Yet another new list idea...

My list for mechanicon is pretty much set in stone based on time... I have a week left before I go. Since I dont have the models I need yet to make my new list a reality, I will be playing my already competitive BA Mech army. This will probably be that lists last hurrah!

The next tournament I go to after that will be the Battle for Salvation tournament in White Plains, NY on November 21. I will have a 2 week refit to get my boys ready to go at 2k points. I have not decided exactlly what I will roll with, but here is something I just came up with. I have beeen wanting to get a Land Raider Crusader and termies into my list. Here we go!

Chaplain (Terminator or Jump Pack)
Corbulo

tactical squad
+5
Lascannon
Melta
Power weapon
rhino
extra armor

tactical squad
+5
las
Melta
power fist
rhino
extra armor

Death Company x3
Jump packs

Furioso Dread
death company
extra armor
heavy flamer

Furioso dread
DC
EA
HF

Terminator squad
LC x4
SS/TH x1

Land Raider Crusader
Extra armor
storm bolter

baal predator
extra armor
heavy bolters
storm bolter

baal predator
ea
hb
sb

Attack bikes x2
multi melta

Plan? LRC gives a good dose of brick in your face. Chaplain wether i put him in termy armor or jump pack determines where he goes... If with the DC he moves up behind the LRC or Baal Preds. Corbs rides in the LRC regardless.

The preds flank the LRC and move up providing fire support.

The bikes hide and pop out to provide a safety bubble around my armor and provide tank killing punch

The furioso dreads... just run like hell and kill every thing they can!

tactical squads combat squad. leave 2 las canons behind shooting away, the melta and power weapons drive off to take objectives.

The question I have for you... Do I need the attack bikes? Can I put my dreads in pods instead? I have quite a lot of tank killing punch, would it be better to drop my dreads behind enemy lines and let them run wild? That will provide some much needed relief to my main force as they land behind tanks and pop stuff that is out of my short reach. What ya think?

Jawaballs Painting Contest: Final results.

The Winner! Deagle. 1st place. And yes, this was the first example I showed weeks ago, one of the first I got. That was just coincidental though. I uploaded one of the thumbnails I had in the folder at the time and happened to grab that one. Why this one? I think you can agree, it is all around the most stunning entry I got. Not only is his blending perfect, fading to red from a deep base, but he also makes nice use of highlighting where needed. But the thing that makes this one stand out the most is the superb attention to detail. The gemstones have true luster. The parchment looks like paper, the flamer has heat corrosion, the blacks are nicely highlighted, the lenses look like glass, the eyes on the helmet... I can go on, but I will just let the picture speak for itself. This guy can paint and I am humbled by his entry. He wins his choice of terminator box sets. Shooty or Assaulty, donated by miniwargaming. The other will go to 2nd place.



Coming in at second place, and receiving the second of the two Terminator Box sets generously donated by miniwargaming, is Tim Davis. Tim is a commission painter, and his skill is obvious in his model. This is another example of using a deep base and subtle blending instead of extreme highlighting to finish the model. Some might argue it was a style, and I would agree, but the difference between this and 1st place is the smoothness of the blending and attention to detail. Compare the lower left legs and you will see an example. But take nothing away from this model by Tim. The dark look speaks of a time where there is only war. And that is what 40k is all about. Beautiful!




I hope you enjoyed the results from the first Jawaballs painting contest. I know that I certainly learned a lot by seeing all of these other great painters produce some true art. It is nice to get some inspiration for my own painting once in a while, and to see what directions other guys are going.

Be sure to thank miniwargaming for their generous donation by frequenting their store and buying your goodies from them. I think they are still running a clearence sale at this very moment! Hopefully they will provide sponsorship for my next contest and we can get even better prizes!

Once again, if you were one of the winners, email me at jawaballs at yahoo with your address so I can start sending out loot. I should hopefully have it all out within a week or so. I have decided to offer a 10% discount to every one who entered off my resin bases. Simply email me that you were an entry when you make your purchase and I will refund 10%.

Thanks for all the entries! Next contest? It will start in December in celebration of my little Jawa-Baby arriving and bringing in the new year. It will be a squad of some sort, and it will be a much wider field. But it will still need to be painted exclusively for the contest. So stay tuned and don't jump the gun!

More to come.

Jawaballs

Jawaballs Painting Contest: 4th and 3rd place

Cannonfodder provided the 3rd place finisher and he wins Dawn of War II and a pack of bases. His piece was all around fantastic, from the hereldry on the banner to the weathered armor, not to mention the well done blending and highlights. The face is dark and gritty, the sword is effective, and the gemstones glow!



The 4th place finisher was this Terminator with Thunderhammer by Michael Ray. He wins the Terminater with Typhoon blister and a pack of bases. Contrary to my usual taste, this one has very little extreme highlighting at all, but it is outstanding none the less! What attracted me to this model was the well done subtle blending. The Right lower leg, shoulder pads and shield are good examples of what I am talking about. It is effective and simple!



Guys be sure to email me again, jawaballs at yahoo with your address so I can send you your loot.

Jawaballs Painting Contest: Runners Up.









In my final folder there were 11 entries. I have 4 grand prizes, a Terminator with Typhoon Missles and some bases, Dawn of War II and some bases, and two terminator box sets provided by miniwargaming. That leaves 7 entries who will each receive a pack of bases of their choice. You seven guys can pick one set of bases from my site, jawaballsproductions.com of your choice, terminator or infantry size. If you wish to purchase more, I will offer you a 10% refund on your next purchase, just email me before making it. If you would prefer, I will give you a painting video set instead.

Rather then try to assign ranks for these seven entries, I decided to simply place them together. The difference is minimal between these seven, and honestly, between many of the entries that did not make this cut. So to assign ranks is not really necessary. So if you are one of these seven guys, email me again jawaballs at yahoo, this time with your address and which bases you want, so I can get them sent out to you. Be sure to use the same email that you sent your entry from, that is how I will eliminate any scammers. (Last time I did a giveaway about 9 guys tried to scam themselves as the winner.)

So here you go, grats to every one here. I will offer up some insight on these as comments. I have no clue which order they are in and suck at trying to format these posts. :)

Jawabals

Jawaballs TV Review: Heroes and SGU



All of the coolness that could have been as hinted at in this picture just became an epic fail intead that happened for 30 seconds behind a closed door. Shame.



I am not much of a TV fan. I would much rather spend my time painting Blood Angels. But I do make time for a few shows. The recent heyday of my TV watching was a few years ago when Journeyman, Battlestar, Heroes, Jericho were all on. I found myself skipping events and making plans to watch TV 3 or 4 nights a week when previously I watched zero. But the stuff was good! First of all, Jericho and Journeyman. Both were cancelled after their first season. I loved them both. Jericho was great for its post apocalyptic mystery... What the heck was up with the rest of the world? I wish they had just let it die. The half-ass second season was an embarassment. Journeyman never had a chance. It was a great story... a little like Quantum Leap, but still great. I personally liked it because while Quantum Leap had Sam jumping back into time before I was born, therefore disconected from it, Journeyman had him jumping back only a few years. In one episode he walked into a Microbrew Pub and Bittersweet Symphony was playing... holy blast from 1997! I liked the subtle attention to detail they showed in jumping back just a decade or so, and how drasticly things change and we didnt even know.

Battlestar was my all time favorite show ever. I wept after the final episode and had an empty spot in my heart for days. But I am not here to talk about cancelled TV shows. I am here to discuss the two that I am watching now.

I really only plan to watch TV on Monday and Friday nights. On monday I watch Heroes and on Friday I watch a new show called Stargate SGU. Heroes first. What the hell happened to it???? What used to be a great show with compelling characters, mystery, intrigue and fun has just bellied up. Screw jumping the shark. They jumped the void, and fell in. It's terrible now! Season 1 was fantastic and always had me wanting more after each episode. Season 2... well, was a bit weak. Season 3 brought me back. I wasnt crazy about it, but by the end of season 3, I was not going to Battle for Salvation on Mondays to play 40k, in part so I could watch Heroes again! This year? Screw it. Any thing that was cool about last year they just did away with.

What ever happened to Hiro coming back in time to find Peter in the Subway. Save the Cheerleader Save the world? Did that just go away? Or was that actually resolved? What about the Irish girl that Peter supposedly fell in love with. He teleported her to future Montreal and she was taken prisoner, and poof. Not another mention of that whole plot line. Some sort of virus scare... gone. All replaced with a stupid bunch of carnies. At any rate. I've decided to give it up again. Time to go back to 40k on Mondays. :)

The big reason why I am posting about TV today is to talk about the new Stargate series. I never got into Stargate. I have only ever watched a few episodes, and while I enjoyed them, I never liked them enough to try to watch the series. But Something about this new one has sucked me in. Maybe I was lucky to have caught the premier. Who knows. But if you don't know about it, it goes like this.

The Stargate was found on earth in a movie staring Kurt Russel. Great movie. It spawned a series on Sci-fi, then two more I think. The premise is that you can step through this gate and instantly travel across the universe, but by doing this, they gained the attention of evil races and made lots of enemies and friends. Drama ensues followed by 15 years of television.

In this new series, the humans have set up a base on a remote planet, but the base is attacked by an alien fleet. In the battle, the energy core of the stargate is ruptured, and a chain reaction is sent to the core of the planet ala the Death Star, and the planet explodes. In a frantic attempt to escape, some of the people input an untried and experimental coordinate into the Stargate then leap through, arriving on an ancient star ship. So now the survivors are on some ancient ship that they have very little understanding of, and it is deserted and falling apart, but still zooming across the universe. They are out of range to use the Stargate to get home and have limited communication capacity. The ship is on a heading that they cannot change, and periodicly starts up its stargate for a few hours to allow them to go to some planets for unspecified reasons, presumably to find natural resources to fix the ship. Then it shuts it off, and jumps back into hyperspace.

One of the characters is a math nerd college drop out who cracked a code on some MMO video game which was actually a trojan placed by the military to find genius minds. They happened to be introducing him to the program when the planet was attacked and he is now unwittingly one of the main decision makers on a space ship he had no idea existed weeks before. Another character is the guy from 28 weeks later, who is pretty much playing the same snivling character, only he is also a super genius. But he is manipulating things and not letting the other people know what he knows.

I think the show is fresh and fun, with an interesting blend of stereotype characters who dont quite fit stereotypes. The best part of it is that most of these people could be you or me. A medic who was short time in the military and was planning on going to college when she ended up the chief medical officer of this new ship, a Sergeant who had trouble with the law, the nerd who dreams of saving the day, a schizo rambling scottish genius, a politicians daughter who watched her father sacrifice himself for the others, the insecure leutenant who is gaining experience and confidence, the silent and brooding commander... it goes on and on.

Bottom line, forget Heroes, Miss Battlestar and watch SGU.

If you guys like my TV reviews, let me know and I will write more!

1st Jawaballs Painting Contest results part 1.




















Here are the first set of results from the 1st Jawaballs painting contest sponsored by miniwargaming!

Here are all of the non winning entries. Some of these did make it into the final cut, but just did not make the top 10. What is the difference between some of these and some of the top 10 finalists? In some cases, very little. They were all beautiful, but for some of the last places, maybe the entries that won had a little more pop or a little more flare. It is hard to say. This was a difficult thing to judge since I would say at least half of these entries could have taken that tenth spot. Thank you all for entering! I hope I got them all up here.

Again, if you did not get an email from me saying that I received your entry, it probably did not get judged.

Coming up next, places 10 and 9.

Jawaballs

The Psychology of 40k: Silent Subjugation


Hey folks. I just thought I would share some psychology tidbits as I like to do once in a while. First, I am playing mind games with my fiance. She likes to play cards, but refuses to play other games. I brought home the game Othello last week to try to get her into a gaming mind set, hoping to lead her into playing Space Hulk with me, which she abhores just because it is 40k. I figure that by getting her started on easy but competitive games first, I can slowly work her into other games like Stratego, which is basicly a launching pad for 40k. I spoke about the "Getting your brother into 40k" mind strategy before. Break him in slowly, but let him win. Make it fun etc. She begrudgingly agreed to play. She is too smart for bravado and silly story telling, and Othello does not really offer enough narrative to make a compelling story out of, but it still serves it's purpose. In our first game, I let her stay close. I had complete control of the game the entire time, but she did not know it. The end looked like she put up a good fight, and most importantly, left her wanting more. Sure enough, the next night she was asking me to play. Had I just thumped her solid, she would not want to. But the taste of victory denied at the last minute was enough to wet her chops.

So in later games it was much the same. Keep the game close, I even let her win and give her the rewards of hearing me whine like a bitch and compliment her at the same time. Now she loves Othello. Silly girl. If she only knew I was just priming her for Space Hulk, and toying her for when I drop the Othello bomb on her. I think soon I will beat her flawlessly, just to show her how far she has to go.

But how does this relate to 40k? Let me get to my point. During my games, I manipulate her by faking her out. If I want her to place her chips in certain areas, or away from others, on my turn I will focus attention on a decoy chip of my own. I will strategize it, look at its angles, sigh at it... then place my chip elsewhere, leaving the impression that I really want to make a move with the first one, but was forced to play the other. On her turn sure enough, she will scrutinize the decoy chip, and place her chips in a position that takes it away if she can.

The same strategy works in 40k. If you want to take your opponent's attention away from what you don't want it on, focus your own attention on something that is irrelevent to the game on the other side of the table. He will wonder why you are placing so much attention to a useless unit, and most likely deploy some of his own forces to take it out when he would not normally do so. If he is pushing all of his army at your base, but you have a squad of scouts on the other side of the table, while he is doing his turn, get down to table level and scrutinize the battle field from your scouts point of view. Even if your scouts cannot reach or hurt his forces, you will be surprised to see how often he will readjust his move to keep them out of LoS of your scouts. (Silly example I know, please dont argue the merits of scouts here, this is just an example that can work with any thing.) But also, while he is making his move, he will be subconciously distracted by what you might be planning, and sub-subconciously try to react to whatever he has dreamed up! You will see him now measuring distance in his mind to that unit, and hopefully divert something in that direction.

You can go a step further by repeatedly reaching for those scouts on your turn. Dont pick them up so as not to cause issues, but put your hands on them, look as if you are going to move them then decide not to. Reach for them several times, but draw your hand back. Then go move a predator to exactlly where you want it, subtly and almost thoughtlessly, then go right back to the scouts and linger there for a little while, scanning their point of view again, to take his attention off that tank and back to the scouts.

So there you go! Hope that sheds some insight.

Jawaballs

Blog Roll Update round Two and contest update.

Hey guys, I need to update my blogroll. If you are not on my blogroll, comment to this post with your url so I can get you added and please add me to yours! Last time I put one of these up, I got a lot of response. I am notoriously bad at adding blogs that I come across. Thanks all!

Oh, and I am almost done judging the contest. I should be done sorting the pics tonight, and will have the top 10, just need to figure out what the order is. Way harder then I thought.

Jawaballs

Battle Report: Jawaballs Horde Templars vs Fritz IG

Ok, Fritz and I decided to throw something new on the table last night. Sadly I forgot my camera so I got no pics or vid, but he made a vid which I will link here. We both decided to get out of our comfort zones a bit and try something new. Sometimes the best way to find ways to improve at what you are doing or having a problem with is to approach the situation from a new direction. In our case, I wanted to play a LOT of marines, and he wanted to get away from his Eldar for a bit. So here we go!

Jawaballs: 2k points of Black Templars
5 squads of 20 initiates and 20 neophytes with Fist and Meltagun (100 templars)
Helbrecht
Emperors Champion
Command Squad with Combi melta, Power Sword and Fighting Co. banner. (109 total)

Fritz: 2k points of Imperial Guard
60+ infantry
Creed
2 Chimeras
3 Russ with Plasmas, las and battle cannon
2 Basilisks
AP 3 Flame tank.
lascannon team
heavy bolter team
2 storm trooper squads with hot shot etc.
4 ogryns

You can see this matchup instantly throws something that neither of us are used to against each other. First of all, he is not used to having such fire power! He was dropping 5 pie plates a turn on me, plus 6 plasma cannons and a lot of las plas and melta love. I couldnt help but give him plenty to shoot at... it was tough to spread out 109 marines AND try to get cover saves.

Mission: Bases
Deployment: 12" table edge

I won first turn and took it. I was relying on getting a move then a run into cover, then on his shooting phase taking casualties and getting my "Angry Templar" move, then on my next turn hopefully being in assault. He planned on just sitting back and slaughtering me!

Turn 1:
As I planned, I charged forth 109 marines. I managed to move then run them all into cover. I had my base behind a terrain piece that blocked Los, and was within the minimal range of his Basilisks so that he could not indirect fire me thank god. I sent Helbrecht and 41 marines at his base, while the rest of my boys went after his armor.

On his turn, he focus fired all of his guns at a single squad... one of the two I sent to take down his armor, but only managed to kill 13 out of 20 of the guys in it thanks to cover saves. That squad would retreat and hold my base as best they could. He also tried to take down Helbrechts command squad, but only killed a lowly scout, and granted him the Rightous Zeal move all but guaranteeing him to get into assault next turn.

Turn 2:
I moved up my boys again, but would fall short on assaulting and allow him another round of shooting at me. I did manage to get close enough for some shots however, but did nothing. The best I could do was get my boys right up to an inch away from his to stop him from dropping templates on them. (Fritz tactic)

He took full advantage of his shooting, knowing full well that I would have dozens of angry templars in his ranks next turn if he failed to stop me. Sadly, the other of my two squads sent to take down his armor would be obliterated. My left flank was falling. Only 7 marines were left to defend. But this took a lot of his shots to do. He tried to take down helbrechts squad and only angered him. He did kill the banner and combi melta sgt, but the rest of the guys would get into assault.

Turn 3:
Time to die IG!
I assaulted just about every thing. One squad exploded a Russ with a melta shot and killed a load of guard which was my only shooting. Then I swept in for the kill. One squad assaulted the Lascannon team and 2 russ tanks, Helbrecht assaulted a squad of 10 guard, his command squad survivors assaulted another 10 men, the emperors champion assaulted another 10 men, and one last squad assaulted his ogryns. Luckily, only the ogrins folded on my charge and the rest of my boys were left in assault until Fritz's turn. Oh, and my base defenders fired some desperate shots at an advancing stormtrooper squad with pistols, killed 2 and they fell back! How lucky.

On Fritz's turn he would move up a chimera and hell hound towards my base and pop smoke. Those boys were not out of it yet. The only other squad he could shoot at was my templars that slaughtered his ogryns, and they caught fury... but 6 survived thanks to my spreading them like a pro. He piled in more guard onto one of my squads, and turned the tide in the center of the table by his tanks. But all of his other boys would fold, save for the ones fighting the Emperor's Champ. They would hold him off all game thanks to my uncanny ability to roll 1's. You know it is sad when the Emps champ is only killing 1 guardsman a turn.

At this point, the game was turning in my favor, despite heavy losses.

Turn 4:
Hellbrecht and his lone command squad survivor moved on Fritz's command chimera. My survivors of the ogryn fighters moved on his base and spread out if cover. They were my last troops in range to take the now undefended base. My base defenders shot a melta gun at his charging Chimera but he made a smoke save. Next turn they would have to deal with an AP3 flamer, storm trooper squad and chimera full of vets... gulp. I popped the chimera with Helbrecht's melta gun, then Hellbrecht and his marine charged Creed and his command. My last intact squad moved on his heavy bolters. In the assault, the Emperors Champ would kill a guardsman, while Hellbrecht and my boy charged... they killed a few guard. My other squad that was in assault with his tank defenders would be over whelmed though.

On his turn, he moved his hell hound into marine killing range on my base, and fried a few. He also moved his Chimera 12" into contesting range. I had 4 boys left holding my base. At this point we were running out of time but tried to hurry. Hellbrecht finished off Creed and the command squad and the Champ or should I say Chump killed another 2 guard... Jesus! My guys were holding his base and would have to weather more fire power, but at this point were getting cover saves against most of it.

Turn 5:
This would be the last turn due to having to go to the club. I was down to 12 guys. Hellbrecht, the Chumpian, 4 guys holding his base, 2 assaulting his heavy bolters and 4 defending mine. My base defenders moved to get a back armor shot at his chimera. My 2 boys slaughtered his heavy bolter team, and my boys on his base would go to ground. My boys hit his chimera... it was an auto glance... the worst I could do was glance if I was unlucky enough to roll snake eyes. But I am JAWABALLS! I will not be denied my glory. I had to pop that chimera, then assault the boys inside, then get back to my base and hold it. So I rolled to hit and rolled a 3. Close. Time to pen... the result? Snake eyes. What the Hell! How do I do it? Damn 1's. So any way, I would need a 6 to destroy it, which I rolled... vehicle destroyed, boys bail out, I assault and kill them all. My base defenders did their job. I killed his troops trying to take it, at least he would not be able to claim it.

On his turn, his hell hound would finish off my base defenders with the flamer. But my few guys on his base would suffer a LOT of punishment! Cannon after cannon roared at them, hitting, missing, making them scream for their mommies... 3 more would fall. It all came down to the last man. He had to make 2 cover saves. I rolled them seperately. 1st die, a 5. One more save to make. All of the emperor's glory was riding on one single marine's shoulders. a 4+ would grant victory. A simple coin toss would mean the game. All I had left at this point was 5 marines out of 109. It mattered not. The die rolled... and a 4 was the result. Victory Jawaballs!

So my 109 templars charged into shear brutality. Throughout the course of the game, 10 Basilisk shots would rain down, 11 battle cannon shots and countless Plasma cannon, Las cannon and las gun shots would pepper my boys. But it would not be enough! 109 Templars charged, 5 returned. But with the enemies banner over their proud shoulders. As for the Sergeant leading the squad fighting my Emperor's Champion, he was promoted and actually inducted into the Black Templars. They made 4 leadership tests and held off the champion in assault. He gets the hero of the game award.

There you go! A narrow victory for my Templar Horde vs Fritz's Guard. If I could survive that Basilisk/Battle Cannon hell, I think they may stand a chance against the more modern 6 chimera/3 valkrye lists. Most guys have given up their pie plates for more direct tank killing punch.

Think my templars are onto something? Think they can be a competitive tournament list? They really only work at 2k points. 1750 would reduce their numbers too thin, as guard lose much less then Templars do for 250 points. So I need the 2000 points to get them on the table. But it has been my experience that most tournament lists are heavy on tank killing and lack torrent of fire, so maybe they can do well. We shall see!

Up next... Jawaballs revamps his Blood Angels, with the help of Fritz and Black Matt... Justin, where is my shipment????j

Video:

Jawaballs Painting Contest



Here is a taste of what is to come! I received 30 entries on time, and 2 late ones. Sorry late guys, you are not eligible for the contest, but I will still post up your entries.

I have to say I am a little surprised at the number of people who failed to follow the instructions! I asked for high res Jpeg attachments, one guy sent me a zip file with compressed Adobe Fireworks files! Lucky for him I had Adobe CS3. At least half of the entries failed to include a mailing address. One was emailed to the wrong email address. :) (he has not received a response yet since I have to go find that email in my other inbox.)

Dont worry, so long as you got your entry in on time, with at least an attempt to show WIP, I am judging it.

Judging Criteria?

To be honest, there is none. I will pick the winners based on which ones tickle my fancy the most. Extreme highlighting, blending, or dry brushing all work. It depends on how you did it.

You should have received an email today as receipt of your entry. I went down the list of emails and saved one of your pictures into a folder with your name on it. Then I responded to your entry with "Entry Registered, thanks! Watch for results soon. Jawaballs" If you entered the contest, but did not receive that email response from me, contact me so we can figue out where it is.

Good luck every one! I should have the results within a week.

Jawaballs

Change is in the air.

Fall is here. The leaves are changing colors. The temperature is changing to something more comfortable. Rules are changing. Most importantly, armies are changing. Change is in the air. "By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes!" Shakespeare

It comes. Jawaballs Blood Angels 2.0 November. 2009

Then again. Jawaballs Blood Angels 3.0 March 2010.

Be afraid.

Deadline looms! Jawaballs Painting Contest is almost over.

Ok folks, it is now crunch time. I have gotten 16 entries so far but I know most of you will probably wait until the last second to submit yours. Remember, pictures must be received by 8pm EST on Friday October 9th. I also want to remind you that there are now TWO terminator box sets up for grabs thanks to Mathew's generous offer over at miniwargaming.com! The top ten entries will receive something! Be sure to check out their site and forum to show your appreciation and support.

Again your entry should include 3 dated Work in Progress pictures chronicling the painting of your model. It should also include 3 finished pictures from 3 different angles so I can get a good look at your work. Make your pictures HIGH RESOLUTION and get your lighting as good as you can. Im looking forward to getting these all posted for you to see! Once I get the entries, I will work on posting the pictures. Then I will announce the winners some where around the end of October. It will no doubt take me some time to go over the entries.

Best of luck every one!

More to come.

The Blood Angels Assault Army


5th Edition left me with a pile of unused Blood Angels jump packs.


Like the sands in an hour glass, so are the days of our lives...

Like the pendulum swings, so do the winds of fate...

Like the crow flies?

How about Like the Angels of Death descending from the heavens to bring the Emperor's will.

I like that more.

Any way.

I was thinking out some counters to the new IG and other mech lists, and wondering if Assault Pack Blood Angels were back! I orginally started BA because I was in love with my Black Templars assault squad and wanted more of them, then the BA WD dex came out and Asquads were troops! Boo Yaa! History follows, my Blood Angels are born. The early days were tough though. I was all jump pack marines, up against armies that still packed a lot of static guns in lines and very little tanks because they died so easily in 4th ed. Apparently not as easy as a squad of 10 marines trying to get into assault range... 5th edition came, and I no longer had Area Terrain to block LoS. That made my marines pretty little blood stains, not angels, and provoked my switch to mech. But now that pretty much all armies are all mech, is it time to go back to Jump Packs? Here is what I was looking at:

Dante
Lesmartes
Death Company with Jump Packs x5

10 Marine Assault Squad with P Fist
10 Marine Assault Squad with P Fist
10 Marine Assault Squad with P Fist

10 Marine Vet AS with PW and 2 meltas
10 Marine Vet AS with PW and 2 meltas

Attack Bikes x3 with Meltas.

That will run around 2k points. 50 Assault Marines coming at you with Preferred Enemy! Dawn of war! I deploy 20 marines up front with Dante and assault turn 2 while the rest of my boys catch up. I do miss that movement... Plus there is all the funky interwoven squad cover save action you can pull out that jump packs makes easy.

What do you guys think, is this the rebirth of the jump pack?