Memorial Day

I would like to just say thank you to all veterans...

You gave your time to see that freedom stays true...

I pause to think of those we lost and loved ones gone....

Those that wear the uniform now in the field and back I salute you!

To those that have served their due, thank you most of all to!

MIB 3 Review

Men in Black 3 were overall entertaining. It was most the same gimmicks for the most part with a few new jokes worked in. It does answer some questions about the early days of the agency and Agent K. It was free and entertaining so I was not disappointed. If I saw this as a matinee I would not feel bad, paying a higher price ticket would have been disappointing to me I think. If you are a fan of the series, it is worthwhile if you don’t pay the insane theatre prices and catch the matinee or other lower priced show instead of full price. Save that for something else better.

Is GW going to hell?

 

Is GW going to hell? Not the biblical sense but rather with poor company choices?

Here is how I see it that is going on with GW and what they are doing wrong:

• They are closing all the doors except for Warhammer 40k, Fantasy and Lord of the Rings. Of course the sub companies that are doing well like Black Library, Forge World and Fantasy Flight gets license rights for most other things GW no longer wants to deal with such as Specialist Games and Warhammer Historical.
• GW is closing their doors to more revenue opportunities to me. First they shut the door to the Fanatic game line which to me was a great idea with piss poor execution and management. Why? Many of the games were well written, enjoyable and small skirmish style.  If GW had half a brain they could have used these as a vehicle to recruit players into the larger games instead of just going straight for the big three games.  If GW has been watching the market, skirmish games are on the RISE. More on this later…
• The second dropped ball with GW with Specialist Games was with some revision to the line and the plastics out there this could have been worked in a clever fashion into 40k and Fantasy mainly with Mordheim, Necromunda and Gorkamorka. Let’s see new plastics that work with old kits for fresh new concepts? Would people go for it? We see more bitz companies are growing more than ever and many resin sub-companies that make stuff that just “happens” to fit GW stuff. I can see only things like Orks, Grey Knights, SOB and Imperial Guard getting more sales out of this.
• If GW had half a brain they could sell the rights to the Specialist Games and Historical to Fantasy Flight to revise and release again. Major missed opportunities here in revenue.
• Is GW is pricing themselves into a hole? Yes, things are going up in price all the time and this is a disposable income hobby but it does not have to be silly. The price increases while making more profit is costing them perhaps even more. When people have more money they spend more, take it away their spending power and they spend less. Basic economics boys and girls. All things should go up in cost but not by some of the increases they introduced that are as high as 10-14-16% or more! Really guys….greed kills.  More and more games are growing up and with Kick starter helping tons of new companies you may be on the clock with the dinos for extinction!
• Is GW fostering the community like they have? No, they have cut back on Games Days, closed Ard Boyz (which I am not crying), stopped hosting their own GTs, limited GW stores to be recruiting points instead of support stores and closing up shops in areas that GW could have exploited for better profits but instead took the basic cut-n-run concept to what they did not offer high profits that for the most part with some work would have been VERY lost cost and risk ventures with high profit values. Namely with Specialist games. The Necromunda rules were great, a few plastic boxed sets and they could have opened up doors to many new avenues! GW has also started things in the past like web campaigns and such only to let them fade away instead of keeping them going somehow. They did an amazing job with the 13^th Crusade for example and should be done again.
• GW is missing the bus also on skirmish games in general. With the economy in the crapper people are looking for smaller games with fewer models to stay in the hobby and get the most for their money. If you don’t keep them loyal to your product they will go somewhere else!
• GW is cheating the investors in the company. Yes, you will have great margins (and portfolio) when you inflate your percentages of price increases and cut things out (that could have made you more money) but it only works so far before you start cutting into the company and the quality. While GW has a great looking model line and product technology. Their rules writing has already started to show signs of suffering and their marketing/management structure has taken several severe hits that it no longer can really function as they should. You can keep blowing air into the balloon but after a point it will *POP*. 

What do you think?

MIB 3 Tonight! Movie and Book Review in the Works

I won tickets to the early viewing of MIB 3 tonight. As I have enjoyed the other 2 this one I have high hopes for. I know several people that are going to this and should be a blast in general. I'll post up my review on Friday!

Also, I am just over 3/4 of the way finished with Phalanx the last book in the Soul Drinker's novel series. This has been a long time in the making book and I am enjoying it. I will post up a review without spoilers!

Last, I have added a "translate" option for those that would like to read the blog in their native language. I understand ESL sucks for many and I want the blog to be enjoyable to all.

My friend Lee was able to snag early passes to a pre-show of Battleship last night, so we grabbed a quick bite at the food court and met the rest of his co-worker’s that saved us a place in line and we waited, waited, waited….finally we was let in to sit down. What was nice was active duty people in line were let in first as a thanks for their hard service. I thought that was a nice gesture to say thanks to those that put their ass on the line every day for us.

The movie overall was excellent, go expecting to see an action flick and some crazy action scenes. This is not a serious movie and it reminded me of hints of Independence Day mixed with some Top Gun but in a Naval style instead. Keep in mind this is Naval ships in water fighting alien ships invading Earth!

There are some touching patriotic moments in the film that honors those that served in the Navy as well as the other armed forces as you see Army, Marine and Air Force logos if you are paying attention. The ending really went to the old school American spirit of pulling together the old generation with the younger one to overcome the invasion. I got a few warm fuzzes watching it.

People cheered, clapped and were really into the film and that feeling was all over the theater.

Some people could say this is little more than a Naval recruiting movie and yea they could be right but hell in college when I walked out of Starship Troopers I was ready to join the Mobile Infantry!

If you are looking for something to enjoy this weekend, this is a good choice.  

Darkside Battle Report

Wow! This has been sitting in draft mode for some time! With everything going on with my mother-in-law in the hospital and the Kalm among other things has totally pushed finishing this battle report until now!

Went to Darkside this past weekend to play in their 2k 40k RTT for this month taking my WIP Space Wolves to see how they would fare in a pretest game before the May tournament in Alabama.

Overall we had a good showing of armies with variety including 3 Space Wolves, a few Blood Angels, Tyranids, IG, Orks and Vanilla Marines not sure if any Necrons or Dark Eldar slipped into the mix but that is from what I recall seeing.

Here is the list I brought:

Wolf Lord in Runic Armor, Storm Shield, Frost Weapon, Saga of the Bear

Wolf Pack Leader with Wolf Claw, Storm Shield, Runic Armor, Hunter Saga

Rune Priest with living lighting, murderous Hurricane, Chooser of the slain

Rune Priest with living lighting, jaws of the wolf and chooser of the slain

7 Wolf Scouts with 2 power weapons and 1 melta gun

4 Wolf Guard with power fists and combi meltas and 1 with frost weapon

1 Wolf Guard in Terminator armor with Cyclone Launcher

3 Long Fang Packs with 14 missiles (Cyclone joins the small pack)

2 Grey Hunter packs of 7 in Rhino, melta gun and power weapon

2 Grey Hunter packs of 6 with Rhino, melta gun/flamer (one in each) and power weapons

My first game was with a local player to the store with his Orks by the name of Cajun (serious this is his real name, not a nickname). Here is what his list looked like:

Ghazghkull Thraka

Warboss with Klaw and Twin Linked Shoota

Storm Boyz

Loota Boyz

25 Boyz with two Rockets and a Nob with a Klaw and bosspole and eavy armor

30 Boyz with big shootas with Nob (same way)

Unit of Gretchin with two Handlers

Unit of Nobz (in a Battlewagon) with an assorted load of weapons and a Pain Nob

3 Killer Kans with 2 grotzookas and 1 scorcha

The First game was the 2010 Adepticon mission “The Shortest Distance between Two Points”. Used the diagonal deployment. I won the dice off and setup on my side of the table loading up a building with Long Fangs. His Orks spread out on the other side ready to move all over and grab up table quarters. The twist to the mission was the warp flux that would allow one unit to deep strike and assault instead of shooting…this was nasty for some games. I am thankful the Ork player was afraid to do this until the last turn.

Primary:   Pushback, the player with the model closest to their board edge loses.

Secondary: More Force org slots alive at the end.

Tertiary: Table Quarters

My plan was simple, Pack Leader joined the Scouts, flanking. The rest setup with the Long Fangs in a building, the Rhinos ready to hold the two table quarters and keep the Orks at bay.

Cajun failed to seize and I started my turn with a salvo of shots to his Kans and killing some Storm boyz……my early goal was to get an immobile result to lock in the Primary. Alas, they either lost weapons, stunned or blown up for the opening turns.  His ork army spread out over the early turns to table quarters and try to take on my units to reduce Force org slots and try to keep me from advancing enough to avoid the Primary.

The game unfolded well as a side shot on the Battlewagon opened a nice door and the scouts slipped in behind the Orks taking out a 25 ork mob with some support from the missiles and living lighting. They quickly did not flee back into cover only to get shot up by the other mob but neither they nor the armless Kan still alive was unable to charge them. The Pack Leader and the Last scout charges the 30 man Ork horde in a desperate hope to detain them. It worked also as the Pack Leader only took a single wound for the remainder of the game as he was able to fend off the ork attacks with his runic armor and storm shield. This kept them closer to the edge than mine as I deep struck two Long Fangs during the last two turns and moved the other to get away from the edge also to ensure the win. Ghazghkull popping over towards the end helped me out as they died to him. A bad choice IMO, I would have gone for something else.

When the last round was up, I had the Primary with more than double with a disabled Rhino on the board. I had more Force Org slots left and I had 2 table quarters to his one. Taking the bonus points maxed out my score.

Cajun!

Wolves Advance!

Orks take to the field!

The Wolf Guard Battle Leader makes a stand!

My second game was against Clark and his Space Marines. Clark has won Ard Boyz Nationals and has always been a long time overall winner in tournaments. This would be a good game and a hard win to take.

His list was something like this:

Shrike

Cassisus

Large block of Thunder Hammer/ Storm Shield Terminators

3 Thunderfire cannons

3-4 Razorbacks with twin linked lascannons

3-4 squads with lascannons and melta guns, sgt had power fists or weapons (forgot what)

3 Attack Bikes with Multi-meltas

This was a standard Dawn of War with tunnels, this had some weird rules including holding a unit back and being able to place it using a tunnel (the opponent can that is). Clark placed a squad broken into combat squads and a Razorback on the table. I put a rhino with a Rune Priest and Grey Hunters on the table. This table was annoying due to a large fortress in the middle but also helped me from being fleet of footed to death.

The objectives were:

Primary: Capture the Tunnels (4)

Secondary: Victory Points (must be more than 225)

Tertiary: Kill the most expensive HQ

Clark won the roll to pick the table edge but I seized on him! Whoo!

Well, we had a crazy game with units rolling in from the board edge and I rolled in to the center using the fortress as cover. His turn rolled in some units using the tunnels (I did not) and some from his edge. One Thunderfire died due to going into scenery and promptly joined a squad I shot up on my turn. Then the game was one, both armies was out!

I was able to multi-charge Clark taking out 3 attack bikes, a thunderfire and stunning a Razorback in the deal….then I was promptly shot apart. The squad of scouts then split from the Pack Leader (with only 2 models) to deal with the trouble. The Lord ate one combat squad and the Scouts finished off another in hand to hand. Then they both died to a brutal flurry of shots. My Long Fangs was deployed right in his face and died bravely despite the odds. I had his appear my squad and promptly vaporized them also.

The end of the game was down to a scuffle of units left….I think he had 1 Razorback without weapons, 1 terminator and a surviving combat squad in said Razorback.  I managed to kill most of the army namely the Terminators with Jaws of the Wolf and Murderous Hurricane with several missile shots. I lost two units with the Rune Priests both times but it was worth it.

Then we counted up the results:

Primary: Draw (contested) with the Terminator survivor!

Secondary: Tie, not over 225

Tertiary: I won, mine was alive.

Clark

The Long Fangs expect their guests!

Fire! Fire!

The last game was against Clark’s friend Kris with his Space Wolf list. This list was an interesting mix and was a Space Wolf version of Death Company denial as I call it. That is no scoring units; you just work to table your opponent to deny them any chance to win along with you if you can’t. His list was like this:

Canius

2 Lords w/ Runic Armor, Storm shields, power fist/frost weapon on a Thunderwolf

3 Units of Long Fangs with Missile Launchers

3 Units of 15 Wolves

2 Units of Thunderwolves with some assorted mixed gear

This army is built on the straight brutality and using cover to your best advantage.

We had this crazy minefield mission and I lost the roll to setup but did manage to seize again. We had the standard 12” deployment zone and he spread out with his Long Fangs in the building on one side and another set of Long Fangs on the other. He had two Stasis rockets in his Long Fangs. I gave mine to the two 7 man Grey Hunter Units.

Primary: Kill Points

Secondary: Recon, get more scoring units within the opponents deployment zone.

Tertiary: Kill the least expensive unit.

The Seize helped me by launching two stasis shots keeping his Thunderwolves and Long Fangs at bay. I also forced him to move his two other Long Fangs due to a corner castle keeping the shots off my army.

The game was pretty much cut and dry, he moved forward made bunch of saves using cover. Lose a few wolves and take a few more to the minefield once he moved beyond 6”. I knew I could not win the Secondary so I set to weather the worst. I did manage to clear all the wolf units and did some wounds to the Thunderwolves on the way in. Sadly, it was not enough as I started to take some losses. If the game had ended earlier on the dice I may have done better.

In the end he had the Kill Points, neither had the Secondary and we both had a tie on the last with no bonus points for either.

Kris

The Wolves advance through the minefield!

Kris ended up winning third and Clark won overall due to the Eldar player gave up after the first round. 

INAT FAQ or IDIOT FAQ? Part 7

WARNING: This post may be found offensive to those that support the INAT FAQ. If you are offended very easy don’t ready any further. This is simply my opinions on the INAT FAQ and the downfalls of the rulings made.

If I could complain about one thing about the Kalm is their use of the INAT FAQ. I have always had beef with it and this was my first “official” event that used the rules. My policy is that the event rules call is final and I will always respect that even if I don’t disagree with it. That has always been my gaming credo.

Personally, I call this the IDIOT FAQ simply for a few reasons...

• The rules are written by self appointed people in the hobby that are involved in tournaments but they have no official ties to GW or accreditation other than they play and/or organize tournament events.
• While some of the INAT FAQ does tackle some issues GW has not, some of the rulings are simply just either dumb responses and very poorly thought out answers.

I come from a diverse background with a Mass Communications BA and Psychology minor, my past years of working in the government sector of the state has taken me from Data Security to Contract management. My latest job has taught me much about reading into things and how they are written, that they are clear and that the legal aspects are considered. That said, I hit a rule that just didn’t make sense at all and to me is frankly stupid and the person that wrote this rule should not be allowed to make any further rulings in the INAT FAQ.

A player has an IC with Saga of the Hunter (allows him to outflank and stealth special rules) and may be joining a Scout Squad (that of course has scout/infiltrate) and the “behind the enemy lines” rule (that allows them to roll to where they deploy and works with outflank, that it states clearly in the codex).

The GW FAQ states that an IC cannot outflank with a scout squad unless they have Saga of the Hunter or some other special rule that allows them to. Which in this case the IC has the correct Saga to outflank.

The INATFAQ reads like this: P92 that a character with Saga of the Hunter may outflank with a scout unit but may NOT use the “Behind Enemy Lines” special rule. 

Now, I step back and ask why? Nobody can answer this. Let’s check this over.

·        IC has Saga of the Hunter. Allows Outflank. Check.

·        Scout Squad has Scout and Infiltrate. This allows them to use the Outflank option. Check.

·        Behind Enemy Lines uses the Outflank rule and modifies what table edge they may appear on. Check.

·        IC with squad outflanks and uses BEL special rules. Check.

So, again I ask, how did someone come up with that answer in the INAT FAQ? We had a few good laughs at other rules on the drive up to Alabama with my buddy with some of the stupid crap they stuck into this work of ork poop. After I printed and read it I wanted to go plant a tree as an apology for the paper I wasted. GW is already doing a good job giving us vague rules and bad FAQ’s. We are allowing things like this to crop up in major tournaments?

Really guys, do you proof this stuff? Do you have checks and balances? At my job with contracts it comes to my department. We read and proof it when the contract manager sends us a document. We revise and/or approve it to go on through the chain of people to review/revise and approve including legal and program administration. If you are going to do a national FAQ to be used at tournaments do it right or don’t do it at all! I'm not Mr. Perfect but really, I think I could make better rules calls than some of those published in the INAT FAQ.

Regrouping after the Kalm! Part 6

As we didn’t have to take the round about way back home we had 4 lanes most of the way down back home. We avoided Georgia totally on the return trip as it ran us from Huntsville to Birmingham to near Montgomery then over to Dothan into the Florida that cut us over to 75 and back home. The trip was long and peppered with many stops to stretch our legs, eat and get sodas or water including a fuel stop about midway. I made sure to avoid speeding more than 10 above the speed limit as the super troopers was out giving out tickets left and right. Florida was the worst of the three states as they was handing them out like they was going out of style!

We did manage to take one short break in Gainesville Florida that has a shop that has some Forge World selection. I had a few bucks left that my mother had given me to enjoy on the trip and I purchased the Nurgle Sorcerer and found a good double pack of the Dark Angels sprues for $24 that wasn’t a bad price considering I get 10 figures and two terminator legs to help round out my Dark Angels that will be hitting the table soon. I figure this was an omen for me to buy them! Chris grabbed a second Baal Predator kit for his growing Blood Angel army.

I got home and got everything unloaded and settled for the night as my wife ordered pizza and we watched the Vampire Diaries second season (which isn’t bad) and told her about the trip. I was also given the shock that ADT was going to be at the house on Monday to install a security system after my wife had a little scare on Friday night as some shady types was around our street at 3am that made her nervous….so, I would rather have her safe and happy and accepted this as a fact of life.

Monday was my off day to recover and watch Avengers. With ADT scheduled later that day, I was ripping around the house early to pick up and clean as much as I could before their arrival as we have been slobs the past week due to her mother being in the hospital. Stress like that just wears you out and you don’t give a crap about things like housework. Just enough to get by is all you can seem to muster it seems. Plus it was time for the dog’s annual flea bath and cleaning ceremony! Trust me; washing two basset hounds is a chore in itself!

Chris and I headed off to see the Avengers at a small theatre that was cheap and close to home to let me get back in time to let ADT into the house to setup everything. The movie was just simply amazing! This has been a long awaited movie that was just well done and beyond words. The only thing I could complain about is that I am still annoyed that they changed Nick Fury. Really, yea I know he is a black guy in the reboot Marvel but they ruined a classic comic character that I grew up with and just seemed out of place slightly and he wasn’t chewing a stogie either! Please note this isn’t a racial attack, really if you wanted to put an ethnic character into the movie why not Falcon or Black Panther? I know they wanted to go to the old school concept with a twist but really Hawkeye and Widow was not part of the early group either (at least in the old series as they appeared later on). Oh well, it is what it is and I enjoyed it and Jackson does a great acting job even if it was out of place for me. The ending bit was cool with the teaser, I don’t want to spoil it but the teaser for Avengers 2 already has me ready to buy a ticket!

Once my wife was home we went to see her mom and grabbed something quick from Taco Hell, then back home to watch the Vampire Diaries again and snuggle up for the night. I tinkered in the hobby room trying to get ready fro the next project once I am inspired again to figure out what the hell I am doing next!

Oh, I also bought some OJ and had a huge glass…yea, I am an OJ snob….damm it is good here!

Here is the plunder pile of stuff I brought back:

1 Blood Bowl Trophy of 1,800 Tequila

1 Kalm Objective Shot Glass

6 Cyclone Launchers from Iron Dog Studios (Walter was selling them at discount)

2 Dark Angel Sprues

1 Forge World Nurgle Sorcerer

1 multi template with the Kalm logo on it.

My prize, a bottle of 1,800 silver tequila

Trophy and Objective Marker

Objective Markers!

Plunder I brought back...

An offical Kalm template.

I love the John Wayne quote!

The Waaagghh at the Kalm! Part 5

The Waaagghh at the Kalm! Part 4

We got up for the breakfast at the hotel that was ok, except for the OJ! Ugh! It tasted like water with some orange juice in it…well I said something else but I want to keep this clean! Yea, we are OJ snobs it seems as Florida has spoiled me on one of my favorite juices to enjoy morning, noon or night!

We then went outside and hung out talking to various people waiting for the bus and limo to pull up and take the next wave over to the bar. This was another cool perk of the event as we didn’t have to drive after drinking and the van/limo was nice touches!

Upon arrival to the bar it was a madhouse…packed with tables and gamers scrambling to get their armies ready for the big day. We got checked in and I setup my cart as Chris loaded up his tray with his army. The Space Wolves was ready to rock. We munched down a second breakfast that was WAY better than the hotel including the OJ that was much better! I was able to walk around some and snap a few shots of several great looking armies and display boards before the event started. I knew once things got rolling it was going to be a crazy day.

Announcements was made, a honorum of given to a lost gamer that passed away and we got our table assignments and shot glass objective markers. It was funny that George Flowers dropped one when he was showing it off and giving an update that the winner of the first game would get a bonus shot glass! Off to our tables!

My first game was against Shawn Williams and his IG. He had a great looking winter guard look going and it was packed with armor. Here is what his list looked like:

Cmnd HQ: Chimera, 4 Plasma Guns, Plasma Pistol (officer)

Marbro

Battle Psyker Squad with Chimera

3 Veteran Units with Chimeras and 3 Melta Guns

Platoon HQ with Chimera and 3 Flamers

Special Weapons team with 3 Demo Charges

3 Platoon Squads with a Chimera each

Vendetta

Plasma Sentinel

Leman Russ Executioner

Mainticore

2 Hydras (squadron)

We took a look at the mission (a parody of Army of Darkness) and setup everything, then we rolled the dice to see who setups and goes first. After looking over his list I knew I was screwed if he won the dice roll, it was one of those games of “he who goes first will more than likely have the edge to win”.

We had a straight 12” deployment, 3 objective markers down the center of the table in even spacing. One of the three was the Orkinomicron and the other two was Vortex traps.

Objectives:

Control the Real Orkinomicron = 6pts

Capture the Enemy Keep – 5pts (declared building within deployment zone)

Kill Ash/Evil Ash = 4pts (players roll winner picks an IC to be Ash/Evil Ash)

Who Else Wants Some? Most expensive unit must kill 150% more VPs excluding HQs.

Ahhh! It Burns: 1pt (reveal a fake Orkinomicon) (could get this twice)

Setup was straight forward but slightly slow for both of us. He centered most of his army and was ready to surge forward and pound me with firepower for the early half and then check the objectives and clean up on points. Mine was simple, hide my armor, take cover with the Long Fangs and pray I seize. Otherwise take a beating and then push forward and pray I am on the right side for the Orcinomicron as the Capture the Keep was going to be tough unless I could get my scouts in there. The scouts held in reserve and the Battle Leader went solo due to the dumb INAT FAQ call.

Well, the game was just as I predicted. I failed to seize, Shawn pounded my army with shooting and I was punished by the Battle Psyker Squad. I could not get a clean shot on them or much else (considering I lost one Long Fang squad the first turn, one depleted to 1 man and the other took a single loss). The first two turns was also just horrible as I think I rolled more 1’s than binary code has. Dismal….I tried to figure out what I could salvage and hope I could distract him from some points and let the vortex help even the score.

Well, the Vortex did suck up a squad and Chimera and a few other figures (sadly we forgot to keep the vortex going each turn like the rules said. We thought they were one shot and this was an early AM game. This may have helped me a bit more and made him a bit more cautious with his army.

Towards the end the objective was in the middle, if I was lucky I could get a squad there but it would be tough and down to a run roll. They was shot down, fled back and rallied, 3” rally, moved and ran falling short to contest the 6 point objective.

We checked the rest of the points and he claimed the Capture the Keep, the rule was vague (it did not specify the entire unit, a percentage of the unit or just part) and I finally agreed. Shawn appeared to really want to win big and it was not worth pushing, after my rough week, I just wanted to throw some dice, have some fun and drink some beer. Who knows, maybe I would swing another award from their crazy pile of trophies.

I was able to break his HQ and I got credit for the killing Ash as my Evil Ash managed to live (the Wolf Guard Battle Leader that came in on a bad flank and was forced to hide in a tank to avoid being shot up.

He also claimed the 150% and I could not, then he got the two bonus points for checking the other two fake objectives. This left us 17-4 at the end of the first round. Not a great start but maybe if my next two games went better!

Overall, we had a great game. I was tired and forgot a few things as did Shawn but we both was cool about how to handling any issues there. Other than a small rules issue with LOS and cover saves that we did resolve was the only major issue we had the entire game.

Perhaps I could have been more aggressive but the dice was simply just against me for the first two turns and he taking the lead put me in a defensive posture the entire game. Oh well, on to the next game!

Here is some photo’s of the game!

Shawn, IG commander

Scout move...

Shot from my angle...

Amusing notes was found on each table...would you open the one that was the objective?

The second game was against John Brewer and his Orks!

After lunch we found our table and exchanged lists as well as glanced over the next mission called Winning, a spin on Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards gag.

John’s list was like this:

Ghazghkull Thraka

Big Mek with KFF and Burna

Two Units of 15 Lootas

15 Burna Boyz

18 boyz with shootas

3 units of boyz in trucks each with slugga and choppa and Nob with Klaw/pole.

3 Battle Wagons

The Objectives was like this:

Winning! 5pts, VPs (by 200) exclude HQs and any units killed by or in part by HQs.

Custody of the Twins – 5pts, control the two shot glasses

Fire the Crazy Guy – 5pts, one FOC is declared crazy, you must get it killed.

Domestic Abuse – 4pts, the Sheen and Richards declared models kill the other.

Adonis DNA: 1pt, if you win by 800 points or more.

John won the roll and setup in the center of the W deployment he had to use. He was setup within range of the KFF and ready to go anywhere on the table ready for a first turn charge. I spread the Long Fangs out, split the Rhinos up and hid in cover from the Lootas to avoid being shot up early on.

I seized the first turn and started to pound his ork army with shooting. This was a game of just ups and downs. John could barely get to me to engage men but I also was holding back to avoid giving him an easy charge to give him any advantage.

When time was called we checked to see what we scored…neither of us won by VPs (right at 200 with the exclusions), I had one shot glass but not the second. Neither of us got our Crazy guy killed. Sheen and Richards never got to face off, another zero. As we were under 200, the 800 was out of the question. So, we both got big goose eggs!

John was a great opponent and we had fun just drinking beer, shooting the hell out of one another and clobbering one another in close combat…a true Space Wolf vs. Ork game!

Here are some shots of the game…

Meet John! A kick ass Ork!

Beat down in the ruins!

The beatings will continue until someone dies!

The table early on...

 

The last game was against Dark Angels played by Josh Alexander. He had a tough list of Dark Angels that looked something like this:

Belial,

6 Deathwing Terminators (troops), 2 with bolters/cyclones, 4 w/ thunder hammers/shields

2 Ravenwing bike squads (3 each) with 2 meltas and 2 attack bikes with multimeltas.

Tough, small, elite and fast was what I was facing with the mission being simply a two fold VP game. Your first score of Victory Points you killed. Then you got a Margin based on the difference for a bonus.

We rolled off to see the deployment zone and ended up with Spearhead (random deployment zone) and then for first turn that Josh won. I moved to bunker down in one corner and set my rhinos up to counter attack whatever heads my way.

He scout moved and I failed to seize. His shooting wasn’t that great the first turn as I passed most armor and cover saves, and then started to attack back in force. I mobbed forward Belial’s squad and another squad that landed near my army using the bike locator beacons and quickly removed the bikes from the game and turned into a slow grind game of trying to kill one squad off at a time to get some VPs…

When time was called I had 7 battle points and he had 4 with a +2 bonus for me. 

Josh was another great guy to play against and the Bourbon part of the way through the game really was enjoyable. A true gentleman and gamer here again…this is the type of player that makes travel 11 hours worthwhile.

Here are some shots of the game…

Shawn, a kick ass guy for a Dark Angel (and I can say that as I own DA also!)

Here comes the bikes and first wave!

The dogs of war cried out and the slaughter began!

Advance!

Fighting was brutal!

Awards were announced and it was enjoyable to watch the wrap up. What I liked about this event was the type of awards they gave out as they touched on other aspects of the hobby from your basic Overall, Sportsman and painting to awards to those that contribute to making the Kalm a reality to those that support the hobby community in a positive way. They also give an award for the biggest bar tab and furthest traveled award as fun awards. To me this is a true cornerstone event that pushes the hobby to the fullest by making a fun and special event.

Here is some other odd random shots I got of the event!

Random cool scenery!

My vote for the best dressed player there!

The ladies seemed to think so!

The bar sign...

A shot of Dave's shirt!

He was playing a grot revolution army.

Viva! Da Revolution!

There was of course some competitive players there at the event, but even for the most part they was restrained somewhat and they was not arseholes about how they played at the event as they knew this wasn’t that type of event. Sure, everyone wants a trophy but I was there to throw dice and have fun. It was the trip, the experience and hey I still got a cool trophy the night before so I was pleased.

It was mentioned on another blog and I have to agree now in retrospect, there WAS NO JUDGES! Really, that is amazing, boys and girls playing together and having a good time? Amazing is all I can say!

Apparently one player quit after the first turn when his Grey Knights was tabled. Wow, didn’t he read the mission statement for the Kalm? If I travel anywhere, I am going to play my games no matter what, I never understood the logic of some people going to an event and leaving (unless it was a legit emergency) to me it disrespects the players and the organizer(s). Oh well….I had fun and next year I plan to be there to kick some butt with either Dark Angels or Chaos Marines more than likely! 

The Kalm on Parade! Part 4

Here is a collection of pictures of various armies I was lucky enough to snap several shots of before I started my games. Everything was a blur after that, so enjoy what I was able to capture and this was just a sample of the cool armies there!

Space Wolves

Tyranids

Walter's Ork Army!

The Tatar Titan! Aka a Battlewagon here!

I hope you enjoyed the selection of pictures I got!