Next League...

So, I have to decide which of my armies I'll start the next league out with...  Doing an escalation league starting at 500 points, working up to 1850 at the end of the 8 weeks.  We'll be allowed to switch at the 4 week mark, and I might...  So, Wolves or Grey Knights is what I'm looking at with Adepticon in mind.  Now, Jamie is wanting to have a "more fully painted" group of armies on the field with us focusing more on the "hobby" aspect.  Suits me fine as I'd need to have the lads all painted for the road trip to the Chicago area anyway.  Now, the Wolves were my first army, and I still field a LOT of lead...  The ancient RT era "Assault Marines" that I've had for decades.  I also haven't played my old Wolves for a while, but I think I burned out pretty had on them...  Was painting a few of the old Scouts, so I might be about ready to break them out again.  On the other hand, I'm rapidly painting and converting a whole bunch of Grey Knights...  Think I might at least start out with them and see if I can't scrape enough together for a Storm Raven.  I REALLY think that it fits my GK/FT armies, and while I won't have the minimum of 2 that most hard corp "competitive" types would insist is the only way to field them...  Yeah, might not be the optimum solution, but I do think I can make it work :-)

Trying out some different conversions and weapon options to go with the different paint schemes for the Knights...  Seem to be a fairly powerful force, we'll see how they end up working for me...

Flatcon Results...

Well, overall, I have to say I had a great time, Dave was a great partner and we did as well as could be expected really...  I have to say the only thing I was REALLY disappointed about was the lack of painted armies.  I know I brought an army of "what I have painted" rather than a "this is my best force"...  Didn't really make THAT much of a difference overall, but as good as the Spartan class LRC is, I think we would have been FAR better off with the 3rd squad of Deathwing.  For 250+ points it just doesn't put out THAT much firepower and with Melta weapons all over the place, really quite hard to keep alive against a decent player.

I'll upload the pics I took when I dig up my camera, just a bit dead on my feet at the moment...

I fielded:
Belial (LC)
2 Deathwing squads (2 LC, 3 TH/SS CML)
Land Raider Crusader
2 Land Speeder Typhoons w/ MM/TML

Dave had:
2 Rune Priests
2 Grey Hunter squads loaded out in Razorbacks (Assault Cannons)
2 Long Fang squads (1 w/ 5 ML, 1 w/ 3 Plasma cannon, 2 MM)
Land Speeder w dual MM

Round one put us against a REALLY well put together Eldar/Ork force.  From memory they fielded:
Eldrad
min squad of Dire Avengers
Min squad of Pathfinders
6 man squad of Fire Dragons with Exarch in Serpent
Squad of Dark Reapers w/ Exarch (crack shot, tempest)
Falcon

Ork Warboss
3 x 30 Ork squads, all w/Claw Nobs, 2 choppas one shoota
2 5 Ork Loota squads
Death Choppa?

Think that was it...  Mission was Dawn of War, they lined up at the mid point with a big mob and some other stuff, so we were in trouble from the get go...  Not saying that armies like the Deathwing have hard counters, but...  This is one my lads simply cannot face down successfully.  Good game though, but melta destroyed the LRC and we got buried in the green tide...  We didn't get wiped off the table, but it was really a matter of time I think.  His Warboss decided to duel Belial to his regret...  Lightning Claws striking first even with my dice rolling usually win that one...

Round two was against an IG/Chaos Marine list...

Lord Commissar
Platoon command squad (Chimera, random special weapons)
2 Squads (Chimeras, heavy weapons)
Hellhound
Leman Russ Punisher (? heavy 20 main gun, Pask for BS 4 and +1 vs vehicles)
Heavy weapon squad (2 Las Cannon, Mortar)

Sorcerer Lord (lash, force weapon)
Khorne Berserkers (1 PF)
small squad of Terminators
2 Land Raiders (Possession)

We started off slow, but when the reserved Land speeders and LRC arrived, things went quickly bad for them...  One of my DW squads marched across the table to take an objective, the other engaed and destroyed the Khorne lads and Sorcerer...  Not before Belial died though...  He was avenged as the remaining lads in the squad wiped the Chaos Marines and consolidated back to the objective.  I think the Speeders were the MVPs though, with Multi Meltas and Missiles to deal with the Armor in our faces, things turned rapidly in our favor when they arrived...

Game three was against a really well thought out Grey Knight/Wolf force...

Rune Priest
Grey Hunters...  Lots of them in Razorbacks and one in a Rhino, I think 3 Razorbacks?  Though his Fangs might have had one...  Las Cannons and some with Las/Plasma... Wolf Banners in every squad I think...
Long Fangs (5 ML)
Wolf Guard to detail out to the squads...

Brotherhood Champion
Purifiers
Storm Raven (Above in this)
2 Strike Squads (Psycannon, Psy ammo)
DN (Rifleman class)
?  Was that it?  I seem to remember there being more, but...

We started off with a big bang seizing the initiative and destroying 2 Razorbacks...  Then...  Well, things went rapidly downhill :-)...  His Purifiers hit one of my squads, their weight of fire simply wore us down, and it went "poorly" for us...

So, 1 and 2 for 3 excellent games against some very fun opponents...  All in all an excellent tournament.  What did I take away from this?  Well, pretty sure the DA are NOT the force to take to Adepticon...  Just too many hard counters.  I also did not read the force org charts as well...  If I had known only one Troop was required, I think Dave and I could have made a much better force...  Finally, I think that I REALLY should have gone far more defensive with Belial.  The TH/SS option is pretty much the only one that I think should be fielded.  Yes, I "lose" an attack and the I5, but I am hitting with the "I Don't Care" weapon in a Thunder Hammer and I have the 3++ save to try to stay alive...  I died twice in the Tournament to power weapon/fists because I couldn't make that many 5++ saves...  So, Grey Knights, Fleshtearers or Wolves...  Will have to see what the rest of the "Team" decides to bring...

1000 Points of Consecrators Deathwing...

Yeah, not a lot on the table...

So I still need to make the Land Raider Crusader's sponson weapons...  Basically 6 regular bolters on each of them, and then they'll stick to the side via magnets...  The TL Assault Cannons are made, need to paint them up...  The Multimelta is also done, just needs to be touched up...

2 squads of Assault Terminators, 3 TH/SS and 2 LC...  Oh, and the Cyclone Missile launcher for each squad...  2 Typhoon class Speeders with MM/Missile Launchers and of course Belial himself to lead them out...  We'll see how they mesh with Dave's Wolves of doom...  Coming down to the last, so my army choice is being made more by what I have close to done, and we'll run with that...

Tea Parties and Occupiers...

:-)  Kind of amusing, at least from my perspective...  Not sure who wrote about it first, I read it on the Capitol Fax blog how when you get down to it the Tea Party and the Occupiers are fairly similar from an ideological standpoint…  Now, this assumes of course that you more or less discount/ignore the fringe elements of each movement…  Occupiers are unhappy that the big government is easily corrupted by big business, etc…  And the Tea Party is unhappy with the big government thing…  Not that it can become corrupted as it gets big, that is a given…  THAT it is so big and powerful is the problem.  I do think that if some common ground were to be found it would be a major shift in politics as usual, though I'm always suspicious of such things...  Will the "new" be any different than the "old" other than just another mask or puppet in the theater...  But then I'm a "bit" more cynical than most, being a "just leave me alone and we'll get along fine" libertarian type...  Not capitalized because they lost me after 9/11 with their "Well, it IS our own fault" official party line...  Having been over "there" for a few combat or "training" tours, I'm really not seeing how the irrational hatred of all things other than "that one specific hard line religion which shall remain nameless" really is our fault.  They seem to hate us just for existing...  But then I've always been an Engineer type, I don't really care WHY something is broken I care THAT something is broken and how to fix the problem.  And there is a LOT of shit broken over there.

On the gaming side...  LOTS of detail work and painting to get done by Sat...  Still 1000 points of Terminators is not that much in terms of models on the field, just have to be damn sure they are WYSIWYG...

Consecrators for the win...

Well, we had our tournament today, I ended up going 3-0 with the 1850 Deathwing list...  We'll find out Monday if I ended up winning, Joe had to go to that annoying "work" thing, so he and Dave will play out their last game during our normal Monday play time...  A bit surprising despite a LONG run of really bad luck and annoying Chaos "Lash" powers against Mike got evened out by the lads finally breaking through and the sole survivors of a few squads taking out the rest of several squads to clear out the flanks...  Last game, got a bit lucky with the Stormravens getting shot down by my missile launchers...  So much 2+ armor out there, so the AP 3 of the missile launchers was really somewhat useless...

Thinking I'll bring my Grey Knights Monday...  REALLY small army there, but surprisingly resilient the way I bring them.....

The 1000 point list for next week will be a LOT smaller.  Thinking the 2-3 squads will be easy enough to finish...  Hopefully.  Lots of detail work to get to...

What to do for the team tournie?

Mkay,  So I'm going with my Deathwing force for my half of the team tournament...  So I have to get them fully painted and actually decide what I'm bringing out to play...  I think I can get the Spartan class Raider fully converted by the end of the weekend, and I have a few more TH/SS lads to finish up and of course...  So it comes down to whether I field 2 or three squads.  The more I play with them, the less I am liking the "Command Squad" option for the Deathwing.  The banner giving the +1 Attack is "neat", but really overkill in most cases.  The Apothecary giving "feel no pain"?  Given how much of the shooting that they tend to face that ignores FnP, I'm having a hard time justifying the expense...

So, a few squads of the lads...  And the Typhoon class Land Speeder of course...  Thinking that a Whirlwind is not a bad idea...  If nothing else, it sits to the rear and lobs rounds and hopefully survives.  Str 5 to hit the side armor of a rhino hull, DE skimmer or a Chimera rolling 2d6 and taking the highest actually might even do something...

Unfortunately, the options for the old codex are pretty sparse and 1000 points is pretty tight...

SCCM...

So, we're officially doing the SCCM project...  The CIO officially blessed it and we're a go to set up a test environment.  Now, I say test partly in jest as it turns out that we actually have some 4500 machines already being managed by the current edition of the software.  The new version is in beta/RC status, and it really looks like it will be an excellent thing to roll out University wide.  Not just UIUC, but across UIS and UIC as well..  Now, if Microsoft's propaganda (marketing hype, whatever) is to be believed, the upcoming version (which we'll be setting up) can handle the Windows and Mac stuff just fine.  Now, I'm mostly just hoping I'm not volunteering for WAY too much getting involved in this, but I think this will be an excellent opportunity for us all.  We'll see I guess.

Gaming, I still have quite a bit of work to get my 1000 point lest(s) ready...  Not sure which one I'll actually use when the time comes.  No real experience with a "team tournament", but this will be an excellent test for Adepticon next year.  To be completely honest I'm not sure we'll do well, but I'm more interested in just playing the game and seeing how well I can do with what I have. If we win a few, cool...  I guess I tend to overthink these things up until the point I go into "machine" mode and just let it ride.  I can think of several armies we'll have no chance whatever against, but a lot of it will depend on the match ups and luck of the dice.  I'm a bit concerned about my lack of AP 1 shooting, and since the only way I have to deal with other "Rock" units is to engage them in HtH and hope my admittedly excellent Troops can take what comes and give them back the Thunder.  And of course the Land Raider Crusader...  I REALLY like the way that is hitting the field, and my conversions are coming along...  We'll see what happens :-)...