Silver & Gold and Other Army Lists

The 40kUK Podcast are currently instigating a hobby event called “Age of Armies”, you can find out more about it here. But suffice to say it’s an army building challenge requiring you to build and paint a new army over the course of the year with a view to bringing it to a tournament at the end of the year, possibly the Autumn Throne of Skulls.

I’ve always wanted to do one of these events but they’ve always seemed to fall at times that weren’t convenient for one reason or another but this time, I’ve just finished my Tyranids, my Marines are just expanding into 6^th edition and my Orks may never surface again ... so I quite fancy doing something new. The premise is that you acquire the equivalent of £50 worth of models for your army each month which is pretty achievable I think but what I really like about this is the intention for everyone involved to attend a tournament together at the end of the challenge. This sounds like a lot of fun.

The big question though, is what army should I do? I’ve been really tempted to do a Chaos Marines (Khorne) Primary with Ork Allies army because I have always loved the Chaos Marines from a fluff perspective and it would give my Orks a focus again. However I pretty much have all the Ork models I’d need painted up so that’s probably a no-go from the point of view of this challenge.

The list I’d considered at 1850pts was:

The Week That Was ...

I'm in a glass case of emotion!

26^th October – 1^st November

Chaos Win

Looks like I may have done well to avoid playing Mick’s Chaos list last week because I was roundly spanked by Gav’s Chaos Marines/Daemons list this Thursday. In fairness the list is something we’re working on together for the Battle Brothers tournament in January so Gav cannot be held wholly responsible for the giant slice of gorgonzola that he served up to me and, but for some poor dice and poor decision-making, I could have done a lot better. Before I spout off about the game here’s an overview of the lists:

1500pts - Purge the Alien/Vanguard

Marines/Daemons:

Huron

Great Unclean One of Nurgle

Flamers of Tzeentch (5)

2x Chaos Space Marine Squad (14) 2x Plasma, 1 Sgt w. Lightning Claw

Pink Horrors (5) w. The Changeling

Helldrake w. Baelflamer

Screamers of Tzeentch (5)

Obliterators (2) MoN

Tyranids

Prime w. 2x Boneswords & Deathspitter

2x Hive Guard (3)

2x Termagant (10)

2x Tervigon Crushing Claws, Cluster Spines, Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs, three 6^th ed Powers

Raveners (5) Rending Claws

Carnifex Brood (2) 2x TL Devourers each

I went second but due to Huron’s Trait I was basically deploying blind as Gav rolled a 3 for his number of units able to infiltrate. I set up a fairly balanced front but with the ‘fex/Prime unit  on my left flank in cover but within reach of his Oblits, and the Raveners dead centre. I also held both units of Termagants in reserve. Gav infiltrated his two large Marine Squads in cover to my right with Huron’s unit more towards the centre.

The first turn began with Gav getting his preferred wave so down came the Screamers, right in front of my Raveners, and the Flamers, right between my Carnifexes and a unit of Hive Guard. The Screamers turbo-boosted over my Raveners causing about 3 wounds and the Flamers took two wounds off the Prime and one off a Carnifex. Could have been worse! In my first turn I poured the Carnifexes into the flamers reducing them to two models and the two Cluster Spines and Hive Guard into the Screamers, reducing them to two models as well.

Poor decision #1 I did not spawn any ‘gants because this is a VP scenario and I did not want to contribute more VPs to the pool. However if I’d had the units available I’d have been able to mop up the remaining models in each unit giving me 2 VPs for the kills and an extra one for first blood. The ‘gants would have been in a relatively safe position and able to react to the next wave of Daemons to drop.

Poor decision #2 I charged the remaining Flamers with my ‘fex/Prime unit. The overwatch fire caused 3 wounds killing off the wounded Carnifex and the resulting combat only succeeded in killing 2 of the remaining 3 Flamers. This was largely caused by my decision not to shoot the remaining Flamers with the nearest unit of Hive Guard though as they could probably have finished them off!

Poor decision #3 Charging Huron’s unit with my Raveners, through cover, at a distance of 9”. Obviously this was unsuccessful and the overwatch fire took the unit down to 3 models. Not good!

Sure enough Gav got the Great Unclean One and the Horrors next, blocking the progress of my ‘fex/Prime unit with the big fella and putting the Horrors in my backfield to give me another reason to think twice before advancing on his juicy units of Marines. His shooting was effective, finishing off the Raveners in the middle and taking a wound off the Tervigon on the extreme right flank. My shooting phase, however, was much more productive ... for Gav! I chose to spawn two units of ‘gants this time and one of the units in reserve came on, from here on in I think the rest of the turn can be summed up as follows:

Poor decision #4 I chose to shoot at the Pink Horrors! Sure enough the unit of Termagants failed their leadership and shot at the recently spawned unit of ‘gants killing a couple of models. Then (less stupidly – but no less unsuccessfully) my Tervigon failed his leadership test and plonked his pie-plate on top of the depleted ‘gant unit finishing them off.

Poor decision #5 After charging the Great Unclean One (who was Enfeebled I might add) with a bunch of poisoned ‘gants I also piled in my Carnifex and Prime. If I’d rolled better this would have been fine but as it was I got stuck in combat for another 2 player turns eventually losing the Prime to a challenge and everything else along the way. Only taking the Great Unclean One with me thanks to a Warp Speed buffed Tervigon charging in a turn later.

The rest of the game was rather academic since I lost all three secondary conditions and was behind on VPs even without those. I definitely could have played it better but at least I’m seeing what I’ve done wrong and hopefully I can correct this in the future.

I’m not putting it all down to my mistakes either, Gav played a blinder (clearly still sore about Space Hulk the previous week), but I think that if I’d kept my wits about be and not been quite such a knuckle-head I could have given him a bit more of a game!

If I could do it all again I would have spawned ‘gants in turn 1 and not allowed the Daemons in my back-field slow my advance. Also I should have just tar-pitted the Great Unclean One with poisoned ‘gants, they would have killed him eventually and I think my Monstrous Creatures would have had a good chance at wiping the Marine squads if they’d been able to get there!

I think that playing Tyranids, more than any army I’ve used before, requires you to have a rock solid plan going into a game and a number of factors (some of which may be out of your control) can quickly wreck that plan making recovering anything from the game very hard work. Not to mention that if you plan poorly or make silly mistakes during the game, any chance of being competitive can very quickly go out of the window. This is undoubtedly a lesson that applies to all armies and it’s a testament to my lack of success at tournaments that I have not been able to learn this lesson to date. Perhaps my experiences with Tyranids will make a better player out of me!

And in other news

Overpowered units. When 6^th was brand spanking new, everyone was asking, “How are you going to deal with Flyers?”. I think that in most situations (even though this question still pops up more often than not) my answer is, “I’m just going to ignore them”. Admittedly it’s going to be very hard to ignore multiple Vendettas when playing a Monstrous Creature-heavy list, but in that case I will try to force them to Hover to make the most out of their Lascannons and at that point I need to be in position to jump on them with something killy! Perhaps this is a naive position but I’m going to drop shooting capability from my next test list and see how it goes.

Now the overpowered unit label seems to have been applied to those troublesome Screamers and Flamers from the Chaos Daemons Codex and I have to say that they certainly do worry me, particularly as I’m probably not going to be carrying any significant shooting in the next few test lists. However if you play a list with a suitable amount of shooting in it, and as this is 6^th ed you really ought to be able to shoot, I can’t see these units being unmanageable. If you put fire-power into them they will crumble and then what has the list got? Probably some very poor scoring units with low survivability and a Monstrous Creature or two, this should be manageable. If a game is balanced you should not be able to win easily, it should be tough, it should be a challenge. And I really don’t qualify 27 Screamers and 27 Flamers as an “I Win Button”.

Let’s hear your thoughts, I’m sure you all have some!

Open War 18 - Flight of the Tyranids

Last weekend was the 1st Company Veterans Club's twice annual tournament - Open War. It's held in Maelstrom Games in Mansfield and this is the 6th consecutive one I've attended, but my first with Tyranids.

I took the following:

Flying Hive Tyrant w. 2x TL Devourers & Hive Commander
Tyranid Prime w. 2x Boneswords, Scything Talons & Regen

Zoanthrope
Zoanthrope

Tervigon w. Cluster Spines, Toxin Sacs & 2 Powers
Tervigon w. Crushing Claws, Cluster Spines, Toxin Sacs & 2 Powers
10 Termagants
10 Termagants

Mawloc
Trygon
2x Carnifexes w. 2x TL Devourers each

The plan was simple, throw it at the enemy and see what happens!

G1 vs. Necrons (Check out Towers' Blog here http://wingsofsanguinius.blogspot.com)


Destroyer Lord w. Warscythe, Weave and Mind-Shackle Scarabs

5 Necrons w. Ghost Ark
5 Necrons w. Doom Scythe
5 Necrons w. Doom Scythe
12 Necrons w. Doom Scythe

6 Wraiths w. 2x Whip Coils
9 Scarab Bases

3x 3 Tomb Spyders

The mission was Kill Points with Hammer and Anvil Deployment.

This was a list I’d heard a lot about but never faced and I felt it would be a tough match-up for me, his Wraith and Destroyer Lord unit would be difficult to keep away from and hard to deal with in assault. The sea of scarabs could potentially tie up a unit indefinitely which would severely hamper my killing power and he had more monstrous creatures than I did so in a straight-up fight I would be in trouble. All this coupled with the fact that this was only the second time I’d used the Tyranids in anger meant I was not entirely optimistic.

However, it started well with the Carnifexes significantly reducing his scarab population and the Tervigon on my right flank ploughing into his Ghost Ark and wrecking it, “1st Blood” to me! I’d also set up an assault where I could charge his Wraith unit with a pile of ‘gants and get my Trygon in on one side in an attempt to maximise his effectiveness and minimise his exposure to Wraiths and the Lord. I thought this looked a good option but it turns out I was wrong.

The Wraiths took everything I threw at them and pretty much laughed it off while dealing plenty of rending attacks back to my Trygon. Keeping endurance on him kept him in the fight longer than he deserved to be, sadly though while he was holding on the ‘gant screen was being comfortably eaten away and a unit of Spyders were now in range to charge the Trygon. So in a desperate attempt to turn the combat back in my favour I threw my Tyrant in there and challenged the Lord a flubbed Mind-Shackle roll later and I was down to 1 wound. This did not end well for me.

On the other flank the Carnifex and Prime unit had been charged by the scarab screen and while overwatch had thinned out their numbers again I was failing to roll 2+ to wound like it was going out of style. 6 rounds of combat later I was down to 1 Carnifex and on the last combat round of the game he failed to kill the last Scarab base needing only a 2+. That little event summed up the game for me.

I can’t put it all down to dice though, my opponent managed all of the above without his air support who stayed off the board until turn 4. His target priority and movement was excellent. He did exactly what he needed to to win the game 23-7

G2 vs. Black Templars w Dark Angels

Emperor’s Champion w. Abhor the Witch
Marshall w. Meltabombs
Chaplain
Dark Angels Chaplain

Assault Squad 5-man w. Powerfist

10 Initiates & 6 neophytes w. Power Sword & Flamer
10 Initiates & 6 neophytes w. Power Sword & Flamer
6 Initiates w. Missile Launcher & Meltagun in a Razorback w TL Heavy Bolters
5 Dark Angels Tactical Marines w Power Sword & Plasma Gun in a Rhino

5 Dark Angels Devastators w 2x Missile Launchers & 2x Plasma Cannons

Aegis Defence Line w. Quad Gun

The Mission was Big Guns Never Tire with a Vanguard Deployment.

I don’t think there has been a tournament that both Keith and I have attended where we haven’t ended up playing each-other and after losing to his Daemon Hunters in our first meeting I don’t think I’ve lost to him since. With my experience of being on the wrong side of a fair number Space Marine vs Tyranid encounters in the past and with his pretty combat oriented list I have to say I was feeling confident about my chances here again.

I got first turn and decided to start with my Tyrant on the board, outflanking a brood of ‘gants to hopefully take one of the objectives close to the edge of the board. My Tyrant flew foward and attempted to take down the quad gun early but only managed to cause a single wound, the Tervigon on the right pooped out 7 ‘gants and doubled out with two 2s and a 3! The one on the left however was a baby machine and didn’t stop all game effectively securing the two objectives on that side by himself.

In the centre the Trygon made short work of the Dev squad manning the Quad Gun with an audacious 11” 2nd turn charge. Again I made the frankly stupid decision to land my Tyrant and charge him into the Initiate squad with the Marshall on the centre hill. This guy is not equipped for combat and he was eventually laid low by a well placed Melta bomb, by that time however the Trygon was engaged with the same unit and their fate was sealed.

Over on the right was where it could have gone wrong but the bunged up Tervigon and the Carnifex-Prime unit saved the day taking on the other initiate squad which had the Chaplain and the Emperor’s champion in it. The Prime and Champion killed each other in an epic challenge leaving the ‘fexes to finish off the unit , which was not an easy task with a single wounded Carnifex remaining standing after a couple of rounds of combat. The hero for Keith’s Army was the Dark Angels Chaplain who refused to die and hung in against an Iron Arm powered Tervigon until the game ended. The result was 25-5 in my favour but Keith definitely had dice that made my 1st game dice look poor so that was a bit of a flattering score-line!

G3 vs Imperial Guard w. Daemons

Company Command Squad w. Heavy Bolter
The Masque

7 Flamers of Tzeentch

Platoon w Mortars & Autocannons
Veterans w Meltaguns & Chimera
5 Plaguebearers

Vendetta
Hellhound
Hellhound
7 Screamers of Tzeentch

Griffon
Demolisher

Bastion w. Quad Gun

The mission was Crusade with Dawn of War Deployment.

I’ll start by saying that I did not really enjoy this game despite the fact that my opponent was a nice enough guy to talk to, I just found his use of the rules exploitative when he was running a powerful enough list and was a good enough player not to really have to do what he did ... more on that later.

This game I rolled by far the worst lot of psychic powers of any game in the tournament – I don’t think effected the result but it did throw a spanner in the works and made my units feel a lot less powerful. I got first turn and decided to outflank the Tervigon who got Warp Speed (definitely not something I’m referring to in the previous sentence!) as I figured he could do a number on the inevitable back-line of vehicles. I started with the rest of my units on the board. Sensibly he only deployed long range shooty units which I did not have the firepower to deal with in turn 1 and possibly turn 2. So I walked into a gunline and my termagants were gone, typically the Tervigon on the board bunged up on turn 1 to the tune of about 9 ‘gants so I was not feeling confident about my chances of holding any objectives and I had conceded 1st Blood.

He got his non-preferred wave which saved me from the pain of the Screamers and Flamers arriving together but the Masque’s Pavane was allowing the Hellhounds to make short work of my units. Despite this I really had to just ignore her and get on with the task at hand, crossing the board! Thanks to the anti-aircraft fire on the board my Tyrant was a dead-man walking, he did manage to kill 3 of the 5 plague bearers before he bought it though ...

So I’d lost the left flank and the two objectives there so I focussed on the 3 objectives to the centre right of the board and here’s where I got a bit miffed. I was in range of charging his Bastion with my Carnifex unit (I bet some of you know what’s coming here) but my opponent pointed out to me the fact that the Bastion was technically unoccupied (his unit was on the battlements) and as it clearly says in the rulebook, I cannot target an unoccupied building. What made this worse was the fact that he’d positioned the Bastion so that the door was against his long table edge so I could not get into it to assault the unit on top. I didn’t argue this because the rule is clear and despite what I think I’m not the kind of guy to argue against Rules as Written on a point of fluff – that didn’t stop me for feeling pretty shitty about his use of what in any other game would probably be considered an “exploit” though.

It was really irrelevant though because the game was pretty much lost at this point. My bunged up Tervigon had experienced the exquisite pain of being charged by Screamers which was a total surprise to me having not seen them since the update. Needless to say my frustrated Carnifex unit rounded on them and vapourised them immediately after they’d finished with the Tervigon. Unfortunately for me he still had the flamers and they made quick work of the units I had left in the centre leaving me with a Trygon and the Tervigon who had outflanked, these guys were the heroes of my weekend!

The Trygon eventually succumbed to overwhelming focussed firepower but not before taking out a couple of units of guard and a vehicle. The Tervigon, however, would not die and would not stop pumping out ‘gants. He actually managed to spawn a big enough unit that I felt I could risk a charge with them against the remaining flamers. I gambled well and they made it in and were probably a only turn short of wiping the unit but sadly the game ended on turn 6 and I’d moved my Tyrgon off the Objective to be able to spawn the ‘gants within charge range of the Flamer, and forgotten to move him back. So I lost 25-5 to a far better opponent but despite the fact it really didn’t make a difference to the result I was just left with a bad feeling about the game because of the tactics with the Bastion, which is a shame because he seemed like a nice guy.

... although he was using those giant square “casino-style” dice which just don’t roll and I really don’t think are suitable for tabletop gaming use. But what do I care, I wasn’t there to win the thing just have a few games with a new army. I certainly got a lot out of it and I’m looking forward to putting the Tyranids back on the table-top very soon!

Tuesday Thoughts

(think of it as a late Monday Musings)

Thunderwolves

As you can see, I've put together my first Thunderwolf. Before I add the rider I think it's wise to do some thinking about the actual use for the unit. Now, I've seen Thunderwolves used in many different guises since the codex came out - there's the super rock unit of Wolf Lord on Thunderwolf accompanied by 5 of his buddies down to the solo Thunderwolf as a counter-attacking threat. I think that the first option suffers from the same problems as any rock - it's a lot of eggs in one basket. As Mick found out, in some games they'll kick arse and take names and in others they will do very little. I'm also not totally convinced by the solo T-Wolves. Yes, they can easily claim cover behind a Rhino and there are definitely going to be handy against MSU armies in combat.

So, where now for me? I'm thinking of a unit of 3 initially. This feels like a good balance between the two options above and also because there are 3 in the box. It should be easy enough to claim cover with 3 but they are also going to pack a bit of a punch in combat. Thunderwolf units can get very expensive very quickly and I want a unit that on one hand I won't want to throwaway but on the other hand one that I can afford to lose without it making a huge dent in my battleplan...

3 Thunderwolf Cavalry, 2 Storm Shields, Power Fist

comes to 235 points. That seems really expensive when you consider that 5 Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield Terminators are only 200 points. However, the T-Wolves are a lot more mobile. So, the plan is that these guys will be replacing some of my Wolf Guard. Unfortunately, I have a badly bruised finger from being landed on by a Running Back at the weekend so I don't think I'll be able to finish the models this week...

Whaddya Need?

I've been thinking a lot about some of the rumours that are flying around the internets regarding rumours for the next 40K Codex and I started thinking, who would I like to see done next. Yes, we'd all like to see a better Tyranid codex but that isn't going to happen any time soon so what would we like to see? The rumours seem to point to Dark Angels or Chaos Legions, although Tau and Eldar are mentioned as outside possibilities. Following the last errata, Dark Angels are actually a pretty good army and while it would be nice to see an update I don't really think they need one right now. Personally, I think there are already too many shooty armies out there so that sees Tau off my radar. Eldar are an interesting one. I would quite like to see them being redone as their unit speciality makes them a pretty unique army on the tabletop. However, I have to admit that I'd much rather see a "big book of Chaos" The good guys have had it their way too long, it's time for the bad guys to shine.

Now, when I say "big book of Chaos", I mean, Chaos Legions, Renegades and Daemons all in the same book so that you can pick and choose. This means that you can run your all Daemon list, your all Bezerker army or anything inbetween. I had an idea of a recently renegade army that was in collusion with Daemons because they thought that they were visions of the God Emperor. So, they wouldn't fight with Cult units because they don't realise that they're actually turning evil yet.

Unfortunately, this book won't happen as there is no way that GW would release one book when they can release three and because it would be almost impossible to balance properly.

So, does anybody have any tips for using Thunderwolves? And if you could have any codex released next, which one would it be and why?

Fudal at Open War 15 – Game 3

One big win and one big loss, this could still end happily with a good result in game 3, however when I got to the table I saw Daemons on the other side with a huge unit of 'crushers and those other favourites, Fiends. This was going to be tricky! It was nice to see a Bloodthirster as I'd not seen once since my very first game against Daemons back in OW13. While, like the Tyranids, I was going up against an assault specialist army with a weaker assault army, this time I did not feel as negative as this list was far smaller and more elite. My ranged firepower may be able to effectively support my assault units in this one … with a little luck. For the last time my list can be found here.

Game 3 vs Daemons

Bloodthirster w. Might
Lord of Change w. Breath and Master of Sorcery

Bloodcrushers x8 w. Fury, Icon & Instrument
Fiends x6 w. Might
Fiends x6 w. Might

Bloodletters x16 w Fury & Icon
Pink Horrors x8 w. Changeling

Mission: Move units into your opponent's deployment zone, Diagonal deployment 24” apart

I gave Jon first turn because I wanted to be able to leverage my speed at the end of the game to go for a win on the mission. He got his preferred wave and on came the 'Thirster, 'Crushers and a unit of Fiends. I sacrificed my Baals to keep his 'Crushers busy for a turn and focussed my firepower on the Fiend squad, managing to take them down to a single model. I positioned my Furioso and Mephiston to head off the Bloodthirster.

Jon got nothing extra in turn 2 and my positioning was good because I was able to get the charge off on the Bloodthirster, The presence of a Sanguinary Priest gave the Dread and Meph Furious Charge. Mephiston was only able to do a single wound … enter the Furioso. Consignment to immobility in the last game had clearly got his dander up as he inflicted 9 wounds on the Bloodthirster thanks to the Talons, which could not all be saved. Unfortunately the 'Thirster went simultaneously and was able to destroy the Dread but it was a glorious death.

In hindsight (there's that awful word again), the Dread would have been better served ploughing into the 'Crushers who had only a very slim chance of being able to do anything about him and in turn he could have inflicted severe pain on them but it's all part of the learning experience. As it was I also had a chance to block both the Crushers and the Blood Letters (when they arrived on turn 3) with the Riflemen Dreads but I did not think about it until it was too late and the damage had been done. I'll remember for next time.

In other news I threw away my podding Tac Squad thanks to poor placement and similarly misplayed my Assault Squad by attempting to wipe out the Pink Horrors. This move left them in charge range of the Bloodletters and that was only going to end one way! Meph was also finished by the 'letters but not before he'd managed to take out the Lord of Change, another good showing for the big fellah.

In the end I was able to pull his Blood Letters out of scoring position with a charge from one of the Riflemen and the other finally got into combat with the 'Crushers and was able to hold them up for 2 turns. With a last turn dash across the table by my razorbacks I was able to score more mission points than Jon but the difference was not sufficient to secure a victory, instead it was a draw and John edged me on battle points (related to VPs), by two. So it was a minor loss but one that I greatly enjoyed and felt pretty good about, the mistakes I made were things I saw during play and was able to gain some benefit from, next time I'll see the opportunity sooner and make more of it.

All in all it was another great Open War and although I finished 11 places lower than in the last two I feel better about the result. Mid-field is more representative of where I'm at as a player and the games were all challenging in different ways and taught me something about my army. Where Special Characters are allowed I'm going to stick with this list for a while and try to get better at using it (well I may tweak it a bit to try and get a Dev Squad in in case of 'Nids).

Until next time!

Beam me up Scotty

Well it's been a while since the Caledonian Open and I've finally gotten around to writing up my battle reports, I apologise for the brevity of the Daemons reports but the lists and results were so similar that the two games blur into one in my memory.

Anyway, enough of that, on with the action:


My List
Librarian
Fear of the Darkness, The Sanguine Sword
Terminator Assault Squad
(5) 2x Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield, 3x Lightning Claws; Land Raider Redeemer w. Extra Armour & Multi Melta
Sanguinary Priests
(2)
Sternguard
(5) Combi-Meltagun x4; Drop Pod
Assault Squad
(5) Meltagun, Sergeant w. Power Weapon; Razorback w. Dozer Blade & Lascannon and TL Plasmagun
Assault Squad
(5) Meltagun, Sergeant w. Power Weapon; Razorback w. Dozer Blade & Lascannon and TL Plasmagun
Assault Squad
(5) Razorback w. Twin Linked Lascannon
Dreadnought
Twin Linked Autocannon x2
Dreadnought
Twin Linked Autocannon x2
Devastator Squad
(5) Missile Launcher x4

Game 1
vs Necrons

Necron Lord
Veil of Darkness, Disruption Field
(10x Warriors) x2
(5x Destroyers) x2
4x Destroyers
(3x Heavy Destroyers) x2
2x Heavy Destroyers

Mission: Dawn of War, Seize Ground

1st game of the day and I drew the only Necron player in the field. Before I had managed to get too excited I noticed that they were being played by a pretty well know tournament player, certainly I'd seen him in the top-10 of many of the tournies I've previously attended. It's also a list I'm not familiar with and the “spammy” nature of it gave me a little cause for concern.

I rushed as much as I could across the table as quickly as possible while trying to get cover for my vehicles for as long as possible. Fortunately my opponent's dice were truly horrible culminating in turn 2 with him failing a leadership test for Fear of the Darkness which caused a unit of Destroyers to run off the table. His luck changed at the bottom of the 2nd though when he immobilised my Land Raider, effectively neutralising my Terminators until the top of Turn 5 when they finally managed to get into combat.

The Warriors and the Lord had been kept in reserve but they also arrived at the bottom of turn 2 so, with his Destroyer units a shadow of their former selves, at the top of turn 3 I turned my attentions to the scoring units. The Warriors were set up so that one unit screened the other with the Lord, no matter, I thought, We'll just take them one at a time. Sure enough, one round of combat later and the screening unit had been run down, shooting in the previous phase had done a number on the Lord's squad seriously reducing it's shooting effectiveness next turn.

As it turned out shooting was not the plan and at the bottom of Turn 4, with a wave of his hand, the Lord and the remnants of his squad zoomed across the table to an objective in cover not far from my Devastators. Bum, this put me in a position from which I may not be able to pull out anything better than a draw.

However, the saving grace of all who play against Necrons, Phase-Out, was only 3 models away. I only had one turn to achieve this and nothing was in assault range so I unloaded everything I had into the Lord's unit in the hope that three of his squad would vapourise. When the smoke cleared the mangled carcasses of only two Necrons were apparent and at the bottom of turn 5 the remaining Destroyers turbo-boosted to contest the other objectives I held and wouldn't you know it, that's where the game ended.

Turn 6 would have guaranteed a Phase Out but that's the way things go sometimes and to be honest he'd played too well to lose that way. The final score was 11-9 to me but technically a Draw which I think was the right result.

Result: Draw

Games 2 & 3

vs Daemons

List 1
2x Great Unclean One
(8x Blood Crushers) x2
6x Fiends
(5x Plague Bearers) x3
6x Plague Bearers
1x Soul Grinder

Mission: Pitched Battle, Capture and Control
Result: Loss

List 2
Great Unclean One
Lord of Change
7x Bloodcrushers
(6x Fiends) x2
(5x Plague Bearers) x2
8x Bloodletters
(3x Screamers) x2
2x Daemons Prince
MoT, Bolt of Change

Spearhead, Annihilation
Result: Loss

Both of these games were very similar and what they boiled down to was the fact that I panicked and didn't play my list to properly counter his key units. I find it very hard to know how to cope with the destructive power of those Elite units. In the first game my opponent got everything on tun 2 and I was overwhelmed. I couldn't reposition my units quickly enough to counter him and his charge on turn 3 left me crippled. I managed to hold out until the end of the game and salvage a 4 - 16 loss out of what could have been a tabling.

In the second game I fared slightly better but I spent too much time and firepower taking out this Daemon Princes and HQ units (the damn Lord of Change just would not die!). So his Crushers and Fiends were able to take out my heavy units and move onto the softer units relatively uncontested. Again, I hung in there but could only manage a 5 – 15 loss

Game 4
vs Imperial Guard

Command Squad
3x Plasma Guns, Regimental Standard; Chimera
(10x Veterans, 3x Meltaguns) x3
Infantry Platoon
Command Squad w. 4x Flamers; Chimera
3x Infantry Squad w. Autocannon & Sniper Rifle
1x Infantry Squad w. Autocannon, Sniper Rifle & Commissar w. Meltabombs
3x Vendetta
3x Manticore

Mission: Dawn of War, Capture and Control

Start of Day 2 and I'm up against a rather unpleasant looking IG list, given my results on the previous day I have to say I was surprised to see this list across the table but you gotta play what's in front of you :)

Clearly I had not slept well the night before as I won the roll-off and elected to go second! I had forgotten about night fighting in my excitement over winning the roll and this cost me pretty badly. By turn 3 he had taken out all of my transports and I decided to play for the draw as I could not advance on foot in the face of all of his firepower.

As it happened I did managed to get the draw on mission but his artillery and Vendettas had exacted a heavy toll on my forces, In fact I only had 4 scoring models left to protect my objective and keep him from being able to get his Vendettas close enough to contest. So although the mission was a draw the final score was a 7-13 loss.

Result: Draw

Game 5
vs Imperial Guard

Commissar Lord
Psyker Battle Squad
Chimera
4x Ratlings
Infantry Platoon
Command Squad w. 2x Plasma Gun, 1x Bolter; Chimera
2x Infantry Squad w. Lascannon; Chimera
Infantry Platoon
Command Squad w. Flamer, Bolt Pistol & Power Weapon; Chimera
1x Infantry Squad w. Lascannon; Chimera
1x Infantry Squad w. Missile Launcher; Chimera
Hellhound
Banewolf
2x Leman Russ Demolisher
Manticore

Mission: Spearhead, Seize Ground

OMG, you should have seen the number of Chimeras I was lined up against here, factoring in his fast and heavy choices, this was the very definition of “Mech-Guard”. However, he made what I would consider to be a serious tactical error in reserving everything! After the game my opponent said it was because in a spearhead deployment with the terrain as it was he could not deploy all of his vehicles without seriously hampering his ability to move.

As it turned out though I was able to get across to his side of the board and pick off his units piecemeal. His reserve rolls were very unlucky which meant I only had to deal with a few units at a time so really, I got lucky here and was afforded an easy victory thanks to what probably seemed like a sensible idea given the circumstances of the game. What also padded the result in my favour was the fact that we went 7 turns which really boosted the VP tally I was able to amass. The reselt was a decisive 17-3 victory.

Result: Win

Game 6
vs Tyranids

Tervigon
Catalyst, Toxin Sacs
(3x Hive Guard) x2
3x Zoanthropes
(10 Termagants) x2
Tervigon
Onslaught, Toxin Sacs
Tervigon
Onslaught, Toxin Sacs
3x Trygon

Mission: Pitched Battle, Annihilation

Ah 'nids, probably my favourite army to play against but with 12 T6 models including 6 monstrous creatures I certainly wasn't expecting it to be a walk in the park. His deployment did give me a distinct advantage as he placed all of his models in one corner of his deployment zone. As I didn't want to engage him in close combat at all, let alone at full strength I deployed in the opposite corner and let him come to me.

Thanks to my fas vehicles I could move into shooting range and then keep backing up to stay out of charge range but within shooting range. Three turns of this, and some extraordinarily close calls on the charge range measurements, and he had lost all three Trygons and two Tervigons were seriously wounded. At this point his Hive Guard were within range but fortunately he tried to go after my Land Raider which was a long-shot at best and didn't pay off.

When I'd fallen back back as far as I could go I was able to initiate the charge and engage on my terms which allowed me to make the most of the first round of combat and place my Terminators to screen the weaker units. My Land Raider even got to fire off it's Redeemer Cannons to great effect.

All in all whether by luck or judgement, I played it just right and there wasn't a lot my opponent could have done about it. He did get a chance to take out the Land Raider with the Zoans in turn two but his dice deserted him. If he'd taken it out it could have been a very different result but it ended in a 17-3 win for me.

Result: Win

To sum up I really enjoyed the Tournament, it was very well run, all of my opponents were great fun and I can't wait to do it again next year. As always I made a few tactical errors which cost me games and I don't think my list was particularly well balanced as was shown by my encounters with the Daemon players. I'll continue to work on my list and my decision making process in games and hopefully I'll continue to improve.

With Open War 15 less than a month away now I'm looking forward to the next Tournament and hopefully achieving better than a 50% win ratio. Watch this space for updates on that one in early Arpil.

Doubles Review...

Well I was meaning to get this up sooner. But I've been crazy busy this week to say the least...but finally here it is! It wont be a detailed account of all the games but a general over view, highlights and thoughts. So lets jump right in with:

The List


1 x Daemon Prince with Wings and Lash
1 x Great Unclean One with Instrument and Cloud of Flies

5 x Chosen with 3 x Melta Guns, 2 x Flamers in a Rhino with a Combi-Melta
4 x Fiends
3 x Flamers

10 x CSM with Power Fist, Lascannon, Plasma Gun, IoCG in a Rhino
5 x Plague Bearers
5 x Plague Bearers

8 x Flesh Hounds
5 x Seekers

1 x Oblit
1 x Oblit

Now as you can see it doesn't look terribly broken, and this was part of its strenght, people underestimated the elements combining to be greater that the sum of its parts. Normally if you think Daemons and Chaos, you think Lash Prince 4-6 Oblits, 12+ Fiends/Crushers, 5 Plague Marines, 5 Plague Bearers and not much else..so we took the Prince, and the Oblits as a distraction.

The general plan was for the Obliterators and las-cannon squad to de-mech what they could turn one and two, while the Prince took the brunt of the incoming fire and made the opponents set up and play differently. This was the psychological effect we wanted and achieved in pretty much all of our games. The real power in the list were the Daemons. The Hounds, Seekers and Fiends could drop outside of Rapid Fire range and then usually get a charge off in the next turn, the Flamers just ate a couple of squads and then died generally but were one of the best units we had.

The Games

We had a really good time over the weekend, and all the people we played against were great opponents who we'd never played against before which was good.

Game 1:

The first game was against a double foot marine list with two objectives. The enemy made the mistake here of bunching up with most of their units, and not using heroic intervention on their Vanguards. On top of this the list they were using is what our list plays best against. This resulted in us tabling them to net 1500 Vps

Highlight: the Flamers dropping in to get 17 hits on bunched up Sternguard...to cause only 4 wounds...

Game 2:

This was the only game we lost, down to something that became a common theme for the weekend, it ended on turn 5. We were against Orks and DE in a kill point mission. Their army had 3 Deff Dreads, a large mob of Boys and a KFF along with some Blood Brides and Warriors in Raiders and 2 units of Reavers. The game started with me having to explain to the opponent that you roll once on the drug table and apply it to the whole army, not roll for each unit...not a great start. The game ended after an unlucky combat which saw 10 CSMs charge 5 DE Warriors...and the Warriors won! The game ended on turn 5 with the oponents having a single DE warrior, an immobile raider and an immobile Deff dread left, we had the GUO and an Obliterator bearing down on them but the dice gods are fickle...

Highlight: The Prince lashing the Ork Boyz mob and spreading them out so that the Fiends on the other side of the board could charge one end, and the prince the other keeping the Nob and Klaw out of combat and stuck bridging the gap as it couldnt move up and pile in!

Game 3:

Game 3 was a multiple objective game against Foot Marines and BAs in Rhinos with some Scouts in Storms. Suffice to say our army rolled over them and netted us another 1500 Vps with Hounds tearing down speeders and the like..

Highlight: Chris having pin-point accuracy to tell me where to place the Prince so that he could last a squad at 23" away but leaving the Librarian just out with his hood of nerf...

Game 4:

Game 4 was against Wolves and Sisters in a kill point mission. The thing that won this game for us is that we held the Oblits in reserve to deep strike and the Chosen to outflank. Our opponents bunched up in one corner only for our reserves to show up in turn to in the right place. The Chosen in their rhino came on and blew up a rhino with a Rune Priest in only for them to be pinned, this then stopped the Sisters Immolator and Exorcist from moving anywhere. They focussed their fire on the the Daemon Prince and Obliterator which left the Flamers free to eat some Long Fangs and Sisters in one turn! The game ended on turn 5 again with the Cannoness stuck in combat with the GUO with no faith points...another 1300 Vps for the loss of 3 kill points!

Highlight: The Flamers were very impressive, but just the army in general played perfectly this game.

Game 5:

Back to the top tables...this time against Wolves and Guard, in a multi objective game. Some good shooting on the opponents side took out the Prince and Chosen early on, but it left them out of position and away from the objectives. If they'd have played differently the could have rolled over us to be honest but they just focused on the wrong things. The game ended again on turn 5 with the opponents only having 5 Guardsmen and an immobile Basilisk, we'd lost the Seekers, Chosen and Prince...with everything else ready to strike.

Highlight: The GUO eating a Land Raider, 9 Wolf Guard, 6 Grey Hunters a Rune Priest and a handful of Guardsmen

Game 6:

Last game of the weekend and on Table 3 against Eldar and Dark Eldar. An unlucky morale tests on our opponents part saw us in a strong possition early on and we capitalised on this, coupled with the Prince making some good Inv saves in combat with the Archon to finish him off in turn 3! The game ended again in turn 5 with us on one objective and moving to the other. We'd lost the Seekers and the GUO, the enemy had a Farseer, 1 Dire Avenger and a wounded Wraithlord left.

Highlight: The Daemon princed being charged in Turn one, but holding out with some lucky inv saves to kill the Archon in turn 3....roll enough dice and a one will turn up eventually...

Over all a good weekend. We came 4th due to table one drawing and someone on table two winning...any other result would have seen Chris and I come 2nd or 3rd...we did however win the Bloodthirster award with around 8200 Vps over the weekend out of a possible 9000!..the reason we didn't get the full 9000 was due in a large part to the dice gods ending all our games on turn 5! However, when you factor in that the Daemons don't do much in turn one appart from the Flamers thats a total of 24 Turns to kill stuff (about 330 Vps per turn)!

Final Thoughts

It wasn't until about a week later that I realised why we did so well. It wasn't that we took an over the top list, we didnt, we took a mix of Daemons from all the Gods, on top of that I don't play Chaos Marines and Chris doesn't play Daemons so its not like we knew the armies inside and out.

We do however know the rules, and other armies well enough to priorities targets and offer fake threats. On top of this, and ultimately the main reason was communication. Every move we made, and decision we came to was communicated so that we could support each others units to maximise their strenghts and limit their weaknesses. Other players did this to a degree but Chris and I played with 1 x 1500pt army, not 2 x 750pt forces put together.

TheBaron out!

I rolled: 6 (4/2)

News Just In...

Well, just a quick update from me as I'm tired and have work in the morning. Just got back from the doubles Tournament at Warhammer World, and my partner Chris and I finished 4th. More importantly however, we got the Bloodthirster award for a whoping 8089 VPs over the weekend out of a possible 9000.

I'll put up a better account of our experience tomorrow evening or maybe Tuesday..who knows.

In any case I had an awesome weekend, and I'm sure there will be some more reports to be found over at a little blog called From the Fang. (Along with an idea for an article series he may have stolen from me...unless I post it first...).

TheBaron Out

I rolled: 12 (6/6)

The Bitter Taste of Defeat

A 10-9 defeat in game 2 for The Baron. They looked to be on top but they couldn't deal with the three Deff Dreads in the Ork/Dark Eldar list. Even then they nearly nicked it at the death and were only a couple of lucky dice rolls away from winning. Such is the game...

Make mine a double

Just popped down to WHW to check up on the 40K doubles to see how The Baron is getting on. He and his partner Chris tabled a double foot Marine list in game 1 and so are on table 5 for the second game. Next door, on table 6, are the From the Fang boys...

Have a look at this

I came across this painting log on warseer a couple of weeks ago and with authors permission I urge you all to look at it its one of the most incredible and inspiring things I have ever seen.

http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=192544

Hope everyone has had a good new year
Mick

Grab the stash

Or not.

Lost out in game 3 - 3-1 to Gary and his Nurgle Daemons. Although I did kill Ku'gath so it's a moral victory. Kind of lol...

Well, played 3, lost 3 - not a great record.

The Number of the Beast

Before the tournament I said that I was worried about playing an army I'd never seen before such as Daemons. So, what did I get first game? Yep, Daemons. Fortunately Chris was a great guy and he patiently took the time to explain what everything was in the army. I think that's what I was really worried about - playing a WAAC gamer who would just see me as a noob and try and table me. So, again, thanks go to Chris.

So, his army consisted of

4 Tzeentch Heralds

2 x 6 Slaanesh Fiends

5 x Bloodcrushers

4 x 5 Plaguebearers

2 x Soulgrinders

1 Daemon Prince

I have to say this was an absolutely brilliant game. The Objectives were table quarters and only Troops scored. In the end it went down my Land Speeder shooting at the last three Plaguebearers that were in one of Chris' quarters. The Heavy Flamer hit all three and the Multimelta hit. I caused three wounds so one on each. Chris failed all three invulnerable saves. Two left, two Feel No Pain rolls. One failed but one made and so it finished 1-0 on Objectives. Chris absolutely battered me on Kill Points though.

So, where did it all go wrong? Well, my deployment was pretty stupid. I won the roll to go first and deployed pretty centrally. There was a hill to the left, just outside my deployment zone. I could have stuck my Long Fangs near that and ran up it in turn 1 to get a better view of the battlefield. I also set up my Razorbacks behind my Long Fangs. At the time I thought it would be a brilliant way to shoot my Lascannons over the top of my Fangs but of course it meant that I couldn't move my Razorbacks. My target selection was also poor. I became pretty downhearted at how difficult the Daemons were to kill with their multiple wounds, invulnerable saves and Eternal Warrior. Had I deployed in the corner I could have sat there and used my range to keep those nasty Daemons away. My dice really didn't help either as I failed four Leadership tests including one on my Rune Priest which saw him and the rest of his squad run off the board.

So, unit of the match? Without a doubt it was the Wolf Scouts. They managed to kill 10 Plaguebearers and hence almost nicked me a draw.