Crowe and Company…

Well, just picked up the Crowe mini last night, so I hope to get it cleaned, primed and assembled along with a group of the ancient Power Armored (PA) Knights that I'm trying out different paint schemes on as I strip and re-deploy them… Thinking a grey armor with the red trim and left shoulder pad, keeping the helmet and right pad white to denote "Purifier" status… We'll see how they turn out… Just want them different enough from the "standard" silver/chrome look that most people use while keeping it different enough from my ancient RT Wolves in Grey… I did consider the ancient black armor with the silver/grey trim/forearm, but that looks a LOT like my ancient Dark Angels ("Consecrators" now, though I may just do the old DA symbol… I'll get to that eventually… Hoping to get them to Adepticon, so…)… Not wanting to have even more identical Marines haunting my basement…

 

Castellan Crowe                     150

Ordo Xenos Inquisitor                    25

    Plasma Syphon                    10

    Rad grenades                    15

Purifiers (2*Psycannon, 3 Halberds)    146

    Rhino                            40

Purifiers (2*Psycannon, 3 Halberds)    146

    Rhino                            40

Dreadknight (Tele,Incinerator, HPsy)    265

DN (Assault Cannon/TLAC, Psy ammo)135

For ~972ish of my 1000

 

So likely swap out the Rad for Psytrope or just add that grenade, Demon Hammer for the Purifier squads, maybe keep the DN a "Rifleman" with the 2*TLAC… Add another Purifier? Swap the Rhinos for Razors and plan for a dismounted Infantry (Dragoons :-)… Mkay, moving the ancient BT novels was probably a bad idea, "Wolf's Dragoons" keep coming up as a recurring theme for me these days) battle… I AM finding that I do miss a LOT of the aspects of the Deathwing, further convincing me that the DW list is a far stronger one especially for a 1000 point team event… 3++ saves everywhere mean no worries about cover, loads of Str 8 AP 3 shots everywhere made a mockery of light/medium Mech lists, and there WAS fast Melta there for the odd Land Raider that ventured too close, and anywhere on the field was too close with scouting Ravenwing :-)… Ah well, the Knights are generally fun armies, I think that at 1500 points and over they will really shine, but low points really hamper their effectiveness… 'course, just my opinions as always, YMMV…

Next iteration :-)

Well, we played against an army pretty much built specifically to destroy ones like ours… And damn near pulled it off. The weight of fire tore up our Terminators though, and that pretty much doomed us. So, I picked up Castellan Crowe, and I will be breaking out Purifiers. And probably one of the Xenos Inquisitors with the Plasma Siphons in one of the squads… The Librarian is solid, but walking Terminators in this local environment are not going to work :-)… So, I'll have to figure something out there… The DNs and DK are both solid choices, but still basically Medium vehicles that will die easily to the heavy AT firepower we see here a lot… More tomorrow I guess when I'm back up and about…

Bring out the GM?

Thinking of bringing the following next week…



Grand Master (Psytrope, Rad Grenades)    205



Purifier Squad (120, 2 Psycan 20, 2 halberd 4)    144

    Rhino                    40

Terminator Squad (10, 2 Psycan, Banner)    475

DN (Assault Cannon, TLAC, Psy Ammo)        135



999 points



Not sure though… The Grand Strategy will be great, but the loss of the Psychic powers, especially the stealth one… Against the Eldar, not a big deal, I would not likely cast it in any case. The Grenades the GM carries would be devastating against them, and scouting the Terminator squad right out into the center and hoping to weather the one turn it would likely take to reach the line… Probably have Loq bring a Crusader full of HtH troopers and the EC. Just overwhelm whatever is in front of us with lots of really dangerous targets. LR/LRC full of BT's, my lads on foot daring them to close, the DN providing cover fire and the Reinforced Aegis… We'll have to play this somewhat more aggressive , but it should work out well…

Loyalty :-)

Was reminded today that loyalty is always a two way street...  And that once a person or a group proves over and over that they do not see things in the same way, perhaps it is time to simply move on.  :-)  To me at least it completely validates my recent decisions, so there is a certain freedom in that once you let go... Kind of like hooking up to a static line, not sure exactly where you are going to land, but it is far too late to change your course once you get to the door :-)

Ah well, back to gaming stuff :-)

Next week I think I bring something completely different for the GK's...  We've played the one army in the league I did not feel our armies had an answer for, so let's try some of the other weird stuff...  Things like a Grand Master with the Psytrope grenades (thanks to Mike at http://whiskey40k.blogspot.com/2011/04/busy-gk-and-addendums.html for pointing out something I completely missed)...  I'm really liking the 10 man Terminator squad with the banner, so they'll likely be a staple unit...  Haven't tried the Purifiers yet, so they'll likely come out to play in a Rhino...  Strike squad in Razor/Rhino to run next to Loq's Land Raider and make deep strikers pay dearly for daring to drop in on us...  AC/TLAC DN w/ Psy ammo for an aggressive Dread and rolling in with the Terminators and other vehicles...  Probably not the biggest threat, so it might even live :-)  For a while at least...  Ironically, I might have the Dreadknight mostly assembled, but might have it sit out to free up a mess of points...Or bring it, he is an unholy terror against things like the IG masses and most Marine stuff...  Dunno...  Too many toys I want to bring, not enough points...  Not many teams left to play in the league, so pretty darn good idea what we'll be facing at this point I think...

Projects…

So… I guess I'm on to rebuilding some of the ancient toys for a more modern version of 40K. The Grey Knights I have are a mix of things from the very early 90's I think… Maybe late 80's, I can't remember, there was "a bit" of alcohol consumed over the years and that whole Army thing in there somewhere…. I remember the squad of five of them costing a LOT…1200 points since I'm looking at the Compilation :-) The Heroes were up to 600 points on their own, but insanely powerful… The new lads are powerful, but few… And they are nowhere near the obscene level of power seen in the RT era… Still, it will be fun fielding 3 full armies of RT era stuff with my Wolves (lead original Assault troops everywhere), Consecrators with the plastic "Beakie" marines and Terminators, though not all of them being the old ones… And my Grey Knights now with their mix of the ancient lads alongside the newish metal ones… I'll probably get some of the new plastic ones soon, but right now with money being tight and me really just starting to strip and repaint the Power Armored lads, I think it will have to wait.

 

Assembling the Dreadknight now, it is a really nice kit. Coming together nicely, but I'm moving slowly as I really want to magnetize the weapon options on it… Not completely sure how that will work out, and I'm seeing good uses for all 3 of the heavy weapons… Not so much for the Daemon hammer, the Sword is a "maybe", but 25 points for re-rolling at Str 6 and losing an attack? "Eh" is the best I can say here…

 

Getting ready to start selling off a few of my nicer firearms, so anyone out there looking for a nice FN-49, Lugar, Hakim, etc… Probably half a dozen handguns and a bunch of rifles up, going to be getting that elusive motorcycle… Just ask, I may well have one… Loads of ammo and accessories as well :-), I know Maggie is happy seeing some of the firearms leaving, perhaps not so thrilled about the bike, but… The bike will be a whole hell of a lot cheaper to commute to work and zip about town… That and it has been a LONG time since I had one, and I do kind of miss that…

First win!

Well, Loq and I got or first solid victory…

 

She brought Her Templars:

EC

Terminator Squad w/ 2 CML and Tank Hunter

Large squad of CCW/Pistol Marines

2 Line Squads, 1 ML, 1 Las Cannon

Vindicator

 

I brought the list I played last week, more or less..

Librarian

10 man Terminator squad w/ 2 Psycannon, Banner

DN w/ 2 TLAC and Psybolt ammo

Dreadknight w/ Teleporter and Heavy Inferno

 

Facing IG/Eldar with (from memory, so probably not accurate)

Seer Council on Jetbikes

Autarch on Jetbike

3 Squads of Jetbike Guardians w/ 2 Shuriken Cannon/squad

2 of the Hellhound variants with the Multi Meltas, forget the name…

3 Leman Russ Demolishers with LC and Plasma Sponsons

 

Setup was Spearhead, kill points… They had turn one, so after they set up, I set up my Terminator squad w/ Librarian in cover strung out along our front… Her line squads set up in cover along with the Tank Hunter Terminators… The poor HtH squad set up in the open, and they died early on, but they bought the rest of the army time, absorbing a LOT of fire allowing my Terminators the opportunity to set themselves up in cover at the center of the board… From here, over the course of 4 turns, their Psycannon accounted for a number of vehicle kills while the Librarian was finally able, on turn 4 to defeat the Farseer and prevent the Fortune power… The Seer Council got stuck in HtH with one of the Line Squads, they held and the Terminators she had with Power Fists came in to swat them out of existence. The Dreadknight jumped about and killed a few things, despite whiffing against one of the Hellhound… Still impressed, though I think I will have to run the Heavy Psycannon to test them…

 

I think that I will have to run the Knights at 1500 or 1850 to get a true feel for the army… 1000 is just too small to really field much. My DA force was much better at this level I think… I think if I end up going to the team tournament at Adepticon next year, it will be my Consecrators that hit the field…

Another week :-)

Well, it is looking like I'll be moving offices and jobs… 'course, I'll still be in a basement at first… Just a bigger building I guess. We'll see, there is still time for the plan to transition over to a "Gone To Hell" plan. I've been hesitant to mention anything because there were too many things that could go wrong, especially if certain "interested" parties got wind of it :-) Negotiations continue, long since out of my hands or control, but things look like they are going quite well for me at least. Not everything I had hoped for, but far better than I had feared. I surprised a whole lot of folks be being simple, direct and right out in the open once I made my move… Actually, I think the move itself shocked a lot of folks, but that's OK too. I would rather people underestimate me, it makes beating them a lot easier. Not many people know just how many languages I speak/understand, how quick my reflexes are or how strong I really am :-)… Same thing at work, I have a lot of random seeming skills and certifications, etc… People forget I can really do a lot more than fix laptops and the like. That's OK, I can do that too, just that when I get bored bad things happen…

 

Gaming tomorrow I hope :-) Not 100% sure what to bring, but it will be mostly or all Grey Knights… The Librarian, I think is a very powerful choice… I think the Brotherhood Champion will be a very rude shock to some folks here. The Dread Knight I really want to field again, I think it has a lot of potential, especially in our local scene… I do look forward to crashing it into a blob and seeing how much havoc it causes… The Terminators are solid, I am looking forward to testing the Purifiers. Stripping and starting to paint the messy old school PA Knights I have, will likely be picking up another box of the new ones to mix and match to make a whole mess of PA troops. I think the Strike Squads are going to be key to the way the army plays out… Preventing deep strikers is going to be huge. I see the Knights having a sweet spot 18-30" away, and they will play to dare the opponent to come in and fight HtH against troops all armed with Force Weapons (Power Weapons in almost all cases, I don't see the "Force" part being activated all that often) and some really devastating powers in CC… Grenades and Psychics are both going to be huge, but with such a small force, I'll still have to play cautious and be aware that I can always just lose by rolling poorly… We'll see how they play out, I think I am going to enjoy the challenge…