Themed armies.

Warning: This post will meander and may not even come to a conclusion!

I had my first game with the new Eldar codex on Thursday and lost to a Necron list. I can't remember the exact list but it was Imotekh/Immortals/Night Scythes/Annihilator barges. It was a bad mission for me, bad deployment, I went second and I forgot a bunch of things including the fact that War Walkers have a 5+ invulnerable save now!

However, I've rejigged my list since and it's now much tougher. I dropped some stuff that was better in the old codex such as my Wraithlords and Dire Avengers but I've ended up with a much better but incredibly bland list. There is no theme to it, just a bunch of units thrown together.

I play an Alaitoc themed army, so that is the best place to look for inspiration. So what would an Alaitoc army normally consist of?:

Autarch/Avatar/Farseer/Pheonix Lords
Rangers/Pathfinders
Striking Scorpions
War Walkers
Harlequins
Warp Spiders
Jetbikes
Crimson Hunters/Vypers (I think so anyway)

These are all units that infiltrate, outflank, sneak around or use tricks to stay alive. Of course, all Eldar craftworlds have Wave Serpents, Falcons, Guardians and all the other units in the codex too, but that is to fill out not define its personality.

The thing that strikes me is how fragile the troops will be, especially with Heldrakes flying around crisping everything up. So I was thinking I could bring some Wave Serpents to pick up endangered rangers - but they can't have dedicated transports. Guardians can however...but if I take Guardians then I have this irrepressible urge to take the avatar to keep an eye on them.

And Harlequins - now there is a conundrum. They are fairly killy, although which numpty decided veil of tears should be a pyschic power?! Rending/I6/WS5/fusion guns are as good as ever, if a little expensive points wise in comparison to other units now. If I field them I will need something to support them.

I'm going to be bashing together some lists to try some combinations out until I find an army that suits my play style and has a theme I can relate to. Hopefully without losing too often in the process!

Off my painting table this week.

I've painted up a few new models for my Alaitoc Eldar.  I've done 3 Jetbikes, 2 Vypers (the models are old but great) and a Crimson Hunter. I know Vypers and possibly the CH are a little fragile and difficult to play but I've had some thoughts.

Firstly, how about Crystal Targeting Matrix on the Vypers? That should give me a 12" + 18" move then fire, I can rush down the flanks of the board and then hit side armour. Even the shuriken cannon is good for this. Or maybe a 60 point Bright Lance platform, BS4 is nice after all. The Starcannon is also interesting. Anyway, all weapons are magnetised so I can try some combinations.

Jetbikes - well, they're even better now so why not.

And the Crimson Hunter is just a beautiful model. If a little more NATO than Eldar :)

The next time I decide on such large areas of bone and/or yellow - I need a voice in my head to tell me to stop! I'm very pleased indeed with the stippled blue though, so much so that I'm using this style rather than edge highlighting on all my new stuff.

I'm thinking of running an Autarch with either a unit of Hawks of Spiders to give me the ability to alter reserve rolls. This thing is fragile but VERY deadly.

No weapons yet, trying to decide whether to them bone or something else at the moment. Also, I have the base to do, plenty of space to do something interesting...

Eldar army photos, just because.

I've dug my Eldar out and blown off the cobwebs. I've taken a handful of photos for posterity so they are here. Unfortunately I took absolutely no notice of Andrew's very good article on here about photography, so I apologise now for the poor quality! :-)

It's mainly a Beil-Tan force, you may notice some obvious things missing. No Autarch, Farseers or walkers, that is because I never got round to painting them! No Guardians of any variety. No Falcons/Fire Prisms/Vypers/Night Spinners. Finally, no support batteries, Wraithguard or Harlequins. So plenty of scope to expand it in the next couple of months.

I wanted to post the pictures simply because I was going to sell them but actually I'm really liking how they are painted - they shall be staying!

Oh, beautiful Eldar

To say I'm excited about the new Eldar codex is an understatement. There are two things that attracted me (back) to 40K: Chaos and Eldar. Both have great imagery, although I've always thought that Chaos could be so much more - rather than spiky marines, let's have more like the possessed and Hellbrute models. I want something truly daemonic - not just really-annoyed-with-daddy-marines.

Where was I? Oh yes.

The new Eldar codex is out to buy tomorrow, although of course there has been the usual leaks of models and rules in the last couple of weeks. It seems GW is sticking to their recent policy on codex updates, less new models, more an overhaul to bring them up to 6th edition rules. I'm very happy with this as it should mean all armies are on an equal(ish) footing, not like the insanity with 3rd edition and 5th edition books together.

I think Eldar has perfect aesthetics - they look distinguished, fragile, egotistical, agile and deadly at the same time. Some of the models are a little old now such as Warp Spiders, but they still look good even if the scale is a little off.

I currently have a Biel-Tan inspired army, although I have repainted it in Alaitoc colours and it looks a lot better for it. I dug it out last weekend and although I think the models look good, they're not as good as I can do now. So I've decided to start up a new Eldar army, playing my existing one until it's done.

My existing army is aspect warriors, wave serpents with some wraithlords and rangers. I have no vypers, fire prisms, support weapons, guardians or jetbikes.

I'm thinking one of these might be fun:

1. Saim-hann themed - jetbikes/vypers/fire prisms/possibly a wave serpent or two/wraithfighters/crimson hunters.
2. Static/hammer and anvil - wraithlords/wraithknight/guardians with weapons platforms/support batteries/rangers/dark reapers. Maybe even an Avatar. I could then have a hammer of the new wraith guard backed up with scorpions, walkers and maybe even harlequins.

Whatever I decide to do I want to paint them pink. Not baby pink, more like a fuchsia. I'm thinking Emperor's Children Pink on a Screamer Pink base. Normally green complements pink, but I tried this before and it looked awful, so I reckon some sort of bone colour instead. If this doesn't work I might go more for a scarlet.

Oh, one final thing. The internet is alive with people complaining that the new codex looks uncompetitive or difficult to play. Eldar have ALWAYS been hard to play, it's what makes them such fun, every game feels like a dance - where everything comes together at the end.

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!

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.

Date With The Night

She shouldn't be here. Alena Nightdancer lowered her hood and looked both ways down the street, it was still deserted. She dashed from one doorway to another, constantly looking around her. She wasn't quite sure how she had made it this far, and yet...

And yet, this was probably the safest place she could possibly be. No-one would dare touch a Farseer here in the streets of Commorragh. Not even the roughest gangs would go anywhere near her for the vengeance that her Craftworld would bring down. The mon-keigh had a word for it - irony.

She still worried though. She had heard many tales of this place and now, seeing it up close and personal, she knew all the rumours were true.The hardest thing had been blocking out the thoughts of the dead and the dying, even though her training made it almost second nature.

Finally, she arrived at her destination. As she reached up to knock on the door, it opened and two hands reached out to pull her into the darkness. She was bundled across a darkened hallway, through a large wooden door and onto her knees. She looked up at the back of a chair behind a desk.

"Alena Nightdancer, Farseer of the Alaitoc Craftworld. I've been expecting you. In fact, I've been watching you since you arrived in the Dark City"

He slowly turned around and nodded at the two Incubi who left the room. He gestured towards the empty chair across from him. Alena stood up, brushed herself down and sat.

"So, my dear, what brings you here?"

"Our Rangers have discovered a slumbering Necron Tomb World and I'm here to call in a debt that your bloodline owes mine since the War in Heaven"

"I don't think that debt is valid any more"

"You think The Fall absolves you of your responsibility?"

"You'll have to do better than supposed blood debt to have me send my Kabal against the Necrons"

"You need a reason? Have you ever seen a Necron fight? They're almost impervious to all weaponry. You put them down and they get back up again and again. How much would the Wych Arenas pay for such gladiators?"

He let the thought sink in. She was right, they would make perfect combatants. He nodded sagely, "What's the plan?" She leaned across the table and handed him a data sheet with star charts and timings on. "Okay, we're in. You'll come with us; getting out of Commorragh won't be as easy as getting it" With that he pressed a button under the desk and the Incubi returned and escorted her out. She solemnly bowed to the Archon and left the room.

Once she was gone, a figure stepped out of the dark corner of the room, holding a black sceptre.

"Did I do well Lord Vect?"

Vect absent mindedly played with the sceptre, "Yes, you did very well"

"And you want us to go along with her plan?"

"Yes. There is a lot we can learn from these Necrons"

"One question my Lord, what is that?"

"This?" He waved the sceptre again and laughed, "Its is a Null Rod. It prevents our friend there from sensing me psychically"

And with that he was gone, leaving the Archon alone to make his battle plans...

Doubles - Day 2

So, after a tough Day 1, we decided to sack off the 40K themed pub quiz. Instead, Andy's wife, Janet, picked us up and then we grabbed my fiance and a take-away on the way back to theirs. We proved our rock 'n' roll credentials by all falling asleep on the settee watching Forest Gump!

Game 4 vs Blood Angels & Space Marines

Two Vindicators, 5 TH/SS Terminators, a Captain with a Relic Blade, a 10-man Tactical Squad and 5 Scouts in the SM half. Two big Jump Pack Assault Squads, some Death Company and a Baal Predator in the BA half.

Again, we got lucky in winning the roll-off to be the attackers. This meant that we managed to get a first turn charge off and wreck a Vindicator and take out the Captain and a Combat Squad.  In the end, we managed to wipe out Dave's half of the army but Steve's remained reasonably intact. This meant that he could claim one Objective and contest another. However, the Nobz just about managed to get back to their deployment zone carrying one of the other Objectives so we just about won.

Game 5 vs Eldar & Eldar

In this mission you had to get as much of your army off the opposite board edge as possible. So, what's the worst possible list to face? Mech Eldar! Plus they went first. They had Eldrad, a big Seer Council with him and lots and lots of flying vehicles.

Turn 1 saw them Fortune and Turbo-Boost. Turn 2 saw most of their army leave the board. Somehow we managed to bring down the Seer Council but that just allowed them to cut their way through the Ork hordes in search of their secondary mission which was to kill all of our troops. The game was over by the end of Turn 2 and the only highlight we really had was Ghaz killing Eldrad at the bottom of Turn 7.

Conclusions

In the end we finished joint 39th (out of 113) which we were pretty happy with. Plus, we manged to post a winning record, which was a first for either of us at a tournament. Some quick points:

Ghaz was a beast, chopping down the enemy left, right and centre and refusing to die. 

There weren't as many Marines as we expected. We only played 3 MEQ armies out of 10.

We should have practised a bit more (this was my fault since I'd not been around much due to work before the tournament) We only played one game and we didn't have the opportunity to iron out the list. For example the Kanz were a bit rubbish all the way through. We could also have done with playing through the missions as well.

Despite the ker-azy missions, it was a fun tournament. All of our opponents were great guys and it was very well ran by GW.

We're not as good as our 3-2 record suggests. The results were a bit odd. We got absolutely battered in the first and last game and there wasn't much we could have done about it. Game 2 was against two guys who were still quite new to the game and very new to their army and we just capitalised on their mistakes. Game 3, I don't think our opponents had read the mission that closely and practically handed us the victory by letting us go first. Which left game 4 as a proper, down the wire game.

Read the rules pack. We were supposed to have written some fluff as to why our two armies were fighting together. Erm, they're Orks! However, the extra point would have seen us finish joint 28th instead. Curses! Just to rub it in, I've knocked up something and scheduled it for tomorrow...

Open War 16 Recap - Game 3

Game 3 vs Eldar

HQ

Farseer (Fortune, Doom ,Guide, Stones of Witnessing & Warding, Spirit Stones) Singing Spear

4-man Warlock squad (Embolden, Enhance, Destructor) all w. Singing Spears

The Avatar

ELITE

7-man Fire Dragon Squad (inc Exarch w. Fire Pike) in Wave Serpent (Spirit Stones)

TROOP

8-man Guardian Jet-Bike Squad (inc Warlock w. singing Spear)

2x 10-man Dire Avengers (inc Exarch w. Bladestorm)

HEAVY SUPPORT

3x War Walker Squadron (2x Startcannons)

Fire Prism

Wraithlord (Eldar Missile Launcher)

The last game of the day pitted me against another Andy with a hybrid Eldar list. The mission was 4 objectives with L-shaped deployment zones in opposite table corners, 12” deep half stretching way up the short edge and half way acrossthe long edge.

Andy kept his Dire Avengers in cover as close to two objectives as he could and began to flank me. On my lefthe sent the War Walkers and Fire Dragons, circling round on my right came the Jet-Bikes, the Wraithlord and the seer council. The Fire Prism held the centre with the Avatar advancing purposefully up the middle. His first round of shooting silenced both Preds and took out the TFC which was a bit of a blow as I was hoping to apply that to the Dire Avengers.

With a fair proportion of my shooting disabled I decided to focus fire on the most pressing threat which I felt was the bikes. Three died, the leadership test was failed and they ran off … RESULT! Not content with that show of force, the speeders managed to get a weapon destroyed result on the Fire Prism …SUPER! This was all going rather swimmingly.

Without its main weapon the Fire Prism decided to ram the nearest Predator, not entirely successfully as it turned out as it blew up rather spectacularly leaving only a lightly stunned Predator in its wake … NICE! Then I made a bit of a mistake, my Terminators came in from reserve and I placed them in firing range of both Dire Avenger units, the Walkers and charge range of the Avatar … ERRM? Still, they're double-hard so they can take it right? Well, yes and no. They took heavy casualties from the shooting and the 8-man squad (including the Librarian) became a 3-man squad by the time they were charged by the Dire Avengers and the Avatar, but they managed to win the combat by two. Sadly in the next assault phase the Avatar took out the last Terminator and the Librarian took a particularly vicious poke in the eye from the Dire Avenger Exarch killing him … SAD!

That combat was pivotal because the Dire Avenger Squad were able to capture an objective and the Avatar would appear again on the  to take out a Razorback (and the gooey contents) that was rushing to contest that very objective. Eventually I managed to  both the Wraithlord and the Avatar but I could only manage a draw so it ended 1 objective each. Final score 17-16 WINNING DRAW.


All-in-all it was a good day's gaming, I finished up 29^thout of 44 players, not brilliant but probably about right. I did expect the list to perform a bit better than it did, but now I think about it it's quite reliant on getting first turn. If I don't get first turn then it's not too difficult for my opponent to take a lot of the sting out of my shooting attack, as demonstrated in games 1 and 3. I'll put some thought into tweaks I need to make before the next tourney in December and post here for feedback.

40K Expanded Universe

This weekend, I discovered a fantastic Adeptus Mechanicus codex on the internet (http://miniaturewargameconversions.blogspot.com/p/articlesreviews.html, download here http://www.mediafire.com/?bien2ie9hnjvnbb). Now, there are a lot of fan-written codexes on the internet, but most of them leave a little to be desired (my first attempt at a Squat included, if I'm honest!). Two things set this codex apart:

1. The look of the book
2. The units therein

Firstly, the book looks... fantastic! The author has made a real effort to present the book in a format not disimilar to a 'real' codex, which helps the reader to quickly pick up and use the book. Each of the sections you'd expect are in there, though the author does admit that the 'fluff' does need expanding upon - something he's working on at the moment, I believe.

What really makes this book special though is that the author has really gone to town on creating units unique to the Adeptus Mechanicus, as opposed to taking the easy way out and just copying and renaming existing Imperial Guard or Space Marine units. This makes the A.M. army an exciting proposition, and one that I'm looking forward to delving into and reading more of, over the next few weeks. I'd strongly recommend all our Claws & Fists readers to do the same!

The only other similar book I've found on the internet in the past is an Exodite Eldar codex (http://www.agisn.de/html/codex_exodites.html, download here http://www.agisn.de/html/download.html). Again, the author has spent a long time creating a brand new, living and breathing army, with stacks of background 'fluff' and some innovative and unique units. Just like the A.M. book described above, what makes this special is that it's not just "renamed-Craftworld-Eldar-units-painted-a-different-colour", rather the units are completely bespoke and well thought out.

All of this makes me want to revisit and revise my (admittedly poor) first attempt at a Squat Codex. Over the last year or so I have been putting together a counts-as Imperial Guard army of Squats, however my progress has been limited since GW have inforced a complete ban on non-GW models at Warhammer World (and quite rightly too - it's their flagship venue and they want to promote and sell their wares). I will post later this month an update on my progress with that particular project.

So, my challenge for the next couple of months is to revise my original Squats codex, but taking inspiration from the two fantastic efforts described above (Adeptus Mechanicus and Exodite Eldar). I realise that the book will never be deemed acceptable for tournament play, but that really isn't the point - the aim here is to create something 'a bit different' that I can truly call my own.

So, my aims for my new 'fan-dex' are:

1. To write some original fluff (based on, and expanding upon, the back-stories from the Rogue Trader and second edition books I grew up with)
2. To create unique Squat units throughout the army list (the original units were intentionally renamed and minimally-tweaked Imperial Guard units, as I thought at the time that would lend some credibility to my project).
3. To produce a fan-dex that looks as visually professional as the A.M. and Exodite Eldar books.

So there you have it - my aim for the remainder of the year. But now I'll throw the subject open to you, the loyal Claws & Fists readership:

Which army or armies would you love to see a codex for?


Would you ever contemplate having a go yourself?

Would you be happy to play against a fan-written book?

Links updated 16.50, 3/10/2011

Respect your elders

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

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

Arena Of Death: Asurman vs Jain Zar

Welcome to the first semi-final in the Phoenix Lord Cup as the favourite, 230 point Asurman takes on the outsider, 190 Jain Zar...

Round 1 - Asurman on the charge

Asurman opened fire in a storm of blades, hitting with four of his five shots. Two would have caused wounds but were deflected by Jain Zar's armour. As he charged into combat, her Banshee Mask slowed him down but fortunately for him, her War Shot was ineffective. Going on the Counter Attack, Jain Zar hit with two of her four attacks and wounded with both. Due to his Battle Fate, Asurman was only wounded once. Striking back, he hit her with four of his five attacks but could only manage a single wound. With the effect of Jain Zar's Banshee Mask now over, the two combatants struck simultaneously. Asurman, hit three times and caused three wounds. With her last drop of strength, Jain Zar hit twice but could only do one wound meaning she had lost the first round.

Round 2 - Jain Zar on the charge

Hurling the Silent Death at her opponent, Jain Zar managed to hit three times. Only one of them wounded but Asurman's Battle Fate couldn't save him this time. She screamed her War Shot at the top of her lungs as she charged and it was enough to reduce Asurman to WS1. Seeing her chance she hit with all four of her attacks. However, with two 1s rolled, she only managed two wounds. One was saved, leaving Asurman clinging on. Asurman only managed to hit once in reply but following the re-rolls granted by the Sword of Asur, that became four hits! Only one managed to wound though. Reduced to a mere three attacks by Asurman's Denfend skill, Jain Zar still managed to hit twice. Both wounded and Asurman's invulnerable save wasn't enough. Even with re-rolls, he could only manage one hit back and while that managed to wound, he lost the second round.

Round 3 - No Charge Bonus

With her Banshee Mask still allowing her first strike in combat, Jain Zar managed two hits out of her three attacks. Both wounded but one was repelled. Striking back, Asurman matched his opponent with two hits but only caused a single wound. As the combat continued, Jain Zar it once but failed to wound. In reply Asurman, hit three times and did two wounds which was enough to win the semi-final.


Well, that invulnerable save proved golden in this match-up. I thought Jain Zar with her Banshee Mask-aided striking first ability would have a chance to win this one but that 4++ was big factor in meaning that it wasn't to be. It's also worth pointed out how useful Defend was - cutting down her attacks by one was a big help. He was the favourite because of points value but after today, I think we could well see Asurman lift the Phoenix Lord Cup...

Arena of Death: Baharroth vs Fuegan

Welcome back to the Arena of Death. It's been a while. If you're new, the Arena of Death is where we pit special charaters against each other in a best of three fight to the death. We don't use mathammer but rather real dice rolls to determine the winner. For those who aren't new, sorry about the hiatus but work has been rather busy of late.

Anyway, we're in the middle of the Phoneix Lord cup at the minute. In the first preliminary round Jain Zar beat Maugan Ra for the right to face Asurman in the semi-final. Tonight, Karandras awais the winner of

vs

Round 1 - Baharroth on the charge

Baharroth leveled his Haw's Talon and fired three times. Two shot hit but only one wounded which was easily saved by Fuegan's armour. Only two of Baharroth's attacks hit and only one of those wounded. Striking at the same time, Fugegan also hit twice but couldn't cause any wounds. Sensing hit oppourtunity, Baharroth hit with three out of his four attacks and wounded twice. With the last ounce of his strength Fugegan could only hit once, failing to wound. Baharroth has comfortably won round 1.

Round 2 - Fuegan on the charge

Fuegan fired hit Fire Pike. He hit his target but needed his Crack Shot ability to cause a wound after rolling a 1 initially. Two hits with hit Fire Axe led to a single wound leaving Baharroth on just one. Striking back he hit three time but cause just one wound. Fugegan was now pretty mad, he hit three times causing one wound. It was enough. Baharroth could only hit once in return and did no wounds leaving Fuegan the winner.

Round 3 - No charge bonus

The two initiative 7 characters struck as one. Fuegan hit three times and did two wounds. Baharroth struck back, hitting twice but just wounding once. Fuegan hit two more times, gettin the single wound he needed. Baharroth hit twice but could obnly wound once leaving Fuegan on just one wound - bloody but victorious.


Well, in the end the difference was the S5 power weapon. I think I said this after the last Arena of Death but these Phoenix Lords really need an invulnerable save.

The Glass Hammer Shatters (aka Eldar For Sale)

So day two of the Team UK 'Singles' Tournament saw me play three more games, resulting in two losses and a draw (against 1st Company Vets' very own Imperial Guard Commander Graham White).

Today started with a tough game against a Space Marine player, which I didn't really enjoy too much, largely cos I was tired freom the first day's games. The second game was a real hoot, as I played James Meikle's Imperial Guard force. The game clocked in at 68 minutes, including set-up, deployment and a ten-minute cigarette/coffee break after turen three. Both these games resulted in losses, but this second game against James' Guard was fun due largely to his easy-natured attitude and our mutually low tournament position.

The last game turned out to be a last-place play-off between my Eldar and Graham White's Imperial Guard. Again, this game was played in a friendly and good-natured spirit and ended the weekend on a high for me - a draw! In truth, Graham would have tabled me on turn seven, but we ended a turn earlier and I doubled my tournament points in one go.

So to sum up, it was a great weekend but a long one. I am now absolutely certain that me and the Eldar will not be sharing a games table again for a very long time, and I am now left with two quandries:

- 1. What to take to Blog Wars next weekend?

and,

- 2. What should be my long-term 'alaac'(*) Tournament army?!

(* alaac = Avoid Losing At All Costs)

The View from the Bottom Tables

Today was the first day of the 1,750pt UK Team 'Singles' Championships at Maelstrom in Mansfield. Sixteen of the top players in the country descended like angels on the venue at around eight o'clock this morning for the first three games of a six-game tournament. To face these gaming behemoths I decided to take... Eldar. Yup, the Eldar that I recently denounced as being 'like doing A-Level Maths homework' and the self-same Eldar that I've only ever used four times previously.

So how did it go? Well, after three games I have two points out of a maximum of sixty (seems worse when you put it like that) and I am currently on -4,100 victory points. The first two games were actually good fun and actually quite close (honestly) and I was close to a few more game-points.

Game one saw me facing a Space Marines army consisting half-a-dozen Dreadnoughts, a couple of Predators and eight Land Speeders, all tooled up with heavy bolters. This game was Annihiliation and was actually quite close for three or four turns, but once my transports & Falcons were downed, things went south pretty quickly.

In the second game I faced a Genestealer / double-Tervigon swarm Tyranid list. I made a good set-up and started first, but didn't kill enough Genies in the first two turns, so when he got into contact with my forces it was a foregone conclusion.

Finally, my plucky Eldar faced the Tau Empire in the third game of the day in a dawn of war race for five objectives. Now then I thought, surely this was my chance to shine? Nope. Turns out this Tau army consisted almost entirely of battlesuits (fifteen I counted) and a Kroot meat-shield. It was ballistic overkill. All my tanks were wrecked by midway through turn two, and though I protected my scoring troops as best I could, my retarded set-up (caused by tiredness) had doomed me from the start.

So, have I learnt anything? Well, I know that me and the Eldar will be infrequent bedfellows in the future, that's for certain! After the tournaments this week and next, they will be going back into their spirit-stone beds for a long, long rest, and I will concentrate on armies that suit my neanderthal mentality a bit more - namely Tyranids (loadsa big bugz!), Squats-as-IG (loadsa big tankz!) and Pre-Heresy World Eaters (loadsa, umm, three-up saves). I've realised I don't have the attention to detail or chess-player mind to cope with the Eldar glass hammer. That said, don't get me wrong - it's been a fun day and I am really looking forward to continuing the tournament tomorrow!

Options for the Summer Skirmish

In August, Tim of Team Scotland is organising the Summer Skirmish, which is a two-day, 13(!) game tournament to be held at Maelstrom Games in Mansfield. What makes this tourney unique is that each player will only be bringing 500pts, with virtually no restrictions apart from:

- No unique units

- No > 2 wound units (or possibly characters - this is to be confirmed)

- No duplicated/triplicated Heavy/Fast/Elite choices (though vehicle squadrons are allowed)

- 1 Troops choice is mandatory; no HQ necessary (though may be selected)

So as I see it, this tournament could be a great way to try out a new army. I've already decided that my usual force of Chaos Space Marines will be given a rest. So my choice will have to come from either the Eldar, the Squats or the Tyranids.

If I bring Eldar, my preferred selection will be two small squads of 6 x Dire Avengers (including Exarch) in Wave Serpents. The plan here would be to operate an alternating Bladestorm assault, with the heavy weapons on the Serpents hopefully cracking open transports so the Avengers can shoot what is inside.

With the Squats (counting as IG), I would continue along the long-ranged theme. I would bring the following:

1 x Ancestor Lord (counts as Primeris Psyker)

10 x Long-Beards (count as Veterans) with 3 x Plasma Guns

2 x Skyhammer Flak-Tanks (count as Hydras)

1 x Skylord Airship (counts as Vendetta)

The plan here would be to kill transports and tanks with the Skylord's three Lascannon and with the twin-linked Autocannon on the Flak Tanks. The Ancestor Lord and the Veterans would fly in the Vendetta, then gun down the unavoidable Space Marines with the Plasma Guns, Lasguns (how embarrassing for our power-armoured chums) and with the psyker's Loightning Arc (2D6 Str.6 hits at 24" should be ample!).

If I decided on Tyranids, I would probably go for a big screen of Termagants providing protection for a decent-sized unit of Genestealers. I'd need something to crack tanks open with this force, so possibly Hive Guard would make an appearance too.

Arena Of Death: Jain Zar vs Maugan Ra

Yes, like a Phoenix from the ashes, Arena Of Death returns. And what better way to return than with the Phoenix Lord Cup. So, we've seeded all of the Eldar Phoenix Lords based on their points value and over the next 5 weeks we'll find out who is the best. We start this week with the two cheapest characters, Jain Zar and Maugan Ra. So without further ado, let's enter the Arena...

Round 1- Jain Zar on the charge

Jain Zar had the briefest of glances at her opponent before throwing The Silent Death. The deadly Triskele hit twice and caused two wounds. She charged into combat striking faster than the eye could see. Hitting with three of her 5 attacks, she onlly needed 2s to wound since she was armed with an Executioner and had the Furious Charge special rule. All three attacks wounded and so Maugan Ra was killed before he even got to swing.

Round 2 - Maugan Ra on the charge

Maugan Ra levelled the Maugetar and being a Fast Shot, fired 5 times at his enemy. Only three of the shots hit but they all wounded and one even rended. Of the other two wounds, Jain Zar's armour could only save 1. However, as he charged in, Jain Zar's Banshee Mask enabled her to strike first. She also passed her Counter Attack roll giving her 5 attacks. 3 hit and they all wounded, meaning that once again, Maugan Ra had been taken down before he got to swing.

Wow, that was pretty comprehensive. That Banshee Mask is going to make Jain Zar a real threat in the semi-final. I think this really demonstrates the need for all of the Phoenix Lords to have some kind of invulnerable save. Hopefully, when the 'dex gets redone they'll get that (along with some nifty FOC changing tricks) Next week we'll have Baharroth facing off against Fuegan for the final place in the semi-finals.

Listmania Part 1 - Exodite Eldar

As I mentioned recently, I've had a considerable period of time where I couldn't get down to my local club to play a game, so instead I had to console myself with planning new armies. The armies I have, or plan to have, are Chaos Marines (done and in use), Tyranids (in the process of being painted), Heresy-Era World Eaters (my quickie 'suitcase' army for when I travel for work), Squat 'Guard' (infantry done, tanks made but yet to be painted) and Exodite Eldar (currently just one mock-up model of a Guardian Dragon-Rider - see below).

I have tried playing Eldar before, but I found them a little soulless. It was a little like doing A-Level maths - a lot of logical thinking and not much fun. So I put 'em away and returned to my tried-and-tested Chaos Marines. But now I have an urge (oo-err) to try the Eldar again, however this time running them as Exodites, that is, back-to-basics naturist Eldar (a bit like Tom and Barbara in the Good Life but with more Shuriken Rifles). My first draft list is:

HQ - Farseer (Fortune, Doom, Spirit Stones, Runes of Warding) and 5 Warlocks (mix of Witchblades and Singing Spears, plus Conceal, Enhance, Destructor, Embolden) all riding Dragons (count as Jetbikes)

Elites - 6 x Fire Dragons

Troops - 6 x Guardians with Warlock (Singing Spear, Conceal), all riding Dragons (count as Jetbikes) with 2 x Shuriken Cannons)

Troops - 6 x Guardians with Warlock (Singing Spear, Conceal), all riding Dragons (count as Jetbikes) with 2 x Shuriken Cannons

Troops - 5 x Pathfiner Rangers

Troops - 10 x Dire Avengers (incl. Exarch with Bladestorm, power weapon and Shimmershield)

Heavy - 2 x Fire Prisms (weapon turret mounted on dinosaur)

APC - 2 x Wave Serpents (twin-linked Bright Lances, Star Engines, Spirit Stones)

I recently faced an opponent using a similar army (though with real jetbikes, not Dragons as I intend), who started everything in reserve to limit the fragile Eldar from being exposed to too much shooting. His plan was to use the typical Eldar trick of bouncing his tanks around to give them 4+ or 6+ saves from shooting, and then on turn five use his jetbikes and skimmers to claim objectives.

I intend to do something similar, though I've included a suicide unit of Fire Dragons mounted in a Serpent to take out heavy armour, and an HQ Seer Council to strike against any opponent units I don't like the look of, accompanied and shielded by one of the Guardian Dragon-Riders units. The other Guardian Dragon-Riders will sit back with the Avengers (hiding in their Serpent), and will push forward to claim objectives on turn five.

That's the plan, anyway (they always seem so good on paper). Your constructive thoughts are always welcome!

Tales of an AWOL Gamer

So, it's been a while! I guess I ought to explain my absence from both the blog and the WHW gaming hall. My girlfriend's dad has been ill, and we've been spending time with him in Bristol while we could; unfortunately he died a couple of weeks ago, which meant more time away. Couple to that more working trips to Aberdeen and some forthcoming gigs (both on a Thursday) and it all means my opportunities for gaming have been limited, to say the least! Since I've not been able to play at WHW or post here on the world's premier blog-site, I've had to content myself with planning some new armies, and tinkering with my existing forces too. Firstly, my Chaos Marines - this is a working army, so only needed a small modification. I've bought more fantasy Ogres, for conversion into Obliterators, meaning I should soon be able to field three units of three if I fancy it!
Next, my Squats. Believe it or not, they are nearly finished! Problem is, you're never gonna see 'em - at WHW or any GW store, at least. Our gaming club is having a crack-down on non-GW models, which renders every single tank in my army redundant. So, I'm building my own sci-fi hanger-themed wargames table for some home battles, and I'm intending to start playing at Maelstrom on Tuesdays and/or weekends too in order to get some use out of my new army.
Next, I'm putting together a cheap'n'cheerful Heresy-Era World Eaters army. The design criteria here is that this 1,500pt force must be compact enough to fit in a single A4 box-file in order to fit in my suitcase ready to travel to Aberdeen with me! During my last trip north-of-the-border, I played two games at GW Aberdeen, and I must say what a friendly and welcoming bunch they are. These away-games have transformed rather dull work-trips into something a bit more satrisfying. The composition of this army isn't decided yet, but will be based around some vintage Space Marine Scouts (from the early-90's 'Tyranid Attack' game), plus a load of second-hand Space Marines and Rhinos won off ebay this weekend. The army will be a 'counts-as' Blood Angels list, using Berzerkers instead of Death Company and Kharn replacing Astorath.
My other ideas include dragon-riding Exodite Eldar and an Epic Space Marine force. I will of course chart my progress on this blog!