Another Two Beatings By Dalton

I tried to extract some revenge for last Friday's loss and ended up on the receiving end of two 500 pt debacles.

Using the 40K in the Flash rules we played Take and Hold twice. Both times my army got wiped out. His multiple scout squads and attack bikes proved to be more than enough to deal with my mutants and traitors. I thought my sentinel and chimera were minor investments but both were gone so early and easily and left my army high and dry in both games. I just don't know what else my 130 pts would have gotten me that would have been better. More mutants? More guard? I dunno.

Back to the drawing board I guess.

Lots of Pictures of Diomedes

More pictures of the finished model. In all cases click the picture for a big image. Really big. See all the mistakes big. And in all cases no flash was used as I did not want to wash out the model.

First off here is a zoom of the picture I posted yesterday. Black background, overhead fluorescent lights.
 

Here is the finished piece, including basing. White background, indirect lighting from lamp. Picture on right is closer to the light source.
 

Different angles, Above and rear. I'm only so-so happy with the lightning. I might try to redo it with finer lines.
 
From the front. I love that picture on the right.
 

These two were taken with the lamp off and the overhead fluorescent providing the only light. The white background really makes the model look darker compared to the first picture with the black background.
 

Painting Progress

Here is the almost-finished Diomedes. Just a bit of touch-ups and basing left to do.

And I'm re-working Jossat's model. Took away the plasma pistol and built him a combi-bolter with flamer.

 

Painting Bug Is Back!

So, the painting bug is back for another tour of duty. I was unsure what to tackle but seeing poor diomedes half-painted moved my heart so I started in on him again. Its not going to bad, but my first attempt at lightning on a power weapon failed. Gonna give it another try.

After Diomedes I'm not sure. Either BFG ships, Epic models, or Furies. Hmmmm....

Pics to follow later this week.

Dalton Severely Kicked My Ass

I have a full battle report but my ftp site is being difficult and I don't feel like reconfiguring the report to use something else. I'll try to get it up later today. In the meantime, the game can be best understood by this:

A visit to the Doctor

 <Subject enters, takes a seat on the couch.>

Interviewer: Good morning Bill, how are you today?

Subject: Not so good doc.

I: Oh? Why is that now?

S: I got beat. I got beat bad. I think I'm losing it again.

I: Tell me about it.

S: Well, there's this guy. An old friend. We're both in this campaign thing, you see, and we decided it would be cool to have a couple games against each other. For sh.. er.. poops and giggles you know?

I: Yes, go on.

S: We started in BFG and...

I <interrupts>: BFG?

S: Yeah, Battlefleet Gothic. Anyway, I was teaching him the ropes and he started getting good. Then we had a big fleet engagement and he spanked me, doc, really hard.

I: Oh really? Was that your first time?

S: Um, figuratively. He didn't really spank me! I mean, I not into that stuff!

I: My mistake. Carry on.

S: So he beat me bad. Then we arranged for another big game, this time of 40K. We made a special mission, we made army lists, and last night we played the game.

I: I take it that you did not win.

S: Not win? Man, I was beat so hard and so long that I woke up last week with bruises! He annihilated me down to a small handful of models, he smacked me around and bent me over the barrel like nobody's business!

I: Figuratively, correct?

S <sighs>: Yes. Figuratively.

I: Right.

S: Anyway, I'm starting to feel like that time way back when when I had that year long losing streak. I'm feeling inadequate like I did then.

I <checks notes>: The "Infamous Losing Streak"?

S: That's the one. The guy I played last night, Dalton, he was the main architect of that horrible period. I feel like I'm going back into the bad place doc! You've got to help me! Please!

I: Well, tell me what went wrong last night.

S: I started with my Lost and the DOOMed on the board, 2000 pts. I had 1000 pt Chaos Marine list in reserve. Dalton had two marine lists. I thought I deployed ok but as I advanced on one side and got into combat, my assault failed to hit as hard as I hoped and he crushed me. I had lots of mutants, furies, and traitors but they were countered by marines and scouts and Company Masters. It was awful!

I: What about your ordnance?

S: I tried, doc, I really did! But the Helltalon took a krak missile on the second attack run and was driven off. It didn't come back til the end of the game. The basilisk was doing alright until the Thunderbolt flyer blew the Earthshaker off, and the Russ turned to avoid another flyer attack run and got hit by a multimelta to the back that I missed coming up the collapsed flank fast and hard. <S cries>

I: There there, its ok. What about the other side?

S <hysterically>: Marines, marines, and MORE marines from reserve! Thirty of them doc! THIRTY! My thirty traitor guard didn't stand a chance. A Commander and Chaplin came in to and I countered with terminators and my Chaos lord, but there was just too damn many of them!

I: I see. It must have been rough.

S: Oh it was. I collapsed like a broken folding chair.

I: Figuratively.

S <angry>: Yes figuratively!

I: So, was there any good news? Surely it wasn't all bad.

S <thinks>: Well, there was some good stuff. I killed his commander with a Traitor Guard Agitator! That was hilarious especially since my Chaos Lord and terminators failed to cause any wounds on him, and the ignored agitator whacks him for a wound in two rounds, killing him. Classic!

I: Yes indeed.

S: And my Chaos Lord survived to the end of the game, whereas I killed all of his characters. I was pleased with that.

I: You said in the past that "characters never really die, they just get badly wounded."

S: Yeah yeah, I thought you were supposed to make me feel better?

I: I won't let you lie to yourself.

S: **** you!

I: Now now, calm down. Back to the game. Was there any other good points?

S: No. That's it. It was pretty bleak.

I: Well, it says here in my notes that just a couple weeks ago you played Dalton in a 2000 pt game and you kicked his ass completely off the table.

S: Oh yeah. That's true.

I: And after that BFG loss you played a smaller rematch and came out ahead by a bit.

S: Yeah! That's right, I did!

I: So while you totally sucked the big one and became his little boy-toy for the evening, I don't think its part of a trend. Its merely turnabout is fairplay.

S: Yeah, I think you're right! I'm not a loser!

I: Well, I wouldn't go that far.

---

Update: Here is the battle report with pictures.

The Battle for Orrus IV Comes to a Dramatic Conclusion

I've picked my army, the mission is ready, Dalton's coming over. I'm really excited about setting up the board tonight, its been a long time since I have hosted a game and I have a bunch of new terrain and the new boards I purchased last Christmas from John. Should look awesome!

I'm so looking forward to this game, even if I lose badly. And I feel like I've set myself up for a loss by taking the Lost and the DOOMed. I mean, I look at the list and think, "That's it?!" Expect full battle report and pictures on the weekend.

After this game, I've got nothing lined up except Noel on May 2nd (a bit of a Grudge Match™). I need to regroup after the campaign and figure out which direction I need to go. More 40K? A tournament? Epic? BFG? Take a break and do board gaming with Andrew?

I don't know yet. I want to do it all but not enough days in the week. Time will tell.

Planning Continued

I've come up with a list but I feel very ambivalent about it. Not a good sign.

Basically I've got the Lost and the DOOMed 2000 pt army for the start with a pretty typical 1000 pt Chaos Space Marine army in reserve. The problem is I look at the LatD list and I get the willies; it looks so weak and unimposing! Beyond the beautiful battletank it feels like I've got nothing!

Now I wouldn't mind so much in a friendly game but this game could be for as much as 5 zones on Orrus IV in the campaign and losing it would be a travesty. I feel an obligation to put up more of a fight for Dalton so I'm going to play with some more lists and see what comes up.

UPDATE: Ok, I played with my Lost and the DOOMed list and found that removing the Possessed Marine squad I could add a Basilisk, 8 furies, and 4 chaos hounds. Whoa. Those possessed are expensive. I feel much more comfortable with the list with those additions and I'll go with that.

Planning Continued

I've come up with a list but I feel very ambivalent about it. Not a good sign.

Basically I've got the Lost and the DOOMed 2000 pt army for the start with a pretty typical 1000 pt Chaos Space Marine army in reserve. The problem is I look at the LatD list and I get the willies; it looks so weak and unimposing! Beyond the beautiful battletank it feels like I've got nothing!

Now I wouldn't mind so much in a friendly game but this game could be for as much as 5 zones on Orrus IV in the campaign and losing it would be a travesty. I feel an obligation to put up more of a fight for Dalton so I'm going to play with some more lists and see what comes up.

Planning For the Endgame

Dalton and I are planning a big 40K slugfest for the climax of our campaign against each other for Orrus IV. Basically the idea is that two armies of 2000 pts each start on the board and each of us has an army of 1000 pts in reserve ready to come in.

I had an idea where my Lost and the DOOMED army would be the starting force, and I would have Chaos Marines be the second backup force. Then I went crazy and thought I would have this for my second 1000 pt force:

Chaos Lord in Terminator Armour
10 Man retinue in Terminator Armour
2 Squads of Daemon Packs
2 Squads of Daemonic Beasts
Helltalon

Basically a teleporting Daemon bomb. The problem is, I don't have Daemon Packs available to me as a user of exclusive chaos undivided. I toyed with the idea of taking other daemons and simply calling them daemons of Quintara but the price for a box of ten daemons runs $55+taxes and that is unaffordable right now. So back to the drawing board.

I think I will still go with the terminators (maybe not all 11 of them) but still toying with the troops ideas, seeing what I can come up with.

 

Humbled

Turns out, attack craft are only as good as the fool that sends them on their mission. Guess who the fool is?

I took Wedge formation in our 2000 pt Fleet Engagement while Dalton anticipated that action and took Sphere to counter. We ended up on deployment map A and Dalton went for the unexpected pincher tactic, something I was not expecting. Make note: Bill does not handle the unexpected well. Here is some deployment pics.

 

Dalton had first turn and began to close his trap, I opted to go straight and get some broadsides in. I crippled one ship and managed to tag a couple escorts, but in turn 2 Dalton ripped up my Carnage and one Slaughter real bad.

 

I disengaged the Slaughter and then did something really dumb: I split my fleet. I sent the Hades and Murder squadron to starboard to tangle with the battleship while the rest of the fleet turned to port. I seem to have misplaced the picture of Dalton rubbing his hands in glee at my obtusiveness. Here's a picture of the port movement, but the rest of my pics were too shaky. :(

The Hades and Murder proved to be inadequate to take on the Desolator by themselves and were constantly braced to avoid doom. On the other flank I tried to break his Archeron and 2 Slaughters. I killed one Slaughter that was damaged from turn 1, but only hurt the other and the Archeron laughed off all damage. My second Slaughter took several blasts and became crippled. At this point, bottom of Turn 4 I think, I had my fleet split and going opposite directions, with the enemy at my rear in both cases, and he had superior numbers by a bit. I opted to conceded in hopes of a small rematch which Dalton graciously agreed to. (Thanks again buddy!)

I possibly could have climbed out of the hole I was in but it would have required a flawless performance by me, mistakes by Dalton, and a huge amount of luck. Dalton deserved a win for his approach and I deserved the loss.

Upon further analysis, the big disappointment for me was the attack craft. In hindsight, sending four assault boats against an undamaged ship was foolish and bombers would have been the superior choice. If anything did me in besides the splitting of the fleet, it was that. I caused some damage on the battleship and Hades with hit and run attacks, but since he had all his hull points he easily brushed them off. Had I used bombers on the cruisers, it would have been a better investment. Ah well, live and learn.

In the second game we went with a cruiser clash. I was determined to play better and for the most part I succeeded. There was only one turn when I positioned two ships poorly and failed to get their broadsides.

Here is the board a couple turns in:

 

As you can see, Dalton's Battleship ran the gauntlet and had a couple damage points taken, but more importantly needs to come around. In the meantime, I was able to kill the Carnage (almost screwing it up with the aforementioned poor positioning of my ships) and smack the Murder around a bit.

Eventually Dalton's battleship came around and found my crippled Hades, Slaughter, and Murder in his front arc and he fired his torpedoes at the Hades, completely missing on the to-hit roll! He got the Hades next turn with lances but failed his reload ordnance command check. The Murder and Slaughter went on Lock On orders and got within extremely close range of the front of the Desolator. Their firepower was extremely accurate and Dalton failed three chances to BFI (his ship's LD was 7 and had blast markers in contact, but still it was unbelieverable) so the Desolator was destroyed and left a drifting hulk.

We counted up and I had a slight advantage due to the escorts I had taken being able to disengage instead of being destroyed.

Overall Lessons Learned:

1) Assault Boats are better against ships that don't have all their hull points to repair with.

2) Go after the battleship with everything, not a few things.

3) The escorts were amusing, but I would have preferred a second Carnage for that price.

4) Check and double check the moves I make to ensure I don't screw up broadsides again.

5) Think about what Dalton can do with gravity wells, too often I'm being taken by surprise.

Great games, a huge thanks again to Dalton for the rematch. I appreciate the chance to redeem myself a bit.

More Thoughts On Today's Battle

I did more thinking about today's tilt with Dalton. Our fleets are so similar that basically their are only three variables outstanding:

1) Who's the better admiral?

While I have more experience, my training of Dalton in the game has brought him up to the point where any advantage I once had is reduced to almost nothing. Will my previous large fleet actions help me get the edge on him? Or will they hinder me as I make decisions based on how previous games went?

2) Who's go the better luck?

In small games, luck plays some part (especially in all important critical rolls) but in the larger games the averages should balance out. That being said, the game I played against Al I won a resounding victory because his 4 nova cannons scattered off target 12 times in a row. So it is possible that luck could play a role in determining the winner.

3) What's better: 12 launch bays or 15 torpedo tubes?

This is the big question. Can I use my attack craft to effectively neutralize his torpedo salvos while still delivering damage, or will his salvos break my defenses and give him the upper hand? My belief is that my attack craft are going to break his fleet long before his torpedoes cause issues, but Dalton is nothing if not a crafty foe. He may realize something I do not and it scares me.

This evening, we'll know the answers.

I'm bringing a black mat and a camera, so expect a full battle report later this week. The penultimate battle for Orrus IV looms!

Some Painting *Gasp* And Battle Analysis

Sorry no pictures yet. Last night I was preparing my plans for facing Dalton in tomorrow's big game of BFG and I decided I wanted that last ship painted up, the new Slaughter class Insisto Oblivium, named in honour of the faction I was part of in the Gahmorra Conflict campaign.

I did a rough job but it matches all the other cruisers well enough. I need some new drybrushes.

While painting I planned my approach to the game. The thing about the Fleet Engagement scenario is that the game radically changes depending on the setup which is used, and that depends on the formation you pick for your fleet compared to the formation your opponent picks.

When I played this mission against Al, I had no idea what he would choose so I picked a formation that had the greatest likelihood of keeping my fleet together. Since Dalton is more like myself and more likely to do serious analysis of the choices, I think I've narrowed down what formation he will not take, and have acted accordingly in my formation choice. Of course, he may anticipate my choice and so act contrary to what I suspect so I have fine tuned my choice to be acceptable in either situation.

Crazy, no?

Regardless, I stringly suspect that tomorrow's game is going to be hard fought and close, with the result going either way.

Analysis:

The fleets are surprisingly similar, the significant differences being:

Black Storm --- Marines Inviolate
Despoiler with Warmaster & Marines --- Desolator with Lord and Marines
Devastation --- Repulsive with Marines
no additional Ld upgrades --- Both HC have Marines

Basically, my fleet gives up points on the second and third difference and pours them into the first difference. Basically, my BB is 200 pts(!) more than his. Also, if you compare the weapons of the Despoiler to the Desolator, you see that they have very similar broadsides: 4 lances and 6 FP for the Desolator, 3 lances and 6 FP for the Despoiler. Yes, I know the dorsal and side weapons are switched but the similarity is striking. Front facing weapons are comparable as well. So the question becomes, is the 8 launch bays, higher leadership, and 2 fleet re-rolls worth 200 pts?

I don't know the answer yet, but I should have an idea tomorrow night.

A little Apathetic to 40K Recently

Due to having a great opponent and BFG Enthusiast like Dalton, my desire to play 40K has dropped a large degree. Its BFG all channels all the time baby!

That's not to say I won't play 40K if given the proper opportunity, its just that my interest is not as high as it has been in the past. I think part of the problem is that I've been playing Chaos too long with no forays into Eldar or Lost and the Damned due to:
1) Still having interest issues with the current antiquated Eldar codex, and 
2) Having very few painted Lost and the Damned, and
3) Lost and the Damned are harder to transport due to number of models compared to Chaos Marines.

I still want to get into Epic too, I'm just apprehensive because my army is not completely painted and I don't have any daemons which is a big point in favour of Chaos Marines. I fear finding my army totally outclassed by the more complete armies of the other guys. To sum up: performance anxiety. ;)

Ah well. I feel the painting urge starting to rise again, so I expect once this Rome: Total War phase passes I'll be back to the brush. Not sure what to paint though, I have so many options.

Background of the Black Storm

I keep all the fluff I write and some fluff other people write about my Chaos Legion in a word document. I initially wrote some simple background info and over the years I wrote a bit more here and there until I finally went crazy about two years ago I decided to completely re-invent my marines due to the new Chaos Daemon Prince model that I had to have as my legion master.

Thus began the effort of writing the Draconis War. This seven chapter effort is comprised of background fluff pieces covering a story arc of how my Black Storm orchestrated a war to topple Imperial Control in the Locara Sub-sector and spread war and confusion throughout the rest of the Draconis Sector. It cumulated in the death of the chaos lord I had used for years and years and the creation of the new chaos lord to replace him.

Ever since that effort I found my calling in writing background fluff for my chaos legion to setup battles and describe their aftereffects. My master document storing all my fluff is up to 196 pages and continues to grow every week.

Man, I love this game.

Orrus IV Continues

This weeks lunchtime game of BFG with Dalton ended in a loss. He managed to get 6 points of troops off the planet and I couldn't stop him. We sort of made the mission up on the spot and I think there was some difficulties involved, but regardless he moved to the objective and accomplished it quickly.

Next game is Wednesday evening, 2000 pt fleet engagement versus Dalton to really put an exclamation mark on our Orrus IV fighting. Our fleets are very similar so it should be very interesting.

Smacked Down!

I had my 3000 pt Grudge Match!™ with Corey yesterday and the final result after a fun battle was 1395 for Eldar, 1091 for Chaos. Giving him 3 points more than he needed for a minor victory.

It was a great game with lots of thinking and tactics, but I admit I was down on finding out I had lost. I felt I had played a solid game with no mistakes and I couldn't understand why I was left without even a tie. At the time I could not see what I should have done differently given the circumstances but in retrospection I see the error of my ways.

In third edition 40K, if you destroyed a weapon on a vehicle or immobilize it you get half points for that vehicle. In fourth edition only immobilization gets you half points. When faced with the super heavy Scorpion grav tank, I dedicated approximately 600 pts of units to attacking it and succeeded in destroying its main weapon which in third ed would have been sufficient for 325 VPs, but is worth nothing in 4th ed. A quick analysis of the damage tables reveals to me that in order to earn points for the Scorpion, I had to destroy it or immobilize it, both of which required far larger percentage of my army dedicated to destroying it than the 600 pts or so I used. For example, I need on average combined 8 glancing hits of 2 or penetrating hits of 4 in order to immobilize the beast and that is not taking into account the 4+ holofield save. Yikes! Destroying it outright may be easier but definitely requires more firepower than the 2 lascannons, meltagun, multiple plasma pistols, plasma gun, and 2 powerfists I threw at it.

So, now that I have re-aligned my view of the super-heavy tank universe, I can say that I should have totally ignored the Scorpion and went after the rest of the Eldar army with gusto.

Ah well lesson leaned. I was due for a beating anyway and Corey was nice enough to let me tie him in a 1000 pt game afterwards. He's a decent chap that way.