There be Dragons... Fire Dragons

A while back I had a post about the "Boy's in Blue", talking about painting up my Dire Avengers. Well, here we have the Boys in Red. Not sure that is the right phrase, I think that when facing these boys the correct phrase was actually uttered by the Wicked Witch of the West. "I'm Melting!"

Overall I really like the way these Fire Dragons look compared to the older versions. I have 2 older FD mixed into this lot and while they look ok, the new ones certainly look better.


You might also notice that the new Dragons are slightly larger than the old ones. This is interesting to me, as it makes me wonder if other armies have the same "growth" as model ranges are getting done.



I changed my paint scheme a bit, but am still fairly close to what I posted previously. I am not a huge fan of the bright orange and yellow FD scheme, as I feel it really stands out in a jarring fashion when plugged into a Biel-Tan army.This darker scheme actually fits well, while still sticking to the idea of the FD.

So no Exarch for these boys so far. I will eventually have to expand them out from the current to a full squad of 10, along with adding a couple Exarchs (each weapon choice). For the moment, I only play with 6 or 7 in an army, so these boys work well. As I note to the right, this brings my total painted army to just shy of 3K points. Even dropping Yriel from normal lists, this gives me well over 2500 points to play with.

Chicago Gamesday 2009 - Golden Daemon

I have been torn as I try to figure out how to do this post. I have 37 images (after I cleaned up my pictures) from the Golden Daemon in Chicago. I realize a couple things:

1. I have not explained my methods for picking what I take pictures of at Golden Daemon
2. 37 pictures is a heavy load for the blog and a long post
3. I have a number of long posts to put up after my Chicago trip

So, I am going to approach things this way. First let me explain my method when I am snapping pictures at the Golden Daemon contests. First, I realize that everyone will be able to go online or look in White Dwarf to see the winners of the contest. In addition, those pictures will be far better than the ones I take (I would hope!). Second, typically the areas I am taking pictures in are from the line, clouded by the scratched and smudged screens, and crowded with multiple models. Toward this end, I walk through the line and try to take the best pictures I can of the models I like. This means I will very rarely have pictures of Nurgle models (I really do not like them) and will have more pictures (usually) of Eldar, as I like those models. Basically, this is a profile of what caught my eye.

Now, I am also thinking of not putting all my pictures up on the blog. Based on the second two points above, I am going to post a couple that really stuck out for me, and then post a link to my Flickr slide show. This slide show is all the pictures from Games Day Chicago, not just Golden Daemon. I think my intelligent readers will not be disappointed.

So, here we go. The following are some of the entries that really stuck out to me. For my full picture coverage please look here.


* I met Gobbo while I was in Chicago, he had travelled from Denver for the DLT picnic and Games Day. This was a great model and when I was in line I heard this comment from the guys behind me: "Man, that guy took the term single 40K model to the extreme!"


* I liked this Farseer model. I tried to convince the people behind the table to turn on the static ball, but they wouldn't.


* This was just incredible. I took several pictures and have them cleaned up as much as possible in my slide show.


* and this just made me say WOW! The artist painted up a complete canopy of trees, shaded them, then placed this Wood Elf in the canopy. Great model.

I liked all the models I took pictures of, and I strongly recommend you check out my Flickr Slide Show.

Game Report - DLT Forge Risen Necrons vs Dead Tau Project

Necrons, those undead in space that used to be so tough and now are a little hampered in 5th edition. While the hit to glancing definitely impacted Necrons with the new vehicle damage chart, I believe the larger impact is phase-out and how that interacts with the new 5th edition scenarios. Basically, there is only 1 mission you play when playing Necrons. Phase Out. Lets see, grab 5 objectives... Nah, lets just make them phase out. Seize an objective in the opponents deployment zone... nah, lets just make them phase out.

The DLT guys are writing a new campaign (The Forge Star Campaign) that actually adjusts Necrons a bit. I was lucky to play against Rich from DLT and the new Forge Risen Necrons. You can hear about the game on Episode 50 of their podcast, and I am going to give a bit of an overview here as well.

List for the game:
@1500

HQ
Autarch (Mandiblasters, WJG, Power Weapon, Fusion Gun)
Farseer (Doom, Runes of Warding, Spear)

Elite
7x Fire Dragons
w/ Wave Serpent (Spirit Stones, SCan, TL SctLaser)
8x Banshees
w/ Banshee Exarch (Executioner, Warshout, Acrobatic)
w/ Wave Serpent (Spirit Stones, SCan, TL Missiles)

Troops
9x Dire Avengers
w/ Dire Avenger Exarch (Bladestorm, 2x Avenger SC)
w/ Wave Serpent (Spirit Stones, SCan, TL Bright Lances)
3x Jetbikes
w/ 1x SCan
3x Jetbikes
w/ 1x SCan

Fast
8x Warpspiders
w/ Warp Spider Exarch (Withdraw, Powerblades, 2x Deathspinner)


Rich's Forge Risen Necrons

1x Pariah Lord (new from Forge Star)
1x 8 Immortals
1x 3 Wraith
1x 7 Scarabs
2x Tomb Spiders
1x 2 Heavy Destroyers
1x 4 Destroyers
2x 12 Necrons + Pariah Sargent(FS) + Gauss Flamer Template(FS)

Game Record: 2-7-3

First it is important to understand what some of the changes for the Forge Risen Necrons are. Based on my (faulty) memory, here are the highlights:

• Phase Out - Necron squads who fall back must make a leadership test or that many necrons "phase out" of the squad.
• Wraiths - 1 of the attacks the wraiths have become a power weapon attack
• Pariah Lord - Essentially a super pariah. Allows Pariah Sergent upgrades in necron squads that are at least 12 man strong
• Gauss Weapons - become rending
• We'll Be Back - this becomes a 4+ FNP
  
• Tomb Spiders - Add +1 to a FNP save for necrons within 6 inches

I really enjoyed this game. I found that with Phase out changed in this manner, I was really playing to the mission and prioritizing my shooting/attacks instead of just hunting down Necron Warrior units to push a phase out. In addition, the other changes did not come out as over powered, but made for an interesting game.

Our game was an annihilation mission, with "normal" set-up of 12 inch deployment zones. Rich set-up everything on the table, while I kept my bikes, spiders, and autarch in reserve. A couple highlights before the end of the game were:

I successfully split his army in half, with 1 warrior squad + spider, wraiths, and immortals headed to the left and the rest of his army headed right. I had 1 set of bikes and 1 wave serpent (dragons) to the left and the rest of my army on the right side of the board.

The Serpent with Dragons was Crew-Shaken close to my deployment zone, so I turbo boosted into the middle of his army on the left flank. My intention was to jump the dragons out, scoot and shoot with the serpent, and unload with 7 melta shots. Instead, the Serpent was blown out of the sky, the Dragons emergency disembarked and were promptly picked apart by remaining gauss fire then assaulted and wiped out by the wraiths.

Banshees waltzed through 1 doomed squad of Warriors, 1 doomed squad of destroyers, and got stuck on a multi combat with immortals and scarabs at the end of the game.

Dire Avengers blade storm into the destroyer squad, kill 1, then lose 5 Avengers to return fire from the same destroyer squad.

So we come to the last 3 player turns of the game. I have the bottom of the turn and on my turn 4 I charge the Pariah Lord with my Autarch, Spider Exarch, and 1 warp spider. 10 str 3 power weapon attacks and 1 regular attack result in 1 wound on the Pariah lord. In return, the Pariah Lord kills the warp spider, tied combat. Top of turn 5 I send 8 str 3 power weapon attacks into the lord, and everything fails to land (due to my average rolls not wounding and his invuln saves). In return, the Pariah kills the Warp Spider Exarch, I lose combat by 1 and roll for a 6 (Pariah drops my leadership to 7, lose combat by 1) and fail. I successfully make the initiative check to flee then roll my 3 dice to jump away. I jump over the ongoing combat between the Immortals and the Banshees, and the Lord ends up on the other side of the combat. I do a quick check of the board and see the following status:

1. Farseer is alive and in a Serpent, within 24 inches of the immortal combat
2. Autarch is alive but fleeing, no problem I can rally him next turn
3. Banshees are in combat with the Immortals and 1 scarab base. With Doom, I should clear this combat on my turn and gain 2 KP.
4. Half squad of Dire Avengers are 1 inch from the table edge and fleeing
   
5. Currently kill points are tied at 4 / 4

So, I happily move into my turn 5, comfortable that this game is fairly wrapped up. I knew we would be ending after my turn because the bunker was closing.

- First thing on my turn I launch Doom at the immortals. I make the rolls, everything is good, then Rich reminds me of "Psychic Void" around his Pariah Lord. Pariah Lord is within 6 inches of the immortals, Doom dissipates into the warp. Damn. No problem, as long as the Autarch and the Avengers rally (on a 10 and a 9 respectively), I am playing for a tie and my banshees may even pull out the win without doom.

- I roll for my Avengers to rally and they do, sticking nicely on the edge of the table but not willing to leave the field of battle. Now things are turning around!

- I grab my dice and roll for the Autarch. Roll a 3, fantastic. I quickly measure and find the Autarch is 5 1/2 inches away from the immortal combat. DAMN double DAMN! He cannot rally and ends up jumping a bit further away. He is still fleeing and that makes the total 5KP for Rich to 4 KP for me.

- I shoot what I can, dropping a couple wounds here and there but not removing any units. Onto the Banshees! Banshees drop 3 wounds onto the immortals, and none onto the scarab base. Fail. Final score stays at 5KP to 4KP, win to Rich.

Overall I really enjoyed this game. From a lessons learned standpoint:

• My Bikes are still working as a harassment unit, not actually delivering any scoring action. They add nicely to my other str 6 shooting, and work as diversion units.
• I am still not supporting my Dragons. Maybe its something subconscious? I need to make a concerted effort to support my dragons when I play.
• Doom Seer works out really well. I put him with the Banshees this game and that worked better than running with the Avengers. I am going to keep him with the Banshees for a while.

So, that was the game. My record looks fairly abysmal, but I am getting very comfortable with my army so I expect this will start climbing on the win column.

*As a note, HuronBH has pointed out this was actually a tie. I have updated the record column both in this post and on the right. A falling back unit does not equal a kill point until it actually hits the table edge!