Friday, March 4, 2011

Night Lords - Konrad Curze

Wiki style Info:

Konrad:
http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Konrad_Curze

Night Lords:
http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Night_Lords

The background of the chapter is essentially "The Primarch Batman" and these guys love darkness and causing fear.

They have a simple dark/night blue scheme, with lighting done as you wish over the surface. They also love symbols of death, skulls, spikes, blood etc, even more than is normal for 40k.

How does this sound?

Thursday, March 3, 2011

So what do you really want from your 40k Army?

Let's see what you want the most!
Put each of the following in order of importance:

1)  Winning, Fluff, Expense, Ease of Generalship & Modelling.

2) Undivided, Tzeentch, Nurgle, Slaneesh, Khorne

3) Balanced, Assault, Shooting.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Recent games reports

Sui and I have been playing an informal series of Handicapped games of 40k. On the back of my recent painting frenzy, I felt like having some games using my favourite figures. They have some pretty out of date codex, so we handicapped the games to allow each of respective wishes to shine - Sui wants to win and improve his list, and I wanted to play my favourite figures.

Game 1: Bart Thousand Sons V Sui's Successor Blood Angels
Handicap: 0 Game:"pop the objectives' - Each objective is checked, and has a table d6: 1 - Explodes: 2-5 - not an objective, 6 - this is an objective.
After Sui's traditional turn one spending everything he can gunning down the Tzeentchian Winged Demon Prince, He sent other units onto objectives. Nothing exploded, but none of them was the objective, either. Only two left. I sent my three Rhinos with 7 1k sons each  towards the against the far objective, and kept my 20 Havocks w/ 4 missile launchers stuck next to my setup base, which also had a objective nearby.

In turn three, Sui's Dreadnaught shot open a Rhino and charge the Thousand Sons within, and imobilised another Rhino. The only chance of dropping the Dreadnaught was with a melta bombs or scratch and dents, and the Sorcerer couldn't roll a six, and the Dreadnaught had trouble getting through invulnerable saves. Sui's squad popped the penultimate objective, to be disappointed. Firstly by the lack of the objective, and secondly by the way the inferno bolts hosed away his troops. The objective was now just behind my base.

Over the next two turns, the Terminators weathered the fire, while the vehicles did not. The Thousand sons meandered back to the critical battle line, and my surprise Character popped out. Tzeentchian Chaos Lord with Demon weapon. He charged the Terminators just as they reached the base, and was consumed, but after the Terminator threat was abated, and the Havocks held the objective. 1-0.

Game 2:  Bart Thousand Sons V Sui's Successor Blood Angels
Handicap: Sui 5% Game: Regular Objectives.
The mighty Sorcerer Lord Ahriman came forth in might! In his first five psychic tests, three were 12, killing him! The Rhino push to Sui's base fell apart after this. The defensive Havocks did nothing! The Chaos Lord killed well, but not nearly enough to stem the tide. A win to Sui, with his base contested, and mine taken. 1-0

Game 3: Bart Thousand Sons attacking Sui's Successor Blood Angels

Handicap: Bart 5% Game: Planetstrike basic mission.
My initial Bombardment wiped out the quad gun emplacement on the central bastion, and took out about three marines. I bought a good compliment on, with Two rhinos racing on, and the Demon Prince popping a Vindicator with it's Bolt of Tzeentch. His counter fire was effective at immobilizing the rhinos, and my fire was effective at thinning the lines. Later his Terminators Deep struck to a point of my choosing - I relegated them to my deployment quarter and then had them rumble with the Chaos Lord. Slow and purposeful was great at thinning the lines, but Sui had too much to throw at them. When the game ended at turn 5, I was inside the compound, but not touching the objective. Planet defended by Sui.

Game 4: Bart Genestealer Cult defending against Sui's Successor Blood Angels:
Handicap: Bart 10% Game: Planetstrike basic mission
It was a glorious mess, in that Genestealer cult way, with some fun matchups. Leman Russ blows gun off Vindicator, but can't take Multimelta to the read from a Dreadie. Jump squad take on Demolition charge Brood Brothers and loose four, before jumping into the next lot and loosing the rest of the Squad except for Azeroth the grim. Five Terminators were quite sure they could take on the Initiates coming their way, but were surprised and overwhelmed by the Hybrid Monstrosity that rolled into them from behind. The Comrade Platoon holding the centre put out relatively disciplined fire, but could not put down the Terminators, who seemed impervious to lasfire. The Genestealers burst of of the bastion, but not in time to knock off the various attackers. The game ended with the Genestealers rumbling with the razorback squad, the Primarch on the back of a Dreadnaught, and the sole surviving terminator rumbling with the remnants of three infantry squads.
bastion assaulted, with another win to Sui.

Next Game - I'll take the Tau out for a meander, with 15% headstart!

Balancing 40k - Handicaps

Blanket statements: Not all Warhammer 40k codex are balanced. Not all Warhammer generals are balanced. Not all army composers are created equal. The question then becomes:  What to do about it?  The general principle in the community semes to be 'let the older codex rot, let the poorer generals suffer.'

Well I come from a sports background, where they deal with much greater numbers that 40k tournaments, and to keep the spirit of competition alive, and to make individual matchups more exciting, they have handicaps and grades.

Golf handicaps are the most obvious comparison - You play against yourself to obtain a numbered score. If you get the course suggested score (usually 72), your handicap is zero. If you play poorly, your handicap goes up. Just say you have a handicap of 10, you can play a game against someone with a handicap of zero. You compete to beat 82, they compete to beat 72, and you efforts can be compared.

Sui and I are playing a basic handicap campaign. Each loss means the looser gets a handicap of 5% army composition per loss. A win reset the handicap.

One of the main questions is: What does the winner get? More opponents and a broader experience of different armies. They get the considerable satisfaction of a win, and they get to fight a harder game against weaker opponents - which will hone their skill.