Updating Chaos for Kublacon

So this time a year is generally pretty busy for me.  Not only do I have some regular work travel during the next two months I always end up having plenty of family events on the weekend.  It seems March and April are heavy birthday events for my family.  So usually this means not much on the tournament scene, as well as struggles to get regular games and painting time.

So the next event I see that I'll be shooting to attend is Kublacon which is an 1850 event.  I have been meaning to take my 1ksons to that event for a few years now but every year something else has replaced them or I've not made it.  I think this year I'm going to work to try to get them ready.

What's the main reason I'm not sure if I'll be ready?

These damn Helldrakes are a massive pain in the ass to paint.  I know that might look like it has got a lot done but really it does not.  That's just the brown trim for the gold.  I have to go over all of that with gold, wash the gold, highlight the gold, and of course paint all the other details (cables, flesh, claws, eyes).  Then I have to do it ALL OVER AGAIN for a second turkey!  I'm already about ready to drive hot pokers into my eyes painting this thing!

So it doesn't help that I'm trying to keep my very high standard of paint on these guys to match the rest of my 1ksons army.   It would be great if I could just color primer these things and dip and be done.   As it is I have barely started, and given I'm lucky to get an hour of painting a day this is going to take weeks if not months.

So let's assume I can get them done, I've got to figure out what to run.  I tried this list last Friday.

Typhus!
Termie Sorc, CombiMelta, MoT
3 Chaos Termies, CombiMeltas
6 1ksons in Rhino
6 1ksons in Rhino
6 1ksons in Rhino
10 Zombies
10 Zombies
Helldrake BF
Helldrake BF
3 Oblits, MoN, VotLW
Aegis, Quadgun

The idea here is Typhus could be a sorc/lord in paint scheme as he does actually have psychic powers and he is good!  Plus he makes zombies which can be handy as 10 fearless guys with fnp is nice.  The downside is they can't go to ground behind the wall like cultists, but survivors don't run away.  I like the idea of zombies, but I'm not sure if the Typhus tax is worth it, though he is still I think a great Warlord to use.

The Sorc (aka 1ksons tax) goes with the termies to deepstrike and pop tough armor or get guys outside of transports.  The helldrakes and the oblits do most of the killing.  The 1ksons usually just try to find their way to objectives.  They are really still the weakest part of any chaos list I build sadly. 

The oblits are still wonderful of course, and I just have to use MoN because it is ridiculously the best mark AND cheaper than MoT just to add insult to injury.

The rough part is how much I would need to paint.

Typhus, Termie Sorc, 11 Pink Horrors to be used as Zombies/Cultists, 2 Helldrakes.

Like I mentioned the Helldrakes are probably going to take me until the end of April.  Can I get two HQs and 11 horrors done in time?  The good news is about 9 of the horrors are probably 1/2 done.

The other question is how good is this list?  I played against a Draigo list on Friday and it was tough going.  I've always struggled with 2+ saves and this was no exception.  I've also run the termicide squad a few times with various builds and sadly while you do want some melta in the list to help crack tough armor there are many 6th ed lists that Melta is just not needed.  That takes a lot of usefulness out of the terminators, though they still can't be ignored roaming the backfield unchecked.

So I've thought about changing those to CombiPlasma, and that might make them more useful in some games.  However what I probably just need to do is convert all of my Termies to oblits, and use one of my current oblits as a Terminator Sorc.

That would mean pulling off the oblit arms and painting 3 more pairs of the arms I made so I could field 6 oblits using my 6 termies.  Then I could use one of the Termie axes on the old oblit, and just have to paint one bolter to finish up the Termie Sorc.

So a list could look like this.

Typhus
Termie Sorc, MoT
9 1ksons in Rhino
9 1ksons in Rhino
10 Zombies
10 Zombies
Helldrake BF
Helldrake BF
2 Oblits, MoN
2 Oblits, MoN
2 Oblits, MoN
Aegis, Comm Relay

So to free up points I've gone from 3 smaller squad of 1ksons to two 9 man squads.  I have also ditched VotLW on the oblits.  They are two man teams so losing one will mean a LD 8 test, hopefully the last guy will stick around.  2 man teams mean more targets to shoot and be shot.  I could also risk a deepstrike occasionally without feeling like all my eggs are in one basket.  The silly part is the Termie sorc probably sits with fearless Zombies.  I don't see any rule saying they can't join one unit and Typhus the other as the Zombies are actually not marked units.

I also got to thinking about the Comm Relay after seeing it in use last week.  With Helldrakes you really almost always want to get in turn 2, plus if you decided to reserve/DS oblits you want them in fast.  So I want to give that a go.

To paint: Typhus, 7 Terminator Arms, 11 Horrors, 2 Helldrakes

So I think this list is better, but it doesn't really trim the paint list down by much.  Of course seeing as the helldrakes are going to likely take 2/3 of the time what else could be done to trim it back.

Well something like this I suppose:

DP, Armor, Wings, MoT, Black Mace
Termie Sorc, MoT
5 1ksons in Rhino
5 1ksons in Rhino
5 1ksons in Rhino
10 Cultists
Helldrake BF
Helldrake BF
2 Oblits, MoN, VotLW
2 Oblits, MoN, VotLW
2 Oblits, MoN
Aegis, Comm Relay

Hey look, I'm already Painted!

This is really all about cutting down on the painting.

7 Terminator Arms, 1 Horror, 2 Helldrakes, & Convert a Mace on the DP if I felt the need I suppose.

If the Helldrakes take up to the last week I can use this list and knock out those last few bits in a day or two.  If I find I've got an extra week I might instead go to paint a PA Sorc to get VotLW on the last Oblits.  If I find I've got a whole two weeks maybe I'll drop the mace and try to get the 2nd squad of cultists done.  If I manage to actually get the Helldrakes done in April maybe I'll look to getting Typhus done as well and go with the previous list.

Of course my display board could use a little help as well so I probably should get a day or two in for that as well.

So I guess I have some options and certainly plenty of painting to do (what else is new?).  Hopefully I'll be able to play some games as well so I can figure out any other tweaks that I could make along the way.

Bay Area Open Complete

So I had a long but fun weekend at the Bay Area Open.  There are plenty of other threads that you can find out there that cover the event, and lots of pictures as well.  Thank goodness because I really didn't take any.   I was incredibly lazy, drinking beer, and having fun. 

I've stolen a number of pictures from Jim's (Jy2) report on DakkaDakka, I hope he doesn't mind!
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/60/510298.page#5353755

Friday was the team tournament and I played with my buddy Frankie.  Frankie is a co-owner of Frontline Games and they were running the BAO event.  However the double tournament was only 34 players so Reece decided he could run it himself and Frankie could participate.

We took an abusive Nurgle CSM Hellturkey list.   2 Nurgle DPs, 4x 10 Cultists, 3 Helldrakes, 9 Nurgle Oblits.  It was gross, but we were not alone.  Of the 34 lists there were something like 27 hellturkeys in the event!

We played against a GK/Ravenwing army, another Triple Helldrake list, and a Azrael/IG Blob + Ravenwing army.  We won all of the games, and all of our opponents were great.  The Chaos game in particular was a big challenge with 8 flying things going around.  No Hellturkey died until round 5!

We also dressed up like nurgle cultists, complete with biohazard suits and masks.  Talk about total nerds.  I've yet to find a picutre of us but I know some were taken.  When I find a picture I'll post it.

Frankies army also looks great and he was up painting all night.  A ton of greenstuff work was done on the Helldrakes to make them look Nurgly.

I also did up a Nurgle Cultists Pamphlet as our handout for the event.

When you print those on some nice paper two sided and fold them up they look really great!  I printed about 30 of them up and used a little pamphlet display to hand out to people we played or anyone who came looking.

In the end we were tied for "Best Hobby" which was essentially paint, costume, and handout with two other teams.  Reece had each person stand up and plead their case, and then at the end had the people there applause for the winner.  I pleaded as a Nurgle Cultists trying to get people to join our cause, and that tact worked on the crowd.  However since Frankie is co-owner of Frontline (and Reece started getting worried at the end of round 2 and talked to me about it) the prize was kicked down to the next team.

We also ended up 1 point behind first place, and again the prize was kicked down to 3rd.  It was all good and the event was a ton of fun.

I took my bikes to the singles and had obviously finished up the Sternguard and Drop Pod.  I got lots of nice complements on the army, but there were plenty of much more amazing armies out there.  I think if I take the bikes to another tournament with softscores I will do up a better display board and add some battle damage to the bikes to just give them a bit more details.

Captain, Bike, Artificer Armor, SS, PF
10 Sternguard, Pod, 3 CombiMelta, 2 CombiFlamer, 1 Melta Bomb
4 Bikes + MM Attack Bike, 2 Plasma, 1 Combi Plasma, 1 Melta Bomb
4 Bikes + MM Attack Bike, 2 Plasma, 1 Combi Plasma, 1 Melta Bomb
4 Bikes + MM Attack Bike, 2 Plasma, 1 Combi Plasma, 1 Melta Bomb
4 Bikes + MM Attack Bike, 2 Plasma, 1 Combi Plasma, 1 Melta Bomb
4 Bikes + MM Attack Bike, 2 Plasma, 1 Combi Plasma, 1 Melta Bomb
Farseer on Jetbike, Runes of Warding, Shining Spear
3 Guardian Jetbikes

I had 30 extra points that I didn't feel comfortable dumping into the already expensive Sternguard so I thought maybe the meltabombs could be useful.  I used one once, and it missed.  Clearly spending the points in the Sternguard, who overall were great, would have been a better choice.

Day one was a bit rough for me.  I started with a win over Marines, then lost to Eldar, CSM, and Eldar again.  Go figure. 

The Marines I largely won because my Sterngaurd dropped and ruined his LRR and made a mess of his backfield. 

My first Eldar game it essentially came down to the Avatar making an 8 inch charge.  Had he failed I would have won by 2 points, but he made it and I lost by 1 point.

The CSM was a double turkey list, and I can say I just rolled bad more than the turkey's owning me.  Don't get me wrong, my opponent had some bad luck also (Typhus and Termies scattered on bikes and I placed him in the corner, one Helldrake didn't come in until turn 4), but he just mopped the floor with me and the dice just were not feeling that game!

My last Eldar game was with Mark whom I played at the last Game Kastle tournament.  This time he had a jetseer council and some forgeworld bits that proved too much for me.  On turn 5 he made a lot of saves with a jetbike squad, but as a whole my plans just didn't pan out that game.

Day 2 was a bit better.  I won against bugs and Templar pods, then lost my last game to sisters.

The bugs I have to admit I got a little lucky.  I got to go first and my sternguard were able to kill his warlord Tyrant before he flew away.  Turn 2 I got really lucky and downed his second HT with my first shots, and had enough to kill off him and the Trygon!  Then doom came down and killed a ton of bikes, as usual.  Still I was able to hold on to the win.   He had not played against a Farseer before, so he just didn't bother to cast psychic powers once he figured out how the mechanics worked.  I'd say this was pretty much the only game that the farseer and jetbikes played a massive part.

The Templar pods was probably the biggest come from behind game I played.  He had some forgeworld Siege Dreads (Ap3 Flamers) and gave me turn 1.  Knowing that was what he would want I piled my bikes to one side thinking I would turboboost over to a far corner and spread out where there were no objectives.  That way he would drop down, kill some bikes, then I could just play the shooting fallback game plan.  Except he stole turn one came down and ruined all my plans.  Things were going pretty bad for me but I decided to risk sending my once wounded Captain into combat with his Th/SS Marshal and terminator retinue.  I figured he had more attacks but hit on 4's, and I had less but hit on 3s.  I could take two wounds but he could only take one.  It took about 4 rounds of combat before he finally failed a save but I popped him, then whittled through the rest of his 5++ termies.  That turned the game around and though I only had about 4 bikes left I was able to take the objectives.

The sisters game... man I don't even know what went wrong.  They have a lot of shooting and I had some bad luck.  I poured a ton of shooting into the St and her Seraphim hoping I could instaglib the St who was toward the front.   She look out sir'd about 7 hits and I killed the whole squad but not her.  Then I left my Captain to far forward and he poured on the firepower and I failed two saves.  I probably should have just LOS as well but I was losing other bikes and I was hoping the 2+ would do better.  By the time my Captain made it to combat with the St (who had probably killed 6 or 7 bikers at that point) I figured I still had a few rounds of combat to pop her, and I had 7 bikes in combat still to let me reroll a failed one on my save.

At the top of 5 she had made about 7 4++ saves in 3 rounds of combat.  I finally rolled a one.  Then rerolled another 1.  At that point I could safely call it a game as he still had the bottom of 5 to clear out my last few free bikes that had gone out to solely contest a few objectives.

So 3-4 in the singles, the same as last year.  I really had a great time and I don't think my play really reflected the finally w/l tally but that's cool.  It is a little hard to be around some really great players and be reminded that, in the end, I'm really not the super tournament player but that is ok.  I don't get nearly the amount of games needed and I also don't typically play 'super' armies or use forgeworld either.

Speaking of forgeworld there were only the two folks I mentioned that I played against that used it, and while the bits they had were good they were not game changing.  However on the top tables there were plenty of anti air forgeworld and clearly they helped with some the the Helldrake spam.

So I had a total blast although by game 10 I was a bit delirious.  I would definitely do it all over again, and hope to do so next year as well!