Category: Epic

Net EA Tau Vs Deathwatch 3000pts

         Deathwatch is pretty straight forward marine list. They lack the normal SM options, the squads are 33% smaller, and the firepower they bring is better all around. This list is in development stage. I found nothing overpowering or made of cheese.
         The list, Kal took, contain a spaceship, two drop pods with tactical, 1 tactical in rhinos, storm troopers in chimeras with hydra, assault marines, tellie terrines, Thawks, and thunderbolts.
        My list; x2 Crisis, x2 broadsides, Mech FWs, FW in an Ocra, x2 PFs, Stealth, recon, x3 cudas. I forgot the PF had drones with them and never fielded a detachments of PFs. My plan was to use the cudas as AA. They didn’t show up or force a area denial.I will exchange a set of cudas for one sky ray in the mech FWs and an extra suit in one of the crisis suit detachments.

The game ended turn 3 with me up 1 – 0. I took the biltz, never targeted or went after the BTS. In turn 4 I went after the termies with the FW & Ocra in an attempt to break them thru disrupt. I missed every disrupt shot. I should heave gone after the T&H. We were out of stream. The game ended 1 – 1. Tau BTS, Deathwatch TSNP.

The Tau dice were better than avg. The recon were extra lucky making 80% of their saves.

Epic IF and BA add ons

          Last of the Epic stuff being finished off before breaking out the 30K World Eaters. One more detachment of speeders for the IF army. Every slot in their case is full. The Fists are complete for now. Only thing missing to field every option is the AA platforms.

Metal squares were added to the bottom as a counter weight.

The army as it stands today;

         The Blood Angels never see the light of day. They are one of my largest space marine armies. All old school as they were the first army painted? Maybe.
          Sadly they rarely get taken out. Mostly due to the list never getting settled. There is some constant fight over the stormraven gunship. Which is exactly what has been sitting on my paint table for years. Now all of them are done.
          The BAs need some BA specific objectives and then I can say they are done. Yet somewhere hide is a box of the Italian’s Blood Angel sculpts.







 I also got around to finishing the tractor part of the trailer trucks.


Painting at work again.

         Short work week. People have use it or lose it time. And everyone wants to take 3 days off for 11 days. I was not up on the rotation, but I volunteered to be. I am the only eng that could cover the Northeast without flying on Xmas. Nice guy maybe, but no. I did it as a trade for AdeptiCon time with no issues.
         I left the day after Xmas at 2:30 in the morning for a contract customer. Sucks? Yeah, but I am a sneaky fucker. Remember; Short work week. People have use it or lose it time. And everyone wants to take 3 days off for 11 days. This fact creates 3 full days of painting for me. No one to bother me, no guilt, and I won’t be doing jack shit because; Short work week. People have use it or lose it time. And everyone wants to take 3 days off for 11 days.

Here I am in some dudes office painting and drinking dew…….

My trusty world traveling GW case
poor bastard’s desk
          I have done nothing here. I have painted epic, 20mm colonial, samurai, roman, oscars, tomb kings. Next week will be a busy basing week.

Terrain repairs "GW Desert table"

The Games Workshop Realms of battle Desert table.

          It is showing wear and bald spots. The are indentations, craters, and chunks sticking up. This is mostly my fault. The initial layer for sand was wrong. I got so cheap sand from Home Depot. Not play sand, more like construction sand.

          The sand was not uniform in size. It created a very uneven surface. Stands and model would be off balance and tip. The rough nature also was very rough on terrain and models. Some larger chunks stuck at odd angles and stuck up too much. Those broke off right away. There by creating holes.
          Also half way thru I started to sift the crap out. Then the nozzle on the spray bottle clogged. It was not spraying, but shooting out a jet. The jet moved the base layer around, increasing unleved, crap surface.

         The table has been around for about 2 + years now. In the condition that it is currently in and with little to do this week, it is time for repairs. The first step was to scrap the top genteelly with a paint stirrer. This would bust off the larger chunks sticking up and attached poorly. The surface was then brushed and vacuumed. The second step was to take FL beach sand, very fine sand to level the surface. I soaked the original layers with watered down white glue. Then using a shaker bottle coated it in the fine sand. The fine sand self levels.

         I don’t want it totally flat and level, because ground just ain’t that way. Just level and flat enough  that stands are not wobbling like drunken sailors.
         The edge along the hills took a beating. 

        The 3rd step is matching the tiles to each other. 3 different home made flocking mixtures were used.

        If you even do this, remember sand gets darker when wet. You will need to soak it. As in below, it does not look very desert more afghan like. Once it dries, which will take forever, everything will lighten up.

Net Epic Armageddon Tau Vs

         Last time I went with the list above.  I noticed that I had to select a Broadside as BTS and that one of them was riding in an Ocra. Bad news, hard choices. I had little in the way of protection for those Broadsides. Overwatch sure, but its one and done then your getting engaged.

Zero pictures. Completely forgot.

         Continuing the training with Broadsides. I dropped an Orca for a set of Cudas, the AX-01 for Tiger Shark and Kroot, 1 set of suits + Recon for Fire Warriors and Path Finders and drones onto the tiger. Fire Warriors w/ Path Finders become the BTS, break 10.
         I will got to 14 activation from 13. 6 off board to 5 form the original. The plus one activation coming from the drones on the Tiger. With only 8 on board activations, I will suffer first turn. I think I will miss the AX-01’s killy-ness.
         I will try to castle up with the Broadsides, supporting each other with over lapping fields of fire. The Kroot will hang out as a screening force to punch the punchy. The drones and Stealth suits will create their normal side show silliness behind the lines. In this game, I will go for TSNP, DTF and grab BTS or Blitz if left out in the wind. If I get T&H it would be all luck!

Nothing like that happened. We played a mission, not the tourney set piece battle. 6 different valved objective counters spread out across the table. And NO GARRISONS. And I forgot about my tellie stealths! I never did plan to be mobile.

        I got table! First turn 75% failed to activate. Second turn was not so bad but all the same. The skyray become magnets for destruction. I may have to try hiding them in units or drop them completely.
        No more drones or Tiger Sharks. I had always played the Tigersharks made an attack run while dropping drones. Wrong. They can only drop drones, nothing else that turn. Don’t know how many people got cheated with that one?

I will play the same list again. One can’t tailor a list for a special mission or opponent. Next time pictures!

Epic

         More Epic. More Tau? Why not. Xmas came early. I got a new supplier and with it some items for HH 30K. They are a total bitch to put together. I had to use that “zap it” shit to harden the glue on contact.

         Hopefully this next year will see the 30K World Eaters finally finished. Which then puts forward what HH 30K army to start next. Some where sits the custom DAs, BAs, & Wolves.

Today will be warmer and dry. Hopefully I can prime without breaking out the airbrush.

          If you were paying attention in a Warmaster posting, you would have noticed more Tau. I picked up some Devilfish and more Hammerheads.

NetEA 3000 points Tau Vs Sisters

         This time out I have shelved the giant 2DC suits. They are wonderful attention magnetics. Every player seems to dread those big bastards. They steal something from me every time out. I love the Tau for the risk Vs reward. With the 2DC suits your playing a bait and switch trick.
           I need to get a handle on how best to work the Broadsides. The rest of the list will flux around getting the most out of them.
          This learning event, the Fire Warrior are holding down the pine. I will field 3 detachments of suits and 2 Broadsides detachments. One of each will be rolling in an Ocra. 
My list
Kal’s Sisters

         We did not play the standard tourney scenario. The game was corners, half long edge & 18 inches up the short side.

Garrisons & Deployments

Sister’s right flank gets a Pentinent Engine
Sisters Garrison their left flank with 2 detachments of Pentinent Engine
Tau Garrison the left flank with Broadsides (non BTS) and Path Finders

 Turn 2 action;
         Sisters roll up my left flank. Tau swings the door shut on the right flank. A diagonal game turns length wise with Blitz objectives all the way across the table.

        The Tau Telli Stealth onto the Sister’s Blitz & BTS. The Sister BTS breaks, breaking the Stealths in an engagement. The Tau Broadside BTS brushes off the Flak to land on the Blitz smoking the BTS.

          Flying Nuns Telli onto the backside of the Boardsides Garrisoned. In a sexy Nun gang bang, the Broadsides & Pathfinders are mauled/broken.
Tau win 3-0. Blitz, BTS, T&H

Lessons Learned;

* Don’t place your BTS (Broadsides in an Ocra).
* Garrisoned Broadsides in terrain are as tough as ticks
* Garrisoned Broadsides in terrain need a supporting unit. Same as tanks need INF. Not as a screen but as a ML disrupt, shoot them up, overwatch. Once charged they are finished.

Cherry picking "update II"

         With the Tau army I repainted while in Japan. It was ebaying time. I shot the moon, listing it at 700. Yeah its high as hell, but fuck it. It is xmas time. Someone has granny xmas money to piss away. After 4ish relishing cycles it sold.

         Earlier this year I bought another Tau army. The price was cheap enough I could rape the treasure it was by parting it out. I am balls deep for 635 after shipping. 215 days later I have managed to sell 290.00 dollars.

75 for the Ocra
125 for the Mantra
30 for the Cuda
60 for 6 HammerHeads

         About a year in total time. That puts me at 990 total for an army I paid 635 for and cherry picked the best items for me.

NetEA Tau Vs Sisters

         Back from Japan and Honolulu. This week I am on phone support. It was planned as my inlaws flew in Wednesday. I request a comp day for it and that shelved my ability to travel for the week. Lucky me Kal also has nothing to do.

         I got me a Tau space ship. Just had to take it out for a spin. And why not planet fall a Mantra full of big nasty suits.

My list; (failed to get a shot of Kal’s)

The plan; 
         Tellie the stealth suits right straight up the center into his face and drop the Mantra on a flank. Then the big suits jump out for melt party. This would be quick or a total tabling. With only 10 activations the big suits would easily get gang banged.

Objectives and Deployment;
         Objectives went down as predicted. Kal’s Blitz in the center and his other two in a wide triangle near the 50yd line. My blitz snuggled the left flank and the other two off center to the left as close as I could to the Blitz. 
         One Pathfinder was garrisoned. I left the right flank and center empty, castling around the Blitz. Kal just about filled his deployment zone. Then plan “A” seemed doomed. I was grossly out activated with 6 activation off board. 
Where the meat hits the metal;
        The plan quickly changed. Everything would come in turn 2. Kal’s army being a up close and personal, in your face, punchy sort. I prayed he would advance. Which meant the 4 units on the board were bait. I would give up my Blitz, Defend the flag, and TSNP points. (2 for Kal, minus 1 for me). Which meant I had to take his blitz, BTS and T&C. While deducting his TSNP. 
         Turn 1 the Tau were under performing and taking a smacking. The garrisoned Path Finders and the Riptides were beat up (down 3 dc)  and broken 1st turn. One PF and the Riptides rallied. R’vanra never shed the blast markers.
        Turn 2 the Spaceship blasted the BTS and broke it. The Mantra planet fell onto the empty right flank. The suits remained inside. One stealth suit went after T&C. The other the BTS. I lost my deployment zone with only 2 broken Riptides hiding by my blitz. The stealth suits were down 40% but bounced a couple of assaults. 
        Turn 3 I lost my blitz and DTF. Everyone back there at the start were slaughtered. I bearly smoked Kal’s BTS. It took the last stealth, fighters, and mantra. I took Blitz and T&C with the Y’vahra and the Mantra. Everything else was died or broken.

I won’t ever play the list again. It is a one trick pony with good dice. It plays itself. By design your trading victory conditions. Just as long as you smoke the BTS, the game is won.