Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Break

Sorry its been so quiet lately. After last week's tremendous victory I left my models packed away on the workbench and spent the weekend visiting family. Last night I finally cleaned up the workbench and got my half painted models back into production.


In order to be ready for my 5000 pt battle versus Al (all painted models at the Bunker!) I need to finish six terminator stands and 8 scout marines with their 4 rhinos. I have until Sept 11th but since I'm camping this weekend and busy on Sept 9+10, I quickly am running out of time!


Break's over!

Friday, August 26, 2005

Graduated from Rookie to Veteran

Well, after ten games of Epic with the experienced boys in Ottawa, I'm proud to sport an even record of four wins, four losses, and 2 draws. Better yet, the four wins are against three different opponents and three different armies. So I feel I've graduated from epic rookie to Epic Veteran. Yay me.


What next? Well, Al challenged me to a grudge match of 5000 pts which we will attempt to play on Sunday, Sept 11 at the bunker. That means I need to finish painting the recovering terminators as well as two of the new forlorn hope formations. I will also need to paint up the new swiftdeath flyers I've purchased from ForgeWorld (actually Imperial Lighting fighters but I like the style much better than the doomwings which will be going up on the block soon).


I'm toying with several ideas for the army, including the possiblity of field two titan, the Banelord and the Ravager. Really cuts down on activations but I suspect Al will have the advantage there no matter what I do due to his smaller formations. Another possiblity is the drop pod assault which has some attractiveness.


After the Sept 11th game I'll probably starting planning for the Epic tournament on Oct 23rd as part of the 10th Golden Marine tournament. Last mini-tourny at the beginning of Aug was not kind to me and I want to do better. I think having three full platoons is a good start.


Stay tuned!

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Victory!

Sorry, no pictures as I forgot the camera.


Last night I posted a 4000 pt victory over Chris' Imperial Guard. By avoiding any war engines and going for air supremacy I had a list that was well suited to take advantage of his lack of mobility compared to my rhino-enclosed infantry. While in turn three I had a decent armount of air support while his air defenses were whittled away, it was only mildly useful in distracting Chris.


Next up is a match versus Al, 5000 pts.

Monday, August 22, 2005

More Than Half Done

The Epic painting goes well. This past weekend I finished up my Rhinos for the core platoons and havocs, painted up some drop pods for future assaults, and starting the recovery process for the old terminators. In addition, I found some time to whip up some ruins a friend had been kind enough to give to me.
  


So the current status is thus:


Titans require the two ferals to be painted.


Infantry looking good with 6 terminators and 12 Forlorn Hope scout marines (and attending rhinos) under the brush as we speak. Aircraft half painted, but I'm getting new fighters to replace the Doomwings so I'll lose some ground there.


Armoured column requires a lot of attention after most of them entered the "dip" to get old paint jobs off.
   

Friday, August 19, 2005

Orks versus Chaos Battle Report

Go here and see the action.


More thoughts:


I was glad to finally win a game against someone other than Al and his Space Marines. While I think Andy could have managed a tie in turn 3, he had lost a lot more than I had and I think I would have pushed him back in turn 4. Basically I had lost half my scouts (4 stands) and my big platoon which, while a big blow, still left me with an almost full second platoon, 2 Chosen Terminator formations, Deathwheel, Decimator, and Banelord. In contrast, he had one ork mob, warbikes, the fightabombers, and the titan. The titan was a problem but the rest I think was manageable.


Next up: Chris and his Imperial Guard next week. He thrashed me on Aug 7th so I'll be looking for revenge. Time to break out the drop pods.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Banelord Goes Hunting Tonight

I've got a game tonight and the Banelord gets to come out and play, but he'll be facing an Ork Great Gargant. Egads.


Having never played Orks in this edition, combined with facing a new opponent in Andy, I'm very concerned about my chances. I almost never fare well in first time situations and with three new variables (big titans, Orks, and Andy) I suspect I'm in for a thrashing.


With on 3000 pts per side, I'm even more nervous as I didn't feel I could get the army I wanted with the Banelord in 3000 pts. But I managed to get 9 activations and a good number of infantry so we'll see.


Expect Battle Report tomorrow. With pictures, I brought the camera. Woot.

Monday, August 15, 2005

Friday, August 12, 2005

Thanks

I got a lot of compliments on the last batch of pictures so here is a Thanks to everyone.


I'm extremely pleased with the progress of the painting. I cannot believe how much converting and painting I've accomplished for this army in the period of a few months. I just finished four Raptor stands last night and got a good start on Mr. Banelord. I've also got drop pods and rhinos on my work bench to paint up next.


My next game is next week, 4000 pt clash versus Chris and his Imperial Guard. Following that up will be a game against Andy and his orks where I'm hoping to debut the Banelord in a clash against his Gargant.


Of course, I'll keep you all posted here.

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Pictures 2

I had some roads made for me to go with my buildings and thought some battle-front pictures from embedded propoganda reporters would be cool. 


Platoon 1 holds a strategic crossroads while Imperial artillery pounds their position.
Aug10_1956 (Small) Aug10_1956 (Small)  Aug10_1956 (Small)


Deathwheels and platoon 2 move in to reinforce.
Aug10_1956 (Small) Aug10_1956 (Small) Aug10_1956 (Small)


Squads Gamma and Epsilon assault an Imperial strongpoint.
Aug10_1956 (Small) 


Air support was dropped from the orbiting Darknight's Pride Devestation class cruiser and strafed the enemy positions.
Aug10_1956 (Small)

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Pictures

See here for my own armies pictures. Here are all the pictures.

Monday, August 08, 2005

Tournament Results

I entered the Battle Bunker bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, with visions of glory and victory dancing in my head. Six hours later I stumbled out battered, bloodied, and bruised as my more experienced compatriots demonstrated my weaknesses.


My first game against Chris was almost a complete disaster, with only my plan to negate his artillery working properly. A combination of bad army selection and bad luck contributed to 75% of my army being broken in turn 2 while a large part of his army was unscratched. I opted to concede at that point.

The nail in the coffin happened right at the start of turn 2: His Leman Russ tank company was advancing and I brought down my 6 terminators and 3 obliterators 5 cm infront of the formation with the intent of getting first turn (I got +3 to the strat roll to do so) and moving up my 8 marine tactical formation to shoot and get into FF range, and then retain to assault with my macro-weapon weilding terminators. Roll for going first, I roll a 1 and he rolls a 5. DOH! The Leman Russ tanks sustain fire into my terminators and killed three, combining with the blast marker they recieved during teleport to break them. Later in the turn he followed up with anything and everything to hit the terminators and kill them with blast markers. Ouch.

In the second game against Al and his Marines it was a much closer match. We had played twice before, both times my chaos delivering a world of hurt on his marines but each time Al went away with a bit more knowledge and today he put it to good effect.


I was hammering his two tacticals near my objectives but in the second turn he launched a 3 terminator formation teleport attack into my backfield and won first turn (he won first turn in all three turns) which allowed him to first assault and break the decimator formation and then assault and almost utterly destroy the defiler/marine formation. I lost 1100pts of my army in exchange for 3 terminator stands. Ouch. I was also forced to turn around two largish formations to come back and try and contiain/eliminate the terminators meaning my attack force was unable to kill enough units in his backfield to prevent the remnants from contesting objectives.

He won after three turns, but man it could have gone the other way. Had I won initiative in turn 2, the decimators could have turned their considerable MW fire on the terminators first and I could have retianed and sustained fire with the defiler/marine formation. Odds were I would have caused enough damage to ensure that he could not have broken both the decimators and defilers in return making it a much harder go for Al in turn 3. As it was, he won the initative and won the day.

To be fair, Al played a great game and made fewer mistakes than I did. I should have not turned around my forces in response to the terminators but pushed on to the objectives and try to eliminate all the marines there and push for the VP win. I should have moved my predators and terminators in turn 3 to contest objectives instead of shooting at the terminators. I shouldn't have assaulted two half strength formations of marines with my bikes and daemons, etc. All in all, too many errors.

Best Chaos Unit: Despite getting assaulted and mauled in the second game turn 2, the defilers were awesome in game 1 and had a good shot in game two where they killed two rhinos and 3 marine stands.

Worst Chaos Unit: Tie between the decimators and the chosen. Both killed absolutely zilch in two games, but at least the chosen provided some air cover with their obliterators in game 2. I never got to fire the decimators all day, which shows the experience of my opponents and knowing what to target.

Overall, it was a great learning experience and I'll only get better because of it, and next time some heads will be on my trophy wall I tell you! Next time! :pissed:   ;-)


 

Friday, August 05, 2005

Tournament Army Ready! (Almost)

I got a lot of painting done yesterday. I finished up 6 stands of terminators, 1 bike commander stand, and 5 rhinos to replace old rhinos. All I have left is the based of the 7 stands.


Here is the whole 3000 pt tournament army:
 


Here are close ups of the terminators and bike chaos lord (a little washed out I fear by the flash on the bikes):
 


 


And here are the new rhinos with old style rhinos thrown in for comparision. The Rhino with red markings is for the chaos lord:
 


Next up after the basing effort is to finish recovering some raptors and then paint up some more rhinos, followed by predators and perhaps a titan or two.


 

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Back From Vacation

In case there are any blogrolls with this little blog on it, I'm back from my two week vacation and regular posting with resume shortly.


For now here's an update:


- I've started repainting the four raptor stands and painting 5 new terminator stands and one bike lord stand. I hope to get them finished for the mini-tournment on Sunday, Aug 7th.


- I purchased 4 new predators and the space marine hero pack just before vacation. The bikes for the new bike stand came from the hero pack, as well on a terminator lord.