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
Monday, September 24, 2018
Friday, September 21, 2018
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
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
Tuesday, September 18, 2018
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):
Astra Militarum (Catachans, 250):
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
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
Wednesday, September 12, 2018
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
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
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