It tastes just like I dreamt it would.

Hello out there in internet land. Not that I think that we really have any dedicated readers who tune in with any sense of regularity, but incase I am wrong I thought it'd be nice to let you all know what we here at JaR have been doing while we neglect this blog.

Frank and I got engaged, that's all you get on that one. Norm moved. That's also all you get on that one. I'm in school full time going crazy.

The news? Why did we stop writing? Because we all basically stopped playing 40k. Things happened, people stopped having fun, more important and time consuming things came along. However, the lack of 40k does not mean we've stopped gaming.

The new game of choice? Heroclix. Honestly I'm surprised that Frank hasn't been raving about it, he has been writing for shortbox podcast instead if you want a dose of Frank that you've haven't read already. I'm not going to make empty promises and say that we will be writing more often because I know that my life is lacking in the free time department. Maybe Frank will post some pictures of the heroclix customs he has been making, maybe even some of his clix teams choices.

After the new year it is possible that we'll be making a journey to visit Norm in his new habitat which may mean a grudge match is on the horizon. Stay tuned... but not too tuned.

Sisters in 6th Edition: Part 1

Well hello again JaRalloes and JaRettes it's time to mount up in our rhinos and explore the changes to the rules in 6th edition and how they affect Sisters of Battle. This is going to be an in-depth look at the changes to the 40k rules, that help or hinder our little sisters.

This first post will focus on things that apply to more than just 1 aspect of the SoBs army and can either be helpful or an interference.

General:

Power Axes: One of the issues before was sisters inability to get powerfists with their troops superiors...

...or really any superiors at all. 

It was a problem, since once charged sisters are stuck there with their good leadership and good armor saves not getting to shoot and eventually losing. You really are just hoping to break at the right time to allow a quick regroup and a good round of shooting whomever you were fighting. 

Now you can pay 10 points for what is essentially a powerfist for sisters with a power axe. 5 strength isn't 6 strength, but it's AP 2, and it's going to do some damage if you're getting charged...which is likely considering how fast everyone seems to be in this edition. And you might get lucky and make a good round of attacks and saves and win a round of combat.

Regrouping: Wow! People who aren't Space Mareens aren't babies anymore? Sweet! And everyone can rally at down to 25% and can do it at any distance to the enemy? And they can shoot? Wooooow! This really makes SoBs auto-rally ability and high leadership much better for them. Still losing combat and getting caught because of Initiative 3 is going to explode you but you at least have a quick solution to any kind of running sisters unit.

Wall of Death: Overwatch in general is great for sisters, more shooting for sisters is never a bad thing and flamers have always been pleantiful and cheap. Now sisters have got an even better reason to take flamers. d3 autohits is the only reliable way to hit someone with overwatch. And overwatch itself is a valuable asset, if not a bit unreliable. I've played about 10 games of 6th and only seen snap fire take away 2 charges. Both were against my squads with flamers and my opponent was charging into difficult terrain. Combi-Flamers might even be a good buy now, yeah they're 10 pts, but saving them for a good wall of death, or a really opportune 3 flamer attack is pretty useful. My new sisters superiors are getting Power Axes and Combi-Flamers, it's 20 points but if you put her in the right place you're probably going to get a shot off once a game (all you need) it's even more usefull to SoB squads that are going to be getting out of rhinos close to the enemy.

Rhinos: Whoooo boy. This isn't as good a buy anymore....you can't stop and assault out, you can only go up to 6 and shoot out the hatch and hull points make them vulnerable to fussilades of fire. But, for sisters the rhino is still a formidable thing to sit in. It can go up to 18" in one turn, and it's not going to matter to regular sisters that you can't assault. 

Oh! and now they're cheaper since you're not going to need Extra Armor anymore, just the basic box with sisters inside pointed twords the bad guys, nothing fancy.

Immolators: Before immolators were suicidal tanks that had suicidal squads of sisters with special weapons...This hasn't changed, the Immolators and Dominions lust for selfdestruction hasn't changed. However scouting still works the same and getting a melta laiden pile of stuff right into the opponents grille on turn one is pretty good still. And it seems like the new chart and damage table basically give your 3 melta shots (2 regular and 1 combi) a very good chance of putting down a vehicle in one volley. Penning a tank 3 times will usually destroy it, and each penetrating damage result is a 50% chance to put down the enemy tank in one-shot. However this tank is still 80+ points and has just as much chance to get glanced to death as a rhino.

Exploding Vehicles: Oh my god. This sucks. If there's one thing thats never been very forgiving for sisters is being inside a speeding  bomb. 

And now it's even worse!

The only result on the vehicle damage table that destroys a tank causes an explosion. It's 'just as likely' to destroy a tank as it was in 6th 1/6, but with AP1 2/6 and AP2 it's 3/6. But that's always an explosion.

That's really going to hurt your toughness 3 girls when they're ride blows up more often than not. This is a problem that also extends to destroying tanks...

What's the thing you're most likely to blow up a tank with in sisters? 

If you said melta guns... 

With premeasuring it's probably in your best interest (if possible) to position your girls at a safe distance before demolishing your targets.

Rapid Fire: Is better now that you can move and shoot up to 24" but most of your sisters aren't going to be far from their targets, and if they are they're usually not moving much. But any buff to Rapid Fire is good for SoBs.

Going to Ground: Oh my! This is a good one. You can only snap fire when you go to ground, which isnt' good...

..but you can still overwatch, and you can still fight normally in combat. So it might be in sisters best interest sometimes to hit the dirt to get a 3+ cover save (in ruins) if you're going to take some heavy fire before an assault. Especially if that assault's going to last a few rounds. It makes sisters in ruins with an objective quite hardballz, just hope they don't get sabatoged objectives lol.

FUCKING ALLIES: OMFG! OAFUHGA! Yes! Hi-Fives all around! 

Sisters are only BFFS with Guard...

...but do you need anymore than that? Guard have a lot of things Sisters really really need, like Long Range Anti-Tank Firepower, Flyers, Reserves Gimmicks, Big Hands to open Mayonaise Jars, and of course AV 14. They want to help you. 

Next time we'll be looking at individual units and perhaps even some army lists.

This weekend is our LGS's first official 6th edition Tournament I'll be taking...

...Kroot Mercs!* 

Wait! NO! 

Sisters, and guard as allies!

*If this army list was still legal I'd still be playing it :D

And So We Wait...

Well my 6th Edition Rulebook will be here tomorrow and I played in my last games of 5th edition 40k ever again and now what do I do?
I've had the last 5 days to go BAT!@#!@# INSANE!

Eat flag heathens! 

I want so badly to play 40k, but I can't because 6th is going to be out and I'm so done with 5th right now. (I have been painting sisters like a mad-man, I've almost painted 22 now! :D)
And I'm terribly impatient, I can already see tomorrow being very very long.
But In the meantime to stave off my own insanity I will regale you with my LAST GAMES OF 5TH EDITION!
Well first of all let me tell you I played Sisters, for the first time in a long time. 
I put them down and felt confident in them, like they weren't going to crash and burn in the second turn. 
For the tournament the special rules were that Forgeworld kits were legal in your list, but no structure points or buildings or flyers.
Since I was playing Sisters I forwent taking the Repressor...and that's all they have so no Forgeworld for me.
The lists were capped at 2500 pts so I took:




Celestine:115pts
Jacob: 90pts


Battle Conclave:  150pts
6 DCA, 3 Cruez


Fast Attack
Dominons: 6 Doms, Superior w/Combi-Melta, 2 Melters, Simulacrum. 132pts
 Immolator: Multi-Melta, Ex Armor, Search Light  81pts
Dominons: 6 Doms, Superior w/Combi-Melta, 2 Melters, Simulacrum. 132pts
 Immolator: Multi-Melta, Ex Armor, Search Light  81pts


Seraphim: 10 Sarahs, Melta Pistols  185pts
Troops:


Sisters of Battle: 10 Sisters, x2 Flamer. 135pts
 Rhino: hunterkiller 45pts
Sisters of Battle: 10 Sisters, x2 Flamer. 135pts
 Rhino: hunterkiller 45pts
Sisters of Battle: 10 Sisters, x2 Meltaguns.145pts
 Rhino: hunterkiller 45pts
Sisters of Battle: 10 Sisters, x2 Meltaguns.145pts
 Rhino: hunterkiller 45pts
Sisters of Battle: 10 Sisters, x1 HeavyBolter.130pts
 Rhino: hunterkiller 45pts
Sisters of Battle: 10 Sisters, x1 HeavyBolter.130pts
 Rhino: hunterkiller 45pts


Heavy Support:
Retributors: 10 Rets, 4 Heavy Bolters, Simulacrum 140pts
 Rhino: Hunterkiller 45pts


Exorcist: 145pts
  Hunterkiller
Exorcist: 145pts
  Hunterkiller


2509pts.


I figured I'd be able launch off all those Hunter Killer Missiles for some kind of devastating alpha-strike. Honestly I never had good opportunities to fire them, since I could only move 6" and shoot them I fired off a few but a lot of my other tanks got pulped too quickly to get their rockets off, but It was the last 5th tourney so I wasn't too keen on "giving a shit."


The first scenario was random night fight each turn on a roll of 5+.
I played against a formidable Grey Knights list including 3 dredds a bunch of Razorspammers and a Grandmaster in a Purifier Squad.
I killed 5 Interceptors...
 THE WHOLE GAME.
 Because I had to fight in night fighting every turn while my opponent did not. So it was obviously one of the silliest games I've played. But I couldn't do much with no shooting.


My 2nd game was against one of the newer players at the store he took Guard with a handful of Chimeroes and a few Leman Rusties and a DEVUL DAWG and a Manticore. The mission was standard NOVA setup but with the central objective was worth 4 objectives. 
I stole the initiatives and started to round the giant Skyshield Landing Pad in the center of the board, every turn blasting or stunning a few enemy vehicles each turn. My deathcult and Jacob held back until my opponent broke for the center objective, then the deathcult made short work of that stormtrooper squad. I won the game 4 Objectives to 2 and 2 -2 on secondary table quarters.
The final game was a "Just Kill Each Other Scenario" primary objective was KP secondary was VP.
 I set up my girls in a standard wide field 2-3-19 formation*. The Opponent's army was...silly.
 No offense but he was another beginner who hadn't had many games not against his close friends so his list was: 
1 Captain, 1 Landraider Helios, 1 Dred, 1 Rhino, 1 Assualt Squad, 2 Tactical squads, and 2 Devastator Squads.
It was weird. My sisters foundered a bit when their vehicles got blowed up turn 1, and the dominoes were stopped cold and forced to huddle in their blown-out immolator for the rest of the game. I also lost one of my Exorcizors to one of those !@$##KED Drop Pods that lets dredds assault out of them. I spent a lot of turns holding back my units waiting for someone to land and tie up his devos so I could cross and cut down the tactical squads with bolters and flamers. It took 4 turns for The Saint to arrive, after that close range fire and DCA finished off a full 4 squads before time was called. I won 12 to 8 KP.


I got 6th in a very large turnout for our store of almost 20 players...
And as a final go of 5th it was basically more of the same...
I hate GKs!
Sisters Rule! (when you roll good, which I didn't)
I hate when it's dark! 


I'm just praying to the Mail Gods that my rulebook will arrive tomorrow or I might gnaw my own leg off in anticipation....


...Actually if I don't get my BRB tomorrow I'll probably pull my Dreamcast outta my car and make a Let's play of one of my favorite games "Typing of the Dead!"

Ray You a busta'!

See you on the other side...for 6th.


*That means 12" from the Table Edge.

I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride it where I like.

Hello there! It has been a while! As Frank stated, summer trips and all that. This is actually concerning my particular journey across the pond to jolly ol' England. While I wouldn't admit it before, I was having a pretty bad losing streak with 40k before my trip. So bad in fact, that I vowed not to play again until 6th edition came out. So during my hiatus I left the country and went on a Spirit Journey to England to visit Warhammer World/GW HQ. I wanted to get inspired to play again and hopefully get some insider tips and tricks to get me revved up to play again. My first warhammer related visit was to this place:

 My first REAL Games Workshop store (Wakefield). Unfortunately it was closed by the time I got there so I snapped a quick picture before an employee came out from the back room. I quickly ran back to my friend's car and hid because I felt like a giant creeper taking a picture of a storefront after they were closed. The next day I went to the one in Leeds and proceeded to be followed around by the employees which was sort of odd because I just wanted to look around, not to have my ear talked off. Compared to our gaming store, the space was pretty small and only had three half size tables, the stock however was greater in number and much more varied than in our non-GW run store. In our store people also don't follow me around, they treat me like one of the guys (with more storage space... cleavage) which I like. I bought a model (Astorath the Grim if you're wondering) and the White Dwarf that came out that day (new fliers edition, it gave me something to read for the next couple days but this isn't a post about that...)

A couple of days later I went to the main event (well the main warhammer based event in this trip, I did a lot of other stuff in my two weeks): WARHAMMER WORLD! Frank asked if I went to business reception but I skipped that part...

This is the view from the front:

 A pretty epic way to start if you ask me. Anywho these fellas greet you as you walk in the front door.

 I felt it was necessary to sign the guestbook, I really should have mention JaR but I was too excited so I just put down the name of our gaming store instead.

 Then it was onto the hall of miniatures! Taking pictures in here was really hard due to clear shelving and lots of glass and lights and reflections so most of the pictures didn't really turn out. I must say this whole room was pretty impressive. I spent a good two or so hours wandering about and looking at everything. I must admit that I know there are a lot of space marine chapters, but I never realized just HOW MANY there really were until I saw half a wall just covered in different space marines... compared to basically half a wall for all the other 40k armies...

 Unsurprising for most of you is the fact that I'm only including pictures of the Blood Angels. This was after all MY spirit journey. I have other pictures of the other models as well, but since my army is Blood Angels it is what I've chosen to include. Seeing what their blood angels looked like reminded me why I chose a different color scheme. While they were well painted and looked nice and all that stuff, it just gets boring after a while. Seeing all the different armies gave me some ideas of what I wanted (or didn't want) to do with my guys aesthetically.

 After the hall of miniatures I continued on toward the gaming hall. But first I wanted to stare down the barrel of a space marine's bolter and see what I could see. I was told that if you did this then you'd see your life flash before your eyes, all I saw was black plaster... *shrug*

 I checked out the gaming hall (which was huge and pretty awesome) and got some ideas for table building and themes. My favorite table was an Egyptian inspired table (unfortunately after a couple pints you forget to take certain pictures... more on that soon). I was sad that I hadn't brought my army to play, but I didn't exactly have room to pack it in my carry-on.

 After a stroll around and a bit of observing it was time for Bugman's Pub and subsequently... DRINKING!

 I only had two pints (only one of the above was mine, the other was my friend Nate's, my second is below). I had some Troll Brew which was hoppy and yummy. I mostly just sat and took in the fact that I was in a different country at GW HQ and how awesome it would be to bring everyone from my local gaming store to come here. After my first pint I decided it would probably be wise to eat some chips (fries) with my second pint since Nate and I were going to walk to Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem afterward for more beer.

 Before leaving I spent way too much money on gifts for Frank and took a couple pictures of the interior of Bugman's.

 Outside was another random space marine so I decided to help him hold up his gun since it looked heavy.

So the trip was pretty amazing all in all and as far as 6th edition is concerned, very well timed. I'm properly excited to start playing again and hopefully in the coming days you'll see an updated list for my Blood Angels and my thoughts and feelings on the rules! Frank pre-ordered the gamers edition and we're crossing our fingers that it may show up on our door early!

If you're wondering what took me so long to write this post (I got back about 3 weeks ago...) here is a hint of what I've been doing:

6th Rumors and The Time of Ending

Hello out there JaRonaughts. It's a warm and wonderful day, excitement is just outside and it's only a door away! I'm ready if you are!

First off let me make a point about the infrequency with which we've been updating this blog lately.

Sorry! Sorry everybody. In the last 3 weeks all 3 of our contributors have been on summer trips, moving to a different state or graduating from college, so we've been a bit busy. Somehow though we found time to play a new Grudge Match which will be posted later this week, which is a Menage a Trois.

Now that I've got the SITREP down it's time to talk about the future of our favorite space-based miniatures game. Recently we've been bombarded with rumors about all the cool new things that will be put into the new edition of Warhammer 40,000. And I can say confidently that I'm EXCITED! Like 'peeing the bed and keeping your parents all night yelling lines from Power Rangers' excited. In addition to the dire need of 40k's rules for an updating (spring cleaning or clear-cutting hopefully) there's another reason I think I'm so excited and just can't hide it. I think it's because the last edition came without much fanfare and rancorous adulation, it slid in, changed a few things and then took it's place as the new rules, because it was sooo similar to the previous versions. Here's what I mean: 

I can't remember what exactly different between 3-4-5 edition. I think there was sweeping advances in 3rd edition... that's about it.

However even though I haven't played 2nd edition in YEARS I can still remember all the different aspects of the game because it's like my brain remembers it as something all together different. And that's the same kind of effect I'm hoping for in 6th. 

Although 5th needs to be dead and gone as fast as possible it wasn't the worst 40k edition, I think it had the most obnoxious codices for sure, but the rules were solid, maybe except for unkillable vehicles. 

All the rumors for 6th sound pretty cool, however now that there's so many and they're all conflicting between a set that's coming to light now and ones based on the leaked rules (which I like) it looks like we'll all have to wait for GW to put the damn thing in our hands to see what's exactly there. However on her recent journey to Games Workshop World HQ in Overcast Olde England one of our contributors was given a few snipets of inside info about 6th edition one of which was a cryptic: 

"wound allocation was based on percentages." 

Hmm what could it mean? I'm not sure, but I'm sure in time GW will either put out the new rules or be destroyed by our hands.

Necromorial Day Weekend

    Howdy out there folks of the nightmare-o-net. It's Frank from Just a Rhino again. Now recently we celebrated Memorial Day Weekend, and if your Memorial Day was anything like mine it was FRAKING HOT! And instead of standing in the hot evil sun next to a hot grill me and the LGS crew decided to beat the heat with some INTERIOR GAMING!
    Yeah inside is the good side. And for the special holiday weekend we started off our Necromunda Campaign! Necromunda as you may or may not know is the fast paced game of English ladies! 
No wait that's soccer....or lacrosse...




Quiditch?


    I don't know, anyway Necromunda is a 'gang' based skirmish game, pitting your crew of criminals against everyone else's, in a mad fight for creds, territory and YOUR LIVES! (OMFG!)Your gang is comprised of your gangboss a few 'Gangers' and the ubiquitous redshirts called 'jeuves' who are the 'pledges' of your gang, doing a lot of the dirty work to eventually become a full fledged gang member. After each battle wounded gangers recover (or die, or lose fingers, or legs, or eyes, or other crazy stuff) and your gang leans on some squares for enough food to refit their weapons and feed themselves. Any left over cash can be spent by the gangboss on new gang members, weapons, or special RARE items which cover everything from A Power Sword to a FRAKIN' PARACHUTE! Also each member of your gang levels up over time gaining new skills and stats which sometimes can get out of hand. 
    But the game is always a total blast. The learning time for the game is anywhere between 30 secs for avid 40k players to 30 mins for a lot of others. The game moves quickly with each side running, diving, shooting and hiding in the deteriorating bowels of the giant hive-spire. Sometimes games end prematurely when some cowardly (or smart) gangs hoof it after loosing a few of their boys. This mechanic is actually one of the saving graces of the game.

Your Gang Can Be Grrls Like This.

    After you 'lose' 25% or more of your gang your leader (if standing) must take a Leadership test or you automatically book it back to your own turf. This seems silly when games can end literally before they start (See Shootout followed by one side auto-running due to having no standing fighters) but most of the time it cuts the games down to just enough turns to be interesting and frantic, but not so long that you're looking at your watch. The book keeping for the game sometimes takes longer than the game, but I'd say half the game is leveling up your dudes and collecting extortion money and buying better gear for your boss. 


    Although I'm saving the best for last one of my other favorite bits about NecroFUNda is that theres' a lot of very cool missions included in the rule book, it really keeps things interesting after a few 'gang fights' in a row, there's even a special scenario for rescuing your captured gang members. But my favorite has got to be Shootout: a Wild West gunfight complete with walking straight at your enemy and seeing who goes for their guns first, and then all hell breaks loose. 
     I said I'd save the best for last, and I did: It's Free! The whole game book and Extra rules and junk are all on GW's website ready for your to download.  And if you're an avid 40k player or member of a local gaming club or store you've probably got enough terrain to mash together the tallest buildings you have into a pretty clustered and fun table. Obviously this game and all the other 'skirmish' based specialist games (Mordhiem, Gorkamorka, Blood Bowl) is best played using the Campaign rules and running your crew against at least 4 other players gangs. 



Bottom Line, Give it a Try. Grab some guardsmen and some cardboard buildings and Get Rich...

...Or Die Trying.

Northern Wastes League!

Ever since I creamed Frank in the JAR Grudge Match Match-tacular, I've been playing a lot of Blood Bowl on Fumbbl.  Mostly because I like being better at things than Frank, but also because I actually like the game.  The endless nature of the Fumbbl divisions was starting to irk me, however.  Basically, there's two leagues that never play each other, each  consisting of hundreds (thousands?  Probably thousands) of coaches and unlimited teams per coach.  Every 3-4 months, there's a MAJOR TOURNAMENT, which you can enter and immediately lose, if you like.  I did.  It was fun, but it also put a harsh spotlight on how Fumbbl's divisions are nothing like real sports leagues.  If only there was some way to play Blood Bowl online in a reasonably-sized, structured league with seasons and championships...

Happiness is a Warm Gun

Hello all, fancy seeing you here. I figured it was time for another post since no one else seems to have anything to talk about. I have a feeling that may change with more and more rumors pouring out about 6th edition and the fact that it may be coming out soon (within the next two months is our current guess at JaR. Frank says this month). Personally I don't know why we don't know when exactly it is coming out. Of course I could have missed some big chunk of news and they've announced the release date, but a cursory google search didn't give me concrete evidence and I'm really not invested enough in finding out to go further than that! MOVING ON.

Last night Frank and I played the first in our round of teaching games. When I was first learning how to play 40k, Frank would just tell me what I needed to roll and I'd roll it. I didn't know why, I just did it. This became a HUGE problem when I tried to play other people because I didn't know what to roll. Luckily the other people I have played so far have been willing to help me instead of trying to screw me over cause I'm new at playing.

So last night was a lesson in learning how to figure out what I need to roll in certain places (to hit, to wound, close combat rolls). We played a 500(ish) point list. It turned out in the end that both of our sets of math were wrong, I was under by 10 pts and he was over by 20pts. I'm not saying that is why things turned out as they did, but I don't want to give away the ending.

So my 500(ish) pt list went as follows:

Captain Becky
-Lightning claws x2 (because it takes a special kind of asshole to have just one lightning claw)
-Jump pack

10 Man assault squad
-2 flamers
-power weapon

Devastator Squad:
3 plasma cannons
storm bolter

So here was how I felt after I wrote my list and was thinking about my strategy



Here is how I felt when we actually started playing.



Let me explain WHY. Frank played sisters of battle because he needs an excuse to use them after amassing an unreasonable number of sisters. Anyway, I don't know enough about sisters to give you his exact list but here's what I remember: 31 sisters total (I think) 2 regular squads each with flamer/heavy flamer (10 sisters a piece), a squad of (forgive me if I butcher this) retributers? 10 ladies with big/long distance guns. And a lady with a power weapon, she was his HQ choice but I really wasn't paying attention because I was watching all my guys get killed. So I had 16 dudes in my army and he had 31… not very good odds just by counting bullets *sigh*

So we rolled, he deployed first and I stole his initiative (YEAH!) so I went first which didn't turn out to be as awesome as I'd hoped. I fired 3 plasma cannons into his big guns squad, basically if I had gotten it right I would have had 15 plasma cannon shots against them, due to terrible rolling and the evil scatter die I think I landed 3, and one wounded. That was my luck pretty much most of the game, I missed the rolls that mattered. I saved Captain Becky and a combat squad of 5 to come in later in the game. The other half of the assault squad came in and ended up hiding because there was no way they'd make it anywhere to shoot or fight.

Frank moved up a squad of regular gals to the middle of our shortened board and fired some shots off, I don't remember exact sequences of events for a while in this part of the game because I was distraught that my plan was failing so horribly and I was rolling like crap. Frank will attest to this and that I'm not just blaming my dice. ANYWAY, most of my assault squad got killed and the devastators were all blown up after not doing my much good (so much for crowd control).

At this point two things happened, 1- I resigned that I probably wasn't going to win this game, 2- Since I gave up on winning I was free to just send Captain Becky in to crush some souls.

So I dropped her and her combat squad with 2 flamers in behind the second squad of normal sisters. After a round of flamers to the face followed by being eaten alive by Cpt Becky and her crew (eventually) in close combat, Cpt Becky realized there was still one man left in the other squad of assault marines and he was taking on 10 sisters by himself. He lasted through about 3 rounds of close combat before he was killed.

Cpt Becky and her last remaining marine from her combat squad went to the middle of the board to attempt to clean up what that other marine had started, after all these were the only people really left. So it ended up being Cpt Becky alone surrounded by sisters and a boss lady, with Becky and the Boss Lady both down to having one wound left, it became a roll off. Time after time we both rolled one save (since we'd only wound each other once because we both suck at rolling), eventually Cpt Becky fell and Frank won.

So over all it was fun but it is reinforcing the fact that I'm not positive I want to be playing space marines of any sort any more. But we'll see how it turns out when we try a bigger list. So moral of the story is: Don't play Blood Angels in low point lists.

So as I was surfing the internet today for pictures for this post, I kept coming across these My Little Pony pictures with the ponies dressed up as various costumes, and I missing something completely? I remember seeing something about bronies the other day but I didn't think much of it… Any way here you go

Chaos Pact? I Don't Even Know Her! (Blood Bowl WIP)

Good Day to you Out there JaRheads! (Patent Pending).

I have a quick little update for everyone on my Chaos Pact Team, the Toxic Evils (-Pros).

As you may remember from my last post I was building a team similar too, but not exactly the same as the Olde Chaose Alle-Starse! Hey! Did you know? That the original Chaos-All-Stars roster included Ogres, Goblins and Troglodytes? They didn't even have Marauders or Beastmans, it was just Gobs and Big Guys, not the least big guy to speaking of being ol' giant crossbow face himself Morg'th'n'Thorg (Shortened to MTG)! Even in those formative years of Blood Bowl pubescence Morg was quite the rough costumer, laying the smack'eth down'th on anyone'th he could get his hands on. Now, my Chaos Pact team needs an awesome ogre too, so there was no better place to look than in the annals of Blood Bowl past! I spent a lot of money, and I spent a lot of time, but now I have one of the original Blood Bowl ogres of my very own! :D He's so cute! And now that he's painted up and based he's ready to go run a pain-train on the field!

His name is Gruff Ramjam! And he's really cool! Notice his team logo belt buckle and manly chest and back hair! His banana sling says "pleasure" but his big fists and mohawk are all business! He's also got a familiar but awesome tattoo on his bicep but I forgot to take a good picture of it. I love him.

Now that we've looked at a classic model on my team let's look at one of my newer designs. She's a blood crazed Blood-natic of Khorne, she bathes in blood....BLOOD!

Her name is Fiercia Lowblow and she's a marauder!

Her lack of clothes might appear non-threatening but her name and giant blue crab-claw speak to a much more pointy and painful nature. She's not 100% done yet, I want to do some blood effects on her claw and obviously base her.

Well that's all for now, but I've still got some more surprises up my sleeve for this team so stay tuned, and always your comments and concerns are welcome.

The Lunatic is on the Grass.

I like starting with a little greeting instead of just jumping right in there. My “personal touch” if you will. If you really could care less about this just skip to the next paragraph. I mentioned what I was listening to last time, this time I’m listening to Counting Crows singing “Accidentally in Love”. I’m a girl, I’m allowed to like what ever the hell I want. My computer is running super slow today, I just force quit a couple things that I wasn’t using (like Illustrator, I mean wtf why would I have that open and not be using it? Am I stupid? Do I enjoy torturing myself having my computer running 5 times slower than normal because I’m stupid and haven’t bought more RAM yet?) so now it is running better. Oh… but I know why Illustrator was open.

Attractive right? If you weren’t reading that paragraph I bet you’re pretty confused about that picture. Even if you were reading you probably are still confused. It is what happens when I’m left alone and have access to blankets and image editing software. Anyway, I think I should move onto something that is actually related to this blog now…

Blood Bowl Team Manager The Card Game!!! WEEEEEEE. So some background… Frank always buys games and tries to get me to play them with him. Usually these games require about half an hour of set up before you even get to trying to read the 28 page long rule book. So when he first told me that he bought another game, I wasn’t thrilled. He can learn endless numbers of rules for 20 million games at the same time… I can barely contain 2 games. (Moving onto Muse- Thoughts of a Dying Atheist) But seriously, this is a real problem for me… Maybe it is a problem for you if you’re also dating or know someone who plays miniatures games. Well, push those worries aside because BBTMTCG (doesn’t save much time does it?) is pretty freaking awesome. Why?

First of all, the set up is sooooooo easy. It is just cards and little tokens, its like pokemon all over again but better! (See end of post about pokemon rant that no one seems to be interested in joining in on, please tell me how you feel, I really am genuinely interested.) Moving on… You set up the cards and draw your dudes and then play 2-3 games per round. I’m not going to go into terrible detail of how exactly to play the game, but just a gist and my thoughts on it. Anyway, you roll to see if you tackle people. Sometimes there will be a special rule, like if you successfully tackle someone you roll again to see if they die. Fun right? So you play a couple rounds of that and then you get to the end where there are 3 games, 2 regular games and the Blood Bowl. Here is where I have a problem with this game.

You only have 6 people in your hand… splitting them between 3 games sucks especially if you didn’t draw a particularly good hand. (Led Zeppelin-Trampled Under Foot) I think you should be able to draw an extra two or three people. Yes, it makes it harder and makes you strategize more, which is awesome, but sometimes you really need to win a certain game, which leads me to what makes you win at the end. The whole time you are playing you’re earning fans in one way or another. You win the game if you have the most fans. The Blood Bowl offers the most fans if you win it. Therefore in the last turn of COURSE you are going to try to win the Blood Bowl! Duh! In one game Frank and I played, the only card he put on one of the other game cards was a Lineman with guard. He had to do that because you don’t have enough cards in your hand to focus on three games when ONE of them is so important to winning the game as a whole. I enjoy the other non-Blood Bowl rounds a lot better. I think they are more interesting with the special rules and just trying to win two games. I suppose we could create a house rule about that and see if it makes it better or if it just gets ridiculous. We’ll see.

So overall, BBTMTCG, super fun game. Easy to learn. Fairly quick to play. Good times.

Fenrich Gives BBTMTCG: 4/5 sticks.

Fenrich... you're holding it.. upside.. down. Ah he'll figure it out.

And as a send off: Weezer- Time Flies

OH BUT WAIT! POKEMON! You thought I forgot... did you forget? What are your thoughts on Heracross? More on the topic of, is fighting and bug a good combo for a pokemon? Do you use this pokemon?

JAR Grudge Match Matchtacular: THE RESULTS!

So, we here at Just a Rhino have a pretty neat system set up here. First, we decide to meet up in the blinding terror of 'real life' instead of just being internet buddies. Then, we hype up the super-competitive board game we're going to play. Then, Frank loses.

Then it takes a month to post a match/battle report.

Well, here it is, because I bet you still give tons of craps about it: The results.

"Toxic Evil" Just Got a New Name

Evening/Morning/Equinox/Injury Time sports fans, Frank here to tell you a little bit about the pain and suffering of my human spirit! I'm sad and have a butt for a face! SAD FEELINGS!

...wait no, this isn't my "Pretend I'm Norm on his Live Journal" post...

Oh! Here it is!

That's right! Blood Bowl!

Ah, if there ever was an outlet for my Primal Rage (The Avatars), my artistic passion and my grand ability to roll all the wrong kinds of dice rolls (See Hanshin Tigers) it would be on the Fantastic Field of Blood Bowl. And since my little elves have been captured in a Time Spiral it's time to start a new team. And since I am really partial to Mutants, and Leagues and Extreme Thirst I decided no team would be better to begin than Chaos Pact!

My newest team the Toxic Evil-Pros! are a combination of the best mutants and renegades that there ever was! At least that's what I'd say about them in like...20 more games? Their definitely a development project, but the coolest thing about Chaos Pact is that you're allowed to make your players HOWEVER you want!

-You're whole team has access to almost every skill on the regs! (Except Agility skills which are doubles)

-You get 1 of each of a crew of racial positionals! 1 Goblin, 1 Dark Elf, and 1 Skaven. Though their stats would seem mediocre on their own rosters on Pact they have mutation access in addition to the normal skills they would have access to, making them a blank canvas for development.

-3 F@#$KIN BIG GUYS! AT ONCE!

Wow that sounds great! So let's get this 1,000 lbs crap show on the road!

First off let me say the first thing I could think of when trying to bring my creations to life (ALIVE!) is the original Chaos mutards The CHAOS ALL-STARS!

Remember when mutations didn't exist? Well the flippin' All-Stars had them then! WHAM!

Anyway the old Chaos All-Stars models are as famous as they are fantastically hard to find. Here's a picture of them for reference!

Frak yes! It does my heart to see a set of models that are older than me, but still way cooler than I'll ever be! So basically you got your big guys, 1 of each of your Multi-Racial Positionals, an of course some flipptards with mutations galore. It's awesome!

Now as much as i want to just make my own versions of this whole Iconic Team...I kind-of have had MUTANT FEVER! And now there's so many mutants I have planned that I literally gotta go with some of my new designs just because I really want to make them. But I'll be sticking in the neighborhood of the color scheme and some of my favorite Stars I'm going to rigga-remake.

First-Off A New one!

This here is Grim "Spike" Durfman his hideous face is made of a metal spore mine, with a cool fluffy lace color to keep his neck warm and stylish. His body is a plastic human blitzer. It's a very simple conversion but I kind of love him! You might also notice that my color scheme is actually Hot Pink and Turquoise while the original Stars are Red and Green. I actually always thought that the old ones were Pink and Green but I guess they undercoated them white and that red just got outta hand...into being awesome! So I decided to go with a cool hot pink and cool blue-green. I'm really liking it so far.

Next is another one of my creations!

This little 'demonette' is Fiercia Lowblow, just in case you thought that claw didn't mean business because she's in a metal bikini. I got this model from Reaper to use as a cheerleader and then cut one of her arms off and sculpted a new one, and added a chopped down dryad claw from WH:GFB.

Now here's some guys based right off the old models. The left guy is an ork biker boy torso with nob arms attached to the legs of a plastic human lineman, his chest face and awesome pompadore I sculpted on. To the right is a metal human thrower I fashioned a giant tentacle throwing arm onto, just like old Lewdgrip! He's got some paint but's not really even started.

My Dark Elf Renegade Hellena Murderson is a converted Malifaux figure, whom I sculpted extra arms onto, now she's like a little Spiral. Her paint is actually almost done just need to do a bit more highlighting in her pants and skin (Which is light purple) and she'll be ready to hit the pitch.

Another note on these is I'm using the NEW Citadel Paints line (Along with the old) and as far as things go I'm really liking some of the new Types of paints, like The green glaze I used on this last girls hair just really rules! The two colors I picked out were also new Layer Paints, Pink Horror (AWESOME NAME!) and Sotek Green, the green is washed with the new Shad Biel-Tan Green. All in all I'm loving the new paint line even though I only bought a few. The 2 things I'm still upset about with the new paints are:
They dry VERY quickly and,

FUCKING KIDDING ME!? The SAME LIDS!?

Come on!

I've gotten used to sneak attacking the thermal paint port on my paint pots to cause massive paint to get on my brush then I always have set up a giant pile of paint on my pallet that I'm not going to use. But I would have much preferred to not be a jack-ass thinking about secret space-plane missions when I'm putting paint brushes in paint.

And that's as good a note as any to leave on so...L8sk8ers

Norm will be posting a sweet post about our Grudge Match later this week, and I'll be doing lots more Toxic-Pro-Jam Pics all this week, including lots of designs for new mutants from my sketchbook. I might even have an old pro show up in my roster (WINK!).

They Want to Rock and Roll All Night and Part of Every Day... Everyone Has to Sleep Eventually.

Hello all, Becky here. Today instead of talking about myself, I’m going to talk about something a little more interesting. My blood angels list, YAY. *searches for music to epically write this post to as the soundtrack from Riven is playing right now and that is just NOT the right mood for writing.. epic-style-Immigrant Song it is*





Awesome right?

Onto my list! As it stands right now it is 2027 pts but there is one thing I’ll probably cut unless once I get to that point it becomes necessary. If that happens I can just drop something else to bring it down.

Captain Becky…100: (160)
-Lightening claw x2 (+30)
-Melta bombs (+5)
-Jump Pack (+25)

Honour Guard…115: (280)
-Blood Champion (+20)
-Chapter Banner (+30)
-Jump Packs (+50)
-power sword (+15)
-lightning claw x2 (+30)
-storm shield (+20)

corbulo…105: (105)

priest…50: (90)
-jump pack (+25)
-power sword (+15)

Furioso…125: (175)
-librarian (+50)

death dread…125: (140)
-blood talons
-magna-grapple (+15)

chaplain…100: (100)

death co…60: (205)
-5 extra (+100)
-3 power weapons (+45)

assault…100: (130)
-no jump packs
-lightning claws x2 (+30)

assault…100: (217)
-four extra (+72)
-lightning claws x2 (+30)
-infernus pistol (+15)


drop pod…35: (35)

drop pod…35: (35)

razorback…55: (80)
X-TL assault cannon (+35)X
-extra armor (+15)
-storm bolter (+10)
-minus (-35)

Land Raider Redeemer…240: (275)
-extra armor (+15)
-multimelta (+10)
-storm bolter (+10)

So that’s all well and good right? But how will it function? Let me tell you my magical plans for this list that I have yet to run. I like to think it is a fairly well rounded list. I’ll start with the badass Captain Becky and her Honour Guard of Violent Misfits.

To get it out of the way, Becky is a girl, she’s modeled after me, you can see her picture in my last post. She has two lightning claws because it takes a special kind of asshole to only have one lightning claw. A member of her guard also has a pair of lightning claws. They are equipped for close combat. Armed with jump packs they drop in with descent and wipe out what they can.

Brother Corbulo is accompanying the Assault squad without jump packs in the razorback. He’ll give them feel no pain-y goodness. The other priest will be with the jump pack assault squad with a jump pack of his own. This squad has lightning claws and an infernos pistol so they’re ready for close combat if they drop in.

I have two dreads, Furioso Librarian and Death Company. They will each be dropping in via drop pod. They are mostly equipped to take out tanks (I hope, I need advice on that, haven’t quite gotten the hang of vehicles yet).

Then we get to the Chaplain with Death Co. This is how I feel about Death Company.





That being said, I know they have major flaws. I just cannot seem to bring myself to stop playing them. Seriously, I mean they’re so fun! So blood-thirsty and kill hungry, just what blood angels should be! But that is also their demise. The whole chasing what ever is closest gets old really quickly, getting kited around the board the whole game is never fun. One event in my history with Death Company will make me keep them. It happened in the Texas Tag-Team Tournament. We were up against some orcs and dark eldar. My death company met a mob of boys in the middle of the board in close combat and (not to be rude) ate them alive. It was amazing and redeems them enough even with their other flaws for me to still include them. The will be driving the Redeemer. This is a throwback for those of you who have been following Frank from other places, remember the orc tank WrekBekka? Well these guys are the ones who had the original before it was orc-ified. WreckBecca. Frank is in the process of painting her so in the future there will be a picture, along with as I actually get these guys built and painted.

That’s really it. I feel like this is a rip off for a post but I haven’t played them as a team yet so I can’t really say how they work.

What she said.




On a more personal note, happy holidays to all celebrating this weekend. I'm going to go make frosting to put on my mini carrot cake cup cakes! Yayy!

The Wheel of Chaos Rolls Over Frank and Norm

A brief introduction: Frank and I play Blood Bowl. Blood Bowl is best played online (sorry, purists). Online, there are sweet tournaments, such as the WHEEL OF CHAOS III! Frank and I both qualified, though with relatively unprepared teams. Remember my our grudge match teams? Those were our entrants, plus a few extra rookies to buff up our benches. Each of us were paired with a tough-looking team; Me against Lizardmen, Frank against some blodged-up Dark Elves. Here's a transcript of my match report (original report and java replay available here.)

Click through to read the report on our site instead, because we love you.

Yo! I'm fly. I'm the female boss. I'm number one.

I decided it was time to step out of the shadows of this blog and into the light. You've seen my influence around the blog and you don't even know it! How does that feel? Is it strange? Let me back up, I'll tell you the story from the beginning.

Frank started teaching me how to play 40K about a year and a half ago. Due to moving from one state to another and then other responsibilities, I've learned some, but not nearly enough to comfortably hold my own on the table. I play Blood Angels. This is my captain which Frank sculpted for me!





I had a decent list that I could occasionally beat Frank with (though I'm convinced he was letting me win), but when I took it into my first tournament (infantry only), I was sorely disappointed with how poorly it did against other teams. This scared me off of 40K for a little while, but eventually Frank got me to play again in the team tournament where we played together (re: Texas Tag-Team Tournament ). That's right, his dark apprentice is here... on Just a Rhino. Writing about... wait for it... 40K from a beginning girl's perspective (keep reading, don't give up yet). I know what you may be thinking, what could this girl tell me that I don't already know? A girl talking about learning the ins and outs of 40K will be boring right? WRONG! You are so very very wrong. Ever wish your girl friend, wife or girl who you sort of know who lives down the street that waves to you sometimes would play with you? Point her to this blog, I'll show her anyone can do it and it is fun! Are you a girl whose S/O plays miniatures games and you have no idea what he's talking about? I'm here to help. Plus I'm funny and my hair is blue so you have to like me.

Anyway, in the time that I've known Frank, he and Norm started Just a Rhino. I take 85% of Frank's pictures of the grudge matches and edit 100% of them. I also created the JaRBBL poster as well as filming and editing the grudge match videos. So as I said in the beginning of the post, you've already seen my influence around JaR, but now you'll see more of it. Don't worry, I'll post about other things as well, like Space Hulk (which by the way Frank has never beat me in... take THAT) and perhaps Super Dungeon Explorer or other board games.

My hope is to entertain and perhaps lure some more girls into the miniatures gaming community, it is kinda lonely over here! I was trying to find some witty all encompassing picture for the end of this post to reward those of you who worked so hard to finish it. I mean it is the end right? You should feel satisfied for your efforts and the time you put into this, but all I could come up with was this:





No seriously here you go.