Wednesday, January 25, 2012

WIP/Modeling update: Doomsday Device

So i was invited to an apoc game with some friends about a year ago. Now this was an epicly huge game, aprox 150k+ worth of points on a 6' x 20' table. Now I've got about maybe 8k worth of crap that I can throw together. Fortunately my friend linked me to a site with a bunch of pdfs that have all sorts of apoc formations an crap, this is where I found the DDD, and thus fell in love with it. Now for those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about I'll explain. It's basicly an immobile super heavy with 3 structure points that you first have to activate, once activated you roll on a chart to see what kind f shot you get that shooting phase, things like Heavy D6 SD AP1 shots, S* AP3 Apoc barrage 4, or simple being a dud, or possibly blowing itself up. No as crazy as it might sound, well it is. During this first game I took 4, but with work and a little girl I was hard pressed for time to construct them and in the end used cans. I was thus chewed out by all my friends there, and rightly so. Well this year we're having a much smaller game and I have ample warning and time. So this is my WIP blog about constucting 1 hopefully more.

Now thee fun part about doomsday devices is that there is no model, nor any rules on what it should look like or its dimensions, etc. In theory you could make one as big as you wanted, but thats not realistic and probably wouldn't go over well. I've looked up alot of different pictures online and there are some sweet constructions out there, but I'm not to fond of the idea that this is a machine. I'm really into Slaanesh, more hardcore then I think anyone should be. I love the idea of the chaos powers culminating togther and striking down enemies with raw warp power. So I decided to go with the idea of altars, or idols of sorts, something that the powers can use as a icon in the real space world. More like the attacks that these things shoot out is the wrath of slaanesh culminating upon said altar and being directed by some sorcerer whos performing some ritual.

That being stated, I went through anything and everything I could get my hands on to start building something that I liked and could pass as one of these chaos altars. What I found was a bunch of skulls and cauldrens from the haloween direcorations. But to me it was too khorne, the skulls at least, so how could I make this Slaaneshi? Well I grabbed a blank cd and glued 6 of them around it, then stuck the pot on top. I was slightly inspired by the cauldren of blood from the Dark Elves, ya know just a wee bit . I used spackle to fill in the gaps. Then put on 6 spikes, draped chains around it (all my noise marines have chains, ya know kinky stuff) and then glued on rocks to base it a bit. I wanted this to look like a place of sacred sacrifice, something that was built where ever i place it on the board and had been there for awhile. Not a machine dropped from orbit. So anyway, heres what i looks like so far, hope you enjoy.



Saturday, January 21, 2012

Unit Analysis: Doomsday Device (DDD) Part 1


So this week I wanted to talk about another unit I love. It’s the Doomsday Device. Now most of you may not have heard about it, I didn’t until I randomly got a pdf of it, and sequentially fell in love with it. As you may have guessed it is a Apocalypse unit, a super heavy in fact. It costs 400 points, has AV14 all around, and three structure points. It’s not a tank, and it doesn’t move. All you do is set it up during deployment and then wait for it to shoot.

So…what are its uses? Well for starters it’s only 400 points; pretty cheap when you think of other Apoc units. Now by itself you may not find it very useful. I mean, it is Apoc, and a single AV14 super heavy doesn’t really stand a chance. But with multiple of them you can decimate armies in every single shoting phase. You have the chance to do either Apoc Barrage (4) S8 AP3 Pinning anywhere you please, a single 72” S D AP2 Heavy D6, or D3+2 Apoc Blast S10 AP1 Pinning blast templates anywhere you want. Sound awesome? Yeah, that’s cause it is. Now there are a few downfalls, as there are in anything in life.

First off they don’t move, you deploy them at the start of the game and then sit and wait. This cuts down on your ability to ever get a better firing lane, so you gotta make sure to put it somewhere not too in the open but not too secluded either. In the end there is only one shot that you can get that you need los for, all the others are blast templates anywhere on the board. Second, they don’t automatically fire on turn one. Basically you roll a D6 and add the turn number to it, if the total is a 7 or higher it activates and all is fine and dandy, till then though it’s aggravating as hell. Third, once activated it can blow up in your face…literally. Besides rolling all those different awesome shooting attacks you also have the chance to either:

1 – Become a dud. Meaning its completely useless for the rest of the game.

2 – Add +1 to next turns roll. Not the worst, just sucks not shooting for a turn.

3 – Blowing up and everything within 6D6” takes a S8 AP3 hit. This just sucks, that’s it.

4 – Going nuclear. Now it doesn’t happen right away, but in your next turn everything within 6D6” is removed from the table. Terrain, models, objectives, you name it.

Lastly, and this is my favorite part, DDDs don’t explode, they can only become wrecks. Nay, instead of rolling on the Catastrophic Damage table you roll on the Chart of Devastation and get one last shot off. And you get to do this regardless of whether or not you’ve activated it. So in the end, if your opponent decides they’re gonna eliminate it turn 1 you’ll still have a chance to do something with it. Last game I played one of mine was destroyed by a Carifex, and then it took out an entire 10 man White Scar unit who was flanking me on the other side of the table.

So there you have it. The pros and cons for the doomsday device. I figured I’d write this part first just to give you all an intro into this awesome piece of chaos weaponry. I’ll be back soon to discuss the tactical uses for it, as well as my first modeling/WIP article cause I’m currently working of two, possibly three of these because I always take multiple in any Apoc game. So look forward to those in the next few weeks, hope this was insightful and if you have any questions feel free to ask/email me. Deuces.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Gator men VS Cryx 35



Well heres our first warmachine batrep.

I decided to try out a cryx list that id been thinking of.


caster kill


My list:
eskarre+6
2x rippers
reaper
skarlock
min banes
ua
satyxis raider captain
10 satyxis raiders
ua
warwitch siren

His:
 Bloody Barnabas6
Bull Snapper3 Blackhide Wrastler9
Blackhide Wrastler9
Gatormen Posse (Leader and 4 Grunts)9
Croak Hunter2
Wrong Eye & Snapjaw 9 -35

MAP





DEPLOYMENT




he goes first

Barnabas throws out swamp pits
wrastler runs
wrastler runs
Bull snaper runs, uses animus to cast spiny growth on the wrastler
snapjaw runs and casts submerge animus
wrong eye runs and casts submerge
Gatormens run (yes gatormenS), and cast dirge of mists (suprise suprise)
Croak hunter runs




My turn
one focus to each deathripper
Warwitch gives a power boost to reaper, advances
reaper runs
rippers run
Skarre casts admonition on deathrippers, advances
All satyxis advance
banes run
Skarlock advances and casts deathward on reaper






His 2
He doesnt upkeep Anything
He pulls fury to max
wrong eye leachs off snaps
And barnabas advances
Croak hunter advances and hurls his spear at the satyxis, hes out
Snap jaw well...snaps and attacks the croak hunter and rips him bodily apart
Wrong eye casts submerge on both of them (snappie)
His wrastler(s) charge my satyxis to get extra movement (??)
Gatormens advanced, and dirge of misted





My 2
I drop all upkeeps
2 focus on reaper
warwitch gives reaper one, then advances back
reaper moves up and shoots the red wrastler, i boost (-.-) doing one damage, i drag and hit him, doing 4 damage, buy another for 2 points, another for 7
SKarlock casts admonition on the banethralls and advanced
deathrippers advance
Banes charge the wrastla, doing 10
skarre activates, advances and attacks the wrastler and kills it, and admonitions herself





His 3
barnabas advances and feats (awww!)





His wrastler charges and is out
snap jaw charges skarre...11 damage, then his tail kills her.

WIN TO GATORMEN!!

END GAME

Well thoughts on the game:
I was going to bait his wrastlers in and kill them to stop his fury shenanigans, that didnt work very well though! Then I was stupid and forgot to pop Skarres feat to protect her, total noob mistake too!

Typical newbie mistake leaving my caster open. If i had popped my feat I would have then just killed what ever came at me and picked him apart with my infantry spam.

Hoped you enjoyed it! Feed back welcome.