Illinois Governor Guilty… Who Knew? :-)

Well, we as a State are now batting .500 with our last 8 Governors…  4 of them are in, have been in or are on their way to prison…  If you aren’t from Chicago, this might come as something of a surprise, but…  The Outfit and/or the Machine ran pretty much everything up there when I was growing up, and it does seem at least on the surface that the current Mayor and Governor are working hard on keeping that tradition rolling…  While the candor displayed by the open corruption at the State level with respect to the health care for us peons was somewhat refreshing, the message that seemed to be coming through was that it just did not matter.  They were going to do what they were going to do, the law doesn’t matter, the voters do not matter, etc…  Weird feeling, thought that it would stay the same, etc., but apparently this is the new reality in Illinois…

Motorcycle is going along well…  Weather seems like it has finally stabilized and looks like I’ll be able to ride in most days now…

Headed to St Louis this weekend with Maggie and the wee ones…  Should be interesting at least, and it’s the first actual vacation we’ve been on in years…

Gaming…  The Fleshtearers seem to be a VERY powerful force the way I am playing them.  The Fury DN dropping in, the Vanguard Vets all loaded out with Power Weapons (and furious charge if I am lucky) drop in directly to HtH with 4 attacks each…  My Death Company loaded into the Land Raider Crusader and the DC Dreadnaught followed along in the shadow…  Turns out that the first missile shot at the LRC immobilized it, and the DN was immobilized the next turn…  I think if I keep the same list next week, I bring it as a normal Land Raider…  The Las Cannons might be nice to have for a long range threat…   My Scouts anchored the line and camped on my objective to guarantee the draw at least…  Not sure they killed a single thing, but they DID win me the game…  Well they helped at least :-)…

Scouts… Just random thoughts….

Yeah, I used to work with them when I played Army, so they have always held a special place in my armies…  Another one of those things I like to MAKE work, especially since so many others write them off…  They are not the best and most effective “Troops” in 40K for the armies I play…  OK, Wolves are an exception, but their Scouts are not Troops, they are Elites who are tasked with sneaking about, kicking asses and taking names…  They are probably one of the more under-costed units in the game against armies that want to sit still and shoot (Tau, IG, etc…  Gun lines)…  I’ve been using mine in my Fleshtearers army, and they have been surprisingly solid for me.  I use a 10 man squad with one missile launcher, 5-6 sniper rifles and the SGT gets one along with a Power fist if I have the points, I usually do for this…  Worst case, the lads use the power fist as a hibachi while they camp out on an objective…  Best case, the power fist is a deterrent for deep strikers like Dreadnaughts and the like to at least make them think seriously about prying my objective campers off of the objective… 

Now, in the past I might have tried combat squadding them and running a flank, or even flanking to bring the lads in at a later turn…  And against some forces (All reserve types, drop lists), it isn’t a bad thing necessarily…  These days, with a “somewhat more aggressive” force like the Fleshtearers, having a small Troop or two to camp and provide some harassing fire…  Who knows, it might even pin something important :-)…  I’ve seen it happen…  Not something to count on, but a really nice bonus when it happens.

Kill point missions, I have on occasionally kept them as the full squad and simply reserved or flanked them just to play keep away with the easy kill point…  A BA drop force, or a mixed one like I run does not HAVE that many kill points to give up, so it is much to my advantage to keep them out of the way while the Death company berserkers go forth and do their work…

Just the start really, I don’t really have hard and fast “tactics”, more general guidelines that I follow and react to the situation as it presents itself…

Lot of this going around I guess…

Not really a whole lot for me to look forward to in 40K…. It is apparently a cyclical thing for me, but really it does seem like I'm playing the same game over and over. I've apparently gone through all 6 of my armies and figured out the "best" lists for me to play… Admittedly, 2 of the armies I have I have a very "limited" selection to field (Deathwing and Grey Knights), but the problem is that both of them are REALLY powerful, at least the way I field them… My Eldar are "fun", but badly outdated in a lot of ways, especially with the last 2 Codices that have been released… The Dark Eldar do most of what the Eldar and do it better with the notable exception of not having Psychers at all… Ironically, they now apparently HAVE demons though via the Grey Knight FAQ… And of course the Grey Knights and their giant "FU" to all other Psychers out there… Oh, and a LOT of things are considered Demons and Plasma weapons these days, so keep that in mind… Loads of min/max potential in both of those codices…

 

I guess what I am getting at is that I'm just getting a bit bored with the game… There is really nothing overly exciting there for me at the moment. I know that several other folks have expressed similar opinions, and in a much better way I think like the Back 40K here: http://theback40k.blogspot.com/2011/06/when-blase-hits.html... I have to admit I am sort of looking forward to Mantic's sci-fi game, especially since I had inherited Brent's ancient Squat force when Sword and Crown went away… Not sure, I've played a LOT of "alternate" games, "Planetstorm" being one of the best IMO… We played on a BIG table and so broke the system a bit, but it was a really fun game to kill an afternoon or evening… I guess my point is that while I hope Mantic, Privateer Press, or "whoever" comes up with a viable "40K killer", I doubt they will… Still, alternate minis are most welcome if they are reasonable priced, and I'll probably at least play whatever comes out if it catches my interest… Malifaux didn't for the longest time, but they might have released a group I could actually play, might have to look into it if I ever get time and a bit of spare cash :-)…

 

On the time front… Job is still kicking my ass, but is calming down a bit after a particularly hellish couple of weeks there. Lots to pick up and run with, no time to waste really… My injury over the weekend is healing, but very slowly, and the antibiotics are really doing a number on me. I don't remember minor injuries like this taking me out in the past, but so it goes…

 

And speaking of "going"… The bike is running great, so naturally, the weather has gone to Craptastic… Shame, getting 52 MPG at "highway" speeds (55 MPH or so), and I REALLY like just parking a block away from my building and being able to leave whenever I really want to…

 

'k, LONG day and I'm in a bit darker mood than normal, so perhaps time to get to sleep…

Wow, this was a long week...

Well, good and bad things…  Bad, Altgeld Hall got hit by lightning and a bunch of computers and other things got messed up.  The handicapped access door had its motor melted, locking that door pretty effectively…  But so far 10-15 machines known to have lost as little as the Ethernet card to frying the whole system.  No doubt there will be more popping up over the next few months as folks wander back and find that for whatever reason they cannot log in, etc…  And with most of the machines now off warranty, well…  This is going to be a bit painful. So, that ate up the last half of my week at work.

Bike is still running along quite nicely…  Started riding it to work Thursday after I got my parking tag…  Maybe the weather will remain clear for a bit for me to keep riding in to work.  I have to admit it is absolutely awesome just walking a block to the bike and riding home rather than hoping to catch a crowded bus to another parking lot and then driving from there…  Down side being that there is construction on the main road between the University and Tolono, and they seem to be in “less of a hurry” to resurface than they were to tear up several miles worth of it…  So, back roads it is for now at least as I get used to the bike again.  Trying to avoid the “rough pavement” that is left before resurfacing the road…

Gaming, I’m paring down last week’s list to fit them in the lockable luggage on the Silverwing…  So, the Scouts are in, The Death Company are keepers, the Attack Bikes are keepers, and…?  Not sure what else to keep really…  I figure I can fit 2 trays full of troops in one of my old camera bags and then I’ll bring along some Rhino hulls…  The BA Rhinos are just better than all the rest for whatever reason… Apparently there is a deep seated belief in England that the red ones do in fact go faster…  So, another box for those to ride in and that leaves just a bit for the books, dice, etc…  Should be no problem… :-)

Health Insurance, Illinois and Corruption? Who knew :-)

So, I went to the U of I's "briefing" on our (lack of) options… Our Governor decided for some reason to do away with the HMOs that we had for health insurance in favor of another one. Turns out that this other one costs the State and us more, and it is really only covering the Chicago, Springfield and Peoria areas… Oops. Well, there were some other "options", but they've been removed by a judge, so they're trying to rush through some 90 day extension of our current health plan before the Legislature's bill becomes law with or without the Governor's signature keeping all of the current providers in place for 2 years while an actual bidding process takes place… So, there might be an interruption of the good health plan while they sort these things out… Of course, the whole briefing this morning became irrelevant by noon, and so it's going to be a tremendous waste of time and money at a time when we can ill afford the loss of either. But so it goes…

 

Gaming, I decided to bring my Fleshtearers out to play in the league thinking that the Grey Knights would be crowded with 3-4 other lads picking them up recently, and I was a bit tired playing my Deathwing force… Powerful as it is, it is fairly boring one after a while… Not many models on the table, but it still wins a LOT of games for me. Played against one of the other 2 Blood Angels codex armies in the league… He played a more Mech force than I did with my Death Company themed force :-)… I got REALLY lucky that it did not end on turn 5 and I was able to pick up 2 critical kill points on turn 6 before time ran out. I'll probably have to change up the force a bit before next week since I plan at this point to be on the motorcycle… Nice luggage there, but somewhat limited space really. Still, should be able to throw something together…

 

Speaking of the bike, it's still running great, just looking for a "sound" solution for it at this point…. Something in an MP3 player I guess. Not sure if the old speakers still work, but that is a consideration. Looking very much forward to riding to work and parking ON campus, not a few miles out and catching a bus into the office…

 

Time to start selling off my ancient firearms… Tokerov, Nagant, Czech CZ-52, and Lugar for pistols and a whole mess of rifles… Federal and State/Local laws apply of course, but I'm sure the prices will be more than reasonable since I am pretty motivated to get rid of them… Oh, and loads of accessories and ammo… Contact me here or other places :-)…

New League…

Well, Joe is running the league, so it should be interesting… Near as I can tell, we're looking at a 200 point mini game and then an 1800 normal game… I'm switching back to my Fleshtearers for this league.. Not sure what I'll bring for the 200 point "patrol", but I'm looking at this for the 1800:

 

Librarian (Unleash Rage, Blood Lance?)    100

Terminator Assault Squad (3 TH/SS, 2 LC)    490

    Land Raider Crusader (EA/MM)

Scout Squad (10, ML, 5 SR, SGT w/SR/PF locator beacon)    200

Death Company (5, Jump packs, 2 PF/bolter)    225

DC DN (Drop Pod, Locator Beacon)    170

Baal Predator (HB sponsons)     145

Predator (AC, LC sponsons)    135

Vanguard Vet (5, PF and 4 power weapons, jump packs) 235

 

Leaves me 100 points, so 2 Attack bikes or a HB attack bike and a speeder maybe? Dunno, I'm really liking the attack bikes… A little light on "scoring" units since the DC cannot score, they're just there to kill things… Maybe put the Librarian in Terminator armor w/ Storm Shield and get one attack bike… Might be amusing…

 

On the bike front, just about done tuning her up and getting used to running at "road speeds", so 45-55 mph… Hopefully RT 45 will be done North of Tolono early this week before I mostly ride to work… Next year's parking tags go on sale the 16^th, so that's when I can park without worry about tickets, I hope…

Ah, June…

Well, GW's price increase hit about the same time as their change over to resin "finecast" (or as the lads from "Beasts of War" kept slipping up and calling it "finecost")… Bad timing more than anything, I mean I'm probably one of the few folks out there that actually understands about the whole price increase thing… I mean with the price of EVERYTHING going through the roof, especially fuel which ups all other prices for shipping, etc… So, the price increase I get. Not happy about it of course, but I'm probably not the "core customer" they are selling things to… Frankly, I already HAVE 6 full armies for 40K that I rotate through as I get bored with them in turn, so I'll not really be buying all that much anymore, certainly not on a large scale. I might get into Malifaux, or Kings of War, leaning heavily towards Malifaux as I've found a group that I think I can actually play there… We'll see. Just hoping for a game system that sticks around for a few years at least…

 

Work is… Well, a lot of work :-)…. Still waiting to find out what is going to happen with Health Alliance… Not looking good, I'll have to get my eye exams in this month before any odd changes hit… I'm used to seeing corruption in Government; I grew up in Joliet where the Outfit and/or the Machine ran everything… But even there, it was NOT this out in the open… We have a "bid" process that does not consider price? And does not follow the law requiring actual full coverage in terms of area at least, but "oops, there is no HMO in Champaign now"… A bit depressing, just watching the current Governor get away with this shit, especially with his predecessor on trial for what again? Oh yeah, corruption…

 

Bike is back working again! Looking like I'll be riding in to work a few times next week, but towards the end of next week it will be a regular thing… Still a slow leak in the rear tire, but that can be fixed I hope… So, I'll try the soapy water thing to see if I can find the source of the leak, and maybe that "slime" stuff work to plug it on a more permanent thing… We'll see.

 

Still finding weird random weapon things like high capacity magazines, random ammo and even another rifle I'd forgotten I had… So if anyone out there is looking for anything in this area, let me know…

Information Technology Specialist

So… Apparently that's what I am now :-)… I do wonder if I'll actually get my "Notification of Appointment" updated or if it will just be my next one… Wonder if I'll be transitioned from AP to "Civil Service", and how if at all this changes my situation… We're still seeing what our wonderful Governor has in store for us WRT our health care… Apparently, the State House and Senate have passed a bill rolling his changes back, but of course it all waits on him. The bill passed with "veto proof" majorities, and it does make one wonder who actually gains from the Governor's changes… So, the State will go to court to defend the Governor's changes, with everyone knowing full well they will likely lose the case and in any case it will all get rolled back by the legislature… A colossal waste of time and money with no clear winner really… I suppose the Republicans, assuming they can find someone to run against Quinn that doesn't shoot themselves in the foot since the last election was close and this should piss off a LOT of Dems down here…

 

Bike? Going quite well now… Turns out that the bike parking is NOT prorated, and it would be paying for a full year if I start now… But the 16^th of June is when next years go on sale and I can start then… So it looks like a few more weeks of riding to gain more familiarity and get used to the machine before I ride to work. It seems to be evening out and I think the gumout is clearing up the engine a bit… The gearing is a bit different than I would have assumed, and the top gear (5^th) started out at ~4000 RPM at ~40 MPH… Now it is hitting 45-50 MPH at 4000 RPM and getting better daily… Maybe it's just me getting more used to it, but I think it is clearing up nicely… So, just a bit longer I think… Still, it is a lot of fun taking it out and zipping about every night at least… Looking at MP3 players for the bike, and a lot of them come with remotes… Where in the fuck are you sitting on the bike that you'd need a remote to control the stereo on the vehicle? But then I'm just an Engineer, what would I know of these things…

 

Gaming… Looking like I'll be playing my Fleshtearers next… I'll be getting my Scout squad painted up since that was one of the things I never actually had back in 3^rd edition… Liking all the "Troops" selections that they have available, and I'll definitely be fielding my traditional Death Company, my new DC Dread I've converted and a few Assault squads… My random Rhino hulls all being fast, etc… Pretty sure the "linebacker" that is the Grey Knight trump would be an Assault Terminator squad… And I'll probably bring a Land Raider (Redeemer or Crusader) and maybe Gabriel Seth for the "Let's go forth and kill something" unit… Something "fun" at least…

May Ends…

So, May is coming to an end… New job, new bike, maybe I'll get to ride it to work soon… The 40K league ended, I have a few weeks to figure out what I'm playing next… Got a bit of painting done tonight, but it was just a few parts of random pieces like a Techmarine and Tech Priest Engineers… I might be able to throw together a weird IG list to field, but I definitely want the army to fit into the cargo rack/luggage of the bike, so that is a bit of a limit… Deathwing seems an obvious one since no matter what I have a very small force, but there are certain armies I simply cannot deal with… And it does get a bit boring playing the same thing all the time, so I guess I'll see where my painting takes me… Sad, but recently I have been painting some of my Rackham "Wolfen" figures… Ancient figures from a dead game, but still among my favorite armies I played. Sadly, the first one I could actually say was "fully painted" since I left the GT "circuit" back in 3^rd edition 40K… My Fleshtearers were really only "technically" painted to the 3 color minimum to get me into the tournament, so pretty basic stuff, nothing at all to get excited about. I'm getting better with some of the fur and shadow effects on the Wolfen, and since I used them as stand-in "Wolf Cavalry" when I tested that unit to conclude that they were every bit as broken and silly as they appeared to be on paper…

 

All in all, 40K is getting back to a somewhat frustrating point for me, and I think that a few weeks off will be a good thing for me. Not frustrating WRT the partners, they were great, the opponents by and large are fun to play against… There are a few minor exceptions, and my game does tend to get a LOT "sharper" against them to the point of simply destroying their armies with no regard for how fun the game is for either side. That does make it a less fun experience for me, but this is not the major factor I think… Really, I think the game itself is getting a bit stagnant for me. There are a small number of really good builds for most armies, and there are a small number of really powerful armies, or at least builds within those armies. IG might be a small exception to this as their book offers SO MANY cheap and powerful things that you can tweak some of the really powerful stuff a bit and still have a very much overpowered army hitting the table… Vets with BS 4, cheap melta and transports that can allow your whole squad (or at least the important ones) to move and shoot from inside the AV 12 box which itself has 2 decent heavy weapons? And the best skimmers in the game, probably… But even taking into consideration the really powerful builds like: IG Mech, DE Mech (Mike's stuff is REALLY powerful, to the point of I'm happy to just get a draw with my stuff… Usually he and I fight to a very bloody and close one, but his current list is really a good one) there is a very real limit on what gets played… Degenerating to almost a rock-paper-scissors sort of feel for me, making it fairly pointless to play and difficult to get excited about the prospect of a game… Maybe I'll break down and get some Malifaux stuff, but I am leery there… I don't want yet another dead game's miniatures haunting my basement shelves since I already have more than a few armies there… Chronopia, Confrontation, WFB, Battletech/Mechwarrior, the list goes on and on…

 

On the work silliness front, the State decided to drop our HMO… Should be fun, since it came out that the bidding was done without considering costs either to the State or to the people… Hint, both go up with the "winning bid", but somehow that was not considered in the bid process… Yes, makes my head hurt, usually corruption is not quite so obvious and public… And the winning bid won without those other legal requirements like actual coverage for all of the areas. So, as of now, we go from Health Alliance for the HMO to… Well, looks like we get our choice of crappy expensive coverage or… Well, that about sums it up at this point. Raises are at least a slight possibility, and with my move over to an actual IT department far more likely in the long term… But still, the work environment is getting worse all the time it seems, and I am not sure things are going to get better for a long time… On the plus side, I have a job, got promoted and things could be so much worse… :-) Remembering jobs where I lived in say, a desert, got shot at and stung by scorpions… But still it does seem like we as a University are sliding backwards a bit from year to year…

 

Motorcycle? Well, I fixed the tire, and have gotten one short ride in before the weather went to crap… That and RT 45 is pretty well torn up North of Tolono, and the "rough" pavement is really not fun to ride the bike on… Maybe I'm simply out of practice, but I'd prefer to avoid that if I can, thanks… So, some alternate routes will be researched and tested when I get back to being able to ride the Silverwing again…

Getting earlier all the time...

:-)  Came in for the 8:30 interview this morning, followed by a second one (different person)...  Weird, being on this side of the table, I've never seriously interviewed anyone for a job...  Usually, it was just a friend of a friend thing, or we needed "grunt labor" so literally anybody willing would do just fine...  But this is far different, and of course I cannot actually say much of anything until it's over, but it has been an excellent learning experience for me and I expect to be able to use these little tips for my next job searches (if any)...  Looks like I am scheduled for early mornings all week, might be able to escape for lunch with my wife Friday if things work out...

On the bike front, I tried refilling the tire yesterday, and the stem broke off...  So, confirms my suspicion that it was in fact the stem that was the source of the slow leak...  And the dry rotting made it weak enough to simply come off...  Looks like I'll be replacing that myself if I can...  Hopefully, since removing the rear tire is looking like a MAJOR pain...  But if it works, I should be good for quite a while...  And it will be another thing I've fixed (after breaking it admittedly) myself...  Still not seeing the whole Zen thing, but being able to fix the bike is nice...  Not nearly so nice as riding the bloody thing, but still...

Gaming, looking like 2 games for the Deathwing/Wolves tonight...  Maybe we'll even win one this time :-)  I'll have to stay on target, my partner did well last time, thinking he'll be fine again...

Wow, this is early...

:-)  Not used to the 8:30 meetings...  Small group today as well, this Friday seems especially deserted here on Campus...  And next week I have at least 3 more early meetings next week...  All important stuff, but guessing I'll be stocking up on energy drinks next week...

Motorcycle is running well, need to get the back tire fixed as the leak seems to be getting a bit worse...  Whatever, I have the little 12v air compressor and the bike itself actually has a "lighter" style 12v connection...  I'll have to clean it up a bit more, but she's looking pretty good... And it really feels good to get back on the road, probably getting back to highway travel by next week...

Gaming, we'll have the tournament again Monday, and my Deathwing will have to play it a bit more cautiously e games this week, the Wolves are more suited to the aggressive "assault" element.  2/3 of the games are objective games, so my lads sitting on objectives are really hard to remove...  We'll see how it works out...

Bike working again!

Pulled the plug and cleaned them like Pat, Dave and Kevin all mentioned as a "good idea"… She fired right up and I got to take the bike out for a brief ride around the neighborhood a bit… Only killed it a few times :-)… It's really been a long time since I've ridden a bike outside of a parking lot, but it felt great… Rear tire has a bit of a leak and I'll want to put a radio/MP3 player on the bike… Speakers are there, and I'm guessing that even the 10 miles or so to campus will be a bit more interesting with music and the like… I'll have to figure out the whole Campus parking thing, but looking forward to riding directly to my office this summer…

:-) Tired...

Yeah, not a lot to post at the moment...  Or rather not a lot of energy to post at the moment.  New job has me running around a LOT...   Lifted tonight, worked a bit on the bike and some ancient rifles (1916 Lee-Enfield, my first rifle in my collection...)....  But overall, just exhausted I think...

 Did get in the first game of our tournament last evening against a Grey Knight/Wolf team with our Deathwing/Wolf Terminator force...  Went 7 turns and we drew...  I think I screwed up forgetting just HOW much firepower GK termis throw downrange...  Should have cost us the game, but we ended up doing OK...  The Paladins were impressive and I will definitely be fielding a unit of them I think...  The Deathwing held out a LOT longer than expected on the one objective, and I think it illustrates just how much trouble GK termis will end up having against the TH/SS Terminator squads out there.  One area the vanilla Marines come out WAY ahead in the codex I think.  And our Rune Priest was able to block a LOT of the GK powers over the course of the game...  Points out the glaring weakness some forces that lack a psychic defense of any kind will have to overcome...  I think it hurts my Deathwing more than most, though clearly not nearly so much as Chaos/IG/BT armies that have NO defense option really...

:-)  Yeah, kind of brain dead here...  More later...

New job…

Well, I've finally moved into the new job I was trying to get over the last few years… It was kind of rushed at the end after a LONG drawn out procedure of silliness to get there. I've been promoted to a "zone manager", and I have people working for me again. Of course, no raise, so it's another "Lateral promotion" like when I made Corporal back when I played Army. More stuff to do than I've had to do in recent years, and I've spent a LOT of this week running around between buildings… More tired now than I've been in a while too. Kind of odd, I wasn't really counting on the manager title, I really just wanted to move jobs, but this sort of fits my longer term goals… Not sure where I'm going to land, but having left the aircraft, only one way to go now :-) … Looks like I give up the "Tardis" office eventually, but that's ok I guess…

 

Still trying to figure out what will get the bike back to running correctly… Got the title, license and insurance all taken care of, just need to get it started again…, The gumout I dumped in the gas tank apparently broke free a LOT of stuff that clogged up the fuel line apparently… So, valuable lesson there somewhere… Probably the lesson should be "If it is currently working, don't fuck with it"… Really looking forward to getting back on the road with the "new" bike…

 

On the gaming front, the tournament will be run over the next two Mondays, and I still haven't figured out which army I'll be using… Dark Angels with Terminator Overload is the more straightforward and competitive one… Not really a whole lot of thought, really optimized ultra-elite force that wins a LOT of games… The Grey Knights are more of a "fun" choice… I'll throw together some lists and see what looks right…

 

And now the rest of them… :-) Part 2

Mkay, so the rest of the armies I actually play:

 

Dark Angels: Well, I play them as Deathwing, the lads are painted up in the ancient Legion colors, probably do them as Consecrators once I get better at free handing the symbol… Originally they started as a random squad I had painted up from WAY back… Actually from the RT era, so Legion colors, pre-"Green DA" and "Bone White Deathwing"… Magnetizing the mess of Terminators I inherited, so it will be a bunch of TH/SS and LC armed Terminators with the one Cyclone/squad… For 235 points, it is awesome. Fearless, scoring Terminators with 2+/3++ saves loaded out as Assault Terminators but with the nice Cyclone… The only army I cannot easily take down is a Horde of light Infantry… Small, ultra elite force just doesn't throw out enough fire or pain in HtH to take down so many bodies… Against a lot of other things, the boatload of Str 8 shots coming from lots of places makes running "MSU" or a light Mech force a real challenge against the DW… I also especially like the Deep Strike option of "Deathwing Assault"… I MAY strike in with up to half of my reserved DW squads, but I do not HAVE to do so… Gives me the option of reacting to someone who goes all reserve against me…

 

That and I have to remember to play the mission, not just try to kill the enemy… Staying on target is even more important with a small force like the Deathwing…

 

Fleshtearers: Mkay, this was my 3^rd edition "I'm just proving a point" army… I only used it in really competitive tournaments and against other "highly optimized" forces… Or if the other player annoyed me enough to just make me want to wipe him off of the field in the most brutal and efficient fashion I could. So, it was a lot of line squads in rhinos, Scouts doing their thing, devastator squad maybe… Attack bikes usually were point fillers, but were really good… Oh, and the cc Dreads… the army was led by a Chaplain w/jump pack to take advantage of the free Death Company… Got some small random number free, then you rolled with each squad, 4+ sends a guy to the DC IIRC, and on a 6 you sent 2? Note, if you sent the Vet SGT, he got a Power Weapon or Fist free as well… So you'd see a LOT of "naked" Vet SGTs out on the field to take advantage of this… I usually at least put SOMETHING on mine since 4+ is still just a 50/50 shot… But then you'd get the "Rage" rules, which could move you forward before your actual move followed by your normal move, then their rhinos got some additional "supercharged engine" that got me more move… So it was something like d6 + 6 (or 12?) + d6 for movement on a rhino… made turn 1 Assaults likely… And with the bad Assault rules, you consolidated into the next squad in line… The worst I remember doing was against some kid that annoyed me in a tournament… I wiped out the bulk of his army by the end of turn 2 by just crashing a lot in on turn one before he got to move his "Osama Bin Laden" themed Tallern army… He made it to annoy and anger his opponent. It worked, but when I do get angry, that cold anger is the worst for the people around me, I usually think much clearer about the most efficient way to kill the things annoying me… Pretty sure he chipmunked my "sportsmanship" score, but since this was just after GW removed the "Best General" from the categories, I wasn't really in the running for anything…

Anyway :-)… I broke them out when I happened across the ancient GW cases full of them that I packed away in the basement after I burned out on the "competitive tournament" stuff back in the 3^rd edition… So, another complete army that was lost in the warp/basement for a number of years there. Not painted great, "3 color minimum" was the standard, and that's what they were… but painted as Fleshtearers, with a LOT of the correct shoulder pads, etc… I broke them out using the PDF codex, and it actually worked fairly well… jump troops as "Troops" was a good thing, and the army did fairly well for me until the 5^th Ed codex came out… So, if you play hyper aggressive berserker types in character and bring say…. Loads of really good jump troops to deep strike into the enemy forces… Well, a LOT of the local players REALLY were not ready for that. Vanguard Vets that can assault out of deep strike riding in on a homing beacon or just trusting their "Decent of Angels" special rule (only 1d6" deviation) following in the first wave of DNs in drop pods… it is VERY quick and extremely decisive. Not subtle, and since I also like to use my Death Company who are still technically troops, with the disadvantage of never being able to score I tend to win mostly by simply wiping the enemy off of the field… Unfortunately, that is the usual outcome… jump army with Feel no Pain, loads of Power Weapon/Fists backed by DNs with the "Claws of Eternal Chopping" (Blood Talons… Silly and stupidly powerful against say, Marine armies) and all of their Rhino hulls being Fast…

 

Fast Rhino hulls are the other major build I see out there, the BA Predators are all just better than any other Predators out there, and the Baal class scouts… Flank attacking Fast Predators… Razorbacks that can roll 12" and fire their main weapon, and the one time the Las/Plas Razor can move 6" and fire both of its weapons making for a LOT of firepower going downrange… And the Assault squads get Razors for almost nothing giving up their jump packs so they are a REALLY cheap option to run a MSU type army… I've just always had a bit of a problem with GW's mysterious belief that the "Red Ones Go Faster" transferring from the Orks to the BA armies… It's a powerful thing, and I think it makes the BA codex just a bit overpowered since it affects ALL Rhino hulls with no real disadvantage to balance it…

 

So, basically, a fun army concept, but moving toward the upper end of the current power spiral really… Some armies it cannot handle well, others it simply crushes… Making 40k a bit like an elaborate game of rock/paper/scissors…

 

Grey Knights: Ah, the last one I think… Still have a bunch of random other figures, but not really enough to field any other armies (so, only 6)… Well, the book just came out, but I've had a few squads of GKs as the ancient Terminator squads since RT… They were REALLY expensive, but could be insanely powerful as a squad of lvl 4 psychers in Terminator armor with Force weapons and the strange one shot Storm Bolter built into their FW… They've changed a bit since then… "Lost and the Damned" (I think) had them as psychic blanks, largely immune to warp/psycher powers, then they became part of the 3^rd ed "Demonhunters" codex… I picked up more models here and there over the years, but I primarily still just use them for the Terminators, but I'm starting to see the usefulness of the Powered Armor (PA) lads… Fun to play, but not as powerful at the lower point levels as most of my other ones… I think they will really come into their own over 1500 points… Even 1500 is a bit tight, but it could be that I just want to bring too much out there…

 

So, hoping I can get the bike all set up, hoping to be riding to work next week…

Long rambling post about the armies I play… Part 1…

Mkay, so the most annoying armies I actually play… In no particular order… And since this is going WAY long I'll break it up… Yes, I play a lot of armies…

 

Eldar: I've had the most success with what I called my "Mobile Castle"… The army consists of:

Eldrad

Squad of Wraith Guard maxxed w/ Spirit Seer (Singing spear, conceal)

Wraith Lord(s) with heavy weapons

Avatar

And probably Scorpions and/or Harlequins

Basically, cover saves and armor re-rollable, sit on objectives and just outlast the other guy… Harlies run to the front, giving cover saves to the Guard while being tough to shoot at themselves via their seer. The Wraith Guard give cover saves to the Avatar, though he really does not need it with the 4++… But he in turn gives cover to the Wraith Lords a cover save since they lack an Inv save…

Neat, and different than the standard "Mechdar" that most successful Eldar players use… I like to use Pathfinders, Aspects, etc… Usually I like to try different "neglected" elements of the book to see if I can make them work… Some like Scorpions, War Walkers (Scatter lasers for everyone) and a few others work well… Some like the Banshees and Swooping Hawks "not so much so"…

Imperial Guard… Ah, my old Praetorians… Well, I usually play:

Company Command Squad with Master of Ordinance, Las Cannon team, a few GL's and usually some assorted other bodies… Camo Cloaks or Carapace armor if I can fit in the points.. Medic and Standard have also hit the field a lot for me…

 

Infantry Platoon with:

Platoon Command Squad, usually I run either 4 GL's for mobile fire support or 4 flamers to ride in the Vendetta for "flames of obnoxiousness" with them being a scoring unit riding..

 

Platoon consisting of 3 squads, each with the SGT's power weapon, GL or Melta and Missile Launcher or Autocannon and a Commissar w/power weapon

Heavy Weapon Teams… I have a metric crapton of Missile Launchers, so I like to field a few HWTs… Without a Lord Commissar they are a bit difficult to give orders to, but…

Usually a Mech Vet squad in Chimera w/ Melta and I like Demo and sometimes the Carapace armor… Mobile scoring, rapid reaction force to melt things that come close…

Vendetta/Valkyrie… Hmm, I can have the best skimmer in the game so far? And it carries troops? Magnetized mine for the TL Las cannon and Missile pod swap… Honestly though I think I've always fielded it as the Vendetta and the 3 TLLC pods…

Then… Well, I like Hydras (with the Heavy Stubber being my standard addition to all Chimera hulls) for 85 points, the Artillery rocks, Basilisk is the "safe" choice, but I've run most of them by now… Have to admit the MLRS (Manticore?) is one I have not tried, but likely will… Leman Russ? I really kind of like the bog standard ones more than the rest, seldom it doesn't have a good target for its fire…

 

Sentinels… Ah, one of the non-standard things I bring a LOT of the time… I like the Scout version to flank and really just go forth and cause havoc… Sometimes they actually win me games, but seldom do they fail to at the least pay for themselves… And it's amusing seeing my ancient "Death Chicken" models hit the table…

 

Ogres… Points permitting, I really like them as a linebacker unit. Sit back and tie up anything rushing at the Thin Red Line keeping the enemy from my vehicles. Again, the Lord Commissar makes them really difficult to remove, though the Grey Knights will I think simply destroy them while barely breaking stride…

 

Tough army, but I think for me the most boring. Both painting and playing… Sometimes I get that nostalgic feeling, watch "Zulu" and break out the lads or get back to painting more of them… But with so many bodies in the old Light Rifle Company, all of them more or less identical? And a lot of my games involve me setting up, shooting and removing casualties or packing up at the end of the game… They are easily the most powerful army I play, at least the way I play them. Not to say unbeatable by any means, but barring a Dawn of War mission and a dedicated assault army on the other side… Well, I can't imagine it is fun for the folks on the other side of the table either…

 

Wolves

Ah, my first 40K army… They have changed a lot over the years. Of course, I still field the Spartan Class Land Raider I built back in 89 or 90 along with the mess of ancient lead "assault marines"… In 2^nd Edition they got pretty insane if you went down that path. Terminators armor equipped with Assault Cannons, Cyclone Missile Launchers and Storm Shields? Me, I used a bunch of Grey Hunters backed with my Blood Claws in Jump Packs and a Wolf Guard squad running in Power Armor and loads of special weapons… 3^rd edition became what we called "Hero Hammer", causing me to more or less pack up the Wolves until… Well, 5^th edition when Warmachine local stalled… I started using the 3^rd ed Codex and actually did quite well, once I leaned the new rules… Things like not being able to assault jumping out of a Rhino… Would have been bad for the lads if it were anything other than Dire Avengers over there, but even after getting shot to hell, the last 2 lads were able to win HtH and break the enemy… I think one died while escorting the squad off the field, but… In any case, I actually enjoyed the challenge using a badly outdated Codex against some of the more modern ones and actually did quite well in the local leagues and tournaments…

Then came the 5^th ed codex… Well, it is good. Damn powerful if you build the army right. Probably not a major surprise that the Wolves were really well represented in the Adepticon rankings, etc… But it is different as an Army than I remember them being or would like them to be at least… I do long for the days of having actual assault troops (probably jump packs) that do not suck. Stuck with WS/BS 3 and restrictions on when they can even fire? So, let me see if I am getting this correct, they are actually WORSE than IG Vets/Stormtroopers? Um, thanks… Yes, I believe that the Grey Hunters are the best basic Infantry in the game, and my armies are really based around them… Long Fangs for whatever reason got a serious discount on some of the best heavy weapons in the game, and so a lot of folks out there started taking 3 squads of Fangs loaded out with missile launchers as "it's the most efficient"… Maybe they're right, but to me that army is just boring and what happens when you go up against armies on either extreme from the Wolves? To explain this, Wolves are by and large a 3+ armor save force, smallish in number, etc… The extremes from that I would consider a horde of light, cheap troops like the IG and something like the Deathwing with all 2+ armor saves. But no one plays those armies, right? :-) Since I play one and play against the other… When the 5^th ed codex came out I was already running my Wolves in a "mostly Mech" format with razorbacks full of Hunters and DNs to support… This got cheaper and better with the new book. Not quite as stupidly powerful as the BA codex or as good as the GKs, but still it was a REALLY good build, really tough for a lot of folks to take on.

 

I'm also apparently weird in that I like to really tool out my Hunters with all of the options I can get like Mark of the Wulfen, Power Weapon/Fist, Plasma Pistol, Special weapon (Flamer is free, Melta is nice to have on the assault elements), etc… And a Wolf Guard is assigned to each squad for the leadership, extra Power/Frost weapon and likely a combi weapon of some sort… Yes, expensive, but when you care enough to send the very best… So, I'd been running the "MSU" before it really became known as that… Not really I think, I'm not trying to min/max with just enough bodies for the special/heavy weapons and Razors… I call it a "Combined Arms Army", not to be confused with the Soviet formation of the same name… Mech Infantry, Tank/DN support, some Artillery

 

With the Wolves, I tend also to bring along a few of the "less often seen" heavy support choices… Vindicator and Whirlwind tanks… Very different vehicles, the vindi is just a rush at the enemy, usually in a "V" formation with Rasorbacks full of Hunters and simply overwhelm the local defenses and count on "Counter Charge" and some damn good Infantry to hold the objectives until time runs out… The WW is just there to deal with Eldar Pathfinders, Tau Scouts and annoying IG silliness with command squads hidden in a giant mass of bodies, HWT's in cover, etc… Pin chacks on the LD 7 of the HWT fails a fair number of times, to say nothing of the "just die" of the no cover save round against the scout types… A bit pricy, and against a straight Marine force mostly useless… But still, even there, throwing down a bunch of Str 5 (ORD) hits will sometimes actually do something…

HQ, the Rune Priest is awesome… Cheap, effective support, great selection of powers. Hard to beat for the points… Honestly I haven't much used the other ones… I tend to throw more points into Units than HQ models…

 

So, the way I play my Wolves is fairly "unsubtle", but it is fairly effective against most forces… Hordes, I can deploy from the Razors, rapid fire and dare them to come in and assault counting on my Counter Assault to keep my higher number of attacks… Others, loads of heavy/special/power weapons to throw out the wounds…

Just some random pictures of my new bike...

:-)  Just throwing out a few pictures of the new bike...  Just need to complete the title transfer/license the bike and make sure the Insurance is good through State Farm....

What’s next?

So… Team Tournament, not sure what will happen there, but we'll see what comes next… Joe will be running the next league, so it'll be interesting at least… Not sure where I go next, pretty sure I'll have my bike by then, so IG might be a "definite 'no'"… Even my Wolves tend to run with lots of bodies… Deathwing and Grey Knights then it is… Chatting with Mike last night, I do agree with him and think that most of us could easily get a 1750/1850 list and game in during the regular time slot, exceptions being perhaps new players and/or people playing Horde type armies… Especially if they keep their stuff spread out and move their toys very slowly… Even then, especially when playing against someone running a fast/compact list, the games tend to move along quickly…



So, Bin Laden is dead… Mkay. Not really a reason to celebrate as far as I'm concerned. Necessary, yes… And he was found in a large compound right next to Pakistani government installations… I'm sure they were "Shocked, simply shocked" to find him there… Kind of an "Untouchables" moment where Sean Connery's character lets "Dances with Gangsters" (Kevin Costner) know that of course everyone in Chicago knows where the booze is, but what are you going to do about it and are you willing to pay the price of doing something… Weird feeling, I knew people on the SEAL teams, 'course that was a while ago… The group of guys I used to go out shooting with included SEAL, Force Recon and Army snipers, along with the rest of us Grunts… I was about average in terms of shooting accuracy for the group, but that group was pretty far outside the "norm" for the human population… And my shooting tends to involve a lot more firing on the move or "combat shooting" than setting up and going for extreme accuracy at long distances… Besides, I can move quickly and quietly through pretty much any terrain, kind of scary for some of the folks around me, I know it annoys the hell out of my wife with me just appearing places… Longer range shooting was something I honestly picked up AFTER my combat deployments with my driver teaching me the finer points… He's still in, last I heard he was still a sniper, instructor mostly these days… "neat" skill to have I guess, but since I'm more of a "Ron White" hunter ("It's too damn early, too damn cold and I just don't want to go hunting"), the last time I actually "hunted" was during survival exercises when it was really necessary… These days, cows are easier to catch at Schnucks, Wal Mart or at the butcher's (Thanks Fay!)… But then we used to go to Garand competitions for a while back when some of us were living here in Illinois and hitting the 600m targets with a stock Garand pretty well showed who the "trained riflemen" were… One of my favorite Heinlein quotes was always:

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

And over the course of my life I've certainly tried to prove my ability to do most of those things :-)…



Right, back to game stuff… More of my ancient Grey Knights are coming together, and some of my Deathwing lads will be re-purposed to GK terminators I think… Somehow I ended up with more than 40 Deathwatch lads, and there are still some on the sprues not as yet assembled… Still trying to get the TLAC arm for the DN to look "right" so that I can begin casting several… REALLY powerful unit that one is for 135 points, and I will want to field several I am sure… Still not 100% happy with my Purifier paint scheme, but I'll get at least one full squad's worth of them before deciding I guess… Really do not want just another metallic silver army just like all the other ones coming to the tables, and I REALLY want them to be different from my Wolves with their Grey/yellow trim from my RT days… So, setting up more stuff on the "to be painted" table, and I might even get it painted soonish…

Thus Ends the League… :-)

Well, Loq and I did fairly well in the league by my reckoning at least… Playing the first few weeks with a very outdated/just plain bad codex (if you were playing Grey Knights at least) really threw off our results I think. Still, we wound up positive in the standings, setting us up for the Tournament ranked in the middle, more or less… The Tournament will follow the same format, 1000 points/player, fixed lists for the whole event… The Tournament will be run over the course of 2 Monday nights, with us skipping next week to set up the teams, etc…

Last night's game wound up a win on the "automatic draw" mission… Seizing the imitative while they were lining up for their first round of shooting meant we splashed the Vendetta and destroyed their Artillery before they did anything. Over the next turn or so, concentrating on the closer IG we were able to remove them before Tom's Eldar could do more than harass our flank… Loq's troops in cover did make a good number of saves against the Star Cannons and the like, allowing a few of them to survive to get into HtH with some IG Vets… And her EC actually survived the whole game :-)… My big Terminator squad backed by the Xenos Inquisitor for the "Oh, you thought you'd bring Plasma… I'm sorry" wargear (Actually I think of it as "Fuck Plasma", but the first sounds nicer) sat in the building with the objective choosing Duty over Glory to guarantee at the least a draw for us… ~600 points of "Come and Take Them" to really discourage anyone thinking they could actually come force us off of our objective… The Psycannon are REALLY quite powerful, especially if your dice are a bit hot… Justicar Thawn was leading out that squad and never really did anything, so I'll have to run him again at some point to get a more successful test of his abilities. I think he's going to be really useful, but based on the performance last night, I cannot really say…



Does bring up a question… I didn't buy the Psy Ammo for the squad with the points being as tight as they were, but if I had, would he get the effect, and would he keep it if he were killed and subsequently resurrected? I'd say he should, but he is also a named character, and you normally cannot buy upgrades or alter them in any way…



Purifiers in a full squad of 10 with 4 Psycannon were an unholy terror. I combat squadded them, half with 2 Psycannon in the squad's Rhino and the other half deployed into cover at the front of our DZ… Between them, they accounted for several Chimeras (Chimerii? :-) not sure the Latin plural, not one of the languages I speak well), some Wave Serpents and other casualties… Not sure how much better they really were than just getting a few "line squads" of the Strike Squads, but the ability to throw down the mini Devastator squad with 4 Psycannon backed by the other 5 lads to be a real anti horde/fast attacker threat should at least cause folks to think seriously about trying to take them down…



Tom's Eldar did fairly well, though I still think his Pathfinders would have been a better choice, at least against us… Since we brought 1 Rhino, the squad of Melta Doom was really not going to do a lot (Our Terminators were in cover pretty much the whole game)… Though his killing one of Black Templar Sword Brethren and forcing a morale check to have the 500 point squad run off of the board was an excellent shot, but not something I'd count on happening often :-)… The War Walkers, I might have had them flank and come in from reserves, but even that with our army being so tiny (lots of those expensive Terminators) I'm not sure it would have helped… The Walkers actually did quite well all things considered… His Doom Seer really did a number on the BTs out on the front line, pretty sure I'd have run Guardians over Dire Avengers in the Wave Serpents just for the heavy weapons, but I've been on a "bring lots of HWs" kick for a while. The Shuriken Catapult, while a decent Infantry weapon is not really enough to take down heavy infantry, and I'd consider Marines as the lower end of "Heavy Infantry", Terminators being probably the upper end of the scale… Just too many things that shrug off the Str 4, or cannot be affected by it, like AV11+… But just my opinions as always, they did fairly well as they were…




 

More GK questions…

Just a few things I was curious about…



Rending and multiple dice, specifically the Vindicare Assassin… If the current FAQ remains consistent, there is an entry (and therefore precedent) relating to Monstrous Creatures and Rending, it states that EACH 6 grants an additional d3, so your sniper rifle of doom can get some stupid high armor penetration if that holds true here…



Justicar Thawn… I am assuming that he is a "Troop" should he die and subsequently resurrect… And he would therefore count as a "scoring" unit of one Terminator… Might be amusing, and the more I look it over, the more I am liking this one… But then I'm guessing my liking to play Terminators does color that for me… Also, he is Fearless, does he transmit that to his squad? Or does it only take effect when he dies and is resurrected?



A Teleport Homer and the Librarian's Summoning power? Does the TH allow me to simply place the "deep striking" squad within 6" of the Librarian who remembered to bring one out to play? Seems silly to have it as an option for the Librarian if this does not work, but "silly" and "GW rules" do at times fit the "silly" and "WTF were they thinking?" descriptions...



I'm thinking the basis of my "real" army when we get to 1500 points and above will be:

Full Purifier squad, 4 Psycannon, maybe one hammer and the rest halberds in a Rhino… Comes to ~320 or so points, gives me the option to have a mini Dev squad/Long Fang pack and an "assault element" that can screen, run a flank, whatever… Or, they can deploy via Rhino en masse if I am concerned about giving up kill points… I suspect that the Grand Master will hit the field more often for me than Castellan Crowe… Break for small rant…



Crowe is OK(ish), but I suspect the figure will hit the table as a BHC more often for me… I do not like the recent rash of "non IC" characters that GW has sent out… The Vampire Lord Mephiston I can see, I guess… Hiding him in a squad, especially a squad of say, TH/SS Terminators would simply be impossible to kill off for most armies. But Crowe? He does not have fleet, the Psy powers giving him Str 10, extra attacks, jump pack move, etc… He has… Um… Let's see, he GIVES the enemy furious charge and re-rolls when they charge him? I suppose something HAD to balance the Purifiers becoming Troops, but for a few points more than Crowe you can field the Grand Master who can make the Purifiers Scoring… Not Troops, but good enough for Government work… /rant off :-)



Terminator squad… Full squad, 2 Psycannon, I'm liking the Brotherhood Banner… I've had Excellent success fielding them with a Librarian. Expensive, almost a "Deathstar" I guess, but really not my intention. They go forth and take objectives. If they happen to kill off a bunch of the enemy, that's great. But to be honest, they allow the Knights to win by simply existing on the field. I do think in the long term I will need a Land Raider or Storm Raven to field them successfully in general. Scouting Terminators via GM is a nifty trick, but really, that is all it is. Once people see it, I think it will lose it's effectiveness against most forces… IG parking lots and Tau gun lines are going to be in trouble I think, but anything Eldar and most Marine forces will be able to outmaneuver it. Now, on "Hold until relieved" missions, setting them up in cover especially if I bring a Techmarine and/or a Librarian they'll be almost as hard to dig out as my Deathwing… The lack of Fearless is telling there, and I admit I got spoiled there…

The next week…

Right, so the last week of our league coming up? As much as I'm enjoying it, I'm getting a bit itchy to play a different army or at least a more complete one :-)…

 

Probably bringing something like this:

 

Terminators, full squad, 2 Psycannon, Brotherhood banner, mix of weapons, Justicar Thawn… Comes to 550 points.

Land Raider? Probably…

Brotherhood Champion perhaps?

Random Inquisitor, maybe?

 

Something subtle, load up a raider with Terminators (a combat squad) and support, drive forth directly at the enemy… Thawn is the "Highlander" of the Codex… He literally can't die, at least not in any permanent sense… 4+ roll every turn to come back, should be amusing…

 

Read a web posting about "what your army choice says about you"… Amusingly, my ex was/is a Psychiatrist and she thought it would be fun to do up a "profile" for what sort of RPG character each of the folks in our group. We were playing "Fantasy Hero" I think, it was a LONG time ago… It was pretty scary how accurate her predictions were. I do wonder if the same might be said of our 40K forces… Mine do tend to a common theme, though I think there is a big difference between the IG Company I have kitted out as Praetorian Light Infantry at least to me are VERY different than Fleshtearers Death Company heavy berserkers… In turn each of those are different from my Wolves, Eldar and Grey Knights… :-) Guessing there really are enough similarities, I just can't see them…