Vindication's what you need!!

If you wanna be a beardy gamer. oooh oooh! With much love to the late Roy Castle.

Anyway, what's all this about? I've been kinda busy over the last week talking to God on the porcelain telephone ... why do people say that? To me it always sounds like I'm saying "mmmwgharblegarblegarblegarble" which is, I'm sure, not what people with faith say to God.

Anyway, again, what I'm trying to say is that while I've been away I've been listening to a lot of Podcasts and on one of those Podcasts (11th Company if you're interested), I heard an interesting concept for an all Drop Pod Vanilla Marine force and how it might work. Here's my take on it and yes I know my version is not "all Drop Pod" but I only own three and it'd take something pretty special to get me to build another one!

HQ
Librarian
Terminator Armour & Storm Shield. Null Zone & Gate of Infinity.

ELITE
Ironclad Dreadnought
Heavy Flamer; Drop Pod w. Deathwind Launcher
Ironclad Dreadnought
Heavy Flamer; Drop Pod w. Deathwind Launcher
Terminator Assault Squad
(8) 5x Thunderhammer Stormshield, 3x Lightning Claws

TROOPS
Tactical Squad
Meltagun, Multimelta, Sgt w. Combi-Melta; Drop Pod
Scout Squad
(5) 4x Combat Blades, Sgt w. Power Fist

FAST ATTACK
Land Speeder Storm
Heavy Flamer
Scout Bikes
(4) 2x Astartes Grenade Launcher, Sgt w. Combi Melta, Meltabombs & Locator Beacon, Cluster Mines.

HEAVY SUPPORT
Vindicator
Siege Shield
Vindicator
Siege Shield
Thunderfire Canonn

Oooh, Vindicators eh? Generally I do think they're a bit rubbish but it's just possible that they could do something awesome in this list.

The idea with the army is to scare my opponent into reserve to give me time to drop my Ironclads and position my Vindicators in prime firing positions unmolested. Smoke is popped at the start of/before turn two to try and weather the storm of fire I may receive then.

The Terminators are gated around by my the Librarian with the assistance of the Scout Bikers' Locator Beacon to get them quickly into position to counter-assault. If I had the models I'd make all 8 Terminators THSS ones but I don't and I have no burning desire to buy any more at the moment.

Both Troop choices are held in reserve, Scouts in the Storm. The Tacs in the Pod are are pure scoring unit with a little punch but the fast moving Scouts can quickly contest or even be used to speed-bump as necessary.

Lastly the Thunderfire Cannon is in the list because I think it's awesome and I can't justify leaving home without it!

There is an option to switch either or both of the Ironclad Dreads for 5-man Sternguard Squads with 4 combi-meltas in each still in Drop Pods. Just to re-enforce the alpha-strike threat of the list but I like the Ironclads better because it's more AV13 and armies are only going to have so-much anti-armour firepower ... probably!

All that's left to do is throw it open to the baying mob and see how it fares! Have at it people!

A return to the club championship

Only last week I was saying that I thought the club championship had died a death now it seems like its back on and that I had the warm up for it last Thursday.

The club championship pits me against the baby seal of claws and fists in a 1500 points game which will be using the all new scoring format for this years open war.

Poor old Dave took some right stick last week from us all after a fairly resounding thrashing but this week he will have thebaron writing his list for him so I expect to see something a little more cohesive.

Hopefully I can do well and progress to the semis because the club has ordered some very nice trophies

Caledonian Uprising - Day 1

So, I'm going to give some brief thoughts on both days of the Caledonian Uprising and then they'll be a post on the many many lessons that I learned...

Game 1 - Peter's Chaos Space Marines

Daemon Prince, Wings, Warp Time

Daemon Prince, Wings, Warp Time

4 Terminators, Mark of Khorne, 4 Combi-Meltas, 1 Power Fist

8 Khorne Bezerkers including Skull Champion with Power Fist, Rhino

8 Khorne Bezerkers including Skull Champion with Power Fist, Rhino

8 Khorne Bezerkers including Skull Champion with Power Fist, Rhino

8 Summoned Lesser Daemons

8 Summoned Lesser Daemons

2 Obliterators

2 Obliterators

This was a really odd game, I kind of always felt in control but at the end of turn 5 it would have been a draw. However, if it had gone to turn 7 I could possibly have tabled Peter (all he had left was a Daemon Prince with a single wound, two Bezerkers and a Rhino) Yet despite all that, I only won by 120VPs at the end of turn 5. Like all Marines, those Beserkers proved very resiliant and those Lesser Daemons with their ability to assault on the turn they deep strike are awesome (why don't more people take them??) In the end I only really saw them off due to the power of Counter Attack.

Game 2 - Ian's Imperial Guard

Company Command Squad, Lascannon

Platoon Command Squad, Lascannon

Squad 1, Grenade Launcher, Autocannon

Squad 2, Grenade Launcher, Autocannon

Squad 3, Autocannon

Heavy Weapons Squad, 3 Mortars

Special Weapons Squad, 3 Plasma Guns

Special Weapons Squad, 3 Meltaguns

Platoon Command Squad, Lascannon

Squad 1, Meltagun, Commisar, 2 Power Weapons, Krak Grenades

Squad 2, Meltagun, Power Weapon, Krak Grenades, Plasma Pistol

Squad 3, Meltagun, Power Weapon, Krak Grenades

Special Weapons Squad, 3 Plasmaguns

Special Weapons Squad, 3 Meltaguns

Leman Russ, Lascannon

Lema Russ Demolisher, Lascaonnon

2 Griffon

We were playing Roll Dice and Tie and I was determined not just to sit on my Objective and take a draw. However, a couple of wrecked vehicles stopped my assault on Ian's Objective and a couple of failed Pinning tests meant that he contested my with a Leman Russ. Again is was a really close game - I was winning at the end of 5, losing at the end of six and would probably have nicked a draw if it had gone to 7. Highlight of the game was the nearly indestructible Land Speeder that took a full turn of shooting and then had to be assaulted to get it off Ian's Objective. He managed to destroy it with Krak Grenades and lucky for him he wrecked it as an explosion could have taken some of his squad with it.

Game 3 - Brad's Space Wolves

I didn't get Brad's exact list but it had three Rune Priests with Living Lightning, 2 squads of Long Fangs and two Autocannon Dreads.

I have to admit that this was probably the most boring game I had in the tournament. Brad sat in his corner. I sat in mine. We shot at each other. He had more shooting - he won.

The Squat Leaf-Blowers

I'm really keen to get my Squats on the table and into some action, so I've finalised a 1,750pt list that should see them in play relatively soon (my modelling and painting progress makes glaciers seem racey by comparison).

The list is based loosely on the now-infamous 2,500pt Leaf-Blower list that first appeared on BoLS way back when (http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2009/09/40k-ard-boys-armylist-leafblower.html). I've tweaked it a bit, and dropped it down by 750pts in order to give me a list I can play at our regular Thursday night club. The list is as follows:

HQ - Warlord (power fist) with 4 Entourage (3 plasma guns), Master of Ordnance & Officer of the Fleet plus Termite Transport Chimera (counts as Company Command Squad with Chimera)

HQ - Ancestor Lord (counts as Primeris Psyker)

EL - 3 x Snipers

TR - 10 x Long-Beards (3 x special weapons) with Termite Transport (counts as Veterans squad with Chimera)

TR - 10 x Long-Beards (3 x special weapons) with Termite Transport

TR - 10 x Long-Beards (3 x special weapons) to ride aboard Sky-Lord Airship

TR - 10 x Long-Beards (3 x special weapons) to ride aboard Air-Lord Airship

HVY - 2 x Land Trains (counts as 2 x Medusas with enclosed crew compartments and Bastion-Breacher shells)

HVY - 1 x Goliath Mega-Cannon (counts as Manticore)

HVY - 2 x Flak Tanks (counts as 2 x Hydras)

FA - 1 x Sky-Lord Airship (counts as Vendetta)

FA - 1 x Air-Lord Airship (counts as Valkyrie)

I have the infantry just about painted (just a few special weapons still to go), however I am yet to start the bulk of the vehicles. I have bought a number of cracking resin models from Ramshackle Games (http://shop.ramshacklegames.co.uk/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=6&sort=20a&page=2) which I need to build and convert into Land Trains, Flak Tanks et al. I hope to make a start on them this week - I'll keep you posted on my progress!

The Purging of Kadillus - the review

The third of the Space Marines Battles book I have read is the Purging of Kadillus by Gav Thorpe. Helsreach was great, I thought that Rynns World was OK and no matter how many times I try and read the White Scars book I end up failing so it was with mixed emotions that I delved into the Dark Angels in detail.

Of course being a good Son of Russ I distrust the boys in green, I've heard rumours from the Long Fangs that all of them didn't make it out of the Great Heresy with clean souls unlike us who never faltered in our support of the All Father.

A very brief (don't want to give anything away) synopsis of the book is that the Dark Angels Third Company led by Belial fend off an Ork invasion ordered by the Maggie Thatcher of 40K Ghazghkull. Of course being a Space Marines battles book the odds are stacked against the Dark Angels.

So what did I like about it? The fact that its a Dark Angels book that has nothing to do with the fallen. You see the Dark Angels as you would any other chapter, defenders of the Imperium, the Emperor's finest and that's it. I also really like that its a book about Space Marines, Guard and Orks and it would be easy to see it recreated on the table top.

What I didn't like it and its something creeping into Black Library books is a lack of imagination when it comes to names. There are millions of worlds in the Imperium and the worlds are spread across light years, do we really need another character called Uriel? Surprisingly from me after my thoughts on Prospero Burns I thought it was a little simple which I suppose its going to be, there can't really be much character development in a single battle.

My final point and its just for Graham if he is reading, the start of the book contains an attack on a 'cough' Squats 'cough' world. (Just pretend Demiurge are Squats mate).

6/10 not a masterpiece but enjoyable.

The dirtiest word in British 40K

Has to be WIN.

GW seem to be doing there very best to convince gamers that 40K doesn't have winners and even more scarily losers (although Mrs Simo is strongly of the belief that we are in fact all losers).

There is no better example of GW's inclusion policy than Throne of Skulls. 15 years ago I remember School Sports days receiving the same treatment as GW's premier event. Kids were no longer allowed to compete against each other just themselves in order to have good clean fun.

I have never played at a Throne of Skulls event but I have been in attendance at the old style and heard some nasty reports of the new. The old style when I was in attendance was a competitive tournament very similar to the tournaments I and my Claws and Fists team mates attend, you have your mix of your very good gamers on the top tables and then your chancers like us (minus the baron) on the middle to bottom tables. In the end with Swiss Style everyone is where they should be by the end and most of the time is facing an opponent with a similar play style to their own.

This however is no longer the case. Now throne of skulls tries to make as many winners as possible but in the end alienates a vast number of people (this description comes from a number of conversations with people last weekend at Caledonian which was on the same weekend as Winter Throne of Skulls). Instead of having a overall winner there is now a winner for every army used. These winners then get their points amended by looking at their final score and their difference from the average of everyone else who used thier armies. One player last weekend was telling Andy and I that at the Autumn event there was only one player who had won 5 out of 5, he had Blood Angels. He however wasn't crowned overall winner instead that fell to a Dark Eldar player who won 4 and drew 1 (using the new codex) who had a greater difference over the others in his field (which was one lad using the old codex) and so he beat the Blood Angels player. As I see it that is truly pathetic!

It has been suggested to me that GW's aim is to promote these events for friendly gamers rather than competitive ones because there are enough competitive tournaments about these days. However Andy, Darren and Gav were all at WHW the other weekend during the fantasy throne of skulls and noted that the place wasn't very busy at all. Are friendly gamers really going to spend £55 for 5 games and some really awful food?

This to me is where GW are falling down at the moment. We have all seen that sales and stocks are falling and their answer is to keep pandering to children while raising prices. Children may be the future but they aren't your present. What is is the 25-50 year old bloke with plenty of cash on the hip to spend on a 10 quid bit of lead.

On thinking about this the surprising thing is how different North America do it or at least seem to. I have never played 40K in America, although I have chucked plenty of dice in Vegas, but I do remember the arguments revolving around Ard Boyz last year on Warseer and Bolter and Chainsword. Now I will never play in it so I'm not going to say whether I think its right or wrong but the impression I got of it was this was GW NA saying this is an event for Competitive Gamers, no painting, no comps just gaming, you don't like it don't play in it.

So why is the American way of gaming so different from our own? Is it something to do with society where we fail to recognise achievement and promote mediocrity where as Americans refuse to do so?

Underdogs...the Thunderfire

That's right Boyz and Grots of all ages TheBaron is back again with his weekly post about under used and under rated units in the game of 40K.

This week I'm going to jump to the Space Marine Codex and the Heavy Support slot to take a look at the Blunderfire Thunderfire Cannon. Now it's obvious that I think this unit is great...other wise I wouldn't be writing about it. So lets jump straight in shall we..

What We Get

Well for 100pts and a heavy slot we get a Techmarine with full Servo-harness and all the special rules that come with that...oh, and a gun...a big gun. However, both of these things need a little more analysis and this can largely be done independant of each other.

Techmarine: Has the same stat line as a standard marine, which is nothing to be sniffed at, but his save is 2+ meaning he can shrug off Krak Missiles and Battle Cannon shells. The Servo-harness means that he has a flamer, twin linked plasma pistol and 2 power fist attacks on top of his other attacks. While this in no way makes him a combat beast, it does mean should his Cannon get destroyed he can run and join a nearby squad of Marines or Devastators to give them a little more combat punch/counter charge threat.

His "Bolster Defences" means that should you have a piece of ruins in your DZ you can give yourself a nice 3+ piece of terrain to hide in, and this works even better should you have Telion, or some cammo cloaks. Now, this terrain doesn't have to be fully in your deployment area which means in DoW and Spearhead you're likely to be able to find something over lapping into your area, but be sure to talk through with your opponent before the game kicks off what counts as ruins.

Finally his "Blessing" rule gives him the ability to provide more back field support to Rifleman Dreads and Predators if the Thunderfire is taken out.

Thunderfire: Has a 60" range and 3 fire modes...oh, and if you take into account the above Techmarine bought from the Elite section it costs 25pts! Bargain! The fire modes have very different uses. The Surface Detonation is great to use against light vehicles such as Radiers, Trukks etc due to BS4 and 4 shots that are not Barrage which means each blast rolls seperately so you should average at least 2 hits on a vehicle. It's also very good at hitting bunched up Marine squads as it wounds on a 2+, yes they get their save as it's only AP5 but you'll take them down with sheer weight of fire and it also means DE don't get FnP.

The Airburst is good at taking out T3-4 Infantry that depends on its cover saves to survive, Guard Blob Squads, Ork Boyz, Grots, Gaunts etc are all choice targets. Finally the Subterranean blast, while only S4 is great at slowing down Infantry, and making bikes, jump troops and vehicles take dangerous terrain tests. I'm not saying you should count on it, but it does have the possibility of immobilising landraiders, and bunched up tanks...the template only has to touch them...and you have 4 of them!

(She clearly likes artillery...why dont you?)

Now the biggest downside to the Thunderfire is that it's Artillery which means that any shooting at the unit is randomised between the two, and 66% of the time it will hit the Gun. Any glancing or penetrating hits will destroy the Cannon and leave your Techmarine running around in the back field without his favourite toy. However, this all comes down to deployment and cover saves. I would like to direct you all to pg51 of the Main Rule Book where it states unless otherwise mentioned:

"...these units follow the same rules as infantry."

Now under artillery it says that the unit cannot run, and cannot go upstairs in ruins...but it doesn't mention anything about cover saves. This means you use the cover saves as written for infantry which I'm sure we all know works by calculating if half of the squad is in cover or not. As the unit is 2 models strong placing the Techmarine in cover will give a cover save to the unit, and then when fired upon you randomise the hits and then take your cover saves. The only real reference to Artillery being vehicles is to do with armour value and glance/pen-ing not to do with cover saves, therefore the Infantry rules apply. This coupled with Bolster Defences means you could be sitting in some nice 3+ Ruins. Remember though both the Techmarine and the Cannon need to be able to draw LoS to their target.

One final thought is that you can also buy a Drop Pod for the squad, now you should never deploy the Thunderfire in the Pod, you want it on every turn from turn one, firing. However, this does allow you to manipulate the Drop Pod Assault rules meaning if you had for example a Dread and a Tactical Squad in Pods you could bring them both down in Turn 1 and then leave the Techmarines pod in reserve, or use it to block LoS by dropping it in front of some Long Fangs etc making your opponent move, or waste a turn of shooting.

As always this is just my opinion but I hope at least I've made you all take a second look at the Thunderfire. This will be the last in the series for now. Underdogs will still pop up from time to time when I come across something I think should be written about, but it wont be on a strict weekly basis. I hope you've enjoyed the ride though.

TheBaron out!

I rolled 7: (5/2)

Swapsies

After another disappointing weekend at a tournament, I've decided to ditch my plans for a Dark Eldar army. I love the models but I still don't have a strong enough grasp of the game to start thinking about a second army. I'm going to continue to focus on the Wolves for the foreseeable future. With that in mind, I went to GW last night to exchange a box of Warriors, a box of Wyches and a box of Reavers for three Drop Pods. I've decided on Pods after realising that I wasn't nearly aggressive enough at the tournament. Next weekend, I'll post up the pictures and give my thoughts on where it all went wrong. Although, maybe I should have followed everyone else's suit and posted it on Monday!

Highway of Death - Kor'sarro Khan vs Wazdakka Gutsmek

Get your motor running, head out on the highway...

Sometimes the Arena of Death just isn't big enough and in this week's case, it wouldn't do justice to our two bikers...

Round 1 - Wazdakka on the charge

Gutsmek opened fire with his Dakkakannon at the Space Marine Captain. Scoring two hits, he managed two wounds. Khan failed one of his 3+ Power Armour saves and was instantly killed.

Round 2 - Khan on the charge

Kor'sarro squeezed off two shots from the Twin-Linked Bolters on Moondraken, hitting twice but failing to wound the Ork. Opening the throttle on his Bike he charged into combat. He caused three hits but could only do one wound. Blooded but unbowed, Gutsmek powered up his Klaw. Hitting twice he caused two wounds. Khan's Iron Halo failed to stop either and so he was cut in half by the Warboss.

Well, that was quick and bloody. I'd hoped that we'd see Moonfang's kill on a '6' special rule but it just wasn't to be. I'd also hoped that it would last a bit longer, giving the impression of a race to the death - a sort of cross between Ben Hur, Tron and Mad Max 2. Like most of the Space Marine characters, Khan is more notable for what he brings to the army rather than what he actually does himself. Being able to Outflank your entire army and gaining Furious Charge for a Command Squad on Bikes is a really nice bonus. Wazdakka I've never seen so I'd love to hear if anyone has been using him to lead their all bike Waaaghs!

The old rope-a-dope

Here I am again at the end of another Tournament and I'm please to say that what was looking like a bit of a rough ride on Saturday night had turned into a pretty respectable 32nd (out of 78 players) place finish by Sunday evening. It was great to have the other Claws and Fists guys there over the weekend and the banter was flowing ... just never let Simo show you how much he loves you, you'll regret it ... probably!

If you weren't following me on twitter, here's the quick version of my results over the Weekend.

Day 1

Dawn of War / Seize Ground (5 objectives) vs. Necrons
Destroyer Spam: 11-9 win
Pitched Battle / Capture & Control vs. Daemons
18 Crushers 2 Great Unclean Ones: 4-16 loss
Spearhead / Annihilation vs Daemons
12 Fiends, 4x Monstrous Creatures: 5-15 loss

Day 2

Dawn of War / Capture and Control vs. Imperial Guard
3x Vendetta & 3x Manticore: 7-13 loss
Spearhead / Seize Ground (5 objectives) vs. Imperial Guard
2x Demolishers 1x Manticore - Steel Legion: 17-3 win
Pitched Battle / Annihilation vs. Tyranids
3x Trygon, 3x Tervigon, 6x Hive Guard, 3x Zoanthropes: 17-3 win

So all told, 3 wins 3 losses (though technically it was 2 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses) and my usual (unintentional) tactic of doing badly early on and then finishing with a flourish paid off again.

In game 1 I was a single model away from phasing out my opponent so had it gone to turn 6 I would have had a 20-0 win which (considering my form for the rest of the day) wouldn't have put me at too much of a disadvantage and the extra 9 points would probably have seen me finishing a fair bit higher.

Enough with the what-if's it was a great tournament weekend, fantastically well run by the ETC Team Scotland lads. I hope they do it again next year because I'll certainly be heading back for it!

If you'd like to see a report of the day from the tournament organiser's perspective, including pics and the nominees for the best painted army award, click here

Caledonian Uprising - A Lurker's Report

Team Claws and Fists visited Caledonian Uprising on Saturday/Sunday, and I think I speak for everyone when I say it was a great tournament. It was really well organised, and a fun event throughout. In addition to that, our Michael dispensed some classic advise on the true nature of love. Unbelievable and unrepeatable!

So, the event totalled 6 games, 3 per day. On the first day I played a Space Wolves army first (I think - the first day is a blur!) which I lost to. My second game was against a great player called Simon, who was playing Orks for only the fourth time ever after previously running Tau - quite a change! Our game was very eventful, and hilarious throughout, with Simon's Trukks and Battlewagons getting bogged down in terrain on the second turn, and a vicious maelstrom of close-quarter fighting resulting for the rest of the game. It was hands-down the best game of the two days for me, very enjoyable and memorable for all the right reasons.

Day two say me facing Orks, Space Wolves (again) and Flesh Tearers, in that order. The last game in particular was memorable as it was against a previous tournament opponent called Rob, who is another great guy who takes the game in just the right spirit. In that game Rob's Marines crushed my Chaos Marines in a war of long-ranged attrition and some close-quarters action between his Assault squads and my Berserkers.

My final result was three draws, three losses and a tournament tally of between 35-40 points over the two days which left me 76th out of 80. I was happy not to be last in only my second tournament. I also learnt a few things over the weekend (not just Michaels's lessons on recognising true love). Most importantly, I got over my newbie fear of being wiped off the table, which has happened many, many times in my first year back in the game after my 12-year exile. This demoralising string of results forced me into a very defensive frame of mind which resulted in my now-infamous 'HIDE' tactics. Well, after much encouragement from my fellow Claws, I have ditched the tactic and replaced it with 'BLENDER OF DEATH' which is characterised by Berserkers, Raptors and Terminators pushing up middle-and-centre early doors and engaging anything squashy, whilst my gun-line of Predator, Land Raider, Defiler and Obliterators shoot the opponent's mech. It's a work-in-progress but so far so fun!

Graham.

A day to forget and a day to remember!

So as you can see below we attended Maelstrom this week for the Caledonia open. Two early starts, some great games, a couple of good wins and meeting 'that guy' I came 56th out of the 80, not a great performance but not as bad as it looked at one point so I guess I should start at the beginning.

A day to forget

Game one saw me come up against a Daemons army which featured a hefty amount of Nurgle on the board along with 18 Fiends. The game had 5 objectives and I have no shame in saying I was outplayed by a much better opponent. At during turn one things seemed to be going pretty well, a soul grinder gone, a Greater Daemon of nurgle on 2 wounds and one squad of fiends down to 2 models one with a wound left. However a great reserves roll saw everything else come on bar a squad of Plague Bearers and I quickly was overcome by too much close combat even for a wolf. I avoided the tabling by the game ending in turn 5 but I have no problem in saying that I played a better player and he deserved the win. Finally tally Loss 17-3

Following a good lunch with plenty of food (Much better than Warhammer world) I found myself facing an Ork army with two objectives on the board. It all started so well. I knocked out his Meganobs transport so they were walking, my thunderwolves charged his bike squad and destroyed it and then when his meganobs got there sorted them too. By that time they had almost been destroyed but I felt it was a good trade off. A squad of Grey Hunters took out one of his squads of boys and my scouts dealt with a squad of grots.

All in all I was happy and then his burners arrived. Now the Ork forces I had played don't use burners, I had faced them once before but then they were on foot and they decided to charge in using their power weapons. This time there were ten of them in a battle wagon and my grey hunters were all bunched together after just finishing a combat. 70 hits later they were gone. I learnt and the next grey hunter squad they got to they only got 40 hits but it was enough to kill them and then again with 30 something and again they died. That one unit killed the vast majority of my army and I was left with 3 points again. My inexperience cost me with that one but I will learn.

So after game 6 I lay on a lowly 6 points and headed further down the tables to meet 'that guy'.

Annihalation, spearhead against a gun line IG player, it was only going to go one way really. There was just too much firepower kicking out because he just never had to move. The tables were set up with a lot of terrain to limit IG apparently but it really did play into their hands when you wanted to get up close and personal and you just kept getting stuck in tar pits or terrain. There was a lot of rules bickering over very simple rules and I just didn't enjoy the game, I had to query a ref 8 times over the two days, 7 times in this one game. In the end turn 5 came along and instead of continuing I offered the win. I had been beaten and beaten completely but unlike the other two games this just wasn't fun and it really put a dampener on the day.

A day to remember

(Thought this picture was suitable because Gav and Andy being bitter Blues will never see one and Graham being a Newcastle fan only thinks that the inter toto cup exists when it comes to Europe)

Because of a 20-0 loss the day before I found myself in the bottom 2 on Sunday morning and had a determination to do better. I know I'm not a great 40k player but I didn't think I was this bad. I knew I was facing a footdar list this morning having spoke to a fellow First Company vet the evening before when the lists went up. I also knew that my opponent played Eldar very differently from the normal Eldar armies you see. It featured 2 big squads of Guardians on foot, a Farseer without Doom, Dark Reapers, Scorpions and Banshees. To say it was a massacre puts it lightly, the lad clearly hadn't played much and although it was good to get a win it didn't feel good to get it in these circumstances. I lost 2 Long Fangs, had a wound off my Wolf Lord and suffered an immobilised Rhino. He had nothing by the top of turn 6. A 20 nil win left me on 26 and finally moving in the right direction.

The fifth game was Spear headed 5 objectives against a Khorne themed chaos marine list, they very nicely painted. It involved my opponent Ray walking towards me and and me backing off until I had eventually took out his vinidcator and terminators. I lost this game due to a mistake made not in the game or even in deployment but when talking through the game. We decided that the buildings were impassable terrain, fair enough, I then inquired about the hills which normally I adjudge as line of sight blockers only however my opponent suggested that they would be 4 up cover. I never really thought just nodded however this cost me thoroughly, took my Thunderwolves 3 turns to get through it and then only because they were charged by some Beserkers and they had to pile in. Once they had dealt with the beserkers a squad of oblits and a Greater Deamon followed but it was too late, one more turn would have given me a draw, two more the win but for the fourth game out of 5 we only saw 5 turns. I gained 5 points Ray gained 15 putting me on 31 and bottom out of the 5 Claws and Fists team members.

The advantage of losing my fifth game meant I didn't have to move for the final game. Another nice thing was that I was playing fellow First Company Vet Si Thorne and another Khorne heavy Chaos marines army.

With no Oblits to worry about I knew Si would be coming at me quickly so I set about shooting him as much as possible. First turn his Raptors flew just in front of my Rune Priest in a Rhino with 9 Grey Hunters in the hope to next turn take my Long Fangs who the Squad were baby sitting, not realising the slowing effect of Murderous Hurricane. I only got 4 hits at strength three but that did manage to cause an unsaved wound, the squad were then in difficult and dangerous terrain. Next I took a couple of pot shots at his terminators with las cannons and against his Rhino's with missile Launchers, the rhino lost a weapon and a Terminator made an invulnerable save.

His turn saw his greater daemon come on just in front of my Rune Priest which led to the only real debate in the entire match, does a Rune Priest wound a Greater Daemon from the Chaos Space Marine Codex on a two up even though they don't have the daemon special rule (which I do believe an Eldar avatar does)? Si claimed it didn't for that reason, I claimed that common sense said it should. Unlike in game 3 the rules debate was done in good spirit, I offered to 4 plus it but in the end we decided to go and see the ref who in fact decided that it did. With that my squad multi charged the Daemon Prince and the remaining raptor slaying both the Daemon and the squad while losing a Grey Hunter and the Rune Priest. Bit of disappointment losing him but he had took out his points so all in all I was fairly happy.

I then made the brave decision to separate my Wolf Lord from the squad of Thunderwolves, the Wolf Lord would go for the AV 14 Land Raider which had moved 12' with his Thunder hammer while the squad went after the Vidicator which had also moved 12'. The Wolf Lord hit twice but and penetrated once but unfortunately did nothing because of the blasted daemon inside the hull, the squad did however manage to take off the demolisher cannon leaving the Vidicator looking pretty pointless. However now my Wolf Lord was all alone with 5 Terminators and a Chaos Lord with a daemon weapon advancing. They finished him off without him getting to attack back and I was beginning to worry that I didn't have enough to take out the Landraider. My Thunderwolves then rounded on the Terminators but not before my Duel Plasma gun wielding Grey Hunter Squad and their Rhino rapid fired into them. Combined with the charge of 4 thunderwolves the Terminators and the Lord were dealt with while a squad of Grey Hunters dealt with some summoned lesser Daemons easily.

My Thunderwolves already down to a wound a piece were then charged by the remaining squad of Beserkers (the others having been killed by a combination of Suicide Scouts and Grey Hunters) died which left 2 and a half squads of Grey Hunters against 5 Khorne Beserkers who were running away. I had a choice, 1 and a half squads couldn't get to them but I had my Duel Plasma gunning squad with a Mark of the Wulfen, Wolf Standard and Power Sword to finish four Beserkers who were about 5 and a half inches away, the question came, should I risk shooting, not killing them all and not getting into assault, surely 3 power weapon attacks + rending attacks + 24 normal attacks re rolling 1's should be enough? I feel that you can see whats coming, not one wound caused in fact I lost the combat by one. We stayed locked in and I had to hope for a sixth turn to finish them off which I didn't get. Final result was a 17-3 win and a very enjoyable game.

All in all I picked up 42 points out of 60 on day two which I can't grumble about compared to my 6 points out of 60 on day one. I played 5 enjoyable games and I hope that the one that I didn't enjoy doesn't sour my memories, I know my team mates will remember the weekend for the sage like advice on women I dispensed to them which can't be repeated on here.

I was pleased to see the Army I voted for win the painting competetition, I had actually voted for it at Open War as well but it didn't win there. It was a pre heresy World Eaters Army and the owner was using the blood angels codex to run it.

Now I have to think where I go next before the Indie GT which is fast approaching. Double Rune Priest is calling especially as I know that with Jaw this weekend I would have done much better against Deamons but it means I have to make sacrifices elsewhere (Will my 280 Points Thunderlord make it?).

In the end

The love you make is equal to the love you take.

Phew! I'm glad that's over, that's been a hell of a weekend. The last game was a cagey affair against Graham's Necrons but he took the win by 7 KPs to 5.

Yet again, I wasn't aggressive enough and I paid the price. I've had a great weekend and I've learned a lot. Back to the drawing board before Open War I think...

Drawing class

Blogger against blogger as I faced Darren in round 5. To be fair he should have beat me easily but he went for a tabling and I managed to jump on two objectives to nick the draw.

Highlight was Darren's freshly painted Warboss failing a Jaws test :-)

Noob boob

Yet again I lost Roll Dice and Tie. It was against Sean's Orks (which is probably the best painted I've ever played against) and he won 2-0.

I made a couple of noob mistakes (well I am still quite new to this). It was DOW set up and I let him go first thinking I could leverage my entire army against half of his. What it actually meant was that he claimed my objective on turn two with a big unit of Boyz and I was too far away to shift him.

I also delayed my push with my Rhinos and Razorbacks. They should have moved 12" a turn but they stayed stationery for a turn and then only moved 6" leaving me half a turn off his objective.

So, that leaves me on 28 (Mick is on 26 and Andy is on 27 so we'll all be pretty close!)

The second coming

So, day two at the Caledonian Open and I'm on 24 points after a win and two defeats. The last game was against Brad from the Space Wolves blog and his fantastically painted Wolves. To be honest I got my tactics completely wrong. We both sat back in our respective corners and shot at each other and he had more shooting.

I also made some stupid mistakes in terms of taking off casualties that wouldn't have made any difference to the overall result. However, I think it was clearly inductive of a tired mind. Next tournament, I'm going to make sure I go to bed before 3am on the night before!

I'm a bit more rested this morning so hopefully I'll start a bit better than I finished. Although, yesterday I think I peaked too soon!! I'm starting on table 26 and my aim is to get up around 20 - the middle of the pack.

Turning the corner on day 2?

So I'm sitting on 20 points out of a possible 75 with one win and two losses. Not the best first day but I can still recover today (as long as I don't have to play any more daemon players!). IF you're not already you can follow me on twitter at fudal78 for live updates.

Crashing down to earth

Well, after my victory, my hubris has brought me crashing down to earth. I lost to Ian's IG after a last turn objective contest in Roll Dice and Tie.

It was very close and it could have gone either way (it was a draw at the end of T5 and would probably have been a draw in T7)

At least this should return me to the middle tables where I belong...

Order from Chaos

Wow, my first proper win at a tournament! After a series of draws and "technical" victories, I've finally popped my cherry.

I played Peter's Khorne themed CSM army and they proved very difficult to shift. There was a difference of about 120 in VPs so I think that shows just how close it was.

However, as Andy says you're better off losing or drawing your first game and then winning big later on. Since he's in the top 50 in the country I should have listened. Well, hopefully I won't be on too high a table.

Away for the weekend

Just about to leave the house to head up to Mansfield for the first day of the Caledonian Uprising Tournament. My list is as follows:

Blood Angels Roster

HQ
Librarian (1#, 100 pts)
1 Librarian, Fear of the Darkness & The Sanguine Sword

Elite
Terminator Assault Squad (6#, 475 pts)
2 Terminators with Lightning Claws
2 Terminators with Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield
1 Sergeant with Lightning Claws
1 Land Raider Redeemer, Extra Armor + Multi-Melta
Sanguinary Priest (2#, 100 pts)
2 Sanguinary Priests
Sternguard Veteran Squad (6#, 180 pts)
4 Sternguard Veterans, Combi-Meltagun x4
1 Sergeant
1 Drop Pod

Troops
Assault Squad Green (6#, 185 pts)
3 Assault Marines
1 Assault Marine, Meltagun
1 Sergeant, Power Weapon
1 Razorback, Dozer Blade + Lascannon and TL Plasmagun
Assault Squad White (6#, 185 pts)
3 Assault Marines
1 Assault Marine, Meltagun
1 Sergeant, Power Weapon
1 Razorback, Dozer Blade + Lascannon and TL Plasmagun
Assault Squad Yellow (6#, 155 pts)
4 Assault Marines
1 Sergeant
1 Razorback, Twin Linked Lascannon

Heavy Support
Dreadnought (1#, 120 pts)
1 Dreadnought, Twin Linked Autocannon x2
Dreadnought (1#, 120 pts)
1 Dreadnought, Twin Linked Autocannon x2
Devastator Squad (5#, 130 pts)
4 Devastator Marines, Missile Launcher x4
1 Sergeant

And you can follow me on Twitter @Fudal78 if you want to keep up with how I'm doing.

It's going to be a long weekend!

I Feel Dirty...

I'm not proud of this....well I am a little...but still! Anyway, having played around with my list a bit today I thought I had everything sorted and set to go. My earlier list can be seen here.... and after playing around with some of the wargear options I was about to hit print when a mini that has been on my paint station for around 3 years caught my eye...

It looked at me, looked right into my soul and called to me....paint me...and we shall win...paint me and greatness shall be yours. Now maybe I have fallen to the lure of the Dark Side, or I'm answering the call of Slaanesh (now I know how Horus felt)....or maybe I should lay off the Gin for a while! Whatever the answer I now have to paint one mini this evening...and that mini is a Mega Armoured Warboss so that I can use the following list:

Warboss with Klaw, Kombi-Skorcha, Attack Squig, Cybork Body and 'Evy Armour = 120
Warboss with Mega Armour, Cybork Body and Boss Pole = 115

10 Kommandos with 2 Burnas, Nob with Boss Pole and Klaw = 170

10 'Ard Boyz, Nob with Klaw and Pole =140
-Trukk =35
 5 Mega Nobz with 3 Kombi-Skorchas = 215
-Trukk =35
20 Shoota Boyz with 2 Big Shootas, Nob with Klaw and Pole = 170
20 Shoota Boyz with 2 Rokkitz, Nob with Klaw and Pole = 180
18 Slugga Boyz with Nob with Klaw and Pole = 148
10 Grots with Runt Herd = 40

Deff Kopta with Twin Rokkitz and Buzzsaw = 70

Battlewagon with RPJ, Riggas, Armour, 1 Big Shoota, Deff Rolla = 135
Looted Wagon with Boom Gun and 'Ard Case = 115
2 Lobbas with 3 Ammo Runts = 59

Total = 1747

Three points under but that doesn't matter. It does mean I have no real ranged fire power outside of the Looted Wagon as I've lost the Shock Attack Gun and the Lootas. But in 2 out of 6 games these would probably spend the first couple of turns getting into firing positions anyway. It does mean that I've removed a kill point, given the Deff Kopta his Alpha Strike capability back and shoe-horned in another Mega Nob and a second Warboss.

I thought about dropping the Mega Nobz Trukk, the Looted Wagon and a few other bits for a Killer Kan and a second Battle Wagon...however, I wouldn't want to look like a power gamer now would I?! So, not sure which list to take, I did what all good gamers do and D6'd it....1-3 my first list 4-6 my second list (above).

Gork smiled upon me and turned up a 6 so it looks like I'm spending the evening painting a Mega Armoured Warboss...

TheBaron out!

I rolled: 2 (1/1)...reminds me of my morale checks last night...

To war my brothers

So as Darren has pointed out were all off to Maelstrom this weekend (minus the baby seal who never blogs anyway).

My two warm up games for the Caledonian Open went well playing two Grahams.

Graham 1 had a Imperial Guard army with 3 Vendettas, a couple of Leman Russ Demolishers and plenty of troops, in the end we finished on turn 5 when I really needed another couple for the table but using the Caledonian Open scoring system I gained 18 to Grahams 7.

Graham 2 (our very own Graham) had his Chaos Space Marines, the game was adraw in the end and the victory points were stacked in my favour however I never knew he was so sneaky, there I am sat on the objective and up comes Graham to tank shock me and park on the objective. We ended on turn 5, turn 6 could have very well given Graham the win while turn 7 would have probably given it to me.
It was a stange game but a good event.

Tonight I will have a recce to make sure I can find the place and probably go out for some tea at the same time and tomorrow we will get into it.

This will be my first two day event and I am inclined to believe that its going to be knackering but plenty of lager will see me through it I'm sure.

To Quell an Uprising...

Well, as usual I'm attending a tournament last minute. I had not planned on going to the Uprising at Maelstrom tomorrow, however, after seeing a message from the organiser on our club forum about a last minute drop out and having the weekend free I thought why not...it also means there will be 5 of us from Claws and Fists!

So unlike the last Open War where I had 48hrs to prepare, I've had around 36hrs to prep for this one. All I have to do is decide what army to take. Last year my tournament army (the two that I attended) was Witch Hunters, which basically consisted of an Inq Lord, an Assassin, and two squads of IST backed up by a couple of Dreads, Tactical Squads and Speeders. Now this list is 1750pts, and does well enough but I haven't played with it since October time...it did however get me the title of "Best Sisters of Battle General" over on rankings HQ...somehow...(fyi I don't take myself seriously, that was sarcasm, not arrogance).


Since then I've been playing my Orks to some success in our clubs mini tournament, and before anyone thinks it's a Nob Biker, Deff Rolla, Loota spam list it isnt...not by a long shot. I don't have a Deff Rolla, I don't have any bikers (Nob or otherwise), and I have 7 Lootas...it's a hybrid list which works for me...appart from Land Raiders, its the only thing I can't seem to deal with but hey-ho thats the Orks for you.

So I'm at a cross road...I don't have time to paint anything for tomorrow and need to pop into the office later today to print off a list...but I just don't know what to take.

Here is the Ork list, feel free to comment below:

Orks

Warboss with Klaw, Kombi-Skorcha, Attack Squig, Cybork Body and 'Evy Armour = 120
Big Mek with Shock Attack Gun and Ammo Runt = 98

10 Kommandos with 2 Burnas, Nob with Boss Pole and Klaw = 170
7 Lootas = 105

10 'Ard Boyz, Nob with Klaw and Pole =140
-Trukk =35
4 Mega Nobz with 2 Kombi-Skorchas = 170
-Trukk =35
20 Shoota Boyz with 2 Big Shootas, Nob with Klaw and Pole = 170
20 Slugga Boyz with 2 Rokkitz, Nob with Klaw and Pole = 180
18 Shoota Boyz with Nob with Pole and Big Choppa = 128
10 Grots with Runt Herd = 40

Deff Kopta with Twin Rokkitz = 45

Battlewagon with RPJ, Riggas, Armour, 1 Big Shoota, Deff Rolla = 135
Looted Wagon with Boom Gun and 'Ard Case = 115
2 Lobbas with 3 Ammo Runts = 59

Total = 1745....so I have 5pts spare.

I've had to trim the list down by remove some toys so that I can live up to my phrase (one of many) of "Boyz before Toyz". This has meant I've dropped 'Evy Armour from all my Nobz, and the Klaw from the Deff Kopta. Ideally I'd like to take a 15-20 man storm boy squad instead of the SAG and the extra Shoot Boyz as I played a test game with them last night and they are amazingly fast!

So options for the 5pts:

• Add a Big Shoota to the 18 Shoota Boyz
• Add another Big Shoota to the Battlewagon
• Drop the Rokkitz from the Sluggas and give the Deff Kopta a Buzz Saw
• Something else....

In any case, I have to thank Fudal for offering to lend me a Deff Rolla Battlewagon and some Slugga Boyz as mine doesn't have a Rolla, and I only normally run Shoota Boyz....feels like I've joined the Dark Side though as this will be the first time I've used a Deff Rolla!

Feel free to leave tips and comments below as usual.

TheBaron out!

I rolled: 3 (2/1)

Underdogs...Skyclaws

That's right Boyz and Grots of all ages TheBaron is back again with his weekly post about under used and under rated units in the game of 40K.

This week I'm going to jump to the Space Wolves Codex and the Fast Attack slot to take a look at Skyclaws. Now it's obvious that I think this unit is great...other wise I wouldn't be writing about it. So lets jump straight in shall we..

What We Get

Well for 18pts we get an assault marine with -1 BS and -1WS. On top of this we get the standard marines/wolves rules such as ATSKNF, Counter-attack etc along with Headstrong and Beserk Charge. We also get a few options for a Special Weapon, Special ccw and  Mark of the Wulfen (MotW).

What We Dont Get

Well comparing them to an Assault Squad from the Marine Codex (I wont compare them to the BA ones as they are in a different slot, are scoring, and have a lot more options) we see roughly the same options, and roughly the same points cost. However, we cant get away from the -1WS and -1BS, and it's the former rather than the latter that I feel is the main reason we don't see more Flying Puppies on the table.

(Death from above)                 

Lower Stats

Lets not kid ourselves, no one is really bothered about the -1BS on Skyclaws. While it would be nice to have a more reliable melta-gun shot in the unit it's not what they are about. They are all about running up and hitting you in the face. Simple as. So, is WS 3 all that bad?

Sir Biscuit recently did a very good post here about what all the stats do, and what it's important to pay attention to. While I agree with most of what he said I don't agree that WS 3 is bad. It's obvious it's not as good as 4, but it doesn't mean you'll hit less often, it just means you'll get hit easier. He summed it up nicely when he said:

"going from weapon skill 3 to 4 is really a defensive upgrade"

...and it is pure and simple. Don't forget however that this is backed up by T4 and a 3+ save which are very good defensive stats in themselves. Personally I don't feel WS3 limits their abilities as much as people make out, but that might just be me.

Build Options

Personally I'd always take the maximum number in the squad, backed up by a melta gun, a power weapon and MotW...all for 220pts. This gives you a unit that can potentially take out a tank with its melta gun(but don't count on it) and a staggering 31 normal S4 attacks, 4 S4 PW attacks and between 3 and 9 S4 rending attacks from the MotW. Using simple math-hammer *shudder* that's around 10 (1-2 being pw/rending) wounds on a T4 unit assuming an average roll on the MotW to give 40 attacks in total. That's enough to take the heart out of a large squad of Ork Boyz, or a Guard Blob Squad (being T3 it will be even more wounds). 

Synergies

Now, you can run the unit on its own, but I feel it's better to give them some support and there are 4 options for this. (Technically 5, but I wouldn't advise a Wolf Lord in with Skyclaws as the cost it too much)

Wolf Priest: The Wolf Priest gives the squad the Oath of War meaning they have Prefered Enemy vs a certain type of unit. He makes the unit Fearless, and also comes with his own nifty gear as standard. On top of this he removes their Headstrong special rule which means that you can get a few bolt pistol shots off on the way in.

Rune Priest: Gives the squad a little more combat punch (but not as much as the WP), and some psychic defence. Plus he can give them a cover save if you get caught out in the open, and as you'll often find yourself on a flank you can get a Jaws shot off down an enemy gun line. Also removes Headstrong.

Wolf Guard Battle Leader: Has a few more options that the Wolf Priest and starts off cheaper but will soon get more expensive when you start to add things on. He also removes Headstrong.

Wolf Guard: Has a lot of options and is the cheapest option. You'll no doubt be taking Wolf Guard in your other squads anyway, so whats one more. This gives you the ability to add a hidden Powerfist and a combi-melta into the unit, while at the same time removing Headstrong for 68pts.

I would always take the Wolf Guard, and if points permit, the Wolf Priest as I feel they add the most to the unit. However, the others are options you could try out.

 

(Point me at the enemy)

Putting it all Together 

This squad is all about offensive capability. It's not scoring so don't worry about it if it dies, it's only a kill point. Use it to tear the heart out of the enemies scoring units. Things like Ork Boyz, Gaunt squads and Blob Squads are what this should be going after but thats not to say with the right support options it can't deal with a Tactical Squad.

As always, this is just my opinion and feel free to leave your comments below, and don't forget to check out my contest here.

TheBaron out!

I rolled: 10 (4/6)

Arena of Death: Tycho Vs Tycho

Can a man defeat his inner demons? Find out in the Arena of Death as Captain Tycho takes on Death Company Tycho...

Round 1 - Captain Tycho on the charge

Tycho levelled his Combi-Melta at the familiar looking face and pulled the trigger. He hit and wounded. Death Company Tycho's only hope was for his Iron Halo to save him. It couldn't and he slumped to the floor, dead.

Round 2 - Death Company Tycho on the charge

Death Company Tycho levelled his Combi-Melta at the familiar looking face and pulled the trigger. He hit and wounded but Tycho's Iron Halo saved him. DCT would have to do it the hard way. Striking first, he hit with three of his five attacks and wounded will all three. Two were saved by Tycho's Iron Halo. Striking back, Tycho also hit three times but could only do a single wound despite a re-roll from his Digital Weapons. However, it got through DCT's Iron Halo, leaving both combatants on 2 Wounds. Striking simultaneously now, DCT hit with three attacks but could do no wounds. Striking back, Tycho hit once and caused one wound which was stopped by the Iron Halo. DCT struck again, hitting twice and causing a other wound. However, it was again stopped by Captain Tycho's Tron Halo. Tycho could do no damage in return and they stayed locked in their never ending struggle. DCT struck twice but needed his re-roll to cause two wounds. One managed to get through the previously impenetrable Iron Halo leaving Tycho on his last wound. Tycho caused a wound from a single hit but it bounced off DCT's Iron Halo. Sensing victory, DCT hit three times and caused two wounds. Only one bypassed the Iron Halo but it was enough to put down Tycho. He tried to strike back with his last breath but missed with all three of his attacks.

Round 3 - No charge bonuses

Tycho swung the Dead Man's Hand three times but could only hit once and that failed to wound. In reply, Death Company Tycho missed with all four of his attacks. Tycho only managed one hit again but this time caused a wound. However, DCT's Iron Halo was equal to it. DCT could also only manage a single hit back and needed his re-roll to wound but Captain Tycho's Iron Halo blocked it. Tycho kept up his form for the round and hit once and caused a wound. Yet again it rebounded from the Iron Halo of his opponent. DCT could only hit once as well but he wounded and Tycho's Iron Halo finally failed him. Tycho hit DCT twice and caused a wound which also got through the Iron Halo. In his anger, DCT hit Tycho three times but could only cause a single wound. Tycho's almost perfect Iron Halo saved him yet again though. Tycho could only manage a single hit but couldn't cause any wounds. DCT hit once and wounded but again it was saved. Tycho hit once, wounded once but it was again saved. In reply DCT hit once but couldn't wound. Tycho again hit once but couldn't wound while DCT hit twice and caused two wounds. One bypassed Tycho's Iron Halo. Sensing the battle was almost over Tycho re-doubled his efforts. He hit twice and with is re-roll caused two wounds. Both were stopped by DCT's Iron Halo however. DCT hit twice but couldn't wound. Tycho hit twice, caused two wounds and they both missed DCT's Iron Halo taking his last wound. His final action was to hit once and cause a single wound. That was enough to finish off Tycho leaving the battle a draw.

Well, it seems that you can't beat your inner demons, you can only draw with them. It was interesting to see two characters enter the AoD who were of an equal points value. However, I thought that the Death Company version would win quite easily once he got into combat since he has an extra attack and better Weapon Skill. Clearly, that can't help with dice as bad as mine though :op In game terms, I think that DCT is harder to use since he's not an Independent Character.

Las Plas

One of the things that does my head in about GW is that they make units that I want to use such as thunderwolves but then don't make the models. Someone put me on to this bits site which makes a las plas cannon that I really like. Just sharing the find.

Heads Will Roll

Hmm, not really posted much this year. Sorry about that. I've been pretty busy trying to stick to my new year's resolutions (none of which were 40K based) and I've started a new blog which is also not 40K related (and is also top secret so I shouldn't really have mentioned it here!)

Anyway, with just a matter of days to go until my next tournament, I've been frantically assembling models. The first guy started off months and months ago but now he finally has a head:



You've seen a sneak peek of the next guy:


His Combi-Melta is made using this excellent tutorial. Many thanks to Andy for supplying the Infernus Pistol.

Finally we have another Wolf Guard with the Combi-Flamer made here

I've already started basecoating them so they should be finished in plenty of time for Saturday. I'm still a bit worried that I've only played one game with my list. Hmm, might be harder than I thought to beat the rest of the guys on Rankings HQ.

Behind the Curve...

If any of you read my New Years Resolution post a couple of weeks ago you'll know that by now I should have 270pts of Word Bearers painted to be on target. You should also have seen two Saturday painting updates, and I should also now be able to challenge these guys on stage...however none of this has happened.

I haven't been idle as far as the hobby goes though. I attended my first Warmahordes tournament, which required me to build and paint a 35pt Cryx infantry force in around 2 weeks plus having only played 3 games prior to this, and not owning the rule book I think not coming last was an achievment! In addition to this I posted Underdogs on time, and have even had people comment!  Oh and I've also been teaching Fudal how to play 40K for a tournament he has coming up this weekend.

However, I still have the Doubles in Feb so the deadline is looming. Here is the current state of the army:

Daemon Prince - Built
Chosen - Built, Undercoated and Based
Chaos Marine Squad- Built, Undercoated and Based
Rhino - Built
1 x Rhino, 2 x Obliterators- Unbuilt

Secret Project Test Mini that has nothing to do with current project - Built, Heavily Converted, Undercoated, Based (I think this might be the problem)

In any case, that's how things currently stand re the Word Bearers. There will be photos of them this Saturday, I'm not sure in what state, but there will be something! I may however change tack on the painting points per day front. I saw on a blog a little while ago (sorry cant remember where) but it was along the lines of 1pt per Infantry, 2pt per Large Infantry, 5pts per Bike/Cavalry, 10pt per Vehicle and I'm tempted to move to something along these lines as it then makes things easier working out my target if I jump from 40K to Fantasy/WarmaHordes.

Well thats all for now Boyz and Grots...but don't for get to check out my contest here.

TheBaron out!

I rolled: 9 (5/4)

Setting goals? Not too SMART!

I've not written a “resolutions” post so far this January and I had no intention to, but in planning this post that's exactly what it's turned into. So why fight it?

Thanks to my very understanding wife, it's been a bit of a 40k weekend this week, which, given the fact that it's the Caledonian Open next weekend just makes my missus even more awesome. So, on Saturday I had the dubious pleasure of being schooled again by our very own TheBaron, his Orks easily steamrollered my Blood Angels. It made obvious the very real gap that I will have to bridge if I want to be competing at the top tables of the tournaments that I attend. Fortunately for me, at the moment I think I have more fun in the lower leagues, however I'm going to set myself a target of improving on my tournament results of 2010 which were as follows:

Right at the start of the year I played in the Gobstyks Tournament up in Lincoln where I finished 5th out of 20 players, a result I was very pleased with. It consisted of two big wins over 'nid players, early adopters of the brand new codex, and a big loss to Harry and his four Battle Wagon Ork list o' doom!

Next up was Warp Storm 2 at Maelstrom where I placed a slightly disappointing 15th out of 22. This time I was the early adopter taking along a cobbled together Blood Angels list which I had never played before. This, we all know, is a recipe for disaster. I managed to scrap out a result from the bottom tables but by no means was a competitive force on the weekend, I lost to Daemonhunters, IG and Blood Angels, beat Orks and Eldar and tied a game with Eldar.

At the end of May was Open War 13, this was only a few weeks after Warp Storm 2 so I decided to go with a list I knew and took my Lysander/Sternguard Space Marines list. I love Sternguard and have pretty much had them in my main list since I started playing again in September '09 and while I'm not great with them I knew the list a lot better than I knew the Blood Angels one. The result bore this out and I finished 18th out of 70 players, drawing to Daemons and IG players and tabling another Marines player in the last game to shoot me up the rankings in the last round.

My last tournament of the year was Open War 14, this time no Special Characters were allowed so I decided to take some Assault Terminators to bulk up my list, I finished 19th out of 66 players and my path through the tournament was similar to OW 13. I started off with a minor loss to Harry's Orks, having played them before in the Gobstyks tourney at the start of the year I felt I had a better chance this time round and I managed to keep it close but his weight of numbers got me in the end. My next game was another narrow loss to a Blood Angels player, I absolutely mullered him but took my eye off the mission and gave it away, fortunately the amount of kill points I took kept it close. Finally, everything went right for me in a game vs IG which I won comfortably and again I jumped up into the top 20 (just!).

With those four tournament results recorded in 2010, RHQ ranks me as 47th in the UK (I checked this time guys). Now what this actually means is highly debatable as our very own contributors TheBaron, Simo and the boss-dude himself, ClawsandFists are ranked 111th, 344th and 392nd respectively and I am not a better player than these guys. However a goal I'm going to set myself for next year is to improve my tournament ranking in 2011. But perhaps more tellingly I'm going to set myself to goal of winning more than half of the games I play in any one tournament in 2011 and just to qualify that, the Tournaments I intend to enter this year are the Caledonian Open, Open War 15 and 16, and Warp Storm 3, so no easy rides.

Obviously I'm not going to be hugely upset if I don't achieve this, the target is aspirational as I'm not a particularly “hardcore” player, neither am I very tactically astute, non-the-less I will be pleased if I can achieve either one or both of these goals.

In terms of hobby related targets I think the following picture of the current state of my painting desk sets the scene nicely:
You can see here the gist of what I intended to accomplish in 2011. On the left of the pic we have a few odd yellow Marines units so I'll no doubt the tweaking and adding units to what I consider my main army. However the bulk of the right of the picture is dominated by Ork Boyz perfectly reflecting the fact that I intend to finish painting my 1750pt army plus a few extra units to take it up to 2000pts worth. Also in the pic tucked away along the top edge is evidence of the project which may roll into 2012, my Nids. I hope to have 1750pts purchased and built before the end of the year but the painting is likely to take me into next year … still you never know when the muse will strike!

In terms of definite hobby targets for 2011 it's got to be to have a fully painted, 1750pt Ork force, and to honour this commitment I have already started painting the Boyz again. In fact the nine Boyz you can see in the middle of the pic with the white bases will be finished this week and that leaves just another 11 models until all of my Ork Boyz are painted, that just leaves, my Killer Kanz, Lootas, Deffkoptaz, Kommandos, some form of Nobz (Bikers or Mega Armoured), Grots and a Trukk! That's what's so disheartening about Orks, I thought I was doing well with just under 100 Ork Boyz painted there's still so much to do!

Watering down your paints

Its one of the main rules of good painting and I have to admit its something that I don't do and should.

Most of the time I just take the paint from the reservoir in the lid after a good shake up.

This post is really a plea for help, I'm looking for peoples advice on what to do with paint thinning, do you just use water or some sort of agent? Do you water them down on your palette or in a mixing pot? How many more coats do you find you need to use once watered down?

The bird is the word!

Just thought I'd mention that I'm on "the twitter" now, I'm not exactly sure why but I do like to follow some of the hosts of my favourite podcasts on there. I also posted my first "tweet" this evening and even have a follower, how odd!

I expect I'll tweet about 40k and geek-related stuff more often than not so if you'd like to follow me I believe you can find me on there as fudal78.

Also in the spirit of "spreading the word", if you're a frequenter of forums and would like to promote our humble blog then all you need to do is copy and paste the following text into your signature:

[url=http://clawsandfists.blogspot.com][IMG]http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/5186/cfbannersmall.jpg[/IMG][/url]

This will create a snazzy little banner in your sig, which links directly back to this very blog, after every post you make.

Contest Anyone...

(Google chose this not me...I just type the word contest)

Greetings Boyz and Grots of all ages. Now that I have your attention with a snazzy title (I'm sure it wasn't the picture) I'll explain a little more...oh and there's a prize to be won!

What I Want

It's fairly simple really, what I want you to do is to write me a 1750pt Dark Eldar list...sounds easy right? Well that's because it is....well ok it's not that easy, there are one or two things to bear in mind.

The Army MUST contain the following:

Warriors (not Trueborn), Wyches (either Blood Brides or Normal but not both) and Reavers

It MAY contain the following:

Hesperax, Duke Sliscus, Succubus, Haemonculus (Normal and/or Ancient), Wracks, Scourges, Raiders, Venoms, Ravagers, Talos, Cronos, 0-1 Razerwing or Voidraven

It MAY NOT contain a webway portal or anything that isn't listed above.

The reason for these restrictions will become clear over time, but for now you have your mission...

How to Enter

To enter all you have to do is post below in the comments a link to your blog or you can send me the list to my email here. Remember to explain why you've chosen the units and a brief over all stratergy for the army.

This will run until 2359hrs Sunday 27th of Feb 2011. Later that week I'll post up the top three lists sent, and explain why I've chosen them and then reveal who will win the prize...

The Prize

Well I haven't decided yet...but it will not be lame. Current thinking is a couple of frames or bag of bits for your army (I have a lot of stuff), a Tyranid Spore Pod made by yours truely (see below) or something else that's awesome.

In any case it will be free, so all it will cost you is 20-30min! Plus the winner will get to see a sneak peek of my next project before anyone else...which is an awesome prize in itself!

So what are you all waiting for. Get to it!

TheBaron Out!

I rolled: 8 (4/4)

As a quick mention, re the Rankings HQ...turns out I'm the best general in the UK with Witch Hunters...funny that I've never so much as touched a Sisters of Battle Mini!..go figure...