Christmas List!

Well, after fiddling with my list for a long time, I've finally come down to the hard draft.  This is what I am going to be taking to the Storm of Silence in 2015.

1750 Points
CAD - Space Marines (White Scars)
HQ - Khan on Moondrakken
NS - Command Squad on bikes, 4 Storm Shields, Apothecary, 4 meltaguns
TR - Red Bike Squad Bikers x6, 2 Meltaguns
TR - Blue Bike Squad Bikers x6, 2 Meltaguns
TR - Green Bike Squad Bikers x6, 2 Meltaguns
TR - Yellow Bike Squad Bikers x6, 2 Meltaguns
TR - Violet Bike Squad Bikers x6, 2 Meltaguns
TR - Tactical Squad Marines x5, Drop Pod, Grav-gun

Formation - Dark Angels Librarian Enclave
Ezekiel
Librarian on bike w/Force Axe, ML 2
Librarian on bike w/Force Axe, ML 2
Librarian on foot w/Force Axe, Power Field Generator, ML 2

So there it is.  This is the tool box I'm taking with me next year.  I know, you have complaints and questions.  Let me handle the most obvious.

First, what's the game plan?  Easy.  First, we stick Ezekiel and the foot libby in with the Tac Squad, and have them drop to hold an objective or get Line breaker.  With the Power Field, every model should be getting a 4++ save, and with Ezekiel nearby, Mindworm now has a 24" range, making that a dangerous drop pod squad.  Next, we stick the two libby bikers in with Khan to create a Bikestar.  Now the opponent has to worry about that unit as well, giving them two tough nuts to crack on the field.  On top of that, there's also more bikes than they cna shake a stick at.  With 3+ armor and cover saves (with Jink and Skilled Rider), along with the Scout ability, the regular bikes can be very scary indeed.

If my opponents list needs something special, I can also stick the libbies into normal squads to boost them, and I'll have 9 powers to generate on the field.  In addition, the formation special rules also give me the ability to cast powers from any model within 12" also from the formation.  And 9+d6 psychic dice is comparable to Elder spam too. 

Oh, and did I mention the Psychic Hoods?  Deny the Witch rolls for units within range?  Pretty sweet.

Next Question.

Why no anti-air? Well, I can always snap shot the meltas and grav at the fliers.  But really, my secret weapon here is Mindworm and Prescience against FMC, and Prescience against normal flyers.  Rerolls are damned good in this game, and my dice love em.  It is a risk, but I feel confident in being able to hide my bikers in close combat, and roll the right psychic powers.  Worst case scenario, It'll take my opponent a few rounds to table the regular bike squads, and can't normally come in until turn 2, so I could still pull out a win by numbers depending on the scenario.  It's a risk, yes, but if it plays out right, I will have a tremendous win!

Next Question.

Why only a single Grav-gun?  Shouldn't there be more?

Look, I get that Space Marines get an awesome unique weapon.  It's pretty cool, and can toast vehicles and MC pretty quickly.  But here's the thing.  Sometimes it just doesn't work.  There are cases where the Grav-gun just won't get the job done.  And I don't like that.  When I take weapons, it's because they are either forced on me, or they can be used in any situation.  This is why I stack Melta like crazy.  In a meta where triple Knight lists and Lords of war are common, I need a weapon that can penetrate the toughest armor, and has a better chance of destroying things in one hit than the Grav guns.  So the only Grav-gun in the army goes onto the squad where I can ensure the best chance for it to be useful.  I know a lot of players who swear by them, but my loyalty lies with the tried and trusted melta weapons.  Remember, range isn't an issue with this extremely mobile army.

Alright, enough questions.  Down to my to do list:

1)  Assemble and paint a command squad.  I need more meltaguns for this.
2)  Assemble and paint the Tac Squad.  I have enough bits, but need a drop pod.
3)  Assemble and paint the Dark Angels Librarian Enclave.  I have enough bits for the two bikes.  Maybe enough for the two foot models too.  Need bits for the Force weapons on all of them though.

So I have a little shopping to do, and a bit of painting.  After Christmas, I get to work!

I'll keep you guys updated!

New Ideas Abound!

So I haven't been sleeping well, and it's forced me to the bench where my models are stacking up.  Over the past few nights, I've built about 20 bikes in total, and took apart about as many other models to gather bits and pieces to fill in Khuster's Cav.

The Tau formation list is pretty solid, but it leaves me with a huge bubble I have to work around, and given my history with terrain and movement in the past (I hate Vanguard deployment), I don't want to cripple my army further.  So I've been putting the list options through their paces, and nothing seems to be working well.

After reading a few billion battle reports, I really like the "deathstar" unit for White Scars (my understanding being that it consists of Khan stuffed into a command squad of storm shields with an apothecary, stuffed into a duck, or something like that) so I made a list with two HQs to be stuffed into identical Command Squads with storm shields and meltaguns.  And of course an apothecary in each.

I tried the unit out in the most brutal way possible.  I ran them into the open area where nearly all of an 1850 point Eldar army could see them.  1 bike lived, and considering how impressive that result was, I decided to keep them.

So knowing how tough they were, why would you not put two of those in the army?  You can survive some of the toughest shooting and assaults with the storm shields, and having FNP is pretty badass as well.  Plus, Hammer of Wrath, and either Khan with his instant death on 6s, or a suped up Libby with Iron Arm, and you're in for a fun fight on bikes.

But what if I wanted to have three of them?

Having played many opponents (and learned a lot each time I lost) I find that three high priority targets tends to be about the perfect mix to have on the field.  It forces your opponent to focus on more than one unit in your army, and with the mix of objectives, table specific rules, and tactical VPs, it's almost an overload for any opponent.

So I'm going to take the new list and play a few games, and see how potent 3 "deathstars" units can be...

Head in a Bucket!

Well, I have been working on other projects around the house, mostly D&D 5th edition related, but it's time for me to dive back into 40k, and prep for the upcoming Storm of Silence.

For those who don't wish to be bothered reading my earlier posts, the Storm is the sister tourney to the Harvester of Souls.  The Storm happens in Spring, the Harvester happens in Fall.  I skipped out last year, as my scheudle would not allow me to compete.

In the past, the Storm has always been more competitive than the Harvester, but I still show up with themed lists and play anyways.  It's what I do.  I would like to get a trophy one day, but for now, I'll settle with the only award I've won in those two tourneys, and that is the "Best Dark Angels General" from the Storm in 2013.  Admittedly, I was the only Dark Angels player there, but hey, it's still a good award!

In the past, I've only ever won a single game in each tournament, and those are always the first games on the second day of the event.  But this year, I am planning something much different.

You see, in the past, when I first started playing, I played Grey Knights.  I had no experience with the army, and for nearly a year, I lost every battle I ever played.  But I learned.  And while some laughed at the horrible lists I made (they really were, looking back on them), what they couldn't laugh about was how much better I was at each game everytime I played.  Yeah, it took almost a year, but my friends stopped winning.  They started tying every game, and what was scary to them was just how close I got to winning each time.

I ended up moving away from Grey Knights during 6th edition, and that's when I came up with the Khuster's Cav idea.  You can read the blog posts about it's evolution, but to some up, what started as a fun idea is slowly turning into a competitive army.

Right now I am in the middle of fine tuning my lists, and when I finish with that aspect, I expect to win more than just one game at the Storm this year.  Do I expect an all out victory?  No, but I can always hope.

So for now, I'm going to stick my head in a bucket and bob for bitz while I figure out my list.

Emerging Models

I haven't published the last few months as my model selection for the new pieces of Khusters Cav have gone through several tried and failed attempts.

But finally I have chosen my models!  I wanted something themed for the army, something that just screams "Custer" or "American Frontier" while I'm playing.  Below are the models I have picked up to fill in the ranks. 

The army list has also gone through some changes.  Essentially, it breaks down to this:

White Scars:
Chapter Master on bike
Bike Squad (6) w/ 2 Meltaguns
Bike Squad (6) w/ 2 Meltaguns
Bike Squad (6) w/ 2 Meltaguns
Bike Squad (6) w/ 2 Meltaguns
Bike Squad (6) w/ 2 Meltaguns

Tau Firebase Support Cadre:
Riptide w/ Ion Accelerator
XV88 Broadside (3) w/ High Yield Missile Pod and TL Plasma rifle; 6 Missile drones
XV88 Broadside (3) w/ High Yield Missile Pod and TL Plasma rifle; 6 Missile drones

So make them a bit more Tau like, I added weapons.  The bears on all 4 will represent the Shas'vres, and the Bison are the regular broadsides.  I used some spare bits I had picked up from another project, and behold - I have armed bears!

And, of course, I need some stand in drones...

So this is where my army is at for the 2015 Storm of Silence Tourney:

Khuster Models - Assembled, Painted, and Based
Tau Models - Assembled, needs paint and basing
Display Board - (a new one of my own design) Haven't even started...need to get on that...

The Waiting Game

Still waiting on bitz to arrive...

Back to the Drawing Board

So I attempted to finish modelling the walker made from the landspeeder...

Let's face it, my imagination writes checks my skills can't cash. 

Time for something a little different...perhaps more realistic too...

A Lighter Fare

My wife wrote an articles last week, and it was published today.  Check it out!

http://voices.yahoo.com/so-re-dating-geek-12714235.html

In the meantime, I'm attempting modelling.  Have a happy and safe 4th of July!

New Models!

I apologize for missing the other posts this week, for some reason the blogger.com app on my phone misbehaved, and didn't post my musings.

But no worries, there wasn't much to post anyways.

Here's the latest.

I did a size comparison with my buddy Dave's Broadsides (he's a great painter) and here's what it looks like compared to my landspeeder/lego model:

I have about an inch to shave off of the model to make it work, and I think it's doable.

On Wednesday, my riptide stand in model arrived:

For those of you who grew up in my era, you'll recognize this as Tex Rex's speeder/walker from the cartoon Bravestarr.  Obviously, an action figure of the character Thirty-Thirty would have been my first choice, but alas, none was ever produced.

Upon arrival, there were two issues with this model.  First, it's a hell of a lot taller than I wanted it to be.  Honestly, it'll do just fine for a substitute for an Imperial Knight, but it's too tall for a riptide.  So I have to figure out how to reduce the size by a lot, without destroying the model or any part of it, since I could easily use it as an Imperial Knight.

Still, the skull feature is what I want to keep.  I know I can do this to fit in as a riptide.  I just have to be smart about it...

The Tau of Khuster

The tyranid player in my group of Thursday night guys took on the new Khusters Cav the other night.  Just for fun, we threw in the tactical objective cards and had a blast.

Deployment was probably the hardest part of the game for me, but aside from a few tactical errors, namely missing a hit and run opportunity to secure an objective, the game went well.

Final score:  Tyranids 9, Khuster 6.  We made it through turn 2.

In an after battle breakdown, had we played the full game, I would have taken quite a bit of the rest of his army in the next few turns and it would have been a very close loss at the worst.  It would have most likely come down to tactical objective cards or kill points.

Even though I lost, it was clear his army peaked in the first two turns.  He had models with multiple wounds all over the place, and I was able to put a good amount of wounds on each.  But my army started peaking just before we ended.  I still had more than half my army on the board if we had started turn 3, and enough room to stay out of close combat.

I'm noticing that my best damage is actually coming from overwatch.  This army is really taking on the spirit of Custer's Cav, and I enjoy that.

So how did the Tau do?

Very well.  I intentionally did not use the nova reactor on the riptide, because I wanted to see its base strength.  The Cadre Fireblade and Fire warriors did their job.  They sat on my only backfield objective and got me a couple points.

The Broadsides and missile drones were the biggest help.  My opponent had to focus solely on them with a couple of his nasty units, and it saved a good amount of bikes.  The Broadside shooting phase wasn't the best, but it was at least average.  The riptide did its job well.

Of the Tau group, I only lost 2 Fire warriors, 2 broadsides, a missile drone, and 1 wound on the riptide.

I'm going to work on modeling this force next, since I'm confident in the new list being effective at The Harvester.

The New Khusters Cav!

I sat down with one of my buddies the other day and tried out a list I never thought I'd run.

So hear me out before I show the list.  First, I'm not a fluffy player.  I only own a single WH40k novel, and that's a Grey Knights book.  The rest are sourcebooks for the game.  So don't go off on me for not making a fluffy list.

Khuster's Cav 2.0

Combined Arms Detachment
White Scars
HQ - Captain on Bike
TR - Bike Squad (8) w/2 Meltaguns
TR - Bike Squad (8) w/2 Meltaguns
TR - Bike Squad (8) w/2 Meltaguns
TR - Bike Squad (8) w/2 Meltaguns
TR - Bike Squad (8) w/2 Meltaguns
TR - Bike Squad (8) w/2 Meltaguns

Allied Detachment
Tau Codex
HQ - Cadre Fireblade
TR - Fire Warriors (7) w/Pulse Rifles
EL - Riptide w/ Ion Accelerator, TL Plasma Rifle
HV - Broadside Team (3) w/ TL High Yield Missile Pod, TL Plasma Rifle, 6 Missile drones

Overall, the Tau replacing the 5 attack bikes and Command Squad are going to have better range, more firepower, more range, and all I have to do is keep the Tau 6" away from the bikes, or roll to paralyze them with One Eye Open. 

We'll see how this plays out at the next battle...

Khusters Cav Rides Again!

Sat down last night to play a full 1850 game with a friend who brought Eldar to the table.  I didn't grab his list, but this is what we can best recollect he brought to the table:

HQ - Farseer w/Singing Spear
HQ - Farseer w/Singing Spear
HQ - Warlock Council (4) on jet bikes w/Singing Spear
TR - Windrider Jet Bike Squad (6) w/2 Shuriken Cannons
TR - Windrider Jet Bike Squad (6) w/2 Shuriken Cannons
TR - Windrider Jet Bike Squad (6) w/2 Shuriken Cannons
TR - Dire Avengers (6) w/ Wave Serpent with tl scatter laser, cannon, and serpent shield(the 1+d6 weapon)
TR - Dire Avengers (6) w/ Wave Serpent with tl scatter laser, cannon, and serpent shield(the 1+d6 weapon)
FT - Shining Spears (6)
FT - Shining Spears (6)
HV - Wraithknight with scatter laser and star cannon, wraith cannons

And here's what I brought:

HQ - Captain on Bike w/Primarch's Wrath
HQ - Command Squad on bikes w/ 5 Storm Shields and 5 Meltaguns
TR - Bike Squad (8) w/ 2 Meltaguns, with Attack bike w/ Multimelta
TR - Bike Squad (8) w/ 2 Meltaguns, with Attack bike w/ Multimelta
TR - Bike Squad (8) w/ 2 Meltaguns, with Attack bike w/ Multimelta
TR - Bike Squad (8) w/ 2 Meltaguns, with Attack bike w/ Multimelta
TR - Bike Squad (8) w/ 2 Meltaguns, with Attack bike w/ Multimelta
TR - Bike Squad (8) w/ 2 Meltaguns, with Attack bike w/ Multimelta

Due to the extremely lengthy psychic phase, we only got to the bottom of turn 1, so we called it.  For VPs we have 5 objectives each worth 1 VP, and counted the normal Slay the Warlord, Linebreaker, and First Blood.  It ended up with me having removed 7-8 of his jet bikes, and he removed 12-13 of my bikes (including a full unit). 

End score:  Khusters Cav 2 (objectives), Eldar 4 (objectives, First Blood, Linebreaker)

I tried this with the FNP Iron Hands rules.  I only made two of the dozen+ rolls.  The dice showed me they favor the FNP on my Damned army, and not the Cav.

So back to the drawing board.

Jink was never taken on my side, and it wouldn't have helped much anyways, so I'm still unconvinced this is good rule change.  I'll take unjinked hits in round 1 to keep my full BS on the table with cover saves.  But that's beside the point.

With the couple of assaults, I do want to at least keep Hit & Run an option, as I could have moved to contest another objective, or gotten Linebreaker with the run away roll.  So we're back to white scars.

My HQ is swappable with a Chapter Master still at the current point value, so maybe I can swap out the CS with an allied detachment to fill in a gap.

The biggest downside of the new list I can see is that I don't have any juicy targets on the field.  I need to keep a couple heavy weapons (S8 or better) on the table, but I need to bring more fire power or more models.

So I'm going to mock up a summoning list for my backfield first, and then look at maybe a Kroot sniper detachment as well, for when the summoning gets banned (or at least hated enough to have someone flip the board and destroy my army)

Back for more!

I am back from hiatus folks!

I had to take a break from the Damned Army to refocus on family and to keep from going insane.

So what's new?  I skipped out on the Storm of Silence this year.  I usually try to make that one even though its more competitive than the Harvester (my fave), its fun to go up against the big fish and really learn a lot about my army.

Right now the Damned army is on the back burner.  It was taking way too long to paint those minis, even though they turned out beautiful!  No one ever said I had an abundance of patience.

But its time to start prepping for the Harvester.  Its not a very competitive event, and there's more focus on appearance and sportsmanship than the Storm.  I still have my beautiful Khusters Cav, though with the 7th edition changes, bikes have become tougher to run.

Or have they?

Jink used to be such a big boon to bikes.  Now its an even better save thanks to the change, but comes at a cost of firepower.  And as any general of a bike army will tell you, losing that firepower is a big hit.

So how do we reconcile the new coat for cover saves?  Dark Angels have an answer.

This last week I took a meta list I swore I'd never touch, and made some modifications.

Instead of Sammael and the Dakka banner, I made a Ravenwing list using Azrael and a Command Squad.  There are some benefits.  First, Azrael still makes Ravenwing count as Troops.  Second, his "everyone has Ld 10" rule will help a bit against Psychic powers.  Lastly, he is only a bit more expensive than Sammael, and does the same job, to give shielding to the Dakka banner squad.

I dropped the Black Knight CS for the Dakka banner.  Mostly because they rely on jink as well.  I replaced them with a standard CS with storm shields, an apothecary, and stuffedbthem into a razorback for the same cost as the Ravenwing CS.

I threw in my 35 bikes and added two Darkshrouds to round out the 1850.  The Darkshrouds will give all my bikes a 6+ cover.  Not as good as Jink, but better than nothing.

That's one option.  My second option is a bit more drastic and crazy.

Iron Hands bikes.

These were the Chapter tactics I had chosen for the Damned army project.  It still gives only a 6+ FNP, but the survivability is no longer dependent on a couple of fragile units.

There is a huge downside though.  No scout moves, no hit & run, no ignore dangerous terrain, no Ld boosts, and a ton of other little nuances.

But I can choke my opponent by bringing in 60 bikes.  60.  That, my friends, maybe crazy enough to work...

Time for a play test.

The Damned HQ

I've barely started on my Chapter Master for the army, so not much new to show, even if I did show it.  The deadline for the first turn in is next Friday, so I have roughly two weeks to get the following done:

15 Tactical Marines
10 Legion of the Damned

I am hopeful I won't have to use my "oops" month on the first turn in.  But after this, it's just a couple models each month, while I ramp up my Shinecrons for the GT in April!

The First Damned Squad

Sorry for my tardiness on getting the blog updated every week, but painting with thinned paints is a pain in the butt!

Any way, I've finished (except purity seals) the first squad of Tactical marines.  I'm getting a lot of buzz from people about how much they love the orange and yellow.  However, my inner critic notices a lot more mistakes with the brighter colors. 

Here's the pics of the models!

So now I have another unit of these guys to work on, and then two Legion of the Damned squads...not sure how I'll paint those yet!

Stay tuned...

The Damned Origins

So with my new project, I am calling "The Damned Army", I wanted to go back to the roots of the Legion of the Damned for the scheme.  At first I was thinking it would be fun to do the black and bone and flame of the current Legion, but at the last minute I decided to do my models up as the Fire Hawks, rumored origin of the Legion of the Damned.

So here's my scheme, thus far:

Next up are the arms, and bolter.  The head and shoulder pads come later...

The Return

Its a new year, and I'm finally back at the blog.  I've finished the work on our local charity project, which was a wraithlord, a wave serpent and a unit of wraith guard.

Now I'm sitting down and piecing together a few left over models.  I've drawn up quite a few ideas the last month and a half, and all are appealing, but not catching my interest as much as the Khusters Cav project did.  Perhaps its time for a secondary detachment of Death wing...