Life After the Cover Save Episode is up!

Sorry to everyone who tried watching the show on UStream, they recently changed the studio around and did not have the cameras up. Here is a link to the newest episode with your truly as a guest.

http://lifeafterthecoversave.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/episode-43.mp3

Painted Army Self Challenge- Completed!

Ok so yesterday was the tournament and I had a fully painted army!

Round 1  I had a buy
Round 2 I played against Necrons and Lost... Dawn of War, 5 objectives. Vulkan and his Terminators rolled a snake eyes to assault through difficult terrain after disembarking from the Land Raider. It would have really changed the game. As well we only make it to the end of turn 4 because my opponent played very slow.

Necron Deployment

Turn 1 (my Rhino is the only thing on the table at the start of turn 1, you can see it at the bottom left by the ruins.)

Round 3 Played against KFF, Battle Wagon Orks. It was a kill points game that I won at the last turn. I was able to take out a Battle Wagon, Mob O'Boys, Mob O'Nobs, and a Warboss in the bottom of the 6th. Thanks to the Terminators and Vulkan. All the Tac Marines did all game was kill the Wagon on turn 6.

Turn 1 Surprise!

here is the movement of Top of 3. Orks tryed to Deff Rolla the Ironclad in the center, but got punched to death instead!

Scouts checking out some of the action!

I did not win best painted, although I think it was close. I will have to ask the TO and see what kind of painting tips I can get. I did however win Sportsman! So I grabbed a Razorback!

Till next time! Happy Wargaming!

Painted Army Self Challenge Update 3!

Revenge of the Land Raider!

Ok, well last night I worked on the Land Raider and that was about it. I planned on finishing the models from the other night but I did not have the time (stopped at 1:00 again). The Land Raider is also not finished, it needs more detail work done and highlights, but it is well more then "3 colors" even if it doesn't look like it right away. So here it is. You may notice the hole on the top, that's where the Multi-Melta should go but it's not built yet. I will have to try and get that done tonight after the podcast appearance. 

The Lions don't appear that well in the picture as the light appears to wash out the highlight that I did. They are all done with a Astronomican Gray and then I do an edge highlight with Skull White. As this may be the last post before the Tournament this weekend I will try to remember to take some Pics of the army all together as well as some of the competition.

And don't forget about listening to "Life After the Cover Save" tonight (episode 43). It should start on Ustream at 7:00 Pacific. I have been told that we will be talking about the Apoc game from earlier this month, as well as the "leaked" 6th ed rules, and the 40K in a Flash champagne that I have been running at my store.

Painted Army Self Challenge Update 2!

Man do I hate myself for some reason. Sorry I did not get an update posted last night, I was up till 3:00 this morning trying to get to a point that I felt I could stop with still having my end goal in sight. So all I did was take some pictures and go to bed. Now what I am showing is not done, but is at a good point to finish off tonight along with the Land Raider. I will post a couple pics for each unit as I am don't know that pictures are better... being color blind does not help at this point. So lets start...

AoBR Terminators w/ Lightning Claws!

5 Man Scout Squad!

Tac Marines!

So at this point I need to finish off and touch up these models and paint the rest of the Land Raider. I also made couple Multi-Meltas so I can have one on the Land Raider as well as mount one on the Land Speeder Storm (as it only comes with a Heavy Bolter).

I hope to have another update for you tonight! I am going to keep my fingers crossed that I don't have to stay up till 3 and on get another couple hours of sleep before work.

Painted Army Self Challenge Update!

Well it's almost 1am and I just finished working for the night as I need to get some sleep before work in the morning, but I wanted to give out an update before I headed out.

2nd Contemptor Dread Arms are done!

Land Speeder Storm (main body) Done!

Damn... This picture makes the gold look like it needs another coat. Maybe it's not done...

Land Raider Crusader (Top Plate) Done

Man those decorative plate detail lines are hard to do.

Well I still have quite a bit of work ahead of me and I won't get any of it done tomorrow/today (Tuesdays are gaming nights at my FLGS, and I need to try out my army list). So I will try and give an update on progress Wednesday night / Thursday morning.

Till next time, "The Emperor Protects."

Working toward a tournament.

So I one of the Semi-Local game stores is having it's monthly 40k tournament this Saturday so I thought I would try to bring my Celestial Lions army and give them a go. The tournament in not 3 colors min, but I thought I would challenge myself to bring a fully painted army. The issue with that is I don't even have 1500 points built yet. Over the last week or 2 I did build and paint my AoBR Captain and Rhino and built the Assault Marines from the Battle Force. But that was about it, I was waiting on the magnets and Scibor parts that I posted on earlier.

Rhino

AoBR Captain w/Relic Blade

So I had to go to work on writing an army list that would do "ok" and that I would be able to hopefully have painted for the tournament. I settled on a list last week.

HQ: 

Titus Leonis Maximus (Counts as Vulkan)

Elites:

Ironclad Dread w/H.Flamer & Meltagun, Drop Pod

Ironclad Dread w/H.Flamer & Meltagun, Drop Pod

7x Assault Terminators w/2 LC & 5 TH/SS, Land Raider Crusader w/Multi-Melta

Troops:

10x Tac Marines w/Melta, Missile Launcher, Powerfist, Rhino

5x Scouts w/Bolt Pistol, CCW, Powerfist, Combi-Melta

Fast Attack:

Land Speeder Storm w/Multi-Melta

Now I have to build a Land Raider Crusader and Land Speeder Storm from the Space Marine Megaforce that just came in, as well as I have to get a Scout Sgt with Powerfist, Tac Sgt with Powerfist, Meltagunner, and Missile Launcher Marine all built and magnetized. I also have the second pair of Contemptor arms to build and magnetize and magnetize the AoBR Terminators to have the Lightning Claws that were left over from the Assault Terminator box.

So I busted my hump this weekend. I made some molds of power fists for the Tac and Scout Sergeants and made some copies for them. I build the Missile Marine from AoBR and with some Dremel work got the Lion Shoulder pad on him. Magnetized the AoBR Terminators. Build and magnetized the Land Raider Crusader, and Land Speeder Storm. I also magnetized the Meltagunner so that I can switch out his guns... So far I have used about 100 of the 1/8th in magnets and half a dozen of the 1/16th inch ones.

Here is the end result of a hectic weekend.

Now to start painting everything...

Do you guys think I will have it done by Friday? I have some been invited to be on the Podcast "Life After the Cover Save" on Friday night, so I won't have any time to work then. If you aren't busy on Friday night check out the show live. They normally broadcast on UStream at http://www.ustream.tv/user/LAtCS  you can also find them on iTunes or they will post a direct link the their newest episodes here on their forums.

"6th Edition" Test Game Reaction.

Best game ever?

So I had a test game for the "Leaked 6th edition" rules on Tuesday with Faolain from Awakening Ynnead. We decided to play a smaller game (1250) to help with any time issues we may run into while looking up rules and such. I played what you might call a 3rd edition style army list with my Chaos Space Marines, while Faolain played his Nids. 

Nids:

Tyranid Prime

10x Termagaunts

Tervigon (troop)

9-10? Genestealers W/Brood Lord

Trygon Prime

Tyranofex

Death Leaper

Doom W/M.Spore.

Chaos Marines:

Daemon Prince -Sorc., Wings., Mark of Tzeench, Warptime.

16x Khorne Berzerkers -Skull Champ w/Power Fist

10x CSM -2x Flamers, Champ w/Power Sword & Melta-Bomb, Rhino

6x Noise Marines -6x Sonic Blasters 

Defiler -Twin-Linked Heavy Flamer, Extra DCCW

5x Havocs -4x Missile Launcher

The game was very interesting. Some of the Key things I think we learned were,

*First Turn is very important. Not only do you get to place the first objective marker (putting objective games in your favor), but as your opponent has not had the opportunity to move this makes Alpha Strike armies even more effective as their shooting will be more accurate. With The Tyranofex getting 2 hits on my Rhino turn 1 it put me on my back foot a bit. The -1 on the damage chart due to it being a tank did help prevent it from becoming a wreak though. Going back to the Objective advantage, as objective points are calculated at the start of the turn going first also give you the advantage of denying your opponent points on turn 6. You are able to get your points then run units in to contest your opponents objective so he is unable to collect points at the start of his turn. You don't have to charge him or even shoot at him and there is nothing he can do on turn 6 to prevent that.

*Bolters are scary and useful again. Being able to shoot while moving at combat speed is very nice. This may help lead to the Bolter Drill style lists coming back.

*Defensive Fire is very dangerous. Having a Doom spore down just to die from the Defensive Fire from bolters is a very risky move. If we read it right units can also fire their Heavy Weapons as well so Monstrous Creatures will have to be careful as well. Faolain was also able to Deep Strike his Trygon in front of my Berzerkers, they were able to take out 2 wounds with their pistols (really big help), but he was still close enough to charge that same turn. Drop Pods with the Guidance system is rather safe as they do not allow for defensive fire but the units that disembark are still unable to assault.

*Explosions from vehicles feel more risky, but may not really be the case. Models in range have a chance to take a critical hit (Wound with no armor save), this makes it more deadly to units like Marines and MCs but better for units that have a bad armor save.

*Template Weapons may be the new "thing". With having a 3" range and special abilities like "Fire Sweep" they have become so much more useful.

*Shooting after Combat. The ability to have your unit fall back or be wiped out in combat then have your other units get sweet revenge on the enemy is very useful. In a combat with my Berzerkers vs the Tyranid Prime and Tyranofex I was able to kill the Fex with my Power Fist in Faolains turn and saved the no retreat wounds. In my turn the Prime killed the last 2 Zerkers before they could strike (due to bonesword/lash whip) and my Noise Marines that did not move were able to rip into the Prime with all 18 shots taking out his last wound. It felt like justice was done. This turns the normal though of wanting to kill your opponent in his turn on its head, as you will want combats to either be done after 1 round (on your turn) or be longer combats that will go 3/5 rounds. This may lead to larger squads of dedicated combat units like Berzerkers, Assault Marines and Death Co.

Shooting after Combat will also allow you to engage/charge a transport, blowing it up in assault then shooting your opponent as he disembarks.

Well that's it from me for now. Faolain said that he would be doing a post about our game as well, so for his take be sure to check him out. As for my overall judgement on the game I may have to hold off on hating or loving it for now, but I like it so far. Since I am in the middle of building my Space Marine army this could put a damper on some the the strategies I was planning on using, but it opens up new ones. Like off the top of my head... Vulkan is still awesome! TH/SS Terminators pooling their re-rolls really helps, then you also have all of your flamers now shooting out 6" then being placed!

Tournament Recap

Ok, so lets start with the LFGS Tournament that I ran on Sunday. I increased the game size to 1850 and we had a better turnout then back in November, this time we had 6 people and one of them was a new player to our store. I used the same missions as the last tournament but in a different order. So round 1 we had some interesting match ups.

Round 1:

Space Wolves (LoganWing) VS "Red Scorpions" Dark Angels (Deathwing) 

Tyranids (Null Deployment) VS Blood Angels

Eldar VS Dark Eldar (Wych Cult)

Round 1 I matched up the Loganwing and Deathwing only because I thought it would be a really interesting fight to happen. The Dark/Eldar players were both a bit late so I paired them up and the BA and Nids just ended up being stuck with one another. 2 of the games were solid victories for the BA and the DE, the Terminator lists tied on objectives and it came down to victory points. The Dark Angeles were able to pull it off by about 80 points.

Round 2:

Blood Angels VS Dark Angels (Objective tie, DA win on VP)

Space Wolves VS Dark Eldar (DE Victory) 

Eldar VS Nids (Nid Victory)

Round 3:

Space Wolves VS Nids (Nid Victory)

Eldar VS Blood Angels (BA Victory)

Dark Angels VS Dark Eldar (Objective tie, DA win on VP)

So at the end of the day Dark Angels walk away with the big prize for Best General, and the Space Wolves walked away with Best Painted. I allotted 2:20 per round but it turned out that almost everyone finished their games in about 2:00 so we were able to cut out some time off the end of the day. One thing I will have to change is the Sportsmanship scores. I was using a 0-3 scale for the players to judge their opponent by, but it appears they all are too nice about their games because we had a 4 way tie for first. Everyone was just giving out 3s... It looks like I will have to change it to "Pick your favorite opponent" so that I can give out more prizes. I think they were all trying to avoid looking like a "dick" for marking their opponent down on scores.

Special Delivery!

Well this last week I received several packages in the mail and it will give me some material to start working on the marines a little more. The first package I got was 300 magnets! 200 are 1/8th inch and 100 are 1/16th inch. I normally use the 1/8th inch magnets for everything from vehicle doors to marines and dreads. The 1/16th inch magnets are something new for me. I was planning on using them to magnetize special weapons onto marines. So far this has been successful, I have used the 1/16th magnets on 2 marines (1 tac and 1 assault) and on 5 guns (Bolter, Bolt Pistol, Meltagun, Plasmagun, and Flamer). I may have to post a simple tutorial on how I do it, it's not hard at all, and I may have to do one for the Contempor arms as well (they are a bit more complicated).

Well besides the Magnets I received a good size order of bits from Scibor. I got the Lion decorative plates, more lion helmets and more shoulder pads. I am a bit worried about the AoBR tac marines and how much work it's going to be to remove their left shoulder to put on the lion ones. Finally the last package I received was the Space Marine  MEGAFORCE! Man was this box bigger then I expected. I have not opened the box yet as I think there may be an unboxing video in the works, but I am really looking forward to starting on this kit. I am not looking forward to 1 part of it though... another drop pod. I like how they look and work in the game, but man do they have a lot of surface area to paint!

Scibor bits FTW!

I have also been working on an a flying Assault Marine squad, the AoBR Captain, and the Rhino from the SM Battle Force. I am also running out local tournament this Sunday and have upped to points for the Tournament up to 1850.

Here is a question for you guys. What do you think is the best size for a monthly run tournament and why?

 I will finally leave you with the AoBR Dread that I finally got based.

Hobby delay

So with the Holidays and the busy family schedule I have not been able to get too much hobby work done. All I have really bee able to accomplish in the last couple weeks has been building 1 Assault Marine Sargent with Thunder Hammer. He is kind of cool though as I have decided to put all the Assault Marines on a flying stand but on a standard base. I think I will magnetize them for easy transport and is anyone questions standard LOS I can magnetize them to the base as the flying part should be only there for looks and not to gain any type of advantage. 

One other delay that I have run into has been that I ran out of magnets. So I just placed an order for 200 1/8" magnets and 100 1/16" magnets from amazingmagnets.com for about $35 after shipping. I have used these guys for years and just in case I looked as some war gaming websites that sell magnets and can't believe some of the prices they charge. One site I recently looked at had 50 1/8" magnets for about $15, at that rate I would have only been able to get 100 magnets for the same price I just picked up 300! I can understand trying to make a profit and all, but that kind of price difference seems a little outrageous. 

In other news my FLGS let me host an Apoc game this last Monday. I wanted it to be just a fun game with all kinds of stuff being blown up and killed so I did not put any restrictions on how many super heavies or Str:D weapons anyone could bring and did not limit the Strategic Assets. The only limits were 3,000 points per player and you needed to have the data sheet for what you were playing, with 1 exception. One of our local Ork players has a really nicely build Gargant with Belly Gun and all, there is no "official" datasheet for this monstrosity available but he had his own that I review. It was 1500 points as he based it off a Reaver Titan and I think it worked well except I think one of his weapons was a little to strong, but other then that it was fine.

The game ended up being with only 4 people including myself, so it was 6,000 points each side. The teams were Tau and Orks VS Blood Angles, Space Marines, Chaos, and IG. We took the game to the end of turn 5 in 3.5 hrs and called it a tie. At the end the Marines had 1 objective and the Orks/Tau had none, but would have easily destroyed my Chimera with Armored Fist Squad and Lugft Huron with the Gargant in the next turn. It was interesting to see Tau standing alone for 1.5 turns as the Ork player held everything in strategic reserve in-order to take advantage of the Flank March Asset with 2 Stompas, 1 Gargant, and 3 Dreads. 

There were some funny point in the game that made everyone laught. Like when after a unit of Fire Warriors got destroyed by Kharn and his Berzerkers but had 1 man left who sucessfully ran away, only to regroup in his next turn to run back at the Berzerkers and rapid fire at the with no affect. Another was when Abbadon destroyed the Tau Battlesuit commander and his bodyguard single handedly while Lysander watched. But later in the game Lysander got his licks in as he went blow for blow with an Ork Stompa.

And now for what has been eating away most of my time.

I pre-ordered SWTOR back in July and got early access on the 13th of Dec. The guys at my FLGS started a guild and we have been just eating up all the content the game has to offer. We had a LAN Party at the FLGS on the 1st and decided it was a good time to start taking down some of the world bosses and do some PVP. 

If you are looking for a change from your standard fantasy MMO this is a good one to pick up. I am currently enjoying the Bounty Hunter: Mercenary, and Sith Inquisitor: Assassin.