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.

The burning question.

I had a great game against Grazer yesterday at Warhammer World. Dave (Smokey D) was also there having a great time playing  a 200pts Kill Team campaign, but I'm sure he'll want to talk about that himself!

I lost my game, but it was an interesting test of my daemons. This time I played a 80/20 Tzeentch/Khorne list to try some combinations out. I won to go first, so I plonked my army down ready to do fly all the big stuff 24" and everything else between 12"-18". As we had rolled Hammer & Anvil this would have put my right in Grazer's face ready to do some big monstrous creature punching of his tanks.

However, he stole the initiative and so he proceeded to hurl ordnance and a mass of Str 5-7 weaponry at me. I lost a Soul Grinder and took a collection of wounds but most of my big stuff stayed in the air through my 'magic' dice. He had vendettas in reserve which scared me more.

On my turn I got a lot closer to him and fired a reasonable amount of (mostly psychic) shooting at him. I took at least one chimera down, but more importantly I would be within range for next turn. Also, my troops started to deep strike now and were in good positions.

Turn 2 was a turning point for me. Most of Grazer's shooting was ineffective although a couple of my big dudes were down to one wound now. This helped even out the battle somewhat, and over the next few turns I started to work my way through his tanks and infantry. I took his vendettas down on turn 5/6 if I remember right.

I didn't however win though. I grabbed the relic on turn 4, but he hauled up a Chimera and unloaded a squad which overwhelmed the 3 horrors defending. On turn 6 I blasted them off it again, leaving the relic undefended. In fact at the end of turn 6 Grazer had a solitary Storm-Trooper Squat left, I had about 10 troops, some flamers, an immobilised Soul Grinder and a Tzeentch chariot remaining.

But I lost on points in the end, a good game though and I'm really starting to get a handle on my army now.

I discussed with Grazer the possibility of a house rule on my Burning Chariot of Tzeentch. If you search the interwebz, you'll know all about the controversy surrounding the heavy weapons on the rider. It means you can't move and fire. Normally as a fast skimmer it would be able to fire 12" and fire both weapons, but I think the intention is that it can move 12" and fire ONE weapon. Until this is FAQ'ed I'm going to suggest that we play it where it can move 6" and fire ONE weapon or move flat-out and fire none. This seems a reasonable compromise between RAW and RAI.

Other than that, I'm loving Kairos. He (it?!) isn't as powerful as before, but he's a LOT more fun to play!

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)

Day One Results of the 'Veiled Region' Campaign Weekend

Just a quick update after day one of the campaign weekend... 

Game 1 - 1000pts (minimum 50% flyers):

Lost (twice!) on VP's against pre-heresy World Eaters from the Betrayal book. The list included a Whirlwind, 2 x Lightnings & ten assault Marines. 

Game 2 - 2000pts:

 Win - I claimed two out of three objectives, and managed to table my opponent! I was playing against Chaos Marines with Fabius Bile, terminators in a Land Raider, some possessed Marines, two Hellblade flyers and a Storm Eagle flyer carrying twenty cultists.  

Game 3 - 2000pts: 

Win - ten victory points vs five. This was a kill points mission against a Killa Kan Ork list featuring a lifta-droppa, six Killa Kans, a couple of Deffgun Dredds (I think), a Flak-Trukk, Wazdakka, some bikers and some Trukkin' Boyz. 

So, four games today, two wins and two losses. Let's see how day two goes tomorrow! ' 

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 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.

Open War 18 - Flight of the Tyranids

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

I took the following:

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

Zoanthrope
Zoanthrope

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

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

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

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


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

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

6 Wraiths w. 2x Whip Coils
9 Scarab Bases

3x 3 Tomb Spyders

The mission was Kill Points with Hammer and Anvil Deployment.

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

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

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

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

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

G2 vs. Black Templars w Dark Angels

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

Assault Squad 5-man w. Powerfist

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

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

Aegis Defence Line w. Quad Gun

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

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

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

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

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

G3 vs Imperial Guard w. Daemons

Company Command Squad w. Heavy Bolter
The Masque

7 Flamers of Tzeentch

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

Vendetta
Hellhound
Hellhound
7 Screamers of Tzeentch

Griffon
Demolisher

Bastion w. Quad Gun

The mission was Crusade with Dawn of War Deployment.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Arena Of Death On Tour

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

Doubles - Day 1

The C&F Boys

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

Game 1 vs Orks & Imperial Guard

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

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

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

Game 2 vs Dark Eldar & Dark Eldar

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

Game 3 vs Orks & Chaos Space Marines

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

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


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

Arena Of Death - Saint Celestine vs Commissar Yarrick

Why won't you die?!

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

Round 1 - Saint Celestine on the charge

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

Round 2 - Commissar Yarrick on the charge

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


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

BotCh Day 1

... I'd rather not talk about it.

Let's just say I went 1-3 and am sitting on 30 pts out of a possible 100. What particularly bugs me is that for game 3, despite losing my first 2 games, I was up against a top level tournament player playing leafblower guard (6 Hydras and 2 Vendettas). Huh? My one win of the day came in game 4 and from the bottom table. I'm not hopeful for day 2!

On the up-side I had a great game of Blood Bowl against TheBaron as part of our club's perpetual league. More of this in the future as I'm getting more than a little cheesed off with my complete ineptitude at 40k. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind loosing it's just that when I don't at least offer some resistance to my opponent It is a little embarassing!

Time for a New Army....

Well apparently something called 5th Edition happened a little while ago, and while I have been playing it I actually haven't built a new army for it. I've built some small 750pt lists for Doubles events in the past including Word Bearers and Traitor Guard however I haven't developed these further.

Now some of you will notice that I haven't been seen around here in a while and that's for a number of reasons including but not limited to:

• The fact I hate the internet, blogs and ones about Space Wolves
• The fact that I've been stupidly busy in my new job meaning I haven't had time to play, paint or even think
• The fact I hate the internet, blogs and ones about Space Wolves that tell you to steal things
• The fact that I've grown to hate 40k and now only play Blood Bowl
• The fact that I was busy "Building a Tervigon"

Now that's out of the way I'll move on to the point of this post...I want to build a new army, to 1750pts, using a 5th Edition Codex...but I don't know which army to do. This is where you come in...I've narrowed it down to a few I'm interested in and would like your comments so...

Tyranids:

With a heavy focus on gaunts and gargoyles with a few other bits thrown in for good measure....I'm looking at you Parasite.


Marines:

Using the FW armour sets to build a "Loyalists of Istvaan III" army that can be used with SW, BA, SM Codex small...elite....but no Razorbacks...

Guard:

...of the Traitor variety. Think FW renegades with some tanks, beastmen, mutants and a few more tanks...

Grey Knights:

Small...Elite...New...and I keep winning bits to build an army form raffles when I go to Events...

So the floor is open to you all...opinions please...also, links to cool pictures for the above armies would be appreciated for inspiration...

TheBaron Out!

Some Good Men Go To War

(cos it's like last week's Doctor Who...)

Firstly, I'd like to join the crescendo of voices thanking Alex for organising last week's Blog Wars tournament. It was a brilliant day and I really wish I could have played (put it this way, if I'm still in the country for the next one, I'm definitely entering)

Anyway, without further ado, let's get onto the pictures. I didn't catch everyone's names so apologies for that...


Wazdakka prepares to lead his biker Boyz against Graham's Orks:

"Erm, of course my Mephiston knows Null Zone" - Andy prepares to face off against Bully's Deathwing:

Space Wolves don't surf! Mick's Long Fangs draw a bead on a Vendetta (the Valkyries came on later...):

Ragnar risks becoming a squig as Alex faces off against Darren and Old Zogwort:

"I think I left the oven on" - Mephiston decides he has somewhere better to be:

Onto the Game 2 pics...

Learning his lesson from the first game, Mephiston hides:

Graham's Defiler also hides but he can still see those nasty Grey Knights:

It's Annihilation and Mick faces an army with only 3 Kill Points make up of 2 wound Terminators:

Darren's Orks take on Blood Angels - and these Angels can fly:

Bjorn gets stuck in:

KHARN!:

Andy's Blood Angels jump into action:

An Ork and Blood Angel bloodbath:

Arena Of Death on tour. Matt's Draigo takes on Calgar:

(Draigo wins)

Game 3...

Andy's Blood Angels prepare to be assaulted by Darren's Deffkopta:

Mick takes the fight to the fishmen:

A Grey Hunter's eye view of those Crisis Suits:

In the perfect end to Graham's weekend, Kharn gets killed by Rough Riders:

The final Claws and Fists tally:

P 12 W 4 D 1 L 7

A few thoughts on the performance of the C&F guys...

Mick - Space Wolves

Mick really needed to be more aggresive in game 1 against the IG. He was unlucky to imobilse a Rhino early on but there should have been two Rhinos trying to grab his opponents Objective. Then, he left the squad inside the Rhino and only tried to contest with his two Speeders which were easily shot down. Game 2 was a tough match up - a Kill Point game against an army with only 3 Kill Points. He was unlucky though, as Bjorn was half and inch short of a potential game winning charge and then the game ended on turn 5. Having said that, Mick finished the game with a lot of his army still in one piece, again evidence of a lack of aggression especially against an opponent he had to table to win. Game 3 was nip & tuck but it would have been really harsh if Mick had finished the tournament without a win.

Andy - Blood Angels

I'm not really sure what to say about Andy's game 1. He got tabled by a Deathwing list and there's no advice I can give since I came very close to being tabled by a similar list at the last Open War (all I had left of 1750 points was an imobilised Rhino) Similarly, I can't offer any critique for game 2 as he tabled his opponent. Game 3 was against a very canny operator but Andy failed to leverage his speed advantage late on. As Andy started what would be his last turn, he was 4-1 down. A Boyz squad held one Objective, 2 Mega-Nobz another and a squad of Grotz was stretched across 2 more. Andy's Sanguinary Guard dealt with the Nobz but a failed Tank Shock left the Boyz in place. What he should have done is driven his Razorback 18", jumped out and shot at the Grotz. Yes, it would have been a long shot to kill enough to force a Leadership test and then for them to fail twice  but it was probably better than trying to Tank Shock through a Power Klaw armed Warboss.

Darren - Orks

Firstly some Robin Smith-esque man-love. The way Darren uses his "throwaway" units (Storm Boyz and Kommandos) to tie up and distract enemy scoring units is a joy to watch. Game 1, he needed a bit of luck to defeat Alex but having weathered a Ragnar Blackmane charge, it would be churlish to begrudge such luck. Game 2, he was almost too Orky. Playing against an army with very little long range shooting, he let himself get sucked in. Some might argue that if the Kommandos had turned up on the correct flank things would have been different but that's the risk you take with outflanking. Game 3 against another Blood Angel player could have been closer but his Warboss stopped a final turn attempted Tank Shock.

Graham - Chaos Space Marines

For some, this tournament can be summed up with how their special characters did. For Mick, Bjorn kicked arse and took names in the game he won and was 125mm away from winning game 2. For Andy, Mephiston ran away in game 1 but did much better in game 2. Now I was (un)fortunate enough to witness then demise of Kharn in games 1 & 3 for Graham. Game 1 heU was run over by an Ork Deffrolla and game 3 he was killed by some Rough Riders! Game 1, Graham suffered a similar fate to Mick in that he got nowhere near his opponent's Objective but, he was unlucky not to hold his own as bloody battle erupted all around it. Game 2 was always going to be a tough match-up against an army that was shootier, more mobile and more resilient. The game was close for the first three turns but then the Grey Knights accelerated away. Razorbacks full of small squads normally equals Kill Points a-plenty but Graham really lacked the long range fire power to take advantage. Game 3 and Kharn's Land Raider got punked early and Graham struggled to get anywhere near the IG gunline. This was one of those games where you really need to think about how to cross the board and it would possibly have been advantageous to Deep Strike the Obliterators and/or the Terminators.

I calls it as I sees it. Did you play against any of the C&F guys? What did they do well and what should they have done differently? If you did play against them, why haven't they added you to our blog roll?

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.

MIA at the moment

So what have I been up to for the last couple of weeks?

Well marking coursework mainly but also trying to get my wolves up to an acceptable level.

Other than that I have been working on my squad for the first company vets squad painting comp and I am hoping that one of the other boys will bring a camera tomorrow so they can get photo'd for the blog because my camera is in Tenerife with my Mam and Dad.

At least I can tell you what I done, I've moved away from power armour and gone for the forgeworld Renegade command squad which I have really enjoyed painting

One problem I had with them was that the autogunner was broken when I got it but when I took it back they were kind enough to change the one model for a complete new set so I'll have another chance to paint them again.

The only disappointment with the job I have done is with the basing. I've gone for a fairly standard snow base which isn't much different from what I do on my table top army. Will I win? I doubt it but it certainly shows how far my painting has come.

If you are interested in seeing them in the flesh have a look in the Warhammer World clubs cabinet in the main hall if you are about and hopefully look out for pics on here.

Beam me up Scotty

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

Anyway, enough of that, on with the action:


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

Game 1
vs Necrons

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

Mission: Dawn of War, Seize Ground

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

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

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

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

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

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

Result: Draw

Games 2 & 3

vs Daemons

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

Mission: Pitched Battle, Capture and Control
Result: Loss

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

Spearhead, Annihilation
Result: Loss

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

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

Game 4
vs Imperial Guard

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

Mission: Dawn of War, Capture and Control

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

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

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

Result: Draw

Game 5
vs Imperial Guard

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

Mission: Spearhead, Seize Ground

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

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

Result: Win

Game 6
vs Tyranids

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

Mission: Pitched Battle, Annihilation

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

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

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

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

Result: Win

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

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

Doubles Review...

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

The List


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

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

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

8 x Flesh Hounds
5 x Seekers

1 x Oblit
1 x Oblit

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

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

The Games

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

Game 1:

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

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

Game 2:

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

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

Game 3:

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

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

Game 4:

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

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

Game 5:

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

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

Game 6:

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

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

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

Final Thoughts

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

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

TheBaron out!

I rolled: 6 (4/2)

Caledonian Uprising - Day 1

So, I'm going to give some brief thoughts on both days of the Caledonian Uprising and then they'll be a post on the many many lessons that I learned...

Game 1 - Peter's Chaos Space Marines

Daemon Prince, Wings, Warp Time

Daemon Prince, Wings, Warp Time

4 Terminators, Mark of Khorne, 4 Combi-Meltas, 1 Power Fist

8 Khorne Bezerkers including Skull Champion with Power Fist, Rhino

8 Khorne Bezerkers including Skull Champion with Power Fist, Rhino

8 Khorne Bezerkers including Skull Champion with Power Fist, Rhino

8 Summoned Lesser Daemons

8 Summoned Lesser Daemons

2 Obliterators

2 Obliterators

This was a really odd game, I kind of always felt in control but at the end of turn 5 it would have been a draw. However, if it had gone to turn 7 I could possibly have tabled Peter (all he had left was a Daemon Prince with a single wound, two Bezerkers and a Rhino) Yet despite all that, I only won by 120VPs at the end of turn 5. Like all Marines, those Beserkers proved very resiliant and those Lesser Daemons with their ability to assault on the turn they deep strike are awesome (why don't more people take them??) In the end I only really saw them off due to the power of Counter Attack.

Game 2 - Ian's Imperial Guard

Company Command Squad, Lascannon

Platoon Command Squad, Lascannon

Squad 1, Grenade Launcher, Autocannon

Squad 2, Grenade Launcher, Autocannon

Squad 3, Autocannon

Heavy Weapons Squad, 3 Mortars

Special Weapons Squad, 3 Plasma Guns

Special Weapons Squad, 3 Meltaguns

Platoon Command Squad, Lascannon

Squad 1, Meltagun, Commisar, 2 Power Weapons, Krak Grenades

Squad 2, Meltagun, Power Weapon, Krak Grenades, Plasma Pistol

Squad 3, Meltagun, Power Weapon, Krak Grenades

Special Weapons Squad, 3 Plasmaguns

Special Weapons Squad, 3 Meltaguns

Leman Russ, Lascannon

Lema Russ Demolisher, Lascaonnon

2 Griffon

We were playing Roll Dice and Tie and I was determined not just to sit on my Objective and take a draw. However, a couple of wrecked vehicles stopped my assault on Ian's Objective and a couple of failed Pinning tests meant that he contested my with a Leman Russ. Again is was a really close game - I was winning at the end of 5, losing at the end of six and would probably have nicked a draw if it had gone to 7. Highlight of the game was the nearly indestructible Land Speeder that took a full turn of shooting and then had to be assaulted to get it off Ian's Objective. He managed to destroy it with Krak Grenades and lucky for him he wrecked it as an explosion could have taken some of his squad with it.

Game 3 - Brad's Space Wolves

I didn't get Brad's exact list but it had three Rune Priests with Living Lightning, 2 squads of Long Fangs and two Autocannon Dreads.

I have to admit that this was probably the most boring game I had in the tournament. Brad sat in his corner. I sat in mine. We shot at each other. He had more shooting - he won.

The Squat Leaf-Blowers

I'm really keen to get my Squats on the table and into some action, so I've finalised a 1,750pt list that should see them in play relatively soon (my modelling and painting progress makes glaciers seem racey by comparison).

The list is based loosely on the now-infamous 2,500pt Leaf-Blower list that first appeared on BoLS way back when (http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2009/09/40k-ard-boys-armylist-leafblower.html). I've tweaked it a bit, and dropped it down by 750pts in order to give me a list I can play at our regular Thursday night club. The list is as follows:

HQ - Warlord (power fist) with 4 Entourage (3 plasma guns), Master of Ordnance & Officer of the Fleet plus Termite Transport Chimera (counts as Company Command Squad with Chimera)

HQ - Ancestor Lord (counts as Primeris Psyker)

EL - 3 x Snipers

TR - 10 x Long-Beards (3 x special weapons) with Termite Transport (counts as Veterans squad with Chimera)

TR - 10 x Long-Beards (3 x special weapons) with Termite Transport

TR - 10 x Long-Beards (3 x special weapons) to ride aboard Sky-Lord Airship

TR - 10 x Long-Beards (3 x special weapons) to ride aboard Air-Lord Airship

HVY - 2 x Land Trains (counts as 2 x Medusas with enclosed crew compartments and Bastion-Breacher shells)

HVY - 1 x Goliath Mega-Cannon (counts as Manticore)

HVY - 2 x Flak Tanks (counts as 2 x Hydras)

FA - 1 x Sky-Lord Airship (counts as Vendetta)

FA - 1 x Air-Lord Airship (counts as Valkyrie)

I have the infantry just about painted (just a few special weapons still to go), however I am yet to start the bulk of the vehicles. I have bought a number of cracking resin models from Ramshackle Games (http://shop.ramshacklegames.co.uk/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=6&sort=20a&page=2) which I need to build and convert into Land Trains, Flak Tanks et al. I hope to make a start on them this week - I'll keep you posted on my progress!