Looking back - Sons of Taurus 2013 in review!

Looking back over my blog posts for this past year, there's been a lot going on!  My overall rate of posting went down a good bit, with only 86 posts before this one, but I think I managed to pack a lot into the year.

Let's see how the hobby numbers look for 2013:

• Leagues played in: 3  
• Tournaments attended: 0
• Battle Reports: 28 (plus probably 10-12 other games)
• Figures finished: 119
• Vehicles finished: 6
• Terrain pieces finished: 27 (though many are from chopping up my old city board)

I'll take it.  There's still a lot on the plate for 2014, we'll see how the numbers look this time next year!  Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and all that!  I need to update my Army Profiles and get the more recent reports up on the Battle Reports page too, so some serious blog updating is called for.  We'll see when time for that is available.

 

Thanks for reading!

Who should I be now? 40K League army choice

We're still hashing out exactly how our next 40K league is going to look, but assuming we can come to some sort of agreement, I was thinking about what army to bring and thought I'd toss it out for my fellow local players and readers in general to weigh in on what they might like to see in the reports here for the next few months.

We're still deciding if we're going to allow the various new stuff (Escalation, etc.) or not, if it will by my mutual player agreement, etc.  We shall see, but I hope that some things at least get brought in, I like seeing odd things and variety.

The candidates:

40K Picture Dump - 1000pt tournament, Gaming Underground High Point NC

Smoke launchers FTW!

We had a local event today, a 1000pt 40K tournament.  I unfortunately wasn't able to attend for the whole time to participate, but I was able to swing by for a visit and for some pictures.  

Project List 2014

OK, time to refresh the project lists.  Partly to let you wonderful folks know what to expect, mostly to clarify for myself what I should be working on.  As always, subject to change as passions wane and new shiny things come into view.

• Space Sharks
• Modify bike commander.  Currently has lightning claw, will end up with either a big sword (Burning Blade) or big chainsword (Teeth of Terra).  
• Supplemental units?  Maybe some extra things to bring points up, like a kitbashed Thunderfire Cannon, or some scouts, or some more bikers.  At some point probably all of the above.
• Nurgle CSM
• Daemon Prince - not in the list itself, but in case a champion gets lucky I'd like to have him painted.
• IG "Gravedigger" allies - some infantry, maybe a few tanks using spare Steel Legion figs.

• Reaper/Bones - piles of various figs, likely fit in between other projects.
• Robotech - at some point the figures from the Kickstarter will arrive, and I'll get them ready for some Battletech action.
• Terrain
• Foamcore GW sets - I've had these for a long time, and want to get around to actually painting them up at some point.  
• Plastic terrain - I have a big ebay batch with two more bastions and most of a Fortress of Redemption (all except the central tower parts), I want to turn those into something.

• Orks
• Shokk Attack Gun - needs to be painted.
• Lootas, Stormboys?  Some extra options.
• Stompa?  Don't have one yet, but someday...

• Imperial Guard
• Chimeras.  Some rides to help the Merkans get midfield would be good.
• Vendetta?
• Baneblade?

• Scythiak
• Paint second rough rider squad.
• Counts-as Chimeras.
• More tanks?
• Steel Legion platoon.

• Endless Ones
• Raptors
• Bikers
• Daemon Prince(s)
• Sons of Taurus squads
• SoT Maulerfiend

• Void Phantoms
• Finish up guys already partly done.
• Plane, wraithlord, Dire Avengers, Swooping Hawks, extra scorpion, bike warlock.

• Fantasy Chaos
• Maybe have something playable done in time for the next edition.

We'll see how far along this gets this coming year.  First off will be working on the Void Phantoms, my Eldar/Dark Eldar Corsairs.  I had set them aside partly when the local league put in heavy ally restrictions and I had to turn back to the Space Sharks, partly when I remembered how annoying plastic guardians are to assemble, but looked at them the other night and saw there wasn't too much left to do to.  So back to the front of the queue! 

Here they are, both the mostly completed and the still to be started.

 

 

Characters (Farseer, Warlock, Autarch, Duke Sliscus) in front of the Rangers.

Warwalkers, D-cannons, bikers.

Scorpions (decided to add in a sixth when reworked points), Swooping Hawks, nice one-piece Dire Avengers who are taking the place of the Guardians.  They work better as more elite pirates anyways I imagine.

So stay tuned in the near future for more Void Phantoms, and after that for some of the other stuff!

Warning: This post contains D-weapons!

I have Stronghold Assault waiting for me under the tree.  I don't have immediate plans to get Escalation, but have almost gotten a Stompa and Baneblade a dozen times over the years.  I have no real plans to get any of the Advent dataslits (tm Jaded Gamercast).  

There's a lot of screaming about all of these all over the web and on many of the podcasts I've heard. They're concerned about more power in 40K.  I agree more power is coming, but I'm not sure it's cause for concern.

I don't think they're too bad, at least from the position I'm in.  I rarely play in tournaments, and if I do I'm not too wrapped up in the outcome.  Heck, the last few months I rarely play, period.  I've always been up for easily accessible ways to play the game, even if those ways aren't ones that interest me personally.  Giant 50Kpt games of Apocalypse?  Not my bag, but I appreciate it being there.

There's ruins, and then there's ruins.

Today I went down to Gaming Underground glue in hand to repair some of the terrain pieces that had been battered apart over time.  A while back when I reorganized the terrain shelves, I put the pieces that had come off and kits that had completely fallen apart into a battleforce box, which ended up almost overflowing.  Today I took the box and the damaged pieces and tried to put Humpty-Dumpty together again.

Above is the result, a bunch of buildings (and a tree) put back together in some semblance of order.  I also went ahead and did some overbrushing on the plain black pieces so now they're shades of gray instead of flat black.

I made some other welcome discoveries while I was there - someone had brought in some very nice new (at least to the store) pieces - a couple of HALO play sets (1) and (2) that look like they can fit together, a nice fallen column, and some good industrial storage tanks.  Many thanks to whoever brought those in!

Praise Papa Nurgle! Death Guard CSM

I managed to get my Nurgle marines pretty much done.  I still need to do the IG allies I plan to give them, their human "Gravedigger" auxiliaries.  Up above is everybody's favorite destroyer hive host, Typhus.  The armor was white a few thousand years ago, but it's gotten a little more "antiqued" since.  I went with red for the power weapons.

Reaper Bones second Kickstarter

Another Reaper KICKSTARTER for more Bones figures.  There were some problems with the last one, and some of the figs were disappointing, but on the whole I was pretty satisfied and expect that they will have learned from the last one and choice of figs (less susceptible to weakness/bendiness) and quality control will be better this time.  But even if some figs need work, getting a bunch of huge figs for peanuts compared to metal prices makes it worthwhile for me.

A little different this time around - the regular $100 set which will keep getting add ons, a $50 expansion that will get add ons, and individual add ons.  For those that just want a few things without getting the giant set, they have an option where you can just plunk down $1 and then be eligible to get individual add ons - so if you just want a couple of dragons or demons, or a set of mouslings, there's a way to do that pretty easily without having to get the massive set.

Timeframes are a bit disappointing, with a year before rewards start rolling out.  I had hoped that their experience from last time would let them speed it up, but at least they're being realistic.  Maybe they'll under promise and over deliver on timeframes.

Check it out, reserve a spot, and watch it grow!

40K Seventh Edition - What's probably coming and what would we like to see?

Sixth edition is a little over a year old now, and there are some good retrospectives and reflections floating around about the first year.  We'll likely see a lifespan of a few more years with this edition, but another one is undoubtedly coming.  Given subsequent releases, what are we likely to see, and what would we like to see?

40K League Battle Report: Space Sharks vs. Luigi Marines (Space Wolves)

My most recent league game, this time vs. Landon's Mario Brothers themed Space Wolves.  1500pts, Scouring, Vanguard Strike.

Landon went with a pod- and plasma-heavy force.  Three groups of three Wolf Guard with combi-plasmas, two Grey Hunter squads with twin plasma all in pods, two smaller squads of GH with plasma and WG with combi-plasma on foot and a Wolf Lord on thunderwolf with four more thunderwolves as an escort.  Ouch.

Space Sharks Librarian and terrain

After having left him alone for a number of weeks, I decided that my librarian was done, so went ahead and based/sealed him.  

Why I like the new Codex: Space Marines

I really like the new Space Marine codex.  Not because of price drops, or how awesome White Scars tactics are, but because of the inherent play variety it offers.

For me that kind of variety is what makes some books stand head and shoulders above others.  For some books, when you see armies made from them, a lot of similarity in build, and therefore play style, will be evident.  When you face them again and again it can get repetitive.  

40K League Battle Report - Space Sharks vs. Necrons - War of the Orb

My latest league game was vs. Eddie and the Cruisers Necrons.  1500pts, Relic, Hammer and Anvil.

Sharka Khan?

Yep, another post about those guys

Like many marine players, I've been thinking about my Space Marines in relation to the new codex.  For me, that's mostly my Space Sharks, though until I get around to converting them into more Sharks, I guess it could also apply to my Silver Skulls as well. 

The big conundrum of the day is: which Chapter Tactics to follow?

40K League Battle Report - Space Sharks vs. Dark Eldar 1250pts

My most recent league game has been against the malevolent Dark Eldar.  The mission was the Emperor's Will, with Dawn of War deployment.

The DE took:

Duke Sliscus

Haemonculi w/liquifier

2xwrack squads in venoms, 1 wrack w/liquifier

5xwyches in venom

2xwarrior squads in raiders

3xravagers

Terrain chopping - complete!

The sawing up of the city board sections is complete.  One large ruin made from foam I decided to just abandon, and some of the smaller elements that were part of larger pieces I took off of the board, like the crashed flyer.  This still left me with a lot of based terrain pieces.

Creative Destruction - City Board redux

Example section

As mentioned in the previous post, I have been thinking about cutting up my city terrain board for some time.  I like it, and the design gives it a lot of potential variety, but with the change from 25%+ and "set up the board and pick a side" to alternating placement and random amounts it doesn't work as well.  Plus its form makes it a pain to store and is basically impossible to transport without a van or truck, which I don't have.  So, I figured cut it up, make it easier to store and bring out to stores/events as needed.  Recently a friend let me borrow a nice little powered saw and with protective gear for me and sonofsonsoftaurus, we tried out the saw and made a few cuts.  

Death Guard Land Raider plus chopping up terrain

Decided to work on the Nurgle Land Raider.  Intentionally messy, but without all the greenstuff fungus and tentacles that many feature.

 

WIP Death Guard

Some more work done on the Plague Marines.  Dreadnought, above.

SHARKNADO!

Enough said!

40K League Report: Space Sharks vs. Eldar

Note the funky pixie wings.

Managed to get my league game in with James' Eldar this past weekend.  1250pts, Crusade, Hammer and Anvil.  Going into the game he was the league leader, being undefeated so far.  For this step he changed his list around, dropping the wave serpents to try other things out like swooping hawks and lots of rangers.

New Chaos Space Marine supplement due soon!

Wow, I've just seen some of the rundowns for the new rules for the new supplement for Chaos Space Marines.  Kind of surprised to see it come out so fast on the heels of the Black Legion supplement, but I'm not complaining!  A lot of Chaos Marine players, especially Night Lords and Iron Warriors I think will love this new book.

Purge the Alien!

Aside from the Eldar stuff I won't get back to for a while, I have some things that I seriously doubt I will ever get to.  So, another round of purges.  Wanted to check here first to see if anyone, especially locals, were interested before they went to ebay.  Contact me through the profile on the right with offers.

First up above we have some spare Eldar Harlequins, all metal from back in the day.

Metal avatar.

Old metal dire avengers or guardians.

Four old and one very old dark reaper, including some kind of extra weapon, I'm guessing some kind of exarch launcher?

Box of ten Warmachine Cryx Satyxis Blood Witches.  I had planned to use them either as daemonettes or as some kind of unit for the Scythiak.

Box of Dark Eldar Kabalite Warriors, opened but complete.

Twenty Dark Elf Corsairs, two hand weapons and command (two groups of ten)

Ten Dark Elf crossbowmen.

Fifteen (15) Dark Elf Cold One Knights!  Twelve beasts built, three on sprue.  Some riders partially built (legs). 

WIP: Space Sharks Librarian, Death Guard Dreadnought

 

I've been getting a little painting progress done since getting back from vacation.  First up is a Space Sharks librarian with jump pack.  I've never been a fan of all-blue librarians, so he's mostly in standard Shark grey, with a blue pad (and psychic hood) to denote his specialty.  For those younguns out there, the figure is an old metal librarian, circa 1990.  Metal jump pack with ork spiky bits added for a little shark flavor.  

Thoughts: Does everything in the background have to be represented by rules?

We've all heard it, and have probably engaged in some of it ourselves: such and such rule doesn't reflect the background!  X chapter of marines should have rules for XYZ!  We've heard the clamor for ways to differentiate marines, chaos legions, eldar craftworlds, ork klans, guard regiments, tyranid hivefleets, etc.

At some level it makes sense.  Imperial Fists are supposed to be masters of siege warfare, Bad Moons are supposed to have the best equipment, Saim Hann use a lot of jetbikes.  Why not give them special rules to represent that?

40K League Report: Space Sharks vs. Cryptkickers CSM - Lightning Claw Pattycake!

Got in my league game with Scott of My Little World of Dementia and his Chaos Marines.  Look for his version of the report soon at his site. (Edit - here it is) 1000pts, Hammer and Anvil Big Guns Never Tire.

40K Basics: Scale

Just a quick bit to add to the 40K Basics archives - scale in 40K.  Not the scale of the models or the battlefield, or how silly it is that a bolter can only shoot as far as a man can run in 2-4 turns (or how long a turn is...).  Rather, how the scale of a game can affect how powerful something can be.

40K league report - Space Sharks vs. Dark Eldar

Monday I played against the Dark Eldar for our local league.  1000pts, kill points.  He set up first clustered behind the ruin at the top of the picture.  I set up second, deciding to start both cyclone squads on the table, down on the bottom of the ruin on my side, mostly blocked from LOS.  Belial would teleport in with the assault cannon squad, and the 5-man tactical squad would walk on.

I managed to seize initiative, and walked both terminator squads upstairs to the parapets.  One cyclone shot through a window and exploded a ravager, earning first blood and cutting down on the incoming dark lances.  The other cyclone's shots went wide.  On the Dark Eldar turn, they moved out and poured fire into the Space Sharks, gutting both squads (above).

Long Incubation - WIP Nurgle CSM

I've always liked Plague Marines.  Way back I entertained images of Plague Marines, pickelhaube and archaic power armor proudly if rottenly worn, toiling in WWI type trenches, raiding across desolate landscapes rife with disease, rats and poison gas.  Alongside these elite shock troopers would be legions of lesser gas-masked troopers and even the walking dead, serving alongside men who may as well be corpses themselves.  At the time there was nothing to really support such a mixed force, so the idea was pushed towards the back.  

Later, the Eye of Terror Codex and the Lost and the Damned army list it contained allowed just such a force, and the idea resurfaced, along with the Steel Legion troopers as the Plague Marines' backup, nicely gasmasked faceless minions.  The army came towards the front, and Lost and the Damned forces were played quite a bit, but the full force never came to fruition before edition and codex changes swept Lost and the Damned away, along with the idea.

But it didn't go away altogether.  It festered and took root, incubating until conditions were right to flower.  Now, with Allies, a Chaos Marine/Imperial Guard combo is quite possible, and my acquisitions over the years have yielded sufficient forces for such an army.  Above are two such acquisitions, a Nurgle dreadnought and a daemon prince, which will be kept in the foam pending ascendant champions.

Toxic Pool Plan, and more terrain

Some more terrain fiddled with.

The toxic pools, from Gale Force 9.  My son, wanting to help, came up with a plan for using them:

40K League: Space Sharks vs. Orks

Got my week 2 league game in with Leonard and his Orks on Saturday.  1000pts still, Relic, Dawn of War deployment.  

I made a number of mistakes this game, which I payed for.  First of all I mistakenly thought we were still doing Emperor's Will, so my terrain placements were done based on that.  Important to know these things!

My tactical combat squad can be seen on the left, one termie squad on the right in the woods, other two termie squads and Belial deep striking in.  Orks have full loota squad, 30 boy squad, tooled up warboss/nob squad in battlewagon.

40K League: Space Sharks vs. Necrons, terrain, new HQs

First game of the league, with the Sharks up against Patrick's Necrons.  Emperor's Will, Hammer and Anvil deployment.  Here's the crons, with Belial and tac combat squad back in far right corner where they sat out the battle on my objective.

It's a Hard Blog Life

When you're starting out, blogging can be a lonely affair.  

You see others and get inspired to start your own and start putting posts out, documenting hobby logs, composing your thoughts and whatnot to add to the blogosphere, hoping that you're putting out more signal than noise and that your vanity project will be vindicated by acknowledgement and even praise, enough to stroke your ego into continuing to put in the time and work involved.

I follow a lot of blogs.  A LOT.  It's hard to keep up, which is one of the reasons I'm so thankful for blogrolls, of which I have quite a few over on the right ---> .  Still, it's hard to find the time to keep up with them all, and I apologize that I can't comment on or even skim more of them.  

But they still deserve some love, or I wouldn't have bothered to follow them in the first place.  Maybe you can help!  Check them out, see what you like, follow them, comment and so forth.  If you're looking for a place to start, I went through and found some little orphan blogs that are working hard but need some attention.  

Pre-league tryouts: Space Sharks vs. Dark Eldar and Space Wolves

A number of us turned up at the local store on the first day of our new league.  All of our actual games were scheduled for other times with other people, but we got some practice games in anyways.  1000pts, Emperor's Will.

The store had also been robbed the night before, with the high-end Magic cards being ripped off, but that's another story.

My first game was against Dark Eldar, a skimmer-fest with ten dark lances, a disintegrator, two liquifiers and many splinter shots.  He circled the wagons around the venom holding the liquifier wracks and haemonculus (above).

40K League - Let's get ready to rumble

Tomorrow starts our next 40K league, with a few rounds at 1000pts.  We have open lists, and I thought readers might be interested to see them and speculate on results of matchups, which is a long tradition in gamers and nerds in general (who would win - Rommel in a Klingon D7 Battlecruiser with a crew of ninja pirates or Napoleon with a boarding party of Pokemon?  Go!).

We have: Me (Space Sharks using Dark Angels), two Space Wolves (one a counts as), Orks, two Necrons, three Eldar, Dark Eldar, Tyranids, Chaos Marines.

Miniature-Giant - thanks folks!

Years ago I did a review of Miniature-Giant, an online retailer that among other things has all the Reaper stuff.  Discounts, fast turnaround and a referral program.  Some of you must have read the review, because I've been getting some nice "recruit rewards", and was amazed at how much it was when I made an order today!

So...thanks, whoever you are!  I hope you're at least getting something from the small orders I put through, and that you're spreading the word further for even more rewards.

For those of you who haven't checked them out yet, please do so!  And of course enter in "jimebarr" as your referring member (without the quotes) for extra discounts for both of us!

I especially recommend them for picking up some of the extra Bones you have been thinking about - their discounts PLUS extra discounts on top of the low Bones prices make those guys super cheap!  Ogres for under $2 each?  Gimme!