Howling Griffons Stormwing Formation

Flying machines have always been one of my passions and I have regularly used a Stormtalon in my Space Marine lists.  In addition to my Storm Eagle I have now assembled my Stormwing formation and also started basecoating it.  This will be fun!

Even with the new rules allowing Forge World models, I will rarely get the chance to field all 5 flyers at the same time, unless I play more Apocalypse.  So I'm trying to work out how best to include the Stormwing in 1.5K points.

All of my Stormtalons have Skyhammer missiles, as they always do well for me and aren't too expensive.  The Stormraven has the multi-melta, assault cannons and hurricane bolters.  My basic formation would therefore come to 480 points, so nearly a third of the total.

The next problem is that I now can't decide if it's worth putting any other units in the raven. Even a basic Tactical Squad and Dreadnought would be exactly half of my points stuck in reserve, possibly until Turn 4.

The rest of my list will need to soak up all the opposing fire until the flyers show up, so a fortification with a comms relay might be needed to give me a solid firebase.

Anti-air is another worry, especially Riptides, so a Command Squad on bikes with grav guns might be my best option, although my usual HQ is a biker MOTF with a conversion beamer. I would either need a different HQ or take two.  This would again limit my points for other units.

I have some decisions to take, but I plan on having fun testing out my options, whilst I get the models finished.

2013 down, 37,987 to go...

"Change is the only constant" certainly applies to the Warhammer hobby at the moment, and my experience is no different.

This time last year I was starting to think about a 'counts as' Vulkan figure to lead my small force of Howling Griffons and give them more of a chance against armies like Space Wolves and the new Chaos codex.

Since then of course we do not just have a new Space Marines codex, in which Vulkan is now purely a Salamanders character, but Marines are now much more interesting and even competitive.  I can now field a full Devastator Company and more of Howling Griffons.  Other armies have also moved up the pecking order- Tau especially.

And it's not just the range of armies that has evolved, but Stronghold Assault and Escalation have further mixed things up, just before the Tyranids arrive in the New Year.

With the expense of Christmas and my traditional winter modelling lull, I haven't bought much in the way of new models recently, apart from the Adeptus Astartes Stormwing,  which was completely irresistible.  With so many changes, the old certainties about the 'best' units have gone, so there is much more variety around.  There is almost too much choice about, as GW seems intent on releasing more expensive kits to squeeze our wallets.  Equally, I will not be starting any major projects very soon, as things will have moved on again by the time I get it finished!

With no Invasions any more and having been a bit jaded with GW since Armies on Parade, I need to regain my hobby mojo. Perhaps the School League will help here, although I won't be playing personally.

In the meantime, I did get the X-Wing game for Christmas and am looking forward to playing that for a bit of a change.

I hope 2013 has been good for your army and that 2014 is even better.

Thanks for reading and Happy Gaming.

No more Invasion events at Warhammer World

I see that Warhammer World have put on their Facebook page that there will be no more Invasion competitions or store visits happening.  Apparently they are not the "right thing" for GW customers.

This is disappointing news for me.  I have really looked forward to those trips and always had fun there, whatever the result.

My hobby interest always wanes over the winter, with work and dark nights combining to limit my painting time.  Luckily I still get to play most weeks and still seem to buy some models, but never get things completed until the Spring.  Easter Invasions always gave me impetus to crack on in the new year, but I guess that won't happen in 2014.

Like my annoyance with Armies on Parade this year, these are times when I (and many other players, certainly online) lose all enthusiasm for GW.

Here's hoping they have a pleasant surprise lined up as an alternative.

40K School League heats

The team from my school club entered the first set of heats at GW Newbury against two other teams (both from another school) and have qualified for the Regionals at Warhammer World in March.  The lads were delighted of course, as was I.

The result was extremely close, but we emerged victorious by 61.5 to 61 points.  It all came down to the sportsmanship point I made sure one of my team was awarded for pointing out that his opponent's warlord could not claim an objective on his own before the game ended, giving him the chance to move a scoring unit closer.  Our margin of victory would have been slightly bigger otherwise, as the game was then a draw, instead of a victory for us.

We lost points on the painting scores, as most of our team are relatively new to the hobby and did not, for example, have the six objectives needed to gain points for markers.  (When does any game need 12 markers anyway?)  I will make sure we do better on this score in March.

We had 2 Yr 7s (aka first years), a Yr8 and a Yr9. Our opponents were fielding kids from Yr10-11.  Even so, we got a 9-1-2 gaming record, against 7 wins from the second-placed team.

Our team played Chaos, DA (both mainly from Dark Vengeance, although there was a land raider), GK and Tau (the cheesiest army with 2 riptides).

We are hoping to enter another team for more heats in February.

I just need to ask my Head now if he is happy to pay for a minibus again to get us to Nottingham.

Howling Griffons bikers

My latest project is just about finished.  It's a squad of 5 bikers with a Power Fist and 2 Meltaguns.  The Meltaguns were spare parts from my Centurions and are mounted on the front wheel, a bit like the FW Legion Outriders.

My original idea was to give my Master of the Forge some protection, but I'm now planning a biker Captain as well to make them troops.  A mounted Command Squad with an Apothecary and Storm Shields is also very tempting due to its survivability,  if expensive.

At the moment I can't quite decide on what chapter to do any more bikers.  Whilst Storm Lords allies would look good with my Griffons, and are White Scars successors, a homebrew chapter would be useful.  I could choose any doctrine I needed and so this would be more flexible.  For now I may well just stick with my Griffons and just get a couple of decent bike squads, probably with more grav weapons to hunt MCs.

My Games Day UK 2013

First thing to say is that GW ran no games at Games Day. There were Warhammer-related card and computer games to try, but not the core games. In downsizing from the NEC to the NIA (still in Birmingham) the participation games and make-and-takes have gone. Well over half the floor area of the main arena was taken up by sales.  To be fair, that is where most people headed first into some still fairly lengthy queues. Probably quicker than last year though.

Forge World had a few new models on show. Ferrus had been announced before, but Lorgar was also in the cabinets. I was most impressed with the new Assault pod, which also caused a bit of a stir.

I resisted the temptation of buying Ferrus, but did go for the new Iron Hands Contemptor.  I did want to get the IH Legion squad, but they had sold out by the time I got through the queue.  There was a big display board of the Iron Hands vs Emperor's Children and Iron Warriors, which was very well done.

Both the Armies on Parade and Golden Demon competitions were held in the sports hall downstairs. As always, looking at the best models there takes a lot of luck and patience amid the crowds.  I am still convinced that my parade board was better than many of the store winners. The overall parade winner featured a running waterfall and surprised many people. I would also like to see the Golden Demon winners close up too.

The highlight of the day for me was chatting to Robin Cruddace again. He is a fellow Howling Griffons player and we discussed our armies.  He even signed my Space Marines codex with a nice note for me. I am a fan!

Armies on Parade 2013 Howling Griffons

It was finally time for GW Newbury's annual competition today.  My board came fourth in a very close race.

Unfortunately,  I couldn't get any of the new models ready in time.  After spending so long on the armour, I should also have been a little more careful with the unit markings, which ended up a bit messy.  Oh well, maybe next year.

Well done to George, who won with his Iron Warriors.