Soulless Awakened

On Gaming and Me

2010-02-25T19:48:00.001-06:00

There is a point while playing that you have to realize you are there to have fun. The problem is that this point in time may not be a definite length of time and you may miss it. When you play, is it to adhere to the rules? If you find yourself and your opponent at a cross roads do you give in or do you stick to your point and continue to drive it home?

I found myself playing at the usual Monday night game and became very competitive. I don't mean to imply that I am not normally competitive. I think thats why the majority of us are drawn to the game actually. Sure you have your painters and modelers who enjoy the work, or the few who delve into the story and feel that the fight on the table is an extension. But I would say the majority of purchasers of GW merchandise are competitors. Maybe they don't go to the tournaments, but they try to play games to win when they have the opportunity.

We had a rules question about a dreadnought and when he is destroyed. I had my line of thinking and Matt had his. As we are both strong willed men, we both became very heated in our discussion. I still wouldn't call it an argument. Matt's wife did and probably didn't appreciate it (sorry again, I know the Olympics were on.) Eventually we spent a good 20 minutes looking up the rule and re-reading it to each other. Matt ended up pulling the model just to get the game going but it didn't leave me with the satisfaction that I had won. If anything it left me feeling pissed off that I couldn't understand a rule. A rule in a book that has no real world application. Even now Matt has posted a question on his website (Archangels), but hasn't had any answers.

I think we may have to institute a two minute rule. After two minutes if it can't be easily answered or found in the book, then both sides just need to pick a fair outcome. Whether thats a real world outcome or just one person giving in, I don't know. It probably won't work because I doubt either of us will give in. But it took a 2000 pt game, and turned it into a four hour mêlée.

New Plastic Deff Dread and Killa Kan!

2010-02-08T11:49:00.000-06:00

GW just realeased some new Walkers for Hummies and Orks. I am loving the different variations you can make. Once again by switching a model to plastic, GW has increased the number of Ork bitz.

The Black Library

2010-02-07T21:07:00.000-06:00

So a few months ago I decided that I needed to jump start my 40K interest. I had all these models but I wasn't playing my 'Crons or building with my Orks. So i started reading Dan Abnett's Gaunt's Ghost series. I picked up the first omnibus and never really put it down. After devouring the first omnibus I started the second, "The Saint" which continues directly where Gaunt's Ghosts left off. I have to be honest with you, the writing had me jones'in for a Guard fix. I then decided to read Ravenor and I had a little down time with this one but was able to power through some of the longer parts and still very much enjoyed the read.

What I am looking for now is a good Space Marine story in the fashion of Gaunts Ghosts. Anyone have any recommendations?

Ork Freebooters!

2010-01-28T05:57:00.006-06:00

So in an effort to enjoy the game more (i.e. see previous post) I sat down and created a semi-competitive/fluff list of what I want in a 2000pt Ork army. The first time I opened the Ork codex and read through it, I found the entry on Kaptin Badrukk and instantly knew that I wanted a Freebooter army. The idea of Orks being pirates of space was an instant appeal.

But I hate the Badrukk model from GW. Its too short and squat, the pirate hate/flags look dated to a time when GW didn't have the same sculpting resources it has now. So I have been attempting to collect many many bitz so that when I do get around to making an Ork army, it will have a very awesome theme, and after all, whats an Ork army without a theme.

So given my theme, here is the 2000pt list I have generated:
HQ-
Big Mek: w/Power Klaw, Force Field, Cybork Body, Attack Squig, 'Eavy Armour
Big Mek: w/Power Klaw, Force Field, Cybork Body, Attack Squig, 'Eavy Armour
Troop-
Deff Dread: w/Skorcha, Kustom Mega-Blasta, Armour Plates
Deff Dread: w/Skorcha, Rokkit Launcha, Armour Plates
'Ard Boyz - 11 w/Nob: Power Klaw, Boss Pole, 'Eavy Armour, Big Shoota, Rokkit Launcha, Dedicated Transport
Ork Boyz - 11 w/Nob: Power Klaw, Boss Pole, 'Eavy Armour, Nob Big Shoota, Rokkit Launcha, Dedicated Transport
Ork Boyz - 11 w/Nob: Power Klaw, Boss Pole, 'Eavy Armour, Nob Big Shoota, Rokkit Launcha, Dedicated Transport
Ork Boyz - 11 w/Nob: Power Klaw, Boss Pole, 'Eavy Armour, Nob Big Shoota, Rokkit Launcha, Dedicated Transport
Heavy-
Flash Gitz - 5: More Dakka, Ammo Runtz (3,) Kaptin Badrukk
Killa Kans - 3: Armour Plates, Shoota, Skorcha, Rokkit Launcha
Killa Kans - 3: Armour Plates, Shoota, Skorcha, Rokkit Launcha
Elite-
Lootas - 10: Meks (2)

So heres the rub, I loaded the troops into trucks, but don't have transport for the Flash Gitz or the Lootas (who I plan on keeping in cover and using their range.) Ork players out there, whats your thoughts? Concerns? I thought about dropping a set of boyz and adding a looted tank or maybe working to find room for a Battle Wagon. Also everyone seems to be taking bikes or deffkoptas, should I look for points for those?

Where I am in 40K.

2010-01-27T23:14:00.005-06:00

I began playing the game of 40K in late 3rd Edition. I stopped just before 4th Edition release and came back after the arrival of 5th. I chose Eldar as my third edition army and enjoyed the many aspects of the game, although I never fully grasped the game and never put as much effort into the game as I do now. Move on to 5th edition and I chose a xenos again with Necrons. Being the person that I am, I chose more for my attraction of the models and the fluff than for the "win-ability."

This has lead to many many losses by my 40K cohort Matt at Emperors Archangels. Matt is a great opponent who is gracious and doesn't press the fact that I often lose to him (although that could also be because he wouldn't have anyone else to play against.) Unfortunately for me, Matt's two primary armies are Dark Angels and Tyranids (and his Nids are all tooth and nail.) This is not meant to become a boo-hoo session, but to express my frustration. I am not a person who enjoys losing. I can take the loss and try to learn from it sure, but the repeated losses begin to wear on a person.

This line of thinking lead Matt and myself to ask some deep questions after a Monday night battle. Am I playing the game because I want to win, or am I playing because its a fun and enjoyable experience? If I win, is that the only way its enjoyable? When did I start to think of the game as a win only competition? Or did I always think that way? If I only want to play the game to win, but often find myself in un-win-able positions, do I keep playing?

I have been trying to answer these questions for the last day or so. I have models waiting to be painted, been working on green stuff to fill in gaps on my Monolith and thinking of ways to change over all the neon green to blue. I also picked up about $200.00 worth of Orcs last year after the Exterminatus Tournament, thinking I would enjoy yet another xenos army (It would help if I knew what type of Orc army I wanted to build.)

So there I am, if you have read this far, I commend you. It was alot to let out at once and I know there is more inside that I am thinking. If you have any recommendations let loose or if you think I am just being a cry baby... well go ahead and throw that out there too, I can delete them, after all it is my blog ;) .

Gaming Again!

2010-01-15T01:44:00.002-06:00

Its been a long, long time. But after almost a year off I have started playing again and it was fun. We were even able to add a third to our group (although he bought an army almost a year ago...) We played some quick games, nothing to big, and I found that I too have to follow Fritz's ideas on his Return of the Star Gods blog. The main thing is in knowing your army, you have to keep to your plan. A Necron army is not a fluid and quick changing army. If you look at your opponent and know what its going to take to win the battle, then that must remain your plan. To try and change horses mid stream, you will only find yourself floundering on the battle field and most of your army will be wiped out.

So here is to a new year, with a hope that I will have many good games and will have the building/painting bug strike full force.

Next Army and Fixed Photos

2009-03-22T17:30:00.003-05:00

So first, I fixed the photos of my last post, so please go look if you wanted to see some close ups of the armies and table tops.

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?

Exterminatus 09 Coverage 2.0 (With Better Photos!)

2009-03-21T17:27:00.014-05:00

Here it is folks, my coverage of the 2009 Exterminatus tournament.

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.

And Matt's Emperors Archangels.

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.

Here is a pic of the table from round 2.

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.

Oh and one last thing, I got an email from the guys hosting the event, it had the ranks. Lets just say I wasn't high on the list of 42 participants. Well number 13 on the list is the guy with the loaded dice. Guess he didn't get disqualified after all. Now that pisses me right off. I guess it pays to cheat, oh yeah and he got runner up for best painted.

Our Number is Legion

Exterminatus Here We Come; w/Pictures

2009-03-12T23:08:00.006-05:00

So I have been working towards a goal, and I have finally finished. Here I present my tourney ready army with display board. I have also written out the army fluff.

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

Bat-Rep 02/23/2009, More questions

2009-02-23T19:33:00.015-06:00

Yet another exciting battle between the Dark Angels and the Necrons... yeah we really don't have any other local opponents. Both of us have plans on a second army (Matt actually has started gathering models.) Anywho here goes the bat-rep.

2000 Pt Army on a 4'x4' table (god this was small)

Mission: Seize Ground; 3 Objectives

Deployment: Pitched Battle

Necron 2000 Pt Army

Dark Angels 2000 Pt Army

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

Game results in tie: DA - 0 / Nec - 0 Markers

We both felt we did things wrong, and we also had a question about Jetbikes. I read the rules as saying that they can pass over dangerous terrain, and only roll if they stop on dangerous terrain. There for, when using turbo boost, they dont have to worry about going around dangerous terrain, as they never have to worry about it to begin with. Thoughts?

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.

Our Number is Legion

Destroyers, Oh My!

2009-02-22T00:59:00.006-06:00

Welcome to another delayed installment.

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.

I also had 11 more Warriors finished. But instead of taking a picture of more warriors, yet again, I decided to post the finished army as of now. So enjoy this large picture. I actually have more scarabs than bases right now, coming out around 13 swarms I believe. Of course I went with the 3 scarabs per swarm, giving me many more.

Thats all for now, I am tired and off to bed to enjoy a good nights rest. I have about three more weeks till the competition. I need to paint a destroyer lord, a tomb spyder, and possibly another destroyer for the competition.

Our Number is Legion

First trial list for March Tournament

2009-02-13T17:34:00.007-06:00

Okay I wanted to post my list here, I am not one of the uber secret people who is hardcore on the tourney circuit, so I have no problems showing off what I will be bringing.

2000 Pt. List

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

Total Pts.: 1998

Phase Out at 48 models, or 16 Models left on the board.

So thats the list. There is alot of shooting which is why I wanted the wraith as one of those come out of no where models. The only thing I feel iffy on is the tomb spider. I can't decide on removing this model and replacing it with another destroyer or what. Maybe even coming up with points to put in a second extra destroyer and having two squads of 4. Oh, and I am fine with not having a monolith. Yes its a large vehicle that draws alot of fire. Also the Phly on the lord is pretty much just an add on, I didn't know what else to do with the last 17 pts.

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

I need to register for the tourney soon, and when I register they require your list. So having these models in mind, any suggestions?

Our Number is Legion

Procrastination

2009-02-09T16:34:00.004-06:00

First, I want to thank my fiance, who is both loving and generous. For our four year anniversary she purchased the models you will see towards the end.

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

Painting, Painting, and More Painting.

2009-01-29T23:30:00.004-06:00

So the other night I finished up my wraith. I am not pleased with the way they turned out. The wraith have larger shoulder pads than the warriors/immortals. I used my standard theme but the colors just didn't turn out right.

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.

Our Number is Legion

Questions for the community and Battle-Rep 01-26-2009

2009-01-26T18:31:00.008-06:00

If you arn't interested in the battle, please go to the end and read the questions I have asked, I am looking for feedback/answers.

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.

Our Number is Legion

My thoughts as of late

2009-01-22T21:14:00.007-06:00

So its been a while since my last post. I havn't really been doing much to post about unfortunately. Since my last little bat-rep I have just been looking at my army and feeling the ever growing tide of despair as the work never seems to be done (don't worry for me Argentina, I have been told by my buddy Matt, over at Archangel, that my measly army is nothing compared to the 30,000 pts he has, much to be painted.) Part of my growing animosity to my army has been an upcoming tourney in March. Matt and I plan on attending the Exterminatus. Until just last week, the website for the event wasn't even updated. Even now, the count down clock is counting down to May and not March, and the rest of the website hasn't been updated. As this will be my first Indy GT, and truth be told, my first tourney, I would hate for it to be a bust because the event organizers couldn't get their collective shit together.

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

Our Number is Legion

Battle Rep 12-30-2008

2008-12-30T20:28:00.005-06:00

1250 pt Necrons vs Space Marine Scouts

Army lists:

1 Necron Lord with veil/orb/warsythe

30 Necron Warriors

3 Wraith

5 Immortals

1 Monolith

Click on the link for the Spacemarines army list.

This is not your typical battle report, I am going to list things out of order, but as long as you go with the battle itself it will all make sense. At least it did for me.

This was the first battle on the new gaming table (as seen here at archangels.) This time Matt decided on a scout army as opposed to the termies that I have come to lothe. The battle is dawn of war annaliation. On roll off Matt choses to go second, a choice that we later find would be an error as first would give his scouts their scout move and then his normal first term move. All is not lost though as his landspeeder storm, dreadnought and Razorback all attempt to assault my monolith. But as I have the inital selection of ground, I hit the middle directly. And this royaly makes his choice difficult. The inflitrate rules back up the deployment rules of 18" while in line of sight or 12" out of line of sight. I placed my troops so he would have no choice to place them 18" and even with scout moves he still had to put them 12" away. I soon fire into the closest squads, but as everyone should know, DoW's first round is night fire. Only three of my units are able to make range and only to a measly 4 model loss. I have 30, yes count them, 30 warriors and 5 immortals. Thats a devistating barrage of 70 shots fired and a lousy 4 models are killed. BAH!

As the first turn advances I find my mono set upon. Matts landspeeder is able to use multi melta to stop the mono from moving, but as this is no worry, because the pylon will work reguardless of the state of the rest of the vehicle (much to my pleasure.) I soon find myself assaulted by the command squad of normal marines against my Necron lord with his detachment of 10 warriors, which for the first time in the history of my necron gaming, I whip to the man, and only lose one in the process (Necron warsythe ftw!!!)

The battle does not fare well for an entire squad of warriors who become over run by the bike squad. I felt this was a great loss, but that was until I lost all 3 Wraith before they could even strike a single blow! I used them to freely and moved them before my warriors, and even with their +3 saves I could not bring them back from the brink. (We would later go on to proxy our troops to see what the assault phase looked like, and even fudged that up because I forgot they have the +3 inv, but I at least took the squad to 3 troops before losing my last wraith.)

As things went, I stormed my warriors forward in revenge for the wraith. Squad of 10 Necron warriors vs squad of 10 Space Marines, by the end of the game I had put that SM squad down to two, and my necrons were at 5. Thats not to say I won, far from it, for you see, I made a grave error. In an effort to be clever, I used the Veil of Darkness to transport my lord and his squad of 9 warriors into my enemies rear. But I scattered, and my choice of ground was poor. Result... I rolled off the table :( . This threw my game out the window, with the phase now being so low, it was just a battle of attration. My mono lived up to its potentional though, and even though it would eventually be immobilized, I still destroyed the Dreadnought and Razorback, both in firey explosions that damaged the scout squad that had assaulted my immortals. Soon it was last man standing and I was odd man out.

Over all it was a good battle, and I think I had a good chance if my lord had not gone. But since neither myself nor Matt concede what might have been, the result was a phase out once more from the necron forces. The battle ended with 5 warriors and the monolith still standing. We would go on to roll a 6th, imiginary round, in which his landspeeder with multi melta would destroy the mono and the remaining warriors would be crushed from a second squad of 10 scouts, but that also never happened so its a phase and nothing else.

What have I learned... SM are just strong in general. I am begninning to understand placement alot more, giving myself more options. I need to stop allowing my enemy to place his models where they can not be placed. I gave him the benifit for the bikers, but that only lead to loosing an entire squad of troops. Maybe they would have done more damage somewhere else, but the result was still crushing. I can win CC if I press the advantage. And the last thing I have learned. My table is so much better than anything in that gaming store and I am quite proud to have finished it.

Here are a few pictures, they arnt much as we got into the battle and forgot to photograph but they give you the basic idea.

Stolen Peeves List

2008-12-20T19:35:00.003-06:00

***I stole this from Archangels after having a comment post that was just as long as his original post.***

If I could pick one, just one to get rid of, I would pick the stinky guy. I can stand the rules guy, and if someone touches my models without asking I am confident in my ability to harm them. Cheater/Fastroller is second, and its close but I can do something about that as well.

There is just something about going into a public place like a game shop and telling a person who constantly frequents there that he smells and should be drug out back and hosed down.

I would also add another person to the list,
The Hover - I don't mind when people watch when I am gaming. I actually enjoy it (espically if I am winning) but this guy, this guy wants to look right over your shoulder, or will get right up against your table, maybe even be so bold as to lean against the table (which will often result in a knocked over model when he violently shoves himself away from said table.) This guy can often go right into touchy guy.

The Immortals assemble.

2008-12-03T16:31:00.008-06:00

This is a photo "Heavy" update and I appologize in advance but I was actually patient enough to catalog my painting and was very pleased with the models.

I was sitting around the house just three days ago and had the urge to paint. I have everything but the monolith primed and I was so frustrated with that hulking behemoth that I didn't even want to look at it. So I picked up the immortals, which I play with every game, and had one of those moments of "yes I can." The end result is cataloged below.

This first picture you will remember from a previous post. it shows the 10 immortals primed in white, quite simple.

I then added a first coat of wash. The wash has always seemed to light to me, so I moved on to a second. Below I have four photos, the first two are just one coat of wash, the second are two coats. Even in the photos I can see the difference.

Next I added the "baby blue" to the armor plates, head and chest.

I then added the metallic blue and gun-metal gray to the models. I also wanted to do something unique so I added a small stripe to the sides of the armor. You may have also noted that I did not paint the shoulders. I was on the fence about this for some time, before deciding to leave them wash. I think it helps to seperate them from my other models.

This is also the point where I found that I had lost a weapon at some point. YES, great disaster. But I hit on a inspiration. When turning a necron destroyer into a heavy destroyer, you are given a metal weapon to replace the weapon that comes with the standard destoyer. The bonus is that they still send the destoyer gun on the sprue. So I began to paint up the destoyer weapon as well, which you can see painted black in the fore ground of the second picture.

See those little blue rods, 22 freaking little blue rods. Those have to be cut, sanded flat on each end, then grinded down to fit each weapon. The only thing worse about these models is painting the armor.

So since I was a weapon short and was incorporating the destroyers weapon, I decided to make a Sergant for my immortal squad. Now if anyone knows necrons, it knows we are the most basic army in the entire 40k verse. All you have to do is look at the back of the 40k rulebook and see that we have less model options, weapon options, and almost no wargear to speak of. That also means that there is no such thing as a squad leader. But that doesnt mean I cant paint up a model like there is one. Thus I began to working on making one model just a little bit better.

In this next picture I began painting the spine in the metallic colors just to give it a bit of difference.

And now, the final show. I put in the rods, glued on the arms, and thus we have, 10 Necron Immortals.

Here is the squad leader close up. Notice that little blue lump under foot, that would be a space marine helmet, thanks to Matt from Emperors Archangels.

And there you have it. I was very pleased with the outcome of these models. Painting these has also inspired me to begin writing fluff, more on that later.

So, as with any art, I ask for your thoughts. Like, dislike, what needs work. Photo taking wise, this is what I gots so concentrate on the models.

More to come later.

Our Number is Legion

Necron Lord Arise

2008-11-25T12:55:00.005-06:00

Welcome to another installment,

So I held a poll and had those that read the blog choose a project for me. Right from the start the majority seemed to be shooting for a necron lord. From previous posts you can see the primed lord, ala no hand. Well I finally found a better camera so here is the lord with the blue wash.

These next two pictures are a front and back of the finished model. I was going to do a work in progress type showing but I didn't think about it till was finished. This was a fun model to paint and I am quite happy with its color.

All of my miniatures in this army are going through a weathered look. I use a gun metal metallic gray on all the armor surfaces to show wear, and then go back over the whole model with a mist blue which adds a frost look to most of the edges. About the only thing I don't like about this model is his staff. The blade came out good, along with the butt plate at the bottom, but the staff itself doesn't look right. I used ultramarine blue and then used the metallic blue to highlight it, and then did my usual wear and frost. It just doesn't fit the color of the model, its almost too blue.

Last thing I wanted to show is my choice in paints. I use almost all of these at one point during the models creation, the only two things missing is an antique metallic gold that I chose just for the staff and the wash, but you can see the wash just barely in a different picture.

That is all for now, I should have a match today, the results of which should be posted at http://emperorsarchangels.blogspot.com/.

Our Number is Legion

Terrain

2008-11-20T02:24:00.006-06:00

So when I was in college I had a great roommate who introduced me to 40k. At one point I was an Resident Assistant (see apartment manager) for the school I was attending. The best part about it was having a three bedroom apartment but only being required to have one roommate. So we turned the third room into a war room. We built our own 4' by 8' table for gaming. We then began a project of building our own 4' by 4' city board. The board was awesome and although never painted, it was just about structurally finished. The sad part is that I stopped being an RA in December and as such we weren't allowed to keep the nice apartment. We moved to another apartment and we didn't think we would be able to have the room for the city board let alone the gaming table. Little did we know that we ended up getting a third roommate who was a friend and had no trouble getting the room for a board. The problem was that we threw the board away along with the table.

Now all I have is a few pictures of the board and lately I reminisce about making the board. It was definitely a two man project but now I know alot of the short cuts that we had to learn first hand. I will get the pictures uploaded in the next day or so to show off the slight skill that I had.

Our Numbers is Legion

Build Pictures II

2008-11-16T22:31:00.008-06:00

Welcome Back,

I finished the first 24 warriors and have finally taken photos. Mind you I couldn't find the digital camera again so they didn't do well with close ups.

But before I show off the finished product, take a look at this monolith. Now I think I should establish that I purchased alot of my models off Ebay. I am fully behind supporting my local hobby shop, but when trying to jump right into gaming and not buying piecemeal, Ebay just has the better cost. Also I want to state that I dont find fault with the seller of the monolith. His painting of the warriors was original and actually quite good. But his construction of the monolith left much to be desired. Since I am using a white base I knew before hand that I would have to re-prime it. Here is the resulting Monolith.

You may have noticed the weapon missing from the corner, that was my doing, I was checking to see how easy it would be to take the 'lith apart. It has easy points, glued much like tack welding, while others seem to have been slathered in Krazy glue. The problem that I am worried about is when I put it back together, will the pieces fit correctly or has something been done that wont allow the joints to connect fully.

Next up is the immortals primed and ready to start their paint job. As you can see I have a set of 10, which is about the maximum that I will use.

And here we have the Necron Lord, I plan on using alot more metallic colors for him, along with more darker blues, should be something cool to see.

This is a aweful close up picture but it gets the gist of the over all paint scheme. I am using a blue rod in place of the green ones, but they dont come dark enough for my tastes. I would almost prefer a solid color as opposed to transparent. Maybe I will try something else.

And here is the box set of 24 Necron Warriors (minus the scarabs which are woefully under painted.)

A little different shot, trying to show just how many models there are, necrons have only 1 troop choice so I guess we have to make the best with what we got.

Little closer, little more light.

So thats the basics right now. With so many more models to paint I am not sure when I will get it all done. No rush though, I want to do these right. You may have noticed the bases are white, and some have blue on them, thats from the wash. I plan on doing a snow base theme but that will be when all the models are finished painting. I have some bits donated from space marines, along with blue glass that looks like ice. It should all look very cool.

If you are reading this then you probably read the poll at the top. If you havn't voted then please do, I am overwhelmed by the shear number of the models.

Our Number is Legion

Build Pictures

2008-11-15T15:28:00.006-06:00

Okay so this is the first set of Build pictures. I havn't taken any new pics in a while but these give the basic idea of what I am trying paint wise. The picuters were taken on my LG Shine phone camera so I apologize in advance about the quality.

First is the standard warrior box, 24 warriors, 6 Scarab platforms. This pic is about half a box.

Next is of my bitz, I always use to take everything off the sprue, glue, then paint. Little did I know that I would end up tearing everything apart.

So first I assembled the Legs,

Here is everything layed out, and if you look at my scarabs, yes I didn't realize that you only needed 3 per base, so I will be going back and removing one scarab from each and building new platforms for larger games.

Then I put them all together, (they arn't painted yet but my camera seemd to put a strange green wash on the ones on the right.)

I decided to paint just four first, to see what methods I would use. I primed all the models white then I used the Asurmen Blue wash from citadel paints first along with a pure black for the guns.

Thats when I realized what a pain in the ass it would be to paint with the arms and guns in place, as well as painting off the sprue. My general design requires alot more detail (yeah right) than what I use to paint. So I ripped all the gun/arms off, which means it was a pain in the ass to reassemble.

I am using Six different colors on the models, I will take a picture of the paints to show my color choice.

And thats the first set of pictures. I will post more soon, I currently have 10 immortals and a necron lord on the build table, as well as being almost finished with the first 24 warriors (just need rods put in place.)

Our Number is Legion

The Awakened Arrive

2008-11-15T02:06:00.005-06:00

Welcome all,

I plan on making this my main blog about the new Warhammer 40,000 Necron army that I am building. The army will be based off a Flying Circus design and will be painted in an white/blue theme, giving the aspect that my Nec's have been asleep on an ice planet and have just awoken.

I hope to have many pictures up soon. They will consist of the build/painting process and the campaigns that I attempt. There currently is only two people that I know personally in my area that play, one fielding Space Marines (in various forms) and the other Chaos. The SM has a large number of models and has many years of experience, so that's where I expect my greatest challenge to come from. The Chaos player is brand new to the game, just bought the starter box and has yet to game with us but should be ready to field 500 Pt's soon if not 750 Pt's.

A little about my 40k experience:
I started playing 40k in 2003 with a Eldar army. I designed it after the Biel'tan cast using the Avatar of Kaela Mensha Khaine as the leader and a cast of Aspect warriors. I used this pretty well against Imperial Guard, Tau, and Orcs'. I ended up selling this army off the army in 2006 due to lack of use. I was not pleased to sell them but I was short on cash and since almost everyone who played graduated college there wasn't anyone to game with. Then came the new job and at with that several people who play. I decided that I didn't want to play Eldar again (although after the 5th edition rules answered all the problems that I wanted seen too,) so I picked the Necrons. Little did I know, that I picked one of the most jacked up armies to pick. The Nec's are in need of a major overhaul. They only have one troop, and their Close Combat ability is non-existent (Don't think you can tempt me with your flayed ones, they are not up to snuff.) As of right now, I have only played 500 Pt, 750 Pt, and a few 1000 Pt matches. All have been against an SM player who has tried several methods against me. What I have learned is that if he closes with me, I am screwed, the end. So I have to have enough units on the board to keep his separated and allow me to shoot into them while they move to close with other units. Basically I have to sacrifice someone at this point in time. Now some of you may read this and have several strategies, well until I get everything built, I am limited in my unit choices, so no Flying Circus just yet.

That is just the start of what I hope will be many posts yet to come. Here is a link to my friends blog where he has posted several battle reports on a couple of our encounters.
http://emperorsarchangels.blogspot.com/

Our Number is Legion