Gaming locally, Warmachine, STAW, and the jobs that support such activity :-)

So, got stomped into the ground last night playing Warmahordes…  Well, it was not REALLY that bad, the game itself was enjoyable, Karl is a fun opponent and it was just a horribly bad matchup for my aged Cygnar list.  LT Caine is not the caster I ever particularly enjoyed using, and with the almost complete reliance on “We Shoot Things” from a distance while we are on the move for a “run and gun” feel vs. a HtH list in a scenario where you simply lose if there is no model from your side in the 8” wide strip across the middle of the field at the end of any turn (starting on turn 3).  Not an instant lose from the beginning, but with the bulk of his forces hiding in instantly cast swamp terrain and thus immune to my shooting attacks combined with the feat of “everything is knocked down in my control area” to make all of my Defense meaningless…  J  Well, it cemented my decision that LT Caine will likely be relegated to shelf duty and never played again.  Too many other casters that would have actually done MUCH better and too much of the old (early MK1) stuff I have simply has no real chance in a modern environment.  I have had some fair amount of success with the “later” casters like CPT Kraye being Cavalry and immune to a lot of things that are “gotchas” dealing with the modern stuff and frankly ALL of the Hordes stuff.  The ability to never be Knocked Down and immunity to Free Strikes is huge.  The fact that his War Jacks are simply better as Cavalry than normal Jacks is a bonus.  Time I think to break out the dedicated HtH stuff for Cygnar.  The things I never used in MK1 because they were silly and OP?  Seems like they’ll be about right against some of the things I’m seeing now J…  Stormguard assuming I can find all ten of them will be a good solid “block” of Infantry until I can switch out to my Rhulic army.  Got the first two of my “new” (to me) “gun bunnies” assembled and ready to basecoat.  Plan is to magnetize the weapons as the two variants are the Gunner and Blaster with only the gun being different…  Top mounted and simple enough to swap, cannot imagine the Dwarves wouldn’t do this themselves being all about efficiency after all.

Finding the Feats are where the older and newer casters are simply built on two very different scales…  The older “REALLY OP” ones like Sorcha are actually toned down now and seem pretty much about equal in terms of power with a lot of the new ones.  The ones that were average or “eh” in the old game are really quite bad now….  LT Caine for example:  Can shoot everything.  Once each with his pistols.  So, it would be the absolute bane of a light Infantry force that for whatever reason decided to bum rush him and wound up with the bulk of their forces within 12” of him.  So…  Not likely to happen, certainly not more than once.  Compared to the “Everything is Frozen” within 12” or bringing back War Jacks/Beasts?  It is pretty obvious that some of the things have simply been overtaken and left far behind, especially in an era where you can shut down shooting or HtH pretty easily.  Or when your big ability affects only “Focus” or “War Jacks”…  Half of the game shrugs and ignores it.  I think the Rhulic casters (all three of them) are all at least beyond the point where the truly aged ones simply cannot easily compete, and so they will at the VERY least be interesting to play against some of the nastiness I see hitting the tables.  We’ll see I guess.

At the store, it was great seeing so many people playing…  Tom got his first win with a really nicely painted Khador force, saw: Gators (Hordes:Minions), Protectorate, Skorne, another Rhulic Merc force, Cryx, Everblight, more Khador, Trolls and some Circle IIRC…  I cannot remember them all offhand, but clearly the Warmachine/Hordes has come back locally at least.  Good to see, especially as I have zero interest being the “Press Ganger” again or running things if I can avoid it.  FAR more fun just playing the game for me.  Unfortunately at the same time it appears that STAW is dying along with 40K…  STAW overall seems a good system, they just clearly made some pretty serious…  Well, I’ll call them errors for lack of a better term.  The Gen Con fiasco hurt Wiz Kids credibility in a fairly major fashion.  Now they lost some good customers and lots more are simply not buying as much if at all.  Personally I think a lot of it is kind of overblown, and if WK had handled it better (sell to the people actually playing the bloody game, not the the speculators with dealer badges that got in before the normal badges, or just release them as a retail product…) would have been a non-issue.  But they seem to have taken a page from GW’s “Customer Service” manual and essentially assured themselves that their business model is superior and those silly peasants will get back in line soon enough to give their money to the Company.  I don’t know.  Looking at the shelves at the Gopher, lots of STAW ships there, OP attendance is bottomed out and not sure it will recover.  OTOH, the Star Wars ships are mostly sold out…  Seeing the same parallel with the Privateer Press stuff seeming to move quickly and the 40K/Fantasy stuff…  Well, not so much.  Heck, if I thought for an instant that I would get a good enough price for all of my 40K stuff I’d probably dump it myself.  Won’t happen, there are not many “collectors” out there looking for GW models from the late 80’s to late 90’s/early 2000’s where the bulk of mine were purchased looking realistically the overwhelming majority of what I have in the basement is just junk, along with my comics and random cards from the games I played back then…  Yes, some things like a VERY few of the Magic cards are worth a bunch, but the other 99%?  Fire hazard really J…

Initial rounds of trading have netted me the bulk of what I traded off, and store credit from one of those valuable MtG cards looks like it will get me a HUGE chunk of the way back to my Seaforge force in Warmachine.  So, just have to sell off a pair of motorcycles, likely a few random firearms and…  Hmmm.  Dunno.  I know my wife is far less comfortable with me riding the bike, but it is one of the few times I really get to relax and feel completely in control of my surroundings with the bulk of my attention occupied with actually riding the bike, etc…  So, we’ll see what happens long term there.  She wants a new vehicle, so I’ll likely inherit the Escape with the Ranger becoming the vehicle for the girls in a few years when they start driving.  Ideally, I’ll sell off my two bikes and get an older Goldwing…  Or the bikes AND a number of firearms go and I break down and get a much newer bike, maybe even one of those HD ones…  Never been a fan of any particular brand for the brand’s sake like a lot of HD fans, but they do make some nice bikes these days.  FAR more likely to go for something from Honda though as the price is more in line with what I could afford, etc…  And I REALLY prefer the shaft dive bikes to the chain, so…

Job front…  On one hand, things were moving nicely getting my line moved to reflect where I actually have been working the last 3+ years and getting my title, etc. correct for my new(ish) role in “IT Management”…  But then it stalled again.  Getting about to the FTSIOH level for me when I look realistically and find that I would have actually been making more had I simply “punched the clock” in Math for the last 4 years and not killed myself doing this.  And now there are some actual “Management” level jobs opening up North of Green in Engineering, so…  While I hate redoing my resume, it is I think time…

Cleaning up... Staw, WarmaHordes and the Basement of Doom (tm)

So, looking around…  Seems that the STAW group is dying off locally.  Darn shame, the game is overall quite good.  Yes, there are some stupidly overpowered units (ships and cards) and some combos that just break the game in silly ways…  The “Collective” OP events were certainly not helpful as they were clearly NOT play tested in anything like a realistic fashion.  But at a local level at least I think we’ve gotten around a lot of this by tending to play in a more “faction pure” fashion (not EVERY ship needs to be Captained by Jean Luc Picard).  The most recent one we played out last night.  No one actually beat the scenario.  The sheer stupidity of a 12 dice attack with re-rolls meant that the only ship to actually survive was one with a broken and silly combo on it (Weyoun/Varel to “discard Varel to cancel an attack, but Weyoun can disable to prevent the discard, re-enable and repeat as necessary”).  They still failed to actually kill the bloody Borg.  Last Month’s was actually a decent one, if a bit uninspiring…  Do as much damage with your Fleet before time runs out or you all die.  Not a whole lot of incentive to mess with each other, and the games were actually kind of interesting seeing just how much damage your Fleet COULD throw out if you build with only that in mind.  Yes J  I did a LOT better on that one…  But back on target, hoping to get in touch with some of the folks who have quit the game for various reasons and see if a few others might be interested in playing…  Scheduling is of course an issue as this is really a small (and currently dying) fringe game J…  But it really does not take up all that much space in the grand scheme…  So, I guess I start posting on the Facebook groups to see if interest and players cannot be drummed up…

Getting a lot more into Warmachine, and I have to say it is a much more interesting game for me at the moment than 40K.  Perhaps it is the perspective of taking several years off and coming back, but I honestly think that the system is far more balanced and the company producing it is FAR more responsive to issues of unbalance or questions/FAQ’s.  For the most part the local group is very low key and quite relaxed…  Always a few power gamers in just about every competitive group of course, and this is no exception.  But overall, WAY more fun, even when being smacked off the table by say, a Skorne build that was built for maximum efficiency…  Dusted off my Cygnar, but to be honest I am FAR more interested in the Rhulic (Dwarven) forces.  Traded them off when last I left the game…  Ironically for 40K stuff and Confrontation IIRC….  So now trading Confrontation stuff and Magic cards for the rebuilding efforts.  Surprisingly already a good part of the way there now.  Several “new” things since last I had this army, but overall a fairly small force, being Dwarves and all J…   Probably have to proxy some of the things like the Ogrun Assault Corps before dropping the $70 on what looks like it could very well be a mediocre unit at best for instance.  The Hammerhold Forge Guard (think plate armored Dwarves with two handed hammers), and will probably be on my “eventually” purchase list unless I can arrange a favorable trade, and the Colossal looks “neat”…  Saying that though, I am quite hesitant to drop that kind of money on a big “centerpiece” unit if it is not going to get played a whole lot.  I HAVE several of those already for 40K with the Imperial Knight being the only one that I suspect will ever really be one to see a LOT of play time.  The Spartan and Warhound class Titan are both VERY niche pieces that look nice, but really how often would I use them?  Yeah, almost never.  So, should anyone make a serious offer on the Spartan at least I would be VERY tempted to sell/trade it off since it is currently completely bare resin and unassembled.  Brun and Lug are headed my way thanks to some Confrontation Kelts, and I think that I have the basics for a pretty decent force after everything gets here…  Well, a fun force at least as I suspect that I will have some trouble dealing with some of the stuff out there.  But per my usual style, at the very least they’ll know they were in a fight as the Dwarves tend to die hard…

Basement cleaning continues, albeit slowly…  Still finding strange and sometimes interesting things down there.  Trying to get things organized and actually throw out some of the old and useless things these days.  Someday I actually hope to finish at least a big part of the basement as the workout room is pretty much just framed in, and laying down some sort of carpet type flooring and insulating/putting up a celling.  Been a LONG time since I worked in the “construction” area, and frankly I was never particularly good at it…  Built cabinets for a while and then houses between College and finding a real job thanks to one of my house mates (Steve) being a Foreman at a local construction company…  Pay was not great, work conditions were also “not great”, but WAY better (in both areas) than my time in the Army with the added bonus of fewer people actively trying to kill you.  But it kept me paying rent and you know, eating when times were pretty tough.  Took me some time to get some things figured out and frankly decompress into a VERY different reality being a civilian after…  Not really something I talk about, but it was such a stark and massive difference that I had a pretty hard time adjusting back to life here in Champaign/Urbana…  Probably took a LOT longer than it should have because I made a number of really poor choices, but made for some interesting stories I think J…  Just really needed a kick to get myself out of Joe’s (local bar where I worked), and back to “real life”.  J  And now things are so very different….  Amazing wife, kids and am moving into IT Management with a career that has lasted for 15 years here at the University alone…  Never would have thought it possible back then… :-)  All in all, things are going quite well...

STAW OP 3 tomorrow... And Warmachine being painted

So, going up against the Borg again for OP3...  Solid second place in this one, and I'm not really sure how well this scenario will play out.  Kind of depends on how competitive it becomes.  Cube CAN have a single attack of 12 dice against a single ship, re-rolling misses...  So, expect 9 hits/turn easily enough on the odd turns when my opponent controls the Cube.  Need something that might survive or at least outlast for the win. So, here's what I was thinking of running:

Fed Borg OP3 2

Resource: Flagship Independent (Romulan) (10)

USS Voyager (30)
Jean-Luc Picard (6)
Flagship (0)
Cheat Death (5)
Cheat Death (5)
Adm. James T. Kirk (5)
Montgomery Scott (5)
Hikaru Sulu (3)
Elizabeth Shelby (2)
Tom Paris (4)
Transphasic Torpedoes (10)
Multi-Adaptive Shields (5)
Ship SP: 80

Total Build SP: 90

Generated by STAW Builder
http://www.dracossoftware.com/STAWHome.html

Gives me 8 Defense Dice with re-rolls and at least 1 Battle Stations conversion, and of course with free BS...  Should get a decent number of hits when I attack, and I attack at Captain Skill 11 ("Ours Goes to 11")...  Faction (Federation) Pure and might be fun.  Not sure i will hold against a well built Borg but we'll see...

Slowly rebuilding my Rhulic Dwarves for Warmachine...  Some trades in the works and I;m almost half way back to what I had before stupidly trading them off.  Not a lot of casters, and being limited to the Dwarves and Ogres not a LOT of stuff altogether, but more than I can buy at once of course.  Now to get them painted up...

Motorcycles...  The Silverwing is working, Magna...  Well, not.  Anyone out there familiar with title issues in Illinois?  So, need to get that straight before I can sell it off of course....  Then probably look to sell the Silverwing and buy a Goldwing...  Probably in the 81-83 Range because I do not want to deal with a Stator issue on the 84-87 ones...  The look nice, but I really like the look of the 81-83's as well because they are really just the 4 cylinder version of the Silverwing that I otherwise like...  Just need the highway pegs and the bigger engine I think for more general riding.

So, the Wheel Turns Again :-)

So, cleaning the basement and doing a bit of painting…  Kind of sad in some ways cleaning up and packing away a bunch of things.  My Praetorian IG are all back in their ancient Chessex containers, and my Eldar are back in the GW cases…  Sadly, the Eldar no longer fit in the case, so perhaps a glass cased shelf?  Dunno.  Pretty sure it will be a while before I play 40K again so it may be a “deep storage” for them.  My Marines of various types are assembling in theory…  Cleared off a bunch of room on my painting table, just kind of depressing looking at all that “stuff” I am just packing away.  Not JUST 40K, I have a FoW force that I was painting up at various times…  Some of my old Divisions (8ID, 3AD and 82^nd Airborne), so was mostly nostalgia but it is a pretty solid game system…  Just not one I think translates well to “the tournament scene”…  And not a lot of local players/time for me to actually play so…

Resin Forge World Spartan that is not even a little assembled.  Not really sure, I may wind up selling It off, or putting my Wolves together as a 30K Legion.  Works pretty well as I had converted both of my ancient MKI Land Raiders to what was called the “Spartan” class back in the 90’s, so now they fit in as the “new” early series Land Raiders that the Legions can get.  Gives me 2 “Protos” class Land Raiders, the Spartan and then 2 of the “New” MKIII Land Raiders (Crusader and normal).  Wound up trading for a bunch of Terminator suits and picked up some of the Siege Breacher Troops, so I HAVE a bunch of 30K specific things…  Just not sure if anyone is actually playing the 30K stuff anymore, I assume that it would be “legal” for 40K play locally at least as it is actually FAR more balanced than 40K is at this point.  Kind of sad saying that out loud, the previously “silly and OP” branch is now the one doing the far better job balancing stuff…  And with GW going to what I consider a “subscription” model for their main game, I really do not relish the prospect of keeping up, and well…  I’m not.  So, have to make the choice of keeping what I have or getting rid of some/all of it.  Something to think about as I suspect dumping the lots would not get me much in return, and the wheel always seems to turn…  Guessing that someday I’ll be back playing 40K.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmOmAuhAQbE

Yeah, kind of silly, but the Mighty Mighty Bosstones are my favorite band, and so...

Speaking of trading, looking at trading off some of my old Confrontation minis for Privateer Press Rhulic Mercenaries (Dwarves mostly, some Ogres).  Feeling especially silly as I traded OFF my Rhulic army for 40K and probably Confrontation stuff years ago.  But I wound up with a LOT of the stuff as people locally left the game and I was the last gamer to move out of a shared house or two…  But starting from nothing again, and having an excellent trade reputation is isn’t too hard I think…  Will have to ping Dave to see if there is interest in some of the more interesting cards I found in random decks from the old “Joe’s Brewery MTG days”…  I had no idea how many more I would find packed away in boxes in the Basement of Doom ™…  But, guessing that I could get a decent restart that way if the Bartertown route fails…  Or if I just decide to get a bigger army (which is FAR more likely)…  Mercs are not really considered an OP army, but I’ve always had fun playing them, and seldom felt totally outclassed hitting the field with the Rhulic lads…  Toward the end of 1^st edition Warmachine, yes…  Things got pretty silly there with some outright stupid combos that killed any interest I had in playing the game, and I guess that is why it has taken me SO long to go back…  Well, that and the group we played with evaporated at that time as a LOT of us were just sick of it.  So, I moved back to 40K…  And the wheel turns again J…  Getting out once/week is pretty much the upper limit with real life and the family having priority of course J….

Journeyman League at the Gopher! Oh, and STAW in a few weeks...

So, made it through the first week of the league...  I played a modified or alternate version of the box set...

Lt Caine
Defender
Ironclad

So far was "Eh" at best...  Such a small force, with huge and glaring weaknesses.  Main one is of course a complete lack of HtH ability.  Anything that can get to me will simply crush poor LT Caine.  No gunfighter on this one, so he is just SOL should pretty much ANYTHING engage him.  So he got crushed by Joe's Gorten and Tim's Skorne monster.  Got lucky and was able to snipe Tom's caster, but I think another turn he would have been in charge range.

Next week we go to 15 points with the above models mandatory...  Since that comes to 10 points, I am pretty much stuck.  Almost all of my "Units" start at 6 points.  I'd not use the Ironclad if I had a choice I think...  So I guess I bring a few Solos like a Gun Mage CPT Adept and Journeyman perhaps?  Maybe the mechanic to repair stuff...

Big STAW event coming up, so getting ready...  Since I will not play Borg, I will I think bring a Federation ship to try to kill the Borg.  The Voyager is the only one at this point I think that can.  This is pretty well maxed out, and it is actually a higher CPT Skill than the 10 of the Borg...

Fed Borg OP3 2

Resource: Flagship Independent (Romulan) (10)

USS Voyager (30)
Jean-Luc Picard (6)
Flagship (0)
Cheat Death (5)
Cheat Death (5)
Adm. James T. Kirk (5)
Montgomery Scott (5)
Hikaru Sulu (3)
Elizabeth Shelby (2)
Tom Paris (4)
Transphasic Torpedoes (10)
Multi-Adaptive Shields (5)
Ship SP: 80

Total Build SP: 90

Generated by STAW Builder
http://www.dracossoftware.com/STAWHome.html

Every other turn I control the Cube, so I know it will NOT attack me (unless there are no ships in range but my own) and I can use Scott for an offensive punch (+2 Attack sice), and Sulu on the turns I need to defend.  On Defence, I have 8 dice with re-rolls and the free BS... Should net me a decent number of evades.  And then I have the 2 Cheat Death cards to play to buy an extra 3-4 turns.  Scott can repair shields to get the Multi-Adaptive Shields back online.  Only one shot with the Torpedoes, likely for the 12 dice, so I'll have to make that count against the 25 Hull cube that gets stronger as it takes Damage...  Still not sure this is a winnable scenario but this looks like the best chance I have.,  

The Basement of Doom! Need to clear off my painting table...

So, need to get the basement cleaned up…  Too much random crap there, and with the new couches of doom upstairs J…  At some point I need to rearrange my “hobby” desk and perhaps be able to see what all I actually have ON it.  So far I know I have:

• ·         Imperial Knight to assemble/paint…  I have the lower half assembled, more or less and the base coat of paint in place…  Going to finish it in the colors of House Chappell (Crimson/Gold with the Lions and Roses on the shield)…  So, fairly basic and it should look pretty good with my existing Imperial armies of various types…
• ·         Wolves…  A LONG time ago I started the stripping/repainting project for them.  Got a ways in and then…  Well, lost interest I guess.  Going with the 30K Legion scheme, so a much darker grey with crimson trim.  Not the silly baby blue with bright yellow/red/white.  Much more “we’re here to kill things and move on” than “we’re in town for Carnivalle and we got bored”…  Terminators and Siege Breachers as well…  Terminators at least are good, but the Siege Breachers are…  Well, not.  Amusing playing them with a Spartan to transport the 20 man squad and attached ICs, but effective?  Not even a little.  Still a LOT of models, and no real motivation to play the game or keep painting them for the moment…
• ·         Grey Knights…  Almost the same thing.  But as I always played ACTUAL Knights, I really did not lose any options with the new book.  Just not a lot of motivation to finally finish the force.  So, back to the shelves for them.
• ·         Crimson Fists…  Another one that is “Meh”…  Got a good sized force painted up and ready for Tournament play if need be.  Not bad, but…
• ·         Eldar…  Eh, I got almost all the way through painting/repainting them before the new book hit.  I was really excited to have them come out of the “penalty box” with their very limited codex and…  Well, it was far more powerful than anything before or since.  Have to admit on my initial reading of the book, the Wave Serpents were the thing that struck me as the long term over powered thing.  They did not magically become fliers like the Necron transport tanks, but I’m pretty good at math and I saw the immediate potential of the “shield” shooting every turn.  6-11 high Str and TL shots/turn makes a lot of things simply disappear.  Without the WS?  Good book, I was happy that most of it meant I could field most of my stuff without feeling like I was just giving away points and fighting with one hand tied behind my back.  Scorpions are “eh”, but at least usable I guess.  The Banshees though did actually get worse.  Shame, I had a full unit of them painted and ready…  In the ancient times they were unholy terrors, but now?  Better to fight short on points than give away the kill points I think.  So, not ALL of the book was OP madness, but…  But caffeine hitting and back on subject… I have a BUNCH of them in various stages of painting on the table, guess they get shelved as well…  Still have too many that I never did get around to assembling or painting over the years like Vipers, etc…
• ·         Warmachine and Hordes stuff…  So, a game I am actually playing at the moment.  Woo Hoo!  Not many new models for me, but a few…  Stripped and getting ready to repaint my second unit of Gun Mages.  Sword Knights as well…  Just in time for a Journeyman League.  Not thrilled about having to use the “Battle Box” as I think I successfully avoided fielding that caster for all my time as a Pressganger…  We’ll see I guess.  Longer term, I have to dig up my Circle models.  THOSE I have a bunch of and no clue the condition as they are scattered about the Basement of Doom ™…  Despite not playing the game I DID pick up a few of the “neat” models over the years, so have things like a Warpwolf Stalker to paint up…  Giant Werewolf with a big sword?  No kilt, but still…
• ·         Confrontation “stuff”…  Celts, Wolves and the Paladins of my Lions armies…  Guess they get a shelf or two.  Really no hope that game will ever return at this point.  Shame, I rather liked the skirmish rules at least for v3…  v3.5 was easily broken, but still fun.  V4 was another game altogether and just not very good at all…  Just my opinion (well, mine and all of the people locally playing), but then of course Rackham went under so…  Amazing models though, and happy to have so many on my shelves.
• ·         STAW/X-Wing…  Planning on repainting at least some of the minis for those games.  Nothing too drastic I think, and since I have only a few X-Wing ones…  But getting a wash/ink on the Star Trek ones will make them look a lot better, at least the base set ones and a lot of the early things.  Looking at the K’Tinga from the new blind buy booster vs. the early D7/K’tinga model and seeing the vast improvement in the models makes me think that in the longer run, they are getting a lot better and might actually stay around for a longer time than expected.  The Romulans and Klingons though I think could do with some paint to make them look more like I think they should, or at least different than everyone else’s J…  Old time SFB player myself, so once upon a time saw the much older models on the table for that… 

So, coming up for playing? 

40K tournament is in limbo and I doubt very much I’ll bother with it.  Yes, I could field one of my several (too many) armies and likely have a decent shot at winning…  But, my heart just isn’t in it.  Eldar are just too far out of line with the rest of the armies in terms of power, and locally there were 4-5 of us who played Eldar over the years, so guessing they’ll be the eventual winner here.  Not saying that the local (excellent) Necron/Chaos player could NOT win, his force is pretty darn good as well.  Just that there is so little variety if you actually want to win as opposed to “let’s just get in a game”.  With money on the table, it’s a much more serious game, so the “fun” forces might have fun, but are unlikely to win if even one player shows up with the very efficient and overpowering forces…

STAW event(s)…  Looking at one Wednesday and another one at the end of the Month.  Going up against the Borg.  At least a worthy challenge J…  Not winnable, at least the Wolf 459 one.  Just trying to do damage delaying and dying.  Not entirely sure the OP3 event IS winnable the way we play locally.  We tend much more toward the “Faction Pure” end of things.  The rules for the Borg in the scenario will be a challenge at best.  We’ll see I guess.  Not seeing any good ways to deal with the Borg AND the other player’s fleet.  So, I’ll just ignore the other player and do what I can against the Borg.  Even so, Federation might survive long enough, Dominion and Klingon might do enough damage, but with the cube going up to 10 Defense dice just before dying not sure I CAN do 25 damage quickly and reliably enough.  Will need to be lucky to get the points I guess.  That AND hope that Lon (current League leader) gets unlucky I guess to allow me to grab the prize ship for the Month (USS Stargazer).  Not a hugely powerful ship by any means, actually in the NCL class I’d guess from SFB, but a familiar ship and looks neat.  Unfortunately, until FAQ’d, there is one card that is not limited and probably can be used in stupid combos so will b hard to trade for if not won…

Warmachine…  Mentioned the Journeyman league, so that starts in 2 weeks.  Probably Cygnar again for me as my Circle stuff is scattered in the wilderness…  Think it will be somewhat OP in the longer run though.  Now that I understand the new edition better I think that I can see a lot of the Circle strengths and strategies that a lot of other armies will simply not have an answer for…  But seems a much more “friendly” group overall, I do not want to do what I did last time and enter the league sweeping all of the categories and risk driving away players…  J  Was something of an “oops” for me as I got carried away with building overly powerful forces and winning big against the local crowd.  Toned it down a lot, except for my occasional “making a point” builds to deal with similar situations.  Frankly, those were never really fun games I suspect for either of us, but needed I think.  So, looking like WM/H is going strong locally for the time being…  Maybe it will last long enough for 40K to sort itself out while we take a break from it…  But in any case, it is quite enjoyable in a very "non serious" way to get away from the silliness of IT management...

Another big 40K tournament, WM league in a few and more random STAW stuff... or "Oh, Eldar again" :-)

So, another of the big tournaments over the long weekend…  And to no one’s shock and surprise, it was an Eldar Wave Serpent spam list that was the overall winner.  Top 16 included a few Chaos Demons, Necrons, CSM and even a single Wolves player!  But 6 of the top 10 were Eldar.  Some with the DE allied force of the Baron for his 2++ save in a Seer council…  Several Imperial Knights allied forces in there, no real surprise, the Knights are really quite good and as the largest thing realistically playable (IIRC also largest LEGALLY playable).  The single Tau build was unsurprising, not sure what Aaron from Indy brought with his Necrons, but he is an excellent player so good to see him do well there…  Given the missions and the terrain it came down to the most efficient armies I think, and not sure there are any that combine the mobility, survivability and sheer firepower of a well-built Eldar force.  Demons are good, but just too random I think to count on in a long run.  Necrons and Tau both have potential (at least until the Crons get their hardback and likely some nerfs), but just not quite at the level of the Eldar…  Mind, this is all just my opinion of course…  But I’m a fairly decent player and pretty good at math and tactics, etc., so I think it is an informed opinion at the least…  Right now, and for the foreseeable future, the Eldar are back as the kings of the game…

Guessing this is why I am fairly “meh” on playing the game at this point.  If I want to win, I have to either bring the Eldar spam or have a REALLY good way of dealing with it.  Frankly there are not many good ways to do so.  Drop pods filled with Melta gunners backed by say, my Knight and the Storm Raven?  Maybe, probably the best shot I would have at it.  For right now, the BA still have the ability to Assault out of reserves with their Vanguard Vets so they might be an answer in part…  But a lot of that relies on random luck.  Jink saves being 3+ mean that I actually have to get lucky to destroy a Wave Serpent with a small number of shots.  And if their dice are hot, it just doesn’t matter how much I shoot at them.  Yes, they now have a slight disadvantage of having to snap fire, but with all their main weaponry being Twin Linked and high RoF, not I think so much of a disadvantage.  And of course each of them getting 4 shots (TL) at Str 6 followed likely by the d6+1 Str 7 shots (also TL iff at least one 6 was rolled by the up to 8 dice on the first shooting attack) their odds are quite good to get in a few hits.  Can also move of course, etc…  So, dropping DNs near them is a one shot thing as they can simply shoot it off the table trivially.  The Eldar Knight is also REALLY good, and with the ability to have a Wraith Lord as their Warlord?  Eh, gets silly there, but frankly not all that bad…  Guessing I could make a Warlord from a Marine based book like the CSM or regular Marine book that was more difficult to actually deal with, so no real complaint there, just silly to have the ability to make a MC your Warlord…  Poorly designed if no other force has this option…  Well, other than the Tyranids of course J…  But they are designed that way…  In any case, caffeine hitting and back on topic…  Frankly having to get VERY lucky to even take down their Transports by throwing a big chunk of my force at them seems a losing strategy on the longer term.  Individual games?  Sure, luck being what it is, that’s where the Marines can win a few here and there I think, just that over the long term the odds are NOT in their favor.  Needing AT weaponry with the “Ignores Cover” rule means I have few options.  And that is just to deal with the 130-140 point Transport/Tank.  The crunchy insides I can deal with, eventually…  They have the best basic weapons, and entire units of Melta gunners, so given that they will likely shoot first, will almost always pay for themselves shooting things off the table.  Their AA fire being pretty much just their tanks shooting ala “Hammer’s Slammers” means that most fliers WILL get shot out of the sky, unless you can saturate their defenses like the Necrons I think can with extremely cheap fliers…

Wolves and GK hit last Month, no real surprises and really nothing new in either book…  Yes, Klaus got his sled (Thinking that Grimmar is now Santa Klaus from the Dresden Files books, so Unseelie Court Sidhe…), but the GK?  Really they just lost options…  Yes, some were broken and stupid like the “Ours go to 11” upgrade to all of their ballistic weapons…  Glad I didn’t make all of the Rifleman (AA) DNs that I could have.  Not a bad option, just that DNs overall are just not that good these days.  Saying that though, they were pretty decent books and army lists.  Take out the Eldar and perhaps the silliness of Invisible Chaos things, etc. (Yes, there are more things…) and you have a fairly well balanced game.  Beer and pretzels, yes…  Not really tweaked for a hyper competitive game, but it would at least be fun.  As it stands?  Not really.  Just seeing Cavalry, Chariots and Monstrous Creatures being the viable options makes me miss the days when you could actually play actual Troops in a damn Sci Fi and have a chance to do something other than just die.  Really, Cav and Chariots in a Sci Fi game is probably the thing that annoys me the most…

So, a Journeyman League coming up in a few weeks at the Gopher…  Have the new (to me at least) Paladin of Morrow Warcaster, my Paladins actually did fairly well on the field (“Precursor Knights”), and seeing a lot of Undead and the like, guessing they’ll be fine as a “castle” for my forces to set up around.  Need to remember to keep the Gun Mages a bit back so that the Knights who cannot be targeted by spells do not eat spray spells targeting the guys behind their shield wall…  No clue as to the rules for the League, but assuming it is something starting small and escalating…  I have several unpainted/to be repainted units so the “hobby” aspect is not a problem to get in there I think.  So, have a pretty good handle on the basics of the game now, just a lot changed and VERY different than 40K J…

STAW saw me get another strong second place finish…  So, still close enough to Lon to challenge for the Stargazer at least J…  Not sure about this Month’s scenario though.  It looks like it will be difficult at best if you get paired with someone not big on cooperating…  Frankly, not even sure then…  The Borg are VERY strong, and getting harder to damage as the game goes on…  Something to think about, the build for this one.  Leaning toward Federation for the general strong ships to survive, but Dominion or Klingon for the ability to throw out a LOT of damage…  Dominion looks pretty good here I think.  But I actually brought this to OP2:

Fed Borg OP2 build

Fed Borg OP2 build

Cardassian Keldon Class (24)

Sar (1)

Ship SP: 25

U.S.S Excelsior (26)

Mr. Spock (4)

Dmitri Valtane (3)

Photon Torpedoes (5)

Ship SP: 38

U.S.S Sutherland (26)

Clark Terrell (1)

Ship SP: 27

I.K.S. B'Moth (24)

Kunivas (2)

Tritium Intermix (4)

Ship SP: 30

Total Build SP: 120

Generated by STAW Builder

http://www.dracossoftware.com/STAWHome.html

First game was my only loss…  Did 109 points of damage to the cube before time, and had the sole surviving ship (USS Excelsior), but because of 2 critical errors on my part, I lost to Lon who did 113 points to the Cube…  The Keldon class was the MVP, but I flew it out of arc one turn, and the B’Moth I completely forgot about the ability to repair as well as the free extra damage from discarding the Crew card…  So, I could easily have surpassed the total, but…  After that, it was fairly simple, my build is designed to be aggressive, but at a critical point, they step back, throwing the other player’s aggressive ships to the Borg as they are now the closest ones…  At least one other player lost to me because he did not think that I could fire on turn one, but a 4 straight gets you in range (the Cube token is larger than last Months) from the middle of the DZ, the Keldon’s trick from the flank was also a BIG surprise to everyone.  So, just loads of dice rolling and very quickly for me as it was simple once it hit the table.  Mr. Spock on the Excelsior was REALLY good as well, glad he survived every game J…

Warmachine MK II lessons learned, 40K locally and the Borg this weekend...

So, the lessons I learned in Warmachine so far… 

1.       Learn your spell lists…  Seems obvious, but it has been a LONG time since last I played.  And frankly I am using casters I was never really familiar with in the first place.  One new one, Constance Blaize.  She is the leader of my Paladins (Morrowan).  Last night I completely forgot her “Flashing Blade” spell which allows her to spend 1 Focus to attack EVERYTHING in her Melee range.  She has Reach, so a 2” zone out, combined with Flank if she is near another (non Warcaster) Morrowan granting her +2 to hit and an additional Damage Dice…  Making this absolutely brutal, and as I had her between two War Jacks that were themselves engaged, this should have been an easy “And it’s destroyed” thing with a few focus…  Reacting to being swarmed by Undead Pirates, the Paladins…  Well, OK, SHE spent a focus and cleared EVERYTHING within her 2” range allowing her to move freely and get into position to call “checkmate” on the Cryx caster…  What I have played so far, I have fallen back to what worked in MK I, and in CPT Haley’s case…  Well, it does NOT work these days…

2.       Warmachine and Hordes are different…  Again, obvious, but the “fun, let’s try this unit” theory of list building does NOT work against a well-tuned uber Hordes list.  I suspect that despite the rebalancing of things that came with MK II, Hordes is still the “better” system.  Saying that, while breaking out the Werewolves and the like for my Circle forces IS tempting, I think I need to re-learn Warmachine first.  Since I was there at the beginning of Hordes, I am fairly familiar with what worked back then, and having faced a few armies (Skorne especially seems popular, shame Tim is off in his submarine, his was always quite fun to play against…).  Too many things that work well against Jacks still and not at all against Beasts.  And with the fact that Beasts are 100% until the die (almost), and the ease with which they can be repaired at will?  In any case, I am learning what works against them…  VERY different list than WM.  But my Gun Mages amusingly are really quite good against either…

3.       Synergy is key…  Should go without saying, but of course it is far more so than in 40K.  For instance, I used the Sentinel Light Warjack with CPT Kraye as “light cav”, and it was “eh” at best…  Now, had it Jack Marshalled by my Gun Mages last night…  Getting to use the ammo like the Mages for the 14” machine gun attack, or the thunder strike I guess, but really I think it is pretty much the 14” range.  Turns a “Meh” unit into something to be feared…  And Shield Guard to keep the LT safe from random sniper shots if needed…  But more likely the Caster or CPT Strangeways who is there to repair and give out extra Focus…

4.       Bring something to be your heavy hitter…  Ranged combat is neat and all, but in the end it WILL come down to being able to hit or be hit in HtH.  Was sorely lacking in some of my earlier lists…  I do wonder what some of the other casters I’ve not yet unearthed will do for me…  Haven’t broken out my actual HtH heavies yet either…

So far I am enjoying this game FAR more than what 40K has become locally even…  I know 5^th was “highly competitive” elsewhere, but overall not as much locally…  Fliers WERE a problem with some armies magically getting cheap and REALLY good fliers (Necrons and to an extent the IG) while other armies had NO access to them…  6^th  was a big change, and it ushered in the age of the Eldar and Monstrous Creatures…  7^th seems so very much like version 6.5 for me.  Not a lot changed in the game itself.  Let me clarify, yes, a lot actually changed with Psychics getting their own phase, etc., but from a player’s perspective?  Not really.  What HAS changed is the insane speed with which GW is releasing this edition’s updated books for the various armies.  While on one hand that is great, it is simply too expensive.  And breaking things into multiple (expensive) books?  I guess that is the “smart” thing to do from a business perspective.  I do know it has cost them a fair number of sales locally at least, so I guess time will tell whether this is a viable or good strategy.  The Wolves book and the old Grey Knights ones are the ones I see having been split into 3 book each…  The Wolves is just insulting to me, but that is just my opinion of course.  Giving PART of the army list in one book, then modifications to it in a second with the painting guide going to a third book?  Overloading on recycled fluff and pictures as filler for a bigger page count…  The GK at least split logically with Assassins never really belonging in the GK book in any case and the Inquisition being split previously…  To me this made sense, but I’m an old time GK player who actually played them as “Grey Knights” and not as “Inquisition All Stars” playing under the GK banner… 

Sucks to see the game wither like this locally, but to be honest I just can’t seem to keep any particular interest in the current game.  It does seem like the mini players locally have moved (back in many cases) to WM/Hordes…  Mind, I haven’t gone on Monday for a while to see, but I know Dave had mentioned that attendance was lackluster at best for a while…  Guessing I was not the only one to adapt the “let’s wait a bit…  or longer” attitude…  Dunno, gets old quickly seeing the same things win every time, so even the challenge of building something to compete simply is not there…

STAW event Sunday at the Gopher…  Really looking forward to that.  The Ch’Tang I won in that raffle is not here yet, so it may well be my Federation Fleet going up against the Borg.  Have only the one Keldon class and it has been sold out locally for a bit J…  So, the Dominion builds I looked at are also looking more difficult.  May have a bit of a mix with the Keldon and whatever else I throw in there, we’ll see.  Looks like one I’ll need to be sure to not only win each match, but score 20 more hits against the Cube in each to have any chance of catching Lon who is sitting in first locally…  I’m #2, but no sure how far back.  OP3 is next Month for the finale…  I suspect it will be far more difficult to catch up then, and while missing out on the Vulcan prize ship was not good with some REALLY nice cards, I suspect I can trade for it if I decide to go with a Vulcan fleet…  and several of the good cards are already coming out as retail  in the next wave’s expansion set.  The Raven itself is of no interest to me, but some of the cards are…  Mostly looking for the Stargazer myself.  Another Federation ship, and a decent one at that…  The Grand Prize ship?  Not really interested, but…  Some of the variants are good…  Just not sure I can get to first place for the ship J…  Frankly, far more interested in getting the blind buy ships for the Federation, Klingons and Dominion…  Each of them have things or ARE things I’d play, so…

Grey Knights, Assassins and Borg... Oh My :-)

So, Assassins AND Grey Knights Codexes (Codii?) BOTH dropped this week.  Along with a THIRD Wolf book?  Looks like just a painting guide…  Just my opinion of course, but the releases are just coming WAY too quickly.  Or at least for my gaming budget.  Frankly pretty much ANY realistic gaming budget I think.  Looking over the releases, the Assassins are REALLY overpowered.  OK, on the surface at least.  The Psycher killer just removing blessings, etc. will deal with the Invisibility stupidity that is pretty rough…  And of course Demons, Eldar  and ironically, Grey Knights will all greatly fear this thing.  The Vindicare is still packing the giant AT rifle…  Against Vehicles, it is Str 10 AP 2, with a BS of…  Well, BS J..  Ignores Cover with everything…  Silly, but that does seem the Direction GW is pushing the game at this point.

Ironically, the Grey Knights seems like a pretty decent, balanced Codex…  Vehicles are no longer Psychers, the weird grenades are mostly gone, the Inquisition and Assassins are separate books now…  So I no longer feel like an idiot for playing actual Grey Knights in a Grey Knight army.  The “normal” GK force was Psybolt ammo for the Rhinos and DNs with a few min sized squads of normal humans riding/hiding inside.  Psybolt is gone too…    The "Psilencer" is now a high number of shots and Force, so potentially Instant Death?  Eh...  So, a decent Marine book.  Pretty good overall, but really it is just a minor update to the 5^th Ed book if I’m being honest…  NO new units, just updating the rules for the 2 edition jump forward.  Worth $50?  Sorry, not really for me at this point.  Can I play the army?  Sure, frankly I find this a far better book than the Wolves one, and that pains me to say as a long time Wolf player.  So, good I guess but really nothing that I think will be the Paper to the existing Rock in the old Rock/Paper/Scissors game…  Sure, you can build unbound list and replicate a 5^th edition GK army I guess, but the whole “unbound” thing is just silly in my opinion…

So, the Borg OP 2 is coming up Sunday so here are a few of the Fleets I am looking at playing:

List Name

Galaxy Class (26)

Ship SP: 26

U.S.S Sutherland (26)

Ship SP: 26

U.S.S Excelsior (26)

Mr. Spock (4)

Dmitri Valtane (3)

Photon Torpedoes (5)

Ship SP: 38

Total Build SP: 90

Generated by STAW Builder

http://www.dracossoftware.com/STAWHome.html

Klingon Borg 90 2

Resource: Flagship Independent (Klingon) (10)

Vor'cha Class (26)

Gowron (4)

Ship SP: 30

I.K.S. ChTang (22)

Martok (6)

Flagship (0)

Ship SP: 28

K'T'Inga Class (22)

Ship SP: 22

Total Build SP: 90

Generated by STAW Builder

http://www.dracossoftware.com/STAWHome.html

Federation is a straightforward move up, shoot at Range 2-3 and shuffle up and back until time or we die…  Not subtle, but it is built with ships I actually have at the moment, so it has that going for it…  I won a raffle for the Ch’Tang on one of the STAW Facebook groups, so that one may be here in time for me to play that Fleet…  It has a LOT of damage potential I think with the ships having 7, 6 and 7 Attack dice respectively, with potential re-rolls, etc…  Hoping for my fourth ship to be Klingon of course as well to completely synergize and throw metric craptons of attack dice against the cube before dying well…  VERY Klingon J….

Borg OP 2 coming up...

Borg OP 2:

So, gearing up for this in a few weeks…  Another 90 point game, this time played out at Wolf 359.  So, pretty much the opposite mindset as the Gen con build where the tougher, survivable ships were better than the ones that just threw out Dice for Attack/Damage.  Here, the situation is a very different one, a battle that literally cannot be won in a conventional sense.  You are just trying to buy time and do as much damage as you can before the Borg destroy you as they pass through the system.  I have a few ideas for a Fleet build here, and this is actually something I am VERY good at.  J  Reading over a few of my Army psych evaluations and fitness reports does make for some amusing reading, if a bit scary if you actually understand what they are trying to say without actually saying it…  The poor Psych officer they sent over to evaluate us was fairly new and clearly never dealt with a Line Combat unit before.  Most of the things she said were “Red Flags” were actually highly favorable and sought after traits there…  J  But in any case, I am fairly good at the “desperation defense” and the idea of “do as much damage as you can before you die”.  Likely will not run a Federation pure fleet this time.  The Klingons, Dominion and to some extent the Romulans can throw out a lot of damage.  Mind, if I do a mixed Fleet (Ships themselves will be pure), some of the Federation stuff CAN compete.  As the rules for the scenario are that the Borg simply fire last, no need to have the high skill CPTs there unless they also do something else critical, they’ll be needed in Sector 001 for the next battle.  So a few options I’ve come up with are:

Romulan

I.R.W. Valdore (30)

Mirok (2)

Advanced Cloaking (4)

Ship SP: 36

Good base ship…  CPT Mirok has the ability that if he ends his move within Range 1 of a Friendly Ship, repair one Hull or Shield.  With the Advanced Cloak, I should be able to keep Cloaked for a LONG time, using the Green maneuvers to clear Aux Power tokens and gaining the +1 Attack each turn from the Ship ability.  The Flagship which will likely end up here is another +1 Attack, Hull and Tech slot (needed for the Advanced Cloaking).  So, decent basis for a Fleet build…  The Romulans however do not have  lot of “tank” ships that can throw out Damage well.

Dominion?  Looking at what I have, the BB, the Koranak class Cruiser and the Fighters all throw out a LOT of Damage…  Enough to win?  Not sure…  But might be fun to try.

Klingons almost seem the “Easy Button” choice here.  A group of 3+ just flying in and shooting like they are voting in Chicago…  Early and often.  They also have a fair number of abilities that boost Damage and Attack Dice making them pretty darn good at the run up and shoot game.

This of course is just the 90 points I build beforehand, getting another 30 point ship can be good (if I pull the Klingon or Federation ship) or not so much, except another target to soak fire while my heavy hitters move in and do damage.

Warmachine is the other thing I am playing at the moment I guess…  Found some more minis in the basement, even some I never painted.  Played out several games with CPT Kraye, so I think perhaps it is time to go with another caster combo…  Having all of the older ones, I do have a large selection of them to choose from, so I guess I should figure out what I am bringing before Wednesday as I hope to load up onto the ancient Silverwing and head out…

Gen Con 2014...

So, went to Gen Con yesterday...  Wound up playing in one of the STAW events.  Pretty well run, all of my opponents were quite fun to play against.  Kind of an odd heat though, 12 players I think and only a handful of Borg at all, NO "super cubes".  Problem for a LOT of the guys was that everyone built to deal with, some making it the focus of their fleets...  Did NOT work all that well against "normal" builds.  I was definitely in the minority playing a completely faction pure build, all Federation.  Not the potential to do the overwhelming damage that my Klingon or even Dominion builds can do, but WAY more survivable.

Gen Con Fed 1

U.S.S Excelsior (26)
Mr. Spock (4)
Adm. James T. Kirk (5)
Dmitri Valtane (3)
Quantum Torpedoes (6)
Ship SP: 44

USS Voyager (30)
Jean-Luc Picard (6)
Montgomery Scott (5)
Miles O'Brien (2)
Hikaru Sulu (3)
Ship SP: 46

Total Build SP: 90

Generated by STAW Builder
http://www.dracossoftware.com/STAWHome.html

Game one I got my ass kicked by a well build Borg Cube (bare bones) and Excelsior loaded out as a Torpedo boat like mine.  Lost because I maneuvered stupidly...  Kept bumping the cube instead of simply moving 6 forward and outrunning the cube...   Was pretty rushed getting there and was not really all there for the first game.  Got wiped because my Voyager was unable to use it's 3 actions/turn at the critical juncture.  DID burn through the shields and almost kill the cube in spite of my errors.

Game 2 was MUCH better, played against a mostly Romulan Fleet built around a Flagship Vo/Donatra supporting a Khazara (D'deridex) loaded out with the Ferengi Missile Launchers and a LOAD of attack cancelling things.  This game I did the "Wolfpack" thing, found the weaker ship and killed it first.  Saw the trick, survived it and focused fire into the 2 Hull ship to kill it despite the huge number of Defense dice.  Just taking 2 failures means I'll not be doing that for my own fleets...  Burned through all of the attack cancellers, took no losses and with the support ship dead, I got the win.  Got some damage through to the bigger ship, but did not kill it in time.

Game 3 was against a good player with a good Fleet...  Built again to deal with Uber Cube fleets, so less successful against a build like mine.  He had the Enterprise D with CPT Khan Singh, ADM Kirk, Scotty, AM Mines, Flagship for Battlestations, Tom Paris, etc...  Supported by another Vo/Donatra combo.  So, same thing here for me...  Kill the little ship quickly then the long dance...  He hit my Voyager hard, taking down the 6 Shields and a single Hull...  But then we flew around and had Scotty repair Shields.  His build was close to 70 points on the Enterprise D, so not as unbalanced as "I killed half of his Ships" might lead you to believe...   So, we basically ran out of time, I am not sure who would eventually have won...  I suspect it would have been him unless I was able to line up the Quantum Torpedoes AND the Voyager at range 1 with 2 Shields to disable to let Scott's action give me more dice...  His CPT skill of 10 though meant he would shoot first...  So, "less likely".  My strategy of "just survive" worked out.

So, 2-1 overall record...  Wound up winning the Doctor Bashir and Odo cards out of the DS9 pack   Overall I was really happy and the guys I played against are I suspect also on Board Gaming Geek's forum as I recognized a few names...

VERY disappointed in the Wizkids convention exclusives, etc...  Seeing the actual Dragons for the D&d game was "neat", but really not too impressive.  The STAW exclusives being sold out so quickly to other exhibitors and speculators rather than the people actual playing the game?  The message that sends is pretty bad I think.  I would have liked to have the cloaked ships, and the cards are pretty neat...  Not even having the OP ships for sale/prizes made the cost of getting there and entering the event pretty high...

Still, Gen Con from a family fun day standpoint was a great success...  My wife and the girls (+1 with one of my daughter's friends joining us) all dressed up and seemed to enjoy the spectacle...  We were only there for the day though, and with me gaming 3 hours, not as much fun...  Parked a LONG way off.  The Colt's pre-season game the same night made traffic a nightmare.  We wound up eating from a food truck in the little "court" they set up...  LOVED that idea.  So, definitely a major plus.  The lack of a "loot" bag made the price of the admission tickets a bit on the expensive side, especially with the kids costing the same as an adult and no gaming of "free stuff" really included.  So, next time, a multi day trip, more time to game for everyone and a more relaxing trip all around...

Wolves in Seventh, initial thoughts... Oh, and a bit more...

Right, so after a quick read through of the Wolves Codex…  REALLY not seeing anything to drag me back to playing 40K any time soon frankly.  Perhaps I missed something, but the big thing seems to be to use the “Great Company” Formation allowing your up to 6 HQ slots, etc…  This allows you to get the BA like roll for each Unit to Outflank.  6+.  Down to 4+ iff you add an IC to a Troops unit.  This is what we pay the extra points (presumably) for to get “Acute Senses”…  For at best the 50% chance to use them iff I use the format listed in the Codex.  Mind, I probably would since my Wolves have always been based on Grey Hunters.  So, unless I am missing something Wolves lack the “Objective Secured” rule as well.  So, they Score, but cannot Secure anything unless nothing else is alive nearby.   Eh, lazy writing at best.

Essentially the whole feel I got from the Codex was a lot like the 3^rd Edition one where it was in the “Hero Hammer” phase for GW.  Bring out your tooled up uber Characters, the minimum “other” to support them and run at each other.  This time I get the feeling they also want to sell a LOT of Thunder Wolves.  Since pretty much every IC can be mounted now, and the TWC have come down in price.  So, that seems to be the “good” unit in the book at the moment on first reading…  Problem I have is that this is a fucking Science Fiction game set in the FAR future involving genetically modified humans wearing Powered Armor with many futuristic weapons, etc… Oh, and now riding giant Wolves as Cavalry if you didn’t get that this game was simply the Fantasy game ripping off Tolkien’s (and Moorcock, etc…) stuff and changing the setting to be the far future, the Chariots and Cavalry should drive that point home again for you.

Not ALL bad, I like that the “Iron Priests” (Techmarines) finally got the IC rule, and this time they remembered to cut/paste in the rules allowing them to repair things…  J  Since I have at least one edition’s book where they didn’t, and when it was pointed out and the FAQ was asked for the reply was essentially “too bad”.  That and the Terminators remembered what the bloody teleporters were for.  They can once again Deep Strike.  Cheap Terminators, and since I have always liked them and have a mess I might at some point play that list…  Score now, but cannot easily mix Powered and Terminator armors…  So, not a complete waste by any means I guess.  Fliers look OK, but being limited to Wolves?  Eh…  Seems odd to produce an expensive kit that cannot be used for more Armies…

Negatives I already went over a few…  The biggest ones are the loss of the “Mark of Wulfen” and the Scout’s ability to go behind enemy lines.  Having converted the one Wulfen/Squad for my Grey Hunters and having played them in EVERY Wolves list I ever  used for several editions now, that loss is annoying.  Not devastating, but annoying.  HtH has not been the way to win games for a few editions in any case, I just tend toward the “No Kill Like Overkill” and “Fortune Favors the Prepared”.  Maybe the DLC books which hit, well probably next week, will add it back in, but that is itself another insulting and annoying negative.  $50 for the book that is itself incomplete on day one?  The Scouts loss of their traditional ability however is a killer for me.  When the Quad guns hit with the silliness that was “Interceptor” in the previous edition, these lads were essentially shelved.  Yes, I COULD bring them and if I were especially careful actually get them into position to get in their one shot with Plasma Pistols and Melta…  Then of course, they lost the ability to bring a Wolf Guard in Powered Armor with them and the ability to Assault out of Reserve.  Was great against the rear echelon gun line Troops, but really that was about it.  So, they were a Denial unit that was small, lightly armored and very vulnerable…  Now, well even worse.  I cannot come in on the Enemy or say my own table edge if the situation demands it…  So, one of my oldest and best units is now completely useless.  “Elites”, not even bloody Troops.  Not that it matters much except that the Elite slot is crowded with stuff that might actually DO something…

Other news, apparently the Grey Knights are coming out as soon as this Month?  Between the online army builder and the White Dwarf, looking like it will be very soon.  And this one will be just the Grey Knights, not “Inquisition, Assassins with a few token Knights…  Maybe.  The Dread Knights and Storm Ravens  were pretty darn good, and I rather liked using the Terminators (yes, running theme for me)…  Heck, even the PA Knights were good, better by far than their “normal” Marine brethren…  So, yea?  I guess…

Seems like it has gone to a subscription model that is simply too rich for my gaming budget, and the game itself has devolved to the point I have little interest in playing anymore…

But on to more fun gaming…  Getting a bit more used to the Warmachine v2 rules and CPT Kraye’s Cavalry battlegroup…  Fun, not hugely powerful I think, but FAST and able to surprise a lot of folks with the speed and accuracy of the fire… And the game itself is fresh enough to me that I do not have the baggage associated with the 6 previous editions J… 

Gen Con this weekend for me, playing in a STAW event, 100 points, pretty simple, taking either:

List Name

Resource: Flagship Independent (Fed) (10)

U.S.S Excelsior (26)

Mr. Spock (4)

Adm. James T. Kirk (5)

Dmitri Valtane (3)

Quantum Torpedoes (6)

Ship SP: 44

USS Voyager (30)

Jean-Luc Picard (6)

Flagship (0)

Montgomery Scott (5)

Hikaru Sulu (3)

Positron Beam (2)

Ship SP: 46

Total Build SP: 100

Generated by STAW Builder

http://www.dracossoftware.com/STAWHome.html

Or

List Name

Resource: Flagship Klingon (10)

Vor'cha Class (26)

Martok (5)

Ship SP: 31

Negh'Var (30)

Worf (3)

Flagship (0)

Ship SP: 33

K'T'Inga Class (22)

Gowron (4)

Ship SP: 26

Total Build SP: 100

Generated by STAW Builder

http://www.dracossoftware.com/STAWHome.html

Depending on how silly and brutal I feel like being…  The Dominion fleet is a possibility as well of course…  J…  Game time decision I guess.

Warmachine V2...

So, got in my first Warmachine/Hordes (Warmahordes) game last night…  So much vaguely familiar and forgotten, but overall it was quite good…  We only played 15 points each, so it was really quite a small game.  His army was just 3 figures.  Trollbloods, so a Warlock (I do not know their names), a Mauler and the big named Mauler character.  My own force was a lot different.  His was essentially “We have a Hulk”, counting on the HtH abilities of the big nasties.  I went with:

CPT Kraye

  Defender

  Charger

Arcane Tempest Gun Mages

ATGM CPT Adept

I focused not so much on “run over there and bash them” instead going more for an Ender “The Enemy Gate is Down” approach.  The Gun Mages all have the ability to shoot with their magic pistols and push things d3” out of the way, and if I roll a double, knock it down.  The Charger becomes “Light Cavalry”, so it can run for free, and has a 5” move after it activates.  Making it a great choice to move, shoot and then probably move back out of the way.  It has a decent shooting attack, but takes 2 Focus to run effectively.  The Defender is Cavalry, and with its 16” BFG shooting a POW 15 shot, it is a very long ranged threat and it is surprisingly effective with boosting against…  Well, whatever.  The Charger and Defender pretty well just won me the game last night with the Charger shooting and doing some damage to the Caster, with the BFG then hitting.  Since it did an additional 10 damage over and above the Caster’s armor, it would have killed him with the damage already done…  So, using the Warlock ability to shunt the damage to one of his Beasts…  But 10 damage almost takes out one of the Heavy Beast’s spirals.  Rolled the 5 for the “spirit” spiral, which is critical for the Beast’s effectiveness…  The Gun Mages then shot it, doing a few points, but more importantly, knocking it down and finishing off the Spirit Spiral…  So, in one turn the Warlock was wounded badly and one of the Beasts was crippled.  He charged his Mauler into my Defender, but it was too late really.  He hurt it badly, and threw it onto my GM CPT Adept, killing him instantly…  So, there was a casualty…  But CPT Kraye’s feat allows my Jacks to stand for free, I was in range to just stand and shoot again with the Defender’s BFG, the CPT’s carbine and the Charger…  Oh, and the Gun Mages…  So, he called it as it was obvious that the game was over and his Warlock was more or less set up for the end of "Butch and Sundance"...

So, a good start to my League run…  I will be able to finish up the painting of my models for more points…  Have to pay attention to the rules, points, etc…  Was surprised how many players there were J  Guessing this is where the 40K crowd went…  STAW planning I guess...  I may try to get in a 100 point game before Gen Con if possible to test the fleet I intend to bring there...  

Need to clean the Basement of Doom (tm), and clear off the painting desk to swap in for another table or something that will work a bit better...  But I have WAY too much sitting on the desk these days and too many things I want to get assembled and painted...  Imperial Knight, Wolf Terminators and Siege Breachers, now my Warmachine stuff to get touched up and finished...

Wolves stalking slowly, Warmachine and STAW

So, Wolves hit this week... And there is already a "supplemental codex", ie: DLC on day one.  So, painting guides and a few pages of rules for ANOTHER $50?  Sorry Dave, going to have to pass on this...  Still not seeing anything at all that brings the 7th Ed codex up to anything like the Generic Marines Codex in terms of leveling the field against the power armies.  Hell, the Marine book is pretty "eh" overall in that respect.  A few good options, but overall I think it has a difficult time coming up against one of the real power armies.  Plus side it does have Grav weapons to deal with the MCs.  Not seeing that with the Wolves yet.  Looks like they get some if not all of their magic spells back, but they seem weaker.  DNs, but those are "eh" at best still.

Was just down in the Basement of Doom (tm), and clearing off the table...  Some REALLY nice resin I picked up in trade, so Forgeworld Terminators being painted up in the old Legion colors along with the rest of my old "repaint" project for them...  Maybe I'll play them again i a few months or years...  Did get a bit of work done on my Knight.  Amazing model.  Just a bit annoying that the game has gone to this extreme that the big toys are really the only things that work...

Otherwise, gearing up for Warmachine tomorrow.  Haven't played since the beta of 2nd edition, and frankly I haven't a real clue what are the current "good" pieces.  Packed up the bag with my Cygnar stuff...  Well, most of it.  Sadly, I have more.  Stuff like this:
System: Warmachine
Faction: epic Caine - The Huntsman
Casters: 1/1
Points: 15/15
Tiers: 1
Captain Allister Caine (*5pts)
* Charger (4pts)
* Hunter (6pts)
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts) (6pts)
* Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer (2pts)
Gun Mage Captain Adept (2pts)

So, basically, the charge of the Trench-coat Brigade :-)  Nothing that does all that much damage, just mobile, accurate and should be fun to hit the field with...

STAW still going pretty strong locally.  Probably Gen Con next for me, so 100 point Joust fleets, followed by the Borg OP 2.  Thinking seriously about a Romulan build to throw out damage while being extremely survivable to outlast the other player.  The other options being a standard Klingon "Just Shoot Them" build with a swarm of high damage ships to die well and do a lot of damage on the way out...  Or a Dominion build somewhere between...  LOADS of damage potential, almost as much as the Klingons, just not as cheap...  Could be MUCH harder to kill though...  Some time though, so no hurry....