Wolftime #3

First tournament after such a long break from 40k. I must admit I wasn't sure if my knowledge of Aeldari is good enough for tournament play, but decided to find out.

It was 1000pts tournament, with limit of two detachments. My army was built of Battalion and Patrol, using Drukhari and Craftworlds units:

Battalion (Kabal of the Flayed Skull):

- Archon (Agoniser, Splinter Pistol)

- Archon (Huskblade, Splinter Pistol)

- 5 Kabalites

- 5 Kabalites

- 5 Kabalites

- Ravager (3 Desintegrator Cannons)

- Venom (Splinter Cannon, Twin Splinter Rifle)

Patrol (Expert Crafters, Masterful Shots)

- Autarch Skyrunner (Lance, Warlord: Fate's Messanger, Shimmerplume of Achillral)

- 8 Storm Guardians

- 3 Dark Reapers (Tempest Launcher, Rain of Death)

- Crimson Hunter Exarch (Two Starcannons, Hawkeye)

- Wave Serpent (Twin Aeldari Missile Launcher, Twin Shuriken Catapult)

First battle was against Mechanicum with tank, two onagers, several units of skitarii, bosses and two units of stalkers.

It wasn't an easy game, mostly due to the fact that onagers hit everything that flies on 2+, and in my army everything but infantry flies.

Despite that I managed to win 30:14. Not bad for the first game after such a long pause ;).

Second was against Space Marines, led by smashcaptain and chaplain. Big unit of grav centurions, two scout units, one primaris unit and one unit of those guys with 3 wounds, fists and loads of shots.

I mean really, those primaris units all look the same :P. After several rounds of killing I managed to kill everything but single marine in the ruins. Sadly, the game costed me a lot of my units, and despite having the same number of points I lost due to killpoints. There simply wasn't enough targets to kill! 26:29 for my opponent.

I didn't play the third game cause my I wanted to go to motorcycle event with my girlfriend. My opponent was kind enough to agree on a split, 10:10.

All in all I ended up on third place. I must say, I love this army. Fast, agile, with loads of surprises for my enemies. Now I need to paint all those gray models and get ready for another tournament.

Great Come Back (and first painted model)

Not one, but three come backs, to be exact. First - I came back to 40k after a few years break. Second - I came back to miniature painting after several months. Third - I'm back here, writing this blog I abandoned for such a long time.

Almost all of my 40k models are gone (sold, given away etc), so I've decided to build the new army, the one that requires completely different type of play and much higher level of skill. After some initial thoughts I chose Eldar Soup.

What is Eldar Soup, you may ask. Well, it's an army built around the "Aeldari" keyword. That allows me to field detachments of Craftworld Eldar, Dark Eldar and Harlequins. Mix them all together, and you get a soup. Eldar Soup.

I bought some models and began painting. The first model I'd made is the leader of my Eldar army, the Autarch Skyrunner:

I field him as my Warlord, with lance, Shimmerplume and Fate's Messanger trait. That gives me fast, hard hitting (for Eldar standards at least) model with 7 wounds, 3+/4++/6+++ saves and bonus of regenerating command points on roll of 6. That statisticly is at least one additional command point per battle. Not bad IMO.

Next will be either Wave Serpent (you can see her behind Autarch, waiting to be finished) or Farseer Skyrunner (also WiP). Stay tuned!

Detroit's Factories ran amok ;)

Hi!

In just six days my British soldiers will face the enemy once again, on second tournament organized by Tomek (his blog). This time I'll field as many tanks as possible. I thought about very fast and agile company of Cromwells with Challengers, but in current meta four squadrons of tanks that die so fast ain't enough. Maybe one day I'll play using that company, but it's not that day.

My army is going to be no less than 30 armed vehicles. If I were playing Red Army, that number wouldn't sound like much, but when it comes to British, it's the most I can get. Army looks like this:

HQ: 2x Sherman III

CP1: 2x Sherman III + Firefly VC

CP2: 2x Sherman III + Firefly VC

CP3: 2x Sherman III + Firefly VC

CP4: 2x Sherman III + Firefly VC

CP5: 3x Sherman III with .50cal AA MG

SP1: 2x M10 3in GMC

SP2: Breaching Group (Sherman V + 2x Sherman Crab, 2x AVRE, 2x AVRE)

SP3: 4x M10C 17pdr SP

Whole army is Confident Trained. I guess lack of artillery will make facing spam of PaK40's a potential nightmare for me, but I guess I will not face such army more than once, and even then I may simply roll them over with my tanks.

Two days ago I had a chance to play two battles against my friend who fields Polish Armed Squadron led by General Maczek. I managed to win both times, but my rolls were terrible. That led me to believe my friend's theory that painted models have better luck. Therefore, I began the long process of painting all those thirty armed vehicles. Today I managed to paint first AVRE platoon:

Good thing is - painting WW2 vehicles is fairly fast and easy, especially when you have an airbrush. I painted them whole with black primer, then laid first coat with Russian Uniform, then highlighted with mix of Russian Uniform and Duck Egg Green.

Tracks got covered with black wash, and then weathered with some rusty pigment. Exhausts and barrels got covered with soot using black pigment. Then I covered whole models with Matt Varnish, and glued on the commander, who were painted separately.

Plan for tomorrow is to paint at least one platoon of Shermans. Wish me luck :)

D-Day

For many years I've played only "fantasy" and "sci-fi" wargames, completely neglecting the historical ones. On purpose, cause dragons, fairies and lasers are way more colorful and sexy. Anyway, about a year ago I've decided to give historical games a chance. I chose the one that new to me for two reasons. One - there were no dragons, and reason number 2 - it was in 15mm scale. I've never played such tiny models before, and chose to give it a try.

Now, after quite a few games played, I can tell you - I were right. Flames of War, the game I'm talking about, is very interesting and fun to play. My initial choice were the Red Army, but eventually I bought myself a box of British Paratroopers, the so-called Red Devils. Then, as usual, I bought many, many more boxes, and currently I have Paratroopers, Commandos, several armoured companies, and several squads of recce.

Several weeks ago I had a chance to participate in my first tournament, and, praise beginner's luck, managed to win. That gave me some courage and pushed me forward. And forward in this case meant towards Zielona Góra. The tournament was a bit unusual, due to several tiny modifications made by org's. The most important one was the river across every table, separating both deployment zones. That proved to be quite difficult for most of the armies. I've decided to be prepared, and chose this company:

Three plutons of Shermans DD, one pluton of Fireflies, one Motorized Company, one pluton of Achilleses, artillery, Typhoon and two AA Crusaders. Out of five battles I've managed to win only two. Despite that, I won a small prize:

Next tournament is in Warsaw, in just two weeks, and I've prepared three companies to choose from. I still have some time, but the choice ain't easy...

First is a bit similar to my list I wrote about above, but with more tanks. It's British Armored (11'th Division) from Overlord book:

HQ: 4 Sherman V with AA MG

CP1: 2 Shermans, 1 Firefly (1 AA MG)

CP2: 2 Shermans, 1 Firefly (1 AA MG)

CP3: 2 Shermans, 1 Firefly

CP4: 2 Shermans, 1 Firefly

WP1: 2 Crusader AA

SP1: 4 Ahillles

SP2: 4 OQF 25pdr gun

AS: Limited Typhoon

Whole company it rated Confident Trained, which allows me to take as many tanks.

Second one has the same approach, but is a bit faster. It's 11'th Division British Armored Recce from Market Garden book:

HQ: 2 Cromwell IV

CP1: 2 Cromwell IV, 1 Challenger A30

CP2: 2 Cromwell IV, 1 Challenger A30

CP3: 2 Cromwell IV, 1 Challenger A30

CP4: 2 Cromwell IV, 1 Challenger A30

SP1: 4 OQF 25pdr gun

SP2: 4 OQF 25pdr gun

SP3: 2 40mm Bofors SP

AS: Limited Typhoon

HQ and Combat Platoons are Confident Trained, but Support Platoons are Confident Veteran, which makes ranging with artillery way easier, and makes it a bit more survivable.

Those two lists are, what I call, mainstream. The third one is all but. It's British Commando Company from Market Garden:

HQ: 1 Commando Rifle

CP1: 6 Commando Rifle + Command

CP2: 6 Commando Rifle + Command

CP3: 6 Commando Rifle + Command

CP4: 6 Commando Rifle + Command

CP5: 3x ML3" mortar

SP1: Breaching Group (Sherman V + 2 Sherman Crab) + 2 AVRE

SP2: Breaching Group (Sherman V + 2 Sherman Crab) + 2 AVRE

SP3: 4 OQF 25pdr gun

SP4: 4 OQF 25pdr gun

AS: Limited Typhoon

I think the second one is the best, but I will play it only if I manage to buy and paint five Cromwells in two weeks. If not, I'll probably use the first one, but that Commando Platoon sounds stupid enough that it may actually work :) Till next time.

Miranda Doni

For about a month I play X-Wing with rebel scum instead of proper, imperial forces. The squadron is not my idea, it was used by several players before, in various configurations:

+ Dash Rendar
   - Lone Wolf
   - Outrider
   - Heavy Laser Cannon
   - Smuggling Compartment
   - Burnout Slam
   - Rey

+ Miranda Doni
   - Twin Laser Turret
   - Extra Munitions
   - Conner Net
   - Ion Bombs
   - Sabine Wren
   - Advanced Slam

Sadly, this setup is being used by more and more players here in Warsaw. On the last tournament there were 11 players, 4 of them playing Dash + Miranda. I had to make my squadron at least look a bit different...

That's my Miranda in rat style. She was bored during patrol, watched Mad Max, and decided to change her style... Next on the workstation will be Dash, who currently still looks like every YT-2400 out there...

X-Wing season end

After Team Championship there was one Regional Championship in Poznań (from which I dropped after 4'th round). Now, the season came to an end. We'll have some store championships, and national championship, but there'll be no more Regionals this year.

On Team Championship we took 6'th place, all of us made 2:2 result. All in all, my first few months of playing X-Wing weren't really successfull. I've decided to pick the most difficult squadron I can imagine, and use it till next season for practice. So, I came up with:

Soontir Fel (Royal Guard, Autothrusters, Stealth Device, Push the Limit)

Deathfire (Conner Net, Ion Pulse Missles, Extra Ammunitions, Guidance Chips)

Whisper (Veteran Instinct, Advanced Cloaking Device, Fire Control System)

I think that this squadron will teach me (over next half a year) how to fly carefully, plan several turns ahead, take care of my models, which are fragile, place bombs, use ion tokens to take control over enemy ships, etc.

In the meantime, I'd decided to try and repaint some of my ships. First was the Sabine's Tie (which I made from regular TIE, exactly like Sabine did), then, I've decided to paint Whisper:

What do you think?

X-Wing Warsaw Team Championship

Howh! In just a few hours me and my team is gonna play on Warsaw Team Championship. Three players per team, each leading different faction. I were given the Empire (I wanted to try my Rebels, but we already have the Rebel player). My squadron is the variation of what I wrote about lately, but with slight changes.

Captain Yorr [Collision Detector, Tractor beam, Darth Vader, Inspiring Recruit] (29)

Tomax Bren [Crack Shot, Extra Munitions, Homing Missiles, Ion Bombs, Guidance Chips] (34)

Soontir Fel [Royal Guard TIE, Push the Limit, Stealth Device, Autothrusters] (35)

As you can see, I chose Tomax over Inquisitor. He ain't that tanky, but gives me a bit more firepower and some bombs.

I'll let you know how it went ;)

Cheers!