Communities of Gaming: How Studio 40K saved Chaos

I’d like to share a little story that proves to me how much having a gaming group can mean.

One of the players in our old gaming group, Studio 40K, was Matt.  Of course, there was another Matt (the one I panited Gehn for) so we called this Matt “Little Matt” much to his dismay.  Matt played Chaos.  Matt LOVED Chaos.  He had two Chaos Space Marine armies: Khornate and Iron Warriors.  His Khornate army was the first to teach me: DON’T LET BERZERKERS GET A CHARGE.  His Iron Warriors showed me that Chaos with guns was just as brutal.  He loved putting plasma pistols on aspiring champions, which was odd because he always ended up overheating.

Matt rarely brought both armies to club, as that was too much to carry.  He did have several of the old GW black cases for each army.  One day he brought his Khorne army.  He was a bit early, and only myself and a few others were there.  Foolishly we went to go get our armies and some terrain from a car.

Matt’s Khorne army was gone by the time we got back.

Although Matt’s favorite army was the Iron Warriors, he still loved the Khorne army and put a huge amount of work into it.  Not to mention several hundred dollars.  He was beside himself with rage.

During the night, the club took up a secret collection.  Next week we presented Matt with several hundred dollars, scraped up from the spare bills in the wallets of all the club members.  Some gave even more generously.  Matt used the money to expand his Iron Warriors, as he liked them better than the Khorne army anyway.

Our group was something special.  I hope to found that kind of special bond for students in the club I wish to make when I get a High School job.  If they band together the same way Studio 40K did, they’ll be friends for life and have an experience they’ll never forget.

P.S. If you are the guy that stole 2 black cases from Mary Mayo hall in the winter of 2001-2002, please die in a garbage compactor.

Lottabottol, Star Player for the Konquata Monitors

Lottabottol, like Quetzal Leap, was glued to his stand after varnishing.

Next: four more Skinks!  I don’t actually NEED more.  Perhaps I’ll buy some pom-pons at the hobby store and make them Cheerleaders.

On Record Breaking

For those of you who don’t read Bell of Lost Souls, take some time now and punch yourself in the gut as hard as you can.  Then, click the link over on the right side of this blog.

Today there was a link to some pics of the biggest Apocalypse game on record.  Here is the article: http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2011/02/40k-worlds-biggest-apocalypse-game.html

Now, when I was reading the description, I saw that it was about 848,000 points of 40K, which is more than 8 times the size of my gaming group’s biggest game ever, the Big Game 5.  But, when I read their table setup, they had a comparable amount of gaming area.  Then I saw the pictures.  Click the above link and scroll down.  As you can see, all of the forces are about 12″ away from each other, and are packed about 18″ deep behind that.  No terrain other than fortifications purchased with points.

To be fair, this LOOKS awesome.  But the gameplay (if you can call it that) is going to be “OK NOW I SHOOT THAT THING.”  Essentially whoever goes first blows up the other side, and then the second side blows up the first side.  Woo.  No strategy, no storyline, no REASON other than to have big numbers and to have more numbers than anyone else had ever.

It’s like making the world’s largest burrito.  Sure, it’s impressive.  But in the end, all you have is a crappy burrito that is really big.

Quetzal Leap and Sillibilli, Star Players for the Konquata Monitors

…and here they are!  Quetzal Leap’s flying stand was glued after he and his base were painted and varnished.  One to go, then four more skinks, then BLOOD BOWL IS DONE!

When things go Wrong

Recently I had to strip 3/4 of my Blood Bowl Star Players.  I tried a new painting technique and it didn’t look good.

I’m painting Quetzal Leap right now, but on his left hand the Pine Sol damaged the integrity of the putty.  Two fingers broke and I lost the tips.  So I had to re-sculpt them.  Currently allowing them to cure.

It seems that Pine Sol can make putty more brittle.

This isn’t the first screw up, but that’s the best part of this hobby.  When you screw up you can easily fix it or start over.

Hemlock, Lizardmen Star Player for the Konquata Monitors

…and here’s Hemlock!  I used him in my first Blood Bowl game.  He tried to stab an enemy Skink, and then got tackled and injured.  Dammit

The paint scheme is different from the Konquata Monitors because the Star Players were not born on Albion!

Azure Flames Librarian on Bike

Modeling

The pewter Librarian with Force Axe model is a good one, as his weapon is up high.  I used a jeweler’s saw to cut under the book on his waist, up, across the waist under the belt buckle, down underneath the Frag Grenades, and out.  The legs were used for one of my Sternguard.  The Master of the Ravenwing pewter book was glued to the front, and the old pewter Bike shotgun from the old Scout Bikes was added, as well as the pewter scout bedroll.  The pewter cloak of Malus Darkblade was added to a standard Space Marine backpack.  Painted in the standard Azure Flames color scheme.

This is an old picture.  The base has since been replaced with the new Bike base.

Demoing Epic: one of my first attempts to teach a game.

A while ago I cleaned ChaosOrc out of most of their Epic Ork merchandise.  Combined with ebay conquests, I got a sizeable Ork army for Epic.  This gave me two armies of a large enough scale to play.  My next problem: if I want to show kids how to play, HOW do I get them interested?

In the Epic Armageddon rulebook, there are “practice scenarios” that allow players to get used to the rules of Epic.  This is all well and good for players who are already interested, but what about drawing in new players?  Fooling around with a Space Marine unit or two won’t really let them get what Epic is about: BIG BATTLES.

So, I figured what I would do is make two balanced 3000 point lists, set up a battlefield, and let them have at it.  I typed up a double-sided sheet which explained in brief the rules of Epic, what each of their units did, and what their strategies in general should be.

I set up a battlefield at 21C and waited for some players.  I got my friends Alan and Al to play.  Alan was the first to sign up and chose Space Marines.  Al therefore played the Orks.  Here is a brief description of the battle:

Mission: Tournament Scenario. Each player has one objective on their board edge and two on their own side.  The tournament scenario has five win conditions. Blitzkreig: Hold the objective on the enemy board edge.  Break Their Spirit: Destroy the most expensive enemy formation.  Defend the Flag: Hold all 3 objectives in your board half. Take and Hold: Hold two objectives in the enemy board half.  They Shall Not Pass: There are no unbroken enemy formations in your table half.  At the end of turn 3, the player with more win conditions wins.  If there is a tie, play a 4th turn.  If still a tie, the winner is the one who has inflicted the most damage.

Setup: One board edge had about 1/3 of its side cut off by a shallow river, difficult and dangerous terrain.  A large bridge spanned the thin river.  This side also had about 5 ruined buildings, arranged as a small town, and one small forest.  The other board half had several large forests.

Forces

Alan: Space Marines

-Warlord Titan

-Terminator Formation with Chaplain

-Assault Marine Formation

-Assault Marine Formation

-Devastator Formation with Hunter

-Tactical formation with Supreme Commander

-Whirlwind Formation with Hunter

-Land Speeder Formation with one Typhoon upgrade

-Thunderhawk Gunship

Al: Orks

-Great Gargant with Ork Warlord

-‘Uge Ork Warband with two extra units of Orks and Gretchin each

-Ork Warband with 2 Battlewagons, 3 Gunwagons, and Flakwagon

-Ork Warband with 2 Battlewagons, 3 Gunwagons, and Flakwagon

-Kult of Speed with 6 bikes, 2 Buggies

-Big Blitz Brigade with extra Gunwagon and 2x Oddboy Supa-Zzap Gun upgrade.

-Mekboy Stompamob

-Mekboy Gunzmob with Oddboy Soopagun upgrade.

-3 Fighta Bommerz

Deployment

Orks put the ‘Uge mob of Orks in a central forest.  Each flank had one Boyz mob and one Gunwagon unit.  Gargant was right in the middle.  Kult of Speed on the flank.  Gunz off slightly to the right.  Stompas supporting the Gargant.  Space Marines deployed Tactical formation with Supreme Commander in ruined town.  Assault Marine units BOTH deployed inside the Thunderhawk off the board.  Devastators were in the forest to the right.  Titan in the center by the bridge, supported by Land Speeders.  Whirlwinds center behind the town.  Terminators in reserve.

Turn 1

Space Marine Terminators teleport behind enemy lines near the ‘Uge Ork Mob, in the back near Boys away from Nobs.  Space Marines win initiative.  Whirlwinds bombard ‘Uge Ork formation.  Initiative seized, Terminators assault ‘Uge mob, lose 1 stand and break the ‘Uge formation.  Ork Great Gargant activates and doubles, blasting three shields off of the Warlord Titan.  Warlord Titan responds and blows four Power fields off the Great Gargant.  Fighta Bommerz attack Whirlwinds, but Hunter suppression and poor rolls make their attack ineffective.  Thunderhawk with embarked Assault units smash into an Ork mob, wiping it out.

Turn 2

Terminators begin harassing the broken ‘Uge mob to keep it broken and advance on Gunz.  Gargant does another double, is now 1/2 way across the board.  Assault Marines split up and wreak havoc, but are damaged by Blitz Brigades in return.  Kult of Speed roars across the board.  Devastators shoot, kill 1 bike unit.  Titan smashes an Ork Blitz brigade.

Turn 3

Assault Marine unit 3 strong gets picked up by Thunderhawk.  Remaining Assault marine unit 1 strong hides behind a forest.  Ork ‘Uge mob regroups, attacks Terminators, kills all but 1 but still loses combat and flees again.  Whirlwinds mop up Big Gunz.  Stompas and Land Speeders duke it out in close combat, 1 Stompa and 2 speeders destroyed.  Titan fires on Great Gargant and take down last power field.  Gargant charges Tactical formation in Town, breaks them.  Devastators break Kult of Speed.  Hunter flak kills 2 Fighta Bommers, last bommer broken.  Thunderhawk claims Ork objective

Final – Alan’s Space Marines win

Blitzkreig: Space Marines  Break Their Spirit: Neither.  Defend the Flag: Neither. Take and Hold: Space Marines. They Shall Not Pass: Neither.

Analysis: Both Al and Alan got how the game worked pretty quickly.  Watching Al’s Gargant charge as Al shouted WAAAGH! was awesome.  I think this plan would work pretty well for Epic.

Battlefleet Gothic Heavy Transport

At RIW Games today, a guy was selliing some stuff from a Bitz Box.  For $7 I got a Chaos Cruiser Hull.  I used a spare bridge, some Chaos and Imperial sensors, and pieces of sprue to make a Heavy Transport.  This brings my “transport” capacity to 10, so I can play a Convoy or Planetary Assault game  of 2500 points!

Your Local Gaming Store

So for those that read the battle report previous to this, you know I played John in Battlefleet Gothic.  We took off in search of some gaming space at Pandemonium Games in Garden City.  Sadly, the place was crawling with Yu-Gi-Oh players and there was not a board to be found.

A quick call to Lexington and John pulled up the address for RIW Games in Livonia, which is actually closer to my house.  We checked the store, but it was full of merchandise, no gaming space.  I bought some paint and asked if there was gaming space in the back.  The clerk told me that they have space in the same shopping area, but in a non-adjacent building.  We pushed some tables together and got our game on, see the previous post for details.

During our prep, a man playing some sort of counter-terrorism board game noticed our Gothic game.  He mentioned Epic, and I said that I played Epic.  He pointed to a box of old bitz, filled with Epic stuff and said that in the room next door, there was a local Epic club playing!  I introduced myself to them, and learned they have a forum: http://www.miniartofwar.net/smf/index.php

Hopefully I can get some games of Epic!  All this from patronizing my (slightly closer) Local Game Store.  They’re important!