Games, testing and more games. Road to Apoc 2015.

SO! As promised, here is more info on the gaming element of my road to the Apocalypse game at the end of the month.

Firstly, I decided to swap armies with my Dark Eldar friend Chris, who has kind of just started really.  Dark Eldar are glass cannons and can prove a hard place to start in 40k.  Luckily, Chris, despite always complaining, never stops trying.  But the army he would be using in the Apoc game would need to be tested regardless.

And I wanted to play Dark Eldar.  So there.

The game was done old school, played with whatever scenery we could scrounge, despite being done on one of those fantastic latex mats from Zuzzy in the states.

For deployment, I wanted to use his own "fun" army.  I was playing to test out things, be daring, try out tactics you would normally shirk from.

So for deployment I held as much in reserve as possible and hid!

So much wrong with this picture, I know.

 The early game was shadowed by a fantastic stroke of luck.  Gambling everything into one attack, I put 2 venoms with trueborn toting more splintercannons into danger, backed up by Scourges firing long and a deepstriking raider + the Archon using his portal for a no- scatter deepstrike!

Result?  Necron Warrior unit reduced to 0 warriors and one pissed off Necron Lord.
...
1 Necron Lord with an warscythe to gring.  He charged next turn. I learned then that my Archon had no Agoniser or other offensive option... thank Cthulu I had a shadow field!

Weird seeing this guy on the opposing side of the board...

The game went slow, lots of umming and ahhing on my side as if it was a chess game.  (Which incidentally has a clock to stop people like me driving the game into the late hours!!).  It was all in all a close match, as most Maelstrom games are, my earlier gamble folding under the weight of Necron troop spam.  Damn those 20 man squads are tough in 1500pts!

***

Later that same week saw me and Chris joining several other players for some light 1000pt quick matches.  The aim was simple: Have fun, learn something new!

Into the breach, inspired by a dawn of war map.

There were just 6 players active, these three boards above being used.  Highlights include seeing Dark Eldar finding themselves in the unenviable position of holding off a Tyranid horde.  Only the narrow terrain helped them, though the quick assault of flying xenos nearly won the day.  Poison weapons are for Tyranids what Bananas are for me.  Poison.  (Edit: Find better analogy).

City fight board, used by IG vs IG. 

Two Imperial Guard Armies battling across a ruined city. Ordnance Pie plates at dawn a amongst aegis lines and meat shields. :) Arguments ensued over who was more faithful to the emperor, and who was just trying that little too hard.  An Inquisitor was brought in.

Eldar were having a bad day as an Ultramarine drop pod assualt ranked up 11pts in just the first 2 turns of the game.  Devolving into a cat and mouse game, the Space Marines held on for 6 turns, avoiding a vengeful Iyanden host trying to table them as their only option.

Band of buggered...

While I only played 1 game (I was on rules duty for the first round) the game itself showed me a fault in using Meprhit in small games.  The compulsary demand for 3 Troop units it a big negative.  Necrons do better when fielded in larger units, as to take advantage of their reinimation protocols.  If they lose all their number in 1 phase, they cannot come back, as their Lord doesn't count.

FFFUUUUUUUU!!!!

In small games, this means you have very little room for special stuff like an Annihilation Barge or 3.  With the Mephrit Dynasty this problem is made worse yet.

This was demonstrated very clearly for me by good old nasty Chris and his Dark Eldar flier, essentially carpet bombing my main big unit down a street with Necrotoxin missiles.  Combined with a few other focused attacks and cheeky deep strikes later, it was clear I had lost. 

Dammit, the noob is learning. 

So for 1000pts I'd recommend using the standard FOC.  The variety is better and the ability to snab objectives with troops is always useful.  However, I have another 40 Warriors and 15 Immortals to paint.  So with regards to Mephrit, I'll be back! (See what I did there!??)

Thanks for reading.
R

Scarab Swarms! - The road to Apoc 2015

AHAAAAA!!!  Hobby progression!  The inexorable wheels of burden brought on by disposabal funds and the depressive death stare of a thousand plastic robots held back by hope.

Thats right!  I painted some more. :)

Specifically, after breaking off trying to paint a whole force of them in layers, I focused on the first 10 to completion.  Sadly without one of the old ones for reference, the new 20 seem too "clean" though their colours are still aligned with the rest of the army.  Thankfully the change in style doesnt jar.  Though the red jaw bones worried me until the end. 

All but the final coat of bone... keep thinking of Shia Lebouf.

1000pts line up.  Later killed.  More soon.

In a recent game day, which I will be posting about soon, the Mephrit Dynasty FOC proved to be too specialized in troops to win a small 1000pt game.  After being liberally coated in Dark Eldar Neurotoxin missiles (Thanks Obama), they were cut apart by selective and focused attacks.
Bluntly put, they simply don't have the tools to deal with so many different forms of attack.  This army may have well done me justice in 5th edition, but the fantastic re-rolling of 1's in reanimation just doesn't justify the loss of variety and the loss of objective taking super troops in the normal Combined Operations FOC (Edit: Combined Forces?).   Nor can one really take advantage of the Solar Thermowhatsit.  Which is surely broken.  Surely...  We will see!

Last night, I was burning the midnight oil to quick finish the Scarab Bases.  Lacking in certain colours like the greys for weapons or even a dark red spot colour, I figured I could have them done quickly.  Unfortunately, some of the more characterful bases demanded that extra special touch. 
Let it be said, I paint to finish, not to win awards!!

Hope you like the blood!  :D Anyway, thats 11 Scarab bases added to the Dynasty.

After a little count up, I worked out that by the Apoc game in 2 weeks, I should have enough painted (in theory) to field just under 6000pts work of Necrons, including some Lords of War...

Ironically after this the raising continues, as there are many figures yet to finish in my mound of plastic hell!!  Plus, this is being released the same weekend as the Apoc game...




 
!!!

Regardless, to be ready for the Apoc game, I have yet to finish 10 primed Necron Warriors and something... else. See below.

In other news, my centre piece to the Army, which was orignally the lazer cut Pylon by lazercutcard.com, is going to be something special...  Here is a hint, bought as parts by Rothand Studios.  Combine this with a certain Tomb Kings kit and... well you will see, hopefully soon!

Come the Apocalypse, Come the Man. (Or Necron).

January has quickly become a series of deadlines for me Wargaming wise.  Between a game this Sunday designed to reinvigorate the hobby love and an Apoc game at the end of the month, deadline therapy is IN!

With so much currently there to finish, I decided since getting my hands on that beautiful tomb Exeterminatus (Read: Mephritt Dynasty ROCKS!), that Troop choices are also firmly IN!

Currently possessing a meager 20 Warriors and 10 Immortals, I figure I'd prioritise more.  Firstly an extra 10 Warriors for this weekend, followed by some nice and easy Scarab Swarm Bases (x11).
Its been a while since I laboured through that old painting plan, especially since the fire, a lot of paints turned out to have dried up or simply missing.  Regardless, I managed in quick time, to get the following up to that stage shown.

 There are also another 10 Warriors at a lesser phase of being painted. I seem to have accidentally gotten good at quick painting, being able to get through a lot to Wargame standard with a fixed palate and a lot of Netflix in the back ground.  Either way, I'm not the best expert on speed painting, but I do have some advice.

Rik's rules of speed painting!

1. When writing your painting plan, consider how much fine detail work you have to do.  Keep this as low as possible.
2. Dry or Wet brushing is your friend.  And Inking.  In fact, you want to have as much time doing this.  Detail work should be left for essential highlights and small stuffs.
3. Primer!  Working from a priming coat that IS your forces colour helps. A LOT.  For me this meant indulging in Army Painters Skeleton Bone (and matching paint).  This helped a lot.
4. Always have a painted example on hand.  This helps making sure that you don't suddenly finish off another unit only to realise they look significantly different to your army, be it a bad batch of paint, a missing layer or worse. Have your goal right there.
5. Paint the easy stuff on everything first, then finish off units at a time.  I began keeping a fine balance between putting the basic layers on all the things, like inks, before working on each unit at a time, bringing them to a finish.  This balances efficiency with psychological "pat pat" on the head.  Its easier to keep going when you can SEE the progress.
6. Out of sight, out of mind.  Units you aren't working on should be put away or on the other end of the table.  It is very easy to lose your mojo when all you can see if what needs working on.  Allow only those finished units to sit on your table. Again, you can see the progress, also see point 4.
7. Keep a tight palat. For my Necrons, I decided to keep a simple rule, paint wise.  Bone for armour, metal for the joints, grey for weapons and good old Necrony green for the power flow, eyes etc.  Indulging in too many paints on your basic troops can quickly become a nightmare, especially when wet blending or highlighting is required on everything.
8. Blog!  That's right!  Share your progress!  You would not believe how great a motivator it is to get feedback, comments and even better inspire others to get their crap done!
9. Bases are 1/3 of the figure.  Those bases which you often see left bare or single colour painted are a huge sin.  Sand, seal, paint with dry brushing.  Easy, quick, and gets over a third of the actual model done.  I do this phase half way through to get instant gratification on my need for progress!
10. Treat yourself with the big guys.  Characters, monstrous creatures etc, these guys should be a reward for doing the bulk.  All the above rules can be forgotten if you like.  Go nuts, take your time and change the rules.  This is where you make something special.
11. And finally, play games.  It quickly loses the point when you aren't remembering why you're working for weeks on that Infinite Phalanx.  This hobby should be mostly reward, not burden.

Easy kills are amazing moral boosters.  For me, these Scarab Swarms were a delight.  I dropped the flighty micro prong things that make them seem to fly in favour of them coming out the ground.  Not only does this make them more enduring, but easier to paint and frankly more fun to model.  Grab that bitz box and have fun. 
Painting them?  Remember what I said about bases and painting them?  Thats over half the figure here.  An absolute speed painting dream.  And scary as duck in game.

 Hopefully, the Warriors will be ready for the game this weekend, looking something like their predecessors underneath.  I'm really feeling the style of the Mephrit Dynasty, walls of nigh unstoppable machines bent on ruining your day.

"IS THIS YOUR BALL?"

A quick note on that day, since our social gaming group began flagging last year, this gaming day is more about practicing rules in a non-competitive environment, trying new things and new armies, meeting new gamers and basically having fun before fair games.

For many of us, its rediscovering why we love this hobby.  For me, it's a great opportunity to get a goal to get stuff done.  SCREW THE PLASTIC MOUNDS! 

It's time to rise! 

Thanks for reading,
R