Recent work: Making Custom Spawn, Painting a Bastion

Hey all,


So I've been absent lately. I blame my burning desire to paint models and work for this. Mhmmmm. So I've signed up for the fall 40k league around here. Its 2k this time, and for funsies, I've decided to run what no doubt will turn out to be a fairly bad list, given the current tau/eldar meta. But I'll give it a go without complaining!


So

HQ:

Juggy axe lord w/ all the good fixings, including Boon of mutation! /le gasp
Nurgle mace Lord w/ all the good fixings, including boon of mutation! /le gasp x2!

I know, you're all shocked to your cores already! Well get ready, here's some more shock!

2x cultists!

OMG!

2x maulerfiends

2x spawn, one nurgle, one plain

1x helldrake w/ flamer

andddd
*drummroll here*

Bastion! With Quad gun!

But wait, that's not all!!

Havoc squad! With 4 lascannons!

But wait, theres more!

ALLIES! - Black Legion

Abaddon

1x Cultists

1x nurgle spawn


Sayyyy whattttttt?

Yes, i know,  Las-havocs probably the worst squad ever, not to mention so many other units can do it better..

HEAR ME OUT!

So these guys, when combined with hiding inside of a bastion give me an answer to a few things -

1) Killing broadsides by doubling them out.

2) Wounding riptides, wraithknights, t-fires, and other pesky units at range.

3) Messing with opponents target priority


So, why do I want this?

Bastion gives me a place to hide my troops, which suck horrifically against t-fires with barrage now. If I need to, i can easily swap out the havocs on the top, and hide some cultists inside.

Havocs inside the bastion give me a good platform, plus an extra heavy bolter or two, to put out some las shots which can go after units which may try to run away or otherwise be difficult for my assault rush army to get to.

The quad gun is somewhat obligatory, and lets me have a chance to fire at the new swarms of Storm Talons i suspect will be emerging from under rocks. It also just means some extra fire support as needed (until its destroyed turn 1 by any good opponent, but hey whatevs!)

Broadsides are super annoying for me, not anymore! Even if they have a butt-ton of drones to hide behind, that's why we can prioritize what order we force people to take saves in!

The bastion gives me a LOS blocker for those times I can't start the game with one, a vital necessity in todays I SHOOT< I WIN meta, of ignoring cover, a.ka., terrain is pointless. So that's good.

Havocs inside the bastion mean they probably won't go away quickly, so they'll probably earn their points back.

Ok.

So painting wise, i obviously need a third spawn squad. That's well under way, see the pics below.

I also need a Bastion + quady, so, short story on this. I actually bought a bastion back when they were the retarded awful terrain GW sold, instead of badass fortresses of getting blown up by wraith knights turn 1 all the time for no reason that they are now.

I played 40k, and didn't realize what terrain was supposed to be, so of course i turn to GW, and get a big honking fortress of redemption, and a bastion....

Put it together, and after two games, immediately discard as retarded.

RE: me, several years later digging through a bin, on a half-remembered idea that i might have owned a bastion, and bam! One piss - poor painted - half destroyed bastion later, i'm good to go.

Also i fixed the shit out of it. See the pics below.

So I dropped daemon allies not because I think they are bad, (they are not) but because I wanted an excuse to run three ridiculous beat-face lords in one army. This lets me do that.

That was my entire train of logic.

How else can I run three characters who can smack some bitches up in combat? Oh wait, Chaos daemons, who do it way better in some respects (and now vanilla marines! boooooooo-urns). Blah

IGNORE THAT!

Also I tried about a million ways to make myself feel comfortable with running CSM's as troops, didn't really work. Maybe one day I'll find my courage. I was reading some other guys blog, and he was going on about using noise marines, maybe I'll give them another look in the near future.

So to run my master-crafted list of excellent excellentness, I had to build another squad of spawn, as mentioned above, so find below, pictures of before mentioned, after mentioned, spawn.
I decided I wanted to kitbash quite a bit, and build spawn who looked like for the most part, they either were super mutated, or just started the process. I chose brown as a color, so I could run them with any lord in the future if they turned out. Hint, my entire army is generally color coded to match the gods of choice. Brown is ubiquitous, so can go either way. I've also been watching a lot of bad 1980's and 90's animes lately. I've decided the way daemons and evil things were drawn then are wayyyy more disgusting than the way they are presented now. Go watch the Daemons in Bserk, for serious. Yuck. So I stuck some GW daemon heads on three of the guys, as they actually somewhat  resemble a few of them.

The spawn arn't close to done yet, they only have had a base coat, 2 washes, and some light drybrush and highlight. I'll need to do a lot more =/ le sigh


The fire guy, I thought actually could be a good representation of a mutated tzeentch sorcerer.


Ok enough rambling and silly talk. I'll have to post more later. But now, its bed time. Enjoy the pics.




This was a pile of crap before, now its less of one
Winner? Me. And that nurgling, that guy is
awesomeee

the whole gang of the new spawn
don't let them confuse you with their wiggly bits

I don't even know. Make up something

BOO!

Failed Tzeentch guy, obviously!

Painting and more Painting! Chaos SM

Greets,

Even though Adepticon is well on two months away, my team and I have been working hard on painting our models well in advance so as to ensure we are ready in time. Although we are still working out the final details of our lists, we are no longer bumping around in the dark. So we've been working on painting models which are most likely included into the final product.

I know I haven't mentioned running plague marines personally except for my last post, but I have been painting up a squad of chaos SM to use as "counts as anything" marines. I've been using mostly the models from the dark vengeance set. They actually have a really nice look and dynamic feel and I'm really happy with them.

To paint I've been basing black, then doing bases colors for red, gold, silver and bone. This is followed by a wash of ogryn / fleshcolor wash.  The model is then drybrushed all over with a very dark grey, mechanicus I think. The bone is drybrushed with rotting flesh. Afterwards I start highlighting with a bright gold, red and silver. Then do touchups with a watered down black.

For Adepticon we are using two different chaos SM armies, one is based on The Purge the other is based on Black Brethern of Ayreas.

My half (the brethren) of the army is at the "clean up and highlights" point, except for a few chaos rhinos we need to strip and repaint, for the glory of chaos!

I really like the dynamic posing of the models

Typhus, badass, once tried to get the better of the Lion. Failed horrifically of course, but still tried.

I tried to do some "heroic" posing not sure how that's working out. This is a much earlier in the process shot, note the guys are not even on their bases yet.

most of the crew lined up for a "progress" portrait

even unbased, typhus is a badass

I love the Chaos Icons, so cool

Painting: Making bases and Chaos SM progress

Good Morning all!

So this will be a picture heavy post. Yesterday I successfully made 87 skull, bones and blood bases for my Chaos SM army (80 25mm, 5 40mm, 1 bike, 1 60mm). They sat overnight to let the liquid water effects dry and I've now mounted about a few of my mostly finished models to them. I really like the way they look.

For anyone following along, to do the bases:
 Supplies: Secret Weapon Minatures Red Black wash
                 Secret Weapon Minatures liquid water effects
                 GW Paints: Khorne Red
                 GW Paints: Rotting Flesh
                 GW Paints: Palid Flesh
                 GW Paints: Reikland Fleshshade (previously Ogryn Wash)
                 GW Paints: Rhinox Hide
                 GW Paints: Ushabti Bone

87 Bases, woo. The right 40 have been
drybrushed, the left 40 only washed.
The difference is very noticiable.

1) Base coat with Rhinox Hide (Brown).
2) Do a quick brush over all the skeletal bits with the Ushabti Bone, don't worry about getting some onto the brown based areas, just make sure you coat the skeletons
3) Wash the skeletal bits with the Reikland Fleshshade. Let it sit for about 30 minutes to make sure it really dried
4) Drybrush the skeletal bits with the Rotting Flesh
5) Drybrush the skeletal bits with palid flesh
6) VERY LIGHTLY drybrush the skeletal bits with white(optional)










adding a few drops, the other two sides
have already been done.

7) Place 3-4 drops of the secret weapon miniatures liquid water effects into the desired location, then using a toothpick or similar tool, mix a very small amount of Khorne Red into the liquid water until it reaches a desired shade















mixing in the Khorne Red
with a toothpick

8) place 1 (2 for larger bases) drop of the Red Black wash into a center or deeper portion of the base. Use the toothpick to spread out the darker areas to give the effect of varying depths of blood.
















adding a few drops of
red black

Allow to sit for at least 10 hours before touch. Note that the depth of the "liquid" water effects will shrink as water evaporates. So don't worry about accidentally adding to much.



Overall progress on the Chaos SM is going pretty swiftly. I'm at a stage now where I'm facing the prospect of painting 60 odd cultists. I want to do color themes in blocks of 20 so I can at least have a pretense of squad cohesion.








Same guys as before, now with highlights and a base
for the juggy lord! Note I am not using the W-Fantasy
base this model comes with. I decided after it was pointed out
to me by Jon P to use a 60mm base as in WH40k
Juggys of Khorne are also on 60mm bases.

The Screamers, under different lighting.

The Plaguebearers, finally on bases they still need
to have their eyes and a few other details painted

The Flamers, now on bases, they like the plaguebearers still need
some details painted like their eyes and mouths.

Painting: Further Chaos SM Construction

 After destroying my airbrush's spray nozzle by accidentally over tightening it. I decided to not be lazy and wait for the new one to arrive by post and just get started on the armies bases. I spent several hours today painting all 86 bases a Skorched Brown base.

I also did a test paintjob on a screamer and liked it so much I painted the other two right away. I started with a Grey basecoat, then used a Ultramarines Blue base, after that I did an Fleshcolor wash, then drybrushed with two successively lighter blues. The beaks are done with a bone color with a fleshcolor wash.

I also got excited about my plaguebearers and painted all 10 of them immediately. They started as a Skorched Brown base, with a Bien Green wash. Then successively lighter dry brushes of green. Then a final drybrush of palid white.

I did a bright gold highlight to my Khorne Lord and my daemon prince. While I don't plan on ever really using the daemon prince, I have him in case I score it as an upgrade for one of my models.

Panting: Chaos SM under construction

So I've been working on my Chaos SM models for the Adepticon team tourney as well as GT play. This means they need to be painted to earn high points in most painting rubrics, have a consistent theme and actually look good to boot.

I settled on a traditional black base with red and gold highlights for my Chaos army. I tend to like darker base colors and they provide a pleasant visual contrast if done properly. This army as earlier blog post photos reveal, is intended to pair with Chaos Daemons for the ultimate in punchy cheese.

Note those models are not "done", they are at about the 90% state. If they improve beyond this point it will largely depend on how much time I have left over after painting everything else up to the same standard.

Khorne lord
Basecoat - Grey

Base - Chaos Black / Khorne Red

Wash - Ogryn Flesh

Highlights - Wazdakka red / shining gold / the yellow color as pictured

Drybrush - Mechanicus Grey on black components. Wazdakka red on Red.

Red Spawn

Basecoat - Grey

Base - Skorched Brown

Wash - Ogryn Flesh

Highlights - Bone color on "claw" portions

Drybrush - Successive layers of red in the following order: Khorne Red / Mephiston Red/ Wazdakka red

Green Spawn

Basecoat - Grey

Base - Skorched Brown

Wash - Bien Green

Highlights - Bone color on "claw" portions, mephiston red for the eyes

Drybrush - Successive layers of green in the following order: Warboss green / Snot green / that ultra neon green GW sells.

So without further rambling, here they are!

YourHobbyPlace 1850 RTT

First let me throw down for YourHobbyPlace. This is a game store in Martinsburg, WVA. It caters to every type of gamer; from magic, to star wars, to Warhammer. The guy who runs it, Dave, is a fantastic individual and often mixes with his gamers and unlike most game store owners I've met is able to hold a meaningful discussion while adding insightful comments on almost any game system. The terrain is great; the store has plenty of room and does not have that normal... uh... "odor" we find at other game stores. You all know what I mean.

 

While I'm at it, I should also throw down for my more local hobby store, Huzzah Hobbies. Huzzah is also an excellent, well run game store, no foul odors, very clean and something you don't see at a lot of hobby stores - well lit!. Unfortunately Huzzah does not have RTT's for 40k, so my time spent there is mostly purchasing items and shooting the shit with Chris the owner. Chris also came out for The NOVA Open and helped run Flames of War with a buddy of mine Scott.

 

Both good peoples. I thought I'd throw down for both. Even though no one will probably ever read this blog!

 

So YourHobbyPlace runs a monthly RTT with good prize support. There are a group of regulars who show up, so there are almost always at least 12-15 people on hand to throw down. The Meta there is interesting. There are a few guys who are still playing old 3rd/4th ed IG or Chaos SM lists to the full range of beat face GK/Cron air ect. So it’s a good mix and pleasant.

The RTT's are always three round tourneys, book missions with battle points.

I showed up this month knowing I'd have to leave early (Christmas Party) but I was itching to get my game on and have fun. I had just painted up a Chaos SM Daemon prince, and to be honest, I want this guy to work so badly it hurts (he doesn't really work well, as it turns out, but oh well!)

That said I took what I thought was a super lolzy list, but did surprisingly well.

 

My List

Mega-Armored Warboss - Bosspole, Cybork

Big Mek - KFF, Burna, 'eavy Armor

Chaos SM Daemon Prince: Tzeentch, Gift of Mutation, Spell Familiar, Burning Brand, Psyker (lvl3), Power armor, wings.

3 Meganobz w/ kombi-skorchas w/ battlewagon deffrolla / big shoota dedicated transport

3 squads of 20 shoota boyz w/ 2 big shootas and nob + pk + bp + 'eavy armor

3x battlewagons w/ deffrolla + big shoota

Gretchin

Cultists

5 Lootas

A very simple list. Gretchin and Cultists reserve and hold back field. Lootas hang out and provide some anti-flier support if needed. Everything else rushes as fast as possible forward to shoot and assault. This isn't a great list, but it is fun.

 

 

Game 1 vs. Scott's Grey Knights

2 Objective Game, Grey knights have first go.

 

I spent a lot of time trying to decide if I wanted to hit his left
or right side first. It was a queston of taking on the two
dreadknights with the terminators, or the strike squad
with terminators first.

Scotts list was an interesting 5th /6th ed mix. 4 Psybolt acolyte squads. 1x fully equipped strike squad, 1x fully equipped terminator squad. Coteaz, a storm raven, and 2 heavy incinerator / teleported dreadknights.



I had to make a tough choice on what I wanted to try and slam first. His squishier troops or his dreadknights. The terminators were set to support either side of the board. I decided to go heavy into his troops to fry what I could in a single turn and then hop into melee turn 2. Lootas set on the left side as a red herring to either pop razorbacks or draw the dreadknights over.



 The dreadknights were drawn over. I was able to dakka down half the strike squad and some terminators. Unfortunately my daemon prince (far right) was grounded and has received three wounds, effectively neutering him.

On turn 2, his army moved close enough to ensure a glorious multicharge into the terminators and both dreadknights. I deployed all 60 boyz + meganobz about 3 inches away from one dreadknight and the terminator squad. Then proceed to shoot the snot out of the terminators and kill about 5 of them. Then surprise, the squad breaks and runs out of charge range. I guess counting on a LD10 to hold is bad news sometimes!

This sets me up badly, though I lock down one of the dreadknights in CC anyways. The terminators regroup and proceed to dakka down a boyz squad to about 6 guys. The 'eavy incinerator dreadknight which is free then kills a squad of boyz by itself. His razorbacks finish off the daemon prince.

The rest of his army races forward to take my objective.

 

Turn 3 - My meganobz + the remains of the boyz squad assault terminators + Coteaz wiping them out on the following turn, but locking them in combat through his turn (so they can't get shot woo!). The boyz squad with the dreadknight stays in and leaves him with one wound, but 11 boyz left so still fearless. 2 Battlewagons go left and start tank shocking his dreadknights + razorbacks, 2 battlewagons roll forward tank shocking strike squads + razorbacks. A bunch of stuff goes boom. My reserved cultists hang out on my objective.





Turn 4 - His heavy incinerator dreadknight clears off my objective and his razorback drops off a squad of 5 bolter acolytes on it to hold it. My b-wagons tank shocks his strike squad off the board clearing his side of units allowing me to claim his objective with my boyz. Meganobz kill the razorback they are standing next to in the photo. My battlewagons on my side of the board tank shock + kill his razorback and a few of his acolytes, the rest hold. My reserved gretchin walk on, and run next to the objective contesting it.



End of game. Had it continued it would have just been
a fight over my objective between his dreadknight / stormraven,
and my squad of gretchin, boyz, and two battlewagons. Net result - same ending

Game - My victory through the skin of my teeth. I got the primary win, slay the warlord and line breaker. My opponent got the loss, but got slay the warlord, line breaker and first blood. In the BP style, I got 18 points he got 15. So not bad for him really at all.

 

 

 

                                                                     Game 2 vs. Nids

I was in a bit of a rush for this game as I had to leave afterwards for my offices Christmas party. My opponent played Tyranids. His list was.. interesting but not what I’d consider very competitive.

 

Dakka flyrant w/ biomancy

4x squads of 20 hormagaunts with adrenal and toxin sacs

Trygon Prime w/ all the fixings

2 Zoanthropes

Dakkafex in a drop pod

3 biovores

I am sad to admit, in the interests of being fast; I didn't play this as a casual" game. I was pretty brutal and had him tabled rapidly. Sorry guy! My opponent was really nice and took the tabling really well, not a single bit of butt-hurtness, which I was gratified for.

I had to leave to go to this though!

 

PARRTTYYY!!!

 

 

11th Company GT 2012 - Recap

Hey all! So this is a bit late but I had the great fortune to be able to attend the 11th Company GT 2012! Before I go into the games, let me mention that I am a huge fan of the 11th Company Podcast. I've had the pleasure of meeting Pat, Neil, Stephen and Larry on a few occasions now and every time has been very positive. I strongly encourage anyone interested in hearing a good 40k podcast to go have a listen. I also appreciate the Discount Game Store and KR-Multicase for providing excellent prize support at the event!

The 11th company event was held in an good location, very low rates, and had a very jovial and positive atmosphere. There were only a few hickups with pairings, and those were solved relatively fast. There was a very cheap but good bar next door which most of the attendees found themselves at during lunch and dinner which greatly contributed to the comradely atmosphere.

As follows below is a recap of my games with some corresponding photos!

First off, my list!



The entire ragged crew, excluding my two precious dakkajets!

2k Orks - designed as an all comers list.
HQ
Mega-armored Warboss, Boss Pole, Cybork - 115
Big Mek - Kustom Force field, Burna, Cybork - 115ish

Troops
20 Shoota Boyz - Nob, Power Klaw, Boss Pole, 2 Big shootas - 170
20 Shoota Boyz - Nob, Power Klaw, Boss Pole, 2 Big shootas - 170
20 Shoota Boyz - Nob, Power Klaw, Boss Pole, 2 Big shootas - 170
20 Shoota Boyz - Nob, Power Klaw, Boss Pole, 2 Big shootas - 170
4 Meganobz - 4 Combi-Skorchas - 180
    Dedicated Transport: Battlewagon - Deffrolla, Big Shoota - 115
Gretchin - 40

Heavy Support
Battlewagon - Deffrolla, Big Shoota - 115
Battlewagon - Deffrolla, Big Shoota - 115
Battlewagon - Deffrolla, Big Shoota - 115

Fast Attack
Dakkajet - Supa Shoota, Fighta Ace - 130
Dakkajet - Supa Shoota, Fighta Ace - 130

Elite
Lootas - 75
Lootas - 75

So something should stick out right away to most people playing in the 6th ed paradigm. I'm rather vehicle heavy! This turned out to be a significant advantage through the course of the GT.

Let me also say, I don't recall everyones names and every detail of every game! Please don't be upset if I forgot something! All of my opponents were fantastic, played excellent games and would be an instant yes to play again.

GAME 1 - Objectives vs Sean(Tau/Eldar)!
My first game was versus Sean, who was playing Tau with Eldar allies. He brought plenty of fire warriors and broadsides to the table with a smattering of eldar farseer. With the level of torrent he was bringing and the heavy anti-vehicle firepower; I knew I was going to be in for a rough ride unless I got stuck in quick!

A devastatingly bad deployment on my part

I won deployment and first go. I deployed as shown to the left with Sean setting up directly opposite. He then seized the initiative on me! doh! I was perfectly setup to have some broadsides mow down b-wagons and that's exactly what happened!

The first squad you see on the far right got dakka'd down to a few boyz (who proceeded to skulk in the ruin the rest of the game to capture the objective).










Poor Tau, they always end up being pasted

  After a weathering a withering torrent of fire, I  launched myself forward in a desperate bid to get up close and start dakkaing/ assaulting as soon as possible. In this I was mostly successful and was able to launch turn 2 assaults. The picture on the right is the top of last turn of the game. Sean was a good sport and went on to win his bracket on day 2!















Game 2 - Quarters vs. Orks WAAAGH!


Turn 1 ! Begin!

My next opponent was another ork player. He was playing what I've noticed seems to be the current ork meta at the moment. Lots of boyz on foot, lobbas, lootas, dakkajets and an Aegis defense line. One interesting twist he added in was the use of a mini deathstar with a warboss on bike and a number of reasonably inexpensive nob bikers. We both had roughly the same number of boyz on the field, though he outgunned me severely with many more lootas than me, not to mention his lobbas. So this game would be determined by the effectiveness of my armor keeping his torrent at bay, while I dakka'd from the relative safety of the mighty battlewagons.

Side armor shot from 10 lootas? Unfortunately yes =(

My opponent won first go, and proceeded to move his nob bikers forward and dakka'd my b-wagons with loota fire. In an over-eagerness to pop my battlewagons, he made a fatal mistake which most likely cost him the game. He moved his nob bikers close enough to be tank shocked by every single battlewagon. I proceeded to do just that, killing all the nob bikers in a single glorious turn! In fairness, had his group held even with a little bit of success, he would be been in a prime position to ravage me, so he took a roll of the dice and just came out on the bottom.

Thanks to some excellent side armor shooting, my battlewagons went down really rapidly. We had a glorious shoota boyz on shoota boyz pileup in the middle for a turn or two which I managed to come out on top of.


I failed to capture the end game shot, but I think it ended with a loota or lobba still on the board lurking in the back left ruins and my meganobz standing proudly next to some lobbas but confused as how to operate them!

Storm ravens with hurricane bolters are painful =(

Game 3 - Objectives.. vs. Grey Knights

So this game I failed to remember to take any photos except this end of game shot.

My opponent brought to the field, 2x storm-ravens with hurricane bolters, 15 paladins, (10 man and a 5 man), a psybolt dread, Draigo and maybe something else I'm forgetting.

Short summary. I moved to the middle, turn 2 assaulted Draigo and 10 paladins with the meganobz, warboss, big mek, and 2x squads of boyz. Came out on top of that fight by a significant margin. Draigo lolzy challenged the warboss to combat and it was accepted. That was actually the most tense moment of the game. Draigos weapons bounced off of the Warbosses 2+ continuously, but so too did the power klaw bounce off. Eventually Draigo went down, and just in time too! The other paladin squad almost made it to join the assault and tip the balance back in favor of the Grey Knights.
The storm ravens fell down to a combination of dakkajets + lootas.

Game 4 - Quarters vs. Lukus (Space Wolves / IG)



End of game result. All the action took place here

Game 4 is when the rounds broke into their final brackets. I suddenly found out I was placed on the top table with Lukus, a SW/IG player who had gone 2-1. Apparently he had done well enough to find himself promoted to the 3-0 bracket!

So I must admit, I started this game with a bit of a yawn and over-inflated sense of ego. Pfffttt, thought I, this guy knows I'm #1 atm and he's playing what looked like a non-optimized space wolves list. I quickly found out my arrogance was undeserved as I stared at my models on the bottom of three, realizing I was being seriously outplayed and about to lose. I managed to see a path to victory though and pull it out! Not that Lukus didn't try to stop me!

He had Njyal (who swapped for book powers and found himself with ignore cover, bad for me). Logan, Grey Hunters, Wolf Guard, Drop Podding grey hunters or wolf guard.. don't remember, and plenty o longfangs. Not to mention an IG Vendetta, commissar, plasma vets, and an Aegis line with a quad gun.

This was my toughest match up of the tourney, period.

I managed to bottle up Lukus in his quarter for the entire game, but in the process lost 2 boyz squads, all my b-wagons and meganobz, warboss. A reserved squad of boyz held one quarter, and half a boyz squad held another with some lootas holding the third. Logan tried to be a terd and was contesting a quarter all by himself after slaughtering about 30 boyz but luckily died to shoota boyz torrent. He passed saves like a boss though for a couple rounds of fire/combat.

Games 5 Objectives vs. Dark Eldar / Eldar

The beast pack did what they were supposed to do
bottled me up- stalled my advance

This game I again forgot to take pictures. My opponent brought Dark eldar/eldar (as the title suggests). His list was composed of something like... The Baron, Maugan Ra, a massive beastpack with all the fixings (The Baron and Maugan ran around with it), a bastion with a quad gun, a fire dragon squad w/ the crack shot exarch(manning the quad gun on top of the bastion). Some large dark eldar squads with the splinter cannons for withering firepower, A squad with dark lances (hung out in the bastion), a void raven bomber, a venom, several squads of guardian jet bikes, a ravager, and two reaver jetbike squads. All in all, a lot of fast moving stuff with a good mix of shooty and assaulty. I would say this would have been my hardest matchup except for the previous game vs. Lukus. I only remembered to take this picture, as I was seriously contemplating the fix I was in. 

My opponent won first go, and proceeded to march his beast pack forward up and over the ruins to set up for a turn 2 assault. I rolled my b-wagons forward 6 inches and proceed to dakka for everything I was worth into the beast pack, removing a huge chunk of them. I also managed to use my lootas to down the Ravager despite night fight (thank goodness!)

Turn 2: He marched his beast squad over the middle terrain and assaulted my b-wagons and manage to pop one. Bottom of 2: I  used my dakka to reduce his beast squad down to the size pictured above (its in the bottom right). I did this while moving what I could forward as far as I dared to start moving towards his side.
Turn 3: He used Maugan Ra to blow up a my meganobz battlewagon with a rear armor shot, then assaulted into the squad. His venom danced around and removed some lootas. I ended up cleaning up in the combat leaving me free to consolidate towards his bastion.
Turn 3/4: Everything moved forward to take on the remaining squishy dark eldar. Culminating in a very lucky charge against the bastion, wrecking it. The b-wagon on the hill stayed steady holding the objective and torrented anything that got close.

 One highlight of the game was prolonged combat between my gretchin squad and guardian jetbikes (aided by a venom torrenting first) on the back right objective. The gretchin managed to win in the end rather hilariously!

Games 6 Objevtives vs. Jessie / Tyranid!


 So due to a mix up in the pairings, Game 6 happened to have a late start. Given that Jessie and I were the only ones 5-0 in the room, we found each other rather quickly and shot the shit until we were allowed to play. Jessie with several of his buddies were representing the PA area. (Sorry i can't remember the club name!).

Jessie's list was
2x Flyrant w/ twin linked dev
2x Tervigon
2x devilgaunts
3x 3 hiveguard
1x 2 dakka carnifex's.
So it was a very straightforward list. Having played against tyranid on many an occasion, I knew full well the weight of dakka coming to gun down my poor orks. Not to mention that biomancied flyrants + tervigons are a terror for orks. Hive guard make short work of battlewagons....! Gaunts are great versus orks, its good to trade a cheap unit you can replenish for a cheap unit the other guy can't.'

Jessie had first turn and deploying a neutral optimal position, allowing him to quickly move to either side of the board to control. Notice his hive guard are also relatively center, so they can make a quick dash to the middle and start dakkaing the entire board. (which is what they did!)


So I decided to play extremely cagey. I deployed all my models in the ruins to give them a 4+ vs. shooting from the hive guard so i didn't end up wrecked early. Turn 1, the flyrants came at me and dakka'd my lootas. I moved almost everything down the left middle side of the field up to 12" and pivoted all my wagons to present front armor to his entire army. Then proceeded to snap fire for minimal effect.


Deployment! Night fight rules are in effect - Dont
Worry those lootas in the bottom left got shuffled back
before we started!

Turn 2. His flyrants pursued my wagons, going for side armor shots, the rest of his army moved closer to the bwagons to position for shooting and assault on the following turns. On the bottom of 2, both my dakkajets and gretchin squad arrive from reserves! The gretchin went to lurk on the bottom right objective. I scooted my wagons 6 inches towards board middle, hopped out the meganobz + boyz, and proceeded to dakka down his bubble wrap around the tervigon with the battlewagons. I also shot ineffectually at his flyrants with my dakkajets (a waaaugh wasted = ( ), but it wasn't a total loss, a boyz squad disembarked from a b-wagon and sat next to the flyrant I was shooting at in the hopes of assaulting as a follow up. Feeling pressured by a lack of success/knockdowns in dealing with the flyrants by the dakakjets. I risked dakkaing with the boyz, and success! A flyrant fell to the earth and promptly died in assault. I also assaulted a tervigon and a hive guard squad with the boyz + meganobz, wiping out a tervigon.


Turn 3 - His remaining flyrant lands, shoots at and assaults the boyz squad which had killed his friend. The remaining tervigon spawns babies and runs as far away from the boyz as it can. The dakkafex's come out to play, and after much deliberation decide to shoot at the freed meganobz, they manage to kill a meganob and the kff big mek, which turned out to be bad as it cost them the needed charge range! The hive guard shot ineffectually at the dakkajets. His hive tyrant did not manage to kill enough to render the boyz non-fearless so combat continues into my turn! On my turn, my boyz clear the combat from the hive guard, and the boyz (and a dakkajet) first dakka then assault the carnifex's killing one and taking off a wound or two on the other. My meganobz + warboss smash the other Tervigon, losing a meganob in the process to the tervigons smash attack. My remaining boyz join the fight vs. the flyrant!



Game End - bottom of turn 4 i think

Turn 4 -  Game is called, I don't remember if it was the top or bottom. Not really important. Remaining Tyranids are: two hive guard squads, a squad of gaunts in the back field objective, and the flyrant.
Two boyz squads have lost just under half their members, two meganobz died, and the kff big mek.

I think what tipped the balance in this game, was letting me get the charge off on the Tervigon and knocking out one the flyrants on turn 2. Being able to remove two such huge threats for relatively little loss so early on flipped the game on its head.


Victory!

BEER FOR THE BEER GOD!!!

So my friends and I from the NOVA crew signed up for the Adepticon team tourney. Our team this year, Beer for the Beer God will be running Chaos SM and Chaos Daemons.

Team Members
James - Myself! Your humble blog poster
Eric - SVDM GT winner and NOVA terrain painter!
Jon  - NOVA open Staffer, creative mind behind the NOVA open videos available on youtube.
Owen  - Nova open Staffer, starred as THE RAGE in the NOVA open video, and helped create vast quantities of terrain for the nova this past year

So as you can see, a rather star studded team! We decided on the CHAOS SM dex the day after the Adepticon team tourney last year ended, in which we ran orks (placed 20th!).

We are still attempting to "crack" the ChaosSM dex, though we've found things that are starting to work beyond the obvious MOER SPAWNZZZZZ. It's a tough nut to crack. Troops seem overcosted and under performing to some degree, but we'll figure it out!

That said, we've been working on some custom bases for our team. See the photos below (note its the same base just under two separate light sources to show differences)












These bases are from Secret Weapon Minatures. It started off as a Scorched Brown for the base, and Ushabti Bone for the skeletal bits. I then washed it with a black wash. After that I dry brushed everything with a little bit of Bestial Brown. Then proceeded for the skeletal bits only to do a light layer of Rotting Flesh, followed by a final drybrush of White Scar. The blood effect is done by mixing the secret weapon liquid effects and a little bit of Khorne Red, then placing a drop of the secret weapon red black in the center and mixing it slightly.

We are still working through the color theme for the army, more on that when its available and list ideas!