Old Faithful for Open War?

I think I want to stick with Blood Angels for the forseeable future, but the awesome power of the Thunderfire cannon keeps pulling me back to Codex Space Marines. Seeing as how none of you were particularly inspired by my last Blood Angels lists let's see if this grinds your gears:

1750pts of Codex Space Marines

HQ
Librarian
TDA, Storm Shield w. Gate of Infinity & Null ZOne

ELITE
Terminator Assault Squad
(5) 5x Thunder Hammer & Storm Shields
Dreadnought
2x TL Autocannons
Dreadnought
2x TL Autocannons

TROOPS
Tactical Squad
(10) Meltagun, Lascannon, Power Fist w. Combi-Melta; Razorback w. Lascannon & TL Plasmagun
Scout Squad
(5) 4x Combat Blades, Missile Launcher, Camo Cloaks
Scout Squad
(5) 5x Combat Blades

FAST ATTACK
Land Speeder Squadron
(2) 2x Typhoon Missile Launchers
Land Speeder
Multi Melta
Land Speeder
Multi Melta

HEAVY SUPPORT
Land Raider
2x TL Lascannon, TL Heavy Bolter, Multi Melta, Extra Armour
Thunderfire Cannon

THe basic plan is gunline it and use the Terminators to counter assault or gate about with the Libby to cause trouble. Basic Scout Squad go in the Land Raider, now I have an AV14 scoring unit with good ranged fire-power, the lascannon combat squad supports the TFC in the backfield, hopefully in reinforced cover. Camo Cloak Missile Launcher Scouts are a relatively hard to kill distraction and the melta combat squad are inthe las-plas razorback ready the go wherever they are needed to threaten heavy armour or elite infantry. The two Riflemen are self explanitory, the sit at the back with the typhoons and dish out dakka, and the melta speeders suicide towards heavy armour or are used for blocking.

Any thoughts from the cloud?

My continued thoughts on Grey Knights

So the summer holidays are upon us and my first Grey Knights are now complete.

I now have 5 purifiers and 2 Dreadnoughts with no arms ready to kill the enemies of the emperor and today I went and ordered an inquisitor model from Warhammer world to pick up on Thursday.

However I continue to think about my list, I'm quite happy with the core of it,
the xenos inquisitors with their grenades to go with purifiers
the strike squads in razorbacks
the ubiquitous psfleman dreads

The problem comes with worries about dealing with AV14 and especially multiples of them. I commented on it as I first read the GK codex, how much anti heavy armour can you really get into a list?
The main thing with all the top tournament lists is redundancy and I just can't figure out how to fit some redundancy for my anti AV14. The clear choice is the vindicaire, however with no eternal warrior even a 4 up invulnerable isn't going to keep you alive for long when facing multiple long fangs units or vendetta spam.

So we also have acolytes with meltas, the problem is that you only have 3 melta guns in your unit and you also need to have multiples of this unit to keep them alive because unless your opponent is an idiot it will be the prime target for him. So it leads me to my latest thoughts, not bothering, hoping to get lucky with psycannons and using strength 10 hammer hits.

So over to you readers, how do you deal with high armour with Grey knights?

'The End Times' 40k Tournament

A new tournament, 'The End Times', has just been announced on the First Company Veterans events forum. It will be held on the weekend of August 20th- 21st at Warhammer World, costs £42 (including lunch each day) and comprises eight games at various points levels, those being 1000pts, 1500pts and 2000pts. Unlike other mixed-points tournaments, lists can be varied between those levels, thus allowing properly focussed armies to be used. More info can be found on the Rankings HQ website:
http://www.rankingshq.com/public/tournamentprofile.aspx?TournamentId=2106

Has anyone heard of this tournament before, or even attended? I'm tempted...

Blood Bowl, it's a game of two halves.

I'm four games into the round robin stage of our club's bloodbowl league. The paint job on the team is coming along nicely but the performance on the pitch leaves a lot to be desired! So far I'm without a win in 4 games, however, two of my losses have been close and my team is progressing nicely with four players having gained a skill all ready! I think I'm knocking on the door of my fisrst win but I have to face an Elf team next week and I fear speed based teams above all else!

Anyway, I thought I'd recap on my season so far by giving you so0me highlits and a match report from my most recent game against a Skaven team, The Green Peak Packers:

Starting line-up - 4 Blitzers, 4 Black Orks, 1 Throwers, 2 Linemen, 3 Rerolls and 1 Fan Factor
Update: Game 4 - Fired 1 Blitzer (-1MA). Bought 1x Blitzer and 1x Lineman

Played: 4
W/L/D: 0/4/0
TDs (for/against): 2/9
Casualties (for/against): 5/5

Recent Results:
1-4 vs Quexecotl Slithrers
1-2 vs Green Peak Packers

Team News:
"Lame" Bolts Blitzer sent to the glue factory.
- Injured Bolts Blitzer, Gag Throttlesnot, did not appear for training this week. When asked for comment Head Coach, Marv Teefsnatcher said "We definitely didn't kill 'im."
Bolts Break Bank, Buying Blitzer and Balast.
- Despite their recent run of poor form on the pitch, Da Bolts have been receiving significant financial dontations from members of the players' and coaching staff's families. These donations have allowed the purchase of a new Blitzer, to replace the mysteriously absent Gag Throttlesnot, and an extra Lineman to add depth to their roster. When questioned about gambling irregularities, Bog, mother of Da Bolts star Blocker "Mung", was quoted as saying "I always bet against them, they're a load of rubbish."

Match Report: Game 4 vs The Green Peak Packers.

Game two of a Thursday afternoon double-header, and game 4 of the RRT, was against the Green Peak Packers. Even more speed than the Slitherers but much less bash, surely Da Bolts would be able to come away from this one with at least a bonus point.

Sadly Flash Git did not seem to want anything to do with the ball for the second game running and two handling errors early on gave away two soft scores in the first half. On a more positive note a serious injury had befallen one of the line-rats and he would be at -1MA from now on thanks to a rather unpleasant block from Burk, the Black Orcs really have been living up to their reputation and putting in the hard work on the line. So that really was the story of the first half, two more fumbles by Da Bolts thrower and Burk laying the smack down. Surely Da Boltz were due for a change in fortunes in the second half but kicking the ball away would put them in a tough situation from the get-go.

The second half started with a deep kick straight into the paws of a waiting Gutter Runner on the Packers' backfield. Not a great start but this was to be a half full of bad behaviour from the mean greenies. The Packers decided to try and move the ball down the right side of the field behind the blocking of their Rat Ogre. As usual the Black Orcs owned the line of scrimmage and crucially the Orcs out wide on the far side of the field were able to cut off the option of a reverse … or at least make it look less attractive!

A couple of big blocks made the difference here, firstly a mob of Boyz made a bee line for the Rat Ogre and put him down, to be honest the big fellah had been a bit distracted all half so he was at least no less use on the floor than he had been on his feet up to this point. Then a big blitz from TD hero of the last game – Rip Edsplitta, who put a mighty blow on another Rat consigning him to the Injury bin and needing the swift attention of the team apothecary to stave off long term ill effects! All this action put the ball carrier in a cage with a decidedly green tinge to it and with his escape route to the far side of the field cut off by some more angry looking Orks he decided to consolidate as far away as possible from the nearest Orks and hope the cavalry didn't spend too long nursing their wounds on the floor.

It wasn't long before the inevitable happened though and the Orks saw to it that the was ball returned to their blood-stained mitts and number 8 Gaz Bonethrasha ran it in for a consolation score. That little event had taken up most of the second half, so a win was off the cards but two turns to try and salvage a bonus point on casualties didn't seem out of the realms of possibility. Sadly however those damn rats proved to be more resilient than they looked and the Orcs were forced to leave the field with nothing to show for their efforts.

A 4th loss in a row and some serious soul searching is needed by the team and coaching staff to try and stop the rot. Drastic measures were taken in the firing of injured Blitzer, Gag Throttlesnot, who had been nursing an injury since game 1 and the surprisingly rich Bolts were able to buy a direct replacement and a new Lineman to bulk out the roster. Somehow, best known only to the Associated Press who voted for the award, Boltz thrower, Flash Git won the MVP and earned a skill up, taking Block – at least he can do something even if he can't pick the ball up! Also gaining a skill was Gaz Bonethrasher who took Guard.

It's been a tough first 4 games but the fans are behind them and if that's not sufficient motivation to turn the corner then perhaps actually letting the fans get hold of a few of them will be!

A Tale of two Lists

I'm trying to come up with a Blood Angles list for the knock-out stage of our Club's 40k Tournament. There are some comp restrictions I have to work with which basically boil down to: no special or unique characters and in order to take multiple choices in Elites, Fast Attack & Heavy Support you must first have one choice in each FOC slot. Oh and it's a 1500pt competition.

With this in mind I present the following two lists for your consideration:

Offensive

HQ
Librarian
Jump Pack w. Blood Lance & Unleash Rage

ELITE
Chaplain
Sanguinary Priests
(2) 1x Jump Pack

TROOP
Assault Squad
(10) 2x Meltaguns 1x Power Fist
Scouts
(5) Combat Blades 1x Missile Launcher, Camo Cloaks
Death Company
(6) 1x Power Fist, 1x Power Weapon; Land Raider Redeemer w. Extra Armour & Multi Melta
Death Company Dreadnought
Blood Talons

FAST ATTACK
Land Speeder
Multi Melta

HEAVY SUPPORT
Storm Raven
TL Multi Melta, TL Assault Cannon, Extra Armour

Fragile scoring capability but the Death Company in the Land Raider and DC Dread in the Storm Raven will hit hard and need to be the focus of your opponent's attention early on affording your fragile Troop units a little more protection.

Defensive

HQ
Librarian
Jump Pack w. Unleash Rage and Fear of the Darkness

ELITE
Sanguinary Priests
(2) 1x Jump Pack w. Melta Bomb
Furioso Dreadnought
Blood Talons

TROOP
Assault Squad
(10) 2x Meltaguns 1x Power Fist
Assault Squad
(10) 2x Flamers 1x Power Fist
Assault Sqaud
(5) Land Raider w. Multi Melta

FAST ATTACK
Land Speeder
Multi Melta
Land Speeder
Multi Melta

HEAVY SUPPORT
Storm Raven
TL Multi Melta, TL Plasma Cannon, Extra Armour

More defensive this one with durable and versatile scoring units combined with nasty counter assault units that can go on the offensive

Have at it all!

Da Boltz Progress Update

I got a little time this evening to kick off painting my Orc Blood Bowl team. The Black Orcs have been undercoated black as they are heavily armoured and I want their skin tone to be significantly darker than the rest of the team to really differentiate them. I dry-brushed the armour areas with Boltgun Metal and then block out the skin areas with Orchide Shade.



The Blitzers, Linemen and Thrower are undercoated white and then washed with Badab Black followed by two washes of Thrakka Green. This is the standard way I paint my ork flesh and I really like how it turns out.






Stay tuned for more!

Yet another sunday morning grey knights list

So here is another go after talking to a few people at yesterdays first company vets Doubles (which was an excellent event even though the turn out was a little low, I acted as a reserve and ended up playing 2 games both of which were enjoyable even though our list was poor because we made it without knowing what each other was taking) and Darren.

So
HQ - Ordo Xenos Inquisitor
Psyker mastery 1
Rad and Psychotroke grenades
3 Servo Skulls

Elites
1 x Vindicaire
2 x Purifier squads with 7 men, 2 Psycannons 4 Halberds and a Daemon Hammer. One of them has psybolt ammo because I don't know what to use 20 extra points on. Both have mastercrafted weapons because again I don't know what to use the last of my points on. The are obviously running about in Rhinos.

Troops
4 x Strike Squads (5 man) a psycannon 2 Halbards and a Daemon hammer in each. Cruising in razorbacks with psybolt ammo.

Heavy support
Honestly what do you expect?
3 Psyfleman dreads

That takes me to 1749 points
4 scoring units
2 heavy hitting close combat units that can deal equally with MEQ using Hammerhand (especially when coupled with the Inquisitors grenades, hitting on 4's wounding on 2's) and hordes with their cleansing flame.
12 twinlinked strength 8 shots
12 twinlinked strength 6 shots
4 psycannons with the strike squads
4 psycannons with the purifiers
and a vindicaire

Now the big problem I see with this list is lack of dealing with heavy AP however I am led to believe that a psycannon is statistically more likely to damage a land raider than a lascannon, I haven't worked out the maths so I cannot be sure and I also have the vindicaire.

So as normal I welcome your input on this list especially with what to do with the points in the red sections.

... and now for something completely different!

I may have mentioned that I'm starting up a Blood Bowl team to take part in the club's League. I've really got the bug and after taking a bit of a stuffing in my first game I was hooked. The dice looked more favourably on me in game 2 with a narrow loss against our very own Baron's Dwarves, but my Orcs put in a much more bashy performance consigning 3 of the little stunties to the seriously injured bin. Hopefully I'll be getting more games in over the next few weeks and in order to ensure that I look my best I've converted up some players (one notable exception, see if you can spot him!):


Black Orcs


Blitzers


Linemen and Thrower


Re-Rolls and Score Counter

BotCh Day 2 and Lessons Learned

After day 1, I was not hopeful for a significant improvement on day 2 but it was a beautiful morning and I'd had a very good game of Blood Bowl against Darren the night before so I was still feeling a little upbeat. So I jumped gamely into my car determined to give it the good old “college” try.

Game 5 vs. Tau
Spearhead/Seize Ground (5 objectives)

Commander in Crisis Suit w. Positional Relay, Ethereal, 3x Crisis Suit Squads (3) Shield Drones, 3x Fire Warrior Squads (8) w. Devilfish, Kroot Squad (10), 2x Broadsides (2) Shield Drones, Hammerhead w. Railgun.

I'm not totally sure about all the options he took but this is pretty much all of the models he had.

Getting 1st Turn was pretty key for me knowing the Railguns would make mincemeat of my vehicles and the Land Raider in particular I managed to get my guys as far across the table as possible. I was also deep striking my Sang Guard so I could get them close and expose them to as little AP1 and AP2 weaponry as possible. Basically the plan went as described and my scoring elements were able to weather the incoming firepower which was reduced by the amount of shots he directed at the de-meched Termies and the deep striking Sanguinary Guard. While both of my assault units were whittled down in the onslaught they both managed to make contact and do their thing against a notoriously poor combat army.

However because of the positional relay the game had a sting in it's tail with two Devilfish loaded with Fire Warriors and the Kroot making an appearance on turn 5. Fortunately the game went 7 turns or I would have been in real danger of only managing a draw. As it was I was able to take out the last vehicles and squads contesting objectives to win 3-0

Game 6 vs. Blood Angels
Dawn of War/Annihilation

Librarian w. Jump Pack, Terminator Assault Squad (5) 2x THSS, 3x LC in Land Raider Redeemer w. Extra Armour & Multi Melta, Sanguinary Priest (2) 1x Jump Pack, Furioso Dreadnought w. Blood Talons and Extra Armour in Drop Pod, 3x Assault Squad (1) 2x Meltagun & Power Fist, Vanguard Vet Sqaud (10) 4x Power Weapon 1x Power Fist, 2x Storm Shield.

I know I made mistakes here, huge ones that really cost me the game. I castled up in cover in the back right corner of my table edge behind some heavy cover trying to get the best cover for my uinits. This made no difference of course because he was deep striking everything and now I could quite easily become cornered while his Terminators arrived. I also decided to get my Terminators out of my “Land Raider” to wrap round it, to what end I have no idea because all it did was give his Vanguard Vets something to Heroic Intervention against and typically I failed three out of four 3++ saves and another 2+ basically removing them as a threat. Really don't know what I was thinking there, total “brain-fart”. Fortunately my Land Raider survived the initial Melta onslaught and could make good use of it's Flamestorm Cannons on the nicely clumped up Assault Squads. However because I was so pinned in by the terrain and the Vanguard combat I could only really get one squad in my sights.

On the right flank my opponent's Terminator squad was easing it's way though Razorbacks and Assault Squads and I was haemorrhaging Kill Points. We got to a point where I could not come back, my Sanguinary Guard unit again did an excellent job in trying to redress the balance but the eventually fell to the massed Power Weapon attacks of the remaining Vanguard. But his against KP efficient list was I was in a hole I could not dig myself out of and the game was effectively over at the end of turn 4. We didn't count up but it finished somewhere around 8-4.

-----------------

So I ended up 36th out of 48 players on 2 wins and 4 losses which was a fair reflection on how I played. Game 5 was by far my best performance tactically with a simple plan executed well and then a good recovery at the end of the game to fend of his late game reserve surge. Game 4 was won thanks to luck and some poor decisions on the part of my opponent who should have punished me for the mistakes I made but was unlucky not to be able to take advantage when it mattered.

As for the other 4 games, what have I learned? Firstly I do not play the shooting game well, I think my natural play-style is assault and the only thing that's holding me back is available models. At 1000pts I just did not have enough killing power and my game plan was too reliant on the manoeuvrability granted by fragile Razorbacks. If I'm going to play a shooting game at distance with Razorbacks, I need to plan to be stationary, but I think I'll build my list differently in the future!

Secondly I need to keep it simple, I tend to build units for certain jobs and then when I'm faced with an opponent I change the plan which breaks the effectiveness of the unit. I think I need to have the courage of my convictions I had when I built the list in the first place and leave it alone on the table top. Trust it will do its job and change the plan only if it is effectively countered.

Lastly I learned that I love Sanguinary Guard, they were by far my best performing unit on the weekend, as such I intend to build my Blood Angels lists with them in mind in future.

While I didn't have great success this weekend the Tournament was a great one and I will be going again next year if I manage to get a ticket in time. The skill is both in the playing of the game and the building of effective lists at all the point levels and I really like that about it and look forward to next year.

BotCh Day 1 - More Detail

As I've already intimated, this wasn't my finest hour but just because I sucked certainly doesn't mean the tournament did. The level of opposition was top notch and the organisation was superb, everything ran to time and the food was excellent, even extending into the evening with a BBQ and plenty of alcohol and bar games!

On to my experience and I suppose I'll start off with my lists which, I think, were a contributor to my downfall. The Tournament was an escalation format with you playing six games in total, two at 1000pts, two at 1500pts and two at 2000pts and at each point level you had to take the previous list unmodified and add 500pts on top, so here's what I took:

1000pts
HQ
Librarian - 100pts
Shield of Sanguinius, Unleash Rage
ELITE
Sanguinary Priest - 125pts
(2) 1x Jump Pack
TROOP
Assault Squad - 280pts
(10) 2x Meltagun, Sgt w. Lightning Claw; Razorback w. Lascannon and Twin-Linked Plasmagun
Assault Squad - 155pts
(5) Razorback w. Lascannon and Twin-Linked Plasmagun
HEAVY SUPPORT
Devastator Squad - 220pts
(5) 4x Missile Launcher; Razorback w. Twin Linked Lascannon
Dreadnought - 120pts
2x Twin-Linked Autocannons

1500pts
ELITE
Sanguinary Guard - 250pts
(5) 1x Power Fist, 1x Infernus Pistol, Chapter Banner
TROOP
Assault Squad - 130pts
(5) 1x Flamer, Razorback w. Dozer Blade & Twin-Linked Heavy Flamer
HEAVY SUPPORT
Dreadnought - 120pts
2x Twin Linked Autocannons

2000pts
ELITE
Terminator Assault Squad - 500pts
(5) 5x Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield; Land Raider Redeemer w. Extra Armour, Multi-Melta & Pintle-mounter Storm Bolter

On with the games:

Game 1 vs. Space Marines
Spearhead/Annihilation

Librarian, Rifleman Dread x2, Scouts (5), Tac Squad (5) w. LasPlas Razorback, Landraider, AutoLas Predator

What are the odds, first game was against Martin from our club, it's always nice to see a friendly face across the table on the first game of a tournament. Sadly Martin was not in a generous mood and his shooting was far more effective than mine. He took out my mobility early on, and with the Razorbacks went a lot of my long range threat so he just kept backing up protecting his kill points. I lost the game 3-0.

Game 2 vs Space Marines
Pitched Battle/Capture & Control (with third 2pt objective in centre)

Chaplain w. Jump Pack, Tactical Squad (10) Meltagun, Lascannon, Razorback, Tactical Squad (10) Plasmagun, Lascannon, Razorback, Assault Squad (10) Power Fist, Devastator Squad (4) 4x Missile Launcher.

The next game was pure frustration, I was out shot and out assaulted. I couldn't make a single cover save and again my strength 9,8 and 7 shots all bounced harmlessly off AV11 targets. It was obvious I'd got my tactics all wrong here I thought I could hold the centre objective with my 10-man assault squad and fend off his assault squad, using razorbacks to block them from his long-range shooting elements but he very skilfully advanced his assault squad so I couldn't get any real shooting on them and ate his way through my back lines.

Cover saves were not kind to my assault squad in the face of massed las cannon, missile launcher and heavy bolter fire and by the time his two combat squads reached me my assault squad was no match for them resulting in a 3-1 loss.

Game 3 vs Imperial Guard
Dawn of War/Seize Ground

Company Comand Squad w. 3x Meltagun & Chimera, Psyker Battle Squad (6+1) Chimera, Blob Squad w. Commissar, Vet Squad 3x Melta w. Chimera, Vet Squad 3x Melta, Vendetta, Vendetta, Valkyrie, Hydra Flak Tanks (3), Hydra Flak Tanks (3)

After two big losses I was not best pleased to see this lot across the table from me, still I had first turn so there was a chance. I elected to take out the “flyers” first which I actually successfully managed however there was no arguing with the effectiveness of the Flak Batteriesas they ate though squads and vehicles in equal measure. I deep struck my Sang Guard squad in to threaten his left flank figuring that with a 2+ save and feel no pain that they would at least absorb a fair amount of his firepower next turn. Sadly I was mistaken as they all fell to the blob squad's 1st rank fire, 2nd rank fire lasgun fire allowing the rest the Guard firepower to focus wholly on the rest of my army. Needless to say it did not go well. It was actually closer than the previous two games but ended 3-1 against again.

Game 4 vs Space Marines
Pitched Battle/Capture and Control

Captain w. Relic Blade & Plasma Pistol, Terminator Assault Squad (5) 5x THSS, Dreadnought w. TL Lascannon & Missile Launcher, 2x Tactical Squads (10) w. Meltagun & Missile Launcher in Drop Pods, Scout Squad (5) w. Sniper Rifles & Missile Launcher, Scout Squad (5) w. Combat Blades &2x Shotguns, Land Speeders (2) w. Meltagun & Assault Cannon, Attack Bikes (2) Multi-Meltas. Predator w. Autocannon and Heavy Bolters

Despite an absolutely atrocious decision on my part in objective placement and deployment I managed a pretty good win out of this. I got first turn and with my opponent deciding to start only his Pred, Dread and Snipers on the table from the start I was able to wipe them all off the board without too much trouble. When his first pod dropped I realised my mistake in my objective placement because he could drop his Tac Squad in their Pod where they could not be seen by 90% of my army and he was within easy walking distance of my objective with only a 5-man assault squad and their Razorback to defend it. Adding to my problems were his Speeders who moved on quickly on Turn 2 to support the Tacs.

Amazingly my Razorback survived the initial assault and I redeployed my Librarian's squad to support the objective which I managed to hold. In the main assault on his objective my two Rifleman Dreads did the early damage with the Sanguinary Guard making the decisive charge to secure the other objective for another Assault Squad who were following up in support. At last a win 2-0 and the end of day 1

Day 2 and reflection tomorrow.

Jealous of Andy - where next with tournaments

So Andy went to Botch last weekend and I'm still waiting for the reports on day 2 however I am really jealous.

I had a ride up to see him on Saturday and to get a pack of Grey Knights which I have painted one and it looked to be a really great event.

Martin a fellow first company vet had already said it was the best event he went to last year so next year it is certainly on the tournament calender for me.

Next up for me and Grazer is Tim's summer skirmish in August but after that the tournament scene around the midlands (when I say that I mean at Maelstrom) seems to dry up, I wish I'd got a ticket for Throne of Skulls but I couldn't have afforded it this month and they sold out too quickly. Next year we will see another Caledonian open early in the year which was a great event followed by the UK GT.

One tournament I am looking forward to next year is The Jolly Toy's outing in February run by the oxford gaming club. This is going to be a Nova style event.

So that's my tournament plans for the next 8 months as well as trying to win the club championship which I am still top of having played more games than anyone else with 3 wins and a loss and I'm playing Andy in my last game this week.

BotCh Day 1

... I'd rather not talk about it.

Let's just say I went 1-3 and am sitting on 30 pts out of a possible 100. What particularly bugs me is that for game 3, despite losing my first 2 games, I was up against a top level tournament player playing leafblower guard (6 Hydras and 2 Vendettas). Huh? My one win of the day came in game 4 and from the bottom table. I'm not hopeful for day 2!

On the up-side I had a great game of Blood Bowl against TheBaron as part of our club's perpetual league. More of this in the future as I'm getting more than a little cheesed off with my complete ineptitude at 40k. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind loosing it's just that when I don't at least offer some resistance to my opponent It is a little embarassing!

Is this the sort of grey knight list we will see on the tournament scene? Input required

So after talking with a fellow first company vet Martin who also happens to be a tournament regular and one of Darren's main targets to flirt with on Thursday night we got talking about nasty Grey Knight armies and this is what he suggested we would see.

Corteaz leading which clearly gives you Henchmen as troops and allows you to re roll your to seize roll and makes your opponent do the same.

3 Psyfleman Ven Dreads

5 5 man Acolyte squads with three melta guns in psybolt Razorbacks
1 8 man death cult assassin squad in a rhino

3 Psyfleman dreads

Comes to 1750 exactly

With that you have 12 vehicles who all will be rarely stunned and shaken
You have 24 twin linked strength 8 shots
You have 15 twin linked strength 6 shots
You have 15 melta gun shots
6 scoring units
and one semi death star unit who have 24 power weapon attacks I 6.

So what do people think, how would that fair at a tournament and how would you deal with it?

A change needed for the tournament scene?

A lot of the tournaments I've been to over the last year have stipulated that no named characters can be taken but I have to ask WHY?

In the current edition of 40K named characters aren't unstoppable monsters, they are generally characters that tailor the aspects of your army like Logan allowing you to take a pure Terminator army.

Now normally this doesn't bother me, I play Wolves and don't use characters because the Rune Priest is the best HQ in the book to me but after studying the Grey Knights Codex I have to question the reasoning to do this.

So many of the Grey Knights lists rely on using special characters and this will lead Grey Knights players to almost needing two armies. So what do people think? Should British tournaments change.

The club championship update

So we are currently into the First company vets 40k club championship and I thought I would update everyone on the standings.

We have a certain time frame to complete our 5 games that will sort seedings so some of us have played more than others

I lie first having player 3 games winning 2 and losing 1
Graham is in third having played 4 games winning 1 and losing 3
While Andy is in fourth with 1 win on the board

next week sees me play against Space Marines, Graham is back up in Scotland so won't be playing and hopefully Andy can update us on what he is playing.

Pics from the Bughouse

As the original pictures I uploaded were a little on the small side, I have reloaded them. Hopefully they are a little clearer this time!

If you like my work and would like to see more (or even pay me to make some scratchbuilt models for you!) then please let me know.

The basic model:

Undercoated:

Finished:

Commenting on Grazer's 'Nids

Graham posted his 'nid list for our tournament below but for some reason it's posted out of sequence so you may have missed it. Rather then just reply to his post I wanted to write a post explaining what I'd tweak and why. I think the list is actually pretty strong but with a few tweaks it could be even more nasty. It's probably not optimised to within an inch of it's life but you've got to play how you want to play and maximum optimisation isn't to everyone's taste.

Anyway, Graham's original post can be found here.

And here's how I would tweak it to make it just a little bit better (IMHO):

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

ELITE
Hive Guard (x2)
Hive Guard (x2)

TROOP
Tervigon
Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs, Cluster Spines, Catalyst
Termagants (x10)
Genestealers (x12)
Toxin Sacs
Genestealers (x12)
Toxin Sacs
Genestealers (x12)
Toxin Sacs

FAST ATTACK
Spore Mines (x3)

HEAVY SUPPORT
Trygon
Adrenal Glands

Changes first, dropped regeneration from the troop Tervigon – overpriced and not hugely effective. Downgraded to a basic Trygon from a Prime as you don't really need additional synapse in this list and dropped regeneration for the reasons stated above. Points saved allow me to bulk up the 'stealers to 12 man units and give them all toxin sacs which is really the only upgrade they need – rerolling wounds on T4 models is better then wounding on 3s and the boost to initiative is not that important for them. Scything talons are not bad but you're hitting on 3's with a huge amount of attacks so re-rolling 1s is a bit of an extravagance! I had 5pts left over so I gave the HQ Tervigon Scything Talons as it's more likely to be used for combat than the troop version.

How would I use this? Well, the Spore mines can be placed to limit his available deployment zone for starters, sure there's only 3 but if you place them well you can make your opponent either have to split his force or clump up, either s a good result. Clumped up means better chance of multi-charge, split means you can refuse a flank and pick off part of his army at a time.

I would definitely infiltrate all of the 'stealer units as close as I can get them. This makes your opponent have to make another choice; whether or not to I focus on trying to wipe out the 'stealers before they get into contact with anything. Of course this will dictate how much fire-power will be aimed at your three monstrous creatures potentially allowing them to close the gap relatively unscathed.

Speaking of the monstrous creatures I would advance them in a phalanx with the Trygon and HQ Tervigon at the front, flanked by the Hive Guard, providing cover to the scoring Tervigon at the back. Both the lead MCs will have feel no pain to increase their durability, i.e. the 3 MCs have at least a 4+ save (AP2+ weapons accepted).

What I wouldn't do with this list is reserve anything, you need target saturation to make your opponent have to make decisions and the more decisions he has to make the more likely he is to make a mistake which is going increase your chances of success.

The only alternative I would consider which would not hugely change the list and play-style would be to consolidate the 3 units of 'stealers into two units of 18. This would allow you to effectively string a the 'stealers back so that they are in range to have feel no pain cast on them which makes them a lot more difficult to whittle down before they hit your opponent's lines.

What do you think Graham and fellow Claws and Fists readers?

MSU with Grey Knights

I'm still thinking about Grey Knights a lot.

Like Space Wolves I have always liked the fluff of the army, Graham pointed out did I really want to start another power armoured army? The answer, yes, Its the Emperor's finest who attracts me to this game. I keep looking at making a Dark Eldar army but they just aren't Marines.

They still sing to me MSU and on Thursday a fellow first company vet was telling me about a Coteaz led army that features 9 Psybolt Razorbacks and 3 Psyfleman dreads. I wouldn't go that far because I would still want a majority power armoured army but I certainly like the style so here's what I think I'm going to build towards.

HQ
Crowe
Elites
Vindicaire Assassin
5 man Acolyte Squad with Melta Guns in a psybolt Razorback (thinking about changing that for a Rhino)
Troops
6 5 man Purifier squads 1 Deamon Hammer, master crafter weapon for the squad leader, 4 Halberds in psybolt razobacks
Heavy Support
3 psyfleman dreads

so 6 scoring units
Vindicaire and Acolyte squad for dealing with heavy armour
21 twin linked strength 6 shots a turn
12 twin linked strength 8 shots a turn
Crowe is there firstly because I like Purifiers, secondly there aren't many power armoured HQ's most are in Terminator armour, thirdly on the charge he is great at taking out enemy HQ's.

So as always I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this.

Big Momma

I have now finished my first Tervigon, and have even used it in a couple of games. Here is a quick guide to how I made the model...

First, I built the body from a plastic dinosaur I bought on holiday last year. The model was just about the right size (approximately 8 inches...ahem...), and had the requisite spikes and spines that Tyranids demand. I took the dinosaur head off as it was a little bit feeble, and repositioned the tail by cutting it in three places, angling the ends and then regluing to get the gentle curve I wanted.

Next, I added the front and rear legs, plus the excellent crushing claws which gave the beast a very menacing demeanour. At the same time I added a Carnifex head, which I imbedded into the carved-out neck cavity of the dinosaur skeleton.

I also had to fill the hollow body of the model, to convert the long-dead bones into the lumbering behemoth it wouls shortly become. To do this, I mixed PVA glue and water in equal quantities, then soaked up the mixture into kitchen roll. I rolled up balls of glue-inpregnated papier-mache and inserted them into the dinosaur's body cavity (slightly reminiscent of stuffing a bird at Christmas, but that's a tale for an entirely different website). The texture on the kitchen-roll gave a satisfyingly leathery skin texture to the belly of the beast. At this stage I also created the head-crest, which I made from flat, approximately 5mm thick strips of modelling clay on a curved piece of see-through plastic superglue blister pack!

Once the model was complete, I undercoated it with grey carpaint and then got to work with the acrylics. The main colour is Citadel's Ice Blue, over which I washed Asurmen Blue ink. The spines and scales were painted Warlock purple, and detailed with increasingly fine lines of lighter purples and finally white.

The last piece of work to do was the base. I use modelling clay to create a lightly textured rocky effect (no sand is used in the making of this model's base), which I then paint light grey and wash with Ogryn Flesh ink. Some dry-brushing helps to pick out the peaks of the rocky crags, and finally flock is added to give a bit of colour and contrast to the otherwise neutral base.

Gun-Zilla

I've now played four times with my Tyranids at 1,500pts, and, following the sage advice of Gav & Darren, I've stuck with the same list in all four games. As they suggested, this has helped me to learn what each constituent part of the army does, and probably more importantly, how each unit supports and complements the others ('synergy', anyone...?).

Very briefly, my army list is:

HQ - Tervigon (with Catalyst etc)

EL - 2 x Hive Guard

EL - 2 x Hive Guard

TR - 10 x Termagants

TR - Tervigon (with Regeneration, Catalyst etc)

TR - 10 x Genestealers

TR - 11 x Genestealers

TR - 12 x Genestealers (with Scything Talons & Adrenal Glands)

FA - 3 x Spore Mines

HVY - Trygon Prime (with Regeneration)

To date, I've had one win and three losses, with all games coming against good, experienced players (my three losses were to Mick's 'Cheese-Fangs', the club-boss' Tau gun-line and a club veteran's CSM army). Firstly, and most importantly, the games have been fun! That has to be the prime consideration of any game. Secondly though, I'm concerned that I'm a little low on two things:

i) Tank-busting guns

ii) Early assault units

What I've found in all my games so far is that it usually takes 2-3 turns to get far enough forward to engage in any meaningful combat, and when the tattered remains of my units do finally get there, the opponent's infantry (most often Marines - it feels like I'm always playing Marines!) are still sitting tight in their Rhino's & Razorbacks. I only have four tank-killing guns in my 1,500pt list, so more Hive Guard or some Zoanthropes are an obvious addition, or possibly the big daddy Gun-zilla himself, the Tyrannofex. What are folks' opinions of this monstrous beast?

My other requirement is to tie up the opponent's big guns earlier, so I'm thinking about the addition of Raveners at the expense of one or two units of Genestealers. I would have to screen these relatively fragile beasts with a line of Termagants, but luckily the Big Mommas are more than up to the task of birthing screening units - indeed, my two Tervigons spawned over a hundred of the lil' critters! Have you, the readers, considered, or used, Raveners? What are your thoughts here?