The LRDG II Podcast- Episode 17

The LRDG II Podcast- Episode 17

The LRDG II podcast is back with an another exciting, two part episode. 

In the first segment, I am joined by longtime Ghost Army Podcast member Casey to discuss current hobby projects and the elephant in the room, gaming world wise, Warhammer 40K. We also discuss significant rumours in the Bolt Action and Konflikt '47 world and what it means to be "that guy" when gaming.

In part two, the master of Australian TO'ing, the one and only Peter West rejoins the cast to talk about lessons learned from the most recent Wintercon BA event, getting creative with hobby ideas in BA and to discuss how a Very British Civil War and the Operation Sea Lion campaign are similar and how they can be linked to create a rich "what if" backdrop for Bolt Action Gaming.

As always we love to hear from you through the LRDG Podcast FaceBook group. A number of you have requested that I separate BA from non-BA content differently. In the future I will put non-Bolt Action content at the end of the episode so it is easier to avoid if that game system is not your thing. That said, if you are looking to hear only BA content, I would suggest tuning into this episode at the 40 minute mark. Thank you to the folks that have sent in this feedback! :)

We hope that you enjoy episode 17!  

Old Man Morin

You can find this fine episode in the iTunes store or you can download directly HERE. 

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Behind Enemy Lines Episode 37

Download the episode here

Behind Enemy Lines is back again. Episode 37 is all about the HYPE!

In part 1, the guys take a look at all the hype around the latest Warhammer 40k edition and why they're excited about it! They also look at all the other Noob News they've found...

Part 2 see Dan and Damo talk about what happened at TCOW as well as more hype around new 40k! Greg regales us with tales of V3 Flames of War with a report from NICon.

Part 3, we rock it old school and answer listener questions! Be warned, fun may ensue!

Want to join the conversation? Please sound off in the comments below, or let us know on our forum!

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The Economics of Wargaming

On one level, game designers seem to have an ideal job; they get to spend every work day effectively doing what for the rest of us is a hobby. Of course, the operative word there is "seem." To be and remain successful in what has become a highly competitive business game companies need to have a steady revenue stream. This revenue stream pays the workers and designers, and if the latest product or version of an established game flops companies can quickly find themselves in very dire straights.

Buy a new car or buy a new army???

The key challenge that any company must overcome is that hobbies are expensive. There, I said it. It's the "uncomfortable truth." It's the elephant in the room. Hobbies require both disposable income and the time to actually pursue them, and therefore as long as there have been miniatures and games, people have been looking for more economical ways to procure and enjoy them. In wargaming various money-saving techniques include patronizing deep discount retailers, using alternate miniature sources, casting one's own miniatures, and even turning to new technologies like 3D printing. 

So how expensive are wargaming and miniatures hobbies in general? The answer is "it depends greatly." On a one for one basis, miniatures in the smaller scales (15mm, 12mm, 10mm and 6mm) are going to be progressively cheaper than larger ones (28mm, 54mm, etc). The number of models and miniatures required to play a typical game is also going to factor heavily into its overall cost with skirmish-style games generally requiring fewer miniatures than platoon or company level games. The media used to actually produce the miniatures is another variable. Miniature wargaming started out with "lead figures" - which has evolved into white metal (a pewter which may or may not be lead free), resin, and even injection molded plastic. Then there is the cost of the rule books themselves, though the miniature cost often outweighs the rules cost, sometimes by a fairly hefty multiplier.

So let's look at a few real world examples. For all of these I will use quoted retail prices in U.S. dollars. In cases where currency conversions must be made, they will be accurate as of the writing of this article (October 2016).

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Nurgle 3:16

By Tom de Mayo

Some Nurgle 40k I finished not too long ago, including a Knight and a Fire Raptor. Khârn is in there too. (Don't you wish you could type â like that? Hail the US English International Keyboard mapping.)

For that Nurgle look, I primer black, then dry brush on some dark green, a some olive green, and a bit of bone color, making sure to leave lots of mottled gaps. Then I slather on a wash of Brown and Black Vallejo ink, and dribble some washes of other colors here and there.

 A Fire Raptor

Group Shot of Cultists

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Conquest Tactics: Deployment

By Parker Ince

Hi everyone, welcome back to my not-at-all regular series on tactics and strategies for the Conquest LCG. This is going to be a fairly short article about deployment guidelines that I like to follow regardless of which faction I'm playing.

Cato or Urien - these tips still apply

Deployment can be a tricky proposition. You want to get the right units on the table, at the right planets, without telegraphing all of your intentions to your opponent. I've found success with the following general rules -- but these are by no means the only strategies out there and you should take some time to ask other players how they go about deploying their cards.

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Heretical Bananas: Horus Heresy-Era Imperial Fists

By Tom de Mayo

Since moving away from Richmond, I'm in an area with lots of Warhammer 40k, but not much Flames of War. So I've been painting a lot of 28mm Warhammer 40k. One of my latest projects has been a Horus Heresy army.

Of the existing legions, I wanted a loyalist force. After a few test models and a lot of dithering, I settled on the Imperial Fists. I've been doing them on the cheap, using the basic GW plastics mixed in with only a little bit of semi-precious Forgeworld resin. My forces are a mix of loyalist and chaos elements, with a bit of conversion, and some plasticard.

Yellow is a pain in the ass to paint. It took me a long time to come up with a technique I like. I have settled spraying them black. Then I dry brush a base coat of GW Steel Legion drab. I then layer a 50/50 mix of Steel Legion Drab and Averland Sunset, followed by pure Averland Sunset, and finally 30/30/30 Averland Sunset, Yriel Yellow and white, for a nice creamy color. I then wash the armor with a mix of Vallejo Brown ink, Vallejo Black ink and water.

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Conquest Talk: Opening Hands

One of the most important concepts in any card game is understanding the importance of an opening hand, and knowing when to mulligan. In the Conquest LCG, having a good opening hand can mean the difference between victory and defeat - that's right, a bad opening hand can cost you the game, no matter how well you play from that point onward.

Luckily there are strategies to help mitigate the chances of drawing a poor opener, and there are ways to recover. While many strategies are going to be specific to a certain warlord, there are some universal tips that can help you.

Universal Tip #1: Don't bother trying to 'hold the line'

Deck Design - When you're designing your deck, really give some thought about how you'd like it to work. Is this an assassin deck? A control/choke deck? A planet-gobbling deck? What cards are essential to victory? This overall assessment is going to dictate what you want to look for in an opening hand that is specific to your warlord.

A prime example is Kith. If you see Khymera Den in your opening hand, the other 6 cards better be dogshit if you decide to mulligan. Other examples include Cloud City in an Aunshi deck, Kustom Field Generator in a Nazdreg deck, and Promise of Glory + Daemons in a Chaos deck.

Planet Lineup - Before you even look at your hand, look at the planet lineup. Is there a quick victory condition? Do all of the first 5 planets have a green icon? Can you play the long game, or will you need to fight from the start? More than anything else, the planet lineup is going to dictate your opening moves, and will have a huge impact on whether you should mulligan or not.

If you're going to have to fight it out from the start, and your opening hand doesn't have any good combat units or tricks, then you should probably mulligan.

Cost Curve of Your Deck - Big units in this game are, generally, a poor investment. Each faction has its exceptions, but by and large big units are not worth the cost. This is doubly true in the first turn, where limited resources make paying for a big unit even more of a bad move.

Great units, just not on turn 1

With so many uncontested planets on the first turn you need to be able to spread your command presence, and single big units prevent you from doing that. Cards like Slaanesh's Temptation and Deception are making expensive units even more vulnerable.

Maybe you don't have big units in your deck, and you have a good cost-curve overall. It's still likely that you will, on occasion, draw an opening hand with lots of 3-cost units. Having a couple of these guys ready to go in the early game is fine, but if you're only able to deploy 2 units on turn one, it's likely not going to end well for you. This is one reason why Ragnar Blackmane is so good. His signature squad not only costs a mere 2 resources, but can then commit to the fight at a later point.

Ratio of Events/Attachments/Supports to Units - You'll notice that so far I've been emphasizing the cost of units, as opposed to events, supports, and attachments. This is because the only way to win the overall command battle is to have units with more hammers than the other guy. Seems obvious, but it's one of the primary reasons why Urien and Shadowsun aren't cracking the top tier of warlords. Urien relies on having a ton of events, and his signature squad doesn't have any command icons. This leads to situations where he gets completely out-classed on command right from the start.

Likewise, Shadowsun's ability seems fine, but requires a deck that has a multitude of attachments. At this stage in the game, decks really need to have between 28-32 units to be effective in the command struggle. This is a big reason why, to the chagrin of some players, Void Pirates and Rogue Traders won't be leaving decks anytime soon. You need to have cheap, turn-1 unit drops ready to go.

Deck Size - I'm just including this no-brainer tip because I still see people struggling with this. Let me say this loud and clear: get that deck down to 50 cards! At the last tournament I attended there was an Ork player with a 65 cards in his deck. His excuse: "there are just so many good Ork and AM cards!" Yes, there are, but you're not going to see them consistently enough in a deck that big.

Putting it into Practice -

Let's look at a quick example. Say we have two players facing off: brave, strong, and handsome Parker is playing Baharroth -

- while dastardly, cranky, and odoriferous Steve is rolling his snazzy Aunshi deck

Let's assume that there is a win condition on the planets fairly early in the game, and that Steve has the first move. Let's look at his hand (generated randomly on ConquestDB):

Wow, you could literally not ask for anything better. There's the Orbital/Cloud City, a recon drone to help with command, and a Viorla Marksman + Gun Drone for that ranged AoE, with enough resources left over to play either Borkan Recruits or Ethereal Envoy.

Now let's take a look at Parker's hand:

Another solid opener. ETC is a good first play to dig for an attachment or another Wraithguard, and he can easily be promoted to become a solid command unit. Banner of the Ashen Sky is a key Baharroth piece, and BLT Guardians are always good to see. After that we have two good events. Probably not as good a hand as immoral Steve, but Parker wouldn't know that. Both of these hands are keepers.

tl;dr - keep the cost down so you can play a bunch of units and win command on turn 1, and don't mulligan if you have key cards

Thanks for reading. Take the time to practice your opening hands using the tools on ConquestDB and CardGameDB. By doing this you'll get a good feel about what your deck might be lacking, and how you can start a game strong.

Want to join the conversation? Please sound off in the comments below, or let us know on our forum!

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Warhammer Conquest Regionals AAR at Atomic Empire in Durham, NC

Over the weekend, Andrew and I headed down to Atomic Empire in Durham NC for the Conquest regionals. To be honest, we were very rusty since we'd been inundated with awesome releases for Lord of the Rings and Star Wars Armada--man I wish I had time to play it all!

As usual, my memory for what went on in games is pretty spotty, so I'll keep this high level!

I ran Ragnar straight out of Davis' head. Ragnar's been my go-to for a while, and since we'd been slacking on Conquest play, I figured I could drive Davis' deck pretty well.

27 people showed up, and 3 (included me) used a bye for round one.






Round One was a bye for me, thanks to one of my earlier tourney wins! This allowed me to do some recon. I walked around and observed what I was going to be up against. I only saw one Aun'Shi. I saw one other Ragnar, several Catos, one Nazdreg, one Zogwort, one Urien, two Eldoraths, one Shadowsun, and many many Kiths. Thankfully, I think Ragnar is a pretty good matchup against Kith, so I wasn't sweating it too hard!

Round Two was (surprise!) against Kith. My opponent's name was Judah, and he ran a pretty straightforward Kith build. I had a nice opening hand, with lots of command. I managed to dominate command early and held my lead. Won on planet 4 due to planet win. Our game was fast, so we got a second one in--in this game I managed to assassinate his warlord in relatively short order as well. My first Conquest game in quite a while went pretty well, and I was feeling back in the swing of things!

Round Three was (surprise!) against Kith. This time, unfortunately, my opponent was Andrew. This had the potential to make for a long ride home! Fortunately, I managed to get the upper hand on Andrew's Dark Eldar, though as always, it was a pretty good game. Sucked that we had to face off so early, but I had hope that we could both still make the top 8.

Getting beer. At a game store. Are we in heaven?

Round Four was against Aun'Shi. Thankfully, Aun'Shi is my second favorite warlord, so I was very familiar with all the tricks! I played a bit more conservatively, anticipating the shenanigans. I may be wrong, but I don't think John played a single Kauyon Strike, and he only got one orbital city out. He did (through pure tricksiness) wipe a planet with a well timed marksman with gun drones. Ouch! Still, Ragnar wasn't about to get bullied around by some Tau, and we managed to pull off the victory. I believe  I had all 3 Honored Librarians out this game, so I piled on cheap units to their planets and they made it through okay.

Round Five was against a gentleman named Josh running (gasp!) Kith. I was fairly confident going into this, but that confidence quickly drained. I drew a pretty poor opening hand for command, but Josh had the exact opposite! He COMPLETELY dominated me on command for three turns. And when I say completely, he was usually winning 4 planets, and drawing on another. The few times I did have a glimpse of winning a command struggle, he Archon Palace'd that away. It was both brutal and inspiring to watch! Josh ground me to a pulp and actually won by assassinating Ragnar! Well earned.

Still, I managed to make the cut to the top 8! In fact, I came out of Swiss ranked 2nd, behind only Josh.

Top 8 This time I was paired with another Kith--which was weird! This Kith was driven by Scott, and I was firing on all cylinders. Scott was an awesome dude to play with, but I pulled every space marine trick there is, and managed to take the game home.

Top 4 Finally, something other than Kith! This time, I went up against Pierson who was running Eldorath. He pretty much completely tore me to shreds. He had excellent command, and some well timed Superiorities, Nullifies, and Gift of Ishas. A well earned victory to Pierson who went on to win the whole thing!

Top 4 schwag: mat, playset of Colosseum Fighters, deckbox, spot-gloss Nazdreg, 3 (argh! I need one more!) alt art Nazdreg's Flash Gitz. The store also generously gave the top 4 spots a $30 giftcard!

I never expected to make it to the top 4, so I was tickled pink! I got some sweet schwag and best of all--Atomic Empire had a bar! They had some pretty rockin' local brews on draught. Very cool.

The final game came down to Josh and Pierson. I felt pretty good that my two losses for the day wound up being the two who would face off for the top spot! In the end, Pierson took it home.

The top 4 Warlords were:
Kith
Ragnar
Eldorath
Zogwort

I used my $30 giftcard to grab another ship for Armada and one more beer to cap off the day while we awaited the final round results!

Want to join the conversation? Please sound off in the comments below, or let us know on our forum!

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Conquest Warlord Review: Baharroth

After a brief hiatus from gaming in general due to some crazy life stuff popping up, I have found myself reinvigorated by Conquest. I was playing almost every night in preparation for a regional tournament (that I ended up skipping), and really diving into some decks and warlords that I hadn't yet had the opportunity to play (although, I still haven't played Zogwort, and probably never will). The warlord that has grabbed my attention the most has been Baharroth, the Cry of the Wind in Eldar-speak.

When it comes to the 40k lore I obsess over two factions: Eldar (of all varieties) and Chaos. I love the Eldar storyline and background, especially concerning the Phoenix Lords. Now, Baharroth isn't my favorite Phoenix Lord in the background, but in Conquest he's a fun, unique, and effective crusader for the Eldar race.
Whenever we get a new release for Conquest, our first thoughts concern the new warlord and the impact of his ability on the game. Baharroth's ability can take quite some time to read through, so you should sit down before continuing this article. Ready? Deep breath....

Mobile.

Oh...well...ummmm... That's a bit underwhelming...

At least, that was my first reaction, and the first reaction of many other players as well. But rigorous playtesting has confirmed that while the Mobile keyword on a normal unit adds a bit of flavor, having it on a warlord can be extremely powerful.

Baharroth is a command phase monster. Most warlords, when they commit to a planet, will be stuck there for the rest of the turn. Eldorath has the ability to move, but only if he has his signature event Foresight in hand. Aun'shi can use Kauyon Strike or Over-Powered, er, Orbital City to bounce around to different planets, but only Baharroth has the built-in ability to commit to one planet and then move around to others without an event card. This effect is huge, as it effectively leverages his warlord trait across multiple planets in a given turn. He can claim a good command value on one planet, then fight on another. Of course, he can also get out of harm's way if necessary, making him very hard to bloody.

Some art from the 3rd Ed. rulebook 

That said, he only has 6 HP, and can become vulnerable if you pick the wrong fight. Plus, you have to remember that movement via mobile occurs before combat starts, so make sure you have a plan to fight when you have to. Luckily, Baharroth's signature army units can move around as well to come to the aid of their leader.

There has been controversy surrounding this unit, much of it deserved. Namely, is it too damn expensive for what it does? I'm inclined to say that it is a little expensive, BUT! the unit is still very good. Note that its +3 attack only applies if Baharroth is present ("your" warlord, not "a" warlord"). If an enemy walord commits to their planet and you can't get Baharroth there, or don't want to, then get these guys away from the action, because they'll be obliterated.

This lack of attack ability is the primary reason why I'm inclined to ally with Tau for Baharroth, since Tau provide access to Ion Rifles (and the Earth Caste Techs that can fetch them). Now, this is a four-cost investment, but now we're looking at a mobile unit that could be swinging for 6. Plus, the Eldar event Death from Above can help reduce the cost of these guys, but automatically places them at the last planet. I've been including that event in my deck thus far, but the jury is still out on it.

Assuming we live in an ideal world, that 6 attack can be boosted even further by:

Now this is a great support. Simple, cheap, and effective. Also, the artwork continues in the game's grand tradition of stomping all over the Imperial Guard. In addition to Baharroth and his Hawks, this support can target Wildrider Squadrons and get them swinging for a beastly 5 attack. All in all it's a fantastic support that synergizes perfectly with the warlord and the faction as a whole.

We go from a great support to a very middling attachment. There's no base attack boost, and the ability can take some serious maneuvering to set up. When you compare this warlord attachment to the Tempest Blade, Plague Banner, Glovodan Eagle, Frostfang, etc - there's simply no comparison. Most of the time I've been using this for the 3 shields.

We're going to end on a high note with Baharroth's signature event: Cry of the Wind. "Baharroth" roughly translates to "Cry of the Wind", so A+ on theme for the designers. The obvious use for this card is to make your units super-mobile. But it's important to note that this card can apply to enemy units as well, which is how I prefer to employ it. If an opposing Eldar or Dark Eldar player tries to use their Wildrider Squadron against me, I can just move it right back to where it came from. If someone tries to get cute with Plannum, I can move their unit right down the line and out of contention for the rest of the game. This is a fantastic event with a ton of utility, and can really get in your opponent's head.

Time will tell if Baharroth is a competitive warlord or not, but I can say that he's been a blast to run. He may not be my favorite Phoenix Lord from the lore, but he's carved out a space among my favorite Conquest LCG warlords.

Now we just need badass Maugan Ra and I'll never play another warlord.

Want to join the conversation? Please sound off in the comments below, or let us know on our forum!

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WWPD Conquest LCG League - Round 2

The games have been coming in fast, but with a long vacation I hadn't been able to keep up with the reporting! So let's get right to it with the results from Round 2 of the WWPD Conquest LCG League.

This is the only Guard/AM action you'll see this round, so we have to show them some love with a little art

If you missed Round 1 coverage, take a few minutes and check it out.



The action started off with Eric and Ragnar Blackmane taking on Andrew and Packmaster Kith. Andrew's DE are quickly becoming the bane of our existence, and Eric happened to be on the receiving end of it this time. That said, Eric made Andrew work for it, especially since Kith was bloodied from Turn 1! By his own admission, Eric then got wrapped-up in the warlord hunt, when he should have just bullied the planets and gobbled up those icons. In the end Andrew was able to pull ahead in command and prevent Eric from fighting the battles he needed to win.

My game against Chris saw me running Eldar for the first time in quite a while, and I was facing Chris's standard Zarathur madness. I dominated command, as Eldar tend to do, but couldn't bring it home in combat. Ultimately Chris stole a planet out from under me, which forced a big, final confrontation that I had been hoping to avoid. In the end I just didn't have the numbers, and victory went to the forces of Chaos.

Luckily for the Eldar, Rob had better luck piloting Eldorath than I did. He faced off against Sonbae and Ragnar. Unfortunately Sonbae just couldn't track down Eldorath, nor could he pin down an early Wildrider Squadron. Eldorath (Rob) came away with the win, in what is likely the Eldar's first step in reclaiming the galaxy for its rightful masters.

wll4u.deviantart.com

Finally, Steve brought his tricksy new Aun'Shi deck against Adam's - wait for it - Ragnar deck. Ragnar must have been worn out from all of his other fights, because Aun'Shi took him down. Not much else to say, just a solid win for the Tau.

The standings at the end of Round 2:

Andrew 2-0
Steve 2-0
Adam 1-1
Chris 1-1
Eric 1-1
Rob 1-1
Parker 0-2
Sonbae aka Jeff 0-2

Our hero, Parker, will hope to rebound in Round 3 - thanks for reading!

Stay tuned for Round 3, and be sure to follow our Conquest LCG news on Twitter @ActionsatOne

Want to join the conversation? Please sound off in the comments below, or let us know on our forum!

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