Hobby: Rhino/Razorback Templates

1:1

I've been meaning to get round to making something like this for, oh, maybe 3 or more years now but spurred on by the looming 40kGT Final I've eventually gotten round to making some templates for exploded rhino-chassis vehicles.

List-Fu: Space Wolves and Imperial Guard 1650pts (Part 2)

Lining up for Best Painted just for the photo!

I thought I'd do a quick review the army (original list here) having played it up to and at the recent Brighton Singles tournament, plus throw in a few photos of my models for good measure. I may do a unit-by-unit breakdown in a later post too if I can find the time!

My 8 scratch built Hyperios Launchers

 
I had a bit of a nervous few days a couple of weeks before the event when I found out that Forge World had released alternative rules for the hyperios launchers in IA12. I've seen some FW units been nerfed to oblivion on a whim, and what made it worse was that I'd nearly finished scratch-building and painting 8 of the things! In the end, the TO ruled that only the latest issued rules for the hyperios should be used based on some Facebook evidence showing that FW had said the same thing. Fair enough, but this was a pity, as it removes twin-linking as standard and I did notice a slight drop in reliability over the course of the tournament. It could have been worse, however, as their FOC slot moved to heavy support! Thankfully I had all these slots free so it didn't matter and could just shift them across, but this could have royally messed up the list so I got away fairly lightly I think! I knew there was a risk in going for Forge World, and it's good to know I wasn't being paranoid...

Forge World Heavy Quad Launchers, Maxmini heads on Cadian bodies

So after IA12 adjustments and a very productive few weeks I was had the following all painted up to a reasonable standard, plus 6 custom objectives for extra soft scores!

4 of my 6 custom objectives. The other two are wolf claws from the Canis model

 
1650pts Space Wolves and Imperial Guard

100pts Rune Priest, Jaws, Living Lightning (Warlord)
150pts Company Command Squad, Chimera (Heavy Flamer), 3 plasma guns

4x 125pts 5 Grey Hunters, Razorback (Heavy Bolter), plasma gun
2x 120pts 5 Grey Hunters, Razorback (Heavy Bolter), melta gun
150pts Platoon; Platoon Command Squad, 4 flamers; 2x Infantry Squads (no upgrades)

130pts Vendetta (PCS goes here)

2x 105pts 3 Hyperios Missile Launchers (Forge World)
70pts 2 Hyperios Missile Launchers (Forge World)
100pts 2 Heavy Quad Launchers (Forge World)

1650pts

Company Command Chimera (I've since done the searchlight with lense-flare etc.)

Overall, the army is performing really well and has all the tools I think I need at 1650pts. I'm not looking to change anything and want to continue to practice with the army. Going to 1850pts I would still definitely add Forge World las-cannon sabres for more puch vs AV13 at range and additional anti-flier, maybe a third heavy quad launcher. I would also playtest an aegis defense line, as this offers good cover for my artillery and backfield units, but at the cost of limiting my transport's maneuverability and making deployment more predictable. With the increase of ignores cover weapons (see Tau and Eldar), I'm not sure that the aegis is as useful as it was!

Command and Platoon Squads. Cadian bodies with Maxmini heads again

Leading up to the weekend I'd played with the list against Iyanden twin-Wraithknight Eldar, wraithwing Necrons with triple anni-barges, new footdar Eldar and Imperial Fists mech with double vindicators. At the tournament I played Farsight Tau with Tau allies, Zandrek Necrons, Fateweaver Chaos Daemons, Forge World Sisters with Imperial Guard powerblob and las-sabre allies, venom-spam and beast-deathstar Dark Eldar with Eldar allies and pure Tau. That's a fair spread! That's 10 games, and I'm 6:3:1 (w/d/l) with the single loss against the new Tau in Purge the Alien, my toughest mission.

Vendetta. Bonus points if anyone can name the DVD in the background

That's doing pretty well, but I know there is room for improvement! I'm not using the vendetta to it's full potential yet, and I've made a couple of less-than-optimal decisions with my target priority/psychic power choice with the heavy quad launchers/rune priest (e.g. choosing juicy targets protected by multi-level ruins or going for ignores cover rather than prescience shooting behind an aegis). I'm usually pretty good at remembering not to block the hyperios' line of sight with razorbacks, but I still did this once at the tournament. I'm also trying to speed up my gameplay, as I think I could have turned two of the three draws into wins if we hadn't timed out. I'm getting there though, and this will come through getting more games in on the clock and getting to know the army better.

Another shot of my Hyperios, just because I can

I've yet to test the list against flier heavy armies, but with the 8 hyperios launchers and the vendetta I have a reasonable amount of anti-flier at 1650pts. I'm looking forward to testing this, as there are both scythewing and multiple helldrake lists kicking about at the club. Similarly, I'd like to get some games in against some proper hoard armies, like Orks and Tyranids. I've been really impressed with the heavy quad launchers so far, particularly with prescience or ignores cover. The damage output for 100pts is stupendous and in combination with the small arms, flamers and heavy bolters should cover anti-hoard reasonably well.

Still lots to do, but they're getting there

What I have found so far is that there are no easy wins against tournament level opponents with the list. Instead I think I have had a fighting chance against pretty much anything, and that's exactly what I want from a balanced list. Knowing how to fight my opponents is one of the big keys here, so for now it's more games and more recon!

2013 - Looking Ahead

shx

So this isn't exactly a New Year's post, but hey it's done now! So, what do I want for 2013? I have two primary goals - to develop and promote the blog primarily focused on improving competitive gameplay and to qualify for the 40kUK GT final in 2014. I might not make it, but hey, I'm going to give it a go. Focus!

GAMING
I *just* missed out on a place in the 40kUK GT final this year, going 2-2-2 in Heat 2 at what was my first proper competitive event (did I mention I went 2-2-0 in the first four games or that I would have won the second draw if I hadn't clarified a rule with the TO to make polite conversation, not realising I was within earshot of my opponent and so costing me the game?). What I really need is more experience playing at tournament level. Sadly, I'm unlikely to make it to more than one non-club tournament before October, but such is life. I'm intending to make it to the summer Brighton Warlords singles tournament, along with as many club events as possible. Realistically, I'm unlikely to be able to go to many more, so I will have to make the most of the games I can get locally and go from there.

There seems to be a growing base of players at the club (Walberton Wargamers) who are becoming interested in playing harder lists (perhaps due to my corrupting influence?), so I'm hoping to get more breadth and depth of experience this year in playing a wider range of tougher armies. I'm also hoping to be able to make it down to Brighton Warlords on a few club nights at some point during the year to see if I can get some games in against some different opponents, but we'll have to see how this goes as this is difficult logistically!

Walberton Wargamers

Although I'm usually reading and thinking about 40k, I don't tend to get to play as many games as I would like (a few a month if I'm lucky?) or have unlimited funds to pump into my army (mouths to feed come first), so I tend to plan my lists and purchases well in advance, keeping the core of my lists the same and experiment with different units around what I know works. This gives me a familiar base or control group for comparison, so I can focus on the different aspects in game and analyse their impact after. Leading up to a tournament, I will fix a list and play with it constantly for about 6-10 games against different opponents. This means I know what the army is, or isn't capable of, and gives me a chance to paint everything up (a slow process). As they say, don't innovate on race day!

In terms of what army I will be running, I will continue to use my Space Wolves as my primary army, but they need reinforcements! For a while now, I have been at a crossroads with where I want to take my Wolves for 6th. I've been really struggling to build a balanced list that can deal with fliers (not a surprise for Wolves), mech and hoards (this will sound familiar to some who read the same blogs I do), and I'm still not entirely convinced where to go. When 6th came out I was hoping that GW would feed in anti-air a little more readily than has proved to be the case, and now that my beloved puppies are the only faction without a flier, I am really feeling the lack of flakk missiles on my Long Fangs. Perhaps a campaign is called for, 'Flakk for Fangs'!

So where to take my Wolves for 6th? Having invested in a few Grey Knights as some quick and dirty MSU allies last year, and I could continue down this route, which I'm sure could give me some strong options that can deal with mech and hoards, and try to mitigate the damage dome from fliers through MSU and mass scoring bodies. Not sure one this one yet, but may be worth a go.

Cool Mini or Not - Tzardauker

On the other hand, I could bring in some flier support of my own (I now have a vendetta, not the one above!) and some scoring backfield fire support with Imperial Guard allies. I've been working on lists with Guard allies for months now, but there's a few things that just stop me committing.

For example, as they say 'two is one, one is none' (couldn't find who's law this was), I'm not entirely sure that one vendetta is really enough, as if it comes on first, against another flier heavy army there is a decent chance that it will just get shot down before it gets to contribute. It might be better to save the points entirely, in which case, why am I taking Guard instead of Grey Knights? OK, there are still a few advantages, but enough? There's always strong Forge World options (sabre defence platforms anyone?), but if tournaments suddenly decide to stop allowing these, that's a huge amount of wasted money...

Also, I'm really struggling to motivate myself at the thought of putting together 100 odd Guard miniatures unless I really love the models. I'm not a mass infantry fan by nature, generally preferring tanks, so I'm naturally reluctant to leap into such a massive project without being totally convinced that it's going to work on the tabletop, for my wallet and be fun to create. As much as I want to do develop my game, I know myself well enough to know that I will loose interest in playing Guard if I'm forcing the hobby side.

Getting the army second hand, pre-assembled but not painted, could save some time, but I have a very specific aesthetic in mind (see Hobby below), so this isn't really an option unless I just give up any hobby interest in the entire force, in which case I loose all joy in playing the army and will only be using them to increase my chances of winning - If you hadn't guessed by the name of the blog, I play wargaming for the total immersive experience, so if I ever gets to that point, I'll probably stop playing miniature games and go and play competitive MTG instead. It looks like if I go with Guard, it's going to be a slow grow project. I could always go for the Grey Knights for now, then build up the Guard as a primary with three Vendettas. This may be the long term option.

Forge World, Death Korps of Krieg

HOBBY
So if I do go Imperial Guard, very loosely, I'm working on something along the lines of that they're a bunch of renegade guard, still loyal to the emperor but on the run from the authorities for not carryout some merciless purging of civilians (work with me here!). The Space Wolves, having empathy with their moral stand and a history of defying the powers that be themselves (see first war of Armageddon), use the group as allies when the need arises.

Visually, the infantry will all have masks/cloaks/hoods and I'm thinking of mixing together various models from the Forgeworld Death Korps of Kreig, Armageddon Steel Legion, Chaos Cultists and Forgeworld Renegade conversion kits. Partly this is because I really don't like painting faces (!) but also because I like this aesthetic for a fringe group of desperados.

The colour scheme will be quite dark, with greys, blacks and brown, and I will use the same deep red and mid blue as my Wolves for isolated highlights and accent colours. As the group will struggle to get supplies, any weapons and vehicles will have a rugged look with plenty of battle damage and weathering (eventually!).

Sample of my Space Wolves - Need details!

If I don't go Guard, then I hope to get my Wolves and Grey Knights up to the next level, taking them from their current 3 colours (including an 6-8 stage armour build up from undercoat to highlight, mind!), basic faces and crushed slate basing to include details, better faces, perhaps some squad markings - basically using Brighton Warlord's tournament soft scoring system as guide, although I'll never get the WYSIWYG with all the Wolves!

2013 Banner

BLOG
Given a reliable internet connection, this is the year that I hope to get the blog moving. I've already made a number of cosmetic improvements early in the year with a new banner, various graphic improvements and the links bar at the top. I'm regularly updating the links along the side bar as I find new sites, and I've been trying to but failing to get LinkedIn to work too!

Now that I'm happy with how the site looks and typically able to produce regular posts, I will start popping my blogging head above the parapet and see if anyone is interested. Having just broken the 1000 hits mark with 0 followers in my first year, January and February saw a massive jump thanks to From the Fang adding me to the recommended reading list and a cheeky link in the Warhammer Forum Caledonian post. At the time of writing the blog's doubled it's hits to well over 2000 in two months and now has 7 followers (thanks From the Fang, atr_127, Skcuzzlebumm, Ven, Peter, David and Aseldi!). Now I know I have a way to go, but compared to the begninning of the year, it's a massive jump!

My aim now is to register with a selection of the usual blog promoters, such as Imperius Dominatus' UK Blogger's Network and House of Paincakes, as well as boldly ask my favourite blogs to add me to their recommended reading lists (if your blog is on the links list, I'm coming for you - you know who you are!). Hopefully a few of them might even say yes.

Site Snapshot, February 2013

In terms of content, I will continue to focus primarily on improving and competative play. I intend to continue this though the CONCEPTS: analysis articles (currently working on Comp, Netlisting, List Writing and Tools, amoungst others), the short Food For Thought posts and List-Fu army list analysis. I would like to get better at putting together battle reports too - but I find that the level of detail I want to put into these to make them more than a simple storytelling excersice is massively time consuming and also likely TL;DR. I make a habit of taking photos of all my games and I'm profecient with Photoshop enough that a graphic solution might be a possiblity. Something to work on perhaps...

To break up the more serious content, I also expect to throw in the occasional blog review, hobby images, random web comics and whatever else I'm interested in at the time. This might include the odd PC game and I've started playing MTG online for a distraction, so I may break into a post or two about mana curves and pauper decks if I can tear myself away from 40k for long enough, but the chances of this look fairly slim at the moment to be honest - so many CONCEPTS: articles I want to write first!

SUMMARY
Phew! That was a lot longer that I thought it would be! Lots to get on with and think about and so little time. Need to play some games too! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the rest of year with the blog.

2012 - Year in Review

shx

If 2011 was getting back into the hobby by collecting models and reading blogs after an extended absence (mainly due to other real life interests like drumming, ladies and beer, plus playing other good stuff like MTG, D&D and computer games), 2012 was about painting the army and playing some games! I set myself two goals for the year - play in my first ever tournament and finish painting an army up to a playable size. And I did. And then some.

TOURNAMENTS

Warhammer World

Siege of Sussex
A friendly GW run event at Warhammer World was a great way to try out tournament gaming. Having been collecting models and reading a lot of blogs for most of 2011 (most of which are linked on the right!), I knew that this was not what most would consider a hardcore competitive tournament, but I knew that would come in time. This was to get some experience, and I loved every minute of it.

Ready for Battle

I really enjoyed all my games and was surprised to return undefeated, having drawn my first game vs Imperial Guard (throwing away a win after I panicked and made a couple of stupid decisions when the 5 minute warning was given), drawing my second game versus the kings of the hill at the time Grey Knights and all but tabled my last opponent's Blood Angel jumper army in the last game. Good times.

Mike McVey's Diorama of the Emperor fighting Horus - Epic

Added to all this, visiting Warhammer World for the first time was just brilliant. Seeing the models from the White Dwarfs I used to gaze longingly at as a kid right in front of me was awesome. I highly recommend it to anyone who can make it to go at least once to have a look around, and also to try a sample of Bugman's Beer (health/religion/wallet permitting!).

But I didn't stop there. Oh no. I wanted more! Between work and family comittments I managed to make it to two more tournaments, one at my local club Walberton Wargamers in August and the other was the 40kUK Heat 2 at Brighton Warlords in October.

Walberton Final vs Eldar

Walberton Wargarmers - Hello 6th Edition Tournament
With 6th Edition relatively fresh out of the box, we dived in with a no-comp 1750pts 3 game tournament. By rights I should have probably come second, but thanks to some erroneous rules reading by my opponent in the final relating to handling the Relic (he was a more experienced player than I was so I had no reason to question him!) I ended up winning the game, and so the tournament! I did feel bad, so was glad to accept his challenge to an informal rematch a couple of weeks later (he was flying to Japan so wouldn't be back for a while). I'm relieved to say I won that one too! Thanks to everyone at the club for a great day.

40kUK GT Heat 2 - The clam before the storm

40kUK Heat 2
The big one. I haven't made the time to do a write up of this one yet, but the quick version is I finished day one going 2:1:0, playing (and beating!) the reigning Masters Champion James Taylor in the first round random pairings. Nice way to start my first hardcore tournament! Second day went down hill, just missing out on a qualifying place, coming 26/46.

Standings After 3 Games

Anyway, I was looking for some hardcore games and I got them! I was very happy with my performance, reaching the heady heights of table 4 and playing against some very highly ranked players, including some of the English ETC team (reigning world champions). I had an amazing time and am really looking forward to attending more events at Brighton in the future.

HOBBY

Siege of Sussex 1500pts

I've always enjoyed painting and modelling, but I'd never managed to get round to fielding a full army of painted models. This was the year to do it! A bit of a confession here - As much as I enjoy the hobby side, I tend to find that I find myself choosing to do more relaxing activities (like reading blogs) in the evenings, so having tournaments to aim for really helps me focus on getting models finished.

I think another part of this is that I want to paint my models to the highest standard I can. I can do ok given enough time, but it takes a while. I don't mind lots of coats of dry brushing to build up the depth (my Wolves basic recipie includes undercoat, bascoat, ink (yes ink!), base drybrush x1 or x2 to get coverage, mid-tone drybrush, then highlight drybrush), as I don't really have to concentrate much. I also enjoy basing. It's the details that I struggle to get round to, especially faces. Need more practice and patience...

40kUK 1850pts

I built and painted a lot last year. There is still a long way to go before the army is as good as it can be, but I have to say I'm very pleased with the hobby progress I made and its great to be able to finally put down a cohesive force and think, yeah, it did that.

BLOG

2012 Banner

 
Of course there is my third unstated goal of the year - starting this blog!

Having made a small start around Easter, getting the basic format of the site sorted and figuring out what sort of content I wanted to produce, I then had to go without an internet connection for a few months! This coincided with preparation for the 40kUK, so I wasn't too gutted, but I managed to get started again in November and have managed to keep things moving along since.

I'm going to save most of the blog discussion for the 2013 - Looking Ahead post, but looking back at the content, I'm most pleased with the CONCEPTS: posts. I'm a huge fan of the work done on 3++ and YTTH covering both fundamental and advanced concepts and ideas within the game (if you know where to look!), and by writing these posts I hope to clarify in my own mind what I understand on each of the various topics.

Generally, having somewhere to record my nerdy thoughts is great and I find having the site as my own custom gaming resource is really handy! By the end of 2012 I just tipped 1000 hits (not all of these were me or search bots - I know it!), but things are already moving fast in 2013 so watch this space...
 
SUMMARY

Phew! There we go. 2012 was a big year for me in my gaming career, and I'm really pleased with all I've achieved. I've smashed my two major targets, playing in not one but three tournaments and painting and basing well over 2000pts worth of combined Space Wolves and Grey Knights to a decent standard. Plus I've really got a taste for tournament gaming and now have blogging fever!

Now I need to find more time and money to feed the habit...

Thunderwolves Go!

Here are some WIP pics of my Thunderwolf Cavalry. These guys are riding resin wolves from MaxMini in Poland, which I bought in 2010, well ahead of the release of the 'proper' models. As it's now 2012, you can appreciate it's taken a while for me to get round to building them, magnetized arms and all!

Close Combat Weapon and Storm Shield:

Close Combat Weapon and Bolt Pistol:

I also have a Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield model already assembled and undercoated (black, no magnets), but let's just say that there won't be any images of him until I've applied at least a base coat, 'cos pure black just don't photograph well!

So this leaves me with a complete unit of 3 cavalry, ready to accompany my Wolf Guard Battle Leader for the first time tomorrow for a 1500pt game vs Blood Angles at Walberton Wargamers. I'll be using a modified version of my Siege of Sussex list, loosing the pod, two priests and CML, and adding in these bad boys, plus a multi-melta landspeeder I've (nearly!) completed assembling. Less long ranged firepower, replaced by some mini-deathstar goodness and fast blocking/melta threat. Not a perfect list, but good for a fun game nonetheless!

Siege of Sussex - Intro

Wolves on Parade

Well I did it. First major goal of 2012 is complete - compete in my first ever tournament.

After only a few games getting back into 40k, I rather foolishly signed up to a one day GW tournament up at Warhammer World. Dubbed 'The Seige of Sussex'. there were 64 players per format for 40k and 16 for Fantasy, all from the GW stores in Worthing, Brighton, Crawley and Eastbourne. I'd be taking my Wolves for 40k, and was expecting to get hammered every game, but this was a chance that was too good to miss. Besides, there's nothing like jumping in the deep end to teach you how to swim!

I was told by the local shop manager, Matt, that there would be about three games using the BRB missions, all at 1500pts. I'll review my list development under a separate post, as that is a story in itself! Other requirements were a minimum three colour paint job (plus faces and hair), based and WYSIWYG. We knew that there were going to be soft scores for painting, but weren't told about sportsmanship (of course a high standard was expected anyway). I wasn't sure what the competition was going to be like, as the field could have ranged from a bunch of baby seals to the local elite (there are a few members of some of the linked blogs (like the Sons) that regularly go the Brighton Warlords tournaments and one nationally ranked player lives in my hometown nearby (Peter Cooke), so you never know!)! I was assuming a mix of youngsters and vets (without any big names), and was going with my game face on nonetheless!

I was really pleased to have been able to paint and base my pups to the required standard, although they definitely have a long way to go before they're finished. However, they with as much free time as I could carve out of my real life, it was good enough for the time being and looking cohesive as a whole, so I was happy.

Without going into specifics, my list had performed well over the 7 games I've played to date (I still can't believe I only played 7 games of 40k since getting back into gaming before going to a tournament. Crazy...). There are clearly a few improvements I'd make, but sticking with the same list gave me a good insight into what I could roughly expect my dudes to do, and didn't mean that I was wasting time painting stuff that I would later drop. There were also still a load of armies I hadn't played, so I was expecting to learn on the fly!

So what about your first ever tournament experiences? Do you have any wisdom or advice to impart to tournament newbs like myself? What are your best/worst memories of playing in a tournament?

A New Challenger Approaches...

From The Fang

So, this is it! My first ever steps into the great blogoshpere! I intend this blog to be a place to record my development as a wargamer and hobbyist, as well as a handy place to find all the links to my favourite sites.

For those who are interested, I'm a returning gamer who's played a whole bunch of different games over the years, including 40k, Fantasy, Confrontation, MTG, D&D, Blood Bowl and Necromunda. I blame it all on Hero Quest for getting me hooked...

I've been collecting Space Wolves (again) for Warhammer 40k since late 2010, slowly painting them up and reading a lot of blogs, but it wasn't until early 2012 that I managed to get out of the house to play some games! I'm now gaming regularly at Walberton Wargamers and my local GW store in Worthing, and want to achieve two major milestones in my gaming career this year - firstly, to go to my first ever tournament and secondly, to finish painting an entire army up to 1500pts. Time will tell if I succeed!

I have no idea whether anyone will ever visit the site, but if you are here, then thank you for your interest and I hope that the blog gives you at least some food for thought!