Blood Angels with Allies list building

It is time for me to get back into what I enjoy most about 40k. List building!  The last couple years have seen me shy away from power lists in favor of more fluffy lists with pretty models in order to compete for painting honors.

My new Lamenters project follows that vein. It is not the strongest list, but I selected a good range of models that I can make look nice.  But now I am already thinking beyond that army!  It will really only see the light of day at Feast of Blades and DaBoyz. After that, I hope to have my new competitive army painted and on the table.

What is that you ask?

Did some one say Armageddon?  

My next project after my Lamenters is going to be a Blood Angels/IG allied force modeled after the 3rd Company Blood Angels at the Battle of Armageddon.  Steel Legion, Tycho, and lots of fun making a display with dead orks.  :)

Here is a general idea of where I am going with this.  Approximately 2k points.

Captain Tycho:  There are not many captains left in 40k that grant LD 10 to the entire army. Tycho is one of them.  He is a perfect commander to stick into a tactical squad to hold the line.  His artificer armor makes him tougher vs those pesky power weapons that made him squirm in 5th edition, and he has some nice little tricks up his sleeve.  

Blood Song: Combi melta with Special Issue Ammo!  AP3 rounds... Mmmmm.

The Dead Man's Hand: There is something tasty about ignoring armor saves at full initiative. In 6th ed, armor value 2 is boss. Only AP2 close combat weapons bypass it, UNLESS there is a special weapon that says some such like "Ignores armor saves" and in that case, it is game on.  Well Tycho's close combat weapon ignores armor saves. Plus it has an additional D6 vs Vehicle Armor.  That makes him a Dread Killer, terminator destroyer, and all around anti assault dream.  Finally, he gets a chance to reroll a failed wound every assault phase.  Sweet.

Tycho came out the clear winner in the 6th ed sweepstakes, just barely ahead of Mephiston.

The Tycho Conversion by Tim Williamson for 

the Heroes of Armageddon charity project!

Now for Troops:

Tactical Squads are back.  Krak grenades are good now.  With hull points, dreads and armor 12 vehicles need to fear Tactical squads since they can now throw their grenades rather than pinging some bolter rounds off their hulls while the special weapon fires its lone shot.  

I will be playing at least two of them.  Probably three.  Throw in a Plasma/Melta gun and a Plasma Cannon and the Tactical squad is a versatile and devastating unit that can hold the line, especially if there is a priest near by. 

Assault squads are no less dangerous and will always be my favorite.  6th Edition is about objectives, even more than 5th.  My old tactics were to clump up as many as I could as close as possible, and just throw my entire army right in the middle of it.  But now, the better tactic is to spread them out.  And you need speed to get to them. Vehicles are dead. I don't care what any one says.  Hull Points get eaten up like Skittles and the Rhino is vulnerable to any gun in the game with STR 5 and up.  It may get you 12" of movement, which really is its only job, but after that it is gone. It cannot be counted on for getting your unit across a table with every heavy bolter and multi laser blasting away.  That is where the assault squad is better.  And again, throw in a priest, and it has the movement and survivability to get the job done.

My new army will have at least one.

What else?  Well I am currently in love with Blood Angels bike squads and biker priests.  A squad of 8 bikes with two plasma guns and a fist is dangerous. Throw in a biker priest, and they are now a force to be reckoned with.  I think my Armageddon force is screaming for a bike squad.

So, the main force of my army is going to be Tycho, a few priests, and about 50 pissed off marines playing various roles.  

But that's not all!

Bring in the Steel Legion!

The Steel Legion for the HoA project. Team led by 

Dave Taylor 

My first choice is a simple command squad. A low ranking LT with some support staff. I am equipping as many guys as I can with plasma guns, and throwing them into a Chimera.  Their job is to be annoying, provide cover, and get in the way.

My allied force can pack two troops, and I have been wanting to play them since I first went to Bolscon in 2008.  Or was it 2009? No matter. Plasma Vets!!!!  That's right folks. I'm bringing the love that is a space marine minus the power armor packing more heat than an entire company of the Emperor's finest.  I am playing two 10 man Vet squads in Chimeras. Throw in 3 plasma guns and an auto cannon each and we have some hot juicy love.  It will be so incredibly satisfying to get to play them against all of those flavor of the month guard players and feed em back some of their medicine.  

Granted, the best part about the Plasma/Melta vet unit was their sheer numbers and I will only have two, and granted twice that the chimera is just as dead as the Rhino nowadays, but still. The plasma vet is a fun, fluffy and effective unit no matter which way you shake it.

And rounding out my force?  How bout a unit of Hydra Flak Tanks.  Two or three of those damn things ought to get the job done vs flyers and infantry with equal ease.  

Yup folks, allies are wonderful. They finally give me what I have been hoping for. My beloved 9th legion, supported by long range fire power that previously they could only dream about.  Four score of pissed off hard to kill power armor maniacs backed up by lots of long range light armor killing punch.  

This is a list that I think I can win some games with, AND it if fluffy as hell.  

So that's it!  A strong core of blood angels troops supported by some mobile steel legion, anti air, and solid anti infantry and anti light armor fire power.  It won't be a particularly aggressive army, but in 6th edition, you don't need to be.  All you really need to do is have more objective than your opponent at the end of the day. 

Game on.

What do you guys think?  IG is new to me. Are there better choices for the Steel Legion? Should I make them my mother army?  Are there better choices than Flak Tanks?  Aegis Defense lines?  Sound off!

I remind you that I have comment moderation active. If your comment does not go up right away, don't re type it, I will get to it soon!

Jawaballs

The Nova Open

One of the best events in the world, The Nova Open is happening this weekend!

Sadly, I will not be able to attend and do shots with Mike Brandt and the crew because I have to work on Friday and Monday.  I am a teacher, and I actually have kids in class on those days, which means I cannot miss them.  (first days of school) This pretty much means I would be arriving late at night on Friday, and leaving as soon as dice down happens on Sunday. In other words, I would be missing every thing that I love about these events. :(
It is just too much driving, through Jersey, for some hectic gaming and one night with the boys.

But by all means, you should go if you can!  As of now, there are still openings in every tournament and event. Plus a fellow Hero of Armageddon, Justin from Secret Weapon, will be doing seminars and the Crystal Brush guy will be running a painting competition!

Believe me folks, if there are three events you must get to in the US, Adepticon, Wargamescon and The Nova are them.  (Feast of Blades is coming on strong... perhaps giving Wargamescon a run for their money...)

My experiences at the Nova have been nothing short of fantastic. The first year I missed Rennaisance Man by .01 points to my friend Danny Internets.  Last year, I got third or fourth after handing my final opponent a win.  Had I known I was in contention, I would have tried!  :)  At the Nova, if you have a nice army, and are decent on the table, you are IN IT TO WIN IT! I wish I knew that. As it was I spent the last two hours chatting with Vinnie Pau about life and gaming and charged my marines into his guns going out with a bang.  But I did win Best Single Mini with my Sanguinor and my army was selected as one of four finalists.  A big honor!  The tournament is among the best run I have been to. Mike hands out responsibility, and his officers get it done.  All TOs can take a page from his book.

More important than playing games and winning awards though, I have to say Nova is about taking another chance to meet up with friends, exchange scotch, and share stories.  Last year we got blasted by a hurricane, but the revelry at the bar on Friday night was unchallenged!  What a great time.

So any way, I wish Mike Brandt and The Nova the best of luck this weekend. He made some big changes and improvements in the format, and scored some nice deals at the hotel, fixing the biggest gripes from last year.  I wish I was there.  Looking forward to Feast of Blades this fall and sad I will miss one of the best events of the year this weekend.. I hope some of the guys from Nova make it out to Denver!

Jawaballs

Alrighty, back to work!

School is back in session, and so is my blog time! You may have noticed that my blogging is conspicuously lazy in the summer. That is because when I am sitting in my room at home, the last thing I want to do is write! I have so many other things going on that it is tough to sit and write blog posts.

But back at work is a different story, I will be back to my two or three posts a week soon.

Coming up this year: (My year starts in September)

The road to Feast of Blades.  Follow along as I prep and paint my Feast of Blades Lamenters army and talk about the con itself.

The Northeast GT circuit.  I am planning on hitting Adepticon this year, as well as Saint Valentines Day Massacre, Templecon, DaBoyz and many others.  Sorry Mechanicon, this year I will be in Colorado for the Feast and cannot make it out for yours.. :(

6th edition Blood Angels. I will be writing articles about Blood Angels in 6th ed and how I try to win with them.

WarTV!  Jim Fritz and I will be doing monthly live shows together, plus I will be reviving Jawaballs Live for a weekly look at my painting station.  Be looking for us on location at Gamers Gambit in NJ, and doing lots of live coverage at Feast of Blades.

Paintball.... My first love has come back to the surface and I will be getting back into paintball this fall. I am gathering up new gear, as mine is 10 years out of date, and hitting the northeast fields. The impetus is a huge Scenario game that takes place every summer called The Normandy Invasion in PA.  I plan on getting together a Jawa Team and showing up in force. If you would like to be part of the fun let me know!

OK then, more soon.

Next article will be about my Sternguard squad, and my combi melta conversion I borrowed from Rob Baer over at Spikey Bits.

Jawaballs

6th Ed list help!

Hey folks!

OK so seeing as how this is an entirely new game, I figured I would reach out to some of you who have no doubt played many more games than I for advice on my Lamenters list.

Here we go:

Librarian with Shield and Sword and Bike.  135

RAS x10 Fist and Plasma Pistol x3 260

RAS x10 Fist and Plasma Pistol x3 and drop pod 260 (Pod because my sternguard has one and I need them coming in NOT first turn.)

Scouts x5 Cloaks and Snipers  90 (Lamenters don't have a lot of scouts left but I need a cheap survivable troops to hold objectives)

Bike Squad x8 Plasma Gun x2, Fist 270

Bike Squad x8 Plasma Gun x2, Fist 270

Sternguard x9 Plasma Gun, Drop Pod, Fist 295

Priests:
Corbulo 105
Priest on Bike with Fist 110

Terminator squad x5 (eye candy for painting competition)


The main goal of this army is to compete at Feast of Blades for Armies on Parade and Best Painted in the Open. But also, I am looking for it to be competitive, to actually give me a chance to win games and not get rolled.  Best Overall at FoB is something like 30 Battle points, and 60 soft scores.  I want to give myself a chance to score as many BP as possible.  Mostly though, my ego simply cannot take the beatings.

I chose two full bike squads because in my testing, bikers were awesome. The FNP means that they can shrug off power fists and las cannons!  Only Vindi shots and Rail Guns, plus a few other hits can double up their T5.  Plus for the creative point, I wanted to do up a biker priest and libby.

I am not married to the termies, and could probably use more troops.  I am open to adding a Storm Raven!

What do you guys think?

Jawaballs

EDIT:

Quick changes to reflect fast input. Remember, first goal, look good. Second goal, win.

Librarian with JP and Plasma pistol. Drop powers for Divination 140

Honor Guard with JP x2 Melta Guns 205 (NMM Eye candy)

RAS x10. x2 Melta, plasma pistol, fist 250

RAS x10. x2 Plasma Gun, plasma pistol, fist, pod, 260

Scouts x5. Cloaks 90

Bikes x8. Plasma Gun x2, fist 270

Bikes x8. Plasma Gun x2, fist 270

Priests x2
Power Armor Priest on Bike with Fist 110
Corbulo 105

Sternguard x9, fist, heavy flamer, pod 295

five points remain

Blood Angels Siege Force - upcoming tournament list

Here is some more from Doc Railgun!


+++ Transmission Begins +++


Greetings, once more.

This will be shorter then usual, as it is only an army list. At the end of this planet's current lunar calender cycle the Blood Angels will be deploying in a 2200 point tournament which will allow allies and fortifications but only one Force Organization chart.

So, I expect to see a number of Fortresses of Redemption on the table - I built this list in the hopes of dealing with this. I doubt we will see so many flyers as the fortifications' anti-aircraft weaponry will likely curb massive numbers of them.

That said, on to the list.

HQ -

Death Company Tycho (he will either ride in the Storm Raven or can walk)

Jump Librarian (he likely will start with an assault squad)

Troops -

10 DC with one power fist + Lemartes (DoA - they will start reserved)

2 x DC Dreadnoughts with heavy flamers, one in a Drop Pod but the other will go in the Storm Raven

2 x 10 Assault Marines with 2 meltas and a power fist each (they will start on the board)

(Unfortunately, this means only 2 scoring units)

Elite -

Jump Sangunary Priest w/ melta bombs (he will likely go with the other assault squad)

Heavy Support-

Storm Raven with multi-melta and hurricane boter sponsons

2 x Multi-melta dreadnoughts in drop pods, one with a heavy flamer.

---

I don't expect this list to win, I mostly intend for it to tear up fortifications - the multi-melta dreadnoughts should be able to drop in on the first turn and do some damage against the buildings and draw fire as the Assault squads reach the enemy lines, the rest is cleanup (hopefully). It should be fun, anyway.

I admit I am not brave enough yet to swap out something for a fast Vindicator, but that wouldn't be a bad idea for this sort of tournament.
+++Transmission Ends +++

Feast of Blades Work In Progress!

Hey Folks.

Feast of Blades in incoming!  As you know, I am already confirmed for the trip. I found out today that Jim the Stout Smurf is going as well!  It is going to be an outstanding event to say the least. It also happens to be the next big event I am going to, and in honor of the trip, I am creating a new army.

You have seen my Lamenters tests, well, today I am going to show you a few more starting with this.

I know I should avoid showing pictures of work in such early stages of progress.  But I wanted to talk about these guys.

However, Feast of Blades first.

It is shaping up to be quite the event.  As you probably know, the main event at FoB is going to be the Invitational. What this means is that many states from around the country are holding qualifiers for the main event. At these qualifiers, the top two placers are invited to join the big tournament at Feast of Blades. Standard stuff right?

Not so fast. In addition to the invitational, there is an open GT.  But this is not your usual GT.  Any one is welcome to enter the open and it is a 2k tournament with double force org. But beyond that, FORGEWORLD rules are in place. Can any one say Dreadnought Assault Pods?

Any way, the open looks to be just my kind of tournament. Something like 60 percent of the scoring is soft scores and painting.  Hello Templecon!

So the weekend is shaping up to be awesome.  There is doubles on Friday, and an Armies on Parade competition Friday Night which will be covered LIVE by WarTV.  Also, covered live, will be a Blogger's Round Table. (Tentative title).  Some of the "Internet Celebrities" in attendance will be invited to sit in a panel before a live audience and field questions by a moderator.  More on that as it develops.

Also on WarTV will be live coverage of the top table in the Open.

I will give a thorough review of the Feast of Blades next week.  For now, time for more eyecandy.

Sanguinary Priest on Bike with Fist (Again WIP, I need to clean up the lines)

I like how the shoulder pad came out.

The new paints have improved my white!

Vets

Gamesday Model!

So I know, they need a lot of work. But I am fairly pleased so far!  You can see the forgeworld apothecary in the last pic who is going to become my Lamenters Corbulo.

I hope the work pays off!

Ok, so, we have another WarTV live show coming up in a couple weeks.  More soon!

Time to go sit in the Air Conditioner. I hate summer.

Jawaballs

Gamesday 2012 in Chicago

What a weekend!

Mike Cho and myself flew out to Chicago for Gamesday and met up with Fritz who drove (With his wife.)  There is nothing like seeing good people and having good times.

Mephiston in a pool of red angels.

Here was me with a girl from the plane. Her name is Michelle, and she made the first cut for American Idol I think and was excited to be going to the next round. I figured why not grab a pic with some one soon to be mega famous! I will be watching for her in January.

Lets start with the negative and get it out of the way.  It seems Games Workshop is setting a new standard for doing the lest amount of work as possible and still get away with calling it a Games Workshop event.  This was the smallest Gamesday I have attended.  The numbers are down, a lot. Who knows why... probably because it is in Chicago and traveling to Chicago sucks.

But worse, it seems that Games Workshop seemed eerily not in attendance!  What I am saying is that gone was the eye candy. The goods. Case after case of beautiful eye candy and displays. There was nothing.  Well I won't say nothing. They did have a massive big game that was chock full of models, and they had a big tank game full of bane blades.  But Gamesday to me used to be about looking at beautiful stuff and interesting stuff on display, and there was none of that.

There was even a lack of the club tables that had become a huge part of Gamesday.  There was only five, with the most notable being my friends at Snake Eyes who created an epic Ship Boarding engagement scenario between Space Wolves and Chaos.  They won Best Community Table, and well deserved.

There was a lot going on, but I don't know, it just seemed flat. Perhaps others who attended can help me elaborate.

On with the good.

All the great times!

First, on Friday Night, Fritz, Cho and Myself went out to the GW Battle Bunker to try to get some games.  Sadly though, it seemed no one was interested in playing! There were a lot of people, but aside from the sales dudes trying to push Chaos Demons on us, almost all of them were heavily invested in playing big 3v3 or more games.  The only guy interested in playing at all was a dude teaching another dude how to play 5th edition.

So Fritz and I grabbed a table and started playing!  I learned a big lesson. Never play a game vs Fritz on a table that perfectly matches his army.

He nearly tabled me.  Batrep to follow.

Here is some eye candy from the bunker.

Beautiful hand painting on that raider!

Saturday morning came and I found myself sitting in line with all the rest of the people. This was my first year in half a decade going to Gamesday as a normal person. Waiting in line sucks.  Then I found out that they were letting in the Golden Demon entries an hour early.  Score.

I decided to pull out some models from my transport and enter them!

I threw in my priest and my scouts. Both of whom made FIRST CUT!  I take that as an honored compliment considering the amazing competition and the fact that these models, while painted for competition, were not painted for Demons.  It inspired me to actually try for next year.  My first attempt to win a Demon was thwarted by a douche who entered a Dark Angels squad purchased from and painted by a famous artist who has won herself many demons. I spoke to the staff that year and they told me that I missed the bronze by just a hair, edged out by that squad.  Drat.  Oh well. I only brought these models to play on the open tables, so a first cut is more than I ever expected.  I do believe that my Sanguinor had a chance to at least make final cut, but when I pulled him out he had a big chip in his paint on his chest.  These models were painted to play with, and they take damage.  Oh well.

So any way, I was in. Fritz and Cho were still waiting outside and I was free to roam the show.  I was among the first into the retail area, and I was one of the very few to score a coveted limited edition print of the cover art for the new Horus Heresy book by James Swallow!  He was in attendance signing autographs, so I had him sign the book and print for me.

Thanks Mr. Swallow!

My banner was a huge hit. Once I got it assembled with the help of Brian Niro, and I send a HUGE thanks out to him for his help, I could not get 10 feet without stopping for pictures with fans!  Here are some shots.

I entered my banner in the competition, and in the toughest contest I have faced so far, won my fourth.  A guy with a Chaos banner had a particularly loud group of friends out there and I fear that the masses were polarized against Ultramarines thus hurting my response.  But the Jawafans came through and I owned the day, barely.  :)  Next year I am planning a Lamenters banner.  

Fritz and I got to play against some fans from the blogs. First up was a youngling Chris and his dad.  I teamed with Chris and Fritz with his dad.  It was a great game with the Eldar just edging Warmaster Chris and myself commanding our Wolves and Angels.  

Then Fritz and I teamed up against two young guys Michael and Spencer. Michael was playing an awful iffy 500 point list including Mephiston and two mostly full assault squads in pods and Spencer was playing a contingent of Ultramarines.

There would be no mercy.  Fritz and I unleashed the might of our forces, first cutting down Michael's angels, with Mephiston going down to Pathfinder fire, and then cutting down the Smurfs in a stubborn but futile close combat.  Spencer's captain earned his name in battle though, before his head fell to my Librarians' feet.  I asked Spencer if the valiant captain had a name, having none, I  named him Aurelious Maximus, and Spencer informed me that the Tactical Sergeant locked in combat with Fritz's eldar was the Captains son.  So my Librarian jumped over there and added his head to the pile.  Jr. did not put up as much as a fight as his dad.  

It was all in good fun folks. It is called building a narrative. The boys had a great time and we had some joking fun.  Michaels's mother thanks us for playing with them. It was our pleasure!

That is about all I have for pictures from Gamesday. Like I said, there was little eye candy worth taking pics of.  Plus the day goes by so fast... But Fritz got plenty of pics too.  

Here are a couple more. 

A brilliant painter named Mike snapped a shot of his Armies on Parade entry with his Silver Demon

One final pic!

So on to dinner!

Perhaps more so than Gamesday, I have been dreaming about this steak for a year. Last year we went to an awesome steak house at the hotel next to the con.  This year, John Steining and his wife joined us. I ordered a 28 ounce pepper crusted porterhouse. I named it Gone. As in, it was about to be!

All dressed up.

Fritz got a 7 ounce steak. Wimp.

The five of us. 

We drunkenly made a pact. Uh oh.  I think it is written some place to beware drunken pacts... Any way, our pact was for all five of us to enter a Lord of the Rings Golden Demon model next year. Oh man.  :)

Gone lived up to his name.

So that is it for pictures.  We had an outstanding day. I got to talk gaming with dozens of people and answered a lot of questions about lists and armies.  I got to sign a lot of autographs and meet a lot of young fans.  That is what it is all about.  

So here is to next year!  I will be doing a Lamenters banner, and entering the Golden Demon contest in earnest, probably with some of the Lamenters models I will be painting this year, and one Lord of the Rings entry..

I have selected this guy.

Now to get the model and start painting! 

I did get some nice info out of the Forgeworld guys. They plan on releasing codex books for Pre Heresy armies from the Horus Heresy!  WOW!!!  A codex book for the Blood Angels complete with Sangiunius!  Too sweet. When I asked them if Sanguinius would be one of the first, he just sort of looked up at the ceiling with a smile.  Too cool.  It is going to be a fun year indeed.

More to come!

Jawaballs.

Gamesday Rocks!

And I'm off!  Chicago here I come.

The question is... why?

Isn't Gamesday just a day full of nonsense where GW crams all of their full priced stuff down your throat? (sure)

You know what?
(i don't care)

Gamesday is definitely about GW pushing their product. But it is more than that.

It is about positive engery.

It is about walking the space with dudes who love their hobby.

It is about all of those huge eyes on 9 year old kids sharing something fun with their dad.

It is about nerdgasm.

It is about seeing dudes like Dave Taylor and Brian Niro I have not seen in a year and having a beer.

It is about fun.

Speed Painting.

Build and Take.

Club Tables.

Banner Contest.

Sneak Peaks.

Golden Demon.

Limited Edition Models

Playing a game with a complete stranger on the open tables for nothing more than the fun of it.

Good stuff.

I have never gone to Gamesday and left thinking "Man I had a sucky time."  I cannot say the same for GTs.  It is a chance to go and enjoy myself with four thousand other dudes, and three chicks dressed up like dark elf sluts. It is a chance to have fun.

Perhaps one of the shining moments of my life happened last year at Gamesday when an 8 year old kid came up to me, and timidly asked for my autograph on his Blood Angels codex, then light up like Time Square when I did then started asking him about his army.  I was proud, he was excited and his mother was thankful. We all won.

That is what Gamesday is all about and I cannot wait until little Jawa is old enough to come with.

So, if you are going to be there, look for the fat guy with the Ultramarines banner. I would love to get in a game or two with some one new. Bring your 2k list and lets throw down!

See you in Chicago!

Lots of pics and video to follow.

Jawaballs


(I borrowed lots of pics from the internets. If I used your image, simply ask and I will take it down.  Oh, and I suggest you take it off the internets.)