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 :-)...