Noobhammer Tournament at Cabin Fever

Played in my first tournament today, one specifically for new players, which was 3 games, 2 hours each, in one day.  I did alright... first game was a disaster - got table-wiped by greenskins.  The other two games I won, by narrow margins.  2nd game was against vanilla space marines, but my opponent a 15 year old) didn't realize the primary goal was objectives and not kill or victory points - he had me easily on those, but he also thought his Vindicator was going to be a scoring unit, so my 4 remaining troops were the only ones near an objective.  The 3rd game was actually the best, most fun game I've had so far.  This was another kid, but he knew the rules way better than I did, was helpful and holy crap was it close.  In order of importance for the game, as written:  We tied on kill points (4 each).  Then we tied on objectives (2 each).  Then we tied on quarter control (again 2 each) and finally on victory points, I won by 4.5 - that's right FOUR POINT FIVE points!  It was something like 392.5 to 397... it was a really well fought, fun game - and it's easily the best I've felt about PLAYING the game so far.

My list was (and yes, I'm an Army Builder addict):



1500 Pts - Dark Angels Roster

Total Roster Cost: 1500

HQ: Sammael, Master of the Ravenwing (1#, 205 pts)
   1 Sammael, Master of the Ravenwing, 0 pts
      1 ...on Jetbike, 205 pts

Troops: Upgraded Ravenwing Attack Squadron (4#, 210 pts)
   1 Upgraded Ravenwing Attack Squadron, 0 pts
      2 Bike Squad, 105 pts = 2 * 40 (base cost 40) + Meltagun x1 10 + Apothecary 15
         1 Sergeant, 55 pts = (base cost 40 + Power Weapon 15)
      1 Attack Bike, 50 pts

HQ: Ezekiel, Grand Master of Librarians (1#, 170 pts)
   1 Ezekiel, Grand Master of Librarians, 170 pts

3rd Tactical Squad - The Blooded (11#, 265 pts)
   9 Tactical Squad, 159 pts = 9 * 16 (base cost 16) + Flamer 5 + Heavy Bolter 10
      1 Sergeant, 18 pts
      1 Razorback - Faith, 85 pts = (base cost 50 + Dozer Blade 5 + Twin-Linked Lascannon 30)

4th Tactical Squad - Corvus (5#, 90 pts)
   4 Tactical Squad, 72 pts = 4 * 18
      1 Sergeant, 18 pts

Elite: Company Veterans Squad (10#, 280 pts)
   9 Company Veterans Squad, 225 pts = 9 * 20 (base cost 20) + Combat Shield x1 5 + Power Weapon x2 30 + Missile Launcher 10
      1 Razorback, 55 pts = (base cost 50 + Dozer Blade 5)

Heavy Support: Predator (1#, 190 pts)
   1 Predator, 190 pts = (base cost 70 + Dozer Blade 5 + Hunter-killer Missile 15 + Pintle-mounted Storm Bolter 5 + Lascannon (each side) 60) + Twin-Linked Lascannon 35

Heavy Support: Whirlwind (1#, 90 pts)
   1 Whirlwind, 90 pts = (base cost 85 + Dozer Blade 5)

Krylon Primer

So, I've sprayed some veterans, some legion of the damned and some terrain with the new Krylon primer... and frankly I like it more than Citadel - by leaps and bounds.  It takes a little more spray to coat completely, but you lose no details I can notice, there's none of the DUST the two cans of Citadel I've used so far have left... and it has a better texture.  I know that sounds weird, but I'm an art nerd, live with it.

Coffee

One of these days I'll stop dipping my brush in my coffee.  That is all.

A tie, additions, and thoughts for future games

So, up until last week I had only played games against Eldar and gotten my butt kick, though sometimes the games were shortened, and I might have been able to do better given more rounds.  Last week I got to play against an IG army, Vostroyans, and one of the best painted armies I've ever seen.  It was Capture and Control, Pitched Battle fight.  I geared my army to go up against a mechanized list (two multi-meltas, 1 all lascannon Predator, several infantry lascannons, and at least 3 infantry melta-guns), but he brought almost all ground-pounders, with a rough rider's unit, a flier and a banewolf that came in off reserve near the end.  Sadly, the Vendetta, supported by a couple heavy weapons squads, came in and took out my entire tac squad on its side of the board before the multi-melta with them could even get a shot off, so I lost that objective.  My Whirlwind made a great first showing, beating the hell out of his command squad and the surrounding troopers - thank you Incendiary Castellan missiles, and my dev squad and Predator did more damage than they took, so I'm pleased all in all with my performance (a first).

My knowledge of the rules is still a little shakey, and I may have a tendency to start to give up too easily (I almost conceded when that tactical squad got wiped out), but I was able to make a tie.  If I'd understood the rules for occupying a objective and the terrain in use I may have been able to win.  It was a fun game, and a great learning experience.

I received several game related presents for the winter holidays.  Em got me an awesome Fortress of Redemption, my housemate got me a new Razorback, and I also got my hands on a new veteran's squad and an Imperial Bastion.  My total painted and playable is up to about 6500 points, though the biggest army I can field is about 4300.  I may put up full lists later in the week or next week when I'm home.  Hopefully next week I can get a game in against an old-school Chaos army... we'll see how I can do there.

So, I picked up some Krylon primer - half the price of the Citadel stuff, so hopefully that will do well.  I have a plastic terminator I may use a test model, though I also have some metal Ral Partha models in various states of disrepair that I may try instead, at least those can be stripped.  By tomorrow night I'll know if that works hopefully.  If it does, I'll probably be up near 6700 or so playable points, maybe up to 6800.

I've also been trying to figure out how to do better against Eldar - witch blade heavy Eldar.  I think I need more heavy bolters, more assault cannons, and probably some TH/SS Assault Terminators - the heavy, multi-firing weapons to keep the assault Eldar at-bay, and and the TH/SS to counter their witch blades when they finally do get up-close.

Librarian Conversion, part 2

So I think it's finally done, AND I've got pictures to show for it.  I think I've got about 30 hours into this particular model between conversions and paint, plus a few more for gluing the head and scythe blade back on several times *chuckle*

And with his command squad:

And, finally the army transport case, opened...

Army Transport

So thanks to my wonderful girlfriend (yes, she gets referred to that way here a lot, but she IS my primary enabler :) ) my army now has better luggage than I do.

http://www.saboldesigns.net/division.html

I currently have all the foam from my citadel cases in it, which works pretty well, but will hopefully be obtaining the Sabol trays over the winter.

Pics of this, and of my Librarian conversion, soon, possibly over the weekend.

Librarian Conversion, part 1

So I got inspired looking at all the neat stuff in the GW locations in the UK.

I started working on a librarian in power armor, and the head of his force weapon fell off when I opened his blister... that gave me the idea to replace it.  I checked my bits and I didn't have any weapons that would work, so my next thought was "scythe".  So, having just started building a few fine cast models, I had some scrap resin around.  I then discovered it's really pleasant to carve (going back to my experience in wood carving when I was a kid)... so he now has a scythe.

I'm next looking for a pair of wings for him.  Not sure if I want to use Sanguinary Guard wings because I don't want to hit the Blood Angels button, so I might try to get the feathered variety of Dark Eldar Scourge wings... or maybe Reaper angel wings... we'll see what I can find I guess.  I'm really going for the "Angel of Death" look on this model, and it's my first full blown conversion on a metal model to boot.  I'm showing him below.  Not my best photo, but the scythe is nicely visible.  I know some people might think the blade is a little small, but I don't want him looking like Mortarion either.