Thursday, January 31, 2008

Where have I been?

Well if you know me, I am usually working on some kind of freelance flash or art related stuff. And I have been stuck in that world for a bit, and will probably still be stuck for awhile longer as I finish up some work. Hooray for freelance and money, but boo in the extra time I would like to have to pretend kill some plastic mini's with my plastic grey orkie horde of doom. It is pootastic. But hell, it means I have more money to spend on some fantasy stuff as soon as I finish my orks.

But I haven't been doing nothing GW related. I have been working on a racing game called Formula Waaagh!!! It is based off of some of the Gorka Morka rules, GW new ramming stuff that might be in later, and my own takes on stuff to make things run smoother. But the whole thought on it is that you are running an Ork Race team. You earn teef per race for doing stuff and getting paid from your sponsors. Bikes, Trukks, and Warbuggies all race to try win, or blow up as many opponents as they can. As I finish up the roolz and do some testing, I will post them up on here for anyone to download and try out. I am going for something that is pretty simple in execution, but complex enough to have some depth. The coolest thing is people are moving all at the same time. So you have a good chance of ramming through people and knocking everyone around. You execute drive checks whenever you try to do stuff. A drive check is like a leadership check, and different things can affect it. The type of vehicle, how fast you went, if you took some manic mushrooms, cybork body, etc. You can shoot off the track, get knocked around, and if someone is extremely lucky, blow you up completely. And then you get Teef for that.

Plans are to test on Fridays, and once I get a nice core set of rulez, to build off from there and start a league with a commish to watch stuff and make sure peeps are racin fair. Well as fair as Orks can race. But yeah, that is what I am working on. Painting wise, going to get my weirdboy and my war boss painted. And then boyz and trukks from there. If I get the race stuff going, I will have to get trukks done up.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Orky game I played vs. Eldar

So I played Adam at BFG on Sunday later afternoon. I would have played the Ninja Pirate game, but I had plans for lunch and I did play a tournament on my birthday the last week. So no more tournaments for the month most likely, as I have things to do on Sundays from time to time. I am hoping I can switch some work days for the next BFG tournament, or just take the day off. Will see. It is a hobby tournament, so Chaos will be the army of choice due to the orks not being painted. Too many of those jerks.

But anyway, onto the game.

Adam's Eldar had a farseer, with guide, doom etc. An Auratch dude. Squad of Fire Dragons in a Wave Serpent, 3 other Falcons, 2 Wave Serpents with Dire Avengers. Oh and a squad of Harlies. So lots of flying thingies... which means my Tank Bustas are always going to be shooting at something, and probably not doing anything. Yay!!!

Ok, Adam set up towards one side and I set up on that side and the squad of Harliequins on the edge of some cover, with two squads of Lootas in cover, tank busters towards the back and trucks hidden behind terrain. I got the first roll, and well... did jerky things to his vehicles since they didn't move first turn. I blew up one wave Serpent with the Farseer and a dire Avengers squad. 2 died falling out. I then also got 2 falcons to not being able to shoot. So I did a lot of damage that first turn. Guys moved up I dropped off 2 trukk boyz in front of the Harlies, hoping to get them to assault me, and then swarm them with the second squad after a Waagh. Fun times indeed.

Adam went next, moved all his vehicles away from my jerky Tank bustas, and then tried to fleet out and assault my trukk boyz. Rollin a 1 when you need a 3 for fleet is bad mojo. So his Harlies, fleeted back an inch. His Fire Dragons and Wave Serpent shot the hell out of a trukk boyz squad, but somehow they made their leadership test. Hooray 6!!! That was about it for his shooting, and it was onto my turn.

I called a waagh, assaulted with one full trukk boyz squad into the Harlies, shoot up the dire avengers that were entangled (He made all but one 4+ cover save due to my AP 4 lootas), stunned some other vehicles, my Tank Bustas teleported due to the Weirdboyz power roll. I rolled a total of 6 again with 3 dice. FU farseerer!!! They teleported in front of some Wave Serpents and blew up those bastards again. Hah. Combat, dead harlies, then I consolidated into some Fire Dragons. Woot. My Big Shoota trukks sucked it up over there, and the two other boys moved out seeing as they were not as much of a threat as the 2 large 30 man squads that were moving up the field. Woot. Warboss snuck up and around towards the farseer. Oh lootas shot up more of the dire avengers in the wrecked wave serpent and I killed more.

His turned, he moved around, and dire avengers unloaded on my shoota boyz, all but 5 were left, and again I rolled a 6 for Leadership. Hooray!!! 3 big shoots, a dude, and my pk Nob. I am comin to get you bastards!!! My sluggas were also shot up by the other dire avengers too, and got them down to 13 or so. I don't really count, but enough left to be fearless. Again his falcons moved around, One could shoot, and it did kinda crappy.

The rest of the turns were kinda lame, as I basically shot at more vehicles, took down 1 falcon and killed the rest of the dudes with shooting and some assault.

Now Adam hasn't played his Eldar really at all, and he wants to test them out to find out what style he likes to play. Of course in the new 5th Edition, things will change, but hell assault is going to get a nice kick in the pants and really get better for once. Which might mean that wave serpent rushes might be better. Hell Scorpions might be good too. Same with Banshees. Will see. I think Eldar get hurt pretty bad, and orks just get stronger.

The biggest thing I see with Orks, is that you just don't care how much you lose, you always have more shmos to send to their deaths. It is a Horde Army with some really good shooting. If you hit hehe. And it Assaults well. Not sure about Stormboyz yet. They sound good, but I don't know if they are more effective than lets say a squad of Lootas. I have found Lootas to be pretty damn good. You wound a lot, and hell you can always fail armor saves hehe. As it has been shown with Big Bugs, AP ShmayP.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

BFG 40k 'Eavy Tournament[

Welp I played the BFG 40k 'Eavy Tournament this past Sunday, and ended up winning the entire event, not losing a single game. I had a good time, and hell it was even my birfday. 30 years old. Woot. I ended up playing my big bug list I have posted on here before. I can't find my camera cord, so I don't have pictures. Sorry. I am hoping to get some better battle reports in the coming weeks, as I test my ork army out and mess around with different chaos builds. But first tournament stuff, and then my new ork list thought.

Round 1, vs Brian and his Space Marines list.
The tournament is now using the new BFG tournie rules, and they were pretty damned snazzy. I ended up killing everyone but his one lone Lascannon guy that would never fail a last man standing roll. I control every table edge and all table quarters and ended up with maximum points for the game. The list is designed to hurt marines, and it did that. Pounding down with lots of fire and then swarming with some genestealers for the win. He had some bad luck, teleporting terminators in, and the homers not being there any longer. He lost 2 as they almost went off the edge. Good opponent and I always enjoy playing Brian. He keeps getting better and better.

Round 2, vs Daniel with his Tau.
Hardest game of the tournament and I won due to having large squads in the middle and squeaking out on Victory points. We both got the secondary and tertiary missions (killing most exp unit and getting your most exp unit killed) with me getting the primary. Good opponent and a better game then the last one we played. I was playing Lash Chaos with demon princes and he failed a lot of pinning checks. Again this shows some of the power of the Tau and how they can just cover your units in missile fire. He killed off the most big bugs out of the tournament and the game was close till the very end.

Round 3, vs Sean and his own Big Bugs.
Sean has beaten me the last 3 times we have played. Twice with his big bugs (1st vs mine and the 2nd time vs my Chaos) and once with his Necron army. We were 18 inches apart, and right in range Devourer fire. I got the first turn, and Sean failed way too many army saves. 2 of his meat walls died to dakka fire, and then my heavy bugs just tore apart his genestealers. I didn't miss for 3 turns with my barbed Stranglers and they just ripped apart his genestealers. I ended up taking out big bugs every turn and lost 2 by the end of the game. It really came down to poor armor saves by Sean and the fact I was not missing with my heavy fire into his troops. He ended up having one genestealer with a hive tyrant and 2 hive guard with him. Most games vs Sean come down to the end game to see the winner, but this was just one of those bad rolling games you have every once in awhile.

I ended up getting 1st by a large margin, due to winning with almost max points each game and getting the max painting score. Woot. Second was Chris Long with Mech Eldar and 3rd was Robert with his Dual Lash/Tzeentch chaos list. I somehow got 2 questions on the quiz. Hooray for random guessing haha.

But all in all the tournament was run very well and I am hoping to figure out ways to make the others. I work on Saturdays now and I am really enjoying having a weekday off so I might switch that day. Will see.

Now here is my ork list I want to test out. Chris is saying he wants to test his Mech Eldar vs the new Orks and I am more than happy to oblige.

HQ: Warboss, Bike, Cybork Body, Attack Squig, Power Klaw
Pts: 150
HQ: Weirdboy, Warphead
Pts: 85
HQ Total: 235

Elites: Lootas (15)
Pts: 225 x 2
Elites: Tankbustas (15), Nob, Power Klaw
Pts: 250
Elites Total: 700

Troops: Boyz (11), Rokkit Launcha, Nob, Power Klaw, Trukk, Red Paint
PTS: 151 x 4
Troops: Shoota Boyz (30), Big Shootas (3), Nob, Power Klaw
Pts: 230
Troops: Slugga/Choppa (30), Big Shoota (3), Nob, Power Klaw
Pts: 230
Troops Total: 1064

Pts Total: 1999
Total models 151, scoring units 9

Weirdboy runs wit da Tankbustas, or maybe with the Shootas. Not really sure, testing will determine etc. I had to knock down each trukk boy squad to 11 models to try and fit in the awesome Weirdboy for testing and also keep the two 30 man boyz squads. I am thinking two shoota mobs might end up being better. We shall see.

But yeah, anyone interesting in testing and killin lots of greenskins?

Saturday, January 12, 2008

How did the game go?

Welp, I won, and I really showed the insane horde power of the new orks. But the list down below is what I played, and here is what I played against.

Thousand Sons
HQ: Sorceror lord, no wings, no jump back, running around with the thousand sons

3 10 man thousand sons squads, each with sorcerers with warp time on em

2 10 man (?) havok squads with 4 autocannons each.

5 man lit claw terminator squad.

2 6 man demon squads.

I would have pics, but alas I can't find my camera cord, so I will have to just chat it up.

Terrain, about 25%, with each side having some runs, trees. Middle had a big piece of a ruined building. Since there were no template weapons to fear, I had each my two 30 man squads bunched up, 2 trucks with the nob bikers and warboss hidden behind one building and out of site, with my other trucks hidden behind trees and terrain right near the two large boyz squads. Lootas were towards the back, with the Tankbustas in front of them.

Chris was set up, with his two auto cannon havoks in terrain, and his squads of Thousand sons in a tight batch in the middle of his army, and his Terminators hidden in cover to use as a counter assault unit.

I didn't write good notes, and I promise to write em down better next time. But interesting things that happened. The expensive nob squad. Not worth it. Lootas: worth it. Nob squad going to get swapped out for another loota squad. Yesh. Tankbustas. Not terrible, but Chris ran no transports, so my bomb squigs were worthless, but oh well. They never got let go, no need to kill my own trukks, no matter how funny it would be hehe. What else did I find out, aspiring sorcerers in thousand sons squads with warptime, are deadly mutha fuckas. They will kill 3 to 4 every assault, no matter what. And nobz squads are butchered if they get into assault with them. I also found out, assaulting a 30 man ork boyz squad is hard to deal with. You can only kill so much in your 2 inch kill zone, and then you are surrounded by orks and the hidden power klaw of doom that is waiting to squish you. Orks with 3 base attacks, add up. And a 2 + armor save versus 20+ wounds, is not super awesome. Then mix in 9+ power klaw attacks coming at ya. Woot.

But in the end, I won. The horde is hard to deal with. So many models to try and kill. It is a pain. The big issue I see with orks, is that Monolithes are going to be horrible to play against. Never able to hit with Power Klaws, rokkits only glancing on a 6, it shoots a lot and teleports those skellie thingies away. Arghs all around.

Next reports will be more intensive, with turn information and pictures (if i can find my damned cord).

But changes, bikes out, more lootas in. More DAKKA!!!

Friday, January 11, 2008

Today I am going to test out some Orks

I put all the damned things together, and today is the day to test them out and see how they roll. Going to try a dif list, due to not wanting to put certain things together, and to see how different things work out. But here is the list.

HQ:
Warboss, Bike, Cybork Body, Attack Squig, Power Klaw, Slugga
Pts: 150

Elites: Nobz (3), Bikes (3), Power Klaws (3), Pain Boy, Cybork Bodies (3)
Pts: 255

Elites: Tankbustas (15), Nob, Power Klaw, 3 Bomb Squigs
Pts: 260

Elites: Lootas (15)
Pts: 225

Troops: Ork Boys (12), Slugga/Choppa, Rokkit Launcha, Nob, Power Klaw, Boss pole, Trukk, Red Paint
Pts: 162 X 4
TOTAL: 648

Troops: Ork Boyz (30) Slugga/Choppa, Big Shoota (3), Nob, Power Klaw
Pts: 230

Troops: Ork Boyz (30) Shoota, Big Shoota (3), Nob, Power Klaw
Pts: 230

TOTAL: 1998, 146 models (ARGH DA PAINT FUMES!!!)

Tankbustas to bust up some armor. Or pray to bust it up. Lots of rokkits elsewhere. Lots and lots of Power Klaws, so hopefully I can rip crap up in combat pretty good. Warboss doesn't auto die to other power fists, and kills anything else with a big splat. Hell he won't auto die to a lascannon. And the bike model he is on is sweet.

Thoughts on where I might change it. Lootas, another squad. Probably take out the nob squad and make another warboss on a bike for the brothas of doom. Or a weirdboy. Or a big mek, I gots all dem models damnit heh. Will see how the massive boyz work and the trukk boyz end up. It is a test and I am playing Thousand Sons of Chris Davis tonight. Hopefully. I will be there.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Blog blog blog

So those 5th edition rumors are floating around. The one that everyone is kinda all "What tha?!?" seems to be what defines a scoring unit. Now if the rumor is correct, and only troop choices can be scoring, then a lot of armies are going to have to change and I am sure a lot of stores are going to be happy as the normal troop choices for armies, will be bought in spades to help fill out some tournament lists. But lets look at how some armies might be hurt by this rumorlicious rule.

Big Bugs... Welp, they already run at least 4 troop slots and sometimes all 6. The issue comes from the fact that these troop choices usually die due to their threat level. They are never going to be there to score, they are there to either pull fire from the big bugs, or give a viable threat that can take out just about anything. So what happens now? Well you could always beef up each of your troop choices, make the genestealers out to their max numbers and hide 2 in the back to ensure that you have a squad that can rush out and try to grab objectives etc. You could switch from the stealers to Hormogaunts, since they will have a large range of movement and you can get huge squads that can sit on an objective. Really this change doesn't hurt bugs too much, it just makes the whole scoring unit thing fair for each and every army. Most likely changes to my own army, would be filling out all the genestealer squads and make sure I have all 6 troop choices. My big bugs will be slightly smaller to try and achieve the points costs, and maybe take away the extended carapace to my genestealers. The game then becomes a rush to kill the other troop choices, and it kinda morphs into a weird stealer rush list. That is just my thoughts on it.

Mech Eldar. They get hurt a lot more, because their falcons are no longer going to be the annoying objective takers they once were. Mix in some rumor changes to hull down for fast skimmers, and you got a big change a coming to Eldar players. So basically you are going to see wave serpants with Dire Avengers and lots of em. And then mix in some Falcons or wraithlords to give a hard smacking unit etc. Either way, it is going to be odd and different for Mech Eldar. I guess they become Dire Eldar 4000 happy elf pants. Or something like that.

Tau seem to be ok, most player run lots of Fire Warriors anyway, so I don't see much of a change in that. Hooray for the greater good or some crap like that.

Marines are going to be sitting pretty, with Blood Angels and Dark Angels getting a boost by having combat squads, and effectively doubling their scoring unit potential. Chaos will be chaos, with special troops that are fearless taking the place of normal troops. That sounds pretty sweet. I guess I will have to limit the amount of heavies due to needing to fill up on troop choices. Demon Princes lose some of their appeal since they were monstrous creatures and could score.

IG get like a major boon with their large amount of troops they take. Damned humans... Orks seem to be sitting fine too, with the ability to take 180 orks to take a part of the troops choices, and the ability to get some extra units to count as troops to help out (Deff Dread, Nobz, etc). Nobz in a Battlewagon could be a nice scoring unit that will be hard to break down etc with the limited heavy weapons choices hurting other armies.

It could be an interesting tournament season. And I am all for that. I think the top tier armies are going to be hurt in a good way, and this will be a nice big shift in how the game is played and what kind of army you are going to take. It makes me wonder if going second is going to be better, since you can be the last one to go after objectives etc. Interesting indeed.

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Something interesting

So the Def Koptas in the ork codex. They get a scout move at the beginning of the game, thus meaning they can make a normal move, thus meaning they can make a turbo boosted move? If that is so, then this makes the unit pretty damn powerful and a useful way to ensure that your trukks get there since they can hopefully gum up the heavy weapons that might cause you some issues. 24 inch move behind cover, then if you happen to go first, bust out 12 inch move, shoot and assault. Put two buzz saws on them and you got a unit killer.

Just a thought, might have to create a 3 man Def Kopta squad and test it out. That is of course if they can turbo boost. And hell, it would help in Escalation games since they would always be able to start on the board.

Thoughts?

Oh and is anyone up for a game on Sunday? I am finally feeling better today, and I think one more day of rest and I will be almost 100%. Hooray cedar fever.

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

I hate being sick

Cuz if I get sick, I get really really sick. And I am at work. Awesome!!! Tonight I am going to bed early as hell. Blargh... But enough of my whining, post for today is my Chaos list I will be using at tournaments and thoughts on changes etc and other options I can use for future games.

First, why I am playing Chaos for tournaments instead of my big bug list? Well big bugs is kinda boring. And not really the most fair if the games are not the most competitive. Hard Tournaments at BFG will be Big Bugs and then most other tournaments will be Chaos and Orks when I get them finished up. Hell if Orks are kickin ass I might just use them most of the time.

Onto the Chaos List

HQ:
Demon Prince, Mark of Slaneesh, Wings, Lash of Submission
PTS: 155 X 2
HQ TOTAL: 310

Elites:
Chosen (8), Mark of Khorne, Meltagun (2), Power Fist (3), Asp Champ
PTS: 279 X 2
Elites TOTAL: 558

Troops
Noise Marines (9), Sonic Blasters (7), Master Blaster, Asp Champ, Twin Lit Claws
PTS: 295 X 2
Troops TOTAL: 590

Heavy:
Havoks (8), Lascannons (4), Icon Chaos Undivided
PTS: 270 X 2
Heavy TOTAL: 540

Army TOTAL: 1998

My own thoughts on it. Everything scores in this list. That helps since I have two HQ that are annoying to deal with and can cause lots of issues if within range etc. I have found, the only way to make sure Lash is effective is to have 2. That way you can guarantee that you are dragging someone +10 inches most of the time. The two chosen squads are used as a way to assault particularly annoying units after they have been dragged out (ie Dakka Fexes). The Noise marines just put out an insane amount of fire and can help deal with horde armies that are most likely coming (hooray orks). Of course 2 squads of Lascannons to take out vehicles, put a hurt on Fexes, and just to put a hurt on any other type of Monstrous Creature.

I uped the amount of guys per squad, due to wanting to lessen the chance to get hurt by randomly losing armor save rolls. And it makes it easier to keep them scoring. I am not so sure about the chosen. In a lot of ways I am wondering if they are throw away units and I would end up doing better with either another lascannon squad and a raptor squad instead of them? But the threat of 13 power fist attacks hitting whatever unit takes it, is pretty gross.

What do you think?

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

I think final ork list to test out

Here is what I plan on playing in the coming weeks, as I get all these damned orks glued together. If you saw the others, it is based off of that with tweaks and having certain guys etc. Once I create some Battlewagons, there might be some changes to the list. But hell here is the thought on it.

Weird Boy Brothas from Different Mothas

HQ
Weirdboy, Warphead
Pts: 90 x 2
HQ TOTAL: 180

ELITES
Lootas (15)
Pts: 225 x 2
Tankbustas (15), Nob, Power Klaw, Bomb Squigs (2)
Pts: 260
ELITES TOTAL: 710

TROOPS:
Slugga Squad (30), Big Shoota (3), Nob, Power Klaw
Pts: 230
Shoota Squad (30), Big Shoota (3), Nob, Power Klaw
Pts: 230
Trukk Boyz (12), Rokkit Launcha, Nob, Power Klaw, Boss Pole, Trukk, Red Paint
Pts: 162 X 4
TROOPS TOTAL: 1108

ARMY TOTAL: 1998
Scoring Units: 9

Weird Boyz are attached to the two big boyz squads. That way if I get an extra Waagh first turn it can do well, or +1 Attack, or a super big zap gun, either way it should be fun.

Lootas seem good, and according to math, should be good, but the main issue is that they will be a huge target. I am thinking the two huge 30 man squads coming at you, should take away some shoots that would be hitting the Loota squads. The Trukk boyz will be moving along the flanks and hopefully will get to some assault action. Will see.

I don't think Tankbustas suck, they should be pretty spicy. The main issue is with Eldar and the fact you will always be shooting a vehicle even though shooting guys would probably be better. But hell you just have to do it. You need something to hopefully kill a Dakka bug a turn.

The big issue I see with Orks is that their Elites section is way too thick. You have too many units you want to test out, but can't really fit into the army since you are limited too 3 choices. Sure you can get nobz as a troops if you get a Warboss, but I personally think Warbosses are the weakest of the HQ choices. He doesn't suck at all, but when you compare it to the big mek or Weird boy, he just doesn't have the power level. I think Lootas and Tankbustas should be been moved to heavy, flash gitz should have been in elites and depending on your HQ choice, more options should have opened up to get different specialized units as troops. Like Big Meks could take a burna squad as a troops or a loota squad etc. But hell, that didn't happen so I need to quit bitching and just test out this damned army.

I almost have enough boyz and really the only thing I need to do is convert a lot of lootas. I have enough rokkit launchas and big shootas for the army, and I have the two weird boyz models (hooray extra x-mas/freelance art/sexy bootie money). Pics will be coming soon with updates on the army and different thoughts etc.

Tomorrow I will discuss my tournament Lash list and how I think it might fare.

Thomas aka Goatboy saying WAAGH!!!