Out of Town.......

Out of town till Monday. Enjoy the holiday!!

Crimson Fists WIP shots

Ok we got blown out in the softball game tonight, so lets salvage the night with some model assembly. I'm going to add 3 new models to my 10 man sternguard squad, so I got the torsos put together. I'm adding a combi melta, and 2x combi plasmas.

Also pictured in the bottom row is my veteran sargent that will replace the powerfist sargent in tactical squad #2.

On the top row was my 3 new Honor Guard.  I liked these and may add only a couple more bits. I also need to drill out the pistols before I prime them up.

I'm going to wait on sending my army list in to the Bugeater, as I found out they don't need it till the 10th of June. Thats all for this week. My family and I are going camping for the weekend so that last razorback will have to wait till Monday.

Bugeater Crimson Fist 1850 list

June is fast approaching which means my final army list is almost due for the Bugeater. I have an idea of what I want to run, but it is including a new unit plus an additional razorback. I am just worried. I'll summit the list, and then fail to finish the models. Well maybe I'm 90% sure I'll finish the models, but there is doubt.

The new Bugeater list is based on my recent experience at Misty Mountain. While somethings work well, my list seemed to need just a little umph vs HtH assault type armies. In particular it was the all terminator Deathwing. For this list, I'm giving up a missile launcher, melta gun, and a potential 5 man scoring unit, for a twin linked heavy bolter razorback, and a 3 man honor guard, who can put out 13 base power weapon attacks with Pedro nearby. This unit is not suppose to be the end all killy unit but, a helper to my termies. I will still count on my Ironclad and 5 assault terminators to do the heavy lifting.

I do also loose my Ironclad's drop pod. I will miss this flexibility, but having a 3rd hand to hand unit will be a greater boon. So here is the new list as it stands today. I plan on working on it tonight, and finalizing it tomorrow since we will be camping this weekend and there will be no hobbying.

Pedro Kantor

Librarian with Null Zone and Force Dome

3 honor guard- razorback

10 man tactical squad- missile launcher, melta, sarg with powerfist, razorback

5 man tactical squad- sarg with power weapon, razorback

10 sternguard- 2x melta, 3x combi melta, 2x combi plasma, sarg with lightning claw, razorback

Ironclad dreadnought- stormbolter, melta, seismic hammer

5 assault terminators- 2 th/ss, 3 lc

3x predators- autocannon, lascannon sponsons

After writing my list up, I decided the powerfist was wasted on a five man squad for 25 points. Changing this to a power weapon allowed me to add a combi melta and 2 combi plasmas to my sternguard. I also changed my Librarian's power from Avenger to Force Dome. I think the added ap1 and ap2 shots, plus the ability to put a 5++ on the unit the Librarian is in will, be a greater help than one 2 attack powerfist.

I'll be working more on the list tonight after my daughter's softball games. That's my 2 cents for now.

Project Display Board



My first display board.

Today I'm launching my project display board 2011. I want to make A board that is a little sharper than my first one pictured above. Basically I'm hoping to improve on the basing material, up the quality of the frame, and match the basing of my better. I'm also looking for an easy fast way to do boards also.

Stone primer test.

Here is a shot of a base board I sprayed with some Rust-oleum American Accents Stone. My goal was to find a primer that looked and felt like stone. Then all I would have to do is add flock and some other features.

I really liked how this covered. Basically after 2-3 passes the board was looking good. I think this is a fast an easy way to do basing boards for terrain. Especially ruins.

I was also thinking of incorporating some of these to give my display board a ruined building theme without adding height. If I really use ruins, then the board will be alot harder to transport without damage.

I found my board at OfficeMax. It ran me around $35 but you can get cheaper ones from Walmart for around $10-$15. I wanted a real wood frame to spiff it up.

I think if I go with the stone primer color and green static grass, I need to add some brown rock/dirt areas too. This will tie in the three color elements on my bases. I also have some off-white stone colored statue stuff on some bases, so I might do some kind of ruin statues on the display board to tie it in. The gray stone color should also help my bases pop as the gray is not the major color on them.

Next post I'll look to spray the board and get the first terrain pieces on it.



Crimson Fist thoughts from Misty Mountain.

Probably the worst table there for terrain. Good thing the next two had good coverage.

So after spending this week going over how I thought my army did, I came to some good conclusions and some mistakes i need to change.

My list this weekend as follows.
Pedro Kantor
Librarian with null and machine curse
ironclad dread in drop pod
5 assault termies- 2 th/ss
10 sternguard- 2 melta, 2 combi melta, sarg with lc. assrazor
2x 10 tactical- missile, melta, sarg with pf, razorback with psb
speeder with 2x HB
speeder with mm and HF
3x predators- las sponsons

The first thing I realize is I really need to work on my deployment. I'm pretty sure I lost game one due to it, and game three, I was behind the eight ball for the first half of the game due to it. Game one was dawn of war with deployment zones being halves. My opponent was DE, and he deployed 20 hellions at half court. He also deployed a homunculus close to them to give them a pain token.



DE first turn.

 Ok so at this point I have a 5 man combat squad on the far left in the forest with missile launcher. On the right out of sight is their razorback (HB and PSB) with the sarg, melta, combat squad. My thinking was to pull the 20 man hellions away from the center as it was an objective. Not too bad a plan. He is really spread out and I'm only risking a razorback on the right and a 5 man on the left. I lucked out and he was out of charge range. This influenced my deployment.

I chose to split my forces and brought my sternguard, 2nd tactical squad and transport in on the left. I brought my preds in on the right. Speeders came in on the left with the dread dropping left of center.
Because the hellions were not in assault, I took the bait and wanted to wipe them out with shooting. Due to night fighting I deployed to far left with my Librarian and razors. I wiped most of the hellions out, but it cost me table positioning that I never recovered from. In the end my librarian was out of position for Null zone and my squads were unable to push the center.

Here is the board after turn three. My predator that came in in the center was blown up. I lost 4 termies to disintegrator fire (str 5 ap2) from the razorwing fighter. My sternguard had killed off the hellions in the middle and his witches on the right lost combat and were running. Key part here is, I failed to move the razorback on the left with the librarian more center. I was simply to far left to win, and he was controlling the mid board. My units were not supporting each other and he was able to concentrate his firepower left or right.

Ok so that is the bad. Here is the good I learned.

Pedro is good. Not for his killy power, but the +1 attack bubble he puts out is awesome. Stubborn is also way good. I already knew this from playing sister's and there 5 point book of stubbornness.

Null zone is good, if you have him in the right spot. After having my opponent make several +5 flickerfield saves, I was very aware my librarian was out of position. Still not sold on a second power. Going to try a couple different ones.

Sternguard are good, but it's how you use them that is important. Drop pod suicide squads may work to kill a tank or two, but a squad in terrain with Pedro's bubble +1 attack and they are nasty to move. They easily took out the remaining 9 hellions plus baron on their charge. 5 of them with one lightning claw termie. Love these guys. I was going to build another 10 man squad of them, and I do have the bits for it on hand, but I'm going to reduce it to just 5 with special weapons and combi's. The other 5's bits are going to another project.

I really like these guys. I like the mix of 3 LC and 2 TH/SS. This gave them enough attacks to take on semi hoard units and still have enough 3++ saves in the unit to survive most shooting. I put them at MVP of game 2 for drawing all the firepower of the tau and letting the sternguard win the game with the objective.

I did waste points on the assault cannon. I thought it would be very killy and prove my gut feeling wrong but it was not to be. The 35 points could have been better spent on more combi weapons for the sternguard and just took a twin HB.

The predators proved to be effective. They also proved to be harder to deploy and use to their full potential than I had figured. I am glade I went with 3 and not 2 plus a vindi. I do think the vindi would have made maneuvering harder and hurt my army.

The tactical squads were good but I don't think the value of the missile launchers is there. I think for the Bugeater, I'm going to break one squad down to a 5 man with a Sargent and a razorback, and add my next project with the points saved.

With Pedro in my army, I can take a honor guard. After looking at these guys and seeing some cool modeling possibilities, I'm adding them into my force. I plan to write up my Bugeater list and where I see this army is going.  Future projects also include my display board witch I will be starting Sunday. Till then, that's my 2 cents.

Misty Mountain RTT Missions

One of many tables at Misty Mountain. I played on this table game 2.

Last weekend I made the 4 hour drive up to Misty Mountain in Burnsville, MN. It was a 2000 point, 3 game tournament that cost $15 to enter. They hade prizes for placing and a added bonus I had not seen anywhere else. You got free drinks all day with you entry fee. This was very nice, come round 2 when I was feeling parched and downed a couple gatorades. Very nice small touch.

They were also using scenarios that were derived from Adepticon 2011. I found them challenging and very fun to play. While I made misstakes in games 1 and 3, I never felt the scenario beat me. I liked them so much I want to post them up and discus them here, in the hopes of other tournaments adopting them.



Mission 1.



Mission one was titled "Hog Pile".

Overview- Its been a long set of battles, but this is the big one. This here bit in the middle is the best spot to be, we get this we win, well probably.

Deployment Zones- dawn of war. It was table halves.

Set up- one objective in the middle of the table. (objectives were provided for every table)

Rules- Nothing funny.

Objectives-
Primary- Have the largest percentage of your starting amount of scoring models within 12" of the middle objective. If player A has 24 scoring models, with 15 within 12" of the center objective, and player B has 30 scoring models, with 15 within 12" of the center objective, then player A wins this.

Secondary- Who ever killed the highest percentage of opposition's models wins this objective.

Teriary- Kill points.


Tactical Bonus Points
+1 If you have a reserve unit that did not make it onto the table.
+1 If you have wounded the opposition's most expensive HQ unit
+1 If you have killed all of the opposition's troop choices

Special Rules
None.


Ok, that is the mission. To win the game you had to win more objectives than your opponent. IE if you won the primary and the tertiary, and he won the secondary, you won 2-1. I loved how you pick the objectives you needed to win. Foe example if I had brought my Sister's of batlle with all those kill points, I could have concentrated on the other 2 objectives. It also meant there was more information you had to keep track of while playing. While I'm liking this system at first, I would like to play a couple other tournaments to make sure before I label this "the be all end all".

So my first game I tried to kill as much of the enemy as possible and just contest the middle if possible. I thought the secondary and tertiary complimented each other, and this was the key to winning. Unfortunately, I could not over come my bad deployment choice, and bad positioning on turn 1. Still, I liked this scenario.

Mission 2- "New and Improved Greased-up Deaf Guy"

Overview- You all remember the Greased-up Deaf Guy, or maybe have heard rumors about him. Well so did the folks at GW, and they made him  the first objective of their second mission in next weeks Fantasy Ard Boyz.

Deployment- Standard stuff, 12" board edge, you know the drill.

Objectives
Primary- Capture the crazed fanatic.

Secondary- Kill points.

Tertiary- Have your most expensive HQ survive.

Tactical Bonus Points
+1 If you have wounded all of the opposition's HQ units.
+1 If all opposing troop choices are destroyed or fleeing.
+1 If all opposing Heavy Support units are destroyed or fleeing.

Special Rulez

Crazed Fanatic- Place a token in the center of the table to represent the "crazed fanatic". At the start of each player's turn the fanatic will move 3d6 in a random direction if he is not held captive. During his movement, any unit that he passes through will take d6 strength 6 hits.  TO ruled vehicles stopped his movement but walkers took hits like a unit. Terrain also stops his movement.
  In order to capture the fanatic, a unit must end thier movement on top of him. That unit immediately takes 2d6 strenght 6 hits, and must pass a strenght test to secure him. If you pass and capture him, he will move with the unit but can not enter vehicles. The fanatic will get away if the unit flees or is destroyed.
  The fanatic treats all terrain as open for movement, but will stop at impassible terrain. The fanatic will not leave the table but will stop at the edge.

Ok, lots of text there but it was very easy to run the fanatic. I found this a very fun game and almost got tabled while trying to get the fanatic, hiding Kantor, and shooting everything into my opponents HQ unit. He killed me on KP but I eliminated his HQ and secured the fanatic. Win 2-1.

Mission 3- "It's Some Stuff We All Want"

Overview- Slog, slog, fight, fight, kill, kill.....There's a spot that we want, and the other guy wants it too.

Deployment Zones- Table Quarters

Set Up- Place one objective in the center of the board, determine deployment quarters, then place an objective in the middle of each table quarter that is NOT a deployment zone.

Rules- Objective control is normal, just like it is written in the rule book. No funny business, I promise....

Objectives
Primary- Control more objectives than the other guy.

Secondary- Kill the opposition's most expensive HQ unit, or have it fleeing at the end of the game.

Tertiary- "Stack 'em like cord wood" Who ever has killed the highest percentage of the opposition's models wins this objective.

Tactical Bonus Points
+1 If you control at least one objective.
+1 If your most expensive HQ is still alive.
+1 Your opponent has no elite choices remaining in play.

Special Rules- Absolutely none.

I liked this one also. I went for objectives and figured I would try to kill as much as possible. I figured I woul look out for a HQ kill opertunity also.


So what do you think of having 3 different win conditions? Personally I find it more of a challenge and helps eliminate scenarios from "crowning winner" and handicaping other armies. They used a modified battle point system with each "objective" being wurth a set points. So it did matter how many objectives you accomplished.

They also had a very basic sportsmanship scoring with it being Y/N on these questions. Was your oppent prepared to play? Was you opponent fun? Was your opponents army painted? There was a couple others, and at the end you chose your favorite opponent also.

Overall this was a very fun tournament, with a nice store. They had a nice selection of GW, PP, and Reaper. They also had a large Magic tournament going on at the same time. They had a ton of space, with plenty of tables to use. I will be watching for more of their RTTs and will be driving up for them.

Trip Time!

Friday 13th and blogger is back up....I had a couple articles to put up but they will have to wait till Monday now. The reason they have to wait is I'm heading up north to Misty Mountain Games in Minneapolis MN. ( http://www.mistymountaingames.com/north/ ) They have a local 2000 point RTT this Saturday and I'm pumped to throw down my Crimson Fists for their first games.

Here are some pictures of the finished army. The pictures were taken at night so the lighting is bad,but they will have to do till I have my friend take some more professional looking ones.

Pedro Kantor and Librarian Brayden John.



Tactical squad #1 with squad razorback.



Tactical squad #2 lead by 4th Company Captain Cortez.

Terminator assault squad, element of the first crusade company.

Brother Daban and Brother Soto of the crusade company.

Custom Sterguard conversions.

Brother Barcena and his drop pod.

Well that's all till Monday. We will see if I can get battle reports up and a good break down of the armies up north. I'm also going to look at Battle Foam bags and get some ideas for my new display board I'm starting.

Repetition and Redundancy, a very good 3++ article.

While touring the internet today, I came across this nice article. I really liked the breakdown it did on your army and what repetition and redundancy really are.

http://kirbysblog-ic.blogspot.com/2011/05/repetition-and-redundancy.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+3IsTheNewBlackKirbYourEnthusiasm+%283%2B%2B+is+the+new+black.+%7C+Kirb+your+enthusiasm%21%29

Ok back? I think redundancy in competitive lists is a must in today's environment. With out it, you run the risk of good players simply neutralizing you list in one or two turns. Having multiple units that can accomplish the same missions means you can stay in the fight longer and neutralize your opponents army.

Using the breakdown chart from Kirby's blog, my 2000 point Crimson Fists list looks like so.

Light armour - predators, melta/missile tactical squad, mm speeder, Dread, termies, sternguard

Heavy armour - melta sternguard, melta tacticals, termies, ironclad, mm speeder

Horde - HB razors, HB speeder, sternguard, HF speeder,

MCs - predators, meltas, mm speeder

Influence enemy movement and deployment - DP Ironclad

Longevity - termies, 13 armour preds


So it looks like I'm light on influencing enemy movement and deployment. Mostly deployment as I can move forward with melta razorbacks and control mid board. Some kind of scouts would go along ways for my force. Infiltrating or outflanking would be handy. I could drop some speeders and take scouts or a storm. Bike scouts with melta bombs are a unit I have been thinking of running also.

Here is my current 2000 point list for reference as of 5-5-11.

Pedro Kantor
Librarian with null, and machine curse

Ironclad dreadnought with Drop pod
Assault terminators, 3 LC, 2 TH/SS
10 Sternguard- 2 melta, 2 combi melta, LC sarg with melta bomb, Ass can razorback

10 tactical marines- missile launcher, melta, PF sarg, HB razorback
10 tactical marines- missile launcher, melta, PF sarg, HB razorback

HB/HB speeder
MM/HF speeder

Predator- auto/las
Predator- auto/las
Predator- auto/las



Predators 1 &2 Crimson Fists.




I am spamming Predators, but my list has the hidden redundancy in the other units. I feel the predators are more of a distraction for some of my other units. If my opponent spends his resources killing them and ignores the rest then I feel I will win. I have other units that can take over the predator's role of anti-tank. If he ignores the predators, he runs the risk of them decimating his forces.

Horde lists are a different story. The lack of horde lists in tournaments, plus the other elements in my force (HB Razors/speeders), means the predators are not the biggest threat. Tank shocking and blocking will have to be their main use in those games.

Well there's my 2 cents for now.

Necron rumors and other intenet dribble.

I found this on Dakka, and after read so many different Necron rumors, I believe these to be closest to what will happen. I believe Tau will not happen this year, but maybe next. Anyhoo here is the link to the Dakka Dakka article by Yakface.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/365775.page


1) No surprise here, but Necrons are still essentially Tomb Kings in space fluff wise. A shift in fluff is now that all of the higher up necrons are intelligent while the lower level ones are still basically automatons. I guess that's roughly the same as it used to be, but apparently there is more emphasis in the sentience of the higher Necrons now (hence the named Lords).


2) C'Tan are still in the codex...sort of. They have been moved to the Elites section and are now a single unit choice, but with variable upgrade powers you can take.


3) We'll be Back is no longer called that and it is NOT Feel No Pain. Basically it is a 5+ bonus save similar to Feel No Pain, but doesn't get cancelled out by double strength, AP1/2, etc. In addition, this save is made at the END of the phase after morale tests are taken. If the unit is wiped out or is falling back at the end of the phase, then the save cannot be used. So as an opponent, if you manage to wipe the unit out or make them fall back, then you prevent any Necrons from getting back up...unless the unit has something called the 'ever-living' rule, in which case it gets to attempt this save even if the unit is wiped out.


4) Gauss Weaponry does NOT have rending. It retains the 'auto-glance' on a penetration roll of a '6' rule, but apparently otherwise has lost the 'auto-wound' on a roll of a '6' regardless of Toughness that it used to have. The Gauss Cannon is now apparently Assault 2 & AP3 (I'm assuming the Strength is still 6). The Gaus Flux Arc on the Monolith no longer automatically hits every unit within range, instead each one fires separately and can hit four different targets.


5) Phase out is gone.


6) Destroyers now count as jump infantry and there is a new Fast Attack Jetbike unit called Tomb Blades.


7) Immortals are now a Troops choice. Pariahs are gone. Flayed Ones are Elites.


8) There are indeed 6 named characters (although I have no more info on them). There is also a Necron Overlord and a bodyguard unit called Crypteks. Crypteks can be split off before the game to lead units of Necrons, very similar to Wolf Guard in the Space Wolves codex. Crypteks can take a bunch of different technology upgrades, so there is kind of a way now to have personalized squad leaders in a Necron army.


9) They army is much more mobile now in general. They have several units of jump troops, and 2 new transport vehicles. 1 transport can carry 15 necrons while another can carry 10. Jump pack units count as 2 models and jetbikes count as 5. The one that holds 10 is able to recover casualties to a unit (although can't take it beyond its starting strength). Necron vehicles besides the monolith are open-topped skimmers. However they have something called 'Quantum shielding' which gives their front & side armor +2 until the vehicle takes its first glance/pen, at which point it loses the shielding. One of these two transports (not sure which one) is apparently a personal transport for the Lord (and his retinue).


10) There are six new vehicles in the codex (including the two transports mentioned above). Two of which seem to be based around this old Jes Goodwin design: http://storage.canalblog.com/29/28/731795/53057637.jpg


11) In general Necrons have a lot more long ranged fire support. There is also a new weapon type called Tesla weapons. These weapons, on a roll of '6' to hit automatically cause two more hits. The biggest version of the Tesla weapons has a chance of hitting all other units close to the target; both friend and foe. One of the new vehicles carries the doomsday cannon: 72" S9 AP1 Heavy 1 large blast. BS4.


12) In the Elites section there is a big new walker. It has a heat ray that that is either a melta or flamer depending on what you want to do. Any unit hit by this vehicle is marked (as in: laser targeted), which means that all other necrons count as being twin-linked for shooting at the marked enemy unit that turn.



Here's my 2 cents. 6 new vehicles alone makes this dex "feel" new. Add new units and other new options and these are not you Mom's Necrons. Being able to add squad leaders to units sounds cool. Monstrous creature sounds on par for what GW has been doing lately both in fantasy and 40k. Over all this will make Necrons pretty cool. I like the direction they are headed if these pan out.

On another rumor I keep seeing Chaos plus Sisters/Black Templar's for 6th edition. What ever Imperial doesn't make it in the box looks like it will be released this fall/winter. I would love for sister's to be "delayed" for 6th. It would mean their codex would be on of the first for the edition and cheap box sisters would be cool. Here's to fingers crossed.

Anyway, their is my 2 cents. 

Super Summer of Movies kickoff is almost here!

Friday is the kickoff of what Brayden (my son) and I are calling "Super Summer of Movies". We have been watching the previews of some of these and are really looking forward to seeing them. Not since LOTR and Star Wars have I been this excited about a summer full of movies I want to see. The best part is my little boy is a comic book movie junkie and this summer has plenty for him to see.

First on our list is Thor this Friday.

Next up on the list is Pirates of the Caribbean on May 20th.

I have liked all of their movies and Jack... I'm sorry Capt Jack Sparrow is one of the coolest characters.

June 3rd we will definitely be off to Xmen First Class. Brayden and I love Magneto!

Later that month The Green Lantern comes out on the 17th of June.

July 1st will be all about Bumble Bee and Transformers 3. Previews look good, and this will be a good 4th of July type movie.

And finally on July 22nd we will see Captain America; The First Avenger.

Wow, what a summer it will be. I will probably be spending my winter going to sappy movies with my wife to make up for it. It really looks like they are spaced out perfectly too. None of them come out on the same weekends and they look to be about 2 weeks apart, give or take.

So grab the popcorn and soda, get your tickets and enjoy the awesome ride! It is definitely going to be LEGEN......wait for it..........DARY!

Crimson Fists WIP update 5-2-11

Some good progess tonight on the Fists. I got my 2 speeders for my 2000 point list finished tonight. They were close to finished before only needing the crew done. It feels very nice to see units finished and the army taking real shape. Here are some quick shots. The lighting is bad since it is still night.