Batrep #4!!!!

Hello bear cubs, Grizzly Adams here, bringing you the latest DDK Batrep, pitting yours truly and his Sons of Sanguinius against our newest contributing member, BoxerSaint and his newest army, the dreaded Tau Empire. We played a Dawn of War ATC mission.


Grizzly Adams' Blood Angels


Reclusiarch
7x Death Company
...3x bp/ccw's, 3x bp/pw's, 1x bp/pf
...Drop Pod


2x Sanguinary Priests
...Jump Pack


10x Assault Marines
...2x flamer, Fist/Infernus Pistol Sergeant


10x Assault Marines
...1x flamer, 1x melta, Fist/Infernus Pistol Sergeant


10x Assault Marines
...2x melta, Fist/Infernus Pistol Sergeant


2x Furioso Dreadnoughts
...frag cannon/heavy flamer, drop pod


2x Baal Predators
...HB Sponsons


Landspeeder Typhoon



BoxerSaint's Tau




Commander Shas'el
...Hard-wired Multi-tracker + Missile Pod + Plasma Rifle + Positional Relay
   2 Crisis Bodyguard
...Hard-wired Multi-tracker + Missile Pod + Plasma Rifle + Targeting Array


2 Crisis Battlesuit
...Flamer + Twin Linked Missile Pod


2 Crisis Battlesuit
...Flamer + Twin Linked Missile Pod


2 Stealthsuits
...Blacksun Filter 3)
   1 Team Leader
...Targeting Array + Hard-wired Blacksun Filter + Markerlight
      2 Marker Drones


6 Fire Warrior


6 Fire Warrior


10 Kroot Carnivore Squad


10 Kroot Carnivore Squad


1 Piranha
...Disruption Pod + Fusion Blaster + Targeting Array x1


5 Pathfinders
   1 Devilfish
...Disruption Pod


5 Pathfinders
   1 Devilfish
...Disruption Pod


Team Leader
...Hard-wired Blacksun Filter + Hard-wired Target Lock + Advanced Stabilisation System
   2 Broadside Battlesuit
...Advanced Stabilisation System
   2x Shield Drones


Team Leader
...Hard-wired Blacksun Filter + Hard-wired Target Lock + Advanced Stabilisation System
   2 Broadside Battlesuit
...Advanced Stabilisation System
   2x Shield Drones


1 Hammerhead Gunship
...Railgun + Two Burst Cannons + Disruption Pod + Multi-Tracker + Blacksun Filter




It was a great game, and fun was had by all. 


Well, hope you enjoyed the batrep, and stay tuned for more!

Maul in the Mall 2012!!

The Wolves at the Maul

I have returned Dearest Readers from The Maul in the Mall, and I must say fun was had by all. There were a multitude of beautiful armies on parade, with over 40 people in attendance. It was nice to be able to have gotten my Wolves all put together, painted, and based, something long overdue. I ended up with some really interesting match ups, playing against two 4th edition codexes and one that the Interwebz has deemed uncompetitive. My Wolves went 1-2-0 for a total of 20 battlepoints out of a possible 60. Not the greatest showing on my part, but I had fun, and isn't that what matters? Fellow DDK Bloggers Pariah Stevo and Wiley the Nord were in attendance, with Wiley snagging Best Sportsman.

Armies on Parade

Danny's Tau Army

Game One

The first game was against my buddy Danny from Cookeville playing his Tau, a table quarter objective game with 1st and 6th turn being night fighting. I went second against a Farsight/Crisis Suit/Blacksun Filter/Missile Pod army. Lets just say that his first 2 turns of shooting were devastating, and not one of my models ever made it halfway across the board.I ended up with 2 battle boints for having my drop pod in his deployment zone, he got everything else.

Andy's Kroot / Nids

Thor Starin Down a "Trygon"

So after such a butt whoopin, I figured, "Can't get any worse, Right?" So I go into the next game ready to lay the smack down, playing the 5 objective mission that we did the battle report on previously.

I come up against Andy, a nice enough fella with his Kroot "Counts As" Tyranids, a really cool army that, when finished, will be a true testament to what "Counts As' is. He ran 2 Tyrants, 2 Tervigons, 2 Trygons, a Tyrannofex, a few gaunt squads and genestealers. The table really hurt me, as the centerpiece blocked nearly half of the table from LOS, and I did not deploy as intelligently as I could have. This led to it taking me way too long to kill his big bugs, and his ability to control the table. His shooting was very effective too, and I ended up losing the game 3 obj's to 1, with 1 contested. I was extremely frustrated with myself after this game, as I believed that I was capable of much better play and could have put myself in a better chance to tie/win. But i did not, and Andy took advantage of my mental lapses and played a great game. 

Bart's Beautiful Black Templars

So on we went to the Third game, the Classic Maul in the Mall mission, the mission that up to that point, I had never lost, going 4-0-0 thus far. I get paired up with Bart and his fantastic Black Templar, which ended up taking best painted. 

Thor Sees His Big, Juicy AV14 Target

Once again I am on a board with severe LOS blocking terrain, with spearhead deployment. Not good when you are facing up against assault armies. Luckily, his Landraider-O-Doom with Helbrecht/Emp. Champ/Chaplain/Crusaders immobilized itself in his deployment zone. This game was a ton of fun, with things dying all over the place. coming into the last turn, we were almost dead locked on victory points, with Bart having the edge by about 100vp's. 

Long Fangs Preparing for the Charge

On the bottom of 5, i was able to finish off a terminator squad, kill his general Helbrecht, kill the Landraider, and take out 2 squads of Crusaders, tallying over 900vp's in one turn, winning me the game, and keeping my streak on the mission alive. To play on the same table with an army as beautiful as Bart's was simply a pleasure, and made for an even greater experience.

So All in all, a great tournament and some great opponents. I would have loved to have had a better W-L-T record, but hey, can't win em all. Now the priority will be to get crankin on the Grey Knights to get them ready for this year's American Team Championships. I picked up a hard copy of the codex while at the tournament, and am very excited about getting this army together. More pics below of all the goings on at tne Maul. Grizz, signing out.

Ride: Busted

Wiley the Nord's Grey Knight Army

New Tyrannofex

Thor and His Drinking Buddies Dismounting

And Now Back to Your Regularly Scheduled Program

I know, I know, I haven't updated, and for that I apologize, some real life happened this week, and lots of stuff that I thought would never happen. It is official, The Grizz has been......Tainted By Xenos!!!! I know, please take a moment to pick your jaws off the floor and wipe away those tears of disbelief. It took me a little while to come to grips with it myself. 


After 13 years of wargaming and 40k, I have never owned a non power armored army save my IG, but that was still humans/imperium. I have never even thought about it till the last week or so. I sold all my stuff on eBay, bought what I needed for my Chaos/Blood Angels, and had a little extra left over. So I began lookin at the possibility of starting a new army and started goin down the list.


CSM - Already have
Chaos Daemons - too expensive, not consistent enough
Blood Angels - Already Have
Vanilla Marines - Already have
Grey Knights - Just sold them
Witch Hunters - Used to have and sold
Space Wolves - love rules, hate model range/fluff
Black Templar - too similar to BA/Vanilla
IG - too broke to do what i want to do - Death Korps of Krieg
Dark Angels - .......no.

Sounds like Dark Angels

I Then came to the realization that if I wanted to play a new army, it would have to be...dare I say it...Xenos. So then I broke down the Xenos Races. I wanted something completely different to the armies i currently play, yet at the same time having a familiar feel. I couldn't play Orks, as that is Pariah.Stevo's army, and I play against them too much to want to play them myself.

There can be only one...

 Necrons were marked off the list, with Eldar/DE/Tau never even making the list. Much like Highlander, at the end, there was only one - Tyranids. They were a horde, low armor, high tougness bugs, completely different to my current armies. Yet they felt strangely familiar, being assault based and short range. I began lookin at the model range and became as excited as a little boy who just discovered his first.....well, lets just say I was excited.


Every army I have ever owned I had some idea of how they worked. Oh ok that squad has bolters and power armor, lets put em in a transport and move em around. Not so with this new purchase. As I read through the codex, I became so lost, not knowing what any unit did or how to run them. I felt like I was starting 40k all over again. It scared the piss out of me, but at the same time, it excited me. I feel like I am looking at the game in a whole new way now. I received my first box of Gaunts yesterday, and got my first paint test done today. Tuesday, i should have sitting on my door step -


-2x Battleforces
-2x Trygons
-1x Carnifex


That gives me a pretty sizable chunk of stuff, and a lot to work on. So here comes the big question - Do you guys care about the Nids? I started this blog to talk about power armor, showcase my armies, and so on and so forth. Of course I never planned on havin a xenos army either. So, what I am asking you, the humble follower -

Do you want to see Tyranid Stuff on here, or keep it strictly SM/CSM stuff? Should I chronicle my rocky journey with this new army on IIWPA... or keep it straight Power Armor?

The Rules...

Yes, the entire premise of this blog post came about because I needed an excuse to post this picture

The rules; they are the guiding light of our hobby. Without them, Warhammer would be nothing more than a cool back story, some pictures, and a whole bunch of awesome looking (yet completely worthless) models. So, in a small way (sarcasm intended) the rules are kind of important. Yet, some people still are not satisfied, their hatred for specific rules filling the forums and covering blogs. TLOS here, Wound allocation there, everyone has that one they love to hate. Most of them, i don't really have an issue with. A select few, however, have earned my contempt.


Night Fighting

Apparently, just cause it's standard issue today doesn't mean jack.

Night fight has to be one of my least favorite rules in the history of Warhammer 40,000, mostly because I always forget about it. 


How many people have rolled to hit, wound, got that glorious penetrating hit, and then Lady Luck shines on you and that 6 rolls on the table for the damage chart. You jump up and down, thanking the powers that be, until your opponent utters those dreaded words, "hey can you see that? Isn't it night fighting?" Your emotions do a 180, you mutter every curse you can think of, sometimes making new ones up. You roll your to see dice, and you aren't even close.


I think my biggest thing with night fighting is that it really doesn't bring anything to the game. I have no problem with rules that encourage a certain style of play or bring something new. Night fighting does nothing except piss you off and hurt shooty armies. It is one of those rules that has been around forever, and just keeps getting put into the books out of habit.


Defensive Weapons

No matter how beautiful your tank is,
 2/3rds of it is useless

In my honest opinion, one of the dumbest things GW ever did was change defensive weapons to 4 and under, as opposed to the previous 5 and under. This basically made heavy bolters pointless. 


Yeah, GW I am gonna pay 25 points for those heavy bolter sponsons that I can't shoot unless I sit still. Retarded. Maybe my hatred for this rule change is based solely around me playing Blood Angels and their fast vehicles all the time and then being constantly frustrated when i go back to C:SM and can't move and shoot crap. Either way, it is mildly irritating, and didn't improve the game at all.


Pivoting and assaults

Who pivoted now?!?!

I remember the first time I heard this rule. I had moved 2 rhinos up the last turn at full speed. The next turn, i spun those bad boys around and unloaded two full squads of plague marines and charged them into a big squad of orks. Ol' Pariah Stevo quickly informed me that I couldn't do that. 


I was confused, i said "pivoting doesn't count as moving".  Then he showed me the rule. Stupid. So wait, if you pivot you can fire 300 lascannons but that 5 man scout squad can't walk or punch a grot, all because the Vehicle TURNED AROUND?!?!?!?! Another seemingly pointless rule that adds nothing to the game.


Jet Packs

Tau - So terrible in Assault, we have to
model us being good at it to make us feel better.

This rule is not necessarily flawed, or a game breaker, or the result of a poor thought process. I think the only reason that i dislike jet packs is because this single rule basically defines the only army that has access to them. 


The assault phase is my personal favorite part of 40k. It separates the men from the boys, it puts hair all over your nether regions, it is the epitome of my phallus is larger than your phallus. 


And how do the almighty vaginal faced, blue skinned 3 toed communist aliens spend this phase? By running away. Really? How could any one play an army that completely sucks at a part of the game so bad that the best thing they can do during it is run away??? I mean even non assaulty armies have some decent assault units. Guard have Straken Mobs/ogryn, Eldar have Banshees, Tau have.............kroot? Pitiful, just pitiful. Hide behind your guns, Tau wiener heads, cause even a railgun turns into nothing more than a S5 beat stick when i get close enough...

Typical results of Tau assaults

Now, don't think that I have a hatred toward 5th edition or anything. In fact, my sentiments toward the rule set is the opposite. 5th is, imho, the best, most complete set of rules GW has released, and it has definitely made the game more enjoyable. There is always, however, a few imperfections in even the best made product. These are just a few of my personal gripes.


So, what rules piss you off? what makes you cringe every time you read it, or makes you throw a codex/brick of dice every time it comes up?