22 August and beyond...

Well, classes began today...  Busy day at work, looks to be the norm for now at least.  But things are starting to look up...

Not 100% sure what I'll be playing in the upcoming league, but Eldar and Deathwing are the frontrunners...  Eldar are fun if less "competitive", but they might surprise a lot of the locals...  Deathwing are hard.  Terminator troops with Ravenwing support that might just be fun, but only for a bit...  Pretty boring build really.  Effective, yes...  But so very limited.  :-)  I'll likely take the Eldar into the league just to play something different...

Base build:
Eldrad
Wraithguard (fully kitted out as Troops)
Pathfinders (7 seems to be the magic number)
Scorpions?
War Walkers?
Banshees?

Not sure beyond the base...  And then there is the possibility of taking Maugen Ra for the circus of doom :-)  We'll see...

Mid-August, gathering storm :-)

Ah, it’s that time of the year again…  And the Faculty and Students are coming back…  This year though I have 3 Departments to be responsible for and there are major changes sweeping through while this is going on…  The fun never ends.  Ah well…

Spent some time cleaning ancient firearms this weekend….  I’d forgotten a bit just how perfect the M1911A1 just feels.  Now, as an Engineer, I KNOW it isn’t the best in terms of balance, accuracy, etc…  But to me it just feels right.  The one I have was produced in 1935 IIRC, and rebuilt after I left the Army…  It is the same old Colt that I’ve carried for the last 20 years or so and across several continents.  Yes, the new Sigs, Glocks and the like are very pretty, and probably every bit as good…  Many would argue better, but still…  The old Colt has always just worked when I needed it to, and it just feels right to me, and I’ve always been very big on loyalty and tradition I guess…

Bike is having some electrical difficulties…  I am REALLY hoping it is just a dead cell or three in the battery, but I’ll be working on her tomorrow to check the grounds and the voltage to see if she is charging at all…  Really hope so because the bike is really quite nice to ride in to work, etc…

Oh, I have a new office…  A real office in the Psych building…  Haven’t seen it yet, and I’m sharing it in the short term with my new boss, so that will be a bit odd in the short term at least…

Gaming?  Dunno…  Really finding myself missing Magic, so might get back to playing that a bit…  Looks like we’re doing something like the Adepticon tournament for the next league…  Not at all sure what army I’ll bring out to play, but the Eldar might be it for this one…

Humans are amusing some times...

:-)  Sometimes it is amusing dealing with people who have clearly never encountered anyone remotely dangerous...  Now, I'm certainly not the most dangerous individual I have ever encountered, I ran across some real BAMF's out in the real world, so I know exactly where I sit on the food chain as it were...  'course, having said that, I am pretty good at the whole "controlled violence" thing...  But that is one of the reasons I really can smile, say (usually to myself) "fuck it, it don't matter" and walk away from a lot of silliness....  Knowing with absolute certainty that you can kill anyone you want any time you want does make "interpersonal relations" a bit easier, at least on my end...  Whatever, Just more of the same silliness from people who have way too much to prove to themselves...  I got all that out of my system years ago playing Army.

Anyway, off to game tonight I guess...  Not sure who I'll end up playing, and no clue what list to bring :-)  But since it's what I packed on the bike, guessing it is going to be REALLY close to what I brought last week.  Lemartes and the Death Company (Compagne le Morte?  My French is not THAT good) really do have a hugely game changing impact when they can get their charge off...  And I'm fairly good at the whole Jump Infantry thing, so we'll see what happens...

Lemartes....

Well, on his second outing the Chaplain Lemartes in my Fleshtearers list really kicked much ass.  He accounted for the best part of 3 full Tactical Squads on his own in 3 charges killing 7, 7, and 6 at Init 7 with the re-rollable to hit and wound...  The trick was having him get hit by the Heavy Plasma for the one wound to really set him off.  His not being an IC was really quite helpful actually, and with the "Dawn of War" setup he and the DC set themselves 18" away from the enemy allowing me to get in fast and let the rest of my army free reign to move up and take the field, or at least the scraps that were left by then...  Now to get the actual model painted up for next week...

What Next?

Well, my Fleshtearers are coming together quite nicely...  I ordered a Chaplain Lemartes from Dave up at the Gopher since it appears that I'll be fielding him, or a "Fleshtearers" equivalent...  So, I guess it is down to an "Angels Choice" with either the Dark or Blood Angels being what I field in the event we wander up to Adepticon next year...  Pretty sure I can come up with a 1000 point "we're just here to kick asses, who's next" list with either of them...  I guess I have some time to get them together either way though...

DA plus side:  Fearless Scoring Assault Terminators with CML's.  Yeah, that pretty much sums it up...  Combine it with teleport homers on the Ravenwing bikes, they have the ability to appear almost anywhere on the table, and issue the "Molon Labe" while sitting on an objective...  Hard to dig out, and could potentially win a lot of games...

FT plus side:  Well, they're FAST and hit like a ton of bricks.  They win by being the only things left alive at the end or...  No, that's pretty much it.  Kill them all, or lose.  So, I'd have to bring a "hybrid" list with my Scouts to perform "objective babysitting" for my half of the list.    Not quite as confident with them, but I can react to a LOT with them, and I can not really think of better shock troops in any of my armies for pure offensive power...

Any thoughts?

 Figured I'd post what I fielded this evening against Loq's BT force...  Since I'm back riding the bike, I had a pre-set army due to the limited storage on the motorcycle :-)  Nothing subtle, the Librarian and Medic ride in the Land Raider with the short Assault Squad to provide the big bubble of Psy defense, cover saves and a scoring unit to roll directly toward the enemy.  The 2 DC DN's are REALLY powerful and can easily overwhelm anything "marine like" when they get to HtH...  A little lacking in longer range firepower, and I found that I might need a Power Weapon or three in the Death Company to even things out a bit more...  Maybe drop the Medic since really not much needs the Feel No Pain, etc...  The Techmarine is really just there to give the Scouts a 2+ save in a ruin :-)  He ALMOST got to fix my Land Raider that hit terrain a bit hard... 

1800 Pts  -   Blood Angels Army

1 Librarian (HQ) @ 100 Pts
     #Psychic Hood; Shield of Sanguinius; The Sanguine Sword; Bolt Pistol (x1);
     Force Weapon; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Psyker

4 Assault Squad (Troops) @ 370 Pts
     Bolt Pistol & CCW (x3); Infernus Pistol & CCW; Frag Grenades; Krak
     Grenades

     1 Space Marine Sergeant @ [53] Pts
          Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Fist

     1 Land Raider @ [230] Pts
          #Power of the Machine Spirit; #Smoke Launchers; Extra Armour;
          Capacity: 10; TL Lascannon (x2); TL Heavy Bolters

1 Sanguinary Priest (Elites) @ 50 Pts
     Bolt Pistol (x1); Close Combat Weapon (x1); Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades;
     Blood Chalice

8 Death Company (Troops) @ 550 Pts
     Bolt Pistol (x1); Close Combat Weapon (x1); Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades;
     Jump Packs

     2 Death Company #1 @ [120] Pts
          Bolter; Power Fist (x1); Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Jump Packs

     1 Lemartes, Guardian of the Lost @ [150] Pts
          Bolt Pistol; The Blood Crozius; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades;
          Rosarius; Jump Pack

1 Death Company Dreadnought (Troops) @ 125 Pts
     Front Armour: 12; Side Armour: 12; Rear Armour: 10; #Smoke Launchers;
     Storm Bolter; Blood Talon; Blood Talon w/Meltagun

1 Death Company Dreadnought (Troops) @ 125 Pts
     Front Armour: 12; Side Armour: 12; Rear Armour: 10; #Smoke Launchers;
     Blood Fist; Storm Bolter; Blood Fist w/Meltagun

9 Scout Squad (Troops) @ 205 Pts
     Combat Squads; Bolt Pistol (x9); Combat Blade (x2); Sniper Rifle (x6);
     Heavy Bolter (x1); Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Camo Cloaks

     1 Scout Sergeant @ [51] Pts
          Sniper Rifle; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Fist; Camo Cloaks

1 Predator (Heavy Support) @ 135 Pts
     #Smoke Launchers; 2 Sponson Lascannon; Turret Autocannon

1 Techmarine (Elites) @ 90 Pts
     #Artificer Armour; Blessing of the Omnisiah; Bolster Defences; Power
     Weapon (x1); Bolt Pistol (x1); Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Servo-harness

1 Attack Bike (Fast Attack) @ 50 Pts
     Twin Bolter & 2 Bolt P. (x1); Multi-Melta (x1); Frag Grenades; Krak
     Grenades; Space Marine Bike

Models in Army: 34


Total Army Cost: 1800

Surgery, Wi-Fi and waiting :-)

Had my first actual operation today...  Weird thinking about it, been shot a few times, had more broken bones than I'd care to remember, etc...  But it is a cat bite that gets me enough to go to surgery :-)...  The little things that are going to kill me I am convinced...  Not sure how long the actual procedure lasted because I was completely out, but it didn't seem very long.  The wait for it on the other hand...  Scheduled for 11:00, and it ended up being 3 or so when I actually got knocked out :-)...  Oh, SO glad they had free wi-fi there and that Maggie and I both brought our laptops...  Great killer of time and I have a LOT of e-books loaded up and John Ringo's "Posleen War" series is most excellent, especially for folks who actually played Army/Marines in the past... 

Gaming?  Have to admit I'm burning out a little on 40K.  Chatted with Jamie Monday about the old Confrontation stuff, might look into breaking them out...  Been a long time since my Kilted (Clan Gunn colors of course) Wolfen have hit the table, and it WAS a very fun game in our little group here in Champaign...  We'll see if it takes of a bit, but in any case the minis are among the best I've ever seen, and it just looks so awesome on the table...