My list for mechanicon is pretty much set in stone based on time... I have a week left before I go. Since I dont have the models I need yet to make my new list a reality, I will be playing my already competitive BA Mech army. This will probably be that lists last hurrah!
The next tournament I go to after that will be the Battle for Salvation tournament in White Plains, NY on November 21. I will have a 2 week refit to get my boys ready to go at 2k points. I have not decided exactlly what I will roll with, but here is something I just came up with. I have beeen wanting to get a Land Raider Crusader and termies into my list. Here we go!
Chaplain (Terminator or Jump Pack) Corbulo
tactical squad +5 Lascannon Melta Power weapon rhino extra armor
tactical squad +5 las Melta power fist rhino extra armor
Death Company x3 Jump packs
Furioso Dread death company extra armor heavy flamer
Furioso dread DC EA HF
Terminator squad LC x4 SS/TH x1
Land Raider Crusader Extra armor storm bolter
baal predator extra armor heavy bolters storm bolter
baal predator ea hb sb
Attack bikes x2 multi melta
Plan? LRC gives a good dose of brick in your face. Chaplain wether i put him in termy armor or jump pack determines where he goes... If with the DC he moves up behind the LRC or Baal Preds. Corbs rides in the LRC regardless.
The preds flank the LRC and move up providing fire support.
The bikes hide and pop out to provide a safety bubble around my armor and provide tank killing punch
The furioso dreads... just run like hell and kill every thing they can!
tactical squads combat squad. leave 2 las canons behind shooting away, the melta and power weapons drive off to take objectives.
The question I have for you... Do I need the attack bikes? Can I put my dreads in pods instead? I have quite a lot of tank killing punch, would it be better to drop my dreads behind enemy lines and let them run wild? That will provide some much needed relief to my main force as they land behind tanks and pop stuff that is out of my short reach. What ya think?
The Winner! Deagle. 1st place. And yes, this was the first example I showed weeks ago, one of the first I got. That was just coincidental though. I uploaded one of the thumbnails I had in the folder at the time and happened to grab that one. Why this one? I think you can agree, it is all around the most stunning entry I got. Not only is his blending perfect, fading to red from a deep base, but he also makes nice use of highlighting where needed. But the thing that makes this one stand out the most is the superb attention to detail. The gemstones have true luster. The parchment looks like paper, the flamer has heat corrosion, the blacks are nicely highlighted, the lenses look like glass, the eyes on the helmet... I can go on, but I will just let the picture speak for itself. This guy can paint and I am humbled by his entry. He wins his choice of terminator box sets. Shooty or Assaulty, donated by miniwargaming. The other will go to 2nd place.
Coming in at second place, and receiving the second of the two Terminator Box sets generously donated by miniwargaming, is Tim Davis. Tim is a commission painter, and his skill is obvious in his model. This is another example of using a deep base and subtle blending instead of extreme highlighting to finish the model. Some might argue it was a style, and I would agree, but the difference between this and 1st place is the smoothness of the blending and attention to detail. Compare the lower left legs and you will see an example. But take nothing away from this model by Tim. The dark look speaks of a time where there is only war. And that is what 40k is all about. Beautiful!
I hope you enjoyed the results from the first Jawaballs painting contest. I know that I certainly learned a lot by seeing all of these other great painters produce some true art. It is nice to get some inspiration for my own painting once in a while, and to see what directions other guys are going.
Be sure to thank miniwargaming for their generous donation by frequenting their store and buying your goodies from them. I think they are still running a clearence sale at this very moment! Hopefully they will provide sponsorship for my next contest and we can get even better prizes!
Once again, if you were one of the winners, email me at jawaballs at yahoo with your address so I can start sending out loot. I should hopefully have it all out within a week or so. I have decided to offer a 10% discount to every one who entered off my resin bases. Simply email me that you were an entry when you make your purchase and I will refund 10%.
Thanks for all the entries! Next contest? It will start in December in celebration of my little Jawa-Baby arriving and bringing in the new year. It will be a squad of some sort, and it will be a much wider field. But it will still need to be painted exclusively for the contest. So stay tuned and don't jump the gun!
Cannonfodder provided the 3rd place finisher and he wins Dawn of War II and a pack of bases. His piece was all around fantastic, from the hereldry on the banner to the weathered armor, not to mention the well done blending and highlights. The face is dark and gritty, the sword is effective, and the gemstones glow!
The 4th place finisher was this Terminator with Thunderhammer by Michael Ray. He wins the Terminater with Typhoon blister and a pack of bases. Contrary to my usual taste, this one has very little extreme highlighting at all, but it is outstanding none the less! What attracted me to this model was the well done subtle blending. The Right lower leg, shoulder pads and shield are good examples of what I am talking about. It is effective and simple!
Guys be sure to email me again, jawaballs at yahoo with your address so I can send you your loot.
In my final folder there were 11 entries. I have 4 grand prizes, a Terminator with Typhoon Missles and some bases, Dawn of War II and some bases, and two terminator box sets provided by miniwargaming. That leaves 7 entries who will each receive a pack of bases of their choice. You seven guys can pick one set of bases from my site, jawaballsproductions.com of your choice, terminator or infantry size. If you wish to purchase more, I will offer you a 10% refund on your next purchase, just email me before making it. If you would prefer, I will give you a painting video set instead.
Rather then try to assign ranks for these seven entries, I decided to simply place them together. The difference is minimal between these seven, and honestly, between many of the entries that did not make this cut. So to assign ranks is not really necessary. So if you are one of these seven guys, email me again jawaballs at yahoo, this time with your address and which bases you want, so I can get them sent out to you. Be sure to use the same email that you sent your entry from, that is how I will eliminate any scammers. (Last time I did a giveaway about 9 guys tried to scam themselves as the winner.)
So here you go, grats to every one here. I will offer up some insight on these as comments. I have no clue which order they are in and suck at trying to format these posts. :)
All of the coolness that could have been as hinted at in this picture just became an epic fail intead that happened for 30 seconds behind a closed door. Shame.
I am not much of a TV fan. I would much rather spend my time painting Blood Angels. But I do make time for a few shows. The recent heyday of my TV watching was a few years ago when Journeyman, Battlestar, Heroes, Jericho were all on. I found myself skipping events and making plans to watch TV 3 or 4 nights a week when previously I watched zero. But the stuff was good! First of all, Jericho and Journeyman. Both were cancelled after their first season. I loved them both. Jericho was great for its post apocalyptic mystery... What the heck was up with the rest of the world? I wish they had just let it die. The half-ass second season was an embarassment. Journeyman never had a chance. It was a great story... a little like Quantum Leap, but still great. I personally liked it because while Quantum Leap had Sam jumping back into time before I was born, therefore disconected from it, Journeyman had him jumping back only a few years. In one episode he walked into a Microbrew Pub and Bittersweet Symphony was playing... holy blast from 1997! I liked the subtle attention to detail they showed in jumping back just a decade or so, and how drasticly things change and we didnt even know.
Battlestar was my all time favorite show ever. I wept after the final episode and had an empty spot in my heart for days. But I am not here to talk about cancelled TV shows. I am here to discuss the two that I am watching now.
I really only plan to watch TV on Monday and Friday nights. On monday I watch Heroes and on Friday I watch a new show called Stargate SGU. Heroes first. What the hell happened to it???? What used to be a great show with compelling characters, mystery, intrigue and fun has just bellied up. Screw jumping the shark. They jumped the void, and fell in. It's terrible now! Season 1 was fantastic and always had me wanting more after each episode. Season 2... well, was a bit weak. Season 3 brought me back. I wasnt crazy about it, but by the end of season 3, I was not going to Battle for Salvation on Mondays to play 40k, in part so I could watch Heroes again! This year? Screw it. Any thing that was cool about last year they just did away with.
What ever happened to Hiro coming back in time to find Peter in the Subway. Save the Cheerleader Save the world? Did that just go away? Or was that actually resolved? What about the Irish girl that Peter supposedly fell in love with. He teleported her to future Montreal and she was taken prisoner, and poof. Not another mention of that whole plot line. Some sort of virus scare... gone. All replaced with a stupid bunch of carnies. At any rate. I've decided to give it up again. Time to go back to 40k on Mondays. :)
The big reason why I am posting about TV today is to talk about the new Stargate series. I never got into Stargate. I have only ever watched a few episodes, and while I enjoyed them, I never liked them enough to try to watch the series. But Something about this new one has sucked me in. Maybe I was lucky to have caught the premier. Who knows. But if you don't know about it, it goes like this.
The Stargate was found on earth in a movie staring Kurt Russel. Great movie. It spawned a series on Sci-fi, then two more I think. The premise is that you can step through this gate and instantly travel across the universe, but by doing this, they gained the attention of evil races and made lots of enemies and friends. Drama ensues followed by 15 years of television.
In this new series, the humans have set up a base on a remote planet, but the base is attacked by an alien fleet. In the battle, the energy core of the stargate is ruptured, and a chain reaction is sent to the core of the planet ala the Death Star, and the planet explodes. In a frantic attempt to escape, some of the people input an untried and experimental coordinate into the Stargate then leap through, arriving on an ancient star ship. So now the survivors are on some ancient ship that they have very little understanding of, and it is deserted and falling apart, but still zooming across the universe. They are out of range to use the Stargate to get home and have limited communication capacity. The ship is on a heading that they cannot change, and periodicly starts up its stargate for a few hours to allow them to go to some planets for unspecified reasons, presumably to find natural resources to fix the ship. Then it shuts it off, and jumps back into hyperspace.
One of the characters is a math nerd college drop out who cracked a code on some MMO video game which was actually a trojan placed by the military to find genius minds. They happened to be introducing him to the program when the planet was attacked and he is now unwittingly one of the main decision makers on a space ship he had no idea existed weeks before. Another character is the guy from 28 weeks later, who is pretty much playing the same snivling character, only he is also a super genius. But he is manipulating things and not letting the other people know what he knows.
I think the show is fresh and fun, with an interesting blend of stereotype characters who dont quite fit stereotypes. The best part of it is that most of these people could be you or me. A medic who was short time in the military and was planning on going to college when she ended up the chief medical officer of this new ship, a Sergeant who had trouble with the law, the nerd who dreams of saving the day, a schizo rambling scottish genius, a politicians daughter who watched her father sacrifice himself for the others, the insecure leutenant who is gaining experience and confidence, the silent and brooding commander... it goes on and on.
Bottom line, forget Heroes, Miss Battlestar and watch SGU.
If you guys like my TV reviews, let me know and I will write more!
Here are the first set of results from the 1st Jawaballs painting contest sponsored by miniwargaming!
Here are all of the non winning entries. Some of these did make it into the final cut, but just did not make the top 10. What is the difference between some of these and some of the top 10 finalists? In some cases, very little. They were all beautiful, but for some of the last places, maybe the entries that won had a little more pop or a little more flare. It is hard to say. This was a difficult thing to judge since I would say at least half of these entries could have taken that tenth spot. Thank you all for entering! I hope I got them all up here.
Again, if you did not get an email from me saying that I received your entry, it probably did not get judged.
Hey folks. I just thought I would share some psychology tidbits as I like to do once in a while. First, I am playing mind games with my fiance. She likes to play cards, but refuses to play other games. I brought home the game Othello last week to try to get her into a gaming mind set, hoping to lead her into playing Space Hulk with me, which she abhores just because it is 40k. I figure that by getting her started on easy but competitive games first, I can slowly work her into other games like Stratego, which is basicly a launching pad for 40k. I spoke about the "Getting your brother into 40k" mind strategy before. Break him in slowly, but let him win. Make it fun etc. She begrudgingly agreed to play. She is too smart for bravado and silly story telling, and Othello does not really offer enough narrative to make a compelling story out of, but it still serves it's purpose. In our first game, I let her stay close. I had complete control of the game the entire time, but she did not know it. The end looked like she put up a good fight, and most importantly, left her wanting more. Sure enough, the next night she was asking me to play. Had I just thumped her solid, she would not want to. But the taste of victory denied at the last minute was enough to wet her chops.
So in later games it was much the same. Keep the game close, I even let her win and give her the rewards of hearing me whine like a bitch and compliment her at the same time. Now she loves Othello. Silly girl. If she only knew I was just priming her for Space Hulk, and toying her for when I drop the Othello bomb on her. I think soon I will beat her flawlessly, just to show her how far she has to go.
But how does this relate to 40k? Let me get to my point. During my games, I manipulate her by faking her out. If I want her to place her chips in certain areas, or away from others, on my turn I will focus attention on a decoy chip of my own. I will strategize it, look at its angles, sigh at it... then place my chip elsewhere, leaving the impression that I really want to make a move with the first one, but was forced to play the other. On her turn sure enough, she will scrutinize the decoy chip, and place her chips in a position that takes it away if she can.
The same strategy works in 40k. If you want to take your opponent's attention away from what you don't want it on, focus your own attention on something that is irrelevent to the game on the other side of the table. He will wonder why you are placing so much attention to a useless unit, and most likely deploy some of his own forces to take it out when he would not normally do so. If he is pushing all of his army at your base, but you have a squad of scouts on the other side of the table, while he is doing his turn, get down to table level and scrutinize the battle field from your scouts point of view. Even if your scouts cannot reach or hurt his forces, you will be surprised to see how often he will readjust his move to keep them out of LoS of your scouts. (Silly example I know, please dont argue the merits of scouts here, this is just an example that can work with any thing.) But also, while he is making his move, he will be subconciously distracted by what you might be planning, and sub-subconciously try to react to whatever he has dreamed up! You will see him now measuring distance in his mind to that unit, and hopefully divert something in that direction.
You can go a step further by repeatedly reaching for those scouts on your turn. Dont pick them up so as not to cause issues, but put your hands on them, look as if you are going to move them then decide not to. Reach for them several times, but draw your hand back. Then go move a predator to exactlly where you want it, subtly and almost thoughtlessly, then go right back to the scouts and linger there for a little while, scanning their point of view again, to take his attention off that tank and back to the scouts.
Hey guys, I need to update my blogroll. If you are not on my blogroll, comment to this post with your url so I can get you added and please add me to yours! Last time I put one of these up, I got a lot of response. I am notoriously bad at adding blogs that I come across. Thanks all!
Oh, and I am almost done judging the contest. I should be done sorting the pics tonight, and will have the top 10, just need to figure out what the order is. Way harder then I thought.
Ok, Fritz and I decided to throw something new on the table last night. Sadly I forgot my camera so I got no pics or vid, but he made a vid which I will link here. We both decided to get out of our comfort zones a bit and try something new. Sometimes the best way to find ways to improve at what you are doing or having a problem with is to approach the situation from a new direction. In our case, I wanted to play a LOT of marines, and he wanted to get away from his Eldar for a bit. So here we go!
Jawaballs: 2k points of Black Templars 5 squads of 20 initiates and 20 neophytes with Fist and Meltagun (100 templars) Helbrecht Emperors Champion Command Squad with Combi melta, Power Sword and Fighting Co. banner. (109 total)
Fritz: 2k points of Imperial Guard 60+ infantry Creed 2 Chimeras 3 Russ with Plasmas, las and battle cannon 2 Basilisks AP 3 Flame tank. lascannon team heavy bolter team 2 storm trooper squads with hot shot etc. 4 ogryns
You can see this matchup instantly throws something that neither of us are used to against each other. First of all, he is not used to having such fire power! He was dropping 5 pie plates a turn on me, plus 6 plasma cannons and a lot of las plas and melta love. I couldnt help but give him plenty to shoot at... it was tough to spread out 109 marines AND try to get cover saves.
Mission: Bases Deployment: 12" table edge
I won first turn and took it. I was relying on getting a move then a run into cover, then on his shooting phase taking casualties and getting my "Angry Templar" move, then on my next turn hopefully being in assault. He planned on just sitting back and slaughtering me!
Turn 1: As I planned, I charged forth 109 marines. I managed to move then run them all into cover. I had my base behind a terrain piece that blocked Los, and was within the minimal range of his Basilisks so that he could not indirect fire me thank god. I sent Helbrecht and 41 marines at his base, while the rest of my boys went after his armor.
On his turn, he focus fired all of his guns at a single squad... one of the two I sent to take down his armor, but only managed to kill 13 out of 20 of the guys in it thanks to cover saves. That squad would retreat and hold my base as best they could. He also tried to take down Helbrechts command squad, but only killed a lowly scout, and granted him the Rightous Zeal move all but guaranteeing him to get into assault next turn.
Turn 2: I moved up my boys again, but would fall short on assaulting and allow him another round of shooting at me. I did manage to get close enough for some shots however, but did nothing. The best I could do was get my boys right up to an inch away from his to stop him from dropping templates on them. (Fritz tactic)
He took full advantage of his shooting, knowing full well that I would have dozens of angry templars in his ranks next turn if he failed to stop me. Sadly, the other of my two squads sent to take down his armor would be obliterated. My left flank was falling. Only 7 marines were left to defend. But this took a lot of his shots to do. He tried to take down helbrechts squad and only angered him. He did kill the banner and combi melta sgt, but the rest of the guys would get into assault.
Turn 3: Time to die IG! I assaulted just about every thing. One squad exploded a Russ with a melta shot and killed a load of guard which was my only shooting. Then I swept in for the kill. One squad assaulted the Lascannon team and 2 russ tanks, Helbrecht assaulted a squad of 10 guard, his command squad survivors assaulted another 10 men, the emperors champion assaulted another 10 men, and one last squad assaulted his ogryns. Luckily, only the ogrins folded on my charge and the rest of my boys were left in assault until Fritz's turn. Oh, and my base defenders fired some desperate shots at an advancing stormtrooper squad with pistols, killed 2 and they fell back! How lucky.
On Fritz's turn he would move up a chimera and hell hound towards my base and pop smoke. Those boys were not out of it yet. The only other squad he could shoot at was my templars that slaughtered his ogryns, and they caught fury... but 6 survived thanks to my spreading them like a pro. He piled in more guard onto one of my squads, and turned the tide in the center of the table by his tanks. But all of his other boys would fold, save for the ones fighting the Emperor's Champ. They would hold him off all game thanks to my uncanny ability to roll 1's. You know it is sad when the Emps champ is only killing 1 guardsman a turn.
At this point, the game was turning in my favor, despite heavy losses.
Turn 4: Hellbrecht and his lone command squad survivor moved on Fritz's command chimera. My survivors of the ogryn fighters moved on his base and spread out if cover. They were my last troops in range to take the now undefended base. My base defenders shot a melta gun at his charging Chimera but he made a smoke save. Next turn they would have to deal with an AP3 flamer, storm trooper squad and chimera full of vets... gulp. I popped the chimera with Helbrecht's melta gun, then Hellbrecht and his marine charged Creed and his command. My last intact squad moved on his heavy bolters. In the assault, the Emperors Champ would kill a guardsman, while Hellbrecht and my boy charged... they killed a few guard. My other squad that was in assault with his tank defenders would be over whelmed though.
On his turn, he moved his hell hound into marine killing range on my base, and fried a few. He also moved his Chimera 12" into contesting range. I had 4 boys left holding my base. At this point we were running out of time but tried to hurry. Hellbrecht finished off Creed and the command squad and the Champ or should I say Chump killed another 2 guard... Jesus! My guys were holding his base and would have to weather more fire power, but at this point were getting cover saves against most of it.
Turn 5: This would be the last turn due to having to go to the club. I was down to 12 guys. Hellbrecht, the Chumpian, 4 guys holding his base, 2 assaulting his heavy bolters and 4 defending mine. My base defenders moved to get a back armor shot at his chimera. My 2 boys slaughtered his heavy bolter team, and my boys on his base would go to ground. My boys hit his chimera... it was an auto glance... the worst I could do was glance if I was unlucky enough to roll snake eyes. But I am JAWABALLS! I will not be denied my glory. I had to pop that chimera, then assault the boys inside, then get back to my base and hold it. So I rolled to hit and rolled a 3. Close. Time to pen... the result? Snake eyes. What the Hell! How do I do it? Damn 1's. So any way, I would need a 6 to destroy it, which I rolled... vehicle destroyed, boys bail out, I assault and kill them all. My base defenders did their job. I killed his troops trying to take it, at least he would not be able to claim it.
On his turn, his hell hound would finish off my base defenders with the flamer. But my few guys on his base would suffer a LOT of punishment! Cannon after cannon roared at them, hitting, missing, making them scream for their mommies... 3 more would fall. It all came down to the last man. He had to make 2 cover saves. I rolled them seperately. 1st die, a 5. One more save to make. All of the emperor's glory was riding on one single marine's shoulders. a 4+ would grant victory. A simple coin toss would mean the game. All I had left at this point was 5 marines out of 109. It mattered not. The die rolled... and a 4 was the result. Victory Jawaballs!
So my 109 templars charged into shear brutality. Throughout the course of the game, 10 Basilisk shots would rain down, 11 battle cannon shots and countless Plasma cannon, Las cannon and las gun shots would pepper my boys. But it would not be enough! 109 Templars charged, 5 returned. But with the enemies banner over their proud shoulders. As for the Sergeant leading the squad fighting my Emperor's Champion, he was promoted and actually inducted into the Black Templars. They made 4 leadership tests and held off the champion in assault. He gets the hero of the game award.
There you go! A narrow victory for my Templar Horde vs Fritz's Guard. If I could survive that Basilisk/Battle Cannon hell, I think they may stand a chance against the more modern 6 chimera/3 valkrye lists. Most guys have given up their pie plates for more direct tank killing punch.
Think my templars are onto something? Think they can be a competitive tournament list? They really only work at 2k points. 1750 would reduce their numbers too thin, as guard lose much less then Templars do for 250 points. So I need the 2000 points to get them on the table. But it has been my experience that most tournament lists are heavy on tank killing and lack torrent of fire, so maybe they can do well. We shall see!
Up next... Jawaballs revamps his Blood Angels, with the help of Fritz and Black Matt... Justin, where is my shipment????j
Here is a taste of what is to come! I received 30 entries on time, and 2 late ones. Sorry late guys, you are not eligible for the contest, but I will still post up your entries.
I have to say I am a little surprised at the number of people who failed to follow the instructions! I asked for high res Jpeg attachments, one guy sent me a zip file with compressed Adobe Fireworks files! Lucky for him I had Adobe CS3. At least half of the entries failed to include a mailing address. One was emailed to the wrong email address. :) (he has not received a response yet since I have to go find that email in my other inbox.)
Dont worry, so long as you got your entry in on time, with at least an attempt to show WIP, I am judging it.
Judging Criteria?
To be honest, there is none. I will pick the winners based on which ones tickle my fancy the most. Extreme highlighting, blending, or dry brushing all work. It depends on how you did it.
You should have received an email today as receipt of your entry. I went down the list of emails and saved one of your pictures into a folder with your name on it. Then I responded to your entry with "Entry Registered, thanks! Watch for results soon. Jawaballs" If you entered the contest, but did not receive that email response from me, contact me so we can figue out where it is.
Good luck every one! I should have the results within a week.
Fall is here. The leaves are changing colors. The temperature is changing to something more comfortable. Rules are changing. Most importantly, armies are changing. Change is in the air. "By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes!" Shakespeare
It comes. Jawaballs Blood Angels 2.0 November. 2009
Then again. Jawaballs Blood Angels 3.0 March 2010.
Ok folks, it is now crunch time. I have gotten 16 entries so far but I know most of you will probably wait until the last second to submit yours. Remember, pictures must be received by 8pm EST on Friday October 9th. I also want to remind you that there are now TWO terminator box sets up for grabs thanks to Mathew's generous offer over at miniwargaming.com! The top ten entries will receive something! Be sure to check out their site and forum to show your appreciation and support.
Again your entry should include 3 dated Work in Progress pictures chronicling the painting of your model. It should also include 3 finished pictures from 3 different angles so I can get a good look at your work. Make your pictures HIGH RESOLUTION and get your lighting as good as you can. Im looking forward to getting these all posted for you to see! Once I get the entries, I will work on posting the pictures. Then I will announce the winners some where around the end of October. It will no doubt take me some time to go over the entries.
5th Edition left me with a pile of unused Blood Angels jump packs.
Like the sands in an hour glass, so are the days of our lives...
Like the pendulum swings, so do the winds of fate...
Like the crow flies?
How about Like the Angels of Death descending from the heavens to bring the Emperor's will.
I like that more.
Any way.
I was thinking out some counters to the new IG and other mech lists, and wondering if Assault Pack Blood Angels were back! I orginally started BA because I was in love with my Black Templars assault squad and wanted more of them, then the BA WD dex came out and Asquads were troops! Boo Yaa! History follows, my Blood Angels are born. The early days were tough though. I was all jump pack marines, up against armies that still packed a lot of static guns in lines and very little tanks because they died so easily in 4th ed. Apparently not as easy as a squad of 10 marines trying to get into assault range... 5th edition came, and I no longer had Area Terrain to block LoS. That made my marines pretty little blood stains, not angels, and provoked my switch to mech. But now that pretty much all armies are all mech, is it time to go back to Jump Packs? Here is what I was looking at:
Dante Lesmartes Death Company with Jump Packs x5
10 Marine Assault Squad with P Fist 10 Marine Assault Squad with P Fist 10 Marine Assault Squad with P Fist
10 Marine Vet AS with PW and 2 meltas 10 Marine Vet AS with PW and 2 meltas
Attack Bikes x3 with Meltas.
That will run around 2k points. 50 Assault Marines coming at you with Preferred Enemy! Dawn of war! I deploy 20 marines up front with Dante and assault turn 2 while the rest of my boys catch up. I do miss that movement... Plus there is all the funky interwoven squad cover save action you can pull out that jump packs makes easy.
What do you guys think, is this the rebirth of the jump pack?
Ok, I don't usually rant or complain about the game. I love playing and painting and have enjoyed the challenge of trying to turn the Blood Angels into a competitive army rather then a One Trick Pony relegated to the kiddies table. Over the last two years I feel that I managed to do that with grit, determination, and tactics. But I have to remark that now I feel it is all over, or soon to be.
It kind of humors me that every one is/was so afraid of the Space Pups Codex, but really, did we all forget that huge bomb dropped on the game by some guardsman flying over head? Screw the wolves, they are a One Trick Pony and will join the Blood Angels on the foldable card tables while Imperial Guard is getting all the glory.
I will never forget my first impression of the tournament scene, and really, 40k cheese in general. I had been playing the game for less then a year and had finally thrown together an army I loved. My Blood Angels assault army. I took said army to the last Gamesday 40k tournament in Baltimore about a year and a half ago, and had my first run in with super cheese. I played a Tyranid army for my first game, and that guy ran me off the table in 3 turns with the typical Stealer spam of the time. I chalked it up to my noobiness, which played a big part in it, but then I realized, probably a third of the guys in that tournament were playing the same list! I certainly had plenty of time to walk around and see what other guys were playing. Not just the same army, but almost identical lists. In the last round 10 of the top 12 players were playing the same lists. For gods sake! I realized then that 40k tournaments were sort of like taking the Emmitt Smith/Troy Aikman Cowboys of the early 90s, (Or substitute any uber sports team like Jordan's Bulls, Bird's Celtics, Shaq's Lakers)cloning them, and throwing 12 copies of the same team into March Madness. Sure you will see some cindarellas, you would see some strong teams but you were pretty much guaranteed to see only clones in the finals, playing each other. Blah!
Then 5th edition came out. (And I came into my own) The rules were new, things changed for a while. Those uber armies at that Gamesday or modeled on that list showed up on Ebay pretty quick. All those guys planning their Tyranid tattoos disappeared. You began to see... gasp... balance? With Fritz's help, I developed a working strategy and list for my Blood Angels. You were seeing other armies start to do well at major tournaments. Jeez, Space Marines were actually winning?
It did not take long for GW to ruin it. Their first swipe with the Rod of Ruin was the Ork codex. The last GW GT I went to was over run with Nob Bikers. I personally played two guys with the same list, and got rolled each time. A Nob Biker list won Best General and Orks seemed well on their way to predetermined destiny. Until players adapted, and changed their lists to combat the scourge. Nob Biker armies? Ebay welcomed you!
The Ork scare was short lived. Players can be resourceful. GW was mad. They did not hit the world with the Rod of Ruin quite hard enough. They needed more. Space Marine codex came out. People swore. Space Marines scared every one. They fizzled. Sure, Space Marine mech was back. Rhino lists were actually competitive. Cover saves made them survivable! A well played Space Marine or Blood Angels list could at least compete again. But it was not enough.
Then GW upgraded that Rod of Ruin to the Pimp Stick of Ruinous Hell, and whacked every one of us over the head with it... except the guard players... wait... people played guard? Really? Where? Well, all of those "Long time guard players" came out of the woodwork and cashed in their Genestealer/Ork Nob armies and jumped onto the Bandwagon Procession. Ack. So begins the end of 40k as we know it.
Sure, the guard needed help. Their codex sucked and they were not competitive in the tournament world. Sure, GW is not entirely concerned with the tournament scene any way. They can care less if one army is lopsided under cost and overbalanced. In fact, the more dudes trading in their flavor of the month armies for Guard the better! Cha Ching!
I realized last weekend that we are now facing the new Genestealer/Nob Biker army. Can we say 3 Valkryes and more Chimeras full of Melta/plasma Guns then you can shake a stick at? What the hell, I thought those two weapons were ancient relics of technology long lost. Why are small squads of simple guardsmen packing them 4 at a time? I got to play one of these armies for the first time, and it made my army look weak and pathetic. Is it too late to buy a ticket for that bandwagon? Maybe I can commission Jawaballs to paint me a new Guard Army. You used to run up against 4, maybe 10 meltaguns. My army could withstand that. Well sorry sucka, lets see you withstand 26 of them! Oh, and here are 9 Lascannons to boot, 6 of them Twin Linked, mounted on fast moving skimmers that can hover over their own tanks, shoot at just about any model on the table with no cover save, carry troops and only cost 130 points. A Space marine tank with the same guns cost over 150... Not to mention the incredible level of rules munching that goes along with the addition of a new unit that was never meant to be played in 40k. "It says the model cannot be ON another model, but it says nothing about being OVER it." Guh. They actually complain that the Valkrye would be too hard to use if it could not hover over their protective wall of Russ tanks. Sorry your god unit might just have a limitation.
Looks like I am going to have to actually assemble and paint all them guard sitting on my shelves if I ever want a chance to win a tournament again. Seriously though, I don't see many things changing tactic or list wise to combat this new plague. These Guard lists are packing more survivability and fire power then every before. Plus, they are adding Grey Knight Terminators who ride in Chimeras! (The guard codex says nothing about terminators riding in Chimeras.) Jesus they have every thing they need, PLUS terminators riding in transports designed for Average Joe and his lasgun.
Now that the dex has been out for a while, and people have finally had time to build and paint their armies we are going to see more and more showing up tournaments. Pretty soon, it will be just like Baltimore Gamesday 2008 again. Only the top 10 armies will be the same guard list playing their own little tournament while every one else is eating pie with their bratty cousins.
Frustrated? A little. Bitter? Sure. Definitely ranting. But the point is valid. People cry about the Wolves, but the Guard Codex has changed the game for the worse. Agree? Disagree? Chime in.
Edit: I am all about change. My army is a testament to that. It changes every month. But seriously, I don't think I can field a Blood Angels army capable of defeating this new Guard list at all. Even if I knew what was coming and tailored it for the list. I do have some ideas and tactics, but sadly they do not involve my Blood Angels at all. And that makes me sad.
Fritz and I have decided to make our next major road trip Mechanicon! Here is the deal. Saturday November 7th and 8th there is a new Grand Tournament going on in West Chester, PA. It is a hike, but Fritz and I are in for a weekend of great gaming! You cant go wrong with 2 days of fun and competitive spirit. They have quite a list of events so far including:
- Blood Bowl Tournament - 5 game 1850 40k Grand Tournament - Friday Night gaming event with prize support - A charity auction! It is always good to get stuff and have the money go to a good cause.
The best part is that these guys are committed! They already have the event scheduled for next year and are planning around other major GW events and conventions. Make this part of your yearly convention plans!
MechaniCon 2010 November 5-7 West Chester Holiday Inn
Fritz and I will be there early on Friday if any one wants to meet up and try to get a game in. If you think you want to try to knock us around a bit, let us know! We are always up for a challenge match, either solor or 2v2. Then we will be throwing our armies into the tournament to get beat down by some Imperial Guard for two days, but it's all good. If you are a painter and have questions, bring your work! I will be happy to give you some comments and advice. And Fritz is always ready to help out with tactical information. Pick his warped mind! Whenever Fritz and I go some place, we love to use it like a mini Gamesday and help out our fellow gamers if we can.
We hope to see some of you there. We went to Austin for Bolscon and got to meet quite a few readers and fans. This is what the hobby is all about! If you are planning on going but have not signed up yet, post here and let us know! Looking forward to seeing you all on the tables. Jawaballs
Hey guys, just wanted to throw a quick update and a big fat thanks to Miniwargaming.com They contributed some prize support for my contest. Now winner will get his choice of a terminator assault or shooty squad box set. This is going to push all of the other prizes down a notch because 2nd place gets the other Terminator Box set. MWG gave me 100 loonies to spend at their store for my contest so I bought the two box sets! Plus due to the huge interest so far, I will extend the a free pack of Scenic Resin Bases to all in the top ten who do not get a prize already... (I think there will be 3 or 4 more?) And who knows, maybe I will find some more stuff to give away. Right now there are two entries submitted, and I got well over 40 confirmation posts. I cant wait to get the results! More to come. Jawaballs
Some one emailed me this, Ive seen it before but still chuckled. Im sure most of you have seen it too, and will still chuckle. Enjoy.
If you yelled for 8 years, 7 mhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifonths and 6 days you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee. (Hardly seems worth it.)
If you farted consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb. (Now that's more like it!)
The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet. (O.M.G.....!)
A pig's orgasm lasts 30 minutes. (In my next life, I want to be a pig.)
A cockroach will live nine days without its head before it starves to death. (Creepy.) (I'm still not over the pig.)
Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories a hour (Don't try this at home, maybe at work)
The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male's head off. (Honey, I'm home. What the. ..?!)
The flea can jump 350 times its body length. It's like a human jumping the length of a football field. (30 minutes... Lucky pig! Can you imagine?)
The catfish has over 27,000 taste buds. (What could be so tasty on the bottom of a pond?)
Some lions mate over 50 times a day. (I still want to be a pig in my next life....quality over quantity)
Butterflies taste with their feet. (Something I always wanted to know.)
The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.
(Hmmmmmm.......)
Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people.
(If you're ambidextrous, do you split the difference?)
Elephants are the only animals that cannot jump. (Okay, so that would be a good thing)
A cat's urine glows under a black light. (I wonder who was paid to figure that out?)
An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain. (I know some people like that..)
Starfish have no brains (I know some people like that too.)
Polar bears are left-handed. (If they switch, they'll live a lot longer)
Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure. (What about that pig??)
I did a cumulative update on the Army Comparison Project which is stickied at the top of my blog. I added Tau, IG and Eldar, as well as rounded out the Space Marines a bit taking into consideration peoples input. Take a look, and if you have any input, feel free to add it. Lets try to get the weaker dexs up there like Necrons and Witch Hunters.
I get a lot of these emails and I wish I could respond to them all. Dino here did a nice job flattering me, as well as coming up with some research on his own, and telling me what sort of army he wants to play and why. (Joking bout the flattery!) :) Seriously though, I do get a lot of requests for help on lists, several every day. I answer as many as I can. If you would like me to help you on your list, start by reading my blog. As far as I can tell, I am playing the only consistently successful Blood Angels list. Any other lists trys to outplay the generic codex at what it does better. So reading my tips and tactics is a good place to begin. Dino based his army on mine, but tweaked it to meet his own interests. So, here we go!
Hi there, my name is Dino. I'm relatively new to 40k and I decided I wanted to play blood angels, naturally when I tried to look up resources I stumbled upon your website. Needless to say after reviewing the codex and listening to your battle reports as well as reading tactical suggestions I modeled my first list in a way I thought was similar to yours. Now I know its not identical and its not designed to be optimal since I wont be playing many tournaments to start, but I did want a functional list.
That's what I came up with, the main differences I think are the use of Terminators and Veterans, but these models are the Space Hulk terminators and both these and the veterans are what inspired me to begin blood angels, so I kind of have my heart set on keeping them. I was wondering if you have time if you could critique my approach to the army and what whether you think this will work. I plan on testing the list more extensively through proxies and right now anti armor is a big concern as you can see I decided to compensate for the lack of attack bikes with a Speeder and Adding Meltas to my vets. The other concern is only 3 troop choices. Anyway before I finish purchasing this army I was hoping for a little help once again if you have time. Perhaps I can also increase the points to add things that would patch weaknesses in the list, this is currently at 1500 points as I did not want to be overwhelmed to start. I'd also like to thank you in advance and say that I think it's great that you have the blog set up to show new players the way of the BA as well as offering a great example of a really beautiful army on the table top.
- Dino
You have a pretty strong list at 1500. But I have to say that what makes my use of Rhinos work is my three Baal Predators working together. Removing them from the equation will possibly throw a wrench in there. What do I suggest you do? Sadly, drop Dante. Also, I am a firm believer in Attack Bikes now. Drop the speeder, find the points to get two bikes instead.
Try this, it will keep the bulk of your army intact:
Not sure on the point total there, but that might give you more of a chance. Keep that bike hidden behind your LRC.
My only problem is your terminators. Sadly, SH does not have 5 termies with Lightning Claws. With BA lacking the good Storm Shields, there is no reason to take them. If I was going to play termies, and belive me, I am thinking about building a list around a LRC, Mephiston, Corbulo and 5 LC Terminators, I would play all Claws. Rely on overpowering slaughter rather then shields to keep them alive.
Why drop the speeder? I played a lot of games trying to make them work. Bolters swat them down and people suffer them not to live. You cannot hide them, so even behind your land raider you are going to be taking shots and at best making 10 cover saves a turn. You will almost never get to use both the Flamer and Melta, and if you do, you gotta get close, so kiss the speeder bye bye. Nah, get that bike nestled into the ass crack of your LRC. Pop him out on the safe side, to lend another tank popping shot to crack what ever nutt you need the termies to chomp on. Then get him hidden again. Or get him into assault so he cannot be shot back at... etc. I guess thats the biggest issue. Speeders cannot assault. You will be surprized at how effective bikes going into assault can be... not to have them be killy, but to have them survive a round! Pile them into an assault that you know you are going to win on your opponents turn... then on your turn he is free again!
There you have it! TO get to 1750 add a Baal and find a way to get Dante in there and you are good to go. Dont worry about 3 troops. Thats all I use and it works fine. Plus you can CS your tacticals. I do worry about your lack of a PW in the tactical. I used to roll with that, and you do feel its loss when those boys get into assault and cant kill shit.
On my recent trip to Tampa for Staff Development I had the pleasure to get in a couple of 40k games at Armada Games. Tampa James, a blog follower and pleased video customer from my Estore, arranged for the appearence at Armada Games and drove way out of his way to pick me up! Thanks a lot man, I had a great time. After the games we went and played darts and drank a few brews. Great stuff.
So on with the batrep.
1850 points Dawn of War Bases
The deployment was a bit of a chess match. He deployed his base very close to my deployment zone, so I was able to put Dante fully behind cover and within a jump of his base. I supported him with a combat squad, and placed my other CS on my base with Lascannon as per usual. He deployed some troops in cover with a destroyer lord. My intention was to feint him to place most of his stuff near his own base, that was mostly in the open, so I wanted him to think I was going strong on that side. I would then fast move Dante and the CS over to wherever I needed them, and swoop in with my late coming assault squads later in the game to take his base.
Turn 1:
I moved my Rhino and Dante into the center of the table. Ask any chess player, and they will tell you, own the middle. The rest of my stuff came on mostly in the middle as well. I set myself up with nice lanes of fire for round two, and kept some rhinos in reserve to come on turn 3 and 4 and drive towards his base. On his turn, he came strong on my bases side with two monoliths and a load of warriors. He also sent a single squad of destroyers and a squad of warriors to the other side of the table to attempt to secure his own base. It would not be enough.
Turn 2:
Dante and my CS do a U-turn. I send them both back to his base to deal with his warriors and destroyers making the dash to his base. I moved the rhino, popped smoke, and nestled Dante in behind it. My Lascannon would begin fireing on his Monolith, which I would target all game and only manage to get one weapon destroy. But seriously, the shots were wasted any way. I had nothing on the table for my Las to shoot at besides his lith. So why not shoot and pray! My preds advanced and started spraying shots at his destroyer and scarab swarm escort. He would then turbo boost his lord and scarabs at my base, and advance his liths. Seeing what was coming, I arranged my forces for a turn 3/4 assault/slaughter. He popped my CS rhino that was supporting Dante, but it would prove not in time... it did it's job.
Turn 3:
With his lord having moved 24" and getting huge cover saves, I decided to ignore him. I moved up my attack bikes and did shoot the lord squad, but I focused my predator fire on the warriors in the back looking to phase out the necron scum. Despite cover saves, my heavy bolters took a toll. I fired my bikes at the lord with the intention of assaulting in waves. My bikes were pretty useless against this army, so I used them as speed bumps! Toughness 5 two wound models are nothing to shake a stick at. Dante orderd the combat squad to take the destroyers and hold them up while he jumped over them to wipe out the warriors cowering behind them. Suffer not the coward to live. They lost combat and were cut down while my CS moved into the destroyers and did some wounds. I charged my Death Company into his Destroyer Lord knowing full well that he had a warsythe. I was hoping to rend him to death on the charge. I assaulted the opposite side of the large swarm squad with my bikes. I hoped they would turn the tide of battle to my favor, and if I did not kill the lord out right, he would lose combat. But both sides epic failed. The lord only took 1 wound and my bikes failed to kill a single swarm bug! But it matters not, it was all part of the plan. The squad was delayed, and lined up for my assault squads to move in and wipe them out with power weapons. He would kill one Death Company. This combat would go on for a couple of turns, quagmired with scarabs attacking bikes and my tougher units taking on the lord.
On his turn, he advanced his liths again, shooting with one and teleporting an almost dead squad of warriors through it to give them a second IBB roll. His shot was a miss, but he did save a few men.
Turn 4:
Dante got into position to assault the destroyers and the rest of my squads were on the table. moving to support my base, and take on his Lord. At this point, the game was no longer in question. My preds layed down some withering fire on his warriors, killing a lot of them, while I charged forth an assault squad to block the advancing lith with the rhino, and unload and assault his warriors. I swung another rhino around behind the lith, to tank shock the warriors out from behind it. With sneak placement of the rhino and angles, I managed to herd the hiding warriors out from behind the lith, right into my preds line of sight. Muahaha. Yah Mule!
Dante joined the assault and slaugtered the warriors, freeing up the CS to move and take the base while he massacred on towards the lord. My bikes attacked the scarabs again, this time killing some, and I piled more into the fray while the lord finished off my Death Company and took another wound.
On his turn he would move the lord into get at my pesky bikes and killed a couple, but I had more! The important thing was that he was lined up for a charge from my power weapon assault squad. He popped one of my rhinos with a Lith, but at this point it was over. My assault squad was in his ranks killing his last warriors. He managed to teleport them out of assault, and get revenge though. He left my squad stranded and shot the crap out of them with lith guns.
Turn 5:
This would be the end of the game. My preds shot the crap out of his warriors again, and reduced him to phase out event horizon. His Liths were unable to get through my rhino wall to get my base and he had nothing left to contest. I assaulted his lord with another squad, and killed him and finished off the scarabs. That would for all intents and purposes wrap the game.
I felt bad for Tampa James, the guy loves his Necrons! But until they get some love next year, he should just shelve them. At least in competitive games. Tacticly he should have gone for the draw and plopped his entire force near his own base. Maybe he could have held his destroyers in reserve and tried to turbo boost over to my base along with the scarabs and lord to contest and even get the win. His liths and warriors would have made a nice defense of his base. Drawing them out of combat is pretty tough, especially since it leaves my guys stranded to get shot up. I know Fritz has been wracking his brain to figure out how to win with Crons, hopefully they will get some love soon!
.jpg)