Monday 28 May 2012

The Death of an Army



The Storm Talon
And so it came to be... Silence in the 40k Universe. The death of my Black Templars. Now is the winter of my discontent (and other Shakespearian melodramatic prose). My hopes for the 40K flyers were simple.
1. Could the Black Templars use the Storm Raven?
2. Surely they could use the brand spanking new Strom Talon... surely?

Tragedy. This months White Dwarf did not deliver either of my dreams and therefore have condemned the Templars to a life of "friendly games" and being stuck in their case for an eternity of penance (or until they get a codex update). Surely all White Dwarf had to do was print a little sentence saying "Can be used by Codex marines, Space Wolves, Dark Angels and Black Templars may use this." Not hard. It did even take me very long to type.

However I am not keen on GW bashing so what I will say is can we give them a round of applause for the Dakka Jet. The sculpting is superb and I feel of all the new flyers it really captures the background of the Ork army. This all points to the release of 6th Edition 40k. Are flyers going to be a new class? Are we going to see more anti aircraft. Are Skimmers going to be harder to hit? Has anyone noticed the fighter ace rules? Why the need to separate skimmers? The way this is written makes me feel that skimmers are going to become 6's to hit across the board unless they have some additional rules in a models codex. Who knows except for the creators, not long now though!
!st Squad of the 3rd Company

So what to do? Well on the up side I have continued to paint more Blood Angels and have now finished my first tactical squad of the army. I have found that all of the free hand work that I did on my Templars has given my marines more of an individual style. After some practice I have started to free hand a modified chapter symbol. This has been fun to paint and I hope to finish my next assault squad soon. Well I'm of to give my figure case a space funeral (like Spock). See ya next week.

Sunday 20 May 2012

Mayhem Part 2

Welcome back to the Folly of War Mayhem special. We last left the intrepid Black Templars fending off a nasty case of Grey Knight-itis. Day two kicked off with a bang and I played a dreaded Ork Nob biker list. These terrors on two wheels can cause a vast amount of damage unless dealt with properly. Here is my 3 step plan to dealing with this alien filth.
Step 1: Don't let them charge. Difficult I know but not impossible, especially if you can stay in your transports.
Ork Bikers. With added VROOOM!
Step 2: Kill the Warboss!!! Again not easy to accomplish. Walkers are the bane of Nob bikers and dreadnought close combat attacks can make swift work of the big bad.
Step 3: Finally make them take as many leadership tests as you can. Tank shock, Psychic Powers and good old fashioned morale checks are your friend. Follow this strict plan one a week for 6 weeks and you'll just be amazed at the difference (or your money back).
These steps made me pull off a mighty....draw.
My next game was an assassination mission against a Blood Angel Mephiston Army. This was a bit of luck for me as my opponent had one of the most expensive characters in the game and was worth a massive 6 kill points. Death came swiftly to Mephiston as my terminators tore into him ripping him apart like... (insert appropriate gory simile here). A win for me but only just.

QPR Stayed in the Premiership!
(Oh yeah, this is some game of 40K...)
On to the next game. For those of you who do not like sport may wish to skip ahead as this next game turned into the most unusual game of 40K that I have ever played. It just so happened that my football team the Mighty QPR was fighting their own war on the pitch to stay out of the relegation spot. My opponent also happened to be a fan of the club. In a standard game of 40K it is customary to roll dice and use something called "tactics" to win the game. Both my opponent and I found this concept very difficult having to stop mid game to listen to the match results each time they came through on the sound system. (At one point we paused the game entirely when the match went into the final minutes). The game finished with QPR stayed up... Oh yeah and er.. my army beat the Vulkan Heston army it was up against. My opponent was a delight to play and it was a fantastic way to end the weekend.

The Black Templars


Crusade Squads












Terminators
So the end of another Mayhem and happily placed in mid table obscurity (a glorious 28th)! My Templars started slow but warmed up over the weekend and in some instances performed spectacularly. Would I have done anything differently? No. As much as I moan about how they suffer from being an older army I love the imagery they inspire in me. Will I take them to the next Mayhem? Possibly. I am working on another army but who knows, could there be a new Codex on the Horizon? Only time will tell. I would like to thank the Tolworth First Founding on running another spectacular event and also Failhammer for letting be on their show. Right I'm off to work on my next army. Weigh anchor and set sail for Octoberfest and PAW!!!!
Venerable Dreadnought

Tuesday 15 May 2012

Mayhem part 1


First Founding Mayhem

Its that time of year again. Mayhem. My local club the Tolworth First Founding runs a fantastic two day tournament every year. I have been going to this event ever since I was 16 years old and each year my dreams of bringing home silverware are dashed. This year saw a marked increase in Necron and Grey Knights and a sharp decrease in Tyranids and Tau (there were none). To me this is a great sadness because visually the tournament was very repetitive (Blood Angels, Necrons, Guard, Grey Knights, Blood Angels, Necrons...etc). I had decided to take my old faithfuls the Black Templars. This army has been a favourite of mine for years and I have added, changed and converted this army over and over again. The Templars do struggle now days due to their Codex being soooooooo old but they still are great fun to use.

Grey Knights Army Game 1
My first game was against a Grey Knight Army (an experience I wish to forget). Many people moan and moan about how powerful they are and how they are a broken army and after my 20 nil drubbing I am inclined to agree. My opponent knew exactly what he was doing though so I cannot complain too much. At the end of the day it doesn't matter how good an army is, it will still flop and die if allowed to fall into the hands of a moron. My opponent was no moron.

Look Brothers A Shiny Metal Box! Charge!




"No Brother, let us meander slowly towards that big shiny box that has mysteriously appeared from orbit and stare at it longingly as we forgot to bring any grenades" (I'm not bitter about having no grenades... honest). Anyhoo, my marines did me proud pulling off a spectacular draw. Destroying a variety of elite troops along the way.

Nasty Necrons!
Moving on to the last game of the Saturday my mind was filled with dark thoughts; should I use my Templars as Blood Angels? I'm sure no one would mind? Would they? Just once? It can be a lonely place being one of a very few number of Black Templar players. Your mind can become clouded with heretical thoughts of the dreaded "counts as rule" (dark days). Back to the game, which was against Necrons. They are new kids in town and they have brought their big brothers along to play. Having played against my team mates army for practise I was not looking forward to having my army systematically wiped of the board like a bug on a windscreen. Necrons are the ultimate in shooty armies. The amount of fire power that they can kick out is astronomical. Again my Templars charged into the fires of xenos filth and even though my thoughts turned to despair a couple of lucky dice rolls in the last turn allowed me to scrape a draw. All of my opponents were great fun to play and were keen to share tactics and advice. What happened on the Sunday... stay tuned for part two.