Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Belsbeth Week 2

Just a quick update to show the planetscape of Belsbeth after a week of the campaign.
From Mars Project Blog
From Mars Project Blog
From Mars Project Blog
From Mars Project Blog
From Mars Project Blog


Right now the most real estate is held for The Greater Good. However I think at least three of those tiles are Chem Marshes, which our campaign can be lost on a roll of a "6" at the end of each round. I know later on in the week 5,000 points of Space Marines will be throwing down with 5,000 points of Chaos Daemons and Iron Warriors. Hopefully we will get some pics of that at Lord Infestus' blog (crosses fingers).

There is still few tiles that are unclaimed, including the ominous hive city Bloodholm.

From Mars Project Blog
From Mars Project Blog


Thanks for reading,
T

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Flights of Fancy

Last night I took the highway to the danger zone. No I didn't watch Top Gun, but I probably should have had. Instead I decided to deviate from what I should be doing (Tau) in order to paint something that I just wanted to paint. While the practice of painting what one wants to paint is probably healthy to most enthusiasts, it is the pretty much detrimental to me. I only ever want to paint one of every model, and I end up with a metric shit ton of "one-off's" and not a single squad, let alone army, done. So, like the junky who has been clean and gave it all up because they thought that one time wouldn't set them back on their path; I appear at the methadone clinic of internet. Guilty, but not ashamed of what I have done the night before.

From Stuff I Have Painted
From Stuff I Have Painted
From Stuff I Have Painted


Oh my god, she was so worth it. This model was a friggin' delight to paint. I whiled away four and a half hours on her and didn't realize the time had gone by. There was cool areas for line-highlighting and other flatter areas for blending. She was like some kind of model painter's aptitude test where you could express all your techniques.

I did her up to look Ulthwesque. I have always liked Ulthwe, probably because I dislike Chaos so much. I remember back in the older editions Ulthwe had the cool guardians because they didn't have a lot of aspect warriors so I tried to make the armor look like an antique bone in an attempt to communicate that this banshee has been around for awhile, or at least the armor has. I also started out with the second edition black and yellow to denote Ulthwe, but the red of the newer edition looked better on the model.

My big trouble is that I don't know what colors to do her base. I have a feeling that if I do my normal colors, which are a lot of off-whites, the base will eat her. I want something that will let her pop off the base, but also, in the random event that I ever finished a guardian, would look good with a predominantly black model as well. If you have a second help a brother out. This black base is killing me.

Thanks for reading,
T

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Pathfinder Alpha

So the pathfinders are next. I always need to paint one model in a squad before I start doing any kind of line painting. It seems like I need the one mini to familiarize myself and my brushes with the colors, lines, etc. The pathfinders were a lot of fun, and should go relatively quickly. They are a lot of fatigues.

I used the same P3 and Citadel Wash color combos as I did for my fire warriors Sash'ui. The one exception was that, because the fatigues were so prevalent on the pathfinders, I wanted a smoother and more cloth like blend. In order to do that I based the fatigues with P3 Trollblood Base, then washed it with a mix of VMC Matte Medium, water, P3 Greatcoat Grey, and a little P3 Armor Wash for flow. Once the wash was dry I went back over the raised areas again with P3 Trollblood Base and finally put the line high lights on with P3 Frostbite. I wanted to bring it up to P3 Menoth White Highlight but the Frostbite maintained the blue better. I choose color richness over reality in this case.

From Stuff I Have Painted


Like my fire warriors, I put the squad markings on the shoulders and helmets, though the pathfinders are opposite side because they only had the one shoulder pad. The one squad marking on this guy's shoulder is pretty effed, I am going to go back and clean it up tonight, it was just pissing me off last night and sometimes I need to walk away.

From Stuff I Have Painted


I used my ghetto glow effect on the marker light and the grenades. The grenades will require a smoother blend on future models but hey, this is why I paint one first.

Thanks for reading,
T

Monday, October 19, 2009

It's on!

There it is, the surface of Belsbeth. Starting today it will be riddled with battle, hopefuuly. It is nice to have the project complete. I only have 5 areas to show off because my 6th player, who is running Space Marines, has not yet given me any flags or buildings. So, as of now, he holds nothing! I am pretty sure he will get them to me this week and I can take pics then.

Salamander's turf:
From Stuff I Have Painted


Some of the bug's turf:
From Stuff I Have Painted


The Sister's stomping grounds:
From Stuff I Have Painted


The Daemon's land:
From Stuff I Have Painted


Tau turf:
From Stuff I Have Painted


The, as of yet, unclaimed Hive City Bloodholm:
From Stuff I Have Painted


The temperate regions of the planet's surface:
From Stuff I Have Painted


The desert and The Ravage:
From Stuff I Have Painted


Close-up of The Ravage:
From Stuff I Have Painted


Very pleased with the way the map turned out, but I already find myself wishing I had more tiles. The overall visual appeal and tactile sense of the map are extremly rewarding. We tacked on a lot of house rules here and here and decided to use the stratagems suggested at the GW site. We will see how it all plays out, but if nothing else, it gives a couple guys a good reason to get together and play some Warhammer 40K.

My mind is already shooting off into crazy directions with what to do for the next one. However I need to focus up, or rather refocus on my Tau. I primed some pathfinders last night so presumably they will be the next to get paint. I really want to do a suit- crisis or stealth- but decided to get back in the grove of detail, as compared to the en masse stlye of the tiles, on some fairly cool and simple models. Hopefully I can have some pics of them up soon.

Thanks for reading,
T

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Spaceports!

A quick and uncharacteristic weekend update here. I had to. I was just too stoked at the efforts put forth by the guys playing in the Belsbeth campaign. I had to snap a couple of quick photos and share them with you all. Pretty sure I have mentioned this before, but every player in the campaign was sent off with a spaceport tile that they would start the campaign controlling, as well as one of each of the four different types of structures, and lastly some of the flag pieces so they could stake their turf. I told them to do what they liked. Here are the results.

First up, the good guys. My buddy Matt didn't have time to finish all of his stuff so he got his spaceport tile done at least so that I can make the map. I will reshoot this when he is done, but for now here a is a quick, albeit somewhat blurry look, at his spaceport:
From Mars Project Blog


His space marines were the ones that put the shalacking on me in the last tourney I played in and they look great. Hopefully I will be able to get some pics of his army in a battle report.

Next up is my buddy Mike. His Sisters of Battle of have been around for a long time. I think it is my favorite army that he has ever done and I am stoked they are being brought out of a lengthy retirement. Hell, I am stoked Mike is being brought out of a lengthy retirement. Here is his offering:
From Mars Project Blog


I really like the fact that he took the time to paint lines on the landing strips, that extra detail makes the tile.
From Mars Project Blog


Last of the defending good guys is Travis and his Salamanders/War of Armageddon marines:
From Mars Project Blog


His shit looks good, as always. But I can't help but wonder if his flag is a defiant challenge to the invading xenos scum, or his reaction to the fact that I made his monkey ass finish painting them all last night?
From Mars Project Blog


As for the invaders. First up is Dan with his Tyranid tiles. Again I just shot these quickly 'cause I will give them the works when he has a chance to finish. I can't wait, as he went well above and beyond the call of duty, making his own "structures" and everything:
From Mars Project Blog


I think that Dan was going for security in that not many will want to claim his tile, especially with this thing doing whatever it is it does on it:
From Mars Project Blog


Dan's bugs are shit hot, and they tooled me pretty good last night at Travis'. I can't wait to see these tiles finished up.

Greg has brought his Chaos Daemon army to Belsbeth, not an army noturious for needing spaceports. Nonetheless he managed to come up with something pretty cool for his offering:
From Mars Project Blog


I am a big fan of 28 days later, so this totally vibed with me. When I read this I can just see the post script of the cry for help reading, "The last souls were delicious."
From Mars Project Blog


And finally, borrowing heavily from D9, my Tau spaceport:
From Mars Project Blog


It was a lot of fun to make. I dry-brushed it to match the style of the map, but I don't think it lends itself to the model as well as the other pieces. If I do another I will line high light it instead. A few more pics:

From Mars Project Blog
From Mars Project Blog


Really excited to put the map together with my wife in a few hours. This campaign has delivered so far, and it doesn't even start until Monday.

Thanks for reading,
T

Friday, October 16, 2009

Planetary Survey Complete!

Hive City Bloodholm towers over the expansive waste land on Belsbeth known as The Ravage, and now it does it painted!. Last night the final seal was placed on the last of the 43 tiles I had to paint to build my map for this evening, garnering an exclamation of, "Hell Ya!" at a time in the evening and a volume that my wife deemed inappropriate. Whateva! I was stoked!

In the D&D and version of Bloodholm a guy named Monoch raised an undead army and laid waste to everything living. He did this because he discovered that a Tarasque slumbered beneath the land that came to be known as The Ravage and he wanted to awaken it and force it to march on a rival kingdom, since there was nothing to eat in the one in which it was awoken. Monoch was stopped, but he left this war torn gouge in the land, and that came to be known as The Ravage. I am not really sure what the 40k equivalent of that event is at the moment, though I know it involves Necrons and a Necron lord named...you guessed it Monoch. Fortunately I don't have to decide much of anything so much as just use it for inspiration for this last little sector of tiles.

From Stuff I Have Painted
From Stuff I Have Painted


I took the basic "wasteland" look GW has used in a number of their projects and just modified it a little. Looking closely you might see some purple underneath. I did this mainly to break up the gray. I "borrowed" the idea from a zone in World of Warcraft when I played it back in the day called The Blasted Lands.

Since Pieridium is the much sought after mineral, and since it in some way ties in with necrons, I kinda mashed it all together to make those bright green deposits. I tried to make them look crystalline, but since the bumps were blunt and rounded, it doesn't translate as well as I like. Even still, looking at it the players should be like, "Oh hey, the rocks here are green, maybe they are special?"

For the sake of anyone ever wanting to duplicate or experiment with the color progressions I used they are as follows:

Gray Wastleland- Based with P3 greatcoat gray then painted with stripes of P3 Beaten Purple-I think, whichever one is the darkest-then washed over with CW Badab Black. Dry-brushed with P3 Underbelly Blue, then dry-brushed again with P3 Frostbite.

Structures/Hive City- Based with P3 Bloodstone then washed with CW Devlan Mud. Dry-brushed over with P3 Skorne Red, then again with P3 Midland Flesh. The metal parts were based in P3 Blighted Gold then washed with P3 Turquoise Ink and water. They were given a highlight, albeit sloppily, of P3 Solid Gold followed by another of P3 Radiant Platinum.
From Stuff I Have Painted


Pieridium (The Green Rocks)- Based in P3 Iosan Green then washed with CW Thraka Green. Given a highlight of P3 Necrotite Green, followed by another of P3 Necrotite Green/P3 Morrow White (About 50/50) mix with a some water added to thin it.

Tonight I get to put it all together, probably with my wife's help, and a few buddies. The other five players were tasked with painting their own space port tile, which is why I only painted 43/48 tiles, and four structures (One of each type). I can't wait to see how they all turned out. I will post pics, of course, of the individual tiles, as well as the surface of Belsbeth one it is assembled.

All I have left now is a few structures that will be added throughout the campaign and then my Planetary Empires set is fully painted. At which point I can get back to my Tau. I marvel at my own ability for sabotage at times. As I was painting fire warriors I was thinking I would rather be painting anything but fire warriors. As I have been working on Belsbeth I have been thinking how I would kill to paint another fire warrior.

With this planet stuff being squared away I am going to try and get one of my Shas'els done, and his two body guard suits for this. However I also really want to do Pathfinders...or my stealth suit team, so we will see who wins out. Either way, it is nice to have the better part of a project behind me so I can move on to the next. The structures will be done by Sunday, and then my brush goes back once more to the space-fish-men.

Thanks for reading,
T

Thursday, October 15, 2009

A Little Belsbethian Back Story

I started working on the background of the planet Belsbeth, as it pertains to 40k. While I have a whole grip of stuff for D&D, the 40k fluff is pretty new to me. Anyway this is what I got:

Belsbeth, located deep within the Second Jing sector, first came into Imperial notice two centuries prior, when the Jing II sector was known as the Jing Nebula. At the time, the highly radiated sulfuric gases hid planets rich in mineral resources. The gases caused interference with navigation computers and psyker-guidance system alike, making the nebula difficult to navigate. That didn’t stop the bravest and most industries traders and looters of many races from navigating the nebula blind and setting up mining operations until the hostile environment either destroyed equipment, or the operation was stumbled upon by someone or something else.

Other than the occasional bravado filled miners, the nebula’s only other notice came from the Xenobiologist community specializing in the study of warp whales. The Jing nebula was a known stopping area of one of the largest migrations of these behemoths as they made their way through space. Countless academic freighters would be loaded to the brim with eager researchers hopping to catch a glimpse of the warp whale pods as they lazily made their way through the nebulous regions of Jing.

A little more than a century ago, a star classified as Stella III, located at the edge of the nebula , collapsed on itself creating a black hole. The spacial anomaly at the edge of the Jing nebula was short lived, however it did manage to consume the gasses within the nebula, clearing them out. This of course left mineral rich planets now easily accessible, causing the equivalent of an ancient Terran gold rush in the newly named Second Jing, or Jing II, sector. However, the Imperium was not the only the only race to take notice of this event in the universe, and the sector was baptized in blood as brutal conflicts erupted for ownership of the sector.

Fifty years ago the Imperium officially classified Jing II as a sector defended and in compliance. Construction took place rapidly as the various planets within the sector came under Imperial rule. Many of the governments were founded overnight, with planetary governances being awarded to families with a history of strong military service or sympathetic to the Imperial army, having house guard armies with numbers exceeding ten thousand soldiers.

For the most part the sector has remained quiet, save Belsbeth. The planet located at the far edge of the sector. Despite countless efforts, any planetary government established is soon over thrown. Ruins that Xenoarchaeologists date back more than ten thousand years are strewn about the temperate planet surface and a strong illegal trade in recovered xenoartifacts thrives. Belsbeth’s most desirable quality is the massive stores of an ore known as Pieridium, which can be refined into a hyper efficient fuel source for space craft.

Belsbeth truly is the jewel of the sector, and now the Imperium of man must fight to maintain it from invading forces, all the while an ancient evil lurks deep within, awaking from its centuries of slumber.


As I have reiterated countless times, I am super stoked for this and can't wait to get it under way. I am kinda giddy about even building the map this weekend. This whole Planetary Empires thing has me geeked out in a big way. Also, if you are really into the the behind the scenes stuff my buddy Deke cut a little swath of his own intertron space to host our forums for the campaign and they can be found here.

In other news, I finnally effin' beat Travis! We tried our hand at City Fight last night and it didn't go too well for him and his marines. All things considered, it was his first game of it ever, and he was very mindful of his mistakes during the course of the game. I, on the other hand, was in such shock that a victory was obtained at all by my Tau. I am not really sure what I did right or what he did wrong because I stood in a dumb founded stupor as his shit was actually being removed from the table every turn. It was like the first time I saw Terminator-that shot where you see Linda Hamilton's boobs-I didn't know what was happening, or what it all meant, but I knew I liked a lot.

More importantly, I finally killed that effin' Vulkan model, and as Vulkan to boot. Oh happy day! I will savor the flavor because I am sure it won't be happening again for a while.

Thanks for reading,
T

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Belsbeth's Surface Is Nearly Mapped!

All that remains for Belsbeth is the blasted out area known as "The Ravage", which will consist of seven tiles and the hive city Bloodholm. I finished the last of the temperate tiles last night and tried to make the last seven better able to sit in between the specific desert tiles and the others.

From Stuff I Have Painted
From Stuff I Have Painted


I used some of the green water on these tiles, as that was unique to a few of the desert tiles. I can't wait to put the various sections together Friday night and see the surface of the continent as a whole.

I also started cracking away at some of the included structures last night. I had some very grand aspirations for these little guys, but sadly time ran out. That is not to say that I am unhappy with how they look, it is just one of those things where I would have liked to have done more.

From Stuff I Have Painted


Instead of the ol' dry-brush treatment I was really hoping to line high-light these. Time is always a factor, and it won out here. I may well go back and bring out the highest points after the campaign is concluded, but for now I have a lot of structures to go, and a few tiles, and every thing has to be ready to rock by Friday night.

I should mention that I played in a tournament in Couer d' Alene, ID, hosted here. It was fun and I had a great time meeting new people. The weird part is how unremarkable it was to me as a tournament though. It could be my record of two draws and a loss, though my loss was a monumental ass kicking the likes of which I cannot recall being handed to me in my entire time playing 40k. It could also be because the two lists I played in the first two rounds while not similar, had enough in common to all blur together (Yay for two lash princes twice in a row!). There was also some weirdness about how the first round ended. Anyway, it wasn't a bad experience in the slightest,and the tournament organizer made a gallant effort for his first one in a very long time. But it lacked something for me, or maybe it was something in me that was not "kicked on" that day. I dunno. Also, it was 15 bucks for three rounds, which left kind of a nasty taste in my mouth. Good news was my buddy Travis won.

Lastly, my buddy Deke tells me that his first miniature is kicking ass and they got a little love on TTGN yesterday. If you read this blog and like half naked anime chics with weird Pokemon looking things hanging out with them, this line is the thing for you. Check it out here!

Thanks for reading,
T

Friday, October 9, 2009

Small Victories

Hey alright! My first Tau squad is done. It only took like three months. At this rate I will have a painted army about the time Seventh Edition is launched.

All facetiousness aside, I took a little break last night from finishing the Belsbeth tiles to get this Shas'ui done, though he isn't serving as such at the moment. I was having some issues keeping the highest green high light thin enough, so a lot of the line high lighting is more pronounced then I would like. After I have given him a coat of Purity Seal I will see if I need to give him a couple of thin ink washes to tame that last high light a little.

I pretty much followed the whole Sept marking thing out of my codex. I made the shoulder plate, bonding knife hilt, and antenna the off-white which is my Sept color. The white on this guy is a little more "bone-colored" than I would like, so I will probably use a different base going forward.

From Stuff I Have Painted


I also had some fun with the device he is holding, using more of my fast glow effect to make him more unique in the squad. I am happy with him as a first draft, but the other 'ui's going forward will get a few tweaks.

From Stuff I Have Painted


Next up, more tiles. Since we are underway in like nine days. After that though, more Tau. I really want to work on my Stealthsuits (The model was a big draw towards selecting this army.) but I will probably get four Pathfinders done first, since I use two squads of four in a lot of my lists. Right now, as bare metal, it is a little difficult to tell who is with what squad, especially if they are in the same piece of terrain.

The low temperature today is predicted at 19 degrees. Winter is on its way, which is good news for my army. These cold months are best spent chained to a warm painting table.

Thanks for reading,
T

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Orks Upside Muh Head

Last night I traveled an hour and half southeast to play in the last game of our escalation campaign. It was 1750 and I played a guy named Tony. He had some orks, unfortunately I didn't get his list exactly, but it looked awesome and he used more walkers than I had encountered before.

I was running this, which is not really optimized to the play style I am discovering with Tau. One of the rules of the campaign was that while you could swap war gear, your squads couldn't get smaller so I was stuck with some choices I had made earlier.

We met at our club house (307 S. Main #3) in Moscow, Idaho, a space we rent out in a building downtown. It is wicked cool, four tables, terrain, a fridge, and all kinds of other stuff. Sometimes people can be a little lax in paying their dues and cleaning up, but a few very dedicated souls have kept the place pretty ideal. I will take a second now to thank those dedicated souls. Magnus, Greg, James, and anyone else who is doing anything to keep our clubhouse up and running, thanks, you guys are awesome.

Back to the fight, this was our battlefield:
From Mars Project Blog
From Mars Project Blog


For the most part terrain was pretty much our standard. Shrubs gave a 5+, all of the unaccessible buildings were impassable, everything else was a ruin defined by its footprint. Stone walls were 4+ and we declared the water difficult/dangerous.

We were supposed to play the fourth Planetstrike Scenario however there were a couple things preventing us. First off, another couple guys were playing their last scenario at the same time, and they had set up first. They took all the cool buildings that could work as bastions from our terrain stash so we were left with kinda ghetto alternatives. The other, and more important factor in our deviation from the scenario was that the Planetstrike set-up rules were forcing us to hop all over the book. We were getting started at like 6:30 PM and I still had a 1.5 hour drive home, and Tony P had a 45 min drive home. In the end we decided for the sake of time we would just play an normal game and take a rain check on the scenario.

We rolled and got Annihilation and Dawn of War. Rolling off, Tony P won and chose his side, and to go first. Big surprise right? He deployed his Warboss and a couple of big mobs of shoota boys in some ruins.
From Mars Project Blog
From Mars Project Blog


Since he was set up pretty far forward, and in the middle, I knew that I was going to have to split up and make him walk to the corners I wanted as many turns as possible to shoot at stuff before he was in assault range and the kill point bonanza would begin. Fortunately he left me that little corner that had the water cutting across it (difficult/dangerous) so that would be an ideal place to make a stand since terrain could cause some wounds. My HQ and his bodyguard were put there.
From Mars Project Blog


I set up some fire warriors in the middle, nearest the other corner and infiltrated in my stealthsuits. In retrospect I really should have just tucked those fire warriors further back. I just didn't realize how far thirty inches was.
From Mars Project Blog


Turn 1

Tony P (My opponent.) moved his army on and lobbed a shot from the gun wagon at the fire warriors. Cause of night fight it deviated like 10 inches and hit the stealth suits instead but a cover save was made to keep the stealthsuit alive.
From Mars Project Blog
From Mars Project Blog
From Mars Project Blog


I came on with my transports in one corner, and some piranhas in the other corner with my HQ suits. All of his walkers and his gun wagon where in the middle so I brought my broadsides on with a line of sight to those, again, in hindsight a poor choice as there were now two kill points sitting directly across from his mobs.
From Mars Project Blog
From Mars Project Blog
From Mars Project Blog


My first turn of shooting equaled a whole lot of can't see shit 'cause of night fight. However, my Hammerhead rolled high and lobbed a sub-munition shot onto the heads of the lootas in cover. Tony P rolled low, bombing like four 4+ cover saves. The lootas broke and ran off the board! One kill point for the Tau.
From Mars Project Blog


Turn 1 ends with me having 1 kill point, Tony P zero.

Turn 2

Tony P's orks want blood. They kick it in gear and start moving out. He lobs a couple of shots my way but doesn't do much.
From Mars Project Blog


I return fire in my turn, but at this point his dice have decided to boycott anything less than 4+. A whole lot of nothing goes on on one end of the table. On the other I get greedy with my piranhas and race them up to open trucks. I have a target lock on one piranha so they both shoot at the trucks, 2 pens. One truck is immobilized and the other is destroyed.
From Mars Project Blog


I completely forgot to bring my pathfinders in on the first turn so they end up in negligent reserve. Using my positional relay I bring them in on a 2+ cause I have a shot at Tony P's deathkoptas. They unload, and his deathkoptas pass all but one armor test. Tony P's high rolling antics come back to bite him in the arse as he fails a pinning test from the pulse carbine.
From Mars Project Blog


Turn 2 ends with getting another kill point from the truck so I am up 2 zip!

Turn 3

His orks slog forward. Ork bikes are able to take out the pathfinders that jumped deathkoptas on the other side of the board. Ork boys jump the piranhas that I was too eager with, getting one, stunning the other.
From Mars Project Blog


I drop in my melta suits on a suicide mission to go after the gun wagon and the dread (They have target locks). The effin mekboy obscures both, so two penetrating hits vanish with 4+'s. My railguns bounce off the battle wagon bearing down on me, and my hammer head takes one of three cans. On the other side I bring in my scouting unit of fire warriors (Veteran ability from the campaign.) as well as my other crisis suit. Everything on one side of the board with the HQ dumps their shots into the boyz that assaulted the piranhas, killing them all and saving my piranha from being hit automatically next turn.

Turn 3 ends with me having 3 kill points, Tony P 1

Turn 4
From Mars Project Blog


So the melta suits die to the dread in a hurry. The deathkoptas shoot at the remaining piranha but only manage a Stun and Weapon Destroyed. The bikes, a turn out from having to go get my pathfinders in the corner, move to wreck havoc on everything in the water terrain corner. In a great round of shooting my fire warriors are pounded down to the last man. But he sticks it out!

In my turn I bring on my outflanking Kroot and handle the bike squad. They had USR Relentless as a veteran ability so they could rapid fire and assault in the same turn. It was pretty nasty. Everything in the water corner went to work on the deathkoptas and we finally got those to run, saving the limping piranha for another turn.

Turn 4 ends with me having 5 kill points, Tony P 2.

Turn 5, Waaaghhhh

From Mars Project Blog


This turn was bloody. Tony P's remainingg slugga boyz from the immobilized truck opened up on my kroot knocking a bunch down, then cleaning them up in assault. The boyz in the railgun proof battle wagon hopped out and shot the broadsides before assaulting them and wiping them out. The dread charges my Hammerhead and lands a hit cause rolling sixes is just what Tony P does. Lucky for me there was a lapse, and he only got a "1" on the vehicle damage chart. His 'kans manage to Immobilize and Stun my devilfish and Tony P hits a "5" on difficult terrain and is able to assault my stealthsuits in the second level of their ruin, wiping them out.
From Mars Project Blog


I lose three kill points in one turn.

I pop out my fire warriors, hoping the combined fire power of them and the drones can thin his mob and have a chance at making them run or pinning them.
From Mars Project Blog


It doesn't.

My hammerhead has to limp away 12" unable to contribute. My piranha gets to move for the first time in two turns. It jets 24" to the corner, unable to do anything, hiding to preserve a kill point. It takes 4 missile pods, 2 burst cannons, and 2 plasma guns to finish off the Immobilized truck. It left some half-hearted attempts at the squad of boyz in the ruins from the remaining transport, drones, and fire warriors. I killed one, and managed to pin the boyz squad. My pulse carbines were really coming through today!

As Turn 5 came to close I was feeling a lot like this fire warrior:
From Mars Project Blog


However, in a miraculous event, Tony P's dice decided one final time not to roll a "6". Instead rolling a "1" and ending the game on Turn 5. We worked out the final tally and I had six kill points, he had 5.

The Tau eek out a win!

Really, I just dodged a bullet here. Had we gone to six there would have been eff all I could do about losing three kill points. I wouldn't have the guns on the board to take enough to even tie without some stellar rolls. The name of the game was dice for Tony P. When they fell good for him, they were real good. But when they fell bad, it was the difference between a win and a loss.

Tony P was a great opponent and I totally look forward to playing him again. Also a huge thanks to Magnus for setting this whole thing up and running it. It was a lot of fun and worth the travel every time.

Thanks for reading,
T