Thursday, March 26, 2009

Two posts in one day?! WTF?!

Well, I've already started work on my next Fantasy army. I've always had an odd fetish for Minotaurs, but they're $25/model these days! I started bidding on them on ebay last year, and have slowly amassed a fair number of them, including some ancient models I had from the late 80s/early 90s. The Beasts of Chaos book in it's current form is not the most competitive, so I don't expect great things from this stampede, but I really like the idea of this Minotaur led army completely dedicated to Khorne! The list I'm working on now is something like this: Doombull with Mark of Khorne, hvy armour, great weapon Wargor BSB with MoK, Chaos Armour Wargor with MoK, Hvy Armour, Great Weapon Beastherd 8/8 with FC (GW Wargor goes here) 14 Khornegors with FC and Warbanner (BSB goes here) 5 Warhounds 5 Warhounds 6 Warhounds (Doombull will go with them) 4x 4 Minotaurs with MoK and Great Weapons 2 Spawn of Khorne and Fred the Giant Here's some pics of the test minos I'm working on :

Apparently I suck at Blogging!

I guess I'm not of the right temprament to maintain a Blog, as months and months go by with no updates! The Daemon army turned out to be very successful. I had the bases textured before flying to Texas (Bobby didn't help, but the loving Wife did!). While there we spent several evening doing the base painting, layering up the ashen waste look. Then we painted the sides of all the models a nice crimson color, contrasting nicely with the ashen look. We even managed to get the movement trays done! I ended middle of the pack at the Alamo GT. I think my painting score was a 64. I won my first two games (against Hordes of Chaos Tz army, and a Ork led by Lvl4 Shaman army), then got a draw in my third game. This was against another Daemon player. He was the only one I gave a 'negative' score to for sportsmanship, not only for his army comp (minimum core, Bloodthirster, etc) but his attitude and interpretations made the game less than fun. I was most proud of my play during this game, though my "just say yes" attitude led to my opponent taking away all my advantages (disallowing a charge that I thought was perfectly legal; "helping" me move my models while I was walking around the table, lining up a charge vs. skirmishers contrary to how I wanted the overrun to work). I outmaneunvered his BT so all it managed to do the whole game was kill the Fiends, and Flamers, and took half wounds doing it. Moreover, it was pointed out to me by a person that played him later that he had dice with a "special symbol" replacing the 1....then another set that had them replacing the 6....so he'd roll them together and count all the specials as whatever he needed. I didn't directly witness this, but seemed in keeping with the WAAC attitude. No biggie, I hope my interpretation of the chap is way off...but I don't want to play him again. The second day I had a loss vs. a very experienced Empire player with a gorgeous army (Jeff Schlitgen..I believe he was #2 or 3 overall in the US this year). Final game was my favorite, against Mike Scalletti and his undead Dark Elves. I managed a draw against the invuln Lord on Dragon, Ring of Hotek, 2 Hydra list of doom! I was quite pleased with the result! After coming home, I learned that a nearby gaming club was having a tournament with a $100 first prize! It was 2000 points, with no special characters. I replaced Skulltaker with a 'regular' Khorne herald on Jugger, dropped some horrors, the fiends, and the furies, and replaced the -2 to casting banner with the -2 to Ld banner. Wow is that thing a bargain! After seeing the results, I'd take that thing over the casting banner any time! I went 3 for 3, with the final match being a very near run thing against a new Warriors of Chaos list (those guys are hard to kill off!!). I had a great time there...lots of fun folks and not too far to drive! Since then I've taken to 40k. There are many more 40k gamers in my local gaming community, so I figured I'd learn and have a better chance at finding games. I tried my hand at using the Daemons in 40k, but was constantly left irritated by their random deployment rules...I never felt in control of my army! So, with the new edition boxed set came out, and I got all these gorgeous Ork models, I went for them. With some cheap pickups on Ebay, and using the $100 gift certificate from the tournament, I quickly amassed a sizeable Waaagh! Mostly footslogging, with a Trukk and some Bikers for support. I was pretty successful with them, as they fit my 40k playstyle (no complication, just run at things and kill them!), and continued to grow my collection. In February the place in Fairfield announced they were having a smaller 40k-only tournament in March. Great! A chance to use my Orks! Alas, they made completely painted armies a requirement! My ork army was somewhere in the area of 120 models, and 6 weeks to paint them! I worked pretty hard, first at finalizing a list, then at the painting. I got them all done, including a quick coat of paint on the bases to give them the desert feel I wanted (more on my 'Fluff' later!) two days before the Tourney! I used a lot of Foundation and Wash quick techniques that worked out very nicely for slightly above table-top quality (imo).
I went 2 wins and a draw, and got 9/10 for presentation, getting me first place overall! I was one point ahead of 2nd, who was one point ahead of 3rd, who was one point ahead of 4th! Tight competition! I had some of the most intense 40k games I've played, and really enjoyed the look and feel of playing games with all painted armies! With the $50 I got some GW terrain for the club here in Danbury to use.
Well, that's all for tonight...it will probably be another 6 months for my next update! :)