2013 tourney Season and a reflction to my beginnings

Recap tournament season 2013

SO i wanted to do a recap and a small analysis on the 2013 tournament season. Until this year I never been really interested in tournaments. Now, remember my first game i ever played of WH40k was in March of 2011 at Chris Freeman's house with coffee cans as terrain. I remember seeing all the miniatures and thinking that it was extremely nerdy. After the first dice roll i was hooked. During that game I was given 5 terminators and a scout squad and we played a 3 way battle with Bob Casselberry. It wasn't 4 weeks later I had made my first GW purchase. Bought about 1000.00 of Blood angels and the codex. I started a frantic pace of assembling and painting. Some of my early attempts of painting can be seen should you scroll through the very first days of this blog. I played Blood Angels all summer long until the release of 6th edition. The people I played with were friendly but, still they are tough competitors, so my skills grew quickly from the ass whoopings. My painting was far above my play and in the paint lab i began working on my skills every night. I became a painting machine spending 4-5 hours a night 4-5 days a week. My blood angels began atking a very dark and broodish look when i began repainting them, many asked why I didnt just play chaos. When the chaos book hit I swapped over and began a CSM army. Briefly followed by my favorite army, chaos deamons. In 2013 I began competing in tournaments, which is the sole purpose of this post.

So for the record

Indy GT - 3-3

Adepticon - visitor only

Origins GT - 3-0 BEST GENERAL (combo of painting and battle points)

Nova GT - 3-3 Top 10 in painting out of 256

Da Boyz GT - 4-2

Steel City - 1-2 BEST PAINTED

So 14 W and 10L

58% win ratio

Armies I lost to, -

INDY --- IG, CSM, Dark Eldar (playing CSM main no allies)

ORIGINS - zero losses (played Daemons main no allies)

Nova - Tau, Tau-dar. and Tau (Daemons no allies)

Da Boyz - Eldar and Taudar (CSM main Daemon allies)

Steel city - IG and Tau (CSM main and Daemon allies)

50% of my losses came via some sort of Tau or combo of Tau

30% to Taudar

20% - IG and assorted

All in all I learned a lot about the tournament scene and a lot of list building. I think for the first time in a long time the release schedule doesn't allow for you to play the exact same army all year long. Numerous changes and revamps will occur due to the release schedule which force you to constantly re-tool your army for the meta shifts. So if nothing else anyone competing this year got a lot of experience in the list building phase of the game. Well that's my reflection of 2013. For 2014, I will be focusing on tooling up my Nids for Adepticon. If I dont get all the painting and conversions done, I will be playing my go to army, which is some sort of Daemon and CSM.

Swarmlord Test Paint and 3rd spawn repaint with glowing effect

Well, i have been plaing around with transparent florescents to work on glowing effects and its turned out pretty dandy. also got my test done for the nid army. they will all have HOK automotive paint chitin armor. Just picked up 380 doallrs of the stuff. Until the Christmas break, we wont see more. However good luck to the 16 going to wreck face at the Steel city open in pittsburg

Games 4-6 DaBoys GT 2013 Calvin Smarr

So, in continuing a trend of difficult games, my 4th game of the day was THIS years adepticon winner and current ETC member Nick Nanavanti. Nick is known for being one if the best daemon players around, but this GT decided to roll a very interesting GK force comprised of 30 strike in rhinos, 2 incinerator dreads, GM nd coteaz on crusader leading a tooled out henchman DC squad. And our mission was the relic....

Game 4

Primary: Relic

Secondary: This late in the day we decided to go balls in and made relic for all the marbles.

I chose to let Nick go first, he advanced 6" forward wisely not disembarking to grab relic and leaving himself vulnerable to assault, in my turn I moved a Battlewagon 12" forward to block relic. Nicks dreadknights charged both battlewagons putting me of foot for a charge in my turn. Overall it was a very bloody game where Ghaz took one dreadknight and part of the DC squad out where the bulk of the strike were killed by the khorne lord and meganobz that had broken off Ghaz unit. In the end I held the relic (just barely) to eek out a win. Nick was an excellent player and had taken liberal advantage of the bar and I told him I look forward to a rematch at adepticon.

Score- 31/33 pts

Game 5

Primary: KP

Secondary: big guns 4 objectives

Game 5 had me paired with Kurt Clauss in you guessed it, hammer and Anvil again vs his tau/eldar build. After 1st turn saw my predator and both battlewagons blown out from under me I settled in for a long brutal ass whoopin lol. Kurt is currently #1 ranked on torrent of fire, and it is well deserved as just in my previous loss to Brad, Kurt played very tightly despite his strong lead and never gave me anything to get back in the game. Despite the loss Kurt was a really nice guy and was one of my favorite opponents at Daboyz.

Score-0/33

Game 6

Primary: emperors will

Secondary:Relic

The final matchup paired me with Rich. Rich was using, Orks and Chaos! Rich also had two battlewagons but then used a nob biker squad and a helldrake/flying mace prince combo with a maulerfiend. A fast hard hitting army like that is something I can appreciate :) Rich knew my lobbas were very dangerous to his scoring cultists so went after them very aggressively with his mace prince right off the bat flying over and psychic shrieking them right off the board, after much discussing after our game we determined this may have been the only (very tiny!) mistake he made all game, as when flying perhaps 5-6" closer than nessesary to shriek the 2nd lobba squad allowed ghazghkull, along with a lucky shot to get the prince outta the air, a chance to get his str 10 claw on him! With the predator accounting for the maulerfiend early and my grots hiding from the helldrake, my outflanking koptas were once again my MVP as they moved to contest Richs objective and Ghaz unit holding the relic. Had it gone to turn 6 it would have been a very different outcome as Richs nob squad was poised to take my warboss off the objective easily. 

Score-31/33

There's some very big developments coming up in the next few days between escalation and super heavies being added to normal 40k games, this and the new digital formations GW is releasing has me holding out on writing about what I think the meta will be looking like until I have an opportunity to digest all this info!

What happends when trying to register for ADEPTICON 2014

As you may or may not know about 2000 people began a quest to secure 254 tickets for the GT at adepticon..with the numerous time outs and carts crashing it caused a lot of panic in our group that resulted in mass texting. Here is a small sampl of PG stuff that occurred. the more colorful stuff was deleted, how ever it was 30-45 minutes of hell.

From: calvinsmarr@
Subject: Re: Adepticon registration in 1 hr
Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2013 20:22:42 -0500
To: kenboone

Nice, push josh push!

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 14, 2013, at 8:22 PM, Ken Boone <kenboone222> wrote:

all set, badge, champs, seminars too

On Thu, Nov 14, 2013 at 8:18 PM, Josh Shivak <jshivak> wrote:

trying to check out and it keeps going boom

On Thu, Nov 14, 2013 at 8:17 PM, Josh Freeman <arcanuis> wrote:

Damn finally I am in

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 14, 2013, at 8:16 PM, "Calvin Smarr" <calvinsmarr> wrote:

Hahaha, very nice, me ken jacky josh and josh, my brother got off his ass and got a ticket as well, enough people to get another room and 2nd car

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 14, 2013, at 8:14 PM, Josh Shivak <jshivak> wrote:

ya, but its slowed my check out by a minute!

On Thu, Nov 14, 2013 at 8:13 PM, Richard Jones <richard_jacky_jones> wrote:

Undecided works 

Sent from my iPhone

Jacky Jones

Human Resources and Co-founder of Warp Dust Creations

On Nov 14, 2013, at 8:13 PM, "Josh Shivak" <jshivak> wrote:

oh thats bull shit you have to select and ally

On Thu, Nov 14, 2013 at 8:11 PM, Calvin Smarr <calvinsmarr> wrote:

Lol quit havin sex while typing

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 14, 2013, at 8:11 PM, Richard Jones < wrote:

I'm in

Sent from my iPhone

Jacky Jones

Human Resources and Co-founder of Warp Dust Creations

On Nov 14, 2013, at 8:10 PM, "Calvin Smarr" <calvinsmarr> wrote:

Got it!

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 14, 2013, at 8:09 PM, Richard Jones <richard_jacky_jones> wrote:

Going to PayPal now I'll get classes later

Sent from my iPhone

Jacky Jones

Human Resources and Co-founder of Warp Dust Creations

On Nov 14, 2013, at 8:08 PM, "Ken Boone" <kenboone222> wrote:

got a badge

On Thu, Nov 14, 2013 at 8:06 PM, Calvin Smarr <calvinsmarr> wrote:

Lol ass

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 14, 2013, at 8:06 PM, Arden Bartlett <abartlett1> wrote:

Messing with the internet...making sure you all can't go. :-P

On Thu, Nov 14, 2013 at 8:05 PM, Richard Jones <richard_jacky_jones> wrote:

Waiting for cart to load

Sent from my iPhone

Jacky Jones

Human Resources and Co-founder of Warp Dust Creations

On Nov 14, 2013, at 8:05 PM, "Josh Shivak" <jshivak@ > wrote:

waiting for my badge to get in my cart

On Thu, Nov 14, 2013 at 8:04 PM, Richard Jones <richard_jacky_jones> wrote:

Going to cart

Sent from my iPhone

Jacky Jones

Human Resources and Co-founder of Warp Dust Creations

get in the cart!

Sent from my iPhone

On Thu, Nov 14, 2013 at 8:02 PM, Richard Jones <richard_jacky_jones> wrote:

No go yet 3 computers   and Co-founder of Warp Dust Creations                                                               

On Nov 14, 2013, at 8:02 PM, "Josh Shivak" <jshivak@ > wrote:

The site, it seems dead!

On Thu, Nov 14, 2013 at 8:02 PM, Arden Bartlett <abartlett1@ > wrote:

He he...get a better connection.

-Arden

On Thu, Nov 14, 2013 at 8:01 PM, Josh Freeman <arcanuis@ > wrote:

OMG it's the wow queue boss again!!! I clicked events and my PC froze   Sent from my iPhone

On Thu, Nov 14, 2013 at 7:51 PM, Ken Boone <kenboone> wrote:

Wow, just logged into Adepticon site to get ready for registration.  They still have my information from 2010 and 2009.  I know you don't care but I'm                                     

                                                                       

Holiday time? Sh!t dawg it's paint time

Just finished up a decimator build and paint for Doug

Iron warriors Kung fu style

Now it's was time to make me a black legion sorcerer on a bike

Now a gay test

Here's looking at you kid, purple pink fade armor, choppered out, kit from the geistheist bat for a rider. Finally realistic airbrushed flames in neon green.

DABOYZ Meta and Calvins Journey

 

Well another great GT in the books! This past weekend saw jacky and I heading over to Daboyz GT in rotchester, and the venue was amazing. A sold out lodge with deer heads on the wall and stuffed bears in the entryway made it the perfect manly location for a weekend of 40k! Here's what I was running,

Ghaz-225

Warboss w/bike, power claw, pole-130.   

                           

3 meganobz-120

Bwagon w/rolla-110

10 grotz-40

20 orks-120

14 boys+nob w/big choppa-105        

3 deffcoptas w/bigbommb-150

Aegis-50

3 lobba w/3 runts-84

3 lobba w/3 runts-84

Bwagon w/rolla-110.           

Lord w/axe of blind fury, jugg, khorne mark, melta bomb, aura of dark glory-165

15 cultist-70

4 chaos spawn w/nurgle mark-144.                         

Laspred-140.                  

Mission 1

Primary: kill points

Secondary: 4 objectives 

     Day 1 of gaming saw me paired up with Nathan and his space wolf army on a nice mountain table providing alot of LOS blocking terrain. The lobbas hiding behind the hills took a heavy tally early on the long fang squads, and with my AV 14 hulls pointed into the remaining fire I was able to make an aggressive push towards his lines, the biggest threat in the game came from 4 thunderwolf pushing up one flank towards my vulnerable troops and lobbas, the khorne lord was the first to try his hand at slowing them down, beating the character in a challenge but getting ripped down in the subsequent turn, ghazghkull then stepped in alone to show em how it was done, his str 10 claw made short work of them slaying two more and forcing the remaining to flee where Ghaz followed up and charged later to make sure they wouldn't be coming back! Turn 6 saw the wolves surrounded and the game ended with 5 wolves fighting to end in their deployment zone.

End score 32/33pts

Game 2

Primary: Relic

Secondary: emperors will

Game 2 saw me squared off with my favorite opponent Dennis Cote, Dennis and I had played each other last year at Daboyz and I was glad to be able to get another fun game in with him and his amazingly converted ork army.

I won the roll to have Dennis go first and his battlewagon carrying Ghazghkull moved up towards my left flank while his large nob biker unit took control of the relic, in my turn lobbas killed some lootas and pinned them down and both my battlewagons advanced and dropped both Ghaz and nobs and 15 man ork squad onto the bikers to prevent their escaping with the relic. With the boyz holding up the fists in the bike squad Ghaz and his nobz engaged the rest, winning combat and sending half the bikes fleeing, dropping the relic. 

      Turn 2 Dennis Ghaz and ard boys pushed right up to my vulnerable firebase in preparation for a devastating multi assault for turn 3. Luckily I had held back my khorne lord and spawn to guard them, the spawn assaulted and destroyed the wagon and tied up ghaz unit. Ultimately Dennis Ghaz broke free and moved towards the middle of the board where fate conspired to bring two Ghazghkulls fighting on top of the relic in single combat! Unfortunately my phone died and I was unable to capture such a historic moment, my Ghaz, already hurt fell to Dennis's. the only way I was getting that relic was to push Ghaz off. The khorne lord was only to happy to oblige! The game ended up with me holding the relic and my deffcoptas outflanking in with my bike warboss to clear Dennis backlines of scoring troops.

End score 33/33 pts

Game 3

Primary: scouring

Secondary: big guns

Total 6 objectives

Game 3 saw a jump up to table 5 paired off with previous years adepticon winner brad Chester, Brads was a nice guy but a TERRIBLE matchup in this mission. Having practiced this deployment against my brother against just such an army I knew I was in trouble.  With a hammer and anvil deployment and brad sporting 3x5 eldar jetbikes, swooping hawks and 2x8 warpspiders, I knew the likelihood of catching or stopping all these fast scoring units was very low. As brad won the roll to make me go first, knowing I wouldn't be able to cover the distance and contest his deep objectives I settled in defensively to wrap my own objectives as best as possible and attempt to score a point off one of his fast or heavy choices to break the standoff. This strategy would go on to not work. At all. Brad played a perfect game and left no holes to exploit, the warp spider wreaked havoc on my scoring troops of bubble wrap tissue paper and made stopping the 50" moving jetbikes an impossibility to stop come last turn rush to contest my zone. Fun game but my army just lacked the speed necessary against a bike army in that type of deployment.

End score 0/33 pts

Tune in tommorow for a recap of the last 3 games and some thoughts on the shape of the meta and listbuilding thoughts going into the Pittsburg iron legion tourny coming up dec 7!

Whats been going on

Well  has been over a month since I have posted.  The gear up for Nova burnt me out a little on painting, so I took some time off from behind the brush.  The release of the Space Marine codex has kept me occupied, giving me a nice change of pace from my Relictor (Space Wolf) army.  I decided that after 5+ years of faithful service the 4 units of Relictors that formed the staple of my army lists were going to be retired for a bit in reward for there long faithful service to the Emporer.  I love the conversions in the units and standing along side the Grey Knight force in the display case they look awesome together.  I had developed the 4th companys background and I started to paint up a unit of Devistator Centurions, as part of the new company, but I just wasnt excited about painting them.   I thought a break from painting would be good then I would get back to it after a couple of weeks. I came back to the unit and again just wasn't motivated to paint them.  I wasn't happy with they way they were painting up.  Here they just have the base coat done.

In process shot, can't make it out but the armarature has been painted similiar to the Grey Knight DreadKnight I did for Nova

  For those of you who followed the "Road to Nova" blog the majority of the items I painted were Grey Knights, which I was very happy with the way they turned out.  I was also pleased with getting "Tabletop Ideal" for my painting score at Nova.  I have gotten a few side projects completed in the last weeks.  I scratch built a preditor tank out of only items found in a bitz box.  It turned out pretty cool, i had to custom shape some pieces, mainly the tread since that was the hardest thing to find.  The build is only missing the front headlights from the kit.  I also magnetized the sponsons and with luck I will be getting some pieces of extra armor to add to the kit.  I took some time to work up some objective markers, mainly just playing around with different base colors and washes to see which one I liked better.

 

 

I decided to try my hand at wet blending a marine, rather than just edge highlighting the base armor color.  I dug through the new Space Marine codex and licked the background for the Exceorsists.  I wanted to do a bright color for the wet blending instead of a darker color.  With the last couple of armies I painted I have done 1 or 2 test models to work out the colors and highlights.  This time I jumped into the deep end and painted up a Librarian I had converted up. I haven't decicded if I am going to edge highlight his armor or not.  For basing I was thinking about a sandy ruins, to make the red pop.

 

 

I love the way the Librarian turned out, I was even thinking of doing an allied attachement to my Relictors since Excersists have a lot of scouts... So I started working on a scout only to read the forgeworld update.... the Mantis Warriors getting Divination, move through cover, Furious Assualt (from cover) and hammer of wrath for infantry.  Damn I guess I have to try this with green now...





Da Boyz list 2013

HQ: Typhus (1 , 230 pts)

Typhus

1 6 5 4/6 5 4 5/1 3 10 2+/5(i) 230

(C:CSM, pp. 61 & 93);

Infantry (Character); Blight Grenades; Terminator Armour;

Manreaper; Bulky; Champion of Chaos; Fear; Fearless; Feel No Pain; Hatred (Space

Marines); Independent Character; Mark of Nurgle; Plague Zombies; Psyker (Mastery Level

2); The Destroyer Hive; Veterans of the Long War;

Warlord; Lord of Terror; Nurgle

HQ: Chaos Lord (1 , 150 pts)

Chaos Lord

1 5 4 4/6 5 4 5 4/5 10 3+ 150

(C:CSM, pp. 31 & 93);

Cavalry (Character); Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour;

Mark of Khorne; Close Combat Weapon; Melta Bombs; Juggernaut of Khorne; Axe of Blind

Fury; Champion of Chaos; Counter-attack; Fearless; Independent Character; Rage; Rage

Axe of Blind Fury

1 Axe of Blind Fury (see C:CSM, pg. 69). [35]

Fast Attack: Chaos Spawn (5 , 150 pts)

Chaos Spawn

5 3 - 5 5 3 3 D6 10 - 150

(C:CSM, pgs. 41 & 100);

Beasts; Fear; Fearless; Mutated Beyond Reason; Rage; Random

Attacks; Very Bulky

Fast Attack: Chaos Spawn (4 , 144 pts)

Chaos Spawn

4 3 - 5 6 3 3 D6 10 - 144

(C:CSM, pgs. 41 & 100);

Beasts; Mark of Nurgle; Fear; Fearless; Mutated Beyond Reason;

Rage; Random Attacks; Very Bulky

Troops: Plague Zombies (15 , 70 pts)

Plague Zombies

14 3 3 3 3 1 3 1 7 6+ 70

(C:CSM, pp. 38 & 95);

Infantry; Improvised Armour; Close Combat Weapon (x14);

Fearless; Feel No Pain; Slow and Purposeful

Plague Zombie Champion

1 3 3 3 3 1 3 2 8 6+ [14]

(C:CSM, pp. 46 & 98);

Infantry (Character); Improvised Armour; Close Combat Weapon;

Champion of Chaos; Fearless; Feel No Pain; Slow and Purposeful

Troops: Plague Zombies (15 , 70 pts)

Plague Zombies

14 3 3 3 3 1 3 1 7 6+ 70

(C:CSM, pp. 38 & 95);

Infantry; Improvised Armour; Close Combat Weapon (x14);

Fearless; Feel No Pain; Slow and Purposeful

Plague Zombie Champion

1 3 3 3 3 1 3 2 8 6+ [14]

(C:CSM, pp. 46 & 98);

Infantry (Character); Improvised Armour; Close Combat Weapon;

Champion of Chaos; Fearless; Feel No Pain; Slow and Purposeful

Troops: Plague Zombies (15 , 70 pts)

Plague Zombies

14 3 3 3 3 1 3 1 7 6+ 70

(C:CSM, pp. 38 & 95);

Infantry; Improvised Armour; Close Combat Weapon (x14);

Fearless; Feel No Pain; Slow and Purposeful

Plague Zombie Champion

1 3 3 3 3 1 3 2 8 6+ [14]

(C:CSM, pp. 46 & 98);

Infantry (Character); Improvised Armour; Close Combat Weapon;

Champion of Chaos; Fearless; Feel No Pain; Slow and Purposeful

Heavy Support: Maulerfiend (1 , 125 pts)

Maulerfiend

1 Grp: WS: 3 BS: 3 St: 6/10 In: 3/1 At: 2/3 FA: 12 SA: 12 RA:

10 HP: 3

125

(C:CSM, pp. 51 & 103);

Vehicle (Walker); 2x Magmacutters; Daemonic Possession; 2x

Power Fists; Fear; Daemon; Daemonforge; Fleet; It Will Not Die; Move Through Cover;

Siege Crawler

Heavy Support: Maulerfiend (1 , 125 pts)

Maulerfiend

1 Grp: WS: 3 BS: 3 St: 6/10 In: 3/1 At: 2/3 FA: 12 SA: 12 RA:

10 HP: 3

125

(C:CSM, pp. 51 & 103);

Vehicle (Walker); 2x Magmacutters; Daemonic Possession; 2x

Power Fists; Fear; Daemon; Daemonforge; Fleet; It Will Not Die; Move Through Cover;

Siege Crawler

Created with Army Builder® - Copyright (c) 1997-2013 Lone Wolf Development, Inc. All rights reserved. Download it for FREE at http://www.wolflair.com!

Name # Grp WS BS S T Wo I A Ld Save Cost

HQ: Herald of Khorne (1 , 110 pts)

Herald of Khorne (HQ) [cd]

1 7 7 5 4/5 2/3 6 3/4 8 6+/5(i) 110

(C:CD, pp. 29 & 94);

Cavalry (Character); mW: Hellblade; DA: Daemon of Khorne; S:

Daemonic Instability; S: Deep Strike; S: Independent Character; S: Daemon; S: Furious

Charge; S: Hatred (Daemons of Slaanesh); S: Fear; DR: Lesser Rewards (x1); DS:

Juggernaut of Khorne

Troops: Daemonettes of Slaanesh (17 , 153 pts)

Daemonettes of Slaanesh (Troops)

[cd]

17

5 4 3 3 1 5 2 7 -/5(i) 153

(C:CD, pp. 54 & 98);

Infantry; DA: Daemon of Slaanesh; S: Daemonic Instability; S: Deep

Strike; S: Daemon; S: Fleet; S: Hatred (Daemons of Khorne); S: Rending; S: Fear

Troops: Daemonettes of Slaanesh (10 , 90 pts)

Daemonettes of Slaanesh (Troops)

[cd]

10

5 4 3 3 1 5 2 7 -/5(i) 90

(C:CD, pp. 54 & 98);

Infantry; DA: Daemon of Slaanesh; S: Daemonic Instability; S: Deep

Strike; S: Daemon; S: Fleet; S: Hatred (Daemons of Khorne); S: Rending; S: Fear

Fast Attack: Flesh Hounds of Khorne (12 , 192 pts)

Flesh Hounds of Khorne (Fast) [cd]

12 5 0 4 4 2 4 2 7 6+/5(i) 192

(C:CD, pp. 31 & 100);

Beasts; DG: Collar of Khorne; DA: Daemon of Khorne; S:

Daemonic Instability; S: Deep Strike; S: Scout; S: Daemon; S: Furious Charge; S: Hatred

(Daemons of Slaanesh); S: Fear; Fleet; Move Through Cover

Heavy Support: Soul Grinder (1 , 170 pts)

Soul Grinder (Heavy) [cd]

1 Grp: WS: 3 BS: 3 St: 6/10 In: 3 At: 4 FA: 13 SA: 13 RA: 11

HP: 4

170

(C:CD, pp. 60 & 102);

Vehicle (Walker); rW: Harvester Cannon; mW: Iron Claw; rW:

Phlegm Bombardment; S: Daemonic Resilience; S: Deep Strike; DA: Daemon of Tzeentch;

S: Daemon; S: Hatred (Daemons of Nurgle); S: Fear

More comissions

2012 typhus

2013 Typhus Retouched and Repainted

What a difference 1 year of painting can make. I started painting two years ago, and after assimilating a ton of painting styles and doing comissions for people, i can say, progress achieved. In 2.5 years i have painted around 20,000 points in armies. a full Blood Angles Army, a CSM, a Space Marine, and a full Deamons Army. all i can say is put your creativity in motion and have fun. And remember everyone starts with this.....



khorne Lord with AOBF

Just finished up a model for DA BOYZ 2013 for Calvin Smarr. small conversion of making an axe with a nice OSL coming off the runes and onto the shoulder and helmet of the Lord. approx 10 hours of painting. this is somewhere between level 2 and 3. Generally my main painting style is more subdued colors and ar more realistic and not so bright. For this one, calvin wanted brighter colors on the model to match his army.
Nice scenic base...Mission accomplished.

gearing up for DaBOyz 2013

Well, not much has been going on since Nova except the retooling of lists for our crew to get ready for DaBoyz. Rooms are set but army lists continue to shift to revolve around the changing meta. I feel that most people in our group are still learning to adapt every month or two as a new codex is added and ends up making the new OP net list meta. Either way currently i am working on a few items for Calvin, then i will go back to the drawing board to get reday to make a push to adepticon 2014. At least we got our rooms early enough this year we can be at the Westin and not have to lug the gear back and forth for a few days. As always i will be taking photos and posted them up from the tourney as soon as we return. Until then, happy hunting.

Headline: Chapter masters, are they black or white?

 Calvin here to talk about a unit that's were going to be seeing alot of in the meta very soon if you haven't already. The new space marine chapter master. This guys a beast! Coming in at WS6 and carrying 4 wounds it's the gear available to him that makes him deadly. My preferred build is taking a bike, shield eternal, artificer armor and a thunder hammer. This model can handle most any unit in the game in h2h.

I give mine a thunder hammer to tackle all the MCs we've been seeing so much of lately. To get an idea of this guys ability, a daemon prince on the charge with 6 attacks will do .88 wounds to the masters 1.1. This kind of defense is the reason I like the thunder hammer as his chosen weapon, even taking a charge from one of the most powerful h2h units he's likely to encounter he'll take only a single wound (which drops drastically to a .29 if he's got 5 buddies watchin the fight to give him a reroll) so it's a pretty safe bet going last wont hurt him much, an advantage his opponents lose to concussive after the first round of combat. Throw in a str 10 ap 1 barrage once per game and you better believe well be seeing marines led into battle by dual chapter masters for years to come.

All this brings us to the hardest part of choosing your master....will he be iron hands or white scars. Now both builds are great options, iron hands gives you a 6+ FNP and a 5+ It Will not die roll to keep him going longer, essentially giving him a 50% chance to either ignore or rejenerate every wound he takes, that's alot of survivability!

       But my personal preference is scar build master, because while the extra survivability is really nice, it leaves the chap masters one real weakness still intact, tarpitting. Every good list should have one, for power units like the screamer star to power models like the chap master. 

     Which is what makes having a model like that so scary, with hit and run, the fact that he ignores dangerous terrain, gets a str5 hammer of wrath and +1 to his jink is just bonus! 

      I run mine leading a 10 man bike squad and turbo boost them into my opponents face 1st turn with a 3+ cover save. They can take an entire armies shooting and survive. And we've already looked at their combat ability, so by removing the element of getting stuck in a guard blob, ork mob, gaunt unit, stubborn Kroot squad etc, for 2-3 turns I deffinitely prefer my chap master to wear white. Cause when your opponents turn is over, just hit and run through and say hello to that pesky broadside team everyone is so fond of. 

      And for everyone else looking for ways to deal with the chapter master menace....hope he's wearin black and get your stubborn/fearless squads front and center, cause the shooting and h2h required to kill one of these bad boys will take everything you've got, and if you find yourself having to use your whole army to mitigate one unit, your doin it wrong! 

      

If you have any thoughts or tactics for dealing with this unit feel free to write in.