The increase in high strength

I kept trying to come up with a comment for Mick's post about weapon strength. However, it kept getting quite rambling and there seemed to be three different points I was trying to make so I thought a post would be a better way to reply...

The Increase in High Strength

At what point does medium strength become high strength? Personally, I consider S8 to be high strength. You're "doubling out" Space Marines, the most common troop in the game, wounding almost everything in the game on a 2 (except Wraithlords) and you can penetrate everything apart from AV14 which you can still glance.

Now, since the Space Wolf codex came out, we've definitely seen an increase in S8+. Wolves have cheap Missile Launchers, IG have their long range, high strength artillary, Tyranids have S8 Hive Guard and S10 Tyrannofex, Blood Angels have cheaper Missile Launchers, Dark Eldar have Dark Lances and Grey Knights have their "psyfleman" Dreadnoughts. S, in the last 18 months we've seen more missile launchers and their equivalents and that's on top of the 5th edition penchent for Melta.

Lascannons

Space Marines only have one option for long range >S8 shooting - the Lascannon (oh, okay, there's the Conversion Beamer too) Now, when I first started playing 40K way back in the '90s, the Lascannon was the premier anti-tank weapon in the game. These days? Not so much. I have been running a Lascannon in my Long Fang packs but I'm not convinced by the cost/reward calculation. However, on Razorbacks they are still golden. Yes, you're Still very unlikely to destroy a Monlith or Land Raider with a Lascannon but with mobility you can go for side shots on other tanks that are AV14 on the front. Plus long range AP2 is always handy for taking out Terminators and Oblitorators from afar. Which brings us onto...

The right tool for the job

Is it overwhelming to use a crane to crush a fly? A balanced list needs a way to deal with any threat. Personally, I take Krak Missiles to take out AV10-12, Melta to take out AV13-14 and mobile Multimeltas in the shape of Land Speeders to help with AV14, to get side shots and to cock-block enemy movement. In the list I'm currently working on, I'm going for 10 Missile Launchers and a pair of Las/Plas Razorbacks.

Rifleman Dreadnoughts

So, what of the rifleman dread and saturation fire? I love the rifleman and ran 2 at the last Open War tournament. But, for me, that's the problem - you really need to run two as one is too much of a target. That means a choice between Wolf Scouts and Wolf Guard. Personally, being able to fire 10 S8 missiles is saturation enough for now. Plus, with regard to stun-locking, the Grey Knights really present a problem with their ability to ignore stunned and shaken results. I think it's still a good tactic for the Eldar where you can get a huge number of S6 shots backed up with Runes of Warding but for Space Wolves, we'd be better off trying to destroy their vehicles at range with our lovely S8.

Well, they're my thoughts. 20 points to anyone who gets the Flaming Lips reference...

My favourite moment in black library

A topic on Warseer from a while ago got me thinking about the scale of some of the great moments from the Black Library so I thought I would share with the readers my favourite moment and ask for yours as well.

It was a really simple decision for me, it has to be the Emperor of Mankind making one hundred thousand Astartes of the Word Bearer's legion kneel before him while the Ultramarines looked on. Its one of those small moments that really establishes that the heresy was one of the Emperors own making as much as it was anything to do with the designs of the gods of Chaos.

So just a short post but what is your favourite moment in 40k?

The Glass Hammer Shatters (aka Eldar For Sale)

So day two of the Team UK 'Singles' Tournament saw me play three more games, resulting in two losses and a draw (against 1st Company Vets' very own Imperial Guard Commander Graham White).

Today started with a tough game against a Space Marine player, which I didn't really enjoy too much, largely cos I was tired freom the first day's games. The second game was a real hoot, as I played James Meikle's Imperial Guard force. The game clocked in at 68 minutes, including set-up, deployment and a ten-minute cigarette/coffee break after turen three. Both these games resulted in losses, but this second game against James' Guard was fun due largely to his easy-natured attitude and our mutually low tournament position.

The last game turned out to be a last-place play-off between my Eldar and Graham White's Imperial Guard. Again, this game was played in a friendly and good-natured spirit and ended the weekend on a high for me - a draw! In truth, Graham would have tabled me on turn seven, but we ended a turn earlier and I doubled my tournament points in one go.

So to sum up, it was a great weekend but a long one. I am now absolutely certain that me and the Eldar will not be sharing a games table again for a very long time, and I am now left with two quandries:

- 1. What to take to Blog Wars next weekend?

and,

- 2. What should be my long-term 'alaac'(*) Tournament army?!

(* alaac = Avoid Losing At All Costs)

I gave in to the dark side.

With just over a week to go until Blog Wars it's time to confess my sins. I've caved in and settled on a list led by Mephiston. I was really against using him for a number of reasons; he is the de-facto choice for most Blood Angels players, Grey Knights are just going to laugh at him, he's not really a force multiplier, he's a bit of a one-trick-pony, the list goes on.

In fact I spent a lot of time working through various lists with Corbulo and I was very close to going with a list which was all foot-slogging (except for some drop pods to get my midfield units in place on turn 1). But in the end I just didn't have the right models in my collection to get the list to feel right to me.

So here we are with a hybrid jumper/mech list and some last minute painting (the Sanguinary Guard are a new addition):

HQ
Mephiston

ELITE
Sanguinary Guard
(5) Power Fist, 2x Infernus Pistols, Company Standard
Sanguinary Priest
(1) Jump Pack
Furioso Dreadnought
Blood Talons, Extra Armour

TROOPS
Assault Squad
(10) Jump Packs, 2x Flamer, Power Fist
Assault Squad
(5) Meltagun, Razorback w. Lascannon & Twin-Linked Plasma
Assault Squad
(5) Meltagun, Razorback w. Lascannon & Twin-Linked Plasma
Assault Squad
(5) Razorback w. Twin-Linked Lascannon

FAST ATTACK
Land Speeder Typhoon
Heavy Bolter, Typhoon Missile Launcher
Land Speeder Typhoon
Heavy Bolter, Typhoon Missile Launcher

HEAVY SUPPORT
Devastator Squad
(5) 4x Missile Launcher

The concept of the list was based on the fact that I wanted it to be fast with the ability to be aggressive but to also have the option to sit back and shoot with the threat of a strong counter assault. I spent well over a week trying to work out a list that could do all this and include the ability to effectively deploy the whole army from reserved should the situation arrive. Sadly I couldn't come up anything I was comfortable with, given the models at my disposal!

The standard plan is to run the Sanguinary Guard behind the Assault Squad giving them a cover save and allowing them to act as a counter assault unit. The Priest goes somewhere in this “blob” giving his FNP and FC bubble to both units, typically Mephiston will go with these units as well to get the benefit of the Priest as well.

The Razorbacks pack a lot of fire-power into relatively low cost units but are, of course, rather fragile. Usually I'll play them as a midfield unit to support the jump element, thanks to them being fast they can keep up with the Jumpers and still put out some fire-power. In the event that I face a multi-Land Raider list I'll need to use the plasma-backs to get my melta squads into range asap to support the Sanguinary Guard and Meph as the only other reliable AV14 crackers in the list.

The Typhoons speak for themselves really; fast, mobile, long range fire support. However the last two units are out of kilter with the rest of the list, the Devastator Squad and the Furioso Dreadnought. Neither is particularly mobile, obviously the Devs are completely static! I like the Devastators because it's the one unit that cannot be rendered entirely useless by a single lucky shot and they can put out an awful lot of pain to pretty much any unit I might have to face.

The Furioso can perform a couple of rolls, he can plod behind the Razorbacks, taking advantage of the cover the afford him to get across the table an provide a genuine counter assault threat to anything eyeing up my 5-man assault squads once they get de-mech'd. Or he can act as a decoy/area denial tool, I can put him out on his own to protect a refused flank or objective, at AV13 he's not easy to kill and you don't want to get too close but the longer you ignore him the close he gets to your lines and becomes more and more of a threat. If all else fails he can give cover to a Razorback if I'm sitting back and shooting it out.

Anyway that's my list and those are my thoughts. I'd be happy to hear yours.

The Dice Man Cometh

Can't believe that no-one else on the blog has mentioned this yet, but we now have our own Claws and Fists dice!

(a bit blurry but you get the idea)

Hopefully, Andy will edit this post to include where he ordered them from but they are awesome...(Andy: I got them from the good people at Dice and Games)

The View from the Bottom Tables

Today was the first day of the 1,750pt UK Team 'Singles' Championships at Maelstrom in Mansfield. Sixteen of the top players in the country descended like angels on the venue at around eight o'clock this morning for the first three games of a six-game tournament. To face these gaming behemoths I decided to take... Eldar. Yup, the Eldar that I recently denounced as being 'like doing A-Level Maths homework' and the self-same Eldar that I've only ever used four times previously.

So how did it go? Well, after three games I have two points out of a maximum of sixty (seems worse when you put it like that) and I am currently on -4,100 victory points. The first two games were actually good fun and actually quite close (honestly) and I was close to a few more game-points.

Game one saw me facing a Space Marines army consisting half-a-dozen Dreadnoughts, a couple of Predators and eight Land Speeders, all tooled up with heavy bolters. This game was Annihiliation and was actually quite close for three or four turns, but once my transports & Falcons were downed, things went south pretty quickly.

In the second game I faced a Genestealer / double-Tervigon swarm Tyranid list. I made a good set-up and started first, but didn't kill enough Genies in the first two turns, so when he got into contact with my forces it was a foregone conclusion.

Finally, my plucky Eldar faced the Tau Empire in the third game of the day in a dawn of war race for five objectives. Now then I thought, surely this was my chance to shine? Nope. Turns out this Tau army consisted almost entirely of battlesuits (fifteen I counted) and a Kroot meat-shield. It was ballistic overkill. All my tanks were wrecked by midway through turn two, and though I protected my scoring troops as best I could, my retarded set-up (caused by tiredness) had doomed me from the start.

So, have I learnt anything? Well, I know that me and the Eldar will be infrequent bedfellows in the future, that's for certain! After the tournaments this week and next, they will be going back into their spirit-stone beds for a long, long rest, and I will concentrate on armies that suit my neanderthal mentality a bit more - namely Tyranids (loadsa big bugz!), Squats-as-IG (loadsa big tankz!) and Pre-Heresy World Eaters (loadsa, umm, three-up saves). I've realised I don't have the attention to detail or chess-player mind to cope with the Eldar glass hammer. That said, don't get me wrong - it's been a fun day and I am really looking forward to continuing the tournament tomorrow!

A matter of 125 points?

So my blog wars list is complete and although I know Gav has misgivings I am going to see how 3 packs of missile long fangs deal at Maelstrom with their excess of line of site blocking terrain.

With that put to aside I am left considering my new regular tournament list and the issue of the elite section of more so whether or not a rifleman dread is the way to go?

The first thought I had was to put yet another rune priest in there taking me up to 3. With that I can cover the majority of the board with antipsyker defence and by adding in another chooser of the slain and living lightning which is basically an autocannon. I'd also probably include tempest wrath which gives you another string to your bow and finally I would increase another However of course there are no guarantees that you are going to get a decent amount of shots from living lightning and rune priests aren't the toughest of units.

So another option is an extra las plas razorback to use in dawn of war games for ferrying long fangs where you need them, I'd then have spare points for putting a another wolf guard on my smallest pack. However its not as killy as the dreadnought.

The final option I am thinking of and this is after seeing Tim the head of the ETC team moving over to the dark side of wolves and running Lone Wolves, I could have one chain fist storm shield storm shield and another wolf guard.

I don't have a 1750 point tournament coming up any time soon so it leaves time to think through the options and play test them. As normal I look forward to comments.

Simo's going to blog wars

So I've just requested a ticket from the boys at From the Fang.

I wasn't going to go but thanks to a change in plans I will be able to make it.

I'm going to go ahead and use my Bjorn list but it means I've got a bit of painting to do in the up and coming half term.

So no my to do list
paint 3 wolf guard
paint 5 missile launchers
base all these models
finish off my 2 speeders
make a lasplas turret

hopefully I'll get in another couple of practice game before hand so if anyone fancies one tomorrow or earlyish on Sunday let me know!

Making Plans for Njal

Hmm, how many times have I already used that title? Has anyone outside of the UK actually heard of the song Making Plans for Nigel by XTC?

Tonight, I'm helping Andy playtest his list for Blog Wars. Unfortunately due to work commitments recently I'm not going to be playing at Blog Wars. I've also had concussion this week so I've not really had much time to think about a list. So, I'm going to do what you should never, ever do - I'm nicking a list off the internet. Part of creating a list is understanding how it all works together so just taking a 'net list takes away this level of understanding. Here's. the list, it's a slightly cut down version of Tony Kupach's Adepticon winning list

Njal

5 Wolf Scouts, Meltagun
5 Wolf Guard, 5 Combi-Meltas, 5 Power Fists

8 Grey Hunters, Meltagun, Wolf Standard, Rhino
8 Grey Hunters, Meltagun, Wolf Standard, Rhino
8 Grey Hunters, Meltagun, Wolf Standard, Rhino
7 Grey Hunters, Meltagun, Wolf Standard, Rhino
5 Grey Hunters, Meltagun, Razorback, Lascannon/Twin-Linked Plasma Gun

5 Grey Hunters, Meltagun, Razorback, Lascannon/Twin-Linked Plasma Gun

5 Long Fangs, 4 Rocket Launchers
5 Long Fangs, 4 Rocket Launchers

All I've done is ditched a Long Fang pack and added in an extra Grey Hunter. The Wolf Guard split up to join the big Grey Hunter packs and the Scouts who either Infiltrate or go Behind Enemy Lines depending on the opponent and mission (actually, I've got no idea what Andy is bringing - he's been flipping between 'nids/Mephiston/Pedro/Lysander)

I've been reading Stelek's concept of the 4+2 recently and this list seems to fulfil it perfectly - the 4 Rhino squads head off to midfield while the Razorback units protect the Long Fangs and form a firebase. Now, I'm not claiming that I understand the list completely. For example I'm not sure why he took Njal over 2 regular Rune Priests. However, I think I understand it enough to be able to give Andy a good game with it tonight...

The smaller the points the harder the game

So I've been reading a lot of Ard Boyz lists at the moment and I'm sat here thinking how lucky American 40k players are to have such a high points limit.

I certainly find that the bigger the points the easier it is to write a list. For apocolypse games I never agonise over what I take, maybe thats because its not like the result matters but more likely its just a case of not having to make the hard decisions over what I want in my list.

Writing my summer skirmish list was difficult but not too bad because I expect to see a majority of troops there and in grey hunters we have the best troop choice in the game but writing a 1500 points list for the first company vets tournament is a nightmare.

To write a smaller list than you normally use you have two options, either rewrite from scratch or try and tone down a larger list to fit the points total.

Every list I write has the same core, larg(er) grey hunter squads, long fangs and at least a rune priest and its the same for 99.9% of Space Wolf tournament armies out there.

The problem is getting sucked into listening to others all the time and losing what you enjoy to play with. There are some excellent list writers on the internet but these ideas then get repeated so much that they stop people trying something a little differen't.

My question to you readers is how do you go about writing a list and what points level do you most prefer?

All I ask is that it's AWESOME!

Codex reviews/unit reviews; I love them. I love to read them on people's blogs and I love to listen to them on people's podcasts. All of them inspire me to try out new units in armies I already play and many of them flip that little internal switch that triggers my “that's going to be my next army” gene. Often the reviewers come up with ways to use units that I hadn't previously considered and again that just makes me wish I played more often than once a week, and recently I've been struggling to manage even that!

Something which crops up consistently though, which is beginning to grate on me a bit, is reviewers suggesting ways to “correct” the “flaws” in a particular unit. For example “Those Grey Knight Terminators are OK but if they could take Storm Shields and assault on the turn they deep strike in they would be awesome!” or “Well, Coteaz is a solid HQ choice but for his stat line I feel he is rather over-costed.” … OK those are not real examples but it's not a million miles off some of the stuff I have read/listened to recently and to both of those and comments like them I say “Poppycock!”.

You heard me. People do still say that, look it up in the Urban Dictionary. No you don't get a link, it's your language, use it or lose it.

I'm not going to start stating the obvious stuff about how units compliment each other and compensating for a unit's weakness elsewhere in your list is one of the ways to build effective armies. I'm not going to go into this because the guys who do unit reviews usually put this in the paragraph after they wish-list how to make the unit perfect and,more importantly, because I'm not really any good at it. Have you ever read one of my lists? I'm not shy about posting them!

Now this is not meant to be a criticism of the guys who review Codices. I love your work, keep it up, it inspires me even though you are pushing me closer to bankruptcy on a daily basis. But please lets just consider how boring the game would be if every unit in every Codex was tuned to perform it's job to absolute perfection. Assault units would all rock power weapons, have 3++ saves and access to re-rolls across the board. Anti-infantry fire support units wouldn't get out of bed for anything less than a 24”, assault 2 S6 rending weapon that ignores cover.

I think we can all agree that would be pretty boring.

However with all that said there are still units out there which are widely recognised as being so devoid of use that they NEVER see the light of day. In the spirit of this article, have you ever found an effective use for one of these units? For example have you managed to come up with a use for the Pyrovore beyond being an unattractive paperweight? Or have you employed Mandrakes and never once wished that GW had just given Dark Eldar Genestealers? Please leave comments below.

Reserving the majority of your army - is it ever a good idea in 40k?

So over the past year both Andy and Graham have played against me in games which saw them start the majority of their army in reserve and I have to say that they have been some of my most comprehensive victories and both are good players so what's the thinking behind this tactic?

Against a shooty army which even with my Thunderwolves I sort of had it just means that I can go for one target at a time. Early on when I was learning to play one of the members of the first company veterans described 40k as a game of attrition, you look for the most potent threat and hit it until its gone and this was no different to that. There was so little on the board that I could concentrate 10 missile launchers and a dose of living lightning on one falcon and eventually they are going to die.

So my question for you claws and fists readers and in what circumstances do you think reserving more than 65% of your army is acceptable?

Really looking forward to playing tonight

So since open war I havent really played as I said on here I didn't want to use my old list any more and I've been too busy (or lazy) to really put the time into building the models to use in my new list but now I'm happy to say that I am ready to.

I got into a bit of a rut with my thunderwolves, simple just charge them up the middle and go for whatever comes first and hope they have enough to take it out but I need to stop thinking like this.

So its time for a new pledge,

I plan to think out deployment far more than I currently do. I think its the hardest aspect of the game to get right, I need to concentrate on my opponents deployment more as well.

The decline of high strength

The higher the strength the better the weapon surely and yet in the modern 40k meta game not so much, but why is this the case.

I've spoke before about needing a change in mentality for my long fangs moving away from thinking about needing to destroy vehicles and instead just slowing vehicles and stopping them from shooting my army. I decided to take this a step further with my latest incarnation of wolves by including an autocannon toting dreadnought.

Because of this I went to pick up a pair of autocannons from Warhammer world this weekend only to find the left to be totally out of stock so why are autocannons with their subpar strength so desired?

Well partly its down to the new Grey Knights codex and the cost of a psyfleman dread which obviously has strength 8 but still in a Wolf army they are a common feature. This has to be a continuation of the idea of supressing fire, for 4 shots they aren't a massive target for the enemy but they still have a good chance of hitting and causing a glancing hit (mathhammer is not my strong suit). So because of this Im going to be adding a autocannon dread into my new list.

Options for the Summer Skirmish

In August, Tim of Team Scotland is organising the Summer Skirmish, which is a two-day, 13(!) game tournament to be held at Maelstrom Games in Mansfield. What makes this tourney unique is that each player will only be bringing 500pts, with virtually no restrictions apart from:

- No unique units

- No > 2 wound units (or possibly characters - this is to be confirmed)

- No duplicated/triplicated Heavy/Fast/Elite choices (though vehicle squadrons are allowed)

- 1 Troops choice is mandatory; no HQ necessary (though may be selected)

So as I see it, this tournament could be a great way to try out a new army. I've already decided that my usual force of Chaos Space Marines will be given a rest. So my choice will have to come from either the Eldar, the Squats or the Tyranids.

If I bring Eldar, my preferred selection will be two small squads of 6 x Dire Avengers (including Exarch) in Wave Serpents. The plan here would be to operate an alternating Bladestorm assault, with the heavy weapons on the Serpents hopefully cracking open transports so the Avengers can shoot what is inside.

With the Squats (counting as IG), I would continue along the long-ranged theme. I would bring the following:

1 x Ancestor Lord (counts as Primeris Psyker)

10 x Long-Beards (count as Veterans) with 3 x Plasma Guns

2 x Skyhammer Flak-Tanks (count as Hydras)

1 x Skylord Airship (counts as Vendetta)

The plan here would be to kill transports and tanks with the Skylord's three Lascannon and with the twin-linked Autocannon on the Flak Tanks. The Ancestor Lord and the Veterans would fly in the Vendetta, then gun down the unavoidable Space Marines with the Plasma Guns, Lasguns (how embarrassing for our power-armoured chums) and with the psyker's Loightning Arc (2D6 Str.6 hits at 24" should be ample!).

If I decided on Tyranids, I would probably go for a big screen of Termagants providing protection for a decent-sized unit of Genestealers. I'd need something to crack tanks open with this force, so possibly Hive Guard would make an appearance too.

My attempt at a blogwars list

So I dont think I will be going to blogwars but I am going to play against Grazer on thursday with his list so here's what I will use.

HQ
Bjorn with a plasma cannon
Rune Priest
Living Lightning and Murderous Hurricane
Chooser

Elites
3 Wolf guard
1 with combi plasma
2 with combi melta
all three with power fists

Troops
3 7 man Grey hunter squads
all with Wolf standards and mark of the wulfen
2 with Meltas 1 with plasma
in rhinos

1 6 man squad with a flamer and mark of the wulfen
in a lasplas razorback

Fast attack
2 landspeeders with flamers and meltas

Heavy support
3 6 man long fang packs missiles all round.

Summer Skirmish ideas

So Tim who ran the Caledonian open has come up with an idea that has really grabbed me.

A 500 point tournament with 13 games over one and a half days which is pool based. There can be no high armour vehicles (total can be no higher than 34) and no armour save 2 and no characters (possibly upgraded to models) with more than 2 wounds. You don't need a HQ just 1 troop choice so where can I go?

I'm thinking about a small squad of grey knights.

2 strike squads, with razorbacks and psybolt ammo
1 psyfleman dread

that still leaves 65 points which I would have to think how to spend but overall at 500 points I think that list can deal out enough fire to demech troops and unless you are coming up against some big blob squads of orks or nids there aren't much which will take a strike squad in combat.

For the wolves I thought about something like this

Grey hunters x 5
melta gun
mark of the wulfen
wolf standard
razorback
Grey hunters x 5
flamer
mark of the wulfen
wolf standard
razorback
long fangs x 4
3 Missile lanucher
dreadnought
2 x twin linked autocannon

Certainly more on the table, but not the same punch in close combat (although a wolf standard is a great balancing tool). Might have to trial both.

As always constructive criticism is wanted.

Art and 40k, the musings of a tired mind!

Being something of an insomniac I am given to surfing the internet until silly hours of the morning (even on a week night!) and then mulling over a seemingly endless list of things that seem to pop into my head for no apparent rhyme or reason.

On one such late-night internet trawling session I managed to end up watching the music video to a song by Deftones called “Bored”. This is one of the pivotal (to me anyway) songs of my late teen years and listening to it again brought back all the feelings I loved about listening to metal when I was a bit younger J. I’d always wondered what Chino was singing about so I googled the lyrics and up they came. More interestingly though, on the site I’d clicked through to there was a discussion thread talking about what the song was about. One guy in particular had gone into great detail about how the song was conveying the day-to-day frustration of being an infant and unable to communicate. In fact he had gone as far as to break the song down, line-by-line, to explain why he thought this. Of course this elicited the usual net-rage, in this case about how Chino wouldn’t write songs about being a baby and that it was obviously all about coming off drugs. To me it was just about the frustration of being a hormonal teenager, not being a great thinker I’d just seized on the chorus and run with it!

This guy and his deconstruction of the song lyrics got me thinking about art and how different people get wildly different things out of it. Who knows what Chino was trying to convey (at a deeper level other than simply being bored) when he wrote the song, that’s personal to him and I’ve never seen him talk about it anywhere. Clearly the guy with the “baby theory” had some well reasoned arguments to support his theory taken from the full lyrics of the song, but if you know the song it’s far from conclusive. So all we can say about that is that his interpretation is what he got out of the song and that meaning that he had derived probably says as much about him as it does the composer, likewise the guy who related it to coming off drugs, or me who was a frustrated teenager at the time I heard it so it’s not hard to make the connection there.

So what’s all this got to do with 40k? Well, after I went to bed I continued to ponder the nature of art, how it is presented by artists and how we interpret and appreciate it, when the sort of tangential leap that can only come to a person who is truly tired and not working on all his cylinders, and I began to think about how Army Lists could be seen as a form of art. People post them on the internet and people criticise them. The writer of the list may or may not be forthcoming in thinking behind their construction of the list, their motivation. If he is not then we are left to draw our own conclusions on how the list is designed to work, if at all!

With lists that fit certain “cookie-cutter” types it’s easier to see the tactics required to make the list work, for example MSU or Horde, in the same way that everyone can appreciate a picture of a nice sunset or a beautiful model. But it is all too easy to dismiss a list that does not fit an accepted stereotype as being ill-conceived, particularly when you do not understand the thinking behind it. Perhaps the writer is a hack, or just doesn’t optimise his lists for competitive play, but just maybe, you have not properly understood the master-stroke of tactical genius locked within the list and, like Van-Gough’s art, the genius of it will only be truly appreciated long after it was created, if at all!

MIA at the moment

So what have I been up to for the last couple of weeks?

Well marking coursework mainly but also trying to get my wolves up to an acceptable level.

Other than that I have been working on my squad for the first company vets squad painting comp and I am hoping that one of the other boys will bring a camera tomorrow so they can get photo'd for the blog because my camera is in Tenerife with my Mam and Dad.

At least I can tell you what I done, I've moved away from power armour and gone for the forgeworld Renegade command squad which I have really enjoyed painting

One problem I had with them was that the autogunner was broken when I got it but when I took it back they were kind enough to change the one model for a complete new set so I'll have another chance to paint them again.

The only disappointment with the job I have done is with the basing. I've gone for a fairly standard snow base which isn't much different from what I do on my table top army. Will I win? I doubt it but it certainly shows how far my painting has come.

If you are interested in seeing them in the flesh have a look in the Warhammer World clubs cabinet in the main hall if you are about and hopefully look out for pics on here.

Blog-War Ensemble

Hi all,

After returning from a great week on holiday in Cornwall (variously eating, surfing, drinking and falling off cliffs into the sea), I have returned home and immediately booked myself onto the Blog Wars Tournament.

I will be bringing along my now-trusty Chaos Space Marines tournament force, which has already had two outings at Maelstrom tourneys already. My quandary is now, which character to bring along. I vary rarely use named characters, so I need to get to work reading my CSM codex, and I'll post my final army list here next weekend, so watch this space!

The Blog Wars Dilemma

I've got off my lazy butt, put my money down and bought myself a ticket to Blog Wars on the 5th of June and I'm looking forward to it. I'm a big fan of the Special Characters angle, I always like to take one in my lists when a tournament allows it and here, we are REQUIRED to take one.

With so many tournaments banning Special Characters I like to make the most of these rare opportunities and so I have a bit of a dilemma in my choice. I'm torn between three lists from three Codexes: Space Marines, Blood Angels and Tyranids.

Take a look and let me know what you think:

Codex: Space Marines

HQ
Forgefather Vulkan He'stan

Elite
Ironclad Dreadnought
Melta Gun, Heavy Flamer; Drop Pod
Dreadnought
Multi Melta, Heavy Flamer; Drop Pod
Terminator Assault Squad
5x Thunder Hammer & Storm Shields

Troops
Tactical Squad
(10) Meltagun, Multi Melta, Combi-Melta, Power Fist; Drop Pod
Scout Squad
(5) Combat Blades, Combi-Melta, Power Fist

Fast Attack
Land Speeder Typhoon
Multi-Melta, Typhoon Missile Launcher
Land Speeder Typhoon
Multi-Melta, Typhoon Missile Launcher
Land Speeder Storm
Heavy Flamer

Heavy Support
Land Raider Redeemer
Extra Armor, Multi-Melta
Devastator Squad
(5) 4x Missile Launcher

This list is in because I painted up the Forgeworld Huron model as my “counts as” Vulkan model and I've only gotten to use it once. Vulkan is a bad-ass in assault and joins the Termies in the Land Raider. The Devs and Typhoons provide fire support and the Dreads are dropping turn 1 to cause some havoc and blow up heavy armour. The scoring units sit in reserve and try not to die!


Codex: Blood Angels

HQ
Librarian
Shield of Sanguinius, Unleash Rage

Elite
Brother Corbulo & 1x Sanguinary Priest
Terminator Assault Squad
(5) 4x Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield, 1x pair Lightning Claws

Troops
Assault Squad
(5) inc. Sergeant w. Power Weapon; Razorback w. Lascannon and TL Plasmagun
Assault Squad
(5) inc. Sergeant w. Power Weapon; Razorback w. Lascannon and TL Plasmagun
Assault Squad
(10) 2x Meltagun, Sergeant w. Power Fist; Land Raider Redeemer, Extra Armor, Multi-Melta

Heavy Support
Dreadnought
2x Twin Linked Autocannon
Dreadnought
Multi Melta, Heavy Flamer
Devastator Squad
(5) 1x Lascannon, 3x Missile Launcher; Razorback w. Twin Linked Lascannon

Mephiston is just too obvious and I'm painting 'nids at the moment so I've not got time to paint up a Death Company unit to get Lemartes so Corbulo is in. In this list the Termies are on foot accompanied by Corbulo to provide bubble-wrapping or area denial/flank protection. The Devs, Rifleman and Plasma-backs are the fire support and the Librarian and Priest go with the Assault Squad in the Land Raider to give me a credible, mobile assault threat. The MM Dread is just because S10 and walking Multi Meltas are relatively cool things.

Codex: Tyranids

HQ
Tervigon
Scything Talons, Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs, Catalyst

Elite
Doom of Malan'tai
Mycetic Spore
Hive Guard Brood (2)
Hive Guard Brood (2)

Troops
Tervigon
Toxin Sacs, Catalyst
Termagant Brood (10)
Genestealer Brood
(7) Toxin Sacs, inc. Broodlord

Fast Attack
Ravener Brood
(6) Rending Claws
Spore Mine Cluster (3)
Spore Mine Cluster (3)

Heavy Support
Biovore Brood (2)
Trygon Prime
Adrenal Glands
Trygon
Adrenal Glands

Finally we have Hive Fleet Eyechiwawa. I'm play-testing nids at the moment so I'm not sure if this will be effective but I like the idea of two Tervigons supporting two Trygons. The Hive Guard are must-haves for ranged transport popping. Spore mines are disruption (see Fritz, I love the idea) and Biovores are because TheBaron said so! Doom in a pod is in to be my required Special Character (though I could be talked into using Deathleaper). The Raveners support the Trygons to stop them getting bogged down in big units and the Genestealers can also chip in or infiltrate/outflank as necessary. It's not your standard 'nid list but I don't want to run the 3 Trygons and 3 Tervigons list.

So there you go, the nids are probably a no-go simply because nothing is painted yet and I don't even have all the models built or purchased yet and with only a month left it would take an enormous effort to get the list finished which seems unlikely at the mo. Though I am very into the nids at the moment so you never know!

I will play-test the C:SM list this week because I would like to get the Vulkan model to the table again but so far I have enjoyed the Blood Angels list and will probably end up taking this one to Blog Wars in the end.

Anyone got any comments or thoughts?

The List...

The List Well Boys and Girls, after months and months I've finally written a Dark Eldar list for my Kroot. This is  what I'll be working towards building over the next  few months so stay tuned... Duke Sliscus
The Duke
Haemonculus
Haemonculus (50), Venom Blade (5)
Wych Squad
10 x Wyches (100), 2 x Shard Net (20), Hek (10), Agoniser (20)
Raider (60), Shock Prow (5)
Wych Squad
10 x Wyches (100), 2 x Shard Net (20), Hek (10), Agoniser (20)
Raider (60), Shock Prow (5)
Warrior Squad
20 x Warriors (180), 2 x Splinter Cannon (20), Syb (10), Venom Blade (5)
Warrior Squad
5 Warriors (45), Blaster (15)
Venom (55), Splinter Cannon (10)
Warrior Squad
5 Warriors (45), Blaster (15)
Venom (55), Splinter Cannon (10)
Wracks
4 Wracks (40)
Jet Bike Squad
3 x Jet Bikes (66),  Heat Lance (12)
Jet Bike Squad
3 x Jet Bikes (66),  Heat Lance (12)
Jet Bike Squad
3 x Jet Bikes (66),  Heat Lance (12)
Ravager
Ravager (105), Night Shield (10), Flicker Field (10)
Ravager
Ravager (105), Night Shield (10), Flicker Field (10) Ravager Ravager (105), Night Shield (10), Flicker Field (10) TheBaron Out

The War Skiff

Well boys and girls, it's been a while since I wrote anything on here and I'd like to say that's because I've been busy building and painting an army..or doing other hobby related things...but that would be a lie.

Basically my new job keeps me incredibly busy and so I dont get to do any hobby related things in the week, and even blogging is difficult, however, I am still around, and still very much into all things 40k. So, as a quick peek at the latest hobby work I give you the Kroot War Skiff for my counts and DE army:

Well thoughts and oppinions are appreciated as always. it still needs a bit of work to finish it off but its about 90% done..and just fyi the Bantha-II Skiff was inspiration for the design...

TheBaron