Boltgun Battles

Well, another awesome tournament!!

I took the Kabal list I have been playing with and did a reasonable 2-1 over all. Moment of the day in epic history...game one agains Marcus Baxley and his Ork Horde...

Vect and 10 incubi take a charge from 50 orks slugga boys....mayhem ensues....vect goes first, kills 6 orks, the incubi go next and kill 4 more (crap rolls)....then the boys hit back.....188 times!!! wounding 84 times!! and this was the result.....

That spot of bright green in the middle of that mess is Vect....after 84 saves.....O   M   G   EPIC!

Feeling....wierd...

The title of the post say it all, I am really off for some reason....

I don't have any active projects on my desk, and it looks like a month or more until the Necrons, so now what? The Thousand Sons are still sitting on my paint desk waiting for some needed attention, and my Volscani Traitors are an ever changing project, but right now....nothing. It's an odd feeling to want to do something hobby related but having no projects waiting.

I think that October will be good for some time off, Maybe I'll take a second look at Malifaux and Dystopian Wars.

Links:
Dystopian Wars

Malifaux

Where was I? Oh yeah!

Well it's been a while since I talked about progress here. I have been so locked up with non-gaming stuff this summer that I haven't played more than 4 or  5 games outside of Buckeye Battles! I have been slaving away at my Portal hammer Darl Eldar list and I am nearly done. I will post some pictures of them here in the next week or so. I have nearly 2700 points painted now, with enough unfinished to field nearly 3000 points! It has taken a year to get here, but I am NEARLY done. Once they are completed, I have the Thousand Sons to work on for about a month or so, followed by the incoming Necrons.

Times they are a'changin

Well, we lost a local store in April of this year due to several factors in the local market. It was a sad day, and The Armoury will be missed. But when one thing is taken away something else often takes it's place.

On September 24th Game Table Adventures will open in Newark Ohio. I have known the owner for several years and I am excited to go and see the new store. Boltgun Battles tournament will be held at the store on it's opening day and it should prove to be an excellent opening day for the store.

'Ard Boyz army results.....in a nutshell

I went over to Dakka-Dakka and looked at the breakdowns on the armies that are placing in the top 3 in the 'Ard Boyz prelims, and I was not totally surprised by what I found:

36 Grey Knights
28 Space Wolves
25 Dark Eldar
22 Blood Angels
20 Orks
19 Codex: Marines
16 Imperial Guard
15 Eldar
13 Tyranids
10 Dark Angels
8 Chaos Marines
8 Chaos Daemons
5 Black Templar
5 Tau
2 Necron
2 Sisters of Battle

Now I make no claim that these results are complete ( I manually scraped them from a forum this morning), but they paint an interesting picture. This stuff gives me a lot to think about. The first thing I notice is that the wolves are right up there hitting hard for a second year in a row. Is that book that efficient? Really? The Grey Knights I expect with the new army syndrome , and to a lesser extent the Dark Eldar. Now, I am playing DE right now so I know how fragile they are. They can hit like a ton of bricks, but cannot take the return punches.  This speaks for the skill of the player able to capitalize on this army. Tyranids are the same way. They have very little in the way of "conventional" strength, but they can really wreck your day if you are not careful.

It looks like the GW FAQ on the older marine codeci made an impact with 10 deathwing/ravenwing armies placing well.  I am also seeing a metric crap-ton (don't ask for a definition) of vanilla marines doing well. I guess that speaks for the balance in that book. I'm looking forward to see how the regional games go, and if the "favored" armies really do as well as these numbers seem to indicate.

40k 'Ard Boyz prelims and more

Well I ran the 40k "Ard Boyz tournament at Ravenstone. We had a maxed out 14 people at the store. A good day had by all with no incidents at all. In the end Drew Hixon walked away in first with 60 Battle points....With Tyranids. Drew was due, he has been within inches for at least the last three years. Grats Drew!
Second place was Deathwing/Ravenwing combo Angels. This was a rather nice army that had a rough second round. Third place went to one of three Grey knight armies. Great Job Mike!

I have been playing the games I needed to with my Dark Eldar and after watching 'Ard Boyz and playing those games, I see the loop holes I can easily plug. That said, I think I am going to diversify my hammer units a bit.

Also, Boltgun posted the first test mission, and it screws my entire strategy. My portals are there to receive my reserves, but I can't use them that way if they are in reserve themselves.....crap. So this leaves three of my hammers on foot with no way to close quickly before they get shot. So now I need to adapt....or is it evolve?

Plugging away

Now that I've been back from Florida for a week, and I am almost caught up at work I can begin to look forward again. Boltgun Battles in September will be the next big outing for the Kabal, and I am slowly starting to make progress on painting them again.

Buckeye Battles was a 1750 point limit, while Boltgun is a 2000 point limit. This means some movement in the list as well as new units. I learned a few things at Buckeye Battles, and I plan on applying them going forward.

1. Dark Eldar CAN do hammer assaults, but they need the right unit in the right place at the right time, and Wyches are NOT that unit. That said I think Incubi, especially when supported by an IC or Talos easily fill that roll.

2. Placement of your hammer blows is CRITICAL. To this end I am using two webway portals to make sure my opponents have no where to hide.

3. Dark Eldar shooting can either be completely MEH to a toughness 4 (or less) army, or incredibly devastating to a small model count army. Be prepared to face both and adapt.

4. USE cover to it's maximum benefit and avoid a slugging contest, you WILL lose it. Cover is your friend, and you live or die by it.

Without giving away too much more than I already have, I am using incubi as a hammer from portals, but I am also using a mix of warriors and Wracks as scoring units. I originally thought that replacing warriors all together with wracks was a good idea, but I find that having 3 or 4 more splinter cannons on the table is a huge help. Will a Hexrifle replace that impact? Dunno. The volume loss COULD be replaced with the benefits of sniping squad specialists or ICs, but is that too situational?

I'm going to play as many practice games as I can and see. I am hoping for tyranid, Wolf, and Orc match ups at a minimum before Boltgun to try out my theories. I'll drop results here, as well as some painting updates as I go.

GOOD times....

First up is Disneyworld in Orlando.....

My daughter Carly and I at Universal Studios, Seuss Island

 Hogwart's Castle

 The Three Broomsticks Tavern in Hogsmead.

 Hagrid's Hut

Another view of the castle












As you can see we are all geeking out in Florida. Shopping today and then home tomorrow.....another 1000 mile drive tomorrow, but I am anxious to be home and relax for a day or two before returning to work.

And it begins.....

Well, we made the 1050 mile drive over 2 days....I'M TIRED TO SAY THE LEAST. Now if I could get the kids to sleep after we told them Disney world is coming!!

Long day, but a truly good one. Pix in a few days after we get back. Right, onto the fun.

Boltgun Battles is next!! (unless I cave in and try "Ard Boyz)

Well I am officially prepping for Boltgun Battles, a 2000 point tournament coming up soon. But first....VACATION.

I am Going out of state at the end of the week, so I'll be out of the loop for a week or so.

TTYL