Vanilla Marines better than Blood Angels!

I've come up with a list using good old Codex: Space Marines that I like more than anything I can seem to come up with in Codex: Blood Angels. Have a look and tell me what you think:

HQ
Librarian
Null Zone, Gate of Infinity

ELITE
Dreadnought
2x Twin Linked Autocannons
Dreadnought
2x Twin Linked Autocannons
Assault Terminators
(5) 5x Thunderhammer & Stormshield; Landraider Redeemer

TROOPS
Tactical Squad
(10) Meltagun, Missile Launcher, Sgt w. Combi-Melta; Razorback w. Lascannon & TL Plasmagun
Tactical Squad
(10) Meltagun, Missile Launcher, Sgt w. Combi-Melta; Razorback w. Lascannon & TL Plasmagun
Scout Squad
(5) Camo Cloaks, Missile Launcher

HEAVY SUPPORT
Predator
Autocannon w. Lascannon Sponsons
Predator
Autocannon w. Lascannon Sponsons
Thunderfire Cannon

So, it's a shooty list with an Assault Terminator counter-punch. The Termies could be gated around to free up the Land Raider to hold Troops in objective games. Scouts are typically held back to bunker down in bolstered ruins or can be held in reserve/outflank to capture objectives late in the game.

The majority of the anti-armour firepower comes from the Preds and Dreads but the Razorbacks will chip in too in the early game before they have to move to deliver their melta-totting contents. I am tempted to find the extra 10 points to take a God-Hammer pattern Land Raider instead of the Redeemer to provide even more anti-armour firepower, but I think the Redeemer is more appropriate as a delivery mechanism for the Assault Terminators.

The Thunderfire Cannon and the Redeemer's Flamestorms will be heavily relied upon to thin out any hordes as I don't have a great answer to those sort of armies here. Obviously the Tac Squads will typically combat squad to lend their Missile Launchers to the long-range firepower and allow their Melta's to roam as required.

With regards to it being better than an equivalent Blood Angels list, take that with a pinch of salt. None of these tanks are fast so it'll be easier for my opponent to out-maneuver me than if I was using a similar list with BA. However I like the fact that I can get Preds and Dreads in the same list. Admittedly there's no feel-no-pain or furious charge but my terminators are more resilient in combat as I'm not tempted to take any Lightning Claws. Also if I decided to go back to a God-Hammer Land Raider I could still fit the Libby in with the Terminators.

Speaking of the Librarian, sure the Blood Angels powers are good but I don't think they can beat the general utility you get out of Null Zone and Gate of Infinity, I love those powers. Finally and most importantly, you can't get a Thunderfire Cannon in Codex: Blood Angels and that's a big one for me, my TFC has rarely had a bad game for me and I'm always loathed to leave home without it!

That's it, what's the verdict!

Flock off you flocking flock head

Basing models to me is equal to the paint job for overall look of a model and its something that I am poor at so with my new grey knights I decided to avoid the issue all together and go for some sculpted bases from micro art which luckily they sell at Maelstrom so after long deliberation I decided to go with these.

Thats all I've really got to say today. Cheerio.

Vorsprung durch 40k - Germany take down the 40k ETC

Rankings HQ have just reported that Germany have won this year's 40k ETC tournament with Poland and the USA rounding out the top 3.

The top 10 are as follows:

1. Germany 10 (258)
2. Poland 10 (134)
3. USA 9 (140)
4. Sweden 8 (158)
5. Spain 8 (58)
6. France 8 (52)
7. Wales 8 (-6)
8. Finland 7 (36)
8. England 7 (36)
10. Switzerland 7 (24)

Full details can be found at Rankings HQ's website here.

The rest of the GB home nations placed as follows:

13. Republic of Ireland 6 (34)
16. Scotland 5 (-6)
20. Northern Ireland 4 (-40)

Good gob guys!

Also, I think a special mention must go to team USA who placed 3rd in only their second year participating in the event. Impressive stuff!

Have a slice of Terry's Pain-Cake

Well it’s been 3 weeks with no match reports so here’s a quick catch-up.

First up was a visit from the Calverton Condors, a classic match-up Greenskins vs Oomies. The game was dominated by the performance of Bolts rookie sensation Slash Spleenspilla who turned in another match-winning two touchdown performance. He also made a touchdown saving solo tackle on a Condors Blitzer who had dared to sprint unprotected into the Orc backfield. In contrast the Condors could not catch a single break and the final score did not fairly reflect their efforts on the day. Some time even Nuffle smiles on the dirty Greenskins; 2-0 and the first win of the season!

The next week saw Da Bolts travelling to the Merciless Marauders, after their spanking in game one against Warp Down the Orcs were not particularly looking forward facing off against another Chaos team. It all started reasonably well though, Da Bolts kicked to the Marauders and were able to keep them pinned back in their own territory for the duration of the whole first half. Meanwhile however the Marauders’ Minotaur was doing a number on the Black Orcs resulting in two injuries, one of them permanently hobbling the already lame Toofless. Going into the second half three players down was not where Da Bolts wanted to be, clearly rattled Flash Git made another of his trademark ball handling errors allowing the Marauders to seize the loose ball and score an easy touchdown. Later on in the half Da Bolts could easily have been two touchdowns down but fortunately the Beastman ball-carrier in question tripped over a particularly sturdy daisy on the goal-line and spilled the ball. Final score 0-1, all in all it could have been worse but not for Toofless who was down to MA2!

This week Da Bolts came up against those pansy elves again but this time with added emo. That’s right it was the Dark Elves very own Star Killers, a team with a reputation which lives up to their name, was Slash intimidated … apparently not! The super-star Blitzer put in another two touchdown performance leading Da Bolts to a 2-0 victory. Da Bolts started the game with the ball in hand and formed a cage around their unusually sure-handed Thrower, Flash Git. The Star Killers, keen to inflict physical pain equal to their emotional disquiet, leapt at the Orc juggernaut but were unable to slow the rolling cage. Eventually the Orcs crossed the line for their first touchdown with only two turns left on the clock. The Star Kilers had a half chance to score with the two remaining turns but the throw was fumbled so Da Bolts went into the second half 1-0 up.

The second half started with Da Bolts kicking off to the Star Killers and they immediately applied pressure to the daffodil-wielding pointy-eared pansies’ backfield. After a significant amount of posturing and slapping with no real outcome a particularly eloquent Orc managed to talk the ball-carrier into a fit of depression so acute that he dropped the ball. This left Slash to jump on the lose ball and take it in for his second score of the game. With time running down on the clock the Star Killers tried to inflict some damage on Da Bolts but, as was typical of the game up to this point, blocks degenerated quickly into slap fights and no real harm was done on either side.

Clearly Nuffle was smiling on Da Bolts again today as they came away with a win and no major injuries for a change, however they didn’t cause any which always leave a slightly unsatisfactory taste in the mouth. Still, more emo-elves next week and hope springs eternal … also rumours of transfers from Dungeon Bowl’s Cavechester United are gathering even more momentum as the management team of up-and-coming Troll blocker, Dung, has started to look for lodgings for him in Orkanapolis. Coming soon to a swamp near you? We’ll have to wait and see!

Da Bolts - 11 down, 1 or 2 to go!

I've reached a stage with my Orc Blood Bowl Team where I htink I can put them to one side and say "they're finished", pics below all constructive criticism greatfully accepted!







Now on to the Turn, score and re-roll counters ... and possibly another Lineman and Thrower :)

There are no points for second place!

Summer Skirmish Day 2, Day 1 can be found here.

Sunday was an early start because Darren had promised breakfast and I wanted to see how the festivities of Saturday night had concluded. Good as his word, Darren was frying up some haggis in honour of Tim and Graham (members of ETC Team Scotland) who were staying with him, sadly neither of them were feeling up to the task so it was down to Darren and I to polish it off. The explanation of the events of the night before was vague but included something about a Lebanese girl, the legendary Maelstrom barman that is Josh and far too much alcohol!

So we very quietly set off to Maelstrom and the knock-out stages of the Tournament. Thanks to my heroic efforts in the last pool I’d been promoted to the Cup bracket (the third of four just so you don’t think I’m making too much out of it) and I was facing off against the Chaos marine player I’d faced in round two on Saturday. This time I knew to be a bit more careful when exploding vehicles close to masses of boys clumped up for combat! Fortunately my opponent made it much easier for me by starting both squads outside of their transports thinking that the extra fire-power would be useful in whittling me down before I got to him, not a bad theory but he had not reckoned with the fickle nature of the dice gods!

The tale of this game can be told by the polar swings of luck we experienced, my opponent could not roll a 3+ save for love nor money and I seemed unable to roll anything below a 5. Needless to say it got very one-sided rather quickly and I managed a tabling before time was called. A thoroughly unfair result for my opponent who deserved better as he had ably demonstrated the day before but the dice royally did him over this time. All I can say is, “It happens to us all!”.

Through to the semi finals and I faced my bogey list, Mech. In this case it was a beautifully painted Mech Lamenters (Codex: Blood Angels) army with a unit of 5 Death Company and a Chaplain in a TL Heavy Flamer Razorback, 5 Devastators with 4 Missile Launchers with a TL Heavy Flamer Razorback and a Land Speeder with a Multi Melta. Frankly I pooped my pants when I saw this because I really didn’t have much of an answer for its speed or the amount of armour it contained or its 2 TL Heavy Flamers, forget about the Devs, there was almost no chance I would reach them.

As it turned out this was probably the best game I played all tournament and I expect if you asked him, my opponent would say it was the worst game he’d played all tournament. He went first and made two critical mistakes on turn 1, he rushed his empty razorback straight at me (18”) and did the same with his speeder, my Shootas wrecked the speeder and my Sluggas charged the razorback but were only able to shake it. Queue turn two and the game-losing mistake, my opponent only backed his razorback off 12”. Needless to say the Sluggas’ second charge was more effective than the first, with the Claw exploding it and I caught some luck here with only a 1” explosion, catching just 5 guys.

On the other side of the table I was positioning my Deff Dread to protect my Shootas from the Death Company Razorback so he tried to come around to take on the Sluggas. The game ended with this razorback surrounded by both squads of boys as time was called, I’d won and didn’t want to risk an explosion killing off my Boys so we called it there. I really felt like I’d played a great game but my opponent had had a nightmare, I think if we did it again he’d have had far less trouble dealing with my list but as it was I was through to the final against a familiar face!

And so it was that Simo and Fudal faced off against each-other for all the marbles in the Cup tournament at Summer Skirmish 2011. Mick’s Space Wolf army comprised two 5-man Grey Hunter Squads in TL Heavy Bolter Razorbacks, a Rifleman Dread and 4 Long Fangs with 3 Missile Launchers. I took first turn and set up centrally using a ruined tower in the middle to afford me some cover and Mick deployed mostly in a refused flank over to my right-hand side but with his rifleman directly opposite my Deff Dread. The Ork advance made it to halfway before it started to suffer from the firepower, firstly the Dread was immobilised 7” away from the rifleman and I made the decision to split off the Mek to try and repair it and give it cover to protect VPs, however this left the Boys stranded without a cover save and the weight of fire took its toll. I managed to blow up a Razorback and take the two Grey Hunter units down below half strength but by the end of the game all I had left was the immobilised Dread and the Mek.

A clear and well deserved victory for Mick and his Space Wolves, now I just hope he plays in the Club Tournament despite the frankly ludicrous comp restrictions that have been put into place. I wont put them into effect if we play mate.

Also of note was a typically jammy performance by Darren and his “Gun-line” Orks in winning the Plate final (the 2nd tier competiton). How anyone can make shooty Orks work is beyond me but he played a lot of good tournament players and they were found to be wanting. As for Graham … let’s just say Graham will be back!

Success at Tims Summer Skirmish

As you know this weekend Andy, Graham, Darren and I headed off to Tim (the scottish ETC captains summer tournament. There were plenty of faces we'd seen at tournaments before, a few first company vets and Alex from From the Fang and Matt who is the Robin to Alex's Batman.

Without a doubt this was the most complicated tournament we've ever been to, normally its just swiss style for 6 games, this time however it had a champions league of mini leagues on the Saturday (3 lots of 3 games) and then a knock-out of a quarter final, semi and then final.

I took Wolves having worried that Grey Knights were too few to do anything. (Didn't think that one through seeing as they won the top trophy with a list very similar to what I considered taking)
My list consisted of
2 Grey Hunter squads in Heavy Bolter Razorbacks
Both with Mark of the Wulfen and Wolf Standard
1 with a Melta 1 with a flamer

A four man Long Fang unit with 3 missile launchers

A Rifleman dread

My first game saw me come up against a destroyer heavy necron list which I tabled in three turns, second saw me come up against Alex from the fang with his wych cult army, he got first turn, missed with both his dark lances and then felt the force of my wolves and again that left me with 500 VP's. So I came to my third game in pool 1 with 2 wins and full VP's to face a Tau army ran by the winner of last months BOTCH. This was unfortunately one of the most boring games of 40k I have ever played (not blaming my opponent at all). I got first turn which meant that I didn't have a target for my long fangs and left it too long to move them. In the end it was a narrow lost 125 to 83 but that still put me in good stead.

Second pool I found myself in the top half with Darren.
He was my first opponent and unfortunately for me he managed to steal the initiative. This led to an easy victory for him with his normal excellent Orky shooting not failing him. My second game saw me come up against Nathan Roberts with his Venom heavy Dark Eldar army. Again poor deployment cost me in this game and it was quickly over. My third and final game in the group saw me come up against a 21 man unit of Thousand sons with aspiring sorcerer. This was a pure game of attrition, could I do enough damage to him before he got into rapid firing range? The answer was yes and I ended pool 3 with 2 losses and a win.

Third pool saw me come against fellow Wolf Player and first company Vet Dave Pooley, the game was going quite well until he came into combat range with my dreadnought, I sent him in but unfortunately Dave had the luck of Russ (or perhaps its those accursed Scottish dice that Dave had won in a spot prize) and my dreadnought was dead and that led to me hiding and trying to save a few troops. My next game came against Blood Angels with a very close win again showing that the humble grey hunter with a wolf standard is the match for the majority of close combat troops in the game. The final game came against my long term opponent Graham White with his Guard, things seemed to be going well, I won deployment and deployed well having good lanes of fire, unfortunately Graham then stole initiative. Within 1 turn of shooting a win was impossible and within 3 turns Graham had tabled me and won the spot prize for fastest victory.

Sunday was ran a little differently with 4 knock out tournaments being held. Because I finished bottom of my last group I found myself in the trophy knockout along with Andy, Darren being in the one above and Graham being in the one bellow.

First of the knockout games saw me up against Matt the friend of Alex from From the Fang (Alex: Matt needs a better moniker than that) with his Blood Angels. The game rested on how much damage his baal predator with its flamestorm cannon did. Unfortunately for Matt he immobolised it when it went in to cover and it was dealt with simply.

My second game came against a beautiful Emperor's Children army and I saw the worst luck any player has had against me, 10 chosen, 3 melta guns and a plasma within 6 inches of my razorback, 2 meltas and 1 plasma shot miss, 2 glancing hits and a 1 and a 2 rolled on the damage chart. Again another victory for me.

So it came to the final and I faced off against Andy. It was a true game of attrition, could I kill him before he got across to me, in the end yes I could. I received a lovely certificate and a £10 Maelstrom voucher which coupled with my 15% tournament discount got me a nice set of Grey Knights.

Added on to my win was a win for Darren and a win for Alex from From the fang.

Blimey that was a long one.
It was certainly one of the best events I've been too and the BBQ on the Saturday night was excellent. Looking forward to it next year and the Caledonian open in January.

The Hive Fleet Devours the Summer Skirmish

So this weekend, Hive Fleet Nemesis extended it's probing tentacles toward the Summer Skirmish at Maelstrom Games in Mansfield. The Fleet deployed a Combat Patrol force totalling five hundred points, which it hoped would seek out new biomass to power the ancient alien fleet...

3 x Zoanthropes

4 x Raveners with Deathspitters and Rending Claws

10 x Genestealers

The event consisted of twelve games, each lasting forty minutes. To cut a long and probably tedious story short, I managed two wins and ten losses during the two days. Of the losses, I should really have won two of them, but in both those cases I was thwarted by some pretty unlikely dice rolls - Raveners being run down by Necron Warriors, for example. In the other eight games, I was defeated by the Space Marines of the Grey Knights and Blood Angels chapters. I lost my first game in seven minutes to a GK gun-line. In my defence I set up first but my opponent (the eventual tournament winner, no less) seized the initiative and mowed down my force in one-and-a-half shooting phases. Not a good start! In another memorable game, I destroyed almost all of a Blood Angels Death Company in two turns, with minimal losses. The only surviving model - a Dreadnought with Blood Talons (or, Jazz Hands as our Andy calls 'em) - munched through my entire army. Tabled by a single model!

My two wins were both against a new-ish Tau player. The two games were both close, and more importantly fun, but were decided in both cases when I managed to destroy his one tank on turn one. This left his infantry and snipers exposed to my marauding Raveners and Zoanthropes.

In the end, I had a great weekend - tiring, quite frantic (nine games on day one!) but ultimately enjoyable. I'm a bit odd in that I treat tournaments as a quick way to learn how to use a new army, and this weekend was a case in point. Before Saturday, I had only played half-a-dozen games with Tyranids, so a twelve-game tournament was the perfect way to get my teeth (and claws) into this new army. So, with only moderate expectations I embarked upon the weekend. During the games, I learnt the massive need to keep your army in Synapse at all times (two games were directly lost because Raveners fled and were run down after losing combat by a single wound). I also learnt that Grey Knights completely break Zoanthropes! Instead of testing for the psychic powers on a 10, I was testing on a 6 for my Warp Blasts and Lances due to some odd quirk of their codex. Two of my games were against GK, and both lasted less than two turns. Ho hum!

So, what now for the scuttling alien horde? Well, I've already played my first 1,750pt game with the Tyranids against a Wave Serpent-heavy Eldar force led by an Avatar. My bugs munched through the Eldar very efficiently and my opponent (a top guy called Daryl) actually capitulated after three turns. So, I'm fairly confident that at larger points values, the Hive Fleet can prove to be very effective. As for smaller games, I need to remember to leave home with more Synapse!

Summer by the Pool ... of Blood!

The Claws and Fists lads are up at Maelstrom again this weekend taking part in Tim King's Summer Skirmish, a 500pt tournament set up in a pool format with day one sorting out the field into four knock-out equally matched competitions taking place on the second day. More details can be found here.

I decided to take Orks because I thought they would excel at this point level and because the list I came up with would only need me to paint one model, a Deff Dread, which I'd wanted an excuse to buy for a while, SO here's what I'm taking:

HQ
Big Mek w. Kustom Force Field

TROOP
Boyz Squad
(20) Shootas, 2x Big Shoota, Nob w. PK and Boss Pole
Boyz Squad
(18) Sluggas, Nob w. PK and Boss Pole
Deff Dread
2x Skorchas

My first round of three games saw me face off against Tau, Dark Eldar and Thousand Sons, all of these games were close with margins of victory generally being no more than 100 points.

Vs Tau in game 1, I knew what I had to do and while I took a fair old while getting across the table, once I managed it the result was never really in question. The old fish-heads really struggle in assault!

Next up was Dark Eldar and the combined attentions of a Voidraven Bomber and a unit of 8 Vipers could not break the spirits of the Shoota Boyz with their pie plates and cluster caltrops. They did managed to whittle down the squad so that when I charged, the result was academic and with the loss of that squad I would not be able to catch up on VPs despite the Sluggas cornering and wrecking the Bomber. A tactical retreat from the Dark Eldar saw them claiming the win in this one.

The final pool 1 game was vs Thousand Sons, a single unit of about 18 marines with a sorcerer. Farily straightforward game here with the 1K sons backing up and chipping away at the Boyz until they could run no further. Sadly for me by the end of the game I could not finish off the unit so as it was a single unit below half strength I only got half VPs and I gave up ever so slightly more than 250vps in the attempt so it was another close loss for me. Hats off to a great strategy in list building though and that sorcerer really did not want to die!

The second round brought Blood Angels, Dark Eldar and Chaos Marines my way.

First up were the Bas, sporting a very threatening looking DC Dread with “Jazz Hands”, a small DC unit and an assault Squad in a TL Lascannon Razorback. I think we must have started this game late as we only got three turns done by which time he'd killed my sluggas and I'd killed his assault sqaud. My Deff Dread was locked with his DC Dread but could not kill it in the two rounds of combat that it had time for sa it was another narrow loss, literally 30VPs in it!

Game 5 next and across the table was Alex from the From the Fang Blog with his Dark Eldar. I made the mistake of hairing up the board and giving him the range he needed for a turn 1 assault and the Wyches combined assault with a unit of Helions took the wind straight out of the Ork sails. The Deff Dread did his best to contribute but with the Orks wiped out he could not catch those nippy little deldar! A very clear win for Alex here, next time I hope to acquit myself a little better!

Last game of round 2 was against a Chaos Marine list sporting two Rhinos a marine squad with double melta and a Havoc squad with double melta and double flamer. I pretty much had this one in the bag until I carelessly blew up one of the Rhinos in the middle of a big combat which took a heavy toll on my Orks wiping out the remnants of one squad and tipping the favour of the battle to my opponent. Another narrow loss for me to contemplate.

Going in to the final round of the day and I was at 1 win 5 losses and looking like I would be playing in the bottom bracket of Sunday's knock-out competition. There was an opportunity to gain promotion to the bracket above by winning your group and likewise players in the higher brackets could also be relegated if they finished last.

So for this round I would face off against Necrons, Imperial Guard and Tau.

First up were the Necrons featuring Destroyers, a Tomb Spider and, of course, Warriors. This was fairly straight-forward but the T5 Destroyers proved harder to dispatch than I had given them credit for but once everything else was dead the Shootas lent the Sluggas a hand. Just in the nick of time as it happened and I managed to table them with the last roll of the dice, a Power Klaw actually hitting!?! We may never see that again.

The second game was against a Guard list featuring Melta and Plasma Vets on Chimeras, Rough Riders and a Hydra. It started well with the Orks stealing the initiative and a volley of unusually accurate Big Shoota fire killing 3 Rough Riders and causing the remainder of the unit to flee. From there on it was a very tight game with lots of careful manoeuvring keeping the squishy guard well protected. In the end though I did not have an answer for his tanks. Just one immobilised result would have tipped the balance in my favour but as it was I lost another squeaker by about 20Vps!

The last game of the day was against the Tau opponent from my first game and I figured that because my last game had been so close that I would have a chance for promotion if I could table here. The Tau were cagey, holding their suits in reserve and dancing the Devilfish around a large LOS blocking building. But in the end I cornered it and when his suits came in they dropped too close to my infantry. The resulting assault saw the heart taken from the Tau's offensive capability and it ended with a 5th turn tabling. A very unfair result for my opponent who was a really great bloke, but it saw me promoted to the 3rd bracket for today's play-offs. Wish me luck, I think I'm going to need it!

Just a few musings on the list:

I think it lacks anti-mech, in higher point values I can run klaws into vehicles and the resulting explosions are less costly than here where every VP counts! It's also not a terribly reliable method for opening armour, again this is something you can mitigate at higher point values.

Also I'm clearly not experienced with it, sometimes I played it too aggressively and gave away critical charges and on other occasions I was too conservative and when I got the charge not enough Orks could get in greatly reducing their effectiveness. There's got to be a balancing point that I've yet to find as I do think this list can work.

Anyway, stay tuned to find out how today's matches go!

Da Bolts - Quick update

Well, last night saw the first win of the season for Da Bolts 2-0 against the Calverton Condors (Humans). Here's a very quick update and news-flash.

Played: 6
W/L/D: 1/4/1
TDs (for/against): 6/11
Casualties (for/against): 9/6

Recent Results:
2-2 vs Athel Loren Athletics (match report)
2-0 vs Calverton Condors

Team News:
No fluke as Slash runs rampant over Condors
- Rookie Bolts Blitzer, Slash Spleenspilla, put in another all-star performance this week leading Da Bolts to victory with a match-winning two Touchdown performance against the Calverton Condors. His apparent natural affinity for both the physical and more refined side of the game has got even the more blood thirsty Orc fans talking about the finer points of the game. After the match a fan said "Yer, I liked dat bit where he smashed dat smug oomie's face into da pitch an picked up da brown fing. I fink 'e ran about wiv it a bit after dat which was a bit borin but da oomies didn't seem to like it so it must 'av been good right?". Clearly a tidal shift in the way Orcs understand the game of Blood Bowl.

Full Match report to follow, in the meantime see here for the report from the last match.

Ticket Booked for 'The End Times' Tournament

As the not-very-mysterious title suggests, I've just ordered my ticket for 'The End Times', a two day tournament to be held at Warhammer World on Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st August. It promises eight games of 40k at various points levels; the first four games at 1,000pts, then three at 1,500pts and a final game at 2,000pts. I will be taking my newly finished Tyranid army for it's first high-value tournament (it's first tournament of any kind will be this weekend's 500pt Summer Skirmish at Maelstrom).

If other folks are intested in attending 'The End Times', you'll find details here: http://www.trespassgames.co.uk/events/the-end-times.html

The tournament rules pack is here: http://www.rankingshq.com/public/tournamentprofile.aspx?TournamentId=2106

Da Bolts Game 5

vs. Athel Loren Athletics

A beautiful day for Blood Bowl saw the Elves of the Athel Loren Athletics face off against Da Bolts, hungry to turn around their fortunes this season, and if that was not going to be possible then BBQ Wood Elf would fill the gap nicely.

A kick deep into Da Bolts half was gathered up by Thrower, Flash Git, who moved into a loose cage and began to advance the ball. Before he could get across the half-way line disaster loomed in the form of a particularly bouncy Wardancer who deftly lept into the cage and planted a particularly firm haircut into Flash's tenders. Needless to say the balls came loose and Flash would never be the same again (-1 AG despite re-constructive surgery from Da Bolts Apothecary). Given their track-record on ball-handling this looked bad for Da Boltz but it seemed that the newly acquired Blitzer Slash Spleenspilla hadn't read the playbook and he deftly scooped up the ball. Buoyed by this unexpected display of skill Da Bolts reformed the cage around Slash and saw him into the endzone after only four turns.

The prancing Wood Elves are notorious for quick scores so Da Boltz lined up expecting the worst but it seemed that Nuffle was still smiling on them because the kick landed only a couple of yards away from the centre-line. A couple of solid Blocks later and the Athletics' ball-carrier was within range of a blitz and the ball was knocked loose. Not content with his first display of skill Slash jumped on the ball and, with a blast of inspirational language so colourful that his team-mates could only feel proud to be on the same side as him, he was shepherded into the endzone for his second score with only two turns left on the clock.

It was then that the Elves decided to show just how good they were at scoring and crafted a magnificent two turn touchdown with a combination of hand-offs, leaps and dodes through tackle zones, rounded off with a pass and catch which made Da Bolts attempts at ball handling look pedestrian in comparison. At the end of the first half it was 2-1 to Da Boltz but they would be kicking off in the second!

And so it was that with the ball in hand from the start of the second half that the Athletics proceeded to set up to enact a replay of the end of the first and two turns later it was 2-2. Those War Dancers really are a handful and Da Bolts thought it was time to take the wind out of their sails... easier said than done!

6 turns left in the game and a win was on the cards for Da Bolts. Hak Bonechewa picked up the ball and a familiar cage formed around him. This time Slash was leading from the front putting the hurt on those pansy, yet slippery, elves. He capped off an exceptional rookie game with a particularly brutal hit on an elf Lineman, knocking him off his feet and, in fact, into several pieces, kill number 1 to the Orcs! Meanwhile the cage was advancing slowly up the field burning time off the clock but the elves were not done yet and those damn War Dancers were proving highly effective at targeting the ball carrier even in his cage.

The pressure eventually yielded a loose ball and while the elves could not capitalise on it, the damage was done to the Orc drive as they did not have enough time left to score. So the game ended 2-2, a step in the right direction for Da Bolts and a result they hope to build on in their next game. But the real story of the game for them was the emergence of Rookie Blitzer Slash Spleenspilla, the fans hope to see more of this great young prospect in the future.

Mech BA - Seen it all before

Another major bout of insomnia has hit me and I can't think of anything better to do than type up another BA List I'm thinking of trying out. I really like the DoA build I played against Darren last week and I think I can comfortably take that up to 1750 and have it be competitive. THis, however is much more of a Mech-build and designed around all the high AV vehicles that the BA's have available to them, i.e. AV13+

Here goes, let me know what you think:

HQ
Librarian
Unleash Rage, Shield

- Default choice for me, shield really benfits a mech build where he can spread the love between a pack of vehicles. Unleash rage means I can stick him with the Terminators to make them even more threatening.

ELITE
Terminator Assault Squad
(5) 3x LC, 2x THSS; Land Raider Redeemer w. Multi-Melta and Extra Armour
Sanguinary Priest
(1)

These guys work together as the spearhead of my wedge offering a combination of firepower from the redeemer and awesome assult potential from the furious charging terminators. The cornerstone of many BA lists.

TROOP
Assault Squad
(5) Meltagun; Razorback w. Lascannon & TL Plasmagun
Assault Squad
(5) Meltagun; Razorback w. Lascannon & TL Plasmagun
Assault Squad
(5) Plasmagun; Razorback w. TL Lascannon
Scout Squad
(5) 4x Combat Blade, Missile Launcher, Camo Cloaks & Melta bomb

Mo shooty goodness, Razorbacks are fragile but with the target saturation in this list will they be priority number one? Maybe but there's a lot of other nasty stuff out there that need to be thought about too. The Scouts hang out in cover on an objective and hope to be so unthreatening that they are ignored for the duration.

FAST ATTACK
Baal Predator
Flamestorm Cannon
Baal Predator
Flamestorm Cannon

The mop-up crew, everything else opens the cans, these guys BBQ the soft centres. Probably going to put one on each flank supporting the Auto-Las Preds.

HEAVY SUPPORT
Predator
Autocannon Turret, Lascannon Sponsons
Predator
Autocannon Turret, Lascannon Sponsons

And lastly we have the Auto-Las Preds, they will be advancing down either flank looking for side armour shots and hoping to split the enemy force to allow me to pick off a flank at a time.

I am tempted to switch out the Land Raider for a Storm Raven but it's a trade-off loosing the AV14 centre-piece of the line-up for more firepower. Tough call I do like what the Raven brings to the table but I also like driving 5 AV13+ vehicles straight at you on turn 1 giving you no easy/soft targets, unless you want to focus on the Razorbacks ...

Report: BA vs Grey Knights 1500pts

Mission: Spearhead, Capture & Control

Grey Knights List

HQ
Grand Master
Pyscannon, Psyc and Rad Grenades

TROOP
Terminator Squad
(10) 2x Psy Cannon, 2x Hammer (1xMC), 8 Halberds, Psybolt Ammo
Terminator Squad
(10) Brotherhood Banner, 2x Psy Cannon, 2x Hammer, Warding Stave, 6 Halberds, Psybolt Ammo

HEAVY SUPPORT
Dreadknight
Heavy Incinerator & Personal Teleporter

Blood Angels List

HQ
Librarian
Combi Melta, Unleash Rage & Blood Lance

ELITE
Sanguinary Priest
(2) 2x Jump Packs
Furioso Dreadnought
Blood Talons

TROOP
Assault Squad
(10) 2x Meltaguns, 1x Power Fist
Assault Squad
(10) 2x Meltaguns, 1x Power Fist
Scout Squad
(5) 1xMissile Launcher, Camo Cloaks

Vanguard Vets
(7) Jump Packs, 1x Power Fist, 2x Power Sword, 2x Storm Shield

Storm Raven
TL Multi Melta, TL Assault Canon, Extra Armour

The Blood Angles deployed their Storm Raven deep in the corner of their deployment zone with the Furioso Dread on-board, 1 Assault Squad went on the forward edge of their deployment zone with the Librarian and a Priest. The Scouts deployed in cover next to the objective. The Vanguard and the other Assault Squad with a Priest were reserved to deep strike.

TheBaron deployed the cheaper Terminator Squad in front of the other and attached the Grand Master to the rear squad. The Dreadknight was deployed off to the left of the deployment zone. The GM gave scout to the Dreadknight and the lead Terminator squad, the Dreadknight scouted out wide to my right and the termies scouted forward into cover.

Then Darren stole the initiative!

1st Turn: no GK units could get into assault range but between the lead Term unit and the DK's Heavy Incinerator the lead BA assault squad was taken down to 5 models from 12, fortunately the Priest and Librarian remained unscathed. In the Blood Angels' turn fire was focussed onto the Dreadknight with the Storm Raven taking 2 wounds off it after a barrage of missiles, then on the charge the Librarian was able to force weapon the Dreadknight before it got to swing, result!

Turn 2 saw the combined shooting of the two Terminator units finish off the remains of the Assault Squad, Priest and Librarian. My reserves arrived with the Vanguard Heroically Intervening against the lead Terminator squad but not before shooting from the Dreadnought, Storm Raven and the newly arrived Assault Squad had reduced their numbers by 4. The ensuing assault was won by the Blood ANgles by two with the vets losing a Storm Shield and a regular Vet.

The turns started to speed up significantly now as the model count was getting really light, turn 3 started off with a barrage of fire-power from the Grand Master's squad taking the remaining Assault Squad down to 6 men including the Priest. Feeling a little worse for wear, the Assault Squad jumped behind cover and took a couple of pot shots at the GM's squad. The Storm Raven moved into position to deliver it's Dread next turn and took a shot at whittling down the GM's squad as well. The combat between the Vanguard and the other Squad of Termies was finally won by the Vanguard Vets for the loss of only a couple of models.

The GKs tried, unsuccessfully to take out the Storm Raven which let the BAs set up a multi-charge between the remaining Vets and the Furioso Dread which did not go well. Thanks mostly to the GM's Psyk Grenades the Vets and Furioso were wiped out in a single turn for only one loss to the GKs. Turn 5 saw the end of the remnants of my last Assault Squad thanks to a brutal charge from the GM's Terminators which just left me to boost my Storm Raven onto the GK objective and cross my fingers.

The GKs were unsuccessful in their efforts to take out the SR in turn 6 and when they eventually wrecked it in turn 7 it was in the assault phase so there was nothing to be done about the SP who had slipped inside before the unsuccessful multi-charge in turn 4 so the Bas walked away with a 1-0 win thanks to the scouts who had camped out their objective for the whole game, completely unmolested and a single SP in the wreckage of a downed Storm Raven.

A TKO for me this time but Darren had me by a mile on VPs and Kps, I mean I had only 175pts left on the table and he had somewhere in the region of 500pts, probably a little more. Generally though I knew it was going to be a tough match up and I think that I got luck in the fact that this is the first time Darren has played the list. Next time I don't think I'll be so lucky and he'll make his DK count, it was a huge advantage for me to be able to take it out without it contributing to the fight. Also I think he would have been netter to use the GM's unit more aggressively as it's a complete beat-stick of a unit in assault and it sure can take a pounding in return.

Summer Skirmish 4 tickets left

Morning readers

this weekend sees me, Darren and Graham head to Maelstrom to play in the summer skirmish 12 500 40 minute games purely VP's.

There are currently 4 tickets left and everyone that buys one gets a free pint so if you are interested in 2 days of gaming have a look here would be really great to see a few of you there.