4 Days to Adepticon!

Hey guys Huron here again, how is everyone doing? So day marks the release of Episode 3 of Gamers Lounge, the hobby podcast I am a co-host of. This time around we had a special guest joining us, Dan ie Max the Dog from Dice Like Thunder. He had a bit a of news to share with us, that thanks to our talk about blogs and Bills blog in particular, Dan has join us all in the world of blogging. Please go check out his blog, Max the Dog Media and sign up to follow him, I'm sure there will be great stuff coming from his blog for years to come.

S0 beside episode 3 being released, I have something big going on I have not been discussing with all of you, I am going to Adepticon which kicks opens its doors in just 4 days.

Man am I excited. I did not get to go to Gencon last year, and with the Nova Open and Games Day falling back to back in August already, there was no way I was going to be able to make it to Gencon again this year. So when Bill expressed an interest in going to Adepticon I jumped at the chance to to go along and get my fill of massive multi-day con for this year.

Here is a break down of where you will be able to find me:.

Thursday - On the road. Bill and I are taking the 10.5 hour drive and turning it into a 12 -13 hour drive so that we get stop and get some good food along the way. Thursday night we expect to get in and crash, however there is some talk of doing some drunken painting with the DLT and The Warbanner crew which could be tons of fun.

Friday - Friday sees me stepping up and pulling the Skorne from the case and throughing down at the 50pt caster kill Warmachine/Hordes tournament. This will be my first big tournament in Mark 2 and the first time I will have played using the recently released Final Skorne pdf, so it has me worried but it should be good time. If you find yourself in the Privateer Press Hall come look me up. I will be the tallest guy in the room wearing a Black Press Ganging shirt that is actually playing in the event. Also I should have on a Name Tag that will be hard to miss, with all the logos of things I am assoicated with on it.

Friday Night - I am not sure what Friday night has in store for me. I expect Alcohol and podcast crashing will fit in there somewhere.

Saturday Morning - Saturday morning Bill and I will be leading a sizable expedition of Podcasters and gamers to Lou Mitchells for Breakfast about 9:30 - 10. If you live in the Chicago area and want to come hang out, we'd love to have you.

Saturday Day/Evening - Saturday is my free day. It will be a day of pick up games, podcasting, and some 40K challenge matches. Come find me, I should be either in the minatures hall or down at the bunker getting my 40K, Malifaux, or FSA on (though I may be helping demo some Areonautica Imperialis as well). I will be wearing my Red IFL bowling Shirt and will probably have another custom name badge on.

Saturday Night - Around 10 DLT is having its yearly get together at Hooters from 10am to 1pm. 3 hours of wings, beer, and gaming talk while hooters girls walk around and bring us more drinks... sound like a good time to me!

Sunday Morning - I have a painting class from 10-12 about how to kicking my painting skills up to a compitition level.

Sunday Day - More free time for me. While I plan to spend sometime checking out the 40K championships, the Privateer Press Championships, and taking some photos and some video, if you want a game, I will be looking for one.

Sunday Evening - Poker. This year is the first post-Adepticon Poker tournament. I'm looking forward to getting my Texas-hold'em on Sunday night

Monday - Heading home. Bill and I will be driving back Monday, tried but happy hopefully!

Well that is it. If you are going to be at Adepticon, please come say hello, I am hard to miss. If you are not... Well why aren't you?

Until 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.