Now the Extension of the SM Analasys.....

now you may not agree with my analysis of the SM dex below, but to expand upon it, here are some thoughts...


Pedro Kantor - Depends on your Build but usually Fail
Darnath Lysander - Same as Pedro.
Kayvaan Shrike - Win
Vulkan He'Stan - UBER WIN
Korsorro Khan - Win

Chapter Master - Win
Chapter Captain - Win
Command Squad - See Pedro Kantor.
Librarian - PURE WIN
Master of the Forge - Depends on your Build, Has much potential, Middle of the Road.

Tac Squad - Middle of the Road
Scout Squad - WIN!
Sergent Telion - PURE WIN!!!!

Rhino- Win
Razorback - WIN
Drop Pod - FAIL unless taken in large numbers or only 1 per army.

Terminator Assault Squad - PURE WIN with TH/SS Combo
Sternguard - See Pedro Kantor
Venerable Dreadnought - Middle of the Road
Dreadnought - WIN
Techmarine/Servitors - See Master of the Forge

Vanguard Veterans - Can be WIN in few occasions but overall FAIL
Land Speeder Squadron - PURE WIN
Land Speeder Storm - Middle of the Road
Bike Squad- As Fast Attack FAIL, As Troops WIN

Thunderfire Cannon - See Master of the Forge
Land Raider - WIN
Land Raider Crusader - PURE WIN
Land Raider Redeemer - The Best of the LR options with a TH/SS Termie Assault Squad. PURE WIN!
Predator - WIN

The above squads are worth their salt,

Now to explain...

PEDRO KANTOR
This guy has some utility, but usually only in larger games because all of your marines lose their hit and run ability (I.E. Choose to fail their morale check in CC, run away (can't be sweeping advanced because of ATSKNF) then next turn auto-Rally and rapid fire the squad that was assaulting them. Great for a fun surprise. and thus lose some utility.

HOWEVER, when you take a Kantor army with Kantor, Lysander, 3 Squads of Sternguard, 6 squads of tac marines, and 3 Autocannon/Heavy Bolter Predators, he becomes a MONSTER.

yes folks that's 9 Scoring units.

And when you throw Lysander in a Drop Pod with 10 Sternguard Vets, they become the best utility unit available to a Space Marine army.

Bolter drill lets them all re-roll fail rolls to hit. so you drop pod them in, rapid fire a squad with helfire rounds and you've got (on average)16 wounds on a squad. sure they get saves, but it's so worth it. 16 wounds on any squad/Monsterous Creature will make it think twice about living.

Add to that the fact that you've got all of that in an army with 9 scoring units and you can cause some serious damage to your opponent.


MASTER OF THE FORGE

This guy can bring great utility to an army and lets you do some crazy things to make a "Counts As" Adeptus Mechanicum force.

Imagine:

2 Masters of the Forge
4 Plasma Cannon Servitors

3 Tech Marines
6 Plasma Cannon Servitors

4 Tac Squads in Rhinos

No Fast Attack (Land Speeders if you must)

3 Thunderfire Cannons
6 Plasma Cannon Servitors

Now that is Template Death.

Will expand this more later.

Space Marine Codex - Win/Fail

Ok, bear with me. if you read this blog (there are probably only 5 or so of you) then you will likely know that the following post is for COMPETITIVE ENVIRONMENTS.

Fluff wise do what you will, but for a Competitive Environment this is my take on the stuff in the SM Codex:

Marneus Calgar - FAIL
Cato Sicarius - FAIL
Chief Librarian Tigurius - FAIL
Chaplain Cassius - UBER FAIL
Pedro Kantor - Depends on your Build but usually Fail
Darnath Lysander - Same as Pedro.
Kayvaan Shrike - Win
Vulkan He'Stan - UBER WIN
Korsorro Khan - Win

Chapter Master - Win
Chapter Captain - Win
Honor Guard - FAIL
Command Squad - See Pedro Kantor.
Librarian - PURE WIN
Chaplain - FAIL
Master of the Forge - Depends on your Build, Has much potential, Middle of the Road.

Tac Squad - Middle of the Road
Scout Squad - WIN!
Sergent Telion - PURE WIN!!!!

Rhino- Win
Razorback - WIN
Drop Pod - FAIL unless taken in large numbers or only 1 per army.

Terminator Squad -FAIL
Terminator Assault Squad - PURE WIN with TH/SS Combo
Sternguard - See Pedro Kantor
Venerable Dreadnought - Middle of the Road
Ironclad Dreadnought -FAIL in a most obnoxious fasion.
Dreadnought - WIN
Techmarine/Servitors - See Master of the Forge
Legion of the Damned - See Pedro Kantor. If their special/heavy weapons were not so overcosted then they would be all win..... alas...

Assault Squad - PURE FAIL
Vanguard Veterans - Can be WIN in few occasions but overall FAIL
Land Speeder Squadron - PURE WIN
Land Speeder Storm - Middle of the Road
Bike Squad- As Fast Attack FAIL, As Troops WIN
Scout Bike Squad - FAIL FAIL FAIL
Attack Bike Squad - FAIL

Devistator Squad - Potential, But usually FAIL
Thunderfire Cannon - See Master of the Forge
Land Raider - WIN
Land Raider Crusader - PURE WIN
Land Raider Redeemer - The Best of the LR options with a TH/SS Termie Assault Squad. PURE WIN!
Predator - WIN
Whirlwind - PURE FAIL
Vindicator - When you take one - FAIL. when you take 3 WIN
Brother Sergent Chronus - PURE FAIL

I'll be going through all the armies I play like this.

Let me know if you like this kind of thing and if you have any questions, be sure to ask.

Drop Salamanders 1750

So after some testing and refinement, this is my 1750 List for my Drop Pod Salamanders List.

Vulkan He'Stean - 190

Dreadnought - 150
- Heavy Flamer, Twin Linked Heavy Flamer
- Drop Pod

Dreadnought - 150
- Heavy Flamer, Multi-Melta
- Drop Pod

Dreadnought - 160
- Heavy Flamer, Multi-Melta
- Drop Pod - Locator Beacon

Tactical Squad - 240
-Multi-Melta, Flamer
-Power Fist, Bolt Pistol
-Drop Pod - Locator Beacon

Tactical Squad - 230
-Multi-Melta, Flamer
-Power Fist
-Drop Pod

Tactical Squad - 205
- Missile Launcher, Flamer
- Bolt Pistol, Chainsword
- Drop Pod

Tactical Squad - 215
- Missile Launcher, Flamer
- Chainsword, Bolt Pistol
- Drop Pod - Locator Beacon

Land Speeder - 70
- Multi-Melta, Heavy Flamer

Land Speeder - 70
- Multi-Melta, Heavy Flamer

Land Speeder - 70
- Multi-Melta, Heavy Flamer

1750

Thoughts are to drop the tac squads drop pods empty on enemy board edge, blocking them off or to drop them empty on objectives creating lots of AV12 on those objectives.

We shall see how this results in a Tournament situation this weekend.

Ice Sculpting

Ok, every year here in Butte, Montana, the uptown association puts on the Ice Carving Contest.

I've participated for the last three years.

Really these are the only time I've ever carved anything.

I've Never won, but here were my submissions:

Ard Boyz 2010

So I've decided that Ard Boyz 2010 will see one of two armies.

Either Tau or Salamanders.

The salamanders list is:

Vulkan
Master of the Forge
6x Dreds with Drop Pods
5 Tac Squads with Drop Pods
3 Land Speeders

Thoughts?

Tournament Scoring, At Least How I Think It Should Work.

Round 1: Random Seeding with the exception of people from the same gaming club not fight each other IF POSSIBLE.
Subsequent Rounds: Players face people with equivalent battle points with the exception that no 2 players ever face each other more than once.

Maximum 25 Points Per Round:
Massacre – 20-0
Major Victory 17-3
Minor Victory 14-6
Tie – 10-10

Conditions for what constitutes a massacre, etc. are defined in each round's mission.

Bonus Points:
Up to 4 Per Round Determined by Tournament Organizer
Examples Include but are not limited to: Did all of your HQ choices Survive? Did more of your Troop Choices Survive than your opponents? Etc.

Sportsmanship:
1 Point for sportsmanship is available for each player for each round.
Simply answer if you would play the person and their army outside of a tournament environment.

In a standard 3 round tournament you will have a maximum score of 75 for the tournament.
In a GT Setting, you will have a maximum score of 150 points.

Painting is a separate category that SHOULD NEVER be included in trounament play, Thus a person Could win both Best Painted and Best overall for a tournament.

Why "Comp" is killing Competitive 40k

I’m not going to sit here and think that I will convince everyone that comp is a bad thing. People are used to it and may even believe that it levels the playing field between codexes.

I take the opposite stance. It does not level the playing field. It limits us as gamers. So I want to take the time to put together an outstandingly brutal list that is built to not only wipe my opponent off the table but win the match, wait, what? I get penalized and dropped in standings because I can figure these codexi out? What a bunch of crap that is.

Comp limits us as gamers because it specifically says “If you take this unit you get dinged in points”. Why? This is supposed to be a competitive setting. I did not come to a tournament to play a beer and pretzels game. I came to a tournament to get my ass handed to me and learn from those that are better than me. Next tournament I’ll do better and teach a few people things. What is the point of playing in a competitive environment if you take the competition out?

Am I disillusioned enough to think that nob bikers are not great? No. I’ve played them. Are they unbeatable? No. Is Vulkan so overpowered that I should take a penalty if I include him in my army? No.

Perhaps we should just start penalizing people if they fill their 1850 list to the max of 1850? It’s just as arbitrary. Oh you squeezed that extra 2 points into your army? -10 Battle points.

Am I the only one that sees comp this way? If you have to rely on the comp system to make your army a worthwhile choice, why are you playing in a competitive environment? Honestly, if you don’t have what it takes to stand up and take your licks (I Did) and learn how to build a strong army AND play it with good tactics, why are you playing this game? For fun? If that is the case you do not belong in a tournament. If you can, and prove your mettle against all the competition, take your prize, and the glory and enjoy it knowing that you have what it takes to play competitively.

Comp kills our competitive environments because it limits what we are allowed to come up with for our armies. You show up at a comp tourney and you see 10 Space Marine armies that are 90% the same, and you see maybe 6 other armies that are built to a different standard. Who usually wins? The xenos. Why? Because all the comp systems are built around the Space Marine Codex. The Xenos are built around fluff.

Ever seen that super anti-Space Marine army play against a xeno army? 7/10 times it get’s it’s ass handed back in it’s transports.

So what do we gain by playing comp tourneys? Well, you get your options limited, you get your creativity stifled, and you get somebody else’s sense of how the game should be played shoved down your throat.

I challenge each and every one of you to build the nastiest list you can and go play in a non-comp tourney. Why? Because you will see that it is not about the list, it is about tactics. Yes your list will help you, but without a plan of action you will get bogged down with so many mundane rules and special effects that you will forget what you need to do. I’ve been there. I’ve done it. I’ve forgotten snikrot behind cover on my opponent’s edge within an inch of a terminator assault squad that would have been crushed had I charged.

My plea: Drop Comp, let people learn what a competitive environment really is. Let them build tactics, Let them build their army to be theirs, not a cookie cutter “NetDeck” yes, it’s brutal, yes it can lead to hurt feelings over a crushing defeat, but you know what else it leads to? Original thought. Nobody learns much by winning every game because comp limited your opponent but not you. Everybody learns something when the guy across from you kicks your ass because you don’t know how to use tactics to win.

I’m not encouraging “That Guy” to be an ass and lord it over his opponents when he wins, I’m not encouraging cheaters, I’m encouraging original thought and to step out of the mold and look at your codex so that when you go to a tournament, you’re more worried about YOUR army than you are about YOUR OPPONENT’s army.

Also, a few points that have been brought up is that comp is used to make things "Fair" or "Fairer" for the people that play outdated codexi, I'm calling bullshit on this. Dark Eldar, Necrons, Tau, Inquisitors, and Eldar all have some of the most competitive armies in existance. No Dice there folks.

Also cripling somebody elses army so yours does better should be done on the battlefield. not bo somebody who thinks that orks are too powerful. Duh, that is the point of the game isn't it?

Tau - Tournament Style

Ok, so i went to a 1500 pt tourney yesterday and took my new tau army.

I had played tau all of 1 game prior to this tournament so these were my 2nd 3rd and 4th games not only with this list but with this army.

My list:
Tau 1500

HQ:

Shas El 125
Missile Pod, Plasma Rifle, HW Multi-Tracker, HW Drone Controller (Shield x2)
HW Blacksun Filter, Bonding Knife

Elite:

Crisis Suit x2 124
Missile Pod, Plasma Rifle, Multi-Tracker

Crisis Suit x2 124
Missile Pod, Plasma Rifle, Multi-Tracker

Troops

Fire Warriors x6 155
Devilfish, D-Pods, Flechette Dischargers

Fire Warriors x6 155
Devilfish, D-Pods, Flechette Dischargers

Fire Warriors x6 60

Fast Attack

Pathfinders x6 167
Devilfish
Disruption Pods, Flechette Dischargers

Pirhanna 80
Fusion Blaster, Flechette Discharger, Targeting Array

Heavy Support

Hammerhead Gunship 175
Railgun, Flechette Discharger, Disruption Pods, 2x Burst Cannons, Multi-Tracker

Hammerhead Gunship 175
Railgun, Flechette Discharger, Disruption Pods, 2x Burst Cannons, Multi-Tracker

Broadside Battlesuits x2 160
Advanced Stabilization System

Total 1500

my first game was dawn of war capture and control against a dark eldar wych cult with lillith and 3 squads of wyches and 3 ravagers with 3x disintigrators each. between rolling 1-3 on 4/5 to hit rolls and the speed of the dark eldar, i got wiped down to 3 squads of drones from my devilfish. i did kill off lillith which netted me a bonus point, but this was a 24-1 loss.

My second game was against space marines, spearhead and seize ground 5 objectives. I had his entire army wiped out by turn 5 so there was no need to roll for another turn.

My third game was against space marines again, his list was all foot with 15 terminators (not the best choice) By turn 3 I had wiped everything out and the terminators were still in reserve. they both came in and on the turn they landed they killed a hammerhead. then i wiped both squads (one of 10, 1 of 5) in the following 2 turns.

In the end i took 3rd place (by one point) just above the guy that played dark eldar and wiped me out the 1st game.Thank you lillith hesperex to dieing to drone fire. otherwize i'd have come in 4th.

All in all i'm satisfied with the army. though i need a bit of speed bump action for them. I believe that i will be dropping one squad of fire warriors for a squad of kroot or 2.

I believe that my next tau army setup at 1500 points like this:

Tau 1500

HQ:

Shas El 123
Missile Pod, Plasma Rifle, HW Multi-Tracker, HW Drone Controller (Shield x2), Bonding Knife, HW Blacksun Filter

Elite:

Crisis Suit x2 124
Missile Pod, Plasma Rifle, Multi-Tracker

Crisis Suit x2 124
Missile Pod, Plasma Rifle, Multi-Tracker

Troops

Kroot x10 - 70 points

Kroot x10 - 70 Points

Fire Warriors x6 155
Devilfish, D-Pods, Flechette Dischargers

Fire Warriors x6 60

Fast Attack

Pathfinders x6 167
Devilfish
Disruption Pods, Flechette Dischargers

Pirhanna 80
Fusion Blaster, Flechette Discharger, Targeting Array

Heavy Support

Hammerhead Gunship 175
Railgun, Flechette Discharger, Disruption Pods, 2x Burst Cannons, Multi-Tracker

Hammerhead Gunship 175
Railgun, Flechette Discharger, Disruption Pods, 2x Burst Cannons, Multi-Tracker

Broadside Battlesuits x2 170
Team Leader, HW Target Lock, Advanced Stabilization System

Total 1500

Running a 40k Tournament in your area:

The fact is that there are many of us out here in the boonies that have little to no access to a Local Gaming Store (LGS) and absolutely NO access to a GW Store. I know, I am one of you. I’ve never, in my whole life, been into a Games Workshop store. That being said, those of us who are in this same predicament probably love this game as much as I do, if not more. So, for someone that has run more tournaments than I can honestly remember and participated and won more than a couple, allow me to help.

YOU CAN RUN YOUR OWN TOURNAMENT.

How? It is really rather simple, you in truth only really need 3 things:

1. A place to play.
This can be your basement if you have enough space, a garage, or a local store.
2. People to participate.
This number can be as big as you want it to be, but should be (for purposes of a decent tournament) no less than 8 people.
3. A Rules Judge
This can be you, so long as you feel comfortable making rulings on games that will effect other people, and that those people will abide by your rulings.

That is it.

Ok, got all that together?

Talk to your participants; get an Idea of what they would like to do for their tournament, because in all honesty it is theirs, not yours. You are just facilitating their enjoyment of the game.

Set your entry fee. Since you are likely reading this because of the fact that you have little or no GW involvement, you are going to be in charge of “Prize Support” if you have an LGS that will help, that is great, but in truth most of these guys are scraping by by the skin of their teeth. So break down, set an entry fee and deal with it.

Tips on Entry Fees:
The more people you have the lees the fee should be per person unless you
want to do big prizes.

The lowest you should go is $5 per person. At 8 people that puts the “Prize Pool” at $40. Not much.

One of the ways that we do things here is $5 Per Person Per Game. This sets the prize pool at a decent level and makes it relatively affordable for most people to attend. Since most tourneys here are 3 games it is $15 per person. At 8 people, that sets your prize pool at $120. A significant difference.

Decide on the “Prizes”

When I say prizes, I do not mean the merchandise that the winner receives, I
mean what qualifies the winner(s). Your fist choice is going to be overall winner. This is the person who wins the tournament. But from there you should also have at least 1 and maybe more winners. What should they be? In smaller tournaments, you should probably keep it simple.

Tips on Secondary Winners
In small tournaments, Keep it simple. Probably stay with a prize for 2nd place. As the size of the tournaments increases so does the “Prize Pool” and so you can have other prizes.

For example, in a 24 Person tournament with a $10 entry fee you will have a prize pool of $240 and could set up your “Prizes” like this:
1. Overall Winner - $90 In Product
2. Runner Up (2nd Place) -$60 In Product
3. Best Painted - $60 In Product
4. Best Sportsman - $30 In Product
Also, keep in mind that no 1 person should EVER win more than 1 prize. Even if the person who won best sportsman won the overall winner slot, he would get the $90 in product. The next in line for sportsmanship would take best sportsman.

Decide on Scenarios

Scenarios should be clearly written and balanced for EVERY ARMY. Thus you should never make a scenario that starts the players at opposite short edges of a 6’x4’ board with a 12” deployment zone. I’ve played in these and the 4’ that you need to cover completely screws over the assault oriented armies while giving armies like Tau a completely unfair advantage.

House Rules

House rules should be very clearly defined. If you change ANYTHING in the rules, tell people. If you want the ork battlewagon’s deff rolla to not effect tanks, MAKE IT CLEAR to people, preferably before the tournament so that they can take that into account in writing their list. Nothing sucks worse than writing a list all about denying somebody their cover saves only to show up and find out that the tournament is running with the rules that cover saves can not be negated.
TELL YOUR PARTICIPANTS!

Have a clear way to define the winner of the tournament. Win/Loss record is not enough.
In any tournament over 8 people, just winning is not enough since in a 12 person tournament, pitting winners against winners, you may end up with 2 people that won all 3 of their games. Make a system, the most commonly used and easiest to understand is battle points. It will save everyone a lot of work in the end.

Run your tournament with a spreadsheet. It’s easy to setup and will keep your life clean and easy and will help with pairings for subsequent rounds.

Keep a cool head, if you encounter a rule that you do not know or have had no experience with, think about it logically. You are a smart gamer (I Hope) if you have a hard time, ask a 3rd party that you trust and is not involved in the game. It’s ok to take 5 minutes, but don’t take an hour to issue a judgement. 5 minutes is about the maximum you want to take otherwise you are denying them a game. If you cant figure it out, think about it logically and apply all pertinent rules, if somebody is trying to cheat, you should be able to tell.

HAVE FUN. And that is the most important of any tournament. Have fun.

Ork Big Mek

Ok, this guy is one of the most versitile HQ Choices in the book, he can be shooty, assaulty, Funny, or just a support character. he takes quite a bit of explaining, so bear with me.

Shooty- The big mek with shooty goodies can be a monster, though only in a few ways.
You should not take any of the following options, simply because with a Ballistic skill of 2 he is only hitting on a 5 or a 6 and his shots are wasted. Kombi-Rokkit Launcher, Kustom Mega Blasta.

Leaving your options as a Burna (in exchange for your choppa) or a Kombi-Skorcha (in exchange for your slugga) both give you template weapons that auto-hit which is amazing for orks.


Assaulty- You can take him stock as a 35 point HQ choice (more boyz!) and get a slugga/choppa HQ that gives you 5 S4 attacks on the charge, useful if you are going for more bodies, but not as fun. Or you can exchange his Choppa for a Power Klaw, giving you 4 S9 attacks on the charge. and 3 S8 attacks in subsequent rounds or if you get assaulted.

Funny - The shokk Attack gun. one of the most potent and at the same time on of the most inneffective weapons in the game, and to boot you can easily kill yourself in the process of shooting it. Nothing beats seeing an entire unit disappear from the board from one shot, but to get that you have to deal with the possibility of completely killing yourself on the first turn before you can do anything.

Support- This guy can be kitted out in several ways to support the rest of your army, but the most important is the Kustom Force Field. this amazing piece of equipment will help keep your vehicles alive more than anything considering the 4+ cover save it grants them if they are within 6" of him. you can put him in a trukk or wagon and run him with your 9 killa kans up the board and laugh as your opponent tries to shoot the kans which have a 4+ cover save on top of being vehicles. Though keep in mind that the KFF grants your OPPONENT's models within 6" of him that same cover save. Yeah we can build the damn thing, but we can't make it only protect us.

My way to run this guy, as stated, is to either give him the KFF and a burna, throw him in a trukk and go, or to take him stock and keep points for other good things in the army.
Posted by Stephen at 7:08 AM 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: Big Mek, Kustom Force Field, Ork, Shokk Attack Gun

Ork Warboss

The ork warboss is the biggest and baddest of the orks. He is a close combat monster and to use him otherwise is just a waste of points.

He is also your only way in the ork army to reliably produce Strength 10 attacks. Sure the Shokk attack gun and the Zzapp gun can also do it, but they are less reliable as there is a vast minority of their attacks that reach that strength.

I usually run my warbosses one of two ways:

Warboss
Bike
Attack Squig
Cybork Body
Power Klaw

Ringing in at 150 Points, this guy is a monster. He has a 4+ Save, a 4+ Cover Save and a 5+ Invulnerable save, 5 Strength 10 attacks on the charge and 4 Strength 10 attacks when not charging. He is on a bike, so he is fast, manouverable, and has a Twin Linked Assault 3 gun with 18 inches, effectively giving you a first turn of shooting range of 32" with his move. and you can up that to 44" with a full forward deployment. He is best used attached to a squad of Nob Bikers, Their manouverability and the addition of a painboy makes him a wonderful addition, as it lets you take Strength 8-9 weapon hits and still make your saves AND a feel no pain save. and removing the fact that a Missile launcher will automatically kill one of your nob bikers.

Warboss
'Eavy Armor
Cybork Body
Power Klaw
Attack Squig
Kombi-Skorcha

Rining in at 120 Points, this guy is also a monster, though with a different role, while the biker boss is a hammer for just about anything, this guy is meant for footslogging with the boyz or even a battlewagon full of nobz (see above for why to travel with nobz). If you want to run a green tide, ruth is guy. his kombi-Skorcha will give you those Strength 5 templates that you will need to deal with other hordes, and the klaw gives you the almighty power of the S10 CC attack that will deal with land raiders.

Both options are sound, more can be added, but I reccomend only adding them when you have points to fill. Also, for each warboss (or Ghazzy) that you take, you may take a squad of Nobz as a troop choice, making that Nob Biker list much more viable.

Codex Orks Overview

Ok, inspired by my favorite podcast: 40k Radio, I've decided to start my overview and tactica of the army seen most here: Orks

We will start off with the HQ choices, moving from the generic to the Special Characters. See how that goes and then move on from there.

First up will be the Ork Warboss.

Ard Boyz Round 2

Ok, so i went to my 2nd Round of Ard Boyz.....

I placed 9th.

I made a few mistakes. And could not recover.

My first round I tabled (completely destroyed) my opponent in 3 turns. i was amazing.

2nd Round i got tabled by a ravener heavy tyranid list. it was horrible.

3rd round i pulled out a minor victory vs an outflanking korosorro list. amazing game.

in the end it ended with all of the gaming coming down to a single combat around the center objective.

I had a great time!

Ard Boyz - Round 1

Ok, it's been a while since i've been busy, I've Moved and well lots of life happened.

However, I did go to the Ard Boyz here in Montana. and managed to take 2nd Place. I made a tactical error in my first game and was able to recover and in the end fighting the guy who took first to a dead standstill.

I took the above mentioned orks list. and in the process of playing found a few things out.

1. NEVER put a squad that is parked on an objective too close to a possible assault. This is the error that dropped my 1st round massacre to a 1st round minor victory. he was able to pull me off of an objective and i was not able to do anything about it.

2. NEVER take big bomms on your deffkoptas. 3 games and not a single casualty.

3. Buzzsaw/TL Rokkit Launcha deffkoptas are AMAZING when it comes to early game tank hunting.

So, on to the second round of Ard Boyz and a hope to make it to Chicago for the finals.

Wish me luck!

Ard Boyz

Ok, i'm preparing for 'Ard Boyz and I've decided on my Ork Horde/Speed list:


HQ:
Warboss on Bike
Attack Squig, Klaw, Cybork Body

Warboss
Klaw, ‘Eavy Armor, Cybork Body, Shoota

Elite:

Kommandos x15
Snikrot, 2x Burnas

Troops:

Nobs Squad x6
Warbikes, Painboy, Klaw x5, Cybork x5, Bosspole, Waaagh Banner, Ammo Runt
Kombi-Skorcha

Nobs x10
Painboy, Klaw x2, Big Choppa x3, Slugga/Choppa x4, Bosspole, Waaagh Banner,
Shoota-Skorcha x2, Ammo Runt x2, Cybork Body x10
Battlewagon, 2x Big Shootas, Boarding Plank, Deff Rolla, Red Paint Job,
Armor Plates

Ork Boyz x30
Nob, Klaw

Ork Boyz x30
Nob, Klaw

Ork Boyz x30
Big Shoota x3, Shoota x27

Ork Boyz x30
Big Shoota x3, Shoota x27

Fast Attack:

Deffkopta
Buzzsaw, TL Rokkit Launchers, Big Bomm

Deffkopta
Buzzsaw, TL Rokkit Launchers, Big Bomm

Now, this army totals all of a single point short of the 2500 point cap, and provides me with a solid base of 120 boyz to work with. these guys, while easy to kill, are fearless above 11 in the squad and when shooting shoot off 63 shots. Sure they are BS5, still 21 hits and an average of 11 wounds. that and the slugga boys get 120 attacks on the charge (by the way, that is far too many dice to roll at once)

supported by a lot of klaws for anti-armor by the nobz. and the nobz being wound-anti-allocation make them super hard units.

The koptas are really throw away squads as they are the "One Hit Wonder" of this army. Come in 1st turn drop a big bomm on a unit and charge light armor with their S7 Charge (3 attacks)

not the most useful of units, but still worth their weight in gold when they can blow up a rhino on the first turn.


We'll see how i do and I'll post my results up here.

Tau Drone Army MK2

Ok, so an update to this, I've decided on the style my pathfinders will be.
I'm going to be using a target lock to represent the marker light for these guys:

Tau Drone Army MK1

So, Having decided that the Tau Models are almost fit to wipe my ass with, i'm going to be converting an entire army. The only model i like from the range is the Drone. With that in mind i've decided to convert everything from drones.

So to start off with i'm aquiring about 80 Drones.

I need to place a forgeworld order for some part to make the bigger models.

But to start off with,

My first two "Fire Warriors"

Sore Shoulders

So yeah, went golfing for the first time this year yesterday. now my shoulders and back are full of knots and kinks. I love the sport and will probably play it for the rest of my life, but wow, every spring it's the same soreness that comes back.

it's kind of sad, every time i go it becomes more and more apparent to me that I am much better with a four iron than a driver.

perhaps i need to hit the driving range. or even go to the shop and get my driver aligned to me.

End of An Era

Dave Arneson (Co-Creator of Dungeons & Dragons)

Died after a 2 year battle with cancer.

A Great man who created the Ultimate Gateway Drug in combination with Gary Gygax.

You Will Be Missed.

Tyranids

So, when i started playing this game, i did what most players do.... I picked up a bunch of models because they looked cool. The tyranids were my iconic "Alien" Army, and always have been. When i left the hobby from 2nd Edition to the end of 4th, i had a stack of genestealers sitting in a box. When i inevitably came back. they were still there. So i decided that they would be the starting place of my first new army......

I bought a bunch of bits online and went to town converting.

Here is the hive tyrant that was born of that box of bits:

Terrain

So, what is an army without a place to fight?

Sure we all love a game, but playing on planet plywoodia gets boring eventually.

I decided to make some terrain for my plywood planet. I've found that there are several places that offer cheap supplies for making terrain. My personal favorites are Pegasus hobbies and Syberclix.

Here are a few examples of my terrain pieces:

The Night Stalkers

The night stalkers were a concept long before they were an actuality.

A chapter of Adeptus astartes that were formed just after the Heresy. They are a child chapter of the Salamanders, keeping with the tradition of heavy use of flamer and melta weapons.

Wearing armor of stone gray, they paint their helmets flame red to portray thief fiery dispositions.

Led into battle by their Master of the Chapter,

Decon Decius 200 Pts
WS BS S T W I A Ld Sv
6 5 4 4 3 5 3 10 2+

Wargear
Sword of Vengence, Artificer Armor, Bolt Gun, Refractor Field

Sword of Vengence: This ancient relic blade has been the mark of position among the Night Stalkers for ages. It has tasted the blood of many foes and has an ingrained thirst for the blood of the chapter's enemies. It confers the prefered enemy special rule upon it's bearer.

Refractor Field: This field grants Deacon a 3+ Invulnerable save.

Chapter Tactics:
Assualt Force: All units in your army replace COMBAT TACTICS with the Furious Charge and Counter Attack universal special rules.

Lord Among Men:
Deacon has served for several centuries among the Night Stalkers. as such, his reputation has grown among his chapter and those serving him.
any squad that fails a morale save may immediately re-take the test and take the new result instead. If they fail this test as well they operate at -1 Ld for the remainder of the battle.

Deploration of Weak Armor:
Land Speeders, Rhinos and Razorbacks may not be taken by the Night Stalkers, however they gain the ability to take a Land Raider Crusader as a dedicated transport for the following squads:
Assualt Squad, Tactical Squad, Terminator Squad, Terminator Assault Squad, Devistator Squad.

Venerate the March:
Plasma Weapons may not be taken by the Night Stalkers.
Tactical squads may take a Melta Gun or Flamer instead of a Missile Launcher.

Orbital Bombardment: See Codex Space Marines

The Night stalkers are a sight to behold wearing nothing newer than MK V Armor.

The Ork Horde

Not to say i had the idea first (by any means) but i decided to do a 180 Ork Boy list for a side project. I tried a new style of painting (or lack thereof) called dipping. It worked out quite well in my opinion.

A few of the highlighted minis from this army, please ignore the shine. they are matte sprayed now, though they need a bit of repair after half of them came off the bases during the last tournament they went to.








The Warboss:

















And the Big Mek:

Nurgle Terminator Lord

This was the second part of the painting competition.
My camera was acting up on me when i photographed it though.

It too was a blast with greens and yellows. it to me just looks quite slimy.

Typhus

These two models were projects for a Painting Competition on www.40kterra.com a now defunct forum that has been rolled into www.rogue-market.com.

Typhus, Herald of Nurgle.
This guy was a blast to paint. and simply took paint better than any of the other models i think that i have ever painted.

The rotting effect on his scythe was acheived with kitty litter and various stages of drybrushing.

The Vital Crusaders

I aquired a large part of this army in a trade, and while i was debating on stripping it to nothing, i decided that i loved the style and kept it and expanded upon it.

The purple and black/white style really catches the eye at least in my opinion.

With the advent of 5th edition, this army took a significant hit as the shotgun armed scouts are at a reduced range, and the predator's sponsoons almost never fire.

Still a beautiful army.

Welcome To My Madness

Welcome one and all to my blog. As this is my first attempt at blogging you may or may not find that i am an annoying prick who thinks too much of himself or that i am humble and always looking for advice on how to improve upon what i do.