Epic Post - This is not the EMBARGO you are looking for.

I am now the proud owner of GW's new starter box Dark Vengeance. Oddly, this is the first starter set not names for a place or a battle. Equally odd is that this is the first time a named Space Marine Chapter has been featured in a starter box. The last two starter boxes have ostensibly been Ultramarines but there was little detail on the minis to distinguish them from vanilla Marines.

It retails for about $100 which is friggen crazy for a starter set. No parent is going to walk in there and drop that on a child's whim and no gamer has that much to throw around on a new hobby. Bad move  IMHO from the start, GW. $50-$70 would have been a much smarter place to stay.

There is an OMG Limited Edition Pre-Order WTF that is about $10 more and you get is a pretty awesome plastic Interrogator Chaplain. Pretty good deal right? Wrong! You can only get the LE Edition from GW Direct or from your FLGS/CLGS. Unless you have a really cool FLGS that give you a loyalty discount you are really paying $25 for that one mini. Average discount on GW products is 20% because GW sells to independent retailer at 30%-50% off (I can't remember the exact figure) the retail price on the GW website. As a loyalty bonus to people that buy from the store they play in rather GW or the Internets, most stores will give you a little break.

Wishlisting The Right Way

I made a wish list on the GW site for what I think it will take to update some of my armies into 6th. Now we have this Embargo on and I can't buy any of this stuff for 6 months or a year (or Emperor forbid longer). I might sneak one or two under the radar but for the most part, these are tiny metal dreams.

The big change is 6th is flyers. If you do not have one, then you are going to get reamed and hard. I signed up for a flyer for every army that I am preparing to build. Gotta have the Ork Bomma. It is just such a cool model with great rules. I am planning to start Orks at some point. I've collected 3 Blackreach Ork boxes, some bikes, some special characters but still have giant holes to fill. I will have an Ork army and it will have a wicked Bomma in it.

While we are shaking the wishing tree, I wanted not one but two of the gleaming metal peaches of the Storm Tallon gunships. In 5th they were ok but in 6th they are indispensable. Great as a flyer killer and great to harass troops and tanks alike. Also, it is a great model and I don't care what its detractors say. It is cute and deadly and it will RULE THE SKIES!

After Richard stomped the crap out of me with his Veteran Trooper-packed Vendettas, I have lusted after them. I was holding my own with him while they were in reserve but as soon as they came on, in one turn her claimed two objectives and blew up one of my tanks. Valkyries and their Forge World sisters the Vendettas are brutal and, for right now at least, they are a steak at their points cost. I am sure that will change but I have always wanted a small detachment of air cav. Now, with allies, I do not have to start an IG army to have that.

My Necron force is still hanging out in the dark days of 3rd Edition. I have only painted two new models (The Catacomb Command Barge and the Ghost Ark). They are seriously hurting without flyer cover and so I need (not want but frelling NEED) one of their flyers. Night Scythe or Doom Scythe, I do not care. Mostly because I can easily magnetize them or at least i hope I can.

I also put a few vehicles on the wish list for armies that I have not precisely started yet. I have a very small sisters force and have not really decided on my paint scheme. You can only get Immolators and Exorcists from GW Direct these days. Eventual I'll need a ride for my girls to cruse around in and pick up shoot dudes. And the Exorcist is a great model. I need to get the metal versions before they come out with Finecast upgrades that are twice the price and half as good.

Most of the things on the wist least are new shiny things and not very fluffy or just filling gaps in my model collection and army. Just to show you that I am not a giant flaming hypocrit, There is some useless and fluffy stuff on the list too.

I want one of each of the Daemons Troops to go with my ten man Cult Troop CSM squads. Surely there is or will be an Apoclypse formation about having that, but regardless I want my Khorne Beserkers to have some Bloodletter friends. Also, this will challenge me to branch out with my painting.

To bolster my Iron Warriors, I just need some Basilisks. Those giant artillery piece have been a part of the Sons of Perturbo since the dark days. I can't wait to paint them up in metal and caution stripes with some Traitor Guard crawling over them.

Taht's all I have time to blog about for now. No time to finish the links or add pictures so this is going to be a vanilla post with no flash. I'll go to bed with visions of tiny metal angles dancing in my head for now and plot my spending spree.

Necrons in 6th

I just had a great game of 6th Ed with my Necrons against Richard's Eldar and IG. Though I have played one other game of 6th with Tony (What's up LC?), we pretty much ignored many of the 6th Ed rules that we did not understand (which was most of them). Richard was gearing up for a tourny and so was being a big stickler for the rules (which was awesome). I am not going to do a Battle Report but will hit the main points bullet-style.

• Eldrad is wicked! He stuck them in a unit of Harlequins and kept giving them 2++ saves and himself a 3++ save. They weathered so many hits it was silly. I had no flamers to take them out so they mauled me.
• War Walkers have to be dealt with early. They killed all my Scarabs and half of those were in Overwatch. Then they killed two Wraiths attached to my D Lord and put two wounds on him. I don't care what your save is, if you have 20 wounds put on you per turn, you will fail saves.
• There is no such thing as a guaranteed charge! I snake eyed with my C'Tan charging the Avatar from 4". On the other hand, I was able to charge over 6" several times. Never ever take it for granted that you'll get the charge and always have a unit backing up the unit that you want to charge for a counter assault.
• WTF! Vendettas are brutal! At around 120 points (I don't have the codex in front of me), it is a steal at twice the points cost. It has armor 12 like the Storm Raven and is loaded with twin linked Las Cannons. It can carry a bunch of vets or whatever that jump out and melta or flamer people's face off. It's great as a tank hunter, a fighter, a transport, and cheap to boot! I'm gonna get one as soon as this Embargo is lifted. Maybe sooner. 
• The Catacomb Command Barge is amazing! The new rules for Chariots are awesome. A vehicle that can charge, +1 save, 1d6 S6 auto-hits and Jink. What's not to love? Getting assaulted with such a big footprint is difficult. Also, do you have to attack the dude in the Barge or can you attack the Barge first? Enemies can attack the base or the hull, so does that mean the Lord can attack through either or just the base? Can the Barge fly off on its own if the guys dies? I'll have to look into this. 
• The Monolith has a Jink save. WTH? It is a skimmer and all skimmers have Jink. I can't find anything that says it does not. Weird.

There were some other interesting things that happened but that's all I can remember now. 6th Ed is a very different animals and there are lots of changes. I need to get more games under my belt. 

Big Basing Day

Ok, quick and dirty.

Remember how much crap I got done last year? Well, I have not glued any grass to anything in 18 months. that means that everything in those pictures, had to have glue and static grass applied to it.

It took all day and I am covered in static grass. this stuff is really itchy.

I typically do this stage in big batches at at the CLGS because of the mess. I don't want to find static grass stuck all over the place for months afterwards. That grass also makes spray painting of any kind troubling. I can't tell you the number of times I have found those hairs in my primer or clear coat. It is infuriating!

While at the CLGS I even got in a game against a friend's Space Wolves. He played a pretty simple list. He managed to have a Land Raider in a 1000 point list. That should have been some free points there but I was playing the Grey Knights and my only AT was Thunder Hammers and the Vindicare Assassin. Ole Vinnie was mowed down by a Heavy Bolter on Turn 1. It would have been a different game if Vinnie had been able to shoot. In retrospect, I should have deployed him in such a way that the tanks would have had to move forward to shoot him and he could have shot at them.

I ran Vinnie, Crowe, two squads of 10 Purifiers and 5 Termies. Not Paladins, just Termies. I ran the Termies with Crown and one squad of Purifiers forward to get at his objective and kept the other 10 man squad on my objective. In retrospect, I should have broken the Purifiers up into Combat Squads, and kept 5 men on my objective.

In the end, he chewed up lots of my men but never went for the objective. I was the only one trying to win. But I made it look like I was trying to win and that is what tricked him. He spent so much of his time shooting my advancing forces and not advancing himself that he lost the advantage. On the record it was a tie but really it was a loss for me. I committed a lot of troops and gained no ground. I feel like the Soviets in WWII.

I also got some Sanguinary Guard despite the Embargo. I was gonna get blue wash and Sang Guard anyway but I let the GW guy try to talk me into all kinds of crap. After the fact, I was a little disappointed in him. He sees all the stuff I have and tries to sell me more. He tried to sell me big box  Fantasy stuff and stuff for armies that I did not have. I guess he is not used to making an actual sale.

I am used to this treatment from GW employees. It is like they are spoiled as salesmen because they sling plastic crack. anyone that comes into their store that has bought before IS going to buy from them again. They do not have to establish quality or really talk anyone into buying anything. The old crew knew not to try to sell me stuff but this latest crop has yet to learn the rules.

Draigo Broke the Embargo!

We got this Embargo on but I had a rough day and wanted something to make me feel pretty. I was going to buy him before the Embargo started. I just wanted it OK! I can justify it however I want. I have only bought two minis (this and the Command Barge) since September and that is pretty good. Crap, I just remembered that I bought some bits from GW Direct and that totally violates the Embargo. They were not emergency or needed to finish a current project. I just wanted more Deathwatch bits because I was excited about the RPG and wanted to make more marines. I even had bits.

I've been seen slinking around Bartertown too. While I have not bought anything, I have done some trades and that has cost me about $30 in postage. I did get a Drop Pod for just a few bases and that was a screaming deal. Crap, I just remember that I bought some stuff but it was too good to pass up. I got a bunch of classic Orks and Snotlings, like a freezerbag full, and some NOS Bikers all for the price of what the bikers would have been retail. Ok so not a great deal but a good one. The Orks are crappy and old and not goo for much other than bits. The Snotlings may be useful but only if I can mix them in with better models.

So, I guess I am not doing so great.

The cards are being paid down but not as fast as I might expect or would want. My big order is a long way off.

On the table now - Lots going on

I've been blogfading and that's not cool, yo. Part of the reason was that my computer tried to blow up but really, I've not had much time for the hobby. I am dating a new and awesome girl (well, new since July) and girls have a habit of taking up your time. That time was hobby time and TMM can't keep you warm at night.

Right now I am working on 5 Sang guard for the blood Angelse and the planned Dante+SG army. That has kind of stalled out and I've lost interest in it. It is still on the table but may go into a baggie soon.

Also on the table are some Necrons. I painted some rusty Necrons up early last year and have about 1500 or so points under the old rules. Under the new rules I have about the same though everything has changed. I know there is an Embargo on, but I bought the Catacomb Command Barge to give me two different HQ options. If I did not do that, my only HQ dould have been the Destroyer Lord and I like choices.

I'm also finishing 5 DC models. they are just waiting on shoulderpads. then I'll have to paint backpacks and jump packs for all these assholes. I hate it when I have to paint 30 backpacks at a go. Feels like wasting time.

I've also been playing Dawn of War II. As a result of the a fore mentioned computer explosion, I was forced to buy a new graphics card. That upgrade allowed me to run DoWII. It is ok. the random weapon drops and character building are interesting. It is a departure from DOWI, that's for sure.

As far as things I want to write, I want to write more about my Grey Knights. I've gotten lost in the history stuff. While I love doing the reseach and learining about my boys, it is growing out of control into these epic posts that eat up a bunch of time and don't have any real benefit. I may focus on my guys and ignore the history. 

I also want to write about the new hotness before they become the old busted. I want to write about the changes to the rules and fluff regarding the metal zombies. I also want to fucking play with them. I have not had a game sine Tony wiped the board with me. that was months ago. 

I am also gettin ready to start a Deathwatch RPG soon. Likely dice will roll in Jan but there is a lot of prep work to do. I need to type up notes about what it means to play a Space Marine and how that differs from playing a human. I may as well post those notes here. I also want to write a getting started adventure and do some character sketches. that will help me get a grip on the game.

EMBARGO!

Who rules Batertown?

Read my lips, no new TMM.

Man, this is really hard. I've spent too damn much on minis lately and it is hurting the budget. Time to tighten the belt and paint what you got. I know, I've said this before, but this time I am serious.

Here is the plan: Not gonna buy any new stuff. Just not gonna. I will add the things that I want to a wishlist. When the CC are all paid off, I can treat myself to either a small GW direct order or a large War Store Order. $50 for the former and $150 for the latter.

Just to be clear, things that are not included in this list are: Books (including any Codex or book that is less than $35), hobby supplies, video games (as long as they are less than $40), painting commissions (less than $20), emergency bits (must be used immediately to finish current project and must be less than $35). There will be a Battle Foam order placed, but $100 of that is already taken care of. Order not to exceed $50. Those things are still cool.

To be honest, I am going to try and squeeze some things trough the door of reasonable doubt but you can't let me. Absolutely no Forge world orders of any kind. No Bartertown at all. Don't even look at it. No eBay.

Hopefully by the end of Winter, I'll have my stuff straight and be able to place my order. Maybe this will let me get some things finished.