Sunday, December 23, 2012

Desert Afrika Korps


Howdy. I would like to present my Desert Afrika Korps.

Friday, December 07, 2012

Honda and the Dread Pirate Annual Duel


Howdy. So my friend Honda and I got together for our annual 40K game.  We call it our annual game because it usually what we have time for in between our two schedules.

Honda was playing his Black Templars and was seeking to purge planet Copperwood ( our local GW store) of the Xenos scum that were known to scurry about there.

Little did the followers of the Zombie Lord of the Imperium know that these particular xenos are fond of their prey coming to our hunting grounds of their own free will. You can bring a 8 foot tall superman to a knife fight, Dark Eldar bring guns. The Black Halo was up to the challenge.


Honda won the initiative and choose to deploy first. I can't remember the name of the scenario, but we played long table with short table player edges.

Honda elected to deploy in an balanced set up. He had 2 combat squads in the building on the left, one in the top of the bastion on the right, and a big block of terminators behind the bastion. In the middle he had another combat squad behind a stock Landraider, flanked by 2 Land Raider Crusaders and a Vindicator in the back.



I choose to deploy anti infantry venoms to my left side, with the 3 Ravagers using cover and staying as far out of reach to his las cannons as possible. My Succubus HQ and Haemii deployed in a raider with the wyches on on the opposite side of the ravagers.



I failed to seize the initiative and the game began in broad daylight.  Honda moved his LR Crusader behind cover and moved his Land Raider forward to get in range Honda opened up with his las cannons on my closest ravager. I am not sure what kind of ballistic training templars are using these days, but my ravager came away unscathed.



My turn 1.  I shifted my venoms to the right side of the board and my Ravagers moved forward in range of the Land raider. The Wych Raider moved forward. Every lance I had in range  opened up on the land raider. For all my effort I managed to inflict one hull point of damage. Hmmm. The venoms however did a fantastic job of removing both forard combat squads of templars, removing 2 of the las cannons threatening my precious paper mache armored transports.

My Movement.

The Black and Gold dish out some pain!

Top of turn two. Here is where Honda reminded my I had to have his entire forced wiped out or it was a moral victory for him. He moved his terminators up and opened up on one of my ravagers, blowing it to smithereens. One of the terminators with a Cyclone Missle launcher glanced one of my venoms.




For my part on turn two, I redirected my transports back towards the bastion and moving forward to put as many models in range as possible.

The raider and the Ravagers finished off the Land Raider and wiping out all of the Bastion Templars and also killing 2 of the terminators, including one of the 2 cyclone missile launchers.




At this point we began to check possibilites. Honda was down to 2 LR Crusaders and a Vindicator, which could not touch any of my vehicles due to my mobility and nightshields. He had one 5 man unit of marines equipped with a heavy bolter and a flamer. And he had 6 terminators and a Chalpin HQ I think who had taken a wound. I was down 1 Ravager.

At this point it was kind of like this.



At this point he conceded, seeing no possible way to overcome my venoms and ravagers out ranging and out gunning him. He could have pushed the 2 LR Crusaders up, but I had a god sized unit of wyches with haywire grenades and a unit of scourges with heat lances, which could have made quick work of the LRCs.

Victory for the Boys in Gold and Black.



It was a good game, but also a little bit of a foregone conclusion. One of the things I have noticed about Dark Eldar in 6th is the standard meta just does not apply. Conventional thinking is mech is dead, assault is dead heavy foot armies are the wave of the future. I disagree with this mindset. Dark Eldar vehicles have always been fragile, but with the new glancing rules, they have actually become more durable. Also, factor in the sheer amount of firepower a venom can crank out, without regard to toughness, and a lot of armor saves are being made. I typically average about 4.5 wounds for each venom and I run 6 or 7. Inflicting 30 wounds or so is a lot of wounds. Enough to wipe out a full squad of marines, or at least render non-threatening unless a heavy weapon somehow manages to be the only model left and does not run.



Thursday, November 01, 2012

It seems Anonymous really likes my Bloig


Howdy. I have been getting literally bombed with comments and postings by Anonymous. My poor inbox is getting dozens of emails a day.

So I had had to take some steps to remedy this. Sorry if this is an inconvenience for you guys.

I am going to post a few pictures and updates in the next day or two, as life slows down a bit and allows, but suffice to say I have been crazy busy with work and real  life and most of my free time has been devoted to sleep and honey do's. Not a whole lot has been happening.

I have kicked around some Flames of War DAK tanks. I think I have a neat idea for camouflage I want to try and see how it works.

Also going to begin work again on my DE and Silver Skull space marines. Need to get those finished sooner rather than later.

More soon, I promise.



Thursday, June 28, 2012

Howdy, been a little bit...


Yeah, its been kind of like that. Work and real life has been insane since my last post. But things are looking a little more positive here over the rest of the year. I will of course be gone periodically for work, but nothing major.

So updates. What have I been doing. To be honest, not much. I went to Wargamescon, made it into the top bracket on Sunday, so I was pretty excited about that. Got best single in Fantasy, and in general had a really good time. I have always liked the effort the guys in Austin put into their convention and it is greatly appreciated. Its the one big event I look forward to every year.

I am hopeful to make some progress on a few things over the next few weeks. I have not done a nice single figure in a long long while, so I will probably do one of those. I have a couple other models to finish for some buddies of mine.

Which goes to another subject, officially, I am not doing commissions anymore. I just don't have the time. I had a gentleman ask me if I would consider working for his studio. While I was flattered, I politley, I hope, declined. To be honest, I am not trying to toot my own horn, but the reality is if I have painted roughly 3 minis in the last year, not even competition minis, just a couple hours each, I don't have time to take one anyone elses work.

That being said, my effort on my Dark Eldar has not gone unnoticed. With 5 minutes here and 10 minutes there I have gotten closer to finishing them. They are still no where near to be done, but I can put them on the gaming table and not be embarrassed.

Here is a picture taken by Frontline Gaming of my army. Thank you for posting this.

It still looks a lot like it did last year, but I finally got my halos on the vehicles. If I am lucky I can be done with this army by the fall.

So in closing, for my faithful followers, lol, expect more frequent updates and hobby progress on my figures over the rest of the year. I am going to finish up some projects, do a few competition level figures, and then possibly start and Space ork army or a Counts as Blood Angel Genestealer cult.

Friday, March 02, 2012

Angels falling from the heavens


HOWDY


So my buddy Honda and I are talking about doing a Decent of Angels list for doubles at Wargamescon this year for the Doubles tournament.



For my part, I intend to run a Dante list with 2 units of Sanguinary guard, 2 priest and a librarian. A whooping grand total of 14 models.

My buddy Honda is thinking about :
Libby, Jump Pack, Infernus Pistol, with Blood Rage and Sword of Sanguinius
Chaplain, Jump Pack, Infernus Pistol

Sanguinary Priest, Jump Pack, Infernus Pistol, Power Weapon, Melta Bomb
Sanguinary Priest, Jump Pack, Infernus Pistol, Power Weapon, Melta Bomb

RAS x10, Power Fist, Infernus Pistol, x2 Meltaguns
RAS x10, Power Fist, Infernus Pistol, x2 Meltaguns

copied from BNC.


Yes I am fully aware this is a very low model count and we will likely get blown out of the sky.

However, that is really not the point. There a couple of good matchups we could totally exploit and in hand to hand I think we are going to be pretty devastating. But more importantly is the army will look great. With so few models, I can focus on the painting side of them, which is a big part of my I am in wargaming.

I however, an not a huge Blood Angles fan. I've always been a Dark Angels guy at heart, and then Mannus and Dorn, with the great Khan as another I am fond of. So how do I reconcile doing a chapter that has never really appealled to me....

What came to mind were two ways to go, I could to the Flesh Eaters, a BS successor and 3rd founding, or I could do them as Crimson Guard, who are a Crimson Fist Successor, but are red and gold armor.

I think either way could be good, and in the short term it doesn't really matter much since I am fielding Sanguinary Guard, but the painter fluff bunny inside me is screaming in protest for direction. So I have these 2 boxes of guard and no motivation to even clip them off the sprue yet.

Any thoughts?? I would still like to be competitive, as much as I can be with an all jumper list.

I'm going to blog my progress on these over the next few months until the big day.

Friday, February 24, 2012

An Interesting trend

Howdy all.

Been crazy busy with work and travel so very very little in the way of updates. I am sure you all realize that already.

Anyway, I have noticed an interesting trend of late. I typically surf the blog sites for what is interesting or amusing to me in the wargame world.

One thing I have noticed more andmore of late, the last 3 or 4 months in particular, is the shift to Warmachine / Hordes. I myself have been building a Cryx and Legion army for playing, along with some flames of war brits. But it seems the rumors of 6th 40K, while interesting, or how the game has shifted and the prices along with it are affecting the gaming community at large.

Personally, I say the more the merrier, 40K is a great little game, but is by no means the end all be all, despite what GW may tell you. I'm also not going to bash GW. They do what they do, and other see an opportunity to capitalize. Some do, some don't. pretty much like everything else out there in the wargame and large market world for all things.

What I wonder, if this trend, if it really is one or my own mind seeing something that really isn't there, is due to a burnout on the current 5th edition, people hating Matt Ward, people hating annual price hikes, or just an older crowd looking for something new and interesting.

In my case, I want to get all my armies painted, but I want to expand into playing FOW and Warmahordes because it looks fun. I'm quite far from saying I am putting all my GW stuff on ebay, but I am just a wee bit burned out on hitting on 3s and wounding on 4s type of thing. Something completely different could be a nice break and rechareg my batteries for later in the year when I get to go to a few tournaments.

Currently, I am planning to go to Wargamescon in Austin, play in the Friday Warmachine blitz and then play in the 40K GT on Sat and Sunday. 3 days on non stop gaming so I can make the long drive back to Houston utterly exhausted with much to talk about.

Anyhoo, not much for updates at the moment, but I hope to have some new photos up in the next day or so.

Sunday, January 01, 2012

HAPPY NEW YEAR! For as long as it lasts



Howdy all and Happy New Year.

Lets hope the Mayans and Al Gore are wrong about the end of the world and a zombie Apocalypse. I would rather look forward to some great games and painting projects instead of the planets lining up and causing Cthulhu to wake up from his nap and devour everyone. Think positive happy thoughts people! Just sayin...



Suffice to say I have been ridiculously busy the last couple of months with work and real life. So much so I have not really had time to do anything hobby related.

However, I did get a little bit of a break right after Christmas, so I started to tackle a couple of projects. I began working again my the Valkya conversion about a year or more behind on. Not to mention the Kugath model which is over 2 years behind. Expect to see some progress on those over the next couple months.

One thing about me is I am really bad about being able to keep up with commissions. With the kids and their activities, work and my lovely wife who can't drive any more, my free time is really eaten up with getting where I or someone else needs to be. its not a big deal, it just takes time.

Still, a little bit of free time and a good podcast to listen too and I'm in hobby heaven. I have almost completed one of my Dark Eldar Venoms. I'm pretty pleased with the way things are turning out with them.



The Skull head is the helmet for the gunner on my venom. I like the look of them. I'll have a finished picture here before too long. Actually, I have one already finished up, just no pictures yet...

I also have picked up a bunch of Necron kits. I don't know exactly when I am going to get to them, since I am still working on my DE, but I have always loved the toasters and I am looking forward to getting them assembled and painted.

One goal I have for this year is to make back to games day to compete again. I have a couple of entries that are in various states of completion which I think will be solid entries. One is a squad of Exorcists Veterans, another is a Goblin Shaman and then there is a really nice looking Theoden single figure. I'm hoping this year I finally get a Gold Demon. A Slayer Sword would be nice too.

I'm also hopeful to go to Reapercon. I think that would be a lot of fun to go and compete, make a few friends and be in one of the premier painting contests in the US.

I'm also planning on heading back to BOLScon / Wargames con or whatever they want to name it this year. I have a lot of fun going and playing games for 3 days non stop. Its tiring, and I am pretty wiped out and can barely speak by the time I am headed back Sunday evening, but it is a lot of fun.