To Do: Finish Painting Black Templar

So here we are 12 days until 'Ard boyz and I've got a list of things to finish painting.

Well, a list of things I'd like to get finished painting.

I know, I know... 'Ard boyz doesn't require or ask for models to be all painted and there is no score for painting. However tournament or big game days with friends are really what motivate me to get stuff done. If there isn't anything on my calendar painting grinds to a halt. I've learned just to embrace this bit of my own neurosis and use it to finish up projects.

Also when I paint I rarely have big blocks of time. 15 minutes before work, maybe 1/2 hour before bed, an hour on the weekend when the baby is down; these are really the only times I get to knock out small bits of painting. I also generally plan it out. 'I have 1/2 hour, let me get all the red done on these 10 guys.' This chips away at the bigger project, but it takes days to get any real progress done.

So the real problem now is time. There are really only 11 days between now and the tournament. The 4th of July holiday would be great to finish stuff up... but I'm leaving Thursday-Sunday to go camp with the wife's family. I'm not going to push my luck bringing paint and minis there, hehe.

So left to do I have:
-3 bits- It doesn't sound like much but I need to somewhere squeeze in painting two meltas and a powerfist that got here yesterday. It's not a huge job, but they are the BT bits so they actually have quite a bit of detail (chains, logos, ribbons, etc). I could probably knock these out in a spare hour somewhere.

-10 Marines- this fills out my 2nd drop pod squad and my special/heavy for my 2nd shooty squad. Thankfully they are almost done and I should wrap up painting them tomorrow. Then when I get back on Sunday hopefully I can squeeze out the time to finish up the basing on them. This usually takes a few 15 minute steps spread over time to: glue sand, paint dried sand, highlight dried sand, paint ring of base, flock with green fluff. Hopefully I can take care of the unpacking/whatever-wife-wants-me-doing Sunday night with a few breaks to wrap this up and dullcoat these guys.

-Drop pod- Josh graciously said he would build my drop pod that arrived this week for me since clearly there is not a ton of time. I'm hoping he can have it for me next Monday and I can try to work on that M-Th. Thankfully BT vehicles are generally pretty easy with some drybrushing, highlighting and details. The only silly part is I ended up using a good clip of white on my first drop pod and that takes time and patience. White is a total bane, taking layers and layers of smooth white. Plus, like an idiot, I put it in areas that have very fine lines so there is going to be clean up after all those layers as well. Upside is I kept the BT insignia and will try to knock those out when I do the meltas and the fist. There may be a few early morning and late nights to get this bad boy done.

-Grey Knight Terminators- So I'm borrowing 5 of Anthony's GKT. They are painted ok, certainly not great, pretty much just imagine a pretty clean base coat of colors. The stands are not based at all. At the very least I want to get them based, so I might just do that Sunday night with my other 10 BT marines. If I can I'd like to do some basic touch ups to clean them up. If the pod can be done by Thursday that means Friday night I can do some washing, highlighting, and general clean up. Hopefully a solid 2-3 hours will make them really pop. (Then I've agreed to bang out Anthony's other 6 GKT, but I can follow that up post tourny when I have some time so that is cool. They are great looking minis so they deserve to look nice.)

It doesn't look like a lot, but every time I say that I underestimate the time/days it takes to do things so I'm trying to be conservative. If I only had one solid day to paint this holiday weekend it would be no problem but alas... I'll have to make do. Hopefully it doesn't mean painting until 1 am the night before the tournament (like I did last time... regretfully).

Of course I could always take a PTO day and finish it up... but I'm not that retarded... am I?
(answer: yes, I probably am... but you already knew that!)

Change of URL

Joshua has pointed out I can get a domain name, so in the next few days this blog will be hosted at http://www.thepreferredenemy.com. Apparently it takes a few days to change over, so be warned!

'Ard Boyz Practice BT vs Chaos Marines

So I had Liam over Friday to practice for the Ard boyz tournament and asked him to put a horrible CSM list together for me. It looked something like:
2 x Lash Princes
1 x Greater Demon
2x 5 Chosen in Rhinos, 2 meltas, 2 flamers
1x 5 or 6 raptors with fist guy
2x 8 Khrone Beserkers in Rhinos
2x 10 CSMs in Rhinos with meltas and PW
3x 3 Oblits

Here's the army (missing a few of his Sister's Rhinos I think he had already placed)


My list has been revised now to:
1 Emp Champ,
1x Marshall, Twin Lightening Claws, Termie Honors, Iron Halo w/ 9 man retinue inluding Sarg/Fist and Comp Champion in Rhino, EA and Smoke
1 x 5 GK Termies, Brother Captain has Psy Hood and Unguents of Warding
1 x 5 Assault Termies, LRC w/ Smoke
1x 7 Marines, 2 Neos, Melta, Fist, Rhino w/ Smoke
2x 7 Marines, 3 Neos, Melta, Fist, Drop Pod w/ Deathwind Launchers
1x 5 Marines, Las/Plas
1x 5 Marines, MultiMelta/Plas
1x Tri Las Pred, Smoke
1x Vindicator, POTMS

Here is my Deployment after I set up for Mission 1 From 'Ard boyz. This is a long table edge deployment with 5 objective markers, 1 in the center and 2 in each deployment zone.

Battle Report
Dan Turn 1, Modest shooting, TriLas picked off a Oblit on left flank, Las popped Khrone rhino on left objective, All Advance by me.

Liam Turn 1, 2 oblits pick off 1 GKT, Advances up Left CSM Rhino, tucks aways DP behind it, Advances oblits that just shake LRC, Advances rhinos with squads, DP, and raptors on right flank.

Dan Turn 2: EC Rhino advances on left flank, pops CSM rhino, Tri Las and Vindi clean up the last oblits on that squad, Las/Plas, drops a wound on DP on left flank, GKT, move a bit into cover, 1 drop pod comes down scatters off target a bit (too far to shoot raptors with Deathwind), LRC deploys Termies who mow through oblits, Command squad meltas fail to pop rhino
Liam Turn 2, Things start to go right for Liam, 1 Chosen squad outflanks on the left flank
He manages to almost surround my rhino with the CSMs and the DP, The chosen pop the rhino and all I can squeeze out is my EC, a Melta, and Fist

On the right flank he manages to lash out my termies, plasma a few down with oblits, then charged them to death with DP and CSM squadHis GD comes out but his khrone can't manage to pop the Command squad rhino in CC. His raptors assault my drop pod lads and we pretty much are at a stand still there.

Dan Turn 3, Drop pod 2 comes down and scatters a ways of his left objective. Those boys get out and shoot and his khrone holding the objective and kill one. The GK advance up and together with the remaining EC squad charge and clean up his CSM squad.

My Command squad deploys out the back of the rhino and the rhino backs out of there. My MM/Plas squad and LRC pivot to open fire and down the Greater Demon, while the command squad chows through the krone squad and consolidates in cover. My first drop pod squad is still doing little with the Raptor squad.

Liam turn 3, Left flank he moves his first chosen squad up to do some firing on my remaining EC squad but miss/fails, his second Chosen squad runs on the same flank and dumps our right next to my las/plas squad but fails to do a wound! His Demon prince and Krone hop out and wipe out my 2nd Drop pod squad handily.

His second DP assualts up with his raptors and finally kills off the last of that squad, and his other CSM squad moves up to his objecive and is able to melta my LRC to death. His oblits only land one plamsa cannon shot on my command squad and pick off a few guys. Lastly his right flank rhino is moving up to advance on my right objective.

Here is the scen at the end of turn 3:
Dan Turn 4, Las/Plas kills off 3 chosen and they break! Unfortunately they are on track to pass right by my vindi and drop pod so they aren't out of this yet! Tri Las puts a wound on the DP, while my EC squad can neither Melta nor Fist it to death, i think getting only Immob and Weapon destroyed. GKs move up to put the DP to death and consolidate up to move toward his remaingin krone.

Vindi lays down some fire on his CSM squad but it too big to do much use, the deahtwinds are all useless, my command squad rhino moves up and I roll to get in but I've spread my guys out to far and they can't go in it, DOH!
Liam turn 4, His prince sprints across toward the GK Termies and fails to lash them out, but the khrone are in charge range even if the raptors are not (but they advanced over also). They munch two GKT, but the GKT kill off the Krone and consolidate on the objective.

His fleeing guys are able to pop my vindi. His CSMs and Oblits drop a few more of my command squad. He has two beat up rhinos that are basically out of the game in the middle but hanging around, and his 2nd chosen rhino on the right flank moves to head toward my las/plas squad to contest.

Dan Turn 5, Now when I think I've got the game in hand I make some bad calls. My EC squad moves away from the rhino to head toward the objective and finally pop the chosen rhino. My GKT handily clean up the khrone and sit on the objective. My deathwinds are again useless against CSMs.

My command squad rhino moves around to at least block off the oblits from firing and my command squad moves up to hope to get in the rhino next turn, but send off a final volley to pop his last immob rhino on the right flank.

Where I boned it is my Las/Plas killed off the fleeing ueless chosen. My Tri Las pred and MM/Plas end up popping the middle rhinos that were pretty out of it anyway. I totally ignored his one mobile rhino in my backfield.

Liam Turn 5, Liam takes his mobile rhino and backtracks next to my las/plas squad to contest the objective. His chosen and raptors assualt on my EC squad and are able to fist the EC down and kill the last guys there. His oblits shoot the rhno to immobilize it and his last CSM squad kills off my drop pod.

The game ends.
In the end he holds an objective with his CSM squad, I have one with my MM/Plas squad, but his damn rhino is contesting my Las/plas squad. The GKT are just sitting over on his other objective and burnout vehicles are surrounding the center.

So while it is a tie by objectives it now goes to KP.
I lost: EC, Assault Termies, LRC, Crusader Squad, their rhino, Drop Pod squad, Drop Pod Squad, Drop pod, Vindi= 10 kp
Liam lost: DP, GD, CSM squad, their rhino, other CSM rhino, Khrone squad, their rhino, other Khrone squad, their rhino, Oblit squad, Oblit squad= 11

A bloody game that would have resulted in a BT minor victory. Had the game gone on a few more KP may have shifted around, and whether or not I could pop the last rhino would have been all could have done to get a Massacre.

In the end in our post battle chat there were several things that we could have done differently so we certainly are taking what mistakes we made down for future games. I have to prioritize things that can contest, damn rhinos have cost me a few games now from last turn movement.

A few last pics of the remains from the game.

'Ard Boyz scenarious

The Scenarios are up... and now I've got some thinking to do. Scenario two has tranports worth 1 which is meh, but HQs are 5! With 3 HQs that is going to be a problem.

Back to the drawing board...

Blood Bowl makes me tired

So Bloodbowl is fun, but you are quickly reminded of the folly of Nuffle.

I played two games with Dave last night. First was his Lizardman vs my Skaven. Aside from killing a Saurus early on the game was all fail for me. By mid 2nd half it was 2-0 against me and I had 5 rats out of the game. By turn 14 when I, for the 2nd time, didn't blitz the guy next to me but blocked him (which I also did a ton in beta) I pretty much conceded to Dave and we just 'ended turns' to get Dave the win.

Game 2 we played Dave's Chaos vs my Skaven. This was the complete opposite. Every roll went against Dave and everything went my way. At one point I think he was down to 8 people on the pitch while I was at full strength (he later KOd 3 rats in a row, though). The game ended 0-4 in my favor, and included my missed pass that bounced into a gutter runners hands for a TD.

Needless to say I was up way too late... and I got basically no painting done on the BT.

Tau for 'Ard Boyz

So while I wait to see what rulings I get on some of my GK GM questions I thought I'd build up lists for my other armies. There is no way I'm going to jump horses now, I'm committed to trying to get the BT in order for the tourny. However this is a good exercise to see what I could put together, as well as what I could be facing across the table in a few weeks!

2500 pt 'Ard Boyz Tau

HQ 1: Shas'el- Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Target Array, Hard wired Multitracker, Hard wired Drone Controler, 2 Shield Drones, Bonding Knife
Retinue of Shas'Vre x 2, Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Target Array, Hard wired Multitracker
266

HQ 2: Shas'el- Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Target Array, Hard wired Multitracker, Hard wired Drone Controler, 2 Shield Drones, Bonding Knife
Retinue of Shas'Vre x 2, Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Target Array, Hard wired Multitracker
266

Elite 1: 6 Stealth Suits
180

Troop 1: 11 Firewarriors, 1 Shas'ui w/ Bonding Knife
135

Troop 2: 11 Firewarriors, 1 Shas'ui w/ Bonding Knife
135

Troop 3: 6 Firewarriors
60

Troop 4: 6 Firewarriors
60

Troop 5: 17 Kroot, 8 Kroothounds
167

Fast Attack 1: Pirahnas x2 w/ Target Arrays and Fusion
150

Fast Attack 2: Pathfinders x 6, Devilfish w/ Disruption Pods, Target Array, Flechette Discharger, and Smart Missile System
202

Fast Attack 3: Pathfinders x 6, Devilfish w/ Disruption Pods, Target Array, Flechette Discharger, and Smart Missile System
202

Heavy 1: Broadsides x 3 with Advanced Stabilization System, 1 Team Leader upgrade, Drone Controller, Hard Wired Multitracker, Bonding Knife, and 2 shield drones
285

Heavy 2: Hammerhead, Railgun, Disruption Pods, Multitracker
165

Heavy 3: Hammerhead, Railgun, Disruption Pods, Multitracker
165

Total Points: 2498

5 Troops, 'Ard Boyz KP from last year would be 22, normal kp are 16

Normally Tau have crazy high KP I find, so 16 normal is really good in my mind. 22 for 'Ard boyz... eh, I think it is a little high, but most of the big KP are pretty survivable if I can keep my distance.

No crisis elites is almost sacrilege, but I think the two HQ command squads will work out ok and help me trim the KPs down.

Two shooty FW squads, 2 small squads to basically make the pathfinders fishes scoring units.

A solid 25 kroot type bodies, able to wall off drop pod meltas, fast attackers, or outflank/infiltrate on a shooty oponent.

Lots of anti tank, tha tau specialty.

Nob bikers are what could really ruin this list's day. I'd have to focus fire like crazy on the unit, and use marker lights to reduce cover saves and hopefully LD scores to route them off the table. However our gaming store is so choked full of terrain it is hard to bring all the firepower to bear (and is one reason I always use SMS now).

I still think it could gun down a lot of IG lists, and marines and chaos would be challenging but fun games. A 'normal' ork army would be fun to play against as well.

I'm almost positive this list could be a real problem for my Templar. Deployed right to defend against the pods with Kroot, and a Tau first turn to deny my great smoke launchers usage and they could be in a heap of trouble.

I'd have to pick up some more pathfinders (or convert them over), but with a small amount of painting this list would be ready to go.

Maybe next year... hehe.

Blood Bowl Game is out Today

Oh crap, this is out today. My hopes of actually finishing painting the whole 2500 pt BT army for 'Ard Boyz is looking more uphill than I originally anticipated.

Oh Rules, you are so crazy!

So now that I'm looking at using the Grey Knight Grand Master there are a ton of rules I'm realizing that need to be clarified here before I just show up and hope thing work the way I think they would. I can make all the assumptions I want, but far better to get these knocked out with my shops tournament organizer before hand.

If most of these don't fall the way I think they should the list will be in for a re org for sure.

1. With the GKGM attached to the Black Templar Terminators does the squad still Righteous Zeal? Normally ICs and squads don't gain the benefits of the rules the other has, but the rulebook says unless the rule specifies that it does and uses stubborn as an example. The stubborn rule and the righteous zeal rule both have similar language in saying that it also affect the attached ICs. However it is unclear if the RZ rule really meant attached BT ICs or ANY IC, but I think there is a good chance the RAW would mean the do indeed RZ.

I can live with them losing RZ in the end, but I don't want to have to roll for RZ, possibly fail (however low chance that is), and not get the benefit of moving forward.

2. Shrouding: I'm guessing this doesn't apply to the BT squad and is not used because of the aforementioned ruling about ICs and transfering special rules.

3. Rites of Exocism: Ditto on the above, though how cool would that be to make Daemons have to roll difficult terrain and have their initiative at 1.

4. Grand Master Nemisis Force Weapon: This can be summed up best by the Adepticon ruling.
DH.17H.01 – Q: Does a Daemonhunter Force Weapon ‘[slay] outright’ as in the codex or does it inflict ‘instant death’ as in the rulebook?
A: The Daemonhunter Force Weapon slays outright and therefore models immune to Instant Death can still be affected by it [RAW].
So I'm going to double check to see if that is going to be our 'ard Boyz ruling as well.

The last of these is probably the most important. The others would be nice to have, but I could probably live without. If 4 doesn't come through then I'm not sure the GKGM is totally worth it. He'd be great against ork warbosses and the like, but tough nuts like Daemon Princes, Greater Daemons, Ghaz, and Lysander will still cream him.

Time will tell, but I'm thinking about options to replace the GKGM now.

Making my 'Ard Boys List

There are always a few things I try to keep in mind when making a list.

1) What are the most likely armies you'll see? This year I'm thinking Chaos, Orks, Marines, and IG.

2) Of those, what do you think will give you the biggest problems?
Nob bikers, Monstrous Creatures, Psychic Powers, lots o' tanks

3) What do you have that will give other list big problems? Well I've got a few ideas below as it turns out...

So here is my current 'Ard Boyz 2009 Black Templar List

HQ 0: Emperors Champ, AACNMTO
140

HQ 1: Marshal, Twin Lightening Claws, Iron Halo, Termie Honors, Holy Orb, Furious Charge
7 Command squad, Furious Charge, 2 meltas
1 Company Champ, Furious Charge
1 sergeant, term honors, fist, Furious Charge
1 Rhino, Smoke, EA
462

HQ 2: Grey Knight Grand Master, Master Crafted Weapon, Psychic Hood
180

Ellite 1: Assault Termies; 3 Twin Lightening Claws, 4 Thunder hammer/Storm Shields, Furious Charge
LRC, smoke
569

Troop 1: 7 Initiate, 2 Neophytes, Power Fist, Melta
Rhino, Smoke, EA
215

Troop 2: 7 Initiate, 3 Neophytes, Power Fist, Melta
Drop Pod, Deathwind Missile Launchers
217

Troop 3: 7 Initiate, 3 Neophytes, Power Fist, Melta
Drop Pod, Deathwind Missile Launchers
217

Troop 4: 5 Initiate, Lascannon, Plasma Gun
101

Troop 5: 5 Initiate, MultiMelta, Plasma Gun
96

Heavy 1: Predator Annihilator, Lascannon Sponsoons, Smoke
148

Heavy 2: Vindicator, POTMS
155

Total: 2500

So the big question becomes: what will the mission look like this year? I either have 16 kp if we go the normal book ruling, or 20 if we use last year kill point example (3 for HQs, 2 for elites, fast, heavy, 1 for troops, 0 for dedicated transports). Both seem like modest numbers to me.

The command squad and the termies are both very killy in CC. The Grandmaster in his own right is a beast, but really if he can kill a Warboss with the force weapon that is great. It's really the phychic hood that I'm betting will come in big for me.

5 troop choices sounds solid. Granted 2 are only 5 man shooty squads but left in the back they will likely not get a lot of attention.

The drop pods are a lingering question for me. Since BT don't have to start them out turn 1 they will come in randomly during the game. Early in the game means I can hopefully pop things like chimeras and battlewagons, spilling out the sweet meat for the deathwind launchers. If they come in late hopefully they are popping down to take or reinforce objectives.

Its not a lot of fire support, but hey it's Black Templar. I'll hope the LRC delivers its payload thanks to our smoke rules, and that the vindi and the pred get a few turns to fire off shots while the LRC takes the brunt of the heavy weapons.

I think it will do ok as far as list functionality goes. Obviously the missions and the opponents will ultimately determine how uphill I have to go.

I've got a bit of painting to do (even though it's not judged or required), but baring no real shockers this is probably this list I go with July 11th.

'Ard Boyz 2009 Plans

So 'Ard Boyz is coming up in a few weeks and I'm thinking of taking a stab at it this year. Of course the first question is what army to play.

My orks would probably be the best choice but I know there will be a lot of ork players there already and for some reason that bothers me. In addition I don't really like moving that many boyz around in a timed event and the boards at our game store are choked full of terrain. I'm not going to go nuts with nob bikers and battlewagons for one day of gaming either.

My Tau would actually need the least amount or prep (in purchasing or painting) for 2500 pts but I just don't think they could stand up to the uber lists we're going to see. Lot's of monstrous creatures, psychic powers coming out of everywhere, crazy assault terminators, hordes of boys, and of course Nob bikers of doom. The one army the Tau would shine against would probably be mech IG, and certainly they are going to be floating out there as well. But really I think the most popular armies at my store are going to be Chaos, Orks, Marines, and then IG in that order.

So I'm leaning toward Black Templar. They're durable, they're killy, they've got enough tricks up their sleeve to deal with a good clip of the 'ard stuff. They aren't perfect, but I have enough to go for it and put together a list I think is competitive. So now to get down to a list that I'm actually happy with using...

And so it begins...

Ok, just what the world needs, another 40k blog. Really this blog isn't for anyone but myself and my friends since this seems like an easy way for us to show off our own handiwork. So if you've found this site and are hoping to become enriched in the way of 40k... well good luck with that. heh

It was hard enough coming up with a name for the blog. I've done ok at a few 40k tournaments, but I think I've won sportsman awards 3 or 4 times now. I thought The Preferred Enemy would be appropriate, since I think most people enjoy playing fun and challenging games against me. Add in the fact that the Black Templar vow giving Preferred Enemy is fun times for all and that sinched it.

So here it is in all its glory. I'll work on getting pics of my armies up as well as start with my own musing of the world of 40k. Enjoy!