... in which I inventory my workload.

I am resolved now to hit that 50%, and to do it quickly. The first step in this challenge is to take inventory of what I have, and come up with a plan.

I'm just waiting for the glue to dry on the frame for the army board, then it will be 100%. I'll post on that probably later tonight or tomorrow.

Here's where I stand, all models included, even those partially done:

1 Witchfate Tor - top floor
1 Bretonnian Damsel on Horse
1 Hook Mountain Ogre
1 LotR Ent
52 Greatcoat Troopers
10 Vampire Counts Skeletons
1 Necron Destroyer
1 Araknarok Spider
3 Leman Russ Tanks
4 Discworld minis (nobby, Death w/guitar, Carrot, and Moist)
4 "Fighter" Knights
1 Pegasus Knight
31 Knights of the Realm
11 Archers
6 Battle Pilgrims
6 Grail Knights
2 Questing Knights
14 Men at Arms
21 Mouselings
1 Chaos Death Knight
4 Bretonnian Lords
1 Battle Standard Bearer
1 Succubus
3 Orcs
1 Warlord Crom
1 Storm Lord
1 Prince Altharin
1 Warlord Spinetail
1 Chupacabra
1 Zomie Hitler
1 Xanthos Mech
5 "Old" Knights of the Realm
1 Wolflord Marraig
3 Horsemen of the Apocalypse (War, Pestilence, and Famine)
2 Phoenix Hawks
1 Construction Mech
8 Scout Cars
2 Tanks
9 DnD Heroes
1 Wyvern
1 Rotpatch
1 Space Captain
1 Action Jackson
4 Trebuchet Crew
1 Mantis Assassin
1 High Elf Prince on Griffin
1 Elf Mage
10 Sea Guard
10 sword masters of Hoeth
5 Reavers
1 Skaven Warlord
1 Warlock Engineer
40 Clanrats
1 Master Moulder
2 Rat Ogres
1 Warfire Thrower
1 Poison Wind Mortar
12 Dwarf Warriors
10 THunderers
8 Miners
1 Thane
1 Dragonslayer
1 Cannon
3 Crew
40 Night Goblins
20 Archers Goblins
10 SPider riders
1 Big Boss
1 Shaman
1 Troll

*AND* 1 Custom Bretonnian Lord Mod

For a sickening total of:













wait for it.........













412!!!!

Sheesh. I see her point. That's a bit more than I expected. Let's see.... 1/2 of that would be 206.... and if I do that over 30 days, that's an average of 6.86666~ a day... Just to get to my mods.

Let the challenge begin! Painting will start at 5 pm, April 30th. I'll post regularly my progress.

Two Battle Reports for the price of one!

Despite it being a busy post-holiday week, I did manage to find time to squeak out to the hobby store to get in a game. Surprisingly, I was able to get in two, as I brought both my Armies with me, and people were out playing WFB as well.

We will start with 40K, as that was the first game I got in of the night.
My Necron Force at 1850:
2 Units of 12 Warriors
Monolith
Tomb Stalker
Tomb Spider
The Nightbringer
6 Pariahs
Lord (Destroyer Body, Res Orb, Phylactery, Gaze of Flame) with a unit of 5 Immortals

 My opponents force (as well as I know it...)
Chaos Marines
1 Unit of Bikes with a Chaos Sorcerer
4 Terminators
2 Rhinos
1 Vindicator

 Turn 1 did NOT go well for me at all. I had lost first turn, so the Chaos Marines sped in on their bikes and started laying into the Warriors and the Las Cannoning the Nightbringer. The Nightbringer took a wound and the warriors suffered a few casualties. Thankfully, my Lord w/Res Orb was right there, so I did get my WBB. My Pariahs took some heat from the Terminators and Rhino, but no wounds. The Vindicator fired on the Monolith, with no effect. On my turn 1, My warriors, Lord, and Immortals opened fire on the bike squad, peeling off only one. My Monolith fired on the Vindicator, glancing it. The Nightbringer fired on the rhino, destroying a twin linked bolter. The Tomb Stalker and Tomb Spider fired on the bike squad, then assaulted.
Here's where it got painful. The Chaos Sorcerer had the best initiative, and got to strike first. He landed only 1 wound on the tomb stalker, but that was all he needed, as he was equipped with a Force weapon. He used his psychic power and inflicted the rest of the wound on the Tomb Stalker, taking it down. The Tomb Spider wasn't able to do anything, and was forced to take 5 fearless tests after I failed the leadership roll... So much for those two units....

 The bike squad continued its sweep into my warriors, annihilating one whole squad. The las cannons kept pounding the Nightbringer, and the Pariahs had their hands full on the other side of the Monolith.

 When the bike squad got closer to the bulk of my force, his champion summoned a greater Daemon... At least THIS time I had the Nightbringer. As you can see from the pic, the Daemon and the Sorcerer broke off to attack the Nightbringer, while the rest of the squad slams into the second unit of Warriors.

 The Nightbringer was able to cut right thru the Daemon and the Sorcerer. (Yay C'Tan!) And the bike squad started taking casualties from all the fire it took. I pulled the Warriors thru the Monolith to get them out of hand to hand with the bikes.

 More Daemons were summoned, and the bikes swooped around to assault the Lord and Immortals. By this time I am really nervous, as my Phase out number is looming. On my turn, I pulled the Lord & Immortals thru the Monolith to get them out of Hand to Hand. At least this way they could open fire the bikes. 2 out of my 3 warriors fell, and if I lost one one more, I would phase out. 5 of my Pariahs fell to a good artillery hit, and the lone one began to move in with the rest of my force.

 My Warriors were able to get back up, staving off the phase out for another turn. Unfortunately, I forgot to move the Nightbringer, and he was just outside of assault range on the bikes. So, he stood there, chesse in the wind, and fell beneath the repeated Las Cannon fire........

The group of Lesser Daemons kept on the Warriors, and dropped the last 3, which was enough to make me phase out.


Sorry if this one read kinda funny, lots was going on all at the same time, and I really felt on the ropes after my Tomb Stalker got gutted back on turn 1. The bike unit with the Mark of Nurgle was a total pain. Looking at my own army, I felt that if I would have deployed slightly different, I would have fared way better. I should have swapped the unit of Pariahs and the Tomb Stalker. The Tomb Stalker would have fared better against the Terminators and Rhino, as it would have been able to shrug off most of the hits, and its multiple wounds most likely would have let it get in close enough to do some damage. The Pariahs would have been the Ace in the hole against the Sorcerer, being a Psychic abomination, soulless, and all equipped with Warscythes. Those bikes would have fell faster underneath the warscythes... Oh well, you learn from your mistakes. All in all, a fantastic game against Tony's Chaos Marines.


FOR BRETTONIA!!!!

My next game pitted my Brettonians against a swarm of Skaven. Now, this was not Mr. O's skaven, so it wasn't grudge match round 2, but I feel I fought a bit harder this time. This was a 1500 point game.

My Force:

Lord-Mounted on Hippogriff, w/Armor of Agilulf (Grants WS 10), Lance of Artois (+2 S & Killing Blow) and a Luck Stone (Re-Roll one failed Armor save).

16 Archers

Damsel of the Lany, Lvl 2, Lore of Life

6 Grail Knights w/ Wailing Banner (Unit Causes Terror)

9 Knights of the Realm wBanner of Chalons (Units may NOT use Stand and Fire when this unit charges it.)

9 Knights Errant w/ Banner of War (+1 Combat Resolution)

Paladin Battle Standard Bearer w/Sword of Strife (+2 Attacks) and Seed of Regrowth. (6+ Regeneration).

My Opponent:
3 Units of 20 Clan rats
5 Rat Ogres & Packmaster
3 Warlocks
3Warpfire Cannons

 As normal with my Bretonnians, they spent the first turn in Prayer, to get the blessing of the Lady. The Skaven advanced. Warp Lightning and Warp Fire started to rain in on the Knights, dropping a few of the Knights Errant.
Turn 2, saw the Lord advance, the Grail Knights fail a long-shot charge against the Rat Ogres, and the Knights of the Realm and Knights Errant advance.

 Unfortunately for my Knights, the Skaven then charged. Nothing takes the wind out of a Bretonnian Army's sails like denying them their charge. The Knights of the Realm held their own, however, the inexperienced Knights Errant took enough losses to break. They fled off of the board after failing to reform.
The Lord was uncontested on the Flank of the Skaven, and he launched a devestating charge on the Rat Ogre unit. After the unit suffering 5 wounds to my 0, they broke, and were cut down by the Lord.

 The Grail Knights hit the flank of the Unit of Clan Rats that was engaged with the Knights of the Realm. Being caught between the two units of Knights, the frenzied rats were cut down.
The Archers lobbed volley after volley at the warp fire cannons, as they were damaging the knights severely. One cannon went down.
The left most unit of clan rats then charged the rear of the Grail Knights, with the Lord following shortly behind, charging their rear. The Lord challenged the Skaven Warlord, and they went toe-to-toe.

The Knights of the Realm broke free and charged the second warp fire thrower, crushing it with their charge. The Lord fell in his challenge, but the Hippogriff kept fighting in his place.

When the smoke cleared on the battle field (No turn 6...) Only the unit of clan rats that run off the Knights Errant were unhurt, and the bulk of the clan rat unit was destroyed by the Knights.

We figured out the Kill points, he had 4 of his 10 units left. So, 6 Kill points for me.
I had only lost 2 units, but my lord as well, so a total of 3 Kill points for him.

 Overall, a fantastic game against Matt's Skaven. Though a decisive Bretonnian victory, I have to give Matt mad props for this battle. It was only his 3rd game of WFB, and he did exactly what he needed to do to nerf a Bretonnian Army, take away their charge. Leaving his flank open to the Lord was his undoing... I think he thought his unit of Rat Ogres would have fared better against him, but the Lord is a beast.

I look forward to seeing how this Skaven army progresses, as he builds up his army to higher point value games, it will get a lot nastier with the swarm increasing in size.

Well, that wraps it up. My last blog post of the year. Probably my last battle report for a while too, as the new semester starts up and life will be thrown into chaos. Don't fret tho, the blog will continue, as I plan on focusing more on painting and modeling for a while. I have quite the backlog of mini's to paint, terrain to build, and armies to ponder.

See you all next year!

... 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!

Constructing a Necron Tomb Stalker Part 3, Finishing Touches

Well, I intended for this entry to be longer, but I feel that the pictures speak for themselves.

I went over the flat areas of the base, and flocked it with a dirty earth color powder. After gluing the Tomb Stalker on, it was ready to go out and play.

I still want to make one addition to the model, but I wanted to get these posted now, and with winter break and Christmas upon us, I just don't know when I'll be able to get to that last detail.





Enjoy, and please comment! I really do enjoy reading them! Especially all you international readers out there, please speak up! I look forward to hearing from you all.

Constructing a Necron Tomb Stalker Part 2, Painting

If you were out at Evolution this past Wednesday, you saw me bring the Tomb Stalker out to play. It's about 95% done... I still want to make one more addition. Unfortunately, the TS didn't really get into the battle, (Stoopid phase out), but I will post that battle report soon.

I put more into painting the base then I did the TS. For the Tomb Stalker, I stuck to my Necron Army paint scheme. I start with a black primer, then drybush Boltgun Metal on top. After that, a drybrush of Mithril Silver is added. I picked up some metallic colored paints from my local Michael's store, and I use those pretty often, especially with the Necrons. I use the metallic turquoise to paint the Necron sigil, with a highlight of the sigil itself in shining gold. I then went over the eyes with metallic red. That pretty much sums up how I do it, however, the best trick is the sealer. I use a heavy coat of Armory Matte Sealer. That really dulls the shine of the metal, and gives it a dead, souless, look.

Sorry I don't have pictures of it up yet, but I felt that the basing was more important, and you'll see it in the finished picture shots.

 For the base, I used the standard 50/50 mix of Elmer's glue and water to secure the talus rocks to the base. The Rhino shell I painted with a 50/50 mix of shadow grey and space wolf grey, so that it would have space wolf colors. I then used a heavy wash of black and brown inks to dirty it up.

 Next, I painted the whole base with a dark brown (P3's Umbral Umber). To simulate the blast marks, I used some "grimy black" weathering powder. This stuff is absolutely amazing, and very easy to work with. Look for a product review in the near future.

To finish off the base, I drybrushed a brownish/grey color (P3's Bastion Grey) over the rocks to make them pop. Next, I sealed the base with the matte sealer.

Finally, I glued the Tomb Stalker to the top.




I'll post more pictures in Part 3 of the series, flocking the base, and the finishing touches.

Until then!

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.