Razing Kain

Testing mobile publishing

2011-03-22T16:49:00.001-07:00

This is a test post from my iPod to my blogs. Let's see if this works.

Location:Eaton Ave,Hamilton,United States

Goin' to Denver (?) with an achin' in my heart!

2011-02-08T07:04:00.000-08:00

Yep. Somehow, someone has talked me into traveling to Denver for GenghisCon for a one day, three round, Warhammer Fantasy tourney. 2250 Indy GT Vegas qualifier event. Since the New Jeresy Trip was cancelled, I figure this will be a good start to what will be my ultimate accession to the throne of Warhammer awesomeness. The trip is next weekend, the 19-21st of February. Going with some semi-new dude to our local scene, and it will be interesting to spend a shit ton of time with a dude I only semi-know. He seems cool enough, but you never really know someone until you hang out with them for 2 1/2 days straight. Going to be awesome. The best part about it that the distance is far enough that I should experience a different type of play style than I get every weekend at the Art of War.

So 2250. Not the easiest or best point value for Fantasy. Not quite to the point where I can take all my fun toys, all the stuff that make Skaven fun for me. Also, high enough where I will have some serious shit to deal with. Double Hydras, stupid amounts of Chaos Chosen. Everyone will be fielding the level 4s. Everyone. So that means a Grey Seer is required. Also means my bad ass Warlord will have to sit this one out. Seriously...if it was 2400, I'd be a pig in shit...however, now I am forced to start cutting down fun characters and busting out the really strong shit. I am running some different stuff in terms of magic items. While I am still play testing the list (at least one more game) Here's what I am looking at:

40 Clan Rats, Spears and Shields, Full Command, Warp Fire Thrower
40 Storm Vermin, Full Command, Warp Fire Thrower
35 Plague Monks, Full Command
Level Two Plague Priest on the Plague Furnace, with Flail and some protective magic gear
Grey Seer (of course, stupid 2250) with protective magic gear
My Crutches (aka Two Doom Wheels)
Warp Lightening Cannon
BSB with something fancy.

I'm not sure what else I am going to be running, but that is going to be the core of my list. I'd like to add another unit of Clan Rats, but points are so tight right now, with the protection I need from silliness (aka Hydras, Trolls, Treemen) that I will probably be stuck with the big blocks that I have currently. Probably toss in a trick or two, but only two weapon teams really bother me. I'd like to have one more, but the points are just not there. Bastards! Anyway, Denver is going to be an experience. Not sure if it's going to be a good one, or a bad one, but this is my first real "mega-tourney" so it will be interesting to see what they have in store for me.

And so I leave you with lyrics to a song that I feel fit this trip:

We come from the land of the ice and snow,
From the midnight sun where the hot springs blow.
Hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new land,
To fight the horde, sing and cry: Valhalla, I am coming!
-- Led Zeppelin, Immigrant Song

First ramble of the year!

2011-01-27T13:10:00.000-08:00

So while I was sitting on my ass last night painting my new flashy Skaven Warp Lightening Cannon...I was thinking to myself. What does 2011 bring for me and my intense interest in gaming? 2010 has been the most ridiculous year of my life I think. I co-opened a new gaming store, I am now a father. I start the fifth year of owning a house (that I desperately want to sell!), and my last year in my twenties. It was odd, actually thinking about my life up to that exact point. Here I am sitting in my great room, watching Farscape, slapping Scorched Brown on a piece of the Warp Lightening Cannon, and listening to Phaedra sing to Drake, and it all sorta just made sense. The end of my third decade of life quickly draws to a close, and think back to my goals and dreams and what not. Sure, I still haven't made the million dollars I said I would by age 30. And I didn't make it to Italy and Greece, but all it all, it's been a good run so far.

So naturally, my mind wondered to 2011, and what is going down in terms of gaming. First and foremost, I decided gaming is as much a part of who I am as it ever has been. One thing that Drake has caused is the lack of actual hobby time. I'm not talking the gaming aspect, but the actual hobby part. You know, building models, priming, painting, reading fluff, writing fiction about my characters. The goal is to spend an hour a night doing something that falls into the hobby aspect. Back in the day when I worked at another local game store, I was able to do all that sort of stuff while on the clock. But man, Art of War is totally different. Totally! My Saturdays up there are just crazy all the time, I'm so freaking busy most times I don't even feel like I have a Saturday. I unlock the doors at noon, and before I know it, it's one am. Sure I play plenty of games, but I don't get a lot of time for the hobby. So my first goal of 2011 is to spend 5 hours a week working on the hobby part of gaming.

Still on thoughts of the year to come, my second major motivation is getting into a single new game. I'm not talking about buying an army and playing one game and leaving it in a box to be discovered and slammed up on Bartertown in three years. I'm talking about really getting into a game. Like I got into Confrontation (minus the standing on the chair screaming my longs out about how shitty the game is!) I am not sure what that game is going to be, but I think it needs to happen. 2010 was a sort of a boring year for new games. Sure you can call my return to 8th edition "getting into a new game" but to me, that's different. My return to Warhammer Fantasy is more along the lines of the prodigal son returning home, not a new game. I need something different, unique, and challenging. Hopefully a new game will offer that. As of this exact moment, I am looking at MERCS, Flames of War, and Hell Dorado. I already own Hell Dorado minis, so that's always a plus, but I've also played that game quiet a bit back in the day, so I am not sure if that one counts or not. Anyway, major goal number two is to get into a new game. Get an army/faction/whatever and get it painted.

Wow. Still more to say. Third major goal for 2011. Become a better Warhammer Fantasy player. Something that I've always wanted to do, but have always made up excuses and what not is to play more Warhammer fantasy events. I finally decided that if I am going to talk trash like I'm a great Warhammer player, I need to get my ass in gear and start actually doing it. Playing more games and experiencing the game more than just against the same six people I see and play all the time. Sure I won the local 'Ard Boys and all that jazz, but it's not exactly the same as getting a chance to compete in massive events, such as the Buckeye Battles and the Marauder Mayhem, as well as some other semi-local events. There are rules for this goal though. First, I will not take an army that is not 100% finished. That might mean I am running Skaven and nothing else, but I will not play an army in a tournament unless it is painted. Second: I cannot lose sight of the sportsmanship and enjoyment I get by playing Warhammer Fantasy. Seems silly I know, but it happened with my obsession with confrontation, where I took the game way too seriously. It's a problem of mine that I am always aware of, and always striving to avoid. I play the game for fun and enjoyment and strive for that in every game.

And finally, focus my gaming efforts more. Instead of starting a project and getting half way through it (looking at you Space Wolves!) I am going to focus on armies, and finish what I started. No more half ass-ed armies that never get finished. I am going to start selling off the armies I am never going to get around to finishing (like the daemons) and get some projects completed. First on that list is my Skaven. I have the content of the Island of Blood starter, plus the new stuff from GW and then I am all caughtNecrons will have a new codex and I will be playing them again. So instead of the stereotypical "Gamer ADD" I am instead going to buckle down and get focused.

I know by now, you're thinking to yourself. "Holy shit! Sure he's talking game now, but Phaedra is never going to allow any of this!" Which of course I say PLUH! I've already talked to her about all this and she is on board. I'm very lucky to have a wife that supports my addiction to table top gaming. All this and I plan to spend time with my family and be supportive and all that jazz.

Alright, enough rambling. I end this blog post with a quote I picked up along the way...(via twitter)

“Ambition is a lust that is never quenched, but grows more inflamed and madder by enjoyment.” -Thomas Otway

What the hell? Time for a new post...

2010-12-21T08:41:00.000-08:00

Wow. It's been what, three months since I've posted. The wife and I have a beautiful son. I've rolled a new Transactional system into production. I've slain a cat (on accident), I got my ass handed to me in the second round of 'Ard Boyz, and I've had some serious car issues.

It's been a long couple months.Busy and awesome and crazy. Now it's Christmas time, and I'm wrapping up some year end stuff at work before my 11 days off.

Two things I want to cover. First. Posting. I will be doing it more often after the new year.

Second. I wish you a very merry Christmas. Don't do anything I wouldn't do. ;)

Adepticon, 2011???

2010-10-07T10:31:00.000-07:00

Holy shit. It's Adepticon time again! I know I'm going, and I know what army we're playing. It's marines this time (since no new Necron codex...BOOOOO!)

I'm not going to say much, but I am leaning heavily to a death company sorta jive. What is there not to love about Blood Angels on the verge of Khorne worship? Fantastic. Plus I have a chubby for Feel No Pain on Assault oriented dudes. Awesome!

Stay tuned for more goodness concerning Adepticon 2011. And I still need to post images of my Skaven in all their ratty gloriousness?!?!

Warhammer Fantasy 'Ard Boyz, round 2

2010-09-28T06:41:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday was the second round of 'Ard Boys. I took a semi-modified version of the Skaven list I won with to the second round. It was as follows:

Grey Seer w/ Screaming Bell, Feedback Scroll

35 Storm Vermin pushing the bell, w/ full command and a warp fire thrower team

36 storm vermin, with full command and a warp fire thrower team

36 Clan rats, spears, shields, full command, and a poison wind mortar team

Level 2 Plague Priest on the Furnace, flail, dispell scroll, item that gives any unit touching him -1 ld

35 plague monks w/ full command, the one use banner that allows you to re-roll misses and wounds

10 Poisoned Wind Globadiers

Plague Claw Catapult

Doom Wheel

Feels like I am forgetting something, unsure what it is. Anyway, that was the basic list. So I packed that shit up and went to Krystal Keep up in Dayton for round two.

Pretty good showing of armies, my Skaven, two Dark Elf players, a High Elf player (Dave/Crobar,) an Orc and Goblin player, a Warriors of Chaos player, a Daemon player, and a Dwarf player. Everyone had some interesting builds and overall looked like it was going to be a pretty good experience.

First round I was matched up with the Warriors of Chaos list. I honestly cannot remember exactly what he had, but it was something like two units of Knights, two units of Warriors, two Hell Cannons, two War Shrines, and a massive amount of characters. His plan was a basic "point defense" trying to minimize the amount of points he lost. His knights had a field day in my back line, but in the end it was a 13-10 loss for me. I was able to eat some tasty characters and a unit of knights, which really set him back. I also abused the fact that if the character's mounts are still alive, you don't get points for the character. It was a fun game, and this cat had a really unique way of running WoC. Very unique and really gave me a couple of different ideas when I get around to finishing up my Warriors army.

Second round had me lined up against an Orc and Goblin player. Holy shit! This guy is the guy that runs the Marauder Mayhem event once a year. I should have guessed he was a really good player. He preceded to rofflestomped me something fierce. He had my ass to the wall on turn two, and never let up. Six bolt throwers, two rock lobbas, one doom diver, a million characters, Grimgor, Orcs and Orcs and more Orcs everywhere. I had no answer. Clanrats in nets, storm vermin in nets, and the pain was immense. We played it through, but I was done on turn four. Bolt Throwers just ran me threw. And this dude had some sweet tactics. This game will be the game that changed me from 7th edition to 8th edition. I lost, 25-0. My rear still hurts.

The final round I was pitted against Raji and his Dark Elves. Raji is the best person in the world to play against. He owns the shop and is a great dude. We've been friends now for 6+ years. Raji is a great guy and a great person to play against. His Dark Elf list was a little soft, and I was burned out from me re-education the game before, so we settled into a silly game of Fantasy. What the game is supposed to be about. Some smack talking, some silliness, some fun magic phases...it was awesome. My Skaven stuff was blowing up left and right, his purple sun eating my poor grey seer, his hydra eating clan rats for dinner. It was a blast. This game is one of my top five games of warhammer ever. So much fun! Anyway, in the end, I won 25-0, as he had no answer for Plague Monks. It was a fantastic game, and we laughed the whole game. Good times had by all.

Overall, I'm really happy I went to the second round. I was able to play against different people and really got to experience 8th edition in its fullest extent. I ended up taking 5th place. First was the Dark Elf player with four Hydras and 100 crossbowmen. Second was the Dwarf player, and third was the Orc and Goblin player that ruined my life. I think the Daemon player had fourth, me fifth, six was High Elves, seven was Warriors of Chaos, and last was Dark Elf. Overall an awesome event!

Overall, I feel that 8th has the potential to be the best version of Warhammer I've played. There is some growing pains in the game, and the older army books have the potential to abuse the game a little more (no way you should be able to take a billion Bolt Throwers) but as GW has time to readdress the books, they will balance out. The game is awesome, and I love it.

Long live 8th Edition!

'Ard Boyz...Warhammer Fantasy style!

2010-09-01T06:12:00.000-07:00

All right, last Saturday was the first fantasy Ard Boyz tourney for 8th Edition. I really love warhammer fantasy and I am totally in love with 8th edition. The changes are awesome, and make it much more of the infantry game it use to be (in 6th.)

The event was ran at East Side Games and Cards, and a very big thanks goes to those guys for hosting it. Thanks to Clint for hosting, and Carl for running it.

First game I played against Joseph and his Dwarfs. it was a very close game but in the end, after a very rough fifth turn, I was able to pull out a Minor Victory, and grabbed a large amount of Battle points.

Second game was against William and his Dwarfs. YES! another dwarf player...playing an almost identical list. After swallowing the fact that I will not have a magic phase...again...I was pretty happy about this paring. I knew what to expect and was ready for it. It was a "normal" set up and I had my plan. It was a closer game than the score would have you believe, but I ended up with maximum points and a massacre in my favor.

Third game was against Clint and his beastmen, running the Minotaur Deathstar unit. The Deathstar unit ended up in reserve due to mission scenario whatever, so I had the game in the back from turn one. As soon as I dropped the two wizards, it was open game on beastmen. Again, massacre with all battle points. Or at least that is what I was told when I was there. I guess later on I was told I didn't get one of the battle points or something.

Anyway, I believe I ended up killing something like 7800ish total victory points, with dead generals and battle standard bearers and units everywhere. I had a blast in all my games, and I hope my opponents felt the same. Poor William and his dice man. They left him high and dry about two rolls into the third round of our game.

My list:

Grey Seer on bell with Feedback scroll, general
Warlord on Rat Ogre with 4+ ward, weeping blade, shield, tail weapon, rat hound
35 Stormvermin w/ full command + warp fire thrower (for Grey Seer's bell)
32 Stormvermin w/ full command + warp fire thrower (for Warlord)
2 units of 36 clan rats w/ full command + ratling gun
Plague Priest, level 2, dispell scroll, Plague Furnace, Flail
35 plague monks w/ full command (to push the furnace)
2 doom wheels
Plague Claw Catapult
10 Poisoned Wind Globadiers w/ the unit champ.

I am not 100% sure on everything in the list, as I don't have it exactly in front of me, but I think that's it.

Honestly, it's a semi-soft list, comparatively speaking. There will be some changes made for the next round. I have some weaknesses, like getting to warmachines (made painfully obviously against two dwarf players) and character killing. Nothing like having a unit of Stormvermin pushing a Bell not being able to drop a single Dwarf Lord on shield bearers.

And I don't care what everyone else things/says/whatever. I love my Plague Claw Catapult. It's awesome.

Anyway, I had a blast. I guess now it's time to start training for Regionals...or whatever the heck the next round is.

Gencon is next week! HOLY SHIT!

2010-07-30T06:28:00.000-07:00

Man, it's been a while since I've posted. Gaming and life has been crazy. I've been super busy trying to get all my Skaven painted for the Warhammer Fantasy events.

In case you're curious, Table Top Gamers is running a very large spread of events.

Here is the list of the different types of events:

Cyprian Rift
Pulp City
40k Intro Scenarios
War Hammer Fantasy 8th
Hell Dorado
Uncharted Seas
Firestorm
Infinity
Alkemy
AE-WWII
Pitch Car
Rezolution
Warlands
Kaiji Kaus
ZynVaded!

In total, we're running something like 500 possible seats through four days of hardcore gaming. Hell, we don't even run events on Sunday. How crazy is that? Yeah it's awesome.

Originally I was not going to be running anything myself, as the Hottie is now nearing the eighth month of pregnancy. However, that changes when one of the Zealots had to back out thanks to some car issues. I am not the man with the master plan, running all of the Hell Dorado events. Ha, now I have to learn the game too ;)

We're running events somewhere in Hall F, near table 40. If you know where that is, you're better off than I am. This year has seemed a lot more disorganized than normal. Probably because I've been focused on the whole dad thing. It's going to be crazy, but Gencon always is. No matter how hard I try to make it not crazy, it is.

This will be the last post until after Gencon, so I want to wish everyone a great time unleashing your inner nerd/geek/dork/Larper/whatever. You cannot call yourself a true geek unless you've been to a convention. And no, free comic book day at the local joint does not count.

Remember kids, rock hard, and GET YOUR GAME ON!

Whoa! 8th Edition Kickoff weekend has come and gone...

2010-07-12T07:30:00.000-07:00

Rocket Hammer!

Holy crap! The craziness of the 24 hour Eighth Edition Madness (TM) has come and gone, and what a wild weekend it was. Not wild like strippers and blow and such, but pretty damn wild in terms of geekdom.

I ran three events, the mega-battle, the model building contest, and of course demos, demos, demos. There were seven players in the mega-battle, daemons x2, wood elves, high elves, lizardmen x2, and dwarfs. I ended up playing with some skaven to even the numbers out. In the end team Order kicked some ass and crushed Destruction under their mighty fist! It was a blood bath really. Destruction's lists didn't jive well and we never had enough magic pull for our Tzeentch casters. And my Skaven were the center "hold" line of the army. When Skaven are your anvil, you know you have issues ;) Anyway, we got the hammer of Sigmar dropped on our faces.

Saturday was awesome, and I got to hand out 13 something demos of 8th Edition. A couple of games had some crazy stuff going on, which helped me grow my knowledge of the game in all it's awesomeness. I also got to slam
the rule-hammer on some fools who thought they knew what they were talking about. Suckas!

All in all it was an awesome weekend! I'm very happy with all the changes to the game, and am pretty pumped about 8th Edition. I hope to get a couple more real games in this upcoming weekend, as my Skaven need more table time!

Rocket Hammer! Hell yes!

(image taken from artist PieceofShyt from Deviantart.net http://th09.deviantart.net/fs15/300W/f/2007/086/9/c/Vita_Chan_With_Rocket_Hammer_by_pieceofshyst.jpg)

Warhammer 8th Edition looms...

2010-07-08T06:17:00.000-07:00

So here we go. I'm about 36 hours away from the beginning of the 8th edition kickoff weekend. The events are planned, the armies are ready, and the books available. Too bad I am not.

I still have a lot of rules I need to learn and am iffy on terrain. Worse case, I will see five wood elf armies and the game will slow and painful and I will cry. Like this little a little girl. Or that dude from Dawson's Creek. Yeah him...

Anyway, It's going to be a glorious weekend. I will have something like two hours to learn the rules tomorrow before the game starts, and it looks to be a crash course in getting shit done. At least I know the basic rules, so I should be able to get shit started and flubber around the rest of the game.

I guess I should probably get to the store tonight and re-read the rules. That will help, right?

See you at The Art of War this weekend. Get ready to get schooled, Warhammer 8th Edition style!

Warhammer 8th Edition...first game!

2010-06-21T14:36:00.000-07:00

Alright everyone, I got to play the game this weekend. Not a demo game, but a full on game. Before I start with my thoughts, this was also the first time I took skaven to the table as well. So some of my thoughts on the game a slightly skewed.

So let's get too it. First: Army composition. I love it. the percent system is awesome...very awesome. In a 2K army, I could take a Grey Seer and Snkikk Fang-Rot himself. Side Note: I know I am a loser for naming my dudes. Deal with it :P! I decided to not take the Grey Seer and Fang-Rot, as I wanted some other stuff to check out the way the army works. I was squared up against some mean Warriors of Chaos, so my goal was to get some awesome heavy infintry together for a beating. So I end up taking Snkikk, Level 2 Plague Priest on a Furnace, and a level 2 Warlock Engineer for characters. I took two units of 30 Stormvermin with Halberds and Shields (dumb) with ratling guns. A unit of 30 Clan Rats with spears and shields. a unit of 20 plague monks to push the furnace, and 10 Poison Wind Globadiers. Obviously I went "toy heavy" as I want toys in my skaven army. :grin: Patches (on these forums) had a large assortment of (four units) Marauders with fails, two war shrines, a large unit of warriors (20 I think), two units of hounds, and a warrior chariot. Two wizards, a chaos lord, and a exalted Champion. I cannot remember the exact marks, but it was a lot of Slannesh and Khorne. Obviously I took spells from both skaven lists. He took Fire and Death out of the new lores.

I'm not going to recap the whole game, but I will talk about my thoughts on the game, and 8th edition proper. First. Close Combat! In initiative order...It's a beast. Totally changes how the game is played. Chaos Warriors come in at a whooping five initiative. Two hand weapons plus MoK is fantastic! And then add the Warshrine's goofiness, it's even more awesome. Patches laid my Storm vermin to waste with his four attacks per model x5, +1 for champ, +5 from second rank, needing 3s to hit, 3s to wound. Wow it was impressive. Rows of dead Skaven. Rows. Then I attacked back with my 13 attacks and returned the favor. Combat resolution was pure silliness. I ended up losing, but still hand more ranks, so with Steadfast and a leadership 10 in the area, I was able to stay and fight. If the stormvermin were clanrats, I would have totaled 19 attacks. pretty fantastic if you ask me. The steadfast rule is going to be a massive boost for most armies, and a Battle Standard Bearer is going to be a requirement for most armies.

And then there was magic. I'd love to say it was over the top and ridiculous. But it really wasn't. The randomness of the power/dice pool was crazy. There where turns of me having nine dice to his five. Or 12 to 6 for me. The drawback of IF is not as brutal as it probably should have been, but it came up twice in the game. My magic really didn't do a whole lot because I didn't know it well enough to make it effective.

Shooting really didn't key into the game all that much. The Doomwheels where pretty meh in this game, due to the fact that buff chaos warriors could deal with it without too much issue. My magic was weak because I didn't read exactly how Skaven magic worked.

In the end it was a super fun game...and next time I will have a better understanding of how the Skaven work, and how 8th Edition works. Next time Chaos Warriors...you're going DOWN! (plus I will not allow a Chaos Lord to crush my warlord. Who knew ;) )

Looking forward to the next game. It's going to be awesome!

Warhammer 8th Ed Weekend!

2010-06-16T11:36:00.000-07:00

Alright all you crazy Warhammer Players, it's time! GW has told us that The Art of War is allowed to start selling Warhammer Fantasy 8th Edition Starting July 10th at 12:01 AM. You know what that means? Midnight Bash!, Black Orc Construction Contest! and Skaven Brawls!

That's right. Starting at 10:00pm Friday, July 9th, Art of War is going to do an epic Order against Disorder Warhammer event. The first two turns are going to be played using 7th Edition rules, and when 12:01 AM Saturday Morning, July 10th hits, we are going to switch over to 8th Edition! That's right. We're going to say good bye to 7th with half a game, and hello to 8th with half a game. Crazy? You betcha! So how does this event work? Well, bring a500 point army constructed using seventh edition rules, and throughout the event, we will calculate points based on army comp, numbers killed, and painting. Whoever has the most total points at the end of the event will win some free Warhammer Fantasy product.

The second event is going to be an Black Orc Construction Contest (sounds better than Iron man!) Basically, you're going to start building models. After two hours, we're going to call time, and whoever builds the best looking and largest amount will win some free Warhammer Fantasy product. This is going to start at 3:00 pm on Saturday July 10th, and run until 5:00 pm.

And finally, we have the Skaven Brawls! These are going to be similar to demo games, where you have a couple of 500 point armies to select from, or bring your own 500 point army. Then you will face off against the vile Snikikk Fang-Rot and his horrible broken and massively overpowered(TM) Furn-Burn Skaven Clan. This will be demo situation, where we will be teaching you the game. But unlike a normal demo, I will not be playing nice. Whoever does the most damage against my Skaven at the end of the Day will recieve...you guess it...Warhammer Fantasy Product! The demos start at Noon on Saturday, July 10th. Space for the demos will be limited, and there will be a sign-up sheet with more information next week.

And this is just the opening weekend. We will also be starting an Escalation League July as well, so get over to Art of War Gaming and Miniatures for all your Warhammer Fantasy needs!

TTG/CincyCon First Annual Pig-Smash 40K event

2010-05-14T07:46:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I ran a small little 2250pt event for CincyCon I am referring to as Pig-Smash, since there was beatings and Cincy's whole Pork thing.

Anyway, it was meant to be a primer for 'Ard Boys this upcoming weekend, so I ran it at 2250, using the 2009 'Ard Boys Scenarios, adding in Painting and Comp scores.

It was a blast and next year I plan to make it a full blown attack.

Anyway, here are the results:

RESULTS

Here we go for the TTG & CincyCon PigSmash (aka 40K event )

Placing, starting with first place:

Dicky with Space Wolves
Mike Akridge with Tyranids
Jon Pelozzi with Chaos Marines
Sean Pittmen with Blood Angels
Brady with Imperial Guard
John Pittmen with Imperial Guard
Ronnie with Tyranids
Eric Adamaszek with Space Marins.

Dicky won a $40 gift certificate to Eastside Games and Cards for Best General, Sean Pittmen won a $40 gift card to Newport Games for best sportsmen; and John Pelozzi won best painted and got a gift card to Rocking Roosters for best Painted. And a special thanks to Eric Adamaszek for the first every "Cincy Sucker", getting last place and "winning" a $25 gift card to Eastside Games and Cards.

Sknikikk Fang-Rot, Grand Warlord of the Fur-Burn Skaven Tribe

2010-05-14T07:35:00.000-07:00

So a little while back I wrote up some fluff for my Skaven warlord for a buddy of mine who is converting the model for me. I wanted him to be able to get a feel for the character of the model I had in my mind. I figured I would post it for no one to read!

GO!

*******************

Sknikikk Fang-Rot, grand warlord of the Fur-burn tribe. His rise to fame is well known throughout the Under-Empire. His rise to fame was quick, due to his crazy personality and love for eating his slain enemies' hearts.
He was quickly moved through the ranks of the stormvermin to Fang-Claw. His loyalty to his clan was impressive, as his abilities with his trusty mace, Bone-Slicer. His promotion from Fang-Claw to Chieftain of the maw-drinkers came when the current chief succumbed to the man-pox and went mad. Seeing him weak, Sknikikk challenged him to a duel to prove his mettle, and quickly crushed the ill chieftain and sealed the deal by eating the pox infested heart, instantly gaining large amounts of respect from Clan Pestilence, who helped him stave off the worse of the man-pox that now racked his body, including some permanently smelly breath, hence the name Fang-Rot.

Sknikikk became even more infamous during his "negotiations" with clan Skyre. What started as an attempt to purchase two Doom-wheels boiled down into a massive brawl and cannibalistic feast where Sknikikk and his Stormvermin bodyguard killed and then consumed the hearts of fifteen Skyre merchants. Little is known about the incident outside Sknikikk's body guard, but most whisper of the Skyre merchants refusing to haggle and negotiate for the second Doom Wheel. Needless to say to this day, Clan Skyre deals with Sknikikk in a very defensive stance.

Sknikikk's greatest achievement is the taming of Bash-Bash, a large and particularly pissed off Rat Ogre while dealing with slave trades to clan Moluder. it is not own if Sknikikk was just attempting to show off, or if Bash-Bash wanted to escape, but the end results where the same. The image of Sknikikk smashing the pommel of Bone-Slicker brought the cheers of his inner claw, and the shocked squeaks from the Moulder slaves. The pair was a sight to watch, Bash-Bash slamming around into pens and walls while Sknikikk scurried around him, ever weakening the massive beast. By the time it was all said and done, Bash-Bash was beaten and lay prostrate on the floor, showing subservience to Sknikikk. Laughing to himself, Sknikikk told clan Moudler he would "take this problem" off their hands, if they gave him their largest rat-hound available. Not really having an option to say no, after Sknikikk saved countless slaves’ lives, they agreed. How do you say no to a Chieftain who has dominance over a Rat Ogre?

It didn't take long before Sknikikk was moved to warlord status. His abilities to "unite" the clans to make war against the man-things in the name of the Great Horned Rat was obvious, as he carried the blessing of the plague priests of Clan Pestilence, the Warpstone technology of Clan Skyre, and the creations of clan Moulder into battle united under his banner. And who would stand against a plague ridden Skaven standing on the back of a huge rat Ogre trailed by a dog sized rat? All those whom done so to this point have only seen their hearts removed and feasted upon!

Another new layout...

2010-05-14T07:32:00.000-07:00

Layouts are like my 40K armies, I switch all the time. Hopefully this will stay for a while. Comment if you like or dislike.

Wow, real life!

2010-05-14T07:01:00.000-07:00

Ok it's been a hell of a long time since I've posted. Work has been rough as hell, and same with personal stuff. I have a lot of fingers in a ton of different pies right now, and it seems that posting is not on the list of cool stuff for me to do.

I am about to spam a couple of posts right now, a skaven fluff for my warlord, tomorrow's 'Ard Boyz, and results from last week's Pig-Smash 40K Event!

Anyway, I just wanted to post that yes, I am alive, and yes, I do intend to post more. I am awesome! I promise!

Horus Heresy books...Horus Rising!

2010-04-13T07:45:00.000-07:00

So this past weekend I grabbed the first book in the Horus Heresy series, Horus Rising, by Dan Abnett. I'm only a couple hundred pages in, but I have to say, Abnett's ability to grab the reader is amazing. It's no wonder Dan is the man when it comes to the 40k universe. This is the first book I've read of his and it's quickly becoming my favorite. The wheels area already turning for a Chaos Legion army once Skaven and Space Wolves are done. I know, I'm terrible when it comes to staying focused, but with Origins and Gencon looming in the distance, hopefully I can set my mind to the task at hand, which is 4Kish worth of Skaven..

Anyway, back to the book. The main character of the book is this dude Garviel Loken, who is commander of the Tenth Company. The book opens with some awesome killing and battle scenes, and does a good job of painting the feeling of how life was for the Astartes during the Great Crusade. Without ruining the book, through some deeds done, Loken get's promoted to Horus's private council. I've just got to that point of the book, and Loken is about to under go his first task as a member of that council. I'm looking forward to the remainder of the book, and the series in general!

Adepticon, wrap up.

2010-04-06T13:11:00.000-07:00

Adepticon

Originally I was going to post a whole ton of information about Adepticon. About how awesome it was, and how everyone was great and it really got my creative mind in a whirl. I was going to cover the games and the people and how awesome it was.

But a picture is worth what? 1,000 words, give or take? So instead here are some links from my fellow team mates:

Forum post with images

and me getting interviewed by Blue Table Painting!

It was great, and next year, we are going to do better. Better than 85, here we come!

Adepticon was GO!

2010-03-29T06:01:00.001-07:00

What up? Back from Adepticon, and getting back into "real" life.

I will have a real write up here in a little bit, once I get caught up on real life and get some pictures together. Stay tuned...

Adepticon week!

2010-03-23T06:31:00.000-07:00

It's time. Adepticon is upon us like a ninja delivering sushi. The teams are set, the army lists are selected. Necrons are coming into Chi-town, and it's game on!

So I am not 100% sure on my other team mates, but here is my list:

Destro Lord w/ warscythe
two units of 10 warriors
monolith
4 destroyers

That's it. GO! I also hope battlefoam has plenty of shit for me to waste my cash on. I need some place to store my Skaven army.

I will see you in Chicago!

Team Necrons: Adepticon GO!

2010-03-16T06:43:00.000-07:00

O snap, we are on the countdown to Adepticon. The boys and I (powered by John) are on our way to taking the Necrons to Chi-town in a couple of weeks. For those of you not in the know, the team event is a 1000 modified list, where a team of four compete for all the glory. Or something like that. We're allowed only one Fast, one HQ, one Elite, and troops. We get one "extra" slot for each group as a whole team. Then two of the four team members are grouped together to take on another team of two.

What you say? Necrons? FOR GREAT JUSTICE!

So this is my list, with only one more practice session to go:

Lord, Veil, Orb
warriors x10
warriors x10
monolith
destroyers x3

Awesome, I know. Pretty boring, pretty straight down the center. The plan is to not get phased out on turn two. Like the last game I played. Yay 3rd edition codex in a 5th edition world.

Honestly I am not even sure why we are taking Necrons. Maybe cause we're awesome or something like that. Or maybe because the army is painted and requires no work on our end.

Who knows. I will post again after our training session this weekend.

Take off every zig!

The tombs are open, and Warriors...they let me down!

2010-03-08T07:18:00.000-08:00

The great blight!
Alright, so this weekend was the local "Games for Gamers" auction at the Game store. I wanted to dump my Khador (never really liked War Machine, more into Hordes) and I was still sitting on the prize gift certificate from the Tournament win from a couple weekends ago. I figured this would be a good chance to grab some deals.

I wanted to get a huge deal on an army for 40K or Fantasy. Not really sure what the options where going to be for the auction. The options where Tyranids, Necrons, and Tau. I already own Tau, and didn't want to jump on the Tyranid band wagon, so I stole the Necron force. Awesome!

It had a Monolith, five destroyers, 30-something warriors, 5 immortals, a couple Heavy Destroyers, and a hand full of bits. Needless to say, I got some awesome stuff! And another semi-completed army. I already owned about 1500 points worth of Necrons, but now I am easily pushing something like 4K...give or take. Of course some of my units are worthless (more flayed ones than I can shake a stick at!) so I think I could field 3K playable. Good times good times.

So now I am playing Necrons, Space Wolves, Salamanders, and the bastard Tau. I have some sick addiction to power armor armies (3+ saves!) Crazy! Funny considering I still think Warhammer Fantasy is my game of choice.

Fantasy
Speaking of Fantasy...played another game of Fantasy this weekend. Fielded a Warriors of Chaos against the High Elf list. I took max mages. Level 4 Tzeentch, level 2 Tzeentch, level 2 Nurgle, level 2 Slannash. It went pretty bad for me as a whole, and Warriors of Chaos really let me down as an army. I am still filling out the list to match my play style, but right now I am not enjoying the Warriors as much as I did when they where called Mortals. Maybe I need to look into more of the monsters: Dragon Ogres, Trolls, Ogres, whatever. Right now I am fielding pure humans (Marauders, Warriors, Chosen) and I find it boring.

Next time, monsters!

Beastmen, part II: I really don't care...

2010-03-03T14:16:00.000-08:00

Beastmen, part II a.k.a: I don't care!

So I finally finished the Beastman book. They are cool and all, but for some damn reason I just don't care. The fact that I don't care is really taking the wind out of my idea of doing a real review. Instead of playing around with numbers and such, I've been working on my Skaven more. Like my 90 something plus Storm Vermin. More on that later.

Back to Beastmen. I just don't care! Maybe I feel like they are too similar to all the human (boring) armies out there. Maybe I was hoping for more of a Wood Elf feel: Skirmishers, dancing, quick. Maybe I wanted something else entirely. I really cannot put a finger on it, but I did not get excited about Beastmen like I was about Skaven; Or Warriors of Chaos; Or Daemons. Just seems boring to me. maybe it's the amount of work I need to do to re-base all my Ungors. Or maybe it's the lack of "Holy crap awesome model" syndrome...I am not sure what it is, but I am just not feeling it.

Two things that seem weak for me is the Ambush special rule and their magic lore. I'll talk a little about both, and why they don't excite me.

First, let's talk about why Ambush doesn't cut it for me. As it stands now, Ambush is less of an ambush, and more of a "random appearing of Beastmen" to me. The likelihood of the beast units actually showing up where a Beast Lord would want them too is a 1 in 6...just as likely as them showing up where your opponent wants as where your Beast Lord's "masterfully" laid plans would put his units. It's nice that they appear, even if your general is not around anymore. That is indeed great. However, if you're stupid enough to hold your ambushing units until your general is in danger, you need to rethink your strategy. Now, Beastmen just randomly appear. Works in fluff, doesn't work in a tactical strategy game. When it comes to Ambushing you cannot plan for success and any Ambushed unit needs to be written off as a loss. Joy!

Next, Beast magic...the Lore of the Wild. Looking at the list, the wild sucks! Most of the spells are a let down, due to the fact that they are on average way too high of a casting value. Every spell on the list requires two dice to make happen. Even the level one. Seems a little weak compared to other lists...even the pretenders in the college of magic. Most of the spells are not even worth it in the first place, considering how difficult they are to cast. Without the book in front of me, I cannot remember exactly the spells, but they have a movement spell, a 3d6 strength 1 spell, a bonus attack spell that could would the target, a "summon monster" spell, and a couple others. The "summon monster" spell sounds fantastic, but it's difficult to cast, you make your caster totally un-usable, and as the monster fights, your mage just might die with him. Not that great if you ask me, as most mages are more valuable to the game than monsters. Not sure if anyone would ever take the special lore over the book lore, which I also find boring.

Of course, I need to actually play them on the table before I really know how they play, but even the idea of re-basing of the Ungors alone is enough to lose my interest. Of course sooner or later I will get around to it, as I must collect all things Chaos in Fantasy. Hopefully 8th edition will change things and make Beasts more of a power house, but until then, they get the back burner to Skaven and Daemons.

So much for a detailed review of the army book. Lack of interest leads to poor writing and poor writing is not something you want to read. So I am skipping. Sorry.

The great march of Brynar Deathhowl!

2010-02-28T08:20:00.000-08:00

So, yesterday was a pretty serious 40K event at the local game store, ACME Games. It was an 1850 standard, three rounds, Adepticon style scenarios. Figuring it would be a good chance to get out the space wolves and kick some ass, so I grabbed my Wolves and made ready for the songs of battle.
Deciding that I was going to play some serious 40K, I figured I'd bring so hate and get ready, here's what I took:
Brynar Deathhowl, Wolf Lord, terminator armor, frost axe, storm shield

7 Wolf Guard, terminator armor equipped:
• Storm bolter, power weapon
• Storm bolter, power fist
• Heavy Flamer, power fist
• two dudes with paired wolf claws
• storm bolter, chain fist
• thunder hammer, storm shield

Two units of 10 Grey Hunters, double melta guns, Mark of the Wolfen, Rhino
A unit of 5 Grey Hunters, melta gun, Rhino
A unit of 6 Long Fangs, with five missle launchers
Rune Priest with bolt pistol, and Master of Rune. Jaws of the Warp Wolf and Storm Caller for powers.
Land Raider Crusader w/ Extra armor
Dreadnought, assault cannon, heavy flamer, wolf necklace in a Drop Pod

Not a super over the top list, but strong, none the less. At least I thought so...

Round 1

First round was against Mike and his Tyranid swarm list. Mike is a great local player that this would be my first experience against the new bugs and the scenario was kill point based. Historically, I am terrible at Kill Point scenarios so I figured this would be a bad game. Great local player with an army I've not faced, in a scenario I historically suck at...Great start to the tourney! Mike's list had the Swarm Lord, Mawloc, Trygon Prime, Ravenors, the thing that shits gaunts, Warriors, gargoyles, shooty gaunts, melee gaunts, some turtle looking dudes with assault 2 strength 8 weapons, and Zoenthropes.

I knew his list was mostly melee, so I turtle up into the corner of the board and made him come to me. I knew I dudes would be popping up behind my lines and I would be ready for that. I dropped the Dreadnought into the ranks to slow him and I was able to bring down his Mawloc, his ravenors, the gargoyles, all the shooty gaunts, and his melee gaunts. However, he crushed through everything I had, his Trygon Prime leading the charge through my lines. The plan was for me to unleash the Terminators in the last turn, killing something, but bad placement of the Land Raider on my part stuck the Termis in the Land Raider the whole damn game. Fall! As the smoke cleared, he had 9 kill points, to my 8. So he won the primary objective. We tied on the Secondary objective, and we both got points on the third objective. At the end of the first game, I had 10 points out of a possible 49. Awesome! Really...

MVP: Jaws of the Warp Wolf killing the Tervagon on turn one!

Mistakes: Leaving my terminators in the Land Raider for the whole game, always shooting melta into bugs (when I could have rapid fired bolters instead...)

Round 2

Round 2 was a Night Fight with objectives against John and his Tau. I've played against tau a couple of times, but never against John. And not in night fight. he has four devilfish, four units of eight fire warriors, two path finder squads, two Hammerheads, and nine battle suits with plasma and missile pods.
I end up getting first turn, and deploy my two troops and one HQ. I deploy 5 Grey Hunters with the Rune Priest in the Rhino. He deploys nothing. Yay, one of those players! I turtle up in the center of the board (most objectives) he is able to blow up some shit with his Hammer heads. But over the course of the game, he misses some important roles and I am able to move into the center of the board and own the vast majority of the 11 objectives. He does some damage throughout the game, but he spends too much fire power on the Terminators and I am able to own the center table. I win the game owning 6 of the objectives. He controls 2. I end the match with 39 points total. I little better than the last round.

MVP: Terminators eating all sorts of firepower.

Mistakes: wasting Jaws of the Warp Wolf on Jump Infantry (immune) and forgetting to fire my Crusader one turn.

Round 3

Final round of the game is more objectives with a random ork trukk rolling around the board. Bonus points for blowing the Ork truck up. I am paired up against Nick and his Vanilla marines. Nick is a new player and is still learning the finer points of the game. He brought two Chaplains, one in termi armor, one with a jump pack; 10 man assault squad, 2 Combat Squads in Rhinos with Plasma cannon and plasma guns; five man unit of termis with storm bolters; three multi-melta bikes; and a standard Land Raider.

In this scenario the objectives deep strike into the board after set up and end up all in a three foot by three foot area. I turtle up in the corner with the objectives and make Nick come to me. He's spread out and suffers for it. I was able to table Nick on turn six with little issue. He had two turns that really didn't go his way, mostly keyed around bad timing of exploding my Land Raider only to get charged by my killer terminators. It also didn't hurt that his attack bikes died straight up to missile fire. It was a lot closer game until turn four...where his lines finally broke. I ended the scenario with 49 points.
MVP: Random Ork Trukk rolling directly into my Dreadnought, my Terminators being punchier then his.

Mistakes: Should have been a little nicer to the kid, as this was his first real tourney.

In the end, I came in first, thanks to huge wins in turn two and turn three. It was a great event, and I really enjoyed playing the Space Wolves. It was a great learning experience for me as I needed to get an idea of when exactly I should engage my Terminators, and proved that you don't need Thunder Wolf Calvary in order to win games!

Till next time...For Russ...For the Wolfhome!

Beastmen, part I: The General Army

2010-02-23T06:26:00.000-08:00

Alright, I got my hands on the new Beastman army book...since I play all things Chaos (I still feel Beastmen are part of chaos) in Fantasy, I figured I would do an overview of how I think about the new Beastmen!

This post is going to cover the general rules of Beastmen...which there are two...

First is Primal Fury! This rule gives certain units Hatred if you pass a leadership test. Basically, any turn you pass a leadership test, you get hatred for the round of combat. This goes for all rounds. Secondly, if you roll double ones, the unit gains frenzy that round as well.

I like that, a lot. The ability to Hate your opponent really gives me confidence needed to win combat. Rerolling misses to hit make the Beastmen characters buff as hell, and the Beastmen units better. Keep a high leadership character in the center of the army, with a BSB close, and you will have high leadership with the ability to re-roll. I like that rule a lot. Probably one of the best "army wide" rules in the game outside of undead. Stupid undead...

The second army rule is Ambush! If you played "classic" Beastmen, the rule change is going to upset you. Here is how the rule works: if you have a same named unit of equal or greater size deployed in your starting deployment zone, you can hold the unit with ambush in reserve. At the start of your turn (even turn one) you roll a d6. If you roll a one, your opponent picks where the unit comes in. If you roll a 2-3, the unit does not come in this turn. If you roll a 4, deployed to your left. Roll a 5, unit deployed to your right. Roll a 6, you get to pick the side where the unit is deployed. Personally, I think this rule is going to be too random to really impact the game. I will talk later about which units I think this might work with, but now an ambushing unit will really only do it's job well if you roll a six. Feels less like ambush and more like "random beastmen wondering around." Still, in the right game, at the right time...it could be super successful.

More to come after I check out the Core units...

ICE Racing this past weekend...

2010-02-09T13:26:00.000-08:00

So the wife won some tickets to the ICE Racing Championships at the Cincinnati Gardens this past weekend. I wound have never gone without her winning thickets, but damn, it was a blast! It was awesome watching the dudes (and one chick) spin around the track at 60 mph. Good stuff good stuff!

Here are some videos:

Video 1

The first video is the monster bike division. These bikes are small engine dirt bikes that do not have the "standard" studs on the tires. These poor dudes just swing around the track and hope for the best...

Video 2

The second video is a heat from the quad division. These are your standard size quads, with full allotment of tire studs.

The event was awesome, and if you get the chance, check it out!

Cincinnati Arsenal Gaming Mini 40K Tourney!

2010-02-09T11:23:00.000-08:00

EDIT: This was originally suppose to be posted in September...somehow I hit the "draft" instead of "publish" button.

Today was my first ever 40K tournament. It was ran by the Sean from Cincinnati Arsenal Gaming, and ran at ACME Games on the east side of Cincinnati. It was a mini tournament coming in at 1000 points per side. I decided to run Salamanders (because they are awesome, and painted, and He'Stan is freakin' sweet!)

My List:

Vulkun He'Stan
2 Tactical Squads with Multi-Melta, Flamer, and sergeant with chain sword and bolt pistol, mounted in a Rhino
1 Tactical Squad with Missle Launcher, Flamer, and a sergeant with chain sword and bolt pistol, also mounted in a Rhino
and finally an Ironclad Dreadnought with Dreadnought CCW, Sesmic Hammer, Heavy Flamer, Ironclaud Assault Launchers and Meltagun; flying through space in a Drop Pod.

Note: I ran the Missile Launcher because I only own two Multi-Meltas and I thought the Missile Launcher would preform better than the Heavy Bolter...since I didn't have the points for the extra heavy weapons.

I figured this would be a good all around list to deal with stuff and was in general balanced list that can handle all comers.

In the end, I ended up going 1-1-1, with the loss and the draw being very close. I ended the event in third place, based on Victory Points. Overall, I was pretty happy with my payload, minus the missile launcher. I knew it would end up sucking, but I had hoped for better output than one Ork truck kill. I will need to purchase more Multi-Melta dudes.

Edit: I have now purchased two more multi-meltas! Sweet!.

Also, Combat squads are not always worth it. It is obvious now, but they suck in Kill Point scenarios. O well, they did enough damage for me to steal 3rd place for the event! It was a great event and I learned a lot. More experience for Adepticon and the CAG event in May.

I am going to be a daddy!

2010-01-04T07:58:00.001-08:00

Not much else to say. Found out last week that I am going to be a father, and that my wife is only about three weeks into it. heh, time for a massive life change.

Awesome stuff! Another generation of bad ass-ness!

Christmas Time in Fortress of Kain!

2009-12-18T13:14:00.000-08:00

Not much to say here...just some images...

The wife and I decorated the house some for Christmas. I took pics of the mantle and the tree in our living room. The wife did a great job on the decorations. Good stuff.

Check them out:

On a side note...I really need to get better at using a camera. New project for the new year!

Chaos in the Old World...a board game review!

2009-11-23T06:07:00.000-08:00

So I decided to post my thoughts on a board game on one of the various forums I waste my life on, so I figured I would blog it as well...

Chaos In the Old World

Fantasty Flight Page

The idea behind the Chaos in the Old Word is the four great Chaos gods are vying for control over the Old World. Through corruption, bloodshed, and magic Khorne, Nurgle, Slaanesh, and Tzeentch battle for control of the souls of man. Sounds fantastic, I know!

The game is multifaceted, allowing players to win (and lose) in different ways. There are two ways to win the game, and one way to lose it. First, there is the advancement dial. Each of the four Chaos gods have an advancement dial, and allows them to achieve victory through different mechanics of game play. There is also the victory point tract, where the first player to 50 victory points wins the game. Finally, all players can lose the game through the Event Deck. If the event deck runs out of cards, the game ends and all players lose. The game is broken into the following phases: Old World Event phase, Deployment phase, battle phase, corruption phase, and clean up phase.

The first part of the turn is the world fighting against the chaos gods. Stuff like heroes, or skaven, or whatever. Sometimes they're helpful, sometimes they suck, but they normally affect the whole game. Some of the effects remain in play; others are activated and then discarded. There is a track on the board that allows two events to remain in play at one time, so there is a possibility that some serious craziness could be going down. The event deck has everything from Brentionnian Grail quests to Peasant revolts to crazy Sigmar comets. The events are normally designed to screw the players over, and in my experience it does a great job of that.

The second part of the turn is the deployment phase. This is where the players are able to play cards from their hands and deploy their minions. On the game board, there are two spots for cards for each region, allows for some strategy and tactics on how to play the cards from your hand. Each god has a stat card that tells you how much power you have, as well as other important detail. The power is used to deploy your cultists (used for corrupting areas), your warriors, your greater daemons, and the cards in your hand. The power system allows the game to promote different strategies for the different gods.

The third part of the turn is for the killing. The battle phase is where the dark gods fight it out between each other. The combat system uses a standard d6 roll. The type of warrior and greater daemon determines how many dice you get to roll and how many hits each cultist, warrior, and greater daemon can receive. The battle phase happens for each region, following the standard progression arrows. What are “standard progression” arrows? Well the game board is mapped out in a certain order and progresses from region to region. I will explain more about this later.

The fourth part of the turn is used for dominance and corruption. In the dominance portion of the turn, you count up the number of figures left in each region. If the strength of one god's pawns is greater than the resistance of the region, that god scores a number of victory points equal to the region's resistance. For example, Kislev has a resistance of three. If Nurgle has two cultist and three warriors in Kislev, Nurgle would score three victory points. The region's victory points are given to whoever has the highest total strength in that region. The Corruption phase is used to determine how much influence each of the chaos gods have over a certain region. That is what cultist do, they corrupt regions. Once a region reaches 12 corruption markers total, the region is ruined and large amounts of victory points are handed out. It is a lot harder than it sounds.

The final phase of the game is clean up. This is where you do any clean up required...like having your cultists and warriors die under the sword of some zealous hero. This is also the part of the game where the advancement dial turns.

The most unique part of the game is the advancement dial. Each god has his own dial, which is turned based upon different conditions for each god. With each turn of the dial, the god in question receives rewards. Sometimes they are allowed to receive some sort of upgrade, other times victory points. Each dial has a "Victory" condition stopping point. This is one way to win the game, and offers a very unique way of handling upgrading and goal advancement.

Chaos in the Old World is a fantastic game if you can get all four gods involved. They play well against each other and every game is different. As it currently stands, we've play about a dozen games without repeat. The game is quick and brutal and you get directly into the thick of it on turn one. We have not yet been defeated by the game, and no single god has proven to be the best of them. Each god offers different strategies and different ways to advance their Achievement dial. The main issue is that this game sits well with four players...no more, no less. Sure the game says 2 to 4, but in reality it requires four players. The game takes about 75 minutes to complete, and is pretty complex for a game of that time frame. Sometimes I wish the game was a little more complex, but I cannot complain for 75 minute game.

It's major flaw is number of players and the learning curve for Nurgle and Tzeentch. The first couple of games Khorne and Slaanesh power through while the saps playing Tzeentch and Nurgle struggle. Also, like a lot of Fantasy Flight games, you need the FAQ:

Link to FAQ

Overall, Chaos in the Old World is worth it's cost, passes the weight test, and offers a large amount of re-playability. Just make sure you can get three friends to play it with you!

Saturday's 40K Games, Guard vs. Salamanders

2009-11-17T11:11:00.000-08:00

So Saturday, Bandar and I got together to throw down some 40K. Remember I mostly play for the fluff, not to win and we normally have a house rule that we don't take named characters (hold over from Warhammer Fantasy balance issues)
So keeping that in mind, here is my list (1850):

Salamander 5th Company:

Captian with storm bolter, power sword, artificer armor
Command Squad: Apothicary, Champion, Company Standard, and a dude with power fist and bolter, and a regular dude with pistol and chain sword
Captian and Command Squad jumped in a Razorback with extra armor and twin-linked Heavy Flamers
3 10 man tactical squads with flamer and Multi-Melta
Dreadnought with Heavy Flamer and Multi-Melta in a Drop Pod
Vindicator
Librarian in Terminator Armor with Strength of Ancients and Vortex of Doom
5 Assault Terminators with Thunder Hammer and Storm Shields
Land Raider Redeemer with Multi-Melta
5 Assault Marines, a Sergeant w/ Melta bombs

Here is Bandar's list...or at least as close to it as I can remember

Rebellious Planetary Defense Force (Imperial Guard):

Lord Commissar with Command Squad, in Chimera
2 units of 12 regular dudes with Grenade Launcher in Chimera
1 unit of 12 vet dudes in Chimera
Three Sentinels, two with multi-laser, one with Las cannon
Two Lemon Russes. One with a Demolisher cannon and two plasma cannons; one with a battle cannon and other guns (las cannons I think)
a hell hound
a unit of 10 ratling snipers

...and there might be another unit of 12 regular dudes in Chimera...I cannot remember

So we set the board up, and end up playing the mission with two objectives, one that you have to hold, the other you have to grab from your opponent. I place my Objective behind a large building on my right hand side of the board about 5 inches away from my board edge. He places his between a building and some ruins on my left hand side of the board about 10 inches away from his board edge. We end up running the board edges as deployment zones, and get ready for the beat down.

I roll higher and decide to deploy first and go first. I split my tactical squads into combat squads. I decide to do Sergeant, Flamer, 3 regular dude then multi-Melta and four regular dudes for the two squads. I decide the three multi-Melta combat squads will hold my objective via cover in the building, while the rest of the Salamander 5th company moves against the rebellious Planetary Defense Force's Objective. Bandar spread his forces out, focusing his troops and command squad near his objective while focusing his tanks and ratlings towards my objective.

So turn one comes around. I decide to sacrifice my Dreadnought/Drop Pod to deal with his Battle Cannon and demolisher. The idea was a multi-Melta in the face would deal with the problem. So I drop the pod between the Demolisher and the Battle Cannon. I move the Vindicator forward 6" and the Land Raider Redeemer carrying my Termis forward 12". The Razorback moves to cover in the ruined building in the center of the board, as do the Assault Marines. I position the assault marines to Melta bomb the Hell Hound or the remaining the Lemon Russ tank after my Dreadnought melts the other one. The three combat squads move behind the razorback and vindicator for protection. I open fire with the Dreadnought, missing the battle cannon. I fire the Vindicator at the Sentinel Squad, but end up scattering into nothing. I fire the Assault Cannon and the Multi-Melta on the land raider at two different Chimeras, immobilizing them both. Two of the troop carried Multi-Meltas open fire on the Battle Cannon Russ but fail to do anything worth talking about. And so my first turn comes to an end. 5th Company needs to practice shooting more...

Bandar moves two of his Chimeras out from behind the immobilized Chimeras, and moves the sentinels. The squads in the Immobilized Chimeras disembark and move towards Bandar's objective. He opens fire with his Demolisher Cannon at my Dreadnought. It scatters over his Hell Hound (YAY!) and proceeds to explode his Hell Hound (Double YAY!) He proceeds to open fire with the rest of the Lemon Russ's firepower at my Dreadnought and explodes him well. The Battle Cannon opens fire on my assault squad which goes to ground to prevent death. The regular guardsmen opened fire on my Sergeant’s combat squad, eliminating a couple dudes, requiring one squad to take a panic check, which it passed. Ratlings eliminate a squad member of one of my multi-Melta squads, pinning them (YAY rolling well on the leadership), and the sentinels panic another Multi-Melta squad. There is no close combat, so thus ends turn one.

My turn two starts up; I move the panicked squads back into their position, move the Land Raider forward twelve towards Bandar's objective, open the assault ramps and unleash the Termis and the Librarian. The Razorback moves forward and my command squad disembark in the center of the board. Assault Marines do nothing and they were hiding in their holes to prevent deal by Battle Cannon. In the shooting phase, I open fire with the Vindicator on the Sentinels, with little success. I fire the storm bolter on the drop pod at the ratlings, with no success. Troop carried Multi-Meltas fire at the Lemon Russes, still with no success. combat squads moved up and opened fire on the disembarked Guardsmen, killing a couple. The Termi Librarian fires up the Vortex of Doom just to roll double ones and takes a wound. The Termis charge in and cut down the Chimera closest to the Objective...opening up its insides for killing next turn.

Bandar's turn two starts up. The sentinels move close to my command squad. The remaining avalible Chimeras unleash their troops in preparation to stall the onslaught of the Terminators. The Lord Commissar and his squad jumps out, as do the Vets. The Battle Cannons open fire on the assault marines once again causing them to go to ground. The Ratlings kill two more marines in one of the Multi-Melta Squads. The Vets open fire on the land Raider, causing my poor Land Raider to explode. The remaining units on the left side of the table (three squads, two chimeras, sentinels) open fire on the Terminators in an attempt to slow their assault. After about 100 shots, I end up losing one of them. The Sentinels assaults my command squad (Tarpit fail :( ) and the Lord Commissar’s unit assaults the Terminators. The Commissar has a power weapon, so the hope is to kill dudes with power weapons and buckets of attacks. Combat proceeds with the Librarian going first, killing a dude, then the Commissar kills one terminator and then the rest of the Guard squad does nothing. The Termis proceed to crush the unit, kill them all, then consolidate towards another squad. The Sentinels charge the command squad. Krak grenades and one power fist fail to do anything, thus ending turn two.

At this point, turn three through five go pretty quick. Honestly, I cannot remember much about those turns as at this point. By turn four Salamander 5th company controls both objectives. My vindicator ends up exploding, and Bandar loses his entire left flank of his army. The Ratlings and the Lemon Russes cannot get close enough to the objective to contest, so I pull a victory, 2 objectives to none.

Overall it was a super fun game. I learned a bunch about 40K (I still consider myself a 5th edition n00b...since I've not played much) and the Space Marines. First thing I learned: Rhinos. Troops do not walk...ever. Secondly, I don't need to split all my tactical squads into combat squads. I also need to leverage the Melta better. 24" range is really not that great when you pile it up in one corner. Well I learned a bunch and Bandar was a great opponent. I look forward to the next game!

Chaos Rising, Part II

2009-11-14T06:31:00.001-08:00

So it's been a minute since I posted. Stupid real life stopping me from wasting my time on the interwebs.

As it last stood, was working on my Chaos Fantasy army. As it stands now, I've now mustered my forces and started painting them. I've also had a couple of games go down as well.

Typical list:

Exalted Hero on Juggernaut, Mark of Khorne, Killing blow Axe, shield, general
3 Tzeentch Sorcerers..lvl 2 (still messing around with choices for them)

unit of 12 Chaos Warriors, Extra hand weapon, full command, Mark of Khorne
unit of 12 Chaos Warriors, Shield, full command, Mark of Slannesh
2 units of 12 Marauders, great weapons, Mark Of Khorne
4 unit of 5 Hounds (sometimes two units of 10)
unit of 5 Marauder Horsemen, spear, shield, mark of Slannesh
unit of 10 Chosen, great weapons, full command, Mark of Khorne
The Chaos WARSHRINE! (should be read epically, as if James Earl Jones was reading it to you!)

So far I have had great success with this list. Couple of wins against Skaven, Lizardmen, and a draw against Orcs (always have been my weakness army.)

Now that I've played a couple of games with those crazy Chaos Mortals, I have to say, I am enjoying them a lot more than I thought. Originally I was a "What happened to my beast and daemons?" guy...but I have to say, the changes to the lists and the new options and tactics presented to me are very nice. After looking back, I realized that I was using the Beasts of Chaos as a crutch to not better myself as a player.

So now, It's time to me to switch back and forth between Space Wolves and Chaos Mortals...so many armies, so little time. At least my Apocalypse sized Salamander army only has two models left to paint and they can officially be called complete!

Until next time (hopefully a battle report later today) remember what is good in life: "to crush your enemies, to see them fall at your feet; to take their horses and goods and hear the lamentation of their women."

Documenting Code...

2009-10-22T11:30:00.000-07:00

There is nothing really worse in this world than documenting code.

I understand the reasoning behind it, I just do not like it. It sucks.

Constructing Chaos! Part 1

2009-10-13T06:14:00.000-07:00

So it begins...a blog talking about the current army I'm working on. It all goes back to where I began. I've decided that after a five year break, it's time for me to construct a new Mortal Chaos List.

I picked up the army deal when the latest army book was released. It is where I will begin!

This is what that box included: 5 Chaos Knights (new plastics)
5 Marauder Horsemen (new plastics)
5 warhounds (new plastics)
10 Chosen (new metals)
Metal Lord on Juggernaut (new metals)
Metal Nurgle Sorc
2 metal spawns
Chaos Lord on Daemonic Mount
Khorne Chaos Champion
Sigvald the Magnificent

After that, I inventoried my older stuff...and found 10 metal Warhounds, 40 Chaos Warriors, a ton of characters, two Chaos Spawn, a Wood Elf Dragon, a Wood Elf on a warhawk, and a spell singer.

Pretty awesome huh? Didn't even remember buying these dudes...

I started assembling the models last night, beginning with the metal war hounds. Those things are annoying as hell. I like them a lot more than the plastic war hounds, but they are 10 times more difficult to assemble. Man I hate metal models.

Tonight's goal is to assemble the chaos warriors and finish the metal hounds.

The goal is a Table Top quality army that I can get done before Christmas. Hopefully I can make that happen.

Space Wolves, Hell Yes!

2009-10-06T10:10:00.000-07:00

After a long week on site at the Steel Mill, I was able to get my grubby hands on the new Space Wolf codex. I didn't get a play a game yet with them, but the codex looks fantastic!

A couple of things really stand out as bad ass in my book...

Blood Claws
The change to the Blood Claws. Now they can only ever bring one power weapon/fist per unit I like that change. The idea of a large number of Blood Claws running around with power weapons and power fists just doesn't fit the fluff for the Wolves. Come on, blood crazed Space Marines still needing to prove their worth to their lord and chapter? No way you hand out power weapons/fists like they are candy. No way that's happening. Plus (on the charge) a blood claw is bringing four attacks per model. Thats 60 attacks on the charge for a full unit. Crazy amounts of dice.

Iron Priest
I've not looked at my old Space Wolf codex in a while (busy with Salamanders) but I like the new Iron Priest options. The the ability to mount them on a bike, slam in some Cyberwolves, and bam, you have a mobile repair unit that is actually usable...has some protection in the form of wolves, and the bike as well. I've always liked the idea of running Tech Marines/Iron Priests...as we pay a lot of points for our vehicles...so I want to do everything in my power to keep them around and kicking.

HQ Choices in General
Another positive in my book is the optional HQ choice. Instead of being required to take an HQ for every 750, we now have the option to get a two for one special. Meaning two HQ choices = one HQ slot. Allows me to run a Wolf Lord, a Rune Priest, and a Wolf Priest in the same list. Pure freakin' win!

Overall (on paper) the new Space Wolves look fantastic. Nothing too "broken" and different enough from the regular space marines that I am not going to feel like I am playing Salamanders with a different color.

Awesome stuff! Kain Approved!

Joomla...FAIL!

2009-09-25T11:08:00.000-07:00

So I've been working on a buddy's site for a while now. Nothing fancy, just working on getting something together, as he had nothing. Musicians need websites. Well his hosting company allows for Joomla, which I thought would be fantastic.

Holy shit, was I wrong! This has been a battle every step of the way. He wants/needs the site up badly, and I can understand that, but damn it's a constant war, and I've been losing every one of the battles. Even something as easy as a simple menu navigation piece.

I thought Joomla would make my life easier. The time I've spent with Joomla, I could have created my own site. Who's the loser now?

All in the name of Science!

Addiction

2009-09-24T09:38:00.000-07:00

Addiction is defined as "the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma."

Gmail is acting funny. No big deal right? WRONG! Not being able to connect to Gmail really messed up my flow. Instead of just rolling along, I find myself continuously hittin' the refresh button, trying to contact people I rarely talk too on chat to see if they are having issues, messing with my phone (Android) trying to see if I can get email on my device.

I think the term Addiction describes me right now. I am addicted to Gmail.

God I need a life!

Writing Articles

2009-09-22T06:05:00.000-07:00

While I was at Gencon Indy last month, I was asked to write up an article for a new Miniatures magazine. I was all over it, as I love miniatures, and I wanted to help out any way I could.

I am not six-ish hours into writing the article. Damn. Who would have thought writing about something I love as much as table top gaming would take so damn long. Really there is just so much I want to cover that I continue to write and write and write. Heh...

Hello Kain, Welcome to Journalism.

'Ard Boyz

2009-09-21T07:42:00.000-07:00

Saturday, September 26th...I am running a Fantasy 'Ard Boyz event at ACME Games on the East side of Cincinnati. 3000 points, 3 rounds, 3 hours each. Going to be brutal. I have not ran a real GW Fantasy event in so long. It's going to be a long week of reading and playing to get into shape. Not going to be easy...at all.

The store really only has room for six 6' x 4's. Another interesting issue. What happens if I have more than 12 players? Going to be a crazy week. Seriously!

The local players are bringing some serious cheese. Three Stegadon Lizardman list, over the top Warriors of Chaos list, and rumors of a super strong Tzeentch Daemon list. I just hope no one throws minis or dice. That is my job.

Seriously...

Getting Started!

2009-09-21T06:29:00.000-07:00

Razing Kain!

Welcome to my blog, Razing Kain.

Per Dictionary.com:

Raze: To Tear Down, demolish, level or burn to the ground

Kain: My nickname.

So the reason for the blog: To talk about stuff that I like. Gaming, gaming, more gaming, Techology, and probably anything blog worthy.

A little about me: I am hardcore into Gaming, anything from the Traditional stuff (role playing, miniatures, cards) to video games. In real life, I am a software developer, or Code Artist as I like to call myself. I also love music, am a martial artist, love muscle cars and motorcycles. I am married, and live in a zoo (two dogs, three cats, and a Ball Python.)

Welcome to Razing Kain...