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.