Saturday 14 February 2015

Trying to stop the Invasion!

Turn 6 last move to remaining focal point!
As the dust has settled tonight after Invasion, I thought it was best to get what's in my mind from this year's experience, while its still fresh. Well my resistance experience or lack off, who knows? you decide.
The list:

Snow Mountain
Clash: 1497 / 1500 points
Standard Army
Resistance Standard [1497 / 1500 points]

Breaching Drills [50 pts]
 Breaching Drill: Model 109 Breaching Drill [50 pts]

Warlord's HQ [325 pts]
 Alexander: M3 Alexander(Leader), AT-77 Lifthawk(+AA Cannon) [265 pts]
Gun Technicals: 6x Gun Technical [60 pts]

Vehicle Detachment [113 pts]
Gun Wagons: 3x Gun Wagon, NT-1 Kraken [113 pts]

Vehicle Detachment [113 pts]
 Gun Wagons: 3x Gun Wagon, NT-1 Kraken [113 pts]

Resistance Band [244 pts]
Fighters: 2x Resistance Fighters, AT-77 Lifthawk, 3x MT-90 Jackson [148 pts]
^ Sharing ^ Fighters: 2x Resistance Fighters [48 pts]
^ Sharing ^ Fighters: 2x Resistance Fighters [48 pts]

Rusted Fist [280 pts]
Hannibals: 2x M9 Hannibal, AT-77 Lifthawk(+AA Cannon) [160 pts]
Cyclones: 2x AH-16 Cyclone [120 pts]

Infiltrators [372 pts]
Freeriders: 2x Freeriders [70 pts]
Marine Force Recon: 2x Marine Force Recon, Raven A/S [151 pts]
Marine Force Recon: 2x Marine Force Recon, Raven A/S [151 pts]

By me taking a new army to the tournament scene, I was a bit worried and unsure what I could expect. I set out 3 goals this year and managed 2/3, so not too bad.
  • come in the top 10
  • highest ranked in my faction
  • win best team
Well I placed 8th so victory there, team OB reclaimed their place as Invasion champions but unfortunately best resistance faction went to mine/our friend Adam, who has been fighting since the beginning of the reconquest also. At the start of the tournament we were both flexing our muscles to be the best resistance general.
Top bloke, well deserved... you bugger!

Everyone likes to win overall, but it was something I felt I wouldn't be able to do, so it wasn't on my goal list. I had a good chance but I knew my margins for 1st were low.

Just like the scourge the resistance lose models very easily.  They win games but not by many points. The majority of the games I have played against all races (I played them all apart from the resistance in this tourney) were won with an average of 1 or 2 victory points with a 1 or 2 kill point bonus extra. This was also the same in practice/friendly games.
The low armour and no countermeasures on some of the sauciest models meant its just a matter of turns before they die and cannot contribute to focal point missions. Yeah sure I can hide all day but how am I going to get vital shots to stop you overpowering another squad of mine.
With this in mind 4/5 of my games I had no choice but to leave at least 1/2 focal points or objectives to my opponent (their table side). I could have gone for them all but I would be putting myself at a greater risk and could have lost the game by massive amounts. I settled for at least 3 of the main points and hunkered down and worked on the kill-point bonus'.  

I had a great advantage with my infantry fielding 2 squads of MFR, now short for MOTHER F**KING RECONS! by all who have fought them in battle. It gave me more options having 2 exotics but I wouldn't say it broke any or every list I came across. Most of the time they were flying next to everyone else's exotics waiting for them to go in a building to fight, playing cat and mouse with no guns to shoot the light dropships I was hunting. I think I'll try 1 squad next time but I think I will be trying a feral list for autumn invasion first. Say hello to my 2 x BARREL BOMBERRRRRR! list.

Those of you that made it to Invasion, probably saw my diorama board and I hope you all enjoyed it, hoping to spread my own imagination and fun for all to see. Team Hawk loved the thought and vision of my board and gave me a spot prize, which was awesome. Thanks guys!! I got a new building for my 4 x 4. 
I wanted to paint my resistance a snow theme and also wanted to try my new airbrush on a new army so it all looked the same but needed to make sure i was certain on the scheme before airbrushing x 15 models for no reason. What gave me the idea of the diorama was while I was still toying with the main colours of the army, Blotz released the helipad. Having these scattered around our battlefield made me want to land on them all the time! which I did at any given moment. From then on, I wanted to make an airbase with hangers and buildings, repair shops and all sorts, with a snow themed camo it could be a remote base in the mountains. Yes! good idea! Snow snow snow. Then I remembered there was lots of cool artwork in the reconquest book, some was a foothold somewhere in snow, to the book I ran and found inspiration from these images.





Images owned by Hawk Wargames and under copyright protection

SNOW MOUNTAIN!




Well that's all for now. 'Till next time!

8 comments:

  1. Congrats to the top 10 placement! I was thinking to get two MF-recons but only took one. Mine squad was never in a cqb in the whole tournament. :D But they took some focal points... How did the drill work? Is it a must in the next Resistance army?

    ReplyDelete
  2. MOTHER F**KING RECONS!

    Hell Yes. This new name MUST spread. It is a thing now!

    ReplyDelete
  3. The diorama was the coolest thing a player brought with them. Truly inspiring! It was a well deserved prize.

    I find it interesting that you find the resistance units fragile as I struggle to take them out with my Shaltari. Found it easier just to hide as armour 6 dropships with AA and armour 10 tanks with 2DP together with Freeriders roamed the streets.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Interesting list and fabulous display board. Very inspiring!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great display board! Thanks for the pictures, and congratulations!

    I echo snolb's questions, and have a few of my own (mostly hobby related):

    - Did you glue the cutting heads onto the Drill, or leave them off so you could open & close it, and/or fit it into foam more easily? I've not painted mine yet, but I've had to leave the heads off in order to fit the Drill into my foam, however I have glued the ramp/hatch into place open, since it didn't stay in place very well. It also looks like there might be room to insert the smallest of magnets onto the drill and the heads at their hinges, in order to help keep them in place. Any thoughts on this?

    - How was it airbrushing such small models? Did you use a turntable in order to get to all sides without having to hold them while you airbrushed them? Or did you attach them to something like a small, sturdy rod with blu-tac, or anything else? Any tips you can provide will be greatly appreciated, as I want to use my new compressor and airbrush paints the way they were intended - through the airbrush - but I'm a little nervous about airbrushing such small models. (For my PHR, which I had to do up rather quickly in order to get them ready for this past Valhalla, I used Minitaire tint (Plasma Fluid), which is like a wash but not really, but I hand brushed it on. I rather like the effect, but not everyone does, and they do look a bit rushed, which they were. LOL. My UCM and Scourge are simpler, in that there are two excellent Army Painter spray colors, one for each, that made base coating them a snap, and the rest is mostly a wash, drybrushing, and some spot details (eyes, weapons, treads, sensors, etc). However, I want to do justice by my Resistance models, but also want to use my neglected airbrush.)

    If a reply to all this would be too much or too long, could you perhaps honor us with a separate blog post about how you used your airbrush to paint your Resistance models so well?

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thx for the recap.
    FM

    ReplyDelete
  7. Great writeup and thanks for the kind words :D Was great seeing other Resistance armies and the display board which as already said is encouraging me to finish off mine

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks for your comments!
    Sorry about the long delay getting back to you.

    I found the drill very usefull, its verastile either throw it on a focal point, or defensively for objective extraction. Also great for hitting and distracting back board armys. I think i would try and always take one just because they can change your army depending on mission bieng played!

    With the magnets on the hinges. I would drill out the hinge and put very small magnets or replace the whole hinge with a magnet the same sort of size!.

    Maybe we can get edchopp to do a airbrush post. I found it quite easy to use. I mainly used pre shading techniques. Going from dark grey to white. I premixed colours in 3 pots so i had a 3 stage spray all set up. Ive found only putting on light layers gives better shading, and reducing the area you spray the closer you get to the top coat.

    ReplyDelete