list!

Basically this is what I like about Space Wolves, but with lots more of it.

50 scoring boots on the ground, psychic defense, everything that flies disruption bubble, three big ol' bags of hammers, a little back field shenanigans, and lots of fire going down range.

2499

HQ

260 Wolf lord, thunder wolf, Storm shield, thunder hammer, rune armor, saga of the bear

100 Rune priest, living lightning, tempest's wrath

Elites

80 5 wolf scouts, meltagun (WG)

129 3 wolfguard, with combi meltas and powerfists

Troops

175 9  Grey hunters, meltagun , rhino(rune priest)

185 9  Grey hunters, meltagun, wolf standard, rhino(WG)

185 9  Grey hunters, meltagun, wolf standard,  rhino (WG)

195 10 grey hunters, 2 plasmaguns , rhino

195 10 grey hunters, 2 plasmaguns , rhino

Fast Attack

270 3 thunderwolf cavalry, 3 storm shields, powerfist meltabomb

270 3 thunderwolf cavalry, 3 storm shields, powerfist meltabomb

Heavy Support

140 6 long fangs 5 missiles

170 6 long fangs 2 lascannons 3 missiles

145 5 long fangs 2 lascannons 2 missiles

Jack's Birthday

Today is my co-blogger Jack Hawthrone's birthday, let's get some happy birthday comments people.

I just want to say thank you, and what a pleasure it has been to have some embark on this crazy idea of doing a warhammer blog while still having to do all the crap one has to do in law school too.

He likes to paint, I like to play.

Happy birthday man.

Here is a preview of one of the badass kit bashed buggies he made for his loota ork army.

Finally a list I made based on what he wanted out of orks.

HQ

115 Warboss , mega armor, cybork body, bosspole

85 Big Mek Kustom Force Field

Elites

180 12 lootas

180 12 lootas

255 5 MegaNobz,  kombi skorcha, kombi rokkit, Trukk red paint job, reinforced ram

Troops

255 5 MegaNobz,  kombi skorcha, kombi rokkit, Trukk red paint job, reinforced ram

160 20 shoota boys, nob klaw bosspole

160 20 shoota boys, nob klaw bosspole

Fast Attack

70 2 warbuggies with rokkits

70 2 warbuggies with rokkits

70 2 warbuggies with rokkits

Heavy Support

100 2 kans with rokkits

150 3 kans with rokkits