Force or Power

I was listening to a really cool podcast from Frontline Gaming over the weekend that was all focused on "Unraveling the Psychic Phase" and it is worth listening to a few times.  It is a great primer on ideas and thoughts for that phase of the game, and I was very happy with the detail and discussion. 

That had me thinking about Space Marine Librarians and their GK brethren.

In the prior editions, Force weapons were a major thing for the game, with the opportunity to punch a unit back to the Warp (remove from game).  Force staves, Force Swords, Force Axes.  It was all about the Force, but you needed to activate the Force weapon to give it a chance to work, hit and wound, and then your opponent had to fail against it. 

In 8th Edition Force Weapons are probably not worth it. Why? 

Example:

• Force Sword, S User, -3AP, D3 damage. 8 points.
• Power sword, S user, -3AP, 1 damage, 4 points. 

No other benefits of Force that I'm immediately aware of.

It makes me wonder.

A Force Stave is the same number of points as a force sword (8), but is +2 strength, -1 AP, D3 damage. You could then change it to a relic staff (Blood Angels, I assume others have equivalent), which gives you +1 to psychic rolls when manifesting a power.  Playing Blood Angels, the difference between the stave vs sword is a non-argument for most cases. I'd go with what you have modeled and be fine, but the preference is the sword for the -3AP. A Force Axe is 10 points, +1S, -2AP, D3.

It is just a shame that a Force weapon activation spell or stratagem does not exist.  Could you imagine a spell (say, WC7) or stratagem (say, 2CP) that would take the weapon up to D3 mortal wounds instead (to give the user the ability to take out a 5-wound model or so, or when really lucky as many as 9 wounds)? That would give a Librarian with a Force Weapon the tool needed to take down a "powerful" demon or equivalent, and have the ability to spend on other stratagems or spells to boost him to even higher damage output. It would make it more thematic as well - after all, it was cool in prior editions when you could pull it off. 

C'mon, GW, support the narrative aspect of the game!

Regardless, Space Marine Librarians cannot take power weapons, only force weapons.  That said, are the 8 point spent on a Force Weapon better spent for two power swords or a single power fist in a unit accompanying the Librarian on his mission? Maybe so. It depends on the combat role. 

Frankly, with no natural invulnerable save (unless you go terminator), the basic Librarian might be best left in the supporting role.  You can model the Librarian holding a book out at arm's length to read it with bifocals. After all, you are not "forced" to give the model a weapon...The one I use in my Blood Angels (not pictured above) is the old metal model, kitbashed to have a power sword, but has the standard plasma pistol he came with...he's likely to live longer using the pistol and smite than jumping into close combat...

Your thoughts?

MING

Updated 1850 - BloodyGuards ver1.2

As promised here is my revised 1850 list:

1850 Blood Angels (3 detachments, 14 CP)

Battalion
Librarian, jump pack, plasma pistol, force sword, smite, shield, quick
Sanguinary Priest, jump pack, bolter, power axe, veritas vitae relic
Tac squad, 5, flamer
Tac squad, 5, flamer
Tac squad, 5
Plasma Inceptors, 3
Flamer Aggressors, 3
Predator, autocann-lascann, stormbolter
Predator, autocann-lascann, stormbolter

Vanguard
Captain, warlord, jump pack, thunderhammer and stormshield, angels wing relic
Sanguinary Guard, 4, jump packs, 1 power fist, 3 encarmine blades, 1 plasma pistol, 3 angelus boltguns
Sanguinary Guard, 4, jump packs, 1 power fist, 3 encarmine blades, 1 plasma pistol, 3 angelus boltguns
Company vet squad, 5, jump packs, power fist/stormshield, 3/w paired lightning claws, 1 w/ chainsword and handflamer

Allied Battalion (Cadian)
2x company commanders
3x infantry squads with mortars

The above also takes care of some typos or errors in the prior list.  

Overall, I think it is an interesting list for play and goes with the them very well.  Lots of gold painted sanguinary models.  I think if I had the Sanguinor model itself, I'd work that in for the next version! Or...even a librarian dreadnought...or swap the predators for other dreadnought(s).    

Is it amazing? At 1850, it is probably not too bad.  If there was good terrain coverage it should do well.  

Overall, it has some good parts to it - the predators are there for the long range support fire on larger beasts or tanks or knights.  The plasma inceptors are there for dropping in to slaughter back field high value targets or elite infantry.  Tac squads and cadians for warapping and defending any deployment are objectives, supported by the flamer aggressors.  Mortars for sniping at hideen stuff or more long range support. The remainder (Captain, etc.) all head off together to do the punching and poking. The job of the Priest is obvious to support that, giving them additional strength and hopefully recovering bunches of wounds or models from the graveyard. So, overall, its pretty good on-screen.

I'll have pictures of new models being assembled and painted next week.  So much to do! Eventually (for November), I need to have a tough as nails PITA list for the 2018 Standish Standoff...

  

 

Updated 1850 - BloodyGuards

Here is my revised 1850 list:

1850 Blood Angels (3 detachments, 14 CP)

Battalion
Librarian, jump pack, plasma pistol, power sword, smite, shield, quick
Sanguinary Priest, jump pack, bolter, power axe, veritas vitae
Tac squad, 5, flamer
Tac squad, 5, flamer
Tac squad, 5
Plasma Inceptors, 3
Flamer Aggressors, 3
Predator, autocann-lascann, stormbolter
Predator, autocann-lascann, stormbolter

Vanguard
Captain, jump pack, thunderhammer and stormshield, warlord, angels wing
Sanguinary ancient, power fist, angelus boltgun, banner, possible 3rd relic
Sanguinary Guard, 5, 2 jump packs, power fists, 3 encarmine blades, 2 plasma pistols, 3 angelus boltguns
Company vet squad, 5, jump packs, power fist, bolt pistol, 4 pairs of lightning claws

Allied Battalion (Cadian)
2x company commanders
3x infantry squads with mortars

This list is interesting as it includes the Company Vet Squad - which I'll have to verify in the codex, but these guys have the command squad bodyguard special rule...which is new to the BAs and regular marines, and something Ol' Reecius at FLG was experimenting with at the Nova.  Basically if they go around with the Captain (or other character in the list) and they can take the wound on a 2+ (as a mortal wound). Overall, they are equipped the same as the Vanguard squad posted earlier (right now), for about the same points (had to drop the hand flamer for a pistol).

I'm now looking to drop the Sanguinary Ancient and just rebalance with more Sanguinary Guard (two units of 4 would be the goal), but it might mean taking some of the claws out of the "BloodyGuards" for the captain. I would think most of you might recommend arming them simply with just bolt guns and chainswords if I'm really just using them as a wound bank. Dropping the Ancient would get me more bodies and bolters and blades at the expense of a "reroll 1's to wound" and slightly improved leadership bubble.     

Thoughts?

MING

Next list 1850 first cut

I did download BattleScribe and used it for the first time.  The cool part is that it works well on my phone, so its easy to take a list to a game and not have a bunch of paper flying about. 

As I've alluded to in the recent past, I'm transitioning now from a Death-Company focused Blood Angels list to a Golden Host focused list. 

First list has models I have in my beats lab:

1850 Blood Angels (3 detachments, 14 CP)

Battalion
Librarian, jump pack, plasma pistol, power sword, smite, shield, quick
Sanguinary Priest, jump pack, bolter, power axe, veritas vitae
Tac squad, 5, flamer
Tac squad, 5, flamer
Tac squad, 5, flamer
Plasma Inceptors, 3
Flamer Agressors, 3
Predator, autocann-lascann, stormbolter
Predator, autocann-lascann, stormbolter

Vanguard
Captain, jump pack, thunderhammer and stormshield, warlord, angels wing
Sanguinary ancient, power fist, angelus bolter, banner, possible 3rd relic
Sanguinary Guard, 5, 2 jump packs, power fists, 3 encarmine blades, 2 inferno pistols, 3 angelus bolters
Vanguard vet squad, 5, jump packs, power fist, hand flammer, 4 pairs of lightning claws

Allied Battalion (Cadian)
2x company commanders
3x infantry squads with mortars

So far, so good.  I was hoping to meld some scouts in, but I don't have the models. I'll be considering changing the Sanguinary Priest to a chaplain if the points fit.  Will need to try it out on some stuff. 

Thoughts?

MING

Ogryn 2++ IMHO is really 3+/4++

Rant time.

Yep, another conundrum by players pushing the envelope.

In the tournament I was in this weekend (12 players), I unfortunately did something horrible in my past 15 years or so of Warhammer 40K.  I came in last place!

Besides that, there was some interesting stuff going on, but the thing that got my goat the most apparently is a "real discussion" in some circles of 40K.

I assaulted a bodyguard Ogryn with a tooled up Mephiston, expecting to win, while Lemartes win in to assault the opponent's warlord.

Lemartes easily popped off the warlord, no big deal, he was just the head of the Catachans = Strakken himself!

Mephiston, on the other hand, could not even wound the Ogryn Bodyguard.

Why?

Because the Ogryn was wearing a halloween mask, giving him a 2++ save I was told.

Yep.

So that had me go into the actual codex to see what was going on.

Ogryn bodyguards have a base 5+ save.

If you give them one (Slab) shield (0 cost, takes up a slot), his 5+ goes down to a 3+.  The other option is a different (Brute) shield, which grants a 4++ save (5 points, so the Ogryn is a 4++/5+).

If you give him a relic mask, the mask says it gives the user (infantry) a 4++ save, plus one per game a D3 wound restore.

So my opponent used the FREE shield, added the FREE mask, to claim he was now a 2++ Ogryn.

After reading it through, I'd have to say, Fu## you. 

In all of Games Workshops current writing, there are saves, invulnerable saves, and FNP/resilient  saves.

The cheap, FREE shield says it adds 2 to your save, not your invulnerable save or your FNP/resilient save.

The Ogryn should have been 3+/4++.

Period.

Undoubtedly if I'd brought it up to the TO, I felt like I'd have lost the argument of rules as bent versus rules as written, rules as implied, or rules as costed, rules as "more like guidelines" or whatever.

I did discuss it with my long-time Astra Militarum buddy after the day was done, and he agrees I got boned by it.  Others said, "well, if he's wrong maybe it will be in a FAQ".

Now I know there are threads at Dakka, BOLS, and B&C that writers are trying to claim some form of miracle.  A 2++ Ogryn. Using him to tank wounds for the character he stands with.

Just read the G-D words. "any" does not mean "insert word invulnerable here". The free shield is worded to take the 5+ down to a 3+.

Overall, I feel this is just WAAC'ers pushing the envelope to do something that was not intended to be done or written to be done.  Its like when others were claiming you had to fire everything, even one strike missiles like HKMs, if the unit fired at all ("no holding back!"). Grrrr.

Regardless, I felt this game was played pretty loose by my opponent, he certainly did not get any sportsmanship score from me.

In the next opportune phase, Mephiston jumped away, then used a power to get even further away, and hid till the game's turn 3 end.

Lemartes, left in the open, was pretty much mortared to death.

Overall, as promised, I'm putting the Death Company-themed list away for a while.  The next few weeks are planned to be at 1850 points.  I've downloaded BattleScribe to my devise, and have been playing with it in oder to figure out how it works and such.  It took a bit to figure some stuff out (while watching Sunday Night Football), but I already have a base list for this week's fun and such.  It was interesting to see the details I could look up, something I did not expect.

Overall, there were other things that were important to some of my game losses, but those are best for a different day.

MING

Blood Angels 1750 Evolution

Read this post with a Scottish accent. It ends up that most of the (last) video casts I'm watching nowadays are from the UK...

Yes, the current list (previous post) just is not doing it for me. 

I played a game vs Tau on Wednesday.  My opponent is pretty awesome in playing, and I've lost more games to him than won, so he always presents a great challenge for me.  My opponent started with a full "infantry" brigade and a "drone" battalion, so he had lots of CPs to start. So yeah, 6 squads of warriors and at least 3 units of drones.  I wish I had a detailed list, because it is pretty good.  Lots of characters to hand out bubbles, lots of targeting lasers to give other benefits.  Not very mobile.

We rolled up the mission where you can steal "secure" objectives. 

He won the roll to go first and I seized.  I'd only held the Hammer Captain, Lemartes, and the Jump DC in reserve to drop in on Turn 2.  We played to 5 turns. 

At the end, I'd lost the game (no photos - the lighting was poor), about 18 to 12.  We were back and forth through turn 4.  A great hand draw on Turn 5 for him really created the points gap.

Overall, my list weaknesses (to be fixed) before tomorrow's FLGS tournament include:

1. In "mustering" I have an issue with relics to really take advantage of the CP farming abilities.  I need another (unnamed) character in the Blood Angels in order to get Veritas Vitae, and I need make the warlord one of the company commanders in order to obtain the two sources of CP recovery. The goal is to have all three elements of CP recovery, in order to get the most benefits.  The negative of this is that the Captain loses his warlord trait (his FNP save as death company will only be the 6+ rerolling 1's which is far worse than the 5+ rerolling 1's I currently use).

2. The snipers pretty much accomplished nothing. I really need three more mortars.  I'll see what I can do, so it probably means cobbling together another group of three mortars tonight (if I have the bits) or getting in three heavy bolters.  In fact, as the FLGs may not have updated their mission packet to current ITS missions, I can save some points by adding the heavy bolters to the astra militarum squads.  This means these 10-man squads now become 9-model squads...I need to check the astyra militarum stratagems and see if they can get hellfire shells on those to create a source of mortal wounds.

3. Catachan vs Cadian? I'm probably just going to go Cadian.  Although I'm not sold on it, Cadian rules and stratagems may be better for this particular list since the Astra Militarum tend to just sit back and shoot.

4. Need to spread the death company special weapons around.  I talked about that in the last post.

Long term, I need to look at a way to shut down or bypass invulnerable saves on my opponent's largest models. In this case (seen in other games too), large models with 4+ or 3+ invulnerable saves are pain.  In the game this week, on Turn 3, I was able to use the Captain to multi-assault several tau units including the Riptide.  The Riptide (slightly wounded) ultimately was attacked by 4 jump death company (TH, PA, 2 PS), and the Captain (TH/SS).  Using all of the stratagems I could muster, including having the DC attack twice, the Riptide survived with three wounds, which in the bottom of the turn was increased to 6 wounds, and ultimately (after flying out of combat) the Riptide shot the DC off the table. In the following turn 4, the Captain and Lemartes (survivors of Turn 3 Tau love) moved on to multi-assault the center of the tau line, using up the remainder of my CPs, eliminating an ethereal, the remainder of the Tau drones, and two other warrior squads...in response, the Riptide, and three other Tau characters, totally destroyed the Captain and Lemartes.  It was bad.

6+ FNPs on the death company are as bad as they sound.  Might as well not have it.  Just wastes time.

Overall, I made some other mistakes - I probably should have just started with everything on the table.  The Stormraven could have done more on Turn 1 (shot down on Turn 2).  Stuff like that. 

The Astra militarum - except for the mortars - did not do much in the game. Except for what CPs they provided - might as well have had just three full units of mortars....which if I had the models...

Anyways, all for now.  Happy Friday and see you across the table! After this weekend, my list will stay Blood Angels bu totally change with the death company theme being changed to the golden host...remember those experiments where I ran equal points of anything Sanguinary vs DC counterparts and golden painted stuff wrecks everything black? Yeah...

Overall, it has been fun running a DC themed list.  The counts-as Catachans might as well be fluffy Baal defense auxiliary...

All for now,

MING   

 

 

 

Up-scaling Blood Angels to 1750

I have a minor tournament at my FLGS on Saturday, 1750 points.  But September is such a busy time!

For the sake of consistency, I'm continuing my theme of using all of the painted death company marines in my collection and supporting units (Battalion plus vanguard detachment, 9 CP) and then added to it exactly 250 points of Astra Militarum (Catachans Battalion, 5 CP):

Blood Angels (1500):

• Company Captain with JP/TH/SS/AW relic (all set to become death company)
• Chaplain Lemartes
• Mephiston, LOD, smite, shield, wings, quick
• Death Company, 10, with Jump Packs, 2 PA, 3 PS, 1 PF, 1 TH
• Death Company on Foot, 10
• Death Company Dread, Blood Talons, melta, storm bolter, magna grapple
• 3 tactical squads, 5 ea, 1 flamer
• Stormraven Gunship, TLLC/TLMM, HBs, 2 SSMLs
• 3 Flamer Aggressors

Astra Militarum (Catachans, 250):

• 2 company commanders (las pistols and chain swords) (more relics)
• 1 Infantry squad with a flamer
• 2 Infantry squads, no upgrades
• 1 special weapons squad, 3 snipers
• 1 heavy weapons squad (3 mortars)

My intent was to go all-Angels and include a Jump Lieutenant and Plasma Inceptors, but I'm not done yet with them - who knows? Maybe I'll have them done before the weekend!

This current list does let me 14 CP, and the ability to maybe farm up some more.  One of the things for me to remember is that the Blood Angels stratagems do allow me some interesting things that I'm learning from my favorite battle reports and bloggers.

1. You can turn more than 1 character to death company using the stratagems.  If I add in the Lieutenant, he becomes more resilient and benefits from the black rage and, it helps on making sure the Captain and others really max out on wound production.

2. You can use two stratagems on turn 1 to get the Death Company into position - one to get the jump squad a free move and advance forward, the other to bring Lemartes forward with them. Let the jump pack death company use the 3D6 assault rerollable, on turn 1.

3. The warlord trait that supports the Captain best (5+FNP when he goes DC), ALSO gives a reroll 1's on that FNP...I have no idea how many times I did not remember that!

4. I have to see if I can get another Death Company marine (on foot) modeled and done, to get some of the power weapons spread around.  It would be good to have a hidden thunder hammer in there.  Speaking of which, the power axes on the jump DC just need to go...in this edition, power axes seem like a waste of points for blood angels compared to power swords or other choices.

5. Overall, between pre-game CP uses and the deployment CP uses, I'd end up starting the game with about 8 CP remaining. The key is to get the Astra Militarum deployed first, so their relics can possibly recover the 3+ or so CPs the Blood Angels use in deploying or turn 1.

As for the Astra Militarum, I have a interesting conundrum.  Models.  Frankly I'd drop the snipers for another heavy weapon squad - but I'm out of mortars!  Heavy bolters cost a bit too much for a swap. Also, I'm using the Catachan faction, but the models are bog standard guard in green and tan with no red bandannas or big giant knives...

If anyone local wants to trade some Catachans for some Tallarn, let me know!  I'll consolidate to Catachan if you want some cool (metal) Tallarn characters and about two squads worth of infantry all painted and ready to go!  Painted or unpainted or in the box Catachans are fine...I only have about 2.5 squads worth of Catachans at the moment and more are needed!

I love the Catachans for their +1 S and ability to reroll flamer hits.  As you may recall, my earlier 2000 point list swapped out the company commanders for Strakken and a Lord Commissar. Strakken adds a lot of fun when running a small force he can lead. Overall, keeping the Catachans in my list (as above) means I need to cull out some Astra Militarum stratagems, relics, and a cheat sheet on their orders! It all adds up in complexity...this gets me thinking...if I drop the flamer from the bloos angels tac squad, I can give those points to the Catachans for another flamer...

Overall, this list will give me a large number of bodies...could be interesting! Hope to practice on Wednesday and Friday...going 2-1 for the day on Saturday would be awesome.

MING

Just Fix It

I've been catching up on my favorite podcasts this week, and it has been fun to hear all the NOVA stories.

Interestingly, everyone now seems to be madly awaiting the Games Workshop FAQ, and most somehow want to see two things "fixed" in the FAQ - some issue with knights, but more importantly the CP Farm (using Astra Militarum Relics to create a pathway to recover lots of CPs during the game, to boost your "real" units).

Nobody wants to say it so I will.

The FAQ just needs to state that for MATCHED PLAY, all relics that you take (if any at all) are only from your warlord's faction.  Period. 

The result - you can still get CP's from your Astra Militarum allies, but one of the HQ units of the Astra Militarum becomes your warlord.  Not a Knight.  Not a Slam-Captain.  Maybe just your cheap company commander.  No Angels Wing.  No relic Knight whatever part. 

To me that seems to be the way relics were written into the original codexes.  To me that seems to go with the way that the stratagem was worded.  The FAQ just has to state the obvious. 

Now haters are gonna hate, but to me it is simple.  FAQ worthy.  A clarification.

The Podcasters all want to actually "change" the actual wording so that a variety of other changes occur.  All sorts of other ideas like, you can only recover one CP per phase, or CPs can only be used by the faction that generated them. 

I say, just fix it. 

As an aside, some of my favorite Podcasters are in the Carolinas.  Good luck to you all in the impending weather, keep your battlefoam close. You can use it as an emergency flotation device if needed.  6 Pack 720s can be lashed together for a personal raft. 

All for now.  As always, what do you think?

MING

     

19 years of Gaming at Crossroads! A new gaming year begins!

It was a great weekend.  Can you believe I've been dabbling in Warhammer 40K at Crossroad Games now for 19 years? Dang! But it has been a fun 19 years!

This weekend included a 1500 point 40K tournament.  It was a good format, every game had a primary using maelstrom cards worth a maximum of 15 points, and ITC secondaries worth up to 12 points, so perfect games were capped at 27 points.  Each game was set for 2 hour rounds including deployment.  Only the deployment map was different for each game. 

My list was cobbled together (no time to try it out), but my theme was to use all of the painted death company marines in my collection (Battalion plus vanguard detachment, 9 CP):

Company Captain with JP/TH/SS/AW relic (all set to become death company)
Chaplain Lemartes
Mephiston, LOD, smite, shield, wings, quick
Death Company, 10, with Jump Packs, 2 PA, 3 PS, 1 PF, 1 TH
Death Company on Foot, 10
Death Company Dread, Blood Talons, melta, storm bolter, magna grapple
3 tactical squads, 5 ea, 1 flamer
Stormraven Gunship, TLLC/TLMM, HBs, 2 SSMLs

I ended up in 5th place, with 40 points total.  In my three games, the win versus lost was by just a single point.  Here are some thoughts on each game:

Game 1 VS NEW CODEX SPACEWOLVES!
My opponent only had the codex for about 24 hours at best.  He led with Njal, a character on wolf, 3 squads of grey hunters (5 ea), 1 blood claws pack (5), 6 or so wulfen with lots of TH/SS, and wold riders maxed on TH/SS, and a flyer.

The Wolfen and Wolf riders were the nastiest to deal with.  Probably 6 or more TH/SS in total, with multi-wound models to wreck your game.  Cinematic moment was when I got one grey hunter squad down to 1 model on turn 2, he used a strategem to turn that model into a character (a saga moment thing), who I then killed and got points for killing a character off a maelstrom card...Overall it was a great game, but the score was low, me losing 10-11.

Game 2 VS MIXED THOUSAND SONS-BLACK LEGION
This game was pretty fun all around, and we worked hard to squeeze in another turn to make sure we scored as high as we could.  IF ANYTHING, the format the TO used could cause these sorts of shenanigans as the game stops were kinda squishy.  After all, your standing for the day was based on total points earned for the day...I think my blood angels did really well in this game.  I captured alot of territory and kept the pressure on my opponent throughout.  IIRR I won about 14-13.  Best cinemagic moment was my death company captain Slamguinius taking out the enemy Defiler before any of the massed death company could swing. 

Game 3 VS BIG BUG TYRANIDS. 
My opponent used all large model tyranids, none of the small stuff.  One could fly, and he his it out of view during deployment.  I had a maelstrom card for decapitating strike, and my Stormraven somehow got within charge range of his hidden flying tyrant.  That set a tone for the game, as I lost the Stormraven on Turn 1 to a combination of Smites and assault.  I accounted very well in the bug hunt though, and we had a very competitive game.  Turn 6 my opponent was ahead by 1 point,  On turn 7 I had Lemartes jump onto an objective, and with another secondary point I was ahead by 1 point.  The Bugs went last, and popped Lemartes for a point and grabbed another objective for a point, so I lost by 1 point.   No real unique cinemagic moments.  I lost this game 16-17. 

At the end of the day we had a single model painting comp, jury by competitors instead of a store judge (which I hate as a format).  I only entered my Lemartes model (its is OK, not awesome).  Overall, the painting win went to The Shiny Rhino with his power sword raven guard sergeant.  It was painted in a very cool dark grey scheme - almost but not quite black, with his own custom basing.  Very nice.  Most of the other entries were either garish or unfinished. 

On the way out I bought a box of plasma inceptors...dont know if I will use them for Blood Angels or hold them back for Ultramarines.  We shall see!

In my list above the weakest performers were the Blood Angels tactical squads.  I used them to hold objectives or score other maelstrom points.  Overall they folded quickly or did not have the damage output of their brethren.  But for 65 points a squad plus one 9 point flamer, they were just the filler I needed to have a Battalion. 

The winner of the day was using a low model count Death Guard list, plague haulers...nasty stuff like that! Finished with 72 points...so had a great day. 

MING

Another Gaming Year Ends and the Next Begins

Well, long time readers, as you know, my gaming year goes August 16 to August 15, so another year has ended and my "record" for the year begins anew. 

This past year, while not the worst, certainly had its ups and downs. Finishing out the 2017-2018 year with 13 wins, 1 Draw, and 17 Losses is not that awesome, compared to say, 2014-2015, but it has been an interesting time!

Overall, I'll chalk this year's record to two major issue: (1) busy times mean less games; and (2) I'm outgunned again!

With those things in mind, I'll continue at least till December using my Blood Angels - Catachans combined arms teams.  I look (oath) to try and get some actual Catachan mortar teams and more Catachan infantry to make sure I can play more WYSIWYG, although I'm tempted to just swap the regimental key word to Cadian! Patience is important here, as we have yet to see the final codex releases for this year, and what they will mean to the overall game meta. Regardless, I just need more games under my belt!  The complexities of using all of the stratagems, etc., all boil down to practice makes perfect.  If I do anything, it will be to start upgrading to more Primaris marines and Dreadnoughts.  My own analysis does indeed confirm you get more bang for the buck - more wounds per point.  Every bit counts.  But who knows what I'll do in January!  Maybe bring back the guys in Blue? 

With emphasis on practice.  I bet I've said that a lot over the past 10 years of Warhammer 40K. 

I have maybe 3 games coming up this Saturday! It is Crossroad Games' store anniversary. 1500 points? Wish me luck as we go into the new year!

What are your own thoughts for 2018-2019? 

MING

Rockport Invitational of Summer 2018

Time to clear out some photos and give a report!

Long time blog followers may recall that Berman, the blogger at "A Painted Life" hosts an invitational event up at his place in Rockport.  He starts with a list of about 16 invitees and it goes from there. 

The event this July was a lot of fun, and I hope to be at the next one!

In this event, players were put on teams of the Imperium vs everyone else.  Berman created a neat player packet with special rules for each table and special stratagem cards specific to each player! A big amount of effort went into this team organized but narrative format.  Team captains did the table and player pairings after each round.  Events on some tables impacted everyone in your team. 

I went with two wins and a loss for the day.  For me, game 1 was vs Orks, game 2 was vs adeptus mechanicus, and game 3 was a team game, of myself and a Grey Knights army vs a nurgle / chaos marine pairing.  Game 3 literally went down to the last few dice rolls to determine the fate.

Besides points for games, there were points for painting, and bonus points if you played with a special "beer hammer" deck. 

We had a great potluck BBQ between rounds 1 and 2. 

Overall it was an awesome day of Warhammer 40K!

Here is a download of some (not all) of my photos for the day - some pictures of some of the armies, and photos from my games 1 and 2 and 3. 

Here is my army for the day - Blood Angels (Vanguard and Spearhead) supported by a Catachan Battalion.  10 CPs to use.  6 different characters. Overall I did pretty great with the painting scores.  Note, because the Astra Militarum codex no longer has power axes for sergeants, those blue axes were all counts-as chainswords. I'm using the regular "Cadian" style troopers as Catachans (except the sniper team)...my existing collection of Catachans is pretty old and not set up the way I'd like them, so it looks like I need to get more! I'm hoping GamesWorkshop comes out with a new Straken model...mine is the old pewter version and he's kind of flat and not very muscled up like the new models can be! I also want to get the shooty aggressors now - the flamer aggressors have their role (for defense), but that short range makes it hard to use them in offense!

 This was my opponent's army for game 1.  Orks...why does it always have to be Orks...I'll be outnumbered about 3:1

LOL, Ghazgul....Shaman...grots...

One of my favorite armies looks better every time I see them...

Great job by the "Thin Your Paint" blogger...

More. The base tops are all hand carved.  The tray is just awesome.  

Game 1 soon after deployment.  Table 1 had a Warhound Titan you could gain control of, just to fire at other tables...4 objectives to also fight over. I'm holding one and advancing the Catachans on two.  

Still around Turn 1.  Orks now advancing.  Colonel Straken and the Commissar provided the cheering squad to keep those mortars thumping away while holding the objective.

Probably around turn 3.  Orks were swarming everywhere and the battle devolved into 4 separate fights. I wiped nearly every ork boy off the table.  We were using ITC scoring, and it was a blast. 

Slamguinius and his bodyguards - pretty much all of the Blodd Angels elite - were wayyyyy off in the far corner. 

Ghazgul and Nobs opening up vehicles like old ladies opening cat food tins... eventually this game was a draw in normal points, but I got the win in bonus points. Straken eventually had to charge out of ruins to finish off a boyz mob, only to be run over by a Deffrolla on that Battlewagon... 

Game 2 vs Mechanicum on Table 4.  This game started off as a fight for the center, which control gave you a bonus CP for your team mates on all the other tables.  

Rusty Red Robots

By the beginning of turn 2 I was having to start to be more careful hiding stuff from the Mechanicum!  Sneaky Aggressors heading up to an objective...I'm holding the center with death company dudes...I have another group that dropped in the Mechanicum back field.  Pressure is on. 

I'm holding the center...but will soon see the death company get annihilated...them Rusty Red Robots can put out the dice...

Turn 3, the death company are replaced by the next wave - Slamguinius and Lemartes are holding it firm. But I'm getting thinned out.  Eventually the Blood Angels prevailed, and I get another win.  This game also used ITC scoring. 

Team game, 800 points per player, on Table 7.  Deployment is underway.  The goal was to locate a hidden objective and hold it for the win. It was weird fighting on 1970's USA style terrain...

Death company had gone forward to hold but not test this objective to see if it was the real one...they got wiped out by this heavily converted demon prince of Nurgle...

Eventually we saw Kharn (before going all red) tank wound after wound and walk through the Blood Angels elite. My opponent uses a "Special dice throwing box", which I hate the idea of.  Maybe i needs to get a special box of my own...   

My team mate had problems of his own with Nurgle demons and zombies. 

Eventually i was wiped, and my team mate slogged on alone to try to capture the objective (found in the unroofed building). 

Everything dies...The last of the Imperium saw zombies block them from their goal...we eneded up losing.  Overall, I think was Kharn making pretty much a hundred saves that changed this game from a win to a loss.  

Overall, for the day, the Imperium LOST.  I have no real idea how the rest of my team did.  

Since this event, I've used the same list twice and have had losses - both against demon infestations...Overall I was not taking those games too seriously...I'm just trying to study my list and practice up on all of the different things that I need to do!  I like running the Catachans.  I'll need to get another squad of mortars though and replace the snipers.  Mortars just do the work! 

All for Now. 

MING

Blood Angels vs Imperial Fists

Nothing is more fun than playing a good game and getting experience.

I must be an experiential learner...

I had a good time last night playing a 2000 point game, Maelstrom Mission #1, vs Benito at Specte Studios.  You can find more from him at spectrestudios.us

More importantly Benito was able to bring his kids along as dice apps!  The one teamed with me was a great dice roller, and I owe a lot to his 6's and 5's for this game!

The Spectre Prime brought his Imperial Fists - a beautiful, well balanced, all Primaris army. 

I was trying out rev 1.0 of my Blood Angels (plus Catachans) list.

The games essentially is pretty solid.  6 objectives, 3 cards per turn.  Dawn of war deployment. We played as written from the book (no roll for first turn, per the text for this mission).

I lost the roll to place the first objective.

We placed all 6.

My opponent chose the deployment type and edge.

Prior to deployment (the "mustering" phase), I burned two CPs to take a second relic, and then burned a CP to make my Captain as Death Company.  Rolled two dice. Got 2 CPs back. I pull the cards for my Librarian's spells.

I had to place the first unit.

Things get complicated quickly. I deploy my Catachans and Lord Commissar first. The Infantry form a skirmish line along my deployment line.

Sidebar comment to self - I need to make a cheat card just for their extra stuff (Catachan doctrine, Catachan special order, other orders, bubbles for what Strakan and the Lord Commissar bring).

My opponent ultimately deploys everything but the squad of 10 Reivers.

I deploy the Aggressors, Predators.  Everything else with jump packs goes into reserves.

Sidebar comment to self - I had intended to deploy the Death Company and move them up pre-game but forget.  I also need to check power levels to make sure I'm putting the required amount on the table.  I also need to create a 800 point, infantry-only list from this mess...

He had fewer units. Note the use of the Repulsor to carry the Primaris Librarian, Aggressors, and Lieutenant. 

He chose to go first.

I failed to seize.

Deployment complete....

Turn 1.
The Primaris Marines open a can of WhoopA$$ on my deployed units. Imperial Fists doctrine is such that their targets never get cover saves.

Catachan troopers were catching bolt rounds center and left.  I lost about half of them to shooting, and several more to end-of-turn morale checks. Red bandanas flew everywhere.  20 casualties.  If it were not for some unlucky dice rolls, things could easily have been far worse.

In response, I moved my Aggressors up in the center to try to hold it.  The Predator's linked up their telemetry and the Annihilator used its kill shot stratagem on the Primaris Repulsor tank. I put a few wounds on it, and caused maybe a few Intercessor casualties in the backfield.  The Catachan mortars were becoming my best friend.

Sidebar comment to self - re-study mortar use vs Catachan special rules/doctrines for better effect). 

At the end of the turn, I feel like I'm losing but the score is 0 - 0.

Middle of Turn 1...Catachan Casualties Mounting...

Turn 2.
The Primaris Marines move up on my left flank and deploy the Reivers from deep strike on my right.  In shooting, the dice gods do not favor the idea of destroying my Predators.  The Annihilator takes a few wounds.  In anti-infantry shooting, I lost two Aggressors, and most of the remaining Catachans, although one flamer-carrying bolt-magnet succeeded in absorbing a huge amount of dice! He even survived the combined flames from three advancing IF Aggressors! I lose my last Aggressor to failed morale.  The unit never even got off a shot!   They were mostly damaged by the Hellblasters.

Sidebar comment to self - re-study use of Aggressors - this is their second game and they never got to shoot. 

On my turn, I draw a card for slay the Warlord.  I decide I need to split the battle into three unmanageable chunks.

The Librarian, Sanguinary Priest, Sanguinary Ancient, and Sanguinary Guard drop down behind the IF Warlord (Captain).  Their mission is to take him and nearby IF marines out of the fight.

On the far right, my DC Captain, Lemartes, and Death Company drop in to first eliminate the Reivers, and then jump forward after the Hellblasters.

On my left, the remaining Catachans and Predators were to work over the advancing IF units (the Repulsor, the Primaris Librarian, Flame-Aggressors, and Primaris Redemptor dreadnought.

In this case, spreading out worked.

In shooting, the Repulsor was destroyed.  A few Intercessors were eliminated. The Librarian wounded, and Aggressors eliminated.

In assault, the entire Sanguinary team missed their charge vs the Captain.

On the right, only my DC Captain and Lemartes made it into assault with the Reivers.

On the left, a Catachan sergeant and Catachan flamer trooper made it into contact with the Primaris Librarian.

At the end, the Reivers were gone.

I'm losing the game, 4 - 0.

Beginning of Turn 2...I've advanced a bit to threaten the Imperial Fists with Flashlight Danger! Our two Dice Apps are getting ready for another turn!

Turn 3.
The Imperial Fists respond with a new hammer blow.  They turn their attention on the the Sanguinary team, the Predator Annihilator, and my Captain.  Shooting. Assaults.

In the end I lose the Annihilator, the last of my Catachan Troops, and 4 Sanguinary Guard. The IF captain is now fighting my lone Sanguinary Guard. Other charges had failed.

My Captain jumps forward, followed by Lemartes and the Death Company.  The Sanguinary Priest tries to revive a comrade and fails. In shooting, I finish off the Primaris Librarian, clearing any threats to my left.

In assault, the Sanguinary Ancient and the Librarian join the fight with the IF Captain.  Wounds are exchanged, but its a 3 on 1 stalemate.  The DC Captain is the only unit able to assault the Hellblasters, but he cannot reach them and is exposed badly.

The score is about 5 - 3. My opponent is out of CPs.

A Lieutenant, Librarian, and Aggressors walk into a trap...

Turn 4.
Shooting sees my Warlord / Captain dead by the Hellblasters, and the Sanguinary Priest is dead. I have a few CPs left. In assault, the Redemptor makes it into contact and but misses its attacks! The IF Captain loses its last wounds to the Librarian, but in a last ditch swing takes out my last Sanguinary Guard!

I reply with a few things.  The Librarian knows the gig is up, and leaps off to the objective in the board center using one of my last CP (to score an objective).  Lemartes and the Death Company leap onto the Hellblasters and wipe them out, and advance to engage the IF Annihilator. I also take out finally the IF Ancient.

The score is now about 7 - 5.

The Imperial Fist attackers have been eliminated...the center and right flanks are clear....

Turn 5
You can feel the game coming back to the Blood Angels at this point.  We play through the turn, with the Imperial Fists getting two more points, but no significant damage to the remaining Blood Angels units.  In reply, the Death Company annihilate the Annihilator, and finish off a few stray IF models.  I score four points or so,

Time for my own advance in Turn 4...mortar tubes are starting to peel their paint...Strakan and the Lord Commissar never broke cover...

The score is 9 - 9....but wait!  I have Linebreaker....

10-9 win for the Blood Angels!

We actually pulled our cards for turn 6 - the Imperial Fists drew things they could not score, and the Blood Angels drew cards that would yield more points.  Interestingly, I drew more "defend this objective #" cards than i can remember. 

Overall, it was a great game, and we had some good discussions on the state of the meta and the tactics for a few units (like Aggressors).

Near the end of turn 4...

It was good practice for this weekend's Rockport Invitational too! Look for photos and a report on that in a week or so!

Now I just need to keep practicing key list elements, gets some painting done, and reproof my list and build the 800 point sidebar list, all before Saturday!

Parting shot...that Dread Wont Squish My head...right after this, the Librarian pulled its last CP and headed away on Angels Wings...

MING     

Once a King Always a King

But Once  a Knight is Enough...

I got time to play 40K  First time in maybe two months?  Crazy how time flies! 

Crazy how the game changes!

This ain't the 40K of 2 months ago...

I showed up at the FLGS - late due to nearby road construction.

I was very happy to get paired vs one of our best local players. 

And yes, at 2000 points, his list was pretty simple.

3 Chaos Knights - each armed differently.

A Bloodletter Bomb (30 or so models in one blob)

A Pink Horror Bomb (25+ pinks and a single blue)

A Chaos Sorceror

A Chaos Demon Prince

2 units of Nurglings

Well, I had a list designed to take care of maybe one knight...

Here at setup.  I had started with 10 CP's, and used some to give me two relics, make my Captain death company, and move my death company out to the right flank.  My opponent only deployed the Knights and used his CP's to put 4 units into reserves.  We were fighting over just two objectives worth 3 points each, plus LB, STWL, and FB.

 Beginning of turn 1.  Nurglings are going to move up to charge followed behind by the Knights! 

On my right, shooting is done, and the nurglings are charging the Baal predator. 

Meanwhile on the left flank, the Knight there moved up and charged the Death Company!

 Here in the Blood Angels Turn 1, the Damaged Baal moves back a bit and the nearby tactical squad moves to screen them.  Killshot is used, but the the Predators fail to wound the Knight on the right - but the center Knight loses some wounds.  

At the end of Turn 1, the Death Company are gone, having just scratched 4 wounds off the Knight...

In Turn 2 the Knights continue their forward advance. 

Here at the beginning of Turn 3, the Pink Horror Blob is wrapping around a building, still keeping one toe at the objective.  Not that during Turn 2, the Blood Angels reinforcements had arrived and assaulted the damaged knight in the center...it was dispatched.  

By the end of the Chaos Turn 3, the predators were all gone, the Tacticals, and everything else was gone too.  

Eventually in Turn 4 it was down to three separate combats - the Captain vs the Demon, the Sanguinary Priest vs a Knight, and Lemartes and a Sanguinary Ancient vs another Knight.  I've got no CPs left to spend. 

I'm Tabled mid Turn 4. Chaos wins 9-0.

 A deployment mistake I made was that I had no idea he had Nurglings.  I was deploying the tacticals and Sniper Scouts and Aggressors to screen my deployment zone from the turn 2 drops...that caused some issues.  The Aggressors should have been deployed behind cover, and the predators all on the far back edge.  Those elements might have preserved me enough to get to the bottom of Turn 4.  I also needed to better guess how far the Knight on the far-left would get.  Although the Death Company were fairly safe from shooting, they were just too close! 

Overall, as a practice this game went pretty well. I remembered pretty much everything I wanted to get done.  My opponent did remind me to do my CP spends for pre-game stuff earlier (before deployment) where appropriate.  And we shared some ideas on making a slightly better Blood Angels List.  We will see in the next game!  My next practice game will be Monday against a primaris heavy Imperial Fists force...

All for now,

MING

   

 

Sanguinary Guard vs Death Company II

Its like Deadpool 2 but without a movie...actors...fans...

Since I need to keep practicing, and evaluating, in these experiments, I ran a game scenario at 501 points DC vs 489 Points SG - plus or minus a few points.

Death Company:
Lemartes, Stock
10 Death company (as before w/ 9 Bolters and Chainswords; 1 thunderhammer)
1 Death Company Dreadnought, 2xBlood Talons, 1 MG, 1 SB     
Everything here has black rage, red thirst, benefiting from the DC rules and buffs from Lemartes
Not enough (yet) for command points.

Sanguinary Guard:
Captain Slamguinius (JP, Thunder Hammer, SS)
5 Sanguinary Guard (as before, 3 angelus bolt guns, 2 inferno pistols, 3 encarmine blades, 2 power fists)
Furioso Dreadnought (frag cannon, heavy flamer, blood fist)

The Blow by Blow
Similar to before, each faction was deployed about 6 inches in from their own table edge, creating about 36 inches of space between them.  The aircraft wreckage area was going to be treated the same as craters - would give cover to shooting, and would be -2 to charge distance. 

The SG went first, DC failed to sieze.

Turn 1
The SG all advanced, with the Sg getting just a total of 13 inches, the captain got 15, and the Furioso 15 inches of movement. I kept the Captain within the distance of the SG. No shooting was available.

The DC in response moved forward 6 inches, and stopped.  The DC dreadnought advanced on the right and Lemartes advanced on the right.  In 9 bolter shots, 1 converted to a wound on a SG. 

Turn 2
The SG and Captain jumped forward 12 inches, and the Furioso 9.   In shooting, the frag cannon was barely in range to the DC and fired first, causing 2 casualties.  The Angelus boltguns accounted for 2 more. Tehn in the assaults, the SG charged Lemartes, but the Captain and Furioso failed their charges! In the fight phase, neither side wounded the other!

In response, the Death Company moved forward. Lemartes fired his pistol into the SG but failed to wound.  The DC marines fired on the Captain and failed to wound him.  The DC Dread set itself to charge directly into the Furioso to determine who was better! Its Meltagun caused several unsaved wounds on the Furioso, who caused a few back in overwatch!

The DC Dread punched first, however, with 5 attacks on the charge hitting on 3's rerolling and wounding on 2's (rerolling) - the Furioso was dispatched and the DC Dread consolidated into the Captain! Between the DC marines and Lemartes, three SG were taken down.  Then the Captain swung his hammer into the DC dread (Hitting on 3's, rerolling 1's, then wounding on 2's) and dropped it!  Both dreads were gone! Lemartes was wounded.

Turn 3
The Captain jumped forward into the only remaining close combat.

The Captain took down 2 DC marines with his hammer, but was wounded in return.  The SG took down Lemartes in exchange for another SG.

In the DC turn, the end came swiftly.  The remaining DC marines failed to wound the Captain or the one remaining SG. In response, they were dispatched by blade and hammer and the experiment ended. 

End thoughts
I'll soon do this again, but add in the JP death company (5 more marines) and then a 5-marine (gold painted) veterans squad similarly armed.  The points should go up to about 675, and each side will be similar.  I'll run these as Vanguard detachments so each side will have 4 command points, and will include a single relic for each (probably the relic hammers so they can be ever more useful). 

It was interesting that the SG faction won again, but it was close.  It might have been interesting to have the DC Dread plow into the SG in turn 2 rather than go after the Furioso.  I thought about not advancing on the Captain but figured the Captain would then just charge the Furioso anyways. The end would have been the same just in a different turn.

I need to get that Stormshield painted and mounted on the Captain...its from an older lead original terminator model, but its a good size to pin to his elbow.  His gold needs brightening too. Maybe a new base. Some 5th Company markings...

All for now!

MING