Monday, July 29, 2013
What the Army looks like these days
Realized I hadn't posted the new paint scheme my army's been rolling with these last few months, and now is the time to fix that! The only guys missing are the Cultists, but they're not really the stars anyhow. Enjoy.
Sunday, May 26, 2013
Reflections on Alamo con 2013
Last weekend I was in San Antonio spending the weekend playing 5 games of Warhammer 40K. The local painter I'd hired to finish my army had done an amazing job, with every unit fully painted and based! He even had time to finish off the Nurgle Daemon Prince and 2 Spawn, which weren't part of my list, but could show up if one of my Champions won a challenge.
My first game was a classic match-up of Ultramarines vs. my minions of Chaos. The Objectives were laid out on the table with 2 each in both our deployment zones and 1 in the middle of the board. My opponent went first and his Vindicator put a huge whole in my Cultists with his heavy-weapon carrying Space Marines pinging my Predator tanks. I responded with one Predator blowing up a Rhino, netting me First Blood, and pinging the Vindicator while marching my Plague Marines towards the middle Objective. My opponent's drop-pod, carrying his Warlord, landed near one of my smaller units of Cultists, with plans of clearing them off the Objective. In response I sent my Nurgle Bikes, with my Warlord and the Maulerfiend to cement my hold on the Objective. My Heldrakes came in and roasted many Space Marines as well as putting some more holes in the Vindicator. The Maulerfiend and Bikes were able to slay his Warlord and the Plague Marines were able to keep from being pushed off the middle Objective, despite taking major losses. In the end, the Chaos army took the day!
This was a Chaos Space Marine vs. Chaos Space Marine match. Black Maces were present in both armies, with my Biker Chaos Lord carrying one and a Nurgle Daemon Prince carrying a cheap knock-off. My opponent's army was lead by Ahriman, and he had an impressive number of Cultists following him. He marched his Maulerfiend into cover after using Psychic abilities to further shroud it and confuse any fire that would be coming its way. Some of his Cultists advanced along my flank to push out a small group of Cultists I had camped in Area Terrain on an Objective. My opponent's Obliterators made good on their name and Lascannoned a Power Fist off my Maulerfiend. It was destroyed shortly after in Close Combat with Ahriman's Maulerfiend. Both my opponent's Heldrakes came in on Turn 2, and like me he was running 1 Baleflamer and 1 Autocannon Heldrake. Only my Autocannon Heldrake came in for me, with the Baleflamer not entering the scene until Turn 4. My opponent successfully used his Psychic powers to cause my Plague Marines and Cultists to hurt themselves, turn after turn. I got my Bikes into Close Combat with the Maulerfiend, not realizing it would still get Invisibility in Close Combat. After my Warlord was killed it was a foregone conclusion I would not be able to turn the tide. Time was called and my opponent's army carried the day.
My Chaos army was facing off against a Grey Knights army. Now, I was in a really bad mood before this game started as when I was transporting my large display board holding 117 gorgeous models, an inebriated player jumped out of his chair without realizing I was behind him. He knocked over my display board and my 2 Heldrakes shattered into multiple pieces. I spent the first 15 minutes of Game 3 gluing together the Heldrakes as best I could. While the Autocannon Heldrake was salvaged 100%, the Baleflamer Heldrake is now missing his tail and part of one of his rear claws. Having just gotten these freshly painted models back, I was not happy.
Now onto the game. This was a difficult match-up for me as my opponent had a ton of heavy support that was just decimating everything that charged up the field. There was a lack of ruins and area terrain on my side of the board and all I could do was push forward and remove models off the board. Once again my Baleflamer Heldrake did not enter the field until Turn 4, which meant a considerable amount of Troop removal was denied to me for the majority of the game. In the end, while I had removed many of my opponent's models from the board, he was clearly ahead in a Kill Point game. Time was called and all I had left were both Heldrakes, and 1 Unit of Cultists.
Stay tuned for my next post in which I'll go over the last 2 games of Alamo con. Plus pictures of how the army I took looks!
Game 1
My first game was a classic match-up of Ultramarines vs. my minions of Chaos. The Objectives were laid out on the table with 2 each in both our deployment zones and 1 in the middle of the board. My opponent went first and his Vindicator put a huge whole in my Cultists with his heavy-weapon carrying Space Marines pinging my Predator tanks. I responded with one Predator blowing up a Rhino, netting me First Blood, and pinging the Vindicator while marching my Plague Marines towards the middle Objective. My opponent's drop-pod, carrying his Warlord, landed near one of my smaller units of Cultists, with plans of clearing them off the Objective. In response I sent my Nurgle Bikes, with my Warlord and the Maulerfiend to cement my hold on the Objective. My Heldrakes came in and roasted many Space Marines as well as putting some more holes in the Vindicator. The Maulerfiend and Bikes were able to slay his Warlord and the Plague Marines were able to keep from being pushed off the middle Objective, despite taking major losses. In the end, the Chaos army took the day!
Game 2
This was a Chaos Space Marine vs. Chaos Space Marine match. Black Maces were present in both armies, with my Biker Chaos Lord carrying one and a Nurgle Daemon Prince carrying a cheap knock-off. My opponent's army was lead by Ahriman, and he had an impressive number of Cultists following him. He marched his Maulerfiend into cover after using Psychic abilities to further shroud it and confuse any fire that would be coming its way. Some of his Cultists advanced along my flank to push out a small group of Cultists I had camped in Area Terrain on an Objective. My opponent's Obliterators made good on their name and Lascannoned a Power Fist off my Maulerfiend. It was destroyed shortly after in Close Combat with Ahriman's Maulerfiend. Both my opponent's Heldrakes came in on Turn 2, and like me he was running 1 Baleflamer and 1 Autocannon Heldrake. Only my Autocannon Heldrake came in for me, with the Baleflamer not entering the scene until Turn 4. My opponent successfully used his Psychic powers to cause my Plague Marines and Cultists to hurt themselves, turn after turn. I got my Bikes into Close Combat with the Maulerfiend, not realizing it would still get Invisibility in Close Combat. After my Warlord was killed it was a foregone conclusion I would not be able to turn the tide. Time was called and my opponent's army carried the day.
Game 3
My Chaos army was facing off against a Grey Knights army. Now, I was in a really bad mood before this game started as when I was transporting my large display board holding 117 gorgeous models, an inebriated player jumped out of his chair without realizing I was behind him. He knocked over my display board and my 2 Heldrakes shattered into multiple pieces. I spent the first 15 minutes of Game 3 gluing together the Heldrakes as best I could. While the Autocannon Heldrake was salvaged 100%, the Baleflamer Heldrake is now missing his tail and part of one of his rear claws. Having just gotten these freshly painted models back, I was not happy.
Now onto the game. This was a difficult match-up for me as my opponent had a ton of heavy support that was just decimating everything that charged up the field. There was a lack of ruins and area terrain on my side of the board and all I could do was push forward and remove models off the board. Once again my Baleflamer Heldrake did not enter the field until Turn 4, which meant a considerable amount of Troop removal was denied to me for the majority of the game. In the end, while I had removed many of my opponent's models from the board, he was clearly ahead in a Kill Point game. Time was called and all I had left were both Heldrakes, and 1 Unit of Cultists.
Stay tuned for my next post in which I'll go over the last 2 games of Alamo con. Plus pictures of how the army I took looks!
Sunday, April 28, 2013
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.
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!
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!
Sunday, April 7, 2013
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!
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!
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Adding some Daemon allies
So, one thing that was bugging me with the list I took into the March tournament was how expensive the Plague Marines are. While I like just how tough they are, their Poisoned close combat weapons, Fearless and Feel No Pain simply comes at too high a price for what I want to do. Since the Daemon codex recently came out, I wanted to play with some of those guys in the list. A kind person sent me 2 bases of metal Nurglings and I thought I'd give them a shot. So I bought a pack of Nurglings to accompany them and a Herald of Nurgle as well.
Doing this will provide double the wounds as the Plague Marines and if I take the Greater Locus of Fecundity will give the Herald and Nurglings Feel No Pain as well. The Daemon invulnerable save combined with Feel No Pain and 4 wounds per Nurgling base will make that unit a great tar-pit/objective holding unit, and much more efficient use of points than Plague Marines. I will be giving the Herald Psychic Powers as well as Exalted Rewards and will still have plenty of points left over (for 2,000 point games) to either get more Nurglings or perhaps a Palanquin (though I can't find where they sell such things). We'll see how they do, my main concern is that while they'll hold an objective, they won't be able to kill as well as the Plague Marines. Until next time, see you on the battlefield.
Doing this will provide double the wounds as the Plague Marines and if I take the Greater Locus of Fecundity will give the Herald and Nurglings Feel No Pain as well. The Daemon invulnerable save combined with Feel No Pain and 4 wounds per Nurgling base will make that unit a great tar-pit/objective holding unit, and much more efficient use of points than Plague Marines. I will be giving the Herald Psychic Powers as well as Exalted Rewards and will still have plenty of points left over (for 2,000 point games) to either get more Nurglings or perhaps a Palanquin (though I can't find where they sell such things). We'll see how they do, my main concern is that while they'll hold an objective, they won't be able to kill as well as the Plague Marines. Until next time, see you on the battlefield.
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Tournament results and thoughts moving forward
Alright, so the 2,000 point tournament was last Sunday. There were far fewer opponents than usual as many had gone to Dallas for a 2-day tournament, but the competition with those remaining was still fierce. I won the first 2 games of the tournament quit handily. The introduction of the Heldrakes made a huge difference to how my games played, but the true stars were the Chaos Cultists. When you have 94 Cultists on the board, you are able to tar-pit quit a bit. The downside is, your turns will progress extremely slowly.
The last game of the tournament pitted me against one of the regulars who consistently places in the top 3. We only got to the top of Turn 4 before time ran out, but in that exchange, his Space Wolf warlord and Molitor went head to head. Sadly the loyalist scum was able to wipe Molitor's entire biker gang before ending the warlord in close combat. I got my revenge at Turn 4 as I fired my Hades Autocannon and 2 Predator tanks, but the Space Wolf warlord was able to shrug off everything that came at him, until the 12 Cultists, who were in rapid fire range, fired. I forced 4 armor saves and the Space Wolf failed 2, giving me a warlord killed point. In the end my opponent had more victory points than I, but I think if the game had continued I could have done a bit more damage to him.
So the tasks ahead for me are to paint the 94 Cultists. I'm thinking of painting in a manner similar to Imperial Guardsman, who have gone traitor and wield their weapons for Nurgle. Next I need to green stuff and paint my warlord. I've received a lot of compliments on the look of Molitor, but can't wait to get pustules decorating his form. Then I'll re-visit the Heldrakes, Maulerfiend, and the rest of the Chaos Bikers. I've got to have everything 100% painted for the first major tournament in May. Though we'll see how many of these guys actually make the cut.
Which brings me to a kill point game I played post-tournament. Only in this situation have I seen large blobs of Cultists being more of a hindrance than asset. They die so easily, and even Going to Ground won't save more than a couple. In hind-sight, I should have camped behind cover and let my Eldar opponent come to me. Next time I play Purge the Unclean I'll be sure to do so.
Until then, see you on the battlefield!
The last game of the tournament pitted me against one of the regulars who consistently places in the top 3. We only got to the top of Turn 4 before time ran out, but in that exchange, his Space Wolf warlord and Molitor went head to head. Sadly the loyalist scum was able to wipe Molitor's entire biker gang before ending the warlord in close combat. I got my revenge at Turn 4 as I fired my Hades Autocannon and 2 Predator tanks, but the Space Wolf warlord was able to shrug off everything that came at him, until the 12 Cultists, who were in rapid fire range, fired. I forced 4 armor saves and the Space Wolf failed 2, giving me a warlord killed point. In the end my opponent had more victory points than I, but I think if the game had continued I could have done a bit more damage to him.
So the tasks ahead for me are to paint the 94 Cultists. I'm thinking of painting in a manner similar to Imperial Guardsman, who have gone traitor and wield their weapons for Nurgle. Next I need to green stuff and paint my warlord. I've received a lot of compliments on the look of Molitor, but can't wait to get pustules decorating his form. Then I'll re-visit the Heldrakes, Maulerfiend, and the rest of the Chaos Bikers. I've got to have everything 100% painted for the first major tournament in May. Though we'll see how many of these guys actually make the cut.
Which brings me to a kill point game I played post-tournament. Only in this situation have I seen large blobs of Cultists being more of a hindrance than asset. They die so easily, and even Going to Ground won't save more than a couple. In hind-sight, I should have camped behind cover and let my Eldar opponent come to me. Next time I play Purge the Unclean I'll be sure to do so.
Until then, see you on the battlefield!
Saturday, March 2, 2013
The new list for tomorrow's 2000 pt tournament
Alright, so the 2,000 point tournament is tomorrow. Some of the regulars will be at another event, but there should still be a dozen+ showing up. I'll likely lose points on the painting department, as just assembling and painting some of the minis ate up entire evenings, so I'll have to offset that by winning.
But first, behold my new Warlord, Molitor.
He's a kit-bash of the Chaos Space Marine Bike, with Chaos Terminator Lord cape and sundries, Chaos Biker Upgrade chest and head, as well as an arm wielding mace from one of the Chosen. And here's the list I'm taking tomorrow.
HQ
160 pts Chaos Lord Mark of Nurgle, Blight Grenades, Melta Bombs, Chaos Bike, The Black Mace, Veterans of the Long War
Troops
330 pts Plague Marines x10 Plasma gun x2, Icon of Despair, Melta Bombs, Power Fist x1, Combi-Plasmagun, Veterans of the LongWar
179pts Chaos Cultists x35 14 Autogun, 3 Flamer
179pts Chaos Cultists x35 14 Autogun, 3 Flamer
69pts Chaos Cultists x12 6 Autogun, 1 Flamer
69pts Chaos Cultists x12 6 Autogun, 1 Flamer
Fast Attack
259 pts Chaos Bikers x7 Mark of Nurgle, Icon of Despair, Meltagun x2, Melta Bombs, Veterans of the Long War
170 pts Heldrake Baleflamer
170 pts Heldrake Autocannon
Heavy
140 pts Chaos Predator Twin-linked Lascannon, Lascannon sponsons
140 pts Chaos Predator Twin-linked Lascannon, Lascannon sponsons
135 pts Maulerfiend Lasher Tendrils
All told the model count is 117. The Predators, Maulerfiend, Heldrakes and Bikes should bring quite a bit of pain, with some Plague Marine Plasma back-up. We'll see how this one does. I'll leave you with the following image to haunt your dreams.
But first, behold my new Warlord, Molitor.
He's a kit-bash of the Chaos Space Marine Bike, with Chaos Terminator Lord cape and sundries, Chaos Biker Upgrade chest and head, as well as an arm wielding mace from one of the Chosen. And here's the list I'm taking tomorrow.
HQ
160 pts Chaos Lord Mark of Nurgle, Blight Grenades, Melta Bombs, Chaos Bike, The Black Mace, Veterans of the Long War
Troops
330 pts Plague Marines x10 Plasma gun x2, Icon of Despair, Melta Bombs, Power Fist x1, Combi-Plasmagun, Veterans of the LongWar
179pts Chaos Cultists x35 14 Autogun, 3 Flamer
179pts Chaos Cultists x35 14 Autogun, 3 Flamer
69pts Chaos Cultists x12 6 Autogun, 1 Flamer
69pts Chaos Cultists x12 6 Autogun, 1 Flamer
Fast Attack
259 pts Chaos Bikers x7 Mark of Nurgle, Icon of Despair, Meltagun x2, Melta Bombs, Veterans of the Long War
170 pts Heldrake Baleflamer
170 pts Heldrake Autocannon
Heavy
140 pts Chaos Predator Twin-linked Lascannon, Lascannon sponsons
140 pts Chaos Predator Twin-linked Lascannon, Lascannon sponsons
135 pts Maulerfiend Lasher Tendrils
All told the model count is 117. The Predators, Maulerfiend, Heldrakes and Bikes should bring quite a bit of pain, with some Plague Marine Plasma back-up. We'll see how this one does. I'll leave you with the following image to haunt your dreams.
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