Nothing fun here this weekend...

Pretty sure I’m going to get myself killed in some random and what should have been completely harmless fashion…  Last night I wound up stepping through the stair in the garage headed into the house with groceries, etc…  Wound up on the ground, fortunately all those years getting thrown around in Aikido/Ju Jitsu seem to have stuck with me as nothing TOO bad seems to have happened.  Of course, while I was laying on the concrete I couldn’t help but think that this would be how I wind up getting killed after all of the amazingly stupid stuff I’ve done over the years…  Been shot a few times, stabbed, hit with cars, dropped out of various aircraft and none of that did me in J…  But watch out for those broken stairs…  Ibuprofen is my friend, mostly because I lost my ass all those years ago playing poker and lack some important padding J…

Not sure what is going on with the kids from the local High School…  I spent a few years in a line combat unit, and we didn’t take losses at anything like the level these kids are.  Lost another one Thursday out here, and he was a friend of the family…  Good kid, damn shame.  Not really looking forward to the wake, his sister was really close with Maggie and the kids (classmates with Kaitlyn) and she was over here all the time during their HS years…  I cannot even begin to imagine what she is going through as she was quite close to her older brother.A lot of my friends from way back when are dead, but by and large doing what we were doing, not really a surprise I think…  Different situation altogether here, and completely outside of my area of experience…

Bye week I guess...

Well, I took the bye with the odd number of players last week.  So, maybe an 1850 game or a 1500 against a mellower opponent…  I’ll probably have a “fun” list with Logan, his Guard and the Land Raider (Spartan Class) I made all those years ago…  The “serious” list will be loads of heavy weapon spam backed up by a decent HtH and my Scouts running a flank or two…

Getting a bit more serious about painting, getting more and more of the lads painted up…  So, I’ll actually have a fully painted Wolf force again after all of these years…  Waiting a bit on 6^th Edition I think, there are so many things in the Wolf codex specifically that really make no sense whatever, or are massively overcosted.  No clue of course what changes will come in, but guessing I have a LOT of choices given the sheer number of things in the basement.

Cleaning and fixing some ancient firearms here, might be getting rid of some J…  Also trying to get myself back onto the workout routine… 

It's looking like Maggie will have friends in for New Years, still hoping to escape for the 40K tournament, but we'll see I guess... 

So, how far along the darker path do I go...

So, on to the league…  Limited choices for who to play next, and so likely to run against the min/maxxed IG list now or at 1850…  This being the last week at 1500, frankly I’d rather just get it over with now J…  Playing IG as well, there is just so much they can bring to the table with that extra 350 points that it starts to get a bit silly really…  So, in thinking about what I’ll be bringing, I find myself building more and more “efficient” lists.  It’s not really that I’m concerned they’ll work as intended; I think they’ll work too well.  And it does let that “somewhat more competitive side” of me out to play…  And that whole power gamer spiral is really hard to get back into the bottle when it gets released… 

Rune Priest (Living Lightning, whatever, rides in Rhino with a GH squad)

GH Squads, min size, Melta (overpowered short range AT for 5 points) or Flamer (it is FREE) in Razorbacks…  I like the old Las Cannon/Twin Linked Plasma Gun turrets, but the TLLC or TLAC works).  It comes to 155/150 points for the light Tank and small but fairly effective squad.  Troops, and I’ll likely deploy out a WG to most of the squads to help a bit…  But you will notice no Plasma Pistol, no Mark of the Wolfen, No Power Weapon/Fist, etc…  Neat stuff, and as a “fluff” player I REALLY like having it on all of my squads, it is not efficient enough for competitive play.  Having ridden into battle in wee metal boxes, I cannot imagine the lads wouldn’t “find” that extra little bit of equipment ( you might be surprised just how much of that extra bit of "stuff" I "found") or that any commander…  Ok any Wolf commander who would have any sort of problem at all with his lads making themselves more effective on the field…

One GH squad in Rhino for the Priest’s ride if I go that route, else he deploys with Long Fangs…

Oh, and Long Fangs...  Loaded out with Missile Launchers, lots and lots of Missile Launchers for my AA duties and general “we shoot other little metal boxes” duties…  So, a unit of 5 Fangs with 4 Missile Launchers is the old 115 point “fill in the blank” unit level like my Scouts and DN’s, etc…  345 points for 12 Missiles shooting at potentially 6 different targets every turn, other than the “we’re not mobile” and “we have no real ablative bodies” problems, I am not seeing a down side…

So, looking at Armybuilder, I have 4 Razorback Squads and 3 Long Fang squads led out by the Rune Priest coming to just over 1000 points.  Likely bring out a Wolf Guard Squad to detail out among some of the other squads and the CML armed one to go in with the Fangs to provide more missile spam and a power weapon in Terminator armor in the unlikely event it comes to HtH…  And I’ll probably add a Scout squad to gamble on the ability to deal with Artillery that will likely sit back in the backfield…  And another 2-3 Razorbacks for the Fangs to provide some rolling cover/deployment aid in the event of “dawn of War” silliness…  Maybe.

So all together a stupid amount of long ranged heavy firepower should it come to a toe to toe slugfest…  Mine is generally more accurate and powerful while the IG has numbers and slightly better transports I think…  But not really the game I enjoy playing.  Too damn effective and not really all that much fun for me, so I can only imagine not much for the other side of the table.  It is one thing if it is a no holds barred environment like a major Tournament, but for a local league a bit much…  I guess we’ll see how annoyed I am Monday and go from there J…

Ah, sick kinder....

So, working from home today with a sick kinder :-)  Maggie is off working and I can actually get a fair amount done from here...  Fortunate it was today with only one meeting scheduled and that one is to be a Lync (teleconference, sort of) meeting....  Looks like things are getting ready to go on that front.  The cats are all a bit freaked out, especially Lugh and Thor...  Giant Maine Coons, Lugh considers Maurgen and I as "his" humans, and Thor is pretty well the "king" cat with their pack structure here...  Maybe teaching them to pack hunt was a bad thing :-)  But Zeke used to run a pretty tight pack, so it worked out well when he actually decided something had to be done...  Lugh and Thor are more or less competing for that "pack leader" role at times, but I am convinced that Lugh is mostly just asserting that Maurgen and I are in "his" territory, he does not like that Thor is a big attention monster and dad's slipper cat...  Thor, being the older one resents the young kitten where "dad attention" is concerned, but is perfectly fine with Lugh as the "Maurgen Guard"...  Now, Lugh is getting to be a bit larger than Thor, as the Coons grow for their first 5 years and Lugh is filling out nicely.  Never going to be a "show cat", he's very broad and muscular...  War cat more than show cat.  But for the one guarding my daughter, war cat works better I think....  Thor has the markings of the old Norwegian Forrest Cats or the Lynx really...  So, much more or a "Forest Hunter" than just "War Cat"... And Thor is laying on my right arm "helping me type" right now...

Gaming, a bit of painting, but just so much going on these days...   Trying to figure out what to do against a min/maxxed IG force....  Dunno, likely just my standard "rock" and we'll see...

1500 point level!

So, we're moving to 1500 points and I know that I am facing Necrons...  New codex, good player, so this should be interesting at least...

I'll probably field something like this:

Logan Grimmar
Wolf Priest (Saga of the Hunter, runs with the Terminators)
Rune Priest (Tempest Wrath? and maybe Jaws of the World Wolf or Lightning)
Wolf Guard (6 in Terminator armor, various combi weapons, Wolf Claws, one with CML)
Wolf Guard (3, various weapons mounted in Razorback)
2 Wolf Scout units (Melta, Plasma Pistols, etc...)
2 Long Fang Squads (ML's, HB's a Plasma Cannon or two...  One squad loaded into Razorback)

Light on Troops IMO...  But with a REALLY solid shooting core with some pretty decent HtH backing it up.  And then there is the 2 squads of Scouts lurking in the background...

Not sure about the Rune Priest, but looking at potentially loads of skimmers...  So, the 100 points maybe to add to Wolf Guard?

Anyone interested in getting in some small games?

http://agentlemansones.blogspot.com/2011/11/special-operations-killzone-giveaway.html

:-)  Might be something to throw down with between/before League games at the Gopher...  I've always been a fan of playtesting things, being fairly good at math/tactics, etc...  I can usually find the broken things/combos...

Waiting for my next meeting, at least there is coffee here, $.27 for unlimited refills (after you buy the "official" mug)...  Just guessing that the University is losing money on this where us IT geeks and the like are concerned, but it is really quite a nice little cafe setting to get a bit of work done outside of the office with the great Wi-Fi here as well...

Building Blocks...

So, the building blocks of the Wolf army I am fielding…  It seems that ~115 points is a key number here.  Wolf Scouts with Melta and either 2 Plasma Pistols or Power Weapons or a combo, though I’ve been finding the Pistols to be more useful…  This comes to 115 points.  My Dreadnaught with Assault Cannon or Multi Melta and the DN CCW w/ Heavy Flamer or the Twin Linked Auto-Cannon arm also comes in at 115.  Grey Hunters without their Razorback are 105 the way I run them…  The Wolf Priest and Rune Priest are both in the 110 or so range the way I run them…  So, building blocks.  Not intending a MSU setup really, just seems the way it works out when I build a Wolf list…

At the 1000 points I think I’ll be fielding the Scouts more than the DN, depending on who I end up facing…  The Melta/Plasma troops appearing in the flank or back side of the field are really quite powerful…  But still trying to it too much in the 1000 point lists I think…  1500 and above will be far more interesting…