Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Too many toys...so many choices...too little time!

6th edition 40k has really sunk its talons in to me! I had been down on 40k for awhile, but the "new shiny" has me completely engaged now! So much so that I've got far more armies not-quite-done on the "paint bench" than I've ever had at one time before...which is both good and bad!

So what am I working on? Read on!

First and foremost, not gaming related, is my family. I'm an assistant coach for my son's youth football team, and I try to be as involved as Dad can be in my daughter's new activity: Cheerleading! This fits her little personality so well...now EVERYTHING is a cheer! And man I hope no videos of me playing "Little Sally Walker" show up on Youtube!

This stuff takes up pretty much every waking moment during the week...I go to work, run home, grab the kids, take them to their respective practices, then coach for 2 hours, then take them home, and eat, and get them in to bed, and the next thing I know it's 9:30 at night and I'm exhausted!

But I won't let this slow down the gaming!

This Saturday I'm running a small (8-10 person) 40k tournament at our FLGS, the Hobbytown in New Milford (actually I could use one more player if anyone in the area is interested!). We're all anxious to see how our new 6e army ideas work out against our friends. My bet is that Sean Nayden's Drop Pods ("This one goes to eleven...") will dominate!

What's so exciting for me about 6e? Well...I can't really say. There's a lot of rules that I don't really like, a few things that are GW-esque broken, a lot of GW-style "buy our coolest new stuff" action, but I came to the realization that every game of 6e I've had, win or lose, has been fun and has made a lot more 'sense' than stuff that happened in 5e. Suspension of disbelief, I guess. I don't really care why, really, and don't want to think too much about it...for fear I may spoil it! I enjoy it, am having a good time, and want to play more!

There are a few tournaments coming up I'd like to attend: Battle for Salvation (Bobby and Ed run a GREAT GT); Mechanicon; The Warstore Weekend; and hopefully some fun events at Brothers Grim on Long Island (I miss you guys!)!

My problem, though, is picking something that I want to really "work" on and practice with to be "my" army for these events! See, it's not a horrible problem really, but being something of an impulsive buying, I have too many armies to choose from!

Here's the things that I have on my mind as armies I'm considering devoting time and energy to:

Chaos Daemons

Fateweaver
Lord of Change

3 Flamers
3 Flamers
3 Flamers

5 Horrors (The Changeling)
5 Horrors
5 Horrors
5 Horrors

6 Screamers
6 Screamers
5 Screamers

Daemon Prince (Mark of Tzeentch, Wings, Bolt, Gaze)
Daemon Prince (Mark of Tzeentch, Wings, Bolt, Gaze)

Lots of Flying Monstrous Creatures, a good number of Flamers and Screamers to do the real killing, Fateweaver to keep things alive, and probably too few troops, but at least they have a 4++ Invuln! This is probably top of my list right now, for a lot of reasons not the least of which is the minimal model count means my old back isn't killing me at the end of the day, and it fits in a shoe box! Only thing left to paint here are 3 Flamers and 3 Screamers, everything else is DONE! (Though the bases are boring...and many are in fact square as I use them in Fantasy too!)

These Daemons have been lingering in my basement for ages, I'm hoping to start using them more regularly in both Fantasy and 40k...it's sad to have so many models and so little time to use them all! I'm looking forward to retirement!

Orks

Orks were my first "serious" 40k army, and I'm happy to see that the type of build I favored many years ago is back in vogue and apparently able to compete! This is another case of guys that have been stuck in the basement too long needing to get out!

Warboss (Warbike, Cybork Body, Attack Squig, Power Klaw, Bosspole, Kombi-skorcha)

10 Lootas
10 Lootas
10 Lootas

8 Nob Bikers - Troops (Painboy, 4 with PK and Kombi-Skorcha, 3 regular. Waaagh! Banner and Bosspole on a couple of the PK guys)
27 Shoota Boyz (Nob with PK and BP)
27 Shoota Boyz (Nob with PK and BP)
26 Choppa Boyz (Nob with PK and BP)

Dakkajet (Xtra Supashoota, Fighter Ace)

Aegis Defensive Line

Can't go wrong with herds of boyz now, especially with no Fearless wounds. Lootas are better than ever, as glancing stuff to death is what they excel at. I stole the idea from a guy named Keith I met at a tournament a few weeks ago: the units of 10 are not fearless, so they can Go To Ground behind the Aegis line for a sexy 2+ cover save while still Snap-Shooting at enemy Fliers...and really, snap shots don't hurt us nearly as much as others! The Dakkajet is there for anti-flier more than anything, and I'd love to have two of them! The Nob Bikers are more resilient than ever, and something few folks mention is their ability to allocate wounds when they roll 6s to hit...bye-bye, PF Sgt!

I'd love to have all Shoota Boyz, but those are the models I have, and I don't mind the extra attack from the Choppa Boyz when they get to counter-assault something that's engaged with the Shootas or Nobs! I mean who doesn't like over a hundred S4 attacks?!

I have most of this painted, just need to do the Dakkajet and a handful of Lootas (well...more than a handful: 20 or so). A big negative with this army is the huge amount of time it takes me to deploy, move, and put away these models. I'm not a fast player at all, and I'd struggle to get thru games with these guys!

Dark Eldar

These guys are still pretty decent, but I really don't have that great a feel for what they can do, and I struggle to find any kind of answer for Flyers. FMC will die to Splinter Spam as normal, but...well, I'm just not sure how they'll work!

I have ideas paying the "Farseer Tax" that seem pretty solid, but have little answer for Flyers. I have ideas for 3 Voidravens that seem solid vs. enemy fliers, but I'm not sure about the loss of the Ravagers. Regardless, Reavers will play a prominent role, as I think they got the most out of 6e, and Venoms aplenty will still do the trick to anything that's not wrapped in a vehicle.

I think the most practical list I have in mind goes something like this:

Baron Sathonyx
Eldar Farseer (Jetbike, Runes of Warding, 1 Diviniation Power, Singing Spear)

3 Kabalite Trueborn (Blasters, Venom)
3 Kabalite Trueborn (Blasters, Venom)

3 Guardian Jetbikes
5 Warriors (Blaster, Venom)
5 Warriors (Blaster, Venom)
5 Warriors (Blaster, Venom)
16 Hellions

6 Reavers (2 Heat Lances)
6 Reavers (2 Heat Lances)
6 Reavers (2 Heat Lances)

And the Ubiquitous 3 Ravagers (Dark Lances, no Flickerfields...relying on the Jink!)

The only things that worry me too much with this army is Flyers, as there's virtually nothing to deal with them other than the Primaris Divination on a Ravager hoping to get lucky...and that's not a very good plan! I'm pretty comfy with how this all works, though, so might give it a go...

Deathwing

Yeah, that's right...I have a box full of used terminators slowly being modified to be 5 squads of Deathwing! I've used the army a few times on Vassal, I love the visual of all the Terminators, and the combination of tons of S8 shots with Storm Shields makes me feel happy! The list is not something I've given a terribly huge amount of thought to, but something like this:

Ezekiel (LC, I hate to see that I5 go to waste!)
Terminator Librarian (Force Sword, Divination)

"Upgraded" Deathwing Squad (Apothecary, Banner, 2 TH/SS, 2 LC, 1 CF, Cyclone)
Deathwing Squad (2 TH/SS, 2 LC, 1 CF, Cyclone)
Deathwing Squad (2 TH/SS, 2 LC, 1 CF, Cyclone)
Deathwing Squad (2 TH/SS, 2 LC, 1 CF, Cyclone)
Deathwing Squad (2 TH/SS, 2 LC, 1 CF, Cyclone)

Land Speeder (Typhoon, MM)
Land Speeder (Typhoon, MM)
Land Speeder (Typhoon, MM)

That's 1750, for the other 250 points...I don't know. Another Deathwing Squad? 30 Terminators is kind of scary! A Land Raider? A couple Vindicators? A couple Dreadnoughts? More to come as I think more on this! Lots of work needs to get done just to get to this point. All the Terminators need arm swaps, the Land Speeders need to be Typhoonified, and of course all need painting.

Flyer Envy - Necrons

Flyers are pretty dominant now, and from my experiences with the Dakkajet, the Razorwing, and the FMC, they're a lot of fun, not just a point-and-shoot weapon, they require some thought and planning ahead to get them where you want them on the turn you want them there without zipping past what you want to shoot! So, if I had $700 bucks to blow, I'd start a dirty Necron army...something like this:

Destroyer Lord (MSS, SW, RO)

5 Immortals (Night Scythe)
5 Immortals (Night Scythe)

5 Immortals (Night Scythe)

5 Immortals (Night Scythe)

5 Wraiths (2 Whips)
5 Wraiths (2 Whips)
4 Wraiths (2 Whips)

Doom Scythe
Doom Scythe
Doom Scythe

Not a lot to deploy on the table, but hiding and retrograding with the Wraiths until the Death Rays and massive Tesla from the Flyers cracks things open will work nicely, I think. I like having the Tesla Immortals as troops, so they can actually get deployed early if needed and have a good chance to survive. More often than not they'd get zapped in late-game when the Death Rays have killed everything.

Me buying this isn't likely to happen, but you never know...I might win a lottery scratch ticket or something and call up Neal at The Warstore!

And last, but certainly not least...

Bobby's Ultramarines

Bobby has been working on his painting all week, and is really excited...I told him if he gets his stuff painted he can play in the next Ordo 40k tournament, which will likely be mid-December. He's got good ideas, liked the idea of the list I came up with but has been making some tweaks to make it his own. Here's the total 2k we're aiming for:

Chaplain (Jump Pack, Meltabomb)

Dreadnought (2 TL-Autocannons)
Dreadnought (2 TL-Autocannons)
Dreadnought (2 TL-Autocannons)

10 Tactical (Missile Launcher, Flamer, Meltabomb, Rhino)
10 Tactical (Missile Launcher, Flamer, Meltabomb, Rhino)
10 Tactical (Missile Launcher, Flamer, Meltabomb, Rhino)

10 Assault (2 Flamers, Meltabomb)
Stormtalon (Skyhammer Missiles)
Stormtalon (Skyhammer Missiles)

Thunderfire Cannon
Thunderfire Cannon
Thunderfire Cannon

Aegis Defensive Line

It's spammy, but it's simple and effective. The shooting is enough to threaten car parks, MC, hordes, damned near anything except Land Raider spam. The Aegis will be awesome for the Dreads and Cannons. The Stormtalons are to deal with enemy Flyers (with the Dreads helping out, of course). Best of all, he loves all the stuff. He's tested it all (except the Aegis) and loves it, especially his Assault Marines with Chaplain! It's not the best list every made, but it's no slouch either...I mean, that's a lot of shooting!

So, my mid-week barrage of what I'm doing! I'll try to get some photos up of the Daemons as I finish them off! Have a happy Wednesday!

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