Tournament: Judgement Day 7

So I'm back and recovered from a day of 6th edition 40k action at the annual Judgement Day tournament. This 750 point tournament is hosted by the Western Suburbs Wargaming Association, and this was the 7th year of its operation.

I had just finished painting this army the night before. A bunch of rats from the Warhammer box set painted up as Horrors and Nurglings, lead by the big man Kai-rat Fatecheeser himself. The display board was a plate I bought from a $2 store on the way home from work the night before, covered with air-drying clay, and spray painted and dry brushed in the morning. Here's the list:

• Fatecheeser
• 6 Horrors with bolt and icon
• 5 Horrors with bolt
• 5 Horrors with bolt
• 4 Nurglings
• 4 Nurglings

Quick Update Before Judgement Day: Army Pic

Well time to jump into the car and head off to Judgement Day once more. Here are the boys all ready for transport. Not really ready for my first 6th edition game...

I'm promise I'll take photos! Tournament report coming.

Netrunner: A Classic CCG is Reborn

Along time ago in 1996, after Magic had created a brand new genre of gaming, a new CCG was popping onto (and often out of) the market every time i visited my local gaming store. One of these, a little game called Netrunner, was written by none other than the creator if Magic himself - Richard Garfield. It was themed on cyberpunk style corporate hacking, and in an original twist it was 2 player asymmetric, with one player taking on the role of the Mega-Corporation, and the other playing the insidious hacker breaking in to the network.

Netrunner was quite a revolutionary game bringing bags of new tech to the SCCG genre. However it also suffered from issues in balance, and it was discontinued relatively quickly. This is one of those games that the players have never let die, and the crew on http://www.netrunneronline.com/ have apparently worked to balance existing cards, as well as release their own virtual expansions online. The game obviously inspires loyalty in its players.

40k Squeaky Daemons

Kai-Rat Fatecheeser!

I'm going to the Judgement Day 7 tournament on August 4th, less than three weeks from today. They are going to be running 6th edition, of which I have not even seen the rulebook. I'm not going to buy the big rule book (its $120 is Australia!) so I pretty much will have to learn the rules from the internet. That should be fun.

However in order to keep myself on my toes I have decided to build a new army for the event. Its a stupid idea I have been playing with in my head for a while - building a budget Chaos Daemons army using only the skaven models from the Isle of Dread box. My original idea was to model Horrors by taking a basic skaven model and replacing the hand weapons with sculpted flames, so that each rat's hand appears engulfed in fire. The flames would be painted blue/green/yellow to look magicky.

The next logical step is to use the Rat Ogre models as Daemon Princes. Also with their hand on fire to represent the good old Bolt of Change. I had done a couple of test scupts of fire when I was thinking of building a fire themed Ork army, with Wierdboys on fire and Lobbas with flaming ammunition. So I knew it was possible.

I've got a set of moon-themed resin bases that I won at Judgement Day 5, which I am going to use mainly because I have all the right base sizes. My idea in painting them is to keep the colours drab, paint the flames and eyes bright, then have a have a stab at object source lighting. Might not be a good idea to do that in the next three weeks though! I guess they will be lucky to get three colours in the time available.

I have a few more ideas to round out the army. I have some Giant Rats that will work beautifully as Nurgling bases. The LotR Warg models will make a perfect Flesh Hound - everyone needs something to deal with the ubiquitous Grey Knights right? Finally the skaven two-rat special weapons teams should be convertable into Flamers with a little thought.

Thank the lord that Judgement Day aren't requiring list submission before the even. I have a heap of list ideas though I need to settle soon if I am to make sure that everything is painted. I'll leave you for now with the two examples of lists I am thinking of taking:

Squeaky Daemons (750)
Herald of Tzeentch - We are Legion, Master of Sorcery, Bolt of Tzeentch (95)
8 Horrors - Bolt of Change, Changeling (151)
5 Horrors - Bolt of Change (95)
5 Horrors - Bolt of Change (95)
8 Nurglings (104)
Daemon Prince - Mark of Tzeentch, Daemonic Flight, Master of Sorcery, Bolt of Tzeentch (210)

Squeaky Daemons with Cheese (749)
Fateweaver (333)
5 Horrors - Bolt of Change (95)
5 Horrors - Bolt of Change (95)
5 Horrors - Bolt of Change (95)
8 Flesh Hounds - Fury of Khorne (130)

Probability of Failing Charges (including Fleet!)

Sadly with the demise of my local club I haven't been able to get in a game of the new 40k, so I haven't had much to post. I will say that I love most of the changes in theory, except the god-awful wound allocation rules and the game balance fucking of the flier rules. With all the new rules and dice rolling I thought I could help out by calculating the probabilities of a very important new mechanic.

Random charges have got to be up there in the list of most controversial changes in the new edition. Personally I'm on the fence, but then again I only play shooty armies. It's pretty harsh for assaulting armies to fail a charge. The rules now are that units roll 2d6 to determine their charge range (after a 6" move). Saving your jump pack for the assault allows you to reroll the dice. Fleet allows you either reroll both dice or just reroll one of them.

Pre-Review: A Game of Thrones LCG

 
There is a group of people at my work who have been playing games after work on Fridays. I think it all started when I brought in Bang! one day, and since then I have also had success with Carcasonne, Settlers and Battlestar Galactica. Now four of us have put together $15 each to buy the "A Game of Thrones" living card game.

I've always thought that the workplace provides a great environment for getting into a CCG. The reason is that by only playing with participating workmates, you can easily control the available cardpool and this keep costs low. Well an LCG is a little different but I assume the same general principals apply - there is no need to buy all the little expansions when no-one else is either. New cards will come through trading, and buying the occasional expansion to be shared amongst the plaayers.

Podcast Reviews - Mantic + 40k

I have three new podcasts up for review this week. Interestingly two of them are Mantic related, which has been so rare up until now as to be non-existent.

Before I get into the reviews, just a quick note that The Overlords podcast has finally switched to a biweekly format. This is great news for me, as I had dropped them from my subscription list strictly due to time constraints. They are back on now and I enjoyed hearing those familiar voices.

The M42 Project - A 40k Alternative

I should have posted this a long time ago. I want to bring to the attention of all my readers the brave and original efforts of the crew at the M42 Project. This site is an attempt to build a set of balanced, simple wargaming rules in order to provide a directly competing alternative to the behemoth that is the 40k rulebook.

The site's progenitor is Sandwyrm, one of the contributors to The Back 40k; an excellent 40k blog that I have been following for years. I always liked his content there and so when he dropped the bombshell that he was making a serious attempt to write an alternative rule set for his 40k armies it got me excited. I quickly subscribed to the new blog he set up to document this endeavour.

Life Sized Space Marine Armour and then some

Sometimes people do amazing things. And then you meet some dude named Thorssoli. This gaming legend has done the most awesome thing that a 40k fanatic could ever do - he's gone and built himself his own full scale Space Marine power armour suit!

Actually he's making a whole bunch of them, even one with a heavy bolter AND the custom backpack. They stand 8' tall for christ's sake! Of course words fail to convey even an ounce of the ability this guy have. Have a look for yourself!

Want the full story? Then do what I have been doing over the past few months - start on page 1 of his forum blog and keep reading.

The Forum

As I am apparently terrible at providing in-depth articles at the moment, I thought I'd try to spam you with a few little things like this until I am inspired to write something with more heft. Anyone else nervous about 6th edition?

List Evolution: Imperial Guard Tank Company: Part 2

 Having just blogged about my existing projects, I was inspired to revisit my Tank Company and move it forward. From a painting viewpoint it's a relatively easy project. I intend to mainly paint the models with sprays and washes, and won't be too worried about the details.

However I'm theming the army on WWII Russians, so I have acquired some tank rider models to attach to the Russes - probably using magnets. I also intend to replace all the Cadian heads with Russian heads from West Wind Miniatures. Its going to take me a while to get around to ordering those, but meanwhile I can move forward with painting the tanks.

What I'm really happy about is the new list I have come up with. It's always been my goal to squeeze 6 Leman Russ into a 1500 point list. My earlier versions were hampered by trying to include Pask and mechanise the troop selections, reducing me to only 5 Russes which was dissatisfying.