Sons of Malice Book of Grudges

I was looking for a picture of the Book of Grduges, and all I found was this baby oposum... Such is life!

I've added the new section to the left, to detail my win/loss/draw record for these gents in black and white, as I think this is the army I'll be rolling with for a while, and probably taking to any tournaments.

Anyway, last Thursday I had another 1750pt practise game against Jason of the Ravenguard... Who was using Imperial Guard. Hang on...?!

As soon as we rolled the mission, the likelyhood was a draw - 2 objectives and quarters deployment. He didn't move a great deal, and I couldn't get through all the armour and bullets/rockets/las/plas/melta.

CCS

Primaris Psyker + Psyker battle squad, chimera (Really annoying hiding at the back!)

Infantry platoon with 3 lascannons blobbed up good. I made him take 3 leadership tests in 3 turns, and they held 3 times. Dammit.

Chimeltavet squad

Chimplasmavet squad + Bastonne - humourously lost 2 plasmas in openning salvo. Unfortunatly also killing Thunderwolf!

Chiflamervet squad

Squadron of 2 Leman Russ BT

1 Leman Russ Exterminator - yeah, when was the last time you saw one of those?!

1 Nasty Ouchy Cheesy Horrible Manticore Rocket Launcher.

Battle report in 2 sentances... I had to take 2 shots from the manticore until the scouts came in and showed it some melta love. I don't think the infantry platoon did much but eat my frag, my 4 killer units accounted for... A chimera. No line of sight blocking terrain resulted in enough shots to take out all 4 by turn 4, and they just couldn't make it into his castle. Maybe with some better run rolls but nevermind! Everything else shot, shot and shot some more, while slowly being whittled away. End of turn 5 we didn't bother carrying on, as he'd killed everything on the way in, and he wouldn't be able to make it to my objective.

It's a shame really, as I think we'd both have been happier with a different mission/deployment, and a board with a bit more line of sight blocking terrain, ie > 0.

Hopefully I'll get in another game thursday before the Sunday tournament.

In the meantime I'll have to put up some painting/modelling progress, which there's been plenty!

Revelations - are these the end times?!

And lo, Games Workshop hath thrown all Dark Angels players the Holy Frickin Bone.

New Dark Angels FAQ.

3++ Storm Shields!*

Heavy 2 cyclones!*

Heavy 2 Typhoons!*

Arguably worse apothecary rules!

Definetly worse smoke rules!

BS4 POTMS!

Wow - I found out about this Sunday morning, and I'd already sent in my Crusades list on Saturday night. Oh well, I'll finish painting up the 2000pts Sons of Malice, then back to updating the Dark Angels!

If you're not a DA player, you have no idea how big a boost the Deathwing have just recieved!

WE'RE BACK BABY!

* And the second best part - all at C:DA prices, making them in some cases cheaper the C:SM!

Bang on!

Had the pleasure of playing Chaos space marines last night at 1750. This wasn't his usual army, and wasn't tournament optimised, and it was still a close thing:

Chaos Lord terminator, combiplasma, lightning claw
2 Chaos Dreadnoughts TL Heavy Bolters
8 CSM (with Lord in LR)
10 CSM + Rhino
10 CSM
Landraider
Vindicator
3 Oblits.

Power fists, icons and special weapons to taste, with extra armour up the wazoo. Working it out on army builder it only comes in at 1670... Either I was struggling through the second half against an undersized army, or I'm forgetting something!

Annihilation mission and Spearhead deployment. I rolled to go first and set up with the Thunderwolves and Lone Wolves at the front, long fangs on either corner, and the 3 squads in the centre.

Three sentence summary: the 4 big scary killing machines killed quite a bit before dying, and most of all did the scary thing very well! The rest of the army seemed to underperform a bit, rockets went flying, living lightning sparked, and Logan Grimnar stood scratching his... Ruff most of the game. I think if I'd been less gung ho with my two small wolf guard squads, and more aggressive with the Big Man's squad, I would have had a better result than 8 -7 to me.

After that, I felt alot more comfortable with this army - it feels like it's within my grasp to master to a sufficient level. Guess I'd better send in the army list for Crusade then!

Queue the montage!

Rightio - I've paid my money, 30th January see's the Cut'n'Thrust Wargaming Crusade tournament. 1750, scenario's out of the book.

The trouble is that I don't know what to take! 2 big questions:

Whats Good?
What can I get ready in time?

So, I own half painted or complete armies for Eldar, all flavours of Dark Angels, Tau, and Sons of Malice. No chance of getting Imperial Guard or Orks ready, so I'll exclude them. I think we'll put aside the Dark Angels too - they can be good - but I I need to alot of work to get them up to that level. Deathwing are great fun, put so underpowered right now, I'll look elsewhere.
Tau - I can see how they're supposed to be good. I can see how they're supposed to work. I do my best to make them work like that. But that's no good if they HATE ME!!!
Ahem.
I had a 1750 game last night against Eldar, and my dice failed. Game over after the my first turn of ineptness. Bah.
That has put me off using them to be honest - it's a real shame, as it's my only finished painted army! I've got one more chance next week to test a list before I have to hand in the list. Do I persevere with the tau? or do I try something different?

Eldar - I don't think I can use them - I need to paint a couple of wave serpents and a bunch of dudes. At the rate I paint those damned falcon chasis I'll never be done in time! Plus, and this is probably why I won't use them, I haven't played them in a good 6 years!

Sons of malice. Do I use them as Bloodies, or Wolfies? I've had a couple of games as blood angels, and I'm not completly happy with my grasp of the subtleties of dropping the right squads in the right places. I need alot more practice (see a pattern here?). Plus I need to paint quite a few dudes including the difficult Vanguard vets and honour guard.
Woolfies - I can see how they're supposed to work. A bit like squishy, more numurous, and more deadly Deathwing. To be honest I'm swinging this way.
I think I'll be able to paint all the needed dudes in time, and I think I've decided on the model for the thunderwolves.
I'll get everything ready for next thursday, and I guess I'll make a decision next week!

P.S Sorry for the monologue - I thought it might help?

A bit like the Queen's speech

... But with less corgi's.

Well it's been an interesting year for me - ups, downs, plenty of illness in the last 3 months of various sorts. My work has kept me busy, my mortgage payments were reduced by a third, two good friends of mine (I guess thats 4 friends?) have got married... Our lives continue apace.

Oh, and after 5 years I've become unexpectedly single, with complications of course.

Boy am I looking forward to next year! I'll be single (now) and free by April. I'm seeing it as a year of self made opportunities - plenty of gaming, plenty of time to catch up with people, plenty of new years resolutions - some of which I'm pretty sure I can keep!

So, before I share my whole life story, I think I'll finish here and wish all my readers

a Very Merry Christmas!

Eat well, enjoy the company of friends and Family, and have fun!

Merry Christmas, happy new year, and Dice Gods bless us, everyone!

Pilgrimage

I'm not a religious man. but even I have felt the need to make a pilgrimage. I'm sitting with a troll beer waiting for my Fat Bloke burger to turn up. I am at the home of this hobby of ours... Warhammer World in Nottingham. I'll post pics when I get back to my computer, though that may take a week.

I'm not going to find geek enlightenment here, and its unlikely I'll recognize anyone here, but I'm still loving the atmosphere!
shame about the music piping into Bugman's...

Amazing or Wank

I've had an idea for some time now, based on BMF speak. When my and my mate see something good or bad, we dispense with the thesaurus, and stick with 3 options.
No wows, no cools, no unnecessary adjectives.

3 options.

Either something is Amazing, Wank, or in seldom cases, Absolutely Incredible.

All of my occasional reviews from now on, as well as none GW related internet finds will be showing on my other blog... You've guessed it....

Amazing or Wank

ManFlu - it's real

I feel like crap. I've had this damned cold for 2 weeks now, and I keep getting knocked down again. Bah!

I've not been entirely negligent of my painting etc, but it's definetly slowed down a fair bit. I ended up completly building the High Elves from t'North, barring the purchase of the Island of Blood box - painting it will more likely take ages, but at least I'll have a relatively effective fantasy army...

Archmage, level 4

Noble/Prince on steed

BSB

20-30 Seaguard

20-30 Seaguard

10 Archers

5 Dragon princes

8ish Silver helms

20 total Sword masters (exact unit size/s to be determined)

5 Shadow warriors

Great Eagle

3 Reaper Bolt throwers

All this comes to around 2000 - 2750, depending on items and banners. I've put to together several versions around this basic idea, points and magic stuff will hopefully be decided through experience! I'm painting the first 5 dudes, and as soon as I'm happy, I'll throw up some pics/

I'm also slowly working my way through the Sons of Malice - I've finished the Devestator squad, chugging away on the assault squads, and I'm working on the first 3 terminators... There's more... everything on those guys, and I'm having to modify painting techniques a bit.