May 21st CoC!

I didn't exactly expect tournaments to be this way.

I didn't expect to be excited to wake up at 4 A.M. after two hours of sleep to get ready to go to Sacramento.

I also didn't expect two perfect wins out of three games and being a favorite opponent vote away from scoring into best sportsmanship.

I just got home and I'm extremely tired, so I'll be lacking in details. But I'll give you guys a quick summary of how it went for me.

Game 1 was against imperial guard. The mission was modified capture and control, dawn of war deployment. Two objectives with each quarter being an additional objective. It was an extremely fun game, and I had to focus everything I had into it. Long story short, I spent most of the game popping tanks and transports, and charging Thunderwolves into tiny paper guardsmen squads. It was a 21 point win - 15 for winning, 4 for achieving primary personal objective, 2 for achieving secondary.

Game 2 was really, really difficult. I was playing an Iyanden eldar list with three dire avengers, two farseers, a wraithlord, a wraithguard, three war walkers, and two wave serpents. Choices, Choices was the mission. I did well for the most part, and so did he. We were tied for most of the game, or passing by each other by one kill point at a time. When the dust settled at the bottom of six, he contested the objective which led to a total loss with no personal objectives achieved by me.

Game 3 was pretty easy. I don't mean to sound down on my opponent but he seemed like he really didn't care about the game by round 3. He was playing a chaos list with two big walking chaos marine squads, five terminators, a daemon prince with wings, six plague marines, and ten khorne bezerkers in a rhino. It was a list built purely to take things head-on, and playing head-on against my list isn't a very good idea. Long story short, game ended on turn three and all he had left was three terminators, and I had almost my whole army still alive.

CoC was an amazing experience and I can't wait to go back. The company of Generals Oadius, Shotdownmind, and Gahner was fantastic and I had more fun than I can even begin to explain.

Lord Deathwolf stared across the battlefield at the gathered Blood Legion. Loki, his thunderwolf, growled deeply, and Deathwolf grinned. He would savor the bloodshed to come as much, if not more than, Loki. He looked to the east of the battlefield. Amlodhi Frostmoon, his personal Rune Priest, had already begun to charge towards the small force assembled. The east would be a bloody skirmish, though inconsequential compared to the battle to be held in the west, where Deathwolf currently was. He glanced one last time at the forces on his side of the battlefield, then roared orders to charge.

The wolves were a beautiful symphony of destruction in motion. No pack needed direction. That's what Harald's wolf guard were for. Harald roared once more as Loki began to charge headlong into the enemy, and his thunderwolf cavalry retinue followed and roared with him eagerly. Two heavy weapons teams hid behind the platform, with two rhinos between them. The murder-make in the twilight would be most satisfying.

Harald's guard surged forward with the Blood Claws. He was eager to see what his fresh pack would do against the supposedly ferocious sons of Sanguinius. He inwardly scoffed at the thought of the enemy marines actually matching his company's ferocity.

He cared not for what happened in the east, though he could see lightning flashing from the clouds that had gathered there, and he knew that Frostmoon was doing his job exceptionally well.

Bellowing one last great roar, Harald anticipated what his long fangs would do next and barreled towards the slowly-approaching rhino before him. Loki galloped past a suddenly-empty rhino that had once carried his Blood Claws. They had disembarked and were charging towards the rhino like he was.

Harald knew that the pups themselves had no clue why they were charging other than to stick grenades to the rhino, but his wolf guard knew the same thing Harald did.

Sure enough, five rockets streamed towards it, and the great metal beast exploded. Some of the blood claws were caught unaware and burned badly, and Deathwolf was actually forced to raise his stormshield against the fire. Despite it all, him, his thunderwolf pack, and the pups charged the forcibly-disembarked blood marines.

Harald watched admirably as the first of the glory-hungry Blood Claws slammed into them, tearing them apart. His wolf guard, Godsmote, brought a thunder hammer down upon the fool who actually held a chalice in one hand. With his death, it seemed the entire pack of blood marines faltered, and Harald siezed this advantage.

Loki and Harald were in perfect harmony as they slashed their way through the marines, both of them dismembering at least 4 marines before they could even strike back. Then the rest of his thunderwolf pack slammed in, and the battle was over. Harald saw their chaplain fleeing with the rest of them, and he held back, allowing the blood claws to savor the pursuit. This battle was won in a quick melee against the chaplain, and Harald bellowed a roar to make that known to the rest of his company. The Blood Legion was in full retreat, and wouldn't be picking a fight with him for a long time.

Frostmoon walked towards him, and Loki turned to face him with a sort of reverence. Harald grinned at Frostmoon, and Frostmoon returned it.

TL;DR: That's right. I got my first win against General Oadius. Sacramento... beware.

Ahriman's Journey(part 2)

So, now to continue to where I currently stand. I played my heart out trying to get a good chaos list for the Wolfbrothers 1750 CoC primer, but unfortunately I went 0-3 and scored 0 on personal objectives. The Chaos marine blood that was shed(or spirits that escaped armour) was overwhelming and I was totally done with Chaos... for about a week.

Anyways, since then, ShotDownMind has loaned me his space wolves and wants me to take them to CoC in sacramento. In a way, this has become a playtest for me, and I've definitely been enjoying the wolves quite a bit(especially since I'm reading through Prospero Burns), but I still have deep desire to help Ahriman get to the Black Library.

So as it stands, space wolf lists that I want to try(specifically Ragnar's spearhead company) run through my head constantly, as do pure Tzeentch lists. And in the last couple days, Grey Knights have become the only other army that passively interests me.

So all that said, prepare for Battle Reports to be coming out! ... as soon as I get a decent camera and learn how to edit them. Till then... well, Oadius has a cool line that he cuts his posts with, and that's a work in progress for me, so... you know... roll better and all that.

The Origins of Lord Ahriman

Hello everyone, and welcome to my first blog post! This post will be a rundown on where I come from(in terms of warhammer), and where I currently stand.

I started playing I don't know how long ago. All I know is I still have my third edition rulebook and tyranids codex. My best friend at the time and his brother played the game, albeit not very well. My friend played Eldar and his brother played Guardsmen. I asked him about other armies in the game and he took me to a website. As it was loading, I asked him if there was anything like zerg. He said yes and skipped straight to the Tyranids. The first thing I saw was a 3rd edition Hive Tyrant and I was sold. I needed nothing more to convince me of how amazing this game was. It took weeks or months(can't remember) to convince my parents to drop so much money on it, but I did.

Game after game against the eldar was lost. They quickly became my most hated enemy. I had no understanding of the rules at whatever age I was, as it took me an hour or two to understand every paragraph. I became extremely discouraged and came very close to just leaving it all behind and dropping the game, but I knew my parents would be furious at me dropping yet another pursuit of mine. Then I started hanging out at heroes. I have extremely faint memories of my first game against someone other than my friend(ironically it was someone who played Eldar - I got stomped but had more fun than ever before). I dived headfirst into the rulebook, and within a week or two my friend had no chance against me, especially because I taught him that it was about points, not just putting as many points as possible into your 2 hqs, 3 elites, 6 troops, 3 fast attacks, and 3 heavy supports. He was done with the game after his third consecutive loss to my swarm.

A story developed for Hive Fleet Zerus, and soon my hive tyrant was a veteran of countless battles, many that he emerged unscathed from. I felt unstoppable, though personal problems developed for me that kept the game an on and off interested for several years.

I found tau to be interesting for about a month, then sold them to my good friend Commander Gahner. I don't think he still has them but a deep story had developed for my sept and I was sad to see them go.

The Necrons of Athens IV then rose from the sands and I once again felt unstoppable. I had a hard time losing with them, and was obsessed with their fluff. The Lord of Athens IV and his legendary deathscythe exist to this day, albeit waiting to come back until they raise more of their ancient warmachines.

Then Brother-Captain Cassuis of the Grey Knights became my obsession. He led his small group of battle-brothers to war against every enemy imaginable, they but never grew past their meager starting numbers, and are currently lost in the warp of my trunk. But one thing I remember from the last escalation I would play until this year was the mysterious Thousand sons legion - at two wounds, those marines would never leave my mind, even when everything else(save for bugs) did. That blue paint scheme and those incredibly tough marines were so... entrancing. I was addicted without knowing it.

Three years and alot of important events in my life went by. Christmas of 2010 was fast approaching and my elf addiction crept back into my mind, and the island of blood became my only desire. I immediately bought a battalion on new years day and extra RBTs - who doesn't need at least 4 RBTs? But to my dismay, fantasy wasn't the most popular game anymore - 40k was, so back to the tyranids with me. As cool as tyranids were, the eldar of General Smiley continually taught me lessons about the effectiveness of genestealers against bladestorm, doom, and guide. So out to the plans for a new army to crush the eldar with.

It came down to the only loyalist chapter of space marines I ever respected - space wolves - and those mysterious automotons who I couldn't seem to get out of my head. After some persuasive words from a good friend who was starting a new army at the same time, my Prodigal Sons arose. I was and still am obsessed with those mindless marines. Ahriman and his sorcerers have fought countless bitter battles with all sorts of enemies - the companions of Vulkan He'stan and the Blood Legion being the most hated of them all, second only to the Sons of Russ. Ahriman and his Sons bear many scars from their battles, but survive, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.

I've gotten a lot more long-winded than i meant to, but you see where I come from - a seriously devoted-to-fluff player obsessed with the servants of Tzeentch above all else. I've had alot of frustration with the current playstyle of a pure tzeentch list and I've been attempting to figure out how to make them work. But also in my mind are other armies that interest me as much as the Rubric marines, such as(ironically) the Sons of Russ, the Sa'shui sept, and Brother-captain Cassius' Knights.

More to come as my journey develops, but one way or another, I'm going to reach the Black Library(so to speak) and find that army that just fits, or figure out how to make an existing one just be the right army for me.