Life is Still Funny

So still no baby.  I know, surprising right?

We stayed up most of Friday night counting contractions, watching them getting closer together.  FInally about 3 am I fell asleep.  An hour later my wife woke me up saying time to go to the hospital.

We get to the hospital to find out she's not dialated enough, and her contractions seem to be 'easing up' a bit.  They have us walk around.  Still not enough, so we go home.  We are exhausted and fall asleep around 7 am.

By the time I'm up around noon on Sat the contractions are back down to just a few an hour.  Pretty much over the rest of the weekend they stay at about 2-3 per hour.

So basically we never made it to active labor.

Now add in that Saturday I come down with some horrible stomach bug.  I don't know if it was a flu like thing (my son had been really sick the first half of the week) or food poisoning (my suspiscion) but it had  me doubled over and immobile for about 36 hours this weekend.

So no 40k, no baby yet, and illness.  Now I'm back to work until the labor thing kicks in again.

Ah life, you have such a sense of humor.

Life is Funny

So you know how the joke about having the baby the same day as Kublacon is just hilarious?

Well the wife just called to say she is having regular contractions about 10 minutes apart.

So good luck to all of those going and have fun!  I wont pretend that I'm not disappointed but I am horribly excited to have this baby finally!  It has been a crazy week at work, and while I was looking forward to losing myself in a day of 40k I'll be pretty pleased to hold a new healthy little boy before this weekend ends.

Wish me luck!

1 Day until Kubla...

...and no sign of baby arrival.  So I may actually get to go to this thing!

Last night I finally finished up the terminators.

I'm happy with how they turned out in the end.  There are a few details I'd certainly like to be better but I think there are just some things beyond my skill level.  However in the end there are a few things I'm really happy with on these.  I think the glowing eyes are probably the best I've done for the 1ksons.  In the pictures it looks a little 'too subtle' but in person I think it looks just right.  I'm also pleased with the head pieces and the power weapon conversions as I think this makes them look like they fit in with the army without going overboard.

So here is where I'm at now.

The minis are as done as they are going to get.  The board itself is mostly done.  The thing I need to spend time with is the checkerboard.  The squares are actually Astronomicon Grey which is the base coat I use for white.  So tonight's job is to try to get some white on those, and clean it up a bit.  In the end even if I showed up with this as is I'd be pretty happy.

SO... 1 day to go.  Here's hoping everything goes well enough to show up and have a great day of gaming!

Termie Arms Almost Done

 

Mostly just a quick update to say no news on the baby front.  Meanwhile I'm still working on getting these arms done, here's a quick cell pic.  I just have highlights and touch ups to do which hopefully I'll be done with tonight.

There you go, my shortest post ever!

Terminators Under Way

So lots of work on the terminators.  Sorry for the quick crap pictures.  The bodies and bases are done.  I've just got to finish up the arms now (which are all magnetized) which I've got all the base coat except for the boltgun done.

I was hoping to knock that all out this weekend but alas, not to be it seems.  Hopefully Mon and Tues will see me get those done.

That would leave a few nights to try to get that display board presentable.  No real work has gone into it at all since that last pictures I've posted of it.

I've actually found it a bit rough to be motivated since both my wife and I think this baby is coming really soon.  Her Dr on Friday says shes 75% effaced.  This weekend she lost her mucas plug (which yes sounds disgusting).  Of course both her Dr and the internet will point out that no two pregnancies are alike and those signs can mean a couple days or a few weeks. 

BUT of course we all know how this is going to work.  I'm going to be waiting all week for some sign, go to bed Friday thinking I'm actually going to get to go to Kubla, and wake up in the morning to my wife having contractions.

So this makes it a bit of a mental block to get painting done.  I know I should get it all done just in case I can go, but every bit of me says 'you're never going to get to go.'  Le Sigh.

6 Days until Kublacon, probably the same for baby #2!

Saturday 5.14 Game

So Saturday I went out for a game night with friends.  As I mentioned I had my first Warmahordes games which was fun and I definitely look forward to getting more into that game system.

On the 40k side of things I got a game in with Andy.  Of the guys playing 40k his is the only army I haven't now run my army up against.

His army looked something like:

Astro
2 Sang Priests w/ gear and JPs
Death Company Dread
5 Death Company w/ JPs
10 Assault Marines w/ JPs
10 Assault Marines w/ JPs
10 Tactical Marines, Lascannon, Razorback
Stormraven

So it is a list with lots of bodies, but marines so that's good for me.  The priests of course add survivability, but with no libby I've got a pass to warptime.

We pulled from the feared 'mission deck' we sometime used.  What we got was the deployment with the 24" zone diagonal down the board, and only two objectives in that dead zone.  Not too crazy.

I ended up deploying and going first.  I set up for most of my units to make the push.  I left both predator kind of in a rearguard to just cover one half of his deployment.  Termies and Lesser Daemons to deep strike.

He combat squad his tactical and deployed one assault company.  His Lascannon 5 guys bunkered in cover, his jump pack guys had terrain, and his razor had cover turn 1.  He kept one assault squad in reserve as well as the Stromraven w/ Astro, DC, and the DC dread.  Every one of his units got the red thirst.

My turn 1.  I don't think I even shot, or it worked in such a way that it didn't matter.

His turn 1 and he advanced with his Assault squad.  His shooting from the Lascannon and Razroback was harmless.

My turn 2 and nothing came down for me and my dread was not crazy.  I warptimed my prince.  My preds were out of range, but my oblits wrecked his razorback.  My DP charged into his assault squad.  I killed the priest and two other guys, but took one wound back.

Andy's turn 2 and my prince warptimes again. Both of units stay off the board.  His 5 man jump into the wreck of the razorback and they all past difficult terrain.  His lascannon  misses.  In combat I kill a few more guys and take one more wound.

My turn 3 and both my terminator squads come in but the horrors stay off the board.  I drop them down to each side to thinking I'll use them  as a counter charge unit near the objective.  I advance my rhinos to take objectives.  In shooting I kill 2 of his tactical.  In CC my warptimed prince kills the lat marines and consolidates a bit.

Andy's turn 3 and his Stromraven stays on but his Assault guys are still at the bar.  He moves it on 12 and deploys.  His lascannon makes my forward rhino explode.  He then unloads into my 1ksons with the rest of his guns killing 3.  His tactical unit charges them (Astro is now out of range) killing another.  His Dreadnought is also able to assault my termies easily with fleet and kills two.

My turn 4 and the horrors still don't show, plus my dread goes crazy shooty crazy.  I advance my oblits up a bit hoping to rapid fire plasma but I think I'm out of range.  I think I shot plasma cannons and managed to only kill one guy and maybe a wound on Astro.   I shift around on the right objectve a bit.  I leave my rhino side to take the str hits of the dread.  My preds shoot at the Stormraven that they've been waiting all game for and fail horribly to do anything more than shake it.  In combat my prince lends aide to free up my sorc who is the only survivor.  Shockingly my termie makes his two invul saves and sticks in combat.

Andy's turn 4 and his assault guys come down and take some cover.  He shifts his Stormraven to be back out of at least one of my preds ranges.  His Lascannon explodes another rhino and kills two of my scrubs.  He combo assault astro into my prince as well as his death company into my oblits (they have two fists).  We pretty much just creams everybody and consolidates back a bit.  His DC dread kill my last terminator and takes a big consolodate foward.

My turn 5 and my lesser daemons come down at last.  I put them to the rear to stay away from Astro.  My dread moves up now not crazy, and my termies start to move in that direction.  My feeling out of range of the Stormraven are instead able to make the DC Dread explode.  My 1ksons at last kill two more DC guys out of Astro's squad.

Andy's turn 5 and his Stormraven moves flat out to move to the objective I'm holding.   He looks like he might just be an inch or two short of contesting.  His Assault guys advance preparing to charge my termies, but in shooting they kill one guy.  Then I of course fail my LD and route 11 inches away.  Astro and co charge my last sons and just cream them also.

At this point it's look like if the game were to end I could have this!
But we roll and of course the game goes on to turn 6. :)

My turn 6 and my termies get to consolidate 3" and only shoot.  My only hope is to destroy the empty Raven, but with it moving flat out and ignoring melta shots that just doesn't work.  I added in what Predator shots I could but nope, nothing doing.

Meanwhile my horrors moved and ran to take cover in craters to hold an objective.

My Dread charged Astro and killed him and the fists only shook the dread.

Andy's turn 6 and he just shifted his Raven to be on the objective so if it went to turn 7 I wouldn't auto hit.  His assault guys moved over shot up a few horrors and charged them and wiped them off.  Somehow my dread and his DC killed each other according to the picture below.  Honestly I can't even tell you what happened there.  Oh and his Lascannon popped my rhino spilling out my last 1ksons squad.

Not surprisingly the game ends there.  He's got an assault squad on one objetive, and his Raven is contesting my sons on the other.

Had the game gone on maybe I could have tied, but there was no way to win.  In a perfect world my warptime sorcerer + Termie PF could pop the Raven dead.  But of course there is no garuntee that happens.  There was no way I was  going to displace his other Assault squad + Sang Priest.

It was a fun game, as my games with Andy always are.  I think I was (sit down for this) way to aggressive.  I have got to remember what peoples threat range are when they aren't on the board.  I'm very comfortable with looking at guys on the table and knowing that range, but guys yet to walk on ALWAYS seem to catch me of guard.  The Stormraven + DC Dread has potentially some whacky 23-27" ish range.  There was no reason I really ever needed to cross into that kind of zone this game, but I did anyway and suffered for it.

Another great learning experience, if I can only hope I learned from it!

Tuesday 5.17 Game

I'm going to skip over Saturday's game to bring you Tuesday nights game with Dave.  This was a rematch from yesterday's post, and you will see I once again fell into an over aggressive position.  Why am I pointing this out to you?  I don't know.  Maybe to shame me in to playing better.  Or just to say 'damn I suck.'

Anyway, this was a rare opportunity to get a midweek game.  My wife was busy and the kid was at the inlaws, and Dave's family is all out of town.  So we lined up for a rematch from the drubbing I received on Friday.

Dave made a few changes to the list.  Most notably he cut his Mawloc and the Tyranid Prime to add 11 Genestealers and a Pod for his Zoanthropes.

We rolled up spearhead and kill points.  I won the roll off and set up to go first.  My oblits are in the building.  Dave set up choosing to outflank with his Stealers.

My turn one and I had limited shooting options.  I advanced just a little and took what shots I could.  I figured I would focus fire on his harpies to slow them down, and that resulted in about 7 dead bugs.

Dave's turn 1 and he advances and spreads his guys out nicely.  He manages to make my center rhino explode and that kills one guy.  He also immobilizes my most 'advanced' rhino.

My turn 2 and my horrors and one of my terminators come down.  I drop my termies down to pop shots at the Trygon.  I'm a bit torn at what to do with the horrors.  I plop them down so I can charge the hormagaunts with my prince.  The problem is I'm ready to unload a bunch of AP3 bolters into them, but if I do too much damage he can remove models and I'll miss out on assault.  I instead focus on the gargoyles and kill them.  I fire 2 combi meltas off the termies at the Trygon (I thought one was out of range, but he wasn't) and do one wound.  The preds only manage a 2nd.

In combat I charge into his hormies with the lessers and the daemons.  The DP kills 4 with warptime up, but he creams 6 horrors and I lose 2 more to fearless saves.  I guess I should have shot them instead, or just less the lessers out of combat.  Either way I felt like I played that horribly wrong.

Dave's turn 2 I warptime with my prince and he fails.  His pod with Zoes come down and they scatter a bit but not much.  His stealers come in but they grab the 'wrong' side and even with a reroll he gets it again.  They come in and move into some cover.  He advances with everything, most importantly with the Trygon toward my dread.

In shooting he stuns both of my rhinos.  His Zoes I think also only managed to stun/shake my Dread.

In combat his Trygon charges to get my dread and rhino.  The dread explodes but he whiffs on the rhino.  His Termagants also join in on the DP combat.  I make every save with the DP and the Lesser Daemon dies.  I think only managed an awesome two wounds, and I think he failed his one fearless save per unit.

My turn 3 and I TOTLALLY SCREW UP THE RULES this turn.  I'm just laying that out there.  I'm an idiot and I apologize.  What I screwed up is my termies assaulted out of the deepstrike.  D'OH.  That's why we practice... right?  Right... practice being an idiot apparently...

So anyway ya the termies come down and Melta shot into the Hive Gaurd killing one.  My other termies advance toward his stealers as I figure I might as well take the charge away.  They and my squad of sons shoot them killing one. :p  My preds kill the trygon.  My oblits and other sons kill one zoe and one is wounded.

I Screw up royally and multicharge the termies into the Hive gaurd and hormies.  My DP had warptimed earlier and got double 1s to wound himself but was warptimed.  The end result is (GASP) in my favor as he loses lots of small bugs and the last Hive Garud dies to fearless saves as well.  Pretty great for me when I don't use, you know, the rules!

On the other side of the board I use complex unit rules to have one terminator take all the rends and he dies while the other two live.  Of course I only manage to kill on bug back in perhaps a karmarific move so we push.

Dave's turn 3 and more advancing where he can.  The Zoes shoot my rhino into a wreck.  I think the other Hive gaurd shoot my leftmost pred and only blow up a Lascannon.

His HQ unit charges into my termies and creams two of them again due to wound shenagins.  I think I made my warptime and kill more small bugs, maybe eliminating one of the units.  The genestealers again manage to kill one termie and I also kill one for another push.

My turn 4 and welcome to I forgot to take pictures again.  This always seems to happen around here right when we're excitedly in the mix of things.

As I recall I shot one of his Hive Gaurd dead, killed his pod, and killed one Zoe.  In combat he killed my terminator, and my DP died but not  before I killed the last of his little bugs.  His consolidations bring him closer to me.

Dave's turn 4 and more advancement to me.  His only real shooting is at my pred which he immobilizes.  In combat his HQ squad charges my last rhino which was immobilized and wreck it.  His Stealers charge into my 1ksons and just cream them utterly.

My turn 5 and I take what shots I can.  We know I'm behind on KPs.  I kill his last Zoe, but I can't manage to kill both Hive Gaurd as one still lives.  I try to whittle down the stealers but I think 4 are left.

His turn 5 and his shooting does nothing.  His stealers assault my Predator but do nothing.  His uber HQ unit charge my 1ksons and I manage to keep 4 guys around.

We roll to see if the game goes on to 6 but it ends.

He's killed: My DP, 2x Termies, Lesser Daemons, 2x 1ksons, 3x rhinos for 9 KPs.
I've killed: Hive Gaurd, Zoes, Pod, Termagants, Hormagants, Harpies, Trygon for 7 kp.

If the game had gone on I probably could have killed his stealers and his last hive gaurd.  But he would have probably killed my 1ksons in my turn, then charge the pred on his turn to kill it.  So all in all a net gain of 0 kps for me.

It sounds close but keep in mind my awesome assault that helped a lot.  Actually I'm not sure how big that was.  It did kill the HG, but the prince would have still killed both small bugs and his HQ would have still probably charged and wiped the termanators. So meh.

So there it is.  In reality I probably should have just stayed back and used what range I had.  Stay away from the HQ and let his little bugs either hang back by the slow synaps advance or charge early and deal with them without support from the choppy guys.  I'm just so eager to advance to use the DS off the icons, but really I should just let everything hang back and use those units for the counter charge.

Will I have learned this lesson?  Maybe.  Who knows if I'll get a game in before Kublacon as I've still got quite a bit of work to get done.

One more Battle Report from Saturday's game with Andy's BA I'll do up tomorrow night.

5.14 Friday Night Game 2

Game 2 for last Friday was against Dave's bugs.  Dave's been trying out different things in the list and is trying to get them WYSWYG for Kublacon. 

For this he was trying:

Swarmlord
2 Tyrant Gaurd
Tyranid Prime
3x Hive Gaurd
3x Hive Gaurd
3x Zoanthropes
Tervigon
15 Termagants
15 Hormagants
15 Gargoyles
Trygon Prime
Mawloc

We rolled a 3 objective game and Dawn of War.  I can't remember who won the roll off but I ended going up first.

I placed one rhino and my DP up midfield.  Dave put out his Hormies off 18" and his Tryrant Gaurd directly in front of my units.

My turn 1 and I roll up the board.  I decide to advance my rhino and prince, which ends up being a huge mistake. 

Dave's turn 1 and he walks on the board.  His Hormies get a huge fleet roll, but his guns don't manage to get through my rhino smoke.  However due to his movment with his HQs he is able to join them up and all assault my rhino and his Hormies assault the rhino and the DP.  The end result is him killing my DP (I think I failed a fearless for the last wound) and my 1ksons can only get two guys out of the rhino due to being surrounded.  So I stick out my sorcerer and my guy carrying an icon.

My turn 2 and one terminator squad and my oblits come down.  I decide to try to help out my near dead sons.  The oblits come down to triple flame the hormies killing a good clip, and other shoots meltas at his HQ unit doing a wound.  My 1ksons shoot at the hormies also kill one or two.  I've got some other shooting around the board but nothing significant.  I figure I'll assault his hormies with my two guys but I was hoping for two much and they die, giving him a small consolidation.

Dave's turn 2 and his Mawloc comes on the board but scatters away from my vehicle.  His Tervigon spawns more bugs but I think craps out also.  His shooting goes pretty well considering his zoes I think insta killed 2 oblits, and he also popped my dread.  In combat I think his Hormies finished the last oblit.  His HQs charged my termies and due to going through cover they assaulted last, and with wound allocation shenanagins he only killed one.  I think that combat was a push.

My turn 3 and I'm missing a picture.  My other termies come down to unload meltas in to the mawloc doing two wounds.  I think my preds were shooting at hive gaurd and not doing well.  I was hoping my two hatch shots form the rhinos would dispatch his hormies but I only killed two.  In combat his HQ unit creamed my termies and got a decent consolidate.

Dave's turn 3 and his Trygon showd up on my far left flank.  He advanced up.  His shooting popped my far left rhino and stunned my far left pred.  His Mawloc assaulted one rhino and it exploded.  His HQ unit assaulted my pred but only managed to stun it.

My turn 4 and I think I risk a warptime on my 1ksons by his Trygon.  That's pretty much spells doom on that side.  My horrors come in and the assault the termagants over there.  We both kill each other down to leave not many guys.  My 1ksons midfield rapid fire and do another wound or two to the Mawloc, and My termies Mulitcharge the Mawloc and hormagants.  They somehow kill both without taking losses.  My other sons by his Trygon maybe manage a wound shooting and charge with the sorcerer managing another wound or so.

His turn 4 and I warptime my sorc in combat with the Trygon rolling doubles and dying to perils.  So much for any hope there!  This turn is the nail in the coffin.  His Trygon kills that troop unit off easily now.  He makes my far left pred explode, and I think he immobilized and stunned the other.  His HQ unit charges and creams my termies.  My horrors are down to 1 vs two gaunts by the end of that combat.

At this point we survey the board.  I've got one horror that is sure to die.  I've got a stunned and immobilized pred.  I have a full 1ksons unit in the middle of nowhere.  Dave's army is really in relatively good shape, but most importantly he's got troops on an objecitve I'll never be able to displace.  My 1ksons aren't likely to make it any objective.  They're most likely never going to avoid the HQ death squad.  He's still got a Tervigon that can like cruise over to another objective if the game goes past turn 5.  We call it a game asmore than likely he just tables me turn 5 if not turn 6.

What can I say.  It was a fun game but I definitely played poorly.   My opening moves were not good decisions.  I should have stayed back and just tried to trade shots.  You think I would know this by now.  You would be wrong.  And as you'll see from more battle reports I'll choose to continue to make this mistake.

Maybe after digesting all of these battle reports will pay off, but then again the army is still what it is so who knows if it will have any bearing on my tournament play.

5.14 Friday Night Game 1

So Friday I got a few games in after work.  The first game was with Ryan's Eldar who I haven't played in quite some time.  Of course playing them with 1ksons is always going to be tough.

His list looked something like:
Eldrad
5 Fire Dragons (in Falcon)
5 Wraithgaurd and 1 Warlock in Wave Serpant
5 Pathfinders
Dire Avengers in Wave Serpant
Dire Avengers in Wave Serpant
Falcon
Fire Prism
Fire Prism

I'm not really too sure about squad numbers or upgrades.  It didn't really matter since pretty much not many people ever needed to get out of the skimmer. :p

We got the single objective game and spearhead deployment.  Ryan was going first.  Here is the deployment.  Our objectives are both in far corners.

Ryan's turn 1 and he shot and scooted about the board a bit.  His rangers wounded one Oblit, immobilized one rhino, stunned another, and shook one predator.

My turn 1 I moved with a non crazy dread.  I may have shaken one of his flyers or two, and I smoked my forward rhino.

Ryan's turn 2 and more shuffling and shooting.  He outright killed one whole oblit, destroyed my autocannon off my shaken pred and shook it, killed the autocannon and immobilized my other pred and destroyed my dreadnought.

My turn 2 and one squad of termies come into play.  I realize not much of mine is going to be able to slog accross this table and my icons are too far back to make things worth while.  I go for a brave deepstrike behind his tanks and just barely scatter off the board with an 11.  A 10 would have left me in great position.  Alas the are now placed by Ryan, who puts them in a far corner and into terrain.  Of course one dies due to terrain.

I still persevere and advance what I can.  My mobile predator starts to fall back toward my objective and smokes.  My oblits do manage to immobilize and stun his fire dragon's ride.

Ryan's turn 3 and some more shuffling about the board.  I think the fire dragons leave the ride to start hustling around.  The wraithgaurd deploy and shots pour into my Prince for a few wounds and smoke helps deflect off any major vehicle damage.

Here is what Ryan's corner looks like at this point.

My turn 3 and the other termies and lesser daemons arrive.  I play it aggressive because my options are limited.  The termies manage to down the Wraithgaurd's ride.  The oblits shoot at the wraithgaurd with plasma cannons and manage to kill two.  The other termies and movable rhinos advance.  The prince still holds his 'shoot me' sign.  My guys back in the immobilized rhino to begin to hoof it over.  I know they are slow, but I figure 3 turns with run is enough time to get them over there about 24 inches away.

My lesser daemons charge his wraithgaurd just to tie them up for a turn or two and a few die.

Ryan's turn 4 and he knows he's got to start the flying circus to secure some objective.  His DA's serp blast toward my objective.  His other skimmers move away form his objective so they can blast back on it in turn 5.  He shoots two terminators and one oblit dead.  My slogging 1ksons make all their saves.

My turn 4 and everything I can send over to his objective I do, using rhinos to try to wall off his wraithgaurd.  My oblit and predator try to kill his DA serp and fail.  My guys move toward the objective an absolutely pathetic amount.  I'm now concerned I will not reach it in time.  I think my Prince manages to down one of the fire prisms.

Ryan's turn 5 and his DA unit is able to scoot within 3 of the objective.  His other skimmer jams over to his objective.  He kills my pred over by my objecitve, but his wraithgaurd whiff on my rhino.  He kills my last oblit, and 3 of my slogging 1ksons die to fire as well.

My turn 5 and my rhinos head over to land on his objecitve.  I put everything I can into killing his vehicle but I can't, and even if I could he's got troops inside.  My 1ksons squad makes a pretty sad movement and I think I'm out of range of my objective.

We roll for turn 6 but the game ends.

As it turns out the 1ksons were less than 1/4" in range of my objective.  The net result was a tie game.

Had the game gone on longer I certainly would be struggling to maintain a tie.  My 1ksons were probably going to die on my objective.  I'd need to clear off his serp and DA of his objective with whatever might have survivedthe next turn.

Where I really went wrong this game was not putting my objective in the right place.  I should have put it smack in the middle of the long board near my table edge.  With such a fast army like Eldar I needed that to be with more of my force, as even putting it deep wasn't going to save my bacon this game.

It was good to have Ryan back to play some games.  The early 1/2 of the game was just a pounding, even though Ryan couldn't put the final blow on my vehicles they were often crippled.  I was able to do a bit of damage is later than game but by then it was too late.

After this game I played Dave's bug, which I'll type up tomorrow night.

Quick Weekend Update

A quick update from the weekends stuff.  I didn't get nearly as much time as I was hoping to get on moving the 1ksons along.  I thought for sure on Sunday I'd have a few hours when the kiddo took a nap and the wife was out but the child of course decided to forgo staying in bed.  Too much fun with daddy!

But I did squeeze some time into it and the board is coming together a bit.

Looks pretty good for how little time I've put in to the thing, but you can see my patience for doing the checkerboard ran out after working on the thing for an couple hours.  It is more apparant when I pull all the 'stuff' off the board.

Sure you can see the two giant cogs and the 'hill' area on the top right corner.  That leaves three big blank spots I need to fill in still with checkerboard.

AND that's only the Astronomican Grey, that's not even with the white coat I'll need to apply!

So I went out and found some more cogs that are looking pretty flat.  I'm hoping I can drop those on some of those bulks spaces to reduce more squares I'll need to paint.

Also while mucking around I think I am going to change up the postion of the tank/termies/oblits.

I think I like that better but of course I can just decide that If I don't put down giant cogs on the board.

Beyond that I did manage 3 games which I'll put up battle reports later this week.

I also sat down for a my first Warmachine/Hordes game.  It was just simple 15 pt game to continue to learn the rules and get a feel for the game.  I've read the hordes rule book so I had a pretty good idea, but obviously it is something else to just sit down and move models and roll dice (and read cards and move counters as in this case).  I'll say I did have a good time, and I can see the appeal and where the hickups learning the game will probably lie.  I certainly enjoyed myself well enough to want to play it again and see more of the workings of the game. 

I'll probably hold off on a purchase of anything until after Kublacon.  I've already told myslef I'll be doing that for video games as well, as I can't imagine getting the Terminators and the Display board done with temptations in the way.

13 days until Kublacon and 23 days until Baby #2 is due.

Finished 3rd Aspiring Sorcerer

So I wrapped up the 3rd aspiring sorcerer.  I had almost forgotten what a pain in the butt these are to paint.

He's certainly not perfect, I can now see a few spots I need to touch up a little.

The big challenge was that I painted the last two over a year ago.  Also they had been airbrushed blue, where this guy I just started off the white primer.  That means the I had to find all the little hard to reach white gaps that normally the airbrush nicely fills.  But on the other hand getting the bottom white 'dress' was much easier to do this time, where on the other two it was layers upon layers of trying to make it look right (and I was never really 100% happy with the result).

Lastly over the course of the last year I've changed the process of how I've done the gold.  Partly because it is a bit easier, partly because the original gold color was more bronze and it's pretty much a dead pot now.  However this is the first time I've tried to match models and you can certainly see a difference.

Here's the 3 aspiring sorcerers together.

Of course my bad photography will cover up a lot.  If you look closely you can see the white on the center guy is a lot more smooth, but the gold bits don't have as much contrast.  This is most obviously on the 'heads' on the backpacks.

However I, of course, am going to notice these things.  Once they are on the table and leading their squads of dust buckets they'll look fine.

I hope.

My wife is having Braxton Hicks contractions, which is just a reminder that this baby is really coming I suppose.  She went to the doctor yesterday and everything is fine, but she is to take it easy this week so she can make it to 37 weeks so the baby is full term.  Of course that doesn't mean the baby will come that early, but certainly we're entering the 'oh this could happen any time now' phase.

17 days until Kublacon and a VERY theoretical 27 days until Baby #2 is due.

Thousand Sons Dreadnought Complete

Well he's done.  He's not great but he'll do.

I think it's funny because I don't think he looks 1ksons enough, but I'm not sure what else to do.  Grab a bunch of tomb kings bits I suppose, but for now I'm moving on with more painting and modeling.

I went outside to cut a few peices of foam today and try to settle on the display board.

What you see there are 3 foam cogs, and a foam 'hill' for the horrors.  I've realized this frame is a little to small but I'll make this work for now.  I need to go grab a few more things for this before I glue everything down and hit it with primer.  This will be the last thing I actually get to painting if I have the time.

I also have started the 3rd aspiring sorcerer.  I've got his basecoat done and hopefull it will only take another night to get him complete.  Then I plan on painting his base, my 3 objective bases, and my 6 terminator bases.  If I get all that done I'll start on the terminators.

Otherwise I'll have two weeks to get the terminators done plus finish the display board.

20 days until Kublacon and roughly 30 days until Baby #2 is due.

4.29 Friday Night Game 2

On to game 2 where I've got a rematch with Jason's Eldar.  You may recall I played and lost this same match up recently, and of course I've lost to it a few times with my Blood Angels right before that.  So I know the list is ded 'ard.

So use the feared and loved mission deck for the game.  He pull up the 'split the table diagonally, 24" no mans land' for deployment.  Aside from that it was a 5 objective mission where one had to be in the center.

I won the roll off and chose to go first.  I set up along my line.  Jason only set up his rangers in cover.

My turn one, I advance with a non crazy dread.  I take some shots at his rangers but do no damage.

His turn 1, his rangers shoot at my prince I believe but I make my saves.

My turn 2 and I advance again, probably a bit recklessly as I should remember those damn Fire Dragons are a pain...

The dread goes crazy and shoots my rhino a bunch with str 4 shots to do nothing.

Regardless my lesser daemons came in as well and I ran them back to camp my rear objective.  I dropped any shooting I could on the rangers and managed to kill two of them.  As a bonus they failed their LD and fled off the board!

Now his turn 2 and time to roll for reserves.  He gets his Dire Avengers, his Storm Gaurdians, one war walker squad, and his warp spiders.  That means his dreaded fire dragons, his jet bikes, and the other war walker squad are off the board still.  This is just huge for me!

His Dire avengers deploy by my prince, his warpiders drop behind my preds by my lesser daemons.  His War Walkers have to come in on the 'far' side.  His Storm Gaurdian units stay in his rear deployment to shoot and be near some objectives.

In shooting his Dire Avengers and their vehicle can not get through my Daemon Princes Armor save.  His Warp Spiders make one of my Predators explode and I lose one lesser daemon in the explosion.  His war walkers and other Serp fire at my rhino and manage to stun and immobilize it.  All in all not bad for me all things considering.

NOW if you look at that picture you'll notice another thing that helped me greatly.  The Warp Spiders didn't take their assault move.  We didn't realize it until the end of my movement phase, and Jason wanted to play it straight like a tournament game so I didn't argue.

My turn 3 and I warptimed my prince.  Both my terminators come down.  One lands spot on to be near his Storm Gaurdian's wave serp, and the other squad scatters back from his warwalkers and lands in terrain.  Of course one guy rolls a 1 to die.  My two mobile rhinos advance.  I decide I need to pivot my pred to deal with these warp spiders.

In shooting my oblits plasma cannon the warpsiders, and I kill a few.  Of course one also scatters on to my lesser daemons and I lose two more guys (down to 6).  My predator opens up on them and brings them down to two guys.  They now route and start booking away from me.  One terminator squad wrecks the storm guardian wave serpents.  The two man terminators fire one melta (I thought I was out of range with the second) and the 'immobilize' turns one unit in the squad of war walkers into a wreck.  My dread misses his shot at the war walkers.

The prince charges the Dire Avengers.  He kills 4 and takes no wounds.  Further more they fail combat and I run them down.  I wish I could have stayed locked in combat but who knew they would fail LD so badly.  I take a short consolidation.

Jason's turn 3 and his fire dragons and other warwalkers come on the table, but his jetbikes remain off again!  The war walkers come on again on the 'far' side and he gets the fire dragons out over there as well.

In shooting his wave serp by my prince makes my last predator explode.  His fire dragons melta my terminators to death.   Their wave serp makes my rhino explode.  His new war walkers kill two 1ksons from that group.  His other 2 war walkers manage one wound on the oblits.  His fleeing warp spiders land a wound on my prince.

My turn 4 and I warptime the prince and the dread is not crazy.  I send up my last mobile rhino over terrain and deploy my squad (which might have been foolish) to shoot his gaurdians.  The slogging squad moves around as well to be on a forward objective.  My rhino shifts to a firing lane, and my terminators can't roll out of cover so move to be almost out and take some shots.

In shooting my dread and terminator fail to do anything.  So do my oblits due to some good saves on his war walkers.  My 1ksons kill enough gaurdians in cover for a LD save... but I've gotten too lucky so far and they make their save to not run off the board.

I charge my prince into his other serp and kill it.

His turn 4 and his jetbikes finally come in, and I decided not to bother warp timing though I think I should have as I think it would have happened before his runes fella ended up on the board.  I just figured he's shoot my prince dead anyway.  As it turns out he did two wounds to the prince shooting, but killed him in CC.  I think I killed one back, and warptime would have helped immensely.

In other shooting he shot my rhino shaken, and whittled my 1ksons squad of 6 down to one dust bucket.

My turn 5 and I figure I best hustle if the game comes to a close now.  Thankfully my dread goes crazy and fleets off toward his war walkers rather than contributing to going toward objectives. :P  My lesser daemons are sitting on one objective, and I deploy my last full sons squad out of the immobilized rhino to sit on the middle objective.  My single sloggin 1kson jumps in a rhino that squats on one objective.  My 4 man 1ksons advance on his gaurdians.  My terminators advance for his full war walker squad.

In shooting I think I try to take a few oblit shots at his bikes and maybe kill 1 but not enough for a LD check.  I think my advancing sons kill one guardian.  My terminators kill one war walker with the chain fist.  My thousand sons charge into his guardians and I think we both kill two each.

His turn 5.  His bikes zoom up to sit on one objective and contest my horrors objective.  His fire dragon's serp blast up to contest my rhino/1 guy on that objective.

In shooting he manages to take 2 1ksons down off my center objective unit.  The fire dragons advance but only one can reach my rhino and he misses.

In combat my sorcerer lives but loses his last dust bucket, and the chainfist makes another war walker explode and oddly that kills my chainfist guy (and I think a fire dragon).

Of course since we're deep in the game I forgot a picture at the end of this turn.  In the end he is contesting two objectives, his storm gaurdians tied up in combat are just out of reach of his 'rear' objective, he's got his bikes on one objective and I've got one squad of sons on one.  So it would be a tie.

But we roll and the game goes onward.

My turn 6 and my dread is not crazy.  He moves forward.  The oblits move toward his bikes.  The sons on the center objective move up a little to shoot the bikes as well.  His bikes have a cover save but they lose one guy and take a wound.  My Dread can't hit his wave serpant contesting the one objective.

In combat my sorcerer finally dies, and my chainfist whiffs on his last war walker.

Again no picture. :(

His turn 6 and his bikes and war walkers focus on shooting my center troop.  Amazingly my sorcerer lives.  His fire dragons advanced and shot my rhino and wreck it.  In combat my last terminator fails a 2+ and dies.


I think at this point we measured to see if his bikes were contesting still with the horrors but I think he was out now since he pulled from the front and my daemons ran to block him out of there.  So basically still a tie game.

We roll and it is on to turn 7.

My turn 7 the oblits move up and rapid fire plasma his bikes.  All but one troop and his IC die.  My dread can't pop his serp contesting the last 1kson dudefella behind his wrecked rhino.

His turn 7 he takes some shots and kills my last aspiring sorcerer and we know that gives him the game.

The beginning of the game was really great for me, but his army is good and his tactics sound so he was able to claw into the tie by turn 5.  The mobility and firepower all helped late in the game, and alas turn 7 I just didn't have enough gas to keep this out of a loss.

Still it was a great and fun game considering that Eldar are probably the last army I want to draw.  Them and hordes, but it's going to be what it's going to be I suppose.