Jawaballs and Fritz broadcast live: Take Two!




Happy New Year! To get it going in style, Jawaballs and Fritz will be broadcasting just about all day on December 30th LIVE! Thats right! We have lots of stuff planned: Space Hulk, Blood Angels vs Necrons, Plus lots of tactical stuff!

If you would like to see us explain something tactical, post here and we will see what we can do.

In order to see our live broadcast you will need to do a few things:

GO to http://www.ustream.tv/ and register for the site. You will need to be a registered user to log in.

Then go to: My Ustream TV station!

You will be prompted to enter a password. It is jawaballs1

What time? Who knows. I expect Fritz to arrive late in the morning Eastern Standard Time. I think the UK is 5 hours ahead of me. So 10 AM EST is 3PM in the UK and 7 AM in California. Google the time zones. Once Fritz arrives, we will be broadcasting for many hours. You will be able to chat via the Ustream IM chatroom program with each other, and we will be able to answer your questions through Audio.

So there you go! Come and see some Jawaballs and Fritz live fun.

Here is the youtube announcement.

Trying to get back to some sort of normalcy!



"Giants Caroling"
David Monette


The baby has come, the dust is starting to settle. Now to try to return to some sort of normal life! I am actually going to try to get in a game tonight!

The reason I am posting now though is to introduce you all to a very good friend of mine, David Monette. He is a fantasy illustrator and has done work for card games like Magic the Gathering and loads of magazines. He is ten times the artist I am and actually is the one who inspired me to become an artist and art teacher. So if you would like to see work from the guy who inspired me... check him out! I believe he does do commission painting. If you got some sweet model you would like to have immortalized in beautiful art, give him a shout, and I bet if you throw some money at him he will do it for you!

His style has changed through the years. He used to be purely a painter, focusing on extreme detail and always tried to work in his own sense of humor to his work. But recently, he has transformed himself by relearning his craft on the computer. In "Giants Caroling", a recent Christmas Card project for his agent, you can see that sense of irony coming out! So go on over to David's blog and become a follower. Comment on his work and enjoy his art! Oh, Jawa-followers who are also following David's blog may be eligible for some future Jawa-giveaways... hint hint...

Happy New Year!

Jawaballs

The Jawa-Baby is here!






Finally I am finding some time to get things done, and one of those things is to announce to the world the arrival of my new baby Jack! He came on Tuesday and is a beautiful and healthy little boy. Many of you have already wished me well and I just wanted to say thanks in advance to the rest of you. I will be contentedly happy with my hands full for a while. Merry Christmas to you all!

Hopefully much, much more to come...

Jawaballs

Bartertown sale post pictures.























Here I am uploading some pics of things from my sale post on Bartertown. There is a lot of stuff available, but here are some pics of some of the things. Here is the link to my bartertown post.

Jawa-Baby Update and News and notes. Shop Amazon? Throw some of that Amazon love my way! :)

Hey guys, if you are a frequent Amazon shopper, do me a favor. On the right of my blog under the Subscriber section is a new Amazon.com search bar. If you ever use Amazon to shop, start your search there. It will lead you to whatever you were looking for just like normal, but Amazon will pay me a portion of the sale! This goes for any thing from Rare earth Magnets, xacto blades to 50" plasma tvs and computers. Send me some Jawa-Love! And help support the Jawa-baby. :) Lets see how much money I can wrangle out of Amazon. I will keep a running total!

Jawa-Baby Update:

He is due in two days on Sunday 12/13. (Sorry I have not been keeping up on blogging.) I will keep you all posted and will put up pics as soon as he is born! The Jawa-lady is doing well and has been fantastic while pregnant. I could not ask for any better! We are both really excited and anxious at the same time.

More to come!

Jawaballs

jawaballs needs a new logo! A mini jawa-contest.

Hey guys, in an attempt to head off Lucasfilm and their innevitable Cease and Desist for using a jawa in my logo, I am looking for a new offical logo for my site and videos. I have gotten some nice fan art that I use from time to time on my vids, but I am now looking for my new OFFICAL one! So I am opening this up to you. I wont let this one hang forever. Here are the rules.

Due date: Friday, Jan 15 at 8pm EST.

Email your entry to: jawaballs at yahoo

Size? Make your entry up to 8x10 at 300 resolution. No smaller then 5x7.

It must be a Jpeg.

No Lucasfilm or GW IP can be used. Jawaballs is stretching it as it is. That means no Hooded heads with glowing eyes. No Imperial Eagles. No Blood Angels logos. Etc.

The only copy that can appear is "A Jawaballs Production" But you can put it in any format you want.

Please do not include a signature or water mark.

The winner will receive some sort of Jawa-loot as determined when I make the selection. It depends on the entries I guess. Plus his art will replace my current logo as my offical letterhead and icon, at least until the next one is needed.

All entries may be used in some videos on youtube.

So bust out your photoshop skills. Bust out your colored pencils and paints. And start creating! Be professional. Artwork on lined paper will not be selected. Remember, I am an artist and art teacher myself! Use high resolution. It is ok to draw marines in power armor, so long as it is your own artwork. It is also ok to do parodies of offical IP. The angel wings and blood drop are out, but something that looks similar...

If I don't get enough quality entries, (Remember I will be putting this on all offical jawaballs productions corespondaence)the offical contest will be cancelled, but your entries will still be used in some of my videos to give you guys props.

Have Fun!

Jawaballs

Battle Report: Blood Angels vs Chaos Marines

Baal Prime:

...ssshhkiiitttt... static.... beep beep...

..."Incoming Transmission"... Forward scouting party reporting in... Sir! We have come under heavy fire... ssshhkiittt... ...encountered large force of Traitor marines led by Kharn himself!... Our position compromized... Please advi......

And that is it Lord Dante. Before their final transmission our scouts reported sightings of Kharn, Noice Marines, Berzerkers, Plague Bearers, heavy armor and even daemons. It looks like Kharn has managed to rally forces from all sectors of the Chaos realm. They have taken control of an inactive munitions depot and are using three key power relays to erect some sort of machinery. This chaos cursed machine seems to be able to tear a rift in the warp in order to bring in reinforces. The depot will be rounding Prime Secundus for one more cycle, allowing our drop forces the opportunity to land under the cover of darkness, then strike with first light.

Captain Colaradros, ready the 2nd company and move to intercept this force. Exterminate them with full prejudice. Suffer not Chaos to live. Bring me the Head of the Betrayer. For Sanguinius and the Emperor. Dante out.

Mission: Capture and Control 3 power relays
Deployment: Dawn of War

My opponent won and took first turn. He deployed Noise Marines close to the middle of the board in a crater, and Plague Marines further back in a trench. He had a winged lord in the middle of the table behind terrain.

I deployed two 5 man Combat Squads in terrain with Lascannons.

Turn 1:
He went first, and his Noise Marines managed to draw range to one of my Las squads. 3 Blood Angels died in the horrific volley. The rest of his forces came on to the battle field. He moved a Predator with 3 Lascannons 12" as well as a vindicator. Kharn, some daemons, berzerkers in a rhino also moved on from the edge. The surviving marines were pinned.

On my turn I moved on my tanks in the back right corner. The two Baal preds providing cover for the two rhinos moving in behind. My bikes moved on behind my other Combat Squad on the left side. They would intercept a charging Khorne rhino. I killed some Noise Marines with Predator fire.

Turn 2:
The chaos scum would finish off the two marines that were pinned down by noise marines. The Berzerkers moved up in their rhino and the predator and vindicator fired on a Baal but failed to hurt it.

On my turn, two of my pods came down. One dread deployed and vaporized Kharn with a melta shot. The other dropped right in front of his Vindicator but missed with the melta gun. My bikes destroyed his Khorne rhino and killed a couple of berzerkers in the explosion. My predators layed down supressing fire on the Noise Marines killing all but four while one of my rhinos used the distraction to move fast up the right edge of the board. It was going to flank around and claim an uncontested objective in the rear while the predators cleared a hole for it.

Turn 3:
He tried to get his berzerkers away from my dreadnought. He moved them up on bikes and killed them. He also moved his winged lord to the squad but was out of range to assault. He fired his Vindicator on the dread right in front of it, but it scattered onto his own Plague Marines! Killing 4. He fired his Lascannon shots at another dread, but only blew off an arm. The dreads would assault!

On my turn I dropped my other pod near his berzerkers, and the dread got out and flamed them, killing a couple more. My predators finished off the Noise Marines and one of my dreads charged the squad of Plague marines who got hit with their own Vindicator and killed them all while the other one charged his daemons. That fight would last til the end of the game, but they were out of it.

At the end of turn 3 the game was mostly over. His Plague Marines and Noise Marines were dead. He had his daemons tied up in combat against a dread they could not hurt and his Berzerkers were being chased by another angry dread.

Turn 4:

Attempting to save stop my charge, the vindicator fired on my flanking Rhino but scattered off. The Las Pred fired on my Rhino, but only Stunned it, which was reduced to a Shaken because I always take extra armor. (One more example where having extra armor made a difference. Had I not had it, I would have not gotten that squad into objetive scoring range.) In the assaults, his zerkers killed off my Las team while his lord jumped into terrain and took a wound. Another Daemon died to my dread.

On my turn, my predators sprayed some shots at his vindicator. My rhino, that was only shaken due to extra armor, moved 18" to just barely claim an objective. The other rhino moved up and claimed a second. The dread that slaughtered the Plague Marines moved up and assaulted his Vindicator, exploding it. On the left side, my Death Company finally came on...(I forgot to bring them on sooner) and they assaulted the lord and killed him.

Turn 5:
The game was pretty much over. He assaulted my DC models with his remaining zerkers and killed them then massacred into a trench. His Las pred fired on the Dread charging it, but failed to stop him. That was all he had left!

I immobilized the rhino on the trench next to its objective, but the boys inside bailed out and fired their melta on the Las pred while the Dread moved up and shot at it as well. Both missed, but the Dread would managed to reach it in assault, and exploded it. The zerker dread charged them and squished them as well! Game over.

The dreads coming out of pods were simply outstanding. They tore things up in the middle of the table. The key was killing Kharn with a melta shot coming out of the pod. He was the only model on the table that could do more then a grenade in close combat against my dreads. Once he was dead, my dreads would be able to charge into combat with abandon. And they did. So that wraps it up. This game serves as a tune up game for my next Tournament action in January. With the little jawa coming any second now, I probably wont get in many more games, so it was good to work out a few things.

Bring on the Conflict GT!

Jawaballs

Paint to play or play to paint? Which one are YOU?


When I got into 40k three years ago I was not very good at painting. There were no decent tutorial videos out there (Which I fixed!) and the GW instructions are written along the same lines as instructions on how to assemble a book case. I struggled through trial and error and my first Ultramarines just didn't look good. I, like probably 80% of guys who try the hobby, threw up my hands on painting and just focused on learning how to play from Fritz and hacked away at painting here and there. I bought a bunch of poorly painted old crap off ebay and used that on the tables.

But then I decided to focus on painting. I got some high quality brushes, practiced my technique on my crappy models and actually developed some skill. The first model I painted that I was proud of, which is horrible by my current standards, was the Chaplain with Jump pack and I still have him! He was mostly Red Gore and looked like a Khorne Berzerker. I had no clue I used the Khorne color scheme until Black Matt pointed it out to me. I started truely looking at models on line and started to truely see the level of detail that was possible and what I could do. The point of that is that just about any color scheme that works well is already done. As a beginner, don't try to reinvent the wheel and make up your own scheme. Pick an established scheme that you like and go with it. Like I did as I finished that chaplain that looked like a Khorn Berzerker. I used what was already done, and I made it my own.

Then the new BA dex came out, I started using Blood Red, and then my current level of painting was born. I came in with some more models, much improved, and showed Matt again. I told him I was looking at the Golden Daemon stuff in White Dwarf for inspiration. He asked "What do I want to accomplish?" My answer was to win a Golden Daemon after some thought. He smiled and wished me luck, saying if I think I can, then to go for it!

Not long after I won my first of several Best Painted awards, almost won Players Choice at Baltimore GT and was in the top runnings at any tournament I played at.

Now I am flattered to say I am considered a "Pro" and guide hundreds of people in their own painting!

What is the point of all this rambling Jawa???

I ask you the question. Do you paint to play? Or play to paint?

When is started, I painted so I could play. Painting was secondary. I wanted to get good at the game. But then I realized I could paint, and started focusing on that. My goal at tournaments became to go to win Best Painted, standings be damned. That happened pretty fast. Then what?

I was going to tournaments, winning Best Painted, but getting crushed on the tables. I was cool with playing to paint, but let me tell you, my competitive ego was taking a bruising every time.

Flash forward to Toywiz Conflict GT 2009 last Jan, out of about 40 players, I took best painted with my Blood Angels, but also took 6th overall. What? I wasnt 3rd from last? I went to a tournament and won games? The truth of it is that had my buddy Greg not stuck it to me in game 5, I could have won the whole thing. We all have a thousand of those stories, I know, but the fact that I could have actually won stuck with me. And grated on me! My painting is what pushed me into the upper reaches of the tournament. I was one of, if not the only guy to score maximum points for painting. I realized, that with good painting, decent playing, and a little luck, I could compete for the whole shabang! Especially since most guys who go to tournaments are of the Paint to Play mentality. (Getting some gaming quality painted models on the table so they can play their army.)

So boom, the arms race begins. I start refining my list. Next thing I know I am showing up for tournament after tournament with a new list, improving on what I had done before. I am playing casual games with the intent to tweak my list and get the most efficient use of my points I could. A few months later WHAM! I won a tournament. Then another! Then a 4th place... (I was on top table game 3 and drew.) Then I took a third at Mechanicon... I was playing for the win overall, but tie breakers, and my poorly finished army, dropped me to third. Thats right, I said poorly painted army. In my obsession to win games and score battle points, I neglected what I did best, painting. All of my tweaks and army changes left me with using only a Tactical squad and a rhino that were in my first Best Painted win. Everything else was new. I was throwing together models and painting them over night to table top standard, just so I could field them... I showed up there with a tactical squad with no insignias, drop pods with no highlights and half finished bikes. I became one of those guys!

Painting to Play might be what cost me 1st at the Mechanicon GT. It definitely cost me Best Painted at the recent Battle for Salvation tournament. (But I did win best overall.) I thought I could show up and let the impressive stuff in my army outshine the poor quality overall. While my army still looked outstanding, I was putting models on the table that I was not proud of and doing myself a disservice.

Finally I will cut to the point. If you want to win tournaments, you need to focus on both painting and playing. If you look at all of the Best Overall winners, they not only crush their opponents, but their armies are beautiful... Usually, sometimes guys are just so good that painting doesnt matter, but they still have at least good looking armies so as not to lose points.

This January I will come full circle. I will play in the 2010 Conflict GT and try to defend my Best Painted crown, AND win the whole thing! Personally I am no longer trying to paint to play, or play to paint. Best Painted and Best Overall. I want it all! Is that too much? Ugh... I have visions of that obnoxious girl from the original Charly and the Chocolate Factory. :)

More to Come...

Jawaballs

Death Company Drop Pod




My current project is to add some unity to my entire army. I have been losing points in painting judging lately because A: My army is not finished... I have done so many changes the last few months that I have let my painting slip and some of the models are hurting. And B: More importantly, my army is in discord. My style has changed so drasticly over the last year that models I painted a year ago no longer look like they belong with the models I did a few weeks ago. I have three Baal Preds that look like they were painted by three different people! Some tournaments have army theme as a major part of painting scoring, and I think that hurt me at Mechanicon for example, and my shoddy rush work definitely hurt me at the last BFS tournament.

What am I doing to fix this? Well I am putting in some major love time to get them done and finished with some unity. Last spring when I did my Honor Guard and angel winged predator I added a checker design to all the models to give them unity. I decided to go with these checkers on all of my armor. Starting with my new Death Company pods I'm going to work backwards and bring all of my models into unity with each other.

So here is a quick bit about one of my Death Company pods.

First off, how to paint it.

These were actually painted red when I was using them as normal dread pods. So I sprayed them black using Army Painter black primer, which is the best I have found by the way.

After trying a few grey combinations, I decided on using Fenris Grey Foundation paint as the first highlight and I hit every edge with it. Then as the second highlight I used Codex grey, and as an extreme I used Fortress. I went with Fenris because it is a very cool grey and I wanted to add some subtle blue accent to the army when it is sitting all together on display. It wont be obvious, but the blue will help the eye relax while looking at all that glaring red and orange.

Having done that, I cut out a stencil X and used it to put the same X on every door. I painted that with mechrite red, then did some blending from Red Gore, to a red that I mixed using scorched brown to blood red, and I highlighted the edges with Blazing Orange and Fiery orange.

Then I did some re-entry paint wear. Along all the edges that face the table, I used some Boltgun Metal and just dabbed the brush on the edge, letting the paint thin as I dragged it up towards the armor plate.

That brought me to the checkers and danger stripes.

Danger Stripes first.

I have always wanted to do these on a pod, they look great on the box, but have hesitated because more often then not when you see them attempted on guys pods, they are messy and dont work.

So I got out my little hobby ruler and went to town. I measuerd down the length of the door, marking off segments that would become the lines. Using the same measurements, I did this for each door. Then I free hand painted the segments with Iyanden Darksun. Painting a straight line is not for the faint of heart! This is the part that makes or breakts the danger stripes. But one thing that allows me to paint to a good level is a steady hand and I make good use of it. So after painting the darksun, I paint the bottom half of the line segments with Blazing Orange, then I layer in more yellow using Golden, then sunburst then Lemon Yellow by Valejo as a highlight then white on the extreme top edge. I work the color down from the top to the bottom, covering the Blazing orange but leaving it visible with thin layers.

I repeat the same steps on the checker pattersn on the fins. I used a 3/10 inch square and measured them all in, making the same exact squares on each fin. They did not come out perfect because it is actually very hard to hold a squirmy pod, metal ruler and pencil, and make marks at the same time. After laying out the grid I used the same color combo, but omitted the blaziing orange. Though I might add it in on later pods.

So there you go! That brings you up to date. I will post more updates on the progress of the pods, but watch my youtube channel for video!

What have your experiences been with painting hazard stripes? How bout mixing painting styles in your army?

More to come...

Jawaballs

Here is some video:

Loose Ends: Mechanicon GT Game 5 Batrep

Hey guys, I hate to post old news but I wanted to wrap up this loose end cause guys have been asking for it.

Mechanicon Game Five for the win?

As most of you know, I took 3rd at Mechanicon. But in game five I was playing for the win! Stressful indeed.

Game Five:
Modified Victory Points Objectives.
Kill all troops for major victory
Kill Commander for victory

Opponent:
Nidzilla. 3 shooty carnifexs, 3 killy carnifexs, 2 shooty hive tyrants and 4 squads of Genestealers. Not a list most guys want to face... ever.

He knew I had to kill his two hard to kill tyrants and then mow down 4 squads of stealers for the win. To take me down, he had to kill my 20 marines and corbs. But to get to them he had to get through my armor! This was going to be a great game from the start.

He gave me first turn.

I deployed with all of my forces bunched up in the center of the table on my edge. I wanted to keep them away from the edge incase he outflanked his stealers. Corbs was in a rhino with a combat squad behind and the rest of the boys were set up with their weapons ready and the predators off to the side a bit to keep them out of terrain. He set up a wall of bug flesh. His carnifexs were in front with the shooty fexs behind and the tyrants behind them. I had to blast through a wall of death to get to the tyrants. My plan was simple. Blow a hole in the wall and then dump all my fire power into his tyrants until they were dead. Get the minor victory then run the hell away with my combat squad and corbs in a rhino and keep them alive. I had no delusions about killing his stealers. They were in reserve and if I did manage to kill three of the squads, he would just run the last one away. But I had the advantage when it came to commanders, him being unable to hide his, so I took it.

Turn One:

I advance my preds and attack bikes, I had 6, and opened up on carnifex one. With notihng to block LoS, he did not last long. That opened up a hole and angle where I was able to start blasting away at his Tyrants. So I took the shots. Killed one!

On his turn, he saw my strategy and adjusted. He only had to cover about 18" to get to me, so he would be on me no later then turn 3. He just had to weather the storm and get those carnifexs moving. He opened up on my bikes, killing a couple and hurting my shooty love.

Turn Two:

I had to take down a shooty fex this time to get at his second tyrant. One of my pods came in and I took the melta shot at the tyrant, as well as laying down more Asscannon and Melta law. It died. My plan was working almost to well? I think he was ill prepared for the fire power that I threw down. Taking down his tyrants was shocking to him for sure. He probably doesnt see that often. But that would be the end of my free shots. Next turn his Carnifexs would be in my lines.

On his turn, he advanced his big bugs again and brought on two squads of stealers. His shooting killed more bikes and stunned a predator. The stealers attacked my dread, landing something like 48 hits. When it was all said and done from that charge, and I frustrated the crap out of him by making him reroll about 10 rending wounds to my benefit, it came down to one last rend. It was a pen and he rolled a weapon destroy. High from all the luck, I decided to press it and made him reroll it. He rolled a destroy. I learned a valuable lesson that I would then carry over to the Battle for Salvation tournament. Always take the weapon destroyed against a Pen result on my ven dread. That is the best option.

So he destroyed my dread.

Turn 3:

My other pod came down. I got out and flamed a stealer squad and killed most of them. My tanks and bikes opened up on the nearest Big Bug and reduced it to one wound. I also layed down some fire on a shooty fex because it had the gun that could hurt my tanks and reach me as I retreated. He had two carnifex that would assault this turn and three shooty fex that would pepper my tanks and troops. Next turn, I would pull my move and fast move my rhino away. I just wanted to keep his attention away from it, plus I had to move my tactical squad out of the way without drawing attention.

He assaulted my second dread with three stealers squads. This one was a Death Co. dread and it actually won combat!!! Two of the squads fell back, but one managed to stay in so I could not sweeping advance. They would regroup and come back next turn.

He assaulted my last bike squad with a shooty fex, and the tough buggers would hold it up for two assault turns. He moved and assaulted one of my predators and killed it.

Turn 4:
At this point things are breaking down fast. Those two carnifexs are tearing me up. My dread lasted another turn against the stealers, tieing them up and but the rest of them were on the table and it would die soon. I layed down more fire on his carnifexs but was running out of options. I killed the fex that destroyed my tank, but there was another right there, and I was out of shots. My escape route was ready and on turn 5 I would get the hell out. I used my other rhino to block the carnifexs assault route on my escape rhino.

He assaulted my las cannon combat squad and killed it, and was sizing me up for a way to keep me from getting away, my plan now obvious.

Turn 5:
Time to go! I roll OCE on my rhino and score a 4, so It will get well away from trouble. But then travesty. My cursed ability to roll 1s rears its ugly head and I immobilize the rhino on terrain. For the love of god! Knowing that the best he could do would be to assault Corbs rhino and kill it forcing him to bail out, I panicked and disembarked him any way. I made a line of armor with the rest of my tanks and ran corbs to what I hoped would be safety behind a tank and out of assault range. My other dread goes down to stealer rends after killing his share and his shooty fex kills my bike squad. I assaulted his carnifex with another combat squad trying to slow it down, but he wiped them out.

On his turn it came down to his last shot. His assaulty fex was almost dead and would not last turn 6 if the game went on. (I should have kept corbs in the rhino...) He placed his big template, a str 8 ap 4 or 5 shot, I dont know what it was called... after the scatter, it clipped corbs. I had to make a 3+ save and have the game end. Die roll? A 2. Corbs is instant killed and a draw is born. The game ended turn 5.

It was a fun game! I killed a lot of giant bugs. He certainly felt the sting of the Baal Predator and it was this game where I learned the true value of the Venerable Furioso. Had I not taken that reroll which killed my first dread, he would not have had so many squads on my second the next turn. They likely would have both lived, and killed all the stealers! The second would have finished off the ones that assaulted it while the first tied up the majority of them, then the second would have jumped in to help. Instead he killed the first and piled onto the second. With all those rending shots, it is tough to survive.

I made my biggest mistake in my 40k experience so far though by disembarking Corbs. All I really had to do was keep him in that rhino. But I feared that he would kill the rhino and the game would go on, leaving corbs in the hands of a fex that he could not out run if I didnt get him some distance. I suppose it was more of him defying the odds then me making a mistake. He got a perfect scatter after all and I failed a 3+, but still. The game was mine to lose.

As it turned out, it was costly. I ended the game tied with Rob Baer who won best overall. He finished with 10 more points then I did. 8 of them he gained from a fluff quiz which I forgot to turn in, and two he gained from his painting score. I lost 2 points for now having a painted display board. (His army was exceptional though.) So would I have lost even if I won game 5? I think so. I would have had to kill his stealers I think. I would have needed a massacre to make up the 8 point difference Rob got from the quiz.

So there you have it! Interesting point here. Should fluffy 40k quizes be part of GT scoring? This particular one was very difficult, but they gave us about 3 hours of down time to do it. Rob only knew a couple answers and I had a few guesses, but as I found out, looking up the answers was ok. We were allowed to use rule books and codexs. Rob used his iphone! I could have used my laptop. Knowing that now, I don't see much value in the quiz above giving out door prizes. For the quiz to have a major affect on overall scoring, it should be a true measurement of 40k knowledge. We should have 5 minutes before game 3 to answer the quiz. In that case, you either knew the answers, or you did not. Regardless, he would have topped me any way because of the painting score which I could do nothing about. You want to bet that next year I am going to Mechanicon with every codex loaded up in my travel bag and my army will indeed be ready to earn max painting! Lessons learned. :)

Jawaballs

Battle for Salvation Fall 2009 Tournament Game 2 Battle Report

Game 2

I ended up on table 1 against one of the hardest armies to beat in a 5 loot counter mission. Ben Bangley was my opponent and he had an Eldar army that would have made Fritz proud!

Eldrad with 5 warlocks
Autarch on bike with troop bike squad
another bike squad
a vyper squad with scatters
two fire prisms
a falcon grav tank with brightlance
three wave serpents with dire avengers

Ben came to the tournament because he is a daily follower of The Way of Saim-Hann and he knows Fritz's tactics in and out. It was obvious from the start, he did a classic Fritz objective deployment! I knew this was going to be a death match to the end. And was not disappointed.

Mission: 5 Loot counters
Deployment: Table Corners

Ben gave me 1st turn.

I deployed with my preds as forward as possible, standard opperating procedure for table corners. The objectives were clustered mostly in the center, with one in the far left corner of my deployment zone. I placed a las cannon combat squad on that single objective and would move my rhinos in behind my tanks later in the game to take objectives in the middle.
He deployed his vypers, prisms and eldrad with warlocks in the Falcon. Every thing else was in reserve.

Turn 1:

With very little to shoot at, I focused on his Vypers, which were deployed behind cover getting saves. I hit them hard with heavy bolters and las cannons, but only destroyed one. I advanced my preds to move on and contest objectives. I knew that this game was going to come down to turn 5 WOSH style contesting, so I had to be prepared.

On his turn he opened up on my tanks with his prisms. Immobilizing one, luckily in range of contesting an objective. That was about it!

Turn 2:

Prepare for pods.

I rolled for reserves, and NOTHING came in. I had a bike squad in reserve too and nothing. Oh well. I turbo boosted my bikes to the far side of the table to prep for his entry, taking a wound in the process. During my shooting I finished off his vypers and actually penetrated his Falcon, but only shakened it. The trend of the day for me was to roll a 6 to penetrate, and then roll a 1 for damage. It also didnt help that all of his tanks had the sneaky Eldar 2d6 take the loweset trick.

A serpent and his autarch/jetbike squad came in for him, which he brought on on the left side of the table, far away from the objectives and action. Yup, a Fritz tactic for sure! His shooting would blow the Asscannon off a pred and shake the other two. Grr. He would not be in range to assault my immobilized pred though.

Turn 3:

All three pods come down. Now it is time for a party.
I deployed one pod next to his Prisms. And the other two next to Eldrad's Falcon and close to his Autarch. They were about 12" from the table edge and close to the objectives. I wanted them in position to eat him if he tried to move his bikes in.

I popped the prism with the first dread, but Eldrad shenanigans managed to save the Falcon. That would be all the melta fire they would get. Ben smartly took those arms off when he damaged them.

On his turn he destroyed one of my predators and assaulted one of my dreads with Eldrad. Those nasty warlocks managed to destroy him... my first dread loss of the day.

Turn 4:
Every thing was in play for me. I started moving my Rhinos and one of my Las teams towards objectives. Now it was going to be a matter of positioning. I actually managed to get a predator to fire all of its guns at Eldrads squad, killing 4 of the 5 warlocks. Lucky for him the one that survived had Embolden, because he failed his leadership test but got to reroll. I destroyed a serpent with meltagun fire and killed off some of the Dire Avengers. In the assault I sent my death company and a dread after the autarch and bike squad, and sent my other dread after his other bikes. Those definitely had to be destroyed. The autarch was squished and his bikes killed, but the other squad managed to make their leadership and live.

On his turn, he made his move on the single objective in the corner. He moved the remnants of the first dire avenger squad on them, and the serpent with another. He slaughtered the bikes that were supporting the combat squad, leaving me with one bike squad.

At the bottom of 4 it was working out as follows:
He had a prism, weapon destroyed falcon, serpent, 1.5 dire avenger squads, and eldrad with a warlock and a few bikes locked in combat with a dread. (dead meat)

I had a bike squad 2 predators, 2 dreads, and four combat squads. Three of them were moving on objectives. He was going to try to take the lone objective in the corner and contest the other 4. I was going to try to hold the lone objective and stop him from contesting the others for the win. Our strategies were obvious, it would come down to trying to stop each other!

Turn 5:

I move a rhino up with my captain to claim an objective, and got out and unloaded on Eldrad. My captain vaporized him with his combi melta after I killed the warlock with a predator. My dread finished up the bike squad and my bikes assaulted his 5 dire avengers, killing them. Good round for me. Now I just had to hope he could not squeeze his boys into contesting range. I was holding 4 objectives and he had none.

On his turn though, he turned the tables. He bladestormed my combat squad holding the corner objective and destroyed them. On the other side, he moved his prism and Falcon into contesting range, tank shocking one of my troop squads in the process. The squad failed leadership and fell back! So much for using my meltagun to destroy the damn prism.

Bottom of 5 and the game was lined up to be a draw. All objectives were contested.

Die roll! Game goes on.

Turn 6:

I assaulted his prism with two dreads, but since it moved fast failed to destroy it. He had a serpent with dire avengers in it on the lone objective and moved my last bike squad to not only contest the objective but get shots at the back. I immobilized it and weapon destroyed it. But the kicker was that I blockd his boys inside! That objective would remain contested if I did nothing. My squad fell back again because of proximity to his tank. I spread out one of my combat squads to contest two objectives. At the bottom of my turn the game was going to end a victory for me. All he had left was an immobile serpent with trapped dire avengers inside that were contesting an objective. he had a serpent and weapon destroyed prism that were also contesting. But I had one more objective then him and would get the victory... unless I screw up. Commence screw up. I assaulted his immobilized prism with my bikes to get them into better position to contest and trap the avengers. I just wanted to get them to a guaranteed contesting position, I was unsure that I could reach, and wanted to make sure he could not unload and vape my bikes. Of course, I roll two penetrations on the krak grenades and destroy the damn thing.

On his turn his avengers slaughter my bikes and claim the objective. His tanks contest two and I claim one. We each hold an objective... draw. Game ends. Guh.

The play of the game though was managing to squeak in his tanks to contest. He found one little hole that I was unable to plug and angled the front wing of his tank into it, but stay an inch from my tanks.

I have to say that a draw was a very good result for me, despite the fact that I almost tabled him. His list is almost tailored to win this mission and is very very hard to beat. Plus he was a pro at palying it. At the end of the game he had a few dire avengers, and two weapon destroyed tanks. I had two preds, two dreads, two rhinos, 3 combat squads and my captain. His tank shocking my combat squad and them failing leadership was huge for him. They had a melta and would have dome some damage to his contesting tanks. He also employed the very smart "Tank Shock Snipe" attack, by staying well away from my melta gun so I could not Death or Glory and just clipping the base of one of my models. Great move!

At the end, the game was a well played nail biter. Every turn there were ups and downs, with die rolls deciding the results instead of cheeze. Neither of us could point to any single instance that dominated the game or turned it one way or another. Cant ask for more! I hit him hard and he hit back. Ben was a smart opponent and knew the capabilities of his army. It was also stressful, because we both knew that every centimeter mattered. It certainly was a game of inches. We both knew the rules for movement and model proximity and this game was an artful chess match to try to stop each other from them. For example, had I rotated my rhino about half an inch to the left, he would not have been able to get that tank in to contest... the game was that close.

The one big mistake was me assaulting his serpent. I really did not want to destroy it at that point, just get closer to the objective. I may or may not have been within 3" to contest and had to make sure. But thats ok, he made a pretty big tactical mistake by exposing his Autarch and Bikes to my dread assault. I don't think he was prepared for the horror that is Venerable Furioso. Maybe he thought he could pop the dread before it got a chance to attack with his superior initiative. Venerable was key.

So there you go. Game two ended with me having 31 battle points and primed for a shot at the top. I would have liked to have scored a minor victory, which would have gotten me a few more points, but a draw is better then a loss!

Next game would have me on table 4, in 7th for battle points. When I got to the table though, I got very very nervous, because across from me was a jacked out Space Wolves army with 2 Vindicators, 2 characters, a rune priest, a land raider full of terminators and loads of troops in transports. Yes folks, I was in for a rumble! That batrep tomorrow and watch my youtube channel for the video.

Eldar armies are no joke when it comes to the objective contesting game. What have your experiences been like? What was your one biggest game losing blunder?

Battle for Salvation 2k tournament Blood Angels list


Since I posted my win from Saturdays tournament, I have had few dozen emails and comments asking for a breakdown of my list in detail. Being one to share, and knowing that my list will completely change in a few months, here you go!:

HQ:
Space Marine Captain
Power Weapon
Combi-Melta

Troops:
10 man tactical
lascanon
melta-gun
power weapon
rhino
extra armor

10 man tactical
lascannon
melta-gun
power weapon
rhino
extra armor

Elite:
Death Company
2 models

Furioso Dread
Venerable
Death Company
Extra Armor
Heavy Flamer
Drop Pod

Furioso Dread
Venerable
Death Company
Extra Armor
Heavy Flamer
Drop Pod

Furioso Dread
Venerable
Death Company
Extra Armor
Heavy Flamer
Drop Pod

Fast Attack:

Attack Bike x2
Multi meltas

Attack Bike x2
Multi meltas

Heavy Support:

Baal Predators x3
Heavy Bolters
Storm bolter
extra armor

The instant reaction to this is "Where are your jump packs?" "Where are your troops?" And most people, like I used to, laugh off Baal Predators without a thought. They also laugh off Pod Dreads because they know they have to suffer a round of shooting before they can assault. Usually dreads dropped close enough to use their meltagun will die to the return fire. No big deal.

My basic strategy is to combat squad my two tacticals. I place four bolters and a las cannon back in cover and on an objective. I put the other combat squads in their rhinos and the captain jumps in with one. I hold back the rhinos and send them out when needed. I line up my three preds together, with the two bike squads hiding behind them and my two death company standing with their backs up against the front of one of them. They are big enough to block 50% and give me a front cover save. Of course with nothing to stop them from taking their Death Company move this only lasts until the first turn but every little bit helps. If I can I advance them 6" and advance the tank behind them and try to squeeze out another round of that cover save. Yes, I admit, this is cheezy. Why should two infantry grant a tank a cover save? Well, that is out there for all you Land Raider rotaters. :)

So I hold back my advance until my pods come down. But in the meantime I sniper speeders and exposed troops with the heavy bolters. I focus on speeders and bikes first.

My general target priority? Any thing melta of course. Then I work on his troops if I have nothing else to shoot at. I try to supress pockets of armor in prep for my pods to drop. If I can I will pepper transports with asscannon fire near my intended drop pod target locations in an attempt to Stun them, since most guys refuse to take extra armor. If I can pop transports, even better. Lets get those juicy vet squads out on the table in nice clumps of disembarked fun where I can lay down the flame. If they fail their pinning test from their transport being knocked out, even better.

If I have no speeders or bikes to snipe with lascannons, I will use them to suppress armor as well. Hopefully by the time my pods land, they are coming down in a pocket of suppressed tanks and disembarked troops. That raises their survivability.

Now the pods drop. I have had 1 or 2 rounds of supressing fire and hopefully killed or imobilized stuff that can get over to my pods and kill the dreads. I use the pods as little walls, blocking off the majority of his stuff, and disembark the dread to take advantage of cover while getting a nice shot at the back of a tank or transport. I will almost always drop the pods together. Strength in numbers. If I can get them out and pop a transport with one, I will attempt to lay the flame over the troops while targeting the next tank in line with the second dread. Three dreads working in a triangle are truely frightful. If I can drop them behind something full of death that has to die, like a land raider full of terminators I am good to go. I will shoot the middle dread first and hopefully get two flamer shots on the terminators inside. I will also use the pods to stop enemy advance. If I need to slow down a Land Raider I will drop pods in front of it and try to box it in. The best best is to try to catch the LR while it is still in his deployment zone. Often times guys keep it back on the first turn to protect it while they try to take out my tank killers. If I can catch it on the back edge, I will always go for the kill.

"But Jawa, dreads are only armor 12, don't they get destroyed by all the melta guns?" Well, if I am lucky I have successfully suppressed most of the tanks in my drop zone. Now they are creating road blocks stopping active transports from moving up and unloading the troops to get their melta shots. Or there is so much stuff around, speeders cant get close. Etc. Use his armor against him. Pick your targets, stun things that will then grant you cover, support them with cover fire from the predators, and have faith in your wargear!

Finally, the dreads only work if they have extra armor and venerable. What shots that do make it through the cover have to pen or glance. Then they have to Immobilize or destroy the dread. A Shaken has no effect except for not shooting, a stun becomes a shaken with extra armor and a weapon destroy just reduces my attacks by one. If I get through the round only taking a weapon destroy and a bunch of stuns/shakens, I am good to go. I will be assaulting with up to 6 attacks next turn. So if he gets a 4+ on the damage roll, I make him reroll. He has to do it twice.

When used properly, ven furioso dreads are incredibly resiliant and devastating in combat. If they actually get a chance to move, shoot and assault, things are gonna die. I have yet to play them against a full guard army with chimeras and melta vets or a army with super serious fire power, but I am confident that smart placement, suppression and a little luck will get them through the fire and they will roll some heads.

Weakness? Yes, I lack the loads of assault punch typical to a Blood Angels army. But ask yourself, is the BA dex all that assaulty? Sure, Assault Squads are troops. But they cannot take special weapons. They cant take a melta gun to pop a transport and assault the boys inside. Plus, only the sergeant can take a power weapon. They are not vets so they only get one attack, plus off hand and charge. Orks with shootas are as good as that, cheaper and can take tank popping guns. I'm not griping, I love the BA dex. I am just pointing out that I have focused on a weakness and turned it into a strength.

Guys look at a BA army with no jump troops and think "Oh sweet, a really expensive generic space marine army." Which quickly turns into "That dread gets seven attacks???"



I also lack the troops that most people believe 5th edition requires. Sure, I combat squad them down into four squads. But that makes them squishy 5 man squads. Most guys will say that my biggest weakness, especially in objective games, is that if you want to beat me, all you gotta do is kill 20 marines. My answer? Try it. Easier said then done.

So there you go folks! Please dont mistake my explanation as arrogance. It is hard to talk about how you have won games without sounding arrogant. I went into that tournament prepared, but with low expectations. My game plan and surprisingly strong, unconventional list carried me through. If you can get the right combination of those two, and throw in a smattering of luck, any one can win a tournament. I don't consider myself any better then any of the guys who did not win. Believe me, there were some fantastic players at that tournament. But when the dice were done rolling and the smoke cleared, Blood Angels and Jawaballs were standing on top! :)

2009 Battle for Salvation Fall tournament results!

Hey all! First off, make sure to watch my youtube channel for the video uploads from this tournament. I got a lot of footage and will be posting it up furiously all week. But on with the batreps!

I went to this tournament with a fully untested list and very low expectations for myself. This was a 2k point tournament and I have played very few games at this total, and the ones I did were with a very different list. I had success at Mechanicon at 1850 with 2 Venerable Furioso dreads, so I went balls out and played 3 venerable death company furioso dreads. All I can say is "Epic". One is scary, but three? Lets say that they earned their name, Furioso. They were some Mad Robots.

The rest of my list was filled out by my three jacked Baal Preds, 2 two bike attack bike squads with meltas, two tactical squads with rhino, lascannon, meltagun and power weapon, and a Colorados, captain of the 2nd company. (So far as I can tell, that is the offical name of the 2nd company captain for the BA.)

At first glimpse, my army gets two reactions. "Shooty Blood Angels?" With a scrunched up mock confused face... and "Where are all your troops? Two troops squads?" Etc. I just smile and shrug.

Game One:

Matt and Bobby, the head organizers, opened up this tournament to something unusual. They allowed round one challenges. If some one wanted to drop a challenge on round one, the challenged player could decline. Or take the challenge. Basicly Matt allowed dudes with balls to step up and pick a hard opponent to begin with. Only one challenge was made however. Charlie, the guy I narrowly beat in round three of the first BFS tournament to earn me the best overall win wanted a rematch. Remembering his bad ass Blood Angel army led by Mephiston, I wanted no part of him and tried to weasel out. Matt would have nothing to do with that though, calling me nickname for a female cat and giving Charlie his shot at glory. Accepting my fate, I lined up across from Charlie, and announced to him that he would indeed suffer this affront.

Time to deal some suffering.

My 2k BA vs Charlie's 2k BA. Charlie ran a new list though. Dante, a couple rhinos and razorbacks, a couple of assault squads, one being a 10 man squad, a couple of tactical squads, again, one being a 10 man squad, a 5 man Devastator squad, and a Predator with all Lascannons and a Land Raider full of Death Company.

Mission:
Kill Points Modified: We had to select 5 units of our enemy force and nominate them as KP. Those 5 KP were the only ones we could grab earn.

Deployment:
Modified DoW. Instead of DoW happening on turn 1, you rolled randomly for it. On a 4+, DoW happened, but it only happens once per game.

Turn 1:
I won the die roll! Or did I seize initiative? I forget, and I forgot to make video, so I will never know. It matters not though. Suffering would come early, and I would waste no time trying to cut him down. I deployed just my two Lascannon Combat Squads in cover. Every thing else came on turn one except the pods with dreads.

Charlie selected my angel wing Predator, two bike squads, and two rhinos as his kill points. I selected a rhino and razorback, a 5 man tactical, a 10 man tactical and I forget which other at the moment.

So I rolled on my forces and got them ready to advance and slaughter in turn 2. My Lascannons shot at a Razorback, but failed to destroy it. My bikes turbo boosted up for a second turn attack on his Land Raider. That was about all I could do.

On his turn, he rolled out his forces, getting them all on the table. With my Las and Melta guns, and knowing that he had to protect his rhinos, he kept them back and away from my guns. This left his assault forces having to advance into my predator fire. It would go badly.

Turn Two:
I deal some big hits. First of all, all three pods came down. I played balls to the wall. Go big or go home. In every game I dropped my pods very close to the edge of the board, right in the thick of it. I drop one near his devastators and the 10 man tactical in rhino hiding near a bastion. The other two drop near his Predator and razorback. I kept them well away from the Land Raider and death company. The stuff that was nearby was particularly squishy, the only thing he had on that side of the table that could hurt my dread was a single power fist.

My predators shot up a tactical squad, reducing it to 4 models that my Death Company would assault, and also his Devs, reducing them to two models. My dreads destroyed both his Predator and the razorback. And to make matters worse, my attack bikes destroyed his Land Raider. The game went very badly, very fast for Charlie.

On his turn, he assaulted my dreads. He dual assaulted them with his 10 man jump squad, and he threw in Dante and a 5 man tactical. This was not a good idea. His shooting was accurate, but the venerable dreads shruged off his shots. Turning two destroyed results into Shaken instead. Then It was time for the assault.

Poor Charlie, his Blood Angels resembled those from the recent GW novels. No luck at all. (By the way, Charlie is a cool dude, and he knows this is all for fun. I am not being a dick to him.) He failed to hurt my dreads, and I dealt 5 wounds, killing 3 members from the tactical squad and two from the assault squad. Not a big deal, but when you lose combat by 5, that means leadership tests... Luckily Dante was not attached to the squad and he kept his Fearless feature. That would mean my dreads could not sweeping advance. His tactical squad made its leadership, but the Assault squad with the only weapon that could hurt my dreads failed... and with my dreads being locked in combat, they escaped and ran off the table. His death company assault and killed the bikes that destroyed their ride.

Turn Three:

I moved up my rhinos previously to deal with his 10 man tactical. My dread moved and popped the rhino and my troops assaulted. Risky, but I wanted that squad dead. Most of them would die in the charge to three power weapon attacks, including my captain. The dread was short on movement to get into base to base. But I didnt need him. My predators took out his devastators and finished off his first assault squad, and my two Lascannon combat squads started working on his Death Company. I would get two rounds of shooting on them.

On my assault though, my dreads would pretty much finish the game. One squished Dante and the other finished off the tactical.

Turn Four:

The game was pretty much over. My Lascannon squads finished off his Death company, and by the end of my turn he had nothing left on the table. I condensed a lot of the action and might not be accurate on when things happened, but it was definitely over at the middle of four, without Charlie taking his turn. Massacre for me!

Charlie was prepared for my predators and knew what they can do, but was completely unprepared for the dreads. Those things would turn the tide in all three of my games today.

As for the day? I will go ahead and let the cat out of the bag. Jawaballs repeated for Best Overall and this was a big tournament with some great players. It came down to a tie breaker between me and Greg Sabino from Brothers Grimm and his name is Saab online here, and the nod went to me due to strength of opponents. I played my last two games on the 1st and 4th tables, meaning I played against the 1st and 7th best performing guys sequentially. Greg, while matching my battle points, did it on lower ranking tables and against guys who scored less battle points. Table one was the highest ranking table and so forth. While Greg's opponents may have been no less skilled then mine, they scored less battle points, making them "weaker" in this tournament. We were tied at sportsmanship. The only other tiebreaker could have been painting, but since Matt did not use a numeric rubric to judge painting, there was no real score to measure. I would have probably won any way though if painting was a tie breaker. (Not to be cocky or any thing. It's just that my army was in the running for best painted, and had I just a little more time to finish the details like power swords and transfers, might have won. Greg's, while nice, was not there.)

That wraps up game one. I will post game two tomorrow. Loads of video to come too.

More to come...

Jawaballs

Warhammer 40k Full Size Blood Angels Death Company Furioso Banner







I thought you guys would appreciate some pictures of my newest full size banner. This one is a Blood Angels Death Company Furioso Dreadnought banner to comemorate the newest form of my army. I painted it up for this coming weekends Battle for Salvation tournament in White Plains.

I used a black heavy fabric banner that was made up by Black Matt's wife. Then I used acrylic paint to layer in the color. It takes a lot of layers I learned, so when painting with yellow over black, I use 50/50 white and yellow on my first layer. White is a very opaque color that lays down a good base. After that you only realy need a single coat of yellow on top. The skull and scroll were painted brown first, then I mixed in white for successive layers until I got to just the highlights with pure white. The blood drops were made laying down a few layers of red, then highlighting with Orange and white. Feel free to ask any questions!

Jawaballs

The History Channel as a propaganda piece part 2.

As a related post to my previous post, here is a list of companies owned by the same company that owns The History Channel. Make sure you read the first of these two posts before commenting. We can continue the discussion here.

Time Warner - Cable
HBO
Cinemax
HBO Video
HBO Independent Productions
HBO OnDemand International
HBO Mobile International
Adult Swim
Boomerang
CNN
CNN International
CNN en Espanol
CNN Headline News
CNN Headline News in Latin America
CNN Headline News in Asia Pacific
CNN Mobile
CNN+
CETV
CNN Newsource
CNN Pipeline
CNN To Go
CNN fn
CNN Radio
CNN Interactive
Court TV (with Liberty Media)
Time Warner Cable
Road Runner
New York 1 News (24 hour news channel devoted only to NYC)
Kablevision (53.75% - cable television in Hungary)
In Demand
Metro Sports (Kansas City)
Time Warner Inc. - Film & TV Production/Distribution
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Studios
Warner Bros. Television (production)
The WB Television Network
Warner Bros. Television Animation
Hanna - Barbera Cartoons
Telepictures Production
The CW Television Network
Kids' WB!
Castle Rock Entertainment
Warner Home Video
Warner Bros. Domestic Pay - TV
Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution
Warner Bros. International Television Distribution
The Warner Channel (Latin America, Asia - Pacific, Australia, Germ.)
Warner Bros. International Theaters (owns/operates multiplex theaters in over 12 countries)
Warner Bros. Online
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Warner Bros. Technical Operations
Warner Bros. Consumer Products
Warner Bros. Studio Facilities
Time Warner Inc. - Magazines
Time
Time Asia
Time Atlantic
Time Canada
Time Latin America
Time South Pacific
Time Money
Time For Kids
Fortune
Fortune Asia
Fortune Europe
FSB: Fortune Small Business
All You
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated International
SI for Kids
Money
People
Who Weekly (Australian edition)
People en Espa�ol
Teen People
Entertainment Weekly
In Style
Southern Living AT HOME
Southern Accents
Cooking Light
Cottage Living
This Old House
Sunset
Health
Hippocrates
Coastal Living
Real Simple
Wallpaper (U.K.)
Bride To Be
English Woman’s Weekly
Practical Parenting
Who
In Style Australia
25 Beautiful Homes
4x4
Aeroplane Monthly
Amateur Gardening
Amateur Photographer
Angler’s Mail
Beautiful Kitchens
Cage and Aviary Birds
Caravan Magazine
Chat
Chat - It’s Fate
Classic Boat
Country Homes and Interiors
Country Life
Cycle Sport
Cycling Weekly
Decanter
European Boat Builder
Eventing
Family Circle
Guitar
Hair
Hi Fi News
Homes and Gardens
Horse
Horse and Hound
Ideal Style
In Style (U.K.)
International Boat Industry
Land Rover World
Livingetc
Loaded
Mountain Bike Rider
MiniWorld
Model Collector
Motor Boat and Yachting
Motor Boats Monthly
Motor Caravan Magazine
NME
Now
Nuts
Park Home & Holiday Caravan
Pick Me Up
Practical Boat Owner
Prediction
Racecar Engineering
Rugby World
Ships Monthly
Shoot Monthly
Soaplife
Sporting Gun
Stamp Magazine
SuperBike Magazine
The Field
The Railway Magazine
The Shooting Gazette
TV & Satellite Week
TV Easy
TVTimes
Uncut
VolksWorld
Web User
Wedding
What Digital Camera
What’s on TV
Woman
Woman & Home
Woman’s Own
Woman’s Weekly
Yachting World
Your Yacht
Ambientes
Audi Magazine
Balance
Chilango
EXP
Expansion
IDC
Life and Style
Manufactura
Obras
Quien
Vuelo
Yachts
In Style Mexico
Magazines listed under Warner Brothers label
DC Comics
Vertigo
Wildstorm
Mad Magazine
Online Services
CompuServe Interactive Services
AOL Instant Messenger
ADTECH
Advertising.com
AOL.com portal
Digital City
AOL Europe
GameDaily.com
Lightningcast
ICQ
The Knot, Inc. - wedding content (8 % with QVC 36% and Hummer
WinbladFunds18%)
MapQuest.com
Spinner.com
Relegence
TACODA
Third Screen Media
Truveo
Userplane
Weblogs, Inc.
Winamp
Xdrive
CNNStudentNews.com
NASCAR.com
PGA.com
Time Warner - Online/Other Publishing
Road Runner
Warner Publisher Services
Time Distribution Services
American Family Publishers (50%)
Africana.com
Time Warner - Merchandise/Retail
Warner Bros. Consumer Products
Theme Parks
Warner Brothers Recreation Enterprises (owns/operates international theme parks)
Time Warner Inc. - Turner Entertainment
Entertainment Networks
TBS Superstation
Turner Network Television (TNT)
Turner South
Cartoon Network
Turner Classic Movies
Cartoon Network in Europe
Cartoon Network in Latin America
TNT & Cartoon Network in Asia/Pacific
TNT Latin America
TNT HD
TCM Asia Pacific
TCM Canada
TCM Europe
TCM Classic Hollywood in Latin America
Adult Swim
Boomerang
CETV
GameTap
TBS
Pogo
Toonami
TrueTV
Peachtree TV
Film Production
New Line Cinema
Fine Line Features
Picturehouse
Turner Original Productions
Sports
Atlanta Braves
Other Operations
Turner Learning
CNN Newsroom (daily news program for classrooms)
Turner Adventure Learning (electronic field trips for schools)
Turner Home Satellite
Turner Network Sales
Other
Netscape Communications
Netscape Netcenter portal
AOL MovieFone
iAmaze
Amazon.com (partial)
Quack.com
Streetmail (partial)
Switchboard (6%)
Advantages
European Magazines Limited


To continue the discussion, and continue to play devils advocate, I get it that television channels are about making money. But some one mentioned that THC is likely just airing relevent content to what is going on today. But knowing that all of the above media outlets are controlled by just a few people with the same agenda, could it not be possible that these channels would be used to influence public opinion? Especially considering that these people may or may not have friends in US government, and their interests abroad may be greatly affected by American policy.

History Channel: Educational TV or Propaganda?

I know, this is a 40k gaming blog and we shouldnt mix politics with pleasure. But at least I am keeping this away from hijacking some ones forum post! I just wanted to point some thing out. Once in a while I like to post up some thoughts that are relavent to our lives. If you don't like to read about the real world, these are not the droids you're looking for. Move along... move along.

The History Channel, while being one of my favorites, is a vehicle for our government's manipulation of it's people.

I love the History Channel. When it first came out, they caught my attention with a cool show about the history of the gun. I thought it was intriguing to see how guns developed and how they work. I was hooked. Shows like Tactical to Practical and Mail Call were always there to give me something intereseting to watch when I was bored.

But I noticed before the 2nd Gulf War began that they pulled a shift in their programing. For weeks before G.W. Bush announced his decision, while he was in the stage of "Preparing to make a crucial decision.", the History Channel abandoned their usual programing and started spamming documentaries on Hitler, Saddam, Facism and Patriotism. 24/7 you could not turn on THC and find images of dead jews, dead kurds, and victorious US soldiers parading down a boulevard with their flags or helping a needy child. I know I found myself hating Iraq and hating Saddam and getting behind G.W. and charging for a war to rid the world of those nasty chemical weapons and 30 year old tanks. Well, by the time GW announced his decision, the population was ready. Thanks in part to the History Channel.

It is happening again. I support Barak Obama. I support our troops and I support our country muscling around the rest of the world. There are limited resources, and we do not have them. In order for our country to survive in the future, we have to take steps now. I get it. I mean no offense if you live in another country. But Obama inherited a war started by a stupid child trying to fill his father's shoes. I mean... really... Afghanistan? Didn't the Soviets get their butts kicked in that country in the 80s? And Obama is now faced with having to deal with it. For weeks, he has been getting ready to "announce an important decision." Will he send more troops to Afghanistan or pull them out? Well, if the current programing on THC is any indicator, more of our boys will be on their way over there soon. This week has been all Hitler, and patriotism. Last night was WWII in HD with Rob Lowe voicing an American officer's diary. I watched a super interesting program about the assassination attempts on Hitler depicted in the movie Valkrye. Tom Cruise spoke about how honored he was to play the German responsible for leading the coup attempt. It goes on and on.

Something to think about.

Jawaballs

Jawaballs at Mechanicon GT Game Four Battle Report BA vs Salamanders


Here is what turned out to be my favorite game of the tournament. I played against Tim, who had heard of me from my youtube videos and blog. He is the big goofy looking kid in the picture, the shorter one is Brad from my necrons game.

Me vs 1850 Salamanders:
2 LR Redeemer
Vulkan
2 five man TH/SS termies
2 10 man tacticals with Multi Melta and rhinos split into combat squads
1 3 man bike squad with MM
1 speeder with mm
librarian

Tim's army was pretty straight forward. A hard hitting, in your face army.

Mission was control table quarters
Deployment was table corners

Tim won the roll and passed me 1st turn. I deployed with my preds lined up 12" from center, with bikes lined up ready to support. I reserved 1 pred and a bike squad and a Rhino with Corbs. Oh, and I bought my scenic resin bases from www.jawaballsproductions.com go there for great resin bases at great prices. Also, I bought How to paint space marines from Jawaballs.

Turn One:
He left his bike squad poking out from behind his LR so I shot lascannons at it and killed one model. That aughta teach him. I attempted to shoot his LRs with assault cannon fire but could not reach. That wrapped up my turn.

On his turn, Tim decided to dip deep into the Kracker Barrel for some supreme cheeze. He had deployed his LRs sideways on the edge of his deployment zone, roughly 24" from my tanks. He then looked at me with a rye smile saying how he was surprised I did not notice this... He Then proceeded to rotate his LR with Vulkan towards my tank, then measured from the front of it, gaining about 4" in the rotation before moving at all. This would have him getting 4" from the rotation, 12" from the movement, 2" from the deployment, and you guessed it, 24" from the charge, assaulting my tanks turn 1.

I called cheeze, and told him that yes, I have seen that before but had expected better of him. (Laying on the shame hard here... but he deserved it.) He claimed it was legal because he can rotate the vehicle for "free" any number of times. More on this later.

So I shamed him, but let him do it. I rarely bust out the rulebook mid game and rely on my opponents honor. Besides, I thought I would let the Emperor decide if he was right through force of action, not words.

I told him to go ahead and move it as he sees fit, but remember, that would cause a terrain test for his vehicle, and the Emperor would grant me a 1. He rolls the die... and of course, a 1 is the result. Immobilized Land Raider. After that, he either felt too much shame, or was afraid to chance the terrain, so he did not try to move his other LR into it. He moved his bikes around to my left flank to try to get in on my tanks, and kept his tacticals in rhinos hiding behind land raiders. His shooting would hurt me though. He killed two of my bike squads. I stupidly left them exposed.

Turn Two:
Angered by his afrontery, and inspired by my faith in the Emperor, I told him that fate was not done with him yet. That cheeze would cost him in blood. I then pointed at his second Land Raider and dubbed it heretic, and condemned it to death by assault cannon. Death by assault cannon? Thats right. My preds could have fired on his bikers instead, but I decided that a show of strength was in order. I lined up my first predator to shoot its assault cannon at his other LR. 4 hits. Then I roll the dice to wound. Ass Cannons rend on a 6. That means I can roll an extra d3 and add it to my pen roll. I roll the 4 hits, and the Emperor granted me a 6. I pick up the rend, and hold it in front of Tim. He squirmed as I sang him some terrible 80s song, I forget which. I was using my Blood Dice. The die rolled around the palm of my hand and he eyeballed it like the rate from Ice Age after his acorn. Not looking at the table, only looking at his eyes, I rolled the die, letting the look on his face tell me the result. Yes, another 6. That was a penetration. 6Str, plus 6 on the pen, plus 3 for rending. 15 penetrates the armor. Without looking down, I pick up the die again, and proclaim his Land Raider exploded. Continuing my 80s song, I roll the die again... his eyes follow it around the palm of my hand, then down to the table... then they glaze over as the result is yet another Blood Drop. (a six). Yes. I not only exploded his Land Raider with an Assault Cannon, but I called the shot.

Land Raider Crusader/Redeemer: 60.00
Package of Blood Drop from Army Dice: 24.00
Look on Tim's face when I destroy his Land Raider with an Ass Cannon: Priceless

After scraping his jaw off the floor, and my resulting seizure from hysterical laughing, we carried on.

So the rest of my shooting would do nothing. One of my pods came down and it failed to hurt his other LR.

On his turn, he bailed out of his two LRs. His librarian led one squad of terminators into my gun fire. Vulkan would lead the other after Corbulo and my Pred that came in from the side.

Turn Three:
My shooting would devestate. I killed the last of his bikes, his Librarian and most of the terminators from the squad. My dread ignored his LR that was immobilized, knowing he could come back for it later, and went after a rhino and speeder that I did not want to escape. He layed the flamer over the speeder and back of the rhino, and shot the rhino. Destroying the speeder, and weapon destroying the rhino. Then I assaulted the rhino... hit it 7 times, and only immobilized it! Jeez. This sucked because I wanted to get that rhino away from the LR and its Multi melta.

On his turn, he would turn things around. With lucky ass cannon shooting of his own, and his LRs melta, he killed both of my dreads. But here is another thing that did not occur to me until just now. He had the Ass cannon on this Land Raider mounted on top. The legal mounting point for a LR Redeemer's Ass Cannon is on the front, giving it only a front arc. It is not Turret Mounted, so cannot shoot behind the tank. He shot my dread with it, that was standing behind the tank. Next time I see him, I will have to point that out. Regardless, my dreads were dead and this game was now back in action, because he also took out Corbulos Rhino and my pred that came in from the side.

Turn Four:
All he had left on the table were 4 combat squads, an imob LR, Vulkan and a few terminators. I had 2 preds, a bike squad, corbs and squad, 3 combat squads and a rhino.

I charge corbs into Vulkan and company. It is a tough fight and I kill a terminator but he wins over all. I take the opportunity to cut down his other terminator squad and get into position to contest table corners. I shoot up some of his tactical marines and we move on.

On his turn, he finished corbs and massacred on. He had to take corners of his own, and still had to knock out my pods. He focused fire on them and took them down, again, rending from behind with a front mounted Land Raider assault cannon.

Turn Five:
It was time for the chess match. First of all, I finished off Vulkan and the terminators with gun fire. A lucky Lascannon shot ending Vulkan. Then I shot up some tacticals with what I could, after moving my bikes and my rhino onto his table corners. Now I was contesting or owning all of them.

On his turn, he assaulted my bikes with a combat squad, but that was all he could do.

At the bottom of five, I contested three objectives, and owned one. He had none. I would roll the die, and of course, rolled a 2. Game over. Minor Victory Jawaballs.

Tim was a likable guy, and very apologetic about his cheeze. There were a couple of other points of contention during the game as well. For example. A terminator squad dual assaulted two vehicles. As I understand the rules, the units must declare their target before assault. 3 terminators declared the Pred, 2 terms and Vulkan declared the Rhino. Vulkan destroyed the rhino on his initiative, but then Tim insisted that the other two, who had moved in to take on the Rhino, could attack the pred. They were legally in range to do so, but had he clearly had them after the rhino. He also said that he technicly never declared they were attacking the rhino... Cheeze.

I wont get into any more because I dont want to blemish a good game and a fun guy. But he needs to seriously rethink some of his tactics.

The LR Rotation trick. As I understand the rules of movement, it is completely a cheat. It is the same as picking up a model, then placing it down 4 inches closer to the direction he wants to move, then measuring with the tape.

What he is supposed to do is measure from the tank BEFORE he moves it in any way. That means if he wishes to move towards my tanks, but the side is pointing that way, yes, he has to measure from the side. The rules say "As you move" you may rotate it any number of times. So sure, as he moved the LR he was free to then pivot it and move with the front towards my tanks. But the tank must stop 12" away from where it was, measured from the original position of the side. You cannot rotate a vehicle, then measure from the new position of its front. Even if rotating is considered "Free" it is still moving, which you cannot do until you measure.

Tim pointed out the "Free" rotation. That refers to a tank that intends to remain stationary. The rules says that it may rotate for free and still count as staying stationary for purposes of shooting.

At any rate, I will get a judgment from an offical on this ruling before any games with Land Raiders in Tournaments. I can deal with trying to assault my predator after declaring assault on a rhino, but cheating out an extra 4" of movement is just wrong.

Am I wrong? Was Tim's bonus 4" rotation move legal? Are you allowed to move a tank before measuring its distance? I will put up vid on this tomorrow.

Jawaballs