Reality Check: Tau Edition.

Errrggghhh! Tau!

After being lulled into a false sense of security at Blog Wars earlier this year, I think I have finally experienced the full power of the new Tau Codex and I have definitely been underestimating it.

Alex of the fantastic From the Fang blog and organiser of the above-mentioned Blog Wars tournaments (and my opponent in the game I was referring to), came down to Warhammer World this past Thursday for some list practice. In our first game we played his 1850 Tau list for Blog Wars against my 2055pt “I-really-should-check-my-list-before-I-deploy-my minis” Space Marine list. I won’t go into details but the extra Tactical Squad I had in my list made little difference and he beat me handily.

Shadowsun is about to make my day even worse.

Tyranid List Building Thoughts.

Boom! goes the dynamite.

 After playing Tyranids exclusively since around November last year and capping it all off with a fairly good performance at Blog Wars a couple of weeks ago I’ve been giving my list building strategy a bit of a rethink. Over the last few months I’ve experimented with a few different builds but a few things have remained consistent, firstly the mandatory inclusion of two Carnifexes with two Twin Linked Devourers each and a Tyranid Prime to nestle between them, two Tervigons and two 10-man units of Termagants to make them troops. Beyond these building blocks, I have experimented with Flying Hive Tyrants, Zoanthropes, Hive Guard, Mawlocs, Trygons, the Doom, Raveners and Gargoyles.

So a fairly broad spectrum there, but recently I’d settled down into a more shooting focused build involving Hive Guard, the Carnifexes and a couple of deep striking Monstrous Creatures and indeed this was reflected in the list I took to Blog Wars. However I felt a very significant lack of range and I also realised that such is the power of weight of firepower available to some armies at the moment, that managing your opponent’s range to you is also of great importance to the survival of an army that needs to get in close such as my ‘nids.

In an attempt to address some of these issues I’ve rethought my policy on list building with Tyranids so here are a couple of lists following a different philosophy of play-style:

AoA Khorne List – 1st Play-Test

Grazer offered to give me a game this Thursday and was happy for me to proxy my little heart out to try out a Khorne CSM/Daemons list I’d been thinking about for the Age of Armies project. So, I’ll just dive straight into the list (and the proxies!):

Chaos Space Marines (Primary)

HQ
Chaos Lord (Mark of Khorne, Axe of Blind Fury, Juggernaught) (Carnifex)

TROOP
Khorne Bezerkers (x8 w. Rhino) (Assault Marines & Rhino)
Khorne Bezerkers (x8 w. Rhino) (Assault Marines & Rhino)
Cultists (x15, Sgt w. Shotgun) (Grazer’s own Squats!)

FAST ATTACK
Helldrake (Baleflamer) (Winged Hive Tyrant)
Helldrake (Baleflamer) (Winged Hive Tyrant)
Chaos Spawn (x5, Mark of Khorne) (Raveners)

HEAVY SUPPORT
Maulerfiend (Tervigon)

Chaos Daemons (Ally)

HQ
Bloodthirster (Swarmlord)

TROOP
Bloodletters (x10) (Genestealers)

FAST ATTACK
Flesh Hounds (x8) (Various 40mm Nids)

HEAVY SUPPORT
Soul Grinder (Trygon)

Brothers in Arms

B.A.S.M. ... Kinky?

Games Workshop’s, Winter, “Battle Brothers” Doubles Tournament is nearly upon us and, in typical style, Gav and I only managed to sit down and agree on a list last weekend. While we were both completely sober in this endeavor we have had exactly no practice and I have the majority of 6^th Edition experience with less than 15 games played (over 1000pts). Oh, and add to that the fact that we’ll be using a Space Marines/Blood Angels list which neither of us have any experience playing (it’s been all Tyranids for me and Gav is Mr Space Wolves), and I think you can understand why expectations for success will be set rather low ... for a change!

When I said we had “agreed” on a list, what I meant to say is that we had agreed on 95% of a list but there is still a little discussion going on over fine details so without further ado here’s what we’re currently mulling over:

Tweaking the Parasite

After a bit of a fail a couple of weeks ago with a list featuring The Parasite of Mortrex (read about it here), I think it would be a bit hasty to just discard him as my failure was more to do with me than him, or any unit in that army. So lets have a think about what it is I can do with an army featuring the Parasite, how can I build something that I could use successfully around him.

Firstly he needs a retinue, you can't expect a T4, 3+ save unit to just wander across the board into whatever combat it likes. The obvious choice is Gargoyles because they're jump infantry too, I've been using Raveners because I have the models. However, there's no question that Gargoyles are far better value for points both in terms of wounds and offensive capability against stock infantry, and it's against stock infantry that the Parasite should be applied. It's worth noting that the Parasite is something of a bully unit, he's really not that good against anything with a half decent save and his S6 lets him wound most infantry on a 2+, with 5 attacks on the charge you can't rely on rending to win you a fight when charging a unit of terminators, or even regular Marines. His high strength does mean that he's good against vehicles and you might think that Raveners make more sense if that's how you're going to use him, but Gargoyles with Adrenal Glands (I would always give them Toxin Sacs) are still better value.

Right, so you've got the Parasite and a chunky unit of Gargoyles to hide him in, but I don't think this dictates a play-style. It would seem an obvious choice to try and build a list that races across the table to engage the enemy as soon as possible, however I'm really not sure that's going to be particularly effective. I think with the right tactics, the Parasite and his Gargoyles can be an effective distraction/harassment unit with limited support or a counter attacker with next to no support. What I'm going to do instead is build a mid-table gun-line style army which is pretty easy to do with 'nids.

Following this strategy, the next unit I'm going to add is two units but I think they are rather brilliant together; a Tyranid Prime with Lash Whip, Bone Sword and a Deathspitter and two Carnifexes with two Twin-Linked Brain-Leech Devourers. This is one highly durable, devastatingly shooty unit that also packs a mean punch in close combat. So far it has been the stand-out unit in all the 6^th Ed games I've played so far and I don't think I'd feel particularly comfortable leaving it out. Besides being able to put a serious hurting on pretty much all infantry, heavy, elite or otherwise, it's also effective against light armoured vehicles and Flyers. I've changed the load-out of the Prime to include a Deathspitter to mean he's got something to add at range and the lash-whip means he can confidently charge into cover with the 'fexes should the need arise. With that in mind, adding frag spines to the Carnifexes may not be a terrible idea, as Necrons are so popular and going first against them, even in cover, is going to be a big advantage!

Shoring up the firepower at mid-range are two units of three Hive Guard. There's not a lot to say about these guys that has not been said already. T6 with two wounds gives them the durability factor and a gun with two S8 shots each that ignore cover (most of the time) gives them some undeniable firepower. In my previous list I ran two units of two Zoanthropes, there were to act as unit support to buff key bugs with Endurance or to debuff enemy units with Enfeeble. Lets just say that the whole random power thing did not work out for me and they ended up being 240pts of comparative uselessness! I can only think that 300pts of Hive Guard will significantly outperform my experiences with the Zoanthropes and at least be more consistently useful.

Lets move to the core of the army, Troops. No surprises here, I'm going with two units of ten Termagants and two Tervigons, I'm not totally convinced that it's is enough but it's a staple and I'm not going to make a significant change just yet. In terms if load-out, I'm dropping the Crushing Claws I have used previously to save 50pts. Other than that I'm still taking three powers, Toxin Sacs and Cluster Spines and running the Termagants as they come.

This leaves me with 270pts left to spend. I want a list that's shooty and I have high volume mid-range shooting pretty well covered, all of this shooting is relatively high strength and can handle most vehicles and infantry. Since the meta is typically troop focused at the moment, adding some long range anti infantry shooting would seem a reasonable addition and for 90 points 2 Biovores look to be good value. I like the large blast and the fact that you can try to snipe specific models out of units with it, the range is also significantly longer than anything else in the list so I like what that brings to the army.

180pts left and I'm coming back to the Parasite and what he and his unit bring to the Army. Sometimes you're going to be content to sit at midfield and shoot, waiting for the opportunity to counter attack. Sometimes, however, you want to be able to go on the offensive, even if it's a feint, and a single unit is not going to be a significant threat and will be too easy to focus firs down. So I think I'm looking for another unit to support an offensive or harassment tactic. First thought is to give the existing Gargoyles Adrenal Glands (I already give them Toxin Sacs) and then by a second 20-man unit with the same load-out. However, I think what I want is something different, which I can use differently, also 40 Gargoyles are going to be very hard to manoeuvre effectively because they are pretty damn bulky.

I might come back to the Gargoyles later but for the moment I'm going to try a Mawloc with Toxin Sacs. With his Terror from the Deep ability he can get across the board quickly and be a threat, he's pretty tough and hit and run lets him get away to burrow again if he gets into trouble. On his own he's not a big threat and pretty easy to deal with, but used in conjunction with the Parasite's unit I think it will make for an effective tag-team and may allow both units to pick the specific targets they need to engage in order to be effective.

So this represents the development of my Blog Wars 4 List, the Zoanthropes, Raveners and Trygon are gone and in their stead we have Gargoyles, Hive Guard, Biovores and a Mawloc. I'll let you know how I get on.

HQ
Parasite
Prime – Lash Whip & Bonesword, Deathspitter

ELITE
Hive Guard x3
Hive Guard x3

TROOPS
Termagant x10
Termagant x10
Tervigon – Cluster Spines, Toxin Sacs, 3 Powers
Tervigon – Cluster Spines, Toxin Sacs, 3 Powers

FAST ATTACK
Gargoyles x20 – Toxin Sacs

HEAVY SUPPORT
Carnifex x2 – 2x TL Devourers w. Brainleech Worms each
Mawloc – Toxin Sacs
Biovore x2

The Week That Was ...

I'm in a glass case of emotion!

26^th October – 1^st November

Chaos Win

Looks like I may have done well to avoid playing Mick’s Chaos list last week because I was roundly spanked by Gav’s Chaos Marines/Daemons list this Thursday. In fairness the list is something we’re working on together for the Battle Brothers tournament in January so Gav cannot be held wholly responsible for the giant slice of gorgonzola that he served up to me and, but for some poor dice and poor decision-making, I could have done a lot better. Before I spout off about the game here’s an overview of the lists:

1500pts - Purge the Alien/Vanguard

Marines/Daemons:

Huron

Great Unclean One of Nurgle

Flamers of Tzeentch (5)

2x Chaos Space Marine Squad (14) 2x Plasma, 1 Sgt w. Lightning Claw

Pink Horrors (5) w. The Changeling

Helldrake w. Baelflamer

Screamers of Tzeentch (5)

Obliterators (2) MoN

Tyranids

Prime w. 2x Boneswords & Deathspitter

2x Hive Guard (3)

2x Termagant (10)

2x Tervigon Crushing Claws, Cluster Spines, Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs, three 6^th ed Powers

Raveners (5) Rending Claws

Carnifex Brood (2) 2x TL Devourers each

I went second but due to Huron’s Trait I was basically deploying blind as Gav rolled a 3 for his number of units able to infiltrate. I set up a fairly balanced front but with the ‘fex/Prime unit  on my left flank in cover but within reach of his Oblits, and the Raveners dead centre. I also held both units of Termagants in reserve. Gav infiltrated his two large Marine Squads in cover to my right with Huron’s unit more towards the centre.

The first turn began with Gav getting his preferred wave so down came the Screamers, right in front of my Raveners, and the Flamers, right between my Carnifexes and a unit of Hive Guard. The Screamers turbo-boosted over my Raveners causing about 3 wounds and the Flamers took two wounds off the Prime and one off a Carnifex. Could have been worse! In my first turn I poured the Carnifexes into the flamers reducing them to two models and the two Cluster Spines and Hive Guard into the Screamers, reducing them to two models as well.

Poor decision #1 I did not spawn any ‘gants because this is a VP scenario and I did not want to contribute more VPs to the pool. However if I’d had the units available I’d have been able to mop up the remaining models in each unit giving me 2 VPs for the kills and an extra one for first blood. The ‘gants would have been in a relatively safe position and able to react to the next wave of Daemons to drop.

Poor decision #2 I charged the remaining Flamers with my ‘fex/Prime unit. The overwatch fire caused 3 wounds killing off the wounded Carnifex and the resulting combat only succeeded in killing 2 of the remaining 3 Flamers. This was largely caused by my decision not to shoot the remaining Flamers with the nearest unit of Hive Guard though as they could probably have finished them off!

Poor decision #3 Charging Huron’s unit with my Raveners, through cover, at a distance of 9”. Obviously this was unsuccessful and the overwatch fire took the unit down to 3 models. Not good!

Sure enough Gav got the Great Unclean One and the Horrors next, blocking the progress of my ‘fex/Prime unit with the big fella and putting the Horrors in my backfield to give me another reason to think twice before advancing on his juicy units of Marines. His shooting was effective, finishing off the Raveners in the middle and taking a wound off the Tervigon on the extreme right flank. My shooting phase, however, was much more productive ... for Gav! I chose to spawn two units of ‘gants this time and one of the units in reserve came on, from here on in I think the rest of the turn can be summed up as follows:

Poor decision #4 I chose to shoot at the Pink Horrors! Sure enough the unit of Termagants failed their leadership and shot at the recently spawned unit of ‘gants killing a couple of models. Then (less stupidly – but no less unsuccessfully) my Tervigon failed his leadership test and plonked his pie-plate on top of the depleted ‘gant unit finishing them off.

Poor decision #5 After charging the Great Unclean One (who was Enfeebled I might add) with a bunch of poisoned ‘gants I also piled in my Carnifex and Prime. If I’d rolled better this would have been fine but as it was I got stuck in combat for another 2 player turns eventually losing the Prime to a challenge and everything else along the way. Only taking the Great Unclean One with me thanks to a Warp Speed buffed Tervigon charging in a turn later.

The rest of the game was rather academic since I lost all three secondary conditions and was behind on VPs even without those. I definitely could have played it better but at least I’m seeing what I’ve done wrong and hopefully I can correct this in the future.

I’m not putting it all down to my mistakes either, Gav played a blinder (clearly still sore about Space Hulk the previous week), but I think that if I’d kept my wits about be and not been quite such a knuckle-head I could have given him a bit more of a game!

If I could do it all again I would have spawned ‘gants in turn 1 and not allowed the Daemons in my back-field slow my advance. Also I should have just tar-pitted the Great Unclean One with poisoned ‘gants, they would have killed him eventually and I think my Monstrous Creatures would have had a good chance at wiping the Marine squads if they’d been able to get there!

I think that playing Tyranids, more than any army I’ve used before, requires you to have a rock solid plan going into a game and a number of factors (some of which may be out of your control) can quickly wreck that plan making recovering anything from the game very hard work. Not to mention that if you plan poorly or make silly mistakes during the game, any chance of being competitive can very quickly go out of the window. This is undoubtedly a lesson that applies to all armies and it’s a testament to my lack of success at tournaments that I have not been able to learn this lesson to date. Perhaps my experiences with Tyranids will make a better player out of me!

And in other news

Overpowered units. When 6^th was brand spanking new, everyone was asking, “How are you going to deal with Flyers?”. I think that in most situations (even though this question still pops up more often than not) my answer is, “I’m just going to ignore them”. Admittedly it’s going to be very hard to ignore multiple Vendettas when playing a Monstrous Creature-heavy list, but in that case I will try to force them to Hover to make the most out of their Lascannons and at that point I need to be in position to jump on them with something killy! Perhaps this is a naive position but I’m going to drop shooting capability from my next test list and see how it goes.

Now the overpowered unit label seems to have been applied to those troublesome Screamers and Flamers from the Chaos Daemons Codex and I have to say that they certainly do worry me, particularly as I’m probably not going to be carrying any significant shooting in the next few test lists. However if you play a list with a suitable amount of shooting in it, and as this is 6^th ed you really ought to be able to shoot, I can’t see these units being unmanageable. If you put fire-power into them they will crumble and then what has the list got? Probably some very poor scoring units with low survivability and a Monstrous Creature or two, this should be manageable. If a game is balanced you should not be able to win easily, it should be tough, it should be a challenge. And I really don’t qualify 27 Screamers and 27 Flamers as an “I Win Button”.

Let’s hear your thoughts, I’m sure you all have some!

The week that was ...

You stay classy, The Internet!

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!)

Tyranid List Development

I learnt a lot about playing Tyranids at Open War this weekend, and even though 3 games isn’t enough to say anything definitive about how a list works, it’s given me a good idea of where I think my current list can be tweaked, and of the units I would like to try out.

Firstly the core of the army will be as follows:

Prime w. 2x Bone Sword & Deathspitter – 95

Tervigon w. Crushing Claws, Cluster Spines, Toxin Sacs & 3 powers – 225

Tervigon w. Crushing Claws, Cluster Spines, Adrenal Glands & 3 powers – 225

Termagants – 50

Termagants – 50

Carnifex Brood w. 2x Twin Linked Devourers w. Brain Leech Worms – 380

Core price = 1025pts

The Prime was great but the scything talons were not that useful, I feel that by dropping Regeneration and replacing the talons with a Deathspitter he becomes more synergistic with the Carnifexes he accompanies and doesn’t really lose anything significant.

The Tervigons were “money” all weekend and I felt that the Zoanthropes were a little exposed; so by taking an additional power on the Tervigons I increase their chances of getting useful powers and they can potentially offset the buffing role of the Zoanthropes. Adding Crushing Claws to both of them as well gives them a significant boost in Close Combat making them a serious threat as well as being a scoring Mummy Bug/Unit Buffer – great value for points.

The Termegants are necessary to get the Tervigons as Troops. I think I will be more cautious with these guys in the future, probably reserving them most of the time as they proved to be very fragile.

Lastly the Carnifexes were brutal, their anti-infantry shooting is an impressive sight to behold and they’re handy in a scrap too, particularly with the Prime in tow to challenge any tricky special characters.

This give me a list at 25pts over 1000, so to make it fit into a 1000 point game I would probably just drop a set of Crushing Claws on one of the Tervigons.

In order to get up to 1500pts I think I would always add the following:

3x Hiveguard – 150

3x Hiveguard – 150

2x Zoanthrope – 120

I really noticed the lack of anti-vehicle fire-power; the Carnifexes are very good at light armour but anything over AV12 is beyond their power to damage unless they get really close. Two units of 3 Hive Guard should sort out these problems in short order, and I say this with an apology to the readers who told me before the tournament that they should be in the list. I thought I could get along without them and I really did miss them, so you were right and I will take better heed of you in the future.

My original concept was to use Zoanthropes as unit buffers and this worked reasonably well but they made for easy kill points and soft targets in general. Adding them in here is not something I’m completely set on as I could take Doom in a Pod with the points I have spare but I do believe that psychic buffs are critical to the success of Tyranids at the moment so I’m going to stick with this model for a little while at least to see if the concept works out.

With the remaining points to build towards a 1500pt list I’m probably just going to increase the number of Termagants in each unit to improve their durability. As mentioned above, units of 10 were very noticeable in just how easy they were to kill over the weekend.

From here to get to 1750 and 1850pt lists I go two different ways, in both instances I will drop some of the additional Termagants added in the last step to make the points work.

At 1750pts I would look to add a Hive Tyrant (flying or walking is yet to be decided) probably with Old Adversary. If on foot I’d want 2 Tyrant Guard and Lash Whip & Bonesword with Scything Talons and Reinforced Shell and if flying I’d go with 2x TL Devourers.

At 1850pts I would take the Parasite and one or two big units of Gargoyles (depending on the points available). Closing the distance to your opponent is so important for this army and Gargoyles supported by the Parasite have a good chance of getting there quickly and in a big enough unit they will hopefully have the bodies left to do some damage and tie up something useful once they get there.

That’s it for thoughts on the ‘nids right now, I’m off to build some Gargoyles!!

Open War 18 - Flight of the Tyranids

Last weekend was the 1st Company Veterans Club's twice annual tournament - Open War. It's held in Maelstrom Games in Mansfield and this is the 6th consecutive one I've attended, but my first with Tyranids.

I took the following:

Flying Hive Tyrant w. 2x TL Devourers & Hive Commander
Tyranid Prime w. 2x Boneswords, Scything Talons & Regen

Zoanthrope
Zoanthrope

Tervigon w. Cluster Spines, Toxin Sacs & 2 Powers
Tervigon w. Crushing Claws, Cluster Spines, Toxin Sacs & 2 Powers
10 Termagants
10 Termagants

Mawloc
Trygon
2x Carnifexes w. 2x TL Devourers each

The plan was simple, throw it at the enemy and see what happens!

G1 vs. Necrons (Check out Towers' Blog here http://wingsofsanguinius.blogspot.com)


Destroyer Lord w. Warscythe, Weave and Mind-Shackle Scarabs

5 Necrons w. Ghost Ark
5 Necrons w. Doom Scythe
5 Necrons w. Doom Scythe
12 Necrons w. Doom Scythe

6 Wraiths w. 2x Whip Coils
9 Scarab Bases

3x 3 Tomb Spyders

The mission was Kill Points with Hammer and Anvil Deployment.

This was a list I’d heard a lot about but never faced and I felt it would be a tough match-up for me, his Wraith and Destroyer Lord unit would be difficult to keep away from and hard to deal with in assault. The sea of scarabs could potentially tie up a unit indefinitely which would severely hamper my killing power and he had more monstrous creatures than I did so in a straight-up fight I would be in trouble. All this coupled with the fact that this was only the second time I’d used the Tyranids in anger meant I was not entirely optimistic.

However, it started well with the Carnifexes significantly reducing his scarab population and the Tervigon on my right flank ploughing into his Ghost Ark and wrecking it, “1st Blood” to me! I’d also set up an assault where I could charge his Wraith unit with a pile of ‘gants and get my Trygon in on one side in an attempt to maximise his effectiveness and minimise his exposure to Wraiths and the Lord. I thought this looked a good option but it turns out I was wrong.

The Wraiths took everything I threw at them and pretty much laughed it off while dealing plenty of rending attacks back to my Trygon. Keeping endurance on him kept him in the fight longer than he deserved to be, sadly though while he was holding on the ‘gant screen was being comfortably eaten away and a unit of Spyders were now in range to charge the Trygon. So in a desperate attempt to turn the combat back in my favour I threw my Tyrant in there and challenged the Lord a flubbed Mind-Shackle roll later and I was down to 1 wound. This did not end well for me.

On the other flank the Carnifex and Prime unit had been charged by the scarab screen and while overwatch had thinned out their numbers again I was failing to roll 2+ to wound like it was going out of style. 6 rounds of combat later I was down to 1 Carnifex and on the last combat round of the game he failed to kill the last Scarab base needing only a 2+. That little event summed up the game for me.

I can’t put it all down to dice though, my opponent managed all of the above without his air support who stayed off the board until turn 4. His target priority and movement was excellent. He did exactly what he needed to to win the game 23-7

G2 vs. Black Templars w Dark Angels

Emperor’s Champion w. Abhor the Witch
Marshall w. Meltabombs
Chaplain
Dark Angels Chaplain

Assault Squad 5-man w. Powerfist

10 Initiates & 6 neophytes w. Power Sword & Flamer
10 Initiates & 6 neophytes w. Power Sword & Flamer
6 Initiates w. Missile Launcher & Meltagun in a Razorback w TL Heavy Bolters
5 Dark Angels Tactical Marines w Power Sword & Plasma Gun in a Rhino

5 Dark Angels Devastators w 2x Missile Launchers & 2x Plasma Cannons

Aegis Defence Line w. Quad Gun

The Mission was Big Guns Never Tire with a Vanguard Deployment.

I don’t think there has been a tournament that both Keith and I have attended where we haven’t ended up playing each-other and after losing to his Daemon Hunters in our first meeting I don’t think I’ve lost to him since. With my experience of being on the wrong side of a fair number Space Marine vs Tyranid encounters in the past and with his pretty combat oriented list I have to say I was feeling confident about my chances here again.

I got first turn and decided to start with my Tyrant on the board, outflanking a brood of ‘gants to hopefully take one of the objectives close to the edge of the board. My Tyrant flew foward and attempted to take down the quad gun early but only managed to cause a single wound, the Tervigon on the right pooped out 7 ‘gants and doubled out with two 2s and a 3! The one on the left however was a baby machine and didn’t stop all game effectively securing the two objectives on that side by himself.

In the centre the Trygon made short work of the Dev squad manning the Quad Gun with an audacious 11” 2nd turn charge. Again I made the frankly stupid decision to land my Tyrant and charge him into the Initiate squad with the Marshall on the centre hill. This guy is not equipped for combat and he was eventually laid low by a well placed Melta bomb, by that time however the Trygon was engaged with the same unit and their fate was sealed.

Over on the right was where it could have gone wrong but the bunged up Tervigon and the Carnifex-Prime unit saved the day taking on the other initiate squad which had the Chaplain and the Emperor’s champion in it. The Prime and Champion killed each other in an epic challenge leaving the ‘fexes to finish off the unit , which was not an easy task with a single wounded Carnifex remaining standing after a couple of rounds of combat. The hero for Keith’s Army was the Dark Angels Chaplain who refused to die and hung in against an Iron Arm powered Tervigon until the game ended. The result was 25-5 in my favour but Keith definitely had dice that made my 1st game dice look poor so that was a bit of a flattering score-line!

G3 vs Imperial Guard w. Daemons

Company Command Squad w. Heavy Bolter
The Masque

7 Flamers of Tzeentch

Platoon w Mortars & Autocannons
Veterans w Meltaguns & Chimera
5 Plaguebearers

Vendetta
Hellhound
Hellhound
7 Screamers of Tzeentch

Griffon
Demolisher

Bastion w. Quad Gun

The mission was Crusade with Dawn of War Deployment.

I’ll start by saying that I did not really enjoy this game despite the fact that my opponent was a nice enough guy to talk to, I just found his use of the rules exploitative when he was running a powerful enough list and was a good enough player not to really have to do what he did ... more on that later.

This game I rolled by far the worst lot of psychic powers of any game in the tournament – I don’t think effected the result but it did throw a spanner in the works and made my units feel a lot less powerful. I got first turn and decided to outflank the Tervigon who got Warp Speed (definitely not something I’m referring to in the previous sentence!) as I figured he could do a number on the inevitable back-line of vehicles. I started with the rest of my units on the board. Sensibly he only deployed long range shooty units which I did not have the firepower to deal with in turn 1 and possibly turn 2. So I walked into a gunline and my termagants were gone, typically the Tervigon on the board bunged up on turn 1 to the tune of about 9 ‘gants so I was not feeling confident about my chances of holding any objectives and I had conceded 1st Blood.

He got his non-preferred wave which saved me from the pain of the Screamers and Flamers arriving together but the Masque’s Pavane was allowing the Hellhounds to make short work of my units. Despite this I really had to just ignore her and get on with the task at hand, crossing the board! Thanks to the anti-aircraft fire on the board my Tyrant was a dead-man walking, he did manage to kill 3 of the 5 plague bearers before he bought it though ...

So I’d lost the left flank and the two objectives there so I focussed on the 3 objectives to the centre right of the board and here’s where I got a bit miffed. I was in range of charging his Bastion with my Carnifex unit (I bet some of you know what’s coming here) but my opponent pointed out to me the fact that the Bastion was technically unoccupied (his unit was on the battlements) and as it clearly says in the rulebook, I cannot target an unoccupied building. What made this worse was the fact that he’d positioned the Bastion so that the door was against his long table edge so I could not get into it to assault the unit on top. I didn’t argue this because the rule is clear and despite what I think I’m not the kind of guy to argue against Rules as Written on a point of fluff – that didn’t stop me for feeling pretty shitty about his use of what in any other game would probably be considered an “exploit” though.

It was really irrelevant though because the game was pretty much lost at this point. My bunged up Tervigon had experienced the exquisite pain of being charged by Screamers which was a total surprise to me having not seen them since the update. Needless to say my frustrated Carnifex unit rounded on them and vapourised them immediately after they’d finished with the Tervigon. Unfortunately for me he still had the flamers and they made quick work of the units I had left in the centre leaving me with a Trygon and the Tervigon who had outflanked, these guys were the heroes of my weekend!

The Trygon eventually succumbed to overwhelming focussed firepower but not before taking out a couple of units of guard and a vehicle. The Tervigon, however, would not die and would not stop pumping out ‘gants. He actually managed to spawn a big enough unit that I felt I could risk a charge with them against the remaining flamers. I gambled well and they made it in and were probably a only turn short of wiping the unit but sadly the game ended on turn 6 and I’d moved my Tyrgon off the Objective to be able to spawn the ‘gants within charge range of the Flamer, and forgotten to move him back. So I lost 25-5 to a far better opponent but despite the fact it really didn’t make a difference to the result I was just left with a bad feeling about the game because of the tactics with the Bastion, which is a shame because he seemed like a nice guy.

... although he was using those giant square “casino-style” dice which just don’t roll and I really don’t think are suitable for tabletop gaming use. But what do I care, I wasn’t there to win the thing just have a few games with a new army. I certainly got a lot out of it and I’m looking forward to putting the Tyranids back on the table-top very soon!

Codex Space Marines in 6th - First Impressions

6th Ed - I'm in a happy place.

After a weekend at Tim’s Summer Skirmish, a 500pt 6^th Ed. Tournament involving 10 singles games and 3 doubles games, I feel ready to give a first impression of the new 40K.

Firstly what does 6^th mean to my army?

The majority of my experience has been with Codex: Space Marines (13/14 games) and I think I’m going to stick with them for the short – medium term. I don’t think much has changed in terms of how best to employ them strategically, they are still a durable, gun-line style army with the ability to withstand assault from all but the most dedicated of combat troops. As before they do not fare well in protracted assaults though, unless you’re talking about Assault Terminators! The change to Rapid Fire and the introduction of Snap Fire are both massive benefits to Vanilla Marines considering the nerf that vehicles took; now you are as effective while mobile on foot as you are standing still, Heavy Weapons excepting – but that’s a small price to pay for not being totally reliant on vehicles to re-deploy. Mobility is king at the moment and while Marines are not particularly fast, they can move and still be very effective which is all you need to be as a gun-line army.

Space Marines trade off all-out shooting power for the durability of T4 and a 3+ save so they’re never going to be as good at shooting as armies like Imperial Guard. In the past I’ve used this fact as an excuse to try to build my Marine lists to be able to assault armies which they “cannot” out-shoot. However I will now be building my Marine lists to be as shooty as possible while also playing to their strength in durability.

Lastly, assault. With the way wounds are now allocated, the reduction in the general quality of cover saves and the introduction of Overwatch I feel weight of numbers king for assaulting units but needs to be used in conjunction with speed and positioning. Marines cannot do weight of numbers in the traditional sense but their increased durability over typical, assault-centric units acts as something of a trade-off. Unfortunately, as I stated above, they are not fast and if you’re trying to assault a shooty army (which is probably the only time you would consider an assault to be tactically viable) chances are that they are going to be able to put out enough shooting to ensure you never make it into contact – if you are foot-slogging it from your deployment zone. So unless you want to include assault vehicles or jump troops I would forget assault as a strategy in all but the most desperate circumstances.

In terms of specifics I like the Thunderfire Cannon even more than I used to, though it’s cover denial round is a little less useful because cover is less reliable. Tactical Terminators are great, lots of durable shooting, don’t leave home without a Cyclone. Attack Bikes are nice, not sure it I’m going to lean towards Melta or Heavy Bolters but initially I’ll be trying out Melta. After seeing flyers in action, I want a Stormtalon Gunship in my list. I think sniper scouts will be making a come-back into my list, just as a deck-chair unit though, cheep and cheerful, hoping for the occasional contribution. Lastly at the moment I’m very sold on combat tactics so I won’t be running any special characters as HQ unless it’s Calgar. Combat Tactics is surely going to be golden against very combat focussed armies and I want to try this out as much as possible in the early stages of 6^th.

Secondly what do I think about the rule-set?

So far, so good to be honest. Assault is frustrating but I’m playing Marines and this is not their forte, perhaps the frustration will be lessened with more specialist scrappers! I think all the comments about the rules being clunky and slow in places have been greatly exaggerated, the game is pretty smooth and I found assault to flow quite well. The emphasis put on movement due to the way wounds are now allocated makes the game feel more tactical and the changes to rapid fire, and the ability to snap fire Heavy Weapons makes the movement phase more involved (for my Marines at least) – this is a great thing.

Shooting is very powerful, even more so than in 5^th, because it’s the closest models that go down first you can keep a charging enemy at bay with concentrated firepower and a couple of lucky overwatch kills, if he is not positioned well. Also the reduction in the average cover save, combined with the ability to focus-fire means shooting will be more effective in general.

Changes to terrain are a mixed bag, I love the random tables for woods, ruins etc but some people won’t. The reduction of the standard cover save is a big deal for some armies and less so for others, I found myself avoiding terrain trying to get to the IG lines as quickly as possible on a few occasions because I felt the 5+ save wasn’t worth it, where in the past I would have hugged terrain very carefully. As it turns  out charging down-field is not something Marines do well (or have ever done well if I’m honest)

Vehicles are suffering at the moment because of peoples’ general perception that they won’t last 5 seconds looking down the barrel of a gauss-gun. Fair comment but I think Necrons (whilst powerful) will be less prevalent than Grey Knights were at the end of 5^th and unless you are facing down a ton of rapid firing gauss, Vehicles are not dead in the water and do have an important part to play in 6^th.

I’ll finish off with Flyers, I love them. I saw a lot of Vendettas this weekend and they were extremely effective. This will be tempered by the introduction of units with skyfire and related rules, but at the moment they are pretty amazing. If you have access to them in your codex, you need to seriously consider making room for them in in your next 6^th Ed tournament list.

I finished the tournament with 6 wins and 3 losses in the singles games, placing second in the 2^nd bracket (for the second year running!) and 0-3 in my doubles games, frankly we were out-classed and out-gunned, and I had a great time. In summary I think 6^th is a great breath of fresh air for a system that had become somewhat stale, however for competitive tournament play it may ruffle a few feathers and how tournaments adapt to the changes remains to be seen. I am optimistic that 6^th will remain an enjoyable game for the foreseeable future though and I plan to get a fair few games in between now and Christmas to get my Space Marine army down-pat.

6th of one, half a dozen of the other

Andy and I played our first game of 6th edition 40K on Saturday. We played 500 points on a 4x4 board and rolled up the D3+2 Objective mission. Now, I have to admit that this will probably be the worst "initial thoughts" piece that you read on 6th edition as due to Andy's incredibly poor dice rolls, it was a very one sided game and we didn't even get close to having any combat.

Shooting

Let's not kid ourselves, 40K was a shooting game in 5th edition and very little has changed for 6th in that regard. The change in the Toughness rules have made some units more survivable but with cover getting worse and new Rules like Focused Fire and Precision Shot make shooting even better.

Now, we found shooting in the new edition to be very straightforward. However, we didn't have any units containing models with different saving throws. The key now is going to be how you arrange your units to try and protect the important models. I set up my Long Fangs in a T-shape with the Pack Leader at the front so that he would take the first unsaved wound. However, what would I have done if I had been Outflanked?

Andy had an even harder choice as he had a five man Devastator unit containing a Sergeant, three Missile Launchers and a regular Bolter Marine. On my turn one, they were going to take fire from my Long Fangs on the right hand side of the board and a Living Lightning Rune Priest in the centre. There was no way to set up his unit so that he could protect the important squad members from incoming fire.

Bookkeeping

There seems to be a lot more of this in the new edition. From Hull Points to Mysterious Objectives to Warp Charge, it seems that every phase has something that you need to make a note of.

Go First and Win

In 5th edition there were some army builds that were considered to have a huge advantage if they went first, those that could put out a crippling alpha strike from which the opponent would struggle to recover. Now not only do we have the same issue in 6th edition but you also get a point for it. I go first, kill one of your units and get, what could be, in some missions, the winning Victory Point.

Next Steps

Play some more games. It was a real shame that we didn't manage to get any combat going apart from a charge against a Rhino. I have to admit that I don't hold out much hope for combat as I think that the changes to the Fearless rules make it a lot less killy than previously. However, that's based on conjecture rather than evidence. There are also a lot of other rules that we didn't actually get to try including Hammer of Wrath and Nightfight (didn't get it Turn 1)

However, I still think that my list should so alright in 6th with only a few changes. Three units of Long Fangs are still awesome as is the Rune Priest. Grey Hunters remain one of the best Troops in the game even if they can't assault out of their Rhino any more. However, the Scouts might have to go and I need some more units for the Club's Tale of Gamers

Elephant in the room

Or rather above the room. One of the other things we didn't use on saturday was fliers. Now from what I've read in the rulebook and what I've seen on the internet, these are clearly going to be huge in 6th edition. Now, I have no doubt at all that eventually Space Wolves will be given the option of Flakk Missiles. However, I can't see that happening until GW have sold loads of fliers and most Wolf players have either gone out and bought allies or fortifications. Cynical? Yes, but you have to admit that it's pretty good marketing. For now, I'm going to focus on shooting everything that isn't a flyer and hope that they don't have too much of an impact. This isn't really a strategy though and while it might be successful for the first few months of this new edition as people slowly acquire fliers, it's of little use in the long term...

How is everyone else finding the new edition? It seems like it's going to be slower to play but is that just because it's all still new?

The King is Dead! Long Live the King!

A Plasma Gun, a Plasma Gun! My kingdom for a Plasma Gun

Back in 5th edition, Melta was king. Cheaper than Plasma and better against vehicles, it was a no brainer. However, in 6th, Rapid Fire is better, cover is worse, Wound Allocation has changed and you can now glance vehicles to death. Also, with Power Weapons being AP3, we're probably going to be seeing more Terminators. So, therein lies the question - is this the age of Plasma?

Well, yes. And no. Plasma does look a lot more useful in this edition so I think we'll see a corresponding increase in its use. However, Melta is still the king of anti-tank. Plus, it also has that additional point of strength which is crucial in bypassing FNP and causing instant death on T4 models.

From a personal point of view, I think I'll be going 50:50 with Melta and Plasma rather than all Melta as in the last edition.

Moving to Plasma? Sticking with Melta? Trying Flamers for their D3 auto-hits on Overwatch? Let us know...

Jump!I

This man doesn't need a jump pack

So, I actually managed to play a game four weeks ago but I haven't actually written about it until now. To give you an idea of how long ago it was, Andy subsequently changed his list and then dropped out of playing last weekend's Indy GT altogether. No pictures unfortunately but here are some hazy recollections. First up, let's look at the two armies...

Space Wolves

Rune Priest, Chooser of the Slain, Living Lightning, Murderous Hurricane
10 Wolf Guard, 8 Combi-Meltas, Wolf Claw, 2x Cyclone Missile Launcher, Drop Pod
5 Wolf Scouts, Meltagun
5 Wolf Scouts, Meltagun
5 Grey Hunters, Meltagun, Rhino
5 Grey Hunters, Meltagun, Rhino
5 Grey Hunters, Meltagun, Rhino
5 Grey Hunters, Meltagun, Rhino
5 Grey Hunters, Meltagun, Rhino
5 Grey Hunters, Meltagun, Rhino
6 Long Fangs, 5 Missile Launchers
6 Long Fangs, 5 Missile Launchers
6 Long Fangs, 5 Missile Launchers

This seems to have evolved into my preferred 1750 point list now for Wolves.

Blood Angels

Mephiston
5 Sanguinary Guard
3 Sanguinary Priests, 1 Jump Pack
10 Assault Marines, 2 Meltaguns
10 Assault Marines, 2 Meltaguns
2 Multimelta Attack Bikes
2 Multimelta Attack Bikes
5 Devastators, 3 Missile Launchers, Lascannon
5 Devastators, 3 Missile Launchers, Lascannon

Looking at this army as Andy unpacks it from the case, there are a couple of things I'm really worried about - Mephy and the Nipple Guard. They are just going to shrug off all of my long range AP3 firepower and while that's happening, 20 Assault Marines are getting in my face.

The Game

So, we roll up Kill Points with Spearhead deployment and Andy wins the roll off to go first. Not good; that's  going to give me a turn less of shooting to deal with everything coming at me. Then he announces that the Assault Marines are going to Deep Strike in. Suddenly things are looking up. Then both Devastator squads get put into cover with their attached Priests. However, both of these pieces of terrain are a long way away from my deployment zone. In fact I can place two of my Long Fang packs out of range of the Devs, allowing me to shoot away at everything else without taking any long range reprisals.

As for my deployment, I decide that the 8 Wolf Guard with Combi-Meltas are going to sacrifice their lives to take out Mephiston. Some people will say that using two Kill Points to take out one is a quick route to defeat. However, I knew that if Mephy got into my lines then he'd carve his way through my 5 man squads and there would be very little that I could do to stop him. The two Scout packs went Behind Enemy Lines in an attempt to team up and mug one of the Devastator squads. I also reserved 5/6 of the Rhinos, reasoning that they and their squads would be more useful later on, once the Blood Angels were a bit closer.

Early Turns

On Andy's first turn, his Bikes Turbo-Boosted forward, Mephiston failed to cast "Wings" so he had to walk while the Sanguinary Guard made haste towards my lines. The Devastator squads opened fire on the only Long Fang pack in range and managed to take out a couple of them despite them being in cover.

The Wolf Guard did their job by killing Mephiston while their Drop Pod managed to block off the shooting of one of the Devastator squads following a fortuitous scatter. My Long Fangs also took out three of the four Attack Bikes.

The Sanguinary Guard turned round to deal with the Wolf Guard which they did with aplomb. The Drop Pod was also wrecked. On the other side of the board the two Assault Squads arrived.

Frag Missiles and Murderous Hurricane thinned out the Assault Marines while a Wolf Scout Pack kept one unit of Devastators tied up.

Middle & End Turns

The Assault Marines got held up in combat by the Long Fangs which stopped them getting shot but it did mean that they could be assaulted by my Rune Priest and a couple of units of Grey Hunters. By the time that the Sanguinary Guard arrived the battle was pretty much over and even they were finally put down (although 2+ save and FNP does require a lot of firepower!)

We totted up the Kill Points and I'd won by two. Let's have a quick look at what I did well and badly:

Deployment

Reserving half my army worked out amazingly well. I knew that I couldn't deploy the Rhinos too far forward because they'd get charged early in the game. I also knew that if I deployed them too far back in my quarter then I would be cutting down on LOS for the Long Fang Packs. I also did something else I never normally do - deployed two Long Fang Packs out of cover. After seeing where Andy has placed his Devastators I knew that I could put them out in the open and not face any long range reprisals. It also meant I had great firelanes over the areas that I thought Andy would be attacking from.

Actually, my overall play was pretty good and I managed to make the most of a couple of mistakes that Andy made (see below) However, I too made a couple of silly mistakes (yet again!)

Play The Mission

Behind Enemy Lines is a brilliant rule. It allows your Wolf Scouts to sneak up on your opponent's heavy weapons and wither keep them tied up for a couple of turns or wipe them out altogether. However, a 5-man unit with no special close combat weapons is really going to struggle against a Devastator squad with attached Sanguinary Priest. Yes, I managed to keep them locked in combat for a couple of turns but I was never going to be able to wipe them out due to that FNP. In a war of attrition I was onto a loser. Now, in a normal game this wouldn't be a problem. However, in this game it cost me a Kill Point and nearly cost me a second one in order to tie up a unit that didn't really have anything to shoot at anyway.

Split Fire

I hate to waste shots. It really annoys me when I fire five guns at two guys and do five wounds because I feel I've "wasted" three wounds. It caused me some issues last month against Graham and I went and did the same thing here. In turn 1, the only really viable target for my Long Fangs were the Attack Bikes. Instead of firing one Pack at one unit and a second Pack at the other, I tried to do some fancy fire splitting in the hope of firing some shots at a third target. Net result? One Bike still left alive. Of course I managed to finish it off later in the game but that could easily have cost me a Kill Point.

Turning my attention to the other side of the table, Andy made a big mistake in deployment and a smaller one in turn 2 that exacerbated it:

Deployment

As I said near the start of the article I was really worried by the thought of 20 Assault Marines, 5 Sanguinary Guard and Mephiston jumping towards my lines. Keeping the Assault Marines off the board limited my targets and hence limited the chances of me picking the wrong one. With the Guard and the Attack Bikes out front at least one of the units would have had cover from any long range shooting I sent there way. The Assault Marines could also have used the Sanguinary Priest that was attached to the Sanguinary Guard. As it was, most of the fire that went into the Guard would have ignored the FNP anyway while the Marines needed both that and Furious Charge to be more effective.

Playing The Mission

At the top of Turn 2, Andy turned around the scary Sanguinary Guard to go and deal with the Wolf Guard. They comfortably wiped them out but this meant that they were seriously delayed in getting to the business end of the game. When they got stuck in they did some serious damage but by then they were the only target that was left to deal with. If they'd turned up earlier, while there were some Assault Marines around, I would have had some serious problems. Yes, my Wolf Guard would probably have taken out a Devastator squad but I think the Sanguinary Guard  could have covered that spread.

I really like Andy's list and think he could have done pretty well with it at the Indy GT. The only change Id make would be maybe trying to get another Jump Pack for one of the Priests since I think it would be more useful having Priests with both Assault squads rather than both Devastator squads. As for my list, I was really happy with the way it played. I'm pretty tempted to stick with it through the dogs days of 5th edition but now I've got some Thunderwolves I'm going to damn well use them!

Monday Musings

Get your motor running...

Be Careful What You Wish For

For years, I was moaning about the lack of official models for Thunderwolf Cavalry. Now that they're finally out, I can't stop looking at the cost. 235 points for three TWC. For slightly less points I can get 4 Swiftclaws, a Meltagun, a Multimelta Attack Bike and a Wolf Guard to lead them on a Bike with a Combi-Melta and a Power Fist.

So, what do the bikes bring that the TWC can't?

Shooting - With the bikes you get to take part in the shooting phase of the game as well as the assault phase. Being Relentless, you get to Rapid Fire the Bolters before you charge and with them being Twin-Linked you're compensating for the Swiftclaws main deficiency (don't forget that statistically, Twin-Linked BS3 is better than BS4!) Also, with the Melta weapons in the squad, they have the chance to destroy vehicles and then charge the passengers rather than relying on help from other anti-vehicle units.

Speed - Yes a potential 24" charge range is enormous. However, it is only potential. In the movement phase TWC are actually only as fast as regular infantry. Bikes can travel 12" in every movement phase and can Turbo-Boost 18"-24" for a 3+ cover save.

Let's look at the Thunderwolves' plus points...

Fleet - the ability to charge between 13" and 18" is huge and one of the biggest advantages is the element of surprise. There aren't that many units with the ability to charge that far in the game and most people are used to playing against units that can only charge 6".

Assault - All of the TWC attacks are at S5 and are Rending. On the charge the bikes do put out more attacks (21 regular, 3 PF vs 11 regular and 5 PF) but this levels out a bit after the first round of combat (11 & 2 vs 9 & 4) The TWC are also going to take less damage back due to their higher WS.

Actually, let's take a minute to talk about Swiftclaws (and Blood Claws in general) with regards to Weapon Skill. A lot of people see WS3 and think that they need to attach a Wolf Priest to give the unit re-rolls to hit. This is a fallacy. Weapon Skill is a defensive mechanism. Against most of the units you're going up against, you're still hitting on 4s. Yes, you lose out a bit to things like Scouts and Imperial Guardsmen. However, the big loss is that most things will be hitting you on 3s. To an extent, the bike giving you T5 makes up for this.

Wounds - Having 2 Wounds each means that the TWCs have to lose 4 Wounds before they lose a model. Hence they are still as effective having lost 3 Wounds as they are at the start of the game. Every wound the Swiftclaws lose reduces their effectiveness.


Now, I'm not sure that either of these units is "better", they're clearly jsut different. I did try out Swiftclaws when the codex first came out but I really struggled to make them work. Looking back, I think this is because I was far too aggressive with them. I'll probably make the same mistake with the TWC when they first find themselves on the tabletop!

So, Giant Wolves or youngsters on Bikes? Any thoughts?

Nom nom nom - Feeding the Hive Mind

Now, that is a tasty Space Wolf

So, I had a game against Graham's null deployment Tyranids last week and let's just say that it didn't end well for the brave boys from Fenris. Now, it would be very easy for me to sit here and moan about bad luck (dear dice gods, the average roll for 3D6 is 10.5) but that would be counter-productive. So, let's see where we went wrong and what we could perhaps have done about it.

Deployment and Early Turns

Now, my deployment was actually quite good. I made sure that I was 18" away from the board edges so that those nasty outflanking Genestealers couldn't get me. I knew that I was going to have two full turns before Graham's army stated coming on and I managed to make sure that all three of my Long Fang packs were in cover. This was essential since these guys were going to be the main target for the Doom of Malan'tai when it arrived. Then I made my first mistake. I put my two Cyclone Missile Launchers in the Drop Pod and landed them near one the Objectives in Graham's deployment zone. My thinking was that they could deal with the Termagants that were in reserve while still being in range to support my deployment zone with their missiles.

Seeing that written down it still looks like quite a good plan. Then my Scouts arrived at the start of my turn 2 and ran so they were near the other Objective in Graham's DZ. Looking good now, one of these units can easily deal with 10 Termagants. And they did. The 'gants charged the Scouts and then got wiped out. Pretty much all of Graham's army turned up on turn 2 and it all turned up on the same flank. One of the units of 'stealers even bunched themselves up nicely by charging my Drop Pod.

It was at this point that I became aware of my second mistake. Having two free turns to move around without much to do had affected my concentration. I'd forgotten those nasty Zoanthropes would be podding down and I should have made sure that I popped smoke on some of my Rhinos.

The Doom also came down and killed 3-4 Long Fangs. Not good. Obviously I didn't help myself by having two Packs in the same bit of cover but I didn't really have much choice due to the lack of cover on the table.

Turn 3 - The Tide Really Turns

Still, at this point, I'm feeling pretty confident. I've got an obscene amount of firepower left. However, this is where the silly mistakes start creeping in. My Lone Wolf continued to run towards Graham's board edge giving the big "come on!" to the Hive Tyrant still in reserve while the Scouts stood around thinking that their job was done. Yes, it would have taken most of the game for them to get back to the sharp end of the battle but they should still have tried.

My other problem was priority. This is where 'nids really excell, they give you lots of targets to shoot and try and make you pick the wrong one(s). I knew that I had to deal with the Doom otherwise it would just float there killing my Long Fangs. However, I also needed to kill the Zoanthropes to save my Rhinos and the Spore Pods so that I could see the Tervigon. And then there were those juicy 'stealers just waiting to be fragged to death.

What I should have done is fire everything at the Doom. I should have moved more Melta units up near it and I should have fired all of my Kraks at it. Instead I did a bit of splitting fire, just assuming that I could easily take care of it. How wrong I was. Then, with my last shooting of the turn, I fired my CMLs at the Genestealers rather than the Doom. I'm not sure that four more Kraks would have made the difference since it looked like it didn't want to die but that's not the point.

And the worst thing? I convinced myself that I was playing the mission because I was shooting at troops! There I was condemning the units that could have won the game (my Long Fangs) to death under the pretence of playing the mission.

Of course to really rub salt into the wound, the remaining 'stealers charged the two Wolf Guard through cover. Wolf Guard struck first but could only kill one. Genestealers killed one in return. Tied combat which saved the xenos from any more shooting.

The Coup De Grace

Things really failed to improve from there. Some really bad leadership rolls for the Long Fangs meant that the Doom saw them off easily. My Grey Hunters managed to fall back in good order and I did kill quite a lot of Genestealers with Murderous Hurricane but it was 2-1 in Graham's favour at the end of turn 4 and I would have required quite a big slice of luck to have claimed a draw from there.

Conclusions

Null deployment 'nids can work really really well. It's a little bit too random for my liking - units can easily turn up late or in the wrong place - but when it works, it works very very well. I made a lot of little mistakes in this game which, on one hand, is encouraging since I didn't make any really big dumb ones. Apart from my CMLs, my deployment was good and I left myself some good fire lanes. Nearly all of my problems stemmed from assuming that x-number of S8 shots would kill the Doom. That cost me the game. I should have lined everything up to kill it. That would have given me at least another turn of shooting from my Long Fang packs until the rest of the 'nids reached them.

I'm playing Andy's Jumping Army of Jumpyness this week. I've already tweaked my list and I'll hopefully have a bit more of an idea about what I'm doing against the boys in Power Armour...

Theoryhammer - Killing Necrons Part 2

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I realised that there was something very important I missed from my post yesterday:

Play the Mission

So, this has become the manta de jour around here recently and it's just as important now that the new Necrons have arrived. In the past, you'd see Necrons across the table and instantly think "Phase Out" With the removal of that rule you can no longer rely on making your opponent's army disappear in order to win the game.

A relatively minor point but potentially a huge step-change from a psychological point of view...

Theoryhammer - Killing Necrons

Molten metal - the best way to kill robots

In case you hadn't heard, the Necrons have a new codex out. It seems that everyone in the Blogroll to the right has done some kind of initial codex review and/or some first stabs at army lists. Well, it's time to fight back! Having had a week with the Codex, here are my initial thoughts on how to beat those evil natured robots...

Combat is King

With We'll Be Back getting beefed up into Re-Animation Protocols, it's become even more important to wipe out whole units, thus denying them the chance to get back up. Well, with their incredibly bad Initiative, probably the best way to do this is in combat. Their standard troops also have a pitiful 1 attack each so aren't going to be doing much back to you. However, all Necrons are a minimum T4 and with a 4+ Save, 5+ RAP and Ld 10, you need to make sure you hit hard with the initial strike or you risk being locking in combat.

Don't forget that the Necrons also have a couple of quite useful counter-attack units in their Elite section. If they do charge you while you're locked in with a unit of Warriors or Immortals then you're going to lose a lot of guys to Power Weapon attacks. Plus, with the Elites being T5 with a better save you're probably not going to do much back to them. Best thing to do is focus on the Troops, pray to the God-Emperor and hope you win on Combat Resolution (note - praying and hoping are incredibly popular tactics here on C&F!)

Focus Fire

Living Metal is going to change how we shoot at vehicles - usually, with Tanks, we're happy if they can't shoot  and with Transports if they can't move. Since Living Metal allows Necrons to ignore both of these effects on the roll of a die, we now need to make sure that we do some proper damage with our shooting. The combination of Living Metal and Quantum Shielding really lessens the impact of our Missile Launchers but we should still have sufficient Melta to be able to destroy vehicles.

As mentioned above, it's really important to wipe out Necron units to prevent them getting their RAP roll. This means, keep shooting at a unit until it gone, not just until it will no longer have an effect in game.

Acute Senses

Never forget about this. We're going to see a lot of Night Fight shenanigans from the new Necrons so don't forget that most Space Wolf units can re-roll the distance they can see at night. Also, all of our vehicles come with Searchlights as standard so remember to use them to illuminate the enemy (this is especially useful against a Solar Pulse since it only lasts for a player turn so the enemy don't get the benefit of being able to see your vehicle)

Conclusion

We can still see well at night, we can still blow up vehicles with Melta and we have Krak which gives us options at range. We're better in combat than Necrons and have a good chance to Sweeping Advance and wipe out units. However, we need to be careful of where the Necron counter-attack unit are. Hmm, t'was ever thus.

Anybody played the new Necrons yet? Please share any tactical tips below the line...

10 Week Challenge - Week 2: 99 Problems

Jason Zed

So, this week I'm facing off against Graham's million man march with my MSU Rhino Rush. Now, this is the first time in a long time where I've known exactly what I'll be facing before a game so let's use the knowledge to think through a few tactics.


First things first, killing 99 Space Marines is not an easy task. Hence, I'm not going to do it. However, I am going to try and take advantage of the Space Wolves' most glaring weakness - Leadership. Basic Ld 8 on Grey Hunters makes a big difference compared with normal Marines Ld 9 and Chaos Space Marines Ld 10. How am I going to use this information to my advantage? Tank Shock! With a lot of troops on foot, it's possible that I'll be able to Tank Shock 2 or maybe even 3 units. The lack of Melta in the GH squads mean that I don't even have to worry about Death or Glory attacks back.

I also need to try and take advantage of space and mobility. With nearly 100 miniatures to put down, Graham will have to spread out. This gives me the opportunity to deploy in a refused flank style and prevent him bringing too many men to bear at the same time. With my 6 Rhinos, I should be able to out-maneuver Graham's foot based troops.

However, those Rhinos aren't going to last long with 3 packs of Long Fangs around so I really need to do something about them. Hopefully, I can deploy in such a way that all three packs don't have good fire lanes. Then, I can try and use my "alpha striking" Drop Pod to block off their LoS even more. If they have to spend a turn shooting my Drop Pod, it's a turn that they're not shooting everything else. Meanwhile, they'll be target number 1 for my BEL Wolf Scouts.

I'm also got some Wolfy tips and tricks to use. My Choosers of the Slain will be able to prevent Graham's Scouts from Infiltrating too close (although they could then BEL which is a whole different kettle of fish compared to 2 Melta shots at Rhinos) I'm also going to try and cast Murderous Hurricane on the lead unit of Grey Hunters as early as possible. Not so much for the potential kills from Dangerous Terrain tests but just to slow them down and hence, slow everything else down behind them as well.

One final thought, and it's one I had while thinking about Frag Missiles probably being more useful that Krak in this match up as Graham's troops will be clumped up so I should hit a lot of them with each missile and even if a missile misses, it should still hit something. Now, this is quite a risky thought - Drop Podding the Rune Priest who has Jaws of the World Wolf. Normally, Jaws isn't that hot against MEQ armies but if they're all lined up then the potential for lots of initiative tests would be difficult to ignore.

I think this is going to be a tough game, especially if it ends up being Kill Points. At least we might get an answer to Mick's question.

Hordes are one of the things Wolves don't deal with that well. A Marine horde is even tougher. All hints & advice greatly received...

10 Week Challenge - Week 1: After Action Review

Gav celebrates his win in Week 1

Well, that went remarkable well. When the worst thing that happens in a game is that your squad don't get wiped out by a Dreadnought so that you can shoot it to death you know you've had a good one. Usually in these articles I'd be beating myself up about small tactical mistakes but I'm actually feeling pretty good about myself and here's why

Deployment

I'm usually rubbish at deployment. However, I seemed to have an epiphany last week where I actually thought about where all of my vehicles were going to move in the first 2 turns. Normally, I'd stick my Rune Priest Rhinos at the front so that I can shoot unimpeded out of the top hatch. This time I realised that if I stuck them behind two of my suicide Melta Rhinos then not only could they not be blown up if I had the initiative seized but I be able to move the two front vehicles out of the way on turn 1 and still be able to shoot with the Priests. I did all of the simple things right - set up pretty centrally opposite from the enemy Objective and didn't spread my army too thinly. I was able to have a vanguard of three Rhinos backed up with shooting from the Rune Priests and Long Fangs while the other Rhino protected by right flank.

The one thing I didn't think about was the Space Marine Scouts. In the end I was out of charge range because they couldn't roll a 5 on their assault through cover. Obviously, I didn't know that they would be outflanking when I deployed but I should have given it some consideration.

Attack Vectors

This is the thing I really love about this army. The Wolf Scouts and the turn 1 mini alpha strike from the Drop Pod, backed up by 3/4 Rhinos of disposable guys means that I will have something in my opponent's face by turn 2 at the latest. The fact that Dave had to turn his Terminators around to take care of the 1st squad of Scouts meant that they never had a chance of getting near my Objective.

Small Squads

I was a little unsure about these and, in many ways, I still am. However, I do love the 5-man squads who sit with the Priests since I feel that I can have them sit on an Objective all game without thinking that they're a huge point-sink that I should really be sending at the enemy.

Focus Fire

As I've said before, a useful mantra is "Play the Mission"  and for once I actually lived up to this Golden Rule. Usually, with my Long Fangs, I'd be quite haphazard with my shooting. In this game I decided early on that I was going to focus my fire on one Tactical Squad until it was destroyed and then I'd start on the second. With 14 Missiles per turn, I knew I could do enough damage to both squads so that my Scouts could finish them off in assault. Plus, I knew that if I concentrated on them then I couldn't lose the game since they were never going to be able to get to my Objective in sufficient strength to hold it.

Army List

One final point, more about Dave than myself. We arranged the game pretty late and I only informed him that it would be 1750 points after we got to Warhammer World. I assumed that he'd used the same list he used the other week against Keith but instead he took his tried and tested 1500 point list and added a Land Raider. This gave me a big juicy target for my Drop Pod Combi-Meltas. This meant that his Termies had very little impact in the game and I was able to ignore them for nearly all of the game. Normally, they Deep Strike in and that could have worked out much better for Dave. As it was, he had nothing that could really get anywhere near my Objective.

Is thinking about deployment cheating? Ever had a near-perfect game? Did you get the subtle Frankie Coccozza reference?