3/22/2009
Next Army and Fixed Photos
Second, while I was at Exterminatus I was thinking of what army I wanted to begin to gather and paint next. Well, I am not quite done with my necrons but I have a playable army that works well for my style. So I thought that if I found something that I was interested in, then I could begin on it at a much more leisurely pace and then paint the necs at the same time at a better pace.
So the army's that I have been thinking are, some kind of space marine chapter, most likely one of my own creation, a ork klan, or a tau empire. But I am unsure, and I didn't see anything at the tourney that made me interested in buy the starter kit or one of the small model boxes. I did think about buying black reach, which would have given me models for two of the three, and thus I could just slowly build any kind of army I wanted at my own pace. I may still do that, but with our vacation coming up, I don't think I will be spending any hobby money, unless there is just some kind of great deal on eBay.
So what do you think? How did you arrive at your second army choice? Was it playing something new or playing something similar to your first army?
3/21/2009
Exterminatus 09 Coverage 2.0 (With Better Photos!)
I enjoyed the tourny, but I think a Necron army is just not up to the battle as all the other armies are. I did make a few people fear my Necrons though, and won a battle with them. So on to the coverage.
Matt and drove a 4 hour drive up, we made excellent time, getting to Chattanooga in 3 hours. Well Cleveland is only 20 minutes away, we had left early so as to get around the traffic, but we still hit some Friday traffic. It took an hour to travel those last 20 minutes. Kinda sucked.
So we get to the hotel, and talked to some guys who were playing (we assumed, they asked about our armies.) Well on Friday night we had a doubles tournament, 2000pt total, one HQ per army with any kind of composition between the two, and each person gets 1000 pts. Our first game was against some very awesome guys, we ended up going out for beers with them and some others the next night. I can only remember one of the two guys name and thats Jason, I think the other guy was Rich or Rick, but I could be and am probably totally wrong. So they played a mix force of Red Scorpions and Ultramarines. It was a good game, and I believe it came out as a draw. Necrons got hit hard and heavy right off the start, it sucked, but the game was still awesome, great opponents.
So we then went on to game 2, well game two sucked ass because it was a biker nob army, that was basically one of the guys army, split into two. I mean come the fuck on, this is a friendly doubles tournament hosted by Shane, the Dicehead Games store owner. The only reason the game is being held is they know people will be arriving on Friday, so it gives them some fun before the tourny on Saturday. So I wasn't pleased, neither was Matt. We weren't too quiet in our displeasure. Well as we finish up the 3rd round (with us losing,) this fucking chowder head comes up and says "I don't mean to be a dick but you lost the game before you ever started, here's what you did wrong..." Well I am a pretty polite guy, ask Matt, generally when I am doing something job related, I won't fly off the handle or yell at people like some at my work. So I didn't say anything other than thanks.
On to game 3, it was a single army again split into two for the doubles tourny. So I mentioned earlier about talking to some people at the hotel. Well our third opponent was these two people. Well we were about half and half for the game on a win or loss until the 4th round I believe (Matt may know more specifics, I forgot and here is why.) So the guy shoots a demolisher cannon at Matts Belial squad. There is only 3 termies and Belial in the squad. He rolls scatter, which scatters 4" after a BS adjustment. So its a 5" template, its scatters 4" . So using math, from the center of the template to the edge is 2.5" which meas subtracting 4" you get 1.5" away from the nearest model. Just to show you how pissed off I was, I made a freaking picture.
Well there ya go, its away from Belial. Well this guy wants to argue that it can still hit one of the guys. After 4 minutes I just said fuck it, it was 1:00 am, I wanted to get something to eat and go to bed, we had to sign in for the tourney at 9:00am. So we ended up with a loss I think.
So the next day one of the guys we played in the first round, his opponent never shows up, and the guys we played in the last game, they never show up, so putting two and two together, I think Matt and I made them quit the tourny. I show proof of this, because they had rented a room at the hotel we were staying, and why would you do that for a silly doubles and not the actual GT.
Okay, sorry for the ranting, but it has been on my mind since that weekend, and I needed to vent. Here is the tourney. First, some pictures of Matt's and my army.
My Soulless Awakened.
So my first game was on the dead dog table. It is called so because of the terrain, which looks alot like the skeleton of a dog (closer to a lizard but who cares.) I played a chaos army with Khorn. It was a good battle, and ended in a draw. I made him fear my ability to roll 6's and glance on his vehicles. As you can see, he had a lot of templates. Those sucked for the most part, but I was able to stay behind cover and then come in behind him for the hits that mattered.
I felt really good going into my second battle. I had been ready to quit after playing the nob bikers, thinking I was about to face alot of cheese. So the second battle was against Blood Ravens, very well painted. His dice were too. Yes, this guy bought dice off ebay, and then painted them to match his army. They ended up being loaded dice. It wasn't until the third game though that the judges brought this to my attention. They told me he was out of the tourny but would keep playing, and had bought new dice. According to the judges, they knew he wasn't that kind of player. WTF! If you are buying your dice off ebay, first they should be the color you want for your army so they shouldn't be painted, second you have to know they have been messed with some way, otherwise get them from a freaking gaming store. So I lost, hard. He never rolled a 1, and only rarely rolled a 6, but since his key unit was the termies with storm shields, (3+ invuln. save) I never wounded him. I lost in round 3.
Round 3 saw me back on the dead dog table. This time against a daemon army. This guy was cool and ended up winning most favorite opponent. I had the game locked down in turn 3, but then his hell dogs got into me and due to the new sweeping advance rule I lost the 10 guys he killed, and the 10 guys he never even engaged plus a necron lord. Using what I had left, I demolished his daemons. We ran out of time, but had there been a round 5, I would have won. I had most of my long range weapons left and I had my killer unit of a destroyer lord with warscythe and 3 wraith. By the end of the tourny I made people fear that combo. I know some of you are saying "this is how you take that down" trust me, alot of people were talking over my shoulder and I still killed those bastards. I ended up loosing this round.
So day 1 was 1 tie and two losses, until they DQ'ed the one guy so that ended up being a win.
So while I was waiting on my third round, Matt was playing a sisters of battle army and I wandered over to watch. Well on the table next to us was a guy who was a little off his rocker. He threatened his opponent at one point and I am not even sure they completed their game. When it came time to grade his opponent for sportsmanship, this guy wandered off and like Gholum, he secretly wrote out his displeasure. They asked him not to come back
Day two, I was actually supposed to play crazed dude, but since he left I played Shane who subbed in. Shane had a guard army. I knew that out of all the armies, this one I needed to hit him hard and fast. Which i did. See all the armor in the photo, I blew up everything except one hell hound. I killed off 3 units of troop, and two groups of storm troopers. It was a great battle, and I won in round 5, and could have had a complete victory in round 6 but we ran out of time.
My last opponent was a Tyranid army. It was a grueling battle with me loosing due to phase out. I was upset by this because I wanted a win before I left. Matt and I talked about it, and the kid I played apparently gave his models some extra wounds. I ended up shaking the kids hand and then promptly ignored him.
So that was the end of the tourny. I ended up with 2 wins, 1 tie, and 2 losses. I will always take wraith, and everyone can suck it. I wish I had template weapons, but a monolith costs too much for one template. and I didn't take veil, which was a big time loss. I was glad I took the tomb spyder, just never engage him in combat, unless everyone is focused on something else. So that was that. I want to go to another, but I don't know when I could get off from work.
Our Number is Legion
3/12/2009
Exterminatus Here We Come; w/Pictures
The first picture is of my tomb spyder and a scarab swarm. I am super pleased with this guy, he is by far one of my top models.
Next is the destroyer lord. I decided on a different design, having him holding a resurrection orb. I took an extra destroyer hand, cut it at the elbow, wrist, and removed the fingers. I then glued everything backwards and there ya go. The hand you see in the foreground is the modified hand.
Here is a group shot of the lords. Those orbs are three times bigger, but look so much better.
Last, here is the display board. Its got the cut out portions for all the models, but 40 warriors is alot, so they have just one massive cut out.
Its a necron horde. I love it.
This top down view helps to show the army's true size. 64 models in total.
So Matt at Archangels and I are attending the Exterminatus this weekend in Cleveland Tn. It should be a blast, but I am actually looking more towards the doubles tourney on Friday night, which is hosted by a gaming store in the mall where the Exterminatus will be held. We plan on leaving with plenty of time to get through all the traffic.
I will post the fluff after the tourney, along with the results. Wish us luck.
Our Number is Legion
2/23/2009
Bat-Rep 02/23/2009, More questions
Matt wins roll off for markers, and places one near his side, and his other near my marker on my side (Note the oh so original plastic apoc banners.) I roll a 3 to his 1 for deployment and also elect to go second.
Top of Round 1: DA deploys on the board, except Belial's squad. DA teleports in his termies, using the bikes to prevent scatter. Shooting across the battle field with Las Cannons and Plasma Cannons, he is able to take out 3 models.
Bottom of Round 1: My Destroyers and Heavy Destroyers shoot back, taking out a termie and someone from the heavy squad. Most models get up from WWB
Result, nothing really gained, the DA now control one flag from deploying so close.
Top of Round 2: Las and Plasma Cannons as usual. All misses. Termies Capture the second flag and begin to bunker in.
Bottom of Round 2: Looking for some action, the Destroyer Lord and Wraith leap forward to take on the tank destroying it. Although this was later realized to be a low value target.
Top of Round 3: Belial arrives and the tomb spyder is killed by the termies who shoot the thing to death. The Jetpack troops assault into the destroyer lord (who was unattached.) Result ends up being no loss for the DA and one dead lord.
Bottom of Round 3: Lord succeeds on WWB. Remaining scarabs from Tombspyder leap to contest the middle flag. Shooting from all the surrounding Necrons demolishes the Jetpack squad to 1 soldier. Here is where my rookie mistakes started taking place. I was supposed to jetbike my destroyer and wraith back behind cover. I forgot to do so, which resulted in them being out on their own. I feared that Baliel would assault the squad, and I didn't want to leave the last man time to regroup (cause they do that automatically.) So I assaulted in, kill the last man, then consolidated back a few inches.
Top of Round 4: DA shoots at lord, killing him yet again, then Belial assaults into the wraith, killing both. Belial consolidates back 6".
Bottom of Round 4: Lord gets back up, and quickly retreats behind cover. Destroyers, Heavy destroyers, and warriors shoot into belial's squad killing two, he saves the apothicary wipe for something that never comes.
Top of round 5: Bikers turbo boost up to the third flag. Termies take out the remaing scarabs. DA now controls all three markers. Termies consolidate but don't get fully behind cover.
Bottom of Round 5: I attempt to shoot the termies, but no result. I do shoot the bikers and wipe them off the board. I should have consolidated but even then that would have left me with just 1 marker and DA 2 markers. I had a feeling that if there was a turn 6 that I would have been wiped out had I tried to contest the Termie flag so I didn't. This was probably a bad idea on the whole, but the dice gods were on my side.
Roll for Round 6: Success
Top of Round 6: Termies move out of cover, then assault the nearest squad of warriors, killing over half, but the unit doesn't break. Once again, rookie mistakes. I place the models who are wounded down from the back, when they should have come from the front, the result would have been his termies having to consolidate into my army which would have pulled them away from 3" of the marker, they were already 3".
Bottom of Round 6: I move my Destroyers up to the Termie flag, on the left, then move my right squad of desteroyers, turbo boosted, to the right flag, just reaching contention. My troopers assault the three remaining termies, killing only one.
Result: All three flags are contested.
Roll for Round 7: Fail
It was a good battle, it was probably won by both of us once or twice, but due to mistakes it ended in a tie. We are still having rules problems, but they are more specific, and are more of the kind that require close examination.
Interesting thought. Matt planned the board to match Fritz's Saim-Hann style. He was able to bring it off for the most part on round 5 and would have won, had there not been a round 6. As a result of these tactics, I countered on round 6 with the same, contesting all and getting a tie and not a loss. The question arises, who was more cheesy. Matt made the comment at the end of the game that I wouldn't have gotten any sportsmanship points at a tourny using my round 6 tactics, which I agree with and didnt complain or counter argue. But I dont see any difference between my use of turbo boosting and his in round 5. Oh well, I have decided that when I go to the competition in March, I will use what tactics will win.
Another question: Cound someone please explain the new line of sight rules clearly. I read the rules and I have to ask, if a model stands above cover, do they get any kind of save (Jetbikes are tall.) If a jetbike is taller than the models in front, can he be shot at? If a squad of immortals are behind a squad of warriors, can the immortals be targeted? And when shooting from behind one squad, does the target get saves? Say the immortals want to return fire, does their wounds allow cover saves because they are behind the necron warriors? I know these seem like newb questions, but we are getting bogged down in the small details now, and cover is so big in 5th edition.
Oh, as an aside, the FTW dice, rolled excellent.
2/22/2009
Destroyers, Oh My!
I have been painting, I promise. Well I had to have a little goading from my fiance, but I got the destroyers and heavy destroyers almost complete. Here is a picture of one of the Destroyers, its the same colors as my other models, I am actually quite pleased with these models. There are currently 7 Destroyers and one more still in the box.
Next up are the heavy destroyers. I decided to model them just a little different. Besides the paint scheme being more minimalist, I added a metallic green, and reversed the torso on the destroyer shell. I personally like it alot more this way, it remides me of the Paladin artillary pieces, the big gun needing to be further back for stability.
Our Number is Legion
2/13/2009
First trial list for March Tournament
- Destroyer Lord: w/Res Orb, and Staff of Light
- Lord: w/Res Orb, War Scythe, and Phylactery
- 4 Squads of Warriors: 10 models each
- Immortals: 10 models
- 2 Squads of Destroyers: 3 models each
- Wraith: 3 models
- Tomb Spider
- Heavy Destroyer: 3 models
Here is what I have that I could play with:
- 44 Warriors
- 10 Immortals
- 3 Wraith
- 2 Destroyer Lords
- 1 Lord
- 1 Nightbringer
- 1 Deceiver
- 8 Destroyers
- 3 Heavy Destroyers
- 1 Tomb Spider
- 1 Monolith
2/09/2009
Procrastination
So I havn't been painting at all since my last post. Just havn't had the drive. Instead I have been playing the video game Left 4 Dead. The game is awesome and I enjoy the satisfaction of killing zombies. But since I do that I can't paint. So now I really do need to buckle down.
Here is why, the tourney is in mid March, and this picture shows what I have left to paint.
There are a bunch of destroyers and some more warriors, and I recently purchased a destroyer lord. There is still the monolith to be painted too.
Now here is what I got as a gift, its both C'tans', a destroyer, a destroyer lord, and a tomb spider. All of which will fill my army in nicely. Of course to do that, I have to paint them also. Which means I have to come up with some kind of paint scheme for the C'tans'.
So I need to stop procrastinating and get to work, and although I know its a hobby (had that post in the past,) it still needs to be done soon.
Our Number is Legion
1/29/2009
Painting, Painting, and More Painting.
All of them together.
But that wasn't all the painting. My fiance and I decided today would be a good day to paint the bathroom. I woke up early and got a head start on it. Here is a before and after shot. Its a little darker, but it works with the white trim and ceiling.
Should be able to get in a game tomorrow, will post a bat-rep if so.
1/26/2009
Questions for the community and Battle-Rep 01-26-2009
So Matt and I have been trying to get in a game for the last two weeks, but with work and shift change, things have been difficult. For today's game we decided to up the Pts to 1500. The battle was capture and control and was spearhead. After choosing corners, I chose a tower and Matt chose a bunker as our objectives.
I went first, choosing to fully deploy. Matt went with a full reserve/deep-strike.
Round 1 and Round 2: Going first I had my first round and second to move before Matt could even show up.
Bottom of round 2: Matt's only gets one squad, the tanks fail reserves. His first move was to deep-strike a 5-man termie squad into my rear. At first he was hesitant, I have become good in bunkering my troops in, I hate his assault ability, and I now try my best to force him to come at me and not get into a cross fire situation. But I had left a small, 6"x"4 space behind the tower, and didn't occupy the tower (all my squads where 10 man squads, and wouldn't fit.) So Matt decides to chance his troops and land on the tower, but before he has to worry about dangerous, he scatters 4" and lands safely to one side. He shoots at a squad of warriors, inflicting 1 kill, but WBB saves him.
Round 3: At this point, if you have followed my battle posts or Matt's, you would know that I have bad luck with termies. Their 2+ reg. saves are grating and I don't have any power weapons that force him to use the 5+. So Matt's squad lands, and he has cover from his left but none in front. At this point I decided to just move some men back and then lay into him. Total shots, 62, of those 62, 42 hit, which resulted in 24 wounds. Matt had 5 models and failed 6 saves over all. It felt good to actually do some damage for once. But that was only the top of round three.
Bottom Round 3: Matt's tanks arrive, bringing Belial in the LRC and another squad in the LR. Matt takes a few shots at the monolith but for the most part round 3 is finished.
Round 4: Here is where the action starts. I fire a few rounds back but mostly keep my troopers boxed up. Matt cruises his tanks up to my troops and unloads Belial. Belial's squad assaults my Lord who I had left carelessly by himself. The lord is quickly dispatched.
Top of Round 5: There wasn't much to shoot at, most of Matt's models were either in cover or still inside a tank. So I decided my best bet would be to use the Necron Gauss rule and shoot at the tanks. I ended up taking out a few weapons but that was about it. Those troops that had shots on Belial failed to deal any damage.
Bottom Round 5: Matt turns Belial onto my Monolith. The 'lith had been stunned, so he got to have his way with it. at 23 total hits, 22 hit, with 7 weapon destroyed penetrations. The mono only has 6 eligible weapons, so the 7th pen became immobilized. Matt smelled blood but realized that this could be the last round, so he had moved his second LR back to his objective so he could claim it.
Round 6: Rolled and succeeded.
Top of Round 6: This round felt like a repeat. I had nothing else to do, so I shot at the LRC again, destroying all weapons. I just needed two more hits to stop it and destroy it, but alas, this was not going to happen. The 'lith was going no where, and the troops where stuck where they were.
Bottom of Round 6: Matt moves his LRC just in case there is a round 7, and then finishes off the 'lith with another 6 weapon pen's. That was more than enough to destroy it. Belial gains a huge 6" consolidation and moves into my squad of warriors. His other LR shoots into my destroyers taking 1 out.
Round 7: Rolled and failed.
Battle was a Tactical Draw.
We added up Victory Pts, and they came out 245 DA and 480 Necs. Had I been just a little more lucky , the LRC would have put Matt at 495. But once again neither Matt nor I will concede with Victory Pts, so the battle remains a draw.
What did I learn? This was my first time using destroyers. They were alot of fun, BS-7 to hit, all my units hit on 3's and the str of a regular destroyer meant I was wounding on 2's twelve shots was alot of wounds, I can see myself taking alot more destroyers. I also noticed that having more warriors and a full squad of immortals meant I was dealing alot of damage. As I noted before, killing off an entire squad was great to moral, but sense Necrons are almost soulless, it was just pleasing for me.
I think Matt and I both realized that we have along way to go in understanding the rules before the tourney in March. Its always the little things that end up slowing down a game that become frustrating.
Last thing, I have a few questions for the blogging community. Recently Jawaballs posted a comment/question regarding Lash and moving jump-pack troops in difficult terrain. Here is my ruling on this (which means spit but its how I see it.) jump-packs are only used when going more than 6". There, the end. If you arn't going more than 6" then you wouldn't turn on your jump-pack. Now that I have answered someone else's question, I have a few of my own.
In the Necron Codex, it states Gauss weapons penetrate armour on a 6 regardless of armour value. It counts as a glancing hit and you roll on the penetration table. Matt and I have decided (although I don't think he is fully convinced,) that the rule means you roll on the armour penetration table in the 5th edition book, you suffer a -1 for glancing and a -2 for non-AP weapon. that means that you need a 6 to destroy a weapon. Does anyone else do it like this? If not, do you use a different rule? And if so what. Also if you havn't thought about it and would like to comment, I would like to hear what you have to say. Just to give you a heads up, the armor tables and comments are on page 61 in the rule book. I would also like to state, that the rulebook specifically states that Codex's supersede the rulebook, so if its in the codex, then it comes first.
The reason I am asking this, is when we go to the tourney in March, I need to know if I need to bring heavy destroyers to deal with armor, or if I can rely on getting a ton of glancing shots. I know if I concentrate my firepower I can do it, so its not a matter of "if."
So please let me know what you think, any comments are welcome, but if your just going to hate on Nec's then keep it to yourself.
1/22/2009
My thoughts as of late
So here is a peek into my mind the last few weeks concerning 40k, as the event didn't appear to be on track, I began to slack on my painting. I havn't really painted any more points, and I just sort of messed around with what I had. I played a few games on the new table and thats about it. So skip forward to the present, and I realized that I just lost three weeks of prime painting time. I am now feeling rushed to get things done. If you look to the right of this post, you can see the list of items still in need of paint. So I started painting warriors, but even then I didn't have that drive. I ended up finishing the warriors, only 9, and I painted up my scarabs, which I don't even use! Still the scarabs look cool, right...
Any who, I took some photos, here is my work area, its the gaming table with a tall chair, and I have a small TV dinner stand that works like a little work bench.
And what is on that stand? Yes, its my new mostest awesomeness dremel(but not dremel brand!) I love this little gadget, its so much fun to use.
The next few shots are of the work in progress, I actually pulled the bases off my previously painted models and re-primed them. In my initial painting process, I got alot of the bases covered in blue wash. I now paint the models off the sprue and then glue them to a collection of pre-primed bases.
Here is the Monolith, all broken down and re-primed. You can go back to the old photo's and see the black that it once was. You may also notice that there are two bases, that is not another monolith, but the remainder of the accident that i had when taking the mono apart. I purchased a new base and will use the old one for a custom made pylon.
Out of all the apathy I had for painting, this is the one thing I actually enjoyed. Its a hardened bunker that I built one day. The roof is from an old outdoor lighting system that was at the house when we moved in but never used. And the base is a piece of Styrofoam that came in some box or another. I then took a oatmeal tube and cut out a section for the walls, cut in some steps and added a few sprue bits to make the door. It also has an almost 360 degree firing arc. During the painting process there was some problems though. Its so cold here lately that the paint didn't dry quickly on the glossy cardboard or the stone spray on the foam. So when I came back four hours later to assemble the pieces, the two paints stuck together and then ripped the foam along the edge of the tube and the foam. The end result was one pissed off me, but the job is done, and I am still pleased.
So that has been my work up til now. As you can probably see in the photos, my next project will be the three wraith. After that I am going to move on to the Destroyer/Heavy Destroyers. Last will be the monolith, mostly because it will take the most patience. I also have 11 more warriors to paint.
Last but not least, everyone has been posting pictures of their dogs here as of late. So here is the pack of rabid pups we have. The black Greyhound in the foreground is Father Dan, he was a racer that we adopted from the track. The black Greyhound the background is Gypsy, she is an old blood donor from my fiance's work. We took her in when she became to old to donate anymore. The tiger stripped Greyhound on the left is Set, he was also a racer, he is the new blood donor, which we have taken in due to some lack of care at his original clinic. And last but never least is the Tan mutt in the middle background. Thats Trixie, the three legged pup. She was with my fiance when we first met. Trixie can be a pain at times, but she is very sweet.
So thats about it, and as always