40K UK GT - Day 2

Day 1 was in the bag and I was feeling pretty positive about my performances in day 1. I could put the defeat in game 1 down to a bad match-up, game 2 went pretty well against a list which is strong in the meta at the moment and game 3 started well and but for some foul dice when the Doom landed, it could have gone quite differently. All to play for today then …

Game 4 vs Necrons; Vanguard Strike deployment, playing The Emperor’s Will

Nemesor Zandrekh
Vanguard Obyron
Destroyer Lord – Weave, Scythe, MS Scarabs
Warriors (5) - Nightscythe
Warriors (7) - Nightscythe
Scarabs (7)
Scarabs (7)
Spyders (3) – Gloom Prism
Spyders (3) – Gloom Prism
Monolith

WTF was I thinking?

 OK, not a great start to the day, a list I could really struggle against if I make any mistakes and boy do I make some mistakes. First off I win the roll-off and elect to go second, this gives him the opportunity to spawn more scarabs before I get a chance to stop him, secondly I infiltrate my scouts close enough to his lines that he can spawn scarabs, charge them and sling-shot into my lines before I can really bring enough firepower to bear on him.

*FACE-PALM*

In my first turn I attempt to make amends by dropping my Sternguard in to take out his Spyder unit with Obyron in it. Sadly I forgot that he could bring in units from reserve with my own reserves so he placed his Monolith directly between my Sternguard and the Spyder unit and rolls a “hit” in a space exactly big enough for the Monolith. To make matters worse, 6 Sternguard Combi-Melta shots take a single hull point off the Monolith.

Ahhhhh, balls!

As far as I was concerned it was game over from this point. I played it out to the end and wasn’t tabled but I only managed to pick up the single tournament point for not conceding. Not a good start to the day!

0-6 Loss (NONE / 1st, WL, LB)

Game 5 vs Necrons; Deployment Hammer and Anvil playing Kill Points

Forgeworld Overlord
Destroyer Lord – Weave, Scythe
Cryptek – Harbinger of Despair - Veil
Warriors (10)
Warriors (10)
Immortals (5) – Gauss
Destroyers (5) – Gauss Cannon
Destroyers (3) – Heavy Gauss Cannon
Wraiths (3)
Pylon
Spyder
Annihilation Barge

More Necrons! What have I done to deserve this? At least looking at it, the list didn’t look too optimised so I felt like I had a glimmer of hope in this one. I knew I’d have to castle up somewhat otherwise his uber-lord and jumpy Cryptek unit would be able to cause some havoc in my backfield.

And now 'm in amongst the Best Painted armies of the Tournament.

I took first turn hoping to get first blood and take his barge out of the game and possibly remove the wraiths too. This would mean I could focus everything on the Lord’s unit when it veiled at me. I dropped one unit of Sternguard towards his backlines to take out the Barge and the other on my side of midfield in rapidfire range of his wraith unit. The unit aiming at the Barge utterly failed, not even managing to inflict a single hullpoint. The other unit was more successful, killing 2 of the 3 Wraiths. Night Fight meant that I had nothing else in range so I couldn’t finish off the unit unfortunately.

In his turn he comfortably took out a Drop Pod for First Blood with his Destroyer Lord and then he veiled his Lord unit behind my castled up units and this is where the game took place for the next 4 turns. The reinforced Ruin which my unites were castled up in gave me enough protection to survive the initial salvo relatively unscathed and I was able to bombard him with the Thunderfire canon before I charged him with the scout unit in an attempt to slow his progress through my ranks. For the most part this worked but after dealing with his Wraith and Destroyer Lord I brought my Centurions back to help out as that Lord was proving to be a bit of a nightmare.

I managed to remove the unit at the top of turn 4 but the combat had dragged me well back into my own deployment zone and had given my opponent a 1 Kill Point lead. My opponent had astutely moved everything in his army right to the back of this deployment zone so I needed a couple more turns to get units into range. Sadly the dice brought an end to the game on turn 5 and my shitty run continued. I‘d be close to the bottom now, surely I’d be in for a nice game against a non-competitive list … we’ll I was at least half right.

6-7 Loss (WL / 1st)

Game 6 vs Chaos Space Marines; Dawn of War playing The Scouring

Chaos Lord – Mark of Nurgle, Bike, Black Mace, Sigil, Gift of Mutation
Typhus
Plague Zombies (27)
Plague Zombies (27)
Plague Marines (5) – 2x Plasma gun
Spawn (5) – Mark of Nurgle
Heldrake – Baleflamer
Heldrake – Baleflamer
Havocs (5) – 4x Autocannon
Obliterators (2) – Mark of Nurgle

FML! Right, that’s it. I’m going home, I shouldn’t have gotten out of bed this morning. I’m not the sort of person who gets depressed about a game of toy soldiers but I have to admit I was feeling pretty sore at his point and to see two Heldrakes across the board from me did nothing to raise my spirits. Fortunately my opponent was a very nice bloke with a very cool themed Nurgle army so I figured I’d just let the dice decide how this was going to end.

I got to go second and positioned the majority of my army in position to annihilate his Spawn/Bike Lord unit as soon as possible, everything would be slogging across the board nice and slowly. And so it was that by the end of turn 2 his unit and Warlord were no more! Score 1st Blood and Warlord!

Awesome looking Nurgle Spawn.

Typhus’s unit was quite happy way over on my right flank owning one objective and making another one looking a not terribly attractive option. On my left flank the other unit of Zombies and the Plague Marines were looking a bit threatening and the first Heldrake had just turned up. Fortunately I had no juicy targets on the board, unfortunately I only managed to knock a couple of hull points off.

I managed to kick myself in the balls on this turn by deciding to effectively throw away my scouts for no discernable reason; charging half into Typhus’s unit and putting the other half on the opposite side of the board! At least it made him bring his Plague Marines back to deal with them, keeping them away from my planned drop-site for my Tactical Squad. On the up-side I finished off the wounded Heldrake.

I decided I had nothing to take on Typhus and a ton of Zombies so I threw what I had left down my left flank in an effort to whittle down the Zombies and take out the Plague Marines. Long story short, it didn’t work, his other Heldrake managed to stay off long enough that I had had to deploy my marines to hold objectives at the end of turn 4 in order to cover enough objectives to secure the win. Fortunately he had to fly the Heldrake off the board at the ned of Turn 5 and I was on enough objectives to have a 3 point lead.

Unfortunately the game went onto Turn 6 and the Heldrake returned wiping one squad off an objective, the Plague Marines and Zombies cleared out another, leaving me with just the 4 pointer and handing me my 5th and final loss of the weekend.

4-7 Loss (WL / 1st, LB, WL)

40K GT 2013 - Day 1

I’ve been struggling to make tournaments this year so it was with great excitement that I set out on a cold Saturday morning last weekend to attend Heat 3 of the 40K Indie GT up in Warrington. The venue was fantastic with loads of room around every table so you could easily play Hammer and Anvil, and in fact it made playing every game that little bit easier. The tournament was well run and pretty much ran to time without incident. The food was pretty good to!

It was also a weekend of exceptional gaming, at least, I think it was. For the most part it was going on around me and a very long way away from the tables I was on (no offence to my opponents, they were all rather good). I however stunk up the joint, and for once I’m not talking about bad gas!

As some of you will know from my recent posts, my practice has been limited and I’d been really struggling to settle on a list I was happy with. Over the course of the weekend I really learnt a lot about the Marine codex and why the list I’d taken was really quite poor. But I’m getting ahead of myself, Here’s my list and here’s a run-down for the games on Day 1

Codex Space Marines.

HQ
Tigurius

ELITE
Sternguard (5) – 3x Combi-Melta; Drop Pod
Sternguard (5) – 3x Combi-Melta; Drop Pod

TROOP
Tactical Squad (10) – Plasma, Heavy Bolter, Combi-Plasma; Drop Pod
Tactical Squad (10) – Lascannon
Scout Squad (10) – 5x Bolt Pistol & Combat Weapon, 5x Sniper Rifle

HEAVY SUPPORT
Thunderfire Cannon
Devastator Centurions (3) – 3x Grav-Cannon & Grav Amps, 3x Missile Launcher
Land Raider

Game 1 vs. Necrons with Tau Allies; Hammer & Anvil deployment playing Crusade

Reality Check: Tau Edition.

Errrggghhh! Tau!

After being lulled into a false sense of security at Blog Wars earlier this year, I think I have finally experienced the full power of the new Tau Codex and I have definitely been underestimating it.

Alex of the fantastic From the Fang blog and organiser of the above-mentioned Blog Wars tournaments (and my opponent in the game I was referring to), came down to Warhammer World this past Thursday for some list practice. In our first game we played his 1850 Tau list for Blog Wars against my 2055pt “I-really-should-check-my-list-before-I-deploy-my minis” Space Marine list. I won’t go into details but the extra Tactical Squad I had in my list made little difference and he beat me handily.

Shadowsun is about to make my day even worse.

Tyranids on Necrons - Battle Report

Mommy Bugs! Sadly I left the "Child-bearing Hips" on the sprue ...

Looks like I'm getting my 40K on at the moment and the blogging muse is kicking in, so "make hay while the sun is shining" as the saying goes! Quick caveat before I get any further, while the writing muse is with me I keep forgetting to take photos while I play! So to break up the wall of text I've included some photos of my Tyranids as they look at the moment.

I took my 'nids down to Warhammer World yesterday to take on Duncs' Necrons and after seeing his build at Blog Wars 5, I was surprised with what I saw across the table from me:

Blog Wars 5 - Redemption!

This weekend saw the Claws and Fists crew attend another Blog Wars and, in my opinion, this was the best one yet!! With the recent unfortunate closure of the Eye of the Storm venue in Mansfield, the tournament was moved to the North West Gaming Centre in Stockport, more of a trek than I'm used to but only about a 90 minute drive so nothing to complain about really!

Then venue itself was perfect, plenty of space, great tables with nice terrain, friendly staff and all the other amenities you would expect. The tournament always has a great atmosphere thanks in no small part to Alex's (From the Fang) focus on keeping it a blogging community-centric event and this time was no different.

From my point of view I played 3 very enjoyable games against 3 very nice opponents with 3 very different armies; but before I give you a brief report on each game you'll probably want no know what I was taking:

Campaign games 1 & 2

The only hope for Armageddon??

The planet had been well prepared to meet the alien menace. Early warning signs had been heeded, the defences had been readied ... and still they came.

Demonstrating the kind of single-minded intelligence for which they were rightly feared, the Tyranids made planet-fall in areas rich in biomass: the jungles, industrial and other populated areas. They were quick to establish and reinforce a solid foot-hold on the planet and from there, they spread.

The PDF, bolstered by regiments of Imperial Guard, were quick to respond, meeting the enemy on the scorched plains to the south of the Hive City. In an engagement designed to divert the oncoming hoard away from the more populous outskirts of the Hive, a mobile force harried and harassed the implacable advance of the creatures. Days had passed with no word from this force, just an ever-present static on the Vox.

AoA Khorne List – 1st Play-Test

Grazer offered to give me a game this Thursday and was happy for me to proxy my little heart out to try out a Khorne CSM/Daemons list I’d been thinking about for the Age of Armies project. So, I’ll just dive straight into the list (and the proxies!):

Chaos Space Marines (Primary)

HQ
Chaos Lord (Mark of Khorne, Axe of Blind Fury, Juggernaught) (Carnifex)

TROOP
Khorne Bezerkers (x8 w. Rhino) (Assault Marines & Rhino)
Khorne Bezerkers (x8 w. Rhino) (Assault Marines & Rhino)
Cultists (x15, Sgt w. Shotgun) (Grazer’s own Squats!)

FAST ATTACK
Helldrake (Baleflamer) (Winged Hive Tyrant)
Helldrake (Baleflamer) (Winged Hive Tyrant)
Chaos Spawn (x5, Mark of Khorne) (Raveners)

HEAVY SUPPORT
Maulerfiend (Tervigon)

Chaos Daemons (Ally)

HQ
Bloodthirster (Swarmlord)

TROOP
Bloodletters (x10) (Genestealers)

FAST ATTACK
Flesh Hounds (x8) (Various 40mm Nids)

HEAVY SUPPORT
Soul Grinder (Trygon)

Battle Brothers - Game 5

... and balance is restored.

After another very delicious lunch we faced off against a couple of guys who had travelled down from Aberdeen with the guys we'd played that morning. I was less optimistic after looking at this list featuring a couple of Vendettas, a blob and Wolves. This may be an inauspicious end to the Tournament!

Lord Commissar
30ish-man blob w. 3 Autocannons
Vendetta
Vendetta
Logan Grimnar
4x Wolfguard in Term Armour Wolf Claws, Thunder Hammer Storm Shield, Power Sword & Power Axe in a Drop Pod
5 Thunderwolves

Big Guns Never Tire and a Dawn of War Deployment.

Battle Brothers - Game 4

Climbing a great height may lead to a rapid descent

After a rather spectacular Day 1 where we'd picked up pretty much maximum VPs, we were feeling unusually confident about Day 2. We felt we had a fairly effective list and that we were playing it well. However we also knew that the dice had been kind to us and that sort of luck is not something that tends to stick with either of us for long.

So it was with cautious optimism that I reviewed the army list handed to me by our very friendly opponents. Nothing immediately jumped out at me as being particularly threatening except possibly the Helldrake, but surely we could handle that right?

"Khan!!!!"
Chaos Marines x10 Lascannon and Melta gun
Chaos Marines x10 2x Plasma gun
Chaos Marines x10 2x Plasma gun
Hemonculus
Kabalite Warriors x10, Blaster, Raider w. Splinter Racks
Kabalite Warriors x10, Dark Lance, Raider w. Splinter Racks
Ravager

3 objectives with Hammer & Anvil Deployment

Battle Brothers - Game 3

Two games down and two wins, we were certainly feeling flattered by our luck and the fact that the lists we had faced had generally been good match-ups for us. Up next though was a very nicely painted Ork army with two Dakka Jets, Zogwart (or "Lysander's Bane") and a squad of Nob bikers lead by a Warboss. I felt a little better when I found out that only 4 of the bikers were Nob bikers but with the two huge Shoota boys squads as well I felt this was not a particularly good match-up for us.

Warboss, Bike, Power Klaw, Attacks Squig, Boss Pole
Old Zogwart
Nob Bikers x4, inc Painboy
30 Shoota Boyz inc Nob w. Klaw & Boss Pole
28 Shoota Boyz inc Nob w. Klaw &Boss Pole
Biker Boyz x7 inc. Nob w. Power Klaw
Dakka Jet
Dakka Jet

Mission: The Relic, Vanguard Strike deployment.

Battle Brothers - Game 2

This doesn't feel right ...

Buoyed by our success in game 1 we felt pretty good about facing off against Tyranids in game 2; and when our opponents said they were sticking with the book psychic powers rather than taking Biomancy I have to say I thought we were probably going to be able to take this one.

Winged Hive Tyrant, 2x TL Devourers

Venomthrope
Venomthrope
Zoanthrope
Genestealers x6 inc a Broodlord
Genestealers x6 inc a Broodlord
Termagants x10
Tervigon w. Crushing Claws
Raveners x3 w. Deathspitters
Carnifex x2

Mission was Emperor's Will with Dawn of War deployment

Battle Brothers - Game 1

Game 1 of the Warhammer World Battle Brothers Tournament. Gav and I were representing Claws and Fists and given the amount of play-testing we'd gone through, and my recent experiences on the tournament scene in 6th Ed. expectations were low.

Our first game was against a couple of friendly chaps playing a BA and IG list that looked something like this:

BA Captain w. Jump Pack, Infernus Pistol & Thunder Hammer
Assault Squad x5 with Flamer & 2x Hand Flamer
Death Company x10 Thunder Hammer, Power Fist 2x Infernus Pistols, Drop Pod
Death Company Dread with Blood Talons.
Baal Predator w. Flamestorm and Heavy Flamer
Storm Raven w. Plasma Cannon & Multi-Melta

Lord Commissar w. Powerfist
Marbo
Infantry Platoon
PCS w. Plasma Gun & Plasma Pistol
20x Guardsmen w 2x Autocannon

Aegis Defense Line w. Quad-Gun

The mission was Purge the Alien with Hammer and Anvil deployment.

Rolling Less Than 10 on 3D6 and Other Stories

Parasite of Mortrex

A BLOG WARS 4 TALE

Strap yourselves in readers and grab some popcorn, this is a long one and it’s going to get emotional!

This weekend saw Blog Wars 4 take place at the Eye of the Storm venue in Mansfield (part of the Maunsfeld Games store). This is an event the Blog has always tried to support but, thanks to a poorly scheduled holiday, I’d not been able to attend the last one so I was really looking forward to making a come-back at the first one of 6th Edition!

I had promised that, as a penance for missing Blog Wars 3, I would re-double my efforts to get my Tyranids completed in time for this tournament and thanks to some late night painting sessions (concluding at 1:30am on Friday night) I managed to put the following list on the table (complete with 15 ripper bases – which never saw the light of day!)

Parasite of Mortrex
Tyranid Prime w. 2x Boneswords & Scything Talons
2x Zoanthropes
2x Zoanthropes
10x Termagants
10x Termagants
Tervigon w. Crushing Claws, Toxin Sacs, Adrenal Glands, 3 Powers
Tervigon w. Crushing Claws, Toxin Sacs, Adrenal Glands, 3 Powers
6x Raveners w. Rending Claws
2x Carnifexes w 2x Twin-Linked Devourers (w. Brainleech Worms) eachTrygon

A section of the Hive Fleet

Blog Wars requires you to field a unique or special character as it’s only list composition restriction, this is something I quite like and has previously seen my Ghazghull face off against Commissar Yarrick in an epic smack-down for all the marbles (on the bottom table). We were playing 3 games with the objectives and deployments pre-set as part of the rules pack. If you want to read all the details about the tournament you can have a look at the From the Fang blog (who organise the event) here.

So, on to the games and a day that would see 3D6 leadership tests loom large in my fortunes:

Game 1 vs Dark Eldar/Eldar - Greg Pikos
Crusade (5 objectives) / Vanguard Deployment

The Baron
Haemonculus
5x Wracks
5x Warriors w. Blaster in Venom w. 2x Splinter Cannons
5x Warriors w. Blaster in Venom w. 2x Splinter Cannons
13x Hellions w. Helliarch
6x Reavers w 2x Heat Lance
s6x Reavers w 2x Heat Lances
Ravager
Ravager
Voidraven Bomber

Aegis Defence Line w. Quad-gun

Farseer w. Runes of Warding & 1 Power
5x Rangers
3x War Walkers w 2x Scatter Lasers each

Greg's Circus themed Dark Eldar

OK, multiple objectives, I like that, I know where I am with objective missions; Dark Eldar with a Runes of Warding Farseer ally, not so good, lots of poison shots and table-wide psychic defense which is really going to put a damper on my day. 

I got to pick table edge and deploy 3 of the objectives but I lost first turn, not actually all that bad in an objective game but he would get the first opportunity to unleash all his dakka at me. I deployed fairly conservatively knowing that as we both had speed I could well get off a first turn charge with a bit of luck. 

Speaking of luck, Greg forgot to cast Prescience so his War Walkers were not as devastating as they could have been. His Reavers jockeyed for position and the Baron led his Hellions forward with a couple of cheeky pain tokens and ran for cover in a ruin in the middle of the building. I advanced and took out a Venom with a volley from the Carnifex unit (1st Blood) and typically one of my Tervigons bunged up after spawning only 5 ‘gants. The Hellions looked threatening and would certainly get a charge off in the next turn so I decided to risk attempting a pre-emptive charge against them with the Parasite and his Raveners. A roll of 11 got me in comfortably but I’d be striking last thanks to the lack of grenades. At this point luck was clearly on my side because his entire unit (with the extra attack combat drugs) managed to kill off only 1 Ravener and one of those wounds was caused by overwatch fire, I should also mention that I made five 5+ saves on the Raveners. My return flurry accounted for 4 hellions and the Baron (Warlord) who managed to fail his very first Shadow-field save. I win by 4 But the Hellions hold firm thanks to a nice low leadership roll!

After all that Greg looked somewhat deflated, perhaps he had forgotten about the monumental amount of firepower he still had at his disposal, and this turn those War Walkers would be Twin-Linked! The opening salvo vapourised my Trygon with wounds to spare and he also managed to knock a couple of wounds of the Tervigon on my left flank, those Reavers were also getting worryingly close. We then returned to the epic combat in the centre this time it was much closer but I still managed to win combat by two wounds and that proved to the boo much for the Hellions who ran and were cut down by the Parasite and his 4 remaining Raveners who had a bone to pick with a Farseer.

My turn saw the last Venom over-killed by the Carnifex Unit and a slow advance by the rest of the Horde. I forgot to mention that in turn one I only got two psychic powers off and put wounds on 3 Zoanthropes and a Tervigon thanks to Perils from the Runes of Warding so I had decided not to risk casting anything in Turn 2 as I was very pleased to be well within strike range of the Farseer and his unit of Racks behind their Aegis Defence Line with the Parasite and his rampaging Raveners. The combat was short and sweet the Eldar broke, ran and were cut down, but that left me vulnerable out in the open and at the mercy of Rangers, warriors and the Quad Gun (the War Walkers could also be brought to bear if necessary).

As expected, Greg made short work of the Parasite and his squad and, now that I’d also lost the Trygon as well (who took two squads of gants with him), that really took the punch out of my army. The wounded Tervigon on the left flank fell to Hellion fire and the one in the centre was brought down to its last wound by the War Walkers. I was very much back on the back-foot and trying to figure out how I was going to salvage a draw out of this.

I was able to swamp an objective at the back of the board with my remaining ‘gants but his Reavers were able to assault into the unit to contest (need to work on my placement). Greg was able to take an objective behind his defence line, uncontested, with the Rangers and also held an objective with a small warrior squad on my left flank. My remaining Tervigon was, however, within strike range of this, so I charged in and easily wiped the squad for what I thought was a solid draw. Unfortunately I had forgotten that his Reavers were still in combat with a single termagant very close to the same objective. If I’d have realised, I’d have charged my two remaining Zoanthropes into the combat, but as it was he easily took care of the Termagant and consolidated far enough to contest the objective.

The game ended in a 9-16 loss but it was an extremely enjoyable game which swung back and forth on almost every turn and really could have gone either way. Credit to Greg, he played a blinder and didn't let the early loss of his big Hellion unit get too him. 

Game 2 vs Necrons – Michael Towers
The Relic / Hammer & Anvil Deployment

Imotekh the Stormlord 
Overlord w res orb 
Royal Court: Harbinger of Eternity w. Chronometron; Harbinger of Despair w. Veil; Lord w. Mindshackle Scarabs & Warscythe 
Royal Court: Harbinger of Eternity w. Chronometron; Harbinger of Despair w. Veil; Lord w. Mindschackle Scarabs & Warscythe 
20x Warriors 
20 x Warriors 
5x Warriors w. Night Scythe 
5x Warriors w. Night Scythe 
5x Warriors w. Night Scythe 
5x Warriors w. Night Scythe 

I’ve got to admit that I felt pretty confident about this one. Michael and I had played recently, in game 1 of the last Open War, and I was keen for revenge. I felt this list was less difficult to deal with because the Spyders, Scarabs and Wraiths that he’d brought to Open War were no more, also I managed to get first turn so I knew I had a great chance of getting to the relic with some spawned ‘gants on turn one and putting myself in a strong position early. As it turns out I was not prepared for the trixy-ness and down-right shooty-ness of this list.

Turn 1 - Lookin Good!

As planned I moved up on turn 1, putting my ‘gants in easy strike range of the Relic with the rest of the army in support and the Raveners with the Parasite partially in front to provide a screen. Michael had placed both of his blob squads right at the back of the board, well out of my range. However on his turn he Veiled right behind my lines and decimated the two back-most ‘gant units (First Blood). This, combined with a particularly devastating round of lightning strikes from Imotekh (including 6 hits on the Parasite’s squad – I took my chances saving 4 on the Parasite and passing the other two to Raveners who couldn’t make their 5+) lead to a pretty successful turn for Michael.

Fortunately his veil shenanigans had put both units in range of most of my army so I levelled all available guns at the squad with the least cover and took it down to a manageable size for my Poison/Furious Charge ‘gants and a Tervigon to charge. The combat was a great success and the unit was wiped but the Lord stood back up.

On Michael’s turn two he got 3 of his Croissants (Night Scythes) on to the board and they took no time in focussing down the ‘gant squad on the Relic and taking a couple of wounds off a Tervigon. Imotekh’s lightning storm put another 6 strength 8 hits on the Parasite’s unit wiping it. Bad times but to make matters even worse he also put 4 wounds on my Trygon which was finished off by the left over Night Scythe shooting. This was starting to look bad. The solo Lord charged back into the Tervigon who passed his Mindshackle test and put the Lord back down, only for him to stand back up! Most annoying!

Turn 3 started off with my Tervigon in the centre spawning another 10 ‘gants onto the Relic, and this time I could get it to the one at the back giving me the chance to at least move it towards my swarm next turn. Next I decided that Imotekh had done quite enough damage so I levelled as much firepower as I could at his squad but his 2+ save combined with amazing we’ll be back rolls saw only a handful of warriors dead, on the up-side I did manage to get his Chronometron Cryptek who did not get back up – bonus!

The death of the Trygon meant that I only had a unit of 10 ‘gants in charge range of Imotekh’s squad but I wanted to at least tie them up for the big fellah’s who would be in range next turn. Those brave Termagants made the charge but the combination of withering overwatch fire and Warscythes put a swift end to their efforts and Imotekh was free to reposition next turn. The same could not be said of the solo Lord who was swamped under ‘gants who were less than effective but ensured that he could not charge the Tervigon next turn.

Thankfully Night Fight ended on this turn so no more evil lightning. I’d smugly positioned so that the Night Scythes could not get another volley off ... so instead they dropped off their Warrior units, this combined with the 4th Night Scythe turning up to lend some firepower, and Imotekh’s squad (he’d veiled back to the edge of his deployment zone) saw my Termagant squad with the Relic wiped again!

I was running a bit short of troops now and I’d lost a fair amount of punch from the army. However all of his troop units (bar the one in the newly arrived Night Scythe) were in the open and I gambled to try and wipe all of the 5-man units and put a hurting on Imotekh. My Prime detatched from the Carnifexes and charged the unit on my right flank (wiping them), my Carnifexes overkilled the rear-most unit and I put a unit of ‘gants in tenuous charge range of the nearest (which they failed). The Tervigon in the center fired his Cluster spines at Imotekh’s squad and did enough wounds to knock over the Veil Cryptek who failed to get up – nice! Sadly though a fair number of the warriors did get up which meant that Imotekh still had about 8 warriors with him and the other Lord, quite a daunting prospect. At the back of my deployment zone the solo Lord was still alive and kicking so my Warp Speed buffed (+1) Tervigon piled into him and in an epic simultaneous combat they both fell ... and neither got back up. Probably not worth the sacrifice of a Tervigon given my current position and lack of troops but it did feel good to see that 2 come up on the dice!

The surviving Warriors took to their Night Scythes and fled the board, knowing they would be back next turn. Imotekh advanced and his unit and the remaining Night Scythe continued to pour fire into my remaining ‘gants leaving none alive.

The game was in the balance but with very few troops left I felt right on the back foot, despite having good table position I could not continue to take the firepower those Night Scythes could dish out. I buffed up my remaining Tervigon (with only 2 wounds left) with Endurance and Iron Arm (+3) and went for the Relic, I put everything I had left, the Carnifexes and the Tervigon’s Cluster Spines into Imotekh’s unit. Sadly 2+ saves combined with unerring we’ll be back rolls meant that this achieved exactly nothing and the Necrons just kept coming.

The Night Scythes returned but my T9 Tervigon laughed off their firepower without taking a wound so it was with a glimmer of hope that I accepted the charge of Imotekh’s squad. But this Tervigon was clearly convinced that these were not the Necrons he was looking for as he failed his Mind Shackle test and promptly killed himself.

So, end of turn 5, the Relic is unclaimed, Michael has First Blood so if it ends here, he has it by 1.

Erm, where'd everybody go?

We go to turn 6. One of Blog Wars special rules is that your Special Character is scoring, so as I have no other scoring units left, it’s up to the Tyranid Prime to show his quality. He jumps on the Relic and his trusty Carnifexes flank him boldly, again pouring an utterly ineffective 24 shots into Imotekh’s squad – they clearly have a destiny to fulfill! Michael disembarks everything and puts everything he has left into the fexes killing one and wounding the other, and so Imotekh’s unit charges. The overwatch is ineffective and a challenge is issued. Amazing I think, I decline forcing the Prime out of the combat and amazingly the Carnifex survives.

Again it comes down to another dice roll, I have the Relic so it’s 3-1 to me ... it’s a 5 so we go on! Damn!

This time the challenge is not issued so no hiding for the Prime, I pass my mind-shackle test but the Carnifex buys the farm leaving the Prime on his own for the last round of combat and all the marbles.

Sadly the Hive Mind has realised that Necrons do not make for good eating (not enough biomass to assimilate apparently) so the suddenly dull minded Prime fails his mind shackle test and removes his own last two wounds.

That’s the game, I’ve been tabled. It went from a game with only a few points in it either way to a 5-25 defeat and I’ve gotta be honest, that was pretty crushing and I had a somewhat frowny face on. I hope I wasn’t too outwardly grumpy because it was an epic game and Michael was a fantastic opponent who played a great strategy pretty much to perfection. He really knows his Necrons and is a lot of fun to play against, I hope I get a chance for revenge (again) in the next tournament we’re at! 

Game 3 vs Grey Knights – Nathaniel Gibbs (No Blog) 
Purge The Alien / Dawn of War Deployment 

Inquisitor Coteaz 
Grand Master w. MC Psycannon & Daemon Hammer, Psybolt Ammo 
10x Grey Knights w. 2x Psycannons, Psybolt Ammo, Rhino 
10x Terminators w. 2x Psycannnons, 3x Daemon Hammers, 7x Halberds, Psybolt Ammo
5x Interceptors w. Psycannons 
5x Interceptors w. Psycannons 
Dreadnought w. 2x Autocannon & Psybolt Ammo 
Dreadnought w. 2x Autocannon & Psybolt Ammo 
Nemesis Dreadknight w. Heavy Incinerator & Personal Teleporter 

These Grey Knights look somewhat "Custodeal"

No offence to Nathaniel (I know he’s a reader) but after the last game I was not in the best frame of mind for facing off against a gun-line with a huge, terrain-less kill zone in the middle. I took one look at his super-shooty Grey Knights and the table lay-out, briefly considered playing cagily around the terrain on the edges trying to deny kill points but then just thought f**k it I’ll clog his guns with my bodies and if I can get my Raveners into his Terminators I’ll take my chances.

Things did not start well when he gave me first turn and promptly stole the initiative without the need for Coteaz’s re-roll. A Zoanthrope unit vanished before they could send a distress signal to the mother ship (First Blood)! The rest of the bugs were left largely unscathed and he pushed his Terminators forward positively goading my Raveners to attempt a first turn charge.

And so the ‘nids charged like the Light Brigade into the waiting guns of some lovely gold Grey Knights.

I’ll not go blow-by-blow here because if you’ve made it this far you’re probably losing the will to live, but I will go through a few highlights. The Parasite and his crew made it into contact with the Terminators and managed to kill about 3 of them over two rounds of combat before getting punked by the Daemon Hammers.

The Carnifex unit was as reliable as ever, wiping out an Interceptor squad in a single volley and severely reducing the 10-man Strike Squad over two rounds of shooting before succumbing to combined weight of arms. The Prime was not present at that point however, as he had detached to try and sort out a Dreadknight who was tearing through the back field due to an inability to fail to activate his force weapon despite being in the Shadow of the Warp the whole time and so it was that he took down the Prime without the nid general being able to land a blow on the big fellah.

The rest is not worth the telling, suffice to say that it was all over by turn 4 as even the big bugs could not resist the weight of fire leveled at them. Another 5-25 defeat, this had not been a good day. But again Nathaniel was a great opponent, very likable chap who had the misfortune to catch me in a somewhat dispirited mood and not minded to put up much of a fight, hopefully I can give him a better game should we meet again. 

You’ll have read that Graham was battling away on the bottom table vying for another Wooden Spoon in a nip-and-tuck battle that attracted quite an audience towards the end. What he and everyone else in attendance didn't know was that me and my little rain cloud had quietly put the bottom of the table beyond doubt. So with two emphatic tablings to finish the day I took the dubious honour of the Wooden Spoon, the first certificate I’d laid my hands on at a tournament since picking up a Wooden Spoon for my very first tournament way back in 2009 at Open War 12.

What can I take away from this experience? Firstly it’s not as bad as it looks, my first game was excellent against an army list I really think was a bad match up for me on paper. Sure I got lucky to wipe the Hellions so easily and who knows what could have happened if I’d been a bit less cavalier with my Raveners after that. Also if I’d not missed that lone ’gant tied in with the Reavers I could have got a tie out of the game. Against the Necrons in game 2 the 5-25 scoreline does not do justice to how close the game was and but for a dice roll I’d have had it won (narrowly) at the end of turn 6. The Grey Knight game was a bit of a write-off but if I’d cared about the result I could have done a number of things differently, sorry again to Nathaniel – I’ll give you a better game next time.

I don’t know what you think but to my mind all of these opponents were pretty bad match-ups for me. I thought I had a good chance against the Necrons but they really surprised me with their resilience and sheer weight of fire-power, I need more practice against what is surely one of the more powerful Codices at this point in 6th.

I think the list is OK as it is, I’ll probably tweak it but it’s going to be hard to get rid of the Carnifexes because in 6 tournament games (Open War & Blog Wars) they have been nothing short of amazing. The Trygon was fantastic in Open War but did exactly nothing in any of these games also I think that Crushing Claws on the Tervigons is probably not worth the points. They can be fantastic but I really didn’t get the opportunity to use them enough for me to really think I’ll miss them to save 50pts.

The Zoanthropes were definitely a total bust, I can see the reason why some people like them but I had no luck getting them the powers they need to be force multipliers. In game 2, between the four of them I had Smite, Warp Speed, Iron Arm, Life Leech and a single Enfeeble, likewise in game 3 where one unit had Smite x2, Haemorage and Life Leech. The fact of the matter is that if you pull the less useful powers with the frequency that I seem to get them, you really start questioning why you are spending 240pts on two units of 2! In the future I’m going to drop them and rely on the Monstrous Psykers to buff themselves.

Lastly, the Parasite and the Raveners. I like both of these because you just don’t see them. I can’t deny that Gargoyles are simply better point for point than Raveners but I’m going to stick with them, at least until I’ve painted 20 Gargoyles! The Parasite’s problem is that I could have a Flying Hive Tyrant instead of him and I’m really struggling justifying not doing this to myself. I really like him in theory but I forgot about the toughness tests in the heat of battle so my 15 ripper bases stayed quietly in my case for the entire tournament. Though, to be honest the only game where this would have come significantly into play was game 1.

So, all in all expect a few small changes for the next tournament but by-and-large I am happy with the army and I’m not going to over-react to what was something of a “bad day at the office”! 

Roll on Blog Wars 5!

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!

Throne of Skulls 2012 - Day 2

Let's continue with the Throne of Skulls wrap up, her are my games from Day 2


Game 4 vs Blood Angels
Mission: Spearhead / Seize Ground


HQ
Librarian (Fear of the Darkness, Shield of Sanguinius)
Honour Guard (2x Melta Gun, Drop Pod)


TROOP
Assault Squad (2x Melta Gun; Land Raider Crusader w. Multi Melta)
Tactical Squad (Melta Gun, Multi Melta, Drop Pod)
Tactical Squad (Melta Gun, Missile Launcher, Drop Pod)


HEAVY SUPPORT
Devastators (Plasma Cannon, Heavy Bolter, Drop Pod)
Devastators (2x Lascannon, Drop Pod)


Two empty pods dropped to block in the Battle Wagons with a third Pod deploying the Honour Guard to attempt to blow up a BW. Their Melta Guns, being fickle beasts, missed and consigned the Honour Guard to their fate.
The nearest group of Shoota Boyz moved up and ate the Honour Guard and swept on to take centre Objective, both Battle Wagons rammed and blew up the Drop Pods and advanced up left flank. The 2^nd group of Shoota Boyz consolidated to the rt covering both Objectives.
The Tactical Squad Pods drop on the right flank and start to whittle down the Shoota Boy squad there. The Assault Squad pour out of the Land Raider and blow up the Mega Nobz Battle Wagon but are out of charge range. Ghaz was forced to use his Waaggh to avoid a Fear of the Dark roll.
The Mega Nobs counter charge Assault Squad and wipe them, on the far left the Slugga Boyz charge the Dev Squads and wipe them out moving on to take top left objective. The Shoota Boys on right multi-charge two of the Tactical Combat Squads and wipe them out.
The remaining Tactical Combat Squads wipe out the Lootas and continue to whittle down Shoota Boyz. On the left the lone Librarian Fear of the Darkness’s the Mega Nobz causing them to run.
Ghaz charges and blows up the Land Raider, the mid-table Shoota Boyz unit strings out to cover 2 objectives, while the remaining Shoota Boyz unit on the right charge nearest Tactical combat squad and are wiped.
Ghaz passes a last minute Fear of the Darkness test and kills the Librarian

Result: 3-2 win



Game 5 vs Eldar


Mission: Dawn of War / Capture & Control


HQ
Farseer (Bike, Runes of Warding, Runes of Witnessing, Spear, Doom, Guide Fortune)
5x Warlocks (Bikes, Spears, Destructor)


TROOPS
5x Dire Avengers (Wave Serpent w. Star Engines, Spirit Stones, Vectored Engines)
7x Guardian Jet Bikes


FAST ATTACK
6x Vipers w. Scatter Lasers


HEAVY SUPPORT
2x Fire Prisms


The Eldar get second turn, this is going to be tricky.
The Eldar objective is deployed in the extreme far left corner, the Ork objective is placed in cover table centre left.
Shoota Boyz deploy in cover on the Ork Objective, Ghaz with the other Shoota Boyz deploy in cover on left as far forward as possible. The Eldar deploy nothing and hold the Jetbikes in reserve.
The Slugga Boyz with the Mek in a Battle Wagon advance down the extreme left flank directly to wards the Eldar Objective. The Mega Nobz in their Battle Wagon came on to support the Shoota Boys on the Ork objective. The Lootas advanced on, roughly in the centre of the board.
The Vipers come on to threaten Ghaz’s squad on my left, the Seer Council, Dire Avengers & Prisms came in on my right to threaten my objective.
With no powers cast I shot everything at the council killing 2 and taking a wound off the Farseer. The Shoota Boyz took out a single Viper. The Battle Wagon on left continued to advance.
Concentrated firepower on the Shoota Boyz holding the Ork objective followed by Council charge wiped them.
The Battle Wagon on the left made it to objective and cordoned it off. The Mega Nobz counter-charged the council wiping them and consolidated towards Ork objective. The Lootas and Shootas combined to take out the Vipers
The Prisms and Wave Serpents turbo boosted to my side of the board, the Guardian Jetbikes arrived and turbo boosted close to my objective.
The Lootas took out the Dire Avengers' Wave Serpent, while the Mega Nobz circled the Ork Objective. Ghaz and the Shoota Boyz held midfield to be in charge range of anything coming across the board towards the Eldar objective.
One Prisim turbo boosted towards Eldar objective and the other lined up in board centre ready to tank shock onto Ork objective, the Dire Avengers moved into cover, towards the Ork objective.
Ghaz and Shoota Boyz charged and wrecked the nearest Prism. The Lootas could only Shake the other which then Tank Shocked the Mega Nobz off the Ork objective (who fell back) and the bikes moved in to score.
Turn 6 saw the Shoota Boyz and Ghaz Waagghing across the board and making it into combat with the Jetbikes, the Lootas also threw in with the assault. A ram from the Battle Wagon failed to take out the Prism. Fortunately the Jet Bikes were wiped and the Shoota Boyz made it into range to contest the Ork objective.
 In Turn 7 the Eldar could not kill enough Orks to force them off the objective.

Result: 1-0 Win


All that adds up to 4 wins and 1 loss for the weekend which, I have to say (again), I'm rather pleased with. I'm not oblivious to the fact that this was not the most competitive tournament in the world and the chances of me doing anything similar next month at at the GT are about the same as me making the San Francisco 49ers starting offence next season. However while not being super competitive, none of my opponents were push-overs and the only game which did not come down to the very last turn was Game 3, against the Black Templars.


I would like to respond to a comment our very own Grazer made on one of my previous posts. I was debating whether or not to take the Orks to this event because I was not completely used to them, I was considering reverting back to my Blood Angels for this. Now I do not regret taking the Orks and I definitely enjoyed playing them but if I had taken Blood Angels and managed a similar result, I would have been in the running to win the tournament (Ork Average score 11.85 vs Blood Angel Average score 6). It's lucky I'm rubbish with my Blood Angels or I might be thinking on what could have been ;)


Seriously though now I've got some good experience under my belt I'm seriously considering taking the Orks to the UKGT in March, I've just got to settle on how to spend the extra 250pts on bulking out this list.

Throne of Skulls Winter 2012 - Day 1 Reports

After a successful Friday night playing poker I woke up full of optimism for the weekend ahead. Mick and I were aiming to get down to Warhammer World at about 8 o'clock to sample the breakfast in Bugmans. This meant I had to roll out of bed at highly unsocial 7:30 in order to have time for a shower and still make the daunting 10 minute drive to the venue. Tough life living in Nottingham!


The breakfast did not disappoint, neither did the organisation; registration went smoothly and the Black Library guys had the pre-release books all set out ready for perusal. The tables at Warhammer World are all the moulded plastic Realm of Battle boards beautifully painted and flocked. I would say that the terrain was a little sparse, more like the 20% than 25%. That doesn't sound like much of a difference but when you compare it to the tables at Maelstrom every table I played on felt wide open. Also a note on the Realm of Battle boards, I've always thought they were better for pictures than for actually playing on, having played 5 games on them this weekend I have to say that they weren't as bad as I was expecting them to be. I still prefer a flat board but these did make a nice change.


Anyway, on to the tournament proper and I should start with my list seeing as I haven't posted it previously:


Codex Orks – 1500pts


HQ
Ghaz
Big Mek
Kustom Force-Field, Boss Pole, Burna


ELITE
Lootas (x10)


TROOPS
4 Mega Nobz (1x Kombi-Skorcha, 1x Kombi-Rokkit)
26 Shoota Boyz (23x Shootas, 2x Rokkits, Nob w. Power Klaw & Boss Pole)
26 Shoota Boyz (23x Shootas, 2x Rokkits, Nob w. Power Klaw & Boss Pole)
18 Slugga Boyz (17 Boyz, Nob w. Power Klaw, Boss Pole & 'Eavy Armour)


HEAVY SUPPORT
Battle Wagon (Armour Plates, Deff Rolla, Red Paint Job)
Battle Wagon (Armour Plates, Deff Rolla, Red Paint Job)


Game 1 vs Dark Eldar
Mission: Pitched Battle / Capture & Control


HQ
Lady Malys
2x Haemonculus (1x HexRfl, 1x Web Portal)


ELITE
5x Trueborn (4x Blasters, Venom)
4x Bloodbrides (Venom)


TROOPs
5x Warriors (Venom)
5x Warriors (Venom)
5x Wyches (Haywire Grenades, Venom)
3x Wracks
10x Warriors (Blaster & Dark Lance)


FAST ATTACK
Beastmaster (x2 w. Razorwing Flock x2)


HEAVY SUPPORT
Razorwing

All of the Venoms had Shadow Fields and double Splinter Cannons and all of the units had various upgrades which I really can't remember.


Recap:
My foot units advanced in cover trying to secure the Ork Objective. The Battle Wagons advanced trying to pin the DE units into a corner. My deployment had put the Lootas out of range so they had to re position quickly. Fortunately my opponent had and appalling 1^st turn of shooting, only managing to kill 4 Orks

His failed shooting had left him dangerously close to my lines and I got greedy and broke cover with one of my units and jumped the Slugga Boyz out of their BW in an attempt to charge 3x Venoms that moved fast, sadly my charge was even less effective than the previous round of DE shooting. With no cover to protect them the Orks fell in droves to the return fire and one 26 boy and the 18 Boy units were wiped out.

The Mega Nobz continued their advance towards the DE objective and charged out of their BW and into the 10-man DE squad on the DE objective. Wiping them out and taking the objective.
A turn or two of concentrated fire on Megan Nobz finally managed to kill one of them, they failed the subsequent morale test and were and escorted off the table. The remaining Boyz unit wre quickly whittled down and removed from the Ork objective with relative ease.

Result: 2-0 loss


Game 2 vs Tyranids

Mission: Dawn of War / Seize Ground (4 Obj)


HQ
Tyranid Prime (Lash Whip & Bone Sword)


ELITE
3x Hive Guard
2x Zoanthropes (Spore)
2x Zoanthropes (Spore)


TROOPS
15x Termagants (Devourers, Spore)
10x Genestealers (Toxin Sacs)
10x Genestealers (Toxin Sacs, Broodlord)
Tervigon (Cluster Spines, Catalyst)


HEAVY SUPPORT
Mawloc


Recap:
I deployed the 2 Shoota Boyz units across 2 of the objectives, in cover, one taking the centre of the board, the other in my back right corner.

1 BW with Ghaz and the Slugga Boyz went left for the Objective in the far left corner. The Mega Nobz in the other BW went right for the other in the far Right corner.

The Zoanthropes dropped in turn 2 & 3 taking out a BW each time but being cut down by Lootas/Shootas in each of my following turns.

The Slugga Boyz took far left Objective uncontested because my opponent was focussing on the centre and the objective on my far right. However, the Mega Nobz & Shoota Boyz in the centre managed to resist a charge from both units of stealers (thanks to hugging the terrain) cutting them down to just the Broodlord.

The Mega Nobz cannot move fast enough to reach the Objective on my far right to contest it, and were out of position to support the Boyz in the centre Leaving them vulnerable to the firepower of the Devil-Gants and the Broodlord. When the dust had settled though, 5 Shoota Boyz stood firm to hold out and contest centre objective.

Result: 2-1 win


Game 3 vs Black Templars

Mission: Spearhead / Annihilation


HQ
Emperors Champion (Vow: Pref Enemy)


ELITE
5 Terminators (2x Chain Fists, 3x Power Fists, 1x Assault Cannon)


TROOPS
10x Crusaders (Flamer, Plasma Cannon, Power Sword) 5x Neophytes
10x Crusaders (Meltagun) 5x Neophytes


FAST ATTACK
Land Speeder Typhoon (Typhoon Missile Launcher, Multi Melta)


HEAVY SUPPORT
Vindicator
Predator (Twin-Linked Lascannon, Lascannon Sponsons, Machine Spirit)
Land Raider Crusader (Multi Melta, Blessed Hull)


Recap:

I reserved both Shoota Boyz units, and he reserved his Terminators electing to Deep Strike them.

The Slugga Boyz & Big Mek took their Battle Wagon left to take on Predator & Vindicator, Ghaz & the Mega Nobz went Right in their BW to take on the Land Raider.

The Slugga Boyz took out the Vindicator for no loss but the Lootas could only stun the Land Speeder. Worst of all Ghaz missed the charge on the Land Raider. The Crusader squad inside counter-charged and took Ghaz down to 1 wound also forcing him to use his Waaggh. On the up-side though he did take out the Emperor's Champion!

The Terminators dropped in to support of the left flank where the Slugga Boyz were eating through the armour (the Predator was taken out in short order), but the 1^st unit of Shoota Boyz also arrived and tied them up, eventually wiping them.

The Mega Nobz counter charged to support Ghaz who managed to survive another round of combat on a single wound, and wiped the Crusader Squad. Following on Ghaz made short work of the Land Raider and provided a clear shot on the Speeder which the Lootas quickly dispatched.

The Crusader Squad on the left flank halted and wiped the rampaging Slugga Boys but a combined charge from the second Shoota Boyz Squad and the Mega Nobz took care of them clearing the Black Templars off the table at the bottom of the 5^th turn.

Result: 8-3 win