Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Null Zone Deployment

Null Zone Deployment

After all the hype of fritz’s ‘new’ null zone deployment strategy (see here) wears itself out, where will the 40k world be? Here are some ramblings from Brother C.

[null zone deployment simply means, keeping as much as you can off the table at the start of a game, giving your opponent nothing to shoot at (going first) on both turns 1 and 2. A strategy against the current heavily favored gunline armies.]

First, I do not believe GW is pushing our armies in any particular direction. They are, in fact, opening the door to different opportunities to the way matches play out on the board. The game is no longer just about choosing a list which exploits ‘over powered’ units and lining them up on the field without much of a battle strategy. As has been much of the discussion of late, the game is instead looking at both the large scale and the small scale at the same time. Meta-gaming (how you use and adapt your individual squads/units) is now just as important grand scale gaming (choosing your list/army - listhammer).

Because of these new opportunities, players are rethinking the very mechanics of the 40kverse. Where to place objectives, how and where to deploy, infiltrate vs. outflank vs. reserve vs. deepstrike vs. all deployed. We have options now. Do not let yourself be pigeon-holed as players to think that GW is trying to steer you in one direction and the new codices are built around some conspiracy about null zone deployment.

Instead, see it for the truth… it’s the flavor of the week. Or month… ? whatever. It’s the new thing. Everyone will be running these armies now. Spearhead + outflanks + deepstrikes. Yay! However, as with all new toys, they ‘break’, they become obsolete once everyone has the same thing. It will not take long for players to realize the weaknesses of this build and be waiting for you to rip you to pieces. So enjoy the brief moment where your opponent has no idea how to deal with your divided army because it will not last.

Some thoughts on defense of the null zone deployment strategy…


1. You know its coming.
Plan ahead. Don’t’ leave your tanks out in the open, allowing deep striking / outflanking units to jump them. Have rapid fire units or assaults nearby, you know they will be after your armor/priority targets, so just wait. Be patient and pounce. Let them walk into the trap.

2. Stay away from the sides of the table.
These are becoming suicide. You know outflanking units will be coming from here, don’t let them surprise you. Make them come on the board into crossfire. Keep your priority targets protected. Cover your own units, gee there’s a genius idea.

3. Stay near the edges of the table.
Use your units as walls, protecting the edges of the board from outflank. The enemy unit cannot come on the game board within range of your men, use this to your advantage, make them come on where you want them, and spring the trap!

4. Let them make the first move.
Fire barrages at their few units on the field (their spearhead). Try to knock down a few if you can, and wait for their reserves. Don’t break formation till you see the whites of their eyes kind of idea. With so many units off the board, what do you have to worry about? The less turns your opponent has the bulk of his army off the field, the better for you. Take advantage. Then when the do finally roll on, crush them. Make them break, before you do. Adapt to them, don’t’ let them adapt to you.

5. Use the board. If your opponent is giving you the board, take advantage; get your units into fortified positions where they are covering each other. Do not fall into the trap of just leisurely strolling around the map thinking no enemies are around. Where do people come off? Hello, your opponent is still their, just waiting for you to make a wrong move, spread your men too thin, create little squishy underbellies to ravage. You know the hurt is coming, bunker down, get into position and fight like hell.

Having said all that, I’m a Dark Angels player, all I have is null zone deployment. So I’ll be running that again this month at the club meeting.

What are your thoughts?

Monday, March 29, 2010

How to get your army started

I found an interesting article and I thought that it would really apply to us! Give it a read, it has some great tips on how to have FUN while starting out with 40k!

LINK

I enjoyed it, hope you do too!

War is Upon You!

That's right wargamers, April 3rd is soon approaching, the April Lancashire Wargaming game day. Games will be 2000 point 1v1 matches. As we are still a very new club, there will not be any type of overall tournament at this point. All participants are being asked to chip in a few bucks for space rental and to help with the cost of provisions. The day will start at 1pm and run till about 9pm or so. The location will be Hosanna Christian Fellowship. If you need directions feel free to email Moros or myself.

see you all there.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Lord Moros Complete!

Hey guys! I finished up the post about how I made Lord Moros, but it posted it way back in the blog, so here is the link to it!

LINK!


It's a long read, but I had fun making him!

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Terrain!!!

I spent the better part of the day working on some terrain for the club hope you all enjoy it. If its requested I can do a post on how I made each piece but for now I'll just put up the pics. Please excuse the poor quality of the pictures I had to take them with my webcam :P.

First we have the hill/plateau piece this one took most of today but I'm really happy with it.


The idea behind this piece was to make something that we could place smaller modular pieces onto but still have a concrete base. There is one slanted entrance onto it and the smaller part on the top has an entrance too. The Entire thing is made out of expanded poly styrene insulation.


the second piece isn't quite done yet. It still needs to be painted, right now all it has is a base coat. I know its hard to tell but the bent thing on top is supposed to be barbed wire. I made three lengths the same size and have the materials to make a lot more.


Hope you all enjoyed. I can't wait to use this stuff in a game.

-Forsaken Name

Monday, March 15, 2010

Chaos Rising!

Hey guys, sorry I haven't posted in awhile. Just wanted to keep you up to date with what I have been doing. Dawn of War 2: Chaos Rising came out last week and I've been ripping it up as a chaos sorcerer in multiplayer!

I am working on a huge post that will detail how I made Lord Moros. Hopefully you guys will get a thing or two out of it!

I am also working on some battle reports from last weeks shenanigans!

This stuff should be up this week!

Friday, March 12, 2010

March 40k day Necron pov

Not much is more frustrating than having your monolith being one shotted on turn one. That being said the day did go pretty well otherwise. I learned a LOT this past weekend, mostly about vehicles. Previous to last weekend my only encounter with vehicles had been against an ork player in a very low points cost game. Due to my overconfidence in my destroyers ability to get glancing hits I chose to take no heavy destroyers. The teams ended up being the chaos space marines and the Dark Angels against Nids, Orks and my Crons. None of us were prepared for the huge amount of vehicle spam, or the amount of blast and ordnance templates being dropped on the board (By the way Brother Cornelius HACKS I have only once or twice seen him roll anything other than a direct hit on the scatter die).

The match was very fun but I felt kinda like an underdog considering the armor and vehicles so prevalent in both the armies we were playing against. None of the players on my team had a solid answer to either of these two very large threats. Once again I must state that I learned a lot, in the future I will be taking heavy destroyers. I even got to use my new found knowledge on Tuesday.

while were on the topic Tuesdays game was the real highlight of the week for me just a 2000 point game me vs Moros. The game ended in a tie but it could have gone either way. The main tactic I used was the destroyer lord with war-scythe and scarab swarms to soak up the wounds. This is such a good way to take out some vehicles I can't recommend it enough to Necron players. I also took a unit of heavy destroyers to help get through all that armor. These two simple tactics allowed me to play on par with Moros and his thousand suns. Can't wait to play another game. Next time you shall not be so fortunate Moros.

-Forsaken Name

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Lord Moros Complete!



Hey all! Big post here, but its worth it!

I've completed work on my most recent project, Chaos Sorcerer Lord Moros. This is intended to show off my model so you can comment on it and let me know what I need to work on and what you like. But it is also to detail the journey of contructing him from beginning to end so that you can hopefully be inspired to get into modeling/painting a 40k army! Here he is!


I am pretty new to this hobby, but I am having a blast with it. I am going to share with you what I learned along the way so hopefully I can be of help to you.

So here we go,


Once you get your model the way plastic models are set up is that all the individual parts are attached to a sprue. I found out the hard way, the best way to remove these little parts from the plastic molding is to use an exacto knife or even cutters. DO NOT twist and pull the pieces off. You can really end up damaging the parts, and any little imperfection is going to show on the final painted model. If you do mess up some parts, its not the end of the world. You will just have to go back over them and scrape and shape them until they look good again. So save yourself some time and just cut them out.

Once you have all the pieces cut out you need to do some work cleaning them up. The molding process sometimes leaves lines on the pieces or even sometimes some excess plastic in some areas, so make sure you really spend some time cleaning up your model so you can have the best look possible. Usually the best way to clean them up is again, with the handy exacto knife. Just drag the edge of the blade across the areas you need to shave down as to not cut into the piece. Again, a little extra time spent here really has a big impact on the final product.

Next its time to get out your glue and start assembling your model. With this particular model, its a pretty open one, so I was able to assemble the model completely. Some models are referred to as 'closed models'. These are models that have parts that are covering areas of the model in such a way that you wouldn't be able to paint under them. My Thousand Sons marines are such models. If the model is closed just assemble what you can so that you can still paint the wholething, then paint the other parts seperately and assemble it once you're done painting.

Using the right glue is something that you really need to put some thought into. It took me awhile to really find glue that worked well for my purposes. There are some cement type glues that offer fast drying and a stronger hold, but they can sometimes be a little rubbery. I like using that kind of glue for metal models, it just makes it easier when assembling the heavier parts to have a stronger, quicker drying glue. BUT, I did notice that the cement type glue doesn't hold up to wear and tear very well.

For plastic models you can use plastic modeling glue. You do have to be careful, this glue literally melts the plastic together. If you get some on your model where you don't want it, or you put too much on the connection point it can ooze out and mess up your hard work. So be careful with it. I have found that it does offer a very solid, strong hold that puts up to wear and tear. However, it only works on plastic, not on metal models. Another thing to consider is that you won't be able to neatly separate things glued with this cause of the bond. So if you think you might want to rebase or do further conversion on a model be aware that this is a pretty permanent glue.

The last, and in my opinion best all around, glue is your plain old super glue. Honestly, I like super glue the best. It works on plastic and metal. You can break the seals and reassemble things with it. It doesn't warp your models. It does have a slighter weaker hold and some of them take some time to dry, so you might be holding parts or rubber banding things for some time. But this stuff works and is versatile.

I assembled Lord Moros and as I was looking at it, I wanted to try to spice it up a bit and give it a custom look. So I took the staff from another terminator lord kit and I added the staff head to the end of his staff. This was a simple conversion, all I had to do be careful of was making a straight cut so that I could put the two ends together in a way that it looked like one part. I also added some skull looking shoulder pads from the chaos terminators kit to give him some fearsome stature.Converting models can be as easy or as hard as you want to make it. Honestly, from a newbies perspective on this, just go for it! Its kind of intimidating at first, cause you will feel like you might be ruining your model. But do some planning and forethought ahead of time and you will really like the results! Its much easier than it looks and it has a huge payoff in my opinion.

After you're all assembled its painting time! Now, If I am going to spend the money and take the time to paint models and get into this hobby I want to have models that look as good as I can possibly make them. When starting painting just remember that you can go for different levels of paint jobs. You can have a very simple paint job that you just want to use for table top all the way up to a pro-level work of art. Whatever you want is what you should do. Obviously the more time and effort you put into it, the better its going to look. So decide ahead of time what you're going for.

I always spray paint my models black to give it a nice dark base and help with the shading process. I use the wal-mart $1 generic flat black spray. Honestly, I tried a bunch of different ones it this one works the best. It also works on both plastic and metal models!


Painting is pretty simple if you remember this simple rule. The rule of 3. Basically you start with a base color. This will be the darkest color you will apply. Then you slowly work up to the brightest color. Its the rule of 3 because all you really need to do is have a dark color, a medium color, and a light color. Now you don't always have to follow this strictly depending on the look you want, but its a really good place to start. For example, On here you can see on Lord Moros how I painted the blue. Starting with Mordian Blue as a base, then applying Ultramarines blue. Then I used the Asurmen Blue wash to give it a cleaner look and a darker tint.


For this I use the drybrushing technique. You LOAD the brush up with paint then wipe almost all of it out on a paper towel. With this 'drybrush' lightly loaded with paint you just quickly brush back and forth on the model and try to only get paint on the higher areas and avoid the recesses. This will leave the black undercoat showing through and give nice shading to the model. I did the same with the ultramarines blue, but used less than the mordian blue, so that you can see the shades of blue.

After the asurmen blue wash the model has a nice dark blue color to it. Then I added the highlighting around the edges of the model. For this I used pure Ultramarines blue so that it would blend pretty well, but still stand out from the darker blue base color. Basically just go around all the pronounced edges on the model to make them pop. This was pretty much the end of the blue.
Next step was the gold trim. The base coat for this was Bestial Brown. Just do a nice even coat of it on all the trim and areas you want to paint gold. I was also using this color for the base on my bone colored areas, so I filled those in as well. You want to take extra care here to not go over your hard work on the blue areas, so be very careful. A small amount of water mixed in with the paint should really help it go on smoother, but you don't need a lot of water at all. After the brown is all, just lay down a smooth coat of shining gold down on all the brown areas. In the next pic you can see his right leg has the gold on the brown.

After all the gold was finished I started in on the bone sections! This was a very fun part of the painting process where I really got to see the model coming to life. It was pretty easy. On top of the bestial brown, in the areas I wanted a bone color, I just drybrushed on a very light coat of Bleached Bone. I did maybe 2 or 3 coats of light drybrushing until it got to the color I wanted. Then I took some skull white and VERY lightly drybrushed it onto the most raised areas. Then finished it off with a Gryphonne Sepia wash. This gave it a nice blended color and a little shine like polished bone.

After this, pretty much all the major areas of the model are painted and it was time to move onto the details. This stuff takes some time, but if you get it right, this is where your model really takes shape and begins to look great! So I suggest taking your time on the details, they really make the difference in my opinion.

So, for the silver areas I just use boltgun metal, and mithril silver for the highlights on the edges, just like with the blue.

For the white cloth I used a base of codex grey, and then a 2 to 1 ratio of codex grey and skull white and drybrushed it up until I used pure skull white for the extreme highlights on it. It was a nice look and its a subtle cloth look. I see some cloths that look very weird cause they have very extreme color changes. I don't like them as much, I don't think they look as natural.
For the cape I just drybrushed about 4 or so very light layers of Regal blue onto the black base. Leaving the recesses black. It gave it a really nice look and blends well with the rest of the model. My hope, if I can work up the confidence, is to freehand a bunch of runes on his cape. Should look very Tzeentchy and awesome when its done! The fur on top of the cape was done with Scorched brown base and bestial brown drybrushed over the darker brown. After that I used the sepia wash to bring the color down and then one more VERY light drybrush of bestial brown to make the tips pop. Fur is really easy because of all the detail on the model. Drybrushing works best when there is lots of detail.

Keep working on the details and go all out! the details make the model! That's pretty much it for how I made Lord Moros! Here are some more completed pics of him!


Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Entry for Umbra Atrum

I was very proud of the showing by the Disciples of Caliban on 40k day. I was a little nervous about how well my squishy tacts would hold against the relentless ork hordes and the nidzilla steamroller. In fact, they did very well, outfitted with plasma guns, pistols and power weapons, they really held there own as the enemy time and time again through their waves of foolish oppressors against the wall of dark angel green. The Lion had bestowed much might on the few who still fought for righteousness.

The match really turned once all threats to armor where disposed of. (of which there were very few) The venerable dread carrying Brother Nicholas quickly took the field and assaulted the less than equipped necron forces. Even the great orb of resurrection was not match for where Nicholas sent those soulless automatons.

The whirlwind and predator continually reigned fury upon the unprotected armies of the orks, leaving nothing but craters of smoldering ash to fuel their fervor.

commentary:

I'm not sure what the point of the monolith for the necron forces was. It seemed misused and underutilized. Perhaps a different strategy for this unit would better suit the army the necron player fielded. As Moros has pointed out, time will tell, as it fell victim to the dice gods very early in the match. I feel that scarabs are really key to a necron force, especially in a 1000 point match. providing cover saves for destroyers and heavy destroyers would have proved challenging for our artillery to overcome.

The ork player is very new to warhammerdom and it showed. We are helping this apprentice along and he would have benefited from less troops but better equipped troops. Essentially no range, and no AV, is a recipe for disaster against 3 mechanized marines.

Now this is a debate I was having with my own forces, but Agni Prime's forces were very strong indeed. Having the benefit of a shiny new codex, is a double edged sword in my opinion. Everyone is awestruck by the uber units which are always released, and as such they sacrifice numbers for sheer power. Thus, his forces of 2 troop units + HQ with 2 heavy support, just was not enough diversity or plain numbers to contend with 3 balances marine armies. Having both heavies be burrowers also meant, for most of the game he would only have 2 troop squads on the field. its just not enough bodies to absorb range fire. You can't have your troops doing all the work for the entire army. Less your army is all troops (go Dark Angels!).

It was a fun match. the three opposing players definitely learned the value of having some AV in their armies. A new player was introduced to the game, and again, carnage is always a reward.

as for myself, I think I could have been a little more aggressive with my dread, especially once we knocked out their AV units. I still think I underestimate him. I think that is true for our entire side in the match. We should have really assaulted and tried to wipe them. I understand it was a friendly game, but against more serious players we need to exploit weaknesses a bit better.The whirlwind in a 2000 point game seems worthless, but in a 1000 point game, troops are on foot, and prime targets. It was definitely worth its pointage in this match.

of course I always think Moros needs to get his HQs more involved in the matches. He drops oodles of points on them and they usually barely get to see action. He just camps in his little tin cans in the back, shooting with lass's and the defiler cannon, and fends off enemies that approach, but with his HQ choices, I believe he should be getting in the enemies face much more than he is. Although, you really can't argue with victories now can you?

great fight guys, looking forward to next month's match. April 3rd. location to be determined.

Brother C.

Monday, March 8, 2010

40k Day Review!

Hey guys,

Thanks for coming out to another fun 40kday! Got to add a new person to the club, very exciting! I hope you had a good time.

I wanted to start reviewing the matches we play so that we can critique each other and improve our games! Knowledge is power! so in light of that, I propose that at the end of every 40k day we all post our feedback from the match or matches played from your own perspective. What was going through your head? What worked well for you? What didn't work so well? What did you learn? What really pissed you off? :P

We can all comment on each others posts and hopefully through constructive criticism we can all learn to play a lot better. That's what I really like about 40k, even though we are squaring off against each other we are all still on the same team. We are helping each other, even when it means beating ourselves sometimes!

So, Here is my opinion of the battle!

First of all, I felt like the dice picked pretty unfair teams experience wise. Now, even with that on our side, Brother C and I are by no means "good" at 40k yet. But I think the fact that we've played more games definately was a big factor right from the start.

We also won the dice roll and elected to go second, which was a HUGE help on the board we played on. Our ability to react to the other teams deployment really set the pace of the game right from the beginning. We were able to avoid the most dangerous side of the board, the ork horde, and just forget about that control point all together. This forced the orks to slug it all the way across the board.

Our second, and ultimately the biggest advantage that I saw was that we had a TON of vehicles and armor on our side and the opposing team didn't bring much anti-vehicle or blast weapons. Because of this we decided early on to castle up on the right corner and make a very solid fire base for our artillery.

The big thing I learned from this match was that genestealers are beastly! They are extremely deadly in close combat and wiped out one of my chaos marine squads instantly. I think they were used well, as well as they could be. Their lack of support was really what left them high and dry on the right flank. But they are most definitely something to be feared.

Also, the necron monolith that got destroyed in the first round of shooting. I was kinda sad about that. It really gave us an advantage when it went down. But I still think it was total luck that it was destroyed so easily. Time will tell however. I'd like to see it in action some more to get a better idea of how powerful it really is.

It was an awesome time! I thought everybody played well with all things considered! I felt that it was a really good learning match and hope that we can have some more in the future!

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Tzeentch 1000 point doable?

Moros here, I've been going back and forth for some time now about what army to field at 1000 points. There are so many options for chaos its not even funny. However, I can't seem to put my finger on a build that I think will be effective and that I will enjoy playing.

I HOPE this is my last army change! (crosses fingers)

Here is what I've come up with for a Tzeentch 1000 point army.

HQ - (200)
Chaos Sorcerer
+Warptime
+Mark of Tzeentch
+Wind of Chaos
+Familiar
+Doombolt

Troops - (516)
6 Thousand Sons - (258)
+Aspiring Sorcerer with Warptime
+Rhino

6 Thousand Sons - (258)
+Aspiring Sorcerer with Warptime
+Rhino

Heavy Support - (280)
Predator - (130)
+Lascannon Sponsons

Defiler - (150)

Total - 996 points

Hopefully this is a working force. I am concerned with the small number of models in the TS squads. But they are pretty tough to kill, so hopefully that will help them survive. I really need to get the sorcerers onto the field since we will have a monstrous creature spamming Nid on the field in the 3v3. There really isn't many options other than force weapons for countering those nasty guys.

We'll see how it works out!

Monday, March 1, 2010

Nurgle rides again!

Well, in-light of some revelation I had about my black legion and thousand sons 1000 point armies, i've decided to cave in and go with the grossly(no pun intended) favored by GW nurgle army for the upcoming 40kday on the 6th.

Basically, you aren't allowed to do a Tzeentch themed army incorporating thousand sons because of the insanely overpriced aspiring sorcerer that they MUST take with them. And black legion, while it was good and balanced, I wanted something more fun.

So, it comes to nurgle bikers. Want some cheese with that whine? cause this is a rediculous thousand point army.

HQ -

Chaos Lord -(175)
+Mark of Nurgle
+Power fist
+Bike
+Combi-Weapon

Troops - (512)
7 Plague Marines -256
+ 2x Meltagun
+Plague Champion
+Power fist
+Rhino

7 Plague Marines -256
+ 2x Meltagun
+Plague Champion
+Power fist
+Rhino

Fast Attack -(308)
6 Chaos Bikers
+Biker Champion
+Power Fist
+ 2x Meltagun
+Icon of Nurgle

Yeah, Nurgle bikers have toughness 6. Its ridiculous. I wish Tzeentch had a good 1000 point build :(

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