Month: November 2017

Warmaster Weekends "painting speed" Phase One

         One unit could have as many as 48 dudes (Unit = 3 stands @ 16 dudes a stand). If one had 10 units of legionaries in a 3000 point army, thats 740 dudes. The speed at which I could paint a unit becomes a big question. Even if I paint in 1000 point blocks. How fast can I get an army on the table? Get two armies on the table?

         Now some of these guys are doubled ranked or in the case of a Phalanx 4 ranks. It may be faster to paint them based. The painting of dudes based and in ranks does create a difficultly in how much of the inner dudes are painted.

         A test for best method is needed. Also which method produces a quality looking group of dudes. The test will be on heavy infantry and Skirmishers.

Phase one; painting on sticks and Phase two based in ranks.

         The procedure will be the same. I will start with dudes fresh from the bag. They will be cleaned, mounted, primed, painted, dipped, flocked, and sealed. Any attention to the shields will be not included.

Phase One;

Cartho Libyans — Cleaning and mounting and priming, strong tone wash and spears 22 minutes.

         Then the plan totally collapsed as I chose to start doing shields. In the end I had to go back to hit the spots I skip over for shields.

reference sheet 1

         Hand painting shields at 10mm is a bit of a strain. My lighting sucks and there is no wet palette here. My examples are 110% larger than the actual 10mm shield.

Carthaginian Libyan Inf.
45 points
The Numidian skirmishers were much quicker to paint. I just can not count. A half base short.
20 points

 My device for mounting single dudes straight and balanced on the base

 The real reason I was short skirmishers. I stuck a few in support of the elephants. 3 African Forest Elephants.

450 points

 Forest Elephants are much smaller than India Elephants. The forest type is long gone. I did find some handles for these dudes. No riders with big long spears yet.

The next 3 bases to get painted. These are the Old Glory India elephants I got at Fall In.
          Me digging thru the massive mess of 10mm dudes searching for more of this one kind of dude. At least Macs, Cartho, and Roma are separated. 

Warmaster Weekends "The crack"

           The look! So, maybe, just maybe, I went head first. Nope I am truly ass deep to a tall indian (feather, no dot) in 10mm ancients.

           I am not totally at fault. I live in a country that is not supportive of package delivery. So returning to the states is an Amazon and soldier ordering craze. Poor dad, says a room is so full of shit, there is no where for me to sleep. I waited to after the wife returned to open and sort thru the boxes. Fall In was coming and I may need more. Only 3 sets!

 Bases from Shogun and Pendraken

 But like I said, it is not my fault.
Well here is the tally;
Rome
Rep Romans 680
Rep Roman Cmd 100
Rep Roman Cav 50
Italian Allies 590
Carts
Cartho Inf 560
Cartho Cav 160
Elephants 6
Hoplites/Merc 420
Spanish
Spanish Inf 120
Spanish Cav 30
Numbian
Numbian Cav 180
Numbian Lt Inf 150
Mac
Mac Phalanx 480
Mac L Inf 270
Mac Cav 160
Elephants  11
Characters
I think 1.5 years to speed paint the lot as a secondary project. 

Fall In "purchases"

       This year I tied to stay out of the vender hall. Years past, when not gaming or bullshitting, I would go over. Which was like a fat kid in a candy shop. I would blow the budget and never get the shit on my list.
        Plus, they moved the entrance to the hall to the opposite side of the building. Then tore up the hill and stairs in-between. It was an extra 100yd hike to get in the door.
       The building had been completely redone. Bathroom were fixed. Windows added, but the new tables were seriously stress tested under the weight of the venders.

20mm Colonial

 This is a great box. It provides litters, porters, and locals.

        I did go over to Old Glory in search of 10mm elephant riders. (Pyrrhus was the dude that put the towers on the elephant. Plus African elephants (forest elephants are long gone) are smaller by 25-30% compared to an India elephant.) So they could not support the tower and I need dudes sitting tossing spears.
        I got a pack of India elephants, romans, and greek light Inf. The old glory dude gave me a free pack!

        Staying true to the list I grabbed two packs of irrigation ditches (timeincasting) and some paint (army painter zombie line. I never planned on staying stateside for so long. I only carried the paint I need to touch up the Tau and some desert terrain.) The ditches pull double duty. I used as roads for 6mm also.

       The books and magazines. The books were pulled from Walley’s basement.

Pretty excited about this one. I think it is a first ed.

NetAE tourney 4th place and…..

 I went 1 – 1 – 1. Granting my 4th place finish.

I also scored the crappy dice, unmotivated army award.

Game 1; 5 activation fails. Game 1 and 2 opponents had zero total
Game 2; 7 activations fails.
Game 3; 14 activation fails! Turn 1 and 2 had 5 fails each out of 12 total activations. 40% of the army sat the game out. (Karl had 10 total fails that game) We both had zero desire to go through the 4th turn.

HMGS Fall In Day Three

         Our tables today were occupied by another tourney yesterday. I am bring 4 tables and terrain to support. Setting up in the morning blows. At least AdeptiCon lets you set up the night before. Straight in the ass! My last game of the night was as hit show. After walking away, I hung around till 9. Early morning start, 5:30. Shit, shower, shave, stuff my fat face, get ice, and load the beer.

Kal had every player last year return. Plus added 4 more, 60% growth year over year!

Tables

          I am running the Tau again. This time out I took the Manta as a WE. The spacecraft is a waste, a one and done activation. Tau work on high activations.
          I had 3 primer games with the Manta. By the end of the last primer (Friday afternoon), I seriously thought asking the guys and begging Kal if I could bail on the list I sent in. No sissy, I ran with it.

My list

My history of picture taking continues at this event also. I set the phone there to remind to take pictures. I get one or none.

Game 1     Tau Vs Marines  3 – 1
Activations  12 to 10

Deployment
Teleporting Terms

Game 2     Tau Vs Plague Marines  0 – 3

Activations  12 to 10

         The Zombies vomited out by the spacecraft are a spectacle tactic. Jon dumped them basically on the Blitz. You had to burn activations killing them or park a unit to contest the blitz. On turn 1 your down Blitz, DTF, and TSNP. First turn teleporting Stealth suits?
         Jon is one of the best tactical players you will ever face. He makes zero mistakes. You have to be turned up across the table from him.

Soaked up more fire and activations then any unit all day. MVP!

          When the detachment with his Sup Commander broke, I got confused. I suddenly decided that was the BTS. Then proceed to go after it, leaving the BTS sit.

Objectives and Garrisons

           Here you see me blow the Objective placement. My 2nd and 3rd objectives are on the center line. Jon’s army has no transports. I just gave his garrison units a free 55cm of movement!

Deployment
Jon’s BTS goes after the Suits 

Game 3     Tau Vs Lost&Dammed 1 – 0 end of 4th,  points 857.5- 750

Activations  12 to 12
Deployment
1st turn Teleport
end of 3rd

Battle reports will be on TacCmd

Lessons Learned;

****  Manta  ****

Twin Heavy Railcannons          90cm MW2+, Titan Killer (D3)
3  Heavy Ion Phalanx               75cm AP3+/AT4+, FF Arc
4 Twin Manta Burst Cannons   30cm AP5+/AA6+
Twin Missile Pods                     45cm AP5+/AT6+
2 Seeker Missiles                     90cm AT6+ GM

At 650 it is a total waste. The model is huge! It never earns back its points. Nor does it suck up enough of your opponent’s activations dealing with it. The weapon load out is not a threat. Even with units MLing the target.

Stealth/Crisis Suits scare people. Two upgrade detachments of suits will do more damage. The fire power will brake a detachment every time it hits.

**** First turn Teleports  ****

 What a gold mine. (With the exception of rolling 5 ones on landing) Those stealth suits broke every players opening game plan. Each player burned at least two activations trying to eliminate the threat. Then they continued to go after them like a fat kid chasing cake until the were dead to a man.

**** End Phase  ****

Well…..shit! A rule never followed or known. I got no excuse!

In just about every game, at the end of 3, we never rallied broken units. We skip 1.14 and 1.14.1 going straight to 1.14.2. In game 2, Jon did say we rally. I can’t tell you how many times I never did this.

1.14 End Phase
“The End phase takes place, unsurprisingly, at the end of the turn, once both players have taken an action with each of their unbroken formations. Both players must attempt to rally any formations and then check the scenario victory conditions to see if either side has won.
1.14.1 Rally formations
1.14.2 Victory conditions

Next HGMS tourney;

Cooler; 18 beers and 12 Dews were about right. Next time I should throw in some water. Went home with 2 beers and 3 dews.

        Our tables were nut to butt. We will have to request one more than we need. Some room in-between would have been more comfortable.

         We should also think about charging 15 bucks more. The extra would include lunch and drinks and extras. The guys appeared to hesitate just grabbing a beer. I knew over half of them.
         A lot of time is soaked up by groups going some where for lunch. No time to get a proper stalk thru Walley’s basement sale or hike over to the vendor hall.

        Maybe run doubles or special scenario game Thursday night. At AdeptiCon, there was a special scenario as the second game. That was tactically the most challenging game of the weekend and the BEST!

HMGS Fall In Day Two

First game was RF&F. I was way out on the south’s right flank with hidden units. The game changing command. Except, I suck. After waiting all game, not doing anything but talking shit. I jumped up 3 inches away, 14 FP, rolled a 2.
This crap continued as we tied every charge only to lose the repeating charge. And my attached office died!

The WOW tables of the day.

 My afternoon Epic pick up game. Karl’s lost&dammed took me 4-1 in turn four. Mantra is not living up to its points.

HMGS Fall In Day One

          Meeting the BattleBarn guys for dinner. The usual buffet at Hersey Farms. The local ticket and Vet card gets the lot in for 50%. Well, one guy. Tom is the only die hard member left that attends and runs games for all 3 HMGS Cons. None came out for Thursday night dinner. It was a traditional last solid meal before eating Con food for 4 days.
Sad none come around any more. They were a great group of solid gamers and beer drinking ball busters. I could have gone out with the Epic group. 

Thursday night meet up and the registration line. Came back from dinner and directly behind our car was the NE Epic guys. I jumped them and took their stuff. The pre-register line was better than average this year. The beginning was the usual shit show. But after 15 minutes the worker bees remembered how to do it. I waited the initial rush and got mine in <15 minutes.
Dave ran the expo White Scars’ list. To me the WS seem to be a codex list that was restricted. There was nothing special about it. DAs, BAs, IFs all have special unit for flavor, WS got dick all nothing. 
Dave beat me 4-0. Nothing too messed up. Dice performed as expected. No loop sided activations fails. Both of us could not hit for love or money. Activation count was about even. Don’t know? Deployment was solid, objectives, and terrain usage….no big screw up.
The Mantra is a tough beast to master. Two games in, the Mantra feels out of place in the list. Its speed is a problem and the weapons load out does not seem to match up. For 650 points the beast should be more effective. 650 is roughly 3 detachments of suits.