Warhammer 40k, Any players? Options

[Mr. Mage]

I was just wondering if there are any people who play Warhammer 40k in the Poughkeepsie area. I'll be heading back to New Paltz in about a month and for the most part only have 2 people to play with and I'd like to expand my horizons so to speak.

I play Orks and could MAYBE do 1000 points, probably a little less, but I'm always trying to add pieces so I can play in some of the really big games.

For the most part I'll be heading over to Dragon's Den every once in awhile to play, but it would certainly be much easier if I could make plans with other people rather than just show up and see who wants to play.

[Dumori]

Well I play but I'm not in your area. I play Imperial manly SM, IG and Demonhunters. I tend to have my armies focused on the IG component with specialised back up from Deamonhunters or SMs as needed. Gives be fodder and shock troops plus SMs have some nice fast attack options. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[Mr. Mage]

I just added some Burna Boyz to my collection and I'm hoping to test them out. Had a Kommando squad with a Burna attached and the damage it caused was so sweet.

My Armies tend to be a Green Tide style army, with huge units composed of Ork Boyz led by a Nob or a Warboss and some specialized units for support. Favorite setup so far is a 30 ork squad of Boyz, a warboss, 3 bikers and a squad of Kommandos led by Boss Snikrot. Thus far: won about half of the games against one of my friends (he does Daemons or Eldar, whichever he feels like at the time) and I am undefeated against my other friend (Tau).

The game shop nearby in Poughkeepsie is only about a 20 minute drive from me and hosts a tabletop night every thursday, so I figured I'd start trying that, but thought it might be easier if I already knew some people...

Edit: So where do you play? If I ever find myself around there for whatever reason, maybe I could look you up. So that I might declare Waagh! on your puny humanz! BWAHAHA!

[Karoline]

I used to play regular Warhammer, but I'm not in your area either.

[Dumori]

Just wait till you face Necrons. Damn them coming back to life repeatedly. I've only lost with my 400point tournament army against orks and necrons and drew against space marines we basicly pined each other behind building as we both knew who ever enter the field of fire would be killed the next turn. The orks only won due to grot spam the necrons I must have killed that army 3times in total.

[Karoline]

Just wait till you face Necrons. Damn them coming back to life repeatedly. I've only lost with my 400point tournament army against orks and necrons and drew against space marines we basicly pined each other behind building as we both knew who ever enter the field of fire would be killed the next turn. The orks only won due to grot spam the necrons I must have killed that army 3times in total.

Not familiar with the exact things in 40k, but isn't 400 a kind of small army? In fantasy I generally ran a 1k army, and even did a few 2k battles, but maybe the numbers are different (Yeah, the 2k was massive and involved around 100 troops on each side)

[Mr. Mage]

It really depends on what size you want to play/shell out the cash for. But yea, 400 is pretty small comparatively. Lately I've been playing 500 points but that's really only because Orks are damn expensive. I could have 30 ork boyz for 180 points, and they only sell them in packs of 11 ork boys...so it gets pretty expensive as compared to an army like Space Marines where you might get something like half that many models for 180 (and thus spend less money to build an army). I don't know the actual cost of SMs, but I'd be willing to bet I made a pretty good estimate.

[Karoline]

Yeah, money can be an issue. Thankfully Lizardmen minis tended to come in boxes with like 30 of them. I think I fielded my 2k army with like 5 boxes of minis, and a couple of large creatures (Triceratops and the ultra fat frog king/shaman guy)

[Dumori]

400 points is tiny to say I also have enough to field a 4th ed legal 5k-8k army. It's not 5th ed legal as a few models have options that can't be taken any more.

Also I hate my love for IG. The damn painting of 100s of them gets insanely tedious. I know in 4th ed you can play 100 as a squad of conscripts for a low point cost and that's only one squad out of up to 6. With out any suporting units.

[Mr. Mage]

Also I hate my love for IG. The damn painting of 100s of them gets insanely tedious.

I hear ya, Orks have the same problem. And I take care to make them look really good, so I usualy end up spending several hours on on mini. So far, I've got 25 Ork Boys, 3 Ork Nobs and my Warboss painted. And only 200 more models to go! ugh

[Dumori]

I tend to rush job my gurnts though seeing as I was taught to paint be golden daemon entreats its still a slow process. On officers or more sepcial squads I can spends ages. Rushing grunts tends to be production line as well base, second base, Base amour ect ect so I keep my paint mixes consitent per squad or two seeign as I tend to mix alot.

[Mr. Mage]

I like to keep color schemes consistent, but tend to work on models one at a time instead of assembly lining them.

1) Black Spray Base Coat (Can do multiple models at once). I find using the spray cans for the base coat works really well, even coating and done very quickly. Metal models tend to have some problems since the paint kind of drips off of them, but that's easily remedied with multiple base coats over several days.
2) I usually paint the clothing/armor first, some shade of brown/brown red. This isn't always the same since orks don't always dress the same (in my vision of what they should look like at least).
3) Next I do the skin, and this takes a long time. I start out with a coat of Orkhide Shade, a very VERY dark green, then when that dries I put on a coat of GOblin Green, letting some of the Orkhide show through, then a drybrush coat of Snot Green and finally add some light highlights of Camo green.
4) Any other armor/weapons, usually I use either black, silver or bone-white, depending on what the item is (guns are silver, handls for axes might be bone or just black.)
5) Squad colors: I like this part, easy to do but makes the model that much more interesting. I usually have a specific color/pattern that I apply to models depending on which squad they belong to. For instance, my ork mob with Shootas (assault rifles) have blue tiger strikes and braveheart style face paintings. This is either applied directly on the skin or on some of the weapons/armor. The idea is that they have a unifying characteristic without cluttering the model.

Of course, this all takes a long time to do, and sometimes I will spend an entire evening doing only one or two models. Luckily, I have been getting better at it and have started being able to spend less time to get pretty much the same quality.

[PBTHHHHT]

if I ever play, I'll probably either be getting an IG or tau army. Probably tau, it appeals to my anime/sci-fi tastes.

[Mr. Mage]

if I ever play, I'll probably either be getting an IG or tau army. Probably tau, it appeals to my anime/sci-fi tastes.

Your Tau shall fall before the might of the Orks! WAAAGH!!!!!

[eidolon]

PBTHHHHT, I have a decent chunk of an IG Army that I'm taking offers on. Let me know if you're interested in details.

[Karoline]

if I ever play, I'll probably either be getting an IG or tau army. Probably tau, it appeals to my anime/sci-fi tastes.

I don't even know what the races are for the most part.

Imperial, Orks, Eldar (or something like that for the elves)... I've played the video games, but don't know if all of those are actual races or not. I'd likely go with the bug guys if they're a real option.

[Critias]

I've played my share.

[Dumori]

Tyranids are ok swarmy Tau are over played massively or they where last time I look at least 60% of all army sI see are SM or Tau the other runners up are Orks and CSM tyrandi seam to be up there as well. Dark Eldar really need a revamp they are running with rule that don't quite work in 5th ed or 4th ed tbh. The other armys are more evenly split.

Tau are ok to begin with theres not much stratigic choice in what to field. Well less than other lists and they are quite easy to paint en-mass.

[Karoline]

I'd likely play as either the Tyranids or the Necrons. I've always had a tendency towards the more 'xeno' races.

[Tanegar]

If I were going to play 40k, it would be Thousand Sons/Tzeentchian Chaos Marines. For the Changer of Ways!

[Critias]

I started out playing Dark Eldar. I love their fluff, but only played 'em for a few years because they just felt so top-heavy; their HQ and Elite choices were awesome, and their Troop choices mediocre at best, so it always felt like HeroHammer. Games would invariably come down to my boss man (and Incubi bodyguard) slashing up someone else's boss man (and Elite bodyguard), and often the whole game would come down to nothing more than my Combat Drugs and/or a Shadow Field (2+ invulnerable save) roll. Anything else that happened anywhere else on the table was a secondary or tertiary concern.

It was kind of boring, actually.

In recent years they've afforded them a few more options (like the all-Wych army) that are probably a little more fun or balanced or whatever...but by then I'd lost interest.

A Gaunt's Ghosts fan, after that I ran Imperial Guard. What better way to move entirely away from a melee-oriented HeroHammer game, right? I had a couple hundred of the old metal Cadian minis all duded up and ready to roll, and had a good time slinging buckets of dice. I didn't have a single Leman Russ, just a couple Chimera transports and a few Walkers -- and I had a blast. I'm an "infantry" guy at heart, and everyone loved seeing a Guard army that wasn't just "How many Tanks can you fit, on and two Troops choices, too." I loved the feel of the army, but it was a pain in the butt to haul that many models around, set that many models up, etc, etc. Financial woes reared their ugly head, and I sold them off.

Briefly overlapping with my time as a loyal dog-soldier infantry grunt in the Imperial Guard, I picked up a Space Wolf list. It gave me options. When I wanted to stand and shoot, I got my Guard. When I wanted to howl and charge, I played my Wolves (13th Company, in fact, once those rules came out). It was a fun list, and didn't feel as "HeroHammer" as my old Dark Eldar despite being very melee-centric, because everyone in the army was a roving hand-to-hand badass. This was the only 40k list I've ever played in a tournament, and everyone I played against was thrilled to see them -- they were just fun to play against, and I took crazy risks with them in true "glory, or die trying" fashion.

During one tournament, it was my 13th Company against a Khorne army, and every tournament judge came over to our table to watch the monstrous, horrible, glorious, bloodshed. What's more, it was a special scenario where both sides were supposed to come onto the table piecemeal...but 13th Company special rules allowed me to be there in my entirety; so really, the game was "big 13th Company army gobbles up Khorne army a unit as a time as it wanders onto the board." The judges, and my opponent, liked that I'd initially asked for permission to change the scenario, because I felt it was unfair to my opponent. They all shook their heads, and said I deserved to catch a break for being the only person they'd ever seen bring 13th Company to a tournament -- even my opponent! -- so we all just relaxed and watched the face-eating commence.

Rules changes came and went, money came and went, my interest in 40k came and went...I sold off my Wolves to a new kid just getting into the hobby, and now...

Now...

*looks around nervously*

Now I just play Vanilla Marines.

I know, I know! It's all backwards of me, to start with "complex" armies and work my way towards the "noob list," but that's just how the dice fell. I like the simplicity of painting Space Marines. I like the rock solid reliability of their fluff, the streamlining of rules in the latest edition made them dirt simple to keep track of (compared to the complexity of my other wargames), and I got some really good deals from the Space Marines vs. Orks boxed sets (bought in "halfies" with several Ork-playing friends). I have a Mechanized Infantry type list, with transports for every unit (but a couple Scouts), and it's just kind of fun to have a dirt-simple, basic, no frills, "boots on the ground" sort of toy soldier list. I've got a unit of Devastators, a ten-man Assault Squad with Jump Packs, two units of Scouts...and Tactical Marines. Just guys with bolters, doing the Emperor's work. No fancy rules, no jinky tricks to surprise my opponents with, just a fairly mobile (thanks to Rhinos and Razorbacks), fairly resilient, AK47-reliable army for some dakka-dakka.

Good, clean, fun.

[Tanegar]

I have to admit, there is a certain je ne sais quoi to a good, simple, shooty Space Marine force. Like you said, they're not fancy, they don't rely on tricky stunts, they just march forward and blow the living fuck out of anything that gets in their way. It's a brand of badass all its own.

[Critias]

I've got just enough assault ability to still throw down and have a good time, when it's what's called for -- my Chaplain (converted Emperor's Champion model) leading a 10-strong Assault Marine squad, all with jump packs -- so I'm not just shooting...but, yeah. I like the trusty bolter dakka-dakka sound, I like the idea of 10-man squads all in the same armor, advancing almost in step with one another, with a single heavy weapon and a single assault weapon between them, I like the "Codex" feel...the uniformity of it is fun, to me, with Space Marines. The relentless, grinding, advance.

[Karoline]

Check out history channel! Some military armored suit exoskeleton thing on right now. Totally looks like the first step to power armor (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Edit: Darn, they changed subject to cyborgs (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[Dumori]

I started out Space Marines was a toss up them or Tau. I then move one to demon hunters and finaly IG. I however tend to mix and match with the ally rules. A favrate of mine is a IG base army with inqistion stroom troopers, Inquestilord and retinue, assassin of choice if so inclined and a few grey knights. This give me an army with a huge chunk of "fodder" IG squads can hold their own back up with mechanised stormtrooper suport both inqustinolal and base IG the latter mounted in Valkyries as they are awesome hunter killers. Plus a deepstriking squad of grey knights can really turn the tide. If I'm playing huge points I tend to have 1 landraider for my inquisitor lord and hand full of chimeras a valkyre, sentinels and a few tanks.The only real down side is that it's a broad army it doesn't have a niche or a weakness. How ever it plays really well has a nice theam and is a rare army to see fielded. I've been toying with maybe adding soem grey knight terminators and dropping my inqusitor down a notch. A IG swarm with +2 and +3 armor heavy hitters deepstriking could be fun. As they'll likely take the focus of the oponets fire powe letting my other men move in unmolested and even if they don't they pack enought of a pucnh in assault and shooting to cause havok.