Epic Procrastination - Happy 2nd Birthday

2 Weeks ago this blog turned 2. Huzzah! 2 weeks ago it was also Blog Wars, which I didn't get an invite to again, which tells me something. This is still pokey little blog. But I don't mind that, less pressure. I'd hate to be stuck writing every day in fear of the demanding masses. Luckily, this seems extremely unlikely.

Intense Concentrations

Yes I am aware that terribly vague titles are indeed, well, terrible, and are something that I used to do back in the early days. But never-the-less, I can't think of a better name for this post.

Today has been really productive. I went and did some group work for University, then came back, played some Minecraft with my mates including standard Tom Leighton level dumbassery (letting the farm animals out, then egging the house for my mate being annoyed, allowing hordes of monsters to spawn on my island and solving the problem of Skeletons by diving into the deepest ocean I could find with all my stuff). Then I played a couple of games of 40k. To give some perspective here, these started in the middle of the afternoon and finished at 1:00am, and one isn't even finished.

200th Post - New Project

I am a horrendous hobby butterfly. Unless I am working on a project I'm not happy, and so the cycle repeats itself, but with a little bit of a twist this time. I had originally hoped that this post would be about my first tournament win, but despite winning all 3 games in a one day event, including a horrific match up on an open board against Dark Eldar, I came 2nd to the TO. But never mind, it's only toy soldiers.

I already have 2 competitive armies. My Space Wolves could do with some updating with Drop Pods and such but I have my Chaos Marines ready to rock simultaneously. The plan here is to do a themed army.

Recommitting (sp?)...again

I know I've done this a few times, but a thought has struck me recently. I keep saying that I'll put more blog posts up next month when I'm not so busy, but being honest, that's just a pile of crap. The fact is that I really don't want to feed you bull anymore. I could say that I'm really busy right now with University work and that I'll post next month but then next month I have more University work and my job, then in January it's the same and it's touch and go whether I make it to Caledonian.

Maulerfiends, Defilers and Specialism

I've found a really good use for this blog. Debates on Facebook. Posting arguments on a blog and then linking into Facebook is easier to read than slapping a huge slab of text down and hoping someone will read it. So what I am going to be arguing for here is that Maulerfiends are a good unit and that Defilers are not, thus reinforcing my stance and attacking the counter-argument being presented. Behold!

UK 40k GT Heat 2 - Report: Game 6

So, going into the last game, here is how it stands. I'm currently sitting just above mid table with 2 wins, 2 losses, a draw and a strong victory points count back due to smash victories against my first 2 opponents and picking up some points against Rob. So now it comes down to one game. If I win, I qualify comfortably, if I draw, I just scrape in, I lose and I'm probably out. And to be honest, it doesn't get much harder than this.

UK 40k GT Heat 2 - Report: Game 5

Game 5 and I'm feeling pretty good. I'm confident against anything other than my horror match up in FMC Daemons in Kill Points, Hammer and Anvil. This is also exactly why I was pretty certain that my qualification would go down to the final game. As an FMC Daemons army arrives at the table.

UK 40k GT Heat 2 - Report: Game 4

So I come into day 2 only needing to win a game. The first game of the day being Emperor's Will with Vanguard Strike, and I was playing against a Necron player with Tau allies, who had won a 2 day event a couple of weeks back. He was running 3 Annihilation Barges, 2 Night Scythes with minimal Warriors and Crypteks with Haywire Staffs in. He had a Riptide, a Skyray, a tooled up Overlord and a load of Kroot with Snipers.

This isn't a bad match up for me at all. But despite this, I would have been happy with a draw, as it left me with only needing to avoid losing both of my remaining games to qualify. He picked the deployment zone behind an enormous hill, and he made me go first, Night Fighting was in effect.

UK 40k GT Heat 2 - Report: Game 3

So, going into the final game of day 1, and I'm on the top tables, kicking it with 40k powerhouses such as Courtney Rhodes, James French and Rob Waller. Rob beat my friend (who's a much better player than me) that I came down with in the first round, and now I was in his crosshairs.

UK 40k GT Heat 2 - Report: Game 2

Courtesy of the large win in the first game, I was now sitting on table 2, which at this stage in the tournament really doesn't mean too much. That said, my next game was against a Tau player. He was running an Ethereal, he had 2 squads of 10 Kroot, he had 2 squads of Broadsides with all of the Missiles. 2 Riptides with Fusion Blasters on one and one with SMS. He had 2 squads of 6 Pathfinders. Then he had Eldar allies, with 2 squads of Bikes and a Farseer on a Bike. Plus he had an Aegis Defence Line.

The Mission was the Relic with Dawn of War deployment.

UK 40k GT Heat 2 - Report: Game 1

I've been looking forward to the GT Heats for a while, but also felt a little nervous. I really felt that that I should qualify for the finale. I had decided what to take a few weeks ago, but I didn't really want to divulge anything such was my desperation.

My list was:

Space Marine Analysis - Centurions

To make this segment a bit more bearable for me, I'm going to be just going with the flow. So apologies for the 'scattergun' approach in advance. I've decided to go for Centurions this time around. They're shiny and new and I've played against them a lot.

Gone off Batrep

Just noticed that this is the 101st post of the year. Meh. Anyway, with the GT Heats coming up I'm really loath to talk about anything really. I have a super secret plan with a super secret list and super secret new toys for it. So I'm being super secretive to make sure that it doesn't get out what I'm bringing. If anyone who knows me personally posts what I'm doing in the comments section I will personally hire a bodyguard just to slap you when we next meet. After deleting the comment of course.

In other news, I bought the new Marine Codex, and went to an unvailing 'tournament' at my local store, where only loyalist Marine codecies were allowed. Everyone was using Vanilla bar me with pure Wolves. First game was the Relic. Big ass Chapter Master on bike with more Bikes, I just kept jumping on the Relic with my multitudes of Troops and dragging it back while my Lone Wolves fended off the Bikes to close out the game with a win.

Then I played a Salamanders list, discovered how terrible Assault Centurions are as Long Fangs with my Rune Priest beat them in combat and charged after them cutting them down eventually. The Lone Wolves got around the back. One smashed Vulkan in the face and the other tied up his remaining Marines. Won that.

Then played against a really nice army, which won the local Armies on Parade, in the final. Ignored the Centurions, took a turn of shooting then grabbed First Blood, before pounding forwards knocking him off his objective and claiming 2 of my own. So I won the event essentially. I'll probably be doing a Codex Analysis of them. I hate that segment now but I know Marines are popular so I'll do it.

In non-40k related news. I have a game of Fantasy tomorrow. In addition, my mates have banned me from League of Legends until my new Computer arrives. The number of 'cardboard PC' jokes is tremendous but I keep disconnecting because even League on low settings crashes my 2.2Gb 6 year old Laptop. However, my new 'Overkill PC' 16Gb Desktop arrived on Tuesday.... In Sheffield, so I have to wait until Saturday before it makes it back down to Oxford.

But back to the main topic. In May I photographed a Battle Report, and I have never got around to actually producing it. This has warranted a degree of nagging from my opponent, and now it's got to the point where I either put it up or I buy him a beer. So here you are. If it's wrong, drop a comment in the bottom but don't expect me to change it because I'm far too lazy. I also hope I've got the pictures in the right order. This should be an interesting memory exercise.

Champions of Chaos - What's the problem?

Certainly in the gaming groups that I play in, one of the most complained about thing by other Chaos Players is the Champions of Chaos special rule. This is a rule that is given to all characters, and it has 2 effects. Firstly, you must challenge and you must always accept challenges. Secondly, if you beat down an enemy character a combat, you roll on the Chaos Boons table, which can give you many 'rewards'. But why is it so hated?

September Throne of Skulls (40k) Stats

I moved back to Oxford today, so today's post is going to be something that I don't have to think about too often. So here are the rankings from top to bottom for each of the 15 factions based off average score, including how many people played the army. Of course, as it's Throne of Skulls it's not definitive, but it does give a good representation of which armies are popular at the minute and an ok one of which are doing the best in which a playing field of mixed armies is encouraged. So, let's get on with it.

Throne of Skulls the Third - September '13 40k

So, I've just got back from a tiring weekend at Throne of Skulls, this one has really taken it out of me and I have no idea why. So, instead of going through each game individually, I'm going to blast through them one at a time in this post. Still in depth to a degree, but not individual post worthy. Pictures will be coming the moment I have enough internet usage left on my phone, I don't have very much left.

My list was a variation on my GT List. 2 Rune Priests, naked, pretty much, 2 Lone Wolves, 3 packs of Grey Hunters, 1 Drop Pod, 2 smaller packs of Long Fangs, Primaris Psyker, Guard Blob, Manticore.

Surprise Throne of Skulls

Ok the surprise is for me, if it were for readers it would be a pretty terrible surprise especially considering that I'm the one going. One of my club mates bought a Throne of Skulls ticket, and recently discovered that they wouldn't be able to go, and so they have been attempting (with the permission of the organisers) to offload it.

Throne of Skulls is next weekend, and I'm meant to be moving back down to Oxford then, but I just dropped £700 on a new PC and ideally I'd like to take it back with me, so I thought, what the hell, I'll buy the ticket.

Strategy Ramblings - Chaos Marines Vs The Screamer Brick

Well, if this is indeed the restart of regular posting that was a very short hiatus indeed. It occured to me at work that rather than thinking up new ramblings, or shoe-horning myself into a corner making me write posts about certain topics, I should just write about whatever pops into my head whilst I'm working. One of the biggest problems in my game is my strategy. I'm pleased with my tactical play after Invasion where we demolished our way through the tournament with a pretty poor list combination, but when you're getting into the larger tournaments to succeed you need to make that step into strategy, and that's been something that I've been attempting to do.

I've been uming and ahing a lot recently regarding my list choice for tournaments for the rest of the year. Recently I've been thinking about a Wolves Jaws bomb / blob hybrid. Good for Daemons, good for Tau. However how would my Chaos list fare against the flavour of the month? Welcome my friends, to my mind. Here is a picture of some head bookends, giving an accurate description of what goes on inside my head.

Short Hiatus

This is more of an announcement than a post. Over the last couple of months I haven't exactly been churning out the content, this has been down to a number of factors, and if I said it was down to any one of them that would be a lie. In Sheffield I live in the suburbs. My nearest stores are half an hour bus ride away, and my nearest club is about the same distance driving. Because I work in a pub, my work days fall around the weekend and occasionally in the week as well, meaning that I'm not able to get to the club or stores as much for games due to the short amount of time that I will have left. This has essentially meant that I have played 1 singles game since mid-July.

There is only so much theory-hammer that one can occupy oneself with, and as this blog is mostly theory-hammer, it has suffered a little due to me attempting to pass the time at work theory-hammer-ing. The long and the short of it is that recently I've become a little disillusioned with the hobby as a whole recently, so I'm going to be taking a break from the pressure of trying to get content up here for a little while, just until I've re-inthused myself.

If you were to ask me how long this would be that would actually be a pretty simple question to answer. I go back to Oxford on Saturday 14th September, once I am starting to get more games on a more regular basis (I'm aiming for at least 5 during Fresher's week alone) then I should be back to regular posting (which in the past hasn't been particularly regular but you get the point), so I'm looking to aim for updating every Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. I have no idea exactly what I'm going to be doing here for that period of time, but it's likely that it will be something tournamenty. Until then.

Invasion II Game 3 - Tournament Report

Going into the final game we are now on the top table, and our severe lack anti vehicular weaponry has come to sting us in the table once again, this time in the form of a dual Eldar list. It was a strong list, but not broken. The had a Spiritseer in a squad of 5 Wraithguard with D-Scythes in a Wave Serpent. They had 2 squads of Bikes, Baharroth, 10 Howling Banshees which he tanked for, a Night Spinner, Fire Prism, and that was about it.

Invasion II Game 2 - Tournament Report

In the last post I may have alluded to our list's inability to deal with vehicles, well, when you have 3 AV13 vehicles facing you across the battlefield, you definitely can't deal with vehicles. We were playing against a Chaos Marine and Necron List, comprising of a Black Mace Lord, a 5 man Nurgle squad, a 10 man standard squad, a Vindicator, 10 Immortals with Tesla, 10 Warriors, a Lord and 2 Annihilation Barges. The mission was Crusade with Dawn of War.

Invasion II Game 1 - Tournament Report

Wow I have a lot of posts on the go. None of them are finished but there are a lot half complete. Although the amount of content coming out of here is currently a bit minimal, it should pick up hopefully towards the end of the month.

Anyway, yesterday was the day of the Invasion Doubles tournament for the Oxfordshire and Wiltshire stores, with 6 stores coming up to Warhammer World to compete. All in all 68 teams. As I've been living in Sheffield for the past couple of months I've been unable to acquire a ticket, but I went down to Warhammer World anyway to see everyone. As it happened, Oxford were one player short, and one of their guys was left without a player. Using my special ringer powers, I thus partnered him. Let the tournament commence!

Eldar Analysis - Farseer

Well that was unexpected. I played my first game with the new Eldar codex today, and used it as a prime opportunity to test a couple of units out. Baharroth, some Swooping Hawks, Dire Avengers, Guardians, Striking Scorpions, War Walkers, Rangers, Eldrad and Shining Spears. Surprisingly, the star of the show was the last unit. I'm not sure how much of a fluke this was but they were absolutely fantastic. The Exarch himself killed a Venerable Dreadnought before finishing off a squad of marines and killing the enemy Warlord in a challenge. But more on that later, today, Farseers.

Eldar Analysis - Autarch

Wow I'm getting behind on this. This could possibly be due to my recent exploits. On Friday I went down to Warhammer World, and filled in as a mercenary for the Freebootas as they took on the Overlords. Since, I have decided that I really need to kick my play up another gear. The last few 2 day tournaments that I've been to I've been pushing on just above mid table, which I've been content with really, but I've been attending bigger independent tournaments for 6 months now and really feel that I should be at a level where I'm hitting the top 50% most of the time.

Fabius Vs Abaddon

I know that this is a bit of a strange post, firstly it comes straight out of left field among all of the tournament reports and Eldar analysis posts, however I said I'd do it so here it is. I recently got into a debate with some guys on Facebook regarding Fabius and Abaddon. The original notion being that Abaddon made Fabius look good. I disagreed, and flew straight into my basic argument stance. Write so many words that people cannot be bothered to read it and I win by default (actually I employed the same tactic in my A Level Computing Coursework a couple of years back, 1,500 pages and over 500,000 words). However, when the obvious of not reading the post was stated, I promised to post it as a Blog article and link it in, breaking it down into sizable chunks. So here it is.

Eldar Analysis - Maugan Ra

HQs can generally be split up into 2 categories; those that support, and those that are supported. The latter is made up of your beatstick characters that go out and do some damage for you, whereas the former enables other units to do the damage. Of course there is some crossover between the 2 but if a HQ choice is not particularly efficient in a support role then it is generally shoehorned into a beatstick one. Maugan Ra has a similar problem.

Toy Soldier 40k Tournament Report - Game 5

Game 5 started nicely, as I was drawn against the opponent that my Sheffield friend played in Game 3. He was a Tau player but it wasn't really an optimised Tau list and apparently it was a really enjoyable game. The mission was The Scouring, we placed objectives, rolled for Warlord Traits and Daemonic Gifts, and then something terrible happened. We were both rematched as the players on the table next to us had already played each other. So the nice Tau army with 1 Riptide and 1 Squad of 2 Broadsides was whiscked away and replaced with this.

Lots and lots of Guns

Oh dear.

Toy Soldier 40k Tournament Report - Game 4

As I mentioned in the previous post, losing games bumping me down the tables would not make my games any easier. This was proved by my fourth round opponent, who is the Grey Knight player for the Welsh ETC team this year, and is currently ranked 35 in the country according to RankingsHQ. The mission was Big Guns Never Tire with Hammer and Anvil deployment. 5 objectives.

Toy Soldier 40k Tournament Report - Game 3

Going into this game I had 20pts, so a draw and a close loss. This meant that I was down the tables a little bit, just below the halfway mark of 30pts really. In fact my mate that I lost my first game to then lost 30-0 to a Screamer Council Tzeentch list and was playing on the table next to me.

Toy Soldier 40k Tournament Report - Game 2

Being honest I'd been looking forward to game 2, as I really wanted to try something. The mission here was the Relic with Vanguard Strike deployment. The modification here was, again, no First Blood, but there was also an objective worth a single point in the centre of each table quarter. My opponent was, surprise surprise, a Tau player.

Toy Soldier 40k Tournament Report - Game 1

Now that's the longest hiatus I've had in a while, I can assure you though that I've been storing up my posts to release them in one big burst. I have a good excuse for this however. Much hobbying has been done. There hasn't really been much build up to Toy Soldier here, and there has been a good reason for this, I didn't actually decide what to take until last weekend, when I made the foolish decision to take my Chaos Space Marines.

Eldar Analysis - Baharroth

Sorry this post has come so late, this has been for a couple of reasons. Firstly, due to the British 'heatwave' the inn that I work at has been absolutely crammed the last week or so, so I've been doing a lot of work. Secondly, with my Space Wolves my regular tournament army and my Chaos complete, I have been experimenting in an attempt to '6th ed up' my third army. This will be my Eldar, they were my first and the new Codex allows me the perfect opportunity to re-explore them, but if you want any 'hints' as to what I'm planning check the Fuegan post from last month. Finally, I've been watching a crap load of Heroes. Almost finished season 1, about to start the penultimate episode of it, but moving on. 

I love Phoenix Lords, and I love Swooping Hawks, and so at the intersection of this you would expect to find Baharroth. For some reason however he's never seemed to click for me. This could be because he is attached to his base via his toes and so transporting him anywhere without him breaking is an unachievable feat, and with him being metal this pisses me off. But delving in deeper...

Eldar Analysis - Fuegan

Yes, this post has taken a little while, however, since I opened the book to Fuegan's page to get some really deep impressions down, I have really been getting excited. I have always had a soft spot for one thing in particular in 40k. Hammer Units. With my Orks I ran 2 10 man squads of Nobz with Ghaz in one and a big ass Warboss in the other. With my Necrons I wanted to try a wave of Metal made up of enormous Warrior squads (that idea sucked). Even now with my Chaos Marines, I am running 2 squads with 35 attacks on the charge plus Daemon Weapons.

Fuegan awakened an avalanche of hammer possibilities, but more on that later. What does he actually do?

Eldar Analysis - Avatar of Khaine

The Avatar of Khaine was the first unit that I really ever loved for its awesomeness. The last Eldar Codex was the first one that I actually properly started getting into and after getting some Guardians and the Battleforce the Avatar was next, and whilst everything around him died he was a bedrock on which I could rely to kick the crap out of stuff.

Eldar Analysis - Karandras

After taking a quick break to work at a Pub/Bar/Restaurant on Father's day and to attend a tournament, it's time to get back to regular scheduling. The layout for posts over the next few days will be the Avatar tomorrow, followed by the 3 remaining Pheonix Lords, before delving into the Independant Characters and the epicly long posts that they entail. Today though, we move on to probably the most talked about of the Pheonix Lords at the minute. Karandras.

Cry of the Wind Tournament Report - Game 3

As a one day tournament, we were into the last game, and there were 4 players left that could still win it. A Chaos Marine Nurgle player, with some Heldrakes. A Tau player with some Space Marine Allies, a Wraithwing player, slash, AV13 wall. And me. To be honest none of those match ups sounded terrible to me. The Heldrake player didn't have 3 of them so I was confident that I could deal with them (watch the YouTube battle reports a few posts back). I've been practicing against a lot of Tau, so I wasn't too afraid of them, and then the Wraithwing isn't a terrible match up for my army, although the AV13 may cause me a problem.

We were still playing Swiss system, so with me currently sat in second place it meant that I was playing the Wraithwing. The mission was Kill Points with Dawn of War Deployment (I would have preferred to have a Hammer and Anvil mission but it's fine).

Cry of the Wind Tournament Report - Game 2

I spent the lunch break eating burritos with the friend that I went to the tournament with. He had just faced the Dark Eldar list that I really didn't want to face. The guy who was running it thought that facing my army wouldn't be as clear cut as I thought it would be, however I remember the last time I faced this kind of army, when I first met Nathan at Battlefield Birmingham (I was tabled turn 4). All the Dark Eldar player would have to do would be to kill my Long Fangs then sit at 36" range sipping tea and shooting things. In addition, we had both scored 9 points in our previous game, so I knew that a showdown was highly likely.

Luckily however, we were joint for 2nd place at the time, meaning that one of us would have to fight it out against a Wraithwing army on table 1. This meant that I would not be facing Dark Eldar this round. Instead, Space Wolves with Allies. Almost a mirror match, Vanguard Strike deployment, the Emperor's Will mission.

Cry of the Wind Tournament Report - Game 1

There may have been a lack of posting over the last couple of days. The reason for this is that I attended a tournament yesterday, and went with a friend, so I spent the previous evening prepping and making sure everything was ready to go. Plus I was at the club getting some last minute practice in.

The tournament in question was the Cry of the Wind event at the Outpost in Sheffield, a gaming store with a good gaming space upstairs where they hold tournaments. Kind of like a mini-Maelstrom. The tournament itself was a 20 player event, at 1,750pts with pre-determined missions. Unfortunately for me, I couldn't get onto their website the evening before so had no real idea what I was doing. I was taking a variation of my GT list, I was a little more fluffy the last time I went which cost me when I actually discovered what everyone else was running so this time I went for hardcore. The list was as follows:

Eldar Analysis - Jain Zar

Special character number 5 please. A quick point before getting started though. After the 3rd Pheonix Lord I'm going to shuffle things up a bit and do the Avatar. This is because I realise that the Pheonix Lords aren't exactly the most interesting Special Characters in the game. I like them because I really like their back story (especially Maugan Ra, that guy is a boss), but they're not seen too often on the tabletop and so I'll sneak the Avatar in mid-way through. But on to Jain Zar.

In the last edition Jain Zar was the Pheonix Lord that I ran the most. Often I would struggle for HQ slots because I liked the Eldrad/Avatar combo but she was cheap and boy did she pack a punch. (Picture incoming).

In the new edition, she's gone up in points a little to make a nice round 200. She keeps the Pheonix Lord statline, identical to the one that Asurmen has, and so all that there really is to seperate her is Wargear and Special Rules. Oh is that all.

Special Rules first, as that really is where the least action is happening. As with Asurmen, she gets the Eldar special rules of Battle Focus and Ancient Doom, and the Pheonix Lord rules of Eternal Warrior, Fleet and Fearless. Of course she's also an Independent Character.

So what makes Jain Zar special. Well, first off she has an addition special rule entitled Acrobatic. It only works when she's by herself or in a unit of Banshees, however what it does is increase her and her unit's run move by 3", not bad. This can then be tied in with her Warlord Trait. It's not the best Warlord Trait in the book, however on Jain Zar it's not bad, as it increases her and her unit's (non exclusive) run move by a further inch. This means that in a unit consisting solely of Banshees she can run between 5 and 10", pretty quick, making for an 11"-16" movement per turn, add in their fleet and you're looking more to the 16" end.

Finally, she has her wargear. All of it is geared towards making her a close combat beast. First off you have her, 'Silent Death', which is both a Ranged Weapon and a close combat weapon. At range it's a S-user (4) AP2 Assault 4 Weapon fired at the BS of a Pheonix Lord. It's only 12" but it's still pretty deadly. In melee, you're probably never going to be using it as it's just a normal Strength AP2 close combat weapon (just!). This is because there's a better weapon on the table.

This is her Blade of Destruction, unfortunately it's no longer S7 (aw), and it follows the exact same profile as the Silent Death in close combat, however, it comes with the Shred special rule, somewhat negating that S4 a little bit more. Plus, because you have 2 close combat weapons you're basically getting 5 attacks base.

In addition, Jain Zar comes with a Mask. What this does is effectively what Fiends do in the Daemons Codex. On the turn that she charges all enemy models in the combat have their WS and I reduced by 5. Ouch. Again, this couples nicely with one of her Exarch powers, Disarming strike.

Disarming Strike somewhat negates her lack of an Invulnerable save. Power Fist? No problem. What it essentially is is a roll off, and if you draw that roll off or better you turn an opposing weapon into a regular close combat weapon for the phase. There is also a modifier for having higher weapon skill. Now as if Jain Zar wasn't going to be getting that modifier anyway with her enormous WS, she definitely is now if she charged.

We aren't quite at the bottom of the bag of tricks just yet however, as she also causes Fear.

So, is Jain Zar worth it? Again I think she's pointed pretty well. She definitely fulfills the role of close combat character better than Asurmen and for less points, although Asurmen may be better for monstrous creatures and multi wound models. Overall however I think she's going to struggle. Banshees still suffer from the lack of an assault vehicle, as they still have no real way to get into close combat.

They are much quicker, but still a little susceptible to being shot down. With Jain Zar in the squad, maybe you can change that by taking some of the wounds on her 2+ save. I think that if you're desperate to take Banshees then she's really worth a look, as she also provides some much needed AP2 power to the squad. However, it's still not, 'competitive' and unfortunately I'm not sure she'll be seen too often I'm afraid. 

On a quick note to finish, it doesn't look like I'm going to be able to make a post for tomorrow, however there may be one up in the evening so be sure to check out for that. This is because I'm attending the Cry of the Wind tournament at the Sheffield Outpost.

Eldar Analysis - Asurmen

In between the painting of the Bloodletters, the converting of the Spawn, the 40k Global blogging and tournament organising/preperation (2 seperate events), I have managed to find the time (at midnight) to write another blog post. Today starting to delve into the Eldar Pheonix Lords. These were one of my babies from the previous Codex. As my first army I enjoyed using units that stunk like crap, so much so that I invested £80 into the entire Pheonix Court of Khaine from Apocalypse Reload. Special Character number 4 please!

Eldar Analysis - Illic Nightspear

Eldar are the 5th Codex to be released in 6th edition, and unless there's some new Tau guy that I'm forgetting, they are also the first (apparently Tau got a couple, but close enough) to get a brand new special character. Sure, Karanak and the Changeling are technically new for Daemons but they used to be Sergeant upgrades so were also around previously. Illic however is completely new, and also comes with a unique opportunity to make various inuendos regarding night-spears. However, as this is a family friendly blog, I'm going to skip over that, and leave my local gaming group to the mercy of my overuse of them. Therefore, straight into the analysis.

Space Wolves vs Chaos Marines Video Battle Report Part 4

The final part of the game. This part encompasses more than one game turn.

Space Wolves vs Chaos Marines Video Battle Report Part 3

Getting into the meat of this game now.

Space Wolves vs Chaos Marines Video Battle Report Part 2

Here is part 2 of the battle report. I did make a bit of a mistake with how many Guardsmen died in the combat but that is highlighted.

Space Wolves vs Chaos Marines Video Battle Report Part 1

On the left of this page you may see a little icon which links to a YouTube channel entitled, 'DarkListGaming'. This is a channel dedicated to Chaos Space Marines run by my friend John. The last time I played him was at the Steel City Wargaming tournament back in August, where I won to secure a top 5 finish.

However, with the new Chaos Marines Codex out, and with us both back in Sheffield temporarily over Easter, we decided to organise a rematch, and this time it wasn't interrupted by snow. The stakes were still high however, as the game would be forever immortalised on the internet - although these may have been a little higher for John as if he lost he would be forced to watch it during production.

The battle report itself is split into 4 parts, and as for some reason the videos don't show up on a search to embed them into the post, they'll have to go in one by one. The parts are: Deployment and Turn 1, Turn 2, Turn 3, and Endgame. Here is the first part. (I am running the Space Wolves with Imperial Guard allies).

Eldar Analysis - Prince Yriel

I still can't find my old Eldar Codex, so again I'm going to have to be relying on the power of my memory to discern whether today's choice is better or worse than how they used to be. Unfortunately, today's subject is Prince Yriel, one of the very few units from the old Codex that I never used. So instead, forget old Yriel, how good/bad is new Yriel?

Eldar Analysis - Eldrad

Yes! The analysis segment returns! The Eldar are upon us and I'm like a 14 year old boy who has just seen boobs - excitable. And where better to begin the return of the Codex Analysis than with the Grand-Daddy of Special Characters. Not just because he's the biggest, badest mo-fo to ever single handidly grace a Codex, holding it up in the competitive world of 40k single handedly, but also because he's 10,000 years old and a Blackstone Fortress. It's Eldrad.

4th Edition Eldar Swooping Hawks

First of all I feel that I should apologise for the lack of progress this month, and this has cost the blog a bit of growth. This has been down to a number of reasons. Firstly my exams at the start of the month, finishing off my first year at University. Secondly an increased workload. I have a lot of Chaos Marines to paint, and am falling behind on that, but I'm also writing for 2 entities other than this blog, 40kGlobal.com and the Steel City Wargaming Newsletter, for the latter I had to attempt to squeeze the entire Daemons Codex into 4 pages including pictures. In addition, in the next 24 hours I have 2 seperate recordings for 2 seperate podcasts. I'm being worked hard.

Guard Blob Vs Black Mace

Weekly batrep today, this game was from Friday, where I played against a Chaos Space Marine player, who we shall call G for now, at 1,800pts.

Before getting into lists and other details important to the game, there is a bit of backstory to this game. It was being played at Steel City Wargaming, the club that I attend in Sheffield, UK. In the last 40k tournament that they ran there, I played G on table 2 in the 2^nd round, playing with my Space Wolves which had just returned from their first proper outing at July's Throne of Skulls. Due to a hefty lack of terrain on this board, and a few dumbass mistakes on my part, G won the game, and this has been a gloating point for him ever since. He then went on to lose on table 1 whilst I was knocked to table 4 where I got a big win meaning that we finished 4^th and 5^th respectively. Therefore, this was a chance to even the score, properly.

Word Bearer Progress the First

The word has spread a little since last post, however this will still only be a quick post, as it's not like I have as much to write about. I would have done more, but I spent the day looking at USB missile launchers, and it made me want to motorize my Manticore, I didn't do it of course, I'm a terrible electrician, but it's a cool idea.

So, what have I actually done.

Bearers of the Word

I realise that I've been on a hiatus for the first time in a while, and the hiatus has been a while. However, I accept that, I have really needed it, there's been a lot going on with my course-work and exams and such, plus moving back up to Sheffield before going to work tomorrow. Plus a constant stream of back to back codecies that I've felt obligated to analyse since October.

However, I am really looking forward to the Eldar Codex, they were my first army and have been waiting for this for a long time, but don't want to miss out because I'm still doing Daemons, an army which I also play but not to the extent of the Eldar. So, what I'm planning on doing is taking a bit of a break from the Codex analysing until the Eldar come out, I may do the occasional one but for the most part it will be pictures of projects that I'm embarked on from day to day, battle reports, unit roles, etc. So, in a similar spirit, here is how my Word Bearers are developing.

On an additional note. Trickles of information are coming through from May 2013 Throne of Skulls. Surprisingly it appears that the best Dark Angels general took it, with a Ravenwing list no less. Heldrakes appear to be creeping back to their caves to slumber and feed as few armies take more than 1. Additionally, congratulations to Franco (check out www.40kglobal.com) for winning Best Tau player with a record of 5 wins 0 losses. Well done mate. But anyway, the meat of the post.

Chaos Daemons Analysis - Chaos Furies

I'm kind of busy, and then I'm kind of not as well. I have quite a lot of articles to write for various blogs, some Chaos Marines to assemble, lots of stuff to paint, and an exam on Wednesday, although that one is rather easy. However that isn't really very much considering that I have nothing to 2 for the next week, so I'm assembling some Tau for a friend.

Today's post delves into Chaos Furies, possibly the worst unit in the last Chaos Daemons Codex. Equally, in the last Chaos Space Marines Codex, Spawn were the worst unit, but now they're fantastic, Heldrakes aside. So, have Furies followed in the footsteps of the Spawn? Or are they still a lame duck?

Doomsday - Tournament Report

Oh look, the 150th post on this blog is a tournament report. How convenient. Yesterday I attended a small, 1 day tournament at the Oxford Gaming Club. It was a 1,650pt 40k event. Pictures will be up when I have some wi-fi.

Chaos Daemons Analysis - Beasts of Nurgle

In the last 2 days of last week I finished my first year of University (almost, I have an exam on the 15th). This means that I have a lot more time on my hands, at least until I go back to Sheffield and begin work. So what better way to celebrate this than to analyse Beasts of Nurgle, an extremely tricksy unit. Keep an eye out for a video on this one. Because they're such a tricksy unit, I'm not sure what to make of them, so with this post, I'm going to explain what they do, and leave you to make your own judgement. More opinions in the video though just to flesh it out a bit.

Chaos Daemons Analysis - Fiends

Busy week this one. A lot of painting to do, despite the fact that I've resigned myself to not being able to complete my quota for Age of Armies. I have a presentation on Thursday and 2 pieces of coursework on Friday for my Degree, and I have a tournament on Monday, so I'll be sure to report back from that. All of this really means that I'm lagging behind on Codex analysis, and with Tau still not even started, I need to hurry up. So, with the FAQ fixed, it's time to move onto Fiends.

Chaos Daemons Analysis - Bloodcrushers

Again, sorry for the lack of content recently, lots of deadlines are almost upon me and I've been painting a tonne of Chaos Marines and playing a lot of Vassal. However, if you follow the Twitter feed you'll be up to date with exactly what's happening and when new content is up here. I'm also hoping to get some video content up on YouTube soon as well. 

When the Daemons update was realeased in late July last year, Bloodcrushers dropped out of favour. Now they had much more competition in the Elites slot, as they just couldn't stack up to Flamers. But how are they now.

Space Wolves Development

News! This blog now has a Twitter feed. You can follow it at Wargaming With Rampage, or @TomL40k. I don't really understand how Twitter works. But what this is designed to do is just provide quick snapshots of what's going on, what I'm painting up, individual tactical points as I realise them and then get overly excited, etc. Also, you will be kept in the loop as to which articles are in the pipeline and expected date of release, so make sure you follow that, as if no-one follows I will get lazy and not 'tweet'. But onto the meat of the post. 

When I first built my Space Wolf army, it was on the back of the transfer between 5th and 6th edition, and was designed to be a 1,500pt project with 250pts of Thunderwolves on the side in case I needed to go higher. Things have changed a bit since then, with the Space Wolves more comfortably occuping the 1,750 - 1,850pt slot. With my Chaos on the go, and due to the nature of that list, the Wolves are the natural choice to bring back down to about the 1,500 mark again, not that I won't use them at higher points levels, but I'd like to be able to use them at lower ones too.

Chaos Daemons Analysis - Flamers

I couldn't really decide which force organisation slot to go for next, and with my new, half painted, Land Raider on my desk, I didn't really want to. My solution to this was simply to turn the page and see what popped up. Elites. Ok.

In the olden days of January, Flamers were probably one of the units, along with their compatriot Screamers, heading the contest for, 'most under costed unit in the game'. Sadly, for all Daemon players who had gone out and bought 27 of them, they are not quite as strong as they used to be, but that's not saying that they aren't a good unit.

Chaos Daemons Analysis - Nurglings

Nurglings are a really interesting Troops choice, this is because they're not really Troops at all. They are a little more akin to Scarabs from the Necrons Fast Attack section. This is because they're Swarms, and so don't score, making it difficult for them to be the bread and butter of an army. This doesn't mean that they aren't viable however, I actually like them as a unit, and here's why.

Orkrons Development

“We will drive the machine of war with the sword and the spear and the Iron Fist of the Orc”

Saruman

In a few weeks time I will be attending another tournament, and yet this time I am hit with a slightly different dilemma. What to take? I could take my Space Wolves, but they've moved up to occupy the 1,750pts+ spot (this event is 1,650). I could take my Chaos Marines, but they suffer from a similar problem, and I'll have to scavenge a load of models plus I've not actually used the list before, could be a laugh though. Instead I've decided that I'm probably going to go old school with what I take.

Chaos Daemons Analysis - Pink Horrors

If Bloodletters are the most recognisable of the Daemons Troops selections, then Pink Horrors are most definitely the ones that have undergone the biggest change. How fitting for the Chaos God of Change.

In 5^th edition it was generally a choice between the Horrors and the Plaguebearers, pivoting on whether you were willing to sacrifice a bit of durability and a few more points to actually have your units do something. So how do they stack up now?

Well, the first thing to note is that their points cost per model as almost halved, dropped from 17pts to 9pts. Not bad. You do now have to take a minimum of 10. However, I'm a little disappointed with the Pink Horrors, and here's why.

Chaos Daemons Analysis - Bloodletters

Northamptonshire I am in you. Therefore today's post shall be written from my phone, robbing me of my word processor so apologies if I can't spell.

Back onto Daemons today, and we're halfway through the Troops section. This time looking at probably the most recognisable of the Chaos Daemons, indeed, one adorns the front cover. The Bloodletters.

How to - Transfers

What's this? A fluffy post! What's happening? Indeed, I've gone for a little bit of a change of pace today and decided for something more painting orientated. I'm going to back this up from a tournament perspective – Soft scores are points too – There we go.

The instructions for transfers on the GW transfer sheets aren't exactly the most clear of things. In fact after 10 years in the hobby I only found out how to transfer last month, and it's actually surprisingly easy and effective. So, to help you with your transferring, here is (hopefully) a better guide. Apologies in advance for the somewhat crappy pictures of the test model, but hopefully it still displays an adequate example of what's happening.

Chaos Daemons Analysis - Daemonettes

Today I'm going to go from one extreme to the other. From the most commonly used Daemonic Troops choice of the last edition, to the one that was never seen. Today's post will cover Daemonettes.

Chaos Daemons Analysis - Plaguebearers

Daemons have seen a pretty large shift in how their Codex works recently. Possibly one of the greatest changes in 40k in the last few years. With the removal of Daemonic Assault and the dramatic change around of points costs especially in the Troops section, it's like we have a whole different army. Some people like that, some people don't, but haters gonna hate, and I like the new format.

Switch

 One of the biggest complaints amongst Daemon players in 5^th edition was that our Troops choices were all bad. And yeah, they were. They weren't very durable (with the exception of Plaguebearers, who were incapable of actually damaging anything really) and they were all rather expensive. Therefore, here seems like a good place to begin this blog's analysis of the new(ish) Chaos Daemon Codex: Plaguebearers.

Dark Angels Analysis - Command Squads

Apologies again for the lack of content, I have numerous excuses today, so here's an insert into my own personal life. I've given my Word Bearers a kick start, for 40kuk's Age of Armies, and so have been busy painting like mad for them. Secondly, I came back up to Sheffield on Friday for Easter, and thirdly, I've gotten into League of Legends. My name on there is Roghrax, named after the Champion of Khorne who took more skulls than he knew what to do with. Add me if you're on. Anyway, forth!

Today I am going to be concluding the Dark Angels analysis. I realise that I am behind schedule with these things, and I'd like to begin with Daemons as quickly as possible. Additionally, when I do get into Chaos Daemons, the format of these posts will change. I'll still be doing a post for each individual unit for the most part, but it will take the format of building lists around that unit. From the GT I have learnt that it's even harder than I thought to take a unit out of context and analyse it on its own. So I will be building lists around the unit to give it some context. It will also take more of a, 'scatttergun' approach, as I pick on units in a totally random order.

The concluding post is on the Command Squads.

UK 40k GT Results

This is only going to be a quick post. What I'm going to be doing here is just running through the top 15 players and which Codecies they used. If you have any questions about who else finished where, which army they used, how a particular Codex did, etc. Please drop a comment at the bottom, and I'll post a reply as detailed as I can for you. You could even follow this blog while you're at it [/pimping]. Onto the top 15.

UK 40k GT game 6

Going into the last game I was 2-3, had I not been docked some painting points because I like to colour code my Grey Hunter packs (see my Gallery on Dakka: Rampage, Green squad, Yellow squad, Grey squad) I would be just about pushing for the top half, should I win my final game.

The mission was the Scouring with Dawn of War Deployment.

UK 40k GT game 5

I may have won a game, but I've still got more to come, and they're some of my hardest missions, so here's where I'll learn a lot. This mission was Purge the Alien (Kill Points), the upside being the deployment, Hammer and Anvil.

I was playing against a lovely guy, he was fantastic fun to play and this was one of my favourite games of the event, playing against an Italian guy named Stefano and his Blood Angels and Grey Knight army.

UK 40k GT game 4

It's a new dawn, it's a new day, and it's the Emperor's Will. 'Ave it! Having not been particularly impressed with my performance in day 1 of the GT I came into day to with much greater determination. My objective, avoid coming last. I knew coming into the 4th game that it was now or never. The Emperor's Will is by far my strongest mission, and with Kill Points and the Scouring - both weak missions for me - coming up, this was a game I had to win. The deployment was Vanguard Strike.

My first thought when I saw my match up, I was pretty pleased. Space Marines. When I saw the army, I was still confident, but it was a pretty strong list for this mission.

UK 40k GT game 3

My third game on the first day of the GT was against a player named Neil. This just showed me exactly how tough the competion is at the GT final, everyone has earned their place, and so that leaves every game being a tough one. He was running Space Wolves as well, but it was a very different kind of list.

He had the 2 packs of Long Fangs, although they were 5 man, he also had 4 Hyperios Missile Launchers (Forge World cheese) and a Whirlwind, which was interesting, although for 85pts barrage is pretty good. He then had a Thunderfire Cannon (as did every marine player in the room) and a Captain on a bike. He then had a squad of scouts, and 2 minimal squads of Grey Hunters. The interesting part of his list however were the Thundercav. He was running 5 of them, with 1 Storm Shield and Power Fist, with a Lord with Saga of the Warrior Born, Power Fist Storm Shield, and 2 Rune Priests on Bikes.

The mission being Vanguard Strike and Big Guns Never Tire.

UK 40k GT Army List

It has struck me that I haven't actually posted up the list that I used, so here it is:

UK 40k GT game 2

My second game of the weekend was against a guy called James, who was running an Eldar/Dark Eldar mix. The mission being Dawn of War and Relic.

There is something about the Relic, me and tournaments. As in, every time I play the Relic at tournaments, I seem to draw the only Wraithguard army in the room, my opponent had 10 of them.

He also had the Baron, Eldrad and a Farseer, some Venoms, 2 Nightwings and a pair of dreaded Warp Hunters.

UK 40k GT game 1

Well today has not been particularly successful for me, but I'll go through the games that I played today anyway, as I learnt a lot from them. I feel I should prefix this by saying that all 3 of my opponents were really enjoyable to play against, really nice guys. Pictures will be coming later.

My first game was against the UK number one and the captain of the English ETC team, Mr Josh Roberts. He was running his famous wraithwing list: Destroyer Lord, 18 Wraiths, 3 Annihilation Barges, 3 Night Scythes with Warriors, and some Chaos allies with a Heldrake.

The mission was Hammer and Anvil, 5 objectives.

Dark Angels Analysis - Azrael

There's not much to say rolling on from the last post, so I'm just going to dive straight into the last special character for the Dark Angels, after this there will be the Techmarine, the Deathwing Command Squad and the Ravenwing Command Squad, then we can finally get on to some Daemon like goodness. Azrael.

Dark Angels Analysis - Ezekiel

Curses upon ye GW! Today I am upset, I wake up to find Tau pictures all over the internet, meaning that Tau are imminent. The reason for which I am upset is not because I don't want to see new Tau, but because I still haven't finished my analysis of the Dark Angels Codex, and haven't even started upon Chaos Daemons. So buckle up, as in my rage fuelled state I churn out a crap load of posts, starting with the Librarian character for Dark Angels here, Ezekiel.

Dark Angels Analysis - Asmodai

The reason for my lack of activity is two-fold. Firstly, last week was the mid-semester of assignment week, where a boat load of assignments are due in, and secondly, painting. I've been doing some work on my new project, which will be revealed probably after I've finished the Chaos Daemons analysis, at this rate some time in August, but also, I have a bare Guard blob on my desk, waiting to be painted. So far I have painted the shoulder pads of 4/5s of the Platoon Command Squad brown, I have until Friday to finish off the blob for the GT.

The blob has been performing well for me, even in the game where we were on a 4x4 board using Vanguard Strike and it wouldn't fit on the board without bunching up. Luckily my Primaris Psyker got Gate of Infinity as one of the psychic powers so I was able to jump them out and eat a Fiend squad and a load of Daemonettes.

Today continuing on with the Dark Angels Analysis, Asmodai is today's target.

Chaos Daemons - First Contact

Today, something a little different.I'm a little disillusioned with the Dark Angels to be perfectlyhonest and I will get round to finishing the series in the next fewdays. However, in today's post I'm going to be taking a look atDaemons, and how they have changed, as I played against them at the Oxford GamingClub tonight. Hopefully this should be a weekly thing where every Monday night is OGC night.

Oh, and by the way, if you want to heremore about Battlefield Birmingham, or me getting absolutely destroyedby a Dark Eldar army, then check out the 40kuk podcast, the episodein question being number 64.

Dark Angels Analysis - Sammael

Sorry that there hasn't been much content of late, it's getting to that time of year where I suddenly become really busy. I did try to write an article on the train on the way back to Sheffield for the weekend, but because the Blogger App is terrible it managed to lose it, so here we go again.

Dark Angels Analysis - Belial

While I wait for the new software for my iPhone to download, I suppose I'd better bash out a quick post. Today moving into the realms of the Special Characters. I'm not going to do Interrogator-Chaplain Seriphicus or whatever his name is, because although he's in the FAQ, he's not printed in my Codex, and his data sheet is over 150 miles away. Thank you GW, for releasing a £30 book that isn't even complete.

There are 5 Special Characters in this book, Azrael, Ezekiel, Asmodai, Belial and Sammael. I really feel like I should start with Azrael, but unfortunately Belial is calling to me, so let's go through him first.

Dark Angels Analysis - Dedicated Transports

I've already written this post twice, but on both occasions my phone as lost it. So I'd like to jump straight into it. The news, first off, I have my Chaos Daemons Codex and it is ready to be analysed. 

I'm actually really excited about this one, so Dark Angels needs finishing, some motivation for me there. Anyway, next. On the 28^th February the blog hit 10,000 views. Horrah! 

And that's enough of that. Onto the subject of today's post. Dedicated Transports in the Dark Angels Codex.

Dark Angels Analysis - Land Raider Variants

The Dark Angels Analysis segment should be finished by Sunday. The plan is to absolutely bomb the remaining units allowing me to concentrate on the impending Chaos Daemons throughout the next month. Left to do I have the 3 Land Raider variants, the dedicated transports of the Razorback, Rhino and Drop Pod, and the special characters. So to close out February, here come the Land Raiders.

Battlefield Birmingham Game 5

In my final game, I played another top level UK tournament player. Currently ranked 3rd in the UK according to RankingsHQ, and the best Tyranid player in the country, I was playing Chris 'papa' Dickinson.

Battlefield Birmingham Game 4

Right, going into day 2 I had 1 win and 2 losses. So the deployment, Hammer and Anvil, definately made a welcome appearance in the first game of the day. I was playing against an Eldar player with Dark Eldar allies by the name of Andrew. He had an interesting list. He was running Eldrad, a squad of Fire Dragons with a Crack Shot Exarch on a Quad Gun on an Aegis Defence Line.

Battlefield Birmingham Game 3

My third game was my first against a top level tournament player at a tournament. I was playing against Nathan, the current UK number 8 (as this goes out) and English ETC player. He was bringing a Dark Eldar army with Eldar allies. I won't go into his list too much as he's an ETC player, but if you want to hear about it make sure to check out the 40kUK podcast, either tomorrow's episode or the one next week, but check them both out anyway because I did an interview for one of them for the War Stories segment. But what I will say, is that his list pumped out more shots than I've ever seen packed into a list.

Battlefield Birmingham Game 2

Ok, game 2 was against another guy called Ben. This time the mission being 5 objective Big Guns Never Tire with corner deployment. He was running Chaos Space Marines, which are already a very good match up for my army. But he was running a Nurgle army, with Daemon allies. So he had a Lord, 3 big squads of Plague Marines with Rhinos and 3 squads of Nurgle Obliterators. For his Daemons he then had Epidemius and 15 Plaguebearers.

Battlefield Birmingham Game 1

Right, I'm back at my flat now, so I can start updating these posts on my Battlefield Birmingham games to make them more comprehensive.

The first game that I played was against Ben Archer. He came with a Dark Angels Deathwing army, consisting of 2 Contemptor Dreadnoughts, 2 squads of Terminators, 5 Black Knights and a pair of tactical squads. I don't think that I've missed anything. The mission was multiple (3) objectives.

My list can be seen a couple of posts back.

Dark Angels Analysis - Interrogator Chaplain

Only one post today I'm afraid, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to get one up tomorrow, as I'm making the journey to Birmingham for Battlefield Birmingham this weekend, I should keep the blog update with live happenings from the tournament over the weekend though. As for today, I played my last couple of practice games. Albeit both at 1,500pts which didn't give me chance to practice with my Thunderwolf Cavalry, which I could really use. But I was able to use the Grey Hunters quite well, it's been pointed out that I don't really do anything with them and I think that this is a good call. Even during non-objective games I tended to put them at the back of the board and fire off the odd bolt shot. However, I was able to use them to good effect today.

Dark Angels Analysis - Chaplain

Not much to say to kick off today really, I've nearly finished painting my Long Fangs, I just need a new brown wash and then I'm there. Also, about 2 months ago I promised pictures of Thunderwolves, so here is a picture that I took on my iPhone (below). Told you there wasn't much, so, the Chaplain.

Dark Angels Analysis - Librarian

Right, second post of the day. Dark Angels Librarian coming up.

Dark Angels Analysis - Company Master

Over the next 2 weeks I aim to finish the Dark Angels analysis, so that I can shell out on the new Chaos Daemons Codex on the 2^nd and start on that. This means that there may be more than one post each day, so make sure to keep checking here for new posts.

Today I move on to the HQ section, starting with the generic Hqs. This one should be quite quick, it's only the Company Master, meaning that there should be another post coming your way later this evening.

Dark Angels Analysis - Dreadnoughts, Predators and Vindicators

I've finally finished my Drop Pod, it may not be the nicest looking thing in the world and if I had put more effort into it, maybe give it a couple more washes or by a bit more careful with the weathering it could look nicer. But it's a good enough tabletop standard for me at the minute, I've still got a pack of Long Fangs to finish this week remember. So here's the picture of the Drop Pod:

In other news, 'curses to ye GW!'. I'd better get this Dark Angels analysis finished pretty quickly, due to the teaser for the new Daemons being out, and that's something that I'm going to want to look at, with me being a Daemon player and with them being my Wolves worst match up currently. I also played a game at the Oxford Gaming Club tonight, against a blob Guard army, the Relic. I started to run out of steam towards the end but although I was getting battered in the last 2 turns I would have won had I not failed my 2+ save on my Warlord, as it was it was a Draw.

I did an interview with my opponent for the 40kUk podcast afterwards (as you do) so make sure to check out the next episode with the segment 'War Stories' in it.

But anyway, if I'm going to get this done before the Daemons drop I'll need to go quickly, so on with the generic vehicles!

Dark Angels Analysis - Devastators

I've finally broke my losing steak (not a great start to a tactical post) that I've been on since I won all 3 of my games (that's a little better) at day 1 of Throne of Skulls, between then and Wednesday, I had only won 1 game, and that was against Black Templars. I played 1 games on Thursday, the first against a S6 spam Eldar list, 1,500pts. 2 Squads of Warp Spiders, a Scatter Laser War Walker squadron, 3 Vypers with dual Shurikan Cannons, 3 squads of bikes, Fire Prism and Eldrad in a Wave Serpent with 10 Dire Avengers. Long story short the Manticore went crazy and killed: 1 Fire Prism, 2 War Walkers, a Wave Serpent, 9 Dire Avengers, Eldrad, a Vyper (with a Heavy Flamer) and a Jetbike. 4 objectives, wierd corner deployment.

The second game was against a Draigowing army. Same points level (although we both agreed that Draigowing definitely works better at higher points levels. Draigo, Coteaz, a Dreadknight, Psyfleman Dreadnought, 10 Strikes with a Razorback, a squad of 5 Paladins and a squad of 2 Paladins. Emperor's will, Pitched battle. This was a really close game, I had a Lone Wolf contesting his objective in an everlasting dual with Coteaz, and he had a couple of Paladins on mine. I had First Blood but he had Linebreaker. 

Unfortunately for my opponent Coteaz suffered Perils of the Warp thrice in the game giving me Slay the Warlord. My Guardsmen were charged by the Paladins, and ran, but only a short distance so they were able to rally and my 2 packs of Long Fangs and the Guardsmen were able to pile on the wounds until the Paladins died. So long story short here, my opponent was very unlucky. I do have a bit to say about Draigo though, I did a post on Paladins back when 6^th edition just dropped so if that's your thing go and check that out, but I'll do Draigo and I have some things to say about my army again as I'm still learning, so I'll do that at some point.

But anyway, Dark Angel Devastators.

Dark Angels Analysis - Whirlwind

I've been pretty busy since my last post. Fluffwise, I'm about half way through Path of the Outcast now, really enjoying it. Paintingwise, I still hate Drop Pods. Not only are they really annoying to assemble, and not only do they fall apart in a stiff breeze, but they are also really irritating to paint. They may not be the largest vehicles in terms of volume, but they have a huge surface area due to having to paint things on the inside. I'm almost done with the first coat of the thing, and I need to have it done by next week really. I've had it for 8 months.

This post would have been out yesterday but the draw for Battlefield Birmingham was made so I spent some time doing background checks as to what I would be up against, and it looks like it'll be Dark Angels, so I'd better get going through this Codex. Whirlwinds today.

Dark Angels Analysis - Land Speeder Vengeance

Finally I manage to get away from the Fast Attack section, which appears to be jinxed in that I keep having to go back and correcting mistakes that I've made. So it's now time to move onto an easier, the Heavy Support section. Excellent, the promised land where everything is homogeneous between Marine codecies. Oh, what's this Dark Angels Land Speeder Vengeance? Well, better take a look at it:

Battlefield Birmingham Army List

Something a little different today, I'm thinking that maybe posting something other than a Dark Angels analysis will break the sloppiness of my writing, I keep missing little bits. The latest mistake post wasn't quite as bad as the previous one, GW releasing a £30 book full of typos didn't help, but that's not an excuse.

With Battlefield Birmingham coming up in 2 weeks time I've finally decided to lock down my list, so that I get familiar with it and how it works together, I already know what everything does but I don't like last minute changes. So, in this post I'm going to be going through what I'm taking and why.

1,750pts: Space Wolves and Imperial Guard

Dark Angels Analysis - Black Knights

Sorry for the short sabbatical. I've really needed a bit of a break from posting for a couple of days, firstly because I was absolutely shattered due to only getting about 4 hours of sleep in 48 hours, and secondly because some of my posts were getting really sloppy. But anyway, time to round out the Dark Angels Fast Attack section. Black Knights.

Dark Angels Analysis - Ravenwing Attack Squadron

Having got about 8 hours sleep over the last 2 nights and with a full day of lectures coming up tomorrow I feel awful. But there's blogging to be done as we come to the penultimate Fast Attack choice. I would write about things that I've been up to, but I haven't done anything.

Anyway. Ravenwing Attack Squadron.

Dark Angels Analysis - Land Speeder Squadron

Quite a bit has been going on over the last few days, some of it's for another time but I played a game yesterday against a Space Marine army, 3 Dreads, 2 Devastator squads, Aegis, all that jazz. And in dreaded kill points, which my army can't handle very well.

I was trying out a few combinations, I dropped a Rune Priest and the Lascannon Long Fang pack in favour of beefing up the Grey Hunters and giving them Rhinos to hide behind. That worked quite well, I was getting in close but then I'd be in range of the Plasma guns, they'd pop the Rhinos and the Grey Hunters would get murdered by torrent.

The Thunderwolves had a good game, eating 2 squads and gaining Linebreaker. But what it came down to was in the last turn I forced my opponent to take 3 leadership checks. 2 at LD8 and 1 at LD9. If he didn't fail any he would win the game, if he failed one it would be a draw and if he failed 2 I would have won. He did the former, and won 9-8. But anyway, it was a fantastic game and I learnt a lot, I'll be trying out Drop Pods next.

But anyway, Dark Angels Fast Attack. Land Speeder Squadron.

Dark Angels Analysis - Ravenwing Darkshroud

Again, sorry that I missed yesterday's post. I was going to do it in the evening but ended up going out.

I haven't done anything hobby related in that time. I'm preparing to go down to the Oxford Gaming Club tonight and my home club, Steel City Wargaming in Sheffield has some exciting things going on. It is opening a new club night in Rotherham soon and it's in the process of selecting a team, so I'm naturally sticking my nose in, as I feel that I have a fair shot at the top team (I'm getting cocky).

But enough of that, we have another shiny new model to get through. The Ravenwing Darkshroud.

Dark Angels Analysis - Assault Marines

Sorry I missed a post yesterday, I moved back to University today and things have been a little hectic, but that doesn't mean that I'll slack off today, continuing with the Fast Attack section.

What I've been up to and off-topic musings first though. I've picked up a Cryptek for my Necron army, which is 1 of the 5 600pt armies that I've brought with me for doubles events. And that's pretty much it.

I am looking at one of the common cross codex choices in the book today, but they're different to what I have in my Space Wolves book and so I'm going to look at them with a degree of depth. The Assault Marines.

Dark Angels Analysis - Dark Talon

Not much to say as a quick introduction today. We continue on with the Fast Attack section for Dark Angels, I went into the city centre and came out with some bases to convert my Harlequins with and a pot of paint. I also tried out Zagstruk, who came down behind Pedro Kantor and his crew, only needing a 4” charged, rolled a 3, re-rolling for Waaagh!, got another 3. I think I'd better give him another chance. 

I've also got a ranking in the UK now, but because the tournament that submitted events was Perils of the Warp 2, where I didn't do particularly well, I'm only ranked 257^th. Hopefully I'll do a little better at Battlefield Birmingham (although that's a big ask considering the calibre of players that attend), but even if I don't it's still more points on the board, plus I'll get a bonus for each member of the top 16 there, and there are quite a few attending.

Anyway, the second flyer in the Dark Angels Codex, the Dark Talon.

Dark Angels Analysis - Nephilim Jetfighter

Now edited to include Unrelenting Hunter.

Today the analysis rolls on to the Fast Attack section. Simply because there are some shiny new flyers in there and I'd like to see what they do. I also expected something a little more glossy for this blog's 100th post when this blog began, but none of you want to read guff about blogging so on with the usual schedule.

Since I last updated what I was doing, I've broken out the Eldar. With the Space Wolves all but finished I'm trying to update the rest of my armies for 6^th edition. Eldar were probably the easiest for this, and although I have no idea how it is going to work I think that my 1,500pt Eldar list from 5^th edition is still valid (because it was also awful under 5^th). Therefore, I have broken out the Swooping Hawks (see) to give them a new paint job, and I'm currently busy magnetising Scatter Lasers to a Wave Serpent.

But anyway, the Nephilim Jetfighter.

Dark Angels Analysis - Deathwing Knights

With the tournament excitement over for this month, it's time to get back to regular scheduling. Today continuing with the Dark Angels Elites section. This will be the last post for the Elites section for a while, as I'm planning on including the Dreadnought in the Predator, etc, post later on.

Which means that the unit for today are the Deathwing Knights.

Throne of Skulls Stats

 Just a quick breakdown of the statistics from this weekend's Throne of Skulls today. No paragraphs of writing and nothing too chunky today, just pure statistics.

Throne of Skulls - Tournament Report

EDIT: I've justed inserted day 2 of Throne of Skulls into this post.

I wasn't planning on doing a post today, but as I didn't stay for the Pub Quiz due to the weather I might as well. Today I did manage to get down to Nottingham for Throne of Skulls (40k), and actually on time, and managed to get through all 3 games, also within the time.

The same happened the day after actually, and as I write this on Monday morning the snow has finally arrived. Had it arrived over the weekend I would have been unlikely to attend. 

Just for those that may be reading this further down the line this is from day 1 of the January 2013 Warhammer 40k Throne of Skulls.

Additionally, if you'd like another Throne of Skulls report from another gamer, be sure to check out Ramblings of a Wargamer, a link to which can be found on the left of this page under Underlings Blog List. Paul over there writes a really good blog and I'd thoroughly recommend it if you're looking for more Throne of Skulls action.

So, game 1.

Dark Angels Analysis - Deathwing Terminators

I hate snow. I really hate snow. It is thanks to snow, that I have not been able to get to my gaming club today, so I will go to Throne of Skulls on the back of 3 losses and a draw. It is also because of snow, that I am unlikely to actually arrive to Throne of Skulls tomorrow. I then go onto Facebook, to inform everyone of these reasons for me hating snow, to discover everyone goading me by asking for more snow.

You do not want it to snow anymore, you have enough snow to content yourself with, asking for any more snow is selfish. Think of your increased heating bills, and think of all the businesses that will lose custom because you want more snow.

I am a student, I have a very limited hobby budget compared to my usual unprotected wallet. And I have spent £60 on attending an event that I am unlikely to be able to attend because people want more snow. I am appalled. Ok it's not the snow lovers fault, but I'm disappointed with the weather and I'm feeling in the mood for a rant. So there you have it.

Anyway, Deathwing.

FAQ Rundown

I was going to do a post on Deathwing Terminators today, but then GW messed with me by releasing FAQs which made my post on Company Veterans void. I'll fix that as soon as possible. So today, instead I will be doing a run down of the biggest changes that this new batch of FAQs bring.

But quickly onto what I've done before we get underway. I've finished painting my Thunderwolf Cavalry, but as I'm participating in a video battle report on Friday I can't be bothered to take photos of them, you can see them on that. I'll probably post photos afterwards, I might even do it tomorrow if I'm in the mood (still a little 40k fatigued). I'm also half way through Ragnar, who I'm not enjoying painting. He's an old model and I can sympathise with that but because of this he's flat and there's not much detail. I've also started painting the Drop Pod.

Anyway. Onwards!

Dark Angels Analysis - Company Veterans

UPDATED:

Another day another blog post, today moving on to the Elites choices in the Dark Angels Codex. I've managed to get a little done in the last day. The Flesh Hounds are now assembled after having them about a year, although 1 is still missing a head. I've also painted one of my Thunderwolf Cavalry, and am half way through the final one. Pictures will be up once they're done.

So that's me updated, now onto the Company Veterans.

Dark Angels Analysis - Scouts

I've managed to get over my 40k fatigue a little today, although all I have to show for it is a repaired Drop Pod. I'm still considering what I'll take to Throne of Skulls, I may bring the Orks back out of retirement and throw my 5^th edition list straight into it, alternatively I may dust off my Rainbow Footdar and see how they fair, although the latter would require a huge amount of painting. I'll try to get that done this week though so that come Friday I will at least have a choice.

None of that matters though, up for analysis today are the Scouts.

Dark Angels Analysis - Tactical Marines

I write this on Saturday evening after Perils of the Warp 2, and I am ridiculously 40k fatigued right now (by my standards). But no matter, on with the blogging.

Today sees the start of my second series of Codex analysies. This time around being the Dark Angels. As an unfamiliar Codex in 5^th/4^th edition, they are possibly even more unfamiliar right now with the new Codex, as not many people played them before and I doubt that this Codex will have sold as many as the Chaos one so it's probably useful to understand what's going on.

Starting again with the backbone of the army. The Troops.

Perils of the Warp 2 - Tournament Report

Today I attended the Perils of the Warp 2 tournament at the Outpost in Sheffield. This was a 1 day, 20 player event which allowed Forge World, and was at 1,500pts. This was also the first tournament that I had ever attended that submitted to rankings, so as well as being a slightly different meta to what I'm used to, with my list being developed in Oxford, it was also kicking it up a notch.

Just a quick plug before this gets started. The Outpost is an independent store in Sheffield. It's open late and sells a variety of products for a variety of systems like Warpath, Dreadball, Warmahordes, Dystopian Wars, 40k and Fantasy, etc. I'm not selling out, I just really enjoyed today's event and feel like I should give the store a mention. If you just Google 'The Outpost Sheffield' it should be the first option. They're also running another 40k tournament on the 23^rd February. Unfortunately I can't attend as I'm at Battlefield Birmingham but I'd recommend it if you're in the area and have the day free. There are only 6 places left though so you'll probably want to hurry.

Throne of Skulls Prep 2

I've had various ideas for posts that I'd like to get in before Saturday, when another new Codex hits and I start to break down another load of units, but before I do I feel as though I should at least get in 1 piece of tournament preparation. I know that Throne of Skulls isn't the most competitive tournament in the UK, but for me it's a good marker to see how much I've improved, and where I should be.

For example; so long as I don't get my ass royally kicked (like last time, where I had only played a handful of games with my Wolves after picking up the army a few weeks before), I will be comfortable in extending into the independant tournaments, where no doubt, I will get my ass kicked again, and learn a lot more.

I've got several advantages 6 months after my first attendance though. The first of these is that I will actually get some sleep. With 12 days to go, I have 3 Wolf Guard Terminators, a Primaris Psyker and a Mortar team left to paint, so I shouldn't be up most of the night painting.

The second advantage is obviously that I've been playing my Wolves for a while, and although I haven't been able to play the 2 games a week that I was in Oxford (I've played 1 game in almost 4 weeks), I have plenty of time to catch that up, as I have a load of games lined up in the next 2 weeks.

As well as a game against my club's strongest tournament player on Friday, I also have a 3 game tournament on the Saturday against some strong opponents, and then a video battle report in which I am participating (and trying not to embarrase myself) the following Friday, to advertise the club.

Lists were due in for this tournament over the weekend, and this is what I'm running. I don't mind plastering my list all over the internet because if you're tailoring for it then I'm vastly overated.