Tyranids Vs Tau 7th Edition Battle Report

Last weeks venture to play 40K I met two new players who were Daniel and son or guy with hat, I forgot the other guy's name. Both were looking to play a game and were not use to the normal phenomena of waiting 40 minutes to play 40K. What was first offered from the new guys was a dual game was quickly shot down by Mac, nice call. Mac with his Chaos Space marines took on the guy with hat, while I took on Daniel's tau with my Tyranids.

While Daniel took a bit of time to create a nice well balanced list I got to sit down with Rob to learn about some ancient history concerning the Manei Domini.

I used what seems to be my normal 1500 points list which uses just about everything I like to use and does a good job. I thought about swapping the Raveners and the Biovores for a Mawloc, but the leftover points always leaves me wanting and wondering. Other thoughts have made me think of swapping the Tyrant Guard for a flying Hive Tyrant, but I really need to read up on the rules for flyers. So here where our lists.

Tyranids

Hive Tyrant w/ 2xTL Dev
Pychich Powers - Primaris, The Horror, Paroxysm
Tyrant Guard x 2

*The Hive Tyrant had two offensive powers, one good for scaring off enemy units and the other for weakening or shutting down enemy units.

Zoanthrope x 2
Pychich Powers - Primaris, Paroxysm, Warp Blast
Zoanthrope x1
Pychich Powers Primaris, Onslaught, Warp Blast
Hive Guard x2

* Usually all of the Zoanthropes are in the same brood, for this battle I split them up for better survival and synapse coverage. The additional bonus was a bit more psychic power. The dual Zoanthrope brood's additional power may prove useful leaving the single Zoanthrope brood to utilize the Warp Blast power

Tervigon "Momma" w/ Stinger Salvo, Scything talons, The Maw-claws of Thyrax
Pychich Powers - Primaris, Catalyst
Termagants x 30

* Momma's additional power should prove useful as always

Raveners x 5 w/ Scything Talons, Rending Claws

Bivores x 3
Carnifex w/ 2xTL Dev, Spine banks
Exocrine

* Someone reminded me of the Exorine's BS being +1 if it doesn't move so +1 to you sir


Tau

Commander w/ BattleSuit, Iridium battlesuit, Plasma rifle, Cyclic Ion Blaster, Airburst Fragmentation Projector,Onager Gauntlets, Shield Generator, Kitchen Sink, and a Puretide Engram Chip

Ethereal

Firewarriors x 12, bonded
Firewarriors x 12, bonded
Firewarriors x 12, bonded

XV-104 Riptide, Ion Accelerator, TL Smart Missiles, and Stimulants
Stealth Suit Team w/ 4 x XV15 battlesuits w/ burstcannons and 2 x XV25 battlesuits with fusion blasters

Pathfinders w/ 7 Pulse carbines and Marker lights, and 3 with Rail rifles

Hammerhead Gunship w/ Railgun, TL Smart missiles, Disruption pod, Target lock, and Submunition rounds
XV88 Broadside x 2 w/ TL High Yield Missile pods, TL Smart Missiles, Seeker missiles, and Stimulants

* I have faced everything here before except a Riptide so this will be a learning experience. If all things the always useful idea of ignore it may come into play.


Deployment

Six random objectives were placed on the board and they revealed before the first turn.
The thing about this board was we left it as is when we played on it so it had a nasty dead zone between both sides. I figured Daniel would place his three objectives in his deployment zone like myself, but he boldly placed one in my deployment zone.

Before deployment the six objectives were placed

• Tau Objective 1 - In the ruins on the Tau's right flank
• Tau Objective 2 - In the ruins on the Tau's left flank
• Tau Objective 3 - In the ruins in the middle of the Tyranid's northern deployment zone
• Tyranid Objective 1 - In the ruins on the Tyranid's left flank
• Tyranid Objective 2 - In the ruins on the Tyranids's right flank
• Tyranid Objective 3 - Behind the hill in the middle of the Tyranid's southern deployment zone

Obviously Tyranid's don't deploy objectives so it must have been a bunch of junk the Tau empire lost and want to reclaim.
Tau chose to go first.
The Tau's warlord trait seemed to be about as useful as flock on the board. Perhaps a grass cover save would have been better.
The Tyranid's warlord trait added +1 to the seize the initiative giving their roll a 5 and they fail to seize the initiative.
Night fight was is in effect.

With the new rules of any unit being able to claim objectives, I spread my Tyranids as much and as safely as possible. This allowed me to possibly claim up to four objectives on the first turn. With this in mind I didn't need to move most of my units at all depending upon their revealed point values. This left me with a few units to move around according such as the Hive Tyrant and the Raveners and to some extent the Zoanthropes. I knew Daniel had a reserves unit and I could possibly be forced off an objective or even shot off an objective such as the case with the Biovores so I had to be aware of them till they arrived from reserve and deployed.

* Blue and green markers are reminders for the presence of psychic units
* Blue ice dice are the psychic unit's rolled psychic powers

After deployment the six objectives where revealed

• Tau Objective 1 - (2) In the ruins on the Tau's right flank
• Tau Objective 2 - (2) In the ruins on the Tau's left flank 
• Tau Objective 3 - (3) In the ruins in the middle of the Tyranid's northern deployment zone
• Tyranid Objective 1 - (3) In the ruins on the Tyranid's left flank
• Tyranid Objective 2 - (4) In the ruins on the Tyranids's right flank
• Tyranid Objective 3 - (1) Behind the hill in the middle of the Tyranid's southern deployment zone

Tau near two objectives and Tyranids near four objectives already placed the Tau into challenge mode. The Tau will need to come to the Tyranid lines or try to shoot them off their objectives.

Turn 1

The Tau forced moved their entire East flank forward with the commander leading the charge forward. The Pathfinders entered the ruins in front of them, the Firwarriors in the open moved forward with their commander supported by the Hammerhead behind them. The Firewarriors in the center ruins moved forward out of the ruins slightly with the Riptide in front to provide support.

With night fight rules in effect, the Tyranids thought the Tau shooting would not be as good, but the Ethereal reminded his followers to be rock stars and announced to the Tyranids.

DEAL WITH IT!

The Tau used their special sunglasses. The Tau concentrated their firepower to eliminate a third of the large Termagant brood along with adding a single wound on the Exocrine.

Momma ordered her Termagant brood forward to close the opened gaps. The Carnifex climbed atop the ruins to perch itself for a higher vantage point. The Hive Tyrant pressed the Hive Guard to bash through the windows of the ruins into safe hiding so they could use their weapons with no LOS.  The Hive mind sensed the Raveners eager willingness for biomass consumption and necessary casualties, but ordered them like the Hive Guard to bash through the windows of the old ruins to safely close the distance to their targets ahead.

* The Hive Guard were placed on the top of the ruins in the places where they would be in the ruins for simplicity. The same idea was used for the Raveners.

Momma angered by the sight of her large brood being decimated attempted to prognate more of her lesser Termagants and succeeded with a small brood of seven Termagants. However, Momma's anger got the better of her and the stress was too much for her brood pronating organs to process anymore Termagant order for the Hive Mind.
The Tau commander saw this as a blessing, the Hive mind knew the Tau's battle strategy was a fault and foresaw no need to lose additional troops.

* Psychic Phase

So far it is not bad, I like it a lot better than challenges even thought it is much different. In this battle the Tyranids had a ton of psychic potential leaving the Tau at the mercy of what the Tyranids initial roll would be. This gave the Tau to some degree a buffer, but a buffer which had to be carefully used.

The first Tyranid psychic phase was good with a few warp blasts being tossed on the Firewarriors moving out of the center ruin and Feel no Pain being applied to the Exocrine courtesy of mamma. The Tau focused on trying to deny the Feel no Pain application than trying to deny the warp blasts which did far more damage.

The first Tyranid shooting phase opened with the best Biovore barrage any Tyranid commander could ask for. All three blasts hit directly on target to the Firewarrior squad in the open awarding a total of 27 hits. The lone shroud save did nothing to help the Firewarriors as they were bio-bombed into oblivion.
The Exocrine's original target was the Firewarrior squad, but since it had been eliminated the Tau commander was too tempting of a target and was fired upon. The Tau commander was killed in a horrendous volley of alien firepower.
Between the Carnifex and the Hive Tyrant, the Hive Tyrant was able to wound the Riptide.

* The Tau commander dying was just an offset I suppose. Daniel managed to fail a great deal of 3+ invulnerable saves than I expected. I also thought moving his commander out was dangerous, but I think it is a play style to in a sense marshall his troops and show a no fear atitude. Not the same for my Hive Tyrant which usually cowers at times till it can safely move acrooss, lol.

The purple die near the Tervigon is not a wound die.

Turn 2

The Tau's Stealth Suits arrived and deployed behind the Tyranid lines placing themselves by the hill slightly to the left behind the Biovores. With the Stealth suits deployed, the rest of the Tau movement was simple with the Riptide moving to the right flank and the Hammerhead moving up to cover the gap produced by fallen comrades. The Tau's shooting was something to be desired as well with only a single wound going to the Exocrine, I think, a few more Termagants being killed and a sadly single Biovore dying from the stealth suits. The Tyranid's were expected the loss fo the Biovores after there nasty barrage before.

The Hive mind's response to the Tau at this point was respond and push forward. The Tau commander was feeling a sudden iminent loss for the Stealth suit team. The  Termagants moved to their position along with the Hive Tyrant and his Tyrant guard. The single Zoanthrope brood tuned to face the Stealth suits while moving to a safe position. The Exocrine pivoted around to assure complete destruction. With almost the entire left flank of the Tyranid force responding to the Stealth suits, the Hive mind still pushed the Raveners out of the ruins and into the ruins before them to assault the Tau Pathfinders hiding within.

The Tyranid psychic phase had the Zoanthropes warp blasting more Firewarriors from the center squad in the center ruins. The time he Tau tried to deny this compared to tryingt o deny the Feel no Pain application.

Tyranid shooting was even more destructive. The Biovores missed the Firewarriors in the center and left a large spore mine cluster to the right of the Riptide and way too close to the Firewarriors in the ruins to be ignored. The Hive Guard impaled a Broadside battlesuit while the rest of the Tyranids on their flank completely decimated the Stealth suits. The Termagants failed to do anything, while the Tyrant killed all but one allowing the Exocrine to finish off the last suit.

Tyranid assault phase had the Raveners assault the Pathfinders in the ruins. The Pathfinders struck first dropping two before the Reaveners tore more of the Pathfinders into pieces. The Pathfinders held there ground for now.

Stealth suits? What stealth suits?

Turn 3

The Tau were presented with little movement options. The Riptide moved to the center Dead Zone to support the three remaining Firewarrirors from the center sqaud dashing for the center cover.

Tau shooting concentrated on various threats the spore mines, Biovores, and the Zoanthropes. The spore mine cluster could not be ignored, the Biovores were especially dangerous for fear of the Ethereal getting bombarded causing a serious morale loss, and the Zoanthrope were simply terrorizing the Firewarriors and getting within leathal range of the Hammerhead. The Firewarriors in the ruins killed the spore mine cluster. The Broadsides and Riptide combines firepower to at the Biovores removing them. The Firewarriors and the Hammerhead combined firepower at the dual Zoanthrope brood and kill one and wounded the other.

With the exeption of the wounded Zoanthrope, although leaving only one left was still a 50% reduction in
there offensive cability. I think Daniel's descisions on which target's to shoot were tactically sound on what he could and could not harm.

The Pathfinders in the ruins continued to hold despite loosing more members of thier squad.

* We weren't sure if a spore mine clsuter automatically explodes when wounded, so we left it as not exploding to be sure.  I couldn't find anything in the codex entry about it at the time.

When it was time for Tyranid Hive Mind to act, the Hive Mind turned the Hive Tyrant as he turned his own Tyrant Guard around towards the Riptid. Mamma ordered her Termagants in the center to chain the brood between the Exocrine and the hill top were the Biovores were previously. The Zoanthrope broods were rushed forward as well.

Tyranid psychic phase proved useful and useless, the Hive Tyrant smacked the Riptide causing its WS and BS to drop by 3 each and the Zoanthropes failed to wound the Riptide with a warp lance and failed to cast warp lance against the Hammerhead.

Tyranid shooting saw the Firewarriors in the center loose more lives by the work between Mamma and her Carnifex perched above.  The Hive Tyrant and the Exocrine had enough combined firepower to punch through the Riptide's shield and wound it.

The Hive Tyrant attempted an assault on the Riptide which failed with no damage incurred. The Raveners tour apart the remaining Pathfinders.

Turn 4

Tau movement started with the three leftover Firewarriors in the center moving to the cover in the middle of the dead zone. The Riptide moved back a bit, but still remained the front unit in combat. The Hammerhead moving ahead just a bit and to the left a bit to gain more targets and hide from the Exocrine.

Tau shooting was light. The center Firwarriors failed to down the nearby Zoanthrope. The Hammerhead tried to use a large blast weapon on the Termagants to perhaps shoot them off the objectives, but the shot scattered killing only a few Termagants. The Hammerhead also failed to kill the nearby Zoanthrope. The Riptide's shooting turned to garbage by the Hive Tyrant's paroxysm power needed the help of the lone Broadside managed to kill a Tyrant Guard and wound the other Tyrant Guard leaving the Hive Tyrant unharmed.

The same Tyranid broods which moved ahead previously were ordered to do the same along with the Exocrine moving to switch sides. The Raveners were kept in place to claim the objective.

Tyranid psychic phase was dangerous. The Zoanthrope near the Hammerhead warp lanced the Hammerhead and immobilized it. The Hive Tyrant continued to bully the Riptdie and smacked it causing its WS and BS to be reduced by 3 each again.

Tyranid Shooting was concentrated on the Riptide an Broadside as the entire Tau left flank had collapsed. The Hive Tyrant caused what damage it could to the Riptide while the Exocrine completely finished it off by punching through its powered up shield. Mamma and her Carnifex finished off the Firewarriors in the center as well.

End Game

Once turn four passed the Tau commander conceded the battlefield to the Tyranid Hive Mind.

Final Victory Points

Tau

+2 Objective

2 Total

Tyranids

+ 13 Objectives
+1 First blood
+1 Slay the warlord

15 Total

* Examining the objectives again I removed destroyed units from adding points.

Thoughts

Daniel was using a set of older GW dice from a green tin, I recommend he fired those dice and towrds the third turn or so he began to agree.
Daniel's list was a great mix of what his codex could do, but I believe some units were a bit on the pricey side. It would be interested to go again seeing his maybe use the same list or free up some more points for some more group units.
Daniel's decision to place an objective in my area was bold, but bad in the end. My Tyranid list is build for shooting, but has some close combat abilities, however it has limitations so it is no means perfect.
The Riptide was a tough bastard to bring down absorbing more firepower then I could ever believe, but nothing holds better then Bob's Eldar, those things can tank!
Paroxysm is dangerous when used correctly and if the roll is decent.
I forgot my Raveners were equipped with rending claws so they should have killed the Pathfinders off sooner, but no worries.
I think Daniel may have been surprised by the amount of wounds the Biovores and the Raveners had, they come to a great advantage to low non-instant death weapons.
Daniel kept trying to kill the Exocrine, but how it was deployed next to the ruins it was 75% in cover from both points of view of the Hammerhead and the Riptide. The no cover allowing missiles it made all its normal saves most of the time.
The idea of any unit being able to claim an objective is great when you have low troops count to help balance the rest of an army.
The Exocrine moving little as possible really helped in shot output.
I considered reviewing certain units of the Tyranid code from my own opinions, but I can leave it to another time if anyone cares to here my blabber.

Overall it was a great game and a great chance to see how different units interact on the battlefield.

2014 Battletech Introductory Boxed Set Figure Comparison P1

Mid to late 2012 I purchased the Battletech 25th Anniversary Introductory Boxed Set for an easy way to bolster my available battlemech miniatures and for the great sturdy folding map boards. The boxed set was a great deal for the money and still is the perfect boxed game in my opinion. There is a large amount of complaints against the plastic miniatures in the box set. Some of the miniatures were bad casts and some were plain awful, but still workable. Most of the issues seem to appear more as the size of the battlemech increases. The One thing to keep in mind is all of the miniatures were perfectly fine for play, but some were not good enough for painting due to the bad molding of the details. Some can't stand the sight of them, but people like me, don't care and will give them table time anyway.

Somewhere in late 2013 the world got world a new boxed set would be released with better looking and better molded battlemech miniatures. I couldn't wait and courtesy of Father's Day I have it. The box cover art has changed to an Atlas kicking ass and dishing out death. Another bonus of having both sets is I now have two sets of the great folding map boards.

Listed below are some noticeable differences between the two sets of miniatures.

25th plastic is a shiny dark grey color, 2014 is a dull light grey color
25th plastic is softer, 2014 is harder
25th hexagon bases are slightly rough on the top, 2014 bases are smooth
One additional element, 2014 bases are numbers from the lightest battlemech Commando at number 1 to the heaviest battlemech Atlas at number 24.

I intent t make this a five part informative post series starting with light battlmechs. Next will be medium battlemechs, followed by heavy battlemechs and assault battlemechs, and finishing with special battlemechs.

Part 01 Light Battlemechs

Commando

25th Introductory Boxed Set

2014 Introductory Boxed Set

The 2014 Commando has better molded CT missile launchers and arms.

25th Introductory Boxed Set and 2014 Introductory Boxed Set

2014 Commando leans back a bit more and is shorter.

Spider

25th Introductory Boxed Set

The 25th Spider's rear jump jets are  separate part weakly glued on.

2014 Introductory Boxed Set

The jump jets appear bent, but they are leveled with the torso which is slightly tilted.

 The jump jets are not a separate part.

25th Introductory Boxed Set and 2014 Introductory Boxed Set

The 25th Spider is almost as good compared to 2014 Spider which has slightly better molded details.

 Overall both Spiders are fine as is and 25th Spider is taller.

Jenner

25th Introductory Boxed Set

2014 Introductory Boxed Set

2014 Jenner has better molded CT missile weapons, arms and jump jets.

25th Introductory Boxed Set and 2014 Introductory Boxed Set

25th Jenner leans forward more.

Panther

25th Introductory Boxed Set

25th Panther's legs was not even molded correctly and as you can see I have tried previously to fix them.

2014 Introductory Boxed Set

25th Introductory Boxed Set and 2014 Introductory Boxed Set

If the 25th Panther's legs were not messed up the model would be just as good as the 2014 Panther.

The 25th Panther is taller than the 2014 Panther.

I am not a big nit-picker when it comes to comparing models especially when they are at the same price point. The designers stated they would be better quality and they delivered in my opinion. Please feel free to ask questions you might have about the models or the boxed sets. Next time I will compare the largest  portion of the models the medium battlemechs.

Battletech Battle Report

Second Campaign Battle

I bring to you another great detailed Battletech Battle Report for your reading and viewing pleasure. This report details the second portion battle about a few days after the first battle mentioned here. This battle report is seriously over due, but I once heard in person to get it posted so here it is. Please enjoy.

Restarting after a stall

I kept promising myself I would update this blog and here I am noticing the last time I posted was back in January of this year. Most of it is me being lazy, but aren't we all anyway. So here I promise to update my blog with some new stuff to read and rant about.

So how do I sum up five months or so in review? I guess I can try my best if anyone is interested.

First on all, I have gotten nothing painted, lol, not really proud of it, but hey I'm being honest. I am still painting two Assault Squads simultaneously. Sometimes I wonder if I should hold off for a bit as there is rumor of a new codex. My Minecraft server and XBOX absorbs a lot of time and energy.

I have managed to get a few games of 40K in and mostly it is me being lazy about going down to play and just wanting to stay and home an relax. I played a few games pat my game in January using my Blood Angels. Despite the Blood Angels obviously issues here and there I have tooled my list to be a more shooting army than assault army overtime and it has been able to tie or win games most of the times. One game I played Bob' Eldar which had a wraithlord, I think, refuse to die despite throwing ridiculous amounts of firepower at it.

I got play Tyranids a few times post new codex. The army was previously shelved. I tried the army out for the first time in a big 2 vs 1 with my Tyranids having 3,000 points to Scott's Orks and Mac's Ultramarines armies at 1,500 points a piece. It was huge cluster fuck of  game, but it was cool to use almost all of the units to view their individual strengths and weaknesses. Scott was mostly mechanized and came after me while Mac turtled away most of the game. However I did get to feed his terminators to pack of hungry genstealers.

I got to play Mac again using my Blood Angels and the game was a pleasure to play. He used a balanced list in my opinion, no huge power characters or power units so it was a good game overall.

The previous weekend I brought out my Tyranids for another try at the new codex and still used 6th edition. I played against a dwarf, no um must have been one of these guy's, I originally thought it was Bob Hoskin's without the Russian accent of Stalingrad of course, really the dude's name was David or Dave. Anyway he had an awesome Iron Hands marine army with attempted to shoot the stuffing out of my Tyranid's. He used a twin factored list of Land Raider Crusaders, Centurion Sqauds, and raw troops. His army color scheme would make the Green Ranger proud and damn I thought at one point he might summon the Dragonzord. It was hella fun despite my endless early complaining about the lack of quality codex.

I played a game against demons with my Blood Angels against  Edwin. This is all I have to say.
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU Daemons!
Edwin is a power gamer, lol.
I Played him previously with his Necrons, which were sent back to the bakery, then against his Bolter Bitches which got bitched out for Tyranids, lol, and last his Daemons.
Edwin is not allow to talk about why he likes Daemons, lol.
Edwin's day shall come, Bob is in France, so I must wait, but for Edwin, I must say soon.

That's all I got to say about that. Just like when Forest Gump is on TV you watch it like 300 which is on right now while I type this post.

I have battle reports to catch up on. Sometimes I wonder if its worth is, but I enjoy creating them and placing humor in them to see  if anyone can spot it. I still have a Battletech battle report to post following up on another large battle report along with more smaller reports. Most of my Battletech battle reports are from my ongoing ATOW campaign I run in Kingsport. I periodically take a week or few off to create story arcs, but I try to keep it going as much as I can.

I went to Washington DC and toured the nation's capitol. It was cool and fun. I wish I had more time, but I think anyone will realize this a day in or so. There is simply to much to do and see and money can run out quick if you are not careful.

I found out in the latest email update the Robotech Kickstarter will ship in maybe July, another month from what they said would be June. This makes the Kickstarter now eight plus months behind. The only good thing is the models look awesome ad I will have enough to support two or more players. Another bonus is I fund two players which bought the boxed game so their is potential to play it a few times.

Not that it matters much, but I am thinking of switching my large dice for smaller dice.

There is probably more to say, but I can't think about it all right now, but you get the picture I am going to post again soon so stay with me.

Oh yeah, one more important thing. I believe the long war between two major powers has perhaps ended. I forgave him awhile ago, I don't hold grudges, I think he did to, and I never stopped reading his blog.

Oh Blood Angel, where art thy assault?

Oh I remember 6th edition is for shooting and the title means nothing.

Two weeks ago I finally got around to playing a game of 40K with my Blood Angels with Jason and miraculously the game ended in a nice tie.

Last weekend I played another game of wait around for an hour to play another game of 40K with my Blood Angels again. Or is it 40 minutes to 40K, either way it is usually more than 30 minutes and this is why the pizza is not free. I played a game with Bob playing Dark Angels and two new players, Scott playing Yellow Marines, and Sky playing Deamonorcs. I used an 1850 point list sided with Sky using a 1500 point list against Bob using an 1850 point list and Sky using a 1500 point list. Oddly enough Bob and I deployed across from each other, while Scott and Sky did the same and I was the only player to place a unit in the friendly army deployment zone. Everyone had units to deep strike and every unit actually came in at a respectable reliable time, except Scott's Sternguard who took forever (Turn 5) to come in.

First game I used this list

HQ
Librarian with 100
Elites
1x Sanguinary Priest with 50
1x Sternguard Veteran Squad with 5x Additional Veterans, 2x Combi-Melta, Power Fist 285
Land Raider Crusader with Multi-Melta 260
1x Furioso Dreadnought with Frag Cannon 125
Drop Pod 35
Troops
1x Tactical Squad with 5x Additional Marines, Plasma Gun, Plasma Rifle, Lascannon 205
1x Assault Squad with 5x Additional Marines, 2x Meltagun, Power Weapon 225
Fast Attack
Baal Predator with Heavy Bolter Sponsons 145
2x Land Speeder Squadron with 2x Heavy Bolter 120
1x Land Speeder Squadron with Typhoon Missile Launcher 90
Heavy Support
1x Devastator Squad with 5x Additional Marines,4x Missile Launcher 210

Last game I used the same list, but I modified the list by removing the Land Raider as I saw a whole lot of bullshit coming down from deep strike. I replaced it with a Second Furioso Dreadnaught with Frag Cannon and Drop Pod and a second Saquinary Priest with a Jump Pack and Power Sword.

I took out the Land Raider and forgot it was the transport for my Sternguard so technically the list had an extra Elite by accident. Go go go gadget list modification on the fly. Its not like the Sternguard did much anyway but hide in the trees like the Tactical Squad did all game.
Someone did speak for them, "Then we will fight in the shade".

Here is a shot of the battle after deployment.

Bob is patient. Bob has a soda. Bob is ready for battle.

Things I learned from this game.

* Since Scott's C Dreadnaught had the rule shoot at shit falling from the sky, my first Drop pod's machine spirit said fuck this shit and changed coarse to land in left field next to release a Furious Dreadnaught next to a loan Dark Angel Tactical Squad.
* Sky's uncontrollable Chaos powers randomly denied my Furioso an assault with a chance to head closer to the middle.
* Scott dropped a squad of melta toting marines down on my Bal Predator and blew it up including two of his own squad.
* I dropped my second Furious Dreadnaught down next to his C Dreadnaught where it waked right up behind it to give it some melta love. Exploding brilliance.
* Having two Furioso Dreadnaughts in their deployment zone wreaking havoc was not good for the green/yellow marine alliance.
* Scott represented the number 1 with perfect triple 1s followed by double 1s and a single 1 when he needed it most, I think he blames his Sternguard for the latter.

* Bob represented the number 2 with perfect accuracy when trying to shoot my Blood Angels.
* I represented the number 5 and coming in for a tie the number 6. FNP never felt so good.
* My librarian never died like he usually does, nor did he really do anything either.
* Whener I think a Sanguinary Preiest is not worth his points and I add another Sanguinary Priest, my FNP rolls because stupidly better.
* As much as people claim my army is Chaos aligned with no heads I was allied with Chaos in this battle against my own brethren. I wonder if down the line Marines will be allowed to ally with Chaos, but Tyranids will never get to ally with shit.
* Scott's rhino will forever be affectionately called the Yellow School Bus.
* My Blood Angels were bitter according to Scoot to Bob's Dark Angels, something which should be reserved for Space Wolves, but fluff went out the window with this game long ago.
* The combined might of Stergaurd poison, Landspeeder, Devastator squad is clearly not enough to kill off nor dampen the spirits of a Dark Angel Tactical squad, which bring me to my next point.
* Removing a stubborn Dark Angel unit from a game is like clearing a dungeon is Skyrim. The last guy shows no care his friends are dead endlessly fighting on.
* Scott hopelessly failed to kill my Landspeeder Typhoon which hopelessly failed to kill the Yellow School Bus.
* Chaos fabulous flamers can put out a stupid amount of firepower. Such hate was placed against Bob's terminators, Bob almost weathered it despite Sky forgetting one in the corner, almost ... respect.
* Scott's Sternguard arrived at the last minute to make one of the last kills, killing something which had already been killed before. Time loop anyone?
* I managed to fail FNP four times resulting in the loss of two Sternguard and two Assault marines and a Furious Dreadnaught, all being Bob's kills I think and my Bal Predator which Scott took out early on.
* Bob's cell phone had a template land on it at some point.
* Bob's terminators stole the show and made an eleven inch charge to engage a big mob of deamonorcs.

Proof it did happen.

Here is a shot of the game at the end of turn 5 which was the end of the game.

 

Bob is stubborn.

My second Furioso Dreadnaught is in the Northwest building having killed of Scott's commander and his attached servitor unit. My Tactical squad did nothing. The clear small blast templates are my simulated proxy counts as Drop Pods.

Referring to the title, I suppose it has hidden meaning all along, my Dreadnaughts shot and assaulted, my Assault squad shot and assaulted, and the rest of my army shot. The majority of the damage I caused throughout the game was from shooting.

Next time we fight the Ghetto Rangers.
Until next time when in trouble and fighting the end boss ...
Look to the sky, look at the audience, wink, and yell Pimp Cain!

BF4 SP Campaign, A Review, A Rant, and Tashgar

Flirting with the knife to cut the throat of 40K.

A few months ago my interest in 40K and the associated hobby aspect plummeted to a point where I completely lost interest. I tried multiple times to simply work on assembling some models, but the feeling was fruitless. I eventually packed all my 40K and related hobby stuff up and shelved it all. In the same circle, my interest in going to regular game nights dwindled as well to me not going anymore.

The past few months I have had plenty of opportunities to go play 40K, but I usually can find something else to fill my time. Even when I don't have anything planned I simply won't go or maybe deep down it is because I don't want to.

My Blood Angels have slowly dropped in usefulness in my opinion. I can take down certain units and opponents, but when it comes to character fights, flyers, and initiative in general the army falls apart or becomes a quick steady pile of auto-losses. My Tyranids are a bundle of useful and not useful units where I tend to proxy what I don't have or can't afford because it is stupid to spend so much. I still have a brand new Hive Tyrant and Tervigon, but I haven't had the urge to give a damn to assemble the models. Perhaps news of the new Codex might bring some joy, but I wonder of GW will just screw over Tyranids. My only hopes is the current 6th edition every army has some unique trait flows through them and they return as menacing horde and or heavy army.

In the meantime I plunged into the realm of Skyrim and found a huge world of possibilities and quests to keep my mind busy and soon came Diablo III and GTA V. All three of these games are huge and can take a long time to complete and can be repeated. I also now rent a Minecraft server and have my own small community of players I have come to enjoy the company of and watched a small world slowly develop. I can easily bide my time til BF4 and loose myself in a game I do enjoy and with the chance to rent your own server and run games with your friends multiplies the fun rate.

All the lack of gaming has made me question whether 40K is even worth it anymore. I have faced this demon before and I have held it at bay by limiting myself to only two armies. I somehow managed to purchase the new Chaos Codex with hopes to raise a small DIY chaos army from the Dark Vengeance. Sadly the models are still on the spruce like the Dark Angels models. Sadly it is where they may stay and be forever doomed. I guess the fact they came with the small rulebook gives them a pass. The cost of raising a chaos army is so far behind my Tyranid army its not even funny. These days I would rather through down $500 for a new XBOX One then pump money into something which may never get finish, used, or otherwise change for worse or better.

In the back of my mind I question whether buying into the Robotech Kickstarter was worth it. I backed a total of $246 into the Kickstarter so I could get two fully functional armies with plenty of options. This allows me to show the game or play the game not worrying if another player does not have the game. The one thing which saves this in my mind is I like the model and the Robotech saga in general. I am unsure if this game will ever pickup enough of a following or interest. Even more if any would care to try it, like it, and want to play it regularly.

Currently I am backing the Reaper Bones II Kickstarter mostly for some models to goof off with and paint. I missed out on the first Reaper Bones Kickstarter and they had some cool miniatures in there. Hilarious enough my daughter has begun lying claims to some of the miniatures in the current Kickstarter. The excellent compliment of heroes to villains gives me some ideas for a home brew fast paced hack and slash game. The idea may never bear fruit to anything at all, but I find it interesting.

About a month or so ago I managed to find a player who wanted to try the A Time of War RPG and I easily introduced the Battletech portion into our RPG campaign. So far the game is going smoothly with some hilarious RPG sessions. Mixing the ATOW and Battletech sessions is a challenge and more so to challenge the player, but otherwise is some serious fun.

Along the same lines I recently started assembling some Battletech battlemechs I still had in their packages. Some for reasons they might show up in the RPG campaign and other just for the sake of assembling them for hopeful future use. I even picked up a can or Army Painter Purple Alien spray paint to prime a few of my battlemechs. I have not gone further yet as I am looking into a purple wash to apply afterwards. It is easy to tell Battletech is my favorite game. I purchased and played it far before ever playing 40K. I may have found out about 40K before, but I am not sure.

Last week I started something hobby related. The picture below is a by product of the hobby for me and the picture was a good shot. Those who follow me will understand, those who can put clues together from previous posts should be able to figure it out as well. It is good news for me and good news to some on the internet and for anyone local remains hopeful. Perhaps it is an internal spark for the return of something. With this simple start I thought maybe I would go to one of the regular games and still I did not. Maybe I thought it was not right, not the time, but deep down its the feeling of why go, and I don't want to go. A feeling has been captured in my mind of what I can come to expect or not expect and it doesn't reflect everything, but it is enough to make me not want to go. Whether this means anything to anyone has me pondering and slowly tearing me apart.



For what it is worth, this is the only clue I will leave. Hopefully it or others will help kindle a flame which can just as easily burn out.