The State of my 40k (yes this is includes a rant).

o/

(kicks the dust off of this ol' blog to see if its still alive...)

So, the State of my 40k, my on-again off-again series where I usually just whine/rant about 40k. Rather than just focus on any one army this time I think I'll just do an overview of all of them. Big things are afoot, both around the world and even here locally. 

The Nova Open reveals have induced nerdgasms the world over in the 40k realm, a new psychic...something is coming for all factions! SoBs finally have a release date, PLASTIC aspect warriors after decades of begging!

Emprah be praised! What will we buy first???? 

Locally, there's a 40k escalation league at the FLGS, with prize support and best of all: the only models that get objective secured have to be painted to at least a table top standard! Hell, even Bob, a long-time 8th ed. hold out has a Knight nowadays, as apparently that's what's required to remain 'competitive' in 8th's kick their teeth in with pay-to-win models and make 'em cry meta.

Seriously, every pick-up game I saw in the last few weeks in which I was still a regular at the FLGS' game nights looked like games where any of my armies would be dead on arrival.

Even Neverness' infernal 20+ shots a turn flyer all but wrecked my army on turn one, killing a squad and a half in one volley, requiring my entire army to shoot at it the next turn in hopes of taking it out (which we all know is a really shitty way to try and enjoy a game). Oh, and before you get defensive and bring up the turn 2 'Vyper incident', I'm certain that that was a miracle of dice which will likely never be repeated.

Besides, its not your fault anyways, but rather GW's insistence on making I win button rules to sell over-priced models (Custodes army anyone?) taking just about all strategy out of the game because my new stuff is awesome and your old stuff isn't. Speaking of...don't tell the trolls that infest teh interwebz that you're tired of primaris updates/releases (lieutenants excluded, everyone's sick of those) because without constantly getting newer and better and better releases on a seemingly never-ending basis, that army is (quote) unplayable.

Clearly that wasn't a very good Martini.

...and thru all of that, even with my new projects and 40k purchases I'm just kinda meh. Hell, I'm not really even interested in playing 40k right now, with most all efforts going towards Battletech and a bit of Rogue Stars. Anyways, onto the state of my 40k...

Da Long Wayz Dezert Groop

Da Groop, assembled for their most recent battle.

The baby squiggoth is still on hold, and still awaiting greenstuff. Guess I ought to just order it online given that I almost never make it to the FLGS these days. Also, Krump and Pittance are getting demoted back to a mere nob (appropriately enough, even as puns) as I have a new Da Masta Cheef warboss mini which needs to come out of it's bath of simple green water to remove the resin-mold release agents. Someday I might even assemble my dakka jet as well.

Orks will always be one of my favs, and its doubtful I'll ever sell the army (again) due to too many sentimental models, and following my 7th ed rage-quit/ebay sale and the subsequent horror/anger of My Beloved Wolfy when finding out I'd sold the lion's share of them. As such they're currently holding steady at approximately 1000-1250ish points. 

Spess Mahreenz

Its pretty obvious that GW doesn't give a fuck about any marine that isn't a Primaris marine, and personally I find that heartbreaking. 

To be honest, I'm thinking of liquidating my army again the 500ish points that are left of it (and what little I have left for 30k too). I'll just keep my Rainbow Warriors, Relictors, and Silver Drakes Kill Teams, and my ancient Predator will go into stasis in my dust-proof display box. Technically the Rainbows would still be field-able as a patrol consisting of a Lt., a minimum tac and scout squads and the pred., but I seriously doubt anyone would want to play a game so low in points. So just kill teams for them I guess.

The Eldar

Only three left to go...

The Corsair re-arm-ament is almost complete, though I did keep a squad of 10 Iyanden Guardians with lasguns as is. They are all painted decently, needing only minor touch ups, and match one another relatively well. In doing so they've spawned another project/idea that I'm looking into but I'll get to that below.

Having removed about 200ish points just in over-priced lasblasters alone, my Corsair/Exodite/Craftworld menagerie is holding steady as about the 1k mark. The Corsairs are in dire need of a cohesive paint scheme though!

Dark Mechanicus/Renegade IG.

No doubt you can see the need for my cultists to
eradicate this clearly deranged foe...

Nope, no further progress on the Venomcrawler from my last post. I did get a 3rd squad of cultists cheap though bringing that little band of misfits up to about 300 points. They just need some motivation by me which is sadly lacking these days. 

RETROHAMMER

Kinda sad to think that these convoluted rules were a simpler time...

Going back to those Iyanden guardians with lasguns. In looking at my whole Iyanden contingent, they're all 2nd ed models (like many Eldar armies due to 20 year old metal aspect warriors still being the standard), so I looked to our friends in France and sure enough, they had all of the 2nd ed rules, codexes, etc. available as PDFs and I downloaded all of it (well, only the codexes that are relevant to me), and assuming I can figure out the old rules again, maybe see if Neverness (or somebody) would be interested in playing some 2nd ed retrohammer at some point. 

2nd ed does have the issue of not including My Beloved Wolfy's Fem Fa'Tau as they weren't invented yet, but she currently has zero interest in playing 40k at this point, and thus her 2kish army of Tau remain in stasis. 

*****

Well I think this rant post has a high enough word count to make up for my recent lack of posts...lol. 

Downsizing Bolt Action

o/

Welp, after seemingly forever complaining that there was no one to play Bolt Action with, now that their are a variety of opponents I've found that I'm really not too fond of the game. Oh it plays alright I suppose, nothing seems 'broken' but at the same time nothing really holds my attention either. Rob and I have had several discussions on the subject and the same thing keeps coming up, time and time again: The game just feels too generic.

Trying to vary it up a bit with my Weird War II armies has only left me with a lone high point for the game, that being it gives me a use for my Quar. Which, isn't much of a sales pitch…especially for Beyond the Gates of Antares which everyone gleefully says is 'Bolt Action in space!' Yay.

So, I pared my forces down for trade-in credit from my favorite online FGS at Noble Knight Games. Aside from some other random minis, here's what has left my Bolt Action collection and is now enroute to Wisconsin.

First up: the Eleventy First Devonshire. Sigh, such a great concept but…the rifle toting grunts have been outta stock ever since I bought my first squad (which makes me wonder if that was the last squad available). Inquiries to Hasslefree minis as to restocking them resulted in this response:

"Mold issues, its on the list but no ETA, sorry."

…and that's that I guess. As such, they're memory has been rebranded the Eleventy First Air Wing, which will make occasional forays across the channel in their lone Lemming Mk I fighter to provide air support to my beleaguered Quar Partisans.

As for the Quar, yes the Partisans along with my multi-colored uniformed Royalists are all that are left for the most part. They're also the vast majority of the Quar that I've painted. Not all mind you, no army is ever fully painted as we all know, but I'd say about 75% of them are.

The quar pictured above amounts to roughly half of the infantry that I had, along with 2/3 of my vehicles (yes, I kept the painted one). I'll use them with the Partisans army list in the France and Allies army book, whereas the Armies of England and the Soviet Union books also got shipped out.

In terms of my remaining army's field-able size, I'd say that I can easily put the 500 point minimum (which is my preference anyways) on the table and on up to maybe (or, maybe not…) the 750 point mark. 

I'm not sure what I'll get with my trade-in credit just yet, so stay tuned as I'm sure to have a 'new toys' post here in the near future.

My Bolt Action Malaise...

o/

I dunno...just seems that after waiting for years to actually have some regular opponents to play the game, now that I have them I find the game itself to be kinda 'meh' overall. Sure individual games are fun, my most recent game being the one during my bachelor party is a good example, but overall I seem to have little enthusiasm for playing it again. In all honesty, the best part of playing Bolt Action (for me that is) is that it lets me use my Quar minis.

Weird War II at its finest...

For the game itself, that's hardly a good selling point.

I've pondered other forces, like my Eleventy First for example. However the basic trooper minis have been out-of-stock for well over a year now, meaning they're in all likelihood out-of-production. killing that army before it ever had a chance. About the only option left to make 'em a fieldable force is to use the Tank War supplement.

However, before Screech starts giggling with delight, only a recon force built around armored cars, or at the heaviest Stuart light tanks really appeals to me. Playing around with various builds consisting of 3 of the above with an attached (hobbit) infantry squad mounted in a Bren carrier only clocks in around 500-700 point range. It also packs a hefty price tag and I'm loathe to spend much on a game which I'm already kinda bored with...hell, I've even pondered ebaying all of my Bolt Action minis (well, except for the partisans) in hopes of financing a small force of Kromlech's Iron Reich goblins to field as the Germans. However as both Hasslefree's Kindred (the Eleventy-First's Hobbits) and Zombiesmith's Quar are fairly obscure to begin with, I'm not sure if there's even any sort of resale market for them.

So yeah. As far as Bolt Action is concerned, I'm just not sure on what to do going forward...

Now that the shock and abject horror has passed...

...lets see what we can do with our new lousy codex (vs. the old lousy codex).

We were properly prepared, why do I say that? Note: the tissues on the shelf in the background...lol.

Thus, Da Long Ways Dezert Groop took on the Fem Fa'Tau last night in their new codex battlefield debut. Unsurprisingly, they lost but truth be told, da boyz fared better than I expected.  The dice went thru periods of good and bad on both sides, though my GF is getting tired of the 'you can't roll any higher than a 2' syndrome her dice have been addicted to for quite some time now...that said, she rolled a whole slew of 6+ disruption field saves at the end!

Anyways, a few things I noticed during the game...

First up, Ork Witchfire psychic powers. Yeah, great. I need to cast and not perils (perils was my 1st wound suffered in the game), not be denied (and there she goes with those 6's again), and then have to roll to hit with a BS of 2??? BS indeed, thanks for that GW. The only spell that managed to work during the (short) lifespan of my Wierdboy was 'da jump' which tellyported da shoota boys across the table. They summarily gunned down the Pathfinders only to be pie plated into oblivion shortly thereafter. So that was a wash.

Basic Meks get all sorts of cool weaponry, but only ever get a 6+ save. So why would I ever put a 30 point killsaw on one of those? One Mek manned the Kannon (and the grots managed to hit a lot with said kannon, damage however...), one Mek disappeared in the a hail of burst cannon fire (more on that below), and the other died the first time he pulled the trigger on his Kustom-Mega-Blasta. Yes apparently the option of putting eavy armor on cheap characters was, like so many other things, too much to ask for.

Speaking of eavy armor, it felt like a knee-jerk reaction to put it on every boy that could get it, but that's exactly what I did. So spread across the army, eavy armor costs almost equaled the price of a Landraider (gulp!). That said, when the outflanking hordes of stealth suits, Shadowsun, and Kroot showed up, it was a godsend! Instead of having mobs simply evaporate (like the attached mek did), they actually absorbed a good bit of damage and were able to stay in the fight! Indeed, that's the only reason I had any troops left after turn 2! Would have been nice if GW discounted that a bit on regular boyz though. :-(

I added a nob and another grunt to my Tankbustas this week, bringing the mob up to 10 boyz.

Da Tankbustas. They did good, if not too much overall. Tank Hunter was not only long overdue,  but works well (though unfortunately, so do disruption fields). The mob of 10, in a Battlewagon, with a grot rigger, and a mek w/KFF and Gitfinda was something the tau could not crack (thankfully). Only used the gitfinda once when the wagon stayed put, but I in turn hit a Hammerhead 8 times! (3 disruption field saves later and we're moving on to another subject now...).

Stupid Mob rule!

Da Mob rule. Ah yes, the 800lb Gorilla in the room. Luckily, my boys were rolling low on their LD checks, and I didn't have to roll on that damned chart till the bottom of the last turn (we ended on turn 4 as I had to get up early for work). Yes the boss pole is essential as it saved my ass (I have more on order from ebay), and thanks again to the eavy armor, my warboss only managed to kill 1 of da boys whilst restoring order.

So in conclusion? Meh.

Aside from the eavy armor buff, and tankbustas not being entirely useless, i think my army is in much the same place it was before with the old dex. One thing of note, after building my army and looking at what was left out of my list, I have a lot of orks (and that's not even counting the equally massive Eleet Grot Mountin Duvishun)!