The Fly Lords of Terra

Necron List 2nd... 5th... Whatever Version...

2012-01-28T06:00:00.000-06:00

I've played with a ton of different lists over the last... who knows how long and I've gone through lots of different plans, themes, etc. I think I've got a list that would be... not too terrible. There is still a question based on the new FAQ as to whether Anrakyr, the Traveller can use his "Mind in the Machine" special ability while mounted in an open topped vehicle, but for now I'm playing it as if he can.

Read more »

Yep, Templars

2012-01-27T08:12:00.003-06:00

So as everyone is surely aware, I've painted a full 2000 point Black Templar force for Darkwynn which I completed shortly before Feast of Blades last year. What I don't know if I mentioned is that he also has at least another 2000-3000 points he wants painted to complete the entire force. Amongst the other items I will be painting for him over the course of the next who knows how long are two contemptor dreads, a second Land Raider Crusader, a Land Raider Achilles, and even a Thunderhawk.

Read more »

Quick Tip: Making Mordian Plasma Guns

2012-01-20T18:06:00.000-06:00

So I can't take full credit for this one, I nicked the idea from one of the other Fly Lord members but I'll be the one to pass on the tipper. I'm sure most people hate the idea of more plasma on the table, especially Bushido Panda but here we go!

Quick Tip: Making Nurgle Boils

2011-12-31T14:40:00.002-06:00

Hello! My name is daKing; the most silent of the Fly Lords of Terra. Realgenius told me that if I don't post at least one article on Blog per year, I'll lose my Fly membership and with it all the perks :( So here I am on the last day of 2011 to bring you all a Quick Tip for making disgusting Pussey Boils!

Read more »

Necrons First Draft

2011-11-28T13:52:00.001-06:00

Hey all, I've been playing with Necrons a lot for the last couple weeks and I've come up with my first list. I've also come to accept and even like some of the new fluff once I was able to let go of the old version of it. However, I don't like the concept of "drivers" for the Necron vehicles, and I will not be including any on my vehicles. With technology this advanced, the vehicles can drive themselves, thanks.

Anrakyr the Traveller, Command Barge, Gauss Cannon
Overlord, Warscythe, Tachyon Arrow, Mindshackle Scarabs, Command Barge, Gauss Cannon
Court, 2 Harbingers of Destruction, 1 Solar Pulse, 1 Lord with Resurrection Orb
9 Warriors, Ghost Ark
9 Warriors, Ghost Ark
15 Warriors
8 Scarabs
8 Scarabs
8 Scarabs
Annihilation Barge
Annihilation Barge
Doomsday Ark

My requirements for the first army were that it had to be made using only models that existed (with the exception of the characters and crypteks which can be easily converted) and I wanted to make use of the new vehicles.

I'm still working on building it (still waiting on some of it to come in actually), but I'm looking forward to playing it. I've played the scarabs in one game so far and I definitely thing they are going to be pretty dirty.

Latah.

Feast of Blades Round-up Part 2

2011-11-10T17:57:00.001-06:00

So, I'll start part 2 by talking about painting. I wasn't really intending on entering the painting competition, but I decided to last minute. I entered my recently painted Ezekiel in the single mini catagory, Nick's Terminators and Marshal as a squad in the unit catagory, and my entire remaining Deathwing army in the army catagory. I was able to take home first place for Ezekiel, first place for the squad, and 2nd for the Deathwing. I was even told that there was an extensive debate whether to give best army (and subsequently best in show) to my Deathwing or the eventual winner. So I got some bling!

Feast of Blades Round-up Part 1

2011-11-10T08:49:00.002-06:00

Hey everyone, had a blast at feast this past weekend. Picked up my Necron codex while I was there and had some really good games. Ended up winning best general for the open tournament so I figured I'd talk about my games, some of which were VERY close.

Read more »

Ready for Feast!!!

2011-10-25T12:17:00.001-05:00

Definitely been busy the last few days. I decided that I would take the weekend off from the Templar and focus on getting the last couple models for my Feast army ready to go. One of which, has been a rather long process and was something I'd wanted to do for quite some time.

Super Saiyan Ezekiel!!!

Not sure if serious...

2011-10-21T11:59:00.002-05:00

So lots of pictures of the new Necrons have been released and surely everyone's seen them by now. I figured I'd chime in with my thoughts. Personally, I am of a split opinion about the whole thing...

Read more »

I'm WAY Behind Here...

2011-10-18T10:13:00.001-05:00

Yeah, it's been a while. I keep saying that I'm going to do a better job with blog posts, but since I suck so bad I can't seem to get it done. I haven't been idle though, been working furiously (sort of) on Darkwynn's Templars. Not to mention getting ready for Feast of Blades.

Read more »

Are You Doing It Wrong?

2011-09-22T01:00:00.000-05:00

Hey All, I read an editorial yesterday and I wanted to talk about it a little outside of the comment field. Personally, I have to take the opposite position on this one. Just ask Goatboy what I think of most of his armies. There are two clear and very different groups here. There are the people who create armies based on the fluff, and there are people who create fluff based on the armies.

Read more »

Space Marine Review (xbox)

2011-09-20T18:54:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone, it's been a while, but my absence has been pretty much filled with Space Marine and some painting... I've had the game for over a week at this point so I decided I'd talk about it a little.

Read more »

Not Really Feeling It...

2011-09-04T12:10:00.001-05:00

Over the last few weeks, I had been feeling a definitely itch for some 40k again. I'm really liking Dystopian, but I still felt the call to play some power armor. Not to mention I'm going to be registering for Feast of Blades in the very near future and I wasn't decided on what events to play in.

Reading about tournaments recently was definitely giving me a bad taste, but the itch never really went away. So yesterday, I set up a game against Goatboy and his Grey Knights. I made a quick 2000 point Deathwing list and I was ready to go. Well...

It was pretty terrible... I didn't even make it past the first turn before stopping the game. It was as un-fun as I'd pretty much expected. This was my first game against the Grey Knights and I had already figured how it would go. So as of right now, I'm retiring (at least temporarily) from competitive 40k and I'm retiring the Deathwing in it's current configuration. It's just not fun for me to play 40k that way right now.

So, I'm going to re-focus on Dystopian Wars and other Beer-and-Pretzel games like I had been doing, including for-fun 40k. I will probably be joining the narrative in denver if I can get a space. I'll also most likely be playing the Sons of Horus in fun games from now until the new Necrons come out.

See, I Have Been Painting!

2011-08-23T11:01:00.000-05:00

The Templar are coming along and I'm still pretty happy with them, but its still pretty slow going. I had hoped to be a little further along, but I'm still on target for Feast to get them finished.

Yep, I used the airbrush primarily for the pod. It's clearly not finished, but I'm pretty happy with it so far. I think its going to take a little more normal brush work than I'd hoped, but not too bad. I do want to put some white in it, but I really have no idea where. No idea where.

Empire of the Blazing Sun

2011-08-22T15:14:00.001-05:00

Hey all, sorry I haven't posted much recently... I've been doing stuff, just have been disappointed with the terrible photo's my camera has been giving me. Definitely been missing my D40...

Part of what I've been working on is my Empire fleet for Dystopian Wars, which is quickly becoming a favorite game. I really didn't have a good plan for a scheme... but I did kinda want to use a new color I found and liked, p3 coal black. It turned out to be more green than I'd originally planned, but it worked pretty well so I went with it.

The photo's just don't show the real colors as they look in real life, but you'll just have to pretend. I went with a pale color for the decking so it would look a little like a bamboo or something similar. You'll just have to trust that colors really do work in the real world. The red just kinda ties it all together.

I'm about 50-60% of the way through a battleship that I hope to finish off pretty soon. I'll have to try and borrow a non-crap camera and get some good pictures of it...

'Ard Boys? Eh, maybe...

2011-08-03T09:30:00.001-05:00

I have not witheld my feelings towards 40k now-a-days and the epitome of what I hate about 40k is Ard Boyz. That being said, I'm actually considering playing in it...

Yep... I know... I'm about 50/50 right now on it and I think a lot of it will have to be determined after the smaller tournament this weekend. If it ends up being a good time, I might go ahead and play. I ended up thinking about how I'd change my list up to 2500 though...

Read more »

Contemptor Mortis....

2011-07-31T10:20:00.002-05:00

Picture curtesy of Forge World

YES PLEASE, k thanks...

I'll Be Heading to Feast of Blades

2011-07-29T10:48:00.000-05:00

Hey all, as some of you may know coming later this fall is a fairly new con colorfully known as Feast of Blades. One of their events is an invitational tournament for players who've won smaller events around the country or received specific invitations from the TO Duke.

Read more »

Black Templar Update

2011-07-26T10:37:00.000-05:00

Hey All. I was able to finish up the first land speeder for Darkwynn's Templars. It took a little longer than I had figured (again), but creating the scheme from scratch cost some time. Not to mention the time it took to get the white right.

Darkwynn's Emperor's Champion

2011-07-20T11:08:00.000-05:00

Hey all, I was finally able to finish up the Emperor's Champion for Darkwynn's Black Templar. I spent a little longer on it than I'd originally planned to, but I'm pretty happy with the way it came out.

Definitely happy with the purple lightning power weapon vs the blended version I did on the terminator. I ended up doing a 50/50 wash (badab black/laviathan purple) over the blended one and it looks quite a bit better.

Three models down, 17 to go to meet my goal and I've got about a month left to do it. Hopefully I can stay on schedule.

Darkwynn's New Templar Update

2011-07-18T08:00:00.001-05:00

I was finally able to get really started on the new Templar army for Darkwynn. My goal is to get a good portion of the army finished before ETC next month.

7 Shooty Terminators
7 Assault Terminators
Emperor's Champion
4 Land Speeder Typhoons

I randomly chose the terminator sergeant from the command squad to paint first and I was able to finish him up this morning. Since it's Darkwynn's army, I decided to do purple power weapons.

Dystopian Wars

2011-07-14T14:13:00.001-05:00

Hey all, this past weekend at Wargames Con I wandered by the Spikey Bits tables and noticed he had some starter boxes for 20% off. I chatted up bDub and a couple others from the local group. I ended up deciding to go with Empire as I liked their ships the most.

Another One in the Books

2011-07-11T08:42:00.001-05:00

Another what I deem to be successful War Games Con is in the books. People seemed to really enjoy themselves this year and there was only a little drama, not surprisingly mostly centered around DashofPepper from hulksmash. I think all-in-all the judges handled the situation pretty well and the event went on.

Read more »

40K scale Chaos Harbinger Project - OOh yeah!

2011-07-07T14:08:00.006-05:00

Yeah, that would be cool.

So after some discussion with BigRed regarding how cool it would be to add a Harbinger to a 40K scale Chaos airforce and/or play Aeronautica Imperialis in 40K scale, I decided to explore the possibility.
Read more »

Stop Vile Temptress!!!

2011-07-01T09:04:00.000-05:00

Damn you Forge World, why must you tempt me so!?!

Yep, that's a GD pre-heresy style dreadnought....

Read more »

Bandwagon Armies

2011-06-28T08:37:00.002-05:00

Hey all, I've been thinking a lot lately as I haven't had much time to paint models or play any games. With the preparations for War Games Con ramping up like crazy, the staff has been super busy. However I've gotten some time to sit and think about 40k in general. Maybe its mostly the Austin environment, but I'm really getting tired of the bandwagon.

Read more »

Yme-Loc Cobra, Now With Decent Pics!

2011-06-18T08:54:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone, I finally got the chance to get some good pics of Cobra completed. Unfortunately, I was too late and Bigred had already messed it up with Decals :,( .

Yme-Loc Cobra Completed

2011-06-06T08:00:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone, the Cobra I've been painting for TheGirl's Eldar army is finally complete. Bigred was supposed to get some pictures with his good camera, but TheGirl took it home before we were able to. So I've only got one, taken with my phone, but I think you'll get the idea...

It certainly looks better in real life, but you get the idea. I was able to get one more pic from the side view...

I'm sure we'll be able to get some good pics of it at some point...

Fire Hawks Update: 500 pt Force

2011-05-31T06:31:00.001-05:00

I got three colors on my Fire Hawks for the first round of our local Escalation League. Not much for 500 points, eh?
Read more »

Aventine does Alamo..

2011-05-21T10:21:00.001-05:00

So it's May and that means the start of the Texas GT season with our trip slightly south to SA. John Bailey organizes an absolutely awesome event. The missions are almost completely just straight up rulebook affairs, which is perfect in my opinion. Not to mention, it's held in a beer hall, I obviously had a blast. This is the army I used.

Read more »

Forge World Mk V and MK II Assault Squads

2011-05-20T09:00:00.001-05:00

Forge World just announced two new sets of Assault Marines perfect for Badab armies. The best part is that they are available now from Forge World.
Read more »

Remember the Alamo: Bushido's Round-up

2011-05-19T17:10:00.002-05:00

Hey all, I'm back from the Alamo 40k GT this past weekend and I've got some reporting to do. Before I get to that, I would like to say that John B and the rest of the Alamo crew did a fantastic job and it was amazing fun, just like last year. Anyway, on to the meat. Apologies to all, I still don't have a decent camera and was unable to get any pics of my own. Thanks and credit to all those whom I stole these pictures from.

The Deathwing was ready to rumble, here's my list:

Read more »

Spikey Bits DreadKnight Conversion Contest

2011-05-09T17:17:00.002-05:00

Pics are finally up over at the Spikey Bits DreadKnight Mega Build Contest and there are a bunch of characterful entries.

Remember the Alamo Update 2

2011-05-09T08:00:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone, just a few more days before we head down to San Antonio for the Alamo IGT and I'm quite happy to say that this weekend was a very productive one.

Tau XL-18 Interdiction Armor (Spikey Bits DreadKnight Conversion Contest Entry)

2011-05-07T09:30:00.001-05:00

Here's my entry for the Spikey Bits DreadKnight Mega Build Contest. As usually with time-limited contests, I always seem to run out of time and never get my entry finished to the level I want, but I'm happy with how the suit turned out. My goal was to make it feel very Tau, and I'm happy with the result.

Maybe I'll use him as a Hammerhead in Apocalypse games. I'll probably do a little more work cleaning him up before painting, and painting will probably be done in the traditional Tau tan and brown. Here's a shot of a normal suit for scale. He's a pretty big guy; and yet the railgun still seems too large.

Hopefully we'll see the rest of the contest entries soon. I'll post the link when it goes up.

Fire Hawks Update

2011-05-05T21:00:00.001-05:00

I've got my first two squads built for our local Escalation League. The first round is 500 points, 1-2 Troops, 0-1 Fast, 1 HQ. I'll be using these two squads with my Librarian under the Blood Angels Codex.

Remember the Alamo Update

2011-05-02T08:56:00.004-05:00

I wasn't able to get as much done this weekend as originally planned due to being so busy Saturday with work. I was able to get out a couple scouts though. I'm pretty happy with the way they came out.

One of the shotgun mooks.

Remember The Alamo

2011-04-28T17:49:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone, I'm fresh off a visit from Aims and ready to get back into the swing. Unfortunately, I also realized that in just over 2 weeks is the Alamo 40k IGT and my army is not finished... that's bad.

It's once again time for the Dark Angels to come out and play. I intend to play basically the same army I've had in a few recent BoLS Batreps.

This is what's painted...
Belial, Thunderhammer/Stormshield
5 Upgraded Termies, 5 Thunderhammer/Stormshield, 1 Cyclone, Apothecary, Banner
5 Termies, 4 Thunderhammer/Stormshield, 1 Cyclone, 1 Chainfist/Storm Bolter
5 Termies, 4 Thunderhammer/Stormshield, 1 Cyclone, 1 Chainfist/Storm Bolter
5 Termies, 4 Thunderhammer/Stormshield, 1 Cyclone, 1 Chainfist/Storm Bolter
5 Termies, 4 Thunderhammer/Stormshield, 1 Cyclone, 1 Chainfist/Storm Bolter
1 Land Speeder Typhoon, Multi-melta

1 Land Speeder Typhoon, Multi-melta

This is what's not...
5 Termies, 4 Thunderhammer/Stormshield, 1 Cyclone, 1 Chainfist/Storm Bolter

1 Land Speeder Typhoon, Multi-melta

5 Scouts, 4 Shotguns, 1 Powerfist/Botlt Pistol

Drop Pod

That means I have just over 2 weeks to paint up that stuff, not to mention a team tourney at the LGS next weekend. I'm going to be rather busy I think...

Got Bits?

2011-04-24T11:26:00.001-05:00

I got my Fat Sack O' Bits from Spikey Bits a while back, but finally had a chance to crack it open and take a look. They've got some sort of bits packing ninjas over there, because once I got it all out of the bag I realized there's no way I'm going to get it back in.

Read more »

DreadKnight Conversion Contest: Done!

2011-04-22T07:26:00.000-05:00

The Spikey Bits DreadKnight Mega Build Contest is coming to a close today. Entries are due at Midnight US Eastern time and I won't be able to do any more work on my entry today (ran out of time), I've sent in my pics.

Read more »

Badab Character Competition Voting

2011-04-18T21:04:00.000-05:00

The Fallen Princes now has Badab Character Contest voting going on right now. (More pictures of the above entry at Red's Corps Red Scorpions.) Prizes are offered by The Fallen Princes and Bitz Box, in what might be the first of a regularly occurring competition.

Head on over and vote!

Fire Hawks Librarian Aachen Tournet

2011-04-15T13:09:00.001-05:00

From the upcoming Badab War supplement, here's my take on Fire Hawks Librarian Aachen Tournet inspired by the Badab Character Competition. (Which ends today!)
Read more »

Praetorian (Dread)Knight WIP

2011-04-12T08:22:00.006-05:00

I went with a super shooty build on this Praetorian Knight. The next one will have the Incinerator.

Well, I am just about finished with my Praetorian (Dread) Knight. I still need to do some work on the black, apply another wash and highlight and I will be done with the first one. I plan on doing at least one more.
Read more »

Badab Contest Ending Soon!

2011-04-11T16:00:00.000-05:00

Don't forget that the Badab Character Competition is ending this week! I'm working on my "entry in spirit". Which charaacter am I doing? Hmm, maybe you can guess.

Head on over to The Fallen Princes and turn in your pics by the 15th. If you haven't started yet... there's still time!

Grey Knights; For Reals This Time

2011-04-11T08:00:00.001-05:00

I hope nobody took me too seriously with the crazy shunt-punch list. That thing was just silly. I have been building lists for myself with the same small, elite premise though. I really like the crazy fluff and story behind Draigo and paladins, so I wanted to start there.

Lord Draigo
5 Paladins, MC Demonhammer, 4x MC Halberd, 2 Incinerators, Apothecary
5 Terminators, Demonhammer, 4x Halberd, Psycannon, Thrawn
10 Strike Squad, 2x Psycannon, MC Demonhammer, 7x Halberd, Rhino
Stormraven, Multi-melta
Dreadknight, Heavy Incinerator
Dreadknight, Heavy Incinerator
Vindicare Assassin

Nice and small, elite. Lots of knights. Pretty cheap to build. I'm a little scared of all the Ld 9 in this army. A bad day with some high leadership checks could mean disaster. I'm considering cutting the 2nd Dreadknight in order to have a more rounded army with no duplicate entries, but I probably won't I love those models! I'm mostly looking forward to painting these guys up, which I'm hoping to do over the next few months. If I can pull it off, this should be my sexiest army to date.

Eldar Phantom Titan Rules!

2011-04-08T08:15:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone, got a nice surprise this morning when I saw the Forge World rules for the Phantom in my inbox. Feel free to check them out here. My first thoughts, especially when I saw the points cost whats "Sigh, they're trying to screw over the Eldar again...", but as I read more I did perk up a little.

His stat line is okay, but he should probably be armor 14... I mean c'mon. I guess it doesn't matter when you're blasting away with D weapons. I also think that the Spirit Guides rule should work both ways and you should be able to move your shaken results back and forth from driver and guns.

That being said, that Phantom Pulsar is AMAZING! 4 D shots that are ap1!!! Only the Necron Pylon and the Heavy Railguns are ap1 str D shots elsewhere in the game. The Phantom Distortion Cannon is also amazing! D3 rolls on the super heavy chart can really cause some damage, combined with ignoring shields means that those two weapons can take down not only warhounds, but Reavers and even Warlord Titans in one volley! With the 8 missile launcher shots and the 2 from the pulse laser to take down shields so the Pulsar can get through, this baby packs some SERIOUS firepower.

So, I think this might actually work out reasonably well points wise. It's still not as good for the points as the Reaver, but that thing is so under-costed that it really shouldn't be. So it looks like I'm going to have to find about $740 and pick one up... ouch :)

Here's Bdub's post with all the great live pics from Adepticon!

Lighter Side: New Counts-As Thunderwolves

2011-04-07T08:00:00.003-05:00

I saw the new Tomb Kings are available for pre-order. And while all the models look great, my mind started reeling at the possibilities for the Necropolis Knights.

They'd make a great counts-as Thunderwolves. But not for just any army. A COBRA army! Behold.

Any other conversion ideas for the new TK? I'm getting lots of Thousand Sons vibes...

Adepticon 2011: Bushido's Wrap-up

2011-04-06T08:00:00.001-05:00

We're all back in Austin now (except Brent who went home to Wichita Falls) and we're definitely still recovering from the drive. We got back in town around 1:30 AM, followed by me getting up at 6 AM to go pick up Darkwynn and I's dogs from the Daycare/Boarding place. So yeah, I'm running on fumes...

In the end I decided to forgo Gladiator due to wanting to spend as much time as possible with Aims while she was over from law school. I certainly don't regret it even a little. I don't know why, but Gladiator just didn't have the same feel this year... Here's hoping they can re-discover it for next year.

It was an amazing weekend, like always and we're already getting some ideas ready for next year. However, before we can get into that, there's lots to do for WargamesCon. Not to mention other projects. Bdub took some awesome pics partially saving me from having to do it.

It was great to meet all the people who'd seen my Deathwing both here and on BoLS. Thanks to Bigred for the timing, posting it the morning of. I've already made some changes to the list to get it read for the Alamo IGT down in San Antonio next month. Need to paint a few more models.

DreadKnight Conversion Contest: Parts Have Arrived!

2011-04-05T09:00:00.002-05:00

As you have read, I'm entering the Spikey Bits DreadKnight Conversion Contest. After some soul-searching, input and a discussion with BDub (that shot down my earlier idea), I've decided which non-Marine army I'm going to use. Not only that, but my order has already arrived from Spikey Bits. (They also got the DreadKnight in bits and other Grey Knight bits if you're already looking for those.)

Adepticon 2011: Monday Wrap Up

2011-04-04T21:24:00.001-05:00

Well, it has come and gone. The Austin boys (and girl) are still on their way back to Texas, so here's a wrap from around the web on Adepticon 2011.

Read more »

Adepticon 2011: 40k Championships Live

2011-04-03T12:54:00.002-05:00

View the Championship tables live from the Independent Characters.

Live TV : Ustream

After Hours: 40k-Themed Drinks

2011-04-03T09:17:00.001-05:00

Far be it from the Fly Lords to pass by a purveyor of fine libations without closer inspection. This poster seen outside the 40k Tournament, next to the satellite bar. You ever get the feeling our hobby is getting a little too targeted by advertisers?

Wait a minute!? What do I see there?

This poster NOT sanctioned by the Fly Lords of Terra; we'll alert the Legal Strike Force immediately!

Adepticon Champs Recap

2011-04-02T12:00:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone, I was really planning on trying to updated immediately after each round, but there just wasn't enough time. So here is a full recap of rounds 2-4.

Round 2 - Dark Eldar

Adepticon 2011: 40k Champ Update and Day One Recap

2011-04-02T07:05:00.002-05:00

photo: Blood of Kittens

Oh where, oh where did all the Imperial Guard go? I remember last year at Adeption it seems like two out of three armies was Leafblower of some sort. Now, according to BoK, only one of the final 16 is Imperial Guard. Of the 16, 9 are Marine variants, and 3 are Orks-- good to see them still hanging around.
Read more »

Adepticon 2011: ForgeWorld Phantom Titan

2011-04-01T18:30:00.001-05:00

Fly Lord BDub snapped these pics of the Phantom at the ForgeWorld booth. Look how big that thing is!

Read more »

Adepticon Update: Round One

2011-04-01T14:07:00.002-05:00

Round 1 is over and I played against a Killa Kan Ork army.

Adepticon 2011: Friday Thread

2011-04-01T08:59:00.009-05:00

News has started to trickle in for Friday; here's what I've found so far.
Bushido's Round One Report | BDub's ForgeWorld Eldar Phantom Titan Pics

Read more »

The Road to Adepticon... for real.

2011-04-01T06:43:00.002-05:00

ANGRAATH HATE TRAFFIC!!! AAAAAAAAAARGHHHHHH!!!

Hey everyone, the BoLS crew has arrived at Adepticon safe and sound, mostly. It was a very long ride as always, but we got to watch Conan and Iron Man 2 along the way. Jwolf and Brent did a great job driving.

I tried to post yesterday from the van, but 3G just wasn't cutting it. Going to be heading down for registration here soon enough and hopefully getting some more footage. Haven't been in the hall yet, but from RGs pics it looks pretty sweet.

Adepticon 2011: The Calm Before The Storm

2011-03-31T13:12:00.002-05:00

If you've noticed the blog-o-sphere has gone a little quiet lately it is because the gaming world is about to descend on Lombard, Illinois for Adepticon 2011.

Road to Adepticon: The Final Countdown

2011-03-28T08:00:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone, the Deathwing is totally done now and I can finally relax. Finished up the Banner just this morning. Bigred and RG took some pics of the army so everyone could see it.

Thursday Game Night: Photo Time!

2011-03-25T22:00:00.002-05:00

Since Bushido is closing in on the completion of his Deathwing I brought the camera and lights down to FLGS to get some pics before he heads out to Adepticon.
Read more »

Spikey Bits DreadKnight Conversion Contest

2011-03-24T12:49:00.001-05:00

So the Junior-Super-Scientist-in-Training over at Spikey Bits is running a DreadKnight Conversion Contest and yours truly is entering. The contest is to convert the DreadKnight to a non-Astartes pattern, so pretty much anything but a power-armored Codex. (Here are the official rules, and you can order your DreadKnight from Spikey Bits Store if you're inclined to enter.)

Read more »

Dark Eldar Mandrakes Completed

2011-03-23T17:00:00.001-05:00

I went back and lightened the hair with some Bleached Bone and added two colors of rust pigment plus red paint for a little rusty gore on the blades. The orange also helps tie the swords back to the colors of the model. Finally complete!

40K Army List: The Flying Lamenters Brothers!!

2011-03-22T21:32:00.002-05:00

This is the list I am planning on taking to this years GT season. It is hard-hitting, with possibilities of Alpha-Strikes, and enough boots on the ground to not be screwed in objective missions. The units in the list work well together, and I am fairly versed in the chemistry Sanguinor and Mephiston have. Anyway, here is the list at 2000 points...

Read more »

40K Army List: Shunt Punch Grey Knights!

2011-03-21T08:00:00.006-05:00

The book is due out in just over a couple weeks, but I've had my chance to sit down with it and plan my army. After the Deathwing update gave me an army I consider powerful enough for any event, I decided that I would focus more on what liked from the book and what I wanted to play rather than going for a high level of competition. I also wanted something I would enjoy painting and that would be an elite, low model count list that also takes full advantage of the shunt punch. Lastly, I wanted to use a lot of models I haven't already done.

Read more »

Painting Dark Eldar Mandrakes

2011-03-16T08:00:00.065-05:00

In Part 1 I went through preparation of Dark Eldar Mandrakes and here's the companion to that article that covers a little of my painting thought process and actually getting them painted.
Read more »

Road to Adepticon: Starting to Look Like an Army!

2011-03-14T08:00:00.000-05:00

Finished another squad, ahead of schedule! Hopefully I'll be able to spend the extra time I've gained getting the second speeder finished. Shouldn't be too difficult really.

Definitely very excited for Adepticon now. The crew and I have our uber-van reserved and we're making final tweaks to our armies. I think Darkwynn still has a couple things that need to be finished for his Dark Eldar, but I'm sure Goatboy's army is finished. Hope to see as many of you as possible there!

-Bushido

What Did I Get Myself Into?

2011-03-11T19:33:00.001-06:00

What did I get myself into? I am all sorts of Badab crazy these days. That's my soon-to-be Courbray in the lower right corner there.

Fly Lord Exclusive! Spikey Bits Fat Sack O' Bits

2011-03-10T19:40:00.001-06:00

A little birdie told me that Spikey Bits is about to release the limited time "Fat Sack O' Bits", which is a bargain for such a big bag of assorted bits. If you are ordering more than one, be sure to go to the detail page and pick the 2 for option. Grab some buddies and split one!

How I Paint Deathwing Tutorial

2011-03-09T08:00:00.007-06:00

Hey everyone, a couple people had asked exactly how I paint my Deathwing so here is a tutorial.

As with all my projects, I start out with a wet pallet

Read more »

Black Templars Repaint (Novamarines)

2011-03-08T08:00:00.003-06:00

I've had this Black Templar Terminator army ever since I finished it as part of an "Army in 30 Days" contest at our local game store. Now that I've got my Novamarine Terminator Librarian and that the Novamarine special character from Forgeworld is a Terminator Captain I figure it is time to turn those Black Templars into Novamarines.

Read more »

Road to Adepticon: Over the Hump

2011-03-07T08:00:00.000-06:00

Hey Amigos, I finished another squad on schedule. Got behind when some expected work stuff took more than the expected amount of time. Not to mention breaking my momentum.

Sorry for the terrible picture, I'm missing my DSLR more and more all the time. 17 models complete, 16 to go. I hope to really spend the next 12 or so days busting my ass on the termies so I can get them fimished. I was able to potentially do 2 a day before my studying messed it up. If I can get back into that I'm golden.

I also intend to fit in a tutorial on one of the next termies I do. That will delay my slightly as well, but it should be pretty good.

Thursday Game Night: Eldar vs. BT, IG vs. IG and lots of DE

2011-03-04T08:00:00.028-06:00

Thursday Game Night in Austin again at friendly, local game store Dragon's Lair. I played a test game with a new "hobby" Eldar list (lots of FOC restrictions) against Splug's new Black Templars.
Read more »

Battles of Note: The Aratusian Exception

2011-03-03T03:30:00.007-06:00

Played an 1850 Capture and Control v. Kings' Mantis Warriors....

In 998.M41 the Lamenters force known as Strike Force Ostro, led by the mad Epistolary Menoloth, encountered a Mantis Warriors Strike Force while on crusade. The Mantis Warriors were in the midst of their own Pentinent Crusade, and they parlayed on the world of Aratusia IV. While the leader of the Mantis Warriors, Captain Mantodea, had expected to meet a noble and proud Space Marine leader, he instead met with the dark and twisted Menoloth, the man known as the 'Lost One'. Upon observing the Lamenters blade, the daemon sword Walach, Mantodea immediately took exception, and ordered attack on his brethren. What followed was an unexpected and bloody conflict in which the Lamenters routed their estranged brothers in arms.

Devastator Squad Vigo claimed a high vantage point for the battle. In the battles waning moments their krak missles laid low the noble Captain Mantodea.

Back to Basics: Assembling and Basing Dark Eldar Mandrakes

2011-03-02T10:00:00.011-06:00

I've been working with a lot of plastic (and a little bit of resin) lately, so as a change of pace I decided to build and paint a box of Dark Eldar Mandrakes I've been sitting on for a while. Here's a step-by-step of my process for getting these models on the table.
Read more »

Road to Adepticon: Alright, Let's Kick Some Ass!

2011-02-28T07:30:00.005-06:00

I'm cruising along now! The first fill squad, Belial's Upgraded Terminators are finished! Well, except for a tiny detail that I haven't worked out yet...

Read more »

Road to Adepticon: Take 2 of These and Call Me In the Morning

2011-02-26T11:00:00.001-06:00

One more down, 23 more to go. Hopefully I'll be able to power through the rest of the terminators in pretty quick fashion since they're mostly the same. I plan to finish the rest of the first squad this weekend, then start on squad 2.
Read more »

Live Streaming Goat

2011-02-25T20:19:00.002-06:00

For all you fans out there, Goatboy has just started his Friday painting session.
Read more »

Thursday Game Night: Goatboy, Titans and Mirror Match

2011-02-25T06:26:00.002-06:00

Just your average game night in Austin at the local FLGS. Goatboy was there showing off the Internet's favorite Grammar Wolves (Word Bearers counts as Space Wolves) and a Chaos Titan he'd recently finished in some insanely short amount of time.
Read more »

Road to Adepticon: Can I Be In Charge Now?!

2011-02-23T22:21:00.001-06:00

That's right, my commander is FINALLY done! Master Belial of the Deathwing is here.

Read more »

Road to Adepticon: Where is Sarah Connor!?

2011-02-21T00:00:00.002-06:00

Finally we're at the meat of the army! I had said before that I was looking to paint Belial next, but as I thought about it I decided the HQ centerpiece might not be the best place to test out a new color scheme. I had decided that I wanted Dheneb Stone as the main color of the army, being a little different than standard Bleached Bone. However, I had intended to use the bone colored primer from Army Painter.

Read more »

Road to Adepticon: Hells Dark Angels!

2011-02-20T15:00:00.000-06:00

The bikes are done! At least I think they are. It's possible I'll have to do a touch up here or there or I'll find something tiny I missed...

I have one more Typhoon to do to complete the Ravenwing aspects of my army, but I'm going to put that on hold for now and start painting the termies. 11 of them including Belial get primed tomorrow.

More to come...

40K Hobby: Un-dumbing the Stormraven

2011-02-20T05:17:00.001-06:00

Harakiri... Blog Style.

2011-02-19T22:44:00.001-06:00

Hey everyone. I am here to announce that my old blog, Bushido40k is dead. Sorry for the short notice, but I've been thinking about moving my focus to the Fly Lords and have been speaking with Realgenius for a while about it now.

I've exported the vast majority of my posts from the old blog over to here. I think a group effort like this will be a better fit for my post frequency. So, look forward to more posts from Bushido as I finish up my Adepticon army. I'll be posting my list soon...

Chief Librarian Mahabala Durja

2011-02-19T07:53:00.002-06:00

While working on Huron, I took a detour and finished up Novamarines Chief Librarian Mahabala Durja.

Road to Adepticon: The Secret Weapon

2011-02-16T22:37:00.000-06:00

Yep, that's right... the secret weapon of my Adepticon Deathwing army is painted! That means I can finally reveal him! What could it possibly be?!?

Meet... Brother Captain Darius!

Okay, so he's not that special :D and yes, I'm using a Grey Knight ally. Mostly because there's no other terminator way to get a leadership 10 hood. Not to mention he can hold his own in hand to hand combat.

Brother Captain Darius
-Terminator Armor, Nemesis Force Weapon, Storm Bolter, Psychic Hood, Icon of the Just, and a Holy Relic

This is also a test scheme for my Grey Knight army in April. I like the way it comes together and I'll probably make few adjustments to the final scheme.

So I've had my Grey Knight Terminators for probably 6 years at this point. This is the second one I've painted...

Next, another Ravenwing bike! Or maybe more than one.

Road to Adepticon: Army Update

2011-02-15T22:04:00.000-06:00

Another day, another finished model. Though I'd started on the "Secret Weapon", I ended up moving on to a Ravenwing bike since I'd already had the scheme down. I'm quite happy with how it turned out, though it took a little longer than I'd hoped. That's probably just because even though I had the scheme, I was kinda making it up as I went along. The others shouldn't take quite as long.

I haven't quite decided what I want to do about bases yet. I debating between just building them with cork, which would be super cheap but time consuming. Or I could order a set from dragon forge designs, which would look a bit better, but would cost.

I do plan to try and finish up the "Secret Weapon" tomorrow so I can reveal it to the world! Don't worry, its not that big a deal...

Lugft Huron, Chapter Master of the Astral Claws WIP

2011-02-14T11:32:00.003-06:00

Road to Adepticon: Feels Good Man

2011-02-13T18:47:00.000-06:00

I've finally gotten my live situated enough to start painting again. I guess I was able to do hobby stuff for the last week or two as I've been building the Deathwing army. It's all built now and I finally painted my first model!

May not sound like much, but the last model I painted was the Vampire for a Full of Monkey client. I can't start the actual terminators themselves yet, I haven't gotten my shoulder pads from Forge World. So I decided to paint some Ravenwing.

Standard paint scheme, but I think it came out pretty well. I decided not to use quite so much white, since I think it looks too much like Raven Guard. I used lots of grays for this one.

Next, I'll either do a bike or two or perhaps one of my secret weapons. >:)

Yeah, it feels pretty good to be painting again.

Road to Adepticon 2011: Times They Are A Changin...

2011-02-02T08:25:00.000-06:00

Well as everyone knows, the Dark Angels FAQ has come out and it has seriously thrown a monkey wrench into my Adepticon plans. My Deathwing has been one of my two favorite armies since I started playing 40k 6 or so years ago. I'm afraid the draw is just too strong and I have tabled the Justaerin for now in favor of rebuilding the Deathwing.

That's right, I'm going to be rebuilding my Deathwing from the ground up, replacing the metal models with the new plastics (finally) and even using Forge World shoulder pads. I hope to be able to really start into the army once I've got my new apartment cleaned up a bit and all my hobby stuff unpacked.

The Road to Adepticon 2011: Version 1.5

2011-01-05T15:49:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone, I've gotten a little further along on the Justaerin Horuswing list. I made a couple small changes, but it will make for a slightly sexier army.

Justaerin Squad 2 (Wolf Guard)

-Ezekyle Abaddon, Captain of the First Company (Counts as Arjac)

-Terminator, Power Fist, Storm Shield

-Terminator, Power Weapon, Combi-plasma

-Terminator, Power Weapon., Combi-plasma

-Terminator, Power Weapon, Storm Bolter, Cyclone Missile Launcher

-Drop Pod

Justaerin Squad 3 (Wolf Guard)
-Terminator, Power Fist, Storm Shield
-Terminator, Chain Fist, Storm Shield
-Terminator, Power Weapon, Combi-melta
-Terminator, Power Weapon., Combi-melta
-Terminator, Power Weapon, Storm Bolter, Cyclone Missile Launcher
-Drop Pod

Justaerin Squad 4 (Wolf Guard)

-Terminator, Power Fist, Storm Shield

-Terminator, Chain Fist, Storm Shield

-Terminator, Power Weapon, Combi-melta

-Terminator, Power Weapon., Combi-melta

-Terminator, Power Weapon, Storm Bolter, Cyclone Missile Launcher

-Drop Pod

Recon Team 1 (Wolf Scouts)

-Scout, CCW, Bolt Pistol

-Scout, Meltagun
-Scout, Mark of Khorne (Mark of the Wolfen)

That's right, I'm going to attempt to make an awesome looking pre-heresy Abaddon. Hopefully I'll be able to pull it off. I intend to use some of the pictures from the Collected Visions book as my inspiration.

With a little luck and a lot of effort, I think I can get him to look at least a little like this. I'm going to shoot for more of the look on bottom picture more so than the others. It matches my ideas for him. I just hope that it will be awesome enough that people will be willing to suspend disbelief on the idea of the throwing of the hammer... However, I've always hated the dumb top knot, so my version will not be having that. Even if I have to put a helmet on him.

I've already got one chaos lord who will be providing most of the bits. Most of the rest will come from the chaos terminator box (ordered the first two chaos terminator boxes today). I ordered my shoulderpads and heads from maxmini.eu about a week ago, so they should be here in the not-too-distant future. I need to order my combi-meltas soon, not to mention figuring out what to do about the storm shields... I still haven't found a bit I thought was suitable.

The Road to Adepticon 2011

2010-12-23T15:17:00.000-06:00

Now that that damn Vampire is finished, I can start thinking about Adepticon again. I'm hoping to be able to get my new army finished in time. I saw new army, but it's not completely new... but it will only share a single model with another. My Horus by Dave Taylor of course.

The Justaerin
Adepticon National Championship 1850 pts.

Horus - (Counts as Logan Grimnar)
Pahonix - (Counts as Rune Priest in Terminator Armor, Jaws, Living Lightning, Chooser of the Slain)

Justaerin Command Squad - (Wolf Guard)
-Terminator, Power Fist, Storm Shield
-Terminator, Power Fist, Storm Shield
-Terminator, Power Weapon, Storm Shield
-Terminator, Power Weapon, Storm Shield
-Terminator, Power Weapon, Storm Bolter, Cyclone Missile Launcher
-Power Armor, Power Fist, Combi-melta
-Power Armor, Power Fist, Combi-melta

Justaerin Squad 2 (Wolf Guard)
-Terminator, Power Fist, Storm Shield
-Terminator, Chain Fist, Storm Shield
-Terminator, Power Weapon, Combi-melta
-Terminator, Power Weapon., Combi-melta
-Terminator, Power Weapon, Storm Bolter, Cyclone Missile Launcher
-Drop Pod

Justaerin Squad 3 (Wolf Guard)

-Terminator, Power Fist, Storm Shield

-Terminator, Chain Fist, Storm Shield

-Terminator, Power Weapon, Combi-melta

-Terminator, Power Weapon., Combi-melta

-Terminator, Power Weapon, Storm Bolter, Cyclone Missile Launcher

-Drop Pod

Justaerin Squad 4 (Wolf Guard)

-Terminator, Power Fist, Storm Shield

-Terminator, Power Weapon, Combi-plasma

-Terminator, Power Weapon., Combi-plasma

-Terminator, Power Weapon, Storm Bolter, Cyclone Missile Launcher

-Drop Pod

Recon Team 1 (Wolf Scouts)

-Scout, CCW, Bolt Pistol

-Scout, Meltagun
-Scout, Mark of Khorne (Mark of the Wolfen)

Recon Team 1 (Wolf Scouts)

-Scout, CCW, Bolt Pistol

-Scout, Meltagun

-Scout, Mark of Khorne (Mark of the Wolfen)

I give about 50% credit to Goatboy who helped me out with a concept for the list itself. It's not going to be as good as the more spammy things I've seen, but I think it will will be very fun to build and play.

Saim Hann Air Force: Vampire Update 3

2010-12-21T07:50:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone, the time has finally come! I'm finished with the paint on the damn Vampire!!! *cheers!*

It has been quite the hassle, but the thing is finished! There are 167 Gems on this thing, and I painted them all! I decided against doing another black stripe, I didn't think it would add anything. I liked the red and the set of stripes in the front.

Yep, more gems on the bottom too... The model is so awesome, but I will be happy not to have to do another one for a while. I magnetized the weapon options so it could be played as all of the Vampire variants.

Now that I've finished the large commission projects, I can work on a couple of small projects for BoLS before I start on my Adepticon army. Yaaay!

Dark Eldar Wych box Review

2010-12-16T08:00:00.000-06:00

As a long-time Eldar player, I've always stayed away from the Dark Eldar range because the models were mostly metal and almost entirely terrible. That has changed with their re-release and the new plastic models are simply fantastic.

Read more »

da King does Exodites...

2010-12-13T16:10:00.001-06:00

Check out the full article here...

Saim Hann Air Force: Vampire Update 2

2010-12-10T08:16:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone, I hope everyone's holiday plans are going well so far (if you have them). I've been pretty busy working on a few things, including the Vampire for a client. This thing is just too damn big!

It is very difficult to see in the picture, but the priming, base coat, and base highlight is done. It is around the edges of the wings and along the peaks of the engine intakes. I mocked up the front part for reference. Also, the vertical stabilizers are not yet attached.

The highlights were a bit of a pain, since the thing is so big and unwieldy. Even more of a pain was the black low lights in the crevices... ugh. I also blacked out the gems, but only on the top. I will be working on the bottom tonight.

It's starting to look really good though, and it will be sexy as hell once it's done. I will also be adding the standard Saim-hann stripes to the front tips of the wings. I've gotten the pulsars magnetized and I've built a couple sets of pulse lasers so the client will be able to use the different builds if he likes.

I've also taken a quick break to work on some of my own Eldar army. I'm developing a change to the scheme that I'm liking in its infancy. I'll talk about that soon.

Eldar Jetbike Warlock

2010-12-01T16:00:00.000-06:00

I recently picked up a few kits from Chapterhouse to add a Jetbike Seer Council to my Eldar army. I really didn't want to do the cut up metal model thing, I've never thought it looked right.

The build was cake, though it took a little figuring out and some extra work to get the torso to match the legs and sit on the bike right. I'm still not convinced about the fins on the side and I may end up taking them off, but the warlock herself looks great!

I decided to do the paint a little different than my normal bikes. I wanted to do some blending on the front of the bike itself from a darker purple through the hormagaunt purple the army is painted with up to an even lighter color. Most of the rest of the model would be the same, her clothes would be purple as well.

I was looking for quick and easy, so I did a simple base coat of hormagaunt, followed by purple wash and highlighted again with more hormagaunt. The armor is the same technique except using adeptus battlegrey and badab black. I think for a very quick and easy paint job (except for getting the blending right) it came out pretty well.

I've had to put the Seer Council project on hold though, I've had some other things come up that need to be finished first. I'll probably talk more about that in my next post.

Saim Hann Air Force: Vampire

2010-11-29T10:53:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone, I've really started to ramp up on the Vampire. I really want to get it done so I can concentrate on painting some of my own stuff. There was a good amount of putty work that needed to be done on the main part so I decided to just start with the front and get that finished first.

It is to match the Phoenixs and the Nightwing that I'd already done for the client. I started with the same red primer, full 50/50 air brushed base coat and a blood red highlight coat along the sides. I hope to get the putty work Goatboy did sanded and the mode primed tonight during MNF. I did a little more blending on the windshields for this one. I haven't done the gems yet, as I want to do them all at the same time to be 100% sure they match.

Once I finish the entire thing, I'm probably going to look at repainting my own eldar as my skills have improved and I think I can improve on the scheme while still using mostly the same colors. Stay tuned...

Battle Report: AREA 51 RTT

2010-11-17T10:01:00.000-06:00

Had a great time up in Dallas over the weekend playing in a 30 player RTT that was being hosted at the LGS up there. I'd decided to play my CSM as a temporary last harah while I work on completing some other projects and getting ready for Adepticon. (sorry about the pics, my iPhone failed me).

My list:

Abaddon
Demon Prince, Mark of Nurgle, Wings, Sorcerer, Warp Time
Summoned Greater Demon
8 Berserkers, Champion, Power Fist
7 Plague Marines, 2 Meltaguns, Icon, Champion, Power Fist, Rhino
5 Summoned Lesser Demons
5 Summoned Lesser Demons
5 Raptors, 2 Melta Guns, Icon of Chaos Undivided, Champion, Power Weapon
2 Obliterators
2 Obliterators
Land Raider, Extra Armor

Unfortunately, the tournament was using the Nova style missiosn (4 missions, rotated through the primary, secondary, tertiary priorities) which meant it was just the same missions over and over. Another issue was objective placement. The objective markers were pre-set, one in the center, one at the 12" in point in each of the 4 corners. [: o :] <--- like this :)

ROUND 1 - Orks

I was a little bit scared this game, orks have long been one of my great weaknesses. He had 3 Battle Wagons, a ton of boys, a Big Mek, Snickrot with a squad, a Warboss, and a bunch of Deffkoptas.

However, my dice were happy this game and were pretty reliable. I was able to take the Battle Wagons down before they really got to my lines including a death or glory from my raptors (2 died to the rolla). Abaddon rolled average, but more importantly rolled no 1s. Nathan had some bad luck and it helped me out as well. I was able to wipe him nearly off the board (he had his big mek who'd run almost all the way off the board and 2 kotas left) around the top of turn 4 and we called it. He was hindered a bit by the heavy amount and style of the terrain (the correct amount and style).

ROUND 2 - Eldar

I knew this game would be rough for me from the get go... He had an autarch with a fusion gun and wjg, a farseer with doom and guide, 16 fire dragons in wave serpents, 2x3 bike squads with no cannon, 7 bike squad with warlock and 2 cannons, 8 man warp spider squad, 7 man warp spider squad, 4 walkers with scatter lasers, 5 man dire avenger squad, and a falcon. Lots of high strength fire and enough speed to be annoying.

This was definitely an army that would benefit from the heavy and dense terrain. It would be tough for me to put enough of my army into his to do the damage I needed to do early to give me a chance at the attrition win.

I was able to deploy in such a way that I denied him most of the easy early shots. He would have to move around the center piece of terrain to really take advantage. He went flat out to take down a couple of oblits holding a flank, but stayed mostly back in his zone away from abaddon and the raider. I was able to take down the flat out serpent as well as the one back in his zone on turn one with las cannons, but that was where my luck ended.

He was able to easily take down my prince, the oblits, and my raptors scatted 10" into a tank. It didn't get any better as more and more of my army fell. In the end I had 2 oblits, abaddon with 1 wound and my greater demon left (who was about to die having killed the squad he was fighting). The Don assaulted some fire dragons and rolled a 1... that was enough for me. I was only able to kill about 500 points of his army in the end before mine bit it.

Did I start the game already thinking bad things, maybe... I like to think I know the limits of my army though.

ROUND 3 - Tyranids

For the third round, I was paired up against Nick of Chapter House Studios. He had what I basically equate to the current editions godzilla nids. 3 Tervigons, 2 Trygons, 3 Zoanthropes, 2 squads of tervigons, deathleaper, 8 raveners, 2 hive guard, and I think some genestealers.

This is a game I've played in the past and again I have a good idea of the weaknesses of my army. This game generally hinges on the tervigons and the gaunts. If he can make a ton of them (30+ each) then it will be nearly impossible for me to win on objectives (which was the primary this time). My luck also relied on the Don heavily for this matchup. It being Dawn of War did not help...

The game started pretty well, other than none of the tervigons getting plugged. I was able to get into combat turn 2 and wipe out a Tervigon, but it'd created about 25 gaunts by then. That was where the good times ended. The don rolled two 1s after that and died to some attacks from Trygons that had made it into combat. Both times I likely would have easily wiped out the TMC I was fighting had I rolled anything other than a 1. After Abaddon and the prince died (to a single tervigon after assaulting through cover), I had little else to do any real damage. He was able to take down the Greater Demon too easily as well. Oh well, 1-2 so far. At least it was looking pretty good for me on the hobby prizes.

ROUND 4 - Blood Angels

For the last round of the day, I was paired against an odd BA list. Reclusiarch, 10 man assault squad in a Land Raider Crusader, 5 assault marines in rhino, 5 assault marines in razorback, 3 ball preds with assault cannons and heavy bolters, 3 vindicators.

(The red and white, and white rhinos were being used as Vindicators)

I was fairly confident about this game but there were a couple things that needed to happen to allow me to do what I needed to do. First and foremost, I needed to get across a lot of terrain to deliver the don. Secondly, I needed to negate his speed so he couldn't run away. So naturally, my land raider immobilized itself on terrain... I was able to take out the flat out razorback though. It was definitely hard fought and tighter than expected, but eventually I broke the stale mate and was abot to run pretty rampant through his lines.

So in the end I finished 2-2, not too shabby. The don had 2 bad games, 2 good games and I've coined the phrase "Live by the don, die by the don." which pretty much sums the last 10 games or so up. That will likely be the last game with the Chaos for a little while. I want to start playing my Red Scorpions and more Eldar.

I was able to take home Best Painted and I'm pretty sure I was probably ahead on Players Choice too, but I'm glad they gave that to the Nightwings guy. He might even have beaten me for Best Painted if he didn't hav a couple unpainted models.

Dragon's Lair 1850 11/06/10

2010-11-07T13:25:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone, it's been a REALLY long time since I've done a tournament report, or any battle report for that matter. I am honestly going to be trying to rectify that situation and today is when I start.

Yesterday was the latest tournament at the LGS, this time at 1850 at our request. There are a number of 1850 events coming up so we've generally been sticking to that point level. I decided a bit last minute that I wanted to bring my Red Scorpions (even though they are only partially complete). I've been playing a lot of chaos lately and I wanted something a little different.

Lysander
Terminator Librarian, Epistorlary, Storm Shield, Might of Heroes, Null Zone
Tactical Squad x10, Meltagun, Missile Launcher, Power Fist, Drop Pod
Tactical Squad x10, Meltagun, Missile Launcher, Power Fist, Drop Pod
Tactical Squad x10, Meltagun, Missile Launcher, Power Fist, Drop Pod
5 Scouts, Missile Launcher, 4 Sniper Rifles, Camo Cloaks
6 Assault Terminators, 4 Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield
Land Speeder, Heavy Flamer, Multi-melta
Land Speeder, Heavy Flamer, Multi-melta
Land Raider "Crusader", Extra Armor, Multi-melta

Most of this army was created for the Badab campaign we played last year. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten the rhino's I've been wanting so it's still set up for planetary assault with the pods. Lysander and the termies are still beasts though.

ROUND 1 - Chaos Space Marines
Spearhead
Primary: Annihilation (modified)
Secondary: Seize Ground

For the first round, I was paired up against Frank playing his Chaos army. It's been a really long time since I've played against him. He had Abaddon, lash sorceror with wings, 4 termies with various armaments and no mark in a possessed land raider, 3 squads of berserkers in rhinos, a defiler, and a possessed vindicator.

I decided a rather aggressive approach would serve me best as he held nearly everything in reserve aside from the land raider with the termies and the don. If I could take down the raider early, I could leave abby stranded and just avoid him. Unfortunately, that was not meant to be. I deployed the raider and the speeders ready to charge forward. The Scouts were back holding an objective in their fortified bunker. I won first turn.

I had a pod come in right next to the raider as a first attempt to take it down. I'd hoped a single melta might take down the raider, but no such luck. I'd also considered that tactical squad as obvious bait. I was willing to accept both possible outcomes. If he got Abaddon and the terminators out of the Raider, it wouldn't be long before Lysander and his buddies got there to clean up. If he left them in thinking they were bait, I'd be able to get the speeders in there and surely with all that melta be able to at the very least immobilize it.

Unfortunately, I was also an idiot and smoked my Raider not thinking about the fact that he had nothing coming in on his turn 1... damnit.

He decided to stay in the raider moving up 6 inches and taking a shot which failed to hit. Perfect, surely 4 melta shots would be enough to take it down on my turn! Unfortunately, the third pod came in on my turn 2 and I wasn't able to use it re-actively. Of course, my 4 half range melta shots did nothing at all. Nether did my assault.

Frank had 2 rhinos come in on opposite corners of the table and I realized I should have committed the last pod to back up the scouts. Abaddon and his buddies finally got out of their tank and combined with fire from berserkers with the sorceror, They killed most of my tac squad (and made me miss my chapter tactics). Of course stubborn made the remaining 2 or 3 marines stick around just to prevent me from shooting abby and his buddies.

I was still way out of assault range and I needed to stop the rhino on my flank or the whole thing would collapse. I committed the land raider to do try and take it down, but I failed. The scouts did not better and their doom was all but sealed. Abby was of course able to slaughter the rest of the squad and the rest of my shooting did no better. Again, 3 meltas into the raider, took off a las cannon.

Most of his army came in the next turn and he was able to continue through my lines. His sorcerer was able to jump the the head of his terminators, guaranteeing assault. His vindy was able to immobilize my raider and now it would be tough to get the termies into the action. My inexperience shows through again and I decline to involve abby in the initial combat. I should have just let the squad get wiped and devoted some shooting to them, though I was able to instant kill his sorcerer with a power fist. Frank was also able to take down one of my speeders that had been immobilized as well as one of the pods.

My terminators were able to get to the defiler, the only thing in range. My assault cannon got a lucky rend and was able to destroy the vindy. The scouts were unable to put a dent in the rhino full of berserkers speeding right for them. I decided to go for an easy kill point pointing a speeder at a rhino, but as usual it was unable to even scratch it.

The berserkers slaughtered the scouts easily. Abaddon and his buddies were also able to take down one of my speeders that had been immobilized as well as one of the pods. The berserkers on my left flank were easily able to take down my other speeder after immobilizing it with bolters.

The game was actually closer than it felt at this point and I decided to just call it after turn 5. We counted up kill points at this point, and counted 6 for Frank (Pod, 2 speeders, 2 tac squads, scouts), 3 for me (vindy, sorceror, defiler). He also had 2-0 objectives and I had almost nothing left to contest with.

Yep, we forgot the "modified" part of the Annihilation mission. That meant HQs were 3, elite, fast, and heavy were 2, troops and transports were 1. So it was actually only 8-7 and a minor victory for Frank. Oh well.

ROUND 2 - Eldar
Pitched Battle
Primary: Seize Ground
Secondary: Head Hunter

For round 2, I was paired up with bullymike and his Saim Hann Eldar. It's been a long time since I've played him too. With the huge lack of long range firepower, I knew this game was going to be rough.

He reserved most of his army and I tried to keep his seer council unfortuned using my hood. I was reasonable successful and I was able to tie them up.

I went second and got a little lucky. I was able to keep it close and pull out a draw by wiping out a prism, a serpent, and a squad of avengers on the bottom of turn 5 just before the game ended. I was working on a headache and Mike didn't want to play any more so we both decided to call it a day.

So not a bad tournament in the end despite some horrid shooting dice from me. Two fun opponents, amongst a number of nasty armies. Leafblower guard took first, Goatboy playing his Chaos Bile list got second, and I believe space wolves got third.

Next week a number of us are heading up to the Dallas area for a pretty big event (50 players). I'll be bringing the Chaos marines there and hopefully I wont roll any 1s. More on that to come.