Yet another army…

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



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



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



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



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



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

St Pat’s Day :-)

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


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

Just some WIP shots…

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

Next League and “stuff”

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



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

So, it’s March…

So, March already…

 

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

 

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

 

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

What Next?

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

Just a random WIP :-)

Just throwing up a few pictures of a random work in progress… In the ancient times, I bought my first Land Raiders in 88 or 89… It was the original MK I that came 2 in a box… Neat, but since they were 750 points EACH, it wasn't really practical to actually field them… Ever, really… By second edition I actually COULD field them in games other than what would have been "Apocalypse" games. We played some stupid big games back then at my buddies houses, usually a whole weekend… 40K (RT) did NOT scale well above a few squads per sides if you were wanting a quick game. Anyway, I converted one over to a Spartan class Land Raider. Back then the White Dwarf magazine actually had things like this that actually helped the gamers, it had templates to make Whirlwinds, Vindicators and the like out of the Rhinos. And this was a conversion using parts of a Rhino and the whole LR to make a larger Raider that could actually carry a squad of Terminators. And I have always liked the Terminator armor, and have a BUNCH of them nowadays with my Deathwing army and all those other armies I have… Grey Knights, Wolves, and Fleshtearers all have at least a squad or two's worth of them. The Deathwing on the other hand has something like 40 of them so far… So, to that end, I'll be converting my second LR over to a Spartan class and magnetizing the weapon loadouts so I can use it as an ancient Land Raider Crusader in my army… Hopefully it will work out ok… Pics to follow if I can get Word and Blogger to play nicely that is…