Pics or it didn't happen!

This is just a random post of the pictures Eric took of my army during the Tournament last month. Which were shamlessly stolen from: http://thewildriderhost.blogspot.com/2012/03/tournament-pics.html

Modern Flame War 3... oh wait, maybe not...

I've been looking into playing Flames of War recently, but The Barn seems... well... antagonistic towards the game. In any case, I've (as I tend to do when I get intrigued by something) been reading pretty much every blog with tactica and what not on it and found a really really Mathhammer-y set of articles pertaining to that system.

I'm posting links here, A.) Because I can, B.) In case anyone who actually reads this blog gets even moderately interested in Flames of War, and C.) So I can find them again for future use. See? I'm sort of thinking about all of you! :-P

It been a bad day (please don't take a picture...)

So, my computer crapped out two weeks ago, the day after the tournament (which I failed miserably at... the gaming aspect of my drug [oh I mean hobby...] of choice is getting pretty depressing, by the way. I did enjoy myself at the tourney though... so it wasn't all bad.)

Apart from that, everything else is pretty not bad in general. I have a decently sized force painted to a tabletop standard... nothing stellar, but not bad either. It was more because it was a rush job than anything else, but I can't complain. So the next thing I need to decide is what direction to go with my hobby.

Strikeforce Flarebrass, reporting for duty!

So... here it is, in all its glory! My painting desk! Bah-bah-bah-bum!

I kid, this is the army I'm bringing to the tournament tomorrow (I literally just got done painting the Devastators 1/2 hour ago.)

The list is as follows:


190 Vulkan He'stan
100 Librarian, with Null Zone and Gate of Infinity
215 10 man Tactical Squad, Multimelta, Combimelta, Flamer, Rhino
215 10 man Tactical Squad, Multimelta, Combimelta, Flamer, Rhino
195 5 man Sternguard Squad, Heavy Flamer x2, Combimelta x3, Rhino
195 5 man Sternguard Squad, Heavy Flamer x2, Combimelta x3, Rhino
135 5 man Devastator Squad, Missile Launcher x3
135 5 man Devastator Squad, Missile Launcher x3
120 5 man Devastator Squad, Missile Launcher x2

Out of this whole list, only one Tactical squad was previously painted... so I painted & converted... ~1300 points of models in the last two weeks or so... not bad if I do say so myself. Also, Vulkan strikes an epic pose, smiles at the camera, and then goes on to utterly destroy anyone who opposes him! Bwahahahahaha!

And now for something completely different!

Ok, so, I did it. I hate myself for doing it, and I'll probably be painting models for the rest of the week just to pull this off. But I did it. I found a list that abides in the generally accepted range of "Balanced" and fits my army theme, my models, and my general playstyle. Is it totally optimized? No way in heck. But I'm going to enjoy playing the crap out of this list on Saturday. (As an interesting aside, Thanks Eric for giving someone else on the forums the advice I needed to hear... play a list you know.)

So... here goes nothing:

190 Vulkan He'stan
100 Librarian, Null Zone, Gate of Infinity
215 10 man Tactical Squad, Multimelta, Combimelta, Flamer, Rhino
215 10 man Tactical Squad, Multimelta, Combimelta, Flamer, Rhino
270 8 man Sternguard Squad, Heavy Flamer x2, Combimelta x3, Rhino
270 8 man Sternguard Squad, Heavy Flamer x2, Combimelta x3, Rhino
120 5 man Devastator Squad, Missile Launcher x2
120 5 man Devastator Squad, Missile Launcher x2

1500 Total

OR

190 Vulkan He'stan
100 Librarian, Null Zone, Gate of Infinity
215 10 man Tactical Squad, Multimelta, Combimelta, Flamer, Rhino
215 10 man Tactical Squad, Multimelta, Combimelta, Flamer, Rhino
195 5 man Sternguard Squad, Heavy Flamer x2, Combimelta x3, Rhino
195 5 man Sternguard Squad, Heavy Flamer x2, Combimelta x3, Rhino
135 5 man Devastator Squad, Missile Launcher x3
135 5 man Devastator Squad, Missile Launcher x3
120 5 man Devastator Squad, Missile Launcher x2

I like the first one better...

Battle Barn 2/24/12 & 3/2/12

So, brave knights, if you do doubt your courage or your strength, come no further, for death awaits you all with nasty, big, pointy, teeth!

Well, the Copper Dragons haven't been faring well at the Barn for the last two weeks... In my defense, I've been playing against armies that A.) I haven't ever played against, or B.) It's been more than 3 years since the last time I played against that army.

Last week I played against Tyler and his horrible evil "Can I Has A Hug?/Let's Have Babies!" Tyranid army. By the end of the fight I think I may have killed two of his squads of termagaunts...? which ever the shooty gribblies are... and he pretty much just ran my marines over... and then his 'Nids subsequently ate their corpses. It was a sad day. I got a second game in against Reese and his Space Wolves, and they ran me over as well. That day was kinda meh in general for me, so I figured I'd try again next week and see if I fared better...

But I didn't. I ended up challenging Christian and his Black Templar army (never played vs. the Templar, but I figured they couldn't be THAT much different from Vanilla Marines... I was wrong.) and we ended up with a kill points mission. I'm lucky he didn't table my sorry butt. Well, he got 11 (out of 14) kill points and I got... 2 (out of ~8). I may be clinically depressed right now, but I can't tell because of how sad I am. Here's hoping I do better during the tournament next week.

As an interesting aside, Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail was quoted during both of these games... so it wasn't a complete loss. The game against the Tyranids my Dreadnought lost both of his arms and got immobilized and was (on multiple occasions) compared to the Black Knight ('Tis only a flesh wound!) And apparently, the Black Templar are the current owners of all remaining Holy Hand Grenades of Anitoch in the galaxy... Though I did thoroughly enjoy being blown to tiny bits.

Vaya con Dios,
Timothy

Squad Reinforced! Update

Last week, I wrote up a glowing review about the Ebay seller Discount Games Store. Well, here's an update on that situation: They had actually forgotten to ship 1 of the vehicle transfer sheets that are supposed to come with the Rhinos I ordered, which all told wouldn't have even been an issue, until I started assembling my tactical squads and realized they forgot to ship their bases as well. Needless to say, I was not very happy about it, and that was compounded by the close proximity of the tournament they were bought for in the first place...

In any case, I contacted them about the problem and they nearly immediately sent out a package with the missing parts... plus a Dark Angels upgrade sprue thingy... the one with bike fronts and the Typhoon upgrade for Land Speeders... That made me quite happy, as bits are always welcome, especially Marine bits. Also, they sent me 1 extra base. I lol'd a little. ANYWAY... I still fully recommend them as a great place to pick up some models.

Squad Reinforced!

Well, I bought some models off of Ebay on Friday, and they were here when I got home from work today (Monday), so that was an epic win, which turned into a double epic win because they were also on sale for ~26% off retail at the time of purchase. If there's anyone who doesn't know, there is an Ebay store that sells model wargame products minus the box (for ease of shipping I'd presume) at fantastic prices.


That Ebay store is know simply as Discount Games Store and has fantastic prices, ridiculously quick shipping, and great selection. They don't carry one-offs or blister packs (at least that I'm aware of...) but if it comes in a box, you can be fairly certain to find it. The discount margin ranges from 10-35% depending if they have a sale going on or if you buy bulk (Yup, they sell Rhinos in packs of up to 9!) but they average in the 16-20% area for most of their offers. Yes, I know that there are other wargame online stores sell at 20% off on everything, but every once in a while you can hunt down some excellent bargains. So, check them out the next time you are looking to buy some models.

As for the models I bought, they were two Tactical Squads, and two Rhinos, all to be painted in the Copper Dragon color scheme for the March 10th tournament.

Battle Barn 02-17-12

I went to the Barn last night, and decided to play with the Coppers a little bit. I started the Coppers as more of an exercise in painting (with the side benefit of dabbling in another codex) but I'm starting to appreciate the difference in play compared to my Space Wolves. I've made the unfortunate (and major) mistake throughout my early days playing Coppers: They don't play anything like the Space Wolves, but that didn't stop me from trying.

Anyway...

The Dragons United Pt. 1

This is the first group shot of my paint progress thus far.

Also, epic shot of my box-o-bits.

My ever expanding army, hopefully they'll get a whole bookcase to themselves one day...

Pay no attention to the Shadowsword lurking on the bottom shelf...

The reality of the situation is that I just want to show them off...

Vaya con Dios,
Timothy

Captain Avitus of the Drake Wing

I finally (re)started painting my Copper Dragons since the big move... I'm slowly working and already finished the Sargent of my Assault Squad (they have wings, freak out, I know... I don't rightly care, honestly. They look freaking cool.) I even made a fancy little hybrid flying stem+25mm base...

Now for some fluff:

Captain Avitus is the leader of the Copper Dragons 7th Company also known as the Drake Wing, which consists entirely of Assault Marines that bear the Copper Dragon's most outstanding mutation: fully functional dragon wings. Copper Dragons that bear this mutation have an instinctual ability to use the wings to great effect, especially in combat. Furthermore the wings are made of what superficially looks like copper though they are much more flexible, impossibly hard, and immune to intense heat.

As for the Captain himself, he distinguished himself early on in his service to the Emperor as both a fierce combatant and an outstanding tactician, even by Marine standards. He, unlike others of his rank, feels most comfortable leading the battle from the front, and will always lead a hand picked squad of Marines as a Sargent. His weapon of choice is a pair of Lightning Claws he made during his training.

Furthermore, I need a better camera...

Vaya Con Dios,
Timothy

Battle Barn 01-13-12 (Batrep, Pic Heavy)

Well, I had my first game with my 1500 point Space Wolf list, and it did better than I expected.

The Hounds of Hel

The Hounds of Hel are finally making a comeback. For those of you out of the loop, the Hounds are the army I started playing 40k with. They are a Renegade Space Wolves Company (I use the Space Wolf Codex and models, I just hate that freaking powder blue color...) that have been sitting on the shelf since I re-purposed most of the models I collected for them to my Copper Dragons. The reason I did so was two fold, A.) I wanted to try a different army (albeit still Marines), and B.) about 70% of the marine models I had came from Black Reach/Tactical boxes and didn't look very Wolfy.

Battle Barn 01-06-12

In Defense of Interria II

An unlikely coalition occurred tonight. The Blood Angels set aside their hatred for the Copper Dragons for a time in an attempt to defend a Blood Angels vassal world of Interria II. The battle was, unfortunately for the defenders, won before it had begun. Already besieged by the Tau, and numbers dwindling, the defenders of Interria were utterly crushed at the arrival of the Eldar. Seizing the opportunity of mutual advantage, they vastly overpowered the beleaguered defenders, wiping them out completely.

Why the Eldar joined the fray, only they will ever know, but forever more will the world of Interria be known as a gravesite for the Copper Dragons.

Angels and Dragons

Throughout the long history of the Blood Angels chapter, they have been the only known possessors of an artifact recovered during the Great Crusades, the Standard Template Construct for the Predator variant known as the "Baal" pattern. Because of the exclusivity of their ownership, the Blood Angels guard their tanks and even the smoldering wreckage of their tanks very fiercely, lest it fall into the hands of someone who could reverse engineer it.

Terminator Squad Prometheus

Captain Surtr

Einherjar the Firebrand

Tiamat, the Predator Annihilator

A Dragon is Born

Today I started working on painting models for my Copper Dragons. A while back I bought a Predator Annihilator (Tri-Lascannon pattern) from the Mercenary Market (a bi-monthly flea market for warhammer models at my FLGS.) So I've decided to make it the first Copper Dragon vehicle I shall paint, well, there was that Dreadnought, but I don't consider them very vehicle-y. Also, I have a 5 man scout squad (4 Bolt Guns, 1 Heavy Bolter) that I got in the Space Wolf Battle Force that I decided to reallocate to the Dragons, mostly because I was given the upper torso bits for a sniper scout that I modeled to look like he was hiding in a bush, which I then wanted to see if the Dragons color scheme would look good on it and I was particularly impressed. I also jacked the Black Reach tactical squad and Captain that I had formerly painted in my Space Wolf colors, and I am planning to repaint them to be Coppers. I'll also be digging through my bitzbox to see what else I can slap together. I think I may be able to get a melta gunner and a multi-melta trooper if I do it right. I also have some random metal terminators lying around, I just need to make enough with a legal weapon loadout for a squad and I'm set.

Vaya con Dios,

Timothy

The Titan Project

Anyone in my gaming group will tell you that I love to kill tiny things with bigger tiny things. Also, they will tell you (at least the ones who have faced Sköll) that I was a big enough jerk to build a Warhound Titan out of cardstock, wooden skewers, and some PVC piping so that I may live out this obsession of killing tiny things with bigger tiny things.

Leman Russ Battle Tank

Sci-fi wargame models

I figured I'd post a few links to some of the best places to pick up awesome models for sci-fi wargames (not necessarily designed for, but usable with Warhammer 40k...)

Gork or Mork?

I played my first game with the Orks last night and, aside from my opponent fielding a ridiculous mixed up conglomeration of Imperial troops (Including, but not limited to, a Sisters of Battle squad, St. Celestine, an Ultramarine Land Raider Crusader, a squad of power armored Grey Knights, a squad of Wolf Scout Snipers, a Sanguinary Guard squad, a Shadowsword, a squad of Legion of the Damned, and for kicks and giggles a CSM Predator Annihilator.) it was pretty fun. I would have done better at lower points, but such is the life of a lowly grot.