Tau Plains of War ITC Tournament Army Completed!

It's been a lot of work, but I have finally finished off my Warhammer 40k Tau army for this coming weekends Plains of War ITC event here in Winnipeg. For anyone not familiar with the ITC tournament scene, it is a hugely competitive tournament series that features obscene armies meant for one thing, flaying your opponent.  It is not for the faint of heart. You are allowed allies, detachments, formations, and more!  While ITC tries to limit the power level a bit, by fixing (or adjusting) the insanely broken rules that GW has been publishing for the last 10 years, the series is all about the win.

Honestly, not really my cup of tea any more, BUT the organizer of the local event is a great guy and a friend so I have to go, right?  It also doesn't hurt that because the event will be competitive it gave me a chance to paint a whole bunch of big Tau suits, which I normally wouldn't paint as they are too good to field in numbers in a friendly game (unless you don't want friends for long).  So, without further delay, here are some of the brand new units from what I call my Pacific Rim Tau List, since its a lot of giant robots.

Lets start with the big boys, three Riptides, in a Riptide wing formation.  You get to take 3 of them, at the same price as normal, but they all get better, for FREE!  Reroll overheating, hit enemies easier if another Riptide has already fired at them, shot everything twice in a turn (once per game), and don't take up any slots in your force organization chart.  Yes, all that for free!

Paint wise, I had Tau units before, done in a winter camo scheme, and wanted to use some of them as well, but they were painted years ago and were not great.  So, I updated the scheme a bit by painting all the new ones (and going back over the old small suits and infantry) with chipping and edge highlighting.  Both done to a very high stark contrast in an attempt to look very anime'ish.  There are gradiants in the base coat (done by airbrush) but what I really wanted to pop was all the rough areas, which I think I made work.

While I like the overall look, and they pop (in my eyes at least) at table top level, they do look rough close up.  There is no subtly here, they will not win any painting awards, but they are not meant to, they are fast rough and dirty, so no offense taken if you don't like the style, several people I know don't like it already!

Next up is another formation for the army, the Advanced Stealth Cadre.

Once again, units at the same price as normal, but better!  The Ghostkeel (the big suit in the middle) can fire at +1 ballistic every turn, ignore cover, and target the rear Armour of any vehicle it shoots at, plus either (or both) of the units of small stealth suits get that bonus as well if they are within 6" of the Ghostkeel. For FREE....  are you starting to see my issue with recent GW rules?

Oh, did I mention that with the drones that come with the Ghostkeel give it a 2+ cover save in the open due to doubling its stealth and shrouded saves?

Last of the new units painted for the tournament is my commander and her unit, although to be fair half of the unit is from 10 years ago just being retouched up with chips, edge highlighting, and new bases.

The unit is made up of Commander Shadowsun leading a unit of Crisis suits as part of a Farsight enclave, which makes them count as a troop choice instead of an elite choice.  By having Shadowsun lead the unit, she grants them stealth and shrouded (so a 4+ cover save in the open!) as well as a 3d6" jump after firing every turn (instead of the normal 2d6" jump).

Shadowsun herself comes with 2 shield drones that give 4+ inv saves and a drone that lets a single unit within 12" reroll all 1's that turn.  On top of that she has 2 melta guns that she can fire at different targets!

The unit is made up of 8 Crisis Suits, 3 with plasma guns and missile launchers, 2 with dual cyclic ion blasters (so 8 str7 shots each), 2 with dual melta guns, and a unit leader than lets the whole unit ignore cover, reroll misses, and chose to either reroll to wound or reroll armour penetration rolls.  Oh, and remember, they count as troops!




So there you have it, all the new units I painted up over the last few weeks for the army.  The army is 1850 points and really that makes up most of it!  The only other units in the army are a small 8 man unit of Firewarriors, a unit of Kroot (that Sean McWatt painted for me YEARS ago and that I just touched up a bit), and a few Broadside Missile suits.

As nasty as all the above looks, I expect to not break a 50/50 record....  Mainly due to my inability to focus on and remember 40k rules as they just piss me off, and due to many of the armies that I have seen that are going, making this one look about as tough as a Powder Puff Girl.  Sigh....

At least I had a lot of fun painting them!!!

Astronomi-con Winnipeg 2015: Army Showcase

Another year, another Astronomi-con. This time the event was held at the Holiday Inn Airport Polo Park (a refurbished HoJo's). This year's tournament is the 15th annual Winnipeg event! Astro as an event has waxed and waned over the years; this year's Toronto even (last summer) had its usual 50 or so entrants. However, Winnipeg's event was down to just under 20 players. The fact that it was Grey Cup weekend, in Winnipeg, had to be a factor.

40K 7th edition has been around for awhile now, and two things are clear: (1) I hate the Psychic phase, which adds even more randomness and extra time to games; and (2) the newer codices are very powerful and well balanced amongst their own units, allowing multiple builds. There were four Eldar armies present (including my own Swordwind force)!

Here's a quick view of some of the other armies on display.

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Wes brought out an all-Harlequin force. Beautifully painted, the army was also hard as nails. Wes deservedly won Best Overall at the tournament.



Steve brought out one of the power builds of Codex: Eldar Craftworlds. Every Windrider jetbike you see is armed with a Scatter Laser (a Range 36",  S6, Heavy 4, gatling laser). Very fast, very hard hitting.



The Phoenix Lord Maugen-Ra leads Steve's army.



Mike brought yet another flavour of Eldar, with his Alatoic themed Ranger force.



Derrick has come back with a vengeance, fielding Tau.



I really love this beautifully converted Tau battlesuit. Derrick won Best Single Miniature with this piece.



Ben brought out a very well modelled Cult Mechanicus/Skitarii force.



Ben won Best Army for his considerable efforts.



Tom brought out another hard-as-nails army. With this Necron force, Tom  was in contention for Best General.



Kevin brought out an entirely new army this year. No Tiger Marines or Imperial Guard! These Tyranids are very nicely modelled.





Mike fielded a balanced Chaos force. The plane and artillery are nasty, but there's a lot of low-toughness squishy bits in this force.



Thomas won Best General with this Grey Knights force.The Paladins are very cool.



I have been playing 40K games against Lance since 1988! Some of these models date from that time period (that metal landspeeder is RT-era). The flyer is a cool conversion using parts from an IG Valkyrie.



I like how it holds a (magnetized) Dreadnought to drop into combat.



Greg brought out his Salamanders again.



He said he's been trying to beat me for 6 years; this year he did!



Ian brought out some Chaos-y goodness. That Contemptor Dreadnought throws out 8, Strength 8, AP 4 shots a turn!

Mechani-Kon 6: Army Showcase

Last month Alex and Thurston organized their sixth and final Mechani-Kon Warhammer 40k tournament. I was able to attend, and had a great time fielding a kinda retro version of my Eldar Swordwind. The TO's are not big fans of the current (7th ed.) iteration of 40k. For the event, there was no "comp" score per se. The TO's limited attendees to a single force org, so there were no allies allowed (and thus no dreaded "Tau-dar or other such ploys). The tournament was sold out, with people bringing out a lot of well-painted, themed armies.

Here follows the pictures that I was able to take of various armies. I shall post a brief batrep of my games in due course.

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Conscript Byron deservedly won the award for Best Appearance with his Chaos army (note that the roads and signs are laser cut wood from Byron's company, SG2 Creations):





Lovely converted Helldrake flyer.









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WesS won Best Overall while fielding a beautifully painted Dark Angels force:









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SteveB's beautiful Chaos army.









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CodyB's cool Tau:







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More armies:
























































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Asurmen's Academy

But for the Nightwing Interceptor aircraft, the Eldar force I brought was something I would have fielded in the early 2000's: Asurmen leading several squads of Aspect Warriors, supported by a Night Spinner artillery tank. At the time of the tournament, several of my units had not seen play for years, due to the vagaries of changes in the basic rules, and an aging codex. For example, I had not played with my Howling Banshees since maybe 2009.



Howling Banshees led by an Exarch. They were rock stars during the tournament, accompanying Asurmen as his bodyguards. With the recent release of the 7th Edition Codex Craftworlds, the Banshees don't even suck any more.



Asurmen, the Hand of Asuryen. This Phoenix Lord tanked shot after shot during the day, and got stuck into  close combat every game. The artillery tank also was a thorn in my opponents' sides, dropping clouds of mono-filament webs from across the table.



With Codex Craftworlds I shall be going back to fielding large (8-10 strong) Dire Avenger and Fire Dragon squads.



My Warp Spiders, painted by Conscript Brian. Always a part of my forces, they are now (in Codex Craftworlds) one of the best Eldar units.



The Nightwing, a Forge World resin model. During the tournament, half the time it was shut down by enemy anti-aircraft weapons, the other half  of the time it blew up stuff real good.



As for my placement in the standings, I won the highly coveted "First Loser" award! (Because winning second place overall with no other award is truly to be the first loser!)

This reminds me of my Astronom-con experiences, where I have placed 2nd overall 4 or 5 times...