August 2010
2 posts
Suffer Not the Cincinnati Reds
I just watched the San Francisco Giants crush the Cincinnati Reds 16-5 from the comforts of the Diamond Suite. I’ve lived a block away from AT&T Park since moving to San Francisco in May, but this was my first Giants game.
I’m glad I waited!
The Diamond Suite is unreal. It’s on the press level and has an unbelievable view of the field. The game was hands-down the most...
MKERR'S LIST
Here are my favorite blog articles of the week. Come join me in the comments!
1. 3 Tiny Points (Blood of Kittens) 2. Iamaddj Says Wound Allocation Sucks (BoLS) 3. Kirby Says Iamaddj Sucks (3++) 4. Mkerr Says Kirby Sucks (Chainfist) 5. AbusePuppy Takes on Battle Points (3++) 6. In Defense of Battle Points (Chainfist) 7. Getting the NOVA Open Math Right (YTTH) 8. Nice to Meet You! (Saint...
October 2009
4 posts
Rogue Trader Campaign: The Seed
I love the beginning of a new campaign! Here’s an excerpt from the introduction to the setting I’m creating. Enjoy!
“There are many versions of the story of Solon Fortunatus Wolf and his pursuit of the Sextant Pacificus. My favorite starts with a girl and a prophecy.
The stars are her home But Heleroia her destination Mothered by the void Her Father’s salvation The...
First Steps: Rogue Trader Campaign
A little more than a year ago, we released a campaign book called the Macharian Crusade. The local version of the campaign led to endless hours of fun and exploration at our local gaming store involving more than 30 players (and expanding the Imperium by hundreds of conquered new worlds).
In a very real way the Segmentum Pacificus became familiar to us. We knew our path along the stars and the...
Postcoital Rogue Trader
We had our first Rogue Trader session last night and it was a ton of fun. We spend some time building characters (love the Origin Path) and building a ship (also a lot of fun).
After the creation effort was complete (which ended up being a lot more cooperative and fun — thanks to the Origin Path innovation), we ran through two test combats. A group of warp-possessed servitors on the...
Reading: Rogue Trader
So the folks at Fantasy Flight Games were nice enough to send us a preview copy of the new Rogue Trader RPG. I’m only going to say a few words about the game here, but look for a more in-depth review for BOLS soon.
It uses the same rules as the popular Dark Heresy RPG. Dark Heresy is a gorgeous game and the background is deep. I loved to read the Dark Heresy book, but nothing in that...
September 2009
9 posts
Howdy, Njal!
Our FLGS owner asked me to playtest a 2,000pt four Rune Priest Space Wolves army against _heavy_ tournament armies (more details on that later) and I was lucky enough to get in THREE games last night with some of the local top players.
I can sum up all of the games with Njal Stormcaller is the best character in the game. Bar none. He’s surprisingly abusive.
I’ll put up a more...
Bitter Nick-Shaped Pill
Congratulations to Fly Lord Nick Rose (a.k.a. Darkwynn on the forums) for winning ‘Ard Boyz 2009! Nick worked hard, played smart and deserves a collective pat-on-the-back from all of us! I feel particularly vindicated because I was one of Nick’s stepping stones on his crushing path to victory. It was Nick who knocked my super-cheaty™ Space Wolves army out of the first round with his...
I Heart Mark of the Wulfen
I spent most of my week at the local game developers conference, so I haven’t had a lot of time to respond to comments, PMs and emails. I’m trying to get caught up this weekend.
I did manage to sneak away from meetings, parties and dinners to get a game in on Thursday. And to top it off I got to play some new Space Wolves units! The game was against a “heavy” Eldar...
How Did I Miss This???
Ah, how I love new codex shenanigans!
So a Wolf Guard Battle Leader on Thunderwolf can buy Saga of the Hunter. This let’s him Scout or Outflank. This also means he can join a Wolf Scout unit and deploy Behind Enemy Lines.
Am I reading the codex right? Did I miss something?
Soft Score Solutions
I’m sure you’ve all been waiting for me to weigh in on the “Soft Scores in Tournaments” issue, lol. Believe it or not, I actually agree with many points on both sides of the argument.
For those of you who don’t know, a soft score is a player-judged (or sometimes organizer-judged) score added to a player’s battle score to determine overall placement in a...
TSHIFT Event Report on Blood of Kittens
Blood of Kittens has a nice review of the games that happened at TSHIFT (an 1,850 point WH40K tournament) in Seattle.
He was also kind enough to give us army lists for the overall winners:
Best Overall: Koyote’s Blood Angels
Second Overall: Dusldorf’s Space Wolves
Best General: warlord_fluger’s Orks
In addition to the army lists, we have battle reports from the three...
The OTHER Space Wolves HQ Choices
Let’s talk a bit about Space Wolves HQ. I think everyone’s envisioning “all Rune Priests - all the time”, but there are some darn good HQs that just aren’t getting the attention they deserve.
WOLF PRIEST What You Get: Think “Chaplan ++” when you hear Wolf Priest. They are nearly identical to the standard Space Marine Chaplain (exact same price, stats...
2000pt Space Wolves List (New Codex)
For those of you expecting a Witch Hunters list, sorry. Soon, I promise. But tonight I have something special. Yes! New Space Wolves!
While I won’t say that the new ‘dex has passed through my grubby little hands, I can chat with you guys about this list magically appeared on my Tumblr site. How awesome is that? Now I’m sure you can squeeze a lot more from this juicy piece of...
2000pt Chaos Daemons
So I’ve been building a Chaos Daemons army since the codex came out, but I haven’t had a lot of opportunities to field it. It seems that I’m always under the gun to represent the Emperor’s Finest. I’ve made a promise to myself to get a few games under my belt with the army. I hope you’ll bear with me while I learn the army’s ins-and-outs.
If you follow...
August 2009
4 posts
Blood Angels 2000pt List
After the highs (and even higher highs) of BOLSCON, I’m going to take a week off and go back to my roots. Seeing Jawaball’s gorgeous Blood Angels army reminded me that I haven’t given my Blood Angels much love in 5E.
So here’s a list sure to make our local IG players sweat a bit:
HQ Dante Honor Guard (Sanguinary Priest, BA Chapter Banner, 2 Power Weapons) Corbulo
ELITE...
BOLSCON ARMY LIST #1
Bigred asked for a Badab Space Marines army list that doesn’t take a lot of time or thought to play. But he wanted something with lots of Landraiders and a nice punch.
Here’s the 3,000pt list I made him:
HQ Pedro Kantor Librarian (Terminator Armor, Might of the Ancients, Gate of Infinity)
TROOPS 10-man Tactical Squad (Meltagun, Missile Launcher, Sergeant w/Power Weapon, Teleport...
2500 Witch Hunters Roster
I originally built this list for the first round of the 2009 Ard Boyz, but decided against it when I heard there were steep penalties for not finishing games (this army has lots of models to set-up and tear down). Enjoy!
HQ WH Inquisitor Lord (Psychic Hood) — Retinue: Acolyte, 1 Chirurgeon, 3 Heavy Bolter Gun Servitors
DH Inquisitor Lord (Psycannon) — Retinue: Sage, 2 Mystics, 3...
Space Wolves 2009 'Ard Boyz
Here’s a fun list I put together for the first round of the 2009 ‘Ard Boyz tournament. I had three goals: 1) play fast (our local store penalized you if you don’t complete a game within the allocated time), 2) win close combats (I expected to see Orks, Nurgle Daemons and Tyranids several times), and 3) make a viable army with FOUR Landraiders.
I threw together the list five...
July 2009
2 posts
Relictors 2000pt Army List
I love my Relictors army, so I think I’ll bring it out for a spin. Going to try something a little different though by adding a Ordo Malleus Inquisitor and some Daemonhosts. I haven’t used them at all in 5E, so it should be lots of fun.
HQ Chapter Master Pedro Kantor Inquisitor Lord (Psycannon, Psychic Hood) — Retinue: 3 HB Gun Servitors, 2 Sages, 2 Mystics
ELITE 3...
Quick Update
Just a head’s up. I’m going to start posting to the Fly Wire again.
It seems that I need a place to post things that are too long for Twitter (follow me at http://www.twitter.com/40KNEWS) but too short for the blog — like army lists.
Tumblr is such a perfect vehicle for that in-between size.
We may end up using it to give you big bite-size updates at BOLSCON too (depending...
October 2008
4 posts
MACHARIAN CRUSADE: GAME 2
Well, it looks like another week without an appearance from the Cadian Armored Corps as the badguys need more help to repel misguided minions of the Lord Solar. I’ll be playing the defenders of Druge; facing off against Frank Moran’s Harakoni Warhawks! Since we don’t know much about the planet, I decided to fill in the gaps a bit. Here’s a little preamble to the battle:
...
'Ard Boyz Semi-Finals Scenarios →
1. Spearhead - Annihilation (modified kill points) 2. Pitched Battle - Seize Ground 3. Dawn of War - Capture & Control AND Annihilation (modified kill points)
MACHARIAN CRUSADE: GAME 1
Tomorrow is the first game of our 8-week journey through the rich and colorful history of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Although normally I’d be commanding the Cadian Armored Corps in Sejanus’ Second Army Group (from the cupola of a mighty armored beast), in tomorrow’s game I’m playing the defending home guard of the Kallastin Stratocracy.
The misguided and overzealous...
Forgeworld Package!
I arrived at the office to find a package from Forgeworld on my desk. I’m always excited when these brown boxes arrive. The first reason is that it’s not work (yea! any distraction is a good thing!), and secondly it’s usually been so long I’ve completely forgotten my order. That makes Forgeworld packages like a gift that senile aunt on your mother’s side that...
September 2008
12 posts
Breaking the Space Marine Codex: Part 2
So Pedro Kantor is a pretty nasty piece of work. He has probably the best “area of effect” power in the new codex (all friendly units within 12” get +1 Attack) and he’s the only IC that gives a Space Marine army more scoring units (adding the very-shooty Sternguard Veterans to the list). If it stacked with the Honor Guard’s Chapter Banner power, it would just be...
New Bling: Mino
I just picked up a new pice of BoLS bling — a Flip Video Mino. It’s an iPod-sized video camera that is going to change the way I make video and I hope that it’s going to bring some new fun to the Flywire.
A buddy of mine, Trey Ratcliff (you can check out his amazing photography at Stuck In Customs), recommended it and I just love it. It’s relatively inexpensive (~$150 on...
David Blaine's "Dive of Death (of Magician's...
(Sorry, I know this has nothing to do with WH40K but I have to say SOMETHING!)
Did anyone stay up tonight and watch the David Blaine special? Instead of doing one of a dozen things that I need to do (like update the Flywire or get the Army of Death mini-dex done or respond to your emails asking for tips and tricks), I got sucked into a David Blaine special.
The whole thing led up to the...
Breaking the Space Marine Codex: Part 1
A new codex provides players like myself many hours of fun - not on the gaming table, but hacking up the list with Excel to find the “perfect power combo”. Why do we do it? Well, I apparently get more satisfaction by harassing my friends and co-workers with exploits than I do from pushing around the models.
Clearly, I need help.
So this is the first of a series of articles on...
Chaos Daemons
Gentle Ben just finished a GORGEOUS Fateweaver model for my Chaos Daemons army (and a very, very cool Tzeentch Daemon Prince). I’ll be posting pictures in the next two days (assuming I can get Bigred to remember the camera).
So far I’ve managed to accumulate:
Skarbrand
Fateweaver
6 Flamers
10 Bloodletters
24 Horrors
Tzeentch Daemon Prince
Soulgrinder
(I have another...
'Ard Boyz List: Imperial Guard
After a ton of agonizing army builds, I’ve settled on my list for tomorrow’s event. Although I don’t think that horde IG will be as much fun as my other lists, this will probably be my last opportunity to do well in a tournament with Guard! I just can’t pass it up! So here is my MIN-KP IG army:
DOCTRINES Camoline, Drop Troops, Special Weapons Teams, Sharp Shooters, Close...
'Ard Boys Army List: Imperial Guard + Allies
Here’s an Imperial Guard (+Allies) army that I’m considering. There are definitely some things I could do to tune it up, but I’m working with the models I have here.
HQ Command Platoon (Drop Troops) — Command Squad (Sharpshooters, Autocannon, Medic, Bolt Pistol) — Junior Officer (Iron Discipline, Honorifica Imperials, Power Weapon) — Chimera (ML/HB, Smoke...
'Ard Boyz: Tournament Errata (official)
This is about as official as it gets. We were sent via email by the owner of our FLGS; it came to him via email through the sales trade channel. I have no idea if the “clarifications” are going to make it to the ‘Ard Boyz website, but here are the details. I recommend sending this data to your local gaming store and having him confirm it through the sales channel.
You’ll...
'Ard Boyz: Kill Point Errata
This is from Mike Clark (mikhaila from DakkaDakka):
“I just got off the phone with Chris Woodward, head of trade sales. Much question asking and note taking. I’ll be typing up clarifications to many of the questions here, and posting it later tonite. Chris is up to his eyebrows in meetings at HQ, and I volunteered to be an imperial scribe for the evening. The main idea is that...
'Ard Boyz: Round 1 Missions!!!
Many of you may have missed the comment by Khornatedemon in the comment thread of my last post, but GW has released the missions for Round 1 of the 2008 ‘Ard Boyz event.
Here’s a link to the PDF.
They have deviated quite substantially from the “out of the book” missions. Make sure that you check your lists against it because it totally wrecks some of the classic...
'Ard Boyz List: TMCs
This is a pretty traditional Nidzilla list that I’ve used in tournaments over the years. There are only a few small changes: 1. I’ve dropped the Flyrant and added a 2nd Hive Tyrant with Guard 2. I’ve replaced the 4+ save on my Genestealers with Scuttling 3. I’ve dropped one of the Elite Carnifexes with 2 Lictors
Here’s the list:
HQ Hive Tyrant; 317 points —...
'Ard Boyz List: AC + Allies (part deux)
I thought I’d post my most recent list (and a sketch of how I plan to deploy the army).
Here’s the list:
HQ Command Tank; 338 Pts — Battle Tank, Ace Gunners, Ace Sponson Gunner, Anti-tank Rounds, Evasive Driving, Extra Armor, Improved Comms, Smoke Launchers, Lascannon, Sponson Heavy Bolter
Inquisitor Lord; 318 Pts — Bolter, Targeter — 3 Mystics — Land...
August 2008
17 posts
'Ard Boyz List: Chaos Daemons!
2499 Point Chaos Daemons ‘Ard Boyz List
HQ Skarbrand The Exiled One; 300 points
Fateweaver; 333 points
TROOPS 10 Bloodletters; 165 points — Instrument of Chaos
10 Bloodletters; 165 points — Instrument of Chaos
11 Pink Horrors; 222 points — Bolt of Tzeentch, Chaos Icon
12 Pink Horrors; 244 points — Changling, Bolt of Tzeentch, Chaos Icon
16 Plaguebearers; 270...
'Ard Boyz List: AC + WH
As promised I’m posting some of my ‘Ard Boyz test lists. I’m still no closer to making a decision, but it should still be a fun exercise.
In honor of the past few posts (and the many comments), I’ll start with a 2,500 point Armored Company list:
HQ Command Tank - Leman Russ (Ace Gunners, Ace Sponson Gunner, Anti-tank Rounds, Evasive Driving, Extra Armour, Improved...
“Love the blog, check it just about every day. Was just reading your...”
– This nice little note arrived in my mail box this afternoon. It’s from John Spencer (GW Customer Service Specialist). This was also confirmed by a particulary tenatious Fly Lord who managed to crawl his way up the chain to the guy that’s running the ‘Ard Boyz Final.
Yea! Consider...
Armored Company + Ard Boyz ≠ Fun
I’m not much of a “sky is falling” guy. I generally react positively when I hear outlandish rumors and I’m ALWAYS willing to give a new rule/codex/mission a spin before branding it “broken”. But I’m a little worried about the 2008 ‘Ard Boyz rules. No matter how I slice it, it’s going be an exercise in pushing player buttons.
Let me paint a...
Army of Death: Rules Debate!
Since I’m talking about the Army of Death mini-dex (instead of posting Ard Boyz list options), I thought you all might enjoy joining a BoLS rules argument debate. We have these on a daily (sometimes hourly) basis and this one in particular is… polarizing.
For those of you that know the background for Captain Tycho (Captain of the Blood Angels 3rd Company who succumbed to the Black...
Building "Hobby" Lists
As I sit down to start writing the most abusive and cheesy lists possible for the Ard Boyz Training Camp, I’ve received a small stack of email asking about “hobby” lists.
The general question is “how do you make a hobby list?”. First, let’s define the term “hobby”. In Austin, we have a very competitive (and active) 40k community. We noticed that...
Theme Tournament: WITCH HUNTERS!!! (Part 2)
Let me start off by saying that I rarely get to play in local tournaments. First of all, they consume an entire Saturday (generally starting at 11AM and finishing around 7PM). Secondly, I have a girlfriend, a 6-year old son and a new house. Needless to say, I rarely get to play in local tournaments.
So when I do, I treat them as an opportunity to PLAY! I get to play THREE games; sometimes I...
Theme Tournament: WITCH HUNTERS!!!
Our FLGS runs a couple of types of tournaments, including what they call a “hobby” tournament. This event disallows abusive lists and marks theme and painting higher than in the more competitive tournaments.
Sounds great, right? I thought so too! The fact that I wouldn’t be faced with fleets of Falcons and mobs of monstrous creatures meant that I could take something fun! So...
50,000 Point Game: RELICTORS!
Pardon the speed posts, but I’m going to try to catch all of my loyal readers up on my last few games. I probably won’t go into as much detail on what worked and what didn’t, so if you have any questions leave them as a comment and I’ll be happy to answer them!
I’ll start with the choices I made for the 50,000 point Apocalypse battle. I chose Space Marines because...
Tomorrow's List: ???????
So tomorrow Battleforge Games is having a “good vs. evil” Apocalypse game. I don’t think I can pass that up! With a score of armies to choose from, it’s really hard for me to settle on an army to play.
Typically, I fall back on my armored regiment (fewer models to hassle with is a definite plus). But I have a HUGE Relictors army that hasn’t made it on the table for...