Infinity: First Battle with N3

So, a few of us brought 150 point Infinity lists to Dark Sphere to start learning N3. We had a simple mini mission of "claim the centre building". With my models not yet assembled, I used some proxies, but generally using models I have so when they're assembled I'll have a head start. Here's the list I went with:

Mobile Brigada: 39

Rev Healer w/ MULTI Rifle: 37

Zero w/ Combi Rifle: 18

Bounty Hunter w/ Spitfire: 20

2 x Combi Rifle Alguacils: 20

Alguacil w/ Light Grenade Launcher: 14

I'd originally planned to have my Zero mine up the central building, but my opponent got first turn and mined it up first.

This is around the point I realised that Infinity is going to be a lot harder to do battle reports for. As your turn can have models activate multiple times, shoot and be shot, it's not just a case of taking a quick couple of photos after the end of a Movement Phase and a Shooting Phase.

As such, I abandoned taking photos pretty quickly, and instead, I'll sum up what I learned. Hackers are really good against models who are vulnerable to them - possibly because at the moment they are feared and people will move to avoid encountering them. It may be that it turns out that bullets are perfectly acceptable anti-hacking protocol.

Learning range bands is going to be important. There was a point where I realised a grenade launcher would need a 1 to hit, and another point where the Spitfire did horrible things to a sniper because he got close. The Reverend Healer was also completely bad-ass, making me realise that the higher point medium infantry can be really tough when used right.

In short, Infinity is really about having a tool box, with each unit having things that it is good and bad at, and no unit being all round amazing at everything. I'm liking it more and more already.

Did I dream it? A Chaos Space Marine list with Mutilators

Somewhere, recently, I saw or heard an argument that the Mutilators in the Chaos Space Marine list were a better bodyguard for a Chaos Space Marine Terminator Lord in a Land Raider than Chaos Terminators, as they had more wounds and more flexibility to punch a variety of different opponents in the face in close combat.

I have now totally forgotten where I heard this. Was it a podcast? Was it in a blog post somewhere? I don't remember. Maybe I dreamt it. I shall award one Internet Point if anyone can link to my inspiration for this craziness.

So, I had a first pass at putting this into a list today.

1500 Pts - Codex: Chaos Space Marines

HQ: Chaos Lord in Terminator Armour
Mark of Slaanesh, Combi-Meltagun, Lightning Claw, Warlord

HQ: Sorcerer in Terminator Armour
Mark of Slaanesh, Combi-Boltgun, Force Axe, Mastery Level 3, Spell Familiar

Elite: 3 Mutilators

Troops: Noise Marines
10 Noise Marines
Icon of Excess, Blastmaster, Noise Champion with Melta Bombs and Doom Siren
1 Chaos Rhino with Dirge Caster

Troops: Chaos Space Marines
20 Chaos Space Marines
Icon of Vengeance, Flamer, Meltagun, Aspiring Champion with Melta Bombs

Fast Attack: Heldrake with Baleflamer

Heavy Support: Chaos Land Raider
Dirge Caster

I will certainly say that as a Guard player, the idea of that few models on the table is a little scary. I went with Slaanesh and a big horde of CSMs because I am currently considering doing my Dark Vengeance models up as Slaanesh worshipping Iron Warriors, who grew bored during sieges and found ways of entertaining themselves during all the dull bits.

Only two scoring units, with two tanks and a horde of Marines starting on the table is really not very much at all - I did consider trimming down to a more 'multiple small units' approach with Rhinos to increase the number of targets the opponent has to deal with and to allow the capture of multiple objectives - but I decided against it for this draft.

The Heldrake, obviously, reserves. The characters and the Mutilators charge forward at the enemy in the Land Raider and get out to murder things dead. The Noise Marines push forward in the Rhino and find an objective to push people off as they are a bit tougher than your usual choices. The 20 man squad either sits back or, if you're feeling brave, pushes up on foot looking for its own objective. Heldrake does as Heldrake pleases. Everything is Fearless or a vehicle.

If I was playing at 1750 or so, I think I'd just straight up add two Maulerfiends while cackling insanely.

I don't have any Chaos Space Marines painted up right now, so it's likely that this list will remain TheoryHammer for a long while yet. But it was an idea in my head, so I have written it down and put it on the internet to entertain others.

Imperial Guard: 500 points slow grow at Dark Sphere

So, I've been playing a little in Dark Sphere's "slow grow" league which has been ambling along happily on Wednesday nights. We're currently at 500 points, and I've been taking the opportunity to use units I might not otherwise use to learn how they work in 6th edition.

Week 1
"Battleforce Recon" mission vs Grey Knights - Victory!
"The Emperor's Will" mission vs Chaos Space Marines - Defeat!

Week 2
"Purge the Alien" mission vs Imperial Guard - Defeat!
"The Relic" mission vs Space Marines - Defeat!

In the first week, I painted up three old metal sentinels I'd had kicking about for a while. It was a mental late night painting session as I unexpectedly got home late the night before the slow grow and decided to go for it anyway.

For the record, a hair dryer is possibly the most important tool a speed painter can own! It was so mental I've still not got any "completed" photos, but here they are on the battlefield.

This is, in fact, one of the pivotal moments of the Battleforce Recon mission against the Grey Knights. A strike squad managed to deep strike in directly behind the Sentinels. Which means I should probably move to:

Week 1, Battle 1: "Battleforce Recon"

In a fit of lunatic enthusiasm, I suggested to ClauseIV1918 that we use the Battleforce Recon mission from the big 40K rulebook. For those who haven't read it, its a crazy little mission designed for 500 point forces on 4x4 tables. My ever tolerant opponent happily agreed.

I hate re-using pictures, but this is the best example of the deployment - you have to deploy within 12" of the corner, which left me a little squashed. I was using two penal legion squads, my flamer heavy demolition veterans, a Primaris Psyker, three scout sentinels and some Ratlings (who ended up by the lump of rock in the middle on the right).

The game was a bloody firefight, with the Grey Knight strike squads showing up pretty late to the party, leaving a henchman warband to soak up most of the shooting for a couple of turns. The veterans showed their horrific firepower in turning a full strike squad into mush in a turn of shooting (the demo charge being the game changer on that front), and the Ratlings reliably put a lot of holes in people, although the Inquisitor was very keen to avoid dying...

In the end, I managed to hold an objective in the centre, and I think First Blood pushed me to the win, although I don't precisely recall!

Week 1, Battle 2: The Emperor's Will

One of the newer players had also finished up their game, so, keen to fight something not Imperial, I swiftly challenged their Nurgle Chaos Space Marines to a game. He was trying out missions for the first time, and we also decided to try out Mysterious Terrain as the board had a lot of woods and water.

I made a genuine effort to move forward up the board here to take his objective, rather than just sitting on mine and trying to get the secondary mission points. This didn't end well for me - it turns out massed bolter fire will seriously upset the Guard!

Notice how that squad is a lot further back. And now on fire.

In short, I was brutally wiped out by a mix of highly effective bolter fire and brutal close combat. The Burning Brand also did not help one little bit. The last Guardsman died running and screaming, burning from the inside out as he tried to escape the battlefield.

Week 2, Battle 1: Purge the Alien

This will be a little lighter on the pictures as my phone battery was dying - I really must remember to take my charger to work before game night so I can take more photos!

Varying the list this week, I took two veterans squads - one the usual, and one with three plasma guns and a lascannon. In the first battle, I rounded out with a Demolisher Leman Russ.

Meanwhile Louis, who normally plays a "Counts as" Space Wolves list, but is trying Guard for the slow grow, had a pretty large infantry platoon, a Command HQ, and a Veteran Squad in a Chimera.

And sadly, no other photos of this battle came out.

In short, the Lascannon and plasma made short work of his Chimera, his infantry made short work of mine, and the Demolisher went on a brutal killing spree before finally being brought down by a krak grenade to the rear armour...

Week 2, Battle 2: The Relic

Another one of the newer players, this time with a Space Marine list - two tactical squads, commander, small bike squad and a Dreadnought.

My list still had the core of the Psyker and the Veterans, but swapped out the Demolisher for a Chimera and a small squad of Storm Troopers with two Melta Guns.

I was subject to another tabling here. The Chimera went down to weight of fire from the Dreadnought then krak grenades, the plasma veterans got taken apart by bolter fire and bikers, although they caused some damage and casualties on the way.

The demo-vets did best, as the demo charge deviated onto the Captain and killed him and half his squad dead, leaving the survivors to be gunned down by the Storm Troopers - but the Dreadnought ripped the surviving vets apart in close combat then assault cannoned and flamer throwered the Storm Troopers into mulch in revenge for the loss of the Captain.

In summary

I've been having great fun with the slow grow. Building army lists at 500 points is a very different challenge to usual, and I've learnt a lot already. I'll be throwing a few more tactical thoughts I've had as a result of these games up in a separate blog post soon...

Starting to learn 6th edition (and teaching the wife)

So, I finally finished the housework which earned me my copy of the 6th edition rulebook!

I was then somewhat surprised to have my wife ask me to teach her how to play 40K, as she's going to be playing the Dark Eldar we picked up at one of the Eavy Metal painting Masterclasses at an Apocalypse game at Darksphere on 25 November.

So, a short bit of maths later, Sim had a list of 400 points of Dark Eldar. It consisted of two squads of Wyches with an assortment of upgrades, and that was the lot! She seemed happy with that, though.

I picked a quick 400 points of Guard to face her. I took an infantry platoon, with the PCS having all the melta guns, and a Chimera as a ride. The two squads got autocannons and melta guns. I threw in the recently painted conscripts because they were just finished, and rounded it off with three Ratlings.

So, this in mind, we set up the terrain!

Ah.

OK, remind me to really move "terrain building" up the priority list. Yes, we're using a passing Doomwheel as wreckage. The mobile phone box is a building, the old Necromunda card barricades are . . . barricades, the pond is a pond, and the failed sample arm warmer some difficult ground that doesn't provide cover.

I suggested using the recon mission thing from the book, but Sim said she'd far rather just have us try and kill each other first game and she could move onto such complicated things as "objectives" later...

We rolled off and I deployed first.

My Conscripts are off to the left, the two infantry squads to the right, Chimera in the centre with the command squad in it.

Sim deploys her squads opposite, with the special weapons at the back with me having explained "casualties start at the front".

She then has the opportunity to seize the initiative.

Bugger.

I get my Ratlings set up on the roof of the building, and the Dark Eldar start running towards me as fast as they can...

Sim then remembered she'd taken the chaos star from the gamer's edition of the 40K rulebook, and went and grabbed her beret.

The conscripts then let off a spectacular volley of fire at the Wyches, which even with the failed "First Rank, Fire" order left Sim's numbers looking remarkably thin!

To the right, they faired better due to the amount of cover available, and my inability to roll anything useful whatsoever!

On my left, the surviving three Wyches ran into the Chimera, blew it to pieces with Haywire grenades, then ducked behind the barricade to the left. I charged in response, with a melta gun nearly taking out the squad leader, but they "accidentally" pushed one of their colleagues in the way instead.

Surely this looks bad for the Dark Eldar, you say...

I also bravely decided to take a chance at charging on the right, hoping that weight of numbers would see me through.

This was, I think, a terrible mistake.

Yup, I was right, terrible mistake.

On the left, they hacked down two of the Lieutenant's bodyguards, causing the conscripts to panic and flee.

Now realising that being outside was very dangerous with the Imperial Guard's weight of fire, the Wyches decided to run into the building before butchering the Ratlings the following turn.

The combat on the left remained pretty much equal for now, with only ridiculously jammy rolling of saving throws saving the day for me.

"Then I rolled three sixes and a five!"

On the right, my Ratlings decided jumping off the building was safer than staying in it. One of them proceeded to break his leg jumping off the roof and passed out with pain. The remaining infantry squad ran up to the building, and the melta gunner loosed off a shot . . . causing a massive explosion. All the Dark Eldar died, both surviving Ratlings died, and two of the remaining infantry squad near the building were killed in the explosion.

So, erm, building damage tables are much scarier than they used to be!

On the left, the two surviving Wyches killed off my command squad, then charged into the conscripts on their turn!

The Wyches neatly take them to pieces (I forgot to Overwatch) - they kill one and the conscripts flee a second time, but this time their officer is not holding the killer gladiators off, and they are cut down to a man!

There's not much more to report, beyond that they proceeded to run across the table to the few surviving infantrymen, and cut them all down with no further losses, even though I remembered Overwatch by then!

Imperial Guard to the right are the casualty pile spreading out onto the table.
Chimera is wrecked. They're all dead, Dave.

Well, wife is rightly pleased with her first game of Warhammer 40K ever, and my first (completed) game of 6th edition! I may post a few thoughts on this later, but for now I shall go and wallow in my extensive and terrible defeat!

Malifaux: Zoraida & Collodi

So, AwesomeWife is Awesome, and she bought me a Malifaux crew for our wedding anniversary.

I got a case to put things in, the rulebook, the Zoraida alternate sculpt, the Collodi boxed set and Zoraida, Avatar of Fate.

This is _just_ a spot too much to fit into a 25 soulstone game, so my current plan is to assemble Collodi and Zoraida, leaving the Avatar form until last. I can then drop a Wicked Doll from the starting line up to allow the Avatar form, given Zoraida can make new ones...

I've also been quite surprised that I can't seem to get Army Builder to process Avatar forms. I don't seem to be doing it right. I'm usually a huge fan of theirs, especially for GW lists, but right now, I'm finding Wyrd's own Crew Creator much more reliable and accurate (although given its a tailor made solution by the makers of the game, I'm really not surprised at all!)...

Kirby's Feedback on my Throne of Skulls January 2012 list

I wrote to Kirby, of 3++ is the new black (http://www.3plusplus.net/) for some feedback on the list. I asked him to prioritise changes for the gamer on a budget, and here's what he gave me! He didn't post them on his blog (he has a lot of more challenging and useful requests for feedback, I guess), so I'm posting it here instead.


"Hey Timothy,

It looks like you've got a bit of everything in there, so I'd be looking to double up with your purchases. Firstly, your CCS is way too expensive, drop all the upgrades and only keep the Astropath. Ordance is too innacruate and expensive, Fleet often helps your opponent as they simply get jack all in and are better able to counter alpha strike you and bodyguards are just a waste of points. Let you ropponent shoot at them rather than the other stuff that's killing them.

I'd be looking to add another Valk in but make both of them Vendettas for ranged shooting plus another Veteran in Chimera but with meltaguns - you don't really need the Penal Legion btw though they are a nice, cheap harassment force, they aren't reliable enough to do so every game.

Heavy Support is okay but spread thin - pick two of them and leave the 3rd at home to free up more points for Chimeras/Veterans/Infantry Platoons, etc. I'd personally go withthe Manticore and Hydra and potentially look to buy a 2nd Hydra (either in squad or not).

Hope that helps and sorry for delay!

Kirby."

Imperial Guard Throne of Skulls Jan 2012

Below is my roster from Throne of Skulls in January. The Penal Legion deployed in the Valkyrie for seizing objectives.

I'm not going to comment too much on the list right now - I've got five battle reports to put up, plus some feedback from another blogger. Once I've done all that, I'll add a lessons learnt post.

1500 Pts - Imperial Guard Roster - Imperial Guard Throne
of Skulls Jan 2012

HQ: Company Command Squad (10#, 237 pts)
Medi-pack; Regimental Standard; Lascannon; Bolter; Astropath; 2
Bodyguards; Master of Ordnance; Officer of the Fleet

Troops: Infantry Platoon (27#, 337 pts)
1 Infantry Platoon, 337 pts
Platoon Command Squad
Meltagun x4; Bolter; Power Fist
Infantry Squad
Meltagun; Autocannon; Sergeant with Power Weapon; Commissar with Power Weapon
Infantry Squad
Meltagun; Autocannon; Sergeant with Power Weapon; Commissar with Power Weapon

Veteran Squad (11#, 195 pts)
Veteran Squad
Demolitions; Flamer x2; Grenade Launcher;
Chimera
Turret Multi-Laser; Heavy Flamer; Extra Armor; Hunter-killer Missile

Penal Legion Squad (10#, 80 pts)

Fast Attack: Rough Rider Squad (10#, 105 pts)

Fast Attack: Valkyrie Assault Carrier (1#, 130 pts)
Multiple Rocket Pods

Heavy Support: Hydra Flak Tank Battery (1#, 75 pts)

Heavy Support: Manticore Rocket Launcher (1#, 160 pts)

Heavy Support: Leman Russ Demolisher (1#, 180 pts)
Lascannon

Total Roster Cost: 1499