Up somewhere in the description of this blog is mention of tactics. Therefore, I would like to share with you a little something I'd like to call, how NOT to play Tyranids.
First of all, all mention in this blog of my tactical mistakes I owe to the fact that I no longer sleep due to the new baby. Also, most huge mistakes were due to my listening to my partner Chris who had never played Tyranids before. That having been said, I have, and thus, I should have known better.
Tyranids. You want rending claws. You always want rending claws. Gaunts are fine if you can get rending claws (some variations allow). Otherwise...
By the way, I haven't played with the new rules so I don't know what fleet of claw does in them or what nasty special something or other is available. However, I am using Army Builder, and as such, I sort of have the new rules, but not really, and anyone who uses Army Builder knows what I mean. Still, it does allow for Harlequin Wraithlords. There's nothing wrong with that.
Anyway, wrong army, back to Tyranids. They aren't as fast as you think. They aren't, for instance, "Dark Eldar in a raider" fast. They're just a little faster than normal. Like, for instance, the Raveners will get 18" instead of 12" if they charge, but if they can't charge, they only get an extra 3". This means that for a while you are going to have to move your tyranids across the board. This is important. You win or lose with Tyranids based on whether you can get them across the board. For no other army, save an all Vyper Saim Hann force, is cover so important. You want to ALWAYS be in cover. If you can't get everyone in cover, make sure that at least 51% of the squad is in cover. I cannot stress this enough. Without cover, entire squads are going to be dessimated before your eyes and Tyranid squads are big. It doesn't matter. 30 hormagaunts? Who cares? If they become a primary target on the battlefield, they will be done for. YOU MUST HAVE COVER!
Preferably, you want cover that blocks line of sight from as many models as possible, but if you can't get that level of cover, you at least want something that will give you a saving throw.
I ran Tyranids at an Eldar army and they wripped me a part. the main reason for this is just what I've described. I thought that, one way or another, they couldn't decimate entire squads of guys. They can. They will. Get into cover.
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Monday, March 27, 2006
something new everyday
One should learn something new everyday. For instance, today I learned that RTV rubber will strip the paint off (and most else) of something unsealed and made of plaster. So, that's completely destroyed.
Good news though, I got the mold! I just kind of had to pry out rocks with a dental pick.
There's a bigger crater that goes along with it. I'm hoping to spare it's destruction by using liquid latex. Cross your fingers.
Good news though, I got the mold! I just kind of had to pry out rocks with a dental pick.
There's a bigger crater that goes along with it. I'm hoping to spare it's destruction by using liquid latex. Cross your fingers.
Death Jester on ebay; harlequin question
I did not, as it were, link from my newest ebay post back here because I didnt' want to write a step-by-step on painting death jesters especially since it's been a while since I painted said Harlequin. But I thought I'd put this out there for someome to help me out with this.
The question is this: power blades are bought as equipment--in other words, not weapons. They allow the harlequin to ignore armor saves (like a power weapon) Here's the question: do they give the harlequin this ability throughout the rest of their arsenal. Can, for instance, a harlequin with power blades and a harlequin's kiss ignore armor saves on the kiss's attack? Because if not, then why can the harlequin get two weapons in addition to the power blades and why don't the power blades themselves count as a weapon, and if so....DAMN!!!
Oh, I suppose I do owe some kind of painting tip. Before painting a death jester, get really good with black washes. There, don't say I never gave you nothing.
The question is this: power blades are bought as equipment--in other words, not weapons. They allow the harlequin to ignore armor saves (like a power weapon) Here's the question: do they give the harlequin this ability throughout the rest of their arsenal. Can, for instance, a harlequin with power blades and a harlequin's kiss ignore armor saves on the kiss's attack? Because if not, then why can the harlequin get two weapons in addition to the power blades and why don't the power blades themselves count as a weapon, and if so....DAMN!!!
Oh, I suppose I do owe some kind of painting tip. Before painting a death jester, get really good with black washes. There, don't say I never gave you nothing.
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Dearest Avram
First off folks, I am not Avram.
Avram is, in many ways, the first guide on my journey into the making of molds and such. Actually, Avram bought me my first hot knife. He is a long time friend and fellow wargamer, and evidently, a fan.
As such, it is unreasonable for you, Avram, to be bidding on these objects. You need but ask and I will grace your table with little trees, as many as you like..though admittedly, too many trees and the board gets a bit clutterred. I believe I was payed the highest compliment very recently by one of the guys I play with, Russ, who looked over at the bookcase of scenery they no longer use since I joined the gang and said, "can we get rid of this crappy terrain finally." If I could sell our city scape board without incurring $80 worth of S and H, I would. Perhaps soon I will post pictures of the ruined city. Though, Avram, I think you're right. The game needs rules for buildings, installations, listening posts, etc.. There are minor rules in City Fight, but that's for the last edition.
I presume that you are making this "move" of bidding on my items because you see that I have no bids on anything as of yet, and you fear that I will be left in the lurch. Fear not and stay the course--people generally bid at the last minute. Besides, if you do a search for trees and Warhammer, you will notice that I am one of two scenery designers in the U.S. as of now who are making little trees (probably for good reason, but hey, my masochism is your bargain). This is reason alone to think that the trees will sell.
Avram is, in many ways, the first guide on my journey into the making of molds and such. Actually, Avram bought me my first hot knife. He is a long time friend and fellow wargamer, and evidently, a fan.
As such, it is unreasonable for you, Avram, to be bidding on these objects. You need but ask and I will grace your table with little trees, as many as you like..though admittedly, too many trees and the board gets a bit clutterred. I believe I was payed the highest compliment very recently by one of the guys I play with, Russ, who looked over at the bookcase of scenery they no longer use since I joined the gang and said, "can we get rid of this crappy terrain finally." If I could sell our city scape board without incurring $80 worth of S and H, I would. Perhaps soon I will post pictures of the ruined city. Though, Avram, I think you're right. The game needs rules for buildings, installations, listening posts, etc.. There are minor rules in City Fight, but that's for the last edition.
I presume that you are making this "move" of bidding on my items because you see that I have no bids on anything as of yet, and you fear that I will be left in the lurch. Fear not and stay the course--people generally bid at the last minute. Besides, if you do a search for trees and Warhammer, you will notice that I am one of two scenery designers in the U.S. as of now who are making little trees (probably for good reason, but hey, my masochism is your bargain). This is reason alone to think that the trees will sell.
Saturday, March 25, 2006
bio
I think way back when I started this blog...back in the good old days of January ought six. Oh wait, that was like a month ago. Anyways, hidden somewhere back there, there's a bio of me or something. Rather than have ebay customers trying to find it, I figured I'd just re-up. Let's see. I've been a carpenter, if that matters. I began playing warhammer 40k back in 88 or 89...something like that and I have always been the "scenery designer" of whatever group I play in. I wish I could say that I have 17 years experience, but that's really not true. I took a hiatus, so I probably have something like 9 years. Moreover, it's really the last four without adult supervision that have been the most profitable.
Let's just say this. I have a dremel and I'm not afraid to use it. I have three hot knives, not to mention the glue gun, which will melt Styrofoam. I have boxes and boxes of packing material, various Christmas town accessories, tubs of all kinds of spackles, and bottles full of chemicals. I am the McGuyver of the scenery building world, and luckily, I have a wife who supports me in this, occasionally saves trash for me to use, and most of all doesn't throw things out. What do you say at this point...I'm that guy.
What kind of guy? The games workshop stores take notes when I talk scenery building. Well, that's not always true, but it is sometimes true. And anyway, that's no great accomplishment. Those guys are good at painting armies, they don't build scenery.
So, I guess in the end, that's probably the thing I think is most important for my customers to know. Way back in '88, I saw this game at Dundracon, back at the Oakland Hyatt, and I thought, 'I don't care how it's played or how much it costs, I want to play that game.' I thought this because 40k looks good. Now, for some people, this means painting miniatures that could go in 'Eavy Metal. Okay fine. But what does it matter when you're throwing a sheet over some books to make a hill and decorating the board with shampoo containers to simulate a factory. If the scenery doesn't look good, it doesn't matter what your miniatures look like. That's where I come in. My scenery looks good.
Let's just say this. I have a dremel and I'm not afraid to use it. I have three hot knives, not to mention the glue gun, which will melt Styrofoam. I have boxes and boxes of packing material, various Christmas town accessories, tubs of all kinds of spackles, and bottles full of chemicals. I am the McGuyver of the scenery building world, and luckily, I have a wife who supports me in this, occasionally saves trash for me to use, and most of all doesn't throw things out. What do you say at this point...I'm that guy.
What kind of guy? The games workshop stores take notes when I talk scenery building. Well, that's not always true, but it is sometimes true. And anyway, that's no great accomplishment. Those guys are good at painting armies, they don't build scenery.
So, I guess in the end, that's probably the thing I think is most important for my customers to know. Way back in '88, I saw this game at Dundracon, back at the Oakland Hyatt, and I thought, 'I don't care how it's played or how much it costs, I want to play that game.' I thought this because 40k looks good. Now, for some people, this means painting miniatures that could go in 'Eavy Metal. Okay fine. But what does it matter when you're throwing a sheet over some books to make a hill and decorating the board with shampoo containers to simulate a factory. If the scenery doesn't look good, it doesn't matter what your miniatures look like. That's where I come in. My scenery looks good.
Friday, March 24, 2006
The craters on Ebay
Heh, heh, heh. I love my craters. Seriously. I love them.
First of all, these are not the first, nor the best craters that I have built. That much will be clear once I put up my other craters on ebay, but that's not the point. I spent three days working on a prototype for craters and then realized that the craters I had built weren't necessary. I could make the things out of clay, which I did. So, I made two prototype craters out of Sculpi and then bought RTV rubber from...geez, I don't remember any more.
Let's say this: there are different qualities and such to RTV rubber. For instance, I bought some stuff from a company that produces miniatures made out of lead, and thus, the rubber in my mold is extraordinarily heat resistant. Well, that's fine, except that it's about double what it should cost.
Long story short. I bought enough RTV to make a mold of one of my craters. I decided to start with the average sized and less involved of the craters. That sounds bad. The crater I might have otherwise made the mold of is bigger around the sides--the O is thicker, but it is also better looking. Trust me, if you're paying attention to what I sell, you'll see. But the starting bid isn't going to be $3. I will say that.
I digress. The point is that I wanted to make something that was comparable to the discontinued Armorcast line since I was tired of trying to buy them only to find that they were going for 3x what they were worth...and I think I have made a comparable product. They are not made of resin (which isn't that sturdy, let me tell you), but they are made out of Excalibur, which has held up against my fairly innocuous attempts to destroy it. In other words, pieces dropped on my hardwood floor don't break.
The only real question for me was whether I should sell these craters painted or unpainted. Truth be told it doesn't exactly take that long to paint them. Paint them dark brown, dry brush the a lighter brown, highlight in a different shade of light brown and you're done. The numerous details allow for effort if you feel up to it, but it certainly isn't necessary. If you so desire, however, just take a dark grey, paint the various pebbles, and then go over them again with a lighter grey. It took me about 30 minutes to paint one, once it had been spraypainted.
The problem is that it does take time. I want to sell these things dirt cheap, which means that I don't want to take time. I have other things that I sell that I paint. This need not be one of them. Furthermore, it limits the options. These craters could easily double for blown out tree trunks, or ice fortifications for an ice planet. I don't know. I figured I'd leave it open.
First of all, these are not the first, nor the best craters that I have built. That much will be clear once I put up my other craters on ebay, but that's not the point. I spent three days working on a prototype for craters and then realized that the craters I had built weren't necessary. I could make the things out of clay, which I did. So, I made two prototype craters out of Sculpi and then bought RTV rubber from...geez, I don't remember any more.
Let's say this: there are different qualities and such to RTV rubber. For instance, I bought some stuff from a company that produces miniatures made out of lead, and thus, the rubber in my mold is extraordinarily heat resistant. Well, that's fine, except that it's about double what it should cost.
Long story short. I bought enough RTV to make a mold of one of my craters. I decided to start with the average sized and less involved of the craters. That sounds bad. The crater I might have otherwise made the mold of is bigger around the sides--the O is thicker, but it is also better looking. Trust me, if you're paying attention to what I sell, you'll see. But the starting bid isn't going to be $3. I will say that.
I digress. The point is that I wanted to make something that was comparable to the discontinued Armorcast line since I was tired of trying to buy them only to find that they were going for 3x what they were worth...and I think I have made a comparable product. They are not made of resin (which isn't that sturdy, let me tell you), but they are made out of Excalibur, which has held up against my fairly innocuous attempts to destroy it. In other words, pieces dropped on my hardwood floor don't break.
The only real question for me was whether I should sell these craters painted or unpainted. Truth be told it doesn't exactly take that long to paint them. Paint them dark brown, dry brush the a lighter brown, highlight in a different shade of light brown and you're done. The numerous details allow for effort if you feel up to it, but it certainly isn't necessary. If you so desire, however, just take a dark grey, paint the various pebbles, and then go over them again with a lighter grey. It took me about 30 minutes to paint one, once it had been spraypainted.
The problem is that it does take time. I want to sell these things dirt cheap, which means that I don't want to take time. I have other things that I sell that I paint. This need not be one of them. Furthermore, it limits the options. These craters could easily double for blown out tree trunks, or ice fortifications for an ice planet. I don't know. I figured I'd leave it open.
ebay trees
The truth is, I decided to make these trees as a quick companion piece to the building I was selling. I figured, how hard could it be to make some trees. Three days later....
What I will say is that the trees were overbuilt. In other words, it isn't that there weren't corners that I could have cut, but rather, I added a whole bunch of corners.
Case in point, my basic design for the root system was based off of the War 40k, 3rd ed. version of making craters. So, I got out my Styrofoam, I got out my knife, and I cut forty or fifty little triangular wedges to arrange in a circle around the trees. Truth be told, this was absolutely unnecessary. Once you put the plaster of paris on, unless these wedges are an inch high and three inches long, the effect is negligible. Had I to do it over again, I could have achieved the same effect by by making 'O's of Styrofoam about an 1/2" to an 1" across which would have saved me an hour's worth of time, but no matter. I did all the work while watching episodes from The Office- British version. Man, that show is funny.
I'm not a big fan of plaster, which is what the ground is made of, mainly because it cracks, but having read the message boards over at Hirst Arts (love those guys), I figured out to put sand into the mix to strengthen it up. I decided to shred speaker wire and add that as well in order to get that root system look. This was aided immeasurably by the glop nature of the mix because bits of Styrofoam were left open to the air and they melted under spray paint. That's a trick I always enjoy...if it can be controlled, which I did. So, it looks like some of the plates have gopher holes and shit like that. Crazy as all hell. As for paint...what? Brown undercoat, camel drybrush, tan highlights. Nothing too spectacular. I was going for trees on a flood plain which means that the dirt has to be yellowish brown. The sand in the mix made natural rough patches which I painted as moss. In any case, if you read my blog, you know by basic feeling about two sentence painting tips: they're useless.
As for the trees. Trees are cheap, its everything else about them that's expensive. I took a set of plastic "make 'em yourself" trees and began by gluing and winding Spanish moss around them. This gives the impression of dead branches sticking out and the kind of character of a wild tree. Basically, I gave them all the horrible twigs and shit that generally screw up my frizbee golf game. Then I applied the major foliage in a few shades so as to give the impression of a forest of a few types of competing trees. I would have added ground cover too, but Russ has made me all but paranoid about making the bases presentable.
The trees are removable from the base, with a bit of care, which makes the area extremely playable (though without trees, is it still a forest? Sorry). Overall, I like the terrain piece, but I did not like how long it took me to build and paint. There are faster ways. I know them. I should have done them. Regardless, no sense keeping too many of these forest plates around so I put up on Ebay. Enjoy!
What I will say is that the trees were overbuilt. In other words, it isn't that there weren't corners that I could have cut, but rather, I added a whole bunch of corners.
Case in point, my basic design for the root system was based off of the War 40k, 3rd ed. version of making craters. So, I got out my Styrofoam, I got out my knife, and I cut forty or fifty little triangular wedges to arrange in a circle around the trees. Truth be told, this was absolutely unnecessary. Once you put the plaster of paris on, unless these wedges are an inch high and three inches long, the effect is negligible. Had I to do it over again, I could have achieved the same effect by by making 'O's of Styrofoam about an 1/2" to an 1" across which would have saved me an hour's worth of time, but no matter. I did all the work while watching episodes from The Office- British version. Man, that show is funny.
I'm not a big fan of plaster, which is what the ground is made of, mainly because it cracks, but having read the message boards over at Hirst Arts (love those guys), I figured out to put sand into the mix to strengthen it up. I decided to shred speaker wire and add that as well in order to get that root system look. This was aided immeasurably by the glop nature of the mix because bits of Styrofoam were left open to the air and they melted under spray paint. That's a trick I always enjoy...if it can be controlled, which I did. So, it looks like some of the plates have gopher holes and shit like that. Crazy as all hell. As for paint...what? Brown undercoat, camel drybrush, tan highlights. Nothing too spectacular. I was going for trees on a flood plain which means that the dirt has to be yellowish brown. The sand in the mix made natural rough patches which I painted as moss. In any case, if you read my blog, you know by basic feeling about two sentence painting tips: they're useless.
As for the trees. Trees are cheap, its everything else about them that's expensive. I took a set of plastic "make 'em yourself" trees and began by gluing and winding Spanish moss around them. This gives the impression of dead branches sticking out and the kind of character of a wild tree. Basically, I gave them all the horrible twigs and shit that generally screw up my frizbee golf game. Then I applied the major foliage in a few shades so as to give the impression of a forest of a few types of competing trees. I would have added ground cover too, but Russ has made me all but paranoid about making the bases presentable.
The trees are removable from the base, with a bit of care, which makes the area extremely playable (though without trees, is it still a forest? Sorry). Overall, I like the terrain piece, but I did not like how long it took me to build and paint. There are faster ways. I know them. I should have done them. Regardless, no sense keeping too many of these forest plates around so I put up on Ebay. Enjoy!
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Armory on Ebay
I put up a piece of terrain I made on ebay and linked from it back here to my blog, and thus, I must write.
Let's see. Well, the first thing is that this marks ultimately a transition for me from what I will call dry terrain building to wet terrain. In other words, having learned how to cast things, I've kind of changed my whole philosophy on terrain building, or I suppose heavilly modified my previous philosophy. What the hell do I mean?
Well, let's go with the old philosophy, of which this feature is pretty much a direct result. The old philosophy is something like this: SAVE EVERYTHING. Old chinese food containers, the sheets that house Oreos, plastic easter eggs. When I say everything, I mean everything. I've got twenty or so cans of Trader Joe's coffee upstairs waiting for the great big great big watertower project (and yes, I did mean to use the term "great big" twice). I've got three craft assortment bins, four large paper bags, not to mention countless boxes--big and little--filled with "unnofficial" wargame building supplies, plus enough bits to make Games Workshop thousands of dollars (and me nearly hundreds). My office and attic are otherwise full.
When attendant to such a philosophy, the dollar bins are your friend, as are fairs, clearance sales, tag sales (same as garage sales out on the west coast), dollar stores, church bizaars, and of course, flea markets. But no friend is greater than Home Depot, which is where I picked up most of the stuff to make this Armory in question. Would I be ruining it if I gave away the trick? I doubt it. The point I'm trying to make here is that this mighty conglomeration is nothing to you if you already have the stuff, and a pain in the ass if you don't. The building itself is a heavilly modified switch box, which means that it's designed to protect from electrocution. Folks, when I say sturdy, I mean sturdy. The rest of it is...geez, can I remember, lag bolts sawed in half, a couple of those power poles from Macragge cut in half. I like the front lights. They're lag bolts with little wooden caps. Here on the homefront, I pretty much litter our city fight board with them. That and those rubber door stoppers that look kind of techno in a steampunk kind of way. I digress.
The ground is that crazy press board that they make clipboards out of. God bless the Dremel corporation! Textured with...vynil spackling? Can't really remember at the moment. I think that's what it was, but then I'm always experimenting with various products sold in tubs. By the way Painter's Putty is all but useless.
Anyway, the new philosophy is that you don't need all that. No, no, no... you need one of everything and a whole bunch of molding equipment. Which means that where my house was once filled with trash, it is now filled with various molding chemicals, including plexi-glass resin, which I'm afraid to go near.
But notice that some sort of middle ground must be achieved. Without the proper prototype, what are you going to cast? And besides, this isn't a piece that one could mold (easilly anyway) in one piece. So, I suppose as far as craters go, I'll be making resin models of this, as soon as the new batch of RTV rubber comes in, but for buildings, it's still going to have to be piece by piece.
Let's see. Well, the first thing is that this marks ultimately a transition for me from what I will call dry terrain building to wet terrain. In other words, having learned how to cast things, I've kind of changed my whole philosophy on terrain building, or I suppose heavilly modified my previous philosophy. What the hell do I mean?
Well, let's go with the old philosophy, of which this feature is pretty much a direct result. The old philosophy is something like this: SAVE EVERYTHING. Old chinese food containers, the sheets that house Oreos, plastic easter eggs. When I say everything, I mean everything. I've got twenty or so cans of Trader Joe's coffee upstairs waiting for the great big great big watertower project (and yes, I did mean to use the term "great big" twice). I've got three craft assortment bins, four large paper bags, not to mention countless boxes--big and little--filled with "unnofficial" wargame building supplies, plus enough bits to make Games Workshop thousands of dollars (and me nearly hundreds). My office and attic are otherwise full.
When attendant to such a philosophy, the dollar bins are your friend, as are fairs, clearance sales, tag sales (same as garage sales out on the west coast), dollar stores, church bizaars, and of course, flea markets. But no friend is greater than Home Depot, which is where I picked up most of the stuff to make this Armory in question. Would I be ruining it if I gave away the trick? I doubt it. The point I'm trying to make here is that this mighty conglomeration is nothing to you if you already have the stuff, and a pain in the ass if you don't. The building itself is a heavilly modified switch box, which means that it's designed to protect from electrocution. Folks, when I say sturdy, I mean sturdy. The rest of it is...geez, can I remember, lag bolts sawed in half, a couple of those power poles from Macragge cut in half. I like the front lights. They're lag bolts with little wooden caps. Here on the homefront, I pretty much litter our city fight board with them. That and those rubber door stoppers that look kind of techno in a steampunk kind of way. I digress.
The ground is that crazy press board that they make clipboards out of. God bless the Dremel corporation! Textured with...vynil spackling? Can't really remember at the moment. I think that's what it was, but then I'm always experimenting with various products sold in tubs. By the way Painter's Putty is all but useless.
Anyway, the new philosophy is that you don't need all that. No, no, no... you need one of everything and a whole bunch of molding equipment. Which means that where my house was once filled with trash, it is now filled with various molding chemicals, including plexi-glass resin, which I'm afraid to go near.
But notice that some sort of middle ground must be achieved. Without the proper prototype, what are you going to cast? And besides, this isn't a piece that one could mold (easilly anyway) in one piece. So, I suppose as far as craters go, I'll be making resin models of this, as soon as the new batch of RTV rubber comes in, but for buildings, it's still going to have to be piece by piece.
Thursday, March 09, 2006
Battle for Macragge
One of the guys I play with bought Battle for Macragge a while back, and well, we don't play it, because we play 40k, and as far as I can tell, Battle is just a 40k starter set. The thing is though, if you don't already know this, it is a very inexpensive starter set. It comes with a bunch of genestealers, a bunch of gaunts, a few marines, some really cool scenery, and a rulebook.
The real rulebook for 40k costs about $50 (last time I checked) which is only slightly more than Battle and you get a slightly abridged softcover of the book. Mostly they take out the crap rules that you could either come up with yourself, no one ever uses, or the ones you can get on line for free. No 40k in 40 minutes, for instance, but other than that, nothing you really need to play.
So, overall, I think Battle is worth the $45 it sells for. Here's the thing though, and I think this says everything about GW as a company and its relation to its players. The major terrain for Macragge is a crash space ship that basically composes five or so plates ranging from 2"x3" space to enormous plates of about 8"x4." They look good too. I'll give them that, but as a guy who builds terrain, let me just say this: getting terrain that looks good isn't difficult. Think about hills. Do you think it's hard to make a hill that looks natural? No. It's a lump of stryene insolation, nothing more. Cover it with some grass and people are likely to say, "wow, that's a good looking hill," but terrain makers don't do that. Nor, may I add, do we grab models from Korea anime and bury it half into a plate of styrene concealing the lines with spackle. We could. It's not that hard.
The thing is, 40k scenery has to serve two functions. It has to look good, sure--that's the first function. But it is the second function that is the most important. A miniature has to be able to interact with the scenery. If a building is supposed to block line of sight up to level 3, then I don't want to see the skimmer hovering over it. If the footprint is cover, then any miniature inside the footprint better look like it has cover. Otherwise, I could just draw out the battle on a vinyl battle map. At the very least, a miniature aught to be able to stand on the terrain.
That's why hills aren't made as lumps but created in steps of height. That's why staircases are the bane of 40k terrain designers. But GW evidently doesn't know this because it is nigh impossible to stand a miniature on any of the scenery that comes with Macragge. You end up having to call it impassible terrain or some shit, and it's just not true; it doesn't look impassible, just poorly envisioned.
Still, you get a rulebook, a bunch of miniatures, and terrain that looks good if little else, and for $45, as far as the GW line is concerned, that's a steal.
The real rulebook for 40k costs about $50 (last time I checked) which is only slightly more than Battle and you get a slightly abridged softcover of the book. Mostly they take out the crap rules that you could either come up with yourself, no one ever uses, or the ones you can get on line for free. No 40k in 40 minutes, for instance, but other than that, nothing you really need to play.
So, overall, I think Battle is worth the $45 it sells for. Here's the thing though, and I think this says everything about GW as a company and its relation to its players. The major terrain for Macragge is a crash space ship that basically composes five or so plates ranging from 2"x3" space to enormous plates of about 8"x4." They look good too. I'll give them that, but as a guy who builds terrain, let me just say this: getting terrain that looks good isn't difficult. Think about hills. Do you think it's hard to make a hill that looks natural? No. It's a lump of stryene insolation, nothing more. Cover it with some grass and people are likely to say, "wow, that's a good looking hill," but terrain makers don't do that. Nor, may I add, do we grab models from Korea anime and bury it half into a plate of styrene concealing the lines with spackle. We could. It's not that hard.
The thing is, 40k scenery has to serve two functions. It has to look good, sure--that's the first function. But it is the second function that is the most important. A miniature has to be able to interact with the scenery. If a building is supposed to block line of sight up to level 3, then I don't want to see the skimmer hovering over it. If the footprint is cover, then any miniature inside the footprint better look like it has cover. Otherwise, I could just draw out the battle on a vinyl battle map. At the very least, a miniature aught to be able to stand on the terrain.
That's why hills aren't made as lumps but created in steps of height. That's why staircases are the bane of 40k terrain designers. But GW evidently doesn't know this because it is nigh impossible to stand a miniature on any of the scenery that comes with Macragge. You end up having to call it impassible terrain or some shit, and it's just not true; it doesn't look impassible, just poorly envisioned.
Still, you get a rulebook, a bunch of miniatures, and terrain that looks good if little else, and for $45, as far as the GW line is concerned, that's a steal.
A cast of thousands
Or not.
So here's what I did. First of all. I took plasticene and pounded it pretty flat. Then I pushed a flat piece into the impression mold and pulled it out. I'm fairly sure that vaseline would help all this, but I didn't use any, and the whole thing worked okay.
For the next step, I mixed up a little bit of paster (2 teaspoons, 1 teaspoon of water) and poured into the mold. Then I took a stir stick and carefully skimed across the top so as to even the paster throughout the mold and also to get the mold fairly even on top (no big bulges).
I let it dry and, after a few hours, I had a flat panel (one sided). I simply peeled the plasticene away and it was done. All I had to do was sand the back by floating it across a piece of 220 grit, and it was ready to ornament whatever installation I wanted to deck out in crazy techno looking stuff.
But the panel was about the thickness of three dimes at its thinnest and it was one sided. I have since set out to make the experiment a bit more challenging.
The results of those experiments are as follows:
First of all, don't go thinner than three dimes or so with plaster. You get chips. They break, they don't hold together at all, and well, you're wasting your time. Even three dimes is a bit thin, and if you get it to work you'll see what I mean. Whatever I put this panel on, I had better not drop it or the thing is going to fly into a million pieces.
So, I got myself some of that nylon resin that I've been hearing so much about these days. The problem with it is that you don't want to use too much of the hardening agent because it's dangerous, but then you don't want to use too little or the stuff comes out like a wacky wall walker. Maybe its the thickness factor, but you want enough of the activating agent to make the stuff hard. But that's easier said than done. The back of my box says 15 drops per ounce, and well, my molds hold about 1/10 of an ounce. Let's just say, I used two drops and it wasn't enough, but it did harden somewhat...it just feels kind of rubbery. At least that's how it worked for the one sided molds of the some power poles I got with Battle for Macragge. I can glue them to the side of a building, but they're not exactly sturdy.
My success story, however, came from my two part mold. I made a two-parter of the Ultramarine commander's powerfist. Here's how I did it. I took two beer bottle caps, filled them with plasticene, put the fist in, pressed them together, sheered off the excess plasticene that had squeezed out, pulled the fist loose, and wallah...I had a two part mold. Moreover, it worked. The fist looks about as good as the original--including the double headed eagle holding the skull and the coils on the power fist. Yeah!!!
Here's the thing, and this is my new project. The plaster breaks away from the plasticene clean. The resin does not. It doesn't mix or anything, but you do get a gloppy mess of plasticene that you have to clean off. There's got to be a better way of doing this, but I used Q tips and turpentine to clean the things. Still, it would be better if I knew some kind of release agent for plasticene. I'm thinking perhaps PVA (Poly Vinyl Alcohol), so it's another game of going to the store and finding a store to go to. Cleaning one of the power poles ended up breaking two of the coils off.
Speaking of the store. Nylon resin seems to be about the only thing that you can't get at Home Depot. I finally found it at a local upscale art store. I did not find any at Joanne's where the molding material is kept in the children's section. I have not checked Michael's.
Lastly, I switched to Nylon resin primarilly because the Fiberglass resin sounded too scary. Nylon resin is far less dangerous, but it still has its problems. It stinks like gasoline being the worst of them. Whereever the stuff is, it seems to put an odor out just underneath everything else. I was hoping to use the stuff indoors but I'm thinking that, even with proper ventilation, that might not be such a good idea.
I'll fill you in more when I have more information. Hopefully my RTV rubber molds will be here soon and I can play with those.
So here's what I did. First of all. I took plasticene and pounded it pretty flat. Then I pushed a flat piece into the impression mold and pulled it out. I'm fairly sure that vaseline would help all this, but I didn't use any, and the whole thing worked okay.
For the next step, I mixed up a little bit of paster (2 teaspoons, 1 teaspoon of water) and poured into the mold. Then I took a stir stick and carefully skimed across the top so as to even the paster throughout the mold and also to get the mold fairly even on top (no big bulges).
I let it dry and, after a few hours, I had a flat panel (one sided). I simply peeled the plasticene away and it was done. All I had to do was sand the back by floating it across a piece of 220 grit, and it was ready to ornament whatever installation I wanted to deck out in crazy techno looking stuff.
But the panel was about the thickness of three dimes at its thinnest and it was one sided. I have since set out to make the experiment a bit more challenging.
The results of those experiments are as follows:
First of all, don't go thinner than three dimes or so with plaster. You get chips. They break, they don't hold together at all, and well, you're wasting your time. Even three dimes is a bit thin, and if you get it to work you'll see what I mean. Whatever I put this panel on, I had better not drop it or the thing is going to fly into a million pieces.
So, I got myself some of that nylon resin that I've been hearing so much about these days. The problem with it is that you don't want to use too much of the hardening agent because it's dangerous, but then you don't want to use too little or the stuff comes out like a wacky wall walker. Maybe its the thickness factor, but you want enough of the activating agent to make the stuff hard. But that's easier said than done. The back of my box says 15 drops per ounce, and well, my molds hold about 1/10 of an ounce. Let's just say, I used two drops and it wasn't enough, but it did harden somewhat...it just feels kind of rubbery. At least that's how it worked for the one sided molds of the some power poles I got with Battle for Macragge. I can glue them to the side of a building, but they're not exactly sturdy.
My success story, however, came from my two part mold. I made a two-parter of the Ultramarine commander's powerfist. Here's how I did it. I took two beer bottle caps, filled them with plasticene, put the fist in, pressed them together, sheered off the excess plasticene that had squeezed out, pulled the fist loose, and wallah...I had a two part mold. Moreover, it worked. The fist looks about as good as the original--including the double headed eagle holding the skull and the coils on the power fist. Yeah!!!
Here's the thing, and this is my new project. The plaster breaks away from the plasticene clean. The resin does not. It doesn't mix or anything, but you do get a gloppy mess of plasticene that you have to clean off. There's got to be a better way of doing this, but I used Q tips and turpentine to clean the things. Still, it would be better if I knew some kind of release agent for plasticene. I'm thinking perhaps PVA (Poly Vinyl Alcohol), so it's another game of going to the store and finding a store to go to. Cleaning one of the power poles ended up breaking two of the coils off.
Speaking of the store. Nylon resin seems to be about the only thing that you can't get at Home Depot. I finally found it at a local upscale art store. I did not find any at Joanne's where the molding material is kept in the children's section. I have not checked Michael's.
Lastly, I switched to Nylon resin primarilly because the Fiberglass resin sounded too scary. Nylon resin is far less dangerous, but it still has its problems. It stinks like gasoline being the worst of them. Whereever the stuff is, it seems to put an odor out just underneath everything else. I was hoping to use the stuff indoors but I'm thinking that, even with proper ventilation, that might not be such a good idea.
I'll fill you in more when I have more information. Hopefully my RTV rubber molds will be here soon and I can play with those.
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Results of previous experiment
Okay. It worked.
Need I say more. I'm sure I will later, but it worked!!!
IT'S ALIVE!!!
(For those of you who are wondering what in the hell I'm talking about. Read the end of the previous post for greater detail. The lesser detail is this: I've figured out how to cast little things--so far only one sided, like Land Raider doors, for instance--in about an hour with really really good results)
Need I say more. I'm sure I will later, but it worked!!!
IT'S ALIVE!!!
(For those of you who are wondering what in the hell I'm talking about. Read the end of the previous post for greater detail. The lesser detail is this: I've figured out how to cast little things--so far only one sided, like Land Raider doors, for instance--in about an hour with really really good results)
Monday, March 06, 2006
Molding mistakes
I suppose I should talk about successes and failures. Or more importantly, I should talk about my mistakes BECAUSE there haven't been any successes and...well...I should say something, right?
The truth is that when you begin to learn how to mold, even if you have a step-by-step process, and even if those directions are phenomenal, you are still going to have to give yourself about fifteen or so tries before you get anything right, and by the way, getting it "right" isn't really the end. Once you get the mold to work, you still have to find a good "release" as well as a good casting material, and you have to find a good way to get the casting material into the mold. Plaster of Paris, for instance, doesn't just naturally fill in the mold the way water would, and when you're molding things like Land Raider doors, you really have to think about what you're going to do to, first of all, fill the mold, and second, make sure the back of the casting is flat.
I have made one mold successfully of the imperial symbol produced by Forgeworld. I used a Sculpy Mold Maker thing and filled the mold with sculpy. Popped it in the oven and wallah! But the Mold Maker was only about enough for four such molds and it costs $7. That's not horrible, but keep in mind, you're kind of limited to making things out of sculpy. I want to make Ravenars and that's just not likely to happen. The mold doesn't actually have a release agent, so essentially you're peeling the casting out which can stretch it a bit if its uncooked sculpy. Moreover, the mold doesn't go in the oven with the sculpy, so there too you have a problem. It would be much better if you could bake the sculpy in the mold and then pull it from the mold all hardened, but you can't and so the delicate bits of raveners are likely not going to work in this. At least, that's my opinion on the matter.
But that's the point, because really, making molds and casting is all a game of trying it out. Don't trust me on the sculpy thing. Until someone puts the mold with the wet sculpy in it into the oven, no one will know if this thing works.
So, here are some things that I've tried that I know DON'T work. First of all, I've been making molds with plaster of paris. Bad idea all around, but it seems to me like a good place to start to figure out, conceptually, what you're doing. And believe me, you are going to need to figure that out.
The problem with plaster of paris, as I understand it, is that you can't cast very many materials in it. Really, the only conventional stuff you can cast in it are either liquid laytex (which is too rubery to be used for much) or plaster of paris, which if you work with plaster of paris for even a day will seem like a nightmare.
The reason for this is because, no matter what release agent you use (vaseline or hand soap) the original thing never seems to have enough on it and the plaster of paris ALWAYS sticks. You end up prying the damn thing loose. This probably is easier when you're casting a vase, or something like that, but a mold the size of a land raider door simply cannot afford to chip a half inch. I'm using a dental pick to get the pieces out of the plaster (which helps), but I started using an exacto blade which basically tore my mold out. Plaster is not very solid and it cracks and flakes and crumbles so easily, that anything you use to provide the trauma necessary to release your original is likely to break the mold. I have had success with this, but my success was due almost completely to my slathering the pieces in vaseline and letting the mold dry overnight with the originals still stuck in it. This process is harrowing considering the land raider door has plaster drying to its front and as you can imagine, if it doesn't release right, you will probably never get the plaster out of all the little contours. Mine worked, but I then tried the same thing on a collection of ravaner parts without much luck. Plaster seemed to come up along the spine about 1/2 a dime in length across, and about a dime in thickness. In other words, whatever I made from the mold would have a dime's thickness worth of flash. That's no good.
Still, what am I going to cast from these molds? If the plaster is flimsy at best, what chance do I have of prying a plaster press from the plaster mold. In my mind, I can picture the whole thing cracking into powder after hours and hours of labor. I hate plaster molds.
I tried another technique which was this. I put sculpy in the plaster mold and put it in my oven. I can't tell you what level of detail the sculpy picked up. From the flinty little pieces it didn't look like much, but I don't know for sure. The sculpy dried just fine in the oven inside the mold. The problem is that it didn't seem to want to come loose of the mold and nothing I tried as a release agent seemed to work. Believe me, I tried everything. I put it in for 15 minutes, I put it in for 45 minutes. I tried each of these with vaseline, I tried each of these with a wet mold. No matter what, prying the piece loose cracked it every time. I did not, however, try different kinds of sculpy, and maybe that was my problem. After all, I remember Sculpy coming out of the oven with a little give to it, and the sculpy I was using did not, but the sculpy I was using was not one of those .$99 packages, but rather the big flesh colored stuff that comes in a pack of pound for about $12. Maybe it's different quality, I don't know. I have a chaos lord with wings made of sculpy. They're thin enough to look tattered and they aren't prone to breaking, so...
Anyways, my next experiment is actually this. I've decided to do without the permanent mold. Rather than embedding half the miniature in plasticene and making a mold from the other half. I'm going to make the mold out of the plasticene. My thought is this: make the mold, pour in the plaster of paris and then peel the mold away. Will this work? Who knows. I'll tell you the results after I'm done. Wish me luck.
The truth is that when you begin to learn how to mold, even if you have a step-by-step process, and even if those directions are phenomenal, you are still going to have to give yourself about fifteen or so tries before you get anything right, and by the way, getting it "right" isn't really the end. Once you get the mold to work, you still have to find a good "release" as well as a good casting material, and you have to find a good way to get the casting material into the mold. Plaster of Paris, for instance, doesn't just naturally fill in the mold the way water would, and when you're molding things like Land Raider doors, you really have to think about what you're going to do to, first of all, fill the mold, and second, make sure the back of the casting is flat.
I have made one mold successfully of the imperial symbol produced by Forgeworld. I used a Sculpy Mold Maker thing and filled the mold with sculpy. Popped it in the oven and wallah! But the Mold Maker was only about enough for four such molds and it costs $7. That's not horrible, but keep in mind, you're kind of limited to making things out of sculpy. I want to make Ravenars and that's just not likely to happen. The mold doesn't actually have a release agent, so essentially you're peeling the casting out which can stretch it a bit if its uncooked sculpy. Moreover, the mold doesn't go in the oven with the sculpy, so there too you have a problem. It would be much better if you could bake the sculpy in the mold and then pull it from the mold all hardened, but you can't and so the delicate bits of raveners are likely not going to work in this. At least, that's my opinion on the matter.
But that's the point, because really, making molds and casting is all a game of trying it out. Don't trust me on the sculpy thing. Until someone puts the mold with the wet sculpy in it into the oven, no one will know if this thing works.
So, here are some things that I've tried that I know DON'T work. First of all, I've been making molds with plaster of paris. Bad idea all around, but it seems to me like a good place to start to figure out, conceptually, what you're doing. And believe me, you are going to need to figure that out.
The problem with plaster of paris, as I understand it, is that you can't cast very many materials in it. Really, the only conventional stuff you can cast in it are either liquid laytex (which is too rubery to be used for much) or plaster of paris, which if you work with plaster of paris for even a day will seem like a nightmare.
The reason for this is because, no matter what release agent you use (vaseline or hand soap) the original thing never seems to have enough on it and the plaster of paris ALWAYS sticks. You end up prying the damn thing loose. This probably is easier when you're casting a vase, or something like that, but a mold the size of a land raider door simply cannot afford to chip a half inch. I'm using a dental pick to get the pieces out of the plaster (which helps), but I started using an exacto blade which basically tore my mold out. Plaster is not very solid and it cracks and flakes and crumbles so easily, that anything you use to provide the trauma necessary to release your original is likely to break the mold. I have had success with this, but my success was due almost completely to my slathering the pieces in vaseline and letting the mold dry overnight with the originals still stuck in it. This process is harrowing considering the land raider door has plaster drying to its front and as you can imagine, if it doesn't release right, you will probably never get the plaster out of all the little contours. Mine worked, but I then tried the same thing on a collection of ravaner parts without much luck. Plaster seemed to come up along the spine about 1/2 a dime in length across, and about a dime in thickness. In other words, whatever I made from the mold would have a dime's thickness worth of flash. That's no good.
Still, what am I going to cast from these molds? If the plaster is flimsy at best, what chance do I have of prying a plaster press from the plaster mold. In my mind, I can picture the whole thing cracking into powder after hours and hours of labor. I hate plaster molds.
I tried another technique which was this. I put sculpy in the plaster mold and put it in my oven. I can't tell you what level of detail the sculpy picked up. From the flinty little pieces it didn't look like much, but I don't know for sure. The sculpy dried just fine in the oven inside the mold. The problem is that it didn't seem to want to come loose of the mold and nothing I tried as a release agent seemed to work. Believe me, I tried everything. I put it in for 15 minutes, I put it in for 45 minutes. I tried each of these with vaseline, I tried each of these with a wet mold. No matter what, prying the piece loose cracked it every time. I did not, however, try different kinds of sculpy, and maybe that was my problem. After all, I remember Sculpy coming out of the oven with a little give to it, and the sculpy I was using did not, but the sculpy I was using was not one of those .$99 packages, but rather the big flesh colored stuff that comes in a pack of pound for about $12. Maybe it's different quality, I don't know. I have a chaos lord with wings made of sculpy. They're thin enough to look tattered and they aren't prone to breaking, so...
Anyways, my next experiment is actually this. I've decided to do without the permanent mold. Rather than embedding half the miniature in plasticene and making a mold from the other half. I'm going to make the mold out of the plasticene. My thought is this: make the mold, pour in the plaster of paris and then peel the mold away. Will this work? Who knows. I'll tell you the results after I'm done. Wish me luck.
Sunday, March 05, 2006
Mold making
Avram has been waiting patiently for me to tell him all about my successes at making molds. Yup...waiting.
Listen Av-ram, if that is your real name, which it isn't...I...
Okay, so here it is. Avram got me this book on making molds so that I could, well, make molds. The point of all this is that no matter what I build I cannot sell it on ebay for more than $10 because its homemade. Oh sure, its reinforced with hard board, but everyone knows its still made out of some stuff I found at a hardware store. Now, if I were to make a mold of that stuff I found at the hardware store and cast the entire thing in one piece, they'd glad pay $20, $30, or even more, and that's unpainted! So, I am not without my desire to follow the advice of Avram and learn how to do this shit.
Here's the thing though. First of all, I like making models out of stuff from hardware stores. I suppose that no matter what I still will be making the intial thing out of such pieces, but still... Secondly, the book is flawed. Why? Because it starts you making molds out of plaster of paris which is by the way, very near to impossible and then it tells you that the only thing you can cast in a plaster of paris mold is a a plaster of paris cast. Aarrgh! So, once you've finally got the molding process down, you have risk ruining the mold in order to make something. I have recently made a very good mold of a land raider door. My goal today is to see if I can cast such a thing in plaster of paris. My recommendation, don't hold your breath. I might as well be making the thing out of wet sand.
The real thing to do is obvious. Make the mold out of RTV rubber which is step two. I bought some RTV rubber over the internet. Not much but enough to see if any of this is feasible. If it is great, because for the most part RTV rubber isn't really all that toxic! You just need to use it in a room with some ventilation. That's not too bad (even though it is 32 degrees outside). The only problem is that once you've made the mold, the casting material suggested is Fiberglass resin, which is so fucking toxic that the book actually recommends that wouldbe workers with fiberglass should consider swimming with sharks to be an alternative panacea for their death wish.
And if that weren't enough, all of these directions involve bits of fiberglass fabric to be added to the fabric to give it some oomph. Great, except I'm not making a fiberglass boat, I'm working with pieces the size of a dime, and I don't want touch this shit at all (though I should be okay with rubber gloves as long as I throw them away afterwards).
The good news is that if the fiberglass resin shit works I'm going to save quite a bit of money on Raveners as they will be my first test case. GW must be mad if they think I'm going to pay $150 for a squad. Don't worry. I won't be selling those, just scenery. But all this is a moot point now because I am not going to do anything with fiberglass resin until I can open windows and etc.. Until then, I'm buying a breathing mask, goggles, and rubber gloves.
Listen Av-ram, if that is your real name, which it isn't...I...
Okay, so here it is. Avram got me this book on making molds so that I could, well, make molds. The point of all this is that no matter what I build I cannot sell it on ebay for more than $10 because its homemade. Oh sure, its reinforced with hard board, but everyone knows its still made out of some stuff I found at a hardware store. Now, if I were to make a mold of that stuff I found at the hardware store and cast the entire thing in one piece, they'd glad pay $20, $30, or even more, and that's unpainted! So, I am not without my desire to follow the advice of Avram and learn how to do this shit.
Here's the thing though. First of all, I like making models out of stuff from hardware stores. I suppose that no matter what I still will be making the intial thing out of such pieces, but still... Secondly, the book is flawed. Why? Because it starts you making molds out of plaster of paris which is by the way, very near to impossible and then it tells you that the only thing you can cast in a plaster of paris mold is a a plaster of paris cast. Aarrgh! So, once you've finally got the molding process down, you have risk ruining the mold in order to make something. I have recently made a very good mold of a land raider door. My goal today is to see if I can cast such a thing in plaster of paris. My recommendation, don't hold your breath. I might as well be making the thing out of wet sand.
The real thing to do is obvious. Make the mold out of RTV rubber which is step two. I bought some RTV rubber over the internet. Not much but enough to see if any of this is feasible. If it is great, because for the most part RTV rubber isn't really all that toxic! You just need to use it in a room with some ventilation. That's not too bad (even though it is 32 degrees outside). The only problem is that once you've made the mold, the casting material suggested is Fiberglass resin, which is so fucking toxic that the book actually recommends that wouldbe workers with fiberglass should consider swimming with sharks to be an alternative panacea for their death wish.
And if that weren't enough, all of these directions involve bits of fiberglass fabric to be added to the fabric to give it some oomph. Great, except I'm not making a fiberglass boat, I'm working with pieces the size of a dime, and I don't want touch this shit at all (though I should be okay with rubber gloves as long as I throw them away afterwards).
The good news is that if the fiberglass resin shit works I'm going to save quite a bit of money on Raveners as they will be my first test case. GW must be mad if they think I'm going to pay $150 for a squad. Don't worry. I won't be selling those, just scenery. But all this is a moot point now because I am not going to do anything with fiberglass resin until I can open windows and etc.. Until then, I'm buying a breathing mask, goggles, and rubber gloves.
Frickin' Necrons
So, the guys and me normally play four armies and we link two of the armies up to fight each other. Two teams of two armies each. You know, its not a bad way to play but there's something about it that always seems a bit stupid. First of all, you get link ups between grey knights and chaos, but still why would the marines fight the imperial guard. Oh, I know, you can all think of a thousand reasons, but still.
What I really like is a good 2000 pt. battle between two races. That way you get to play around with your list and buy things you probably otherwise wouldn't. The 1000 point marine list kind of always looks the same, and well it probably should, but with 2000 points you have more leeway. Yeah, I know, so get to the point...
Well, I brought this up with everyone and we decided to play a 2000 pt. Eldar v. Necron battle, and as it turned out I ended up playing Eldar. I figured I'd share a bit of my wisdom on this subject with you.
Okay, first of all, I've been playing Eldar for a long time, and for the most part, I've kind of stopped playing them so much, and here's why. Vehicles. It's plain, it's simple. If you're playing Eldar, you are almost required to spend all your points on vehicles. There's really no reason not to. Now, I'm not saying that striking scorpions aren't neat and all that, but let's face it, the fire prism can jump out from behind cover, shoot, blow whatever it aims at up, and then jump back behind cover. I lost to the Necrons because I couldn't take out their Monolith, and you know what the answer was? Don't buy fire dragons, buy a fireprism.
Everything in the Eldar army--every kind of infantry--has a more useful vehicular counterpart. Vypers are better than Dark Reapers, Fire Dragons, and Wraithguard. If you have to choose between an Avatar and a Wraithlord, always take the Wraithlord. The only thing that isn't better to buy in vehicular form is the guardian squads and they probably would be if you could put a brightlance on the bikes. People talk about the insane power of the Eldar army, and I agree, but you can tell if you're fighting one of those kinds of armies--does it have any spiffy looking infantry. If so, you're in for a fair fight. In any case, Eldar should not be allowed the Vyper in 40k in 40 minutes, because the Crystal Targetting Matrix just makes that ridiculous.
So, you may ask, at what point value is it feasible that you are willing to try infantry along with the vehicles? And this I cannot answer. Honestly, I play Saim Hann which means that if you give me more points, I'll just buy more vypers. In the 2000 pt. battle, I nearly ran out of points before I got to my infantry. I actually had to not buy the falcon, and then I lost because I decided on Fire Dragons rather than a fire prism. Sad.
Are Eldar powerful? Oh yes. If you want to you can make a nigh unstoppable army. The only problem is that it's the same army every time: wave serpent with your seer council (twin linked star cannons and a shuriken cannon), six vypers (Shuriken and star cannons), a fire prism, and two squads of guardians with star cannons. After that, it's all just garnish.
Now, I did lose, so don't think I'm strutting too much. The truth is, no matter your army, you have to play smart against Necron. This is not an army you can chip away at. If you fire everything you have, you will find that the next round, you have really only killed one or two of them--and probably not even that if they're near the monoloith. The monolith itself is extremely invulnerable, and even the lowliest of necrons has the firepower to take down a Land Raider, plus the range of their weapons makes them.... Look, let's try this another way, everthing about the Necrons is totally nasty. They have only two weaknesses, if you can manage to hit them with a nuclear bomb, they won't come back, and they aren't great at hand to hand. I keep hearing people tell me that they aren't good at hand to hand. That's not true--they're marines that don't come with any special weapons. That's not bad.
Part of the tactic is to lock them into hand to hand with a guy with a power weapon, this can be useful, but only if the resurrection orb isn't anywhere nearby. My recommendation is that you never target any squad near a monolith--what you manage to kill vs. the ammount of firepower you need to kill it with is just insanely out of proportion. Either destroy the monolith, or if that can't be done, destroy the squad with the necron lord, or if that can't be done, destroy a squad far enough away from both lord and monoith that you have some assurances that they will die. To kill, keep shooting. Start shooting and do not stop until the entire squad is gone. If you don't manage to kill the entire squad, you probably shouldn't have attacked at all. Enough of them will be coming back to make the whole thing a moot point. Meanwhile, while your fucking around killing one necron a round, the monolith is coming up with that gauss field thingee that hits everybody 1-6 times. That's just plain nasty!!
Mind you, if the Necron player is smart, he'll keep throwing scarab swarms at your wraithlords, etc. to tie them up for the whole game. My problem is that I tried to fight a three front battle against these jack asses. I'd applaud myself for shooting down 3 or 4 flayed ones a round, and yes, after four rounds, I had utterly destroyed them, but that's three rounds that my wave serpent (and its twin linked star cannons) could have been doing real damage elsewhere. And besides, flayed ones??
If you are playing Eldar against the necrons, watch out for the destroyer bikes. It doesn't take too many of them to make quick work of your vypers, crystal targetting matrix or no. Your target priority should be monolith, lord, destroyers, stragglers, and for god's sake, don't stop shooting until its dead.
Necrons are, by the way, the only army where knocking out quantity is better than knocking out quality because of the "we'll be back" rule or something like that. If you can kill enough schlemiel necrons the rest of them phase out. This is the best way to win the battle because you can do it in one turn and they don't get to make all those resurrection rolls.
What I really like is a good 2000 pt. battle between two races. That way you get to play around with your list and buy things you probably otherwise wouldn't. The 1000 point marine list kind of always looks the same, and well it probably should, but with 2000 points you have more leeway. Yeah, I know, so get to the point...
Well, I brought this up with everyone and we decided to play a 2000 pt. Eldar v. Necron battle, and as it turned out I ended up playing Eldar. I figured I'd share a bit of my wisdom on this subject with you.
Okay, first of all, I've been playing Eldar for a long time, and for the most part, I've kind of stopped playing them so much, and here's why. Vehicles. It's plain, it's simple. If you're playing Eldar, you are almost required to spend all your points on vehicles. There's really no reason not to. Now, I'm not saying that striking scorpions aren't neat and all that, but let's face it, the fire prism can jump out from behind cover, shoot, blow whatever it aims at up, and then jump back behind cover. I lost to the Necrons because I couldn't take out their Monolith, and you know what the answer was? Don't buy fire dragons, buy a fireprism.
Everything in the Eldar army--every kind of infantry--has a more useful vehicular counterpart. Vypers are better than Dark Reapers, Fire Dragons, and Wraithguard. If you have to choose between an Avatar and a Wraithlord, always take the Wraithlord. The only thing that isn't better to buy in vehicular form is the guardian squads and they probably would be if you could put a brightlance on the bikes. People talk about the insane power of the Eldar army, and I agree, but you can tell if you're fighting one of those kinds of armies--does it have any spiffy looking infantry. If so, you're in for a fair fight. In any case, Eldar should not be allowed the Vyper in 40k in 40 minutes, because the Crystal Targetting Matrix just makes that ridiculous.
So, you may ask, at what point value is it feasible that you are willing to try infantry along with the vehicles? And this I cannot answer. Honestly, I play Saim Hann which means that if you give me more points, I'll just buy more vypers. In the 2000 pt. battle, I nearly ran out of points before I got to my infantry. I actually had to not buy the falcon, and then I lost because I decided on Fire Dragons rather than a fire prism. Sad.
Are Eldar powerful? Oh yes. If you want to you can make a nigh unstoppable army. The only problem is that it's the same army every time: wave serpent with your seer council (twin linked star cannons and a shuriken cannon), six vypers (Shuriken and star cannons), a fire prism, and two squads of guardians with star cannons. After that, it's all just garnish.
Now, I did lose, so don't think I'm strutting too much. The truth is, no matter your army, you have to play smart against Necron. This is not an army you can chip away at. If you fire everything you have, you will find that the next round, you have really only killed one or two of them--and probably not even that if they're near the monoloith. The monolith itself is extremely invulnerable, and even the lowliest of necrons has the firepower to take down a Land Raider, plus the range of their weapons makes them.... Look, let's try this another way, everthing about the Necrons is totally nasty. They have only two weaknesses, if you can manage to hit them with a nuclear bomb, they won't come back, and they aren't great at hand to hand. I keep hearing people tell me that they aren't good at hand to hand. That's not true--they're marines that don't come with any special weapons. That's not bad.
Part of the tactic is to lock them into hand to hand with a guy with a power weapon, this can be useful, but only if the resurrection orb isn't anywhere nearby. My recommendation is that you never target any squad near a monolith--what you manage to kill vs. the ammount of firepower you need to kill it with is just insanely out of proportion. Either destroy the monolith, or if that can't be done, destroy the squad with the necron lord, or if that can't be done, destroy a squad far enough away from both lord and monoith that you have some assurances that they will die. To kill, keep shooting. Start shooting and do not stop until the entire squad is gone. If you don't manage to kill the entire squad, you probably shouldn't have attacked at all. Enough of them will be coming back to make the whole thing a moot point. Meanwhile, while your fucking around killing one necron a round, the monolith is coming up with that gauss field thingee that hits everybody 1-6 times. That's just plain nasty!!
Mind you, if the Necron player is smart, he'll keep throwing scarab swarms at your wraithlords, etc. to tie them up for the whole game. My problem is that I tried to fight a three front battle against these jack asses. I'd applaud myself for shooting down 3 or 4 flayed ones a round, and yes, after four rounds, I had utterly destroyed them, but that's three rounds that my wave serpent (and its twin linked star cannons) could have been doing real damage elsewhere. And besides, flayed ones??
If you are playing Eldar against the necrons, watch out for the destroyer bikes. It doesn't take too many of them to make quick work of your vypers, crystal targetting matrix or no. Your target priority should be monolith, lord, destroyers, stragglers, and for god's sake, don't stop shooting until its dead.
Necrons are, by the way, the only army where knocking out quantity is better than knocking out quality because of the "we'll be back" rule or something like that. If you can kill enough schlemiel necrons the rest of them phase out. This is the best way to win the battle because you can do it in one turn and they don't get to make all those resurrection rolls.
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