A Quick Late 'Ard Boyz Report, Nids Take Third

I brought my Nids to 'Ard Boyz this year and though I had to borrow from two different people, I still don't think my list was as tight as I would have liked it. Here's what I took:

Parasite
Doom+Pod
Hive Guard
3xVenomthropes

10 Termagants
Tervigon
10 Termagants
Tervigon
10 Genestealers

3x Spore Mines
3x Spore Mines
30 Gargoyles

Trygon Prime
Tyrannofex
Tyrannofex

Looking back I think I'd rather have another Tervigon and two more Trygons instead of the T-Fex. However, the Gargoyles+Venomthropes is a golden combo. If you string them out right, you can still get the cover save while still moving full distance. The formation looks something like a T.

Anyway, my first game was up against the other Nid player in the store, from whom I borrowed the Venomthropes. He has an all-drop list. He managed to drop a pod of warriors in behind my lines and nearly killed my traitor, but only because he whiffed his rolls pretty bad. I didn't kill his traitor either and got a minor victory.  Had he killed mine I would have taken a minor loss.

The second game was up against Orks. Ed from LATCS was running a Battlewagon army. For some reason he put everything except his Lootas in reserve. That sole fact allowed me to win the game. I advanced with everything and on his turn two realized there's no point in going after his objective as it was only worth one point as opposed to the other quarters which were worth two. Ed's army came in piecemeal but even then I couldn't stop all his battlewagons. I don't think I killed a single one. However, I did slow him down. His Lootas were also on fire, rolling a 3 on their D3 every time and hitting well over 50% of the time each time they shot. They took out my Hive Guard, put 5 wounds on a T-Fex and killed a Tervigon. We only got to turn 4 (two horde armies will do that to you) and I held my objective plus the center one while contesting his.  If he had started on the board there's no way I could have stopped him in time. That netted me a massacre, however if the game had gone on I'm sure I would have lost.

The third game was against Chaos. The game was pretty rough and tumble and I had a hard time killing his vehicles. I may have killed one. I immobilized his Land Raider with a lucky hit from a Broodlord but couldn't finish it off. He killed a lot of my stuff and I got a minor loss.

In the end I took third. I ordered a Ruins of Osgiliath terrain piece as it's a cool piece and could be used in Fantasy or 40k, plus Mordheim.

I learned that I'd rather have the extra Trygons and another Tervigon as my HQ. I also learned that I'm going to need at least two more boxes of Termagants, not to mention at least two boxes more if I get the third Tervigon.

Painted Lictor

For this guy I did an experiment to speed up my painting.  Instead of mixing each layer of highlight individually, I created batches and bottled them so I can use them again.  Furthermore I reduced my highlighting layers to three for the carapace, skin and claws.  Normally I do about 7 for the carapace, 5 for the claws and 4 for the skin.  Some models get more layers (like my Malanthrope), but to speed things up I wanted to push how few I could do and still get good results.

The carapace isn't as bright as normal, and I may add one more layer back.  I may have to use a slightly different technique as well to make the blend better.

Tyrannofex Conversion

After months and months of sitting on my desk it's finally done.  I picked the Carnifex kit as my prize for Fantasy 'Ard Boyz Prelims and intended to make a Tyrannofex, so I've had it on my desk since April.  I found this conversion very difficult.  The hardest part was the upper carapace.  I used Instant Mold to make the cannons.

Originally I was going to have his claws gouged in the ground like a Biovore for support, but I couldn't bear to cut the claws off at the tip.  I like them too much.

All I have left to do to finish the Tyranid range is the Doom of Malan'Tai and a Tyranid Prime.  If I beat GW to the finish line it will be a sad day, as I am a slow worker and the book has been out for a year and a half.  Next on my workbench though is a Skaven Mordheim warband!

Let's Talk Boardgames: Settlers of Catan

Image from www.amazon.com

Settlers for me is like that one band you discovered in high school that no one else had heard of. Then all of a sudden everyone got into it and now they're not cool anymore. I discovered Settlers when my college roommate brought it back from Germany. We played it in German (with none of us speaking German except my roommate) and due to the game's simplicity, had no problems learning and playing.

Then it seemed like EVERYONE knew about Settlers and it started appearing in English. I started to lose interest mostly due to burnout. However, I also consider it to be my first hipster moment. Recently however, I've started to rediscover what it is that makes this game so popular.

Gameplay is simple yet strategically deep. The board is a random set of hexagons, each representing a particular resource. Numbers between 2-12 are assigned to each so the board is different every time you play. The objective is to obtain 10 victory points before anyone else (expansions raise this to 12). You gain points by building settlements, cities and roads. On a roll of a 7, the robber can shut down a tile and steal resources.

Trading resources is an encouraged, and certainly necessary part of the game. Resources can then spent to expand, or upgrade your settlements into cities. You can also purchase development cards which allow you to bump the robber, give you free roads or other improvements.

The rules are very simple. I was able to learn despite all the components being in German. This is a game you can get your non-gamer friends to play. There are three expansions for the game: Seafarers, Cities and Knights, and Traders and Barbarians. Each adds a new level of play. In Seafarers, most of the board is unknown and is revealed as you explore. In Cities and Knights, you must defend Catan against barbarians while improving your cities internally. I have not played Traders and Barbarians, but it allows movement on roads and various other scenarios.

The game supports 4 players, but also has a 5-6 player expansion (you'll need one for each further expansion, so it does get a bit pricey). For your first expansion I'd recommend Cities and Knights. Seafarers is good but Cities and Knights has a lot more depth. Learning this game is much less intimidating than Agricola or Dominion. If you've never played a Euro-style game before, this is a great place to start.

I Cheated On Purpose

One of the guys in our local group, IGJames, is getting ready for the Broadside Bash.  He's got a reputation for being our most hardcore tournament player.  You can hear an interview with him on the Life After The Cover Save podcast (strong language warning).  Anyway, as part of his preparation he's been playing against people with his 1850 tournament list with all kinds of handicaps.  Some of these handicaps include the opponent having extra points or getting to go first.  I challenged him to a game but I would be allowed to cheat.  He knew up front what I was doing and part of the game was him trying to catch me.

That's a cheetah, in case it's not obvious.

The first thing I did was make my list over points.  That's an easy one to get away with in a pickup game, but if the tournament organizers are on top of things it's harder to get away with it in a tournament setting.  For the rest of the game I found it really hard to cheat, but here's what I did.

I was playing Eldar.  I deployed about 16" in, instead of 12".  I fudged my movement with my vehicles, moving them from front to back, or bumping them forward a few inches after I moved them.  As I started taking casualties I would simply "forget" to take morale and pinning tests.  He reminded me on most of them but I got away with a few.  I accidentally forgot to allocate wounds, but he caught me on that one.  It never came up but with my Rangers I was planning on not rolling to wound if I rolled a 6 to hit, and just feign confusion over the rules.  I tried cheating with the dice, picking up failed wounds and calling them successes.  That one is only easy when the opponent isn't watching.  Another guy who didn't know the conditions of our game came up and watched our game which made things more difficult for me.  I still got away with quite a few things, but it didn't make a difference.  Every tank I had was gone by turn three.  My Farseer (with a fudged statline) survived until turn 5 but got destroyed finally in close combat.

From this I learned that it's really easy to get away with minor cheats like dice rolls and statlines in Xenos codices.  Please note I am not justifying cheating.  If you cheat you are a Scumbag Steve as pictured above.  It's very easy to say, "Oh yes, my Farseer is T4 and has base 2 attacks" when you know he doesn't.  Should your opponent question you, just feign ignorance and say you confused him with Eldrad.  Feigning ignorance is easy to get away with but it only works once.

I think where cheating is the most damaging is in a tournament setting.  Sometimes games hinge on a single dice roll, and having that little extra cheating edge can make you win when you shouldn't have.  When prizes are involved, people are more willing to bend the rules in their favor.

So what can you do if you suspect your opponent is cheating?  Do you review every statline and question every special rule?  If you do that you'll slow the game down too much.  What do you do?

In my opinion the best thing to do is be familiar with all codices.  Know what your opponents can and can't do.  Also, don't take your eyes off the table.  If he's rolling dice behind a big LoS blocking piece of terrain, just move over where you can see them.

How else can you deal with cheating in a tournament or a local pickup game?

Using Instant Mold

Vacation is over.  Back to work.  I recently purchased some Instant Mold from CoolMiniOrNot and am thoroughly impressed with it.  Below you can see the first piece I did.

It's pretty good!  The only thing you need to be aware of is that air bubbles can get caught in fine details. Watch out for that.  You can mitigate it slightly by the way you put the green stuff in.

You can also make two part molds.  This is a little trickier.  What's this image above?  You'll see soon!

It's really simple to use.  The thing to remember is patience.  Don't peel the mold off while the GS is curing, and don't peel the mold off while it's cooling.  Let it cool normally.  I'm not sure if you can put it in the fridge to speed things up, but don't peel it off early or it will deform.

This is going to be a vital tool in my conversion arsenal.  Anyone who does a lot of converting should have some of this.  It's not expensive and opens new doors of conversion possibilities.

A Hilariously Ignorant Review of Space Marine

Have a read and get in on the nerd rage!

You'll note that he's updated it (addressing the torrent of nerd rage) and the update is longer than the original article.  I think what he was trying to say is that gameplay elements are similar to Gears of War, but even in his correction he still insinuates that Warhammer is ripped from Gears.

Frankly this guy doesn't know what he's talking about, it's further evident when he says Harvest Moon debuted in 2005.  It came out on the DS in 2005 but the franchise is far older than that.  I remember playing it in 1999 on the 64 and according to a two-second Google search it first came out in 1996.

On another note, people in the comments should avoid the ad hominems.  Let's be a good example of our community and stick to refuting his inaccurate assumptions.