Review - Dark Sphere

I'd like to start this review by saying that I'm in no way affiliated with this company. In fact I tried to get them to advertise on my blog and they turned me down saying that they didn't run an affiliate scheme as they preferred to pass savings on to their customers! Anyway, legal bit aside here goes.

When I got back into 40K about a year ago the first thing I was quickly reminded of was how damn expensive GW's prices are. Granted their miniatures are, in my opinion, second to none, but still. Obviously there's a thriving second hand market for models but I knew I wanted to have everything new so that I could assemble and paint it all myself. I like the idea of a healthy bits box and all my models individually posed by me with the equipment I want to give them. 

I started my search for cheaper stuff on eBay, what I found was that despite the odd lucky find, it was for the most part not that much cheaper than GW when you take postage into account (which it seems most eBayers don't). That is of course if you're trying to buy new. I therefore decided to do some Googling (if that's a word) and this led me to Wayland Games. I bought a few items from there (they offer 20% off) for my Eldar army. Unfortunately I found they don't stock most of the items on their website and instead they only order them from GW when you order them. Fine in theory but in practice it means you wait a while for anything they don't have in stock.

I therefore continued my search and from reading some 40K forums I stumbled upon someone recommending Dark Sphere. I headed straight over there and found that they offer 25%. In addition they charge reasonable postage which meant that I ordered the vast majority of both my Tau and Space Wolves from there and saved myself a fortune. 

I can't honestly understand why anyone would buy from anywhere else if they're shopping online? Yes I agree with supporting your local independent hobby centre but if somewhere else is cheaper then your hobby centre needs to compete! Whilst I'm on the subject, DS do have their own shop in London (no good for me in Sheffield) which means they tend to have most things in stock.

It's not just the discount and quick service. Their customer service is excellent too. I recently ordered a few boxes to bolster my Space Wolves force and I was disappointed when they hadn't arrived after a few days (since DS are normally really good). I phoned DS and they told me that according to their records they'd been delivered to my local post office and quoted me the tracking number. I was able to collect them and despite the delay (not DS's fault) I still received my miniatures within a week.

Anyway, I'm writing this just to bring them to your attention so you too can save some cash like I have. If you prefer to buy from someone else fine but it always surprises me how much stuff goes for on eBay when you can get it from a reputable retailer for cheaper and without the inherent risk in eBay. I know this sounds all very brown-nosey but I believe if you like a company then you should spread the word. If for no other reason than to keep them in business so you can still buy from them! 

Where do you get your miniatures from? Anyone else tried Dark Sphere? Anyone had bad experiences with them or any other online hobby retailer?

Freebootaz Open Report - Final Part - Overall Impressions

As anyone who's been reading before will know this was our first ever tournament and we had an absolute blast. We came 3rd overall and claimed a citadel spray gun and can of propellant each. Not sure what I'm going to do with it since my housemate already has one but it's a good prize all the same. We came really close to coming second and it was only by virtue of the fact that we never tabled anyone. The guys in second place could only have beaten us by a couple of points so it really would've made the difference. We'll just have to be more aggressive next time and play to table our opponents instead of cautiously holding onto objectives!

At times it was very hectic trying to keep to the time limits with a lot of things happening simultaneously. In some ways I might have preferred 3 longer games instead of 4 short ones. However, I think getting as much 40K as possible out of the day is always a good thing. It's just a shame there weren't an even number of teams so some people ended up sitting out for a round.

The atmosphere at the tournament was pretty good and most of the people we met were friendly and happy to discuss their armies etc. We were expecting to find that people were a bit anal about the rules but this wasn't the case at all. We were reminded of rules when we'd clearly forgotten things but it never felt like our opponents were standing over us watching movements being measured etc.

We've certainly learnt a lot about playing 40K. Some of the rules we were aware of but had never really played such as independent characters having to charge first and aim to get in base contact with other ICs. That and if they aren't in base contact with anyone they aren't able to fight! We'll never make the same mistake with our jump packs like we did in battle 3. 

We were, obviously, very pleased with how our list performed. I think it's shown just how important a good list is. We always designed it to be an "in your face" army which closed quickly and aimed to be in combat by turn 2. Mephiston proved his worth time and time again and both our competitors and the event organisers seemed to take an interest in him. I'm pleased we included a special character because it fits in with our style of play. I know we could be accused of choosing a list which was purely to win but I don't think many BA players would pick the same as we did. The only problem with Mephiston is that obviously you want to get him up front quickly but with the number of power fists floating around he's always going to be in danger. He seems to work best on the counter charge after his brethren have softened them up a bit!

I can't really understand why there aren't more BA jump pack lists floating about. To me jump packs and sanguinary priests are practically compulsory choices for them. Feel No Pain can be a real bitch to deal with so they pretty much always make it into combat and an 18" charge range makes them deadly. The third battle demonstrated that without the charge and without feel no pain they are pretty flimsy but since it only happened once in four games I don't think it was much to worry about. For an army that relies on assault I don't see the point in putting squads in rhinos. If you get de-meched and charged you're pretty helpless.

As far as my half of the list goes I'm pretty pleased with it. The grey hunters didn't end up having a lot to do but what they did they did well. Meltaguns seem to miss far too much for my liking but what can you do? The last minute addition of long fangs was essential because it gave us some long range clout. Some of the other guys at the tournament said they'd had trouble killing off guard armies because they were trying to chase around their flying things with melta guns and never got close enough to deal with them. The long fangs got some vital kills and the missile launcher guy (who I'd only built that week) was a jammy git getting those two vindi explosions!

The other thing I noticed was that when we play 40K we seem to use far too much terrain. I was also pretty please to see that our terrain is a pretty good standard compared to some of the stuff used here. It's made me want to crack on and make my ice world board and if I ever do I'll obviously make a full guide post on here.

Finally, I'd once again like to thank our competitors and the event organisers. We're hopefully going to try and squeeze another doubles tournament in before the GW one in Feb but the calendar looks pretty blank as far as doubles goes. Have to rethink our list a little for the GW one thanks to the FOC restrictions.

Freebootaz Open Report - Part 6 - Bloody Wolves vs Space Marines/Blood Angels

We were chatting to the guys from Claws and Fists after the third game and we agreed that the most worrying armies to fight were the Imperial Guard because of the sheer amount of fire they can throw out. We were convinced our final fight would be against IG but to our pleasure we wound up fighting more marines!

Gareth Humphreys and Rob Shaw were perhaps the nicest guys we fought all day. The blood angels were a darker red than Matt's which made for easier identification and the marines were a really nice metal and blue scheme. For the final battle we'd be playing Capture and Control or as Gav from C&F called it "roll dice and tie". Here's Gareth and Rob's list:

750pts of Blood Angels

Reclusiarch (Jump pack)

Tactical Squad (full strength, flamer, missile launcher, sgt w/ melta bombs & chainsword)

Drop Pod

Death Company (Jump packs)

Assault Squad (full strength, sgt w/ melta bombs & power weapon)

Land Speeder (multi-melta & heavy flamer)

750pts of Marines

Librarian (terminator armour, Might of the Ancients, Avenger)

Terminator Squad (sgt w/ power sword)

Tactical Squad (full strength, flamer, multimelta, sgt w/ chain sword & plasma pistol)

Rhino

Scout Squad (camo cloaks, sniper rifles)

Vindicator

Again we'd have to deal with the vindicator early on and the land speeder was an obvious threat to contest our objective at the end of the game. Luckily they're normally pretty paper thin so we were optimistic. The scouts and terminators could be a problem for Mephiston since it'd only take a couple of rending hits from the snipers to worry him and a squad full of power fists is his worst enemy. The drop pod was clearly going to splash down right next to our objective so fingers crossed we could deal with it when it happened.

Our photographer for (most of) the game was Gav from C&F who'd not had any opponents for the final game. 

Report

We won the roll off and decided to again base our deployment around where the long fangs could get the best fire lanes. We'd played on this table in battle 2 so we placed the veterans in a similar position right on our objective. To their right we placed the Rune Priest and his hunters in their rhino. The blood angels again went right in the centre with the razorback tucked in behind. The remaining rhino went down our left flank.

Knowing we'd most likely be going first our opponents placed most of their army behind the large terrain piece on their right. The land speeder unsurprisingly went opposite our objective and the drop pod was of course in reserve. We reminded each other to roll for red thirst which their tactical squad and one of our squads got. The scouts infiltrated right onto the top floor of the structure in front of their comrades.

The blood angels piled forward straight towards their lines. The rhino on the left was right behind them revving it's engines and racing forward in a cloud of smoke. The long fangs opened up on the land speeder and the vindicator. In another miraculous set of rolling the same krak missile guy blew up the vindicator with a full 6" blast radius (I'll have to paint that launcher gold or something!). This covered most of their army in the blast but only a couple of marines were claimed by the blast. Somehow the land speeder survived unscathed, I think we just stopped it from firing!

Their drop pod slammed onto the ground right next to our long fangs and the tactical squad marched out rapid firing their bolters at the long fangs. Despite causing hits on all 6 of the heavy weapons team they only claimed a single lascannon. We did point out, however, that they'd been the first to actually kill any of the long fangs. Their land speeder sped down the left flank and into the cover of a building. The rest of their army lay in wait in cover (with the exception of the death company who's rage meant they had to come toward us). The scouts opened up on Mephiston scoring a rending hit and therefore a wound.

The assault marines engaged their tactical squad bringing them down to the last man who held his nerve. The psychic hood of the terminator librarian prevented Mephiston from using his sanguine wings to attack the scouts so he hugged the cover and moved towards our left flank. We fired at the land speeder but despite it failing it's cover save we did little damage to it except to immobilise it. Obviously this prevented it from contesting at the end but it would still be an annoyance. The grey hunters on the right piled out of the rhino to defend the long fangs. They avoided shooting to ensure they'd be in combat but the Rune Priest opened a chasm below the tactical squad which claimed a marine or two. The grey hunters then charged in to finish the job consolidating back into cover.

Our opponents blood angels counter charged killing a few on each side. The terminators came forward to deal with the rhino full of grey hunters. The secound wave of our blood angels flew into combat and finished off their assault marines. Mephiston engaged the terminators and still managed to get a couple of powers off despite the psychic hood. He killed off the librarian and most of the terminators but the struggle cost him his life (much to the joy of our opponents). By this point both the death company and grey hunters were involved but the Sons of Russ came out on top.

Our opponent was now left with just the scouts, the drop pod, land speeder and a single marine who had fallen back from the melee in the centre. The marine boarded his rhino and sped towards their objective. Our blood angels followed him blowing up his transport and finishing him off for good. The grey hunters on our objective melta'd the drop pod. The long fangs made valiant attempts to deal with both the scouts and land speeder but after firing an ungodly amount of high strength shots into the speeder it did nothing but shake or stun it! The scouts were reduced to 3 men but held on. 

Final result: We held both objectives netting us 5 battle points and despite our best efforts we only killed enough for a further 3 giving us a rather nice 8 out of a maximum 10. This brought our overall total to 20.

Conclusion

Knowing that we'd not tabled anyone during the tournament we were pretty optimistic early on when we wiped out a lot of his squads and that jammy vindicator kill. How so many of the long fangs surived I'll never know because by rights the majority of that squad should've been toast. The blood angels did their job as ever with a good dose of wulfen fury to help Mephiston finish off the terminators and death company.

So why didn't we table them? That pesky land speeder really cost us the points on this one. The cover meant that we were losing a couple of shots on it but most of the saves were failed it. I had some atrocious damage table rolls. The razorback even helped out but couldn't seem to get anywhere. Had it died in the initial volley in turn 1 then long fangs could easily have dealt with the scouts (despite their 3+ cover save). Quite a good effort from a cheap addition to their army. I might have to reconsider taking one but I doubt I'd be soo lucky with my opponents rolls.

Our opponents were really good sports despite a heavy beating. Since they aren't far from us we'd like to play them again. They were thrilled that they'd managed to kill a long fang more than anyone else! The death of Mephiston was certainly a high point for them. They went on to claim the Sportsmanship award and it definitely went to the right people.