40K these days...

The state of the game…  Yeah, sounds pretentious J…  Now, this is all just my opinion as always, and mostly just based on my experiences and the armies I play.  I am getting the feeling that the game is becoming less and less balanced.  I’d be a bit hesitant to say that certain codices are “broken” or bad for the game, but Grey Knights would be one that I’d say brings it REALLY close.  An entire army loaded out with Power Weapons, Str 8 vs Str 7 for Autocannons and their Psycannons everywhere…  Before the GK’s, the Blood Angels have Rhino Hulls that are just better than everyone else’s…  It seems more and more like an engine that is getting itself further and further out of balance as it runs longer.  I think that there really are “first tier”, “second tier” and “others”… 

First tier I have as: Wolves, BA, GK, and IG…  Of course, only certain “builds” are really the powerful ones, even these armies have subpar units…  It’s kind of annoying on some levels as those are 4 of the armies I play, and I’m REALLY trying hard not to play the “Uber” lists…  Not sure if I could come up with anything other than “I think this is true” to back up my opinion of course.  Well, that and of course I have an excellent record with the above armies.  It is difficult to come up with better lists than some of the “hard” lists I CAN field with a first tier army…  Especially if the army on the other side of the table is not itself a first tier army…  Can still be beaten of course, but the odds are stacked against it…

I enjoy playing Eldar, but with so few viable options, it is an exercise in futility against a well-built “modern” army.  The stuff in IA2 does bring good things to the army, and it is looking like the new IA book (http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/New_Stuff/IMPERIAL-ARMOUR-VOLUME-ELEVEN-THE-DOOM-OF-MYMEARA.html) seems like it does bring a LOT of things that could do a lot to bring the Eldar up to more modern standards…

So, Eldar and Dark Angels (Deathwing or Dual Wing) are my “second tier” armies…  Extremely limited builds, very narrow focus, and not viable outside of that…

Outside of the ones I actually play, I can’t really say where a lot of armies end up…  Tau were hard to beat prior to BA and to an extent Wolves, and now I think they simply cannot compete with the GK or Necron lists…  Orks have their swarms and walkers which are also a bit of a swarm…  They can compete in a somewhat limited fashion against all but the GK I think…  DE are good if built right, but not sure if they are first tier…  Sisters are “eh” these days…

Looking forward to 6^th edition and I am hoping the IA stuff livens up the scene a bit…

IA/next army...

So, what army next J…  I guess I’ll keep painting my Wolves for the moment because I am moving along quite nicely there and honestly I’m actually enjoying it at the moment.  Back to conversion work I guess as my Wolf Guard need their Combi-weapons…  Thankfully it looks like the stuff I picked up at the Gopher will allow me to make a few here and there with Green stuff…  And then I’ll have to magnetize Terminators…

So, I guess I’ll be bringing it up for the local gaming group…  Wanting to include IA (Imperial Armour) rules in our 40K games…  The new editions have been rewritten and split up to indicate if they are 40K or not…  And the IA 2 book does seem to indicate that they are completely legal for GW events, so we’ll have to be sure everyone actually knows what the rules and options ARE…  There are some pretty neat things in the books, and honestly I am looking forward to some new things hitting the tables…

Post Christmas fun...

Picked up the Imperial Armour Apocalypse Second Edition this evening…  Sometimes the Gopher gets in some really interesting things on consignment.  Read over it, guessing I already knew most of the things there but I do think that they are doing it right these days…  Now, they do print that the things labeled “40K” are legal to play in “official” 40K events, and it does look like they’ve fixed all of the more obvious broken things…  Like for instance the Lucius class Drop Pod is NOT legal for Blood Angel Marines J…  Have to admit that was one I WAS planning on putting into a team tournament force… 

Cranked up the bike today, didn’t take her out, but it was REALLY nice turning the engine over.  Maybe this week I’ll still be able to get in a ride or two before I really have to put her up for the year.

Christmas was pretty fun, had Matt and Kaitlyn up from Ft Cambpell along with the wee girls.  Pretty mellow…  Wound up making a normal lasagna for Christmas eve and then a seafood lasagna for Christmas… 

Mkay, pretty much done for the night J  Off to Peoria tomorrow for Christmas with my parents…  At least the girls will probably have fun…

Now what?

Mkay, so where to go from here…  Pretty sure I have the Wolves all worked out.  I can min max the hell out of them and throw a BUNCH of heavy weapons out on the table…  The army then is not nearly so much fun to play though in my opinion.  Also, if the dice themselves are against you as they were for me last week J…  Normally it would have at least been a slugfest, and to an extent it was, but Dawn of War and SO MANY 1’s and 2’s on the dice were rolled for me J…  Honestly I just had to laugh it off, and that in and of itself made the game a LOT more enjoyable for me, just seeing how unlucky I could possible get…  Sadly, even with the luck factor and the DoW silliness weighing against me, I still nearly pulled out a tie, so I feel the Wolves are a few more powerful army than I had originally given them credit for.  If you build them “right” I guess.  Next week I break out a “fun” force with Logan leading out his lads…  I think I’ve run out of opponents though, so guessing it’ll just be against whoever happens to be around.  Kind of scary actually, and if Dave and I build our “Team” armies “right” next tournament we wander off to, I can see us doing fairly well…

Not sure I’ll be able to play New Year’s Eve tournament with some friends of my wife’s coming into town…  We’ll see, I’d like to get away and play a bit, but who knows really…  And given the choice of playing for the day and annoying the wife J…  Well, I’ll just play the next week I guess…

Other than that, just Christmas preparations going on…  More cleaning out some ancient boxes and the like from the basement of doom, found some more interesting ancient toys, both gaming and firearm type…  Now to clean them off J… I think I want to lay out my armies to get pics of the “whole lot”…  Just to see how many exactly I really have here…  Interesting to see, and a “real” reason involving insurance since I’d really have no clue what was lost should the house disappear today…

Looking forward to 6th ed...

If for no other reason than perhaps the "Dawn of War" mission can just go away...  Not sure how best to say just how fucking much I hate that mission...  :-)  Yes, subtle I know...  But what the fuck were they thinking making such a stupidly unbalanced mission that gets played 1/3 of the time... Of course, it could be just my bitterness about the fact it really screws over almost all of the armies I play.  HtH hordes just dominate because they start half way across the field, and the other side has a "very limited" set of deployment options...  And of course the game starts off completely screwing any Infantry based force...  Mech, not AS much, but even then, turn one is almost always a wash...

Back to power munching ibuprofen here...  Don't think I broke my tailbone, but it is a possibility I guess...  At least I can say "My broke ass" :-)  Yeah, tomorrow looks like a LONG day...

Nothing fun here this weekend...

Pretty sure I’m going to get myself killed in some random and what should have been completely harmless fashion…  Last night I wound up stepping through the stair in the garage headed into the house with groceries, etc…  Wound up on the ground, fortunately all those years getting thrown around in Aikido/Ju Jitsu seem to have stuck with me as nothing TOO bad seems to have happened.  Of course, while I was laying on the concrete I couldn’t help but think that this would be how I wind up getting killed after all of the amazingly stupid stuff I’ve done over the years…  Been shot a few times, stabbed, hit with cars, dropped out of various aircraft and none of that did me in J…  But watch out for those broken stairs…  Ibuprofen is my friend, mostly because I lost my ass all those years ago playing poker and lack some important padding J…

Not sure what is going on with the kids from the local High School…  I spent a few years in a line combat unit, and we didn’t take losses at anything like the level these kids are.  Lost another one Thursday out here, and he was a friend of the family…  Good kid, damn shame.  Not really looking forward to the wake, his sister was really close with Maggie and the kids (classmates with Kaitlyn) and she was over here all the time during their HS years…  I cannot even begin to imagine what she is going through as she was quite close to her older brother.A lot of my friends from way back when are dead, but by and large doing what we were doing, not really a surprise I think…  Different situation altogether here, and completely outside of my area of experience…

Bye week I guess...

Well, I took the bye with the odd number of players last week.  So, maybe an 1850 game or a 1500 against a mellower opponent…  I’ll probably have a “fun” list with Logan, his Guard and the Land Raider (Spartan Class) I made all those years ago…  The “serious” list will be loads of heavy weapon spam backed up by a decent HtH and my Scouts running a flank or two…

Getting a bit more serious about painting, getting more and more of the lads painted up…  So, I’ll actually have a fully painted Wolf force again after all of these years…  Waiting a bit on 6^th Edition I think, there are so many things in the Wolf codex specifically that really make no sense whatever, or are massively overcosted.  No clue of course what changes will come in, but guessing I have a LOT of choices given the sheer number of things in the basement.

Cleaning and fixing some ancient firearms here, might be getting rid of some J…  Also trying to get myself back onto the workout routine… 

It's looking like Maggie will have friends in for New Years, still hoping to escape for the 40K tournament, but we'll see I guess... 

So, how far along the darker path do I go...

So, on to the league…  Limited choices for who to play next, and so likely to run against the min/maxxed IG list now or at 1850…  This being the last week at 1500, frankly I’d rather just get it over with now J…  Playing IG as well, there is just so much they can bring to the table with that extra 350 points that it starts to get a bit silly really…  So, in thinking about what I’ll be bringing, I find myself building more and more “efficient” lists.  It’s not really that I’m concerned they’ll work as intended; I think they’ll work too well.  And it does let that “somewhat more competitive side” of me out to play…  And that whole power gamer spiral is really hard to get back into the bottle when it gets released… 

Rune Priest (Living Lightning, whatever, rides in Rhino with a GH squad)

GH Squads, min size, Melta (overpowered short range AT for 5 points) or Flamer (it is FREE) in Razorbacks…  I like the old Las Cannon/Twin Linked Plasma Gun turrets, but the TLLC or TLAC works).  It comes to 155/150 points for the light Tank and small but fairly effective squad.  Troops, and I’ll likely deploy out a WG to most of the squads to help a bit…  But you will notice no Plasma Pistol, no Mark of the Wolfen, No Power Weapon/Fist, etc…  Neat stuff, and as a “fluff” player I REALLY like having it on all of my squads, it is not efficient enough for competitive play.  Having ridden into battle in wee metal boxes, I cannot imagine the lads wouldn’t “find” that extra little bit of equipment ( you might be surprised just how much of that extra bit of "stuff" I "found") or that any commander…  Ok any Wolf commander who would have any sort of problem at all with his lads making themselves more effective on the field…

One GH squad in Rhino for the Priest’s ride if I go that route, else he deploys with Long Fangs…

Oh, and Long Fangs...  Loaded out with Missile Launchers, lots and lots of Missile Launchers for my AA duties and general “we shoot other little metal boxes” duties…  So, a unit of 5 Fangs with 4 Missile Launchers is the old 115 point “fill in the blank” unit level like my Scouts and DN’s, etc…  345 points for 12 Missiles shooting at potentially 6 different targets every turn, other than the “we’re not mobile” and “we have no real ablative bodies” problems, I am not seeing a down side…

So, looking at Armybuilder, I have 4 Razorback Squads and 3 Long Fang squads led out by the Rune Priest coming to just over 1000 points.  Likely bring out a Wolf Guard Squad to detail out among some of the other squads and the CML armed one to go in with the Fangs to provide more missile spam and a power weapon in Terminator armor in the unlikely event it comes to HtH…  And I’ll probably add a Scout squad to gamble on the ability to deal with Artillery that will likely sit back in the backfield…  And another 2-3 Razorbacks for the Fangs to provide some rolling cover/deployment aid in the event of “dawn of War” silliness…  Maybe.

So all together a stupid amount of long ranged heavy firepower should it come to a toe to toe slugfest…  Mine is generally more accurate and powerful while the IG has numbers and slightly better transports I think…  But not really the game I enjoy playing.  Too damn effective and not really all that much fun for me, so I can only imagine not much for the other side of the table.  It is one thing if it is a no holds barred environment like a major Tournament, but for a local league a bit much…  I guess we’ll see how annoyed I am Monday and go from there J…

Ah, sick kinder....

So, working from home today with a sick kinder :-)  Maggie is off working and I can actually get a fair amount done from here...  Fortunate it was today with only one meeting scheduled and that one is to be a Lync (teleconference, sort of) meeting....  Looks like things are getting ready to go on that front.  The cats are all a bit freaked out, especially Lugh and Thor...  Giant Maine Coons, Lugh considers Maurgen and I as "his" humans, and Thor is pretty well the "king" cat with their pack structure here...  Maybe teaching them to pack hunt was a bad thing :-)  But Zeke used to run a pretty tight pack, so it worked out well when he actually decided something had to be done...  Lugh and Thor are more or less competing for that "pack leader" role at times, but I am convinced that Lugh is mostly just asserting that Maurgen and I are in "his" territory, he does not like that Thor is a big attention monster and dad's slipper cat...  Thor, being the older one resents the young kitten where "dad attention" is concerned, but is perfectly fine with Lugh as the "Maurgen Guard"...  Now, Lugh is getting to be a bit larger than Thor, as the Coons grow for their first 5 years and Lugh is filling out nicely.  Never going to be a "show cat", he's very broad and muscular...  War cat more than show cat.  But for the one guarding my daughter, war cat works better I think....  Thor has the markings of the old Norwegian Forrest Cats or the Lynx really...  So, much more or a "Forest Hunter" than just "War Cat"... And Thor is laying on my right arm "helping me type" right now...

Gaming, a bit of painting, but just so much going on these days...   Trying to figure out what to do against a min/maxxed IG force....  Dunno, likely just my standard "rock" and we'll see...

1500 point level!

So, we're moving to 1500 points and I know that I am facing Necrons...  New codex, good player, so this should be interesting at least...

I'll probably field something like this:

Logan Grimmar
Wolf Priest (Saga of the Hunter, runs with the Terminators)
Rune Priest (Tempest Wrath? and maybe Jaws of the World Wolf or Lightning)
Wolf Guard (6 in Terminator armor, various combi weapons, Wolf Claws, one with CML)
Wolf Guard (3, various weapons mounted in Razorback)
2 Wolf Scout units (Melta, Plasma Pistols, etc...)
2 Long Fang Squads (ML's, HB's a Plasma Cannon or two...  One squad loaded into Razorback)

Light on Troops IMO...  But with a REALLY solid shooting core with some pretty decent HtH backing it up.  And then there is the 2 squads of Scouts lurking in the background...

Not sure about the Rune Priest, but looking at potentially loads of skimmers...  So, the 100 points maybe to add to Wolf Guard?

Anyone interested in getting in some small games?

http://agentlemansones.blogspot.com/2011/11/special-operations-killzone-giveaway.html

:-)  Might be something to throw down with between/before League games at the Gopher...  I've always been a fan of playtesting things, being fairly good at math/tactics, etc...  I can usually find the broken things/combos...

Waiting for my next meeting, at least there is coffee here, $.27 for unlimited refills (after you buy the "official" mug)...  Just guessing that the University is losing money on this where us IT geeks and the like are concerned, but it is really quite a nice little cafe setting to get a bit of work done outside of the office with the great Wi-Fi here as well...

Building Blocks...

So, the building blocks of the Wolf army I am fielding…  It seems that ~115 points is a key number here.  Wolf Scouts with Melta and either 2 Plasma Pistols or Power Weapons or a combo, though I’ve been finding the Pistols to be more useful…  This comes to 115 points.  My Dreadnaught with Assault Cannon or Multi Melta and the DN CCW w/ Heavy Flamer or the Twin Linked Auto-Cannon arm also comes in at 115.  Grey Hunters without their Razorback are 105 the way I run them…  The Wolf Priest and Rune Priest are both in the 110 or so range the way I run them…  So, building blocks.  Not intending a MSU setup really, just seems the way it works out when I build a Wolf list…

At the 1000 points I think I’ll be fielding the Scouts more than the DN, depending on who I end up facing…  The Melta/Plasma troops appearing in the flank or back side of the field are really quite powerful…  But still trying to it too much in the 1000 point lists I think…  1500 and above will be far more interesting…

More Wolf Guard...

So, modifying more of the ancient Wolf Guard I have…  Magnetized weapon arms for the Terminator Armor…  I have a “few” claw arms, making more “Combi-Weapons” in the Plasma and Melta variety for the lads….  Still debating how the unit will deploy, I have the ancient Spartan class Land Raider they have deployed for me in over the decades or whether I have them walk on the board with the Wolf Priest and his “Saga of the Hunter” for the stealth and the “walking fortress”…  Plan on having Logan walk on with Long Fangs and the Wolf Guard will deploy next to them.  Since Logan gives them Relentless, I’ll not lose the extra turn of shooting, and Logan can slip over to the Guard once the Fangs are in place should HtH seem imminent…  Preferred Enemy and Wolf Claws make for a terrifyingly effective combination.  I’ve seen my Guard tear through things they should not have, at least not that quickly J…

So, on the fence about the Land Raider and Dreadnaught(s)…  The “ranged” DN I typically deploy with the Assault Cannon/TLAC arms I find less effective as time goes on.  I find myself locked in HtH with things that while I can kill them…  Maybe… It takes too long and I lose the fire of the DN for too long.  So I think I’ll run the AC/DN CCW for a bit and see how well it holds…

Yeah, need to figure out the camera...

Working on Combi weapons for my Wolf Guard and...  Well frankly all of my Terminator armies in at least a limited fashion...  So, magnetized arms with the "somewhat less useful" Storm Bolter changed out for the Combi-Plasma or Combi-Melta...  My Wolf Guard can use them all over the place, and even with the one shot Melta or 1-2 shots from the Plasma are well worth the 5 points...  So...  Just need to get the pictures to turn out for the work in progress and figure out how to get more of them out there :-)

End of the season...

Riding season that it...  Made it to 21 November :-)

So, that's her when she's "all together"...

Turned a few wrenches and reminded myself that a degree in "Mechanical Engineering" does not in fact make one a "Mechanic".  Also reminded myself why I used to wear a LOT of leather and denim...  Not a fashion statement, it would have saved a bit of my calf from the 3rd degree burn from the exhaust :-)  Messed up back and dismounting incorrectly....  The 'wing was kind enough to point out my error...

Well, on to gaming, getting MUCH more into my Wolves...  Played out a "Logan Wing" at 1000 points...  Frighteningly effective, and I'm thinking that the Wolf Guard with the Claws and Logan's Preferred Enemy made for a REALLY effective assault phase...  Going to have to convert out the combi weapons and the like...  Should be interesting at least...

Wow, this week is flying past...

So much going on, and it is all going by so quickly...  Especially with Maggie working full time as well, so much to do...  So, some cooking, cleaning...  The normal stuff, just more of it.  Tired all the time, but so much is getting done...

Hobby wise, my old 40K army is getting redone...  At times I do kind of wonder just how much I actually have in terms of points I could field.  Then I think, probably best NOT to figure that one out, because then I might get around to thinking about just how much I spent over the years :-)...  But like Chip and I figured in the old days, when we more or less quit drinking and shifted the money we WERE spending on going out almost every night to the bar(s) to 40K...  At least we had a bunch of stuff at the end of it :-)

Anyway, found yet another box of Wolves...  Stripped and re-painting now...  Just not so much this week yet.  6 DN bodies laid out on the painting table.  Never realized I HAD that many of the 2nd ed DN's.  Setting them up for swappable weapon options, most of them already have the magnets installed by now.  Long Fangs I haven't fielded since 2nd ed...  If I ever even did then...  Can't say I ever really used heavy weapons much with the Wolves after RT really...  I used to run Grey Hunters with special weapons, Blood Claws with loads of CC weapons and Wolf Guard all loaded out with Special Weapons and various CC weapons like Power Axes, Power Weapons, Power Fists, etc...  In the old days of course no limits on these things, at least on the Wolf Guard...  So, for a number of the ancient Wolf Guard, this could very well be the first time I've ever actually fielded them...  Just trying to get the whole painting fur thing down now....

Necrons…

So, the more I look at them, the more I think that some things like Heavy Bolters, Heavy Flamers and Autocannon/Assault Cannon are going to make a HUGE comeback.  4+ armor on a lot of the Troops and other things hitting the table.  Missile Launchers and above being needed for the AV 13/11 stuff since you’ll have to punch through the AV 13 to drop the shields on a lot of things.   So, other than a slight increase in the “marginal” weapons like HB/HF’s not a lot changes really…  Missile Launcher spam looks like it will be a very effective way to deal with a LOT of their stuff…

Their (Necron) lack of immunity to Melta these days means that unfortunately, the Melta swarms will still be the way to deal with vehicles.  GK with their Str 6 Heavy Bolter Razorbacks and Psycannon will probably not notice the Scarab swarms that will cause other armies (looking at IG/DE/Tau) to completely freak out…  Looking at my own forces: IG, I doubt the Scarab swarms will do much against me, but I tend towards a “defense in depth” like I was actually taught in the ancient times with my Praetorians…  Now a min/maxxed force with Melta Vets in Chimarae (Chimeras?  Yeah, Latin isn’t one of the languages I speak well) will simply get swarmed and taken apart I suspect…  My Wolves look like it will be a rough fight, but not one I am particularly concerned about honestly…  Win or lose it will be a fairly well balanced game I am guessing…  DA Terminators?  Depending on how silly, I suspect the Deathwing will win this one easily…  The same for the way I play my Grey Knights…  I tend toward the actual Knights, not the Inquisition’s forces, so MY lads should be just fine…  BA (Fleshtearers) I think might be one of the rougher ones…  Iff I can get to HtH, they’ll win easily enough, just the not getting shot to pieces or having my vehicles dropped to AV “tissue paper” before I do so might be a problem…  

We'll see :-)  I suspect there are at least 2-3 Necrons out there lurking at the Gopher...

Week 2, last at 500 points...

So, heading into week 2 of the escalation league...  This time I will actually bring some Troops...

Wolf Scouts (5, 2 PP, Melta Gun, Sniper rifle/MotW) 133
Grey Hunter Pack (Razorback w/LC TLP, Melta Gun, Power Fist)
Thunderwolf Cav (PF/SS, SS)

So, reserve if needed, but counting on the Scouts again to come out where they are needed and deal with stuff...  Grey Hunters sit in their box and try to shoot things from afar...  TWC run out there and distract/scare the opponent...  Mind even the 2 will destroy small squads in a turn, so it IS a real threat...  Looking forward to 1000 points I have to admit...

Ancient Wolves hitting the table again...

So, sculpting is every bit as much a pain as I remember it being…  Going for something in a Green Stuff shoulder pad for my Wolves…  Going with my old standard “Night Hunter”, the one with the Wolf howling and the full moon in the background…  Sadly I got fairly good at free handing it, just a bit different trying to go 3 dimensional…  Guess I give it another shot this weekend...

Breaking out another box of random ancient things I dug up…  2^nd edition Wolves, probably another 1500 points or so, depending on how they are equipped…  I do have to reassemble the Rhinos…  5-6 of them looks like.  Razorbacks, Predators, and Whirlwinds oh my…  Stripping some, but they lads are all getting painted, some sadly for the first time…

Veteran’s Day tomorrow, wandering over to Maurgen’s class for something…  We’ll see about hitting somewhere for one of the free lunch things J…  Not really something I’m much into “celebrating”, but a bit annoying that the Federal holiday is not a University holiday…

Week 2...

Last week @ 500 points, so thinking something along the lines of:
Wolf Scout Pack (loaded out, 133 points for Melta, 2 PP or 1 PP/1 PW, MotW)
Grey Hunters ( Melta, Power Fist, Razorback w/ TLP/LC or TLLC)
Thunderwolf Cav (2, 1 w/PF/SS, one with SS)

So, actual Troops to snag objectives, Scouts to appear wherever and hopefully kill something, TWC to run across the board and be targets...  Oh, and absolutely EAT anything they can reach :-)...  Though with only 2 of them to start with might not be nearly as overpowering as the unit of 5 was...  We'll see :-)  Looking forward to the 1000 points...

Ah, Necrons :-)

Reading over a lot about the new Necron codex…  Looks neat, and I expect the FAQ pretty soon because there are some really poorly worded ones there.  The “Death Ray” is the first one I’m curious about… 

“Death ray: To fire the death ray, nommate a po1nt on

the battlefield anywhere withm the weapon's range. then

nominate a second point within 3D6" of the f1rst Then, draw

a straight hne between the two poonts Every un1t (fnendly or

enemy) underneath the fine suffers a number of hits equal to

the number of models 1n the umt underneath the hne. tf the

veh1cle's other weaponry •s fired in the same shooting phase,

1t must be flfed at one of the unJts hit by the death ray”

So, it either means for every unit that gets hit, every model in that unit gets hit OR it could mean that every unit that gets hit, count the number of actual models hit by the line, the that unit takes that number of hits…  Could be either one really, I’m assuming the first, but honestly the first time I read it I took it to mean the second…  But then I’m just an Engineer, I can’t be expected to understand these things J…  So, either way, it is a HUGE priority target for just about anyone facing it…

Feeling more Lupine these days...

So, back to Wolves….  Now, I’ve been playing these lads the longest through a bunch of different incarnations…  Started out when “Leman Russ” was just a normal Marine who happened to be the commander of the “Space Wolves” Legion.  Have the old Mini, though I apparently lost the 2 Wolves that came with it at some point in the last few decades.  RT era, so the scale is WAY off against the current models, he makes an excellent “Scout” mini though…  And I do find it amusing to put it out on the table…  Who is to say that when Russ returns that he won’t simply slip in with the Wolf Scouts?  Guessing the Ragabash among the Scouts would find it a VERY amusing joke/trick to pull off and would likely go far out of their way to assist…  J  Well, more than their natural loyalty to their Primarch of course… 

So, on to modeling and renovating…  Picked up some “Instant Mold” and liquid Green Stuff last week, but still haven’t broken it out…  Will I think be making GS shoulder pads and Storm Shields for the lads.  We’ll see how well it works out. 

For a weapons loadout, I’m looking at a few Terminators with Chain Fist and Storm Shield for the weapons, though that is 68 points…  So, it’ll be a weird loadout, but one I think I can convert fairly easily.  The dual “Wolf Claws” might work, but with only the 5++ save I am concerned they might never actually get to hit anything in HtH.  WC/SS might be a better loadout, but EXPENSIVE.  Scouts are fairly well set, just have to decide on 2 Plasma Pistols or 1 with a Power weapon…  The Mark of the Wulfen on the one Sniper Rifle in the squad is amusing, and while I seldom use the SR, it is nice to have on occasion…

So, running a LOT of Scouts and Wolf Guard…  Very much like my old 2^nd edition army, though lacking the jump troops…  I just can’t bring myself to field them these days.  And Long Fangs…  Fortunate I suppose I have a LOT of the old models, so I’ll be fielding at least 2 Packs…  We’ll see how well this stuff works out…

Back to Wolves I guess...

Playing a few weeks at the 500 point level, so it'll be a fairly "gimmicky" game in any case...  Looking like I'll field my ancient Confrontation Wolfen in the Gunn kilts with Wolf Scouts and see how they fare...  No HQ or Heavy options for the first 2 weeks, and unfortunately, the basic Troops of the Wolves really need the support...  The other option I see is a Wolf Guard unit and Grey Hunters...  The WG can help out the leadership and such, but lacking any heavy weapons really...  Just too much they could come up against that they simply cannot handle...  Mind, at the higher point levels, they wouldn't be the only things there to deal with it...

Got a few things in mind for the higher point levels, we'll see how they actually work out.  Wolf Priest with Saga of the Hunter for Stealth to run with Logan's Wolf Guard.  Makes them fearless, gives Preferred Enemy against one "class" of thing, Infantry, Bikes, MC, choose at the beginning of the game...  The Long Fangs are coming out, and I'll likely have a mix of weapons rather than just all Missile Launchers with the Necrons and the like hitting the table...  AV 13 from them and the Sisters, 14's from the loads of Land Raiders we have in the store....  And of course, with the Terminators out there...  That and I've always been a big fan of mixing out the weapon loads, kind of a holdover from when I carried that silliness myself.  AT-4's, LAW's, Recoilless Rifles, M203's, .50's, etc...  We'll see how it all works out as I continue breaking more of the 2nd edition lads out of deep storage and repainting them...  Yeah, maybe I had too many Wolves back in the old days...

Craptastic...

Well, Adepticon opened up registration Tuesday and I missed it...  The 120 spots on the Team Tournament got taken REALLY quickly, less than 24 hours...  We're #19 on the wait list, so there is I guess a chance of fielding a team up there...  Wait, #18, so we've already moved up...  Still, getting the 4 players together and given the distance some of the teams are travelling (Sweden being the farthest I've seen thus far) means that most folks who signed up will very likely actually go, I'm not holding my breath...  So, looking like more "regional tournaments" before the big "national" level ones...

End of year League...

So, back to my first army, Wolves or keep with the Grey Knights for the time being?  Painting a bunch of the ancient Grey Knights I have around, Purifiers and normal lads...  Trying a different paint scheme for the Purifiers, we'll see...  At the least they'll stand out among the silver armor out there.

Also, painting a group of old Wolf Scouts in preparation for that army...  Dusting off the Wolf Guard and Logan Grimmar himself for the 1000+ point lists.  Grey armor everywhere.  And I'm finding more of the ancient missile launchers around...  Time to get them painted up since I'll be fielding a group of them...  Wonder how fast I can get a fully painted Wolf army up and about...  'course I'll be using my Clan Gunn Wolfen from Confrontation as the "Wolf Cavalry"...  Should be interesting at least...

Wolves for Adepticon or the later escalation league

Looking more seriously at the Wolves for a longer term team solution...  So, mostly disjointed thoughts...

Throwing together some test lists for the later parts of the escalation league:
Just a basic framework of course...
Logan Grimmar 275
Wolf Guard Pack...  Terminators, 33 points for the "basic" SB/PW terminator, one with the CML, a few random weapons
Wolf Guard Pack (Random weapons to detail out as Squad Leaders)
Wolf Scouts (full loadout, melta gun, PP, PW, MotW) 133
3 Long Fang Squads...  Missile Launchers, Meltas, HB's, etc...

So, Logan makes Wolf Guard "Troops", so I could bring 6 packs of them if I really wanted to...  1 to be my "HtH Pack" in Terminator armor, I can load them out pretty heavily.  The second will be detailed out as Pack Leaders elsewhere if I need to, else I plan to have them sit in a Razorback and camp objectives.  But a lot of the missions involve kill points, so having a few of the small units just disappear before deployment might not be a bad thing...  Especially since it will reinforce the other units.  One Scout unit might be enough, just thinking  that 2 might be better...  Standard "Military Safety Factor" from doing demolitions work there, figure out how much you NEED in terms of explosives, then multiply by two to guarantee the result...

But for a 1000 point "Team" setup...  Logan w/ 2 of the 3 man Wolf Guard Packs is 383 points, leaving a lot of room to get "extras"...  Logan giving Relentless to a squad of Long Fangs as they walk onto the board should give a bit of an advantage during night fight or reserve missions...  With split fire, CML Terminator and a Rune Priest or two...  Should be a REALLY nasty surprise for a lot of armies out there...  Still concerned that I do not have a counter to a true horde force other than "we shoot them to hell and hope for the best"...  One other possibility would be Logan leading out a Wolf Guard unit with Wolf Claws and enough Storm Shields to survive in a modern game...  Giving them re-rolls on the to hit AND to wound they should guarantee a LOT of dead Orks if push comes to shove, but still not the best solution I think...

Next League...

So, I have to decide which of my armies I'll start the next league out with...  Doing an escalation league starting at 500 points, working up to 1850 at the end of the 8 weeks.  We'll be allowed to switch at the 4 week mark, and I might...  So, Wolves or Grey Knights is what I'm looking at with Adepticon in mind.  Now, Jamie is wanting to have a "more fully painted" group of armies on the field with us focusing more on the "hobby" aspect.  Suits me fine as I'd need to have the lads all painted for the road trip to the Chicago area anyway.  Now, the Wolves were my first army, and I still field a LOT of lead...  The ancient RT era "Assault Marines" that I've had for decades.  I also haven't played my old Wolves for a while, but I think I burned out pretty had on them...  Was painting a few of the old Scouts, so I might be about ready to break them out again.  On the other hand, I'm rapidly painting and converting a whole bunch of Grey Knights...  Think I might at least start out with them and see if I can't scrape enough together for a Storm Raven.  I REALLY think that it fits my GK/FT armies, and while I won't have the minimum of 2 that most hard corp "competitive" types would insist is the only way to field them...  Yeah, might not be the optimum solution, but I do think I can make it work :-)

Trying out some different conversions and weapon options to go with the different paint schemes for the Knights...  Seem to be a fairly powerful force, we'll see how they end up working for me...

Flatcon Results...

Well, overall, I have to say I had a great time, Dave was a great partner and we did as well as could be expected really...  I have to say the only thing I was REALLY disappointed about was the lack of painted armies.  I know I brought an army of "what I have painted" rather than a "this is my best force"...  Didn't really make THAT much of a difference overall, but as good as the Spartan class LRC is, I think we would have been FAR better off with the 3rd squad of Deathwing.  For 250+ points it just doesn't put out THAT much firepower and with Melta weapons all over the place, really quite hard to keep alive against a decent player.

I'll upload the pics I took when I dig up my camera, just a bit dead on my feet at the moment...

I fielded:
Belial (LC)
2 Deathwing squads (2 LC, 3 TH/SS CML)
Land Raider Crusader
2 Land Speeder Typhoons w/ MM/TML

Dave had:
2 Rune Priests
2 Grey Hunter squads loaded out in Razorbacks (Assault Cannons)
2 Long Fang squads (1 w/ 5 ML, 1 w/ 3 Plasma cannon, 2 MM)
Land Speeder w dual MM

Round one put us against a REALLY well put together Eldar/Ork force.  From memory they fielded:
Eldrad
min squad of Dire Avengers
Min squad of Pathfinders
6 man squad of Fire Dragons with Exarch in Serpent
Squad of Dark Reapers w/ Exarch (crack shot, tempest)
Falcon

Ork Warboss
3 x 30 Ork squads, all w/Claw Nobs, 2 choppas one shoota
2 5 Ork Loota squads
Death Choppa?

Think that was it...  Mission was Dawn of War, they lined up at the mid point with a big mob and some other stuff, so we were in trouble from the get go...  Not saying that armies like the Deathwing have hard counters, but...  This is one my lads simply cannot face down successfully.  Good game though, but melta destroyed the LRC and we got buried in the green tide...  We didn't get wiped off the table, but it was really a matter of time I think.  His Warboss decided to duel Belial to his regret...  Lightning Claws striking first even with my dice rolling usually win that one...

Round two was against an IG/Chaos Marine list...

Lord Commissar
Platoon command squad (Chimera, random special weapons)
2 Squads (Chimeras, heavy weapons)
Hellhound
Leman Russ Punisher (? heavy 20 main gun, Pask for BS 4 and +1 vs vehicles)
Heavy weapon squad (2 Las Cannon, Mortar)

Sorcerer Lord (lash, force weapon)
Khorne Berserkers (1 PF)
small squad of Terminators
2 Land Raiders (Possession)

We started off slow, but when the reserved Land speeders and LRC arrived, things went quickly bad for them...  One of my DW squads marched across the table to take an objective, the other engaed and destroyed the Khorne lads and Sorcerer...  Not before Belial died though...  He was avenged as the remaining lads in the squad wiped the Chaos Marines and consolidated back to the objective.  I think the Speeders were the MVPs though, with Multi Meltas and Missiles to deal with the Armor in our faces, things turned rapidly in our favor when they arrived...

Game three was against a really well thought out Grey Knight/Wolf force...

Rune Priest
Grey Hunters...  Lots of them in Razorbacks and one in a Rhino, I think 3 Razorbacks?  Though his Fangs might have had one...  Las Cannons and some with Las/Plasma... Wolf Banners in every squad I think...
Long Fangs (5 ML)
Wolf Guard to detail out to the squads...

Brotherhood Champion
Purifiers
Storm Raven (Above in this)
2 Strike Squads (Psycannon, Psy ammo)
DN (Rifleman class)
?  Was that it?  I seem to remember there being more, but...

We started off with a big bang seizing the initiative and destroying 2 Razorbacks...  Then...  Well, things went rapidly downhill :-)...  His Purifiers hit one of my squads, their weight of fire simply wore us down, and it went "poorly" for us...

So, 1 and 2 for 3 excellent games against some very fun opponents...  All in all an excellent tournament.  What did I take away from this?  Well, pretty sure the DA are NOT the force to take to Adepticon...  Just too many hard counters.  I also did not read the force org charts as well...  If I had known only one Troop was required, I think Dave and I could have made a much better force...  Finally, I think that I REALLY should have gone far more defensive with Belial.  The TH/SS option is pretty much the only one that I think should be fielded.  Yes, I "lose" an attack and the I5, but I am hitting with the "I Don't Care" weapon in a Thunder Hammer and I have the 3++ save to try to stay alive...  I died twice in the Tournament to power weapon/fists because I couldn't make that many 5++ saves...  So, Grey Knights, Fleshtearers or Wolves...  Will have to see what the rest of the "Team" decides to bring...

1000 Points of Consecrators Deathwing...

Yeah, not a lot on the table...

So I still need to make the Land Raider Crusader's sponson weapons...  Basically 6 regular bolters on each of them, and then they'll stick to the side via magnets...  The TL Assault Cannons are made, need to paint them up...  The Multimelta is also done, just needs to be touched up...

2 squads of Assault Terminators, 3 TH/SS and 2 LC...  Oh, and the Cyclone Missile launcher for each squad...  2 Typhoon class Speeders with MM/Missile Launchers and of course Belial himself to lead them out...  We'll see how they mesh with Dave's Wolves of doom...  Coming down to the last, so my army choice is being made more by what I have close to done, and we'll run with that...

Tea Parties and Occupiers...

:-)  Kind of amusing, at least from my perspective...  Not sure who wrote about it first, I read it on the Capitol Fax blog how when you get down to it the Tea Party and the Occupiers are fairly similar from an ideological standpoint…  Now, this assumes of course that you more or less discount/ignore the fringe elements of each movement…  Occupiers are unhappy that the big government is easily corrupted by big business, etc…  And the Tea Party is unhappy with the big government thing…  Not that it can become corrupted as it gets big, that is a given…  THAT it is so big and powerful is the problem.  I do think that if some common ground were to be found it would be a major shift in politics as usual, though I'm always suspicious of such things...  Will the "new" be any different than the "old" other than just another mask or puppet in the theater...  But then I'm a "bit" more cynical than most, being a "just leave me alone and we'll get along fine" libertarian type...  Not capitalized because they lost me after 9/11 with their "Well, it IS our own fault" official party line...  Having been over "there" for a few combat or "training" tours, I'm really not seeing how the irrational hatred of all things other than "that one specific hard line religion which shall remain nameless" really is our fault.  They seem to hate us just for existing...  But then I've always been an Engineer type, I don't really care WHY something is broken I care THAT something is broken and how to fix the problem.  And there is a LOT of shit broken over there.

On the gaming side...  LOTS of detail work and painting to get done by Sat...  Still 1000 points of Terminators is not that much in terms of models on the field, just have to be damn sure they are WYSIWYG...

Consecrators for the win...

Well, we had our tournament today, I ended up going 3-0 with the 1850 Deathwing list...  We'll find out Monday if I ended up winning, Joe had to go to that annoying "work" thing, so he and Dave will play out their last game during our normal Monday play time...  A bit surprising despite a LONG run of really bad luck and annoying Chaos "Lash" powers against Mike got evened out by the lads finally breaking through and the sole survivors of a few squads taking out the rest of several squads to clear out the flanks...  Last game, got a bit lucky with the Stormravens getting shot down by my missile launchers...  So much 2+ armor out there, so the AP 3 of the missile launchers was really somewhat useless...

Thinking I'll bring my Grey Knights Monday...  REALLY small army there, but surprisingly resilient the way I bring them.....

The 1000 point list for next week will be a LOT smaller.  Thinking the 2-3 squads will be easy enough to finish...  Hopefully.  Lots of detail work to get to...

What to do for the team tournie?

Mkay,  So I'm going with my Deathwing force for my half of the team tournament...  So I have to get them fully painted and actually decide what I'm bringing out to play...  I think I can get the Spartan class Raider fully converted by the end of the weekend, and I have a few more TH/SS lads to finish up and of course...  So it comes down to whether I field 2 or three squads.  The more I play with them, the less I am liking the "Command Squad" option for the Deathwing.  The banner giving the +1 Attack is "neat", but really overkill in most cases.  The Apothecary giving "feel no pain"?  Given how much of the shooting that they tend to face that ignores FnP, I'm having a hard time justifying the expense...

So, a few squads of the lads...  And the Typhoon class Land Speeder of course...  Thinking that a Whirlwind is not a bad idea...  If nothing else, it sits to the rear and lobs rounds and hopefully survives.  Str 5 to hit the side armor of a rhino hull, DE skimmer or a Chimera rolling 2d6 and taking the highest actually might even do something...

Unfortunately, the options for the old codex are pretty sparse and 1000 points is pretty tight...

SCCM...

So, we're officially doing the SCCM project...  The CIO officially blessed it and we're a go to set up a test environment.  Now, I say test partly in jest as it turns out that we actually have some 4500 machines already being managed by the current edition of the software.  The new version is in beta/RC status, and it really looks like it will be an excellent thing to roll out University wide.  Not just UIUC, but across UIS and UIC as well..  Now, if Microsoft's propaganda (marketing hype, whatever) is to be believed, the upcoming version (which we'll be setting up) can handle the Windows and Mac stuff just fine.  Now, I'm mostly just hoping I'm not volunteering for WAY too much getting involved in this, but I think this will be an excellent opportunity for us all.  We'll see I guess.

Gaming, I still have quite a bit of work to get my 1000 point lest(s) ready...  Not sure which one I'll actually use when the time comes.  No real experience with a "team tournament", but this will be an excellent test for Adepticon next year.  To be completely honest I'm not sure we'll do well, but I'm more interested in just playing the game and seeing how well I can do with what I have. If we win a few, cool...  I guess I tend to overthink these things up until the point I go into "machine" mode and just let it ride.  I can think of several armies we'll have no chance whatever against, but a lot of it will depend on the match ups and luck of the dice.  I'm a bit concerned about my lack of AP 1 shooting, and since the only way I have to deal with other "Rock" units is to engage them in HtH and hope my admittedly excellent Troops can take what comes and give them back the Thunder.  And of course the Land Raider Crusader...  I REALLY like the way that is hitting the field, and my conversions are coming along...  We'll see what happens :-)...

Wow, October already...

And Steve Jobs is gone...  Real shame.  I didn't much like Apple's stuff over the last decade or so in groups...  Individual machines they are excellent, but compared "unfavorably" to a lot of the other computers I dealt with.  Warranty is still crap too, but they're a hardware company, making money selling new hardware, not extending the life of their older machines...  But looking back, I learned on the ancient Apple II's in the mid 80's.  Hardware hacking, programming, etc... 

On to gaming stuff...  Painting Terminators again...  And furiously converting more of the lads and finishing the Spartan class Land Raider Crusader I'm making...  Still not sure the exact army to field, but 10-16 Terminators along with a few vehicles...  Mostly detail work at this point, but I'll have to set them all out to get pics...

The speed of committee...

Ah, the U of I...  Everything important has to go through the layers of bureaucratic, PC, etc. silliness that have come to be entrenched as the Government of Illinois...  Hiring even Student help goes so slowly that it is painful.  This should be simple, but "This is Illinois...".  Permanent employees are a special joy and treat to try to force through the hoops.  We have the money, and the open slots...  But I'll bet they are still open this time next month.  Ah well, at least the ones I DO have already forced through are working out well...

So, gaming...  Land Raider Crusaders are insanely powerful...  I had no real idea how powerful, and as long as I remember to do everything with them, they are throwing out so much firepower that it gets overwhelming... And the squad of Deathwing rolling out of it will simply wipe whatever they hit, or at least tarpit it for the duration...  Still, for the team tournament the 3 squads of 'Wing will probably win us more games... Got some painting in last night, so I will very likely have it at least "painted" for mid October...

Late September...

Mkay, weird one...  Looking to hire, but...  Due to the weird situation here, UIUC Student for some of the positions (hourly, decent $) or what they call "Academic Hourly", meaning degree, paid hourly, no benefits, etc...  So, NOT the best situation, but an excellent "in" to the University system... 

On the rest of the "work" front, things are progressing well I think.  Still tying up some loose ends from my transition period, but things are coming together pretty well.  Ordering myself a new laptop, looking at the Dell E6520's...  i7 processor, 8G RAM, decent vid card, etc... My old 17" workhorse is about done.  4 years of lugging back and forth to work seems to be the upper limit for that hardware..  The new 15.4" frame will I think fit into the luggage on my bike, making it a bit easier to transport I think...

Gaming wise, FINALLY getting back to the basement to get the painting finished up for my Consecrator's Deathwing force to field w/ Dave out in Bloomington next Month...  3 full squads of Terminators kitted out as Assault Troops, each with a Cyclone Missile Launcher in the squad, and loads of TH/SS lads...  We'll see how well it works...

Just some WIP pics

Just a bit of the "WIP" here...  Going to be equipped with magnets for the various gun mounts so I can field either a Land Raider Crusader or the standard patten of Land Raider...  Typically the Crusader, but...  So a Spartan Class LR being built out of some of the random parts I have here...  WAY old school stuff, and something not many will have.  My ancient Wolf one still hits the field here and there, but this one will be DA (Consecrators) and BA (Fleshtearers Death Company more often than not)...

Random meetings of doom...

Lot of meetings today...  3 before 11am.  Productive, yes...  But still,"middle management"is becoming a Lot of work :-)...  Budgets to figure out, more people to hire (Students, so any folks who are Students here at UIUC and are interested in getting a job...), stupidity to deal with...  The usual :-) Oh, and after 11 there were even more... Still, stuff actually got done...  Not as much as I'd have liked to get done, but reality being what it is...

Gaming front, I need to actually choose an army for October's tournament...  I'm looking at my Deathwing more and more.  I think that the DA (Consecrators in my case) and the Wolves have a lot more  history together, so I think they might be better from a fluff perspective and with Terminator "Troops" selection, I think that we might actually win a few games...  But we'll see...

Eldar?

Mkay, not sure if I am doing this right, but playing a "substandard" army, and not the "Internet Optimized" build (Mechdar) I'm looking like I'm in the lead for the local League...  Wraithguard as my "Troops" section with Eldrad and one of the Phoenix Lords in the squad for one REALLY expensive Anvil or Rock squad.  The walk forward with Eldrad giving Fortune for the re-rolled saves, Doom, Mind War, etc...  He and the Phoenix Lord provide HtH nastiness...  Maugen Ra is awesome shooting and downright nasty in HtH, but I am thinking that Karandras (Scorpions) giving Stealth and REALLY impressive HtH abilities to the squad with 6-7 Power Fist or Scorpion Sword attacks at WS 7 is actually the stronger one...  Weird, but this army seems like it is doing amazingly well in the "Adepticon" format...  Not that my opponents actually did anything wrong I think, it is more that in the format MSU is REALLY punished with loads of kill points out on the table that are actually fairly easy to take and gain that early and likely insurmountable lead with...

Looking ahead to the remaining people in the league, the SoB that Mike plays are going to be a tough one...  Mech, Mech and more Mech...  Haven't actually read the new codex, but Mike plays it more or less like the last edition, and that was a REALLY tough army...  Joe's Chaos Marines will be a bit rough, and Ryan's Chaos Demons will be something completely different since I am not very familiar with that book...  Not sure what else remains for me to face in this league, but I'm actually fairly confident that I'll do fairly well...

Wedding prep...

Is no fun whatever...  Oldest daughter (Kaitlyn, Maggie's oldest) is getting married next Sunday....  REALLY looking forward to getting past this.  Maggie is stressed beyond belief with the constant changes and silliness..  Me, I'm just trying to keep quiet and maintain a bit of sanity...  So, the cats and I are all keeping the same low profile :-)  Maybe it will all go the way it should and things will work out...  Here's hoping at least...

Missed out on the Magic event this weekend, and there is no way I'll be able to make next weekends...  Trying to get Maggie out to play, but I'd say it is a safe bet it won't happen for a few more weeks after this all blows over.  Me, I'm looking to trade off some ancient cards for something a bit more modern...  Seems like a bunch of really neat stuff out there these days...

40K, league night again tomorrow, trying Eldar with more or less a slight variation on what I've been bringing.  No clue who I'm playing, but I've decided I really need more actual Troops...  2-0 so far, but both missions were Kill Points and my list had so few Kill Points that I was at a pretty serious advantage on those particular missions.  In both games the secondary was objective based, and I think I only would have held one in both cases...  Mind, one would have been enough for a win had the game played out exactly like it did, but I'm guessing Dave would have held back a squad or so of the Hunters to contest/hold at the end...  Still Wraithguard with Eldrad and a Phoenix Lord are REALLY tough to kill off in anything like a timely fashion like say, 5-7 turns :-)  But this week I'll have at least 2 other "Troops" who are just there to contest/hold objectives in the mid/late game...  You know, assuming they don't just get themselves killed off early...  But reserves/flanking might be how I run them...  Depends on the mission.

October Dave and I will be headed to Bloomington to play in a teams tournament based almost exactly on the Adepticon stuff...  So, either a Fleshtearer list based on Death Company, Death Company Dreadnaught in a Lucius class Drop Pod...  The Lucius Class Pod allows the DN to assault out of Deep Strike, so turn one, it hits right on top of the enemy, melta gun if possible and then either DN CCW or the Claws of Eternal Combat...  The Blood Talons allow me to quite simply erase a squad of Marine type opponents every close combat phase...  Broken and silly, but we're playing in a tournament, so...

My other possible thing to bring would be Deathwing.  Belial, 2-3 Deathwing Squads with TH/SS and LC Terminators and a Cyclone Missile Launcher...  One option is 3 squads and either 2 Typhoon Class Speeders (MM/2 missile shots) or a min Squadron of Ravenwing with 2 melta guns (scouts, fearless bikers, etc...) or drop to 2 squads of DW and bring a Land Raider Crusader...  Just roll up the field and dare them to engage...  Or sit back and hold the objectives in cover with 2+/3++ saves on fearless troops who also have heavy weapons and all power weapon/thunder hammer type weapons in HtH...  The safer choice certainly.  BA win or lose big.  And the army is based on a gimmick play.  If it works it is deadly, if not...  Well...

 :-)

Changes...

Last Friday I wandered off to the weekly "Caffeine Break" meeting that Craig Jackson organized and have now become something of an institution at the University...  Weird feeling, like I am actually in "middle management" now.  I've been going to these meetings for quite some time now, but I was pretty much just some random IT guy who mostly sat quietly and listened.  Now I'm much more involved in the discussions, and I actually know pretty much everyone there...  And a lot of us have moved up in the ranks as it were.  Not saying there is a direct correlation between attendance and promotion, but it is really interesting to watch.  Have to admit that between that and the peer coaching thing I've gotten myself into a pretty good position for the future there.  Kind of a good thing after the last few years prior to Craig and Bart helping me along into Atlas where I more or less painted myself or allowed myself to be painted into a corner in Math.  Allowed me to change jobs without walking away from what I built over the years.  And now I have actual minions :-)...

Gaming, time for me to get my cardstock drop pods put together since it looks like I'm going to be playing over at Flatcon with Dave in a team tournament...  Fleshtearers for me :-)  We're just here to air assault and kill things.  We hold objectives by being the only things alive at the end of the game :-)....

Labor day gaming and beyond

So, 1850 for tomorrow.... I think I'll bring something completely different...  Same base with:
Eldrad
Wraithguard maxxed for Troops

But then Scorpions maxxed out for a flank run
Harlequins with Seer and Death Jester to march across the table
War Walkers (BL/SL) x 3
Viper (BL/ SC)
Fire Prism
Guardian Bike Squad (SC, Warlock w/ spear)
Wraithlord (ML/SL or BL)


Not sure how it'll do, and the Scorps might be better as Banshees or a min squad of each perhaps...  Dunno, I really like my Scorps, so I tend to bring them a lot more...

Also gearing up to play in a team tournament in mid Oct over in Bloomington with Dave...  I'll probably bring my Fleshtearers...  I'll be the shock troops to throw the wrench into the works for the other side...  Dave can hang back with Razorbacks on objectives while I go forth to cause havoc...  And IIRC there is an Apocalypse unit that allows a DN to assault out of deep strike.  Now, a Death Company DN hitting pretty much exactly where I want it to on turn one to be followed by my Death Company with Chaplain Lemartes...  Maybe a Land Raider to hide them behind?

Not sure this idea will work, but...

Playing Eldar in the current league, I know I need more Troops...  But giving myself a REALLY solid "Rock" unit to stand there and just take whatever punishment is being dished out and just survive and be Scoring and Alive at the end of the game...

Eldrad
Karandras
Wraithguard, full squad with a Spiritseer w/ conceal and Singing Spear

Yes, insanely expensive, but we play with a LOT of area terrain.  Stealth from Karandras for the unit gives me a 3+ re-rolable cover or armor save against almost anything (Fortune from Eldrad) on a unit of T6 Fearless Troops assuming I am 50% in area terrain...  But even just walking out in the open, you'll have a 4+ cover save.  Yes, not the hyper competitive list, but good luck killing them in the few turns you'll have...  And 2 decent or better HtH IC's waiting in the squad should you get them in HtH...  The wizard is just OK, but the Scorpion is just brutal...  Does mean the rest of the army at 1850 is a bit sparse, but I think they'll win me some games just by not losing...  :-)  Be funny in any case...

August coming to an end...

Well, new league starting up at the Store (Armored Gopher Games) tonight, and since I packed my Eldar last night, looks like they'll be what I play.  I considered the DA, and if we are not locked to a single army this league I might play them a week or two...  1850 points is a LOT of Terminators for people to deal with, but I really only see one or two viable builds for the DA: Deathwing, Ravenwing and a mix of them...  For a tournament with just a few games, I can see playing it...  But for 8 weeks?  No, I'd get bored too quickly I think...

So:
Eldrad
Maugen Ra
Pathfinders (7)
Wraithguard (Troops, max unit)
War Walkers
Scorpions (w/ Exarch for Infiltrate/move through cover)
Banshees w/ Wave Serpent (Exarch)
and ?  I think that was it...  Might go with the Scorpion Phoenix Lord in place of Ra to get stealthy, infiltrating moving through cover HtH nastiness...  Overpriced, but it would I think scare the hell out of some folks to have them hit the backfield...

Work is...  Work :-)  Getting new people by next week, and so I will be MUCH better off I am thinking.  But until then, much running about...

22 August and beyond...

Well, classes began today...  Busy day at work, looks to be the norm for now at least.  But things are starting to look up...

Not 100% sure what I'll be playing in the upcoming league, but Eldar and Deathwing are the frontrunners...  Eldar are fun if less "competitive", but they might surprise a lot of the locals...  Deathwing are hard.  Terminator troops with Ravenwing support that might just be fun, but only for a bit...  Pretty boring build really.  Effective, yes...  But so very limited.  :-)  I'll likely take the Eldar into the league just to play something different...

Base build:
Eldrad
Wraithguard (fully kitted out as Troops)
Pathfinders (7 seems to be the magic number)
Scorpions?
War Walkers?
Banshees?

Not sure beyond the base...  And then there is the possibility of taking Maugen Ra for the circus of doom :-)  We'll see...

Mid-August, gathering storm :-)

Ah, it’s that time of the year again…  And the Faculty and Students are coming back…  This year though I have 3 Departments to be responsible for and there are major changes sweeping through while this is going on…  The fun never ends.  Ah well…

Spent some time cleaning ancient firearms this weekend….  I’d forgotten a bit just how perfect the M1911A1 just feels.  Now, as an Engineer, I KNOW it isn’t the best in terms of balance, accuracy, etc…  But to me it just feels right.  The one I have was produced in 1935 IIRC, and rebuilt after I left the Army…  It is the same old Colt that I’ve carried for the last 20 years or so and across several continents.  Yes, the new Sigs, Glocks and the like are very pretty, and probably every bit as good…  Many would argue better, but still…  The old Colt has always just worked when I needed it to, and it just feels right to me, and I’ve always been very big on loyalty and tradition I guess…

Bike is having some electrical difficulties…  I am REALLY hoping it is just a dead cell or three in the battery, but I’ll be working on her tomorrow to check the grounds and the voltage to see if she is charging at all…  Really hope so because the bike is really quite nice to ride in to work, etc…

Oh, I have a new office…  A real office in the Psych building…  Haven’t seen it yet, and I’m sharing it in the short term with my new boss, so that will be a bit odd in the short term at least…

Gaming?  Dunno…  Really finding myself missing Magic, so might get back to playing that a bit…  Looks like we’re doing something like the Adepticon tournament for the next league…  Not at all sure what army I’ll bring out to play, but the Eldar might be it for this one…