Blood Angels FAQ is published today!



Rant on!

And like a big fat kick in the balls, it arrives.  There was not a lot of unexpected stuff in the FAQ. They fixed the Vindicator of course, (Enough of you RAW asswipes actually trying to enforce that vindicator error) and officially spelled it out for all the douche bags out there that NO, models deep striking inside a Land Raider cannot use Descent of Angels.  They clarified that Baal Preds can indeed use their smoke launchers during their scout move. For some reason they repeated that Mephiston, Sanguinor and DC Tycho are single model units... That was clear enough... not quite agreed with on the Tycho and Sanguinor front but whatever.

My beef though? Disallowing Libby dreads from taking extra armor for one.  Why the F not? It just does not make sense other than some useless way of balancing. But since when does GW care about that? Cough Cough (Valkrye)  Oh wait... there is no 60 dollar Libby Dread model.

More beef.  Corbulo!  He has a farseeing eye. His precog ability has helped them to win entire wars before they even began. You would think the essence of that ability lies in using it to reroll the attempt to go first.  Nope. Apparently the farseeing eye is not quite so farseeing. It is the nearseeing eye... or slightly out of reach seeing.  Why bother with Corbulo now? You are spending 55 more points than you would on an ordinary priest, for a marginally better model that lets you reroll "Any" single die roll... EXCEPT for the only one that really matters.  Sure he can be used to reroll Seize the initiative... It even says so in the codex... Oh wait... STI was taken out of Hard Boys.  (But Allies weren't?)

But my ultimate beef comes down to the nerfbat slammed up against the Sanguinary Priest bubble of Furious Charge.  First of all, and let me be clear on this, I am not complaining about Sanguinary Priests getting nerfed. It sucks, but I admit, they were truly awesome and maybe gave the Blood Angels a little too much bite. Having said that, I wish to deal with the fact that GW has completely changed the mechanics of how a power works after what... 4 years of use? The Corbulo FC bubble from the PDF, and the priest bubble in the new codex worked the same.  If a unit had a model within range of the FC bubble at the start of their assault, then the unit got the bonus. Easy. Simple. Makes sense. The squad is inspired by the Blood Chalice, then charge off in a fervor of anger.

Well, now the Furious Charging models need to be within the bubble when they actually roll the dice for their attacks. Why is this rediculous? Well, for one, they only "fixed" half of the rule. They did not mention Feel No Pain. (previously, and still, a single model needed/needs to be within range of the FNP bubble to grant the power to the squad.) So long as a priest is lurking some where in range of one of the models, the whole squad gets it. But the Furious Charge bubble throws out the "squad gets it if a model is in range" rule, unnecessarily adding more complication to the game. Now no end of annoyance is going to sprout out as our opponents bust out the tape and measure each and every model on the table from every possible angle and dicker over hair widths. Oh my god I can see it now! "This model is just out of range Jawa, he does not get FC." "Look directly over the model asswipe opponent, you are looking from an angle." "Nope, from my point of view you can fit a finger nail in there... out of range."  Judge.."Dice it off.".  On to the next model... and so forth.

I cant wait until I come up on some other "aura" effect.

Thank you GW for adding one more element to the game to completely and utterly slow it down.

The ultimate question is... why?  First of all, Furious Charge was never a question. And definitely not frequently asked! The rule was plain and simple. "Ok, my assault squad is assaulting, and checking range this member of the squad is within 6" of a priest, so the squad gets FC." Easy!  Instead of dealing with measuring each and every model, and keeping track and whatnot... it was a common sense answer to a question that was never contested.  Why change it?

I can see that GW is attempting to reign in the power of the priest. I get it... sorta. Now in order to get FC granted to a whole squad, you need to send that priest in with it.  No more camping just out of reach, or worse yet, inside a transport. For the record, I have always been a proponent of fitting my priest with a PW and sending him in to fight. I have championed this cause many times over on Bolter and Chainsword, despite some of the "experts" over there calling me crazy for getting my priest out of his transport. So this change will not have a huge impact on my game, but that is besides the point! It will actually probably help because it forces guys to disembark their priests... But that is not the point either.

The point of my issue with this change is that it is HALF ASS. Don't change half of a rule. Rewrite the damn unit. Or better yet, FUCKING PLAYTEST. For christ sake. I wonder if they even considered the impact of the FAQ on the game.  Or even the unit in the codex for that matter! If you are going to reduce the only good power of a unit... (FNP is a joke when 40% of all guardsmen in the imperium are packing melta and plasma guns.) Do it right! You need to fundamentally change the way the unit works.  Make him a squad upgrade. Reduce his point cost. Make the power only affect the squad he has joined. Any number of ways pop into mind... but no. Lets just create one more point of contention in an already contentious game.

What happened, did no one buy that priest model you took out of the old 25 dollar Blood Angels Honor Guard box set and tried selling alone for 15? Selling 130 point valkries 5 or 6 at a time to every guard player in the world for 60 bucks a pop was plenty of incentive to skip that unit when it came time to swing the nerfbat... but since no one is buying your priest swing away GW!

I don't mind nerfing. Just do it right!

I won't even get into the shitshow Nid FAQ. Doom needed clarification yes... but how bout making what was a cool unit completely and utterly useless!  Well done indeed guys.

Guh.

Jawaballs


EDIT: July 4, 2010

Due to the fantastic comments and input, I thought I would edit this and add a summary of what has been discussed.  First of all, the only difference in how a priest works now vs before the FAQ is that you measure the 6" distance at the time the models gaining the benefit make their attacks. Previously it was accepted that the models needed to be in range at the start of the assault phase... IE.. before they made their move, thus were able to get the bonus and charge off in any direction they want. Now, based on the FAQ, the priest needs to be closer to the squad, thus at more risk during assault.  It is a balance issue intended to thwart people hiding their priest in a transport and giving their entire army the bonus.

Also, to be clear, not every model needs be in range. At the time you make your attacks, one member of a squad needs to be in range to grant the whole squad the bonus!

Jawaballs

Coming soon from The Army Painter! Crystal Blue.




A little bird over seas sent me this snippet of images of an as yet unreleased color spray prime from The Army Painter.  After first using their black and white spray primes and falling in love, I got my hands on some Dragon Red and it is simply outstanding for painting Blood Angels. Be looking for tutorials on that soon!  As a little teaser for things to come, I thought I would share these images of their upcoming blue spray primer.

Here is the image primed blue.


Great stuff!  

More to come. Jawaballs

Jawaballs Live is broadcasting NOW! Impromptu show.

Come watch!  Jawaballs Live!

List Help! A request to review a 2500 point list.



Email in:

Hey Jawaballs, how have you been?
I haven't messaged u in a while since I haven't had anything too important to say lol.
Anyways, I just picked up a Blood Angels Dex and a couple Baal Preds and Vindis just to try something different from my Space Wolves. So far I really like the list tho I am not too much of a fan of the Asscan Baal and i'll probably end up trying the flamer variant. Anyways I just kind of wanted your own "professional" Blood Angels opinion on my list.
Well, here it goes...

Mephiston

3x Furioso Dreadnoughts with undecided weapons all in Drop Pods

6x of this troop choice
5 man Assault Squad in Razorback with TL Las

3x Baal Predators with either Asscan Combo or Flame combo

3x Vindicators

Ok so that's my 2500 list. Hope it's not too rushed lol. Also, may I add that the points only come to about 2250 so do you think I should take an Honor Guard Squad in another Las Razorback? Or Maybe the Sanguinor as an HQ? Anyways thats it for now. Thanks for any help you can give me.

Take care, Mark



Hey Mark, thanks for writing!  From a strictly competitive do or die point of view, I have a few suggestions.  Forget the pods. Drop pod assault will mean that two of them have to come down round one, and will either find nothing to shoot, or come out of their pods surrounded by melta guns and take it in the ass.  Without Venerable to force rerolls, they are dead.  Make them all Librarians instead and run them up behind your Baal Preds or Razor wall.


Mephiston? I love him, but drop him.  Take a regular libby and throw him in one of the Razors.  Spend the extra 150 points buying your dreads the libby upgrade.  Oh, and give them shield of sang and wings.  


Flame or asscan? Have faith in your wargear private!  Go with the Asscan.  Maybe take one flamer.  They work wonders against Eldar seer councils if you can catch em on the table first turn.  


Vindicators or Predators?  That is up to your taste.  Both are good, but I feel predators with auto cannon/las sponsons are superior.  Give your tanks Hunter Killer missiles, as many as you can fit in.  


No, your army will not be an assault freak.  But you ahve enouth redundancy to take heavy losses and still keep shooting, and enough hard hitting punch to do a lot of damage, for a couple rounds, cover saves be damned! Your dreads will have to handle the assault punch. Support them with your squads that you should upgrade with PWs and Meltaguns. Get a priest in there to give your dreads FC.  


That should get you in nice shape!


Jawaballs

Storm Wardens Army Giveaway Project: Jawaballs Rhino WIP







Here are some more WIP pics of my Storm Wardens rhino for the Collaborative army painting give away!

Be sure to check out THIS LINK for instructions on how to contribute and qualify for the drawing.  As most of you know, I have been painting a tactical squad, rhino and company champion as my contribution to this massive event.  These pictures are of my rhino almost complete!  One is pretty washed out because of the flash... 

I have been doing some light weathering and chipping, and fading from Regal blue up to Ultramarine blue. The hand painting is almost complete as well. I will be doing some hand painting on the sides.  I feel it is coming along nicely!  

The final drawing will be taking place live on a special edition of Jawaballs Live! on July 25th. So if you have not entered your contribution yet, Git Er Done!  

Jawaballs







Bye Bye allies!



Well it appears that GW has snuck in a mini update for Witch Hunters and Daemonhunters.  If you look in their online store you will find official downloads of their codex books for free... and what is missing?  Allies!  That is correct Guard. No more cheeze ball inquisitors. No more tarots. No more grey knights in Valkries. No more terminators in Chimeras. No more filling in the balance gaps in your codex with outdated rules. No more BS. Time to stand by yourselves.  And not a bit too late with the last round of Hard Boys coming up!

I mean seriously, IG abusing the old allied rules from the DH codex was about as cool as this chick from Baldur's Gate.


That is pretty suck. Good riddance allies.

Have any of you felt the annoyance of playing vs allied armies with their vague rules and often abused combos? Feel free to expand upon it!

Time to stand on your own IG!

Jawaballs

FTW Games- Richmond, VA's Fully Operational Gaming Battle Station

Much like the Death Star in RoTJ, we are now fully operational.

We offer most tabletop wargames, card games, board games, and hobby supplies such as paint and tools.

We also have EIGHT 4'x6' Gaming Tables that you can play on, as well as 4 Multi-Purpose tables, XBOX, Free Wifi, Drinks, and Snacks.

If you are in the area come by and check us out! We are about 1-1/2 hours from most of Virginia.
FTW Games 
13176 Midlothian Turnpike
Midlothian, VA 23113
804.464.1873 
Hours
Monday- Closed
Tuesday-Thursday 2pm- 10pm*
Friday-Sunday 12 Noon- 10pm* 
 *Mostly Close Later

If you like what you see here, head over to our FTW Games Website and go more in-depth with whats going on here at the shop, and how you can get involved! 

-MBG


I would like to congratulate Rob Baer on launching his store and doing his thang!  Grats man. Maybe Fritz and I can take a road trip and play in a tournament.  Jawaballs

Hard Boys to Hard Boiled! Jawaballs gets thumped.





The club that I attend, Battle for Salvation, held another tournament this weekend. I won the last two, so was going for the threepeat. However, I knew it was not going to be an easy win. My previous two wins both came after having some failure in early rounds. My first BFS win came after only managing a draw vs Khornate Kris's "Best Of" marine list. My second BFS win came after a second round draw vs an Eldar army.  Both times it was a struggle.  I expected nothing less this time.

Round one opened up vs a Daemonhunter army consisting of 2 land raiders, 4 squads of Grey Knights, a squad of GK termies with a Bro Capt. and a Dread.  I managed to kill his terminators in my first round of shooting, and had him in assault on turn one.  GKs are nasty in assault, but Mephiston is nastier, and 45 minutes later the game was over. My opponent was a fantastic sport!  

The stage was set for a showdown between me and Danny Internets in round three.  

Unfortunately Ultrabob's magic computer matched us up in round two... 

So there we were... our first tournament meeting. Danny had his IG Alpha Strike army of death.  I knew I would probably end up facing him for the win, so I packed Corbulo in my army to give me a reroll at Seize the Initiative.  Danny has Emperor's Tarot which gives him a +1 to the die roll to go first. When he wins first turn he scout moves his valkries, then disembarks and charges his vets with meltabombs and melta guns, pretty much obliterating his opponent.  

Danny won the die roll of course, and it would come down to me trying to seize.  He set up his alpha strike, then it was my turn to try the steal... die roll 1... nothing... the reroll?  Fail.  That was my chance! We both knew how it would go.  It would have been easier to just pack it up right there and call it a game. But I let Danny pound on me for Hard Boys practice.  :)  Four rounds later the beating was mercifully over. Danny tabled me.  I believe that was the first time that ever happened to me outside of Fritz's living room!

For shits and giggles though, we played another game, with all the same setup, but as if I won the Seize the Initiative.  I didn't do it quite so easily, but the result proved me right. I tabled Dan more or less. (we realized that we had forgotten about an immobilized Valkrye at the end.)  

It boils down to a point I had made about IG ruining 5th edition. The game has been rendered down to the old 4th ed "Shoot first and win" matra where it is all about the luck of the draw. This time I was out drew.  

My round two score of ZERO points throw me into the middle tables some where, and I ended up against a player I played at the last Brothers Grim tournament... Eldar... (Cue disgusted grimace.)  My old nemesis of 3 falcons full of direavengers, 3 serpents full of Dragons, and a Bike Council was back.  Gack.  

Mephiston would be of little value in this game. His inability to use psychic powers due to the Eldar runes is frustrating. I did manage to get a power off and assault a Serpent, hitting it 3 times... but rolled no higher than 2.  In fact, I assault 3 serpents on my first turn, scoring no less than a dozen penetrations.  Nothing but weapon destroyed and shaken results. No shit.  No wait... one was stunned.  

On his turn the Eldar player focused on Mephiston and killed him with melta fire.  Then I wrapped up his dragons. The rest of the game would be a cat and mouse between my assault squads and his council. I did score a lucky kill on a Falcon by praying to the emperor. I fired a single lascannon across the table, hit the Falcon, penetrated, my opponent failed his cover save, and I rolled the double six for the explosion.  

The game would end in a minor victory for my opponent as he edged me out in kill points by 2.  I would finish the day with 29 our of 69 battle points.  Definitely a humbling day for the Jawabumble!




Summary: 
I need to refine my 1850 list.  It needs either a complete overhaul, or some minor tweaking.  I think I am definitely going to drop Mephiston again. He is fun, but an unnecessary point sink at 1850.  I think a librarian back in the Land Raider is a better choice.  Corbs is another point sink.  105 points just to reroll seize the initiative?  I had to reduce my priests from two to one, reducing my assault strength vs his Seer Council.  I feel that the strength of the BA dex is that priests allows you to double the strength of a 5 man assault squad... lacking that power my squads were ineffective.  Plus I have yet to win a reroll in tournament play. It will be great when it happens, and I am taking Corbs to Hard Boys, but I think in my 1850 list he can be demoted.  

So drop Meph and Corbs= 355 points
Buy termy libby w/storm shield=145
Buy termy priest and reguler priest with pw=150

Last 60 points? Melta speeder? Do I drop one of my ac/lc predators and replace it with another razor back? Do I not bother with the termy priest and just keep him in the land raider as a buff battery? Saving 45 points on the libby and 35 on the priest gives me 80, plus the 60... there goes another razorback squad with assault or tl las... 

Plenty to ponder!  

More to come...

Jawaballs

Reader submitted work! Dante and Honor Guard



This picture was sent in by Chris Knight. He painted these using my tutorials, nice job on the banner!  My only suggestion is to push the highlights further.  A mix of Blazing Orange and Vomit Brown as an extreme highlight on the marines, and mithril silver on Dante will really bring out their details!  Maybe a 50/50 of white and bleached bone on the edges of the robes.  Good stuff man!

Jawaballs

Spearhead!









A little snippet from Doc Railgun

+++ Transmission Begins +++

Like a good hobbyist, I was taking a look at the new Spearhead rules available on the GW website and was intrigued. Spearhead seems a link between huge Apocalypse games and normal force-org strict smaller point games.
I won't go over most of the rules, since we've probably all seen them or seen them discussed by now. Instead, I thought I would mention a few things off the top of my head that seemed useful for the Blood Angels and the sorts of lists I enjoy playing.

Of course the BAs have some great Walkers, and the "shoot one weapon after running" seems perfect for Furiosos. Combine that with the "Ambush Spearhead" (which gives 3 Walkers or Tanks Stealth and Infiltrate, but cannot be placed in reserve), then there ought to be a lot of Furisos starting 12" to 18" away from an enemy, moving 6" (or jumping 12" if they're Librarians), melta-ing and Assaulting. Ouch. This formation would be pretty good for multi-melta Dreadnoughts too, as they might get in a second round of shooting before Assaulting, even if they don't Infiltrate.

I also wonder how nasty 3 Vindicators in an Ambush Spearhead would be? Infiltrate them into terrain and shoot from improved cover? It's only 75 extra points.

We can also now Outflank with our Assault-cannon armed Razorbacks filled with melta-armed Assault Marines with the Mechanised Assault Spearhead. Better, they all come in at the same time and on the first turn.

Assault Marines can also join a "Mass Attack Spearhead" in which all models have S7 Krak grenades AND Preferred Enemy: Monstrous Creatures.

How about Assault Cannon or Lascannon-armed Razorbacks with AV15 t for purposes of Ramming attacks?

+++ Transmission Ends +++

Editorial: The life of a Unicorn. A gaming girls point of view.







Hey folks, Jawaballs here, I am happy to present Angel!  An actual real life gaming girl, or Unicorn.  I thought that she would be able to offer a softer point of view to 40k, or at the very least add some decent ratings to my blog ala Seven of Nine in Star Trek Voyager. (Come on, admit it, how many of you started watching that show to see that hottie?)  :)


Hello everyone. Jawa was courteous enough to ask me to make a post for his blog, so here is my first of more to come I hope. First off, I am your classic unicorn. I am a wife and mother, young, silly and most definitely a woman. My husband got me into the hobby a few years ago, mostly by not showing any desire to share it with me. A woman does want what she can’t have, (there’s your first tip for finding your own unicorn boys.)

 I collected a demon army and a chaos marine one. I lean toward Slaanesh, what girl wouldn’t, tee hee. I enjoyed learning about the history and fluff, but that’s not what drew me in or has captivated me in our hobby. It was how much fun it was to play and the joy of hanging out at the hobby store. I was lucky, my hubby had a good relationship with the guys at New World. They accepted me, even though I didn’t know much of the rules. They’re still patient with me when I play, and lets face it… the game is fun, but playing the game while a yummy woman bends over in front of you is always better.

 Yes I most certainly use me being a woman to my advantage. I’d be a fool not to. I have been known to dress up just to distract my opponent. Part of the joy of being a woman is “helping” my opponent to forget to move a unit, claim an objective or fire at one of my units because he is too distracted looking down my top to remember :D. I have even “sunk” as far as rubbing my dice on my 1 month old princess for “princess luck”… hey I needed to roll 3 6’s in a row…which I did /looks at Darrel and giggles. Hell I’ve even had a “girl friend” show up to help distract the guys.

 Now is any of this fair… hell no. But since I’ve only been playing for like 2 years and am not the hard core player like they or my husband are. I enjoy playing and who the hell likes getting their butt kicked… nobody.  I merely want to shed some light on one side of being a unicorn and alert all you boys out there to our evil tricks.. :D. I am now not the only woman who plays up there, and hopefully you will run into more and more of us. Being special has its advantages but we have a GREAT hobby and more girls need to get into it. Even if its just to torment you boys…

 So how many hobby shops out there have yummies tormenting you boys? Do you love playing with us silly girls who can’t remember what we need to roll to hit? Or is it more painful than the benefit of watching us pick up our dice off the floor? J

~Angel~

Well there you have it!  What should be banned more in 40k, boobs or Mephiston? I have written volumes about distraction tactics, feints, tricks and maneuvers. It sounds like Angel will put it all to shame!  I can say one thing, it would be nice to see a pair of boobs across from me, AND on a female for once.  Look for much more from Angel in the future.


Jawaballs




Edit:  As an addition to this, and perhaps an alternative point of view, you can find a related article written on Bell of Lost Souls here http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2010/06/editorial-death-of-unicorn.html.  The Girl talks about forgetting that she is a female and just treating her like a player, taking the sexuality out of the discussion. Interesting point of view coming from a writer using the tag The Girl in a community mostly comprised of males!  

This week on Jawaballs Live!


This week on Jawaballs Live! Join Jawaballs as he presents part two of "Hand Painting a Storm Wardens Rhino". I will be doing the lettering on the hand painted scrolls on the top of the tank.  Also, be looking for the next mini giveaway! You must be a contributer to qualify for the giveaway. Jawaballs will dip into his loot pile once again for another prize.  Oh, and last weeks winners will go into the mail today. Sorry it has taken me so long! It is a busy time of the year for me at work and I cant always play with interwebs business!

Jawaballs

Hard Boys Report: Jawaballs takes on the Semi Finals




I have to apologize for the lack of video or pics. Two of my three opponents asked me to not use my camera. Not sure why, but it seems some guys at this level are apprehensive about having their games show up on camera.

Ahy hoo...

Game One:

I found myself up against a Chaos Demon army played by a guy who traveled about 6 hours to get to the location.  He had a Blood Thirster, Fate Weaver, three demon princes, 2 squads of Blood Crushers, a squad of Slaneesh assaulty horsies, and a few squads of Plaguebearers.  GULP!

He gave me first turn and I chose to reserve every thing. Not sure why though... I guess I can chalk it up to inexperience vs Demons. This would hurt me as my Land Raider full of death did not come onto the table until turn 4. By then, it was too late for them to do much.

The mission was to capture 3 objectives. My plan was to try to put a hurting on his first wave that landed, eliminating his most devastating assault units before the rest came down.  I managed to kill all but one of a blood crusher squad with shooting, which was quite a feat!  But it was too little.  I should have focused more on his plaguebearers and eliminated his chance to score.  He only had 4 squads of them and they were small.

The highlight of the game was my killing Fateweaver with only one shot. I lined him up with a Lascannon shot from across the table, hit and wounded. He failed his invul saves, then rolled a 10 for his test! Die monster!

It would matter little though.  His demon princes killed Mephiston and the rest of his blood crushers ran rampant through my assault squads.  At the end of the game came the wrangling for objectives.  My valiant scout squad denied him one, fighting off a Blood Thirster and 5 Plaguebearers to do so. I ran a rhino with troops up onto another, but he contested it wtih his Blood Crushers... and the game came down to one little plague bearer.  With my last round of shooting, I decided to try to take down his Blood Thirster for some reason.  I failed, and instead should have pumped every shot I had into his lone plague bearer while I could.  I ended up losing the game because of him.  My opponent won by a single objective. Minor victory for him, 9 points for me.  The failing to take down that last plague bearer would come back to haunt me later in the day...


Game Two:

The scores left me matched up with the same opponent. So the organizer pushed me up to the next table, (the guy I would have been playing had I got a draw in the first game.)

I faced a Tau player and unlike most Marine players, I have a fearful respect for the Tau.  But again, I found myself in deep trouble early.  I tried to get into a shooting war. He had two squads of Broadsides and I, very over confidently, thought I could take them down.  So instead of charging all of my razorbacks forward and popping smoke, I sat back and shot... killing only one broadside.  On his turn, his pathfinders did their job, and took down my Land Raider and two razorbacks. I lost a couple of terminators in the shooting as well.  It was not going well at all.

So next turn I made the push I should have made turn 1.  I charged every thing forward that could still move. But mephiston failed his jump pack power with a perils of the warp!  Ugh. He would not get into assault this turn. Nor would my assault terminators.  They would have to suffer another whole round of Tau shooting, Mephiston angrily assaulted a Devilfish and exploded it.

They did manage to survive the shooting. Mephiston was reduced to 2 wounds, and 2 termies, the chaplain and priest lived!

On my turn the Tau player was beginning to get worried. His shooting was not stopping my charge.  I had moved some razor backs up the right flank to take another objective and get in line to assault his main stronghold.  My shooting finished off one of his Broadside squads and my scouts came on and assaulted and slaughtered a squad of Kroot.  Mephiston again failed his Jump Pack power... :(  He was planning on jumping into the back ranks and slaughtering some fire warriors holding an objective, but instead he got in with some suits and killed them.

I even tried to pull his punches by not using his Preferred enemy power... but no luck. He won combat and wiped them out, and then was killed by another squad of suites using plasma guns.  But at this point, I was in!  My scouts had secured the left flank and were now laying sniper and missile fire down on his pathfinders. They failed leadership and fled. I got into assault and slaughered his other pathfinders, kroot and some fire warriors.  My shooting forced another squad of suits to run off the table.

At this point, with me controlling 4 of the 5 objectives, and moving to take the last, and his line in shambles and the imposing red tide charging forth... my opponent struck his colors.  He was not feeling well, and it was obvious that I was about to table him and claim the game. So he bowed out.  Well played man!  A few shots more against my terminators would have ended the game in a very different outcome.

I scored full points, the only one to do so in the second round of the day. This set me up for a push for the win!  Unfathomable after losing the first game.  It only goes to show you that you never give up!

Game three:

I found myself against a blood angels army boasting SEVEN land raider redeemers with assault squads inside. The command squad was an honor guard and libby in a land raider. The game began with a dubious rules dispute over what my opponent was allowed to deploy. He attempted first to place 3 land raiders, two with assault squads, and one with his HG and libby.  The mission was Dawn of War deployment... He was only allowed to place his Libby, and a single Raider with a squad inside. After a discussion, I was forced to bring over the judge... who shook his head and opened the rules book to the proper page... proving my case.  The guys friend was at the table next to us, with the same army, and was attempting the same deployment.  It was obvious they planned this and were surprised at the rules... Not quite what one would expect to find at Hard Boys!

Another interesting dispute occured later. He popped smoke on all of his tanks and smoke saved him from a few shots.. The following turn, I shot and he attempted to roll cover saves for having smoke popped for a second turn.  I didnt argue, first of all I was shooting over some terrain so it may or may not have been a cover save, but I made a remark about smoke only lasting for one turn. He replied "This isn't real life, in this world smoke can last longer..." or some such thing.. and he dismissed me with a wave. I shrugged since I was kicking his ass.  Then the next turn, I shot his tanks again, making sure I had clear LoS, and he tried cover saves again. I said dude, your smoke was done two turns ago... he said "No way, I can use them every turn!".  WTF!  How the hell does a guy make it to the Hard Boys semi finals and not know that smoke only lasts for one turn? Oh wait... this guy was the guy running the first round at his own store, and also playing in his own tournament, and making rules decisions in his own favor as the "final judge".  Cough... cough..

So the game began.  I wanted to go second.  My opponent rolled a 6 and I used my corbs roll to try to win it, but failed. To my surprise again, my opponent took first turn! (I wanted second.)  If you are unaware of the mission in Hard Boys, there were two objectives that were worth bonus points. The edge that we could come off from was an L shaped zone, made up of your long table edge and one of the short edges depending on a die roll.  He rolled the die and came out on my left side, (right were I placed my objective, I would not get it)  Further, I don't think he was aware that the game had no nightfighting. As standard in a Dawn of War deployment, turn one uses nightfighting.  In this round of Hard Boys, the night fighting part was taken away.  Going first meant he would come onto the table with nothing to shoot at, while I would come on and blast him to pieces.

So all of his raiders come onto the table on my left table edge in a line and moved 12".  He deployed one in the middle of the table to begin with which surged forward to try to kill mephiston who I placed as bait to get him to put that first raider where I wanted it, near my table edge so I could move on and melta it.

On my turn, I brought all of my Lascannons onto the table on the right side short table edge. So my tanks were facing him from across the long table.  His silence betrayed his thoughts. He realized that he was going to have to drive those raiders through 5 feet of open space to reach me, all the while I would be blasting away with 8 Las cannons, plus he would have to get past my own Land Raider with terminators and Mephiston... It was a turkey shoot.

My stuff came on, my raider moved up and destroyed his first raider with the multi melta.  The squad got out and I opened up on them, but could only kill 3.  The rest hid behind the hulk.  That was all I had in range. I did not want to commit Meph to far forward and get him blasted by 6 multi meltas so I held back.

On his turn, he moved up five of his raiders. They were all redeemers by the way... did I say that already? I had a distinct advantage in shooting, had he taken Lascannon raiders, things would have been very different.  That is what he gets for taking a lopsided gimmick army to hard boys.

So I lined up my tanks and started shooting! The couple of raiders closest to my long table edge were the biggest threat.  They would have the shortest route to my tanks, and the least bit of terrain to go around.  I opened up on them, and immobilized his command raider.  Then my Lascannons left that one to sit and contemplate life and moved onto the next in line, and I exploded it with my very next lascannon shot!  My dice were on fire.  Leaving those marines sitting in a smoldering pile of debris, I moved onto the next raider in line... and DESTROYED IT with more Lascannon fire.  What a round!  I immobilized one and destroyed three more raiders in two rounds of shooting.

The game was far from over.  One thing I have to say is that he took the blasting with minimal complaining. He did keep a running tally of my 6s, exaggerated of course. And shouted to the world every time I rolled another 6. One of his buddies, (he brought like 10 friends who hung out and watched all day, they all had Tshirts with their names on the back that said "we are not here to make friends") began accusing me of using loaded dice.  I looked that dude in the eye and warned that he didn't want to even go there, then offered my dice to both the tournament organizer who was standing there, as well as my opponent to go get them tested.  I think that satisfied the accusations.  I will also point out that on the next round I rolled an equal number of 1s and 2s.  When I pointed that out to the guy's posse they all pretended to be preoccupied with the ceiling.

So after two rounds of shooting, he was down to four functioning raiders, one was sitting on a bonus objective, one was immobile and two others were taking the long way across the table, using terrain to get cover saves.  I would need to deal with those personally.  I charged my raider forward as well as a couple of razorbacks.  My shooting immobilized the lead raider and my assaulting took off a couple guns.  I did not managed to kill it though!

On his turn, he flamed my boys, killed a couple termies, and a couple marines, but did not even reduce either squad to below 50%.

I destroyed the raider that my boys were still in base to base with on his turn in the assault.

On my turn I cut down the marines that were inside the raider I destroyed, and moved up to start killing the survivors from the other hulks, killing off another squad.  I also immobilized his other raider that was also sitting on an objective for a bonus point.

At this point, my opponent simply shook his head.  In an unheard of bout of suberb fire power, I just killed 5 out of 7 Land Raiders and was about to take a 6th.  I was trying to get bonus points now. I would not get the one in the corner as it was 6 feet away and he had a raider on it.  But the one in the center though... I had a chance.  I had to kill the raider in shooting, and assault the boys inside, all the while moving a razor up into range to claim it. I managed to get the razor into position, but finally my dice gave out.  I was unable to kill the raider, the objective remained contested.

The total points for the game were 22 for me and 1 for him.  He got zero victory points for failing to kill a single unit, or even reduce one below 50% or wound a single vehicle.

I guess the guy was a fairly decent dude, but I have to say that it was so pleasantly satisfying to take him apart like that. Plus I believe his humility and niceness was sort of forced by the fact that from the beginning I was mopping the table with him. Him and his entourage showed up at the tournament smugly brandishing stacks of Land Raiders and smiled as every one shook their heads.  They tried to use Decent of Angels to deep strike them, even though they knew it was bull shit. The judge had to deny it.  The other guy played against Danny Internets in round two, and bitched the entire time.  I was across the room and I was getting annoyed from hearing it, I can only imagine what it was like for Danny. I quote Danny, "That was probably the most unpleasant game I ever played."  That is about as harsh words as Danny will every say about any one, so you know it must have been bad.  Hard Boys or not, that does not give you an excuse to be an ass.  Playing a cheezy list is fully expected, but trying to exploit an obvious rules oversight... come on man. (Blood Angels assault squads have the special rule Decent of Angels written into their list entry, the rule reduces the scatter distance. This is because they have Jump Packs. But they may remove their jump packs for a discount on a transport. It is the jump packs that provide Decent of Angels, not the Marine. Take away the JP, take away the rule. But the guy insisted that he should be able to use Decent of Angels to deep strike his Land Raiders. That is the equivalent of  Mephiston getting into a Land Raider and trying to grant it Fleet.) Douche.

Back to my opponent, at the end he even referred to playing me as "having to play down" which means he felt he was up against an inferior opponent since I lost my first game.  I believe he took one look at my army and instantly dismissed me thinking he was going to blast right through my transports and burn my marines with his flame storms.

I wrote an article on Bell of Lost Souls a while back about the return of the Las Cannon, stating that Las is back and the new 5th ed game is about distance, and power at range since the game has gotten so deadly at close quarters. I said that the army that can excel at ranged combat, and still pack a decent close in punch will be stronger then the current trend of close combat and meltagun overpowering force. And most of the comments scoffed in agreement that Jawaballs has no idea what he is doing.  Well naysayers... I present you with evidence.

After a round one defeat, I came back to contend for the tournament win, massacring an army devoted to long range fire power, and an army devoted to short range destruction to do it.  I took 3rd place. I tied for 2nd, both of us off of the winner Danny Internets by 3 points. Unfortunately, my tie was with the very guy who beat me round one.  That damn Plaguebearer sure did come back to haunt me. Had I simply destroyed that one with any one of 3 Assault cannons or 3 predator tanks, I would have still played the Tau player turn two and the Land Raider player turn three.  But I would be sitting here atop a pile of loot!  Instead one little nurgling meant the difference between 1st and 3rd.  The tie breaker formula favored the other guy by .012 or something silly like that.

At any rate, at least I can claim 100% responsibility for failing to win. It was my own fault, not luck, dice, cheeze, cheats, opponents or foul play. That mixed with a heavy dose of good play by Dan, as always.

So Congrats to Danny Internets for taking 1st, and Grats to my club Battle for Salvation for sending two members to the Finals in Chicago.

Now I will take a good look at my list, and learn from my mistakes.  I will post up a discussion about what I felt were my major goofs and weaknesses later.

Jawaballs

Jawaballs Live Tonight!!! Fritz is in da house!



Hey guys, Jawaballs Live! will be putting on a bonus show tonight!  Fritz is coming over and we will be working through some hard boys practice for me for this weekend and maybe playing a little fun board games. So we will be broadcasting live.  Look for us starting at 6pm EST. This one will run until we quit... so log in any time!  Here is THE CHANNEL.


See you tonight.

Jawaballs

This week on Jawaballs Live! Jawaballs does a Hand Painting demonstration on Storm Warden Rhino


Hey all, Jawaballs here. You do not want to miss this week's show!  Tune in to Jawaballs Live! at 6pm EST. You can find the show by clicking on the picture of me with the giant space marine on the right of my blog.

First of all, I will be demonstrating some hand painting techniques on this rhino here.  You will get to see my process, from image design to implementation, including my pre-sketch work. But also, John, from Santa Cruz Warhammer  will be in attendance. We will be doing the next Storm Wardens mini giveaway live.  The way this works is that every one who has donated is eligible for a mini giveaway from the Storm Wardens project. The winner will simply be picked from random from all of the donation entries and announced live on my show.  Yes, if you have donated 100.00, your name has been entered 100 times and you have a greater chance of winning something then a guy who donated 10 dollars. You need not be actually viewing the broadcast to win.  Tonight's prize will be 50.00 of store credit from MY STORE. Plus John may have something more to offer up from the Storm Wardens prize pool.  Yes, we will ship prizes WORLD WIDE!

But also, I will be offering yet more giveaways taken from my own personal loot stash, available ONLY to guys who are actually watching the broadcast and who made a donation.  In order to be eligible for one of the mini Jawa-giveaways, you need to also have made a donation to the Storm Wardens army giveaway. The link to do so is on the top right of my blog. So go search the floor of your car and come up with some change and make that donation!  I will be picking a few items from my tournament loot shelf and donating them to the cause! Winning mini giveaways will NOT affect your chances to win the grand prize in July. These are bonus prizes just for having thrown your name into the hat.  Get your donations in early! The sooner you have made your donations, the more prizes you can win. You have to be in it to win it.

Finally in the spirit of giving, I still have some Army Dice from Custom Game Dice. I will be giving out the rest of the Yellow Fist dice and Chaos dice that were donated by Scott.  You need not have donated to get these. Just be watching the show!

It will be an hour show packed full of great painting tips and loot giveaways. You do NOT want to miss it!  Also, Fritz may just make another appearance and you guys will be able to pick his brain as well.  Lots of great stuff.

See you tomorrow night!

Jawaballs

Battle for Salvation Warhammer 40k Tournament!


Come get a piece of Jawaballs and Fritz!  Think you got what it takes? Once again our club, Battle for Salvation, will be hosting a Warhammer 40k tournament. Yours Truly has won the last two, and is going for the three in a row. Battle for Salvation is based in White Plains, NY. Our tournaments usually are huge loot fests with big prizes going to the top three finishers, best painted, best sportsman, and lots of door prizes and raffles. Last time a completely painted 1850 point Eldar army was given out! Guys drive in from Virginia, Vermont and loads of other places to take part in these tournaments. So if you live within reach of the Northeast, get your butt over to Battle for Salvation!  When?  June 19th. That is just under two weeks away. You can buy your ticket here: http://www.baldandscreaming.com/tournament/ 

Hope to see you all there! Don't wait, spots are limited. Tell em Jawaballs sent you!

Jawaballs

Blood Angels Unit Review: Librarian



Finally, there is a reason to take a Librarian in your army... and every army.  Previously, with the BAPDF, the librarian was over priced at 120 points, under strengthed with a 9 leadership and under powered with 2 measly psychic powers, the wings of sanguinius and might of heroes.  I can't imagine any reason any one would have taken one in their PDF list, except for the LD 9 Psychic Hood that covered the whole table.  Good luck stopping powers when most all other casters are LD 10.

So lets talk the here and now!  100 points buys you a LD 10, two wound model with a 24" range psysic hood, force weapon, power armor and your choice of any two great powers.  For 45 more points you can put him in Terminator armor and give him a Storm Shield!  Yes, that's right. Mephiston and Tigurus, the two most powerful psychers in the imperium after the Emperor himself, do NOT have an invulnerable save.  (Unless Tig has terminator armor... not sure.. but you get the point.)  In a time when squads of guardsmen are running around with 4 melta/plasma guns, and any lowly company captain gets an Iron Halo, it is finally refreshing to see a Librarian get a chance to have a save.  Thank you storm shield, thank you.

The libby in termy armor with shield is an absolute steal.  Take him. Build your 1750 or 1850 list around him.  Forget Mephiston, Dante and Sanguinor. Spend half the points and take the libby.  While in the PDF it was my position that any army over 1750 should have Dante, it is my absolute rule that ANY new codex Blood Angels army should take at least the 100 point Libby.  For the points, he is the best HQ in the book.

Lets discuss a few of his powers.

Shield of Sanguinius: Grants any model in range a 5+ cover save.  Pretty damn sweet, especially since you can cast this while sitting inside a Land Raider, give the LR cover, and grant the power measured from it's hull.  A squad need only have a single model within range to get the whole squad the benefit.

Wings of Sanguinius:  Lets the librarian move as if he has a jump pack.  12" move!  Give him the power, or save the power and give him the 25 point upgrade.

Blood Lance: Str 8, AP 1 Lance weapon 4d6 range.  First of all, this is an auto hit on every unit in a line. Against a ten man squad, it is one auto hit. Against an Eldar Wave Serpent, it is one auto hit.  The key here is the AP1.  That adds a +1 to the damage roll. Crucial against Eldar tanks with their trickery! In games where IG mech armies are lining up 4 or 5 tanks side by side, you can catch a lot of armor with this.  Blood Lance is one of the best choices in the book.

Fear of the Darkness:  Another great power, but I'm not sure if it is worth taking over Blood Lance. In reality, a Librarian will probably only get off one or two psychic shooting attacks in the game.  Being a shooting attack, I believe that the squad the libby is attached to has to assault the squad he "shoots". So, it simply will not do to have him get out, Fear of the Darkness a squad they are about to assault, then have it fall back...

But that does not mean it is not a great power!  It forces a leadership test at -2.  To a single unit in range.  This can be devastating to low leadership armies.  Especially at the end of the game when you are trying to get to a squad on an objective that you just cant reach, but have to get it off to win. Fear them and watch them run!  In a recent Hard Boys game, I forgot to take this power, and at the end of the game my opponent had an objective and all I had that could shoot them was my libby.  It was crucial that they be taken off the objective, had I had Fear of the Darkness instead of Blood Lance, I would have probably knocked them off and won the game, instead I got a draw and took second in the tournament.

Two other powers of note:
Unleash Rage: Which grants Preferred Enemy to he and his squad
The Sanguine Sword: Grants Strength 10 to all of the close combat attacks

Both of those powers have their obvious advantages.

The gaggle of great powers alone makes the Librarian a huge upgrade from the PDF. But add to that terminator armor and a Storm Shield 3+ invul save and WHAMMO we are in business.

I have to say that in my Hard Boys list I was running a libby in termy with shield, but also added in Mephiston. That left me with a lot of points spent in a couple of models, and I needed an upgrade to one of my razorbacks, so I dropped the termy armor off the libby, taking just the 100 point version. I toyed with the idea of dropping the libby completely, but simply could not give him up for being such a steal at 100 points.

So again, just about any army should have the 100 point libby as it's HQ. There really is no reason not to!

Jawaballs

The first weekly Storm Wardens prize drawing tomorrow!

Go to SCWH and check it out!  We will be offering up weekly prizes until the final grand prize drawing.

Jawaballs

Dark Angels banner and Storm Wardens WIP updates!

Here is my finished Full Sized Dark Angels chapter banner!  The dimensions on this bad boy are 3 feet by 6 feet, plus the triangles on the bottom.  If you are looking for a hand painted full sized banner for your man room, let me know!

Moving on to my Storm Wardens project, here are some WIP pics.


Storm Wardens favor Meltaguns and Heavy Bolters. So I am starting with those. This meltagun is from the Black Templars upgrade sprue, I just shaved off the cross from the side of the gun.


The heavy bolter marine poses unique problem because the gun is so huge that the model cannot be painted while it is assembled. You have to paint the entire model, then paint the gun completely before attaching it because if you mess up and get some paint on your model, it is too hard to fix the problem.


After getting some feedback on my live show about this model, I decided to reposition his arm to where it is now. I originally cut it to swivel around a bit, and the blade was pointing in a different direction, back behind his head. It was a very dynamic pose and looked good if you were looking down the barrel of the gun straight towards his face. This pose is a little more stiff looking, but looks better on a whole from all angles.


A most pleasant surprise came when I started painting the blue rhino. Most of my painting experience has been in red. I think that I have done very well with that, coaxing some beautiful work out of a very difficult color to paint with. I was delighted when I tried to use blue in the same way, and it almost magically smoothed out and blended. Now I understand when people say how hard red is to work with! It is not that red is hard, but that blue is so easy! With a little water in the bristles, the enchanted blue just swirled into place on the edges, fading down to Regal blue. It was fantastic! The same result in red would have required an hour of back and forth painting with Blood Red and Red Gore, forcing the paint into submission.


These images are still very much work in progress, but are the result of just a few minutes of painting that I did during my live broadcast. You can catch a recording of that by the way by clicking on the picture to the right of me with the giant Space Marine.

I am very pleased with my models for this collaborative effort so far and am excited to see what the other guys are doing too.  One thing I can say is that if you have not gotten yourself into this drawing yet, you MUST do so! We are getting more prizes every day and believe me, you want to be part of it. The Storm Wardens army alone makes me wish I was not part of the group so that I could enter the drawing and try to win.

Thats it for now!

More to come...

Jawaballs

Jawaballs Presents The Army Painter US webstore!


Hey Folks.  I have some great news!  The Army Painter has finally gone live with their US Webstore! They are working on building up their US warehouse stock, but the website is open for business!

If you do not know about The Army Painter, they offer a line of great hobby supplies like Colored Spray Prime, quick shade, and paints. I fell in love with their black and white primers the first time I used them. It is simply the best primer I have used, and less expensive than certain other companies as well! In the coming weeks stay tuned right here as I take you through demonstrations of great Army Painter products starting with their Blue color spray prime and a selection of the Army Painter brushes.Their Kolinsky Masterclass brush has taken over as my favorite highlighting brush.  Their color prime simply takes hours off from your painting time. I will be demonstrating how soon!

Also be looking for exclusive sneak peaks of unreleased Army Painter products. It is a very exciting time for the hobby. :)

Tell em Jawa sent you!

Much more to come...

Jawaballs

Storm Wardens! Tonight on Jawabals Live.



Storm Wardens!  Tonight on Jawaballs Live.

 Join me tonight at 6pm EST as I work on my Storm Warden Tactical Squad for the collaborative army build charity drawing.  I will be demonstrating how I paint them by working on a tactical marine, and rhino, as well as sharing a little bit of exclusive and as yet unreleased fluff straight from the designers of the chapter.  Click on the picture of me with the giant space marine to the right for the link.

See you there!  Jawaballs