The Knight's first ride

The dark hours of early morning ended with a bright flash from the heavens and bodies being incinerated as soon as they were noticed.  Arrayed against the outnumbered defense forces of the Ultramarines was Kranon the Relentless and his horde of Crimson Slaughter.  The majority of the numbers were made up of Cultists, chanting and fidgeting around a rousing Apostle named Okrark.  A daemonic Defiler and other vehicles clanked loudly now that they were noticed, and especially when the lance from space obliterated the Possessed brethren directly in front oh him.  The force was furious and immediately rushed the loyalists.  Okrark used his words to put the massive horde to frenzy and rushed forward himself.  As everyone neared, a massive machine of war came into view.  The golden walker stood 5 stories tall and had a reputation that began before even the Imperium.  The renegades immediately accepted doom and surrounded the Imperial Knight, their rage and insanity pushing them to death.  Dawn broke and that journey began as war often does.

My buddy and I recently acquired some toys and had an urge to play.  My buddy is a Chaos marine player and wanted to try out the Crimson Slaughter book.  I came into an Imperial Knight and wanted to really test its effectiveness in battle.  So we built 2000 point forces, set up a standard 'green' batttlefield, and laid out 5 objectives per the 'Crusade' battle scenario.  This was nothing more than a fun game and a chance to see how some things looked.

I am not going to give a blow-by-blow for this batrep.  I really just want to toss up some pictures, explain a bit of what happened, and finish up.  This is because the game was really alot of fun and we got to see some things that our game group hasn't seen before.  Did I mention there was an audience?  

Setup.  Night Fight turn 1.  Man am I outnumbered.  But I have a Knight...

So my army was a couple of TAC squads in Rhinos, Marneus leading a squad of Centurions in the Land Raider, a Terminator squad in Deep Strike reserves, and a Stormtalon waiting for strafing runs.  His army, on the other hand, was Kranon leading a massive squad of Chosen in a Land Raider, a Defiler and Annihilator, Mortis Metalicus (a Helbrute), 10 powerful Possessed (they're better in this book), and two massive mobs of Cultists with Okrark.  It was just a chance to play the new codex for Crimson Slaughter.

Here's the whole point of the battle for me- IS THE KNIGHT BROKEN?  I don't think so, but I can't say for sure until I play with it.  So, I'm playing with it.  Hence, the Knight's First Ride.

It started with his whole army moving foward and heavy weapons shooting at the Knight.  Some great saves with the Ion Shield saw only 1 hull point taken away.  My turn started with Marneus calling in an Orbital Strike and the Knight moving up and pounding the Possessed to death.  One survived.  Metalicus was killed as well.  The Ultramarine force had already destroyed almost two units.

And this guy, the surviving Possessed, rolls the needed invulnerable save too late and rushes right at the Knight and all his buddies.  RAGE!!!!.  

The Land Raider and his squad try to rush around the rear of the army and shoot at the Knight's rear armor and the rest of the force advanced.  The Ultramarines watched the Knight bound across the table in long, armoured strides.  Before anyone could react, the Knight charged into the Predator and was counter-charged by the Defiler and the squad of Terminators.  A couple of quick swings of the massive chainsword saw the Knight easily dispatch every vehicle and start the process of killing Terminators...

"I'm coming at ya, brah!"

The ever resilient Possessed warrior tried to charge against the Rhino tank and stumbled a bit, only to watch the whole enemy detachment walk away from him.  In his abashed state, the half-daemon decided to get a 'selfie' before the Rhino ingloriously shot him down.  This shot above was literally his last surviving photo.  "Gotta take a selfie."

The Ultramarines are cleaning up the battlefield, wondering where the command structure is.  They eventually focus on the Apostle and get ready to execute him.  But he rushes into the safety of a challenge...

Unfortunately, he was counter-challenged by a Terminator.  Dark Apostles aren't really designed to fight that kind of warrior.  They're more of fighting the spiritual kind of enemy rather than the 'immune to tanks' kind.  

The Knight spend turns killing the Termintators down.  But the Terminators were wasting no time in cutting him up as well.  There were only two Termies left and he only had a single hull point remaining.  Would he survive?

The last remaining Chaos Terminator, fortuitously armed with a Chainfist, after seeing his brother be eviscerated by a Str D close combat weapons, took that final chance and destroyed the Knight!.  With no other choice and the last hope, this Terminator earned the glory of the Gods here.  

Finally, Kranon and his Possessed got out of their ride and charged the remaining TAC squad members.  Kranon powered up his sword with 4 kills instantly, and then turned his attention to the next enemy unit.  Just then, the Centurions and Marneus disembarked from their Land Raider.  Marneus went after the Chaos Land Raider and the Centurions shredded the Chosen in one volley with their overpowered Grav-amps.  There was few Crimson Slaughter units left (a tank and the boss).  

Kranon turned on the Centurions that destroyed his bodyguard and was bound to challenge and slay the Sergeant.  Marneus failed to kill the Land Raider and turned to challenge the Chaos Lord.  Marneus tried to reason with Kranon, but the renegade was relentless (get it?).  He swung and tried to kill the Chapter Master of great renown, doing nothing.  

Like a slow motion movie scene, Marneus missed with blow after blow until the last moment, connecting with a haymaker followed by an uppercut.  With the power of the artifacts known as the Guantlets of Ultramar, Marneus simply obliterated Kranon's body.  With a clear victory, Lord Calgar casually turned from the corpse, ordered the cleanup, and walked back to his Land Raider.

No sooner had the sun cleared the horizon than the battle came to an abrupt end.  The green fields saw the forces of the Crimson Slaughter charge into the implacable wall of Ultramarines and simply dying.  The Knight that had struck fear into the Chaos force finally fell, at least giving the powers-that-be the satisfaction that all was not for nothing.  But the Ultramarines were so efficient that the battle was won in the same amount of time as it took for the sun to break darkness and clear the darkness.  Marneus was bored.  Maybe he could join a larger task force and log his battle hours there.  This was too fast.  And Auric Arachnus was brought down.  What a way to witness a sunrise...

So how did we feel about the game?  My buddy didn't get a fair shake with his army in this one, but still managed to pull some pretty neat tricks out.  He suffered horribly from the 'so close!' curse with his die rolls and I eliminated the Chosen, the Dreadnought, and the Possessed from his army before they ever made an impact.  Despite all that, he was able to kill the Knight with his Terminators and showed that the double Cultist-mob-of-doom strategy is a good one.  In addition, his Land Raider, Lord, and Chosen squad didn't enter the battle until too late.  
As far as my force, I can't say anything.  I simply wanted to use my Knight and then took the opportunity to use other stuff that our group hasn't seen before.  Nobody had seen Centurions devastate things like they do (my buddy that witnessed this was stationed elsewhere now) and the Stormtalon and Marneus units are never used (another guy in our group that used to use them has moved an hour away recently).  I kept them out of the battle as long as I could with Marneus and the Centurions riding around in their Land Raider until the end of the game, and the Stormtalon simply shooting down Cultists and then flying around for no reason.  I expected to see a Land Raider in the enemy army (there was one) and a Heldrake (not this time), so it some units had no purpose.  The Knight was really the point, and we determined that it's killable.  A seven-man Terminator squad with 2 Power Fists and a Chainfist finally killed him.  That's a very large and powerful elite unit, but it's also a mini-Titan that they're fighting.  On the subject of the Knight, the weapon loadout is really cool.  A two-shot Battle Cannon is awesome, but the Strength D close combat weapon is ridiculous.  A knight can kill Abaddon or Marneus or Lysander or Ghaskull or anything else he touches.  Strength D is ridiculous in 40k.

The main question- is a Knight balanced?  So far, we can't really say.  But I still feel that it is.  It is properly pointed (370+ points is a big chunk of even a 2000 point army), only armed with a single meaningful gun (and it's still only AP3), and isn't unkillable (armour 13 in front and a 4+ invulnerable save most of the time isn't enough to keep a Missile Launcher Devastator squad from killing one in three turns for sure, possibly two.  But until I get some more games in with it, I can't say for sure.  I certainly like it.

Let me know what you think about the Knight and what your experiences have been so far.  I haven't seen a lot on the interwebs, so I'm still pretty curious of what everyone thinks.

Happy Gaming!

It's that time again.

I am procrastinating on my homework and I figured this would be a great chance to maybe post something for you guys.  I do have to say 'thank you' to everyone for being patient with me.  I went from a couple of posts a week to one every other quarter.  I'm not going to be able to get back to the old pace anytime soon, but I can at least remind Blogger that I have a page.

This blog is just to say what I'm thinking and doing over these last few months in super-abbreviated form.  I'm also going to introduce some 'cunning plans'.  Let's get this over with...

First, everyone knows that I moved way back in November.  I am still not fully moved in and I've only barely gotten used to the house since I spend so much time at work.  One of the key qualifiers for this house is my workshop.  No longer is it located in the garage because I have a whole room!  This means I have shelves and a game table set up in a climate controlled area where my buddies and I won't be dying of heat stroke and freezing to death while trying to play a game.  I have a pretty sweet setup in there with some more cool features to add (a magazine rack, a couple more chairs, and some visuals on the walls).  The only problem with the new workshop, and I tested this last night, is that there's not enough room for 6 grown adults.  When I lay the game table up against the wall and give more room (this is the format for certain games like RPGs and card games), I should be able to fit five people in there comfortably enough.  In addition, my new garage is now the 'warehouse'.  When I have the time, my buddies and I will spend an afternoon going through everything, building shelves, and organizing it all.  I have a couple of POS rack systems and typical garage shelves, so this is going to make the newly dubbed 'Jay's Warehouse, distribution center of Jay's Workshop' comfortable as well.  I'm really excited.  Jay's Workshop is still 'brick and mortar'.

Then, we've had a few armies get released.  Everyone knows about my Eldar vs. Tau campaign.  My buddy and I have played 5 of the games, with the two previously posted at 1000 points, 2 at 1500 points (still to be posted), and 1 at 2000 points.  Currently, his Tau are beating my Eldar 3 battles to 2.  I am having a bugger of a time trying to defeat that massive wall of pulse fire and avoid all that cover-ignoring firepower coming at me.  I have one last chance to tie  up the series, but I suspect I am going to die.  I will finally use my Wraithknight and we'll have a comparison of that and the Riptide.  The Wraithknight is awesome, but the Riptide takes too much focus for me to feel comfortable.  It matters not for now, as my Eldar have been replaced for a moment.

Wait, what?

Space Marines got released.  I love the codex.  I still don't like Centurions, but they are really effective.  I've seen a unit destroy a couple Land Raiders, a couple of Termie squads, and a Dreadnought in a single game.  I watched them recently disembark and completely destroy an entire Chosen squad.  As much as I hate the models, I cannot deny their effectiveness.  Curse you, GW!!!

Then came the Imperial Knight.  I acquired one and have painted it up (yes, I know guys, pictures will be coming).  I actually used it in a battle last night and it was awesome.  But that's another post (there's the introduction I promised).  I just can't say enough how happy I am with the Knight model.  Anyone that plays Imperials in 40k should have one, and I'm finally thinking about getting another one to paint up different and use for another of my armies.  The models are fantastic, the rules are great, and they really add that extra element to the game that has always waited patiently in the fluff (and Epic) before finally joining us in the actual game.  I mean, seriously, this model is awesome!!!  It might be one of the few things that GW produces that is actually worth the cost.

  Quick squeeze in for Adepticon- my team went and played in the 40k Team Tournie again this year.  They did well enough and are ready to get started on next year.  Half of the team also played in the X-Wing Team Tournie and walked away with Best Sportsmanship.  Our team is known for that.  I'm very proud of them and hope that I finally get to participate next year.  I'm not sure how much longer this drought can last (it's been five years now)...

On top of that, I have my fantasy stuff out because our game group has fallen deep into that.  I haven't had an opportunity to play, but Valkia the Bloody is waiting to kill some Dwarfs.  I want to use my Empire, but I need to add some mobility to the army.  I want to play my High Elves but I'm afraid that they're not fair in the game right now (not unbeatable, just a bit much against certain armies), which leaves my Khorne Warriors begging for their chance again.  And what is a Khorne army without a Gorequeen?

And now IG, er, I mean Astra Militarum, have been released.  I just got the book yesterday and I'm not seeing anything that really stands out so far.  My buddy has gotten the Crimson Slaughter book and I'm thinking that these two books may need to be tested against each other (IG suffer from 'Fear', so that army-wide special rule will actually mean something).  This subject will probably result in more posts.  Here's to hoping!

In Heroclix, I've almost got the entire Legion of Superheroes set (minus my all-important Superman chase).  I actually ran a tournie a couple of weeks ago and had to play three games in a row.  By the third game, I was almost a competent player and was causing some real damage.  Next week may see me play in the AvX final round with a team that I build myself (I had to borrow a team last time since I didn't bring my Marvel stuff), and I might actually win a game.  I doubt it, though.

The expansion for the DC deck-building game was released and I haven't lost a game of it yet.  It's an awesome set and really focuses on the combos.  In addition, and this is my favorite part of the new version, the players get to dive into their decks and discard piles many times throughout the game.  There's something so utterly rewarding to being able to control your hand in that way.  The expansion isn't necessarily better than the first game, but it certainly added some new angles.  Like my previous post about the card game suggested- get the game!  It's perfect for those quick 1-hour gaps with your buddies and it requires little skill or focus to play.  It's typically how our game group finishes our game days.


Let's finish this off with a gem- I have pulled out an old game that some of you may remember.  This game set the bar for fantasy board games and really allowed GW to get a foothold and brand recognition in the US in the early 90s.  The game is so popular that single sets sell for hundreds of dollars to collectors (and I have four full sets plus some!).  I'm not looking to sell this game, I'm looking to play it and introduce my game group to this game.  What game is it?  I've mentioned it briefly before- Heroquest!!!  That's right, that old goodie is coming back out of the 'warehouse' and my buddies are going to bask in the glory that is.  Oh yes.  And that will be many posts, as I have painting articles and a linked campaign of games to show off.  Needless to say, I'm excited.  But, again, that'll be another post...

Okay, I may not post often, but I still do things.  Stay barely tuned to my infrequent updates and even let me know what y'all have been working on out there.  I still troll the blogosphere, but I'm not nearly as in-touch as I was a year ago.  In the meantime- Happy Hobbying!!!

What else have I been doing?

Can I just get it out of the way right now?  What else have I been doing?

Going boldly where no one has gone before!

Okay, that's out of my system.  While I was busy grinding away at the real job and school for all those months, I still had my Saturday gig going at the comic shop.  Because I had no time to hobby and because Uncle Sam kept taking my gamers away (last month sucked- half the group disappeared!), I decided to get into another game- Star Trek: Attack Wing.

I have always been a Star Trek nerd.  I prefer Star Trek over Star Wars.  I enjoy the technical aspects of

the show more than some of the plots.  I even have a Starfleet uniform as a Halloween costume.  All in all, this guy loves him some Star Trek.    So hearing that a miniatures game was coming out had me piqued a while ago.  

Well, I waited.  And I waited.  And then I waited some more.  The stuff just didn't come in.  Then, it takes a crazy turn.  My buddy (and closest gaming confidente) comes over one day and simply plops the X-Wing game onto the game table.  We played, I loved it, and then Attack Wing was released.  Yeah, I may have been a bit primed.

So I picked up everything I needed- the starter kit (only $40 and enough for three players to enjoy some pewpew), a couple of ships ($15 each), and I had enough to play a tournament-sized fleet.  Not very long after the release, the Organized Play event, Dominion War, was launched.

Now here's the deal, kiddies- if you love you some competitive games that require thought to play and genius to remember all the rules, Wizkids isn't for  you.  But if you love to collect and actually appreciate prize support and constant support- this company has your number.  The reason I bring this up is because the Dominion War event has given us sooooooooo much loot and actually made it worth the small price.  The players have to buy a single ship or give me $10 cash, and then they ALL get a participation prize and two lucky people get the prize models.  Plus terrain and special resources and so on and this game has some fun events.

I should warn you though- these models are terribad.  That is to say that Wizkids is already not known for the fine craftmanship that GW, Wyrd, PP, and Reaper are known for, but these models are even worse.  The Galaxy class (Picard's Enterprise) is so terrible that I'm almost tempted to replace the model itself with a Micromachine from back in the day.  Almost.  Then I have to remember that modelling is absent in THIS hobby.  It's just a fun little game.  

How does the game work?
Not too hard, actually.  First, you build your fleet to a set number of points (40 to start and 100 for tournaments).  Each ship model comes with a card that tells how many points it is worth.  Ships with names (like the 'USS Enterprise') come with special rules and cost a little more, while every ship has a 'generic' counterpart.  You add your captain to each ship, and each captain is worth a number of points depending on how skilled and what special rules he has.  Finally, you add weapon, tech, and crew upgrades to your ship, each allowing a special action, giving a special rule, or boosting a specific stat.  There are limits based on the ship and what/how many upgrades a ship can have, but it's pretty simple.

A very well-painted fleet found on Warseer

The game turn is three phases- Planning, Activation, and Combat.  During the Planning Phase, players secretly choose the manuevre they'd like their ships to move.  During the Activation Phase, the players take turn moving and performing an action with each of their ships.  The ship with the lowest-skilled captain reveals his manuevre and moves first, and then the next lowest, and so on.  Moving is done by placing a special template in front of the ship and then moving the ship to the other side of the template.  It's very simple.  After each ship moves, it may perform an action such as cloaking, target-locking, or scanning.  These are noted by placing tokens next to the ships.  Finally, in the combat phase, the players take turn attacking each other.  Starting with the ship with the highest-skilled captain and then moving to the next highest, and so on, the player rolls a number of red d8s based on his attack value and all modifiers- the symbols are easy to understand as 'hits, crits, battle stations, and blanks'.  A hit is a hit, a crit is a crit, battle stations can be converted with certain actions, and blanks are just misses.  The target ship's player then rolls a number of green d8s based on his agility value and all modifiers.  Again, the symbols are easy to read- 'evade, battle station, crits'.  An evade cancels a crit or hit, a battle stations can be converted with certain actions, and a blank is just a fail.  Any hits that 'get through' remove shield tokens from the ship card or, if there are no shields left, assigns damage cards to that ship.  A crit is a damage card that also has a special effect on it which can lead to extra damage or limited capabilities.  After every ship has completed all of these steps, both players may re-enable shields and then move on the next Planning Phase.

The trick in the game is to come up with the best combination of upgrades on the best ships and then using them wisely.  The 'Admiral' in our group demolished all of us with his Romulan fleet, using Picard as one of his captains (a very powerful upgrade) and making strong use of Muon tokens (they inhibit the target and damage them for acting).  There was little that any of us could do and he easily swept through us.  That doesn't mean that you have to collect everything to be able to do these 'killer combos'.  The game is actually relatively well-balanced (it's fast-paced, so stuff dies so fast that it feels brutal on both sides, usually).  But if you do feel the need to go out and purchase every ship and get every upgrade possible, it's cheap enough to do.  At only $15 each, and with only 12 additional ships out, it's not too hard to purchase.  That's the cost of a single model in some games we play...

Check it out.  I dig this game.  And even if you don't like Star Trek, check out Star Wars: X-Wing.  The two games are almost identical.  If you like the mechanics, go X-Wing.  If you like the fleet design, go Attack Wing.  But seriously, check it out.  You can find the website here:

http://wizkidsgames.com/startrek/star-trek-attack-wing/

Now, if I can find some time to maybe repaint these terribad models...

It's been awhile

Sorry that I've been gone for so long.  My wife made me do things and now I'm in school and back to work and in a much more stressful position.  Then you add the fact that we moved right in the middle of the holiday season with family over.  Finally, well, life.  Needless to say, I haven't had time to do any hobbying.

That is until this week.  That's right- between August and now, I've had no time.  But I finally got a bit of a break when I finished my finals up (and was sick from work).  What have I done with aaaaaaaaall this free time?  I've built a unit for my Warriors of Chaos army.  And I've written this blog.


So what unit did I build?  Everyone who knows my Chaos army knows that I'm a follower of the Blood God, and the new army book finally allowed the Knights-riding-Juggernauts in a normal army.  Needless to say- done!  Skullcrushers have been built.

(It must be noted that the only reason that I play the Warriors of Chaos was because of the beautiful Lord of Khorne on Juggernaut model released somewhere in 2008-2009 area (it's been a long time and even this guru's brain is fading).  That model convinced me to 'fall to the dark side' and pick up Chaos.  So, of course, a unit of Jugg-knights is an obvious choice)

Now, I know, you're wondering why I don't have any pictures of my progress like I usually try to do.  And I'm kinda missing the random spattering of poor photography to put my toys on display.  But, sadly, I don't know where my camera is.  (Remember how we moved a few months ago?)  Soon...  Plus, this gives me a break from trying to paint anything.  Once I find that pesky photo-machine, I may have to open a paint pot or two.  This is, of course, assuming I have time.

You know what I will have time for?  Using those Skullcrushers to run down stunty Dwarfs.  I know that my army shan't fare too well against that much armor and gunpowder, but I'm certainly going to keep a tally.  In my normal Saturday game-group thingie, I shall be facing a buddy in a 2,500 point Warhammer battle.  Our group has finally gotten into the game, and I am getting a Mighty Empires campaign off the ground.  Oh yeah, fantasy has finally come to!  Now if I could just stop sucking at that game so much...

Wish me luck and Happy Gaming!