So what have I learned? Paint this son of a bitch before you glue the wings in and the head on lol, oh well I can't wait to troll marines lol
Monday, October 7, 2013
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Golden Throne GT South-West: A Week later...
Howdy Folks! So I was going to write up a bunch of Battle Reports, but frankly, I find those boring to read, and a chore to write. So I thought that I would give an overview of the event, and my thoughts on what sort of Meta we saw.
Venue: This was part of a larger gaming convention. We shared space all weekend with the biggest WarmaHordes tournament I have ever seen. Our attendance was around 22 players, which is not too shabby. It was held at the Waco Convention Center.
Nice bathrooms, Restaurants with-in walking distance, and right across the street from my hotel. Lots of space between tables, and space between each for room to set down your carrying tray. Well ventilated, and well lit.
There weren't that many other games being played though. And the vendor hall was pretty sparse as well. I'm not sure the price of Convention Admission was worth it. Had I not had a specific event I wanted to play in, I would have been let down at what they had going on. Unless you have an event to go to from the gate, I would NOT recommend going to this Convention. When you compare it to conventions like KublaCon, or OrcCon, it is a real letdown. I guess not everything is bigger in Texas.
To be fair, this was their first year; maybe next year will be better.
Tournament: No real complaints. After a brief stall Saturday morning (which was in no way the TO's fault), it ran very quickly; pairings were up well before the start of each round, and at 3-hours per match, we had plenty of time to finish each game.
However, here we get to one of my issues. I finished all of my games in well-under 2 hours. Which left me with too much time on my hands. BUT... there were a few tables/players that did need/use the entire time to play their games. Thank G-D that I didn't play those people, that would have killed me. The TO and I went out for food Saturday night and when I mentioned this, he made a comment that caused me to consider this in a different light. I'm in it for the result (I'm going for the win, not the story line). These players care more about what their Lord did that turn, and they want to Forge a Narrative. They did pay the same money I did, and if that's how they enjoy it, more power to them.
I think a GT isn't the place for that, but like I said, I didn't have to play them, so it wasn't that big of a deal.
Armies: Quite the varied selection, I must say! You can see the results and the army breakdown here:
http://goldenthronegt.com/southwest/?page_id=69
Very, VERY few vanilla marine armies, despite the codex just getting released, though a White Scars list did take 1st. And Bugz took 2nd! Crazy!
Here I want to make a statement that I've been mulling over in my head all week. I'm not sure the results to these events ever really give us any real data with which to judge the meta.
Take the top two players' lists. I look at them and see armies that I'm pretty sure I would have wrecked, had I played them. Same goes for many of the armies I saw at the top tables. Or maybe its just me bitching.
Final Comment: (Spolier: I'm going to vent, so you may just want to close this now...)
Fucking Heldrakes!
Disclaimer: This opponent I'm about to discuss seemed like a good guy during our match, and it was a fun game over all. This in no way is a negative comment about him. I'm actually hoping to see him next weekend at a local event, and hopefully we can play again.
Going into my 4th game Sunday morning, I was 2-1, and feeling pretty good. My only loss Saturday was a VERY close game Round 1, that literally came down to a single dice roll for consolidation onto an objective, and then the game ended. Those are the best games, I think.
So 4th round: I played a good guy from Dallas, who ran a very swift moving CSM list: Biker Lord with Spawns, 3x CCW-type Forgefiends, a daemon prince w/ wings, Bloodthrister, 2x blobs of Plagebearers and 3x blobs of cultists. And...... 2x Heldrakes. He had actually posted his list to me on FB earlier in the week, and I had made the comment that the only real threat I saw to my list was his Heldrakes. Guess what happened?
We played a 5-objective Dawn of War mission where the Fast Attacks are also scoring. Long story short, it was pretty back and forth. I wiped all of him fast movers by turn 2/3, with him doing light damage to me in return. Then his Dragons came on. Fast forward to turn 5 or 6 (I don't recall, I believe it was actually turn 6) and his 2x dragons had erased 90% of my army. Despite all that, I had still managed contest his rear/home objectives, but his dragons simply swooped in and scored another two, winning him the game.
I'm about to make a comment that will make me look like a whiny bitch to some, but fuck you, I'm going to make it anyways: His Heldrakes were the only thing that won him the game, against me anyways. He still made it to the top ten overall, but you can't compare fighting most other armies and fighting DE. You just can't. Apples and oranges. I'm making this comment as an indictment of that particular unit, not him taking them.
There is NO weaknesses to that unit. NONE. AV12 all around, that template of death weapon, Flying so most weapons are snap shooting; they are also Fast Attack options, so they do not really have anything to compete with in Army Selection in the CSM codex. They are just too good, IMO. As our game showed, they can allow a player to win a game all by themselves. No single unit should have the ability to affect the game in that manner.
*End Rant*
Anyways, had a great time, and if you live on the West Coast of the US, I would highly recommend attending the main Golden Throne GT out there.
Next Time: IG Fanatic shelves his Ultramarines, in favor of pulling the trigger on a long time pipedream army: War of Faith coming soon to this space.
Venue: This was part of a larger gaming convention. We shared space all weekend with the biggest WarmaHordes tournament I have ever seen. Our attendance was around 22 players, which is not too shabby. It was held at the Waco Convention Center.
Nice bathrooms, Restaurants with-in walking distance, and right across the street from my hotel. Lots of space between tables, and space between each for room to set down your carrying tray. Well ventilated, and well lit.
There weren't that many other games being played though. And the vendor hall was pretty sparse as well. I'm not sure the price of Convention Admission was worth it. Had I not had a specific event I wanted to play in, I would have been let down at what they had going on. Unless you have an event to go to from the gate, I would NOT recommend going to this Convention. When you compare it to conventions like KublaCon, or OrcCon, it is a real letdown. I guess not everything is bigger in Texas.
To be fair, this was their first year; maybe next year will be better.
Tournament: No real complaints. After a brief stall Saturday morning (which was in no way the TO's fault), it ran very quickly; pairings were up well before the start of each round, and at 3-hours per match, we had plenty of time to finish each game.
However, here we get to one of my issues. I finished all of my games in well-under 2 hours. Which left me with too much time on my hands. BUT... there were a few tables/players that did need/use the entire time to play their games. Thank G-D that I didn't play those people, that would have killed me. The TO and I went out for food Saturday night and when I mentioned this, he made a comment that caused me to consider this in a different light. I'm in it for the result (I'm going for the win, not the story line). These players care more about what their Lord did that turn, and they want to Forge a Narrative. They did pay the same money I did, and if that's how they enjoy it, more power to them.
I think a GT isn't the place for that, but like I said, I didn't have to play them, so it wasn't that big of a deal.
Armies: Quite the varied selection, I must say! You can see the results and the army breakdown here:
http://goldenthronegt.com/southwest/?page_id=69
Very, VERY few vanilla marine armies, despite the codex just getting released, though a White Scars list did take 1st. And Bugz took 2nd! Crazy!
Here I want to make a statement that I've been mulling over in my head all week. I'm not sure the results to these events ever really give us any real data with which to judge the meta.
Take the top two players' lists. I look at them and see armies that I'm pretty sure I would have wrecked, had I played them. Same goes for many of the armies I saw at the top tables. Or maybe its just me bitching.
Final Comment: (Spolier: I'm going to vent, so you may just want to close this now...)
Fucking Heldrakes!
Disclaimer: This opponent I'm about to discuss seemed like a good guy during our match, and it was a fun game over all. This in no way is a negative comment about him. I'm actually hoping to see him next weekend at a local event, and hopefully we can play again.
Going into my 4th game Sunday morning, I was 2-1, and feeling pretty good. My only loss Saturday was a VERY close game Round 1, that literally came down to a single dice roll for consolidation onto an objective, and then the game ended. Those are the best games, I think.
So 4th round: I played a good guy from Dallas, who ran a very swift moving CSM list: Biker Lord with Spawns, 3x CCW-type Forgefiends, a daemon prince w/ wings, Bloodthrister, 2x blobs of Plagebearers and 3x blobs of cultists. And...... 2x Heldrakes. He had actually posted his list to me on FB earlier in the week, and I had made the comment that the only real threat I saw to my list was his Heldrakes. Guess what happened?
We played a 5-objective Dawn of War mission where the Fast Attacks are also scoring. Long story short, it was pretty back and forth. I wiped all of him fast movers by turn 2/3, with him doing light damage to me in return. Then his Dragons came on. Fast forward to turn 5 or 6 (I don't recall, I believe it was actually turn 6) and his 2x dragons had erased 90% of my army. Despite all that, I had still managed contest his rear/home objectives, but his dragons simply swooped in and scored another two, winning him the game.
I'm about to make a comment that will make me look like a whiny bitch to some, but fuck you, I'm going to make it anyways: His Heldrakes were the only thing that won him the game, against me anyways. He still made it to the top ten overall, but you can't compare fighting most other armies and fighting DE. You just can't. Apples and oranges. I'm making this comment as an indictment of that particular unit, not him taking them.
There is NO weaknesses to that unit. NONE. AV12 all around, that template of death weapon, Flying so most weapons are snap shooting; they are also Fast Attack options, so they do not really have anything to compete with in Army Selection in the CSM codex. They are just too good, IMO. As our game showed, they can allow a player to win a game all by themselves. No single unit should have the ability to affect the game in that manner.
*End Rant*
Anyways, had a great time, and if you live on the West Coast of the US, I would highly recommend attending the main Golden Throne GT out there.
Next Time: IG Fanatic shelves his Ultramarines, in favor of pulling the trigger on a long time pipedream army: War of Faith coming soon to this space.
Daemons work in progress
So this is what I've been doing in my spare time between work and a 9 month old. I like slaanesh a lot, mainly because the units are usually cheaper then the other 3 gods, are usually faster( movement and initiative) and they all get rending. Mmmm rending it's like Christmas in combat, armor = tissue paper lol
So seeing as I like slaanesh rules, the problem is I hate.... And I mean I hate the new daemonett look, it's so much worse the the previous sculpt its not even funny
and nobody say it's because they wanted to tone down the boobage, they just released the bloodwrack Medusa with breast a swinging.
So I decided in a Greek/ancient warrior theme to my slaanesh Deamons, and speaking of bloodwrack medusa it will make a perfect Damon princess of slaanesh
Lucky for me warriors of chaos had plenty of models to plunder from, oh and I have 20 have the awesome daemonetts and when they are painted I will post pics
Slaanesh herald
Icon bearer
Heart seeker
Musician
Portal glyph
Khorne herald
Same guy
Fallen dark angel chaos lord
Saturday, October 5, 2013
We're Back
Sorry gang, I haven't posted in awhile due to real life situations coming up. i moved to a new work site and the work load is literally 20 times the amount i had before, so no posting from work when I'm bored lol.
So lets recap on what I'm working on at the moment. i am getting a 1750 list ready for a local mini GT called brawl in the fall. so far it looks like this.
Fateweaver
Herald of Slaanesh w/ steed & exalted reward & lesser loci
Herald of Khorne w/ juggernaut & lesser reward
10 plague bearers
10 daemonetts( mite switch out for plague bearers not sure yet)
15 seekers of Slaanesh
10 flesh hounds
daemon prince of Tzeentch w/wings exalted reward & lesser reward & psy lvl 1
chaos space marine lord w/ mark of Slaanesh, steed, lightening claw, melta bomb, sigil of corruption, & burning brand
20 cultist w/ 2 flamers
heldrake w/ bale flamer( not sure of the hades auto cannon is better to help against vehicles)
and all my spare time is getting this painted lol, ill post pics after the projec is finished
Monday, September 23, 2013
Golden Throne GT South-West Pre-Game Show
Game Time! The crowds of the Con, the fierce competition, the different armies hastily glued together and perhaps a layer of primer applied... I love Grand Tournaments! When it all comes down to it, anybody can fine-tune their army for optimal performance against their regular opponents. But to build a force that can preform against anybody you might run into (known as a WAAC list; Win/Work Against All Comers) is a true skill and one that I constantly strive to perfect.
Beware the Grey Phantoms! Scourge of the GT circuit!
I'm going to the inaugural Golden Throne South West Grand Tournament this weekend at the inaugural WaCon in Waco, Texas. Here's a link:
http://southwest.goldenthronegt.com/
Standard Core Rulebook missions and deployment, 5 rounds. I prefer this, as there's no special mission parameters to keep track of, and this allows you to focus on the game itself, not what goofiness the TO's have come up with. Don't get me wrong, there's a time and place for Forging the Narrative. An event where your paying $65 a head to compete in isn't it.
This will also act as a brief overview of the DE codex, touching upon some of the core features of the codex that makes it the most underestimated of the competitive armies.
The Army: Dark Eldar w/ Craftworld Allies
The Baron: Standard
(4) 5-man Warrior Squad: Blaster
- Venom: Night Shield, Flickerfield, duel Splinter Cannon
(2) 3-man Trueborn Squad: 2x Dark Lances
- Venom: Night Shield, Flickerfield, Duel Splinter Cannon
(3) Ravager: 3x Dark lances
Spirit Seer: Standard
5-man Wraithguard: D-cannons
- Wave Serpent: Twin-linked Scatter Lasers, Shuriken Cannon, Holo-fields
6-man Guardian Jetbike Squad: Standard
Wraith Knight: Standard
Total: 1,999 points
The Plan:
First, a bit a vetting: at the risk of bragging, my Dark Eldar are a force to be feared. They always do well, and my Win/Loss record is a bit better then 3-1. This codex does something that almost no other codex does: spreading firepower around equally. What I mean by that is that with most armies, if you destroy their 2-3 high-threat units, they are left with a smattering of tactical marines/guardsmen, and little else. By turn 3-4, they have nothing left that can do anything but run for the objectives. With DE, there are no obvious threat units. Everything puts out the same damage (if you build your army properly) and the loss of 2-3 units in turns 1-3 isn't crippling. With their advantage of speed and mobile firepower, believe me, its rare that an opponent kills more then this.
Another advantage this codex has, is Splinter Weapons, and Dark Light weapons. Splinter weapons ALWAYS wound on a 4+, regardless of the opponents toughness value. Many codex's pay a premium for higher-then-average toughness (biker units, Monstrous Creatures, the list goes on). Read my lips: I love seeing these units across from me! You have a 3+ save on that unit? I have the mobility and rate of fire that will make you take 15-20 saves. A turn. You WILL fail some. Most armies have to rely upon low ROF, high strength-low AP weapons to deal with these units. No so with DE; my basic troops all wound on 4+ with their guns. Suck it, Tyranids! (Vince, your the exception.)
Dark Light Weapons are the DE's standard anti-tank weapon. STR 8, AP 2, range varies: Blasters have 18" (assault), while the Dark Lances are 36" (Heavy). Each only fire a single shot. However, at BS4 they shine because of a certain USR they both have: Lance. This means that any Armor Values higher then 12, count as 12. This has the effect that you never need higher then a 4+ to glance, and a 5+ to penetrate. This may not seem like a great deal, but when your army has so many, that can move so fast and STILL fire...well, they do wonders. Dark Lances and Blasters are also great for character sniping; simply hose down the unit with splinter fire, and then ally the Dark Light Weapons. Any low model count, high armor unit (terminators and such) are great targets as well.
The Cons: DE suffer against lots of AV 12 tanks, and since the advent of 6th edition, flyers have been a real game killer. In addition, the changes to the disembark and fleet rules in 6th have killed off our assault abilities. Oh, well, we were always better at shooting anyways.
My above army puts out 72 splinter shots at 36" (not counting infantry!) and 13 Dark Lance shots at 36" (not counting movement speeds). All on BS4. And that's before you add in the Craftweorld Allie's shooting power. I've got every confidence in my Kabal's ability to saturate the high-value enemy squads with a hail-storm of poisoned shards of glass.
You'll notice that my firepower comes from my troops almost exclusively. This is a double-edged blade. On the one hand, my scoring units can fight AND make objective grabs. On the other, when I loose a unit, I loose BOTH scoring ability and firepower.
About my allies:
I've never used allies, in any of my armies. I just don't like the idea of ignoring the fluff for an in-game advantage. However, Eldar of both types maintain close ties in the fluff, so I'm okay with it.
As previously stated, the Dark Eldar have some glaring deficiencies when it comes to fliers and enemy armor. Hopefully, the Wraithguard and the Wraith Knight, coupled with the Spirit Seers ability to 'mark' targets for them will help with this. Also, I believe this combination of units will add an overall "tough cookie" aspect to my army. This will be the very first time I have evert used these units in combat, so I'm going to have a steep learning curve, but I believe my decade and a half experience playing 40k will help negate it somewhat.
The Guardian Jetbike squadron is there to act as wounds for the Baron, and later in the game, abandon him to grab me Linebreaker points and maybe contest an opponents objective.
Watch this spot for photos from the event and an in-depth battle report!
Until next time, Khaine Protects.
Beware the Grey Phantoms! Scourge of the GT circuit!
I'm going to the inaugural Golden Throne South West Grand Tournament this weekend at the inaugural WaCon in Waco, Texas. Here's a link:
http://southwest.goldenthronegt.com/
Standard Core Rulebook missions and deployment, 5 rounds. I prefer this, as there's no special mission parameters to keep track of, and this allows you to focus on the game itself, not what goofiness the TO's have come up with. Don't get me wrong, there's a time and place for Forging the Narrative. An event where your paying $65 a head to compete in isn't it.
This will also act as a brief overview of the DE codex, touching upon some of the core features of the codex that makes it the most underestimated of the competitive armies.
The Army: Dark Eldar w/ Craftworld Allies
The Baron: Standard
(4) 5-man Warrior Squad: Blaster
- Venom: Night Shield, Flickerfield, duel Splinter Cannon
(2) 3-man Trueborn Squad: 2x Dark Lances
- Venom: Night Shield, Flickerfield, Duel Splinter Cannon
(3) Ravager: 3x Dark lances
Spirit Seer: Standard
5-man Wraithguard: D-cannons
- Wave Serpent: Twin-linked Scatter Lasers, Shuriken Cannon, Holo-fields
6-man Guardian Jetbike Squad: Standard
Wraith Knight: Standard
Total: 1,999 points
The Plan:
First, a bit a vetting: at the risk of bragging, my Dark Eldar are a force to be feared. They always do well, and my Win/Loss record is a bit better then 3-1. This codex does something that almost no other codex does: spreading firepower around equally. What I mean by that is that with most armies, if you destroy their 2-3 high-threat units, they are left with a smattering of tactical marines/guardsmen, and little else. By turn 3-4, they have nothing left that can do anything but run for the objectives. With DE, there are no obvious threat units. Everything puts out the same damage (if you build your army properly) and the loss of 2-3 units in turns 1-3 isn't crippling. With their advantage of speed and mobile firepower, believe me, its rare that an opponent kills more then this.
Another advantage this codex has, is Splinter Weapons, and Dark Light weapons. Splinter weapons ALWAYS wound on a 4+, regardless of the opponents toughness value. Many codex's pay a premium for higher-then-average toughness (biker units, Monstrous Creatures, the list goes on). Read my lips: I love seeing these units across from me! You have a 3+ save on that unit? I have the mobility and rate of fire that will make you take 15-20 saves. A turn. You WILL fail some. Most armies have to rely upon low ROF, high strength-low AP weapons to deal with these units. No so with DE; my basic troops all wound on 4+ with their guns. Suck it, Tyranids! (Vince, your the exception.)
Dark Light Weapons are the DE's standard anti-tank weapon. STR 8, AP 2, range varies: Blasters have 18" (assault), while the Dark Lances are 36" (Heavy). Each only fire a single shot. However, at BS4 they shine because of a certain USR they both have: Lance. This means that any Armor Values higher then 12, count as 12. This has the effect that you never need higher then a 4+ to glance, and a 5+ to penetrate. This may not seem like a great deal, but when your army has so many, that can move so fast and STILL fire...well, they do wonders. Dark Lances and Blasters are also great for character sniping; simply hose down the unit with splinter fire, and then ally the Dark Light Weapons. Any low model count, high armor unit (terminators and such) are great targets as well.
The Cons: DE suffer against lots of AV 12 tanks, and since the advent of 6th edition, flyers have been a real game killer. In addition, the changes to the disembark and fleet rules in 6th have killed off our assault abilities. Oh, well, we were always better at shooting anyways.
My above army puts out 72 splinter shots at 36" (not counting infantry!) and 13 Dark Lance shots at 36" (not counting movement speeds). All on BS4. And that's before you add in the Craftweorld Allie's shooting power. I've got every confidence in my Kabal's ability to saturate the high-value enemy squads with a hail-storm of poisoned shards of glass.
You'll notice that my firepower comes from my troops almost exclusively. This is a double-edged blade. On the one hand, my scoring units can fight AND make objective grabs. On the other, when I loose a unit, I loose BOTH scoring ability and firepower.
About my allies:
I've never used allies, in any of my armies. I just don't like the idea of ignoring the fluff for an in-game advantage. However, Eldar of both types maintain close ties in the fluff, so I'm okay with it.
As previously stated, the Dark Eldar have some glaring deficiencies when it comes to fliers and enemy armor. Hopefully, the Wraithguard and the Wraith Knight, coupled with the Spirit Seers ability to 'mark' targets for them will help with this. Also, I believe this combination of units will add an overall "tough cookie" aspect to my army. This will be the very first time I have evert used these units in combat, so I'm going to have a steep learning curve, but I believe my decade and a half experience playing 40k will help negate it somewhat.
The Guardian Jetbike squadron is there to act as wounds for the Baron, and later in the game, abandon him to grab me Linebreaker points and maybe contest an opponents objective.
Watch this spot for photos from the event and an in-depth battle report!
Until next time, Khaine Protects.
Marching from Macragge: Squad Judah
Greetings fellow dice rollers. Just finished my first full tactical squad, so I thought I'd share them.
Heres the whole squad. Being normal tactical marines, I didn't think anybody would care to see each individual marine. They are armed with a Grav-Gun, Heavy Bolter, and Sergeant Judah has a Combi-Grav. They will ride into battle in a Drop Pod, and that's the next on my list to build and paint. Here are some highlights:
As always, I apologize for the picture quality, I need to get a better camera and maybe a white box.
I've put the Chapter symbol and squad numbers on each marine, as well as Sergeant and Squad Leader markings on the leaders. This is my first time using the transfer sheets from GW, and I've gotten mixed results. Some have gone on perfectly smooth, while others are already starting to peel a little bit.
This squad was built from the new Tactical Squad box, with some bitz cherry-picked from the new Sternguard box. The new kits are excellent, and each and every bit and component has been completely redone. While they look similar, the details are much crisper, and the poses look a little more dynamic.
Side Note: I've scrapped Sicarius. While he is a solid army buffer, I wanted something a little more killy. So, I give you Captain Macabee. Noticed a theme in the names?
Also, I've given up the "recreating the 2nd Company" from the codex idea, too much inflexibility.
He's got a Thunder Hammer, and the shield can either be the relic, or a standard version.
Until next time, the Emperor Protects.
Heres the whole squad. Being normal tactical marines, I didn't think anybody would care to see each individual marine. They are armed with a Grav-Gun, Heavy Bolter, and Sergeant Judah has a Combi-Grav. They will ride into battle in a Drop Pod, and that's the next on my list to build and paint. Here are some highlights:
I've put the Chapter symbol and squad numbers on each marine, as well as Sergeant and Squad Leader markings on the leaders. This is my first time using the transfer sheets from GW, and I've gotten mixed results. Some have gone on perfectly smooth, while others are already starting to peel a little bit.
This squad was built from the new Tactical Squad box, with some bitz cherry-picked from the new Sternguard box. The new kits are excellent, and each and every bit and component has been completely redone. While they look similar, the details are much crisper, and the poses look a little more dynamic.
Side Note: I've scrapped Sicarius. While he is a solid army buffer, I wanted something a little more killy. So, I give you Captain Macabee. Noticed a theme in the names?
Also, I've given up the "recreating the 2nd Company" from the codex idea, too much inflexibility.
He's got a Thunder Hammer, and the shield can either be the relic, or a standard version.
Until next time, the Emperor Protects.
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Recent Poll
Recent poll posted shows the space marines as the most popular army. So why is this exactly? Is it because they are featured in all the starter set? Or maybe its the iconic hero mystique that is portrayed in their background. The real reason space marines are so popular is they come in all the color and fluff of the rainbow, they are tactically extremely flexible able to achieve almost every play style with their rules. Lets not forget they are also updated for every edition so you know your army/investment wont be invalidated or unplayable for a decade. At the end of the day they are a players own nature made manifest whether your marines are defenders of humanity or see humans as worthless chattel that get in the way of stomping xenos and as a human it is fundamentally in our nature to be able to relate to these archetypes in space marines easier then say eldar or tyranids .
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