Building a Terrain Board for NOVA 30k

So I decided to play in the 30k Escalation (and Big Blam) at NOVA Open 2017.  Due to my grad school schedule and unfamiliarity with 8th Ed, I figured playing in the Horus Heresy events would be a fun way to enjoy NOVA while also enabling me to actually sleep after traveling ten hours.

Maybe a year ago I purchased a lot of 30k Iron Warriors painted by Black Label Painting, consisting of a Spartan, a Land Raider, a Contemptor Dreadnought, a Chaplain and several Terminators from the Betrayal at Calth set.  The minis were beautiful and the price was right, so boom! I had a small 30k force.   As I read more about the Iron Warriors I got more and more interested in them, especially those factions that stayed loyalist. Perturabo was always a dick in my mind, but many of the legionaries were just hard working super humans.  I decided I'd run a loyalist Iron Warriors army, led by Kyr Valen, who is a badass, running artillery, dreadnoughts and lots of infantry.  More meat for the grinder, right?  Well, no proper army is complete without a display board, and although I have a nice tray purpose built for carrying minis, I decided to go all in on a board.  

To start, I needed to figure out how much space I would need.  I wanted something I could carry easily, that would more or less fit on a chair while still holding 2,500 points of Iron Warriors with a little room to spare so I could run more.  After some measuring and messing around, I decided a two level, 18"x24" board would hold what I need, while I could get a low cost picture frame as a border.  

Here is my initial layout of my (then) proposed army, checking for size and position:

I used 1" hard insulation foam to build the second level, the concept in my mind being the edge of a city and a wasteland (or what became a wasteland, maybe it was a lovely park before the Heresy).  The multi-level would better present my minis and add texture.  I didn't want a flat terrain board, and decided to use some of my GW building materials to construct small ruins on which to hold more minis.

I also wanted a texture coat on the wasteland area. GW sells several but they are very cost prohibitive in large amounts, so I bought some Vallejo Rough Grey Pumice, its like $10-14 per 200ml jar, and its great stuff. I added in some resin wrecks off an old Kickstarter (EDIT* Worldsmith Industries makes them, great products starting at like $6), some craters left over from who knows where, and cut on the foam a bit to make it look like the concert had been damaged by indirect fire.  I also added in some of Tamiya's sand bags to make it look more like a war zone.  Here is the mock up:

I added in some sand to make the transition from the wasteland, and *attempted* to cut in some floor tiles under the ruins, there are some how-to's on the internet... mine didn't turn out as hoped.


After everything was laid out, it was time for some paint. For ease of transport I decided to not glue down the actual ruins, as I could just carry them in an army transport case while keeping the profile of the display board much lower.

I used some more of the Vallejo Rough Grey Pumice to make the transition between the wasteland and the concrete of the city as seen here along with some Gale Force 9 debris (cork something or other):

Next was to prime the whole thing black.  Now, just in case you didn't know, spraying foam from a rattle can will end in tears.  The propellant will melt the foam. As such, I used spray can on the lower (not foam), airbrush and a some cheap, black craft acrylic paint from Walmart for the foam/buildings/resin ruins.  

After getting a good, black base down, I dry brushed using the Walmart sold Plaid/Apple Barrel 2620 Pewter Grey Acrylic paint for the wasteland/transition:

I then used Vallejo Cold Grey paint through an airbrush and hit the concrete; I wanted a lighter grey and I've used Cold Grey quite a bit painting my various ruins and fortifications with good results. The drop pod was painted using an airbrush and Vallejo Air paint (Ultramarine Blue, as I recall). I wanted more color on an otherwise drab board, and along with my drab (Iron Warriors) army, I wanted the wrecked drop pod to pop. I can't remember the name of the company, but I got the resin ruins and more during a Kickstarter a couple years ago; great stuff, I want to get more.

Here is a photo of my ill-fated attempt and tiled floors in the ruins; fortunately they didn't show up too much when the ruins and minis are on: 

Here is another mock up, testing how the minis will fit and how the colors work together with a different army, my 30k Mechanicum. To note, I added a suspended side walk using more Sector Imperialis bits, I wanted a little more texture and the ruins seemed to fit.  The sand bags were base coated in a dark brown (like GW Snakebite Leather) then dry brushed with a tan (Khemri Brown maybe?) to make them more canvas-sandbag like.

Here is a final mock up, before adding the picture frame with my Iron Warriors for NOVA:

Next was to add the foam core surround and the picture frame barrier. The foam core was just a normal foam display purchased from Dollar General for a like $4 and cut into 2 or 2.5" strips then hot glued and sprayed black with an airbrush. Again, if you use a spray can, the actual core will melt if it comes into contact with the propellant.  I also tested the frame for fit in this pic so I knew if need be, I could trim the foam:

The (more or less) final step for this project was to attach the picture frame to the board.  As the base plywood was like 1/2" or so, and as I really didn't want to mess with a nail gun or finishing nails, I decided to use glue and clamps to attach it.  The frame was purchased via Amazon.com, the interior dimensions were more or less 18"x24"to match the display board.  I used proper wood glue (Duck brand?) from Lowe's and several clamps. I laid down some parchment paper (from baking) to protect my work bench from glue leaks, and used a lot of glue. Then I let it sit and cure for about a day:

Here are the Iron Warriors ready to part at NOVA 2017 on the display board:

I must say, I rather enjoyed building this display board. My only regret is that I have bone-itis, er, rather that the board can't really be use for gaming.  As such, I decided to use the techniques and what I learned here to build a 2'x2' display/gaming section for my Death Korps of Krieg in the same color scheme, building trenches and using some bits from the GW Aegis Defense Line.  My concept was a corner piece that would both hold the army for display and could be popped in for use with a GW Realm of Battle Board or Secret Weapons Miniatures Tablescape.  That will *probably* be my next post, as it is almost done as of this writing.  I hope you enjoyed the write up, and if you have and questions or thoughts, let me know.  Stay classy.  

Project Thunderhawk Rescue Pt 1

As a long time 40k nerd, I will admit that owning a Thunderhawk was always on my bucket list.  From the old school all metal monster that required an engineering degree and welding experience to the current eight pound resin beast, it (well until recently) is the biggest of the Space Marine specific minis that Forge Worlds produces.  Although titans are badass in their own way, as the center piece of a Space Marine (or spikey heretic marine) army, it is that model.  Its like lusting after a Ferrari, but 1/100th the price, resin, and it will not help to get anyone laid.  Probably the opposite... anyways...

A few weeks back one popped up on eBay.  For $175 shipped.  Now, with the prevalence of Chinese/Russian recasts, one would assume for that price, its a fake.  However, this thing was painted and dusty.  The grainy pictures showed something that had sat on a shelf for a long time after getting painted to an okay ish standard in Dark Angels livery. I couldn't say no.  If worse came to worse, I could clean it up and flip it.  

The poor thing arrived  more broken than in the listing, wedged in a USPS flat rate box with almost no padding or protection.  The resin engines were broken, many of the bombs, heavy bolters, wings etc. were in rough shape.  The Dark Angels paint was about as I figured, it was a clean, table top standard but lacked any washing, highlighting or use of an airbrush.  The dust indicated many years of sitting since it last saw a table, but also showed it to be pre-forgery world.  Closer examination showed proper FW resin, clean casts and for the most part a mini that was by no means beyond salvage.  Its the 40k version of a barn car, like finding a Hemi Cuda with 10,000 miles, all numbers matching just needing some love.  

As of now, the poor thing is getting a stripper bath in sections.  The hull will have to be a multi-part strip and brush. All the ancillary bits that fell off (except one of the wings, the stripper bucket was full) are getting a solvent bath.  After about a week, I'll pull them out, scrub off the evil and see where we are. 

I haven't decided exactly how I'm going to paint the rescue Thunderhawk.  I'm tempted to paint the bright red of my 40k Blood Angels, a color scheme that best matches 5th Edition and earlier paint schemes.  I don't know if it will get used in 30k, probably not, and my other Space Marine chapters don't see much play.  Either way it will be a long road before the poor thing is ready for fresh paint and I'll keep updating as we go forward.  

Nuns with Guns at NOVA Open 2016

So, following my ill fated attempts at playing my War Convocation list at ATC and going 1-5, I decided to run a significantly less competitive list at the NOVA Open this past weekend.  I figured an Inquisition themed list with Sisters, Inquisitor Coteaz + Henchmen and an Imperial Assassin would be fun and fluffy. With the exception of the Culexus Assassin, I’ve got dozens of games with the bolter girls/Coteaz/henchmen combo so I’m more comfortable with their rules and how to get what I can out of them.  

My list was:

Sisters of Battle CAD

HQ

Jacobus- Warlord

St. Celestine

Troops

Battle Sister Squad x 5 w/Melta Gun in Immolator w/Multi Melta

Battle Sister Squad x 5 w/Melta Gun in Immolator w/Multi Melta

Battle Sister Squad x 5 w/Melta Gun in Immolator w/Heavy Flamer

Fast Attack

Dominion Squad x5 w/4x Melta Gun in Repressor

Dominion Squad x5 w/4x Melta Gun in Repressor

Heavy Support

Retributer Squad x5 w/4x Heavy Flamer in Repressor

Retributer Squad x5 w/4x Heavy Flamer in Repressor

Fortification

Aegis Defense Line w/ Quad Gun

Inquisition Allied Detachment

HQ

Inquisitor Coteaz

Elites

Henchmen Squad

2x Jokaero

3x Acolytes w/ Plasma Guns

4x Acolytes (1x bolter)

1x Psyker

Assassin Detachment

Culexus Assassin

Going into NOVA I knew my list would suffer against long range shooting (namely Tau and some Eldar builds) as they could pop my transports right quick.  Space Marine grav spam would hurt my tanks and troops, but Celestine and the girls can handle MSU pretty well whilst Coteaz has a 24” bubble of fuck your drop pods.  Chaos Daemons, IG, Orks, Jet Bike spam, Nids, would all offer their own challenges but I felt confident that I could do okay via ignoring cover melta guns and spamming flamers.

Game One:

I played Kenny from New York, who was an awesome dude and a rather good player, he ended up in like 9th overall.  Sadly, his army was lost in transit by Delta so he was playing borrowed minis at the last minute. He ran pure Tau, a Stormsurge, a few Riptides, Fire Warriors, Drones and a buffmander.  He then proceeded to wreck my face.  I picked progressives knowing that I couldn’t hold on for end game, but his Riptides and Stormsurge just popped tanks then killed girls.  On the plus side, we finished early got some beers and dinner the next night, super good dude and if I end up in Manhattan for grad school, I hope to play him again.

Game Two:

Space Marines.  Normally I’m pretty happy to play Marines as Celestine can run through their squads while the girls can put enough wounds that armor saves go away.  Not so much with the natural Invisibility and Electrodisplacement to a charge.  I played Amir from New Jersey, nice dude, very friendly, fun game, but his dual conclave on bikes with the 2+ re-rollable FNP EW chapter master from Iron Hands.  He dropped a pod in, made it over 12” away, then summoned daemons to kill the Culexus, Electrodisplaced and multi-charged. Without the FAQ/Nerfs to Invisibility and Electrodisplacement, he was able to move up, swap units, then multi charge me with an invisible star.  It went down hill from there for the bolter girls.  His summoned screamers did damage, while my Dominions were able to outflank and move to his back field. I scored a few points, but it was a very one sided loss.  

Game Three:

Tau again, hooray!  I played Joe from Georgia, who had an amazingly well painted Tau Army.  He had won best Tau and best painted at ATC a couple months back, and I could see why.  Running two squads of three Ghostkeels in the formation, some deep striking stealth suits, a Tidewall with Fire Warriors and two outflanking Kroot Squads, I was hoping that I could ignore his cover, cause enough wounds to kill some Ghostkeels and force leadership checks.  So I didn’t.  I managed to score a few points, slew his warlord (Celestine made it across the board and charged the Fire Warrior squad with the HQ) and killed a couple units, but in the progressive version, I couldn’t actually move the relic back so I just had to try and hold it; his Ghostkeels made short work of my tanks despite a ridiculous amount of 6++ invuln saves made.  After the game we got dinner and beers, and we found out that he had painted and made a fair amount of the charity Ork Army, especially the Ork Jet Bikes (which are amazing, some of the coolest minis I’ve ever seen).  A great competitor and a true hobbyist, or really an artist. I look forward to seeing his next project.

So day one was a 0-3 day, not my best, but I couldn’t ask for a nicer group of guys to kick my teeth in.  

Day Two

Game One:

I played Jack from Delaware, one of the Icehouse guys that host the annual Delawar GT.  Super nice dude and a quick game.  He ran three Imperial Knights including an Atrapos and a Riptide Wing (3x Riptides with bonuses). I hoped to scout up and melta a Knight or two, and I did manage to put some hull points down, but I just couldn’t affect the army.  He killed my henchmen squad early on, then proceeded to pop tanks, gatling gun girls to mist, and assault whatever was left over. I scored a couple points, then it ended and we got beers.  

Game Two:

Ben from New Hampshire brought a fluffy Space Wolves list with old school las/plas razorbacks, a Land Raider, Arjac, Ulrik and a generic lord with some Wolf Guard riding in it, three land speeders and some troops in the razorbacks.  It was a pretty close game, but the girls managed to pull the win, it didn’t hurt that his lascannons rolled way more ones than normal, either to hit or to penetrate, thus my tanks and girls stayed alive a lot longer.  Fun game, two pretty fluffy lists playing on a bottom table and drinking beers later one. Great guy, great game, and I finally got a win in.  

Game Three:

I ended up playing a guy that just moved to the same town in which I live, but I had not yet met. John is also in Fayetteville, NC, and was running an Imperial Guard list with an allied Genestealer Cult. He had a couple Chimeras, a few Taurox, a Leman Russ, a Valkyrie, one Wyvern, and Imperial Knight and a few squads in the transports.  The Genestealer cult had a Magos, a couple squads, and the Broodlord that could infiltrate up to one inch from my dudes, which is pretty rad especially since that nasty bastard rolled Invisibility and I couldn’t target him with templates.  The game was pretty close, but he was going for end game points while I was going progressives. I managed to wear down Genestealers and stay alive against the Broodlord which attacked Coteaz and the Henchmen, but he perilsed and lost his last wound.  We made it through five turns until time and I pulled off a minor win.  Another great close game against a super good dude that I can play in the near future.  

On the whole NOVA 2016 was a blast. I withdrew on Saturday evening as although I was 2-0 in the bottom bracket, I didn’t have it in me to play two more games and really just wanted to drink, socialize and see everything that was going on.   On the bottom level there was Warmachine, X-Wing and Armada, Fantasy/AoS, Malifaux, and several other games I couldn’t name.  There was a 30k event that looked A-Mazing, and I might play in that next year instead of the GT.  I really enjoy competitive 40k, but eight games is a lot and I don’t think I will have the time to really practice with a strong army to play it well enough in a year’s time.  

One thing I didn’t dig was NOVA’s not using the ITC nerfs.  Invisibility is nasty, and playing it twice in its full strength just sucks.  Ditto on the Electrodisplacement.  I could have taken advantage of the ruleset in use and brought my girls in via Drop Pods, but every other tournament in the US is observing that FAQ so I didn’t.  Mike Brandt, Dewry, Neil Gilstrap and the dozens of other folks I can’t name that ran NOVA did a great and wonderful thing, they held an awesome event that lasted Thursday through Sunday and had something for every tabletop gamer.  If you ever get the chance, NOVA is a blast.  

Shenanigans

Shenanigans.   It’s one of my favorite words, and is rather an apt term for this game we love.

Ever run up against that re-rollable 2+ save?  Be it the Screamer Star or the new hotness Iron Hands invincible chapter master?  

Or maybe its the crazy 6s, I remember one time rolling to wound with my rending heavy flamers in a drop pod against a cent star (without invisibility) and getting like six rends, and none of the nearest minis had invulns. Poor guy lost a librarian and two grav centurions then took a wound on Tigurius on his first turn.  This was at ATC in 2014 against one of the General Staff teams and the (then) new Gladius.  That he didn’t get off invisibility and that I rolled so lucky enable me to win that game by a large margin.  

Maybe it’s the fails.  Remember tanking bolter shots on your 2+ armor save badass, like, he’s fucking got this… then you roll three ones in a row and he’s dead, on overwatch.  Special snowflakes go away just like everyone else. I remember Draigo dying like that.

What about the current perils of the warp?  I played a guy with a similar list to mine (both running 6th Ed Grey Knights) and turn one he perils’ed his Coteaz twice in a row, almost killed him and gave me first blood, just shitty rolling.  

And let’s not forget deep strike mishaps.  My first GT, NOVA Open in 2013, I was running a (not very good) 5th Ed Grey Knights Draigo Star.  Turn two against an IG gun line army, and I deep strike mishap…. Unlucky number one, and they’re gone.  Later 700 points!  My opponent’s eyes were huge, as he saw such catastrophe strike. He apologized for such a shitty thing, but hey, it happens.  I made the most of the game as I could, but there was no coming back.  My killy thing was dead, and then it was an 1850 to 1100 point game, I think I killed maybe a Leman Russ, maybe.  

That’s the thing about this game.  It isn’t like chess where you can plan and counter; crazy shit happens. The dice gods are fickle and cruel.  Sometimes I can roll three 6++ saves on my Sister’s tank, sometimes I roll three ones for an armor save.  We’ve all been there, and I it is one of the things that I love about it.  You can be the best, with the best army, roll poorly and boom! You lost the game.  

I guess the point I’m trying to make is this: Don’t get too wrapped up in how amazing your list is or perfectly you deployed and moved.  Your Marines will fail morale and run off the board, the Chaos Gods are fickle and will turn your badasses into spawn, your markerlights will hit nothing, and seven psykers won’t get invisibility.  

This is a great game, but it’s still a game. At the end of the day, you’ll pack up your minis and go home, ESPN won’t replay your highlights, if you are really cool, maybe a couple podcasts will mention your list, perhaps you’ll make the Frontline Gaming blog (which is infinitely cooler than us).  Either way, the game goes on.  

Nuns with Guns

Nuns with Guns.

Following my less than victorious trip to ATC with the admittedly cheesy WarCon as covered below, I’ve decided to return to my roots (kinda) for NOVA in a few weeks and run the bolter girls, Sisters of Battle, Adepta Sororitas or whatever other name they go by these days.  

Although NOVA isn’t using the GW FAQs as I understand, and I could bring them in drop pods a la Flesh Tearer’s Taxi Service; I have decided to go MSU Sisters in their own vehicles as locally we use (most) of what GW published in the FAQs and ITC is pretty much there too.

Also, when I get crushed with Bolter Girls, nobody judges me.  It’s like street racing a Prius*, nobody expects you to win. And if I do, because someone stalls out at the launch, or I pull a surprise W on the bottom tables, I feel a little better about myself, instead of getting face kicked with WarCon and its crazy amount of free crap and feeling bad, because I suck, and my opponent knows it, and I know it, and the judge knows it and my friends know it, and you, maybe not super judgy reader, knows it.  

*I own a Prius.  It’s a swell car.  Also the slowest of four at the house, by a lot.

So… I started playing sisters when their codex was two issues of White Dwarf, which doesn’t make me a proper OG, but I did start when you could still buy their full line from GW.  It wasn’t cheap then, and is silly now, but I got in early-ish like Apple or Google, and it’s now so expensive I can’t really buy much more.  

I remember reading about St. Celestine, this angry little beatstick that would die then come back  on a 4+.  And if she didn’t, no worries, roll again next turn, and keep doing this. No limit to her returns. Doubled out by a power klaw? Oh well, she wore down that warboss and she’ll be back next turn to heavy flame and charge the boyz.  She wounded everything on a 4+, Riptides included, and could bog them down in close combat like a pint sized champion.  I had never seen her played, and at the start of 6th ed you could run allies, so hot damn, I bought her and a few bolter nuns, and added from there.  

A couple years later, and I should measure the damn army in pounds, everything but the rhino/immolater is at least partially metal or all metal. I don’t want to think what it would cost to replace it, so I don’t.  Also, if you wear sandals while playing this army, don’t drop the metal Exorcist on your foot, it’s like eight pounds of sharp metal.  Ask me how I know!

As fun as the bolter girls are, I’m drawn to the old school Inquisition theme, the witch hunters, assassins, inquisitors.  So that’s what I’m going to bring.  

So far the army is something like this:

Sisters of Battle CAD

HQ

Jacobus (Warlord)

St. Celestine (beatstick)

Troops

Sisters squad x 5 in Immolator w/MG

Sisters squad x 5 in Immolator w/MG

Sisters squad x 5 in Immolator w/MG

Fast Attack

Dominions x 5 w/4x MG in Repressor

Dominions x 5 w/4x MG in Repressor

Heavy Support

Retributers x 5 w/4x Heavy Flamers in Repressor

Retributers x 5 w/4x Heavy Flamers in Repressor

Assassin Detachment

Culexus Assassin (burn the witch!)

Inquisition Detachment

Coteaz (but not this one, he’s okay)

Inquisitor (not sure the flavor, maybe Psyoculum or Daemonblade or Psyker)

Inquisitorial Squad (maybe in a Chimera, maybe)

2x Jokaero (space monkeys?!), 3x Troops w/Plasma Guns, 1 or 2 Psykers, 2-3 Crusaders (sweet 3++), and some ablative wound guys (4pt troops to suck shots)

So traditionally I like to run a big blob of girls (20) with Jacobus to give them the 5++ from his warlord trait; attach a priest or two for the CC bonuses, then stick them in cover and sit on an objective forever.  With the advent of grav, this is less appealing as the 3+ doesn’t get the distance it used to; ditto on AP3 shots from Imperial Knights.  Its also hard to hide, slow and doesn’t put out much in the way of killing (1 special, 1 heavy and a bunch of bolters).  They aren’t really cheap enough to justify the points sink, they aren’t fast in any way, and they aren’t killy.  A couple smaller squads with priests could hide better and remain fearless; while a couple small squads in Immolaters could actually move around and shoot things.  Much better Sisters players than I have had great success with MSU, mostly running Rhinos and melta guns, but I like Immolators so that is what it will be.  Who doesn’t like a twin linked heavy flamer or twin linked multi melta?  

Although lacking in the sheer awesome bonus rules and free shit departement, Sisters do have a few tricks.  Celestine currently can come back once on a leadership test, with full wounds, and charge, etc as normal.  Jacobus is still an angry little bastard with 3 wounds, fearless, counter attack to his squad, a 12” fearless bubble, and the sweet ass sweet Litanies of Faith bonuses in CC, plus giving his unit a 5++ if the army’s warlord.  The battle sisters can roll a leadership test once per game for a preferred enemy (I use it in my shooting phase); the Dominions get ignores cover with their melta guns (pretty sweet against bikes/jetbikes/cover camping Tau), and the Retributers get rending with their heavy flamers once per game.  All the bolter girls (and their sweet rides) have a 6++ or better to boot, which isn’t amazing but it is sweet to roll a six and that see that pen just go away…

The Dominions can also scout or outflank, which is kinda fun against anything not Tau, and since both the Dominions and Retributers will be in big, armored boxes with front armor 13 and gun slits, they’ll be firing out all of their weapons and most *should* be able to do some damage.  Or die in a horrible, fiery explosion.   Sadly it isn’t 5th Ed, they just don’t make tanks like they used to…

My plan is to keep the girls in their tanks, ride or die style, using cover to my advantage and either scouting or outflanking the Dominions to melta something important.  I’ll have three squads of Obsec troops in Immolators, plus to four other units in Repressors. Coteaz and the Inquisition will probably sit in the back, use his 24” bubble of intercepting fuck you to kill drop pods, deep strikers and the such, while also twin linking the space monkey’s Lascannons/Multimeltas/Heavy Flamers; whatever they’re feeling at that moment plus the three plasma guns.  The other Inquisitor will either provide more psyker fun, the silly but fun Daemonblade or a Psyoculum to give the unit BS10 against enemy psykers.  

St. Celestine, well, she’s there to wreck face and chew bubblegum.  Against any proper close combat unit and she’ll get doubled out right quick plus S5/AP3 means little to 2+ armor saves; however, against space marines, she can hurt some feelings.  I7, WS7, built in heavy flamer, five base attacks, master crafted power sword and a jump pack make her the bane of power armor marines.  And, if there happens to be a power fisting sergeant, well… somebody is getting challenge-fisted, and it’s not this nun. Being a small target, she can hide quite well, then counter charge, or distraction carnifex from terrain to terrain, use that sweet heavy flamer to meltinate a cover camping scout squad, eldar jetbikes, or some slightly armored fish fellows.  Then she charges and wrecks shop.  Hands down my favorite 135 points in the game.

The Culexus Assassin is the other side of this nasty-onesy coin.  He’s hard to hit, he’ll do damage in close combat, and he’ll null and void invisibility; so best to kill the bastard sooner than later, although you’ll still need to see him, and he is one more infiltrating, move through cover distraction carnifex for my opponent to deal with.  

I have exactly zero delusions about winning much with this army, I think I’ll end up on the lower tables and maybe go 3-3 or 4-4 if I play well, the dice gods smile, and I don’t get straight warhammered on beer while in the Hyatt.   NOVA is a fantastic event and I missed 2014 and 2015 by being in the wrong country doing bad things to bad people.  If you’ve never had the opportunity, I highly recommend it, Mike Brandt and company put on an amazing event and I only wish I could do more while I was there, just not enough hours in the day.  

How to build a tournament list with Chaos Space Marines

        Hello again fellow heretics! It's your friendly neighborhood heretic here, and in this blog we are going to discuss how to build a tournament list capable of destroying those pesky meta lists floating around.  Especially the hated Eldar.
        First let's talk about the codex and supplements, and how you can use them to build a list.  The vanilla codex has been heralded as weak for some time,  and compared to others that have been updated its kinda true. But let's not fall into the trap of whining about it.  That's what space marine players do.  
        The codex itself has some strong units,  especially with forgeworld options. Make no mistake, tournament players WILL bring their best units to the table.  So don't let anyone tell you not to use the power that forgeworld brings.  Let's talk about the good:

        Choosing HQ to go along with your army is crucial to your success. If you are running an assault army, putting Kharn in a dreadclaw with some marines or bersekers is money. All he ever lacked to be amazing was a delivery system. Problem solved. 
The demon prince of khorne with wings and the axe of blind fury kills everything it touches. I mean 7+d6 s9 ap2 attacks on the charge, can you say bye bye wraithknight? 
        Malefic sorcerers are cheap and useful too. Summoning is a powerful tool you can use, and he lets you take multiple infernal relics. (FW models such as the Kharybdis, Sicaran, and Fire Raptor)

         A chaos lord with a chainfist in terminator armor in a dreadclaw with some marines is a solid choice, as is a chaos lord on a juggernaut with the axe of blind fury. Less killy than the prince but really killy if he joins a unit of spawn of khorne. 

        Chaos space marines in dreadclaw drop pods-
This is a powerful tool for you as a chaos player.  It's essentially a cooler version of a drop pod that flies.  And your marines don't have to disembark the turn it lands.  Flying objective secured assault vehicle drop pods? Suck on that imperial scum.  

        Chaos spawn of Nurgle- these are fast, hold objectives like nobody's business, and don't give a shit about strength D or s10 shooting.  Park them on a relic or objective in a ruin and laugh as your opponent tries to take it from you.  

        Heldrakes- Not sure I need to explain this one.  Takes pointy ears and those pesky space marines off the table in a hurry. Listen to them whine as you melt their jetbikes.  

       Heavy Support- OK so here's where I throw some of our best units out there in one go. The Chaos Relic Sicaran is the best tank in the game. Hands down. With s7 rending no jink shots laugh as you shoot warp hunters and jetbikes off the table. And those pesky rerollable dark angels jink saves. The rending bolters upgrade is soooooo good it is a must. With 13/12/12 armor and ceramite, and it's a fast tank too! So good.  

        The Chaos Fire Raptor Gunship is also one of the best flyers in the game. It can shoot different targets, every shot can rend, and it has missiles for an alpha strke. And 4 hull points. Yummy goodness for your opponents to take to the face. 
         Don't underestimate your good Ole Las predators either. For 140 points they can serve as your anti armor too. And if you take a bunch of drop pods and chaos spawn, any shooting your opponent does at a tank assures you of a win. 
          Lord of War- the Chaos Knights are  fantastic support.  Having a 5+  demon save is clutch in melee and wherever your shield isnt. The khorne demon knight with rampage is pretty sweet. 

        There are several formations that work well with a CSM army. The sorcerers cabal can be used with your spawn to take enemy shooting and for summoning, making you even more powerful. Summoned flesh hounds and bloodcrushers make for a bad day for the enemy.  And of course using a skatach wraithknight against his own unit is more than payback for the games it ate your face. Paybacks a bitch.
        Using your friendly battle brothers in a list is helpful too. Khorne Demonkin have two of the best formations to play alongside as support. The Fist of Khorne and the gorepack.  I covered these in my last article so if you need more info on them check it out.
       Another army to consider as allies are.... Orks! I took an ork and CSM cad to warzone atlanta last November and was at the top tables all tournament,  with one loss to my good friend Price Wilkes.. who won the whole thing and is the last person to beat me with Eldar.
       
          So how do I beat the meta lists with this? You're probably stumped.  Anyone can lose if you roll badly and your opponent rolls well.  We all know that.  But if you take fast,  hard hitting units that can control the table and use the correct heavy support and fast attack choices, you have all the tools necessary to win.  Say you take a fire raptor,  heldrake,  and sicaran as support they are taking 3-4 jetbikes squads off the table per turn while your gorepack or mobs of chaos spawn crush the warp spider spam.
        You can deal with super heavies and gargantuan creatures easily enough as well. Either use things to tie them up or kharn and a demon prince to smash them into a million pieces.  Your call.  I prefer to smash them, personally.  And for the naysayers out there,  these armies work will against space marines,  eldar,  tau, and you CAN beat them.  So don't let anyone tell you that you can't win with chaos space marines. I've been doing it, and will continue to do so.  

      Good luck fellow heretics,  and I hope you've found this guide useful.  Share and spread our blog around if you liked what you read!
      
        

WarCon at ATC or how I learned to stop worrying and accept that I suck at this army

Hello all, Josh here. This is my first post on our 40k-nerd collective, and I’ll be talking about how (not) to play War Convocation following my experiences at ATC this year.  

So, why WarCon you ask?  When GW released the new FAQs regarding drop pods, my beloved Sisters of Battle were relegated to moving around on foot or in Rhino-like vehicles that sadly, don’t come for free (fuck you Space Marines).  This meant I could no longer bring sets of four rending heavy flamers or cover ignoring melta guns right where they needed to be; and as this is a competitive tourney and my team wanted to do well, I had to look elsewhere amongst my armies.  

I have a *bit* of a 40k problem you could say; I own large armies of pretty much all factions save Chaos/their pet marines, Tyranids (sold em), and Dark Eldar (sold to Anthony).  Experience wise, I know my Grey Knights, Sisters of Battle and Blood Angels the best, but none of these armies are all too terribly good, and the Drop Pod FAQ killed my Sisters/BA alliance.  Eldar was taken, I don’t know my Tau well enough, and our Eldar player was on the fence run them or Space Marines, so both were out.  I really didn’t want to play Necrons, so competitive wise, I jumped on the free things bandwagon and took my War Convocation army with a pair of allied Inquisitors.

The list was something like this:

WarCon 1849 Points/1850 allowed

AdMech
HQ- Tech Priest with all the free shit (Warlord)

Troops

4x Kataphrons w/ Grav & Flamers

4x Kataphrons w/ Grav & Flamers

Skitarii

Troops

10x Rangers w/ 3x Sniper Rifles & free shit

10x Vanguard w/ 3x Plasma & free shit

Elites

Infiltrators x 5 (w Blasters & Taser Goads)

Ruststalkers x 5 (Razors & Chordclaws)

Ironstrider Ballistari w/ Lascannon

Onager Dunecrawler w/ Icarus Array

Imperial Knight

Knight Crusader (Battle Cannon & Avenger Gatling Cannon, Stormspear Rocket Pod, Heavy Stubber)

Inquisitorial Detachment

Inquisitor Coteaz (best 100 points ever)

Ordo Malleus Inquisitor (Level 1 Psyker, Power Armor, 2x Servo Skulls because I can’t buy him melta bombs)

So, I’m all about the free stuff, however I didn’t even know what most of the free relics did. The Phosphoenix?  S5 AP2 and the one hit causes three hits? Sure, why not, I think I used it once in six games.  The Autocadeuces of Arkhan Land on my Warlord? IWND for him and the unit?  Awesomesauce! Never got to use it.  

This silly damn thing has hundreds of points of free upgrades, and I pretty much didn’t use half of them.  You could say I wasn’t really prepared to play this army; and you would be right.  Prior to ATC, I had used the Canticles of the Omnissiah in two games.  I hadn’t even used the Skitarri’s Doctrina Imperatives until my third game into ATC.  

As a bit of background, ATC is the American Team Championships, the yankee equivalent of Europe’s ETC.  You and four of your dudebros bring five armies, not repeating any factions (IE all SM from the big book are the same faction, Blood Angels, Dark Angels, Space Wolves are separate).  Your team plays against another team and there is a bit of strategy involved. The captains basically roll off, you put out defenders, they pick attackers, yada yada yada, and after seeing the opposing teams’ lists you either choose to sacrifice one or figure who will be hardest for their five armies to match.  

Knowing full well that I would be on the opposite end of best Admech player, I volunteered as tribute several times, and took that sabot round to the chest.  Although I finished with an abysmal 1-5 record, I had six great games, zero dick opponents, and I think if I had played better a 5-1 would have been very reasonable.  

Game One: Adam’s Eldar.  He ran a whole bunch of bikes, three flyers and a Wraithknight. Pretty standard competitive Eldar list, beautifully painted, and a great dude.  I’ll definitely drink beers with Adam down the road.  Game was the relic, Dawn of War Deployment, and I managed to go first which enabled me to kill off his Wraithknight with my grav and wear down his bikes a bit.  As the game went on, I stuck his seer star with Invisibility in CC with my Inquisitor and some Kataphrons, they eventually won out and snatched the relic on like turn five.  We went to seven, and although I had slay the warlord, first blood and progressives by a bit, he won overall with the relic and line breaker.  I should have been way more aggressive, I could have moved some of my dunestrider dudes (+3” to all my moves? America Fuck Yeah!) to the relic then bubble wrapped it in my deployment zone for a win.  Great, fun game, and I learned a bit.  

Game two was against a Tau list with a Stormsurge, Riptide Wing, some drones, buffmander and a couple sky rays.  I managed to steal the initiative but again, I wasn’t aggressive enough. I managed to kill the Stormsurge but I didn’t stab the shooty with my stabby and lost the game by a decent margin.  Fun player, good attitude, and I enjoyed the game. More learning.

Game three was another Tau list, this one had a Stormsurge, more Riptide wing, a buffmander and a bunch of missile Broadsides and two squads of Kroot.  I was more aggressive and I remembered that Skitarri can scout in their formation (oh yeah…) I stole the initiative again and the grav put some hurt on his Riptides, due to the Hammer/Anvil deployment, I stayed the hell out of the Broadside’s range as best as I could, put bodies on the middle table progressive and managed to wear him down, coming away with my first (and only) win.  If it weren’t for stealing the initiative I think it would have been very close.  The aggression paid off, a lesson that didn’t stick…

Day two; starting early (like 8 am or some such nonsense)

Game One:

Traitor Guard

So I had read about this list in Imperial Armour: The Siege of Vraks; basically its a bunch of plague zombies (4+ FNP, fearless FTW!), 2x3 quad mortars, 2x Basilisks, some allied daemons to sacrifice themselves/summon greater unclean ones and artillery tyrant warlord dude plus a Chaos Knight with dual avenger gatling cannons.  The basic strategy is this:  park artillery in the back, keeping aware of their minimum range; front line is a big bubble of fearless meat shields, the Pink Horrors give up first blood to bring in Great Unclean Ones to wreck face and counter charge, step two shoot things, step three profit.  I knew this would be a challenge for me; he has almost no armor saves (other than the artillery) and as such gives exactly zero fucks about my grav.  His zombies are fearless in big blobs with 4+ FNP, so anything that isn’t S6 or higher isn’t much a concern, and the quad mortars/basilisks/Chaos Knight put down wounds like motherfuckingchampions.  The artillery tyrant has this neat trick: he can drop rounds onto his own dudes in close combat.  So you get close enough to charge his fearless blobs with 4+FNP hoping to work through them? Cool, here comes the steel rain! I managed to kill one GUO but the other charged me and wrecked face, he got off Warpspeed (I think…) for crazy high initiative and instant death on his close combat attacks.  By the end of the game all my dudes were dead save the Knight, and for funsies we were playing dueling Knights; his against mine.  The loyalist won the shootout, but I conceded max points as he would have worn him down had he shot any of his remaining artillery or charged with the GUO.  Fun game, really dug the theme and it was cool to see the traitor guard/artillery tyrant on the table top.  I should have been a lot more aggressive and gotten within his minimum artillery range.  Oh well.

Game Two

Flyers. Flyers everywhere.  So we had played this team last year, and their captain, in proper Canadian fashion, was the nicest guy in the state.  The list was basically a chapter master, some grav cannons, a few troops in drop pods plus a land speeder. Everything else was flying in wings, ignoring cover or getting tank hunter or what have you.  I was sacrificed to the altar of the flying god, and it hurt.  There were at least two Stormravens and at least six Stormtalons in the formations; they came to kick my ass and succeeded.  None of our teams could handle that many flyers, so I took it standing up.  I think I put a few hull points on a couple fliers, and killed a couple marines; and got my nuts kicked squarely in.

Game Three

Iron Hands shenanigans: He had the invincible 2+ FNP chapter master with home boys on bikes, the three Vindicator Formation, 3x Land Speeders, 2x Stormtalons, and the 10th Company scout formation.  Great dude, expertly played his army.  It should have been much closer, but I wasn’t paying attention when he briefed me on the army, and his apocalyptic S10 ignores cover blast wrecked my face.  I should have killed the damn Vindicators first turn.  I scored a few points, and held his biker death star in CC for a couple turns thanks to some lucky saves, but in the end being too defensive bit me in the ass; half my grav Kataphrons just sat in the back on an end game (NOT progressive) objective, neither scoring nor killing.  Another fun, crushing loss.

Last year I went 3-3 with a Sisters of Battle/Blood Angels army.  I took a much more competitive army and went 1-5.  I think it’s safe to say the field at ATC was much more competitive than in 2015; the teams were either hard anti-meta (16 Fire Raptors?! WTF Chicago Kamikaze!) or a somewhat standard Eldar/Tau/SM/Choice4/Choice5.  As I prepare for NOVA in about a month, I have decided to run what I know: Sisters of Battle MSU with a few Inquisitors (and retinue) plus a Culexus Assassin.  It isn’t a top tier army, but I know how to play it and I know it’s tricks.  Also Repressors are fuck awesome models and this is an excuse to buy more and paint the damn things.