Classic style "Smiley" pumpkin

If you were drawn to read this post simply because of the title, then you should probably go seek mental help.  But as long as you’re here, won’t you stop and take a gander at my latest ghourd approximations?

In 2006, I gave up carving real pumpkins in favor of styrofoam equivalents that can be purchased from local arts and craft stores (such as Michaels or Jo-Ann fabrics).  My original theory was that I spend time creating these works, and would like to have them immortalized so I can enjoy them for years to come.  Well, five years into the experiment, I’m pretty much burned out on the fake stuff and long for the real thing. 

Creepy or Funny?

Well, this year, I had three fake ones left from the original 2005 purchase (mental note: never mention in passing to your mother that you like something, or you’re bound to wind up with a dozen or so for Christmas).  Two of those were carved, leaving only one for next year…  Almost done!

While I didn’t come up with anything of a 40k theme for this year (unlike last year where I did a Tyranid Pumpkin), I’m happy with the results.

The two subjects are a demonic baby fetus (which wasn’t my idea–but merely the result of Google searching for “demon pumpkin”) and a more classic style eyes and jagged-style mouth creation.  Of the fake pumpkins carved over the years, this is actually my favorite–though I still prefer some of the real pumpkins I’d done in years previous to it.  This will do nicely to scare tiny children off my porch…and I get to enjoy that for years to come!

Happy Halloween everyone.  Stay safe!

Just over one month from the first post (closer to two months since the inception of the project), my Imperial Guard contingent has been completed*.

You didn’t happen to notice the asterisk on that sentence, did you?  No?  Well, good…

Yes, there is a big asterisk on the end, indicating that my sentence requires conditions to be true.  Those conditions are:

1. “Finished” doesn’t include basing the models.
2. It also doesn’t include weapon options or magnetization, as I still haven’t given any thought to how these guys will be arranged in squads and/or what they’ll actually be used for in the army (presumably they’ll all pretty standard guardsmen, but which ones are in command squads and which belong in weapon teams is still up in the air).
3. They’re not labeled with army badges or squad designations.  This is partly because I don’t know the proper way to do so in an IG force, and partly because the above bullet point (how can I mark them if I dont’ know how they’re arranged?).  Any suggestions on this point would be appreciated.
4. Lastly the asterisk indicates that this batch of models is completed.  As this is my first stint into the IG force (ok, technically it’s my second), there are more to comes…

So, with that HUGE asterisk, I’m finished with 105 models.  I s’pose it would’ve been easiser to simply state that I’d finished painting these models, and I could’ve saved everyone alot of time, eh?

Well, here are some photos of the “finished” models, and as I’ve done with each WIP post, below you’ll find a brief update of the changes I’ve made:

1. All boots were repainted black.  Technically, I actually repainted about 20 pairs before I realized that once the paint dried, it was indistinguishable from the primer, so the rest of them were just touched up.  After that, I gave them a highlight of Delta Ceramcoat’s Chargcoal Gris Anthracite Opaque (that’s a mouthful), that I’d purchased at Walmart a few years ago.  The final highlight was a mixture of that and Delta Ceramcoat’s Quaker Grey Gris Quaker Opaque.  (By the way, now I’m starting to think that the name is just Quaker Grey, and “Gris Quaker” is the same name in French….).
2. Smallish details were added.  Models got proper hair color, the commander got an extra highlight of yellow on his gear, sunglasses painted,  flamers were singed, etc.
3. Eyeballs were added.  I was torn on this one.  The faces did need some additional accents, and I deferred this decision to the wife.  She said she thought they’d look much  better with eyeballs, and I begrudingly agreed. This actually reminded me of a fateful weekend when I helped my friend Monty paint 100+ metal cadians in a single day.  Sure, they weren’t the prettiest things, but they were certainly table-top quality.  When we were done, I insisted that he go home and paint eyeballs on each of them (which never happened), so I guess this was the universe getting back at me for making such frivilous demands.

So, there you have it.  105 painted Imperial bullet-stops.  I wonder how many more I’ve left to go before I’m really finished…

By the way, special props to RuntMcRory over at Military of Ultramar, for coming up with a kitchy name, and ultimately serving as my inspiration to do a PDF army.

Games Workshop "Field Generators" from Battle of MaCragge

My problem is trying to find a suitable model.  I know that the Battle for Macragge had some nifty little field projectors (pictured above).  They’re a little small for my likes, but they’d work perfectly…if I had any… 

Over the years, I’ve been notorious for buying a couple of starter boxes of whatever GW releases so I could have spare (cheap) models, but for some reason I never did that with the McCragge set.  Because of this, I’ve always wanted to have some of these projectors, a downed spaceship, and the pilot from the set.   Now, to make an effective wall, I find myself wanting the parts of 4 or more of these sets, but alas, it’s now out of print.

Does anyone know where to get these bits still for a reasonable price?

Quantum Gotchic's Alternative

For other alternatives, I stumbled upon Quantum Gothic’s “Forcefield Pylons,” and quite frankly, I’m in love.  This is absolutely perfect for what I want to use.  The only problem with these is that they come four to a kit (in 17 pieces each!) and are about $7 each.  I guess when you compare that to GW models, that’s not that farfetched, but I’m a cheap-ass gamer, and I’m leery about dropping a few hundred dollars for nifty fences that I can only use in Apoc games.

They are indeed pretty though.

So, I thought I’d ask around and see if anyone knew of a solution for this particular problem.  Are you currently fielding a “containment fence” in any of your games?  What model did you choose to go with for it?  Are you pleased with it?  Or maybe you have another suggestion for a cool forcefield idea that I just haven’t come across yet?

Likewise, does anyone out there have either of these pieces they’re looking to part with?  I’d happily buy them off you…

I learned a few things in this order that I thought I’d pass along to the teaming masses of fans I have.  Ok, but seriously, there are some things that you should be aware of when ordering custom dice, so here goes:

1. I’m sure there are plenty of places that make custom dice, but before I even stumbled upon the post, the B&C crowd had already settled upon Chessex as the manufacturer.  They’re pretty much the industry standard in dice making though, so I had no problem with that.  Keep in mind that my experience is wholey dealing with Chessex, so if you do decide to go with another manufacturer, everything else here should be taken with a grain of salt.
2. Pricing for custom dice is done “per side.”  The important thing to note is that while dice have six sides, you only pay for the sides that will have custom printing on them.  I’m sure the common answer is for people to substitute just a single side, which makes the prices far more reasonable.
3. When choosing which number to replace with the custom logo, the logical answer seems to be to replace the 1 with the logo (as it most resembles the 1).  If you do this though, you’ll typically hate seeing your custom image pop up, so the better solution is to replace the 6 instead.  I did make a comment earlier that you should replace half of them on the 1 face and the other half on the 6 face.  That way, when a bunch of icons come up, you can have your opponent quake in fear of your mighty rends (sort of).
4. When determining pricing for your order, you can have only a single icon (or set of icons) for your dice.  That is to say, you can’t receive the bulk discount for ordering 50 ultramarines dice and 50 blood angels dice.  They look at those as two orders of 50 dice.  Color, however, does not have the same requirements.  In fact, they told us that they could have as many five different color schemes of the same dice, and pack them into a single order.
5. They claim to be able to make any of their dice available in custom orders, but this isn’t exactly true.  Some color combinations just aren’t available in custom orders (at least this is what I was told).  Case in point, you can’t have the lustrous green with silver (though they can substitute the lustrous green with white pips).  Just be sure to email them and find out what’s available for committing to something in your mind.
6. They claim to be able to put most anything on the die, as long as you supply a high quality drawing.  Keep in mind, that it’s going to be rendered in two colors, so make sure it’s not super detailed.  Also, for common die patterns (like army logos) they have many on hand already, so if you can’t find the logo you want and it’s a pretty standard thing, just ask them–they might already have it on hand.
7. With that said, keep in mind that not all colors may be in stock at the time of order.   When we placed the order for the Ultra dice, some people requested the “black blue with gold” version of the gemini dice, but they just didn’t have the dice on hand to handle a custom order at the time.  We could’ve delayed the order, but instead we chose a different color scheme.  They didn’t give us an option to pay up front and have the other colors delivered when they were back in stock.
8. The time frame for custom dice depends upon their stock on hand, competition with other orders, and the size of your purchase.  Smaller orders are easier to fulfill and are therefore shipped faster.  When you pool dice together with 20 other guys, naturally it goes slower.  When you have them all shipped to the U.K. to then be distributed back to the U.S., well, that slows things down as well…
9. Before you place an order with a huge amount of friends, think about the benefits you’ll get.  Yes, combining more people will get you a greater discount, but after 100-200 dice, there really are some diminishing returns.  Look at the quantity you’d like, and the chart to determine where it makes sense to buy.  As a 40k player, you’re going to need at least 30-40 dice yourself, which automatically qualifies you for the first tier of discount.   40 dice will cost you $30, whereas 100 dice will set you back twice that (for savings of 20 “Free” dice).  So, if you can pool $30 with a single friend, you can get 50 dice each.  Trying to get too many more into it,  could lead to a huge logistical effort, for $3-4 in savings.

I’m quite happy with the dice, as I was able to get the group to include the colors that I liked (red was a hard sell, but they’re ironically my favorite of the lot).  I haven’t used them in a game yet, so I have no idea how good they are (honestly though, I’m hoping they’re just average), but I’m sure they’ll get their chance soon enough.

If you’d like to order some dice of your own, be sure to check out Chessex’s website.

I would’ve said that was by coincidence, but when I think about it, it’s most likely not.  The anticipation of an upcoming Apoc game far surpasses that of a standard game to me.  I’m sure this is because they happen less frequently overall, have so many cool models that you otherwise never get to see, and just have an epic scale about them.  So, while I find it hard to make time for a standard 40k game, I seem to always make room for Apoc.

Some gamers in the community, however, look upon the game with disdain.  Whether it’s because of the inherent imbalance, the insanity of long games or too many players in general, each has a reason why they might not enjoy the games so much. 

This week’s question tries to dig into your psyche a little bit to find out whether you love or hate Apoc.  Please choose the appropriate answer to the quiz.  Additionally, if you have a reason or thought behind why you love/hate the format, please share.

Mahalo…

Does this look like Tony Shalhoub to anyone else?

A month ago today, I posted my first WIP status update on my Imperial Guard (lovingly entitled the Ultramar PDF–or planetary defense force).  It really seems like I’ve been at it much longer than that, but keeping track of progress is a big reason why I started this blog in the first place. 

Despite the overwhelming number of models (105 for those who are keeping score), it didn’t seem like a chore because of the way I wind up painting.  Yes, I painted them as one giant assembly line, but when I got bored of painting, I simply set the models down and came back to them when I felt like it.  Due to my lackadaisical methodology, I’m quite surprised that I’m this close to finishing in just a single month.

For progress this status update, I’ve managed to:

1. Paint their skin tones (mostly with Dwarf Flesh base, a Chestnut Wash, and then highlights with Elf Flesh.  My more nubian brothers started with Scorched Brown as a base, with Bestial Brown highlights.  Granted, with so many out there, I played around with those schemes, substituting other colors as I felt like it.
2. Yellow Aquillas.  These started with a Blazing Orange basecoat, and received a highlight of Sunburst Yellow.  For my marines I typically also add a layer of Bad Moon Yellow between those, but these were so small and plentiful, that I just skipped that step.

So, left to do are the boots (which are already black, but have unsightly splash marks where I went sloppy with the fatigues), and assorted piece/parts that are unique to specific models.  This includes things like hair on the sarges, staining the end of flamer barrels, etc.  If I feel particularly giddy, I might even throw eyeballs on each guy.

But that, is for another post…

The results of this poll, more than any other I’ve run so far, surprised me, and you can see them below:

[poll id="29"]

Of the four available answers, I see one as a Strongly Disagree, (“I wouldn’t be interested..”) another as a Indifferent (“I dunno…”), another as a Slightly Agree (“It could be fun…”) and the last as a Strongly Agree (“It sounds great!”).  My–perhaps naive–expectations would be that people would like this idea, so I thought I’d see a bunch of people leaning that direction.

Instead, I got almost the opposite.  A full 35% of people claimed they wouldn’t be interested in such a game at all, while only 7% thought it was a great idea.  The good news is that, f the remaining 58%, most of those were optimistic that it could be fun if it was done correctly. 

So, I s’pose it wasn’t all negative, but it does leave me wondering why things went the way they did.  Sadly, I didn’t get much in the way of comments as to why people thought it was a bad idea.  The only comments I did receive were somewhat skeptical (though optimistic) that such a game could work out–and they provided some nice alternatives to how to make it work.

Without any real opinions to go on, I’m going to throw out some possibilities of why I think so many people might be leery of playing a game with pre-built armies:

• It is out of their comfort zone.  Some people like to play specific styles of armies (shooty, deathstar, hordes, h2h, etc.), and know that they prefer these to other styles.  Allowing someone else to make their list for them might force them to play a style they don’t like.
• It removes a sense of self.  People can become very entwined with their armies and their lists.  Some people go so far as to play a single list for years without modifying it, so asking them to play a different unit, much less a different army, might make them a bit uncomfortable.  Furthermore, this is a multi-faceted hobby, so if the models you’re playing with are provided for you, then that means that HQ model you spent months converting/painting is sitting on a shelf in neglect…
• Lack of familiarity.  Not everyone knows every codex (I dare say very few of us do).  So it goes without saying that to commit to playing a random army that was made for you might mean you’re playing with a list that you have no idea what it does.  This might put you at a disadvantage, and perhaps increase your chance of losing.

I can’t say for certain why people weren’t enamoured with the idea.  Perhaps it wasn’t anything as sinister as I’d suggested, and perhaps I just didn’t explain myself clearly enough?  Or maybe I did, but you had to read an entire blathering post to really get what I was asking, and many people just voted based upon the poll in the corner of the site without reading the post?

Hopefully some of you that voted will step up and justify your reasoning.  Keep in mind, I’m not asking you to defend yourselves: you have every right to choose whatever answer you did.  I’m just curious as to why you chose the options you did and whether there’s any modifications to the concept that would help the idea seem more appealing?  Perhaps (as Cole suggested), if you were just assigned a portion of a force, but you were still given a contigent of points to buy whatever you’d like to supplement them?

As always, I welcome your feedback.  And please remember to vote on the current poll to the right:  let’s find out who knows how much GW paint really costs…

Image Credit:  “I Love Lucy” image copyright by CBS Broadcasting Inc.

Since the last last update, I think I’ve made some pretty significant progress.  At that point, their khakis were finished, their bandoliers had one coat of brown, and their guns had three coats of red.  My intention was to move forward and to through a few coats of BLOO on them (read: blue for anyone who isn’t as fanatic about Ultramarines as I am). 

I’m happy to say that they’ve been painted blue and more.  To date, they now have an additional:

• 3 coats of blue (a base coat and two highlights)
• 1 highlight on the brown
• the 4th (And final) highlight on the guns in red
• Boltgun Metal for anything that will remain silver
• Green grenades / misc pieces (2 coats of green)

Errr.. I also forgot that I have to paint some Comm Links...

They still need their Aquilas (and various other bits) painted yellow–which will require three coats, and their faces done.  I also need to do their boots up a proper black.  After that, it’s just a few misc bits on various models (headsets, skull emblems, etc.) and they’re ready for basing.  Hard to believe the end is in sight…

So, what do you think?  Are they far too cartoony?  I know they wouldn’t do a good job of blending in with the surrounding terrain given their gaudy outfits, but I think they’ll fit in perfectly with my Ultramarines.  Yes, the blue and the red are pretty stark, but that was intentional to match the rest of my forces.  I’m just wondering what some objective bystanders think on the subject…

Many of the standard players were in attendance, with a couple of relatively new faces.  Attendees and army choices can be found below in the recaps of the forces.

Imperial Team

• Zion – Imperial Guard w/ some Marines
  

  First Company

• Andy – Titan formation (Warlord & 2x Warhounds)
• Brett – 3x Shadowswords & 15+ Dreadnoughts
• Dan – Imperial Guard & Grey Knights
• Kurt – Space Puppies w/ Thunderhawk
• Tyson – Space Marine 1st Company Formation

 The more interesting choices here (which means choices that I found to be interesting) included Tyson’s first company.  I know he’s played with them before, but how many people own 100+ painted terminators and actually field them in a game?  That’s just cool.  Brett fielded an insane amount of outflanking dreadnoughts, and Andy brought a formation to include a scratch built (and painted) Warlord Titan.  I also found Kurt’s list interesting because he brought flyers that I didn’t even know he’d had: a Thunderhawk (which was technically part of Dan’s force) and two Caestus Assault Rams.  Pictures of these units can be found throughout this batrep.

Team with Less than Wholesome Intentions

(originally referred to as Team Chaos, until I took offense to it–Nids are pure of heart…)

•  Ben – Chaos Titans & Brass Scorpions
  

  "Necron Titan" by Dreamforge Miniatures

• Alex – Dark Eldar
• Chris – Tyranids
• Me – Tyranids (2x Hierophants, Doom, & Ymgarls)
• Andrew – Chaos (Khorne & Nightlords)
• Mike “Q” – Imperial Marines (TRAITOR!)
• Mangles – Necrons

Standout units/options here include Ben’s Chaos Titan (which really isn’t anything that hasn’t been seen on the internet before, but the forgeworld Chaos Titan is just so pretty…).  Chris, a relatively new player to our area, also brought a fully painted Tyranid army which included a Barbed Hierodule, though Mangles titan kind of stole the show for me as far as cool new units goes.

If you’ll excuse the segway, he purchased a Mortis Pattern Leviathan from Dreamforge Games.   I’d seen the model online before and thought it was super cool, but I’d originally thought it would make a nice Chaos Titan (or perhaps some weird Chaplain Titan conversion).  I honestly hadn’t considered using it as a Necron Titan, but that’s the first thing Mangles thought of when he’d picked it up, and it turned out great.  He replaced the rod inside the gun with some clear plastic tubing that he’d dyed green, and it made for a pretty convincing solution. 

But I digress… as a brief recap, each side had some pretty cool additions, and there were definitely a plethora  of superheavies to go around.  If memory serves, the Imperials had 7 (Andy had 3, Brett with 3, and Kurt with the Thunderhawk), while the Anti-Imperials had a whopping 11 (5 for Ben, 1 for Alex, 2 for me, 3 for Mangles).

Battle Report

Deployment

In bidding for first turn, the “evil” team was divided as to whether to go first or second.  With so many super heavies on both sides, several people wanted to go first to ensure they at least got a shot or two off.  Others wanted to go second for that last minute objective grab.  After discussing the matter, it was decided that we’d want to go first, and that we should bid 6 minutes for deployment.  I eventually talked them into bumping that up a bit, since we had a Tyranid player who had to deploy an “endless swarm,” and you just can’t throw down a few hundred models in six minutes.  We eventually settled on 10 minutes–which was coincidentally exactly the same number as our opponents chose.  When we diced off, we lost and the Imperials took the first turn.

In the meantime, we announced assets.  I’d taken “hold at all costs,” to make my models all scoring (important because I hadn’t picked a single unit of troops in my entire force), our TRAITOR marine player chose ambush (which didn’t do much damage and seemed to slow the game down a bit), while our Dark Eldar player chose the one that forces our opponents to play with night-fighting rules the first turn, and we also had a blind barrage (which sadly, never saw play).  Our opponents chose “recon” (which I believe is always taken by at least one side each game), disruptor beacon, and the shield generator.  Of course, more were taken on both sides, but these are the ones I can think of that had an immediate effect.

The Imperials assumed (correctly) that they would have to be under night fight for the first turn, so they used their spot lights to “light up” key targets on our side.  I was pleased when they chose not to target my Hierophants, instead aiming at a Chaos Warhound, the Necron Titan, a Brass Scorpion and… well, I forgot the last target.

Flank Marching Baneblades

On the first turn, Brett coupled the assets of “Flank March” and “Careful Planning” to bring half of his army onto our table edge on the very first turn.  Three baneblades came up behind a Chaos warhound and ruined his whole day.  I’m not sure what the total damage was, but I know it was immobolized, lost one arm, and I believe it lost a few structure points.  Despite the crushing loss on the first turn, Ben seemed unphased, as he still had his D weapon arm, and his entire plan was to vaporize the opposing shield generator with it…

If you can excuse the segway, I just want to voice a gripe about Flank March/Careful Planning.  I don’t know that I’ve played in an Apoc game where this combo wasn’t used.  Obviously, it’s a powerful combination, and typically there’s a good counter (lining your board edge with really cheap / disposable units–which prevent them from coming in).  My complaint isn’t directed at Brett, but just in general.  It’s fairly obvious and kind of boring.  I’d like to see some more variation in our games, but then again, that’s probably why the Apoc games I host don’t allow for strategic assets and instead use strategy cards.  If you’re interested in those strategy cards, you can read more about them in this post.

From the eyes of the Warlord

Meanwhile in the shooting phase, I paired off with Andy, lord of Titans and basically watched him whiff away the entire shooting phase against the brass scorpion.  Despite unloading multiple Titan’s worth of weapons, the only damage he’d managed to inflict was to rip off the demolisher cannon.  Sadly, he did manage to penetrate it multiple times (even with D weapons), but only managed to roll higher than a 2 a single time.   Sadly, time ran out before he was able to fire all of his weapons (which in hindsight, is odd because he only had three models to fire with).  He had the template in hand and was ready to roll the dice to hit with his vortex missile when the timekeeper yelled “drop dice, on to assault phase!”.. 

Scratch-built Warlord

Of which, I don’t believe they had a single assault on the first turn, so it moved to our turn.  One of the first shots of the game took out the shield generator, and a void shield off the warlord, but by far the most painful salvo came from the warlord itself.  You see, our Necron player had taken an asset that allowed his lord to take control over one of their models and fire a single weapon.  He chose that unfired vortex missile and used it to rip two structure points off another of Andy’s titans.  To add insult to injury, the strategic asset also does a handful of glancing hits, which prevented the warlord from firing his D weapon in the following turn.

Otherwise, there were many casualties of our first turn–but with so many super heavies around, it was hard to keep track of it all.  I know that I killed a couple of Kurt’s land raiders, and Ben charged his brass scorpion into combat, which it eventually lost and went Apocalyptic on (killing many nearby terminators).  Otherwise, I don’t recall any other specific casualties. 

Pay no attention to the titan behind the building...

By the second turn, most of the D weapons on our opponents’ titans were shaken, so their damage output was reduced.  Despite this, this managed to reduce Ben’s already damaged warhound to nothing more than a standing structure point.  It couldn’t move or shoot, it just had the ability to make a stomp attack (should any opponent be silly enough to charge it).  Later it wound up shutting down to heal up and regained it’s turbo laser destructor.

By the way, I never knew this was an available option on titans: did everyone know they could just shut themselves down and fix their weapons and drives?  I can’t be the only one that was surprised by that rule…

Knock knock: Anyone home?

Elsewhere, the Thunderhawk dropped off Draigo and his buddies over by Evil Incorporated (a building we’d named because of it’s signage and the fact that it contained one of our objectives).  Draigo and his buddies would eventually eat another Swarmlord to the complete and udder confusion of the Tyranid player.  Well, it’s a far cry better than my last game where he killed the Swarmlord, a Hierophant, a couple of Tervigons and basically anything else that looked his way.  You can read more about the battle where I learned to hate Draigo here…

The only thing that was keeping Draigo in check for this game was the fact that I’d brought my Capillary Towers.  This was the first game I’d used them, and I have to say they’re certainly worth their points cost (which should be obvious, since they’re free).  If you don’t know what they do, it extends “shadow of the warp” to the entire table, but lets them ignore the effect of perils.  In effect, this was reducing the number of times that Dan was able to pass psychic tests with his Grey Knights. 

Dreadnought Incursion

During the second turn, Brett made what I believe to be a questionable decision in bringing his hoard of dreadnoughts right up behind us.  Sure, there were plenty of juicy Necron targets back there that would easily die to 15+ dreads, but ultimately, they didn’t wind up doing a whole lot in the game. I think he could’ve moved them closer to an objective, and though he wouldn’t have held it, it would’ve been a whole lot harder for us to knock him off it.  For instance, by the end of the game there was an objective just a few feet away from him that was held by five measley hormagaunts…  But, I guess hindsight is 20/20, eh?

Clash of the Titans (too cliche?)

As the game progressed, Titans from both sides around the board started falling to hails of enemy fire.  Even the Warlord was forced to shut down to repair it’s weapons and drives.  One titan became locked in combat with my Hierophant and sadly it took me two full turns of combat to actually kill it (it had been completely neutered in my original attack, but after that point, I had the hardest time rolling even a single 5…).  It made for a nice looking epic struggle in the center of the board though, and made me cringe at the idea that you can’t even shoot into combat between titans…  Is it really that risky to fire at targets the size of buildings?

Pylon invasion

Elsewhere for zaniness, the Necron pylons wracked up a fairly impressive lot of kills.  With 3 D weapon shots, one was able to destroy the Thunderhawk (who had landed to drop off Draigo), and the other landed on the opposite side of the board and decimated Zion’s artillery batteries.  The rules for the Pylon allow it to drop down in the middle of the lot, and instead of it moving to fit, the pylon moves those items that are below it (apparently even immobile platforms run in fright from Necron invasion).  Once it landed, it threw out d6 s6 shots to everything within 18″, which was completely chaos for weapon platforms. 

Doom in the background...

Meanwhile, my doom and some Ymgarls fell into the same platforms with similar ideas (though they were far less successful).  As usual, the doom came down and sucked himself up to 10 wounds, killing off the crew from two weapon platforms, and destroying a third with his mental demolisher cannon.  In response, he was charged by a dreadnought and was locked in combat for the next for turns.  To my surprise, he’s really not that bad in that role: 3A, WS4, I4, S-X (which happened to be between 7 and 10, depending upon how many guardsmen strayed too close to the combat).  He managed to make his field save each turn, and almost unerringly scored two hits on the dread in return.  Of those, one would glance (never penetrate), and would roll either a 1 or 2 on the damage.  He only escaped combat when the Ymgarls finally charged in (and even then it took two combat phases to take him out).

Imperial Objective 1: Contested

It was lucky though, because the nearby Pylon which had decimated most everything around it had just fallen during the previous turn to a band of thunderwolves, leaving them in complete control of the objective.  However, between the Doom and 16 shots from a bored Hierophant, that threat was promptly neutralized, and the Ymgarls moved to contest–though we did try to throw some barbed heirodule shots into the nearby rhinos, we just didn’t have enough firepower to crack both open and dispatch with the 20 marines inside.  So, without rolling, we gave up this objective as contested.

Neutral Objective 1: Contested

Meanwhile, in the corner formerly filled with Andrew’s malstrom of gore (along with his bikers, and practically Kurt’s entire army, with some Nurgle terminators and Imperial Guard thrown in to boot)… things were looking pretty Imperialistic by the end.  Our only hope there was to move a Hierophant in to contest, but those infernal goody-two-shoes players kept throwing flyers in his way.  This would block his path, and give me very little recourse: I couldn’t charge them as flyers; I couldn’t really move around them; and I had a hard time shooting them down.  To top it off, they had at least three vendettas alive that could cycle through and just harrass me all game.  Luckily, the afformentioned pylon was able to snipe them down with some sort of AA mounted D weapon (have I mentioned that I think Necrons are overpowered?).  In the end, the combo worked and I muscled in to contest.

Bad Guys Objective 1: Unheld

On our side of the board (well, technically it was our side, but really it was about smack dab in the middle), the Imperials had placed an objective immediately in front of Tysons wall of “tactical dreadnought armor.”  Between two super heavies going apocalyptic, and some cute work by our resident Dark Eldar, I was surprised to see by the end that his objective wasn’t squarely in the hands of the Emporer’s finest.  My reaction to this was to ask “just how many apocalyptic explosions have there been in this game.” 

Ben looked me squarely in the eye and said, “well, I know that I’m directly responsible for three.” 

God, I love chaos…

Imperial Slime Objective 2: Imperial Owned

The other Imperial objective we had placed in toxic slime on their corner of the board.  It probably wasn’t a tactically genius move, but it did seem suitably evil.  They had defended it with a massive block of ogryn, some GK paladins, IG artillery, and more leman russes than you can shake a stick at.  We’d only threw 35 Ymgarl stealers at them to compensate, and while I’d managed to nullify the artillery, the GK’s just proved too steadfast for me (though perhaps that had something to do with the fact that I only rolled 2 rends in 40 attacks?  Of course, the battle lasted for several turns, but the rends never did get better than that…). End result: Imperials hold that objective. 

Neutral Objective 2: Bad Guys

The other neutral objective had been placed in some nearby tarpits.  Originally it was defended by the Necron titan and a Hierophant–but they had both vacated the premises rather early in the game (in the case of the Necron model, permenantly).  Otherwise, this was fairly unmolested throughout the course of the game.  The only time I really saw anyone make a move towards it was on (or about) the final turn of the game–where the Imperials pointed dreadnoughts and artillery fire towards it in an attempt to clear out the hormagaunts nearby.  They weren’t successful enough though, and that left the objective in our hands.

Evil Incorporated: Bad Guys Control

The final objective was the one we’d dubbed “Evil Incorporated.”  Again, it wasn’t placed for strategic significance, but rather because it was cool to put one in the building that was labeled “evil.”  Battle had raged on here, and it switched hands throughout the game.  To start off, we had it with some minor squad, and Draigo waded in and cleared it out when his big-pimpin’ ride (aka. Thunderhawk) dropped him off.  His squad didn’t include any thunderhammers though, so a bevy of Q’s dreadnoughts eventually kicked him out of our Evil HQ.  By the end, we not only controlled it, but the guys had positioned tiers of squads around it for a final photo op (I wonder if they’d done this before they knew they won, or if they were just playing ultra-cocky).  Either way, I approve.

Final score:

Imperials 1 vs. Evil HQ 2

As always, a good time was had by all.  Thanks again to Andrew for hosting.

If you’re interested, I did take other pictures of the game, and below are the best of the lot. 

What I Learned:

Though I don’t always do a “what I learned” from Apoc games, I definitely learned some things that others might not already know, so I thought I’d share them:

1. Titans Can Repair:  Several titans shut down and came back from the dead.  With that in mind, they’re really not a bad choice for this game–especially those of the giant variety, who have an absurd amount of structure points.
2. When playing timed games, do the important stuff first:  This pretty much goes without saying, but it’s worth repeating.  Andy’s vortex missile didn’t seem particular devastating, but it was rather demoralizing.   It did make the highlight of my game though…
3. Capillary Towers are Fair:  I don’t mean that they’re mediocre, but rather that they’re balanced.  I really liked the effect of cancelling my opponents’ psychic powers more often, but the fact that they could ignore perils made it a bit of a trade off.  Granted, I got more benefit than my opponent did, but all it really did was reduce the effectiveness of psychic powers for my opponents.
4. Warp Field doesn’t belong on Hierophants:  Yes, I know they say they have warp field, and yes, RAW folks will let it have a 2+/3++ because of it, but that’s just crazy.  In games where we use it as a 5++, they die.  In Muldoon games, you’re better off not shooting at them at all (which is what our opponents wisely did this game).
5. Flyers are ricockulous:  I like the addition of flyers to the game, as it harkens me back to the days of 2nd edition and “flying high” with units.  I just think the way they’re implemented is nuts.  Everything in the game fires less weapons as they move faster, except flyers, which can magically fire everything, and get two additional defensive bonuses.  Even worse, they block movement/LoS for other ground based units, but they really can’t be affected by them? 

   The only downsides for flying are that you have to move at least 36″ (which, let’s face it, isn’t hard to do in Apoc games), and that they can’t drop off passengers unless they move to hover mode (which is easily mitigated by just not dropping off troops).  I’m not sure what the best way to “fix” this is, but it’s obvious to me that flyers need a little tweaking to bring them in line with the rest of the game.

Rather than spring all of the results on you immediately, I thought it’d be fun if we make a game of it.  So our poll this week is simple: Take a look at the list of liquid materials and try to determine if it’s more or less expensive than what Games Workshop is currently charging for it’s paint.  You can do so using the poll below, or the site-wide poll available on the right sidebar.

[poll id="30"]

No cheating and doing external research!  Think of this as a gut check.  How accurate are you at gaguing the prices of items?  Consider this a tryout for the Price is Right! 

Of course, some of the mentioned items come in smaller or larger vials, so to make things interesting, let’s focus on equivalent values.  So, the question is: is a gallon of Tabasco sauce more or less expensive than a gallon of Bleached Bone paint?

Frankly, I was a little surprised by the results, as I think you will be too.  As always, we’ll keep this poll open for two weeks and then check out the results.

Thanks for dropping by…