Silver & Gold and Other Army Lists

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

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

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

The list I’d considered at 1850pts was:

Request for Players -' In the Veiled Region' Campaign Weekend

Over the Easter weekend (30-31 March) Animisity are running the 'In The Veiled Region' campaign. It's open to all players and races and comprises 6 games. Game 1 is a specially comped mission (1000pts, minimum 50% flyers / skimmers /jump infantry / winged), whilst the remaining 5 games are standard 2000pts missions - see full details, below. 

You can still grab your tickets here

You can ignore the imperial/Ork designations now as its open to all races and army lists.

Animosity - In the Veiled Region, March 30th and 31st

- Game 1 Blitzkrieg-

Battle Brothers - Game 3

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

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

Mission: The Relic, Vanguard Strike deployment.

Monday Musings - The Death of Scouts

Scouting in 6th

When I first saw that Accute Senses allowed a re-roll on the board-edge for Outfalnking, my mind started racing. What would that mean for BEL on Wolf Scouts? If we could re-roll that, it would practically guarantee that they would arrive on the board edge that we wanted them to. However, upon reading the Reserve rules, you're not allowed to Assault on the turn that you arrive. No more charging into parking lots. No more tying up enemy heavy weapons teams.

So, the question is; Are BEL Scouts still useful as a disruption unit? Your enemy still has the decision to make - do I turn around and deal with the Scouts before they charge or do I ignore them?

And, they still have the option of Infiltrating of course.

So, it looks like Wolf Scouts might be slightly weaker in 6th ed than they were in 5th. I certainly can't see myself taking two packs anymore that's for sure...

Reserves in General

I've also been thinking about Graham's Null Deployment Tyranid army. Not only can the Genestealers not assault directly from outflanking (making them even more Bolter bait-y) but now you can only put half of your army into reserve anyway. Can't say I'm a huge fan of this as it removes options.

(The end of brackets)

T5(4) is no more. So, Bikes are now natural T5 as are Plague Marines and Nob Bikers. Yes, Nob Bikers! Once seen as "broken", then not, 6th ed could be the time they make a comeback. With natural T5 you need S10 to deny them FNP which means most of the time they'll be getting a 4++ cover save and a 5+ FNP.

Flakk Missiles

Ah, go on then, I'll wade into this one. I always thought that 40K was a permissive ruleset - ie they have to specifically say that you can do something before you can. Nowhere does it explicitly say that Space Wolves get Flakk Missiles nor that they get the opportunity to purchase them as an upgrade.

Don't get me wrong, I think this will change and I think it will change quickly. The question is, how many points for you pay for the option? Flyers look pretty sweet in the new rules and it's only a matter of time before we start seeing mass flyboys at tournaments. How much to try and shoot one down? 2 points a model? 5?

To scout or not to scout? Any reservations about the new reserve rules? What do the new toughness rules mean for BIDMAS? And pound your Flakk Missile, two pound your pair...

Throne of Skulls 2012 - Day 2

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


Game 4 vs Blood Angels
Mission: Spearhead / Seize Ground


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


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


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


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

Result: 3-2 win



Game 5 vs Eldar


Mission: Dawn of War / Capture & Control


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


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


FAST ATTACK
6x Vipers w. Scatter Lasers


HEAVY SUPPORT
2x Fire Prisms


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

Result: 1-0 Win


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


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


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

Throne of Skulls Winter 2012 - Day 1 Reports

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


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


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


Codex Orks – 1500pts


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


ELITE
Lootas (x10)


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


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


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


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


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


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


FAST ATTACK
Beastmaster (x2 w. Razorwing Flock x2)


HEAVY SUPPORT
Razorwing

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


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

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

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

Result: 2-0 loss


Game 2 vs Tyranids

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


HQ
Tyranid Prime (Lash Whip & Bone Sword)


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


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


HEAVY SUPPORT
Mawloc


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

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

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

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

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

Result: 2-1 win


Game 3 vs Black Templars

Mission: Spearhead / Annihilation


HQ
Emperors Champion (Vow: Pref Enemy)


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


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


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


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


Recap:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Result: 8-3 win

Throne of Skulls - The final standings

Well it's been a good weekend for Mick and I, 5 games played, 4 games won and 1 game lost. Definitely the best tournament result either of us have posted, but where did these awesome results leave us in the overall standings?

Well, let's start from the start, you get 3pts for a win, 1pt for a draw and 0pts for a loss, you also get points based on how many of your opponents nominated you as their favourite opponent of the weekend. GW's method for ranking you in the tournament is (as best as I can tell) the following; the average score across all the players who used the same codex is compared with your tournament score and the difference is you "ranking score". For example I scored 12pts for my 4 wins and 1 point because someone thought I was a good opponent. The average score across the 7 Ork Players at the tournament was 11 so that gives me a ranking score of 2. Mick scored 13 points as well but the average score across the 11 Space Wolf players was 8 so his ranking score was 5.

Using the above methodology Mick placed 6th and I placed 44th out of a field of 129 players. It's GW's tournament and they can score it how they like (also I knew this would be the case going into the event so I'm not complaining), I'm just not sure what that system tells us in the final standings. Except, possibly that if you do well with an army that other players did not manage to do well with then you are likely to do well in the overall standings.

Where this gets iffy is when someone with a 4-1 record wins the tournament with Daemons while the only player with 5 wins finishes 8th, so you're not really in control of your final placing.

Let's just take a look at where we would have finished if the rankings were based on your results with the codex ranking score used as a tie-breaker. In this case Mick would have placed 11th and I would have got 19th. The 5-0 Dark Eldar player still only manages second place though because an Ork player with 4 wins managed 5 best game nominations and so ended up with 17 total points to beat him by a single point. So it comes back to the age old issue of soft scoring vs generalship but all I can say to that is that if you know how the scoring is done before you go to the event and buy the ticket anyway don't complain about the rubric after the fact.

What I take away from this tournament is that I played well and managed 4 wins, I had 5 great games against 5 really nice opponents and I would definitely buy a ticket for another Throne of Skulls.

Just in case you're interested, here's how the codexes break down in terms of number of players and average score:

No. of players	Codex	Avg Score
6	Black Templars	9.83
13	Blood Angels	6.62
5	Chaos Daemons	9.20
8	Chaos Space Marines	8.38
1	Dark Angels	7.00
12	Dark Eldar	11.17
7	Eldar	8.00
14	Grey Knights	7.93
11	Imperial Guard	7.00
6	Necrons	9.50
7	Orks	11.86
17	Space Marines	7.41
11	Space Wolves	8.18
3	Tau	7.33
7	Tyranids	11.57

Throne of Skulls - Games 4 & 5

Due to a technical problem my game 4 update didn't post so here's the last 2 games:

Game 4 saw me pitted against Blood Angels. I did my best to force a draw but despite myself I pulled out a win. 

Mick fought to a close loss against Daemons meaning we are both 3-1 going into the last game.

Game 5 saw Eldar across the table from me, the mission was capture and control / dawn of war. Definitely advantage eldar, particularly as they had turn 2. However the ork's trigger fingers turned up to this one and thanks to it going to turn 7 I got a win to finish the day 4-1.

Mick saw the day out on a high too with a solid win against a Grey Knights list, so he also finished 4-1.

All in all a very good weekend for the Claws and Fists lads.I

Throne of Skulls - Day 2

Mick and I are eagerly awaiting bacon and sausage cobs at the start of Day 2 of the Throne of Skulls.

Mick's on table 1 and I'm experiencing the heady heights of table 21.

On with day 2, more to follow.

Location:Warhammer World, Nottingham

Throne of Skulls day 1

So as you can see from Andy's posts from today I ended throne of skulls on day one.

After last weekends dismal (and tiring) performance at Caledonian uprising I was really dreading this weekend but amazingly I have done really well.

First game saw me face off against Peter who unfortunately hadn't been back playing 40k long and it wasn't pretty, he had a couple of big squads of marines, a squad of terminators and a squad of scouts along with a vindicator and a terminator. I won first turn flamed his scouts, immobilised his vindicator and it went badly from there for him.

Second game again wasn't enjoyable, I played a young lad with Orks who made some key errors with general play including measuring that I had to pull him up on. In the end his worst mistake came from moving onto the shooting phase when he had only moved one unit, he asked if he could move it now and while it felt hash I had to say no because in the end it is a tournament. I however could have still drew the game but I ended up passing my leadership test.

Third game saw me face off against Dark Eldar, 3 venoms 3 raiders, 3 ravagers and plenty of wyches along with a flier. Luckily for the third running I won the roll off and went first. The weight of fire after the first turn was just too heavy for him, he believed that if he had reserved it all he may have done better but personally I think reserving what he did was the issue. Moment of the match, passing 17 3 up saves.

So all in all a great day, perfect in fact, 2 games away from a prize perhaps. Saying that however if I don't win at all tomorrow I will still finish with a 60% win percentage which will be my best tournament finish.

Throne of Skulls - Game 3

Game 3 was Spearhead/Annihilation and saw me face off against a 9 kill point Black Templars Army.

Fortunately I managed to Table him on turn 6 because otherwise I think we'd have drawn on killpoints.

Mick saw out round 3 with a third consecutive win meaning the Claws and Fists boys are a combined 5-1 after day 1 of the Winter Throne of Skulls.

More tomorrow.

Throne of Skulls - Game 2

Game 2 saw Mick continuing to right the wrongs of last weekend with a win over an Ork list.

I got my first win against a horde of Nids! Though I nearly had it stolen away from me but my Orks held firm passing a leadership test of 5 to hold the nids off the game tying objective.

Location:Warhammer World, Nottingham

Sore but not red-raw

Well, I did get tabled but not untill turn 6. And I really have myself to blame, I got my boyz out of the wagons too early and failed to knock out enough of his shooting. 2 squads down early doors. My Mega Nobs could have got me a draw but a failed leadership test caused them to run and with them went my last chance of salvaging the game.

Oh well, not feeling too bad about that one, it was a bad match-up and but for a bad dice roll and one bad decision I could have been in with a chance.

Roll on game 2!




-- Andy, posting on the go.

Game 1 - prepare to be bummed!

First opponent: Dark Eldar venom spam!

Oh I forgot to mention, I'm using mostly foot Orks with Ghazy and 2 Battle wagons.

Eeep



-- Andy, posting on the go.

Throne of Skulls

Just a quick post to let you know that Mick and I are at the Winter Throne of Skulls this weekend. I've brought 1500pts of Orks and Mick is rocking a cut down version of his Caledonian Wolf list.

I may try tweeting updates through the day. Follow me on Fudal78 or keep an eye on #clawsandfists

Wish us luck!


-- Andy, posting on the go.

Location:Warhammer World, Nottingham

Blog Wars - Game 2

 

Game 2 was against a “friend of From the Fang”, Dave Crawford, and his Blood Angel Army. He opened by telling me all about how, he'd only just come back to 40k and that he'd not won a game yet. Dangerous talk because my confidence level shoots through the roof and I start to make mistakes. This time however I had promised myself that I would play each game as though I knew my opponent was the best person in the draw. So I had a look at his list:

HQ

Dante

Honour Guard

(5) Blood Champion, Thunder Hammer, 2x Infernus Pistols, Storm Shield, Power Sword, Chapter

Banner

ELITE

Sanguinary Priest

(2) 2x Power Swords

TROOP

Assault Squad

(10) 2x Meltaguns, Power Fist

Assault Squad

(10) 2x Meltaguns, Power Fist

Assault Squad

(10) 2x Meltaguns, Power Fist

Scouts

(5) 5xSniper Rifles, Camo Cloaks

HEAVY SUPPORT

Dreadnought

2x TL Autocannon

Dreadnought

2x TL Autocannon

… lots of troops.

The mission was spearhead deployment and cleanse (table quarters), I lost the roll and Dave chose to go first. He combat squaded everything giving himself 8 scoring units (Special Characters count as scoring in this mission) deploying roughly half his force on the left of his deployment zone and the other half on the right. He placed his Dreads in the back corner and held Dante and his Honour Guard in reserve, the Scouts infiltrated into cover on his left flank.

I decided to split my force to send Ghaz and a Battle Wagon full of Boyz off to take on the three combat squads on the right, the Stormboys and the other Battle Wagon went left after the other three combat squads and the two Trukks were set up centrally, aiming for the back corner and the Dreadnought. The Lootas were placed pretty centrally in my deployment zone with good LoS to both flanks and I held the Gretchin in reserve (for a change).

Oh I forgot to mention the Deffkopta, that's probably because I forgot to scout it and two rending shots from the scouts later it was toast. Bit of a bummer really as I'd planned for that to go and root out the scouts. This was to set the scene for a roller-coaster of dice rolls that did not go my way, Nuffle was clearly not pleased with me for some reason!

Dave advanced down both flanks spreading my forces further apart, I pushed forward and at the top of turn 2 he made a play for my Battle Wagons with his meltas. Surprisingly the one with the KFF was destroyed while Ghaz's BW emerged unscathed, I felt pretty good though because all of his assault squads were now in charge range. I kept my Meganobs heading towards the Dreads in their Trukk, everyone else piled out of their vehicles keen to take on some crunchy marines, the 18 shoota and 12 sluggas went for the 10 marines who took out the BW and the 15 Stormboys went in on the remaining combat squad. Likewise the other unit of shootas went for the Marines who'd failed to take out their BW and Ghaz made a b-line for the last combat squad harbouring the second priest. I have to say I was feeling pretty confident here, I thought I'd wipe him out with Orks to spare to hunt for Dante when he arrived. I was wrong.

The Stormboys failed spectacularly losing combat and getting run down, the other combat on the left was similarly unsuccessful with two 5-man combat squads running down the 30 boyz who piled into them. Fortunately the marines did suffer heavy losses and they fell back into close proximity making an easy target. Over on the right the Shoota Boyz were able to hold the two Assault Squads they were engaged with and Ghaz made short work of the combat squad he was aimed at, freeing him up to come back and support the shootas.

The collapse of my left flank meant that the Meganobs had to come back and mop up the remaining marines there, while they managed this they suffered two losses thanks to a remaining power fist. And headed off to settle the Dreadnought who were contesting the back left quarter. While all this death and destruction had been happening, Dante and his Honour Guard had turned up and were happily tearing through my Lootas and the Gretchin who had turned up only moments earlier. Not to worry I thought, they're not Sanguinary Guard so Dante doesn't make them scoring (Face-Palm!)

So I moved the remaining shootas on my right to threaten his Scouts and charged my Meganobs into the nearest Dreadnought … and then the game ended. Draw I thought and then Dave reminded me that while the Honour Guard were not scoring, Dante was and I'd lost by a quarter. Kicking myself does not come close.

Aside from forgetting about Dante there were a couple of things which lost the game for me, first was not scouting my Deffkopta to get a cover save, I think he would have comfortably had those scouts, as it was, they took him out comfortably. Secondly was my complete failure on the left flank, causing my Meganobs to have to come back to secure it and that stopped them being able to clear the Dreadnoughts from the back quarter.

Grr, a frustrating loss thanks to some bad dice, forgetting mission rules and playing an opponent who stuck to his game plan. I was staring down the barrel of going win-less, lets hope I could pull it together in game three which would be a show down between Ghaz and Yarrick! Stay tuned.

Blog Wars - Game 1

On-Fire Painting blog

This weekend saw a motley crew of Bloggers descend on Maelstrom Games to contest the coveted Blog Wars trophy for the second time this year. Blog Wars is a tournament run by Alex of the From the Fang blog and is intended to be a fun day out for us bloggers to get together, chat, eat, drink and roll some dice. Graham (Grazer) and I were there representing Claws and Fists and I think it's safe to say we both had a great time and I'd like to say that I think Alex runs a great tournament in the just the right spirit for his target audience. I have thoroughly enjoyed the first two tournaments and look forward to the two he's got planned for next year.

My first game was against international 40k Podcast net-celebrity Dave Symcox of the 40kUK podcast and blog. Now I've been a fan of the 40kUK podcast since it started and even before that when Dave did a regular segment on the 11thCompany Podcast so, since we usually operate at opposite ends of the draw in regular tournaments, it was great to face off against him here.

Here's my list for your consideration:

HQ

Ghaz

Big Mek

Kustom Forcefield

ELITE

12 Lootas

TROOP

Meganobs

(4) Kombi-Rokitt, Kombi-Skorcha; Trukk

Ork Boys

(18) Shootas, inc Nob w. Power Klaw & Boss Pole

Ork Boys

(18) Shootas, inc Nob w. Power Klaw & Boss Pole

Ork Boys

(12) Slugga & Choppa, inc Nob w. Power Klaw & Boss Pole; Trukk

Gretchin

(11) inc Runtherd

FAST ATTACK

Deffkopta

Buzz-Saw, Twin-linked Rokkit Launcher

Stormboyz

(15) inc Nob w. Power Klaw & Boss Pole

HEAVY SUPPORT

Battlewagon

Deffrolla, Armour Plates, Red Paintjob, Big Shoota

Battlewagon

Deffrolla, Armour Plates, Red Paintjob, Big Shoota

Dave was playing a Space Wolf Army which pretty much looked as follows:

HQ

Njal

ELITE

Wolf Scouts

(5) Meltagun

Wolf Guard

(5) 5x Combi-Melta & Power Fist

TROOP

4x Grey Hunters

(7) Meltagun, Wolf Standard; Rhino

Grey Hunters

(5) Meltagun, Wolf Standard

HEAVY SUPPORT

Long Fangs

(5) 4x Missile Launchers; Razorback w. Lascannon & TL Plasmagun

Long Fangs

(5) 4x Missile Launchers; Razorback w. Lascannon & TL Plasmagun

Long Fangs

(5) 4x Missile Launchers

(I can't remember the exact list but it was very much along these lines)

I won the roll off and decided to go second, I wanted Dave to deploy without knowing where my Battlewagons were going. He spread out across the back of his table edge with Long Fang packs on each flank and the third dead centre. The Grey Hunters and their Rhinos were evenly distributed as well and he held the 5-man Grey Hunter Squad and the scout in reserve with the scouts OBEL. Oh, and the Wolf Guard were split among the mechanised Grey Hunters and the Scouts.

I deployed heavy right hoping to deny two of his long fang packs side shots on my BWs and out-range the other(Ghaz was deployed in one of the wagons). The two trukks were tucked in behind the BWs and I deployed the Stormboyz and the Deffkopta on the extreme edge of my right flank. The Lootas were central, in cover with good LOS across the board and the gobbos were, of course, in reserve! I scouted the Kopta down the right table edge and after I failed to steal the initiative, Dave kicked off turn 1.

The Space Wolves fell back to the centre of their deployment zone away from the bulk of the Ork force. They were able to draw line of sight on both Trukks and the resulting salvo blew one up and immobilised the other. Not a bad start as my Meganobs would be walking! Never-the-less the Orks set off across the field with the 12-man Slugga Boy unit racing to keep up with the Stormboys down the right flank, the Deffkopta tucked in behind the Long Fangs on the right and next to their Razorback. The BWs Angled for the mass of Wolves in the centre and set off at full speed with the Meganobs, trudging out of their stricken Trukk, in hot pursuit. The Lootas unleashed a hail of fire vaporising the lead Rhino in the central formation and the Deffkopta was able to wreck the Razorback.

The Wolves reformed their lines but most of their turn was about the shooting, the Long Fangs on my right flank were unable to despatch the Deffkopta and didn't do much to the advancing Slugga Boys thanks to some good cover saves. In the middle, however, the Long Fangs managed to blow up the Big Mek's putting a unit of 18 Shoota Boys out on foot. The Lootas took some fire but didn't suffer significant losses and Ghaz's BW escaped without a scratch! In my turn the Sluggas continued their advance towards the Long Fangs on my right flank, ready to support the Deffkopta. The Stormboys managed to engage a rhino and Ghaz's unit poured out of their BW into the Grey Hunters who's been de-meched in turn 1, this turn though, the Lootas could only stun Njal's Rhino. In assault the Deffkopta managed to win combat against the Long Fangs taking only a single wound, Ghaz and the Shoota Boys lost combat against the Grey Hunter pack in the centre but thanks to Ghaz's Waaggh, they stayed in it. The Stormboyz also made it to their target and managed to wreck the rhino but they were starting to look pretty thin on the ground thanks to a few deaths to Murderous Hurricane terrain rolls.

Now obviously Ghaz was a concern for the Wolves, right in the heart of their lines, locked in combat and already with a taste for Wolf. Njal sprang into action and lined up a Jaws attempt aimed at the BW behind but conveniently tracing a line through Ghaz. The roll was a tense one but Ghaz passed comfortably with a three! More fire directed at the Lootas was ineffective, the Long Fangs were able to finish off the Deffkopta and the unit who were de-meched by the Stormboyz returned the favour and wiped them out. In the middle a second Grey Hunter Pack had piled into Combat with Ghaz and the remains of the Shoota Boys; despite the Shootas getting finished off, Ghaz held firm and was comfortably chomping his way through the Wolves. In the Orc turn the Sluggas finally made it into combat with the Long Fangs on my right and the remaining shoota boy mob was heading towards the melee in the centre. The Lootas took out the last Razorback and Ghaz continued to much his way through the Grey Hunters finally finishing off the first unit he engaged! It should also be noted that the Goblins arrived this turn, choosing to hunker down behind a wall towards the left edge of my deployment zone.

Turn 4 was the turning point, the Wolf scouts turned up in charge range of my Gretchin, finishing them off easily, Njal was able to Jaws Ghaz (the roll of a 5 sealing his fate). Somehow, the BW in the centre of the table was still working and the Meganobs had finally reached it! They chose to board hoping to be able to launch some sort of game-saving multi-charge in turn 5. The Shootas continued to close in on the centre but the depleted Wolf units were going to be able to keep them at a safe distance for at least a turn or two.

Turn 5 saw the Wolfs manoeuvring to deny as many kill points as possible but Njal was till a possibility but it was a bit of a long shot, I would need to pop his rhino with my Lootas and then cause enough wounds on his unit with my Meganobs to force a Klaw wound onto him. As it transpired the Lootas could not pop the Rhino and the Meganobs had to console themselves with popping the Rhino themselves in the hope that there would be a turn 6. Unfortunately that's all she wrote and the Wolves came away victorious.

I have to say that, particularly given my recent attitude towards 40k, it was a very enjoyable game. I felt I made a number of mistakes, in particular giving away first turn, and then in not properly covering my Trukks but other than that I think I played pretty well. I didn't experience any huge dice slumps and could only put the loss down to my own mistakes and my opponent's superior play. I do think that if Ghaz had survived that second Jaws attempt the game would have looked a lot different come turn 5 though. Never-the-less my confidence in the Orks was re-affermed and I was looking forwards to game 2.

Waarrrgh!!

"Wot yoo lookin' at?"

"Dunno. But itz lookin' back and itz ugly"

The two Warbosses circled each other like caged tigers, Power Klaws ready to strike. Ghazghkull Thraka broke the silence,

"I'm 'ere fer ya boyz. Deres sum krumpin' dat needz ta be dun"

Nazdakka Wotsmirk snorted,

"Ova my ded body"

"I hoped youd say dat"

They threw themselves at each other, Power Klaw ringing against Power Klaw and they both struck. Nazdakka swung again and Ghazghkull ducked before jumping out of the way of the return swing.

"I'm gonna smash your teef in!" Nazdakka yelled as he forced Ghazghkull back with swing after swing of his Klaw. He was starting to get the upper hand but then suddenly

Snik!

Ghazghkull's Power Klaw closed around the throat of his opponent, decapitating him instantly. The headless body stood motionless for a second, before it finally surrended to gravity. Ghazghkull turned to Snotripper Rustybitz, the Big Mek,

"Get yer Waggonz an get yer Kanz an that spiny fing wot stopz us gettin shot. Itz time to smash sum eadz!"

So, this is the fluff explaining why our two Ork armies were fighting together at the GW Doubles. If I'd written it before the tournament, we'd have scored another point and finished 11 places higher!

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...

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...