red scorpions vs. daemons - 2k

this was my first game against a veteran player who has done nothing but pound my face in each time i've played him. he plays a nasty daemon list, which is you head over to his blog (yesthetruthhurts.com) you can find it.

he is going to write up the battle report, with pictures, and i will link it as soon i see that he has it up.

well i deployed first... and game one ended when he rolled for his secondary drop of 4x5 plaguebearers, 2x10 bloodletters, and 1x6 fiends.

so we actually got to play a second game, which he got his preferred drop of 2x6 fiends, 3x daemon prince, 3x heralds of tzeentch

my take...

deployment: quarters | mission: 5 objectives

i realized too late that my deployment was way off. i deployed my speeders in the open, ready for bolts to be thrown at them, as well as my inquisitor lord, which was sitting on an objective in the middle if my table edge 8 inches in. i realized as soon as he he started dropping his army, that my inquisitor with mystics should have been sitting on the objective in the middle of the right 2/3 of the table... with range on mystics covering most of the board. from now on. i probably deep strike speeders, and don't deploy my inquisitor far far away from deep striking units. especially since i take sanctuary just for playing daemons. andy also taught me a neat close combat trick, probably will save that for unfriendly tournament play...

more to come when andy posts his batrep.

i've returned to the west

so after a bit of driving, and an interesting hotel stay in sidney, nebraska. i have returned to salt lake city.

it's been a long past couple of weeks, and now that i am out here where i can play some games against some better players, i can start posting batreps again. there just something about none of the georgia players being able to take me past 4 turns, that made me want to not do it anymore.

a problem with the gaming community.

so i was looking online for lists of events and what not in the 40k world... and... wow... there is a surprising lack of knowledge on the subject.

i mean... everyone knows that the indy gts are... and the lack of US GTs this year. but on the subject i have found information on 3 conventions across the country? i know they may not be HUGE... but i know there are more than that. i didn't even find the information for a mini con held by the circle of swords in pittsburgh and their yearly gathering with 40k tournaments.

i emailed as many of the local stores here in the atlanta metro as i could to see if we could get them to commit to notifying people a little better about events.

i guess we'll have to see.

Red Scorpion Update

upon closer inspection of the army as it stood i decided i did not like the bolt gun/yellow scheme of the army, and have opted to repaint all of the vehicles to an adeptus battlegray/yellow scheme... it better suits the description of the army and looks better anyway.

i have all my parts on hand and assembled i am finishing up painting on the marines this week, and will be posting some pictures. i have to pick up some apothecary bits... the imperial armour listing for the red scorpions allows the sgts to be upgraded to apthecaries in all tactical and veteran squads... yes, that includes terminators. uhm... i would like very much to be toting around terminators with TH/SS with FNP, thanks.

Red Scorpions Jump Chaplain and Predators... COMPLETE!

first off... the chappy...







and completed predators... i am only showing one... they all look the same.







things are coming along... slowly... a week or two to go and i should have all the marines done.

forgeworld

well after a month of waiting i finally got all my torsos and stuff in for my red scorpions. they are assembled. primed. and about to be painted over the next week.

pictures to come.

in regards to an epiphany

so, i was looking over andy's blog the other day before my internet went down for a few days, and i read something he wrote about lack of scenarios hurting 40k. and, it got me to thinking.

i posted a short tid bit in his comments of what i thought should be done... so here i am going to elaborate.

so my idea is to have 12 army specific missions and scenarios. hightlighting the strengths of each army in 6 attacker missions, and 6 defender missions PER ARMY (taking into account the same 6 missions will be used for attacking army X and defending army Y). so...
six scenarios for space marines attacking a band of defending chaos marines. on a roll of 4 on a D6, mission 4 is chosen... same thing with eldar vs tau. i think it would open the game up considerably, with that much variety. i would personally feel more inclined to try to build an army of every race in the shortest amount of time possible.

i feel this sort of set up would be healthy for the hobby in that i think it would eliminate power lists, of not tame them a bit, it would certainly help with the tournament scene where indy GTs, RTTs, and just plain store run tournaments are getting off of the asshat train by making up retarded missions and scenarios, and bending/changing the rules for how things should be done on a case by case basis. it MIGHT even chance the attitudes of players... it's hard to be an asshat with the intent on tabling your opponent when you are being forced to keep enemy models 12 inches away from an objective placed anywhere on the board you choose...

i mean sure, a few rules would have to be considered and tweaked a bit, but hey... if i were in the future attack an enemy outpost and i had drop pods available to me. you better believe i would be dropping in.

but with that in mind... let's say a particular defense mission is defend one objective by not allowing an enemy within 12 inches at the end of the game... or for X amount of turns with a 6 turn max... well... this mission also has special rules absolutely no deep striking even if your codex allows it... ok. so we make drop pods and rhinos the same price. and guess what... my 4 tac squads that were using drop pods now also need 4 rhinos to get around in for game play... and hey... i just had to buy 4 more models from GW.

now being on the consumer end of this plan is kind of scary essentially needing to spend more money on models... but i would like to think that if playing 40k meant needing to have a fluid 2000 points of army, for a 1500 point game, GW might look at their prices and say hey... we can cut all the prices by let's say 30% (as long as i am wishfully thinking i might as well make it big right?) because we are going to be bringing in a little more money by implementing a game system that has SO many more options for game play. well this mission says i can't use drops pods... so here is my list for rhino replacements. oh this missions says i am performing a lightning attack, so i wasn't able to mobilze heavies, but i can bring an extra fast attack option. so instead of using my two predators i am bringing in a bike squad with an attack bike.

hell i don't care if this particular system was only used for competitive environments, and they still kept the generic missions around for casual players or for players who can't afford all of those models.

now not only does this give me 160 ish scenarios to play, but now i have all these options on how to play my armies as per mission briefings.

i think it would be cool. maybe i should apply for a job to be a content developer for GW. move to england. play games. buy a tea cozy.

my first apoc game.

well... i have heard many people talk about this, and i have developed my own opinion about the idea of buying thousands of dollars in models to play in these games... but i had never taken the time to play one, nor wtach one.

well that changed.

my FLGS waqs hosting an apoc game, the game turned out to be around 120k points when all was said and done, and there were an amazing amount of models on the table. including 2 chaos titans - an armorcast warhound and reaver, a new ork stompa, a custom ork skullhamma, a couple tyranid hyrodule, angoroth (sp?) the unbound, and a couple chaos primarchs. along with a shit ton of orks and nids, chaos marines on the bad side... and for the good side... an eldar phantom titan, revanant, 4 baneblade/variants, a vampire, and a sunstorm squadron... it was an impressive mix of models...

although i will say this... i dropped a chapter master, and command squad of ten, along with a librarian andsternguard unit on an objective late in the game... the command squad and master took a round of firing that included 3 land raider crusaders, 4 ravenwing speeders, 15 ravenwing bikes, 3 attack bikes, 3 IG leman russ, some tau rail guns and plasma rifles, and various other shooting from bolters flamers, sammael x2, IG, and tau... and through all of that... i suffered one wound on the chapter master. and one wound on the librarian. it made me laugh.

painting completed... almost...

my red scorpions are coming together quite well. the only things missing at this point is the forgeworld order with my marine torsos, heads, and pads; rhino doors, and icons.

predators







completed speeder squadrons. and by completed i mean they are missing the crew.


sgt telion. there were more ultramarines icons to file off of this model than i had originally thought... thankfully my filing skills are sweet and the model didn't suffer



completed rhino



and finally, my forgeworld titan tech priest... AKA... master of the forge. i played in my first apoc game this past weekend, and he managed to be a game changer. (more to come on this game.)






and the army as it currently stands.



where... are... my... marines...

wow... glue...

i have the worst headache...

lots of painting to do this week...



hopefully they will be done by the time my forgeworld order arrives.

red scorpions terminator sgt

i lied when i said i was going to bed... i painted my terminator sgt. the pictures didn't come out as well as i had hoped... i tried my first wet blend on the shoulder cloth, which i think came out great. the power sword is still a little grainy from my test earlier, but it came out a lot better than the picture shows.

red scorpions lascannon razorback

this should conclude my painting for tonight, been painting all day it seems, but at least i am happy with the way things are coming along.




still on the list...
3x predator
3x speeder
30x marines
1x titan tech priest
1x telion

oh, and all the doors and icons for the rhinos and other vehicles.


time for bed.

painting mishaps - blending

so i decided today to try to experiment on my AoBR captain... to try to see how i could do blending, before i finish my marine army, and start my daemons or eldar.

well... this is what happened.




ignore the lines i made... i was not in the zone for straight lines this morning when i was trying to practice lining as well. the blue cape on the commander, and the green tabard on the front...

i think they could have come out better... after chatting with a few people i was told my technique was right, but my method was wrong. so i have opted for some painting lessons to aide my painting... which i don't think is terrible... but i want it to be better.

also... during this experiment i dropped a pot of 'ardcoat on myself... awesome...
and i also discovered vallejo paints, i think... are much better for painting minis due to the finer pigment than that of the GW stuff.

red scorpions dread - maor

space marine army update. dreadnought maor.

HAHAHAHA

i thought this was hilarious.

ebay

man, let me tell you something about buying models that have been either assembled or painted... or both... off of ebay. if you catch the deal you want with enough time to request detailed photos... i think it would be a great idea.

so i found some terminators with red scorpion pads on ebay, and even though the picture was a little fuzzy... they still looked sort of ok.

boy was i wrong. i just spent the last 5 hours scraping off paint, because whatever was used to paint them was so thick and hard the industrial degreaser i use to strip paint barely did anything.

i wish i had taken pictures.

35 bucks for 5 terminators with forgeworld shoulder pads was a good deal though...

RS rhinos WIP

i got three rhinos assembled today. still no forgeworld order. it's been almost a week and they haven't charged my card. which is kind of bullshit... so they are without the front plates and doors at the moment. enjoy.

2k DE vs. CSM

i don't remember exactly what his list had in it... but it went a little something like this...

1x daemon prince - winds of chaos, warp time
1x lord, mark of tzeentch
10x summoned lesser daemons
15x plague marines - 2x plasma
15x CSM - 2x plasma
10x bezerkers in rhino
6x havoc squad HB, RAC x2, ML
3x oblits
Defiler

the mission was 5 objectives and pitched battle deployment. i placed my two objectives opposite his because i figured i could turbo boost to them at the end of the game, and therefore should only have to concentrate on three, and since his army was so close together, it was would be relatively simple. well. my dice were on a mission to prove me wrong.

deployment

he camped the havocs in the tall building to the left, on the ground floor was an objective, the plague marines were on the objective in the middle, and all the way right was the other with the CSM squad on it. i realized now that he placed the far right objective too close to the board edge - it was about 5 inches off the side edge - and that probably would have changed things. my objectives cannot even be seen in the picture, however one is just on the other side of the building corner where my raiders are parked, the other one is out of frame.


i won the deployment roll earlier and elected for him to go first... and then i roll a six for carpe diem... one of 3 times my dice decided to play with me instead of against me this game. so turn one shooting begins...

I miss or don't come close to glancing with 6 dark lances off raiders in the middle of the board shooting at a defiler. this will be my first game against CSM where i haven't killed the defiler before it's able to get a shot off. my ravagers do a number to the plague marines, and kill 10 of them. i went flat out with the wych raiders up the board edge.




his turn, he moves the rhino in front of the plague marines to block LOS.and moves the defiler into DT. the daemons prince comes out of hiding behind the building, and shoot commences. he downs two wych speeders, and manages to pin one squad from the wreckage, and after destroying the riader in the ruins, he puts a plate right on top of them with the defiler, and they turn to goo.




my turn two, i move the remaining wych speeder out of the ruins, and drop it next to the objective and unload my wyches. i manage take out 10 CSM with haemonculi destrustors, and then the wyches sort of just... fail... as well as dark lance fire from the raiders... again... missing the defiler. i tried popping the rhino with ravagers, but ended up killing a plague marine instead. a wasted round of shooting. i think from this round i have learned to control my annoyance with units that aren't really a threat to me... aka defiler... it killed 2 wych squads this game... and that's about it... in my assault phase... rolling for combat drugs... i hit my first 6-6-6 for the game on my haemonculi... killing one, and putting a wound on the other. as I charged I took out a marine or two... and my squad was wiped out by the sorceror and the CSM... GG wyches.




the next this tirn his daemons arrive and he puts them right in the middle of all the action. i believe you can choose to not use the icons if you want, and if it were me this would have been one of those times. it would have been a little trickier, but i would have at least tried getting them closer to the ravagers that were eating him alive. instead they get placed near a pinned wych squad, and they go to work on them in assault. i made the few cover saves i needed to to keep my vehicles around for another turn of abuse. he kind of spreads his daemons out, so i won't plate him with the ravagers next turn. also the lord moved up from the back corner and has now become a viable threat to my ravagers. no bueno.




my turn three, i manage to immobilize the rhino... and i taught him all about slave snares, flying the wych raider over the CSM squad and taking one, i also manage to get position on the back armor of the defiler with this raider... but... with the first penetrating hit on it... he makes the cover save. using the sustained fire mode on the ravagers i manage to make quick work of the daemons and put two wounds on the sorceror. 7 dark lances... and one immobile rhino... i just don't know...



his turn, he manages to pop a raider with a warrior squad inside, killing two, and they pass leadership, his shooting phase is otherwise unproductive and his lord assaults one of my ravagers, and oddly enough, nothing happens to it. this turn also marked a big mistake for him, bringing his daemon prince around the big ruins to my left flank... and made for one of the greatest moments i've had with my DE




my turn 4, i start the turbo boosting run to the far off objective with a raider a warrior squad, i bring two raiders to the corner of the building to meet the daemon prince, and park one inside the ruins. sadly though... all the rapid firing rifles, the cannons and dark lances to nothing... and the shredders hit and he fails the saves taking 3 of his 4 wounds i wanted him dead, but i'll take it. i move a ravager up onto an obective, and try to get a better firing view at some units, and move a troop raider 24 inches to put it in a position to contest an objective next turn. i forgot there were bezerkers in the rhino. more to come.





for some reason i don't have pictures of his next turn... because everything pretty much stayed the same... oh wait... he assaulted my ravager with his berzerkers i forgot about and it popped... and then he had this nice little formation all bunch up from not being able to consolidate after assaulting vehicles... other than that... the daemon prince moved closer and popped a raider on my board edge, and his sorceror assault my warrior hanging out in the middle of the board from the wreck, and wiped them out.

my turn 5, i drop off warriors on two objectives and move the raiders closer to the action to hopefully bag some armor or oblits. i managed to fly over the daemon prince and slave snare it... for 6 hits... and i actually manage to roll one 6. and he manages to roll a 2 for the armor save. and that... is how the big guy died. sadly though, i positioned everything over there to fire at the daemon prince... who knew the snares would work... so some stuff is out of range of things. so instead i fire into the havocs and manage to kill quite a few. this is also the turn 1 lucky dark lance finally popped that damn defiler. i had also super sped some raiders up to contest objectives in hopes that they or the crew would survive long enough for the game to end after 5, and i could contest the objectives.




my plan was foiled, because both raiders popped, one crew went to ground, and the other stayed up late to fight a CSM champion. that was all pretty much for this turn.

my turn 6 i moved the raiders a bit, managed to kill off the last havoc guaranteeing i controlled two objectives now, but i couldn't see a way to contest his this turn, because i knew the 6 warriors i had on them were going to die on the last turn of the game. and they did. it ended as a draw.



it's so weird how you see your mistakes as soon as you make them, or when you're not prepared for what your opponent does. i was full and ready to kick some ass with wyches, and i forgot about my own nightshields, to stop him from rapid firing my raider. it may not have worked out differently, but wow... that's something i shouldn't forget. i also realized that moving my ravager up the field was a bad idea. i should have been moving them in an arc towards the middle of the board, and by turn 5 they would have seen the plaguemarines again and had LOS and range on everything else left on the board.i felt the warrior raiders were played correctly, i left them on the back of the board and acted like a pussy until the time came for them to run. and let's not forget my horrid dice. i lost two haemonculi to combat drugs, and wounded 3 more. i couldn't hit with dark lances to save my life... or any other shooting for that matter that didn't involve a scatter die.

over all i really enjoyed playing this game. a lot of new things happened, and my army got it's first draw. their record now stands an admirable 30W-5L-1D