2010

Happy New Year!!

/drunk

Foot Wolves

I'm working out my plans for the next couple months, consolidating stuff, eliminating the old and focusing on getting some armies finished.

The Wolf Cavalry army has intrigued me since the book came out, and thanks to St. John's awesome Thunderhoof cavalry (as shown here) I finally have a means to make it happen. This will fulfill my desire to play something besides traditional mech marines and have an excuse to buy Warriors of Chaos stuff without having to endure the suck.

So here's two ideas for how this army will end up looking:

HQ

Canis Wolfborn

Rune Priest-living lightning, tempest fury, chooser of the slain, melta bombs

Elites

2x Lone Wolves-terminator armor, chainfist, storm shield

Troops

3x Grey Hunters-10, 2 meltaguns, Mark of the Wulfen

2x 10 Fenrisian Wolves

Fast Attack

3x Thunderwolf Cavalry-3, thunder hammer, storm shield

Heavy Support

2x Long Fangs-5, 4 missile launchers

Total-2000

5 units of Cav are not to be trifled with, plus I have 30 marines waltzing up the field behind 2 super heroes and backed by a good number of missile launchers.

HQ

Logan Grimnar

Rune Priest-living lightning, tempest fury, chooser of the slain, saga of the beast slayer

Elites

2x Iron Priest-thunderwolf mount, wolf tail talisman, wolf tooth necklace, 4 cyberwolves

Troops

Wolf Guard-6, 5 PAWG, 1 WGT w/ cyclone

3x Wolf Guard-5, 4 PAWG, 1 WGT w/ cyclone

Fast Attack

2x Thunderwolf Cavalry-4, thunder hammer, storm shield, melta bombs

Heavy Support

Long Fangs-5, 4 lascannons

Total-1998

1 less unit of cav, but all 4 are rock solid and a good deal tougher. I lose out on overall bodies, but each unit can now present good firepower on the move plus I've got either moving lascannons or S10 lascannons, so lolz.

That's my take on Foot Wolves, lots of speedy, smashy cav units backed by bodies and enough firepower to force people out of their rides.

Thoughts?

Merry Christmas!!

Hope everyone's having a good one.

I'm posting from our new laptop :D

Culling the herd

Sad to say it, but the time has come.

I have a lot of armies currently, most WIP and unpainted. I'm a college student with a very limited budget, so I can't possibly sustain them all and see any real growth. So, I'm looking at all the stuff I have to trying to figure out what can stay and what must go for the time being. I can actually buy models again and build my armies up, plus I'll have more time and more incentive to paint. Once I graduate and start pulling in 6 figures I'll expand again :P

So, for 40k I've got:
Space Marines
-ungodly amounts of stuff, but mostly basic infantry and Terminators
Orks
-tons of dudes, tons of WIP Battlewagons
Guard
-tons of dudes, handful of tanks
Chaos
-handful of dudes
Daemons
-handful of actual models, lots of WIP sprue daemons and subs (spider Fiends, zombies)

For Fantasy, it's:
Skaven
-tons of rats, skirmishers, and weapon teams, but few bigger war machines
Beasts
-Around 1500 or so, waiting for the new book and edition for Genestealer to get back into them (if at all)
Dwarfs
-Skull Pass
Dark Elves
-Spearhead, Corsairs, Glade Riders

There's also a ton of projects in the pipeline: Tau, Eldar, Inquisition, Lizardmen, Warriors of Chaos/SW dual army, Bretonnians, Tomb Kings, and so on. It's obnoxious, I know.

So, here's what I'm thinking of keeping, just 2 armies per system and Daemons.

40k:
Marines
-I already have tons and can convert stuff into what I need. With so much variety in marine armies, I can have a ton of different playstyles using all the models I have. At a glance, I'm building towards Templarwing, Deathwing/Ravenwing, DA best of, SM best of, SM Bikers, and SW cavalry all using the same models with a few additions.
Orks
-I love Ork fluff and models, but their rules drive me nuts. My fun, fluffy army for sure. Don't need to expand these guys at all, just some conversions and scratch builds.

Fantasy:
Skaven
-My reason for playing Fantasy, love these guys.
Dark Elves
-I've already got a good number of them. I doubt I'll expand past 2250, so I'll do some testing and figure out which kind of army I want.

I'll also build up my sprue Daemon army, or maybe just do the cavspam substitute army Stelek proposed. Either way, I want them cheap and unique to keep things interested.

To make room and make money, I think I'll be selling off the rest. What I have left should keep me plenty occupied. Now I just have to hope I can resist all the new releases and not do anything stupid like buy half an army on release day...

1850/2000/2500Marine Razorspam

This one is for Codex Marines.

HQ
Librarian-Null Zone, Gate of Infinity

Elites
Sternguard-5, 2 heavy flamers, 3 combi-meltas, Razorback w/ lascannon, twin-linked plasma guns
Sternguard-5, 2 heavy flamers, 3 combi-meltas, Razorback w/ lascannon, twin-linked plasma guns
Sternguard-5, 2 heavy flamers, 3 combi-meltas, Razorback w/ lascannon, twin-linked plasma guns

Troops
Tactical Squad-10, lascannon, meltagun, combi-flamer, Razorback w/ lascannon, twin-linked plasma guns
Tactical Squad-10, lascannon, meltagun, combi-flamer, Razorback w/ lascannon, twin-linked plasma guns
Tactical Squad-10, lascannon, meltagun, combi-flamer, Razorback w/ lascannon, twin-linked plasma guns

Fast Attack
Land Speeder-multi-melta, heavy flamer
Land Speeder-multi-melta, heavy flamer
Land Speeder-multi-melta, heavy flamer

Total~1850

6 Razor chassis, 2 speeders in reserve, lots of firepower up close and down range.

For 2000:
Add sniper scouts. A nice buffer and objective holder.

For 2500:
Add a MotF, 3 Rifleman Dreads and bulk out the Scout units. Gives you 3 more armored vehicles and more firepower down range.

Using what I have mostly, but with 6 Razors, 3 Dreads and 2 Speeders plus some cheap infantry sitting back, I can deal with light mech from afar and get in closer to handle heavy armor or BBQ infantry.

2000 Razorwolves

Everybody's doing the Razorwolf thing, here's my take.

HQ
Canis Wolfborn
Rune Priest-Thunderclap, Tempest Fury, Chooser of the Slain

Elites
Wolf Guard-4, 4 combi-meltas, Razorback w/ lascannon, twin-linked plasma guns
Wolf Guard-3, 3 combi-meltas, Razorback w/ lascannon, twin-linked plasma guns

Troops
Grey Hunters-5, flamer, Razorback w/ lascannon, twin-linked plasma guns
Grey Hunters-5, flamer, Razorback w/ lascannon, twin-linked plasma guns
Grey Hunters-5, flamer, Razorback w/ lascannon, twin-linked plasma guns
Grey Hunters-5, flamer, Razorback w/ lascannon, twin-linked plasma guns
Fenrisian Wolves-10
Fenrisian Wolves-10

Fast Attack
Thunderwolf Cavalry-3, thunder hammer, storm shield
Thunderwolf Cavalry-3, thunder hammer, storm shield
Thunderwolf Cavalry-3, thunder hammer, storm shield

Total-1996

As Goatboy would say, AROOO!!! What we lose in overall armor spam (6 chassis vs 12) we make up for in angry doggies running amidst the armored horde. This is mostly because I aim to have 6 Rhino chassis I can swap between Razors, Rhinos and Preds and I wanted to get in on the Razorspam action too.

Basically, it's a pain in the ass to bring down that much armor quickly in addition to nailing the 30 cavalry models running in between them for cover. Lascannons can nail light armor, meltas go for heavy stuff, and the cavalry munch on whatever spills out.

J!-E!-T!-S!

Fail Fail Fail!

See y'all next season.

/Facepalm

Marine bubblewrap

Bubblewrap is like my new favorite 40k euphemism. It means, simply, using disposable units to block enemy movement, shooting and assault to protect your valuable forces, if only for a turn. They can be great protection against alpha strikes, quick assaulters, outflankers, deep strikers, and pretty much anything that can close quickly and is nasty at a relatively short range.



The most common types of bubblewrap are cheap units that can take up a large area, bonus points if they can infiltrate or scout to better draw your opponent in to the roadblock. Kroot, Scouts, Guardsmen, and the like are all very handy bubblewrap units. At face value they're fairly meh, not too survivable or killy, but they're cheap and take up lots of room.



Well, with bugs coming soon, I predict bubblewrap is going to be very useful for many armies. It's going to be nigh impossible to stop so much crap coming in at the same time, from infiltrating bargain bin Genestealers to Spore Pods, Gargoyles, flying MCs, Lictors, outflankers, Deep Strikers, and so on. To counter it, you can do three things: 1) Suck it up and die, 2) Go into reserve and alpha strike the alpha strike, or 3) wrap your army up and let them come. They all work, depending on your army. 1) is best for armies with lots of disposable and versatile units, like mech Guard or marines, 2) works nicely for pretty much any mech army, and 3) is handy for anybody with access to such useful units.



But hey, does bubblewrap always have to be so flimsy? How about some tinfoil wrap? Something that can take a punch and maybe swing back. Inspired by a throwaway comment by Stelek regarding using normal Terminators as bubblewrap, I came up with this little number.



Terminator Librarian-storm shield, Null Zone, Gate of Infinity

10 Terminators, 2 cyclones, 2 chainfists

2 Rifleman (dual TLAC) Dreads

3 Tac Squads in Rhinos, multi-melta, flamer, combi-melta

3 MM/HF Speeders

3 dakka Predators



Ends up around 2000 points, give or take random gear. Basically a best of army with a big anvil unit of Termies. Normally I'd say TH/SS Termies win every time, but in numbers the normal fellas can bring the pain at range and up close. Set up your Maginownt line of Termies and stick your fun bits inside the wrapper. Keep yourself protected and dish out 4 missiles and 20 storm bolter shots with a boat load of powerfist attacks and a force weapon for kicks (Tyranids lose Eternal Warrior, Force Weapons get awesome again). Plus, you've got your normal mechanized, mobile, versatile marine army.



Should be fun

Umpteenth look: Orks: Army list colon #1

So, here's my first in a series I hope to do about possible ways to run my Orks to keep them at least somewhat competitive.

First up is simple, Battlewagons running down your throat.

HQ
Big Mek-KFF, burna, cybork body, bosspole
Warboss-Powerklaw, cybork body, kombi-skorcha

Elites
Meganobs-5, 2 kombi-skorchas, Battlewagon w/ armor plaes, big shoota, reinforced ram, grot riggers
2x 9 Lootas

Troops
Nobs-6, Painboy, cybork bodies, 2 powerklaws, Waagh! Banner, 2 kombi-skorchas, bosspole (all mixed up to be unique, cuz I'm an asshole), Battlewagon w/ armor plates, big shoota, reinforced ram, grot riggers
Shoota Boyz-20, 2 big shootas, Nob w/ powerklaw, bosspole
Slugga Boyz-19, Nob w/ powerklaw, bosspole
Grots-12, runtherd

Fast Attack
Deff Kopta-rokkitz, buzzsaw
2x 2 Buggies-rokkitsz

Heavy Support
2x Battlewagons-armor plates, big shoota, grot riggers, reinforced ram

2000 even.

So, we've got 4 wagons full of ornery Orks ready to stomp on your throat and call it a day. The tricky part is getting there. Battlewagons are deceptive, they look great on paper with AV14, but open-topped and the super narrow model basically turns it into a 4th edition vehicle with AV12 after turn 1. It's almost impossible for them to block for each other because of the shape of the model, so you're going from AV14 to open-topped AV12 quite rapidly. The KFF mitigates it, but once you get into melta range it's pretty much over.

Still, 40 Orks and 2 units of Nobs can break the backs of most anything. The Boss and Big Mek are no slouches either. The former rides with the Sluggas to give them a little extra oomph, while the Big Mek has to babysit the Meganobs. I gave him a burna so he can protect them better by dishing out 4 S5 I4 power weapon attacks on the charge. Shootas will usually stay mounted and blast infantry, but they can hold their own in assault too.

To back that up, I have my Kopta ready to turn 1 pop a vehicle or outflank and annoy. Buggies are cheap, mobile firepower, and Lootas can down light armor from across the board. Having them on foot can cause problems, mostly from LoS blocking Battlewagons, but since I didn't max out to 15 I can find them a good spot to chill most of the time.

Thoughts?

Umpteenth look: Orks

It's maddening coming up with an Ork list that I like, sucky Codices tend to have that problem :P

I'll be reworking my Ork list and hopefully I'll be able to put something worthwhile up.

As is, it's just variations of my battlewagon brigade, featuring:
4-5 Battlewagons full of Nobs, Meganobs, Shoota/Slugga Boyz, Lootas, or even Burnaz/Tankbustas
2 units of Lootas
rokkit/buzzsaw Koptaz and/or rokkit buggies
Grots
Big Gunz if I can swing it
Trukk boyz if I'm feeling lucky

I'll post up some actual lists later after I put more thought into it.

The Gauntlet

If anybody's been wondering where I've been, it's school hell. Last week of school is coming up, followed by finals. I've been through 2 papers, 2 exams, and a presentation this week with more to come.

Kill...me...

New Tyranids

Holy fucking shitballs, these motherfuckers are god damn slap yo bitch ass momma Jesus motherfucking Christ AWESOME!!

Sorry Genestealer, I'll be jacking your bugs for like the next 6 months :P

1800 Fuck You Skaven

Hey, we've had our local tournies set to 1800 points this. It's stupid, I know, which is why I didn't feel like attending. Well, it's the last one and I thought I might want to go out with a bang and maybe convince somebody that we should give armies like TK, BoC, OK and O&G a chance by bringing it up to 2000-2250. At this level, it just makes the awesome armies (Daemons, HE, DE, Skaven, Brets) awesomer.

Heroes
Plague Priest-level 2, flail, Plague Furnace, Dispel Scroll, Warp Scroll
Warlock Engineer-level 2, Doom Rocket, Condenser
Chieftain-BSB, shield, War Banner

Core
Clanrats-24, shields, full command, Doom Flayer/Ratling Gun (x2)
Slaves-20 (x2)
Giant Rats-13, 2 packmasters
Giant Rats-5, packmaster

Special
Plague Monks-27, champion, standard, Storm Banner
Plague Censer Bearers-6
Gutter Runners-5, poisoned attacks, slings

Rare
Hellpit Abomination-warpstone spikes

Total-1800

Holy crap, a Skaven army that can smash face in assault! Who knew? The Furnace unit can steamroll pretty much anything, and whatever it doesn't catch contends with the A-bomb. On top of that, we've got 2 big ranked units with a BSB, 2 Doom Flayers, 2 sacrificial slave units, and flanking GRats. Shooting is fucked between the Storm Banner and Gutter Runners. Magic isn't totally awesome, but it should be fun too.

2250 balanced Skaven

So, in an effort to pin down my tourney army for Skaven, which is slowly driving me mad, I'll be sharing what I've come up with so far.

Lords/Heroes
Grey Seer-2 warpstone tokens, Scrying Stone, Skavenbrew
Plague Priest-level 2, flail, Plague Furnace, Dispel Scroll, Warp Scroll
Warlock Engineer-level 2, Doom Rocket, Condenser

Core
Giant Rats-31, 4 packmasters
Clanrats-24, shields, full command, Poisoned Wind Mortar
Clanrats-24, shields, full command, Poisoned Wind Mortar
Stormvermin-10, musician, Warpfire Thrower
Stormvermin-10, musician, Warpfire Thrower
Slaves-20
Slaves-20

Special
Plague Monks-20, champion, standard bearer, Storm Banner
Plague Censer Bearers-6
Gutter Runners-5, slings, poisoned attacks

Rare
Doomwheel

Adds up to around 2254 so I'm over a smidge.

The Grey Seer drugs up the GRats, who go with the Monks and just cause a ruckus (I was tempted to throw Skweel in there for larfs, but it's tricky finding points for him). Clanrats and MSU vermin do what the old Clanrat/Slaves used to, bait, switch and flank, plus weapon team spam. Stormvermin end up cheaper than minimum Clanrat units, come with higher WS, LD, halberds and heavy armor. So, the Clanrats provide static combat res and the Stormvermin flank and maybe kill something. The big thing is the extra weapon team I squeezed in, yayz! Slaves run out front to make somebody charge, get in the way and die horribly. Doomwheel and PCBs flank and murder people. GRs scout or outflank and go after big weapons and generally be annoying.

I'm not entirely sold on the Storm Banner because I'm not entirely sure if it can be re-used. One Use Only is conveniently absent from its entry, but it seems like something that will be errata'd to say otherwise (you know, in 3 years). I could go for the Banner of the Under Empire to dick any skirmishers or fast cav who dare touch my Monks, combined with Wither it is death on a stick. I'm also not sure if the Plague Monk unit shouldn't be bigger. I removed the censer from the Priest because it seems to hurt me more than anything (15 T tests for me vs. 5 T tests for my opponent, not so good unless they're pansy elves, and Monks murder them anyway), but I don't know if 20 rats will be enough to endure the game.

Thoughts?

Battle Missions

Just got an e-mail from GW about a new supplement book with a whole bunch of new missions. Sounds like a neat concept, I'd be very interested in playing Breakthroughs, Bunker Assault, Assassinations and other fun stuff without having to lug around my 3rd edition book and negotiate terms with my opponent :P

More Marine, Ork and IG models are always cool for me.

Wave Serpent -> Battlewagon?

Just got a Wave Serpent in a trade, and I want to turn it into a Battlewagon.

Any ideas?

Update:

Found an old 2nd edition Rhino. Let the Mekanikal mayhem began anew!

Skaveny fun times

Got my first game in with the new book, yayz.

Played my buddy Kyle's Vampire Counts. He was trying stuff out so it wasn't the nastiest list possible, just your standard PD generation Skelly bunker army (14 PD and 4 bounds, lol).

I threw this together quickly:

Thanquol and Boneripper

Plague Priest level 2 w/ censer, 2 scrolls, furnace

3x 24 Clanrats, shields, flag and mus (champ with Thanquol), 2 Ratlings, 1 WFT

2x 20 Slaves

24 Monks, champ, flag, Banner of the Under Empire

5 PCBs

5 GRs w/ poisoned attacks and slings

Doomwheel

I threw the Doomwheel on the left flank and centered everything on the Furnace, scouted the GRs. He deployed in a nice line, Dire Wolves on the flanks and 3 units of Skellies with Vamps and a unit of Grave Guard with the Lord.

Things didn't get good until around turn 3. The GRs scouted and march blocked plus sniped a few skellies, magic was ineffectual (rezzing Skellies, dispelled wind of undeath) and I just let him come to me.

Notable moments:

-Doomwheel's first shot was a misfire, then it just played keepaway with a unit of skellies. It isn't good for fighting these guys on its own, so shooting was kinda wasted.

-WFT misfired and blew up first chance it got.

-One Ratling kept misfiring, but it got double 3's and double 6's so it kept on trucking. Still managed to pop a lone Vampire.

-I got the Dreaded 13th off TWICE. One from a miscasting Vampire (scrolled it sadly), the other from irresistable warpstone dice. I nuked a unit of Skellies, killing all but the Vampire, who got blasted by a Ratling Gun.

-A unit of slaves got Death Frenzy and charged into his Grave Guard, killing 4 then popping and killing 2 more plus 2 skellies from their cornered rats rule.

-Boneripper did jack all barring firing his Warpfire Thrower into combat between skellies and slaves and killing 16 slaves and 12 skeletons!

-The Lord and a Vampire, plus their units of GG and Skellies charged the furnace and Priest. They whittled the monks down to 12 plus the Furnace and lost around 13 to smoke, censers, and attacks. Next turn the PCBs ran in, I got off Death Frenzy and gave the Monks 5+ poison and I beat the Vampires by 16 or so and crumbled both units and Vampired, including the Lord!

So, my first impressions:

-Doomwheel is a misfire factory, but it will mess up big monsters and multi-wounders with shooting and crush infantry with impact hits. I may just want an A-bomb or WLC.

-Thanquol is redonkulous, even if I did only roll up 3 Tokens. Re-rolling those 1's saved his ass so many times.

-Ratlings got nerfed hard, but they don't totally suck.

-Skaven magic is insane. Death Frenzy and poisoned attacks FTW.

-VCs only have a few worthwhile spells to stop (Wind of Undeath is murder on weapon teams, Vanhel's, and that's about it) so save your dice.

-More power dice means more miscasts.

-WFTs are awesome, even if they blow up.

-The Plague Furnace is insane, but I'll need a bigger unit.

-The Censer ends up being more trouble than it's worth on a Priest riding a Furnace, he forces a ton of T tests on your Monks on top of the gas and doesn't affect nearly as many enemies.

-PCBs are insane. So freaking good.

-Slaves are still the best fodder unit ever.

We had a great game and I'm looking forward to the rematch Saturday, will post up my 2500 list when I finish it up.

2000 MSU Nob Bikers/BWagoney goodness

Hey, trying something different with my Orkses.

HQ
Warboss-powerklaw, cybork body, kombi-skorcha
Big Mek-kustom force field, bosspole
Elites
15 Lootas
3 Nob Bikers, cyborks, Painboy, 1 powerklaw, 1 bosspole (x2)
Troops
3 Nob Bikers, cyborks, Painboy, 1 powerklaw, 1 bosspole
20 Shootas, 2 big shootas, Nob w/ powerklaw, bosspole
19 Sluggas, Nob w/ powerklaw, bosspole
17 grots, runtherd
Fast Attack
2 Deff Koptaz, rokkits, 1 buzzsaw (x2)
Heavy Support
Battlewagon-armor plates, big shoota, grot riggers, reinforced ram (x2)
Battlewagon-armor plates, big shoota, reinforced ram

Total-2000

So, we've got 3 Battlewagons with a KFF and 3 units of Nob Bikers. The word of the day here is MSU: lots of tiny units that can cause pain in tandem or operate solo to go after softer targets. It's far from optimal, but I'm going by what I own currently. Big Mek goes with the Lootas for a super bunker of dakka death, Boss goes with the sluggas to give me another hitty unit that can be pretty resilient. My anti-tank is limited to Lootas, tl rokkits and lucky PKs, but we'll see if mobility, redundancy and flexibility help me out here.

Lazy day

I'm lazy today and for the foreeable future. I don't know if I'll even be able to roll into the FLGS without falling asleep.

Damn you tryptophan!

Battle Report: BTs vs Orks

Hey, just got back from the shop.

I figured I'd try out my Termies as Black Templars today in an effort to figure out how I want to use them. I pretty much nicked Stelek's list, as here:

Castelan w/ power sword, storm bolter, terminator armor

Command Squad-4 termies, Tank Hunters, 2 assault cannons

Marshal w/ power sword, storm bolter, terminator armor

Command Squad-4 termies, Tank Hunters, 2 assault cannons

Emperor's Champion w/ Accept Any Challenge, No Matter the Odds

3x Sword Brethren Terminators-5 termies, Tank Hunters, 2 assault cannons

3x Crusader Squad-5 Initiates, 4 bp/ccw, lascannon

Total-1849

My opponent, Bill, ran Orks. I have seen him around before but never played him, during our game we chatted and it turns out he's been playing off and on since 2nd edition. We talked a lot about Gorkamorka (most of his models were from 2nd ed, cool stuff!) and Space Hulk and how all the old things are better than new things. Good times.

Warboss w/ powerklaw, 'eavy armor, twin-linked shoota, cybork body

Warp 'Ead

9 Nobs, cyborks, 8 powerklaws, twin-linked shootas, 'eavy armor, Painboy, Trukk w/ reinforced ram, red paint, armor plates

3x 20 Sluggas, 2 rokkits, Nob

8 Warbikes, Nob

3 Rokkit Buggies

3 Kannons

Looted Wagon w/ boomgun, 'ard case

3 Killa Kanz w/ big shootas

We rolled up Annihilation and Spearhead.

I won the roll off and deployed my termies spread out with my heavy weapons as close as possible, with the Initiates on high ground or in cover with good fields of fire. I wanted to nuke that Trukk and the Bikes ASAP so I could gun down the boyz at my leisure.

Bill spread his Bikes in a line to cover his boyz, deploying 2 units on high left flank with the Trukk, Buggies, and Kanz, while another unit went into some cover on his right with the Boomwagon. Kannonz deployed on a hill in the rear.

Turn 1

My termies inched into range and I began shooting. I rolled so many 1's and 2's to hit it was nuts, all I managed was 5 Bikes and they passed their morale test, plus a shaken Boomwagon. Trukk got popped, but he made cover (those damn old Trukks are TINY!)

Bikes ran up, Buggies moved up, boyz on my right moved up, Trukk zoomed around a building, staying behind cover. Wyrdboy rolled 'Ere we go and his unit teleported into a building near my lines, losing about 6 of them to terrain. Shooting was uneventful, everything went into 1 Termie squad and I only lost 1 of them, they ran to the newly arrived unit if boyz.

Turn 2

The previously raging unit was now out of position, so I tried moving back towards my lines. Unfortunately, they were in difficult ground and I rolled a 2, so I decided to abandon caution and go for those boyz in the same ruin. Everything else took a step back. Shooting accouted for the remainder of the Warbikes, 2 Buggies (lol Squadron rules + open-topped), the Trukk and a handful of boyz in the building. The 4 man Termie squad charged in, lost 1 model and murdered the majority of that unit (powerfists re-rolling to hit is redonkulous!), forcing a test and seeing them break at below half strength. Whoo hoo, 2 KP for the Wyrdboy and unit, right?

Wrong. He rolled 'Ere We Go again and they teleported over to an empty part of my side of the board, giving them a good 6 turns to reach the edge. The Warboss and Nobs moved into the building previously occupied by the Wyrdboy's unit, looking to charge the victorious unit. Boyz moved up, Buggy ran behind cover, Looted Wagon and Kannons did a fat lot of nothing. He popped his Waagh! and the Nobs made it into my Termies, slaying them all and losing 1 (made a ton of invuls!).

Turn 3

Interesting development. Everything moves back again and I commence shooting. The Wyrdboy's unit is reduced to him and the Nob, Buggy laughs off 2 lascannons (damn cover), Nobs get reduced to 7 plus Warboss, Boyz in the open cut down to about 12. Boomwagon goes boom.

Nobs break cover, hoping for another Waagh!, Boyz head up, Kanz move up, staying in cover. Wyrdboy fails his psychic test, Kannons bring down a Termie, Nobs bring down 1 from the Marshal's unit, forcing them to get into stupid range. They get charged, EC manages to bring the Boss down to 1 wound, Marshal connects with every attack and nails a Nob and a half. EC gets killed off, all 4 Termies get killed, and 4 Nobs get pasted. I win combat miraculously and the Nobs bail.

Turn 4

Nobs are on the run, press the attack! 2 units move up to support the Marshal, 1 heads right to go finish off the Wyrdboy's unit. Buggy continues to defy me, other lascannon goes wide of the Wyrdboy. Killa Kanz get obliterated by 1 unit of shooting (Tank Hunting Assault Cannons ftw), Nobs lose another friend, more boyz get dragged down. Marshal and 5 Termies jump into assault, whiff spectacularly and we're left with the Warboss, 2 Nobs and a Painboy vs 1 Termie and the Marshal.

Boyz move up, Wyrdboy continues to fall back. Fails his psychic test again, shooting proves uneventful. Nobs and the Termie do nothing to each other, yawn.

Turn 5

My only unhurt Termie squad moves into the fray. Shooting from my Castellan's unit kills off more boyz from the hurt unit and they move in for the kill. Buggy continues to defy me, Wyrdboy'z Nob buddy is slain. In assault, the Marshal slays the Warboss (every hit connected and wounded, good job!) and the Nobs are wiped at the cost of the sole survivor of a unit of Terminators. Consolidating to the right, looking for a fight. The Castellan's unit charges in, gets unceremoniously cut down (1 left), but thanks to the Castellan I still win combat and the Boyz flee.

Buggy zips around cover, Boyz on the far left finally move, keeping the Wyrdboy safe inside. Shooting nails the Castellan's friend and leave him on his own, he takes 2 rokkits and 3 kannon rounds to the face and stands defiant. We roll up another turn, yayz.

Turn 6

Marshal joins the last unit of Termies and heads left to catch up with the Castellan. That DAMN FUCKING BUGGY lives. The Castellan heads after the fleeing Boyz. Shooting accounts for some boyz. The Castellan runs down the fleeing boyz.

The Orks desparately try to gun down the Castellan in the open, but the Emperor smiles upon him and he takes everything on the chin.

So we end it. He killed the Emperor's Champion and 4(!) units of Termies for 5 KP while I accounted the Warboss, Nobs, Trukk, 2 units of Boyz, Kanz, and Warbikes for 7 KP. Victory for the Black Templars.

I didn't do as well as I wanted. Righteous Zeal is both a blessing and a curse and my opponent exploited that to good advantage. I need to take that into account later. My biggest problems was rolling and positioning, like always. My lascannons were always firing, but at that damn buggy that passed every fucking cover save! It got kinda crowded with 25 Termies running around too, getting them up on hills helped a great deal. My opponent's list was pretty poor too, but he ran it well as one can.

Good game.

Speed Racer

I watched it again last night when I was supposed to be doing homework (it got done, just early this morning right before class :P). It didn't get a lot of love from many people when it came out and I have no idea why.

It was fucking awesome! There were lights and colors WOOSH PHEWWWW and cars with buzzsaws GRRRRNK and springs that karate kicked other cars HIYAA into other cars and made big explosions BOOM WOOSH and they had vikings and soldiers and hookers and vaguely british people and japanese dicks who actually turned out to be japanese good guys and super hot chicks and there was a man on fire and I killed a guy with a trident.

The best parts by far were
-A car with 2 giant flails dangling off the back
-A car with a catapult that fired a beehive
-more like nonja
-The entirety of the Grand Prix

I had an eyegasm like every 5 minutes.

Fucking sweet movie.

I'm a nice guy, you assholes

Sometimes people say I go too far, I'm too mean, or sarcastic, or saucy (but never too sexy). Well, maybe I can address that.

I am the way I am because I feel that sometimes we get a little too "serious business" about our hobby. It's toy soldiers guys (and gal, I didn't forget you). When people get so invested in themselves, their egos take over and we get all sorts of high school drama bullshit that plagues the interbutts. I don't like that very much, so I like to shake things up and show those manbabies that they're going nuts over dollies.

Is it trolling? Maybe a little, but it's not intended to just piss people off. If you get mad about somebody saying something snarky (woo, alliteration!) about your dissertation on the finer points of going pew pew with your army men, maybe you need to step back and remember why we do this: to go pew pew with our army men.

I love this hobby and everyone in it. Sure we disagree on some things, but we're all here because we enjoy the same stuff (the aforementioned pew pewing). Getting entrenched in one particular "camp" and lashing out at anybody who dares oppose you is a quick way to divide the player base and start more stupid internet drama bullshit. Where's the love, man?

You know how we all have that metaphorical devil and angel on our shoulders. Think of me as the crazy 3rd guy with the helmet and pads living in your ankle because I can't afford rent anywhere else thanks to my shitty credit caused by my ex buying all sorts of ridiculous shit with my card and never paying for it. Whore. Umm, anyway, I'm not afraid to call anybody out on saying something stupid or to just shake things up so people can get a different perspective, but I do it because I love the hobby and want everyone to have a better experience. If it takes me acting like a clown over the intertubes so be it, it's fun for me anyway.

So, I guess my rambling can be distilled into a couple main points:
1) Why so serious?
2) Let's put a smile on that face.
3) Introduce a little anarchy.
4) The Dark Knight is a totally awesome movie.
5) Brush your teeth twice a day.

Eshin

This army list was too sneaky, I wrote it up a couple days ago but it mysteriously vanished O_o

Lords/Heroes (725)
Eshin Sorceror (Warlock Engineer)-level 1, Dispel Scroll, Warpmusket, Warlock Optics (125)
Snikch (270)
Assassin-Infernal Bomb, Smoke Bombs (160)
Assassin-Warpstone Stars (170)

Core (767)
Stormvermin-19, shields, full command, Storm Banner, Poisoned Wind Mortar (292)
Night Runners-25, Warp Grinder (235)
3x Night Runners-10, slings (80)

Special (756)
Gutter Runners-9, Black Skaven w/ Weeping Blade, Warp Grinder (210)
Gutter Runners-9, poison, slings, Warp Grinder (222)
2x Gutter Runners-9, poison, slings (162)

Total-2248

A bunch of worthless rats running around. 3 tunnel teams, 1 of which is a big ranked up unit to hit somebody's rear and cause a ruckus. The real stars of the show are the 3 Assassins, a Triad for anybody who played the Storm of Chaos Eshin list (why the devil wasn't that made into a Rare choice in the new book?). Warpstone Stars kill monsters, Bomb and Smoke Bombs can do all sorts of amusing things, and Snikch isn't called the Deathmaster for nothing.

The Stormvermin are there to protect the general and give my a Storm Banner, also a Poisoned wind Mortar will help bring down armor targets, a constant problem for Eshin armies.

Moulder

Roll on for Moulder! Woo woo!

Lords/Heroes (676)
Throt the Unclean (225)
Warlock Engin-err, Moulder Sorceror-level 1, Skavenbrew (115)
Moulder Sorceror-level 1, 2 Dispel Scrolls (115)
Chieftain-BSB, Storm Banner, tail weapon, poisoned attacks, shield, great weapon, additional hand weapon (he has a lot of arms, 151)

Core (722)
2x Rat Ogres-2, 1 packmasters (88)
Giant Rats-30, 5 packmasters, Skweel (230)
Giant Rats-28, 5 packmasters (124)
Giant Rats-10, 2 packmasters (46)
2x Rat Swarms-2 (50)

Special (352)
4x Rat Ogres-2, 1 packmaster (88)

Rare (500)
Hellpit Abomination-Warpstone Spikes (250)
Hellpit Abomination-Warpstone Spikes (250)

Total-2250

Death by papercuts. 2 big blocks of rats that either have good static CR and 2 mean characters, or a regen/poison/double attack nightmare. 6 units of ROgres serve as pseduo weapon teams, running into flanks or smashing fast cav/skirmishers. Frenzy is trick, so we've got 2 smallish units of rats and Swarms to force them the right way. 4 dispel dice and 2 scrolls are adequate magic defense and the Storm Banner does mean things to shooting armies. Also A-bombs murder pretty much anything.

Dilema

First off, I'm 18 yayz!!!

More to my point I have a somewhat critical decision to make. Dwarfs or Beast of Chaos? These where the two armies I tried out when I first started playing Fantasy. Shortly after however I decided that I don't like Fantasy and left them both collecting dust in my basement. However Chum tells me that Fantasy is going to have a new edition coming out, apparently the current one is not great, and I've decided to give Fantasy another try when this new edition comes out, hoping that it's not glorified checkers like the current edition. So I need to know which army I should choose my Dwarfs or my Beasts.(keep in mind I have no substantial numbers of either army.) Some of you might ask why should I pick only one, why not try both out with the new edition? The answer to that question is me and Chum and doing some spring cleaning soon, by which I mean purging our armies of all things unnecessary. So any feed back would be great, thanks.

Skryre

Hey, where did we go? I dunno, must have been cool though; too cool to tell you about.

So here's my take on a pure Skryre army. Makes Dwarfs cry.

Lords/Heroes (855)
Ikit Claw (395)
Warlock Engineer-level 2, Warp Energy Condenser, Doom Rocket (150)
Warlock Engineer-level 2, Warpmusket, Warlock Optics, Dispel Scroll (160)
Warlock Engineer-level 2, Skavenbrew (150)

Core (749)
2x Clanrats-24, shields, full command, Doom Flayer (183)
Clanrats-24, shields, full command, Poisoned Wind Mortar (199)
Slaves-31, musician (64)
2x Slaves-20, slings, musician (52)

Special (465)
2x 6 Jezzails (120)
6 Poisoned Wind Globadiers, Bombardier, 1 Poisoned Wind Mortar (130)
9 Poisoned Wind Globadiers, Bombardier (95)

Rare (180)
2x WLC

Total-2249

So, we've got shooting out the ass. 12 Jezzails, 15 PWG, 2 Mortars, 2 WLC, slings, and a musket for laughs. Magic like it's crazy, with 11 powerdice plus Ikit's bound spell and 7 dispel dice plus a scroll. Skavenbrew buffs up the big slave unit and they go run at somebody, combine with Death Frenzy and you get lols. The sniper goes with the big unit of PWG and they chill in the woods sniping and watching their flank. Ikit and the Doom rocketeer go with clanrats and zzap zzap things while mortars lob death and Doomflayers + slaves guard against assaulters.

I picked Slaves because Giant Rats don't fit fluff (I wish I would have taken some of them, Skavenbrew makes them nasty) and I can fit into assaults with Slaves. I think I might be safer running a BSB instead of the sniperlock to keep my lines in check, but losing out on zappy magic makes me a sad panda. Anything that can run that gauntlet deserves to eat me :P

Metallica

Saw them last night in Buffalo, it was great.

Never been a big Metallica fan, but I was extremely impressed. They put on a great show, were a class act, and they had PyRoTeChNiCs!!!!one!!e!!1

Yes, fire shot out of the stage while they played, lasers too. It was fucking awesome.

I gave James Hetfield a high five, we were so close to the stage.

Sweet

Pestilens

Updated to be legal and totally awesome.

More Skaven! This is the first in a series of themed concept lists I though I'd throw out. I don't think I'll be chomping at the bit to pick up huge quantities of rats, I've still got to paint the hundreds I have lying around!

Lords/Heroes (1047)
Lord Skrolk (395)
Plague Priest-level 2, plague censer, plague furnace, Warp Scroll (326)
Plague Priest-level 2, plague censer, plague furnace, Dispel Scroll (326)

Core (842)
Plague Monks-21, champion, standard bearer, Storm Banner (217)
Plague Monks-21, champion, standard bearer, Banner of the Under-Empire (192)
Plague Monks-24, full command, Shroud of Dripping Death (223)
Slaves-20 (40)
Slaves-20 (40)
Giant Rats-13, 2 packmasters (55)
Giant Rats-13, 2 packmasters (55)
Rat Swarms-2 (50)

Special (359)
Plague Censer Bearers-7, chanter (125)
Plague Censer Bearers-7, chanter (125)
Plague Censer Bearers-6, chanter (109)

Total-2248

Skrolk + Dripping Banner, Furnaces + the rest. Slaves and Giant Rats get poisoney and annoying, PCBs are stubborn murder machines.

Seeking a list critique BT 1k and 1500

Hi Chumbalaya,

I've been something of a fan of yours since your comments on the Leafblower batreps on BoLS.

I'm looking for some input on my Black Templars. I started BT because I wanted a mechanized assault army and so my list building so far has attempted to emphasize that. I'm finding my 1k list is a little hit and miss. My 1500 list has been fairly effective so far, but I'd still love to hear your thoughts on it.

1000 Points

HQ:
Emperor's Champion w/ Accept Any Challenge = 140
Marshall w/ Power Weapon + Bolt Pistol & Frags = 97

Troops:
8 Initiates (bp + ccw) w/ Melta & Powerfist in Rhino w/ extra armor & smoke = 211
8 Initiates (bp + ccw) w/ Melta & Powerfist in Rhino w/ extra armor & smoke = 211
8 Initiates (bp + ccw) w/ Melta & Powerfist in Rhino w/ extra armor & smoke = 211

Heavy Support:
Predator w/ Autocannon turret + lascannon sponsons, smoke = 128

Total = 998

I have the marshall mainly for the Ld10 army wide, i consider that pretty important when I'll be making morale checks every time i'm shot.

My 1500 list:

HQ:
Emperor's Champion w/ AAC = 140
Marshall w/ twin lightning claws + iron halo = 135

Troops:

9 Initiates (bp + ccw) w/ Melta & Powerfirst in LRC w/ extra armor, smoke, dozerblades = 442
9 Initiates (bp + ccw) w/ Melta & Powerfirst in LRC w/ extra armor, smoke, dozerblades = 442
8 Initiates (bp + ccw) w/ Melta & Powerfist in Rhino w/ extra armor + smoke = 211

Heavy Support:
Predator w/ Autocannon turret + lascannon sponsons, smoke = 128

Total = 1498

While this 1500 list has been fairly effective so far, I have been concerned that I'm pretty light on bodies and fairly dependent on the resiliency of the LRCs. However, in the games I've played with this list I have found that the LRCs do strongly tend to survive long enough to get my units with the attached ICs into combat more often than not so I've been hesitant to change that.

Thanks for any comments your willing to share,

Digitalist

Reply:

Hey thanks, it's always nice to hear people appreciate my ramblings.

I'll be perfectly honest with you, I don't play BTs, never have, and haven't gone up against them often either. I've got a copy of the book and I've flipped through a couple times, but that's it :P I'll see what I can do, but I'll be going from a generalist/vanilla SM standpoint. Stelek would probably be better for giving you BT specific help.

At a glance, the BTs don't really seem to suit themselves to the mechanized style beyond spamming LRCs. Generally, vanilla are going to do mech better by virtue of their cheaper vehicles, troops, and the availability of heavy weapons. BT can do the foot horde quite well thanks to their Righteous Zeal.

At 1000 points, another Predator would probably help more than a 3rd Crusader Squad. With a mech army you generally want to shoot lots while your Troops stay nice and safe in your ride until it's time to hold objectives, BTs would be able to do all that plus when they pop out they can actually reach out and smack you upside the head.

Perhaps something like this:

Emperor's Champion-Accept Any Challenge

Marshall w/ power weapon, bolt pistol

5 Initiates, meltagun, powerfist, 3 Neophytes, Rhino w/ extra armor, smoke launchers

5 Initiates, meltagun, powerfist, 3 Neophytes, Rhino w/ extra armor, smoke launchers

Land Speeder w/ multi-melta, heavy flamer

Land Speeder w/ multi-melta, heavy flamer

Predator Destructor w/ Heavy Bolter sponsons, smoke launchers

Predator Destructor w/ Heavy Bolter sponsons, smoke launchers

998.

You only have 2 Troops, but you have a lot more mobile firepower elsewhere to remove threats to them. If the Rhinos get popped, you've got a bunch of frothing maniacs running at people, and 4 armored vehicles to contend with. It's kinda like vanilla marines, only their Troops can hand you your face in assault.

For 1500, the LRCs give you some much needed durability and give your assault units a good chance to get stuck in before they get shot up, so that's nice. What you need beyond those are the means to nail armor, namely knocking out transports so your Crusaders have a nice tasty snack to munch on. Dakka Preds and MM/HF Speeders are your best bets. Tank hunting Sword Brethren Termies can work, but they're just too pricey considering you have 2 LRCs. It's very much a rock army, relying heavily on a super unit or two so much that it actually takes away from the rest of your army.

Emperor's Champion w/ Accept Any Challenge

Reclusiarch

2x 6 Initiates, melta, powerfist, 3 Neophytes, LRC w/ extra armor, smoke

2x 5 Initiates, lascannon

2x Pred-AC, HB, smoke

1499.

You have the 2 doom units, plus 2 cheap scoring units and some good firepower at range. AV14 may cause you problems, especially considering your melta is concentrated in your big bullseye units. We've got the Reclusiarch over the Marshall because we don't want your weapons batteries rushing headlong into the enemy, that tends to get them dead. Between them and the Preds you can nail light armor, plus you have the ACs and melta from your rock units.

So, those are my thoughts. Like I said I'm not too experienced with BT so take it with a pinch of salt. Generally though, when constructing your army you want to keep in mind some major things:

1) Dealing with infantry

2) Dealing with armor (light and heavy)

3) Protecting your troops/ensuring you can win the mission

4) Reducing the impact crazy luck can have through redundant unit selections, re-rolls, and the like

Hope that helps.

Tentative Tourney list

More Skaven! Fuck you, Skaven are awesome!

Local man-things want fight-fight at 1800 points. Odd-funny army size, but Skaven will kill-kill.

Heroes
Plague Priest-level 2, Plague Furnace, Plague Censer, Warp Scroll, Rival Hide Talisman
Warlock Engineer-level 2, Warp Energy Condenser, Dispel Scroll
Warlock Engineer-level 2, Doom Rocket

Core
2x Clanrats-24, shields, full command, Ratling Gun
2x 20 Slaves
2 Rat Swarms
11 Night Runners w/ Warp Grinder

Special
Plague Monks-20, full command, Banner of the Under Empire
2x 5 Jezzails

Rare
Doomwheel

Total-1799

The Furnace and Monks are my deathstar. Unbreakable, MR2, 35 model equivalent, smoke belching death machine. Anything hitting full on will die from the fumes and plague censer. Anything hitting the flanks will have to deal with 2 Engineers, Ratlings, the Warp Scroll, and the Banner dishing out a crap load of hits. Doomwhell runs up a flank and amuses me. Night Runners take the place of Gutter Runners and go after war machines or mess around in the rear. Jezzails do their thing. Rat Swarms act as blinders for the Monks, keeping them from doing anything stupid.

The whole idea is to force everything to funnel into my death unit. Whatever doesn't run directly at them gets blasted with firepower or magic and whatever ends up hitting them dies a horribly agonizing death from smoke or massed hits.

Will it work?

Update:

The Furnace doesn't come out until a week after the tourney, bummer. So I'm stuck using my old Screaming Bell as a stand-in, and 26 isn't too good for my Monks' unit size. I would need to incorporate 4 more to get them up to a good size (6x5). Dropping the Nighties altogether frees up enough points for the extra monks, slings for my slaves (lol) and a big pack of Giant Rats (22, 3 packmasters). But then I have virtually no skirmishers and would be pretty much at the mercy of war machines. I could consolidate the Jezzails into 1 unit and throw in Gutter Runners, but I'm unsure how just 1 unit of them would fare. I do have the Doomwheel, magic, and Ratlings as some extra firepower and I won't run across many dragons or flying monsters, so 1 unit may be all I need. And what about Poisoned Wind Mortars?

So, updated list

Heroes

Plague Priest-level 2, plague censer, Warp Scroll, Rival Hide Talisman, plague furnace

Engineer-level 2, Warp Energy Condenser, Dispel

Engineer-level 2, Doom Rocket

Core

Clanrats-24, shields, full command, Poisoned Wind Mortar

Clanrats-24, shields, full command, Poisoned Wind Mortar

Slaves-20, slings

Slaves-20, slings

Giant Rats-22, 3 packmasters

Rat Swarms-2

Special

Plague Monks-24, full command, Banner of the Under Empire

Jezzails-6

Gutter Runners-8

Rare

Doomwheel

Total-1796

A little different here. Less torrent, more template. I swapped the nerfling guns for mortars, relying on my magic and mobile units to protect me from any skirmishers. Gutter Runners > Night Runners, though I have a sweet idea for converting a Warp Grinder (Ork grot prod, woot!) I've got some IG Mortars and spare Plague Monks lying around, it's conversion time!

Which do y'all think would work better?

Doom army

Fun times with new Skaven. Considering how many units and items have the "Doom" moniker, I figured an army featuring them heavily would be high-larious. The result is a surprisingly assaulty Skaven army, painting up in silver and green like everyone's favorite Latverian ruler.

2000 Skaven "Doom" army
Lords/Heroes
Ikit Klaw "Dr. Doom"
Warlock Engineer "Doombot"-level 2, Doom Rocket, Warp Energy Condenser
Warlock Engineer "Doombot"-level 2, Dispel Scroll, Warlock Optics, Warp Musket

Core
3x Doomrats-24, shields, full command, Doom Flayer
2x 20 Doomslaves

Special
2x Gutter Runners-5
2x 6 Jezzails

Rare
2x Doomwheel

Total-1999

Well, we've got 6 units with Doom in their name, plus Dr. Doom himself. Come on, supreme sorceror and inventor with a metal mask, who else is it gonna be? Doom and his clones sit with Clanrats lobbing magic while the Doomwheels and Doomflayers set up to run into people and make them go squish. GRs march block, hunt war machines, or whatever. Jezzails blast things. Slaves die, horribly and hilariously.

I love this book, more as it comes to me.

Skaven!!!

Just got the army book, first impressions to follow.

Die-die man things!

IG or SM?

So, as I said in an earlier post (albeit in a much emo-er way), I'm going to be consolidating my collection. I'll be selling/trading the stuff I don't use any more (my B-listers) and focusing more on having armies as opposed to collections. I own one of everything of my marines, and my Orks too. That dog don't hunt. My Orks are more or less settled in as a Battlewagon brigade style mekky list, all I need is my buddy's broken up Wave Serpent to convert into my 4th and final Battlewagon.

So, with my Orks sorted, I turn to my Dark Angels. If ever you wanted a good example of a clusterfuck style army, this is it. Some of these guys date back from when I started a good 8 years ago with the 3rd edition starter set. The marines are still kicking around, but the DE are MIA (probably KIA, you'd have to ask Genestealer about those). I have my half company from my days as a fluffy bunny scrub player too. When AoBR dropped I finally got my Deathwing off the ground and thanks to Space Hulk I now have around 35 Terminators.

The way my collection is I would need a significant rework to make them even remotely competitive. Sorry, foot marines in a gunline ain't gonna cut it. I've got a trio of Rhinos (1 is a golden oldie, used to be a Whirlwind), a triple lascannon Predator, 1 HB/AC Speeder, and 3 Dreads. No Land Raiders to speak of, but I do have Sammael on his Speeder. I've got 50 or so Tac Marines, Devastators, 10 Assault Marines, 20 Scouts, 25 robed marines, and a good mix of heavies and specials (no meltas of course, fuck you 4th edition). I also have every character under the sun, Azzie, Zeke, 3 Librarians, a jump Chaplain and about 4 captains. And let's toss in 6 RW Bikes and an Attack Bike for funsies. There's a lot there, just a mess really.

I don't have nearly as much for IG, just 2 Russes, 30 guardsmen, 3 HWT, 2 Sentinels, a Chimera, and a converted Inquisitor plus retinue.

So, I'm trying to decide if I should just scrap them all in favor of IG, or rework them into something passable. The Termies and Bikes are staying, no question since I'm making my DW/RW army out of them anyway (just need 1 more RW Battleforce, 2 more and I can jack Froggage's Bike army).

Why can't I have you both? I love both armies, models, fluff, and play style, but I don't think I can maintain both either in terms of space or money. So a decision must be made. I'm not getting rid of the Orks because they're my favoritest army ever and I'm not getting rid of the Deathwing because they're also my favoritest army ever. Since both of them are somewhat subpar competitively, my IG/SM army needs to be face-smashingly, turnonetablingly, friendswillnevertalktomeagainly, turnituppast11ly competitive. I'm going to be bringing these inglorious basterds to tournies this next year and try my best to stomp on enough balls to encourage our local scene to get with the times and stiffen our competition.

IG and SM have a lot of variety and can be made competitive pretty easily. Making the decision won't be easy. So I'll be doing some analysis of the Codices themselves, unit choices, options, and son, optimal builds and potential contenders, and finally some tactics and strategies that can push them over the edge. I'll also throw in some cost analysis too to see which army ends up being the biggest bang for my buck. At the end I'll hopefully have reached a decision and maybe learned something.

And of course, any suggestions from the peanut gallery would be most appreciated.

Stegadon army

This post at Laubie's is amazing. Read it now or you will die alone.

Inspired by such heroism, I want to make a dinosaur army. But, I want it to be as cheap as possible. We're talking plastic toy dinos from the dollar store. I can see it now. Glorious.

This will be the best slumber party ever.

Dragon Age: Origins

Fucking awesome

Introspection

I wonder, what does all of this accomplish in the long run. Sitting around playing with dolls isn't getting me any closer to a degree, isn't getting me in shape, eats up money I could spend elsewhere, and certainly isn't getting me laid. Would I have a better life if I had never picked it up? Is it a destructive addiction, or a harmless hobby? Something in between? Is it me? Do the people I hang out with really care about me, or do we just play games? Do I care about them? Are we human? Or are we dancers?

I just had a big dose of IRL drama dropped on me, it's made me start thinking. Maybe talking about it, even to my keyboard, will help. I don't think I can maintain my current level of involvement in the hobby. I suppose this has been a long time coming, but I need to cut back.

Maybe 2 armies per system, enough to keep me engaged, plenty to paint, and so I won't get bored. Everything else must go. I doubt I can recoup the costs, monetary or otherwise, but I think it's a step in the right direction.

That leaves me with:

Dark Angels/Deathwing/Vanilla Marines

Orks

Skaven

Dark Elves

Sprue Daemons (if I get arsed enough to finish them)

On second thought, I'm not even sure why I posted this. I'll still be here, spinning my spiel, just feeling a little thoughtful and depressed today.

Happy Birthday Genestealer

Enjoy your Blackjack and Hookers!

Returning to the Land of Chill

Hello slaves,

I picked up DE for a bit back when the book first came out. I had some laughs, shed some tears, and generally enjoyed myself. However, Fantasy fell out of favor with me and I quit playing for a while. I sold off my DE, figuring that Skaven would be all the army I'd need, and moved back over to 40k (IG to be specific).

Well, my interest in Fantasy has been peaked again thanks in part to the new Skaven book coming out this week. Reading Stelek's review and checking out his other thoughts on Fantasy helped too. So, I went over to the FLGS to pre-order the Army Book, a Plague Furnace and Doomwheel. After taking care of business, I noticed they were having a sale, clearing out old stock. Everything was half off and I stumbled across the Dark Elf Spearhead. One impulse buy later and I'm off with the Spearhead, Battalion box and Glade Guard box. Go me.

So I'm back to square one with the Dark Elves. I've got a good idea of what I want to build towards, keeping it as cheap and effective as possible. I think they'll make a great counterpart to my Skaven.

Here's what I'm looking at for 2250

Lords/Heroes

Supreme Sorceress-level 4, Sacrificial Dagger, Pearl of Infinite Bleakness, Lifetaker, 1 Null Talisman
Lokhir Fellheart
Sorceress-level 2, Darkstar Cloak, Dispel Scroll

Core
2x 14 Corsairs, musician
18 Warriors, lordling, musician
11 Corsairs, handbows, musician
Assassin-2hw, Rune of Khaine

Special
2x 5 Cold One Knights-musician
2x 5 Shades, great weapons

Rare
2x War Hydra

Total-2249

Power Dice-9 (plus dagger and PoD, so lots)
Dispel Dice-5 plus scroll

Obviously this is based on Stelek's DE army, I wanted a good baseline to work with and this fit what I wanted to do with the army. As I playtest it I'm sure things will be modified accordingly. Most DE armies I've seen are deathstar armies with souped up characters and lots of shooting. I went for a more MSU feel since I don't put much stock in deathstars (plus I've got a Screaming Bell and Plague Furnace in my Skaven army :P).

The army splits down the middle, with 14 Corsairs (7x2 for maximum attacks), Cold One Knights and a Hydra to each flank. Lokhir is fucking awesome. Corsairs do mean things to people, but Lokhir destroys ranked up units. Combine that with a flanking unit of COK andor a Hydra, the Corsairs' nets and Lokhir's slaver rule and you can break, run down, and get DOUBLE VPs for just about anything. The Shades go after war machines or just annoy people (I would like Harpies, but monies are a problem). The Sorc goes with the handbow Corsairs and provides more magical doom. The SS and her battery deploy somewhere safe and sling magic all game, with the Assassin and handbow Corsairs for protection. Between the Lifetaker, Assassin and handbows I should see off any squishy unit that can make it back there.

I left out unit champions and standards because I don't think DE do well in stand up fights (apart from Warriors and Black Guard), so why bother trying? The 1 extra CR isn't a huge deal since I have ample flankers and everything is disposable, plus since all my units are fairly small I'd be basically handing my opponent VPs. It's all aggressive and if need be I can flee and use the musician to get back in again. Corsairs to the front with flanking COK and/or a Hydra will break most units, and with the Corsairs combined with speedy Knights/Hydras I can run them down quite easily.

So, does that make sense? Anything off base? Any ideas on how to improve it while still keeping it relatively inexpensive $$-wise?

Dark Elves!

I just got the Spearhead at my FLGS for $80.

Is this awesome? Y/N

eBay is the devil

You know, I could use 5000 points of Tomb Kings.

I really want a Warp Lightning Cannon. 200 model Skaven lot for only $150? Hell yeah!

I'm looking for cheap IG stuff, but it would be nice to start a Dark Eldar army. Who cares if it's just 1 Raider and a crap load of Incubi and Talos, it's cheaper than normal!

I need help.

The B-List

Didn't get any games in yesterday, but I spent some time organizing my stuff. Man, I've got a big pile of shit to sort through. I've got Eldar, Chaos Marines, Tyranids, Beasts of Chaos, Dwarfs, Goblins, Marines of all stripes, Orks, Daemons, Inquisition, Dark Elves and probably some stuff I don't even know about. Well, time to clean house.

I got together my Ork army, finalized it and put it away in its case. Nothing left but a few minor conversions (Leman Russ -> Battlewagon, kombi-skorchas, Burnas -> Lootas) and painting left. I've got a line on a broken Wave Serpent I intend to loot and turn into my 4th and final Battlewagon (for now), so I'll update the army as I go.

That left me with a considerable amount of Orks I'm not using. All told it ends up between 2000 and 2500 depending on how everything is equipped. I though it would be fun to turn this rabble into a backup army, a B-List if you will. All the boyz and bitz that got left behind by Waagh! Chum

-59 boyz, various equipment (a mix of sluggas, shootas and heavy weapons, all easy enough to modify as needed)
-11 Nobz, various equipment, 1 of which is a Painboy (could be Flash Gitz, lol)
-1 Trukk (3 when I convert the last Battlewagon)
-6 Nob Bikers, various equipment, 1 Painboy
-Biker Warboss
-SAG
-10 Grotz, 1 runtherd (I can probably scavenge more from various sprues)
-2 Deff Koptaz
-1 Looted Vindicator
-15 Kommandoz including 2 burnas and Snikrot
-Various bitz that can be konverted into Big Gunz (BW weapon bitz) or Killa Kanz (paint pots!)

So, while I'm scheming up my schemes, anybody care to take a stab at turning this bunch into something workable?

Battle Report: Orks vs. Tau

Hey, more games, w00t!

I had to bring my army up to 2000 points, so I added 2 koptas and 4 Lootas (splitting up into 2 units of 7 and 1 of 8) and swapped the Shoota Boyz' big shootas for rokkit launchaz (boardin' planks went bye-bye).

My opponent is a newbie to 40k after playing Fantasy for, like, ever. He had just picked up his Tau army last week (it's pretty much exactly the Tau army I've been questing after, but alas I have too many projects and not enough money!) . I'm fuzzy on all the details, but here's the basics.

Shas'O w/ Airbursting Frag, Missile Pod, Multi-Tracker, HW drone controller, 2 gun drones

2 Bodyguards w/ twin-linked burst cannons, drone controllers, 2 gun drones apiece

3 Crisis suits w/ twin-linked fusion guns, drone controllers, 2 gun drones apiece

3 Crisis suits w/ twin-linked missile pods, drone controllers, 2 gun drones apiece

2x 10 Fire Warriors w/ 1 Devilfish

10 Kroot

4 Piranhas w/ burst cannons

8 Pathfinders w/ Devilfish (FW jacked this one)

8 Gun Drones

2 Railheads w/ gun drones

3 Broadsides

We rolled up Capture and Control with Spearhead deployment. From my perspective, 3 objectives were placed on the midline from left to right, with 1 top left and the last bottom left.

Terrain was pretty consistent, a couple big LoS blockers (one big rock in the middle of the board, 1 on the bottom right, 1 at top center), hills, forests. It was a bit light on my right side of the board. He won deployment and picked the top right half (the basically empty one-terrain place-fail!).

Going into it, I knew how Tau can fuck up Orks, especially mech Orks. His build was far from optimal, but 5 Railguns had me very worried.

Tau Deployment:

He put both Railheads on a hill at the very top left with a commanding view of the field. Broadsides toward the far left near the midline with a big blind spot behind the central rock. Pathfinders deployed as far up as possible in some ruins, with the Shas'O and Fusion suits behind them. Missile suits deployed towards the middle, closer to his edge. Piranhas started on his board edge as far right as possible. FW and their Fishes, Blue and Gray set up between the Pathfinders and Piranhas/Broadsides respectively. Gun Drones Deep Str-eye-cked.

Ork Deployment:

I deployed the Battlewagons as far forward as possible in the center, closer to his board edge. I set them up so AV14 was facing every side, using the central rock formation to block or limit LoS from the Broadsides. KFF and Meganobs deployed centrally, Shootas to the left and Sluggas+Boss to the right. Trukks deployed outside of the BW formation, still in range of the KFF just in case. Lootas took the 3 big hills in my deployment zone at top left, bottom left and bottom right, so between all of them they had a good view of the battlefield. Grot screen stretched to cover them all. Koptaz outflunk. I wanted to minimize any potential damage from the Broadsides, so I blocked LoS as best I could, set up for a turn 2 charge, huddled around my KFF and hoped for the best.

Kroot infiltrated to the top left of the board, in plain sight of one of my Loota units (>,<) and the Scouts didn't move. I failed to seize and we were off.

Turn 1:

Gray Fish headed to the bottom right rock formation, Blue Fish didn't move. Shas'O and his buddies moved into the open for a clear shot on the Trukk. Missile suits headed towards the center, lining up on another Trukk. Fusion suits sat back. Piranhas headed towards the Kroot. Nothing else moved. Shooting blew off the top Trukk's big shoota and the bottom Trukk Kareen'd 4" forward and killed 2 boyz inside. 3 Lootas got gunned down (morale holds), Railguns bounced off of the KFF. Shas'O jumps back behind Pathfinders, Missile suits jump back, hiding behind the big rock.

The recently vacated Trukk mob leaps from the wreckage and does the stupid dance, waltzing up in open terrain to the Tau army. Lolz. Top Trukk wraps around the rock formation, headed towards the Piranhas and Missile Suits. BW reconsider their positions and move round behind the big rock, blocking off the Broadsides completely. Now if I can do this all game I win right? Fuck, sucks to have my shitty vehicles. Lootas account for 4 kroot, 2 Piranhas and 1 burst cannon, and 1 wound each to the Shas'O and his buddy (drones made all their saves, lol).

Turn 2:

Drones show up, get too close to the foot boyz, mishap and bounce back into space. Maybe next turn fellas! FW hop out of gray fish, ready to shoot next turn. Missile suits move out, Shas'O and Co. move out again, Fusion suits decide to head towards my car park. Kroot move towards the big rock, a-hankering for some 'shrooms! Piranhas move back. Shooting does a fat lot of nothing, lol KFF. Foot mob gets reduced to 4 but morale holds. Suits move back.

No Koptaz. Trukk mob zooms up to the missile suits, boyz hop out, and the party starts. BW move up behind them, finally facing off against the Broadsides for real. I can't sit back and wait, it's time for action. Hopefully I can get past this rock quickly with something intact and Waagh! to reach assault. Another Piranha bites it, 2 more kroot get nailed, drones make all their saves from the Lootas, fuckers. Boyz jump in, fuck up the Crisis suits, spread out 4".

Turn 3:

Yes, Drones! They show up by the uppermost Lootas, who are nice and exposed. They just barely made it too, 1.5" out. Fusion suits head towards the wagons, out of range. Piranhas deploy drones, shuffle about. Kroot move to assault the recently successful boyz. Blue fish moves in between central rock and Pathfinder ruins, Fire Warriors hop out to hose down the hurt Trukk mob. Fish and Hammerheads launch Drones too! Drones everywhere! Drone party, whoo! I fucking love frisbees! Fusion Guns out of range, Railguns do jack shit... again. Seriously, this is when I figured out my opponent was cursed. 3 Broadsides hit with 2 shots, Pathfinders reduced the BW cover save to 6+, he rolled 1 penetrating hit and proceeded to roll weapon destroyed. It's a goddamn 3+ to DESTROY! Hurting Trukk mob gets pasted, lose a Grot. 6/7 Lootas get shot up by gun drones, so the remaining Ork passes his pinning test and promptly bails. Kroot charge in, whiff spectacularly and get splattered.

1 unit of Koptaz show up, yes! I was planning on using them to help silence the railguns. Guess which side they come in on? Fuckers. They move towards the recently arrived drones to avenge their klepto brethren. Boyz on foot move to the Piranhas' drones and the objective they're guarding. Meganob BW and Slugga BW move up, hop out to go after the fusion suits and blue fish FW respectively. Shoota BW moves 6", prepares to open up. Shootas and Lootas manage to kill off 1 bodyguard and a bunch of drones in addition to 1 fusion suit and 3 drones. Koptaz nail a drone. Morale holds. Meganobs multi-charge the Pathfinders and Fusion suits, wipe them, consolidate 4" to spread out and get close to the Shas'O. Sluggas and Boss charge the FW, paste them, and roll a 1 for consolidation. Group hug! Trukk mob charges Piranha Drones, totally pwns them. Koptaz draw with Gun Drones (yes, they charged and have a buzzsaw; no, I don't want to talk about it).

Turn 4:

Piranhas flee, nobody else moves. Meganobs are in the open (sorta, KFF is there) against the Shas'O and his unit, 3 Broadsides, 2 Railheads, 2 Devilfish and 10 FW. FW kill one, nobody else does anything. I made like 20 2+ saves or 5+ cover saves in a row. It was great. 1 submunition round obliterated my Boss's unit, killed like 10. Devilfish KO'd a Grot. Gun Drones pasted by Koptaz!

Last unit of Koptaz show. Wrong board edge again. Koptaz zoom to catch the mop up. Trukk mob secures its objective, Grots spread out to grab 3(!). Meganobs clank up to the Hammerheads, Boss and Co. head towards the FW. Shoota BW moves up 6". WAAAAAAGH!!! Lootas account for an immobile Bluefish and 2 dead FW. Boss and Co. run 6". Meganobs open fire on the Hammerheads with their kombi-skorchas, catching the Drones blocking their path. Shootas nail 2 drones and finish the Shas'O's bodyguard. Boss and Co. paste the FW, Meganobs super-explode the Hammerhead.

Once his last scoring unit is gone, we called it.

I know you're all thinking it, yes my opponent played poorly and got ridiculously unlucky and crucial moments. I can't believe I managed as well as I did. I went out to minimize the effect of the Broadsides by hiding out of sight and using their movement to draw focus away from the objectives while sneaking my Grots on to 3 of them. If his list were set up better and he ran it well (i. e. not getting close to Orks, fucking me up with his vehicles I can't kill and using Kroot to absorb/blunt charges).

This should have been a totally one-sided shooting gallery. Now I want to play Tau even more to convince the locals that they are a force to be reckoned with it. That's right, they think Tau suck and Orks are the shit. Epic facepalm.

I ended up talking with my opponent for a bit afterwards between nerdgasming over the new Skaven stuff (we're both of the ratty persuasion). I advised him on setting up his suits to be more flexible with plasma rifles, missile pods and multi-trackers so they can nail 2+ saves and vehicles from far away; on putting his Pathfinders further back and making the most of markerlights instead of having to twin-link his suits' weapons; on using Kroot and Piranhas to block/blunt assaults while pouring more fire into them; using tanks aggressively to clump my units up and block movement; and giving his Broadsides ASS so they don't end up being completely useless if they can't see the entire board. And of course, I told him to throw those horrid little cubes of his out (I'm almost positive they only have 1's 2's and 3's imprinted on them).

Hopefully I can help him improve his game and army so he can table me by turn 2 like he's supposed to :P

My Proposed Marines

Here's the marine list I want to build up to for the 'Ard Boyz and various tournies.

HQ
Librarian-Epistolary, Terminator Armor, Storm Shield, Null Zone, Avenger
Elites
Assault Terminators-10, Land Raider Crusader w/ Multi-Melta, extra armor
Dreadnought-2x twin-linked Autocannon
Dreadnought-2x twin-linked Autocannon
Troops
Tactical Squad-10, Multi-Melta, Flamer, Sergeant w/ combi-melta, melta bombs, Rhino
Tactical Squad-10, Multi-Melta, Flamer, Sergeant w/ combi-melta, melta bombs, Rhino
Scout Squad-10, camo cloaks, Sniper Rifles, 1w/ Heavy Bolter
Fast Attack
Land Speeder Squadron-2 Typhoons
Land Speeder-Multi-Melta, Heavy Flamer
Land Speeder-Multi-Melta, Heavy Flamer
Heavy Support
Land Raider Crusader-Multi-Melta, extra armor
Predator-Autocannon, Heavy Bolters
Predator-Autocannon, Heavy Bolters

Total-2500

So, I've got 2 LRCs full of angry Termies to smash face, lots of firepower down range from the Dreads, Preds and Typhoons, with anti-tank from the Multi-Meltas spread around. Firepower, mobility, redundancy, flexibility.

To drop it down to 2000 I will probably lose both Typhoons, the Dreads, Epistolary upgrade, and any spare points come from combi-meltas or whatever.

For 1850, I would either drop more to keep both LRCs or go for more disposable dakka. I'm thinking the latter so I have a better balance and backups in case the LRC goes down.

The LRCs are big targets, but they are quite resilient and I do have an army besides them to dish out plenty of firepower at range and up close.

I think I'll paint these up as a different chapter to keep things fresh. Mentors maybe, or Space Sharks.

Thoughts?

My projects

Hey, I had some thoughts and I wanted to get them down so I don't forget. Don't like it, well too bad!

I've got a little bit of everything right now, but I don't have the money or patience to build them all into full on armies, so I'm going to be pruning back and making an effort at a reasonable number of armies.

I want to go for Space Marines, Orks, and Imperial Guard for now. Daemons may come later, same with Tau and Eldar and anything else that catches my fancy.

Locally, we have a bit of a scrub problem. People cry cheese way too quickly and suboptimal lists get thrown around a lot. I've tried teaching people with words, but I'm going to try something different. I want to throw big mean rock lists at them (one dimensional armies) and walk them through beating it until they can handle themselves. Orks are perfect for this. I want to turn my army into a "typical" overrated Ork uber army. That means Battlewagons and Nob Bikers. I would put a horde together, but fuck that I'm not painting 200 models.

So, I want to get up to 2000 points of each. The Battlewagon Brigade is easy, all I need is another Battlewagon and some buggies. More on that as I figure it out. The Nob Bikers I'm going to do up as Feral Orks and use plastic Orc Boarz to keep them cheap, but it also gives me some sweet conversion potential. I won't be using my Shokk Attack Gun, Kommandoz or Flash Gitz, but I want to keep them around for funsies. So, I'll have 2 Ork armies that are perfect noobslayer armies, but I will use them for good. Instead of just stomping on people, I will walk them through the game and help them figure out how to beat it with their balanced list. Hope it works. These guys are my favorite "fun" army, but if I can turn them into a teaching tool I'll be all for it.

Inspired by a post over on YTTH, I want to build up an army for 'Ard Boyz next year. Space Marines jump out since I have upwards of 3000 points of them but no real focus. I'm going to go for a "Best of" list with everything I love minus Sternguard. 2 LRCs full of Assault Termies, Tacticals in Rhinos, Scouts, Speeders, TLAC Dreads, Dakka Preds and a Librarian. Balanced, powerful, and easily scalable between 1500 and 2500. I need a lot of work to get there though, both LRCs, TH/SS Termies, and TLAC arms for my Dreads.

I have some Guard and I want to bring them to tourney readiness, but not 'Ard Boyz level. 2000 is the max. This will be a mostly mech list with Vets in Chimeras, Demos, Vendettas, etc and an infantry platoon to round it out. It's easy to bring Guard to 2000, but before I expand them further I want to get a good feel for them and make them different from my marines.

Deathwing is my pet project. I want to put together a DeathRaven army, similar to the one I posted earlier. All termies and Bikes, leaving the vehicles to my other armies. It should have a unique style and be a lot of fun to play, plus I won't have to buy much.

Daemons are tricky. I really want to build them up for the unique style of play and having another army in Fantasy, but I feel I have too much. I might just jack Stelek's competitive Daemon list for cheap, or stick with my initial plan for sprue Daemons. At present I'm deciding between 4 main builds: Daemonzilla, mono Slaanesh, "Best of" (chariot Tzeralds, Fiends, PBs, Bletters, TzDPs) or "competitive" (Fiends, dogs, PBs, Sheralds). I'll probably just playtest a bit more and figure out which I want. These are for fun like my Orks and DW.

All that should keep me busy and poor for a good while. Anything not fitting in the scheme will be sold off, converted, or hoarded for later.

I'm doing this to help make myself a better player by sticking to one army and learning it inside and out so I can better help my friends improve their own games and bring our community out of the cesspool of scrubdom that grips us to tightly. Plus, with some real focus I won't go leaping after the newest shiny thing.

Thoughts?

Battle Report: Orks vs. Ultramarines

Hey guys, got a game in yesterday and I figured I'd tell everybody about it.

I wasn't expecting much action at the store since a bunch of my regular buddies were out carving pumpkins. Losers. Luckily enough, Genestealer and I came across two people I hadn't seen before who were looking for games also. We pulled the old switcheroo and everybody got a new opponent, yayz.

I brought my 1850 Ork list I'm prepping for any events coming up in an effort to finally finish an army:

Warboss w/ PK, cybork body, kombi-skorcha
Big Mek w/ KFF, cybork body, bosspole
2x 9 Lootas
5 Meganobs, 2 kombi-skorchas, BW w/ armor plates, grot riggers, big shoota
19 Boyz, Nob w/ PK, bosspole
2x 12 Boyz, Nob w/ PK, bosspole, Trukk w/ ram, grot riggers
20 Shootas, 2 big shootas, Nob w/ PK, bosspole
14 Grots and 1 runtherd
2 Koptaz w/ rokkits and buzzsaws (indpependent)
2 BW w/ armor plates, big shoota, grot riggers, boardin' plank

My opponenet had his Ultrasmurfs featuring some neat paintjobs and some cool RT models. Sadly I couldn't get any pics since I left my camera at home.

Captain w/ relic blade, digi-weapons, storm shield
Command Squad w/ company champion and Rhino
Epistolary w/ Avenger and Force Dome
5 shooty Termies w/ assault cannon
Techmarine w/ servo-harness, 2 Tech Servitors and 2 HB Gun Servitors
Dread w/ assault cannon
10 Tacs, heavy bolter, famer, power sword
5 Scouts, camo cloaks, snipers, 1 missile launcher
10 Assault Marines, power sword
10 Devastators, 4 missile launchers, Razorback
Whirlwind

We played Annihilation with Pitched deployment, I rolled first turn.

I had my Lootas on the left flank in and behind some ruins, another unit on a hill behind a Grot screen, all 3 Battlewagons to their right, Boss+Boyz and Shootas in front of Mek+Meganobs (upside down triangle thingy). There was a big LoS-blocking rock formation on the right flank, so I put both Trukks in there. I put the Koptaz about 1/3 of the board length in and as far forward as possible so they could cover the most ground.

He deployed his command squad in its Rhino on the far left, opposite my Lootas (uh oh). The Devastators combat-squadded, each one in a different terrain piece on the left, opposite my other Lootas, with their Razorback and the Librarian behind them. The Tactical Squad deployed further back in the center. The Whirlwind deployed to their right, behind a rock formation. The Dread and Techmarine deployed on the right flank behind some low ridges. Assault Marines and Termies were held in reserve. Scouts infiltrated to a big building to the right of in between the far left Lootas and Rhino.

Deff Koptaz jumped 24" towards the Whirlwind and 1 Devastator squad, he failed to seize the initiative.

TURN 1:
My Koptaz moved closer to their targets, ready to assault. The vehicles all surged forward, meeting up in the center going fromt left to right: Boss, Shootas, Trukks with the Mek's wagon behind them all giving KFF protection. I knew that since his only real AT was krak missile, I had the BW facing them, while the Trukks blocked their vulnerable side armor and faced down the Dread and Techmarine. Lootas opened fire, shaking the Rhino and killing 3/5 Devastators. 1 Kopta blew up the Whirlwind, another killed a Devastator. I actually forgot to charge my other Deff Kopta >,< I didn't ask my opponent for a re-do when I realized because I wanted to make sure I didn't forget in the future.

He zoomed the Rhino up and shot stuff. This is where his luck ran out. The Techmarine and retinue, Tactical Squad and Dreadnought all fired at a solo Deff Kopta and caused all of 1 wound! The other Kopta was not so lucky, getting downed by the Razor and Librarian's template. 4 frag missiles landed in the Loota/grot hug fest, killing all of 1 Loota! Scouts did jack all to the Lootas in the ruins.

TURN 2:
Party time! The Trukks zoomed to the right, disembarking in front of the Techmarine and Dread. The Kopta jumped behind the Dread, rokkits ready. The Shoota wagon moved 6" to get a clear shot at the Tacticals. The Boss's wagon headed towards the Devastators and 20 angry Orks jumped out. The Mek's wagon moved behind the Boss's wagon, but nobody felt like jumping out. The Trukk mob and Trukks' shooting accounted for 2 Servitors, the Kopta failed miserably, the Lootas immobilized the Rhino and stunned the Razorback, and the Shootas killed 4 marines. The Techmarine and buddies were wiped out at the loss of 2 boyz (powerfists never even got to swing, gotta love that majority WS and T!), the Dread got wrecked without killing anybody, and 5 Devastators got wtfpwned by 19 Orks and the Warboss.

Both the Assault Squad and Termies showed up, the jump packers arrived from the center heading towards the Boss and his buddies, while the Termies popped up right behind the recently re-deceased Dread. The Command Squad jumped out of their ride and headed to the Boss's unit as well, while the Tacticals moved to support. Uh oh. Shooting reduced the Boss's unit to 8 boyz, putting the Assault Marines out of charge range. It wasn't a total loss though; the Librarian rolled boxcars for Force Dome, taking a wound! Termies did jack all for shooting, killing 4 boyz (Boyz in the open, mind you). Scouts killed a Loota, pinning test passed. Rhino sputtered around. The Command Squad and Libby charged into the Boss's unit, killing all but 1 boy, 1 Nob, and the Boss. They proceeded to slaughter all but the company champion, yayz! Ld passed, keep on trucking. Termies killed 6 but lost 3 of their own, Ld holds.

TURN 3:
Meganobs spring into action, zooming up to meet the Assault Marines head on, the other Trukk mob moves to support their beleaguered brethren, Shoota wagon moves to get a good sight on the Tacticals, Kopta zooms towards the Razorback, and Grots abandon all caution and rush the Scouts. Shooting sees 3 assault marines, 5 Tacticals, 2 Scouts, and 2 Devastators buy it while the Razorback gets re-stunned. Meganobs wipe the Assault Marines with no casualties. The Captain knocks a wound off the boss while the Librarian and Champion finish the boyz. Captain goes down, Command Squad is finished. Ld holds. Termies get wiped, 1 more boy dies (just the Nob left).

Rhino fixes itself, Scouts kill 1 Loota, Warboss loses another wound. Yawn.

TURN 4:
Everything heads to the left to mop up. Grots continue their charge, no damage from grot blastas. Tactical Sgt downed by shootas, Razorback stunned by the Kopta in assault, Rhino re-immobilized.

Warboss finally buys it, Captain and Libby move away.

TURN 5:
Libby eats shootas and buys is, Captain wtfpwned by Meganobs.

At this point we called it, since all he had left was an immobilized Rhino, immobilized Razor and 3 Scouts. I lost 1 Kopta, my Boss, his mob, and a bunch of random boyz and lootas. 3 KP total. We decided to let the Grots and Scouts fight anyway, Grots got wiped :P

Obviously this was an epic mismatch, no weapons higher than S8 with little mobility vs. a BW list is not going to end well. This is your typical "battleforce" style list, a little bit of everything with no real focus. I think my opponent was new to 5th ed because of his list and overall lack of familiarity with the rules (had to go through wound allocation every time). It was fun and he was a great sport, but a challenging game it was not. Hopefully he'll stick around and we can turn his army into a real killer.