Episode 45 - Khorne Daemonkin

The End Times may have come to a conclusion, but the rage of Khorne continues to spread across the mutliverse.  In this episode, Andrew and John share their first impressions of the new Khorne Daemonkin codex.  We discuss the new formations, the Blood Tithe and a few army ideas John has using the codex.  Before we get into the main topic, the guys talk about the End Times tournament at Adepticon, Andrew talks about his game with Andy Chambers, John plays with his nids, and we talk about our sponsors.  This episode also contains a bonus segment with John Ontto at Adepticon.

 

Download: Direct Download | iTunes | RSS


Episode Timeline
00:00:15 - Sponsors
00:05:30 - End Times @ Adepticon 2015
00:32:00 - Marshaling the Host
01:03:30 - Khorne Daemonkin
01:39:30 - Plugs (Waste Wars XV, 40K Kill Teams)
01:43:00 - Bonus Content (John Ontto at Adepticon 2015)

The Show Email - unstabledice@gmail.com

Show Links

Player2Cast

Sponsors

Heroes Haven Comics & Games: Website | Facebook
A Gathering of Might: Website | Facebook
Scatter Shot Painting: Facebook

Adepticon 2015 - More from the End Times

Some more images from Adepticon 2015 and our tournament.

End Times Tournament at Adepticon2015 Photos

Some of the armies from the End Times Tournament at Adepticon 2015.

  Adam Hilton's Host of the Eternity King

 Kent Sheldon's Lizardmen

 Jeremy Fay's The Empire

Jeff Teer's Undead Legion

End Times Tournament @ Adepticon 2015 - Scenario 3

The final scenario from last week's End Times Tournament at Adepticon. 

End Times Tournament @ Adepticon 2015 - Scenario 2

End Times Tournament @ Adepticon 2015 - Scenario 1

Below is the first scenario from the End Times Tournament at Adepticon 2015.

Miniature Monday - 03/16/2015

 This Miniature Monday is a little something different since it is Adepticon week.  I completed this model over the weekend for one of the tables at the End Times Tournament.  I admit it is not my best work as I rushed the project and relied on doing a lot of heavy handed washes.  The picture also highlights the additional drybrushing I did on the stone staircase after the washes.  After Adepticon, I may revisit the piece and try to get it up to snuff, but for now, it is playable.
 

 

Episode 43 - Malekith the Eternity King

Episode 43 is now available for download.  The main topic of this episode is our discussion about Malekith the Eternity King.  We talk about his impact in non-End Time games and means by which we would go about defeating him.
Before talking about him, we do a lengthy Marshaling the Host.  In this episodes MoH, we talk about our End Time primer and share battle reports from the event.

After the end credits, check out this episodes bonus content for more discussion about End Times characters and the US Masters results.

Episode Timeline:
00:00:15 - Sponsors
00:01:30 - End Times at Adepticon
00:29:30 - Marshaling the Host
01:13:30 - Malekith the Eternity King
01:35:15 - Butt Plugs (Articon, Kill Teams @ Wandering Dragon)
01:40:00 - Bonus Content
Download: Direct Download | iTunes | RSS
Emails
The Show Email - unstabledice@gmail.com

Show Links

A Gathering of Might XIII 

Sponsors

Heroes Haven Comics & Games: Website | Facebook
A Gathering of Might: Website | Facebook
Scatter Shot Painting: Facebook

Episode 40 - Chuck's Caboose

Welcome to the 40th episode of the Unstable Dice.  We start this episode with an update about our tournament at Adepticon 2015.  After we share the latest news about it, we transition to talking about the second End Times book: Glottkin.  After sharing our first impressions, we discover a new GT in the Chicago area: The Windy City Throwdown. 

After talking Glottkin and Throwdowns, we move into Marshaling the Host.  In this episode's hobby section, we share updates and John realizes that Andrew was two years old when Ghost and Goblins came out.  After MoH, Warboss Ontto unleashes a new Waaagh Ontto segment.  The show ends on a sad note with us saying goodbye to a friend.

Episode Timeline
00:01:45 - The Unstable Dice Present: End Times Tournament @ Adepticon
00:11:30 - End Times: Glottkin First Impressions
00:42:15 - Windy City Throwdown
00:54:30 - Marshaling the Host
01:21:30 - Waaagh Ontto (Stormboyz)
01:29:30 - Farewell to a Friend (Jeff B.)/End of Episode

Download: Direct Download | iTunes | RSS


Emails
The Show Email - unstabledice@gmail.com

Show Links

A Gathering of Might XIII 

Sponsors

Heroes Haven Comics & Games: Website | Facebook
A Gathering of Might: Website | Facebook
Scatter Shot Painting: Facebook

Hump Day Heroes - Adepticon XII Battlefleet Gothic Championships - Part 3 (of 3)

Time for the third and final installment of my BFG experience at Adepticon. 2-0 so far...

Game 3 vs Chaos (Kirk Troy of Hangar 18)

This fleet is the third in an impressive line up of well-painted fleets, and I knew it would be a joy to play.


Chaos Black 13th list
Repulsive-class Grand Cruiser - Warmaster, Ld 9, Mark of Slaanesh
Devastation-class Cruiser - Chaos Marines, Thunderhawks, Mark of Slaanesh
Carnage-class Cruiser - Chaos Lord, Mark of Slaanesh, Veil of Lust
Carnage-class Cruiser
Carnage-class Cruiser
5 Infidel-class Raiders

Chaos allies
6 Infidel-class Raiders

Scenario: Neutron Star. In this one, there is a Neutron Star in the center of the table. There's a large wreck that's worth 450 VP if you salvage it (just like last game, 2+ to get it, 1 then oops). The gravity well of the star had a fun effect on the game: at the start of each player turn, after orders are given, then ships/squadrons are pulled toward it a number of CM based on class. BB: 1D6, Cruiser: 2D6, Escort/Ordnance/Defense: 3D6, and AAF orders gained +1D6. Gravity!

Deployment

I pointed everything at the wreck, because it was worth bank. I also did so in a way so that, with average rolls, my ships would get pulled right on target to it. Gotta plan ahead-ahead with rules like this! The Devastations, on the other hand, went to sweep the flank for some reason. Slingshot around the star I guess?

Turn 1
...went to him (of course). The Carnages went to flank me with an AAF, but the cosmic pull made one go through the asteroids, taking four hits. A good start for me! Everything else moved up to unleash torpedoes (holy moly that's a lot of torpedoes for a chaos fleet).

On my turn, I gave the Tiddla-winks (what I named my Tiddla skwadron) a free AAF to get that hulk. One plastered itself on asteroids, but the other made it, and only just! There were three bonus points for the allied fleet to claim the hulk, so I rolled that D6...and it came up a 1. Rats! Oh well, no points for anybody then I guess...at least it didn't catch fire. My fleet made short work of the Infidels that got too close.

Turn 2

The star's pull brought the next set of Infidels much closer than intended; however, this led to him firing a meaty salvo through my ships. Combined with fire from the rest of the fleet, they hammered the Slaughters repeatedly until one of them busted and caught fire.

That flaming hulk then drifted forward and sideways, right past his line...and EXPLODED. The conflagration took out five Infidels and dropped shields on a few ships (including mine, before I moved!). Quite a painful explosion, that was. Then, the rest of the fleet locked on. With all guns blazing fire in every direction, the Repulsive was hulked, along with a Carnage. Naturally, that last Infidel bit the bullet too. The Devastation was crippled and another Carnage took some hits.

(they're turned so he remembers they're dead)

After that, he did his best to escape the guns of my fleet. The two carnages went to hide around asteroids, but the Devastation had nowhere to go, and was hulked.

This time, with no bonus objectives giving me freebie points...I still ended with a massive 1000ish VP difference.


So, 3-0 and crowned champion for another year. I'm a monster!

After-action thoughts:

My fleet
Loved it. Played hard and fast, with half standing off, putting out 12 lances, the other half close in, throwing around FP42-56, and 6-8 lances. There's just sooo much firepower when you don't go for the flashy upgrades or big ships. I easily had more tonnage in every game, especially with the Terror ship floating around, for 9 cruisers. I could always wish for more AC, but what I had was fine. As usual, I didn't brace except for once or twice throughout the day, sacrificing a Slaughter to kill a bigger ship. Always worth it!

Opponents' fleets
The Chaos ones played similar, and the cost of upgrades/ships really shows. Kirk's was more interesting/scary because of the sheer number of torpedoes he could muster! The Tau one was a heartstopper at first (I'm always scared of Tau), but once I started crunching ship after ship, I didn't feel so bad. To my joy, they were all painted just so beautifully, and combined with the new scenery, it was a day of three games that were just so pretty it gave me a warm fuzzy feeling.

Scenarios
I liked all three to varying degrees. I never like it when there are limited amounts of precious resources that will go to the fastest fleets though (salvaging hulks). I feel it's a good idea, but needs to be implemented differently somehow.

Still, Scenario 1 with the murderous asteroids was most fun, followed by Scenario 3 with the Neutron star, and lastly 2 with the planet.

Making more use of terrain rules was pretty sweet. Too little do you see all the cool things that have been included in that section; I'd definitely like to see more of it in the future.


Other fleets
For the day, there were a total of 4 Chaos fleets, 3 Tau fleets, and 1 Imperial fleet (soo much variety!). I got pics of all except the Imperials...all I can remember about them is a Retribution and lots of Nova Cannon (oh joy!). I do like that, despite having a fairly homogeneous fleet mix for the day, no two were painted the same.

Chaos/Orks

Andrew Karolus (me!)

Alex Kasper

Chaos/Chaos

Kirk Troy

Andrew Raatz

Tau/Eldar

Andrew ( ... )

Ernesto Salas

Tau/Rogue Trader

Dan Bisplinghoff

Feel free to ask questions/leave comments/claim the Tau fleet I wasn't able to identify!

Hump Day Heroes - Adepticon XII Battlefleet Gothic Championships - Part 2 (of 3)

Almost forgot it was Wednesday! I'm bad.

Game 2 vs Tau Protection Fleet (Ernesto Salas)

Now, he was a bad boy and didn't bring a printed list (tsk tsk :P ), so it's off memory. I guess it was a mishmash of Armada and FW ships, didn't realize that was doable because I never got around to reading the Tau Protection fleet rules. And then of course Eldar allies, because no matter what game you play, you just can't escape the Taudar!  

Tau Protection list
Custodian BB - Ld10 upgrade?
Hero
Emmissary
2 Protectors
4 Castellans
4 Wardens

Eldar allies
Aurora
3 Hemlocks

Scenario 2: Salvage. There were seven wrecks orbiting a planet. If you get a ship in base contact, roll a D6; on a 2+ you salvage it, on a 1 you muck it up and have to roll on the Catastrophic chart for the wreck! You got bonus points for having your allied fleet claim a wreck, and points for each wreck (up to 3).

Deployment and Turn 1

Sunny side is left side short edge. Once again, my opponent went first. Since we deployed 20cm off the board edge, he wasn't in range. However, the forward lances on my Hades were...but not locked on, because once again I failed my first Ld test (twice!). Still, I crippled the Protector that was closest. His Ordnance was ineffective, and he failed nearly all his resilient rolls.  :'(

By this point I claimed two wrecks already. 

Turn 3

As the bulk of his fleet closed on the planet, I swung my Slaughter squad out around the left side for rear shots, while the Hades just stayed the course and locked on. The rest of the fleet moved right, to crush all opposition! Escorts were shot down, a wreck had a plasma drive overload, and the Kroot boarded the Orks! That ended with me orks somewhat fending them off, losing the action by three.

Turn 4
The Eldar were content to dart in and out of the asteroids (space jungle?), scoring hits here and there. Unfortunately, the cruiser didn't pass one of its Ld checks, suffering four hits and a critical. Yay points!  The rest of my fleet caught the Tau in a pincer, crippling or hulking nearly all other ships.

Each hulk salvaged gave you an extra 200 VP; that pushed my total up to 1450ish (with 3 claims) and him to 400ish (1 claim). Another 1000 VP difference gave me more big points. Round 2 victory! Stay tuned for round 3!

Hump Day Heroes - Adepticon XII Battlefleet Gothic Championships - Part 1 (of 3)

Last weekend was Adepticon (as so many of you listeners should probably know), and I played in the Battlefleet Gothic tournament, among other events. BFG is my jam; my favoritest game evarzzz. I usually don't get to play more than three games a year (at Adepticon! ha), but I do have a couple clubmates who play, and we get in a game from time to time.

This year the terrain was gorgeous; Ernesto Salas, one of the main men who will be taking the reins on running the event from henceforth, spent his time making some kick-ass looking, and more important, completely functional, terrain. Asteroid fields, gas clouds, planets with rings (even one with a spinning moon!), all on airbrushed mats. Honestly, it was a dream, playing on those boards, and I can't wait for next year to see them again.

My Ultramarines fleet from the past two years has done me proud, going 6-0 and earning two Best Overall plaques, so it was time for them to rest as I introduced something new to the playing field. This year I brought Chaos. The Word Bearers fleet has been languishing in stasis, so I gave them all a new paint job...the day before the event, heh. The rules are:

- 1500 points for the primary fleet
- +250 points for an allied fleet, and you can use some of your primary fleet points if you want

There were additional rules for allies, including who can take what, which you can view here.

So this my list:

Chaos Gothic sector list
Hades-class Heavy Cruiser - Warmaster Ld 8
Hades-class Heavy Cruiser
Devastation-class Cruiser
Devastation-class Cruiser
Slaughter-class Cruiser
Slaughter-class Cruiser
Slaughter-class Cruiser
Slaughter-class Cruiser

Ork Clanz list (allies)
Terror Ship - boarding torpedoes
2 Savage Attack Ships

I made use of Brigade Models' Eurofed line for the escorts, which I originally bought two years ago to match the larger ship, which is from the Star Wars Titanium Diecast line (though I bought it when it came out, for like $6, not that nonsensical price). Caught some flack by other players for them "not being proper ships", but hey, when the game is no longer supported and models are no longer available, I'm going with theme (Republic pirates or something :P )


Game 1 vs Chaos (Andrew Raatz)

Chaos Gothic sector list
Desolator-class Battleship - Warmaster Ld 9, Mark of Nurgle
Repulsive-class Grand Cruiser - Chaos Lord Ld 8, Mark of Nurgle
Devastation-class Cruiser
Devastation-class Cruiser
Murder-class Cruiser
Murder-class Cruiser

Chaos allies
6 Infidel-class Raiders

Scenario 1: Brace for Impact! There's an interesting twist: D3 Asteroids enter the battlefield from a designated short table edge at the start of every game turn, flinging 30cm across the table. If they strike an asteroid field, an additional D3 asteroids are generated...this could result in a nasty chain reaction that fills the table. Luckily, that didn't really happen to us. Still, it directed us to deploy on the other half, to stay as far away as possible.

Deployment

He took the first turn and advanced. For my part, I failed my first Ld test and merely drifted foward into range, loosing a few shots.

Turn 2 was where it really went down. Ships lock on and crossed the T...the squadron of Slaughters combined their Firepower into an absolutely brutal 56, numbering 39+ dice. On top of that, 8 lances piled on the hurt. Combined with the guns of the Hades, I hulked (i.e. destroyed) the Desolator and a Murder. Not a bad turn 2!

Then it really devolved into a close-range slug-fest. Every year Andrew and I play, and every year our games turn into a cluster@#$% in the middle, and it's awesome every time. To be fair, he always also manages to have bad dice occur (fail to brace, or only make 25% of brace saves), and this year was no exception. His damage control teams just didn't have the right stuff. I'll let the rest of the pictures tell the story.

Tight quarters. Aooooooga! Aooooooga!

The final VP total had me ahead by almost 1000, so that was a hefty victory for the Word Bearers!

I learned (as not only was this my first game since last year, it was also my first games with the fleet) that I will likely both outgun and have more tonnage than any of my opponents. Going second will give me the advantage of being in range first, and with the insane amount of gun batteries at my command, means I get the alpha strike that they'll never recover from. Stay tuned for game two, where I take on the Tau Protection Fleet!