A Base For the Biker Nob

It's been a little slow on the hobby front lately, but I did manage to build a custom base for my massive warbiker nob. It is a 40mmn base cut in half and glued to both sides of a long rectangular base. In hindsight, it looks a little odd to have round and square elements on the same base. But overall, this base fits well and helps him fit it better with a mob that is all based. My old 2nd edition bikers are on square bases and my new bikers are on round bases so maybe he will be the keystone that ties the mob together.

Second Drop Troop

I finished the second one of my Drop Troops, using a slightly different technique. The plan is to now finalize the paint scheme and try to paint a batch all at once. With Orks, I have enjoyed painting individuals or small batches of two because each Ork is an individual.  With these guys, I plan to paint full or half squads all together, not just because it should be a bit faster, but mostly because I want them to look more uniform and consistent. 

The one on the left is the second guy I painted. After undercoating white, I sprayed him a sand color. I don't know if I will do this again because it seemed to fill in some of the detail a bit. The idea was to get a color closer to the final colors so any slight gaps between colors wouldn't stand out so starkly like white does. But it already takes several coats of white spray to cover the model with a nice solid white so adding the sand may have just been too many coats, or more likely the wrong type of spray or poor technique on my part. 

His fatigues were painted a darker brown and then washed before painting the Balor Brown on top as a highlight. On the original guy, the cloth was painted straight Balor, washed and then highlighted Balor Brown. 

Also, the bases turned out a bit different. I can't remember exactly how I did the base on the first guy, which is too bad because I like it. Another reason to do the whole squad at once next time. I also plan to write down what colors I am using so I can do a better job replicating it later. 

So which do you like better? Any suggestions for the rest of the squad? I still need to model most of them so I won't be painting for a while. These guys take a while to clean up and glue together with all their fiddly little resin bits. 

Here is the only other model I have assembled at the moment. He has been basecoated white and then given a spray of sand color.

The Red Brotherhood Razorback: A Fearsome Combination of APC and Firepower

The Red Brotherhood Space Marine Chapter has a proud history of fielding Razorback APCs in their search and destroy missions, as they allow small combat squads of marines to quickly deploy where the action is fiercest and support their advance with the awesome firepower of a twin-linked lascannon.

Drop Troop Scale Pictures

Pete made the wise suggestion to see how the Drop Troop model looks on the gaming table in order to better evaluate the color scheme. I also wanted to show the scale him next to our other armies. 

He is slightly taller than the ork and tyranid and about the same height as the space marine. But his height is a bit deceiving as his base gives him an extra 2mm or so because I squished down a piece of clay on it to stick rocks into. Also, this is the drop troop model with the straightest legs and most upright posture. 

What stands out is just how skinny he is compared to the other models. The ape-like ork and massive genestealer look like fearsome foes indeed for this brave human. 

I think he looks good on the table. I plan to lighten his base a bit but I don't want to go with straight white like the ork base because the white washes out under bright lights. 

The Xhorik 87th Drop Troops Part 2: Test Paint Scheme

Here is my first attempt at a paint scheme. Let me know what you think.

Let me have your honest feedback. I want to know what you think before I paint a bunch of these guys. I can still make changes.

Warbiker Nob: Oggo One-Eye

Ol' Oggo One-Eye is a biker boss with power klaw. He lost half his face, an eye, an ear, and a few teeth from a bolter shot to the side of the head, but even with that, he still never wrecked his beloved trike!

After he lost his eye, he put a matching gouge on the eye of his banner pole. But being an Ork, he gouged the side that matched his injury while he was looking at the banner, rather than the same side of the face. But just try to tell him that! It always looks right when he looks at it.

Being a an older, veteran nob, his skin is a browner, mossier shade than the boyz.

He's got a massive trike with Ben-Hur style scythed wheels. 

With his trusty power klaw, Oggo is a wrecking machine up close. You can also see some of his gang badges on his jacket.

A suitable leader for a rowdy band of warbikers!

This was my first real full Forge World model and I have to say, they are a lot harder to clean-up and assemble properly than the normal GW plastics. They are beautiful models, but they take some work and figuring out. I made some small mistakes and had to make some modifications to this kit, as well as having a hell of a time getting the rider in there after attaching the guns and ammo cases. Definitely a learning curve.

As usual, the big photos have made me notice two areas that didn't get quite fully finished so I will make a few touch-ups. (For one, you can see some unpainted green stuff in his right armpit in the last photo where I could not get his arm to fit flush with the body!)

Imperial Reinforcements: The Xhorik 87th Drop Troops

While the space marines of The Red Brotherhood have borne the brunt of the early fighting, due to their permanent garrison on the planet and their ability to strike quickly, the great gears of the Imperial war machine have finally begun to turn, bringing the massive armies of the Imperial Guard to bear on the enemies of mankind.

The first regiment to respond are the Xhorik 87th Drop Troops on their way back home after a long campaign against the forces of Chaos. The 87th are a highly-mobile specialist force, well-suited to fighting in rugged, inaccessible terrain such as the mountains and badlands of Xhorik Prime where tank-heavy armored regiments would struggle to maneuver. Instead of being disbanded as planned after six long years in a combat zone, these grizzled soldiers will be redeployed to defend their home. 

Shown here is a typical veteran of the regiment, armed with an Antax pattern lascarbine with non-standard-issue silencer picked up sometime during the campaign. He is equipped with a grav-chute and fully-enclosed helmet in order to execute high-altitude drop operations from above AA range. The enclosed helmets would prove extremely beneficial in the hostile climate of Xhorik's fierce radioactive dust storms that would choke and slowly poison anyone who breathes too much of the fine particulates, which are tainted with the remnants of the destroyed Ork Rok from many years ago. 

Their carbines are longer and bulkier than the Accatran Mk IV pattern used by many Drop Troop regiments, including the famous Elysians, which makes them more difficult to wield during drops and at point blank range. The Antax pattern is also less sophisticated and  more prone to breaking down. Their main positive attributes are that they are more accurate at long range, much cheaper to manufacture and simple to repair and dress in the field. These features make them common in the secondhand market with mercenaries and militias, meaning there are many blackmarket accessories and variations, some of which the X87's veterans took advantage of on their last campaign. They received these weapons upon formation of the regiment with the official explanation that this is what was available at the tme, although some of the enlisted men grumble that some greedy general probably received a nice bribe to take these and issue them to the regiment. The men have no trouble justifying their use of non-standard-issue components and field modifications. 

"Big Toof" - Bad Ork Bikeboy

I finished painting my first model since Ava was born. It took awhile, but I am happy with the result.

I call him "Big Toof", a very large and tough Ork with a kustom warbike with his red teeth icon pole. He is almost nob-size, but too much of a loner to lead a mob. He joins a warband when he is looking for a fight and leaves when he's got all the loot he can carry. Right now, he is part of Filgakk's Evil Sunz army invading Xhorik Prime.

I love the way this model turned out. He has so much personality, he could be an RPG character.

He is ready to crack skulls with that big pipe and lug nuts.

Instead of just edge highlighting, I tried to experiment a bit more with highlighting the upper surfaces and shading the lower areas like the light source is above him. 

I dig the over-sized front tire. It gives the bike a laid-back, cruising look.

Lots of exhausts! I have no idea why a bike would need four, but an ork probably figures "If one is good, four is better!"

I love that he is carrying all his gear with him, including his shoota, so he can join any warband and leave when he feels like it. He strikes me as a loner.

The shocks are the springs from two mechanical pencils. The handlebars are a papreclip that I spent a long time shaping (and it still looks crooked)!

More Warbiker WIP

Not much of an update, but with my slow schedule I will be posting any little bit of progress I make just to keep this blog alive!

Here is the biker boss nob's body with power klaw and the rider of the tread bike (arms to be painted separately and added later). The Forge World nob biker kit comes with awesome bikes and nobs, but the only weapons are a choppa and slugga. So I used a klaw from the plastic nob box set, but the arm is a little small compared to the resin biker boss and the pose had the claw right at his side, which doesn't work too well with handlebars in the way. So I went for a more dynamic pose of holding the arm up and back, ready to strike while zooming past on the bike. This also had the benefit of making the arm longer and more similar to the resin arm holding the handlebar on the other side.

I tried to fill the gap with some green stuff, but it looks pretty rough. If I can't fix it up to look more like a muscle, then I might try to cheat and cover it up a bit with a chain running from the shoulder pad under the arm pit.

In other news, I finally applied paint to an Ork for the first time since Ava was born! I didn't make much progress, but I at least put the first touch of color on the warbiker with the pipe in his hand. It will be a slow process, but I'm happy to be painting again.

Warbiker Nob WIP

I finally had a little time to myself and so I started working on a nob for my warbikers. Here is the bike mostly done. It is one of the Forge World nob bikes. The only thing to be added to the bike is a big spiked guard on the front wheel (just waiting to add it later for ease of painting).

I am converting the rider to have a power klaw, but I'll be painting him in pieces and then assembling it because of how crowded everything is.

The big trike with wheel scythes - total Ben-Hur / Bugs Bunny chariot racing style!

Here is the nob biker I am using. He looks pretty brutal with iron plates riveted to his face! Ork Band-Aids!

I just undercoated these items along with my other biker (the one with the visor helmet carrying the lead pipe). I'm looking forward to painting something besides touching up that terrain, which is boring and down in the basement, so not very accessible.

The tread bike still needs a little work to configure the driver and handlebars. The driver is going to have to be leaning down low over the handlebars in order for the arms to reach and I am going to struggle to get his head to be looking forward instead of down. It is going to take some more work, but that is the challenge and fun of conversions: lots of little things that don't quite fit or don't quite work the way you pictured in your head.

Rocks

I got a few minutes to myself for some hobby time last night. I managed to finish blacking over all the areas of exposed green foam on the ruins where they were either damaged in transit or where the maker was sloppy and missed spots in some crevices. I still need to drybrush on some grey concrete and brown dust to finish the repairs. Then I plan to add a bit more rubble to the bases and drybrush them with some lighter tans and off-whites to match the rest of the terrain bases I have.

Also, while exploring a construction site today with the kids, I came across some great rocks and rubble! I grabbed a few nice chunks and threw them in the wagon. I figure they could make some great, simple terrain. Just clean them off and paint them to match the rest of the terrain. Then just plunk them down on the battlefield or put them on bases. Some are even flat enough for models to stand on during games for nice dramatic moments of clambering over rocks to get at the enemy or an objective.

Some nice big rocks for use as terrain. Beer bottle shown for scale.

Baby Steps

For the first time since Ava was born, I finally managed to pick up a paintbrush last night. It was only about 15 or 20 minutes and all I did was touch up some black paint on the parts of a few of those ruined buildings where they got damaged during shipping, but it still felt good to do something hobby-related. Between the kids and craziness at work, life has been really busy. Other than the Combat Patrol game with Pete, I've only had the time to daydream about modeling and gaming while trying to get a baby to sleep.

I'm sure it will be a while before I can get back to work on my Orks. In the meantime during my few free minutes, I'll try to get those ruins patched up and then I'll spend a lot of time looking at other people's stuff on the Internet while bouncing Ava.

But every little step counts and as soon as life settles down, I have a ton of ideas for things I'd like to model and paint.

What 11 points buys you

Maybe it is just sour grapes after getting beaten so badly the last two games, but I could not help doing some comparisons after seeing the new Space Marine Codex. Here is a Troops option from each army costing 11 points. Since the point system is used to balance each unit to be roughly equivalent on the tabletop and result in relatively even games, you would think it would be a toss-up as to which unit was better, with playstyle and personal preference being the deciding factor. But when I line them up side by side, it seems pretty obvious that the scout is a better and more versatile option for the same cost.

The scout gives up one attack and the 'Ere We Go special rule for +2BS, +1S, +1In, +1Ld, Infiltrate, Scout, Chapter Tactics and Move Through Cover. I think the shoota is comprable to having a bolt pistol and bolter (because of the bolt weapons better AP). And when it comes to morale, the has mob rule which might let you pass morale for the cost of killing some boyz, but the scout has ATSKNF which means they will always rally and will never be killed in a Sweeping Advance, which is a fairly common occurance for my boyz. Both units have options for Fast, Assault transports (trukk or land speeder storm) and weapon options (close combat weapon and pistol)

When you compare the scout to its closest equivalent in terms of function in the ork army, the kommandos, the comparison is even more one-sided, in my opinion.

A kommando is ten points instead of 11, but has basically no options other than a few special weapons. The scout can have four different weapon loadouts (bolter & bolt pistol, bolt pistol & CCW, sinper rifle, space marine shotgun) as well as camo cloaks and a transport option, as well as special and heavy weapons options just like the orks. The scouts are also better at destroying vehicles due to their krak grenades. So despite the kommandos being "elite", the scout is much more versatile. In the old 3rd edition codex, kommandos could have shootas and tankbusta bombs, but for some reason they took those options away, even though I think they are very much in the character of what kommandos are and reasonable considering they are Elites.

I would rather use the scout rules for my kommandos, but I doubt many marine players would pick the kommando rules for their scouts. I think in general, regular ork boyz and their various specialists are a bit over-priced.

Anyway... enough whining and crying from me. Time to start planning a better strategy for next game. Because the truth is, I did not lose a battle of attrition because my units are a slightly worse value for their points. I got totally slaughtered because I did not manuever properly and didn't allow my units to support each other properly. I will definitely play a little smarter next game. And hopefully we will have a mission that requries mobility, where my biggest advantage is. I don't have good odds in a straight-up slug fest, but in a mission that forces both armies to play aggressively or flexibly, I think I have a good shot because of my wider mix of unit types. We'll see what the next game brings!

Bat Rep 8: Red Brotherhood vs. Da Blitzdreg Boyz - Combat Patrol 400 pts

Due to Pete getting in late, we only had time to play during the big kids' nap so we had to keep it quick. Hence, Combat Patrol from the Third Edition rule book! For those who don't remember, this was a set of army selection restrictions on powerful units to keep a small game relatively fair. The downside to playing Combat Patrol is that I could not use my Meganobz (no 2+ saves allowed), but I did get to use my other new unit, the Tankbustas. (Technically, the maximum combined front, side, rear armor value is 33 and the dreadnought has 34, but we were OK with that since I was planning to take my Tankbustas.) 

We decided to play a simple mission with a single objective in the center of the table. Whoever held the objective at the end of the game would win. To keep the game quick, we would play four turns with a 4+ chance of a fifth turn.

The background would be that The Red Brotherhood was trying to rescue an important officer of the Planetary Defense Force who had been shot down in the uninhabited deserts of Xhorik (represented by the purple space marine model). He had crashed in one of the old cities that was destroyed in the first Ork invasion of Xhorik which had now been mostly reclaimed by the sweeping sands of the desert. The Red Brotherhood sent a small force of infantry and a dreadnought to quietly pick their way through the ruins and recover the injured officer. Meanwhile, a small band of Orks patrolling the deserts had seen the ship crash and sped toward the ruins to investigate, thinking there  might be some good loot! 

ARMY SELECTION: 400 Points

Da Blitzdreg Boyz: Combat Patrol (398 pts)

• 11 'Ard Boyz with nob, boss pole, power klaw (180 pts)
• trukk
• 7 Tankbustas (121 pts)
• tukk
• 4 Warbikers (72 pts)
• Warbuggy with twin-linked rokkits (25 pts)

I went with the theme of a fast-moving patrol where everyone was in a vehicle or on a bike. 

The Red Brotherhood: Combat Patrol (398 pts)

• Dreadnought with twin-linked lascannon and twin-linked autocannon (130 pts) 
• 6-man Tactical Squad A with flamer (89 pts)
• 6-man Tactical Squad B (84 pts)
• 5-man Devastator Squad with heavy bolter and missile launcher (95 pts)

PRE-GAME
Orks won the roll to select deployment zone despite Pete getting a re-roll for winning the last game.
Marines won the roll to determine who set up first and forced the Orks to set up first.
The Orks then chose to go first.
We forgot to roll for Night Fighting and we didn't use Warlord traits.

DEPLOYMENT

View of deployment from the east.

View of deployment from the south.

Ork Deployment and Da Plan:

Once again, I had to deploy first without knowing where the marines would be. My plan was to use the buildings to block line of sight to my trukks while I advanced. In the last game, I learned that trukks are a death trap for boyz with 6+ armor save if the vehicle explodes. I did not want to race straight ahead, have the trukss blow and the boyz lose half their number in the wreck and the ensuring mob rule checks and then get pinned out in the open. The center would consist of my shooting threats in the warbikes and warbuggy. 

The Ork warbikes race through the ruins looking for any loot from the crash and spot a survivor.

Marine Deployment and Strategy:

Pete kept his force close together and used the small tactical squads to screen his dreadnought, ensuring I could not get to it with my tankbustas. The devastators deployed in some hard cover with a good line of sight to the objective. He kept his whole army well away from my 'ard boyz.

The Red Brotherhood patrol moves carefully through the city, looking for the lost officer when they hear the unmistakable roar of Ork engines closing in. "Take up combat positions and prepare to engage the enemy. We must not falter in our sacred duty."

Orks Turn 1:

I moved both trukks flat-out in order to keep them hidden behind ruins. I was trying to maneuver closer to the marines without leaving my trukks in the open against his missile launcher, twin-lascannon and twin-autocannon.

The bikes and buggies moved forward and opened fire. The warbuggy managed to hit the dreadnought and shake it, also taking off a hull point. The warbikers fired on the devastator squad, but only manged to bring down a single marine.

"'Ere we go! 'Ere we go! 'Ere we go!" The 'ard boyz race through the ruins, staying out of sight of the marines' guns.

The rokkit buggy continues its un-Orky accuracy by scoring another hit, knocking a hull point off the hulking Imperial walker.

End of Ork Turn 1. The Orks have advanced aggressively. 

Space Marine Turn 1:

Tactical Squad A moved into the ruin while Tactical Squad B moved forward to screen the dreadnought. With the Ork trukks out of sight, the marines focused their fire on the available targets: the bikes and buggies. Tactical Squad B managed to take out the rokkit buggy with their bolters while the devastator squad killed three of the Ork bikes (despite their jinking) and forced the last one to flee. 

The marines advance into the alley, supported by their dreadnought. 

A withering hail of expert bolter fire destroys the oncoming Ork vehicle.

Not to be outdone, the devastators kill three of the bikers and force the lone survivor to fall back.

End of marine turn 1. The Ork center is decimated.

Orks Turn 2:

At this point, I realized I was well and truly out-maneuvered. I could not get my tankbustas to their target of the dreadnought and my 'ard boyz were too far away to provide any support in the next turn. Without knowing what else to do, I decided to attack, knowing my odds weren't good.

The tankbustas disembarked, fired at Tactical Squad B and killed two before charging. I lost one to overwatch and one to melee attacks before killing a marine in return.

On the other flank, the 'ard boyz disembarked and ran to get close enough to the devastators to charge next turn. They were able to use the pillar to block the line of sight from the devastators. If I moved the trukk farther, I would not have been able to disembark and I did not want to be sitting in the trukk in the wide open.

The savage tankbustas jump out of their trukk ready to attack their giant prey, but their path is blocked by a squad of marines!

A hail of improvised rokkits and explosive-tipped spears kills two members of the Red Brotherhood patrol.

The tankbustas charge in, losing two of their number and taking down one more marine. 

The tactical marines provide an effective screen and prevent the tankbustas from reaching their target.

The 'ard boyz swerve around a ruined building and disembark with their sights set on the devastators.

With the 'ard boyz closing in and screened by the pillar, the devastators consider evasive action.

End of Ork turn 2. The tankbustas are engaged with Tactical Squad B. 

Space Marine Turn 2:

Tactical Squad A moved to the edge of the ruin and fired at the tankbusta trukk, combining their fire with the dreadnought. Tac squad A then charged the trukk and managed to wreck it in close combat.

The devastators moved out of their ruin and charged into the melee to support Tactical Squad B, simultaneously putting a lot of distance between them and the 'ard boyz. In the melee, the Orks were wiped out in a Sweeping Advance without doing any more damage to the marines.

The devastators charge in to support Tactical Squad B in the melee while Tactical Squad A finish off the trukk in an assault.

The result: Tankbustas and their trukk are wiped out.

End of marine turn 2. The Ork center and left are shattered whereas the marines are at nearly full strength.

Orks Turn 3:

The lone biker finally rallied, but all he could do was consolidate 3".

All I had left were the 'ard boyz, their trukk and the bike. I figured my best shot was to get the 'ard boyz into melee so I moved into the difficult terrain of the ruin that the devastators had occupied and ran forward, hoping that the 4+ cover save would keep enough boyz alive to make a meaningful charge the next turn.

The 'ard boyz advance and take cover in the ruins, waiting for the inevitable storm of marine fire!

Their trukk advances and fires off an ineffective rokkit in the general direction of the enemy.

End of Ork turn 3. The Orks continue toward the marines, but the distance is much too great.

Space Marine Turn 3:

Everything fired on 'ard boyz. The hard cover reduced the damage, but the marines still killed four Orks, more importantly forcing a morale check which the Orks failed. I rolled a one for mob rule and forgot to use the boss pole to re-roll it, so the boyz fell back toward my table edge, right out into the open.

The marines concentrate all their firepower on the Ork 'ard boyz, killing four...

...and sending the rest fleeing for safety (ironically, flushing them from cover and out into the open!)

Orks Turn 4:

The 'ard boyz rallied, but again could only consolidate, which left them sitting in the open facing the entire marine army.

The warbiker raced into the center ruin and momentarily claimed the objective for the Orks! The 'ard boyz trukk moved flat-out to get as close to the objective as possible so it could claim or contest it on the fifth turn, if there was one.

The last warbiker and trukk make a desperate push for the objective. The warbiker points his spear at the cornered Imperial officer. "You'z comin' wit us!"

End of Ork turn 4. Despite their massive losses, the Orks hold the objective for the moment.

Space Marine Turn 4:

Tactical Squad X and the devastator squad blasted the 'ard boyz at point blank, leaving only a single boy to fall back once again.

Tactical Squad Y and the dreadnought moved into the ruin to claim the objective and killed the ork bike despite his 3+ cover save from turbo-boosting.

The marines make short work of the remaining Orks at point blank range.

The Red Brotherhood quickly come to the aid of the Imperial officer before the Orks can make off with him.

The massive dreadnought stomps through the ruin, leading the advance.

We rolled for another turn and got it. 

Orks Turn 5:

The lone 'ard boy rallied and consolidated toward the objective, but he was too far away to matter.

The 'ard boyz trukk moved into the center ruin and contested the objective due to having Objective Secured as a dedicated transport to a unit of Troops.

With the biker dead, the 'ard boy truck crashes into the ruin, trying to grab the officer out from under the marines. 

Could the ramshackle vehicle possibly withstand the firepower of the entire marine army?

Space Marine Turn 5:

The marines fired everything at the trukk and destroyed it, leaving them in uncontested control of the objective and the undisputed winners.

"Objective secured. Casualties minimal. Mission success."

Final Result:

Space Marine Victory!

Victory for The Red Brotherhood!

POST-GAME ANALYSIS:

Phil (Orks):
For the second game in a row, I got my ass severely kicked. My army was wiped out except for a single boy and I had only killed four tactical marines and took a hull point off the dread. The only positive to take away was that somehow I was still in the game on the last turn, contesting the objective to force a draw if Pete rolled terribly to kill my trukk (or if I had actually done a little more damage to his army during the game to weaken his firepower) or if I had remembered to roll the Ramshackle rule on my trukks...

On the plus side, it was an amazing sight to see two fully-painted armies facing off on some great terrain. The look and fee of this game was just so fulfilling.

What should I have done?

• In hindsight, I would have been better off moving the tankbustas into the center ruin with the objective where they could shoot marines and have a cover save and then used the 'ard boyz to support them or counter-charge, as needed. Of course, in hindsight, I probably would have been better off doing just about anything different as it is pretty unlikely I could have lost any worse than I did!

So what did I learn?

• I clearly don't know how to use my trukks effectively. In the last game, I raced one straight ahead and paid the price. In this game, maybe I played them too cautiously, hiding behind the ruins and the 'ard boyz never got to a position where they could charge. 
• Orks are specialists that can do one thing well and need to be able to pick their battles. The tankbustas could be devestating in melee with vehicles, but are worse than regular boyz in melee with infantry. The 'ard boyz need to be in melee and have almost zero shooting ability. Just like last game, Pete was able to force my units to fight the things they were least-suited for and mopped the floor with me.
• Most importantly, I need to put my units in position to support each other rather than getting picked-off one by one. 

So what do I do differently next time? After two crushing defeats, I need to go back to the drawing board, so to speak. I know I didn't take the optimum army for this game. I wanted to use units that looked good and to try out my new tankbustas to see them on the battlefield. But even so, I should have been able to at least put up a decent fight. I think I just need to better learn how to use my units. I think using an assault-oriented, specialist army is tricky, although my shooting units didn't fare any better!

In games where you have to hold objectives at the end, my orks are 1-4, but in Maelstrom games, they are 3-0 so that at least gives me some hope that I can do well in missions where board control matters and not just last man standing.