My Death Star's Better Than Your Deathstar

I don't really plan on doing in depth battle reports for my games from Adepticon, but there are a few highlight moments I want to share. As the title would suggest these revolve around tough units battling it out vs. each other.

The first is from my very first game of the weekend. I was battling against an all foot Dark Eldar list with a webway portal. We danced around each other a bit while awaiting his forces to arrive from reserves. When they finally did we got in a couple of classic scrums. Firstly his beast pack with a bunch of Razorwing flocks and some Chymera charged into the Sanguinor. The Sanguinor took it like a champ and I followed up by counter assaulting with an assault squad and Mephiston. They cut through the beasts like a hot knife through butter. Later in the game I charged his Archon with the Sanguinor. I didn't really expect to win this fight, but to my after some crappy dice I managed to cause two wounds on the Archon. He was rocking a shadow field so I figured that wasn't enough but what do you know the first die he dropped was a one and due to furious charge the Sanguinor doubled him out!

I'm gonna keep this one brief but in the 3rd game the Sanguinor did it again. This time it was against Baron Sathonyx. Once again he failed his 2+ invulnerable save on the first die rolled.  I ended up losing both of those games but those were some fun and surprising moments.

The most fun ones came in the Team Tournament though. In the third game I was paired up with Christian. He was using the Sanguinor and I was using Astorath the Grim. We did some early dancing with our opponents who had Lysander buried in a squad of 10 thunder hammer/storm shield Terminators with 5 more bringing up the rear. At about turn three they moved up into what I knew was charge range. We moved in the Sanguinor and the Death Company moved up and piled out of their Land Raider while Astorath jumped over to join them. Christian was looking at me like I was crazy since I only had five members in the DC, but I knew with 2 power weapons and 2 power fists that it was enough. We charged in with the DC and both special Characters. The Sanguinor charged straight into Lysander while the DC all based the terminators. When the dust settled from the first round of combat there wasn't a single terminator left and Lysander had taken two wounds while we only lost 3 of the DC. They then counter charged with the 5 man termy squad and dragged in the remaining sergeant and a sanguinary priest from a nearby assault squad. When the dust settled from that the Sanguinor and one power fist DC walked away from the fight. While there wasn't a model in terminator armor left on the table. We went on to lose this game to some late game objective grabs by our opponents, but man what a fun combat!

Finally, in the final game of the TT I got to test the DC's mettle against none other than Lord Kalder Draigo and his Paladin cronies. I was playing with Murray, who was running Dante. We used Dante's curse on Draigo (duh!) knocking him down 1 WS, 1 Initiative, 1 wound and 1 attack. On turn two I got my chance and I unloaded the DC from the Land Raider again and moved Astorath up to join them. I charged Astorath right into Draigo and let the DC charge the Paladins. I was a little worried on this one due to the halberds, but decided to try it anyway. Astorath swung first landing 3 hits on Draigo and wounded with all of them. I told my opponent that he would have to re-roll successful invulnerable saves figuring I would get 1 or 2 through, but he rolled two 1's and a 2! Bam! Draigo punked! then his halberds whiffed killing only the bolter DC which meant no wound allocation shenanigans for my opponent against the power weapons. I ended up killing all but one of the paladins, though he got all but one of my DC in return. Then next round he counter charged with some regular terminators, but due to a bad terrain roll was only able to swing against Astorath and I made all his invulnerable saves. Then I counter-counter charged with an assault squad and a priest. Combined they managed to wipe out the last paladin and all of the terminators, though the final death company member did finally die.

These were some amazing fights and show just how powerful even a small Death Company can be if used well and combined with some of the other tricks in the BA codex. So how about you, got any good stories like this you'd like to share?

On the Hobby Table

So I've been sitting on two of the Fire Prism/Night Spinner kits since they were released. I figure its about time I get to work! I have been really missing playing my Eldar lately so they are coming out of craftworld mothballs and back on to the table tops.

Anyway here's a pic of the first of the Night Spinners in progress. The weapons are magnetized so if I ever want to make it a Fire Prism I'll just have to paint up the prism cannon.

That's it for now. Until next time...

Adepticon Pictures Round 2: The Team Tournament

Saturday saw me playing in the team tournament. I had a ton of fun and snapped a bunch of pics of various armies and such. Again no pics of any of my games, though. I was a bad blogger this past weekend! 

These hooligans are from my gaming club and took home the prize for Best  Team Spirit. Congratulations to The Final Order!!!!

Pictures from Adepticon: 40k Championships

I played in the 40k championships this weekend. I couldn't get pics of all the armies in attendance, as there were just so many of them, but here's a good number of them. 

As for me I went 1-3 on the day. I had 4 very fun games against some great guys. I was obviously hoping to do better than that in my games, but that's the way the dice tumble sometimes. What was very cool, though was my paint score. For those who don't know Adepticon's rubric, each army is scored 1-42. If you get a 42 you can then qualify for up to 3 more discretionary points. Last year I got a 38 and was quite proud of it. This year I was hoping to up that to around 40 or so. I did more than that. I actually qualified for the discretionary points and ended up with a 43, just 2 points away from max points! This blew me away! 

Anyway, on to the pics....

Adepticon!

So I'll be leaving to head out to Adepticon shortly here. All I have to do is pack my clothes and have a farewell lunch with my fiance. Thought I'd share some pics of the army I'm bringing.

The list is:

Sanguinor
Mephiston
2x 10 man assault squad, 2x melta and power fist
1x 10 man assault squad, 2x melta and power weapon
1x 5 man scout squad with sniper rifles and camo cloaks
1x 6 man Death Company, 3x bolters, 2x power swords, 1x bolter and power fist in a
Land Raider with Multi-melta and Extra Armor
1x Sanguinary Priest with Jump Pack and Power Sword

Here are a few pics of the Army.

Here's the army in all it's glory

The Sanguinor, Exemplar of the Host

Chief Librarian, Mephiston

Since I was asked by Coyote the other day how I painted my scouts here's a couple of pics of them.

From the back showing off the cloaks.

Here they are from the front.

And a shot of the Land Raider, just because.

and one more of the army as a whole.

I also recently finished painting up some Sanguinary Guard and a Sanguinary Priest in terminator armor that my team will be using in the team tournament. So here's some pics of them.

Well, time to get ready to go. If you see me at Adepticon stop by and say 'Hi'.

Red Thirst Markers

So a quick little video hobby tip/trick. Enjoy!

Test of Khaine Tournament Wrap-up

Yesterday my friends James, Yancy and I traveled out to Evolution Games in Lansing for the 2nd annual Test of Khaine tournament put on by Seer Karandras of Craftworld Lansing. The tournament was 3 rounds using battle points and was 1850pts.

I brought along my Knights of Blood using the list I am planning on taking to Adepticon this upcoming weekend. Here's the list I brought

Sanguinor
Mephiston
2x 10 man assault squads with 2x melta and power fist
1x 10 man assault squad with 2x melta and power weapon
5x scout squad with sniper rifles and camo cloaks
Death Company with 3x bolters, 1x bolter and power fist and 2x power swords in a
Land Raider with extra armor and multi-melta

Game one saw me paired up on table 4 with CVinton of Dark Future Games. He was playing his great looking Space Wolves (good enough to win best in show!) His list was as Follows

Bjorn the Fell Handed with Assault cannon
Wolf Lord on thunderwolf with Frost Weapon and Thunder Shield and Saga of the Bear
Thunderwolf Cavalry x4 all with strom shields 1 with a Thunder Hammer
3x  Wolfguard with Combi-meltas and power fists

3x 9man Grey Hunters Pack with Flamer, Mark of the Wulfen and Wolf Standard in a Rhino
2x Long Fang Pack with 5x missile Launcher

The first mission used Kill Points for the primary objective. The secondary objective was to have an HQ unit controlling an objective in the center of the table, and the tertiary was to have more units in your opponents deployment zone at the end of the game.

This game was really close with me winning the primary 6 kill points to 4. He got the secondary by having his Wolf Lord controlling the objective at the center of the table uncontested and we drew the tertiary by having an equal amount of units in each others deployment zones. There were a few key moments that really pushed this game in my favor. One was when Mephiston broke and ran from combat when my side lost a large multi-assault that contained Bjorn (which was still going when the game ended!) As Meph was falling back he moved his Wolf lord in position to make sure he kept running, but I was able to tank shock the Wold Lord away and used the position of the LR and some impassable terrain to keep the wolf lord from being able to get back within 6" so meph could re-group next turn getting him back in the fight and denying my opponent the kill point. The other big moment was when my last two Death Company managed to get a glancing hit on Bjorn (only stunned him, damned venerable dreads!) and his T.wolves whiffed. The wolves then having lost combat failed leadership and ran off the board.

Chris was using a Forgeworld Contemptor dreadnought to represent Bjorn and I have to say I know like the model. I never really liked the way they looked based on pics on the internet, but after seeing his all painted up and looking great I must say I have changed my mind. Not enough to get one, but I no longer dislike the model.


My second game was against a player named Matt aka BigMek SkrapKlaw and his Orks. He also had a very nice looking army. I know I've mentioned it before, but I really love playing against great looking armies, it just makes the games that much more enjoyable.

This mission had us picking one unit from either Elite, Fast Attack, or Heavy Support to be our chosen target to be killed/destroyed as our primary objective. For the secondary we needed to kill the highest point HQ and table quarters was the tertiary. In this game my dice abandoned me completely. This is not to take anything away from my opponent as he played a very solid game, but with my dice in this one I never stood much of a chance. Hopefully if I run into him again someday my dice will allow me to give him a better run for his money.

His list was as follows
Big Mek with Burna, KFF, Eavy Armor Cybork body, and boss pole
Warboss with power klaw, combi-skorcha, eavy armor, boss pole and cybork body
10 Nobz all wound allocated out in a Trukk with red paint job and reinforced ram
19 ard boyz, nob with power klaw and boss pole
2x 20 shoota boyz nob with power klaw and boss pole and 2x big shootas
2x single Deff Kopta with TL rokkit launcha
2 Deff Koptas with 2x rokkit launch and 1x buzzsaw
3x Battle Wagons with red paint job, reinforced ram, big shoota and Kannon

I chose one of his battle wagons as my target and he had to select my priest as it was the only available option. Deployment was Dawn of war. As a side note I wound up playing on the same table as game one.
In this game I made a mistake early and misjudged how big of an assault range orks in a battle wagon really have and he was able to assault the priests squad and take him out pretty early with his 'Ard boyz. Next turn I joined the assault with another unit and this combat would last until the final turn of the game when I finally won it with 2 marines left. Insanity! I did manage to get the battle wagon to tie the primary. It was a close thing. I flew Mephiston over towards the battle wagon, then ran him (luckily a full 6") after the Land Raider whifffed and attempted to assault it. It was so close that we couldn't tell and neither of us had a tac template to make sure. Matt offered to give it to me on a 4+ which sounded like a reasonable proposition to me and was shocked when 5 pips appeared. Meph managed to destroy it and then the game ended. We actually tied the tertiary as well since all quarters were contested. In the end I had two assault marines, 2 scouts, Meph with only two wounds and the Land Raider sans multi-melta.

The final round saw me draw my buddy James, again on table #4. This time I asked if I could play on a different table! The mission was a bit wonky. We placed a single objective in the center of the table which had to be captured and then taken off the table. The secondary was seize ground which we rolled 3 objectives with the tertiary being kill points. James was rocking a triple death star list that looked something like this:

Wolf Lord on Thunderwolf mount with Saga of the Bear, storm shield and frost weapon (I think)
Rune Priest with Jaws and Murderess Hurricane
Wolf guard Termies in a Land Raider Redeemer
3x Thunderwolf Cav all with storm shields, one with thunder hammer one with melta bombs
2x Grey Hunters in rhinos with Mark, Standard, melta and wolf guard with combi and p. fist
Long Fangs with 3x missile launchers and 2x lascannons

This mission used spearhead deployment. We both deployed right to the front of our deployment zones and made a mad dash to the middle of the table. We basically just fought it out in the center of the table and when the dust settled I had come out on top of the combat. I grabbed the objective and ran, managing to get it off the table edge on turn 5. That's when the game ended. I had won the primary and we drew the secondary when I only rolled a 1 for my scouts to try to capture a seize ground objective that would've given me the win. I managed to come out on top in kill points to win the tertiary as well. This was a fun battle that was really close and could have easily gone the other way.

Overall I had a really fun day and some really great games. I look forward to the next time I get the chance to get out there for some games with those guys.

Win a Battle Force or a Troop Box! (from Dark Future Games)

So the guys over at Dark Future games are running a cool little contest at Adepticon this year wherein you buy them drinks for a chance at getting free stuff. So to help get my fellow Michiganders well and truly drunk I'm spreading the word. (I also get entered into a contest for free shit by doing so, so it's not totally altruistic of me)
Anyway here's the rules, yo.

The official rules of the Adepticon Battle Force Contest: 

If you purchase a drink (we prefer alcohol, but regular drinks are welcome) for a member of the Dark Future Games Staff wearing a shirt with the image above, you will earn an entry in our raffle for a battle force of the winners choosing (or an equal value in GW merch - current stuff only).

There is no limit to the amount of times a person can enter. (yes, you can buy us a case of beer too and receive an entry for each one!)

A member of DFG may not refuse the drink and must enter your name. If he is taking part in an event, he may pass the drink to a member who is not playing.

Will will choose the winner the Monday following Adepticon and mail out the prize as soon as we get our hands on what the winner wants!

So if you see these guys go ahead and buy them a drink. I know I will!

Here's the link to their blog post for any further info...

http://darkfuturegaming.blogspot.com/2012/04/news-win-battle-force-or-troop-box-we.html#more