Warhammer 40,000 - Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks

It's been a really long time since I've played any sort of 40K. I mean a really long time, somewhere in the range of 15 plus years ago. I think I mentioned in a post when I began this blog a year ago that 40K was what really got me into the hobby in the first place. Sure I've obviously gone on to other games and miniatures, and sure the rules are showing a bit of age when compared to some of the newer miniature rulesets coming out, but 40K is something I've always remembered playing fondly.

So when the owner of my FLGS (Lionel of X Planet in Mississauga, ON) asked me if I wanted to get in a game, I jumped at the chance. My Chaos Space Marines have set idle in my cabinet while I've worked on other things, and the chance to pit two armies of wonderfully coloured models against each other was too good to pass up.

I'm not a competitive 40K player (though that might change with the X Planet league that's starting in the new year), so the army I brought consisted of 1000 pts of models I've enjoyed painting: a pimped-out Tzeentch Chaos Sorcerer, an old Chaos Dreadnaught, a unit of 10 Chaos Marines with plasma guns, a unit of 9 Thousand Sons, and two 5-man Lesser Daemons units.

We rolled Capture and Control and Dawn of War for deployment. Here's a picture of how we intially deployed. Note the card boxes are our respective objectives.

My Thousand Sons were to play guard for my objective, their lack of mobility and terrifying inferno bolts being my main reason to have them stuck in (the handsome gentleman in the back for those that don't know, is Lionel, owner of X Planet here in Mississauga).

So I began the game with my Chaos Sorcerer firing his plasma pistol at the Rhino before charging in on the stationary vehicle to assault with krak grenades.

I'm pretty sure you can tell how my assult turned out from the next picture. Not only is the Rhino unharmed, but his combat squad jumped out to shoot, but 3 land speeders and another combat squad in Rhino showed up on the far flank to bloster his defences around his objective. After all was said and done n his shooting phase, he managed to take out my Chaos Sorcerer with a well-timed hit with a lascannon, causing Instant Death much to my chagrin.

I advanced my Chaos Marine sqaud through the cover of rubble, hoping to use it to block LoS. He countered this by bringing the fight to me via the "Rhino Wall." The war of attrition begins to go in Lionel's favour, as his Combat Squads disembark to riddle my forces with Rapid Fire from his boltguns.

My Lesser Daemons arrive out of the warp in Turn 2. Those to the left were to bolster the decimated remains of my Chaos Marines, while those on the right were to make a break for the objective under his control.

My Chaos Marine squad wittled down to the Aspiring Champion, both he and my Lesser Daemons make a last stand and Charge his Combat Squad. This was one of my few successes throughout the game.

Lionel's pesky landspeeders fly up my left flank. To add further insult to injury, he attacked my Chaos Dreadnaught with the trio's assualt cannons, causing a "vehicle immobilized" on the damage table when it was a mere 6" onto the table.

The Rhinos have now enaged my Thousand Sons, just outside of the picture to the bottom righthand corner. His Combat Squads are now left with the simple task of mopping up my Lesser Daemons.So after the blood and dust had settled, did the old dog learn any new tricks? Well, considering I pretty much was dead in the water by the end of Turn 3, I sure did. Here are my thoughts:

1. New Dice: I managed to get about 3 penetrating hits on his vehicles in the first 2 turns of the game, but could never roll better than a 2. Add in his extra armour and it makes it even worse! I've been told that crushing one die in a vice in front of the rest makes a great example of what happens to under-performers!
2. Bodies are Better: In smaller games like the one we were playing, more models on the table is more advantageous. My pimped out 235 point Chaos Sorcerer was taken out by a well placed lascannon shot from a Marine, a mere 20 point upgrade in comparison. That really hurt when 25% of my force was taken out in one shot!
3. Brick City: The "Rhino Wall" was what really helped Lionel win the day. For 50 points he gets a basic transport with extra armour, that can block both my movement and LoS. "A 50 point piece of terrain" it was accurately called. The good thing is my traitor marines will be able to pull off the same move in the future, much to my opponent's frustration.

Until next time!

Warhammer 40,000 - Pink Whores

"What did you just call them!?!?"

That was my reaction to when my wife heard me say "I'm painting some Pink Horrors." When it comes to the hobby, the spouses of gamers will say the funniest things when interpreting whatever it is you're talking about. The best part is though, is that the title has stuck, much like the term "nerd store" and now I refer to them using the same title as well. So, without further rambings, I present to you my other 5 pink whores, to complete my box of the old versions of these lesser daemons:

And off to the next project on my hobby desk!

Warhammer 40,000 - It Was Nothing of This Earth, But a Peice of the Great Outside

For those that don't know, the title of this post is a quote taken from H.P. Lovecraft's The Colour Out of Space. To give you a little history lesson on the background on the lore of Warhammer, it takes many pieces from Lovecraft's Cthulhu-mythos: the Great Old Ones in 40K are the same as Lovecraft's, but simply shoehorned into Games Workshop's intellectual property. But what does this all have to do with my painting blog? Well, look at the creatures I've painted below if you dare tempt the cosmic horror that awaits....

Yes, the first 5 Pink Horrors of Tzeentch out of the old 10-piece box. I've had these guys sitting around for a few years now in my treasure-box of yet-to-be-started projects. I felt I need to take a break from painting Terra Novan war machines, and these have hit the spot. What led me back to them was the release of the new plastic Horrors GW produces; while nicely sculpted models, I don't think they have the Cthulhu-like randomness to them that they've always been linked to in the fluff. Nor are the new ones pink, but flesh-coloured. So I thought, "hey, lets paint some models GW no longer produces (metal Horrors) with a paint GW no longer produces (Citadel Tentacle Pink)." Talk about your throwback mini!

So, while I don't play Chaos Daemons, I do play Chaos Space Marines, and daemons do have a role to play in their armies. So what do I think about them game-wise? Well, looking at their stats, they're marines in most respects, but with an invulnerable 5+ save, no guns, and quicker initiative. I think they're best used to bolster the troops in this objective-holding edition of 40K. Drop them where you're fighting a contested objective to help clear out your enemies with increased numbers, or have them hold ground(they are a troops choice and thus a game-winning unit) while your more elite units head to their next fight.

Thanks for reading, and now I'm off to enjoy the last week of summer vacationing at the cottage! Stay tuned to see how the next 5 Horrors turn out!

Warhammer 40,000 - My Wife's Experience and Nerdiness

Sometimes you don't really understand the context of life until you get an outside opinion on things. Take miniature wargaming for example. To those who participate in it, it's just a fun passtime, but to those on the outside, it is the crux of nerdliness.

The reason I mention this is that my wife shared with me this experience of trying to buy me a GW product one Christmas season a few years ago. We were living in Ottawa at the time and had just finished up our gift-shopping at Place D'Orleans (it being a much less busier mall than Rideau, St. Laurent and Bayshore) and she wanted to get me a surprise, so she scooted into the LGS. You know your significant other really does love you when she is willing to head into one of these places with no real understanding of what tabletop gaming is or what she is looking for. Wandering around, looking at the various boxes, she finally thought to ask a couple of young boys that were in the store also looking at GW product for help.

"Excuse me," she asked. "My boyfriend really likes these things, but I'm not really sure what I should get. Can you guys help me find him something?"

One boy pointed at a box, "Well, does he like these guys, they're like space-elves, they're pretty cool."

"Or these ones," the other one added, "they're pretty cool too!"

By this time, the store attendant had come over to her. "Don't worry," he said, "just pick what ever you think looks good, and if he already has them, he can exchange them."

Space elves!?!? That pretty much spelled "nerd" right there!

Now I have no morale to this story, I just like to tell it, and my wife and I still laugh about "space elves." It's just fun to know how detached from reality we really are sometimes. Out of all that though, I did get around to painting up the minis she got for me that one Christmas.

A unit of Tyranid Warriors, armed with Deathspitters and a Venom Cannon. I've heard that they're rewriting the codex soon so I might have to spend a bit more time on these horrors from the void!

Warhammer 40,000 - My Beginnings and Succumbing to Chaos

The first real "tabletop" miniature game I got into was Warhammer 40,000 (WH40K). For those that don't know, WH40K is one of two games (WH40K being the sci-fi version of the original Warhammer fantasy game) published by Games Workshop, said company being the grandaddy of the modern tabletop gaming hobby.

As a young teenager in the mid-90's, I can remember heading down to the local gaming store (which my wife presently refers to as the "nerd store" and which I now term it as well) to pick up the latest Dragon or Dungeon magazine and watch the regulars for hours as they battled over a felt-draped table decorated with stryofoam hills and model trees. This was in the heyday of 2nd edition, so all sorts of craziness would occur, with multiple templates placed and cards played (and that was just the psychic phase). I had begun to save up allowances, birthday cash and odd job income and picked up the boxed set, which was the beginning of my Blood Angels. After getting a job a year later, 3rd edition had come out, and the Blood Angels grew. Soon enough, my Terminator Chaplain with twin lightning claws and Death Company retinue were bringing death to any one who asked. However, the taint of chaos soon overcame them, and it led them down the path to the worship of the ruinous powers. From this point on I became a chaos marine player.

As I got older however, I was more interested in girls and sports and cast aside miniature wargaming. It would not be for another ten years that I would get back into the hobby, the taint of chaos never leaving...

For those not familiar, Chaos Marines are those space marines that turned their backs on the God-Emperor of Mankind 10,000 years ago an waged a galactic civil war that to this day still burns on. This event, the Horus Heresy, is pretty much the most important event in the background fluss of WH40K. Gamewise, Chaos Marines are very similar to their loyalist bretheren, but have greater cutomization due to the fact that they've learned a thing or two about warfare in the 10,000 years they've been around. The chaos god Tzeentch figures prominently in the army, as I've always been a fan of the Thousand Sons and the back story of the Lord of Change.

This is the first Troop unit for my Chaos Marines: a unit of Thousands Sons. These marines are the autonomous shells of the fallen legion, cursed when Ahriman sent them through the Warp to escape Prospero. Gamewise, they are basic Chaos Marines, but have an invulnerable save, fire off inferno bolts (which have a greater punch then regular bolter rounds), and are led by a Thousand Sons sorcerer.

This is the next unit of Troops for my army: your standard Chaos Marines. I've given them anIcon of Tzeentch to have an invulnerable save similar to the Thousand Sons, and have equipped them with two plasma guns. Being able to take a hit, fire on the move and rapid fire all their weapons, with 4 hits being able to pierce even terminator armour, this makes them great anti-troop specialists.

This is my first Elite unit: a Chaos Dreadnaught. Dreadnaughts are very similar to their loyalist counterpart, having the broken body of a marine entombed deep within its core. However, while the Emperor's marines believe such a fate to be an honour, chaos marines believe to be a curse, and those that suffer this fate have been driven insane. Gamewise, this means they occasionally go crazy and attack the nearest unit, whether friend or foe!

Last we have my HQ unit: a Chaos Sorcerer. Chaos Sorcerers are some of the most powerful psychics in the game, and by adding a Mark of Tzeentch to him, he become even stronger when wielding magic. He can have more than one psychic power, the Disk of Tzeentch makes him a great assault specialist, and he can bolster this assault with his plasma pistol and force weapon.

I have a few more units tucked away that I need to get to, and hopefully I'll have these up in the future!