One to lead them...

Captain Praxus, what is best in life?
To crush the Blood Angels
See them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their Chaplains...

This is my Terminator Captain.

He still needs a few touch ups and sealing before he is completely finished.

He will be leading the Void Legion into battle from here on out.

Who's afraid of the big bad bug?

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.

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.

2009: A Review

My next post will concern the resolutions for 2010 but first I wanted to take a moment and ponder the events of 2009...

I began and completed 1850 points of Tau. My son has now assumed command of that army as it grows to, and beyond, 2500 points.

I began playing in July of this year. I have played 23 games. My record is 17 losses, 4 draws, and 2 wins.

I began a Space Marine chapter (Void Legion) in September. I have assembled and painted (tabletop standard, three colors) 1500 points. I have another 1000 points unassembled and unpainted.

I have started collecting a Tyranid army. It remains unassembled and unpainted, awaiting the day that the new codex is released.

I have yet to be "that guy" in a game. If anything, I feel that I have restrained my competitiveness to the point of being a lame duck (see win-draw-loss stats above).

I have drawn a new player into the hobby, my son. My nephews are next on the hit list.

My daughter owns 2.5 tactical squads of SM and SW. She is working on painting them. At eight years of age, I feel she is doing pretty well.

I was laid-off in February and started college in May. I have a 3.88 GPA.

Fog of War(p) deployment

We tried this today with a three-way battle between Ultramarines, my Void Legion, and my son's Tau.

The point limit was 1000. Three objectives with each player getting to place one each. The objectives must be within 24" of the center of the table.

Roll for deployment order. Place one unit anywhere you want, except within 12" of another unit. Roll for standard scatter. If your unit would go off the table it is not destroyed it just sits on the edge. If the unit scatters within 12" of another unit that is okay. If you scatter into area terrain or difficult terrain that is fine. If you scatter into impassable terrain just place the unit up next to it. Using common sense will help things work out.

Then the next player deploys one of their units following the above guidance. And so on, and so on, and s.......

It is a lot of fun and gets you right into the fight. No unit is right on top of another unless it scatters there, making for some fun tactical decisions.

For extra randomness, roll for at the beginning of every round for player turns.

In the end, the Tau manuevered and sniped the SM and Ultramarines (who were busy tearing each other up!). Tau for the win!

Range = Unlimited

We had a great day at our local Tanksgiving. We discovered that the hunter-killer and seeker missiles really did have unlimited range.

On round three the forces of order launched every hunter-killer missile they had. From the south of Texas the missiles roared until they found a target in Gig Harbor, WA. Once on target, they inflicted severe damage to a Warhound Titan.

If you are the player from Washington whose titan was damaged by a missile salvo from Texas, please let me know. We want to hear from you.

Did anyone else make a longer distance shot during their Tanksgiving?

I know defeat....

Well. The "Vegas Odds" tournament happened today. I placed solidly in the middle of the pack. 1st place too $40 worth of product home. 2nd and 3rd took $25 and $15 respectively.

I did not play the list I had previously posted. I conferred with older and wiser warriors than myself on the Dice Like Thunder forums and the general consensus was that I lacked any mobility. This is the list I ran...

Cato Sicarius
3 Tac squads at full strength
2 Dreadnoughts w/ CCW, MM, SB
1 Rhino
6 Terminators w/ x1 power sword, x5 powers fist, x6 SB

This is fairly solid list. Mobility is somewhat solved by using Sicarius to give one tac squad infiltrate. DS the terminators, and put one squad in the Rhino.

I wish I had only been competing against my opponents. The "Vegas Odds" were against us all but I seemed to have fallen into a puddle of bad luck on my way to the game and I felt it the rest of the day.

Every time you gave a shooting order to a unit you rolled a d6. On a 1, you targeted the nearest friendly unit and fired everything at it. On a 2, you used the night fighting rules. 3-5 shooting occurs as normal. On a 6, you are are out of ammo, no shooting that turn.

Every time you gave an assault order to a unit you also rolled a d6. On a 1 or 2, your unit is spooked and falls back d6 inches away from the unit they were going to assault. 3 thru 5, assault as normal. On a 6, your unit assaults itself. My squad of Terminators actually took themselves out twice thanks to that.

We were also playing four people to a table. You were facing your opponent across the table but only half of the long side you were on belonged to you. You could also shoot and be shot at by the other two players on the table. I don't think that happened more than once or twice all day. We mostly concentrated on our respective opponents.

All missions were Dawn of War deployment and Annihilation. Scoring was different. If you managed to kill the enemy commander you received 5 points (and you had to kill him, if he ran off the table, you did not kill him). If you destroyed your enemy's most expensive unit your received 3 points. If you destroyed at least one vehicle you got 2 points. You received one point each for every scoring unit you had left alive at the end of the battle. Finally, your opponent rolled 2d6 and you received the result as points. You then rolled 2d6 for him.

Now, the games were fun. The "Vegas Odds" definitely changed the entire feeling of the game. You could have had a perfect deployment and flawless tactics and it could have completely fallen apart around you on the "Vegas Odds" roll.

I would say my major gripe is that prizes were being awarded. I mean, I wanted a chance to win based off of my tactics, my deployment, my list, my generally good luck. I found that those random 2d6 rolls completely skewed the outcome. For instance I managed to keep my commander alive and my highest point unit stayed alive. That means I denied my opponent 8 points. And then we rolled the random points. I rolled a 12 for him, he rolled a 3 for me. My roll literally put him ahead by a point due to no game play on his part.

I don't mean to sound sour, it really was a lot of fun. But, I really wanted to win some free product. As I am sure everyone else did. The "Vegas Odds" are good for a lark, for bragging rights, and amazement at the outrageous results, but not for prizes.

Ah well, until the next tournament. I will keep my blade sharp and my gun oiled. You do the same...

Odds are....

This is the Space Marine list I am going to use this Saturday at the local GW "Vegas Odds" tournament.

Supposedly, random events will be occurring each turn. I guess that's why it is called "Vegas Odds".

I went with a basic flexible build. Enough meltas, meltabombs, and powerfists to deal with armor and enough regular shooting and flamers to deal with large unit armies like IG, Orks, or Tyranids.

The tactical squads will probably be combat squaded into a heavy element and an assaulting element. The Captain and Terminators will be my close assault hammers. The dreads will provide longer ranged anti-armor and be my bait units.

1250 Pts - Space Marines Roster - Void Legion



1 Battle Captain @ 160 pts (...in Power Armour)

1 ...in Power Armour (Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Iron Halo; Auxiliary Grenade Launcher; Digital Weapons; Melta Bombs; Artificer Armour; Bolter x1; Power Sword x1)



9 Tac Squad - Tempus @ 175 pts (Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol x9; Bolter x7; Flamer; Missile Launcher)

1 Sergeant (Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Melta Bombs; Bolt Pistol; Chainsword)



9 Tac Squad - Vulgus @ 175 pts (Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol x9; Bolter x7; Flamer; Missile Launcher)

1 Sergeant (Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Melta Bombs; Chainsword; Chainsword)



9 Tac Squad - Deo @ 180 pts (Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol x9; Bolter x7; Meltagun; Missile Launcher)

1 Sergeant (Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Melta Bombs; Bolt Pistol; Chainsword)



1 Dreadnought "Dutch" @ 120 pts (Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Extra Armor; Dreadnought CCW; Multi-Melta; Storm Bolter)



1 Dreadnought "Blaine" @ 120 pts (Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Extra Armor; Dreadnought CCW; Multi-Melta; Storm Bolter)



7 Terminator Squad @ 320 pts (Power Fist x7; Storm Bolter x7)

1 Sergeant (Power Sword; Storm Bolter)