Fleshtearers 3rd Co, now with pictures...

Mkay, remembered to take my phone downstairs...  Meant to post yesterday, but exhaustion being what it is...

Yeah, crappy camera on the phone...  But getting there on the painting.

So far, Drop Pod and Sternguard are ready.  Threw together a Heavy Flamer trooper, and he has been awesome.  Happy overall with the Medic riding with the Squad...  Change from the 10 man squad that combat squadded and potentially killed 2 things as they come in.  That is the plus, for the biggest negative I think that it was really a one shot suicide squad.  If they failed to kill something, they'd get taken down in HtH.  Running Seth or CPT Sariel (Tycho) and the Medic in the squad has improved the survival of the Squad  by leaps and bounds.  And of course the 2 ICs can be split off to potentially deal with 2 additional things, and of course the potential placed shots are potentially huge...  REALLY happy with my Tycho equivalent when I fielded him, the SI ammo and the Melta

Scouts are ready, but I'm thinking about swapping out the SGT (Power Fist/Sniper Rifle) for something else...  Probably just the Sniper Rifle, but I'd be open to trying Storm Bolter or something else...  Dunno, but the way I play it, I almost never use the Fist so that's 25 points I can use somewhere else...

Assault troops are coming along, just need to finish up a few things here and there...  Need to get a few other special weapons set up...  Only one Melta Gun so far, but I am finding that one Melta one Flamer is a pretty good mix.  Plasma pistols I have WAY too many of, part of that legacy of them being almost standard issue in the ancient times I guess :-), but I guess the SGTs will be using a few of them...  And/or Power Weapons of course, being an Assault army of course...

Librarian/Mephiston?  I have a few painted up and Mephiston, thanks again to 40K giveaway!  But I have almost no experience using Psykers in this edition, and points being limited... I have yet to face a Grey Knight army in this League, but I am really concerned about them being able to be singled out and easily killed....  The GK Storm Raven is really powerful against a single or small number of Psykers...

Brings me to the other one I have yet to face a Necron army with an overload of fliers...  I HAVE a semi Storm Raven now that I could field to go for an Air to Air fight...  But what I have painted and ready, what I fielded last week will be pretty good, I hope...  The Quad Gun and Aegis line has been pretty good all around for me, and while it CAN be shot up and destroyed, I'll take my chances with the cover save I guess :-)  It's what I have, so that's what we run with...

Fleshtearers, 3rd Company...

Well, picked up a "Storm Raven" conversion in a trade...  So, it's a Vendetta that is put together differently, and it actually doesn't look to bad...  Will need to rebuild it and of course it needs to be painted...  So, I now have a flier available to dogfight should I choose to...  Transport capacity of a full squad plus a Dreadnought... But transporting as a Flier is extremely risky I think, I will have to read over those rules again.  But an Assault Vehicle with an assault squad or Death Company and the DC DN?  Devastating if I can get the assaults off...  And with Jump Packs/Fleet?  Yeah, decent odds I think...  On the other hand, it is a BIG target...  And facing a Necron Flying Circus?  Well, I guess it pulls air superiority duty...

Have to say that I am liking the list I used this week though...  CPT Tycho leading out the Sternguard for a quick first strike, the Scouts deploy and hold objectives I guess...  Might drop the Power Fist on the SGT, I do not think I have used it once this league.  With the rest of my army being HtH and generally charging toward the enemy, the snipers don't get charged often.  And to field the Storm Raven I need to find 200 or so points...  100 from the Aegis line and so 25 from the Fist...  :-) So...  Well, have to get it painted up in time...  We'll see.

List about set...

Played the CPT Tycho list this evening, and I think it's about the best I can field at the moment...  Comparing Tycho with Seth, I do think that Tycho is better in every respect for my list...  I need to work a bit on reserves, as I lost First Blood and my Razorback (forgot to roll for Night Fight), I think I could have reserved it and kept it alive a bit longer...  Tycho was able to charge off and destroy a Leman Russ with his Str 5+2d6 HtH attacks so I think he'll so almost as well as Seth against light vehicles.  And with the Combi-melta and SI ammo combined with him being a Character I think he will be able to place shots pretty well.  With the Drop pod, I CAN drop them in, or I can start the squad in cover and shoot say, no cover save shots to deal with things hidden in a horde...  I can also split him off and run him with anther squad, or even I guess as the Death Company version...

So, the Sternguard are good, and with the Drop Pod here and mostly painted the squad is done.  The Heavy Flamer is working out FAR better than I'd hoped as well.  The Scouts are done and FINALLY actually killed a few things...  The snipers picked off a specialist in the IG HQ with the 6 to hit, and the SGT running the Quad Gun allowed me to kill off a bunch of HW teams...  Still haven't faced a flier in a while, so not sure how viable this setup really is overall, but working well so far...

Assault Squads are painted, just need a bit of work on the bases I think, might need to work on the weapon mixes a bit...  Flamer and Melta are working wonders for now...  So, 2 more full squads about done with just some detail work and base cleanup to do.  Will likely run one as a minimum size squad in a Razorback though, seems to work just fine with the discounted fast Tank...

Baal Predator was good, and frankly a game winner for me as he had no answer for it when it finally appeared on turn 4...  Can't count on that happening often, and frankly would rather have had it on turn 2, but...  Just a bit more paint and seal it up...

Slight change for next week...

Thinking of bringing a slight change in leadership next week:

CPT Tycho
Sanguinary Priests (2, 1 PW, 1 Jump Pack)
Scout Squad (9 snipers, SGT w/PF, ML or HB)
Assault Squad (10, flamer, Melta, SGT w/PP & PW)
Death Company (jump packs, 5, 2 Power Axes)
Baal Pred (HB sponsons, flamer or TLAC?)
Sternguard Squad (Drop Pod, 5 Combi-Melta, 1 Combi Plasma, 1 H Flamer)
Assault Squad (Razorback w/ TLAC, LasPlas or TLLC, Melta Gun)
Whirlwind

Aegis line with the Quad Gun

So, same basic premise with some un-named CPT from one of the 4 remaining Companies of the Fleshtearers using CPT Tycho's stats...  Still not sure what the AP of "The Dead Man's Hand" is, but I'll play it as AP 3 since it has a few special rules, etc...  I have one of the ancient "Blood Angels" Captains that I have quickly modified the Bolter to be a Combi-Melta, so should be quick and easy to paint up to get him to the tabletop.  Won't be that nice "golden" color, but I am liking the way the brass is looking after the Min-Wax/Matte spray, so probably the way to go as a Fleshtearers CPT.

Still debating with myself about the whole "model to advantage" of the Power Weapons in this edition...  So far it seems that for the normal Assault squad, Swords are the way to go.  The Death Company has the Power Axes already, and the Chaplain is stuck with the Power Maul unless I add the Power Fist...  The Medics (Sanguinary Priests)?  Tried Power Maul for the Str 7 on the Charge, but the Plague Marines Joe fielded simply shrugged it all off with the AP 4 and FnP rolls...  Not sure a Power Axe will be worth it dropping the I to 1, but with CPT Tycho might be the option I wind up going with for something AP 2 in there...  I'm just not seeing enough 2+ armor locally at least so the Swords are appearing to be the best here at least for Marines...  IG are getting Mauls or Axes I think.  Still irked that Logan Grimmar most likely gets hosed with his magic Axe...

Otherwise, the Whirlwind makes it's reappearance...  I think Ordinance Barrage Sniping is going to be JUST that annoying, picking off specific models.  To say nothing of the IG/DE/Necron armies I am seeing all over the place here, AP4 or AP 5 with no cover save is REALLY powerful against them, allowing me to simply erase Command or other important targets.  And with the casualties coming from the center of the blast, I can get Heavy Weapons, SGTs, etc...  90 points in a BA army, so a bit pricey, but I do think it will be worth it.

Second Assault Squad in a Razorback replacing the overpriced Tactical Squad.  Yes, the Razorback will probably be easy to kill, but twin linking the LC or more likely the Assault Cannons on the Fast platform makes for an emergency AA gun since there are a few armies with a lot of fliers locally.  Not entirely sure how they'll be deployed or used, but there are a good number of options here...  And the lads will all be painted, I think that is one of the more exciting things about all this...

First Blood for the win?

Well, I have to say that Secondary Victory Conditions are becoming really important...  Squeaked out a win against a good Chaos list from Joe L...  Really it was his Warlord rolling the "I can Outflank" that allowed him to attach to a Terminator Squad in their Land Raider...  So, they wound up coming in on Turn 2 or 3, but more importantly, they were not on the table when my Sternguard hit the field.  So, my Combi-Meltas of Doom were more or less usless.  We instead dropped in, Heavy Flamer to the fore and hit a Squad of Nurgle Marines that had disembarked their Rhino to shoot up my Scouts...  The SI Ammo is REALLY nice.

Yes, I had Scouts out in front to grab the "relic" objective.  Joe seized initiative, so the lads who infiltrated, scout moved and were ready to grab the objective and flee were instead gunned down in the open...  Well 4/5 of them, the last one DID escape for a turn, moving the ball back to where my Tac Squad would take it and move it back to my lines.  Game ended after turn 6 when the Terminators and Typhus (? big named Nurgle character) killed the last member of the squad in HtH...  But since they needed to pick it up in the movement phase, no one had control of the ball as time expired...  Line Breaker was claimed by both armies as his Terminators and my sole remaining Death Company Power Axe were camped in each other's DZs...  Both of our Warlords lived, and with my Death Company charging and killing the Nurgle Rhino on turn one, my claiming "First Blood" won the game.  Normally, I get it from Sternguard dropping and Melta/Plasma firing something to death, but I'll take it...

So, it seems that paying attention to the VC, especially the Secondaries is the way to get a lot of wins without having to sweep the field :-)...  Not always possible in this game.  Also, I have yet to find any particular disadvantage for "MSU" (multiple small units?  I cannot really remember the acronym) in this edition...  The old one, 1/3 of the missions were Kill Points, so it punished an Army bringing lots of cheap kill points.  Now, really it just means you risk giving First Blood easier, and with Night Fight (assuming people forget Search Lights/don't have them), loads of terrain blocking LOS, etc...  Even that is not a guarantee for stand off armies by any means...

So, next week I'll have at least one, probably 2 actual Drop Pods ready to roll, the Predator will be done and I think all of my Infantry, bar the Tactical Squad, will be fully painted.  Still not sure they are worth it frankly.  Let me re-phrase that, I still think they suck.  The Las Cannon whiffed the whole game, the Plasma fired only once, and the guys just died...  I'd rather have another Assault Squad I think as at least I can re-position them more easily or at least get the cheaper Razorback...  So, thinking I'll have the fully painted army next week, 90% done now...  Decent army all in all, probably won't win any GT's, but fun to play and it WILL give some of the "net lists" a headache...  Others though it will simply die to :-)

This Week, and Flatcon?

Well, looking like I will be fielding something along this line:

Gabriel Seth
Sanguinary Priests (1 Terminator, 1 jump pack)
Scout Squad (9 snipers, Heavy Bolter, Power Fist on SGT)
Assault Squad (Flamer, Melta, SGT has PP/PW)
Death Company (5 Jump Packs, 2 power axes)
DC DN (Flamer, Searchlight)
Baal Predator (Flamer turret, HB Sponsons)
Sternguard (Drop Pod, 4 combi Melta, combi plasma, Heavy Flamer)
Tac Squad (10, Las Cannon, Plasma gun, SGT w/Storm Bolter, Rhino w/searchlight)

Aegid Defense Line w/ Quad gun AAA

10 points left over, so probably just a few more random things here and there...  LOTS of Troops, so I can Combat Squad and hold lots of things, even with the Death Company and Sternguard going off to run a likely suicide attack...  On the plus side, if I go first, "First Blood" is mostly assured...  Minus side, I risk my Warlord a lot the way I play...  But that is pretty much how I play...

Looking at Flatcon doubles tournament in October...  Assuming we can get a team or two together and wander over to Bloomington...  1250 each, further rules here:
http://getevengaming.wordpress.com/central-illinois-doubles-2012/

Sounds like it could be a good one, and my Fleshtearers will be all fully painted and my Drop Pods will be ready...  So I'll be able to field pretty much whatever I'd need to...

Magnets are fun :-)

Well, got one of my ancient Predator hulls magnetized...  More or less :-)...  It works, but somehow I got the polarities reversed on the magnets so the guns only work on one side...  Until I get around to tearing it apart and reversing I guess, but it works for now and moving on to finishing the paint job...  Looking like the Baal Predator will hit the field in support of my Assault elements with the Heavy Bolter sponsons  for the moment.  I was pretty happy how well it did in support of my Sternguard, and I suspect that they will do well enough against a lot of armies locally at least.  Flying circus is the one I do not think I have an answer for at the moment.  Just SO many fliers locally, and I think that is going to be the biggest problem my lists will face...