So I've managed to get time in for a few games tomorrow with Brad from the Sons of Sanguinius blog. I have a couple of lists in mind to try. One is my assault Terminator heavy list and the other is a missile spam list.

The assault list needs me to be very aggressive and I struggle with this, I tend to loose focus and sometimes and up going backwards with the unit letting my opponent decide how the game is played.

The second list is a missile spam list, 3 x 5 termies with double cyclones and 3 x 2 Typhoons, it kicks out loads of missiles 12 of them tank hunting but it feels very gun line.

Both lists have 3 x 5 man crusader squads in them, I know popular opinion is that I should run bigger squads but to be honest I just cant justify spending the points on probably the most disappointing unit in the codex, I only have the minimum because I have to.

The lists win by stopping my denying my opponent the ability to score. I either shove a great big assault squad down their throat of blow them off the board with massed missile fire.

I am going to try a Chaplain with servitors, fearless and making me auto pass moral checks means the assault terminators automatically pass any zeal checks they need to make meaning the potential to roll on D6+3 after a casualty makes them an even bigger threat.

Ill let post tomorrow letting you know know the lists got on and what I've decided on.

Some piccies!!

As promised I thought I would through some more (better?) pictures up of the units I have painted for my Templar Army so far. I have had some very kind comments from those that have seen them in the "flesh".

I painted the champion white so contrast him against the rest of the black army, it makes him stand out nicely as he is such a nice figure.







As always, apologies as these were taken on my I-Phone.

Caladonian...The Final cut

So, the list has to be submitted by the 22nd of December and after chewing the cud over with Brad and reading comments from Atradies, Venerable Brother and Killswitch Ive decided to go with the list bellow which I will be sending off tomorrow night unless I once again enter indecisive mode.


HQ: Marshal, Lightning Claw, Storm Shield, Terminator Armour, Adamantine Mantle.

HQ: Emperor's Champion, Accept Any Challenge.

Elite: Sword Brethren Terminator Squad.
3 Terminator
1 Terminator with Cyclone Missile Launcher
1 Terminator with Cyclone Missile Launcher, Chain fist.
Tank Hunter

Elite: Sword Brethren Terminator Assault Squad
2 Terminator with Lightning Claws
4 Terminator with Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield
Furious Charge
1 Land Raider Crusader, Dozer Blade, Smoke Launchers, Blessed Hull.

Troops: Crusader Squad
8 Initiate with Bolt Pistol and CCW.
1 Initiate with Meltagun.
1 Initiate with Bolt Pistol & Power Weapon, Power Weapon.
1 Drop Pod.

Troops: Crusader Squad
5 Initiate with Bolt Pistol and CCW.
1 Neophyte with Bolt Pistol & CCW.
1 Neophyte with Shotgun.

Troops: Crusader Squad
5 Initiate with Bolt Pistol and CCW.
1 Neophyte with Bolt Pistol & CCW.
1 Neophyte with Shotgun.

Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron
1 Land Speeder Typhoon.
1 Land Speeder Typhoon.

Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron
1 Land Speeder Typhoon.
1 Land Speeder Typhoon.

The main changes I've made are; Claw on the Marshal and some Neophytes to appease Venerable Brother.

The Drop Pod squad means that I can dump a nice fat squad more or less anywhere I want to contest objectives, support the assault terminators or generally make a nuisance of themselves.

Its nice and flexible and gives me some nice options and the Drop Squad means I can react to threats and the fact it drops in means my opponent will have to think about thier more static units deployment.

Comments anyone?

Caladonian alternative list

So I've been having some thoughts about my caladonian list and I have been thinking about some alternatives and this is what I've come up with so far.


HQ: Marshal
Chain Fist, Storm Shield,,Terminator Armour, Adamantine Mantle

HQ: Emperor's Champion, Accept Any Challenge...

Elite: Sword Brethren Terminator Squad
3 Terminators
2 Terminator with Cyclone Missile Launcher
Tank Hunters

Elite: Sword Brethren Terminator Squad
3 Terminators
2 Terminator with Cyclone Missile Launcher
Tank Hunters

Elite: Sword Brethren Terminator Assault Squad
2 Terminator with Lightning Claws
4 Terminator with Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield
Furious Charge
1 Land Raider Crusader, Dozer Blade, Smoke Launchers, Blessed Hull

Troops: Crusader Squad
3 Initiate with Bolt Pistol and CCW
1 Initiate with Plasmagun
1 Initiate with Lascannon

Troops: Crusader Squad
3 Initiate with Bolt Pistol and CCW
1 Initiate with Plasmagun
1 Initiate with Lascannon

Troops: Crusader Squad
3 Initiate with Bolt Pistol and CCW
1 Initiate with Plasmagun
1 Initiate with Lascannon

Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron
1 Land Speeder Typhoon

Im a bit stuck.

That lot comes out at 1809 points and I have no idea where I might spend the remaining 41.

My problem with this list is that it doesn't have a massive assault presence, I doesnt present a huge ranged threat, I think it might be a balanced list!!!

Any help would be appreciated.

Work in progress

Its been a while since I posted anything I'm working on so here we go.

I've got 4 Typhoons to build and paint, I have 3 so I need to pick up another one (I may try to get one for Crimbo from the missis)

The first one is about half way there, the pilot is done, all the flashing lights in the cockpit are jewelled. Need to finish the missiles and gunner, then some scripting on the bodywork then on to number 2.

Once again the pics are taken with my IPhone so they aint great quality so apologies.

Caladonian foot slogging

So onto my next tournamanet is Caladonian uprising, I will be continuing with the foot slogging theme, its fluffy and frankly hard as fuck. If I play it well it should return the favour and do well. It ticks all the boxes, good ranged fire in the form of 8 S8+1 Missiles and 20 S4+1 Stormbolters from the Tankhunting Cyclone Terminators, 8 S8 missiles and 12 S5 HeavyBolter shots from the Typhoons and a Hammer unit (Litteraly hammers) made entirley of doom. The list will suffer from the failings of all foot armies, opponents that can move fast but I think I can cope with them, I'll be fun finding out.

Caladonian Uprising 1850 points

Its dirty but easy to deal with if my opponent doesnt open his bowels at the sight on 10 Tank Hunting Thunderhammer Terminators with all the bells and whistles strapped on sprinting upto his lines. 30 thunder Hammer attacks on I1, 5 Chainfist attacks on I1, 4 attacks from the Chump on I5? Yes please, I cant think of any unit in the game that can take that and remain in tact.

So below is list 1 - I ran it against Eldar last night and It did rather well. I got a draw on objective and won on killpoints.

1850 Pts - Black Templars Roster

Total Roster Cost: 1850

HQ:

1 Marshal, , Chain Fist, Storm Shield, Terminator Armor Adamantine Mantle.

1 Emperor's Champion, Accept Any Challenge

Elite:

10 Terminator with Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield, Crusader Seals,

Tank Hunters

3 Terminator

1 Terminator with Cyclone Missile Launcher, Cyclone Missile Launcher.

1 Terminator with Cyclone Missile Launcher, Cyclone Missile Launcher, Chainfist.

Tank Hunters

3 Terminator

1 Terminator with Cyclone Missile Launcher, Cyclone Missile Launcher.

1 Terminator with Cyclone Missile Launcher, Cyclone Missile Launcher, Chainfist.

Tank Hunters

Troop:

5 Initiate with Bolt Pistol and CCW

5 Initiate with Bolt Pistol and CCW

5 Initiate with Bolt Pistol and CCW

Fast Attack:

1 Land Speeder Typhoon

1 Land Speeder Typhoon

1 Land Speeder Typhoon

1 Land Speeder Typhoon

Let me know what you think. I know its going to suffer against some armies, Dark Eldar is going to be a BAAAAAAD matchup but I'm in for the

game as much as the win. I have no idea how it will fare against necrons.

Any thoughts?

Year End?

Next stop - Caladonian Uprising

So after some small success at Blog Wars 2 the next event I'm attending is Caladonian Uprising which will be the

beginning of my second tournament season.

So how did I do year 1?

Vapnartak - Middle of the field with Imperial Guard.

Openwar - Middle of the field with Imperial Guard.

Onslaught - Middle of the field with Black Templars and Best painted army (players Choice).

Blog War 2 - Top quarter with Black Templars and Best painted Special Character.

Thats really not bad at all, far better than I expected if im honest. My soft scores are good but my playing could be rather allot better. Now I'm not kidding myself, I'm not a bad player but I'm no ETC winner either. I play for fun more thank anything else and I happy with midfield and I think the painting score mean more to me than the tournament placings. That is not to say that I wont be playing harder and trying to place better and I think I have the codex that is capable of doing it.

How do I intent to do this?

I need to play slower; I suffer from giddy idiot syndrome. If i see a jucy target I tend to go for it, I forget to run units, I get ahead of myself and sometimes miss the obvious that then go on to cost me opportunities, points and victories.

Know the rules; I still dont know the deployment types by heart and feel like a bit of a doughnut reading the rule book so I don't look like an idiot, and some of the missions are a mystery to me. Not knowing what I can and cannot do has again and again cost me dear,

many times, at Blogwars it may have cost me 2nd or 3rd place or even a crack at 1st (maybe not).

Think more about what I'm doing and how I want to acheave it; On several occasions this year even playing friendlys I have dithered with units that really needed to be doing something. Particularly with the big Assault Terminator unit I've had them lounging about in midfield and they have ended up doing nothing, I don't deploy as well as I could, I deploy units I should reserve, I'm more concerned with getting the shot instead of conserving my units, I just cannot be trusted to run a Land raider with all those guns itching to be fired.

Next year I hope to do better, I'm booked into Caladonian Uprising at 1850 points and Vapnartak at 1000 points and I want to get a 3rd one in by the end of march if I can but we shall see!!

Next year I intend to try to run the footsloggers throughout next year and I'll keep tweeking the list as I go. Im taking a list Bradimus Prime has dubbed "The Thunder Bummer" to Caladonian and a variation of that to Vapnartak, I have discussed the list with a few of the tournament regulars and they have all reacted in the same way, fear!!!

I also intend to get some better photos up of my Templars and start putting them up so you can see the progress I've made. I still have a couple thousand points of Templar to paint so I want to get cracking through them and if the rumour mill is to be believed Templar's will get a new codex in 2012 so it may throw up some more army list possibilities...we shall see.

Blog Wars 2 - the aftermath!!

So Im back from Blog Wars 2 run by Alex at From the Fang and I have to say what a good event, Well run, great players and a good, fun event.

There was a great mix of tournament regulars, bloggers and the guys from 40kUK were there too. This tournament is on my list to head to whenever it comes up.

I played 3 games each of 2 hours 30 min each with primary and secondary objectives which I will list as i go through the missions and how I did.

I had intended to take photos of all the turns for each game but I kept forgetting...what a numpty.

Game 1 V`s Graham Sanders Tyranids from Rogue Trader Blog

The mission was kill points with the special character worth 2 and Dawn of war.

I was not happy about facing doom with a full foot slogging list, in fact I felt my bum hole tighten at the prospect.

I was however not a problem, at the end of tun 2 the Assault Brethren had killed 2 Spores, a Carnefex and 2 Zonthropes and the rest of the army accounted for another Spore, Doom and put some wounds on the remaining Fex and I had not taken any significant casualties.

By the bottom of turn 4 he had lost his Tyrant, the remaining Fex the last of the Thropes and all the remaining spores. The Assault Brethren were eating his army and the Tervigons were pumping out kill points.

By the time the game ended I had 1800+ VP and 16 kill points and not lost a single unit. The assault Brethren had scored 9 of those kill points by themselves, they gave me the massive win. Helbrecht performed well against the trash but did bugger all against the bigger, more important stuff. at 1 point he kicked out his full 8 attacks on the charge but that was his highlight.

That win shoved me straight up to table 2 playing Gary "the voice" Percival from the 40kUK podcast and his Deathwing army.

Turns 1-4 saw all my Crusaders killed by a mad amount of Krak missiles and he lost a few terminators to massed fire and exploding speeders.

Turn 5 after some manoeuvring I managed to get into assault range of his command squad and needed a 6 on a charge through difficult terrain which I got and then over the next 2 turns the Assault Brethren wiped them out and he fed them 2 more 5 man assault units which the obligingly ate and when the game ended turn 6 he had 3 table quarters to my 1 giving him 3-0 on Primary objectives but I had scored 3 points on secondary objective through victory points making it 0-3 to me. So after checking with Alex we had a draw.

This game went to a draw but only because Gary made a game of it, he could have won this one by reversing his army pouring fire into my assault unit, I may never have caught him as I spent a turn dithering with them midfield.

Game 3 saw me playing against Dave Symcox, the host of 40kUK who quite frankly outplayed me, 3 turns of firing from 4 grey hunter packs and long fangs and some other stuff left me with bugger all left. I got ground out, the game may have gone differently if I hadn't made a mistake with failed charge but I got comprehensively spanked.

That game cost me 2nd or 3rd place.

I did however play pretty well, my list (excluding Helbrecht) was awesome, the Assault Terminators are epic. I have read stuff on this website and I disagree that gun lines are the way forward for Templar's, If you want a gun line play guard or car parking Grey Knights.

Templar's are about shoving a spiky unit down you opponents throat!!

So I think I placed 4th but it wasn't so clear on the evening so I shall edit this post once Alex publishes is on From the Fang.

I did after all my complaining about him win best painted Special Character in the evening for Helbrecht so I went away very pleased with my performance playing and my painting.

I would like to thank Alex for a great event, one which I shall be making every effort to attend when ever he runs one. and I encourage anyone that reads this to take part too.

Its a great opportunity to meet other bloggers and bullshit with them.

Von Muller out....

Helbrecht

So, for Blog Wars 2 I needed to paint 3 Terminators, 1 Cyclone Terminator and Helbrecht, I finished the job last night at about midnight.

The terminators came out as expected and fit very nicely with their brethren but I just couldn't get Helbrecht right. I don't know what it is with this figure, it's a cracking mini with loads of detail and a sculpt which radiates menace but I just couldn't get a paint job I was happy with.

Characters are supposed to be just that, characterful, loads of detail and plenty of time spent on them, he had about 10 hours of my time. I'm just disappointed with the way he turned out. He fits in nicely with the rest of the army and will most certainly stand out but I think he might have to get a dipping and repainted in the same style as my Champion, but another day.

Helbrecht

So I thought I would do a review of Helbrecht, see what my expectations of him are and then after Blog Wars tomorrow I post how he actually did.

His stat line is more or less the same as a Marine Captain with the exception of 4 wounds and attacks rather than 3 so a little underwhelming for this Templar badass so far. He does however give me Rites of Battle which means all my units may use his leadership whilst he is alive, combined with my normal Marshal (who I'm beginning to this is better) means I can loose one of them without dropping to 8 leadership (important when your army is subject to the target priority rule).

He does come tooled up with all the bells and whistles including a combi-melta which is nice as I have zero in my list without him meaning that I may well get to pop a Land Raider if I come up against one. He also has Bionics, Articifer Armour, Crusader seals, frag and krak and the sword of the High Marshall's which is a Master Crafted power weapon that gives him +D3 attacks in the first round of assault.

The sword I not going to make a whole heap of difference when I think about it, Ok, 8 attacks on the charge is awesome but its only at S4 and with Accept any challenge I think the average kills is only 3 or 4 against marine equivalents. He will however be locked up in a nice big bubble wrap blanket of assault Terminators, my Terminator Marshal and the Champion, so I how he is going to be fairly hard to kill.

I think where this guy comes into his own is if I were to run a "Black Tide" style list, he can take a non Terminator Command Squad with an additional 5 Neophytes one of whom can be a company or fighting company standard bearer. Its possible (at great cost) to run a massive 19 man command squad with feel no pain that get extra attack, counter attack and re-roll failed pinning and moral checks with furious charge. Scary bad eh?

I can see that being used in a friendly game but it would get crushed utterly in a tournament environment.

So as I type this I feel kind of sad that I decided to run Helbrecht but I am hopeful he will prove me wrong by doing something unexpected.

My goals tomorrow? Win at least one game. That's all, just one little game, not one where my opponent rolls badly or my dice are on fire, just one where I play better than my opponent...we shall see.

Wish me luck!!