The 2019 Midwest ConQuest has come and gone and I placed 44th and went a disappointing 2-3.  In my second game, I played last year's winner, Richard Windau, and his optimized Tau list. I embarrassed myself and deployed poorly, forgot rules/stats and may have been inadvertently snarky with him about using the chess clock. Richard wanted to use the chess clock (which was fine with me because I'm using AM) but he just asked me to remove a unit after rolling to hit but he hand't rolled  to wound yet. I said that since we were on the clock, he should roll to wound before I scoop my unit. Afterword, I felt kind of shitty about it because it's a bit of gamesmanship but another tournament goer said that I was fine in asking him to do so because he asked for a clock and it is in the rules to roll to wound. Also, every time I go to a tournament and get whooped, I want to play that army. I've never wanted a Tau army until now... In my small group of friends th...

I've been frantically painting and testing my Imperial Soup list for the upcoming Midwest ConQuest and BugEater 40k GTs. I'm nearly done painting - just a handful of troops and tanks left. I'm still working on my backstory though. My buddy Kyle and I share an enthusiasm for the witch hunters in the Warhammer/40k universe so I'm crafting my fluff to be an Inquisitorial task force. Here's my list - formatted for Best Coast Pairings. Inquisition themed Astra Militarum fire their big guns! +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ + Player: Dusty Dean + REPORTED ARMY FACTION:  Imperium + TOTAL COMMAND POINTS: 21 + TOTAL ARMY POINTS: 1993 + POWER LEVEL: 124 + ARMY FACTIONS USED: Astra Militarum, Blood Angels, Adeptus Custodes + TOTAL REINFORCEMENT POINTS: 7 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ == Brigade Detachment == Astra Militarum, Cadian, [ 24PL, 1078pts] ...

The Tanks-Giving tournament went fairly well and I went 2-1 placing 4th-ish. Marshall went 3-0 winning the tourney's top prize. I won my first game against Danny and his Tau in a close and nasty slobber-knocker. We played a modified Crusade scenario with 4 objectives in the center of the table and Vanguard deployment. I don't remember the final score, but neither of us had many models left on the table. Danny brought the Tau Ta'unar Supremacy armor super heavy. I was able to tie it up with a librarian and managed to put 5 wounds on it before it finally stomped my model to death. My second game was a solid loss to Chris and his Tau in a modified Contact Lost scenario. He brought a list that had a Stormsurge and a Ghostkeel unit. He was pretty much in control the whole game and frustrated me with the amount of move, shoot, ignore the rules, and move again shenanigans for which the Tau are known. In the third match I faced Braden and his Ork and Necron team up in a Tacti...

I'm playing in my LCS's annual "Tanks-Giving" Warhammer 40k tournament this weekend. It's a 2,500 point tournament with bonuses for bringing as many vehicles and monstrous creatures as possible. I'm not sure how it will do, but I have 21 "vehicles." I could probably builder a nastier list but I enjoy the fun my drop pod army combined with some regular marines. I've never fielded the Storm Wing before, so we'll see if gaining strafing run is worth 460 points of flyers that I might not normally field. Also, with the release of the new formations from the Damocles Kauyon book, my White Scars may be taking the field again (luckily on I only repainted one unit as Alpha Legion.) My "40k" marines will be Scars and my 30k list will likely change to Salamanders because it really fits my playstyle better and the Alpha Legion rules require smaller units and a lot more rhinos. Here's my list: Space Marines (Combined arms detachment)...

The cover from the upcoming White Dwarf 44, featuring the new Blood Angels Captain from the Shield of Baal campaign box set. Space Vampires: now with fangs! I've pre-ordered my box set and the Tyranids will be hitting the secondary market shortly after arrival. This is still my favorite Blood Angel photo though.

Today I played in a tourney with my Blood Angels, "Death Star" list. It's been in vogue to label nasty units as "star" units because of the original "Death Star" from Star Wars, an nearly impervious weapon of immeasurable power. You'll find Screamer Star, Biker Star, etc. so, I decided to build a Death Company "star" unit, and "Death Star" is really the best name for it. Here's my army list: 1 Reclusiarch - melta bomb, jump pack 27 Death Company (5 power fists, 12 power swords, jump packs) 5 Scouts with sniper rifles 1 Furioso Dreadnought - Melta, Flamer, Drop pod. The Reclusiarch joins the Death Company to gain even more cheaty rules. In the tournament, I went 2-1, with my only lost being very close Relic game. The first game was with a guy from Kansas City who had maxed out his IG army with heavy weapon squads. I was lucky to get night fight the first turn and ran as fast as I could to his hoard that turt...

For a small tournament next month, I'm thinking of running this fun Blood Angels list. 1 Reclusiarch - Jump pack - melta bomb 27 Death Company - 10 CC weapon and bolter, 12 Power Sword, 5 Power Fist, Jump Packs 1 Furioso Dreadnought - Heavy Flamer, Drop Pod 5 Scouts with Sniper Rifles It's so crazy it... might... just... work! The idea came from a forum topic of making the most expensive unit. It was either Death Company or a giant IG blob. In all seriousness, I doubt this list will do well, but it'll be fun. I don't think it'll stand up against an Eldar Wave Serpent spam list, but I think I might do some damage to most other lists I see in my area. The dread will have to drop and provide some cover for the DC to jump and run their way across the table. I'll try to get the Command Trait of picking night fighting to help out and get some cover saves on top of the FNP.

This weekend I played in a small 1,500 tournament and went 1-1-1. I feel like I did much better than my record indicates. I brought my Imperial Guard because my White Scars and Daemons aren't ready for the table top yet. In my first match up, I faced Marshall, a guy who usually wins most of our local tourneys with his Space Wolves. Instead of his wolves, he brought Tyrnanids that he recently bought from another local gamer. Marshall's dice were hot all game, including spawning the maximum 18 termigants from his Tervigon in the first turn. Despite that, and the fact he went first, I held my own. We played Relic and he quickly swarmed over it, but the gaming time flew by and we only reached the top of turn 3. If I had a chance to take my third turn, I may have been able to pull in a draw, and perhaps even pulled a win in turn 4 or 5 if we had the time to play it out. My second round opponent was Danny and his Dark Eldar. My IG have always given him fits and today I just had h...

Here's a my nearly finished Blood Angel Dreadnought Librarian. I'm pleased with how the force sword looks. Also, I bought a ton of mini bricks for the base and I had the intention of basing all of the models this way... Except it took about 45 minutes to an hour to lay all of those tiny bricks... I may re-think that plan.

After a challenge from a friend of mine to devise an army with as few models as possible, I picked a list using Blood Angels dreadnoughts and drop pods (I call it Drop Dread). Obviously, I haven't played it yet, and I get flack because of the new "glance to death" rules, but I'm forging on with my space vampires in coffins army. I decided to forgo the usual BA paint scheme and paint them as Angels Sanguine. I've got: 1 Chaplain 10 Death Company 2 Death Company Dreads 2 Librarian Dreads 1 Furioso 3 Heavy Dreads with Multi-Meltas 8 Drop Pods   Here's my pile of minis as they sit now. I've got everything cut from the sprues, filed down and assembled up to the point where I want to paint the pieces. These bits are waiting for the weather to warm up and be primed.     I picked up this Forge World dread just because I wanted to paint one. I plan on magnetizing the arms and under-hull weapons.    ...