Getting ready for Alamo con

Been neglecting this blog for awhile now, but with good reason, I've had 114 models to paint for Alamo con! That plus playing 40K at the local club on Thursdays has made me very, very busy. So let's break it down.

Hobby

I have been on a major painting spree and had thrown down ink on all but my Biker Warlord. Things seemed to be going well for awhile as I was making progress, even if it was only painting a single color on a large swathe of Cultists. I got to the point though, where it became painfully obvious I was not going to have enough time to get the models table ready by the tournament on May 18th. And so a decision was made, I hired a very talented, and fast, local painter to finish the job. The bad news was there were 114 models to paint. The good news was that they were most of the way there. I got to take a look at what my friend had accomplished in just a single night of painting and he had added an awesome looking rust effect to the Maulerfiend, as well as having cleaned up and detail washing on both Heldrakes. His goal is to have those three models completely painted and based by the end of this week. My fingers are crossed!

Gaming

So I finally had the opportunity to play against a couple Tau armies, and wow, those guys are brutal with the new Codex. The first game I played was also the first time my opponent had run his new Tau list. Despite some major achievements on my end, including wiping out his Warlord and all the suits grouped with him with a single Baleflamer pass, in the end, they get too many cheap units that can fire way farther than my Cultists. While the body count was pretty epic on both sides, my opponent controlled more Objectives and had Linebreaker on me. It was a fun game, but I knew that Tau armies were going to be a problem for me. And that was reinforced in my second game against another Tau opponent. This fellow had brought an Aegis Defence Line with a Quad-gun and tons of abilities specifically to down Heldrakes. While he couldn't do that as quickly as he was hoping to, he did eventually bring both demon chickens down and the marker-light ability of denying Cover meant my Cultists had no chance. The Maulerfiend was destroyed in Turn 1 and Night Fighting didn't matter to that army. In hindsight, I should have done what I've been trying to break myself from doing, aggressively charging. I should have sent both Heldrakes (was using 2 Baleflamer Heldrakes for this game) at the Defence Line and at least had a single turn of roasting a bunch of fishmen. Mmm, fried fish. Ah well, lesson learned. Cover means little against a Tau opponent who knows how to use marker-lights, so the ravening Chaos horde has to push with no care of the losses.

That's it for now. I'll be posting pics of the finished army as soon as I get the models back. Until next time, see you on the battlefield!

April Tournament breakdown

Played 3 1250 point games today with an altered version of Molitor's army. No Hades Heldrake, minus a Lascannon Predator tank, and only 89 Cultists. The first game was against a horde Tyranid army. I was a bit too aggressive with the Maulerfiend and Bikers and the troop monstrous creature my opponent had too many wounds to take care of. That plus my Heldrakes didn't come in until Turn 4.  After 2 spawnings of more troops in a single turn and my line collapsing, I was done for in Turn 7. When the game ended I had a single small unit of Cultists and Heldrake left. While I had killed his flying Hive Tyrant Warlord and a couple of units, he was spawning more than I could burn. In the end, the bugs devoured the chaos.

Game 2 was against Necrons. My opponent deployed second and wisely positioned himself in a manner which completely blocked line of sight from my lone Predator tank. However, after deployment it was obvious I had a much larger force. He had 2 Night Scythes which came in on Turn 2 and increased the count, but my Chaos Lord and Maulerfiend brought his Warlord down in Turn 1. My Heldrake came in on Turn 2 and that thing didn't disappoint between Vector Striking and its Baleflamer. The biggest hurdle was my opponent's ability to resurrect his models, but when my Cultists are in Rapid Fire range and firing 41 shots I'll be delivering wounds. My Warlord was blinked out of existence in a challenge and I lost all but 2 Bikers. In the end though, the sacrifices served papa Nurgle as the Cultists held onto many more objectives than my opponent's dwindling numbers of Necrons.

Game 3 was against Space Wolves with an Aegis Defence Line. We were deploying in the corners with objectives on the board and a relic in the center of the table. My opponent had 2 tanks behind the defence line with a Quad-gun, I knew what my Predator's first target was going to be. A couple of Lascannon hits later and the biggest threat to my Heldrake was eliminated in the first turn. My Heldrake thankfully came in on Turn 2 again and destroyed a loyalist Rhino, netting me First Blood.  I was again too aggressive with the Maulerfiend and it died from the tanks. After losing 2 Bikers I was nervous about assaulting but they were in range and I decided to press my luck. A roll of 1 for the Black Mace meant I was in serious trouble as my opponent had a model with a Power Axe that devastated my Warlord. One of my Cultist units was wiped out and my opponent had Outflanked with a Rhino carrying his Warlord. My Predator wrecked the Rhino and the elite unit of Space Wolves cleared the Cultists holding a nearby objective. The Predator fired again and a beam of supercharged light burst from the Wolf's Warlord. The game was called and our points were totaled, with both the Chaos Marines and Space Wolves equaling in the tally. The tie breaker was down to kill points, which because of the 2 Rhinos & tanks downed, led to a Chaos victory by a single point.

Today had a very fun run of games, in which I encountered a version of Tyranids that has me scratching my head on how to defeat, and had close games with turn after turn of enjoyable engagements. I'm seeing where the weaknesses in my list are, but on the whole I think it played very well. As always though, the dice rolls determine the outcomes. Until I next see you on the battlefield, happy wargaming!