Painting Party and Skirmish reports

Saturday we had another painting party/gaming session.  It was our first time with our new recruit James with us, and while we didn’t do a lot of gaming, we did have a productive time together.

If you haven’t done a painting party, it’s just a great way to really reinvigorate the painting process for everybody.  We can see different statuses of the various works in progress.  We can discuss and talk about all things 40K, and hobby specific topics at leisure while making progress on our minis.  For our group of players it’s something we really have come to look forward to.  We have lots of fun, we pick up different tricks, and we do a lot of smack talking.  Steve says he envisions us as a sort of 40K version of the Marvel Bullpen from the 1970s.  I just think we all have a deep addiction/passion for 40K and combining all that into one room just makes for a dynamic day that is quickly becoming not just a staple, but a key component in our gaming group’s makeup.


For the most part everyone focused on painting.  Jason worked on his Chaos Marines, Steve worked on some of his Space Marines and primed his son’s Necron Nightbringer, Chris worked on his fantastic bastion he scratch built out of card stock and foam core (which I failed to photograph, but Steve posted a pic at My Battalion), James primed and started painting his first batch of Tau Firewarriors, and I completed my Rokket Launcha Boy, and then primed and partially base coated 10 more boyz.  I didn't get many pics because I was busy painting, but I got a couple.

 

(My Rokkti Launcha Boy)

(The 10 Ork Boyz I primed and started to base coat, I liked how they looked like they were 

less interested in a Waaagh! and more in painting a house)

(Chris' Bastion.  I'm still speechless at how awesome this scratchbuilt piece is)

For the last couple of painting parties we’ve capped the night with a big, or relatively big for people still building armies, fracas.  We’ve done 400 and 800 point battles but as we are still learning the game those sessions have gone very long.  Combine that us still building our armies, and with James not really at a point where he could field anything substantial, we decided to instead just do some small 150-200 point single squad skirmishes.  We didn’t have any HQ  units, but just brought single squads out.

This also allowed me to work with a quickly kitbashed over head camera system to photograph our battles.  I used a web camera with a base that allowed it to mount on Steve’s drop ceiling easily, however the camera and controls are very rudimentary and so there was no zooming in and out, so we couldn’t get the whole board in the camera.  It gave me some ideas on how to improve but it was a test run on getting it to work.  So I’ve included some of the better pictures in this post.

First up was Chris versus me.  I brought out a 155 squad of Boyz versus a similar squad of Space Wolves, and we just lined up and fought.  I didn’t do much thanks to some bad tactics and even worse dice rolls.  And in the end I was obliterated taking out 1 Space Marine.

(No tactics, just charge and fight, at least for the Orks)

(getting closer, and fewer)

(so close)

(let there be Assault)

(Oh dice, why must you forsake me?)

After that James and Steve played a couple rounds with James taking the first and Steve taking the second.  I really didn’t pay a whole lot of attention because I was busy painting and using some gum tack to get the boyz to stick in their bases .  I wanted to use them if I played again.  And I did.

(I found upon further review, that Tau not only like to fight 

at range but where completely camera shy)

 

(yep, still no Tau, and they wouldn't move let alone into frame)

(blurry photo evidence that there was a Tau force fielded)

(Steve's Blood Ravens sizing up James' Tau)

The final game of the night was James, Jason, and myself in a free for all.  We set our units up to be about 200 points.  James had a full complement of Fire Warriors maxed out, I had 28 Ork Boyz with a Nob, Big Shoota and Rokkit Launcha, and Jason had a squad of Berserkers in a Rhino.

(That Rhino was a pain in the butt, especially the 

way it and the Tau kept pelting the Orks)

Immediately we saw what was going to happen.  Jason and James shot my army from afar whittling boyz away, until I was able to finally assault James.  At that point, I put a sever hurting on James and took him out in two rounds.  Actually after my initial assault James was left with 2 units left.  He needed to take a morale save, and rolled double ones allowing us to actually see the “Insane Heroism” rule in effect.  By the time James was gone I was sufficiently weakened and when Jason assaulted my remaining forces his apparent dice demi-god status pretty much wiped me out.

 

 (shortly after this shot, the Berserkers disembarked 

and took on out what was left of the Boyz)

Still, it was a lot of fun (of course), but more importantly by focusing on smaller units we could really focus on learning the basic rules.  After Chris beat me he left, which really helped because as the most experienced player Chris is a crutch that we rely on during the game.  However, with him gone it forced me to really figure out the rules and questions on my own…which of course helped me retain things as well.  I noticed that the learning curve with each game is becoming less and less.  Which is good, because I’m ready to break free from the shackles of being a confused neophyte with a small army, and move on to a less confused neophyte with a decent sized army.