Well it is a start...

Hey guys, Huron here again, man has it been a while. I have to admit that taking it easy has some advantages (though once you see my list of what I have been up to, you will question if I have been taking it easy), no deadlines, no models I have to have painted, no worries about not having X hobby thing painted, etc.

I has allowed me to find the time to play more and different games, which has lead me to rediscover board games and non-collectible card games and things of that nature. With December coming to a close however, I think it is about time to get back on the horse, set some goals, come up with a plan, and get to work. For one, there is a new 40K tournament season starting just around the corner. I said last year that my Griffons were under powered in the current meta in my area by the end of last season so I was going to do a new army for this season.

Additionally, I have put back on the black in the last few weeks and stepped up at my local LGS Huzzah Hobbies as a Pressganger again. That means catching up on what I have missed over the last 2 years and probably painting up some new demo sets and a new 35-50pt army to use.

Bah, there is to much to write down in paragraph form, so in comes a good old list.

What I have been up/Going to be up to in early 2011.

1. Started Flames of War - Late War Russians
2. Started Uncharted Seas - Shroud Mages
3. Started Dystopian Wars - Japanese
4. Started playing/Purchased Dominion (Deck Building Card Game)
5. Started playing/Purchased Resident Evil's new Deck Building Card Game
6. Purchased Invasion from Outer Space Board Game (From Flying From Productions)
7. Started playing/Purchased Wings of War base game and 2 planes
8. Dabbling with getting back into Monpoc
9. Reactivated myself as a Pressganger for Privateer Press and started organizing a new League and Tournament for Warmachine/Hordes
   
10. Stopped playing Malifaux, we will see if I get back in, in Jan 2011.
11. I am in week 3 of a Warhammer Fantasy Escalation League that will be running through February
12. Played some Apoc recently, has me thinking about getting my Blood Angels finished so I have a new army to play with short term
13. In the conceptual and testing build phase for a Steam-Punk Ork 40k army I am thinking about build to use at the Nova Open next August. Was 100% sold on the idea until I figured out what it would cost to create 3 Ork Battlewagon Steam Trains, now rethinking possibly or doing some revising.
14. Scatter Brained and starting new projects or wanting to finish old projects or something else every other day it seems.

Well that is my list of what I have been up to. I have articles coming in the near future, probably after I get my work area cleared up and find my camera again. But never fear I shall return, looking for me in 2011 if not before.

BfS Day 2, Game 4

Hey guys, Huron here, back with another Battle report from BfS. Sorry I know I told some people that I would have this out on Monday but I have been having some computer trouble again recently. Sigh, if it is not one thing it is another.

So in this game I get to play against Dan (Nyhil) and his beautiful Vraks Traitor Guard army. Check out the couple of pics that I got of the army.


A really beautiful and inspiring army. I spent more then one of Dan's turns completely distracted staring at his army. Well without further ado, on to the battle report.



Wow that was a fun game. If you want to find out more about Dan's armies, you can check out his blog @ http://teninchtemplate.blogspot.com.

Well that is it for now. Next up, Day 3 and my new Nemesis returns. Then on to a rematch from my 2009 trip up to NY. See you guys next time.

BfS Day 2 - Game 3

Hey guys, Huron back again with another battle report from my games a the Battle For Salvation tournament held up in White Plains, NY this past weekend. This battle report covers game 3 for me on Saturday, and features my new nemesis, Neil from the 11th company. NN (nemesis Neil) and I played twice over the course the weekend, once on Saturday and once on Sunday. NN was running a very tough Ghazghkull Ork force comprising several squads of Boyz, Mega Armored Nobz, Lootaz, Ghazghkull and a KFF Big Mech, and no less then 4 Battle Wagons. Ouch!

In this game I continued with my tactic of setting up a fire base and putting down a punishing amount of fire power while out flanking with just 2 minimum squads of marines in rhinos. However I deviated a bit and put the Libby and Terminator squad in reserve ready to deep strike in and strike at any damaged battle wagons from the side. I chose 2 of the 4 battle wagons, the 2 mega nob squads, and Ghazghkull as my KPs. He choose the speeders, Razorbacks, and my terminators as his.

The game was hard fought and came down to 2 turns of Ghazghkull, the Big Mech, and a the 3 surviving Mega Nobs in the squad with them running from Khan as Khan and his squad butchered its way through Ork boyz to go after Ghazzy. Finally Khan and his squad caught up to Ghazzy, killed all but one of the Nobz (having slaughter the other squad 2 turns earlier), and doing 2 wounds to Ghazzy. Ghazzy responded by punching Khan 3 times to which Khan failed 2 of his invuls and died. A good close game with a dramatic finish, 5 KPs to 3.

Here is the Video:



Check back on Monday when I cover my game with Dan Oppedisano, the winner of the best painted army at the BfS and a really great guy. The fluff and detail he put into his army really shows. Check out his new blog, http://teninchtemplate.blogspot.com for more details about his army if you can't wait till Monday for all my coverage.

Thank you for reading.

BfS Day 2 - Games 1 and 2

Hey guys, Huron here. Today I have another battle report for you from my games 1 and 2 of the Battle For Salvation tournament held on the weekend of October 8-10, 2010. I had fun. My first opponent, John, played a Shrike Space Marine list with 2 Assault Squads, Normal Terminators, a Vindicator, and then a few Assault Squads... oh and a squad of sniper scouts. We played a close fought game till the last few rounds when some bad dice on his part rolls turned the game in my favor and I had a solid win, taking VPs, 3 of 4 table quarters, and all 5 KPs.

This ran me into Jeff, a BA player with a tank heavy Alpha Strike list. He won the right to go first and picked a quarter that except for a bit of difficult terrain, but me in a wide open deployment area (we were playing spearhead). Long story short, he zipped up and unloaded, killing, stunning, or shaking everything I had on the table pretty much, leaving me unable to strike back until the end of turn 2. At that point I didn't really have much left and my dice rolls were so bad that nothing was hitting anyways, it was a miracle he didn't destroy me complete and table me. At the end of the game I had a few Marines, Khan, and 2 rhino left hiding in a corner contesting an objective. I had a good game with Jeff and finally got to see what Alpha strike BA can do.

Here is the video:



Ouch, brutal second game. Well that left me squarely 1-1, which set me up for my best game of the day, vs Neil from the 11th company. More on that next time though.

Thank you for reading.

Battle for Salvation - Friday vs Jawaballs

Hey guys, Huron here. So today I start my coverage of my trip to the 2010 Battle For Salvation tournament held up in White Plains, NY this past weekend. I had a blast. The tournament was using a modified Nova Open Format that adds in Kill Points as a fourth possible win condition (though there were still only Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary mission each round). I ended up going 2-2 and made it to the bronze bracket on the Sunday where I promptly lost to Neil from the 11th company, again...

This first video is of my pre-tournament Celebrity Grudge Match game vs Jawaballs on Friday night. I had fun playing Jawaballs, but in the end he beat me pretty soundly. I reserved everything which was a mistake that I make sometime when using Khan, and was actually the reason I dropped him from my list for the Open so I would not have the option. Losing this game actually helped me quite a bit as it got my head in the right place and me commited to a tactic I would use for the rest of the weekend of minimizing my out flankers to 2 half tactical squads in Rhinos and creating a solid fire base with the rest of the army so that all the unit were better able to support each other and not be overwhelm individually.

More on my strategy in a future post, not on to the part you all want, the battle report. Make sure you watch to the end for some special bonus content with Fritz and Black Matt.



I hope you enjoyed the battle report and see you soon for coverage of my games 1 and 2 at the Battle For Salvation Tournament.

Prep Complete - Battle for Salvation

Hey boys and girls, Huron back again. Well this weekend is the Battle for Salvation tournament up in White Plains, NY that myself and a few of my locals will be attending. I will be on hand playing a challenge match vs Jawaballs on Friday also, so check back next week for lots of coverage.

Here is the list I will be taking.

2000pts Howling Griffons BfS Tournament Army

HQ
160pts Kar'sarro Khan
140pts Librarian w/ Terminator Armor, Storm Shield; Might of Ancients, Nullzone

TROOPS
195pts (10) Tactical Marines w/ Power Fist, Flamer, Missile Launcher
035pts Dedicated Transport: Rhino

200pts (10) Tactical Marines w/ Powerfist, Meltagun, Multimelta
035pts Dedicated Transport: Rhino

105pts (5) Tactical Marines w/ Power Weapon
075pts Dedicated Transport: Razorback w/ Twin-Lascannon

115pts (5) Tactical Marines w/ Power Fist
075pts Dedicated Transport: Razorback w/ Twin-Lascannon

ELITES
200pts (5) Assault Terminators w/ Thunder Hammers and Storm Shields
275pts Dedicated Transport: Landraider w/ Multimelta, Extra Armor

105pts Dreadnought w/ Multimelta, Dreadnought CCW w/ Storm Bolter

105pts Dreadnought w/ Multimelta, Dreadnought CCW w/ Storm Bolter

FAST ATTACK
090pts Landspeeder w/ Heavy Flamer, Cyclone Missile Launcher

090pts Landspeeder w/ Heavy Flamer, Cyclone Missile Launcher


The army totals out at exactly 2k which is nice. This is going to be the last 40K tournament for this army this year. I am going to be retiring them after BfS and starting to work on something new for next year. I have been working on this army for just over a year now and I am happy with what it has achieve. As for my next army, I am not sure what I will pick just yet. Whether that will be my already 50% done BA Army, Orks, Exodites, or something else, who knows. But more as I make the decision.

See you guys on Sunday for the 101010 Killzone madness.

Nova Open Round 1

Hey guys, sorry it has taken so long, but here is round 1 of my Nova Open coverage. I have been having some technical difficulties again, but I hope they are pasted.



Thanks for watching.

See you next time.

Malifaux, Eater of Souls... and free time.

Malifaux has been around for a while, I have even mentioned it before. However I have never discussed just how hard it has grabbed and sucked me away from playing other games. Until recently, Warhammer 40,000 was my game of choices. I played 40k several times a week and paint 40k minis and dreamed about new 40K armies. While the dreaming is still there a bit, thanks to my over abundance of GW stuff everywhere in my apartment right now, since Huzzah Hobbies opened back on August 14th (Same day as the Nova Open) Malifaux has been taking up every scrap of my free time.

From assembling and painting models, to thinking about terrain I want to build to actually kicking in and starting to work on some Malifaux has pretty much sucked the life out of the rest of my hobbies. If you had talked to me back in July or early August I would have told you that I'd planned to have my new Lizardman army painted and be hip deep in Warhammer Fantasy right now. I'd be facing all the denizens of the Old World learning to use by cold blooded army. Not so. While I have played some fantasy a few weeks ago, I have gotten n0 painting done on them and have no plans to pick them back up anytime soon.

In contrast, the fall 40K Tournamant scene is ramping up with 4 Tournaments in October - November that I have my eye on. The first is the Battle for Salvation GT in White Plains, NY. I already have my ticket for this bad boy and will be scheduling hotel accommodations when I get paid at the end of this week. I will need an 1850pt army painted and to be ready to go for another Nova Open style tournament in about a month from now. My Griffons while ready really aren't up to snuff in that format and all my other possible armies to chose from all need a lot of work and testing. What does that mean, I will probably take some form of Griffons army, but will probably have to do a good amount of overhauling and painting of new units before the event. But with Malifaux eating up my time, I am going to have to find some balance to get some work done on them.

The other three tournaments are the 40K tournament at the Warstore Weekend which I have agree to go to with some friends of mine (but I have not purchased tickets or made hotel arrangements for), Mechanicon, and the Da Boyz GT up in Rochester, NY. All three of these events will be lots of fun and I hope to make the majority of them, but it is going to take a lot of work to get everything together for them.

And we come back to Malifaux. I have one crew just about done. They are my Outcasts which consist of 10 models right now. Painted I have The Victorias, my duel masters and leaders of my crew and a totem for them, the student of conflict; Taelor, Lady Hammerstrike one of my Melee monsters; and Johan, the Renegade Steamfitter, he is fun to play as he is a jack of all trades. In process I have Bishop, a brawler which is my tank, though he is expensive; 3 Ronin, good jack of all trades models that give the crew some flexibility and the ability to bring back Victorias when they die; and the Convict Gunslinger, a hard hitting bad ass which is a good choice for any crew that could use an extra gun. In the the long run I'd like to add a few more models to this crew, but that is it for the time being.

This weekend I broke out my Resurrectionists and got a few games in with Nicodem, the master of resurrecting the undead. Nicodem is a beast when he has the card, bring all sorts of undead monsters into play using the corpse counters his crew find or create for him (from the bodies of their foes). So far in the 2 games I have played with him, Nicodem has either been card starved and unable to get that many undead out , or card saturated and bring out whatever I want whenever I want.

Waiting in the wings is McMourning, my other Resurrectionist Master which I am assembling now and soon Colette and her Arcanist Showgirls.

So much to do, some many games to play, models to paint, and trips to tournaments to take this fall. I guess it could be worse, I could have no one to play with and nothing to do but go to work each day. But man a guy can get overwhelmed. Thankfully I am not there... yet.

See you next time.

The Plan

Hey guys, Huron rolling in for another post. Sorry, no video battle reports yet, I know I promised Tuesday but my evenings have been full of recovering from the Nova Open, Malifaux, and Warhammer Fantasy so I have not had time to get the editing I need to do done. That said check back tomorrow as I plan to get some serious editing done this evening.

So I have a plan. Is it a good plan? Is it a plan I will stick to? I am not sure of either but it is a plan none the less.

1. Finish painting Malifaux Outcasts and 2k of BAs I was working on last week. Build some terrain for Malifaux.
   
2. Really 1b, try out the marine list Stelek devised for me in 5-10 games to see how viable they are and how well I can adopt/figure out the suggested tactics. I need to build a Captain on Bike for the army as well.
3. Finish painting the 2.5k of Lizardmen I have floating around. Also begin building and prepping the models that I need to paint for final 2k Griffons list based on list Stelek proposed that I have now tested.
4. Paint up Griffons while playing some test games with Blood Angels.
   
5. Start working on Malifaux Resurrections/ Other Projects
   
6. Profit!

So that is my plan, well maybe not the profit part, but man I sure wish I could figure out how to add that one in for real.

Let me know what you think of my plan, and what the odds are I can stick to it. If the odds are interesting enough I might just put something down on them.

Nova Open is over.

Hey guys, Huron here again. How is everyone. Well the Nova Open has come and gone, and it has left yours truly with some big dilemmas to figure out. For starters I spent a bunch of money upgrading my computer to better handle the requirements demanded of it to broadcast the Open live on Friday and Sunday. This improvements did not to help at all and we had to use Bill's machine for most of the heavy lifting.

Secondly I played in the tournament on Saturday and in a pickup game on Sunday vs Pat's (from the 11th company podcast) Chaos Daemon army. Man did I get spanked. I only won 1 game all weekend, and just barely at that. Never fear, though as I have video to edit into video battle reports to be posted. Expect the first batch to show up here tomorrow.

So with that said, I am left with a dilemma, as I said before. What should I do with the Griffons? They are my best painted army (waiting to see what kind of paint score I got) and probably the only one that will be of that quality when I move onto playing prep games for the Battle for Salvation Open coming in October which, I will be attending. I have my new BA army, which is in the mid level painting stages right now, still a long way to go with lots of play testing to do (still have not played a game with this army yet) before I come up with a final version of a list I could use. Alternatively I could reach into the depths of my gaming closet and pull out one of many projects hiding in there.

I have an idea... and the models for a hard hitting mech hybrid Chaos Marine army that combines aspects of how Mech Guard is played and the current Dread/Monsterous Creature method that is doing well right now. Alternately I could pull the Orks from the depths and give them a go again. Lots to paint in that army but I think it could be fun to play them. The Eldar Exodite (Jetbike Army) is still a work in progress idea so that is out. As is the Renegade IG as I am pretty poor right now and I would need to rebuy/rebuild up the the armored component of the army. Tau would be do able, but I am worried about the competitiveness of the army and the amount of time the learning curve would take to master.

So what does that leave me. BAs, Chaos Marines, Orks, and doing some sort of retool of the Griffons to make them more effective. Maybe revamp them a bit into a Space Wolf list. I really have to agree with Dash of Pepper's comment on Dakka Dakka in the Nova Open thread where he said Space Wolves are not necessarily the best army out there, but a decent player will have just as good a chance of doing well with them as a great player with another army. Since I am only I feel a decent player, maybe I should bight the bullet and revamp the Griffons into a Space Wolves army. I have the models sitting around I would need, or at least most of them and it would allow me to flex some of my conversion muscles that I haven't used in a while when making some Thunder Wolf Cav for the army (Already have a conversion in mind, more on it later if I decide to go this way).

What do you guys think? Get the BA's done and start playing them and hope I have time to tweak the list by October? Tweak the Griffons and go Space Wolf? Should I dust off Orks and give them another try? Or should I build the Chaos Marine army I have been thinking about and planning out recently?

What do you think I should do?

Nova Open!

Hey guys Huron here, well this weekend is the Nova Open. My Howling Griffons and I will be there all weekend experiencing this tournament. Also, the Games Lounge will be broadcasting live Friday and Sunday on U-Stream so that all you unlucky people who don't live in the area or can't make it out can participate in the fun. Please keep reading for all the details.

Friday, August 13 at 8:00pm the NOVA Open live broadcast will open up to the internet and we hope to see you in the chat room! Preparations have been underway and we at the Gamers Lounge are excited to be hosting this broadcast from the Friday night gaming activities. We will be interviewing the players in the Whiskey Challenge, getting their insights, and tracking how their games go. Who are these players and what is the Whiskey Challenge you ask?

Andrew Sutton (Stelek, Yes the Truth Hurts) vs. Justin Hilderbrandt (Dash of Pepper, Dakka poster)
John Steele (St. John, Three Plus Save blog; YTTH co-author on occasion) vs. Jeremy Chamblee (Chumbalaya, Blackjack and Hookers blog)
Tim Williamson (The Tau of War blog) vs. Chris Dubuque (Jawaballs, The Blood Angels and Warhammer 40K by Jawaballs Blog)
Daniel Matulich (Danny Internets, Bald and Screaming blog) vs. Brad Townsend (Hulksmash, Dakka poster, Hulksmashstudios)

Then on Sunday, August 15 we will be broadcasting footage of the top table for the NOVA Open finals, the games that are determining who gets the "Vegas Golden Ticket"!

For those who can not participate in person this year, join us in the chatroom and take part in these parts of the events.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nova-open-live

Well that is it for now. Check back next week for full coverage of the event including pictures and video and my tails and triumph and woe. Oh, and if you are going to be at the Open please come say hello and introduce yourselves. On Friday and Sunday I will be at the Holiday wearing a Gamers Lounge Shirt and on Saturday I will be wearing an Adepticon Shirt and a Black Privateer Press Ganger over shirt ( ;) ). Oh and I will very likely be the tallest guy in the room.

See you guys later.

Howling Griffons part 2

Hey guys, Huron back again. Today I have the second part of a look at my painted Howling Griffons army. To the left you will see a pic of my Landraider, the Big Yellow Bus of Doom, or at least that is what my opponents have named it. This baby delivers blasts of twin-linked Heavy Bolter and Lascannon fire and searing blasts of Multi-Melta fire.

Besides that it also delivers a deadly payload of Assault Terminators and my Librarian. Please enjoy the pics below and let me know what you think.

Landraider Interior


Squad 3

Terminators

Bonus Material - WIP Sternguard

Let me know what you think.

See you next time, Malifaux is a-comin'...

Dipping into the video archive

Hey guys Huron back again with another trip into the Archive. This time I am going way back... way back... way back... okay not that far back... to Adepticon 2010.

Skrivus, of DLT fame and I through down in a podcast challenge game which unit now has been lost to antiquity. I am happy to dust this game off and share it with all of you for the first time.

Skrivus, is playing his beautifully painted Ultramarines vs my defenders of justice, the Howling Griffons. I always suspected that the Ultramarine were heretics at heart, this game proves it I think.

So sit back and enjoy this battle report from the Archive.

Another loss for the defenders of Justice. But I will have my revenge... oh shall I.

See you guys next time.

Return of the Video Battle Report

Hey guys, Huron here, how is it going? Well I have a special treat for you today, the return of my Video Battle Reports. It is all thanks to the program pictured on the left, Pinnacle Studio 14 HD.

You may remember that I got a new computer back in May after both of my old machines did in Feb. Well my new machine is 64 bit and runs window 7 and I have been unable to find a free video editing program that would both work on the 64 bit machine and work with the Mpeg 4 videos my camera records. So this weekend I broke down an purchased Pinnacle Studio 14 HD.

I have to admit that I am still learning the ins and outs of the new software, so this video is a bit rough. I promise the quality will improve as time goes on.

So the video I have for you today features Mike Johnson, one of my regular opponents from my previous video series. Mike and I are throwing down in a knock'em, sock'em, 2500pt game for the top spot of the challenge pyramid and if Mike wins, Mike's 4th defense and his becoming the first Pyramid champion. Mike and I fought this game back in May and luckily I still had the footage to share with you. Enjoy.



Well that is it for today, I hope you enjoyed the battle report. I am going to try to dig up some other old footage I have kicking around from battles past (Maybe even some Adepticon footage if I can find the source). See you guys again soon.

A Look at the Griffons

Well I guess the word is out, while I am not 100% finished with my whole Howling Griffons collection. My 2,000pt army is finished. Here is a sneak peak.

The army has actually been finish for a while. Here is the first batch of close ups.

Squad 1 & Transport

Squad 1's Transport

Interior Detail, all the Rhinos are painted with similar detail.

Squad 4 with Razorback, Khan usually rides with them.

Squad 4's Ride

Librarian with Terminator Armor and Storm Shield. The model next to him is a wound counter.

Well that is it for this time around. I will share the rest of the army as the week progresses.

Gamers Lounge Episode 4 & the BA Bug

Hey guys, Huron here, back in action. Well after a special Gamers Lounge Adepticon interview episode which was released last week, Gamers Lounge has returned this week with Episode 4. In this episode Mike Brandt, the host of the Nova Open, Virginia's only GT Qualifier tournament happening in August joins us to talk about his experiences at Adepticon and to share with us some of his exciting plans for the Nova Open. You guys definitely want to check out this episode.

In other news, I have caught the BA bug. That's right, I have done what I said I wouldn't do and started a Blood Angels army. Currently it is pretty small though I am sure it will expand quickly. I will be returning to my painting roots for this one and will be painting the whole army using mostly P3 instead of the GW paints I have been using on the Griffons. I will still probably end up using the GW Metallics and Washes but the rest of the minis will be painting using only P3. I hope to rediscover my style and get back to my two brush blending roots with this army. We will see how it goes.

However fear not, the Howling Griffons will not be forgotten. They are currently my primary 40K army and will stay that way for the immediate future. I also have plans for adding a few things to the army before I call it complete. So as soon as I get a computer back up and running expect some photos and videos about the Griffons to pop up. I want to expand the army by completing a few Apoc formation starting with a Line Breaker Squadron.

See you guys next time.

Using the Old to Inspire the New

Hey guys, Huron here again. Sorry about yesterday. Things got a bit nasty and I didn't mean for it to get so out of hand. So as you all know (or if this is the first time reading my blog in a while or ever) I have been beating my head against a wall trying to figure out what to do when the new Blood Angels book comes out. I have talked about playing Jump Pack heavy, playing Death Company heavy, and have resisted the urge and criticized the fluffiness of going Predator heavy.

After all of this what do I know? I want to play a decent, mid level list with a good strong theme and which has some flexibility to include a variety of the things I really like from the new codex, and not necessarily all at once.

These include things like the new Sanguinary Priest elite characters, the new Death Company and Death Company Dreadnought, the Librarian Dreadnought, and the Sanguinary Guard. I also think a 5 man Assault squad in a razorback is about one of the coolest choices around.

What I don't want to do is play a lopsided gimmick list that has a variety of cool elements but only 25 models and no real interlacing theme, which is all to possible. Step in the Howling Griffons.

For the last 5 months now I have dedicated myself to finding a regular space marine army that works, is tactically flexible, and which is effective against a variety of armies. Khan and the boys have done well by me and it is only the changing environment and a sudden realization that if I played something other then Eldar, Tyranids, Imperial Guard, or a Space Marine chapter of some kind, that my list would not hold up like I wanted it too and so I grudgingly changed up the list. However perhaps I can take that Khan list (which you can find here) and tweak it for Blood Angels. Maybe it might work better and solve all these problems I have been bashing my head over.

First I needed to find a leader to replace Khan, one with some interesting nitch special rules and that both aided the army and helps to enrich the theme. All the Blood Angels special character are pretty expensive, but the regular non-special ones are just a bit too generic.

Sanguinor, Mephiston, and DC Tycho are right out. They are not independent characters and can not join and support my squads like I want my leader to be able to do. Dante and Astoroth are both cool, but over 200pts each and Dante's fluff has him leading a jump pack army and Astoroth a DC one and my army is probably not going to specialize in either of those so they are out too. That leaves just two characters, non-DC Tycho and Seth, Chapter Master of the Flesh Tearers. I decided pretty early on I didn't want to do a Flesh Tearers list, so that just left Tycho.

Tycho is a pretty cool character, but he has suffered in previous books from being very under powered. Not anymore. Now he has Rites of Battle, a masterly crafted Combi-Meltagun which can shoot different ammo types like the Sternguard, and a gauntlet that hits like a Monstrous Creature (at str 4), rolls 2D6 for Armor Penetration, and has digital lasers... oh and he has preferred enemy vs Orks. Cool. Lots of not that unbalanced special rules, some cool fluff, and a Leader for my army.

1850pts Blood Angels 3rd Company Army

HQ - Tycho
EL - Librarian Dreadnought
EL - (5) Assault Terminators w/ 4 Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield, 1 Tw-Lightning Claw
EL - Dedicated Transport: Landraider w/ Extra Armor, Multimelta
El - Sanguinary Priest w/ Terminator Armor, Power Weapon
TR - 10 Tactical Marines w/ Power Weapon, Flamer, Lascannon + Rhino
TR - 10 Tactical Marines w/ Power Weapon, Flamer, Lascannon + Rhino
TR - 5 Assault Marines w/ Power Fist & Inferno Pistol, Meltagun + Razorback w/ H-flamer
TR - 5 Assault Marines w/ Power Fist & Inferno Pistol, Meltagun + Razorback w/ H-flamer
FA - Landspeeder Typhoon w/ Cyclone Missile Launcher, H-flamer

Now you'll notice, no DC or DC Dread, both things I wanted to include. Well one thing I realized way back and I needed to remind myself of in this list is that marines play best when you take a static core of basic Marines, character, and support (in this case 2 Tactical, 2 Assault Squads, Tycho, the Librarian Dreadnought, and the Typhoon) and then one or two big things and switch them in and out. That means I can take out the Sanguinary Priest, Terminators, and Landraider and replace them with a Chaplain, 9 Death Company in a Rhino, and a Death Company Dreadnought in a Drop Pod (for around the same cost) and still have a good solid army that will play well. This chunk, about 580pts worth of the army, gives me some breathing room and flexible variety when playing with the army.

This, if nothing else gives me a starting point so I can tweak things from here.

Rethinking the Howling Griffons

Hey guys, Huron here again. Well with my computers down and no way for me to post tidbits and battle reports from the St. Valentines Day Massacre and any of the other stuff I have been doing, I thought I would discuss something that has been weighing heavily on me lately.

Here is the current list I have been running for my Howling Griffons at 1850pts.

Kar'sarro Khan
Librarian w/ Terminator Armor, Storm Shield
(10) Tactical Squad w/ Pfist, Flamer, Missile Launcher
(10) Tactical Squad w/ Pweapon, Flamer, Missile Launcher
(10) Tactical Squad w/ Pfist, Melta, Multimelta
(5) Tactical Squad w/ Pfist & Combi-Melta
(3) Rhinos w/ Extra Armor & Razorback Extra Armor for above squads
(5) Assault Terminators with Thunder Hammer/ Storm Shields
Landraider Transport (for Termies) w/ Multimelta
(2) Landspeeder Typhoons w/ Missile Launchers and Heavy flamers (squadron)

While this list works great vs Tyranids and Eldar (without Eldrad), I have been having some trouble with it vs Orks, other marine armies, and pretty much everything else. So while this list is all nice and tweaked, I think I have gone to far and it no longer has the punch it needs. So far I have come up with a few alternate lists, with this one being the best so far in my opinion.

Librarian w/ Terminator Armor, Stormshield
(10) Tactical w/ Pfist, Flamer, Lascannon
(10) Tactical w/ Pfist, Flamer, Lascannon
(2) Razorbacks (for above squads) with Twin-Lascannon
(5) Scouts w/ Powerfist + Landspeeder Storm w/ Heavy Flamer
(5) Scouts w/ Powerfist + Landspeeder Storm w/ Heavy Flamer
Landspeeder Typhoon w/ Missiles and Heavy Flamer
(5) Assault Terminators w/ Thunder Hammer & Stormshields
Landraider Transport (for Termies) w/ Multimelta
(2) Vindicators w/ Extra Armor, Storm Bolters

That is 1850pts on the nose. The main thing I did was cut down my HQ choices to 1 (saving myself 160pts) and switched out 2 tactical squads with transports with cheaper scouts squads in storms. Then I dropped one Typhoon, upgraded the 2 remaining Tactical Squads and added in the punch of 2 Vindicators. While I am not sure how this list will play, I do think it is worth breaking out the models and trying it out. I have everything I need except for 1 Landspeeder Storm.

Please comment and let me know your thoughts. I am really struggling with making the above changes and just not sure if I am right or wrong about some of the choices I have made. I'd love to know what your thoughts.

Tournament Report

Hey guys, your friendly neighborhood Spiderma... Huron here. Today I have what I promised to post yesterday (Sorry, had some trouble with youtube), the full tournament report for the 2,000pt Inner Circle High Stakes Tournament and Pancake Jamboree that was held in Glen Burnie, MD on 2/21. I know the tournament has a weird sounding name but it was a lot of fun and had a very interesting format I look forward to taking part in again. Besides the prizes at the end of the event, per the usual, each game had a $10 Gift Certificate riding on it. Win Get $10, tie split the money, lose and you are out of luck. The important thing here is that it gives you something to fight for even if you have already lost your first two games and have no shot at a prize. Pretty cool if you ask me.

That said, I was disappointed that this event followed the trend surfacing now and did not include Sportsmanship or Comp scores in anyway. Also their was a prize for painting, but it was completely separate and did not effect the overall winner in anyway. I think tournaments that are run in this style really hurt the hobby, as it promotes just beating face and not competitive, fun game play with nicely built and painted armies. The army that won the whole thing had a good decent paint job at least.

Okay so here are Games 1 - 3 with the tournament results included at the end of Game 3.

Game 1


Game 2


Game 3 & Results


While as I mentions I didn't like the fact that sports and comp got dropped, and painting didn't matter for overall, I will say I had a good time and will be playing in some of the future Inner Circle events. They have a GT Qualifier coming up in July which I will be participating in most likely, as it is nice and local to me.

Since I am talking about GT Qualifiers I should mention that this weekend sees me heading to my first GT Qualifier event, the St. Valentines Day Massacre Tournament up in Media, PA. This is one of the Big 2 events I have been tweaking my Howling Griffons for and I am excited. Everything comes down to whether or not I can get the army finished in time or not. I am almost their, but it is going to be a long night tonight most likely.

Wish me luck, I will post more info on the army and hopefully some finished photos of it tomorrow.

Until next time.

I need a good Exterminator...

Hey guys, Huron here, as promised I have a new battle report for you featuring the new Tyranids played by a new opponent, David Johnson. David it the younger brother of my regular opponent and chaos nemesis Mike. This army features no less then 5 of the new big bugs, 3 Trygon Primes and 2 Tervigons, plus and upgraded Hive tyrant and 2 units of 2 of the new you can't hide from me tryant guard. Enjoy!



Wow that was a close game and I learned a new tactic with Khan. Hit and Running out of combat allowed me to contest the objective on his side, I will have to remember that one.

Until next time.