So, 6th is almost here...

One of the best summaries I've found is here:

http://www.thehogsofwar.com/2012/06/warhammer-40k-6th-edition-rules-summary.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheHogsOfWar+%28The+Hogs+of+War%29

So far it is looking like a lot of my armies are set to get better in many ways...  For instance my Fleshtearers I have played as a Jump heavy "Berserker" force with Death Company.  Rage is now +2 attacks on the charge, Jump troopers now have the same 2d6 everyone else does for Assaults, so a huge potential threat range...   Both Eldar and Marine snipers get better, but Pathfinders are going to be insane.  The "To Hit" roll of a 6 means the sniper shoots the target of his or her choice, and the Pathfinder will be hitting at AP 1...

And that segues into my main concern.  I do think that there will be some potential issues with some of the codexes, especially the 4th edition ones.  Now, a bunch of major FAQ/Online PDF's changes could very easily mitigate this and make is a non issue.  But there are a few things that because they were written for a VERY different system that might cause problems in the current one.  Specifically the Eldar Runes/Ghost Helms and Long Rifles are the ones that I immediately thought of.  The giant "Screw You Enemy Wizard...  I mean 'Psycher'" that the runes of defense causing the 3d6 rolls for all Psy powers is going to remain really powerful, until the rules change through FAQ or a new codex.  The rules for the Rangers/Pathfinders and their interaction with the new "Sniper" rules might make it a bit overpowered in the near term...

I think my other major point of concern is the Allies stuff, combined with the potential 2nd FOC at 2000 points.  Now, I'm not going to say much about allies because I have not seen the actual rules and restrictions as of now...  My hope is that it will be "neat" but not brokenly over powered...  My fear is that it will become a crutch to make even more silly broken combos.  The FOC thing is going to be a concern for big games more, unless of course the "standard game" goes to 2000+ points...  The first major thing might be something like the GK book with the potential for lots of the cheap HQ options and IC's...  Not worried...  Yet :-)

New book incoming...

Well, pre-ordered the Warhammer 40K 6th edition book from the Gopher...  (20% off for pre-order/pay, so as good as online sites, with added bonus of supporting the store I game in...  Wasn't sure they were doing this, but Bill was quite helpful :-)  Making that last minute sale...  Guessing we'll see what really changes.  Rumors and early info are all looking pretty darn good.  Sounding like we'll be hitting 2000 points for a normal game.  My Eldar might even make a resurgence...

My fun and games with the Squats I think will be tabled for the moment.  If Mantic does the kick starter thing for their Sci Fi game, perhaps I'll kick in for some of the Space Dwarves...  Then I'll make some Airships for fighter-bombers...  May well make some of the "Space 1899" ones for my IG in any case, just too amusing to have the Praetorians on those things...

More Squat (Ork) madness...

So, not at all sure that I will be able to bring a second "Battlewagon"...  I DO have the second MK I Land Raider (Spartan) dusted off, and since it looks like I'll be trucking it in rather than riding the old Silverwing I'll certainly HAVE the room to do so...  So, maybe...

Warlord (War Boss) w/Mega Armor, Cybork, Attack Squig...  So, the ancient Exo Armor..
Exo Armor suits (5 Meganobz, Troops)
  Battlewagon (Roller, red, armor, claw, plank and riggers, 1 big shooter)

Engineer (Mek, force field)
DN (Deff Dread 2 rocket launchers, Troops)

The Boys (Boyz, 30 w/ 3 RL's one on Nob w/ PF)
Thunderers (Lootas, 12)
RT DN's (3 Killa Kans, RL's/DN CCW)
War Bikers 5, 1 Nob w/ PF)
Thunderers (Tankbustas, 5)

So, a moving "blob" kind of...  The boys will envelop the tank bustas and protect the flanks of the Battlewagon.  The Kans and DN will move with them to take advantage of the force field.  The Thunderers will occupy terrain and stand still shooting...  Maybe this time they will even get some shots in the first 3 turns...  Bikes probably reserve or run a flank as light Cav...  So, subtle :-)

The other option is a second Battlewagon, drop the Boys to 20 to let them ride...  Give up the Tankbustas, and that's about it...  Thinking the tankbustas are going to be pretty worthless, so could swap burnas in maybe for the same point cost...  Flame Throwers or Rockets at BS 2...  So, 3 options I guess...  The 2 Battlewagons with the DNs escorting could be a REALLY devastating thing to the locals who are not used to AV 14 transports...

Dunno, but it is amusing seeing the horde of Space Dwarves and RT era DNs hitting the table...

6th in 2 weeks?

Well, from the GW teaser it is looking very much like the 6th ed will be hitting/be announced officially/opened for pre-order on the 23rd of this month...  Maybe.  Seems a really shitty way to announce your flagship product, and it really hurts the independent retailers many of whom might well still have 5th ed rule books on the shelves...  Guessing they will be eating that cost, but I honestly do not know...  The AoBR boxes are probably still selling for the minis inside alone...  Maybe the 6th ed box will be something cool :-)  Who knows...  And maybe they will do a big group of FAQ's like they did for fantasy, but it looks like there will be a REALLY messed up couple of months before any codexes get released...  Hoping it doesn't kill off the local group...

Started another wee blog, mostly to keep myself honest with the diet/weight loss/exercise program...  Nothing much there at the moment...

Almost have Maggie convinced that I need a bigger bike :-)  Found a 1980 Goldwing for $400...  Doesn't look like it has the luggage, so would definitely need that...  Dunno, maybe if it is still there after the Disney trip.  In the meantime I'll be saving to the "special" account and still trying to sell off old firearms, computers and assorted "other" stuff...  Not sure if a garage sale is in the near future, or if it just goes e-bay/craigslist for the non firearms.  LONG term, I'm looking at saving up for a bigger bike, most likely a Harley Davidson cruiser, Road King, Fat Boy or Street Glide...  Something like that...  :-)  But that is a very long term thing...

Dwarf Jump Infantry?

:-)  So, thinking of running some of the "Stormboyz"...  But the Squats AFAIK never had jump infantry...  Looking at picking up a few Mantic Forge Fathers as additional infantry, but no real idea what to do to make jumpers...  Though I do have an old brand "x" jet pack or three I could replicate...  Hmmm...  Finding the Orks really don't have a lot of choice but play aggressive against Necrons at least...  Guessing this will be the case for a lot of armies...  And I REALLY like my jump troops...

Long ride on the bike today...  2 hours is apparently my upper limit.  Not thinking that it was the seat, I think it was more the lack of highway pegs...  Need to be able to stretch the legs a bit now and then, and just not happening on the old Silverwing...

Squats as Orks, Week 1 results...

Well, played it out... Ran:
Mek w/ Field
Warlord (Cybork, Mega Armor, squig, etc...)
Mega Nobs
  Loaded in a Battle wagon, tricked out...  The Boarding Plank was really amusing BTW...
Shootas (30, Nob w/ PF, 3 rockets)
Thunderers (lottas, 2 squads of 12)
Killa Kans (3 with Mega Blasters)
Bikers (Nob w/ PF)

:-)  Played Necrons...  So, the post game debriefing would go like this:

Thunderers...  When they finally got to shoot, they were amazing...  Though perhaps I had too many, given they were completely useless until turn 4...  2 turns of night fighting, one turn of rolling 1 for shots meant they really didn't DO much...  They caused a giant bottleneck as they are a huge "fear factor"...

Shootas...  "Eh", with night fighting, they wound up tying up 2 Necoon Lords and a C'Tan shard for most of the game...  In this case, the pistol/axe troops would have been WAY better for the 29 extra attacks on the first turn, and 3 attack/man rather than 2/per...  I think that the Shooters will be given another shot, but I suspect that close combat troopers should outnumber the shooters 2/1...

Kans...  Awesome, but close combat...Even BS 3 shooting didn't work much for me...

Bikers?  Yes, send more...

Battlewagon?  Made an obnoxious number of field save, forget the roller...  Awesome I think...  Might go with 2...

So, amusing...  And I think it will play well...

Squats as Orks MK II

Mkay, looking over what I actually have...

Warboss (Warlord) with Mega Armor (Exo Armor, TL Shoota/Fist), Cybork (Refractor field), Attack Squig

  Str/T 5, 3 wounds, 5 base attacks, 6 on charge, Terminator armor, and riding the wagon with loads of extras

Mek (Engineer) with Force Field, Power Fist
 
    He is really just here for the force field...  Might change the fist out for the flame thrower...

Mega Nobs (Hearth Guard) Mega Armor, power fists, 1 flamer

  Riding in a Battlewagon with Death Rolla, Red Paint, Armor plates, Grabbin Klaw and Boarding plank...  Probably WAY too much crap on the tank, but it's like a Swiss army knife :-)  So many toys....  Death Roller for the d6 Str 10 hits (2d6 if they "Death or Glory"), the plank to allow one model (Warlord) to attack a vehicle within 2" as if he charged...  Claw to have a 4+ roll to prevent an enemy vehicle moving...  Should be wrecked by the Exo suits after that...  You know, assuming any vehicles end up within 2" and survive :-)  Might be an amusing answer to a parking lot...

The Warlord (boss) makes one Nob unit a Troop section, so just one more needed...  I'm looking at a very big "bubble wrap"...  30 strong squad with one PF Nob (with one of the 3 rockets, 2 more in the squad)...  Expensive, but fearless and fairly effective...  But really just there to swarm and protect the...

Lottas (Thunderers)...  2 squads, on of 12 one of 11.  Each armed with an auto-cannon shooting d3 shots....  So, even at the mighty BS 2, there a re a LOT of potential shots hitting...

3 Killa Kans (RT Era DN's), all armed with Mega blasta...  Keep them near the Battlewagon to act as a can opener...  The squadron should get the 4++ cover save, the Str 8 AP 2 shots might even do something...  But really they're there to pull a Fencik/Plank move...  Now, for those of you who did not grow up watching the Bears in the late 70's/early 80's, this is where one of the players would make contact with say, the quarterback and just hold him in place...  Not tackling him, rather stretching him out a bit for the second lad to come in and absolutely level the target...  We used to do this back in HS when we played football (I played Safety, buddy was a Linebacker, we were REALLY good at this...)...  Figure the DN's can hold something in place for the Hearth Guard/Lord to charge in and get the kills...

War Bikers...  Nob with fist, 5 total...  Mostly just a light Cav flanker unit...  Figure they are mu Free Safety to try and run a flank or get into a backfield somewhere...  Not a lot there, mostly I suspect they'll just be a mobile reserve and something for me to try and deny a kill point...

we'll see Monday I guess...  :-)

Dwarf tank...

So, not sure if this will work for a Battle Wagon...  Looking at a WWI German tank called the A7V Sturmpanzer...

Unfortunately, the 1/35 pattern I found looks like it will be "truck" sized...  ~7" long, maybe 3" wide...  Guessing I'd need to scale it up for a Battle Wagon, but honestly not sure the "correct" dimensions...  The ancient resin kit was tiny, would probably be a truck in today's scale...  Not sure this would work...

For now I'll use an old Land Raider...  Guessing that my Squats will ride into battle on something like the above tank...  Wonder how they'll do against the Grey Knights...

More Squats

Mkay, looking over the codex (Thanks!), thinking that I will change a few things...

Bring out the "Boyz" as the Squats I have...  Call them "Shoota Boyz", so basically Assault 2 Bolter shots (18" range), bring out the max size for the 3 heavy weapons (though they are all "Assault" as well), so 3 Rockets in the squad...  Not going to hit often, but 26 x 2 for bolter shots gives me 52 shots, so "on average" I should get ~17 hits from that and one Rocket hit...  245 points, and I think it can actually kill of MEQs reliably...

I do wonder if running 20 of the shooters in a battlewagon would work well...  AV 14, open top, and with the 4+ cover save against shooting might be annoyingly difficult to deal with before I roll into range...  I'm thinking the "Death Roller" for 2 battle wagons would be a really good thing for the d6 Str 10 hits against anything I tank shock and an additional d6 if they decide to "Death or Glory"...  Just thinking that the 2 wagons rolling over most anything should put in some serious hurt...

Lootas (Thunderers for me) are amazing...  Each of them gets d3 48" range Autocannon shots?  Um, yes please...  OK, BS 2, and hey are random, but a unit of up to 15?  Yes, it would roll through the ammo, but not my problem :-)

It looks like this might be a fun way to go up against the Grey Knights, Necrons and min/maxxed other things that are set up to deal with GK...  This is just WAY different than most of the other things out there...  Something to take into the twilight of 5th ed...

Squats as Orks?

Ok, so I'm bored I guess...  And I just happen to have an ancient Squat army...  Wonder if this will be in any way effective:

Big Mek (Engineer) - Tools, Force Field, Power Fist
Warboss (Warlord) - Mega Armor, Cybork body, Attack Squig (Squat Terminator armor)
Mega Nobz (Squat Termis) - PF's, 2 Combi Rockets, 1 flamer
Truck to transport them all...

30 Slugga Boys, 3 w/ rockets and one Nob w/ PF
Lottas (10)
Lootas (5)

Killa Kan (RT era DN's) 3, w Mega Blasters
War Bikes (5 old bikes), one Nob w/ PF

Death Copters (? Dunno what to use, maybe old Imperial jetbikes) 5 w/ TL Rockets

So, loads of shooting...  Cover saves all over the place...  Probably swap the Truck for a Battle Wagon...  Plan is "subtle, like Jaegermonster" (Phil Foglio's "Girl Genius" ref :-))...  Lootas (Old Squat Thunderers) will set up behind the big mob of grunts, hopefully on a hill to just throw lead, hopefully lots of it...

Kans stay near the Wagon/Truck for the 4+ cover save and shoot/pry off anyone silly enough to assaul...  The Terminators (Exo Armor?) in the BW are in an assault vehicle, so they can drive up and open the can o whoop ass on something...  We can get Fleet for a turn, the Jet Bikes can flank, and even with BS 2, twin linked for 5 Krak missile shots to the side/rear of things might work out well...

War Bikes run a flank, throwing lots of shots, providing a cover save to themselves and things behind themselves...  These to be honest are probably the weakest link for me...  Not at all sure they fit frankly...

Probably not at all effective, but it throws LOTS of dice, and it is very different from the standard GK/anti GK I'm seeing these days...

Holy Land Raiders Batman!

WOW, $75 (ok, $74.25 + tax, so $80+ around here) retail for a Land Raider...  $90 for a Storm Raven?  Even Razorbacks/Vindicators, etc. are all up over $40/each...  I have 3 Land Raider hulls (2 are Spartan class MK I's though), so not a big deal about that really...  Kind of annoying about the Storm Raven, but having never particularly liked the look of the kit, I guess I continue on without one for the time being...  Kind of annoying, I like the rules, and new fliers coming out...  Maybe I'll pick up some...  But with the new bloody edition coming, I'll hold off purchases...

Sadly, the Orks are actually kind of interesting to me, but there is no (insert term to replace fucking here, I can't think of one at the moment :-)) way I am picking up something so insanely expensive...  I bet I could do a "shooty" Ork army...  Maybe I'll play my Squats as "Counts as Orks"...  I have bikes, trikes, troopers, even the ancient "Easter Egg" type Terminator armor equivalent they used to use...  Anyone have a used Codex out there I can look over?  :-)

Bike wise, looking at something bigger for eventual road trips...  Guess I start saving now.  Realized that I've never owned a new vehicle in my life, doubt my next bike will be it, but still something I guess to look forward to...  Eventually...  Probably getting a Harley Davidson, one of the bigger cruisers, though I do not have a particular brand loyality

Going to be selling off a few of my old firearms...  Mkay, probably most of them...  Probably keep the IBM manufactured M1 Carbine, my old sidearm (M1911A1), Garand and my '94 Winchester...  Beyond that, everything else can go...  Swedish Model 96 Mauser, Hakim, FN-49, Lugar, and assorted "other" weapons...  Know anyone looking, I'm sure I can work out a good deal :-)...

Out riding... Tournament Sat?

Looking like I might take the bike out for a longer ride Friday...  I think it is going to be a good day for it.  Just feeling the need to get away from a lot of this stuff around here for a bit...  An old friend of min calls it "wind therapy", me I'm not so much into therapy...  :-)  My ex would have called that in and of itself problematic, she was/is a Psychiatrist, good match since I've been called crazy a fair number of times, sometimes by mental health professionals...   But mostly just wanting to get out on the road...

Looking like Deathwing if I end up playing Sat...  Loads of Terminators, and a few Speeders...

Oh Dark?

:-)  Yes, 5:30 sure seems to come earlier these days...  Been getting up every day to hit the basement and get in a workout before showering and herding the kids off to school.  Elliptical machine, weights, getting closer to where I want to be in order to actually start running again, though to be honest I am still concerned about old injuries there.  Knee, shrapnel, back, etc...  For the most part they never really did heal.  In retrospect, I probably should have taken the medical out from the Army, but there was that whole "pride" thing...  I just sucked it up and convinced myself that I was "better enough".  Made it through Ranger school, so I was probably right, at least for a while...  After a while, well...  :-)  Good thing I was never really a professional level athlete, it would have been more obvious that I was never going to recover fully...  'course, that also defined a lot of what I later became, getting "no one gets left behind" reinforced and drilled into your head over and over really did not change much for me, just really amplified a lot of how I was already.  Also made me completely unsuitable for other work...  That whole silly Pack loyalty thing just doesn't translate well to people who do not have it themselves.  If it has to be explained, it is unlikely it will be understood...

:-)  Yeah, darker moods these days...  Not sure why, but just can't seem to shake it in a lasting way.  Work is stressful, money is tight, other random issues keep popping up. And it just keeps building.  Have our first "real" vacation in a decade or more coming up next month, hoping that does not turn out horribly.  We'll see.  Should be fine, but Florida in June is going to be a hot swamp...  Maggie hates it when I refer to FLA as a giant swamp, but...  Well, the last few times I went there, I was air dropped or drove through huge swaths of swamp...  Having that whole "Green Hell" experience really does color your perceptions a bit.

Gaming is just not happening much if at all these days either.  Just not really getting into the current 40K scene.  Not enough of a group for much else at the moment either, so per usual 40K is about it for miniatures gaming at the moment...  Maybe Warmachine/Hordes will come back, I don't know...  We had a REALLY solid group for a long time that just faded and dropped off...  Infinity and Confrontation are good possibilities as well but just not there yet.  And at this point knowing how many miniatures I have in the basement of doom, I can't really justify buying a lot more...  Sucks a bit, there are a LOT of things I'd like to pick up, but I have to keep that annoying "reality" in mind...  And the fact that I have shelves and a desk overflowing with random minis from dead games of course...

Not much going on in the painting/conversion thing recently...  Really just a holding pattern until I see what, if anything changes with the new edition.  I have a bunch of Scouts I'm working on...  I always use them with my Fleshtearers, but don't have much use for them in other Marine armies I play...  Wolf Scouts are different :-), and those I am further along with...  Those lads are in every Wolf army I play...  'course, it has been a long time since I played them...  Perhaps telling...

We'll have to look over the Team rules from Adepticon, looked like they allowed some silliness there, but since those rules are widely used at other tournaments...  One player taking a special character modifying the Force Org allowed all of their team to use the modified Force Org...  So, Logan Grimmar becomes a MUCH better possibility, making Wolf Guard "Troops" for the partners...  And if Dave and I end up going out to play again, I think we can coordinate the lists a LOT better...  I think his list was good, mine was the weaker (Deathwing)...  I also screwed up bringing fully painted and WYSIWYG stuff over the "mostly painted" but better stuff I could have brought...  Silly me following the published rules :-)  Ah well, lesson learned...

Moving on...

So, working out every morning...  Getting up early and hitting the basement for the home gym and elliptical...  Trying to work out a schedule where I push myself, but not TOO hard...  Hit it too hard the other day, and so Monday was a much lighter day on the machines...  On the other hand, I'm also using the stairs a LOT more at work, and between that and the machines I'm already getting back into some semblance of shape...  We'll see, I am almost doing 10 minute miles on the elliptical and it hasn't killed me yet...  Seems to work the best for my schedule getting it in first thing in the morning, hoping I can keep at it... I can see my face getting leaner, and I feel a lot better overall, no clue how much if any actual weight I am losing yet, but...  Cutting out a LOT of random "bad" stuff, not quite all the way over to the "paleo", but looking like that is where I am headed...  Seems to be working for a number of my friends, and I'm guessing I can do it again...  Saying "again" because when we did our survival silliness, we ate what we could...  So deer, rabbit, snake, basically whatever I could catch or kill and didn't move fast enough to avoid me/us...  Worked, I survived...  Did not enjoy it, I'm still a city boy when it comes down to it, or that's what my Amerindian friends would say :-)...  Still, for a white boy, I move through the woods quite well, quickly and quietly...  Scares the hell out of a lot of folks, they assume that I cannot move that quickly and that quietly, I have a habit of just appearing places where no one really expects me to be...

Kind of brings me back to 40K with my Wolf Scouts...  Guessing they'll be the unit I finish up and get fully WYSIWYG in the event we actually get into serious tournaments...  We'll see how well the Army Painter method works for painting the lads...  Now, not all GW minis, in fact most are not...  Old Warzone minis, that silly Scottish faction I plaed, Wolves banes...  And they make excellent Wolf Scouts.  Something to kill time until the 6th edition hits, probably this summer...

What shape?

So, time to get more serious about the diet and exercise program...  More and more of my friends are doing this, and even most of the lads at work...  :-)  So, good peer pressure I guess...  I'm not entirely sure how much I've lost so far, and to be honest I'm not looking for a number here.  I want to get back into the shape I was in when I considered myself to be in shape...  Basically when I was playing Army, or right when I got out...  Finding that movement is easier at a lower weight, and the pain from old injuries is not nearly so bad most of the time...  But stronger now than I have been in a very long time, and taking the stairs at work and the elliptical more often is getting me closer to being "in shape" enough to start running again I think...  Also, the motorcycle is much easier to control in higher winds when I am stronger...  Not something that really matters much with the truck of course, but...

I'm not sure I am ready to go all out like some of my friends and completely change my entire diet, going "paleo" with lots of meats, no carbs, processed stuff, etc...  But, I have cut back seriously on the "junk", no alcohol at all this year, and a lot more in the line of :healthy food...  We'll see I guess...

Grey Knights for the win... sigh...

So, looking briefly at the Adepticon results...  8 of the top 16 playing for the Championship ended up being Grey Knights, and the overall champion was one of them.  I'm shocked, simply shocked to see so many there :-)  Yes, I am a big fan of "Casablanca"...  When I do play the GK, I almost feel like I HAVE to tone them down just to be fair to the opponent...  Not that I am just that much better than the other folks playing, but that I really feel the army is just that far out of line with the rest of them out there.  Any time you get so many special rules modifying or changing basic rules of the game, there is at the very least potential for it to be unbalanced and game breaking.  :-)  Not going to go into the ones I feel are game breakingly powerful, but there are sure a lot of them.  I have heard them called the "Easy Button" of 40K, and I think  that is a fairly accurate description iff you try to build a powerful competitive army...  Building to the "fluff" or artificial background, you tend to get powerful, but balanced forces...  Expensive, elite armies that can probably go toe to toe with anything in the game and fare reasonably well.  Guessing this is what GW play-tested and accepted as "This is how the Army will play"...  Now, if you go in looking at the min/max potential, the system starts to break down quickly.  And there are several REALLY good, powerful builds available to the Knights, far more than just about any other Codex out there...  Note, this, like everything else I write is just my opinion of course, based on my experiences and such...  But I am fairly good at math ( :-)) and have a fair bit of experience playing the game to base the opinion on...

Looking back I think it really was about the time I read through the GK codex that my "40K Malaise" really started...  I was able to spot a good number of game breakingly stupid combos on my initial quick skimming of the book, and more and more kept popping up.  I thought that it just could be my interpretation of the rules/book, but after the FAQs confirming them, no...  So, back in the back of my mind I think I started thinking that I've seen this all before, this is a game ending a cycle, ripe for a "new version that will fix it all"...  So, the company either intentionally breaks their stuff or realizes that "codex creep" has gotten to a point when a complete rebuild is the only option...  Sadly, this is also about the time I started to pull way back on my model purchases...  The GK Dreadknight is a neat model, glad I snagged one, and I play it in my forces...  Just it is one of the very few over costed things in the book given how silly the standard DN's are...  So, neat model, really expensive ($ and points), and essentially worthless on the field...  The Storm Raven is a very powerful model, I just can't stand the way it looks :-)...  Personal preference thing, but given how amazing the Vendetta/Valkyrie looks, the SR just does not work for me...  That and GW going over to a fairly poor resin for a metal replacement...  Understandable, I actually have "some" experience casting in resin myself, and with that silly useless Mechanical (Industrial) Engineering degree, I know WHY it is the best, most logical thing for the company to do...  Just that the results are far less than what I would have considered acceptable...  Guessing I'm more of a perfectionist there though, and without knowing a lot of the behind the scene details, that is just a WAG on my part...  But it was a factor in my decision not to be buying more stuff until it either evened out, or I found something I REALLY wanted...  And, sadly that has not happened or appeared...  Guessing my wife is happier about it a bit as not a lot of the wee toy soldiers are appearing to haunt the shelves in the basement, but going "static"in terms of what I have is slightly limiting...  Only slightly, I have a LOT of them in various stages of painting and assembly...

I THINK our 40K group will survive the summer, but if 6th hits and is complete crap...  Maybe not.  Already looking like we'll be losing a few folks here and there with real life stuff...  Maybe Confrontation, Infinity or Warmachine/Hordes will rise up and fill that gap...  :-)  As it happens I have a few armies out there, so will probably be fine with any of them, assuming that there is a regular night to game...  Needing that stress relief more than ever these days...  We'll see I guess.  If not, I guess I pick up some vid games and spend more time riding the motorcycle to blow off steam...

Ah, another week...

So, looking like I'm taking some time off of the 40K leagues and such...  I think just taking some time off will be best for the moment.  Some things keep calling me away, and honestly, my heart really isn't in it at the moment. Boredom I guess, but I think I have run out of interesting "let's try this" concepts for my armies...  It only took a few years :-)...  Rumors of the new edition coming, at least one of my armies is on the "short list" of armies to get a Codex update (Dark Angels)...  I just hope they don't screw up my army too much.  I like the Terminator suits...  A LOT.  And so I really hope I can field an army I think can compete with the new book using them.  Sadly, I actually HAVE a bunch of Powered Armored DA troops, so I COULD rebuild that army after I strip and repaint them...  Just that this particular army does not interest me nearly so much, especially being an old school Wolf player...  Remember the old traditions when Chip and I would send out a single trooper each to duel before each game whether we were on the same side or not...  And my lads trying really hard to sneak in and capture/kill the renegade DA's that his lads were hunting (2nd/3rd ed codex?) for no other reason than the DA wanted them, so having my Wolves take them was worth almost any risk :-)...  Besides, I really have little interest in playing yet another Powered Armor army, my Wolves are pretty much it for me...  While I HAVE a bunch of GK in PA, the main units in that Army for me are the Terminator suits...  I have "a few" of the RT era ones around...

Getting back into shape, albeit slowly...  Elliptical rather than running for the time being, working my way up in terms of time on...  Usually doing this after a LONG day at work, so I guess I will be more successful doing this first thing in the morning...  Don't WANT to mind, but I suspect it will be better all around.  So Elliptical, stairs at work, weights and cutting way back on the junk food...  Getting myself closer to the "correct" diet, loads of extra protein usually in the form of tuna, smaller portions and just staying away from the known "bad" foods for the most part...  I'll have to fire up the Wii as this is the only scale that I think we have at the moment...  Good enough way to track with the Wii fit...  Not really so into the Wii fit as a workout though...

Killing time in Bloomington...

Between meetings :-)  So, thought I'd jot down a bit of what I'm thinking...

Confrontation...  If it does come back, great.  There were some really silly, broken things in 3.5, so here's hoping they fix those things in the Phoenix edition.  There IS a campaign supplement called "Dogs of War", but that one was REALLY a beer and pretzels thing...  The silliness you could come up with made the Mordheim/Necromunda power games look like minor league child's play...  Yeah, didn't help that I was playing with 2 borderline broken lists to start with in the Wolfen Packs and Sessairs Kelts (Horde of Mugan, so the cheap Centaurs and Giants were even cheaper)...  But getting to choose from SO many of the broken abilities to add to just about any of your troopers, it got really silly and broken really quickly...

But in any case, I do miss playing the game.  As a tournament game it had some problems, but it was always fun to play in our group...  But then having a good and reasonable group tends to make just about any game good...

Infinity...  I do king of hope that the game picks up here locally...  I've only played it a few times, but it is a good system I think...  And I'm picking up a few more of the Highlanders for the Aridrana (sp?) army...  Lacking the whole "High Tech" thing without ANY hackers or BFR (the giant robots, I think TAG is what they were called :-)), doubt it will be a hugely competitive force, but it WILL be fun to throw down an army of Scottish Werewolves to tear up those armies depending on their high tech toys...

40K...  Well, I'll keep painting I think...  Decided to redo my IG vehicles in a US WWII paint scheme using "Brown Violet" from Vallejo like the FoW stuff I'm doing...  Fleshtearers are getting Scouts and I need to finish up the magnets for the Assault Squads so I can have them as Drop troopers or Mechanized...  Wolves?  Dunno, DA are looking like one of the next forces up, so I'll hold off on those lads to see what GW messes up for my Deathwing army...

So, things looking interesting for gaming, just not so much for 40K....

Wolfen...

So, looking like the Wolfen will be prowling again...  Time to break out the wolves...

So, here's some bad pics of the lads as I revive them from deep storage...

So a BUNCH of half painted Wolfen, and entirely too many for 3/3.5 games, but pretty broad selection of the lads...  OK, there are 2 females in there, Irix and Ashan'tyr...  So, a powerful mage and one of the really weird LE figs...  Mine is somewhere in the 3000's of 5000, "neat" figure, but honestly not all that powerful, and she really does not fit with the rest of my Wolfen's play style...  So, hopefully our old Confrontation group will start getting back to gaming...

Back to painting and the basement of DOOM...

A bit windy, but the motorcycle is running great...  I think I've gotten the basic maintenance stuff down and I'm REALLY liking the ride in to work.  I need to get the seat recovered, and it looks like an e-bay purchase as I've found someone out there making custom ones for my model (1981 Honda Silverwing GL500)...  Not so sure I'll be able to find a radio/MP3 player for it, but thinking that something in a CB/headset for my phone...  Need something to keep in communication in the event I wind up on the road for longer trips...  Or maybe not, really kind of liking the idea of being off the grid for a while...

Painting a bit, it is kind of amazing how much more quickly the 15mm stuff goes...  In just a few minutes I was able to get a whole platoon of Mortars uniforms and helmets painted up...  So, the about half of the base coat up...  Not a lot of vehicles at the moment, but did find another "Platoon" of them...  M8 GMC's, but only 3 in the Platoon...  Light tanks with 75mm Howitzer, pretty sure they are not an option for my Parachute Rifle Company, but...

For 40K, I am DEFINITELY looking at something simple for my complete redo for my IG force...  Thinking that the "Brown Violet" like look to match the US paint in WWII...  Not sure if I'll actually play my Praetorians  any time soon, but...  Since I know with almost absolute certainty that I WILL play them again, might as well have them painted...  I have some ancient Marine Scouts that are going to become my Veteran Grenadiers with Shotguns...  Will convert one of the Heavy Bolters and some other lad to be a heavy weapon team...  I know I'm in the minority, but I consider it a bit of a waste NOT to have a heavy weapon on a squad with BS 4, especially given how cheap the weapons are...  :-)  Another holdover from my own time in...  I REALLY liked having lots of options... Just not really feeling THAT into the whole 40K thing right now, so I'll probably just keep things moving here and there.

So, Confrontation 3.5 is looking like it will be coming back...  Have to admit I am WAY more excited about that than 40K or frankly any other wargaming at this point...  Have to dig up my Wolves I think...  Get back to painting a lot of wee Gunn tartans for the kilts I've added on all the lads...

Flames of War, what next?

So, reading the big book o rules (Thanks Dave!)...  Not sure what AT support I should be bringing for my Parachute Rifle Company...  I can massively overload with Bazooka teams, but I suspect that will not work nearly so well as it did in 1st edition...  So, I can bring Glider AT Guns (57mm) or M10 GMCs...  The Tank Destroyer Doctrine (forget if the rule is still called that) with the security teams starting on the board and the TDs just appearing from ambush looks like one of those "when it works, awesome...  If it doesn't work, you die"...  And since looking over the German and Soviet lists it does look like I'd best be able to stop tanks.

Artillery, yes...  I have some set up now and I'll be setting up more...  Now, the way I was taught was that the Infantry holds and calls down Artillery.  Dealing with the tanks is hard without Air Support, and why I;m concerned...  Air Support seems really random, and Artillery just isn't going to stop a tank horde in time...

:-)  Probably time to start painting again...  Been hitting the weights more recently, and just not as much time painting....  But I am looking at the "Army Painter" stuff to knock out a few armies quickly...  Grey Knights, etc...

1500 Point North Africa, Parachute Rifle Company

So...  I happen to have a full Platoon of M3 Lee tanks...  And since that's where my Grandfather started out, I'd really like to use them...  So a mid war Airborne company with M3 support...  Might work :-)...  Yeah, probably not, the M3 wasn't a particularly great tank, and Mid War, the US Infantry wasn't exactly at their top form yet...

So, from the North Africa book:
Company Command  30
Parachute Rifle Platoon (2 rifle squads, 1 mortar squad, Bazooka team) 255
Parachute Rifle Platoon (2 squads, Mortar, etc)  225
Parachute Machine-Gun Platoon (4 gun teams) 100
Parachute Field Artillery Btty (6 guns)  210
Parachute Mortar Platoon (4 gun teams)  130
Field Artillery Btty (105's, 4 guns)  165



Tank Platoon (4 M3 Mediums, 1 w/ long 75)  360

1485 points...  And the best of both worlds :-)...  Lots of Artillery.  Starting to read over the rules (side note, GREAT book, well worth the money), and Artillery might be fairly random, but the US rules are still pretty good for their guns...  Random, but Airborne operations are always a gamble, even in "training".  So, I'm fairly comfortable taking big risks...  Yes, my luck will run out at times, but the lads are Fearless Vets, and we'll fight it out to the bitter end either way :-)...  And since most wargames reward decisive, aggressive play, I get to play Airborne the way we were trained to fight...   Might need more Bazooka Teams though...

It'll be a starting point for me, guessing I'll get stomped at first and will have to tweak it out some...  At least it gives me options to play Mid War should that be where the games are...  Most of what I WANT to play is Late War, but that does limit things a bit :-)

1500 point FoW?

Well, not sure the "real" point level things get played at, guessing 2000, but I'll start with a 1500:

From the "D-1" book, 82nd Airborne being one of the places I ended up briefly when I played Army...

1 Company HQ (+3 Bazooka Teams) 95

Parachute Rifle Platoon   (3 Rifle Squads) 365

Parachute Rifle Platoon   (3 Rifle Squads) 365

Parachute Machine-Gun Platoon (2 sections + 2 Bazooka Teams) 240

Parachute Mortar Platoon (2 Sections + 2 Bazooka Teams) 190

Glider Light Anti-Tank Platoon (3 Gun Sections, 57mm upgrade, 3 Bazooka Teams) 120

Glider Field Artillery Battery (3 Gun Sections) 120

Kind of min/maxing adding Glider stuff into the Parachute company I guess, but no real point bringing a 37mm AT gun to a late war fight I'd be guessing...  Loads of Bazooka Teams, and if they work as they did in 1st ed, kind of a nasty surprise for tanks getting ready to try and roll over my lads...  A little Artillery to keep things honest, a few Mortar tubes in there as well for smoke...  Mind, I have precisely zero experience with 3rd ed FoW, so this is just the way I would go having been trained to do this in "real life"...  I'll have to add in an Engineer Platoon just because that's where I started, and I'll want to use them...  No clue if they have any in game use, but assuming there are mines and the like... 

Digging more stuff out...

So, here's a bit of what I'm digging out...

'course my Airborne stuff is not in the v3 book at all...  A touch annoying, but I'll just use the "D-1" or "Stars and Stripes" book I guess...

On the 40K side, guess my Praetorians will continue, Vet squad, the boys in blue will hit the table to support the death chickens (Scout Sentinels)...  Shoot them lots being the order of the day...

400 point League list...

So, looks like I'll play my old Praetorian IG...

Infantry Platoon:
  LT and 4 SW troopers, either flamers or GL's in a Chimera
  2 Infantry Squads (MG, GL, 2 AC)
Sentinel Squadron (or 2 separate ones)  1 AC, 1 Multi laser
Hydra (+heavy stubber)

400 points of "We shoot things...  A Lot"...  On the plus side, it all fits nicely into one of the cargo racks on the bike (those ancient Armory figure cases fit perfectly) :-)  Up to 3 "Troop" sections in objective games, a crapton of Str 6/7 shots potentially...  But I still think it would die trivially to a lot of things locally...  Whatever, it will be amusing to field 4 vehicles...  I could field a Tech Engineer by dropping one vehicle...  Might be even more amusing overall...  If the Techmarines/Tech Engineers were IC's like the Grey Knight version, I would take them in almost every list...  But it is really hard to justify, especially since none of my "Marine" armies can field the new and improved "Thudd Gun"...  We'll see what happens, and how quickly I get wiped off the table :-)

So, what next?

So, new league starts Monday...  Not sure what I'll play.  Silly loyalty, I'll play because Dave is pack...  So, IG or Fleshtearers?  Maybe Grey Knights, but with the limited nature of the 400 point games, I cannot actually field 80% of the stuff in the book, and none of the things I normally use...Deathwing is out for the same reason, no 2+ saves allowed...  Wolves would be good, but ultimately boring I think...  At least IG I can bring weird ancient things no one has seen before...  And more importantly I can fit it on the motorcycle at this level...  :-)  Rationalize it away I guess...

15mm stuff is shaping up nicely, and I do think I'll scrape together the $60 or so to pick up the 3rd ed FoW books...  Not entirely sure I'll ever actually play the game, at least locally...  But, at the very least I'll have the mental exercise of building armies and the like...  Wonder how historically accurate my builds will be?  Guessing fairly...  But then I also know that the TOE is not very accurate with respect to what the lads are actually bringing to the field with them...  For instance, I carried my M-16/203, 2 pistols, a shotgun, a LAW, and a wide variety of knives, etc...  By the TOE, it was the M-16/203...   And I was only slightly more heavily armed than the rest of the lads...  Not sure I ever saw a "Line Dog" actually JUST have the issued weapons...  Reserve guys or non- Combat Arms, yes...  And with my big collection of WWII weapons and the like, hell, I was issued some :-)...  My 1911 was manufactured in 1935, and it is the most reliable weapon I've ever used, I trust it with my life and those of my family without hesitation...  Cue the Obi Wan Kenobi voice with the line about the more elegant weapon from a more civilized time...

Looking like a good week for the bike :-)  One thing I got last year I REALLY am glad I picked up...  Might be time for me to look into getting a bigger one in the longer term...

15mm?

Mkay, dug up some more of the FoW troops...  Anyone out there know how close the points in the 2nd ed (I think) books like "D-1" are?  I think I can actually field an Airborne company...  Line platoons, Weapons platoons, loads of Bazooka Teams, an Artillery Platoon, etc...  I have a Platoon of Lees as well, but not really connected to my Airborne stuff...  My Grandfather on Dad's side commanded a unit of them during the War, wound up in Armored Cav, so I'll likely snag a few of the Greyhounds, etc...  Ironically, a Great Uncle was an Engineer...  Dad was Armored Cav, I started as an Engineer before doing the really silly "Airborne" stuff...

So, need to get some "Dark Green" if Dave has it (Vallejo) to paint the lads up in the 1943 Uniforms...  Most of the operations involving my old Divisions (82nd and 3AD) were "late war", so...   Probably some of the Army Painter sprays since I'll probably want to quickly finish my Grey Knights, some random "Barbarian" type armies for other game systems...  Who knows, maybe WFB will make a comeback some day...  That and I guess I need the 3rd ed FoW book...

But in essence, not even sure if I'll play in the upcoming league...  Maybe after the weekend I'll lighten up, but 40K is just getting really stale and boring to me at the moment...  Not a problem with Dave H's league, I'm really just bored with the same things over and over...  By now I've seen pretty much all of it, and even my quest to try to use everything in all of the Codexes I actually play has more or less been done.  And by now there really aren't many surprises.  Sadly, I can usually predict with a great deal of accuracy what the game plays out as by looking at lists and books...  So, I guess I am waiting on the next edition.

Airborne!

Yeah, after a LONG ride on the bike split by a bit of maintenance on her, digging out some of my old FOW minis...  Surprisingly a degree in Mechanical Engineering does NOT make one a Mechanic :-)...  But I really like the older, simpler bikes...  Nothing subtle, and with the manual and a decent set of tools, very little I cannot fix on her.  And it feels REALLY good to be able to fix minor things and feel the ride smooth out...

But on to the Flames of War stuff...  Looking like I have the bulk of my Airborne force (82nd :-)  I spent some time there, and in the 3rd Armored)...  Not sure how many stands of Infantry I have, but saw 5 Howitzers (the light Air transported ones...), "several" Mortar teams, etc...  Some silly things too like a Lee/Grant platoon...  I suppose I'll have to break down and order the rulebooks, etc. from the Gopher...  Not looking like the free mini 3rd ed book is still being given away, so no real need to dig up my 2nd ed stuff :-)...

Is 40K getting stale or is it just the waiting for the next edition?

So,seems locally at least it is getting stale to the point of dying...  Not sure if it is just that it is so predictable, or it it is the general feeling of " Le Roi est mort, vive le Roi! "....  I get the general feeling of a dying game system, having been here a few times before...  Confrontation, MechWarrior, Chronopia, Planetstorm, guessing I have a few armies of random crap down in the basement that I've forgotten, these I remember though :-)  I'm not really concerned that GW will kill their system, unlike all of the ones before them...  At least I HOPE they will not do so.  I have a LOT of stuff for 40K, and since I basically get one night per week for gaming and with the death of the Warmachine/Hordes group here...  Well :-)...  Yes, purely selfish reasons to hope for the the game continuing, but...  So, yes, seen the signs and they are very familiar...  Hoping inertia is enough to keep 40K going in the long run...

So, no tournament today...

Well, only two of us showed up for the tournament...  Weird, given the huge 40K group we have on Mondays.  So, didn't get to test out my Grey Knights as actual Grey Knights...  Well, we played a quick game, but deep striking in an inch away from one of his Long Fang squads allowed me to actually kill a few...  But the Stealth and cover saves kept the squad alive..  Took one casualty, and took a wound on Mordark which brought the Ghost Knight back.  Mind, I was helped immensely by REALLY poor dice on Dave's part...  of the 3 Plasma Cannons, 2 1's coming up killing one of them meant even fewer cover saves and pretty well summed up the shooting phase...  So, REALLY not a good test for the army concept...  I'll probably give it a shot in the next one, I might even have the lads all painted up by then...  'course, the whole army is 26 models, and I already have the bulk of them painted and WYSIWYG...

Next league, we'll be voting on Monday and next week...  Is looking like we'll do a Combat Patrol, similar to http://www.adepticon.org/12rules/2012cp.pdf  Should be interesting...  Grey Knights are right out...  Wolves might be interesting, Fleshtearers would probably be VERY competitive, IG seem like they'll be one of the "power" armies along with the Dark Eldar...  Eldar are out for me, but mostly because I just played out the 8 week league with them...  And at 400 points, I think they'd be a a HUGE disadvantage given the ancient codex they have...  IA11's Corsairs on the other hand...

Looking like I'll need to get a "Gun List" together as I'll be selling a few off...  Found another crate of ammo (7.62 NATO on stripper clips for either Indian Enfields or some of the odd Mauser variants), and by and large I've not used any of them in the last decade...  Keeping the IBM carbine, the Garand, my old sidearm, etc...  M1911's are still my pistol of choice, the one I learned to fire with, so the one I am most comfortable with.  Also the only one I know I shot someone with, but like I was taught "If you are expecting a gun fight and only have a pistol, you brought the wrong weapon"...  Big fan of the "I don't care" class weapons everywhere, and so the Garand with 30-06 AP ammo fits that as the most powerful standard round for a shoulder fired weapon.  Not a cop, so if I am shooting, I am not overly interested in taking prisoners.  Center of mass, high powered AP round...  But time for the collection to get pared down I think...  So, anyone looking for this sort of thing, shoot me a line :-)...

Slightly less silly GK list...

Slightly less silly GK list...  Guessing that this will fit my style a bit more...  Terminators, Deep Striking, hyper aggressive play style...

Grand Master Mordrak w/ full Ghost Knights (BH Banner)   (425)
Librarian (Might o Titan, Warp Rift, Sanctuary, 2 Servo Skulls)  (175)
Terminator Squad (9 + Thawn, BH Banner, 2 Psycannon, Psybolt ammo)  (570)
Strike Squad (Psycannon, Rhino)  (150)
Dreadknight (Teleporter, Flamer, Sword)  (260)
Dreadnaught (TLAC x 2, uber ammo)  (135)
Dreadnaught (TLAC, Assault Cannon, Uber Ammo)  (135)

So, on Kill Point missions, 8-9 points total...  Not a really hard to kill group like the Eldar Wraithguard, but I can Deep Strike, Combat Squad, the Grand Master can make me more scoring units for those missions...

Looking more like I'll run these lads this weekend over the Deathwing force...  Probably won't win as I think that there are some lists that I think will tear me apart...  Mike's Dark Eldar being one.  But the Purifiers really didn't fit in the concept I think...  The Strike Squad to be honest is just there for the required second Troops squad...  If I drop 75 points, another Terminator squad would fit better, but of course those points are a bit tight...  The Librarian powers I'm not at all sure about really...  But planning on dropping him with the GM's squad, and so I want some of the REALLY aggressive powers for a quick and powerful hit there...

Silly GK list for local tournament...

Never actually played this, but...

Grand Master Mordrak and 5 Ghost Knights(425)
Librarian w/Warp Rift, Sanctuary, Might of Titan (165)
Purifier Squad 4 Psycannon, Halberds, Rhino (335)
Terminator Squad, Psycannon (225)
Strike Squad, Psycannon, Razorback w/ TLLC (190)
2 Dreadnoughst, 2 x TLAC and uber ammo (135 x 2)
Dreadknight, Teleporter and heavy flamer (235)

Gives me a Grand Master for silliness...  Strike Squad could easily be swapped for another Terminator squad (I REALLY like Terminator armor...) as I do not really think the SS does much of anything the way I'd play it.  Mordrak's unit with the Librarian can deep strike on turn one without deviation for a REALLY aggressive backfield strike (Vortex of Doom perhaps?)...  The DN's and Dreadknight advance with the Terminator squad if they need to...  Silly list, but it might work out fairly well...  Or at least I can transport it easily on the bike :-)

Feeling craptastic... Prep for the weekend I guess...

Well, no gaming this evening....  Picked up a few quad auto-cannon emplacements for DN's and Hydra Flak tanks...  Was a LONG weekend and today pretty thoroughly sucked.

So, gearing up for a local tournament this weekend, last chance to get out for a while I think...  Back to the UC transition after this...  1850 is a weird point level after so long at 1500 for me...  Playing around with my Fleshtearers (BA), Grey Knights, Deathwing and Wolves...  No clue where I'll end up at this point, but building a few lists here and there...  Trying hard to avoid the obvious point sinks while staying away from min/maxed silly lists...  So, the FT Terminators in a LRC is a bad idea...  Likewise the Wolf Guard in the same and likely the Deathwing...  Of them the DW is probably the strongest as a Terminator Squad in a LRC, but 250+ points sunk into a single vehicle is a LOT of points that might well do nothing but die.  We'll see what I end up with I guess...

Lists... And life in general :-)

Probably list....  Round one at least...

Master of the Deathwing (TH/SS)
Deathwing Squad (Apothicary/Banner, 4 TH/SS 1 LC and CML) 290
3 Deathwing Squads (4 TH/SS, 1 LC/CML) 235 each
2 Ravenwing Typhoon class speeders (MM/TML) 75 each
Ravenwing Squadron (Melta, Plasma, Attack Bike w/MM) 195
Vindicator (Dozer Blade) 130
Land Raider Crusader (Ancient MK I model I have) 250

So, 1850 for 4 Troops sections, one transport, assault gun, 2 Speeders and the bikes with Teleport Homers for placement shenanigans...  Should be interesting for missions, but I think I cannot beat a true horde force like Kevin's Nids or Orks...  IG are in trouble against me, I feel like it is a decent one against Mike's DE...  Good overall, assuming I stay focused on the mission, and only the mission...

Grey Knights I have a few options, Terminators, loads of Purifiers/PAGK, etc...  I DO like the Dreadknight, so that would have to make an appearance...  I also lack Storm Ravens, so those are out...  Not as sure about them as I've only played them in one league...  Could also bring out my "Logan Wing"...  Kind of an all stars list, and the "Wolf Claws" on the lads in Logan's squad give me re-rolls on the to his and to wound with Power Weapons, so really effective in HtH...

Busy building "Green Stuff" weapons for weapon swaps...  But sick for the last few days, and so all work on toys has stopped...  About ready to collapse now.  Overall liking my job, but it is a LOT more stress and work than I had to do in the past...  And now they're talking about removing the employee children's tuition waivers...  This after a few decades of the State not paying into the retirement fund like they were required to...  'course, the fact that the State does not pay SS taxes on us, they are supposed to pay an equivalent amount into those pension funds...  'course the rules are different for the State, especially Illinois...  Less and less reason to work at the University these days....

Tournament coming up...

But what to play?  Did pick up some heavy weapon sprues from the Gopher, so in theory I can have a few Eldar vehicles WYSIWYG with the correct heavy weapons...  Just thinking that knowing the local competition, I'd just lose too many :-)

Dark Angels, Grey Knights or Wolves I guess...

My poor Eldar got absolutely tabled in my first league game this evening :-)  Stupid mistake on my part and well played my Mike (playing his DE)...  Dawn of war sucks in so many ways, and facing one of the better modern codexes with a seriously outdated one...  Tried flanking with my War Walkers, Scorpions, etc...  But of course with the DE having enough vehicles to completely block off a flank meant that anything having to deploy there was destroyed...  Ah well :-)  Well played on his part, learning experience for me...  But really convincing me that the Eldar really are hopeless in the current environment...

Think I'll break out the Dark Angels for the Tournament...  At 1850 I can actually break out a LOT of stuff...  And at least they'll have a chance against almost anything out there...

Back to building... Soon :-)

So, still not sure what army I move to next, might well stay with Eldar if I wind up coming up with a good way to make Wave Serpents or their equivalent...  Or I may end up with IG and Half Tracks of doom?  Hydras as AA mounts on the halftracks (M16/T15 type for the American ones, the German equivalent  SdKfz 251)...  Not to mention the Chimeras that I'd need :-)...  Might be amusing, especially with the Vendetta/Valkyrie as the Space 1899 style Airships...  We'll see how the test model turns out for that one...

The point of boredom...

Ah, yes...  The cycle continues :-)  I seem to have painted myself into another corner with my Eldar build.  It's good.  Really good in the local environment at least...  I suspect it would get stomped against a top tier army elsewhere, depending on the match-up at least...  Playing the out of the book missions, it breaks the Annihilation (kill points) mission by simply being ridiculously hard to get a lot of kill points from, assuming I play it right.  OTOH, I think it would almost automatically lose in a "Take and Hold" mission with lots of objectives with only 2-3 "Troops" out there...  So, if I got a good draw in a Tournament and "favorable" missions, I could go far...  But depending on external luck to win is not a good idea, and frankly the army is getting fairly automatic for me and therefore more than a bit boring.

I did play it a bit different this week with the War Walkers deployed behind the Wraithguard for the Guide and I subbed in a Wraithlord for the Fire Prism for even more HtH deterrent...  Turned out I played against a Tyranid list, Dawn of War and I seized the imitative dooming his Hive Tyrant and guaranteeing that my Eldar Castle deployed as FAR away from the Genestealers as they could...  For the record, Guided War Walkers loaded out with Scatter Lasers are a REALLY good way to deal with a horde...  Turn one, 24 shots, 24 hits at Str 6...  I'm ALMOST kicking myself for trading off my other 3 War Walkers as I suspect that 2 squadrons of them, one with AT weapons (ML or BL?) would be brutal against a lot of things...

'course that brings me to the "But the new (to me :-)) models are REALLY nice..." part...  I really like the new War Walkers and Wave Serpents, but with money being as tight as it is these days I'd have to sell off a rifle or two to afford a major upgrade to an army that is barely competitive in the current edition of the rules...  :-)  Mind, I'd do it in a heartbeat just to have to toys, so if anyone is looking for some older firearms I'm sure we can work out a deal...  Just it wouldn't be a short term thing for me...

So, the cycle of boredom continues, where to go next?  Made my first green stuff combi weapon, and it turned out "OK"...  Glad the "Instant Mold" stuff is reusable :-)  I will be remaking the model for the next version and we'll see how it works...  Seems a good way to make smaller pieces for the armies, guessing I'll be making shoulder pads/icons for some of my forces ASAP, weapon swaps, etc...  Simple things at first...

Painted armies...

Well, getting better over the years in terms of fielding mostly painted forces...  My Eldar for instance are almost fully painted, or at least "base coated"...  Need to get some Wave Serpents or to make some more of the ancient Falcon class tanks (the wedge type) to field more than the "Brick of doom".  Foot Eldar are a bad choice overall...  While I CAN do it, fielding large units of troops weaker than IG (Lack of Special/Heavy weapons, good cheap transports, etc...) just doesn't work well in the local "modern" 5th ed environment.  Kevin's Tyranids would feast on them as I would not be able to throw out enough firepower to even slow them down, nor could I fight off even the weakest bugs with my basic troops...  Even the best of the best for my poor Eldar, Scorpions or Harlequins, would be little more than a speed bump for them... So, Brick or Mech...  Mech I think is quite strong, Dave does an excellent one...  Unfortunately lacking the Falcon hulls, I can't really field it...  Besides, I tend to play a bit more aggressively and waiting patiently to try a last turn or two rush just not really fit my style at all...  Not to say it doesn't work :-)...  It does, but that's why I was a REALLY good Wolfen/Kelt player in Confrontation, and had a really hard time playing some of the other forces


My Wolves are the same way, but I have a LOT more rhino hulls ready for them.  My Dark Angels are completed, but then Deathwing is fairly simple...  IG?  Yeah...  Time to get serious about the vehicles there too...

So, Wave serpents are the order of the day it seems...  Wonder if I have a template for this one?  Rhino hulls, Titans, and Land Raiders I KNOW I have...  Guess I'll see what I can come up with...

Karandras, have I played it wrong?

So, Karandras gives the squad he is with Infiltrate and Move Through Cover?  Stealth I knew...  Damn, if this is right, the Wraithguard brick o' doom being able to Infiltrate and therefore flank?  Over 800 points of really bad news hitting the table hopefully up close and personally...  Maybe an Autarch to mess with the reserve rolls and put even more eggs in that basket...  Course, that would mean no Farseer... Hmmm...

Wraithguard for the win...

So, played IG this evening…  Pretty good list, and he had an extra 150 points to play with, so I figured it was going to be a LONG game.  Brought my “Let’s Break the Kill Point Mission” list…  And it did just that.  Having 8 Kill Points in total, and starting a bunch in reserve meant that his list was at a serious disadvantage from the beginning.  The Wraithguard starting in cover with Stealth and re-rollable saves were just on fire…  For his first turn he basically emptied his army’s long range AT firepower into the squad causing the loss of a single figure when the dust cleared.  I sniped a few kill points while marching the brick forward, then his Vet Squads deployed and opened up on the Uber-Brick killing a few, but the majority of the squad lived…  Karanadras broke off to kill off the Company command squad single handedly (some named character, extra orders…  Not that impressive really), then wipe out a Vet Squad while the Wraithguard took a few kill points themselves before finally all dying…  Eldrad himself survived to link up with the Fire Dragons who were delayed a LOT by the Master of the Fleet, thus preserving in that transport almost half of my original kill points…  So, pretty much the one chance in 3 for that one I win on the basis of my army build.  One chance in three that I would have likely lost or at least would have had to bum rush the other side’s objectives…  MUCH more difficult if he plays smart, and Cyrus would likely have played it right…  So, likely a draw at best for me.  The last third, would have been a draw likely with me holding my objective and MAYBE me contesting his on a last turn rush with a fast skimmer if any survived J…  So, now likely I have an extra space on the map with the manufactorum for the 150 point bonus…  Probably will hurt more than help knowing my luck…

Eldar, Breaking the Kill Point Mission...

Mkay, so trying to refine the army a bit...  If IA is OK with the folks, the Fire Prism gets swapped for a Warp Hunter...  The D-cannon template shot is just way too good...  At least on paper, guessing that in actual play it isn't going to be too bad though...

Eldrad
Karandras
Pathfinders (7)
Wraithguard (10 w/ Spiritseer to be "Troops")
Dire Avengers (w/ Exarch in Serpent w/ EML)
War Walker squadron (3, all scatter lasers)
Fire Prism

1500 points, 8 Kill Points.  3 of them are going to be bricked up in a ridiculously hard to kill "Deathstar" of sorts...  But T6, 3+/3+ cover save, eternal warrior in there somewhere and at least a decent threat in HtH...  Oh, and Fearless to camp objectives.  May even remember to start the War Walkers right behind them for the Guide/Doom combo out to long range...  Pathfinders to snipe, camp objectives and flank in kill point missions I think...  Play "keep away" with a fleet unit that ignores terrain and can enter play "later", seems like it might even work...  DA just cruise around from reserve and try really hard not to get killed and maybe even kill a random light vehicle or two here and there...  Might swap them for Fire Dragons in the Serpent just for more "we kill things" firepower at the expense of a Troop to hold an objective...  Comes to almost the same points for a much better shooting option...  Ah well.  Depends on who I play I guess...

Brain dead, but still moving...

Actually left work a bit early today...  Been feeling craptastic for a while now, but figured that throwing up on someone's PC while working on it would be counterproductive.  Took the bike out for a bit of a spin, but not much...  Just pretty brain dead...  Trying to straighten out a few random thoughts, but nothing seems to be working on that end...

Thinking that the ancient Falcon I have for my Eldar will become the base hull for "more" of them...  Cast in plaster or resin... That or some other scratch build sort of thing, I have access to some neat printers at work that apparently can do the cardstock printing pre-cut with patterns...  I'll give that a shot I guess...

My Wolf Combi weapons are coming along in Green Stuff (need to pick some more up soon I guess) and my "Steampunk IG" project is rotating off of "hold" status...  Building a Space 1889 Airship for them to use as Valkyries/Vendettas...  Not an original idea I confess, getting the idea/inspiration from http://22ndpraetorian.blogspot.com/2010/08/air-mobile-praetorian-style.html ...  Check it out, it is a REALLY nicely done build for the lads...

Exhausted ranting :-)

Trying to wrap my head around some things, and I am thinking that I had what to me at least is a minor epiphany,,,  The more recent 40K things that I feel are "overpowered" or "broken" seem to universally be things that break the design rules.  Now, an example of this is the Grey Knight's Falchions...  They are functionally identical to every other Marine (well, not Wolves, but...) Lightning Claws, but they do not have the major disadvantage of the LC.  The Knights' swords still allow their user to wield them and retain the Storm Bolter for a good shooting attack.  So, it is "like" the basic thing but "just better".  It is a pattern that I am seeing over and over in the "top tier" armies.  Not sure if it is an intentional thing like Rackham did with Confrontation 3.5 in an effort to prepare the way for the next major edition to "fix the problems" in the game or if it just the way that codex creep works there...  Kind of why I am a bit concerned about my Eldar getting rewritten, I want a fun but NOT overpowered force.  Something a bit different for me because I feel that pretty much all of the other armies I play are top tier, and so I have to be a bit careful not to fall into the min/max trap and get bored :-)  So, something for me to think about while I am painting my toys... Getting to the point I can field a WYSIWYG and fully painted force for several of my armies....  Eldar now getting close, need to get some more Falcon hulls though...  The ancient Armorcast hull looks nice and I do think it would be a unique force to bring out...

The "less often used" Eldar stuff actually did quite well last night...  Dark Reapers, if they can set up in say, a building and shoot at things not in cover can really take a toll on whatever they happen to be across the table from.  The Exarch with the Tempest Launcher and Crack Shot is amazing.  Re-rolling to wound and no cover save on an AP 3 weapon usually means just no saves for his 2 blast templates. Mind, they DID die horribly to HtH when the last few of a Homogaunt swarm hit them...  I do kind of miss the old Exarch with the good HtH weapon options as well, and I have to admit that for the point cost, making the Reaper Launchers either Assault Weapons or giving them a second (or third) shot type option would be REALLY nice in the next edition :-)...  Pathfinders did actually wipe out the last of the 'Gaunts in HtH to hold their objective, the Swooping Hawks survived due to there being no shooting so not sure it was a good test...  Still, jumping around and throwing out 16 STR 3 shots at 24" range, some of which can cause pinning from a small unit is nice...  Just not so sure they'll last against say, an IG army with AP 4 firepower to spare.  Scorpions killed the enemy Psycher/anti-armor (forget their name...  I see it as recovering Eldar DNA) before getting destroyed by a swarm of Stealers...  They were "OK", but did what had to be done to win the game.  Drawing the uber CC element which also happened to be a Troop section away from one of my weakly held objectives kept it from being a draw.  There was no way his swarms would have made the trek across the large kill zone in the center of the table to contest/dislodge my fire base over there, so I would have held one to his one.

I do have to get away from setting up a "fire base" like that with so mobile an army as the Eldar...  I had the Dire Avengers, Eldrad, Wave Serpent, Wraith Lord, and a Fire Dragon Squad set up in a corner supported by my Spiders jumping around...  Fire Dragons (Exarch w/ Crack Shot for the all important "oops, I rolled a 1" to wound protection and "no cover save for you") did almost nothing as most of them died to the Genestealer Brood Lord, but the Exarch and one survived breaking from HtH to shoot him in the face and take the remaining wound away wiping the brood off the table as they fled...  Spiders survived a round of HtH against a strung out swarm of Gaunts to break away and allow the fire base to open up...  Really only did so well because I seized init...  I didn't realize just how fast the Gaunts really can run in a turn.  And I need to bring more "Troops" to hold objectives...

All in all, the Eldar did well enough...  Hawks I think stay on the shelf still though.  They might surprise a Mech army with Haywire Grenades, but the fact that they evaporate to the first thing that looks at them...  Real shame, they were among my favorite ancient models to actually play, and these days they are just so bad and overpriced that I feel like I am being silly to even consider fielding them...Reapers and Dragons go back into rotation.  War Walkers will I think be something I keep (didn't use them last night, I KNOW they are good), just need to determine the weapon loadout...  The traditional Bright Lance/Scatter Laser (OK, it was "Las Cannon/Scatter Laser" in the ancient times) might be good against Marine forces, especially if I keep them near Eldrad for a Guide...  Dual Scatter Lasers for the 8 STR 6 shots each though...  That works well against a LOT of things...  Just not Terminators.  Wraith Lord, even the Seer is going to be a harder one to take I think.  Just too much Mech/anti Mech in the local play group.  Just have to decide on what "Troops" to start fielding...  Probably a few min squads of Dire Avengers in Serpents as scoring light tanks...  Maybe an Autarch to play the Reserve game, especially in Kill Point missions...  Things off the table most of the game are less likely to die :-)  Just have to GET to the table at some point...

IA 11....

Well, on my initial read through of the book...  Well, I do think that the next edition's Eldar are being revealed a bit at a time.  BS 4 seems to be a running theme.  FAST.  The DE move fast and fire everything looks like it goes army wide...  The D-Cannon looks like it gets deadly again, and they start to bring out more low AP weapons...

Which brings me to what I am thinking might well be at least a slightly broken thing...  Corsair list gives them Troops that are AMAZING...  The current codex has a LOT of Troop choices, but by and large they are all mediocre at best.  The Corsair squad, maxxed out at 10 with all the good options comes to 175.  Jet Packs giving the Tau (well, "rulebook", but the Tau are the only ones who have it) move/shoot/move with Relentless... The squad would have 2 Fusion Guns (Melta Guns) and 2 Eldar Missile Launchers...  The basic troops have Assault 2 weapons with 24" range, so a crapton of Str 3 shots on a highly mobile platform...  Just concerned that it is getting cheap to throw out a bunch of really good shots in terms of high Str and low AP without much of a disadvantage...  And they can deep strike, shoot and move to scatter...  Might be a bit too good for ~200 points...  Mind, no clue whatever if the Eldar will get the same options as the Corsairs, but since that's where the tech originated...

Warp Hunter

Mkay, so I think I may have found one of the somewhat overpowered things in the IA2 book...  The Warp Hunter really is quite powerful, probably too powerful.  Fast skimmer for the 12" move, 36" ranged Barrage weapon OR (and I think this is the broken part) the Aether Rift which uses the flamer template placed within 6" of the gun, and the teardrop no closer to the gun than the narrow end.  And both fire modes are AP 2, wounding on a 2+ (ID on a 6)...  Template weapons negating cover saves means that I can bring it in from reserve or going fast and hit something REALLY hard.  Now, the template has no roll to hit, allows no cover save or armor save...  Mind, I can still roll 1's, but should the unit be say, doomed...  So, say goodbye to a whole lot of "Rock" units...

And against vehicles, the roll of 3-4 for a glance and 5-6 for a penetrating hit...  Combined with the template or large blast?  Well, parking lots are in trouble...  Go in a "V" formation with Serpents loaded out with Fire Dragons and watch the look of "Oh Shit" just creep onto the player putting the parking lot strategy into effect...

Yeah, still no "I kill hordes" really...  I guess the massed S6 shooting I can throw down will be what I can use to deal with the horde effect...

The Eldar next week...

Not sure who I'll be playing next week, but doing a bit of painting, etc...  Thinking of fielding:

Eldrad
Scorpions (Exarch w/ sabers, Shadowstrike and Stalker)
Pathfinders
Dire Avengers (8+ Exarch w/Bladestorm in Serpent)
My ancient Vampire class DN (EML/Scatter Laser)
Dark Reapers (Exarch w/ EML/Fast Shot or Tempest/Crack Shot)
Swooping Hawks (Exarch w/ Skyleap and one of the neat weapons)
+ ?

The Farseer kitted out the way I'd use them would be over 150 points, and Eldrad comes to 210 for a version far better in every aspect I think...  So, sadly, seems almost a no brainer for me, unless for whatever reason I am fielding 2 cheap Farseers just for the extra bodies I guess...

The rest?  Well, breaking out some of the REALLY rarely seen things just to give them a shot...  Might surprise some of the lads...  More likely to make a neat multi colored mist as they explode from anything more powerful than harsh language :-)  But might be fun all around...

Conventional Wisdom?

Not sure if I can effectively say that "conventional wisdom" is silly or not WRT 40K...  I've spent the better part of the last few years trying to play and win with a lot of the "sub-optimal" units/armies in 40K.  Some have been a success, in fact I have actually won a lot more often than I have lost.  Now, a fair amount of that is playing in a "small pond" with a fairly limited pool of opponents, but I do think a lot of it was really a combination of surprise and unfamiliarity with so many things that no one in their right mind would choose.  Saying that, there are still a lot of things that "conventional wisdom" is completely correct about in most situations...  :-)  My opinion only per usual...  My Swooping Hawks and Banshees in the Eldar army are still by and large "highly situational" in the case of the Banshees and  "Let's Wait For Next Edition" on the Hawks...  Thinking a lot more about my Eldar force as you'd guess, playing them in the current Gopher league...  Pathfinders are a solid choice, but fragile.  Guardians are not very good and fragile...  Dire Avengers or Guardians in Serpents seem to be the only one worth taking in a modern play environment.  The Wraith Guard are too expensive in general... Effective, yes...  But a "bit" expensive...

For the bulk of the folks there I'll be playing more "fun" lists and seeing how I can make them work....  My Scorpions with the Chain Saber Exarch flanking works out to be a really good flanking unit...  If they actually show up on a side with the enemy close that is....  Otherwise it's a LONG walk for the 150+ point unit...  The Biting blade seems the "let's get Mech armies" to me, and if it were rending or better Power, I'd say it was really good...  I seem to get a bunch of S7 hits that Marines laugh off with him.  But since I converted one of the lads to the Saber variant I've been running that to decent effect...  Tears through IG and even gets a fair number of wounds against T4 things with the re-rolls to mitigate my poor dice :-)  I don't HAVE enough Falcon type hulls to effectively run the standard "Mechdar" force, but I can do a close enough one I guess...  Just don't think it will be too effective against a well built IG or GK/Wolf "we shoot things" force.  Against that, I'll be relying on flankers and reserves to try to bring me closer to even...  Every advantage I can eke out of the force to try to come close to even odds. Pretty sad commentary that I have to rely completely on luck, "focused list building" and good generalship to even feel like I'm in an even fight with a well built "top tier" list.  To be expected I guess, and one aspect where the conventional wisdom is pretty well right on.  To fight the expected "focused build" IG in the league I'll be having to play the reserve game, hope my lads can roll in, shoot something down/up and maybe even survive the counter fire...  Not a game I'm likely to win or even have fun playing I think.  But sadly, I do think I have at least a shot of making it a hard game iff I build specifically for the expected opposition and they oblige by showing up pretty much as expected :-)...  So, to  restate this: To win, I'd need to min-max a custom force against his, he must field exactly what I'm expecting and I'll need to get lucky on the reserve rolls and with my shooting :-)  Yeah, he's a good player and so I'll likely lose or at best make it a bloody draw as my lads get destroyed...  Same thing happens against Mike, but at least we're both usually quite bloody at the end and it is an enjoyable game

Made the most obnoxious "Rock" or "Anvil" unit I could in the army for last night's game.

Eldrad (210)
Wraithguard (Full unit, w/ Spirit Seer/conceal/Spear) (399)
Wraith Seer (Scatter Laser) (205)

So, LOTS of points, but it gives me a T6, Fearless, Re-rollable save, FNP scoring unit I can march across the field and/or camp objectives with.  Yes, better than half of my army at 1500 points and against some forces it may never do anything but die slowly (I'd hope)...  OTOH, if the game revolves around the other side having to come dig me out...  Well, good luck.  Wraith Guns being in the "I Don't Care" class of weapon I really like to field should make even tooled out Paladins think twice about coming over to assault me.  Mind, I ended up playing to a draw against a good Necron force mostly due to several silly mistakes on my part to compound some bad dice for reserves/flankers...  Should have put the damn Pathfinders up on the second level of the building to make them immune to the Scarabs.  Should have been a bit more cautious with the Spiders and War Walkers, but at that point I really needed to blunt the Scarab's fast moving offensive to keep them away from my "home base" objective being held by a few Pathfinders or encircling my Anvil unit.  On the other hand, I should have realized once I killed one of his 3 Heavy Destroyers I could and SHOULD have moved my Wraith Seer out aggressively to dare his Scarabs to engage...  At that point his Spiders were really the only thing that could effectively hurt him, and he easily over-matched them unless all 6 hit him at once...  If I had moved him even one turn earlier he would have tied up the Scarabs and likely destroyed them in a turn or two, but in any case I would not have been drawn off of the 2 (!!!) objectives they were holding in the center of the field :-)  Still, it was a really fun game getting me more used to playing against the new Necrons...  Guessing it will be Tyranids next week...

Eldar on the move...

:-)  Not sure what direction to go with for the league...  But a bit bored with some of the more overpowered forces so Wolves and Grey Knights are definitely taking a breather...  The Dark Angels are powerful but REALLY limited in terms of viable armies, and a LOT less fun to actually play after a while...  IG are also potentially really too powerful coupled with the fact that they require WAY too may models...  Trying to get fully painted armies to the field, and even after watching Zulu again I doubt I could keep that level of interest in painting my Light Rifle Company...  Yeah, the bulk have a "base coat", but still...

In any case, I'm playing Eldar.  Looking at Imperial Armour, I'm really liking what the Eldar get...  The Hornet is what the Viper really should be in the current ruleset.  The Warp Hunter is their version of the Marine Vindicator, and it is I think better in a lot of ways.  Might be a bit overpowered offensively, the "Inferno" template fire mode for the D-cannon combined with the 5" blast for the main fire mode...  Both modes are "D Cannon" for the rule, so 2+ to wound, 6 is ID and 2-4 for a  glance and 5+ for a penetrating hit....  Yeah, I'll still roll lots of 1's, but AP 2 and no cover save is really quite deadly against a whole lot of things....  The Hornet and Jaeger look powerful but really fragile.  The Wraithseer looks like a potentially "fun" option, but with so many choices being made for me by simply choosing the Wraithseer...  Need another HQ AND a unit of Wraithguard...  So, my "Eldar Castle" army would work, but that leaves so little for anything below 1850+...  Eldrad, full Wraithguard squad and the Wraithseer comes to 800+ points...  So, tough to take down in a kill point mission with the potential for a unit of Fearless T6 FNP Troops with re-rollable cover and armor saves... Good luck killing them quickly.  But it makes for a one trick army...  Good trick, but only one...

So, Pathfinders as Troops...  Not particularly resilient, but could be hard to catch if I run a flank with them...  So, one squad, maybe 2...  Storm Guardians maybe?  Dunno, I've never been a fan of throw away suicide troops, and the SG are just not really good at anything...  Jet bikers are amusing, but WAY fragile...  I know, a running theme for Eldar.  Dire Avengers are "eh" at best in my opinion, but I suppose running around in a Wave Serpent can get me a scoring light tank...  I'll field my usual Scorpions and I've dug up some ancient Dark Reapers...  Thinking they might be nice against all of the 3+ armor out on the field at the Gopher at least...  And I snagged a bunch of Fire Dragons to shore up my horde of Aspect Warriors...  For some reason I only ever had a few of them.  Painting a bit on the Banshees, but I doubt I'll field them...

Eh, it'll be interesting at least :-)

January, what next?

Well, I might break out one of the "several" ancient Eldar DN's I have to convert over to be a Wraithseer...  Horribly overpriced it would seem from first glance, but I do sort of wonder what I could do with one...  Rules are "OK", nothing really overpowering it seems, but might be a bit of a surprise hitting the modern tables at the Gopher...  So, Green Stuff and time...  Looks like I'll have a bit of time someday :-)

Glad my wife doesn't wander down to the basement much :-)...  My armies are taking up more of the space as I try to figure out what I actually have...  And I'll probably switch over to Eldar for the next league, so digging them up and fixing various broken things...  I now have 5 of the ancient "Ghost Warriors" to fill out my Wraith Guard...  Good enough for local stuff, but not sure if that would fly elsewhere...  Might, it IS a GW model and it is what the WG started out as...  So, my lads will come out of retirement yet again...  :-)  The Warp Hunter will be a bit of a shock for both turns it survives, but it will be fun I think...