Sigh... Another Games Day comes and goes.

Well another Games Day has come and gone and I wanted to share with you, as many of my fellow East Coast Bloggers are doing my thoughts and experiences. First off let me say thank you to Bill over at the deadtau project (http://deadtau.blogspot.com/). Besides being one of my local club members Bill was nice enough to walk around Games Day and take pictures of all the stuff I missed while working at the Iron Fist Leagues Rapid Fire Tables for pretty much the whole day. You guys should go check out Bill's site when you get a chance as I think it has the best GD coverage I have seen so far this year with lots of pics of the little bit of stuff that was there to be seen. Also Bill as it turns out had time to take a pic of my Armies on Parade empty spot GW left for me even though I specificly notifed and got a response 2 days earlier that I would not be able to participate this year (as seen above).

Rapid Fire on the other hand was a big success for us with 200 or so games played over the course of the day for both 40K and Fantasy with a total of around 150 players participating in at least one game. It was a fun day of running games, giving people a place to play as GW did not have open gaming tables this year, and generally supporting other gamers fun (I really do enjoy running games but it can be easy to burn out while doing so). For those attending next year you can expect an even bigger and better event.

As to the lines, lack of new product or previews, the Golden Daemon entries and awards, and coverage of armies on parade, I will let the large amount of other Blogs touch on that as while I knew it was going on I experienced very little of it myself.

Until next time.

Joining the objective bandwagon.

Hey guys. Several other members of the FTW have been posting and talking about objective markers recently. Personally, over the years I have used many different things as objectives. Coins, candy, poker chips, you name it I am sure I have played at least one game using "x" as and objective.

Then when the Apocalypse expansion came out for our beloved 40K I decided I need something more for a game I was running for my local group, the Iron Fist League. So I put together 6 objectives from stuff I had in my bitz box mounted on the old flat titan/sentinel bases. You can see pics of them to the right and left. They were pretty simple, just piles of ammo, leaking fuel cans, or big blockly generator looking things. Very simple but they got the job done.

Then Rapid fire came around and I decide I need something nicer, on smaller bases (do to limited room), that would also add something to the display base. I have talked recently about how I like themes when building both individual units and armies on a whole. Now I am not sure exact where I got the idea, perhaps Games Workshops fantastic marine and ork resin rubble barriers but I decide to create 5 objectives markers that could be combined to form a barricade on my display base. Here is the result.

One of the big challenges was creating 5 individual objectives that where interesting from every angle while still allowing them to come together to form the barrier. For the most part I think I achieved this. Below you will find close up detailed pics of each piece with a front (left side) and back (right side) view.





Eventually, I plan to go back and put a bit more work into these objectives as I really put them together and painted them last minute the morning of the Rapid Fire tournament. I need to go back and work on the metals, adding in the rust and giving them a bit more depth. Also a few of the colors need a bit more highlighting I think and there are a couple of boring bare spots that could use some bitz to spruce them up. Let me know what you think and remember that your projects will always end up better if you think about theme and emotion during assemble and painting. What are you trying to say with the look and feel of the pose and paint job, but more on that later.

Rapid Fire 40K Tournament (Part 2)

Okay, time for part 2 of my Rapid Fire 40K Tournament coverage that happened at Game Vault in Fredricksburg, VA last Saturday. After Game 4 we broke for lunch. I was feeling pretty good, I had 3 wins and 1 loss. I was smarting from my loss and wanted to get back into the win column. That unfortunately was not to be.

Battle Reports (continued)

Game 5 vs Mike's Chaos
Mike had a pretty nasty army comprised of 2 squads of Plague Marines each in a rhino. Also the table we were on was kind of rough, lots of high rocky hills with deep valleys and a rock bridge across some dangerous terrain. I deployed the Noise Marines on the bridge, my 10 man squad on some rocks, with my rhino squad behind them. The mission was kill points again.

Turn 1, I moved the Noise Marines up and to the right. The Rhino squad moved to the left and the 10 marine squad dug in and opened up on one of the Plague Marine rhinos. However it was deep in cover and made its cover save. Mike charged his army forward hoping to close quickly and get inside the reach of my guns. Turn 2 was much the same, I shot at him while trying to move to his flanks and he moved forward. Then he got out and started blasting. I took some injuries but actually made most of my armor saves.

Then I fought back, firing the full squad of Noise Marines with a hit from the Blast Masters template, and the point blank shooting of what was left of the 10 man squad into his front squad, doing a good amount of damage. He charged with both squads into the remains of the 10 man squad. At the same time he with drew his rhinos. My next turn, I moved my Rhino squad to their flank, hopped out and vaporized a rhino with a metal gun. At the same time the plague marines killed off the end of my 10 man squad and both squads rolled high for their consolidation roll.

Not sure I would be able to kill the plague marines with just 5 marines, I headed out after the second rhino, getting into mine. That was my mistake. Mike managed to charge out after me with the plague marines and catch my mounted squad. He assault and destroyed it rolling a 5 on the damage table. However in the process he had managed to surround the rhino and the squad was destroyed too as they dismounted the wretched vehicle. Sigh. 3 wins and 2 losses.

Game 6 vs Seth's Orks
Seth had a massive ork horde that took me by surprise. He had two large squads ork boys with shootas, one lead by warp head. He also had a Deth Kopta and some other stuff (sorry I do not remember what else was in his list, it did not really have alot of effect on the game). This was the army mine was designed to fight. I had purposely pulled alot of the special equipment out of the orginal version of my list so that I could better concentrate on massed fire. I deployed my army as one big gun line. Firing round after round into his boyz. However the board put the game in his favor, providing him cover saves all the way in so that I only killed a small precentage of his boyz before he reached me. Also early on he got my Rhino with the rokket on his Deth Kopta. With no where to manuever and an inability to kill enough boyz the game was over as I was wiped from the board. 3 wins and 3 losses.

Game 7 vs Frank's Space Marines
Frank's army consisted of two 10 man squads of marines each with an Assault Cannon Razorback and containing a Plasma Cannon. The mission was Capture and Control with the setup of Spearhead again. Frank chose to combat squad is marines giving him two 5 man squads in the Razorbacks and two 5 man squads with the plasma cannons firing at me. I did not have enough AP stuff to take out the Razorbacks that were leading out ahead of his force while the Plasma Cannons stayed back and shot. I got shot up pretty good and needless to say lost the game. 3 wins and 4 losses.

Game 8 vs Ben's Space Wolves
Ben's list was let me see, strong. His army was a squad of Bikers, each with wargear and equipment making them nearly impossible to kill. In addition he had a squad of Grey Hunters to hold objectives. The terrain allowed him to setup in cover, out so sight fo my guns. Turn one he turbo boosted towards me staying mostly in cover. I shot him with a Krak missile and thanks to a piece of wargear the biker managed to live. Sigh. I then charged him with the Noise Marines, dumb dumb dumb. His bikers wiped them out with no effort at all. Turn two saw them assaulting the 10 man squad and they were wiped out too. Top of turn 3 it was all over. Wow that was a beating. 3 wins and 5 losses.



Game 9 vs Russell's Orks
Russell's list consisted of 2 big squads of boyz, 2 tracks with Rokkets, 2 Killa Kans, and a squad of lootas. I thought I had a good shot. The mission was kill points again and I deployed much like I had against Seth, in a gun line. Russell came charging at me with his boys supported by the tracks and kans while the lootas sat back and shot. This time however there was a lot less terrain and I managed to get in some good shooting. In the last rounds of the game I had wiped out both big squads of boyz, killed one of the tracks, and destroyed one of the two kans. He had wiped out the 5 man squad, damaged the rhino, and wittled down my other two squads. I was in a good possition sitting on 2 Kill Points to his 1. Then my luck returned, or rather lack there of. He opened fire killing of my last few marines with the lootas, Killed the last Noise Marine with a rokket from the Kan, and got the Rhino with another rokket from the remaining track. He wiped me out. Ouch. 3 wins and 6 losses... Sigh.



Wrap Up.

Well I had fun though I dropped my last 6 games. There were several list at the tournament that really out shown everyone elses. Ben, my opponent from Round 8 ended up winning the whole thing by winning 10 of his 15 games played. In additioned he tied 2 of the remaining 5. Casey and his nasty one unit army, 18 plague marines took longest winning streak with 8 in a row (actually he went lossless for 10 games but had 2 draws in the middle). As I mentioned in Part 1 Bill took best painted with his Tzeentch Daemons (nice job Bill), and to round it all out Don Mondo took best conversion with his Lizardmen IG army.

Other list to watch out for were Perry's Eldar which I played in round 4 and Jeff P's version of it that got him into 4th place overall that used a mix of the shooting of the warwalkers with some faster elements to help take objectives and out flank better. Kevin Farrell also had a nasty list using two big squads of Genestealers and a lictor which he used to win himself 8 games over the course of the day and secure himself a strong position as second place overall with 14 games, just one less then Ben. Me, I placed a disappointing 18th out of 24. Sigh. Next time I will have to take a stronger list.

A chance for you to get in on the action!

For everyone who enjoyed reading this summary that missed out on the action you are in luck. The Iron Fist League will be running another Rapid Fire Tournament at Games Day Baltimore. I will be posting more info as the event gets closer but you too will have a chance to battle it out on the fields of battle. Just do not forget to bring your forces with you to Games Day and I will see you there. If you are there come by and say hello, I will he helping out at the Rapid Fire tables all day.

Until next time.

Rapid Fire 40K Tournament (Part 1)

The Rapid Fire 40K Tournament that I have been mentioning over the last several post was this past Saturday. It happened at Game Vault in Fredricksburg, Virginia. I thought it was a fun tournament with an interesting format. A Rapid Fire Tournament is played using 500pt armies built using a short list of restrictions. Additionally, instead of their being rounds you just keep playing games as quickly as you can for a set time limit and then prizes are award for Most Battle Points, Longest Winning streak, Best Painted Army, and Best Conversion. There were also two door prizes.

Restrictions:

• 1+ Troops Choice, 0-1 HQ, 0-1 Elite, 0-1 Fast Attack, 0-1 Heavy Support
• No 2+ saves and no models with more then 2 wounds
• No vehicles with combined armor value equaling more then 33 (Front+Side+Rear)

I played Chaos Space Marines and my entire army was comprised of Troops choices. Here is my list.

6 Noise Marines w/ 5 Sonic Blasters and a Blast Master........185pts

10 Chaos Space Marines
- w/ Missile Launcher, Plasmagun, Icon of Chaos Glory.......185pts

5 Chaos Space Marines w/ Meltagun, Icon of Chaos Glory......95pts
Rhino (attached to 5 Chaos Space Marine Squad) ....................35pts

Battle Reports

Game 1 vs Brian's Necrons
My first game was very challenging as I faced 2 units of Necron Warriors each backed by a Tomb Spyder. Luckily the mission was Capture and Control (3 objectives) using Spearhead for setup so I had a few turns to shoot at the spyders and warriors before they got up close. Turn 1 I managed to plunk a Spyder for 1 wound with a krak missile and knock over a few warriors. In answer his warriors opened up on my Noise Marines doing enough wounds to take advantage of my in ability to roll armor saves (something that plagued me all day) leaving me with just 1 Noise Marine with a sonic blaster at the end of round 1.

We traded wounds back a forth for a few turns after that though I failed to damage either of the Tomb Spyders anymore until turn 4 when some how, luckily, I managed to wound and kill both during the assault phase (Tomb Spyders are Toughness 6 so I need 6 to wound with my Strength 4 Marines, not an easy task). Turn 5 saw us rushing to the objectives. I had 1 squad of Marines on one objective fighting 4 Necron warriors and my Rhino on the other contesting against an almost full squad of warrior. We rolled to see if the game ended at the end of the turn and luckily we rolled high enough to get another turn. Some who I manage to finally kill off his 4 remaining necron warriors holding one of the objectives. Then he goes, choosing to shoot my 4 remaining marines on the other point as in the 3 previos turns of shooting at the rhino so far he has only managed to blow off the bolter. He fails to do any wounds and the game ends with me holding one objective, he and I contesting an objective, and the third with no one on it. 1 Win for Jay (barely).

Game 2 vs Hunter's Imperial Guard
I have to say, Hunter was a really great opponent and I happen to know even though he did not do very well during the course of the tournament, he still had a great attitude and enjoyed himself and if there had been a best sportsmanship award for the event he would have had my vote. Hunter was playing a fairly irregular IG list, using several small expensive specialist squads (2 Storm Trooper squads and a hardened Vet squad) supported by 3 sentinels and a Chimera. Our game was dominated by my superior long ranged fire power and me out manuevering him in several places. This game was also Capture and Control using Spearhead (again with 3 objectives) and I managed to wipe out most of his army through good manuevering and creating fire lanes on one half of the board while keep is Chimera occupied with the Noisemarines on the other side. In the end I had 2 objectives to his 1. 2 Wins for Jay.



Game 3 vs Bill's Tzeentch Daemons
Bill is a long time friend of mine from the Iron Fist League and he has always had interesting, competitive, well painted (when he has had time to paint them) armies. His Daemons were no exception, putting out shocking amounts of shooting and taking best painted at the tournament. This game went very quickly and ended up with me completely masacreing Bills army. What was my secret you ask? Well it was my first time playing against the 40k Daemon list and while discussing how his earlier games had gone Bill mentioned that his army was horrible in assault and people had been beating him by assaulting him. Sigh, normally I would not have jumped on this key bit of info but I already had 2 wins under my belt and wanted to keep up the streak and though I appologized for using the key piece of info against him I still feel a bit dirty though I would have figured it out fairly quick anyways (I hope). 3 Wins for Jay.



Game 4 vs Perry's Eldar
Perry had a good list. 3 Warwalkers each with a shurken cannon and a scatter laser, a good sized squad of guardians with a star cannon and a warlock with embolden, 5 rangers, and a small squad of Dire Avengers. This game ended up being my first Kill Points game of the day and through some poor deployment by me and the amazing amount of fire power his warwalkers put out my first loss of the day too. We were playing spearhead again, I put my squad of 10 marines on one flank (closest to the war walkers and star cannon toting guardian squad and the rhino and Noisemarine on the other closest to his rangers (his dire avengers were in reservers). At the end of the game he had wiped out my 10 man squad, my 5 man squad, and my Noisemarines, almost exclusively with the warwalkers, and I had killed the rangers and dire avengers. If I had thought about it more I would have stacked everything on one flank and concentrated on taking out the warwalkers early. Then used the rhino to screen me from the rangers and focused on killing the guardians. But instead I went after the rangers thinking there AP1 possible shots were the biggest threat and ignored the warwalkers till it was too late.


Well that is it for Part 1. I will post about the other 5 games I got in as soon as I get an oppertunity.

Until next time...

Update, 2 Days to Rapid Fire...

Well it has been a little while since I posted last. Mainly it is because I have had really spotty internet access for the last few weeks but tonight my Verizon DSL account kicked in so hopefully that will change. I have been hard at work, working on a variety of things mostly pertaining to Rapid Fire which is in two days. First off, I decided that getting a Blood Angels army that I actually wanted to use painted and done was a pipe dream, at least to level I wanted the army to end up.

From there I decided to take a list from the army I plan to occupy my summer painting schedule, Forgeworld Renegades. I have been collecting bits and pieces of the army for a while now, and after Baltimore Games Day I should finally have enough pieces to put together a solid 2,000pt army or so. To that end I painted two test models to get an idea of what I wanted the army to look like. They are the two models seen to the right. The picture is pretty close to the real colors (I need to build myself a light box), click on it to see a larger view. I can not decide which I like better, Tan or Green. What do you guys think? Maybe I will put up a poll.

I started working on the army as both schemes start out the same way, just differ in the final couple of stages. My Rapid Fire list had a 25 man platoon, an Armored Fist squad with a Chimera, and an Enforcer (Commissar). The tournament organizer decide to disallow the use of the Renegade List from Vraks 2 so I was going to use them as Imperial Guard.

However this week school was pretty busy so I did not have time to get everything done, so I had to switch to my third choice, my Red Corsairs. Here is a pic of the Army, click for a larger pic.

The list includes:

(6) Noise Marines w/ 5 Sonic Blasters, Blast Master
(5) Chaos Space Marines w/ Icon of Chaos Glory, Meltagun and a Rhino Transport
(10) Chaos Space Marines w/ Icon of Chaos Glory, Missile Launcher, Plasmagun

I have tried out a variant version of the list against some Dark Angels and it worked out pretty well. The big difference was that I did not have the Noise Marines and the rhino squad was a full 10 marines. I think, though I have added a 4th Kill Point to my list, the increased fire support and the Initiative 5 of the Noise Marines will give me more flexibility.

Next time expect more about the Renegades, progress on a squad of Plague Marines, and preparations for the 4th Annual Iron Fist League Team Tournament beginning run the weekend after next. Assuming my regular partner is available we will be going for 4 years in a row placing. The first year we won Best Sportsman, The second year we won the whole thing, taking Overall, and last year we took Best Army and runner up to Overall. All three years we have both played chaos.

Well until next time...

Side Tracked

Hey guys, if has a been a bit since my last update and I just wanted to fill you in. I have been distracted. From 40K, to Fantasy, to Privateer Press's announcement of Warmachine 2.0, to Hordes, and now back to 40k I have been unable to focus or concentrate on getting anyone thing painted as it seems my interests have been changing by the day. All I have accomplished is a bit of commission work I have been sitting on for a bit but unfortunately I do not have any pics to share today.

With that said, I will endeavor to get some progress pics up on my Rapid Fire list soon as the tournament is just a bit less then 2 weeks away and I really need to get cracking on the stuff I will be taking. For starters let us start with the list.

BLOOD ANGELS RAPID FIRE 500pts LIST

Chaplain: jump pack, meltabombs
(7) Death Company: jump packs
(5) Assault Marines: Vet w/ Power Fist; plasma pistol, in Rhino (instead of jump packs)


Well that is the first draft of my list, as I wanted to maximize power combined with the least amount of models I would have to paint. However recently I have been thinking I need a bit more fire power as even though I do not need to worry about heavy tanks or anything with more then 33 total armor (Front+Side+Rear) there is still plenty of stuff out there that will cause this small army problems. With that in mind I am thinking about dropping some death company and taking a 5 man tactical squad with a razorback. Not sure what I am going to do yet but I need to decide soon so I can get stuff done in time.

Until next time...

Rapid Fire Progress

I am preparing for a Rapid Fire Tournament coming up in the beginning of March. For those that do not know what a Rapid Fire Tournament is, it is a 500pt Warhammer 40,000 Tournament format based on Privateer Press's Rampage format. Basically, you are trying to play as many games as you can, as fast as you can, while try to obtain the most battle points, sportsman, points, etc before the end of the day. The important thing to know is there are no rounds. There is an odd number of players so when a game ends, the winner stays and the next guy jumps in. So you just play and play and play until time ends.

Army wise, the only restrictions are 1+ Troops, no vehicles with more them 35 combined armor, no 2+ saves, and no models with more then 2 wounds. Also I believe named characters are not allowed. I have chosen to play Blood Angels as that is the current army I am working on for 40K.

Here are some WIP shots of the first 5 models I have started painting for my list. The tournament is still a month off and some of my opponents will be reading this blog eventually so I do not want to give away my list just yet, so I will be posting the full list in a few weeks.

Okay, enough chatter, onto the models.

(WIP) Blood Angels Second Company, Squad 8, combat squad 1



More and better pictures later.