Aurelius here with a battle report from the front lines of making blood angels lists work. Qustav and I went for a 2000 point test drive of a couple list ideas.
My list (as best recalled from another cpu)
Pre-Heresy World Eaters
Angron (Sanguinor)
2 Battle Champions with Power swords and jump packs (Sanguinary Priests)
10 man Assault squad with 2 Melta Guns, Sergeant with a Power Fist
10 man Assault squad with 2 Flamers, Sergeant with a Power Fist
10 man Berserker squad (Death Company) with Power Axe and Power Fist
Drop Pod with Locator Beacon
Berserker Dreadnought with Blood Talons
Drop Pod with Locator Beacon
Berserker Dreadnought with Blood Talons and Heavy Flamer
Drop Pod with Locator Beacon
Land Speeder with Multi-Melta and Heavy Flamer
Land Speeder with Multi-Melta and Heavy Flamer
8 Man Vanguard Veteran squad with Jump Packs 3 Lightning Claws and a Power Fist
Qustav's List
Blood Revenants
Astorath
Brother Librarian Michael on a Bike with Wings of Sanguinius and Sanguine Sword
Honor Guard with Sanguine Novitiate, Blood Champion, one has a Power Fist, the rest have Power Swords and a Rhino
Furioso Dreadnought with Blood Claws
10 Man Assault Squad with Rhino, 2 Melta Guns Sergeant with Power Fist
10 Man Assault Squad with Rhino, 2 Melta Guns Sergeant with Power Fist
10 Man Assault Squad with Rhino, 2 Flamers Sergeant with Power Sword and Hand Flamer
9 Man Death Company with... some number of Power Swords, like 3.
Stormraven with Twin Linked Lascannons and Twin Linked Multi-Meltas
Kill Points mission, Pitched Battle Deployment Qustav went first.
Blood Revenant Turn 1:
Pretty uneventful, everything I had was Deep striking, so Qustav raced forward toward one side of the board, keeping his transports tightly packed for good support and popped smoke on his rhinos.
World Eaters Turn 1:
Both Berserk Dreadnoughts came in to the center of the board, aiming to be out of range for him to drive 6" and melta them, but within range for him to drive 12" and long range melta me with cover. I was hoping he'd fall for it, since I knew the main fight would be getting him out of the rhinos without getting counter-charged to death.
Blood Revenant Turn 2:
He didn't go for the bait, keeping his rhinos together and moving them over to within threatening range of my dreads back along his table edge. His Stormraven Moved Flat out and then Multi-Meltaed one of my dreadnoughts in the back (poor placement on my part) exploding it. Fun point whe his Librarian Perilsed on his Wings and hurt himself for no reason.
World Eaters Turn 2:
No meltas came in... sigh.
So at this point I figured I needed to start cracking his vehicles, but couldn't see a good way to do that to his rhinos. So I dropped my vanguards in right next to his Stormraven with a Locator Beacon and dropped Angron and my Flamer Squad with a Battle Champion within a charge range of his Stormraven. (I was really trying to avoid getting Angron stuck in combat with an Armor 13 Dreadnought.) My remaining Berserker Dreadnought and Vanguards charged his fast moving Stormraven. And in a glorious charge my Dreadnought leapt into the air and brought down the Stormraven, killing two Death Company and Stunning the Furioso in the crash. Qustav was unamused.
Blood Revenant Turn 3:
His Death Company charged into my Vanguards, bringing down one of them with a volley of Bolt Pistol shots. His Librarian charged one of my Drop Pods and the rest of his army hung out in his rhinos awaiting the arrival of my troops.
My vanguards died horribly, wiped out by Initiative 4
My Drop Pod did pretty much the same, exploding without killing his Librarian
World Eaters Turn 3:
The rest of my troops came in at this point except for one Land Speeder. My Berserkers slammed in right next to his librarian, gunning him down with a volley of pistol shots. My Land Speeder swooped down blowing one of his melta gun squads out of its rhino, my Drop Pod killing one as they disembarked. My Melta Gun squad swept down and scattered their full 6 inches into a heap of vehicle parts, killing 3 of them including one of the melta guns. My Flamer squad flew over them, charging the Furioso, which of course was missed my the lone melta gun. My Sergeant Stunned the Dreadnought, though only after it had eviscerated 3 of his squad mates, which was apparently too grievous a loss for the mighty World Eaters as they fled from combat. However, my Berserker Dreadnought managed to smash into his Death Company, killing 3 or so.
Blood Revenant Turn 4:
Qustav dismounted his other melta squad and charged it into my Berserker Dreadnought, trying to get a Power Fist into that fight. Unfortunately my Dreadnought took that moment to display the destructive potential of the Blood Talons and wiped out his entire charging squad, killing 3 death company with the Fearless wounds. His Honor Guard also dismounted, more successfully charging my Berserkers, after shooting one to death they then cut down all but my Power Fist who smashed one of his veterans to the ground in response. His Melta Squad that had been shot out of their Rhino charged after the Land Speeder, Immoblizing it and ripping the Heavy Flamer off of it.
World Eaters Turn 4:
Angron charged in, trying to save the last of his Berserkers, but utterly muffed it, killing a mere 2 of the honor guard, leaving the remaining 2 alive to murder the last Berserker. His Furioso Dreadnought finally died to the combined fire of my Melta squad and my newly arrived Land Speeder. My Immoblilized land speeder big ole missed a rhino before being ripped apart in my assault phase. My Flamer squad continued to flee, having started almost exactly 6" away from his Furioso before it was killed. My Berserk Dreadnought finished off his Death Company, though Astorath was still there to keep him tied down.
Blood Revenant Turn 5:
A full squad of angry Blood Revenants smashed into Angron, dealing a wound as he cut down 3 of them. The remaining Melta squad of Revenants blew apart a Drop Pod with krak grenades and Power Fist. His rhinos tried to bring down my remaining Land Speeder, but couldn't quite seal the deal.
World Eaters Turn 5:
My Melta Squad, having dealt with his Dreadnought charged in to help out Angron, a flawlessly executed shock assault that left the honor guard dead and only 3 Revenants left standing. Astorath stayed alive. Sigh. My flamer squad got to within charge range of his melta squad and the Angron brawl, just in case, but I was beginning to despair of them doing anything.
Blood Revenant turn 6: His Melta Squad charged into the Angron brawl just in time to see him Chain Glaive through the remaining 3 members of the previous squad, kill one of the World Eaters and get chased off, spending the remainder of the game fleeing.
World Eaters Turn 6: Killed Astorath (finally); counted Kill Points, all rhinos were out of reach and my Land Speeder had been shaken by a ram.
Result: World Eaters Win!
I definitely could have played that better, I basically relied on Angron and my Dreadnought to do most of the heavy lifting and threw away my Berserkers and Vanguard as bad speed bumps. Luckily I never had to fight more than one or 2 squads at a time and so I didn't really get punished for it.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
World Eaters!
So as the group has been bouncing back to 40k recently I have dusted off the blue and white and returned to my Pre-Heresy World Eaters (using BA rules). I've been trying to come up with a sweet spot list like my old Steel Talons, but I find I'm hamstringing myself by trying to go fluffy. Ah well, as much as I'd love to win 'em all, it's fine to just win most ;).
So far the core of most of my lists have been 2-3 big squads of Assault marines w/ fists and a couple of meltas or flamers w/ a Fist. A couple of Battle Champions (Sanguinary Priests) to ride along with them and make them better than some basic marines is another staple. As a little anti-tank I usually throw in a couple Attack Bikes with Multi-Meltas. Aside from that there've been a lot of changes. Pretty much 1-2 more killy units, either Terminators or some Berserkers (Death Company). For HQs I've been running with either my beloved Captain Ehrlen (who counts as a Reclusiarch), Angron (using the Sanguinor's rules), or Astorath... who does not have a World Eaters counterpart as yet, but sometimes I want to run a few squads of Berserkers.
Took Angron's lads to Ardboyz with some fairly mixed results, and a list that I do not love. I went 2/1 only losing to the eventual winner of the tournament. 1st round was against some Tau who weren't that great and tabled them, fought some tyranids who exposed my biggest weakness as an army (fighting foot close combat troops) and tabled me. I then finished by tabling an ork army w/ a goodly number of nobs and Killa Kans.
Actual Battle Reports to come later
So far the core of most of my lists have been 2-3 big squads of Assault marines w/ fists and a couple of meltas or flamers w/ a Fist. A couple of Battle Champions (Sanguinary Priests) to ride along with them and make them better than some basic marines is another staple. As a little anti-tank I usually throw in a couple Attack Bikes with Multi-Meltas. Aside from that there've been a lot of changes. Pretty much 1-2 more killy units, either Terminators or some Berserkers (Death Company). For HQs I've been running with either my beloved Captain Ehrlen (who counts as a Reclusiarch), Angron (using the Sanguinor's rules), or Astorath... who does not have a World Eaters counterpart as yet, but sometimes I want to run a few squads of Berserkers.
Took Angron's lads to Ardboyz with some fairly mixed results, and a list that I do not love. I went 2/1 only losing to the eventual winner of the tournament. 1st round was against some Tau who weren't that great and tabled them, fought some tyranids who exposed my biggest weakness as an army (fighting foot close combat troops) and tabled me. I then finished by tabling an ork army w/ a goodly number of nobs and Killa Kans.
Actual Battle Reports to come later
Monday, September 15, 2008
'Ardboyz: Round One - Fight!
So we had a pretty good 'Ardboyz here at the Midnight Judges. Didn't make a tremendous showing in terms of numbers, but then half the people who pre-registered didn't show either. As a former redshirt I definitely felt the pain of the organizer. Those of us that did (Qustav with his Tyranids, Tyri with his Eldar, and me with my Steel Talons) at least made a good showing of ourselves. I'll let them post their own details, but without further ado, the write up!
Game 1 - Loot Counters Steel Talons vs. Traitor Armored Company.
I almost had to laugh. 2/3 of the games have kill points and I drew the armored company on the objective holding one. He had no allies, so he had no scoring units. That said, I still had to win this, and he was determined not to let me do better than a draw. Barring some unfortunate luck with powerfists (in one turn I rolled 1s for every single penetrating hit) this would have been a massacre.
As it was I got a major victory. Squad Bedwyr (double meltas) and Squad Thelonious (double flamers) held an objective a piece, Squad Lazarus having been blown apart along with my Librarian, and Squad Petrus-Postumus' last man sniped by a lascannon on the last turn as he desperately clung to an objective. Even so, all of my devastator squads, one vindicator, and the tank hunting dreadnought were still kicking, and he had, I think, 3 mobile tanks left to fight, and 2 were Hellhounds with no guns. All in all a pretty solid victory for the Golden Company.
Cheers: Revered-Brother Bran for proving that rending can still work by blowing the tracks off of his command tank and then ripping it in half in the assault phase, and just generally terrifying the heretic into forgetting all about half of my troops choices.
Jeers: Brother-Sergeant Lazarus. With Might of Heroes I expect a powerfist to do more than shake a stationary tank. I also expect to get more than 2 penetrating hits out of 4-6 attacks!
As a brief aside, having my opponent's friend nearby was really annoying. I'm pretty okay with people watching my games. I don't even mind if they bring up different rules interpretations, or remind my opponent of something like "Your Lictor comes with Flesh Hooks, so he is I 6 when charging into the ruins." I do mind when he gives tactical advice, suggests targets for shooting, and generally tries to play in a tournament he's not in.
Game 2 - Annihilation Steel Talons vs. Tyranids (Qustav)
We were pretty sad about this one. We were matched up through the swiss system, so there wasn't much we could do, but it was still sad. Qustav has a pretty tough nid list, taking full advantage of scuttlers and Monstrous Creatures alike. I didn't fully agree with some of the choices of the list (I don't like his 2 units of scuttling termagants), but he's got good synapse and good scary fexes.
The game started off pretty poorly (I hate Dawn of War and they used it for 2 missions, more about this later) so he had all of his genestealers and tyrants out and I had no devastators. If my rhinos hadn't been keeping him really far away with deployment push, I would have died real fast. As it was his flyrant quickly made itself a nuisance. Twin devourers with all kinds of upgrades dealt 11 wounds to my 10 man double plasma. I of course promptly failed 5 saves, killing both plasma gunners and the powerfist sergeant. Grr. Happily I completely annihilated a Genestealer squad with vindicator fire, and pretty heavily shelled another, but there was cover close to me, and that nearly got me killed.
Highlights of the first 3 turns were killing all but one genestealer squad, and of course the death of the Flyrant. Aside from that I basically withdrew, playing a conservation game. The second half killed off a carnifex, and chased off both units of termagants in the last turn of the game.
That last genestealer unit was a pain. I shot them with demolisher cannons till there were about 4 left. They charged and shook one of them. My vindicators promptly backed up, shot them, leaving two remaining. They were too close to my devastators, so they had to die. Squad Aodh (the plasmacannons) were even within rapid fire range with their bolters. My plasmacannons weren't terribly accurate, but still got two hits on two genestealers. Double ones. 8 bolter shots later one genestealer was still alive. On his turn he promptly ran over to a vindicator and with 3 hits rolled 3 sixes to rend right through my armor. To add insult to injury the vindicator died, but didn't have the courtesy to blow up and kill that loathsome bug. Cost me a battle point too
Final Result Massacre to me
Cheers: Brother-Captain Aurelius Aquillus in his first newly converted outing killed a Flyrant single-handedly!
Jeers: That damned Genestealer!
Game 3 - Get dat Jelly Donut! (Deployment zones/Kill Points) Steel Talons vs. 200+ Orks
Yikes. 180 boys, with Ghazghkull, a Big Mek with a forcefield, and an irritating habit of overlapping to give them all a 4+ cover save anyways. And because this was modified dawn of war that all started on the table, and none of my heavy weapons did.
He also started 24" on, with the first turn. Gulp. So I dutifully lined up my tactical squads to face down the area he was going through (the terrain funneled him a bit) He ran forward and I hopped in my rhinos and ran for it, abandoning my objective. A couple of vindicators rolled up to give him something to play with in a different direction from my troops, who were all running towards where my devastators had come in. Then he Waaaghed.
I wasn't actually expecting this that early, but Ghazghkull did get into contact with a rhino, and his boys did rip apart my vindicators, so I can't say it was a terrible move, by now though his boys were very spread out. Ghazghkull ripped apart the rhino, sending Squad Petrus-Postumus tumbling out, but honestly that was okay. Every squad that could blew apart as many orks as they could, opening up the charge for Aurelius and Cwethan who killed enough orks that Ghazghkull ran away and was killed. This is when the Ork player lost some of his cockiness about his chances. Honestly though he was still in a pretty good place. He'd left a pretty sizable rearguard for his objective (60 orks!!!) and he had mine. I had gotten 4 kill points for Ghaz and company, but he'd done the same for my vindicators.
The rest of the game basically consisted of me trying to bring down as many of his small expensive squads (kannons, deffkoptas) while holding off his big squads with rapid fire and heavy bolters. Not Missile Launchers and Plasma Cannons because Snikkrot jumped both of them. Last turn of the game he finally finished them off, and my heavy bolters gunned down all but 3 of them. They promptly passed their morale to my chagrin, as did both units of deffkoptas which my drop pod and rhino had forced to take tests. This turned out to be extra unfortunate because we tied on kill points, and because the objectives didn't matter unless you had both, we ended up with a draw. Oh, on the last turn I drove rhinos up to one of the objectives, thereby frustrating his victorious ambitions.
Cheers: Aurelius for chasing off Ghaz, and beating back squad after squad of orks, also for attracting the attacks of 15 orks in the last turn and surviving them all.
Jeers: The mission. Dawn of war is balanced because of the relatively small numbers. The modifications that they made give tremendous advantage to horde close combat. Very few armies can reasonably handle that amount of bodies, and if he'd done a better job blanketing the map, he very well could have won.
Game 1 - Loot Counters Steel Talons vs. Traitor Armored Company.
I almost had to laugh. 2/3 of the games have kill points and I drew the armored company on the objective holding one. He had no allies, so he had no scoring units. That said, I still had to win this, and he was determined not to let me do better than a draw. Barring some unfortunate luck with powerfists (in one turn I rolled 1s for every single penetrating hit) this would have been a massacre.
As it was I got a major victory. Squad Bedwyr (double meltas) and Squad Thelonious (double flamers) held an objective a piece, Squad Lazarus having been blown apart along with my Librarian, and Squad Petrus-Postumus' last man sniped by a lascannon on the last turn as he desperately clung to an objective. Even so, all of my devastator squads, one vindicator, and the tank hunting dreadnought were still kicking, and he had, I think, 3 mobile tanks left to fight, and 2 were Hellhounds with no guns. All in all a pretty solid victory for the Golden Company.
Cheers: Revered-Brother Bran for proving that rending can still work by blowing the tracks off of his command tank and then ripping it in half in the assault phase, and just generally terrifying the heretic into forgetting all about half of my troops choices.
Jeers: Brother-Sergeant Lazarus. With Might of Heroes I expect a powerfist to do more than shake a stationary tank. I also expect to get more than 2 penetrating hits out of 4-6 attacks!
As a brief aside, having my opponent's friend nearby was really annoying. I'm pretty okay with people watching my games. I don't even mind if they bring up different rules interpretations, or remind my opponent of something like "Your Lictor comes with Flesh Hooks, so he is I 6 when charging into the ruins." I do mind when he gives tactical advice, suggests targets for shooting, and generally tries to play in a tournament he's not in.
Game 2 - Annihilation Steel Talons vs. Tyranids (Qustav)
We were pretty sad about this one. We were matched up through the swiss system, so there wasn't much we could do, but it was still sad. Qustav has a pretty tough nid list, taking full advantage of scuttlers and Monstrous Creatures alike. I didn't fully agree with some of the choices of the list (I don't like his 2 units of scuttling termagants), but he's got good synapse and good scary fexes.
The game started off pretty poorly (I hate Dawn of War and they used it for 2 missions, more about this later) so he had all of his genestealers and tyrants out and I had no devastators. If my rhinos hadn't been keeping him really far away with deployment push, I would have died real fast. As it was his flyrant quickly made itself a nuisance. Twin devourers with all kinds of upgrades dealt 11 wounds to my 10 man double plasma. I of course promptly failed 5 saves, killing both plasma gunners and the powerfist sergeant. Grr. Happily I completely annihilated a Genestealer squad with vindicator fire, and pretty heavily shelled another, but there was cover close to me, and that nearly got me killed.
Highlights of the first 3 turns were killing all but one genestealer squad, and of course the death of the Flyrant. Aside from that I basically withdrew, playing a conservation game. The second half killed off a carnifex, and chased off both units of termagants in the last turn of the game.
That last genestealer unit was a pain. I shot them with demolisher cannons till there were about 4 left. They charged and shook one of them. My vindicators promptly backed up, shot them, leaving two remaining. They were too close to my devastators, so they had to die. Squad Aodh (the plasmacannons) were even within rapid fire range with their bolters. My plasmacannons weren't terribly accurate, but still got two hits on two genestealers. Double ones. 8 bolter shots later one genestealer was still alive. On his turn he promptly ran over to a vindicator and with 3 hits rolled 3 sixes to rend right through my armor. To add insult to injury the vindicator died, but didn't have the courtesy to blow up and kill that loathsome bug. Cost me a battle point too
Final Result Massacre to me
Cheers: Brother-Captain Aurelius Aquillus in his first newly converted outing killed a Flyrant single-handedly!
Jeers: That damned Genestealer!
Game 3 - Get dat Jelly Donut! (Deployment zones/Kill Points) Steel Talons vs. 200+ Orks
Yikes. 180 boys, with Ghazghkull, a Big Mek with a forcefield, and an irritating habit of overlapping to give them all a 4+ cover save anyways. And because this was modified dawn of war that all started on the table, and none of my heavy weapons did.
He also started 24" on, with the first turn. Gulp. So I dutifully lined up my tactical squads to face down the area he was going through (the terrain funneled him a bit) He ran forward and I hopped in my rhinos and ran for it, abandoning my objective. A couple of vindicators rolled up to give him something to play with in a different direction from my troops, who were all running towards where my devastators had come in. Then he Waaaghed.
I wasn't actually expecting this that early, but Ghazghkull did get into contact with a rhino, and his boys did rip apart my vindicators, so I can't say it was a terrible move, by now though his boys were very spread out. Ghazghkull ripped apart the rhino, sending Squad Petrus-Postumus tumbling out, but honestly that was okay. Every squad that could blew apart as many orks as they could, opening up the charge for Aurelius and Cwethan who killed enough orks that Ghazghkull ran away and was killed. This is when the Ork player lost some of his cockiness about his chances. Honestly though he was still in a pretty good place. He'd left a pretty sizable rearguard for his objective (60 orks!!!) and he had mine. I had gotten 4 kill points for Ghaz and company, but he'd done the same for my vindicators.
The rest of the game basically consisted of me trying to bring down as many of his small expensive squads (kannons, deffkoptas) while holding off his big squads with rapid fire and heavy bolters. Not Missile Launchers and Plasma Cannons because Snikkrot jumped both of them. Last turn of the game he finally finished them off, and my heavy bolters gunned down all but 3 of them. They promptly passed their morale to my chagrin, as did both units of deffkoptas which my drop pod and rhino had forced to take tests. This turned out to be extra unfortunate because we tied on kill points, and because the objectives didn't matter unless you had both, we ended up with a draw. Oh, on the last turn I drove rhinos up to one of the objectives, thereby frustrating his victorious ambitions.
Cheers: Aurelius for chasing off Ghaz, and beating back squad after squad of orks, also for attracting the attacks of 15 orks in the last turn and surviving them all.
Jeers: The mission. Dawn of war is balanced because of the relatively small numbers. The modifications that they made give tremendous advantage to horde close combat. Very few armies can reasonably handle that amount of bodies, and if he'd done a better job blanketing the map, he very well could have won.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
It's Beginning to Look a Lot like 'Ardboyz
Hoping Kill Points won't be used for the win.
Don't have my exact list here with me, but here's what it's looking to be:
Brother-Captain Aurelius Aquillus (Master with thunder hammer, storm shield and other fun wargear)
Chief Librarian Cwethan Rathk (Epistolary with Fear of the Darkness and Might of Heroes)
Squad Gilbertus (8 man tank hunting Devastator squad with 3 Missile Launchers and a Lascannon)
Squad Aodh (8 man tank hunting Devastator squad with 4 plasma cannons)
Revered-Brother Bran Tank hunting Venerable Dreadnought with Drop Pod, A. Cannon and Heavy Flamer)
Squads Lazarus and Petrus Postumus (8 and 10 man Tactical Squads in Rhinos, Vet. Sarges with P. Fists, 2 plasmaguns a piece)
Squad Thelonious (8 man Tactical squad in a rhino with 2 flamers and vet sarge)
Squad Bedwyr (10 man tactical squad in a drop pod with 2 melta guns and vet sarge with p. fist)
Dagda's Hammer and Ogma's Maul (2 Vindicators with PotMS)
Squad Ghalib (8 man devastator squad with 4 heavy bolters)
17 Kill Points... ech. 5 of those are rhinos or drop pods which used to (cue whiny aside) give up 58 victory points at the max! (end whiny aside)
The whole army still works on my tried and true hammer and anvil theory. I set up a solid firebase (devs, vindicators) and try to crush my enemies against it with my cavalry (rhino squads, drop pods). It's a pretty direct plan (though one with a surprising amount of room for finesse), but one I stick to against all but the killiest assault armies. When that comes up I just circle the wagons and use the rhinos to harass while getting the most bolter shots that I can.
Haven't fought some of the weirder armies with this yet. Haven't fought a nob biker list or hell, even daemons with the marines yet. That said, in a lot of ways they play pretty similarly to my Eldar who have, and so I'm pretty confident of killing the xenos and purging the heretics.
I think my stock against horde armies has gone up with the new blast rules, and so I'm not as worried about them as I maybe should be. A horde ork army duffed me over pretty well at Adepticon Gladiator... though in some ways that seems like a hard thing to have avoided while packing the necessary anti tank to fight an armored company with a baneblade, or a hierophant, or a titan. Sigh... Gladiator lists have a lot of options for killing you dead.
I'm a bit worried about outflanking units (and my favorite/my most hated Nob ever, Snikkrot), especially scuttling Genestealers at the moment. Mainly because if I want to be out of a potential off the table charge, they narrow my deployment zone to a foot across. Not great with the whole 4+ cover save from my own models bit.
As far as missions go, anything that's not kill points I'm not too worried about. I've got the speed and the staying power for Seize Ground and the speed and objective clearing shooty for Capture and Control. I'm going to usually want to put the objectives in the open, but that will vary enough that I'll deal with it on a case by case basis.
I don't think there's a lot of preparing I can do for the weird things that the missions might end up being, but 4 mobile scoring units should help that out a lot I'm hoping. It may not be a windrider host, but the Talons should get the job done.
Don't have my exact list here with me, but here's what it's looking to be:
Brother-Captain Aurelius Aquillus (Master with thunder hammer, storm shield and other fun wargear)
Chief Librarian Cwethan Rathk (Epistolary with Fear of the Darkness and Might of Heroes)
Squad Gilbertus (8 man tank hunting Devastator squad with 3 Missile Launchers and a Lascannon)
Squad Aodh (8 man tank hunting Devastator squad with 4 plasma cannons)
Revered-Brother Bran Tank hunting Venerable Dreadnought with Drop Pod, A. Cannon and Heavy Flamer)
Squads Lazarus and Petrus Postumus (8 and 10 man Tactical Squads in Rhinos, Vet. Sarges with P. Fists, 2 plasmaguns a piece)
Squad Thelonious (8 man Tactical squad in a rhino with 2 flamers and vet sarge)
Squad Bedwyr (10 man tactical squad in a drop pod with 2 melta guns and vet sarge with p. fist)
Dagda's Hammer and Ogma's Maul (2 Vindicators with PotMS)
Squad Ghalib (8 man devastator squad with 4 heavy bolters)
17 Kill Points... ech. 5 of those are rhinos or drop pods which used to (cue whiny aside) give up 58 victory points at the max! (end whiny aside)
The whole army still works on my tried and true hammer and anvil theory. I set up a solid firebase (devs, vindicators) and try to crush my enemies against it with my cavalry (rhino squads, drop pods). It's a pretty direct plan (though one with a surprising amount of room for finesse), but one I stick to against all but the killiest assault armies. When that comes up I just circle the wagons and use the rhinos to harass while getting the most bolter shots that I can.
Haven't fought some of the weirder armies with this yet. Haven't fought a nob biker list or hell, even daemons with the marines yet. That said, in a lot of ways they play pretty similarly to my Eldar who have, and so I'm pretty confident of killing the xenos and purging the heretics.
I think my stock against horde armies has gone up with the new blast rules, and so I'm not as worried about them as I maybe should be. A horde ork army duffed me over pretty well at Adepticon Gladiator... though in some ways that seems like a hard thing to have avoided while packing the necessary anti tank to fight an armored company with a baneblade, or a hierophant, or a titan. Sigh... Gladiator lists have a lot of options for killing you dead.
I'm a bit worried about outflanking units (and my favorite/my most hated Nob ever, Snikkrot), especially scuttling Genestealers at the moment. Mainly because if I want to be out of a potential off the table charge, they narrow my deployment zone to a foot across. Not great with the whole 4+ cover save from my own models bit.
As far as missions go, anything that's not kill points I'm not too worried about. I've got the speed and the staying power for Seize Ground and the speed and objective clearing shooty for Capture and Control. I'm going to usually want to put the objectives in the open, but that will vary enough that I'll deal with it on a case by case basis.
I don't think there's a lot of preparing I can do for the weird things that the missions might end up being, but 4 mobile scoring units should help that out a lot I'm hoping. It may not be a windrider host, but the Talons should get the job done.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Back in Black
So, it's been a couple of months since our last update so I'll sum up what happened. I got fired from my job at GW, and so we took kind of a moratorium on 40k till 5th ed. That said, we're back.
I really have very few complaints about the new rules, my big one is that I'm not a huge fan of kill points and don't see what was wrong with Victory Points as a mechanism, but hey, my Marines don't get entangled, I can kill Tyri's Falcons, and my Orks can run when they're not Waaaghing. That's some good stuff.
We're still coming to grips with a few things, especially the new way of allocating wounds. I think I'm going to end up loving that, but in the meantime it's slowing down the games a bit.
Current plans are gearing up for 'Ardboyz and my first heartbreak of 5th ed.
My Ork army is all about the 200+ models. I have plenty of trukks and a decent number of bikes, but really for me it's all about da boyz. That said, 2500 points of boyz can't be reasonably played in 2 1/2 hours. Hell, they can barely be deployed.
For this reason I'm going Marines, at least for the first round. They had a lot of success at last years Ardboyz, and did pretty well at Adepticon. I'm going to be mixing in some more anti-personnel for the myriad of troops choices, and watching my flanks for genestealers with scuttling (shudder), but overall I don't think my army will be that changed from last year. Until round 2 when the new codex trashes my double flamer/melta/plasma squads that are the core of my army. So if I get to round two it may be with Eldar... or Orks if I can scrape together enough Nob Bikerz and Battlewagonz.
I really have very few complaints about the new rules, my big one is that I'm not a huge fan of kill points and don't see what was wrong with Victory Points as a mechanism, but hey, my Marines don't get entangled, I can kill Tyri's Falcons, and my Orks can run when they're not Waaaghing. That's some good stuff.
We're still coming to grips with a few things, especially the new way of allocating wounds. I think I'm going to end up loving that, but in the meantime it's slowing down the games a bit.
Current plans are gearing up for 'Ardboyz and my first heartbreak of 5th ed.
My Ork army is all about the 200+ models. I have plenty of trukks and a decent number of bikes, but really for me it's all about da boyz. That said, 2500 points of boyz can't be reasonably played in 2 1/2 hours. Hell, they can barely be deployed.
For this reason I'm going Marines, at least for the first round. They had a lot of success at last years Ardboyz, and did pretty well at Adepticon. I'm going to be mixing in some more anti-personnel for the myriad of troops choices, and watching my flanks for genestealers with scuttling (shudder), but overall I don't think my army will be that changed from last year. Until round 2 when the new codex trashes my double flamer/melta/plasma squads that are the core of my army. So if I get to round two it may be with Eldar... or Orks if I can scrape together enough Nob Bikerz and Battlewagonz.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Next Years Matchups
So we here at the Judges are doing a bit of planning ahead for next year's Adepticon, and it looks like we'll be bringing 2-3 teams up. Now assuming that normal unavoidable flaking occurs we're looking at 2 teams. So we've decided to avoid the nightmare that is coming up with one gigantic 8 person themed team and instead decided to do two theming opposing forces. So we're trying to work out what to do.
Current ideas include:
Battle for Macragge (4 Tyranid Players v. 4 Ultramarines and Ultramar PDF Players)
2nd War for Armageddon (4 Ork players v. 4 armies of some mix of Blood Angels, Salamaders, Ultramarines, Ork Hunters, Steel Legion etc)
1st War for Armageddon (Khornate Demons and World Eaters v. Space Wolves, Grey Knights, and maybe some Imperial Guard)
Some Daemonic Incursion as yet to be determined. (Demonic armies of all 4 powers v. Daemon Hunters and Witch Hunters)
Siege of the Emperor's Palace (Blood Angels, Imperial Fists, White Scars and either Custodes or Imperial Army v. CHAOS!!!!!!)
Betrayers of Isstvan V (Alpha Legion, Night Lords, Iron Warriors and Word Bearers v. Raven Guard, Salamanders, Iron Hands and.... one more army from the same list?)
Something with the Eldar? Maybe against Slaanesh? Maybe Ichar IV against the Tyranids?
So a year to collect and paint 1000 points is a good amount, so I'm personally not worried about starting a new army like for the World Eaters last year.
So, Judges and (both) loyal readers lets have your thoughts. We'll put votes to this in some official capacity at a later date, but for now shoot down ideas or post some new ones, 'cause we want to get some really nice display base style theme points next year, and that means starting early.
Current ideas include:
Battle for Macragge (4 Tyranid Players v. 4 Ultramarines and Ultramar PDF Players)
2nd War for Armageddon (4 Ork players v. 4 armies of some mix of Blood Angels, Salamaders, Ultramarines, Ork Hunters, Steel Legion etc)
1st War for Armageddon (Khornate Demons and World Eaters v. Space Wolves, Grey Knights, and maybe some Imperial Guard)
Some Daemonic Incursion as yet to be determined. (Demonic armies of all 4 powers v. Daemon Hunters and Witch Hunters)
Siege of the Emperor's Palace (Blood Angels, Imperial Fists, White Scars and either Custodes or Imperial Army v. CHAOS!!!!!!)
Betrayers of Isstvan V (Alpha Legion, Night Lords, Iron Warriors and Word Bearers v. Raven Guard, Salamanders, Iron Hands and.... one more army from the same list?)
Something with the Eldar? Maybe against Slaanesh? Maybe Ichar IV against the Tyranids?
So a year to collect and paint 1000 points is a good amount, so I'm personally not worried about starting a new army like for the World Eaters last year.
So, Judges and (both) loyal readers lets have your thoughts. We'll put votes to this in some official capacity at a later date, but for now shoot down ideas or post some new ones, 'cause we want to get some really nice display base style theme points next year, and that means starting early.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Chaos: How Teurtullian Got His Groove Back
After over a year and a half break in 40k, jumping back with my fellow Judges to kick ass and chew bubblegum has wrenched me out of my non-40k stupor. Naturally, after playing Chaos since the beginning of third edition until I quit almost two years ago, I'm inclined to raze some planets in the name of the ruinous powers. In review of the chaos codex, I've found that this lust is well sated with a handful of terrible evils that seem to be both a mix of 3rd edition's standardization and 3.5's fluid character customization. Come along with me as I raise forth the banner of terror for the Mysterium, a renegade chapter of Space Marines who act as fell watchmen for a fortress world along the Eye of Terror's periphery.
Here's my immediate reactions to the Chaos Codex as a whole:
HQ:
Until recently, this has been the hardest choice for my army. Naturally, Abaddon the Despoiler is always an option. At 275 points, he beckons you to use this anti-tank, anti-infantry, anti-everything monster with a cheap 90 point 3-man terminator squad for terrible terrible things. However, as I'm first designing a 1750 point list, 275 is a lot to ask. I'm sticking true to my roots here, and using a Daemon Prince.
As you'll read in the upcoming Adepticon reports, the Lash Daemon Prince is definitely Chaos' flavor of the month (next month's is Rocky Road). People all over Warseer have brought up just how terrifying having a powerful Monstrous Creature with an anytime "Word in your Ear" psychic power is for the last two months. Doing everything from killing bike squads with forced dangerous terrain checks to dragging units into close combat range is scary, scary stuff. For me, my Slanneshi Daemon Prince also serves the purpose of target acquisition for my shootylicious army. With 2 Vindicators, 2 Rhino-mounted 1k Sons squads, and a Missile Launcher-filled Havoc Squad, his tugs will lead to some very scary death. Hopefully.
Troops:
Troops rightfully serve as the core of my army. Using a trick out of the Space Marine codex' toolshed, I've opted to save points on a heavy anti-tank Las-Cannon havoc squad by kitting my 10-man tac squads to wield the weapon whose pronunciation is the most hotly contested in Warhammer 40k. Noting the strength of the hidden powerfist, each tac squad comes replete with an aspiring champion with p.f. If the best case scenario comes to pass, you're taking down an enemy vehicle or character model by sneaking from your squad and instant killing/destroying them at strength 8. Worst case, you'll make your enemy's close combat victory a pyrrhic one. Also, the squad packs Plasma Rifles, to trim out intermediate-range enemy heavy infantry/light vehicles. The Icon of Glory is cheap as hell at 10 points, giving the squad Mark Undivided. Sure, I'm effectively paying an extra 10 points over their old points cost. But with the ability to hot-swap for 2 CC attacks at whim is well worth it.
Testing out my 2-man Thousand Sons squad configuration's been very rewarding. 2 squads of 9 rubric marines and 1 sorcerer ride in two Rhinos. Each sorcerer carries Doom Bolt, effectively adding on another 2 18" inferno shots to the already prevalent 18-shot (on Rapid Fire) storm of STR 4, AP3. Pulling up next to a squad, dropping out of a fire point 2" away, and blasting away can ruin a space marine squad. The sons can also pack Personal Icons, allowing you to Daemon-Bomb a squad of Lesser Daemons while inside their Rhino to clinch an immediate combat. Unfortunately, given the vulnerability these armorless guys have, it's less of a terrifying threat and more of a clutch maneuver for the squad. Still, some fun can be had by using some old Word Bearer tricks. Packing combi-meltas on my rhinos add a sleeper hit when I pile out. Because people often ignore Rhinos, you can clinch a side or rear-arc shot on heavy armor with some misdirection and strategic chicanery. Aurelius's Rhino Tactica here is also an invaluable aid to my strategy, and learning how he uses these things for great justice gets me so much utility out of these now cheaper workhorses
Heavy Support
Damn it feels good to be a Chaos army with Vindicators. With these puppies now legal for all flavors of Chaos, you can mix things up to have all sorts of madness. Using Lash allows you to pull enemy units into intermediate 24" range for your demolisher cannons, and melt faces with blasts of siege-weapon awesomeness. If anything's left, I'll have my prince waltz on in and polish things off. The scatter risk to the prince is negligible with proper factoring for the scatter effects. With luck, you might not even have to move your tanks.
In the older codex, a squad of havocs with tank hunters and auto-cannons ripped the shit out of nearly anything for a reasonable points cost. Now, veteran skills are the way of the dodo. But non-las-cannon havocs are still mighty. I pack a squad with 4 missile launchers at 1750, allowing me to trim heavy infantry and still tank hunt to reasonable levels of threat.
In total, I feel that the Chaos Codex has allowed me to create a more well-rounded force that capitalizes off of specialty. This seems to be the contrast to 3rd edition's specialized armies, and shall prove interesting as more Chaos commanders take the field in 5th edition and beyond.
Death to the False Emperor, skulls for the skull throne, and long live Windows Vista: the profane nature of Chaos is just too good to pass up for this returning 40k player.
Here's my immediate reactions to the Chaos Codex as a whole:
- It's Cheaper When You're a Thief
Chaos space marines have some of the most points-efficient units I've seen in Warhammer 40k. Currently, trait-marines and regular space marines aren't granted the luxury of hot-swappable bolt pistol, close combat weapon, and bolter kits. Chaos, much like the current Dark Angels or Blood Angels, has these options. In addition to this, your standard Chaos Space Marine squad can take an icon in worship of the Chaos powers. This icon conveys the effective benefits of the mark to that squad, often for far cheaper than the previous analog in the revised 3rd edition codex. In addition to this, this icon allows you to demon bomb ala 3rd edition word bearers, with the caveat that lesser daemons are nowhere near as terrifying as full-on Bloodletters (more on this later). - Substituting One Evil for Another
Curbing the absurdity that revised brought to the Chaos Codex, standard HQ choices have been toned down substantially in this reprinting. Daemon Princes can no longer wield daemon weapons, and all heroes cannot select veteran skills and "daemon traits" (which no longer even exist now). In contrast, daemon weapons have become extremely more powerful, as mastery no longer exists. Sure, a 1/6 chance per-charge to suffer an armor-ignoring wound is scarier, but not taking a Perils of the Warp attack rocks my socks. Particularly, because now every Chaos HQ has an invulnerable save of at least 5+. The reduction in strength (awww, no more entering my opponent's deployment zone 1st turn through basic movement?) is met with an equal reduction in price: non-special characters are usually around 150-180 points depending on configuration, allowing you to specialize in your army. - Play Nice Now, Children
Chaos army selection is no longer limited by mark. Tzeentch and Nurgle units can run and skip together with glee. This allows you some extremely fierce combinations of units, allowing verbatim Black Legion to shine.
HQ:
Until recently, this has been the hardest choice for my army. Naturally, Abaddon the Despoiler is always an option. At 275 points, he beckons you to use this anti-tank, anti-infantry, anti-everything monster with a cheap 90 point 3-man terminator squad for terrible terrible things. However, as I'm first designing a 1750 point list, 275 is a lot to ask. I'm sticking true to my roots here, and using a Daemon Prince.
As you'll read in the upcoming Adepticon reports, the Lash Daemon Prince is definitely Chaos' flavor of the month (next month's is Rocky Road). People all over Warseer have brought up just how terrifying having a powerful Monstrous Creature with an anytime "Word in your Ear" psychic power is for the last two months. Doing everything from killing bike squads with forced dangerous terrain checks to dragging units into close combat range is scary, scary stuff. For me, my Slanneshi Daemon Prince also serves the purpose of target acquisition for my shootylicious army. With 2 Vindicators, 2 Rhino-mounted 1k Sons squads, and a Missile Launcher-filled Havoc Squad, his tugs will lead to some very scary death. Hopefully.
Troops:
Troops rightfully serve as the core of my army. Using a trick out of the Space Marine codex' toolshed, I've opted to save points on a heavy anti-tank Las-Cannon havoc squad by kitting my 10-man tac squads to wield the weapon whose pronunciation is the most hotly contested in Warhammer 40k. Noting the strength of the hidden powerfist, each tac squad comes replete with an aspiring champion with p.f. If the best case scenario comes to pass, you're taking down an enemy vehicle or character model by sneaking from your squad and instant killing/destroying them at strength 8. Worst case, you'll make your enemy's close combat victory a pyrrhic one. Also, the squad packs Plasma Rifles, to trim out intermediate-range enemy heavy infantry/light vehicles. The Icon of Glory is cheap as hell at 10 points, giving the squad Mark Undivided. Sure, I'm effectively paying an extra 10 points over their old points cost. But with the ability to hot-swap for 2 CC attacks at whim is well worth it.
Testing out my 2-man Thousand Sons squad configuration's been very rewarding. 2 squads of 9 rubric marines and 1 sorcerer ride in two Rhinos. Each sorcerer carries Doom Bolt, effectively adding on another 2 18" inferno shots to the already prevalent 18-shot (on Rapid Fire) storm of STR 4, AP3. Pulling up next to a squad, dropping out of a fire point 2" away, and blasting away can ruin a space marine squad. The sons can also pack Personal Icons, allowing you to Daemon-Bomb a squad of Lesser Daemons while inside their Rhino to clinch an immediate combat. Unfortunately, given the vulnerability these armorless guys have, it's less of a terrifying threat and more of a clutch maneuver for the squad. Still, some fun can be had by using some old Word Bearer tricks. Packing combi-meltas on my rhinos add a sleeper hit when I pile out. Because people often ignore Rhinos, you can clinch a side or rear-arc shot on heavy armor with some misdirection and strategic chicanery. Aurelius's Rhino Tactica here is also an invaluable aid to my strategy, and learning how he uses these things for great justice gets me so much utility out of these now cheaper workhorses
Heavy Support
Damn it feels good to be a Chaos army with Vindicators. With these puppies now legal for all flavors of Chaos, you can mix things up to have all sorts of madness. Using Lash allows you to pull enemy units into intermediate 24" range for your demolisher cannons, and melt faces with blasts of siege-weapon awesomeness. If anything's left, I'll have my prince waltz on in and polish things off. The scatter risk to the prince is negligible with proper factoring for the scatter effects. With luck, you might not even have to move your tanks.
In the older codex, a squad of havocs with tank hunters and auto-cannons ripped the shit out of nearly anything for a reasonable points cost. Now, veteran skills are the way of the dodo. But non-las-cannon havocs are still mighty. I pack a squad with 4 missile launchers at 1750, allowing me to trim heavy infantry and still tank hunt to reasonable levels of threat.
In total, I feel that the Chaos Codex has allowed me to create a more well-rounded force that capitalizes off of specialty. This seems to be the contrast to 3rd edition's specialized armies, and shall prove interesting as more Chaos commanders take the field in 5th edition and beyond.
Death to the False Emperor, skulls for the skull throne, and long live Windows Vista: the profane nature of Chaos is just too good to pass up for this returning 40k player.
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