This Saturday saw an impromptu apocalypse game happen at the local GW. I had my Void Legion marines and my son brought his Tau. As is the usual these days we found ourselves as opponents.
On the side of Order we had; Steel Legion (rocking no less than 20 tanks), four space marine armies, and Sisters of Battle with IG allies.
On the side of Chaos we had; Chaos Marines, Tau, Eldar, two traitor IG, and four (yes, four!) Tyranid armies.
I am not going to go into a blow-by-blow account but I did want to share a few observations...
Deep Striking Mawlocs and Trygons will not survive if they are unsupported. Neither of the two that popped up survived past their first round of combat. Granted, I fired everything I had in my army at the Trygon in my sector, but the results were still the same; one dead Trygon. All it managed to do against the back armor of a Dreadnought is stun it (then the Trygon died).
Psyker powers on the Tyranids seem pretty tough. However, I did not see the results of any of the powers because the Sisters of Battle HQ chicky stopped their powers, all of their powers, cold. Not one Tyranid power manifested the entire game. Go Sisters!
Termagants are still really easy to kill. Full tactical squads with bolters in rapid fire range will decimate a brood. For an added bonus kill the Tervigon synapse creature before you shoot them up and they will pretty much run away without the "fearless" special rule to support them.
Combat tactics are going to play a larger part in my strategy against the bugs. In close combat, I am going to take casualties, period. But the ability to break away and get another shooting phase before getting tangled up again is going to be priceless.
Use terrain. There are so many models in an infantry brood that if you can funnel them, when they hit your line most of the brood will be out of close combat range (ie, more than 2" away). This will reduce the attacks against you and possibly allow your entire (smaller) unit get all of your attacks against them.
The game ended on the fourth turn when all of the Tyranid players pulled their armies off of the table, stated that they felt outnumbered, and in general acted a bit upset that we had broken their new toys. So it goes...
The new Tyranids are a tough army to fight. Once the players get some wicked unit and tactics combinations under their belt they are going to be even more deadly. I predict a second coming for the long-range pieplate firepower of the Whirlwind and Thunderfire Cannon.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Manners - What are they good for?
My local GW is overrun with kids.
Sometimes it little kids, you know 8, 9, 10.
More often it is older ones 14, 15, 23.
The little ones are usually pretty cool and are only bothersome when they want to handle your minis with their grubby, sticky, clumsy hands.
The older ones now, they should know better. They should have, you know, manners. I am not speaking of miniature handling. What I am speaking of is a cordial awareness that the person standing across from them is a person. An actual, just-across-the-table-from-you, person.
Just because you are a kid and you are accustomed to speaking however you speak over X-Box Live, does not mean you will not be called on it.
Clearly, over the internet, people have grown accustomed to speaking/writing to others in a manner that reflects the inherent safety of sitting behind a computer, safe in your home. The guy you just sniped in Modern Warfare 2 can't do anything about it when you call him a jerk.
However, the 6'2" amateur Mixed-Martial Arts practitioner, that you just called a jerk can do something about it.
Such was the scene today in my local GW. I was busy getting my tookus handed to me by some teenager, meanwhile, my opponent's brother was looking on and making comments about various things happening in the game. During round four, Zach, the aforementioned MMA aficionado, wandered over and made a couple of comments concerning my opponent's loose interpretation of a rule. Having said his piece, and opening my eyes to the shiftiness of my opponent's conduct, Zach wandered off to the paint bar.
It was at this point, that my opponent's brother made his mistake. He said (to his brother) "That guy is a jerk". A few minutes later the game ended (badly for me) when I heard the following words, "You shouldn't insult someone when they can hear you". These words were uttered in Zach's unmistakable bass rumble of a voice.
I, of course, looked up because this sounded like it could be the beginning of something interesting. It was at that point that I noticed the 135 lb, 5'8" teenager looking up (with a quite frantic expression, might I add) at Zach.
Zach wasn't looming over the kid, and his tone/expression was that of someone commenting about the weather.
I think, however, the kid got message.
A hasty apology followed and everything was cool.
Where are we as a society where pointing out that someone is cheating (or near enough) gets you called a jerk?
Sometimes it little kids, you know 8, 9, 10.
More often it is older ones 14, 15, 23.
The little ones are usually pretty cool and are only bothersome when they want to handle your minis with their grubby, sticky, clumsy hands.
The older ones now, they should know better. They should have, you know, manners. I am not speaking of miniature handling. What I am speaking of is a cordial awareness that the person standing across from them is a person. An actual, just-across-the-table-from-you, person.
Just because you are a kid and you are accustomed to speaking however you speak over X-Box Live, does not mean you will not be called on it.
Clearly, over the internet, people have grown accustomed to speaking/writing to others in a manner that reflects the inherent safety of sitting behind a computer, safe in your home. The guy you just sniped in Modern Warfare 2 can't do anything about it when you call him a jerk.
However, the 6'2" amateur Mixed-Martial Arts practitioner, that you just called a jerk can do something about it.
Such was the scene today in my local GW. I was busy getting my tookus handed to me by some teenager, meanwhile, my opponent's brother was looking on and making comments about various things happening in the game. During round four, Zach, the aforementioned MMA aficionado, wandered over and made a couple of comments concerning my opponent's loose interpretation of a rule. Having said his piece, and opening my eyes to the shiftiness of my opponent's conduct, Zach wandered off to the paint bar.
It was at this point, that my opponent's brother made his mistake. He said (to his brother) "That guy is a jerk". A few minutes later the game ended (badly for me) when I heard the following words, "You shouldn't insult someone when they can hear you". These words were uttered in Zach's unmistakable bass rumble of a voice.
I, of course, looked up because this sounded like it could be the beginning of something interesting. It was at that point that I noticed the 135 lb, 5'8" teenager looking up (with a quite frantic expression, might I add) at Zach.
Zach wasn't looming over the kid, and his tone/expression was that of someone commenting about the weather.
I think, however, the kid got message.
A hasty apology followed and everything was cool.
Where are we as a society where pointing out that someone is cheating (or near enough) gets you called a jerk?
Sunday, January 3, 2010
2010: Looking Forward
A brief list of things I intend to accomplish this year...
Quit smoking
Lose some weight. I have gained about 40 lbs since I got laid off. Have to keep in fighting trim.
Finish my scratch built Arvus Lighter.
Be more competitive. I feel I have laid too far back to accommodate my opponents. I am going to bring my A game to the table more often. They are big boys, they should be able to handle it.
Start and finish my Tyranid army.
Fine tune my SM Void Legion army.
Build a proper gaming table in the garage.
Post some army pics.
Post some battle reports.
Quit smoking
Lose some weight. I have gained about 40 lbs since I got laid off. Have to keep in fighting trim.
Finish my scratch built Arvus Lighter.
Be more competitive. I feel I have laid too far back to accommodate my opponents. I am going to bring my A game to the table more often. They are big boys, they should be able to handle it.
Start and finish my Tyranid army.
Fine tune my SM Void Legion army.
Build a proper gaming table in the garage.
Post some army pics.
Post some battle reports.
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