Wintercon 2013- Report and Photos

Hey everyone! I'm back now from Wintercon, held here at EPIC in Canberra, after a two-day, five battle odyssey! There were highs, there were lows, and even some middle ground, but all in all I got to roll dice, meet new people and have a great time so nothing to really complain about (aside from having a cold).

Wintercon itself was reduced from three days down to two- although the 40K side of it has always just been a two-day event- however this year the second day was only five games (instead of six), meaning that the second day was a lot more relaxed and we were able to get away relatively early- important when you have a young family as I do. As I'd previously sold off my terrain (well, most of it) as well as my Blood Angels I wasn't really intending to go along anymore, however about 3 weeks out from the event I thought it might be worth a go. Cancon had kind of burnt me out a bit and left a bad taste (Im still not entirely sure why), so I thought that Wintercon might be worth attending to see if it could rekindle some of the love I have for tournament play.

To that end I pulled out what I had of the Dark Angels that werent in pieces/ in the Simple Green and tried to build a decent list that I could semi-complete in time for the 'con. Settled on the list below, based on what I had and what I could build in the time beforehand.

HQ

• Grand Master Belial- Sword of Silence, Stormbolter

EL

• Dreadnought with t/l Lascannon, m/launcher
• Dreadnought with t/l Autocannon, m/launcher 

TR

• Deathwing Terminators (5)- Assault Cannon 
• Deathwing Terminators (5)- Plasma Cannon, C/fist-
• Deathwing Terminators (5)- all with TH/SSs
• Tactical Squad (10)- Heavy Bolter, Flamer, Vet. Sgt with Power Maul.
• Scouts (5)- sniper rifles and camo cloaks

FA

• Dark Talon (flyer)- Rift Cannon, Hurricane Bolters, Stasis Bomb 
• Ravenwing Black Knights (3)- 1 grenade launcher  

HV

• Devastators (5)- 4x Missile Launchers

Sadly, in the last couple of weeks before Wintercon I came down with some fairly nasty flu and bronchitis type symptoms, which was further compounded when all my coughing strained a muscle group near my T5 vertebrae- so it was a solid couple of weeks off work on painkillers, antibiotics, throat lozenges, gargles, heat and cold alternating and so-on. At the very least I was able to piece together a five man Devastator unit, a ten strong Tactical squad and complete the base colours on these and my newly constructed Deathwing unit (hybrid of regular terminator box parts and the flash new DW Command arms/torsos/extra bits). If given enough time I would have presented a much nicer looking army but it wasnt to be. Alas...

Anyhow, on to the battles!!

Game one vs. Antonio's Chaos Space Marines + (Traitor) Guard Allies  
Deployment: Dawn of War
Mission: Crusade

We were basically chasing down control of 6 objective markers, each worth 3 VPs. Antonio set up first, and I failed to seize.


Result: Disastrous Defeat to me (tabled)

Highlights:

• Dark Talon and Ravenwing Black Knights make their maiden appearance, and debuff/own everything in their path, working in tandem. The DT soaks up loads of AA fire from the quad gun and keeps going!
• Deathwing deepstriking on turn two and open fire with twinlinked to annihilate the Spawn and wound the Khorne Lord. 

 The bad stuff:

• The Vindicator was unstoppable! Couldnt even glance it with loads of missiles, Las cans and autocannons, so it just kept laying down the huge blasts.
• My TH/SS Deathwing absorbed huge Plasma fire from the CSMs, a round of shooting from a Vendetta and only very unluckily died to a concerted four meltagun attack from the IG command sqaud that had disembarked- would have been a couple more points in my favour.
• Similar story for the Tac squad parked up the back- the Helldrake came in and Baleflamed them to death, before destroying my last dread with a merciless vector-strike in the last turn!

Game two vs. Dale's Dark Eldar + Eldar Allies 
Deployment: Hammer and Anvil
Mission: Big Guns Never Tire

Lengthways boards arent the best for my army, which is mainly subdivided into green/white/black portions all designed to work together at close quarters- this was going to be a long table shooting gallery, so I was forced to get up in the Eldar/DE's face to try and get into close range..


Result: Disastrous Defeat to me  (not really unexpected- vehicle heavy list with insane firepower and range. And twinlinked everything, and so on etc etc. On a lengthways board...). Tabled!

Highlights:

• Scouting RW Black Knights were able to pop open a Falcon underneath Dale's giant Skyshield Landing Pad, using only a couple of Plasma Talon shots. Honestly, that was it- the rest of the time i couldn't hit anything, do wounds or armour pen, and got run around like crazy.... hence the giant list of things that went wrong. 

The bad bits:

• Table deployment setup and cover was minimal for me, which really made it hard to get any forward momentum going.
• Eldar Farseers on jetbikes with 2+ cover saves and rerolls and crazy jacked up combat drug-like psychic powers (rampage??)= lots of dead things. Epic.
• Every Falcon put out a bucketload of dice to hit- most re-rolling, some ignoring cover, some ignoring armour. Had no reply to that!!
• Deepstriking my Terminators in really wasnt the best idea in this mission- should have castled up or advanced in a large block to the central terrain- all my units got picked off piecemeal at range. 
• Dark Talon was dropped by a couple of Falcons throwing buckets of Str6 shots its way, had no ral chance of jinking out of it. 

Game three vs. Eddie's Nurgle Daemons
Deployment: Vanguard Strike
Mission: Purge the Alien

Vanguard Strike saw us deployed diagonal with a 24" no mans land strip up the middle- straight heads up kill-or-be killed here with VPs per unit destroyed- I decided to play it safe and start with all my DW on the board and to lay in fire while the Daemons came to me...

Result: Tactical Draw (points win for Eddie, on secondary objectives)

Highlights:

• Just versing this beautiful army was a treat in itself (albeit slimy and nurgle-y)! Loads of FW and new Daemon units all round, with loads of customisation.
• Kept all my Deathwing on the board and put the Hammernators in a defensive line to shield the Tacticals and Scouts perched on the round bunker terrain behind them. They and Belial eventually ran into a line of advancing Plague Flies and wiped them out, before engaging the Great Unclean One.
• Tacticals and Sniper Scouts poured huge amounts of bolter/ sniper rifle into multiple units, inflicting decent casualties. They were continuously bombarded by a Plague Drone (flyer) and lost most of their men, however neither broke at all. 
• The Black Knights and Dark Talon came in right next to a squad of Plaguebearers that had materialised in my deployment zone- Rad grenades, Plasma Talons, Dark Rift Cannon and rapid firing twinlinked hurricane bolters saw them wiped out in short order!    

The bad stuff:

• Belial accepted the Great Unclean One's challenge, and basically muffed most of his attacks, either missing his swings or failing to wound (one a 2+!!). Only thing I had forgotten was that he had a re-roll for every five guys he is leading- there were five termies backing him up. Wouldnt have done much to be honest, there was a load of invulnerable saves I failed.
• The portal that Eddie dropped near my Devs and Dreads was scary- kept dropping out D6 amounts of any type of lesser daemons, which diverted fire away from the big scary soulgrinder in the distance that I was trying to blow up.
• In the last turn one of the Plague Drones landed a blast template on the last survivors of the Tactical and Scout squads- their deaths giving Eddie enough VPs for a tactical draw, and getting his unit in my deployment zone for Linebreaker.     
  

• Game four vs. Evan's 'Iron Snakes' Space Marines

Deployment: Dawn Of War
Mission: The Scouring (6 variable value mission markers)

This game saw Evan and I on Eddie’s beautiful modular-style city board. Once the markers were placed face down and deployment was done I infiltrated my Scouts to the middle of the board, in the canal that ran up the centre, giving them lots of nice cover (3+ with their camo cloaks). Evan had won the roll for first deployment/ turn and I didn’t attempt to seize. The markers when turned upwards were quite in my favour- I had the ‘4’ in my deployment zone, a ‘3’ was on the bridge close by, a ‘2’ right next to my scouts and the remaining 1, 2 and 3 were closer to Evan’s line.

Result: Victorious Slaughter to me, all secondaries acheived.

Highlights:

• The terrain was AWESOME! Evan and I had a great time fighting over this board, it was exceptionally scenic and made for some awesome photos (See below).
• The Deathwing proved extremely resilient, soaking up loads of Bolter (and worse) firepower, and their Fearless rule kept them on objectives even when taking casualties.
• The Dark Talon mowed down the remaining Assault Marine next to his Drop Pod- 12 twinlinked boltgun shots will do that!! Rapid firing chews through infantry.
• The Lascan/ML Dread lined up the rapidly approaching Stormraven and dropped with with a Lascan shot straight through the nose- the giant assault transport dropped like a stone, however it landed on the squad of Scouts with a S10 large blast! Somehow the one scout pulled himself from under the wreckage, to face the three Command Squad Veterans who had survived the explosive crash- they were keen to avenge the death of their Captain!

The lows:

• Nothing to report- the worst was the Scouts being crushed by the Stormraven but I actually laughed at this...       

Game five vs. Ben's Khorne Chaos Space Marines
Deployment: Dawn Of War 
Mission: Purge The Alien

This was to be a meatgrinder of epic proportions- Ben's crazed and Fearless Khorne Bezerker army vs my implaccable Dark Angels- straight up VPs (+ secondaries) for units destroyed. I decided to keep the DW shooty units in reserve till turn two, to give them the best chance to land behind Ben's lines and draw his army in two separate directions...  

Result: Solid Victory for me

The highlights:

• Belial and the Plascannon DW squad dropped in close to the Khornate lines and opened up with a huge burst of firepower, wiping out 7 bezerkers from one squad alone. The other squad dropped behind in Ben's deployment zone and opened up on Kharn's Bexerker squad, but the Assault cannon used 'split fire' to target the Forgefiend to their left- one rending shot shot got through and detonated the steel monster!
• The Black Knights Outflanked on from the left side in turn one, hitting the Daemon Prince with a Rad grenade, and then four twinlinked rapid firing Plasma Talon shots- he failed all his Invulnerables and was sent screaming into the warp! The Dark Talon was poised nearby to open up with everything but found itself without a target!
• The two Deathwing Sgts and the Tactical Vet Sgt all land precision shots before engaging in close combat- two power-fist wielding Champions are dispatched before they can cause too much harm.
• The Tactical Squad decides that its best to not let the Bezerkers get a charge in- they assault themselves, boltpistols and flamer blasting away! They stayed in the battle with leadership tests each and every round as they lost men but never broke, and were only finsihed when Kharn joined the fray.
• When Kharn finally detached and set off to his own deployment line to engage the last DW squad the DA Lascannon dread decided enough was enough- a single shot vaporised Kharn and it was all over.

The bad stuff:

• The Helldrake roasted a bunch of the scouts, leaving only one alive- nearly nothing can stop their attacks against 3+ armour! It then went hunting for the Ravenwing Black Knights, scorching two of them (one got lucky!)
• Kharn carved up Belial before he had a chance to reply- he laid down 7 wounding hits, and Belial failed three, using up all his wounds. He then carved through all the Terminators in the next round, with his 2+ to hit AP2 Str6 (re-rolls to wound) 6 attacks... very frightening!   

Pics from the tourney






Game 1 VS Antonio's Chaos Marines with IG allies- the traitors are holed up behind their Aegis defence lines.











 Snipers provide covering fire.

 Maiden runs for the Dark Talon and Black Knights, both very promising!

Belial and his DW associates, making friends 'the DA-way'. The cowardly Khorne Lord backed away instead of stepping up for a fight!

(He was back down to T4, and WS/ -1 Initiative though- Ravenwing de-buff attacks!)

 Lovely aqua coloured Eldar Force with new flyer and wraithknight.

 Necron 'croissant and wraith' list- great metallic red base colour.

 A pustulantly lovely Nurgle themed CSM list.

 Luke's very highly detailed Eldar army.

Necrons and Tau do battle over a verdant green battlefield.

 Game three vs Chaos Daemons- the Plague Flies approach













One of the Plague Drones swoops in opening fire on the Tac Squad and Scouts. Despite many casualities they hold firm.

 The last Plague Fly is cut down by the swarm of DW termies.

 A bigger challenge prersents itself- so long Belial!

Plaguebearers come swarming out of the maelstrom to threaten the Devastators.

 Eddie's semi-modular urban terrain board- a joy to game on.

Evan's Iron Snakes deploy near one of the mystery objectives.

 The Dark Angels amass on either side of the bridge, which has an objective marker. 

The Scouts infiltrated up the canal in some nice and solid, if somewhat murky, cover.

A Drop Pod full of Tacticals slams down in front of the Deathwing on the left side of the canal- they pour fire into the squad and then kill all but two in close combat- the survivors retreat.

An Assault Squad pours out of their drop pod near Evan's deployment zone, seeking vengeance.

 Tacticals hold an objective which is giving them a 3+ cover save (shield generator).

Survivor's of the Deathwing's attack, these Tactical Marines rally and assault the Scouts in the Canal. One scout lands an overwatch hit but it glances off harmlessly.

 The Iron Snakes Stormtalons unleash on the Dark Angels, evading the storm of fire from the Dreads and Devastators

In the back of Evan's deployment zone one of the Tac squads holds down an Objective with a Drop-pod shielding them from fire

 The hammernators Deepstrike in and set about creating a defensive line to protect the objective behind them. The DW squad on the bridge kept split-firing at the Drop pods and Stormtalons but didnt achieve anything.

 The Ravenwing Black Knights and Dark Talon launch a furious attack on the Iron Snakes Tactical squad but the DT is shot at by the Stormtalon, luckily all the shots pinged off its armour.

Belial and the Deathwing consolidate onto the '3' objective after wiping out the squad that held it in close combat.

Victory Dance!!

 Game five Vs Ben's Khorne CSMs, led by Kharn.

The Snipers throw shots into the approaching horde.













Unfortunately I didnt get any more photos of this game (or any of game three!), but I hope you like whats up here :)

Next post will be up really soon, with a detailed analysis of how each unit performed, ideas for next time, etc!


Cheers,
Tempest

The mega-update: Four months worth of hobby and gaming.....

I'm back!!!

Hi all, its been way too long, almost four months by my count- my apologies. I’ve been off work for about that long, which would normally mean a lot more activity and posting on here, but unfortunately real life gets in the way- have been on holidays away from home, been really sick on and off and have had some family related interstate trips as well, so there’s been little time for blog updates. Oh, and my pc screen recently did a very uncooperative ‘blank out, pop, and produce smoke’, meaning that I now have this machine hooked up to a 42’ TV screen- trust me its not as great as it sounds- glaringly bright, everything is annoyingly large… first world problems, right? Hahaha! 

So without further ado, here is what’s been going on since my late January pre-Cancon post…

Cancon

All in all I got to play seven of the eight games on offer, having to head home midway through the third day due to our house having received some damage in a huge storm the night before (had to meet up with people to have it assessed), however this didn't have a huge impact overall, as I was struggling to get a draw most of the time.  I know that my list is one that is very situational and can be blown off the table with enough firepower, and that's what happened- I had a fair few games where the cover was inadequate, which was compounded by my lack of long range firepower. Aggressively taking objectives is the easy part for Assault Marines, but holding it can be hard with a lack of ranged firepower or backline support. My army units were almost all designed to hit hard in close combat/short range firefights, at which they excelled time and again, but at range they got mangled. I was tabled in three of my games (one was a very close run thing- my opponent had only one unit left), however I had a really great time! My opponents were all generally good fun to play against, with a mix of experienced and newer generals, and I was able to use my battles against them to try out new things with my list- tactics and unit combos mainly.

The last lot of shots pre- Cancon:

Went with helmeted heads in the end for my priests, as I was going to keep the white to a minimum I'd need them as a focal point. Turned out looking great IMHO.

Librarians. Both force weapons are very basic for now, but work! Custom jump pack turned out cool as well :)

Here’s a few pics from the battles at Cancon, with some details (where I can actually remember what happened!)

Bring the pain!! Army set up for best painted (or players choice?? i don't remember...)

First game, Vs Iron Warriors. Bikes take cover..

The Iron Warriors and their cultists minions.

Warpsmith Vs Sergeant surrounded by flaming Furioso and Drop Pod (my flickering flame markers). Sergeant almost killed him before eating power-axe! Karma got the chaos scum though- for his efforts the Warpsmith was turned into a Spawn!

Vs. White Scars, second game. Ran rampant in CC, and the Furioso carved his way through the backline.

Libby Vs Korsorro Khan in an epic Warlords duel. Force Axe eventually got the Khan with Instant Death after three turns of back and forth combat!

Str5 on the charge (with a Priest) vs rear armour 10 = boom! Barely used a meltagun all tourney...

Only pic I took of game three, Vs. Eldar. Most enjoyable game of the tourney. A bloody hard fought draw this one, loads of tactical manouvering, close range firefights and vicious hand to hand.

Game four, vs Necrons. Beat down a Destroyer Lord and a C'tan Shard (Nightbringer), but got tabled eventually... exploding C'tan took out my last Terminator funnily enough.

Ugh... game five, or 'how to suck the fun out of a game. Tau in a corner behind an all-covering Aegis line. Shitty and broken. Game five was not fun, and not because I lost (badly) but because it didnt feel like playing 40K, more like 'here's what the Internet says is 'teh awesomez'. Lame.

Game six, vs Grey Knights with IG allies. My opponent didnt like when I threw a Furioso at his backline and blended 10 GKs and two IG command squads. Minor loss to me, but was happy when my Termy Librarian and Inquisitor Coteaz both died simultaneously in their challenge. I laughed so hard at that, my opponent not so much :P

I missed game seven  so this is game eight- i'm in a table corner, my opponent in the other, we both have to get to the circle marked up at the top to evacuate units... all jump/fast/mounted in SRaven/Drop pod? I got a near flawless 'win' for this, but it wasn't really a fun game... just weird.

So, Cancon was good fun- some of the missions were a bit hard for me, and I think my future lists need some long range firepower and backline campers- sniper scouts, drop-pod Tactical Squads or the like. I'm going to keep playing with this at this points level and see what I feel is best before any new purchases.


 The Big Game III- Goodgames Canberra, March 2013

I heard about the Big Game III through a mate, and was intrigued in the possibility of being part of a game that contributed globally towards the end result for either Imperial + Allies or 'the forces of Disorder'. So with this is mind I pulled all the stops out and completed the basic structure of my Warlord Battle Titan!! Even in flat grey undercoat it was a sight to behold, and certainly drew some *seriously unprintable* comments when I first brought it in the door of the LGS. There was a few issues on the day though- one being that the tables were only 4ft wide, meaning I was easily assaultable and the carapace weapons were limited in their use/minimum range. The other issue was that my car had been giving me huge dramas on the way to the event, and I chose to try getting it home at the lunch break- it gave up halfway home and I waited an hour for a towtruck. Once I got home I wasn't then able to return in time for the end of the game and could only get there afterwards to retrieve all my stuff. From what I could tell it acquitted itself well, I erased a jetbike-mounted Seer council with a single Volcano Cannon blast, and stomped some terminators into paste, but a FW Daemon Prince thingy (Agrath??) eventually pierced the Deathwing/BA Terminator screen at its feet and wrecked it. Still, I love building things that people reckon are too hard/impossible to build etc.

On my completed 6x4 urban road boards- dominate!!!!!!!

Deployed for the Big Game. 

 

Long table deployment shot

Belial and Chaplain with 10-strong Deathwing charge forwards. Note- Agrath is incoming!

Thats a big titan...

Necromunda- welcome to the Underhive!!

About four weeks ago me and the boys started up a Necromunda campaign, with six gangs in total- My Orlocks, and some Van Saar, Delaque, Goliaths, Spyrers and Enforcers- a very diverse range of original gangs and later 'Outlanders' gangs.

So far we've all managed to get a few games in, and I've been lucky to not have much in the way of injuries. Several of the other gangs have had multiple deaths or even roster changes (Alan's Enforcers notably- they keep rolling up Ld increases, and the leaders all leave!). After a couple more games, my guys- the Tunnel Stalkers- should be getting in another Heavy- maybe another Heavy Stubber, but i'd really like a Heavy Bolter if the creds are there.

The Tunnel Stalkers, led by 'Hitman' Harlon (Dan Abnett fans may get the reference...)

Harlon started out as a Catachan Sgt. Added greenstuff t-shirt, shoulderpads, hair and tabard, its passable... in-game he's got D3 extra attacks on the charge, hits at Str 5 with his chainsword and has carapace armour, so a bit of a badass!

Some of my purpose-built Necromunda terrain- will be useful for 40k as well.

The majority of this new stuff is made from foamcore board- lightweight, strong and versatile.

+

WIP cargo containers- I'd like to make a whole bunch of these (at least a dozen) for use in 40K as well- fighting in a cargo depot or starport for example.

So far our campaign has been very enjoyable, although I'm somewhat sad now with the recent news that GW has decided to can the Specialist Games line. But that's how it goes- as long as 40k continues I'm never really going to bemoan GW that much (I dont really anyhow!).



Dark Angels rebuild/ how to be totally crazy....

So I was lucky enough to get a terrain prize at Cancon, giving me a $50 voucher for a gaming company, and decided to finally lay my hands on the Dark Angels Codex. Once in my possession I had a really quick look and just put it on the shelf, as I had a load of other things being done at the time. Only recently have I had the time and inclination to sit down and read it from front to back, after which I have come to the conclusion that my army needs resurrecting, both tactically and aesthetically.

My original Dark Angels (power armour anyhow) were not dissimilar to the current GW Eavy Metal scheme, being a fairly dark green with mild highlights, however along the way I somehow decided that snot green bright highlights on all raised surfaces was the go. Why, I am not sure, but for a while I was happy with it. They were a bit too bright for 'typical' Dark Angels but looked okay to me. However with the change to the GW paint line I realised that any new power armour or vehicle units wouldnt match, as Dark Angel Green is a totally different colour to the new Caliban Green. Caliban is a darker shade that I think actually suits the First Legion really well, so I resolved a while ago to redo my army once I had the Codex (and the inclination..). So, I tried my hand at repainting over the green armour of my tactical and assault marines, with an Abbadon Black basecoat (thinned) to bring it back to a dark base. Got 5 marines done, all resplendant in their new smooth Caliban Green, but retaining their nice robes and boltguns, and I was fairly happy...

However, when going back for a quick check of something, i picked one up and where my finger lightly touched the dark green it just wiped off like it wasnt even there, showing the Snot Green underneath . So, what I came to realise was that a repaint was not going to work, meaning a complete dissassembly, paint strip and rebuild. 

Wish this had worked- repainted in new Caliban Green on the left. Just didnt stick though :(

Whilst a large undertaking, this isnt a bad thing- I'd long been thinking about re-basing the army, which I now realise wouldn't have happened unless I disassembled them all- some of the bases were that solidly glued to the feet that they tore holes out of the bases instead of the bases just snapping off from the minis. I even had to cut and sand some of the feet until the plastic of the old bases were no longer there- a horrible job to do! So for now my Dark Angels are sitting in a large container filled with Simple Green concentrate, awaiting a stripback. All 30 Tactical Marines and 10 Assault Marines went in- they'll all be rebirthed as Tactical Squads, as I have more than enough assault units in my Deathwing and Ravenwing- the former being finally completed with some paintjob updates (thankfully the paint does stick to them!) and the latter, my Ravenwing bike squad, having been filed, smoothed and rebuilt with new eBay sourced handlebars, boltguns and RW fairings.

Sigh... at least i can start fresh again. Got ten scrubbed back bare, another 30 to go- then arms, weapons etc....

Looking a lot better than last time I had them up here! Glad I didnt convert them all into Blood Angel bikes (as per my original plan). Ive actually now completed the rebuild of all the riders, minus a few missing RW shoulderpads. New rounded-end bases are miles better than the previous fantasy cavalry ones I was using.

I've also purchased some new goodies for the Dark Angels- the Deathwing Command Squad box, the Ravenwing Command Squad and the Dark Talon/Nephilim flyer box. The DW command box is truly inspiring- I'll be using the components to build a squad of 5 DW Knights, however there is more than enough remaining torsos, heads, and weapons to build another squad of either 'regular' (albeit ornate) Deathwing OR a DW Command Squad- i just need five sets of Termy legs (got three already). Not too sure which of these two I want first, suffice to say that I will be using the Plasma Cannon and Cyclone Missile Launcher options included in the box somewhere in my force. The RW command box will be turned into a squad of three Ravenwing Black Knights, who will in essence spearhead my main RW force, and I'm still tossing up whether to run a Nephilim (mild duties fighter craft) or a Dark Talon (dedicated support flyer to supplement ground forces). Both are cool looking vehicles, so im most likely going to buy and build another later on in the alternating setup to whatever I choose for this one.               

Conclusion!

So that's how it stands at the moment- I've got a bucket-load of 40K, Necromunda and terrain things going on, and when I can find the time I'm getting a lot done. Im hoping to get back into more regular post updates, especially with my Dark Angels progress, as I'll be taking them along to Wintercon in mid July (7 weeks from now).

Until next time, thanks for looking!
Tempest