Iron Man Paint Competition

So, I competed in an Iron Man paint competition over the weekend, taking second for best painted. Here is what I was able to get done:

11 Acolytes(Thousand Sons) armour painted blue, inked purple, robes painted khemri brown, guns and shoulders painted gold, guns painted boltgun silver. Here is a close up of one of them.

No, I just need to keep going, flowing through the whole army. I have a WIP Daemon Prince that I will have pictures up for someday. I also just won an auction for 5 more Black Reach, which will finish off my terminator squad and give me a sergeant to use for my Chaos Sorcerer Lord conversion. I am trying to get another set, so I can do my Obliterators.
I recently tore the legs off my Dreadnought, deciding a more bird/mech warrior style set of legs would work better. My defiler I will likely totally scrap, keeping it for my second while I build a new one with similar legs to the dread. My first rhino is on the verge of being completely built if I would just sit down and finish it. Other than that, I am well on my way to my 1850 list for Tacticon, which I have already signed up for, so I had better get working.
On the topic of Tacticon, my Tomb Kings army will use mostly models I already have, with only my converted Priestess, Tomb Scorpion, and swarms being added. They do need painted, so that will need done as well.
I also think that I will be able to get in several games at least with both armies, as I think I will be joining the Saturday group, the ones who put on the Iron Man Challenge.
Well, time to roll some dice.

I'M ALIVE!

With Goreswirl rolling, I have mostly beeen doing my thing over there, listing Bat Reps and such. It does mean that I am getting in WAY more games, with last weekend(Father's Day) being the first week in 6 I didn't game. Which I am not sure that counts, I should technically say that it is the first weekend I haven't 40ked, as I did get to play the new Death Watch RPG(technically also 40k, I am just a liar everywhere). I must say that come August I am buying this. It is an AWESOME game. Which means, that in July I am buying Warhammer Fantasy, August is Death Watch, and September is Tacticon. WEEEE!!!! Broke.
I am not sure about Tacticon, I pry should just go for the fun, which is all I ever really was going for anyway. I know I am not good enough to take any places, but it would be fun to know that I could. My Tzeentch army isn't strong enough, as it is seriously missing the pow needed to take out armour, specifically IG. Its does however have plenty of AP 3 weaponry for the Blood Angels and Space Wolves. I guess it all depends on the draw. Who knows I may just end up facing Nids and Crons, or Eldar, with who I have ZERO experience. But thn its all about facing new armies anyway. I would however like to NOT finish dead last, but then somebody has to. It might not even matter, as I still have a lot of work left to do on my Acolytes before they are ready, but I did manage to pick up a larger pack of green stuff, so I plan to really start diving in this weekend.
I did manage to pls a Slaanesh list this last Goreswirl(2 weekends ago) and would have won, too. But the problem was, I didn't enjoy the list. At the end of the game, I ended up pulling off the hill, just so I wouldn't have to play it again. Alternate objectives turned out to be fun(for me anyway) I don't know what everyone else thought, I was the only one to really complete mine, and I did that relatively early.
I hope to post pictures of my Daemon Prince son, as I have started painting him. I actually couldn't take it anymore, having an army with entirely no paint on it was driving me insane, so now I will have 1 guy, and can go back building robes, which is basically my Saturday, I think.
My Defilers may be scrapped, I am starting to not like what I did with them. The constant Tinker Toy comments don't help either.
Anywho, that should be enough rambling for now, catchya later.

Almost king

So game 1 of Gore Swirl is done. I didn't win.
BUT, nobody else did either. Battle report over at Goreswirl, so I won't go into the details. This game was mine, well probably, but of course when I need a game to end, it doesn't, and(as in this case) when I need it not to, it does.
At games end, the forces were as follows:
Tyranids: whiped, excepting a single spore pod.
Sisters: A land raider still in thier corner, a unit of sisters partially on the objective, and an HQ something dead center.
Tau: ~Half strength firewarriors on objective, a lot of crap back in own deployment zone.
CSM(me): 2 1k sons and Asp Sorc in immobilizes rhino on objective edge. Another 1k sons well within range of the objective and an obliterator and some terms also in range. I had also failed to use my replacements asset.

My plan for the following turn was to spawn the firewarriors, hopefully leading to a flee. Shoot the sisters with my 1k sons and obliterator, also hoping for flee and maybe whipe. The terms job was the HQ. Barring the FWs in the Tau zone making the objective, and the troops surviving my fireing and assaults, it should have left me the dominant force on the table. I doubt the FWs would have moved foward, though they would have unloaded on my rhino, it had been a recent theme.
But alas, all of this is idle speculation, as we will never know what turn 6 would have brought.
Likely a turn 7 which would have ended up with the Tau moving foward and contesting again *sigh*

Chaos forever!!!

Or at least a while. So, I'm back in 40K. CSMs have changed my melancholy back to joy. I might have been able to sell my Tau today, but since that will never happen...
The game went well. I don't think I can find any fault with my current list. At least not yet. Thousand Sons do go down just as fast as White Dwarf says. The saves are awesome, but they still go down. Nurgles might help with extra toughness, but that ain't gonna happen, so. Marines seem to fall more frequently on this side, then the did on the other, but I think that's a point of view issue. They did take a lot to go down.
Today's game was a three way, CSMs(me), Dark Angels, and Sisters. The Sisters deployed, then me, then the Raven Wing Dark Angels didn't. It was quadrants, with Sisters in the north west, myself in the south west, and the Dark Angels not in the South East. I managed to seize the initiative, sweet.
First turn I rolled blood rage on my dread and he goes tearing forward. I move 1 thousand sons rhino eastward, the other 2 head north with a defiler between them. My other defiler, that was pointed due east at the empty DA deployment, turns north, and heads to cross a hill. My Daemon Prince follows the single rhino and heads toward the hill in the center, which is the only objective. I drop a battle cannon on a unit of flagellants and another on a large soritas(?) unit. I killed 3 flages, and a couple sisters.
The DAs do nothing.
The sisters promptly blew up my dread, officially making him do nothing all game. Still have no idea if I like this guy.(Though thanks to the TEG staffer who let me use his model) The rest was moving foward trying to pick a fight. My northbound defiler also eats it this turn.
My second defiler goes on to cross the hill take a rhino chassis something, lose its gun, get immobilized in combat with 2 penitents, who is eventually kills. Then it just sits there making noise till destroyed on 5th turn.
One rhino got popped by some flagellents, who were beat down by my shooting and lesser deamons. The deamons went on to do some serious damage more than earning their points and place in my army. At just 13 points each and 78 for the squad, I think they doubled their points.
My sorceror died to a sniper shot and me accidentally reading the ASPIRING sorceror line and crying '1 wound, what the hell?' Turns out 3 wounds and should have cause more havoc. *sigh*
My Daemon Prince gets killed on the hill from combined DA and Sister shooting.
My Term squad takes down 2 term squads(1 to shooting on deep strike, another to CC), some sisters, and finally dies to his HQ squad. I think I may switch to dual lightning claws, but I don't know where to get the points. Perhaps the dread...
My Obliterators didn't do a whole lot. 1 did death or glory and Immolater, managing to immobilize it. However, forgot to shoot the next turn, and missed the turn after. Some Thousand Sons were able to finish it off in assault in the end though.
The Thousand Sons were pretty awesome. I love the fluff, and I think the invul and especially the AP 3 bolters are fantastic. I didn't keep track, but I am pretty sure they made their points, if not in kills, in what they held up. I am definately sticking with them. Noise marines keep calling, but I don't think I will like them as much.
The game came out a draw end of turn 6. We would have had a turn 7, but the store was closed. I only had a few sons left and a rhino. He had a good chunk. The main thing for me was that the DAs laid into me pretty heavily, so that at the end of 4, when the DA player left, I was missing a chunk of my force already, where as the Sisters hadn't lost much I hadn't killed. After that it was pretty even, with me mostly holding my own. I think turn 7 would have seen me load the last remnants in the rhino and bunker it out until the end. I believe I was in range to Gift of Chaos his HQ jumper, which would have been my first spawn, and a hell of a prize. I don't think he could have gotten troops on the hill, as they were towards the west edge where they had taken one of my sons squads down. He would have contested, but still a draw.
All in all a good game. Things I would change, nothing. I would have liked to see my dread in action, but its dieing didn't hurt me that much. My first defiler making combat, and my second doing a little more destroying would have been nice as well. Also getting my sorc right would have really helped. Maybe I do need army builder.The Daemon Prince in actual combat, I wish I could have.
Things I liked: my squad of lesser daemons, a definite keeper. I don't see more being added, either to this squad, or more squads, but one is very nice. My defiler(it was my scratch built, too) was awesome in combat, I still like them. I don't miss the pred, the obliterators seem more than capable of doing the job. I do, however, think that they need to be deployed, not deep struck. The lascannon gives them plenty of range, and slow and purposeful means they can mostly keep pace with the rest of my army. The term squad was awesome, even though they aren't relentless and thus can't shoot and assault(need to check this), did some awesome damage. Being 9 strong definitely helps. I was wondering if the rhinos are a waste, but I think I will stick with them, they help keep my sons alive into rapid fire range.
I won't be changing this list much before next game.
On a side note, I found the perfect dice for my army, both in looks and the fact that they seems to roll awesome!

Chaos Space Marines

Well, I am firmly within the thrall of Tzeentch. I have a good start on my first defiler, I have offered to by another players CSM models, and am discussing what I am to do with the Orks from the Black Reach box.
I have already revised my list a bit, dropping the pred and moving to 9 man squads. The predator I think is a bit of over kill that I don't need. I have my obliterators if I am facing strong armour, I also have my defilers' battle cannon should I need more range, and a dread with a pair of claws and two defilers with quad claws if I need it up close. Also, the 4+ invul of most of my army should help against heavy weapons, with my rhinos being the most vulnerable.
As for the squads of 9, I just found an old White Dwarf(circa 2002) with a chapter approved on Thousand Sons, stating that the number 9 is sacred to Tzeentch, which I had forgotten. Thus, 9.
I should have pictures of my defiler up soon. I don't want to WIP this one, because the process is kinda ugly, and iffy the whole way.

Chaos Space Marines?

Well, in a turn from the greater good, I have decided to watch the galaxy burn. I was able to give the CSM a try, and I liked it. Mind you I only got in 2 turns before we had to break, as we spent most of the morning working on Gore Swirl. The turns are almost lightning quick, almost as fast as Tau turns are later in the game. Nobody got trounced, even though there was a Tau player. The only real damage I did was a couple piranhas and a sniper drone, but I had my Defiler and Daeman Prince on the objective, lesser daemons with in reach, a rhino close behind, with another circling around the right side, and a third destroyed(wait thats not good), but the Thousand Sons inside on the move into Tau territory. I did learn that I will pry be dropping the predator, as a single static tank in my back field seems sort of a waste when I am rushing foward with monstrous creatures who can do the same thing vehicles in person, and will be able to do more against infantry. Also, the drop will let me add another defiler.
I am currently working on getting templates for building the rhinos. I might end up scratch building all the vehicles, though originally I had planned to only use the rhinos for proxies until I had decided on a list. I might look at making a pre-heresy style force, but I do like the Black Reach space marine helms.
I guess we shall see.

Annihilate the 'crons!

So, we finally threw down the 2 'cron vs 2 Tau game. Apocalypse, no FOC, 2500 per player(5k per team). I was running late, so they rolled mission and such with out me. Annihilate! Damn! Each side had 2 assets. We took the marker field(everything marked within 24") and a Icestorm warhead(10" blast vs vehicles, all 'crons hit take a pinning test). They took some tech snag thing, single use, grabbed one of my area denial nodes. Other asset was a unit gets up on 2+, instead of 4+.
Started the game by making a destroyer squad run off the table, its becoming a theme. Took out swarm after swarm with rail rifles, killing 4 3 base swarms and 2 bases of the 5th by the end of turn 2. Almost everything else got back up. At end of turn 2 we had to barely scratched them. Supposed to finish weekend after next, but there is already talk about calling that one.
Likely next time will be objectives, with us holding a fortification on one end, going the long way. Basically a pro Tau setup, with the exception of no phase out for the 'crons. Not sure I like it, but whatever.
Biggest thing I need to do is look long and hard at that third mission. It has filled me with a undue sense of dread, and I need to face it down. I think I need to just set up my gun line and go all out for the kill. Kill a unit, move to the next. When placing on the long edge, instead of spreading across table to maximise fire lanes, and cutting off support from different elements, I should place everything in a cluster along the flank, forcing the enemy into my fire lanes. I think setting up second may not be disadvantageous. Then I can pick the weak flank and force them to move their strength to me, moving as far as possible.
For this next game, knowing my opponent and knowing my terrain setup before hand, I think I will place all my guns on the wall, plugging the hole in the center and the ends with my nodes. Likely place my HHs behind the wall, so they can move forward over the wall, landing in front, to unleash death first turn. Top of the walls will be loaded with markers, snipers, and broadside. Mind you, I will have to set up with a partner and space is limited, but it should work out, table is 5' wide. Pathfinder Devilfishes will find a place behind the nodes giving LoS for deep strike across the board. If the monoliths land in the back field, I hope to use my teammates FWs with EMPs to take them out.