GK/GW thoughts…

While steadily drinking the tea that keeps me moving here at the office, a random thought occurred to me…

 

"Does GW have some sort of design imperative that requires them to put at least one named character in each codex that makes absolutely no sense under the current rule set, knowing that the rule sets will change? And that the changes may or may not greatly benefit the random character?" It certainly does seem so, but that is of course just my opinion as always :-) I could easily be wrong or just thinking about it too much… Or just be American in my thinking rather than English, as we do appear to be far more competitive and demanding in terms of clear rules and the like…

 

First case in point, my Wolves have a Blood Claw upgrade character "Lukas the Trickster" ("Loki" since apparently creativity is somewhat lacking for their staff writers…)… He has a "Pelt of the Doppelganger" which forces the opponent to re-roll all hits allocated to him in HtH. Problem being, he is not an independent character, and so HE never gets "allocated" hits until he is the last one standing in the squad… So, to balance his very real disadvantages and cost, he has special rules that do not work and a weapons loadout that makes absolutely NO sense whatever. A shame really, I bought the figure because I really liked it… But I do not like the Blood Claws in the current (and 3^rd ed) codex, so he'll join the Rackham Wolfen I have on shelves in the basement of doom…

 

The second case would be Castellan Crowe of the Grey Knights. Interesting concept, I'll probably end up playing him, but his rules really make no sense other than "balance". Specifically, he becomes in effect an additional tax to force players to actually think before simply taking the arguably superior Purifiers as "Troops" over the standard Strike Squads. I have not seen the model yet, but there is a pretty good chance I'll snag it if it is decent, as I think I can make Crowe actually work well enough in my lists, but there are serious disadvantages to him over a lot of the "normal" options. Not being an independent character I think is probably the worst one… No putting him in a squad to hide him or transport him easily means he'll likely get shot out of existence early on before he can showcase his exceptional melee abilities…

 

Anyway, those are just the ones that occurred to me this morning, I am sure there are others, but in codexes (codii? My Latin is not THAT good) that I am "less familiar" with…

GK 1000 point Teams…

Ok, we're doing a fairly non standard league here at the Armored Gopher (www.armored-copher.com), it's teams that share a Force Org chart but rules for one army do not transfer over to the other (ie: teleport homers and the like only work for one army)… Neat, and paired with Black Templars (good since the Knights are the specific exemption to the "no psychers" rule they have)… So, her tank hunting CML armed Terminators are a big portion of our AT firepower with me using the old DH codex… So, this will be a first draft with the new Codex…

 

Librarian (Might of Titan, Sanctuary, Shrouding)     165

Purifier Squad (2 Psycannon, 3 Halberd)        146

    Rhino    (Extra Storm Bolter, PBolt Ammo)    55

Terminators (Psycannon)                225

Dreadknight (Teleporter, H Incinerator, H Psilencer)    265

Dreadnaught (2 TLAC, PBolt Ammo)            125

 

Right, 19 points left :-) I'm sure I can spend them some place… Or free up some here and there since I'm not sure on some of the things I picked up…

 

The DK? Pretty sure it will be a lot like a Wraithlord, Demon (prince or greater) or an Avatar in terms of effectiveness… Big, scary and it will be shot to pieces before it does a lot. Yes, it costs more than double what the DN costs, but… :-) It should be fun to play and a horrifying "crowd control" piece. "One Riot, One Ranger" sort of thing (looking at the "power blobs" and the like), and I suspect with mobility through the jump pack move, the Hellhound template and 12 Str 4 shots backed by the pair of DN CCW's on a Monstrous Creature should make it fairly feared out there… Maybe even allowing the rest of the force to survive and get into firing position a bit better… :-) Who know, it might even work…

 

March Ends…

Mostly just random thoughts at this point…


Yeah, that was random and confusing...  Rewrite maybe...




Did get to play an excellent game this evening, so that was good, and it is the last week with the ancient Codex. Partner played it pretty much as well as she could have, and we nearly pulled off the draw, but I think I made a few tactical errors in shooting and committing my Terminators too quickly and it cost us the win… Dave @ the Gopher ordered the few things like Codex and Dreadknight to get me started with the new army… I'll probably end up playing my Cygnar Storm Guard/Knights as stand-ins for the first few weeks until I get more Power Armor lads up and running. Terminators, at 1000 points, I probably have about enough, but of course going back to 1500… Well a few more lads are going to be needed I think… Making the "Rifleman" DN arms, so I should have a few of them up and running soon as well… Not 100% sure what I'll be fielding at 1500+ points, but at 1K it's going to be tight… I have one of the "Emperor's Champion" figs to convert to a Brotherhood Champion, changing the "LE" fig over to this should at least be interesting…

Grey Knights beginning…

Last week with the old codex… So, I'll probably run something like this as my part of the 1000 point teams league (2 of us, so 2k/side, and one force org chart…)



Grey Knight Brother Captain (Terminator armor, Psycannon)    91

Grey Knight Terminator squad (4 troopers, 1 Psycannon, CPT has Psycannon and Psychic Hood)    320

Grey Knight Land Raider (Extra Armor)    255

Grey Knight Squad (2 Psycannon, Justicar has Teleport Homer)    210

Grey Knight DN (Assault Cannon, Flamer)    120

996  



So, more troops on the table, lots of Psycannon out there… Oh, so ready for the new codex…



Speaking of which… I think the biggest thing will be the mobility and (for basic infantry) long ranged basic weapons. Yes, 24" ranged Storm Bolters are pretty much the same range as every other Infantry weapon in the game, but the ability to fire with them on the move gives me the tools I need. I tend to think a lot more in terms of mobile elements and having the ability to move my basic squads and fire with almost full effect (Psycannon are 2 shot on the move vs 4 shots standing still… TANSTAAFL). Other armies give me some of this, my Wolves have excellent basic Infantry in their Grey Hunters, and I've played them since… Um, well 89 or so? I can play mobile, aggressive and when I keep my eye on the mission, one that I can take against just about any other force in the game with confidence. My Fleshtearers are aggressive. And… Yup, aggressive pretty well sums it up. The only way I tend to win with them is by tabeling the opponent. Powerful, but pretty much one dimensional. My Guard? Set them up, shoot like you're voting in Chicago… Early and Often… Yes, they do move some times, and I use things like Air Cav (Vendetta for 130 points? Um, ok…) and Scout Sentinels to flank and cause a bit of havoc in the backfield, but by and large it is just standing still and shooting… Poor Praetorians are a bit bored…



But back to the Knights… Assault weapons everywhere, so I'm thinking that we'll be able to run and gun to be able to play the fluid style that I am most comfortable with. The Troops, both the Terminators and the Powered Armored lads will be able to at the very least compete with any army out there. Their psychic powers are absolutely awesome, and woe to the armies out there without any psychic defenses. A lot of the "easy button" solutions just won't work against the Knights, and I think some of the more common builds will be a hard counter for a lot of the "harder" armies, at least in our local scene.



Building and painting is going to be "time consuming" :-) Mike has a fairly large GK force already, I have "some"… Ordered a few new things, and hopefully the Dreadknight will be easy to put together and magnetize… Weapon options being what they are and all, I'll want to have all of those options to swap out. The more I look at them, the more I'm liking all of the options, so this should be interesting at least… I'll probably use the "teleporter" option because I REALLY like jump troops, I have flashbacks to falling out of aircraft myself, so am familiar with and very comfortable with the tactical options opened up by these lads…



Well, a bit of a ramble, but just getting some of my thoughts about these things in order for the next few weeks…

More hobby stuff…

Just a few more rifle pictures… Model Swedish Model 96 Mauser… The most accurate rifle I currently own, I was able to outshoot SWAT snipers with tricked out "uber" rifles with this off the rack GI (not really sure what the Swedes call their soldiers…) rifle at 3-500m with iron sights… Up for trade for the motorcycle of doom…

Getting some of the ancient Wolfen painted… So, kilted werewolves from a dead game :-) But they're coming along nicely, probably because there's no pressure to get them done whatever… Working a bit on my Grey Knights as well… Those lads at least will be used in an actual game soon…

Random stuff…

So, looking over the stuff in the Grey Knights codex… Thinking that I'm probably going to be running a number of things that "most" other people do not bother with… In other words, probably not the "Internet Approved" stuff overall, so no "Dakka" stuff for me… For instance, I'm looking at the "Brotherhood Champion" for a HQ choice. 100 points for a WS 7 2+/4++ (3++ in close combat) guy armed with a Nemesis Force Sword that also allows re-rolls on the "to wounds"… Down side, his "attacks" are much like the Menoth Paladin, or at least the 1^st edition version I remember… He gets a "stance", one where he gets re-rolled armor saves (Hello Seer Council level of survivability), one attack against everything in BtB, or an I 10 d3 (+1 for charging) attacks against a Monstrous Creature or IC that he's in combat with… Yeah, he's one wound and his "I won't die alone" power is kind of "eh" against a lot of armies, but still :-) Plan on sticking him with Purifiers and using the Land Raider or Storm Raven to roll them directly into combat… The Librarian looks good, the Grand Master is solid… The special characters seem hit or miss, all of them are powerful but expensive… An all of them pretty well define what your army setup will be. 'course, I'm just running the Knights, so not even really looking at the Inquisitors…



Job? Ah, Limbo is so much fun… Amusing hearing what other people are saying here and there, and the dawning realization on their parts that I am NOT subtle, I do mean pretty much exactly what I say, and politics can be played by those who talk, and those who do… I think of it more like "Klingon" politics, and apparently I can do that fairly well after all… Maybe next week something will actually break loose and be resolved…

Spring Break?

Well, apparently it is spring break here at the U of I…. Having never actually gone anywhere for any of mine when I was a student here, it wasn't ever really a big deal… Was an Engineering student, so it just meant that the computer labs were slightly less crowded, and the other "campus town" things were pretty much deserted for a week or so… Staff seems to be MIA this week as well by and large… A tad annoying since I was really hoping to get some moves made on my current job situation/move, but a lot of the "principle players" are out for the week as well.



On the gaming front, the new league started, and I'll be running my Grey Knights with my partner (http://aychplace.blogspot.com/) running her Black Templars… So, her fanatics and my Daemon hunters… Pretty well gimped the first two weeks having to use the ancient "Daemonhunter" codex before the GK one releases the 2^nd of April (ish… Supposed to be the official street date). I have some plans for the last 6 weeks of course, and have ordered a few of the new toys from the FLGS (www.armored-gopher.com) like the Codex and Dreadknight and… Well, I'll probably pick up some more Terminators and "powered armored" Knights, but that $ limit thing being what it is… Should be another army I can fit into a pistol case, and I'm REALLY looking forward to that since I hope to be riding a motorcycle in the near future… :-) Amusing since I've never actually carried/stored a pistol in a "pistol case", but they do make excellent cases for my wargame toys…

Yet another army…

Mkay, time to expand my Grey Knights from the dozen or so terminators and another dozen or so Powered Armor troops for them into an actual army… For the first bit I have Cygnar Halberdiers to stand in for the regular lads, and I do have a "few" extra Terminators here and there… In terms of extra purchases, I'll likely have to buy or trade for some regulars, some Terminators, maybe a Storm Raven and definitely a Dread Knight.



The DK is one of those things that I think has potential. It is not nearly as broken as it's "playtest" incarnation, and it will take some actual planning and skill to use them properly… Bloody huge model, so cover saves will not be likely, T6 and 4 wounds puts them a bit worse off than the Eldar Wraithlord's current incarnation… The weapon loadout I think is a bit better for the DK, and they do have an inv save, though only a 5+… The Heavy Incinerator is more or less the IG's Hellhound for 30 points, the Gatling Psilencer is a Str 4 Heavy 12 AP- weapon costing 35… Not really liking the Heavy Psycannon at 40 points.. Str 7, large blast, AP 4 and rending… 24" range though, frankly I'd rather have the normal Psycannon's 4 shots (same specs, no blast of course) since we play with so much area terrain giving the 4+ cover saves to everything. Maybe I'm just missing something obvious, but it just doesn't seem worth it overall. The flamer and Psilencer are good horde control/just throw out mass fire weapons to go along with the Monstrous creature's Str 10 +2d6 AP vs. vehicles…



Other than that, the DNs are going to be beasts… Specifically, the "Rifleman" Dreadnaughts are going to be quite useful. 'course, GW does not make twin linked auto cannon arms for the DNs, so I'll be using green stuff and resin I think to make the 6+ I'll be using over the course of my armies… Green stuff for the first "master" for the right and left arms, then make the molds and cast away… Should be good for a dozen or so arms at least, not a "high capacity" industrial operation in any sense of the word, but it'll work for my purposes I guess…



Locally, the cats are getting more and more clingy by the hour…. Maggie has been gone for a few days, and the cats have been getting more and more nervous about the possibility of her not returning, and so they are lurking about keeping a watch over the girls and I… Even with me running the vacuum cleaner and doing laundry they're still all about here, at least the current "shift"… There are usually 2-3 of them right in view while the rest are off resting… Advantages of the Pack training and mindset I guess…



Fixed a few random computers yesterday :-) 2/3 are back up and working now, need parts for the 3^rd, so we'll see about that last one next week. Good practice, hoping that things work out and I start the new job next week…



Dug out some ancient boxes of Army stuff and firearm parts… And ammo, lots and lots of ammo… Apparently I was set up for a "rougher" Y2K than we experienced… Or whatever random invasion might have occurred up to and including Alien invasions :-P The old 30-06 AP ammo was useful when I shot in the Garand competitions, but it can also defeat any body armor worn today at 100m or so… That and shoot chunks out of things like engine blocks should the need arise…

St Pat’s Day :-)

Ah, St. Pat's day…. So different than when I was younger… I was pretty much in the bar, either drinking or working (yeah, ok, both in that case)… These days though? :-) Here at home with the giant dog and pack of guard cats watching over the little girls… Instead of drinking, lifted weights, a bit of time on the elliptical, some minor "hobby" stuff and cleaning some of my old weapons… Specifically, my old 1935 M1911A1 Colt… The .45 I was "issued" during my first combat deployment… It was a fairly chaotic thing, we really just wandered through a big warehouse with a shopping cart and took pretty much whatever we wanted… "Combat Loss" is a good thing, and I had it rebuilt after I got out… It's the only gun I KNOW I ever shot someone with, and so it's the one I trust for "emergency use"… Amusingly, it was also the one I started my wife out on, and it's the kind of pistol she is able to chamber a round in and fire more accurately than me… At targets at least :-)


Back to gaming next week… Think I'll be breaking out my Grey Knights… 1000 points each with my partner bringing Black Templars. One force org chart though, so this will require a bit of planning for the first week or two… The new codex comes out early April, and having seen pretty much all of the details by now, it looks like a pretty fun one with more Terminators as troops, a power armored option that is a GIANT FU for horde forces, Purifiers. They have a Psychic power that causes a wound on a 4+ to every enemy model in the HtH with them? Um, yes please… Sure, they get saves, but just doing the math every single IG figure has a 1 in 3 chance of dying, so SGTs with the Power weapons, Commissars to keep them from running… Every one of them has to roll the dice, and those numbers count for the close combat resolution… So, "Green Tide" and IG "Power Blobs" are in a LOT of trouble, having a hard counter now. So, for next years Adepticon, the teaming of a DA Deathwing (insert BT, BA or SW here as well) and Grey Knights is going to be really hard to beat…

Just some WIP shots…

Just throwing out a few pictures of some of the lads I'm working on… For the record, the magnets that close together (3 in each Terminator) make it a pain in the ass to get the 2^nd and third ones in place… But this way it won't be painted Monday, but I can put out a truly WYSIWYG force… Might even be painted for the next League…. Now, I just have to decide if I'm playing DA or Grey Knights…

Next League and “stuff”

So, from what we discussed last week, it is looking like a good bet that we'll be playing a team league, 1000 points/each so 2000/side. Assuming that the same side can share things like teleport homers and the like, my DA are in an excellent position to "assist" and quite frankly I think they're about the strongest in this sort of a setup. I'll be bringing 2 squads of Terminators with Cyclone Missile Launchers (CML), 3 Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield and 2 Lightning Claw (CML with the LC) and CPT Bezaliel (CPT Belial) as the basis of any force I bring. From here I can bring Whirlwinds, Vindicators, Typhoon class Speeders, Ravenwing Squadrons (bikes) and even a Land Raider Crusader… That will motivate me to get back to work on that conversion I guess… But in any case, a good "general" list with the "Deathwing base", Whirlwind, Vindicator and 2 Typhoon Speeders is just a bit short for the 1000 points, so one squad will get an Apothecary since the biggest disadvantage I've found so far for the DA is that there really is not much customization you can do, especially with Deathwing. In any case, I'll be fielding a fully WYSIWYG and mostly painted force by the end of the league I'd bet…



With the guns of doom, found one of my old CZ-52's that I'm cleaning up… It's more or less somewhere between an AK-47 and one of the SKS type rifles… 10 round removable magazine, integrated bayonet, semi-automatic rifle chambered in 7.62x45 rather than the 7.62x39. I do have a conversion kit for it to make it "sort of" 7.62x39, but never used it since I wound up with a few thousand rounds of the x45… Once again more random stuff found in the basement of doom… I suppose I should stop being surprised what I find in there at this point :-)

So, it’s March…

So, March already…

 

Big moves on the job front, breaking out the resume to "tailor" it to the upcoming position I found out about. Since it appears I'll not be merged into Atlas like I had hoped, this appears the way to move over there on my own. Not at all sure how fierce the competition will be for the job, but since it's my way out/up I'm gearing up to move. The guy in charge over at Atlas will be moving out to ASU, and looks like he'll be helping move me over there to Department "X" … Anyway, gearing up for that and hoping that it works out. A raise would be nice, but even more important I think will be the working for an IT department and actually doing something I enjoy and not quite so mind numbing. Also gearing up for a move within my current Department to make the transition away from me easier, whether it is an internal "promotion" for the #3 guy here taking over for me or if they actually go out and hire some poor schmuck to fill this slot…

 

On the guns front, getting pictures, but the more I do with this, the less enthused I am… Would far rather have gone with the early 80's Honda Silverwing, but that would involve selling a gun or three with the family finances being what they are… :-\ Yeah, it would probably be selling half a dozen or more, and the market for that is tricky. Can't reasonably just take them to a street corner and sell them like that, too great a chance they go to an undercover cop trying to entrap me in something stupid or to someone who may well use them in criminal activity themselves. So, selling a few guns during an "economic downturn" is not really the best option. Ah well, maybe the motorcycle will actually work… And I AM looking forward to riding again after so long…

 

Gaming, we're between leagues, should be discussing what to do for the next one. I am still putting together my Dark Angels stuff, so lots of Terminator class armor for my Deathwing Squads and bikes for the Ravenwing squads being assembled/painted. 1500 points is a bit tight for all of the options I'd LIKE to have, but it's what we can do at the Gopher, so that's what I'll build…

What Next?

Well, ran through a League and Tournament with my Consecrator's Deathwing contingent ending with a Tournament win and placing fairly well in the League… Was REALLY trying not to let my more competitive nature take over and just win there as well. The main reason I started up my DA Legion force was to get away from the "more competitive" armies almost all of my other armies became after the current run of codices. So, naturally, right after I start building it, GW releases a FAQ that instantly brings the DA right up to a "Very Competitive" level… Only army I have that is not in my opinion overpowered at the moment is my Grey Knights detachment, and they're the next codex… Detachment I say because I have probably 15-20 Terminators, most of them the older RT ones that we could bring in as allies if we felt it necessary to blow a metric crapton of points on a single 5 man squad to go with maybe 10-15 Power Armored Knights… And being the last gamer to move out of several shared "gamer" houses, I wound up inheriting a LOT of random crap, including these lads… Not really playable at the moment, but next month… From the looks of things, they're going to be on the higher end of the "power" scale… Not unbeatable by any means, but REALLY powerful. 'course, I could be wrong…

 

My Dark Angels are being painted as Consecrators I guess, not sure if I am going to actually paint the Consecrators symbol or just use the RT era/DA Legion markings… They're REALLY quite powerful, but they do struggle against horde forces primarily. Not much else can stand against them. Now, my "Horde" definition includes the standard IG or Ork Infantry hordes as well as Vehicle swarms like the DE and… Well, pretty much the DE I guess, maybe IG or Sisters but not as much so I think. Not many other forces can bring a combination of so many of low AP and high volume shooting attacks against my small force in a mess of vehicles that can on occasion simply ignore my AT missiles. In any case, busy converting and painting the lads up in the basic colors, will worry about the Legion/Chapter marking later… Reminds me, I have to get more magnets from Dave…

 

So, my current project(s) are going to be:

 

1. Getting pictures of the various C&R weapons for Mr. Woolsey so that I can get that trade off… Maggie isn't thrilled, but since I'm willing to give up a crapton of my old rifles and pistols for an old motorcycle, she's "mostly ok" with it… 'course, it's been 20 years since I owned a bike, this time I'll even own it legally… In any case, it's an older "cruiser" type bike… Not exactly what I had in mind (an early 80's Honda Silverwing would have been perfect), but the price is right and my options here are somewhat limited…
   
2. MK I Land Raider conversion to a Spartan class raider… It's annoying to me how nice my old Spartan looks, not sure I'll be able to replicate that after 20+ years, but this time I'll have it magnetized in hopes of running it at next year's Adepticon either in a team tournament or just on my own… I think that a team consisting of DA, GK, BA and "other Marines" would be pretty hard to beat if it is put together right…
   
3. Related to that, I have a few Jet Bikes or similar things to convert over for a Sammael (or whoever I choose to be the Master of the Ravenwing)… I like the idea of bringing just Troops out there, and he unlocks the Ravenwing as Troops for the DA like Belial does for the Deathwing… So, a bunch of Scouting, Teleport Homer equipped bikes being the advance force for Teleporting Deathwing, half of whom I CAN bring down on turn one… Yes, please… Death to Mech lists, and the annoying Hordes I can just play "keep away" from sniping with bikes as light Cavalry and my Deathwing as Heavy Infantry sitting in cover (hopefully) and slowly retreating, firing as they do so…