TSHFT After Action Review

I'm thinking about what direction I want to go in from here, as far as competitive 40K goes. I'm well on my way to having a Battle Company together, just need some painting to run a War Convocation, and could also do a few different variations on Tau, Necrons, or some combination of them. On the other hand, while DK probably won't get me to the top, I expect they'll be able to get me some pretty respectable placings once I get them better tuned, and they are a whole lot of fun. So I'm looking over what I took to TSHFT, thinking about how I might take this up another level for the Storm of Souls if I don't come up with a TauCron thing or Convocation I like, or a Battle Company that I like enough to overcome the logistical issues.

KDK CAD
- Lord, Juggernaut, Gorethirster, Power Sword, 4++, Meltabombs
Fairly solid. Didn't do a whole lot of damage, but only gave up Warlord once. Should probably start running him with one of the second-line Flesh Hound Packs, as he tended to get caught up in fights that weren't really suited to his strengths when he was going off the front with the big Pack.

- Lord, Bike, Axe of Ruin
Meh. In my first three Games, I didn't even manage to get him killed off to bring in the Bloodthirster. In the other three, he went down like a chump, the 'Thirster killed off the Unit that killed him, and then it got pancaked by Grav. Definitely getting replaced for serious Games.

- 2x8 Bloodletters
- 2x1 Chaos Spawn
Solid. Mostly just Objective Holders, but when they got a chance to pitch in on fights, they carried their weight. Not crucial, tho, so if I need to trim Points, the Spawn can go.

- 3 MaulerFiends
OK. As much as I love them, they're really vulnerable to Grav, and only having 2 Attacks on the profile at I3, WS3 is pretty lame. Much as I hate to do it, these guys may be getting dropped for a Chaos Knight or something else with similar speed, but better durability and hitting power.

- Void Shield Generator, 2 extra Shields
Solid gold. I ran up against 5/6 Armies that were heavy on Grav, and even against the Tau, it shielded Culties from Pulse Rifle/Carbine fire, and soaked up quite a lot of Ion and Heavy Burst Cannon fire.

CSM Allied Detachment
- Chaos Lord, Mark of Khorne, Juggernaut, Axe of Blind Fury, 4++
Total rock star. Occasionally he gets carried away and hits himself in the face, but most of the time, this guy is great. If he just had BftBG, so I didn't have to worry about keeping his companion Unit alive, and he generated extra BT in Challenges instead of turning into a Daemon Prince and getting wasted by Grav, he'd be perfect.

- 10 Culties
Great. Given how aggressive the rest of the list is, these guys pretty much always got ignored, and just sat back and camped an Objective. They only died once, and that was mostly because they were stuck as the closest thing when a SkyHammer Assault Squad scattered like 11" from where it was supposed to hit.

Gorepack
- 3 Bikers, 2xMelta, Combi-Melta, Meltabombs
- 3 Bikers, 2xMelta, Meltabombs
OK. I need to work more on how I use these guys, since they almost never actually got to shoot their Meltas. They'd end up hanging back too much and then by the time they got in range, everything was locked in Combat, and I ended up just Charging them in. Either that, or I ditch all the Meltas and just run them as light Combat Units and Meltabomb caddies.

- 2x5 Flesh Hounds
- 12 Flesh Hounds
More rockstars. These guys have been the backbone of the Army since day 1, and that didn't change here.

Depending on what all I take out, that's gonna leave me with something like 550-650 Points to fool around with. Definitely room for a Chaos Knight there, and then probably bulk up the Gorepack a bit. Maybe even another Bike Squad, to give me someone else who can carry Meltabombs, since multiple Knights are pretty much a hard counter to this list as it stands.

I would also note that there wasn't a single moment when I wished I'd brought my Helldrake. Dudes with 3+ Svs camping in hard-to-reach places with good Cover Saves aren't really nearly as much of a thing anymore.

Heart of Fire!

So, as I mentioned last week, this past weekend was TSHFT, The Seattle Heart of Fire Tournament. I finally managed to attend for the first time since 2007. I took my DaemonKin, which I've been running as my competitive list since I first took them to a tournament as a goofy fun list since I didn't know the power level at that store and then accidentally the whole thing. I've got them fairly well tuned at this point, I think, tho I am running a few things (like the Biker Lord with the Axe of Ruin) just for fun and/or because I just got that BloodThirster painted. The quick version is that I had 6 really fun games and a great time over the weekend.  Read on for more detail:

Off to TSHFT!

Got the whole thing more or less ready to head off to Bellevue in search of Victory and Glory. My actual camera is already packed up, so it's just a cellphone pic, but I think the overall effect comes through. Some of the stuff in the back isn't actually in the list, it's just there to summon with the Blood Tithe and/or the Axe of Ruin.

Y'all have a good one, and hopefully I will remember to take pics and get at least a rough after-action report up.

Warp Shield Generator Complete!

Well, it wants some more touchup, but given how much else I have to work on, I'm calling it good for now. As I mentioned, it's not just for my DaemonKin, but for all my Chaos Armies, so I did one side for each God. Here are Nurgle and Khorne, and below are Slaanesh and Tzeentch:

The camera didn't do a great job of capturing the transitions, and it seems to make stuff a bit bluer. Looks better in person.

My secret weapon is this huge house-painting brush. I've used a couple of different ones over the years, because I use them a lot for drybrushing Terrain that's got sand on and stuff, and that really wrecks 'em. Eh, they're like $2 at the hardware store. This one's 1 1/2", because they were out of the 1" with the bristles that I like when I went in the other day, but it still works pretty well. Most of the WiP stuff you can see here with it was done using just it for most of what's been done so far.

I finally got my list nailed down, less than 60 hours before dice drop. Had a bit of a panic when I went to double-check it, because I'd made two math errors in the original. In one, I carried an extra hundred, and in the other, I forgot to carry a hundred. In my first check, I only found the second error, panicked, stripped out a bunch of Hounds, added it all up again from scratch, and found myself at 1748. Doh. Did it all again from the start, found the other error, and got the final form:

195/195 - Lord, Juggernaut, Gorethirster, Power Sword, 4++, Meltabombs
155/350 - Lord, Bike, Axe of Ruin
160/510 - 2x8 Bloodletters
064/574 - 2x1 Chaos Spawn
390/964 - 3 MaulerFiends
100/1064 - Void Shield Generator, 2 extra Shields

170/1234 - Chaos Lord, Mark of Khorne, Juggernaut, Axe of Blind Fury, 4++
050/1284 - 10 Culties

111/1395 - 3 Bikers, 2xMelta, Combi-Melta, Meltabombs
101/1496 - 3 Bikers, 2xMelta, Meltabombs
160/1656 - 2x5 Flesh Hounds
192/1848 - 12 Flesh Hounds

I did drop one Hound to put some Meltabombs back in, because I started thinking about having to deal with something like a Hellforged Hunting Pack, and I basically just had the MaulerFiends there. Think it's pretty well rounded now, at least as far as DK go. It's a fun list to play. Insanely fast, and whatever does make it across the field hits like a ton of bricks.

Prime Time

All cleaned up and spackled and Chaosified. I took it out on the balcony and sprayed it before posting this, and was very relieved to see that I had, in fact, been thorough enough in sealing it. Should have pics with at least some drybrushing to make the details visible tomorrow or Wednesday.

Warp Shield Generator: Scale Check

Doing a bit of a check on size now that I've got the thing roughly hacked to shape. I'm using a Knight as comparison because in part I'm working from this pic:

Mine's a bit bulkier, and it's a complete LoS blocker, but otherwise I think I've got it about right. The LoS bit shouldn't be an issue, because if I'm hiding anything behind it, it's going to be stuff like Culties or Flesh Hounds, that wouldn't come up to the point where the difference really starts.

I carved some stonework patterns in it, and gave most of it a coat of Mod Podge (Thanks for the rec, Thor!). Tomorrow, when that's dry, there are a few bits I'm going to patch up with spackle, and get Mod Podge on the rest. Then probably one more thinned down coat, just to make sure I've gotten all the cracks and crevices sealed, glue some Chaos icons on it (Mon-Tues), spray it black (Weds), and get it all drybrushed on Thursday so it's ready to head over to Bellevue for TSHFT when I take off Friday afternoon.

The Road to TSHFT

These are the last few plastic Models I need to paint (plus an old-ass Ordo Malleus Inquisitor who I've been meaning to prime for ages, and it seemed amusing to include him with this lot) for my TSHFT list for next weekend. I also still need to build and paint my "Void Shield Generator", but that's going to be pretty easy. I'm just doing a big monolith-type thing with chaos symbols all over it that roughly fits the footprint and silhouette of a VSG. Most of the time needed for that is just going to be waiting for sealant and primer to dry. Should be doable over the next 8 days, given that I don't have much else putting demands on me in that time.

I've been kicking around and trying out a bunch of variations on the list since the Elvensword Ambassador Tournament (I never did get around to doing up a write-up. I ended up taking 5th in my bracket, narrowly losing two games to the clock (one of them, I literally only needed another 45 seconds), and roflstomping my other two opponents). I've finally decided on this:

Daemonkin CAD
190/190  -  Lord, Juggernaut, Gorethirster, Power Sword, 4++ (Warlord)
155/345  -  Lord, Bike, Axe of Ruin
160/505  -  2x8 Bloodletters
064/569  -  2x1 Chaos Spawn
390/959  -  3 MaulerFiends
125/1084  -  Void Shield Generator, 2 extra Shields


CSM Allied Detachment
170/1254  -  Chaos Lord, Mark of Khorne, Juggernaut, Axe of Blind Fury, 4++
050/1304  -  10 Culties

GorePack
111/1415  -  3 Bikers, 2xMelta, Combi-Melta, Meltabombs
096/1511  -  3 Bikers, 2xMelta
160/1671  -  2x5 Flesh Hounds
176/1847  -  11 Flesh Hounds

My Warlord goes with the big Unit of Flesh Hounds, the CSM Lord goes with the smaller one (As long as he's part of a DK Unit, his Unit kills count toward the Blood Tithe, tho he doesn't generate the extra points for kills in Challenges or his own death), the Biker Lord goes with the Bikers without the Champion gear.

The Void Shields should help a lot to mitigate some of the issues I've had with Alpha Strikes, while cutting the Spawn down to just solo Objective Grabbers and ditching the DK Culties and Possessed cuts down the model count and the number of extra steps dealing with random Attacks, random abilities, and extra Initiative steps, so that should save me some time. I also dropped the Helldrake, because it's really only proved great in one Game out of my last 10 with it. The limited fire arc makes it really awkward to use, and a couple of times it's ended up stuck in Reserves until Turn 4, which sucks.

I'm not in good enough practice to win the thing, but fast Assault MSU gives a lot of common Armies trouble, and there's a surprising amount of durability here, so I'm hoping to be able to go 4-2 for the weekend.