I made something actually good!

I finally made the one model I needed to make my Word Bearers scary.  It wasn't that I didn't own the thing, it was just a matter of finding the time to do it.  And I did.  I actually built this model last week as the final act before returning to work.  And it made my week.

What is this model?  Well, what is the single model all Word Bearers should have besides the Dark Apostle?  The answer?  An even more badass Dark Apostle!  "But, Jay..."  I hear you saying, "how do you made a Dark Apostle more badass?"  Hmmmm, that's a great question if you've never played Chaos before.  What do the Chaos gods do to make any worshiper more awesome?  They turn them into Daemon Princes!

Yes, I already have a Daemon Prince.  But that one is rocking the sword and is obviously a very normal Warlord-turned-Daemon, and that just will not do for my evil Chaplain.  I picked up a plastic Daemon Prince model a couple of months ago and let it sit on my shelf, not thinking that it would matter anytime soon.  But I've been losing alot of games lately and I figured it was about time I started focusing on 'upgrading' my collection.  I've added a ton of Cultists, I've bought a Heldrake, I've recently built a new Destructor, but I still felt that I was missing something.  Then I remembered the Daemon Prince model...

I made sure that this one had three big things:  the first is obviously Power Armor.  40k is too full of bullets to not take that.  The second is Wings.  After all, the ability to get up close to the thing you want to hit is rather important.  Plus, Flying Monstrous Creatures are pretty beast in 40k right now.  Finally, the third thing is the most important of them all- the Black Mace!

The Black Mace is 45 points of 'awesome' in the hands of a monster.  It's the same strength as the wielder and AP 4, which means that putting this weapon on the normal Chaos Marine of any type just seems like alot of points without a lot of gain.  But in the hands of a Strength 6, AP 2 monster, this weapon really becomes valuable.  Add to that the 'Daemon Weapon' rule (+2-6 attacks, usually) and the 'Cursed' rule (AoE T tests or death vs. the enemy), and this is a cocktail of amazing!  Plus, it's a Daemon Prince with a Crozius, making him the perfect stand-in for an 'elevated' Dark Apostle.

Do I believe that this model is going to win me more games?  Maybe, but I'm certainly going to have more fun bashing in faces.  Any Chaos Marine player I know insists that this model is almost a 'must-have', but I've put it off.  I finally added it, and I'm happy.

By the way, for those of you wondering how I made the mace- I took the Daemon Prince's axe, hacked the blade and spike off, and added the three Chaos star-halves.  Those 'stars' are from the banner-tops found in the Chaos Space Marine box set, and I just happened to have three extras.  Simply cut the 'teeth' from the bottom, shave the area flat, cut and shape the axe-head area to being however many sides you need, and then glue the 'stars' to each side!  It was simple and took me about ten minutes (6 of which were ripping through my bitz box looking for anything I could use).  If this doesn't make sense, I apologize.  But I guarantee it was very easy to do.  

I hope you enjoy this model as much as I do.  As always-  Happy Hobbying!

Undivided sux...

I've settled on my army list for Adepticon and it's not good.  I've been playing a bunch of games in my game group and it hasn't gone well.  I've tried to stick to a theme, but that theme is wholly undivided.  I don't have Plague Marines (always a win), nor do I use Tzeentch-marked Terminators or Nurgle-marked Spawn.  Every time I talk army lists with one of my 'cheezier' gamer buddies, he tells me the same thing-

Undivided Chaos is terrible!

I've tried to argue his point, citing such things as lower points-cost and background-laden precedent.  But my experience on the battlefield has shown my arguments to be wrong and this basic truth to be, well, a basic truth.

Everyone who knows me will tell you that I love my Word Bearers.  I don't like Khorne, I hate Slaanesh and Tzeentch, and I wholly ignore Nurgle.  I think that Iron Warriors and Night Lords are too limited, the Black Legion is too basic, and the Alpha Legion are a bunch of morons.  So that leaves me with Word Bearers.  And that leaves me with 'undivided' troops.  I can have Marines, Marines with jump packs, Marines with heavy weapons, and Marines with daemonic bitz coming out of them.  I can even add some Cultists and ally the ever-present Daemons.  But there's no such thing as non-Tzeentch Thousand Sons or Word Bearer Berserkers.  So what do I do?

Well, that's a great question.  I have come at this from two angles so far:

On the one hand- I can simply play the 'book-version' of the Word Bearers, including little more than Marines and Possessed with no marks, and just take the losses like a man.  I don't mind losing (I have been known to be a poor sport, buuuut...), but I have to feel like my army isn't what's failing me to have a good time.  The dice have always hated me and my luck has never worked to my favour, but my tactics and list design aren't supposed to be that bad.  With my Chaos armies right now, it feels that bad.  

On the other hand- I can take marks and play 'counts-as' units to take advantage of some of the fun stuff in the book.  I've recently built a unit of robed Chaos Marines and attached them to an old metal Sorcerer to count them as 'Thousand Sons'.  I even have a unit of Berserkers built and plan on, someday, converting a plague-ridden squad to count as 'Plague Marines'.  I have entertained the idea of tossing Marks on my regular troopers to indicate a special 'blessing' that the gods have given my extra-faithful warband.  But I feel dirty every time I do.  I feel like I'm spitting in the fluff-bible's eye.

Oh how I would love to have some T5 Marines and Spawn running around.  Oh how I would enjoy Terminators with a 4+ invulnerable save or a Lord rocking the Axe of Blind Fury.  A unit of Raptors sporting the mark of Slaanesh and some lightning claws wouldn't be horrible.  But I'm too much of a fluff-bunny.

And for that, I lose.  Hmmm...

Let me hear y'all's thoughts!  And, as always, Happy Gaming!

I done played me a game!

On Thursday, I got a text from one of my gamers at the comic shop.  He challenged me to a 2000 pt game against his Black Legion, no flyers.  It was ON!

I was going to bring Eldar, but I decided not to.  I had the rules for the new Dark Angels and I built a Deathwing army.  I loved everything I'd read so far and I just happened to have a Deathwing army lying around (and much more ready).  I wanted to see how they actually fared.  So today I strode into the shop with this:

1995 points Deathwing

• Belial with Sword of Silence and Storm Bolter 190
• Command Squad with Deathwing Standard, Apothecary, and an Assault Cannon  315
• Deathwing Squad with Assault Cannon  240
• Deathwing Squad with Cyclone, 3 LC and 2 TH/SS  255
• Deathwing Land Raider with extra armor  290
• Deathwing Squad with Cyclone, 3 LC and 2 TH/SS  255
• Deathwing Land Raider with extra armor  290
• Venerable Dreadnought with twin Lascannon and extra armor  160

This army without the Librarian

Then I got to see his army and suddenly felt not-so confident.  It was something like this:

2000 points Black Legion

• Abaddon 265
• 6 Chosen with different weapons, Mark of Tzeentch, VotLW c.220
• 5 Terminators with Reaper, 2 combi-flamers, 4 Power Fists, Mark of Tzeentch, VotLW c.270
• Land Raider with storm bolter and Havoc c.250
• 5 Terminators with Reaper, 3 combi-meltas, 5 Chainfists, Mark of Tzeentch, VotLW c.280
• Helbrute c.105
• 10 Marines with 2 plasma guns, Icon of Vengeance, VotLW c.240
• 5 Havocs with 2 M. Launchers and 2 Lascannons c.145
• Forgefiend with 3 ectoplasma cannons 200

Let me tell you, the battle started off outstanding.  I even played rather dumb and it went well.  I forced him to deploy first, then placed my two Land Raiders with Assault Squads behind ruins and far from the flank where the Forgefiend and Havocs were.  I even brought the Dreadnought and tossed him on top of bunker.  I then deployed my last two Termie squads and Belial in Deathwing Assault Reserve.  And then I seized the initiative, obviously not thinking about it.  I had also chosen to bring the Assault down turn 2.  Stupid.  

But that's okay.  I started off by blowing up his Helbrute and knocking a hull point off of his Land Raider.  He did little back.  Then my Command Squad and Deathwing Squad deep struck directly behind him and destroyed the squad occupying the ruins.  One Land Raider rushed up and dropped some Thunderhammers into his face.  By now, Abaddon's Chosen squad is half destroyed and he's footsloggin' across the battlefield towards my flank attack.  

And then it all turns.  The Chaos Terminators show up and the undamaged Land Raider simply backs up and drops off the other Chaos Terminator squad, only to smash my Dreadnought and an Assault Squad to pieces.  I learned a valuable lesson here:  

LIGHTNING CLAWS NO LONGER WORK AGAINST TERMINATORS!!!

The rest of the game saw me simply trying to get away and not let Abaddon or those Chainsaws touch my Terminators.  I had killed the Forgefiend just as it got into range and I had killed one Terminator squad by chasing the remaining champion off the board.  But he had done a number on me by that point.  

I called the game at the end of 5.  We called it a draw but I was up in victory points.  However, had the game continued (and we rolled so that it would), my Deathwing would have been wiped from the table.  I only had 8 models left by the time we stopped.  It was obvious.  Game over, and know I'm thinking of my impressions of the Deathwing...

• I love Terminators.  Everyone loves Terminators.  And now I get to play an all-Terminator army.  I don't care how obvious this is, it bears stating repeatedly.
• All of the special rules are difficult to remember.  Vengeful Strike, Inner Circle, Split Fire, all built in?  Thank you!  But it takes some getting used to.  And that's not even the special units.  I have to admit, it feels nice having a boatload of special rules (like the other, more well-liked forces out there) for once.  
• Deathwing Assault is BOSS!  I chose to deep strike at the end of turn 2 (before I stole the initiative, like a moron) and had a specific plan.  First, they're all storm bolters and an Assault Cannon, so I get to take advantage of all the nifty shooting rules.  Secondly, Belial and his Command squad came down automatically with Precision Strike, within 6" of the first squad, and shared that extra attack.  I feel like this is a very convenient rule.  
• I don't know if you saw it up there, but LIGHTNING CLAWS NO LONGER WORK AGAINST TERMINATORS!!!  I figured I repeat that.  I did actually know that before-hand, but I had little choice and I had never felt it happen before.  
• The Mark of Tzeentch on Terminators is the worst thing ever to have to face.  I shot so much 'rending' and Lascannon shot at his guys only to see no effect.  That Mark even worked well on his Chosen, but that didn't hurt as badly or as often as those damned Terminators.  
• Land Raiders are still difficult to deal with.  And Power of the Machine Spirit is a broken rule when you get to see it in direct comparison to the lacking Chaos Land Raider.  In any case, that armor 14 profile is really difficult to crack.  That is until you start seeing Chainfists...
• Belial's Sword of Silence is a joke.  Fleshbane is great, and fighting Chaos Marines means Belial can almost never fail TO WOUND, but only being AP 3 is a terrible hindrance.  It makes no sense and really hurt Belial's chances in killing a Terminator or ten.  
• Dark Angel Deathwing Terminators are designed to shoot.  The storm bolters are to take advantage of the rules and the Power Fists are to kill everything.  And a Terminator has become mighty survivable of late.  LOVE the 'basic' Terminator. 

Other than that, the game wasn't out of the ordinary in any real way.  I didn't notice anything crazy and I didn't think the armies were broken.  Abaddon scared me and the Chaos Terminators owned me, but my Terminators were beasts and my army was smart enough to minimize that threat as long as I could.  Most of all, I just REALLY liked playing my Deathwing again.  They felt awesome.  In fact, they felt so awesome that I'm going to drop some Land Raiders and start squeezing some more Deathwing squads in...

"...and that's what I'm thinking..."

Happy Gaming!

It's been awhile

Sorry for the less-frequent posts, but my work schedule and real-life problems have taken priority over my hobby.  In fact, last week I was unable to go to the comic shop and see my game club because my back decided not to work.  In bed I lay until nearly 4:00 that afternoon.  I checked Facebook when I finally hobbled to the computer and watched a video battle report someone had posted.  It made me want to play.

And that's when I realized it.

It had been awhile since I hobbied.

I suddenly wanted to build some models and I suddenly wanted to roll some dice and I suddenly wanted to talk 'armies' with someone.  I had built a few things a couple of weeks ago (the Heldrake I'll soon be posting about, and more Terminators) and started to work on some more this week (the Cultists are finally getting a chance).  But I wanted to play.  

And this is why I have to apologize for my lack of commitment to my blog recently.  I forgot how good it felt to just play a damned game (and maybe come close to winning once in a while).  After all, isn't that how we all got started in this hobby?  So here's what I'm going to do:

I promised my game group at the comic shop that I'd start a Planetary Empires campaign (and maybe even Crusade of Fire it up) and that I'd be bringing in an army they haven't played before.  I got tired of seeing Space Marines and Tau, so now I'm gonna rock the ancient Eldar.  Better yet, one of my guys challenged me to a 2,000 point game.  Oh yes.  It is on.  

And, with that, I'm excited.  Two Black Legion players, 2 Tau players, a Necron player, a Space Marine/Imperial Guard player, and me.  I'm really, really excited.  

Prepare to see more on the blog.  I'm not promising any greater frequency of posts or necessarily better ones.  But I need to bring my gaming hobby to the fore for a moment.  Battle reports, other player's armies, more hobby articles, oh yes...  the ideas...

I just wanted to check in, apologize, and entice y'all to stay tuned.  So, um...  stay tuned...