Tuesday, August 31, 2010

750 Point Nurgle Daemons

So after a long, and really long time, away from gaming and mostly just painting, I stepped into our local comic book store this past Sunday and met up with Fritz to play a small game.

There were two reasons to play....

1) Fritz was doing a report of some sort on his blog to promote smaller games to show bloggers that even smaller games are entertaining. But also a way to get your army up and running without the hassle of building a huge 1750 or even 2000 point army before playing.

2) It had been a long overdue moment where all my blogger buddies and friends a the club were asking if I ever played anymore. I always had the excuse that I was too busy with work and that I never had a finished army to play with anyway. Well what a great time for me to field a small, yet playable army that was entertaining. Plus it was a quickie that didn't last hours like some of the bigger games do. I think we played an entire game that last like 30 minutes or so.

My 750 point list consisted of 2 Nurgle Heralds, 1 unit of 13 Plaguebearers, 1 unit of 7 Plaguebearers, 1 unit of 6 Plaguebearers, and 1 Daemon Prince. I was running a Herald in the 13 man unit and the 6 man unit. Before the game started, I split the army in preparation for the Daemon Assault. I put the unit of 13 Plaguebearers along with a Herald plus the unit of 7 Plaguebearers into group 'A'. The other unit of 6 Plaguebearers and Herald plus the Daemon Prince were in group 'B'.

The game started out with us playing Dawn of War with two objectives. I chose table side and placed my objective marker about 15-18 inches in from the table edge around the middle of the board. My idea here was to try to lure Fritz in hoping that he would be aggressive (he was playing 'Nids which included a Prime, 2 units of 5 Warriros, and 2 units of 10 Genestealers). Fritz deployed his Warriors into the corner of his deployment zone close to where he put his objective marker.

As the game begins, I roll to see if the Nurgle gods bless me and allow me to assault with my main group 'A'. But through some trickery of the Hive Mind, group 'A' was stalled in the warp and allowed group 'B' to emerge from the warp ahead of schedule. I deployed the Plaguebear unit fairly close to his Warriors on my right side in hoping to draw them into combat while my Daemon Prince scattered and moved closer to my edge of the table in the open right in front of the Warrior units on my left side. In my shooting phase the units decided to spit across the battle field in hopes that their toxic saliva would corrode the hide of the Warriors, but ended up spitting only a few feet. As they attempted to run, they slipped on their own saliva and only managed to run 1". Damn.

So during Fritz's turn, he unloaded the Warriors who were equiped with Devourers. 1 Warrior in each unit had a Venom Cannon and a Barbed Strangler. Luckily for my Dameon Prince that the unit in front of him only was equipped with the Venom Cannon. Even so, when the dust settled, the mighty Daemon Prince suffered a wound. Fritz's Genestealers ran in from his table edge and ended up assaulting the 7 man Plaguebearer/Herald squad with 10 Stealers, 5 Warriors, and the Prime. He really wanted them dead, but alas the Nurgle gods chuckled when the Herald, the sole survivor of the battle, stood defiant against the bugs and brushed off the blood and sweat from his brows. He alone would tie up both the Warriors, Genestealers, and Prime in close combat.

During my next turn I rolled for reserves and both my other Plaguebearer units warped in, finally able to dial into location as their GPS was fixed. The unit of 14 of land right behind the combat going on and the unit of 7 would land in the left baiting the Warriors still not in combat. The Prince flew over closer to the combat that was going on, curious to see if there were any more blood splattering that would be needed. Boy would he get his wish. I ended up charging in with the Prince and immediately, he chopped a Warrior in half killing it outright. The Prince alone ended up causing more wounds in combat causing the Warriors and Stealers to take additional saves. He again stood defiant and caused 2 wounds on the Prime during Fritz's turn winning the round for me again. That made the 'Nids take more saves which would dwindle their units in combat even more.

Finally, my unit of 14 coming crashing into close combat from the right in fear of missing out in the action. The unit of 7 also crashed into the same combat on the far left side. By the end of close combat on my turn, the 'Nids were looking in pretty bad shape. There were only a couple of Stealers and a couple of Warriors left. During the bottom of that turn, Fritz would send his other 10 Genestealers crashing into combat to tie up all of my units.

Combat resumed pretty much for the remainder of the game up until bottom of turn 5 where Fritz moved the remaining 5 Warriors out of synapse range of 1 Genestealer. It would of course have lost combat and needed to take a leadership test, in which it passed and kept my units (Daemon Prince still with 3 wounds left, and around 4 or 5 Plaguebearers left) locked in combat. He was holding 1 objective while I was not. My only chance was to keep the game going in hopes that I could kill the last Stealer and consolidate close enough to the other objective to contest. WELL, the Nurgle gods had other plans as they were too tired to fight anymore. The die landed on a 1 and ended the game. Damn, again....

Overall, the game was exciting and a blast. I haven't had the opportunity to play Fritz that often and it was good to keep him, a brilliant tactician, on edge during the game. I have to say that playing a Nurgle Daemon army is very tough. The Plaguebearers are very good in combat at holding other units locked into combat, but lack the 1-2 punch to cause that much damage. It ends up being a war of attrition as the Plaguebears go to war with what sometimes feels like toothpicks since they mostly rely on the plagueswords and the wound on 4+ to do the damage. In larger games, the special rules of Epidemius would be fantastic as this would allow Plaguebearers to be more useful at hitting and causing more damage than just scraping the side of a barn in close combat.

The MVP would absolutely, without a doubt, go to the Daemon Prince. He is just a beast when it comes to close combat. I may of had some lucky rolls here or there, but the fact that he is WS 7 with a toughness of 6 (Nurgle's mark), wounding on 2+(Noxious Touch), and has 4 wounds before he falls makes him the number 1 target that the opponent should focus on. In our game, the Prince himself was able to single handedly win each and every combat phase by doing enough damage and without him, the game would have ended up finishing a lot sooner and in a massacre. Definately a must choice for any Nurgle Daemon player.

If you are interested in looking at some pics of the game, please keep an eye out on Fritz 40K to see his battle report.

Friday, August 27, 2010

BATTLE FOR SALVATION GRAND TOURNAMENT

Great news to all you bloggers out there. For the first time, Battle for Salvation will be hosting an independant Grand Tournament! It will take place during Columbus Day weekend and run for two days....October 9th and 10th. This is your chance to come play against fellow bloggers Fritz, Jawaballs, Black Matt, Brother Captain James, Danny Internets and many more!

Space is very limited (set at 48) and the cost is very reasonable ($50). There will be gaming on both days with lots of missions. Armies will be judged on painting as well as balance, since you WILL be tested on army composition during gaming. There will also be prizes and raffles which include a painted army.

For more information and to register, check out http://www.battleforsalvation.com/.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Games Day 2010 Pt. 3 - Storm Wardens Army

So in this post I just wanted to put up the beautiful Storm Wardens Army that was painted and provided by a group of awesome people. I don't know all the members that were a part of this army, but the ones that I do know I tip my cap to. Those people I have had the honor of knowing and meeting include: Dave Taylor, Jawaballs, Ron Saikowski(From The Warp), John (Santa Cruz Warhammer), Ross Watson (Fantasy Flights), John Steining, and also Jacob (the winner of the army). Sorry if I left anyone out, I just didn't remember everyone that I met.

The Painters:

Dave Taylor and Ross Watson presenting the first Deatwatch book


Santa Cruz John and Ron Saikowski


John Steining, Jawaballs, Santa Cruz John


John Steining, Jawaballs, Santa Cruz John, Ron Saikowski


And the winner: Jacob








And of course, the Storm Wardens Army (the few pics that I was able to get):










Congrats to Jacob for winning such an awesome looking army and a huge thanks to the painters for getting together and finishing what is the first of (hopefully) many other armies that will be done.
-MiCho out-

Monday, August 23, 2010

Games Day 2010 Pt. 2

So I've finally got all my pictures downloaded from my memory card to my hard drive. And I finally got them all uploaded here....wheeewwww..... so here goes:


Fritz and Jawaballs - getting ready for the start of Games Day 2010! The emergancy exit writing on the wall in the background was an early warning for those that dared face them!


Jawa-Raider - Beautifully painted Blood Angels Land Raider by non other than Jawaballs!


Fritz-Knights - The might of the Grey Knights fielded by Fritz


Brother Captain James UltraMarines - Heresy!!! As they team alongside 'Nids to claim objectives in the name of 'Raffle Tickets' ?

Raffle Army - Space Wolves built and painted by Fritz to be given away as a raffle prize for just playing a game of meat grinder. Awesome!


Jawa-Banner - Hand painted with love, Flown and displayed proudly, winner (again for the second year in a row) of the banner contest!

Stay tuned for part 3 which will include pictures of the Storm Wardens Space Marine Army, it's winner, and it's painters!

Games Day 2010

What an event! I believe that this year was much better than last year. There just seemed to be a better vibe around the convention center this year. Games Day of course set a new North America record by having something like 3,200 people or more at the event. Lots of things to see and do, but the only thing I would have to knock on GW about is the fact that the Golden Demon competition was held upstairs seperately. They even did the presentations of awards upstairs with the exception of the slayer sword, which was won by Todd Swanson. Amazing gaming table displays, amazing paint jobs for the Golden Demon awards, fantastic club tables and most of all, awesome people and players.

I got a chance to meet with a lot of cool people. Hanging out with club members Jawaballs and Fritz as well as Brother Capt. James while they ran their meat grinder table. I got a chance to see the amazing Storm Wardens being given away to the winner and had a chance to talk with the members who were a part of that painting group. I met with and chatted with Dave Taylor and also Ron from FTW.

Overall, I had a blast again this year! I hope that I will be a part of more things to come in the future with gaming and meeting new people.

Oh, btw, super excited since I made 1st cut with such amazing painters from all over this year. I took first cut in 40K single with the Zhufor. Got alot of great compliments from the other painters and I look forward to next year.