WAAAGH! Aki HAS MOVED - http://waaaghaki.blogspot.com/

WAAAGH! Aki HAS MOVED!

2011-12-25T23:59:00.000-05:00

OK, I have finally moved my blog. The old Inquisitor Lord Aki blog has been officially changed to WAAAGH! Aki and can be found here:

http://waaaghaki.blogspot.com/

There are 88 follower to the blog you are reading this post on. Let's see how many of you plastic-addicts make the move and register on my new kick-ass blog.

Here is it again in case you missed it the first time:

http://waaaghaki.blogspot.com/

And one more time...

http://waaaghaki.blogspot.com/

Make the move!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

2011-12-25T01:00:00.002-05:00

Gog of Da Red Finga wishes everyone a Merry Christmas. WAAAGH!!!!

WAAAGH! Aki HAS MOVED!

2011-12-17T01:04:00.000-05:00

OK, I have finally moved my blog. The old Inquisitor Lord Aki blog has been officially changed to WAAAGH! Aki and can be found here:

http://waaaghaki.blogspot.com/

http://waaaghaki.blogspot.com/

And one more time...

http://waaaghaki.blogspot.com/

Make the move!

Dumaz - Da MegaNob!

2011-12-15T23:08:00.000-05:00

Meet Dumaz, a MegaNob for my Killzone list. He is otherwise known as the "Nob in a refrigerator". This is my first attempt at kitbashing a smaller model. But with enough bits, superglue, and sliced fingers, anyone can create anything Orky.

And yes, he is compensating for something with the big twin-linked shoota. Da Red Finga doesn't just have shootas, we have BIG shootas!

Da Thumpa

2011-12-13T17:38:00.000-05:00

So 'ere it finally is: Da Thumpa! My first battlewagon.

Meet Magog

2011-12-10T08:56:00.000-05:00

This is my second biker warboss for Da Red Finga. The Ork, front tire, and rear treads are from the FW Wazdakka model. The bike itself is chopped up bitz of bitz (deffkopta engine, biker shootas, IG barrel, etc).

AoBR MEGANOB - WIP

2011-12-01T19:45:00.002-05:00

Here is my Mega Nob conversion from an AoBR Nob. Basically you start out with a good plan, then totally ignore the plan and build as you go. Another method is to cover your AoBR Nob in glue and roll him around in your bitz box.

And yes, the twin-linked shoota HAD to be that big!

Nob Bikerz - COMPLETED!

2011-11-28T19:45:00.000-05:00

I finally completed my first unit of Nob Bikers. Each Nob has a different profile for the saves shenanigans.

Nob with Big Choppa and Shoota/Skorcha kombi (hence the flame thrower on this side of the bike. The other side has the twin-linked dakkagun).

Nob Painboy

Nob with WAAAGH! Banner

Nob with Power Klaw

Nob with Power Klaw and Bosspole

Nob with Big Choppa

This is how I normally field them with my Warboss Gog on a bike.

Da Red Finga KillZone Lists

2011-11-25T16:24:00.002-05:00

Following up on my previous post for KillZone, I've put two lists together for Da Red Finga. Everyone should try to put together a KillZone list or two. You will get a good understanding of the rules and how much thought was put into them to keep the game balanced.

One thing that stuck out was the rules for vehicles and walkers. Vehicles aren't allowed at all and only one walker is allowed in a list, but the armor total (FA+SA+RA) cannot be more than 33. Think about that for a moment. How many walkers would qualify? Most dreads have a 12/12/10 profile. That's a 34 armor total. Not allowed. I've seen Kill Team lists with dreads and they either last exactly one turn or never end. This limitation in KillZone is perfect.

But it also means I can't field a Deff Dread. Bummer. So I went with the Killa Kan instead.

Here is my first list with my self-imposed restrictions - the "specialist" list with no more than eight models:

Badaz (pronounce that however you want): Mega-Nob with a power-klaw, twin-linked shoota, Stikkbomz, and the Hard to Kill rule (FNP). This is the leader and since he already has two wounds he gets an extra attack. I put the Finecast Ghazghkull model on my Christmas list for this guy.

Dumaz: Mega-Nob with a power-klaw, twin-linked shoota, and Stikkbomz. I'm going to scratch-build a mega-nob for this one.

'Ead Choppa: Nob with 'eavy armor, big choppa, twin-linked shoota, and Stikkbomz.

Azsmasha: Nob with 'eavy armor, big choppa, twin-linked shoota, and Stikkbomz.

Dead Eye: Flash Gitz with 'Eavy armor, Gitfinda (can measure before shooting, Snazzgun, More Dakka (makes the Snazzgun Assault 2), Shootier (makes the Snazzgun S6), Crack Shot (reroll failed to-hit or to-wound), and Targeter (giving him on the to-hit roll). Call you tell I want him to hit what he shoots at?

Trash Boy: Killa-kan with Dreadnought close-combat weapon and the wonderful heavy 2 blast grotzooka. You'll have to wait to see what this guy looks like. He's actually a can that kills.

So that is exactly 250 points and will give me some awesome kustomization opportunities. I'm not really looking at the list in terms of "optimal". This is just what I see when I think of a small units of Orks. They're not sneaky at all. Just big green muscle moving across the table to mess you up. Nothing subtle about it.

But looking at it, I've got quite a bit of twin-linked shoota love and Dead Eye should be hitting whatever he aims at. The kan should be a nice distraction. Throwing templates around is just too much fun.

Now for the Grunts list (leader plus no more than two different types of stat-lines and no less than 7 models).

Flyboy: Stormboy Nob, Power Klaw, 'Eavy armor, Slugga, Hard to Kill (FNP).

9 - Stormboyz with slugga, choppa, stikkbombz and, of course, the Rokkit Pack.

4 - Kommandos with Big Shoota, Infiltrate, Move through Cover, Crack Shot

I wanted to create a nice "in your face" list with Stormboyz and Deffkoptas, but the Errata for KillZone doesn't allow the Deffkoptas. So I added the four really shooty Kommandos. Big Shootas are assault 3 and Crack Shot allows me to reroll to hit. Nice touch, seeing as they have the Infiltrate rule. This will allow me to deploy all around my opponent, which is always a nice touch.

The Rokkit Packs can move 13"-18" in the movement phase, then assault. So basically we're talking about a potential first turn assault.

So now it's time to start building!http://www.thecodexproject.com/killzone/http://www.thecodexproject.com/killzone/

Special Operations: Killzone Challenge

2011-11-21T20:00:00.003-05:00

If you haven’t checked out the rules for Galaxy in Flame’s Special Operations: Killzone then you need to go do it now. Go ahead…. I’ll wait.

The rules and errata can be found here: http://www.thecodexproject.com/killzone/

Killzone corrects the issues with the Battle Missions Kill Team rules by putting restrictions on what you can and cannot bring. It allows you to play skirmish games with the Warhammer 40K rules. The writers did an awesome job writing the rules, but, in my opinion, there are just two rules missing that would make it perfect:

1 – Explicitly state that you can use multiple codexes when creating your list. Think about it, you can have a Chaos cult lead by a terminator and have a couple of guardsmen. How cool would that be?

2 – Split the lists into two types of builds: Specialist or Grunts.

-- Specialist List - you CANNOT have more than two models in your list with the same profile and you cannot have more than 8 models.

-- Grunts List - you can only have a leader with one profile and the rest of your list having no more than two different types of profiles. This list can have no less than 7 models.

The idea is that someone would build both types of lists. Then you can gear missions accordingly - Specialists versus Specialists, Grunts versus Grunts, or Specialists versus Grunts. In a "big" game you would field both lists, but the Grunts would never be allowed secondary objectives or fate cards.

With that said, here is the challenge: create a Specialist and Grunt list using the KZ rules plus the two additional rules above. Be creative, use any range of models you want, and please, please, please kitbash!

Read the rules carefully as there are a lot of restrictions to prevent people from creating rule-bending lists, such as the 40 grot list, the 20 sniper list, or one Venerable Dreadnought list that Kill Team allows.

You can use models you already have completed if you want, but think outside the box. This is your chance to create a small army using models that you wouldn’t normally build.

Post your works in progress and your completed masterpieces in the Modeling section of the Northeast Gamers Hub so we can all see what you are up to.

Hopefully within the next couple of months some motivated gamers will start small campaigns using the Killzone rules. It’s the perfect “short” game that just about anyone can play. How many times have you gone to a group Games Day and played a regular game and had time to spare, but not enough time for another full game? Killzone is perfect because the games take 30-45 minutes to play.

So create your specialists and showcase your team!

The Truth Behind the 40K Rumors

2011-11-20T08:38:00.000-05:00

It's funny how people just discount everything at once. Remember, in every lie there is a kernel of truth.

Let's compare what was on BOLS and what was already written and what is on Faeit 212's blog (http://natfka.blogspot.com/2011/10/codex-release-schedule-and-sixth.html):

1. The Eldar dex will be out right before the release of 6th edition. Phil Kelly is the writer, which is why he wasn't able to write up the Cron codex.

This is saying right before 6th is dropped, Faeit 212 is saying after. Timing is irrelavent as release dates with GW aren't usually hard targets until 1 - 2 months out. This is probably why they keep things such a secret - think about how many release dates they missed and we never knew about. The important thing to note here is Eldar will be releases in 2012.

2. 6th Ed will be released in June or July of next year (2012) if everything goes to plan; its currently in playtesting right now.

Duh. This is like saying that water is wet. We all know this now.

3. The starter set might be the Fall of Damnos, but he said he wasn't completely sure it would be set there. It will include Space Marines, of course.

Ummmm, Ultramarines versus Necrons in a boxed set? I'd discount this in a second, however, if my memory is right, Orks were the last major release before 5th and they were included in the 5th edition box set. You also have to remember the age-old practice of releasing top-secret information: misinformation.

When a document is classified as top-secret with a limited ditribution, a bunch of different copies are made. Each copy will have different mistakes and errors in them with either grammar or punctuation. This is done so if the document is ever released and it can be traced back to who released it based on where the grammar or punctuation error is. If you ever see a top-secret document that does not contain some grammar issue, then you know it's a fake.

The Fall of Damnos box set may be the same thing. Different groups would be told different battles for the box set so you can tell who is releasing the information. Or, maybe, this was was just an idea thrown out there along with a dozen others that were shot down.

Or it just might be true.

4. CSM will get one of the newest dexes in 6th, right after the Marine dex.

Yeah, we kinda figured this as it has been talked about before. The right after the Marine dex part may be an outright lie or they might pull one out of their pocket with a White Dwarf release. I can see them doing this with Black Templar.

5. Tau and BT will get a release soon after CSM; other races updated in 5th will not be updated in 6th as their rules (at least from Guard onwards) are allready suited for 6th. Ward will probably do the BT and might do Tau as well. DA will probably not be updated anytime soon, because its not a popular army and GW does not want to waste money updating one or more armies that almost no one plays with a separate dex.

Again, it's all about timing. We'ver heard that Tau will be getting a new dex. BT is being discussed a lot in everyone's rumors and their date is all over the place (that's why I'm guessing they will be a White Dwarf codex). 5th codexes not being rewritten makes sense - we normally see that. The rest of the rambling is not written with any form of confidence. will probably and will probably not sounds like the rumors were heard from their mother's brother's room-mate's uncle's friend's co-worker. And again, it may just be ideas thrown around or general statements said at the beginning of planning sessions.

I don't know if GW is purposely releasing incorrect information. Another possible explaination is that what you are reading in these rumors are people's recollections of design meetings told from second hand sources as the edition is being designed. Dates and ideas change over time, so some of what you read do not pan out and most of the dates are wrong. That's why GW doesn't officially release design information until they are done designing it. People base their opinions upon what they hear and if they release plans that don't pan out then they look foolish.

Or, maybe GW is purposely releasing incorrect information. But in order to beleive this then you need to beleive that GW is being run by extremely intellegent business and marketing leaders who can think three, four, and even five steps ahead of the rest of us. And, based on everything I've read on the interwebz, this isn't the case.

Or is that a lie, too?

My Efff'd Up Tournament Advice

2011-11-03T17:28:00.000-04:00

Is it really that important to you?

I won't be attending Mechanicon this year. It's not that I don't like tournaments, I just don't like the people who play in them. Seriously, it's not you, it's me. Really.

Mechanicon is a really great event and I had tossed around the idea of going but other plans got in the way. The motivation for me just isn't there, either. I like the slower paced games. Basement games. Games where my opponent is just there to have a good time, not there trying to prove their manhood by beating me at a game of plastic toy soldiers.

What makes Mechanicon different is that the ratio of asshats to cool players isn't as bad as other tournaments. However, the victory hungry competitive types are there, too.

If you are attending Mechanicon (or any other tournament), then here are my suggestions for you...

1. Bath, bitch, 'cause yo smell

Seriously, take a shower either the night before or the day of the event. And that means every day. Slap some deodorant in those pits. This is important.

2. Lose the first and second game

Yep, that's right. Blow the game. Try new shit out, maybe a different tactic or two. Try charging into that 30 boy mob of 'Ard Boyz with your command squad.

Why? To get to the best games of your life.

OK, here's the dealio.... Tournaments have a ranking system that will (hopefully) keep you playing against opponents with the same relative skill as yours. Sure, the first round is anyone's guess, but the second round will probably be winners versus winners and losers versus losers. This is to ensure that someone with a lot of skill doesn't come in and play five games against five teenagers that have a combined gaming experience of four minutes.

Ask yourself this question: why are you playing at the tournament? If you are hoping to place high, maybe win, then try for it. Win as much as you can. If you are there to get five games played in a single weekend and have a good time, then lose the first two games. And lose big. Get tabled. And laugh your ass off.

What will happen is that games three, four, and five will be against other cool players that are there just to have a good time. Let the competitors compete against each other. Play against the cool dudes.

I've done this in the last two tournaments I've played in. I'd like to claim it was on purpose, but we all know it wasn't. In both tournaments I played my last game against the same person. Two different tournaments, two different cities, same player last game. One of the coolest cats I've played against, too. Trust me, my losing system works.

3. Don't overreact

Seriously? You're going to bitch and complain when you lose or a judge calls something against you or Draigo just shafted you with his Codex of Doom? You're going to get upset when the schedule gets messed up or you're waiting too long between games or some other silly shit?

Remember: you are playing with plastic toys. In the grand scheme of things the outcome of this tournament means jack shit. Overreact and you become this guy:

4. Take Yoda's advice

Don't be afraid of losing. Don't get angry when you do. Don't get stressed over the weekend. Don't get caught smoking doobies.

ANGRY MARINES!

2011-10-31T19:00:00.002-04:00

Always angry, All the time.

Here's a little gem that needs more publicity. Since the shelf-live of any information in the blogosphere is about twice as long as it takes for Justin Bieber to ejaculate after seeing a picture of George Michael (about 0.023 seconds), I figured I would repost info about this fandex. The noobs haven't seen it yet. It was written by Webcomicjunkie and /tg/ Internet Productions a few years back.

Click here to download the Codex: Angry Marines.

If I were ever going to play Space Marines, this would be my codex. No other codex allows you to purchase a Power Bat, a Thunder Wrench, a Cigar, or the Banner of Fuck You. The cigar, by the way, give you a +1 Leadership.

Psychic powers include Fight Harder, You Fucks!, The Litany of Litany's Litany, and Safety is for Pussies. But perhaps the best unit is the Predator Angrinator:

That's right, it shoots Angry Marines. How awesome is that!

Check out the codex. I'd like to see more Angry Marines on the table-tops.

Reborn!

2011-10-29T11:19:00.000-04:00

I feel like expressing myself.

The problem I have with Warhammer 40k is the community. Yep, that's right. All of you. And I'm included in that group, too. We are all equally worthless.

Seriously. We whine, complain, bitch, itch, and stomp around like little children. We cry for different rules, then we cry when we get them. We nerd-rage all over GW for their shitty metal models because we need 14 pounds of green-stuff and a Master of Sculpting Arts from Bumfuck University to keep them together, then bitch like a teenage girl when they replace them with Resin-That-Is-Not-Resin. We spew our hatred towards GW for raising their prices in a country half the world away while we buy our shit at online stores that offer 25% discount and free shipping.

Then we play against asshats who define their entire existence at winning a game of toy soldiers and then we cry when the rules aren't written for competitive play. Then we bitch at those who say that playing a non-competitive game competitively is stupid. Then we bitch at the fluff-bunnies and call them gay.

Then a newb starts the hobby, looks at the nerd-rage bukkake and either quits the hobby or, worse, stays in it and we all help turn him into a ragaholic asshat like ourselves.

But the thing that I really hate is myself for trying to take the higher road and rise above it all. I try to stay calm, temper my words accordingly, watch what I say so as to not offend anyone. This has caused me to hate blogging, hate reading blogs even more, and just be generally pissed at the community as a whole for making me feel this way.

Well, no more.

Neo-Eddie. The shit stops here.

I will no longer conform to the rules of polite etiquette on this blog. I will no longer play nice. I will no longer hold back the nerd-rage I feel towards others.

You are now going to get the raw Fast Eddie WAAAGH!Aki foul-mouthed opinionated in your face complete dick that those who know me know what I am like. I am doing this because I believe that being a dick is part of this hobby.

It's not a bad thing. Since we're all dicks, we actually enjoy playing games against each other.

The downside is that some of you will leave. Feel free and I hope the door doesn't hit your ass on the way out. And Ron from FTW is about to send me his standard "sorry I had to drop you from the rolls" email. Ron, I love you. I love you so much that you should have that restraining order against me reinstated for another year. The shit you do is wonderful. However, unlike you I believe there is a place in the written word for vulgarity and right now, this is it.

Meanwhile the dudes at International House of Paincakes just got an erection.

So there it is. Expect to see some of the cool shit I put together, hear about the games I lose, and what I am generally up to. If you think I'm an ass, just watch the following video and remember that I am the Honey Badger:

Space Marine: Additional Perk Unlocks

2011-10-02T10:13:00.000-04:00

For those who are familiar with how the Space Marine video game community is defining itself, here are some additional achievements you can earn:

The Camper

Kill 50 enemies while campaign, preferably with a heavy weapon. Unlocks the campfire perk, which allows you to stay warm and cozy in your preferred camping corner. When you kill 500 enemies you unlock the Marshmallow perk.

The Seal Beater

Kill 25 level 1 enemies in a row. Unlocks the club perk, which replaces whatever close combat weapon you have. At 100 level 1 enemies killed, Greenpeace activists surround your TV, making it difficult to play.

The Old-Timer

Playing 50 online games while being 40 years old or older, preferably with the Heavy Bolter (because playing as an Assault Marine is impossible because it moves “just too darn fast”). If you’ve come back 50 times you have proved your dedication to getting beating by a 12 year old Columbian kid who just downed two liters of Mountain Dew. Playing 500 games unlocks the Walker perk, which allows you to move past those 3” ramp corners without getting stuck.

The Gaseous Bloat

Making natural and unnatural sounds during the game and while waiting for the next round that are so annoying that other players mute you. You can achieve the Auto-mute perk after doing this 50 time. The Belch and Fart Feedback perk is unlocked when you do this 51 times and will play back every sound you ever made to your TV at the highest volume so only you have to suffer through it.

The Douche Bag

Killing 100 enemies with Final Vengeance. Unlocks the Douche Bag perk, which is a mandatory armor upgrade of a douche bag hanging over your shoulder. At 500 Final Vengeance kills you unlock the Vinegar Frak Grenade perk, which makes your enemies involuntarily back away from you.

The Batman

Killing 50 enemies outside their spawn point as an Assault Marine by swooping down when they appear, killing them, and jumping back up to your perch. Unlocks the Batman “Dark Knight” Voice perk.

Better Gaming Part 5: Modeling for Advantage

2011-09-30T19:00:00.004-04:00

Click here to read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.

Everybody loves a great conversion. Building, converting, and painting your army is a significant portion of table-top wargamming. There are so many options that can make your army unique.

However, some folks will convert models for their own advantage. Their models will be too big, too small, or just not right for tournaments or even pick-up games.

An example is the picture above. It is a custom Ork Battlewagon. The small circles are normal 28mm bases (about 1”) so you can actually see the size of it. A normal, out of the box Battlewagon is 3.5” x 6.5”. This conversion is more than 5.5” wide.

How does this help the owner of this beast? It blocks line of site for units behind it. It allows for a larger area for ramming other vehicles or performing tank shocks. Disembarking units can cover a larger area. There are all types of advantages for this conversion. Yes, it is cool that you can fit all 20 Orks into the back of the Battlewagon, but the rules were not designed for a vehicle that takes 15% of the table.

The opposite can also be done. In a game that employs true line-of-site, making your models shorter means you can hide them from fire much easier. I’ve seen Necrons with the pieces simply glued to the base with the explanation that they were waiting to reassemble themselves. This allows them the hide behind anything.

We'll be back - with the rest of the model and some modeling glue.

There are some conversions that are done correctly, such as Rob Baer’s Looted Imperial Guard army and his Orkquisiton army. You may not prefer completely different models being used to represent the army of the codex, but everything he converted was the correct size and shape based on models of the codex.

The Orkquisition - conversions done right.

There are two ways modeling for advantage can be corrected. The first way is for rules to be written that explicitly state the size and shape of every model. This is not optimal as it will restrict creativity. Sometimes a bit, arm, or a wheel just needs to be slightly outside the “norm”.

The other way is for individuals to simply consider their conversion and do everything they can to ensure that their conversion does not provide an advantage. If you are converting something, try to follow these guidelines:

1 – Make sure your vehicle is the correct size. Compare it to the size of the normal GW vehicle and try not to deviate from that too much.

2 – Make sure your vehicle does not have any abnormal extensions. A turret that is 4” higher than normal or dreadnought arms that stick out too far should never be considered. Imagine a dreadnought with wings on the tips of those wings are the weapons. According to the rules, you cannot shoot at wings, so this would allow you to completely hide the walker and shoot indiscriminately. It will also earn you a couple of impolite names from your opponent.

3 – Make sure your based models are on a proper size base. This means no dreadnoughts on a 28mm base or an infantry model on a 60mm base.

Yes, conversions are cool and everyone loves them. If you have a model that is outside the norm in size or shape, then save it for basement or apocalypse games. Make a datasheet for it and get an agreement from your opponent for the points it is worth. You can even use the old Vehicle Design Rules (VDR). Yes, in many areas it is overpriced, but for a fun game with customized models, these rules are a lot of fun.

For general pick-up games and tournaments, the trick is to make your conversions in such a way that your opponent doesn’t think you are simply trying to gain an advantage.

Click here to read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.

How I Painted the Jokers

2011-09-25T19:35:00.000-04:00

The Jokers have been sold. They will be making their debut in Georgia sometime over the next couple of weeks.

The buyer (who will remain nameless until he reveals himself) asked how I painted the tanks so he can complete the job. So I decided to post this so he can see how I painted the entire army.

First - the colors....

Here is a list of all the colors I used. All of them are GW paints.

Chaos Black

Chaos Black + Codex Grey

Catachan Green

Bleached Bone

Graveyard Earth

Khemri Brown Foundation

Tin Bitz

Boltgun Metal

Mithril Silver

Ultramarines Blue

White

Blood Red

Sunburst Yellow

Badab Black Wash

Delvan Mud Wash

The Chaos Black + Codex Grey is the only mixture I used (as still use today). There is very little that I paint completely black. Almost every dark bit, such as guns and wires, are a very dark grey.

Second - the spray paint....

Krylon Greek Camouflage is the best paint out there. Most of the time I didn't even need to prime my model. You can get it at any Walmart and it is relatively cheap.

The color is very close to Catachan Green. I use to mix Catachan Green, Codex Grey, and Chaos Black to get an exact match, but I found it wasn't necessary since everything I paint gets coated with wash anyway.

After spraying the tank with the Krylon spray, I worked on everything that wasn't green. The guns got the dark grey mix, the Aquilas got hit with bleached bone, the tracks were tin bitz with Mithril Silver dry brushed on them. The windows got Ultramarines Blue. Lights got yellow. Anything that looked like it should blink or something got hit with some red. Accuracy doesn't really matter, just color within the lines.

Then I put on the Joker decal and the 501 decals. You need to do this BEFORE applying the wash. I would also paint the name of the tank in Bleached Bone. Fix any mistakes with the Catachan Green. Yes, the color is slightly off, but it won't matter after the next step.

Then I would take Badab Black wash and completely ruin my paint job. The trick is to use a large flat brush and work it into every crevasse. Then work it downward so the streaks are vertical on the sides and from front-to-back on the top. Think of the way an old tank would look if it sat in the rain. How would the water flow? Make the wash flow the same way. If you touch a spot before it dries, try working the streaks downward again. If it was too late, then apply a bit more wash, but water it down. If you forgot a spot, then try the same - watered down wash.

Applying wash to wash makes a very dark mark which will be more noticeable than not applying more wash. If it is a small area, consider painting some battle damage over it. Whatever you do - DO NOT be discouraged by how it looks when it is wet. Wash looks completely different when it dries.

After it dries - and I mean COMPLETELY dries, add the battle damage. Whatever technique you want to use will work. I would put black down first, then Tin Bitz inside of that, then Boltgun Metal inside of that, then Mithril Silver inside of that. I have a bunch of old brushes that I used to make the damage look more random.

Then I dry-brushed the entire model with Graveyard Earth which would also be used for the "mud" marks. See http://berkswarhammer40k.blogspot.com/2009/06/weathering-leman-russ.html for more details.

It is that simple.

For the infantry, there here are two links that describe the process:

http://inquisitorlordaki.blogspot.com/2010/02/paint-to-play.html

http://inquisitorlordaki.blogspot.com/2010/02/paint-by-mistake.html

I hope this helps!

Better Gaming Part 4: Magical Measuring

2011-09-24T08:22:00.002-04:00

Click here to read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 5.

I have some very bad news for everyone. You need to sit down and simply accept this news for there is nothing you can do about it. Are you prepared? Good.

Measuring in a table-top game is going to be inaccurate.

There, I said it. I’ve talked about the elephant in the room. We all know this somewhere in the dark recesses of our mind, but some people get enraged when it surfaces.

Measuring over terrain, around terrain and other models, over hills, through buildings, etc., are going to cause nuances in the accuracy of each measurement. Unless you want to spend all day taking each measurement with a laser ruler there are going to be some inaccuracies.

Those who cheat to win will take advantage of this. There is no getting around this. It is going to occur. If you cannot accept this fact and it enrages you, then perhaps chess is a more viable game for you. I’ve seen some nicely painted chess sets before.

I’m not going to discuss the normal stuff we all know to avoid: measuring from front of base to back of base while moving, moving the ruler when you move the model, the vehicle pivot to gain more distance, etc. We know these are cheesy moves and if you’ve played for more than five minutes then you can recognize when your opponent is doing these things.

Instead, I’m going to discuss what you should and shouldn’t be doing in your movement phase.

Remember, it is your responsibility to ensure your actions do not make your opponent think you are cheating. If you are moving quickly without letting your opponent see the tape measure or explaining what it is you are measuring, then your opponent is not going to walk away thinking you are the most honest player. And if you win, then most likely he will be wondering in the back of his mind whether or not your movements were a bit magical.

Here is how to avoid that….

Communicate Your Intentions

When you are measuring for movement or for shooting range, talk it out with your opponent. The thoughts are racing through your mind so just speak them out loud. “I want to move this tank over there” or “I am trying to shoot that unit over there”. Letting your opponent know what you are measuring ensures that there are no surprises.

Get an Agreement

When you make any measurement, ensure your opponent is looking at your tape measure and simply say “Do you agree this is X inches?” or “Does that look like X inches to you?”. Yes, it may seem formal, but if you get your opponent’s agreement when you make the measurement then there won’t be a disagreement later.

This is also true if you are doing something unusual or out of sequence. When would you ever do something like this? When playing an unusual army build, such as hordes.

When playing an infantry heavy army you want to save time wherever you can. For example, if you know your 30 Ork mob will run, then why not combine the movement and shooting phase into one? If you do this, then get your opponent’s permission first and ensure he is fully aware of everything you are doing.

Treat It Like Chess

After you move, take your hand off your model and don’t touch it again. Do not readjust that tank or infantry model. All moves should be final. And absolutely do not move back – you won’t be able to measure where you started from.

Yes, this sounds harsh. There is only one way you move back without it looking like you are trying to gain some sort of advantage. Before you move, put a marker down on the table noting where the model was, then move the model. This way if you need to move back or if your opponent questions your movement, you can always refer to the marker.

Don’t Accuse Your Opponent Unless You Are Sure

The worst thing you can ask your opponent is “are you sure that was 6”?”. Let me translate that for you: “Kind sir, I believe you are a cheat and a crook. That movement you just make looked to me to be more than 6 inches”. It’s insulting and whenever you ask the question in that way you are questioning the integrity of your opponent.

Unless your opponent left a marker down there is no way he is going to know exactly where he started his movement from. Remember, you are looking at the table from a different angle than he is so the measurement will look a bit off from your perspective.

If you are uncomfortable with your opponent’s measuring then just tell him. You don’t need to be mean about it, just say “Listen, from my view over here your movements look a little off. Could you slow down on the measuring and moving for me?”. Give the “it’s not you, it’s me” speech and he shouldn’t have any hurt feelings. If he does then he’s trying to cheat you anyway.

Then you have the opportunity to discuss with him the “Get an Agreement” step described above.

There it is. If you are one of those players who measures quickly, moves your models after you have moved them, and squeezes an extra quarter inch out of your movement, then understand that people are going to play against you less often and you will get lower sportsmanship scores during tournaments.

Like every other suggestion in this series, it boils down to communication. Let your opponent know everything you are doing, every move you are making, and every measurement you are taking.

Click here to read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 5.

Better Gaming Part 3: Ruling the Rules

2011-09-22T19:00:00.003-04:00

Click here to read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4. Part 5.

Those who know the rules the best has better chance of winning. Those who can convince their opponent how to interpret the rules will win.

If your aspiration is to play - and do well - in tournaments, then you better start reading and understand the rules. Not just the basic rules of the games, but also every codex. You will need to have a good understanding of how each army functions and you better know some of the more complicated rules for the units. Without this knowledge, you are at a disadvantage. You are at the mercy of your opponent.

But what happens if you are a newer player, only play pick-up games, or just simply don't want to read every codex? There are a couple of things you can do to ensure that your opponent understands what you are doing and that you understand what your opponent is doing.

Most players are at the mercy of their opponent to describe the individual rules for their specific armies. Most table-top games are designed this way with each army having their own specific army books or codexes. In most cases, this isn't an issue. However, in some instances, it is an area of abuse.

Sometimes rule interpretations can be misunderstood by the players. And sometimes those misunderstandings are done on purpose. Consider the Warhammer 40k Artillery Unit, for example. Most players do not field or even play against such units, so their knowledge of the specific rules may be a bit sketchy. It is natural, if playing against an opponent with an artillery unit, to ask how it works.

Many people read the rules for a unit and see only the positive. The downside of the unit is overlooked. Sometimes the downside is overlooked on purpose. In the case of an artillery unit, there is the gun (with an armor value like a vehicle) and a crew. You can shoot at one or the other. Most people overlook the downside, such as the rule that states the artillery unit must take a dangerous terrain test whenever moving through difficult terrain.

So the situation is that you are playing the game against an artillery unit, you've never seen one before, and, for the sake of saving time, you ask your opponent about it. He states every rule for it from memory but does not state the downside. Whether it was done on purpose or not, the effect is the same - an artillery unit that can move through difficult terrain with no risk because of your lack of knowledge of the rules and your trust in your opponent's interpretation of the rules.

Avoiding this situation is easy - read the rules. You don't need to know the entire rulebook by memory, but you better know how to quickly look up the rules. All unit types are described in the main rule book. When your opponent is deploying, just look it up.

Do not depend on your opponent's interpretation of a rule. Yes, it's simpler to just ask and listen, but you have only learned how to ask and listen. Take the time and look the rule up. You will remember it longer if you look it up rather than listen to someone saying it to you.

If the rule in question is army specific, then learn this simple phrase: "That sounds like a cool rule. Can I see how it is worded in your codex?". Just ask to see their codex. It is that simple. Opening the codex will help you and your opponent as you will both be reviewing the rule together. It will also help you discover the downside of the rule.

Some people think that asking to see the passage in the army book or codex is an insult or that you are accusing your opponent of cheating. That is not the case at all and if you opponent thinks that, then chances are they are cheating. If you are unfamiliar with a specific rule, just ask to see it. It takes less than a minute.

What you should be asking yourself by now is how to ensure your opponent is aware of your rules. When playing a game it is your responsibility to ensure that your opponent is comfortable playing against you and doesn’t leave the game thinking that he's been cheated.

When playing a unit that has a special rule or unusual ability, spell it all out to your opponent when you use it. Describe the rules in detail the first time you use it during the game. Bookmark the page in your army book or codex so you can read directly from it when describing the rule. Have the applicable FAQ printed out and read directly from it.

You don't need to do this every time you use the unit or rule, only the first time you use it. The trick is to be prepared to read the rule directly from the source. Your opponent may simply say "Don't worry about it, I know the rule", in which case you don't need to recite it again.

Doing this, again, not only helps your opponent, but also helps you. By reading the specific rule during every game, you will get to know it better. Reading the rule directly from the source and offering the book to your opponent demonstrates that you are completely open and not trying to hide anything. This will lead to a much more enjoyable game.

Click here to read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4. Part 5.

Better Gaming Part 2: Dice Discipline

2011-09-18T19:02:00.003-04:00

Click here to read Part 1, Part 3, Part 4. Part 5.

When I started playing this game I believed that all dice rolls produced a random result between 1 and 6. On paper and in the rules it looks random. But there are soooo many ways to alter the "randomness" of a dice roll.

Dice are funny objects that we take for granted. Did you know that there are only a few manufacturers that guarantee that their dice are completely "balanced"? Even those dice are the completely squared-edge type that you will find at casinos. What do your dice look like? Rounded edges? Rounded corners? Maybe a customized symbol on the 1 or 6 side?

For the most part, players do not go out of their way to produce or purchase weighted dice. There are better ways to control the dice. On a subconscious level, however, most players find the weighted dice in their collection after a long enough period of time.

Ever hear someone say "these are my lucky dice" or watch someone pull out one die for special rolls? Maybe you do the same. Dice aren't perfect (unless you are playing with the guaranteed casino dice). Within any set of dice some will roll good and some will roll bad. Someone who has been playing for a while will pick out their "good" dice.

Call it superstition, call it whatever you want. Nobody ever thinks of them being weighted dice, but that is what they are. They are dice that, due to their imperfections, are biased. Some dice are biased in a good way, some in a bad way (ever hear of "unlucky" dice?).

There is nothing wrong with anyone playing these dice as we are ALL playing with imperfect dice. But when you see someone playing with a collection of dice where each one is a different size and color, there is a good chance he's been dice weeding. Yes, he will still have bad dice days as how the dice is weighted is only one element of the equation. But overall his dice will perform slightly better than average.

And custom dice only make this worse. The depth, size, and the side that the customization is on will alter the weight. This could work for the player or against him. Ironically, custom dice are usually given away at tournaments in a competitive environment.

Dice balance is only one small element when playing a game with dice. Many players ignore the issue or deny it exists because they know they are also take advantage of it. In reality, if a tournament is going to be competitive, I think that only casino dice should be used and they should be distributed by the organizer.

If you want to prevent any sour feelings during a game, when your opponent says something about how hot your dice are, simply allow him to use them, too.

Now for the more nefarious methods of controlling the dice...

Fast Rolling and Picking Up Hits

Yeah, we all know about these tricks. A person rolls fast, then picks up the dice that pass whatever test he is rolling for. We all know how to avoid it: pick up the failed dice and leave the ones that pass.

However, you should not pick up the failed dice and just chuck them to the side. Carefully separate them into a different pile with the failed number still facing up. This way your opponent can see the passed AND failed dice.

Make sure your opponent sees them. Just a simple "do you see 5 dice there" will do. Make sure your opponent is interacting with you with all of the rolls. I played against someone who, after every roll, would look up and ask "Do you agree that this was five hits?" or "Do you see that there were 3 saves?". It was formal, but he was used to a tournament setting and wanted to ensure that every roll he made was agreed to by his opponent before moving on. That is the surest way to prevent any misunderstandings.

Forced Re-Rolls

What makes a crooked die? Do you reroll if a die goes into terrain? Do you reroll if the die if hidden under a model?

You can spend hours clarifying all of this before a game (which never happens). Someone looking at the 1 they just rolled sitting a little cocked will be very happy to say it is crooked and needs to be rerolled. I've read about people saying that if it goes into area terrain it needs to be rerolled, but never personally saw that. Some people are very happy to reroll dice for any reason. Think about it. Game-wise, rerolling is an advantage.

To clear this up before it becomes an issue all you need to do is state one simple rule to your opponent before the game starts. If you can place one die on top of the rolled die, then it is good. (Jason S from Noobhammer showed me this trick).

If a die looks cocked, try stacking another die on top of it. If it falls off, then reroll it. Sweet, simple, and just makes sense. Let your opponent know that this is how you roll and you shouldn't have any "Mystery Reroll" issues.

Big Dice Drop

I've seen players from age 7 to 60 pull the Big Dice Drop. It is so elementary that my son discovered it on his own.

Most players use 12mm to 16mm dice. If you have a chance, get yourself a 19mm-25mm dice and practice rolling it without making it roll. It is actually quite easy. I've even seen some people do it with 16mm dice. With the 12mm, you can only drop it, which makes the trick very obvious. Any horizontal movement with your arm when throwing a 12mm dice will make it roll.

If you see this happen to you there is little you can do other than to call your opponent out and ask him to ROLL the dice when he is rolling the dice. Most people let it slide and simply label their opponent a WAAC.

Here are some suggestions to ensure you do not gain that label:

1 - Don't bring the big dice. There is no reason for them. Stay at 16mm or less.

2 - Bring a dice cup. You've seen them in Yatzee, but you can get them for a great game called "Bar Dice". You can also get them customized, which is very cool.

3 - Make a production out of rolling your dice. If you are using a dice cup, treat it like you are playing the Maracas. If you are not using a cup, then make a production about shaking them in your hands. Just don't throw them so hard that they move models and they spread all of the table.

4 - Use a dice box. A lid for the box that your models came in works best for this.

The Dice Slide

This is perhaps one of the smoothest sleight-of-hands I have ever seen. The first time I saw it I thought it was just a mistake. Then when I saw it again I was just completely impressed by it.

I'm going to use WH40K for this example, but I am sure regardless of the game you play you will understand how this works. You roll to hit and wound and get 10 wounds against your opponent who now needs to make his saving throws.

Your opponent has his dice scattered over an area on his table edge. He pushes 10 dice forward in a haphazard way, so now he has two groups of dice that are still scattered around his table edge. As he is pushing the dice forward, he is putting them with a favorable number facing up. He leans forward slightly to scoop the 10 dice up in his hands. It's not a direct pick-up - he needs to scoop them up in his hands. He will scoop up 7 or 8 of them and, as he is moving his hands back and straightening himself up, he will push 2 or 3 dice back toward the larger pile of scattered dice with his wrist or bottom of his hand. This will occur so quickly that you won't even notice he did it. The 2 or 3 left behind dice are close to the larger pile of dice, but because the dice are scattered all around it is difficult to see this. You aren't looking at the dice on the table anyway - you're watching his hands.

When he rolls he will throw them close to the left behind dice and let them scatter around so they are near his larger pile of dice. Then he will quickly pick out the failed dice and put them back into the pile of larger dice. He will only leave the dice which passed the test (which is correct).

What just happened? You opponent just rolled 8 out of the 10 saves he was suppose to. This means that 2 automatically passed the test because they were never rolled after being placed on the table on the number he wants. It all happens so quickly that even if you do pick up on it you will think that YOU are the one imagining things.

There are two solutions to this: Dice Discipline and Rolling Elsewhere.

Dice Discipline - Keep you dice cleaned up off the playing surface. Put them somewhere is a nice pile. Ask your opponent to do the same. Make a joke out of it by yelling "Dice Discipline!" and start cleaning up the dice off the table.

Rolling Elsewhere - Make sure your dice are rolled away from any other group of dice. This is why a dice box is really useful.

I am sure there are other tricks, sleight of hand, and magic that occurs from dishonest players. The thing to remember is that not everyone is dishonest. Many mistakes occur by accident during a game, so don't start accusing your opponent of cheating just because you thought you saw something or didn't understand what you saw. It is BOTH PLAYER'S responsibility to ensure that the game is enjoyable. Usually, just some simple communication in the game will dispel any notion that you are doing something improper. Describe what every roll is and verify that your opponent sees the results and every game will be a lot smoother.

Click here to read Part 1, Part 3, Part 4. Part 5.

The Jokers are Going Once, Going Twice, SOLD!

2011-09-18T08:45:00.000-04:00

Sergeant Berg Barnes, aka “The Marlboro Man”

That's right, folks, the Hambali 501st Regiment is up for grabs. Click here to check out the eBay auction. Today is the last day of bidding.

Yesterday I posted a whole bunch of pics of the tanks. I played heavy-mech and towards the end started to play a bit more balanced lists with more infantry. So today I'm going to focus on the infantry units and their rides.

There are four veteran squads. Each squad has three special weapons and a missile launcher team. There are enough models to drop the missile launcher team and bring two guardsmen with lasguns instead.

The back hatch of each Chimera has some inspiring graffiti.

And take notice of the "Abrams" style turrets. I didn't purposely model them for advantage, but since you can shoot five models from the top hatch, a question came up concerning if they can shoot forwards because the normal turret is in the way. Here was my answer:

There are, of course, other dudes with the army. Here is the Primaris Psyker, who I liked bringing as a an HQ choice:

Then there is the Commanding Officer who, under my command, died a lot:

The commissar with a power weapon and bolter:

Here is all of them with the Officer of the Fleet:

Then there is the Deathstrike Vortex Missile Apocalypse Datasheet. This is essentially death from above as you remove everything under the 10" template. This army fields TWO!

You can never have too many troops.

Click here to see the auction. If you want a painted Guard army, you only have until tonight to get your bids in.

Only 1 Day Left!

2011-09-17T08:25:00.000-04:00

There in only ONE DAY left to bid on the Hambali 501st Regiment - The Jokers. Click here for the eBay auction.

The Jokers and I have been through a lot over the last couple of years. We've been through campaigns, tournaments, pickup games, apocalypse games, and a whole bunch of basement games. They've done well under my command. There were times they has also done terribly, but that was because of my command.

Carlos Hatchcock (pictured above) took 3rd place in the Golden Grot painting competition in 2010

This army has close to 200 models and has allowed me to field 5,000 points easily. Each of the seven Leman Russ' are numbered and each has a specific name.

And then there is The Holy Hail, the Stormlord Super Heavy Tank. You put nine missile launcher teams into the back of this baby and you are owning the Apocalypse game! This model won First Place in the Berks Spring Assault 2010 Golden Grot Competition.

Tomorrow I'll post more pictures of the infantry, Chimeras, and the extra surprises in this army.

Click here to take a look at the full model list.

Better Gaming Part I: An Introduction

2011-09-14T19:00:00.006-04:00

It seems that the more coverage a gaming tournament receives, the more the accusations fly. The blogs and forums fill up with articles and posts about cheating and arguments ensue. For those who are just getting into the hobby, regardless of which game they play, this is a complete turn-off. For those who have played for a while, this behavior just drains the fun out of the hobby.

As table-top gamers, we are our worst enemy when it comes to recruiting new players.

In the hopes of actually providing something useful to the gaming community I am writing this series on how to play a better game. The focus is different than most articles as this deals with your behavior while playing a game and doesn't focus on just calling people out and labeling them as cheaters, WAACs, or any other derogatory term. I hope to answer the question that we all should be asking: How do I make the gaming experience better for me and my opponent.

This isn't going to be discussion about competitive versus non-competitive play or how to build lists. It is not going to be a series about how to point out cheaters so you can call them out in the middle of games. It will be a series that will help all players consider how to make the game better.

For full disclosure, I do not play competitively. In fact, I do not thing that table-top gaming is designed to be played competitively. The question I ask is would you play Monopoly against someone you just met and play it competitively? Sounds odd, doesn't it. However, Monopoly has a tighter ruleset than table-top wargames. It makes more sense to play Monopoly competitively than Warhammer Fantasy or 40k.

With that said, I understand the desire of those who do play competitively and I think those who do are a vital part of the gaming community.

In my view, there are three types of games: competitive, pick-up, and basement gaming.

Competitive is obviously tournament-style playing. You are either playing at a tournament or practicing for one. Some people always play competitively.

Pick-up games are variable as they can go either way. You either know your opponent well or just met him. You either agreed to play competitively or casually or you have made no agreement at all.

Basement gaming is playing against someone you know well and trust to the point where you can go refresh your drink while your opponent is moving and shooting without the fear of being cheated.

While most of the vocal gaming community talks about competitive or pick-up gaming, in my opinion most players are actually basement gamers. They are just not vocal, which is the nature of that style.

This series of articles will not be discussing basement gaming (there is a whole other series of articles for that). This series is about competitive and pick-up games.

We will discuss dice rolling, movement, modeling, and other topics from the viewpoint of not pointing out cheating or shady actions, but describing how you can ensure your opponent does not have the opportunity to accuse you of cheating. This, in turn, will make for a much more relaxed and better gaming experience for those involved.

Before we start, you do need to understand the perspective of those who either cheat or do questionable things during a game. Most cases are just simple mistakes. There are a lot of things happening during a game and many people just make mistakes. You probably do, too, but are unaware of them. So if you see something shady, understand that the action may not have been done intentionally.

In other cases, some people believe that, in a competitive environment, every aspect of the game is considered in winning. This not only includes the rules, but your knowledge of the rules, what you let your opponent get away with, etc. For example, if your opponent does not roll for reserves on purpose and you do not call him on it, who's fault is it? If your opponent describes an army specific rule but does not describe the downside of that rule, is it his fault that you do not know his army?

True, this mindset normally gets labeled as Win At All Costs (WAAC), but those players exist and you will come across them in your travels. I am not throwing judgment but am simply stating a fact. Some people play that way.

Then there are those players that just simply need to win for psychological reasons. Losing, in their psyche, is an insult against them and degrades their manhood. They pour so much of their time, energy, and emotion into the game that they measure themselves by their w/l record. Sounds strange, I know. This is more prevalent in younger players who need an outlet to prove and identify themselves. For these players, winning at any cost poses no problem for them.

Again, I'm not judging. I am just stating my observations about the motivation for some people. You will meet players from all walks of life and they all play for different reasons. This series isn't going to discuss the merits or lack thereof for each type of player. We are going to simply state that these different types of players exist and most players don't easily fit into one simple category but show characteristics of a couple of categories.

So sit back and enjoy the series. I hope that through this series I can inject a bit of civility into the community as a whole.

Click here to read Part 2, Part 3, Part 4. Part 5.

The Hambali 501st Regiment - The Jokers - is now up for sale!

2011-09-12T20:39:00.001-04:00

The Hambali 501st Regiment - The Jokers - is now up for sale!

More than 5,000 points with enough models for just about any army build you want.

Almost all models are completely painted. I'm not going to claim that they are "professionally painted", but they are painted to a high table-top quality with decals, washes, dry-brushing, and weathering/battle damage.

Click here for the eBay auction.

Here is the complete inventory of models:
Imperial Guard Codex (spiral- bound)
78 Guardsman w/lasgun
7 Guardsman w/flamer
8 Guardsman w/grenade launcher
7 Guardsman w/meltagun
4 Guardsman w/plasmagun
6 Guardsman w/vox
16 Guardsman w/laspistol (SGT or LT)
1 Guardsman w/power fist
10 Guardsman w/sniper rifle
12 Missile Launcher
3 Mortar
2 Heavy Bolter
3 Autocannon
9 Psykers (3 completed, 3 NIB, 3 stripped of paint)
1 Primaris Psyker
1 Commanding Officer
1 Custom Master of Ordnance
1 Custom Marbo
1 Commisar w/bolter
3 Custom objective markers
4 Chimeras
3 Leman Russ Battle Tank w/hull lascannon and sponson heavy bolters
3 Leman Russ Demolishers/Executioner/Punisher (all guns swappable)
1 Leman Russ Vanquisher
2 Deathstrike Missile Launchers
1 Custom Manticore
1 Basilisk
2 Banewolves w/ multi-melta
1 Stormlord Super Heavy Tank
Cadian Command Squad box, opened but with most of the pieces

For more pictures, click here for my blog: http://inquisitorlordaki.blogspot.com/p/hambali-501st-regiment-jokers.html and click here for detailed pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/102584385372706262381/Hambali501TheJokers?feat=embedwebsite .

If you purchase this army I will also send many infantry/tank decal sheets plus the custom decal sheet for the Jokers emblem. Also, if you plan to add to this army, let me know and I will describe the steps I took to paint them.

Click here for the eBay auction.

Rule Breakers!

2011-07-07T19:00:00.002-04:00

Rule Breaker Cards are a way to add a bit of unpredictability to a 40k game. They work great in Apocalypse games, but can be used in regular, doubles, and group games, too.

They are really simple to use. All you need to do is print the Rule Breakers listed below on cards and allow every player to randomly choose one before the game begins. It is easier to put them in a spreadsheet in equal sized cells, print two or three copies of them, cut them out, fold them, then put them in a hat.

It is up to each player whether or not they want to tell any other player what card they got. They can use the card at any time in the game (unless the Rule Breaker specifies when it should be used).

Give them a try and you won't regret it. It will definitely create some memorable moments in your game.

RULE BREAKER: Personal Teleport Device

One unit can move up to 30" in the movement phase one time during the game. This unit cannot be a super-heavy vehicle or a monstrous creature. The unit cannot assault on the turn it makes this move.

RULE BREAKER: Shoot Them All!

One unit can target a unit that is in assault or place a template so it is covering a friendly unit one time during the game. If targeting a unit in assault with a non-template weapon, allocate hits across both units, starting with the enemy unit first. If there are enough shots that everyone gets hit once, then allocate additional hits against the enemy unit first in the same fashion. Roll to wound AFTER all the hits are allocated.

RULE BREAKER: I Can See YOU

During the shooting phase, a single unit can declare that all shots fired at an enemy unit will ignore cover saves one time during the game.

RULE BREAKER: Your Armor Means Nothing

During the shooting phase, a single unit can declare that all shots fired at an enemy unit will ignore armor saves one time during the game.

RULE BREAKER: Long Range Shot

During the shooting phase, a single unit can declare that all shots fired at an enemy unit will have a range of 72 one time during the game.

RULE BREAKER: Furious Attack

One time during the game, all failed Roll to Wounds can be rerolled for a single unit. This can be declared in the shooting or assault phase.

RULE BREAKER: Lucky Shot

One time during the game, all failed Roll to Hit can be rerolled for a single unit. If this is used for a template weapon, the scatter dice can be rerolled, but you must accept the results of the second roll. This can be declared in the shooting or assault phase.

RULE BREAKER: I'm Not Done Yet!

One time during the game a unit that is falling back may instantly regroup, regardless of how many casualities the unit took. This should be declared at the beginning of the movement phase.

RULE BREAKER: Fear ME!

One time during the game you can declare that any unit (enemy or friendly) that is taking a morale check instantly fails the check. This also applies to Fearless units. This can be declared right before or right after the morale check is made, but before any other game action takes place.

RULE BREAKER: Heavy Firing

One time during the game you can declare that a single shooting unit fires twice. These shots can be taken against different targets and the targets do not have to be declared prior to the first round of shooting. This ability does not apply to one-shot weapons, super-heavy vehicles or montrous creatures.

RULE BREAKER: Drive By Shooting

One time during the game you can declare that a single vehicle can move 12" (18" for fast vehicles) and shoot all of it's weapons. In addition, ALL models inside the unit can fire all of their weapons as if the unit was stationary, regardless if the vehicle has any fire-points (they are sticking their heads and weapons out the door). This ability does not apply to super-heavy vehicles or monstrous creatures.

RULE BREAKER: Found the Weak Spot

One time during the game all glancing and penetrating hits to a single enemy vehicle from a single unit receive a +3 bonus to the armor penetrating roll.

The Inquisitor's League Campaign Primer

2011-07-05T19:00:00.000-04:00

The Inquisitor's League Campaign Primer is a 40k campaign booklet that is designed to help campaign managers create a campaign without having to work through the rules mechanics of each game. This will allow you to focus on the narrative of the campaign.

The League Campaign Primer is focused on putting league games into a larger context. If you play in a league or a relatively static group of players that meet on a regular bases to play, this campaign is designed for you and your group.

Instead of focusing on individual win/loss records, the League Campaign focuses on character development. Each army can have multiple characters that grow in experience and ability. Characters can be individuals, walkers, and even vehicles.

The campaign manager can also download the Character Profile sheet here. This will help in preparing and updating the character profiles between campaigns.

This is the second campaign book in the Inquisitor's Campaign Primer series. Click here to view all the campaigns available.

Happy Independence Day!

2011-07-04T06:41:00.000-04:00

Americans celebrate our independence. The Brits celebrate the day they finally got rid of us whining hillbillies. The Canadians celebrate that the neighbor they have may be rowdy, but at least they are not trying to take over their yard by force. And the Mexicans celebrate that they have somewhere to go to get a better paying job.

Love us or hate us, we Americans are here to stay. So no matter what country you're in, kick back, have a beer, and stare in wonder as we make an ass of ourselves. We're Americans. It's what we do.

And please try to be a little gracious when we and our friends save your ass by kicking out the 2-bit tyrant you allowed to become your president.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!

On The Workbench This Week

2011-07-03T09:01:00.001-04:00

This is what I'm working on this week:

Painting My Nob Bikers

These guys have been built, but so far I only have one painted. Need to get cracking on them.

Building More Nob Bikers

Yeah, that's right, more are coming.

The Inquisitor's League Campaign Primer

Sing it and sing it loud! I am working on the second book in my Inquisitor's Campaign Primer series. This one is for leagues, those groups of players that meet once a week or month and play as a group. It focuses more on character development than individual win/loss records. Stay tuned for that.

Coal Region Gaming July Games Day

I am help Stavrous plan out the games day for Coal Region Gaming. This isn't just a "show up and play" group games day, this is a Basement Gaming style event. Yeah - you'll be reading more information on this in the upcoming weeks.

Nob Biker Painboy - DONE!

2011-07-01T19:00:00.001-04:00

Finally got to working on my first Nob Biker unit. Here is the Painboy. Gotta love an Ork that stabs you with a syringe as he is flying past you on a bike.

The Radical Inquisitor List

2011-06-30T07:40:00.000-04:00

Yeah, yeah, I know. The Grey Knights codex is a Space Marine codex. But don’t we already have enough of those?

My first army was from the Daemonhunters codex (may it rest in peace). I’ve fielded everything from Pure Grey Knights to the Radical Inquisitor. Before I switched to Guard I was playing Radical Inquisitor more than anything else, and up my last Apoc game, the Inquisitor, retinue, assassins, and Deamonhosts always made a showing.

I bought the Grey Knight codex in the hopes that a Radical Inquisitor list was still possible. At some point I’ll write a review on the codex itself (actually, I’’ voice my concerns – there are already enough reviews), but for now I want to discuss an alternative army build.

The one rule I have is that I do not want to field any Grey Knights. No terminators, strike squads, paladins, dreadnoughts, dreadknights, etc. Vehicles I am OK with, but I am trying to avoid Grey Knights.

The main reason for this is because I think it is fundamentally wrong for a Grey Knight to be aligned with a Radical Inquisitor. The Daemonhunters codex made it quite clear that if there are any Deamonhosts associated with the Inquisitor, Grey Knights will not share the field of battle.

This list does not have any Deamonhosts in it, but the concept is still the same in my eyes.

Here is the breakdown of an 1,850 Radical Inquisitor list:

Inquisitor Cortez

Ordo Xeno Inquisitor (Psychotroke Grenades, Power Armor, Power Sword, Hammerhand, Digital Weapon)

Henchmen (with Cortez) – 10 Death Cult Assassins

Henchmen (with Xeno Inq) – 10 Death Cult Assassins

Henchmen (shooty) – 2 Jokaero Weaponsmith, 8 Psykers, Rhino (Psybolt Ammo)

Land Raider Crusader, Psybolt Ammo, Multimelta

Callidus Assassin

Culexus Assassin

Vindicare Assassin

This is just a simplistic list. The beauty of this codex is that there are sooooo many options that I can switch out units just to play around.

Coteaz is needed so I can bring Henchmen as troop choices and I am not limited by the number of Henchmen choices I can bring. Actually, that is probably not entirely true. Henchmen are Troops, so I am probably limited to only six.

He’s a human with terminator armor and a bunch of cool rules, including Hammerhand which gives everyone in the unit +1 strength in assault. He forces my opponent to re-roll the seize the initiative roll or allows me to reroll mine. It also allow his unit to take an out-of-sequence shooting attack on anyone teleporting within 12” of him. The Sanctuary power allows me to force assaulting units to take dangerous terrain tests when assaulting him. His psyk-out grenades also reduce any deamon or psyker’s initiative to 1 during an assault. Pretty mean close combat dude.

The Xeno Inquisitor allows me bring psychotroke grenades, which are just too cool not to bring. The effects of these grenades are decided by a D6, but basically it makes an opposing unit nearly useless during close combat. The digital weapon bling allows reroll of a failed to wound in close combat. And again, Hammerhand to improve the strength.

Each inquisitor will be sporting a crusader with a multi-melta, psy-ammo (increasing strength) and 10 Death Cult Assassins. The Death Cult Assassins have a WS 5, S4, I6 and 2 attacks with power weapons. They also sport a 5+ invulnerable save. With the inquisitor’s Hammerhand, that means 30 S5 power weapon attacks on the assault out of the Raider. And that is before the inquisitor steps in. There isn’t much that has an initiative higher than 6.

The only thing I am reconsidering is the psy-ammo on the Raiders. If the hurricane bolters are S5, they are no longer defensive weapons and will not be able to unload every turn.

The two shooty henchmen squads consist of two Jokaero Weaponsmiths and 8 psykers in a Rhino. The Rhino will ignore shaken and stirred results after a psychic test and has two fire points. The Jokaeros allow for some special ability to the squad based on a D6 at the beginning of the game, such as improving the maximum range of non-template weapons, reinforced armor, etc. Bringing two ensures I get something good on that roll. They also get to shoot a lascannon, multi-melta, or heavy flamer.

The psykers will be throwing a S10, AP1 large blast assault 1 out of the top of the Rhino. That is pretty brutal.

But the key to this list is the assassins. They have all been muscled up in this codex with a 4+ invulnerable save and a modified FNP save (6+ instead of 4+).

The Callidus is simply a unit removal system. When she reveals herself, the unit she comes into gets D6 S4 AP2 hits. She has the mind-killing template weapon as a pistol, and she gets 4 base attacks with a power weapon that causes instant death regardless of her opponent’s toughness. There shouldn’t be anything left standing when she is done.

The Vindicare is the sniper that gets to pick his individual targets. Bye-bye HQ choices. He also gets to choose his ammo each round and it’s not limited to having only one type of round per game like it was before. As a nice example, the Hellfire round will wound on 2+. Seeing as the rifle’s profile is AP1 and his BS is 8, only 1’s will keep you alive.

The Culexus is the protector of the Rhinos. And this takes a little explaining...

The two LRCs and two Rhinos will line up like this: LRC RHINO RHINO LRC

Then I simply drive across the board. The Culexus walks between the Rhinos, putting him close to 16 psykers. This will give him 18 S5 AP1 attacks at 12". So go ahead, try to assault my Rhinos. You'll never get close enough. You ain't shooting him either because in order to target him you need to pass leadership on 3D6. And if you do, who cares? You just killed a non-scoring distraction unit. Congrats!

The whole idea is not to win by objectives. It is simply to table my opponent. Assaults are very decisive and make or break the game. If I lose an assault, then I might lose. If I lose two, I will definitely lose. But my units have higher initiative and all power weapons. They would go toe to toe with Beserkers. Heck, the little assassins can take out an entire mob of orks before they get a chance to hit back unless I roll a crap-load of ones. FNP? Useless. Armor saves? Useless.

At 2000 points I'd probably add another squad of Death Cult Assassins to run naked down the field behind the Rhinos. They'd make either a great distraction (meaning folks aren't shooting at my other units) or an awesome counter-punch unit.

With this list I wouldn't be afraid of hordes, ranged shooty, mech, or assaulty armies. I think the eldars would give me issues, though, because they are fast long range shooty. I don't think I could get close enough fast enough.

And, of course, Deamons may actually give me some issues because of their invulnerable saves. Ironic, isn't it? An inquisitor army that is prone to lose against Deamons. Go figure.

***This article is a repost from earlier this year. It seems that others are now starting to look into alternative builds from the Grey Knights codex and I wanted to join in the discussion.***

Da Red Finga - Blue Boyz

2011-06-28T19:00:00.001-04:00

Finally finished by blue mob. 30 boyz and a nob with a klaw.

Without Theme, It's Just Another Pick-Up Game

2011-06-26T20:00:00.002-04:00

This article is part of the Basement Gamers Cookbook series. Click here to view all available articles.

What separates a Basement Game from a pick-up game at a store or a club day is planning. Typically, you know who will be showing up for a Basement Game and you will set up the tables, prepare the food, get drinks, etc.

One aspect that is normally overlooked is the overall theme of the games that will be played. You are so glad to be getting some awesome games in that you forget to actually plan the games themselves. Sure, you specified how many points, you might have even specified a scenario or mission. But have you given the day an overall theme?

Consider this scenario: you and three fellow Basement Gamers decide to get together once a month in your basement for a game or two. The whole life-responsibility thing interferes with your gaming time and this is the only time you have where all four of you are together to play. You probably don't have time for two 2,000 point games because of wives, girlfriends, work, whatever.

How do you make this the ultimate Basement Gamers experience?

You have food, booze, tables, and terrain. Now consider what you are going to do and what you are going to play. You have six hours when everyone will be available and you know, due to the nature of Basement Gaming, a normal game will take longer (there's a lot of just hanging around shooting the breeze that occurs in a Basement Game).

Each month come up with a different theme. For example, one month can be Cities of Death. Choose two missions (White Dwarf just release a bunch of new missions) and set up your tables for some good ole' fashion city fighting. You have six hours and, if you were playing a tournament, that would be enough time to play two full games. But in a Basement Game things are bit more relaxed. So have a 1,000 point Alpha or Gamma level game and a 2,000 point Omega level game.

At the risk of sounding like the Martha Steward of Basement Gaming: planning is everything. If you plan as much as possible it makes the entire day go smoother, allowing you to socialize more.

I am not saying that every moment should be planned. Remember, rules are the background music - they should easily blend in with what you are doing. Just organize the games a bit before the day the games will occur.

If you have a Basement Game every week with a couple of players, then change your theme monthly or biweekly. One month have a "Jungle Fighting" theme and have all the tables with jungle terrain with the missions revolving around Annihilation games. The next month have a "Retrieve the Artifacts" theme and base the missions around Seize Ground objective.

You can define points and deployment before you gaming day. Do this increases the anticipation for the day as it allows everyone to plan for the upcoming mission they will be putting their army through. You can select who will be playing who beforehand or randomly select players on the day of the game.

The themes don't have to be complex or heavily involved (unless you want them to be). They can be standard missions, scenarios from the Battle Missions book, or even homemade missions.

You could even gear the food your are server to reflect the theme. If you are having a Jungle Fighting theme, you can serve Catachen Devil Gruel. For a Cities of Death game you can order pizza and Chinese food (hey, you're in a city!).

Pick-up games at a game store are random and unexpected. If you do not have a theme for your Basement Game, all you have done is moved the pick-up game scene into your basement. There is so much more you can do by providing the theme of the gaming day that will make the day more enjoyable.

What is the Northeastern Gamers Hub?

2011-06-24T20:00:00.000-04:00

Last year a new forum went online. Unlike most forums and websites that attempt to get as many people as possible to join, this forum was limited in its scope and reach.

That may sound counter-intuitive, but consider for a moment what this means. If you limit who can join the forum then the forum will contain a smaller, more concise, tight nit community.

The Northeastern Gamers Hub is a forum for only those players and groups that are physically located in the Northeastern United States, from Maine to North Carolina. Anybody can read the forums, but only those who reside in the Northeast can post and reply.

This means that members can actually meet each other at events or even set up games together. It also means that when we post events, they are events that are within a few hour's drive.

There are the typical sections you would expect to see in a forum: rules discussions for various games, battle reports, works in progress, completed works, etc. But the real power in the forums is the section for each gaming group, the events section, and the games setup section.

Each gaming group has a section for their communications in the forum if they request it. This is a great way for group members to discuss things concerning their group or just for general banter. If you are part of a gaming group and want your own section, click here.

The Events section lists all of the events that are occurring in the Northeast. Tournaments, painting competitions, huge games, etc. When you look at it all, the number of events for any given weekend is amazing. Did you know that on June 25th there are four tournaments at various locations? And not all of them are Warhammer 40k! You can actually plan your gaming schedule around the events calendar.

The Games Setup section is for any member to shout out "Hey! I'm available for a game!". It makes it easier to set up games with other members. We jokingly call this the "Nerd Dating Service" because you can set up a game with anyone. Having problems getting to the FLGS for a game? Set up a basement game with someone in the Games Setup section. Many FLGS do not have a specific night set aside for gaming. This section is useful to find out when other players will be available so you don't just show up and stare at the table.

The bigger forums are great and offer a wide range of opinions (which may be a good or bad thing). There is a need for the huge forums for the gaming community as a whole. The NGH, however, has a very different and very specific focus: to bring gamers in the Northeastern US together. It's about bringing individuals and groups together.

$1 Valkyrie Project - A Learning Experience

2011-06-22T19:00:00.001-04:00

The $1 Valkyrie Project had to end today. It seems that there are some states that regulate raffles and PayPal doesn't accept money for activities that involve an entry fee and a prize, such as raffles, drawings, or lotteries. Make me wonder about the other charity raffle that I won't name here in case PayPal is reading this post, too. Maybe if I labeled it as "Donate to Inquisitor Lord Aki's Marketing Curiosity Charity" PayPal wouldn't have had such a fit.

Congratulations to Lantz from Olathe, KS, for winning the Valkyrie! His blog is Twin-Linked Awesome and I suggest everyone go check it out. He is working on an AdMech army from the fandex.

The purpose of the project was to test some marketing concepts, and I did learn a lot.

1 - PayPal Sucks

Taking 33% of your money is just ridiculous. Something to remember for all you eBay sellers. PayPal also owns eBay, so they take a percentage off for the selling price of the item, they charge you for the listing, then they take money on the transaction itself. What a scam.

2 - Google AdWords Suck

You know those little ads on the right side of the page when you perform a Google search? According to the sales pitch, they are relatively cheap, like 20 to 30 cents per click.

Guess what, they are not cheap. It's more than 50 cents per click! They use some funky formula to determine the relevancy of the ad and charge you accordingly.

3 - Banner Exchanges Work

Librarium Online and CoolMiniOrNot have a good banner exchange program. If you want the banner to your site listed on many other sites, this is the way to go. It's a shame that many sites hide their banner exchanges on the bottom though.

4 - Use Your Signature

Use your forum signatures to advertise your site. You can even add a banner. Just don't make it too insane and, whatever you do, don't go around spamming the forum with stupid posts just to get your signature shown.

5 - Blog Lists are Where It's At!

If you have a blog, get on other people's blog lists. Especially Bell of Lost Souls and From the Warp. Ask other bloggers to include you on their list and include theirs on yours. Display your blog list in a visible location on your blog.

Every once in a while compile a list of awesome posts you have seen on other blogs and link back to them. Everyone appreciates a bit of free publicity and trust me, the other bloggers notice and will reciprocate the kindness.

6 - Content is Everything

You need to have content on your site to attract readers. Not just the "I painted something today" post, but something either really cool or really useful, like tutorials. Yes, you can still post the "I painted something today" posts, but try to have some good content on your blog every week.

I hope others can learn from my experiences. And remember, don't try to run a raffle and expect PayPal to let you accept payments through them.

The Basement Gamers Cookbook

2011-06-21T20:00:00.001-04:00

"The rules must try to represent as closely as possible the background and fit the models. After that they should ideally disappear in the background, like ambient music – it's still there and it improves the overall experience, but your brain almost does not register it's there at all. "

~Alessio Cavatore, author of Warhammer 40k, Fifth Edition

Introduction

Basement Gaming is not just location, it is a philosophy. It is not only a way of playing, it is the thought behind the game, each turn, every dice roll. But it is more than that. It is knowing the person standing across the table from you not only as an opponent, but also as a friend (even though you may have a strong desire to punch him from time to time).

It is also about the food and the drinks.

As with any philosophy it is not something that can be explained in a simple manner. It is not something that you can just read about and “get it”.

It is the nearly-forgotten art of table-top wargaming that this whole hobby was founded upon. Somewhere, at some time throughout the years, this art, this philosophy, was replaced with pick-up games, competitive playing, and tournaments. While all of these other aspects of the hobby bring a larger field of players into the fold, the more simple art of wargaming is overlooked and rarely discussed.

So now I need to give the disclaimer. Pick-up games, competitive playing, and tournaments are all important aspects of this hobby. They are all valid playing philosophies and I am in no way denigrating them. The blogs and forums are full of advice, suggestions, and ideas to discuss all of these philosophies.

It is the intention of this series of articles to discuss basement gaming and all that it involves. It is the intention of this series to bring this philosophy back to the forefront. For every competitive player there are two basement gamers. This is for those players who go to pick-up games hoping to find a fellow basement gamer.

Gaming Types

Rules are a gentlemen’s agreement. They are required for strangers or for competitions. When meeting someone for a random pick-up game the rules of the game is your first form of communication. Without them there would be two games occurring on the same table.

Competitive players understand that knowledge of the rules is the difference between winning and losing. Knowing not just the core rules but his opponent’s codex is the key to victory. Competitive players have an understanding of the rules that goes beyond the simple reading required for a pick-up game.

Tournament players are a subset of competitive players. They understand the rules but also understand the variances in location (the localized meta-game) and how judges think and react to situations.

Basement gamers are concerned with none of this. The rules, like Alessio Cavatore said, are like ambient background music.

What is Basement Gaming?

Basement gaming is, by its nature, very selective. A gaming club will attempt to attract all types of players. Basement gaming will exclude those who do not understand the nuances of the philosophy.

These are the games played between best friends, relatives, fathers and sons. These games normally involve food and some form of drink, even if it is just a bag of pretzels and beer. There is a level of trust between the players that is not present in other game types. This trust replaces the understanding that the rules would normally provide during a pick-up game.

Because of the level of trust required, some people simply are not suitable for basement gaming. This is not an insult to those players, it is a simple fact. Someone who plays a game with winning being the primary consideration is usually not equipped to appreciate the entire basement gaming philosophy. Conversely, those who only play basement games will probably not enjoy pick-up games and will abhor tournaments.

There will be future articles concerning this, but for now it is enough to simply consider that basement gamers do not consider winning as a priority to playing a game.

Basement gaming is usually played by older players, but this is more of a statement of resources than maturity. Basement gaming requires a table, terrain, and a large enough place to play without constant interruptions. Many younger players have enough difficulty purchasing and preparing their army. Preparing a table and terrain, then having a big enough place to play, is difficult for the younger crowd (but not impossible).

What is the Basement Gamers Cookbook?

The Basement Gamers Cookbook is a collection of articles that attempt to explain the Basement Gaming philosophy, advice for setting up and playing basement games, and, of course, recipes, since food is an important aspect of the full gaming experience.

All of the articles will be collected and linked on this blog. Hopefully, in time, others will post articles appropriate for the Basement Gamers Cookbook and there will be links to those, too. The greatest achievement would be to have multiple blogs and sites promote their own Basement Gamers Cookbook, each one with various links to articles, ideas, advices, and recipes.

Remember, the rules are a tool written to enhance the gaming experience. The Basement Gamers Cookbook is another tool to enhance that experience.

Three More To Go!

2011-06-19T19:12:00.000-04:00

Painting a horde takes a lot out of a person.

Only three more boyz to go and I'll be done with my second full 30 boy mob. I only have one more mob to go, but I think I'll work on my bikers first.

Biker Warboss Gog from Da Red Finga

2011-06-17T16:24:00.000-04:00

Gog is actually a title. The HQ units for Da Red Finga is Gog and Magog (if I field in the same game).

So this is my Biker Warboss, who leads a unit of six Nob Bikers. I'm not building a Nob Biker list, I'm building a list that happens to have Nob Bikers in it. Yes, I am playing the saves shenanigans game and having them all loaded out differently, but being multi-wound models, this trick is not as effective as one might think. There are a lot of rules concerning allocating wounds to multi-wound models that most people overlook.

This guys is a quick custom job from a War Trakk and AoBR Warboss. Cutting and twisting the hand was easy. Even green-stuffing the finger was pretty easy. I am a complete amateur at this stuff, but I enjoy the look so I don't think I'll even waste the time to attempt to get better.

I had to cut up the War Trakk a bit because the Warboss' feet were too big. Then I had to really modify the gun. It stuck up too far and got in the way of the boss.

Here are some more pics:

Berks Spring Assault II

2011-05-13T19:00:00.001-04:00

So here it is, the night before Berks Spring Assault II, the most awesome 1,000 point tournament in the east.

What makes this tournament so great is that it's a big party where you get to hang out with other ~~nerds~~ players and get four games of 40k played in a single day.

Last year I came in first place with my Imperial Guard army, the Hambali 501st Regiment - "The Jokers". This year I am mixing it up a bit and bringing Da Red Finga, my horde Ork army. Not only am I not fully painted, I barely have any experience! They are going to die in droves! Sheep to the slaughter! I won't even be able to get a boost for appearance (which helped me out last year).

But that is the great thing about the single day 1,000 point tournaments. It allows me to gain a whole bunch of experience in a single day.

I'm really looking forward to the beating I'm about to get and, as you know, I'll have a ton of pictures to post within the next couple of days.

Chuck Norris put the laughter in slaughter.

The Fall of Masuda - Round 1 Results

2011-05-11T19:00:00.002-04:00

The results for Round 1 of the Fall of Masuda campaign are in!

Four battles raged across the war-torn planet of Masuda. The Cadian 17th (Imperial Guard) defeated Berek's Great Company (Space Wolves). The Heartbreakers (Chaos Space Marines) defeated the Blood Axe Mercenaries (Orks). Da Red Finga (Orks) defeated the Star Dragon's 4th Company (Space Marines). And the Imperial Fists IV Company (Space Marines) defeated the Ivory Magi Brotherhood (Grey Knights).

Only one commander was killed, but the roll was "captured" - Grand Master Aethelred Metatron of the Ivory Magi Brotherhood. According to the campaign rules, when a commander is captured the controlling player needs to pay the capturing player the number of Resource Points equal to the number of Experience Points the commander has to get him back. Because the Grand Master didn't earn any experience points, the Imperial Fists threw him back.

My Big Mek - Gog of Da Red Finga, was extremely fortunate to gain FIVE experience points (he chased two units off the table). He now has a bonus of +1 to his WS!

Here are the results:

Bereks Great Company (Berek)
Territories: 14
Battle Result: LOSS
Resource Points: 58

Blood Axe Mercenaries (Boss Kapn Genral Sir)
Territories: 15
Battle Result: LOSS
Resource Points: 63

Cadian 17th Recon Strike Force (Steel Thunder)
Territories: 16
Battle Result: WIN - Captured 3.2
Resource Points: 70

Da Red Finga (Inquisitor Lord Aki)
Territories: 16
Battle Result: WIN - Captured 1.4
Resource Points: 60

Heart breakers (Apothecary)
Territories: 16
Battle Result: WIN - Captured 3.11
Resource Points: 56

Imperial Fists IV Company (High Farseer Aeviaan)
Territories: 16
Battle Result: WIN - Captured 2.4
Resource Points: 62

Ivory Magi Brotherhood (Nephilim)
Territories: 14
Battle Result: LOSS
Resource Points: 57
Commander's Death: 1 (Captured). Because the commander didn't have any experience points, he was returned.

Star Dragons 4th Company (Archer)
Territories: 15
Battle Result: LOSS
Resource Points: 64

Click here for the campaign rules. If you want to follow the campaign, then click here to go to the Northeast Gamers Hub forum.

When you open a can of whoopass, Chuck Norris jumps out.

What the Frak is this Blog About?

2011-05-06T19:00:00.001-04:00

People in the gaming community blog for different reasons. Some wish to just show off their models. Some do it because they are running their club’s “site”. Some have great content on their site contributed by multiple people. And it appears that some start blogs just to attack other blogs.

Nothing wrong with all those reasons.

For me, however, I run a blog because I am a selfish bastard.

I hate filtering through bookmarks. I hate having to go to many different places to see what I want. And I have a bad memory.

So when you look at my blog you will see little pictures and links of the sites I visit the most. You will see my 200+ bloglist on the left side. You will find a page where I put links to tutorials and tactics articles I found interesting. You’ll see the page for the Basement Gamer’s Cookbook, which has links to some of the most awesome articles I’ve read (or written) and some recipes. You will find the page for my awesome campaigns and campaign primers.

For me, my blog is my homepage. It’s where I go to get what I need. I may be a selfish bastard, but I am an organized selfish bastard.

But most importantly, you will see my opinions, missives, pictures of my junk, and, in general, my overall awesomeness in my posts. Hey, everyone needs to express themselves. That’s what the whole blogging thing is all about.

If you find this trash useful, great! Have at it. Use and abuse all you want. I don’t believe in copyrights, so if you see something that you like, stealing is appealing.

If you hate me and my awesome opinions, bring it! Comments are comments. More comments, more fun!

Helping the general hobby community as a whole isn’t my motivation. Oh, no, I am the ultimate organized selfish egotistical bastard!

IT’S ALL ABOUT ME!!!!

With that said, my projects for the upcoming months are:

1 – Get the Campaign Primer up and written. This is different than the Map-Based Campaign Primer in that it doesn’t require a map to play it. Calling it the “Non-mapped Based Campaign Primer” seems a little rough.

2 – Get the Pillars of Hatred and Crucible of Despair primers onto the campaign pages. These are two narrative campaigns that I created that have very different gaming focuses.

3 – Help with the Northeast Gamers Hub rollout. This is the most awesome forum ever – I’ll explain why next week.

4 – Get my 2,000 Ork list complete. Oh, yeah, there’s actually some hobby to this hobby.

5 – Get my basement gamers league started. Slowing building my wife’s tolerance to gamers swarming in the basement. This takes time.

Independent Characters and a Squad in an Assault

2011-05-04T19:00:00.003-04:00

Here is a question that comes up often and I’ve heard it argued both ways….

If you have an independent character attached to a squad and that squad is involved in an assault, do the wounds that the squad takes need to be spread to the independent character?

We already discussed how the IC gets into assault, but now let’s go over what happens when he’s there.

On page 49 is the description of ICs in an assault. Essentially, they are treated as a separate unit and the assault becomes a “multi-unit” assault at that time. This means that the IC can only beat up on those in base contact with him.

The first misconception I hear is that only those models in base-to-base contact with the IC can attack him. I can understand why people believe this. The IC must be in b2b, so the theory goes that anyone attacking him must be in b2b. But this isn’t true.

The IC must be in b2b contact with “the enemy to be able to attack” (pg 49). As long as he is touching a unit, he can attack it. The IC can then be targeted separately by “models that are engaged with them”. Who is engaged? Go back to page 45: all models in b2b and all models within 2” of those who are b2b.

The reason they specify that the IC must be in b2b is because an IC is a single-model unit. It doesn’t have anyone within 2” of him that is part of his unit in assault because he is a separate unit. Yeah, sounds like a circular argument.

So the IC needs to be in b2b, but the other unit that he is fighting needs to just be “engaged” in combat with him.

So, now that you’ve attacked the unit that the IC was attached to, how do you allocate wounds?

For example, let’s say a Space Marine Captain (an IC) was attached to a 10 man tactical squad. You caused 15 wounds on the tactical squad, but none on the Captain. How does the Space Marine player distribute the wounds?

Does the Captain and every member of the squad each get one wound and the four remaining wounds are distributed among the rest of the squad?

Does the Captain take no wounds and the squad has to distribute all 15 amongst themselves?

From the book (pg49 again): “Once all attacks have been resolved, these characters are once again treated as normal members of the unit they have joined (from determining assault results onwards).”

The only time you consider the Captain as part of the squad is AFTER the attacks have been resolved. But when it that? Before or after the saves? The key is what was added to the sentence in the parenthesis: “from determining assault results onwards”.

Go back to page 39 and read the paragraph headers: “Allocating wounds”, “Taking Saves”, “Removing Casualties”, “Determining Assault Results”, and “Check Morale”. THAT is what they are referring to.

Determining Assault Results is AFTER taking saves/removing the dead and BEFORE checking morale. This is actually what makes an IC different in a multi-assault than a full-blown second unit in a multi-assault.

In the example above, all 15 wounds would need to be spread around to the 10 man tactical squad.

So now let’s look at the No Retreat! rule (page 44). It states that a Fearless unit will suffer the number of unsaved wounds they lost a combat by (armor saves allowed). I have heard about a tactic where if a Fearless IC attached to a unit attacks you, then focus on the unit since you can cause more wounds on the unit than the IC and, if they lose, the IC himself will take the number that his side lost by.

This is simply untrue. Remember the order: Allocate Wounds, Take Saves, Remove Casualties, Determine Assault Results, Check Morale.

The Fearless IC is now back to being part of the squad when you are checking morale. He is not a separate unit anymore and so the wounds caused by the No Retreat rule will be spread around the squad as a whole, not the squad and IC separately.

Now, if a big single-unit fearless monster attacks you alongside a weaker unit and the big monster is NOT considered an Independent Character, then by all means, attack the smaller unit first. This will cause two things: a) you are more likely to win the assault because you caused more wounds and b) the big ugly fearless monster will need to suffer the number of wounds HIS SIDE lost by. But this is a situational tactic, mostly used against Nids. This is why it is important to start asking “Is that big ugly fearless bug an independent character attached to that squad or just a single-model unit?”

Everything in this game is done in steps and those steps have a very specific order. From moving to shooting to assaulting, everything must follow an order. IC’s break apart from the squad at one step, then re-enter at another. It’s important to remember these steps when looking at the exceptions to the rules and where they fit in.

"If you can see Chuck Norris, he can see you. If you can't see Chuck Norris you may be only seconds away from death."

Nothing Says Horde Army Like Banners!

2011-05-02T19:00:00.000-04:00

The only complaint that I have with the Ork codex is that banners are reserved for Nobz and the effect is that they increase the weapon skill.

When I think of a huge horde army, I think of the horizon filled with bodies and banners fluttering in the breeze. Those banners should motivate the mob that is looking at it.

So I decided to make banners for my mobs. I separate each 30 boy mob by the color of their pants, so the banner for each mob is painted accordingly. I am using these banners as bosspoles, which allow me to reroll a failed leadership test. The model for the banners do not serve any other game purpose.

The great thing about Orks is that no matter how terrible my paint job is, it still looks good. My orks are "dirty" and these banners also represent that. They are from the WFB range. I have a fourth one that is not painted yet - still waiting to put together my fourth mob of boyz.

"Chuck Norris counted to infinity... Twice."

Angelus Mortis Stomps Da Red Finga

2011-04-29T19:00:00.003-04:00

Yeah, it seems uneven. But it's only uneven in the model count, not their abilities.

OK, I have to admit, I never fully read through the Blood Angel codex. The reason is that I get so far along every time I try to read it through and all I see is "blah, blah, assaulty spess marinths, blah, blah, blah". Not very interesting to me.

I think my nephew, Drakur, knows this and decides to run things against me more to just mess with me than anything else. Through him I think I've seen just about every unit in that damn codex now. And then he's taken everything and has done something totally crazy with it just to show me how messed up the rules are.

1,000 points of Orky Goodness

So in our most recent game he decided to bring Mephiston and a Furioso Dreadnought with Blood Talons. It was a 1,000 point game. Dropping 250 points on a single model unit that ISN'T a Land Raider is just nuts. But he never fielded Mephiston before, so decided to take him for a spin.

Mephiston is a complete beast. It's best to think of him as a monstrous creature on a normal sized base. He has a power that can move him 12". He has a power that can increase is CC strength to 10. He has a 2+ armor save with 5 wounds. He can use three psychic powers per turn. When Mephiston jumps in water, he doesn't get wet, water gets Mephiston. Mephiston has counted to infinity, twice. Mephiston can divide by zero. Mephiston drinks napalm to quell his heartburn. Mephiston uses tabasco sauce as Visine. Mephiston knows the past digit of pi. When Mephiston.... well, you get the idea. He's a beast in the game.

However, when surrounded by a Big Mek and two full squad of boyz, he does die in a single round of combat. He killed my Mek six times over, but the two nobs beating on him with power klaws took him down.

Do you see Mephiston in this mess? Exactly.

The Blood Talons are just a cruel joke. Lightning claws on a Dreadnought that provide an additional attack for every unsaved wound. So the only time this thing stops killing is when it rolls a 1 to hit or a 1 to wound. Throw him up against a horde with no invulnerable saves and he will completely move through it.

I promised Drakur at the beginning of the game and at the end of the game that he will never use his Blood Talons against my boyz. He can field it every game, but I'll never allow it to live through a round of shooting. When the dreadnought arrived my Deffkoptas flew behind it and blew it up. Yes, I lost the Deffkoptas, but I can allow a single 125 point unit take out an entire mob.

The irony is that the explosion from the dreadnought almost did take out the entire mob. I moved my mob closer to prepare for the assault (there was no running from it), but the Deffkopta took it out in the shooting phase. The 6" explosion touched everyone! Then, when the redeemer rolled up the next turn, the remaining boyz were nicely packed together for the flame template.

There use to be a Furioso Dreadnought in there.

The fun was trying to take out the Redeemer. It was the first time I have attempted to take out a Land Raider with a power klaw. Wasn't table to do it. Granted, rolling three 1's and a 2 to hit didn't help at all. But it really reinforced the idea in my mind that Orks suck against AV14 vehicles. But then again, what doesn't? The only thing that has any consistency is melta.

Attack the Land Raider!!

This time, attack the Land Raider and do something to it!

It moved less than 6" - all I need is a 4+ to hit!!!!

All I needed was 20 more attempts and I KNOW I could have done something to that LR.

In the end he won. I had one Nob and a boy left, he had an immobilized shooty dreadnought, a drop pod, a scout squad, and the Redeemer remaining. It was a great and brutal game.

The end of the battle.

I don't like terms such as "broken codex", but I understand why everyone is crying over the Blood Angels. Each marine codex is geared towards a specific way of doing things. Blood Angels are the fast assault marines and they do fast assault very good. If you fight them like you would vanilla marines, they will hurt you. So yes, it is JAMC (just another marine codex), but it is a completely different play style. You need to adjust your tactics accordingly or they will kill you and you will cry "broken codex".

Oh the Shame! Oh the Disgrace!

2011-04-27T19:00:00.002-04:00

For a short time I became a purist. Please forgive me.

I had made the decision to not play a unit until I had it completely painted. Then, like an idiot, I decided to work on my Ork horde army.

The two thoughts didn't mix very well.

So now I'm back to my "Paint to Play" method that I used with my Guard army: get the basic colors on the models first so I can play with them, then go back and finish each model at a later date.

What makes this worse is that I will be participating the in the Berks Spring Assault II tournament in a couple of weeks and there is no way I'll have everything completely done by then. Oh, the shame! I have to play with a crappily painted army in a tournament!

"Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried."

The Star Dragons get Da Red Finga

2011-04-23T20:36:00.001-04:00

Nothing says horde like banners!

Round 1 of the Fall of Masuda Campaign saw Da Red Finga facing off against Archer’s Star Dragons 4th Company. The Big Mek Gog fought against Commander Marcus. I successfully rolled as the attacker and since I was attacking a Ruins territory, that meant the Blitzkrieg mission.

Blitzkrieg deployment is table quarters with an objective in the center of the board and an objective in the center of the unoccupied quarters. Only Fast units can deploy and EVERY other unit comes in as reserves. If the player decides that their Fast units come in as reserve, then they can make their first reserve roll on turn one.

Truthfully, I was concerned about this mission. I like deploying my boyz as far forward as possible and running across the board. Coming in as reserve didn’t sound appealing to me.

Archer didn’t have any Fast units, so he had nothing to deploy. I had my two units of Deffkoptas and chose to hold them in reserve in case all went bad. I thought I can jump them in and contest an objective if required.

As it turned out, the Marines of the Star Dragons showed up late and left early for the battle.

The Battle Missions book has a reverse “steal the initiative” roll. As I was the attacker, I got to go first. But instead of Archer rolling to Seize the Initiative, I had to roll. On a 1 he got to go first.

And I rolled a 1.

Didn’t really matter much since nothing was deployed. I rolled to bring my Deffkoptas in, but both failed. So turn one was over in less than 30 seconds.

On turn two he successfully brought a Whirlwind, a Thunder Cannon, and a squad of scouts on the board and planted them in a large building close to the table edge in his deployment zone. Nothing to shoot at, so he ran around to get into a better firing position. Another squad of scouts outflanked and ran towards and objective sitting in the ruins of a tank.

The table. Carrying tray optional.

I never played against a Thunder Cannon before. I don’t think I've ever seen anyone play it before. But now since I've read the rules I learned a couple of things that we missed. First, an artillery unit cannot run. Second, it takes a dangerous terrain test when moving through difficult terrain.

What I didn’t need a rulebook to tell me, however, is that Thunder Cannons are extremely painful to Orks. If I had known that, my next move would have been very different.

Who says Orks can't shoot?

My blue mob, grey mob, tan mob, and the unit of three Deffkoptas arrived on my first turn. Life couldn’t have been better for me. I outflanked the Deffkoptas and they arrive right behind his Whirlwind. The twin-linked rokkit launchas rolled three 6’s, then another 6 for an explosion.

Whirlwind? What Whirlwind?

Seeing as it was turn two, I called the WAAAGH! hoping that I was within range of the scouts on the objective. But a combination of not running enough and not making a good difficult terrain test ensured they were out of range. A wasted WAAAGH. What a shame.

On turn three he shot his shotgun scouts into my mob, but they got a cover saves because more than half the squad was wedged between the table edge and a piece of terrain (I purposely avoided getting into the terrain so it didn’t slow me down).

The Blue Mob avoids that pesky area terrain. DON'T SLOW ME DOWN!!!!!

Then the Thunder Cannon fired its air bursts. For the love of everything holy that was painful. Took out 15 or 17 Orks. I was now regretting that I took out the Whirlwind and not the Cannon.

Note to Aki – read through ALL the frakkin codexes and look for the painful items. You know, the crap that ignores cover saves.

His commander walked onto the board and assaulted the three Deffkoptas that took a wound from the scouts in the building. The scouts and the commander made short work of the Deffkoptas.

The two tactical squads with Razorbacks decided not to come in.

My other group of two Deffkoptas outflanked on the wrong side of the board, but flew in far enough to get within range of the Thunder Cannon. They compensated for the three 6’s from the other Deffkoptas by totally missing – even though they are twin-linked.

My blue mob shot at and assaulted the scouts on the objective, forcing the sole survivor to run for the table edge. My tan mob ran around the building towards an objective and the grey mob ran towards the center objective.

Hey look, he DID bring tactical squads! Better late then never!

On turn four the two tactical squads finally decided to arrive. The Thunder Cannon fired into the tan mob, but didn’t remove as many Orks as Archer was hoping for. The mob assaulted the tactical squad and the Razorback. The Razorback was immobilized and shaken. The tactical squad lost six in the assault and fell back. The mob rolled a five on the consolidation and managed to spread itself from the objective marker to within 2” of the tactical squad, forcing them to run off the board during the following turn.

The blue mob with the Big Mek moved off their objective and multi-assaulted the lone scout and the newly arrived tactical squad. They lost the assault by one and fled. Somehow, the scout survived and fell back. In my consolidation I spread out again, not just because of my utter fear of the Thunder Cannon, but also to ensure the Marines couldn’t regroup. They ran off the table, too.

Orks learn quick. SPREAD OUT to avoid the Thunder Cannon pain!

On turn five, the Razorback near the blue squad fired its twin-linked heavy flamer, but could only reach a single Ork. The Thunder Cannon shot into the grey squad in the middle of the table, but scattered all over the place an only took out a couple of Orks.

I LOVE the multi-assault!

At that point we called the game. My move would have been to jump onto the middle objective and the blue mob would have run back to their objective after the Mek detached and destroyed the Razorback that was too close to him. We rolled to make sure and the game would have ended on turn five, giving me all three objectives.

The end scene.

Archer put up a good fight, but his dice were against him. Actually, I think it was because Boss Kap’n Genral was there for most of the game. He’s my good luck charm and the bane of Archer’s dice.

For the campaign, I was able to gain a territory that puts me in a tactically interesting place and Gog gained five Experience Points and allowed him to roll on the Advancement Chart. This gave him a +1 to his WS, so now the Mek has a WS of 5!

I learned more about my Orks and, in particular, my own play-style with them. Deffkoptas rock. Sure, they died, but they soaked up a lot of fire before falling. Taking out the Whirlwind was an awesome bonus. They were trying to impress me.

I didn’t get a chance to use my bosspoles or my Kustom Force Field. Archer geared his list toward me (which I love as it is totally in line with the campaign) and brought a lot of anti-cover save weapons. My boyz held up surprisingly well. Of course, better dice rolls from Archer could have easily turned that into a disaster for me.

And I learned that the Blitzkrieg mission is FREAKIN’ AWESOME!

Rivers: Quick, Cheap, and Easy

2011-04-22T19:00:00.000-04:00

One thing I see missing on our gaming tables is water. It seems that in the grim future of the 41st millennium, every planet is dry.

My theory for this is that there is no glory in making rivers. Buildings are cool to build and paint. Defense walls, bastions, command bunkers, ruins, manufactorums, and basilicas all can be challenging to build and paint and bring a lot of life to the battlefield.

Rivers, however, are just boring.

The campaign primer I put together requires that the terrain used in the battle is a product of which territories the players are fighting over. Some of those territories are rivers and swamps, which require water obstacles. So I decided to make some rivers.

This is probably the easiest piece of terrain you will ever make.

You will need some 12”x12” vinyl flooring tiles. They sell for less than a dollar each at your local home improvement store. Try to get tiles that have some texture, but no defined shapes.

You will also need some cheap blue paint. I use Folk Art, which sells for less than a dollar. Then get some flat disposable sponge brushes.

If your tiles are not a light tan or white color, then you will want to spray paint them with white primer.

Once you have everything together, put a mark on one side of the tile 4” from the edges. Then do the same on the opposite side. You’ll see why in a moment.

Using scissors, start cutting the tile in a random wavy line. Make sure you end your cut at the mark at the opposite end of the tile. When you are done you will have three pieces.

Now start cutting the two straight end pieces in a wavy line. Make sure that the narrow end of the pieces are 4”.

By this time you have three squiggly tile pieces. Each end of the pieces are 4”. This is so when you line them up end to end you won’t see your “river” come to an abrupt end as it narrows.

Squeeze a line of the blue paint onto your river and paint it with the sponge brush. Spread the paint around until it is thinned out. Yes, you will have brush strokes, and that is a good thing. Your last strokes should start at one end and drag it completely to the other end following the contour of the tiles. This will make it look like running water when you are done.

Let it dry and you’re done!

The more adventurous may want to do other things, such as add dirt to the river banks, maybe a dead body floating face-down, whatever. For those of us who just want some water on our tables, this is the quickest, easiest, and cheapest way to do it.

Tutorials: Trees Edition

2011-04-18T18:40:00.000-04:00

We see a lot of buildings and wrecks on our gaming tables, but we don't see a lot of trees. Here are some tutorials for tree making.

Quick and Easy Hedgerows from Shogun_Nate on Heresy-Online

Root Trees from The Painting Corps on Heresy-Online

Trees on the Cheap from 40k Origins on Heresy-Online

Fallen Tree Scenery from Megaminis

Making Heavy Foliage from Col Corbane

Tree Making from Warp Stone Flux

The Fall of Masuda Campaign

2011-04-16T19:00:00.002-04:00

Today I kicked off the Fall of Masuda campaign. This is the first campaign based on the Inquisitor's Map Based Campaign Primer that I wrote a couple of weeks ago.

The campaign has eight players and we are using the Berks Gaming Club forum to run it. For anyone who wants to follow the progress or see how I am organizing each round, click here.

Because all eight of us couldn't meet at the same time, I had to randomly select territories for each player. The campaign rules describe how I did this.

I purchased Hexographer to use for this campaign. I could have probably used the free version, but since I'll be using it to update the map throughout the entire campaign I decided to throw the developer some money. It is a great product and allowed me to do a lot of different things to customize the map. I could have made custom icons for the different building types but decided to use what was available until I get more comfortable with the tool.

I developed a step-by-step procedure with how I would assign territories. First, I didn't assign any names or players, all I did was make a list of Player 1 through Player 8 and assigned each one a color. Then I used the RANDOM function in Excel to assign each player a starting position.

After I colored the starting territory for each player, I chose the next territory by selecting the first hex to the north of the starting point, then moved around the starting point in a clockwise motion. I did this one player at a time and it took me a couple of hours to complete it. If the territory was already taken by another player, I moved to the next available territory using the same logic.

The results were awesome, especially for the two players that had their starting locations close to each other in the upper right corner of the map.

After each player was provided with 15 territories, I then wrote each army name on a piece of paper and literally pull them from a hat. The Heartbreakers was the first army I pulled, so they were assigned as Player 1. Berek's Great Company was the second, so they got the Player 2 slot. And so on and so forth.

It was great to watch the map come together and I can see all types of strategic opportunities for my Orks - Da Red Finga . Steel Thunder's Cadian 17th (the blue on the map below) is beset on all sides by enemies. That could be good or bad. The Imperial Fists and Star Dragons are all over each other in the northeast. Berek's Great Company in the northwest is a bit separated, but that provides him a great opportunity to pick up some unoccupied territories.

Here is what the map looks like for the first round:

I'll keep posting updates during and after each round so everyone can follow how this war unfolds.

Heroes of Armageddon Collaborative Army

2011-04-15T19:00:00.002-04:00

Dave Taylor, Jawaballs, Man Boy Genius and Goatboy are doing it again this year. The folks that brought you The Storm Wardens Collaborative Army last year that raised more than $16,000 for Doctors Without Borders have launched The Heroes of Armageddon Collaborative Army.

And this year, there are FOUR armies: Steel Legion, Blood Angels, Ork Hordes and Speed Freaks.

Dude, you can win an army for a dollar. How cool is that? And seriously, this is something you should be donating to. In case you haven't noticed, this planet is falling apart and Doctors Without Borders is all over the place helping people.

Click here for more details and to donate.

The Last of the Metal Minis

2011-04-14T19:00:00.002-04:00

A few days ago I posted that the rumors about Games Workshop discontinuing all their metal models is true. Try to order one from a GW supplier and, if they don't have what you are looking for in stock, you're out of luck.

Well, it looks like GW is hording their supplies and only selling the last of the metal models directly. So the only way to get your metal fix is to go straight to GW. Looks like they are going to squeeze every cent out of those babies.

The good news is that my Big Mek Shokk Attack Gun is on its way!

Disappointed with the Grey Knights

2011-04-13T19:00:00.000-04:00

Uh-oh. I can see the flaming arrows flying my way just from people reading the title.

As a caveat, let me start by saying that the new Grey Knight codex is a good codex. The fluff is there. The list mechanics are good. It doesn't look over-powered, despite what people may be crying about on the webz. It offers more options than any other codex I can think of.

So, why am I disappointed? Because I was hoping for something that was actually different.

Games Workshop started this codex with one idea in mind: to make another Space Marine codex. It is almost as if they wanted to make a new chapter but then remembered that the Daemonhunters codex was so far out of date that they would either need to completely kill it or update it.

So they did a little of both. They killed the Daemonhunters and updated aspects of it, then slammed that work into the New Space Marine Codex.

I understand the decision. Space Marines sell. Period. And GW wants to make money. So make the next best Space Marine, add some crap from an older codex into it, and you (theoretically) get twice the return.

The problem is that it is still J.A.S.M.C. (Just Another Space Marine Codex). In fact, they should have just started a new chapter named JASM.

Granted, as far as Space Marines go, they did mix it up again. The concept in the design was to reverse the current Marine paradigm on its head. Use Terminators for troops and Power Armor as Elites and Fast choices. I'll admit, that is cool.

But where do you go from there?

If Terminators are troops and you are still in the whole "Space Marines" mindset, then what are really heavy elite choices? Their answer: Terminators with two wounds (aka: Paladins).

If Terminators are troops and you are still in the whole "Space Marines" mindset, then what are the heavily armored, heavy-weapon toting Heavy choices? Their answer: a monstrous creature (aka: Dreadknight).

As a side note, by adding a Monstrous Creature to a Space Marine codex they are actually taking away from the other codexes that have Monstrous Creatures. Just my opinion.

They started out with a good and original idea, then stumbled over their own hangups and tried to go back to the original Space Marines analogies. If x is this, then y should be this.

Cool models. Nice rules. But nothing really original. Just adding on to the add-ons of a Space Marine chapter.

Everyone being a psyker is cool and makes sense. But they missed on making this army an actually anti-Deamon army. Most notably the nerfing of the Psycannon. The original Psycannon didn't allow for Invulnerable saves. These were hugely expensive weapons that made Deamon players actually stop and reconsider what it was they were about to get themselves into.

The current Psycannon is now just another variation of an autocannon. Nothing special there. Just a tweak to some rules that already exist. The Psilencer comes closer to something unique with a rule specific to Deamons (always wounding on a 4+), but it is, again, just a little rule tweak.

So they started with a Space Marine codex and just changed some rules and gave the weapons a “Deamon-something” name, but it’s still just another Marine codex.

My biggest disappointment isn’t with the codex per se, but with what people will do with it.

There is a trend for players, specifically the young’ins, to jump on the latest Marine codex because it is perceived to be more powerful than the last Marine codex. GW sort of promotes this trend by publishing a new Marine codex every six months. The most blatant example of this occurred at Adepticon where 38 out of the 40 “count-as” requests were for people wanting to play the Space Wolves codex with their formerly standard Codex Marines.

The problem with this codex is that there are a lot of tricks, more than any other Marine codex. I can see many young players jumping on the bandwagon and reading the first and last sentence of the rules paragraph for whatever they are purchasing and misinterpreting the rules. What this means is that EVERYBODY needs to read this codex carefully so when they are playing against GK players they are not blown off the table due to rules being played wrong.

Another issue you will face is simple list/points issues. Grey Knights, when fitted out with the really cool weapons, are expensive. So if you find yourself looking at a horde of terminators at the 1,500 point level, then you will need to sit down with your opponent and start counting points and show him where he screwed up.

I’m not saying this is a bum codex. As for Space Marines codexes go, this one is the nicest. But it’s just a beefed up version of the rules for Space Marines.

There are two notable exceptions: the grenades and the Brotherhood Champion.

There are two pages of different grenades that can be purchased that have totally different effects on your enemies. This is a really cool and unique addition that I am glad they added. My only question is why aren’t all types of grenades available to the Inquisitors? Are you going to tell an inquisitor “Sorry, sir, but you can’t take that grenade”?

The Brotherhood Champion allows the player to choose his “battle stance” during close combat. Each stance gives him different abilities, such as making a quick hits against everyone in base contact or defend himself against oncoming attacks. Talk about “getting into” the action! I can see this idea being expanded upon in future codexes with additional stances becoming available to champions.

Now, for the inquisitor aspects of the codex….

GW threw inquisitors and henchmen into the codex as an afterthought. This is first and foremost a Marine codex, but they needed to do something with the inquisitorial aspects of the now dead Deamonhunter codex to avoid the torch and pitchfork crowd. So they added the inquisitors.

An Inquisitor list is what I call a “trick” army. They are difficult to play and play against. And rightfully so. Basically you are taking a relatively weak unit and making it completely deadly by adding some funky rules.

I only wished they had separated it into a completely different codex. They could have had a blast with that and there is enough material for it when you include options for Space Marine and Imperial Guard units to be added as troops. A separate Inquisition codex would have allowed players with existing armies to use those models to put together a very funky force.

But how it stands now, it is just an add-on to a Marine codex, almost as if it was an after-thought. They could have done so much more with the Inquisition side of the book, but just took the easy way out.

I know that some folks are going to vehemently hate my opinions on this. But please understand that I do like the codex, I was just expecting more - something better, something unqiue. My main concern is with codex abuse by army jumpers.

Let me know what you think.

THE RUMORS ARE TRUE!!!!

2011-04-12T19:00:00.002-04:00

Last week I saw the rumors flying around concerning Games Workshop discontinuing metal models. So I hurried up and ordered my Big Mek with Shokk Attack Gun. This is one of the coolest minis I've seen. You cannot be a serious Ork player who doesn't take the game seriously and NOT have one of these.

I got an email from CCG Armory letting me know that the model has been "temporarily discontinued'.

BAAAAAAHHHHHHGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!

I'm sure the plastic one will be nice. WHENEVER THEY RELEASE IT!

At the risk of sounding like the rich girl from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: I WANT IT NOW!

So I cruised over to the GW site to look at the full range to see what I need to get to kitbash a Shokk Attack Gun together and Lo-and-behold, there is the Big Mek with Shokk Attack gun, ready to order at full price from the Gods of Plastic and Metals themselves.

I ordered one. Probably the first time I've ever paid full price for a mini before. I'll let everyone know if it gets cancelled or if GW is hording a stash just so they can sell them exclusively.

Stimm-Pack Recipe

2011-04-11T19:00:00.000-04:00

Stimm-Pack. Chocolate Peanut Butter Crack. Double Peanut Butter Brownies.

This recipe has many different names. It is a standing requirement for all of my basement games. There is no dessert quite like it.

What you need:

1 cup Reese's creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1 pkg peanut butter chip brownie mix (or regular brownie mix with peanut butter chips added)

How to make it:

Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Grease bottom of 13"x9" pain. Stir together peanut butter, sugar, and egg; press in pan. Make brownie mix as directed; spread over peanut butter mixture. Back for 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted 2 inches from side of pan comes out clean. Let cool then cut, hide half for after your gaming buddies leave, and serve the rest.

Shout-Out to Unseen Lerker

2011-04-10T19:00:00.000-04:00

While I was spamming the forums with information about the upcoming Berks Spring Assault II, I found a response to one of my posts from someone who cryptically said that they have recorded the tournament in Unseen Lerker. So I clicked on the link and found out what the hell Unseen Lerker actual was.

It is a site that not only lists every tournament of every table-top gaming style, it also allows you to filter the list by game type, country, state, date, etc.

You would be absolutely amazed by the number of tournaments that are occurring within your area or, at least, within a couple hours of you.

My hat's off to the folks at Unseen Lerker for the work they do. I've added a link to their site in my link bar at the top of the page.

The Radical Inquisitor List

2011-04-09T15:14:00.000-04:00

Yeah, yeah, I know. The Grey Knights codex is a Space Marine codex. But don’t we already have enough of those?

This list does not have any Deamonhosts in it, but the concept is still the same in my eyes.

Here is the breakdown of an 1,850 Radical Inquisitor list:

Inquisitor Cortez

Ordo Xeno Inquisitor (Psychotroke Grenades, Power Armor, Power Sword, Hammerhand, Digital Weapon)

Henchmen (with Cortez) – 10 Death Cult Assassins

Henchmen (with Xeno Inq) – 10 Death Cult Assassins

Henchmen (shooty) – 2 Jokaero Weaponsmith, 8 Psykers, Rhino (Psybolt Ammo)

Land Raider Crusader, Psybolt Ammo, Multimelta

Callidus Assassin

Culexus Assassin

Vindicare Assassin

This is just a simplistic list. The beauty of this codex is that there are sooooo many options that I can switch out units just to play around.

The only thing I am reconsidering is the psy-ammo on the Raiders. If the hurricane bolters are S5, they are no longer defensive weapons and will not be able to unload every turn.

The psykers will be throwing a S10, AP1 large blast assault 1 out of the top of the Rhino. That is pretty brutal.

But the key to this list is the assassins. They have all been muscled up in this codex with a 4+ invulnerable save and a modified FNP save (6+ instead of 4+).

The Culexus is the protector of the Rhinos. And this takes a little explaining...

The two LRCs and two Rhinos will line up like this: LRC RHINO RHINO LRC

And, of course, Deamons may actually give me some issues because of their invulnerable saves. Ironic, isn't it? An inquisitor army that is prone to lose against Deamons. Go figure.

Blood Axe Mercs Get Da Red Finga!

2011-04-07T20:00:00.006-04:00

That is 1,000 points of Orks

I got the chance to play Da Red Finga against Boss Kap'n Genral's Blood Axe Mercs. This was a 1,000 point throw-down to see which build was better: shooty Orks or Assaulty Orks.

It was also the first time I actually fielded that many Orks.

Da Red Finga is an assaulty mob. This is what I had:

Gog the Mek with Power Klaw, Shoota/Skorcha, and 'eavy armor

Two mobs of 30 boyz with, each with a Nob toting a Klaw and bosspole

One mob of 25 boyz with a Nob toting a Klaw and bosspole

One squad of 5 Deffkoptas with their twin-linked big shootas and buzzsaws.

91 models at 1,000 points. Not bad.

Boss Kap'n brought a looted wagon, 20 boyz with shoots and some rokkits, a Deff Dread with some assorted weapons, 19 grots surrounding a Mek with a Shokk Attack Gun, and a Warboss in a trukk surrounded by six Nobz, each one decked out differently, one being the FNP giving Doc.

Boss Kap'n Deployment

Since it was the classic showdown of which army build is better, we decided Annihilation was the only game to play. We rolled for Pitched Battle deployment and Boss Kap'n won the roll for first turn.

I knew he was going to shoot the snot out of me, so I decided to make a shield out of the smaller mob and just run into the oncoming fire. I didn't have enough points to bring the Kustom Force Field, so I lacked the 5+ cover save it would have provided. He left me with the side of the board that was lacking terrain, so it the smaller mob had to die. They weren't painted anyway.

My deployment: line the up to die!

After deployment, I made my scout move with the Deffkoptas, moving them just over 18" to get the 3+ save and just outside of 12" of the Deffdread. Then I rolled to seize the initiative... AND GOT IT!

STOLE THE INITIATIVE!

So turn one was a lot of running, then the Deffkoptas assaulted the dread. That's when I realized that the really expensive buzzsaw only gives them S7. I thought the koptas had a base of S4, but they do not. So the saw only gets them to S6, then the Furious Charge brings them to S7. Oh, they did the job and killed the dread, making it explode and the blast took a wound off one of them. But now I'm thinking that the 25 point buzzsaw maybe ain't as cool as the 10 point twin-linked rokkit launcher. Also, having multiple units of koptas, even if it is only one kopta, is better than five. They are the ultimate harassment unit and will absolutely draw some attention away from the mobz.

To kill a deffdread...

And that is what Boss Kap'n did. He shot up the deffkoptas, seeing as they were now in his backfield and were going to cause some issues for him. He took down two and wounded one. Then the Boomgun and Shokk Attack Gun, with their huge templates, took out a lot of boyz. It's one thing to here an Ork player say "I hate templates", it's another to actually feel it.

I ran some more and shot up the looted wagon with the koptas and managed to stun it.

His boyz took out the remaining Deffkoptas with some heavy firing. Then someone hit the wrong button in the Looted Wagon and it shot forward 12" towards my boyz. He rolled a 1 and invoked the Don't Press Dat rule, giving my boyz a tasty treat.

Don't Press Dat!!!!

Boss Kap'ns Nobz also arrived on turn two. The trukk drove right up and the Nobz unloaded. It was hard to determine if Nobz were within assault range, so he called the Waaagh! He expertly rolled another 1, but that was all that was needed to get into range to assault my boyz. That was a brutal mess. In the end, after losing the assault by a difference of 11 wounds and being Fearless (forcing me to take 11 more wounds), only three boyz and a nob stood.

I called my Waaagh! and double assaulted the Looted Wagon and the Mek in the woods with the grots.

WAAAGH!!!

What happened after that was a huge mess of assaults. The next two turns was nothing but multiple assault shenanigans. After killing the rest of my Grey Mob, Boss' Nobz jumped into the fray and assaulted a squad that was wedged between the Looted Wagon (which was being beaten to a pulp but didn't explode) and another squad. I kept removing casualties from the front so his Nobz at a lower initiative no longer had a target. That tied them up for a round. I couldn't consolidate all of the boyz into the assault because of how they were wedged in there, so I kept feeding him two Orks at a time.

A huge mess of close combat fun!

Yes, the different load on the Nobs helps when making saves, but it makes them all different initiatives, which allowed me to remove models before the next Nob got a chance to swing. We can both play shenanigans, my friend. And we both were loving it.

Another round of close combat fun!

There are a lot of mechanics to the assault rules - and we exercised each one of them. We both had lucky rolls. We both had unlucky rolls. But in the end, my boyz somehow prevailed. It was the most brutal, longest lasting close combat beating I've ever witnessed.

At turn five the only thing I had left on the board was eight boyz, one nob, and my big mek. There was one Nob that was running off the board as slowly as he could, but he was ignored. Boss Kap'n only had his trukk left.

But it was still turn five - and the game wasn't over.

The trukk had a big shoota and my boyz were whittled down to the point where some good shooting could have made them run. So I separated the Mek from the mob and ran into cover. Yeah, not very Orky. Let's just say that they didn't care about the trukk and were just walking away.

The trukk took out one boy, but it wasn't enough to force a morale check. We rolled and the game went on to turn 6.

The trukk positioned itself to ram me, but stayed far enough away that I couldn't assault (I was in cover, and getting out would have cost me). He shot and missed.

We rolled and the game went on to turn seven.

That is when I remembered that those funky things my boyz were holding were guns. I moved the Mek up to the edge of the cover and shot, but he missed. Two boyz were within range with their Sluggas, but they missed, too.

That's when I noticed the Nob that was still running off the board. He was only a few inches within the table edge, but within 12" of the trukk. He rolled a 5 to hit, a 6 to glance, and then a 5, immobilizing the trukk in his last act of defiance.

That is all that was left!

Boss Kap'n stood in disbelief. In fact, so did I.

The trukk took another couple of shots at my boyz and actually hit two, but they went to ground (ducked) and made their 3+ cover save, denying him any consolation.

In the end, I had killed 980 points and he killed 820 points. Using kill points (if anyone still uses those), it was 6-3.

The question was finally answered: which Ork build is better? Neither. They are both equally brutal. You simply cannot kill that much on the board and say one was better than the other. A couple of dice rolls going the other way and the game would have turned out differently. That was how close it was. There was no point in the game where anyone could have determined who the winner would be.

That was an awesome game and I can't thank Boss Kap'n enough for playing against me. Yes, for this round the Blood Axe Mercs got Da Red Finga thrown in their face and this is definitely the beginning of a huge rivalry. A rematch WILL be played.

Map-Based Campaign Primer

2011-04-06T09:31:00.001-04:00

Anyone who has ever attempted to run a campaign realizes that it is no easy task. There are a lot of decisions to be made: map-based or not, narrative, specialized or standard missions, rules, etc. It is quite a daunting task.

There are a lot of resources to help create a campaign, but even with those resources there is a lot of work that needs to be done. After the campaign is written, you need to then determine if there are any imbalances or loop-holes that can be exploited. Unfortunately, this usually occurs during the campaign and leads some players feeling like they were cheated.

I think this is the reason why you do not see more campaigns being run. It is unfortunate because there are so many rewards to running a campaign.

If you have found campaigns on the internet you have discovered that many of them are very specific for certain armies or even individual players. This is because those who have delved into the world of campaign-creation have done so for their specific group and they wrote the campaign accordingly. You can use these campaigns, but you need to black-out certain aspects or names to make the campaign applicable for your purposes.

The Inquisitor's Map-Based Campaign Primer was written for those who want to run a campaign but do not want to spend all of the time necessary to determine the rules, scenarios, etc. The Campaign Primer is a generic campaign generator that anybody can use to create a campaign for two or more people.

As far as campaigns go, map-based campaigns normally require the most work from the Campaign Coordinator to execute. On the other end of the spectrum, narrative campaigns require the most work to set up, but are normally the easiest to execute.

Using this primer you will be able to quickly set up and execute a map-based campaign. All you need to do is make a couple of decisions, create a hex-based map, find some players and play! There is a section in the document that describes what the Campaign Coordinator needs to do to run the campaign.

Click here to download the Map Based Campaign Primer. Check back here from time to time to see if there are any updates. Over time I will be added more stratagems as well as Commander upgrades.

Eventually, I will complete my Non-Map Based Campaign Primer as well as specific narrative campaigns to my repository.

Another great repository for campaign information can be found on the Going on Campaign Blog.

Hopefully people will find these tools useful in setting up and running their own campaigns.

Trust

2011-04-02T19:00:00.002-04:00

What separates a basement game from a “competitive” or pick-up game? The simple answer is trust.

Our table-top gaming is based on rules and those rules are a Gentlemen’s Agreement. If it is agreed that those rules can be bent, broken, or ignored, then that is valid also. However, this agreement needs to be made beforehand.

The main rulebook, codices, and missions rules are the basis of that agreement and allow us to walk into any gaming site and play a game against someone we have never met before. This is what makes table-top gaming great.

However, there is a certain protocol that needs to be followed to ensure our opponent is made aware of every action we take in the game. Removing only the “missed” dice after a roll, ensuring our opponent is paying attention and sees our measurements, and allowing the our opponent to see any rule that they may not fully understand are examples of practicing those protocols.

These protocols are required because we don’t trust each other fully. This isn’t a bad thing. You can’t fully trust someone you have either just met or only have played against a few times. There are also other considerations, such as your opponent’s “need” to win, especially in a tournament environment.

Imagine for a minute if you could truly trust your opponent. I mean place complete faith in him. Trust to the point where you wouldn’t mind if he moved your models. Trusting him to take his movement phase when you are not even in the room. To roll for hits and wounds without you even looking at the table.

For most players this sounds extreme and it is something they could never see themselves doing. And I agree that with most players this isn’t possible. There is always temptation during a game to “bend” a rule or perhaps ignore nuances of a rule. Everyone feels it from time to time as their desire to win encroaches on their desire to have a good time.

But, just for a moment, imagine a game where you can completely trust your opponent. If you could fully understand what that would be like, then you can understand the concept of what makes a basement game different.

When both players remove the “need” to win, complete trust can begin.

As you can imagine, this nirvana can only take place in certain situations. And it is not my suggestion that every game in every situation be played like this. Try it at a tournament and you will be getting the last place consolation prize.

There are some situations that completely shatter the idea of trust. Ever have your opponent ask you something like “are you sure that was only six inches?” after you moved a model? Or the statement “I thought I noticed another miss” after you picked up the dice after the To Hit roll? When I am asked questions like this, it raises my blood pressure (even during tournaments). It is the equivalent to simply calling me a liar.

I have no need to win. I like to win, but I’ll be the first to admit when my opponent’s melta is within 6” of my armor or when he misses a To Hit or To Wound dice when he is picking them up or give a cover save to my opponent when it is in question so we don’t have to spend the time going through each model’s line of site to be absolutely positive about it according to the rules.

If you understand the concept of not “needing” to win, then you understand this fully. If you don’t, then you probably didn’t make it this far in the article.

Play hard. Develop a good list based on whatever your criteria for list building is, and keep reading the rules so you understand them to make yourself a better player. But give up the need to win. Watch the battle take place and understand that losing only means you’ve been outplayed, outlisted, or made a mistake.

Finding another player with the same mindset is a gift. Playing against someone you can completely trust is what makes for a great basement game, regardless of the actual location.

Click here to read the Basement Gamers Cookbook.

Deffkopta Konvershun

2011-03-31T19:00:00.000-04:00

My nice and cheap Assault on Black Reach Deffkoptas come with twin-linked rokkit launchas. Now, I love the AoBR deffkoptas more than the normal deffkopta model. It looks more like a miniature helicopter, in my opinion. However, my Orks aren't really the shooty type and paying the extra 10 points for something I don't want to use doesn't thrill me.

So I decided to hack the rokkits off and add the twin-linked big shoota, which comes on the kopta for free.

Since these guys are meant for assault and, specifically, removing my opponent's armor, I also had to add the buzzsaw. That gives me three S10 attacks per model and five can be included in a single unit. In an optimal game if I have first turn, I get the 24" scout move, 12" moving during the first movement phase and 6" assault. That is a total of 42" to run up and whack some armor with 15 S10 auto-hitting attacks (the armor didn't have a chance to move in the previous movement phase because there was no previous movement phase) after shooting 15 twin-linked S5 shots.

Screw your Land Raiders and Monoliths. You're walking.

So here is my proto-type deffkopta conversion:

I think my next conversion will have the shoota barrels shortened a bit and the buzzsaw set back a little.

Catachen Devil's Gruel

2011-03-29T19:00:00.001-04:00

Here is another addition to the Basement Gamers Cookbook: Catachen Devil's Gruel (Red Beans and Rice). This is a lot like a "dry" gumbo with sausage and chicken.

It's perfect for a basement game as it holds up well in a crock pot for long periods of time.

Unlikely Alliances Apocalypse Game, Part IV

2011-03-27T19:00:00.001-04:00

More terminators arrive to claim their objective - the Inquisitor

Click here to read Part I.

Click here to read Part II.

Click here to read Part III.

Turn three digressed into a massed melee mess.

Because Rahmiel’s inquisitor was designated at the target of Stavrous’ Vengeance Task Force, he was the obvious target. Thirty terminators dropped onto the table right beside the inquisitor. But they were all fitted for close combat, so shooting the inquisitor wasn’t an option.

Poor dude didn't have much of a chance.

The Deathstrike Vortex Missile rolled another one, so shooting it wasn’t an option. Bummer for me.

A lot of shooting and maneuvering occurred as we tried to get within range of the objectives. At the beginning of the turn we didn’t know if there was going to be another turn, but then the assaults started.

All of the terminators that arrived in the previous turn chose their targets and wiped them out. It then became an effort to pull the terminators off objectives by assaulting them with the most unlikely units, such as Battle Sisters.

The one thing missing is units to oppose the terminators.

Rahmiel kept discovering things about his Sisters, and at one point found out that a squad was fearless. Of course, this made the squad take seven additional wounds after an assault, wiping them completely out, but he was happy that he discovered a new rule.

One of the Sister squads actually killed a terminator. They died, but it was a moral victory.

The Inquisitor met his fate with dignity and assaulted one of the terminator squads that were surrounding him. He died about 14 times and his body was declared an objective.

If this were a movie, there would have been epic violin music playing. The Sisters of Battle sacrificed themselves gallantly, but in the end it was futile. There were very few still standing. In fact, the only ones who survived were the ones who didn’t fight with the terminators.

There was one sister that remained of a squad that ran towards an objective, but she was too far away at the end of the turn.

In the end, Stavrous and I held three objectives and PToN and Rahmiel didn’t hold any. The score at the end of turn three was 6-1. Based on the positioning of everything, the game was called at that point.

The table looked very different in the end.

Then we spend the next three hours just hanging around, talking about our future armies, and finishing off the food.

The food itself was awesome. We had my version of the Crock Pot Fungus and some Grot’s Guts (Sweet and Sour Chicken – recipe will be posted at a later date). Stavrous brought his Catachen Devil’s Gruel (Red Beans and Rice), a nice meat and cheese tray, and some Bakvala.

And, of course, we had the chocolate/peanut butter crack, otherwise known as a Stimm Pack. I’ll post the recipe for that in the next couple of weeks, too.

The Chocolate/Peanut Butter Crack

The unfortunate casualty was the light in the disco ball burned out. That will need to be replaced before we can play again.

Yes, the game was a bit lopsided. Stavrous and I beat up PToN’s Plague Tower and we just had too many data sheets for them to handle. But that is all part of the experience. You can’t really play an Apocalypse game with any expectations of winning. It is just too chaotic, too many strange things can occur. The game could have gone either way depending on the dice, deployment, where the objectives scattered, etc.

Click here to see all the pictures.

And in a basement game, the game itself is the background music. The four of us got to hang out all day, throw some dice, eat some food, and had a great time. We talked about our spouses, girlfriends, work, and just about every other subject under the sun. We showcased models we’re working on, minis we already painted, and talked about where we wanted to bring our armies.

I thank Stavrous, PToN, and Rahmiel for an absolutely great day of gaming and hanging out. This will become an event that will occur more frequently than yearly.

Unlikely Alliances Apocalypse Game, Part III

2011-03-26T19:00:00.002-04:00

1's were rolled aplenty

Click here to read Part I.

Click here to read Part II.

On the second turn the first wave of reserves arrived.

Since all "infantry" units were scoring, I put Marbo in a building and within 3" of an objective. He was in the perfect hiding spot and I would have gladly made him go to ground if anyone decided to shoot at him.

Stavrous brought in his Death Knell with 50 terminators and a dreadnought in a drop pod. Because PToN had the Disrupter Beacon, it was an all-or-nothing roll. If PToN rolled a 4+ he would have been able to deploy all 50 terminators wherever he wanted to.

He rolled a 3.

PToN's and Rahmiel's already crowded deployment zone turned blue as half of the Ultramarines First Company arrived.

Painting the table blue.

One of the two Deathstrike Vortex Missile Launchers hit their count-down. With the Deathstrike I need to roll a six in order to launcher, but there are a whole bunch of modifiers, such as what turn it is, if it didn't move, etc. Being in a data sheet, I instantly got a +2 modifier.

But it wasn't needed. I rolled a six. It was meant to launch. The second Deathstrike rolled a one.

The Vortex missile headed straight for the Plague Tower. It scattered, but even a scatter with a 10" template still hits. The remaining two structure points were removed from the Plague Tower and it became a wreck. I didn't read the datasheet, so when PToN told me that the "Explosion of Filth" had no effect when the Tower is wrecked I took his word on it. Now since I have read the datasheet, I have discovered that even a Wrecked results counts the same as an Explosion result. No worry, though. We always screw up the rules the first time we play our new super-heavies.

The Deathstrike Vortex missile aims for the Plague Tower

A demolisher tank destroyed the building that had the objective on the fourth floor, bringing the objective down to ground level.

The Vulcan Mega Bolter from the titan and the Stormlord, as well as everything left that could shoot at from the Baneblade, shot into the three deamons, killing two of them. The multi-meltas on the Banewolfs took a structure point and the main cannon from the PToN's Baneblade.

Rahmiel's Inquisitor ran from the wreckage of his Land Raider and threw his Vortex Grenade onto one of the Leman Russ tanks, sucking it into the warp. This made Stavrous giddy as the Inquisitor was the model marked by his Vengeance Task Force, something that Rahmiel had no clue of.

Flamers versus Terminators doesn't even delay the inevitable

PToN's Shadowstorm got tired of hearing the rumble of the Stormlord's Vulcan cannon and stunned it. Rahmiel's Battle Sisters took a whole lot of flamer shots at the terminators that were now in their midst, but the shooting was mostly ineffective against their armor. PToN's Plague Marines take out Stavrous' dreadnought with their plasma.

The Dead 'nought.

Rahmiel placed a drop pod of Space Marines in our backfield close to an objective which should have proven to be a threat if there wasn't a Warhound Titan sitting on it.

The "Red Cup" Drop Pod. On sale now for 7 cents each. Must buy 20 of them, though.

PToN had a squad of terminators that walked in from his table edge and started an assault against Stavrous' terminators. PToN's terminators won the assault by two, but the terminators easily made their modified leadership test and stayed locked in combat. That is when PToN pulled out his "Fear Me" Rule Breaker card and the Ultramarines ran.

Terminator Fight!

The Chaos Lord rushed the Imperial Guard squad with the Primary Psyker, Ghan, that was forced to leave their wrecked Chimera. The Lord attacked and rolled too many ones. Ghan used the force weapon to remove the remaining wounds from the Lord, killing him outright.

At the end of turn two, Stavrous and I had three objectives and PToN and Rahmiel had one.

Tomorrow I will describe how the rest of the game went.

Unlikely Alliances Apocalypse Game, Part II

2011-03-25T19:00:00.001-04:00

The battlefield.

Click here to read Part I.

I set up the table like I normally do, very symmetrical so there isn't an advantage from either side. I do not like the standard Apocalypse set up. It always leaves one side with a very small deployment zone.

We agreed before the game that all buildings have an armor value of 12 and any penetrating hits with a template weapon will turn the ruin into a crater. I love interactive terrain.

The long road down the center was no-man's land.

Stavrous went through a couple of ideas for his list. His Warlord Titan, Nex Coma, was a given. After a huge trade he found himself with enough bits to build 100 terminators. So he brought 80 of them.

50 of the terminators were part of the Death Kneel formation (which includes a beacon). The other 30 were taken with the Vengeance Task Force, which allowed him to designate one enemy model and, when that model dies, it counts as an objective. He also brought the Hammer Blow strategic asset, which takes D3 structure points off a super-heavy.

I brought all my tanks, a Baneblade, a Stormlord and two Deathstrike Vortex Missile Launcher datasheets (why have one when you can have two!). The Deathstrike throws a 10" pie plate of vortex love, removing everything under it and taking D3 hits against superheavies.

Yeah, in apocalypse games we play rough.

PToN brought his work-in-progress Plague Tower, which is (or will be) a thing of beauty. Two Baneblade kits and two Bastion kits. The thing is huge. And, of course, he brought his Chaos greater deamons, a chaos lord, and a whole bunch of Plague Marines riding in Rhinos. Rahmiel brought a whole bunch of Sisters and Space Marines, all in Rhinos. There was a Baneblade, a Shadowstorm, some Land Raiders and some Razorbacks in the parking lot they created on their side of the table.

PToN also brought a Disruptor Beacon, which should have been the perfect solution to the number of deep-striking terminators that Stavrous brought.

We took turns placing objectives and then they scattered. Boy, did they scatter. Four of the objectives wound up on or very close to one side of the board. One was on the top level of a building.

Bunches of tanks and troops

We rolled for deployment/first turn (again, I don't like the Apocalypse "time bidding" rules), and Stavrous and I won, allowing us to choose the side closest to the four objectives. Stavrous set his titan on the board and was done. I lined up tanks along the line and put the two Deathstrike Vortex launchers in the back field with some other assorted artillery. Then we placed the two platoons (50 men) around the Deathstrikes to provide some bubblewrap.

PToN and Rahmiel set up the Plague Tower right across the street from my Baneblade and Stormlord. Then he parked a Line Breaker squad beside it. The deamons were in the Plague Tower. The Land Raiders and Shadowstorm parked on the other side of the board across from my many Leman Russ tanks and two of my Banewolfs. The rest of their backfield was littered with Rhinos, Razorbacks, and Immolators.

PToN and Rahmiel's deployment with the Plague Tower in the lower-center of the picture.

Then he put the disrupter beacon, with its 48" range, right in the middle of his deployment area.

Before I explain what happened next you need to understand our unwritten rule about Huge Models You Spent A Lot of Time On. The unwritten rule is that the first time you bring it to an Apocalypse game, you aren't allowed to shoot it and it will be destroyed quickly.

Yes, that is just mean. But it's the rule Stavrous and I have been living by for a couple of years. My Baneblade and Stormlord, as well as his Warhound, all suffered the same fate during their first battles.

Of course, we neglected to tell PToN this rule. And that is what makes it so much more fun.

My Blind Barrage on the first turn made it so the Plague Tower couldn't shoot (along with half their army). Stavrous' Hammer Blow took three of the six structure points from it. I brought a platoon command squad and two infantry squads in Chimeras with the Mech Assault Spearhead formation and they outflanked on turn one right behind the Plague Tower and took off another structure point.

The Guard units arrive behind the Plague Tower

The Plague Tower couldn't shoot and only had two structure points left.

The Leman Russ tanks started taking down the buildings to clear up the line of sight and to remove a couple of unmounted squads of Marines that were in them. Two buildings were destroyed in the process.

A mounted chaos lord that was hiding behind the Plague Tower took a wound from the shooting of the three Guard units that showed up there. Because all infantry models counted as scoring units, he was a threat.

PToN and Rahmiel obviously did not sacrifice a goat to the Dice Gods because their rolling absolutely sucked. Multiple times we saw three 1's being thrown.

The Deamons fart on my Baneblade

Three greater deamons came out of the Plague Tower and one of them shot the Winds of Chaos against the Baneblade. This weapon is now called the Big Fart of Chaos as he, again, rolled multiple 1's and left a brown skid mark against the tank.

The Deamons assaulted and managed to score a drive crew shaken and take out the main cannon, but took no structure points.

By the end of turn one we had managed to change a lot of the terrain, but not really do too much damage. A couple of Rhinos were made into craters from the titan, but that was it.

Yes, there were more buildings on the table when we started.

Tomorrow I will describe the chaotic events of turn two.

Unlikely Alliances Apocalypse Game, Part I

2011-03-24T19:00:00.001-04:00

Apoc Games: It's a question of logistics - how many crockpots can be plugged into a single outlet?

Every year I host an Apocalypse game. Starvous, Plague Tower of Nurgle (PToN) and I started calling this the "Golden Ticket Apocalypse Game" because we would pick one person to be part of the game. You can read more about the selection process by clicking here.

So this year we invited Rahmiel to fully experience an Apoc Game at Aki's House.

Most people don't fully understand the experience until they have experienced it for themselves. I'll try to describe it here, but you probably just won't get it.

The game starts out in the planning phases months before it actually occurs. We lucked out this year because my wife was going away for the weekend, so we had a lot of free time. Once the date was locked in (and it was locked in more than two months ago), we started planning.

Stavrous and I were teamed up, so we started making our ridiculously overpowered lists. Hey, it's Apocalypse, whaddya expect?

Then, more important than the game itself, we plan the food. Because, and I've said it before, the food and the atmosphere are more important than the game.

Rahmiel: The Chosen One

I usually plan the scenario, the story, and the quirks of the mission two months before the battle. Then I usually forget about them until the morning of the game itself. Having a bad memory helps out sometimes. It keeps me from having the advantage.

The night before the game we get the inevitable email from Starvous letting us know that his wife will be making him late. This year was no exception.

Everyone then arrives (three hours later than normal) and we spend two hours unpacking armies, admiring the food, and generally gabbing like teenage school girls. Then it takes another 30 minutes to figure out how we're going to squeeze the crap out of every datasheet and rule we can to gain the advantage, then we actually start playing. And by playing I mean hanging out, eating a ton of food, and admiring the game that just happens to be going on in the background.

Around this time Stavrous remembers that he forgot his allergy medicine and asks me if I have any Benadryl. If he is on my team I give him some. If I'm playing against him I usually say no and watch him cry.

The Cat Poison 2+ Gun: Screw Your Invulnerable Save, Beeeeotch!

Hey - cats can be used as weapons, too.

Eleven hours later we manage to play three turns, almost every model has been removed from the board and replaced with a crater, and we're laughing so hard it hurts. PToN has destroyed every unit that was next to one of his ("Screw the objectives, I just wanna kill something"). And the invitee has learned the most important rule of basement gaming: He who says the rule with the most confidence wins.

Apocalypse is a lot like a game of poker or Bullshit.

These games get better each year. We probably won't even be inviting anyone new next year. Hell, we probably won't even wait a year before doing this again. Rahmiel fit right into the circus and by the second turn he was misquoting rules and making crap up just like the rest of us.

PToN watches as we bastardize every rule GW ever wrote

Click here to read the rules. I also added the rule that vortex does not remove objective markers. Because of the scoring (one point for each objective claimed each game turn), that just wouldn't be right.

I also had everyone pick one "Rule Breaker" card from a hat. Each card has a different rule-breaker that they could use at any time throughout the game. Each rule-breaker was printed on two cards so it was possible for two players to get the same card. Each player could let everyone, or nobody, know what was on their card. It was up to them to share it with their partner or not. The list of Rule Breakers are listed below so anyone can use them. It added some unpredictable chaos to the game.

Tomorrow I'll start describing how the game played out.

RULE BREAKER: Personal Teleport Device

One unit can move up to 30 in the movement phase one time during the game. This unit cannot be a super-heavy vehicle or a monstrous creature. The unit cannot assault on the turn it makes this move.

RULE BREAKER: Shoot Them All!

RULE BREAKER: I Can See YOU

During the shooting phase, a single unit can declare that all shots fired at an enemy unit will ignore cover saves one time during the game.

RULE BREAKER: Your Armor Means Nothing

During the shooting phase, a single unit can declare that all shots fired at an enemy unit will ignore armor saves one time during the game.

RULE BREAKER: Long Range Shot

During the shooting phase, a single unit can declare that all shots fired at an enemy unit will have a range of 72" one time during the game.

RULE BREAKER: Furious Attack

One time during the game, all failed Roll to Wounds can be rerolled for a single unit. This can be declared in the shooting or assault phase.

RULE BREAKER: Lucky Shot

RULE BREAKER: I'm Not Done Yet!

One time during the game a unit that is falling back may instantly regroup, regardless of how many casualities the unit took. This should be declared at the beginning of the movement phase.

RULE BREAKER: Fear ME!

RULE BREAKER: Heavy Firing

RULE BREAKER: Drive By Shooting

RULE BREAKER: Found the Weak Spot

One time during the game all glancing and penetrating hits to a single enemy vehicle from a single unit receive a +3 bonus to the armor penetrating roll.

The City

2011-03-17T19:00:00.004-04:00

It's nice to have a lot of terrain! And it is great to have a friend that has so much stuff laying around his house that his wife forces him to get rid of some.

With the help of Stavrous, I've been able to start on my city. I have enough Pegasus walls to keep me busy for a while and I still have a couple of GW kits that need to be put together. My goal is to have enough buildings and roads to completely cover a 4'x6' board.

Hey, some people like fighting in space hulks, I like fighting in a city.

Here are some pictures of what has been completed so far:

More Terrain!

2011-03-15T19:00:00.001-04:00

Here is some more terrain I completed over the last week. Well, I just cleaned these pieces up, fixed them, and finished the paint job.

The first piece, The Tower, was made by Stavrous. The round top kept coming off, so I trashed it and made a Marine memorial statue. It's easy to paint Marines when all you're doing is a quick dry brush.

The Mechanicum Factory was also made by Starvous. All I did was fix some broken parts and finish painting the roof. The roof comes completely off so you can put models inside.

On Thursday I'll post pictures of the city so far and my solution to roads.

Terrain!

2011-03-13T19:00:00.004-04:00

Finally got around to completing some of my terrain. Trying to get it all ready for next week's apoc game.

This first piece is a chopped up Pegasus kit I got from Stavrous. There were no floors, so I had to build some and repaint the entire kit.

The third floor didn't have any windows, so I made a huge shell hole. When I added the floors I realized the hole was too high for a mini to look and shoot through, so I had to add some crates to stand on.

This second piece is the GW Basilica Admin building. I actually had this built for more than a year, maybe two, but just got around to painting it.

And here are some bits that I've been collecting. The Aquila was another donation from Stavrous and the other pieces came from the old Imperial Guard battleforce box.

I know there are those that say "build your own terrain" and I really wish I had the skill to do so. I've seen homemade terrain that looks good. But nothing beats the detail of bought kits.

There will be a couple of more items in a day or two. I ain't done yet!