40K UK GT - Day 2

Day 1 was in the bag and I was feeling pretty positive about my performances in day 1. I could put the defeat in game 1 down to a bad match-up, game 2 went pretty well against a list which is strong in the meta at the moment and game 3 started well and but for some foul dice when the Doom landed, it could have gone quite differently. All to play for today then …

Game 4 vs Necrons; Vanguard Strike deployment, playing The Emperor’s Will

Nemesor Zandrekh
Vanguard Obyron
Destroyer Lord – Weave, Scythe, MS Scarabs
Warriors (5) - Nightscythe
Warriors (7) - Nightscythe
Scarabs (7)
Scarabs (7)
Spyders (3) – Gloom Prism
Spyders (3) – Gloom Prism
Monolith

WTF was I thinking?

 OK, not a great start to the day, a list I could really struggle against if I make any mistakes and boy do I make some mistakes. First off I win the roll-off and elect to go second, this gives him the opportunity to spawn more scarabs before I get a chance to stop him, secondly I infiltrate my scouts close enough to his lines that he can spawn scarabs, charge them and sling-shot into my lines before I can really bring enough firepower to bear on him.

*FACE-PALM*

In my first turn I attempt to make amends by dropping my Sternguard in to take out his Spyder unit with Obyron in it. Sadly I forgot that he could bring in units from reserve with my own reserves so he placed his Monolith directly between my Sternguard and the Spyder unit and rolls a “hit” in a space exactly big enough for the Monolith. To make matters worse, 6 Sternguard Combi-Melta shots take a single hull point off the Monolith.

Ahhhhh, balls!

As far as I was concerned it was game over from this point. I played it out to the end and wasn’t tabled but I only managed to pick up the single tournament point for not conceding. Not a good start to the day!

0-6 Loss (NONE / 1st, WL, LB)

Game 5 vs Necrons; Deployment Hammer and Anvil playing Kill Points

Forgeworld Overlord
Destroyer Lord – Weave, Scythe
Cryptek – Harbinger of Despair - Veil
Warriors (10)
Warriors (10)
Immortals (5) – Gauss
Destroyers (5) – Gauss Cannon
Destroyers (3) – Heavy Gauss Cannon
Wraiths (3)
Pylon
Spyder
Annihilation Barge

More Necrons! What have I done to deserve this? At least looking at it, the list didn’t look too optimised so I felt like I had a glimmer of hope in this one. I knew I’d have to castle up somewhat otherwise his uber-lord and jumpy Cryptek unit would be able to cause some havoc in my backfield.

And now 'm in amongst the Best Painted armies of the Tournament.

I took first turn hoping to get first blood and take his barge out of the game and possibly remove the wraiths too. This would mean I could focus everything on the Lord’s unit when it veiled at me. I dropped one unit of Sternguard towards his backlines to take out the Barge and the other on my side of midfield in rapidfire range of his wraith unit. The unit aiming at the Barge utterly failed, not even managing to inflict a single hullpoint. The other unit was more successful, killing 2 of the 3 Wraiths. Night Fight meant that I had nothing else in range so I couldn’t finish off the unit unfortunately.

In his turn he comfortably took out a Drop Pod for First Blood with his Destroyer Lord and then he veiled his Lord unit behind my castled up units and this is where the game took place for the next 4 turns. The reinforced Ruin which my unites were castled up in gave me enough protection to survive the initial salvo relatively unscathed and I was able to bombard him with the Thunderfire canon before I charged him with the scout unit in an attempt to slow his progress through my ranks. For the most part this worked but after dealing with his Wraith and Destroyer Lord I brought my Centurions back to help out as that Lord was proving to be a bit of a nightmare.

I managed to remove the unit at the top of turn 4 but the combat had dragged me well back into my own deployment zone and had given my opponent a 1 Kill Point lead. My opponent had astutely moved everything in his army right to the back of this deployment zone so I needed a couple more turns to get units into range. Sadly the dice brought an end to the game on turn 5 and my shitty run continued. I‘d be close to the bottom now, surely I’d be in for a nice game against a non-competitive list … we’ll I was at least half right.

6-7 Loss (WL / 1st)

Game 6 vs Chaos Space Marines; Dawn of War playing The Scouring

Chaos Lord – Mark of Nurgle, Bike, Black Mace, Sigil, Gift of Mutation
Typhus
Plague Zombies (27)
Plague Zombies (27)
Plague Marines (5) – 2x Plasma gun
Spawn (5) – Mark of Nurgle
Heldrake – Baleflamer
Heldrake – Baleflamer
Havocs (5) – 4x Autocannon
Obliterators (2) – Mark of Nurgle

FML! Right, that’s it. I’m going home, I shouldn’t have gotten out of bed this morning. I’m not the sort of person who gets depressed about a game of toy soldiers but I have to admit I was feeling pretty sore at his point and to see two Heldrakes across the board from me did nothing to raise my spirits. Fortunately my opponent was a very nice bloke with a very cool themed Nurgle army so I figured I’d just let the dice decide how this was going to end.

I got to go second and positioned the majority of my army in position to annihilate his Spawn/Bike Lord unit as soon as possible, everything would be slogging across the board nice and slowly. And so it was that by the end of turn 2 his unit and Warlord were no more! Score 1st Blood and Warlord!

Awesome looking Nurgle Spawn.

Typhus’s unit was quite happy way over on my right flank owning one objective and making another one looking a not terribly attractive option. On my left flank the other unit of Zombies and the Plague Marines were looking a bit threatening and the first Heldrake had just turned up. Fortunately I had no juicy targets on the board, unfortunately I only managed to knock a couple of hull points off.

I managed to kick myself in the balls on this turn by deciding to effectively throw away my scouts for no discernable reason; charging half into Typhus’s unit and putting the other half on the opposite side of the board! At least it made him bring his Plague Marines back to deal with them, keeping them away from my planned drop-site for my Tactical Squad. On the up-side I finished off the wounded Heldrake.

I decided I had nothing to take on Typhus and a ton of Zombies so I threw what I had left down my left flank in an effort to whittle down the Zombies and take out the Plague Marines. Long story short, it didn’t work, his other Heldrake managed to stay off long enough that I had had to deploy my marines to hold objectives at the end of turn 4 in order to cover enough objectives to secure the win. Fortunately he had to fly the Heldrake off the board at the ned of Turn 5 and I was on enough objectives to have a 3 point lead.

Unfortunately the game went onto Turn 6 and the Heldrake returned wiping one squad off an objective, the Plague Marines and Zombies cleared out another, leaving me with just the 4 pointer and handing me my 5th and final loss of the weekend.

4-7 Loss (WL / 1st, LB, WL)

40K GT 2013 - Day 1

I’ve been struggling to make tournaments this year so it was with great excitement that I set out on a cold Saturday morning last weekend to attend Heat 3 of the 40K Indie GT up in Warrington. The venue was fantastic with loads of room around every table so you could easily play Hammer and Anvil, and in fact it made playing every game that little bit easier. The tournament was well run and pretty much ran to time without incident. The food was pretty good to!

It was also a weekend of exceptional gaming, at least, I think it was. For the most part it was going on around me and a very long way away from the tables I was on (no offence to my opponents, they were all rather good). I however stunk up the joint, and for once I’m not talking about bad gas!

As some of you will know from my recent posts, my practice has been limited and I’d been really struggling to settle on a list I was happy with. Over the course of the weekend I really learnt a lot about the Marine codex and why the list I’d taken was really quite poor. But I’m getting ahead of myself, Here’s my list and here’s a run-down for the games on Day 1

Codex Space Marines.

HQ
Tigurius

ELITE
Sternguard (5) – 3x Combi-Melta; Drop Pod
Sternguard (5) – 3x Combi-Melta; Drop Pod

TROOP
Tactical Squad (10) – Plasma, Heavy Bolter, Combi-Plasma; Drop Pod
Tactical Squad (10) – Lascannon
Scout Squad (10) – 5x Bolt Pistol & Combat Weapon, 5x Sniper Rifle

HEAVY SUPPORT
Thunderfire Cannon
Devastator Centurions (3) – 3x Grav-Cannon & Grav Amps, 3x Missile Launcher
Land Raider

Game 1 vs. Necrons with Tau Allies; Hammer & Anvil deployment playing Crusade

GT Heat 3 - The Final Countdown

Here we are again, less than two days until a tournament and I’ve not really decided on the list I’m taking and some of the core units I know I will be taking are still unpainted. This weekend is going to be all about trying not to lose too badly … again!

As far as the list goes I’m settled on a core I just can’t stop fiddling with the “edges”. Here’s my current flavour-of-the-minute list:

Primary Detachment : Codex Space Marines

HQ

Tigurius

TROOPS

Tactical Squad (10): Meltagun, Multi-Melta, Combi-Melta; Drop Pod

Tactical Squad (10): Flamer, Lascannon; Rhino

HEAVY SUPPORT

Thunderfire Cannon

Devastator Centurions (3): 3x Grav-Cannon & Grav-Amp, 3x Missile Launcher

Land Raider

Allied Detachment: Codex Blood Angels

HQ

Mephiston

TROOPS

Assault Squad (10): 2x Flamer

Wow! When I write it down like this it look incredibly light on models!

The Primary Detachment is set up to provide durable scoring, my Centurion/Tigurius/Land Raider unit (Bullet Magnet) and a Thunderfire for flavour. Since my game against Alex I’ve been really trying to work Mephiston into the list … because he’s amazing; and a lot of what’s on the table these days, he is almost designed to bully. I also love the scoring Assault Squad from a manoeuvrability point of view and the double flamer can be placed to do maximum damage to some tucked away scoring unit.

The glaring weakness of this list is that if I come up against Tripple Heldrakes, it’s toast – literally. The omission of anything which can take out a flier is entirely intentional. At this point level I have struggled to add in an air threat without seriously crippling what I can do on the ground so I’ll just accept the fact that I’m completely boned if I come up against Heldrakes.

And in typically “me-style”, while I’ve been sitting here typing this I’ve come up with something else to share with you which packs in more bodies and possibly has more punch:

Codex Space Marines

HQ

Tigurius

ELITE

Sternguard (5): 3x Combi-Melta; Drop Pod

Sternguard (5): 3x Combi-Melta; Drop Pod

TROOP

Tactical Squad (10): Meltagun, Multi-Melta, Combi-Melta; Drop Pod

Tactical Squad (10): Flamer, Lascannon

Scouts (10): Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon; Land Speeder Storm: Heavy Flamer

HEAVY SUPPORT

Thunderfire Cannon

Devastator Centurions (3): 3x Grav-Cannon & Grav-Amp, 3x Missile Launcher

Stormraven Gunship: TL Multi-Melta, TL Lascannon

And even as I write this I’m thinking I could trade the LS Storm and the Stormraven and get a Landraider back in the list! Oh dear.

Anyway, I like this list from the alpha-strike Sternguard point of view (though it’s been done to death and is reasonably easily countered) and it has air defence in the form of the Stormraven.

Maybe I should just flip a coin!

Anyway, I’ll just finish off with some pics of the Work-in-Progress on my Centurions and Tigurius.

UK GT Heat 3 – Prep and List Building

With the UK 40K Indie GT on the horizon I really need to get off my butt and put in some practice. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about lists recently and am still undecided as to whether to go with Space Marines or Tyranids. Here are the two lists I’m stuck between:

Tyranids – 1650pts

Hive Tyrant – 2x Devourers w. Brainleech Worms, Hive Commander, Wings

Hive Tyrant – 2x Devourers w. Brainleech Worms, Wings

Doom of Malan’tai – Mycetic Spore

15 Termagants

15 Termagants – Devourers

Tervigon – 2 Powers, Toxin Sacs

Tervigon – 2 Powers, Toxin Sacs

2 Carnifexes – 2x Devourers with Brainleech Worms each

Space Marines – 1650pts

Tigurius

10 Tactical Marines – Meltagun, Multi-Melta, Rhino

10 Tactical Marines – Flamer, Lascannon, Rhino

5 Tactical Marines – Lascannon

Stormtalon Gunship – Skyhammer Missiles

Stormtalon Gunship – Skyhammer Missiles

Thunderfire Cannon

3 Devastator Centurions – 3x Grav-cannons and Grav-amps, 3 Missile Launchers, Land Raider Redeemer

5 Devastator Marines – 4x Missile Launchers

Day One Results of the 'Veiled Region' Campaign Weekend

Just a quick update after day one of the campaign weekend... 

Game 1 - 1000pts (minimum 50% flyers):

Lost (twice!) on VP's against pre-heresy World Eaters from the Betrayal book. The list included a Whirlwind, 2 x Lightnings & ten assault Marines. 

Game 2 - 2000pts:

 Win - I claimed two out of three objectives, and managed to table my opponent! I was playing against Chaos Marines with Fabius Bile, terminators in a Land Raider, some possessed Marines, two Hellblade flyers and a Storm Eagle flyer carrying twenty cultists.  

Game 3 - 2000pts: 

Win - ten victory points vs five. This was a kill points mission against a Killa Kan Ork list featuring a lifta-droppa, six Killa Kans, a couple of Deffgun Dredds (I think), a Flak-Trukk, Wazdakka, some bikers and some Trukkin' Boyz. 

So, four games today, two wins and two losses. Let's see how day two goes tomorrow! ' 

Request for Players -' In the Veiled Region' Campaign Weekend

Over the Easter weekend (30-31 March) Animisity are running the 'In The Veiled Region' campaign. It's open to all players and races and comprises 6 games. Game 1 is a specially comped mission (1000pts, minimum 50% flyers / skimmers /jump infantry / winged), whilst the remaining 5 games are standard 2000pts missions - see full details, below. 

You can still grab your tickets here

You can ignore the imperial/Ork designations now as its open to all races and army lists.

Animosity - In the Veiled Region, March 30th and 31st

- Game 1 Blitzkrieg-

Battle Brothers - Game 3

Two games down and two wins, we were certainly feeling flattered by our luck and the fact that the lists we had faced had generally been good match-ups for us. Up next though was a very nicely painted Ork army with two Dakka Jets, Zogwart (or "Lysander's Bane") and a squad of Nob bikers lead by a Warboss. I felt a little better when I found out that only 4 of the bikers were Nob bikers but with the two huge Shoota boys squads as well I felt this was not a particularly good match-up for us.

Warboss, Bike, Power Klaw, Attacks Squig, Boss Pole
Old Zogwart
Nob Bikers x4, inc Painboy
30 Shoota Boyz inc Nob w. Klaw & Boss Pole
28 Shoota Boyz inc Nob w. Klaw &Boss Pole
Biker Boyz x7 inc. Nob w. Power Klaw
Dakka Jet
Dakka Jet

Mission: The Relic, Vanguard Strike deployment.

Battle Brothers - Game 2

This doesn't feel right ...

Buoyed by our success in game 1 we felt pretty good about facing off against Tyranids in game 2; and when our opponents said they were sticking with the book psychic powers rather than taking Biomancy I have to say I thought we were probably going to be able to take this one.

Winged Hive Tyrant, 2x TL Devourers

Venomthrope
Venomthrope
Zoanthrope
Genestealers x6 inc a Broodlord
Genestealers x6 inc a Broodlord
Termagants x10
Tervigon w. Crushing Claws
Raveners x3 w. Deathspitters
Carnifex x2

Mission was Emperor's Will with Dawn of War deployment

Battle Brothers I - How I See It.

Battle Brothers I is over and I can safely say it was a tournament of two halves. Out of 119 Battle Brothers, Team Claws and Fists finished a rather surprising 29th, troubling the top 25% for probably the first time in the history of this blog. Was it a moment of tactical genius or were Gav and I taken over by extra terrestrial beings of immense power, superior table-top war-gaming ability and fabulous dress sense? You can decide for yourselves as I recount our experiences at Warhammer World this weekend with a report from each game every day this week (you lucky reader, you!).

To keep you tided over until the first one drops on Monday afternoon I thought I'd say a little something about the tournament in general.

Firstly, show me the money! These weekends are not cheep, at a little under £100 they are about twice the price of the independent tournaments (per head), so what do you get for your money? Well, the food's really good ... they give you a pen in the player pack, which is presented in a card folder ... and you get a plastic name badge ... erm ... they provide trays for your army. Oh and they run a 5 game tournament over the weekend. Joking aside I don't think it's terrible value for money but I am a little disappointed that there's not some prize support or just better trophies for all of the winners; let's be honest, the certificates they give to the winners (glass trophies for 1st place aside) are more than a little bit rubbish.

Secondly, random pairings. There was no "Swiss" system for the pairings, it was randomly done for every round. If I really think about this I've got to say it doesn't bother me greatly, it goes with GW's philosophy for discouraging serious competition which is fine, it is their game after all! However I do like the way that the Swiss system will typically put players of a similar ability together after a couple of games. That said, I think each methodology has it's place in the tournament scene, and if I go to a ranking tournament I would expect it to be a Swiss pairing system but for something where even if I win every game I'm still not guaranteed to win (more on that at the end of the week) then random pairings is perfectly fine. Thinking about it more, we play a dice game, we should all be comfortable with a reliance on the random.

I could go on but I'll just finish off by saying that this is not a tournament for players expecting to be rewarded for smashing each of their opponents out of the park. If you want to be judged purely on your ability to play the game, stick to the independent circuit. However, if you can get past the fact that your results may not transform themselves into a podium placing (or whatever your aspirations are) then you'll certainly enjoy tournaments like this. Not just because it attracts a very different spectrum of gamers from the indie circuit but because there's a slightly more relaxed mood in the room, or at least that's how I saw it.

Did anyone here also attend Battle Brothers this weekend, or have you been to a GW Doubles Tournament in the past? Let us know what you thought about the event in the comments below.

Battle Brothers - Decision TIme

A Quick Decision is not Always the Best Decision.

Man! It took us a couple of weeks (maybe months) finally settled on the following list for the Battle Brothers Tournament two days before-hand! It's a slight tweak on the list we play-tested against Grazer earlier that week:

HQ
Lysander
Librarian w. Force Axe, Null Zone and Gate of Infinity

ELITE
Sternguard x10 w. 3x Meltaguns in a Drop Pod
Assault Terminators x5 with Thunder Hammers & Storm Shields

TROOPS
Tactical Squad x10 w. Meltagun, Multi-Melta in a Drop Pod
Tactical Squad x10 w. Plasmagun, Heavy Bolter in a Drop Pod
Scout Squad x5 w. Sniper Rifles

HEAVY SUPPORT
Thunderfire Cannon

FORTIFICATION
Aegis Defense Line w. Quad-Gun

For better or worse this is what we're taking, it feels familiar and comfortable to me and as long as we can stay away from Murderous Hurricane I'm hoping that Lysander will be able to make it to the end of a couple of games this time!

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:

Rolling Less Than 10 on 3D6 and Other Stories

Parasite of Mortrex

A BLOG WARS 4 TALE

Strap yourselves in readers and grab some popcorn, this is a long one and it’s going to get emotional!

This weekend saw Blog Wars 4 take place at the Eye of the Storm venue in Mansfield (part of the Maunsfeld Games store). This is an event the Blog has always tried to support but, thanks to a poorly scheduled holiday, I’d not been able to attend the last one so I was really looking forward to making a come-back at the first one of 6th Edition!

I had promised that, as a penance for missing Blog Wars 3, I would re-double my efforts to get my Tyranids completed in time for this tournament and thanks to some late night painting sessions (concluding at 1:30am on Friday night) I managed to put the following list on the table (complete with 15 ripper bases – which never saw the light of day!)

Parasite of Mortrex
Tyranid Prime w. 2x Boneswords & Scything Talons
2x Zoanthropes
2x Zoanthropes
10x Termagants
10x Termagants
Tervigon w. Crushing Claws, Toxin Sacs, Adrenal Glands, 3 Powers
Tervigon w. Crushing Claws, Toxin Sacs, Adrenal Glands, 3 Powers
6x Raveners w. Rending Claws
2x Carnifexes w 2x Twin-Linked Devourers (w. Brainleech Worms) eachTrygon

A section of the Hive Fleet

Blog Wars requires you to field a unique or special character as it’s only list composition restriction, this is something I quite like and has previously seen my Ghazghull face off against Commissar Yarrick in an epic smack-down for all the marbles (on the bottom table). We were playing 3 games with the objectives and deployments pre-set as part of the rules pack. If you want to read all the details about the tournament you can have a look at the From the Fang blog (who organise the event) here.

So, on to the games and a day that would see 3D6 leadership tests loom large in my fortunes:

Game 1 vs Dark Eldar/Eldar - Greg Pikos
Crusade (5 objectives) / Vanguard Deployment

The Baron
Haemonculus
5x Wracks
5x Warriors w. Blaster in Venom w. 2x Splinter Cannons
5x Warriors w. Blaster in Venom w. 2x Splinter Cannons
13x Hellions w. Helliarch
6x Reavers w 2x Heat Lance
s6x Reavers w 2x Heat Lances
Ravager
Ravager
Voidraven Bomber

Aegis Defence Line w. Quad-gun

Farseer w. Runes of Warding & 1 Power
5x Rangers
3x War Walkers w 2x Scatter Lasers each

Greg's Circus themed Dark Eldar

OK, multiple objectives, I like that, I know where I am with objective missions; Dark Eldar with a Runes of Warding Farseer ally, not so good, lots of poison shots and table-wide psychic defense which is really going to put a damper on my day. 

I got to pick table edge and deploy 3 of the objectives but I lost first turn, not actually all that bad in an objective game but he would get the first opportunity to unleash all his dakka at me. I deployed fairly conservatively knowing that as we both had speed I could well get off a first turn charge with a bit of luck. 

Speaking of luck, Greg forgot to cast Prescience so his War Walkers were not as devastating as they could have been. His Reavers jockeyed for position and the Baron led his Hellions forward with a couple of cheeky pain tokens and ran for cover in a ruin in the middle of the building. I advanced and took out a Venom with a volley from the Carnifex unit (1st Blood) and typically one of my Tervigons bunged up after spawning only 5 ‘gants. The Hellions looked threatening and would certainly get a charge off in the next turn so I decided to risk attempting a pre-emptive charge against them with the Parasite and his Raveners. A roll of 11 got me in comfortably but I’d be striking last thanks to the lack of grenades. At this point luck was clearly on my side because his entire unit (with the extra attack combat drugs) managed to kill off only 1 Ravener and one of those wounds was caused by overwatch fire, I should also mention that I made five 5+ saves on the Raveners. My return flurry accounted for 4 hellions and the Baron (Warlord) who managed to fail his very first Shadow-field save. I win by 4 But the Hellions hold firm thanks to a nice low leadership roll!

After all that Greg looked somewhat deflated, perhaps he had forgotten about the monumental amount of firepower he still had at his disposal, and this turn those War Walkers would be Twin-Linked! The opening salvo vapourised my Trygon with wounds to spare and he also managed to knock a couple of wounds of the Tervigon on my left flank, those Reavers were also getting worryingly close. We then returned to the epic combat in the centre this time it was much closer but I still managed to win combat by two wounds and that proved to the boo much for the Hellions who ran and were cut down by the Parasite and his 4 remaining Raveners who had a bone to pick with a Farseer.

My turn saw the last Venom over-killed by the Carnifex Unit and a slow advance by the rest of the Horde. I forgot to mention that in turn one I only got two psychic powers off and put wounds on 3 Zoanthropes and a Tervigon thanks to Perils from the Runes of Warding so I had decided not to risk casting anything in Turn 2 as I was very pleased to be well within strike range of the Farseer and his unit of Racks behind their Aegis Defence Line with the Parasite and his rampaging Raveners. The combat was short and sweet the Eldar broke, ran and were cut down, but that left me vulnerable out in the open and at the mercy of Rangers, warriors and the Quad Gun (the War Walkers could also be brought to bear if necessary).

As expected, Greg made short work of the Parasite and his squad and, now that I’d also lost the Trygon as well (who took two squads of gants with him), that really took the punch out of my army. The wounded Tervigon on the left flank fell to Hellion fire and the one in the centre was brought down to its last wound by the War Walkers. I was very much back on the back-foot and trying to figure out how I was going to salvage a draw out of this.

I was able to swamp an objective at the back of the board with my remaining ‘gants but his Reavers were able to assault into the unit to contest (need to work on my placement). Greg was able to take an objective behind his defence line, uncontested, with the Rangers and also held an objective with a small warrior squad on my left flank. My remaining Tervigon was, however, within strike range of this, so I charged in and easily wiped the squad for what I thought was a solid draw. Unfortunately I had forgotten that his Reavers were still in combat with a single termagant very close to the same objective. If I’d have realised, I’d have charged my two remaining Zoanthropes into the combat, but as it was he easily took care of the Termagant and consolidated far enough to contest the objective.

The game ended in a 9-16 loss but it was an extremely enjoyable game which swung back and forth on almost every turn and really could have gone either way. Credit to Greg, he played a blinder and didn't let the early loss of his big Hellion unit get too him. 

Game 2 vs Necrons – Michael Towers
The Relic / Hammer & Anvil Deployment

Imotekh the Stormlord 
Overlord w res orb 
Royal Court: Harbinger of Eternity w. Chronometron; Harbinger of Despair w. Veil; Lord w. Mindshackle Scarabs & Warscythe 
Royal Court: Harbinger of Eternity w. Chronometron; Harbinger of Despair w. Veil; Lord w. Mindschackle Scarabs & Warscythe 
20x Warriors 
20 x Warriors 
5x Warriors w. Night Scythe 
5x Warriors w. Night Scythe 
5x Warriors w. Night Scythe 
5x Warriors w. Night Scythe 

I’ve got to admit that I felt pretty confident about this one. Michael and I had played recently, in game 1 of the last Open War, and I was keen for revenge. I felt this list was less difficult to deal with because the Spyders, Scarabs and Wraiths that he’d brought to Open War were no more, also I managed to get first turn so I knew I had a great chance of getting to the relic with some spawned ‘gants on turn one and putting myself in a strong position early. As it turns out I was not prepared for the trixy-ness and down-right shooty-ness of this list.

Turn 1 - Lookin Good!

As planned I moved up on turn 1, putting my ‘gants in easy strike range of the Relic with the rest of the army in support and the Raveners with the Parasite partially in front to provide a screen. Michael had placed both of his blob squads right at the back of the board, well out of my range. However on his turn he Veiled right behind my lines and decimated the two back-most ‘gant units (First Blood). This, combined with a particularly devastating round of lightning strikes from Imotekh (including 6 hits on the Parasite’s squad – I took my chances saving 4 on the Parasite and passing the other two to Raveners who couldn’t make their 5+) lead to a pretty successful turn for Michael.

Fortunately his veil shenanigans had put both units in range of most of my army so I levelled all available guns at the squad with the least cover and took it down to a manageable size for my Poison/Furious Charge ‘gants and a Tervigon to charge. The combat was a great success and the unit was wiped but the Lord stood back up.

On Michael’s turn two he got 3 of his Croissants (Night Scythes) on to the board and they took no time in focussing down the ‘gant squad on the Relic and taking a couple of wounds off a Tervigon. Imotekh’s lightning storm put another 6 strength 8 hits on the Parasite’s unit wiping it. Bad times but to make matters even worse he also put 4 wounds on my Trygon which was finished off by the left over Night Scythe shooting. This was starting to look bad. The solo Lord charged back into the Tervigon who passed his Mindshackle test and put the Lord back down, only for him to stand back up! Most annoying!

Turn 3 started off with my Tervigon in the centre spawning another 10 ‘gants onto the Relic, and this time I could get it to the one at the back giving me the chance to at least move it towards my swarm next turn. Next I decided that Imotekh had done quite enough damage so I levelled as much firepower as I could at his squad but his 2+ save combined with amazing we’ll be back rolls saw only a handful of warriors dead, on the up-side I did manage to get his Chronometron Cryptek who did not get back up – bonus!

The death of the Trygon meant that I only had a unit of 10 ‘gants in charge range of Imotekh’s squad but I wanted to at least tie them up for the big fellah’s who would be in range next turn. Those brave Termagants made the charge but the combination of withering overwatch fire and Warscythes put a swift end to their efforts and Imotekh was free to reposition next turn. The same could not be said of the solo Lord who was swamped under ‘gants who were less than effective but ensured that he could not charge the Tervigon next turn.

Thankfully Night Fight ended on this turn so no more evil lightning. I’d smugly positioned so that the Night Scythes could not get another volley off ... so instead they dropped off their Warrior units, this combined with the 4th Night Scythe turning up to lend some firepower, and Imotekh’s squad (he’d veiled back to the edge of his deployment zone) saw my Termagant squad with the Relic wiped again!

I was running a bit short of troops now and I’d lost a fair amount of punch from the army. However all of his troop units (bar the one in the newly arrived Night Scythe) were in the open and I gambled to try and wipe all of the 5-man units and put a hurting on Imotekh. My Prime detatched from the Carnifexes and charged the unit on my right flank (wiping them), my Carnifexes overkilled the rear-most unit and I put a unit of ‘gants in tenuous charge range of the nearest (which they failed). The Tervigon in the center fired his Cluster spines at Imotekh’s squad and did enough wounds to knock over the Veil Cryptek who failed to get up – nice! Sadly though a fair number of the warriors did get up which meant that Imotekh still had about 8 warriors with him and the other Lord, quite a daunting prospect. At the back of my deployment zone the solo Lord was still alive and kicking so my Warp Speed buffed (+1) Tervigon piled into him and in an epic simultaneous combat they both fell ... and neither got back up. Probably not worth the sacrifice of a Tervigon given my current position and lack of troops but it did feel good to see that 2 come up on the dice!

The surviving Warriors took to their Night Scythes and fled the board, knowing they would be back next turn. Imotekh advanced and his unit and the remaining Night Scythe continued to pour fire into my remaining ‘gants leaving none alive.

The game was in the balance but with very few troops left I felt right on the back foot, despite having good table position I could not continue to take the firepower those Night Scythes could dish out. I buffed up my remaining Tervigon (with only 2 wounds left) with Endurance and Iron Arm (+3) and went for the Relic, I put everything I had left, the Carnifexes and the Tervigon’s Cluster Spines into Imotekh’s unit. Sadly 2+ saves combined with unerring we’ll be back rolls meant that this achieved exactly nothing and the Necrons just kept coming.

The Night Scythes returned but my T9 Tervigon laughed off their firepower without taking a wound so it was with a glimmer of hope that I accepted the charge of Imotekh’s squad. But this Tervigon was clearly convinced that these were not the Necrons he was looking for as he failed his Mind Shackle test and promptly killed himself.

So, end of turn 5, the Relic is unclaimed, Michael has First Blood so if it ends here, he has it by 1.

Erm, where'd everybody go?

We go to turn 6. One of Blog Wars special rules is that your Special Character is scoring, so as I have no other scoring units left, it’s up to the Tyranid Prime to show his quality. He jumps on the Relic and his trusty Carnifexes flank him boldly, again pouring an utterly ineffective 24 shots into Imotekh’s squad – they clearly have a destiny to fulfill! Michael disembarks everything and puts everything he has left into the fexes killing one and wounding the other, and so Imotekh’s unit charges. The overwatch is ineffective and a challenge is issued. Amazing I think, I decline forcing the Prime out of the combat and amazingly the Carnifex survives.

Again it comes down to another dice roll, I have the Relic so it’s 3-1 to me ... it’s a 5 so we go on! Damn!

This time the challenge is not issued so no hiding for the Prime, I pass my mind-shackle test but the Carnifex buys the farm leaving the Prime on his own for the last round of combat and all the marbles.

Sadly the Hive Mind has realised that Necrons do not make for good eating (not enough biomass to assimilate apparently) so the suddenly dull minded Prime fails his mind shackle test and removes his own last two wounds.

That’s the game, I’ve been tabled. It went from a game with only a few points in it either way to a 5-25 defeat and I’ve gotta be honest, that was pretty crushing and I had a somewhat frowny face on. I hope I wasn’t too outwardly grumpy because it was an epic game and Michael was a fantastic opponent who played a great strategy pretty much to perfection. He really knows his Necrons and is a lot of fun to play against, I hope I get a chance for revenge (again) in the next tournament we’re at! 

Game 3 vs Grey Knights – Nathaniel Gibbs (No Blog) 
Purge The Alien / Dawn of War Deployment 

Inquisitor Coteaz 
Grand Master w. MC Psycannon & Daemon Hammer, Psybolt Ammo 
10x Grey Knights w. 2x Psycannons, Psybolt Ammo, Rhino 
10x Terminators w. 2x Psycannnons, 3x Daemon Hammers, 7x Halberds, Psybolt Ammo
5x Interceptors w. Psycannons 
5x Interceptors w. Psycannons 
Dreadnought w. 2x Autocannon & Psybolt Ammo 
Dreadnought w. 2x Autocannon & Psybolt Ammo 
Nemesis Dreadknight w. Heavy Incinerator & Personal Teleporter 

These Grey Knights look somewhat "Custodeal"

No offence to Nathaniel (I know he’s a reader) but after the last game I was not in the best frame of mind for facing off against a gun-line with a huge, terrain-less kill zone in the middle. I took one look at his super-shooty Grey Knights and the table lay-out, briefly considered playing cagily around the terrain on the edges trying to deny kill points but then just thought f**k it I’ll clog his guns with my bodies and if I can get my Raveners into his Terminators I’ll take my chances.

Things did not start well when he gave me first turn and promptly stole the initiative without the need for Coteaz’s re-roll. A Zoanthrope unit vanished before they could send a distress signal to the mother ship (First Blood)! The rest of the bugs were left largely unscathed and he pushed his Terminators forward positively goading my Raveners to attempt a first turn charge.

And so the ‘nids charged like the Light Brigade into the waiting guns of some lovely gold Grey Knights.

I’ll not go blow-by-blow here because if you’ve made it this far you’re probably losing the will to live, but I will go through a few highlights. The Parasite and his crew made it into contact with the Terminators and managed to kill about 3 of them over two rounds of combat before getting punked by the Daemon Hammers.

The Carnifex unit was as reliable as ever, wiping out an Interceptor squad in a single volley and severely reducing the 10-man Strike Squad over two rounds of shooting before succumbing to combined weight of arms. The Prime was not present at that point however, as he had detached to try and sort out a Dreadknight who was tearing through the back field due to an inability to fail to activate his force weapon despite being in the Shadow of the Warp the whole time and so it was that he took down the Prime without the nid general being able to land a blow on the big fellah.

The rest is not worth the telling, suffice to say that it was all over by turn 4 as even the big bugs could not resist the weight of fire leveled at them. Another 5-25 defeat, this had not been a good day. But again Nathaniel was a great opponent, very likable chap who had the misfortune to catch me in a somewhat dispirited mood and not minded to put up much of a fight, hopefully I can give him a better game should we meet again. 

You’ll have read that Graham was battling away on the bottom table vying for another Wooden Spoon in a nip-and-tuck battle that attracted quite an audience towards the end. What he and everyone else in attendance didn't know was that me and my little rain cloud had quietly put the bottom of the table beyond doubt. So with two emphatic tablings to finish the day I took the dubious honour of the Wooden Spoon, the first certificate I’d laid my hands on at a tournament since picking up a Wooden Spoon for my very first tournament way back in 2009 at Open War 12.

What can I take away from this experience? Firstly it’s not as bad as it looks, my first game was excellent against an army list I really think was a bad match up for me on paper. Sure I got lucky to wipe the Hellions so easily and who knows what could have happened if I’d been a bit less cavalier with my Raveners after that. Also if I’d not missed that lone ’gant tied in with the Reavers I could have got a tie out of the game. Against the Necrons in game 2 the 5-25 scoreline does not do justice to how close the game was and but for a dice roll I’d have had it won (narrowly) at the end of turn 6. The Grey Knight game was a bit of a write-off but if I’d cared about the result I could have done a number of things differently, sorry again to Nathaniel – I’ll give you a better game next time.

I don’t know what you think but to my mind all of these opponents were pretty bad match-ups for me. I thought I had a good chance against the Necrons but they really surprised me with their resilience and sheer weight of fire-power, I need more practice against what is surely one of the more powerful Codices at this point in 6th.

I think the list is OK as it is, I’ll probably tweak it but it’s going to be hard to get rid of the Carnifexes because in 6 tournament games (Open War & Blog Wars) they have been nothing short of amazing. The Trygon was fantastic in Open War but did exactly nothing in any of these games also I think that Crushing Claws on the Tervigons is probably not worth the points. They can be fantastic but I really didn’t get the opportunity to use them enough for me to really think I’ll miss them to save 50pts.

The Zoanthropes were definitely a total bust, I can see the reason why some people like them but I had no luck getting them the powers they need to be force multipliers. In game 2, between the four of them I had Smite, Warp Speed, Iron Arm, Life Leech and a single Enfeeble, likewise in game 3 where one unit had Smite x2, Haemorage and Life Leech. The fact of the matter is that if you pull the less useful powers with the frequency that I seem to get them, you really start questioning why you are spending 240pts on two units of 2! In the future I’m going to drop them and rely on the Monstrous Psykers to buff themselves.

Lastly, the Parasite and the Raveners. I like both of these because you just don’t see them. I can’t deny that Gargoyles are simply better point for point than Raveners but I’m going to stick with them, at least until I’ve painted 20 Gargoyles! The Parasite’s problem is that I could have a Flying Hive Tyrant instead of him and I’m really struggling justifying not doing this to myself. I really like him in theory but I forgot about the toughness tests in the heat of battle so my 15 ripper bases stayed quietly in my case for the entire tournament. Though, to be honest the only game where this would have come significantly into play was game 1.

So, all in all expect a few small changes for the next tournament but by-and-large I am happy with the army and I’m not going to over-react to what was something of a “bad day at the office”! 

Roll on Blog Wars 5!

Blog Wars 4 - Tyranid Test List (1)

With a little over a month until Blog Wars 2 I'm about to test the next iteration of my Tyranid list containing the compulsory Special/Unique Character.

HQ

Tyranid Prime w. 2x Bone Swords, Deathspitter, Regeneration

ELITE

Doom of Malan'tai w. Spore Pod

3x Hive Guard

3x Hive Guard

TROOPS

10x Termagants

10x Termagants

Tervigon w. Crushing Claws, Cluster Spines, Adrenal Glands & 3 Powers

Tervigon w. Crushing Claws, Cluster Spines, Toxin Sacs & 3 Powers

FAST ATTACK

5x Raveners w. Rending Claws

Heavy Support

2x Carnifexes each w. 2x TL Devourers with Brainleech Worms

Trygon w. Adrenal Glands

I wanted to go for a Gargoyle list with the Parasite but I don't have the models and I have other things to be spending my money on this month so I've gone for an alternative route with the Doom, Raveners and a Trygon. The Trygon was one of the heroes of Open War for me so it's not a big stretch to get him in again here, I also feel that the Doom is a strong choice with the propensity for foot lists at the moment (he is a bit fragile though).

It's the Raveners which I'm not sure about; on paper they look very tasty being very fast (beasts) and with 4 attacks per model (in this case they are also rending ++) they should be pretty killy. On the down-side though despite the 3 wounds they have there are T4 and do not have Eternal Warrior so they're not too hard to kill from range, also they only have a 5+ save so they either need psychic buffing or they have to pick on units they can cope with comfortably.

For the purposes of trying them out though I'm pretty confident that the good could outweigh the bad so I'm approaching my first test game on Thursday with some optimism for them. I'll let you know how it goes!

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!