Deathwatch Roleplaying, NOVA plans, etc.

So, to start out I have FINALLY brought together a 40k RPG group. This is starting up this Tuesday and I am PUMPED.

My buddy who has been my DM in the past and is a 40k fluff nut as well as very familiar with the Fantasy Flight systems is going to run the campaign. He has a Black Crusade campaign already ongoing up in Seattle and apparently our Deathwatch team will be interfering with the actions of his other group of players at least some of the time.

Jumper Armies - Part II, Doin It Proppah

So in part one of this little mini-series we discussed the the proper care and feeding of Blood Angels Jumper armies. I explained my opinion that many BA players have been misled by some of the shiny toys in the codex to believe that Jumper armies are not viable or are sub-par, and specifically that I feel Descent of Angels in particular contributes to the misguided efforts to build Blood Angels armies that play more like Drop Pod armies (Deep Strike in, shoot you with meltas, try not to die).

Ride the Friendly Skies, Grey Knight Triple Stormraven

This list was inspired by another list, but it's unique in many ways. Notes at the bottom. 

Coteaz
Librarian, Servoskulls x 2, Shrouding, Might of Titan, Warp Rift (or whatever third power you want, really).

Proper Jumper Armies - Leave Your DoA At Home, Kids

This is a discussion I have been involved in basically since Blood Angels dropped. This is going to be a part I post, with a follow-up post to more fully elucidate on my thoughts on jumper armies.

As background, recall back to those awful PDF days. With the advent of True Line of Sight, Jumper armies were kind of given the shaft, due to not ever being able to get completely out of line of sight from the opponent as you tried to get across the board. Combine that with a woefully inadequate amount of melta-weapons (or decent wargear options for the Assault Squads at all, really) and the army just kind of sucked. You got shot to pieces by players with balanced lists like Stelek's original "Best of Space Marines" (this is the classic 3 MM Dread, 3 Dakka Pred, MM Tactical squads in Rhinos, etc). The opponent simply had too much anti-infantry firepower, and you too little defense against it, to survive. Add to that the fact that you had to get your enemy out of their bawkses first, and you were really up a creek. To add insult to injury... you really weren't that scary in close combat.

Why is it ALWAYS Dawn of War...?

Seriously, 5 of the last six games have been DoW. Getting sick of it.

On a happier note - I FINALLY ROLLED A REGENERATION RESULT!!

Euclid, this Bud's for you.

I think I was up to about 60 attempts made at this point without success. Of course the regen that I made was on the Prime with only one wound taken, the Prime with two wounds gone failed both and then got ganked the next turn.

Ah well.

Battle Report - Grey Knights vs Dark Eldar

Ok, so I took several pictures at the beginning of the game and several pictures near the end, but there are some gaps in the middle. Still, let's see if we can muddle through in something close to a reasonable fashion.

So let's see if I can remember his list.

Duke Sliscus
Haemonculus, Agonizer
Haemonculus, Agonizer

When is Ard Boyz?

No one seems to know for sure.

A great mystery, it is.

Games Workshop says August 13th... here.

But they say August 6th... here. 

Army Lists Page Updated

Put in my Grey Knights army, my Hordes armies, etc. Just needed a polish.

I am working on my Grey Knights vs. Dark Eldar batrep, so hopefully that will get published tonight.

Astral Aim, Cover Saves, And YOU.

The Astral Aim rule on the Grey Knight Purgation squad has caused no end of debates around my neck of the woods. I am very appreciative of the Grey Knight FAQ which was recently issued but noted that this issue was not addressed. It may seem silly, but please note that this has caused some heated arguments and is, I think, worthy of a FAQ.

Specifically, the questions arise around units which would benefit from cover saves regardless of the presence of absence of the Astral Aim cover save. Specifically the question is whether and when a unit with a cover save which is BETTER than 4+ can use that cover save instead of the Astral Aim 4+ save (for example Stealth or Pinned units that are already in terrain).

Game Night Recap - Tyranids vs. Space Mareenz, Grey Knights vs. Dark Eldar

So, a really fantastic night of gaming. I arrived at the store early with my Circle Orboros, Grey Knights and my Tyranids armies in tow. I even got to play a little Dark Heresy one-shot mini mission before we started to game in earnest. Good times, I miss Dark Heresy.

I'll give a brief recap of both games I got in but I took a few photos of the second (more competitive) game versus Dark Eldar so I hope to put together a full batrep for that game this week.

Thinking About Ard Boyz - Nids and Space Wolves List Ideas

So I have been thinking about Ard Boyz. Apparently I'm not the only one. It would be pretty nice to walk away with some prize support and maybe a new army.  I have been debating whether I want to bring my Wolves or my Nids.

I have not played either army at an Ard Boyz before, so that's a good thing. I think that the Space Wolves list would be quite nasty, and I am more comfortable with my ability to win with it. That being said, I think the Nids might be more fun (not that the Space Wolves wouldn't be fun, mind you).

Game Night Recap - Circle vs. Khador, Circle vs. Cygnar, Circle vs. Cryx

Image copyright Privateer Press, used without permission.

My first game was at 50 points where I finally got to try out my "full" Circle list:

Kaya the Moonhunter
Laris
Feral Warpwolf
Pureblood Warpwolf
Warpwolf Stalker
Gnarlhorn Satyr
Druids of Orboros
-Druid Overseer
Shifting Stones
-Stone Keeper
Warpborn Skinwalkers
War Wolf
War Wolf
Druid Wilder

So several of these models I am just trying out for the first time (the overseer, the War Wolves and the Wilder), so I made my share of mistakes, as you might imagine. The ultimate verdict, however, is that I really like this army and I like it even better at 50 points. 50 points feels like the "right" size to play, but that could just be me talking. It feels like a 2k game after playing a bunch of 1500 point games.

Just less restrictive and more fun overall.

My opponent had a Khador force led by Epic Sorcha. This was my first time playing her so I didn't really know what to expect. More on that later.

He had two Destroyers and a Marauder for his heavy Jacks, a full unit of Winter Guard with Rocket Attachments and Kovnik Joe. He also had a unit of Doom Reavers and some Mechanics. That's all I remember.

And Now - Time to Get My Game On

Been a BUSY day! Mother bought us a really nice dining room set for Father's day, and we had to drive two hours to go pick it up. Got to spend the day with my mom, and stopped by my Grandma's house and installed a hand-rail for her on her front porch. Apparently the cat, in a misguided bid at her life insurance money, has decided that leaping underneath her feet when she steps down off the porch is the thing to do. Hopefully the rail will help keep her safe and sound.

Then, cleaned the garage up a bit. More of a "pre-cleaning" really than anything, trying to tidy up enough to figure out what needs to go where.

And now, it's time to get my game on. I'm taking off for the game store with my Circle of Orboros army and my 2k Tyranids army in tow.

Here's the Circle army I will be trying tonight after the painful thrashing I received last time:

On Beating Grey Knights, Broodlords and Harpies

I've been hearing continuous doom and gloom out of the usual suspects of late. Grey Knights beat Tyranids without even trying, right?

Back In the Saddle!

Been mentally churning since my thrashing on Saturday. I kind of feel like a punk for getting so sullen about it. It's been a while since I've succumbed to that kind of attitude.

But since then I've been thinking about the games. I see my mistakes. I see other options. Choices I could have made differently.

I could have chosen to believe a thousand things. That my opponent was a WAAC jerk. That his army was overpowered. That the dice had gone against me.

No, I made mistakes. I had the tools, I failed to use them properly. My opponent outplayed me, but in the recognition and understanding of his tactics, I can improve and, I hope, one day beat him.

My list does need to change a bit. I need to get the Stalker into my 35 point list. His anti-infantry abilities are too good to give up. But I also realized what a tremendous opportunity I lost in not using Kaya herself to drop a ton of those infantry. The opportunity was RIGHT there. I could have charged her in, used her reach weapon to clear out three to five infantry, and then used Laris' animus to teleport her back to safety.

I still think I need Stalker.

Anyways, I'm thinking a lot about this game, and have been painting a lot.

Worst. Game. Night. Evar.

Got my ass handed to me twice in Warmahordes.

Just a thoroughly frustrating experience.

I just felt like everything I tried to do, failed. Not like, "I missed you" or "I didn't do enough damage to you" kind of failed, or like my strategy was not successful and so I lost kind of failed, but like the 'this model is 1 millimeter in the way of your movement, so you can't do that, and now your entire turn is fucked,' kind of failed.

My first game he took out two of my heavy warbeasts with one of his warjacks on the start of his second turn. So 20 points or so of my army, splat, just like that. I thought I was safe in a forest and like 14 inches away, but he popped his feat and suddenly the Beast 09 had a 13" charge range, Pathfinder, and of course he has reach. So he took down two of my heavies just like it was nothing.

I'm not even going to write it all up. I'm just thoroughly not in a good place right now.

Hopefully I'll feel better in the morning.

Beer, Bratwurst and Genestealers

It's Friday bitches.

Summer seems to have FINALLY arrived in beautiful Washington state. About friggin' time. Too many clouds, too much rain. A man can only take so much gray.

Anyways, listening to my metal Pandora station while I grill up some Brats and drink an Elysian Bete Blanche Triple Belgian. Going to watch the 5th Harry Potter movie with the girls tonight (we are doing a marathon this month) and then going to check out the Green Hornet later tonight while I get some painting done.

The goal for tonight is to have all of the Genestealer's base colors laid down and then washed. That should get the army looking good enough that I wouldn't be totally ashamed to take them to an RTT while I keep working on getting them finished and all 'perty.

Hope you guys are enjoying your weekends!

Pete Asks... Is My Army Cheesy?

Pete was kind enough to follow up with a photo, an email and a list.

I'm t

Hi Purgatus,

Here's my list - happy to share it. I've enclosed a snap of my display board too, so you can see I haven't modelled it for in game advantage etc. Ironically, my third round game against speed freaks was against a player using tiny old edition trucks to get cover saves behind buggies and nob bikers, which failed as a strategy when he got into range of my hive guard.

The only mildly contentious thing is that I attach a tyranid prime to my Carnifex to get it a cover save behind screening gaunts - as I understand it that's acceptable going by the rule book and certainly no players challenged it with judges while I was using it. I use lots of bubble wrap from tervigon generated gaunts and my devilgaunts to mitigate shooting damage and castle up if the enemy is coming to me. The list is optimised for medium range 18"-24" shooting power to knock out light transports and heavy infantry before it hits my lines and have a nasty close combat punch or two to clean up anything left over.

As you can see, it's actually a "rainbow" list more than a true competive list with duplicated units for redundancy - I'm a big sculptor/converter and didn't want to paint up more than one of any kind of unit. The only exception is the hive guard, as I think any foot slogging tyranid player would fall flat without two units of those guys and I like to run 2x2.

Tourney Theory Deep Dive - On Sportsmanship and Comp Scoring

Pete said: 

Statistically speaking, 3 is a very small sample size. Sure you'll get a bell shaped curve, but you'll also get some people who get screwed by the system. With 60 battle points and 30 comp and sportsmanship points what happens in the games is almost secondary to the popularity contest.


Anyway - my story is I scored second in the tourney on battle points, got bumped down to 10th on comp and sportsmanship, and that I don't much like player graded comp now I know how it works. I'd be happy to discuss whether or not I'm a good sportsman over a friendly game of 40k - until then I'd hope you'll give me benefit of the doubt.

Oh, I have no doubt you are a fine player Pete, and probably a nice guy. I will certainly give you the benefit of the doubt because that shit happens all the time to competitive players, even if they are perfectly sportsmanlike.

Some Tyranids WIP Photos

So I think it was Karvala who was asking me to, you know, get off my ass and post some WIP pics. Well, here you go. You will see the Primes after I assembled them, and then the Zoanthropes and Primes after I laid the basic colors on them. I did some testing on my Object Source Lighting but it's not final. The carapace will not be black when it's all done. The models have basically been primed bone, had the carapace painted black, the killy bits painted foundation red, and then washed. Still lots of work to do.