Speeders or Scouts

So I've not really posted for a little while because real life has kinda got in the way, course work marking, watching Alfreton get promoted to the conference and falling more deeply in love with King Kenny but I've still been plodding along trying to get ready to use my new wolf list.

The speeders are nearly done and but I am still debating on their merits compared to Scouts.

Both have the same primary role a delivery system for melta those hard to take down vehicles in the enemies army which is something I have difficulty with so scouts or speeders?

Both also have the secondary roll of being able to deal with infantry, the speeders with their heavy flamers and the scouts with their ability to assault.

The speeders merits are easy to see, it can deep strike so they can target land raiders in the middle of the board something that scouts can't do. However it can also scatter out of ideal range or into dangerous terrain which is a risk.

The scouts are more reliable, 66% of the time you will have your choice of board edge to come on but there is the risk that you will not get them on and 100 odd points will spend the game running towards the enemy and possibly never get there. However their one major selling point is that they are capable of assaulting the enemy off of objectives and as readers know my Space Wolf Scouts are capable of real moments of heroism.

I'd be interested in what everyone else thinks.

Fudal at Open War 15 – Game 3

One big win and one big loss, this could still end happily with a good result in game 3, however when I got to the table I saw Daemons on the other side with a huge unit of 'crushers and those other favourites, Fiends. This was going to be tricky! It was nice to see a Bloodthirster as I'd not seen once since my very first game against Daemons back in OW13. While, like the Tyranids, I was going up against an assault specialist army with a weaker assault army, this time I did not feel as negative as this list was far smaller and more elite. My ranged firepower may be able to effectively support my assault units in this one … with a little luck. For the last time my list can be found here.

Game 3 vs Daemons

Bloodthirster w. Might
Lord of Change w. Breath and Master of Sorcery

Bloodcrushers x8 w. Fury, Icon & Instrument
Fiends x6 w. Might
Fiends x6 w. Might

Bloodletters x16 w Fury & Icon
Pink Horrors x8 w. Changeling

Mission: Move units into your opponent's deployment zone, Diagonal deployment 24” apart

I gave Jon first turn because I wanted to be able to leverage my speed at the end of the game to go for a win on the mission. He got his preferred wave and on came the 'Thirster, 'Crushers and a unit of Fiends. I sacrificed my Baals to keep his 'Crushers busy for a turn and focussed my firepower on the Fiend squad, managing to take them down to a single model. I positioned my Furioso and Mephiston to head off the Bloodthirster.

Jon got nothing extra in turn 2 and my positioning was good because I was able to get the charge off on the Bloodthirster, The presence of a Sanguinary Priest gave the Dread and Meph Furious Charge. Mephiston was only able to do a single wound … enter the Furioso. Consignment to immobility in the last game had clearly got his dander up as he inflicted 9 wounds on the Bloodthirster thanks to the Talons, which could not all be saved. Unfortunately the 'Thirster went simultaneously and was able to destroy the Dread but it was a glorious death.

In hindsight (there's that awful word again), the Dread would have been better served ploughing into the 'Crushers who had only a very slim chance of being able to do anything about him and in turn he could have inflicted severe pain on them but it's all part of the learning experience. As it was I also had a chance to block both the Crushers and the Blood Letters (when they arrived on turn 3) with the Riflemen Dreads but I did not think about it until it was too late and the damage had been done. I'll remember for next time.

In other news I threw away my podding Tac Squad thanks to poor placement and similarly misplayed my Assault Squad by attempting to wipe out the Pink Horrors. This move left them in charge range of the Bloodletters and that was only going to end one way! Meph was also finished by the 'letters but not before he'd managed to take out the Lord of Change, another good showing for the big fellah.

In the end I was able to pull his Blood Letters out of scoring position with a charge from one of the Riflemen and the other finally got into combat with the 'Crushers and was able to hold them up for 2 turns. With a last turn dash across the table by my razorbacks I was able to score more mission points than Jon but the difference was not sufficient to secure a victory, instead it was a draw and John edged me on battle points (related to VPs), by two. So it was a minor loss but one that I greatly enjoyed and felt pretty good about, the mistakes I made were things I saw during play and was able to gain some benefit from, next time I'll see the opportunity sooner and make more of it.

All in all it was another great Open War and although I finished 11 places lower than in the last two I feel better about the result. Mid-field is more representative of where I'm at as a player and the games were all challenging in different ways and taught me something about my army. Where Special Characters are allowed I'm going to stick with this list for a while and try to get better at using it (well I may tweak it a bit to try and get a Dev Squad in in case of 'Nids).

Until next time!

Fudal at Open War 15 – Game 2

After the success of game one against Steve's Necrons I found myself on table 1 matched up against Tim King's Tyranids. Not a match-up I'm used to worrying about but the list I'm rocking isn't really geared up for MC mashing any more and Tim's list was more than a little bit 'zilla. As always, my list can be found here.

Game 2 vs Tyranids

Tervigon w. Catalyst

Hive Guard x2
Hive Guard x2
Hive Guard x2

Tervigon w. Catalyst
Tervigon w. Catalyst
Termagants x10
Termagants x10
Genestealers x10

Trygon w. Adrenal Glands
Trygon w. Adrenal Glands
Trygon Prime w. Adrenal Glands

Mission: 4 objectives with 12” deep, L-shaped deployment in table quarters

A combination of things happened here which lost me the game. Firstly I was up against a really good player, secondly I probably panicked a little bit because I did not feel I had the right tools for the job. As a result my target priority went to pot and the chance I had to kill something before the MCs started to gain Feel No Pain at the top of turn 1 was lost, I split my Baals rather than focussing on wiping out the infiltrated 'steelers and keeping the tanks out of MC range (hindsight is a bitch).

By the bottom of turn two he was on my with all of his really nasty stuff, the Hive Guard were in range to take out my Dreads with the Riflemen both blowing up and the Furioso ending up immobilised. The Trygons were poised to cut a bloody mess through my woefully inadequate assault units and the Tervigons were parked firmly on objectives and I could not see a sensible way of shifting them.

Then something unexpected happened, Mephiston went berzerk and my usually shocking dice started to work in my favour. Don't get me wrong this was not anything that was going to swing the game back in my favour but Meph certainly started to make things look a little less one-sided (all-be-t only for a short while). Basically I did not seem able to fail a psychic test on 3D6 (Shadows in the Warp) and Meph was able to Force Weapon two Trygons in two turns.

Ultimately it was to no avail because the Prime go involved, Meph started to fail his psychic tests and the 'stealers were in charge range. That was pretty much the end of Meph, but again I was surprised at how effective he could be and at this point I'm really beginning to realise that I should probably stop being so surprised.

In the end I was not able to kill enough of the big nasty stuff before he got to my lines and I was over-run, Meph delayed the inevitable for maybe a turn but I was tabled at the bottom of turn 5. This is only the second time I've been on the top table at a tournament and only the second time I have been tabled in a tournament. I'm just not able to play at that level and I'm comfortable with that, I'm just glad that Tim was such a good opponent and that the experience did not sour the remaining game of the day.

When I got to my table though and I saw it was a Daemon list with 8 Crushers and two units of 6 fiends thought I could feel the little grey clouds gathering over my head. My true bogey army was across the table from me and I was not feeling optimistic about a strong end to the day!

Fudal at Open War 15 Game 1

Well, it's time to start the review of my Blood Angels' performance at Open War 15. The event itself was as enjoyable as usual, a great atmosphere and superb opponents as always.

The tournamnet was held a Maelstrom Games in Mansfield for the first time, previously it has been held at Warhammer World. I'm not going to go into the reasons for the switch of venue but suffice to say that Maelstrom is a top quality establishment and everything was of an extremely high standard; from the scenery and tables to the food and hospitality of the staff.

My list was completed well in advance of the night before the tournamnet for a change so I could take it easy in the run up to the big day. This was rather fortunate as it turned out as I got hit by a virus and needed a good night's sleep, none-the-less I was still popping pain killers all Saturday!

Enough of all that, on with Game 1. My list can be found here.

Game 1 vs Necrons

Lord w. Res Orb & Gaze of Flame
Lord w. Destroyer Body & War Scythe

Immortals x9
Flayed Ones x8
Flayed Ones x8

Warriors x10
Warriors x10

Wraiths x3
Wraiths x3
Scarabs x6

Monolith

Mission was Table Quarters with Pitched Battle Deployment

Now you may hear it said that I hung out in the car park all morning and followed a guy from our club, who I know plays Necrons, into registration because I know how the pairings are worked out! I can assure you that this is not the case, Steve was the first guy I saw who I knew and we chatted from the car park to the registration table and it just so happened that we were paired against each other in game 1 ... honest!

Necrons should be a good match up for me but I've had mixed fortunes against them in the past, only beating them once in 3 previous matches. This time, however I as playing a fast, assault army and I knew all I had to do was shoot his assault units, ignore the Monolith and charge the rest.

Amazingly I managed to stick to the plan and I phased Steve out at the top of turn 5. Mephiston was a complete beast in this game (as he would turn out to be for the rest of the tournament), taking out 3 units all by himself and the war scythe Lord before he could swing back. I know I should not be surprised by this but I'm not a big Mephiston user and as such I was genuinely not expecting him to be so nasty.

On the flip-side the game further re-inforced my opinion that Assault Marines, even Blood Angels Assault Marines, are all-but completely rubbish. A unit of 10 necrons held up my 10-man jump-pack Assault Squad for 2 game turns (4 rounds of combat) with no problems. I just could not do enough wounds and even lost a round of combat. I think attaching an IC is mandatory if you want them to be effective in assault, either a Chaplain or Librarian. Re-rolling hits is going to make a big difference in their effectiveness in my opinion.

Anyway, it was a good win and it put me on top table for game 2, not ideal as I'm not up to playing at the level required to compete with the top tourney players. However it was Tim King from Team Scotland so I knew I'd at least be smiling as I was taken to bits!

Arena Of Death: Jain Zar vs Maugan Ra

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

Round 1- Jain Zar on the charge

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

Round 2 - Maugan Ra on the charge

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

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

The last ride of the thunderwolves

So I said after the GT that this weekend was the last time I would be using a near 600 point unit in my thunderwolves and the standings proved again why.

First game was against Paul who I happened to play 2 weeks ago in a warm up game, it was always going to be difficult having Dawn of War (or a variant of it) first turn so I couldn't bare my long fangs on his paper thin transports early on and obviously they had to walk on to the table. He had a wyche heavy army and in the end my thunderwolves were just used as a tar pit for them. It all came down to turn three when I gambled and it didn't pay off, my grey hunters were largely untouched but a bad round of shooting and an amazing amount of flicker field saves meant that I had too much fire power shooting at me. Because Paul wanted the climatic ending rather than the slow attrition of shooting me to death and it cost him leaving me with a scabby draw.

Second game was against a blood angels player and this game highlighted why I enjoy using my thunderwolves, he only had two vehicles, the rest were jump troops other than one squad of tactical marines and I just ate him. My long fangs and living lightening quickly dealt with the vehicles and it became just a quick issue of eating what was left. It was a nasty victory because it was an army that mine was designed to deal with. It did still highlight the problems with it which were compounded in the third game.

I had seen the army I faced a couple of times at Warhammer world and thought it looked rubbish. Loads of dakka not a lot of high strength. A nilla marines army with three melta dreads, 9 speeders, 3 dakka preds and a couple of troop choices. I don't know if I have ever been more soundly thrashed, there was just too much to deal with. I didn't have anything that could consistently pop the transports once he had dealt with my long fangs. I ignored the dakka speeders to my peril concentrating on the harder targets which was a mistake and in the end he tabled me early on.

So the thunderwolves had a mixed day as always and consigned them self to the shelf.

It was a great tournament, its really good now that I've been to a few events knowing people and being able to have a chat about where the hobby is going and what I should be doing different.

Maelstrom in my opinion is a far better venue than Warhammer World so i was delighted to see Open War move there, better and cheaper beer, better and more food and now I'm a little bit more used to the scenery and how much there was better scenery.

Next tournament for me is warp storm followed by open war doubles but before that its some more long fangs and some speeders.

So its adios to my thunderwolves, you have served me well and gave me some great moments, especially blowing up Grazer's thrice blessed land raider which will shrug off anything that's thrown at it and you will be allowed out for Apocalypse but you won't be gracing the tournament scene for a while still.

Final Standings

So, final standings are in...

Darren - 16th

Andy - 30th

Mick - 37th

Me - 42nd

Darren clearly taking Andy's Tournament Tactic to the extreme by getting tabled and then kicking arse.