Another terrain piece

So with 3 days left in May and a 3 day weekend I am trying to bust out a terrain piece for the monthly challenge on the 40k radio forums. It seems I'm the only one doing it still though lol. Oh well I still want a gaming table and this will get me one by the end of the year..then I just have to figure out what where to put it lol.

Vendetta part 2

Finished up the door gunners. I have most of the model done in sub-assemblies, waiting on the interior to put it all together. This weekend though I am going to be doing a terrain piece so I don't know if I'll be starting on that or not. The real question is how much detail do I put into it? It is likely never to get looked at..

This is pretty cool

Breakdown of 'ard boys first round winners.

Pretty interesting analysis of what made it through the first round of 'ard boys!

What a great win!

May league final

Wow what a game! My opponent, Kevin, is a very good player who always plays very solid lists. I wasn't really expecting much but I knew my typical battlewagon list would not do well. So the first thing I did was..leave them at home!

My list:
HQ: Warboss, bike, cybork, bosspole, pk, squig
HQ: Mek, Cybork, Burna, KFF, stikkbombz

Troop: 20 Sluggas, Nob w/PK & Bosspole
Troop: 30 Shootas, 3x Rokkit, Nob w/PK & Bosspole
Troop: 30 Sluggas, 3x Rokkit, Nob w/PK & Bosspole

Elite: 13 Lootas
Elite: 11 Kommandos, 2x burna, + Snikrot

Fast: 3x Warbikes (joins boss as ablative wounds lol)
Fast: 2x Deffkopta, 2x TL Rokkit

Heavy: 3x Kans, 3x Rokkits - Main job here is to be a fire magnet
Heavy: 3x Lobbas, 3x ammo runts

1750pts exactly.

Also in this league you get a random USR to apply to any unit. I got scout, which I put on my biker boss! heh I scouted/turbo-boosted him up but ended up having my opponent seize the initiative.

-The lootas exploded both Vendettas.
-The lobbas worked out great! Didn't end up pinning anyone but they shook the Mantiore one turn, made one unit that came out of a vendetta run off the table and killed a few more guys.
-Snikrot came on, flamed a blob killing 8 and then got 27 total wounds in the assault..and they were out of counter-attack range!
-Deffkoptas were a great distraction, took a lot of shooting and wrecked a chimera
-The warboss was killed without killing anything but took an amazing amount of shooting to do so. Go go T6!

I am still really surprised that not only did I win, but I completely dominated. There were a couple times he had some really bad wounding rolls..flamming the kommandos only had 2 wounds out of 9 hits, and a FRFSRF from a blob on a unit of 30 boys resulted in only 5 wounds. But he was making mad to hit and cover/armor saves...so it pretty much averaged out.

Vendetta part 1

After finishing my cousin's Manticore I started on one of his Vendettas. I am also using it for a modeling contest over at Scale Model Addict. The cockpit is done, I am now moving onto the door gunners and the passenger area. Once all that is done I'll be able to complete the assembly. All the weapon are magnetized for either a Vendetta or Valkyrie.

I also will be starting my Furioso on June 4th as part of the freeboota forum motivational challenge.

League game, Manticore

1750pts vs Marines

Another game vs marines and another solid win for the Orks. Can't really say much about this game, everything seemed to work out pretty well. I made a couple key rolls, first was my opening turn of shooting where my 2 units of lootas each took out a vehicle (a razorback and a dred) that was the front 2 most units, and then when I went to ground and made 4 out of 7 6+ cover saves, and made the LD roll to keep the unit of lootas on the table.

For the first time I really used the power of the deffrolla..using it smash open a Rhino and then get out and assault the squishy bits inside. Being able to wreck a transport in the movement phase is really a huge advantage, giving you the choice to get out or not.

Finished pics of the Manticore. Right now I'm working on a few remaining bits on the blood angels (a meltagun for a jump pack guy and a tactical sgt combi-melta). So now I'm working on a Vendetta, waiting on June 4th to start my Furioso for the 40k radio forums motivational challenge.

20 years later..

After joining www.scalemodeladdict.com for their contest I was browsing some pictures and got inspired to dig out my old 1/24 and 1/25 cars and see what condition they are in. Not bad for 20 years old, eh? They are kept in bags or boxes so that is why there is so little dust after all this time.

Makes me really think about how different the worlds of miniature wargamming modeling and scale modeling really are.

Spent today relaxing and finishing up my 2nd Sanguinary priest. One more BA model to go. I also took on my Cousin's first Vendetta..trying to help him get everything done by August.

Ugh..

Didn't go well. Minor loss, major loss and bye. 8th out of 11.

One very important thing I learned...3 units of lootas don't work. There just isn't enough room for them all to have good shooting unless the terrain is ideal.

Prepping for 'ard boys!

The night before a big tournament is almost as busy as the day itself.

I take plenty of water and soda with me. I freeze a couple bottles of water to keep the stuff cold at first and give me cool water at the end of the day. I usually pack a lunch as well, that way I can eat whenever instead of just at lunch break. Got myself a nice little ritual down.

Drinking water during the day is so important, especially if you're one of the kind of people that gets the adrenaline flowing playing for top prizes.

Now I have to get out the models I'm taking and get them packed up, dig out the display board and get a good night's sleep!

Good luck to everyone playing in 'ard boys..unless you're playing Eldar.

Loota done, and repaints going great!

Finished painting the loota from my how-to video. Very basic paint job: base coat, washes, drybrush on the metal and some simple highlighting on the skin. Not hard, not time consuming but a good tabletop result.



I also have now finished 24 out of the 33 models of my original, horrible boys unit. Such a vast improvement. Does not take that long, probably about 6 hours total for 4 models including cleaning mold lines, re-base coating, washing, highlighting and basing. If you wonder why 33, because I have 29 sluggas, 1 nob and 3 rokkits to swap out if I want to. I should be able to completely finish the unit a lot sooner then expected. I was really expecting a lot more work. Some of the boys were too badly messed up to redo, so out of all the models 5 are getting swapped with new ones instead of fixing. The biggest reason is crinkly primer which is a lot harder to fix. Really looking forward to getting this project done. I need to work on my 2nd Sanguinary priest and Furioso but so far I lack motivation to paint any more red.

Keeping up on rules debates?

If anyone here listens to the 40k radio show live, a couple weeks ago I called in during the bar portion to discuss the Shield of Sanguinius psychic power and how it does not effect vehicles.

Well, that didn't go over very well. Apparently no one listening or hosting had ever come across this particular issue before. Personally, it's a debate I've been having for over a year relating to the KFF and kan squadrons.

I also asked a few people if they keep up on rules questions, debates and the arguments. They all said 'no'. I was almost stunned. I can't believe anyone plays this game, especially on a competitive level, and don't know, bother or care to look up rules issues especially when they apply to the army they play.

Any 40k-related forum has a rules section. I specifically mentioned dakkadakka and warseer. The response to that was "everyone who posts there are morons" and any argument made is simply dismissed out-of-hand.

Face the facts, GW does not write solid, clear rules. They frequently create more questions then they answer especially with a new codex release. It is a fault in the game system, and most people know this. I think it is up to everyone who plays to keep up on what the unclear areas are, what the arguments are for those and then house-rule among friends or gaming clubs the resolution of each one. Or use the INAT faq's which resolves most issues even if not the answer you like it is at least an impartial 3rd party.

One simple change could dramatically alter Tau effectiveness.

Sometimes even I forget I have a Tau army.

My cousin and I were talking after league this week. we came to the conclusion that one simple change would really make Tau the army it is suppose to be.

What is that? Replacing burst cannons with Phased-Ion guns.

The phased-ion gun is a new weapon for the XV-9 suits in IAA2. Stats are: S4 AP4 18" Assault 4, Rending.

note the S4..making it defensive.

What does that give you? A devilfish with that gun and SMS, target lock and multi-traker. A transport that can move 12", fire out 8 shots splitting fire if needed! This gives the tau incredible move and fire ability wile still keeping the firewarriors safe inside behind the disruption pods able to jump out and double tap whatever is left.

Imagine the hammerhead, with 2 of those instead of 2 burst cannons..now you can move 12" fire the railgun and pump out 8 more rending shots as well!

Having a decent defensive weapon completely changes the mobility of the army. Sometime down the road we will play a game like that and see what happens.

I won't even get into what this gun would do for a unit of stealth suits..

A gift..

Kanvass1 Unboxing

New video up, unboxing the incredible KillKrusha made by Kanvass1. He sent it to me because he doesn't play and does not have time right now to paint it. The attention to detail is amazing, everything is so well thought out.

Sanguinary Priest w/Jump Pack

Finished my first sanguinary priest. Chainsword is magnetic, but I have not done any other weapon options. Looks amazing with the rest of the sqaud, IMO.

'ard boys scenarios are posted.

'ard boys 2010

Well GW posted up the scenarios today and oh boy..it's obvious they are doing 2 things.

1. Mix up the missions, so they are not the same old games we play all the time. I like the different deployment zone and using victory points. But I have to ask, how many people have the full size rulebook anymore?

2. Reduce the chances of heavily mechanized armies, and doing this in the all-powerful, deciding 3rd round to boot! I believe that we can conclude from this that GW does, in fact, keep up on what is going on in the world of gaming even if they never actually let on that they do. They know that if not for this, the same list that won last year would win this year.

Afterthoughts

1500pts Orks vs CSM

Video of my game for May 5th, first game of the May league.

So what went wrong? Well first of all, the dice were really on his side. It happens, I know. But it is still incredibly frustrating when no matter what you do, you simply can't accomplish anything. I can handle making mistakes, I can handle losing to a better player. I can't handle losing to dice. Not to take anything away from my opponent (who is also on my OFCC team this year) he played great, being aggressive when required and defensive when required. His game plan was almost perfect, and some good dice rolls (like not scattering with deep striking flamer termies) helped that a lot.

I think the biggest problem is I got too cocky in this game. I was playing ghaz horde and was expecting to sweep ahead and kill everything in my path. However being slowed to 8" total movement for Ghaz's unit over the first 2 turns really put a damper on everything. That made me leave a unit behind on an objective but in range of the demon prince. If they had been on the other objective I deployed he could not have gotten to me. Then the lootas were not able to hit much after blowing up the rhino and I didn't move them out soon enough to get a better firing lane.

I need to get back into the Ork groove. This was my first game with the greenskins since the January tournament at Ancient Wonders.

How many "communities" can one gamer participate in?

Beasts of War "beta"

Beasts of War have started building their own website and "community" for miniature war gaming. Yay. No really, I love the beasts of war guys, their videos and mostly their accents but I just don't think there are enough people to give proper support to so many different webs..er "communities". I can barely keep up with what goes on at the 40k radio forums and my local gaming club forum. I occasionally post on warseer and miniwargamming but I'd rather be painting or playing (or Wii-ing??) then just reading and responding to 1000's of posts each day. ..plus Youtube!

Welcome!

So I'm gonna give this blog thing a try. Never been a big fan of blogs or blogging. I prefer getting updates on youtube but I just can't make videos as often as I would like. So hopefully updates will be frequent if not brief here instead.