Force Org Fight! A recount of an epic battle.

In honor of my friend Joe finally joining Facebook so all his friends can GODDAMN TALK to him, I am recounting the most epic battle Joe and I ever had.  We put our models on the table.

ALL OF THEM.

Well, almost all.  Joe proposed that we screw points values and limit ourselves to one force organization chart.  We did.  I had the Azure Flames (my only army at the time) and he had his Angels Sacrosanct, a Blood Angels successor.  This was back in 3rd ed, so Blood Angels cost the same but got free Death Company, and free Furious Charge, and overcharged engines, and you had to wash the Blood Angels player’s car or something.

Anyway, we covered the deployment zone in miniatures.  Mine deep blue, his maroon and black.  We fought.  Men died.  It was epic.  Of course I lost.  Joe had a much bigger and more developed army, plus a significant rules advantage.  Nowadays I think it would be more even, as I have 50 Terminators and 3 Land raiders.  I’m not sure if the Angels have really developed as Joe has a bunch more armies, including a counts-as Eldar that are modeled as Exodites which are BAD ASS.

By the way, DON’T do this unless you have a LOT of time.  Especially for cleanup.

Liam Perseus, Chapter Master of the Azure Flames

Modeling

I made an old model of Perseus with the Terminator Captain with Storm Bolter model years ago, but he wasn’t that great.  The cabling looked bad and his storm shield was tiny.  My original idea was that it be a shield that incorporates weaponry, so that a successful block can be a slice as well.  The original model did not do it justice.

For the new model, I used Marneus Calgar’s upper torso, modified to get rid of the stupid eagles.  I used the Devastator Sergeant head, with an elongated nose.  I added a third and fourth service stud, as Perseus is about 400 years old.  The legs are the plastic legs from an Assault on Black Reach Terminator sergeant, with the flame added to the right knee pad.  On his back to cover up Marneus’ Bolter ammo feeds, I added some purity seals and scrolls.  I also added an Iron Halo on top.

For the arms, they are double dry-pinned with a magnet holding them on.  the pins come out of the torso, and the pin holes in the arms are deep, but are wide at the top so the pins slide right in.  You can pick up Perseus by any of his arms and he won’t fall apart, or change his pose.

Perseus’ Storm Shield was made from the Masters of the Chapter Storm Shield, and two plastic power axes and two pewter Bike sergeant power swords.  The Grenade arm is a standard Storm Bolter arm, with an Imperial Guard grenade launcher.

The Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield combo is the normal plastic one from the Termintator kit, with the Hammer modified with putty.

Paint used the standard Azure Flames color scheme, with a few embellishments on the feet and cape.

Backstory

Liam Perseus is a Terran.   His parents were pilgrims, and ended up serving the Ecclisiarchy on Terra itself.  He was born into servitude on Terra, and luckily for him, was a young teenager when the Tech Priests of Mars, at the behest of Inquisitor Eric Boucher, decided to make a Salamanders successor chapter.  Liam was simply scooped up by a Tech Priest, as his parents told him that he was destined for greater things.

Liam was one of the thousand Space Marines delivered to Nocturne as the Sons of the Salamander.  No Son had rank yet.  Being trained in the arts of war by their parent chapter caused Perseus to stand out.  His natural leadership qualities and powerful personality made him one of the first Sons of the Salamander to be promoted to Sergeant.

As the chapter structure took hold, Salamander Apothecaries noticed something strange.  The Sons were not affected by the radiation on Nocturne.  Perseus and his chapter brothers’ skin was not turning black, nor their eyes red.  One battle brother died in training, and the Apothecaries examined his gene seeds.  From that point on all Salamander and Sons of the Salamander Apothecaries were forbidden to speak of the possible genetic variance.  The official word was that they are a Vulkan chapter and the matter was closed.  Rumor persists to this day.

Perseus, being trained by ecclisiarchs as a child, found the Promethean Cult a bit dubious until he found the joy of making weapons.  He hand-crafted his first sword.  He insisted on using it to join in the yearly Salamander hunts on Nocturne.  Sadly, this sword was destroyed in the hunt when Perseus used it to prevent himself from falling into a volcano.  Perseus did bring home a Salamander pelt, but not the biggest.  Undeterred, Perseus used the pelt to make a shield.

Forty seven years of distinguished service as a sergeant followed.  Perseus fought traitors and aliens with equal fervor.  He was among the first to re-paint his armor when the Sons of the Salamander became the Azure Flames.  He fervently believed in Atrus’ vision.

His shield was severely damaged in a fight with the Iron Warriors.  He used it to block the attack of the traitor’s Power Fist.  The shield shattered like glass, and so did the bones in Perseus’ arm.  Perseus used the shattered remnant strapped to his arm as a weapon, jamming it into the traitor’s neck.

Perseus was soon promoted to the First Company, and chose the wargear of the Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield.  He was a part of the third Terminator squad during the invasion of Hive Fleet 2501 in the battle for the North Complex on Landon.  Atrus personally accompanied his squad, and Perseus watched as a Hive Tyrant cut him down.  Perseus smashed the Tyrant’s head with his Thunder Hammer, but Atrus was too far gone to save.  Perseus heard Atrus’ voice begging to be interred in a Sarcophagus.  He demanded that it be done.  It was.  Perseus became Captain of the First Company thereafter, and took on the duties of Chapter Master when appropriate.  Atrus was still the de facto Chapter Master.

Perseus took up a new project.  He remade his Storm Shield into a weapon, and trained with it to develop a new fighting style.  He became known as an invincible relentless combatant, able to turn the tide against the most skilled opponent.

When Atrus died in the Chasma Spica conflict, Perseus took his rightful place as the Chapter Master. He decreed that Iperin, the planet on which Atrus died, was to be the new homeworld for the Azure Flames.  Every Space Marine chapter in the Chasma Spica conflict backed up his claim.

Perseus has overseen the Chapter’s combat service.  He directs them to war torn zones where the Azure Flames go out of their way to protect refugees. Under this policy, refugees are relocated to Iperin, where they are given a new home in the rebuilt capital of Releeshan.  Perseus’ kind but stern leadership style and aged appearance has earned him the nickname “The Old Man.”  He struggles with the authority left by Atrus’ death, and works hard to groom Atrus’ gene-son Antonius for the day Perseus falls in battle.

Rules

When Perseus has a Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield, he is the Captain of the First Company and stands in for Darnath Lysander.  With his shield and grenade launcher, he has the following profile.

HQ – Chapter Master Liam Perseus: 260 Points

WS: 6
BS: 5
S: 4
T: 4
W: 4
I: 5
A: 4
Ld: 10

Equipment: Terminator Armour, Perseus’ Storm Shield, Auxilliary Grenade Launcher, Teleport Homer.

Special Rules

Eternal Warrior

Perseus’ Storm Shield: Perseus customized this tower sized Storm Shield by adding power weapons all along the perimeter. This makes the shield into a targe, used for both offense and defense. Perseus’ Storm Shield counts as both a Storm Shield and a Relic Blade. In addition, Perseus’ unique skills combined with the dangerous proposition of attacking an object covered with power weapons allows Perseus to re-roll all rolls in close combat to hit and to wound.

Riposte!: Perseus is a master of allowing an enemy to overextend themselves, and taking advantage of even the tiniest opening. In close combat, any successfully made armour or invulnerable save grants Perseus an extra attack at initiative 1. If Perseus is killed before initiative 1, the attacks are lost.

Orbital Bombardment: Perseus can call down an Orbital Bombardment, as detailed in the Chapter Master entry in the Space Marine Codex.

The New Chaos Codex: Why I like it even though it sucks

Recently on BOLS, there was a discussion of how the new Chaos Codex is not competitive.  You can read it here: http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2011/02/remembering-chaos-glory-days.html

If you don’t want to click, I can sum up the arguments pretty quickly.

1. The new codex isn’t as obscenely overpowered as the older one.

2. The flavor of the legions has been left behind in favor of renegades.

3. Several armies (mostly Emperor’s Children) have invalid models (Tanks with sonic weapons)

4. Demons are generic and that’s bad.

Here are my thoughts on the above points.

RE 1: Tough.  Playing against armies with Daemon Princes that have 5 wounds, a 4+ invul, feel no pain, monstrous creature and ignores invuls was no fun at all.  The legion armies got bonuses for taking daemon packs in certain numbers, which had no downsides.  Defilers hid behind forests and bombarded the enemy.  Predators with the Nurgle +1 armor value upgrade sat with impunity in the middle of a field, heedless of danger.  The new codex has lots of useful options without being ridiculous.

RE 2: True, but you can work around this. I agree with Lexington that renegade Marine chapters would not automatically trade all their assault cannons for autocannons, and trash all their landspeeders and razorbacks.  However, you can still play as the World Eaters.  Just take a lot of berzerkers!  I’ve seen this list work well with teleporting terminators and Vindicators for fire support.  While the LAYOUT of the book and fluff has left the main legions in the dust, their spirit can be found in the list, with a little creativity.

RE 3: I totally agree.  This pissed me off.  Several people modded Slaaneshi tanks, Legion Terminators, and Iron Warriors players even bought a goddamn Basilisk.  Now, while I think the whole Basilisk thing was a MISTAKE and am VERY GLAD Chaos is not allowed to take them anymore ever, I am angry about the other stuff.  Sure Legion Terminators can now just be used as regular terminators with the appropriate Icon, but that’s weak.  The Legion Terminators were never overpowered, indeed they were a bit overpriced!  Plus the Slaaneshi tanks had to typically pay points for a gun with as many downsides as upsides compared to the gun replaced.  I’d like to see these make a comeback.  Except the Nurgle +1 armor value upgrade, that was insane.

RE 4: Meh.  While I agree that the old demons were flavorful and cool, I understand that GW wanted to make a Demons-only list.  Should they have done this?  Perhaps not.  But they did it.  I’d be all for a way to use the God-specific daemons in a CSM list, but haven’t figured out a way to make it fair.  Just infantry only.  Using Steeds of Slaanesh in a CSM army was unbelievably broken.

In conclusion, the current Chaos codex has useful and powerful units without giving certain armies a free bonus for doing what they would have done already.  The list is balanced and if you can’t compete with it, you need to be more imaginative.

Now, the FLUFF and LAYOUT of the book is intolerable.  They gloss over the main legions and concentrate on crappy Renegades.  While renegades may by fun, they are the Sonny to the Legion’s Cher.  The vast majority of Chaos Space Marines are from the Legions, and if you want to make a renegade chapter go right ahead.  However the story should focus on these stubborn hateful traitors, not the upstarts that follow their example.  Plus the rules for the various marks are incredibly hard to find, as they are not with the rest of the wargear!  Whoever laid out this book should be forced to watch Judge Judy, Ludovicio technique style, while tripping on acid and randomly being electrocuted in the face.

Musings on Business Models: Part 3 – Warmachine (and Hordes)

For those who missed my previous rants, I have been examining how my favorite companies market their games.  My first rant covered GW Mainline games and the second GW Specialist games.  That covers GW.  Now, on to younger, hotter companies.

Privateer Press launched Warmachine in 2003.  It was immediately picked up by my friends Lexington and Andy (who now runs our local game store and STOCKS Warmachine).  I was dragged in when they showed me the minis and the gameplay, both of which were awesome.  I got into Warmachine and started a small Cygnar force.  During this time, I was frustrated by the Vlad Windwall Turtle army, and chose not to play Haley very much as she wasn’t very fair.

Privateer then released Escalation, which added a new Caster and some more stuff to each faction.  This introduced the dreaded Zealot Monolith Bearer, and soon every Menoth army I faced had a unit of invincible Zealots in my face.

Then came Apotheosis.  The strained balance of the game shuddered and washed away.  Epic Haley, Darius, The Harbinger, The Avatar, The Garlghast Coven, and the Old Witch of Khador seemed so powerful that many among my friends questioned whether they had done any playtesting to balance these powerful models.  We learned later that they had not.

Superiority added even more stuff which could be used in tandem with old stuff, making new combos and strengthening old ones.  Prime Remix tried to add balance to the game by nerfing several overpowered things like Haley and Sorcha’s feats.  This helped a bit.

Legends was the final expansion in Warmachine 1.0 and the nail in the coffin of me playing.  Three dudes with axes killed my entire army.  The three-person units were terribly broken.  I lost all interest as balance seemed gone forever.  Now there were “must include” units that you needed to balance out the overpowered units from other lists.  Gone was the idea that equal points tended to be equal armies.

Now, in Warmachine 2.0 I have a pretty decent interest.  Warmachine Mk2 was launched in early 2010 with an extensive playtest online beforehand.  Now EVERY unit had a new card, rules were more streamlined and units with similar rules now had the wording exactly the same for simplicity.  There were still one or two overpowered things, but “must includes” were powered down so that you could actually WIN without them.

Each faction had their own book released with “tier lists.”  Essentially if you limit yourself to the choices in the list, you get various powers.  I wasn’t a big fan of this as it smacked of the old 3rd edition White Dwarf lists in 40K that gave you special rules for taking a limited list.  Essentially this rewards you for taking things that are already a good idea to take.  It means you can’t do wicked combos with your whole list plus mercs.  There are a few that are a bit unfair (such as the Retribution Rahn list that gives every goddamn model Stealth) but most are relatively harmless.

Now, Mk2 is coming out with Wrath, another expansion with gigantic 120mm based horrors.  Essentially the trend is to create a balanced game, then add expansions that make each faction have some new great things.  Sadly you have to top your previous effort with each new expansion, so balance tends to get out of control.

The other part of their business model is simply to consistently make incredible models.  Let’s not mince words.  Privateer makes models you want to buy.  There are exceptions (Winter Troll and Extreme Warpwolf spring to mind) but most are so cool you want to play every faction ever.

Pros: The expansions keep the metagame flowing for every faction simultaneously.  There are no decade long waits for your army to be updated like with GW.  Each expansion also releases more pewter flavored crack for you to get a fix on.  Of course, some units are now PLASTIC crack, to the delight of players with sore arms.

Cons: Expansion after expansion leads to runaway power creep.  Didn’t buy the latest solo?  Didn’t include the latest unit?  Pick up your models and go home.  No one wants YOUR KIND here.  Oh, you didn’t know this guy is unkillable?  Eat it.  Page five machismo is one thing, but there are some combos from back in 1.0 that were just unfair.  Like the Harbinger sacrificing life to save every casualty you cause, and then getting healed by other stuff.  Or “Chuck the Drakhun at the enemy and watch it still charge 10 inches.”

Conclusions: Privateer keeps Warmachine selling well at the cost of power creep.  Let’s hope Wrath doesn’t undo ALL of the balance found in Mk2.  Otherwise you might see a lot less Warmachine posts on Four Strands.  If Wrath is as good as Escalation was expect MORE posts.

Rock over Corvis, Rock on Five Fingers.

Musings on Business Models: Part 2 – GW Specialist Games

In part one of my musings, I explained the pros and cons of the business model of the main line games of Games Workshop: http://fourstrandshobby.com/2011/01/27/musings-on-business-models-games-workshop-main-line-games/

To continue, I’d like to stay with the same company, but talk about their less often played games: The Specialist Games line.

First, a brief description.  Earlier in the history of GW, they expanded from their two main line games into a plethora of other, smaller, side games.  Among these are Epic Armageddon (formerly Epic 40,000),  Battlefleet Gothic, Necromunda, Blood Bowl, Mordheim, and Warmaster.  These were intended to provide additional revenue streams for people already engaged by the main line games.  Sadly this did not work very well, as the games were not profitable enough to consider continuing.  The games were retired to the archive, and control of the rules was handed to committees who revise the rules every three years.

Pros: Because the rules are decided by a committee if fans, and has a huge amount of fan input on several forums, problems with the rules get ironed out pretty well.  Battlefleet Gothic has just had a rules update, and they clarified a number of inconsistencies in the rules, and made new rules that add to the gaming experience.  The system is incredibly robust and useful, and the fleets are relatively balanced (except the Necrons).  The Specialist model promotes game balance and a small but rabid online fanbase.

Cons: Most specialist lines have old models that, by modern standards, look dated.  The Epic Armageddon Chaos Space Marine army is the best example of this.  Most of the vehicles in the army have no model, and must be converted from other Epic lines.  The infantry sprue contains several minis that do not exist in the game, such as Beastmen, Trolls, and Chaos Squats.  These minis can be used with Epic’s wonderful “Counts As” rule in the Lost and the Damned list, but it would be nice to have all of the infantry in the army available for purchase.

Other examples include Necromunda gangs.  Some have been updated (such as the snazzy new Orlock models) but some are much older (such as Cawdor) and it shows.  It is unknown when, if ever, outdated gangs will get an update.

Next, Specialist Games do not promote expansion.  Necromunda and Blood Bowl are the extreme examples of this.  Once you have your Necromunda gang, and the resources to play (board, terrain etc.) you don’t need to buy anything else.  This sounds like a pro to gamers, but it’s a con to the GAME.  Games that are not expansive and don’t promote players getting bigger forces will not make as much money.  You can have 12-15 ganger models and need nothing else to play Necromunda.  In contrast, to play 40K, you need 40-100 models to play a medium sized game.   Epic Armageddon requires many more minis, but they are small.  Once you have a force that allows you to play a 6000 pt. game of Epic, you are in a pretty good position, especially if you have titans.

Finally, the Specialist model makes Specialist games expensive.  The low demand makes the price point high, or else there would be no incentive for GW to even cast the old minis.  The high prices are a bar for casual players.  You can go to ebay, but this doesn’t solve the problem for GW, as they do not gain revenue if you buy a Blood Bowl team on ebay.  Luckily, Blood Bowl box sets are one of the few Specialist Games items stocked in well-run local game stores.

Conclusion: Specialist games are fun and much more balanced than main-line games.  However, they can be expensive to start, and don’t evolve or get new minis very often.  If you are looking for a satisfying gaming experience that is not tournament based or hyper competitive, give Specialist Games a try.

Getting the Band Back Together

So one day my friend Scott came up to me and said “We’re doing another Big Game a year from now.”

I don’t know how to describe what I felt next because it was a new feeling.  But it was awesome.

Here’s some history.  Our old gaming group, Studio 40K, used to play in Mary Mayo hall.  Every once in a while, we’d put on Big Games.  The first and second Big Games took place on the floor of a pole barn on my friend Jake’s parent’s christmas tree farm.  It was huge, but painful as we knelt on concrete for twelve hours.   The third was on the 4th floor of the MSU Union, and then the fourth was back in the pole barn (because it was free).  Players were divided onto the “good” and “evil” sides.

I had mixed feelings about the earlier games.  In the first I wasn’t able to do much besides make Andy’s Necrons phase out, and one of our players was kind of screwed over.  His name was also Andy and he played Dark Angels.  He was told to take a 100% deep striking force, but was forced to deep strike within 24″ of an objective, so his army was essentially deployed randomly, piecemeal, in a useless place.  He lost two units to the Perils of the Warp.  We never saw him again.  There was no fluff for this game, people just played.

In the Second big game, I was face-to-face with an outnumbering force of Eldar, and I had a mounted force ready to assault.  Sadly, I was not allowed to move on turn 1, essentially turning my vehicles to tombs.  The scenario also favored the “evil” side, as we had a Titan that was supposed to “march” to a city to liberate it.  Unfortunately you can’t march if there’s an enemy within 48″ and the Evil side had John, a Tyranid player.  His Lictors kept the titan from marching.  This game had a backstory by Joe, that an evil artifact allowed Chaos to control other evil armies.

The third was essentially twelve small games going on at once.  I faced John’s Tyranids across a “cornfield.”  These were essentially forests that you could see 12″ into instead of 6″ like normal.  However, John’s Tyranids could assault MORE than 12″.  Half of my force retreated to help another board, but we had a lot of bad matchups.  Guard vs. Necrons in the city could not pop Monoliths because they were hull down, and the Monolith blasted everything.  Dan’s Tau marched (stupidly) right up Andy’s Necrons’ throat.  Dave (former 21C manager) ran across a death field at an artillery heavy Iron Warriors army.  Comedically there was ONE mismatch the other way.  Brian’s Orks were trapped on the other side of a huge trench and were pounded by Damon’s Guard.  Sadly the good guys had one guard plauyer whose name escapes me, and he was a huge cock the whole time.  In this story, the evil sword from the first story continued to control the bad guys.  It was now wielded by an Ork Warboss!

In the fourth, the game was much more balanced.  In the end, Brian’s Ork bikers turned a Good Victory into a tie.  I remember my knees being sore, and Scott almost died.  The good guys really did not deserve to win, as we made several mistakes like deploying our Thunderhawk in the middle of the goddamn board.  The evil sword was now in the hands of the nefarious Victor Kalan.  His brother, Inquisitor Angmar Kalan, led the forces against him.  To break the tie, Victor and Angmar fought close combat.  They killed each other!  A true tie!

So that’s where I thought it would have ended.  Then Scott said that wonderful sentence.  It led me to a year of some of the most intense creativity I have ever experienced.  It also encouraged me to finish every little thing for the Azure Flames, including a bevy of named Captains.

Details on Big Game 5 to follow in a later post.

Musings on Business Models: Games Workshop Main Line games.

I play many games.  These games are made by companies.  These companies have business models that want you to buy their miniatures and rulebooks.  These business models can directly effect  the rules of the game they are selling.  Technically, two of the business models I’m going to describe are for one company.  I will briefly describe the business models behind Games Workshop’s main line games, 40K and Fantasy.  I’d love to do multiple games in one post, but I don’t want my post to be that long.

Games Workshop: 40K and Fantasy – the Codex/Army Book model.

For both of their main line games, Games Workshop follows the following model.  For an edition, they release a main rulebook with all of the rules to play a game, but not the rules to allow each army to make a playable list.  They then release army books that work with the main rules to make army lists.  They build hype for each new book, and release an initial wave of minis with the book, followed by diminished waves later.

Pros: This method makes money.  Each newly released (or updated) army sells a bunch of minis for people who hear about the new book and want to play the new army.  This also keeps the game updating at a brisk schedule.  GW tends to alternate books for 40K and Fantasy, so every two months (on average) a new book comes out.  The game rules also don’t stagnate, as players must adapt to the bells and whistles of the newest kid on the block.

Cons: One of the reasons armies sell so well after a new book is released is because of the phenomenon known as “Codex Creep.”  This basically says that the newest army tends to be the most powerful.  While not entirely true, (few recent 40K codexes come close to the ball-breaking power of the Imperial Guard codex) each new book does tend to have some incredibly powerful abilities.  This means that there is a noticeable trend towards more and more power, until the edition becomes broken.

A good example is the new Space Wolves codex.  Compare it to the slightly earlier Space Marine codex.  Tactical marines and Grey Hunters are comparable in price.  Tactical marines must take a Sergeant for 10 more points per squad, and this Sergeant has options for various weapons.  The Tactical marines can also take one special weapon and one heavy.  They are limited to a squad size of 10, just enough to fit in a Rhino.  Tactical Marines also have the Combat Tactics special rule, which is very handy when the squad is bring shot at and about to be assaulted.  On the other hand, the Grey Hunters do not have the option of a sergeant.  They can, however, take some weapons on regular Grey Hunters.  They do not have an option for a heavy weapon.  Three things make the Grey Hunters a better choice.  First, they trade Combat Tactics for Counter Charge.  Combat Tactics is only useful when a squad is in trouble, but Counter Charge is useful even when the squad is intact.  Space Wolves get into close firefights, and dare the remnants of the enemy to charge them.  Second, Grey Hunters can take a banner in each unit that allows them a once-per-game ability to re-roll “1”s in close combat, and it’s only 10 points.  Third, and most important, Grey Hunters have a Bolt Pistol, CCW, AND Bolter.  This means they can fire their bolters on Rapid fire, get charged next turn, and have 2 attacks each, or 3 if their Counter Charge works.  What ever happened to the good old True Grit?   The end result is that balance goes right out the window in favor of selling models.  However, this does keep the cycle going, so the game doesn’t die.

This also means that more popular armies tend to get more attention.  Take a look at the history of 40K books to see how many Space Marine variant books have been released since the advent of 4th ed.  Space Marines sell, so they get more books, while less popular armies get books less often.  This is actually a detriment to the game, not because Space Marines are bad, but because other armies are good.  Look at the Orks.  The 3rd ed Ork codex was competitive during 3rd ed, but half of the entries were utterly useless.  Post a comment if you played 3rd ed Orks and unironically took Lootas with sniper rifles, or Stikkbom Boyz.  Orks were relatively unpopular during late 3rd and 4th because newer books were better.  Then the newest Ork codex came out late 4th ed.  Very few units were useless (Big Gunz, anyone?) and the Orks not only got a well written book, but a powerful new list.  Ork sales immediately increased.  It’s not that people didn’t like Orks, it’s that people didn’t like the crappy 3rd ed book with its one-trick list.  It took almost a decade for Orks to get one update.  In that time, the Space Marines and their variants got a bunch.  It’s even worse if you look at the time discrepancy for the Dark Eldar.

Verdict: Yes, GW’s main line business model has some serious downsides.  It doesn’t promote game balance, and tends to give more attention to popular armies.  However, this model keeps a giant like GW going.  The constant releases keep new models coming out, and most of these are pretty good.  So, if you like the game you learn to deal with every Tyranid army containing the Doom of Mal’an’tai in a mycetic spore.  Or Space Wolves with three Long Fangs squads with 8 missiles.  Or combined Guard/Inquisitor mounted Leafblower lists.  Stay out of tournaments and play locally if you don’t like that.

Memorable Games – The Fall of the Myridian Suns

Everyone has games that were so awesome, they’ll never forget them.  This could be because of a victory that makes a story worth telling, or a loss that is so hilarious you can’t help but smile.  I’ll be posting reports of games I’ve had that went down in the history books.

Back in the old days of Studio 40K in Mary Mayo hall, one of my fellow players was Dan.  He answered as easily to his own name as he did to “Rock Star.”  He was sort of a hipster.  He played mostly Tau, but also had a Space Marines chapter of his own making, called the Myridian Suns.  They were Sunburst Yellow with black rims and a black sun with eight rays coming out of it.  I was playing against his Myridian Suns with my Azure Flames Space Marines.

Most of the details of the battle are lost.  However one important fact was that I took a 5 man Devastator squad with 4 Lascannons, and they deployed in a central ruined building with lines of fire to many different parts of the board.  Dan got the first turn and made these Devastators a priority.  His entire army unloaded, and killed all but one Lascannon.

Undeterred, the Lascannon made his morale check and proceeded to blow up a Land Raider.

The rest of Dan’s army advanced, and my army and his slugged it out.  However, he took the loss of the Land Raider personally and chose to fire a large amount of his army at this lone Lascannon Devastator.  He amazingly survived, accounting for (by the end of the game) The Land Raider, a Dreadnought, and some Terminators.  This annoyance distracted Dan, and let me outflank him.  I named the Lascannon marine Brother Stephen and painted his shoulder rims gold and promoted him to the 1st company.  Here is a story I wrote a while ago.  After this game, Dan sold off his Myridian Suns piecemeal, and so I thought that they had turned to Chaos and been exterminated.

Brother Stephen’s service during the fall of Myridia.

The Land Raider exploded, spraying shrapnel. Stephen smiled. A bolt round ricocheted off of Stephen’s helmet. The window he was firing from partially disintegrated under the hail of fire from the traitors. Stephen calmly knelt and replaced the battery pack in his Lascannon. A groan from the corner signified that Sergeant Xin’s wound was serious but not fatal. Stephen stood and sighted for another target. He dodged to the right quickly as a Krak missile flew through the space where his head was, and blew out the ceiling three meters behind him. He sighted a Dreadnought and fired. Fire ripped through its Sarcophagus, and it collapsed in a pile of slag. He once again took cover as more of the wall disintegrated around him. The traitor chapter was throwing all their firepower at him. Stephen put that thought out of his mind, stood, and sighted once again. Five Terminators advanced on the building Stephen occupied, their garish yellow livery now decorated with signs of the ruinous powers. Stephen cursed them as he fired, and one fell. They would reach him, but he would take as many of the Myridian Suns with him as he could. The Terminator’s Storm Bolters barked fire, and Stephen had to move to the next window. Shots rang off of his greaves. Stephen uttered a prayer of thanks and fired again, felling another Terminator.

“For Atrus’ sake, get down Stephen!” Xin coughed. He seemed to be staring off into the distance. Another Krak missile blew out the wall, and Stephen had to heave a large piece of rubble off of himself.

“You should not be moving about sir. Let me take care of the traitors.” He replied.

“No, you don’t under…” he cut off, hacking blood. “…Vindicators!”

Stephen’s eyes went wide, and he gently set his Lascannon down, walked to Sergeant Xin, lifted him, and moved him to the center of the building as thunderous booms seemed to tear the world apart. Minutes later his vox link came to life.

“Surviving Azure Flames, this is Captain Valerien. Report.” Several other squads reported in. The traitors were in retreat and their lines had been shattered.

“10th squad 5th Company reporting. This is Brother Stephen. Sergeant Xin is injured and the rest of the squad is dead. We are in hab complex J on the west side of the encampment.”

“Stephen, Valerien. Confirm hab complex J?”

“Valerien, Stephen. Confirmed.”

“Excellent work, Brother. Your squad seemed to draw the fire of all the traitors at once. Your distraction allowed our Vindicators to get into position, and your fire suppressed the traitor’s advance. What was your squad’s kill count?”

“The squad took fire before we got into position. I was the only man left standing. I accounted for a Land Raider, a Dreadnought, and two Terminators.”

Silence answered.

Stephen’s vox burst with wild cheers. Stephen sat and lowered the volume on the vox. As the medivac arrived, reports had come in that the Myridian Suns’ fleet had been utterly annihilated. Stephen hefted the stretcher with Xin, and estimated that the Myridian Suns would be erased from the galaxy in two days, at most.

How I got into gaming: The Azure Flames

Everyone who is a gamer gets into it somehow.  I got into it when my friend Joe invited me to a meeting of Studio 40K, the wargaming club of MSU (now defunct, different rant later).  This was in the winter of 2000/2001, early in the 3rd edition of 40K.  I picked Space Marines, specifically the Salamanders.  They had cheap Terminators and never gave up.  However, I didn’t like green marines, so I made my own successor chapter: the Azure Flames.

My first purchase was a Devastator squad.  The old pewter devastator box which had all the heavy weapons except the Multi Melta.  Actually a really bad box set, as a dev squad with those weapons was expensive and almost useless.  I learned and collected quickly though.  That following summer I followed this pattern: buy unit, paint unit, buy another unit.  I eventually had one of everything the Space Marines could take.  And I kept going.

Then, during the very last auction that Games Workshop held in its stores, I won a Blood Angels combination, consisting of Dante and some honor guard, some Death Company, and a few other things including a Baal Pred.  I made them into a Flesh Tearers army that was actually pretty impressive.  Sadly, after the advent of 4th ed, Blood Angels were vastly underpowered and I never played them.  I sold the lot bit by bit at a con.  People went nuts for the paint jobs and the custom vehicles.  My greatest pleasure was selling the remainder and the custom case to a kid who never had an army.  Made me feel good.

At this time, 4th edition was in it’s crappy heyday.  Vehicles were rolling tombs and gunline tactics were boring as hell.  That’s when my good friend Lexington got me into Warmachine.  I chose to play Cygnar, the jewel of the Iron Kingdoms.  I expanded into mercenaries, as long as they worked with Cygnar.  Warmachine and I have had an on-again off-again relationship, as Privateer Press tends to make wonderful systems and then break them with ridiculous new combos.  2nd ed is a million times better than 1st though.

Then, the newest Ork codex came out.  Orks were fun.  I toyed around with ideas and made my own “counts as” characters corresponding to all the characters in the new Codex.  I knew I had to play.  So I bought a huge amount of Orks, and made the warband of Poindexta Smartyskull, the Ork with two brains!  I did weird and ridiculous conversions and tried a new painting method: dipping.  It worked great.

Then (once again thanks to Lexington) I found the sweet, sweet crack rock of Specialist Games.  This was back in 2007, when ChaosOrc had stock.  I actually purchased enough Epic scale Space Marines to make an ENTIRE CHAPTER!  I also camped ebay for deals on some of the newer vehicles.  I played a game of Epic against Lexington’s Eldar.  Then he sold them.  Then I played one game against his new Chaos.  Then he sold them.  *sigh*  He was going through rough times.

At the same time as my Epic indulgence, I found deals on Space Marine craft for Battlefleet Gothic.  I became obsessed with rules, and made my own rules guides for Epic and Gothic.  I took the rules and condensed them down into 10 pt single spaced outlines that essentially explain all possible things.  I worked in a print shop and was able to make them into a laminated spiral bound flip chart for easy access.

Recently I’ve become a little obsessed with Specialist Games.  I had a Necromunda Orlock gang I bought at a con for a campaign that never materialized, but I bought a Delaque gang, and had my friend Jen custom make me a Necromunda board that looks fantastic.  I also painted my Battlefleet Gothic Space Marines, and bought and (almost completely) painted an Imperial Navy and a Chaos fleet.  I also recently purchased some plastic Lizardmen and Tyranid bitz to make a Lizardmen Blood Bowl team.

As you can see, I’ve got a lot on my plate.  I’ll post pictures of what I’ve done and thoughts on what I’m going to do.

…but it was A beginning.

Welcome to the Four Strands, a site dedicated to model wargaming!

What does the Four Strands mean?  The hobby of model wargaming has four aspects, like four strands that make up a rope.  These aspects are: Modeling, Painting, Gaming and Storytelling.

Modeling

Modeling is the first strand.  Without models, you can’t really do much else!  Modeling covers all aspects of collecting models and conversions.  From choosing an army to customizing it the way you want to, the first strand is all about how your models look when assembled.  Even those who only put together models as intended are consciously choosing to do so.

Painting

Painting is the second strand.  After all, most models look OK before painting, but tend to look much better when painted well.  This covers everything from proper undercoating to advanced techniques such as dynamic lighting. While some people feel that painting is optional, I find it very necessary.  After all, a victory won with models that don’t look good never feels like the victory won with a fully painted and based army.

Gaming

The third strand is the goddamn point of model wargaming.  While some people enjoy sculpting or painting, only model wargamers actually use those miniatures to play games.  From small casual games to huge campaigns, games are for having fun!  Some take this aspect very seriously, like tournament gamers.  Others are content to play with their friends.  Either way you go, the point is the same: to play games with other people.

Storytelling

Really?  Storytelling?  Am I reaching just to get a fourth strand to make this rope metaphor stick?  Not at all.  This is the end result of your hobby.  After all, whether you won by smashing every model the opposing player owns, or lost by the narrowest margin, every model wargamer has stories to tell.  This aspect covers both the stories about games you have played, and stories you write.  Making up your own Space Marine Chapter, or putting on a story campaign of the war for the Thornwood makes for an immersive experience.  Even if you only play the Ultramarines in tournaments, you have stories to tell.  You could have won a huge victory, or lost because some jerk with hairy shoulders cheated.  Stories are how the hobby perpetuates itself and how we remember our experience.  Stories tie everything else together.

This blog is intended for me to explore this hobby, and chronicle my efforts.  I will post things that i do including conversions, paint jobs, fluff, battle reports, and thoughts on gaming itself.  I hope that you enjoy the things that I do to spend my free time!

-Bozeman

P.S. Yes I ripped off Lexington for the title of this post, but screw him.  I have exactly one post on this blog and I have half as many posts as he does on his blog up for almost a year.