ARMY OF THE WEEK: August 2011

Monday, August 29, 2011

Hobby Rundown

Well, it has been awhile and I have been doing a little of this and that but nothing in particular.

I did a few small repairs to damaged models to ensure they are ready for the next round of gaming.

Next up, the past week I have been slowly washing about 100 skeletons from my Tomb Kings with Dev. Mud to darken them down then lightly brush on some bone highlights to clear up the stain spots that tend to appear in unwanted spots.

Part of the horde of Skeles, archers.

A close up. Going to touch them up and maybe put some dead grass on them.

I also started to paint the Ark of the Covenant, er, I mean the Casket of Souls. Just some basic paint job and this has been a long mothballed project. I built a base for it to add some depth to it and add some more detail as I went.

Next up, I worked on some Space Wolves. These was a few leftover marines and some freebies that someone gave me to try to rehabilitate to worthy Space Wolves.

I also ordered some bits from a new website called Horde of Bits. A review is pending about this company once I get my product. These will be the torsos and legs for my Orks for Blood Bowl, I plan to modify them using some 40k shoulder pads, use both 40k and Fantasy heads. Then add some arms from the 40k line to finish them off. I feel this is going to give me a very characterful team to bring to the league on the 16th for the kick off night. I just hope I get my bits in time and there is a break in the damm weather. This hurricane has just added to the humidity and rain that is typical of this year. So, when a window opens to primer you prime as much crap as you can before it goes to hell.

There is other things I am sure I am forgetting to mention right now, until next update!

Blood Bowl Season is upon us!

Fall approachs and so does our annual Blood Bowl League.

My past two seasons has been dedicated to the Necromantic team with a less than great record. The only major claim the Monster Mash could taken home both seasons was the least amount of casualties taken. I have always been a huge fan of the undead, they one of the harder teams to play in Blood Bowl due to the lack of being a good brawler or a strong running team. Most of the team (about 70%) is MA 4 to start. Their armor values are good and regeneration has saved my bacon a few times making the team a good defensive team which has been my saving grace. My major obstacle has been beating other teams that were faster or stronger than my own team has contributed to many of my losses. Mind you, only a loss by one or two points on average which is the typical norm of a Blood Bowl game score. It is still a loss none the less.

So, I have put the undead to rest in the grave and I have taken up the Orcs this season as my team of choice. I plan to convert and build the team from scratch despite that I own some of the orks from the starer kit. I want a team with personality and was one of my gripes about the Necromantic team was the same poses over and over. As I only have a few short weeks to get ready, I hope my ambition does not outstrip my goals.

At first, I planned to purchase another company’s models to use as a Nippon (Oriental) themed team using the Ork team rules using the name Nippon Dragons or Tigers. To me they was perfect, the Ronin would be linemen, the Ninjas the throwers, the Sumos as Black Orks and the Samuari as Blitzers. Due to money this just didn’t materialize this season, maybe next year.

My leading build for my team is this:

2	Linemen	100k
1	Thrower	70k
4	Black Orc Blockers	320k
4	Blitzers	320k
3	Rerolls	180k
Total		990k

Commentary: This team starts with 11 members and I am going to put some faith behind the AV9 of the team to keep them intact for a game or two along with the decent Fan Factor to earn me enough gold to purchase an Apothacary and a Lineman to give me someone to bench as a reserve. Afterwards, build up the team up with perhaps some Gobbos are quick and could be useful, with a Troll they could even be a tad better. Still, this would be a long term goal as that would be at least 150k in gold to purchase those two. That is the price of 3 linemen and the winnings of at least 2-3 games! Plus the Troll is REALLY STUPID and the Gobbo has low AV making him an easy target. Linemen are always a cheap and safe bet as always.

My key is that I am starting with AV 9, making it hard to break armor so I should only take injuries about ¼ of the time instead of 1/3 except for the thrower and goblins. 4 Blockers with STR 4 and 4 Blockers to start with and a good thrower gives me a set of skills to match with 3 rerolls. I am taking a risk here not taking Fan Factor this time around, but to be honest, it may go up, may go down or stay the same. At least with rerolls they are there for you and the team is solid as possible for this 8 game season.

Team Colors: Thinking of Blue and Grey. At least Blue as that is the Ork Color for luck and I need as much of that I can get.

Sizing up the other teams in the League:

Gobbos: Usually these would be seen as a pushover, but the commish is playing them this time and is a tough as hell Blood Bowl player. I suspect nothing less than dirty tricks and a sneaky plan to win his games.

Ogres: Tim has done well with his Orks first season, second season the Ogres did well, but they are building up from scratch that year. This season with some SP under his belt they are rounded out a bit to be a brutal team now that he has 6 big guys. The few games I played with my Undead I flattened by his team. I figure, this team may cause some issues if I am not careful.

Dark Elf or Bretts: Bretts are official this year, but I suspect Allisso will go with the Elves and take up the dark side this time. This team has several nasty suprises and I cannot underestimate his speed.

Skaven: We may have a Skaven player or two this time around. Again, here is another team that will need to be watched and punished quickly in the first half if I am going to have a chance of winning. Skaven are only dangerous when they have a full team on the board. A handful is easy enough to deal with.

Slann: This is going to be a team from hell to take on this year. Patrick is taking the green machine to the field. Able to leap and has high AG scores are going to be a new challenge. If someone went the route of Chaos you could get tentacles and shut down the leaping merit but at that point your building a team to take out X only and would suck against another. The only way to beat these guys is to kick a few into the injured box and keep the man down.

Undead: We have a new face on the board that is bringing some type of undead to the table. This is going to be a tough team as I know from experience (from playing the Necromantic team) that it will be hard to keep them down.

I plan to update my season here on my blog.

Realms of Battle Board Part III

Now here is the last batch of pictures from Lee as he finishes adding the final highlights to the realm of battle board.

All that remains now is just some static grass and light touch ups with a brush. The scenery is next up to match this board! Looks great Lee! Thanks for sharing the photos!

Realms of Battle Part II

Lee just sent over the next few sets of pictures of his progress. He was a painting machine this weekend with his airbrush!

First up, the finished set missing from the last update....

Next up, working on the highlights Lee sprays some contrast to the board....

The next round of painting by Lee with more highlights....

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Realms of Battle Board WIP

Here is some shots of a Realms of Battle board that a friend of mine Lee Coleman is painting up for a friend of ours. He sent me the pictures to show me the progress he has made using his airbrush on this table.

Lee is using two airbrush guns to cover the boards quickly. It seems that some of the paint he was using was a tad old and thick, thus causing clogs in the airbrush gun and delays to finishing the board.

Round 1 pictures of the primer work:

Round 2 with the first coat for the desert look:

Games Workshop Invades Florida!

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/storelocator/details.jsp?id=12800240a&searchMode=filter&showGamingClubs=null&showIndependantRetailers=null&street=null&city=null&postalCode=null&filter_country=US&origin=&radius=null&searchFilter=FL&return=null

This little gem slipped in under my radar!

I hope I didn’t miss the grand opening! They usually give away some cool stuff when they do. At least now there is somewhere to go to enter into some of the official GW store events such as painting, conversion and so forth…

Sucks it is about a 2 hour drive but guess we can’t have it all. Maybe one will creep into Tampa in the next few years. It is better than what it was before which was none. That sucked for anyone that lived in the south short of the TN area. One could never attend an official GW store event because you would have to drive 10-12 hours to make one!

Back in the day when I worked for Games Workshop over 6 or so years ago, they had a grand plan for a southern expansion. Due to some bad company choices in the Atlanta area both of the GW stores closed up shop. I see now a new one is going to appear back in Atlanta as well. While it is a few years late of their 5 year model back then, it is good to see the company back on track in trying to expand their horizons.

Book Review: Imperial Glory

Finished Imperial Glory last night and I have to say is what a great book!

By far out of the Imperial Guard books, this one has one of the best and well developed Imperial Guard personalities that are only matched in Blood and Steel from the Bastion Series. I won’t try to compare it to Gaunts Ghosts or Shaffer’s books as those are so different and a series compared to single one off books that requires a write to develop the regiment and their personalities in a short span of a time between the covers.

Without giving any spoilers there is some interesting plot hooks and multiple story arcs in the book that takes you a few different directions. The ending to me was not totally unexpected but was a bit of a shock as to how it closes out in the end and wraps up.

I find it a nice touch also in the end of the book the writer gives thanks to his family that had served in the military which was a nice personal touch from a writer. This shows that what he wrote was from the heart as well as the mind. The front has a nice regimental layout giving you an idea of the 11^th Brimlock’s organization.

My only one complaint is about the Orks. I can see how the writer was playing the orks as primitive as they were spawned from the spores of the dead orks aboard the rok that crashed on the planet. It still amazes me that the orks did not explore the rok more, especially after they figured out the lobba and cannons they found. To me, they should have been able to salvage the concept of guns, grenades and weapons like big shootas, burnas and rocket launchers making them even more of a threat. Still, it is in an Ork’s DNA makeup to understand these things and despite everything was wrecked on the rok that they should have been able to salvage something more.

Despite that one single downfall the book was excellent and worth the read! I give it 4 out of 5 Chaos Stars! Pick it up now and read away! Feel free to comment as well!

Friday, August 19, 2011

Book Review: Atlas Infernal

Just finished reading “Atlas Infernal” today by Rob Sanders! Wow! What a book, is all I can say. If you’re into the Inquisitor themed book like Eisenhorn this book will not disappoint you. Rob Sanders also has a great technique in how he writes each book. The chapters are broken up into “scenes of a play” as you read the book. This is by design as the Harlequins are performers and this novel tells the story of Inquisitor Czevak about how he gets to the Black Library, how he escapes and evades his enemies along the way to continue his grand question. If you don’t know, then pick up the book, it offers a very ambitious plan by Czevak to bring the old Imperium back to its former glory.

I also noticed that the front states “An Inquisitor Czevak novel by Rob Sanders”. Well, could there be more books? I would say yes, the ending left an opening to continue his question and to be honest; I want to see more of this series!

Enough! I don’t care to spoil the book but I give it 5 out of 5 Chaos Stars on this one. You should be declared a Heretic and a Mutant if you fail to read this outstanding book!

Monday, August 15, 2011

Ard Boyz After Action Report

My Ard Boyz outing took me to Birds of Paradise about 30 miles away from where I live. At first some friends and I was going to travel further to a store that we enjoy playing at known at Dark Side and enjoy some Amish food prior to the event. Sadly, one of my friends had to work and another had committed that weekend to his wife. I choose a new store strictly on the interest of checking out a new location and perhaps meet new players that I have never played against. The store itself ended up with 16 players on 8 tables making for a full turnout at the store.

The list I took was an IG list with Witchunter allies. I checked the GW site, the PDF is gone. No doubt removed so they can post up the Sisters of Battle new PDF in the next month or so. The core Ard Boyz lists it as a valid codex and the PDF for the FAQ does not disallow allies. Here is my list:

· Shraken with Chimera, 4 melta guns, Master of the Fleet and 2 bodyguards

· Inquisitor Lord with Psychic Hood, Bolter, Power Sword, Sage, Warrior and Familiar

· Callidus Assassin

· Vet Squad with 3 melta guns and Chimera

· Vet Squad with 3 plasma guns and Chimera

· 2 Platoons with a HQ with 3 melta guns and a flamer. 2 Squads with melta guns and a power sword. The last squad had a flamer and power sword. A commissar was assigned to the first squad with a power weapon.

· Vendetta

· Manticore

· Basilisk

· Leman Russ with Lascannon in the hull

Game 1 vs. Blood Angels

My first game was against a great guy by the name of Oscar. I met this gent a few years back at Anthem during one of their first events there. There were only 4 players attending the small store at the time before James expanded the game room to a second storefront location. We had a great game of Sisters of Battle vs. Tau. A true game of I shoot the Sister’s and he burns me alive. A great game, sadly I did not see him at any events for years until Ard Boyz. It was a real treat to not only to see him, but to have a chance for a game against a great player.

Oscar was playing his Blood Angels a new army for him and this was his list from memory:

· Mestiphon

· Chaplain

· 15 Death Company with power weapons (not all) in a Land Raider Crusader

· 2 Assault squads with jump packs, melta gun, melta pistol and power weapon.

· 2 Sang priests

· Baal Predator with Assault Cannons, heavy bolters and storm bolter

· Storm Raven with Multi Melta and Lascannons

· Death Company Dread with Blood Talons

· Heavy Weapons Team with 3 Plasma Cannons and 1 Lascannon (may have been a missile launcher)

· Vindicator

We swapped our traitor models and rolled for who goes first. I won and picked my side on the city based table we were assigned to. My deployment was simple, empty Chimeras to the front, the ones with Vets and HQs to the back. The Inquisitor loaded up into an empty one on turn 1. Shraken in the middle along with the heavy tanks in the back and the Vendetta flanked with the traitor. Both Platoons grouped into one squad each and shielded the flanks and forward parts of the side elements on each side.

Oscar placed out his Vindicator, Heavy Weapons Squad and the Crusader with the Chaplain and Death Company loaded up. Everything else went into reserve. This could be tough with the Master of the Fleet (later it hit me that we forgot that Decent of Angels allows a reroll) but would not make a huge impact on the game. He had a series of bad luck with reserves and scatters using DOA. One assault squad ended up on the far edge of the board and the Storm Raven was delayed a turn.

Highlights of the game for me was the Callidus being able to kill the traitor on his turn after she assaulted and put one wound on him. The next rounds allowed her to finish off the heavy weapons team and chase them off the board. For Oscar I have to say his brick was that Crusader that I could not stop. He also plowed down a Vet squad with melta guns, most of my platoon squad and forced them to fall back. If not for Shraken being able to rally them I think the damage would have been worse. The remaining Death Company ripped up Shraken’s squad leaving just him. The remaining 1/3 of the platoon sacrificed themselves to finish off the read of the Death Company as Shraken crushed the Chaplain’s skull with his bare hands. Only the Shraken and a single melta gunner were running for a Chimera for cover.

At the end of the game, we both had killed the traitor but I had managed to take a minor victory with full bonus points.

Game 2 vs. Necrons

The Necron player Jim was another great player. He had a rather basic and tough Necron list like this:

· 2 Lords both with scythes, one had a destroyer body, one had the orb, one had the Veil of Darkness and I think one had the 4+ inv save.

· 2 Monoliths

· 4-5 squads of 10 Warriors

· 3 Large unit of Destroyers

I won the roll again, took my table quarter and setup for a split move to each Empty Quarter and a run for the center with a defensive line to be left behind. He setup his Monoliths to the front and the warriors behind with destroyers in support. He managed to roll a 6 and seized the first turn! Ugh!

This was your typical Necron game; he would shot me, get several glances but was only getting 1-4 as results and just knocking around my transports. I was able to make one monolith immobile and destroy the second. About half way through the game he had one quarter and I had the other well in hand. It was all down to the center.

For the last round I could only hear the sergeants in the Veteran squads yelling “Drop your cocks and grab your socks! We’re going for a walk boyz!” as he slams the release switch to the hatch of the Chimera. And that is what my veteran squads did, they disembarked best they could within 2” and moved out. One squad managed to get close to the center objective but could be 3 or 4 inches! I open fire on his Destroyer squad around it and hoped the lone necron warrior near was not within 3”. As my shooting came to a close the plasma vet squad was my last squad and the one near the objective. I would have rather than them that last turn but instead I was forced to open fire and pray I was close enough. I rolled 6 wounds with the plasma and by luck I was right at 3”! WOOT! His warrior was 3.75 away from the objective! Another minor win but only with 1 bonus point this time.

I knew I was in the upper tier but it would take a good game to bump me further if I was going to continue to the second round. They started to pair us up until I noticed one of the top leaders was about to play the Necron player I had second round. This didn’t make sense so we inquired about it. Appears there was an error in the last round of matching. Gah! So instead of an IG player I get Grey Knights.

Game 3 vs. Grey Knights (Inquisition)

Kris was his name and had a rather straight up list. We were both close to the top and we both stood a good chance to continue on. He had this:

· Cotaez

· Grey Knight Lord that allowed the d3 special perks with purifier and terminator armor.

· 5 Squads of Henchmen each with a Jokero and a mix of Crusaders and Death Cult Assassins in Chimeras.

· 3 Dread Knights with mixed weapons.

This game was pretty heated the first part, we both was out for blood to win. He got some shock hits in but I managed to pull the lines together and hold my own towards the end. The flanking Dread Knights threw off my game plan and nearly cost me the game.

Highlights for Kris were the Dread Knights, those things able to jump 12” and that fist one with the STR 6 flame template was a beast. It blew up a Basilisk, Chimera and killed half the squad inside. Ouch! One key point for me was the Callidus being able to kill not one but two of these monsters in close combat. She was VERY lucky and he ignored her thinking she wasn’t a major threat. I would manage to get two wounds on them with shooting and she would finish them off with a pair of lucky 6’s rolls and a C’tan sword is nothing to sneeze at.

When we added up the points I think it was 335 or so in VP difference in my favor. Draw! ARG! I got two bonus points and waited for the other games to end.

I sat at 3^rd place for a long time until one game ended. A tyranid player that earned only 8 points his first game, managed to pull out not one but two massacres with full points! Yea, I saw the list and it was nothing that I could see as special or amazing. So, he took the 2^nd spot and I was bumped to 4^th along with another player that was using Blood Angels.

Well, there is always next year. I had fun, 3 good games, the players was great that I met. Some old faces and some new were great. The store was nice and the drive wasn’t bad. I’d go back for another event there.