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.

Battle Report: Salamanders vs. Lusty Loganwing

Last Thursday I played a guy's Space Wolf army at the store. It was a great game that ended in a draw, but I didn't have my camera so didn't post a battle report. While there, however, I made arrangements with Chambers, of The Back 40k fame, to play a 1500 point game this Thursday. You see, he had an army he bought off a guy, you may have heard of him...Ron Saikowski of +From the Warp+. It wasn't just any army though, that wouldn't make a good enough story. This was Ron's old Lustwing army. If you haven't seen it, follow the link and check it out. Go ahead, I'll wait. You see? Absofrigginlutely gorgeous. I HAD to play this army. End. Of. Story. He used the Space Wolf codex for these guys as there is no option to run all chaos terminators

Our table had 25% terrain and wasn't anything too special. My list was changed up a little bit from my usual 1500 list since I'm trying a few things out to see how they play. I had a librarian (null zone & fury of the ancients); (2) Tac Squads w/power weapons, multi-meltas, flamers, & rhinos; (2) MM/HF dreadnoughts; (2) MM/HF Landspeeders; (5) TH/SS Terminators w/ Land Raider Crusader w/MM; and a Vindicator. I'd love to tell you what his list was, but I know squat about the Space Wolf codex...as in I just bought the dang thing tonight. We played an annihilation mission and he had 5 kill points to my 12 if that tells you anything. He had (2) six man squads with missile launchers, a ten man squad with wolf lord, a rune priest, and a lone wolf (I think). As I said, we played annihilation with dawn of war deployment. He deployed his two six man squads, and I left everything to come in on my board edge first turn. He went first, and here's what the board looked like.

Nothing too fancy here. Like an idiot I split my forces again. I might learn, but one would think I would have picked up on it before now...Speeders pushed forward 24" on my left, tac squads sat right where you see them (doing nothing) till turn four, while the dreads, vindicator and landraider made mischief in the middle.

Turn 2 I moved up my terminators to intercept his lone wolf, which was his plan. I flippin hate those guys. You don't get anything from killing them, and if you ignore them for the kill point they run all over your army. Nice.

The next few turns saw my terminators and their librarian owned by his 10 man squad with a wolf lord in it. Absolutely sick. Seriously, there ought to be a law. What you see in the above picture is evidence of my public shame. (1) Vindicator, a point blank land raider crusader, (1) tactical squad, and a rhino shot at that squad. Plenty of hits, plenty of forced saves...I killed three of them. That's pretty much how my night went in a nutshell.

At the end of the day, while I had killed quite a few of his terminators, I only gained 2 kill points. Chambers had 9. It was an uphill fight from the beginning, my deployment wasn't ideal, and Chambers played a smart game. He was a fantastic opponent that I won't hesitate to play again and I got to play against an army that I drooled over on the internet. Ironically, my librarian HQ was converted by Ron, and killed like a little #$%^ before he could perform. So while I learned it's probably worth while for me to equip my Tac Sgts. with power weapons, I still have doubts about power armored librarians...and no terminator librarians to try out. It was a tough night for the Salamanders as a whole but my biggest failing was not having a decent camera to take better pictures. You just cannot imagine how beautiful this Lustwing army was.

Take home messages? Play Space Wolves, they're better than you are. Seriously though, that is one tough codex, and Loganwing is no joke either (for my typical army build anyway). I made a few mistakes, but none were truly epic. A few different choices and I might have earned a few more kill points, but I would have needed to table this army to earn a win and that would have required Chambers to fail just a few of those 5+ invulnerable saves he was making. ;-)

Leveling Up.

As this blurry phone pic might show, I gots bling. But this time its national bling.

I entered Totem Hunter in the Privateer Press P3 Grandmaster paint competition and was awarded a silver token for my efforts. As the name implies it's the award level between Gold and Bronze. The competition this year was changed to a "European" format in which each piece is rated on it's own merit. So in a category containing 30 entries there may be 4 golds, 7 silvers, 15 bronzes, and 4 non-medal winners. The overall best is chosen from the gold medalists and the Best of Show is chosen from that lot of all the categories.

So what this shiney bit of metal means for me is that I'm on the right track. I'm neither the best nor the worst, but among the (judging from the other entrants) very talented painters competing in the competition with the potential to reach that next level. I walk away with some pride knowing that my efforts have not been in vain and that I have something to look forward to in the future.

Speaking of phenomenally talented painters, I'd like to take a few moments to give a huge shout-out and thanks to my amazing teachers this year.

I've already introduced you to Marike Reimer and Zach Lanier (who is now up to 16 Golden Demons). What I haven't shared with you is that I was competing against BOTH of them in the Grandmasters lol. Zach was next to me when we were picking up our entries on Sunday and apparently he did better than I but still didn't bring home Best of Show. I don't yet know who did but I'm eager to find out when the results are posted in No Quarter Magazine in a couple months.

My other teachers were no less amazing. On Saturday I had the honor of meeting Mathieu Fontaine who did some amazing things with an air brush, making my desire to own one that much harder to silence. And finally I met the legendary Joe Orteza, the man who sculpted the Adepticon skull as well as some other projects you'd drool over. Joe doesn't have a dedicated page other than Facebook but if you google him you'll see some truly jaw-dropping stuff. His contribution to the Primarch Project from Chicago GD 2007 alone is worth a few hours study. In 2 hours he taught me to do some things with green stuff I never thought I'd manage (like a length of chain. Turns out it's really pretty easy!)

In summary, the highpoint of this year's GenCon was of course spending some much-needed away time with the wife. Also high on the list is being told by Ron Kruzie, Studio Director for Privateer Press, that he had never really liked the Totem Hunter model until he saw mine. I'll carry that warm and fuzzy feeling for a while, and I'll try not to be a jerk about it.

Mental Expansion: An ode to odd tourney rules.

On August 28 the Team will (mostly) be participating in a Rogue Trader in Carbondale, IL. Normally this would not be blog-worthy, but the tournament rules set us back on our collective heels and I thought I'd share my ponderings on the situation at hand.

The abnormal rules are as follows (edited and cleaned up for spelling and grammar):

'Old school' force comp is what the RT turnies used ten years ago. It stated that you had a minimum of 40% troops so at 1750 points you need to spend at least 700 points on selections from the troops section. That includes any transports and upgrades. You cannot spend any more than 25% on HQ, Elite, Fast Attack, OR Heavy support, so you can spend up to 437 in any one of those catigories.

Now, at first reading I was like "Huh?" Then I re-read and re-re-read and finally it clicked. At this point a couple team members opted out due to not having enough models or just plain not wanting to deal with it. And that's fine. I refuse to play Champions for the same reason.

I was about to join them until it hit me that a) I'd be passing up a chance to hang with my bros, b) I'd miss out on much needed play experience before Adepticon MkII, and c) I might just learn something. So I reluctantly stepped outside my little box and started banging away at an army list.

Submitted for your edification, it is thus:

HQ: Marshall with Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield, Crusader Seals

Elite: Sword Brethren Assault Termies- 3 Lightning claws, 2 TH/SH Furious Charge

Heavy: Land Raider Crusader- Extra Armor

Elite: Emperor's Champion w/ Accept Any Challenge

Troops: Crusader Squad- Bolt Pistol/CCW x8, Flamer, Pistol and Power Fist

Neophytes- Bolt Pistol/CCW x9

Troops: Crusader Squad- Bolt Pistol/CCW x8, Meltagun, Pistol and Power Fist

Troops: Crusader Squad- Bolter x3, Plasmagun, Plasma Cannon

Troops: Crusader Squad- Bolter x7, Meltagun, Pistol and Power Fist, Frag Grenades

Transport- Drop Pod

Fast Attack: Land Speeder- Assault Cannon and Heavy Bolter

Heavy Support- Vindicator- Dozer Blade, Extra Armor

Total: 1750

Elites: 12.3%

Fast: 4.6%

Heavy: 22.9%

HQ: 8.3%

Troops: 44 %

It works and it might actually work on the table. Guess we'll know in a few weeks.

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!

Adepticon 2011 - The Evolution of an Army List

As can be read here, Team Snake Eyes had a great time at Adepticon 2010, but didn't score so well in the area of battle points. While we placed abysmally low (90 out of 110) we considered the event a success. This wasn't some brand of "half-full" optimism that we used to uplift our crushed spirits, but we genuinely learned a lot, met some great guys, and saw some wonderful armies. I also got an ok bloody mary and some fantastic prime rib...

Here are the lists we took last time:

2010 List #1
Vulkan
2x Tac Sqd w/ MM, Flamer & Rhino
(5) man Tac Sqd w/ TL Lascannon Razorback
Dreadnought w/ MM & HF
Vindicator with Dozer Blade

2010 List #2
MoTF w/ Conversion Beamer
2x Tac Sqd with Combi-Melta, MM, Flamer, & Rhino w/ HK Missile
(5) Sniper Scouts
Dreadnought w/ MM & HF
2x Landspeeder w/ MM & HF

2010 List #3
Chaplain in Terminator Armor
2x Tac Sqd w/ MM, Flamer & Rhino
(5) Assault Terminators w/TH & SS
Land Raider Crusader w/ MM

2010 List #4
Librarian w/ Null Zone & Gate of Infinity
2x Tac Sqd with Lascannon, Flamer, Combi-Melta, & Rhino
(5) man Tac Sqd w/ Melta Bomb & TL Lascannon Razorback
Dreadnought w/ MM & HF
Thunderfire Cannon
Predator Destructor

Nothing too fancy there. We took advantage of Vulkan where we could and got the added benefit of sticking with the Salamander's fondness of flame and melta based weaponry at the same time. Our biggest drawbacks were with our playing and not our lists, and we did suffer from a lack of focus. We noticed we didn't have quite enough long range anti-tank as we would have liked, but that was primarily because we played like little sissies and didn't get up in our opponent's faces (you'd think that tactic would have been obvious with over 80% of our army equipped with short/mid range weapons). I decided since I didn't want to completely reinvent the wheel and Mrs. Chosen 1 wasn't about to let me drop the money I did last year either, we would keep the same theme but change things around a little bit...

2011 Draft #1, List #1
Vulkan
(5) man Tac Sqd w/combi-melta, PF, & TL Lascannon Razorback
Tac Sqd w/PF, MM, Flamer, & rhino
x2 Landspeeders w/MM & HF
Vindicator w/Siege Shield

2011 Draft #1, List #2
(same as list #3 above)

2011 Draft #1, List #3
Captain w/artificer armor, SS, & Relic Blade
2x Tac Sqd w/PF, MM, Flamer, & Rhino w/HK
Ironclad Dreadnought w/ HF, Seismic Hammer, & Assault Launchers
(9) man Assault Squad w/Flamer, PF, & Rhino

2011 Draft #1, List #4
Librarian
2x Tac Sqd w/PF, Lascannon, Flamer, & Rhino
(9) man Assault Squad w/PF, Flamer, & Rhino
Dreadnought w/MM & HF
Vindicator w/siege shield

I wasn't totally happy with those changes, and the points totals weren't perfect, but after discussing things with Aerion and letting things sink in for a bit, we decided to make some further changes:

2011 Draft #2, List #1
Vulkan He'Stan
Dreadnought w/MM & HF
Tac Sqd w/Flamer, MM, Combi-Melta, PF, & Rhino
2x Landspeeders w/HF & MM
(8) Man Assault Squad w/Flamer, PF, & Rhino

2011 Draft #2, List #2
Captain w/ Relic Blade, SS, & Artificer Armor
Command Squad w/Champion, (2) Flamers, Standard, TH, & Rhino
2x Tac Sqd w/Flamer, MM, PF, & Rhino
Ironclad Dreadnought w/HF, Seismic Hammer, & Assault Launchers

2011 Draft #2, List #3
(Same as 2010 list #3)

2011 Draft #2, List #4
Librarian
Dreadnought w/MM & HF
(6) man Sternguard or Vanguard squad (still working out our preference)
2x Tac Sqd w/Flamer, MM, PF, & Rhino
Vindicator w/Siege Shield

These changes increase our close combat ability that was lacking last time, provide a squad for our characters to fight with (and fight this time they will...they weren't used very effectively last time around), remove most of our ability to fight past 24" (what little we had never made a difference) and focus our purpose...Into the Fires of Battle, Unto the Anvil of War. It also represents a smaller investment in new models than some of our other options. We will, however, be undertaking some work on what we have as well. Stay tuned for our painting "upgrades" to what may be familiar models.

Any Thoughts?

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.