hate-mongers, Doom and Gloom, End of World as we know it

So today as I was doing my daily rounds of looking at rumors, at my blog rolls, listening to podcast, etc, and I come across a certain blog article that just for the lack of better term, irritated me. Here this self professed prophet of 40K talking about doom and gloom for 40K, that 6th edition will be the deathknell for the game and as proof, he points to 8th edition Fantasy as a presedent. Look buddy, 6th edition isn't even out, why not wait for it and I don't know, play some games and then make you decision if the game is going to hell or not. Instead this Talking Head points the finger at the people running the major tourneys like Adepticon, Nova, etc and tells them that instead of writing faqs to help with speeding up game play (helping with answering contenous rules, etc.)to rewrite an entire new game of 40K. He accuses them of being little Napoleons that the only rules they seem to be faqing are the ones they got screwed over by when they played. I guess the idea of writing a faq to help with running the tournament to fix loop holes that GW has yet to correct isnt enough for him. Game designers no matter how talented they are always going to have detractors who just hate what they do. 40K as it stands definitely has its issues, especially for competitive play but I always take the side of why I play the game, fun. I remember someone saying that 40K isn't made for competitive play and I have to agree, its not. Its a beer and pretzels game, always has been, always will. 40K prophet, its people like you that ruin the game for me, you dont like the game, play another one its as simple as that. Warmachine or FOW definitely have rule systems that are more geared toward competitive play. You want to improve 40K, why not get together with other like minded people and start something for competitive play? Why not write a codex for your favorite army and submit it to the Codex Project to have it play tested by the community? All in all, instead of complaining and bitching, why not do something constructive? Stop being such a buzzkill dude...

40K Escalation League - Week 2

As I have 2 weeks to decide on what I want to do for the 2nd phase of the league, I am still trying to decide on what changes I can make to my list. As of right now, I am thinking of taking the following -
HQ - Herald of Tzeentch
Chariot, Bolt, Master of Sorcery

Elite - (3) Bloodcrushers
Fury of Khorne

Elite - (3) Bloodcrushers
Fury of Khorne

Troops - (8) Horrors of Tzeentch
Changling

Troops - (8) Horrors of Tzeentch

Troops - (10) Daemonettes of Slaanesh

So basically I am adding another squad of bloodcrushers and another unit of horrors to my 500 point list to get it to 750. I might still need to tweak some of the points but bottom line this is what the list will look like. I plan on testing this list in the next couple of days or so to see how it handles the other lists in the league.

I think the biggest weakness I see is the lack of long range anti-tank; I only have one model with the ability to fire a long range anti-tank shot and in some of my early test games testing the 500 pts list, I fell victim to not being able to take out vehicles reliably.

As the point cost goes up, this is going to continue to be a huge problem especially once the AV 14's start popping out (Landraiders). For the next sequences of the league, I will probably switch out to minimum squads of Horrors with bolt and deamon princes for now, I might try out screamers once we get to the 1250 or 1500 point range. Now for some updated pics, I have finished the first blood crushers squad, my first horror squad, my herald, and 2 squads of daemonettes. I also finished building my 2nd bloodcrusher squad which includes my conversion of Skulltaker riding a juggernaut. Let me know what you guys think...

40k Escalation League

On top of all of the madness that I have to do in terms of painting, our local FLGS manager decides to hold a 40k Escalation league. The league will start at 500 points and we will be adding 250 points every 2 or 3 weeks until we get to 2000 points. The real great thing about these types of leagues is the fact that everything needs to be painted and so encourages players to paint their armies. I love this as it will help me with getting another of my armies fully painted that I have laying around as well as allowing me the opportunity to try new options. I was going to do my death company army but saw that 2 or 3 other players are going to do Blood Angels so I decided to pull out my half painted daemon army for this; also, nobody was doing Daemons which made this decision a lot easier for me as I wanted to do an army that nobody was doing. As the points level for this starts at 500, I really couldn't go with my go to guy, Kairos, however I wanted to stay with a tzeentch HQ. For the points, Daemonic heralds are a steal. Going with this idea, I am taking a Herald of Tzeentch on a chariot with Bolt and Master of Sorcery giving me a fire platform that can both move 12 inches and put out 4 shots a turn. As he is considered a jetbike as well, I can turbo boost him to contest objectives if I need to on the last turn and with 5 wounds, should be hard to kill. Accompanying my HQ will be 3 Bloodcrushers to provide my army with a hard as nails unit that can compete with the best assault units in the game. This unit not only serves as my hammer, but due to how scary they are perceived to be it gives you that psychological edge. Running out the 500 points I started with going with 2 units of 8 or 9 horrors and thus re ligating my list as a shooty one as horrors put out a lot of firepower.

After several test games however, the list was being outclassed by armies that had high mobility, great armor saves, or ones that could tie up or kill all of my blood crushers as my horrors hit like wet noodles in combat. To change it up I decided to go with one squad of horrors with the changling upgrade as the ability he has for 5 points can be game changing if it happens and a squad of 10 daemonettes. Having 2 squads that can dice up the enemy in a 500 point army list has paid in spades as the daemonettes helped me win all of my next test games that I played with them. Their high initiative, fleet, and offensive and defense grenades, and boat load of attacks makes them a real threat on the battle field. Of course, they are a glass hammer so if I roll badly or if they get caught out in the open, they fall over like blades of grass. My first weeks opponent was a Space Wolves player that had a wolf guard battle leader in terminator armor, a 10 man grey hunter pack in a drop pod, and a 10 or 12 man blood claws pack. We rolled up kill points with pitched battle and he decided not to bring on his HQ and blood claws pack as he was afraid of my deep striking units.

I believed this cost him the game as it allowed me to overwhelm his unsupported drop pod squad with my blood crushers, horrors, and Herald. He did manage to shoot my horrors on his initial drop reducing me to just 2 horrors however my bloodcrushers got a turn of not getting shot and butchered the squad after my herald shot them up. I won the game 2 to 0 and with it bonus points for having a fully painted army. I have 2 weeks now to add to my list to get it to 750 points so I am thinking of adding another squad of 3 Bloodcrushers and to re-add my other horrors squad to my list. I might go with a budget Deamon prince in order to get some more Anti-tank but we shall see. Pics are of my daemons about a week out before my first league game, I will post more updated pics in my next post. Time to get more painting done...

The Future of Chaos...

Over the course of the last couple of weeks, with moving into our new home, I have been thinking about the future of chaos and what that will bring. I have been paying a lot of attention to the rumors on BOLS, Warseer, etc. and to be honest, it all sounds good. A lot of the old character seems to be making its way back however I do hope that its not another Grey Knights book. The last thing I want to see is every one and their mother playing chaos, of course this is bound to happen as with every new army; I just dont want players to give me a dirty look when I pull out my chaos army. The biggest hope that I have is that the new chaos codex will bring back the flavor of chaos, to allow for multiple builds instead of just a few, and to bring back the options that the old codex had. My other hope is that GW concentrates on fleshing out the undivided chaos legions along with the god centric ones, like the Alpha Legion, Word Bearers, and my favorite the Nightlords. GW definitely has the resources for writing awesome fluff (tap Black Library authors here GW please!!!) and keep the rule writers to what they do best, writing rules. Black Library has given you years of awesome fluff, filled with characters and villians that could be brought to the table top. Let us chaos players have the options to kit out all kinds of lists, lists that while being fluffy can still kick some serious ass on the table top. So come on GW, bring on Honsu, Talos, etc, bring out shiny new models that we will kill to have, but above all make the codex something to be feared once again.

On another note, I plan on running the following chaos lists in the next weeks or so, basically playing my favorite army for the purposes of having fun. In the case of my Thousand Sons army, I am actually bringing summoned daemons to the mix including a summoned greater daemon. In my last 2 games, the summoned daemons actually helped me win my games by either tearing up guard in CC (ok guard suck in CC but hey) and providing me with a cheap scoring unit. The greater daemon has been a terror, tearing up vehicles and when I played a Nids player, tore through a 5 man warrior squad, killed a genestear squad of 9, and then tied up the hive tyrant with his guard for 2 full turns!! Below is my list -

Total Roster Cost: 1749

HQ: Kharn the Betrayer (1#, 165 pts)
1 Kharn the Betrayer, 165 pts
: Summoned Greater Daemon (1#, 100 pts)
1 Summoned Greater Daemon, 100 pts

Elite: Possessed (10#, 309 pts)
8 Possessed, 238 pts = 8 * 26 (base cost 26) + Icon of Khorne 30
1 Possessed Champion, 36 pts
1 Rhino, 35 pts

: Summoned Lesser Daemon (9#, 117 pts)
9 Summoned Lesser Daemon, 117 pts = 9 * 13

Troops: Thousand Sons (10#, 294 pts)
8 Thousand Sons, 189 pts = 8 * 23 (base cost 23) + Personal Icon 5
1 Aspiring Sorcerer, 70 pts = (base cost 60 + Doombolt 10)
1 Rhino, 35 pts

Troops: Thousand Sons (10#, 289 pts)
8 Thousand Sons, 184 pts = 8 * 23
1 Aspiring Sorcerer, 70 pts = (base cost 60 + Doombolt 10)
1 Rhino, 35 pts

Heavy Support: Obliterators (3#, 225 pts)
3 Obliterators, 225 pts = 3 * 75

Heavy Support: Vindicator (1#, 125 pts)
1 Vindicator, 125 pts

Heavy Support: Vindicator (1#, 125 pts)
1 Vindicator, 125 pts

The Nightlords list I am really excited to try out as I painted up a Nightlords Commander in Terminator armor and have yet to use him. Along with his Lightning claw buddies in a Landraider, these guys make one hell of a hammer. Like my wolf army, I see the benefit of having 2 heavy weapon squads in the backfield to provide supporting fire for my troops. In keeping with my space wolf team, I am running cheap havoc squads with a lascannon and 2 autocannons to give me weight of fire and a lascannon to reach out and take out heavy vehicles. In keeping with the Nightlord theme, I am also running 2 big chosen squads that I will infiltrate all over the board to provide the proper terror tactics to my opponents. This list is below -

Total Roster Cost: 1750

HQ: Chaos Terminator Lord (1#, 145 pts)
1 Chaos Terminator Lord, 145 pts = (base cost 120 + Mark of Khorne 10 + Combi-flamer 5 + Lightning Claw 10)

Elite: Chosen (10#, 240 pts)
9 Chosen, 187 pts = 9 * 18 (base cost 18) + Meltagun 10 + Flamer x1 5 + Meltagun x1 10
1 Aspiring Champion, 53 pts = (base cost 28) + Power Fist 25

Elite: Chosen (10#, 235 pts)
9 Chosen, 182 pts = 9 * 18 (base cost 18) + Meltagun 10 + Meltagun x1 10
1 Aspiring Champion, 53 pts = (base cost 28) + Power Fist 25

Elite: Chaos Terminators (5#, 430 pts)
1 Chaos Terminators, 15 pts + Icon of Slaanesh 15
1 Terminator, 40 pts = (base cost 30) + Power Fist x1 10
3 Terminator Champion, 150 pts = 3 * 40 (base cost 40) + Lightning Claws (pair) x3 30
1 Land Raider, 225 pts = (base cost 220 + Dozer Blade 5)

Troops: Chaos Space Marines (9#, 200 pts)
7 Chaos Space Marines, 120 pts = 7 * 15 (base cost 15) + Plasma gun x1 15
1 Aspiring Champion, 45 pts = (base cost 30 + Power Weapon 15)
1 Rhino, 35 pts

Troops: Chaos Space Marines (9#, 200 pts)
7 Chaos Space Marines, 120 pts = 7 * 15 (base cost 15) + Plasma gun x1 15
1 Aspiring Champion, 45 pts = (base cost 30 + Power Weapon 15)
1 Rhino, 35 pts

Heavy Support: Havocs (5#, 150 pts)
5 Havocs, 150 pts = 5 * 15 (base cost 15) + Autocannon x2 40 + Lascannon x1 35

Heavy Support: Havocs (5#, 150 pts)
5 Havocs, 150 pts = 5 * 15 (base cost 15) + Autocannon x2 40 + Lascannon x1 35

Let me know what you guys think..