Broken Dice

Counts-As Mephiston

2011-03-01T22:44:00.000-06:00

I posted a bad picture of this a while ago, figured I'd add a higher quality one. Parts are from the Death Company kit, a Dark Angels sword, random plasma pistol, and cloak from the Dark Elf Corsairs. Psychic Hood built from an extra shoulder pad and some green stuff.

Counts-As Sergeant Telion

2011-01-29T15:43:00.000-06:00

Because I just love this guy. The grizzled old war veteran who insists on teaching the youngsters. It's almost a trope. Anyways, I spent quite a bit of time cutting and filing away at the Ultramarine symbols on this guy (the right bracer and the shoulder were the most irritatingly difficult), and then used greenstuff in an amateur fashion to put my chapter badge on his left shoulder. As with all my scouts, I replaced the head with a Pig Iron helmet. Because I'm pretty sure they should go over wearing your helmet in Space Marine Basic Training.

Scout Squad Complete

2011-01-18T00:13:00.000-06:00

Here's the Space Marine Scout Squad that I've been working on for a while, finally complete. The helmets are from Pig Iron Productions and work wonderfully with the scout models (because as I usually insist - a dude without a helmet is just asking for a bolter round to the face).

Space Wolf Terminator

2010-12-20T00:11:00.000-06:00

Surprisingly enough, I finished this while taking breaks studying for my music final. This is a part of the Space Wolves army that I've been working on over a long period of time. For gits and shiggles, I put hazard stripes on the chainfist so that the Xenos scum know to get out of the way.

Upcoming, I've got a couple projects starting to flesh themselves out more.

1) I'm going to be painting up a Unicorn by Reaper Mini as a Christmas present for my girlfriend. Not just any unicorn. It'll be a Robot Unicorn.

2) As soon as I've edited them, I'll post photos of that scout squad that has been in progress for a while.

3) Lastly, I'm finally getting around to getting started on a Warmachine Army, but I'm still beating back and forth between what to start.

Avatar of Khaine

2010-10-04T09:29:00.001-05:00

I was looking for something to add to my Eldar army and finally thought: "You know, the Avatar is kind of iconic - even if the pewter model is crap in compared to Forgeworld." So I did some cutting and pinning and greenstuffing for the following result. Both the arms are reposed, the torso is taller and bulked out a little more and the hair has been turned and bulked out so it doesn't look atrocious.

Rather than painting the upper most lava layers as a super dark red or black, I just left it at red since I really wanted this guy to pop out from the rest of my Eldar army. I spray coated with white primer and gradually worked up through yellows and oranges and then to red. All the armor got a coat of black and then painted up with usual gold recipe. The sword has a slightly blue sheen to it due to a thinned out wash of blue ink (yes, I still have a bottle of blue ink. It works just fine for what I need.)

I also tried experimenting with some basings effects - blending the blood spatter on the snow into a (hardly visible in the photo) pool of water effect around the Avatar's feet to represent the fact that he is the flaming god of war and his every step scorches the earth beneath him. Didn't work out as well as I'd hoped, but oh well.

If you notice the helmet on the ground, it's painted in the same color scheme as the Space Wolves commission that my friend hired me to do.

On another note, I turned 21 today. Bar run tonight!

Gorgon Knights Scouts

2010-10-02T14:33:00.000-05:00

Here are a couple of Scouts from my Gorgon Knights chapter. Rather than go with the usual gold, I decided to make it a much darker scheme than usual, while simultaneously making a subtle reference to the Iron Hands (their parent chapter). They are after all Scouts, they infiltrate and tend to rely on stealth. Wearing bright colors doesn't help that at all. A subtle detail that I'll be incorporating is (with the exception of the Sergeants) is the fact that the Scouts don't bear the chapter emblem, a right that they earn when they become full battle-brothers. The most noticeable thing is the use of Pig Irons' Heavy Infantry heads. Even though they're space marines, they still wear helmets into battle. Doing anything else mere combat stupidity.

The paint scheme was heavily inspired from the Halo series of video games - mainly on the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (the best of non-augmented human soldiers). I have a hard time painting with darker pallets. I find that trying to stick to it creates a rather boring model. Fortunately, it allows me to play with metallic paints much more than I'm usually able to and try to simulate a True Metallic look. The helmet visors were definitely a nice contrast to the rest of the model.

As usual, C&C welcome.

Cheers,

Squirrel_Fish

Counts-As Commander Dante

2010-09-20T22:48:00.000-05:00

Throwing up some pics of my counts-as Commander Dante.

Cheers,
Squirrel_Fish

More Gorgon Knights

2010-09-13T18:23:00.000-05:00

The latest model I've finished for my Gorgon Knights Space Marine chapter - an Honor Guard Veteran wielding a Thunderhammer. I had to paint the legs, torso and backpack before entirely assembling the model, otherwise the giant hammer would've gotten in the way of brushwork.

Cheers,

Squirrel_Fish

Space Wolves Commission

2010-09-13T00:09:00.000-05:00

I'm not dead, just too busy to actually post anything. Here's some pics of the Space Wolf commission I've been working on for some time now.

My client wanted a darker, bluer Space Wolf scheme in order to distinguish his force a little more. He also wanted a more hard-popping style of highlights to simulate almost a cel-shaded comic book. In order to keep the army from looking too much like a deployment of Ultramarines, I decided to use bronze as the primary metallic, as opposed to my usual Gold.

The flash from the camera made this guy extra blue looking and makes him look almost like an Ultra~~smurf~~marine. He looks like the rest of the following Wolves.

This guy actually has eyes, but the angle of the photo just happened to hide it perfectly. Oops.

As always, C&C welcome.

Squirrel_Fish

Centerpieces

2010-06-27T20:50:00.000-05:00

So it's been a month since my last post, but i haven't been sitting on my hands the entire time.

I've completed painting two Tactical squads (nothing exceptionally new in those guys), assembled some more Death Company and Assault Marines, have prepped my Scouts for priming and finished (for the most part) a few models that are certainly centerpieces of the Gorgon Knights chapter.

First up, is Chapter Master Kelzax (my Counts-As Commander Dante). I wanted to make my army commanders models that are truly mine and no one else's. Seeing as how I'm terrible with greenstuff or scratch building, I went with kitbashing. For this guy, I used the glaive from a Grey Knight, Legs and Jump Pack from an Assault Marine, Chest, Cape, Left Shoulderpad and Iron Halo from the Commander box set, and the Helmet and Infernus Pistol from the Death Company box.

Due to a wedding I had to attend, I wasn't present for the Fantasy Flight Games Event Center's "Malleus Imperator" event. However, I did have this model submitted into their painting competition and lo and behold.

Here's Chief Librarian Diomedes (Counts-As Mephiston). Once again, I wanted a model that would be mine and did very little converting other than kitbashing. The left shoulder pad, torso and legs come from the Death company box set (blood drops shaved off and filled with green stuff). The cape comes from the Dark Elf Corsairs, while the pistol and right shoulder are from the tactical sprue. The sword comes from a Dark Angel's kit. The Psychic Hood was made using a shoulder pad that I carved out with a hobby knife and the cabling was done with green stuff. This is one of the only models that I will have that isn't wearing a helmet...

I learned quite a few things while painting these models.

First, patience pays off. Being a good miniatures painter is knowing that you'll have to touch up constantly and techniques such as blending and gradual highlighting are only achieved through patient work. The lightning on my Librarian's left shoulder and the weapons on both model are testament to that.

Second, I've come to the conclusion that I don't really enjoy painting an ultra-realistic miniatures. Don't get me wrong, I think it's highly impressive work and absolutely fantastic art. But I found out after perfecting my gold technique and attempting some non-metallic metal that it really doesn't work for me. I like that comic book-esque, cell shaded art over the photo-realism approach. Neither way is wrong, it's just a matter of taste.

Farewell 40k Radio

2010-05-24T17:40:00.000-05:00

So today's big news twist. Spencer over at 40k Radio is retiring from the podcasting business due to threats leveled against him and his family from an anonymous source. (Here's a link to the whole affair).

First off, I'd like to give my thanks and condolences to Spencer and his crew. In my long time periods away from the hobby (due to school), I regularly listen to them and amp myself up for the next time I can sit down and paint or play a game. Even though the likelihood of this being read by them is slim, once again, thank you 40k Radio for keeping my passion for this game and hobby alive.

Second, I hate people who hide behind the anonymity of the internet with a passion. It disgusts me to think that we live in a modern age of logic and reasoning and people like this act cowardly and disgracefully. There is no place for behavior like this in our hobby or our lives. These people should be ashamed.

*End of Rant*

Squirrel_Fish

Titan Talk

2010-04-30T07:49:00.000-05:00

Image Courtesy of Games-Workshop Forgeworld

The table is yours for Titan Talk. We've all seen them on Forgeworld's website and our jaw drops at both the huge scale of the model and the price tag. We've heard what it does on the tabletop, whether gloriously breaking enemy superheavies or slaying infantry in the droves.

I'm highly considering getting a Titan (Warhound or Revenant) for my next modeling project (since a third army at the time doesn't interest me very much). I'd like to hear what some of you have to say. How satisfying is it to build and paint one of these things? Is it worth it to spend so much money on an item that will probably get used once or twice a year? And on the occasion that you do bust it out onto the tabletop, does it perform? What are your experiences with these things?

Discuss.

Why Your Hormagaunt Won't Get Cheaper

2010-04-19T12:20:00.003-05:00

I had a conversation with a friend the other day who claimed that his hormagaunts were overpriced simply because they had a BS of 3, in contrast to the Genestealer who is properly priced (and min-maxed) because it has no ranged weapons to benefit from, thus a BS of 0. Does adding a BS to a model with no ranged weapons make it more costly points wise?

The answer is a resounding no.

Regardless of its actual Ballistic Skill, a model without ranged weapons has an effective Ballistic Skill of 0. A hormagaunt with BS 10 will cost no more or less than a normal hormagaunt. Add any ranged weapon to its outfit and then the cost of the model will skyrocket.

Why Ballistic skill and not anything else? Because no other stat can be ignored with the exception of specific rules. Your WS/S/T/I/W/Ld/Sv are all going to be referenced at some point. Whether or not those stats are effective is a different matter entirely.

Kitbashing is the Best Bashing

2010-04-12T00:08:00.005-05:00

So I picked up a box of the Blood Angels Death Company for purposes of kitbashing a Counts-As Death Company as well as various other projects.

This is my Company Champion, using a lot of parts from the Death Company kit, including the legs, torso, head and the winged blood details on the shoulder pads and then the sword and combat shield from the Assault Squad. For both models, I was very careful to clip off any and all blood drops from the models. I feel that the shoulders are probably the best part of the model. I clipped away the blood drops and shaved it down to look like a wing and simply glued them to the model.

This would be my Gorgon Knights Reclusiarch (for the occasions that I field my Space Marines as Blood Angels). I took one of the running robed bodies and a power mace from the Dark Angels kit, the skull helmet from the Chaos Marines kit, an Infernus Pistol and shoulder pad from the death company kit and used various other bitz to round off the conversion (such as the Terminator Laurel as a crozius head). While compared to the previous model, he looks rather plain, I plan on doing a lot of freehand painting on those robes to make him really pop off the table.

And of course, the power of magnets allow me to swap backpacks.

So what kinds of kitbashing have you done? How do you do it? Post links to your kitbashes!

Still Alive

2010-04-08T13:57:00.000-05:00

This was a triumph.

I'm still alive, just been buried under a mountain of school work, work and now bronchitis. But hey, sickness allowed me to work on some hobby stuff and post some pics that should've been posted a while ago.

Here's the completed Terminator Sergeant from my Painting Gold tutorial

How to Paint Gold

2010-03-06T14:14:00.000-06:00

Following up on my last post, here's a tutorial on how I paint my gold.

1) Prime black and basecoat your gold sections in Bestial Brown. This doesn't have to be a perfect coat.

2) Add several thin layers of Dwarf Bronze. Metallic paints tend to have odd textures when layered on too thick. Be patient and don't use TOO thin of a mix of paint or else the glitter will separate from the binder and pigment of the paint.

3) Using a 1:1 ratio of Burnished Gold : Dwarf Bronze, add several thin layers to your metallic sections.

4) Paint several thin layers of pure Shining Gold

5) Mix a 4:1 ratio of Burnished Gold : Mithril Silver and apply to your higher sections, leaving the lowest recesses pure Burnished Gold. The goal is to lighten up the gold to really pop.

6) Mix a 1:1 ratio of Burnished Gold to Mithril silver. Highlight the parts of the model that will reflect in the light. For a more advanced technique, use the same principles of non-metallic metals using metallic paint.

7) Highlight with pure Mithril Silver for that super polished effect.

What I've Been Painting

2010-02-21T21:38:00.000-06:00

So I haven't been sitting on my hands for the past two weeks. Here're the fruits of my labors.

Apocalypse Battle Report - Seize and Slaughter Pt 2

2010-02-16T21:55:00.002-06:00

So the teams were set and the battle lines drawn. It was time to wage war.

For ease of writing, Team A will be Space Wolves/Eldar/Imperial Guard/Tyranids and Team B will be Chaos/Chaos/Tau/Space Marine/Orks

Turn 1 - Team A
With three Land Raiders filled with assault troops, two defilers, a Stompa and a plethora of other nasties lined up at our doorstep, we knew that so much depended on this first shooting phase.

Logan Grimnar and his Wolfguard Terminators drop podded right in front of the Tau Hammerheads and nearby the Green Tide. Between the Cyclone Missile Launcher and Arjac's Thunder Hammer, they only gained a stunned result on a single gunship. The Tyranid carnifexes and Genestealers on the right flank moved up, under cover of the spore chimneys (they would also run in the shooting phase).

The Seer Council cast Fortune on themselves and attempted to Doom the enemy possessed but was nullified by the enemy Inquisitor's Psychic Hood. The flew up 12 inches in front of the center Chaos Land Raider and threw spears into its hull, doing nothing thanks to Daemonic Possession. Eldrad cast Fortune on his Wave Serpent and Guided the Falcon, while Doom was once again nullified, and moved 12" away and fired it's twin-linked bright lance at the Imperial Land Raider and immobilizing it, while concealing most of its hull behind the Space Wolf Land Raider. The Falcon would move 6" to the left flank to gain full view of the Slaaneshi Daemon Prince. After a torrent of fire, the Prince fell. My Vypers would move 24" towards the middle of the board to prepare to assist where the battle needed them.

The Imperials sent their orders out to fire on the two biggest threats - the Stompa and the Defiler. The Leman Russ Vanquisher, the Land Raider, and the Lascannon Teams (who failed their Orders check) would fire at the Stompa and disable both the Dethkannon, the close combat weapon and the Supa-Gatla (a victory, if you ask me). Meanwhile, autocannon teams would fire at the Defiler, miraculously destroying it. A Rune Priest and Long Fangs would split their fire at the second Defiler and the Stompa, destroying the former and doing nothing to the latter, while Grey Hunters would wait for the moment to strike. Meanwhile, one Chimera with Melta Veterans drove for the Stompa, while the other began making for one of our secondary objectives. Basilisk fire rained onto the Noise marine Rhino, wrecking the vehicle. The Manticore would hold its fire until the time was right.

In the assault phase, the Seer Council would fearless ride into the throng of Land Raiders, laying blows onto the middle one in hopes of stemming the flow of melee warriors ready to disgorge from it. The vehicle was wrecked, but all but one Berserker managed to get out of the vehicle...

Turn 1 - Team B
All on our left flank, Khorne Berserkers and Plague Marines would exit their transports and prepare to slaughter the four Eldar in their midsts. Only a single Warlock fell in the shooting phase to a torrent of Boltgun and Sonic Blaster fire. The rest are cut down in the ensuing melee while the Farseer fails to flee the combat and is slain as well. The possessed and Chaos Lord slowly advanced up the field, with even softer prey in mind... The Vanguard Veterans and Pedro fearfully remain in their immobilized Land Raider.

Towards the middle field, the Inquisitor and the Vindicare Assassin would do nothing. Grot mechanics scrambled to get the Stompa's Dethkannon back online, readying it to fire on the next turn. The Green Tide would shout their praises to Gork n' Mork (or perhaps Mork n' Gork...) and charge Logan and his Wolf Guard, who met them head on in a counter-attack. After the corpses were tallied, all of the the Wolfguard (including Arjac) were dead, Logan suffered a single wound and a little over a dozen Ork boyz were killed.

The Tau lit up the Paskquisher and the Space Wolf Land Raider with Markerlights and after three Railgun shots to each, the mighty tanks were nothing but burnt out husks. The Chaos Land Raider would unload its Lascannons into the Falcon, but only shook the vehicle.

Turn 2 - Team A
None of our reserves came in to support us, so we were on our own for now. Eldrad's Fortune was nullified by the Psychic Hood, but his second casting of it went through. Guide went to Vypers, who would move 6 inches towards the left flank to unload their firepower into the Inquisitor and his Retinue, slaughtering all but a single mystic and the Inquisitor Lord. The Wave Serpent would move 12" closer to our secondary objective and fire its Bright Lance at the Stompa, once again disabling the Dethkannon. The Guard's Manticore and Basilisks would fire into the conglomeration of Cultist Marines - slaying all of the Plague Marines and Noise marines as well as several Khorne Berserkers. Mortar fire and Lasgun fire would pepper the the possessed and surviving Berserkers, but with no results. The shaken Falcon would move 18" away to get a Cover Save.

The Chimera carrying Meltavets drives forward, unloads its squad who fire into the Stompa for a drive damaged result and a weapon destroyed. The second Chimera parks onto the secondary objective.

On the right side, the Genestealers and Carnifexes surged foward into the melee. Out of that entire swarm, only two Carnifexes did not make it into combat. Commence the flinging of body parts. Nearly 40 Ork Boyz and the Warboss were killed between the Genestealers, Carnifexes and Logan Grimnar, while only 7 Genestealers and Logan suffered wounds. Another 20 plus Boyz would die to No Retreat! wounds.

Turn 2 - Team B
Due to the Imperial Guard Officer of the Fleet, none of the enemy's reserves came into play.

The Possessed, Terminator Lord, and both squads of Khorne Berserkers surge forward, colliding gloriously into a Mortar Team and an Infantry Squad. Needless to say, it was Team B's turn to commence the flinging of body parts. Both the Mortar Team and the Infantry Squad were butchered to the man. The Stompa decided to just unload whatever weaponry it could at the nearby Chimera, shaking it, while the Broadsides turned their sights on it and, with the aid of Markerlights, sent it up in flames. The Tau Command Squad moved to fire into the melta vets, slaying several of them due to effective cover save rolls. The squad decides to stick around rather than run like pansies. Hammerhead gunships turn to fire on unengaged Carnifexes, dealing two wounds to one and a single wound to the other.

Even more body parts began flying around as another 20 some orks fall to the Genestealers and Logan, with only a few wounds being dealt to Team A's forces, as two carnifexes take a wound and 3 genestealers fall. With less than 20 Boyz standing by the end of this turn, this combat would be over by the end of the next turn.

Keep an eye out for the next post...

Squirrel_Fish out

The Gorgon Knights

2010-01-24T16:54:00.000-06:00

For various reasons, I'm doing some painting and repainting and would like to proudly reintroduce my Space Marine army - the Gorgon Knights.

The main reason why I did this is because I felt that by painting my marines as Salamanders, I would feel obligated to use Vulkan He'Stan in every single army list I wrote. This way, I can field other HQ choices or even field using different Codexes. I still need to figure out an interesting chapter badge, but that'll come to me eventually.

Apocalypse Battle Report - Seize and Slaughter Pt 1

2010-01-19T21:26:00.005-06:00

The teams were drawn and on the 9th of January, they met full force.

Team 1 consisted of Chaos Space Marines, Chaos Space Marines, Crimson Fists, Tau and Ork forces while Team 2 consisted of Tyranid, Imperial Guard, Space Wolf and Eldar forces.

Chaos 1's army consisted of:

Daemon Prince of Slaanesh

Khorne Berserkers

Plague Marines in Rhino

Noise Marines in Rhino

Defiler

Land Raider

His Strategic Asset was Corrupt and Despoil

Chaos 2's army:

Terminator Lord of Khorne w/ Daemonweapon

Khorne Berserkers

10 Chaos Terminators

Possessed

Land Raider

Defiler

His Strategic Asset was Daemon Shell

Tau's army:

Battlesuit Command Squad

Fire Warrior Team x2

Hammerhead x3

Broadside Battlesuit Team

Strategic Asset: Network Markerlight

Ork army:

Da Green Tide

Stompa

Strategic asset: I don't remember

Space Marine Army:

Pedro Kantor

Inquisitor Lord with 2 Mystics and a Sage

Culexus Assassin x2

Vindicare Assassin

Big Decked out Vanguard Veteran Squad

Land Raider

Strategic Asset: The super orbital bombardment

Team 2: Eldar Army

Farseer with Three Warlocks on Jetbikes

Eldrad Ulthran

Autarch with Jump Generator

5 Dire Avengers

Wave Serpent

6 Fire Dragons

Falcon

2 Vypers

8 Warp Spiders
Strategic Asset: Hammerfall

Tyranid Army:

Broodlord

Genestealer Brood x3

Carnifex x4

Trygon

Raveners

Strategic Asset: Chimney Spores

Imperial Guard:

Company Command Squad

Inquisitor Lord with Mystics and Sages

Veterans with Meltaguns

Platoon Command with Commissar and Priest

Marbo

Several Infantry Squads

2 Mortar Teams

Autocannon Team

Lascannon Team

Leman Russ Battle Tank

Leman Russ Vanquisher with Pask

Manticore

Basilisk x2

Strategic Asset: Giant Orbital Bombardment

Space Wolves:

Logan Grimnar

Rune Priest x2

3 Wolf Guard in Terminator Armor and Arjac Rockfist

Drop Pod

Grey Hunters in Rhino

Long Fangs

Strategic Asset: Vortex Grenade

The scenario that we played was Seize and Slaughter. We rolled the scatter die to find the no man's land and set our objectives, each side putting their primary objective in their territory and a tertiary objective in enemy land and in the no man's land. Contrary to regular apocalypse suggestion, we decided to do the standard roll off to decide who got to deploy and take first turn, with no stealing of the initiative. Us (Team 2) won the roll and decided to deploy first, knowing that destroying or disabling the Stompa was our only hope of surviving.

The IG Player set his ordnance behind cover where it would remain untouched for most of the game and scattered his infantry squads and heavy weapons around and in cover whenever possible to provide support. SW Long Fangs sat inside cover with two Rhinos filled with Hunters to back them up. The Tyranid Player set his spore chimneys up on the right flank to try and completely cover his advance of Carnifexes and Genestealers. One squad of Genestealers and the Broodlord would be outflanking. I set up my Seer council, Wave Serpent with Eldrad/DA, Vypers and Falcon with Fire Dragons towards the middle, knowing that they'll probably be re-deployed due to Eldrad's Divination ability. Autarch/Warpspiders, Marbo, the Trygon, Raveners and Logan/Wolf Guard in Reserves to deep strike into play.

The enemy team decided to go for a two pronged deployment. The Tau and the Green Tide would deploy on our right flank (Broadsides up high for full LOS to the entire battlefield), the Stompa stood in the middle of their line to support either side and all three Land Raiders (filled with Berserkers, Pedro and Vanguard Vets), Possessed, Terminator Lord, Rhinos filled with cultist marines and a Vindicare assassin sat on our left flank ready to roll over some guardsmen and Space Wolves. Next to the Stompa sat both Defilers ready to tear into squishy guardsmen. The Inquisitor Lord sat in the middle of the table behind the Stompa for safety. The Culexus Assassins and chaos Termies would stay in reserve.

Seeing the entire left flank ready to fall, I rolled to redeploy up to 3 units. Seeing that the left flank would need reinforcing, I moved the Falcon, Seer Council and Wave Serpent there.

The lines drawn and the forces deployed, we prepared to wage war......

Catch part two next time!

Death on Swift Wings

2010-01-14T20:18:00.001-06:00

Here's an Eldar list that I've drawn up recently to adapt to my local meta of deep-striking several 'bomb' units that are capable of wrecking entire lines. The idea is that this army really has no 'line' to attack and should always be on the move. When the opportunity arises, unload enough firepower into targets to make sure that they don't get back up.

Farseer (Guide, Fortune, Spirit Stones, Runes of Warding - 140)
Autarch (70)
Fire Dragon x5 (80)
- Wave Serpent (TL-Scatter Laser, Spirit Stones, Star Engines - 140)
Dire Avenger x5 (60)
- Wave Serpent (TL-Bright Lance, Spirit Stones, Star Engines, Shuriken Cannon - 170)

Dire Avenger x5 (60)

- Wave Serpent (TL-Bright Lance, Spirit Stones, Star Engines, Shuriken Cannon - 170)

Vyper x3 (Starcannons, Shuriken Cannons - 240)

Vyper x2 (Scatter Lasers, Shuriken Cannons - 140)

Fire Prism (Spirit Stones, Holo-Fields, Shuriken Cannon - 170)

Total: 1750

If I'm facing an army that depends high on an alpha strike (Drop Pods, Tzeentch Daemons, IG Gunlines, Deep-striking armies), then my forces will be placed in Reserves in order to deny them the hit and then I'll use the Autarch's reserve bonus to come in and hopefully cripple their forces. The Vypers, while expensive and fragile, are the back bone of my shooting. By moving the Wave Serpents flat-out and then using the Star Engines in the shooting phase, I plan on screening as many Vyper Squadrons as possible in order to negate their fragility. The Farseer will put Guide a squadron and watch as the torrents of dice just bog down their targets. Fire Prisms will be the principle anti-tank roles in the army with the Fire dragons and Wave Serpents able to pick up the roles if need be.

Everyone Eventually Moves On - The Space Marine story

2010-01-13T17:44:00.000-06:00

Pictured above is my Salamanders Dreadnought, the most recent model that I've completed. What's wrong with this? This model was finished at least a month and a half ago and I haven't had the will to paint anything else.

Now, during the Apocalypse game last Sunday, two of my friends (who play space marines) stated their intention to switch to Space Wolves and Chaos Marines. After thinking about it a while, I understand why.

The Space Marine is the poster child, it's the "easy army" to play, easy to make an effective list and has a very forgiving learning curve. The drawback? Once most people learn the game and delve into more advanced tactics, they see that the current Space Marine codex is garbage. It's boring to write a list, reasonably boring to play one and it feels that every other army in the game keeps getting more and more toys that allow it to lay waste to your 10 man tactical squads, your Land Raiders, your Dreadnoughts (I'm looking at you new Zoanthropes!) and what have you.

Heck, even from a hobby stand point, it's relatively boring. You paint dozens of dudes are intended to look exactly the same (props to the new Space Wolves kit for breaking the cliche of a power-armoured face in the crowd). Most of your vehicles are based on the Rhino-chassis, meaning you have a box, a box with a gun in front, a box with a gun on top, or a box with a bigger gun on top.

The Space Marines are indeed the poster child - it's how people learn the game. But once they reach another level game play, do they still find satisfaction in using those men in cans? I know that after playing Necrons, then switching to Eldar, then Space Marines as my latest army, I'm finding them very lacking in unit selection, model appeal and play enjoyment. I really should've saved the $300+ I spent and gotten more Eldar. :-/

I know that most players start out the game playing Space Marines or some other MEQ equivalent. If you're one of these players, have you changed your principle army? Did you play another army and then switch to Space marines for whatever reason? What are your thoughts?

Squirrel_Fish

Apocalypse Scenario - "Seize and Slaughter"

2010-01-07T12:44:00.000-06:00

(Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics, unrelated to 40k but would make an epic Indepdendent Character)

So I've been organizing an apocalypse game for this Sunday and just wanted to throw the scenario that I've been creating for it on here for posterity. Pics will be provided as well as an attempt at a battle report.

The game is about 8000 per side (so not a huge apoc game, but enough to consume the entire day).

Basically, it's Seize Ground with a twist. Each team gets one Primary Objective and two Secondary Objectives. Each team also nominates a single Independent character who acts as the 'commander'. If there is a Unique or Special Character, then he/she must be the Commander. If there is more than one Special character, the teams nominate one.

1) For each Primary Objective a team controls, they get two Victory Points.
2) For each Secondary Objective a team controls, they get one Victory Point.
3) If a team kills the enemy Commander, they get one Victory Point.
4) If a team kills all of the enemy HQ choices, they get one Victory Point (in addition to the one they get for killing the Kommander).

Troop choices are the only ones who can control an objective. Completely destroying a unit does not give a victory point. In the unlikely situation that the enemy is tabled, the surviving team wins.

Thoughts, opinions?

The Sky is Falling. Wear a Helmet.

2009-12-30T15:35:00.000-06:00

So I've been keeping up with all of the new Tyranid Codex rumors and have been hearing this and that about Carnifexes in broods of 1-3, the Trygon/Mawloc, super-powered Tyrants, cheaper (and more powerful) Genestealers, something called a Harpy and blah blah blah.

This. Happens. Every. Single. Codex.

The sky will fall and everyone freaks out about how over powered the newest dex will be. Frankly, I've heard nothing that is truly concerning or cannot be planned around. I'll get a copy of the codex and I'll look it over. Not to start playing nids or to complain forever about the gross injustices and codex creep.

Instead, be proactive about this change. Find the weaknesses in this codex. Is it time for plasma to make its return - due to the difficulty of hiding something as large as a trygon in cover? Powerfists will appear in just about every single squad that can equip one. And finally, weapons and abilities that inflict instant death (S10 Pie Plates, Force Weapons, Skulltaker, Wraithcannons, etc) will be somewhat popular again due to the loss of Eternal Warrior.

Wisdom of the Ancients

2009-12-03T00:29:00.001-06:00

First post in a long time - college has been kicking my ass there and back again. The next two weeks will probably be even worse, so my posting will be finicky.

Anywho, everyone knows that I love dreadnoughts.

Pictured above are my three dreadnoughts. The middle one was made from the standard Dreadnought box set. The one on the right is an Assault on Black Reach dread with the stormbolter swapped out for a heavy flamer.

The one on the left is yet another Assault on Black Reach dread that I converted to look like the Forgeworld Mk. IV Dreadnought that I oh so adore. I trimmed down the front of the sarcophagus, used a terminator chest piece and converted a "beakie" helmet to fit inside the headpiece. I then used some guitar wire to run some power cables from the Terminator chest piece into the base of the sarcophagus. There is yet another heavy flamer conversion and all that is left to do is to devise some sort of covering for the cabling.

Now for what I'm most excited for and what will probably be the centerpiece of my Salamanders army. I found a deal on eBay that I could not pass up and miraculously won. While it isn't the Mk. IV Venerable, it still a gorgeous model.

The Forgeworld Chaplain Dreadnought

Game wise, I'll probably end up running it as a Venerable Dreadnought. Modeling wise, I have the Chainfist arm from the Ironclad dreadnought arriving in the mail and all I need is a right arm to slaughter foes from afar. More than likely, I'll just use the assault cannon from my Dreadnought kit in order to get use out of the Venerable's BS-5. Having never worked with resin before, I'm kind of excited but know better than to jump on in. I'm doing my research and will definitely have to work slow.

Cheers,
Squirrel_Fish

Project Planning

2009-11-16T01:40:00.000-06:00

Thanks for all the replies to my last post. I'll throw out some of the ideas I've had going on in my head. More than likely I'll try and balance out a mix between these options and hope that I stick to it.

1) Monthly Quotas
- Basically, the idea is to get 400 to 600 points (army building points, that is) worth of hobby done each month, whether its painting, assembling, converting or whatever. The time span is set so that I have to stick to it, but the points are flexible so I have some wiggle room in case of a tough month due to the demands of the music department/

2) Painting Points (Kudos to Harreh from http://mattsminiatures.blogspot.com for this one!)
- Basically the last idea, but using smaller numbers. I'll give various models a score and whenever I complete a said model, I add that score to my total. The total is how much money I'll allow myself to spend on the hobby. This is more of a short-term idea rather than a long-term thing since eventually you'll find yourself with so little points you can't buy a blister back. Instead, I might make the total poitns the amount of money I can spend on things that isn't in my army or armies.

3) Another Army
This is something I've been contemplating for quite some time. In one of my previous posts, I had talked about considering Dark Eldar as another army and had gotten quite excited about it. Needless to say, once I drew up a 1500 point list, I facepalmed at the idea of having to buy 7 Raiders and 3 Ravagers. However, another idea that I've had is to do an all Scouts Space Marine army. Yes, it's more Space Marines, but it's just something completely different than what anyone is expecting to see. Any opposition to seeing the Ultramarines 10th Company? The reason why I'm choosing the boys in blue is because I would hate to have to do a hack job on converting Sergeant Telion and because I feel there's too much Ultramarine hate in the world. The vanilla marines need some lovin' too!

4) Commissions
Highly doubtful since my painting/converting skills are no where near the level that many the other painters in the FTW coalition, but hey - if I can get them, they'll keep me enthused, sate my desire to paint different schemes/models, and help fund my addiction.

Cheers,
Squirrel_Fish

Open Forum: Finding the Time to Hobby

2009-11-14T19:18:00.000-06:00

It's been a long week for me - I've had two band concerts last week and 2 jazz concerts this week, so it's been rehearsal after rehearsal on top of all of my usual school work. I've been getting home at like 11:00 pm on a fairly regular basis now, doing homework or studying and then hitting the sack at 2:00 am for more classes at 8:00 am. Even if I had the time to do anything, I'm not sure if I'd have the energy for it.

Basically, I've had practically no time to work on anything 40k related. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has this problem - we all lead busy lives and I envy the people who have time to get in a game or a few hours to paint on a bi-monthly basis or (heaven forbid) a weekly basis.

How do you find time for the hobby? Is it whenever you manage to get an hour or two of free time? Do you schedule it? What motivates you - commissions, contests, or just plain fun?

The floor is yours 40kers.
Squirrel Fish

Must Have Units - Eldar Farseer

2009-11-06T11:10:00.004-06:00

Whether on foot or mounted on a jetbike, the Farseer is the lynch pin of the Eldar army. If I am playing my Eldar army, I will always field at least one of these guys. With a plethora of nifty psychic powers and a badass Seer Council Bodyguard, it's hard to see why you wouldn't field one of these guys.

Due to the specialist nature of the Eldar army, I feel that the Farseer is necessary due to his ability to augment any one of those units that is likely going to fail at its objective. Those Banshees not going to do enough damage to Terminators? DOOOOOOM! Do you need that Land Raider gone this turn? Guide your Fire Dragons and you'll guarantee that it'll be a pile of slag. Powerfist about to charge into your Wraithlord? Mind War him and chuckle as he bleeds out of his ears.

Most Farseer's run Doom and Fortune as their psychic powers - this gives reasonable flexibility with offensive and defensive support - allowing you to help out in just about every situation. Try not to buy more than two psychic powers since all it does is make your Farseer super expensive and you don't get to use the third or more power.

Jetbike or no? I find the jetbike to be particularly useful due to the +1 Toughness and the 3+ armor save (without which, Psycannons would leave my Farseer a smoldering crater) but understand that you will be walking around with a 160+ price tag in a fairly high cost army as it is.

- Runes of Warding: BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY! In a world where Jaws of the World Wolf, Murderous Hurricane, Lash, Fortune, Doom, etc etc are powerful game changers, you need to be able to shut them down.

- The Warlock bodyguard. They can add a whole lot of hurt in the form of Destructor Spam. 10 Point heavy flamers? I'll take that. They add a lot of ablative wounds to your Farseer and, when combined with Fortune, are super hard to crack due to a 4++ rerollable save (or 3++ if you buy jetbikes). Now, the Jetbiking these guys is going to be a costly endeavor. They will each cost more than a terminator and in order to be effective, you're going to need 5-6 of these guys. But man, is this a killy unit...

Eldrad Ulthran

If I'm going to talk about Farseers, I feel a little obligated to talk about this guy. King of the Farseers, he gets 3 psychic powers a turn (if he's not in CC), can use the same power twice due to his staff, wounds on a 2+ with no armor saves and allows you to redeploy some of your forces after the both sides have deployed, meaning you can have first turn and a reactive deployment. He's a powerful character - use him wisely since he is darn expensive. Can't have a jetbike unfortunately. :(

Cheers,

SquirrelFish

Dead Man Walking

2009-10-29T21:18:00.006-05:00

As my last post suggested - I love Dreadnoughts.

To me, there is nothing more fantastic than a warrior who has been maimed, crippled or should otherwise be outright killed but refuses to die. Instead of euthanasia or accepting a non-combat role (a much worse fate than death), the Space Marine takes on the mantle of the Dreadnought - a machine weighing several tons, more heavily armored than most APC's, and armed to the teeth in deadly weapons. Sure, there's the drawbacks of having to essentially hibernate for centuries at a time or risk going insane due to being kept alive in a near death state and not being able to enjoy things like food or drink, but hey. For the Emperor.

I always find a way to field one of these things - even when it's tactically sound to field a different unit (like more Terminators or another Land Raider).

Vanilla Dreadnoughts

They're cheap and they have plenty of options for varied roles. These are similar to tactical marines in that they can be flexible in all aspects of warfare but can specialize to a degree.

1) Dreadnought with Multimelta, Heavy Flamer and Drop Pod - 150 Points

This is a fairly common set up. Having both a Multi-melta and Heavy Flamer allows your Dreadnought to engage either infantry or armor after exiting the Drop Pod. The short range of both weapons is largely negated by the Drop Pod. It's a fantastic (and relatively cheap) Dreadnought to use if you need an "In Your Face" anti-everything unit that your opponent will be forced to deal with.

2) Dreadnought with two Twin-Linked Autocannons - 125 Points

The Rifleman. This thing is made to slaughter light vehicles (Rhinos, Land Speeders, Raiders, etc) and man it is good at it. Against AV 11 or 10, you can expect it get 2 or more glancing or penetrating hits. Field two or three of these things and you can pretty much guarantee your opponent will be walking across the board. You won't be able to kill squat in CC, so stay far away and just unleash flak. Once you start facing AV 13 though, you're at an uphill battle, which brings me to the next choice.

3) Dreadnought with Twin-Linked Lascannon and Missile Launcher - 145 Points

This is the Dreadnought to use (at range) against heavier armor. It's less effective against lighter armor due to having less shots, but you're more likely to do something against AV13 or 14.

4) Dreadnought with Twin-Linked Lascannon and Heavy Flamer - 145 points

This is actually my favorite vanilla dreadnought. You have the power of a longer ranged anti-tank weapon as well as a crushing close range anti infantry weapon. Keeping the close combat weapon allows you to use this Dreadnought as a jack of all trades - if you need help in any field, this is there to help you out (but is not likely able to handle it all alone).

5) Dreadnought with Assault Cannon and Heavy Flamer (125)

Cheap and slaughters infantry gloriously. Try to aim him at heavier targets.

Ironclad Dreadnoughts

AV13 and Move Through Cover go a long ways to helping this thing survive. Unlike the other Dreadnoughts, a Drop Pod is practically mandatory or else you will spend most of the game running towards your target. Due to the close combat leanings of this guy, there is only one way I would field an Ironclad.

Ironclad Dreadnought with Heavy Flamer, Seismic Hammer and Drop Pod - 180 Points

This is the most common (and in my opinion) the most effective Ironclad. Have this baby drop down turn 1. If you are within the 6" melta range against a critical vehicle - do it. Otherwise, pop smoke launchers and wait for a turn. If your back is against the drop pod, it becomes exceedingly difficult to kill this Dreadnought while smoke launchers are up. If you survive, then charge forward, melta/flame whatever is juiciest and start tearing in with your giant fists o' fury. Frankly, vehicles should be your priority target. S10 and +1 on the damage chart from the Seismic Hammer makes a mockery of just about every piece of armor. If you have extra points, consider adding Ironclad Assault Launchers. Grenades are nifty for everyone.

Venerable Dreadnoughts are the expensive, survivable and more skilled big brothers of the vanilla Dreadnought. Due to a higher BS, I can easily encourage using some of the non-twinlinked weapons. You can field any of the vanilla dreadnought builds with this guy, but he can get really expensive, really quickly.

1) Venerable Dreadnought with Plasma Cannon and Heavy Flamer - 185 points

BS5 Plasma cannon is mmm delicious. The Heavy Flamer (notice a trend?) allows you to crush anything that gets too close to your lines. This guy should gladly tear into elite infantry and has the option of firing into light vehicles. Keep him near the middle of the table so he can lend his might wherever needed.

So that's Dreadnoughts in a nutshell. I hope you consider fielding one of these armored behemoths next time you play. I know I am :P

Squirrel_Fish

Justifying the Purchase

2009-10-25T15:15:00.003-05:00

Picture Courtesy of Forgeworld

I love dreadnoughts. I just loooove them from both a fluff and game standpoint. If I could afford it, I would totally run the 6 Dreadnought Space Marine army.

However, having just finished painting one, I just realized how boring they look. It is literally a box with arms and legs. So, I've been tempted to get the Forgeworld Venerable Dreadnought (seeing as how the GW is a 3 pound chunk of multi-piece pewter - we all know how much that sucks to work with) because it's a model that just screams its presence on the tabletop and really says "I am a hero reborn."

As much as I love how cool looking this model is - I'm not sure if I can justify it's purchase. I currently have three dreadnoughts (1 regular, 2 AoBR) and the actual likeliness of me running the 6 Dreadnought army is slim. I don't even feel great about spending $12 on the Forgeworld Dreadnought arms, even though I really want to use Mortis pattern Dreadnoughts.

Everyone has a favorite model. What do you go crazy about when it comes to this hobby?

Making the Right Choice

2009-10-16T20:58:00.000-05:00

Following up on my previous post about having a choice in your army - I want to explore why you choose your army (or your second or third army).

Now, the following items can be done in any order and will weigh different for each person.

Assuming money is not an issue (which it probably is, this is not a cheap hobby! More on this later), you should consider how the army...

Plays
Looks
Feels

Consider how it plays. Do you like moving lots of models or being capable of out maneuvering the foe? Do you enjoy the feeling of throwing down huge amounts of dice at a time? If you're a new player, you might have some issues finding out what army strengths you favor. In my experiences, your FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store) will have several armies that you can play with in order to learn or if you want to try out a different army. Pay them a visit and see what they have in store.

Everyone has their own aesthetic taste. Needless to say, this will affect some people's decision more than others. Do you like how a certain army looks over another? Is it the models themselves that you enjoy or the GW-eye candy color scheme? Look at lots and lots of miniatures from different armies and different painters and see what catches your fancy. Now, a lot of people may give me some flak for this but I recommend buying a blister from two or three armies if you can't make a decision. Usually, a blister pack is pretty representative of what you can expect for the rest of the army. I know before I started Eldar and Salamanders, I spent a huge amount of time going through the Coolminiornot.com galleries looking for anything that was just gloriously inspiring.

Are you always the good guy when you play video games? Do you just hate the idea of people acting perfectly in line? The fluff behind each army is probably an indicator to whether or not you'd enjoy it. So far, I haven't met a single goodie-two shoes who would enjoy purging plastic life from the tabletop while screaming "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!" It could happen, though.

Now, I'd like to know why each of you chose your specific army? What attracted you to the cry of Khorne or the Path of the Seer or to heed the Wolfcall?

Squirrel_Fish

Is the Grass Really Greener on the Other Side?

2009-10-14T21:42:00.000-05:00

Or is it just the vocal minority just being particularly vocal? I've been sick for the past two days, lying in my death bed and whatnot, hoping that this illness that's been spreading around campus isn't gonna mutate into the zombie plague.

Other than sleeping and studying for my midterm tomorrow, I've been reading quite a few forums have come across a rather common consensus.

Everyone on the forums thinks that their codex blows. That's right. Everyone (with exception to the Space Wolves players who are still on their honeymoon). All across we have complaints from Chaos Marine players, Ork players, Space Marine Players, Eldar players, Tyranid players and whatnot about how there are so many things wrong with their codex, every other army has it much better than them and how it should be GW's priority to release a new codex for their army to fix all their problems and make them the uber army of 5th edition 40k.

Why is this? Well, I think that it's just a whole lot of hodge-podge steam venting from a very vocal minority. These are the kinds of people who will go into every thread and every forum hijacking the thread into "Sisters of Battle need an update" or flaunt their own superiority for choosing to play with an outdated codex. I don't really see why they have to do this. Frankly, you CHOOSE your army and before making a $300+ investment in models, you presumably understand the decision you are making. No one is forcing you to play Sisters, Daemonhunters, Dark Eldar or Necrons. You made the decision.

Yes, the Chaos Space Marine codex was effectively castrated fluff wise in terms of army building. Most players are going to accept this and realize that it also opens up tons of army building options. Yes, the Witch Hunters codex is old and harder to play. But that is the nature of anything with a metagame. As the metagame evolves, some options get left behind and some options become awesome. Your army will never be on top forever (I remember the fall of the Dual Biker Nobz list to the IG - a list that was supposedly fool proof in execution).

To sum it up - every player has a choice in the army that they play and should choose it carefully. When starting an army, you should realize that the game will change and evolve as new armies and codexes are released. No army will be perfect forever, no strategy is unbeatable. We play a game that is as quick to change as the seasons.

My Jawaballs' Contest Submission

2009-10-08T21:25:00.000-05:00

Hey folks, just throwing these pics out for your judgment.

Making the Outdated Usable

2009-10-07T23:29:00.002-05:00

Image Courtesy of Games Workshop

You know what I've got? Army fever. Not for the new Space Wolves. Furry Marines never really peaked my interest. Rather, my interest has been captured by the armies that were "left behind" in the edition change. Namely, the Dark Eldar.

The reason why I want to give the pointy hats a try is that the tactical side intrigues me. I find the glass cannon gamble rather exhilarating, so I'll throw together some builds and hope for the best.

Now, the few Dark Eldar players out there tend to be very vocal about how much their codex is outdated and not particularly competitive. It most definitely is outdated, but I'd argue that it still has a reasonable amount of competitive bite.

The metagame is currently leaning heavily towards mech based builds and a dependence on Melta-suicide teams as the premiere anti-tank option, meaning that if you're shot down, you are within striking range.
They have the fastest, cost-efficient (not to mention flimsiest) troop transports in the game. The Raider is 55 points, but is still very effective. Move flat-out turn 1, put an expendable Raider to block LOS to your Archon's Raider and by turn two, you'll have a very scary Dark Eldar Lord lopping off heads, kicking ass and taking names (and slaves, lots of slaves).
The ability to spam enough Dark Lances to make an armored company cry.
Wyches make the assault troops of all other armies throw down their weapons and give up.
Last but not least, arguably THE most killy character/retinue/unit in the game - the Archon with Incubi can throw out a huge amount of high initiative power weapon attacks that will more than likely cripple the enemy before he can even swing back.

As with all codexes, you've got to keep in mind what is effective and what isn't. Seeing as how a good 60% of the codex is worthless in this day and age, we've got to make do with what we have. I'll share some builds and other opinions later. For now, sleep.

Squirrel_Fish

Cake, Baseball and Space Wolves

2009-10-06T21:50:00.000-05:00

Last weekend was my birthday, so I spent most of it celebrating as opposed to working on homework which was put off. Today was the Twins vs Tigers where every nerve and emotion in my body was tugged around like a teddy bear at a daycare center. Anywho, time to show you what I've been up to in the past week. Here is the (mostly) finished Brother Goriel for Jawaballs' painting competition. I still have to get him on a base and varnish him, but the varnishing will probably wait until after I take the final pictures.

Now, I got the Space Wolves codex in the mail last night (No FLGS out here in the Minnesotan Tundra) and took the liberty of making a couple lists. And I've got to say it doesn't live up to the hype for me. Sure, you can field four uber psykers and some super killy troops. Sure, you can field an all-terminator army. But I don't think it will be enough. If you do max out the super killy units (whenever it's discovered), you're reducing your model count by a huge margin making it even easier for more balanced armies to just table you with even one or two lost units.

Now, JotWW is a super cool psychic power. But by getting more than 2 rune priests, you're going overboard. Remember - JotWW does not affect vehicles. What style of army is 'in' right now? MECH! Every tactical marine/commander/Khorne Berserker/Plague Marine/Sorcerer will just laugh at you from inside their Rhino. And oh wait, you spent about 500+ points on just four models? Meaning that couple lucky missile launchers or whatever can just finish you outright. That's fantastic.

Remember back in the day when Nob Bikerz were the king of the world? Well, think of that, only instead of two squads of Nobz, you have 3-4 squads of Marines. Marines are easier to kill, lucky you...You just need to stay out of arm's reach or failing that, feed the Wolves a unit and finish them off next turn.

C&C welcome,

Squirrel_Fish

Brother Goriel - Blood Angels Terminator Update

2009-09-29T22:50:00.000-05:00

With very little homework, work and practicing needed for tonight, I got some more work done on Brother Goriel for Jawaballs' Blood Angels Terminator Contest.

As a solution to highlighting red, I've been using a highlight of elf flesh, followed by the lightest highlight of bleached bone. I'm considering adding another layer of highlights just to make it really pop out.

Some touch-ups and final details (blood drops, various gems, the genestealer corpse) and then I will probably call it a finished model.

As always, C&C welcome.

Codex: Necrons and What We Expect/Need

2009-09-29T01:23:00.000-05:00

As some of you may or may not know, my first 40k army was actually Necrons. I started playing them late 4th edition because I loved the fluff and how the fit into the Grimdark that is the 40k Universe. Needless to say, I got kinda fed up with how well they actually performed and moved onto the Eldar. A recent conversation with a friend, however, got me to thinking what we can expect/hope from the next update of the Codex.

1) Price cuts across the board - everything is much more expensive and not as effective as the equivalents in other armies. When it gets to the point where so called "elite" armies are starting to outnumber the Crons, we have a problem.

2) Effective close combat unit(s) or reducing the impact of CC - the army is particularly vulnerable to assault simply because Necron Warriors just can't compete with other units in assault - heck, even the Tactical Marine laughs at us. This can be solved by allowing smaller squad sizes for Warriors (to reduce the loss of a sweeping advance), making our current 'cc' units effective (Wraiths, Flayed Ones namely - no power weapons? Wtf?) or by just outright making us harder to kill in CC. On another note - I'd like to see Pariahs gain the Necron rule. The pinnacle of alien technology and it can't self-repair? Laaammmeee.

3) More varieties in the HQ slots rather than a 300+ point C'tan or plain Jane Necron Lord. I personally would like (in addition to the Necron Lord) options that change up the FOC - seeing as that seems to be very 'in' with codices as of late. I have concepts of the Flayed Lord (allows Flayed Ones as troops choices) or the Pariah Lord (Pariahs as troops choices) in my head as well as things like Machine Lords which make the entire army more durable.

4) Ways to get from point A to B quickly. 5th ed. being such a objective focused game, movement becomes even more important and footslogging it across the field/floating six inches a turn doesn't work well at all. APC's don't make much sense for the Necrons, who should be using something a little more mysterious in nature. Thus, I envisioned something that I call the "Gauss Gate". Imagine something the size of a Drop Pod Deep Striking in. Once it arrives, units coming in from Reserve may treat a Gauss Gate as your table edge. Units may 'enter' a Gauss Gate in the same fashion as boarding a vehicle or entering a building. The unit is removed from play and return the next turn from any Gauss Gate they choose and may reroll any of their failed WBB saves. Think of this mechanic like the Monolith (whose gate will also be considered a Gauss Gate). These things will cost a pretty penny in points and will also be somewhat fragile compared to the rest of the army.

5) Removal of phase out. No, it isn't a balancing factor seeing as how you can wipe everything off the board and be victorious. It's easier to kill stuff than to keep stuff alive.

6) Overall streamlining of the rules. WBB turns to FNP (and the Resurrection Orb negates the negators of FNP), Gauss becoming more efficient (wounds models with a toughness value on a 6 and count as rending vs Vehicles, maybe?).

7) Cost efficient, effective anti-tank. With Gauss being unreliable now, there has to be an effective way to field some heavy weapons without paying half the army for it.

Those are pretty much my main points. I know there are other things that can be improved, but this would be a great start if GW got on this *hint*hint*nudge*nudge*.

C&C welcome, as always.

Blood Angels Terminator - Jawaballs' Painting Contest

2009-09-27T18:27:00.000-05:00

Hey folks,

I'd just like to show you some of my WiP pics for my submission to Jawaballs' painting contest. I decided to go with this particular model since I felt it showed the sheer tenacity of the Blood Angels and their refusal to accept defeat. Men die, heroes live forever.

Primed and Basecoated

First Coat of Red

Rear View

Things will only stand to get more red from here. I'm also trying to experiment to see what I can use to highlight red without getting pink or something that looks super orange.

C&C welcome, as always.

Squirrel_Fish

Free Hand and Photography

2009-09-20T16:21:00.000-05:00

Hey guys,

Back from a long week-end of rehearsals and tuba-playing. Just showing off what little I managed to get done before I had to leave in a hurry.

This is my first attempt at some larger free hand. Be gentle with me!

A question I'd like to pose to you guys - how do you take pictures and what do you insist on using?

My camera is a Sanyo 5-megapixel...thing. It's been in the family for a while and I took it to school with me and I use my roommate's camera because mine frustrates me to no end.

My camera

My roommate's camera

As you can see, the color difference is HUGE. The second picture is very clear and all the details are present - whereas my photos are hued differently. What do you recommend doing for photo's on a budget?

Squirrel_Fish

What I've Been Up To

2009-09-14T20:27:00.000-05:00

So I've been at college for a solid three weeks now and have gotten little to none done (seeing as how I'm taking 19 credits and am a music major, that's not surprising -_-)

Anywho, here are some pics now that I got my camera working. Unfortunately, said pics still suck because I can't afford a nice camera.

This is the Tau Battlesuit 'Helios'that I slapped together a little while ago. It still needs some touch-ups to ease up on the highlights and cover up some slips, but overall it's done. I wanted to add some glowing effects from the lens, plasma rifle and multi-tracker a lot more prominent.

Next, some of the Salamanders that I've been working on.

Tactical Squad Flamers - the different colors on the trim of the right shoulder pad designate which squad the marine belongs to.

Now, for all of you folks out there with lower end cameras, how do you get decent pictures out there onto your blogs?

As always, C&C welcome.

Squirrel_Fish

Staying on Top of Projects

2009-09-08T20:41:00.003-05:00

So me being me and being easily caught up in new projects - I picked up a squad of Space Marine Scouts, the first piece of my next project - the Ultramarines 10th Company.

However, this puts my Warhammer queue up to:

24 Tactical Marines (Bolters/Flamers)

3 Multi-Melta Marines

3 Tactical Sergeants (needs assembling)

8 Sternguard Veterans

1 Sternguard Sergeant (needs assembling)

4 Terminators

2 Rhinos

1 Razorback

1 Predator

3 Dreadnoughts

1 Land Raider Crusader/Redeemer

Everything from Space Hulk

5 Space Marine Scouts

So I pose this question to all of you out there - how do you stay on top of projects? Is there some sort of magic button that encourages you to paint faster than you buy or plan projects? Is there some other motivation in it for you (commissions, contests, ToP's)?

The table is yours,

Squirrel_Fish

Sacrificing Units - The Who, the When, The Why

2009-09-06T01:32:00.000-05:00

I'm home from school for labor day weekend and I managed to get in a game against one my friends - who was running his tyranids.

The game was killpoints and I won 8 to 1. Despite this, I still learned quite a few things, mainly when or why you would sacrifice units.

Who makes a good sacrificial unit? Any unit that you have redundancy in or is otherwise not a huge loss when it dies. This can be anywhere from a combat squad of Space marines to Space Marine Scouts to a squad of Guardsmen being led by a Commissar. The consideration you have to make whether or not the unit can easily be broken in combat. I feed my foe Rhinos once my use for them has dwindled. Which leads me to...

When do you want to do this? This is the hardest part to judge - if you know for sure that the unit you feed your opponent will die on his turn, you want to give him the charge or the opportunity to light your guys up. That way, when it rolls over to your turn, you can get some revenge kills in. However, if your unit is tough enough that they can withstand one turn of assault (or he just can't do enough damage to kill all of them in a single turn), then you should charge him on your turn (assuming you have the opportunity). You deny him some attacks, meaning that (hopefully) you'll survive til your opponent's Assault Phase, where he will finish you off and leave himself an open target for your vindication. Now, if you plan on assaulting with your sacrificial unit - you want it to be hard to break. The worst thing that can happen is that your squad gets wiped out or caught in a sweeping advance, allowing your opponent the opportunity to shoot/assault with impunity at your other targets. If you plan on passively feeding him a squad (ie. bait) then make it as easy to kill as possible.

Why? By sacrificing a unit, you can buy yourself time by drawing the fire/assault away from your other units. A common example of this is a squad of kroot hiding in woods and screening the fire warriors behind it. The enemy's assault troops will have to deal with the kroot before they can tear into the fire warriors. Alternatively, by putting a lone (yet somewhat juicy) target away from your other units unsupported, you have a piece of bait that you can use to lure a unit or two away from the main hustle and bustle of the battle.

Those are my 3W's for today. C&C welcome!

Squirrel_Fish

SM Special Characters and Chapter Tactics

2009-09-04T00:20:00.000-05:00

It's made pretty clear in the SM codex that when there are two characters with the "Chapter Tactics" rule, you must choose which one is active. Now, what I want to ask is if you would consider worth it to take two of these characters.

I've been considering adding more Terminators to my Salamanders army (what can I say? These things are hella fun to paint and assemble) but want to avoid using another squad of assault terminators since I'd have to get another Land Raider to chauffeur them around in. My issue though is that regular terminators don't quite have enough 'ooph' unless fielded en masse or are...

Fielded with Captain Lysander. For 200 points, you get a 4 W Eternal Warrior with a S10 MC Thunder Hammer with Termie armor and a Storm Shield. That's not all folks! You get a +1 Cover save to a set of ruins of your choice and you get the fantastic Bolter Drill rule, meaning those Storm Bolters are now pretty awesome! However, I've gotten some criticism, saying that it's a waste of Lysander's Chapter Tactics. I say - who cares? He (and most of the Space marine characters) are a bargain for what you pay for. If I wanted Terminator armor, a storm shield and a thunder hammer on a regular captain, I'd be paying a solid 170 points. For 30 more points, I get another wound, rerolls with Bolters in his squad, eternal warrior and a better cover save. Worth it.

So my next 1750 list is gonna be this:

Vulkan
Lysander
Terminator Assault Squad (5 TH/SS)
Terminator Squad (Cyclone Missile Launcher, Chainfist)
Tactical Squad (Flamer, Multi-Melta, Sergeant Power Weapon/Meltabombs)
Rhino

Tactical Squad (Flamer, Multi-Melta, Sergeant Power Weapon/Meltabombs)

Rhino

Tactical Squad (Flamer, Multi-Melta, Sergeant Power Weapon/Meltabombs)

Rhino

Land Raider Redeemer (Multi-Melta)

Total: 1750

C&C?

Squirrel_Fish

Hammer Units - Size Matters?

2009-08-30T21:43:00.000-05:00

So I got in a game with my roommate today and after losing three TH/SS Terminators to small arms fire (and another one in CC before , I got to thinking - how big should the "hammer" unit of an army be?

The larger the unit, the more costly (duh), but you also retain a lot more bite even with a few casualties (while in say a 5 man unit of Terminators or 4 man Seer Council, losing one or two of them HURTS).

What's your opinions?

On a side note - I finished painting my first Terminator yesterday and am working on basing it today. As soon as I get my camera back from the shop (this weekend) I'll throw up some pics.

List Theory - Unbalanced Lists

2009-08-27T14:17:00.000-05:00

When most people build lists, they go for a very mixed and balanced approach. However, most codexes have the potential to throw enough bodies or armor at your opponent to frustrate him beyond belief. I am, of course, talking about the Unbalanced List.

The Unbalanced List is not necessary an overpowered or broken one, simply one that aims to maximize a certain strength in order to completely minimize or make ineffective the impact of a balanced list.

By removing one or more elements entirely from your list and using those points to further enhance another element, you create the unbalanced list. Examples are the Imperial Guard Armored Company (a couple infantry squads, command squad - all in Chimeras, and then more Leman Russes than you can shake a stick at.), the Ork Horde, Nidzilla, Elfzilla, IG Infantry spam, Dreadnought/Kan spam, and so on so forth.

The idea is to completely overwhelm your opponent's ability to nullify your strong point (Kill their templates, anti-armor weapons or fast movers) and then just clean up everything else. The beautiful thing is that even it takes you two or three turns to wipe out your opponent's anti-armor (and you lose one or two pieces in the process), you still have enough armor on the board to be a credible threat that they might not even be able to deal with effectively.

What are your thoughts on the Unbalanced List?

Squirrel_Fish

The Key to Winning - Playing Disruptively

2009-08-22T19:20:00.000-05:00

Alright, first off - I'd like to preface this by saying I'm a little frustrated with myself. I was working on 'this' post last night, closed my computer, woke up this morning and started moving all my stuff to the my college apartment, which is a three hour drive from home. After finally unpacking everything, I finally got back to writing this and accidentally closed the window, losing a good page of material. -_-

On to the topic - playing disruptively. When most players write an army list, they usually have some sort of game plan in mind, whether it's to fly around and pick up the win/tie on turn 5 or to throw enough kill your way to table you by turn 3.

Whatever their strategy is, your strategy becomes to counter it in a suitable fashion, making their tidal wave of bloodthirsty killers wash harmlessly against the beach, and then laugh maniacally as you kill it dead.

The first (and probably most important step) is to look at your opponent's army and to understand the role of each unit in the army:

1) What can each unit do (alone or with support)?
2) How much damage can take before it's relatively ineffectual?
3) When/where is it strongest (early game, late game, in your face, at a distance, in cover, out of LOS, etc)?

The faster you can do this, the better. No one likes to be kept waiting for 20 minutes to start a game just so you can plan a Machiavellian victory.

Then, ask yourself these questions in order to gauge your weaknesses. Is your army particularly vulnerable to shooting or assault? Is it mobile or static? Is it tough and resilient or are you wearing tissue for armor?
When you're done, prioritize the enemy targets. Your goal is to nullify your opponent's strengths, while simultaneously covering your weaknesses.

1) In just about all cases, I make it my first priority to cripple the opponent's ability to respond to you by wiping out his transports (or if there aren't any, then his other mobile elements). Turn one, I leave only my durable units on the board, while the fragile elements usually stick back in Reserve.

2) After his mobile elements are either crippled or destroyed, your goal is to destroy or nullify the greatest threat to your army. If it's a shooting unit, assault it or use some LOS creatively (Rhino walls are a common tactic) to try and negate some hits.

If it's an assault unit, you have three options. You can either shoot enough bullets at it to make it a nice pincushion, give it a speedbump, or ignore it. The key to a speedbump is that your sacrificial unit (volunteers please!) HAS to die in the opponent's charge. That way, you're free to shoot the snot out of him next turn. If he kills you on your turn, then his assault squad can continue to hack n' slash through another unit. The last option is harder for many armies to pull off - you have to either negate their speed or just be naturally faster than them and play a giant game of cat and mouse.

3) Play Clean Up - On the last two or three turns, you can consolidate your objectives, mop up any other targets of opportunity and play conservatively. The faster your army is, the later you can jump onto objectives.

In a nutshell, that's your battle plan. Assess, Destroy, ????, Profit.

C&C Welcome
Squirrel_Fish

Space Hulk!

2009-08-17T14:29:00.004-05:00

Image Courtesy of GW

Being relatively new to the hobby (3 years now), I've heard many good things about the original Space Hulk boardgame, but have never had the pleasure of actually playing it. Needless to say, as soon as it was officially announced and preorders were optional, I put in my order without thinking twice. :P

I know there was a lot of griping and speculation on what the "Mystery Box" was and I'm sure quite a few people are upset and disappointed that it didn't contain what they wanted (I heard someone wishfully hoping for a plastic Thunderhawk. Yeah, right) and are now complaining and calling GW liars and frauds and other unsavory things.

Not to sound rude, but they can deal with it. This is a game that many of the younger generation of tabletop gamers have not experienced and would otherwise never have the chance to play it. From what I hear, quite a few people started playing 40k because they played one or two games of Space Hulk.

Complaints that I've read are the fact that the models are not on standard 40k bases and that the terminators are covered in Blood Angels iconography. I can understand why GW could've done otherwise and why it is the way it is.

By providing the standard 40k bases in Space Hulk, GW would basically be alowing people who have Space Hulk to use those models in 40k. On the offhand, there's a whole 'nother slew of problems that come into play then - such as possible mold limitations (assuming that the model was molded attached to the base) and how the bases would get attached (I know I was frustrated with the pegged foot deal from AoBR).

It would've been pretty easy to make the Terminators with non-chapter specific iconography, but I imagine that GW wanted to make sure the re-release was as similar to the first edition release (with some rules/miniature polishing) as possible in order to maintain that nostalgia factor for the 20 year anniversary.

Basically, I'm hoping that people will get over the fact that Space Hulk is meant to be a STAND ALONE board game, not a great deal for some Terminators. I know that when I get my box, I'm gonna play a few rounds, and paint those Terminators in all their Blood Angels splendor, stick'em in some packing foam and put'em right back in the box until the next time I play and have a great time.

What are some of your opinions on the rerelease of Space Hulk?

Squirrel_Fish

Army Envy, Model Fever, etc

2009-08-12T13:04:00.005-05:00

I'm sure we've all had it at some point or another. We play against an army or see a new model and we think "Oh, man I want that."

I know for me, this happens all the time. I have the unfortunate tendency (due to being a college student in the off-season) to make an army list (or two or three) a day using different codices. While I do think it's fun and it helps me understand what to expect from each army, I always get that desire to build or collect that specific army.

Three lists that I've done recently are a Sisters of Battle army (triple Exorcist & Callidus Assassin :D), a Thousand Sons army and a Space Marine Scout list and have seriously had to resist the urge to start buying (even though my Salamanders aren't even near completion).

Fortunately for me (or if you'd prefer, unfortunately), I have little to no money to spend on Warhammer at the time and that's my deterrent from dropping into model fever.

What do you guys do to resist the urge to buy new models?

Squirrel_Fish

Surviving the Tournament

2009-08-08T20:00:00.006-05:00

So I was at my first tournament today at Misty Mountain North in Burnsville, MN. This was my first tournament experience and I rather satisfied on how I did, given my casual army building (1 win - 2 losses). I wish I had kept the missions just for reflectionary purposes.

Should there be interest for some mini-bat-reps, just leave a comment and I'll consider working on them. No pics, unfortunately, as my camera is still on the fritz.

Seeing as I'm dead tired after the assembling marathon last night (4:45 PM to 3 AM and then 7:30 am to 8:45 am) and the shindig today, I'll give an abridged version of my lessons and expand on these in later posts (I always keep saying I'll do that, don't I?)

Lesson 1) Be Prepared Physically, Mentally and Morale-ly (I know, not a word.)

I got very little sleep the previous night. The first match, I was being powered by a muffin, a bottle of Gatorade and a bottle of Frappucino. It went well, actually, but as soon as my energy peaked off, things felt like they were going poorly for me. Even after the lunch break, my second and third match felt terribly taxing and I just was not feeling confidant. Keeping all three up is probably the key to enjoying these events.

Lesson 2) Understand the Metagame

So guess how many Space Marine players there were? Guess how many of those ran Vulkan? Basically, understand what you're facing

Lesson 3) Build the list for the Event

This was my biggest fault. I normally play in the 1500-1750 or so point values and this tournament was at 2000 points. Instead of writing a list specifically for 2000 point games, I just added on another 250 points that really didn't fit anything (mainly because I didn't have the money to spend or more models and had to make due with what I had...).

Anywho, the moral of the story is prepare, prepare, prepare and prepare some more.

Squirrel_Fish

Sternguard Veteran Completed

2009-08-05T12:07:00.004-05:00

Hey all,

It's been a long week for me with work and trying to help my friends out with their armies.

I have a friend who (in the last week and a half) has purchased two Tyranid Battleforces, a box of Gaunts, a Hive Tyrant and a Tyrant Guard. Unfortunately, he's still got two more Battleforces coming in on Friday and everything has to be assembled by Saturday for the Tournament. On the plus side, I've figured out how to magnetize a Carnifex.

Anywho, I managed to put together my Predator and magnetize all the sponsons and turrets.

Unfortunately, my camera is on the fritz, so no picture worth uploading. :(

However, here are pics of the Sternguard Prototype fully painted and based.

As always, C&C Welcome

Salamanders Sergeant Bamf

2009-07-28T19:40:00.006-05:00

Something I finished working on early this afternoon - Salamanders Sergeant Bamf. For my WiP Salamanders army, I ended up having a few extra bodies to toy around with and hopefully make some awesome looking dudes - this was the first of them.

I learned a few things when working on this. This model was the first time I got to use the Citadel washes and I have got to say I'm in love with them. I tried using the Salamanders transfers on the left shoulder pad, but the curvature of it made it a huge hassle and I've decided to abandon it for now. Free handing it is an option but is a bit of a stretch for me. The plasma glow was a bit of a test for me - I wanted to try something new and a bit more difficult. I'm rather satisfied with it although it would've looked much more interesting had the plasma pistol been in his right hand.

C&C welcome as always

Misty Mountain North Tournament

2009-07-27T15:56:00.002-05:00

Hey folks,

Misty Mountain North, one of the bigger game stores in the Twin Cities area, is hosting a 40k Tournament on August 8th. I'll be there along with at least one of my friends, who will probably be playing his 'nids.

Anyways, we're supposed to bring a 2000 point list to this shindig - something that I'm not accustomed to at all. Using every single Eldar model at my disposal and tooling up all of them, I managed to barely come up to that total.

Farseer w/ Doom, Fortune, Spirit Stones, Jetbike, Singing Spear and Runes of Warding (173)
Warlock x3 w/ Jetbikes, Destructor x2, Embolden & Singing Spear (163)
Autarch w/ Mandiblasters, Power Weapon, Fusion Gun & Warp Jump Generator (125)
Dire Avenger x10 w/ Exarch, Dual Shuripult, Bladestorm (152)
Wave Serpent w/ TL Bright Lance, Shuriken Cannon, Spirit Stones, Star Engines, Vectored Engines (190)
Guardians x10 w/ Scatter Laser, Spiritseer Warlock w/ Embolden (131)
Pathfinder x5 (120)
Fire Dragon x6 w/ Exarch, Dragon's Breath Flamer, Crack Shot (113)
Warp Spider x9 w/ Exarch, Dual Death Spinner, Power Blades, Withdraw (240)
Falcon w/ Scatter Laser, Shuriken Cannon, Holofields, Spirit Stones, Star Engines, Vectored Engines (220)
Wraithlord w/ Bright Lance, Eldar Missile Launcher, Flamer x2 (155)
Dark Reaper x5 w/ Exarch, Tempest Launcher & Crack Shot (217)

Total: 1999

This is by no means an optimum list - it's what I have and I'm gonna have to make the best of it (being a poor college student and all). I can see some ups and downs - I have enough contingency in both anti-horde, volume of fire and anti-tank to be able to bear the loss of one (maybe two) units and make it out okay. As I look at what I've put together, shooting is going to be my strong suit - but against IG or Tau I will have to get in their face with my more mobile elements.

If I had some handy, I'd totally throw another troops choice in - I guess I'm just gonna have to be really efficient with how I take/contest objectives.

The Autarch will be attached to the Warp Spiders and they (along with my Seer Council) will be problem solvers - they'll fly back and forth and cover my lines from assaulters by putting enough shots into a Doomed unit to kill them twice over or they (along with the grav tanks) will fly forward and hammer away at units.

I'm actually rather happy with the presence of the Dark Reapers. In 5th edition they haven't been very powerful due to the onset of mechanized armies and cover saves abound. However, I feel that there's enough high-strength long range shooting pop a few transports turn 1 or 2 and then pound away at power armored dudes.

Things that I will have to watch out for:

Drop Pod lists - Following Fritz's example, I will keep everything in reserve in order to hopefully nullify any advantages that the first strike will give them.
Nidzilla - I can barely kill 4 TMC's as it is, 7 or 8 will probably make me cry like a little girl.
Dual Lash + Oblit Spam - The only thing I've got going for me is Runes of Warding and hopefully enough shots to kill Daemon Princes/Sorcerors in one turn.
Nob Bikers - If the metagame has truly taken them out of the picture, I won't have to worry. But once again, hopefully I have enough high strength shots and volume of fire to take them out before they take me out.
Horde Lists - I've sacrificed a bit of volume of fire in exchange for some Bright Lances, so I'll have to be very careful about where my flamer templates are on the board.
AV14 spam (Tri Monolith, Land Raider Spam, Leman Russ Spam etc) - Hopefully, get up close with the Seer Council and all my fusion guns while blasting away with Bright Lances.

As always, C&C welcome.

Playing Nice - The Way to Win (In Life)?

2009-07-27T01:50:00.005-05:00

Above is a Tau Battlesuit that I put together for gits and shiggles. I'm probably going to end up giving it to my girlfriend, seeing as she likes the Tau, wants to learn 40k but has no income that can be used on the hobby.

Anyways, onto the topic - playing nice. I'm not talking about good sportsmanship (although that's another topic to talk about at some point), I'm instead bringing up the idea of 'casual' play, the kind of play where you just sit down, have a drink with your buddies and laugh as you decide to conga-line 20 some Ork Boyz across 3 objective markers.

I've felt recently that (with the exception of Chaos Dan), many of my friends just haven't been able to offer me an interesting game (in 1v1 situations) and it was only last night that I've realized why.

Anyone who has read my blog a bit knows that I don't get to play much at all. In order to make up for this, I like to read lots of battle-reports, tactical thoughts and theory. However, while I do this in my spare time out in the far off plains of Minnesota (I go to school out there), my friends are doing other things. So while I'm spending my time keeping up with the meta-game of 40k and the latest army builds/counters, they're off playing Halo or something. Compared to them (and in complete contrast to my own opinion), I'm a hardcore player and tend to bring some pretty tough lists to the table.

JWolf from BoLS had an editorial a little while back that brought up the question "What's the most important thing to you?" and my initial response was "To have fun with my friends" yet I've completely forgotten that. I had become one of thoes "Win at all costs" guys who spends way too much time maximizing his odds when his opponent's are playing an army made of 2 battleforces. Instead, I got caught up in the competitiveness of the game, crunching numbers, banging out lists to maximize effectiveness and it wasn't until yesterday that I realized that neither my friends nor I were having fun when I would repeatedly insert my foot into their posterior.

So effective immediately, I'm changing the way I play with my friends. Unless they ask me to go balls out or if it's a tournament, I'm gonna play around with weaker/stranger lists see if they work (or even better - if I can make them work).

Couple of Concepts that I have:

Space Marine 10th Company (Scouts and etc)
Craftworld Iyanden (Yriel, Wraithguard units, Wraithlords etc)
The Pinning Army (Rangers, Dark Reapers, lots of Eldar Missile Launchers)
Swooping Hawk Pogo (Autarch/Baharroth or Autarch/Autarch, Swooping Hawks x3)
Master of the Forge/6 Dreadnoughts

As always, C&C welcome!

Squirrel_Fish

Sternguard Prototypes Update

2009-07-24T11:15:00.003-05:00

So I got my Dark Elf Corsair cloaks in the other day and spent most of last night trying to figure out how to fit them onto Space Marine backpacks.

Here's a couple shots on how the first came out looking.

C&C?

Edit: Added a rearview shot of the cloak

Playing Aggressively - The Key to Winning?

2009-07-22T16:26:00.003-05:00

So I managed to get half a game in with my friend Chaos Dan yesterday before it started raining (he had the brilliant idea of playing in his backyard, so we had to call it quits). Anyways, I noticed that the one thing that he does differently from everyone else is play aggressively.

Just about everyone else I play with has a rather passive or timid playstyle - they tend to sit down where they are and rarely do anything to turn momentum in their favor. In 5th edition - this doesn't get you anywhere. By giving your opponent slack and by not keeping pressure on him, you allow him to gather his own momentum and turn the game around through either cunning (better positioning to attack) or sheer force (waiting for reserves).

By playing aggressively, by pushing where your enemy's army is weak or by making good use of whatever advantages you have, you're effectively denying your opponent the ability to fight back and you can continue to push to victory with relative ease. It's a simple idea - keep him on his toes and he won't be able to mount an effective counterattack.

Just don't get carried away with killing the ene- BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! *ahem* See? Keep a level head and think about what you're doing - if it's the bottom of turn 4 and you hold/contest no objectives, there's a huge problem. You're better off guaranteeing the win by securing more objectives than by trying to table the opponent.

Now, what do you do if you're facing an opponent that's equally aggressive or even more so? Play reactively. Many of you have probably read Way of the Water Warrior but if you haven't, do yourself a favor and read it as soon as you're done with this post. Should your opponent gain the upper hand (or start with it), the best thing you can do is to try and deny him of his advantages. Vulkan list? Stay further than 12" away and keep blasting away. Imperial Guard? Move from cover to cover until you can get into CC or disable their armor. Orks? SHOOT THEM HARDER and deny them the charge. If you can halt their momentum or at least make it ineffective (I'm looking at you, 3 Ork Boyz Mob!), then take what you have and strike decisively in order to turn the game around again.

Thoughts?

Anywho, that's my rambling for the day. I have a band concert (it's tuba time!) later tonight, so I've got to get ready for that. I'll leave you with two pics.

I got bored and slapped this badboy together. Sergeant Bamf, wielding bolt-pistol and plasma pistol. I decided to add mini-bayonets as a compromise to myself (I originally was thinking dual chain-swords for SLASHY-DAKKA action).

Vulkan He'stan. I caved and ordered this badboy. I'm glad that the spear came as a seperate piece - I'll be reposing that thing for sure. A disappointment though is the weird fire-banner on his backpack. That thing feels like it'll snap off in a breeze.

Some Salamanders WiP

2009-07-17T14:23:00.004-05:00

Hey everyone,

Just a couple quick pics of what I've been working on.

First off - a Land Raider Crusader/Redeemer. I need to scrape away some glue residue. Wait, what's that? No sponsons or hatches...?

Behold the power of magnets!

Here, we have 27 Space Marines armed with Bolters. Bolters aren't attached yet to make the painting process easier, but you get the idea. In the back row, you can see 5 Terminators armed with Thunder Hammers and Storm Shields. Shields are to be affixed to the terminators after painting.

A work in progress Rhino. The right hatch on this badboy is magnetized, while the left one is glued on because I failed to think in advance. -_-

I still have to paint the indicators and headlights.

A closeup of the Rhino. Painting battledamage is thoroughly frustrating, but even a little bit of it goes a long ways to adding some character what would otherwise be a green box.

Space Marine Goals

Complete all my conversion work by the beginning of August.
Have everything based and primed by early August.
From there, paint at least 300 points a month.
Show off the pics.
Cleanse the heretic.

C&C on the Painting/Assembly welcome!

Squirrel Fish's Eldar Army Complete!

2009-07-15T23:17:00.002-05:00

Hey all, like I promised, here are the final pics of the Eldar army. Enjoy!

Mechanized Armies - My Thoughts

2009-07-13T17:04:00.003-05:00

It's been a while since I've posted, but life keeps us down in the form of obnoxious internet and computer related problems. But lo! They have been fixed.

I just read one of Goatboy's posts on BoLS and everything he says is really right on the dot. If you haven't read it, read it. It's worth the time.

I played a nice big multi-player game the yesterday at 3000 points each; Eldar/Tau vs. SM/SM/Dark Angels Double-Wing. The game was Kill Points with long table edges. I was expecting to get have terminators and drop pods down my throat almost immediately, but I was wrong. My Tau ally and I deployed first, placing down our immobile elements (Dark Reapers and Broadsides) in big firing lanes and then all of our tanks (1 Wave Serpent, 1 Falcon, 3 Devilfish and 1 Hammerhead) and our other mobile units (Seer Council, Crisis suits) near the middle of the table in order to respond to our enemy's deployment. Our infiltrators (Rangers and Stealth suits) sat down near the middle of the table on elevated ground for commanding fields of fire.

As our opponents deployed, my Tau ally and I looked at each other with a "...Really?" look on our faces. There was not a single troop transport on their side of the board beyond a single Land Raider Redeemer. Nearly all their models were going to be foot-slogging it across the board, with the exception of a squad of Ravenwing Bikers, Pedro Kantor + Huge Honor Guard in the Land Raider and a Ravenwing Land Speeder. Heck, even Captain Sicarius was gonna be making moves on foot.

Needless to say, our side won the final battle some 9-10 kill points to 4. However, I feel strongly that the reason is not because we used cheesy lists or because the odds were just stacked in our favor. I think it's because we had very few static elements in our respective lists - everything that wasn't sniping or toting heavy weapons was locked in a troop transport for quite some time before seeing the light of day (in the case of a Fire Warrior squad, never seeing the day at all).

Random Reader: "But Squirrel Fish! Transports give up kill points! It's not worth it!"

NO! It is worth it, even if it can give up a kill point. Even in a Kill Point game, the lone Rhino or Chimera or Wave Serpent allows its squad to choose its battles; the when and the where. By being able to maneuver around the battlefield, you can bring your fire to bear on your opponent's weak points and straggling squads. If their army is turtled up or is advancing as one solid column, your superior mobility gets you to their weak side, where you can spectacularly crush them.

However, for sheer metagame reasons I do like my long range anti-tank weapons. The current environment says that melta is the weapon of choice for special weapons teams and they're right. The only downside is that you have to be right up in their face to use it and more than likely, that melta-squad is gonna bite the dust the following turn.

Because of this, I still insist on keeping a few shots of some longer ranged anti-tank weapons on hand. As delicious as that 200+ point Leman Russ looks to kill, your first target should be the enemy's troop transports. If you cripple/hamper the enemy's able to respond to your own movements, the rest of the game becomes simply dissecting their army.

Anywho, this has turned into a much longer post that I had originally thought out. Next time, pics of my completed Eldar and pics of the WiP Space Marines.

C&C always welcome!

Squirrel_Fish

Tutorial: Combi-Melta

2009-07-03T11:31:00.007-05:00

It's time for CONvergance down in the Twin Cities and I find myself taking a break in order to share how I make my Combi-Meltas. A minor update on some things: my Wave Serpent is finally completed, meaning that my Eldar army is (relatively speaking) complete! My Salamanders WIP is coming along as well. I have one Tactical Squad and two rhinos fully built, the Rhinos are also magnetized so I can swap out the hatches at my whim.

Tutorial: Combi-Melta

If you're like me, you don't have the money to buy a dozen or so Combi-Meltas from the Commander sprue. So here we go, a combi-melta from the tactical sprue!

Requires:

Boltgun

Meltagun

X-acto Knife

File

Super Glue

Greenstuff (optional)

Step 1) Clean both the meltagun and boltgun of any moldlines. If you like to use your pin vise to make holes in the barrels, do this now.

Step 2) Take your bolter and make the following cuts. Keep the part with the muzzle and the grip.

This is what you should have left over:

Step 3) Take your Meltagun and remove a small portion of the cabling closest to the barrel.

This should be your result:

Step 5) Dry fit both parts together; if there's odd gaps due to weird angles on the boltgun, file those down until the pieces are nearly flush. Use your superglue and adhere the two pieces together. Optionally; what you can do is use greenstuff to strengthen the hold and to fill in any weird gaps that might be there.

And there you have it, a simple combi-melta right out of the Tactical Squad box.

Space Marine Assembly Underway

2009-06-29T17:21:00.002-05:00

Just a quick update; it's been a busy week, but I'm making some headway into my Space Marines. So far, I've assembled one Rhino and converted a combi-melta. My first Tactical Squad is currently under the knife.

I'll post a tutorial of the next combi-melta I make.

Cheers!

Squirrel_Fish

2009-06-23T21:28:00.003-05:00

Just a short update on my eventual Space Marine army before I get ready for the Transformers 2 midnight showing.

As of today; I have the following ordered or in my possession

4 Tactical Squads

1 Terminator Assault squad

3 Rhinos

1 Razorback

1 Predator

1 Dreadnought

1 Land Raider Crusader/Redeemer

I'm considering ordering a Drop Pod along with Vulkan when Planetstrike rears it's head.

Now, one of the tactical squads I plan on converting into Sternguard using various bitz, custom shoulders from Chapterhouse Studios, and Dark Elf Corsair cloaks.

I'll post some tutorials when they're done.

Squirrel_Fish

Bacon and 40k

2009-06-23T14:13:00.005-05:00

Or, as my friend insists on calling it, the “BaCON”. Unfortunately, there were only four of us there to play. We made the bacon explosion, what I can easily describe as a delicious orgy of bacon and barbeque. Two games of 40k were played and here’s a battle report of the game that I played, trying out my Vulkan list. Unfortunately for me, I forgot to take pictures throughout the entire game. L

Salamanders vs. Chaos Space Marines 1500 points

Salamanders:

Vulkan
Tactical Squad w/ Powerfist, Combi-Melta, Flamer and Multi-Melta & Rhino
Tactical Squad w/ Powerfist, Combi-Melta, Flamer and Multi-Melta & Rhino
Tactical Squad w/ Powerfist, Combi-Melta, Flamer and Multi-Melta & Rhino
Sternguard x5 w/ Combi-Melta x3, Combi-Flamer x1, Powerfist & Razorback
Assault Terminators w/ TH/SS x5
Land Raider Redeemer w/ Extra Armor

Chaos Marines (not exactly sure on the exacts)

Typhus
Chaos Sorcerer w/ Lash
Plague Marines w/ Rhino
Khorne Berserkers, Skull Champion w/ Power Weapon
Noise Marines w/ Doom Siren, Power Weapon
Defiler w/ 2 DCCW

The mission was Seize Ground with 3 objectives. Deployment was table quarters.

I won the roll-off to place two objectives and placed one objective within my table quarter behind wall that blocked LOS to it. My opponent placed his objective in his table quarter near a building. The last objective was placed near the center of the table, slightly towards my corner.

Turn 1 Chaos: My opponent starts off by moving his two rhinos; the one carrying Plague Marines drives towards his objective and the one carrying Noise Marines drives towards the wall blocking LOS. His Defiler makes its way to my left flank in order to get a clear shot with its battlecannon. His Land Raider drives into LOS of my Land Raider Redeemer and takes a shot with a TL-Lascannon, penetrating and immobilizing my Land Raider. Defiler shoots its battlecannon at my Razorback, gets a direct hit and glances, shaking it.

Turn 1 Salamanders: One of the Rhinos moves up my left to support the Razorback, one comes up the right to support the Land Raider and the last sticks back to take the objective later in the game. Razorback and the Rhino on the right pop smoke, while my Redeemer unloads its assault cannon at the enemy Land Raider. All four shots hit, but only one manages to Rend getting a glancing hit and immobilizing the Land Raider.

Turn 2 Chaos: His rhinos continue on the way they were going, the Plague Marine rhino parking on the objective and the Noise Marine Rhino hugs the wall. Defiler continues to move up my left flank. The Land Raider takes a shot at my right Rhino, but I make my cover save. Defiler shoots his battlecannon at my Razorback again, but scatters off and doesn’t do anything.

Turn 2 Salamanders: Both my Razorback and my left Rhino move away from the Defiler, trying to bait it in closer. The Rhino on the right pulls back out of LOS of the Land Raider. The Redeemer lets rip with the assault cannon again, but fails to do anything.

Turn 3 Chaos: Defiler continues moving forward, while his Rhinos sit where they are. Defiler shoots his Battlecannon at my rhino waiting to take my objective, immobilizing it. Land Raider shoots his Lascannons at my Land Raider, penetrating and destroying my assault cannon.

Turn 3 Salamanders: Left Rhino drives up towards the defiler and pops smoke. Razorback moves forward a touch in order to get within Melta range of the Defiler next turn. The right Rhino moves up the field and disembarks, trying to bait his Khorne Berserkers out of the Land Raider and away from the objective. My Land Raider pops smoke.

Turn 4 Chaos: Noise Marines and the Sorcerer get out of their Rhino, while the Khorne Berserkers and Typhus get out of the Land Raider. Both squads move forward to get into position for the ensuing slaughter. The Defiler shoots its battlecannon at the Tactical Squad’s rhino but smoke saves me. Typhus and the Berserkers charge into the other tactical squad and slaughter 4 Tactical Marines, while I kill 2 Berserkers. ‘Miraculously’ I make my leadership test, staying in combat.

Turn 4 Salamanders: The Razorback inches forward while the left Rhino disembarks its crew. The right Rhino makes a small retreat. The left tactical squad fires its Combi-melta at the Defiler, immobilizing it. I surprisingly only lose two marines in my assault with the berserkers, while killing one of them in return. I pass my Morale check again.

Turn 5 Chaos: The Noise Marines and Sorcerer disembark from their Rhino and move into a better firing position. The Defiler then fires its battle-cannon at my objective Rhino, immobilizing it. The Sorcerer uses Lash to whip my guys into a teardrop formation, followed swiftly by sonic blasters and the Doom Siren. Two marines are left standing but are cut down in the following assault. The berserkers kill two marines and the last one flees for his life, successfully breaking away.

Turn 5 Salamanders: After that last round, I needed to do something to at least contest the objective in the middle for at least the tie. Luckily, I had a couple ideas. The Razorback drives up to 6 inches away and the Sternguard get out. The left Rhino moved up to block off LOS from the Noise Marines. The right Rhino tank-shocks 9 inches pushing the Berserkers away from the objective and coming within 3 inches to contest. My back tactical squad disembarks from their Rhino and moves up to the objective, while the retreating marine helps consolidate it. My Vulkan and my assault terminators disembark from my immobile land raider and move 6 inches and prepare to assault. Sternguard let rip with their Combi-Melta’s, destroying the battlecannon on the Defiler. Vulkan lets loose with his heavy flamer, killing 2 berserkers. Vulkan and the Terminators charge, Vulkan killing three Berserkers, Typhus killing two terminators, the Berserkers killing nothing and the Terminators kill Typhus. The remaining Berserkers pass their No Retreat saves.

We roll to see if the game goes on and it ends on turn 5 with a draw!

Things that I learned or am considering:

1) If I'm not playing Annihilation, split my tactical squads into combat squads so that the heavy weapons can do something.

2) I'm not sure if combi-melta's are reliable enough to replace meltaguns as dedicated anti-tank. This problem could be solved if I follow through on lesson 1.

3) Tank shock is awesome.

Any other things that I missed out on? C&C Welcome

Squirrel_Fish

Time Well Spent

2009-06-21T11:08:00.002-05:00

Hey guys,

Thanks for all the C&C on the Terminator Chaplain. I touched up a couple places and gave it to my friend yesterday for his party and he just couldn't stop smiling. Now hopefully he'll go and finish painting his army. :-P

Things that I did:

1) Added some shading to the skull and the chest icon. Since I don't have any of the 'new' Citadel washes, I had to water down some vermin brown and apply it carefully. The first time that I did this, however, failed miserably and I ended up getting those dreaded pooling rings. Doing some research, I tried it again but added just a touch of dish soap to the mix. Satisfied with how the wash added some depth, I re-highlighted with bleached bone. 2) With the new recipe for a wash in hand, I did the same to the gold on the Crozius. 3) Having redone the skull anyways, I decided to make the glow effect on the eyes more prominent. So after all work, I gave my friend his graduation gift and upon seeing it, he just couldn't help but smile. Next Monday when we play, I can probably expect a Terminator Chaplain leading some TH/SS Termies down my throat, but that's okay. I just hope he's inspired to go on now and finish painting his army.

Anywho, final pics! Sorry that my camera sucks.

Eldar Farseer Jetbike Done!

2009-06-19T11:53:00.003-05:00

It's been a while since I last posted, but I've been a busy, busy, busy bee helping my brother move to Fargo.

Anywho, I finished this last night and decided to throw up some pics. Couple things that I was satisfied with were the greenstuff robes and the armor on the canopy of the jetbike. Thanks to Shortsonfire79, I was rather inspired to sit down and work on that bleached bone for several layers. The spear tip came out wonderfully, but the pics don't capture it well. C&C welcome!

It's been a while since I last posted, but I've been a busy, busy, busy bee helping my brother move to Fargo.

Bacon and 40k

2009-06-14T13:58:00.004-05:00

I have a couple of friends coming into town on June 19th-21st in order to celebrate a birthday party. Instead of hitting the clubs/bars and getting completely plastered, we decided to dedicate one of those days to our two favorite things in the world - Bacon and 40k.

There'll be 8 of us total, each be running 1750 point lists. The teams will be the Imperium vs everything else. The teams break down to:

Eldar (me), Orks, Tau, Chaos Marines vs. Space Marines, Space Marines, Space Marines and Imperial Guard.

This is the list I'll be using.

Farseer w/ Runes of Warding, Spirit Stones, Doom, Fortune, Jetbike and Singing Spear (178)
3 Warlocks all w/ Destructor, Singing Spear, and Jetbike (163)
Autarch w/ Warp Jump Generator, Power Weapon, Mandiblasters, Fusion Gun (125)
10 Dire Avengers w/ Exarch, Dual Shuriken Catapult and Bladestorm (152)
- Wave Serpent w/ Spirit Stones, Star Engines and TL Scatter Laser (140)
10 Dire Avengers w/ Exarch, Dual Shuriken Catapult and Bladestorm (152)
- Wave Serpent w/ Spirit Stones, Star Engines and TL Scatter Laser (140)
9 Warp Spiders w/ Exarch, Dual Death Spinner, and Powerblades (225)
Falcon w/ Scatter Laser, Vectored Engines, Star Engines, Holofields, Spirit Stones (210)
Wraithlord w/ Wraithsword and Eldar Missile Launcher (125)
3 Dark Reapers w/ Exarch, Tempest Launcher and Crack Shot (137)

Total: 1749

Now, with 7000 points per side, this'll take the entire day to play. So we'll need a good amount of nourishment in the form of delicious, delicious bacon. So we're making two Bacon Explosions.

The recipe can be found here for those curious. When the day is over, I'll update with a battle report, assuming I survive the ensuing heart attack.

Farseer on Jetbike WIP

2009-06-12T16:35:00.002-05:00

Happy friday! I've been slowly working on my Eldar Farseer and just wanted to show off the progress a little bit. The white parts on the canopy of the jetbike are meant to look like wraithbone armor, but my greenstuff-fu is weak thus far. I'm not sure yet whether or not I want to have that be white to match the robes and regular armor of the farseer or bone to match the wraithbone armor on him. Opinions?

Salamanders Lists 1750 - C&C?

2009-06-10T23:29:00.003-05:00

I've been way to exhausted to get any painting done, so I figured I throw up a list or two.

List 1

Vulkan (190)

Tactical Squad w/ Flamer, Multimelta, Sergeant w/ Combi-Melta & Powerfist (205)

- Rhino (35)

Tactical Squad w/ Flamer, Multimelta, Sergeant w/ Combi-Melta & Powerfist (205)

- Rhino (35)

Tactical Squad w/ Flamer, Multimelta, Sergeant w/ Combi-Melta & Powerfist (205)

- Rhino (35)

Terminator Assault Squad w/ TH/SS x5 (200)

-Land Raider Redeemer w/ Extra Armor (255)

Vindicator w/ Siege Shield (125)

Now, what a lot of you are probably thinking: "Squirrel_Fish, you have no long range support!!"

My response is simply "Why do I need it? They're Space Marines, they shouldn't be far off taking shots with lascannons, they should be crushing their foes beneath the soles of their boots!" Hence the three vindicators. The demolisher cannon is easily the most well-rounded weapon in the Space Marine arsenal whether it's splattering infantry or cracking open armor (10+2d6 take highest). Now, normally with blast markers, the scatter die is not your friend. But with three vindicators, one of those is bound to hit or scatter pretty close.

Total of 7 pieces of armor on the board means that standard guns will do little to nothing until my Rhinos are popped open, and if they ignore the vindicators and land raiders, they'll regret it.

Ideally, I would drive everything up one flank. Space the three vindicators side by side, 3-4 inches apart from each other, rhinos behind the vindicators, the land raider on the flank of a Vindicator, shielding the rest of the vehicles' side armor. Once the caravan is within 24 inches, the vindicators will spread out and open fire while the Rhinos drive to where they need to and deploy tactical squads.

Space Marine Chapters - How Can I Choose?

2009-06-10T01:01:00.004-05:00

Sorry for the lull in posting, one of my friends recently had a huge family crisis and I spent my time worrying about him and doing what I can to help.

Onto today's topic, I've been going back and forth on what chapter I want to make my Space Marines, leaning heavily towards Salamanders due to my liking of the fluff and the sheer effectiveness of Vulkan's chapter tactics. However, I've also been drawn to the Imperial Fists, mostly because Captain Lysander is a scary awesome character, along with Ultramarines for sheer SMurfiness, Raven Guard for practicality of black armor and tons of other reasons.

However, I've also been pushed away from painting an entire army for various reasons, such as Salamanders being overplayed, yellow being a pain the butt to paint, Ultramarines for sheer SMurfiness and Raven Guard for a relatively boring paint scheme.

It hit me today; why not do all of them? I would paint a squad or two in differing schemes depending on how fitting they are to that role, such as having Imperial Fist Devastators, Raven Guard Assault Squads, Salamander Termies, Ultramarine Scouts and a Tactical squad with equipment suiting each chapter).

How would I make this all work together? Well, that's the title. The entire army is fighting together at the Battle for Armageddon. Normally, different chapters will avoid working together due to a sense of pride or honor, but under extenuating circumstances multiple chapters will fight together. I would make each squad come together as an army through the use of basing; trying to go for a muddy, semi-urban, warzone that will look consistent on all infantry and vehicles.

Another plus that I just thought of is that it allows me paint chapter specific models and use them without any fret, meaning I can use Lysander, Vulkan or Sicarius at my whim; the idea is that they just happen to be at the frontline with all the other chapters present.

What do you guys think and how do you feel about this? Unfluffy, fluffy? A cheesy attempt to use Dorn/Shrike in the same list? This is probably just an idea that won't be fulfilled (I hate a hodge-podge looking army and unless the basing is fabulously successful, the idea will be nix'd.)

Squirrel_Fish

Warlock and Terminator Chaplain complete!

2009-06-06T18:42:00.003-05:00

The final (?) Warlock of the Seer Council is complete and here are the pics. The only thing that I'm not entirely satisfied is the spear; I was going for an energized blade look, but it didn't work out so well. I'll probably just stick to my usual crystal look next time.

"I can tell you with no ego that this is my finest [miniature]"

- Hattori Hanzo, Kill Bill vol. 1

Okay, so that's not how the quote goes. But I am very proud with how this turned out and am sure my friend will appreciate this gift. Thanks for all of those who gave me suggestions on the gold. I ended using Vermin brown as the basecoat, followed by a brush 1:1 brown ink/Shining Gold, a 4:1 water/brown ink, followed by highlighting with shining gold again. I thought it was a little bright at first, but after hitting it with a layer of Dullcote, I was very satisfied as it subdued the brightness of the gold and gave it that ancient yet powerful look I wanted.

Next up? Eldar Wave Serpent.

Squirrel_Fish

Guardian Defenders - Worth it?

2009-06-05T12:00:00.003-05:00

In my last two games, I happened to notice that Guardian Defenderss are generally ineffective. Most of the time, they usually just end up sitting on an objective in my deployment zone and take potshots with a Scatter laser, but is ith worth the points?

Pros -

Guardians are cheap!
They can hold an objective
They have a heavy weapons platform

Cons -

Their armor save is effectively cardboard and most basic troops end up ignoring it.
Shuriken Catapults have a piddly 12" range, meaning that their heavy weapon platform is the only mid-long range shooting they have
BS 3, meaning that their heavy weapon platform is going to be missing 50% of the time

Personally, I think that the Guardian Defenders are just too many points for a single heavy weapon and that those points could probably be better used on more Dire Avengers or Rangers. Heck, using Rangers/Pathfinders as a unit to sit down on my objective tends to be more effective since their better BS, higher cover save, ability to pin, sniper weapons and ability throw out AP1/Rending wounds means that they can more effectively defend an area.

So what are your opinions on the Eldar Guardians? Are they worth it? Have you been able to use them effectively and am I just doing it wrong?

Cheers,

Squirrel_Fish

Jetbike Warlock + Terminator Chaplain WIP's

2009-06-04T00:38:00.005-05:00

Well, after I got home from work today (painting houses over the summer, funny how that works, huh?), I decided to bust out the paint jars and get to work.

I threw down some basecoats on the Warlock and also sketched an idea for a freehand pattern on the jetbike canopy.

Now, I have a friend who's graduating from High School soon and has been collecting his army for quite some time now, yet has barely made a dent in the painting of it. So, in commemoration of his passing high school, I decided to get him (in my opinion) one of the most gorgeous Space Marine sculpts in the line and paint it as lovingly as I possibly can.

Some WIP's:

The browns on the Crozius, the belt buckle, chains and halo are the base coats for my golds, which I'll do later this week. Hopefully, it'll end up better than my other attempts at gold paint.

So if anyone is reading this, how do you paint your golds?

Squirrel_Fish

Next on the Painting Table

2009-06-03T15:54:00.004-05:00

Warlock #3, primed and ready to paint. More pics to come as soon as progress is made.

Squirrel_Fish

Eldar Seer Council; half done

2009-06-01T14:52:00.004-05:00

So, over the course of two and a half years now, I'm nearing the completion of my Eldar army - the only things left on the table are a Farseer on Jetbike, a Warlock on a Jetbike and a Wave Serpent.

Just to give you a teaser, here's the first two completed Warlocks from the Seer Council.

It's About Time That I Did This

2009-06-01T13:39:00.000-05:00

Hey folks,

This is the Squirrel_Fish talking. I've been a long time reader of many Warhammer 40k related blogs (BoLS, Fritz's "Way of Saim Hann" and Jawaballs' Blood Angels blogs to name a few) and figured that it's about time for me to actually start one of my own.

A little about me, I'm a college student in located in Minnesota. During school sessions, I get exiled towards an inhospitably small town in western Minnesota where there is little to no 40k action and am forced to focus on the modeling aspect instead.

Now, I'd like to give a you a little forewarning that I'm a bit of an amateur in most aspects of 40k - there's not much gameplay that goes around here (and whatever does happen isn't like scary serious) and my painting skills only go up to about tabletop standards, maybe a little better. So what do you, the reader, gain from reading my blog? Well, if you're a veteran of the game and/or a Golden Daemon winner, probably not much. Broken Dice is really just a view of the game from the casual gamer/hobbyist point of view.

I'll do my best to update regularly with what I've been working on and the following.

1) Miniatures - Painting and Conversions. I'm by no means an expert, but I've been painting miniatures for 3-4 some odd years now and have picked up a few tricks that I'm willing to share.

2) Battle Reports. Just about any game that I play, I'll write one up, dissect it and analyze what tactics worked.

3) Tactics. Following up on battle reports, I'll post what tactics work for me and maybe for you.

4) General Discussion. My thoughts on the game or the hobby.

Best to all,

Squirrel_Fish