Thursday, July 28, 2011

Hobby update videos.




So I've made some good progress.  I also picked up a Finecast Dante finally, and it's nearly perfect - 3 airbubbles 2 of which will never be seen.  Much better then my Zagstruck.  Wasn't too expensive either, with the 20% off I get playing in the league at my FLGS.  Cleaned him up tonight, but assembly will probably be done after painting.

Finished the first stompa arm, sans pigment.  Was not as much detail as I first thought, so I might hit that hard and finish it completely.

So I'm not sure what I'll be doing next, I am thinking about changing out my Captain for Dante but I have not yet decided.  It requires dropping the attack bikes, but Dante brings so many more toys to the table it's hard to pass up.  The other upside is I have 35pts left over, just enough to upgrade my 3rd Razorback to Las-Plas, so I think it's a win-win all around.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

40k Tactics: "The Second Front" aka My little Italy - Part 3


For the final part of my tactica on how I play my Blood Angels, I will give some examples.

Example 1: 

Game vs Tyranids.  It was 2 objectives, and pretty much it was a textbook example of how my game plan works.  He castled in a corner, protected by terrain. I couldn’t do much to him on the way in because of this, which created the situation at the end.  He then proceeded to push everything right at my objective.  I had enough firepower, cc ability, and resiliency to take whatever he put out..for a while.  However I was staring to get whittled down.

Then he realized he had my jump pack squad, 2 attack bikes and a predator pushing for his objective.  He literally turned everything around to deal with all this, leaving nothing but 3 genestealers behind which were quickly killed.  The result was that I was able to hold my objective, but he had too much left and was able to wipe out my advance.  If I had been able to shoot more at the start, or if he had not committed everything to defend his, I probably could have won that game.

Example 2:  

This was against a far superior army.  By all accounts, I should have been tabled. Ending on turn 5 was what really helped more then anything.   But again, the jump pack guys suddenly appearing in the back made my opponent turn his Thunderwolf Calvary away from my objective and deal with them.  I was able to delay them long enough for the game to end.  I should note here my army isn’t build to be a hyper-competitive army, but is built specifically for a comp tournament held every year which is the most important event around. So being outmatched in general play isn’t anything new to me.

Example 3:  

Again, matched up against a far superior army.  However I was able to stall his advance by immobilizing a large portion of his army, plus concentrating on taking out the weaker scoring units left me at an advantage I didn’t realize I had at the time.  Breaking off the 2nd Purifier squad to deal with the jump pack guys left him with not enough army left to push me off objectives.  Combined with a little luck (a single lascannon shot taking out a land raider) gave me a solid victory.  Even if the game had gone on past turn 5, he would have wiped the jump pack guys but he had only 1 scoring unit left while I still had 3.  I think I could have held out for nothing worse then a tie even with 18 Purifiers left on the table.

To reiterate, the key points in my “little Italy” list are:

  1. Create a solid, mutually supportive firebase to act as ‘bait’ to bring my opponent’s main force to me, leaving weaker support units behind.
  2. Bring in a decent threat to that support system as early as possible
  3. Have some of my opponent’s army turn around to deal with the new threat.
  4. This will sufficiently divide his forces so that my firebase has enough power to take out his main push while;
  5. Leaving whatever he sent to take out the jump pack guys horribly out of position.

Countering the plan.

The main counter to this is simply not to take the bait. Either don’t push forward at me, or don’t worry about the jump pack guys. The first solution leaves me with nowhere to utilize the jump pack squad, as I like. If I think I might face this kind of army, I will deploy the jump pack unit.  

The second solution is a lot tougher for me. Just a few weeks ago, my cousin did just this with his Deathwing. Having the choice of sending a unit of terminators to an objective or to move away from it to assault my jump pack unit, he chooses the objective.  This was a great move on his part. Even though it gave me the charge on him, TH/SS termies are good enough where the fight was a stalemate and the objective contested.  If he had gone after the jump pack guys, it would have left the objective open to one of my fast vehicles.

Summary.

I’ve found the most important thing when building an army is that finding one you’re comfortable with and able to utilize to the fullest extent is more important then playing on sheer power.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

40k Tactics: "The Second Front" aka My little Italy - Part 2


This is a 12-man unit, consisting of my Captain with dual lightning claws and meltabombs, a priest with a power weapon, 2 meltaguns and a power fist on the sergeant. With Decent of Angels I have a 75% chance of coming in on turn 2, plus the amazing 1d6 scatter.  It would be better but more expensive with Dante. The regular captain has been doing very well for me, with WS6, 5 attacks at I6 on the charge with re-rolls to wound, plus a 4+ invul.  Since they are jump packs, it gives me a lot of speed back there to deal with whatever I need to.

This is a unit that can’t be ignored. Depending on who I’m playing, I will drop them where I can melta down an important vehicle such as a Psyfleman dread.  Now my opponent has two choices, ignore them and let me trash his backfield and take any objective I want (after all they are still troops) or suddenly stop his advance, turn some or all of his army around to stop me.

Every time, it’s been the latter.

Which is exactly what I’m hoping for.

This unit instantly takes pressure off my firebase.  Now I can start to maneuver out of my protective area since I won’t have as much to deal with.  Especially considering my vehicles are fast, I’m able to move and shoot, or move far enough to suddenly put pressure on whatever is left coming at me or to contest objectives.  I do have enough firepower and threats that my opponent’s thrust is greatly reduced, and then having to lose a portion of that to deal with the jump pack unit on top of it suddenly swings the advantage in my favor.

Some examples of how this has worked will be part 3.

Monday, July 18, 2011

40k Tactics: "The Second Front" aka My little Italy - Part 1

In 1943 the British and American military agreed to open a second front against the Germans to alleviate some of the pressure against Stalin and the Russian forces in the Eastern Front.  It worked, diverting German resources away from the Eastern Front.  Ultimately it was a success, driving past Rome into northern Italy, but the point to remember is, that it didn't need to be.


I’ve been playing a bait and switch, passive-aggressive style with my Ork army for quite some time now.  Using screening to protect the main force of 60 shoota boys, while putting out as much firepower as I can muster.  While this is going on, Nob bikers and Snikrot are in your face either forcing you to maneuver away/around them or at the very least to take firepower off the boys.

It seems this kind of trickery is the way I play best. I tried to play my Blood Angels as an all-out assault army, which failed miserably.  Even with FNP TH/SS terminators I never really could pack enough punch to accomplish what I wanted to do.

So I changed.

I’ve pretty much set up my Blood Angels to play very similar to how I play my Orks.  It is about using my units to control the flow of the game as opposed to controlling areas of the game. About baiting my opponent to do what I want, instead of what they want.

The basic premise of my Blood Angels army is to set up a self-supporting parking lot with all my ranged firepower, using a FNP bubble provided by a Sanguinary priest and a 5+ cover save bubble provided by my Librarian’s Shield of Sanguinius power.  This gives me a lot of firepower concentrated in a small area. I will use my Baal Predators to protect or maneuver around to accomplish what I need to.  Especially in an objective game, I find time and time again my opponent pushes right for me, even if they are a primarily ranged army.  While my firebase does not go undamaged by this, what it does is open up my opponent’s backfield in a way that weaker objective-holders or static shooting elements are vulnerable.

This is where my jump pack assault squad comes in.

To be continued in part 2

Sunday, July 17, 2011

My first Finecast experience


I picked up my first Finecast model, a Boss Zagstruck. I'm planning on trying out some stormboy tactics to add some more speed to my meta-denial list, including trying out this guy. 

Here is a pic of all the flaws in the model. Mostly they are either invisible (all the bubbles on the bottom where no one will see them) or irrelevant (an Ork rocket pack has an exact look how...?).  The one notable exception is his chin. That is something that can't be overlooked.  But still, they are all small flaws and don't really effect building, painting or playing with the model..but because of the chin I will be calling up and getting a replacement.

Now that the process problems are discussed, let me talk about the material. It is a dream to work with. Easy to file and scrape, very light, and way easy to glue.  A drop of CA and parts are bonded, no pinning no bullshit.  I can't imagine having this guy in metal, what a pain that would be to clean and assemble!  Another note is is base, where he is basically standing on a small piece of broken pipe coming out of the ground. I expect this may break someday as it is a weak spot in the piece, it is very flexible as-is. I'm planning on getting a Dante as soon as my FLGS can actually get one in, and a Mad Doc as soon as it is released.  Not to mention a couple rock lobbers for my O&G.  I really do like the Finecast material, a lot.  They just need to fix the process.

I'm also going to have to find another stormboy (the old metal ones to match my current ones) because I plan on running a full unit of 21 models when I take Zag thanks to the new FAQ. That is a lot of points, and I'm not sure where I will get them..that's why I need to play test :)

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Friday, July 8, 2011

Keeping up the work

Continuing to hobby. Slowed down a lot, only 6 models painted in a week :)  I know a lot of people barely paint that in a month..but I really don't do anything else and I have a few hours every day after the kids go to bed. So I paint.

First, going through my 'ard boys. I replaced the big shootas with all new guys.  Didn't have to open my new boys box. Then I need to wash 12 of them to finish off the unit completely.  I'm still thinking about building a unit of 30 'ard shootas.

Next I finished my goblin fanatics.  So officially I have 591pts painted.  I will probably knock out the 3 black orcs. I did pick up a new box of black orcs so that's 23 total, might wait unit those are ready to paint. Need 1 more.   Still trying to figure out my heros and lords for my 2k army.

I'm thinking about changing the list up so I can have some cool winter conversions.  Like making snowmobile pump wagons.  Already going to make goblin snowball lobbers :) should be fun.






I also picked up a finecast Zagstruck.  I plan on starting in on redoing my stormboys shortly, so wanted him as well.  He had a couple of minor imperfections, but nothing major. 

Lastly cut off all the sprues from the Barracuda, straitened the bent pieces and washed it. After it dries I'll probably dive into that.

Then there is always the Stompa...

Saturday, July 2, 2011

I did it..

Ya it's been a few days since I posted, but I basically spent the whole time painting. Finished with hours to spare, including all the layers, pigments and basing.  Sometimes I impress even myself :)





Here's the strange thing. I'm not burnt out. At all. Not even a little.  I have spent pretty much every spare second for an entire month with a brush in my hands. Not doing some hobby stuff seems..well strange.  Like I should be doing something when I'm not.

Wierd, huh?

So after finishing what I would call an epic achievement (considering I have a full time job and 2 kids), taking pictures and video, editing, encoding and then uploading to youtube what do I do? Take a break of a couple hours then start right back in it. I started by cleaning up the pile of crap from the contest.  I first clipped all the bits off the sprues and bagged them, then I opened and built the 3 goblin fanatics I had on the pile.  I also had 3 black orcs from a trade a while back I had built, so I based them to rank up with the guys I have.  Didn't take long of course, but I still kept going..

Tonight I'm short a kid (spending the weekend with gramma) so I was able to do a few things around the house I've put off but even those didn't take long.  So I finished off the big shootas and skorcha for the warbuggy.  After that I sat down and read the O&G book, trying to decide on army composition.  I want to run Grimgor...he sound freaking bad-ass.

What's next? Mainly waiting for contest results. I figure it will be a couple weeks before voting even starts on the SMA contest, so will probably be a couple months before I know the results of that. My apoc game got postponed but I'm still going to paint the stompa.  It will give me more ideas on what I need for my jet battlewagon.  I do have some re-basing to do with my Blood Angels for OFCC, and I still need to do my Hawk Lords mini for MAC. 

I plan on finally doing my talking about orks videos for dark eldar and grey knights, now that I have a bit more experience against them.

Instead of the apoc game, I'll be going to another tournament on the 30th.  I'll be taking the same list as last time.  It works well, and I've got a lot of practice in with it.  I see no need to change.

I am thinking about diving into redoing my stormboys, and getting a finecast zagstruck.  I think I could make a viable variation on my meta-denial list with them.I also need to touch up a few 'ard boys plus replace the 3 big shootas I have in there for some unknown reason. That's easy though.

I still have a lot of O&G new in package.  I need to be working on those in and among other project to get them done by next June. 

Sorry for the wall of text ramble, but I had a lot on my mind.