It's How You Use It - My Army

Even though I would occasionally mention the other events, the last few weeks leading up to Adepticon my primary focus here was on preparations for the 1000 point Fantasy tournament, 'It's How You Use It.' I therefore thought it would be appropriate to first look over the army I used in those games since so many of my recent posts covered the initial assembly and painting stages. Despite having more than six months to get ready for this one, I was of course painting bases (and even still reading the rulebook for the first time!) the morning of the tournament. Maybe not how I envisioned things back in October but it was nonetheless tremendous fun and I was thoroughly happy with my introduction to 8th edition WHFB.

Although the final few days were indeed hectic, I am satisfied that everything in my army was painted well enough to just make the deadline and thus I was able to play in all the games. So... yippee! For the tournament there was a three color minimum painting standard with 1000 point armies, but otherwise there were no composition restrictions of which I was aware beyond the normal ones found in the rulebook. Listed beneath the following picture are the essential features of my army list, although I have also included photos of the actual lists at the end of this post should you enjoy looking at all those mundane little details.

Sorceress (General) - level 2 wizard, Lore of Fire, Talisman of Endurance

12 Dark Elf Repeater Crossbowmen - full command

15 Bark Ark Corsairs - additional hand weapons, full command, Banner of Murder

5 Harpies

5 Shades

5 Cold One Knights - full command, Banner of Eternal Flame

War Hydra

Total: 1000 points

At first I was intent on using a Sorceress mounted on a Cold One to lead my army, but I was eventually persuaded by Nikephoros of the Bringer of Victory blog that I would be better off leaving her on foot. This made sense to me as I considered the prospects of having a T3 W2 general riding atop a big lizard who suffers from Stupidity. I hence thought she would be safer located within either the unit of Repeater Crossbowmen or the unit of Black Ark Corsairs. I elected to give her spells from the Lore of Fire because of their generally simple and direct method of application, something which appealed to me as a I expected to have a hard enough time keeping up with everything else during my games. As a newcomer to this, the principle of throwing fireballs around seemed thankfully easy for me to understand.

I planned my main line of battle to be comprised of the Repeater Crossbowmen, the Black Ark Corsairs, and the War Hydra, with the Harpies and Cold One Knights protecting the army's flanks. The Sorceress would deploy with the Corsairs or Crossbowmen depending largely on the terms of the scenario and the opposing army, perhaps moving from one unit to the other if necessary as the battle raged. And finally the Shades would deploy if possible forward in cover and in a position to threaten or weaken enemy units with crossbow fire in the opening turns of the game.

Thanks to its reputation I expected the War Hydra to be a formidable combatant but nonetheless still in need of support in order to reliably win combats. I therefore envisioned supporting it with the ranks and standard bonuses of the Black Ark Corsairs, or if those guys should be otherwise occupied, then I would support the beast with a timely charge from the Cold One Knights. The Repeater Crossbowmen would advance only as far as necessary to engage their targets, hopefully inflicting enough casualties as to knock an enemy regiment's rank bonus down a notch or two. With the Shades firing opportunistically as well, the last part of my battle plan was to fly the Harpies forward and charge enemy war machines as early as possible. If there were no war machines, the Harpies would then go after either other skirmishers or else ranged units, or as a last resort just act as a general nuisance to the opposing formations.

Having selected the units I would use, the last issue to sort out for my army were its magic items. Rarely are magic items a critical element of my armies and this time was no different as I had only 65 points left to spend on enchanted goodies. First off I gave the Sorceress a Talisman of Endurance so that my general would have at least a small chance of avoiding damage. With so many of my meager 1000 points already invested in this single model, I thought even that 5+ ward save would be worthwhile. Next I picked out the Banner of Murder for the Black Ark Corsairs to give their potential flurry of S3 attacks a little more bite against armored foes. Finally with just 10 points left I gave the Cold One Knights the Banner of Eternal Flame. I wasn't sure what else to do with the points and thought the magical banner would be cheap insurance in case I happened to run into another Hydra during the tournament.

So that was the army list and the basic strategy I had devised for my first foray into Warhammer Fantasy. There were a few areas that I was unsure of concerning my list, such as the relative value of command groups, but in general I felt pretty good about my army. I also felt however that it didn't really matter too much as I was likely going to lose and lose badly. I knew realistically I stood little chance as the first game of the tournament was also going to be my first time ever playing this game. Therefore all I wanted to do was have fun, learn some basic things about my army, and hopefully not irritate my opponent by having to ask too many questions or look up too many forgotten rules. On that account, then, I thought my chances at AdeptiCon were fair....

Next time I will discuss the tournament itself and describe what happened in the my first four games of Warhammer 8th edition. I had meant to cover more of the painting aspect tonight with this post but it is getting late and my pictures from earlier today did not turn out very well. I'll therefore save the painting chatter and a few words about my 5-minute display board for another time, too. Goodnight!

AdeptiDone - I'm Home!

With the dust settling from AdeptiCon and the sounds of battle finally fading away, I am happy to report that I had an absolutely marvelous time! I will have plenty to report on in the coming days though it will take me a little while to get things in order and to sort out my thoughts on what took place. Unfortunately after spending almost all of Monday dealing with some... ahem, car troubles... it wasn't until after 6pm before I at last departed Chicago and began the thousand mile drive back to Charleston. I therefore did not arrive home till the wee hours of the morning on Wednesday and only now am starting to feel recovered from the past week. It was an amazingly good trip but has nonetheless certainly taken its toll on me. :)

AdeptiCon was a fantastic weekend, by far one of my most enjoyable hobby experiences and well worth the long journey and the associated expense. Every one of the twelve games I played in was a blast and in the process I didn't meet a single gamer whom I'd avoid playing against in the future. The games were fun and exciting and the opposing players were uniformly good sports, patient and fair. I couldn't have asked for a better lineup of people with whom to spend a few days rolling dice.

Besides the games which I enjoyed thoroughly and the huge amount of inspiring models, another highlight from AdeptiCon was meeting and befriending so many wonderful people, either across from me at the gaming tables or else those I randomly encountered while wandering the site. Along with all of my opponents from the weekend, I was also fortunate to have met many wonderful gamers and painters and enjoyed every minute spent talking with them about our shared hobbies. So that I don't forget to do so later, I would like to thank and say hello to the following new friends:

TheDude (aka GopherDave) of Armored Gopher Games.

Neil from the Dark Future Games crew.

Bill/Nix of The Dead Tau Project and Gamers Lounge.

Dave Pauwels of Gogon Studios.

Hoagy from When Cannons Fade...,

Dethtron of Dick Move fame,

and their bandmates from Crusader, Joe, Ian, and Brad.

Aaron V., Nick H., and Robert C. from the Friday tournament.

The members of Team Snake Eyes - Iron Hands contingent.

The members of Checkmate Hobbies and Skull-N-Bonz.

Brent of Strictly Average whom I accosted in the elevator.

My teammates Wolf Lord Pat and Company Commander Josh.

Chris Borer of Full Borer Miniatures

b.smoove of A Gentleman's Ones

Also I want to thank all the staff and volunteers who obviously put in a ridiculous amount of effort into making AdeptiCon as much fun as it was. Lastly I want to thank my good friend who has tolerated my antics for many years, DrGabe of DrGabe's Miniatures. Once again being able to hangout like old times was the best part of the weekend... thanks, buddy! It's my hope that I will get to see lots of these same good people again before next year's event, but if not until then, that will be yet another reason for me to look forward to AdeptiCon in 2012.

I do intend on reviewing the various events I played in at AdeptiCon though I haven't decided yet on the manner in which I will do so. Since I'm not sure if I was ever clear about my schedule before leaving for Chicago, essentially it was the 1000pt Fantasy tournament on Friday, the 40k Team Tournament on Saturday, and the Killzone event on Sunday. I expect I'll at least put together a separate report discussing each of those tournaments although I likely won't try to do a full battle report for every one of my games. But for now I've picked out a sampling of pictures from my weekend to sort of preview what I will be posting and talking about over the coming days.

"Follow me, men, I know the way to VICTORY!" Famous last words...

Mere seconds before rolling three of my many twin-linked misses of the day....

"Uh, guys... hello? Where did you go? Weren't you alive just a minute ago?"

One of Chris Borer's amazing marines from his Killzone team, of which I will show more in its own post...

Beasts of Annihilation enter the Killzone, never to be seen again.

I will begin organizing my AdeptiReports later this evening so hopefully I'll have more ready to post soon... until next time, take care and happy gaming!

New Games for Consideration

One of my hobby goals for 2011 is to continue experimenting with new game systems, even if only to learn the rules as an excuse to paint different sorts of miniatures. Last year I really enjoyed delving into Hordes especially although I did begin peeking into Warmachine and Malifaux a little as well. Early on I even made a decent start on painting my Circle Orboros army before running out of steam and resuming work on GW projects. I believe those are games I'll have fun with for quite some time to come so I'm happy with the investment I made in learning them.

I would therefore like to again expand my gaming horizons and so I've been looking around at what's available, mainly with an eye toward the miniatures but also with some curiosity regarding their rules too. There are quite a few systems that I'm considering but at this point I still do not know which appeals the most to me. I suppose I've already started in with Super Dungeon Explore very recently but I don't count that as it lacks the army collecting/list building elements that I want in a new game. What follows is a list of those that have caught my attention for various reason and from which I expect to further pursue at least one or two of them.

Anima Tactics

Dystopian Wars

Firestorm Armada

Flames of War

Freebooter's Fate

Heavy Gear: Blitz!

MERCS

Pulp City

Uncharted Seas

I really don't know much about any of those yet except what I've found out about them poking around their primary websites and a few very tentative visits to some of their forums. If anyone has any experience or opinions concerning these games, I'd really appreciate hearing them. I am particularly keen to learn more about the three from Spartan Games and would be very interested in hearing about how those games actually play. Also I'm always eager to find out about other games people are playing so if there's anything else you really enjoy, I'd love to hear additional recommendations.

Okay, that's it for tonight... miniatures await!

AdeptiBlog 2011

It's official, I'm going to AdeptiCon! Five months from now I will once again load up the diceRollamobile and hit the road for charming Lombard, Illinois. I had a great time last year and am very happy to be going back. Three days of rolling dice and hobby seminars, hanging out with old friends and new, and most important of all... celebrities!

"See ya next year, doofus!"

At the last AdeptiCon I filled my schedule entirely with hobby seminars and ended up spending around thirty hours in hotel conference rooms, painting miniatures and learning new tricks. (A lengthy review of these seminars can be found here, many of the same ones are being offered again in 2011.) I therefore initially thought I would only take one or two more of these and focus mainly on the gaming opportunities. Of course this plan did not last long into my review of the pre-registration catalogue as I spotted lots of classes that sounded interesting and helpful. So for 2011 I'm doing close to a fifty-fifty split between hobby seminars and playing games. I also cautioned myself to leave more room for free time but that didn't happen either. Whatever, it's going to be another busy weekend of AdeptiFun.

Each day I'll have one gaming event in the morning going into the afternoon, to then be followed by seminars lasting into the night. I like the idea of unwinding with some classroom time after a few hard-fought hours in the tabletop trenches and feel like I've worked out a good schedule that nicely balances my interests. Also I've heard these shorter tournaments are a bit more relaxed than the big, all-day or even multi-day competitions, so I'm optimistic that the ones I'm playing in will be better suited to my usual gaming disposition.

Friday I start out at 11am with the 1000 point Warhammer Fantasy "It's How You Use It" tournament. I don't have an army picked out and it's been more than four years since I last played Warhammer Fantasy with regularity or gave it any serious attention. I therefore have some significant preparation work to do for this event and I'm psyched about the challenge this presents. Unlike the Privateer Press games, which I did briefly consider for AdeptiCon, I am at least comfortable with Warhammer Fantasy's fundamental game mechanics after years of playing previous editions and think I can get up to speed with the current rules by April. Or it could all go horribly wrong. Either way it should at least be an enjoyable journey.

Saturday morning at 9am I'm registered to play in the first of the day's WH40k: Combat Patrol sessions. Again I haven't decided what type of force I'll use for these games. I have plenty already painted from which I can choose though I would prefer to make something new specifically for the event. It's nice to know that if I get crunched for time I can field something ready to go from one of my usual armies, but I want that to be only as a last resort. I'm leaning toward either mechanized veteran Praetorian IG or scrap huntin' Orks, but I'm really open to anything that seems like fun.

Lastly I'll close out the weekend with Spec Ops: Killzone on Sunday at 11:30 am. I've become quite taken with Big Jim's skirmish rules for 40k and am thus particularly excited to play in this event at AdeptiCon. Thanks to the Killzone Blitz earlier this month my Rogue Trader team isn't far off from being complete and is my top choice to use in these games. I'm going to finish painting them and will then begin field testing to determine which of the Rogue Trader's entourage make the final cut. Playing on the awesome boards b.smoove of A Gentleman's Ones has been assembling for this event should make for a fittingly dramatic finale to my weekend hobby binge.

And so those are the gaming events for which I've registered. There's a lot for me to get done before April, especially since I now might be moving to North Carolina as early as February, which I'm sure would help tremendously with the requisite painting and practice games. Along with the 40k and Fantasy stuff mentioned above I also have plans for display boards, a Blood Bowl team for some possible extracurricular gaming, and even an entry or two for the Rogue Demon painting competition. I'm really happy with the variety of projects which I'll be working on over the coming months in preparation for this and will be sure to post updates on my progress.

Alright, that's it. I hope everyone has a great weekend, bye!

Gaming in Asheville, NC?

First I want to start with a quick reminder about the contest I'm running. If you haven't already, please click here to see the details and enter for a chance to win some MkIII Iron Armour marines as well as a display base to go with them made by Secret Weapon Miniatures. So check it out and enter if you wish, I'll select two winners a little more than a week from now on the night of October 24th.

My hobby activities are presently on hold as I am currently in Asheville, NC with the family and will be here for several more days. I did bring some things to work on when time allows but I forgot a few necessary items. I brought along a batch of HORDES models to assemble but forgot my glue, and I also packed a bunch of paints but failed to bring anything that's ready to paint. D'oh! Well, that's what I get for packing at literally the last minute before leaving home.

We're visiting Asheville to begin getting a sense for the area as we'll likely be moving here next summer. Nestled within the Great Smokey Mountains, it is a beautiful place and I've always liked this part of the country. So far everything looks good and I suspect we'd be quite happy living here. While driving around yesterday the wife and I came across an awesome Bavarian restaurant where I tried Das Boot of lager for the first time in my life. Fortunately it was only the single Litre version as I would not have been able to handle any more than that. Overall it was a great dining experience though I was worried enough about falling asleep at the table. : )

Along with all the usual pragmatic concerns involved in moving, like neighborhoods and school districts and such, I'm also quite curious what type of gaming scene I might find here. There is a severe paucity of tabletop gaming where we live now so it's difficult for me to imagine my hobby situation not improving with this move. I have a lead on one game store that I expect to visit tomorrow afternoon which I think is promising. Otherwise I'm still wandering around blindly, listening to the winds for the welcome sounds of rolling dice and gamers' incessant whining.

I have a positive feeling about this place and I believe it could be a good fit for my little family. It seems like a town well suited to weirdos and eccentrics. I'd love to hear from anyone who knows this area or has had any experience playing games in the Asheville region. I'm definitely interested in learning how well represented our hobby is in this part of the state, plus I'd really appreciate any other advice or words of wisdom my Tar Heel readers might have for me. So please let me know what your impressions of this area are like. I would be very grateful for any help in this regard.

Thank you!

Breaking Fealty

I haven't mentioned Warhammer Fantasy since 8th edition was released when I decided to start a new Bretonnian army. I've been quiet about this undertaking since then because I have not made any progress that seemed positive or worth discussing. The past couple of months have seen me become increasingly frustrated with my choice of army as I've struggled with list after list to make an army that lives up to my early enthusiasm for the chivalrous blue bloods and their filth-encrusted peasantry. I simply cannot find a force hiding in the Bretonnian army book that I like.

When I chose to go with the Bretonnians I was somewhat aware of the challenges this would bring, though not entirely so. It would seem my "careful" consideration was not as carefully considered as I had thought. I was not foolish enough, however, to believe I would be able to come up with a super-tough list capable of competing against strong opponents. All I really wanted was an army to use in some fun games against friends, thus allowing me to return Warhammer Fantasy to my gaming rotation after my interest in it had waned over the lifespan of the previous edition. Yet even with these modest goals in mind I have not been able to put anything together that excites me enough to begin investing the time and money needed for a new army.

So what's a fella to do? For now at least I'm stepping back from my pledge of loyalty to Bretonnia and the Lady of the Lake. While it may cause my Dwarf army to label me as an oath-breaker and refuse to ever fight for me again, I think this is my best option. I don't want to fall into the trap of forcing myself to work on an army I'm not excited about as there are numerous other projects I'm eager to tackle. As a finicky and easily distracted hobbyist, I finally learned that it's almost impossible for me to get very far with an army when I'm less than fully enthused about it. Despite the frustrations necessary to bring me to this point, I am at least grateful to have recognized my issues with the army before putting forth any significant effort.

Eventually I'd like to get back to these Bretonnians though I have no idea when that will be. It feels to me as if the army currently lacks in variety, a problem which is exacerbated by the fact that several characterful units I'd like to include are not well represented in the range of Bretonnian miniatures. For example, weren't there at some point more than five Questing Knight sculptures? Two rank-and-file variants just seems to me woefully inadequate for a unit that should have lots of individual personality. In this particular case I could set about trying to convert or kit-bash some models of my own but that sounds like a lot more than I'm willing to do at this point. Therefore, confronted with an army book that doesn't particularly captivate me and a range of miniatures that leaves me wanting, I think it would be best to set aside the spurs and lance until Bretonnia receives its update for the new edition.

While I'm content to hold off on the Bretonnians, there's still the fantasy itch that needs to be scratched. I started to look again at what other armies I might want to collect but so far nothing has jumped out at me. I thought it would be fun to work on a new army to coincide with the latest edition of the game but it's certainly not necessary. I still have a couple of functional armies which I can use in friendly games of Warhammer, but they've become sort of stale feeling to me over the years. Nonetheless I would like to work on something of a more fantastical sort so as to satisfy that part of my gamer soul not currently fulfilled by chainswords and plasma guns. Hmm, what to do?

Oh yeah, there was that other game that had captivated my attention last winter... Hordes. Or more properly, HORDES!!!! (PP's penchant for capitalization still cracks me up.) The game offers lots of cool monsters, crazy warlocks and spells, and some really bizarre factions to choose from, all of which sounds to me like a winning combination. Plus every model I worked on before was a blast to paint and I doubt I could ever tire of painting monsters. The more I think about, the more convinced I am that this is where I need to look to get my fix of fantasy gaming.

In fact the last miniature I painted before my unanticipated five month break from the brushes was a Lord of the Feast for my Circle Orboros gang. I already have 20ish points of Circle Orboros painted and another 15 points or so worth in boxes, as well as 35 to 40 points worth of Skorne models waiting around in their original packaging. Therefore my plan going forward is to cease worrying about doing something new for Warhammer Fantasy and will instead turn to Hordes for my swords-and-sorcery gaming enjoyment.

Best of all, this is the perfect time for me to return to Hordes as the faction of my dreams is just now being rolled out, the Blindwater Congregation:

Crazy voodoo alligators... I think I may have just fallen in love.

The Drones of Sector 7G (Illustrated)

A couple of weeks ago Old School Terminator of Dark Future Games posted an interesting piece entitled "How Do You Pick Units? How Do You Build Your Army?" In it he examines the thought process that he goes through when planning out an army, offering up his Tyranid army as a very thorough example of how it works in practice. I find these trips through a gamer's list-making mind fascinating and informative, in addition to highlighting for me just how different people's approaches to army building can be, and indeed to the game itself. OST hoped to start an open discussion on this topic and asked for additional examples of this, so I thought it might be interesting (well, for me at least...) to do the same for my new Imperial Guard army that is just now getting underway.

In OST's case he studies the attributes of his favorite few units from the codex and then develops a theme for his army around those key features, selecting additional units that will allow his to play the style of army he envisions and to meet specific strategic needs. I admire his clarity of thought and his careful consideration of the impact his choices have on his army's tactics and overall performance. My own approach to building an army is perhaps somewhat more... quixotic? Keep that in mind as I do not mean to present this an example of good army-list building technique but really more as a contrast to the well-reasoned approach of someone with tactical acumen like OST. So with that caveat, let's being:

The Drones of Sector 7G

Sometime during the summer I began to think that it would be fun to put together and paint some models to go with my 40k terrain project, named "Sector 7G" in honor of that part of Springfield Nuclear Power Plant where Homer Simpson works. In one episode Mr. Burns points to Homer and asks who he is, to which Smithers responds, "One of you drones in Sector 7G." From that little exchange came the idea of putting together a squad of servitors and so that I could eventually let them wander around the table in scenario games blasting away randomly at nearby targets and being a nuisance for the competing armies. They'd be my drones and I'd have another Simpsons reference in my gaming nonsense... hooray, mission accomplished!

I call the middle one "Grimey."

I was quite satisfied with having a handful of zombie-like, cyborg workers run amuck on my table and left it at that for a while. It eventually occurred to me though that if I'm going to have a bunch of servitors, why not include a Techpriest to lead them in their efforts to repair 7G? Thus was born Techpriest Enginseer Smithers, as well as the realization that I could take the joke even further and put together a Springfield power plant-themed army to represent the workers and defenders of my Imperial manufactorums. I've been trying to find a way to get excited about the Guard again after several years away from them, having previously played a conventional Infantry Co. style list with LRBT platoon in support, and so even the most tenuous of connections to the Simpsons proved to be enough inducement for to me start a new army. Ever one to beat a joke in ground, especially bad ones, I was off to get my Codex to see what other things could be twisted to my silly plan.

Techpriest Enginseer Smithers

With the themed I'd chosen, I would obviously have to somehow include Mr. Burns himself in my army. After searching through a lot of potential models, I settled on using the Astropath from the Imperial Advisors pack. I think he has a suitably frail yet sinister appearance for playing the role of Mr. Burns. I don't want someone as important as Monty Burns to be just a mere astropath, however, so I promoted him to Primaris Psyker and thus he can appropriately be the leader of my army. Maybe in the 41st millennium Plant Manager Burns would be a psyker, though I prefer instead thinking of his powers as representing his control over the Sector's automatic defenses (Lightning Arc) and the dread he inspires in others (Nightshourd). Also, as my opponents are likely to recognize the model as an Imperial astropath, I'm hopeful that it will be easy enough to explain that he's just a simple counts-as Primaris Psyker.

Plant Manager Burns

Next up for consideration was the section of Troops, from which I elected to employ Penal Legion squads. These guys will provide the labor force needed to keep 7G humming along despite the massive damage it's suffered, in addition to being responsible for defending the plant in times of danger. I didn't want to worry about the command structure that you get with Infantry Platoons, nor did I feel the grunts of 7G befitting of the prestige and myriad special weapons available to Veteran squads. The independently functioning nature of Penal Legion squads seemed like a good way of portraying the various work details, each lead by a Crew Boss but otherwise with nothing special about the members of the squad. The deployment options gained from being Scouts should help them get to their job sites faster, while being Stubborn should let them demonstrate their tenacity and commitment to their work.

I've chosen to use Kolony Militia heads from Pig Iron as a way of suggesting the faceless, anonymous regard in which Plant Manager Burns sees his workers. On the subject of modeling, I would like to note that I am gluing on grenades despite Penal Legionnaires not being armed with them. I foresee possibly wanting to adapt this collection sometime down the road into a more traditional mechanized veterans type of army and therefore would like to keep my options as open as possible concerning WYSIWYG. That way, whether working for now at Sector 7G or on some other battlefield in the future, I expect these minis to be versatile enough to serve me for years to come. Here then are the first of the Blisstonian* 9th Volunteers:

Work detail, Blisstonian 9th Volunteers

At about this point my wife asked what I was up to and, upon hearing of my plans for another Simpsons 40k project, pointed out that I had overlooked an important asset available to Mr. Burns... his hounds. She insisted that during a game Mr. Burns be able to "release the hounds," or else my army of cartoon references would be an unmitigated failure.

Of course! She was right and I thought it was a great idea but was initially unsure as to how to do that with Imperial Guard. My first idea was to go with a squad of Rough Riders as Burns' hounds, modeled using Chaos Warhounds and sporting a variety of comical laser guns and rockets. Something about this didn't seem right, especially as the models would have a much lower profile than a normal squad of Guard cavalry. I then pictured Burns sitting next to one of his dogs, which somehow stirred within my mind the image of a fire-belching IG sentinel. I liked that and decided Plant Manager Burns would have Sentinel squadrons as his hounds. Initially I was leaning toward Armoured Sentinels, but after playing around with some various lists I now believe I will most likely build them as Scout Sentinels. This is partly due to the Scout variants being cheaper in points but also because I now really like the Pig Iron heads and want to also use them for my vehicle crews.

Release the hounds! Well... build the hounds, then release them!

I've mentioned before that I had ordered the Manticore/Deathstrike kit just because I really liked the model and thought it could be fun to use in scenario or narrative gaming. At the time I had no intention of including it in an army, but I saw this Drones project as a great excuse to make use of the Deathstrike Missile Launcher which I'd already assembled some months ago. It's a highly unpredictable, one-shot gimmick in which to invest precious points, hence why it's probably one of the least deployed weapons in the Imperial Guard's tabletop wars. But the doomsday quality of the Deathstrike seems to me like just the sort of thing Plant Manager Burns would want to have at his disposal. I concede that it is really more of a Hank Scorpio type of thing, but I believe Burns40k would also see the value in a weapon of such destructive potential. One should be enough at a thousand points but when this army grows any larger, I'd like to include more of them.... Kaboom!

"Exxxxcellent."

Casting about for more ways to expand on the army's theme, I recalled Mr. Burns' preference for the "personal touch you only get with hired goons." Therefore to act as his bodyguard, keeping Burns safe from xenos and disgruntled employee alike, as well as to give his authority some extra muscle, I've chosen to include a Storm Trooper squad equipped with the army's only pair of special weapons. I had tucked away enough of the older style of storm trooper miniatures to make up a full squad of them and was happy to see that their gas mask faces appeared to be a good match for the Pig Iron ones I was using on the rest of the army.

Hired Goons

I would like to have a way for those Storm Troopers to get around the battlefield more quickly and the IG Valkyrie has got to be one of the coolest kits ever released by Games Workshop. Mr. Burns is conveniently known to ride in style so for this army I'll be including an IG bird to serve as his limousine, but one that is armored and flying because it's the future! Even if it's guaranteed to get shot down every game, this is one of those units I really want to play around with as it just looks like a fun model to have. When I get back to expanding on Sector 7G, one of the first terrain pieces I plan on adding will be a landing pad so I don't think a single flyer would look terribly out of place in this collection. Also, should things turn against Plant Manager Burns, I'm sure he'd appreciate being able to make a speedy departure.

Burns' armored, flying limo

It would be reasonable for the Imperium to keep an eye on someone like Burns so to round out my HQ section I've included a Lord Commissar. Again I did not want to go with any of the infantry command squads for this particular army, thereby hopefully avoiding any confusion about Burns being an astropath. I do think however that a commissar could fit in nicely and monitor both Plant Manager Burns and those loaf-about carbon blobs of the Blisstonian 9th. The commissar with the plasma pistol and sword is another of my favorite models that I've looked forward to painting for a long time so he goes into the list-mix, too. Overseeing this entire operation will therefore be a stern and dutifully suspicious member of the Emperor's Nuclear Regulatory Commissariat.

Emperor's Nuclear Regulatory Commissar

Another individual whom I felt compelled to include in my army was a Homer stand-in of some sort. Fortunately I've got Guardsman Marbo to adapt to my purposes, and as GW saw fit to simply reverse the letters of one syllable, so shall I. My counts-as Marbo will therefore be known as "Safety Inspector Moher." While I still haven't entirely planned out this conversion, I'll probably end up using mostly Catachan parts and one of these tox-guard heads from MaxMini. I plan on replacing the usual demolition charge with a dangerously mishandled radioactive fuel rod. Thus in true Homerian fashion, Safety Inspector Moher will be both a champion of his fellow workers and simultaneously one of the greatest threats to their lives.

My inspiration for Safety Inspector Moher

By now I was pretty happy with the army lists I had drawn up and was ready to stop at the 1500 point mark. I thought the inspiration well had run dry and that I wouldn't be able to wring anything more out of the codex. I looked at some other heavy support choices and more elite options but couldn't see a good way to work any of them into my theme. I did not want to force anything in that doesn't belong and thought to myself, "Oh well, I don't need to fill the FOC completely." The list making was done, or so I believed until I remembered one last thing...

Lawyers! I have no doubt that Plant Manager Burns would want legal council while navigating the many byzantine layers of Imperial governance and the myriad perils that would entail. Burns' legal defense team will be played by the more bookish-appearing Inquisitor henchmen models and will be a counts-as Psyker Battle Squad for the army. I don't think it will be too hard for people to accept that their powers, Weaken Resolve and Soulstorm, represent the terrifying potency of such an aggressively litigious group of attorneys. I'm not too sure what to do about the unit's overseer, though I'm considering using either a Necromunda Enforcer or a spare commissar model to help keep the egg-heads in check.

The start of Burns' legal defense team.

And that was basically it... ta-da! As best as I can recall that was the thought process I went through in developing my plans for this project. So this time around at least there wasn't much worry given over to tactical performance or cost efficiency and instead most of my decisions were based on the visual and interpretive expression of my chosen theme. Along the way I wrote out a bunch of different army lists to see how the point totals were shaping up and am still tinkering some on the margins with the leftover points. Below are the lists that I'm going to be incrementally building toward for use in Sector 7G. Thanks for sticking with me through all that and indulging me in this narcissistic exercise. While I may have nothing enlightening to offer in all this prattle, at a minimum I hope I've explained how my army came about, one which I'm sure to most veteran generals would likely appear to be just an odd and hopelessly outclassed assortment of units masquerading as an army. I imagine the more cut-throat gamers will still snicker and roll their eyes, but you've now seen why I'm willing to put the effort into making this a reality.

And so at long last, the army lists:

Primaris Psyker

Techpriest Enginseer: 5 servitors, heavy bolter, mult-melta

Psyker Battle Squad

Penal Legion Squad

Penal Legion Squad

Scout Sentinel: heavy flamer

Total Points = 500

Primaris Psyker

Techpriest Enginseer: 5 servitors, heavy bolter, mult-melta

10 Storm Troopers: plasma pistol, meltagun, plasma gun

Penal Legion Squad

Penal Legion Squad

Penal Legion Squad

Penal Legion Squad

2 Scout Sentinels: heavy flamers

Deathstrike Missile Launcher

Total Points = 1000

Lord Commissar: plasma pistol, power weapon

Primaris Psyker

Techpriest Enginseer: 5 servitors, heavy bolter, mult-melta

10 Storm Troopers: plasma pistol, meltagun, plasma gun

Guardsman Marbo

Penal Legion Squad

Penal Legion Squad

Penal Legion Squad

Penal Legion Squad

3 Scout Sentinels: heavy flamers

Valkyrie Assault Carrier: multiple rocket pods, heavy bolters

Deathstrike Missile Launcher

Deathstrike Missile Launcher

Total Points = 1500

Lord Commissar: plasma pistol, power weapon

Primaris Psyker

Techpriest Enginseer: 5 servitors, heavy bolter, mult-melta

Psyker Battle Squad: 5 additional Sanctioned Psykers

10 Storm Troopers: plasma pistol, meltagun, plasma gun

Guardsman Marbo

Penal Legion Squad

Penal Legion Squad

Penal Legion Squad

Penal Legion Squad

Penal Legion Squad

Penal Legion Squad

2 Scout Sentinels: heavy flamers, smoke launchers

2 Scout Sentinels: heavy flamers, smoke launchers

Valkyrie Assault Carrier: multiple rocket pods, heavy bolters

Deathstrike Missile Launcher

Deathstrike Missile Launcher

Deathstrike Missile Launcher: dozer blade

Total Points = 2000

I've got about another week left of vacation and plenty still to assemble and prime before going home to the enveloping humidity of the South. I try to remain as flexible and open as possible so if anyone thinks of any Simpson references that I've missed but could include in this project, please let me know. As always, I welcome any and all suggestions, criticisms, angry muttering, et cetera. I know it was a lot to go through with the only reward being a few pictures of unpainted miniatures. Oh joy. Thanks again for letting me share with you my thoughts about this army... updates to come as things get painted.

*In episode #5F23 of season 9, “The Joy of Sect,” Homer joins a cult whose leader promises to take his followers away to the planet Blisstonia. Great episode, I highly recommend it.

Bretonnia for Eighth Edition

[Note to Google-searching readers: This does not contain any tactical, strategic, list building, or gaming related advice or discussion of any sort. Sorry if you are looking for help in those departments, it's not to be found here. Cheers! - Papa JJ, 12/17/2010]

With the new edition of Warhammer just a few weeks away from it's official release, I've been thinking a lot lately about starting a new army. For the past year or so I have been interested in getting back into the game and made a few faltering starts on different armies. None of them excited me all that much and it seemed as though I lacked the enthusiasm needed to see any of them to completion. I've enjoyed playing Warhammer for a very long time and it was kind of frustrating to just drift away from it without finding anything that would again capture my imagination. There are plenty of other games to play but not being active in such a classic as Warhammer Fantasy felt like it left a void in my hobby.

Hope was restored to me when I heard news of the impending arrival of an updated Warhammer. I think it's a great time for the game to get a new breath of life and with that I've found my interest in it revitalized as well. It's nice to be excited about Warhammer again. I haven't paid a lot of attention to the leaked details regarding all the changes introduced but it definitely sounds like eighth edition represents a significant overhaul of how the game works. This seems, therefore, like as good a time as any to start up with a new army so that I can learn both my chosen force and the game itself together.

To that end I have carefully reviewed my options and thought deeply about what type of army I would like to play. At long last I have chosen to walk the path of honor and valor, hereby pledging my fealty to the realm of Bretonnia. I put together a unit of Bretonnian knights years ago when they were included in the starter set with Lizardmen but was too intimidated by the prospect of heraldry that I never painted them. Otherwise I have no experience with the fnacy lads. I've always admired the look of a fully painted Bretonnian army and the quasi-medieval style of its range of miniatures. After Adepticon I was all fired up to do a Hundred Years War army for Warhammer Ancient Battles but my interest in this was quashed once I saw how expensive it would be. I think a Bretonnian army will be a nice alternative and also a more pragmatic one considering the slim likelihood of me finding someone who wants to play WAB.

I have no real expectations for this army other than for it to serve as a vehicle for learning the new edition of Warhammer. In a spirit of optimism I anticipate working on all of the requisite heraldry and barding will really challenge my painting abilities, hopefully pushing me to get better by trying new things. And even if they're not terribly effective units I still envision having some big blocks of peasant infantry which should offer a good change of pace from painting their mounted social betters. Right, then. It may not be much of a plan, but I think it's enough to get me started. I am looking forward to a summer of lances and longbows.

KABOOM!!

I received in the mail today my Imperial Guard Manticore/Deathstrike kit and got it glued together this evening. This is the first of the new style of Guard tank kits that I've worked on and I am very impressed with the improvements made to the old chimera chassis. I'm especially happy with the redesigned track assemblies as I used to always end up with a little too much tread on my tanks. Kudos to GW for the excellent plastic, well done indeed. Also the giant missile looks much better in person than I had initially expected and I've already had lots of fun making rocket noises as it pretend launches. : )

So, what's up with the Deathstrike? Although I'm not actively doing anything with Guard right now, I just really love this tank and couldn't resist ordering one once I saw pictures of it on the web. I understand the Manticore is probably the more popular of the two artillery systems but the Deathstrike offers so very much potential for narrative based games. I mean, it's a freaking doomsday weapon! To me that's inarguably cool and therefore of course I'm going to want one of those in my collection. But after putting this one together tonight, I am now considering purchasing another box so that I can write scenarios involving a pair of the brutes for even more fun.

Weather allowing, I'll prime it tomorrow in anticipation of getting some hobby time this weekend for painting.

Updating my Old Chaos Army

Inspired by Da Masta Cheef's recent post at Da Long Wayz Dezert Groop, I decided to dig out my old Chaos Space Marines and see what was there. I'm interested in seeing if I can revise them for the current edition of the codex and if possible have some fun with them again. I left this army on unpleasant terms so it would be cool to generate some positivity around them for old time's sake.

I collected this army from around 2000 until the summer of 2004 and it was my standard force for games of 40k until the release of the current edition of the Chaos Marine codex. I never really got around to finishing them, having last painted something for this army at approximately 3:00am the night before the '04 Atlanta Grand Tournament. I had a lot of fun with this bunch but couldn't get motivated enough to wrap things up. Plus I could never settle on what to paint for their chapter badge so I just learned to live with them being mistaken for World Eaters or Word Bearers. Without ever really meaning to my color scheme sort of became a mix of both so I certainly understood the confusion, especially as I didn't do anything to distinguish them visually. So for years now they've been hanging out, just some group of Red Chaos Marines who for whatever reason liked to wage war in particular against Necrons, Ultramarines, and 'Nids.

There were also some painting problems, too. After finishing probably 15 or so figures with GW paints I switched to Vallejo without doing a very good job of matching the primary shade of red. I didn't care enough to go back and repaint the original guys so that the army doesn't have a completely consistent appearance. The other big frustration was when I turned a finished squad almost entirely white due to me trying to defy the Washington, DC humidity with spray matte sealer. I did go back and try to touch them up but I was never able to get them looking right again. Lastly there is a squad of 10 Chaos Marines with bolt pistols and close combat weapons that only need to have some little mistakes cleaned up here and there and they would be done. This has not been done in the last six years due to a lack of interest and laziness. And that is basically where I left this army and haven't painted anything for it since then.

At this point I'm not entirely sure what I want to do with these guys. Is there enough here to make it worth the time required to truly update them for the new codex? Would I rather just spend the time working on something new?

I don't know how much more I'm willing to work on this army, though I think at a minimum I would like to finally give them chapter badges. That means I need to pick out which Chapter they're from, and that's where I would always get stuck in the past. If I'm willing to invest the time into this project I could paint some random panels on their armor black and make them into Red Corsairs. I like their background and I definitely dig the Huron Blackheart model. The quickest alternative would be to just make up an easy symbol to paint and come up with a name based on it, but that doesn't particularly appeal to me. I could also redo the banding on the power armor to silver and make them true Word Bearers. I like summoned daemons but the fact that the whole range of daemons all play the same still bugs me. So those are the three main directions I'm considering taking this collection.

You can see in the pictures the various units I had collected for this army. Right now I don't anticipate wanting to build and paint anything new for them, however. I don't have big aspirations for the gaming side of things with this rabble as I know I'm not willing to adapt it entirely for playing in 5th edition as that seems like it would be more work than I'm looking to do. I just think it would be nice to have these dudes available to goof around a bit and maybe even kill some good guys.

So I think this could be an enjoyable side project for me and one that I should hopefully be able to finish quickly. That might be asking too much, but we'll see.

Curtains for 40k Radio

Who didn't see this coming? With all of the recent drama and ego-battling, the end of 40k Radio seemed to me to be a very predictable outcome. I am a little surprised at the speed with which the demise has come about, but then again I also did not anticipate this escalating to the level of creepy threats and other such grotesqueries directed at Spencer and his family. Once again I have underestimated the internet. This whole saga makes for a rather pitiful and unfortunate ending to what once was a cool addition to my hobby, though I apparently missed out on it's glory days.

Oh well... most accounts of the show I've heard lately have not been favorable and I haven't listened in a while, the one exception being Episode 76 featuring Scott and Chipley which I thought was pretty good. I personally hope everyone turns out better for this and I appreciate them having introduced me to wargamer podcasting. I don't get a lot of time to listen but I enjoy it when I can, though not long ago I learned even fun gaming chatter can't drown out the sound of dental drilling. Also I now feel even better for having decided against paying to join the Freebootaz a couple of weeks ago. :)

I've recently begun listening to two relatively new podcasts, Minions of the Monster Master and Tabletop Hooligans, and have enjoyed them a lot. The latter come across as a very fun group of friends and people with whom I'd gladly hang out and play some games. Also they're from Long Island so listening to them reminds me of visiting my wife's hometown in New York which is neat. What really caught my attention about the former, the Minions team, is that their blog features some of the coolest original artwork that I've seen on a gaming site. Plus they're Lovecraft fans, too! With the lights going out on 40k Radio, it seems I picked a good time to start shopping around for other podcast options.

I'd love to hear any other recommendations people might have, as I really am curious about what type of stuff is out there. So... anyone listening to something cool?