Saturday, February 27, 2010

CONTEST: The last day...

With about a day left to vote and enter in the banner contest, I thought I'd do an update with a general post and a bit of housekeeping...

First, is the "Pony People" banner in it's full "glory". Some of you asked so I provide...


Second, I updated my recent "B2B: Flamers" article with a critical item I'd spaced about:
"UPDATE: And yet another fun thing about Tank Shock: "Death or Glory" attacks are only allowed by a single "model in the vehicle's path". Many players like to place their special weapons and nasty characters either to the center of the squad or stacked to one side. If you Tank Shock an edge of the formation such that those don't have to move, they are not able to perform a DoG attack. This is another of those simple yet critical items that be make all the difference in your Tank Shock."
Normally I'd just update and go on with life, but that's such a good thing to know that I felt it worth posting twice.

Third, I've mentioned that I'm giving away "a set of sculpting tools and an LE fig". Well, some of you might want to see what I'm actually offering?
So here's the "set of sculpting tools":And there's been enough comments that I decided to throw in a second set too!Then someone is going to get choice of fig from the following two pics:There's also a bare metal Emperor's Champion not pictured.Yeah, I know they're not all LE, but there's some cool old figs there too. There's a Chaos Sorceror, a Marine Captain, 2 Slaaneshi Chaos Renegades, an ancient Tech Marine, and an original Mark 2 Terminator.
I know I have more LE figs around here but that box is hiding from me... so they'll just have to wait for another contest.

Cheers!

Thursday, February 25, 2010

E-mail In: Eldar War Walkers vs Dark Reapers

Silar of The Fallen Princes wrote in today asking about War Walkers versus Dark Reapers:

So I have an upcoming game and need your help with the math. So the choices in front of me are 2 eldar warwalkers with 4 scatter lasers at 120 or 3 reapers and exarch at 117 (no upgrades or weapon swaps). I'm fighting Spacemarines and would like to know which are better (for shooting and surviving)? Also there is a farseer with doom and guide floating around if that effects them?

Offensive stats aren't too difficult even though Doom & Guide certainly make it a little more complex. Here's the basics precepts going in:
a. Reapers have 4x shots at BS4 and the Exarch has 2x at BS5.
b. Reaper shots are S5 and AP3.
c. Walkers have 16x shots at BS3.
d. Walker shots are S6 and AP6.

Here's how things fall out when comparing full unit shooting:What does this tell us? That except when the target is basic Marines standing around with no cover saves, Scatter Walkers out perform Dark Reapers.

But then we get into a more nebulous area... durability. Here's the basic precepts I'm using:
a. Reapers have a 3+ Armour Save.
b. War Walkers are AV 10.
c. War Walkers are subject to Squadron rules. (If one dies, this goes away but I'm not computing the math for that... too many variables getting there.)
d. Numbers are for a single shot to avoid a seeming skew of the data.
e. Most Marines have the same BS, so the to-hit is not factored. We're looking at the effects of a shot that has already hit.

That gives us:Most weapons will have a comparable chance of killing a Dark Reaper as they will of doing some kind of Damage to the War Walker. However, even with a meltagun, the chance to actually Destroy the Walker is much lower. The Reapers have the advantage of being able to shoot even if the squad takes casualties. The War Walkers will likely be able to take more fire but won't put out offensive power if they do.

In the final analysis: War Walkers really are the superior choice. Not only are they better statistically, they also have the advantage of mobility. War Walkers can move & fire (a BIG thing in Dawn of War scenarios), Scout, and Outflank.
The only way I'd consider Reapers is if you're take the extra expense of giving the Exarch a Tempest Launcher and Crack Shot. At 147 points, this build is marginal but is at least does something useful for those players who really want Dark Reapers.

***Image is of Silar's great RT Pirate themed Eldar as seen here, hope he doesn't mind me using it!***

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

B2B: Flamers

Hello folks! Today we're going to talk about some basics of the Flamer, how to minimize getting hit by them, and how to maximize their effect.

The joy and sorrow of Flamer weapons is that they base their hits on the number of enemy models covered by the Flamer Template. No to-hit rolls, no partials, no cover saves, and all "I love the smell of napalm in the morning!" The downside is that the enemy should be able to look at your list, see you have flamers and adjust their battle plan accordingly.

A few simple facts pertinent to Flamer spread:
1. A unit cannot move closer than 1" away from the enemy without being locked in CC.
2. 1" = 25.4mm, a standard base is 25mm, and .4mm is too small a difference to easily distinguish. Thus a normal base is 1" across for all intents.
3. Unit coherency is measured 2" from base to base.
4. The flamer template is 8.25" long and just over 2.25" at the widest.
5. The template always covers a set area, so the total number of hits can be reduced by simply spreading out.

So how can you minimize their effect on your own Troops? Well, it's always better to not get shot at all and an 8.25" range isn't much. But when it inevitably happens, spacing out your unit can drastically reduce the flamer's amount of coverage. As shown to the right, 1" away + 1" base + 2" coherency + 1" base + 2" coherency + 1" base = 8". In theory, a conga line formation could reduce a flamer weapon to a maximum of 3 hits. Of course "in theory" means about as much to an actual game as a frictionless vacuum does to applied physics. Terrain, additional units, inaccuracies of movement & measurement, inability of attackers to be perfectly positioned and many other minutiae will both increase and/or reduce the number of hits that occur.

On the other side of the coin, a flamer correctly placed over guys packed in like sardines can hit about 19 models. A range of 3-19 is quite the spread... how can you go about getting the most flame for your buck? There's six main times an opponent will bunch up nicely for flamers:
1. They make a mistake, such as forgetting you have flamers.
2. They're crowding into a small piece of terrain.
3. They're clumping to surround an objective.
4. Deploying from a Transport.
5. After Close Combat.
6. After a Tank Shock.
I'm never willing to rely on the first but happy to exploit it when it does. The second and third also rely on your opponent and are commonly related to the first. But the other three are items you can be proactive with...

Deploying from a Transport: One of the best times to hit opponents with flamers is right after they deploy from a Transport. Unfortunately, your opponent probably knows this too. A voluntary disembark on their part usually involves a subsequent move away, a mistake, over-confidence, or a limitation of their army build (such as DropPod "Drop & Shoot" armies.) It's good to recognize these and use them if they come up, but they're not reliable items.
In turn, there is also involuntary disembarkation, aka killing their transport. There's a few snags to relying on this method too. The main conundrum is that movement is done before shooting or assault, yet these are your most likely phases to kill a tank. So your flamer units will have move into position before you kill the tank and the enemy disembarks. This makes it difficult to predict where they will go, especially as a Destroyed-Wrecked result has a different deployment area from Destroyed-Explodes. Having your guys in position also allows the enemy to deploy away from the flamers and in formations to minimize their effect. Flamers are also a short range weapon and need to be close to the target. Being close means a chance of hurting your own unit if you get a result of Destroyed-Explodes. Last, if your dice run sour and you fail to kill the tank, your guys are exposed for retaliatory fire and assault from the unit in the tank. While moving your guys and hoping to pop their tank can work in a pinch, it is not a sound enough tactic to base strategy on.

Close Combat: The nice thing about Close Combat is that everyone involved gets up close and friendly. The bad thing is that you can't shoot into CC. So you need a way to end the CC but keep the enemy bunched up.
One option is to sacrifice a disposable unit. Simply let the enemy charge, have the speed bump die, then hit the enemy unit. Another option is the use of "Hit & Run". The availability of this is highly army dependent and it isn't always a sure thing. The problem with both of these is that they allow the opponent to make a Consolidate move. Though random, a decent roll can go a long ways to softening Flamer hits.
But there's an option that's even better: let them assault a Vehicle. Units cannot perform a Consolidate move after, even if the vehicle was destroyed. On your turn, the Vehicle (if able) can move away from the combat without penalty and units inside or near can move in to maximize those flamers.
Here's an example of this from an Ard Boyz game:Admittedly, my opponent made a mistake is charging the Wave Serpent right in front of the Wraithlord. So how about a more realistic example:Here we have examples of a Space Wolf Rhino getting charged by a mob of Orks. The top diagram is what to do if the vehicle survives the assault and the bottom is if it does not. A large part of making this work is to not over-extend your move. It is much more risky when the enemy can block the tank's exits. You want to make sure there's still enough room for the unit to disembark. It is also good policy to leave some room for the vehicle to exit. This isn't critical though as the vehicle might be Destroyed, can Tank Shock their way clear, and/or can provide cover for your unit after the enemy is annihilated.
Also note panels 5&6 for another neat tip. Infantry models may place the template "so that [the template's] narrow end is touching the base of the model firing." Note that this is different from "the shortest distance" or anything. The Flamer can be measure from any point on the edge of the base that does not cause it to cross the base or a friendly model. In Panel 5, he is turned to face the opponent as people are naturally wont to do and the template is placed at the closest point. This causes the wide part of the template to extend past the enemy and covers 9 models at most. But in Panel 6, the template is pulled back to measure off the side of his base. The model has been turned in place to change where his weapon is, to make this angle more obvious. This aspect change increases the hit count to 12. Simple things like this are critical to getting the most out of of your Flamers. (Note that this is literally true for Vehicles as the template is measure from their actual barrel tip.)

After a Tank Shock: One of my main armies is mech-Eldar and Tank Shock is one of my favorite tools. They have highly mobile and durable tanks in a force that needs to maximize every aspect of their attack to succeed. Commonly you see Tank Shock used in objective missions to push enemy units off of an objective. But a lesser known use is to compress the enemy unit to increase your Flamer shots. Simply, even if an enemy unit passes their Morale check, they are still displaced by the mass of the tank. The affected models must move by the shortest distance to clear the tank and must maintain coherency. So if you hit one side of an enemy formation, you can force the models at the edge to compress back into the main part of the squad. Additionally, models inside the tank may deploy as normal AFTER seeing where the enemy moves. This will often increase the number of hits enough to make it worth skipping on assaulting, especially with a non-combat unit like Guardians. Here's a visual:This is a simple example, but it should give you the general idea. Now imagine doing this with a tank on each side... As another variation, you can always Tank Shock with one unit and then flame and assault with a second.
There's also one more fun bit to remember about Tank Shock... Ramming! As mentioned above, enemy units bunch up when deploying from a tank and flamers will get more hits. Because most anti-tank is done after your movement, your opponent has greater ability to react to where your flamers are placed. Yet Ramming happens in the Movement Phase. Thus you have the potential to pop their tank and jump your guys out for maximum carnage. Just be aware that this type of attack relies on a number of random factors and enemy movement. It really is an attack of opportunity rather than a tactic I would rely on regularly using.
UPDATE: And yet another fun thing about Tank Shock: "Death or Glory" attacks are only allowed by a single "model in the vehicle's path". Many players like to place their special weapons and nasty characters either to the center of the squad or stacked to one side. If you Tank Shock an edge of the formation such that those don't have to move, they are not able to perform a DoG attack. This is another of those simple yet critical items that be make all the difference in your Tank Shock.

This is the first in a new series of articles I'm calling "Back to Basics", or B2B for short. Most of my tactics articles have focused on really complex and/or esoteric items. Partly this is because I haven't seen others talking about them. Partly I like complex tactics as they give me a chance to show off. But mostly I'd assumed the majority of players on the internet/blogosphere were experienced players looking for the rarer ideas. In looking around and talking to people, I've since realized there are a lot of newbies looking to up their game and regular players that may have missed some basics. Several times I've dropped a comment about something I consider basic, such as "escorting" or "castling", only to be asked what I'm talking about. So the B2B series is going to focus on basic rules and how they interact with other basics to create the mid-level tactics that are the bread and butter of winning at 40K. Cheers and I hope you enjoy this new style of article.

PS. Go vote on a banner and COMMENT in my "Vote a New Banner" thread. I promised a set of sculpting tolls to a random lucky winner and an LE fig if it hit over 20 comments. Well, we're at 27 now. Depending on how many more I get, even more cool stuff will have to be pulled out...

***Image is from Apocalypse Now and used without permission***

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Advanced Assault Shenanigans Part 2

So in recent post, I showed some of the ways in which difficult terrain rules can be used creatively in an assault. An anonymous troll informed me I was wrong, I invited reasoned debate and mchmr6677 decided to step up with this great rejoinder:
"As opposed to anonymous, I will actually state why your interpretation is flawed.

The first sentence of page 36 under "Assaulting Through Cover" states "If, following the rules for moving assaulting models, any model in an assaulting unit will have to..."

This rule specifies that you must check before any models are moved to see if any of the additional models will be required to move into terrain (i.e. are within 6" of a model that they must try to base). You don't start the charge first and then see what happens."


Ah, a good point with citation! That's the kind of response I like.

However, I still have to disagree. Yes, that rule does state that the unit has to take the relevant terrain test before moving. It also says that this test can cause the assault to fail if the closest model is not in range.
But it does not say anything about checking range, being forced to charge into difficult terrain, nor otherwise supersede the rules as laid out on page 34. For that matter, the rule explicitly says "...moving assaulting models (see page 34), and model..". So the rules laid out on page 34 must be followed.

What the page 36 rule does is set up the timing of things. If there's an option, the choice to take the difficult terrain test MUST be done when moving the closest model. So yes, you're correct that there's no starting the charge and seeing what happens... and that applies both ways. If you forget or opt not to take it, you can't change your mind later.

That make sense? The control over taking that difficult terrain test is always in the hands of the assaulter, for good or ill.

Also, I feel it should be said that some of these are the nicest rules to apply, just that they are the rules as written. In the name of fairness and sportsmanship, you should let your opponent be aware when they make a mistake in the timing, but I wouldn't hold them to it. (Well, unless maybe it is Ard Boyz and they're being a prig.)

Some examples:As a last item, the "Banner Contest" has 38 votes, but only 5 people have commented in the thread to win a free set of sculpting tools. What, don't you guys like free tools? Get to 20 comments and I'll throw in a Limited Edition fig! (I know I have a couple floating around...) Cheers!


UPDATE: This is obviously a hot topic as I've seen the debate raging on several forums... There's the "Measure First" side that says you have to check for all models in the unit before moving. Then there's the "Movement Rules Apply" crowd that says you should have control.
I'm of the latter school. Why? Because of something like this:Technically, the "Measure First" interpretation would hold true even if there was someone in charge range from a DIFFERENT UNIT, per the Multiple Assault Rules.

I prefer "Movement Rules Apply" as it is quicker and, I believe, more realistic. If someone's running for a thicket to get away from me and I catch them before they get there, why would the thicket slow me down???
Is either side intrinsically right or wrong? No. It's a coin toss unless we get a FAQ about it. Both versions have some ways that the rules can be abused. 99% of the games you play, this shouldn't ever become a problem.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

CONTEST: Vote a new banner!

Win free stuff! What do you have to do? Simple:
1. Look through the banners below and figure out your favorite.
2. Go to the poll on the right and let me know which one you like.
3. Leave a comment on this post.

That's it. Clicking a couple buttons and posting "I voted" is enough. You're also welcome to share your reason for voting as you did or otherwise give feedback and commentary. (Entrants, the rule about anonymity still applies until closing. So no posting "I voted for X because it is mine!" :-P )

Many sites will do a contest like this and ask that you Follow them to win... I'm not. I invite you to take a look around and see if there's anything you like, but there's no burden to stick around unless you want to. I do this blog for personal fun and it's not like I'm trying to drive up ad revenue or something.

What can you win? Off the bat I have a three pack of sculpting tools that will go to some lucky voter. If there's enough entrants, I'm lief to go digging through my closet see what other fun things I can come up with too.

So a couple entries were clearly jests, such as this one:Yes, the jester in question did enter a real banner along with this. The joke was great and thanks for the laugh! But the last thing I need is another reason to have Hasbro's legal department after me, much less how... tasteless that banner is. (Update: I'm told it's supposed to have been animated and SPARKLE too! Ugh.) A couple others entries were the same theme with different colors, so I pared them down to my favorite version to avoid thinning out the competition.

So without further ado, here are the four finalist entries:
First up is the "Jetseer" theme.Second is the "Lone Ork" theme.Third is the "Hitchiker" theme.And last is the "Thinker" theme.

Now since this is starting a few days later than intended (darned working vacations), I'm going to keep it open a few extra days too. The poll will close next Sunday evening.

Cheers and best of luck to all who entered!

Friday, February 19, 2010

Advanced Assault Shenanigans

Warhammer 39,999 wrote me today with:
During my assault phase I wish to charge a unit that's in partial cover. The closest model of that unit is within charge range and entirely not in cover. All other models in the unit are in cover, but are still within 6". When attempting to charge that unit, do I need to roll a difficult terrain test?
He also attached a handy diagram to show what he was talking about:My response:
Oh yeah, that's a fun little one. There's really two pertinent rules here:
BRB, page 34, Moving Assaulting Units: "[Models] in an assaulting unit... move following the same rules as in the Movement Phase."
BRB, page 14, Moving Through Difficult Terrain, "If a unit starts its move outside terrain, the player must declare if he wants his unit to try to enter difficult terrain as part of their move. If he chooses not to, the unit moves as normal but may not enter difficult terrain."

Simply put, the choice to enter the difficult terrain (or not) is usually* up to the controlling player.

But what about BRB page 34, Moving Assaulting Units, "Assaulting units must attempt to engage as many opposing models as possible"?
Well, the counter is BRB page 34, Moving Assaulting Units, "If possible, the model must move into base contact with any enemy model within reach." If no difficult terrain test has been made, then models within the terrain are not within reach. For all intents, difficult terrain is impassable unless you opt to take a difficult terrain test.

So the way the movement would look is:Then you move the closest model. At this point you have the option to take the difficult terrain test as the movement between closest to closest is in the clear. If you choose not to, your assault move would look like this:It also is worth noting that the assaulter CAN assault a unit on the edge of area terrain without penalty, so long as they can get into base to base without entering the terrain. Remember that you can move up to and be touching the terrain, just not "in" it.
Basically, someone who wants to get the benefit of terrain had best ensure that ALL of the unit is in the terrain.

*Now why did I say "usually" up to the controlling player? Because it's not always. The specific steps of moving assaulters is that you move the closest by the shortest route, check difficult/dangerous terrain based on that route, see if the model made it and THEN move everyone else. For example:So if the closest to closest move goes through difficult/dangerous terrain, you MUST roll the check. Otherwise, the choice is up to you.

Cheers and hope this has given you some evil ideas. Check back again in a day or so and I promise I'll have the banner contest up and running!

Oh, and for one other thing, it looks like my guest articles on Space Wolf Vehicles have posted over at Space Wolves. Go have a look and tell me how I'm wrong. :-p

***Main image undoubtedly copyright Star Trek or something and will be removed if requested. The rest are crappy Powerpoints as I don't have Vassal 40k when posting from "work"***

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Chaos Daemons

In the continued quest to upload pics of more of my work, I thought I'd show you some Chaos Daemons I have floating around... Plus, it makes for a fast post to throw out while I'm on vacation... :-p

First up is one of two dozen girls converted up to be my "counts as" Furies. These were done up before the Codex: Chaos Daemons had even come out. I'm generally happy with the conversion and final colors, though I hate the big mold line down her face. The entire batch had that problem, but it isn't like I could replace them now...


And then there are my Bloodletters. I've never really liked the GW Daemon models for Bloodletters as they never look like they're packing the right weapons or armour. I wanted something that looked a little more brutal and less cheesy fantasy daemon. So I used Khornegors as the base. The result looks a little like this:
Please ignore the ugly wart on his left axe. That was removed after seeing it in these pics.
How old are these pics? Well, enough so that I didn't use a lightbox, backdrop, had the flash on and was using green grass on the bases... It's been a while.
Wow, my red work has really come a long way...
Though you only see these 6, there's 16 total done. This allowed me to field them in 2 squads of 8, as that gave some sort of bonus.
Yeah, twist and shout!

So these days, most of these figs only hit the table as Summoned Lesser Daemons. When the Codex: Chaos Daemons hit the shelves, I thought about working these and some other figs up as a cohesive force. There's enough in my spares to field 2K and change, but I've never cared enough to actually field them. Maybe there is such a thing as too many armies... Nah, heresy talk! I'm sure I'll get around to them "someday".

Also, if you've read this far... there's still over FIVE days left to enter my "Design me a banner contest"! Get cracking!

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Space Wolves: Canis Wolfborn

In the fine tradition of Romulus, Remus, Tarzan, and Mowgli of "The Jungle Book", the Space Wolves have their very own feral child: Canis Wolfborn. Mounted on a huge wolf named Fangir, packing twin Wolf Claws, and able to snarl in their language... what could be more "Wolfy"?

Canis comes with an impressive laundry list of personal and force modifying abilities. But really, isn't he just an expensive Wolf Guard Battle Leader on a Thunderwolf? There's a number of small differences, but only a few that actually matter.
1. Fenrisian Wolves as Troops. These are a fairly cheap and effective shock troop that's only hampered by using up Fast Attack slots. If you're going to run more than one unit, Canis removes this issue.
2. Rending, Strength 5, & Wolf Claws... all at the same time. Any model given a Thunderwolf upgrade gains Strength 5 and Rending. But they also have a little rider text that says "Rending... with any attack that does not use a special close combat weapon". However, Canis has "Rending" included as a natural part of his ability list and can use it even when hitting with Wolf Claws. This isn't going to be that beneficial against high Toughness oppoents as Rending hits are going to ignore armour anyways, but can make all the difference against Plague Marines, Space Marines, Necrons, and especially Sisters of Battle.
3. He costs 1/2 again as much.
4. He has only 1 upgrade option: up to 2 Fenrisian Wolves.

It's those last 2 items I want you to take a good look at. Generally, a WGBL is going to be cheaper and more purpose built. Canis certainly has unique abilities... but he's really only worth it if you're making use of all of them. Take Canis because he's the choice you want and not just because you're running a Thunderwolf HQ.

But wait! What about his "Wrath of the Savage" where he can get attacks equal to the number of opponents in base to base with him? If you're to the point that your Independent Character is surrounded by six or more opponents, things probably aren't going your way. This is really a "Get Out of Jail" card that may or may not work, but certainly not something you want to build a battle plan on. If you want reliable snowball effect, try a guy with Frostblade, Thunderwolf and Saga of the Warrior Born...

In the final analysis: Canis is a good choice for a large army that wants to run a lot of Fenrisian Wolves and/or Thunderwolf Cavalry. But outside of this narrow role, I'd pass on him for cheaper or more efficient HQ choices. Cheers!

Also, if this auto-post thingy works correctly, there should still be several days left before the end of my "Design me a banner contest". Go there, read the rules, enter, win free stuff! Try it! The bleeding will stop sooner than you'd believe!

***Image grabbed from this distracting blog on human oddities***

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Space Wolves: Fenrisian Wolf Packs

Have you ever wanted to be the leader of the pack? Do you have what it takes to run with the Wolves? I'm sure there's some other cliche I could abuse, but I've always tried to be a lone wolf...

Okay, enough of that, let's look at Fenrisian Wolves. What do they have going for them? They're cheap, they have the basic stats of a Marine and they are Cavalry. Against them? They're never scoring, they don't have power armour and they don't have power armour.

Why that last twice? Because even though they're about 1/2 the cost of a basic Marine, they will only save 1/4 as many shots... presuming they get a save in the first place. This means that unit attrition will be a LOT higher. This can be mitigated by running them through cover, but even that is only a temporary solution.

With no guns, there's no reason not to Fleet. With no guns, there's no reason not to charge. With no Frag Grenades, you probably want to avoid charging enemy in cover.

Still doesn't seem really favorable for the Wolves, does it? Well, it's not. They're a large, cheap, mobile meat shield. That's it. There's nothing really tactical or strategical about them. Simply point at the enemy lines and fire. They're just fast, furry Orks.

But wait! A character can get Saga of the Wolfkin and upgrade them all to Initiative 5 and Leadership 7! Yeah, that's real great, now you'll still be going at Initiative 1 if you have to charge into cover. Anyone worth their salt is going to use this against you. Remember, that effect happens even if you're charging OUT of cover. It's any time that difficult terrain roll is made. So if your normal move and Fleet don't get you clear of the cover, you're going last.

But wait! Add in Canis and you can take them as Troops! The still can't score, it's just as worthle... er... wait... you mean they won't waste those Fast Attack slots? I can fill those up with Thunderwolf Cavalry or something instead? Hunh. We might have something here...

The plan: Operation Furshield. Take 10-45 Fenrisian Wolves. Screen your lines. Charge. Fight. Win! No capes...
Cheap, simple and easy, this is how I see most Wolves getting used. A nice distraction, alpha-strike, speed bump... whatever you want to call it. They run at the enemy and muck up their lines to give the rest of your time to army close.

The second plan: Operation Fuzzy SABOT. See above. Slap on an Independent Character or two on Thunderwolves. Point at enemy. Let furballs eat bolters. Let character wreak havoc. Enjoy.
At 120 points for a unit of Wolves and 200 or so for a decent character, this plan is still pretty cheap. If nothing else, the potential havoc it can cause is one heck of a "shoot here" sign. With a 19-24" move, you're not going to have to worry much about being Rapid Fired to death... at least not until after the first charge.

Fenrisian Wolves are a cute and fluffy idea that make a nice, cheap horde option for supporting your Marines. They're a great way to get a bunch of bodies in front of your more expensive units and screw up the enemy lines with close combat. With a shooting force, they can distract or delay a flank. But they're going to mesh best in a heavily close-combat oriented army that needs a fast shock troop out front. Run them at the from to Screen a Cavalry or Infantry list and be your initial line of impact. Even a mechanized force could probably find a use for them, though they don't fit quite as nicely.

In the final analysis: A single unit isn't critical but might make a nice addition to most any force. I wouldn't bother with multiple units unless you were taking Canis and running a heavy Infantry or Cavalry army.

Cheers and see you next time! (Hey, one week and change left to enter my contest...)

***Image grabbed from this shirt site...***

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

A small update

Hey there boys and girls! For a change there's no mega-post today, but instead a series of small items.

1. The "Design me a new banner" contest is off and running, with 12 days left. Nothing says it has to be all custom art and super slick design... enter something! (Yes, I do have entries already, but I'd like to see more.)

2. I recently did a guest article for "The Wraith Gate" on "Eldar & the 5th Edition Tyranid Menace". Head over and tell me I'm wrong!

3. A recent bit of humour from the net... Hitler learns about the Doom of Malan'tai debate:

Amusing enough, I'm willing to forgive the editing gaffe.
Truth told, I think Robin Cruddace did a decent job overall. Plus, I'm happy having Phil Kelly working on other things, like my spiffy new Wolves 'dex. Having Codexes regularly release makes me hopeful that we'll see new stuff soon for those needing a new or updated Codex. (=I=, Dark Eldar, and Eldar, I'm looking at you...)
Still, that item could have been better written.

4. Just for something else, here's a bad pic of some Genestealers I'm painting. This was taken with my phone camera with no attempt to proper lighting. Deal. Also, the colors were not my choice but ended up looking good anyways. The guy in the middle on the round base was the original sample. Current progress is 6 done and sealed, 8 basecoated, 8 assembled and primed. I'd love to do more, but have vacation stuff to do. Expect to see these guys again. (Yes, with "good" pics.)

5. Pet Peeve: When people add an image to the top of their post but don't remove the carriage return. This causes their post to start a line down from being even with the image top. Keep it professional! Keep it OCD! Keep it consistent!

Okay, that almost looks like a real post... Off to take some more cold meds. "I don't have TIME to be sick."

Monday, February 1, 2010

CONTEST: New banner

Win Stuff! That's right folks, I've decided I want to make this little blog look nicer and figured I might as well have some fun with the process. So I'm hosting a little two-part contest. The first stage will be to design a new banner/logo for Maunderings and the second simply to vote on your favorite. Prizes will be awarded for both.

Stage One, "Design a new banner"

The prize: One custom character model sculpted/converted to specifications.

I'll provide model concept sketches, base model and bitz (up to $50), shipping, and sculpt work. I will work with you exactly as I would a professional commission to make this a worthy centerpiece for your army or display case. (ie It will be done to the best of my ability and OCD tendencies.) I'll even paint it up if you want. Regular progress updates will be blogged.

The rules to play:
a. Entries must be sent to my e-mail (dweomer at hotmail.com) by 12pm (noon) MST Tuesday, February 16th, 2010.
b. No more than three (3) entries per person.
c. The banner should be formatted to no more than 900px wide and 400px tall.
d. No profanity, pornography, abuse of my basic tenets nor blatant IP violations will be allowed.
e. I will have full rights to use the final image for my blog and blog related stuff.
f. Entries must be kept anonymous until voting is done. (I expect a bit of cajoling of friends, but don't leverage your blogs, okay?)
g. All entries will be posted on Wednesday, February 17th and voting will be open for one week. The top voted wins.

Equal fun for me? I'm headed on vacation for most of this contest time. So the submissions (or any lack thereof) should be just as much a surprise to me.



Stage Two "Vote the Winner"

The prize: A set of three sculpting tools.
I've had an extra set I've been meaning to give away for a while now. There's also possibly more/bigger prizes depending on how many people participate and what I can find in my bitz drawer.

The rules to play:
a. Simply vote in the poll for your favorite banner(s) and post a comment in the thread. Winner will be chosen randomly from the commenters one week later.
b. Yes, you can vote for your own entry(s). (If you think it's a contender.)
c. Yes, you can vote for multiple entries.

There's no requirement to Follow my blog or anything. I see no reason to have you do so and then drop right after. Simply show up, give your opinion and say hi. (Though if you decide to take a look around and like what you see, even better.)

This should be an interesting experiment at the very least... Cheers!

***Image snagged from Clker***