Stone Corridors

It's So Big

2012-01-12T10:49:00.000-08:00

It's so big that we called it The Behemoth. I think of this thing when I think of Khador warjacks. Cygnar engineers might be addicted to electricity, but they've got nothing against the singlemindednest of Khador engineers. For them there is no perfect machine. You just keep adding bigger weapons and more armor plating so that each new thing is better than the last.

I've only ever been on the receiving end of this monstrosity, so I'm looking forward to inflicting some Behemoth-fueled destruction on my opponents soon.

For Sale

2012-01-06T14:22:00.001-08:00

There's still time! These miniatures deserve a better home than the bottom of a box in my basement. Bid now!

And Her Little Dog...

2012-01-05T13:03:00.000-08:00

Got some Khador in recently for a pretty good price. Mrs. Kratikoff to the left there is is now based and ready for primer and paint.

There are more models but they require cleanup. I'll be posting the pictures as I get them cleaned and based. I'm not decided on the paint scheme yet. Either Traditional Red, Winter White, or Soviet Tank Green.

I'm going to start at the 25 point level with the following:

Sorcha
Behemoth
Iron Fang Uhlans (3)
Uhlan Kovnik Markov
Man-O-War Drakhun (w/dismount)

So lots of cavalry. I have visions of Sorcha freezing the opponents army, and the cavalry impact charging their way through scads of opposing infantry.

Also, don't forget that I'm selling off some of my miniatures. Still a day and a half to bid!

Seattle Tournament Scene: January

2012-01-03T11:54:00.000-08:00

Something I'd like to do more of is participate in tournaments. But I have a devil of a time finding out about them. This despite living in Seattle which has numerous game stores, a GW Batttle Bunker, and the Privateer Press Headquarters.

Here's what I could find.

'Unlimited' Tournament 2000pts - Saturday, January 7 12:00pm, Seattle Battle Bunker. Anything goes 40K. Bring your superheavies, etc...(info here)
Warhammer Fantasy 1500pts - Saturday, January 14 12:00pm, Seattle Battle Bunker. (info here)
Apocalypse Weekend - Saturday, January 21 3:00pm - 9:00pm, Seattle Battle Bunker. Not a tournament, per se, but still an organized gaming event. (info here)

Seems like the Seattle Battle Bunker is where its at for January. I know there must be some Warmahordes goings on, I just don't know where.

Miniatures for Sale!

2012-01-01T18:19:00.001-08:00

It's the beginning of the year and I'm cleaning off some shelves. The first of the lots are up on Ebay so come on down and take them off my hands!

84 Night Goblins (bid here)
There are quite a lot of night goblins here. You could run them as one big horde or break them up into two smaller hordes.

4 Decal Transfer Sheets (bid here)
Do you like decal transfers on your models? I don't, but all the miniatures I buy come with them anyways. My loss is your gain! 3 space marine sheets and one chaos marine sheet.

14 Human Archers (bid here)
I have no idea who makes these miniatures, but they are humans carrying bows. They rank up nicely.
18 Orcs (bid here)
Get some orcs with double hand weapons. The command section is painted, the rest are primed. I have no idea why the orc on the left is glowing but he is! Possible chaos mutation?

If you or someone you love can give these miniatures a good home then head on over to Ebay!

Hobby: End of Year Report

2011-12-30T14:36:00.000-08:00

The year is drawing to a close, and it is unlikely that I'm going to get anymore hobby activities done, even though my Carnivean is only a few hours away from being fully painted.

So here is the final tally:

Models Assembled
Warmachine: Cryx
2 Harrowers
Captain Rengrave

Warmachine: Mercenaries
Thor Steinhammer
Ghordson Basher
Ogrun Bokur
Buccaneer

Hordes: Legion of Everblight
Carnivean
2 Harriers
1 Forsaken
1 Typhon
5 Blighted Ogrun Warspears
1 Blighted Ogrun Warchief
6 Blighted Swordsmen
Blighted Swordsmen Unit Attachment

Warhammer Fantasy: High Elves
20 Lothern Seaguard
5 Swordmasters of Hoeth
1 High Elf Mage
High Elf Dragon w/Rider

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marines
1 Drop Pod

Malifaux
1 Ramos
1 Electrical Creation
3 Steampunk Arachnids
1 Steampunk Arachnid Swarm
1 Steamborg Executioner

Models Painted
Lylyth
4 Shredders

Not listed are the last few miniatures I had painted by Blue Table Painting. I haven't posted pictures of the previous projects I've done with them, but in this case they already did a video of the latest, which means all I have to do is embed the video.

I haven't stopped by the office to pick them up, but I'm excited to get these nice new miniatures on the board.

Review: Letters from Whitechapel

2011-12-14T14:59:00.000-08:00

I finally broke my Fantasy Flight streak and played some Letters from Whitechapel recently. Although Fantasy Flight didn't make it (Italian games publisher Nexus did) the game adheres to the same high quality bar that Fantasy Flight has set for all of their titles. Kudos to Nexus for a compelling and well crafted board game!

The game's setting puts you in late 19th century London during Jack the Ripper's reign of terror. One player takes on the role of Jack, while the other players are tasked with tracking and arresting the notorious killer.

The two sides have different resources available. After the murder, Jack can use carriages and back alleys that he can use to try to get back to his secret base before daybreak. While he's doing this the detectives can move around the board attempting to pick up Jack's trail and arrest him before he returns to his hideout.

The game has a lot of similarities to Fantasy Flight's Fury of Dracula. Each sides has access to a disparate set of abilities and has a distinct win condition. Each game is about one team chasing the other around the board, and the quarry has things they can do to throw his pursuers off. Each game has a high quality board and set of tokens.

And each game is a lot of fun.

Just like Dracula, the person who plays the Ripper in Letters from Whitechapel needs to have the right mindset going in. The player needs to almost be a Roleplaying Game Master. In the game I played it would have been easy for Jack to have simply won by ending the game on the last two turns before the investigators were even able to take an action. So Jack can be a little overpowered in some cases.

But this game is about the chase. It's about Jack's hubris. His belief that he is untouchable by the bumblers from Scotland Yard. In the end, it's about his downfall or ultimate triumph after a series of harrowing close calls. If Jack goes in just trying to win at all costs, he'll likely do so, but some of the magic of Letters from Whitechapel will be lost.

Legion of Everblight Battle Box

2011-09-19T17:47:00.000-07:00

(image used without permission. Copyright Privateer Press)

The Legion of Everblight Battle Box presents some fun challenges for a Hordes Player. You get a lot of beasts but have a warlock with a low fury. I'm going to talk about my experience with the battle box and some of its strengths, weaknesses and strategies.

Let's talk about the contents, taking all the pieces in turn.

Lylyth - Her primal version has a number of abilities that make up for her low fury stat. Blood Lure on her bow means that you can get your beasts to charge for free, Witch Mark means that you should always be shooting enemies with your bow if you want to cast a spell on them and her feat makes everything in your army more accurate. Her last ability, Bushwack, is mainly used to get her out of trouble in the middle or late game. Just remember that you can't get the aiming bonus for giving up your movement and then use Bushwack.
She's got three spells and most of the time she's only going to have enough fury to cast one of them.

Bad Blood - Punishes a player for leaching fury and prevents quite a few of the more useful parts about warbeasts. Since it only affects warbeasts it won't do you any good against an opponent using a warmachine army. The damage from leaching isn't as big a deal in battlebox games since most of the time your opponent will be glad to take the four or five damage for leaching in exchange for turn in which he can cripple or kill you. Still, it makes the game more difficult for your opponent, and every little bit can help, so if you have the extra fury you might as well throw it on something you hit with your bow that turn.
Parasite - Absolutely the best spell in her list. Dramatically lowers an opponents ARM and slightly buffs Lylyth's. Put this on anything that you want to ensure your Carnivean kills. Best is if you can put it on the enemy caster and then upkeep it for the rest of the (probably short) game. You can also use it on one of your shredders the first turn of the game to help keep Lylyth safe from any stray hits.
Eruption of Spines - This is the sneakiest spell in her list. In larger games you'll generally use this to kill off infantry, but in battle box games you can often use it to get some damage on enemy casters hiding behind their warbeasts. Just shoot the low def warbeast, cast Eruption of Spines on it and boost the damage roll when it arcs into the squishy caster behind.

Carnivean - There's not a lot of subtlety to this guy. He has a lot of attacks and hits very hard. His animus is good, and should be used every turn there's even a remote chance that something might hit it. The two extra points of armor will mean it takes your opponent one or two more hits before they can take down the beast down. The only real trick up this guy's sleeve is his ranged spray attack. In combination with his Assault ability, you have a nineteen inch threat radius when you declare a charge and use assault to take your breath attack before your activation ends. The spray hits hard enough that most enemy casters will be in serious trouble from a boosted hit. Remember, too that the spray can hit things that are hiding, so charge assaulting a front line unit to spray something behind it is a possibility.

Shredders - You've get four of these guys. The best way to think about these guys is not as warbeasts, but as a unit of elite solos. Their job is to tie up enemy forces, provide speed bumps and act as bait. They'll have a hard time hurting heavies, but if they gang up they can bring down a light in one turn. Their ideal turn looks like this:

Lylyth shoots something, marking it with Blood Lure.
Shredder activates, forced for one to go rabid.
Charges up to eleven inches to their target. Free charge because of blood lure.
Gets forced for an extra fully boosted attack against its target.

Shredders are fast and beasts generally need to boost to guarantee hits on them. It's usually a good idea to keep one of the four back as a transfer target in case Lylyth takes a hit or two.

The battlebox has two other general rules going for it shared by all models. Everyone has Pathfinder (shredders get it from going rabid) which means terrain isn't going to bother you, and everyone also has eyeless sight, which means that you're going to be able have line of sight on everything unless there's an intervening model or non-forest piece of terrain.

Journeyman League

2011-09-19T13:44:00.000-07:00

The journeyman league is going strong in these parts. I'm a part of it at my local game store and I'm using it as the impetus to get the few legion models I own assembled and painted. I've created a bar at the right to track my progress and to help me visualize my goal.

Week three of the league starts on Thursday. So far I've played 3 games, of which I won two, and painted four little beasts. According to the rules that's only 12 points total, so I don't think I'm in the running for taking home any prizes, but it's all about the journey.

I realize I've been slacking when it comes to updates here at Stone Corridors, so at least for the duration of the league I'll be doing regular posts. Next update will be about my thoughts regarding tactics and strategy for the Legion of Everblight Battle Box.

Terminus as a Front Line Caster: Army Lists

2011-04-07T13:02:00.000-07:00

I've already posted one 35 point list in my previous posts. I'm hanging out with a friend tonight and we are going to play some lower points games so I thought I would tackle the list building portion of my homework. I'm supposed to be building lists keeping the following in mind:

List will include troop options to block avenues of attack to the warcaster.
List will include models with abilities that deny enemy models their ability to move or act.
List will include models with abilities that promote focus efficiency. (See my article on Cryx and focus efficiency).

We'll start with a 15 point list:

Terminus - Of course
Deathjack - This guy is the king of focus efficiency and deadliness. His only downside is that he tends to steal souls that could otherwise go to Terminus. If I owned a Seether model I would switch Deathjack out for that and add a Pistol Wraith to increase my ability to freeze models.
6 Bane Thralls - I love these guys, and they do a good job serving as Terminus' escort.
Warwitch Siren - Not super effective at this points level since she won't be putting focus on deathjack, but her venom attack can come in handy and her shadow bind ability has a good chance to root an opposing warjack/beast for a turn.

For 25 points I would add to the above:

Slayer - Open hands let the slayer lock the weapon systems of opposing jacks. The Warwitch will give this guy the single point of focus he needs in a turn.
Pistol Wraith - Chain Attack: Death Chill roots opposing models and POW:12 shots are a big threat to opposing infantry and solos.

The 25 point list is actually one point under, so you could swap the Bane Thralls for Bane Knights. The knights are more maneuverable thanks to ghostly, but you give up the debuff aura that the thralls provide.

Terminus as a Front Line Caster. Report Card

2011-04-06T15:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I talked about modifying my playstyle to put Terminus up on the front lines. I also had a chance to play a game. Learning without feedback rarely works, so I figured to give myself a grade on my first test.

The game was against an infantry heavy Trollblood list. A big unit of champions, some runeshapers and krielstone bearers, backed up by Madrak, one mauler and a host of solos and unit attachments. It was an interesting list. Lots of activations, lots of medium sized tough models with high armor values.

As a reminder, here is the list I brought:

Lich Lord Terminus
Deathjack
Slayer
Bane Lord Tartarus
6 Bane Thralls
Gorman Di Wulfe
Pistol Wraith
Warwitch Siren
Withershadow Combine.

In yesterday's post I had six things I was supposed to be practicing. Here they are along with how I think I did.

The student will keep their warcaster on the front lines. I did well on this one. Terminus was out front and attacked something every round he could. Once the battle lines met he gathered a soul token every round. However, I still played him a bit timidly, keeping him off the very front line and only engaging with one opposing model at a time. GRADE: B
As much focus as possible should be left on the warcaster. I didn't boost or buy any extra attacks. The warjacks were left to their own devices. Terminus took a bit of damage over the course of the game, but the boosted power field frustrated my opponents attacks. GRADE: A
The warcaster should be activated and moved before troops. Good job here, too. Knowing Terminus' final position informed the movement and attacks of the rest of my army. GRADE: A
The warcaster should take advantage of reach. Terminus kept what he was killing at the edge of his reach. Even had he failed to kill what he attacked the trolls would have had a hard time attacking back. GRADE: A
The student should use the abilities of other models to neutralize the movement and abilities of the opponent's forces. Whoops. I didn't lock any weapons (there was only one opposing beast), but more importantly my warwitch and pistol wraith, who should have been slowing down the opposing force didn't even attack the whole game. No excuses. Just fail. GRADE: F
The player should strive for a feat turn that generates three or more souls. Whoops again. I didn't even use Terminus' feat. There were at least two turns where I could have turned some dead trolls into souls. Those trolls are tough to bring down so maybe not three, but not feating at all is a total failure on my part. GRADE: F

So if we average out our first test I come up with a D+. Those two Fs really hurt my overall grade. Despite winning the match by having Deathjack pounce on Madrak I still almost flunked. I need to keep doing what I'm doing but I have to pay attention to potential feat turns and not be so timid with my toolbox solos.

As a final thought, playing Terminus more aggressively feels really rewarding. Much less like he's a weight my army is hauling around and more like he's the center and the rest is there to support him. Which is how I think it should be.

Terminus as a Front Line Caster

2011-04-05T10:43:00.000-07:00

When I decided to start collecting Cryx I knew right away that my caster of choice was going to be Terminus. The model is huge and imposing. The perfect centerpiece to lead the dragonfather's undead legions. One large order from Blue Table Painting later, and I was in business.

My troubles started when I hit the field. Terminus is great in combat. On my turn he can use his pile of focus to destroy anything that he can reach. This is only fitting for a model as large and imposing as him. The trouble starts on my opponent's turn.

Time and again Terminus would be on the front lines, destroying my opponent's jacks and warbeasts, and time and again he would be destroyed on my opponents turn to a counter charge, often from the opposing warcaster. Terminus was not living up to my expectations. His spell list is fairly weak in terms of offensive and defensive capabilities. I ended up adopting a strategy that had Terminus hanging in the back, passively making my undead warriors tough. While this still worked to a point, it was hardly the playstyle I had been dreaming of. There are a lot of other casters out there that work better when they hang out on the back lines.

So, after reading some articles at Game Over, specifically ones about learning new skills, I've decided to start over and learn how to run Terminus as a front line caster.

Taking a tip from 40K for the New Professional, we'll start by identifying the possible solutions for overcoming the problems I'm having.

Problem: I play Terminus from the back ranks, where his abilities are not put to good use. Putting him into melee makes him extremely vulnerable and often costs me the game through caster kill. Terminus' main capabilities (spray attack, good debuff spell, good melee weapon, his feat, the cull soul ability) are useful chiefly when he is in melee range. On top of that, my imagination has Terminus leading from the front lines, chopping his opponents to pieces and feeding on their souls. None of this is accomplished by keeping Terminus away from the action.
Goal: Devise a set of rules to discover and ingrain strategies for keeping Terminus alive and on the front lines.

In Warmachine there are three core vectors for damage: Melee, Ranged, Magic. To keep Terminus (or really any caster) alive you have to prevent all three vectors. Back-line casters do this by simply keeping a healthy distance between themselves and the enemy. If you are far enough away and keep your army between your caster and the opposing army, it's very difficult for your opponent to apply any damage vectors to your caster. Repeated losses led me to adopt this strategy. Distance isn't a valid option here. I want Terminus on the front lines.

Ranged damage is fairly easy for Terminus to avoid. With his Sacrifical Pawn ability he can just hand off any direct hits to a nearby undead model. Easy enough. He's still vulnerable to blasts though, and about the only thing we can do in that regard is increase our armor. Lacking any spell that does this I don't know of any way to boost his armor other than to camp focus. Getting into melee is another good way of preventing ranged damage. The target in melee penalty is a pretty good defense buff.

Magic attacks are more difficult. Luckily, magic attacks are costly for our opponent to make. They usually take at least two focus just to cast, and usually your opponent will want to boost the damage and possibly the attack. That means we're looking at one or two, maybe three, offensive spells per turn from an opponent. Terminus' only real option is to weather these like a man. Again, boosting his armor with focus is his best bet. Minor strategies would be to include Orin Midwinter to make it more difficult to cast spells, bring along Gorman Di Wulfe to create a cloud effect to block line of sight or boost defense, and use terrain and intervening models to do the same.

The final, and most important, is Melee damage. The only way to avoid this is to reduce, or eliminate entirely, the number of swings your opponent gets. Luckily Cryx has numerous tools for making this happen. First and foremost is troop models. With troops between your caster and the enemy you can avoid being charged. Small based troops are nice because you can use reach to attack over their heads. Medium based troops are nice because they can't be trampled over. By making our opponents give up their move or their action we can prevent getting attacked. Pistol Wraiths can death chill, Warwitch Sirens can shadow bind, jacks can lock systems. Darragh Wrathe also has a nice ability that debuffs enemy MAT, meaning your opponent misses more or wastes focus to ensure the hits.

Of course, keeping Terminus alive isn't the only thing to learn. Equally important is learning how to make Terminus effective in close combat. I think there are a number of things to keep in mind there, but we'll save those for lesson plan two. Here is lesson plan one.

Student will build lists and play games using Lich Lord Terminus. By the end of the lesson the student will have demonstrated an ability to keep his warcaster alive despite being on the front lines of battle.

The student will keep the following in mind when building lists:

List will include troop options to block avenues of attack to the warcaster.
List will include models with abilities that deny enemy models their ability to move or act.
List will include models with abilities that promote focus efficiency. (See my article on Cryx and focus efficiency).

Sample List:

Lich Lord Terminus
Deathjack
Slayer
Bane Lord Tartarus
6 Bane Thralls
Gorman Di Wulfe
Pistol Wraith
Warwitch Siren
Withershadow Combine.

The list has a good number of infantry models. It also has a good number of models with tools to stop the enemy from attacking and to improve focus efficiency.

The student will be mindful of the following skills and disciplines during his games:

The student will keep their warcaster on the front lines. The warcaster will be moved into melee range and will make attacks on any turn where this is possible. If a melee attack is not possible, the warcaster should be moved to make use of a ranged attack.
As much focus as possible should be left on the warcaster in order to prevent damage to the warcaster. The student should avoid boosting and buying extra attacks with his warcaster.
The warcaster should be activated and moved before activating troops, and troops should be moved to block opponents avenues of attack and provide fodder for sacrificial pawn.
When placed in a position to attack, the warcaster should take advantage of reach, staying between half an inch and two inches away from his targets.
The player should use the abilities of other models to neutralize the movement and abilities of the opponent's forces. Using head/weaponlock power attacks is encouraged. These actions should be taken before activating the warcaster so that the danger to the warcaster target can be properly decided.
The player should strive for a feat turn that generates three or more souls on the warcaster.

Tonight is my regular game night. I'm hoping to get a few games in with the above list and try for some front line carnage.

Oh Noes - Deadline Approaching

2011-03-23T14:00:00.000-07:00

The deadline for the 2011 One Page Dungeon contest is April 1. Only eight days away and I didn't even think to see when this year's contest was taking place. My submission last year didn't get me any prizes, but I had a lot of fun putting it together and I was planning on entering this year. This is what I get for not paying attention to the calendar I guess.

So it's time to start brainstorming ideas and break out my favorite graphics program. The WotC Dungeon Tiles Mapper is still active so I'll probably use that for laying out the dungeon again. I think the judges prefer hand drawn maps to maps made with that program, but I think the final product looks better with professionally done graphics.

Last year I did something rooted in fantasy. This year I'm going to go for something different. The steampunk world of Warmachine has me leaning that direction, and I played some Mansions of Madness this weekend which has me thinking about the horror genre. Anyone have any opinions? Horror or Steampunk?

Also, submissions are due April 1. There's still time for anyone to put together a submission. There are 42 prizes and only 24 entries at the moment, so plenty of loot to go around!

Focusing In

2011-03-12T13:31:00.000-08:00

Oh Cryx, how do I love thee. I'd count the ways but that would be much too long of a post. Instead I'll just count one of the ways. An excellent blog post I came across recently talked about identifying the core competencies in your army. The author touches on identifying the things that your army can do better than another army, and while his post is specifically about tyranids in Warhammer 40K, I think this is one of the most important aspects to list building.

The thing that first drew me to Cryx was the look and the models. This is always my first step when choosing an army, and usually my first purchases are simply things that I think look good together on the table. I think it's an important first step for anyone. If you don't think that pushing a few dozen power armored models around the table is interesting then you probably shouldn't be playing a space marine army. If you like the idea of an enormous lich commanding his undead forces while soul-powered metal behemoths stalk across the field collecting the souls of your enemies, then picking up Terminus, Deathjack and some bane units is probably a good place to go.

Unfortunately, as a game that is based around rules and synergies between units, just picking your favorite models isn't a way to guarantee competitiveness on the battlefield. Usually its just the opposite, and as we play with our favorite models we begin to wish that we could also win with our favorite models. This is where we have to start examining our chosen faction to see what really makes it tick.

One of the core rules of Warmachine is the focus mechanic, and a lot of attention is payed to skillfully managing your focus allocation. Focus is the mechanism by which we ensure that the things we need to get accomplished actually happen, and it's a finite resource. One of the things that Cryx does really well is giving you more focus to play with than your opponent, and it does this in a number of different ways.

Soul Tokens. Probably the most obvious Cryx mechanic, and not something seen in too many places outside of the Dragonfather's forces. Collecting a pile of soul tokens can give you a huge boost in the subsequent turn. It's not just limited to the warcaster's of the faction either. There are a number of warjacks and units that can get in on the soul token action, too, saving them up and spending them just like they would focus.
Focus Efficient Jacks. Focus efficiency on warjacks is something that's talked about a lot. It's a term that's applied when a jack is able to freely perform an action that would normally require focus or when it gets an added benefit to using focus. Jacks that can charge and make power attacks for free are focus efficient. The Cygnar Charge can be focus efficient since it only needs one focus to boost it's ranged attack and damage rolls. For Cryx, we have the Seether and it's big brother, Deathjack. Not only can Seether's run and charge for free, but they generate an additional point of focus to boost or buy more attacks. Deathjack doesn't get the free power attacks, but he generates two focus and can even turn that focus into casting spells for your warcaster.
Skarlocks. Speaking of casting spells for your warcaster, the Skarlock can effectively generate three extra focus for your caster. His spell slave ability also allows casting of spells outside of your caster's activation, just like Deathjack. With the right finnagling you can have the same upkeep spell affect four different units during your turn.
Warwitch Sirens. These little ladies help turn any jack into a focus efficient jack. They're great in the early game for getting a free run move out of your battlegroup. They're great with Harrowers since you generally only need the one focus point to boost your ranged attack roll or buy Thresher. A warwitch can shepherd a harrower around, allowing you to operate well outside of your caster's control range.
Withershadow Combine. In addition to collecting souls, the lich trio gives your caster one free upkeep. Even better when you are running two caster since Admonia can upkeep a spell for each of them. The puppet master ability is also very useful, and could be considered a bonus point of focus itself. Oh, and they have a ranged attack that lets them collect souls.

So how do we put this all together? How about this 35 point list:

Witchcoven of Garlghast (+5)
Deathjack (12)
Reaper(7)
Skarlock Thrall (2)
6 Bane Knights (6)
Darragh Wrathe(4)
Warwitch Siren(2)
Warwitch Siren(2)
Withershadow Combine(5)

Boasting one of the highest focus stats in the game, the witchcoven have the highest spellcasting potential anywere when they're in a perfect conjuction. With deathjack, the skarlock, warwitches and withershadow you're looking at up to 8 extra focus every turn for a whopping total of 17, not to mention any souls that Deathjack or the combine manage to generate for themselves. The two warwitches might seem like overkill, but the second one is there to add focus to any 'jacks the withershadows might create from victims the reaper drags in.

Random Works in Progress

2011-01-29T15:13:00.001-08:00

That is all.

Work In Progress: Cryx Harrower

2011-01-13T23:30:00.000-08:00

Oh mama, this guy is a pain. The entry on Battlecollege warns you, but those fifteen parts are deceiving. Put the legs on wrong and he's staring at the sky. The head doesn't seem to fit snugly anywhere. Better get the arms right or else you end up having to point the claws and weapons at odd angles.

Since the four legs are separate, it's hard to predict at exactly what angle you should place them. I recommend attaching the head on first, as this will give you a good reference for how to arrange the legs so that your harrower ends up looking forward. Legs should come next, and you'll have to be sure to put a pin through the leg attachments to hold everything together. Also, the gun is in two pieces and it's a trick to glue it together so there is a fine gap between the upper and lower portions like is shown in the picture. I recommend sliding a small bit of paper folded in half with a strong crease. That seems to give just about the right gap.

Enough whining though. It's a great looking model and I can't wait to get it painted up. I've got another one in an unopened box and I look forward to putting the lessons I learned with this one into use.

I'd love to post a picture of it assembled, but my camera is being cantankerous. If anyone knows how to get a Canon Powershot S330 to work with Windows7 I'd love to hear about it. Otherwise, $10 card reader here I come!

Update: Turned out to be a $20 card reader, but now I can grab pictures from my camera again.

Blue Table Painting Scenario

2011-01-10T17:58:00.000-08:00

Just recently, Blue Table Painting put up a series of four videos on their YouTube channel chronicling an Ork vs. Blood Angel battle. They're currently in the process of putting together a sort of Warhammer retreat up in the mountains of Utah and the video shows off some of the miniatures and terrain they're going to be using for that.

They were trying out a scenario they are working on for the tournament. I think it has promise but needed massaging. I really do enjoy watching their videos even if they do play a bit fast and loose with the rules. Their studio is a constant source of inspiration to me.

There were four main things that came up in the process of playing the scenario.

There were two objectives in each deployment zone, so each side got two of the objectives right off. This is fine, but they might as well not have played with these objectives. It basically made it a five objective game instead of a nine objective game.
They had problems when some objectives were right next to a wall. Do you count as contesting the objective if you're within three inches but on the other side of the wall?
They ended the game and called it a draw, even though one side had been wiped off the table.
Minimal troops choices for one side led to a house rule that any foot infantry could grab an objective. This ended working out fine for them in this specific instance, but isn't very generic.

Below, I present my set of rules for this scenario. I've also genericized it a bit to make the games slightly more random (d6+3 objectives). I can definitely see them wanting to just peg the objective count to nine when they are running the scenario at the event.

Setup.

Place d6+3 objective markers, each mounted on a 30mm or 50mm base.
Each player rolls a d6. Highest die roll decides who places the first objective.
Each objective marker must be further than 20 inches from a short table edge.
Each objective marker must be further than 8 inches from another objective.
Objectives may not be placed in impassable terrain.

Deployment

Determine who goes first as described in the WH40K rulebook.
Instead of choosing a long table edge, the winner of the roll chooses a short table edge.
Each player's deployment zone extends 15" from their short table edge.

Scoring

You control an objective if you have a troops choice model in base to base contact with one of the objectives.
Models who are fleeing, pinned or who are part of units that are engaged in close combat cannot control objectives.
Starting on the second turn, at the end of your opponents turn, remove any objectives that you control from the board. You score one victory point for each of these objectives.
A unit may only control one objective at a time. If models in a unit are touching more than one objective, the controlling player must declare which objective they are controlling after the model comes into base contact with the objective.

Ending the Game.

Game ends per the rules in the WH40K rulebook. The winner is the player with the most victory points.
Player automatically loses when the last of his models are destroyed.

I think this solves some of the problems they were having, and makes the scenario playable for all comers. Let's go over some of the decisions I made.

Putting the objectives further than 20 inches from the short table edges means each objective is important, not just the five that end up in the center. It keeps objectives from being nabbed by troops on the first turn except perhaps scouts and first turn deep strikers. Simply waiting until the second turn to start getting victory points gives slower armies (or demons) a chance. Keeping them 8 inches away from each other at least gives lip service to forcing players to move once they've taken one objective, although in practice eight inches isn't all that far. I originally wanted to do twelve inches, but the possibility of nine objectives in a 48x32 could have led to some objectives being impossible to place.
The objective markers in the videos were quite large. Specifying base to base contact solves the wall problem. If you want to get your opponent off an objective, you've got to get in there.
Remember kids, if you table your opponent, you automatically win. This is an important rule, even aside from the sense it seems to make. In objective games, especially ones with random turn length, it is very tempting for a player to send a unit on a suicide run to nab or steal an objective. The tabling rule leaves the option open to do this but makes it carry a certain amonut of risk. Just throwing away fast units in order to claim all the objectives early in the game could leave you vulnerable to being tabled by your opponent. If you're going to attempt such a strategy you have to think it through and time it right.
Army composition is part of the game. The Blood Angels player in this game decided to go with an elite and HQ heavy force. This is a perfectly valid option for building an army. It's a gross killing machine full of power and artificer armored death dealing maniacs. It's great in kill points, but for objective games it's at an appropriate disadvantage. Sure, we'd all like to run armies with two scout squads and maxed out terminators with thunderhammers led by Marneus and Pedro Kantor. And you can. But it's going to be an uphill battle to claim objectives. That's why the rulebook only allows troops to claim objectives. Ideally, it leads to more balanced army composition.

Tomorrow is game night, and if Snowmageddon stays away I might have a chance to test this scenario out. Looking forward to it, and special thanks to Blue Table Painting for inspiring this article.

Campaigning 2011

2011-01-05T18:51:00.000-08:00

I've started brainstorming a new two-player narrative campaign.

It will be a sort of map-based campaign, using a lightweight system on top of the normal 40K rules to give two players a framework for some narrative. I'm hoping to get a buddy of mine involved. He's got some orcs and chaos that would make great opponents versus my Imperial Guard and Deathwing.

The picture at the right is a rough sketch of the map that the campaign will be based around. I've already got most of the rules made up, just need to get some real graphics down and polish up the rules in my head before giving it a test run.

Clever Girl...

2010-12-18T19:58:00.000-08:00

Now that I've got mine ordered, I don't mind sharing with all of you the awesome new sculpt from Studio McVey. Holy wow does that look great. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to have it. The same for two of my friends. We immidiately put in an order for three of them.

I know my skills aren't at the level where my model will end up looking as good as the studio paintjob, but I can't wait to get my hands on her.

You can get your own at the Studio McVey Store, but hurry. After the first run in resin the model will only be available in lower quality metal. The resin run is limited to 750 copies, and I've already claimed mine.

Hordes Wishlisting: Goats!

2010-10-07T15:56:00.000-07:00

My regular gaming group has been playing a bunch of Warmachine, and a couple people are starting to dip their toes into Hordes. Two people are starting up Circle of Orboros armies. One is going straight Wolves with eKaya leading the charge. The other has made a completely different army using Baldur and Woldwardens.

It's intriguing to me that two armies drawn from the same list can play and look so different. 40K suffers a bit in this respect. The endless procession of power armor armies and mechanized guard gets a little boring after a while. True, there are exceptions.

I actually own some Legion of Everblight models that I've never put together. But the focus by my group on Orboros got me looking at what they had to offer. That's when I discovered this grumpy looking fellow. I love that sculpt.

Turns out there are quite a few goat looking models in the Orboros line. I thought I'd try to put together a goat-themed army. The idea is to have a shepherd(ess) and her flock of goats. No wolves, no rocks tied to stones, just a simple shepherd tending his flock. I figured I'd see what a 15 point force would look like. I pointed it up trying to make an army that's tactically flexible (has more than just three units in it), cheap (won't break the bank to purchase) and easy to paint (the fewer models to paint the better).

Kaya, the Wildborne - My warlock. A simple shepherdess character. She's an unassuming model, but her spells, powers and feats support a force with lots of warbeasts, which will make expanding the army fun. An all goat army could have been led by Kromac, but he's harder to use, doesn't offer as many warbeast points, and his spells don't synergize as well with the Satyr's abilities. Also his models are expensive and I would have to paint two models for one unit in my force.
Gnarlhorn Satyr - Heavy warbeast. That's my boy! Great looking model. Heavy hitter. As long as he's in Kaya's control group her Pack Hunter ability gives him a bonus to attack rolls, making his slams and fists hit more often, leaving more fury for buying extra attacks.
Argus - Light warbeast. Every shepherdess needs a dog to help guide the herd. He's got a nice debuff, a medium sized base to block charge and trample lanes and most importantly he has a good fury stat to help keep Kaya's spellcasting and other abilities constantly running. I could have added another Gnarlhorn Satyr here, but that would leave me with few leftover points and a very low model count. In small point games its important to have some extra models on the table to grab objectives and tie up the enemie's heavy hitters.
Tharn Ravagers - 4 man unit. Goat men! Medium bases mean they can't be trampled. Reach, Pathfinder and Treewalker mean they have a great threat range. Standard warrior defense and eight damage boxes mean most things will have to boost attack rolls to guarantee a hit, and everything but a heavy will have to boost damage rolls to guarantee a kill. This is a unit to support tactical play.
Tharn Ravager White Mane - Solo Goat - All the benefits of the Tharn Ravagers and then some. He can tear through any infantry your opponent throws at you and he boosts the Tharn Ravagers. This guy and the regular Ravagers can be used to choke up charge lanes or they can operate independently to wrap come in on a flank.

So that would be 8 models to paint. From The War Store you would spend about $115 for the models if you bought the epic version of Kaya. This would give you some flexibility to change your play style by switching out your warlock. Alternatively you could get the warpack with the non-epic version of Kaya for just ten dollars more. This has the benefit of giving you an extra Argus and Warpwolf for when you want to make the jump to the next points level. I'd probably try to sell or trade the wolf to get another goat.

Scorched Earth

2010-06-25T15:18:00.000-07:00

I gave a report on two of the last three games I played. Now for a quick rundown of the final game.

Since we'd already done Pillage, we rolled off between Black Crusade and Scorched Earth. with the result coming up in favor of burning. We played the game at 1500 points and I was the attacker.

My list: Abaddon, a squad of thousand sons, a squad of marines, a squad of chosen with plasma guns in a rhino, 6 lesser demons, a defiler and a possessed land raider.

Opposing side: Abaddon, Slaanesh demon prince with lash, a squad of berserkers, a squad of plague marines in a rhino, a defiler, a land raider, and 3 obliterators.

So it was a fight between two of Abaddon's clones on a blasted and burning battlefield. We placed three objectives then rolled for all the terrain to see what was on fire. Most things came up as smoking, but a few came up burning turning the ground surrounding one objective into dangerous terrain.

I opened cautiosly, moving my defiler into a firing solution on his plague marine rhino, and between it and the land raider managing to stun it. My thousand sons slogged it out of my deployment zone on their way to one of the objectives. For his part, my opponent adjusted positioning and moved the prince up to lash the thousand sons into close combat. No shots were fired, my opponent forgetting that all area terrain blocked line of sight through it. The prince took a couple of wounds and killed a few thousand sons and all remained locked in combat.

Second turn brought a concentrated effort by both parties to put some hurt down. My land raider moved for a firing position on the plague marine rhino, this time destroying it, while the defiler moved close to an objective but failed to hurt anything. The thousand sons took a couple wounds but the sorceror with force weapon finished off the prince, freeing them from close combat. They may not seem like much on paper, but thousand sons are brutal in close combat versus anyone who expects to be ignoring armor saves.

Third turn it was time to stop jockeying and get to grips. My Abaddon's land raider plowed to the center of the table. Abaddon jumped out and along with my defiler piled onto his defiler. My defiler exploded and his lost an arm and got stunned. His plague marines jumped out and started making their way to the same objective as my thousand sons. A showdown was brewing there. In his close combat phase Abaddon brought down the defiler, which exploded and put a wound on Abaddon.

Fourth turn. My Abaddon charged into his obliterators, killing two. My lesser demons warped in and ran towards a far objective and the chosen came in on their rhino and poured some fire into the plague marines who were now trapped between the thousand sons and my chosen. Not that they were worried, they just charged the thousand sons, killing a couple more. In the center the opposing Abaddon jumped out of his land raider and came after my Abaddon. There could be only one. Both Abaddons pounded away at each other, but nothing was decided.

Until the fifth turn, when my Abaddon went down under a savage flurry of blows. My lesser demons consolidated their objective and my chosen charged in to help the thousand sons. Both my squads were ineffective, however, with the plague marines winning combat, the chosen running away and the thousand sons losing one more man to fearless armor saves. The bottom of the turn saw my opponent's land raider moving up, immobilizing my land raider, but not quite getting close enough that he could disgorge the berserkers to contest the objective being held by my lesser demons.

With a roll of the dice the game was over with a win for me, although if it had gone on any longer I would have been hard pressed to retain ownership of the objectives I was holding.

The mission played out a lot better than I thought it would. I'm personally a bit critical of the Battle Missions book since most of the missions are extremely subtle tweaks to the game. In this case, making all the area terrain block line of sight through it made the game feel very much like fourth edition again. We were both cat and mousing around behind area terrain, using ruins and forests to our advantage. Very fun!

Kill Teams and Battle Missions

2010-06-23T17:23:00.000-07:00

A buddy and I played a few scenarios from the Battle Missions book recently. I know that battle missions is pretty much old news at this point, but I wanted to give my impression after actually having played.

We both brought our chaos armies for the evening. Starting off with Kill Teams we plunked our minis down and went at it. I brought a handful of chaos marines with a rhino and an icon, and threw in another handful of summoned lesser demons. On the opposing side was a squad of plague marines with a plasma gun and melta gun.

I was pretty brutally mauled in this game. I managed to keep my guys shooting, and got some two vs. one assaults but in the end the survivability of the plague marines was my downfall. Because Kill Teams is lost by having half your army destroyed, I was banking on having a healthy number of models. Turns out eleven is still not a healthy number. I would have been better off bringing a few special weapons so I could capitalize on the instances where I had a clear shot on one of his guys. In a scenario that revolves around whittling your opponent away, I just wasn't survivable or killy enough.

Fun game though. It played a bit like War Machine without the casters. Very few units moving around and everyone counts.

Next game we played 500 points and since we were both Chaos, we diced off to see who would be the attacker and then rolled a d3 to pick a chaos mission from the book. I came up as defender on the Pillage Mission.

Our army lists started off similarly. We both had flying daemon princes with the mark of Khorne. Demon princes fulfill a lot of roles in a low point game and the khorne prince is one of the cheapest. Following his prince, my opponent had a squad of plague marines and a unit of berserkers in a rhino. My prince brought along two small squads of chaos marines, one on foot and one with a plasma gun in a rhino. Also a defiler.

The game started slow with his berserkers moving up and his plague marines camping the objective closest to his deployment zone in order to rack up some early VPs. His prince moved towards the center where he'd be able to support his flanks. For my part I moved my rhino up a bit and a hail of bolter fire and a couple of well placed plasma shots took out a good chunk of the plague marine squad. The other space marine squad assaulted the berserker's rhino, planting krak grenades and stunning it.

Continuing on the plague marines stood steady on their objective, ensuring more points. The opposing khorne prince bopped over to tear the tracks off my rhino, while his berserkers piled out and attacked my demon prince, putting two wounds on him but losing most of their number in return. On my turn the defiler showed up and tried to fleet close enough to the berserker rhino that it would be able to use it to get some extra movement on the charge but fell just short. The chaos marines piled out of their soon to be destroyed rhino and put some rounds into the demon prince causing a couple of wounds.

The rest of the battle was simply a series of moves and counter moves. The defiler moved onto my objective with the chaos marines surrounding it for protection. His demon prince killed the chaos marines with the plasma gun. My demon prince killed his plague marines. The culmination of the battle was his demon prince bellowing to khorne and assaulting mine. They pummeled each other across two rounds of combat until they simultaneously sent each other back to the warp.

With his entire army gone the final result was a victory for me.

Campaign Battle Report: Road to Glory Final Battle

2010-04-02T17:10:00.001-07:00

It was end times. One final battle remained to determine the ruler of the wasteland. The Ork horde had finally slowed chaos' seemingly relentless advance. Now chaos was regrouping and the Orks were poised to take advantage of their momentary confusion.

Chaos Army List

Abaddon (275)
Tzeentch Demon Prince with wings, warptime and wind of chaos (205)
Marines in Rhino
Thousand Sons
Defiler (150)
Land Raider

Ork Army List

Wazdakka (180)
Warboss with mega-armor, cybork, bosspole, attack squiq (130)
20 Boyz led by nob with power-klaw and bosspole (160)
Trukk with red paint (50)
Battle Wagon with deff rolla, armor plates, red paint, big shoota and grott riggers (135)
5 Mega Nobz (200)
5 Nob Bikerz with 3 power-klaws, a painboy, waagh banner, 2 stikk bombs and all Cybork (371)
7 Lootas (105)
5 Deffkoptas (175)

Setup
The final battle of the Road to Glory campaign is Annihilation. Winning the last battle meant that the Orks were able to choose Pitched Battle as the deployment type. Chaos won the dice-off and chose to deploy first and take the first turn.

Turn 1
Chaos started out with a bang and a kerunch. The only movement came from the defiler edging closer to the center of the board. Masssed lascannon fire destroyed the trukk and the defiler's battlecannon landed square on the lootas in cover, killing a couple. On the ork turn, everything moved forward as fast as it could, except the lootaz who stayed in their trees, taking pot shots at the rhino. Wazdakka shot his fancy gun and managed to immoblize the defiler.

Turn 2
The chaos land raider moved back just enough to to stay out of deff-rolla range. The demon prince started to move towards the rhino in anticipation of providing counter-charge support. Chaos shooting results were slim, but a couple of bikes and a deffkopta bit the dust. The orks continued their rush forward, and the lootaz managed to put a wound on the demon prince in the shooting phase.

Turn 3
Now the battle was truly on. The land raider rolled forward and Abaddon and the Thousand Sons got out. The demon prince joined them, and together they shot up, assaulted and killed all the meganobz and their warboss. On their turn, the orks responded in kind. The lootaz and bikes shot at Abaddon, the boyz got out of the wagon and assaulted the thousand sons just as the battlewagon rammed the land raider, destroying it and catching five ork boyz in the ensuing explosion. By the end of the assault round, all the Thousand Sons were dead, and Abaddon had fallen to Wazdakka and the bike nobz in assault.

Turn 4
Looking to put the balance back in their favor, the chaos marines piled out of their rhino and assaulted the boyz, killing all but one and the nob. Struck by a bout of insane heroism, the orks stood refused to flee. The Defiler dropped it's battlecannon shell on top of the deffkoptaz, killing two. The demon prince hopped over to the battlewagon and put some hits on it, but didn't manage to do anything more than keep it from shooting the next turn. Still this was enough, because as the battlewagon turned to come about it managed to immobilize itself on the remains of the land raider, making it easy for the demon prince to finish it off in the close combat phase. Wazdakka and the bikerz came to the assistance of the boyz, leaving just two chaos marines fleeing towards the table edge.

Turn 5
With only a few assets left, chaos was looking to pick up whatever victory points it could. The rhino moved away from it's perch, and shot up the remaining nob and ork, scoring one victory point there. The demon prince launched itself at the deffkoptas, killing the last two in close combat. Finally it was down to the ork turn. With a two point deficit they needed to kill at least two of the three remaining chaos units without giving anything up in the close combat phase. Wazdakka zipped over to the defiler and used his great shooty gun to reduce the demon engine to scrap. Then it was up to the lootas to put their meager five shots into the demon prince. When the rattling dakka was finally over the smoke cleared, revealing the demone prince had failed its armor saves and been banished back to the warp.

With a roll of a die the campaign was over. Final score was 6 kill points for the orks and 6 kill points for chaos.

Final Thoughts
What a blast. Really I don't think it could have come out better than it did. In all the campaign was a good time and I recommend everyone crack open their big rulebooks and give it a shot.

Campaign Battle Report: Road to Glory Battle 4

2010-03-23T14:53:00.000-07:00

With Mission 5 of the Road to Glory campaign coming up soon it's high time I got the battle report for mission 4 done. By the book battle 4 is called "Beginning of the End," but in this case it might more appropriate to call it "Turning of the Tide." In this engagement, each side is trying to gain the upper hand in preparation for the final showdown.

The Chaos army list was in this post.

Ork Army List

Ghazghkull Thrakka (225)
Warboss with warbike, cybork, power-klaw and bosspole (140)
20 Boyz led by a nob with power-klaw and bosspole (160)
Trukk (35)
Battle Wagon with deff-rolla (110)
5 Mega Nobz (200)
5 Nob Bikerz with 2 power-klaws (275)
7 Lootas (105)

Setup
The Mission was Capture and Control with Spearhead Deployment. The sneaky orks placed landmines around the battlefield. Chaos won the die roll for choosing first turn and decided to take the initiative this battle.

Turn 1
Chaos' first turn sees a little bit of jockeying for position, but not much overall advancement. Everything that could shoot unloaded on the orks and managed to destroy the trukk and kill a nob biker. The orks mostly moved in their phase, rushing forwards to come to grips with the marauding chaos marines. The lootaz bounced their shots off the defiler and the footslogging meganobz jumped into a crater in front of them.

Turn 2
Chaos brought the fight to the enemy this turn. The defiler and chaos marines shot at and assaulted the nob bikerz, killing a couple, losing a few in return, and ending the assault with a tie. The big disappointment was Abaddon jumping out of his land raider and assaulting the battlewagon. Zero attacks from the big guy and the battlewagon was set for deff-rolla action in the ork turn. The meganobz piled out of their crater and joined the bikerz in close combat. The boyz jumped out of the trukk and gave the evil eye to Abaddon. The battlewagon surged forward, slamming its deff-rolla into the land raider, tearing off a couple of weapons and immobilizing it. At the end of the shooting and assault phase all the chaos marines were dead, the defiler was destroyed, and Abaddon had taken a couple of wounds and given nothing in return, being too busy wrestling with his sword's bound demon.

Turn 3
The chaos bikers siezed the opportunity to meltagun the battlewagon, wrecking it for good. The rhino moved in an attempt to block the chaos bikers from being assaulted by the meganobz. Abaddon finally gets his sword under control and kills a fistful of boyz, but they still have numbers enough to be fearless. In the ork turn the lootaz shoot the chaos bikers, leaving naught but spinning tires and broken ceramite. This left the meganobz to assault the rhino, tearing off its bolter and leaving it immobilized. Abaddon killed another fistful of orks but they stood strong and the embedded nob managed to take off one more of abaddon's wounds.

Turn 4
Seeing the end in sight, the Thousand Sons left the land raider and began their movement towards the objective in the chaos deployment zone. The rhino managed to repair itself. If the Thousand Sons could make it to their objective and Abaddon and the rhino could keep the bikes and meganobz busy chaos might be able to pull out a win. In the assault phase, Abaddon finally managed to kill enough boyz to rout them. In their turn, the orks press their advantage. The bikerz finished off the immobilized land raider and the meganobz destroyed the rhino once and for all.

Turn 5
Abaddon muscled his way through the intertwined wreckage of the land raider and battlewagon, emerging on the other side to rush into an assault on the nob bikerz. The Thousand Sons moved and ran, trying to put distance between themselves and the orks hot on their trail. The assault phase went to the orks, with all of Abaddon's attacks either missing or bouncing off their cybork bodies and a host of power klaws removing the last wound from the chosen of the chaos gods. In the ork turn there was little left to do except kill the remaining Thousand Sons in a combined biker and meganob assault.

With all the forces of chaos destroyed, the Orks are declared the winner.

Final Thoughts
See. Abaddon isn' t so tough after all. A big squad of boyz is a huge tarpit for a lone model to get through. Chaos' mistake was not having a support unit to take some of the pressure off their general. The orks capitalized on this by throwing away a cheap unit as a tarpit and applying the rest of their force against a smaller portion of the chaos army, slowly chewing through them in bite-sized morsels.

Here's the campaign map at the end of battle 4.

Campaign Battle Report: Road to Glory Battle 3

2010-03-22T11:53:00.001-07:00

The third battle in the Roady to Glory campaign is supposed to represent the attacker's attempt to break through the defender's front lines. In probably the shortest battle report I have ever written, here are the results.

The chaos army list can be found in this post.

Ork Army List

Warboss with mega-armor, cybork and power klaw (135)
Warboss with warbike, cybork and power klaw (135)
20 Boyz led by nob with power klaw and bosspole (160)
Trukk (35)
Battle Wagon with deff-rolla (110)
5 Mega Nobz (200)
5 Nob Bikerz (225)

Setup
The game was Capture and Control with Pitched Battle deployment. As the winner of the last game, chaos was able to decide that the orks got the first turn.

Turn 1
The orks gave it everything they had. Abandoning their defence lines, they raced forward to get to grips with the chaos interlopers as quickly as possible. Chaos rose to the challenge on their turn. Everyone got out of the land raider, which focused all it's armament on the trukk, destroying it. After the Thousand sons poured fire into the bikerz, Abaddon and the defiler charged into them. One quick but vicious assault round later, some bikerz and the warboss were dead, and the defiler had exploded. Fearing the continued attentions of Abaddon, the bikerz fled.

Turn 2
The battlewagon raced forward to get its boyz into combat, but with a loud ker-chunk, immobilized itself on a piece of terrain. The boyz piled out anyways and sort of jogged towards the melee in the middle. Seeing Abaddon standing out in the open all alone, the meganobz shot at and assaulted him. Luck was not on their side and Abaddon handily won that combat as well, killing the warboss and sending the one surviving nob fleeing for his life. In the chaos turn, the rhino moved towards an objective, but it turned out to be unnecessary. The Thousand Sons and Abaddon shot down a few boyz, then Abaddon charged in, killed half of the remainder and sent the rest fleeing.

With all the orks units fleeing from the table with no chance of rallying, we called the game. Chaos Wins.

Final Thoughts
Abaddon cleaned up. This strikeds a chord with a post on From the Warp about the unbalancing power of some special characters in games. Abaddon certainly unbalanced this game, but as we'll see in Battle 4, there are things that an opponent can do, even in lower point games, to deal with overpowered characters.

Road To Glory: Army Lists for Battles 3 and 4

2010-03-16T13:50:00.001-07:00

Tonight we get down and dirty with Missions 3 of the Road to Glory campaign. If we have time we're going to attempt to do mission 4 as well.

Here are the army lists I'll be using.

Abaddon (275)
5 Chaos Marines in a rhino champion with power fist (150)
5 Thousand Sons & Sorceror with doombolt (185)
Defiler (150)
Land Raider possessed (240)

Both missions are objective based, and I'm going a little bit light on scoring units. Compared to last week I'm a bit more mobile and everything has an armored shell around it. This could be good or bad since I'm sure the ork mechaniks have been hard at work fitting deffrollas to everything. Abaddon and the thousand sons are tasked with bringing the pain and securing a remote objective. The chaos marines will secure their own objective and act as a delaying force/bait. The Defiler is in charge of objective denial and artillery.

If we have time we're going to go on and play the fourth mission. Here's the list I'll be using for that.

Same as above (1000)
3 Bikes champion with power fist and two meltas (159)
5 more chaos marines and plasma gun (90)

Same objectives as the first list. The addition of the bikes will give me some fast anti vehicle, allow me to contest late in the game or finish off a unit in assault.

Campaign Battle Report: Road to Glory Battle 2

2010-03-15T12:55:00.001-07:00

The second battle in the Road to Glory campaign is the battle to determine who is the attacker and who is the defender. It's also the first battle that has an effect on the next battle. Chaos and Orks were both taking this seriously and bringing their game face.

For those of you just joining us, here's the initial post on the campaign (including the chaos army list used), the battle report for mission 1 and the ork writeup.

I've also updated the campaign map to the right. Warning that it contains spoilers regarding the battle report below.

Ork Army List

Warboss mega armor and boss pole (105)
4 Mega-Nobz with a deff rolla battle wagon (270)
12 Boyz in a trukk with a nob carrying a power-klaw and boss-pole (147)
5 Nob Bikerz (225)

Setup

Mission two was Capture and Control with Dawn of War deployment. We used the same board setup as the first mission. This time we had an objective in my deployment zone on the left flank and one on the right in the ork deployment zone. The bold orks deployed in the center and sneaky chaos refused to deploy anything.

Turn 1

The meganobz in battlewagon took off for the objective on the left flank and the trukk hung out in the center waiting for the chaos forces to arrive. The nob bikerz entered the board and moved up behind the trukk. In the chaos turn, everything came in on the right flank, with the defiler more towards the center and the prince and rhino on the right. The rhino popped smoke and the defiler bounced some rounds off the trukk. The thousand sons stayed off board, biding their time.

Turn 2

The ork battlewagon made it to the left flank objective and everyone inside settled in for a nice long lurk. The trukk popped over to the right flank, the boyz piled out, declaredwaaugh and ran. Not quite far enough to get to the demon prince. They did get to the rhino but nothing managed to damage it. The bikerz turbo boosted, lurking menacingly while watching the action. In the chaos turn the demon prince and marines in rhino ignored the boyz and rolled up on the bikerz, shooting and assaulting them, but not killing them all. The defiler walked up a hill and poured hot promethium and autocannon rounds into the boyz squad, killing everyone except the nob. The thousand sons stayed off board, biding their time.

Turn 3

In the ork turn the trukk retreated, setting up for late game objective contention. The last biker held out against the demon prince, keeping him locked in combat for the chaos turn. The meganobz turned on the battlewagon television, continuing to lurk in the trees by their objective. The lone nob is forgotten and unloved. In the chaos turn the prince and marines finally brought down the last biker. The marines consolidated towards the trukk and the prince started to move to the left flank.. The defiler also turned its attention towards the left flank, and knowing that it had a ways to go, started running. The thousand sons stayed off board, biding their time.

Turn 4

The trukk continued to lurk, looking for a position far enough away from the demon prince. The television turned out to be boring so the meganobz disembarked hoping to find something interesting to do near their objective. The lone nob remained forgotten and unloved. The chaos marines downed the trukk with concentrated plasma fire, sending it careening into a nearby forest where it exploded. The rest of the chaos forces moved as fast as possible towards the left flank where the thousand sons finally made their triumphant appearance.

Turn 5

The battlewagon tank shocks the thousand sons, crushing two under its deffrolla. The lone nob got remembered and manages to assault the chaos marines, pulling them away from their objective. The chaos marines fail to kill him in the ork turn, but do finish him off in the chaos turn, although they are unable to consolidate far enough to grab their objective. The thousand sons advanced and the demon prince moved up to contest the meganob held objective.

At the end of turn five no one has an uncontested objective. We roll for the end of game and it's over. Tie! Which is boring. So...

Turn 6

The battlewagon hit the demon prince with its deffrolla who met it head on with a death or glory attack. The battlewagon exploded but the prince took some wounds in the process. The meganobz danced and hooted when they finished him off with their shootas. In the chaos turn the marines finally got to their objective, the thousand sons ran to contest the meganob objective with the rhino in hot pursuit. The defiler assaulted the meganobz and smashed the warboss to paste before being pulled down by massed powerklaws.

With the right flank objective firmly under chaos control and the left flank objective in hot contention we ended the game with chaos winning, one objective to zero. Chaos has been declared the attacker for the Road to Glory campaign. They'll also get to choose who goes first in the next battle.

Final Thoughts

Deffrollas are probably nastier against vehicle armies. But against armored troops d6 S10 AP- hits isn't so bad. Sure it's S10 but if you've got 3+ armor you're not going to get too hurt. As for the current "controversy," I don't think it's unfair for the orks to have deffrollas as anti-vehicle. The ork codex doesn't have melta and most of its long range shooting is low powered. As an ork it's hard to get the S9 or S10 attacks that you need to nuke a land raider.

I'm enjoying making the map. The overall layout is similar to the campaign map in the main rulebook, but I've started from scratch using Inkscape. I've been drawing inspiration from the Battle Missions book for ways to better the map's look and feel.

Stay tuned! The next stage in the campaign should be played out tomorrow evening.

Battle Report: Road to Glory Battle 1 - Orks

2010-03-13T16:41:00.000-08:00

My orky opponent for the Road to Glory Campaign was kind enough to do a writeup of the first battle as seen from his side of the table. I think it's important to analyze the battles you lose even more than the battles you win. It's also interesting for me to see what my opponent's plan was and what they think the major turning points in the battle were.

So without further ado, here's the message of the day from the orks.

Pre-Battle Thoughts

My plan was to have superior mobility and use that to mass my forces on the enemy’s flank. In a 500 point game, if you can kill even one unit without many losses to yourself, that can stack things against your opponent in a way that’s very hard to fight back from. I ended up deploying first and was able to put my entire army on, despite Dawn of War deployment restrictions. I placed everything in the center, as close to the opposing table edge as possible. My vehicles were close enough for the opponent to be able to walk on and shoot at them, but Mega-Nobz and a 12-man Boyz unit would not make it across the board if they were forced to walk from further away, so I just hoped that the Battle-Wagon at least would resist the first turn salvo. After that, rush toward whatever’s toughest, kill it early and hope that my opponent has a harder time whittling away my forces without their ace unit.

Then the battle happened.

Post-Battle Thoughts

Drat. Both vehicles were stunned on the first turn; no moving or shooting, so my slow-and-purposeful Mega-Nobz and small Boyz mob would have to walk from the half-way point. Fortunately, it was turn two so the waaagh helped me get some of them across. I prioritized the Daemon Prince because of its deadliness and mobility. I did manage to kill it, though my Boyz were also killed. With just Mega-Nobz left, chaos had no problem out-pacing me. The Mega-Nobz did survive a lot of shooting, but this wasn’t a kill-point game. I think if I was to summarize my mistakes, it would be that I was trying to play a 500 pt Objectives match as though it were 1500 pts. With so few units, running away or at least keeping 50% of my forces back should’ve ranked higher on my battle strategy list. Instead I attacked like an Ork ought to, and the Chaos Space Marines were all-too-ready.

Battle Report: Road to Glory Battle 1

2010-03-11T13:20:00.000-08:00

My buddy and I started off the Road to Glory campaign this week. You can see the campaign map and chaos army list in the initial post.

The first battle was a hard fought mission with lots of jockeying for position.

First the ork army list:

Warboss in mega-armor (100)
4 Mega-Nobz with Battle Wagon (250)
12 Boyz in a trukk with a nob carrying a power-klaw and boss-pole (147)

Setup

We set up a nice looking board with some snowy terrain and forests. The mission was seize ground and we ended up with three objectives. One was placed one near the center and the other two ended up on the left flank. The orks deployed everything in their transports in the center of the table and chaos declined to deploy anything.

Turn 1

The orks advanced full speed into the chaos deployment zone but with the enemy nowhere in sight had nothing else to do. The chaos defiler came in on the right and the rest of the army piled in on the left. The chaos marines on foot opened fire at the trukk, stunning it, and the defiler leveled it's autocannon at the battlewagon, leaving it stunned as well. The picture shows the disposition of forces and objectives at the end of turn two. Not shown is the defiler just out of frame on the right.

Turn 2

The warboss and meganobz abandoned the stunned battlewagon and began a long footslog across the board to the left flank. Similarly, the boyz abandoned their trukk, shout out a mighty waaugh and rush the demon prince and rhino. Having made a full move the previous turn, the rhino was safe, but the demon prince ended up taking some wounds and killing of a couple boyz. In the chaos turn both marine squads joined the demon prince against the hapless ork boyz. Between them they managed to beat the greenskins and catch them in a sweeping advance but not before the nob took the last wound off the demon prince. The picture shows the left flank at the end of turn two.

Turn 3

The warboss and meganobz continued towards the action on the left flank and the trukk moved to try to box in the rhino and keep the left flank objective contested. One of the space marine squads piled into the rhino which high tailed it through a forest. The second squad shifted into cover near the objective and shot up the trukk, destroying it. Over on the right flank the defiler began to chase after the meganobz, shooting at them but missing.

Turn 4

The meganobz continued their slow and purposeful advance. The defiler charged the forgotten and unloved battlewagon, handily destroying it. The rhino and marine squads secured the left flank objective in the ork deployment zone. The other space marine squad poured fire into the meganobz but only managed one wound.

Turn 5

Huffing and puffing from exertion, the meganobz finally reached the left objective and sat down for a rest. Fearing that the game would end in a tie, the chaos marines near them charged, drawing the orks away from the objective. By the end of the assault only one marine was left, but this was enough to force the meganobz to pile in even further away from their objective.

A final die roll decided the game was over on turn five and chaos won, one objective to zero.

Final Thoughts

Meganobz are tough nuts to crack in a low point game. Despite lots of shooting I didn't kill a single one. Instead, I had to use luring and containment to keep them ineffective for most of the game. As for the plan I laid out in the first post, some things worked and some didn't. The rhino with marines grabbed an objective in the back like I had planned, but the demon prince didn't really get to choose his own target. This was my fault for getting him an inch or so too close to the trukk. The defiler didn't end up being a major player, either. His task was to camp an objective and provide fire support but there were very few objectives and not many targets suitable for a battle cannon. If the game had ended up going longer the defiler would have come back into play on turn six or seven by contesting the meganob objective.

The other thing is Dawn of War deployment seems to do a role reversal, putting whoever goes first on the defensive. When you have the second turn there's little incentive to start with anything on the board. Denying your opponent an entire round of shooting, taking away any chance of a turn one assault, and being able to choose your initial deployment after seeing how your opponent is situated are very valuable advantages that I have a hard time giving up.

Stay tuned for the results of mission 2 and an updated campaign map.

Campaign: Road to Glory

2010-03-09T12:54:00.001-08:00

Tonight marks the beginning of the Road to Glory campaign with Orks taking on Chaos. The two armies have been staring at each other across no man's land for some time now and soon one side will be making a push to bring this confrontation to an end. I've started a campaign map to chronicle events. We plan on playing the first two battles tonight so those are already on the map (I realized today that I mislabeled the second battle). Depending on the outcome I'll add in ork and chaos symbols, and maybe switch the arrow colors depending on who ends up the attacker.

We're playing the campaign escalation style starting at 500 points and increasing by 250 each game. Here's the chaos army list for the first battle:

Demon Prince wings, khorne (140)
5 Chaos Space Marines plasma gun (90)
5 Chaos Space Marines flamer, rhino w/extra bolter (120)
Defiler (150)

Everything in the list has a job. The khorne prince's aim is to move fast and take out any troops or fast units, preventing the orks from grabbing objectives or contesting late in the game. The chaos marines in the rhino will move and take a mid-field objective while the other marine squad will hold an objective in my deployment zone (preferably in cover) and provide fire support. The Defiler will move up and guard an objective mid-field while shelling large groups of orks.

The list for the second game is 250 points bigger but identical in purpose. The chaos marines have been combined into one squad and given some heavy hitting plasma weapons. Deployment zone objective duties go to the slow and purposeful thousand sons whose armor piercing fire will provide valuable support. The second game is capture and control so the khorne prince will follow the marines in the rhino to the ork objective and wipe up any opposition.

Demon Prince wings, khorne (140)
10 Chaos Space Marines 2 plasma guns, champ w/power fist & combi-weapon, icon of chaos glory, rhino (275)
5 Thousand Sons & Sorceror w/doombolt (185)
Defiler (150)

Battle Report: Chaos Marines vs. Orks

2010-03-04T12:56:00.000-08:00

I recently got a game in against a buddy of mine. He'd just picked up some new models for his ork army, including a battlewagon (sadly no deffrolla). I brought my chaos marines since I have enough of them painted now that I was able to field an all painted army, something I haven't been able to do in years.

We both brought along 1750 points of our respective armies. Terrain placed, we rolled up a Capture and Control mission with Dawn of War deployment. Orks deployed and moved first.

Here are the army lists. Chaos is accurate and the Ork list is from memory.

Chaos Marines

Tzeentch Demon Prince wings, warptime, wind of chaos
Tzeentch Demon Prince wings, warptime, wind of chaos
9 Chaos Marines khorne icon, 2 plasma guns, champion with power fist and combi plasma
8 Thousand Sons and Sorceror icon, wind of chaos, meltabombs
4 Bikers khorne icon, 2 plasma guns, champion with power fist
7 lesser demons
6 lesser demons
Defiler
Land Raider possessed, havok launcher

Orks

Gazhgull Thrakka
Warboss on bike
7 Nobs on bikes
Squad of meganobz in battlewagon
Large squad of boyz
Large squad of boyz
3 Deffkoptas
3 Deffkoptas
5 Lootaz in Trukk

The cunning chaos plan going in would be to come in on the flank opposite from the battlewagon, delaying when Gazhgull and his meganobz would be able to get stuck in and start killing things. The land raider would carry the thousand sons in an attempt to push through to the ork objective and the defiler would advance, shelling the large squads of boyz. Bikes, chaos marines and lesser demons were in charge of securing an objective leaving the demon princes to troubleshoot.

Turn 1: Orks took first turn and chaos refused to deploy anything during setup. Orks advanced and chaos spun onto the left flank, leaving the bikes and lesser demons in reserve. The defiler took out a big chunk of the boyz sitting in center field.

Turn 2: Orks continued their advance, wheeling to come to bear on the left flank. The lootaz jumped out of their wagon and holed up in the crater in the center. A few koptas trained their mega-blastaz on the chaos marines taking out most of the squad despite their going to ground. Chaos took some baby steps forward with the demon princes taking on the bikerz and warboss, killing many but staying locked in combat, the thousand sons piled out of the land raider and wiped out the deffkoptas. Lastly the defiler picked up a few more boyz.

Turn 3: The battlewagon raced over, dumped gazhgull and his meganobz, waaghed and ate the thousand sons for a tasty mid-game snack. The demon princes finished off the biker nobz and consolidated to the warboss, remaining locked in combat on their turn. The boyz in the center charged the last of thechaos marines and sent them to their reward. In the chaos turn the demon princes finished off the warboss and consolidated towards the squad of boyz in the back and away from Gazhgull. The land raider immobilized the battle wagon and the demon princes finish off the warboss. The bikes move on and meltagun the trukk but all the lesser demons stayed home. Good thing too since at the start of the turn there were no iconn the table for the lesser demons to use.

Turn 4: Slow and purposeful slowed Gazhgull down so he and his meganobz take some pot shots at a wounded demon prince to no effect. The lootaz poured fire into the defiler but the demon within ingored their glancing hits. However, the big 'un in the boyz squad walked over and tore the tracks off the land raider with his power klaw. The Demon princes took wing, racing towards the ork boyz edging up to the rear objective. The defiler shelled the same mob of boyz, causing them to run towards their table edge, but ending their movement standing on top of the objective, lucky them. The lesser demons finally came in and used the bike squad's icon to land within striking distance of the forward objective. The bikes raced ahead of the demons and destroyed the koptas lurking around the forward objective. Finally, the land raider ignored the power klaw stuck in its drive train and wrecks the battlewagon sitting in front of it.

Turn 5: With no other targets, Gazhgull decided to show the lootaz how its done and kicked the teeth out of the defiler. The rear boyz squad continued to flee, but did not get to the table edge or off the back objective. As a final play the lesser demons consolidated onto the forward objective and the bikes turbo-boosted over to the back objective, contesting it, which proved unnecessary as the demon princes made it to the boyz squad, pounded most of them into green paste and sweeping advanced the remnants.

Conclusion.

Chaos wins with one objective controlled at the end of turn 5. The cunning chaos plan to punch through the ork lines didn't work perfectly. The land raider and defiler got stalled by the orks moving up the center. Still, the setup allowed me to adapt and still accomplish most of what the original plan intended. The bulk of my force stalled his army near my table edge and away from his objectives. I managed to roll up the left ork flank before the midpoint of the game and instead of the thousand sons in the land raider pushing to the rear objective the demon princes took up the slack and made it there on the last turn. Some lucky reserves rolls meant my bikes were able to put the lesser demons right where I needed them in order to secure the game winning objective. Biggest mistake of the game goes to the thousand sons who I thought were going to be screened from Gazhgull by the land raider, but I misjudged the battlewagon's threat range by a couple inches and the sneaky gits got to me. MVP goes to the tandem demon princes for taking out the nob bikers, pulling ork boyz off the rear objective and soaking tons of orky firepower.

We're planning on starting the Road To Glory campaign from the main rulebook next week, so keep an eye out for that!

Pacification of Attika III

2010-02-28T14:56:00.000-08:00

For this mission, we return to the Attika system. The mission was designed to be played by two players or teams, with a third player acting as game master. White Dwarf often has epic battles where one person acts as a guide for the game, controlling random events and sculpting the battle narrative. This mission is like that, and is a fun way to involve an odd number of people in a game night's activities.

The rules for the cultists are drawn from the Imperial Guard Codex, but the cultists could be represented by a number of different armies. Tau, Imperial Guard, Eldar and Dark Eldar are all good choices. Just choose appropriate models to represent each unit type.

The mission isn't designed to be "fair" for the cultist player. His job is to control the hapless NPCs. In all likelihood his forces will be wiped out before the end of the game.

As a final note, you can play this scenario without a GM. The rules for the cultist behavior are pretty straightforward. Just use the optional triggers for the warp fluctuations.

After the pacification of Attika III, it was discovered that a cult in the remote regions of the planet had escaped being granted the divine light of the Emperor. It was only by analyzing records and rumors of the conquered civilization that the logicians and cogitators were able to eventually piece together the cult's whereabouts. They were completely invisible to all electronic methods of detection. How this was possible was a question the Inquisition was eager to answer. At the same time, followers of chaos were being drawn to the same region, searching for an artifact that was calling out to them through the warp.

Force Organization: Each team creates a 1000pt army according to standard force organization chart.

The game master puts together a 500 points of cult force units chosen from the following list: Conscripts, Infantry Squad, Psyker battle squad, Penal Legion Squad and Ogryn Squad. No unit options may be chosen. This includes close combat weapons, heavy weapons, special weapons, vehicles and transports. Additionally the cult player gains a Primaris Psyker, at no points cost, who will act as the army's HQ. Do not purchase any wargear for this character. The Primaris Psyker loses Independent Character, and gains Eternal Warrior.

If more than three people are playing, the points limit should be increased, but the cult force should be about 500 points less than whatever each team is using.

Setup: Terrain should be placed in a manner agreeable to all players. The cult player has final say on any disagreements about terrain.

The cult force deploys first. The cult player picks a short table edge. Each cult unit must be deployed within 24" of this table edge, and at least 12” from the long table edges. No Cultist units may be placed in reserve.

The opposing teams then dice off. The winner chooses a long table edge, deploys first and gets the first turn. Each player's deployment zone extends 12" from their table edge. No units may be set up closer than 24" from any cultist unit.

After deployment the second player may attempt to seize the initiative. The cultist player goes last in turn order.

Special Rules:

The Primaris Psyker represents the cult leader and is a valuable resource. The artifact he holds is precious to everyone and cannot be lost. No unit may target the cultist Primaris Psyker with shooting attacks. Additionally, he considered to be constantly under the effects of the warp time psychic power (reroll failed to-hit and to-wound rolls in close combat). He has a 4+ invulnerable armor save and a Warp Lightning attack (Range: 18", S4, AP3, Heavy3). He is immobile and may not be moved by any player for any reason.

Cult forces are crazed and fanatical, ready to lay down their lives to protect the artifact and its master. For the purposes of this scenario all units in the cult force are fearless as long as the cultist Primaris Psyker is alive.

Cult forces are not well trained. They must always shoot at the closest enemy unit they can legally target even if they have no chance of affecting their target.

Warp Fluctuations - At the beginning of each cult-player's turn, if there is at least one cult model on the table, the cult player can choose to use one of the following abilities. Each ability may only be used once in a game, and only one ability may be used per turn.

Warp Conflagration – Each non-cult unit within 12" of the artifact bearer takes D6 S5 AP- hits. These hits are applied even if the unit is in close combat. Units that suffer a casualty from this attack must immediately take a pinning test. If the bearer is part of the unit, the unit he is with is hit, but wounds may not be applied to the bearer. Optional Trigger: Activate Warp Conflagration on any cultist turn where there is an enemy within 8" of the artifact bearer.
Gifts of Chaos – Pick a cult-force unit (except the Primaris Psyker). Remove all models from the unit and replace them with up to 5 chaos spawn models (do not place more chaos spawn models than there are remaining members of the unit). If the unit was in hand to hand combat place the spawn so that they remain in contact with the unit(s) they were fighting. For the rest of the game the spawn move and fight as a single unit. Optional Trigger: Active Gifts of Chaos the first time a cultist unit charges or is charged.
Warp Pulse – Every non-cult unit is pushed back so that they are a minimum of 6" away from the cult leader. If the unit was in close combat they are no longer in close combat. Move the units in a straight line away from the cult leader, taking dangerous terrain tests as normal. Any unit moved in this manner immediately takes a pinning test. Optional Trigger: Activate Warp Pulse on any cultist turn the Primaris Psyker is locked in close combat.

Winning:

The cult leader starts out as the artifact bearer. Any model that kills the artifact bearer in close combat gains control of the artifact and becomes the artifact bearer. While that model is the artifact bearer it cannot be targeted by shooting attacks. The player with control of the artifact at the end of the game wins. The game length is random. At the end of turn 5 the player controlling the artifact bearer rolls a die. The game continues on a roll of a 3+. Roll again at th eend of turn 6, continuing on a 4+. The game automatically ends after turn 7.

When the artifact is taken from the cult leader, it is possible that it will be taken by a squad. If it is taken by a squad or an independent character that is part of a squad, designate a single model in that squad as the artifact bearer. This model is the one that must be killed to take the artifact. The unit the model is part of may still be the target of shooting attacks, but wounds from shooting attacks may not be allocated to the artifact bearer.

WIP: How I Paint My Cygnar

2010-02-26T16:18:00.000-08:00

Part of this year's ongoing efforts to only play with painted miniatures means painting up a small Cygnar force for Warmachine. Here's a tutorial for the paint scheme I'm using. It's as much for other people as it is for me. I'll be adding to the force and I don't trust myself to remember the paints I used or the steps involved.

Step one is to base and prime the miniature black. I know there is some d ebate on using black primer but in this case I like how the blue comes out on top of the black base. The base is white in the picture because I built it up using drywall p aste after priming the model, then gessoed the base.

Next step is to base coat all the gubbins and metal parts with Tin Bitz.

Next the armor plates get a base coat of Lightning Bolt Blue and the drywall paste gets a base coat of Shadow Grey. After this I go back with Tin Bitz and clean up any spots that have unwanted blue or grey.

Warmachine jacks have lots of indentations and grills on them. I put a little bit of Bad Moon Yellow into these spots at this stage. We're going to be drybrushing over these spots in the next step so you don't have to be super careful of slop but you don't want to put so much paint in that you fill up the indentations.

Now we drybrush Boltgun Metal onto all the gubbins with tin bitz on them. This gives it all a nice metallic look. Use a light touch around the yellow grating so you don't cover up the yellow in the recesses. If you're like me you'll get some silver where you don't want it so you'll want to go back and clean up any silver that got onto the blue armor plates. Also, as long as we've got the boltgun metal out we might as well go in and paint the recessed screws and handles.

Next drybrush the blue plates with Shadow Grey and the base with Skull White.

Now put some Shadow Grey on the Cygnar symobl on top and give the model a good looking over to make sure nothing was missed. Afterwards give the whole thing a wash. The metal gubbins get a wash of Badab Black and the armor gets Devlan Mud.

Finally we add the last bit of detailing. The smokestack radiator grills get some Dwarf Bronze put on them. Chaos Black rings the base and I also put some on the metallic bits. The piston sockets, backs of legs and boiler gauges are good spots for this. Basically anywhere that looks like a wide expanse of drybrushed metal can benefit from some Chaos Black touchups. I also put some Skull White on the gun ammunition to make it stand out. Finally, every jack in the my force is getting Bad Moon Yellow construction hazard stripes somewhere on them.

The whole process doesn't take much time and I'm happy with how cohesive the jacks look standing next to each other.

WIP: Using Drywall Paste for Basing Miniatures

2010-02-24T13:21:00.000-08:00

I've started to paint up my Cygnar forces for Warmachine, and I'm using drywall paste to do up the bases. I've found it's pretty easy to work with and can give you a nice rough ground effect. One of the finished bases can be seen to the left. It still needs some static grass applied to it to break up the blue-grey, but the result is close to what I was going for.

The Privateer Press bases are really good for this. The center of the base is a depression and the drywall paste fills this up nicely. You can slop it on the base and push it around, creating little hills and rough patches. For my Cygnar I want a rough surface so I poke and stab at it with a hobby knife to give it some texture, but you can just as easily smooth it all out if you wanted a flat surface. It's also really easy to push in around stuff if you want to have sticking up out of the ground. Finally, it's cheap and if you live somewhere that has drywall you've probably already got the materials.

I've learned a few things about using it:

The drywall paste isn't strong enough to hold stuff by itself. You need to glue the model and any other bits and pieces you want sticking up out of the ground to the base before putting the paste on. After its dry you could go back and add rocks or grass with PVA glue like you would for any other base.
Adding a bit of card to the feet of your miniatures raises them up so they look like they are standing on top of the ground rather than sinking into it.
It takes a while to dry. I'm not sure how long but I leave mine overnight. Different manufacturers probably have different drying times.
After it dries you can use a knife or some fine grit sand paper to knock off any bits that ended up sticking to your model or the sides of the base.
You can paint your model before doing the base. Just use some gesso to prime the dried paste before painting it then go back and touch up any spots on the feet of your model once you've painted the base.

Cheap and durable, drywall paste can add some variety to your bases outside of the glued gravel look.

Game Review: Warhammer: Invasion

2010-02-23T16:30:00.000-08:00

I got a chance this weekend to sit down with a buddy of mine and play a few rounds of Fantasy Flight Games' Warhammer: Invasion. It's a great little game and I highly recommend it.

First a quick description. Warhammer: Invasion is a card game that can be played with two to four players. In it each player controls their own kingdom and recruits warriors to fight for them and manage their kingdom. The core set retails for about forty dollars although it's possible to find it for cheaper elsewhere. It's not a collectible card game, per se, but there are expansions, both released and soon to be released. All the cards you need to play are in the core set, and when you buy an expansion you get all the cards in that expansion. There are no random cards. The core set contains starter decks for Empire, Chaos, Orks and Dwarves, and teaser cards for Elves and Dark Elves. We played with just two players and each game probably took about half an hour so you can get in a bunch of games in one evening. Of course having more players will make the games longer.

If you've played other collectible card games the sequence of play will be familiar. Each player's turn is broken down into four phases and after one player is done with their turn play moves to the next player. Unlike many other Fantasy Flight games (I'm looking at you Arkham Horror), the rules and phases for Warhammer: Invasion are very simple. In the four phases you 1) get your resources, 2) draw new cards 3) play cards using resources and 4) fight. Each player's kingdom has three zones. Fighting can damage these zones and once two of the three zones are destroyed that player is eliminated from the game. Last player in the game wins.

The game borrows from real-time strategy video games. While it's possible to quickly build up a fighting force and rush your opponent in the first couple of turns, it's a better strategy to invest in your kingdom, building up your support zones to generate more resources and draw more cards. Balancing your offensive and defensive investments is a big part of the game.

After a few games some of the strategy starts to shake out. For instance, one of the areas in the game is the battlefield. Troops in this area are the only troops allowed to attack an opponents kingdom. When you attack, your target has the choice not to defend with any of their troops so if you destroy your opponent's battlefield first there's no longer a reason for them to commit troops to defending it and they can amass an army in their battlefield to attack you. This puts you on the defensive with few options for getting rid of their troops outside of attrition while defending.

It's a great game, and judging from the product lineup Fantasy Flight is planning on supporting it for a long time. If you enjoy the play style of collectible card games but are tired of the investment they require, this game is a good way to go. Likewise, if you enjoy the Warhammer Fantasy universe then this game is for you. Finally, if you just enjoy a great game with friends (and this is definitely a great game) then I'd recommend a trip to you friendly local game store to pick up Warhammer: Invasion.

Attika Campaign: Mission 4

2010-02-22T12:52:00.000-08:00

Here's the last mission in the Attika Campaign. Chaos is running rampant in the streets of the holy city, searching for artifacts and the precious gene seed.

You can find the other missions here.
Mission 1
Mission 2
Mission 3

Mission Set 4 - Fighting in the City Streets.

No matter what the outcome of the battle at the Temple City Walls, some chaos forces eventually make it inside the city gates. Once inside they move swiftly to seize control of the city, the temples and the artifact vaults. Most importantly, control of the city will give them time to find and secure the entrances to the underground complex storing the space marine gene seed.

Players should again pair off against each other. These missions should be played at 1000 points. Mission type is Sector Control (see below) with Dawn of War deployment. Opponents dice off to see who deploys and goes first.

Just like the Mission Set 1, players in each game should keep track of the number of objectives they control at the end of the game. Once all the games have been played add up the objectives won by the chaos and imperial side. Whichever side controlled more wins the campaign.

Sector Control - After choosing sides and deploying troops, divide the table into quarters. Players take turns placing a total of four objectives, starting with the player who deployed first. There may only be one objective in each quarter, and objectives must be twelve inches away from the edge of the board and all other objectives. All other rules follow the Seize Ground basic mission.

Remember that the side that won Mission 3 gains the Reinforcements special rule for the games they play. Note that this is slightly different than the Apocalypse Replacements strategic asset.

Reinforcements - Once a game when a unit from a troops choice is killed that unit may immediately be put into reserves. When they arrive the controlling player must bring them in from his table edge, they may not deep strike or outflank. Dedicated transports do not count for determining if the troops choice is destroyed, and do not come back with the reinforcements.

WIP: Termagants Complete

2010-02-20T11:36:00.000-08:00

I wrote a couple weeks ago about how I had used a tutorial to do up a termagant. Of course one termagant isn't much of a danger to anyone outside of a gretchin, so I had to go find him some friends. The color scheme worked out well and the limited number of steps and colors made things go fast. It won't be much difficult to expand my termagant horde or to paint other tyranid models in the same color scheme.

As a side note, if you ever thought tyranids evolving was just something for the fluff, take a look at these guys. This is three generations of termagant, the oldest being on the right. They've pretty much gone the way of all Warhammer minis, getting progressively larger as time goes on. I like the latest figure the best. I only wish that it's tail didn't stick straight out behind it. The previous generations all had a bit of curve to their tails which added some variation to their silhouette. I suppose that in mobs of twenty you don't really notice.

Final note: Termagant is a real English word: a violent, turbulent, or brawling woman. Harridan and Harpy mean the same thing, too. A Trygon is a kind of sting ray, and Lictors were romans that cleared a path for their masters. Zoanthropy is a mental disease where you imagine that you're an animal other than human and the Carnifex was the official public executioner in Rome. I'm not trying to make a point, I just find it interesting.

WIP: Razorback Complete

2010-02-18T11:39:00.000-08:00

I found time to put the finishing touches on my Space Marine Razorback last night. The chapter symbols on the front were done freehand using a modified version of this tutorial. They are my first attempt at freehand painting in a long time and I'm not unhappy with the result. Like Ron says in the tutorial, it's really all about breaking the symbol down into smaller pieces, then putting those pieces together. I made some mistakes on the 'dozer blade symbol, so it looks a bit smudged in the center, but it's definitely something I can go back and fix up at a later date.

Now, of course, I need to get cracking on some marines to ride around in this thing. Work work work.

One Page Dungeon Contest

2010-02-17T17:22:00.001-08:00

Like I said in my first post, this blog isn't just about Warhammer 40K. I'm also an avid roleplay gamer. Over at the Cartographer's Guild they're running a contest for one page dungeons. My entry is Tower of Light, Tunnel of Stone.
The map was created with the Wizards of the Coast Dungeon Tile Mapper. You can use it to get a bigger version of my map. I should note that I've made some hand edits to the tower sections, specifically to the placement and number of stairs. Just cut and paste the code below when you select Import New from the Tile Mapper's toolbox menu.

2010OnePageDungeon,3.7.A.0.592.288.5....,3.7.A.0.400.288.6....,1.24.A.180.448.96.7....,1.25.A.0.304.64.8....,3.7.A.270.592.480.9....,3.7.A.90.592.416.10....,3.7.A.90.464.352.11....,3.7.A.180.528.416.12....,3.7.A.180.656.288.13....,3.7.A.270.464.288.14....,3.23.A.90.640.368.15....,3.2.A.0.480.464.16....,3.19.B.90.640.432.17....,3.8.A.90.400.288.18....,3.8.A.90.432.288.19....,3.5.A.0.400.416.20....,3.8.A.90.432.352.21....,3.7.A.0.464.416.22....,3.18.B.180.608.464.23....,3.21.A.180.448.464.24....,0.15.A.0.304.464.25....,0.14.B.90.272.432.26....,0.14.B.90.272.368.27....,0.14.B.0.240.336.28....,0.4.A.90.224.336.29....,0.19.B.0.96.288.30....,0.5.A.90.96.312.31....,0.11.A.0.128.312.32....,1.24.A.0.592.208.33....,3.19.B.270.496.464.34....,3.8.A.90.400.368.35....,3.19.B.270.608.432.36....,0.5.A.90.96.312.37....,3.2.A.90.496.496.38....

The adventure was mainly designed to be used in a fantasy setting, but since it's not tied to a particular system it could easily be used as a Rogue Trader adventure by replacing the monsters in the encounter with something setting appropriate.

Attika Campaign: Mission 3

2010-02-16T14:29:00.000-08:00

Mission three for the Attika Campaign. This was an apocalypse sized game. We ended up with Abbadon's Black Crusade leading a demon force against defending imperial guard, dark angels, and witchhunters backed up by a baneblade and stormlord. After some brutal carnage, the imperial forces barely managed to eek out a victory, holding the line against the chaos incursion.

Here is mission 2 and mission 1.

Mission Set 3 - Temple City Walls

Kept within the vaults of the Temple City are numerous tomes and artifacts of ancient lore. Seizing these alone would be reason enough for the forces of chaos to attack a planet. The greatest prize, though, lies miles below the surface: gene seed which can be used to bolster the ranks of the chaos many times over. With all the chaos forces converging on the walled city, the defenders have rallied to keep them out.

Mission

This is an apocalypse mission played at 3000 points. Each side should divide the points evenly amongst its players.

If the chaos forces win this battle they have broken the city defenses and will pour unchecked into the city. If the imperials win they have broken the chaos advance and allowed time for further reinforcements to arrive. In either case, the side that wins will be allowed Reinforcements in the next mission. In the case of a tie the furious battle has taken its toll on both forces and neither receives Reinforcements.

Reinforcements - Once a game when a unit from a troops choice is killed that unit may immediately be put into reserves. When they arrive the controlling player must bring them in from his table edge, they may not deep strike or outflank. Dedicated transports do not count for determining if the troops choice is destroyed, and do not come back with the reinforcements.

WIP: Ork Runtherd

2010-02-14T12:17:00.000-08:00

A while back a orc boar chariot went by me and I snagged a spear and arms off it. I knew when I saw them they had to become a grot-prod. Last night I finally got a chance to add the arms to an ork model and put the rest of the fiddly bits on him. Here's how he came out.

The power cable is just an old guitar string. I know that other people use special power cables from Dragon Forge Design and I'm curious how their stuff compares to simple guitar string in terms of workability. Cost-wise guitar string is definitely cheaper, but it's pretty stiff and you have to sort of kink it to get any sort of curve.

The backpack is just a battery from an imperial guard lascannon heavy weapons team. The bit sticking out the top is a piece of flamer. I think either from an old sentinel or a leman russ.

I'm pretty happy with the little guy. If the rain here ever lets up I'll get some primer on him and see what he looks like painted.

Attika Campaign: Mission 2

2010-02-13T16:36:00.000-08:00

I posted the first mission a few days ago, and here's the second mission from the Attika Campaign. My group had four people in it, so doing two missions like this made sense. If you've got more than that, or an odd number of people you can make it work by doubling up players on either side and splitting or upping the point allowance. If you have fewer players, 2 or 3, just play the missions one after the other. When we did these missions each side kept which player was assigned to which mission a secret, so no one knew exactly what army they were going up against.

Mission Set 2 - Strategic Goals

With chaos strike forces landing across the globe, the defenders are hard pressed to respond to every attack. Some locations are more strategically important to than others, and both sides are making big pushes to take control of them.

Players choose which of the two missions they wish to play, making sure that there are an equal number of players on each side per mission.

Manufactorum
The bulk of materiel for the imperial garrison comes from a single manufactorum located to the north. Whichever side controls it will more easily be able to resupply and refit their forces.

This is a Seize Ground mission played at 1500 points per army with 5 objectives. Whoever gained the initiative in the last mission places the first objective. If no one has the initiative then roll dice to see who places the first objective.

Reward: The winner of this battle has seized an important source of armament and resupply. In the next mission the winning side gains, at no point cost, the Extra Armor upgrade on all vehicles that have it as an option. In the case of a tie the fighting has damaged the manufactorum to the point where it is useless to both sides.

Defense Laser
An orbital defense installation threatens the fleet of whoever does not control it. Both forces are desperate to seize it in order to provide their fleets in orbit with surface-based fire support.

This is a Seize Ground mission played at 1500 points per army with 5 objectives. Whoever gained the initiative in the last mission places the first objective. If no one has the initiative then roll dice to see who places the first objective.

Reward: The winner of the battle will use the defense laser to push the opposing fleet out of low orbit. This takes the pressure off their own fleet and allows them to provide orbital support to the ground troops. Whichever side wins gains the Orbital Bombardment strategic asset in the next mission for free.

Attika Campaign: Mission 1

2010-02-11T18:34:00.000-08:00

Last year I put together a campaign for my gaming group. It lasted four weeks and was a blast not only to play, but also to create the backstory and scenarios. I'll be posting the missions and backstory that we used for this four week campaign. The scenario fluff is written for Imperials vs. Chaos, but there's no reason it won't work for any mix of armies. Everyone should just pick a side and try to have an equal number of players on each side.

In 862.M41 Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor Enzio Balmont was dispatched to the far western sector of Segmentum Pacificus to oversee the gene seed tithe of the Sons of Mars space marines chapter. After acquiring the gene seed, Inquisitor Balmont set out to return to the Mechanicus tech-priests on Mars. So precious was the gene seed, the strike cruiser Ares was sent as an escort with the entire fourth company of the Sons of Mars onboard.

Under Inquisitorial edict, and against the wishes of Euenos Ialmenos, captain of the fourth company, a detour was made to the temple world Attika VI. Reports from the imperial governor indicated a recent increase in mutant births, psyker expression and the heretical beginnings of an end times cult. Backed by the might of a full Space Marine Company, Enzio decided it would be short work to uncover and uproot the heresy on this world.

On Attika VI itself, civil unrest was at an all time high. Cult leaders claiming the emperor had abandoned humanity were gaining new followers every day. The local Arbites were suppressing a continuous riot. All their energy was spent maintaining order. No resources were available to expose the roots of the heresy.

At the same time, members of the cult began expressing the psyker mutation at an increased rate. As the psychic presence of Attika VI grew in size, the baleful gaze of the Eye of Terror finally fell upon it. Slipping through the Cadian Gate, Spurci Odorin, a chaos warlord in command of the battle barge Deordo Chao, set course for the Attika system.

The chaos incursion force arrived just hours after the imperial convoy put into orbit. The demon-infested spacecraft launched their drop pods and landing craft before quickly retreating out of range of the planet's orbital defense lasers and the guns of the Ares. The war for Attika VI had begun.

Mission Set 1 - Incursion

With the arrival of the chaos fleet, the cultists rose up against their planetary rulers and warp rifts spilled demons into the material plane. The chaos fleet used their teleporters and landing craft to strike at random locations around the heavily fortified temple compounds. High above the atmosphere imperial spaceships engaged the chaos fleet.

Missions

Chaos and Imperial players should pair off against each other. Games are 750 point annihilation games played on 4 foot by 4 foot tables. At the end of each game players should note down how many kill points they managed to score. Add up the total points for chaos and imperial. The side with the most total kill points wins. Each player can play multiple games, the results of which all contribute to the final tally.

If chaos wins they have sown panic and mayhem in the ranks of the imperials. If imperials win they have responded swiftly and decisively to the chaos incursion. In either case, whichever side wins has gained the initiative and can choose the deployment type for the next mission. In the case of a draw, roll randomly for deployment type as described in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook.

Tyranid Emergence

2010-02-08T16:05:00.000-08:00

I'm a little bit late to the party, but I've put together a scenario that fits in with this month's FTW collaborative post topic: Tyranids.

Battles to defend against ravening tyranid hordes are the norm. Nothing stirs up faith in the emperor like a sea of teeth and talons. But what about when the poor bugs are just minding their own business? What about after the epic battles are over? I imagine there's still a lot of cleanup work after a hive fleet has been driven off.

This scenario pits an attacking force against a swarm of tyranids that have been hiding underground. The attacker's goal is to seal the burrows the tyranids are using to get to the surface. The tyranids are trying to escape so they can spread to other parts of the planet. The game is probably best played at 1500 to 2000 points. It would also work to replace tyranids with necrons or orks. In this case they'd be emerging from crypts or caves instead of swarming from their nests. The scenario could also be easily modified as a planetstrike variant.

Setup: The defender places d3+2 objectives on the table. The first objective is placed in the center of the table. All other objectives are placed no closer than 12" to another objective, and no closer than 18" to any table edge.

Deployment: The defender deploys as many of their units as they want so that each unit has a model within 6" of an objective marker, and does not have a model closer than 12" to a table edge. The attacking player sets up second and gets the first turn. The defender may attempt to seize the initiative. Units under the attacking player's control can be setup within 12" of any table edge.

Special Rules:

Shut that Hole: Each objective marker counts as an AV 11 stationary vehicles that can only be damaged in close combat. Any glancing or penetrating hit destroys the marker. Once destroyed remove it from the board. The attacker scores one victory point every time this happens.
The Swarm Emerges: Whenever a defending unit comes on from reserves it must deploy using an objective marker as though it was a table edge. Any unit that deploys using deep strike rules may deploy within 6" of an objective marker without scattering. If a defending unit is forced to fall back towards a table edge then treat the nearest objective marker as the nearest table edge.
Spread the Swarm: At the end of the defender's movement phase any non-flying troop choice defending units control that have at least one model in base contact with a table edge may be removed from the board. The defending player scores one victory point every time this happens.
Without Number: Non flying troop choice defending units that get destroyed or move off the table edge are placed in reserves.

Victory Conditions: Determine the last turn of the game as you would for a Capture and Control mission. The winner at the end of the game is the player with the most victory points. Note that the game automatically ends when the last objective is removed from the board, or the defender scores more victory points than the number of objectives at the start of the game.

WIP: Termagant

2010-02-07T16:14:00.001-08:00

Clicking around on links today I stumbled upon a Quick and Dirty Tutorial for painting up a termagant. I was inspired and since I've got a bunch of unpainted termagants lying around I thought I'd grab one up and see how it goes. To the left is the fruit of my labors. I've chosen a different color scheme than the one in the tutorial, but I think it worked out pretty well. Although if you've seen the razorback I'm working on you might agree that I'm using too much green and brown for my current projects. The colors just go together so well.

I'm not super happy with how the wash came out. Just like the razorback it seemed like it went on way too splotchy. The tutorial used devlan mud and it seemed like it came out really smooth so I'm not sure where my technique is going wrong. Well, I've got about 40 of these buggers to practice on so here's to hoping things improve with practice.

The last thing I want to mention is that painting this guy took very few colors. Using only eight bottles of paint, this is a project that's really easy to carry around or leave in a small box to pick up whenever you have a spare half hour. I'd definitely recommend the tutorial for anyone in desperate need of getting their bug army in tabletop condition.

WIP: Warhound Turbo-Laser

2010-02-06T14:59:00.000-08:00

One of the projects I'm working on concurrently with my razorback is a turbo-laser for my chaos warhound. The barrels are made half inch PVC pipe and the tip is from the narrow end of a one inch to half inch reducer coupling. The rear housing is a modified build of the megabolter housing from some warhound plans I found online (In the interest of giving credit where it's due you can find the plans here). It's just made out of a cut up cereal box. The PVC pipe I've got is a bit softer and easier to work with than the standard rigid stuff you find at the hardware store. It's called Vanguard PEX tubing and it submits to being easily carved and shaped with a hobby knife, but it's still rigid enough the barrels don't droop. It probably wouldn't be appropriate to use it for anything that needs to support weight, but when I go back and add some detailing to the barrels I'll be able to carve directly into them.

With the main build-out and housing done the next stage is to put in some detailing. I'm thinking a vent or two. Some wire running the length of barrels and a chaos symbol spread across the top and side of the housing. Also some plates and rivets so it looks more like an armored weapon than a cardboard box.

Once this prototype is done I'll use the cardboard housing as a template to redo the housing in more durable plasticard or thin masonboard.

WIP: Space Marine Razorback

2010-02-03T00:30:00.001-08:00

The razorback has a good coat of paint on it now. The main colors are the GW foundation paints Tausept Ochre and Orkhide Shade which I think go together pretty well. The color scheme is as close to what was in my head as is possible.

There's still probably a few hours of detailing work to get through before I can declare it done, but I can feel how it's going to look when it's completed. Once this guy is done I can move onto modding and painting up the squad that's going to ride in it.

Organizing the Apocalypse

2010-01-31T22:47:00.001-08:00

Apocalypse is one of my favorite 40K variants. Big models, large strategies and hordes of miniatures on the table is a real inspiration to come up with a story behind it all. It's even better that it's the sort of game type that begs to be played with more than just two people. The days around the table throwing dice with a good group of friends are the days that I fondly remember.

Setting up a game of Apocalypse can take work, though. It's not difficult, but it does involve a bit more than just agreeing with you and another buddy on whether or not to carpool. I've put a few of these together and I have a little checklist that I like to run through. Most of the stuff on the list is just little reminders to people to have things ready before getting to the table. That way everyone can start playing as soon as possible.

Things each player needs to bring:

Army - No shock here. Bring your minis. Also make sure you have your army list and also make sure everything is WYSIWYG. There's a lot of stuff happening on an apocalypse table and nobody wants to need to remember that gretchin over there is actually Gazhgull.
Tape Measure & Dice - Everyone needs to have their own so that everyone can be moving and shooting simultaneously. This includes the scatter dice.
Codex & DataSheets - Everyone should have their own copy of their army rules and the rules of any special apoc formations they are using.
Cash - This is optional, but if you think you're going to want to buy a snack from the game store or nearby grocery make sure you have a way to pay for it on your own. Don't be a mooch.
Templates - Just like the tape measure. Bring your copy of the templates and make sure yours are marked somehow so that at the end of the day you know which templates to take home. Also, if you have a weapon or asset that uses one of the special apocalypse sized templates then make sure you've got that template with you.

This each team needs to bring:

Deployment time bid - Each team should have pointed up their armies and discussed their strategy beforehand so they should know how much time they are going to bid for deployment. Knowing this beforehand saves time and gets everyone into the game faster.
Apocalypse Assets - Again, since armies and general strategies should already be known everyone should have also picked their strategic assets. Remember that you can only have one of each asset per side so discuss with your teammates what you are going to take. Also bring anything that you need for your asset. If you're going to bring BUNKERS or OBSTACLES then you should make sure you have bunker and obstacle models.
Team Leader - Someone should be appointed team leader. This is the "final answer" guy. They're in charge of writing down the deployment bid, final placement of objectives and giving the final OK for ending a turn or phase. This isn't as much a position of power as it is a method to avoid having to rewind time because someone wasn't paying attention and forgot to move their dreadnought.

Finally, as the organizer, there are a few things that you should do and bring to the game.

Email Notice - Send out a group email. This email should be to all interested parties and contain who's on what team, what the points limit for each side is going to be, where the game is going to take place, what time it's going to start, if/when you'll be breaking for food and what time the game ends. This last one is important, because whatever time you want the game to end, make sure you specify a half hour to an hour before that time to announce that the current turn is the last turn. Your email should also have any special rules or restrictions spelled out. Only one formation per person? Using night fighting rules on turn 1? It's a real buzz-kill to have a special rule sprung on you right before the game starts that you feel makes the strategy and army list you worked on for a week useless. Make sure everyone knows what's going on so that no one feels cheated.
Read the Book - At least read the section detailing the pre-game steps. The apocalypse book lays things out really well and if you just go down the list of things to do you'll be rolling dice in no time.
Supplies - Camera for taking pictures. String and masking tape for setting up no-man's land. If you're going to time turns then bring along a timer. It's also a good idea to bring along an extra tape measure and set of templates to help move things along.

I've had a lot of fun in my Apocalypse games. I've played them with as many as six people and as few as just me and a buddy bashing our titans and marines against each other. Remember that the most important rule is to have fun and that a little bit of organization can make for a bit less chaos and a lot more fun.

WIP: Space Marine Razorback

2010-01-25T04:05:00.003-08:00

I've been itching to start up a proper space marine army even before the new codex came out. My ideal marine army would support being fielded using any of the alternate codices as well. Depending on my mood I'd like to be able to field Ravenwing, Space Wolves, Salamanders, or Blood Angels. I figure the best way to do this is to have a strong set of core units and models converted and painted up as a chapter of my own design. A couple special models from each codex will make whatever rules I'm using at the time recognizable to my opponent. To that end I've put together a razorback that has been lying around in pieces.

One of my goals is to make my army look different from standard space marines. For the razorback this means a bunch of little conversions like the whip antenna on the side and open side doors with arches. I also built up a custom assault cannon sponson using the ravenwing accessory sprue. I'm pretty happy with the results.

All the weapon ports and exhaust pipes have been drilled out. The dozer blade and hunter killer missile are magnetized to make the model more or less expensive pointswise, depending on the mission. I'm pretty happy with the little arches. I used posterboard to make them and I think that they would have come out better if I had gone the extra mile and used plasticard. For the dozer blade I did end up having to add support for a third magnet to keep the blade from drooping and dragging on the ground.

At this point the model has been primed and base coated, but we'll leave pics of that for another post

40K Real Fast

2010-01-25T04:05:00.001-08:00

I've always been a pretty fast player. I plan what I'm going to do while my opponent is taking their turn and once I start moving models I'm focused and try to get through my turn as quickly as possible. In our weekly pickup games my games are almost always over before others and in tournaments I think I've only once not finished the game in the time allowed. There's a lot to be said for moving with purpose, but most importantly, by playing quickly you get to play more.

A while back, Games Workshop published a set of rules for 40K in 40 minutes in White Dwarf. These rules can be found with variations throughout the internet (the original rules are apparently here). I usually have a 400 point army ready to play each week so that when the larger games finish up I can get a quick half hour game in with someone while I'm waiting for the next round. The modified force organization chart makes for a nice change of pace in army building, and the small force size means I can play lots of these games in one night. It also means that I can try out units I wouldn't normally use. I can even bring along a small army from a different codex other than the one I'm using for the larger battles. And If I'm building an army up from scratch I can start using it a lot sooner with these rules than with the army rules from the main book.

So here are the rules that I use for a fast game of 40K in fifth edition:

Army size is limited to 400 points.
You must have at least 1 troop choice, and may have more than 1.
You can have up to 1 HQ choice, but no more than 1.
Except for swarms, nothing in the army may have more than 2 wounds.
Nothing with a 2+ armor save is allowed.
No vehicles with total armor greater than 33 (add front, side and rear armor values).
No weapons that use large blast templates may be fielded.
Game is played on a 4'x4' table (Small army size means a standard 6'x4' table is much too large, but your mileage may vary).
Use the standard missions and deployments found in the main rulebook.

Dread Not the Dreadnought

2010-01-18T13:10:00.001-08:00

The poor Tyranids are barely out of their spore sacs when they get trumped by the next big thing. Blood Angels are set to hit in just four short months and it looks like it's going to be great. Lots of jump packs and lots of dreadnoughts makes for an exciting few months of dreaming about army lists. The rumor that we'll be able to field up to eight dreads is really exciting. I know a buddy of mine who's already planning which eight he wants.

I love the towering monstrosities. They're good at shooting, hardy in close combat, and explode at the drop of a hat. I also love the fluff behind them. These guys are ancient space marines that all but died. Their wisdom is considered so valuable that rather than just harvesting their gene seed, they get entombed in a giant walking coffin that lets them continue fighting. One of my favorite dreadnought moments is the intro cinematic for Dawn of War II where a dreadnought kool-aid man's it through a wall and roasts a pair of howling banshees. Good stuff.

What tickles me most about them is the ancient warrior aspect. Some of these guys have been around since the founding of their chapter, something that's unheard of outside of the Chaos Marine codex. I rather think that these guys aren't shown their due being only elite choice for most armies. In my imagination these guys are using their millennia of experience to lead troops into battle. Maybe they were a great commander leading a crusade before they fell, and interment in their metal sarcophagus was the only way to allow them to finish their task.

This week's scenario has it's own force organization chart, separate from the one in the main rulebook. It's probably best played at a lower point level, say around 750 to 1000.

At long last, the mighty warrior's journey is over. Through countless battlefields and wounds grievous enough to relegate him to a metal sarcophagus, finally the end of the journey is in sight. As the tech-priests perform their final checks the ancient marine pushes aside irrelevant thoughts of the past and begins his review of the battle plans.

Force Organization Chart:

1 HQ or Dreadnought as an HQ (This can be any dreadnought in the codex. For the purposes of this mission it will count as an HQ choice).
2 to 6 Troops Choices
0 to 1 Elite
0 to 1 Fast Attack

Setup: Place terrain using a method agreeable to all players. Place a single objective marker in the center of the table.

Deployment: Both players roll a die. The highest score chooses a long table edge and whether to go first or second. Each player marks an area twelve inches in from the edge. The winner of the roll-off places his models first. Each player may place up to two troops choices and must place their HQ choice. All other models remain off the table and anything not kept in reserve may move on from the owner's table edge at the start of their movement phase on turn 1. Once both players have placed their models the second player may attempt to seize the initiative.

Special Rules:

Night Fighting rules are in effect on the first turn of the game.
Ancient Warrior: Any dreadnought chosen as an HQ counts as scoring and may hold objectives.
Too Precious to Lose: Any time an HQ is destroyed place a new objective marker at the spot where it died.

Victory Conditions: End the game and score objectives exactly as you would for a Capture and Control mission, keeping in mind that any dreadnoughts taken as HQ choices count as scoring. Additionally, if a player managed to kill an opponent's HQ they count as having scored one more objective.

Temple of Doom

2010-01-10T13:58:00.001-08:00

A little while ago I sat down with some friends to play some Chaos in the Old World. If you've ever played a game by Fantasy Flight then you know what a good job they do with their board games and with the warhammer license. One of the things that I think they do really well in all of their games is provide multiple paths to victory.

Without going into too much detail (we'll save detail for a later post) this means that each player can choose how they want to succeed at the game. This choice is influenced by which of the four chaos gods they are playing. Some gods are better suited than others for certain goals.

Many simple children's games like Candyland or Chutes and Ladders follow a race motif. Each player is simply trying to get to the finish line before the other players. Previous turns have no real effect on subsequent turns. Even some adult games, like cribbage, follow this pattern. Strategy is either non-existent, as in Candyland, or is only important in the timeframe of a single turn or "trick," as in cribbage.

More compilcated games, such as Monopoly and Risk, and two of the standard 40K missions, Seize Ground and Capture and Control, can be thought of in terms of tug-of-war. There is a finite resource on the board and each player is attempting to have control of more of that resources than their opponent at the end of the game. The overarching strategies in these games is also usually fairly simple. Get the most and hold on to it until the end.

By providing multiple paths to victory players are allowed a greater degree of choice in determining how they will go about winning. It doesn't really get us away from the race/tug-of-war model, but if we provide a couple of racetracks and a few ropes to pull on all then maybe things will get more interesting.

Deep within the Leonid sector lies a forgotten moon. Hundreds of years ago a great warp storm engulfed the moon, trapping it in space and time, removing it from orbit around it's planet. As the warp storm raged demons poured across the land, overrunning the primitive civilization that called the moon home. Now all that remains is rocks and swirling dust.

The demons are long since gone but something on the moon still exerts a strange influence. Many times ships have emerged from the warp orbiting the moon, light years from their intended destination. Scans of the moon surface reveal little except a region at the south pole that emits a faint energy signature.

Vessels that linger rarely find themselves alone for long. Within a few hours the planet will have drawn in someone else. The newcomers are often alien and always hostile, as if the moon was drawing them in for the express purpose of witnessing combat.

Setup: A strange tableau awaits visitors to the moon's south pole. Scattered amongst the ruins of an ancient battlefield stand five stone pillars.
Arrange the board and terrain in a method agreeable to both players. The winner of a roll-off places an objective somewhere on the table. Players then take turns until 5 objectives have been placed. Objectives may not be placed within 12" of each other or the table edge.

Deployment: Dawn of War

Victory Conditions

Give Me the Idol: Set into each pillar is an idol carved from bone and inlaid with inscriptions. The writings are difficult to decipher but seem to hint that the bearer of the idols will hold sway over great power.
At the beginning of each player's turn, if that player has a model with WS (i.e. anything but a non-walker vehicle) in base to base contact with an unmarked objective then place a token next to that objective showing which player has marked it. When the last objective is marked the game is over and whoever has marked the most objectives wins.

Give You the Whip: In truth the pillars and idols are the remains of a last ditch effort by the moon's previous inhabitants to bind the daemonic power that was destroying their world. They failed to save their world and instead created a nexus of chaotic energy below the south pole that is easily awakened by the combat raging above.
Every time a model is killed in close combat set it to the side and keep track of which player killed it. At the end of every close combat phase, if more than 30 models have been killed in this way the game is over and the player that killed the most models wins. Ties are broken by whoever has marked the most objectives as above.

Who Dares: Given enough time any battle is going to attract the attention of the chaos powers still lingering on the moon. The only hope of survival is for the combatants to be in a position to direct that power against their enemies long enough to make good their escape.
At the beginning of turn 6, whichever player's turn it is rolls a die. On a 4+ the game will end once both players have finished their sixth turn. Otherwise the game will be over at the end of turn 7. Regardless of which turn the game ends on the night fighting rule is in effect on the last turn of the game.

When the last turn is over the winner is whichever player controls more objectives as determined by the capture and control standard mission type (rulebook pg.91).

You Are Standing in a Ten by Ten Stone Corridor

2010-01-04T11:09:00.000-08:00

Stone corridors have long been the starting points and building blocks of a successful adventure. They stretch ahead of you into darkness, widen into vast arenas, and stop abruptly at seemingly blank walls. Sometimes you can hear voices in the distance, other times it's quiet as a tomb. Whatever corridor you find yourself in, you can be sure of what awaits you: danger and glory.

From Dungeon and Dragons to Warhammer (Fantasy and 40K) to boardgames, we'll bring you a new adventure, scenario or campaign every week. Along the way we'll also showcase some personal projects, give you some hobby how-to guides, and review interesting games and products.

Our path lies before us, begin the adventure.