Club TERRAIN Update: 3.27.11

Basic Terrain Making:

I want to keep you all updated on what is happening with the club. Thanks to everyone that has been donating and supporting the club, especially those who participated in our recent 1k tourney, but especially those of you who donate each month to keep this club operational.

This is one of the many things we are doing with your financial support. Again, this is not for profit, I (being the club treasurer) keep track of all the club expenses, if you ever have a question about how much is collected and where and how much is spent, I will be more than willing to go over it with you.




Currently our big push is for great looking boards to play on. Awhile back we had purchase a Citadel imperial sector terrain kit which comes with a bunch of sprues to construct all kinds of buildings to be used as terrain. I, with a little help from Moros, threw together 5 buildings from this one box. Here are some simple progress pictures of how it was constructed and some small steps I have taken so far to get these out on the table for your use.



The first image you can see the basic assembly of the buildings. Forsaken and his cousin cut up a bunch of hardwood bases for the terrain.

With a box of all sorts of ripped apart plastic toys and models Forsaken had laying around his place, I was able to make some pretty convincing debris/rubble. I originally used PVA glue for this, however, after everything became unglued at our last tourney, I decided to go with wood glue… a lot of wood glue, and it seems to be holding up nicely.



Next I painted some Elmer’s glue around the bases to be used for ballasting. Be sure to paint any Styrofoam with the glue as well since the spray paint will melt the foam. If you cover the foam with glue, you can spraypaint it, no problem. Using Medium Ballast (see photo), which can be picked up at any local hobby store, I threw down a nice thick layer to completely cover the glue on the base.





Lastly, you shake off the excess; you can do this almost immediately. Be sure to collect the excess and reuse for the next piece. I based 5 pieces of terrain with a very minimal amount of ballast. I would let that dry for 24 hours if you can. You don’t want to seal in the moisture if the glue is not completely cured. Then just spraypaint it black so it will be primed and ready for more detailed painting








I will continue to post the progress of these terrain pieces as they become finished.

The NEXT big project is the boards themselves. We are currently in the planning stages to create very nice boards for everyone to play on complete with side rails and a place to place your army / dead pile. These will take much more time as we will be trying to implement as many themed boards as we possibly can.

Anyways, that’s all the updates for now. Thanks to everyone who helped create this terrain pieces for our club to use. Continue to the check out the blog calendar and facebook page for more updates from the club.

-Brother C

LINK: How to handle yourself at a tournament

Brother C here with a quick link for you all to check out...

We recently had our first fund raising 1k tournament. everything went great, the club made some decent money and everyone was able to get in approx. 5 games. blood for the blood god. I did take notice of some minor things while strolling around watching some of the matches that I think should be addressed.

A great article written about some tournament unwritten rules can be found HERE

these are all VERY good suggestions.... I want to reiterate a few...

1. ALWAYS leave your dice on the table and make sure your opponent has seen them. most time they will be paying attention but in case they looked away to grab a drink, you want to play fair.. if you look away, you would want to see those wounds on your guys too.

2. ASK QUESTIONS. this is my BIGGEST pet peeve with our younger players atm. you guys do not ask enough questions. 'hey what does that thing do' ' what is that power' 'who is riding in that land raider' 'what is the range on those guys back there' GUYS ASK QUESTIONS. How can you possibly form a strategy if you don't even know what your opponent is rolling with? Now, you should not be taking 30 minutes to learn their entire codex, but please please please give yourself a good chance at winning.

3. TERRAIN - guys, go over terrain BEFORE you start. what is impassble? what is LOS blocking? what are you guys going to agree on is the 'area' terrain? what is the cover saves for each piece on the board. This avoids problems later on in the game and trust me, if you and your opponent just sit there and argue cover saves the whole game, you won't be having a very fun tournament,and your sportsmanship score will suffer. better to discuss this all out in the open in the beginning.

4. STAND UP FOR YOURSELF - if you don't think my sponson has LOS to your squad, you need to voice that and both you and your opponent can get down on the table surface and look. don't let him 'say' that something can see something else and you don't investigate. entire tournament can be decided on a single cover save, why would you not want to give yourself every chance you can get? I don't want you guys to be scared of the more veteran players either, they are playing by the same rules you are, they just got started a few years earlier. no biggie. in fact, its fun to watch them shake their head as you wreck their face off. its simple. learn the rules and don't be afraid to blow the whistle on an opponent that is trying to 'massage' the game to his advantage.

5. have a good time, talk to your opponent. we are all giant nerds, so have some fun with it.

anyways.. since this turned into a little bit of a rant.. i'll repost that link to that great article.

click here for the article

Terminator Bubble Wrap - an Intro.

DA – Terminator Bubble Wrap

Basic concept…

Your terminators act as a screening device for the rest of your forces. In 1850 I run 2x groups of terminators and in 2k points I run 3. These units start as far in the center as you can get, spaced the full 2” to maintain coherency but the objective here is to create cover saves for the units behind. In my case, my razorbacks, predators and land raider. It works really well if castled in the corner, as you can eliminate one of your flanks by use of the table edge. The Land Raider and dread (dread in 1850 only) go on the other flank to ward off any attackers.
Everything else just marches across the board as a full unit. The terminators are your plow, everything else simply rains down a boatload of shots to keep your opponent on the move. One of the major objectives is to make your opponent decide to shoot either the terms or the armor behind. Either way, you should have the ability to adapt.

Let’s look at a few images of what this will look like at deployment.

I will be using my 2k list with 3x term squads as the basis for this series as that list , I feel , is more refined than my 1850 list.



The first image is the standard deployment. Terms in the front followed by the wall of tanks, and the speeders behind that. Make sure when you place your terminators you are not blocking turret weapons, so these can fire without granting cover saves. The sponsons you really can’t do much about, but not to worry since any marine army will just be taking armor saves anyways. Make sure to place your speeders so they are getting cover saves and can fire back without cover saves, as well. You want these guys living as long as possible, reserve them if you are scared of them getting picked off early. Lastly, make sure the land raider is one of the flanks. This is to block LOS to most of the rest of your army from the flank, giving your opponent a choice. Shoot at AV 14 or.. 2+/3++ FNP terminators… good luck either way. Make sure to place the terminator bubble so that no one will be getting double tap melta goodness on your land raider either. (the term bubble is also useful for stopping those melta outflankers who are going to be coming after your weaker armor)
Again, this is the standard deployment if terrain is not going to be a problem. You set up and march across the board. Predators move until they have good firing positions and then stay put and fire all their weapons. Speeders can do whatever you need with them, fire some kraks into light armor, or frags into that juicy ork blob. Always playing them conservative as they are a threat to anyone trying to shove a land raider or two down your throat.
At about turn 3 is when I usually start to break apart my formation and go for objectives. If your terminators are taking heavy casualties, simply jump them in the land raider, and get ready to move out in a later turn to contest some objectives. (Or capture since they are troops)If annihilation, simply just keep marching across the board until you are comfortable. Don’t stray too close and let them get rapid fires off on you, but you want to be close enough for your storm bolters and heavy bolters to be wrecking shop.



The second image shows an example of a split deployment. Maybe your board has a large LOS blocking piece of terrain in the center and objective placement warrants creating two fronts for your forces. The deployment would be very similar here. Creating a ‘main force’ and a smaller force to combat your opponents smaller force. Both have massive staying power and of course these can be tweaked depending on your opponents list and deployment. Strategy is the same, terms go in front granting cover saves to the armor behind which can you easily see over them with their turrets. Speeders behind them. Landraider on one of the flanks and I would recommend using a table edge for the other if you can. Outflankers can be troublesome when your force is divided. Again, always try to maintain that bubble far enough away from your armor so your opponent is not getting double tap melta love. You can always choose to not move the predators and instead fire all weapons for a round or two and play catch up if needed later.
Turn 3 or so, when your opponent is reeling and frustrated trying to break your formation, you load up your transports and move out to capture objectives.

Is anyone running a list similar to this and not had success? Or has had absolutely fantastic success? Every get rolled by a list similar to this? Does my strategy need a little tweaking? I will be releasing more articles on the intricacies of this buildout in the coming weeks, but we need to hear from you.

-Brother C

2000 point Deathwing

Everyone seems to be posting their 'new and improved' deathwing lists to utilize the new Dark Angels FAQ....

well here's my go at it.... a strong core made up of land raiders and of course the thunder bubble. Librarian for physic hood and support. tried to be fluffy with this list as well (ex. not taking 3x speeders like you are seeing on most of the net lists)

here it is in all of its glory.

2000 point Deathwing . Thunder Blobble

HQ: Librarian (Brother Nicholas) 150pts.
+terminator armor
+combi-weapon

HQ: Belial (Brother Adso) 160pts.
+apothecary upgrade

Troops: Deathwing Terminator Squad 235pts.
3x TH/SS
1x Sarge with PW/SB
1x PF/SB + Cyclone

Troops: Deathwing Terminator Squad 235pts.
3x TH/SS
1x Sarge with PW/SB
1x PF/SB + Cyclone

Troops: Deathwing Terminator Squad 235pts.
3x TH/SS
1x Sarge with PW/SB
1x PF/SB + Cyclone

Troops: Deathwing Terminator Squad 235pts.
3x TH/SS
1x Sarge with PW/SB
1x PF/SB + Cyclone

Heavy: Land Raider 250pts.
TL Lascannon
TL Heavy Bolter

Heavy: Land Raider 250pts.
TL Lascannon
TL Heavy Bolter

Heavy: Land Raider Crusader 250pts.
TL Assault Cannon
Multi-Melta
Hurricane Bolters

plan is.. keep the entire army as a core. crusader pushes one of the fronts. turn 3, hop in the normal raiders and everything moves out. you also have the option to reserve everything (or deploy just the raiders) and DW assault 2x term squads on turn 1. Librarian goes with Belial in the command term squad (librarian with 2+/3++ FNP and shield/flame spells .. yes please)

its simple, but tough as nails. don't forget to use your terms as bubble wrap around your raiders to avoiding those scouting or podding extra pen meltas.

is this how you are running your DW army? is 3 raiders too much? should I use any raiders and just go all deepstriking goodness?

-Brother C