Getting Back In the Painting Saddle

I talked recently about the Warhammer Itch that has sprouted up under my skin:

Combine all of those alone with playing Armada II and it reminds me of the fun of the tabletop version of the game and has got me asking around about buy a handful of models to try out some games with the kids.

I swear, Mrs Kodachi, its gonna stop at just a couple models! I swear!

Well, my inquiries reached an old Warhammer club friend from back in the day and he offered to print a handful of Battlefleet Gothic models out for me and they arrived this past weekend.

I've got three Imperial cruisers whose prints come in 4 very detailed pieces (Port side, Starboard side, Prow, and Engines) and three light cruisers. I've also got a chaos cruiser and battleship coming in the mail (the Ninveah will live again!). 

Now I just have to remember how to paint miniatures. 

Its funny how this blog is coming full circle back to its Warhammer modelling roots.

End of an Era

This post is non-Eve related so move on if you don't care.

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Yesterday, I sold the last of my warhammer 40K models.

I started selling them this summer and I have made back about $1800 on thousands of dollars worth of models collected over 25 years of my life. I've sold my Eldar, my Epic Chaos, my Battlefleet Gothic Chaos, and finally the last of my 40K Chaos. I poured thousands of hours into playing and painting and modeling and its all gone. My terrain for hosting games, my posters I saved for years for the warhammer room I will never have, future modelling projects that will never be, everything(1).

Even though its been six and half years since I last played a game or even had the models out of the crawlspace, the waves of nostalgia tore through me with each sale. Each item handed over for soulless cash, each package dropped in the mail for electrons on Paypal.

Its the end of an era in my life.

1 - Well, almost everything, I kept two models to keep me company on my desk at work.

Selling My Soul, Piece by Piece

Fighting a Doom Cold inflicted upon me by my spawn, coupled with a crazy work schedule, has me lacking energy for a deep and meaningful post.

So you get this instead.

I last played any type of Warhammer 40K game two weeks before the twins were born, over 6 years ago. This year I finally resolved to sell my massive collection of models and this past few weeks I finally got the gumption to go into the dark corner of the crawlspace and pull some cases out. After futzing with the camera and slowly recalling how to take decent pictures of models, I started posting auctions on Ebay.

You know, when I decided to start doing this, I thought it would be easy. I thought the nostalgia had been sweated out after not touching the stuff for 6 years. But once a Warhammer addict, always a Warhammer addict.

Each auction I created was accompanied by a series of memories of how that squad or that character performed heroically in one battle or another. Each model lovingly converted and painted, cared for and repaired when the inevitable accident happens. And now... its gone, someone else's property.

I feel like I'm selling a forgotten part of my soul, piece by piece.

I started with my Chaos marine army, my second Warhammer army. I feel I might slip into depression when I break open the Eldar cases. Some of those Eldar models I've had for over 25 years.

To be fair, I'm keeping a handful of models that I'm particularly fond of. I won't be soulless when this is all done.

Its Official: I'm Quitting

Quitting Warhammer 40K that is. All you Eve readers can pick your jaws up off the floor. ;)

A little history. For the past 18 years my main hobby was table top wargaming using Games Workshop's Warhammer 40K rule system and miniatures. In fact I started this blog to support that hobby years ago.

As part of my hobby I started a community forum for warhammer players in the Ottawa area called Deep Space Gaming Club. Its still going strong with hundreds of members and lots of activity.

Well, with the birth of the twins I stopped my regular gaming and painting and I've not had the drive to get back into the swing of things. After almost two decades, I really feel like its time for a break. So I'm "quitting" Warhammer 40K for the time being, putting all my stuff into storage, and turning the community over to a trusted friend. Since I haven't been active really in six months, I don't expect this will impact my Eve gaming in any fashion.

Some Highlights of my Warhammer Career:

- First models were Howling Banshees and Dire Avengers.
- The "Whack Whack Whack Thump Thump Thump" of three Tyranid Warriors charging a Bloodthirster and getting utterly pwned.
- The game where I beat a powergamer who cheated with 400 extra points in a 1000 point game.
- The awesome Eldar/Dark Eldar scenario table we ran at Games Day.
- Every Eldar versus Dark Eldar game against Andrew
- Every Chaos versus Space Marines game against Dave
- The Eldar versus Eldar Megabattle... just amazing. Best warhammer game ever.
- The Ultimate Chaos Versus Imperial megabattle in which I led the forces of Chaos to a trouncing of the Imperials so badly that it wasn't even close.

There are tons more, but that's all for now. I just wanted an excuse to link those two megabattles. :)

Battle Report: Dawn of War

Last night Andrew and I hooked up online (after several patch downloads, natch) and bashed each other around in Dawn of War.

Game #1: Chaos Marines versus Space Marines

I was in a panic mode all game, terrified Andrew was going to march in and destroy me any second. I tried to remember how to play so stayed pretty basic: a couple large units of cultists to throw into the fray supported by some marines to shoot in and kill the enemy as they pummelled the cultists. In support I made upgraded listening posts and plenty of heavy bolter turrets. Finally I added a full squad of Raptors for extra killing goodness.

This allowed me to hold off Andrew's first couple of testing attacks while I developed up to Defilers. Just as the third Defiler rolled off the line, Andrew made a serious attack.

On the "main" front he threw in his forces which I met first with the Defilers and secondly with the Cultists/Marines/Raptors. But while that attack was going on, he sent in a flanking force to pincher me and get behind my lines. Unfortunately for him, my concentration of firepower on his primary attack quickly overwhelmed him and I was able to turn my forces around in time to prevent serious damage. I lost the Defilers in the process, but the rest held up.

I added more marines to the force and a couple upgraded lascannon Predator tanks since Andrew seemed to like Dreadnoughts. I then launcher an all-out attack on his base. Seeing me move in, Andrew launched his own attack on my base and it became a rush to destroy each other.

In the end Andrew's base was setup close enough together that I managed to destroy all the unit-producing buildings first and claimed victory.

Game #2 - Eldar (Me) versus Tau (Andrew)

We thought we would do something different so Andrew tried out Tau and I tried to remember how Eldar worked. It came back to me fairly quickly since I used Eldar in the Winter Assault campaign but neither of us had a clue how to properly use the Tau and when the serious fighting began my horde of Guardians, Dark Reapers, and Seer Council with Psychic-Storm-slinging-action Farseer proved too much and Andrew conceded until he had more time to try it out.

It was fun, I hope we can make this a semi regular occurence as it doesn't take very long to play a game and it is amusing.

Need voice comms though. I'll have to ask if I can use a friends Ventrilo server.

Newbs Taste Like Chicken

So I played a game of Battlefleet Gothic last night against Soupcat (Mike?) and his Ork fleet. Being only his second game, it was an unfair advantage to me to be using 1000 pts of Chaos. But hey, its all I got.

I chronicled my standard and plain 1000 pt fleet here, and his fleet consisted of a lot of escort sized ships (around 20) and one Onslaught cruiser whose ten hull points concerned me. Then I remembered that each cruiser I have is equal to 6-8 of his escorts and I relaxed and let my guns do the talking.

And talking they did. My rolling for lances was amazing with a near constant stream of hits that pulverized the ork fleet before they got in range. When they did get in range two of my cruisers were crippled in one turn; the first from a considerable bomber wave and the second from a salvo of 15(!) torpedoes. But the juncture had been passed and my return fire eliminated the major threats.

It would have helped had we remembered brace for impact though. So consider it a training exercise and I expect a rematch in the coming weeks!

Battlefleet Gothic Tonight

I've been trying for three successive weeks to get in a game of BFG and tonight I may finally accomplish it.

Its only 1000 pts against a relative BFG newb, but I love the game and it will have to do. My fleet:

Caligo Eternus - Archeron Heavy Cruiser with Chaos Lord Diomedes
Darknight's Pride - Devastation Cruiser
Dark Viper - Carnage Cruiser
Capricorn Retaliation - Slaughter Cruiser with Chaos Lord Kirith and Marine bodyguard
Cosmic Fire - Slaughter Cruiser

I typically fly in 3 formations: The Archeron and Carnage form a long range firing pair of lances and weapon batteries, the Devastation provides close combat patrol fighters to kill enemy torpedo salvos and bomber wings, and the Slaughters use their speed to bring their awesome short ranged firepower to bear once the enemy is engaged and vulnerable.

Battle report tomorrow!

Outnumbered, Outgunned, but never Outclassed

Yesterday Games-Workshop St Laurent held a Battlefleet Gothic megabattle of all things! And even more surprising, my wife let me attend! On a Sunday! SWEET!

I love BFG, the thought of kilometers-long behemoths firing world-destroying weapons at each other gives me a kind of thrill, so I broke out a 1000 pt Chaos fleet and went to join the action.

Black Storm Hunter Fleet - 1000 pts
Caligo Eternus - Archeron Heavy Cruiser commanded by Lord Diomedes
Dark Viper - Carnage Cruiser
Darknight's Pride - Devastation Cruiser
Capricorn Retaliation - Slaughter Crusier commanded by Lord Kirith and the 6th Company
Cosmic Fire - Slaughter Cruiser

Along with my fleet, there was another Chaos 1000 pt fleet and two ork fleets totaling 1000 pts, all guarding an activated 750 pt Blackstone Fortress.

Out to kill the fortress was 3000 pts of Imperials... and 3000 pts of Eldar.

HOLY CRAP BATMAN!

Badly outnumbered and outgunned, we went to battle with prayers to the Gods of Chaos to support us. It was bloody as the Eldar fleets pounced on the Orks and demolished 75% of their fleet in turn 1 while the Chaos fleets tangled with the Imperial Navy and Ultramarine battlebarge. We took down the battlebarge eventually while taking moderate losses to our ships, but the Eldar fleet ran up and started smashing the Blackstone fortress with repeated volleys despite losing many ships to its fearsome warp cannons.

In the end the huge fortress died as it was destined to do.

My fleet suffered only one causality as the Dark Viper bore the brunt of firepower from three Imperial cruisers. In return my fleet accounted for a space marine Strike Cruiser, some damage on the battlebarge, and crippling of two more Imperial Crusiers that were on the edge of destruction had I one more turn.

A good time, I now have the urge for a one on one game of BFG.

Stomped

Last night I had a warhammer game with Max (aka Lostknight). It was a 1000 point challenge game and we rolled up Recon mission.

My army:
Chaos Terminator Lord with twin lightning claws
5 Terminators
2 x 10 marines with lascannon, plasma gun, champ with power weapon in Rhino
Defiler

Max's Green Phoenix Space Marines:
Chaplin on Bike
Venerable Dreadnought
10 Scouts
2 x 10 Marines with las/plas and sgt with Power fist
Predator
Vindicator

The game started well for me, some decent shooting destroying the twin lascannon on the predator and chewing up the scouts. The Chaos lord charged into the chaplin and killed him in a couple rounds before the dreadnought finished him off.

And then the wheels fell off the bus. Turn 2 the terminators teleported in behind his lines and could only stun the dreadnought's rear armour despite getting a pen. Then they lost two models to shooting and the remaining three broke! The defiler's shooting with the battlecannon was lacklustre and then it got immobilized by the vindicator.

The dreadnought charged into one of my tactical squads and despite krak grenades he easily defeated it and chased it down. My other tactical squad was mostly out of the fighting and suffered its only casualty when the plasma gunner overheated himself. Sigh.

After six turns all I had left was one tactical squad facing off against a damaged predator, dreadnought, vindicator and a tactical squad. Victory to the Imperium... this time.

Analysis:
I felt I made perhaps one or two small errors, and then compounded those errors with a spot of bad luck and throw in a dash of ruthless efficiency in execution of his battleplan for Max, and you get a stomping. My errors were placing one tactical squad to the far left while the rest of my and Max's armies were on the right, and then advancing the defiler to the same side of the forest as the vindicator. The bad luck was having the terminators roll eleven when I needed ten or less on 2D6. Damn, that killed me.

Max on the other hand, has vastly improved since we first played in Feb 2005 and now has two wins in a row against me! *cracks knuckles* I'll get you next time!