Space Wolves Gallery

Some of the new units that were painted up for the 1250 tournament a couple weekends ago.  The Thunderwolves and Long Fangs had been painted previously.

Weekend Gaming: German Traders!

A bunch of the guys were out of town this last weekend, so on Saturday it was just Joe, Kevin, Gina and I playing games.  I had requested that Kevin bring over his copy of Hansa Teutonica, since I had heard good things but hadn’t played it.  Turns out that nobody had played it, and the pieces hadn’t even been punched out.

After learning the rules, we got the game started.  The game itself deals with using a set of five different actions to place merchants and traders onto routes between German cities.  You can block the other players and displace them to make things more difficult.  As you complete routes, you’ll either take control of offices in the cities or gain upgrades to the basic abilities from certain cities.  The game is won by scoring points.  The points are interesting, as the majority of them are gained after the game is over.  During the game itself, the only ways to gain points are to control a city connected to a route when the route is completed, or to place a person in each city between two specific cities on the board.  After the game end is reached, players gain more points for having their abilities fully upgraded, controlling cities on the board and for having a large number of cities linked together.

In the first game we played, I was able to connect a bunch of cities together in the northern part of the board.  While I didn’t have much upgraded on my board, I was still able to get enough going to complete those routes.  Kevin and I were both hitting the bonus tiles hard, and he had managed to grab both ends of a nice route and monopolize that route for a few turns before anyone intervened.  At the end of the game, he and I both had a big stack of bonuses, but I was able to pull away due to the linked cities.

Since the game didn’t take too long, we decided to play another.  In the second game, I was focusing heavily on upgrading my abilities.  By the end of the game, I was able to upgrade all of my abilities fully except for one.  I was also focusing on one of the special cities on the board that gave big end game points for upgrading the privilege ability.  When the game ended, I didn’t have a single city under my control and I had zero points.  Even so, I scored 34 points from bonuses, which put me in third place.  Gina had managed to complete the route across the board, so she scored a bunch of points for that, but she wasn’t able to upgrade the ability that gives more points for connected cities, so she ended up in third.  Kevin ended up winning because of a ton of points due to controlling offices on some of the most used routes, and then a bunch more at the end for controlling those cities.

We finished up the night with a game of Through the Desert.  I was able to connect to all of the oases with my caravans, and I was able to score the longest in white and pink.  I did have to compete with Gina for the pink one, though.  Joe managed to seal off a huge area on the right side of the board, which scored him 25 points plus the watering holes.  That ended up being the difference maker in the game, as I can up one point short of Joe.

Overall, it was a fun night, and we got to play a new game and a game we hadn’t played in a while.  I got my copy of Power Grid: The First Sparks on Sunday, so I’m looking forward to playing that this coming weekend.  Until next time, happy gaming.

First Necron!

I picked up some Necrons recently, so today I decided to try the paint scheme I’ve been thinking of. I’m going for kind of an ancient Egyptian theme with them, while staying away from the standard all silver robots.

I like the general look of the theme, and I think it will look great on the tabletop.  I’m not very happy with how streaky the bone color looks.  I’m not sure if that’s because of old paint or just not enough water.  The highlights also look a lot brighter in the pictures than they do on the actual model, but they could be blended in a bit more.  Finally, I’m not sure of the look of the gun.  I think it needs a bit more variation on the gun itself, and the gun barrel effect is just a placeholder until I can think of something better.

Warhammer 40k RTT Report

I played in a 1250 point RTT on Saturday using my Space Wolves.  It was a lot of fun.  There were 8 players there to start, and a 9th showed up at the start of round 2.  The armies present were two Imperial Guards, two Orks, Dark Eldar, Blood Angels, Necrons, Grey Knights and Space Wolves.  The organizer had his Daemons available.

Game 1:

My first game was against Fred who was playing Imperial Guard.  His list included a Valkyrie full of Vets, a big blob of troops with Lascannons, a small squad of troops, a Hydra, an Earthshaker cannon and a Leman Russ.  The game was annihilation and there was basically no terrain on the table at the beginning.  Then each turn a large blast sized “crystal forest” would randomly pop up on the field.

I ended up going second, and I didn’t think I’d have much luck against all the big guns.  Luckily Fred rolled pretty badly all game, and nothing was touched on the first turn.  I then returned by blasting his smaller Guard squad with my heavy bolters causing them to flee.  My Long Fangs knocked the Valkyrie out of the sky, and then a squad of my Wolves finished it off.  Those Wolves did last long, though, as they took a wound from the Leman Russ and then got shot by the Vets’ plasma pistols.  The one wolf failed his shield save against the plasma pistol, and then they failed their leadedship test and ran off the board.

That was the last that I’d really lose, though.  My Wolf Lord and the other squad of Wolves made it across the board and ate basically all of his army.  By the end of turn 4, I had basically tabled him, and finished it up turn 5 scoring 47 of the 48 points available.

Game 2:

The second game was against my good friend Nick’s Orkz.  He was running with two Battlewagons, one with a few Burnas and Mekz with a big gun.  The other was full of Boyz.  He also had a small squad of Nob Bikers, a large blob of Boyz and some Lootas.  I was playing on the same table, but this time we had terrain and the objective was to capture terrain pieces.

Things started off badly with us forgetting about the Night Fight portion of Dawn of War, so his big gun was able to immobilize one of my Razorbacks.  My Wolves all made it around the side of a building and hit his big squad of Boyz all at once.  They proceeded to get chomped by the wolves quite quickly.  Later in the game the Wolf Lord made it’;s way over to eat the Lootas, while a single Thunderwolf tried to take the Bikers, but came up short.  One of the more entertaining battles, though, was a squad of my Grey Wolves taking on a squad of his Boys from the Battlewagon.  The Wolves managed to win combat, and then swept them up.

On the last turn, one of my Grey Hunter squads was able to regroup and just barely run back to the trees in the center of the table.  The final results had the Nobs holding one hill, and my Grey Hunters holding some ruins and the central trees.  Neither of us managed to get the second or third objectives.  I ended up with 22 points, bringing my total to 69.

Game 3:

The last game was against Jerad’s Orkz.  He had two Looted Wagons, three big squads of Boyz, a squad of Gretchin and a Big Mek.  We were playing for three objectives; Jerad placed one in each corner and then one in the center.  I decided to make the one in the far corner the primary.  Jerad then proceeded to win the roll-off, which hurt my chances from the beginning.

I deployed my Wolves as far forward as possible, and then launched them on the first turn towards the Orks.  I was able to destroy both Wagons on the first turn, but other than that things went poorly.  One squad of Wolves along with the Lord charged into one of his Boyz squads and I immediately regretted it.  Obviously my last game had made me overconfident.  I only managed to kill 7 orks and all three of my Wolves had taken wounds.   On the next turn, my other squad of Wolves got shot up my his Boyz and each took a wound.  The wolves tried to charge those same boyz, and ended up doing very little damage before dying.  The original assault also ended up badly for my wolves, and the Wolf Lord perished on the following turn.

At that point, I had really no chance of killing all those Orks.  I ended up driving my Razorbacks around trying to avoid the Orks.  At the bottom of turn 5, I had managed to contest  the central objective, control the objective in my deployment zone with a single marine, and I had units in all four quarters for the secondary.  Sadly, the game went on to turn 6.  The lone marine died, and I was unable to contest the center.  I did still get the secondary objective, though for a total of 14 points.

I learned after the game, though, that I would have needed to get the full primary in order to win, as the Grey Knights player had massacred his opponent, scoring nearly full points and edging Jerad out of first place by a single point.  I ended up in third place, but I did pick up the Best Painted award, which I used for a box of Necron Warriors.

It was a well run tournament, and while the first mission was a bit goofy, it worked out alright.  The store has decided to stop hosting 40k and Fantasy tournaments on the same day, so there should be a lot more participants in the future, which should be great.

And now for all the pictures:

Weekend Gaming: Tournament Time

I played in a local 40k RTT on Saturday with my Wolves and did alright.  There were eight players at the start, and a 9th showed up before round 2.  So the tournament organizer played in the second and third rounds.  The armies present were, two Imperial Guard, two Orks, Grey Knight, Blood Angels, Daemons (the TO), Necrons (the late guy), Dark Eldar and Space Wolves (me).  I ended up in third in points overall, and the Grey Knights player won the day.  I did end up taking the Best Painted award, so that was nice.  I will be posting a full wrap-up of the games a little later this week, along with picture of my army.

Later that evening, my wife and I met up with friend for some games.  We played a game of Catan first, that I managed to win after getting some lucky rolls and a timely Monopoly on Wheat to build the last City I needed.  We finished the night with a quick game of Euchre.  The girls were having a really tough time getting anything going, and never made it above a point.  Nick was rolling pretty well, but slowed down enough that I could catch him.  In the end, though, I just didn’t get the right cards, and he was able to grab the win.

Overall, it was a busy weekend.  It was nice to get some 40k games in and see some friends.  Until next time, happy gaming!

1250 Space Wolves

This is the list I plan on running at an RTT tomorrow.  It’s mostly an excuse to use the seven Thunderwolf Cavalry models I own, but it should be a lot of fun.

HQ:
Wolf Lord with Thunderwolf, Wolf Claw, Storm Shield, Wolf Tail Talisman

Troops:
5 Grey Hunters, one Meltagun
Razorback with Heavy Bolter

5 Grey Hunters, one Meltagun
Razorback with Heavy Bolter

5 Grey Hunters, one Meltagun
Razorback with Heavy Bolter

Elites:
3 Wolf Guard, each with a Combi-melta (they join the Grey Hunters)

Fast Attack:
3 Thunderwolf Cavalry, one with a Thunderhammer and Storm Shield, another with Meltabombs

3 Thunderwolf Cavalry, one with a Power Fist, and one with a Storm Shield

Heavy Support:
5 Long Fangs, 4 with Missile Launchers

5 Long Fangs, 4 with Missile Launchers

It all adds up to 1249 points.

As far as strategy goes, the Cavalry will start out behind the Razorbacks for cover while advancing to midfield.  Once there, they should be able to go out and munch on things.  Each model in both units is unique to take advantage of wound allocation tricks.

I’m really looking to play this, as it should be fun in general, plus I’ve been working hard this last week to get things painted.  All three Razorbacks are done, the Thunderwolves and Long Fangs have been done for a while, and one squad of Grey Hunters is finished.  All that is unfinished are the other two Grey Hunter squads, so this will be the most completely painted army I’ve played in a long time, so it should look great on the table.

Weekend Gaming: Football Weekend!

Pretty fun weekend around here.  On Friday we spent the afternoon over at our friends’ house where we celebrated their daughter’s first birthday and watch the NDSU Bison football team win the FCS championship.  It was a blast.

That evening, Louis, Kevin, Ryan and Joe joined us for games.  First up was Acquire.  I started one of the smaller companies, and then it immediately grew to the point where it wasn’t going away until the end of the game.  Because of this, I wasn’t able to get into any other companies.  I barely had enough money to get into a tie for the most shares in my company.  In the end, Joe and I tied for that one, and he had controlled enough of the smaller mergers to easily take the win.

Next up was Railways of the Western U.S.  My baron required that I connect and industrialize Dodge City and Santa Fe.  Because of this I was doing a lot of shipping in and around Denver.  Sadly, because I went last on the first turn, I wasn’t able to snag the Hotel for Denver.  Louis go that card, so I was feeding him a bunch of points even while I was making points for myself.  Kevin and Gina had control of the West coast and were making some deliveries there, while Ryan had decided to go for the Golden Spike bonus and built all the way from Omaha to San Fransisco.  Joe was all alone in the lower Midwest, and Louis had a solid grip on the Salt Lake City region.  Louis was making consistent 3-4 point deliveries and with the bonus points I was providing him, he easily won the game.  Over all, though, it was a pretty low scoring game, with all of us sitting at just over 20 points (Louis had about 30).

We followed that up with a quick game of 7 Wonders.  I was playing Rhodes, and focused pretty heavily on military.  I was having difficulties, though, as I wasn’t able to get Stone until the end of Age 2, so I wasn’t able to start on my Wonder.  Then I forgot about Iron and wasn’t able to build the second stage of my Wonder.  Regardless, I still did alright with maximum military points and two very strong Guilds.  It wasn’t enough, though, as Ryan had pulled off 38 points worth of Science and edged me out by 3 points.

The last game of the night was Puerto Rico, with Ryan sitting out.  I went heavily into a Trading/Building strategy.  I was able to grab both Markets, and was routinely selling Coffee and Tobacco for big money.  I was able to build three of the big buildings.  Louis was doing a very strong shipping strategy, while Kevin and Gina were more balanced.  Joe was also doing a lot of Trading and Buying.  In the end, I was able to put up 43 points, which just barely beat out Louis’ 41 points.

Sunday was spent watching more football, while I worked on painting some Razorbacks for my Space Wolves army.  I am nearly done with one, which just needs detailing and weathering.  Here is a work-in-progress picture:

Overall a great first weekend of 2012.  Happy gaming!

Weekend Gaming: Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2012!

We celebrated the end of 2011 by having all of our friends over for some food and games.  After a dinner of chili, beer bread, fruit, veggies, deviled eggs and sweets, we dove into some Rock Band.  That lasted for a few hours before we tired and decided to play a board game.

Joe, Phil, Kevin, Louis and I played some Railways of the Eastern US while Ryan watched and the girls chatted.  I started off the game very strongly with a Railway Executive on the first turn that let me get two of the Service Bounties.  That did cost me eight bonds one the first turn, though.  From there, I never could get anything rolling.  Phil and Joe got in my way on the east coast, and I wasn’t setup in the middle for long deliveries.  Phil and Kevin were able to get some consistent deliveries going, and Louis was working his way across the center of the board.  Joe managed to only build three links in the up East Coast and just keep delivering goods all over up there.  At the end, Phil had a sizable lead, but Louis was able to catch up after building from New York to Kansas City with a Western Link for 20 points.  After subtracting their bonds, Phil and Louis were tied, and Phil won due to having a bit more cash.

Everyone except Phil and Dana went home after that, so we played a quick game of Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers.  It was a fairly close game that I ended up winning with a pretty big hunting area that I was able to get into early in the game.

That was it for the last night of 2011.  It was a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to many more nights of gaming in 2012.

Have fun, and happy gaming!

Weekend Gaming: Happy Holidays!

The long weekend has passed, and there wasn’t much gaming to be done.  I spent most of the time up with my in-laws eating, chatting and wrangling the half dozen munchkins that were running around.  It was a great time.

My son got a ton of toys, but one of the neatest thing was one of the Heroica games from Lego.  It’s a pretty simply dungeon crawler, with a barbarian, thief and a wizard fighting against golems for treasuse.  The layout is customizable and the various sets can be combined to create a multitude of maps.  My son and I played it a few times on Christmas Eve and had a blast.

I got a bunch of gift cards and such, so I now own a copy of Gamma World and a Necron Ghost Arc.  More things to work on and work with later.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to everyone out there!

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season with your loved ones! Enjoy the company and happy gaming!