To Thunderwolf Or Not To Thunderwolf

Well, between the moving, packing, and cleaning, I somehow found time to finally get my first game in with my Space Wolves. My good friend Pariah.Stevo from over at Tainted By Xenos (which is back up and running BTW) came over to help me move and while waiting for the Storage unit we squeezed a game in. I took a very different list than i normally take, as it was a shooty list with no deathstar, as I wanted to see how certain things work. I took -


Wolf Lord
---Runic armor, Frost Axe, SS, Wolftooth Necklace


4x Wolf Guard
---Combimeltas & PFs


4x Grey Hunters Squads, 3x9, 1x8
---Plasma, Rhino w/ Hunter Killer Missile


2x Rune Priests
---Liv. Light./Jaws
---Liv. Light./Jaws, Melta Bombs


2x Long Fang Squads
---3x MLs, 2x LCs
---Razorback w/ LC/TLPG, HK Missile


Vindicator
---HK Missile


Steve took his tournament Ork list, which entails - Ed. Steve, if this is wrong correct me


Ghazghkull
Mek w/ KFF & Power Klaw
A squad of Nobz with Cybork bodies, WAAAGH Banner, Bosspole
Battlewagon w/ Deffrolla, Red Paint


17 Shoota Boys
Nob w/ Boss pole, Power klaw
Battlewagon w/ deffrolla


16 Shoota Boys

Nob w/ Boss pole, Power klaw

Battlewagon w/ deffrolla

2x15 Lootas

2x Deffcoptas w/ buzzsaws

Babysitting grot squad

What Should've Happened

Ok, so basically Murphy and his law came in and beat the ever livin crap out of me from turn one. We rolled Dawn of War, so Ghazghkull started halfway across the board and night fighting caused me to do absolutely zilch for damage. The next turn sees 6 lascannons (2 at side armor),2 Missile Launchers, 2 HK missiles (at side armor) and a Demolisher Cannon (side armor) give me one immobilized result and a Crew Shaken result on Ghazzy's wagon. Awesome. Ghazghkull then proceeds to charge me from across the board.

What Did Happen

From then till the end of turn four when we called it I watched 9 shoota shots kill 7 grey hunters in one roll, 2 lascannons bounce off AV 12, a Wolf Lord kill a whopping 2 Ork nobs (over 4 rounds of assault), a grey hunter squad shoot and charge a shoota boy squad and cause a grand total of 3 wounds, then watched Steve roll three 6s, pretty much my dice hated me. With a vengeance. over the course of the day I failed 7 of 9 vehicle 4+ covers. Not my day.

God do I love a good Beatstick...

Now, although I deployed wrong, my dice completely failed me, and Steve's were on fire, and after such a game it is a terrible idea to immediately redo your army list, I have begun to think about new units. Now, if you haven't figured this out about me by now, i like a good beatstick. I carry a .45, I hunt with a 7mm Rem. Mag., I drive a V8. I like em big and powerful. Looking back at all my armies, every build I have ever liked has a deathstar in it. My old Ultras had Hestan and TH/SS Termies in a LRR. Blood Angels have the Chappie/DC/DC Dread/Stormraven combo, Chaos has either Abaddon/Plagues/LR or 2x MoN DPs and a GD,  my Nids have the Trygons. I like beatsticks.

Which brings me to my current dilemma. How do I run an effective, shooty SW army and still have a good beatstick in there to help with the Vects and Ghazghkulls out there? I then began to read the Thunderwolf Cavalry entry. Dear. God. These dudes mean business, with a true T5 and 4 base attacks. And a not so terrible price tag. This unit could fill in that little deathstar sized hole in my heart. So I revamped the list, and came up with this - 

Wolf Lord

---Frost Axe, SS, Runic Armor, WT Necklace, Thunderwolf Mount, Saga of the Bear

5x Thunderwolf Cavalry

---BP/CCW

---BP/SS

---Plasma Pistol/CCW

---BP/CCW, Melta Bombs

---BP/TH

4x Wolf Guard

---Combi Melta, PF

4x9 Grey Hunters

---Plasma Gun, Rhino

2x Long Fang Packs

---3x ML/2x LC

Vindicator

1999pts.

That way, I am runnin a similar army that is shooty, but still has a beatstick. Now, I'll just have to proxy some TWC and see how I like em before I drop the dough for em. Still haven't found a company who's TWC I really love, but maybe y'all can help me with that :)

So what do we think? Are TWC the way to go? Is The Grizz's new plan absolute crap? Are there good lookin TWC models out there? Let us know below!

A Great Time to Start Tyranids...

Just my luck. So, I have started my Tyranids, as all of you know. One thing you may not know is how much of the range is blisters. Venomthropes, Zoanthropes, Tyrant Guard, Hive Guard, Hive Tyrants, Lictors, Piovores, Broodlords, all these things are pewter, with all but the Tyrant coming in blister packs. Now the thing about Nids is, if its good enough to have 1 of them, its good enough to have 3 of them. Problem is, each blister is between 20-25 bucks. You know that 3x Brood of Venomthropes you need? Yup, $60. Now, this I can accept, as this is an expensive hobby, but now bigger problems loom over the horizon. 

As many of you also know, metal is on its way out, with currently no plan to replace it. Awesome. So yeah, those 6 hive guard I need? Not only is it gonna run 120 bones, its also gonna be a wild goose chase to find. Sometimes I just look at GW and go, WTF? As a 5th year Business major, graduating next weekend, sometimes i just have to shake my head at GW's business model. I don't know if it is a cultural thing or what, but man those Brits do things very different than we do. I mean, who cancels such a large part of their sales/production and has no secondary plan in place?

God Bless the 80's

The sad part is, there are armies that are worse off than Nids. The Eldar will have zilch when it comes to HQ's, Aspect Warriors and the like. And what will new Tau players do without any broadsides? Maybe I am being a little over the top, but it just irks me. I have no problem with them dropping the metal and going to a cheaper material, but to stop production without first having that material ready to go and take pewter's place? To quote the great Charlie Daniels, "I ain't nothin' but a simple man, They call me a redneck I reckon that I am. But there's things going on that make me mad down to the core."


On a different note, got one of my Trygon Primes painted, thought I might show him off a lil bit

So what do y'all think about the pewter switch? Good, Bad, Indifferent? And how did the Prime turn out?

Post Tourney Recap

Well yesterday, Elthrai, The_Warsmith, and myself all loaded up in the Ford Explorer and made our way down to Dicehead Games in Cleveland, TN for the ATC Practice tournament. It was a 2000pt tournament showcasing the ATC specific mission, which is a blast.


 For those of you who arent familiar, the ATC mission is all of the basic missions smacked into one. there are 3 "Seize Ground" objectives, Capture and Control objectives, and killpoints, with ties decided by victory points. Each Mission also cycles between pitched battle, Dawn of War, and Spearhead deployments. It is a very interesting mission, to say the least. Unbroken made a pretty decent show, with The_Warsmith winning 3 games and coming in 2nd, only 12 vp's behind the winner, and Yours Truly coming in 4th, going 2-1-0, my only loss coming to the new and improved Grey Knights.

Fun was had by all, and the craziest thing ever has happened. Hell must've dropped a few degrees, cause I am playin xenos and..............Pariah.Stevo is rockin Power Armor!!!! The mightiest of the Xenos Filth is now protecting the Imperium from the Threat Without, The Bad Boys from Titan, the newest addition to the GW Lineup, The Grey Knights!!! I picked up his first boxes of Grey Knight glory yesterday while at the store. So, With my Nids, and his GK, there surely must be pigs flying somewhere. Well, that is all for now, we'll see y'all on the flip side. 

IIWPA...'S VERY FIRST BATTLE REPORT!!!!

Well followers, it is finally here! Our very first IIWPA... Video Battle Report! Pariah.Stevo and myself got together and threw down in preperation for the ATC Team Tournament at Dicehead Games in Cleveland, TN. I took my Nurgle Chaos, with Stevo runnin his Dark Kin. It's a little long, so go pop some popcorn, prop up your feet, and enjoy! 


---In order to watch Full Screen, you may have to watch it on YouTube by clicking the YouTube icon in the bottom right of the screen.---

Well there you have it, how was it? Likes, Dislikes, Let us know!

My first Nid!!

Well, I am still workin on a name for their Hive Fleet, but I have the color scheme down,The beautiful, majestic, and National Championship winning colors Orange and Blue!

Chitin - Used a Necron Abyss for the basecoat, then drybrushed Regal Blue, then PP Trollblood, and finally PP Arccane Blue


Flesh - Valspar Fonda Copper satin spray paint
Then coated the whole thing down in Devlan Mud


---UPDATE---
Just finished a couple more, here are the finished products

So, what do you think? How did it turn out?

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 Grizz Hates Ghazghkull...

just looking at him brings so many words to mind, not one of them child friendly

Played a 2500pt game against Pariah.Stevo Saturday, both of us trying to get ready for the big tournament at the Barn in mid March. I took the list I posted last week, Stevo took-

Thrakka   

 Big Mek -Kustom Force field, Power Klaw, Cybork Body 

   ELITES   

 15 Lootas

   

 15 Lootas   

 10 Nobs - Waaagh!! Banner, Painboy, Power Klaw ,Stikkbombz 

Battlewagon - deffrolla ,Red Paint ,2 X Big Shoota, Amour Plates 

TROOPS 

7 Nobs Bikers - Cybork Bodies, 4 Power Klaws,  2 Big Choppas ,Painboy 2, Combi-Skorchas,  2 bosspoles,  Waaagh!!! Banner   

18 orks nob Pk Bosspole   

18 orks nob Pk Bosspole   

11 grots   

FAST ATTACK  

2 Deffkoptas-  2 TL Rokkit Launcha, 2 Buzzsaws   

HEAVY SUPPORT   

BattleWagon- Deffrolla, 2 Big Shootas, Red Paint  

BattleWagon- Deffrolla, 2 Big Shootas, Red Paint     

Total-2499

we played 5 obj's Pitched Battle. The game was very interesting, cause for the 1st 3 turns, we kinda danced around each other, both waiting for the other to move so we could gain the charge, waiting for that one misstep to put a unit in charge range. The game had a lot of suck come my way. First, the one new unit that I wanted to try (assembled and painted on friday so I could use them Saturday), the Vanguard Vets, Deep Sruck in on turn 3, scattered into dangerous terrain, and out of charge range. They subsequently took 30 loota shots to the face. 350pts that never saw combat. Next would definitely be the straw that broke the camel's back. He drove 2 battlewagons across the board and dumped Ghazzy, Naked Nobs, and 19 boys on me. 

I guess this counts for their armor save rolls too...

The nobs killed the DC, Ghazz whomped the DC Dread, and the boys were tied in assault with an assault squad. Next turn I was going to kill Ghazghkull, I had already decided . He had WAAAGHed last turn, so his 2++ was in effect, so I knew it would take a lot of dice to lay him low. So I shot and charged him with Sanguinor, A Librarian w/ Sanguine Sword, and 20 assault marines w/ the Blessed sergeant. That is a total of 88 attacks, with Sanguinor rerolling to hit and wound. Now, Mathhammer says that just the assault squads should have caused 5 and change unsaved wounds, not counting PF's,Sang. Sword, and Sanguinor. Stevo never rolled a 1. Not one. Ghazghkull was unwounded. 


This was the beginning of the end for me, as I got charged by the nobs next turn and pretty much got chomped to little bits. We called it on turn 5, as he had 2 objectives and I had 2 models. It was one of those games where one or two events decide the entire outcome. I think I played well, just didnt have the dice go my way.


I am gonna keep trying the VVs, see if they are worth their hefty price tag or too big of a gamble. Look forward to the next one, we'll see if Ghazghkull's luck has run out...

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?

Tourney Time in Tennessee!

For no other reason than it makes me laugh every time i see it

Well, the Pariah.Stevo and myself have hurriedly decided as of yesterday that we were gonna go down to Cleveland, TN and participate in a 2400pt team tournament at one of my favorite big tournament venues, Dicehead Games & Comics. This decision came about as we were talkin about how we don't go and play in tourneys like we used to, and how much fun we used to have when we hit the circuit pretty hard. 


Stevo was all like "well lets find us a tourney to go to" and i am like "ok sounds good". So after a few strikeouts, we came across the team tournament, and got all excited about how it would be a great way to kick off the year and how much fun we were gonna have and how we were gonna redeem ourselves from our 0-1-2 finish at the last team tourney we went to and...well crap that was last weekend. We hang our heads in disappointment. 

Well, to make a long story short, i get a phone call yesterday from the Stevo, and did he have some good news there. Apparently, your favorite new blogger, yours truly, and his tournament partner ,the Stevo, are incapable of the basic concept of reading numbers. The tournament was this coming Saturday, and it is game on!


So we have been workin on trying to feverishly throw together 2 1200pt lists that can play together as one list. Last year, Steve and I just took the nastiest stuff we could think of - Warboss on a bike and Nob Bikers and Abaddon and plague marines. after a first round tie, a second round wipe, and a third round drubbing by some high school freshmen, we felt quite worthless. Tired and weak, we left that tourney a little bowlegged, but with some valuable experience. 


So this year, we are trying to build a more "balanced" list. Thus far, this is what we have come up with


Orks
Big Mek
---Kustom Force Field, Cybork Body, Boss Pole, 'eavy armor, Power Klaw


2x squads of 15 Lootas


2x squads - 19 boys, Nob w/ Boss pole & Power Klaw
2x Battlewagons - Red Paint, Extra Armor, Deffrolla, 2 Big shootas


10 Grots


Blood Angels
Librarian - Jump Pack, Shield of Sang., The Sanguine Sword
Sang. Priest - Power Weapon, Jump Pack
2x 10 man RAS - Flamer, Melta, Fisty Sarge


5x Scout Squad - 4x Sniper Rifles, 1x Heavy Bolter


2x Baal Preds - Ass. Cannons, Heavy Bolters


Predator - Autocannon, Lascannons


For a grand total of 2493 pts.


Stevo may trade out the Grots and some equip on the mek for a deff dread, but we will see. Either way, we shall see how everything goes on Saturday! List critiques, comments, or criticisms welcome!

Well there you have it. Will The Grizz and Stevo come back from Cleveland victorious? Or will they walk that familiar Road of Shame in a repeat of last year? Look for updates and a full tourney run down soon!

If you are into that kind of thing...

It's not biased if it's the truth!

Well, my good buddy Pariah.Stevo has just started a blog, Tainted By Xenos. It is a blog dedicated to covering the Xenos armies in all forms. He is quite the experienced gamer (a little Stevo background HERE), having played Xenos races since the inception of 3rd. ed Necrons. So if you are looking for something a little different, if you have a xenos itch that needs to be scratched (I scratch 'em with a flamethrower...), give it a look, you won't be disappointed!

Space Marines

Xenos

The BA Have Finally Fallen...

Welp, i finally suffered my first defeat to the Eldar of the Caribbean yesterday, and what a sad day it was. I met my good friend and gaming partner Pariah.Stevo at the Battle Barn yesterday to 'ave a go with his newest army, the Dark Eldar. A little on the Stevo - 


I got the Stevo into the hobby of 40k after he had watched my brother and I play a few games, and his interest in the hobby coincided with the release of an entirely new army, the 3rd Ed. Necrons. So, he built up quite a formidable phalanx and marched his silent, gauss guzzling minions onto the tables and tournament scene with considerable success. I have labeled Stevo as a strictly Xenos player, as he has always had aspirations to build a marine army, yet always ends up with a new xenos army, which keeps it interesting, that way it isn't marines on marines all the time. As 4th Ed. came to a close, He began to get entranced by the coming Green Tide, and then promptly built quite a substantial Ork army, Boss Redtoof's WAAAGH!! Since the release of 5th (and the Necron Nerf) this has been his primary tournament/casual army, which looks as good as it plays. Looking to get into a new army, he almost started a Black Templar army, going as far as picking up a box or two, but then his xenos heart saw the GW leaked Dark Eldar stuff, and quickly all marine thought vaporized. The Pointy Eared Pirates had him, and there was no turning back. 


So, over the past couple weeks, Stevo and I have been running a few games out, My BA against his DE. Now this is a Stevo with a brand new codex/army playing me with a army/codex that i have been tweaking for tournament play since the BA release, quite some time ago. So Stevo was basically throwing his High School ROTC cadets into a live fire drill against Navy SEALs. But this is the way me and Stevo like to do it, as with both my Blood Angels and my Chaos when i started out with them, i consistently played against Stevo and my buddy Kyle, veteran players with their tournament Orks and Tau lists respectively. You can quickly learn the rights, wrongs, ins and outs of a list/codex by throwing down against unforgiving, powerful, and experienced armies/players. In my personal opinion, i believe that this is not only influential to list building, but it makes you a better player as well. 


Anyways, after a few crushing defeats, with the last game being a wipe by turn 5, the Steve came in to the Barn Saturday with a brand new plan. So we roll for game and setup, getting Capture & Control and Spearhead. 
He ran- (steve correct me if i'm wrong)
-Vect
-Incubi
-Haemonculus
-Raider


-2 Raiders full of warriors w/blaster and Dark Lance


-2 Wrack Squads in venoms


-1 trueborn squad w/blasters
-venom


-20x warriors w/ 2 dark lances


-3x ravagers, 2 w/ dark lances 1 w/ disintegrator cannons.


I was running the same list that i posted 2 days ago. 


Basically, I didnt have enough shots, by turn 5 he still had 2 venoms and all three ravagers alive, allowing him to move scoring units very quickly to objectives, and being able to draw me off of mine. The Spearhead setup hurt me, as the DE are so mobile it gave them free reign to run around me if i couldn't blow up the raiders, which i didn't quickly enough. Also losing one of my 2 scoring units to a deep strike mishap really hurt me as well. At the end though, Steve had a good plan, and i didn't have the shots to stop him. Which has led me to begin thinking that i need some more shooty units in my army. May go back to using predators, maybe a Baal or two, we shall see.


All in all, though it was, as always when playing Stevo, a fun game, and a challenging one. I meant to take pics, but we were pushed for time cause he had to work, but the game has definitely got me thinking about making some changes and improvements. Well, i reckon that is enough for now, till next time...