Blood Angels in Action: A Moral Quandary, part Deux

After all the suspense from last weeks post, the Capt of the 8th is back for the thrilling conclusion to the nerve-racking battle report.

It all started here. It was an entertaining start to a game, go check it out. I'll wait.

We left off at the bottom of turn 2. Most of the Dark Eldar had been un-horsed, and the Blood angels were in prime position to get their Black Rage on.



Here are the two forces before the Blood Angels opened fire and killed the two closest Raiders and some of the warriors in them in the top of turn 2. They are in a line there, you can't see the second one.

In his turn he brought his last Raider with the Incubi + Archon over into the middle of my troops. he moved flat out so he didn't disembark and assault. His return fire from the two downed warrior squads was sufficient to erase one of the combat squads and attached Priest. His shooting this round was ridiculous. He couldn't miss me it seemed, and all his poisoned weapons were getting the job done. Splinter cannons seemed to be silly good. They put out so many shots and therefore lots of wounds. Versus MCs its got to be crazy good. You can run and tell that!

Top of the 3rd turn saw my flamestorm Baal getting in position to murder some Dark Eldar Warriors. All of my other squads were trying to get into position against his Incubi. The tank roasts all but 2 of the remaining warriors, one from each squad remained. I thought I had wiped one squad out for another kill point, but one of the models was hiding behind the Raider and I couldn't see it. But this is where my dice failed me, and my opponents dice went on fire. I fired all my missiles at him, a total of 6. No results. I missed or couldn't pen. I fire all my melta at him. Two shaken results on glances, and he saves any penetrating rolls. Oh well, sometimes your dice desert you.

So then I try and assault the Raider to bring it down. That was a mistake too. I failed to harm it, and then I was nice and clustered together for a multi-charge from the Incubi next turn. Big mistake. I should have stayed back and fed him small units at a time. This squad packed 35+ S:5 I:5 PW attacks. They would chew easily through any small squad and be vulnerable to fire in my turn.


Here we are after my shooting and failed attempt at assaulting a fast skimmer. Lesson learned. That Baal predator pulled his weight though. Killed 11 Deldar in one go. Mmmmm, toasty!

On his turn is where things start turning around for the both of us. I thought I had things firmly in hand. That thought lasted until he moved his Raider out of combat and assaulted two of my squads with the contents. They hit me like a ton of bricks. I never got to swing back. And to top it off, his stupid Archon Soultraps my Libby. Now we have a base S:3 Arcon with double str to 6, then +1 str from combat drugs, and FC, FNP and fearless. I have nothing for this guy now. How can I stop him? A 2++ is hard to break. Granted he fails one and it is gone, but I have no way to single him out with shooting, and he wins in combat. Uggg.

I just lost two combat squads and my Libby in one assault. I wasn't happy about that. I then bring my last real chance and leveling the playing field, my flamestorm Baal. Screw the 3+ save and the FNP on your Incubi. So I let loose with it and kill 5 of the 10 Incubi. Crappy rolls. Then I send my missiles into them, and he passes every cover save from his Raider in the way. They just wouldn't die like I wanted. Pistols were totally ineffective too, but thats no surprise. I try to lead him away from my tank with the last Techmarine as bait, but he didn't fall for it.

On his turn he assaults my Baal pred and at str 8 on the charge with loads of attacks, I didn't last. He blew up my Baal pred and had the game soundly in his hands. The score at this time is 5KP to the BA and 6KP to the Dark Eldar. It was really over the the game continued and I am not going to give up.

So top of turn 5 I charge into his Incubi, just to deny him the charge with my last Assault squad. The Techmarine rapid fires into them, and he slaughters me of course. One more KP to him. On his turn he charged into the ruins with my Devs if the game continues. But the game ends on the die roll, and the Deldar win 7 to 5.

Incubi are really silly in combat vs Marines. They are designed that way of course, but all you Blood Angel/Meq equivalent armies better be ready for them. They hit hard, especially with an attached Archon giving them combat drugs. The +1 strength for them really clinched the deal.

So be ready to shoot them down, or get some Storm Shields so you can weather that storm. Archons are nasty in combat, but you should all know that already. If he has an Incubi retinue, then you better be prepared to target them first with most of what you have. If you can wreck their ride, then you can dictate how things go after that, but they have Fleet, so don't get over confident.

So even after all the shenanigans, I still kind of enjoyed the game. It was close at the end. He began to cheer up after he began to slaughter me in combat, so the mood quite improved for both of us. After the game he had to pack up and go, so I shook his hand and didn't take the time to correct him on his errors or cheating, whichever they were. Whatever, I thought, it's a new codex, he will pick up the basics as he goes along.

Then on a hunch, I checked his army list in the store copy of the Dark Eldar codex; 1,150 points on my side to his 1,370 points. Well, there goes the goodwill and the benefit of the doubt I gave him all along. He may not have been trying to cheat with all the other things (although I doubt that now), but seriously? You can't even add? He gave me the points limit too, it's not like we had some miscommunication. I just had to laugh to myself. What a guy after all.

I won't be playing him again. It's that easy.

So there you have it. My first run in with Dark Eldar. I put up a decent fight against an army with ~20% more points than mine. Granted it left a sour taste in my mouth, but that doesn't mean I'm not still having a love affair with the new models. The warriors and skimmers are still sexy models. And don't even get me started on the Reavers. In addition, the codex seems like a good one. Balanced and in line with the other 5th ed codices. Can't wait to face it in a fair fight :)

I'll be back hopefully next week with some pics of my army, the painted portions at least. Hopefully I'll get some more time to do some painting over the holidays. Until next time.

Michael, Capt of the 8th

GW RoB modular gaming table and help for the kids!

Hey folks, Jawaballs here!

This week I started painting up a GW Realms of Battle modular gaming table for my after school club. For those of you who don't know, I run an after school middle school gaming club which was lucky enough to get some funding from a state grant and I picked up some Black Reach sets for the kids to play with, and the Modular Gaming Table to play on!  My club is surging, last night I had 16 kids in here all trying to play 40k. More on that in a bit.

So, now I am painting the table for the kids. So far I picked up some Krylon Ruddy Brown from Wal-Mart and had the kids take the pieces out side and spray the crap out of them.  The Krylon Paint left a nice matte finish that is subtly tackey. The RoB set has a very smooth finish and models tend to slide down the hills.  But that brings me to why I am posting today.

The two Flat Panels from the

GW Realms of Batle modular gaming table.

The first part was easy. I used the tried and true Black-Codex-Fortress method of painting rocks to paint the exposed cracked bedrock.  Though I did not use GW paints, I just mixed shades of grey using cheap wal-mart paint.  I also used the GW method of painting skulls, black-bestial-bleached.  I gave the skulls a wash with Ogryn Flesh.

Close up of exposed bedrock.

The Skull Pits!  (needs a few more hits of bleached)

And this is the extent of my expertise!  I ask you more experienced terrain painters, what do I do next? My friend Jim has some experience with gaming terrain and has suggest a technique that uses lots of flocking, which I plan to use for the grassy areas, but what layers of colors do you guys use to create a blasted rock?

My plan is for a combination of WWII destroyed city look for the terrain pieces, I have GW buildings and some other pieces, and a sort of North Africa/wind blasted land scape/savannah for the flat areas. 

A blasted out Blood Angels tank! 

Honored Imperium and GW City buildings.

I will use some flocking and nice greens for some of the wide open spaces, but would like an almost desert "death valley" look for others, especially the areas surrounding the exposed bed rock.  

You can see on the piece with the destroyed rhino my attempt at doing blasted dirt. It is too brown. What has worked for you guys? What I am saying to you folks is to lay on me your input. What has worked for you? Simply drybrushing? What colors? 

Finally, since I am talking about my club kids.  I am always looking for more to satiate their drooling needs.  The little group of nerdy kids has exploded into a good sized Ork mob.  The state grant from the after school program got me going and wet their appetites but I need more stuff.  So I am putting out a call to you guys. I can't put up pics of the happy kids to show the smiles on their faces, but I can have them write on the blog to say thanks! 

I am looking for old and new 40k stuff for the kids to play with.  Take a look in the back of your closet and dig out those Eldar you started but never finished.  How about those beat up Russ tanks sitting in the bottom of your bits box! I personally have a few myself that I am turning into terrain for them.  The kids are not picky and are hungry for more. If you feel like giving, my club would be happy to receive.  So if you have the gumption, pack up any thing you may want to donate and send it to:

Mr. Dubuque's Adventure Gaming Club room 122

Rippowam Middle School

381 High Ridge Road

Stamford, CT 06905

The kids will be thrilled to get their hands on any thing, and it is Tax Deductable! Give those models a second life.

Jawaballs

Blood Angels in Action: A Moral Quandary

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The Capt of the 8th is back, this time with a battle report. And an ethical dilemma that we have probably all run into. This made for a very interesting game. Let's get some back story though.

Rewind about a month, and I'm across the table from an Eldar player. He's got 6 tanks on the table, 3 w/ fire dragons, and 3 with warriors, I think, and Eldrad hanging out in there somewhere. I am playing a hybrid Angels list. 3x las/plas razors 2x dakka preds, and 2x terminators w/ 2x cyclone missile launchers each. We are playing annihilation, and true to the title, he gets annihilated. We call the game turn four, 5kp to 1kp in my favor. I would have tabled him next turn, but there is no need to rub salt in the wound. I trounced him fair and square.

So here we are again across the table to play another pick up game. He has a small Dark Eldar army he is building up and wants to use it instead of a full blown 2000 pt game. He tells me he has 1,150 points ready to go. So I trim this list down to fit.

Librarian, Shield, Lance and JP
Techmarine, jp, combi-melta, and power weapon
Sanguinary priest w/ jp
Sanguinary priest on foot
2x 10 man assault squads, power weapon on sarge, and 2x melta guns
Flamestorm Baal predator
2x 5 man Dev squads w/ 4x missile launchers each

1,150 on the spot. Seemed like a balanced list to me. Anti-tank and anti-horde.

He has this list, as best as I can remember. It's not perfect, but its about 95% accurate keep in mind.

Lelith Hesperax
Archon- Soultrap, Huskblade, Shadow-field, combat drugs, and Ghost Plate I think.
10x Incubi
3x 10 man kabalite squads each with Blaster, splinter cannon, Sarge upgrade, power weapon and blast pistol.
4x Raiders with Flickerfields, chain snares, splinter racks and Grisly trophies



We roll Spearhead and Annihilation, and I get the roll to go first. I place my Devs in a ruin for the 3+ save with a Priest to babysit, and reserve the rest. He then places his four Raiders in a ruin clustered together to try and generate cover. Now I deployed poorly, in that I placed my devs so only a few of them could draw LOS down field the the windows in the ruins. Stupid move by me, and was a major contributor to this debacle. Oh well, you live and learn.

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(Here is deployment, the Deldar army is the gray blur left of the building. Sorry for the bad image quality, I need to change the f-stop or something on the camera. No depth of focus. . . .)

At this point he starts rolling for combat drugs, and he wants to roll multiple dice. I then tell him that in the new codex drugs have been streamlined and that you only roll once, and the result is applied to the whole army. He tells me I'm full of it and wants to roll for each unit with drugs. We go back and forth until he has to appeal to the store manager as an impartial judge. We show him the codex and of course reason and fundamental reading comprehension win out. So he then rolls one die and gets +1 str for his Archon.

The game then opens and I have first turn. LOS is blocked because of my stupid deployment, so I shoot the missiles that I can. I fire first at his Raider with Lelith in it. I really had no answer to her, other than taking her out of the equation by wrecking her ride. I smoked her raider with a well placed shot. It blows up and I put 8 wounds on the squad inside, he then makes 6 5+ saves.



Oh well, I can live with that.

This is the point that I realize he has 2 of the 4 Raiders with 11 models in them. What a joke. I'm wondering at this point if the guy even read his codex. Raiders can only transport 10 models. This way he gets the benefits of the 10 man squad, and he has room to carry around his heavy hitters, namely Lelith and the Archon. I don't want to hear him whine and cry about it, especially since he was complaining about losing his Raider already. So I let it slide.

But did I make the right decision? It is a friendly pick-up game, do I call the guy out on it? Is he trying to cheat, or is he just ignorant of the rules? Would I do him a favor by pointing out the correct rules, or will I just ruffle his feathers some more and make the game less enjoyable for the both of us? I suppose we will never know, we just don't have the technology.

So my shooting is over, and he then turbo-boosts his Raiders directly towards me. He has the two warrior squads come right at me, but his Archon takes a more indirect approach. He then wants to fire at me out of all the transports. Correct me if I am wrong, but open-topped or not I thought you can't fire at all when you are going flat out. I start to look in the book for the relevant rules, and he starts complaining again. I don't know where to look exactly for them, in the vehicle shooting rules, or the skimmer movement rules, so I decide not to throw my brick of dice at the dude and let this one slide as well. He kills a few devastators with his shooting, nothing too serious.


(Archons ride is over to the left)

My second turn everything from reserve comes in. This is the first time this has ever happened to me. And even better, nothing mishaps! I am learning after all how to place units and judge distances better. Everything drops in with good melta range all around and my Baal out-flanks on from the correct edge and all is looking well.



I will later come to realize my mistake in letting the Archon alone. I proceed to fire my Blood Lance at both his tanks, getting penetrating hits on both. He rolls his saves from flat out movement and gets a 3 and 4 and tells me they both save. I just have to laugh to myself at this point. I know where to find this rule in the book so I pull it out and show him.

Again, is he cheating or does he just not know the rules? Is he trying to take advantage of me, or just an inexperienced player? I don't know. I'm the type of person that would rather give the benefit of the doubt and let the game go smoothly, rather than get into a fight about toy soldiers.

So I blow up both the raiders with all the melta, and gun down some of the survivors as well with my pistols. I can't draw LOS to his Raider with the Archon with my missiles, so it gets ignored another turn. My devs instead choose to fire at the stranded squad of his in the ruins with Lelith. I don't really want to scatter onto my own troops, because even just one unsaved wound hurts in a combat squad. So I played it safe and maybe killed one warrior on the opposite side of the board.

So that ended turn 2 for both of us. I'm going to cut this post in half; I don't want to loose some of the important points in the wall of text.

Let's talk about sportsmanship then. What are the prevailing opinions out there regarding what happened? Do you interrupt the game to set the dude straight. Do you risk the game running smoothly to show that you know the rules better than the other guy? When do you make the jump from "this guy needs to learn the game" to "this guy is a cheater weasel"? And can I chalk this up to petty vindictiveness, because my sub-par foot Terminator list curb stomped his Eldar? In addition, I don't want to get a "rules lawyer" label in the store. I'm a relative newcomer there, and this dude has been playing there awhile and seems to know everyone else. I'd like to be able to play games in the future, but I'd also like to play by the rules.

I'd like to hear your thoughts, because I don't know that I handled it the right way. Chime in with your collective wisdom please. Inquiring minds would like to know!

And keep your eyes peeled to see the exciting conclusion to this riveting game! Will those Incubi get their revenge in the end? Or will your intrepid hero end the game with a well placed missile to the Archon's measly face? Tune in next week, same Blood Angel time, same Blood Angel channel!

Michael, Capt of the 8th

One Month and Counting for The Conflict GT

Bob Nevers won Best Army at

The Conflict GT 2010

Hey folks, Jawaballs here!

So The Conflict Gt is one month away and I am getting pumped up again.  But more for the friends than the tournament itself! Looking at the PARTICIPANTS LIST I see plenty of friends like Old Shatter Hands, Bill Mcfadden, Charlie Avielles and Alex Fennel that I usually only get to see at tournaments. It's good to get to see the guys at these big events. It seems tournaments are about more than just winning after all!  

If you are in the North East and are free the weekend of January 15th, get your self to The Conflict GT.

Here is the link for registration.

I hope to see you guys there!

Jawaballs

Rediscovering Angels Part 3: The Assault Squad

Hey there everyone, Xaereth from Delusions of Grandeur here once again, continuing my series on the Blood Angels and what they can do for you.  Today I want to talk a little bit about the RAS (Regular Assault Squad), and their place in a Blood Angels army.

Ultramarines: The Movie, a Jawaballs Review

Joy!  After a very long wait, my copy of Ultramarines The Movie finally arrived.  First thing, I have to say that if it were Blood Angels, The Movie I would have liked it more. Just Saying.


Caution: Spoiler contained. Stop reading now just in case.

The opened package.

Jawababy want shrinkwrap!

The package itself was sharp and appealing.  It arrived in a priority mail box, and a compact package was shrink wrapped inside the PM box.  The beautiful outer sleeve consists of a thin cardboard sleeve, which snugly holds the heavier cardboard box that houses the two components of the Special Edition Collector's set.  They are decorated with an intentionally grainy Ultramarine letting loose with his bolter. Obviously placed is the R Restricted motion picture classification. Sweet.

Inside are the movie and extra DVDs housed in a tin DVD case that holds the two discs. The tin resembles a container of some sort, potentially an official Maccrage missive. It is decorated with the same grainy Ultramarines symbol that appears on the cover, and a nice crisp "Ultramarines" title.  Opening the case reveals the two discs with artwork printed.  Oh, and again, the R rating.  Strong, Bloody Violence. The Emperor rewards the faithful.

In addition to the spiffy tin DVD case comes a hard cover bound comic short by Dan Abnett himself, art by David Roach.  This comic tells the tale of how the squad in the movie becomes the squad.  A little prequel one would say, without Jar Jar, Naboo and the annoying Emperor damned 8 year old kid. Yippee!

The artwork inside the comic is sharp and stylized, and the story is quick and to the point.

SPOILER!!! I warned you.  If you want to be surprised, you may as well stop reading here and come back after you watched the movie.




 Last warning!

Inside the cover of the comic.

The comic tells the tale of a squad of Ultramarine Neophytes, tasked with holding the flank of the Ultramarine 2nd company retaking of a Hive World.  The scouts are grumbling about being told to protect their butts and want to get action. Meanwhile, squad Ultrus (I forget the name, we will call it Ultrus) was bushwacked by a brood of Genestealers and wiped out save one.  The surviver managed to escape and report.  Faced with a decision between staying to retake this Hive World, and sending help to answer an Imperial Fist Shrine help beacon, the captain of the 2nd company decides to promote the scouts to full Space Marine, and uses them to replace the lost Squad Ultrus.  He then leads them, along with an apothocary and the sole original member of the squad who is now Sergeant to help the Fist, leaving the mop up of the Hive World to the incoming 3rd company.

The DVD opens very Star Warsesque with the thrusters of an Astartes Capital Ship maneuvering into position over the Hive World.  The survivor of the lost squad is reporting to the captain, and the captain is forced to make his decision.  As mentioned before, he decides to lead the new squad out to help the Imperial Fist shrine beacon.

The servitors help the battle brothers don their new armor, and the boys prepare for duty.  In one scene, the future hero of the movie is sparing with the captain himself, and just when he thinks has the captain beat, experience comes into play and the Captain bests him.  Setting the tone for the rest of the movie.

So, the marines land after some banter between the cautious Apothecary and impetuous marines.  They pull out a speeder armed with Multi Melta and the sergeant and a pilot head off to scout.

After some cautious patrol, the squad comes upon a killing field, full of dead Imperial Fist.  There was a full company defending the shrine.

Then of course the squad is ambushed, and the pilot and Sergeant on the speeder are killed along with another member of the squad.  Smurfs drop like flies!  The bested captain volunteers to carry the banner after the bearer is killed, but the captain picks another. This after he also volunteered to take point, and the captain denied him.  Is the captain holding the marine in ill favor?

After regrouping, the squad heads into the shrine. And are promptly ambushed by a greater demon. The captain and demon plunge to their apparent deaths locked in combat.  The marine bested by the captain is then promoted to Sergeant and given the honor of carrying the captains dropped sword. The Jade Sword.

The boys move on, eventually finding a chaplain and Fist marine.  The group teams up and the chaplain explains the demise of the shrine, and their purpose. They are tasked with guarding a book.  The book is a relic from the days of Heresy.  The marines agree to escort the two fist back to Maccrage.  On the way back they are ambushed, and just when all is lost, from the shadows comes the lost captain!  No, the marines are not satisfied with the explanation of the chaplain, and hold him in suspicion.

After the ambush, they are all rejoined on the ship, healing.  The new Sergeant approaches the captain and explains that he suspects the Chaplain.  The two investigate and find the chaplain and Fist marine standing vigil over an EMPTY BOOK! Heretics!  The captain immediately executes the chaplain.  But wait... the taint, as exposed by the chapter banner, still exists.  Before the Ultramarines can figure out what has happened, the captain, actually a demon, attacks.  But he is locked out of the shrine, giving the marines a chance to regroup.

So, a couple Ultramarines and the lone Fist chase the demon, and uncover his plan to plant a warp gate in the Ultramarine chapter house itself, and go on to fight him. The rest you will have to find out on your own! The ending is heroic and proud.  (of course.)

The Extra DISC:

There are three parts:

The Thunderhawk:
This portion of the special disc gives a brief synopsis of each voice actor.  I was surprised to see here that the actor who played the Brit Officer in Last of the Mohicans, one of my favorite movies, was one of the actors. Nice touch!

The Armory:
This section gives holographic diagrams of each of the weapons that appears in the movie, and a breakdown of their use.  Any vet to Space Marines knows them by heart.

The Infirmary:
This part holds what appears to be Behind the Scenes stuff. But I would not know. As I tried to watch them on my computer the interface kept crashing.

The final word:

So, as a collector's item, the set is entirely worth it. You have already probably heard some brief reports of the movie. The animation was good, if a bit stiff. But hell, they are heavy, armored warriors. How can you make them not stiff?  I felt that there were some brilliant scenes of animation, and some of the action sequences were very well done.

I think that most importantly, the paranoia of the 40k universe screams out.  The marines were always suspecting of themselves and those they encountered.  The two Imperial Fist marines suspected the Ultras, and so forth. This played into what was sadly a predictable and ill conceived plot device, the Captain being corrupted by a demon. Duh!  The minute he came running out of the smoke I knew he was a demon.

But any way.  I think that the movie was very well done. In fact, they could pump out one of these every few months and I would pay the 50.00 price tag.  I would love a line of these sets decorating my wall of honor.

The action was well done, and I particularly liked the style of the animation.  Gritty and dark.  My only question was that in a universe where every detachment of Guardsmen has 6 squads of vets bristling with plasma and melta, where were these weapons in this movie?  Why did the Ultramarines not have 10 of them? Their bolters seemed ineffective against the demon.  They go into dangerous territory equipped with a Heavy Bolter and Flamer??? Why bother when they could have just sent in a Chimera full of 16 year old boys (veteran for Guard) to solve the issue.  I mean, really, even the captain was wielding a bolter and chainsword.  Where was the 2nd companies bling???  :)

So, if you got the bucks, buy the movie. Or ask for it for Christmas.  I guarantee it will earn a spot on your favorite shelf.

Looking forward to the Blood Angel's one!  I think they should cut to the chase and produce the Horus Heresy.  I think that they would have a gold mine on their hands.  Let's see what the future holds!  Frankly, if you want to see that happen, every one of you should go out and buy this package.  Strong sales are what will bring us more of what we want to see, and only that.  Make it so!

Jawaballs

A big fat greasy thumbs up.

Failure!

+++ Transmission Begins +++

So, it's good to be humbled, right?

If so, I had the best game of my life.

1000 points, the first game of a monthly campaign. Blood Angels vs Noise Marines.

The Blood Angels dropped and were immediately obliterated by AP3 noise weapons.

Game over.

+++ Transmission Ends +++

Always love a good update from DocRailgun. Jawaballs :)

Dark Eldar Beastmasters: From the Tabletop to The Hobby

Hey all, Kevin from B2TW again to continue my discussion on Dark Eldar. Today I am going to discuss with you the one Death Star unit I didn’t talk about in my last post, The Beastmasters and their Packs.

First Lets start with how they will play. Now to those of you who do not know yet or haven’t read the codex Beastmasters themselves are basically Hellions except with just a close combat weapon and they aren’t jump infantry (But are on skyboards). They also do not have combat drugs. They get the splinter pod for shooting for what its worth as well as a 5+ armor from the board/suit and have Power from Pain as is typical in the army. Other than that these guys are just here so you have the beasts themselves.

The first beast we have a choice of is The Grizzly Bear we all have learned to love, the Clawed Fiend. The Clawed Fiend itself brings to the table with T5, 4 wounds and four S5 attacks and gets an attack each time they lose a wound. These guys follow the popular trend in the army of the more combat they see the better they get. These guys will soak up a whole mess of wounds for your unit and just bury most units in combat. The only downside is a 6+ armor save meaning any S7 weapons in mass will rip through these guys pretty easy. A maxed out unit of these guys will make the unit count as T5 but will fall to any high strength or AP6 weapons in mass.

Next in our selection is the khymerae, nothing special in combat about these guys coming in at S4 with 3 attacks each. The one thing these guys do is confer a 4+ invulnerable save to make up for that horrible 6+ armor although with only one wound. A couple of these guys makes a unit fairly survivable. A unit maxed with these guys will be very hard to kill but will be too weak in combat and most likely ignored for the better part.

Finally we have the most popular of the three, the Razorwing Flock. Although at S3 these guys rock out five wounds and five Rending attacks per unit. This beast (or these beasts really) will be seen a lot and can put a hurt on most units. They can even Penetrate some rear Armor with the ability to dish out a 12 on the penetrating roll with some ridiculous rolling. A unit maxed out with flocks will die to low strength ap6 weapons fairly easily, although it will be very killy dishing out 60 rending attacks, ouch!

Now when it comes to dishing out your Beastmasters and their pack you have to look at all of the options. Each of the 1-5 Masters you have is allowed to take one type of beast each up to the following values, 0-1Clawed Fiend, 0-5 Khymerae, and 0-2 Razorwing Flocks. As a side note I wouldn’t upgrade any of the Masters themselves with a special weapon since they have the beasts to do most of the combat themselves. I would always try and maximize the amount of Beasts so let us say you have enough points to take 5 Masters themselves. Here is the unit I would take.

Beatsmasters

1. Beastmaster 1: 5 Khymes

-Beastmaster 2: Clawed Fiend

-BeastMaster 3 : Clawed Fiend

-Beastmaster 4: 2 Razorwing Flocks

-Beastmaster 5: 2 Rzorwing Flocks

Total: 260 Points

Now for what you are getting 260 points is not all that bad. You would be getting, on the charge, 24 S3 Rending attacks, 10 S5 attacks, 10 S4 attacks, finishing up with 10 Beastmaster attacks. That’s 54 close combat attacks with basically half being Rending. This unit covers up the best of what the unit needs, you have 5 models with invulnerable saves to jump in front of fists and hammers for you, 24 rending attacks to put a hurting on any type of unit, and a decent amount of S5 Fiends to soak up wounds and put some pain down on any high toughness model. Now a fair point to be made is that only the Masters themselves benefit from PFP so there is little use trying to upgrade these guys. They are very much so a unit to just ram down your opponents throat right as soon as possible. Try to not hand over too many wounds to the Masters since the packs themselves are only Leadership 5, plus the clawed fiends get better when they take wounds anyway.

The one big thing these guys have going for them is the fact they are beasts. This gives them a 12” assault move. These guys will need to be portaled in but once they do come in they more than likely can assault right out of the gate giving other models time to set up while your opponent deals with this extremely tough and killy assault unit.

Now on to the hobby, this unit is probably the easiest conversion you are made to do in the book with good discriptions and lots of pictures scattered around. Lets start with the Masters themselves which is basically a Hellion without a hellglaive, just model on a CCW or whip for good measure. I would also give these guys some of the Kabalite Warrior helmeted heads since they are supposed to be wearing masks and it also helps differentiate them from Hellions themselves.

Next we have the clawed fiend. The first thing I would like to point out that there is already a picture of these guys out there from awhile ago, can anyone guess where? The Clawed fiend first showed up in the picture of other alien species in the 3rd Edition rulebook (along with the then just about to be released Necron Warrior, some other species, and a Kroot Warrior). The picture shows something very close to the Abominable Snow Man from that old Rudolph the Red nose Reindeer clay cartoon movie with Yukon Cornelius (who I probably would model a Master of one of these guys after for a good laugh, except the Fiend will have giant, lightning claw-like, claws. This actually was one of my favorite pictures in that book and I always wanted the Clawed Fiend to show up somewhere in the hobby, I am glad I get that chance now to field one. I would try some modified Rat Ogres made to look like they have hair everywhere and add some Lightning claw like talons and place on a terminator sized base for good measure.

Next we have the Khymes, these guys are shown on the picture in the book of the Unit and probably are the easiest to convert. This unit can be easily be made out of any bloodhound models as well as any Dire wolves or any already made (spelling hack) Fenrisien wolves you made for your Space Wolf army that I know you have.

Lastly we have the Flock, now I’ve heard of some people using hellbats but I just think that is a little off base. I can see these guys as literally a bunch of talons with wings. If you can find some tiny bat –like wings I would green stuff the together with any bits you have that look sharp. Any ideas on these guys would be helpful so if you converted any or have an idea leave it in the comments to share with the community. Also these guys, to go along with any other pack type unit, should be based on the large round bases.

Beastmasters are an excellent unit and offer some awesome conversions available. They are also one of the big tough units available in the codex for a relatively easy on the calculator points value. Please in the comments leave your experiences with the Masters and their packs, if you play them give your opinion. If you have a good conversion idea or have made a good conversion of them also contribute. Thanks for reading….more on this later….
-Kevinmcd28

Dark Eldar Tactics: Screening

OldChiZOne here again, talking about a tactic that will make or break your games.

Looking through the dark eldar codex, it is apparent that a Dark Eldar army can be built as a medium ranged firefight army. The problem then arises, how do you keep the enemy army from mass assaulting your shooting units or melta gunning your vehicles to the ground? The answer: Screening units.

There are three different screening units that I will talk about in this article, beasts, hellions, and reavers.

Beasts: In a screening format, I recommend taking minimum of 3 beast masters and 6 razor wing flocks for a tiny point cost of 138 points. The advantages this unit has over the other two is that it will be much more durable and much better in counter charging close combat threats. The disadvantages is, as there are no models yet we do not know how tall they will be or whether or not razorwings will be on flying bases. This is important due to whether or not they will be able to obscure vehicles behind. Also moving them up with your vehicles may be rather tricky, considering that beasts will have to run in order to screen your vehicles.

Hellions:

Although more pricey, less durable, and less potent in the assault, hellions still make great screening units due to the fact that they can still pump out shots with their shard carbines. They move as fast as your vehicles which makes them easy to use.

Reavers:

Most menuveravable of all of the screening units due to it's assault and turboboost moves. It is also the most expensive and fragile. They also have very little close combat potential. They are the only unit that has access to tank busting weapons though.

Out of these three units I believe that each is viable to screen. However, they each excel depending on how close to the enemy they are. Beasts excel at being very close, hellion excel where they can pump out some shots, and reavers excel at longer ranges.

Screening: It's uses

Screening, in nearly all aspects of the game, is extremely helpful. It makes your vehicles more survivable by creating cover. It creates space in which deep striking units can't land. And above all it makes nearly every unit holding a short ranged gun quake with fear.

Specific uses:

Units: Beasts: 3x beastmasters with 6x razorwing flocks 138pts
4x trueborn, 4x blasters, Venom with extra SC and nightfield 178pts
5x warriors, 1x blaster, venom with extra SC and nightfield 145 pts

This type of setup will work wonders against armies that rely on melta guns and multimeltas. If you can fill the 5 inches in front of the venoms with the footprint of the beasts, the enemy won't be able to get in range with his melta guns, and will not be able to get in "melta range" with his multi meltas. This setup also can be completely self sufficient. You have 5 blasters to blow up tanks with, 24 splinter cannon shots to weaken squads, and close combat unit to take charges that the vehicles would normally take. All the while, you have a 33 wound unit that obscures the vehicles behind, making them twice as durable. Correct, blast templates will hurt, but that's why you have proper target selection right? ^^

Why it's important for dark eldar:

Screening is important for everyone, however it is especially important for dark eldar. Dark eldar have the most expensive/fragile transports in the game. This is for balence purposes, seeing that what is inside of those transports is usually much more potent than other races. However, once you begin to nullify how fragile the transports are, you can gain a massive advantage.

Well that's it. Over Christmas break I may have some time to actually start building my army so expect some non-hypothetical stuff in the near future. Leave concerns and comments like usual, so that I can shoot you all down with my vicious rhetoric.

40k the Jawa way.

My little nurgling.  I just told him I was building 

him an Ork army.

The Blood Angels are not an offensive army.

Being friendly can win games.

Take that to the bank.  I have alluded to my strategy before but figured I could elaborate on the topic today.   I played a game on Sunday that showcased my play style against a LOT of orks.

Welcome to 40k, the Jawa Way! And remember, keep a sense of humor.

Of course, the game relies on more than just strategy.  Some times you can win a game with a handshake. I have written several articles about the psychology of 40k.  And mostly this part is about being a good sport and not being a D-bag, but in a subtle way this stuff can help to sway the victory in your direction in a number of ways. More on that in a bit. In a nutshell, I apply basic concepts of classroom management and child psychology, mixed with a little bit of "How to Win Friends and Influence People". (good book, read it) I am speaking from a tournament point of view, where I am probably playing against a complete stranger every game. Also I want to point out that being a genuinely friendly, outgoing and personable guy helps with this stuff.  From the start of the game I shake my opponents hand and smile. And look him in the eye. This shows respect and disarms any anxiety. Face it, tournaments can be stressful! I introduce myself, and repeat my name again a couple minutes later. (people tend to forget a new name within seconds, repeating the name relieves his embarrassment at forgetting it) And I ask for his, and not long later repeat his name back to him or ask for it again if I have forgotten it, admitting so. Honesty makes guys relax! I try to use his name several times.  People like to be addressed by name.

This is called "Establishing a Rapport".  Once he is at ease, you can start joking. Once you have established a comedic rapport, you can start baiting. Once you start baiting, you can influence his game!  In Sunday's game I was playing a club member with whom I already had a good rapport.  He won the roll to go first and deployed his two ork mobs in the center of the table right on the edge of deployment.  I put my flamer razorback on my edge.  I wanted to bait him to my edge so my land raider could come onto the table and I could assault his boys.  He saw the flamer and instinctively started to move back on his turn, but with a couple well placed jokes and playing towards baiting orky behavior, got him to charge towards my edge instead.  Many players personalities emulate their army. Marine players are blunt and brave. Eldar players are sneaky and arrogant. Ork players are stupid. :) JOKING! But they may play like orks none the less. The baiting worked so well that he also ran instead of shooting.  Perfect. :)  On my turn my raider came on and the terminators assaulted the mob, beating and routing them.  Of course most cases will not be this obvious. But in some games subtle effects can make the difference, like if you don't want his commander to leave cover for a turn, creating an imaginary scene of the commander polishing your commanders boots after he surrenders may be enough to keep him from exposing him.  Any way, you get the point.

You can read more about my psychology stuff here.  Remember most of it is tongue in cheek and only half serious.  Take it for what it is!  Fun.  This is turning into a longer post than I intended, so I will make it a two parter.

Next up, I will get into my actual gaming strategy and how my list works.

Jawaballs

Philosophy of the game: Counter-charge

Hey there folks, it's Xaereth again, from Delusions of Grandeur, taking a slight deviation from my 'Rediscovering Angels' series I've been giving.  Today I want to show you the way I approach the game in general.  I think in order for future posts of mine to make sense, it'll be good for people to read them in this context.  It's something I posted a while back on my other blog, so to those of you who read both:  I apologize for the repeat.

As a sidenote, please realize I won't be repeating content from one blog to the other often at all- this week I'm a little pressed for time what with like 3 huge papers due, and a final project and such.  Perfect timing for said recycling content :)

Blood Angels in Action

It's the Capt of the 8th back for another romp in the blogosphere.

This is the start of a series about my army list and where it is headed based on in-game performance. Now I'm not going to try and sit down and analyze units and synergies etc. There are plenty of blogs out there for that, and let's be honest, they can do it better than I can (nods at Xaereth). What I can do is take my list that I am currently running and put the rubber to the road. I can put the army to the test and evolve my list from the performance I get. And all you statistics people don't get all "sample-size" on me, I don't have time to test units 50 times. I'll be just reporting my results, and how I plan to change things if I don't like how it goes.

So let's start with my most recent list. For those of you who have followed my blog, What I Do, you might have noticed that I have army list ADD. I make a new list a week it seems. I like to think through the process, and use the different units that I have at home and ideally painted. But I am trying to stick with a list and improve it. So here we go:

Librarian with jump pack
usually has Blood Lance and Shield of Sanguinius (great load-out for DS'ing marines)
Honor Guard with Jump packs
4x melta

2x Techmarine with jump pack
Power weapon and combi-melta
3x Sanguinary Priests
2x jump packs, and one on foot

4x Assault Squad with jump packs
10x marines
2x melta and power weapon on sergeant

3x Devastator Squad
5x marines
4x missile launchers

Almost a horde marine list. It totals 2000 points, has 60+ marines on the table, most of which have FNP. And let's be honest, this is not an original idea here. I took elements from different blogs out there and put them together in my own mix.

The plan of course is to place the Devs on the table to start in some 3+ cover with one of the Priests as a babysitter. The rest drops in, up close and personal. It packs a punch, but it seemed a bit copy and paste to me. I don't believe that "spamming" effective units is a bad thing per se. Some people will tell you that is the case, but if someone is telling you how to play with your plastic soldiers, then they need to just pump the brakes a bit.

So I wanted to make it a bit different, mix things up a tad, so I sent an email out to the boys at 3++ asking for help/ideas. In the meantime I got a game in against a Tau army. It was a massacre for the poor guy. I had tabled him by the bottom of turn 3. Nothing worth reporting, unless you like blowing up fancy hover tanks with melta guns and routing little blue skinned aliens in combat.

I came from the game feeling pretty good about the list and thinking that I had it all figured out. But Tau mostly fold to any army that can drop right on top of them reliably, and beat their faces in combat. It's just an older codex.


I then got a reply to my email in the form of a post, and it had some good ideas. Namely, my army lacked combat punch. Sure I have Furiously Charging marines everywhere, but they crumble to a dedicated CC unit. I had no counter to a Deathstar unit, or even a good hammer unit. This became super obvious when I played a small game vs Dark Eldar last weekend. It was a very interesting game that will get its own post here soon. I think it will be enjoyable, lol.

They suggested dropping some assault marines to make space for some Sanguinary Guard, ideally 2 units. I thought it was a good idea and am going to run with it. I will probably go with one unit of Sanguinary Guard and one of Vanguard Vets. I'll use the Vets with storm shields as an anvil to tie up other Deathstars, and the Sang Guard as the hammer to smash the other guys face. That's the theory at least. I'll have to put them to the test.

So how are all of you dealing with Deathstars? What do you do when Vulkan exits his ride with some TH/SS termies in his posse? How do you survive that Wolflord on his oversized chihuahua smacking you around with 15 attacks with a thunderhammer that strikes at initiative? (jk about that one, but it feels that way sometimes) And how are you going to deal with the Archon + Incubi wiping your whole army? (nearly true story)

Help out your fellow Blood Angels and let us know what works for you!

-Michael, Capt of the 8th

Some Ridiculously Expensive Dark Eldar Death Star Options

Hey all I’m Kevinmcd28 from baals-2-the-waals.blogspot.com and The Ocean State Dice Devil’s. Jawaballs has asked me to guest write on his blog from time to time. So to continue my recent explosion of articles on Dark Eldar, since I am creating an army of them myself, here is an article on possible hard hitting death star units to center your army around, so please enjoy….


When running through Codex: Dark Eldar you seem to notice a lack of something other armies generally have, and that his a hard hitting central unit, or death star unit to most of us.
Dark Eldar really don’t have much grind it out power since it isn’t their thing really. So what do you have the options of? I’ll start with probably one of the most expensive options in the books

Asdrubael Vect’s “Absurd” Squad
Vect- 240
-Dais of Destruction -200
x9 Incubi, Klaivex, demi-klaives, bloodstone, onslaught – 263
total- 703 points

I call it absurd because of the cost. Now Vet himself is one of the most expensive units in the book. Now the Dais of Destruction, if you do not know, is a Raider with AV13 all around and has 3 Dark Lances. For 200 points you basically get a Ravager with transport capacity and an excellent AV13, so it can be seen as worth it instead of buying a regular Raider or even more a Ravager. Now when it comes to kitting out Incubi it can be hard not to give full upgrades yet I do leave the” Murderous Assault” out because it seems the least useful of the bunch since most of the time you’ll wreck any unit you assault with these guys.

Now is this unit worth it? In any game smaller than an apocalypse game not really. The 3+ save you get with the Incubi makes them just as easy to kill as a Space Marine, except with T3. You also have to remember that these guys are not terminators, they are a lot easier to kill. This unit will have to get upgraded early with pain tokens to become very effective. It just costs a lot of points to shell this unit out, but it will be a lot of fun to play.

The Baron’s Pack
Baron Sathonyx- 105
Hellions x20, Helliarch, phantasm Grenade Launcher, stunclaw
Total- 460

Now before I get the whole, “Hellions are not that good” argument I must say that the Baron makes them good. I personally have a similar unit as my centerpiece unit in my army. With these Hellions you get 60 S4 attacks on the charge, not even counting the Baron’s attacks. With the Hellions alone the mathammer comes out against a standard 10 man marine squad with 30 hits and 15 wounds. So basically you will kill 5 marines alone with just the Hellions, the Baron will probably kill another 2 himself. You might lose a Hellion in swing backs until you hit and run and jump away out of combat if it is your turn next. Also you can drag away enemy weak characters with the stunclaw such as Librarians and Priests. It would be foolish to drag away Lysander and other strong characters although.

Another reason this unit is competitive is that the Baron lets you re roll failed dangerous terrain tests as well as conferring a 3+ cover save from stealth. This gives you the tactic of jumping around between area terrain and picking off enemy units until you get upgraded. When you get furious charge then you can charge stronger enemy units with S5 on that charge. This unit may not be very frontal and in your face but I can guarantee it will be annoying enough to distract your opponent which is the main purpose of your Death Star. Combat drugs are also available giving you that random power up as well.

Lelith’s “Bridal Party”
Lelith Hesperax-175
Hekatrix Bloodbrides x20, Sharnet/impaler x2, razorflails, haywire grenades, Syren, blast pistol, agonizer – 225
Total- 400 points

Now this could also be used with normal Wyches instead of the Elite Bloodbride version for more models at a cheaper cost. Also you could use your own flavorful mix of Razorflails, SN/I, and gauntlets to fit your taste I just like adding in a RF so I can get some easy wounds. Lelith herself is a death star on its own. This unit does need a Webway portal to get in effectively so I would pair Lelith with a coven of Haemonculi to get the portal. Another example of a fairly fragile unit but this one will be filled with more assault prowess. The 4+ invulnerable save in combat is what is going to save you here, you need to get into assault with this unit as soon as it appears and just ram your way through weaker units to get the Pain tokens necessary to rip apart the stronger enemy units. At 400 points a version of this combo will be very popular in many DE lists you see in tournaments and pick up games alike.

Urien’s Grotesque Pack
Urien Rakarth- 190
Grotesques x10, x10 Urien’s +1 strength ability, liquefier gun, Aberration, mindphase gauntlet- 430
Total- 620 points

Another Ridiculously expensive option but probably the only true heavy hitting unit in the book in terms of strength and toughness. With Urien in the unit he confers 2 pain tokens with his abilities and you get one automatically so you pretty much automatically at the start of the game have all 3 pain tokens. So yes your S6 (because of Uriens other ability) T5 mean machines get FNP and furious charge and are fearless. So really S7 on the charge with 40 attacks….goodbye sweetheart!

Now with Urien attached they do not get berserk rampage which does give you mixed feelings. Also with a mindphase gauntlet for every hit you put on a Indie character they have to take a leadership AND toughness test, if any is failed they suffer instant death…..muahahaha!
Now also the FNP with high toughness does make up for the 6+ save. They also have 3 wounds a piece making them resilient. 30 T5 FNP wounds makes a good bodyguard for Urien until you detach him. you will need to webway these guys for the best effect since this unit will never fit into a transport at this size. This unit will also be popular in my opinion.

Well that covers four of the many death stars you might see come at you when facing Dark Eldar if you play with either a lot of points or some foolish friends, though some are feasible. There are also many others without a Special character in the book, these are just some examples of some expensive pain you can deal out. Also without a lot of the upgrades I can’t help but put out on every above unit…..So more on this later….

-Kevinmcd28 (Balls-2-the-Waals)

This weeks WTF gripe.

Come on GW. Really?   For the most part I think that Gamesworkshop does a lot of great stuff and I try to be positive.  For example, I love the Stormraven in the leaked picture. The Dark Eldar models are gorgeous. The Blood Angels codex was well done.  I didn't even grumble when they raised the prices of some of their products by 40%.  (I bought a Corublo model for 8 bucks two years ago, how much is it now?)  Having said that, I think that this needs to be griped about.

Behold the picture.  On the right is the old GW Super Glue.  It is a 1 ounce bottle of glue that I bought for 6 bucks last year.  I thought that it was a little pricey at the time.  I think the price was hovering around 8 dollars US very recently depending on where you bought it.  I personally think that their super glue is a good product. I prefer it to their other glue called Plastic Glue. It has a strong bond, but does not melt the plastic together like the plastic glue. I liked it because while it was strong, I was able to pull arms off marines to upgrade their guns with little damage to the paint job.  

Much to my chagrin I tried to order some more GW Super Glue this fall for my gaming club here at school from the Warstore and they sent me Zap a Gap instead. I did not know why, thinking it was an oversight, until I tried to order it again from Rob Baer at Spikey Bits and he told me it was discontinued.  

Horrified that my favorite glue was gone, I then walked into A Timeless Journey, the local comic book shop in Stamford, CT where I buy my paints, to see if he had any and look what he had.  Little tiny bottles of Super Glue!  See the price tag?  Lets compare.

Old Super Glue. 1 oz bottle = $ 6.00 or 8.00 depending on where you buy it. (The Warstore, no tax.)

New Super Glue .17 oz bottle = $ 6.60 + tax.  

That is POINT ONE SEVEN by the way.  You can fit 5.8 of those bottles into one of the previous one.  That means that GW has raised the price of an ounce of their super glue to $ 40.70 with tax included.  Now THAT is a price increase.  What is that, about 700%?  Let me see... I can buy a Land Raider, or glue. Maybe the ink used to print the word THIN is made out of pure squid juice imported from Malaysia? Or is it the plastic that the tiny bottle is now packaged in that warrants the price increase?  What is the point of the plastic? Selling bottles without extra plastic was not good enough? Maybe they boiled down rare wild caught Chinese Pandas to make it?  

I can't imagine the formula of the glue in the new little bottle is any different at all from the formula in the older one, but now they are selling it for seven times the price. That would be like charging 400 dollars for a Baal Predator. So for that GW I ask, What The Frack?

Oh well. Add yet another GW product to the list of things I will never buy again. Man, it is a good time to be The Army Painter! Maybe we can start a campaign. All of us can mail our old 1 oz super glue bottles to GW when they are empty and request a refill? Or demand that they recycle the plastic for use in their new models to lower the cost.  This is just getting ridiculous.  Am I off base?

Jawaballs

Rediscovering Angels Part 2: The Librarians

Hey there everyone, Xaereth here from Delusions of Grandeur, continuing my discussion on Blood Angels, and what they can do for you.  Today I want to talk about the Librarians that Blood Angels have access to, as well as different combinations of powers, used to maximum effect.  Lots of ground to cover today...

40k Player Profile: Ted Nagel

Hey Folks, Jawaballs here!

I thought it would be interesting to do a recurring themed post about some of the various personalities I run into at all these gaming "events" I go to.  I try to hit up at least one a month, whether it is a major GT or a small tournament.  At all of these things there is always one thing that is the same. People!  If you go to enough of them, you start to see the same guys depending on where you go.  It has gotten to the point that I am happy to pack up and travel any where alone because no matter what I will have some one there to chill with.  A great example of this was my recent trip to Mechanicon.  It is just outside of Philadelphia and a good 3.5 hours from me.  The price tag excluded most of the guys in my club and Fritz was unable to cool the wife agro.  So away I went... Lobo-Jawa for the second year in a row.  But all was cool because I knew people would be there that I met the year before, or that I had met at other events.  I hung out with cool dudes the entire weekend and at no time did I feel alone.

The point of this is that the 40k tournament scene is a very small little family of guys who take time out of their separate lives to gather, play, drink and chill.  It is our privilege to be surrounded by great people and we should take advantage of it. One such dude is Ted Nagel.  I first met Ted at Mechanicon 2009.  He is a super friendly, personable and interesting dude.  But also, he is a great painter with no ego to speak of (unlike a certain Jawa :P ) and smacks face on the tables.

Ted working with the Bolter and Chainsword 

crew at Gamesday

He was there again this year and we got to speak more indepth.  Not a single negative word left his mouth the entire time.  It was refreshing to talk to him and inspiring in a way. I challenge you to try it some time. Have a conversation with some one for five minutes and not say something negative. Did you do it? Well try it for a day. Then a weekend.  Not so easy!

The guy joined the military right out of high school, married his high school girl friend to whom he is still married, left the military to take a related career which he served for quite a long time, retired from that one and has another where he is the boss and instructor.  (Intentionally vague to protect his privacy.)  He did all that and still looks like he is in his 30s.  Maybe he still is. The only reason why I think he is not is that he has teenage kids and has retired from two careers... Not the point!  The point is that in talking to him you get a sense of a truly happy guy. Granted, you could not catch him the entire weekend without a beverage in his hand... But isn't that part of why we go to these things to begin with? But better, if you do catch him without one, it is mere seconds before he is offering you one too and running up to the bar, or coming up to you and pushing one into your hands.  Social skills 101 guys.  He is the professor.

Ted is a Space Wolf player with a beautiful, and simply painted army.  He does not spend hours on blending, but instead has a method of painting that is so simple it is hard. And his stuff looks fantastic!

Ted's Space Wolves

Ted's Friday Night awards.

He knows his stuff looks good, but at the same time, claims to not be half the painter I am. Whatever man! First of all, I am just a hack myself who has figured out how to paint red.  I appreciate the compliment, but right back at you.  I learned a lot about painting by just looking at his wolves.  You need to see the army close up to know what I am talking about.  Great stuff.

Oh and did I mention that he plays wolves?  What is in his list you ask?  Certainly not the flavor of the month stuff you see most other wolf players fielding.  When asked why he has no rune priest he says and I quote "I know my army would be stronger with one, but psychic powers are for pussies."  With a joking smile on his face of course.  :)  He avoids playing the min/max list as a point of integrity and prefers to go to tournaments with a powerful, but personalized list made to his liking.  And he still beats face. He did not win Mechanicon, but he did well.  I think top 5? It certainly did not hurt him that he must have scored maximum sportsman and a very high painting score.  

That brings me to him as a player. Frankly, I think you could give him any list, without psykers of course, and he could do well. I played him in a pick up game last year and it was a knock down, drag out slug fest.  The guy knows how to beat face and how to punish you for your mistakes.  Quietly, but most definitely, one of the best players I have ever faced.  

Ted chews the fat with a couple other players 

late night on Friday at Mechanicon. 

Ok, time to end this manlove fest before Ted kicks my ass.  If he knew I was posting this up he would probably give me the "head or gutt" line from The Last Boyscout. It would depend on how many Yingling's he has had. But he is a shining example of the complete 40k player. 40k is a social game. Conventions and tournaments are social events. And Ted takes advantage of the opportunity to be social, shaking hands and buying beers.  He is a good player, painter and sportsman. He wins awards with a smile on his face and you are happy to see him do it. But more importantly than any of that, the guy has lived a charmed life, and simply talking to him is enough to feel a little charmed yourself.  He is a genuine and good natured guy. What more in life can you ask for?  I can't think of much myself.

Jawaballs

Let's Do This Thing . . .

Greetings and salutations all! This is Michael, self-proclaimed Captain of the 8th. Jawaballs, in his infinite wisdom, has invited me on as a new contributor for all things Blood Angels.

I began my GW habit back in '03 when my nerd-loving wife bought me some Lord of the Rings models for Christmas. And bless her soul, she even built me a gaming board to boot. If your significant other will go to "Roy's Train World" for you then it has to be true love right? Suffice it to say, I was immediately hooked. I loved the modeling, the painting, and the strategy involved in the game.

Grad school then took me away from home, and the brothers I played plastic toy soldiers with. No one played LotR at the game store so I jumped into 40k. It was the start of 5th ed, and a whole new world to me.


I found an old Blood Angels standard bearer model for 6 bucks at the game store. (here he is painted, and per my usual, unbased)



Another $6 Tycho model soon followed. (this model went into a painting competition, and I got second place, for the record, I was jipped)




And my first army was chosen. The internet inevitably brought me here when I started looking for advice for 40k and Blood Angels specifically. I've been hanging out here ever since. But Blood Angels didn't stay my only army for long. The siren song of the Tau railgun was too much, and made me start a small army for them. It's only about 1500 points soaking wet, and only comes out to play on occasion. I blame Old Shatterhands and his blog for that detour from the Imperium.

I'd consider myself the average 40k player/hobbyist. I like to do it all, but don't do any of it spectacularly well. I love to paint and have won a few local painting competitions, the result of being a little fish in an even littler pond. As a pat on the back I did place fourth in the painting competition Jawaballs put on about a year ago, but I'm no Golden Daemon winner. I like to convert models, but all I do is simple swaps with maybe a little greenstuff. I love the mental exercise of list building and the thrill of competition, but I have only played in one tournament. I enjoy making tough lists and going toe to toe with a like minded person, but real life keeps seizing the initiative and preventing me from playing in tournaments.

I will give painting and modeling advice, for what it is worth. We'll discuss list building and army evolution, along with tactics or deployment strategies. We can take this journey together, improving our painting, modeling, and hopefully our game.

It's going to be a fun ride!

Michael, Captain of the 8th and newest game nerd on the block.

As you can see folks, I put a lot of thought into finding guys who could keep in line with my blog and offer up some great stuff. When I put out the call for contributers, I literally got dozens of guys who submitted stuff. Picking just a few was tough. But I think that Michael is a great example of the Average guy doing above average work.  I think more than any thing else, that is what my blog and videos are about and you all can relate. Can't wait to see more.


Jawaballs