The Stormraven Gunship - Tactics and Opinions

Ah, the Stormraven Gunship. A beautiful model that just screams "Space Marines" in my opinion. When pictures of the model leaked on the internet, many people had a knee-jerk "I hate it!" reaction, and even I admittedly wasn't thrilled with the only picture that was available at the time. Just like the Venomthrope and Blood Talon fiascoes, after waiting just a few weeks we had better shots of it from GW and size comparisons. I immediately fell in love with this Thunderhawk-esque skimmer and I'm the proud owner of two of them.

Aesthetics aside, this thing comes with a metric shit-ton of weapons and special rules that makes it a formidable transport-gunship.

Let's break it down and see what we've got:

Blood Angels Codex Review Part 1 - Special Rules

Yes, this is long overdue, but FINALLY after a year and a half of play-testing, I believe I can give a solid review of the units in the Blood Angels codex based on a decent amount of experience! I'll start with the special rules, and then go on down the line by Force Organization slots.

How do Blood Angels work?

So lately I've been discussing some Blood Angels theory on Reecius's blog, Frontline Gaming. It might be a bit late in the game for this article, but some people still seem to misunderstand where the strengths of the current Blood Angels codex lie, and that's okay because I'd like to share my thoughts.

Five Necron Tricks and a 2k list

The new Necron codex by Mr. Matt Ward is chock full of abilities, wargear, and special characters. Not surprisingly, some of them can be paired up to produce some interesting effects (several of which have already been posted on BoLS).

Here they are:

NECRONS INCOMING!

So we all know Necrons get their new Codex and models tomorrow, but tonight I'm doing a special battle report with the old 'Crons (against my Blood Angels)! Stay tuned for the video link!

--edit--
There's been some technical difficulties with the videos, and I apologize for the delay. I'm working on the issue right now, so expect them soon!

--edit 2--
I've had the link up on my YouTube channel for a bit, but here it is for those of you that follow this blog:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uAwCZPnji4

Necrons

As a Necron player for eight years, I've always seen them as the mindless drone horde army as depicted in many pieces of their artwork and in a lot of their fluff...

2k Blood Angels List

A few weeks ago I played two games with a 2,000 point list I came up with for my Blood Angels. I went undefeated that night against Grey Knights and Orks. Here's the list (though I've added a priest and dropped three Assault Marines and one Death Company member since then):

It's October Already???

For some reason it still seems like it's only August-ish to me. I haven't really accomplished much in the last few months so time should be slowing down for me right? Well, it's definitely not! With Halloween in less than four weeks and Thanksgiving next month, it's time to start considering holiday plans.

'Nilla Marines, 2k

Back in February when I attended GenghisCon I stumbled across an awesome vanilla Space Marine army painted up in the Relictor colors. I had never seen the paint scheme in person before (let alone done this well) and I was simply blown away. I had an immediate new appreciation for vanilla Marines, and since then I have paid more attention to the core Codex: Space Marine army.

I've been watching people run all kinds lists from one-trick ponies to well thought-out and balanced ones, and it inspired me to come up with my own list.

Battlegroup Cruorem Sanctus

Commander Dante, Chapter Master of the holy Blood Angels, received word from Imperial forces on Volcanis VIII that they were under direct assault from Chaos legions who were devastating the planet in a swift and brutal attack. Dante had previous dealings on Volcanis VIII when he led a strike force to supreme victory against a Chaos Lord several hundred years ago who had tried the same thing. The planet is home to several Imperial artifacts and relics (as well as the Cadian 172nd armored regiment) but more importantly there is an experimental weapons research facility located deep within the planet's capitol city of Ardra that is monitored closely by Inquisitor Kallistos.

Dante, pulling from prior dealings with Chaos forces in Ardra, assembled a battlegroup that would quickly and decisively deal with the enemy.

It is called Cruorem Sanctus.

Labor Day BBQ/Tourney

So, yesterday I attended the Troll Country Games Labor Day BBQ/40k Tournament with several other War College members. It was a load of fun, and we got to cram our faces with some decent BBQ through most of the second round!

It was a 2,000 point tournament with BBQ-themed missions. Here's a quick battle report of the event:

More Updates

So again things have gotten to be quite hectic for me lately. I've been busy with transitioning the War College to our new Friendly Local Game Store, Troll Country Games, to figuring out what to do for transportation since my car died, to getting my son ready for his second year of school, to searching for a job, and trying to find a few minutes here and there for gaming. It hasn't been easy on all fronts, let me tell ya.

However, it hasn't been a complete wash. I have gotten to pre-order my copy of Star Wars: The Old Republic along with WWE '12, and I've been toying with Blood Angel and Tyranid list ideas as I stated in my last post. Here's what I have been up to with the Blood Angels:

2,000 points - Deathstar and friends

HQ
Librarian (Terminator Armor, Storm Shield, Sanguine Sword, Unleash Rage)
Reclusiarch (Terminator Armor)

ELITES
Sanguinary Priest (Terminator Armor)
Sanguinary Priest (Power Sword)
5x Assault Terminators (2x TH/SS, 3x LC, Land Raider Crusader with Multi-Melta)
Chaplain

TROOPS
6x Death Company (2x Power Weapons, Power Fist, Rhino with Extra Armor and Dozer Blade)
9x Assault Marines (Meltagun, Power Weapon, Rhino)
10x Assault Marines (2x Meltaguns, Power Weapon, Rhino)

HEAVY
Predator (TL-Autocannon, Lascannon Sponsons)
Predator (TL-Autocannon, Lascannon Sponsons)

1,992 points, 41 models, 2-4 scoring units, 15 Kill Points

So the 8-man Terminator unit has Furious Charge, Feel no Pain, Fearless, re-rolls to hit in every round of combat, and a 2+ armor save (with about half of the unit having a 3+ invul). They ride in the Land Raider Crusader and it's job is to ride up the center of the field as fast as possible and drop off it's cargo smack in the middle of everything (to draw as much attention to itself as possible). The Death Company can be aimed at anything the Termies need help with or a unit on an objective, and the Assault Squads will grab objectives. The AutoLas Preds are there for some much needed long-range firepower.

I'll add my Tyranid list soon, but that's what I'm thinking of messing around with for now. It's not perfect by any stretch but it should be entertaining.

New Beginnings

So my GW hobby club, the War College, has finally come together and decided on a place to game. We agreed that Troll Country Games (off of Hampden and Monaco) was ideal as they were a store looking for a 40k club, and we were a 40k club looking for a store. Thankfully, I ended up knowing one of the two owners and in fact I had actually GM'd some D&D sessions for him. What a small world. The cool thing is, they are sacrificing quite a bit to accommodate our club's needs. We are pretty much guaranteed every table in their store on a Saturday, all War College members get a 10% discount on all store merchandise, and they are providing 6'x4' boards for us to play on AND cabinets for us to store terrain in!

Anyways, as life goes on in my tiny little world, I have also picked up a new hobby. It's something I've always wanted to do (whether it was professionally or for fun), but I have joined a Pro-Wrestling organization called Mid-West Extreme Wrestling (or MXW for short). Sure, they may seem like a run-of-the-mill backyard wrestling "club", but I've seen some real talent in this group and I'm excited to see where things go. I've been getting my ass kicked in training and I doubt it's going to let-up. @_@

As for other hobbies, I have been toying around with list ideas for 2,000 point games for both my Blood Angels and Tyranids. I'll probably post the lists here after I get in some practice with them which will come over the next few weeks.

Stay tuned!

ATTACTIX HAS CLOSED

This is a sad day in many of our lives. Attactix is now officially permanently closed. Their property was seized today for tax reasons. No clubs or individuals will be allowed back because the locks have been changed and the store is now out of business.

For those still interested in gaming together as a group, we are working on a few other options right now(i.e. where to game, where the terrain will go, etc), but I will keep people apprised of any decisions and/or options as we come to them.

I'd personally like to thank Bill Winski for his hard work and dedication to keeping the store open for us to stay and play at (even all the way into the wee hours of the morning), and all the little things like letting us bring outside food and drink, not charging for table space, and letting us build/glue terrain and models in the store (all of which are taboo in one store or another).

Please keep the Winski family (the owner) in your thoughts and prayers as we transition to a new location.

I will be keeping the War College forum up (www.warcollege.proboards.com) for a long time as I hope we have grown together as a community of gamers and that we can continue to organize games and have fun together despite this epic setback.

-Dave, president of the War College

Updates

Yes, this is one of those "post just to post" posts. I haven't been able to get a whole lot of painting/building/hobbying done lately due to real life stuff (two kids, wife, job stuff, etc), but I'm going to lay out the projects I'm working on and their progress so far. This also lets me know where I stand (and it's a quick-reference I can check on my phone lol, as my blog is enabled for web browsing now).

Blood Angels:
I started work on a 2,000 point list via my club's 40k Escalation League, and I believe I posted the contents a few months ago. There's 4 Las/Plas Razorbacks, 4 Predators, and a Stormraven in it. Sure, the list is not original, unique, or inspiring, but it surely is competitive and has won me many games (including scoring a SUPER CLOSE draw against the guy who won my store's Feast of Blades tournament). At the moment I have three Razorbacks and 15 Assault Marines primed bright red, and I've started painting black on the details of one of the Marines as a test model. Unfortunately, I still need roughly 8 Plasmaguns so I can convert the turret of the Razorbacks, and I need to do a LOT of work on my regular Predators as the sponsons have broken off tons of times over the years. Also, when I primed my Razorbacks red, there was a bit of shrinking and wrinkling of the paint in certain areas, apparently due to a chemical reaction between this new Army Painter primer and some old GW red primer. Isn't that awesome? Now I have to sand off that garbage and re-prime the spots. I'll post WIP pics later.

Tyranids:
I was in the process of painting up my bugs for Tacticon and GenghisCon, and since then my bugs have been horribly mistreated. I've played a TON of games with them, and unfortunately I don't have foam to store them in so they bounce around in cardboard trays and a tackle-box. Someday I'll purchase a shit-ton of foam from Battlefoam to store them in, and it'll be sweet. Until then I think I'm just going to have to be super-careful with them. Anyways, as I said a few posts back I've been really interested in using alternate units including Lictors, so I think I might work on building (and painting) a 2,000 point Tyranid list that doesn't really include the normal copy-paste stuff. I think I'll have a LOT more fun with it, and hey, if I win some games with them then that's even better. :)

Dark Elves:
They are still in-progress, don't worry! I have 40 Corsairs, 24 Crossbowmen, 10 Black Guard, a Hydra, a Supreme Sorceress, a Dreadlord, a Master, and a sorceress built. All I have left to do is roughly 30 more Corsairs, 12 more Crossbowmen (though I'm going to have 6 of them made as unit fillers because I actually don't have 6 more), 10 more Black Guard, another Hydra, and a Cauldron of Blood. I'm easily over half-way there, and my wife is making things WAY easier by cleaning everything ahead of time by de-spruing the models and bits and shaving off the plastic and metal flash. Fairly soon, I'll have 3k of Dark Elves fully built and ready for some kick-ass battles.

Cygnar:
Unfortunately my FLGS hasn't got in ANY of my preliminary Cygnar stuff (tokens, faction deck, etc), so I'm kind of stalled-out on them. Once the job situation gets figured out, I'll be able to start picking up little things here and there from other stores, but for now I'm waiting to use my store credit on the stuff I ordered, if it ever comes in. :(

So, stay tuned, I'll have pics of my WIP models up soon. Life is kickin me in the ass right now, and time is a very valuable asset at the moment.

My FLGS has a website!

Finally, my FLGS has started to work on their website! I happen to frequent a store called Attactix in Aurora, Colorado, and for several years their website had been down, until now! (note that it is under construction, however)

www.attactix.com

They also have a facebook page up and running too!

www.facebook.com/attactix

Check 'em out!

3,000 points - Dark Elves

I've been putting together my Dark Elf models, and making sure I have a WYSIWYG 3,000 point army (I just randomly have the urge to play a larger force than 2,250). So far, here's the list I've been thinking about running (and I plan on play-testing it this weekend if I can get everything built):

2,996 points - Dark Elves - Lore of Shadow

LORDS
Dreadlord (General, Crimson Death, Armor of Darkness, Pendant of Kaeleth, The Other Trickster's Shard)

HEROES
Sorceress (Level 2, Talisman of Preservation)
Sorceress (Level 2, Null Talisman (3), Ironcurse Icon)
Death Hag (BSB, Cauldron of Blood)

CORE
Assassin (Touch of Death, Dark Venom)
14x Repeater Crossbowmen (Musician)
14x Repeater Crossbowmen (Musician)
14x Repeater Crossbowmen (Musician)
20x Corsairs (Extra Hand Weapons, Command)
30x Corsairs (Extra Hand Weapons, Command, Sea Serpent Standard)

SPECIAL
20x Blackguard (Command, Banner of Murder)
5x Cold One Knights (Command)
5x Cold One Knights (Command)

RARE
War Hydra
War Hydra

Mantic's Warpath beta rules now available!

Some of you may have subscribed to Mantic's newsletter, and in that case you already have the Beta rules for their new Sci-Fi miniatures game Warpath (that is, if you were lucky enough for your beta test application NOT to get lost on their server). For those of you that haven't subscribed (or haven't gotten the invitation email yet like myself), you can download them for free right now at www.manticgames.com/sci-fi.html.

Mantic Games is most widely known for their Kings of War miniatures, typically their Dwarfs, Undead, and Orcs (which when combined with their fantasy game's rules set available here, is a direct competitor with Games Workshop's Warhammer Fantasy). However, they've decided to step into the world of Sci-Fi miniatures games to compete with Warhammer 40k.

So far, they only have their Marauders and Forge Fathers written up in PDF format to use with the beta rules, but that should be enough to give people a rough idea of how they want their game to play. The only problems I've heard of so far are base-size issues considering they don't list them in the beta army lists, but I'm sure two friends looking to have fun with a trial rules set could figure something out fairly easily.

Overall, after seeing some of the concept art for Warpath, I'm really looking forward to seeing some of the minis produced in plastic. I think this game could easily steal a lot of GW's market share if they focus on four major aspects of this hobby:

1. Ensure the rulebook is plainly laid-out. Nobody wants to spend half an hour flipping pages to find a simple rule. Better written rules also means fewer errata and FAQ documents.
2. Play-test the rules and armies. "Power creep" is not unavoidable. Units can be powerful but they should be balanced by cost, speed, or even numbers.
3. Cheap miniatures means it's easier for gamers to increase the size of their armies, and new players will be able to afford new armies.
4. Though the miniatures should be reasonably priced, that doesn't mean it's acceptable to skimp on quality. If people don't like the minis or material, they simply won't buy it.

But here's the kicker:

SO MANY PEOPLE were upset with the 5th Edition of Warhammer 40k, and even more were absolutely pissed off over the weekend project called "Codex: Chaos Space Marines". BOTH of these were written by one specific individual (though he did admittedly have help), and his name is Alessio Cavatore. Guess who has written the core rules for Kings of War, and now Warpath?

Is that enough to turn you away from the game? Should we play-test the beta rules and find out for ourselves?

It has begun...

As I stated in my last post, I started playing Warmachine recently. I acquired some Cygnar minis (which is my faction of choice) about a week or two ago and have been playing almost non-stop since. Because I don't have a whole heck of a lot and I'm brand-new to the game, I have been playing some small 15-point games just to try and figure things out.

The list I've been using is:

15 points
Commander Coleman Stryker (+6)
-Ironclad
-Hunter
-Charger
Trencher Chaingun Crew
Trencher Chaingun Crew

So far, it's 3-0 against Mercs, Cryx, and other Cygnar, but I've been looking through the Cygnar faction book and I'm really excited to get more minis. I came up with a slightly more interesting 15 point list after a bit of reading...

15 points
Commander Coleman Stryker (+6)
-Charger
-Charger
Journeyman Warcaster
-Hunter
Trencher Chaingun Crew
Trencher Chaingun Crew

With the Journeyman Warcaster I can alleviate some of the Focus issues Stryker might have with three Warjacks. Additionally, though I lost the Ironclad and replaced it with another Charger meaning I'm not able to fully deal with heavy melee jacks, I have gained an enormous amount of ranged firepower. Stryker will likely be casting Snipe on a Chaingun unit turn 1, along with Arcane Shield on one of the Chargers (and probably blurring the Journeyman Warcaster). Junior will likely be casting Arcane Shield on one of the Chargers during the first turn as well. This way, they both will be ARM 19, and one of the Chainguns will be RNG 14. That's a pretty solid firebase from what I can tell.

On an assassination run, I would start the turn by advancing with Stryker, casting Earthquake (which would likely be boosted since after upkeeping Snipe and Arcane Shield he'd have one focus left), and if it failed to hit the enemy Warcaster I would pop his feat to ensure I survive the round. If Earthquake hit, then two Chargers, a Hunter, and two Chaingun Crews would try to open fire on the now DEF 5 base enemy Warcaster.

It's still not perfect, and I know I would have issues with Stealth and infantry-based 15-point armies, but this seems like it would be a lot of fun, and I can't wait to try it out.

Cygnar?

I've done it! I've made the plunge. I have acquired about 40-ish points of Cygnar miniatures for Warmachine, and I can't wait to put them to use!

Here's what I got:

BOOKS
Current Warmachine Rulebook
Current Cygnar Faction Book
Current Mercenaries Faction Book

TOKEN SETS (Are these even usable anymore?)
Cmdr. Coleman Stryker
Captain Victoria Haley
Lt. Allister Caine & Journeyman Warcaster
Cygnar: Troop Set

WARCASTERS
Allister Caine (two pistols aimed forward)
Captain Haley (Variant)
Commander Coleman Stryker (pommel close to his chest, sword pointing up)

SOLOS
Captain Maxwell Finn

UNITS
Classic Trenchers (10 minis)
Classic Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (6 minis)
Trencher Chain Gun Crew x2 (two gunners, and two ammo dudes)
Trencher Officer & Sharpshooter (2 minis)
Ranger Unit (6 minis)

WARJACKS
Classic Ironclad
Classic Lancer
Classic Charger
Hunter (x2)



I figured out I could make a "35 points (+6)" list as follows:

Commander Stryker
Ironclad
Hunter
Hunter
10x Trenchers
Trencher Officer & Sniper
Trencher Chain Gunner
Trencher Chain Gunner
6x Rangers

I might not know what the heck I'm doing, but that seems to use most of the models I was given (whether they're good or not), and should get me going right away, I think.

Lictors

Thanks to Synaps3, Crispy, and Talonis, I'm going to be running some Lictors over the next few weeks (outside of my club's Escalation League for now). I've been reading up on different tactics and strategies on how to use them, and the more I do the more I'm dying to get them on the table.

So, here's a list I think I'm going to run on Friday:

HQ
Hive Tyrant (Lash Whip & Bonesword, Twin-Linked Devourer with Brainleech Worms, Wings, Old Adversary, Hive Commander, Leech Essence, Paroxysm)

ELITES
Deathleaper
3x Lictors
7x Ymgarl Genestealers

TROOPS
10x Genestealers (one is a Broodlord, all have Toxin Sacs)
10x Genestealers (Toxin Sacs)

HEAVY
Trygon (Adrenal Glands)
Trygon (Adrenal Glands)

FAST
5x Shrike Brood (Lash Whip & Bonesword, Scything Talons)
20x Gargoyles
3x Spore Mines (these mess up the opponent's deployment in Dawn of War)

Basically, the WHOLE army starts in reserves. The Hive Tyrant grants the army a +1 to reserve rolls while he's "alive", so my units will start coming in on a 3+ in turn 2 (which should be roughly 2/3rds of the army). That's more than a 50% chance to bring in either Deathleaper or the Lictors which would then grant my army a net +2 to reserve rolls, meaning anything that didn't arrive that turn gets to come in automatically on turn 3. Knowing this ahead of time can really help me out when planning where to deploy.

I plan on testing this, and other variants of this list, over the weekend and throughout next week. I'll post again with my initial results and thoughts probably sometime this weekend.

GW's newest Price Increases

So, according to this article on Bell of Lost Souls, Games Workshop is introducing it's ever-popular annual price increase across their product line (miniatures AND books).

The ones that really caught my eye are:

• 40k Starter Set: $100
• Battleforces: $110
• Specialist Games Rulebooks $50
• New Fantasy Hardcover Army Books: $41
• Space Marine Predator: $50
• Space Marine Whirlwind: $50
• 10 Ork Boyz $30
• 10 IG Cadian Shock Troops $30
• 3 Tyranid Warriors $42
• Tryanid Carnifex $50
• 12 Tyranid Termagaunts $30
• 12 Tyranid Hormagaunts $30
• 10 Dark Eldar Warriors $30
• 10 Dark Eldar Wyches $30

Just amazing. I'm...really at a loss for words.

The only thing I have to say is being echoed infinitely across the internet:

SCREW YOU GAMES WORKSHOP

A Farewell to TV

Over the last year or two, a large number of good TV shows have been canceled or have just ended. Shows that have run for 10 years, shows that are spin-offs but are better than the original series, and brand new shows, all gone in one way or another. Let's take a look and say goodbye to some of the better shows on TV that are no longer with us, starting with shows that have just ended (run their course):

Strike from the Skies! Half-Assed Text Batrep: Nids vs Dark Angels

Last night I used a pretty cool Tyranid list that I came up with for shits and giggles. I had decided recently that I was going to use my Blood Angels for my club's Escalation League, but for some reason after reading Synaps3, Legio Minimus, and The Back: 40k's Tyranid articles, I've been hooked on bugs!

Here's what I ran:

There's too many of them!

Not too long ago a friend and I came up with a really nasty 2,000 point list for my Blood Angels. We started off by discussing ways around Dark Eldar (so far they have been my bane), and realized that the list I had been previously running (4 Razorbacks, Dread in a Pod, DC in a Rhino, Libby & Honor Guard & Furioso in a Stormraven) was extremely low in target saturation. So after a little list finagling and discussing certain scenarios, we came up with this parking-lot-styled list:

Text Batrep - Vs Dark Eldar

(no, this is not my Razorback)

Whassup people?

I have played a couple of games with the list I last posted (the post right before this one), and so far I'm still doing very well with it. I just recently played a 2,000 point game against a Dark Eldar player, and the reason was because I wanted to see if running one of my more competent lists would make any difference in the usual ass-whupin's I receive whenever I play against the emo elves in space....

More of the Same

For the last few weeks I have been running a 2,000 point Blood Angels list to great success. Here's what's in it:

HQ
Reclusiarch (Power Fist)
Librarian (Sanguine Sword, Unleash Rage)
Honor Guard (2x Flamers, Power Weapon, Chapter Banner, Blood Champion)

ELITE
Furioso Dreadnought (Frag Cannon, Extra Armor, Drop Pod)
Chaplain

TROOPS
5x Death Company (3x Power Weapons, Power Fist, Rhino)
Death Company Dreadnought (Blood Talons, Heavy Flamer)
5x Assault Marines (Meltagun, Las/TL-Plas Razorback)
5x Assault Marines (Meltagun, Las/TL-Plas Razorback)
5x Assault Marines (Flamer, Sgt with Power Weapon, Las/TL-Plas Razorback)
5x Assault Marines (Flamer, Sgt with Power Weapon, Las/TL-Plas Razorback)

HEAVY
Stormraven Gunship (TL-Multimelta, Hurricane Bolters, Extra Armor)

2,000 Points, 4 Scoring Units, 18 Kill Points

So far, I have played against Space Wolves, Chaos Space Marines, vanilla Space Marines (lead by Calgar), Chaos Daemons, and Dark Angels. I know, I have yet to play against a real Xenos army with this list, but that will come. I need practice with what is honestly 80% of the tournament environment before I venture out into the unknown, and so far this list is undefeated (though it's definitely not unbeatable).

I look forward to playing against Dark Eldar when I have more experience, but in the mean time I want to play against Orks, Tau, Tyranids, and Imperial Guard (which obviously isn't a Xenos race but it's rare enough at my LGS that it fits the mold lol).

I am currently working on getting this 2,000 point list to by WYSIWYG, and maybe, just MAYBE, I'll start painting it at some point (obviously depending on how well it does).

What do you guys think?

Why a Sanguinary Priest SHOULD be in combat

So a few months ago I saw a blog that was trying (and failing) to make a point that Sanguinary Priests should not be involved in a hand-to-hand combat, and should only hang back to provide their 6" Feel No Pain and Furious Charge bubbles.

Bull.

Let's take an in-depth look at what Sanguinary Priests are capable of as a whole.

Blog-In-Progress

Well, that con was AWESOME!

I didn't do so well (37th out of 70), but I had a lot of fun and I was lucky enough to get a game in with the guy who won the tournament (Andy Shellenbarger, an Ork player believe it or not) as one of my five games. Overall, I'd say that if my con experiences keep continuing in this fashion, I might just have to spread my wings and hit up other major cons like Adepticon or even Wargames Con.

In the mean time, my LGS's Fantasy Escalation League has started playing games at 1,000 points, and my list was quite successful!

I ran the following....

GenghisCon starts TOMORROW

With everyone in panic mode for the con (or at least that's the vibe I'm feeling at my LGS), I'm really excited to see all of the events and games that will be going on this weekend! Genghis is supposedly larger than Tacticon, and this year I've got my Digital Camera (10MP, 5x Zoom) and my new Samsung Epic 4G Galaxy S phone (5x Zoom, 720p video capable) to help me document the whole thing! No more crappy cell phone pics (with "crappy" being a descriptor of the phone)!

Also, for those that actually read my blog, Fort Collins War Party has the 40k missions up for this weekend's Rogue Trader Tournament, so make sure you visit their site and familiarize yourself with the scenarios!

In other news, I've been working on my 1,000 point Dark Elves roster for my club's Fantasy Escalation League, and I think I've got something truly nasty.

• Sorceress (General, Level 2, Seal of Ghrond, Power Stone, Lore of Shadow)
• 10x Blackguard with command
• 21x Corsairs with command (extra hand weapons, ranked 7-wide)
• 12x Repeater Crossbowmen (ranked 6-wide)
• 12x Repeater Crossbowmen (ranked 6-wide)
• War Hydra

I definitely don't have any dirty tricks to pull off, but I do have some solid units here. Not sure where to stick the sorceress either but that is the whole point of the League, to learn as I go.

And finally, my part one order for my Blood Angels came in, so I went ahead and ordered part two which consists of:

• 12x boxes of Death Company (for 30 walking assault marines, 20 more jump marines, and 10 vanguard)
• 2x boxes of Sanguinary Guard (can be used for assault squad sergeants, and I'll have enough of them to run that hot new Apoc datasheet)
• 3 "Sanguinary Priests" from GW's site
• A pack of Meltaguns
• The Sanguinor

I'm pumped with all of the GW stuff I've got to work on, but I've also got the Feast of Blades tournament to run/attend on the 5th of March.

This spring is going to be CRAZY!

General Update

GenghisCon 2011 is less than two weeks away, so I have ramped up the amount of models I'm painting daily to ensure my 1850 pt Tyranid list gets finished before the tournament. I won't be changing my list all that much from the Tacticon version, but the good news is that my playtest games have gone fairly well.

Also, I have made part one of the final purchase of stuff for my Blood Angels, and here's what's on it's way:

• 2 Stormravens
• 2 Furioso Dreadnought kits
• 2 Razorbacks
• 3 Baal Predators
• Lemartes
• Astorath the Grim

I already have two Furiosos and two Baal Predators, but what this order will allow me to do is field six predators (three regular and three Baal) and be able to switch between Furiosos, Furioso Librarians, and Death Company Dreads. How I'm going to make the Dreadnought parts interchangeable is another story...

And now on to Fantasy. My club has been successfully running 500 point games of Fantasy for our Escalation League over the last few weeks. While several people (including myself) have yet to paint their minis, we have at least had regular attendance. The week after the con, we are upping the points level to 1,000, and we are also introducing Magic without the 6th-level spells (for now). I learned a lot playing against a Lizardmen player who was running Temple Guard and Sauruses, and I plan to have more of a tooled-up force to be able to combat builds like that.

In other news, I made FIVE MORE YouTube videos a few weeks ago so make sure you check them out at www.youtube.com/sonsofsanguinius.

Thanks for stopping by and stay tuned for update pictures of my Tyranids!

RIP - Norman David Morris

On New Year's Day, Norman David Morris (known as Norm by most) passed away in his home, likely just after 2pm. It is believed it was related to the medical condition he encountered in the summer. Norm was 57 years old and leaves behind a daughter in her twenties.

Here's my note to him on LEG's forum:

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Norm,

You were one of the most recognizable and memorable people at Attactix, and you will be sorely missed. From your hobbying, to collecting, to your ren-fair and cosplay endeavors, you were always a dedicated and well-respected individual. When my birthday went un-noticed at home, you were there at Attactix with a cake for Bill and I. You were always thoughtful like that, and I enjoyed the conversations we had when we stayed late at the shop. You were always straight-forward, honest, and caring.

You are an inspiration in hobbying and in life, and not a soul at Attactix will be the same without you.

We will miss you.