Monday, October 29, 2012

The Craftworld Open: Results

The Results are in. The Craftworld Open was this past weekend at UCON. This was the first year of the tournament and there will be many more as I was asked to run it next year and help out with getting more war game and miniature events next year. I will keep you guys posted as it seems we are going to do it big next year.

I digress though. The champion of the Inaugural Craftworld Open is non other than DFG's own CVinton. He brought the Necrons out to play and after a very close 3rd round pulled it out for the win.

Here are the official results

1st. Chris Vinton
2nd. Adam Koziel
3rd Eric Gibbs

Players Choice for painting was also won by Adam Koziel for his Forge World Tau Commander. The His force was nicely painted as were several other. My favorite was, I have to admit, John Owens Kroot Mercenary army which is now a counts as Dark Eldar. The units were very superbly modeled and painted. He even had a Codex that replaced every instance of the Words Dark Eldar with Kroot of some form or another. It even had army background and fluff. Now that’s a counts as Army!


I am looking forward to doing this convention next year. The location is great and the staff was very friendly and helpful. There were lots of events and games represented. Next year War Games will be making a comeback thanks to yours truly and all the DFG and Craftworld crew.









Until next time


Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Visions Of Chaos: My Favs From The Codex

I am coming to you from the Marriott Ypsilanti Ann Arbor At Eaglecrest.  BigMek SkrapKlaw and I are relaxing a bit before dinner and set up for the tournament tomorrow here at UCON. I have had a chance to flip through the new Chaos Marine codex and its kinda scary, but not to scary. There are some very nice improvements, but nothing that the current codexs cant cope with given the right application of certain units and fire power. In fact most players standard tournament or what I like to call your “ Signature List” can deal with the forces of Chaos.

That said there is some stuff to watch out for. The Helldrake comes to mind. This thing is wonky and pretty deadly when you start going over different situations in your head. I don’t know about you, but I frequently think about new and unusual ways to use units and this goes doubly for units from new codexes. As a long time chaos player, its been a second army pretty much since the mid 90's and sadly ended 3 years ago when I sold off my beloved Emperors Children army, I am apt to use units as they were used in the old codex. I know I will do the same thing when I finally get a new Eldar codex. I also did it when the new Dark Eldar codex came out, god I miss blast template dizzys.

The main point is that thinking outside the box, to use the old cliche saying, with units is how you get the jump on surprising your opponent and really gaining an advantage. Ok I digress. The Helldrake is a new unit and I have seen many people treating it as a nasty flyer that’s main purpose is to take out other flyers with extreme prejudice. Although it does this rather well its anti infantry potential is pretty devastating. With vehicles being more fragile and more and more foot lists coming to the forefront, dealing with hordes of infantry is a real key in list building. The Helldrake equipped with a baleflamer is pretty scary. Since the Helldrake can vector strike a unit in the movement phase you can wreck some havoc with enemy flyers in that phase and then hose a unit with the baleflamer. A strength 6 AP3 flamer that also has the soul blaze and torrent special rules. Me likey. Its survivability is also pretty good thanks to the daemonforge rule and the It will not Die rule. So as you can see the Helldrake is a favorite.


Being a fan of Slaanesh and the Emperors children I was kinda disappointed by the new incarnation of the Noise Marine. Granted they are a little cheaper. You only pay 20 points as opposed to 25 points for a Noise Marine with a Sonic Blaster. The Sonic Blaster is not to my liking though. Its basically an old rapid fire weapon now Granted it ignores cover, but still....rapid fire. The Blast Master is still a nice weapon though as is the Doom Siren. I have noticed that is you equip a noise marine and Chaos marine in the same way, standard load with an extra close combat weapon, you are only paying one point more for the Noise Marine than the Chaos Marine. So you get Fearless for one point. So you can go to to ends of the spectrum with Noise Marines now. They can be outfitted for close combat and outfitted for close to mid range shooting. I like this kind of versatility. Marked lords make the Cult marine of the associated mark troops which means you can really cram units in.


I really like how cheap I can get a Chaos Sorcerer now as well. 75 points for a Sorcerer with a Mark of Slaanesh. Thats 25 points cheaper than the old base cost. How cool is that! A cheap HQ option that can actually contribute! The new Powers are also sexy. I have been toying with several lists but the one that has been really jumping out is a dark mirror of CVintons Space Wolves list. Now if I can only number crunch it to be all thousand sons and marks of Tzeentch...........


I have to say I am still trying to figure out how to keep the Craftworlders competitive. They may only be broken out for casual games and fun. The Necrons and Dark Kin will be doing any tournament games until I get the Chaos Marine Army back up to strength. I suppose that means its time to really step it up on the hobby side of things and get to painting.


Well Next Time I will be reporting on the Craftworld Open as it happens and the aftermath of its first year at UCON.  May Khaine Watch over us.


Until next time..................




Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Monday, October 22, 2012

The CraftWorld Open Is This Sunday!!!!

Just a quick announcement and then I will have my thoughts on the New Chaos codex later in the week. I got officially promoted this week at work so its been hectic, especially with the wedding of Samsquatch Monster of DFG this past weekend. We partied hard.......Adepticon hard.

Well UCON is this coming weekend and Sunday the Craftworld Open will be unleashed upon the convention. Pre registration with the convention closed on the 12th, but I have been getting requests to play. I am accepting names and submitting them to my liaison with the convention to hold spots. I have a total of 15 registered, 10 officially whos spots are not in jeopardy and I have 5 names that I am submitting tonight. This means I have 9 open slots. Feel free to email me at the Blog address and I will submit your name. Now this means that a spot will be held, but if it is not paid for the day of the tournament the spot is up for grabs to whoever shows up to the tournament.

Now I know there was not a lot of time between when I put this together and when the pre registration for the convention ended. Next year I will be posting updates every week once preregistration starts for the convention.

So Sunday 10 am at the Marriott AnnArbor Ypsilanti at Eagle Crest dice roll. I will be down Saturday with BigMek SkrapKlaw to set up so come say hi.  I am really looking forward to this.  This Convention has lots of growth potential and its at an awesome location this year.   Think Westin Lombard, for those who have attended Adepticon, with a golf course.  My little brother actually had his wedding at this Hotel and it was very nice.

So lets make the first Craftworld Open a good one and heres to hopefully many years to come.



Until Next time



Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunday, October 7, 2012

The Craftworld Open: The Top Prize

SeerK here. I wanted to share the top prize for the “Craftworld Open” at UCON this year. First I would like to thank our generous sponsors for this years event. Evolution Games of Lansing, also the FLGS and home store for yours truly. Pandemonium Games of Garden City and Game Links of Fowlerville. I would also like to thank my man on the inside, Nick Huston, for his tireless efforts in helping put this thing together. He wrote a nice article for the UCON website about the tournament . You can read it HERE. We have a nice lineup of prizes for the top 3 places.

For our first place winners we have an awesome first prize. We have managed to secure a Dark Vengeance set as well as a Gamers Edition of the 40K rulebook. Thats right here is your chance for a Gamers edition set as well as a host of new models and a mini rulebook. Not to bad for a $15.00 entry fee. There are 8 pre regs already and I was told we ave a limit of 24. 
So head on over to www.ucon-gaming.org and get registered for the tournament.


Remember this event takes place on Sunday the 28th of October. The convention itself runs all weekend though and there is a host of events covering the width and breadth of gaming. I hope to see you all there.


Well next time I am going to be talking about the new Chaos Codex and what affect it is going to have on the game and the Eldar. The outlook is pretty grim. If ever the Eldar needed a new codex its now. Its a shame too as my Footdar are doing rather well at the moment. Once I get a couple games in versus the new codex I will bring you my thoughts and possible counter tactics to the newest chaos onslaught.




Until Next time...............




Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Of Wolves And Runes: Footdar Development Continues

I had the chance this past weekend to test out the Footdar against the Sons of Fenris this past weekend. CVinton had his 13th company out to play. I wanted to see how the new, old, approach I am taking with the Eldar would work against the best power armored codex currently out there.

CVinton brought a list that basically was a version of the Nova Con winner. 5 Grey Hunter Packs with Plasma, 2 Long Fang Packs loaded with Missile Launchers, a Huge blob squad of Imperial Guardsman with a Priest in it and Njal Stormcaller to round out the list. Now before you point out the obvious and declare the list invalid, we both didn’t know that Ministorum Priests are not valid HQ choices for the HQ spot anymore. It is not a big deal as The Avatar of Khaine made quick work of the blob squad after Njal's head exploded thanks to Eldrads Runes of Warding. I would also like to point out how retarded it is putting Njal into a 50 man blob squad with biomancy powers and divination powers at his disposal. There will be great lamentations by Eldar players worldwide when and if they change Runes of Warding. They are still by far the best psychic defense in the game seconded of course by the Rune trinkets the Space Puppies wave rudely in your direction.

I digress though. So with my first two games with the Footdar list the main problem was a lack of long range punch. I had a larger than needed Jetbike squad and a good sized squad of Warp Spiders wrecking havoc in the back field while the Night Spinner provided some long range support, while the Fire Prisms laid waste to hard targets. My foot units advanced across the board without pause thanks to the Avatar. I had to advance right into the teeth of my enemy to really bring a devastating amount of fire to bear. This of course meant casualties were very high. I could not kill infantry in large number unless I was close which means usually only one turn of shooting before the whole battle field is one big melee. I mean if I was a space marine or whatever I would want to be in close combat with Guardians who have a 50/50 chance of hitting and them a 30% chance of actually wounding. Why would I stand in front of them and get hit with massed shuriken fire?

The latest iteration of the list removed the bike squad and the night spinner and added a squadron of War walkers armed with just scatter lasers. This unit generally shreds infantry units by sheer volume of fire. They stayed close to Eldrad for a handy Guide every turn. I also added a squad of Pathfinders. The list actually performed very well given the horde of power armored Mon-Keigh that were surging towards me. Njal was stalled by my psychic wall and Once I was within 24 inches he denied me my Fortune on more than one occasion. It was very lucky and a pretty clutch moment when his head exploded trying to hamper the Avatar. This caused the blob squad to break much easier and stripped away the They Shall Know No Fear Rule from them. The Priest was also dead from a challenge so I cut down 38 guardsman with a roll of a 6 on my initiative test. This lead to the Avatar charging headlong towards the Space Wolf objective the following turn whit the Fire Prisms and Pathfinders punished the whittled down Grey Hunter packs in his way. I had swung the game from a hopeless battle to a real chance of a solid win. Alas a surviving Long Fang scored a solid hit and took the Avatars last wound from him. It was sad as he had a real solid chance of charging into the Grey Hunter pack holding the objective. They had been already hit by the Warp Spiders and pounded by the Fire Prisms.

So I lost, but it was a loss that I felt confident after. I had made a couple tactical errors, but all in all it just came down to how the dice rolled. In the post game CVinton and I discussed the game and the different situations. As much as I like my big units of Guardians, for fluff reasons, I think I may have to cull them in favor of some different troop choices. Pathfinders are always great objective holders for me. They stayed rooted like a tick and usually your opponent has to hit them with close combat troops and / or template weapons to really get them out of their nest. Switching to more stationary troop choices like this does mean another unit will become basically a big points sink. The Avatar is great to escort your units across the table. I rely on the Avatar to keep my Guardians fighting. With an 8 leadership and a Warlock with a leadership of 8 you can fail easy leadership tests more frequently than you would like. The re-roll you can get from Embolden is nice, but it denies you the nice out in the open cover save that the Conceal power gives.

So If I reduce or take out the Guardians completely I am left with Pathfinders who will be spread out and in cover and Aspect warriors, who although can benefit form the Avatars presence do not really need it. The 2nd HQ slot can now be freed up to add in a second Farseer or Phoenix Lord, who can take on the roll of an Avatar for the Aspect squad he or she is a part of.

More pathfinders also help solve the ranged problem even more. In fact thanks to a better ballistic skill, Doom and the new way sniper weapons work, I can really dissect the opposing force. My play style must be more refined. I use to be a very precision player, but it would seem I have started down a path that has play style akin to an ork charging into close combat. Maybe its time to play the range game and shift gears a bit. I have always been fascinated by the Ranger heavy Armies of Alaitoc.

I will continue to develop the Guardian Foot list, but I think I am going to fully explore the path of the Outcast a bit and see how Ranger and Pathfinder forces fair.

Until Next time..............



Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!