Valkyrie's Teeth

Stupid adult life has totally gotten in the way of my playing with plastic army men!
I have been taking my 40K hobby in small doses, and working on a few neglected projects. I have been painting up my Tau army, which has been assembled since 2001, with a minor expansion in 2006. After painting up 48 Firewarriors and 17 Crisis Suits I needed a small break. I looked over at the shelf of half-done units.

I have been sloooowly working on three Valkyries and one Vendetta over the last year and a half. The lead model did not need much more work to get it finished. Two hours later I was done. It is such a good feeling to get a unit finished, especially one that had been put aside for such a long time. Now that this Valkyrie has been completed,  the next two should go much faster now that I know this is the way I want them to look.

 I know I am not alone in the fact that I have quite a few units and even armies that are being working on at the same time. I find it interesting how the ebb and flow of different projects happen. I find that planning to play in a League or a Apocalypse battle is a great motivator to finish up a project or two. We all have these slow burn projects, just waiting for the right motivation and or time to get them to the finish line.

I am trying to get better about this, to focus on just one army or unit and get it done before starting another one. With so many cool things to build and paint in the Grim Darkness, it gets hard to just pick one at a time!

First Stab at Sixth

Three games into Sixth and the sky did not fall. The game is not ruined. I do wonder how many gamers did "get out for good", as many threatened.  We like it. All battles have been small (1000-1500 points) so no allies yest, but maybe this weekend. Here are just the quick hi-lights of the rule changes for us.

Snapfire: Sure you only have a 1 in 6 chance, but it is a lot better than nothing, and did prove useful a couple of times.
Pre-measuring: We all were a big fan of this, and seemed to speed up play a bit.

Hull Points: The curse of the unkillable vehicle is finally over! The tanks and such seem to have a shorter lifespan, but we are all okay with it. All of us have suffered the endless cycle of rolling a hit, a pen, and then getting a one on the damage table. Now every glance/pen counts. Also, the random weapon destroyed is much better that having your opponent always take the big gun first.

Psychic Powers: Having the choice between your standard codex powers and the BRB powers is nice, and there are some nice powers in the BRB.

Assault Phase: A bit more steps, but does flow nicely after you get it down. The Look Out Sir rule is fun and a good balance against having your characters lead from the front. Precision Strike(and Shot) are an excellent counter to the lone figure with a Power Fist/Klaw hiding in a squad. We have not yet tried out challenges, but soon. Hammer of Wrath is so much fun, and just "feels right" for the game and the units that have it.

Missions: We have only played two of the different missions so far, but the addition of secondary missions is most welcome.

Flyers, fortifications, and allies will be in our next batch of games.

Overall we really enjoy what Sixth Edition has brought us. No, no huge changes, lots of refinements. Many small things that give the game back some of it's flavor from long ago.

For a little while to come this will be a common scene, play halted and rule books open. But a least the book itself is laid out pretty well. Just waiting for the mini edition.

The Emperor Protects

Battle Pict Captures

Lupis Rex backs up the Steel Legion and its (very) temporary allies.

Armageddon 23rd standing by for deployment.

The Gaze of Mork! (or Gork)

5th Edition Farewell

Matt's Warlord Titan makes it's semi-annual appearance.

Fourth of July, time for BBQ, booze, and Apocalypse. And this time, one last battle with Fifth edition. 5000 points per side, Eldar and Imperium versus Orks, a timeless classic. Mrs. Blackheart took a lean army, and Matt took one model with his 2500 points. A big blue one. I took a whole lot of ladz. I had 146 models to their combined 38. This would be interesting.

Being clever gitz, the Orks went first and quickly revealed both of my cunnin' strategemz. A shield generator, which both of the Stompas stayed close to, and Precision Strike, which give a 2+ to hit any one target to all units shooting at it, like a big blue one. I unloaded a horrendous amount of firepower upon the Warlord Titan. I immobilized it and took away 4 structure points, only 5 to go! The Orks took typically heavy losses, but both Stompas survived, due to the shield generator saving them from the worse of both titans shooting. 

The Orks closed for the next two turns, losing one of the Stompas and a few of the Dreads. The small numbers of Eldar were overrun at great cost to the Orks. The Revenant Titan was brought down some lucky shooting that kept it from moving, and then it was swamped by angry boyz with power klaws. That only left Big Blue.

My last Stompa, Boss Mauler,  was badly damaged but finally got a good roll with the Gaze of Mork(or Gork) and took the last structure point from the Warlord Titan. Big Blue was not about to go quietly into that good night, oh my no.

The ever popular "Before"...

I had moved in close figuring I would have to take Big Blue down the old fashioned way, with power klaws and tank-busta bombs. With no structure points left; Matt rolled on the Catastrophic Damage table and did not disappoint. The mighty Titan detonated in a 27" blast.

...and "After" pictures.

The Mega-Dread, a BattleBuggie, 2 Trukks, 2 Bikers, 4 Nobz, 12 Tankbusters, and 22 Boyz where vaporized. Only my Warboss, a Battlewagon, a Dread and a damaged Wave Serpent survived the fireball.

A fine time was had by all, although Matt was the most affected by my Ork-Fu treachery. He could have recovered from the totally cheesy goodness of the Precision Strike, but the Shield Generator making the Stompas obscured and giving them  a 4+ save was just too much to overcome. 

Fun fact: In 6th edition obscured goes down to a 5+.

My pair of fighter jets where swatted from the sky with ease, I am looking forward to seeing them work in 6th. The current FAQ from Forge World gives Super-Heavies 3 hull points for every structure point, so that means the Warlord will have 27 hull points. Yikes. 

So goodnight Fifth Edition, and thanks for all the fond memories.

Next up, our first 6th edition battle report.