332 Drax's First Games of 6th Ed + Reactions

Hullo All,

Well now, I'm delighted to say that in the last three days I've finally managed to play my first games of 6th Edition. Three games, in fact: a 2500pt sparring match with Jay at The Club (in prep for an upcoming tourney) and two 1000pt fluffy games this evening against the excellent Col. Gravis. What follows however isn't a battle report so much as a brief overview and then my thoughts so far on 6th Edition (If you want to skip, it's the bit in colour, below).

[Incidentally, check out Gravis's new pseudo-Praetorian gatling gun sculpts currently on sale!]

The first game was The Emperor's Will with Dawn of War deployment; me going first. I took a mech list (with which I'm always rather uncomfortable) and thought I was going to take an absolute battering from Jay's assaulty Blood Angels, but in the end he had a lot of metal nuts to crack and he was unlucky with the dice. A horrid, cheesy psyker battle squad and a failed terminator charge didn't help, I'm not proud to say!

This evening, Gravis and I decided to try to play a couple of small games with fun, fluffy forces, and as it happened the forces were fairly evenly matched, both being predominantly infantry (which we both enjoy) with a smattering of other bits. I took it as an opportunity to try out two rare choices: firstly one of my elusive Leman Russ Exterminators, and secondly my three sentinels, each on their own. For his part, Gravis tried two lists: one more offensive, with his beautiful cavalry and mounted vets; the other more static, instead brimming over with heavy weapons teams.

Game one was The Scouring/Dawn of War, and the second was Purge the Alien/Hammer and anvil. In each case I won the toss and opted to go second and first, respectively. To summate, the first game started off evenly matched and anyone's guess but eventually swung my way, and in the second game, as I arrayed my troops in a straight line in range and marched Somme-style towards inevitable death it looked for all the world like it'd be entirely one-sided...but somehow - just like in game one - a combination of Gravis's ill-luck and my sneaky flanking units rolling in from the correct flanks was enough to turn the tide. As I am The World's Slowest Player of 40K and we're still digging for new rules, Gravis gracefully conceded. 

Two great and sporting opponents - thanks, chaps!

DRAX'S THOUGHTS ON 6TH EDITION

 In no particular order, and please shout if I've got something wrong! I've just colour-coded it too - green is 'good'.

1. I really really love everything about snap-firing
2. ...except the hydra being forced to do so against ground targets (although I've not yet experienced this)
3. Pre-measuring, huh? Wow - that makes a difference. I like it, but it does seem to'cheapen' the game, somehow...
4. I really really like the new wound allocation rules.
5. Precision Strike is a good rule, and works
6. No assaulting at all out of 'normal' vehicles in normal circumstances? Technically this really benefits me as I suffer it far more than I use it and chimeras are (quite rightly) rubbish for assaults, but this rule really makes no sense at all when the vehicle hasn't moved
7. Hull Points - great. This seems to work fine and makes sense, but it's a real shame they wouldn't stretch to giving Leman Russes that fourth HP.
8. WHY oh why are vehicles still hit on rear armour in assault? Why on Terra not make it side? 
9. I like that glances have no other effect now. Works well.
10. Snipers are way better now, though mine still fail to do anything useful!
11. 'Look out Sir' is a bit of a pain, but a good counter to the new wound allocation system 
12. Plasma guns are considerably better now
13. ...As is mounting heavy weapons in chimerae
14. I like the new vehicle movement rules
15. 'Barrage sniping' is sneaky. I don't like it, but now I know about it, how do I avoid playing to it?
16. Mounted troops not claiming objectives? Well, it's daft of course, but it was needed for the game
17. Barrage always scatters 2d6. Grr. Makes a bit of sense, but I'm not mad keen. Still, this is countered by the very reasonable buff to whole-blast full strength.
18. I really like the different kinds (and values) of objectives
19. I like the tiered VP system.
20. VERY DISAPPOINTED to see, in Purge the Alien, the veiled return of Kill Points. What a bloody stupid mechanic. seriously.
21. Not being able to assault from resrve has somewhat put the kybosh on my poor Penal Legion, but will doubtless be very good for my squishy guardsmen in the long run!
22. Like the new missions so far
23. Psychic rules (what I've seen) are ineresting and flavoursome.

Overall then - although there's doubtless tons I can and will add to this list, albeit metaphorically, those are my thoughts so far. Let it hereby be known:

Drax approves of 6th Edition 40K.

Cheers!

- D.

331 Twenty Questions

Posties' Rejects 20 Questions

Well now, I do quite like the ‘insights’ that these silly things provide, and besides, although for once I’ve got a stack of hobby stuff to post I can’t actually face any of it tonight. So here goes. Caught this from Colonel Scipio at Palladian Guard, by the way…

Favourite Wargaming Period, and Why?

Grimdark, though really that’s only through a lack of anything else. I suspect I may love Flames when I get to play it more…

Next Period, money no object?

I don’t know, actually. I’ve seen some tasty looking Viking miniatures over at Wargaming Girl, and I’m into the Viking/Saxon/Norman era, but I’ve no idea what any rules are like. Plus I hate painting skin…

Favourite five films?

Zulu

Starship Troopers

Blues Brothers

Brannagh’s Henry V

A Matter of Life and Death [if you’ve not seen this, do so!]

Favourite five TV series?

Red Dwarf

The West Wing

Band of Brothers

Scrubs (before it went rubbish)

Sharp/Hornblower (Yes, I’m a sucker for cheap stuff too)

Favourite book and author?

Gun to my head?

- 1984 / Orwell

Greatest General? Can't count yourself!
Wellington

Favourite Wargame rules?

Flames of War

Favourite Sport and Team?

Meh. I play sometimes for my staff football team (soccer) – so, er, ‘us’ I suppose.

If you had a one-use-only time machine, when and where would you go?

To the birth of my first daughter. And this time I’d be less petrified and not give a flying fig about anything but her and her mum.

Fantasy relationship and why?

The lovely Claire Danes; not least in Romeo + Juliet (it's allowed - we're the same age and I had a huge crush when this film came out. Can I use this one with the Time Machine? Then again, maybe not: I'd just be awkward and teenagey).

If your life were a movie, who would play you?

Stephen Fry. Sadly more for his looks than for his intellect.

Last meal on Death Row?

Proper sausages, beans and a chip butty. And corn dogs, because they’re filthy.

Favourite comic book superhero?

Bananaman?

Favourite military quote?

Pierre Bosquet at the Charge of the Light Brigade: C’est magnifique, mais ce n’est pas la guerre: c'est de la folie ("It is magnificent, but it is not war: it is madness").

Historical destination to visit?

Normandy or Rorke's Drift/Isandhlwana

Biggest Wargaming regret?

Giving away all of my huge early nineties collection of 40K and Epic.

Favourite fantasy job?

Battle of Britain RAF fighter pilot

Favourite song top 5?

Two Little Boys – Rolf Harris

Fashion Parade – Misty’s Big Adventure

Bijou – Queen

At Last – Etta James(?)

Sound of Silence – Simon and Garfunkel

Favourite Wargaming moment?
Phew! Er, probably back in fourth edition when a lone plasma gunner destroyed an awful lot of my friend’s marines. Either that, or seeing a flight of 10 valkyries depositing my light infantry in a 5’x3’ drop zone at Zzzzzzz’s house. Simply stunning!

The Miserable Git Question: what upsets you?
Senses of scale in wargaming (especially in 40K), codex creep and never having enough time to play all-infantry Guard.

Cheers for reading, and feel free to spread this…

- Drax.

330 Sly Marbo Conversion: Redux

I thought I'd give my old Marbo conversion a new airing:

This is mostly in response to Malkavschilde's recent post about the effects on ol' Sly of the 6th Edition rules(which I've still yet to play!) - and a very good post it is too. I always tend to field Marbo, even though he's not very Cadian, simply because I enjoy the often-suicidal chaos and fun he brings to what can otherwise be predictable games with a mostly shooty Guard army.

The model is quite evidently chipped now, as he was painted during my I'm-fed-up-with-varnish-failing-and-I-can't-afford-a-can-of-matte-spray phase, so I'll probably give him a quick touch-up then varnish him properly (now I have a can of matte) over the remaining summer. 

It's just the old Catachan lascannon loader model with a converted pistol (I do like the converted pistol) and the power cell painted with hazard stripes...which Mrs. Drax accurately asserted to be one of the ghost traps from 'Ghostbusters'.  

Here's Marbo's original post, if you're interested.

Cheers,

- Drax.

328 100,000 Hits! Thank You!

Well , the title says it all.

[image stolen from here.]
Thank you so very very much, everyone - readers new and old!

That is all.

- Chris

327 First Flames of War Platoon Completed!

Hullo!

I'm delighted to announce the completion of my first Flames platoon. In this case, I'm putting together a force to represent the infantry of 11th Armoured Division as they fought their way up through Normandy and the Low Countries during Operation MARKET GARDEN.

Specifically, I've decided to go with a rifle company from 4th Battalion, King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, supported by heavy mortar and heavy machine gun elements from 2nd MG Company, Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, a handful of Shermans and Fireflies, probably from 3rd Royal Tank Regiment and some divisional support from (of course) the Sextons of 13th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery (HAC).

If you're unfamiliar with the oddness that is the Honourable Artillery Company, look them up. They're the oldest surviving regiment of the British Army, with records back to 1087(!) and a charter from 1537. Now they survive as a Territorial (reservist) unit.

Anyways - here they are. As usual, apologies for the quality of the pics, and no points for noticing that I've absentmindedly painted their rifles wrong: I've painted a metal barrel all the way along the top, whereas in actual fact they have a fully wooden stock. Oh well - I won't tell them if you dont!

Cheers, all!

- D.

PS: You may notice some spray varnish frosting damage on the test bases (top-right). Luckily my patented cure for frosting took away most of the damage. Phew! Mind you, I forgot the to fix the grass!

326 Summer Projects 1 - Anyone Recognise This Model?

Hi, All,

Sorry for the recent radio silence but somewhat uncharacteristically for me I've actually been getting some modelling done (albeit mostly Flames of War focussed).

Now...does anyone recognise this component:

Yuo, that's right. As a bit of a 40K 'treat' for myself (after some recent directionlessness) I've decided to paint up a squadron of old 2nd Edition sentinels in Praetorian colours. Here's the start of the process:

Now all I've got to do is Praetorianise the pilot...

Hope you're all well; more updates soon. Flames of War stuff, I think.

- Drax.