Terrans: Making Long-Range Work

It's Dreadbeard with a alternative way to play your favorite rock'em sock'em spaceships.

Ships Of The Rense pt 2: The Siren / Harpy Escort

SeerK here to kick off the new look for the blog. The Waygate is official and will be bringing you coverage of Firestorm Armada, Planetfall, War Machine and Hordes and any of the other war games the authors currently play. We will be continuing with hobby and strategy articles as well and a little something new I like to call “Fluff Fridays”, where I begin to expand the Firestorm Armada universe for some narrative play and give a little background to our impending Firestorm Armada campaign.

Before all that though, I am continuing a series I started almost 2 months ago. The Ships of the Rense Navy. We continue by finishing off the Rense System Navy Tier 3 ships and starting with our Tier 2 ships. Last time we went over the Bulwark/Hellion Frigate. The workhorse of the fleet and vigilant guardians of Dramos. Today we are going to talk about the the all seeing eyes of the Federation. The watchers of watchers. The Siren/Harpy Escort. We then move into Tier two with the backbone of the Rense Navy, the Spook/Shrike Cruiser.

The End Of An Era: 40K Is Dead

Well Dreadbeard, Spellduckwrong and Myself are hard at work giving the blog a face lift.  We are changing
gear completely.  40K has gone in a direction we are not happy with.  Although we are still holding onto our armies, 40K is now dead in our FLGS.  So if you have been tuning in for 40K coverage is it going to be sparse at best from here on in.  Coverage of War Machine and Hordes will be on the rise, as well as other games.  First and foremost though we will be covering Firestorm Armada.

That said the name of the blog will also be changing.  No longer will we be known as Craftworld Lansing.  When the overhaul is done "The Waygate" shall be left in is place.


So I say goodbye to 40K and GW once again.  In your quest to expand your business you have alienated many of your long time players, hobbyists and biggest supporters.  Despite your status as the makers of the  "Rolls Royce" of miniatures your obvious money grabbing at the expense of a decent game has me and many other fed up.  40K is no longer fun for me.  I will still hobby and paint, but I will not buy any of your products from here on in.  Your practices and excuses that you "are only a miniature company" when faced with criticism about your rules is tired and a cop out.

I invite everybody to still follow and read the blog even if 40K is your only game.  Its good to know what else is out there.  If you part ways with us, thanks for reading.  We appreciate our followers and readers and you guys are why we do this.  Sometimes when you love something you have to it go.  I have been a 40K player and hobbyist for over 20 years.  I left once and it was not because of the game, but rather the hypocrisy of GW when I was let go in 2000 from the company.  Now I leave because of the game and the companies attitude.  We now start a new path and don the mantels of Field Marshals and Admirals.


May Cegorach guide your path and Khaine bless your sword. and for the last time.


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

The Adepticon 2014 Aftermath

SeerK here wiith a very delayed report on Adepticon 2014.  I Actually managed to make it to Adepticon despite my 70 hour work week and jam packed schedule.  12 hour days and a 2 hour round trip drive everyday has killed my hobbying time and as you can see my writing time.  I am going to really start making an effort though to try and write about something every Sunday from here on in.  My trip to Adepticon this year was very abbreviated compared to the 3 previous years.  The group was there for one solid day.

We arrived late Friday night.  Kudos to the volunteers manning the registration table.  I was able to get my badge and swag bag at 9 p.m.  As is customary we partied our first night there.  Saturday was kind of a whirlwind.  we saw all the displays, toured the dealer room and got to visit with friends that we only get to see at Adepticon.  Of course Miniature Tim was in this group.  I have to say I find myself looking forward to the cookies his wife bakes for Adepticon.  It was also nice seeing you man.  We also got to meet up with one of our former local gamers who has moved out west.  Ryan braved the GT this year and did not have a bad record for his first go at it.  It was also very nice seeing you sir.

I of course have to give a shout out and congrats to Lansing gamer and all around good guy, Mr. Bill Kim for winning Best Overall in the GT Thursday.  I have played Bill at local tournaments on a few occasions and was firmly stomped I am sad to say.  He is a great opponent though.

I did have the chance to meet Teri Litorco on Saturday and chat for a minute.  For those of you not familiar with her, you should check out her hobby based YouTube channel. Teri is a Hobby Vloger and one hell of a painter.  It is a favorite of mine and is actually one of the few series on YouTube I actually watch every episode of. SO go check it out on YouTube


All in all it was a fun trip.  I can't wait for next year.  I will actually have vacation time and will be able to go for the full convention.  In fact we may be running some events next year.  More on that later though.

I want to talk about the status of the blog in closing.  As you may have noticed there has not been a lot of posting the past couple months.  Well we are in a state of change.  New jobs and less playing and hobby time is a big factor. The main thing though is the Craftworld has kind of lost its way so to speak.  I started this as a blog dedicated to 40K.  I do still play 40K, but it has taken a back burner to other games and life in general.  That said, Spellduckwrong, Dreadbeard and I have been talking about doing a major revamp on the Craftworld.  We have some ideas in development and in the coming month there will be some major changes.  Including the name.  So as April come to a close and Spring has finally sprung, the next chapter of Craftworld Lansing will be starting in May.


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


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


and as always

REMEMBER DRAMOS!!!!!

ALL HANDS ON DECK! Ships Of the Rense pt1

“Upon acceptance into the Rense System Navy, Dindrenzi main fleet officers are assigned to one of the many Frigate squadrons that make up the outer echelons of a Rense Navy task force. Would be Captains and aspiring admirals have all had their first commands and baptisms of fire among the Bulwark Frigate squadrons.”

-Admiral Markus Stole,

“A History Of The Federation Fleets”

SeerK here to start my series on the ships of the Rense System Navy. Its been a couple weeks. I have just started a new job and the 65 hour work week is kind of killer. I am planning on posting every Sunday from here on out though, and I hope the other writers start filling in the rest of the week. Some of us will also be at Adepticon this weekend. Sadly we cant go for the full week like normal. As long as all goes to plan the Craftworld crew will be there Friday night. As I stated last time we are going to start from the bottom up. We are going to talk about the Rense Navies Tier 3 ship today. The Bulwark Frigate.

The Bulwark is the main frigate of the Rense Navy and besides the Siren class Escort is the only Tier 3 choice for your fleet. It is fielded in squadrons of 2 to 4. I usually do full squadrons of 4 as it is an even 100 points and the combined fire of a 4 ship strong squadron is pretty decent. Each ship is 25 points and has no upgrade options. The Bulwark has the Elite Crew and Difficult target MAR. The Elite Crew MAR lets you pass command checks on a 3+. The whole Rense Navy has this MAR. The Bulwark also can move 10 inches so it is very quick. With a DR,(damage rating) or 3 and a CR(critical rating) of 6 it can be quite hard for an equal sized vessel to destroy the Bulwark in one go.

Weaponry

The Bulwark is a very close range ship. It has a fore beam weapon ad beam weapons to port and starboard. Its beam weaponry has two range bands. Beam weaponry has 10 inch range bands for those of you unfamiliar with the game so 2 range bands gives the Bulwark a threat range of 20 inches.

Range band 2 , 10 to 20 inches, is your most effective range band. You get 5 dice in the fore arc and 4 in the port and starboard arcs. With a squadron of 4 this gives you 12 dice. Pretty respectable, especially when attacking cruiser sized vessels. In my experience you can usually get a critical hit on most vessels with a critical rating of 6. Of course this is utterly dependent on how well the dice are treating you.

The Bulwark is very well suited to supporting your Spook or Cerberus squadrons. While the cruisers use their range advantage the Bulwark can work in the mid to short range. They have the firepower to finish off crippled ships the heavier vessels have damaged. You can use the Bulwarks speed to get in behind vessels to give it an even better chance of scoring a critical hit.

Tactics

I have been seeing a lot of mixed reviews of the Bulwark on the Firestorm forums. It would seem a lot of people have not been having the same experience I have when it comes to fielding them. It is true they can be a bit tricky to use. They are out ranged by a lot of ships and can get picked off before they can close to lethal distance.

You have a couple of different options for deployment and thanks to they way game setup is done you can really plan out your fleet and how it is going to be deployed. I like to keep my Bulwarks in reserve, unless the mission being played allows for hidden set up. Either way it allows you to delay your Bulwarks appearance on the table and allows you to keep them alive longer. Shunting your Bulwarks, deep striking for you 40kers, into the battle can be a risky gambit. I like to use shunt deployment, but only if there is a good target. To get a good shunt deployment you have to really set it up. The intended target has to be lead into a decent spot so you can get a good one two punch. Shunt deployment backfires quite often. You can't shunt into the middle of a fleet and expect the squadron to survive after trying to deliver a death blow to a stricken ship.

I prefer to actually bring in the Bulwarks on the board edge if there is a decent target that is reachable. Flanking the enemy fleet has its advantages, especially if their attention is elsewhere.

How you deploy your reserve squadrons is entirely situational. As obvious as that sounds many players do that same things over and over again and then get frustrated when it does not work all the time. Firestorm Armada is very much a situational game. This is reflected in the way you set up and play the game. Many 40K players are use to the concept of the “all comers” list. In Firestorm you determine the mission and such before you make your fleet list. All you really know when going up against your opponent is what race they are using.

Well there you have the Bulwark. Next time I will be covering the Siren Escort as well as starting into our tier 2 vessels. I will also Hopefully be reporting form Adepticon later this week.

Until next time....

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

and always

REMEMBER DRAMOS!!!!!!!

The Storm Begins: The Rense System Navy

SeerK Here. Well February has been a busy month for everybody. Sorry for the lack of updates. Job

hunting and gaming malaise has left me doing a lot of stuff other than writing. Although we will still be covering 40K on occasion, we are kind of changing gears on Craftworld Lansing. The writers and many at our FLGS do not like the direction things are taking with 40K.

IN fact my Eldar have been sitting on the back burner for quite a while now. I have been playing quite a bit of Firestorm Armada and I am eagerly awaiting the release of Spartan Games ground based combat game Planetfall, which is set in the Firestorm Armada Universe. With the 40K malaise in full force I decided I am going to start talking about the Fleet I run in Firestorm Armada. In fact there is going to be a lot of Firestorm Armada coverage from now on. I have talked about it a bit in the past, but the other writers and I are going to be delving in deep with it. This means tactics, battle reports and our general musings on the game. That said, Lets dive into Firestorm Armada.

In The game you take command of a fleet of warships from one of the many factions available. Ultimately the faction belongs to either the Terran led Kurak Alliance or the Dindrenzi Federation Led Zenian League. As with most war games, you build a fleet using a point system. The game also uses a force org of sorts. It is a Tier system made up of three levels.

Each Tier contains different types and sizes of vessels. Tier One Vessels are the largest ships in the fleet. These range from Dreadnoughts, currently the largest vessel you can field, to Squadrons of Heavy Cruisers and Battleships. Tier two vessels are generally mid sized capital ships. Typically your fleets Cruisers and destroyers occupy this slot. Tier three vessels are the smallest. Frigates, Corvettes and Escort vessels occupy this tier. Each tier has a minimum number of vessels that must be taken and a maximum number that can be taken. This minimum and maximum can change based on the point level of the game.

The number of squadrons available increase as you play higher point level games. There are basically 3 different “Force Org” charts based on the point level of the game. The first is for games up to 800 points. This is known as a “Patrol Fleet”. 801 points to 1200 points is a “Battle Fleet”. 1201 points and above is known as a “Grand Fleet” Sometimes ships can move to different tiers at higher point levels. For example, when you are playing an 800 point game Heavy Cruisers may be in Tier 1. If you play a 1000 point game they may be now Tier 2. Each fleets ships are generally in the same Tier, but there are some differences. For example, I play the Rense System Navy which is part of the Zenian League. In 800 Point games and below I can take a Battle Carrier as my Tier 1 choice. If I was using the Ryushi Fleet, part of the Kurak Alliance, at the same level I could not take a Battle Carrier as a Tier 1 choice. I could only take a Battle Carrier as a Tier 1 choice in games above 800 points. I know it sounds a bit confusing, but there is a chart that is specific to each fleet in their Fleet manual. I wanted to do a brief overview before I dived into my fleet and the ships it contains. Over the next few weeks I will be going in depth on the Ships of the Rense System Navy, the leader and enforcer of the Zenian League.

The Rense System Navy is a sub faction within the Dindrenzi Federation. Originally formed to guard the new Capital world of Ravens Citadel after the destruction of the original Capital world of Dramos at the hands of the Terran Alliance. As time went on the Rense Navy became the personal strong arm of the Federation Chairman. The crews and commanders of the Rense Navy are the best and the brightest. Drawn from all across the Federation, they patrol the federation and strike deep into alliance territory on missions of subterfuge and intelligence gathering. The Rense Navy has the best ships in the Federation, as they are a joint venture between the Dindrenzi Federation and the Mega Corporations of the Directorate.

Many of the members of the Rense System Navy are also devout members of the Church Of The Dramos Angels. This religious organization formed after the destruction of the world of Dramos. Dramos is a major center point for the Federation. With their forces being driven back during the second succession war the Terrain Alliance unleashed a nuclear holocaust upon the world of Dramos. The Dindrenzi Federation had won its independence from Terra, but at a very high price. The Rense Navy has the honor of guarding the millions of Pilgrims that flock to the blasted world of Dramos.

Basically the Rense Navy are the Zealots of the Dindrenzi Federation and its members are the ones really driving the current hostilities against the Terran Alliance and their Kurak Alliance allies. Although it is a Zenian League fleet it has at least 2 ships in each tier and can act as a fleet by itself. From what I have seen most of your Kurak Alliance and Zenian League member fleets have to work with other members to work as a cohesive fleet. The Rense System Navy can stand on its own.

Their Ships are as follows

Tier 1

Banshee Class Dreadnought

Spectre Class Battleship

Argus Class Carrier

Tier 2

Spook Class Cruiser

Cerberus Class Heavy Cruiser ( can be Tier one depending on point level)

Phoenix Class Destroyer

Tier 3

Bulwark Class Frigate

Siren Class Escort

I am going to start from the bottom and work my way up. Next time I am going to be talking about the workhorse of my fleet. The Bulwark Frigate. Despite its class and size it packs a punch and when used properly it can knock out vessels well above its weight class. So next time the Bulwark, doin work!

Until then...

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

And Always

REMEMBER DRAMOS!!!!!

Time To Take A step Back....

Well it happened.  Between the malaise at the shop and the fallout from the LVO that is hitting the interwebs, I officially requested a refund for the GT at Adepticon.  Well I should say I switched to the Exterminatus event first and now I sent the email requesting a refund.  This would be the reason for the lack of posts for the past couple weeks.   The gang and I have been playing a lot of Firestorm Armada and not a whole ton of 40k.


That being said I want to assure everybody that I am not totally out of 40k.  I am not selling off my army and ditching it.  I am taking a step back though.  Not so much a break, but I am going to try and concentrate on the hobby aspect for a while, at least until they rules get sorted out.

I am still participating in Adepticon though.  I am playing in a Combat patrol and doing a weathering class with Mr. Justin of Secret Weapon.  I am also doing the Iron Arena with the Privateer Press gang.  I am bringing my 40K stuff though to get some pick up games while I am there.  I will also have my Renses Navy Fleet for pickup games of Firestorm Armada.  Basically I am going to chill and just enjoy my vacation and the best 4 days of war gaming there is.


On a semi related note, most of you know I host a Adepticon primer tournament dubbed "The Test Of Khaine" every year.  This will be the 4th year of the tournament at Evolution Games.  I am still going to run it.  I was on the fence, but Farseer Rerolls talked me into it.  So I will be making an official announcement next week about the tournament.  I want to make sure it does not interfere with any other events going on mid to late March.

Well thats all for now.  I just wanted to update and basically let everyone know whats going on and where the Craftworld stands at the moment.  Expect some Firestorm Armada articles from Spellduckwrong and the BigMek in the next couple of weeks.



until then...



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


and as always

REMEMBER DRAMOS!!!!!!!