Wednesday, 27 July 2011

Old Faithful for Open War?

I think I want to stick with Blood Angels for the forseeable future, but the awesome power of the Thunderfire cannon keeps pulling me back to Codex Space Marines. Seeing as how none of you were particularly inspired by my last Blood Angels lists let's see if this grinds your gears:

1750pts of Codex Space Marines

HQ
Librarian
TDA, Storm Shield w. Gate of Infinity & Null ZOne

ELITE
Terminator Assault Squad
(5) 5x Thunder Hammer & Storm Shields
Dreadnought
2x TL Autocannons
Dreadnought
2x TL Autocannons

TROOPS
Tactical Squad
(10) Meltagun, Lascannon, Power Fist w. Combi-Melta; Razorback w. Lascannon & TL Plasmagun
Scout Squad
(5) 4x Combat Blades, Missile Launcher, Camo Cloaks
Scout Squad
(5) 5x Combat Blades

FAST ATTACK
Land Speeder Squadron
(2) 2x Typhoon Missile Launchers
Land Speeder
Multi Melta
Land Speeder
Multi Melta

HEAVY SUPPORT
Land Raider
2x TL Lascannon, TL Heavy Bolter, Multi Melta, Extra Armour
Thunderfire Cannon

THe basic plan is gunline it and use the Terminators to counter assault or gate about with the Libby to cause trouble. Basic Scout Squad go in the Land Raider, now I have an AV14 scoring unit with good ranged fire-power, the lascannon combat squad supports the TFC in the backfield, hopefully in reinforced cover. Camo Cloak Missile Launcher Scouts are a relatively hard to kill distraction and the melta combat squad are inthe las-plas razorback ready the go wherever they are needed to threaten heavy armour or elite infantry. The two Riflemen are self explanitory, the sit at the back with the typhoons and dish out dakka, and the melta speeders suicide towards heavy armour or are used for blocking.

Any thoughts from the cloud?

Tuesday, 26 July 2011

My continued thoughts on Grey Knights

So the summer holidays are upon us and my first Grey Knights are now complete.

I now have 5 purifiers and 2 Dreadnoughts with no arms ready to kill the enemies of the emperor and today I went and ordered an inquisitor model from Warhammer world to pick up on Thursday.

However I continue to think about my list, I'm quite happy with the core of it,
the xenos inquisitors with their grenades to go with purifiers
the strike squads in razorbacks
the ubiquitous psfleman dreads

The problem comes with worries about dealing with AV14 and especially multiples of them. I commented on it as I first read the GK codex, how much anti heavy armour can you really get into a list?
The main thing with all the top tournament lists is redundancy and I just can't figure out how to fit some redundancy for my anti AV14. The clear choice is the vindicaire, however with no eternal warrior even a 4 up invulnerable isn't going to keep you alive for long when facing multiple long fangs units or vendetta spam.

So we also have acolytes with meltas, the problem is that you only have 3 melta guns in your unit and you also need to have multiples of this unit to keep them alive because unless your opponent is an idiot it will be the prime target for him. So it leads me to my latest thoughts, not bothering, hoping to get lucky with psycannons and using strength 10 hammer hits.

So over to you readers, how do you deal with high armour with Grey knights?

Monday, 25 July 2011

'The End Times' 40k Tournament

A new tournament, 'The End Times', has just been announced on the First Company Veterans events forum. It will be held on the weekend of August 20th- 21st at Warhammer World, costs £42 (including lunch each day) and comprises eight games at various points levels, those being 1000pts, 1500pts and 2000pts. Unlike other mixed-points tournaments, lists can be varied between those levels, thus allowing properly focussed armies to be used. More info can be found on the Rankings HQ website:
http://www.rankingshq.com/public/tournamentprofile.aspx?TournamentId=2106
Has anyone heard of this tournament before, or even attended? I'm tempted...

Blood Bowl, it's a game of two halves.

I'm four games into the round robin stage of our club's bloodbowl league. The paint job on the team is coming along nicely but the performance on the pitch leaves a lot to be desired! So far I'm without a win in 4 games, however, two of my losses have been close and my team is progressing nicely with four players having gained a skill all ready! I think I'm knocking on the door of my fisrst win but I have to face an Elf team next week and I fear speed based teams above all else!

Anyway, I thought I'd recap on my season so far by giving you so0me highlits and a match report from my most recent game against a Skaven team, The Green Peak Packers:

Starting line-up - 4 Blitzers, 4 Black Orks, 1 Throwers, 2 Linemen, 3 Rerolls and 1 Fan Factor
Update: Game 4 - Fired 1 Blitzer (-1MA). Bought 1x Blitzer and 1x Lineman

Played: 4
W/L/D: 0/4/0
TDs (for/against): 2/9
Casualties (for/against): 5/5

Recent Results:
1-4 vs Quexecotl Slithrers
1-2 vs Green Peak Packers

Team News:
"Lame" Bolts Blitzer sent to the glue factory.
- Injured Bolts Blitzer, Gag Throttlesnot, did not appear for training this week. When asked for comment Head Coach, Marv Teefsnatcher said "We definitely didn't kill 'im."
Bolts Break Bank, Buying Blitzer and Balast.
- Despite their recent run of poor form on the pitch, Da Bolts have been receiving significant financial dontations from members of the players' and coaching staff's families. These donations have allowed the purchase of a new Blitzer, to replace the mysteriously absent Gag Throttlesnot, and an extra Lineman to add depth to their roster. When questioned about gambling irregularities, Bog, mother of Da Bolts star Blocker "Mung", was quoted as saying "I always bet against them, they're a load of rubbish."

Match Report: Game 4 vs The Green Peak Packers.

Game two of a Thursday afternoon double-header, and game 4 of the RRT, was against the Green Peak Packers. Even more speed than the Slitherers but much less bash, surely Da Bolts would be able to come away from this one with at least a bonus point.

Sadly Flash Git did not seem to want anything to do with the ball for the second game running and two handling errors early on gave away two soft scores in the first half. On a more positive note a serious injury had befallen one of the line-rats and he would be at -1MA from now on thanks to a rather unpleasant block from Burk, the Black Orcs really have been living up to their reputation and putting in the hard work on the line. So that really was the story of the first half, two more fumbles by Da Bolts thrower and Burk laying the smack down. Surely Da Boltz were due for a change in fortunes in the second half but kicking the ball away would put them in a tough situation from the get-go.

The second half started with a deep kick straight into the paws of a waiting Gutter Runner on the Packers' backfield. Not a great start but this was to be a half full of bad behaviour from the mean greenies. The Packers decided to try and move the ball down the right side of the field behind the blocking of their Rat Ogre. As usual the Black Orcs owned the line of scrimmage and crucially the Orcs out wide on the far side of the field were able to cut off the option of a reverse … or at least make it look less attractive!

A couple of big blocks made the difference here, firstly a mob of Boyz made a bee line for the Rat Ogre and put him down, to be honest the big fellah had been a bit distracted all half so he was at least no less use on the floor than he had been on his feet up to this point. Then a big blitz from TD hero of the last game – Rip Edsplitta, who put a mighty blow on another Rat consigning him to the Injury bin and needing the swift attention of the team apothecary to stave off long term ill effects! All this action put the ball carrier in a cage with a decidedly green tinge to it and with his escape route to the far side of the field cut off by some more angry looking Orks he decided to consolidate as far away as possible from the nearest Orks and hope the cavalry didn't spend too long nursing their wounds on the floor.

It wasn't long before the inevitable happened though and the Orks saw to it that the was ball returned to their blood-stained mitts and number 8 Gaz Bonethrasha ran it in for a consolation score. That little event had taken up most of the second half, so a win was off the cards but two turns to try and salvage a bonus point on casualties didn't seem out of the realms of possibility. Sadly however those damn rats proved to be more resilient than they looked and the Orcs were forced to leave the field with nothing to show for their efforts.

A 4th loss in a row and some serious soul searching is needed by the team and coaching staff to try and stop the rot. Drastic measures were taken in the firing of injured Blitzer, Gag Throttlesnot, who had been nursing an injury since game 1 and the surprisingly rich Bolts were able to buy a direct replacement and a new Lineman to bulk out the roster. Somehow, best known only to the Associated Press who voted for the award, Boltz thrower, Flash Git won the MVP and earned a skill up, taking Block – at least he can do something even if he can't pick the ball up! Also gaining a skill was Gaz Bonethrasher who took Guard.

It's been a tough first 4 games but the fans are behind them and if that's not sufficient motivation to turn the corner then perhaps actually letting the fans get hold of a few of them will be!

Saturday, 23 July 2011

A Tale of two Lists

I'm trying to come up with a Blood Angles list for the knock-out stage of our Club's 40k Tournament. There are some comp restrictions I have to work with which basically boil down to: no special or unique characters and in order to take multiple choices in Elites, Fast Attack & Heavy Support you must first have one choice in each FOC slot. Oh and it's a 1500pt competition.

With this in mind I present the following two lists for your consideration:

Offensive

HQ
Librarian
Jump Pack w. Blood Lance & Unleash Rage

ELITE
Chaplain
Sanguinary Priests
(2) 1x Jump Pack

TROOP
Assault Squad
(10) 2x Meltaguns 1x Power Fist
Scouts
(5) Combat Blades 1x Missile Launcher, Camo Cloaks
Death Company
(6) 1x Power Fist, 1x Power Weapon; Land Raider Redeemer w. Extra Armour & Multi Melta
Death Company Dreadnought
Blood Talons

FAST ATTACK
Land Speeder
Multi Melta

HEAVY SUPPORT
Storm Raven
TL Multi Melta, TL Assault Cannon, Extra Armour

Fragile scoring capability but the Death Company in the Land Raider and DC Dread in the Storm Raven will hit hard and need to be the focus of your opponent's attention early on affording your fragile Troop units a little more protection.

Defensive

HQ
Librarian
Jump Pack w. Unleash Rage and Fear of the Darkness

ELITE
Sanguinary Priests
(2) 1x Jump Pack w. Melta Bomb
Furioso Dreadnought
Blood Talons

TROOP
Assault Squad
(10) 2x Meltaguns 1x Power Fist
Assault Squad
(10) 2x Flamers 1x Power Fist
Assault Sqaud
(5) Land Raider w. Multi Melta

FAST ATTACK
Land Speeder
Multi Melta
Land Speeder
Multi Melta

HEAVY SUPPORT
Storm Raven
TL Multi Melta, TL Plasma Cannon, Extra Armour

More defensive this one with durable and versatile scoring units combined with nasty counter assault units that can go on the offensive

Have at it all!

Tuesday, 19 July 2011

Da Boltz Progress Update

I got a little time this evening to kick off painting my Orc Blood Bowl team. The Black Orcs have been undercoated black as they are heavily armoured and I want their skin tone to be significantly darker than the rest of the team to really differentiate them. I dry-brushed the armour areas with Boltgun Metal and then block out the skin areas with Orchide Shade.



The Blitzers, Linemen and Thrower are undercoated white and then washed with Badab Black followed by two washes of Thrakka Green. This is the standard way I paint my ork flesh and I really like how it turns out.






Stay tuned for more!

Sunday, 17 July 2011

Yet another sunday morning grey knights list

So here is another go after talking to a few people at yesterdays first company vets Doubles (which was an excellent event even though the turn out was a little low, I acted as a reserve and ended up playing 2 games both of which were enjoyable even though our list was poor because we made it without knowing what each other was taking) and Darren.

So
HQ - Ordo Xenos Inquisitor
Psyker mastery 1
Rad and Psychotroke grenades
3 Servo Skulls

Elites
1 x Vindicaire
2 x Purifier squads with 7 men, 2 Psycannons 4 Halberds and a Daemon Hammer. One of them has psybolt ammo because I don't know what to use 20 extra points on. Both have mastercrafted weapons because again I don't know what to use the last of my points on. The are obviously running about in Rhinos.

Troops
4 x Strike Squads (5 man) a psycannon 2 Halbards and a Daemon hammer in each. Cruising in razorbacks with psybolt ammo.

Heavy support
Honestly what do you expect?
3 Psyfleman dreads

That takes me to 1749 points
4 scoring units
2 heavy hitting close combat units that can deal equally with MEQ using Hammerhand (especially when coupled with the Inquisitors grenades, hitting on 4's wounding on 2's) and hordes with their cleansing flame.
12 twinlinked strength 8 shots
12 twinlinked strength 6 shots
4 psycannons with the strike squads
4 psycannons with the purifiers
and a vindicaire

Now the big problem I see with this list is lack of dealing with heavy AP however I am led to believe that a psycannon is statistically more likely to damage a land raider than a lascannon, I haven't worked out the maths so I cannot be sure and I also have the vindicaire.

So as normal I welcome your input on this list especially with what to do with the points in the red sections.

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