Odds and ends

Couple little things here that don't deserve a full post by themselves, but put together will do fine.  First up is a very mini book review.  I finished Savage Scars a few days ago, "A White Scars novel by Andy Hoare" as the cover proclaims.  It was a pretty standard Black Library book in that it had plenty of hack-n-slash action, lots of talk about duty and honor, and an underwhelming grasp of how to write a book of real quality.  Not to say that the book was bad, or the other Black Library books I've read, just that they're no The Sun Also Rises, but then again they don't aspire to capital-l Literature status.  I found two surprises in this book, one a total left-fielder and the other a big disappointment.  The left-fielder is a bit of a spoiler, so I'll do some nifty trickery to obscure it for those who wish to remain pure: the book ends with some Deus Ex Machina in the form of...Tyranids.  Apparently the book is set in the recent past, before the "first" appearance of the Tyranids in the form of Hive Fleet Behemoth and the epic clash on Macragge that broke the fleet, but also dealt a serious blow to the Ultramarines.  After poking around a bit on the interwebs just now I see that if I had a deeper knowledge of all the extant fluff, that is if I'd read other 40k novels before this one, then I would have had a bit of forewarning, but nothing that would have spoiled the surprise.  Black Library loves to do this, sly little references here and there for the folks who have devoured everything GW has ever released.  While I have a long history in the game, being immersed in the universe for something like 20 years now to varying degrees, I'm making my first forays into the novels, so when books cross-reference each other like this I don't always get it.  I suppose that's half the fun though.  My second, even less pleasant surprise, was the reason I moved the book to the top of my reading queue in the first place.  I like the idea of a biker army and have contemplated a White Scars (or Ravenwing for that matter) army on many occasions.  You can imagine my surprise when I turned the last page and did a quick mental count of the number of bikes in Savage Scars: zero.  I didn't expect the whole book to be in the saddle, but I thought a decent part of it would be, perhaps even the majority, considering how the White Scars fight.  To be fair the White Scars squad that was the focal point of the book was mounted in a Rhino, but when a White Scars book has more heavy weapons (1) than bikes (0) then I think there's a problem.  Maybe this book suffered from following Fulgrim in my reading list, which is the best Black Library book I've read thus far, but even in a vacuum the complete lack of bikers would be a disappointment.

Moving on, my birthday was this past Monday.  I've found that the best way to not get what you want (gaming paraphernalia) is to ask for it, but I keep asking anyway.  Figuring that asking for a gift certificate would be better than asking for a Stormraven or Beast 09, I pointed the family towards the Warstore's gift certificate page.  Disappointment followed, but there was a silver lining.  Actually it was more of an emerald lining in the form of a stack of cash.  I took a trip down to the FLGS, where they finally had a copy of Wrath in stock mere weeks after I got tired of waiting for it to show and found it elsewhere.  Finding something to get was harder than I thought it would be.  I'd seen an eVlad or two there in the past, so he was top on my list, but was nowhere to be found.  Kayazys?  Great Bears?  Battle mechanics?  A plastic Khador jack kit?  None of the above.  I did see a Field Gun but it wasn't what I wanted.  Turning my thoughts to the future two player box I took a look for the guys that I figure, with my nigh total lack of Menoth knowledge, will best run the Exemplar heavy list that I'm already thinking of: Reznick and eKreoss.  Skunked on both of those, though they did have more than enough of the High Reclaimer and some pKreoss variants, though I'll get him in the starter box anyway.  I took a look for some merc solos like either Eiryss (no), Aiyana and Holt (nope), or Gormann di Wulfe (strike three).  Then I remembered the Mage Hunter variant that I liked so much, but no dice there either.  It wasn't all doom and gloom though, as I found both the Mercs book and the Menoth book.  The final decision was between those books, the Old Witch, Winter Guard Rifle Corps, a Death Company box, and a Sanguinary Guard box.  I went with the Old Witch and the Mercs book, reasoning that I could do a slow grow, build with the cards approach to Menoth while I can use the Mercs book now as a sort of reference for what solos I'd like to add.  Plus I can finally find out exactly what Kell Bailoch does, and perhaps make a ghetto card for him until I finally put in that order for a mortar spotter spyglass and tack on cards for Kell and Reinholdt.  On the way out I spotted the first two books in the Empire army series, Reiksguard and Iron Company, that would complete the series I've been collecting from the fire sale at Borders.  Had I looked for these on the way in I probably would have gotten those and the Mercs book, as I have yet to dig into the Old Witch to stir up a burning urge to play her right now, but that isn't how things worked out.  Considering how little the GW novels move at the FLGS I don't think I have to worry, and I can always get them (cheaper) through the Warstore.  The end result here is that I finally got some gaming goodness for my birthday, even if it took a circuitous route to get there.  Plus I'll get to see what having an arc node is like.

Thanks for showing up: Blood Angels vs. Deathwing

Any time now...

Disclaimer up front: I forgot my camera for this report, so all the pics are from my phone.  They turned out ok, but I think I've finally found the application where my point-n-shoot outstrips my phone. I also think I missed some shots so the turn counter might be off a bit.

Lists and Deployment

For this latest game of 40k, EV trotted out his Deathwing.  I'll reproduce the list, or an approximation of it, because it's been a while since the army last appeared here.

Belial with Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield
Deathwing squad with 4 Lightning Claws and 1 TH/SS
4 Deathwing squads, 2 with Cyclone Launchers, 2 with Assault Cannons
2 Venerable Dreads with Droppod and Multimelta

In the last post I talked a little bit about the mongrel list I used, but here it is in all it's cobbled together glory.

Reclusiarch
9 Death Company with 3 Power Weapons and 1 Power Fist
"Godhammer" Land Raider
Baal with Assault Cannon and Heavy Bolter sponsons
Predator with Autocannon and Lascannons sponsons
Vindicator with Siege Shield
Assault Bike with Multimelta
2 Assault Squads, one with double Meltaguns, the other with a Meltagun and a Plasma Pistol
2 Sanguinary Priests with Jump Packs and Power Weapons

The basic idea here is to run the armor forward as a wall for the Assault Squads behind.  The Attack Bike and Plasma Pistol are there strictly to fill points.  We rolled up Annihilation (kill points) with Dawn of War for deployment.  I'd won the roll to be the first player, but decided to roll on so I could see where EV would deploy.  He put his two troops down in the center of the table and kept everything else in reserve, perhaps for a "Deathwing Assault," which seems like a slightly different flavor of reserve.  The table was a bit more terrainy than I'd anticipated, and with my heavy (for me) collection of vehicles I wasn't sure how things would work out, but one rarely gets to choose their battlefield. 

Deployment

Turn 1

I had grand designs of getting in a good, solid round of shooting before launching my assault.  Unfortunately Dawn of War deployment means limited visibility in the first turn, so all my shots either had no target, missed, or were saved.  Had I been thinking I would have moved the Vindicator up further, but alas.  I missed the shot at the end of EV's first turn, but he had the same fate I did.  The end result was the usual first turn lack of action.

Blood Angels - 0  Deathwing - 0

Close enough to end of turn 1.

Turn 2

In hindsight I probably should have done shots at the end of the movement phase, but alas for that as well.  Taken with the novelty of having a transport with an assault ramp, I sent the Land Raider up and popped the Death Company out to engage the Deathwing on the hill.  The Vindicator moved up some more and shot to no effect.  The Attack Bike zoomed up to get a shot on a Terminator, while the two Predators formed the screen for my assault squads.  A Lascannon shot from the regular Predator hit home, while the rest of my shooting was ineffective.

First blood to the boys in red.

In the assault phase the Death Company handled their foes a little too easily, leaving them open to reprisals from the other squad on the table.  The charge was very satisfying though, what with all the rerolls for the Chaplain and the mass of power weapons.

Death Company charge: it's super effective!

I'd cut EV's army in half this turn, but since most of it had yet to hit the table there wasn't much cause for celebration.  I did take the KP lead though.

Blood Angels turn 2.

EV's turn started with something I found rather amusing, though I imagine he was less amused.  One of his squads deviated on top of my Chaplain, and the resulting mishap roll meant I got to place them wherever I wanted.  I toyed with the idea of putting them in woods or other dangerous terrain, but settled for sticking them as far away as possible.  In the following shot, the black die is the initial placement, the white die is where the squad scattered (approximately), and the yellow box shows where the squad finally appeared...

Took a wrong turn in the warp...

...snuggled up tight against the table edge.

George Carlin watches, unamused.

Things went better for EV in the center, where a squad that arrived safely combined fire with the already deployed squad to whittle down the Death Company.

Feel No Pain only does so much against missiles and Rends.

On the left flank one of the Dreadnaughts dropped right behind my Land Raider.  Knowing that EV had a pair of drop dreads, I knew something like this would happen, but I figured the thick ceramite armor on the Land Raider would give it a measure of protection.  Turns out that Land Raiders don't have that armor, which I thought would cut melta to a single die for penetration.  The result was one dead Land Raider.

My 250 point taxi takes a powder.

Back in the middle the central Deathwing squad assaulted the Death Company.  Without the extra oompf of the charge, the Death Company only killed three Terminators, but only lost three of their own in return.  Both sides were Fearless, so the melee continued.

Epic fight on the hill.

Losing the Land Raider was a bit of a blow, but things didn't look so bad.  EV had not so good luck with his reserve rolls, so I wasn't facing too many Terminators at once, and I had plenty of anti-armor on hand to deal with that uppity Dreadnaught. 

Blood Angels - 1  Deathwing - 1

Deathwing turn 2.

Turn 3

Despite having "plenty of anti-armor," my shooting was so horrible I have no pictures of it.  I shot, in no particular order, two Meltaguns, one Multimelta, one Autocannon, one Lascannon, one twin-linked Assault Cannon, and two Heavy Bolters (because I could) at the Dread that had killed my Land Raider.  The result?  A single destroyed weapon.

The assault phase went better for me as the Death Company finished off their foes and consolidated a mighty inch towards their next target.

Go go blenders of death.

The assault squad that couldn't shoot a Dread dead decided that melee would work better, but turns out it didn't.  The Dread did no damage, but my power fist didn't either, initiating the first sissy slap fight.  Earlier in the turn the Vindicator had rocketed through the center of the table to line up the far Deathwing squad.

Blood Angels turn 3.

Having not had a lot of luck with the DC in melee, EV turned to shooting.  It proved slightly less effective, in terms of DC killed per phase, but did have the bonus of not costing him any of his own models.

Keep them away...

Here I made a mistake.  Among the many (non-cratering) hits on the Dreadnaught, one or more was a stunned/shaken/immobilized result, and another was a weapon destroyed.  I picked the fist as I figured I'd be in combat with the thing eventually and didn't want it squishing my troopers.  Since the Land Raider was already blowed up I wasn't so worried about the multimelta.  What I should have done was taken the multimelta and just stayed out of combat with the immobilized Dread, but I didn't do that and EV took out my Attack Bike as a result.

The bike faired little better than the taxi.

More Dreadnaughtery.  Here the other Dread drops in and pops my Vindicator.  It occurred to me while at work tonight that I had moved flat out in the Vindicator and probably got a save, or required a 6 to be hit, as a result.  Unfortunately I didn't think about that at the time, and EV may well have rolled a 6 or whatever in the first place.  The end result was yet another blowed up vehicle.

Vindicator: one shot, no hits.  Quite the trend for my vehicles.

Not the best turn for me, but then one rarely fares well in their opponent's turn.  I was down to half strength on my mech, but my infantry was holding up well.  Most of EV's army was on the table now, though Belial had yet to show up.  The Death Company was banged up, but still running around.  Despite being behind in KPs I felt pretty good.

Deathwing turn three.

Blood Angels - 2  Deathwing - 3

Turn 4

The fully painted Assault Squad wanted to make up for their poor shooting from last turn, so they trundled a little closer and opened up again, this time with bolty stuff as well as the melta.  Plenty of hits, three penetrating, no destroyed.  The Dread had no arms and couldn't move, but wasn't dead yet.  Surely I'd be able to deal with it in melee though...

I thought melta was supposed to be good against armor.

After failing to destroy the first Dreadnaught, I turned my attention to the second.  This one got the attention of the other, not fully painted, Assault Squad and the Baal.  Many shots, similar result: one destroyed fist on a still functioning Dread.  That power fist should make short work of it in melee though...

More melta, more disappointment.

Slightly more effective was was the much maligned AC/LC Predator.  Having moved to a commanding hill-top position, it opened fire on the remaining Deathwing squad and took out a member.

Who says painted models play better?

You'll notice in the end of turn shot below that both Dreadnaughts are still on the table.  You might think that this is a shot from the beginning of the assault phase before any dice were rolled.  Surely three power fist attacks should be enough to wreck a Dread, right?  Not so much.  Instead I initiated a pair of sissy slap fights that would rage on and on and on and on.  On the plus side I was forced to charge the Death Company into the Dreadnaught, so when the combat went against me at least the squad was safe from shooting in the following turn.

Blood Angels turn four.

From here on the turns start going faster. EV is waiting for Belial's squad to show up, but I guess he had something pressing to do other than fight because he was still waiting.  The only eligible targets for shooting are the Predators, who suffer no damage.  Then the slap fight continues.  The Dreads can't get a wound through on my No Pain Feeling troops, and my piss-poor sergeants can't manage to give them the fist.  The squad that got shunted to the far side of nowhere is starting to get into the action though.

Deathwing turn four.

Blood Angels - 2  Deathwing - 3

Turn 5

The same problems that afflicted EV also got me: lack of things to do.  My two Predators were the only things that could do anything constructive.  Fortunately the AC/LC Predator continued to be effective and took out another Terminator.

Unpainted Predator strikes again!

Following the generic Predator's example, the Baal shot at the now relevant squad a whole bunch and managed to kill one.

Straight Baalin.

In the assault phase the painted squad finally got their act together and finished off the gimpy Dread.  All it took was four golden range melta shots and seven power fist attacks.  Not counting anything from a different source like the Attack Bike or the Predator or the other Predator.  At least it finally died.

Upside down for some reason, but you get the idea.

Of course the other Dread didn't die, so my second Assault Squad and Death Company were still locked in there.  I had tied the score at three though, so huzzah for small victories.

Blood Angels turn five.

The tie was short lived though, as EV took out the vanilla Predator with some Rending shots.

At least I still have another Predator...

He must have liked it because he did it again to the Baal.

...or not.

The sissy slap fight in the center took a slight turn for the nasty.  EV did a wound on the Chaplain, which should have gone to the DC model in retrospect, what with Independent Characterness and all.  In return my sergeant...ripped off the multimelta.  Those Dreadnaughts are tough.

The slap fight results in a broken nail.

Despite having finally killed a Dreadnaught, my fortunes sunk this turn.  I lost the rest of my vehicles and better than half my infantry was stuck trying to finish off an armless, gimpy Dread.  The squad that was free to act was stuffed in a corner.  Plus I was behind in KPs again.

Deathwing turn five.

Blood Angels - 3   Deathwing - 4

Turn 6 (or possibly 7)

I think I missed a shot or three somewhere.  We played seven turns, but I can only piece together six from the pictures.  I probably missed one during the slap fight phase of the game when I nodded off, waiting for something the happen.  Fortunately things happened this turn, things like an assault.  My painted squad took out one Terminator with shooting on the way in, then managed only one in the melee that followed.  EV killed two of my troops in return to win the combat, but my lads stuck around for another go.

Despite having a nine to one numbers advantage at the end, I lost this combat.

More slapping, no killing.  Same story.

Blood Angels turn six (or seven).

EV had one more shot at bringing in Belial.  Apparently he, and his squad, would count as dead if they continued to play ping pong, which would give me a lead in KPs.  Instead he chose the last possible moment to make a cameo appearance, denying my the (unearned) KPs and making my path to victory a tough one indeed.  Things got off to a good start for me though as my painted squad finished off their lone opponent.

Terminators are much easier to kill than Dreadnaughts.

In the middle, the irrelevant squad finally made it to the fight and charged my Death Company.  My Chaplain sat and watched, thanks to his Independent Characterness, while the DC trooper failed to kill an opponent and got smashed down for his troubles.

Epic spectating.

The slap fight raged on and concluded the game.  We ran out of road and the final tally showed EV ahead 5 to 4.  Maiden victory to the Deathwing.

End of game.

Final kill points:  Blood Angels - 4  Deathwing - 5

In retrospect, I should have taken out the drop pods.  I didn't start counting KPs until turn three or four.  While EV mentioned that the pods were worth a point, I didn't realize how close the end result would be until it was too late.  Of course no one could reasonably expect the Dreads to last as long as they did, and had they gone down sooner (or at all) I would have had a couple free squads to move around and do stuff with.  I also could have used my vehicles better, especially the Land Raider, but this game did show me how effective vehicles are.  My big complaint with them previously was actually two complaints: you can lose a vehicle to a single shot, and they have to shoot all their weapons at the same target.  The latter wasn't such an issue, while the former definitely was.  Still, I can get a pair of Baals (ha) for what a single Devastator squad would cost, so I'll have to look into that for the future.  Also on the plate for the future: Dreadnaughts.  Lots of Dreadnaughts.

Don't take Bulldoze for granted

Found this on a "my bad" search.  Searching "oops" only gave nip slips...

It's getting late and I'm extra tired for some reason, so this one is probably going to be of a lesser quality than usual.  A fitting 200th post.  Turns out that when I skipped over reading the full text for Bulldoze in the Wrath entries, I missed a subtle change.  Bulldoze is just in activation now it seems, as a poster on the PP boards pointed out, so Black Ivan's heroic breakout from last week shouldn't have worked the way it did.  I think Sorscha could have done the deed herself, but it would have been a closer thing, and it was plenty close already.  Lesson learned here: read the whole page and/or card, even if you already know the stats on a Bombard or what Bulldoze does.

From one mistake to a potential other, I've made a list that the internet will hate for a game of 40k tomorrow.  I have a hard time making a list, or undertaking any enterprise really, that doesn't work as well as it could.  As such, I tend towards running similar lists and units because they're just more effective and/or efficient for their cost.  Unfortunately this means that a lot of things I like never see the table.  In an attempt to embrace 40k as more of a hobby and less of a competitive game, I made a list full of things I like but never play, things like:

• Chaplain


• Baal Predator


• Vindicator


• Attack Bike


• Death Company...


• ...in a Land Raider

And various other things to fill points.  Beyond a pair of Assault squads and Sanguinary Priests, I have no redundancy.  Even the Assault squads are slightly different, so the only spam is the two priests.  I've never run a real hybrid list before, though I've come close once or twice, and I've never used a Land Raider.  I'm not even sure I've played against a Land Raider.  I'm also more excited about running this list than I have been for a while, if only because it's so different from what I tend towards.  Thanks in part to the "hurricane," and also to my faulty memory, I'll be fielding a couple unprimed models, but at this late hour that's unavoidable.  In my defense they're models I never expected to field any time soon, if ever.  I wanted to get a multimelta Dread in but just couldn't make it work in the points, nor could I stomach the idea of proxying a drop pod with a Gatorade bottle.  Will this be the game where EV's Deathwing wins a match?  The stars are aligning for it.

I just want to talk about breastfeeding

I was sitting here thinking 'crap, I haven't blogged in FOREVER...bad Mama Christa, BAD!' I was talking to Megz and I asked her what I should blog about. She was no help. I sat here and I thought "I just want to talk about breastfeeding, that's it!". Then it occured to me...that's what I can blog about.

So the other day I was out at some garage sales and I ran into a mama who had a package of preemie diapers. I asked her if she'd had a preemie and she said she had twin girls. She also had some breastfeeding stuff so of course we started talking about breastfeeding. I must have stood there...ohhh I don't know, 10 minutes? 15 minutes? Talking about breastfeeding and preemies. I finally tore myself away from this mama because I figured it was about that time. On to the next sale. Somehow I managed to bring up breastfeeding to that mama as well. Just briefly this time, but it came up nonetheless. Fast forward a few hours, I'm at yet another garage sale. BOO YA. Now here's where the BIG conversation came up. I'm talking breastfeeding, birth, midwives, doulas....with a couple...and the papa is involved in the conversation. It must have been at LEAST 30 minutes of running off at the mouth.

I love talking. I'm a VERY social person and I really enjoy chatting with anyone who will chat with me (well, for the most part...). But if you talk to me about breastfeeding? I can't stop. I. Can't. STOP! I love talking about it. I just do. I love educating and supporting mamas. I love educating and supporting papas. I love reminiscing. I don't even realize I'm doing it but I bring it up to complete strangers almost daily. Whenever someone comments on Ella's chubby knees: "Mama's milk will do that!" I'll say. Or when Olivia has a mild cold and I'm sick as a dog: "Lucky for her she's breastfed!" It's just normal for me. The funny thing is, I don't do it on purpose. It is a part of my everyday conversation and life just like anything else. I talk about it like I talk about the weather.

Which brings me to a little tangent. And I'll try really hard not to go on and on about this. But when I talk about breastfeeding? I'm not being a "breastfeeding nazi" (as we've been called). I'm not wearing my breastapo uniform. I'm not hailing the Head Breast. I'm literally just talking about my life and the things I"m passionate about. I talk about my kids non stop too. I talk about sewing quite a bit. I talk about my dog...my husband...Desperate Housewives...chai tea. But I've never been called a Tea Nazi. Nor have I been told I'm part of the Sew-stapo. So why is it, when I talk about breastfeeding, I'm a breastfeeding Nazi? Oh and guys? They talk about stuff too. My husband talks about cars. He's not the Car gestapo. What about when guys talk about their balls itching? (Grooooss!) Are they they Cock Nazis? And WHY oh WHY do people think it's okay to make light of the holocaust by using the term "nazi" everytime someone is passionate about something? Get over it. Just get over it.

Okay, tangent over. Btw, this post wasn't planned out or edited. I just wanted to talk about breastfeeding.

Problematic Mammary Sucker (PMS)

My fertility returned when my daughter was about 7 months old - just as it had with my son. Shucks! Here I was hoping tandem nursing would buy me a little more time. The day before it happened my daughter went on a pretty major nursing strike and would arch away from my breasts. I had no idea what was happening. It was in that same time frame that I had my horribly failed experiment with fenugreek also, so we had several hurdles causing her to reject the boobs.

A month later, same fussy arching... only this time no fenugreek to complicate things even worse. She would nurse sometimes, but pretty much only when tired and even then it was a fight. Latch on, latch off, arch, kick, bite, etc. I counted out the days and figured that was just about right. This reaction was new territory for me as my son had never even blinked an eye when I was having my period. I asked around, and it turns out I'm not alone. Some kids are just fussy about it.

I have been drinking 2-3 glasses of Mothers Milk Tea per day and it seems to be helping. Chicklett still fussy initially, but once there is a letdown she will have a regular nursing session. We're about four months into having fertility return and I've gotten into a good routine of just starting the Mothers Milk Tea around day 26/27 and now a change in her nursing habits is barely noticeable. Yay!

Thank YOU Mothers Milk Tea!

That sleep thing....Beginner's Luck

OK, so we tried it casually thursday night. Chase had been napping in his crib for two days to get him comfortable, so we put him in his crib Thursday night for bedtime. It looked a little like this (approximately)

7:45 - Bedtime, Chase goes down easily after milkies. :)

8:30 - B gets me in from mowing the lawn, and has Chase on his hip, Aiden is having some kind of crisis and he needs me to get chase back to sleep.

10:05 - Chase is asleep again, in his crib.

10:30 - Chase wakes, B puts him back down

11:00 - Chase wakes, B puts him back down

11:45 - Chase wakes...B has no patience, raises his voice, upsets the baby who now wants nothing to do with his crib. (DUR!)

12:10 - Chase is asleep again, but in my bed. He woke several times during the night and was up for the day at 7am.

So, I kind of figured based on the way Thursday night went that we were IN FOR IT over the next week.

All day friday he took his naps in the crib, in fact, he took GOOD naps in the crib! Although, he took 1 too many which meant bedtime got pushed back a little later than we like, but good napping is the key to good night time sleep, so we are following the flow on that right now. We need him happy. Friday night went like this:

9:00pm - Bedtime for Chase, he goes down easily after his milkies. This is B's shift until midnight so I passed off the monitor to him and lay down to catch some Z's in preparation for a rough night ahead. Chase did not wake on B's watch. Yea, you read that right, he slept 3 hours straight without waking at all.

12:10am - It's my shift now, Chase wakes up, nurses, and goes back into his crib. I'm prepared for the worst, but quietly climb into bed and go to sleep...

3:15am - WHAT?! chase wakes up, nurses, and goes back into his crib! WHAT?! This has NEVER happened. NEVER. HAPPENED. I do NOT remember a time that Chase has EVER slept 3 straight hours.

Then I TRY to get into bed...but the bed creaks...loudly, and wakes Chase up. I pick him up, snuggle him, and put him back...and he stays asleep until...

5:30am - my sleepy brain just brought him to bed. He nursed and we slept until 7am when he woke up for the day.

I'm actually really shocked by how the first real night started. I'm going to stick with not nursing more often than every 3 hours at night and leave it that way until he's secure in the crib...then I'll see if I can get him to go every 4 hours once that's settled.

I really think that this was beginner's luck and am expecting a rough night tonight. But who knows, maybe I will be pleasantly surprised! Today he has napped in his crib, but only cat naps so far, not more than 45 minutes each.

stay tuned!

What Do You Want out of an IBCLC?

The Board of Directors of the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners® (IBLCE) wishes to provide the opportunity for public comment regarding the “Code of Professional Conduct for IBCLCs” (International Board Certified Lactation Consultants), which will replace the “Code of Ethics for IBCLCs”.

You can read the old code here; http://www.iblce.org/upload/downloads/CodeOfProfessionalConduct.pdf

And then please take a moment to submit improvements and suggestions here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/S7NDSFL

Thank you for your time!

Enter the Terminus

EV inquired about a game yesterday and after a few messages we set one up for this (Thursday) morning.  He gave me the option of an old caster or a new one, and the choice was an easy one.  My first thought was to bring a new caster myself, but Harkevich is still unprimed and I just can't make a Strakhov list that I like with the models I have.  Instead I resolved to take a new approach to an old caster.  Attrition is my favorite strategy, so I went with an assassination mindset.  A rushy pVlad list was my first thought, but I've run that before (and recently).  Next up was the caster I had intended to learn first when I started Warmachine: pSorscha.  Stalwart of the battlebox, pSorscha is definitely an assassination caster and, for me, trickier to use than her epic form.  She has to get close(ish) to use her spells, but doesn't really want to get her own hands dirty.  I haven't really used her since my first few games when I was still learning basic concepts like keeping your caster out of easy reach, activation order, what all the pieces do, the rules, things like that.  Thus while pSorscha isn't really a new caster to me, this would be my first game with her where I felt comfortable with the game in general.

Lists and Deployment

I wanted to do a list centered around knock down/stationary/freezing targets and then swarming them with melee, but the realities of my collection made a compromise necessary.  The result was still built around the aforementioned status effects but incorporated some big shells as well as a melee punch.

35+5 points, 19 models

Kommander Sorscha  +5 points
* Black Ivan  10 points
* Kodiak  8 points
* War Dog  1 point

Doom Reavers  6 points
* Greylord Escort  2 points
Greylord Ternion  4 points
Koldun Lord  2 points
Manhunter  2 points
Widowmaker Marksman  2 points
Winter Guard Mortar Crew  3 points

Greylords for Ice Cage and sprays, Doomies and Manhuntress (who lost an arm en route) for melee punch, Black Ivan and a mortar for ranged punch, and a Kodiak as a problem solver.  An intense debate lead to the Wardog and Marksman instead of a second mortar.

I didn't know what caster EV would field, only that it would be a new one.  Since he had recently painted eGaspy I figured he would be my opponent.  I even started building the list I figured EV would run: Gaspy, Cankerworm, Deathjack, Bane Thralls, Tartarus.  Imagine my surprise when I found not Gaspy but Terminus waiting for me.  Terminus and a whole bunch of friends to be exact.

35+4 points, 40 models

Lich Lord Terminus  +4 points
* Deathjack  12 points

2x Bloat Thrall  2 points each
10 Mechanithralls  5 points
* 1 Brute Thrall  1 point
10 Mechanithralls  5 points
* 1 Brute Thrall  1 point
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls  2 points
10 Revenant Crew  9 points


Twice the number of boots on the table compared to my army, plus plenty of recycling with the Revenants and Necrosurgeon.  Terminus is a byword for tough casters on the podcasts I listen to, but targets are somewhat less tough when on their butt or frozen in place.  I also had plenty of templates and sprays for the infantry, though that would only be a temporary solution.  Though it would take a hard fight, I felt victory was possible.  Then I saw the scenario we rolled, the first in the book which is far enough away for me not to get up and check, which involved six zones in the middle of the table.  The yellow d4s denote the corners of the zones in the pictures that follow.  To win you had to control two zones on your half and one on your opponent's half with the usual conditions: entire unit completely within the zone, non-inert jack, warrior with half a brain.  Considering the amount of troops EV had and the amount of artillery/backline support pieces I had, the climb uphill to victory looked a little steeper.

I took the first step by winning the roll to go first, which I deferred to EV.  He deployed in a central brick and I responded in kind, as best I could with jacks, a mortar, and a handful of Greylords.  DJ showed a bit ahead of the Cryx lines and off to a flank, while the Doomies setup in front of the Khador brick with the Manhuntress and Marksman on opposite flanks.

Battle lines are drawn.

Central forests are very common for us and I've sent troops into them with great success before, so the Doomies would make for the woods while the rest of the force supported them.  The flank solos were tasked with taking out the Bloat Thralls quickly while the Mortar and Ivan would pound whatever Sorscha affected with her spells.  I figured EV would split around the forest, so I deployed my big guns in such a way as to hopefully cover both avenues.  Considering the new models on the table, we took a bit of time examining cards.  Once I established that I had to kill the Revenant officer to stop them from spawning, if only for a turn, I took a look for the offending model.  EV was kind enough to point it out...

Operation hide behind the big guy.

...right behind Terminus.  So much for sniping the officer.  These first two shots are kinda blurry as I continue to struggle with the camera, while the iPhone camera works great, but once I turned off macro mode and turned on auto-flash things got better.  You'll see in a moment. 

Turn 1

The first turn was boring as usual.  The Cryx forces moved straight ahead while the Khadorans did as well.  The Doom Reavers entered the forest followed by the Manhuntress who was looking for a charge lane to the Bloat Thrall in the next turn.  The Marksman tried to shoot his Fatty Thrall but was short on range.

End of turn 1.

Turn 2

With both forces advancing at the run a clash was quick to appear.  Fatty Arbuckle on the left got things going by shooting at the Doomie on the edge of the woods and deviating into the middle of the unit.  One died, but another was too Tough to succumb to what vileness the Thrall shot. 

A nasty way to die.

The other Bloat Thrall took an exploratory shot that didn't work out as well as the first.  The Revenants couldn't see the Doomies to charge in, so they ran into the woods and stopped in cleave range instead.  The Deathjack hid from the Marksman around a corner.

Cryx turn 2.

Of course DJ wasn't the Marksman's target, the Bloat Thrall was.  A single shot was all it took to pop the balloon.  The resulting explosion took out a pair of MechThralls and knocked another down after its Tough roll.

One shot, three kills.

In the center the Doomies spread their feet and got to swinging.  When the body parts stopped falling six Revenants had been killed (temporarily) and another knocked down.  The Greylord Escort might also have put a point of damage on Terminus.

Cleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeave.

To the left of the woods a lone brave Greylord stepped up and unleashed his magical shotgun.  I was hoping to clear out the MechThrall by the d4 especially to clear up a charge lane for the Manhuntress, but it passed its Tough roll and stayed in the way.

Gogo magic shotgun.

I moved my Kodiak, and the Greylord for that matter, before I wanted to and was worried that I gummed up the works for the mortar.  Arcing Fire took care of that concern though and the shell took care of three MechThralls including the on I wanted to get with the spray.  Unfortunately I didn't account properly for the Doomie and his base, so my lane was not clear after all.

Death from afar. 

On the right flank Sorscha tried to scatter a Tempest into DJ but had no luck.  The Koldun Lord gave Black Ivan a focus, which he used to take a potshot at DJ which connected.  Needing a 7 to hit, I decided to boost the attack roll to make sure I got to roll some damage dice, but was kicking myself for it when I ended up with a paltry two damage inflicted.

Two damage is better than no damage.

The Kodiak shifted over to try and screen the Greylord and use the knocked down MechThrall to dodge some charges as well.  The Manhuntress moved away from what was sure to be a swirling melee in the center and hid behind a wall to avoid incoming charges while await her chance to strike down the Fatty Thrall.  The stout Khadorans had sent many abominations back to the grave they crawled out of, but plenty of them would be back in the turn to come.

Khador turn 2.

Turn 3

Action was immediate as Terminus loaded himself up with a cleave spell and jumped into the Doomies.  He killed three, but a handful of Tough rolls and a missed attack meant that the job was harder than it should have been and cost Terminus a bit of foucs.

Terminus: "rawr rawr, imma dragon. sorta."

 On the left I didn't hide the Manhuntress well enough which lead to a short, messy death for her. 

Another stunning performance by the Manhuntress.

 The other MechThralls did a number on the Kodiak, tearing one of its fists off but leaving the jack standing.  Turns out the MechThrall that was knocked down wasn't such an impediment to the rest of the unit.  On the right flank DJ and the other MechThrall unit advanced a little too close for comfort.  The scenario conditions kicked in during the end of EV's turn, but I didn't control the required zones and so the game continued.

Cryx turn three.

 For some reason I didn't get any action shots of my half of the turn.  I blame all the action for distracting me from chronicling.  In the center the remaining Doom Reaver cut a bloody swathe all around him, slaying everything within range.  On the right flank Sorscha gave two focus to Black Ivan before rolling out and dropping a Tempest into the cluster of MechThralls and DJ.  It occurs to me now that she could have fired her Hand Cannon as well.  Black Ivan had to charge to make it into melee with DJ and did less damage than I'd hoped, resulting in a damaged but still functional, and now annoyed, Deathjack.  Plus a bunch of MechThrall buddies.  On the other flank the mortar popped the other Bloat Thrall, which also took out the Necrosurgeon.  The Greylords advanced and sprayed their way to glory while the Kodiak squished another MechThrall, all but clearing the flank between them.  EV didn't control the needed zones, so on to turn four.

  

Khador turn three.

 Turn 4

Terminus got up to his usual tricks, jump and cleave, killing many Greylords and half the mortar team.  The MechThralls finished the Kodiak and the rest of the Greylords while the Revenants killed the last Doomie to completely collapse my left flank.

That Terminus is a bad man...dragon...thing.

The other MechThralls and DJ fell upon the now over-extended Black Ivan.  DJ ripped off Ivan's cannon before a MechThrall swung and missed.  Ivan dodged out of the mess and Bulldozed his way to freedom.  Down to five pieces I sure didn't control enough zones to win, but I did spot a chance for victory.

Cryx turn four.

The nice thing about not having my models left is that you don't have to worry so much about order of activation.  Sorscha loaded up Ivan with as much focus as he could hold, then moved in and popped her feat.  She then pumped a boosted POW 12 Hand Cannon into Terminus.  Despite the internet's assertion otherwise, this boosted POW 12 did not kill a caster.  With Terminus frozen in place, the remaining mortar crewman charged in waving his axe to little effect.  The Marksman shot a random MechThrall.  Then it was time for Ivan's charge to glory.  Sorscha had cast Boundless Charge on him previously, allowing him to arrive at Terminus with a full load of focus.  Good thing too, because it took all of it to get the job done.  It came down to the last swing, where I elected to roll the attack in hopes of getting a crit.  Double fives to hit followed by three dice for the Crit: Brutal Damage did exactly enough damage to box Terminus and win the game.

End of game.

24 hour post-script:  As EV mentions in the comments below, the turning point of this game was the MechThralls attacking Black Ivan.  The crush of recycled bodies was too much for my tiny, for me at least, force to cope with.  Even though most of my army was well-suited to clearing out swathes of infantry with sprays and templates, the fact that they would come back almost as quick as I put them down was too much to overcome.  That MechThrall attack saved my bacon though by letting Ivan Dodge out of combat, Bulldozing the Thralls that surrounded him, and allowing me to turn position him for a charge to glory.  I could have done something similar with just Sorscha as you can move a long way with Wind Rush and Boundless Charge, but it's very possible I would have arrived at the target without enough Focus to finish the job.  A win is a win and I'll certainly take this one, but this one comes with a bit of an asterisk.

Further post-script:  Forgot to mention this was my first time fielding a character jack.  Black Ivan is well worth the extra point over the standard Destroyer, especially since he won me the game.  Despite years of GW conditioning that named characters are a sometimes food, I'm slowly coming around to their greater frequency in Warmachine.  Considering I've faced the Deathjack at least half a dozen times, and the Cankerworm another handful as well, I think I've built up enough gamer karma to field some of my own for a while.  Now the trick will be holding out for the two player box so I can use the Destroyer in there as my Black Ivan base.  A related trick will be not heading directly for the closest Beast 09/Torch dispensary.  Just looking at the stat line, I've always thought the Great Bears are overrated.  After seeing how much difference a point here or there can make, I'm more eager than ever to lay hands on them and see what they can do for myself.