Sunday, May 30, 2010

Kubla Con all done

Finished up the tourney yesterday and came in an uninspiring 21st place out of 56 players.

To tell the truth this tournament I had a lot more fun hanging out with guys from Game Kastle and getting to know them better than really playing the games.

I faced 2 Imperial Fist SM lists that were all about shooting.  Not the best match up for me.  Needless to say I wasnt really able to close or bunker up against the FP that they both could dish out.  I made the first one work for his win and the second one we drew.  On the 3rd game I played a really nice guy that hadn't played in over 8 years before this tourney.  I basically surrounded his low model count nid army and executed it.  It was very cool to hear his stories though about his previous work with GW and knowledge of the beginnings of 40k.  I figured he was one of the original big tourney organizers in North America back in the Rogue Trader days.  What was a little odd was he claimed to be texting Andy Chambers(the author of the WitchHunter Codex) and was sending him pics of my army.  Who knows what that was all about.  I felt like telling him to tell him that PEs, Repentias and Arco-Flags are worthless units. and to get his act together and help GW write a new codex.

Another revelation for me out of Kubla was that I don't know how much I really like playing the Sisters anymore.  The list hasn't really changed in about 1 year and is feeling really generic.  My CSMs have tons more options and just are all around a lot more fun to play.  So for the first time I am starting to ponder selling my army but my laziness and remaining affection for the Sisters will probably keep that from happening.
What is scary is that I do have a shit ton of Sisters. Just looking at it today I have
3 Exorcists
4 Immolators (3 new one OOP)
3 Rhinos
40+ Regular sisters
18 melta girls
6 hvy flamer
4 MultiMelta
2 Hvy bolter
8 Superiors
1 Inquis
6 Arco-Flags
8 Storm Bolter sisters
2 Flamer Sisters
18 Seraphim
2 Canonesses

I wonder if I could get about $750 on ebay or not.

Regardless, Kubla was fun my only complaints were that I got slammed on painting again and the missions sort of blew.  A 6 objective game with DoW + Evening night flighting just sucks eggs.  Actually the first 2 missions really put a crimp in my army and gave shooting lists a ton of advantages against me even the 3 mission was sort of lame and just didnt seem tested.

I was stoked that the players from GK did very well in the tourney overall with the top general spot and other spots in the top 5 going to guys from there.  Oddly enough I had a lot more fun at Ard Boyz and this is really making me question if I want to do Kubla again next year. To be honest tourneys at GK are pretty cool with great prizes so it makes it rough to justify spending the entire day and the $45 sign up fee when I could just play for $10 and get better prizes with better missions.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Exorcists Completed

By popular demand.  Well really demand by one person.  Here are some close ups of the army
The Exorcists

HQ with Celestians
Ghetto Immolator that now looks cool

Sisters 1850 and ready to rumble

Here they are.

I have a little work to do in cleaning up an Immolator which I just busted off a ram from.  But other than that here it is.  The Celestians and tanks are all nice but I am not 100% sold on the bulk troops being acceptable.
So for a final list I am going with
Palatine with Psword with Celestian Ret, 2 meltas  in an Immolator with Smoke
3 Celestian Squads with 2 Meltas in Immolators with Smoke
3 Battle Sister Squads with 1 hvyFlamer, 1 melta, Vet superior with book and combi-melta in rhinos
1 Battle Sister Squad on Food with just bolters
3 Exorcists
And if you are curious that 100% metal Minis.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Kubla INC

Its the last week of May finally and Kulba Con is right around the corner.

I have convinced myself to move forward with my Sisters army even tho I would probably do better with my CSMs in both painting and playing.  But I want to give the girls a chance to shine.  Last year I used CSMs and pretty much chundered  my first games.  Hopefully this year it goes better for the girls and I am a better player than a year ago.

My list is looking like this:
Palatine: Bolter book
Celestian Retinue: 2 Meltas
Immolator smoke
3 Celestian Squads 2 meltas in Immolators smoke\
3 Battle Sister Squads with Superior with book, 1 Melta 1 Flamer in Rhino with Smoke
1 Battle Sister Squad just with bolters and Superior with Book
3 Exorcists
Thats 11 tanks and scarily enough I have the all.

The one change I am thinking is taking the Bolter girl squad out of a rhino and just making them foot.  That way I could put some combi-meltas on the Sister Superiors and maybe a power weapon on the Palatine.  Having one foot squad isnt too bad and I hate the way my rhino looks that I tried to make work for both girls and CSMs.  The other idea I am pondering is taking out the hvy flamers with the girls and putting in more meltas.  I can logistically do this but would have some speed painting to accomplish to get those girls ready.

One the plus side I am almost done with the repaint of all the Exorcists and will try and post some pic soon.  I am pretty happy with them and the ghetto Immolator that I finally fixed up last week.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Ard boyz 2010 report (Game3)

On to game 3 at ard boyz.
For me this one was the most fun.  Very cool new opponent who I had never seen before at GK, I got to play the new nids for the second time which was exciting for me and I was pretty amped up from my last game.

We got the snow board at GK which I have had some really bad luck on.  This time it was set up way better with a little more cover on the other side.  My last time on it, I got an asskicking and played a really crappy game.  This time I was determined to not let that happen.

His list looked like this:
Tyranid Prim
Nid Warrior Brood with nasty CC stuff and one with a venom cannon
Nid Warrior brood Death spitters and one with one with CC stuff
Parasite of Mortrex: Some flying thing
Ymgarl Genestealers 7
Zoanthrope Brood in Pod
The Doom of Malan'tai
2 Tyrannofex
2 GeneStealer Brood 5
Carnifex brood 3
3 Spore Mine clusters 3 in each one

Tyranid stuff is totally new to me so I really had no clue what these guys really did.  I did fear the big cannons deals he had on the board and the Carnifexs since they had mauled me in the past.

I deployed first and put my troops in an arc with the oblits in cover on each flank and the core of my troops in the middle or behind the oblits to protect them from nids.

He moved his mob in the middle and geared toward the his left side with warriors and the crazy named dude in cover.  Doom, GSs and the Zoes where in reserve

Turn One:  I got to go first  (YAY)
I starting picking him down with oblits and lascannons from the LR/Pred.  Killed one Carni and got a wound on another.  Moved oblits to better cover and hunkered down my troops
His turn, he bombed my LR right away with a shot from his STR 10 cannons.  I was a little stunned but I lose that thing every game and its what it's for.
Turn 2
Moved Huron/Termies up with DP hiding.  Used the oblits to start hitting those cannons and putting wounds on them.  The DP peaked over and lashed the carnis up and then huron/termies went at em with meltas and then a charge.  Wiped those out which made me happy.
His turn, he shot at the rhinos but didnt pop anything and charged my Oblits with the crazy named dude. The Oblits stepped up, lost one and then put the hurt on that dude.  He went down to a pummeling of Pfists.  His Zoes and other DSers/outflankers didnt come in and it was looking pretty good for me.
Turn 3
I now turned all my Las fire on his Cannon things and killed one while wounding the other.  I pulled back huron and his termies since i didnt want them charged by the warriors and started to creep my other troops up.
On his turn he dropped in the Zoes which popped a rhino and started to scare me, one GS and the freaky GS came out.  The GS up to get near the guys from the rhino and the freaky ones came in where the Oblits were who then stepped on 4 of them right off.  He jumped those out the window and then they charged some zerkers.  That worked pretty well for me since the zerkers were able to hand it to them pretty badly.  His cannon took some shots but that was about it.
On my turn Huron + DP and Termies moved on the warriors and charged them.  I hit them with flames and bolters then went in.  My lascannons worked some more on the cannon deal and started in on the Zoes + Drop pod.  I also moved up my CSMs to start getting in on things since only the doom and one more GS squad was out there and brought up the zerkers to hit the zoes.  Huron and DP killed the Warrior HQ dude and mauled the warriors pretty bad.  He got some payback and knocked out most of the termies but he was reeling
On his turn he popped the other rhino and mauled up a zerker squad pretty good and then rushed some more zerkers with his GS's which just got mauled.  The other GS came in but on the other side and thats about it.
Turn 4
Zerkers hit the Zoes and DP/Huron were now in the thick of Warriors and lost their remaining termies.  My CSMs charged up and finished the cannon thing and started to move in support of Huron and would be ready to charge in next turn.  His turn wasn't the best and he was pretty much wrapped up in CC with my guys.
Turn 5
I knocked out the Zoes and remaining warriors and now turned everything to the last GS squad.
Doom finally came in and could have been a game changer but I only lost Huron to it.  The rolls just didn't happen there.
Turn 6
I knocked the GSs around and got them to run since they had no synapse which ended the game.

My opponent was great this game being a great sport and gamer.  He took a pounding on the dice and in the action but never said one thing negative or acted anything but gracious.  On the rules he was fast and we did a lot of die roll decisions to get things to move along fast.  He was an example about why I like playing in tourneys at GK, you met some great people and have some great games.
Overall the tourney was a lot of fun for me and I really enjoyed the games/opponents.  Of course I enjoyed winning some games but really just liked hanging out and getting to know new people and people I had met before better.  Unfortunately I wont be able to play again until August in a tourney at GK but some of the same guys that I played against are all going to be at Kubla next week which should be awesome.  I do have some pics which I will try to sneak in today.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Ard Boyz 2010 report (Game2)

Game 2 was way different from Game 1.

Since I got creamed in game 1, I was sent out of the big kids room and exiled to the pokemon room with my opponent.  It made me feel a little sad but at least we had plenty of space, my opponent and his buddy who was watching were cool and we had the choice of terrain.  Also, a little breather from the massed smell of manflesh in the big room was nice :).

My opponent was playing the new BA for the first time and just got a good asswhooping from an Eldar player.  I dont have his list but from memory it had:
Dante with Sanguinary Guard
Librarian of some sort with an Assault squad
2 Furioso Dreadnoughts in Drop pods
2-5 man Squads of Sanguinary Guard with some other IC.
1 Tac Marine squad in Drop Pod

So there was none of their new flyers or Deep Striking Land raiders that I had been fearing but I was pretty scared of the new Dreadnoughts and ICs.

I got the roll to go first and set up in the corner and he deployed his Lib with troops hidden in cover.  I probably should of forced him to go first with the drop pods but I wanted to get everything out there.  I decided to lash up his lib squad and just obliterate it.  In an insanely crappy roll I rolled 3 Ones for the Plasma overheats and basically didnt do anything.  I got to shoot at a couple with lascannons but it was pretty bad.
On his turn he moved up with that squad and then drop in his 2 dreads.  They took their shots but blew their rolls as well so we were pretty even.

On the 2nd turn the dice started to turn for me.  I was able to assault his librairain with huron, the termies and a DP.  Basically the DP and Huron just cleared them off the the table.  Also my oblits and pred were able to stun one and destroy the other dread getting them off the table.
On his turn he was able to get another 2 Sanguinary guards down and missed the LR but other than that he was stuck in place. Dante also came down and immobilized the pred

On turn 3 I was able to bring my whole army down on his remaining forces.  The other dread got popped right away by the oblits and then I charged the other Sanguinary squads with zerkers, huron, termies and the DP.  They all got wiped off the table.  All that remained for him was Dante hanging out by my pred.
On his turn he moved up Dante and popped my LR.  His last tac squad came down and that was it.

On turn 4 I cleared Dante and the other Sanguinary guard off and wheeled around the rest of my army to finish off the tac squad.  At that point we called the game.

I felt sort of bad since the list wasn't really tuned and was fed to my troops piecemeal.  The Sanguinary guard really dont scare me since they seem so small and not much different from just normal marines.

Overall it was an entertaining game for me and I think my first game really got me into the mode for playing my CSMs.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Ard boyz 2010 report (Game1)

Got to attend my first Ard Boyz and had a lot of fun.  The venue was great as always with solid opponents and a great atmosphere.  We are very lucky in the South Bay Area to have Game Kastle and I hope they keep doing well.  My only minor complaint is that none of the employees are big 40k players now so its a little rough for them to be good refs.  Luckily there are enough experienced players that issues get resolved quickly by consensus.

So,  I brought my CSM army that I posted a couple of days before and didnt do too badly.

First Game:  JeffKs CSM army
2 Slannesh DPs wings/Lash
2 Chosen, 5 man squad 3 meltas/2 flamers in Rhinos with Combi-Plasma
2 10  CSM squads with Lascannon and Plasma Gun
1 10  CSM squad with 2 flamers, champ w/pfist&combi-melta
1 10  CSM squad with 2 melta, champ w pfist&combi-flamer
1 10 Plague marine squad w/2meltas
3/3 oblit squads

Not too much different than mine except for the 2 DPs and extra oblit squad.
Just to make a quick note here:  This was my first tourney game in over 6 months and first game against someone that isnt Captn Dees in over 5 months.  So I rolled to go first and deployed.  Not the best deployment but I thought it was ok.  My big problem was that I deployed the oblits into cover so that they could get some shots.  Unfortunately JeffK deployed himself expertly with rhinos providing a great shield wall.  I then dorked all my Oblit shots and in retrospect I should of shot Plasma Cannons at the rhinos and tried to splash the units behind them.  Deployment was the first of many lessons this game.
On his turn he blew the crap outta my oblits leaving me with one and then he moved up.  I won the roll for the objective placement and had a nice group of 3 on my side of the table.  I was planning to just try and hold on to these and play for the minor victory/maybe tie.
Turn 2 I rolled out the LR with Huron to try and hit the DPs.  I lashed one forward and hit it with all I had, killing it.  I had some weak shots on the rest his army with no real effect.
JeffK countered with superior oblit fire and wasted Huron's unit and then finished it with his Death Guard and other DP.  Also by this time he had started moving into the center and took out my LR and another rhino. He also came in with chosen on my right side.
Turn 3 I moved up my zerkers and tried to kill his Death Guard since it was a troop and eventually got it.  I still had all my troops and was on the objectives so I was hoping I would get a tie at this point.  Like a moron I allowed one of my CSM squads to get pulled off to deal with the chosen when I should of ignored them.
On his turn he wiped my zerkers, and mauled my CSMs that I pulled to attack his Chosen.  My rhinos started taking a pounding but he was rolling pretty crap.
The rest of the game was really just him picking apart my units that were on the objectives.  I tried to make him work for it but gradually he got them all.  I blew a difficult terrain test with one of my rhinos which made it impossible for me to block an objective but that was about it.  I also didnt know that you could Lash someone into dangerous terrain but I learned that lesson as well.
Overall this game I was out played.  JeffK didnt really roll well but he blew me off the table.  I got massacred but have to say it was a real enjoyable game.  It was very cool to watch someone play CSM so effectively and it truly helped me for my next 2 games.
Big lessons from this one:

  • Get oblits anyway possible even if it's with PC splash or hide your obits turn one if you can shoot at his oblits or other things that can kill yours. Not having 5 oblits was a big blow from turn 1.
  • Dont come out of your LR unless its perfect.  Make him pop it then hit him with a charge.
  • Ignore chosen(nonscoring units) on your flanks if you have objectives to worry about.  I could have covered an objective with a rhino and forced him to pound on it all game.  Instead I chased a nonscoring unit and blew it.
  • Lashs can put you in dangerous terrain.  Should of known this and I think in the back of my brain I did.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Ard Boyz 2010

Going in to most likely get my face smashed.

Decided to roll with CSMs since its the easiest to field and this is last minute.  I am still planning on girls for Kubla but I dont have the minis to get up to 2500 with Sisters really effectively.

CSM List
Huron
DP with lash/wings
2-10 Zerker squads with 1 pfist champ and 1 Plasma Pistol in rhino
2- 10 CSM squads with 1 pfist champ and 2 meltas in rhino
2- 3 oblit squads
1 Tri Las Pred
1 Land Raider with 4 termies loaded out with 1 Cfist on champ and 3 combimeltas +1 hvy flamer
Feels super small for 2500 but I hope it does ok.

At least I got 11 LasCannons to fire which might be ok but with IG pounding me I dont think it would do too good.  Its all painted and looks good and I know Huron is not uber but I play better when I have some fluff.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Book review: The Lost (Gaunt's Ghost Omni)

This is the 3rd Gaunt Omni that I have plowed through.  For entertainment value these books are great and always a fun read.  But I felt that this book was the weakest of the 3 massive omni's but still worth reading.  The first book in this Omni was great but then the series had a tendency to trail off after that.


My big issues with the books were:
Abnett likes to kill characters but he always replaces them.  So I always get the feeling when some is introduced that someone is about to die.  Also he seems to be mining the same themes over and over again.  I don't know if its noticeable if you read the books over the years they were released but when you condense your Gaunt experience into one year you get the feeling you have read this book before.


At the end of the day I am still looking forward to the next Omnibus but really want to see this story wrap up and close some loose ends.  Hopefully he finishes it off with the next one.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Exorcists before and after

I have started redoing my Exorcists and got one done this week.  Hopefully I have time to get to the other 2 and one of my Immolators before KublaCon because I am pretty happy with the results. Here are some pics of the new one and how it looked before.



The big thing I am happy about  is fixing the Purity Seals.  I painted those before I was informed about em and made them look pretty stupid with colors.  I like the new look quiete a bit and am only unhappy about a couple of the decals.