Stranger on the shores of fenris

Seems like ages since I've blogged anything or actually played 40k, holidays, birthdays, weddings and going back to school have all contributed to a very busy month with a lot of long nights.

However I have still been thinking about my armies and where I am going with them.

Open War is fast approaching and although I haven't had many warm up games I am well versed with my Wolf army and I expect no changes too it so that's that, 2 rune priests, grey hunters lead by pack leaders, 3 units of long fangs and an autocannon dread.

I have continued to think about my grey knights list and where I want to take it. I had always planned on only have a power armoured force maybe with a few henchmen chucked in but that was until I chanced across a list on bolter and chainsword that caught my eye so I had a think about modifying it and as always I welcome constructive criticism

The HQ's are a grand master with rad and psychotroke grenades and Coteaz

Elites are a 10 man paladin squad (with lots of toys) and a ven psfleman

Troops

a 10 man strike squad in a rhino with psycannons and hammers

and 2 3 man melta gun henchmen squads in rhinos

Heavy support is a god hammer land raider with a melta gun

So that's it, with average rolls on grand strategy you can have the paladins and ven dread as scoring units. The big deathstar unit scares me a little its a lot of points in one unit but I've come up against them and there is no doubt that they take some serious killing.

Re-formatted by C&F 10:40

Poison!

I wanna be elected

After the very kind offer of Sgt. Brisbane, I go to thinking, what kind of Dark Eldar list would I run if I could afford it? I think that I'd like a Venom-heavy list with lots of poisoned shots. Well, let's see what we can come up with...

Since, we're going to have a lot of anti-infantry firepower in the Venoms, we need to take something that can take out enemy mech, so let's take 3 Ravagers. I also want to take a couple of Blaster Trueborn units, just in case any enemy vehicles get too close. I'll keep them pretty simple and take three Trueborn with three Blasters in a Venom with another Splinter Cannon.

I also want to take a reasonably tooled up Archon and some Incubi to be his bodyguards. Yes, the smart points are going into Haemonculi for their Pain Token goodness but I want my army led by a proper evil genius. Let's give the Archon a Blast Pistol, an Agoniser and a Shadow Field and then team him up with 4 Incubi. I'll upgrade one to a Klaivex so that I can hit at three Initiative steps with this unit (not hugely important since they all have Power Weapons but slightly useful) and then I'll stick them all in a Venom with additional Splinter Cannon. This is a proper unit killer although they do risk being swamped by a horde.

Onto Troops now and I think I'll go for 4 units of 5 Warriors, each with a Blaster in a Venom with Splinter Cannon. It's time to add some Melta to the mix since I need to be able to actually destroy enemy vehicles. With that in mind, I want two units of 3 Reaver Jetbikes with a Heat Lance. Adding all of that up, I'm not that far away from a 1750 point list. I can just about fit in a third unit of Jetbikes and then another unit of Warriors in a Venom since I'm a bit short on scoring units. I can only afford to give them a Shredder though.

HQ
Archon, Blast Pistol, Agoniser, Shadow Field

Elites
3 Trueborn, 3 Blasters, Venom, Splinter Cannon
3 Trueborn, 3 Blasters, Venom, Splinter Cannon
4 Incubi, Klaivex, Venom, Splinter Cannon

Troops
5 Warriors, Blaster, Venom, Splinter Cannon
5 Warriors, Blaster, Venom, Splinter Cannon
5 Warriors, Blaster, Venom, Splinter Cannon
5 Warriors, Blaster, Venom, Splinter Cannon
5 Warriors, Shredder, Venom, Splinter Cannon

Fast Attack
3 Reavers, Heat Lance
3 Reavers, Heat Lance
3 Reavers, Heat Lance

Heavy Support
Ravager
Ravager
Ravager


Lots of speed, reasonable anti-tank and a lot of anti-infantry shooting. It's not a totally efficient list but it looks like it could be fun. I think the hardest thing for me would be getting into the right mindset for this list's playstyle. It's not durable enough just to rush forward, you really have to pick the right moment to commit your forces.

What do you guys think to my first Venom-spam list? Have you tried this kind of list? What would you change?

Arena Of Death On Tour

When I said I didn't take any photographs at the doubles, it wasn't strictly true; I took one. This is Ghaz stomping Guardsman Marbo. Needless to say, it was a very one sided combat...

Monday Musings

Yes, I know it's Tuesday

Scouting for Wolves

So, I spent Friday putting together a second squad of Wolf Scouts. I love Wolf Scouts but they are a bit random so my plan to mitigate this is to take two units! I just need to sort their heads out now...

Newcrons

Wow! Did you see all the pictures of the new Necron models at Games Day UK? No, neither did we. GW seem to be struggling at the moment to get the balance between leaking everything and leaking nothing. It didn't have to be the full model range but just an acknowledgement that Necrons are coming and a few concept pictures would have been nice.

Forging Ahead

Picture "borrowed" from Sons of Sanguinius

At least Forge World turned up to Games Day. I love this model and from the sounds of it, he's going to be pretty hardcore.

Where next?

Once the Scouts are done, my 1750 tournament list will be pretty much sorted. Which leave one question - where next? I put together this guy over the summer, intended to be part of a "Loganwing" Termiantor army:

but I'm a bit disenchanted at how hard it is to get hold of Cyclone Missile Launchers...

Which leaves this pile:

I love the idea of a Drop Pod army but I'm not sure how successful it would be. I bought the Land Raider after a tournament at the start of the year after I faced yet another multiple Raider list and decided that if I couldn't beat them I'd join them! There's no way that I'll have any of these forces painted before 6th edition drops (even if that isn't until 2014!!) but I'd like to start assembling one of them...

Monday Music

This is a feature on Twitter that I'm stealing for here. I'm really old school so I prefer CDs to downloads and I seem to have picked up loads of new stuff in the last couple of weeks. Hence, I might not get round to blogging much as I spend more time listening to music. In no particular order, I've got the following in the need to listen to pile; Kasabian - Velociraptor, Cornershop - Cornershop & The Double O Groove Of, Wild Beasts - Smother, Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Mirror Traffic, Dum Dum Girls - Only In Dreams. I've also just got this new album by a band from Seattle called Nevermind. It's a complete rip-off of the Pixies' quiet-loud-quiet sound but it's pretty good. Some of the tracks sound like they'd work pretty well on an acoustic guitar. If only there was some kind of Music Television channel that had a kind of "Unplugged" program...

How's your week been? Did you go to Games Day and find it as rubbish as everyone else? Where should I go to with the Wolves? What are you listening to these days? Have you heard of this band Nirvana?

On The Warpath!

Oh!

I've just been brousing the tinterweb and have spent a few minutes drooling over the new miniatures from Mantic Games' Warpath game, which should be out soon. The game system has been written by ex-GW scribe Alessio Cavatore. I'm not sure who has sculted the models, but... I LIKE!

Here follows a link to their website: http://www.manticgames.com/Shop-Home/Warpath.html

I've also taken the liberty of posting a few pictures below, which I have borrowed from their website. All images are of course copyright Mantic Games (hope I've not done anything naughty?!).

Is less more?

I've been reading this over at YTTH and it's got me thinking about my Grey Hunter squads. Rather than running 3 fully tooled up squads, would I be better off running more, smaller squads. Now, I like the big squads because they're good in combat (note, that's good, not great) and they can do quite a bit of damage on the charge/counter-attack with Mark of the Wulfen and the Wolf Standard. Their size also makes them pretty durable. However, could this in fact be a weakness? There are a lot of units that I don't really want to get stuck in combat with because it would be more beneficial for me to lose the combat and then shoot the enemy unit with the rest of my army. In a way it's almost like I'm providing protection from shooting.

Well, let's see what 6 six man squads would look like at 1750...

HQ

Rune Priest, Chooser of the Slain, Living Lightning, Murderous Hurricane

Elites

5 Wolf Scouts, Meltagun
5 Wolf Scouts, Meltagun
8 Wolf Guard, 8 Combi-Meltas, 2 Power Fists

Troops

5 Grey Hunters, Meltagun, Rhino
5 Grey Hunters, Meltagun, Rhino
5 Grey Hunters, Meltagun, Rhino
5 Grey Hunters, Meltagun, Rhino
5 Grey Hunters, Meltagun, Rhino
5 Grey Hunters, Meltagun, Rhino

So, the Combi-Fists go with the Scouts who can then go BEL or can infiltrate as needed. The other 6 split off to join the Hunter squads. I've gone with Rhinos so they can deliver Melta death while staying in their vehicles.

Heavy Support

6 Long Fangs, 5 Rocket Launchers
6 Long Fangs, 5 Rocket Launchers

All that comes to 1474 and wouldn't actually be a bad 1500 point list. Normally at this point I'd take a couple of Land Speeders but I think with that many Rhino chassis and the Scouts I should be able to block things like Land Raiders. However, there's not a huge amount of long range firepower.Two things immediately spring to mind; Razorbacks and Cyclone Missile Launchers. Since I've already got 8 Wolf Guard, I could take two more and they could both have a CML. That would be 126 points leaving me with 150 to spend - exactly enough to Las/Plas Razorbacks for the Long Fangs. This gives me the option of splitting off the CMLs to go with the Fangs or they can drive on in their Razorbacks in Dawn Of War and I'll have a two man unit capable of moving and firing 4 Krak Missiles per turn.

List in full:


HQ

Rune Priest, Chooser of the Slain, Living Lightning, Murderous Hurricane

Elites

5 Wolf Scouts, Meltagun
5 Wolf Scouts, Meltagun
10 Wolf Guard, 8 Combi-Meltas, 2 Power Fists, 2 Terminator Armour, 2 Cyclone Missile Launchers

Troops

5 Grey Hunters, Meltagun, Rhino
5 Grey Hunters, Meltagun, Rhino
5 Grey Hunters, Meltagun, Rhino
5 Grey Hunters, Meltagun, Rhino
5 Grey Hunters, Meltagun, Rhino
5 Grey Hunters, Meltagun, Rhino

Heavy Support

6 Long Fangs, 5 Rocket Launchers, Razorback, Lascannon/Twin-Linked Plasma Gun
6 Long Fangs, 5 Rocket Launchers, Razorback, Lascannon/Twin-Linked Plasma Gun


I like the large number of units (especially scoring ones) which of course gives the option of targeting a lot of different enemy units. However, I do feel this list is full of relatively easy to claim Kill Points. Yes, I know, it's about how many you get rather than how many you lose but against certain builds, that mission is going to be a real uphill struggle. It's also completely lacking in any combat units (although I did rule out Thunderwolves as replacement for the Speeders purely on the grounds that the models still don't exist)

What do you think to this list and this concept in general? Is big beautiful or do you prefer small, yet perfectly formed?

Doubles - Day 1

The C&F Boys

Firstly, two apologies; I'm rubbish with names so I can't remember the names of anyone we played apart from Dave and Steve and I took no photos at all during the tournament. Sorry about that. So, I'm going to do a three part review of the weekend and then hopefully Andy will do a post as well. Here's the list we took, so without further ado...

Game 1 vs Orks & Imperial Guard

They had one huge unit of Nob Bikerz (all unique, natch) and a little unit of Grotz in the Ork half and a Manticore, Marbo, CCS, two units of Veterans, two Vendettas and some Scout Sentinals. We won the Attacker/Defender roll off and chose to attack. This meant that they only got to deploy one of their forces while we got to deploy both of ours. The spacing meant that we couldn't get a 1st turn charge off but by turn 2, we had our two big mobz and the Stormboyz in against the Nobz. If we had won this combat we would probably have won the game.

Unfortunately, we did no damage at all shooting on the way in, one of our Klaws ended up going on the Warboss rather than the squad where we needed him and our regular attacks did the square root of nothing. By the end of turn 3, all three units had been destroyed and our hopes rested on our Grotz killing half a dozen Nob Bikerz to win the game.

The only mistake we really made was forgetting that Trukks are Fast vehicles so Ghaz could have been travelling 19" per turn which might have gotten him somewhere near the big combat with a Waaarrrgh. As it was, the Trukk got blown up around midtable and he didn't have much impact.

Game 2 vs Dark Eldar & Dark Eldar

Andy and I deployed in opposite corners while our opponents did likewise while the Objectives formed a cross in the middle of the board. They went first and managed to blow up Ghaz's Trukk in Turn 1 which should have left him out of the game completely. Fortunately, they then kept feeding him units to kill. We Waaarrrghed when we charged into the first unit of Incubi. They then made the huge mistake of charging the second unit into Ghaz while he was still invulnerable. With Ghaz and his Nobz rampaging through everything they touched, Andy's Boyz went reasonably unmolested and claimed three Objectives.

Game 3 vs Orks & Chaos Space Marines

Another unique mission in which the defenders start their entire army within 6" of the centre line, then the attackers go first but the defenders fall back to the centre and automatically regroup. Being a kill point mission, this means that you have to wipe a unit out if you're attacking, none of this letting them run away nonsense. Our opponents won the roll off to decide attacker/defender and chose to defend. With the set up, this meant that we were going to get a first turn charge off. By the end of our turn 1, we had killed two Rhinos, two Trukks, a Battlewagon and 11/12 Boyz from one of the Trukks. We pulled off multi-assaults against the stationery vehicles and with 5KP in the bag it was nearly all over then.

We spent the rest of the game finishing off the Orks and staying away from the Plague Marines and Obliterators (even though I did keep imploring Andy to run over the PMs with one of his Battlewagons!) Afterwards, I felt pretty bad for our opponents as they must have realised half way through our first movement phase that we were going to get all of our nasty Power Klaws into their vehicles.


So, day 1 finished with two big wins and one big defeat. However, we'd not been doing very well on the Secondary Missions (mainly because we both kept getting the kill a unit of 10 or more models in one turn of shooting) so we were probably going to start day 2 somewhere around halfway...

Blog Wars! Huh! What is it good for?

In case you've never heard of it, here's the low down on Blog Wars. Yep, basically it's a tournament in the UK where people from various blogs go to meet each other in the real world and play some 40K. One of the USPs of BW is that you have to take a Special Character.

Now, I've been having a bit of think about what I might take as a Space Wolves special character and I'v already started some work on a model:

In the immortal words of Rolf Harris, "Can you guess what it is yet?"

Monday Musings

Yarr

Since it's Talk Like a Pirate Day, there's only one place to start...

We're going to need a bigger boat

Yep, Dreadfleet. It went up for pre-order over the weekend and I am slightly tempted. I love a good pirate yarn and the models look incredible (actually, when was the last time a new GW model didn't look incredible?) However, £70 is a bit steep for a game that would only get occasional use at best...

Retro

No school like the old school

Lovely old school Land Raider from Forge World. What price nostalgia? £80. Hmm, when they release a retro Rhino, will they be in packs of three? It does look awesome though. The thing is I always told myself that my next Land Raider would be one of these babies...

Games Day

So, Games Day UK is fast approaching. I'm not really that bothered about going after Mick went and said that it wasn't very good. However, I would like to see what GW has in store for the new Necron models. I'm a bit disappointed that we've not heard any news about either IA11 or plastic Thunderwolves which I had hoped we might see at GD. IA11 was confirmed as Wolves and Eldar a long time ago and we've seen some nice lloking new Eldar models but still nothing wolfy. As for the Thunderwolves, I'm starting to think that we may not get them this side of 6th edition. Don't get me wrong, it's been brilliant to see all of the new Dark Eldar models that have come out this year and, if I'm being honest, Tyranids could use a Tervigon/Tyranofex kit before us. But, with the rumours being that IG are getting a release early next year, I feel a bit unloved. Yes, we still have one of the best codices out there but I'd like ot be able to run an army that's really wolfy.

(To be honest, I would probably have bought a couple of Storm Ravens to tide me over if they had been ret-conned as expected in the so called "Summer of Flyers". Whatever happened to that?)

Will you be getting Dreadfleet? Or a retro Raider? Are you going to Games Day? What did happen to the summer of flyers? Will Monday Musings be a one off?

Arena Of Death - Saint Celestine vs Commissar Yarrick

Why won't you die?!

If Yarrick dies, he gets back up on a 3+. If Celestine dies, she gets back up on a 4+. This could be the longest Arena of Death ever!

Round 1 - Saint Celestine on the charge

The living saint unleashed the flaming attack from the Ardent Blade at the Commissar. It automatically hit but failed to wound. With six attacks on the charge, she managed to hit with four. However, only one of those actually managed to wound. Striking back with his Power Klaw, Yarrick hit three times and wounded twice. Luckily for the saint, the Armour of Saint Katherine deflected both of the blows. In her anger, she could only hit twice but neither wounded. The Commissar scored a single hit but it did wound. Yet again, the Celestine's invulnerable save kept her alive. Again she struck and again she could only hit twice. One of her hits wounded but was deflected by Yarrick's Forcefield. Yarrick managed a single hit and a single wound and this time he put his opponent down. Unfortunately for her there was no Miraculous Intervention this time.

Round 2 - Commissar Yarrick on the charge

Yarrick levelled his Storm Bolter at his enemy and scored two hits. His Bale Eye was similarly successful. All three hits wounded and only two were saved - a Storm Bolter round taking a chunk out of the saint.  Through gritted teeth she hit four times but could only wound once. In retaliation, Yarrick hit twice and wounded once. Again, the Armour of Saint Katherine saved Celestine. This time, she did three hits and caused two wounds although one was stopped by the Forcefield. Yarrick, on his last legs, struck back and caused three hits. They all wounded and even though two were saved, the Saint was still put down. Needing a 4 to get back up, a 1 was promptly rolled


Wow, what an anti-climax. I thought we'd see lots of coming back from the dead zombie-style but obviously not. To be honest, I thought that the Saint would win if only because of her higher Initiative, lots of attacks and her invulnerable save. However, her lack of Eternal Warrior did for her as she got sliced in half by Yarrick's Power Klaw twice. Just goes to show; nothing's for certain in the Arena of Death...

The Prodigal Son

After a few weeks off and a weekend playing Orks, I'm returning to the Space Wolves tonight. I'm playing against Dave, who I met at the Doubles and who happens to live in the same town as me! I've arranged to give him a lift and a game at 1500 points so I need to pull together a list...

After all those 2+ saves at the weekend, I'd quite like to take some Terminators tonight. Well, let's start with a core and expand from there:

Rune Priest, Chooser of the Slain, Living Lightning, Murderous Hurricane

3 Wolf Guard, 3 Combi-Meltas, 3 Power Fists

8 Grey Hunters, Mark of the Wulfen, Meltagun, Wolf Standard, Rhino
8 Grey Hunters, Mark of the Wulfen, Meltagun, Wolf Standard, Rhino
8 Grey Hunters, Mark of the Wulfen, Meltagun, Wolf Standard, Rhino

Land Speeder, Heavy Flamer, Multimelta
Land Speeder, Heavy Flamer, Multimelta

6 Long Fangs, 4 Rocket Launchers, Lascannon
6 Long Fangs, 4 Rocket Launchers, Lascannon

That comes to 1244. Since 5 Terminators with a Cyclone Missile Launcher comes to 200, this looks pretty good. I want to take 5 so that I have the option of splitting off the CML to go with a Long Fang pack while still leaving a reasonably effective unit. Let's give these guys a bit of bling in the form of a Wolf Claw, a Power Fist and a Chainfist to give them a bit of oompf in combat. That leaves me with 26 points to spend so lets deck out the Rune Priest in Tactical Dreadnought Armour as well. This gives me the option of taking a 6 man Terminator squad which gives a pretty solid centre to my army. Let's look at that list in full:

Rune Priest, Terminator Armour, Chooser of the Slain, Living Lightning, Murderous Hurricane

9 Wolf Guard, 3 Power Fists, 3 Combi-Meltas, 5 Terminator Armour, Cyclone Missile Launcher, Power Fist, Chainfist, Wolf Claw


8 Grey Hunters, Mark of the Wulfen, Meltagun, Wolf Standard, Rhino
8 Grey Hunters, Mark of the Wulfen, Meltagun, Wolf Standard, Rhino
8 Grey Hunters, Mark of the Wulfen, Meltagun, Wolf Standard, Rhino


Land Speeder, Heavy Flamer, Multimelta
Land Speeder, Heavy Flamer, Multimelta



6 Long Fangs, 4 Rocket Launchers, Lascannon
6 Long Fangs, 4 Rocket Launchers, Lascannon

Ideally, I'd go 5 Rockets in the Fangs and take some Comi-weapons on the Terminators but I don't have the models. It's also not very "Wolfy" as it doesn't include any of the unique Space Wolf units. It looks like a reasonable list though so let's see how it goes...

What I dun on my olidayz

By Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka

Me an' me bestest Nobz went fightin'. First we fought sum Orkz and oomies but da Orkz were on bikez so we couldn't katch 'em. Da oomies blew up me Trukk so we went killin' them instead. First up I killed sum guy wiv a red 'eadband called Rambo or summat. Den some ova oomies tried to shoot us with melta gunz so I Waaarghed at 'em and then we killed 'em and dere flyin' machine. Den we fought sum emo Elfs an' killed some jetbikez an' 19 incubyez an' there main boss Elf an' some beastz an' dere handler an' a pain engine fingy an' a flyin' transport fing. Den we fought sum more Orkz an' dere Kaos Spesh Marine matez. We killed a couple a Trukks and a Battlewaggon wot hadn't moved yet and den we killed loadza da Orkz inside. Dat'll teach 'em! Den we fought sum Spesh Marinez and I killed some guyz in posh armur who 'ad ammerz and shiedz. Den we fought some Eldar an' we killed loadza Warlockz and I killed some guy called Eldrad. I don't fink he liked playin' wiv me Power Klaw. I 'ad a grate time but me Nobz kept dyin'. Stoopid Nobz! Heh heh! No one kud kill Ghazghkull tho cuz I iz da prophet of da Waaargh!!

Translation - Ghaz was very, very killy at the GW doubles.

Respect your elders

Just finished game 5 and we've been comfortably beaten by a dual Eldar army. The only highlight for us was Ghaz killing Eldrad in combat. He's been a beast all weekend.

So we finish 3-2 which we're very happy with. Watch out for a fuller report later in the week...

Run Nobz Run!

Game 4 of the doubles this morning against Dave & Steve with Blood Angels and Space Marines. If the game had ended on Turn 5, we would have lost but a unit of Meganobz managed to run back to their deployment zone to nick it in turn 6.

Die die die!

(it's German for The the the)

We managed to win our third game against Orks and Chaos Space Marines. They gave away the first turn and we got five kill points, and after that they were always struggling.

Ghaz Smash!

After losing game 1, we managed to beat a double Dark Eldar army in round 2. Ghaz and his Nobz ate their way through a squad of Reaver Jet Bikes, 2 units of Incubi, an Archon, a Beast Pack, a Raider and a Talos Pain Engine. Awesome.

'ere we go

Game 1 of the doubles and we're up against Orks and IG. The Ork half is basically a big unit of Nob Bikers. Eep!

Plan B

She said she loved Orks

Tonight Andy and I are playtesting our GW Doubles list. Now, just in case it doesn't quite work out as planned, I've pulled together a shooty Space Wolf list like the one I alluded to the other day...

HQ
Rune Priest, Chooser of the Slain, Jaws of the World Wold, Murderous Hurricane

Elites
Dreadnought, Twin-Linked Autocannon
Dreadnought, Twin-Linked Autocannon

Troops
5 Grey Hunters, Razorback, Twin-Linked Lascannon
5 Grey Hunters, Razorback, Twin-Linked Lascannon

Heavy Support
5 Long Fangs, 4 Rocket Launchers
5 Long Fangs, 4 Rocket Launchers

So, quite a bit of shooting and a little bit of combat capability with the Dreads. Oh, and I've not gone for Las/Plas since I don't have any turrets made to a decent WYSIWYG standard.

Hopefully the Orks will work out and this won't be required but we'll soon see...

The Dark Is Rising

In the low light, the four killers silently glided across the floor of the shrine. As the Incubi made their way down the adjacent corridor, they peeled off to their cells until only one remained. His hand reached for the button and the door smoothly opened to reveal a sparsely decorated room. There should have been four small lights, in each corner, lighting the room but only three were lit, leaving a dark shadow in the far corner. That would wait until morning, he had more important things to worry about now – cleaning his armour. He rested his Klavix against his bed and removed his helmet. As he turned to place it on the table in the middle of the room he caught sight of his own reflection in the blade of his weapon. He picked it up again and looked at himself, it was incredible, he looked at least 20 years younger than he had this morning. It had clearly been a very successful raid. He allowed himself a smile and turned back to his helmet. It was covered in the blood of innumerable Imperial Guardsmen, a testament to his talent with his weapon.

Suddenly something caught his eye. Out of the darkness, the barrel of a Blast Pistol was pointed at him. Even before the voice started, he knew exactly who it belonged to.

“Now, I don’t mind you selling information on me to other Archons. I don’t even mind you selling my slaves behind my back”

The voice was cool and calm and the Incubi could feel himself tensing as it continued.

“What I do mind is you stealing my plans for a realspace raid, selling those plans to one of my rivals and then going on the raid yourself”

The Incubi stood up, his arms outstretched. He opened his mouth to begin to explain but the Dark Light blast threw him backwards against the wall. He slumped forward onto the floor, dead.

The Archon stepped out of the shadow, removed a piece of parchment from his armour and drew a line on it. Had the Incubi still been alive, he would seen that the it was actually made from skin, a trophy taken from the former Archon, and it contained a revenge list. There were now just five names left on the list. The Archon walked out of the room, it was going to be a long night.

I hope you enjoy this little story. It was inspired by my desire to start a Dark Eldar army and also by the pre-credit scene in Casino Royale.

He's so fine!

Just a little update on the progress with the Orks so far for this weekend's Doubles Tournament. No word on list tweaks so far but we're play-testing this Thursday so I'm sure we'll be able to iron it out then.




First up is two eveng's worth of progress on Ghaz



Pretty happy with him right now. Lots of detail left to paint but I can live with him as he stands now for gaming purposes. Probably just worth noting that he is the first Finecast model I've purchased and I have to say that the cast was perfect, cleaned up really easily and primed without incident. The pole supporting the back banner is a little flimsy but I can't see it being too much of a problem (famous last words!).

Next is the Lootas.



Again table-top quality at best, still plenty of detail to go over but I've only got an evening's worth of paining left to get the next guys done ...

... The Kanz!



Just a couple of washes so far to colour these guys up, still a bit more I want to do before they hit the tables this weekend.

Hopefully I'll be able to post another update before the weekend with a final army list and the "completed" Kans so stay tuned.

Vanilla vs Chocolate

This week I played Mick's new Grey Knight list with an early version of my "AV13+" concept list done with Codex Space Marines. I've been playing Blood Bowl a lot recently so it was good to throw down for some 40K again, but as I've been on a break I thought that keeping the list and strategy simple would be to my benefit. So with this in mind focussing on the shooty side of things and keeping it simple would help to counter my ring-rustiness!

Codex Space Marines
HQ
Librarian (Null Zone, Avenger)
ELITE
2x Rifleman Dreadnoughts
Terminator Assault Squad (5x THSS in a Land Raider w. Lascannon & Heavy Bolter)
TROOPS
2x Tac Squads (Combi-Melta, Meltagun & Missile Launcher in Razorbacks)
Scouts (Camo Cloaks, 4 with Combat Blades, 1 with Missile Launcher)
FAST ATTACK
Landspeeder Storm
Heavy Flamer
HEAVY SUPPORT
2x Auto/Las Predators
1x Thunderfire Cannon

Codex Grey Knights
HQ
2x Ordo Xenos Inquisitors (Rad and Psychotroke Grenades and Hammerhand)
ELITE
2x Purifiers (7-man, 2x Psycannons, 4x Halberds and 1x Hammer, in Rhinos)
TROOPS
4x Strike Squads (5-man, 1xPsycannon in Psy-Backs)
HEAVY SUPPORT
3 Psyflemen Dreadnoughts

The mission was Annihilation with Spearhead deployment and horror of horrors, Mick got to go first. He spread out across the middle of his deployment zone so that he could get clear lines of sight down both flanks. I castled up with my Predators flanking the Land Raider and the Dreads and Razorbacks right behind them. The missile launcher combat squads and the Thunderfire Cannon were positioned on a hill in the back corner of my deployment zone.

As you may be able to guess this was not the most exciting game for a spectator but I have to say that I had not appreciated how interesting it can be to play a gun-line style game. It's much easier to control but you still need to be precise in your movements and target selection is everything.

The game was pretty bloody right from turn 1 with Mick's opening salvo causing a string of Damage Table results on my Predators, shaking both, and leaving one without it's Autocannon. He also blew up a razorback I hadn't completely screened with my tank wall. In return I managed to blow up a Dread and one of the Purifiers' Rhinos and shake a Psy-back. My Thunderfire cannon also managed to whittle down the Purifiers, now de-meched, to only 3 models so they were effectively out of the game as Mick wanted to protect their Kill Point.

I had smoked my two damaged Predators and used them to screen the remaining Razorback so Mick's next turn saw a similar 6” advance but his firepower was less effective, though he did manage to take a Lascannon off the intact Predator and shake one of my Dreads. My firing was more effective, I took out another Dread and one more Psy-Back, the Thunderfire cannon was less effective though only taking out a single Grey Knight.

It continued much like this for a couple more turns until Mick got his remaining Purifiers into charge range of my Land Raider. He was having frankly terrible luck with his Psycannons on cracking open my Land Raider, he didn't manage to get even a single glancing hit, so in went his Daemon Hammer- wielding Purifiers and I think managed to stun it … that was it. My shooting managed to take a few more vehicles as kill points but it was in Mick's next shooting phase where he finally caught a bit of a break.

At last the weight of fire directed at the Land Raider paid off and Mick managed to wreck it and I could not disembark my Terminators outside of charge ranged (though I did try). Purifiers with Psycotroke grenades are the scary prospect so I was not looking forward to my Assault Terminators taking the charge from them. Fortunately the dreaded 2 did not appear and my Terminators were only forced to go at I1, not exactly a handicap for THSS Terminators! I got away with one there and only lost a couple of Terminators and my Librarian, in return I caused 5 wounds winning the combat by one.

In the final turn I was able to wipe out the Purifiers and secure an 8-5KP victory. It should be noted that this was Mick's first game with the Grey Knights and he forgot a few crucial things that could have swung the combat with the Terminators. We chatted afterwards and I felt he played a bit conservatively as he could have possibly been more effective if he'd got to midfield more quickly to ensure the maximum amount of firepower could brought to bear.

Either way I was pleased with how I played and I felt that the AV13+ strategy was reasonably durable even though Mick had some very poor dice and should probably have taken out more of my tanks early on but for some poor damage table rolls. I'm going to stick with the concept as much as possible for a little while so I'll let you all know how it gets on in the future.

Know Your Rules - Njal At Nova

They're more a set of guidelines

AKA What the FAQ?

There's an old saying in Texas - Fool me once, shame on... shame one you. Fool me twice... can't get fooled again! So after last year's problem with points, it seems like Tony Kupach has been playing fast and loose with the rules again this year.

Now, the issue revolved around Njal's Lord of the Tempests rule and the fact it has been FAQ'd so that some of the results have no in-game effect if you're going second. Now it seems a bit churlish to moan about getting nerfed by an FAQ bearing in mind what happened to the Tyranids, even if the ruling didn't really make sense. The question here is should you be expected to know the rules of the army that you're playing?

Tony has claimed ignorance of the rule but I find it slightly odd that he's never played against someone else who has read about the FAQ on-line or even against another Space Wolf player who has read it themselves. Most tournaments these days ask you to bring your rule book, the rule book FAQ, your codex, the codex FAQ and your army lists. Surely, you'd have a quick glance at the FAQ?

Now, at this point I'm going to out myself as a bit of a hypocrite - last year I played in a tournament that used the INAT FAQ. I started to have a look at it but found it frankly ridiculous and so ignored it since I didn't consider it to be "official rules".

So what are your thoughts? Do you slavishly download and read every FAQ, just those that relate to your army or none of them? Do you go into a game expecting your opponent to know all the rules about your army? Is it reasonable to expect everyone to have an overview of the FAQs since they're so widely reported on the 'net these days?

AV13+ the Answer to Grey Knights?

Grey Knights, they are the en-vogue army of the moment. The majority of builds rely on packing in a disgusting volume of anti-infantry fire power (S4-6) and a similarly nasty amount of anti-light armour firepower (S7-8). To take out anything tougher they are typically relying on rolling 6s with S7 rending weapons, not bad but not exactly awesome.

Some people will suggest that fielding massed Terminators is the answer but GKs really do torrent of fire better then almost any codex (IG being the exception). While they do not pack a significant amount of AP2 or better they can put out enough wounds on T4 infantry to force enough armour rolls to make even a 2+ armour save feel a little shaky!

The solution in my opinion is to out range their anti-infantry firepower and pack as much AV13+ armour to take advantage of their lack of an ability to effectively deal with it. I predominatly play Vanilla Marines and Blood Angels so here are my suggested lists for countering Grey Knights:

Blood Angels

HQ
Librarian
Shield and Sword
ELITES
Terminator Assault Squad
5x THSS
TROOPS
Assault Squad
5 Marines, Land Raider w. Lascannons, TL Heavy Bolter & Multi Melta
Assault Squad
5 w. Meltagun in Las/Plas Razorback
Assault Squad
5 w. Meltagun in Las/Plas Razorback
FAST ATTACK
Baal Predator
Assault Cannon & Heavy Bolter Sponsons
Baal Predator
Assault Cannon & Heavy Bolter Sponsons
HEAVY SUPPORT
Predator
Autocannon Turret, Lascannon Sponsons
Predator
Autocannon Turret, Lascannon Sponsons
Devastator Squad
10 w. 4x Missile Launcher

Basically AV13 & 14 to the front, Devs combat squaded at the back with the Razorback shielded by the Preds so they remain mobile for as long as possible. The Land Raider goes to the Terminators and the Assault Squad whose transport it is stay in reserve.

Space Marines

HQ
Librarian
TDA w. Stormshield, Null Zone and Avenger
ELITE
Dreadnought
2x TL Autocannon
Dreadnought
2x TL Autocannon
Terminator Assault Squad
5x THSS, Land Raider w. 2x TL Lascannon, TL Heavy Bolter
TROOP
Tactical Squad
10 w. Meltagun & Missile Launcher, Las/Plas Razorback
Tactical Squad
10 w. Meltagun & Missile Launcher, Las/Plas Razorback
FAST ATTACK
Land Speeder
Multimelta & Heavy Flamer
HEAVY SUPPORT
Predator
Autocannon Turret, Lascannon Sponsons
Predator
Autocannon Turret, Lascannon Sponsons
Thunderfire Cannon

Once again AV 13 and 14 to the fore, there's enough spread to cover the Dreads in Razorbacks is necessary, otherwise you should be able to severely disrupt a mech heavy GK army with the TFC able to take out small units once they are out of their transports. The Terminators jump out if the opposition gets close enough to threaten your lines. Keep the Speeder in reserve as it's the weak link in the list but could definitely be handy if you see a Land Raider lined up against you though any GK build should be able to take it out comfortably.

Neither list is particularly exciting and you might well say, IG could do it better, and you'd be right. But if you don't have an IG army I think either of these is a pretty viable option to give you a solid chance against a mid-field gunline GK army.

I Predict a Waagghh

As Gav mentioned in his last post, we are entering the 40K doubles at Warhammer World next weekend. It's been a back and forth journey to get to a consensus on using double Orks but here we are. We're still discussing the list but here's what I wrote up as a first gambit.

List 1 - 874pts
HQ
Ghaz - 225
ELITE
7x Lootas - 105
7x Lootas - 105
TROOP
4x Meganobz - 215
(1x Kombi-Skorcha, 1x Kombi-Rokitt in Trukk w. Boarding Plank & Red Pain Job)
Gretchin - 40
(10x Gretchin, 1x Runtherd)
FAST ATTACK
Stormboyz - 184
(11x Boyz, 1x Nob w. PK & BP)

List 2 - 875pts
HQ
Big Mek - 85
(Kustom Forcefield)
TROOPS
Shoota Boyz - 152
(16x Boyz in 1x Rokitt, 1x Nob w. PK&BP)
Shoota Boyz - 158
(17x Boyz in 1x Rokitt, 1x Nob w. PK&BP)
FAST ATTACK
Deffkopta - 70
(TL Rokitt & Buzzsaw)
HEAVY SUPPORT
Battle Wagon - 130
(Big Shoota, Armour Plates, Deff Rolla, Red Paint Job)
Battle Wagon - 130
(Big Shoota, Armour Plates, Deff Rolla, Red Paint Job)
Killer Kans - 150
(3x Rokitt Launchers)

As I understand it the majority of the missions require the lists to be able to operate individually at opposite ends of the board as well as together so I've tried to take what I would consider to be a viable 1750pt list that works as a whole and split it such that each half can be balanced in it's approach and is relatively self-supporting.

List 1 has a fast moving assault hammer in the form of the Stormboyz and Ghaz + Meganobs in their Trukk, it also has significant fire support with two units of Lootas. Finally the Grots are able to score, as are the Meganobz but that's more of a bonus feature than what I'd intend for them to achieve as a core use.

List 2 has fast, durable assault capability in the form of the two KFF'd Battle Wagons full of Boyz, who also provide a pretty reliable scoring element in this list. Fire support comes primarily from the Killer Kans but the Deffkopta is going to get a shot or two off. The Deff Kopta is also a useful distraction unit and the Kans may get the opportunity to throw their S10 attacks about a bit in assault.

I think both lists are pretty well balanced with units that are nearly all capable of full-filing multiple roles. There's room for tweaking particularly with regards to the Lootas as they may not be best suited to the missions we'll be playing, I also have a 30-man Slugga Boyz squad that would like to be added in somewhere.

Keep an eye on the blog for more updates next week, also due for updates next week is the painting progress on Ghaz, here is as photographed at about 8pm this evening.



As I type, he has been sprayed black and drybrushed with Boltgun Metal and Mithrill Silver. Still plenty of time to complete him before next weekend!

Balance of Power

Well, the Nova numbers are in and interestingly (although perhaps not unsurprisingly) the most popular army are the Grey Knights. For me it's interesting because we didn't see a similar uptake with Dark Eldar or even Blood Angels when they were released. In fact, two members of this parish have gone over to the Grey Side (it's like the dark side for people who aren't totally convinced that a life of evil is for them) So, why now? Are GK better (for want of another word) than Space Wolves, Blood Angels or even regular Marines?

Personally, I can't see it. They're different to the other Marine flavours and they're naturally better at some things. Yes, they look shootier than the other Marines with all their multi-shot guns but they're nearly all 24" range. Yes, they look assaultier than other Marine with their Power Weapons as standard but they only have one attack base.

Maybe they're just easier to play (and this coming from a guy who plays the most forgiving codex that is out there!) - Shoot with your three Dreads, drive your Raorbacks up to midfield, get out shoot and assault what's left.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that it's a rubbish codex, it clearly isn't (they are Marines after all!) but I don't think it's as strong as a lot of people are making out.

(Note: I think that arguably the best and certainly the most interesting build is a Corteaz henchmen list. However, I've not talked about that here since we have some tournaments in the UK that don't allow special characters (and don't get me started on that) It could well be that many of those entrants into Nova were taking Corteaz lists so this whole post may be a bit of a knee-jerk reaction)

What do you think of GK? Too powerful or die just as easily as other Marines? Have you changed your list or tactics specifically to deal with them? Have you joined the Grey Side yourself?

Two Heads Are Better Than One

Next week is the official GW 40K Doubles tournament at Warhammer World, and Andy and myself are lucky enough to have tickets. However, we've only just decided what armies we'll be taking and it's been a bit of a long, arduous decision...

Firstly, we didn't want to take Wolves and Angels since everyone will be taking some variant of Power Armour (I'd be pleasantly surprised if the three most popular forces weren't BA, SW and GK) Then, I was quite keen to put together a Dark Eldar army but the allies matrix means that you get punished for taking anything with Dark Eldar (yes, even other Dark Eldar) So, then we thought about double Orks. Andy already has quite a few and Darren was willing to lend him whatever else we needed.

Then Darren pointed out that the idea of doubles wasn't just to take the same army twice but to come up with something fun. He then said that between himself and his doubles partner Chris, they might be able to lend us a Chaos Daemon/Traitor Guard force - perfect. I even started writing a fluff piece about an Inquisitor investigating heresy on a planet and then being sacrificed to Nurgle (it was a total rip-off of The Wicker Man but I might still finish it off and post it)

However, due to the FOC restrictions, we'd have needed to get about 300 points of both Daemons and IG so with a heavy heart our thoughts returned back to a "Twilight" list made up of shooty Wolves and assaulty Angels.

Then we just thought, nah, let's go with double Orks! Basically, we're going to take Ghaz and try and stomp some oomies!! Hopefully, Andy will post his list ideas this weekend and then we're going to playtest it next week (and then, if it fails hideously, we'll pull out the Wolves and Angels!)

Are you going to the doubles? What are you taking? What do you think of double Orks? Oh, and if you are going, we'll be the two drunk guys in the Claws and Fists T-shirts, so come and say hi...

Open War 16 tickets on sale now

So that time of year has come around again with Open War tickets going on sale. Its a 1 day 1750 point event at Maelstrom on the 22nd of Oct, 3 games and lots of raffle prizes for £18 is a bargain to me.

This is one of my favourite events of the year because its only a one day event and also because its not just 40K but fantasy and epic you get to see some really great armies on display. Last time the first company veterans won the team shield back off of flame on I think while claws and fists came the middle of the road that we are.

Most of the 40K tickets so if you want one get in quick.

Here's the link for anyone who is interested

Guess Who's Back

Well hello there! It's been a while...

I've been pretty busy over the last couple of months (drinking, going to festivals, drinking, playing sport, drinking, discovering Brazilian cuisine, drinking, learning how to make cocktails, drinking, watching sport, drinking, writing songs, drinking, getting engaged, drinking, growing a moustache and drinking) Unfortunately this has left no time for playing 40K or even indulging in any 40K-related stuff. This has been exacerbated by 85% of the people at the club starting a Blood Bowl league and the other 15% playing some bizarre comped version of 40K. All of this led to my "10 Week Challenge" being drowned at birth like an unwanted kitten.

With my batteries recharged and my head full of new ideas, I thought that I'd give a little teaser of what I'll be posting in the next week or so:

The unkillable man takes on the unkillable woman in a "Why won't you die?!" Area of Death special
Andy and my plans for the GW doubles
George Michael helps me rant about Sisters of Battle
How I nearly turned to the dark side
My initial thoughts on Blog Wars 2
Part 1 of my Space Wolf codex review
A Know Your Rules Njal Nova special
A new feature called Your Move

All being well, I should also be able to announce the timing and theme of this year's xenos week. Last year's Ork Week was really good and hopefully this year will be bigger and better.

(Hmm, just realised that this post doesn't really say anything. Hopefully the picture of me with a comedy moustache will be enough to make you tune in for the proper posts)