Who won my first 7th ed. game?

Prince did obviously.

Actually, I played a brand new player.  And we ignored most of the rules minutia and just focused on the core mechanics of the game, how it flowed and when to do what.  And it was a draw.  And it was a blast.  Literally, the kid's words after finishing the game were "Oh yeah, it was worth the money."  And that my friends is why I don't care about 4 billion psychic dice summoning invisible death stars.  If that stuff is fun for you, then by all means, seek it out.  You won't find me there.  So I have no idea how different this edition is from its predecessor, but I'll post up a blog as soon as I get a decent battle report.  Our friendly league nights start at very low points and slowly work themselves up, escalation style (the reasonable escalation - not the Lord of War stuff) so those would be worth much anyway.

In other news, I won a recent "friendly" league we held at the local shop and the prize was the new 7th edition rulebook.  That was fortuitous, as I likely would have waited a long time to pick it up, or asked for it as a gift or some other way to reduce the sting of purchasing a new rulebook so soon after 6th was released.  Yea me.

My C'tan has transcended, what's your excuse?

...and he shall be known as Bocephus

I am slowly plugging away at this whole "Necron Thing" that I've gotten myself into.  I wish all of the models were as easy as this guy was to paint.  (1) Prime with GW white spray; (2) Heavy wash with Thrakka Green; (3) Drybrush with Astronomicon Grey; (4) Drybrush with whatever the hell that new GW white drybrush paint is called.  The base, as with all of the bases in the army, is the Armageddon Dust texture paint with a drybrush of Ushabti Bone over the top.  The bases are simple at the moment, so they can be upgraded if I get the inspiration and/or energy & time to take them further.

No clever name for Lordy McLorderson as of yet.

I believe I regret posting a close up pic.  This guy definitely looks better at a distance...with better light...and a better camera...and a completely different model painted by someone better than me.  :)

We are making progress on our Tuesday night "Friendly" league.  We will model our elite choice tomorrow evening.  Since I'm already finished with that, I'll be working on the albatross that is my necron warriors.  There's always more of them to paint.  Additionally, I'd like to show up to our competitive league night on Thursday if only to take pictures.  It seems that all I'm reading about on the internet is how GW is failing (they are), and how the game is dying (it might be), and how everyone is abandoning the 40k ship (they might be, but not around here, that's for damn sure).

In any event, here's the official Team Snake Eyes stance on the current state of Warhammer 40k:  We don't give a crap.  We've spent too damn much money and time on our models that GW could decree that all hands must play the game in latin and that d100 dice will be used for every purpose and that any model from any book can be grammar school chums and benefit from each other's wargear and rules and we will straight up ignore that trash.  We'll play the version of the game we enjoy, with the models we've painstakingly collected over the years and poured our blood, sweat, tears, & wife-points (married chaps know where I'm coming from here) into modeling/converting and painting them.  Soldier on you ninny's.  Don't let the bad men tell you how to play with your dolls.

Adepticon 2014: Eye Candy (Pic Heavy)

These should have gone up weeks ago, and are likely already posted on the internet by what I call "conscientious and timely bloggers".  I, good people, will never be accused of that sort of recklessness.

My favorite army of the weekend.  Highly coverted "bio-shock infinite" mega nob ork army.

The undersea drills were "trucks", and even the display board looked like the sea bed.

What's cooler than a dakka jet submarine?

TWO dakka jet submarines!  duh...

Sweet converted helo valkryie.

Probably go good with "Codex: Stormtrooper".

Some cat actually showed up with 100 Dark Angels, so if you were ever wondering what that looked like...

And here's some Crystal Brush badassery.  Not sure if they placed, but they caught my eye, and that's got to be worth $10,000 right?

Free hand banner?  Yes please.

Conversion Beamer?  Yes please.

Neat diorama

Yep.  Bretonian Ogres.  Nope.  My picture didn't do this army justice.

Coolest display board ever?  Yeah, that would go to this guy.  I believe it was created by the guys who runs GMM Studios.  Amazing.

Some guys were giving this Chaos Dwarf player grief since this wasn't a GW model, but screw them.  I think it looks badass.

 

Specific Review of Codex: Chaos Daemons

Picture shamelessly taken from this BoLS post dated 3/3/13.

I suppose I could say "Yes" to to above question.  But the reasons for that might not be what you think.  As any cursory inspection of the blog will reveal, I am primarily a Salamanders Space Marines player.  I probably have somewhere in the neighborhood of 12k points of the flame loving crusaders, and I'm fine with that, or more accurately, my wife is okay with that.  On the other hand, even with that sort of diversity available within that codex, I was tired of playing power armored super-humans, and more importantly, I was tired of painting snot green (or whatever the hell the new color is called...I'm still using up my supplies of the "old" snot green).  I needed a new army that would maintain my interest in the hobby by selecting one that had: a different play style, a different "look", was something that wasn't too popular in my shop, and was something that I could get excited about.

Rather than go into excruciating detail about the specifics, I ended up choosing Tzeentch Daemons.  It is my preference to only play mono-god lists due to the influence of the past background material.  Perhaps in Apoc could I envision the Gods working together to accomplish a task, but never for something as trivial as a 1500-2000 point game sized force.  Yes, this was post White Dwarf update.  No, that was not why I selected them.  I had originally settled on Nurgle Daemons, but there were about a half dozen of the lads at the shop who played them.  A handful had Khorne and Slaanesh, and exactly zero people played Tzeentch.  Still, I think it's worth noting that as powerful as the Screamers and Flamers were in the previous update, I never took more than 9 of each in my three 1500 point games.

So, where did that leave me?  I made plans to attend Adepticon again after getting burned out on the Team Tournament.  I was to participate in the 40k Friendly event and the Combat Patrol.  I would bring my new Daemons, I wouldn't worry about award-quality paint jobs/conversions, and I would focus on fun.  I carefully selected my list, acquired the models, and got to work.

Here is the list I planned on taking:

Herald of Tzeentch w/Bolt, Disc, We Are Legion, & Master of Sorcery
Herald of Tzeentch w/Bolt, Disc, We Are Legion, & Master of Sorcery
(18) Horrors of Tzeentch w/Changeling
(8) Horrors of Tzeentch w/Bolt (Herald would accompany)
(8) Horros of Tzeentch w/Bolt (Herald would accompany)
(4) Screamers of Tzeentch
(5) Screamers of Tzeentch
(3) Flamers of Tzeentch w/Pyrocaster
(3) Flamers of Tzeentch
(3) Flamers of Tzeentch
Daemon Prince w/Flight, Might, Gaze, Bolt, & Mark of Tzeentch

That list was silly with sacred numbers.  I had 9 screamers, 9 flamers, Horror squads in sacred number denominations once the heralds were attached, and 9 total units altogether.  It was glorious.  I had anti-horde, anti-vehicle, anti-elite unit, anti-flier, a unique deployment system, gorgeous models and a solid ruleset  that I was beginning to fall in love with.  Short story long?  I enjoyed the hell out of them.  I was excited about my hobby again.

This is why we can't have nice things.

Enter the new codex.  Can I be nit-picky for a bit?  I hate hardcover codexes.  HATE them.  They should be softcover the way God intended.  There, I'm done with that for now.  There's plenty of press out there discussing the pros and cons of this new codex.  Those folks are likely much more qualified that I am to discuss this book in an objective manner.  That's not what this post is about.  This post is how the army that I carefully selected and built for a specific purpose is no longer playable in the manner it was when I selected it.

Here is my new list that I'll be taking up to the 40k Friendly event.  I haven't come up with my combat patrol list.  I just don't have the heart for it at the moment:

Lord of Change (Lvl 2 -Divination & Change) w/(2) Greater & (1) Lesser Rewards
Herald of Tzeentch (Lvl 2 - Divination & Change) w/Exalted Locus of Conjuration
Herald of Tzeentch (Lvl 2 - Divination & Change) w/Exalted Locus of Conjuration
(20) Pink Horrors of Tzeentch
(20) Pink Horrors of Tzeentch
(9) Screamers of Tzeentch
Burning Chariot of Tzeentch
Burning Chariot of Tzeentch
Daemon Prince (Lvl 1 - Biomancy) w/Mark of Tzeentch, Flight, & (1) Lesser Gift

There are some things that I find intriguing with the new book.  The Greater Daemons and Daemon Princes seem like they might be worth taking, but that's about it for me.  I hate that my horrors are so cheap, because now they're shit.  Yes, I can get twin linked S6 shooting from them now, but I lost a whole lot of total shots, any opportunity to overwatch (which has saved them from assault in the past), and a point of invulnerable save (even though I do now get to re-roll 1's).  Additionally, the move away from innate abilities towards psychic powers was a poor one in my opinion.  Now any army with any sort of Psychic defense (Grey Knights, Space Marines, Tyranids, Eldar, etc.), not to mention failing my Perils test or my opponents lucky Deny the Witch rolls, could conceivably shut down my entire army.  Talk about building a narrative.  I think the reason I'm so disappointed with this new codex is the changes to my Pink Horrors.  They were the backbone of my army, and they've changed so dramatically.  I can't even take squads of 9 anymore.  It seems like sacred numbers were an afterthought to the design of this book.

So, in closing, the book wasn't what I wanted it to be.  Not even close, actually, I consider it to be a great disappointment.  But, I had a very narrow definition of what I wanted, and I'm naturally a very unlucky person, so I'm not surprised that the list that I became attached to no longer plays the way I wanted it to.  All that said, I will play the lists at Adepticon since I had to register the army I was playing in the 40k Friendly, so I'm stuck with it.  I may even play a few games with them at the shop, but I doubt it.  I wouldn't play Apoc with this codex unless I absolutely had to.  Turns out the way to refresh my desire for my Salamanders was to sprinkle my Daemons with the salty tears of despair.  :)

My overall rating?  Inconclusive.  I had no desire to play anything but a limited mono-Tzeentch build so I can't speak to it's overall quality.  It does, however, lose points for being unnecessarily a hardcover book.

My specific rating?  1.5 stars out of 5.  This may go up or down as time goes on and I see what I can do with it, but my initial opinion of the units is poor, and my opinion of random charts for gifts and "warp storms" is very low.

The Nature of the Beast

Last Saturday Castle Perilous in Carbondale, Il hosted an RTT. It was 1750pts and you were to have a minimum of 40% of those total points (700) as troops, and no more than 25% of them in any other force organization type. Now I'm not a fan of further restrictions on the rules unless special circumstances apply. The tournament organizer believing that "math-hammer" is the root of all evil and needs to be regulated from the local tournament scene does not qualify in my book. I love this game, however, and I love getting together with my lads and rolling some dice and talking some smack. My reservations about the set up were overcome and Aerion (Black Templars), Partho (Orks), Da Goffer (Orks), and me (Salamanders) showed up to represent Team Snake Eyes come hell or high water.

There were 11 players at the event with the following army list breakdown: (4) Orks, (4) Space Marines, (1) Black Templars, (1) Dark Eldar, & (1) Tau. Aerion's Templar list can be found here. The orks were mainly mechanized or hybrid foot/mech lists as were the Tau...I think. The Tau were all based white, so it was hard for me to tell what they truly were since I never played that guy. The marines were: Drop Vulkan, Bikes, "mish-mash" (not really sure what that kid had in mind), and my Salamander list which was: Vulkan, Tac Squad w/ MM, F, CM, PF & Rhino x2, Tac Squad w/LC, F, PF & Assault Cannon Razorback, Dread w/MM & HF x3, Land Speeder w/HF & MM x2, Dakka Predator x2, & Vindicator.

I ended up as overall winner going 2-0-1. Partho & Aerion went 2-1-0 and Da Goffer went 0-1-1 with a bye. I played Partho's Speed Freak Orks in the 1st round (win), a local guy's Hybrid Orks in the 2nd (win), and the Drop Pod Vulkan list in the 3rd (draw). Sportsmanship and painting were also scored and I'm certain that they helped push me into first place, but I don't believe anyone went 3-0 on the day.

Here's the deployment of my first game. It was one of the goofy diagonal ones and Partho's Speed Freaks went first.

It didn't take long for his boyz to get up close and personal but I stayed buttoned up in my tanks. When he hit my lines he did an number on them, but then the Salamanders came out to play...

Point blank flamers & bolt pistols followed up by Vulkan He'Stan's assault and the powerfist armed squads turned the tide. He put a powerful hurt on me, but at the end of turn six, I had tabled him.

Here is my deployment from the second game. I didn't take any pictures since there were 3 battlewagons full of boyz, 2 full mobs on the table, and 2 full mobs in reserve. Not only that, but it was an old school mission with the "traitor" rules...you know the ones where you have to swap an elite model for one of your opponents. Take a look at my list above, and you'll see it has three dreadnoughts in my elite slots. I traded a 115 point dreadnought for a 15 point burna boy. I was not happy. That essentially meant that I was operating a 1650 list vs. an 1850 list. I killed everything but the dregs of his last two mobs in that game, but it was a never ending shootout. I moved up a bit to get good shots and then backed up to my edge with my finger on the trigger the whole time. I assaulted when absolutely necessary (to kill off his two warbosses) but only then.

My last game was boring. No really, it was boring. Don't get me wrong, my opponent was awesome, but he got intimidated by my Vindicator. He made me go first and I knew he had five drop pods in his army. I castled up in a corner and waited for him. He saw my wall of steel and fire and said "Hell no". He dropped his entire army on the opposite corner. He had Telion shoot missles at me for six turns while I shot him up (barely) with autocannons. We went through 6 turns in about 45 minutes and killed a couple hundred points of each other's stuff. No surprise, game ended in a draw.

Aside from some minor issues with the organization of the event, we had a lot of fun. We met some really cool guys who came up from Kentucky and had some good games overall. The next tournament in C'dale is September 25th. Still thinking about that one...

A tip of the hat for my favorite tank movie (see above photo) as well as to honor the passing of Clyde. He kept us all safe from the Chaos Squirrels in Aerion's back yard for many years, and we'll miss him dearly. RIP buddy.

Intimidated by a Slip of a Girl.

This is Marike Reimer. You can find her website here, and I urge you to check her out (her work, guys!)

She will be one of my teachers at this years GenCon Indy. For the second year in a row I am forgoing playing anything (I know, it's a game con) in favor of shelling out moderate amounts of cash in an effort to improve my painting skills. With the help of Marike and Zach Lanier (who I took a course with last year and who had at that time earned 14 Golden Demons, with 11 being Gold or Silver. I actually got to hold his Commissar Yarrick. I'll wait for the childish titters to cease before I continue.), and others of their ilk I hope to raise myself up from local acclaim to maybe regionally acknowledged. Eventually I'd even like to teach these classes myself. I'd also like to be served bloody Prime Rib by my Victoria's Secret harem girls. I believe in dreaming big.

But here's my big dilemma. Marike won some pretty big trophies in the P3 Masterclass competition in 2008, and in her interview in No Quarter Magazine (yes, she has been INTERVIEWED by a gaming mag that I read.), she proclaimed that she'd been painting for (wait for it).... SIX YEARS.

Tomorrow I turn 42. I started painting in junior high. That means I have been painting minis longer than she has been alive (or pretty darned close). Yet while I'm good, I'm not even within shouting-with-a-bullhorn distance of her skills. So yeah, I'm a little intimidated. Okay, I'm a lot intimidated.

But I'm not scared. If anything this churning in my guts is making me want to chain myself to that table until she takes one of MY classes (while my lovely lingerie models rub my shoulders and bring me dewy tall glasses of lemonade freshly squeezed from between their all-natural bosoms of ampleness +5. Again, I dream big. Sue me.)

So next Wednesday I'll load up a couple of works-in-progress and hit the highway to Indy. It could be the most important and meaningful trip of my life. Or it could be another 4 days of the best non-gaming in the mid-west. Whatever happens, I'm gonna stare that pretty little gal in the eye and freehand my ass off.

Excelsior!

A "brief" Review of Super Hero RPGs

It's Alive! Oh what a terrible creation I have wrought. I started this blog because...well, to be honest, I have no earthly idea why I did it, but not only have I brought the world of amateur blogging to my living room, I have conscripted Aerion (looking for a couple painting tutorials bro...) and now Genoside into the fold. Inspired by a not-so-obscure comic convention, he brings us some of his thoughts on various roleplaying games in the super hero genre:

I'm back, this time to talk a little off subject about roleplaying games. Most members of Team Snake Eyes sneak in a few games of Pathfinder when they can. It's basically what was left of the previous edition of Dungeons & Dragons. It's a great fantasy game but with the west coast Comic Con last weekend still buzzing in my head, I am here to talk about another genre of RPGs...super hero games. I am hoping in the near future to run a super hero type game for my fellow members, but having so many systems out there it can cause a lot of trouble picking one out.

First off super hero games can be a very daunting challenge for the Game Master, due to the scale of the heroes. You have to watch very carefully about allowing players the ability to drop buildings on giant robots or perhaps turning a bank robber's brain into goo with a single though. If you don't give them any power, however, the game is no fun for them. Most players do want to throw cars around and drop buildings on their enemies so a balance has to be found.

The most helpful choice is getting a game system that works for you. There is a ton of them out there for you to use, but finding one that doesn't have you digging in the books every five minutes is key. Second, you need to have an idea what universe you want to play in. Most systems are made for the major comic producers; this can be beneficial and hurtful to you at the same time. Villains are already made for you so it reduces the prep work. It also allows your players to interact in a world they read about in their comics. The downside of this si that players sometimes know more about the universe than they should. Example: Dr. Mega Villain can only be hurt by prune juice and it so happens that one of the hero's powers is the make juice of any type.

With that said, we come to our first system: Hero/Champions by Hero Games. This is the grand daddy of all super hero games. It's now going into its sixth edition and the system is very detailed and gives you about any option known in any game. But that is where its biggest trouble is. This game scares most new players due to the sheer volume of rules. Making a hero can take hours and with the million options available, most people will want to see each one so they don't miss anything. This game also has no major comic support, so there is no Spider Man or others in this game unless you make it yourself or find a home brew version online somewhere. There are a lot of non comic pre-made heroes in their source books but if you are on a limited budget it means you are the one having to build about everything the heroes encounter.. It i a good game for people that are used to the system, but newbies should be warned.

Next up is classic Marvel Heroes. This is one of the first hero games that I played. It has little standees, maps, and books of pre-made heroes and villains. The rules are made for rock-em, sock-em style games. It has very nice, basic rules that are very easy to learn, but now that the game is over twenty five years old, you can really feel the age in the system. It almost feels like an advanced game of Hero-Clix. If you want to give it a read, most of the books can be found online in PDF format.

Talking of Hero-Clix, this is really not a RPG, but I love to use the figures and maps for my hero type games. You can find online stores that sell singles very cheap, plus they produce Marvel and DC figures. With the cheap figs you can convert and make any hero or villain you want allowing you to run a game in whatever universe you want.

Back to classic games, next up is the MEG system. It can be found in the previous version of DC heroes by Mayfair games and the Blood of Heroes. It is a good, solid game with simple basic rules, but since it is out of print it can be difficult to find. That makes it harder for your players to pick up their own personal copy of the game supplements and almost impossible without dropping a bunch of money on eBay.

Then we have Heroes Unlimited. Players familiar with any of the Palladium systems will pick this up with ease. The biggest problem I see with this system is play can tend to be clunk due to its age. Also you can have players that may want to pull their RIFTS heroes over and destroy half the world. The Mega Arms Race is off and running.

Last we have Mutants and Masterminds. Now going into its 3rd edition, it is based off the OGL (open game license) rules. It uses a basic system as 3rd edition D&D and Pathfinder. I have not had a chance to see the new unreleased rules set, but this is the system I am leaning towards. Green Ronin now has the rights to DC heroes and is also planning to release a generic rule book to go with it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for an Ultimate Powers book real soon. My only real complaint of the previous editions was the damage system. It seemed a little odd and hard to explain to new players.

So there are my thoughts. Please feel free to give any suggestions of game I may want to look at.

Editor's note: Genoside sent the picture with the article submission. I couldn't resist taking a jab with the title.

New man-hole & future projects

Here's my new workspace. I've got a bit more area than my previous place, but the lighting's not the best. I've bought a few new lamps tough, so we'll see how it works out.


The move gave me the opportunity to dig out my Imperial Guard army as well. This army was built (back when I didn't care about mold lines apparently) with the old codex, and they were primarily drop troopers. As such, they're now pretty worthless. I just don't have the money or time to give them the vehicle options the new codex offers. I can't get rid of them just yet though. They were a labor of love even if my modeling and painting techniques leave a bit to be desired. You see the cool commander and vehicle models? Aerion painted those. By now you should see a trend. I can do bulk work on troops, and while Aerion says I am improving, the more complex techniques are still beyond my reach in my mind. I hope you enjoy the Something something something something guard (I never gave them a Regimental home). I hope to devote some more work on them in the future. ;)











Speaking of practicing some more advanced painting techniques...Team Snake Eyes is gearing up for Adepticon 2011 in April. We need to work up our lists and develop a strategy for fine tuning the paint jobs we skimped on during last year's work up. Work continues...

Actual Game Experience...the other white meat.

I’ve been planning & playing my Salamanders for about 7 months now, with some lists here, here, & here. What have I learned? I’ve learned I need more practice. What else? There are some units that I like, and some that I don’t. Guess what? The internets were wrong!!! If you are a 40k god whose mastery of the game is second only to your awesomeness as a player…stop reading now. If not, then please pay attention. Nothing you read on the internet about this game is definitive. Everything I’ve included in my lists has been promoted on one site or another but some units didn’t work out for me. Regardless of internet terms such as noob, meta-game, playstyle, etc., you just need to play the game to figure out both what you like to play, and what you find plays best for you.

What do I like? Vulkan, TH/SS Terminators, Land Raider Crusaders (as long as I’m not playing Tau…then they’re just a waste of points, Heavy Flamer/Multi-Melta Dreadnoughts & Speeders.

What am I on the fence about? Librarians, Chaplains, Vindicators (great if I hit, not so much when I don’t) & Thunderfire Cannons.

What do I not like? Sniper Scouts, Tactical Squads, & Auto Cannon/Heavy Bolter Predators.

Vulkan is obviously appropriate for my army even though some elitists think that he’s “training wheels for a Space Marine Army”. The Terminators and Land Raider are expensive, but they’re effective. I’m thinking about moving away from them though and seeing how my lists evolve without them. Dreads and Speeders are cheap and versatile so they’ll be tough for me to leave behind. Nothing I’ve seen from Librarians and Chaplains is worth losing the close combat ability either Vulkan or a Commander brings. The loss of initiative 5 on these two units is huge for me. I may try two vindicators to counter my uncanny ability to choke in a tight spot. The dakka pred has been a colossal disappointment for me, though it is nice and cheap. Finally we come to the bread and butter of a Space Marine army…the Tactical Squad.

I don’t hate them per se; I’m just really bad at using them. They’re in the low to mid 200’s in points, and I’ve constantly got them out of position or otherwise misusing them. I think if I crack the tactical squad riddle, then my game will evolve to a new level. For now, however, I’m stuck with being a Master of Mediocrity. ;)

Stay tuned for some list tweaking and blatant internet list stealing. I’m going to shake some things up and see how it works out for me.

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...