Still Looking For Old Blood Bowl Minis

Do you have any unused Blood Bowl minis in the closet. I am looking for a couple random minis to fill some gaps.

Here is the list of second edition minis I am looking for:


Dark Elf Kicker 2
Dwarf Kicker 3
Human: Blitzer 1, Thrower 1, Kicker 1, Kicker 2 (Interested in other blitzer and catchers)
Orc: Blocker 1, Thrower 1
Most Big Guys

Here are some pics to help people out who do not collect such minis:





What do I have to offer in exchange other than different Blood Bowl Minis(Beastmen, Khemri, Nurgle Rotters Box):


What nice space marine bits do I have:
Scout Bike; 3 Bikes with Metal driver bits; Apothecary Head, Arm, Backpack, and shoulder pad; Space Infantry Heavy Weapons: Heavy Bolter, Plasma Cannon, 2 Missile Launchers; Scout Heavy Weapons: Missile Launcher, Heavy Bolters; Assault Weapons: 5 Meltaguns, Plasmaguns, Flamers; Terminator Heavy Weapons: Assault Cannon(DA), Heavy Flamer; Collection of Black Templar, Dark Angel, and Old space wolves bits.

Some Pics in my Garage sale stuff:

Cracking the Chimera

In response to a post over at Imperius Dominatus about how a Psycannon is not anti-tank, I decided to run all the marine portable weapons against a 2 weapon chimera in my tank destruction simulator. Here are the results:



So where does the Psycannon fall. Well the best weapon is a half range melta. It outstrips pretty much every other weapon a marine can carry. Ofcourse half range is 6 inches for the meltagun so you have to get pretty close. Every other weapon is the same or worse than the psycannon used in the Heavy 4 variety. It is better than normal melta, lascannons, and missile launchers. In fact the Assault 2 Psycannon is better than the missile launcher. Now the mean number of turns shooting to get the kill is as follows:

Half Range Melta:3.4
Heavy Psycannon: 5.8
Cyclone Missile Launcher (Hive Guard for Xenos): 6.1
Full Range Melta: 7.3
Lascannon: 8
Assault 2 Psycannon: 11.0
Missile Launcher(Standard Lances here also): 11.6
TL Psybolt Assault Cannon: 4.4
Newly Added for the Xenos: Big Gun Tyrannofex: 4.3


Now they are right. The psycannon does struggle to kill the Chimera but it does better than most other choices available. If the psycannon cannot be counted as Anti Tank then pretty much only anti tank weapon marines have is half range melta. While you have to roll 6 to get the penetrating hit you get 4 shots for each weapon. A lascannon might penetrate 3 times as much put it also misses completely 33% of the time. The four shots from the psycannon will only all miss about 1.25%. It is not that the psycannon is bad at antitank. It is that the rules in 5th ed in terms of light armor toughness are just unbalanced.

Now remember these numbers are for 1 weapon. We see that a psycannon can kill one Chimera a game. The list that I did not like a little while ago had 12 plus 6 TL Psybolt Assault Cannons (which are as good at killing light tanks as tyrannofexes for 1/3 the price). Six turns of this firepower will kill 21 Chimeras. Fully Anti Mech Nids (3 Tyrannofexes, 3*3 Hive Guard) is only 13.5 dead chimeras.

The M42 Project: Alternative Rules for Battle in the Grim Dark Future

I got invited to contribute to the M42 Project which is a fan organized effort to see if we can create better rules than GW for a future table top battle game. Why might a group of individuals be able to create better rules? Not being slaved to selling codex updates and tons of new miniatures with each update is probably the best reason. Check it out. The project is only beginning so you can help get you input in from the ground up.

My first post discussing the effectiveness of Small Arms fire went up last night. Check it out also.

How many Missiles to the Center of a Razorback?

So for fun, I wrote up a little Monte Carlo generator for determining the probability of destroying vehicles based on all the relevant parameters. While it is trivial to calculate whether a single shot will destroy a vehicle, if you want to do it properly you have to worry about the things like multiple weapon destroyed results leading to destruction and that all member of a unit fire at once. Instead of going through and trying to rigorously calculate the results, you just simulate the process a hundred thousand times. So the question I asked is how many times does the unit have to shoot at the target to get a destroyed result. The results are shown as a cumulative probability so you know that for example if you shoot at the vehicle 5 times it has some probability of being destroyed. It could have been the first shot or the last shot.

So the first thing we will look at is the difference between a standard 1 weapon razorback and las-plas razorback which 2 weapons adds to its damage capacity.

This plot pretty much shows the one of the problems with 40K right now. Here you have a elite warrior with line of sight and weapon in range with an anti tank weapon firing on an APC not a main battle tank. You do not reach 80% probability of destroying the Razorback until 10 missile shots. You can see that the extra weapon buys you 1 more missile shots on average before being destroyed. The mean number of shots to kill the razorback is 7.3 missile. This helps to illustrate the weakness of a unit like the tactical squad in this meta. You spend 170 points and get a heavy weapon that will not even on average kill a 50 point tank in an entire game. So in an army with 12 razorbacks you will need 87 missile shots to kill all those transports on average. Now 6 tactical squads are not going to bring that much firepower in 12 turns so you need devastators but things get a little worse since they fire missiles in groups of 4.

Now lets compare what a 4 Missile Launcher devastator unit does against razorbacks compared to the Rifleman Dreadnought.

With 4 missiles at a time you get destruction at 80% of the time after 3 sets of shots but this means 2 more missiles used than with the individual shots. The mean in 2.24 turns of shooting. Now if you have 12 razorbacks to kill it will require 27 turns of devastator shooting. This is 50% higher than your 3 devastator squads can deliver in the 6 turn games assuming that they take no damage (which is not going to happen since 12 HB psibacks kills 9 marines a turn). So their 600 points kills 160 points a turn and your 700 points (you are going to want some spare marines if you expect to have any missiles left after the first turn) kills 50 points a turn.

The Rifleman dread under performs the devastators where it takes him 4 turns to get the 80% point on the razorback. Add in Psibolts and he does better due to the twin linking.

What do you guys think? Are the light vehicles to tough. Should these tanks really survive 8 missiles shot by the emperors finest.

Shooty-K: Where does it go from here?

I was reading Fritz 40K's discussion of the Battle for Salvation GT. He discussed how most of the armies have moved totally away from assault and it was all about the firepower at the event. While there are still some assault units in armies those units either have exceptional survivability or mobility to be effective in these games. A good shooting unit can kill 6 units a game. A good assault unit probably is only going to get 2-3 since it has to spend a few turns getting into position and then after winning another whole turn getting to the next target.

This sort of relates to my post last weak where the list I saw had like 12 razorbacks and 12 psycannons. All shooting, paper thin troops hiding in the over tough vehicles for 5th edition. In 4th edition most vehicles were to easily destroyed but now it has gone to far the other way. To examine this in more depth, I built a Monte Carlo simulator which allows for all the variables in shooting at vehicles to be examined to see how many turns of fire it really takes to kill them. The results from that are coming soon.

He also noted that due to the every increasing model counts true tactics is really going out the window since the fundamental tactical element is movement and positioning but the whole board is full of units now.

More Lego Collectable Minifigures

So here is a wide shot of the family's Collectable Lego Minifigure Collection. First 2 rows are the current series 5 while the back are from series 4. My daughter and I share these but they stay with the assorted Lego collection in her room instead of the Star Wars stuff in the basement.

I really like the magnifying glass on the detective. The plastic is pretty clear and has about an inch focal length. The monkey with the zoo keeper is not a bad little guy either.

The gangsters case opens up to hold his pistol.



I still think the gladiator is the best of the 5th series. We have the rest of the 5th series still in their packaging that I am using a rewards for my daughter to help her with slight behavior issues arising from the new baby and starting kindergarten. Nothing major just not listening and following directions in a prompt manner.

Here is some of our series 4 figures. The gnome, musketeer, and radiator suit were all picked up at Borders clearance sales.


Figure skater I picked up on ebay when I got the wolfman instead while trying to feel packages. I have gotten a lot better at examining the figures but I find it helpful to do it alone so I do not have to worry about family members being bored. Patience is key as the more you feel the better you will figure out what is what.

Series 5 appears to be selling pretty well by me where one of the target has sold out at least its first 2 shipments.

Is 40K really this broken now?

So I saw this list on Imperius Dominatus called BulletStorm:

Coteaz 100

(5) Purifiers, 2x Psycannon, 2x Halberd, 1x Hammer 149

Razorback, TLHB, Psybolt ammo 50

(5) Purifiers, 2x Psycannon, 2x Halberd, 1x Hammer 149

Razorback, TLHB, Psybolt ammo 50

(5) Purifiers, 2x Psycannon, 2x Halberd, 1x Hammer 149

Razorback, TLHB, Psybolt ammo 50

(3) Warrior Henchmen 12

Razorback, TL Asscan, Psybolt ammo 85

(3) Warrior Henchmen 12

Razorback, TL Asscan, Psybolt ammo 85

(3) Warrior Henchmen 12

Razorback, TL Asscan, Psybolt ammo 85

(3) Warrior Henchmen 12

Razorback, TL Asscan, Psybolt ammo 85

(3) Warrior Henchmen 12

Razorback, TL Asscan, Psybolt ammo 85

(3) Warrior Henchmen 12

Razorback, TL Asscan, Psybolt ammo, searchlight 86

(5) Purgation squad, 2x Psycannon 140

Razorback, TLHB, Psybolt ammo 50

(5) Purgation squad, 2x Psycannon 140

Razorback, TLHB, Psybolt ammo 50

(5) Purgation squad, 2x Psycannon 140

Razorback, TLHB, Psybolt ammo 50

= 1850

This comes a couple of days after saying that Spam is fine and anyone you complains about it is a whiny b*i*t*c*h.

I look at a list like this then think about my 8K points of space marines and see that I cannot write a list that would be able to beat this one with any reasonable rate. I certainly cannot out shoot it in the mid field, I cannot out range it with firepower since devastators even with missile launchers are to expensive at like 150 points for 4 with no spare wounds other than the sergeant. Drop poding in melta armed forces might be an option but at like 200 points per unit, I might drop a couple of the razorbacks the first turn but then will just be torn up.

Here is my forces, what would your ideas be:

HQ:
Sicarius, Pedro, Cassius, Shrike, Jump Chaplin, Librarian, Termi -Captain, Lib, and Chaplin. 9 Man Honour Guard. 5 Man Command Squad.

Elites:
2 Sternguard squads (options 1 combimelta, 2 combiplasma, powerfist, lightening claw) 2 Dreads (total options Lascannon, AsCan, PlasCan, Missile, CC-Bolter, CC-HF), ~ 30 Termis (5 TH, 5 LC, 15 Normal, 2 AsCan, 2 Cyclone, 1 HF)

Troops: 6 Tac Squads (most options except tons on combi weapons), 4 Scout Squads (2 sniper, 1 cc, 1 bolter)

Motor Pool: 4 Rhino Chasis (Rhino, TL-HB Razorback, TL LC Razorback, Whirlwind), 9 Castle Mould Drop Pods.

Fast Attack: 2 Assault Squads (2 Plasma Pistol+ Powerfist, 2 Flamers + Powerweapons), 2 Foot Vanguard Squads with a assorted weapons, 1 Jump Vanguard Squad, 2 Speeder (AsCan+HB, Flamer+MM), Bike Squad (2 Melta, Powerfist, MM Attack Bike)

Heavy Support: 2 Devastator Squads (12 Missile, 4 HB, 6 Lascan, 4 MM, 4 Plasma Cannons), 2 Vindis, 2 Predators (TL Las+HB, Auto+HB), LR Crusader.

I am sure their is more random marines and such. I cannot really spam any units so what can I do if I was to face the first army.

Gamma World: Unboxing

I picked up a copy of the new edition of Gamma World. I played Gamma World when I was younger so was interested in seeing what they did with the setting. It is a very interesting update where they went mainly for comic fun over serious story and game play. Instead of a post nuclear war, the world has been destroyed by scientists at CERN who while using their atom smasher broke down the barriers between the infinite universes. This leads to reality constantly changing around the characters including their own abilities as they deal with this world.

It comes in a pretty sizable box.

Open the box first, you find a small form factor rule book. This has the rules for playing the game. Both making characters and running the game. While it is based on 4e D&D, you do not need those books to play this game.

Unfortunately, the big box is pretty much empty space below the card board holding up the book.

You get 2 maps, 2 pages of card stock markers, a card set and a random booster of cards.


Two sides fold out maps.



Pages of character markers. Nothing fancy but helpful in the current rule set who movement and position is more important than in earlier versions.


Here are the character markers.


Here are the cards. This is probably the most controversial part of the set. Players got to draw random cards to represent their shifting abilites and gear. The DM has a set but WotC would like the players to go out and buy random booster packs to use in the game to. So you can spend money to make your character better in the game. Nice little Revenue Enhancer. Some of the gear can be salvaged to give long term advantages to the player. If I was running a game of these I might let players buy the cards to donate to the GM set but I would not let them build their own decks.

Epic: Squat Warriors Box

Recently picked up this box on Ebay to bulk up squat infantry. Specifically I needed more Exo Armor and Hearthguard to get those to full units. I have also gotten some other assembled infantry but I have found that stripping and remounting this tiny plastic models is very tough.

This set is has 5 sprues in them and they were essentially all uncut which is pretty uncommon given how old this set is. This made them a little pricey though. This sprue was originally produced in a larger red box that had 10 in it instead of 5. That is the core of me force with this just used to fill in some formation issues. You can see a picture of the red box in this post.

Here is one side of the sprue. 3 normal bikes, 1 trike, 1 hearthguard exo armor bike, 1 mole mortar, 1 thudd gun in two parts, 1 exo armored hearthguard, 1 normal hearthguard, 5 Heavy Bolter, 1 Missile Lancher, 1 Gunner, 1 banner guy, 5 bezerkers, 9 normal squats.

Other side of the sprue where you can see the sides of the thudd gun.

Eight Dollar Blood Bowl Legendary Edition on Steam

I saw on Michigan 40K that Blood Bowl Legendary Edition is on sale until Monday around 1 PM on steam for only 8 dollars. I already have the Dark Elf Version as a physical game but could not resist 8 dollars to get all the other races. I just found out recently that I cannot even get to my gaming boot on our pc since the new USB keyboard is not active when the dual boot windows asks me what drive to boot off, but I bought the game online and will fix that problem in short order I hope.

I spend more than 8 dollars for 1 old star player mini so even if I do not play the game a ton it should be worth it.