So What Would You Guys Like to See?

With the holidays over and with my newest Necron list posted I’ve found that I have a bit of a writer’s block. I’m currently working on an article (or series depending on its length) regarding the current state of 40k going into its last year but it’s going to take a bit so I was wondering….

What would you guys like me to write about?

I’m open to ideas and anything 40k related pretty much goes. Feel free to put them in the comments so I can get started with some writing over the weekend J

My Current 1,850 Necrons

So the holidays have mostly come and gone and I’m home and not ridiculously behind anymore so it’s time to start posting all over again J

I’m going to start with where I’m currently at with my Necrons. I think it’s a solid list though I’m sure it’s going to require a lot of playing to get the feel of as it’ll require careful movement and it’s different than most armies I play. Anywho:

Codex Creep – The Myth and the Legend #2 (Unit Comparison)

Let me start this by saying I’m not picking on Corrollax. In fact I think his response actually highlights what a lot of people think and feel when they think of “Codex Creep” and so I thought it would be worthwhile to respond in a full article as opposed to a single entry in the comments section. So thanks Corrollax for giving me some more material to work with. We’ll start by quoting his last comment which was given after I asked how it was relevant to compare Incubi and Purifiers:

Blood Angel Heavy Calvary – 1850

From: Bolter & Chainsword

So here is a list I like. Not 100% sold on it but I think it’s pretty solid. It’s not as well rounded as the GK list I posted here yesterday but it could be fun.

Grey Knight Armored Spearhead - 1850

I’ve been on a bit of a Land Raider kick lately. I’ve been pondering tons of lists featuring 3+ Land Raiders since I think they’d be fun. I blame a fella at a local event this weekend who mentioned the 5 Land Raider Blood Angel list for getting my mind going down this road. Anywho:

Codex Creep – The Myth and the Legend

I know I’ve been a bit quiet lately and part of that is that it’s the slow season for me for 40k with the holidays and lack of general events until February but part of it is also that I’ve been sucked back into WoW a bit and am enjoying some relaxing smiting lately. Anyway I do still read things, generally while I’m at work, and today I noticed Polonius from Dakka put up an article in the DCM section that details his thoughts on Codex Creep as seen by most people around his local store and the internet. It’s an interesting article and if it gets moved out of there eventually I’ll link it here.

Anyway it got me thinking. I sometimes hear even seasoned players stating that certain books break the game or that no Xenos army is ever as good as a Space Marine army. I also hear things along the line of “well obviously it’s going to be broken, they have to make it better than X”. Between those comments and Polonius’s article I thought I’d give my view on “Codex Creep”

Grey Knights 1850 - Pallies, Henchmen, and Dreads...Oh My!

My attention span lost traction again today and I started playing with army builder looking at 1850 lists that I might consider particularly nasty. This is one I came up with which is pretty gross:

A Little Update

Nothing to crazy. I've just added a page with photos from the armies I play right now. Once Dash gets me some good photos of his armies I'll add them in too. Just something I felt would be a fun addition. Enjoy.

Point Values And Army Building Thoughts

As I'm looking more and more lately at 1,850 lists because 3/4 GT's I'm considering attending between now and June are 1,850 events I thought "Hey, naturally everyone will want to read my thoughts". Also this post got me thinking as well:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/411968.page

I find it interesting that there isn't really a common ground or a basic point level for this game we love. Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating that we set a point value I just felt that it was interesting that none had sprung up.

Scout Bikers – So Sneaky You Never See Them!

I’m taking a small break from my Necron writings because, well, I want to J. I’m still in love with my Necrons and will have them painted in the relative near future and ready to play but I felt like doing another one of my overlooked unit reviews. You might remember:

Ogryns: http://hulksmash-homeplace.blogspot.com/2011/06/ogryns-shunned-abused.html

Paladins (Before people starting using them heavily): http://hulksmash-homeplace.blogspot.com/2011/05/paladins-poor-misunderstood-paragons-of.html

Well now I’d like to focus on a unit that does not get nearly enough face time with Space Marine or Blood Angel players. The humble Scout Biker. I’ll focus on its overall strengths and drawbacks and then how it applies to both the SM and BA codexes.

Space Wolves 2.0 - 2k

So recently while building and kinda starting to paint my Necrons I've also been looking at my full painted marines and thinking about how I would revamp them for the current environment. Now I haven't really tweaked my SW's list since year before last (outside of building an entirely new Loganwing) and I think I can make it work in the current environment. Here are two lists I'm considering. The first is including Logan and the second is without.

Codex Review: Heavy Support

Here is the next stop on the Necron review train. The heavy support section is much different from the Fast Attack in that it’s not so full of awesome. I find most of the choices in this section a little lackluster but I’ll try present some uses for all the choices even if I don’t see a use for them in my forces. So onto the review.

Necron Boom Boom List – 2k

Well I got excited by my review of Tomb Blades in my Fast Attack review and so I’ve been toying with a list that included them. In fact it’s a list designed around them. I've also got an idea on how I'm going to build them since I'm not a huge fan of the artwork on them. Anyway, here we go:

Necron Review: Fast Attack

This is by far my favorite category for Necrons. It contains the majority of what I consider fun units and I think it’s probably going to be the most filled area of the force org chart as people really start to settle down into their lists. On to the review!

Necron Review: Troops

We’ll get this started with that little something you’re absolutely required to take to win games and generally in decent number: Troops!

As a Necron player you have exactly two options. There are no force org shenanigans that allow you to have more so you just have two. Personally I don’t mind though I would have like the option to make something else troops. Granted I don’t think anything else would work balance-wise but that doesn’t stop me from wanting more J

Necron RTT Batrep: Game One

My mighty legions of grey plastic marched upon the scene Saturday after I got an email letting me know that the new Necrons would be allowed for the tournament. I managed to have everything built but only the scarabs have a lick of paint on them at this point. Anywho onto the batrep.

Email: 1,500pt Necron Build Request

So today I got a PM on Dakka from Valek asking how I would scale my army list down to 1,500. I responded by asking which of the two lists posted was he curious about but since I have a bit of time I figured I’d just do both down at the 1,500pt level. So here we go.

Fear the Mechanical Bug - 2k Necrons

Figured I’d throw this up for fun while I’m writing my FOC reviews. It is based on the current understanding that Scarabs roll for penetration after Entropic Strike occurs. I realize I recently said I would play it differently but Yakface on Dakka stated that per the playtest dex the wording was clear that it occurred at the end of the assault phase but the wording was changed in the final version which leads me to actually think it was intentional. Anywho, onto the list:

Necron - Codex Review

Well, right now the internet is abuzz with Necron articles. Sadly I’m going to be no exception as I’m super excited by this release. I’m going to be breaking down my review between a general overview, each FOC slot, and final thoughts. This is naturally the overall review.

My magnets also finally arrived so I’ve been finishing building my army for a tournament this Saturday assuming I’m allowed to use the new book that’s only been out for about a week. On to my overall review.

What is Anti-Tank?

This is something that has been getting to me for a while. Forgive the intrusion into what is going to be quite a bit of necron posting but this is something I feel might need to be put out there. It is mostly geared toward non-imperial armies but I think it has something most people can take away.

So what is Anti-Tank? Well if you listen to the internet anti-tank is melta. That’s it. Nothing else counts or is considered. It’s an unfortunate but true tale. I’m going to cover the different aspects of anti-tank in this post hopefully to give people a different view that shows them that anti-tank can exist without the big “M”.

2k Necrons, First Thoughts

Well the codex finally dropped. I’ve been playing with it off and on for the last few days and I’m really excited about this book. Here is where my playtesting is starting for 2k. Naturally this is my starting point for what I hope will be a solid 2k list but after reading the book I have a feeling I’m going to be making a fairly different 1,850. This codex has a ton of potential builds and looks like it’s going to be able to manage to build to the point level which is great.

Well enough waiting, here is the first 2k list:

 

Hobby Update - Necrons

This weekend I had a little time to get started on my Necrons and I figured I'd share the beginnings of my newest army.

Tournament Off Season and Next Year

Well it’s that time of the year. The time of the year where GT’s start to dry up for the 2-3 months except for a rare few. It’s the time of the year that I normally find my interest in 40k waning slightly which is one of the reasons I’m so excited for the Necron codex to light a new fire under me for the hobby. I am looking forward to the new year as there are no 2-day events that I’ll be able to attend until February when the season starts back up for me at least. There are a few RTT’s between now and then but nothing truly large until February.

So....Blood Angels?

While I wait for concrete information on the new Necrons J

As you guys know I played at the Ard Boy Finals last week and finished somewhere in the middle going 2-1. I took an all foot and mostly jumper based Blood Angels army that included Dante and the Sanguinor. That being said the events of the weekend got me thinking a wee bit about something that would be fun and that I pretty much already have painted to play given the chance. Here is the list and then we’ll talk about it a bit and my thoughts.

Off to the Ard Boyz Finals

Alright so I'm getting ready to head out for the Finals that are being held a mere 20 minutes from me (heck yes!). For the first round I ran Logan Wing and came in second. In the second round I ran a GK list with 3 Purgation Squads with Incinerators and came in third. I figured I'd stick with my streak and run a different codex this time. So I'm bring Blood Angels. And another all infantry army with no vehicles :)

Necrons – Ready or Not, Here They Come!

I’m Back!!!! Sorry I’ve been gone for the last two weeks but work has been kicking my ass and I haven’t had any urge to write honestly. I got a little burnt out towards the end of September and I think I’m finally starting to come out of it. Mostly due to the topic of this article….Necrons!

My information has come mostly from this article on Dakka and my thanks to Yakface there for providing so much info and to Kroothawk for keeping the front page updated: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/403994.page

So unlike my fellow author I’m really excited for this release. I’ve always love the image of the Necrons since they were released at the end of second edition. I collected them briefly when the codex came out in 3^rd but found that I didn’t have enough to grip onto to drag me in. I hated the idea of C’tan’s (granted back then I was much more a holier than though fluff/comp bunny) and the army had so few models, so few opportunities for conversion, and such a lack of depth fluff-wise that I was turned off and sold my stuff to some friends.

Sportsmanship: The Dashofpepper Story

Hey folks! I wrote something on Dakka that I thought I would bring here. A poster is having some sportsmanship troubles for "winning too much" and it struck a chord.

Here's the thread if you care to follow, but I'll post his question and my response.

Dracos writes:
There seems to be an inverse correlation between my sportsmanship score and my battle performance during a tourny. When I started out, I lost many games and got top sports scores. Now that I am winning most/all my games I seem to get a low sportsmanship score. I don't feel like my demeanor has changed during the game, but perhaps its something I'm not noticing. No one has said anything that they found objectionable, so I don't know what exactly it is. For all you guys who tend to win locally, how do you keep your sportsmanship score up while laying down a beating?


*laughing* OP, welcome to my life.

I'm probably going to regret everything I'm about to type, but....it is what it is. I'm going to give you a little backstory in hopes that you can relate - but this is what's happened to me, how it happened, and what I've done to overcome it. I win pretty consistently, both at the local and national level. I've suffered from poor sportsmanship scores at a few events, and some of those have been scandalous in their circles.

Lone Wolves – My Thoughts on Why and How….

I was asked over a 2 weeks ago to describe the role Lone Wolves play in my current Loganwing list and how I see their roll overall. I had been meaning to do this and it just got away from. Luckily I found the beginning of this article on this computer and can happily knock this out. Onto my thoughts!

General Disclaimer: My opinions are not the be all, end all of thoughts on 40k be it list building or strategy and opposing lines of thought are appreciated as it makes for better conversation.

That said let’s look at my superstar and favorite unit in the SW’s codex; the Lone Wolf. Now we’re going to start with the unit entry as a whole and then I’ll go into how I’ve slipped them into my lists over the two years.

Rantings on Dark Eldar: Continuing the Xenos Surge

Hey folks! 

I always forget to write this at the end of articles, so up front it goes:  As always, we appreciate you clicking on ads!  Hulksmash tells me that your efforts might actually pay for our Adepticon Team Tournament next year.  I presume he’s talking about the entry fees, not plane tickets and lodgings and stuff – but anything that helps is help appreciated. J

The purpose of this article is to address what I see as some “myths” about Dark Eldar perpetrating the internet, often advanced by “listened-to” parties about Dark Eldar – things I find irritating, incorrect, unsubstantiated, or a mixture of all three.  I also intend to browbeat army-building techniques and advance my own agenda for how to formulate a cohesive army.  As always, advice I give is flavored with my competitive nature, so apply as needed. 

Ard Boyz Finals - Tyranids?

Well with the Ard Boyz Finals local I’ll actually be attending. And I’ve been itching lately to pull my bugs back out and go a stomping. This is just a ramped up version of my standard 2k list that I think I’d do pretty well with:

I Pity The Guard – A 2,000pt. List

Been busier than I thought so this is another tied over while I finish a few deeper articles.

Based on my previous post I thought I’d throw out a list in the 2,000 range. I feel like it has a few more tools to use than the standard lists out there do though there is naturally room for improvement as this is a first draft. Here we go:

I Pity the Guard! - Thoughts on Guard in the Current Environment

Well I said I was working on a few random articles and this is one of them. I’ve recently closed out the summer “season” of tournaments which included 3 GT’s that totaled 27 games, several RTT’s, and the Ard Boy Prelims/Semi’s. Oddly I’m not burned out on the hobby. I will say I’ve been looking at Fantasy as a way to change things up a bit but that’s beside the point.

The point of this article is that I’m starting to feel a little pity in my heart for the Guard players out there. Bear in mind this is purely off what I’ve run into and seen in events in Virginia, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Texas as well as lists I see being written up online on blogs and several forum communities. Some guard players still do very well for themselves but in general also aren’t posting their lists and aren’t taking the top spots in tournaments anymore(I said in general Mike since you’ve got 2 events coming upJ). Why aren’t we seeing IG in the top spots anymore? Why has their representation dropped (not back to pre-5^th ed. codex levels but pretty close) so much?

Gaming Update and a Yay for the Blog!

Blog first!

We hit 150 followers and we’re just short of a 150,000 page hits. It’s not huge but it’s a pretty solid start to the first year that still has a month to go. I’m pretty happy with it. Thanks to everyone who reads and comments on the blog. I appreciate it! And thanks to Dash for bringing in not a low number of readers and subscribers.

Ard Boyz - Rockin the Orks!

I was going thru some of my models tonight and some of my models caught my eye. I've got a pretty awesome themed Ork army that's awaiting painting but is otherwise built and ready to rock. Here is something I think is rather nasty:

Ard Boyz - My Wolves

Well just like normal I can't decide what the hell I want to run. But luckily for me I've got a ton of models and I'm thinking of running my Loganwing again. I've been running them pretty well so far and I think they have all the tools needed to deal with the armies out there. Here we go:

The Draw of Xenos

Hey folks!

For those of you who read Black Library books, when is the last time you got to the end, and the Xenos won? Never you say? That’s what I thought. And I don’t mean pyrrhic victories or temporary advantages over the forces of the Imperium, I mean a full-on, all the humies are dead, we claim this world, the end. Ghazghkull may have had his way with Armageddon, but he still got driven off the planet by Yarrick. The Necrons in “Fall of Damnos” are virtually limitless, and Necron In-fighting causes them from winning. Where’s the novel written from the perspective of a Tyranid hive ship? Or the novella? One that contains something of the unstoppable force they’re floating across the galaxy with? Humanity doesn’t stand a chance in staying the dominant race in the galaxy, yet every book is an Imperium victory.

Ard Boyz - Blood Angels!

Here is another list I’ve been thinking of running based on the massed amounts of scoring units that are going to be required due to the scenarios. It’s a BA list which appeals to me based on their speed. Best part is, like my possible GK’s, I have all the models I would need J

Ard Boyz - Grey Knights Take 2!

After looking over my models and seeing what I had I think I like this a little more. It’s a tweak on the old list. Enjoy!

Ogres - Take 2

So I’ve made a few tweaks based on the previous feedback and this time around I’m also actually at 2,500 so my math isn’t horribly off J. I think this is a slightly more solid list that before however I did give up one ogre model to tweak it to this point. I’ll be taking this to a tourney this Sunday to give a whirl and try out fantasy so without further talking, here is the newest list:

Ard Boyz Semi's - Grey Knight Super Spam!

It's Sunday, the wife is catching back up on her shows and I've finished building all the Ogre stuff I won yesterday at a RTT. I'll start painting it later this week but for now I'm playing with lists for the Ard Boyz Semi's this weekend. Turns out I managed to nab the last spot available at the most local semi's when I signed up yesterday which is good because driving seemed like a bummer. Here is super spam list that oddly might be able to compete in these missions assuming we don't roll KP's for the third mission.

Dash of Ranting: Nova Invitational Against Stelek

Good day fine peoples of the 40k universe.

Hulksmash keeps me on a leash here (in jest at least, because I don’t flip out often). Then again, not being on Dakka and far away from stupid people probably helps me contain my fury.

At any rate, I wrote a bit about my game against Stelek in my Nova Invitational Review. I hadn't thought about it since, until today when someone linked me his battle report if we can even call it that.

Having read it, I'm truly affronted. Appreciative of his commentators that are affronted on my behalf at his sniping, but still affronted myself. So I thought I would address a few things.

First, I'm not writing this as a reply on YTTH because I'm not a member, don't want to have to subscribe to post something, and Stelek has a nasty habit of deleting things I've posted there in the past - the only posts I've made there being on nuances of DE and Ork gameplay.

Ogres - My First Try

Be ready, this is gonna be a long one. Well I'd pointed out recently that I might be getting back into Fantasy with the release of the Ogres new book. And here I am, back into Fantasy. I have to say it's the first army book that I think I can get most of what I want out of it. I've always liked Dark Elves too but Ogres are just to cool. Nothing like running around with giant 3-wound monsters as your basic troops.

Anyway I've picked up a few items for what I think might be the beginning of my competitive list. I had a ton of models from the first release that will only require some minor tweaking but I'll be adding about $240 worth of stuff to my army to get what I might like out of it.

Oopsies!

I think Hulksmash may have jumped the gun on me - a 1/3 - 1/2 finished in-depth reply to the ridiculousness over at YTTH and Stelek's wishful thinking about our game was in the works. I saved it as a draft, and woke up this morning to find it published in it's unfinished state.

I deleted it; sorry if you commented on it and feel miffed to find it gone! It'll be back when it's finished. Bold, unyielding, blunt, and no-holds-barred.

Also, I use the word "shitpickle" at least twice.

The More You Know - Nova Edition

This is going to be an article to cover the glaring mistakes I made in my games at the Nova that led to my 9-5 record this year over the Nova weekend. I had a great weekend and almost all of my games were great against fun opponents. I’m going to preface the following with the fact that it was my mistakes that cost me all of my losses and had nothing to do with dice. Every situation I had where my dice weren’t so hot could have been mitigated if I hadn’t oopsied before the dice needed to be rolled.

I’ll include a brief rundown of the game I lost as well as the minor and not so minor mistakes I made during the games. Here we go:

Raging Is Cool! (Sisters WD)

So recently I’ve been able to catch up on a bit of reading on Dakka since I’m back on 12 hour days at work. And the one thing I’ve noticed is that it seems to be cool to scream about things lately. This has happened especially since the Sisters of Battle WD codex that came out.

Personally I’ve found that I like the book far more than the last one. I can actually fit things that I want in and feel like I’m covering my bases. I know mine isn’t the popular opinion but I think GW’s current codex release style works well with my brain. They are currently normally completely revamping how armies play each time they release a new codex. With me have the attention span of a ferret on meth I find that I have far less trouble taking each book as a new stand alone. I no longer compare codexes to previous incarnations because it doesn’t do any good. I simply sit down with the newest book and start to put in things that sound good.

Tournament Review: Nova Open 2011

So this last weekend I attended the Nova Open! This included the GT and the Invitational as well as participating in the Whiskey Challenge on Thursday night. I've already listed the army I brought so I won't bore you with that again but I'm gonna give you a breakdown of the event as I saw it. I'll have a seperate article for how I did and a nice list of the oopsies I made in the games I lost as that might be a help. Anyway, on to the review. Like normal I'll start with the breakdown and then my overall score for the event. I'll follow that up with the a recap of the minor adjustments that I feel could make the event a little bit better.

Need a DE conversion idea!

Hey folks!

Scores from the Nova Open are filtering in. I finished 4th in the competitive bracket, and 33rd Overall. Much of that “overall” ranking was due to receiving 43% of available painting points, which stunned me. My army has never looked as good as it does now, and I was fully expecting to be 70-85% of points.

The two major “paint” categories were “Best Painted model” and “best converted model.” While everything in my army is definitely tabletop quality (with my ravagers being on the lower end due to recoat touchups and magnetic issues), I don’t have anything that really stands out as an exceptional painted model or an exceptional converted model. All of my beasts are converted…but they are functional conversions. Necron scarabs in the DE color scheme with bladed wings attached, LOTR Wargs with Tyranid scything talons attached for khymerae….

Dash at the Nova Open: Tournament Review

Hey folks!

I just got back home from the Nova Open...I am one tired mofo. This blog post is for my thoughts on the tournament.

Venue:
The Whiskey Challenge, Invitational, and Nova Open were all at the Hyatt in D.C. There was a convenient shuttle from the airport to the hotel and check-in was easy. In terms of the tournament area, it was quite spacious and the hotel kept water coolers and cups available constantly. In terms of the hotel....it left quite something to be desired, and I hope Mike will pick a different hotel (like the Holiday Inn across the street) next year. Rooms had open shower stalls - no doors or curtains, just a half-glass panel, so that when you showered, water splashed out into the bathroom, and exiting the shower was deadly unless you put a towel down on the floor (there were no bath mats). On top of that, the shower-heads were awful. They were top-down "rain only" shower-heads, which is my least favorite shower mode. Rooms didn't have free internet, which is something I expect from any hotel I stay in, and at $10 per day for internet that was slower than dial-up, web-pages would time-out trying to load. My wife and I did watch "X-Men: First Class" Sunday night for the low-price of $17 on T.V. with a strict warning that there was no preview period, no refunds, and if we accidentally changed the channel, experienced a power-outage, or turned the T.V. off, we were out of luck. Room service was $37 for a small, undercooked poor quality steak and a glass of water, and the hotel nickel and dimed patrons EVERYWHERE. No microwaves in the room, no fridge either. The lights in our bathroom were shorted out, and kept flickering in and out, maintenance never made it up to replace them....

Nova Open Live!

All bloggers, forum posters, etc., please repost this and keep it "alive" all over ... you can tune into the NOVA Open Live Feed starting tomorrow at around 6:00PM, and it'll be "up" for the majority of the Open thereafter, including the Whiskey Challenges on Thursday night, Invitational all day Friday, and the Open on Sat and Sun.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-11th-company

Dash and I will both be participating in the Whiskey Challenges on Thursday and the Invitational on Friday. And we'll see how our quest for the top tables goes during the Open.

Nova is gonna be a good time again this year!

Nova: The Countdown!

I'm not dead! I'm really not. Sorry everybody but I was out of town last week for work and painting like a son of a bitch so there wasn't whole lot of blogging going on.

Well with just 2 days till I fly to DC I figured I'd throw out what the weekend is going to look like for me. Lets get started:

On Thursday the wifey and I fly out early and land in the early afternoon local time. We'll head over to the hotel and get all checked-in and set up. Then I'll be looking for my fellow writer and taking a bit of a look around. I'll shoot down to the mixer for a few drinks and some mingling with some fellow gamers. After that I'm not sure if I actually have an opponent for the Whiskey Challenge so I'm open if pesople wanna knock a game out we can totally do it or maybe Mike will post who I'm playing on here.

'Ard Boyz Semi-Finals aka: Screw this shit!

The last couple years have seen a definitive decline of the quality of ‘Ard Boyz, which was had a tenuous claim to any sort of quality in the first place. Prize support has gone down and down, while costs have gone up and up.

Hosting locations are fewer, the missions…while never very good or balanced have gotten worse…and now we don’t even get them on the traditional ‘Ard Boyz stationary. Talk about a dump.

I elected to participate in the preliminary round of ‘Ard Boyz solely to get a bit of practice in before the Nova Open. Attending ‘Ard Boyz required a 2.5 hour drive to my nearest store…and having acquired my pass to the semi-finals, I look to my accumulated experience and seriously wonder if I should even contemplate going.

Dark Eldar for the Nova Events!

Hey folks!

The Nova Invitational and the Nova Open approach, and with army lists coming due, I decided it was time to think about what to do. The Nova Invitational is a one day, 5 round event at 1750 points, followed by two more days of the Nova Open at 2,000 points.

My traditional Dark Eldar army doesn’t much change – my 2,000 point army roughly looks like this:

HQ: Baron Sathonyx
HQ: Haemonculi
Troop1-5: 5x Warriors, Blaster, Dual Splinter Cannon Venom
Troop6: 9x Wyches, Haywire Grenades, Raider
Elite1-3: 4x Trueborn with blasters, Dual Splinter Cannon Venom
Fast: Beast Unit
Heavy 1-3: Ravagers

List Help: Ard Boyz Dark Eldar

Hey Dash/Hulk/or anyone else...
I kinda have the same problem with Dash here has DE doesn't scale really well at 2.5k level while maintaining some coherency and redundancy. But I will say this… I’m going to build Vect with is ride as this is really the only point level I think Vect would work. Let me know what you think:
The Love Bird List (2500pt)
HQ: Vect + Dias of Destruction
HQ: Lady Malys

Troop: 5x Warriors with Blaster in a Venom with Dual Splinter Cannons
Troop: 5x Warriors with Blaster in a Venom with Dual Splinter Cannons
Troop: 5x Warriors with Blaster in a Venom with Dual Splinter Cannons
Troop: 9x Wyches + a Hekatrix, Agonizer, Haywire Grenades, Shardnet and Impaler, in a Raider with a Flickerfield, Shock Prow, and Grisly Trophies
Troop: 7x Wyches + a Hekatrix Agonizer, Haywire Grenades, Shardnet and Impaler (to go with Vect & Malys in Dias of Destruction)

'Ard Boyz for Dashofpepper

Hey folks!

Tomorrow is going to be an interesting experience. As you probably know, I'm a big fan of efficiency. I'm a systems engineer, process engineer, industrial engineer...different parts of the military and civilian world call it different things, but it all boils down to efficiency. That includes my hobby. All my hobbies in fact. When I'm at home, I'm often playing 2-3 video games at the same time on my computer (Flash games at Kongregate type of thing), while watching a movie with my wife.

But that's tangential to this: Hulksmash and I don't always agree on everything, but we have always agreed that Dark Eldar don't belong in 2,500 points. And yet...here I sit with a 2,500 point Dark Eldar list in hand, regretting having made it, and knowing that I'm going to be miserable playing it because of it's inherent inefficiencies, but with no better alternative. I had four choices:

Ard Boyz - Nid List

So I'm thinking about Ard Boyz this weekend and in my usual style I haven't decided what I'm taking yet. Here's a quicky list I was thinking about. It's an expansion on my Adepticon List and I think it could hang pretty well.

Damn You Internet & ADD!

I think I may have talked myself into a hole with my throw down to use Bugs for the Nova. There are a couple of reasons for it so let me illuminate you onto the issues I'm currently having fufilling my statement on what I'm going to run for Nova.

Nova Invitational Tyranids Take #3 - Big Bugs!

Welcome to the big bug rodeo. At 1750 there is a lot of nasty you can build around T6 creatures. This is a tweak on the last list. Enough talk, here we go:

Nova Invitational Nids - 1,500pt Upgrade

I recently (using the term loosely) ran a 1,500pt list at a RTT over in La Crosse. It was a pretty nasty list in the sense that it had 40 T6 wounds which is pretty overwhelming at that point level. It repaid me by going 3-0 and only 1 objective short of a perfect score. So if it worked then why couldn't I just upgrade it and run it at 1.75k? This accidentally loosely ties in with Dash's article from Saturday.

Dashofpepper Strategeries: On Changing Point Levels

One of the great things about co-authoring with Hulksmash is that we bring such different perspectives to the table on so many issues. This particular issue is something we’ve chatted about from time to time, and our opinions differ.

In short, if I pick an army…take Orks for example, my 1500, 1750, 1850, 2000, and 2500 lists all follow the same theme. I might even call them modular. If I want to bump from 1850 to 2000, I can add another unit of XXX. If I need to drop from 1850 to 1500, I can cut a unit of YYY. I play Battlewagon Orks led by Ghazghkull Thraka – and at every point level…that theme is readily apparent - a solid army core of my theme with modular additions and subtractions based on point level.

Hulksmash on the other hand subscribes to the theory that an army’s playstyle changes at point levels. Tyranids at 1500 are different than Tyranids at 2000. To some extent, I agree…my Necron theme works at 2,000 points – but I can’t keep the theme below 2,000 points, so I would have to change it. So I don’t play Necrons below 2,000 points. =p

Nova Invitational Nids - 1st Try

Well as you know from my article on Thursday I'm going to be running Tyranids in the Nova Invitational as well as the Open. I figured I'd share the first of my thoughts with you guys on what I'm thinking of running for the Invitational.

The Invitational is a little weird in that first off I never play 1750. Add into it that 1750 is weird since I can't seem to find a happy balance between T6 and small gribblies. That being said here is my first attempt. It has the advantage of including my Parasite which would double as my "Converted" model for the painting score.

Nova Invitational & Open: My Mind is Made Up!

So I generally don't do this but balance in 40k is apparently one of my touch points for my hobby. I was at work yesterday and came across this in my blog reading:

http://theback40k.blogspot.com/2011/08/is-it-time-to-worry-yet.html

Long story short it's a bit of a rant about the state of 40k and how imbalanced it is. It highlights Tyranids as one of the poorest codexes of 5th edition outside of the New Sisters WD book that isn't even out yet. It also claims there is a single workable army list which is beyond false. But since the whole article is pretty much predicated upon a single guys local meta and his personal experiences it's easy enough to dismiss. That said it helped me reach a conclusion.

FANTASY!!!!

As you guys can tell this is pretty much a 40k blog. I'm like 40k and I'm pretty good at it. I feel like with 40k I've got an outlook on portions of the game that can make people think at the very least.

That said my second favorite (maybe tied for favorite) Warhammer Fantasy army is about to get it's newest codex release. OGRES!!!!!

Return of the Professional 40k Gamer!

Hey folks!

Having been catapulted back into the #1 ranked position, I wanted to take this opportunity to shamelessly soapbox the rigorous daily routines that all the elite gamers engage in. In my last article and routine outline, I talked about unit flash cards, drills, META-honing, internet searches, multi-table simultaneous gaming…

In this article, I wanted to explain the true secret behind a successful gamer: I call it the “Futuristic Action Gaming Simulation.” The key to success with any unit on the tabletop is to truly understand what it is like to BE that unit. How can you truly understand the potency of a Space Marine if you’ve never stood in the shoes of a genetically engineered super-human with massive weaponry? How can you truly understand the terror that a Dark Eldar wych can inspire if you’ve never stripped almost naked and tortured someone to death? Or of a chaos marine if you’ve never mutilated yourself and engaged in every excess imaginable?

Damn You Yermom! 2k Nids for Nova

First off, sorry! Work has been crazy and I've barely had time to type a thing. Hopefully I'm a little more consistant again.

So that bastard Nick (Yermom) put up a post the other day on Nids and the possibility of bringing them to Nova. You can find it here: http://thebrownpaintbrush.blogspot.com/2011/07/tyranids-are-retuning-to-nova.html

Anyway this made me start thinking. I'm playing in what is likely to be a very intense and draining ( in a good way) tournament on Friday with the Nova Invitational. So my initial reaction was just to bring my trusted Space Wolves for the big 2-day event as they are so on auto-pilot that I actually have more time to think about things that come out of left field with them and otherwise they'll require much, much less thinking than some of the lists I've been toying with. Enter Nick. I've officially offered to bring my Nids if he does. Why? Because it'll be a grand time. Last year Nick and I both played daemons and finished 3-1 on day one but his massacres got him into day two where my squeeks weren't enough. It'd be interesting to see if we could do better with Nids.

BA Sternguard List

Ok, so I'm willing to admit I have a problem......I was reading a post on Dakka regarding the viability of a Sternguard list and I simply couldn't help myself. So at first I was playing with a standard SM list in Army Builder but I couldn't get something I really wanted. I could make the Sternguard score and get some decent support to the list but I just couldn't make one I was happy with. Then I had a thought!

"Blood Angels have Sternguard too"

Well that could be fun so this is what I came up with as a rough draft (this is not my Nova Army):

SONAR! Submarine Detected!

Submarining in Warhammer 40k is an interesting concept. Just as a submarine can cruise below the surface, surfacing to destroy a target – a submarine in Warhammer 40k is someone who cruises through the middle/upper layer of the pack without surfacing at the top until the end.

Since my 40k career began, I’ve discarded this idea – I prefer to win big or lose big. And ultimately, almost every GT experience I’ve ever had has been identical: I start off strong, get to the top early, and the rest of my games are fending off whomever has the closest number of battlepoints / strongest wins. Every massacre pits me against another player who’s doing as well as I am. In the end, I’ve either defended myself against all the other top performers, or I didn’t.

Nova Invitational/Open Update

Well as most of you know I’m a bit of a loon for armies. I have a tendency to jump back, forth, and across the spectrum all based on whims of what might be fun or randomly sounds good. I’ve basically got the attention span of a gnat inside of our hobby which can be a good thing (tons of painted armies and stuff) but can also be a bad thing (never quite practice enough with a given list). However for the Nova Invitational I’m trying very, very hard to settle in on a single army and I think I finally found one that fits all my criteria for the event.

Blog Update!

Sorry guys about the lack of posting lately. Dash is a little burnt out so that's knocked him a bit and for me...well....

This happened:

Between this and work I'm kinda on hiatus this week. It's 900pgs of awesome that I've been waiting for for a decade now (yeah, Feast of Crows doesn't count cause it didn't have Tyrion, Jon, or Daeny!) so I'm gonna be a bit busy. Add in the fact that work got a little crazy and you won't see that batrep till the weekend or early next week along with some other articles I'll start working on when I finish. Lot's of stuff regarding Nova and the Invitational :)

All Terminator Lists Part 2: Wolfwing

We’re now onto the second portion of the three part article on all Terminator armies. I chose to do Wolf Guard second since I was toying last night with the list for the Invitational (yes, the Invitational is 1,750 and the articles are based around 2k, sue me) and so it’s fresh in my mind. Plus I wanted to close out the series with GK’s J

Anywho, onto the article.

The second of the three armies that can take an all terminator army is Space Wolves. In fact, if you remember, until the FAQ came out for DA’s most people playing Deathwing and slightly shifted to play Wolfwing as it provided a better and more competitive Terminator army. So let’s look first at some of the differences between Wolfwing and Deathwing as they currently stand.

Wargamescon: Get Your Game Face On!

Howdy howdy!

I haven't posted anything in a while; I'd be interested to know if other folks feel the same, but it is a cyclical hobby for me. Play too much and I get burned out for a while, which is where I am now.

So here I sit the day before leaving for WargamesCon, and I haven't touched my army since the last GT I went to. I can't even rightly say that I'm excited about this weekend - is that strange?

In the meantime, a fleet of new venoms are desperately hoping to be finished by tomorrow morning, and the two boxes of warriors haven't been opened. I plan on redoing my warriors since the current ones are a large part of why my paint scores continue to be mediocre.

Given the general lack of enthusiasm at the moment, I don't plan on doing battle reports this weekend - seven games, and the battle reports take longer than the games do. If I lose a game (or multiples) I may make an attempt to recreate it via vassal, but to be honest - I've done enough battle reports with my Dark Eldar that you could plug any random army in against me and expect me to do roughly the same thing, which makes writing them an exercise in small variety to a singular theme.

Wish me luck, say hello if you see me, and hopefully the cyclical hobby antipathy doesn't affect my game face.

All Terminator Lists Part 1: Deathwing

Well as you’ve obviously noticed I played an all Terminator list this last weekend at the Bugeater GT in Omaha. I went 5-1 and am now an EXPERT on all Terminator armies, including ones I’ve never played! J

Now my list had a lot of cool factor to it. I have to say that shoving 35 Terminators down the throat of your opponents is a blast! That being said there are some inherent weaknesses in these types of lists. Originally I was going to cover some thoughts on the weaknesses of all Terminator lists, their strengths, and some points to focus on when building a list for all terminator forces. On second thought I think I’m going to refocus the article into a series covering the 3 armies allowed to take termies as troops and include their strengths, weaknesses, differences, building techniques, and how to capitalize on their strengths.

1st Company Goes to War! - Bugeater Game 5

So this weekend I headed down to the Bugeater GT in Omaha, Nebraska. It was a great event and here are two quick links: 

My Review of the GT: http://hulksmash-homeplace.blogspot.com/2011/06/tournament-review-bugeater-2011.html

Rules Packet for the GT: http://gt.bugeatergames.com/40kMissions_FinalPacket.pdf

So I ran my newest painted army. My Deathwing which had:

Belial

Upgraded DW Squad w/Apoth, Banner, 4xTH&SS, 1 LC, Cyclone

3xDW Squad w/Cyclone, 5xTH&SS

1xDW Squad w/Cyclone, 4xTH&SS, 1 LC

2xDW Squad w/Cyclone, 2xChainfist, 2xPowerfist, 1xPower Sword

1,500pt All Foot GK Lists (RTT Next Weekend)

I'm taking a quick break from my batreps since it's the weekend and they just seem like a ton of work right now so I thought I'd share the idea of an army I might run at 1,500 next weekend. I'm kinda in love with non-mech lists right now for some reason so this is going to be a GK all-foot list.

1st Company Goes to War! - Bugeater Game 4

So this weekend I headed down to the Bugeater GT in Omaha, Nebraska. It was a great event and here are two quick links: 

My Review of the GT: http://hulksmash-homeplace.blogspot.com/2011/06/tournament-review-bugeater-2011.html

Rules Packet for the GT: http://gt.bugeatergames.com/40kMissions_FinalPacket.pdf

So I ran my newest painted army. My Deathwing which had:

Belial

Upgraded DW Squad w/Apoth, Banner, 4xTH&SS, 1 LC, Cyclone

3xDW Squad w/Cyclone, 5xTH&SS

1xDW Squad w/Cyclone, 4xTH&SS, 1 LC

2xDW Squad w/Cyclone, 2xChainfist, 2xPowerfist, 1xPower Sword

1st Company Goes to War! - Bugeater Game 3

So this weekend I headed down to the Bugeater GT in Omaha, Nebraska. It was a great event and here are two quick links: 

My Review of the GT: http://hulksmash-homeplace.blogspot.com/2011/06/tournament-review-bugeater-2011.html

Rules Packet for the GT: http://gt.bugeatergames.com/40kMissions_FinalPacket.pdf

So I ran my newest painted army. My Deathwing which had:

Belial

Upgraded DW Squad w/Apoth, Banner, 4xTH&SS, 1 LC, Cyclone

3xDW Squad w/Cyclone, 5xTH&SS

1xDW Squad w/Cyclone, 4xTH&SS, 1 LC

2xDW Squad w/Cyclone, 2xChainfist, 2xPowerfist, 1xPower Sword