I saw this on another blog and couldn't resist passing it along.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Grey Knights in April
Well with more details being "confirmed" about the Grey Knights codex it feels like they might be the rules match I am looking for in my Thousand Sons. I still plan on waiting to have the book in my hands before I commit to even buying more models. One unit I WILL have is a maxed out unit of terminators. It looks like only minor conversions will be needed to make them fall into the heresy era look that I want.
Power armored troops will still be MOSTLY forgeworld Mark 3 and 4, but the gear is all custom either way. I am really looking forward to this book. I feel like this book will be a real high-wire act between numbers and quality of forces fielded. I look at this as a challenge, but also a HUGE opportunity for modeling.
Power armored troops will still be MOSTLY forgeworld Mark 3 and 4, but the gear is all custom either way. I am really looking forward to this book. I feel like this book will be a real high-wire act between numbers and quality of forces fielded. I look at this as a challenge, but also a HUGE opportunity for modeling.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
The Ides of March
Wow the last month has passed in a blur. With Armoury Games closing it's doors an era of gaming ends for me. Am I sad about loing the ONLY FLGS within 30 minutes? Yes. I know I still have a home in Newark, or heck even at the Guard Tower with some time investment. For now I am not really worried. Why? Well I have a ton of things still simmering that I can put more attention to.
1. March 26th "hobby" tournament in Newark. 1850 necron army to be painted in 20 days
2. Thousands Sons project is coming along with the first squad in hand and on the work bench.
3. The Defense of Drask campaign I was running at the shop has moved home.
4. 40k Origins is screaming ahead with terrain projects for the RTT there in June
5. Mission design/painting rubric/sportsmanship scoring for 40k Origins underway
I am still going to play that campaign storyline out. One of the best guys from Armoury Games, Jeff (Astivus) has agreed to play through the missions I had laid down and see where it comes out. For now it will be the Subdjugator marines and imperial guard against the orks.
My priority right now is thrashing out my necron army to have them all painted up for the tournament on the 26th. I haven't been to the CSP in a long time so this will be a nice return to my roots.
1. March 26th "hobby" tournament in Newark. 1850 necron army to be painted in 20 days
2. Thousands Sons project is coming along with the first squad in hand and on the work bench.
3. The Defense of Drask campaign I was running at the shop has moved home.
4. 40k Origins is screaming ahead with terrain projects for the RTT there in June
5. Mission design/painting rubric/sportsmanship scoring for 40k Origins underway
I am still going to play that campaign storyline out. One of the best guys from Armoury Games, Jeff (Astivus) has agreed to play through the missions I had laid down and see where it comes out. For now it will be the Subdjugator marines and imperial guard against the orks.
My priority right now is thrashing out my necron army to have them all painted up for the tournament on the 26th. I haven't been to the CSP in a long time so this will be a nice return to my roots.
Monday, February 14, 2011
30K Thousand Sons update
I mentioned a while back that I was planning out a Heresy Era Thousand sons army. In that same post I mentioned looking at several different Army books and failing to be satisfied with the ability of the existing armies to create a list that would "feel" like a smaller elite army that relies on sorcery for most fo it's "punch". I did settle on using the Space Wolves due to the ability to take 4 HQ choices and make them all runepriests to weight the magic use in the army. Now, I tried to tell myself that the inherent "wrongness" of using the mortal enemies of the army I am playing to represent them was all in fun, and a good joke....but it WAS wrong. I still do not feel right about it (too much fluff nazi I know).
I am now seeing lots of rumors surrounding the upcoming Grey Knights book, and to be totally honest, I think that if even half of what the internet is saying is true, the Grey knight book will be a better fit for my army without a rule set to hang their helmets on.
Is it perfect? No. I would rather have a chaos book that would work for them, or heck even a loyalist book...so I'll hold on until I read the Grey Knights book and make a call. In the meantime I have made a bit of progress on them. I am building a Stormraven to use as either part of the army if I use the GK book, or part of the display board if I don't. I also have Azek Ahriman to tabletop standard. Here's some pix:
I am now seeing lots of rumors surrounding the upcoming Grey Knights book, and to be totally honest, I think that if even half of what the internet is saying is true, the Grey knight book will be a better fit for my army without a rule set to hang their helmets on.
Is it perfect? No. I would rather have a chaos book that would work for them, or heck even a loyalist book...so I'll hold on until I read the Grey Knights book and make a call. In the meantime I have made a bit of progress on them. I am building a Stormraven to use as either part of the army if I use the GK book, or part of the display board if I don't. I also have Azek Ahriman to tabletop standard. Here's some pix:
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Drask round 2 results
Well the mission went well and all had good HARD fought games. In the end Mike and PyroJeff pulled out Major victories to claim the extra Campaign points on offer. PyroJeff's Blood Angels are pulling into a small lead with a strong base of operations. Mikes Blood Angels are a strong second. They also have now established a landing zone and can begin to push for the shield generators surrounding Hive Primus.
Don't leave the Orks, Tau or Ultra marines out of this. The Imperial guard also made an appearance in support of the three companies of marines on the planet. The forces of chaos have been engaged all across the sector, and rumors of cult activity have been confirmed as well.
Can the Blood angels push their advantage and establish supply lines to the hive spire before the Orks and Tau manage to drop the void shields protecting the citizens of Drask IV?
Don't leave the Orks, Tau or Ultra marines out of this. The Imperial guard also made an appearance in support of the three companies of marines on the planet. The forces of chaos have been engaged all across the sector, and rumors of cult activity have been confirmed as well.
Can the Blood angels push their advantage and establish supply lines to the hive spire before the Orks and Tau manage to drop the void shields protecting the citizens of Drask IV?
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Defense of Drask campaign turn 2
Well the first round of my Defense of Drask campaign went really well. I have four more rounds planned and I hope we will continue to see the 7 or 8 players we had for round one. Planetstrike was rough on some of the armies, so this round is a more traditional capture mission.
Secure the last of your perimeter and prepare for incoming enemy forces. There is no rest....
Victory conditions: capture objectives based on the standard 40K rulebook (must have troops selection within three inches to capture, any unit can contest by moving within three inches.
Number of Objectives: 3
Player deployment: Dice off in the beginning, winner chooses whether to go first or second, player who goes first deploys first in the zone of choice and opponent deploys in the opposite zone. Any number of units can be placed in reserve. Players deploy their army anywhere on their table HALF that is within 12” of a board edge. No units may be deployed closer than 18” to the nearest enemy unit.
Objective deployment: each player can place one objective, no more than one per table quarter, at least 12 inches from the center and at least 12 inches from another objective, one objective placed in the middle of the board.
Objectives of Opportunity:
1. Kill the highest points value HQ
2. Kill the highest points value infantry unit (no HQ, no Jump Infantry, no Beasts, no Cavalry, no Bikes)
3. Kill 50% or more of your opponent's units that are monstrous creatures or have an armor value. If your opponent has no units with an armor value or are monstrous creatures then you automatically achieve this objective.
Results:
• MAJOR WIN = Controlling 2+ objectives, opponent controls none = 50 points
• MINOR WIN = Controlling more objectives than your opponent = 40 points
• DRAW = Controlling the same number of objectives = 30 points
• MINOR LOSS = Controlling fewer objectives than your opponent = 20 points
• MAJOR LOSS = Controlling 0 objectives, your opponent controls 2+ = 10 points
• ACHIEVING MORE OBJECTIVES OF OPPORTUNITY THAN YOUR OPPONENT = 1 bonus objective
Major win will net the player an extra CP so this should push for some bloody fights from these guys!
Secure the last of your perimeter and prepare for incoming enemy forces. There is no rest....
Victory conditions: capture objectives based on the standard 40K rulebook (must have troops selection within three inches to capture, any unit can contest by moving within three inches.
Number of Objectives: 3
Player deployment: Dice off in the beginning, winner chooses whether to go first or second, player who goes first deploys first in the zone of choice and opponent deploys in the opposite zone. Any number of units can be placed in reserve. Players deploy their army anywhere on their table HALF that is within 12” of a board edge. No units may be deployed closer than 18” to the nearest enemy unit.
Objective deployment: each player can place one objective, no more than one per table quarter, at least 12 inches from the center and at least 12 inches from another objective, one objective placed in the middle of the board.
Objectives of Opportunity:
1. Kill the highest points value HQ
2. Kill the highest points value infantry unit (no HQ, no Jump Infantry, no Beasts, no Cavalry, no Bikes)
3. Kill 50% or more of your opponent's units that are monstrous creatures or have an armor value. If your opponent has no units with an armor value or are monstrous creatures then you automatically achieve this objective.
Results:
• MAJOR WIN = Controlling 2+ objectives, opponent controls none = 50 points
• MINOR WIN = Controlling more objectives than your opponent = 40 points
• DRAW = Controlling the same number of objectives = 30 points
• MINOR LOSS = Controlling fewer objectives than your opponent = 20 points
• MAJOR LOSS = Controlling 0 objectives, your opponent controls 2+ = 10 points
• ACHIEVING MORE OBJECTIVES OF OPPORTUNITY THAN YOUR OPPONENT = 1 bonus objective
Major win will net the player an extra CP so this should push for some bloody fights from these guys!
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
The Defense of Drask Phase one: Planetstrike
Hello again all. It's been a busy week. This Saturday marks the start of my Defense of Drask campaign with a planetstrike game to get everyone settled into a beachhead and start landing forces to either defend or destroy Drask 4.
I plan on doing 6 turns with a group game at the end to represent to final "Apocalyptic" battle. I haven't decided on rules, but likely a lot like the winter mayhem game I ran a few weeks ago. I think I want to mix things up a bit and run a demo of Battlefleet gothic as either a side or fun game to tie in the story events. Either way Im looking forward to getting in a few games this weekend.
I plan on doing 6 turns with a group game at the end to represent to final "Apocalyptic" battle. I haven't decided on rules, but likely a lot like the winter mayhem game I ran a few weeks ago. I think I want to mix things up a bit and run a demo of Battlefleet gothic as either a side or fun game to tie in the story events. Either way Im looking forward to getting in a few games this weekend.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
A Thousand Sons...or is it?
A few weeks back I posed the question about what am I going to do for the first half of 2011. I have decided to slowly start working on a Heresy era Thousand Sons army. Now I am the kind of gamer that I build the army list first, and then buy models to fill it. When that is complete, I go back and get more models to fill in gaps, or improve the list. This has the dual function of building to a moderate goal, and then allowing play-testing to refine a concept. The side benefit is that whatever units do not end up in the final list are left as extras to be added around the refined core. It's about here that I realize that I have NO idea what codex to use to represent them as depicted in Graham McNeil's A Thousand Sons Novel.
After making and discarding about 50 lists from the CSM, vanilla marines, BA, DA, and (of all armies) wolves, I settled with the biggest Heresy I could think of and went with the runepriest heavy Wolves as a basis. I know this is serious Heresy using the mortal enemies of the T-sons to represent them, but for an army that claims to hate psykers they certainly have a lot of them.....
Now Ahriman himself will be represented by the rules for Njal Stormcaller, and I have ordered the FW Sevrin Loth for a mini. Ahriman will be accompanied by 2 more runepriests to represent Khalophis and Hathor Maat. I have to say I love the idea of living lightening or fury of the world wolf guided by a chooser of the slain....
Of course each captain will have a portion of his coven with him on the field. The Corvidae, Pavoni and Athaeneans will be represented by 8 man grey hunter packs led by wolf guard. Each will be transported in a rhino. The Pyrae, mages without compare will be represented by a trio of longfang packs. In the novel Khalophis directed a group of combat robaots from a stormbird. While I can't replicate the stormbird, I am using thunderwolf cavalry to fill their assault/counter assault role. For coversions...well there are a TON. I said this would be a slow build, and I meant it. EVERY unit and most models will be conversions both due to the historical nature of the army, and the magical nature of it. So far I have a few really nice ideas.
I already mentioned using the Red Scorpion FW librarian for Ahriman, but there are conversions to do. I need to add the distinctive nasal crest to his helmet, and get his khopesh staff converted from an old metal grey night force halberd and some bits from MaxMini. Khalophis and Hathor Maat will follow suit. I will be using bits of the command squad that came with Loth to make them.
All of the line infantry will of course be a mix of mark 3, 4 and 5 marine armor, and Max mini steamnight heads. I plan on mixing in some red scorpion heads as well. The rhino transports will be hover variants held aloft by magic. A flight stand and some platicard to cover the gaps from removing the tracks will fix those.
The Robot assault unit will be modeled using sisters of battle penitent engines and green-stuff to match the look I am after. The weapons will be modeled individually to make them all unique.
The Pyrae were supposed to be mages without compare, so I think squads of librarians conjuring spell effects will work well for the longfangs. Since I am using only lascannon and missiles I can just do two different effects and then make sure my opponent know which is which before the game.
Lots of ideas, just need to collect the bits to get it all going. I have been slowly collecting bits for months in an attempt to mitigate the cost per squad from FW, so we'll see how it goes. I am starting with Ahriman/Loth and I'll post a WIP as soon as I can.
After making and discarding about 50 lists from the CSM, vanilla marines, BA, DA, and (of all armies) wolves, I settled with the biggest Heresy I could think of and went with the runepriest heavy Wolves as a basis. I know this is serious Heresy using the mortal enemies of the T-sons to represent them, but for an army that claims to hate psykers they certainly have a lot of them.....
Now Ahriman himself will be represented by the rules for Njal Stormcaller, and I have ordered the FW Sevrin Loth for a mini. Ahriman will be accompanied by 2 more runepriests to represent Khalophis and Hathor Maat. I have to say I love the idea of living lightening or fury of the world wolf guided by a chooser of the slain....
Of course each captain will have a portion of his coven with him on the field. The Corvidae, Pavoni and Athaeneans will be represented by 8 man grey hunter packs led by wolf guard. Each will be transported in a rhino. The Pyrae, mages without compare will be represented by a trio of longfang packs. In the novel Khalophis directed a group of combat robaots from a stormbird. While I can't replicate the stormbird, I am using thunderwolf cavalry to fill their assault/counter assault role. For coversions...well there are a TON. I said this would be a slow build, and I meant it. EVERY unit and most models will be conversions both due to the historical nature of the army, and the magical nature of it. So far I have a few really nice ideas.
I already mentioned using the Red Scorpion FW librarian for Ahriman, but there are conversions to do. I need to add the distinctive nasal crest to his helmet, and get his khopesh staff converted from an old metal grey night force halberd and some bits from MaxMini. Khalophis and Hathor Maat will follow suit. I will be using bits of the command squad that came with Loth to make them.
All of the line infantry will of course be a mix of mark 3, 4 and 5 marine armor, and Max mini steamnight heads. I plan on mixing in some red scorpion heads as well. The rhino transports will be hover variants held aloft by magic. A flight stand and some platicard to cover the gaps from removing the tracks will fix those.
The Robot assault unit will be modeled using sisters of battle penitent engines and green-stuff to match the look I am after. The weapons will be modeled individually to make them all unique.
The Pyrae were supposed to be mages without compare, so I think squads of librarians conjuring spell effects will work well for the longfangs. Since I am using only lascannon and missiles I can just do two different effects and then make sure my opponent know which is which before the game.
Lots of ideas, just need to collect the bits to get it all going. I have been slowly collecting bits for months in an attempt to mitigate the cost per squad from FW, so we'll see how it goes. I am starting with Ahriman/Loth and I'll post a WIP as soon as I can.
Upcoming Spring Mayhem Apocalypse
Coming on March 26th I will be hosting an Apocalypse game. The game will be a free for all competitive battle to the last man standing....or store hours, which ever runs out first. If time runs out we will determine a winner by point tally on the surviving models. The specifics are as follows:
5000 points per player. This is important as this is a free for all, try to get as close to this total with out exceeding it.
No single units costing more than 1500pts.
Super heavies, Flyers, and Gargantuan creatures are allowed. Where there are two profiles available, ie one Imperial Armour and a second from a more recent Codex, please contact me or Drew at the store with what you have chosen before game day.
No formations or stratagems from the Apocalypse/Imperial Armour books. This means the only squadrons will be as allowed by 40k codex. These are intended to be used by allied armies....there are none of those here, it is all PvP. This is also to allow a fair win if we run out of time. Formations cost points to run, so this balances things a bit more evenly.
Imperial Armour army lists ARE allowed. Please send a PM or email (shadowvast@live.com) and clear these before the day of the game.
Allies ARE allowed per the chart in the first Apocalypse rule book. (I will make exceptions in extreme cases)
Please come ready to play. This means you need printed copies of the rules, your codex, and any Imperial Armour pieces you are using. No exceptions unless one can be had by photo copy. You will of course need dice, templates and a tape measure as well.
5000 points per player. This is important as this is a free for all, try to get as close to this total with out exceeding it.
No single units costing more than 1500pts.
Super heavies, Flyers, and Gargantuan creatures are allowed. Where there are two profiles available, ie one Imperial Armour and a second from a more recent Codex, please contact me or Drew at the store with what you have chosen before game day.
No formations or stratagems from the Apocalypse/Imperial Armour books. This means the only squadrons will be as allowed by 40k codex. These are intended to be used by allied armies....there are none of those here, it is all PvP. This is also to allow a fair win if we run out of time. Formations cost points to run, so this balances things a bit more evenly.
Imperial Armour army lists ARE allowed. Please send a PM or email (shadowvast@live.com) and clear these before the day of the game.
Allies ARE allowed per the chart in the first Apocalypse rule book. (I will make exceptions in extreme cases)
Please come ready to play. This means you need printed copies of the rules, your codex, and any Imperial Armour pieces you are using. No exceptions unless one can be had by photo copy. You will of course need dice, templates and a tape measure as well.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Winter Mayhem results
Awesome time all!! We had 6 players for a total of 30k points on the table at a time. Some highlights include:
My warhound going supernova and killing almost 3000 points as it died.....mostly mine
... ... to a single infernus pistol hit.... 
ZOMGWTFBBQ 2 defense lasers in one force!?!
Plaguetowers FTW
Baneblades are either incredibly annoying or incredibly cool depending on how you look at it!!
Seriously, a good time had by all, and a follow up will be scheduled soon. Congrats to Peter O'Meara for his win with an incredible 3k+ surviving at the end of the game!!
My warhound going supernova and killing almost 3000 points as it died.....mostly mine
... ... to a single infernus pistol hit.... ZOMGWTFBBQ 2 defense lasers in one force!?!
Plaguetowers FTW
Baneblades are either incredibly annoying or incredibly cool depending on how you look at it!!
Seriously, a good time had by all, and a follow up will be scheduled soon. Congrats to Peter O'Meara for his win with an incredible 3k+ surviving at the end of the game!!
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