Monday, December 21, 2009

Wolf Guard Terminator












































My first Wolf Guard Terminator "finished" so far. This particular guy is armed with a Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield, not because I think it is an efficient layout, but because it looks pretty damn cool. At 63 points a model for this particular layout, I wouldn't dream of trying to spam these! In tactical terms, This guy and my Wold Lord are going to serve as meatshields for the rest of the squad, If needed. The plan is to have 2 power weapon/ frost blade termies, a power weapon/frost blade/heavy flamer, and a TH/SS. They should join a Wolf Lord w/Wolf Claws and a Wolf Priest in a Land Raider Crusader and barrel towards enemy CC monsters and deathstars, rerolling to-hits and 14 Wolf claws to wound. Against Similar squads they should hold their own, with maybe a bit of advantage from a pre-charge flamer blast and fearless. Against things like Nob bikers, they should be able to lay down an impressive number of wounds at I5-4, and then deal an instant death or two(if I'm lucky). If the ork player allocated away from the painboy, the final thunderhammer blow has a good chance of Instant Death-ing him and taking out his Feel No Pain in preparation for another unit to charge later, or for shooting to pulp them later should the combat end badly.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

More Skyclaws...

This guy here was my 2nd test model after my last post. On the previous model I used a 50/50 mix of Space Wolves Grey to Shadow Grey base, did the detail colors, then washed the whole thing in black before highlighting. On this model, I did the same thing with an Asurmen Blue wash instead, and it turned out horribly. I still think it looks pretty bad, but models in Africa don't have any paint at all I suppose, so I'll have to save a re-do of it till later.




This guy, on the other hand, turned out quite a bit better. After the usual basecoat, I washed him heavily in Asurmen Blue, then filled in the details, then washed with black. Even after highlights, it still came out a fair bit darker than the other model, and I think it looks a ton better too.








Tuesday, November 24, 2009

A Few Thoughts...

Clearly I am not the sort of gamer that has any skill at painting, modelling, or converting. I can try my hand at each of these in a usually futile manner, but I like to pretend that my particular skill is in tactics and list building. When I first showed up at my local game store's 1750 point tournament with little more than a few vehicles and a horde of firewarriors and kroot. Since then I have diversified my army and expanded it to include at least one unit of each type available in the Tau Empire codex(with the exception of Sniper Drone Teams).
Still, I have NEVER understood why so many players use one particular unit-
XV8 Crisis Suit, Missile Pod, Plasma Rifle, Multi Tracker
over 60 points a model for something that is.... well, versatile. And that is about it. You have a unit that is quite expensive, not too accurate at all, and has a weapon loadout that supports generalization over excellence in any area.
One the one side, you have the Missile Pod. Essentially an Autocannon on an infantry model. Relatively cheap, long range, mid-high strength, this weapon is KING at taking out light to medium armour.
One the other side, the Plasma Rifle. Essentially a Plasma Gun you have to pay extra for, plus less strength. At least it doesn't get hot, right? This gun has a single purpose-blowing away heavy infantry at medium to close range.
So we've got two very different weapons, one designed for light armour busting, and one designed for heavy infantry killing. One is close range, one is long range. One has High AP, one has Low AP. Neither really have anything to do with each other, so why would you spend such a high amount on a suit that excels at nothing? Consider your Multi-Tracker as well-that's 5 points that only exists to allow you to fire both of these weapons at one target... not very efficient.
Now let's look at a new suit- XV8 Crisis suit, TL Missile Pods, Target lock/BSF. Here we have a far better transport busting unit, as twin linking the missile pods greatly increases accuracy. I personally prefer having a mix of target locks and blacksun filters in my unit, as it allows for a few suits to split their fire if needed, it differentiates units for wound allocation, and it nearly ensures that you get the crucial first turn hits on dawn of war deployment. Doubling sighting distance WITH rerolls is very mean indeed, as usually all you will need to roll is a 4 or 5 on 2d6 to sight your enemy during this deployment. Even better, this suit costs a little over 40 points, so is cheap, and if the situation should call for it, it is disposable and distracting as well. Most player's I've faced put a disproportionate amount of effort into killing your "elite" looking units, and if they spend a turn or two chasing after them, your plan will usually prosper. This unit can perform a lethal alpha-strike in dawn of war or any other deployment, crippling light transports and then seeking out targets of opportunity. I've had games where a unit of 3 have immobilized 3 Chimeras simultaneously.... while they were still in the deployment zone!

Monday, November 23, 2009

First Post

Well, I suppose I've finally given in and decided to take up blogging, and what better subject to blog about than wargaming? I think the main focus of this blog is going to be army list building, tactics, and rules in Warhammer 40k, and perhaps Warhammer Fantasy as well. As of right now I have about 4000 points of Tau, and a slowly growing collection of Space Wolves as well. For Warhammer Fantasy I have a little over 2000 points of Tomb Kings... perhaps not popular army choices, but I feel each has a distinct flavour and tactical feel.