Team Snake Eyes Tournafeast Battle Reports

As mentioned here, the Despoiler hosted a game day picnic this weekend and myself, Genoside, Aerion, Ol Seth, & Warlock were in attendance. I got in three games: game 1 vs. Aerion's Black Templars, game 2 vs. Genoside's Tyranids, and finally game 3 vs. the Despoiler's Chaos Space Marines. The lads were preparing for DieCon's 1850 tournament, so that's the army size they wanted to play. I had a stock list for that point level (I keep a 1000, 1500, 1750, 1850, 2000, 2250, & 2500 point list handy in my Pack 1520 just in case...) and here is what that entailed:

130 Terminator Chaplain w/Melta Bombs
190 Vulkan
460 (5) TH/SS Terminators w/Land Raider Crusdader & Multi-Melta
410 (2) Tactical Squads with Flamer, Multi-Melta, & Rhino
230 (2) Dreadnoughts with Heavy Flamers & Multi-Meltas
140 (2) Land Speeders with Heavy Flamers & Multi-Meltas (individual units)
120 Vindicator
170 (2) Predators with Autocannons and Heavy Bolter Sponsons

Game 1 was an Annihilation mission with Pitched Battle deployment. Aerion won the roll to go first, but made me deploy. I set up everything, and he kept everything in reserve. Aerion's list can be found here. I moved everything up to midfield on my first two turns and waited for him to come on the board. He got about half his units on the first turn with most of the remainder on the second. His assault squad was his last unit to arrive on turn 3.



I stopped taking pictures by turn three. Things were going badly for Aerion since I had only to wait for his units to arrive on the table edge with ~24" between us and I shot him to pieces. This was a new list for Aerion, and not in a "Oh I'm not used to playing at this points level" sort of way. It was a dramatic departure from some of his other lists, and he wasn't used to playing it. It lacked the anti tank necessary to crack a mechanized list like mine, and his choice of deployment gave me the upper hand from the start and he just couldn't get anything going.

Game 2 was against Genoside's Tyranids. Genoside and I have joked that while we've known each other for years we've never really played a game together outside of Apocalypse. Added to that, if there's anything I know less about than the new Space Wolves, it's the new Tyranids. Going off of memory, he had 4 squads of Genestealers, 2 Zoanthropes, some kind of Hive Tyrant with 2 bodyguards, 2 assault oriented Carnifexes, a lictor, a Mawlock, and a Tyrgon Prime (sp?). Whatever the heck it was, it had an assault 12 electric attack!


Genoside kept the two big bugs in reserve along with his lictor. The two big bugs came in immediately, but the lictor hadn't arrived by turn four when Genoside conceeded the game because it was clear he had lost at that point and he needed to leave the party. I lost the roll to go first, but Genoside made me do it anyway. :-) Because I didn't know where the Genestealers were coming from or where those big bugs were going to go, I set up in the middle.


Genoside deployed and walked/ran everything but his deepstrikers from his 12" line. That gave me no other targets to worry about immediately when his Mawlock and buddy arrived, one on each side of my army. I fired every Mult-Melta in my army at those two creatures and killed them both in 2 turns. My other guns targeted two of the Genestealer squads (the other 2 were so far away from me that I never had to worry about them). With the big guys gone, I focused on the carnifexes. I killed one with shooting, and Vulkan took the other one out in assault.


He had a wounded Tyrant with two body guards and two Zoanthropes + 2 stealer squads (who were horribly out of position) when he conceeded. It was a good game, but Genoside doesn't get to play much, and needs a bit more practice with his beloved bugs (It's creepy really, how much this guy likes his Tyranids). The Tyranid book is a strong one, and I'm intimidated by the big bugs and their potent psychic powers.

Game three was against the host, Marvin the Despoiler and his Chaos Space Marines. By this point in the evening, Marvin had sampled quite a bit of his Yucca and while I enjoyed the game against him, his decision making clearly wasn't that crisp. :-)



This was another Kill Point mission (three? seriously?) but I thankfully didn't have pitched battle deployment since we managed to roll spearhead for this one. The long and short of this game was that we both pushed towards the center of the board, I made an insane amount of saves against Abaddon and two Khorne Berserker squads (I should have been destroyed 3 times over in that assault) and then cut the heart out of his army with the return attacks from my Thunderhammers. The rest of his stuff got shot out from under him by my Multi-meltas. This game was a fluke in my mind. I should have been crushed in that assault, but instead the near-impossible happened. His army is tough and getting tougher.

We all enjoyed ourselves, and next time I'll be getting in a game against Ol' Seth and his Eldar hopefully.

40K with Team Snake Eyes: It's a Family Affair!

This past Saturday a few of us got together with the wives and had a picnic. We were to stuff ourselves with food and beer (and some unholy concoction called Yucca) and get in some 40K while the wives played more traditional games upstairs. None of us knew quite how this would work out since we almost always have to ask permission from our spouses in order for us to "geek out". If this picnic were to end with bored wives, we knew the chances of having a Tournafeast like this again would be slim.

Festivities were hosted by Mr. & Mrs. Despoiler in their home, with Mr. & Mrs. Warlock, Mr. & Mrs. Genoside, Ol' Seth and his wife, Mr. & Mrs. Aerion, as well as the wife and I in attendance. Menus and army lists were prepared, terrain & booze were collected, and believe it or not...fun was had by all. It was obvious that a day of great food, friends, and beverages would be a successful day for the lads and I. We were nervous about the wives, however, but we think they enjoyed themselves enough for a second Tournafeast to be authorized. So thanks to Mr. & Mrs. Despoiler for putting up with us, and thanks to the rest of the team who contributed to such an awesome weekend of gaming and friends!

Here is a shot of the Despoiler's basement (or Man Cave) where we played. He had enough room for three tables and I managed to get in three games. Battle reports will be in a later post. There's nothing quite like gaming in an unfinished basement to dispel the shadowy sub-culture that is miniature gaming. :-)

In unrelated news, I stoped by Fantasy Games in O'Fallon the other day since the apartment I'm hoping we move into is about 13 minutes away. It was a great store with awesome staff and a good selection of terrain and gaming products. Not too great of a 40k merchandise selection, so I hope they do ordering...

1850 Black Templar Rogue Trader list

Here is the list I'm planning to take to DieCon on June 5.

HQ: Marshall in Terminator armor w/ Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield

Elite: Sword Brethren Assault Terminators (3x lightning claws, 2x TH&SS. Furious Charge)

Transport: Land Raider Crusader

HQ: Emperor's Champion w/ Accept Any Challenge

Troops: Initiates x 10 (CCW & BP, 1x power weapon, 1x melta)

Neophytes x 10 w/ CCW & BP

Troops: Initiates x 6 (Bolter x 5, Plasma Cannon)

Troops: Initiates x 7 (Bolter x 5, Plasma Gun, Heavy Bolter)

Troops: Initiates x 10 (CCW & BP x9, Flamer)

Fast Attack: Land Speeder w/ Assault Cannon and Heavy Bolter

Fast Attack: Assault Squad x 6 (Flamer x2, Power Fist)

It looks like a fun list and just might perform as long as I don't face any Tau, Space Wolves, Necrons, Chaos, Orks, Tyrranids, Imperial Guard, Blood Angels, Codex Space Marines, or Inquisition.

Hordes Mk II Battle Report: Circle vs. Legion

Hordes is something I got into as a way to improve my painting (and to give myself a break from power armor and high-tech vehicles). I chose the Circle of Orboros for two simple reasons: Barbarians and werewolves. I've been collecting models for about a year and I had only played two games under the Mk I rules (both losses). When Mk II was announced I thought it would be a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor. When our local game shop (Championship Games) announced a Risk-esque War Machine/Hordes campaign I was so in.

Through no fault of my own I've managed to accumulate 11 territories without playing a single game. This week I opted to come out swinging and invaded my neighbor Partho. Partho runs a Legion of Everblight army (affectionately known around the store as the S&M Ninja Elves) and, as seems to be the case with him and games, is fairly proficient with them. Not to dig on Partho for his army choices, but if it's a miniature game and you want to know which army is broken, see what he plays.

As the defender my opponent chose to play a 25 point game. This being my first official game under the new rules Partho was kind enough to compromise on the points. I was hoping for a 15 point skirmish and he preferred to go with 35 points, so 25 was a nice gesture on his part. I have been wanting to try some new things so I opted to take Morvahna, the Autumnblade as my warlock. I threw in a Pureblood and a Feral Warpwolf as warbeasts, added a unit of Tharn Ravagers for added melee, brought along a Blackclad Wayfarer with some Shifting Stones for mobility, and capped the force with my nearly finished Totem Hunter minion.

Partho chose Absylonia, Terror of Everblight as his 'lock supported by a Nephilim Protector, Raek, Shredder, and Carnivean as warbeasts. For maneuverability he brought along a unit of Raptors light cavalry and added The Forsaken as a solo.

Partho was kind enough to allow me to go first (which I've come to learn in Hordes is the kiss of death, at least in my limited experience). I deployed behind a wall of forests between 2 hills and he did the same behind a stone wall on his side of the table. I had Morvahna cast Harvest on herself and then Restoration on the Ravagers giving them a +2 ARM. The entire force advanced into the nearest trees with Morvahna and the Warpwolves moving into the middle of the Shifting Stones.

Partho brought his force forward with his warlock buffing her troops (spells I would later learn she could upkeep for free. Broken: check).

All was fine until I got overly aggressive and left my Pureblood Warpwolf out on his lonesome. Partho's evil reindeer cavalry charged and the burly white wolf was put down like Old Yeller.

I responded by leaping Totem Hunter forward to attack the pitiful little Shredder. Hunter scored a crit on the diminutive beast and knocked it prone but failed to break armor with his second buckler attack. Partho's Carnivean strode confidently forward, picked up Totem Hunter, and ripped him apart handily.

Blackclad Wayfarer, hiding in the nearby trees, unleased his Stone Spray special attack on the Shredder and Carnivean. Shredder was (appropriately) shredded but Carnivean thought the sharp rocks felt strangely like his mother's teats and suckled happily.

Partho finally moved his caster forward to bleed the life (and Fury) from my Feral Warpwolf (leaving Morvahna with 3 Fury and no Warbeasts). His Raptors had charged the Wolf to assist in the kill and were nicely clustered near Absylonia and her Protector. I had to do something so I took a gamble.

I charged the Ravagers out to battle the Carnivean. They failed to kill it (naturally) but they cleared the path for Morvahna to move up and get Absylonia and the Raptors in her control range and in range of her Eruption of Life spell. She centered the spell on the Raptor that was closest to Absylonia. The spell killed that Raptor and the one next to it as well as damaging Absylonia. I moved the Shifting Stones up into the trees, placing the Blackclad Wayfarer within 2 inches of one of them. The Wayfarer Phase Jumped behind Absylonia and struck, hitting her but failing to break through her Spiney Growthed ARM. My hand was played and the enemy kept the field.

Partho healed Absylonia and casually moved The Forsaken up along with the surviving Raptor to rend Morvahna into tiny leafy shreds.

Lessons learned:

Morvahna needs small base units to use her spells effectively.

When going first it's perfectly fine to sit back and buff while not advancing.

Absylonia is ridiculous (free upkeep and can heal herself completely as well as warbeasts.)

When both armies have Pathfinder that advantage is nullified.

Totem Hunter is not as geared toward killing warbeasts as I thought. In fact I'm having a hard time figuring out what he's good for other than looking cool. More research is needed.

Warpwolves need to run in a pack to be truly effective.

And finally:

Battle Report: Salamanders vs. Necrons @ 1500pts

I.Q., one of the honchos of the Lords of Egypt group here in Carbondale, Il game me a quick game tonight. I've known him for a number of years, but I've never been able to beat either his necrons or his marines. He used his marines to good effect at our Ard Boys tournament last Saturday by earning the second place berth. Tonight, however, I was to face his necrons. Not sure what his actual list was, but he had a Monolith, a Destroyer Lord with annoying wargear, and several squads of warriors. We rolled for an annhilation mission with a pitched battle deployment. I.Q. won the roll to go first, and deployed like so:


My 1500 point list can be found here, and I kept both speeders and both tactical squads in reserve. I'm not sure why, it's not as if he has a ton of long range shooting, but that's what I did. I guess I get so frustrated when my speeders get geeked early on that I'm over protective of them. At some point I hope to figure this whole 40k thing out. :-) Anyway, here's how I deployed:


My thoughts were to push forward and smash the Necrons with my terminators and dreadnoughts, but that wasn't to be the case. First turn, the monolith drops ordinance on my vindicator and immobilizes it. The rest of the game was quite close up until the end. My speeders were crippled or destroyed, one of my dreads was immobilized, and that Necron lord killed my Chaplain and assault terminators...except for this guy:


That guy killed two squads and almost had another one. He withstood two turns of 17-22 attacks to his two before being brought down by a handfull of guys. His survival made up for the sickness I felt when I.Q. explained what a warscythe did. At the bottom of five we rolled for a 6th turn. I had him 6 kill points to 5, but stranger things have happened. I pushed what I could forward, and brought down quite a few necrons with bolter shots and the demolisher cannon. We rolled for a 7th turn, but there was a caveat...of the 15 or so necrons that I killed, 8 of them needed to get back up to avoid a phase out. 7 of them succeeded and I phased him out. I.Q. said that this was the fourth time he had ever been phased out (with this army list? ever?) and I know this was the first time I have ever been victorious against him. Of course I'm excited about that, but it was a great friendly game and I had a blast playing all the way through and the result wasn't decided till the very end. That's why I play this game. That and I.Q. is willing to pose for cheesy post-game photos that the rest of us wouldn't do.

The Howard Crusade is back (Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk!)

Game 1: Deployment

Well, in the spirit of participation I'll share my experience during this years first round of 'Ard Boyz (now that my posterior has stopped bleeding. Mostly.)

I went into the tournament with high expectations. I've been playing better recently and I felt I had finally (after years) started to crack the code that is the Black Templar codex.

My army list, I felt, was solid, and had a good chance to wreak some havoc on unsuspecting xenos and heretic scum.

Alas, the havoc was received rather than dispensed.

Game 1 paired me against the Space Wolves army that played Chosen 1 in the third game. There were a few rules questions and the young player was introduced to the concept of WYSIWYG when he tried to counter-assault me with his 3 attack Wolves wielding pistols and chain swords represented by models carrying only bolters. The judge (who I was impressed with throughout the day) assured the player that if the models didn't have it, they didn't have it no matter what the codex said. I was iffy on this as I could understand the guy's aggravation with GW's "here's a new codex now buy more stuff" tactics. As it turned out WYSIWYG didn't save me and I was utterly pounded by an army that had way too many "fresh codex" tricks to my stale old 4th edition flavor. That is the fourth game I have played against the new Space Wolves since their premier and I am utterly disgusted at their brokeness. But then any player struggling to keep up with a codex more than a year old will likely agree.

Game 1: Mixin it up.

Game1 biggest pain: Chaplain Moe and the Termies decided to sit this one out and stayed on the battle barge playing Halo.

Game 2 deployment: Me
Game 2 deployment: filthy turncoats.

Game 2 saw Dorn's great-great grand nephew's twice removed facing down a nicely rendered Chaos Marines army . My opponent was new to the game with only a few months under his belt. It didn't show. Despite a few rookie mistakes he did a smashing job of handing me the most even and, as a result, most enjoyable game of the tournament. No insult intended to my other opponents, but Phil's army and personality blended with mine in a way that just forced us both to have copious amounts of fun. As I watched my scoring units evaporate under the battle cannon fire of two hated Defilers I couldn't help but grin. The back and forth was equal as my drop pod full of termies (led by Chaplain Moe) landed JUST short of the table edge in Phil's deployment zone right behind his carefully arrayed fortress of loaded rhinos, Defilers, Devastators, and, lest I forget, a winged Daemon Prince (seriously, do they REALLY need wings, people?).

Ballsiest deep strike ever on my part.

The highlight of the game for me was watching my lone surviving initiate, flamer in hand, unload on a full squad of Nurgle marines. Runner-up was my OTHER lone gunman (literally the only survivor of my 5 man tac squad) raising his fist in defiance and declaring my own deployment zone secure. I adored this game and can't wait to take some good-natured revenge on Phil (you have been warned).

Game 2: nearly over.

Game 2 biggest pain: The Emperor's Champion bravely led my 20 man squad of initiates and neophytes to check out something back at HQ and they all went zipping off the board on turn 2 after I dropped an 11 on the Righteous Zeal test.

Game 3: Deployment

The final game was against the aforementioned mechanized Tau. I think by this time Nick and I were both pretty worn down and ready to finish the tourney. When I saw just how much dice rolling he'd be doing I understood his fatigue. Each battle-suit unit (and there were several) dropped somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 shots each round (with a BS of 5 in most cases and half of the shots being AP3 plasma). Under such withering fire my guys could do nothing but throw neophytes out front to be disintegrated while they desperately tried to get close enough to engage. My land raiders went up like cheap fireworks and the units inside soon followed. I did manage to get my Marshall and his thunder hammer boys on one end of Nick's line and start plowing through his tanks (Hammerhead first, of course).

Game 3: Lookin down the barrel of a .45
Once the immediate enemy was dispensed with I got to show Nick how all storm shields are NOT created equal. As he unloaded heavy plasma and missiles on my termies he casually offered "They've got a 4+ invuln, right?" Well, if they had bothered to visit a forge world in the last 10,000 years they might, but nope. Unless you want to assault me, in which case I'm golden. It was touching to watch Nick cringe as I continued to fail my 5+ saves and pick up Termies by the handful. All in all I think we both found the game wanting as I really only offered him easy target practice and very little in the way of excitement. Still he was a good and empathetic opponent and I'd love to try again on a board that maybe has some cover.

Game 3: Plasma. WTF did all my models go?

Game 3 pain: A solar system's worth of plasma on the least terrain-heavy board of the tourney.

Summary: I had a blast, and even though I ran out of grape jelly around the middle of game 2 I'm glad I went. It gives me some motivation to get back on the road to improvement and I made a couple new friends. The atmosphere was friendly but competitive, which is perfect for a national Tournament, and the judge did a bang-up job of keeping things on track despite some late arrivals (yours-truly included). Kudos to Castle Perilous for hosting and to the Lords of Egypt for putting on a good event.

Super Blog Chain Give Away - We Have A Winner!

First of all, I'd like to thank everyone who entered. It was a tough call for me and you all were deserving, but I had to settle on just one. The winner of my contest is Vharing of Dark World of Geekdom. I'll be sending out a Razorback so that his Blood Angels assault troops can deliver the Emperor's Justice in style! Vharing has offered up a box of troops for his contest, so go over to his blog and check that out as soon as its posted.

While you're at it, check out the rest of the lads who entered and see what they're contributing to our community:

Faolin at Awakening Ynnead
Warhammer 39999 at Warhammer 39999
Splnes at Belt of Skulls
Wienas at Indy 40K
Max at 40K Bunny

I'd also like the (re)thank the fine folks over at Santa Cruz Warhammer for starting this chain of madness in the first place. It was a great experience for me, and I hope it does the same for many blogs and gamers as it rolls on and on.

The next step for Vharing is for him to contact me at cmlamontagne @ yahoo.com (no spaces) so we can arrange for his prize to arrive via mechanicum re-supply as quickly as possible. If you don't mind, drop a note over at scwarhammer @ yahoo.com as well to notify them that you're the winner so they can keep track of this beast as it evolves.

So, thanks again for all who participated, and congratulations to Vharing! I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Ard Boyz Battle Reports

Well now that I've had some time to recover, I'll post some brief battle reports of my games. Before I get to that, however, I'll go over the atmosphere at Castle Perilous. Of the 8 players who participated, 7 were local, and the last (who won the event btw) has family in town and plans his visits around local events. Seems pretty smart to me. Of all the armies present, only three were painted. The remainder had a few colors splashed on or primer. I know this is Ard Boyz and it's not required, but I'm sorry, I enjoy my games more where there are two painted armies on the table. I'm not an expert painter...I have friends who are and I ask for their help. :-)

Game #1 I staggered into a Major Loss against a Drop Pod heavy Black Templars list. I have never played against more than one drop pod at a time, and I've never been too impressed. In this game, however, I was simply out-classed. This guy only killed about 260 points of my army to the 1300 or so of his that I killed, but while I was busy killing the units that he dropped in my face, he kept me bottled up in my deployment zone and dropped a few scoring units on the objectives I couldn't reach. I castled in my corner to prevent him podding into my guys, but that just meant he had me behind a steel curtain by the end of turn 6. He had three objectives at the end, and I had none. His list wasn't obscene, but he did take a grey knight hero for the psychic hood. It was Ard Boyz after all. More on that later. Here are some pictures of the first and last turns of that game. This was my second game against this opponent (he beat the snot out of me a few years back at a RTT. I think he shows up at our store to play us because there's no one to give him any real competition). He's a great guy though, and I welcome his presence at any event.



Game #2 was against a local Tau player that I hadn't had the priviledge of playing yet, but I'm glad I got the opportunity to do so. He was another fantastic guy with a solid Tau list. I'll be honest here. I have played Tau a handful of times, and I've handled them soundly every time...every time but this one. This guy knew his Tau, had a solid list, and good rolls going for him. This mission was victory points with table quarters a secondary objective. You want to know how I played it? Backwards that's how. Dumbass. The whole game I was gunning to own the four quarters, and never even considered going after his expensive units. He poured ridiculous amounts of fire into my land raider and terminators (duh, because they're expensive...) and his battle suits worked me over good. I killed off all his scoring units, and did some damage to his suits. We ended up with a draw, but I got four extra points because I owned all the table quarters. This kid was a great player, and I look forward to playing him again. He's got my ticket to the next round of Ard Boyz and I'm rooting for him. Here are some shots of his deployment and what my guys looked like after my first turn of movement.



Game #3 was against a local Space Wolf player. He had four drop pods, some speeders, the wolf version of assault marines, Canis Wolfborne with a crap-ton of wolves and some long fangs. This was the dreaded "screw you mechanized army players" mission. I had 42 kill points available, but at the end of the game, I had earned 29 kp from my opponent, and he had 20 kp from me, giving me the massacre. I didn't take any pictures because this game was pretty intense and I felt like I was behind in the kp tally pretty much the whole game. That may not have been true, but I earned 5 or 6 kp in turn 6 alone so it was close either way.

Final thoughts? Regular viewers may remember a blog post I made about my internal debate about taking a Daemon Hunter's Inquisitor with mystics to defend against deep striking. I decided against it since I was looking for practice with my Space Marines without relying on the "crutch" of one trick pony units from other armies. Turns out that was a lousy idea. The moral high road rewarded my conservative stance with a total of 14 drop pods over three games. I don't really regret my decision, but I do think it's kind of funny.

I feel a little bit "dirty" about how "uncool" I was about certain rules questions and with my opponents forgetting certain things during their turn. It was Ard Boyz, and it's kind of the point, but at heart I'm a friendly player who has only recently gotten the tournament bug. I'm still looking for a happy medium.

Finally, I realize that I have no idea how some guys do it, but I can't "see" into a game's future very well. I thought like I was doing well in my first game, and I lost it...badly. I felt like I was suffering from some seriously bad dice rolls in game two (I was, my opponent spent a great deal of our game apologizing for MY bad rolls...) but I ended up with a draw. I thought I was either loosing or playing towards a draw in my final game, but I ended up with a massacre against the guy. I don't feel like I was pouting, but I know I need to work on that aspect of my game play. So much more to do.

Ard Boyz results from Castle Perilous in Carbondale, Illinois

It's over and done here in Carbondale after a long day of beat downs and miraculous saves. There were eight players at this tournament, and the results are as follows:

1) Black Templars - 52 pts. (10 drop pods and all sorts of other madness)
2) Space Marines - 45 pts. (Focused on Bikes and Devastators)
3) Salamanders - 41 pts. (me, list found here)
4) Tau 40 pts. (Lots of battle suits)
5) Orks 30 pts. (3 battle wagons, 2 bike bosses, etc.)
6) Space Wolves 27 pts. (4 drop pods, Canis, shooty rune priest powers)
7) Chaos Space Marines 19 pts. (Khorne/Nurgle/Undivided list)
8) Black Templars 16 pts. (Aeron's list found here)

My games were as follows:

1st turn: Major Loss vs. the Black Templars that came in 1st
2nd turn: Draw vs. the Tau that came in 4th
3rd turn: Massacre vs. the Space Wolves that came in 6th

Incidentally, the fact that the guy who won did...didn't surprise anyone, the Space Wolf player was tied for 1st with the Ork player after the second round, and I was tied for 4th with about 3 or 4 guys after the same. Don't count your gretchen before they're spawned I suppose.

I played three great guys, and I was very proud to hand my "golden ticket" to the next round to the Tau player. At the end of the third round, a math error (mine) had me two points behind that guy. He pointed out my error which put me ahead of him by one point. He really wanted to advance and effectively pointed something out that would have kept him from going. Seriously, that's some honor right there. I salute you Nick, and wish you the best. You earned your ticket.

I'm bushed and the wife is looking at me like I need to pay attention to her and lay off the 40k for a bit, and I think I'm going to take her up on that. I'll post battle reports later.

If you have not entered into my Super Blog Chain Give-Away, please do so. I'm excited for all the entries, and welcome any more. The more participants we get, the more success we have in our goal of developing our community.

Battle Report: Mission #2 Ard Boyz Playtest - Salamanders vs. Orks

I went over to Da Goffer's house this evening to get a game in because something came up and he wouldn't be able to attend the Ard Boyz event. That "something" looks like this:


A bouncing baby gretchin. I case you're wondering, he's begun indoctrinating his first child in the fine arts of the Imperial Creed "My armor is contempt; My shield is disgust; My Sword is Hatred; In the Emperor's Name; Let none survive." Priceless.

Mission #2 was a simple table quarters setup with victory points. I used my Ard Boyz list detailed here, and Da Goffer had a mixed list with lootas, kommandos, a few lobbas and kannons, some bikes, some koptas, some nobs, some dreads, some kans, very few boyz...etc. This list was all over the place. He was trying a few things out, but they didn't mix well together. I won the roll to go first, and he failed to steal the initiative.


This was essentially our deployment. I centered my line with my Land Raider, Vindicator and Dreads. My Razorbacks and Predators anchored my flanks, and my Rhinos were held in reserve. We lined up as close as we could, but the difference was that his koptas and bikes weren't in a position to get to me for at least two turns. At the time the picture was taken, the fast moving elements of his army moved unsupported along his left flank and were eaten up by my flamers and dreadnought assaults. Da Goffer used Kommandos to good effect against me the last time we played, so I tried to stay away from the board edges and pushed my entire army (except for my scouts) at him. Da Goffer's kommandos didn't come in until turn three, and his Storm Boyz had yet to arrive by the time he conceeded at the top of turn four.

I had a brilliant first turn, killing his Battlewagon and leaving him on foot for the remainder of the game. I'm not a great player, but Da Goffer doesn't get a lot of practice. That, and a Mechanized Vulkan list has a lot of advantages over a disparate mob of boyz on foot. Twin linked flamers, auto-cannons, and my Vindicator exacted a terrible toll on his army. He conceeded at the top of turn four when he only had two grots with a lobba, three kommandos, and a weaponless & immobilized trukk left on the board. I had lost one tactical marine and two terminators along with immobilizing my own land raider on terrain.

Here is what the board looked like when we were done.


It was a fun game for me, and Da Goffer said he enjoyed himself, but it was a lopsided game from the outset. I'm getting better, but I have a long way to go as far as my expectations of using my army as an effective combined arms force.

On an unrelated note, I want to remind my readers that the Blog Chain Give-Away is still ongoing, and you have until Monday, May 17th to enter to win a transport vehicle of your choice! You can only enter (this contest) once, but you can't win if you don't enter!

Product Review: Dark Arts Miniatures - Lava Bases

The folks over at Dark Arts Miniatures make a lot of stuff, but what I'm most familiar with is their line of Lava Bases which can be found here.

I feel they're adequately priced, and they come in the standard sizes for 40k bases (25mm, 40mm, & 60mm). There are 10 distinct designs in the 25mm size, 5 desings for the 40mm size and, unfortunately, only 1 design in the 60mm size. Slightly more troubling than that is my apparent inability to take a non-blurry picture of that base.




This blog is absolutely silly with pictures of my Salamander army on these bases, so if the three shown above don't suit you, I suggest you check out the posts labeled: HQ, Elite, & Troops.

Some of the lava bubbles appear "popped" whether thats by chance or design, but otherwise these resin bases are of excellent quality and any expansions of my army will be on these bases. Painting my miniatures is something I enjoy as much as playing the game. I know my limitations, however, and I would classify myself as a technician rather than an artist. If I need art, I call on Aerion. Bases like these really set your figures apart. This army received as many comments on their bases at Adepticon as they did for the great conversions.

These lava bases easily earn 5 stars out of 5 from me.

P.S. Make sure you check out my Blog Chain Give-Away. There's a transport of the winner's choice at stake, so read up and enter!

Super Blog Chain Giveaway!!!

Can you believe it? Old School Terminator over at Dark Future Games just announced the winner for their edition of the Super Blog Chain Giveaway, and there were two winners this time! I was selected as well as Damian over at Tales from the Warzone! Before you do anything, you have to check his site out because it's just that good. It certainly makes a novice blogger like me jealous to see that sort of thing, so congratulations to Damian on both your Librarian Furioso Dreadnought prize and your amazing website.

What is the Super Blog Chain Giveaway? The brilliant folks at Santa Cruz Warhammer got the ball rolling in an effort to foster folks in our community reaching out and seeing what other blogs have to offer as well extending a helping hand to fellow gamers. Want to participate? Here's how:

Rules:
1. you must have a blog.
2. you must have something worthwhile to offer up to give away for free.
3. if you win, you must hold your own blogsite give away using the same rules to pay it forward.
4. you must contact us with a link to your give away so we can send bloggers to your site.
5. you may only enter once per give away.

To enter:
leave a comment to this post as follows.
1st sentence, why you need the prize.
2nd sentence what you will give away on your blog to pay it forward.
3rd sentence, your blog's URL

What's in it for you?
The winner will receive a transport vehicle of their choice shipped to them free of charge. Tell me what type of vehicle you want and (most importantly!) why you want it. I will choose a winner based on a combination of what you are offering and how convincing you were on Monday, May 17th.

Good luck, and don't be afraid to participate!

Battle Report: Mission #1 Ard Boyz Playtest - Salamanders vs. Orks

I went into the local game store today and had a game with a buddy of mine from my "old days" in the hobby. A guy who, appropriately, goes by the moniker of 'Snake Eyes' threw his 2500 points of Orks on the table and we gave mission #1 a try. Mission #1 isn't anything special with a diagonal deployment, 5 objectives, and a hard limit of 6 turns. Snake Eyes brought 2 20 boy mobs on foot with rokkits, 3 battle wagons loaded with 20 boyz each, 2 units of 12 lootas, a big unit of storm boyz, and two warbosses on bikes. My list can be found here.

I won the roll to go first, and wisely took it. The above picture is at the bottom of turn 1 where the only thing I advanced was my Land Raider Crusader. Deployment wasn't anything complicated. I held the two tactical squads with rhinos in reserve. Snake Eyes failed to seize the initiative and I proceeded to embarrass the Emperor with a pathetic shooting phase...I killed three boyz. His return fire (from the lootas) broke my scouts, but they remained on the board.

I expected to have three battle wagons in my face unloading 60 boyz and ruining my day. What happened was that Snake Eyes focused on the objectives too early (3 of which were in his deployment zone) and didn't advance very aggressively. This allowed me to pop his transports and then flame his dismounted infantry. He had reserved his two unmounted mobs and they didn't come in until later in the game. This allowed my twin linked flamers and bolters to work on one mob at a time. His warboss bikers were accounted for by my dreadnoughts in assault while the rest of the army was taken out with the flamer/bolter combo. Unlike some of my other engagements with Orks, I was able to dictate the pace of today's game to my advantage. Here's some of the lads taking refuge (and claiming that nearby objective) from the rokkits in the wreckage of two battle wagons, & those would be "in progress" deff rollas they're standing on.


The game went ugly for Snake Eyes on turn 2 and stayed that way. I had killed most of his army by turn 4 and was focused on clean-up on the final two turns. His army was tabled via assault in turn 6. I lost my librarian, 2 terminators, 2 scouts, both speeders, and 6 or so tactical marines, mostly to random assaults. Here's a taste of Snake Eyes' luck: He certainly earned his nickname today.


All in all, game #1 won't be that complicated, but keep in mind that there is a reduced amount of real estate for deployment and the tournament's time limit. Remember your objectives, but not to the exclusion of eliminating the enemy. For me, Vulkan was absolutely worth it. Those re-rolls helped out in spades. I did manage to get some mileage out of my tactical squads this game as well. I used them a bit more aggressively than I have previously, and it helped. They're clearly not super units, but the extra guns and boots give me the extra capability that I've been misusing in the past.

EDIT#1: I totally forgot to add that Snake Eyes is a fun opponent to play, and he maintained his composure even when things looked their worst. I could use some of that restraint when things go ploin-shapped for me. ;-)

EDIT#2: Egads, I just realized how much more work my infantry need in the painting department. You know what? Maybe that's why they haven't been performing as well as I'd like them to. Finish painting your models kids, let this be a lesson to you.

Templars for 'Ard Boyz 2010

Here's my final list:

Emperor's Champion w/ Accept any challenge no matter the odds

Marshall in Termy armor w/ TH &SS

Sword Brethren Termy Assault Squad x5 TH&SS

Land Raider Crusader transport

Master of Sanctity in Termy armor w/Storm Bolter and Crozius

Sword Brethren Terminator Command Squad x4 (storm bolter x2, assault cannon x2)

Drop Pod

Assault Squad x7 (ccw x4, flamer x2, power fist, melta bombs)

Crusader squad x10 (ccw x 8, Meltagun, power weapon)

Neophytes x10 (ccw)

Sword Brethren x5 (ccw x3, pw, twin lightning claws, furious charge)

Crusader Squad x5 (bolter x4, plasma cannon)

Crusader Squad x10 (ccw x8, flamer, power fist)

Venerable Dreadnought w/ assault cannon and DCCW, storm bolter

Land Speeder w/ Heavy Bolter & Assault Cannon

Land Raider

2500 points

Let's do this!

Adepticon 2010 in review

I've already posted the results of the tournament as far as Team Snake Eyes is concerned. What I'm doing here is posting some random pictures of the chaos that we went through to get there. To us, this was perhaps the most memorable part of the whole experience. From coming up with army lists, buying the models, building, painting, deciding what level of "spirit" we wished to develop, etc.


My rather large box of 4000 points and a few "in progress shots" of the painting process








There was a bit of stress as time got short, and there were certainly costs involved but it was all worth it. Our efforts have inspired some more locals to get involved, and we'll likely be sending up two teams next year. We're already in the process of testing out army lists, and that will give us time to spruce up our display boards and other tid bits.