Blood Bowl League!

I was once addicted to this game more then any other. I've played hundreds of online matches with FUMBBL and more recently the PC version by Cyanide. Several hundred games played. So I was excited to find out that there is a South East Michigan Blood Bowl League (SEMBBL) and it kicked off this last Tuesday!

Up from the depths of Pandemonium's used bin came the Undead legion of Tut's Nuts... bought and somewhat assembled literally minutes before the start of the league! And victory was mine in my first table top Blood Bowl game in over 5 years. A 2-0 pummeling of some orc boyz. I plan to have this team painted up this weekend.

Ork Fluff: campaign league battle reports

In the campaign we gained extra points for fluffy battle reports... below are a collection of these. My first battle was against the Black Templars as I made planetfall, this battle report details a City Fight against the White Scars.

It called to them. Like the moth to flame, the ork migrated to war. The colossal spacehulk Voidfang would bring them to the fight like the countless times before... the Warpheadz serving catalyst for the ork collective psychic consciousness combined with a precarious control of Voidfang meant the beast was never far away...

And this place had the biggest fight. 'Volstad' is what the 'oomies called it, but Gargunki was not sure if that was the name of the world or the city but nor did he care. There was a fight going on and he meant to win it. He had made sure that the Mekboyz had telly-ported them down to where the fighting would be fiercest and fierce it had been against the Black beakies..."A good scrap that." Gargunki had crippled the beakie kaptin and torn their Champion in half personally... but those Beakies had a worthy fighter named "Grim-somefing". Duffed over many of his boyz that beakie did. A worthy trophy his head would be but that would have to wait. Word had it that Morbo Krunk, the most powerful of his Warpheadz, had been cut-off to the south and was under heavy bombardment. Gargunki could not risk such a valuable asset to be lost and mounting up on his Big Red trukk he sped off, following the river south on a rescue mission of sorts...

These White beakies were fast, but Black beakies or White beakies, they would all be Dead beakies in the end. Gargunki and his retinue had come up on the White beakie bikers quickly thanks to Big Red. "Red wunz go fasta ya gitz!" Gargunki yelled as he leapt from the back of the trukk towards the beakie leader. The marine kaptin was quick striking two quick shots that would have killed a lesser ork outright. The latter blow wedged the marines blade into the cybernetic workings of Gargunki's midsection. Gargunki laughed... "Dem gutz is from da Mad Dok himself." The mighty warboss knocked the marine from his bike, stunning him. Dok Narnar pounced quickly on the prone marine sawing into the dazed kaptin as he cried out in pain. "Oi Dok! How many times I gotta tell yooz? No operatin' on da enemy in da middle of a scrap! Now gimme da fightin' juice!"

Dejected, Narnar complied injecting into Gargunki a stimulant that would kill most creatures in the galaxy dead. The marine captain took this mometary delay and struck out once more "Die xenos filth!". "GAH! dat hurt!" cried Gargunki. Already injured, the marine captain could not escape as Gargunki locked onto him with his power klaw and crushed him to a bloody pulp. This fight was over... the boyz had done good.

A sudden flash drew Gargunki's attention to the roof of the building to his right. It was Morbo Krunk! The Warphead had become excitable and started telly-portin' randomly about the city again. "Quit foolin' around yooz and get down 'ere!" Gargunki bellowed.

"Squig?" replied the Warphead.
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I played my new Tyranids for about half the campaign but recently fielded my orks in a pickup game against the Tyranids in a Planetstrike game where I was the attacker.

Bugs. They were everywhere. Gargunki had been fighting his way through hordes of bugs for weeks and while the fightin' was good the lootin' was not. "Can't loot a zoggin' bug-fing", his meks had told him. No matter how many rivets they used the bug weaponry was useless to them... even if it was bolted onto the orkiest of fightin' machines. And what was worse, the bugz were eating all the good loot from the 'oomies! Gargunki new of only one solution to this: Build a dead killy Stompa to flatten the bugz and 'oomies alike. That'll show 'em.

Gargunki had been notified by Shuvva Luggitz aboard the Voidfang of a big 'oomie fortress not far away that was prime for lootin' but they had to act quick. Already the bug-fings had duffed the 'oomies there and were sure to eat the fortress in a matter of hours.

The order went out and the Voidfang unleashed a firestorm onto the fortress, toppling the highest tower. "I'll smash the whole zoggin' fort if I have too." thought Gargunki. "Nothing a few rivets and orky-welds can't fix."

Shuvva Luggitz had made planetfall with his retinue of Burna Boyz and along with a mob of Warbikers and sneakin' Kommandos were the first to approach the fortress only to be devoured by a mass of bugz that came seemingly out of nowhere. But Shuvva's kustom force field was the stuff of legends and the Big Mek's Battlewagon shook off the worst of the bug weapons, his Burna Boyz torching a mass of gribblies as he continued on to the fortress walls.

Fridgechukka was also along for the fight. Him and his mob of Mega-Nobz utterly tore apart a giant bug that had burrowed under the ground to attack them. Gargunki was wise to have not killed him in the pit fight that one time as he knew Fridgechukka was dead 'ard and good in a scrap. But he'd have to keep more of an eye out for him now. A big win over a monster like that would be sure to fill Fridgechukka with orky confidence and that could lead to pit fight numba two for leadership of the boyz.

Gargunki and his Nobz were the first to enter the fortress. He had used his fast moving Trukks to lead the big-dumb bugz away and he had smashed some big-gun bugz good and proppa that been guarding the western bunker of the fortress. Nothing stood in his way of the prize now...

The fight was a good 'un... and despite some boss-bug with 4 big choppas eatin' a bunch of the ladz the fortress was all but his. The last of the bugz burned out... they could set about lootin' the place.

2010: the year of the brush

So in order to prioritize things:

1. Prime and paint 2000 point Tyranid army. (8 Genestealers still need to be assembled.)

2. Paint Stompa, Mega-Dread, Shokk Attack Gun battery, Ghazghkull and a small army of Nobz for my Orky Apocalypse. (Assembly needs to be done for the mass of Snotlings in the SAG battery)

3. Finish painting 2250 point Lizardman army to a better then table-top standard. (10 SKinks are already done! Yes!)

4. Paint the rest of my Marines: Pedro Kantor, Command Squad and Captain, Dreadnought, 10 Sternguard, 7 Assault Termis, 3 Drop Pods, 1 Predator, 1 Razorback, finish Devastator Squad. That would leave me with over 3000 points painted.

5. Finish the Monoliths for the Necrons! I got all the fancy red plastic and I need to complete the vision!

If I get all this done this year I will be a happy gamer!

Tyranid Game 1 review

I got my first game in with the new Tyranid codex the other day against a Space Marine army that featured Vulkan, Telion, AND Chronus. Here is my list, how each unit performed and what (if any) changes I plan to make.

I tried to make a list built on synergy that captures the essence of a Tyranid attack with creatures popping up all over the place... the only unit I spam is the Trygon but it's so cool I had to take two. Overall I was pleased with how the list worked. My reserve rolls were utter shit even with the Hive Commander upgrade and I was behind early due to this slow start. But I was able to weather the potent marine shooting for the most part and in the end was able to come out on top (mission: Annihilation/Pitched Battle).

The List
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Hive Tyrant: I took him mainly for the Hive Commander upgrade so I could out-flank with my Hormagaunts and add +1 to my reserve rolls. The Paroxysm psychic power is ace and made a unit of Assault Terminators fight with WS 1... they got eaten. He was attached to a single Tyrant Guard but this was not enough as he was still gunned down in the bottom of the 2nd turn by the Redeemer and Telion's huge-ass sniper squad. A 2+ save is in the Hive Tyrant's future.

Tyranid Prime: The beast of the match. Armed with Lash Whip, Bonesword, Scything Talons and Adrenal Glands he massacred the Assault Terminators almost single handedly and then butchered the Scout squad (killing 7 in 2 rounds of combat?!?). He was lucky to survive Telion's sniping on the way in and all the other shooting but still... This unit is a mainstay.

Zoanthropes: Didn't do too much but killed a few bunched up Sternguard before being boltered to death. Still, I would not leave the Hive without them.

Ymgarl Genestealers: I had my doubts and still do. They arrived late from reserve and while plagued with horrible dice at first they were great in mopping up a Drop Pod and a Tactical Squad. I actually played them wrong in that I chose my hiding area before my opponent deployed (it's after both delpoy) and I also only chose a new morph ability in my assault phase (it's every assault phase)... oh well, next time I'll use them right haha.

Warriors: I like Warriors. The shooty Warriors didn't do much... they acted as mostly a Synapse anchor and are really only there to claim objectives. The Assaulty Warriors with claws, talons and Adrenal Glands were the perfect body guard for delivering the Prime. They got blasted apart by lascannon and missile launcher, but held up really well against everything else.

Gants/Gaunts: Gants died horribly but set up the counter-charges for me, this is what they do so the 5pt Gant is perfect as far as I'm concerned. The Hormagaunts I gave Toxin Sacs which I think is better for them then Adrenal Glands and chose to out-flank them. They arrived too late in the game to participate other then running Telion off the table who was fleeing in terror from the Prime, haha.

Genestealers/BroodLord: I gave them Adrenal Glands but I think I will drop this upgrade in favor of Scything Talons. S5 on the charge sounded nice but the extra wounds it caused seemed to be cleverly canceled out with the Rending wounds due to allocation. The Broodlord eventully went toe to toe with Vulkan and came out on top after about 4 or 5 rounds of combat. I got Hypnotic Gaze off twice but was beat both times on the LD dice off. Oh well... still not bad though.

Carnifex: meh. He got annihilated on turn 1 by podding Sternguard and Chronus' Predator of Doom. I think he is there just to take the heat off the Hive Tyrant really. I think I need him but we'll see.

Trygon(s): As awesome as I thought. I took two of these bad boys and good thing. The first one came in and ate a Rhino before going down. The 2nd one came in and ate Chronus' Predator then survived on 1 wound to eat the Redeemer.

Combat Patrol League batrep1

Ordo Fraternitas Combat Patrol League: Battle Report 1

Gornutz was not pleased, but then again he rarely was. "Zoggin' trees!" He yelled for the umpteenth time. The vast under-growth had slowed down his advance and to Gornutz this was unnacceptable as it meant Blarnok's boyz may get to the action first.

Leading the way through the tangle of woods, Gornutz emerged into a clearing and caught sight of the enemy for the first time cowering in cover like a typical human. Gornutz could feel a pulse of energy well up inside as the enemy was now within striking distance! "Der dey are boyz! Get 'em!" With a rousing Waaagh! the boyz surged forth.

As his boyz pushed forward Gornutz looked over at Blarnok's boyz squabbling amongst themselves, their advance on the right flank stuttering. Gornutz mused for a moment, "Serves dat fluff Blarnok right fer not keepin' proppa respekt amongst da ladz." Gornutz would be Gork-damned if his boyz ever got that unruly as to create a delay from getting stuck in a good scrap!

Entering the undergrowth where the enemy was lurking Gornutz stumbled and fell as a searing blast of melta shot overhead which incinerated Narnar, the nearest boy behind him. "Zoggin' trees!" The difficult terrain did more to infuriate the Nob than the enemy guns. "Dem pewpew-lazurs weren't fit fer grots!" Gornutz had told his boyz. But now that Gornutz had failed to close the distance the initial push had failed and his boyz were shot to pieces as they got caught in the open. Several of his boyz were lit up in a swathe of flame that would make any Burna Boy greener with envy. Gornutz was momentarily impressed with the fact that the humans had brought a proper weapon and also Gulgog's burny dance, the ork warrior awash in flame was too dumb to realize he was already dead but was determined to club the 'oomie tank with his Shoota anyway.

"Come on ladz! We'ze orks and we'ze built fer winnin'!" cried Gornutz, rallying the boyz for a renewed assault wrecking the human tank. The humans evacuated the smoldering wreck, desperately shooting the still dangerous gaggle of orks bearing down on them. "Der's no escape 'oomies... I'm gonna ta clobber tha lot of yooz!" Then the world turned red in a maelstrom of death...

After the butchering of the human squad (and taking shelter behind the wrecked Chimera, he was lootin' see?), Gornutz could hear the human leader off in the distance giving orders to retreat. Gornutz had always thought that human-talk sounded like grot farts. Their nasally voices annoying but not as annoying as those zoggin' trees...