Grumbles from the Dark…

Well, things are getting a bit darker here…

 

State is looking to dump the Health Alliance contract… Since the health benefits are one of the few things left keeping a lot of us at the University, seems a bad decision to a lot of us down here in Champaign, but what would we know of such things…

 

Got another mail from el Presidente of the University letting us know that we'll be getting the same level of funding this year from the State as last year, and that is the best case scenario. State is already talking about reducing funding levels for this year… Of course, that doesn't even begin to get to the $470 million that the State owes the University from last year… So, despite no pay increases since 2008… Well, we can hope that we don't repeat last years pay cuts…

 

Motorcycle trade is looking like it isn't going to happen… Big part of the blame being mine for not getting good pictures out there quickly, but to be honest my heart really isn't in to this trade much at this point… So, anyone out there (Dave :-) ) know of any decent lower end "cruiser" type bikes like the Honda Silverwing, Rebel, etc… I'll probably end up selling ot trading off a few of the nicer weapons like the Lugar and FN-49 to finance it… I do have quite a few nice ones to let go for this particular cause… It's been 20+ years since last I owned a bike, would rather start with something more "beginner friendly" and fuel efficient…

 

Grey Knights :-) well, coming along slowly… Several Psycannon troopers stripped/primed and ready for painting… Librarian (ancient Inquisitor in Terminator Armor) getting magnetized and painted… He'll serve in my Consecrators army as well… There's not really been as much time this week to get down there and work on stuff, but really wanting to get my LRC up and running, should be amusing running it against people who weren't even born when I first assembled the tank…

Yeah, too many toys :-)

Just doing a bit of random conversion work in the basement… Gearing up to make a few Twin Linked Autocannon arms for my Dreadnaughts, continuing to work on the Spartan class Land Raider Crusader for my Consecrators… And I came to the conclusion that I have WAY too many Terminator suits here… In my Consecrators alone I have something like 40, so perhaps not quite the whole first company for them. My Wolves have maybe 10 ancient suits, my Fleshtearers about the same, a mix of the original lead RT era suits and some modern plastics… And now my Grey Knights… Another mix of the ancient RT suits and some of the 3^rd ed era stuff…. But all told another 15 or so that I've found so far… I'll probably end up picking up at least one box of them and another box of the powered armored lads as well finances permitting :-) Right now I'm stripping and repainting a handful I do already have… I'll have to break a few Rhino hulls out of deep storage as well now that they can actually use them… I'll have to get some random pics of the basement o' doom up soon… Finally getting more of it cleared, still finding surprising "stuff" here and there…

First battle with the new Codex…

 

 

So, just a quick battle report of sorts… Partners league, but my partner was under the weather, so I paired up with Greg's Eldar Jetbike army against the Chaos/Necron team I played last week. Given the combo of our armies, it was a fairly unfair matchup for them really… The Eldar runes, the Aegis and then the Librarian's Hood meant the Chaos powers were simply not going to happen. All in all, I'd say the big Terminator squad and the Dreadknight were the stars, accounting for a LOT of the kills during the fight.

 

Librarian    150

    Sanctuary, Might of Titan 10

 

Termi Squad     400

    2xpsycannon    50

    Psybolt ammo    20

Nemisis DK    130

    Incinirator,    30

    Teleporter    75

DN    2xTLAC, Psy ammo    135

 

Rough draft of the list… Biggest mistake I made was forgetting the Hammerhand/Might of Titan once I got the lads into HtH… I was thinking that the Str 4 power weapon would be enough after I forgot to cast the bloody power… :-) Yeah, I was wrong of course… But the Dreadknight was really quite impressive, accounting for a full squad of Nurgle Bikers and a Necron Monolith. The Teleporter was REALLY helpful, and since the Knight would otherwise be walking… Unlike a Wraithlord, the heavy weapons are really not the main reason to bring it I think… The Nemisis Fists were impressive on their own really… Looking forward to more playtests…

 

Knights deploy…

:-) Picking up the Codex tomorrow, so Monday I'll be fielding the new lads… Debating on a few different builds…

 

So, either a full 10 man Terminator squad with 2 Psycannon and maybe Psybolt ammo coming in at 470 points or Power armored squads… The Terminators can either deploy en masse to be a "deathstar" sort of thing with say, a Librarian to camp objectives or spearhead an assault or Combat Squad in non kill point missions… So, not nearly as outright "hard" as my Deathwing with the 3++ saves, but quite a bit more effective shooting within 24" than most things in the game currently…

 

PA troops, I think Rhinos or Razorbacks with the lads… We see WAY too much AP 3 or better here locally, so walking is not an option. Deep strike? Maybe… I think I got way too spoiled with my Flesh Tearers Vanguard Vets and Consecrators Deathwing/Ravenwing combo for insanely accurate, safe and effective drop armies… Knights don't seem to have access to either the long ranged AT firepower the Deathwing have or the "We're just here to kill them all" feel the FT have… So, they'll probably play the way my Wolves with what I consider a light Mech force… Since I run my Razorbacks as light tanks, I think the Fortitude power will make them a bit more effective… But in the end, they're still just AV 11 metal boxes (having lived in an aluminum box just like that for a few years, I can say with some confidence they are in fact just that)…

 

So, probably a Librarian, Infantry of doom and then what else? Thinking the 135 point "Rifleman" DN and/or a Dreadknight… Both of course would be what I prefer, but a minimum of 265 points, and of course "more" since I'd probably not field the DK without a heavy weapon and/or the Teleporter for the jump pack moves and 30" "I want to be over there NOW"…

 

So, now just to get the book and read it I'm guessing… We'll see what I can make work…

GK/GW thoughts…

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

GK 1000 point Teams…

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

 

Librarian (Might of Titan, Sanctuary, Shrouding)     165

Purifier Squad (2 Psycannon, 3 Halberd)        146

    Rhino    (Extra Storm Bolter, PBolt Ammo)    55

Terminators (Psycannon)                225

Dreadknight (Teleporter, H Incinerator, H Psilencer)    265

Dreadnaught (2 TLAC, PBolt Ammo)            125

 

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

 

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

 

March Ends…

Mostly just random thoughts at this point…


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




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