A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away

So... A long time has passed and much have changed. Last time I wrote a post on this blog of mine, we were barely into the 6th edition of Warhammer 40k. Now it's 7th and it is a dark time for the Rebellion.

The Rebellion? Yep, it's all about the brilliant X-wing Miniatures Game these days.

I've been a Star Wars fan ever since I saw "A new hope" on VHS many years ago. The game itself is very easy to learn, but offers a surprising amount of depth. Warhammer 40k has unfortunately become too cumbersome to follow for me these days, both with a bloated and convoluted rule set and a huge amount of new models to buy and paint every time there's a new release.

X-wing is the total opposite of 40k in this regard. It has a small, clear and concise rule set, few (and pre-painted) models, a clear FAQ and official tournament rules. This is something I've never seen GW do; actively support tournament play. Color me baffled.

So anyways, I attended my first X-wing tournament this last weekend, in Gothenburg, Sweden. I took a "meta" list consisting of Han Solo with the Millennium Falcon title, Engine Upgrade, Luke Skywalker, C-3P0 and Veteran Instincts. Supporting him was a Gold Squadron Y-wing with an Ion Cannon Turret and R7-T1 and a Z-95 Headhunter of Bandit Squadron.

To make a long story extremely short:

#winning (Photo: Johannes Haglund)

Yep, I won the entire thing. Man of the match every match was Han Solo. The support ships were taken out or severely damaged every game, but the Falcon flew on and destroyed everything in its path (or behind it, in some cases).

I'll finish up this post with a shoutout to the great guys at Gubbspel Galore that hosted a fantastic event. There were a lot of other amazing-looking games hosted here this weekend, check out the pictures my buddy Briefspite took.

Tournament report: Strategikon 8

During the weekend of 6-7 October, me and Briefspite hosted the 8th Strategikon. 6th edition, 2000 points, two Primary Detachments allowed, two Allied Detachments allowed, two Fortifications of any type allowed, total Forge World allowance. Yeah, it was a blast!

Lego Microscale: Tau Hammerheads

So my brother visited me and the family a few weekends back. During his visit he and my two-year-old played a lot with Legos. Among their creations were these amazing microscale Tau Hammerheads.

Warhammer 40k tournament report: Invasion 2012

This weekend me and the boys went to Kristiansand, to our first tournament of 6th edition 40k: Invasion. It was 1750 points with minimal restrictions.

5 missions pretty much straight from the book, and tournament scoring was Victory Points. This meant that if you won a battle 4-2 in Victory Points, you got 4 tournament points. However, if you lost a battle 6-20, you got 6 tournament points. Yeah, losing could be better than winning. Kinda strange, but it was the same for everyone.

Anyhow, here's the tournament report. I reported in Norwegian this time, so if you don't understand what I'm saying, just look at the video and listen to the tone of my voice to figure out if I did well or badly ;-)

A little Necrons + Imperial Guard trick

So my brother is getting interested in 40k again. It's pretty much been two whole editions since last time, and we've been talking about Necrons.


Now, we're trying to avoid the whole "let's see what internets says is good" thing, and rather think fresh and out of our own little meta, so to speak. So I thought I'd share a little trick we've come up with.

Psykers! Now helping the metal dudes do their thing. (Photo from THQ Insider)

Ally in an Imperial Guard Detachment and take a Psyker Battle Squad. They have the Psychic Power "Weaken Resolve", which lowers the leadership of an enemy unit by X, where X is the number of Psykers in the Battle Squad. This power has a range of 36".

Then, take a Harbinger of Despair with a Nightmare Shroud and either place it in a Night Scythe or give him a Veil of Darkness to get him close to the enemy. The Nightmare Shroud lets you force a Morale Check on a unit up to 18" away, and it doesn't require a roll to hit or a Psychic Test. It's simply automatic, and you don't have to worry about Snap Shots or anything. As long as the Psyker Battle Squad got their power off, you should see the enemy's most valued unit run away like crazy! (at least 97,2% of the time)

Sure, it doesn't work on Fearless or embarked units. So what? Fearless units you just nuke with Soulstorm and vehicles aren't very hard to get rid of for Gauss-wielding tin cans.

This trick works great against some of the nasty deathstars people like to take. Unfortunately it doesn't work against Draigowing, as the big man is fearless. But against Nob Bikers and units like it, it should work just fine.

It came from the south...

Last week my brother visited, and together we painted a lot of miniatures. He painted his Covenant of Antarctica fleet that I gave him earlier this year, and I think they turned out really sweet!




I got a fleet of Prussians, but unfortunately I had an undercoat related accident, so they are now enjoying a chemical bath to get rid of some horrible textured paint.

Blight Drones

Blight Drones

Long time no blogging! This September, I'm going to Invasion in Kristiansand. It's a 1750 point 40k tournament, and my first of 6th edition.

They've pretty much copied Strategikon's rules from previous years, and allow everyone to select units from the Imperial Armour Books. I think this is great, because that allows me to get some sorely needed anti-air without resorting to allies.

Two Blight Drones and a Hell Blade should be enough for most engagements, I think. When Forge World changed the Blight Drone's type from Fast Skimmer to Flyer, they suddenly became awesome!

They have a Battle Cannon or S6 Heavy Flamer to annoy all groundwalkers, and a Reaper Autocannon versus aerial targets. Sure, they are just BS2, but as fliers, they can fire everything and still keep zooming. Add to this that they have a bit of armor and are pretty cheap, and you have a very good little unit that's really a tier 1 unit in the CSM list.

As long as your community allows Imperial Armour, that is.

Winter War 9

So I went to Bergen a few weeks back and attended their Winter War tournament again. This was the 9th, and it was great. Due to laziness on my part I didn't take much video, and due to me getting spanked by crappy dice in the last game I finished 8th.

I did take some video of the best painted army contest, though:

Team Norway 40k's trip to the 2011 ETC

Last year, me and the guys went to the European Team Championships (ETC) in Montreux, Switzerland to compete with the best of them. Here are some quick clips from the weekend.



Even though our results were pretty disheartening, we learned a lot and are going back this year, determined to improve our result dramatically!

Lone Wolf conversion

I've never given the Lone Wolf any attention before, but recently I've felt more attracted to the idea of a single marine running across the battlefield, trying to die whatever way seems fit. In my lists, the one thing I really struggle with is AV14. Of course I have meltas spread all over my Grey Hunters squads, but I've never liked the idea to use a troop to stop a Land Raider, possibly with a death star unit inside. The 6” melta range makes this unit almost sacrificial in this aspect. So maybe a Lone Wolf in TDA with Chain fist and Storm shield could do the job? With a couple of Fenrisian Wolves he has better chance to reach the enemy. So this will be my configuration. This costs 105 pt, quite expensive for the job. But I had a cool idea for a model, so I had to give it a try.

My inspiration came from the Broodlord-model. I wanted the Lone Wolf to have his arms to the side, howling for the moon. The Wolf Guard box set should have what I need. Well, almost. All the chain fists and storm shields are left hand only. So I had to convert either a left hand shield or chain fist. I chose the latter. I couldn't find any picture of a good conversion, so I made my own, very simple one, from a power fist and the saw from a chain fist Not a smooth conversion, but good enough.

A little bit of green stuff later, and my Broodwolf came to life. Considering the amount of time I spent, and the result, I'm satisfied. The shoulder plates are not perfect, but a bit of paint should cover most of it. Also, the arms are maybe a bit to long. But, hey, Space Marines are not Homo Sapiens, so I don't care. Here's the final result:

-Norau

Oh, and Merry Christmas!