40K: Mech Vs Gunline/shield wall Vs re-deployer.

So, I have a couple of tutorials done but I am struggling to up-load pictures to blogger as I don't use Picasa so I though I'd talk about how lists have been changing recently.

Mech- this has ruled the roost over the past couple of years and it is quite easy to play but recently their has been quite a few books that can deal with mech.

Gunline/shieldwall: Gunlines involve an awful lot of shooting and speed bumps for the enemy a shieldwall is similar but it advances slowly with super tough things and leaves behind it a trail of objective holders. these have been holding a monopoly since guard came out but many new books have plenty of melta/lascannon. They can be hard to play because you have to protect your tanks but not to hard.

re-deployer/super-speed-dash-objective-grab-ultra-army-saim-hann: These armies rely very fast troops that can dash about to where they are needed, a great example is saim-hann who have lots of clever tricks. this is a lifetime to learn, an age to master army. Very hard to play but they are very good at what they do.

So, I have missed out 3 more armies which are the counters to the 3 above but often the counter armies are the above ones with a little variation. At the moment the anti-tank maneuverable re-deployer is best in my opinion but if mech and gunline take a turn for the worse then perhaps it may create a new army style or maybe it will bring back an old style. We don't know yet.

Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Off Topic: Rotating header image and why I didn't post yesterday.

So, yeaterday I didn't post becuase I was trying to get the header image with my title on to change each vist or just every now and again. I used this site but I couldn't get it to work. If anybody has a link please tell me. I got the idea of an image with my title on it from pathfinder but i want it to change regularly. Please help.

Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Blogging: Schedules, mine and yours.

So, I was thinking about my weeks and the way I organise them, here is the set-up of my posts:

Mondays: Some random post.
Tuesdays: If I can Tuesday gaming, though I may not be going to my gaming club soon so this may disappear and be replaced by this week in gaming.
Wednesday: Another random post.
Thursday: Discussion.
Friday: sometimes no post because I'm busy but if there is one normally a thought or an idea.
Saturday: random post.
Sunday: Something that has come to mind over the week/

Other features: the soap box section (I need some more entries for that admittedly). White dwarf (I will no longer be doing full blown reviews just a bit of an overview of the interesting bits). Battle reports (coming soon) and I may be adding Hobby Log as I haven't been doing as much lately I will pile my work together say every month.

I may have some other features I have missed but you get the idea. I love my relaxed and flexible schedule but write down your blogs schedule and just see how busy you are and what might need improving. Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

discussions: the perfect points level (40K)

So, I was wondering, what do you think the best points level is. Is it the basic 1500 or the choice filled 2000.

I personally like 1850, you get lots of choice without too many ultra killer lists.

Anyway, it's open to you. Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Sportsmanship: pt2, winning graciously.

Hi, thought I'd add part 2 to my sportsmanship post (notice a theme), this time I thought I'd cover winning.

Winning is a good thing, we should always try to win or it isn't a proper game but when we do it how should we act. Unless you opponent is a complete jerk we don't want to upset them. The way I do this is to go YES! Once or twice then calm it down and say how your opponent did and maybe pat him on the back. If your adults and you thrashed him then buy him a beer. This is easier said then done so here are my top tips:

1. Always let the satisfaction wash over you for a second so it doesn't build up, then calm your self down with a few deep breaths.
2. If your opponent looks up happy or put off by you celebrations then either calm right down or gently apologise.
3. If you have been chatty or are mates then he might be the person that doesn't mind you rubbing it in so don't go too far.

Anyway that's then end for now, see you tomorrow, thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Battle reports: Part 2, pictures, thematic, informative and overviews.

So, I thought I'd go through the 3 types of pictures that I use when I take pictures for battle reports

1. Thematic: Very nice to use, especialy as the first pic. These should show thematic moments like you see in white dwarf. Sant Cruz Warhammer always puts up an edited pic at the start of posts to make them stand out. This leads me onto my next point. You can fuge these pictures. I've seen blood spatters, lightning effects, anything from adding fog to having body parts flying. These pictures are for pure fun.
2. Informative pictures: these are the most common and show the points of action, these are usualy accompanied by the main body of text as these are telling the story.
3. Overviews: these are the other common type and show large parts of all of the battle. I find one or two is good but they are not big enough pictures to show detail.

So, that's about it for now. Oh, yea, James, I need to play you again, what do you think to me actualy doing a battle report on our next game, but play 2250 as it get us more toys. Though I'd give James another shout out as well His blog is: Paint Brush And Clippers James Gaming. thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Armies: how to build an army on a budget pt1.

So, I was think of how expensive armies can get and came up with a few tips on how to build an army on a budget:

1. Write you army first, for 40k, I would write a 2000 point list and then write a few extras as options, for fantasy a 2500 list with a few extras for options.
2. Don't go over the top with conversions, buy some green stuff and cut bits up as well as kitbash but don't go over the top like have your land raider with a bloodthirster ripping the top off (as cool as it would be).
3. If you can find cheaper alternative then use it, like sticking armor plates and gubbins onto ork boyz to make flashgitz.

That's it for part 1, part 2 will come soon. Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Dark Elves: my tester army list.

So, I found a Dark elf PDF. download online for free (I won't link it, just search dark elf army book PDf 7th ed in google and you will find it).

Here is the list I've been thin king of:

LORD
dread lord, hvy armor, shield, black dragon, hydra blade/ caledors bane, cloak of hag graef, potion of strength- basicaly a super tough dragon lord that will eat you, I laugh at most people who try to take him out, great for steam tank hunting- 569 pts.

HEROES
Sorceress, level 2, dark pegasus, focus familiar, darkstar cloak- a wizard that works by herself to go and blast people up, no scroll because not much magic in my area- 235pts.

Death hag, cauldron of blood, boost units and looks cool- 200pts.

CORE
2x 10 crossbowmen, muso, shields, shooooooooooot!-320
5x dark riders, muso, reapeater crossbows, the most annoying unit ever-117
2x5 harpies, march blocking and cav killing, may become 6's if I get models- 110
SPECIAL
2x8 shades, AHW, kill stuff for fun- 260
2x cold one chariots, like them and never used chariots-200
RARE
2x bolt throwers-200
hydra-175

Then for assasins I have 2 builds:
assasin, rending stars (goes with shades)-120
assasin, manbane, cload of twilight, AHW- 141

overall this comes to: 2857pts edit: 2447. That is way over what I want but this is the list of set up's I like, sometimes I may leave the dragon at home and make the peg a lvl 4 and I will have some extra models (maybe a manticore). So, what do you think of my set up's, sorry for wall of text. thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Discussions: What would you call 'a good game'

So, I was thinking, what is a good game. Is it when you win, is it when you have a hard fought close battle, is it when you have lots of big exiting moments or is it when you sit with a group of mates having a laugh and pushing models around.

For me it's a mix of being with mates and a close battle, I hate rolling over people without a fight and I hate not playing and just being rolled over. When it's close it's just more fun for me. the thing with playing at the local GW is that age doesn't matter (which is a big deal as I'm only in lower high school) I can play an adult or a 15 yr old and still have just as much fun.

So, that's my view, what's yours. Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Polls: Battle reports poll closed.

So, the poll on battle reports is over and it seems that loads of people like them, here are the results:

YES, I love them. 16 (61%)

Ok, but can get to long, only short ones 8 (30%)
Don't really read them. takes to long. 2 (7%)
Rubbish, waste of space 0 (0%)

It looks like I will be preparing some battle reports in the near future.

Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Sportsmanship: Part1, losing graciously.

So, thought I'd do a mini series on sportsmanship. The big thing with this is that is has been covered by every man and his dog so I'm just going to go over the finer points (I've had a lot of practise at losing ;)), oh yea, as an easy one, don't get angry.

1. Don't try and make excuses even if you think you have one because it just seems like your trying to diminish you opponents hard earned victory.
2. Don't go mad if you think your going to be just count to 10, keep a clear head and laugh it off, the amount of times I have failed 2+ saves is ridiculous, once I rolled 5 armor saves on my SW termies and failed 4, there were only 4 termies as well.
3. Congratulate your opponent and ask if they think you made any mistakes, most people like the sound of their own voice and will be helpful as well.
4. If your not counting up points at the need of the game and it looks close, if your opponent looks really exited because he thinks he's won, consider letting him have it because if it makes his day then at least one of you gets that extra bonus of winning rather than a meagre stale mate.

So, that about sums up the finer points, if you think I've missed anything then just comment and I will add it on.

FANTASY: I DIDN'T LOSE! (and why not giving up is important).

Sorry for not posting over the last few days I've been on holiday, but today when I got back I went to GW and played Craig with his Brets, so far except against Stu in practise games (and he was using non-optimal ogres against my WoC and my army was much easier to play than his).

The big thing is I don't mind losing because I learn more but today i fought hard and used my cav right, I also used 2 units of knights which helped. We didn't add it up but we thought it was probably a draw (we semi-worked it out) it might have been a small win to me though.

Now, the second part of this post is the importance of not giving up. I have not followed Ron's advice and do change my list regularly but now I have settled a bit more I will just be changing the odd character here and there and occasionally swapping the whole thing up.

So, remember, if you work hard you will eventually get the hang of any selection.

Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

WoC: Jag charm scar vet for WoC

So, in the best lizardman lists there are usually a scar vet that has a jag charm, this gives him a bound spell of steed of shadows at power level 5, then you give him a great weapon and, wa-la. I'm thinking of trying it with an exalted here by giving him the book of secrets and taking the first spell in the lore of shadows, then give him a great weapon and maybe a battle standard (probably not), the idea is that he can hunt lone characters/warmachines/chariots because of his lovely S7.

So, what do you think, thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Fantasy: WoC list building/theorising.

So, I have been playing WoC for quite a while now and have figured out the 2 styles of list I like to play, here they are with and analysis:

1: Lord on jugger
2x 5 man tooled up non lance knights
nurgle warrior bunker
1 or 2 lvl 2's
sometimes 1 more unit of warriors (small)
15 fast cav
a BSB (of some sort, mostly on palanquin)
a mounted fighty character
occasional 20 marauders.

The idea of this list is that the jugger goes in 1 knight unit and the mounted guy in the other then the BSB and sorcs go in warrior units and the cav screen the knights. I hold my battle line with the foot troops to drag the enemy back then push the knights up to go kill stuff, if the fast cav survive then they flank charge.

List 2:
lvl 4 on disk
1-2 lvl 4's
a bsb
1-2 warrior units
sometimes marauders
15 fast cav
1-2 units of knights

With this I do a lot of damage with wizards and use the warriors to try and get ranks and flanks on the enemy, I take his toughest stuff down with magic then finish it off with warriors then his slower stuff will get there and hopefully i will have managed to reinstate my battle line.

So, what do you think, thanks for reading

Jacob.

Building/tutorial: Different ways to glue different materials together.

So, first off i must say that befor building any models you MUST take of the moul lines, I hate some of my old models for just this reason, the 3 different types of models I will be covering today are:

plastic kits
metal kits
wooden stuff (scenery)

Plastic kits: the glue to use nfor these are plastic glue/poly cement and they should go together really easily.

Metal kits: now this gets a little more complecated, small joints on metal models will require pinning which is where you drill a hole in the joint at both points and add a little greenstuff and superglue then put a pice of metal through it to hold the joint together. You can find loads of great tutorials for this online. For bigger contact points use superglue. remember, you should treat meatl/plastic combo kits as metal.

Wood: for this use PVA/white/elmers glue or wood glue, nice and simple but leave plenty of time to dry.

Tell us what you think, thnaks for reading,

Jacob

P.S. don't forget to check out my mate James's new blog!