Review of Grey Knight “rumors” part 2.

My previous installment dealt with HQ choices.  Time to move on to the Elites.

Techmarine – Pretty similar to Marine Techmarine.  Servo harness standard, lot of options.  Doesn’t look too ridiculous.

Purifiers – Power armor Grey Knights.  They can take a variety of weapons, and two special weapons per 5 models.  Expensive.  Can custom tailor to any foe with expensive weapons.

Venerable Dreadnought – Like the SM VenDread, but more expensive.  Has Aegis, and a few GK upgrades like psybolt ammo.  Nothing special.

Paladins – OK.  Here is a problem.  Upside they are expensive for what you get.  Downside what you get BREAKS THE GAME.  Two wound Terminators, can take an Apothecary for FNP, each can take different weapons so you can allocate however you want.  This is another Nob Bikers unit.  UGH.

Assassins – Similar to what they were before.

Inquisitorial Henchmen Warband – HENCHMEN!  Huge variety.  Arco Flagellants have FNP, good stats.  Banishers make Daemons within 6″ re-roll invuls.  Crusaders are combat oriented, several options.  Jokaero Weaponsmiths are AWESOME!  They give you neat bonuses, the least of which is ORANGUTANS IN YOUR ARMY.  Mystics are walking teleport homers.  Daemonhosts are still random, but at least ALL Daemonhosts in the unit now get the same power every turn, making an all-daemonhost unit pretty scary.  Death Cult Assassins are still combat nightmares.  Servitors are servitors, no change.  Psykers have a shooting psychic power.  Warrior acolytes are more combat guys.  This squad is 3-12 in size and can take a Chimera.  This might have hidden combos I’m not seeing that are ridiculous, but it looks fun for now.

Next: Troops!

Konquata Monitors Cheerleaders and finished team!

DONE!  Perhaps I’ll set up an image gallery in the Features section.

Cheerleader pom poms are from a craft store, superglued on after painting.

Now all I need is a pitch and a second team!

Ironclad Dreadnought

Modeling

I inserted magnets into teh top and front of the body.  I then put magnets in the Hunter Killer missiles.  To put the magnets in the Frag Assault Launchers, first I placed the magnets that go in the launchers on the body, stuck to the magnets they will be next to when the launchers are on.  Next, I dabbed a small amount of paint on each magnet, and placed the launcher on them while the paint was wet.  I then used my pin vise to drill into the painted spots.  Slowly.  I did it one turn at a time, and kept going until the magnet JUST fit.

For the arms, you can see I have not magnetized the arm guns.  I chose an appropriate kit-out for situations.  Chainfist Hammer Meltagun and Storm Bolter for MEQs and Fist, Hurricane Bolter, and Heavy Flamer for light armor enemies.

Painting was done in the Azure Flames style.

Review of Grey Knight “rumors.”

So there have been a lot of rumors about the upcoming Grey Knights codex.  I’m going to look at a “compilation” of “rumors” that is not a “scanned pdf” and I will review each entry over the next few days.  Today: HQ Choices.

Lord Draigo: Powerful against Daemons, but not so much against everyone else.  A bit expensive, but worth it against Eldar Seer Council, or Chaos Daemons.

Mordrak: Neat, lets you take stealth Terminators.

Stern: Better now that he doesn’t let your enemy take a free Greater Daemon of Tzeentch.  A nice beatstick.

Crowe: Great against Guard, good for a boost for a squad.  Nice points value.

Grand Master: Customizable, perfect for making your own character.  Brings back the old Master Crafting of anything you want.  For 5 pts, which is what they should have cost in 3rd ed.

Brother Captain: So, you didn’t want to pay 15 extra points for the Grandmaster, and you’re OK shooting hitting on a 2 instead of a 2 with a 6 re-roll.  That’s fair.  Good choice.

Brotherhood Champion: Cheap and good.  Weapons skill 7.  Suck it, Genestealers.  Not very customizable.  Perhaps too cheap?  Great for killing powerful models with Eternal Warrior (it says “removed” not “causes instant death.”)

Librarian: Similar to Space Marine Librarian, the Cherry Coke to their Original.

Coteaz: Still an idiotic name, but he’s very nice if you want to protect against deep strikers or outflankers.  Also, did you just seize the initiative?  Coteaz gives you the finger.

Karamazov: I HAVE A BIG CHAIR!  DOES ANYONE LIKE MY CHAIR?  Not bad, but a big target.  Blows up your own guys if you want to.  Charge your half-strength stormtroopers into Abbadon and then drop a pie plate on them.

Valeria: Bonus points for the best name in the codex (after the queen of lesbian glam pop, or so I imagine).  Erases an enemy character.  Neat weaponry.

Various Inquisitors: Good.  Each ordo has it’s own unique flavor.  EXCELLENT for storytelling.  Customizable in lots of ways.

Communities of Gaming: How Studio 40K saved Chaos

I’d like to share a little story that proves to me how much having a gaming group can mean.

One of the players in our old gaming group, Studio 40K, was Matt.  Of course, there was another Matt (the one I panited Gehn for) so we called this Matt “Little Matt” much to his dismay.  Matt played Chaos.  Matt LOVED Chaos.  He had two Chaos Space Marine armies: Khornate and Iron Warriors.  His Khornate army was the first to teach me: DON’T LET BERZERKERS GET A CHARGE.  His Iron Warriors showed me that Chaos with guns was just as brutal.  He loved putting plasma pistols on aspiring champions, which was odd because he always ended up overheating.

Matt rarely brought both armies to club, as that was too much to carry.  He did have several of the old GW black cases for each army.  One day he brought his Khorne army.  He was a bit early, and only myself and a few others were there.  Foolishly we went to go get our armies and some terrain from a car.

Matt’s Khorne army was gone by the time we got back.

Although Matt’s favorite army was the Iron Warriors, he still loved the Khorne army and put a huge amount of work into it.  Not to mention several hundred dollars.  He was beside himself with rage.

During the night, the club took up a secret collection.  Next week we presented Matt with several hundred dollars, scraped up from the spare bills in the wallets of all the club members.  Some gave even more generously.  Matt used the money to expand his Iron Warriors, as he liked them better than the Khorne army anyway.

Our group was something special.  I hope to found that kind of special bond for students in the club I wish to make when I get a High School job.  If they band together the same way Studio 40K did, they’ll be friends for life and have an experience they’ll never forget.

P.S. If you are the guy that stole 2 black cases from Mary Mayo hall in the winter of 2001-2002, please die in a garbage compactor.

Lottabottol, Star Player for the Konquata Monitors

Lottabottol, like Quetzal Leap, was glued to his stand after varnishing.

Next: four more Skinks!  I don’t actually NEED more.  Perhaps I’ll buy some pom-pons at the hobby store and make them Cheerleaders.

On Record Breaking

For those of you who don’t read Bell of Lost Souls, take some time now and punch yourself in the gut as hard as you can.  Then, click the link over on the right side of this blog.

Today there was a link to some pics of the biggest Apocalypse game on record.  Here is the article: http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2011/02/40k-worlds-biggest-apocalypse-game.html

Now, when I was reading the description, I saw that it was about 848,000 points of 40K, which is more than 8 times the size of my gaming group’s biggest game ever, the Big Game 5.  But, when I read their table setup, they had a comparable amount of gaming area.  Then I saw the pictures.  Click the above link and scroll down.  As you can see, all of the forces are about 12″ away from each other, and are packed about 18″ deep behind that.  No terrain other than fortifications purchased with points.

To be fair, this LOOKS awesome.  But the gameplay (if you can call it that) is going to be “OK NOW I SHOOT THAT THING.”  Essentially whoever goes first blows up the other side, and then the second side blows up the first side.  Woo.  No strategy, no storyline, no REASON other than to have big numbers and to have more numbers than anyone else had ever.

It’s like making the world’s largest burrito.  Sure, it’s impressive.  But in the end, all you have is a crappy burrito that is really big.

Quetzal Leap and Sillibilli, Star Players for the Konquata Monitors

…and here they are!  Quetzal Leap’s flying stand was glued after he and his base were painted and varnished.  One to go, then four more skinks, then BLOOD BOWL IS DONE!

When things go Wrong

Recently I had to strip 3/4 of my Blood Bowl Star Players.  I tried a new painting technique and it didn’t look good.

I’m painting Quetzal Leap right now, but on his left hand the Pine Sol damaged the integrity of the putty.  Two fingers broke and I lost the tips.  So I had to re-sculpt them.  Currently allowing them to cure.

It seems that Pine Sol can make putty more brittle.

This isn’t the first screw up, but that’s the best part of this hobby.  When you screw up you can easily fix it or start over.

Hemlock, Lizardmen Star Player for the Konquata Monitors

…and here’s Hemlock!  I used him in my first Blood Bowl game.  He tried to stab an enemy Skink, and then got tackled and injured.  Dammit

The paint scheme is different from the Konquata Monitors because the Star Players were not born on Albion!