... in which I am visited by Nurgle

In my usual tradition, the damons of Nurgle brought me the plague on New Years. Every year this happens, without fail. Granted, it's just a head/chest cold, not the actual plague, but it is enough to lay me up, and ground me to the couch for a few days.

On the positive side, this gives me plenty of time to contemplate what my next group of tasks will be in the hobby world.

I still need to finish up my 2nd Bretonnian Lord on Hippogryph conversion, and I still have the bulk of my Bretonnian Army to paint.

I was also able to pick up some Necron units as well, so I have those to work on as well.

I have 52 troops for a Death Korps of Kreig Army to build.

I also have terrain to build... I picked up Witchfate Tor over the holidays, and I still want to build a lake piece of terrain.

Plus, I usually have about a dozen or so non-wargame miniatures in various states of completion.

I guess all of this spare time is really just bringing into focus how much hobby work I am behind on. SO, I put it to you, the blog community, how many projects do you tend to juggle at a time? When is enough enough, and when do you kick it into high gear to catch up?

On another note, SeerKarandras and I have been kicking around the idea of doing a podcast. What are your thoughts/reactions?

Well, off to have another round of Robotussin. Happy New Year everybody!

... in which I discuss an underused unit, the Pariah.

Why do Necron Players not use the Pariah? Why don't people fear the Pariah as much as the Immortal?

I didn't manage to get a game in last night, but I was able to watch SeerKarandras take down the other Necron player at the shop. Now, he normally runs the Destroyer list, but last time we talked we threw around a few ideas and both came to the same conclusion. We need to utilize the Pariah. 

The Pariah itself is a pretty solid unit. It is not a Necron, so it does NOT get WBB. WS/BS 4, S/T 5,1 Wound, 1 attack, Leadership 10, 3+ save. The only stat I'm not happy with is initiative 3. They are equipped with a warscythe w/built in gauss blaster. Warscythe: No saves of ANY sort allowed, 2d6+Str for Armor Penetraion. Gauss Blaster: 24" Str 5 Ap 4 Assault 2. Special Abilities: Soulless: Enemy units within 12" are now leadership 7, unless normally lower. Psychic Abomination: Any Psyker within 6" must take a leadership test or fall back along with any squad they are leading. If they fail the Ld test, they only hit the Pariah on a 6. Fearless. All for 36 points a model.

Both LittleD and I came up with dramtically different lists, but still had the same concept core to them. Against SeerK's Eldar, he fielded 2 Monoliths, 2 Lords, 2 squads of Warriors, 2 Squads of Flayed Ones, and a squad of  Pariahs. The Pariahs definately had an effect on the Eldar. Sure, they don't have WBB, but they are just as tough as any other Necron unit. He had the Pariahs in the middle of the field, close enough to the Eldar that the Soulless ability (You have leadership 7, good day sir!) kicked in. They never got close enough to Eldrad to mess with him as a Psyker, but the Leadership reduction was enough. He closed the distance with his lords (both with Gaze of Flame. [-1 leadership that stacks w/any other penalties]) and Flayed Ones. Now, the Eldar had leadership 6, because of the combo of the two, and the Flayed Ones force a leadership test for terrifying visage. (If you fail, you only hit flayed ones on a 6.) This made it really ugly for the squad of aspect warriors that they assaulted. Obviously, they lost the assault, and broke... Unfortunately, they beat the Initiative test, so they ran... But the Flayed ones were able to give chase and keep harassing the squad. Very Effective strategy.

SeerK ended up crushing the Necrons, Dark Reapers launching crack missles into the Pariahs put an end to them pretty quick.

My idea for Pariahs initially had a great basis, but sadly wouldn't work. I wanted a Lord w/Warscythe and a veil of darkness to move them around. I figured, teleport in, use the gauss blaster, then assault with the Warscythes the next turn. Give any vehicles and or terminators a REALLY bad day. Sadly, Pariahs are not NECRONS.... meaning, no Veil of Darkness for them... Sad Panda. It wasn't a total loss though, as the Warscythe strategy w/Gaze of Flame and a Nightbringer nearby... I think that would cause some chaos. We shall see. I'm throwing together a list that would utilize this, and collecting the pieces... Perhaps by my next game I'll be able to test it.

Battle Report 12.15.10

LOL, I don't get it. Page views are WAAAAYYYYY up, but yet not many people leave comments or follow the blog. Either way, I am grateful for the traffic.

On to the battle report!

Ouch.

Chaos Daemons are a bunch of nasties.

Now, it's common knowledge that I am a 40k n00b, and that I don't know a lot about the opposing armies. My game this day taught me a lot though. Daemons are a nasty bunch to deal with, and for once, I feel that my loss was not an error of my mistaken tactics, but more that I faced a superior army with a general that knows how to use them. I had to use some proxy pieces in this battle, as I wanted to run my revamped army list, but I had not had enough time & money to buy the units I needed.

 Turn 1 left the Necrons setting up to an empty board. Now, I had lost initiative, and seeing as his army was teleporting in, I thought it would have been pointless to try and seize initiative.
I put my army in a good spread, warriors out front with the Monolith right behind, and the Lords and their units flanking the monolith.
A unit of Pink Horrors dropped in across the table, right in a blast crater. Two units of Plague Bearers dropped next, across the board from my Monolith.
The Pink Horrors then opened up on my squad of Warriors, 45 shots tearing into them. Many went down, but after my WBB roll, only 2 actually fell.

 My retaliation fire dropped a few PH's, and my Warriors moved in a little to help get their full assault fire next turn. My Lord grabbed his unit of Immortals and Veil of Darkness'ed over to the flank of the PH.
Turn 2 saw 2 Daemon Princes drop onto the table, using the standard bearers in the PH and PB units to come in spot on. Juggernauts of Khorne popped in, and a unit of flamers right to my flank. The Juggernauts assaulted my Necron Lord/Immortal unit, dropping 7 of my 8 Immortals. The Daemon Prince with the axe assaulted my warrior unit, while the flamers opened up on the Tomb Spider. The PH's kept their fire up, landing another 45 shots into my Warriors.

 I had planned on pulling my Immortal/Lord combo thru the Monolith, but discovered too late that they must be within 18"... My bad. 4 Immortals got back up, and the Lord VoD'd out to the rear of the PH's. Instead, I pulled my Monolith around and started Particle Whipping the Daemon Prince. The Unit of Pariahs sliced right thru the flamers (Yay Warscythes!)  Now, he had a named Character in with his Unit of Juggernauts that had broken off and moved towards the main force of my army. My Tomb Spider assaulted him, more keeping him tied up than actually harming him.

My reserves are where it began to get disappointing. My Flayed ones failed their reserve roll (Again!), but my Tomb Stalker made it, so it was able to Deep Strike right up by the PH's and Juggernauts. I had the TS fire on the PH's taking a few more of them out, seeing as I can't assault when I deep strike, unlike the Daemons. My Warriors were falling left and right underneath the assault from the Daemon Prince, and their assault back did nothing more than make more fall. The instant death dealt to them by the Prince just wasn't helpful.

 After the Pariahs and 2nd Lord finished off the flamers, they consolidated in around the Named Character. He was about to have a really bad turn 3 with 6 Warscythes coming for him.

Sadly, however, turn 3 never came for me. The Daemon prince wiped out the last of my Warrior squad, and the PH's dropped my second unit of Warriors, dropping me to phase out.

 A pretty resounding defeat by the Daemons for the Necrons. Like I said, however, I think I was outclassed here, and didn't make any tactical mistakes. He totally ignored my Tomb Stalker, Monolith, and Pariahs. He went straight for the phase out, cutting down my warriors with extreme prejudice. With instant death and/or power weapons, my WBB was never even a factor. This is why I don't care if they get rid of that rule. There are so many ways around it, it has never done more than have a smidgen of warriors get back up over the course of me running this army. It's been useful, but not game deciding like everyone makes it out to be. There are just too many 2x strength, powered, and other types of weapons that denies the WBB roll.

What I took away from this battle:
-Protect the Necrons! Phase out sucks, so I should barricade some Warriors aside so that Phase out isn't an issue.
-Warscythes rule!
-Should have brought the Nightbringer. If anyone sould have stepped to a Daemon Prince, it would be a C'Tan.
-The Monolith my be nigh on impossible for the opposing army to destroy, and I should use that to my advantage. Instead of holding it back, I should have put it right out and particle whipped the snot out of his troops, even though it was damaging the prince every turn, it was only dealing one would a turn, when it could have been wiping squads out.

Well, time to revamp the list for a trip out to Evolution tonight. I hope to report a victory this time!

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Life is good.

A little package from merry old England was delivered to me on Monday. :) Pix to come. I'm totally jonesing to take it out and put the hurt on some Dark Eldar with my Necrons.

On to the topics of the day, a store review and a comment on D&D character builders.

Store Review
Pandemonium

(734) 427-2451

1858 Middlebelt Rd
Garden City, MI 48135

I didn't post their website because, well, it sucks... Other than telling the store hours and a gaming schedule it is worthless. Despite the drive (I live in Lansing, a good two hours away), whenever I visit my family in the Detroit area, I try to swing down to Pandemonium to see what they got. Don't expect too much in the way of customer service here, this place is all about the product.

The carry the full line of GW merch, not only 40K, but Fantasy and LOTR as well. They also stock the full line of Reaper Mini's, Hordes, Warmachine, and DnD. It's very very convenient place to find exactly what you want without special ordering it. The downside is that they run MSRP, and there is no club or incentive to buy more or from them.

Two things make Pandemonium stand out. 
1: They carry Forge World in stock. Yep. No waiting on Int'l shipping... walk right in, grab what you want and go.
2: They have Used bins for 40K and Fantasy. The used models are usually a little less than 1/2 a new one, and the come with all the parts. You can paw thru the bins and inspect them and pick and choose what you want. I was able to pick up my King Louen (see previous blog to see him painted) AND a Grail Relaquae with 6 Battle Pilgrims for $40. (Louen by himself is $45). A little Pine-Sol and elbow greasy later.... You get the idea.


Overall, I give Pandemonium 3 out of 5 stars.

Customer Service frankly sucks, the place is nigh impossible to find coming from the north (it faces south along Middlebelt, so you don't even see it unless you are driving North), and it has no enticement to shop there. 
To recap the pros: Full lines IN STOCK, Used GW, Forgeworld!!!, and gaming area aplenty!




Now a quick word on D&D character builders. For 4e, you just can't beat D&DI's Character builder. But if you are a 3.5 hold out like me, check out Heroforge! It is a free program, and it is a spreadsheet that runs in Excel. It has been spot on for all of my characters, and has even caught some errors (oops!) that I have made while advancing my characters. They do have a 4e platform available, but I have not tried it yet, Also, be sure to grab Spellforge while you are there too! Playing a magic user has never been so easy!


Well, that's it for now... Have fun storming the castle!

Battle Report 11.21.2010

Whew. That one didn't go how I planned.

Seer Karandras' Dark Eldar concept was a solid one, but my Necrons ran much more smoothly this time. He led in kill points the first half of the game, but I was able to keep on trudging from behind and over come him in the end.

Initial Deploy

Initial Deploy

I figured since he started with only 3 skimmers, that I'd be able to tear them apart and get heavy casualties. The big flaw with his list was that he couldn't hurt the monolith.

That aside, I had a huge fight on my hands. First turn, those skimmers made it over to my half of the board, and got right up in my grill. I moved a squad of warriors up the mountain to intercept, and my monolith out and the rest of my army following. I left my Flayed Ones in reserve, so that they could outflank, a mistake against this army. They were so fast, by the time they came in (turn 3) I had to run them to get them remotely close to the combat. In hindsight, I should have had them infiltrate. Against a slower army, the outflank would have been fine, but I was too slow for the Flayed Ones to be any use at all.

They're on us!

My squad of warriors went to open up on his skimmer, and I *should* have had 24 shots raining into it, but the shadow shields on it made it so none of my guys could rapid fire and only 3 guys were in range for a single shot. Losing 6" off your range is a PAIN.


His troops all start piling out of his skimmers, and one of his Homonculi opens a webway portal right in the middle of the map to let a unit of Grotesques onto the board.
I'll give it to the Necrons here, they are resilient little buggers. SK kept knocking them down, but they kept getting back up. My Necron Lord had a squad of Immortals paired with him, and he was equipped with a Staff of Light and a Veil of Darkness. Every time SK got a squad to charge into hand to hand, the Lord would simply teleport them away, and the immortals would open fire when they reappeared. The Monolith kept the Grotesques at bay, and was the most effective piece in the game I'd say. The Nightbringer went into hand to hand with a squad of Wracks, and was very effective in cutting them down. The sad part they were just as effective against him. I HATE POISON WEAPONS! I find it hard to believe on a logical level that poison could affect a soulless machine. I'll give it against the C'Tan, but not the Necrons.... Either way, two squads of Wracks took out the Nightbringer, but they took heavy casualties. The Monolith and the Lord/Immortal Squad mopped up the rest, which is what put me up on kill points.

Since I had a squad of Flayed Ones (doing nothing, granted) out in the boonies, I never reached my phase out number, despite having the bulk of my troops obliterated. I lost a heavy amount of troops because of "powered" weapons that denied me my "We'll be back" roll, poisoned weapons that were wounding me too easily IMO, and not getting any armor saves for it at all. That part was pretty frustrating. When I was able to make my WBB rolls, I had a good ratio of success, so I probably lasted longer against this army than most others would have. I believe it was the staying power of the Necrons that let me edge out a victory here.

Overall, I was pretty satisfied with my list and how it played. I definitely learned to watch out for Dark Eldar, and what nasty tricks they have.

Battle Report 11.10.2010

Well, I totally screwed the pooch on this one, just like the n00b I am. My Necrons faced off against another Necron army of an experienced player. My list was so full of holes it looked like Jenna Jameson's underwear drawer.

I did manage to hold my two objectives, and manage to make it so he could only hold one of his, so a victory is only a technicality. I feel that I made too many mistakes, and my opponent was extremely helpful. I owe him this victory, and he gave me a lot of options to consider for future games and how to run my army.

Initial deployment

Let's recap my mistakes.
#1 (with a gauss flayer): I placed my Monolith in reserve so I could deep strike with it. I also had one squad of warriors inside, so that really handicapped me, especially since I failed my first reserve roll, so they didn't even hit the table until turn 3.

2. I set my squad of Immortals to hold an objective. Turns out, only troops can hold objectives, so I turned my hardcore warriors into target practice.

3. I ran 1 Wraith. I need to either run a whole squad, or none. My Wraith was taken out with little effort.

4. I should have had my Necron Lord in a squad. His Destroyers zoomed in, peppered him with 15 shots, and he was gone. If he had been in a squad, perhaps some of the Warriors would have absorbed the wounds, and since he had the Resurrection Orb, they would just get back up.

5. I loaded out my Necron Lord's wargear completely wrong. I need to rethink my strategy here.

 

 

 

Despite heavy fire, I press forward.

6. I used my C'tan completely wrong. I sent him straight for his Monolith. I can't believe how many 1's I rolled in the 3 turns it took me to move the Nightbringer into assault position. Apparently, he couldn't hit the broadside of barn. Once able to assault, he destroyed the Monolith in one swipe. Effective, BUT, all this time he was taking 15 shots a round from the destroyers. Once the monolith was destroyed, the squad of Warriors plus the 2 squads of Destroyers all shooting at him, he couldn't take the amount of shots coming his way.

  

Well, back to the drawing board. I definitely have a new outlook on my army, and how to better handle it. I hope my next battle report will be a victory, but a more substantial one.

Building a gaming table at home, and on the cheap!

If you're like me, the kitchen table does NOT work for gaming. (Mine is too small, and usually is covered with something sticky, courtesy of my two sons.) Well, I am here today to tell you that building your own gaming table is possible, and very affordable.

I not only play Warhammer and 40K, but I am also an avid fan of Dungeons and Dragons, Rogue Trader, and other RPGs. So, versatility of a table is a must. Let me show you what I did.

To conserve space, I not only made it a table, but I built storage into the bottom of it, a slide out drawer to add surface area, and put the table on casters so I can easily move the table around.

 You can see the braces on the bottom of the table, and since I took these pictures, I have added a few boards across the bottom so I can store all of my terrain pieces safely.

Ok, so lets talk about the cost of all of this. The surface of the table was the most expensive part, and by surface I mean the grass gaming mat I purchased for $30. I decided to splurge on this, since I constructed the rest of the table for around the same amount. There are four other methods I have seen for creating a surface, but since I use this table for RPG's, tabletop gaming, miniature gaming, and a play

 area for my kids, I wanted the grass to be removable, so that is why I went with the mat. When the guys come over for D&D, I just roll it up, and roll out the dry erase mat.
The other methods I've seen for creating a surface:
1. Flock the whole thing. Seems really expensive and labor intensive to me. The glue wouldn't always hold the flock in place, and could see patches getting worn in, and a general mess over time.
2. Spray paint. Good old inexpensive green spray paint. Durable, easy, but only will look as good as the wood you have underneath it.
3. Put sand on the table, spray paint it, then seal it.

Drawer open

 Solves the wood look issue, but messy and labor intensive.
4. Textured paint. Probably the best of the these options. It is more expensive, but it is more likely to stay in place and be durable. The big drawback in my opinion, is that it creates a rough surface, and can scrape up your miniatures. As for the cost of the paint, it's can be offset by going to Michaels, Joanne's, or Hobby Lobby and using a 40% off coupon. Those places are great for gaming supplies.

Drawer closed

Ok, back to the building cost of my table.

The surface area of the table was made from a 8' x 6' piece of OSB, cut down to 6' x 4'. ($15) OSB is great because it is heavy duty and CHEAP. Plywood ranges around $45, and solid wood, forget it. It's being covered anyway. Next, the frame of the table was constructed from 3 1" x 4" x 8' s and 4 1" x 4" x 6' s. ($1.89 and $1.59 each, respectively) I cut the 8' boards in half to go along the 4' side of the table surface.

The legs are made from 2 2" x 6" x 6' construction studs. ($3.89 each). They don't look pretty, but they are completely solid. You can cut these to your height preference, mine are at 28", same as a regular table, and are augmented by the casters I added on the bottom of the legs. (Casters were $3.98 for all 4).

For the drawer, I used the scrap 2' from the OSB board and just bought a drawer slider set with a high weight rating. ($4.99)

For the actual construction, anyone can do it. Don't be intimidated, can you draw a straight line? Use a measuring tape? Those are the hardest parts. Cutting the wood is simple, just use a circular saw and DO NOT try to cut it by hand. Invest in the tool, it's only $30 if you don't already have one, or you could just borrow one too. This whole project only took about 2 hours for me.

I started by cutting all the lumber to length. Then I assembled the 4' ends of the table. Square up the legs (ie: make sure the distance at the top is the same as the bottom. Place one of the 4' boards across the top. I have mine extend 3/4" over the top to hold the OSB surface in place and appear flush. Screw into place. Screw a second board about 6" from the bottom for a support. Repeat whole process for other side. Once your legs are built, you just line up the 6' boards and attach them. Put your last 4' boards in the center for braces and you have your frame. Flip it upside down and attach the casters. Turn it back over and set your tabletop in place. Mount the drawer slides, install the drawer and you are done! It really is that simple!

Let's recap the cost:

OSB 6' x 8'         14.99
3 8' 1"x4"              5.69
4 6' 1"x4"              6.36
2 6' 2"x6"              7.78
Casters                 3.98
Drawer slide         4.99
-----------------------------
TOTAL              43.79
Add your preferred finish to the table top, and GAME ON!

Cry havok....

So, originally, we intended to do a joint blog with craftworldlansing.blogspot.com, however, due to technical difficulties, I decided to start my own blog, and just link to craftworldlansing.

I do play 40K as well, I have the startings of quite the Necron horde. Fantasy battle is where my interest lies though. Not necessarily just Warhammer, but Dungeons & Dragons, Dark Heaven, Hordes, etc. spark my imagination far more than 40K.

So far, for Warhammer Fantasy battle, I have a rather large host of Bretonnians, in different stages of construct. I have even modded out a couple of Bretonnian Lords (pictures to follow). I also have an starter army of High Elves, Skaven, Dwarves, and Goblins.

I have yet to play a game of Warhammer under the new 8th edition rules, as my spare time is largely devoted to painting and assembling my Bretonnian army. Seerkarandras keeps promising to come over and get a game in, but we usually just end up drinking beer and watching Family Guy. We'll get there. I just need to make an effort to get out to the local hobby shop (Shout out to Evolution Games!) and throw down the gauntlet.

This blog will be about everything fantasy and sci-fi related, so don't limit your view. I love to make customs and scenery, and often don't adhere to the status quo. Keep an open mind and step fully into the Kingdoms of Chaos.