The week that was ...

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12-18^th October 2012

You all know what happens to “regularly scheduled” blog posts in these parts. Typically they start with good intentions but fall quickly by the wayside as real life and other inconveniences get in the way. So it is with much trepidation that I offer to you a new, regularly scheduled series of posts on the week that was the week before ... if you get me. This entirely (un)original concept is brought to you by me and hopefully will gather contributions from others in the “staff” if it gains any momentum.

With that said, here we go!

Open War 18.

Last Friday I was feverishly throwing Army Painter Medium Shade over poorly painted Tyranid models in a desperate attempt to finish my army for Open War 18. As you can read here my efforts on the painting front were successful enough for me to be able to attend the tournament, sadly however, my gaming skills were not up to the task and I finished a somewhat disappointing 14^th out of 18 competitors. Still, lessons were learned and I’ll be back for Blog Wars 4 with renewed fervour!

Club Night.

Thursday night is our regular club night at Warhammer World in Nottingham. Up to now I’ve been neck deep in the Perpetual Blood Bowl league, amassing four extremely middle-of-the-road teams in just over a year. For the latest team intake, however, I have decided to take a break and recharge my scrimmaging batteries. The previous week saw me, instead, throwing some 40K-related shapes in an Open War practice game against the midget-loving Grazer (who owes us a Battle Report, gloriously detailing how I won on a technicality).

This week heralded the very welcome return of Gav (our very own Mr Claws and Fists) to the gaming table who ably demonstrated his rustiness by loosing consecutive games of Space Hulk to me. Beating Gav at anything is a rare enough occurrence that I have to twist the knife at every opportunity but both games were pretty close, with the kind of great action and tension that makes Space Hulk as memorable as it always has been.

Looking forward.

I spent a couple of hours last night mulling over Daemons/Chaos Marines lists that Gav and I could take to Battle Brothers in January and I came to the conclusion that squeezing allies into 1500 points is at best difficult and at worst detrimental to the list no matter how powerful screamers and Flamers are ;) Bring on 1500pts of Tyranids I say!

And Finally.

I was listening to the latest episode of World's End Radio this week and they did a short segment on playing under pressure which I felt fit in rather nicely with my recent dusting off of Space Hulk. Being a little out of practice I’d forgotten how little time that egg timer gives you as the Marine player. You are forced to think fast and you get a real sense of pressure in a game where the odds are somewhat stacked against you anyway! I love the mechanic here though, because it really adds atmosphere to the game, drawing you into the situation. If you’re in a bit of a jam, the time you spend thinking yourself out of it often leaves you with a frantic rush to get everything done as the last few grains of sand spill out of the timer. Inaction is the quickest killer in Space Hulk.

Please check back next week for more of the same (hopefully!)

Come with me if you want to win

Space Marine "Tactical" Terminators. Iconic, feared, and unfairly under-rated. I've had a real thing for Terminators ever since 1st edition Space Hulk, aesthetically they've changed only a little over the years and as far as I'm concerned a suit of Tactical Dreadnought Armour is a real stand out in the portfolio of miniature design classics GW has produced over the years. The miniatures themselves are probably my favourite things to paint, the grills at the back, the almost insectoid helmets and the piping on the legs give the model a really unique feel and look. The big plates are easy to paint, shade and highlight, it's hard to go wrong with them really but a good painter can really make a Terminator look outstanding.

So far so good but how are they on the tabletop? Well here's where opinions become mixed, basically the vocal majority say that there's better things to spend your points on in the Elites section of the Codex. They would argue that Sternguard are a more versatile and "killy" shooting unit and that if you want a tough assault unit then Assault Terminators are the way to go, and they're not wrong. To that I would say "You're absolutely right.", however Sternguard are pretty fragile in assault and to get the best out of their shooting you have to operate within counter assault range. Conversely, Assault Terminators cannot shoot at all and while on the surface they seem like a bargain points-wise, you really have to buy a Land Raider to get them into combat which more than doubles their point cost.

The other side of the arguement, which is the side I sit on, would say that in terms of bang for your buck, Tactical Terminators are a great choice for your army. In the shooting phase they have an assault 2 weapon which can fire 24" so it has an effective range of 30" because it can be fired after moving. They also carry a heavy weapon which can be fired on the move to further increase their potency in the shooting phase. They stack up pretty well in the assault phase too, a unit full of Power Fists is not going to be the top of anyone's list to charge but add to this the fact that they have a 2+/5++ and you've got a very durable and deadly hand to hand unit. I think there are very few equivalently armed and armoured units in the game that are so competitvely priced!

The humble Tactical Terminator fits in with my preferred play-style because I rely on their tactical flexibilty. I don't like to devise concrete battle-plans in advance of a game, I prefer to have a theme and then to be able to react to what my opponent is doing. In trying to do this I like to think that my lists do not appear to be typical of the Codex so that an opponent cannot quickly analyse what I'm planning to do ... because I don't know exactly what I'm going to do until I see how the first turn goes. I do plan for the mission in hand but in terms of planning for my opponent, I like to remain flexible!

Anyway, Tactical Terminators, what's your take?

Saturday Night's Alright For

Well most things it seems.

Early afternoon, Andy, Graham and myself went down to Warhammer World to check out the latest Tempus Fugitives Age of the Emperor event. There were some very cool Heresy-era minis (lots of Jetbikes) Andy took a few pictures so hopefully they'll appear over the next few days.

Then we headed back to Andy's and Graham and I played mission 4 of Space Hulk while Andy looked after his son, Daniel. We both won as the Marine player and in my opinion, of the first 4 missions this one seems the most Marine friendly. Although having said that, when I was playing 'stealers I miscounted my APs and could have gotten one attack at Graham's Assault Cannon guy which could have won me the game. Ah well.

With Daniel asleep, we gave Andy's gaming table its debut. Andy and I had 1000 points each, teamed up against Graham's 2000 points of Chaos Space Marines. We based our list on our initial ideal for Freebootaz. I added a squad of Long Fangs and some Wolf Scouts while Andy added a Furioso Dreadnought and a Land Speeder Typhoon. Graham ran a foot list that had a lot of bodies on the ground but unfortunately for him no real way to deal with AV14. The Flamestorm Cannons took a deadly toll on the Khorne Beserkers and Mephiston manged to catch Kharn in his Transfixing Gaze and made swift work of him before he could even strike back (we figured that Transfixing Gaze isn't actually a psychic power it could effect Kharn) In the end the Blood Angel Assault squad never got out of their Land Raider and the Blood Claws only got out of theirs to kill some Lesser Daemons (although I could probably have killed them with shooting) We all agreed that Graham's list was always going to struggle against two Raiders but if can find a way to get his big squad of Beserkers to charge into combat they'll have a field day.

After that Graham went home and it was just left for Andy and I to play out Space Hulk mission 4. After I'd told him how easy it was to win with Marines I then proceeded to beat him with the Genestealers. Although it all came down to his last few Assault Cannon shots. In the end he twice missed a 'stealer that was between the Marine and the target room. If he'd have killed him, he'd have shot the room and won. Another very tight game.

Ex-Ter-Min-Ate

Had a week off from 40K and the club this week to have a night at Andy's. While the girls were busy gossiping we excused ourselves for a couple of games of Space Hulk. We were trying out Mission 2 this time since we'd not had enough space to play it last time. I won the roll off to choose sides and chose to be the Genestealers first. I find it's always easier to be the 'stealers first as it gives you a good insight of what to do and what not to do as the Space Marines. Since as a 'stealer player you get to place 2 of the 5 Terminators, I made sure I put the Assault Cannon Marine in a room as far away as possible from one set of entry points. I know from experience how dangerous that weapon can be and I had no intention of going anywhere near it. So, I overloaded the other entry points and eventually managed to take down all of the Marines. Andy did manage to kill a fair amount of Genestealers but not enough to win the game.

We then had a brief chat about the game and Andy said that in retrospect he would have used his Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield Sergeant to try and block off the entry points at the bottom of the map and then set up some fields of fire to take out all of the Genestealers entering at the top.

I figured it was a good a tactic as any since at least the Sergeant would at least buy me some time even if he died early on. And die early on he did. However, he did manage to get me a couple of turns in which to set up my interlocking fields of fire. Marine of the match would have to be the guy with the Chainfist as he managed to hold off one corridor before covering one of his brothers and then he managed to reinforce the Assault Cannon Marine which meant that I could just about hold off Andy's final push. In the end I think I managed to pull out the victory because Andy tried to split his Blips and then held off a turn too long on attacking as he was (rightly) scared of the Assault Cannon. Unfortunately for him that just allowed me enough time to reinforce and improve my position.

Here's a pic at the end of the second game showing my three brave Marines and how they managed to cover each other:

I do enjoy playing Space Hulk, it's so quick and straightforward and it always seems to come down to the last couple of Marines desperately trying to hold out for victory. It's also more tactical than most boardgames and the pressure is really on as the Marine player when those sands of time are running out.

There's something moving in here, and it ain't us

Clearly, from Andy's post, you can see that he admits to cheating! I'd have thought by now he'd realise that neither of us are supposed to make plans. Tsk! How am I supposed to play against tactics?

Seriously though, full congratulations to Andy on his victories. I could blame my defeats on bad luck (low Command Points, jamming Storm Bolters, getting one 3 'stealer Blip all game), that would just be covering up my tactical deficiencies. As Marines I failed to get the two squads to join up and I was too busy trying to cover all possible Genestealer entry points rather then escape with the CAT as quickly as possible. In the end I was just hoping to get lucky enough to drive the CAT to my final guy and make a quick exit. For some reason that didn't work either. I had a similar problem with the Genestealers making a half-arsed attempt to kill one squad and then the other rather than focusing on keeping the two squads apart and then attacking them piecemeal.

All in all, no focus on either side; something which Andy did have and so two deserved victories.

Heresy, Blips and Beers

This weekend Warhammer World was running an Age of the Emperor (AotE) campaign weekend so when I tried to book a table I got a stifled chuckle and an apology. So Gav and I decided to try our luck as I was told two tables had been kept free but were not able to be reserved. Sadly upon our arrival we were told that the two free tables had been reserved earlier in the morning (insert "stifled-expletive-hidden behind understanding-smile" here). Fortunately Gav had suggested I bring along Space Hulk in case we couldn't get a 40k table; so we got a beer table instead, outside Bugmans and set up a mission, with some drinks, in the bright summer sunshine (honestly, sun, in the midlands, in May! I was surprised too).

The mission we went for was Mission 3 - Rescue (the table was not big enough for the board required for Mission 2 - Cleanse), this is the one where you have two teams of Marines at either end of the board and you have to escort the C.A.T from one entry point to the other. I was a bit dubious about the mission as I thought it strongly favoured the Genestealers but it turned out to be a lot of fun (mostly for me though!).

I took the 'stealers' first and decided that I was going to go for the middle of the board before Gav could control either of the major corridors which allowed my blips to enter and contest the centre quickly. I also misunderstood the rule about blips having to lurk if a marine is within 6 spaces of their entry point, I didn't realise they only had to lurk 1 turn and could come on after that! Because of this I didn't bother trying to bring blips on from the entry points closest to his starting areas. As it turned out this probably worked in my favour.

I manged to get a large number of blips into the centre of the board and quickly and whittled down his unit carrying the C.A.T., crucially taking out his marine with the Heavy Flamer in the process. In the other half of the board I was throwing 'stealers into the firey maw of his Assault Cannon. I was purely trying to get him to expend his ammo so I could make a serious attempt at wiping out this squad before the loose C.A.T. made it's way to that team.

In the end I managed to wipe him out, at great cost to the hive mind, but hey I guess they'll get melted down and used for new bio-organisms anyway, no great loss there then. So that was 1-0 to the 'stealers and, after a refill, we swapped sides.

Having seen the game play out I had a clear idea of the tactic I wanted to employ, I was going to keep my teams together and get to the central corridors with 'stealer spawn points as quickly as possible. My Assault Cannon would basically hold the fort against anything coming in from the left edge of the board while my team with the C.A.T. would move as quickly as possible towards them because if the Assault Cannon ran out of ammo before they got past his position I would be screwed!

The plan went well and was helped by Gav placing his first bips behind where I was going. It did mean I had to set a rear guard for each team, but I was going to do that anyway. My plan went as intended and I was able to get the C.A.T. across the board with the loss of only 5 marines. I have to say I was really helped a lot by Gav's bad luck with his blips, if he'd had a few more 3's rather then the 1's and 2's that kept showing up I would have had a much harder time but as it was, my rear guard held firm with the Heavy Flamer shutting off routes as we advanced. The Assault Cannon did it's job well too, keeping the corridors clear until Squad Lorenzo got past, but again bigger blip counts would have caused me more problems with the Assault Cannon's limited ammo supply. Anyway, 'twas a good fun game and made up for the thrashing I received on the 40k tables the other week!



After the game we went for a wander around the tables to have a look at the armies people had bought to the AotE campaign weekend and I have to say I'm always blown away by the quality of the modeling and the painting players bring for these types of events. Armies that stick in my head include a great number of White Scars lists, a beautiful box full of Word Bearers, some brilliantly painted (yellow) Imperial Fists and some stunning looking Thunderwolf Cavalry conversions, pictures below: