Thursday 20 January 2011

Hollywood and 40K

Hi all,

Angryman here with a question, which big screen movie characters would you like to see in the 40K universe?

For me I'd love to see 'Dutch' from Predator, Alice from Resident Evil or Captain Jack from Pirates of the Caribbean (good idea for an inquisitor conversion).

Are there any characters in the 40K universe that could be compared to big screen movie characters, for example we already have Rambo in the form of Marbo.

All comments welcome.

Thursday 13 January 2011

Squad Markings

Afternoon all,

I spent a LOT of time on Saturday afternoon arranging all my Imperial Guard infantry and thought I'd talk a bit about squad organisation. Part of the reason I've been putting off playing with the Guard for so long is two fold.

Firstly, I've got my "No Paint, No Play" policy. Which meant I could never have more than 40 Guardsmen on the field, and would never use Platoons. They'd always end up as Veteran Squads instead and Mechanise everything. Which gets a bit boring, very quick. So over Christmas I'd made the push to paint up the remaining 80 odd Guardsmen I had left to do, along with 12 Heavy Weapons teams. It was tough, but they got done.

That then led me onto a major goal of mine, which was to attempt to organise the lot into squads and make them "Transport Friendly" - i.e. So I don't have to spend half an hour before each game trying to make the correct squads up according to my list. So, here you see the product of that, 20 odd plastic Takeaway containers.

Operation: Chinese Democracy is GO!
This then got me thinking "How exactly am I going to mark these squads?", since the majority of my stuff is second hand or swapsies, I've lost the Transfer sheets. But, if I'm right as well, the transfer sheets would require me to use Varnish on the models... which is a big No-No for me and plastic models. I don't want any more hassle than it's worth once it's painted and based.

So the idea for the Guard was to incorporate the Squad markings into what types of squad they are. Putting a number on one shoulder, along with an Icon to signify their platoon on the other:
100 to 199 - Company Command Squads, Associates, Advisors etc.
200s - Platoon Command Squads
300s - Veteran Units
400s - Special Weapons Teams
500s - Heavy Weapon Platoons
600s - Abhumans and Rough Riders
700s - Mechanised Infantry
800s - Infantry Squads (including Heavy Weapon team)
900s - Conscripts.

It then got me onto thinking about the other, more informal ways I've marked squads in my other armies.

Chaos Daemons were distinguished by different coloured tongues on Bloodletters or armour plates on the Blood crushers.

Orks had different tattoos, along with lines on one arm to dictate which Trukk boy squad was which.

So far my Necrons remain un-marked... I could do with a decent idea for them...

And lastly, the upcoming Dark Eldar army will mean the cloth colour is different on each unit, likely Red and Green for the moment.

What do you guys do to mark your squads and keep them organised during your games?

Peace,
SB


Monday 10 January 2011

200th Post and Wargaming New Year Resolutions

Morning all, I came onto the blog today to try and keep the ball rolling since the Christmas period has been pretty quiet.

Everyone's been with family, drinking, shopping, drinking, building stuff and drinking more... so there's been no one around to post.

As I went to make the new post, I realised that it would be the 200th post we've done on the blog. So thanks to everyone involved with the blog for reaching the milestone, especially since 2 years ago I couldn't imagine us getting to double figures... Anyways... onto the meat of the post.

Whilst my PC at work updated yesterday, I was thinking about what I wanted to get done over 2011, in terms of Wargaming. I've been pretty good over the past few years at getting (certain) armies completed.

2007 was my Chaos Space Marines that were bought bits and bobs second hand off eBay, then repainted ready to try and get a full 2000pt army ready for the first year at Britcon.

2008 was my Necrons, trying to get them completed for my 2nd year at Britcon.

2009 was the year of the Orks, painting and converting hundreds of them. They still get added to here and there, but I've not had any major push like that point.

2010 was the year my Imperial Guard kicked off again, after a post-Christmas trade with Col.Straken for my un-loved Chaos Space Marines army, along with the birth of a Khornate Chaos Daemons army.

So what's in store for 2011? 

First up, finish my Dark Eldar. I've had them since November, and whilst I've been buying bits here and there, I've yet to make a start on painting.

Secondly, get playing with more rulesets. We flirted with BFG for a few months in September - November, but ended up falling back into a rutt with 40k. I got the Island of Blood WHFB starter set for Christmas, so I'm looking forward to getting into Fantasy.

Third, on the topic of Fantasy, is that I need to get myself in gear and finally paint my Bretonnians. I've got about 3,500pts worth that have barely been used on the tabletop. Hopefully maybe I can go to a Tournament to get me in gear, and as a break from 40k.

Fourth is more of a hope, than resolution. I'd love to hopefully get hold of a Necron Codex next year. I think it would be the first army I've had that's crossed from old Codex to new, it'd be interesting to see how that plays out. Previously I've either swapped armies without using the new Codex (Chaos) or given up on them and started again (Guard).

Fifth, I'd like to get some more done on the Brotherhood of the Forge and hopefully flesh them out into a full 2,000pts force. That's not likely to happen unless the Necron's don't get an update in 2011.

Sixth, I'd love to get a narrative campaign up and running ofr 40k. Gathering resources, battling over territory and special events etc. Would be really good to have that to link games at MAWS together.

Finally, I want to stick to my ruling of "No Paint, No Game" with all my armies and try to avoid temptation to use them before they're done.

What about you guys? What are your Wargaming Resolutions for 2011?
WH40K 5000 points Tyranids V’s Chaos Space Marines battle report

Hi all,

Angryman here. Col Straken and I recently played an apocalypse sized game of 40K. Due to unfortunate circumstances we had to play the game at my house on my dining room table. It measured 8ft x 3ft so we decided to play length ways on the table. Rather than the standard objective apocalypse game we decided on blood lust, so we went for kill points instead. Please forgive the shortness of this report, due to time constraints we only made rough notes for each turn.

Force composition Tyranid
Winged Tyrant
Tyrant with 3 guards
Alpha Prime
2 Tervigon’s
The Parasite of Mortrax
3 Hive guard
3 Zoanthropes
3 Lictors
The Doom of Malan’tai with a spore
5 warriors with L.H / B.S and venom cannon
4 warriors with death spitters and barbed stranglers
3 warriors with death spitters and barbed stranglers
2 harpies
30 gargoyles
3 ravenors
3 shrikes
3 dakka fexes
1 screamer killer fex with spore
2 trygons
Mawloc
20 Genestealers with Broodlord



Force composition Chaos Space Marine (from memory)
Kharn the betrayer
2 Chaos sorcerers
Khorne lord on juggernaut
Khorne lord
Lucius the eternal
2 winged daemon princes
2 obliterators
2 defilers
2 vindicators
1 dakka predator
1 squad of 10 noise marines
1 squad of 10 CSM (night lords)
1 squad of 20 khorne berserkers
1 squad of thousand sons
Plague reaper (baneblade counts as)
2 chaos dreadnaughts
2 squads of terminators
1 squad of Khorne raptors


CSM Turn 1
Due to lack of space in the deployment zone only one squad of infantry could deploy (the Nightlords), everything else was held in reserve. One of the chaos dreadnoughts failed its frenzied test and had to run towards the nearest enemy. The remaining chaos forces spread out of their deployment zone.
 

 2 Ravenors, 2 Warriors, 1 Gargoyle and a Dakka fex were all killed by the 1st round of chaos shooting.
Tyranid turn 1
All of the swarm flew, ran, slithered and crawled towards the CSM, making best use of the cover.


There was no Tyranid shooting, everything ran forward towards the enemy.

CSM turn 2
The very large squad of Khorne Berserkers (20) with 3 lords (yes 3, one on foot, one on the juggernaut and Kharn the betrayer), the Khorne Raptors, the Noise Marines, the Thousand Sons and a squad of 5 Khorne terminator champions all arrived from reserve. The rest of the CSM force, mainly the armour, moved forwards to get into better firing positions.

10 Gargoyles, 1 Zoanthrope and a Dakka fex were killed by the 2nd round of chaos shooting. All other troops ran forwards to support the armour.

Tyranid turn 2
The Mawloc, the Screamer killer fex with Spore, a lector and the large unit of Genestealers all arrived from reserve. Everything else in the Tyranid force moved towards the CSM.


One harpy manages to kill a night CSM with its Stranglethorn cannon.

In assault the newly arrived Genestealers assault Chaos Dreadnoughts, a Chaos Vindicator and the Plague Reaper. The broodlord destroyed one Dreadnought, the Genestealers took the CC arm from the 2nd Dreadnought, the Vindicator and Plague Reaper only had their paint scratched but the Plague Reapers special rules meant it got to attack back and killed 3 Genestealers.

CSM turn 3
The 2nd squad of CSM terminators arrive from reserve and using the icon on in the Khorne Beserker unit didn’t scatter. The infantry moved towards the large Genestealer unit and into better firing positions.


The last Dakka fex, a Tervigon and a Warrior were killed. Multiple wounds were also caused on the rest of the Tyranid multi wound creatures. The Plague Reaper accounted for a large number of the wounds caused.

One of the Daemon Princes assaulted the Flyrant. He suffered 1 wound and lost the combat and suffered a 2nd wound due to no retreat. A defiler assaulted the newly arrived Mawloc, a CC arm was taken off the Defiler and 3 wounds caused in return. The Mawloc then used hit and run to escape the combat. The 2nd Daemon Prince and the Khorne raptors and terminators all assaulted the Genestealer unit locked in combat with the Chaos Dreadnought. They destroyed the Genestealers without taking a single wound in return.

Tyranid turn 3
1 Trygon, the Doom of Malan’tai in a Spore and a 2nd Lictor arrive from reserve. The Mawloc burrows and everything else moves forwards to get into assault range.


In the shooting phase the Doom kills 2 Khorne Berserkers, the Spore kills another. The Hive guard cause 3 wounds on a Daemon prince and the Trygon fails to dent a Defiler.

In the assault phase the Daemon prince and Flyrant cause a wound each on each other but the combat remained a draw. A lictor and a unit of warriors had assaulted a Chaos Vindicator but failed to hurt it. One Harpy charged the Plague Reaper and caused a hit, meaning the main cannon could not fire next turn but the Reapers special rule meant that the Harpy took 1 wound in return. The 2nd Harpy had charged the 2nd Chaos Vindicator and immobilised it and destroyed its main weapon.

CSM turn 4
The Chaos Vehicles move out of combat and move to get better lines of fire on the Tyranids. The infantry moves in rapid fire and assault range.

In the shooting phase the Doom kills 2 Thousand Sons, 2 Nightlords and 2 Tzeentch Terminators, giving him S10 and W10.
In return the Chaos shooting managed to kill 9 Gargoyles, 1 Harpy, the Screamer Killer fex, 2 Lictors, 2 Warriors, a Mysetic Spore and cause several wounds to the multi wounds creatures.

In combat a Daemon Prince is killed by a Ravenor, the last Harpy is killed by a Defiler, the doom held up the Thousand sons in combat, taking 1 wound and causing none. Chaos Terminators kill the 2nd Mysetic Spore and the 2nd Daemon Prince killed the Alpha warrior but was cut down by the squad of close combat Tyranid Warriors.

Tyranid turn 4
The Mawloc automatically emerges from reserve and manages to move the Plague Reaper forwards and kill a Khorne Beserker. The remaining Trygon deep strikes off the table and goes back into reserve and the last Lictor arrives near the Noise Marines.

The Tyranids move into assault range whilst in the shooting phase the Tyranid Psykers finally get to use their Paroxysm on the Raptors and Nightlords (making them WS and BS1). The Hive Guard immobilise the remaining Chaos Dreadnought, the Zoanthrope stuns the Plague Reaper and destroys it Demolisher cannon and the Doom leeches 2 Nightlords and kills the remaining Tzeentch Terminators.

In assault the Flyrant assaults the Defiler, it destroyed it but suffered a wound in return. The Trygon assaults the 2nd Defiler, and destroyed that one but suffered a wound in return. The Shrikes and Ravenor assault a Vindicator and Destroy it. The Tervigon assaults the remaining Vindicator and destroys is main weapon. The Parasite of Mortrex and the Gargoyles assault the Khorne Raptors and got absolutely mashed. 1 Raptor was killed in return but they held didn’t get wiped out due to no retreat and held up to Raptor unit. The Doom of Malan’tai suffers 1 wound in combat but holds up the Thousand sons.

CSM Turn 5
The Chaos Dreadnought failed its frenzied test but fails to hurt the Plague Reaper. All remaining troops move into Charge range of the Tyrainds.
In the shooting Phase the Doom fails to kill anything and a Lictor and a Zoanthrope were killed.

In the assault phase the impossibly big unit of Khorne Berserkers with the 3 lords charge the Mawloc and a Trygon. Kharn and a few Berserkers face off against the Mawloc and cut it to pieces but Kharn manages to kill one of his own in the process. The other 2 Khorne Lord have an impressive 30 attacks between them (Daemon Weapons) but only manage to cause 4 wounds on the Trygon. The Berserkers manage to finish off the Trygon before it gets to attack back. The Doom loses the combat against the Thousand Sons but still holds them up in combat. The Khorne Raptors kill off the remaining 2 Gargoyles.

Tyranid Turn 5
The last Trygon arrives from reserve and what’s left of the Tyranid army moves into assault range of the CSM.


In the shooting phase the Dakka Predator was immobilised and the main turret on the Plague Reaper was shook.

In assault the Ravenors and Shrikes assaulted the Nightlords killing 3 but failing the break them. The Tervigon charged the Plague Reaper and damaged the main drive. The Tyrant and his guard assaulted the Khorne Raptors and avenged the munching of the Parasite. The Flyrant charged the Thousand Sons in combat with the Doom but failed to destroy them.

END OF GAME

That was a resounding Chaos Space Marine Victory.

Are there any lessons learned? From the Tyranid point of view, remember to spawn with the Tervigons. I managed it once, 5 Termagants arrived all game. Never play lengthways on an 8x3ft table against an army with a lot of template weapons.

All comments welcome

Monday 3 January 2011

New year

Hi all,

Angryman here with a quick post, did everyone get all the 40K goodies they asked Santa for and did you achieve all of your goals for the Christmas break?

all comments welcome