GK so far…

Craptastic, wrote out a whole long thing and it was apparently lost in the warp…

 

Mkay, here it goes again…

 

Ran our lists against a Wolf Drop Pod force… It did not go well for the Wolves. The Brotherhood Champion was awesome, the Xenos Inquisitor was "OK", would have been much better if I had remembered to use his Psytropic Grenades the one time the Purifiers assaulted… The BHC is just Hell on Wheels against enemy IC's if he gets the charge off… I remembered to reroll the attacks, forgot to re-roll the "to wound" roll (Anointed Blade), and forgot to roll for either Hammerhands or the Grenades from the Inquisitor… Didn't matter, the Rune Priest that had the unfortunate luck to be in the way had no INV save, so 2 wounds finished him. The Purifiers made short work of the remaining Long Fangs. Did bring up an interesting one, and as much as I've played Force Weapons, I have never tried to use them activated to Instant Death (ID) anything… Is that a Psychic Power, vulnerable to Rune Weapon/Librarian Hoods nullification? It's never come up for me since either the Power Weapon effect was sufficient or the Librarian was fighting a hopeless battle trying to hold until I could bring TH/SS reinforcements or time ran out :-)…

 

So far, what have I learned?

 

The Strike Squad is actually not bad at all… 110 points for the 5 lads and one Psycannon, the Razorback was more, but still, it fought as an ICV, dropping them in cover over the objective and wandered off to be a light tank. We won the game the way we did due to the 12" Warp Quake bubble keeping the Deep Strikers far enough away to completely neutralize them. The squad them was able to open up on a Grey hunter squad and decimate it (in concert with other shooting), but the giant "Interdiction Zone" they present is game changing.

 

Purifiers are awesome. Mkay, that's a given, and were they Troops, doubt anyone would take anything else. I can see Crowe or a GM making these guys troop equivalents a big deal, and at least with Crowe, there is a limit to the other support you can give them with only one HQ slot still open there. Balance, so that's good I guess… Still, I can see taking a squad of 10, 4 Psycannon and Combat Squadding them to give myself a "Devastator Squad" and an assault element. That this comes to the same point cost as the Purgation Squad is a bit confusing to me, and I guess it is a good thing I don't plan on taking the "Dev squad" for my GK ever… I think these lads will be awesome coming out of a Storm Raven to assault… Team Tournament at Adepticon next year, BA/GK team will be pretty rough to stop… Still, I'll likely bring my DA as part of the team…

 

Terminators… I missed them, will probably go back to them as my Troops selection, or at least one of them next week. Rock solid, and only really lacking the 3++ that I got spoiled on with my Deathwing force. Forgot to pick up more magnets at the Gopher last night, will have to remember next week… And decide which plastic kit I snag, the PA or Terminators… Probably PA since I doubt I'll field more than 15-20 Terminators in a GK force…

 

Have a few ideas for next week, only a few more things I can test at this point level I think, so good that the league is winding down I guess… Probably Terminators, Strike Squad and… "more" I guess..

 

Finally got my tax return, so I can actually start my bike purchase in earnest… Really looking forward to that.

 

Oh, and if anyone is looking for ancient C&R firearms or the like, let me know, I have a few spares to get rid of…

Let’s see what happens…

Well, let's see what I can bring to the table here… If Loq brings Land Raiders of Doom, and I bring a light supporting force…

 

Castellan Crowe 150

 

Ordo Xenos Inquisitor 25

 

Plasma Syphon 10

 

Rad or Psytrope grenades 15

 

Purifiers (2*Psycannon, 3 Halberds) 146

 

Rhino 40

 

Purifiers (2*Psycannon, 3 Halberds) 146

 

Rhino 40

 

Dreadknight (Tele,Incinerator,) 235

 

DN (Assault Cannon/TLAC, Psy ammo)135

 

This leaves me 67 points… But then I thought, what does Crowe actually bring to the table in this list? Changing the Purifiers to troops, sure, but really at 1000 points and only 2 min size squads… And I think that a Strike Squad in a Rhino to project the 12" bubble of "No Deep Strikers" might be better for the team… So perhaps a Brotherhood Champion substituting for Crowe to ride with Purifiers and the Inquisitors in a Rhino. Strike Squad to sub in for one Purifier squad mostly just for more "troops" and give the 12" protection for the critical few turns to get the whole army across the field…

 

Brotherhood Champion             100

Xenos Inquisitor                50

Purifier Squad (2 Psycannon, 3 Halb)    146

    Rhino                40

Strike Squad (Psycannon)        110

    Razorback (TLLC)        80

Dreadknight (Teleporter, H Incinirator)    235

Dreadnaught (Ass Cannon, TLAC, Psy)    135

 

So, ~100 points left over… And perhaps a second Heavy weapon for the DK, more Grenades for the Inq and another Purifier or two? Might need a hammer in the squad too… Also, this would be the first "Terminator free" list I've played in 2 Leagues… But we'll see how well it works out I guess…

All Your Base…

:-)



http://youtu.be/8fvTxv46ano


Yes, getting back to manufacturing bases for the lads… Nothing particularly special, just a bunch of random bits like helmets and that sort of thing on the base, but they do look fairly nice and at the least unique…



Got the Dreadknight mostly built and am getting more of the PA troopers broken out of deep storage, stripped and repainted… Getting ready to build a twin linked Autocannon arm for the DN's… Guessing I'll make it, and cast a bunch of them since I'll be fielding 2-3 of them in the Mortis configuration in each of the "DN capable" armies I have… I'll probably pass them along as well to the locals if Dave is OK with it since it will just be the cost of resin at that point…

Off the wall lists?

Sometimes I think that I can just try something silly in 40K and maybe it will work… At a thousand points, I'm extremely limited, but a thought had occurred to me, what about 2 Storm Ravens with a squad of Terminators (or Purifiers) in each? The Terminators biggest weakness has been that they are slow and therefore vulnerable slogging across the board… Also it is REALLY hard not to telegraph precisely what I am doing several turns in advance) without a transport and/or 3++ saves.

 

So, 2 Ravens at 205/each (load out with TLMM and TLLC probably) loaded out with a squad of Terminators each, probably Psycannon, mix of weapons coming in at 225 each… Brings me to 860… So, maybe one gets der Flamwerfer, and I bring a Brotherhood Champion and Xenos Inquisitor? Would make for one really good assault squad of Terminators backed with the characters giving bonuses to charge, rad/Psytrope grenades, etc…. And the other one can run a flank or be a mobile reserve perhaps… Stupidly aggressive and mobile… Could be quite a shock to the locals certainly the first time at least… Instead of the BHC and Inquisitor, I could drop the 2^nd Terminator squad down to a Purifier squad and bring out the Librarian again… 3+ cover save to the Raven moving all out to deliver the squad o doom out there? Yes please… And Psy defense is always a good thing to have…

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…

Back to gaming stuff :-)

Mkay, still in the 1000 point league, thinking about running the following:

1000 GK

Brotherhood Champion         100

Ordo Xenos Inquisitor            25

    Plasma Syphon            10

    Rad grenades            15

Warband

    Jokaero                35

    2 * Warrior (C arm, SB)        22

Chimera            55

Terminators (Psycannon)        225

Purifiers (2*Psycannon, 3 Halberds)    146

    Rhino                40

Dreadknight (Tele,Incinerator, HPsy)    265

 

2 more Purifiers (w/ Halbs) and 10 more points somewhere? Or flesh out the Inq's band… Plan is to run the Champion, the Inquisitor and the Terminator squad in the Chimera. The Purifiers roll in the Rhino.. DK has the teleporter too, so basically, the Inq warband just sits back and cheers them on while the armored spearhead moves upfield. When the lads get out of their rides, hopefully they're close enough to the enemy lines… The Plasma Syphon making ALL plasma within 12" shoot at BS 1 might protect the Terminators and Purifiers a bit… The Rad Grenades making the enemy -1T should help clear out HtH a bit, and the Purifiers are an unholy terror to hordes, like the IG… 'course, I'll have to keep any Plasma my partner has away from the front a bit :- )

 

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…

Grey Knights beginning…

Last week with the old codex… So, I'll probably run something like this as my part of the 1000 point teams league (2 of us, so 2k/side, and one force org chart…)



Grey Knight Brother Captain (Terminator armor, Psycannon)    91

Grey Knight Terminator squad (4 troopers, 1 Psycannon, CPT has Psycannon and Psychic Hood)    320

Grey Knight Land Raider (Extra Armor)    255

Grey Knight Squad (2 Psycannon, Justicar has Teleport Homer)    210

Grey Knight DN (Assault Cannon, Flamer)    120

996  



So, more troops on the table, lots of Psycannon out there… Oh, so ready for the new codex…



Speaking of which… I think the biggest thing will be the mobility and (for basic infantry) long ranged basic weapons. Yes, 24" ranged Storm Bolters are pretty much the same range as every other Infantry weapon in the game, but the ability to fire with them on the move gives me the tools I need. I tend to think a lot more in terms of mobile elements and having the ability to move my basic squads and fire with almost full effect (Psycannon are 2 shot on the move vs 4 shots standing still… TANSTAAFL). Other armies give me some of this, my Wolves have excellent basic Infantry in their Grey Hunters, and I've played them since… Um, well 89 or so? I can play mobile, aggressive and when I keep my eye on the mission, one that I can take against just about any other force in the game with confidence. My Fleshtearers are aggressive. And… Yup, aggressive pretty well sums it up. The only way I tend to win with them is by tabeling the opponent. Powerful, but pretty much one dimensional. My Guard? Set them up, shoot like you're voting in Chicago… Early and Often… Yes, they do move some times, and I use things like Air Cav (Vendetta for 130 points? Um, ok…) and Scout Sentinels to flank and cause a bit of havoc in the backfield, but by and large it is just standing still and shooting… Poor Praetorians are a bit bored…



But back to the Knights… Assault weapons everywhere, so I'm thinking that we'll be able to run and gun to be able to play the fluid style that I am most comfortable with. The Troops, both the Terminators and the Powered Armored lads will be able to at the very least compete with any army out there. Their psychic powers are absolutely awesome, and woe to the armies out there without any psychic defenses. A lot of the "easy button" solutions just won't work against the Knights, and I think some of the more common builds will be a hard counter for a lot of the "harder" armies, at least in our local scene.



Building and painting is going to be "time consuming" :-) Mike has a fairly large GK force already, I have "some"… Ordered a few new things, and hopefully the Dreadknight will be easy to put together and magnetize… Weapon options being what they are and all, I'll want to have all of those options to swap out. The more I look at them, the more I'm liking all of the options, so this should be interesting at least… I'll probably use the "teleporter" option because I REALLY like jump troops, I have flashbacks to falling out of aircraft myself, so am familiar with and very comfortable with the tactical options opened up by these lads…



Well, a bit of a ramble, but just getting some of my thoughts about these things in order for the next few weeks…

More hobby stuff…

Just a few more rifle pictures… Model Swedish Model 96 Mauser… The most accurate rifle I currently own, I was able to outshoot SWAT snipers with tricked out "uber" rifles with this off the rack GI (not really sure what the Swedes call their soldiers…) rifle at 3-500m with iron sights… Up for trade for the motorcycle of doom…

Getting some of the ancient Wolfen painted… So, kilted werewolves from a dead game :-) But they're coming along nicely, probably because there's no pressure to get them done whatever… Working a bit on my Grey Knights as well… Those lads at least will be used in an actual game soon…