Monday, March 10, 2014

Finished Warlock Model

  
Here are a couple pictures of the Warlock I finished last night.  I am happy how he turned out.  I like the highlights (first on a non-vehicle model) and the overall paint job.  The sword needs work but unsure what to do with it, thoughts?
 
Well here are the pictures and hoping I can bang out some more Hawks or Wraithguard this week for the Crusade of Fire Campaign.
 



Saturday, March 8, 2014

New List and More Painting!

So I have been wracking my brain over a new list I want to run.  With my current 1850 iteration, I have a very good track record with it.  Its a solid list and I know on a whim I can use the list, perform well at a tournament, and best of all not have to paint a model. 

My new list has Eldar as my primary army.  I am done being stubborn and want to run more Eldar units in my lists as I feel I have used all the units in the Dark Eldar book (yes even Mandrakes!) and been successful with them.  I feel it is time to try something new.

So this is what I got:

Eldar Primary

Farseer, Bike, Stone of Anath'lan, Shard of Anaris, Runes of Warding- 170
Maugan Ra- 195
Warlock- 35

x20 Guardians, x2 Lances- 220
x5 Dire Avengers, Serpent w/ Scatter Laser, Cannon- 195
x5 Dire Avengers, Serpent w/ Scatter Laser, Cannon- 195

x3 Vaul Batteries- 90
War Walker w/ x2 Bright Lances- 70

Dark Eldar Allies

Baron- 105

x5 Warriors, Venom w/ Trophies- 115
x5 Warriors, Venom w/ Trophies- 115

x5 Beast Masters, x1 Fiend, x5 Khymera, x6 Flock- 250

Aegis Line, Icarus Las-Cannon- 85

TOTAL 1850

So I like this list and the flexibility it brings.  So some basics...

 Maugan Ra and the Warlock join the Guardians.  Ra will be my Warlord and his Trait of SPlit Fire will come in handy.  He can choose to shoot anything and deal damage.  5 shots at BS 7, Str. 6 Rending?  Yeah pretty good I think.  He makes the Guardians Fearless, gives them a nice CC deterrent from normal 3+ saves with him being Str. 6 AP 3 with 4 base attacks and Int. 7, so not too bad.  If someone rolls up with an AP 2 guy, the lock can lock him for a turn.  The Warlock in turn will provide them with Shrouding which will help since they can stay behind the Line if need be and have a nice 2+ Cover save.  Also, Ra will be in base with the Icarus if my opponent has fliers so he can double shot it and knock it out of the sky.  Or a Guardian can man it and shoot 2 Lances, a Lascannon at a vehicle and have Ra shoot something else.  Combined, I feel confident they can take down any vehicle and are a threat to anything in the game.  Ra also gives Night Vision to the unit which is a nice little buff.  When shooting at a squad, Ra can Precision shot/strike on a 5+ with his Exarch power as well which again, is a nice little boost.  I feel he is expensive, but he provides nice support and boosts to the Guardians.

Seer still goes with Beasts and gives Fearless and hopefully Fortune.

Serpents and Venoms pew pew.

Weapon Batteries kill those pesky troops who hide out of LOS or pick off important weapon guys like Grav Guns or Apothercaries.  I know a lot of tournaments are going to start using the Alternate Mission set up and this will help knocking those units that want to just hang out on objectives and score points.

The War Walker seems a little out of place but I do have a plan.  He will usually be in Reserve and ready to Outflank and get a good side or rear armor shot.  With the emergence of Knights and AV13 (something I always have struggled with) I think a couple extra Lance shots will be nice.  He is easy to hide and doesn't cost much, but he can potentially do nice things against heavy hitters.  Plus, it saves me from praying that Ra will Rend if I shoot at high AV targets.

Strengths of my list:

Balance-  I can deal with anything I feel.  Spam armies one way or the other could cause problems, but I have an answer for anything

Target Saturation-  I have good, solid, hard to kill units.  Large Gaurdians, large Beasts, Defense Line, and a couple Wave Serpents cannot simply disappear in one turn

Unorthodox-  I don't think people will expect to see this list. Ra could be laughed out of the tournament when he is seen on the list.  No min maxing with double Seers, spamming Serpents, or Venom spamming is not there like some would expect.

Weaknesses of my list:

Fliers-  If someone brings 3 AV12 or 4+ AV11 fliers I could be in trouble.  The Icarus is nice, as is the Serpents.  But they can be taken out and after they go down I will be shooting the Guardians with Ra attached at them.  Multiple Vendettas or 5+ FMCs is something I do not want to see.

AV13/14-  If someone rolls up with 3 Landraiders, 6 AV13, or 3 Knights (unlikely I know, but Im sure there will be someone)  I could struggle.  I simply don't have the reliable shooting to kill these things.  I will rely on the Guardians, Ra, and the Icarus to do this.  Seems like I rely on them for a lot!

Well there is my list and what I will be testing soon.  I am hoping to get a game in against Adam Tricola this week so he can practice for Adepticon and I can just simply practice.  So let me know what you and how you think this will perform.  Critiques definitely welcome!

Last but not least, here is a couple pictures of my test model Swooping Hawk.  Let me know what you think!  Thanks!



I am debating on whether I want to highlight or not.  I really like the soft color look and think that if I tried it would ruin the look.  I will add a picture of him looking at you so you can see his leather pouch and such.  But I really really like how this guy turned out and is probably my favorite model I have painted.

My goal with all the Aspect Warriors I paint is to keep my scheme (green and grey) but also have a piece of their colors in there.  My Warp Spiders have Red and Black head and with the Hawks I wanted to keep the same thing.  Head and wings have the look (albeit not the same exact color but close) as the traditional Swooping Hawks.  I thought he turned out well and just looking at him you should be able to tell he is a Swooping Hawk.

Painting Block:

5 Swooping Hawks
5 Wraithguard
1 Warlock, counts as Spiritseer
10 new Secret Weapon bases

Quite a healthy stack but hope I can get some of this done!

Crusading Through the Fire

My Crusade of Fire Campaign continued on last night at Sheildbreakers Games in Aurora, CO.  I brought the same list as before, and the Walking Dead continued to dominate.  My first game was against Greg Vergoza and his Iron Hands with Inquisition allies.

He brought:

Chapter Master, Shield, Hammer, Bike
Libby, lvl 2, Bike
Command Squad w/ 4 Shields, 4 Grav, Apothecary

5 bikes, 2 Grav
5 Scouts, Bolters
5 Scouts Bolters
5 Scouts, Bolters, Storm w/ Heavy Flamer
5 Scouts, Bolters, Storm w/ Heavy Flamer

Storm Talon, Skyhammer
Storm Talon, Skyhammer

Thunderfire
Thunderfire

Coteaz
Inquisitor, lvl 1 Psyker, 3 Skulls

3 Henchmen, Razorback w/ Psybolt
3 Henchmen, Razorback w/ Psybolt

I was intimidated by the list because he had so many unit and lots of them were fast.  Plus Grav is scary for by big guys!  Unfortunately for Greg, we played the Planetstrike Mission with me being te attacker.  This meant all of my units had to DS in and those that already had DS could assault the turn they came in. 

I ended up getting quite a bit of my army in Turn 1 and decimated his entire Command Squad with my 10 Wraithguard and killed 1 Thunderfire with my D-Cannon Wraithseer.  He retaliated with an Orbital Bombardment that killed 7/10 Guard and a Spiritseer.  The rest of the game though would go downhill for Greg as I would kill the CM and Libby on the Turn 2 and kill units one at a time.  His Grav guns didn't do much and he couldn't harm my Lords or Knight. 

Second game was against Kris and his Dark Angels/ Grey Knights.  He brought:

Coteaz

10 Strikes, 2 Psycannons, Rhino
4 Henchmen

Stormraven

Dreadknight, Teleporter, Sword, Hvy Incinerator

Sammael
Libby, T. Armor, lvl 2

x10 Deathwing, 2 Cyclone Missiles
x5 Ravenwings Bikers, x2 flamers
x10 Tactical Marines, Missile Launcher, Flamer, Rhino


This game started off badly from the first turn.  I shot his Dreadknight with my Wraithknight and ID'd him.  Then I crawled forward.  He lunged all of his stuff forward and shot everything into my 10 man Wraithguard squad.  A few missile and such killed some, but wounding on 6's and getting a 4+ FnP (from the Wraithseer) meant I lost 3 guys total.  he then charged with Sammael.  We stalemated each killing zero.  Next turn I cast Jinx on him twice and Hallucinated his Deathwing.  Many Deathwing died to Powerfist attacks!  And I wiped the biked and Sammel with the help of the Wraithseer. 

My opponent would then complain that my army was unkillable because nothing in his army can hurt the Lords, Knight, or the Seer.  He tried saying that no army can kill this and I shouldn't play an army no one can kill.  When I tried to explain to him that all I had was 36 models and the majority of models aren't very good in CC, he insisted it didn't matter.  Oh well, sorry Kris for having an OP and unkillable army!

I believe this makes me the only undefeated player left that has played more than 1 or 2 games.  I have 8 territories with a Hive City and Manufactorum.  I will work on grabbing more Spaceports and having at least one space on each planet.


In a couple days I will post the new list I want to start trying out for tournaments.  I am not 100% sold on it as I missing some units I have played with for awhile and have gained confidence with.  But, as with anything tried and true, I am bored with it and want to give other units a try. 


Sunday, March 2, 2014

Crusade of Fire Update

So in my last post I mentioned I was going to be playing in a Crusade of Fire Campaign.  I posted my list in my previous post so you can get an idea of what I am running.  Not the most competitive, but can pack a serious punch against some armies while being very resilient.  Much more of a fun list and a list of models I can paint and take a break from painting and building for all of the tournaments out there.

For starters, there was 18 players who showed up to play!  WOW!  As we did flag placement, I was stuck placing last because on the 3D6 roll off, I got 4!  Yes 4 on 3D6.  So I was left with no territories that had anything on them.  However, Dave the organizer allowed me to challenge first and I challenged an Ork player who was in control of the 1 Hive City on all of the 4 planets.

His name was Barry and he brought this list:

Warboss, Bike, Claw
Old Zogwort

10 Mega Nobs w/ assorted equipment
10 Nob Bikers w/ assorted equipment
15 Gretchin

15 Tankbustas
5 Koptas w/ TL-Rokkits

Bastion w/ Icarus

At first I was worried because those Nob Bikers and Mega Nobs could just tear me up.  But I had first turn and allowed him to come to me.  He did and simply got obliterated.  Nob Bikers got a charge off on a 5 man Wraithguard squad and wiped them and then proceeded to be assaculted by another 5 man squad, 2 Wraithlords, and my Wraithknight and got wiped.  The 10 Wraithguard and 3 Seers shot and then assaulted and wiped the Nobs out.  My Swooping Hawks leveled the Tank Bustas as well and my Wraithseer kill the Koptas. 

I was fortunate because in the next game Barry brought 120+ Boyz and I don't know how I would have faired against that! 

Next game was against Amy and her Chaos Space Marines.  She is new to Chaos but definitely not new to 40k.  She brought:

Kharn
Lvl 3 Sorc w/ TA, Familiar

5 Termies, Reaper, x2 Combi melta

9 Zerks
10 Thousand Son, Rhino
10 Cultists
10 Cultists

3 Oblits
5 Havocs, x4 Autocannons
Landraider

So another army that wants to get close.  She came straight forward with the Raider and I killed in Turn 1 along with all of the Zerks and Kharn.  Her T-Sons would kill a couple Guard but then be bogged down with a Wraithlord for the game.  Her Termies and Sorc dropped and I dropped a D-Cannon on them kill 4/6 in the blast.  She called it early as the shop was going to close and there wasn't much hope to come back.  I gained a Manufactorum for beating her!

I am looking forward to the coming weeks and hope I can continue streaking (lol) and taking some more territories!