Okay this is not a whinefest post. It's my breakdown of the two troop choices.
SM tactical squad:
You have to take a full 10 man squad for this unit to work. You get a free missile launcher and flamer plus you can throw in a rhino for 35 points. The flamer is nice but I am not a fan of missile launcher, lascannons are dirt cheap for tactical squads and this is the best place to take them. A lot of players feel that the power fist is not worth the points but I disagree, 10 Marines and a power fist can take down just about anything. Space Marines can split into combat squads and have combat tactics. I am not a fan of splitting into combat squads. Ten Marines are good at holding an objective but five will get swept aside; it's just that simple to me. Combat tactics are situational at best. There is always the chance the squad will not fallback far enough and remain broken because of a nearby enemy unit within 6". Sure voluntarily breaking is better than nothing but I don't see it winning games. Maybe you'll get lucky, fallback from a dreadnought then destroy it with your meltagun. That brings me back to the flamer, it's definitely a good special weapon but with all the mech running around now I'd much rather have the tank busting gun.
So here is my optimal tactical squad:
lascannon, meltagun, power fist - rhino
I'm not a fan of razorbacks. You get a great bargain for a 35 point rhino. It's got firepoints built in and can repair itself. The razorback you are paying more points for a tank that can easily be destroyed or shaken losing the advantage of the gun. Razorbacks lend themselves to splitting up into combat squads which is bad. The build I listed above is the best combination for the points and brings out the versatility of a tactical squad. Remember that the lascannon has twice the range of a multi-melta and can penetrate AV14. The advantage of placing lascannons in your tactical squads is each unit can fire at a separate target so there are no wasted shots.
IG veteran squad:
You get ten veterans that are BS4 plus can take 3 special weapons plus one heavy weapon. I'll start out immediately with my optimal build:
3x meltagun, lascannon, power fist - chimera/multi-laser & hull mounted heavy flamer
Another great build is as follows:
3x flamer, heavy flamer, power fist & demo charge - chimera/as above
If I were to run IG I would run four to five veteran squads. Three to four would be armed as per the first build and the last squad as per the last squad. I would also field Straken to get the most out of the power fists. Two squads of charging veterans with furious charge can generate a lot of attacks. Sure you don't want to play these units as assault squads but it's there for the contigency.
So what is better, the Marines or the guardsmen? In my mind the vets are much better hands down. They are cheaper so you can field more and that helps to make them better at holding objectives. I think vets are much better at taking objectives. They can roll up with the chimeras, hit you with the heavy flamers then blast you with the meltas or more flamers.
I have added the lascannon so you can pillbox. You have decided to castle up and trade shots with the opponents. A BS4 lascannon is great thing and beautiful. If you have four they are going to do some damage. I have added the power fist so the vets have a bit of punch in close combat. If you take Straken as I advice these squads suddenly give you a cheap counter assault element.
Finally let's close with shotguns versus lasguns... I am all for the shotguns. You don't want to disembark your veterans unless you have to. The shotgun allows you to fire twice and then charge. The shotgun is the synergistic choice plus it looks a whole heck of a lot cooler.
So in conclusion I think vets are a much better troop. They've got more better guns plus their transport is a lot better. In many ways vets are the IG equivalent of a tactical squad and this unit is the biggest change to the army. Platoons have always been there as a troop choice. It's obvious that the switch in slots between vets and stormtroopers was a big boon to IG in general. In fact you never see anyone take stormtroopers anymore. Last but not least vets also have a lot of nice options to add more punch and flavor.
G
Monday, December 28, 2009
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
End Game Tactics
This post is about the end game. I consider end game to start on your 4th turn so it could encompass up to four player turns. The game now has variable turn length so you need to plan appropriately. You also need to monitor the speed at which the game is progressing because in a tournament it's quite possible you'll only get four turns. I keep an eye on the clock if my opponent is slow. By slow I mean that my opponent takes a long time to deliberate their turns. I am opposed to rushing your opponent and to be honest I can't think of anytime that I have played anyone that is stalling. I think that some people confuse long turns played by an opponent as slow playing. Let's take Imperial Guard as an example. Typically IG armies will consist of many units and there are lots of vehicles. It takes time for the IG player to decide how they want to move and shoot as that is what they are all about. Movement is much more important in 5th edition and static gunline armies have now gone by the wayside. So IG have a lot of units to move then shoot.
I know that often I am slow when playing the first three turns as these are very important for establishing your end game. If you rush through the first three turns you will probably not create a solid end game. After the third turn I do think that the game should typically move at a faster pace since there will be less units left on the table and by then it should be clear what you need to do to win. While it's possible to win a game in the first three turns this will rarely be the case versus a good player, simply they won't let you do it as they will counter alpha strikes and huge multi charges. There are occassions when I have played opponents that also are setting themselves up to win in the end game and if their army mirrors yours it can be a lot like a chess match. What's unfortunate is when an opponent such as this takes their time and then tries to hurry you up during your turns. To me this immature and you need to brvable to effectively deal with it constructively. If you need time to properly decide how you will move, shoot and assault don't let your opponent rush you along as most likely you will make some mistakes.
So before I go into detail about end game tactics it's important to first discuss how to best setup to create the optimal end game. I have noticed that the best players are extremely adroit when it comes to movement in general. They can make it look so simple that it's easy to overlook what they are doing; the master tacticians will use their movement phases to counter your tactics and deny you the win. To me nothing is more important than your movement phases. I typically play armies that are stronger in close combat than shooting so I need to move my assault units into position to assault as much of the enemy units as possible and also be in position to maximize my assaults. Most armies have some shooting and it's also important to not overlook this aspect. A little bit of shooting can go a long way to acheiving the win. Shooting armies on the other hand are typically very weak in close combat and they will fold if you can assault enough of their army. So you want to put yourself in a position to deny them as much shooting as possible and force them to castle up so you can assault the bulk of their army. If you let your opponent spread out then when you assault and win combats your squads will too far away to quickly reach the rest of their army and they can focus fire on your isolated units; you will lose the war of attrition.
If you are playing an assault army it is possible to win the game by the third turn if you can destroy enough of their key units while keep most of theirs intact. Putting the pressure on early can force your opponent to make mistakes. Sometimes when two equal players face off against each other all it takes is one mistake to win or lose the game, especially when the two armies mirror each other. This happens quite a bit in tournaments with people choosing to play the metagame and field popular lists they see on the Internet (e.g., Lash Spam, Mech Vets, Vulkan Marines, etc.). This is one of the main reasons why I typically frown upon playing popular lists such as these... Good players will quickly learn how to counter them. If you put the time and effort into fielding a unique list one inherent advantage you'll gain is the power of being unsuspected.
So the first stage of the game is about establishing your end game and it mostly hinges on proper movement. Sure you can focus solely upon your shooting but then you are leaving yourself open. If you play a predominantly shooty list of course shooting is very important but you shouldn't focus solely upon that aspect of the game as you will be painting yourself into a corner with no way out other than to continue blasting away.
If you set yourself up for the end game then by turn 4 all the pieces of the puzzle should start falling in place and this is a great allegory for the end game. It should be obvious to you what you need to do to win by the 4th turn. An assault army should have boxed in the opponent and have numerical superiority. Often when you see two good close combat oriented armies trading blows the winner will have setup his units such that they can keep pouring more units into the combats. I have often said whoever disembarks first will probably lose, by that I simply mean that the army which receives the bulk of the assaults is at a major disadvantage as their opponent gets all the bonuses that come with charging, such as furious charge and the +1 attack. There are those armies that can absorb a lot of punishment and still dish it back out so you have to be careful when committing your units to assaults such as these. I think a big part of 5th edition is the ability to field strong and resilient units that can receive the charge from the opponent but minimize losses prior to swinging back. Units such as these are nob bikers, assault terminators and Blood Crushers. Nob bikers are the epitomy of this type unit and are extremely dangerous. You can shoot then charge them and they will still tear your head off. The best way to deal with this units is via your own movement. Try to isolate them and use as much of your army as possible to gut them. These monster units are expensive pointswise so they tend to make their armies smaller; if you can gut them then the rest of the army should crumble. Nob bikers have problems holding multiple objectives and Blood Crushers are relatively slow - again your movement is your greatest ally versus these units.
So to summarize and conclude you should be thinking ahead several turns and know what you want to do with your army. Often people say the best plans immediately fail once you roll the first dice but to be honest I think these players really don't have much of a plan in the first place. A good plan should proceed barring extremely bad luck with the dice or if you simply playing someone who is better at the game. In the latter case take your loss in stride and use it as an opportunity to learn! Don't blame the dice or declare that your opponent is cheesy... You will come away with less than nothing and face another loss the next time you find yourself in the same type of situation. Watch the clock if the game is moving at a slow pace such that it won't go beyond turn 4. There is no excuse for a game that only rescues the 3rd turn but I rarely if ever have this happen to me. If the game is moving slowly then maybe you will have to accelerate your end game, you might not get a massacre but you should still be able to win. If your opponent is slow then most likely you should be able to out-think them as they are probably to focused on simply shooting and can't link their turns together. I see this often when people come to the table with what they call an optimized list... It's only good at one thing and they are focusing on only one aspect of the game, again typically shooting. It's very easy to counter alpha strike tactics such as holding units in strategic reserve. If the mission is objective based then plan on what units of yours you want to take or contest in your opponent's deployment zone. It's very easy to play for a draw if there are only one or two objectives but not so easy to win unless you have a good plan. Playing the same list over and over will help to develop the familiarity you need to win in various sets of circumstances and to me that is a lot more powerul than simply relying upon a popular internet list.
G
I know that often I am slow when playing the first three turns as these are very important for establishing your end game. If you rush through the first three turns you will probably not create a solid end game. After the third turn I do think that the game should typically move at a faster pace since there will be less units left on the table and by then it should be clear what you need to do to win. While it's possible to win a game in the first three turns this will rarely be the case versus a good player, simply they won't let you do it as they will counter alpha strikes and huge multi charges. There are occassions when I have played opponents that also are setting themselves up to win in the end game and if their army mirrors yours it can be a lot like a chess match. What's unfortunate is when an opponent such as this takes their time and then tries to hurry you up during your turns. To me this immature and you need to brvable to effectively deal with it constructively. If you need time to properly decide how you will move, shoot and assault don't let your opponent rush you along as most likely you will make some mistakes.
So before I go into detail about end game tactics it's important to first discuss how to best setup to create the optimal end game. I have noticed that the best players are extremely adroit when it comes to movement in general. They can make it look so simple that it's easy to overlook what they are doing; the master tacticians will use their movement phases to counter your tactics and deny you the win. To me nothing is more important than your movement phases. I typically play armies that are stronger in close combat than shooting so I need to move my assault units into position to assault as much of the enemy units as possible and also be in position to maximize my assaults. Most armies have some shooting and it's also important to not overlook this aspect. A little bit of shooting can go a long way to acheiving the win. Shooting armies on the other hand are typically very weak in close combat and they will fold if you can assault enough of their army. So you want to put yourself in a position to deny them as much shooting as possible and force them to castle up so you can assault the bulk of their army. If you let your opponent spread out then when you assault and win combats your squads will too far away to quickly reach the rest of their army and they can focus fire on your isolated units; you will lose the war of attrition.
If you are playing an assault army it is possible to win the game by the third turn if you can destroy enough of their key units while keep most of theirs intact. Putting the pressure on early can force your opponent to make mistakes. Sometimes when two equal players face off against each other all it takes is one mistake to win or lose the game, especially when the two armies mirror each other. This happens quite a bit in tournaments with people choosing to play the metagame and field popular lists they see on the Internet (e.g., Lash Spam, Mech Vets, Vulkan Marines, etc.). This is one of the main reasons why I typically frown upon playing popular lists such as these... Good players will quickly learn how to counter them. If you put the time and effort into fielding a unique list one inherent advantage you'll gain is the power of being unsuspected.
So the first stage of the game is about establishing your end game and it mostly hinges on proper movement. Sure you can focus solely upon your shooting but then you are leaving yourself open. If you play a predominantly shooty list of course shooting is very important but you shouldn't focus solely upon that aspect of the game as you will be painting yourself into a corner with no way out other than to continue blasting away.
If you set yourself up for the end game then by turn 4 all the pieces of the puzzle should start falling in place and this is a great allegory for the end game. It should be obvious to you what you need to do to win by the 4th turn. An assault army should have boxed in the opponent and have numerical superiority. Often when you see two good close combat oriented armies trading blows the winner will have setup his units such that they can keep pouring more units into the combats. I have often said whoever disembarks first will probably lose, by that I simply mean that the army which receives the bulk of the assaults is at a major disadvantage as their opponent gets all the bonuses that come with charging, such as furious charge and the +1 attack. There are those armies that can absorb a lot of punishment and still dish it back out so you have to be careful when committing your units to assaults such as these. I think a big part of 5th edition is the ability to field strong and resilient units that can receive the charge from the opponent but minimize losses prior to swinging back. Units such as these are nob bikers, assault terminators and Blood Crushers. Nob bikers are the epitomy of this type unit and are extremely dangerous. You can shoot then charge them and they will still tear your head off. The best way to deal with this units is via your own movement. Try to isolate them and use as much of your army as possible to gut them. These monster units are expensive pointswise so they tend to make their armies smaller; if you can gut them then the rest of the army should crumble. Nob bikers have problems holding multiple objectives and Blood Crushers are relatively slow - again your movement is your greatest ally versus these units.
So to summarize and conclude you should be thinking ahead several turns and know what you want to do with your army. Often people say the best plans immediately fail once you roll the first dice but to be honest I think these players really don't have much of a plan in the first place. A good plan should proceed barring extremely bad luck with the dice or if you simply playing someone who is better at the game. In the latter case take your loss in stride and use it as an opportunity to learn! Don't blame the dice or declare that your opponent is cheesy... You will come away with less than nothing and face another loss the next time you find yourself in the same type of situation. Watch the clock if the game is moving at a slow pace such that it won't go beyond turn 4. There is no excuse for a game that only rescues the 3rd turn but I rarely if ever have this happen to me. If the game is moving slowly then maybe you will have to accelerate your end game, you might not get a massacre but you should still be able to win. If your opponent is slow then most likely you should be able to out-think them as they are probably to focused on simply shooting and can't link their turns together. I see this often when people come to the table with what they call an optimized list... It's only good at one thing and they are focusing on only one aspect of the game, again typically shooting. It's very easy to counter alpha strike tactics such as holding units in strategic reserve. If the mission is objective based then plan on what units of yours you want to take or contest in your opponent's deployment zone. It's very easy to play for a draw if there are only one or two objectives but not so easy to win unless you have a good plan. Playing the same list over and over will help to develop the familiarity you need to win in various sets of circumstances and to me that is a lot more powerul than simply relying upon a popular internet list.
G
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Proper 3rd round batrep from Shennanicon 09
I'd like to present a proper batrep from the team tourney I participated in this weekend. There was around 15-20 teams there so you can just imagine the atmosphere. The tourney was at Coliseum of Comics in Kissimmee, Florida. CoC sure knows how to run a fun event! I was playing with fellow Wrecking Crew club member WhiteDevil and he decided we woll roll with machine gun Bugz, very nasty and quite fitting how this would be our last opportunity to play this list. Each team player could take a 750 point list and combined the two armies had to fill one FOC plus you could only take one HQ. Here is our combined list:
-HQ-
Hive Tyrant/twin-linked devourers, Warp Scream + 3x Tyrant Guard
-Troops-
8x Genestealer/feeder tendrils
8x Genestealer/feeder tendrils
8x Gaunts/Without Number, spinefists
8x Gaunts/Without Number, spinefists
-Elites-
Carnifex/twin-linked devourers
Carnifex/twin-linked devourers
3x Zoanthrope/3x Warp Blast, 3x Warp Scream
-Heavy Support-
Carnifex/Scything Talons, Barbed Strangler, +1T
I don't often play Tyranids so the list above might not be quite right so please forgive me if I made any mistakes. Our opponents were playing a mix of mech IG & SW. I don't have their lists with me so I'll just report what I can remember:
-HQ-
Rune Priest/Chooser of the Slain, Living Lightning
-Troops-
10x IG Veterans/2x meltagun
10x IG Veterans/2x meltagun
10x IG Veterans/2x meltagun
10x Grey Hunters/power fist, Mark of the Wulfen, flamer, meltagun - rhino/Hunter Killer Missile
10x Grey Hunters/power fist, Mark of the Wulfen, flamer, meltagun - rhino/Hunter Killer Missile
-Fast Attack-
Valkyrie/Missile pods
-Heavy Support-
Leman Russ Demolisher/hull mounted HB, HB sponsons
The 3rd mission was really tough. You rolled off to see who would be the attacker and who would be the defender. The defender got to deploy in a circle centered on the middle of the table with a 16" radius and had to go second. The attacker had to start with all units in reserve and deep strike everything. Also an attacking unit that drifted into the defender deployment zone automatically mishapped plus all units always scattered. Of course we lost the roll off and our opponents opted to be the defenders.
Like I said this was a really tough mission for the attacker. Our opponents used their 1st turn to spread out as much as possible covering as much of the table as possible. They decided to disembark their troops so they could run as well to fill up more real estate - that decision turned out to be a big mistake for them... Basically they were too aggressive.
I asked WhiteDevil if I could roll for all of our reserves and also roll for all of our scatters. First I rolled for our reserves and in came everything except the two units of gaunts so we would not get piecemealed to death, heh! Next WhiteDevil would place a unit and I would then roll for the scatters. We were able to keep everything from mishapping and WhiteDevil brought us in on a strong flank, except for one Zoanthrope which he placed close to the Valkyrie. The lone Zoanthrope answered the call destroying the gunship! We then machine gunned the enemy troops and whatever remained broke due to the stacked Warp Scream (i.e., cumulative -1s to their leadership tests). It was nasty and this turn pretty much put us so far ahead on victory points that we were assured of no less than a tie.
There were two means of scoring battle points - first there was battlepoints for the difference in victory points which we fully secured. The other means was to destroy non scoring units which we lost since we focused on dropping the opponents' troops. So we pulled out a draw and that combined with our two massacres from the first two rounds put us well ahead on total battlepoints so we ended up with best overall.
As I said this mission was tough on playing as the attacker but my dice were on fire so it all worked well for the old machine gun Bugz. This was a nice end to the 2009 year and I had a great time teaming up with my old buddy WhiteDevil.
G
-HQ-
Hive Tyrant/twin-linked devourers, Warp Scream + 3x Tyrant Guard
-Troops-
8x Genestealer/feeder tendrils
8x Genestealer/feeder tendrils
8x Gaunts/Without Number, spinefists
8x Gaunts/Without Number, spinefists
-Elites-
Carnifex/twin-linked devourers
Carnifex/twin-linked devourers
3x Zoanthrope/3x Warp Blast, 3x Warp Scream
-Heavy Support-
Carnifex/Scything Talons, Barbed Strangler, +1T
I don't often play Tyranids so the list above might not be quite right so please forgive me if I made any mistakes. Our opponents were playing a mix of mech IG & SW. I don't have their lists with me so I'll just report what I can remember:
-HQ-
Rune Priest/Chooser of the Slain, Living Lightning
-Troops-
10x IG Veterans/2x meltagun
10x IG Veterans/2x meltagun
10x IG Veterans/2x meltagun
10x Grey Hunters/power fist, Mark of the Wulfen, flamer, meltagun - rhino/Hunter Killer Missile
10x Grey Hunters/power fist, Mark of the Wulfen, flamer, meltagun - rhino/Hunter Killer Missile
-Fast Attack-
Valkyrie/Missile pods
-Heavy Support-
Leman Russ Demolisher/hull mounted HB, HB sponsons
The 3rd mission was really tough. You rolled off to see who would be the attacker and who would be the defender. The defender got to deploy in a circle centered on the middle of the table with a 16" radius and had to go second. The attacker had to start with all units in reserve and deep strike everything. Also an attacking unit that drifted into the defender deployment zone automatically mishapped plus all units always scattered. Of course we lost the roll off and our opponents opted to be the defenders.
Like I said this was a really tough mission for the attacker. Our opponents used their 1st turn to spread out as much as possible covering as much of the table as possible. They decided to disembark their troops so they could run as well to fill up more real estate - that decision turned out to be a big mistake for them... Basically they were too aggressive.
I asked WhiteDevil if I could roll for all of our reserves and also roll for all of our scatters. First I rolled for our reserves and in came everything except the two units of gaunts so we would not get piecemealed to death, heh! Next WhiteDevil would place a unit and I would then roll for the scatters. We were able to keep everything from mishapping and WhiteDevil brought us in on a strong flank, except for one Zoanthrope which he placed close to the Valkyrie. The lone Zoanthrope answered the call destroying the gunship! We then machine gunned the enemy troops and whatever remained broke due to the stacked Warp Scream (i.e., cumulative -1s to their leadership tests). It was nasty and this turn pretty much put us so far ahead on victory points that we were assured of no less than a tie.
There were two means of scoring battle points - first there was battlepoints for the difference in victory points which we fully secured. The other means was to destroy non scoring units which we lost since we focused on dropping the opponents' troops. So we pulled out a draw and that combined with our two massacres from the first two rounds put us well ahead on total battlepoints so we ended up with best overall.
As I said this mission was tough on playing as the attacker but my dice were on fire so it all worked well for the old machine gun Bugz. This was a nice end to the 2009 year and I had a great time teaming up with my old buddy WhiteDevil.
G
Gouge Away
gouge away
you can gouge away
stay all day
if you want to
missy aggravation
some sacred questions
you stroke my locks
some marijuana
if you got some
gouge away
you can gouge away
stay all day
if you want to
sleeping on your belly
you break my arms
you spoon my eyes
been rubbing a bad charm
with holy fingers
gouge away
you can gouge away
stay all day
if you want to
chained to the pillars
a 3-day party
i break the walls
and kill us all
with holy fingers
gouge away
you can gouge away
stay all day
if you want to
you can gouge away
stay all day
if you want to
missy aggravation
some sacred questions
you stroke my locks
some marijuana
if you got some
gouge away
you can gouge away
stay all day
if you want to
sleeping on your belly
you break my arms
you spoon my eyes
been rubbing a bad charm
with holy fingers
gouge away
you can gouge away
stay all day
if you want to
chained to the pillars
a 3-day party
i break the walls
and kill us all
with holy fingers
gouge away
you can gouge away
stay all day
if you want to
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Natty Bumpkins & hte truths about aggressive deep strikes
Me & WhiteDevil are playing in the final round of this big team tourney. DON'T YOU ABSOLUTELY HAET IT WHEN OPPONENT BREAKS OUT DICE YOU NEVER SEEN B4 AND THEY NEVER ROLL AGAIN FOR A CRITICAL ROLL?
Anyways it us with our machine bugs versus IG & SW. The SW army was beautiful. Mission was attacker vs defender. Defender gets ALL hte love. We roll and my 5 is bested by a 6. We are the attackers... Defenders get to deploy in a 16" circle from table center plus one turn to move coz all our shit Is In reserve and all our shit deep strikes and must ALWAYS SCATTER 2D6. The other army is total mech and spread out With their movement to fill up most of the table. The squads also disembark and run for those extra inches to supersize their big bubble.
I look at WhiteDevil and say let me rol hte dice, he will pick all the entry points. First I roll for all our reserves and in comes everything but a boomfex and a pack of gaunts, we will not get piecemealed. WhiteDevil then places each unit and I roll for hte scatter... It's like a dream. Our machine guns blow them apart and a Zoie takes out the Valk FTW. all I can say is like the prospect of lots and lots of DS Nidz.
I know some peops are dead hard advocates against deep striking but then again their recorded evidence of a 40 year old virgin.
G
Anyways it us with our machine bugs versus IG & SW. The SW army was beautiful. Mission was attacker vs defender. Defender gets ALL hte love. We roll and my 5 is bested by a 6. We are the attackers... Defenders get to deploy in a 16" circle from table center plus one turn to move coz all our shit Is In reserve and all our shit deep strikes and must ALWAYS SCATTER 2D6. The other army is total mech and spread out With their movement to fill up most of the table. The squads also disembark and run for those extra inches to supersize their big bubble.
I look at WhiteDevil and say let me rol hte dice, he will pick all the entry points. First I roll for all our reserves and in comes everything but a boomfex and a pack of gaunts, we will not get piecemealed. WhiteDevil then places each unit and I roll for hte scatter... It's like a dream. Our machine guns blow them apart and a Zoie takes out the Valk FTW. all I can say is like the prospect of lots and lots of DS Nidz.
I know some peops are dead hard advocates against deep striking but then again their recorded evidence of a 40 year old virgin.
G
Really awkard gaming moment during competitive tourney playing
So me and WhiteDevil are in the second round of a HUGE team tourney. It's hte 2nd round and we are up against this really rocking Tau team with our machine bugs when suddenly one of the Tau players receives a text message from GF telling him she is dumping him. My jaw hits floor... I am floored. Suddenly teh dynamics of the game shift gears. WhiteDevil is a true champ as I am at a loss of words and think 99% of the female sex are shady as Hell. WhiteDevil talks him through it and hooks him up with a hot date. It was CRAZY CRAZY. one of my Zoies took out a Hammerhead in close combat too and the explosion takes out a squad of Fire Warriors FTW.
G
G
Friday, December 18, 2009
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Sunday, December 13, 2009
More thoughts on hordes
I have been looking over the latest rumors for the new nidz and they can of remind me of how skaven used to play. If they break then they run forward to assault or drop back into cover to shoot. What I am wondering is can you join another stronger nid to the unit. Gaunts are suposedly 3 points each so you can take 60 in three pods for 180+ points. That's kind of crazy.
G
G
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Running a Herald with Bloodletters
Typically now I run two big units of Bloodletters, Skulltaker on a juggernaught, Herald on a juggernaught and a unit of six Blood Crushers. Usually I run both Heralds with the squad of Crushers for a deathstar but every once in a blue moon I'll detach the Heralds so they can join the Bloodletters. Typically this is done versus an army with huge swarms (20+ models per troop). You might see swarms in ork, Nidz or IG. It turns out the IG horde is the one that should set off red alarms. The IG horde will pack lots of guardsmen with three sergeants equipped with power swords and a commissar equipped with a power sword. The unit is Stubborn and the commissar can execute one of the sergeants if they fail a Ld10 morale check. I have watched these super mobs grind through a lot of nasty assault units. Basically they are the ultimate tarpit and those power weapon attacks really add up quickly. There are two ways to beat this unit:
Shoot the heck out of them, or
Hit them with a whole lot of attacks in close combat.
If you run KDA you have a bonus versus the IG monster mob, all your attacks ignore armor saves. The reason I run the Heralds with my Bloodletters versus these types of units is twofold:
The mounted Herald is T5 so the mob can only wound him if they roll sixes... He is fairly impervious and attacks directed at the Herald draw off from the Bloodletters.
The Herald has more attacks so you can more quickly cut down super mobs.
Versus a super mob it's all about wiping them out as quickly as possible. The longer you remain in close combat the more they are pulling you down while they club you with sticks and stones. Super mobs are cheap pointwise so it's typically a bad tradeoff versus them in close combat and they will take down most elite assault units quickly (including terminators). Most players don't recognize the threat, they charge in with their best assault unit and get taken to the cleaners. The IG super mob is the most dangerous since the unit is Stubborn - if they lose the combat they don't have to take additional armor saves due to No Retreat. Gaunts and Orks are typically fearless so they will have to take the additional armor saves and they end up dying almost twice as fast, plus gaunts do not ignore armor saves and one Nob swinging a power klaw is not nearly as brutal as four power weapons.
You can also charge a Soul Grinder into a super mob but that is basically a stalemate plus you can no longer shoot.
It's important to remember during any game that a Herald can always detach from a unit it's joined with and join another unit or solo assault. I have had plenty of games where I will detach a Herald from the Blood Crushers and join a unit of Bloodletters or launch a solo assault. Typically the more units you can assault the better.
So finally let's quickly do the mathhammer for a squad of 15 Bloodletters with and without a Herald charging a squad of 30 guardsmen with three sergeants (power weapon) and a commissar (power weapon).
15 Bloodletters charging = 45 attacks, 30 hit -> 25 kills
If you add in a Herald that is 5 more attacks for 3 more kills.
It doesn't seem like a big difference but in reality you will rarely ever be able to charge with a full squad since they are going to draw some fire on the way in. So if we were to repeat the same exercise with 8 Bloodletters that is much more realistic:
8 Bloodletters charging = 24 attacks, 16 hit -> 13 kills
If you add in the Herald then again that is 3 more kills for a total of 16 dead. You have roughly cut the mob in half. This is where the Herald can really make the difference. The mob is not going to break and the Herald is fairly safe since the mob needs to roll sixes to wound him. Basically the Herald will account for three kills each round of close combat and it adds up fast. Against orks they will most likely break the next round of close combat, against gaunts they will most likely be dead the next turn or break as well if out of synapse range. Let's do the mathhammer to see what happens with the remainder of the IG unit versus Bloodletters and a Herald (assuming the IG player is smart and stacks all their attacks versus the lesser daemons):
14 guardsmen = 14 attacks, 7 hit and 2 wound -> 1 dead Bloodletter
3 sergeants attack = 9 attacks, 5 hit and 2 wound -> 1 dead Bloodletter
commissar attacks = 3 attacks, 2 hit and 1 wounds -> 1 dead Bloodletter
I have been generous with wounds scored by the IG mob in order to be conservative. So you have 5 Bloodletters left plus the Herald versus 11 guardsmen, 3 sergeants and the commissar.
5 Bloodletters = 10 attacks, 7 hit -> 5 dead guardsmen
Herald = 4 attacks, 3 hit -> 3 more dead guardsmen
3 guardsmen = 3 attacks, 2 hit -> 0 wounds
3 sergeants = 9 attacks, 5 hit -> 2 wound, 1 dead Bloodletter
commissar = 4 attacks, 2 hit -> 1 wound, 1 dead Bloodletter
3 Bloodletters = 6 attacks, 4 hit -> 3 dead guardsmen
Herald = 4 attacks, 3 hit -> 3 dead sergeants
All that is left now is the commissar and he will probably score no wounds so the next round of close combat you'll kill him too and you are left with 3 Bloodletters and the Herald. If you play your cards right it's possible you'll be sitting on an uncontested objective or gained some kill points. In my mind that's a good trade in death. As you can see from the math hammer above the Herald makes the difference; without him the IG mob would probably win and you lost a scoring unit in the process. It all comes down to a mega battle of attrition and the faster you can grind through the uber block of puny guardsmen the better. You will also find that most IG players will concentrate their power weapon attacks on the Herald which he can probably shake off since he has 3 wounds when mounted on a juggernaught.
The IG super mob is no joke. They can take down assault terminators, Wolfguard, genestealers and plenty of other nasty units. You have to respect what they bring to the table. Remember that Soul Grinders are equipped with the equivalent of a S6 flamer so use it against them if the opportunity presents itself. A well placed template can decimate them with one shot as it does not drift and typically IG players running super mobs don't take the time to spread out their models to lessen the potential impact from a flamer. You can also fire the Harvester as well. I will run the walker right up beside a super mob of guardsmen bit typically I won't charge him in unless I want to make sure my opponent can't shot him. I feel the same about the Bloodthirster as well. Charge uber blocks with your Blood Crushers and Bloodletters, the greater daemon and walkers should be used to take out tanks and tough assault units.
That covers it all based upon my experience. Happy Hunting!
G
G
Shoot the heck out of them, or
Hit them with a whole lot of attacks in close combat.
If you run KDA you have a bonus versus the IG monster mob, all your attacks ignore armor saves. The reason I run the Heralds with my Bloodletters versus these types of units is twofold:
The mounted Herald is T5 so the mob can only wound him if they roll sixes... He is fairly impervious and attacks directed at the Herald draw off from the Bloodletters.
The Herald has more attacks so you can more quickly cut down super mobs.
Versus a super mob it's all about wiping them out as quickly as possible. The longer you remain in close combat the more they are pulling you down while they club you with sticks and stones. Super mobs are cheap pointwise so it's typically a bad tradeoff versus them in close combat and they will take down most elite assault units quickly (including terminators). Most players don't recognize the threat, they charge in with their best assault unit and get taken to the cleaners. The IG super mob is the most dangerous since the unit is Stubborn - if they lose the combat they don't have to take additional armor saves due to No Retreat. Gaunts and Orks are typically fearless so they will have to take the additional armor saves and they end up dying almost twice as fast, plus gaunts do not ignore armor saves and one Nob swinging a power klaw is not nearly as brutal as four power weapons.
You can also charge a Soul Grinder into a super mob but that is basically a stalemate plus you can no longer shoot.
It's important to remember during any game that a Herald can always detach from a unit it's joined with and join another unit or solo assault. I have had plenty of games where I will detach a Herald from the Blood Crushers and join a unit of Bloodletters or launch a solo assault. Typically the more units you can assault the better.
So finally let's quickly do the mathhammer for a squad of 15 Bloodletters with and without a Herald charging a squad of 30 guardsmen with three sergeants (power weapon) and a commissar (power weapon).
15 Bloodletters charging = 45 attacks, 30 hit -> 25 kills
If you add in a Herald that is 5 more attacks for 3 more kills.
It doesn't seem like a big difference but in reality you will rarely ever be able to charge with a full squad since they are going to draw some fire on the way in. So if we were to repeat the same exercise with 8 Bloodletters that is much more realistic:
8 Bloodletters charging = 24 attacks, 16 hit -> 13 kills
If you add in the Herald then again that is 3 more kills for a total of 16 dead. You have roughly cut the mob in half. This is where the Herald can really make the difference. The mob is not going to break and the Herald is fairly safe since the mob needs to roll sixes to wound him. Basically the Herald will account for three kills each round of close combat and it adds up fast. Against orks they will most likely break the next round of close combat, against gaunts they will most likely be dead the next turn or break as well if out of synapse range. Let's do the mathhammer to see what happens with the remainder of the IG unit versus Bloodletters and a Herald (assuming the IG player is smart and stacks all their attacks versus the lesser daemons):
14 guardsmen = 14 attacks, 7 hit and 2 wound -> 1 dead Bloodletter
3 sergeants attack = 9 attacks, 5 hit and 2 wound -> 1 dead Bloodletter
commissar attacks = 3 attacks, 2 hit and 1 wounds -> 1 dead Bloodletter
I have been generous with wounds scored by the IG mob in order to be conservative. So you have 5 Bloodletters left plus the Herald versus 11 guardsmen, 3 sergeants and the commissar.
5 Bloodletters = 10 attacks, 7 hit -> 5 dead guardsmen
Herald = 4 attacks, 3 hit -> 3 more dead guardsmen
3 guardsmen = 3 attacks, 2 hit -> 0 wounds
3 sergeants = 9 attacks, 5 hit -> 2 wound, 1 dead Bloodletter
commissar = 4 attacks, 2 hit -> 1 wound, 1 dead Bloodletter
3 Bloodletters = 6 attacks, 4 hit -> 3 dead guardsmen
Herald = 4 attacks, 3 hit -> 3 dead sergeants
All that is left now is the commissar and he will probably score no wounds so the next round of close combat you'll kill him too and you are left with 3 Bloodletters and the Herald. If you play your cards right it's possible you'll be sitting on an uncontested objective or gained some kill points. In my mind that's a good trade in death. As you can see from the math hammer above the Herald makes the difference; without him the IG mob would probably win and you lost a scoring unit in the process. It all comes down to a mega battle of attrition and the faster you can grind through the uber block of puny guardsmen the better. You will also find that most IG players will concentrate their power weapon attacks on the Herald which he can probably shake off since he has 3 wounds when mounted on a juggernaught.
The IG super mob is no joke. They can take down assault terminators, Wolfguard, genestealers and plenty of other nasty units. You have to respect what they bring to the table. Remember that Soul Grinders are equipped with the equivalent of a S6 flamer so use it against them if the opportunity presents itself. A well placed template can decimate them with one shot as it does not drift and typically IG players running super mobs don't take the time to spread out their models to lessen the potential impact from a flamer. You can also fire the Harvester as well. I will run the walker right up beside a super mob of guardsmen bit typically I won't charge him in unless I want to make sure my opponent can't shot him. I feel the same about the Bloodthirster as well. Charge uber blocks with your Blood Crushers and Bloodletters, the greater daemon and walkers should be used to take out tanks and tough assault units.
That covers it all based upon my experience. Happy Hunting!
G
G
Monday, December 07, 2009
Heresy
Here we are
In a world of corruption
Human nature is
Of violent Breed
Who cares if there;s no tomorrow
When I die for my future's
Laid out for me
Can't you see?
Rise above the lies
Morals on a backwards globe
A sin to you
For me it's hope.
It's my life and provision
Black or white
Some pay to pray
You question why they
Act this way
It's their fucking decision
No more judgement day
Only tranquility
Peace signs, protest lines
Mean nothing to me
Honesty born in me
Heresy
I know what's right or wrong
And my belief is stronger
Than your advice
People, they go to war
Because religion gives them
Reason to fight
Sacrifice, die for pride
A group that caters
No one's fees
Or synthetic deities
Is where I belong
My stand is the human race
Without a label or a face
So they can lick my sack
No more judgement day
Only tranquility
Peace signs, protest lines
Mean nothing to me
Honesty born in me
Heresy
Sunday, December 06, 2009
First battle report from Saturday's tournament
So I played at a local RTT over in Tampa yesterday. It was 1850 points with 10 people playing. There was a good mix of armies and I had the opportunity to play three enjoyable games. I like sometimes to tell my batreps out of sequence. This batrep was actually the second game and I was playing against a veteran IG player. Here is my list:
Bloodthirster/Unholy Might, Blessing of the Blood God, Death Strike (HQ)
Skulltaker/juggernaught (HQ)
Herald/juggernaught, Unholy Might, Fury of Khorne, Blessing of the Blood God (HQ)
6x Blood Crusher/Icon, Instrument, Fury (Elite)
17x Bloodletter/Icon (Troop)
18x Bloodletter (Troop)
Soul Grinder/Phleghm, Tongue (Heavy Support)
Soul Grinder/Phleghm, Tongue (Heavy Support)
The mission had pitched battle for deployment and you placed six numbered objectives on the table. At the start of each even numbered turn you rolled 1d6 and that numbered objective was removed from the table.
I do not remember my opponent's list exactly but here it is to the best of my memory:
Inquisitor/2x Mystic, gun servitors (HQ)
Command squad/4x meltagun, Astropath - chimera/hull mounted heavy flamer (HQ)
Vendetta (Fast Attack)
Marbo (Elite)
Veteran squad/4x meltagun - chimera/hull mounted heavy flamer (Troop)
Veteran squad/4x plasmagun - chimera/hull mounted heavy flamer
Demolisher (Heavy Support)
Manticore (Heavy Support)
Leman Russ/ hull mounted lascannon (Heavy Support)
Platoon/3x heavy weapon teams/autocannons
So that is what I remember. My opponent won the roll for deployment and opted to go first. I placed my three objectives as close together as possible over in the northwest corner of the table. My opponent placed one of his in a building over in the same corner on the third level of a building, another over on the third level of a building in the northeast corner and the third over in my DZ around the middle of the table. He deployed his army spread out:
Three chimeras (2x Vet & CCS) over in the northwest corner,
Platoon in the building in the northwest corner,
Demolisher, Manticore, & Vendettain the middle with Inquisitor behind them,
Heavy Weapons teams off to the east of the middle,
Leman Russ over in the northeast corner.
My waves were as follows:
Preferred - Greater Daemon, Heralds joined with the Blood Crushers, Soul Grinder
Secondary - Lesser daemons with icon, lesser daemons, Soul Grinder
I rolled for my first wave and unfortunately in came the secondary. I knew right away with only two troops it was going to be a big uphill battle that I probably would lose, especially not knowing which objectives would remain in play. I decided to flank hard into the northwest corner and hope the objectives in that area would remain in play. Both of my Bloodletters came in with minimal scatter; I placed the unit with the icon behind the other so that the icon would have some cover. Both squads used their run moves to spread out and lessen the pain that would be coming from multiple templates the next turn. The first Soul Grinder dropped in front of the building in the northwest cover and fired it's railgun into the Manticore generating a penetration but that tank was behind the Demolisher and it passed it's cover save. What a bad way to have to start a game. It would have really helped a lot if I had got my preferred wave but it's just not going to happen everytime. I would like to point out that by coming in deep on the flank the Inquisitor with his Mystics were never able to target any of my units on their drops. I dropped into that flank to saturate the area with the most objectives and also deny the Inquisitor with his Mystics. I have always said the Inquisitor/Mystics unit is not really that great against daemons; on average they roll 14" which is not a great distance when it comes to spotting. In fact my units would have had to scatter a full 12" directly towards them to have come in range.
2nd Turn - IG
This was pretty much smear the daemons and it was very ugly. A chimera toting veterans rolled up to my Grinder and destroyed it with their meltas. Focused fire eliminated one squad of lesser daemons but the squad with the icon did quite well with their saves and I ended up with over half the second unit left. One great thing about daemons in general is their invulnerable save. While 5+ is not great it is a heck of a lot better than just having to pickup the models and remove them. It's very important to keep all your daemons spread out 2" apart to lessen the impact from templates.
2nd Turn - Daemons
First I rolled a d6 to see which objective would be removed. It was the one my opponent had placed on the third level of a building in the northeast corner which was good for me. I had one troop left and they needed to make some miracles happen... At least they some very small chance of grabbing one objective. I then rolled for my reserves and in came the rest of my army! Wow just wow, I really needed them. My icon was left in place and I brought down everything around the building in the northwest corner focusing on the objective in that building. The second Grinder first hosed down the platoon in the building with his flamer and removed five. Next he hit them with phleghm and killed three more. Finally he hit them with his Harverster and finished off the squad. The objective was now open. The greater daemon fired hid Death Strike into the side of a Chimera and destroyed it. Six of the veterans inside died in the ensuing explosion. Quick death to the Imperial lapdogs of the dead god! My Bloodletters then charged the other two chimeras, wrecked one and immobilized the other. It had gone as well as it could that turn.
Turn Three - IG
In comes Marbo from reserve and drops into the building in the northwest corner. Then again it's smear the daemon but the Crushers can take a pounding and the greater daemon was out of LOS to most of his shooting. My opponent focused fired into the Crushers but I only lost two that turn. Unfortunately the Manticore wrecked my second Grinder. He had little left to shoot at my Bloodletters and they held up very well.
Turn Three - Daemons
It's time for some payback close combat style. The Skulltaker detaches from the Crushers to enter the building and go after the last squad from the platoon. The Bloodthirster lands beside a squad of vets that had disembarked from their wrecked chimera. The other Herald detachs to take put the immobilized chimera and the Crushers spread around it to pick off the vets when they bail out. My Bloodletters then move up behind the building and out of LOS from the rest of the IG gunline. There is the roaring sound of wrecked armor and the screaming of dying guardsmen. The battle starts to slowly swing back in favor of the Blood God... But there are going to be at least two other objectives I will have practically no chance of reaching save the Bloodthirster. Maybe I can hold one and contest another at best depending on which objectives are removed. It's a real long shot and to make a long story short the Imperial lapdogs win this battle. I did clear out the one building but it took my entire army to do it.
Sometimes you lose and with my second wave coming in first it was a very bad matchup but I tried to make the best of it and have a fun game, which it was. I thought about it afterwards... Are two big blocks of Bloodletters better than three medium blocks? Two big blocks means you pretty much have to table your opponent to win at multiple objectives. Other than that I came away thinking two big blocks are much better. First of all typically only one mission will have multiple objectives. Two big blocks of Bloodletters is much better than three medium sized ones in my opinions because they are hammers. Basically every unit in my army is a hammer and I have a low number of total killpoints (8). If the game against IG had been killpoints I'm pretty sure I would have won; IG gives up way too many killpoints.
So I said in a comment to my first post about this tourney that I won and it's true. My soft scores were very high and my other two games I got huge massacres. Going into the final round I was in third place and the two fellas in first and second place tied each other knocking themselves out of contention for best overall. That's the way it goes sometimes... My good luck was stronger than my bad luck for sure. This is my first overall with my KDA and it felt like I finally dislodged King Kong off of my back having narrowly lost first place the last two tournies I played. So it was a great day for the daemons.
G
Bloodthirster/Unholy Might, Blessing of the Blood God, Death Strike (HQ)
Skulltaker/juggernaught (HQ)
Herald/juggernaught, Unholy Might, Fury of Khorne, Blessing of the Blood God (HQ)
6x Blood Crusher/Icon, Instrument, Fury (Elite)
17x Bloodletter/Icon (Troop)
18x Bloodletter (Troop)
Soul Grinder/Phleghm, Tongue (Heavy Support)
Soul Grinder/Phleghm, Tongue (Heavy Support)
The mission had pitched battle for deployment and you placed six numbered objectives on the table. At the start of each even numbered turn you rolled 1d6 and that numbered objective was removed from the table.
I do not remember my opponent's list exactly but here it is to the best of my memory:
Inquisitor/2x Mystic, gun servitors (HQ)
Command squad/4x meltagun, Astropath - chimera/hull mounted heavy flamer (HQ)
Vendetta (Fast Attack)
Marbo (Elite)
Veteran squad/4x meltagun - chimera/hull mounted heavy flamer (Troop)
Veteran squad/4x plasmagun - chimera/hull mounted heavy flamer
Demolisher (Heavy Support)
Manticore (Heavy Support)
Leman Russ/ hull mounted lascannon (Heavy Support)
Platoon/3x heavy weapon teams/autocannons
So that is what I remember. My opponent won the roll for deployment and opted to go first. I placed my three objectives as close together as possible over in the northwest corner of the table. My opponent placed one of his in a building over in the same corner on the third level of a building, another over on the third level of a building in the northeast corner and the third over in my DZ around the middle of the table. He deployed his army spread out:
Three chimeras (2x Vet & CCS) over in the northwest corner,
Platoon in the building in the northwest corner,
Demolisher, Manticore, & Vendettain the middle with Inquisitor behind them,
Heavy Weapons teams off to the east of the middle,
Leman Russ over in the northeast corner.
My waves were as follows:
Preferred - Greater Daemon, Heralds joined with the Blood Crushers, Soul Grinder
Secondary - Lesser daemons with icon, lesser daemons, Soul Grinder
I rolled for my first wave and unfortunately in came the secondary. I knew right away with only two troops it was going to be a big uphill battle that I probably would lose, especially not knowing which objectives would remain in play. I decided to flank hard into the northwest corner and hope the objectives in that area would remain in play. Both of my Bloodletters came in with minimal scatter; I placed the unit with the icon behind the other so that the icon would have some cover. Both squads used their run moves to spread out and lessen the pain that would be coming from multiple templates the next turn. The first Soul Grinder dropped in front of the building in the northwest cover and fired it's railgun into the Manticore generating a penetration but that tank was behind the Demolisher and it passed it's cover save. What a bad way to have to start a game. It would have really helped a lot if I had got my preferred wave but it's just not going to happen everytime. I would like to point out that by coming in deep on the flank the Inquisitor with his Mystics were never able to target any of my units on their drops. I dropped into that flank to saturate the area with the most objectives and also deny the Inquisitor with his Mystics. I have always said the Inquisitor/Mystics unit is not really that great against daemons; on average they roll 14" which is not a great distance when it comes to spotting. In fact my units would have had to scatter a full 12" directly towards them to have come in range.
2nd Turn - IG
This was pretty much smear the daemons and it was very ugly. A chimera toting veterans rolled up to my Grinder and destroyed it with their meltas. Focused fire eliminated one squad of lesser daemons but the squad with the icon did quite well with their saves and I ended up with over half the second unit left. One great thing about daemons in general is their invulnerable save. While 5+ is not great it is a heck of a lot better than just having to pickup the models and remove them. It's very important to keep all your daemons spread out 2" apart to lessen the impact from templates.
2nd Turn - Daemons
First I rolled a d6 to see which objective would be removed. It was the one my opponent had placed on the third level of a building in the northeast corner which was good for me. I had one troop left and they needed to make some miracles happen... At least they some very small chance of grabbing one objective. I then rolled for my reserves and in came the rest of my army! Wow just wow, I really needed them. My icon was left in place and I brought down everything around the building in the northwest corner focusing on the objective in that building. The second Grinder first hosed down the platoon in the building with his flamer and removed five. Next he hit them with phleghm and killed three more. Finally he hit them with his Harverster and finished off the squad. The objective was now open. The greater daemon fired hid Death Strike into the side of a Chimera and destroyed it. Six of the veterans inside died in the ensuing explosion. Quick death to the Imperial lapdogs of the dead god! My Bloodletters then charged the other two chimeras, wrecked one and immobilized the other. It had gone as well as it could that turn.
Turn Three - IG
In comes Marbo from reserve and drops into the building in the northwest corner. Then again it's smear the daemon but the Crushers can take a pounding and the greater daemon was out of LOS to most of his shooting. My opponent focused fired into the Crushers but I only lost two that turn. Unfortunately the Manticore wrecked my second Grinder. He had little left to shoot at my Bloodletters and they held up very well.
Turn Three - Daemons
It's time for some payback close combat style. The Skulltaker detaches from the Crushers to enter the building and go after the last squad from the platoon. The Bloodthirster lands beside a squad of vets that had disembarked from their wrecked chimera. The other Herald detachs to take put the immobilized chimera and the Crushers spread around it to pick off the vets when they bail out. My Bloodletters then move up behind the building and out of LOS from the rest of the IG gunline. There is the roaring sound of wrecked armor and the screaming of dying guardsmen. The battle starts to slowly swing back in favor of the Blood God... But there are going to be at least two other objectives I will have practically no chance of reaching save the Bloodthirster. Maybe I can hold one and contest another at best depending on which objectives are removed. It's a real long shot and to make a long story short the Imperial lapdogs win this battle. I did clear out the one building but it took my entire army to do it.
Sometimes you lose and with my second wave coming in first it was a very bad matchup but I tried to make the best of it and have a fun game, which it was. I thought about it afterwards... Are two big blocks of Bloodletters better than three medium blocks? Two big blocks means you pretty much have to table your opponent to win at multiple objectives. Other than that I came away thinking two big blocks are much better. First of all typically only one mission will have multiple objectives. Two big blocks of Bloodletters is much better than three medium sized ones in my opinions because they are hammers. Basically every unit in my army is a hammer and I have a low number of total killpoints (8). If the game against IG had been killpoints I'm pretty sure I would have won; IG gives up way too many killpoints.
So I said in a comment to my first post about this tourney that I won and it's true. My soft scores were very high and my other two games I got huge massacres. Going into the final round I was in third place and the two fellas in first and second place tied each other knocking themselves out of contention for best overall. That's the way it goes sometimes... My good luck was stronger than my bad luck for sure. This is my first overall with my KDA and it felt like I finally dislodged King Kong off of my back having narrowly lost first place the last two tournies I played. So it was a great day for the daemons.
G
Soft tactics
Soft tactics are very popular. They do not require deep thought and people who lose a lot can relate to them. I can spew out tons of soft tactics, they will sound fantastic. People will say they endorse them.
Bully on that. Soft tactics stink. No Best Of list has ever won anything. I am an advocate of hard tactics. Hard tactics win games. So I've got my blog. I've got my record. You can call me a cheat because you don't know the rules inside out when your soft tactics run up against hard tactics. That's just the way it is.
G
Bully on that. Soft tactics stink. No Best Of list has ever won anything. I am an advocate of hard tactics. Hard tactics win games. So I've got my blog. I've got my record. You can call me a cheat because you don't know the rules inside out when your soft tactics run up against hard tactics. That's just the way it is.
G
Friday, December 04, 2009
Tourney tomorrow
So I will be playing with my KDA tomorrow. If you like the army you can read all of my batreps over on the Dakka Dakka Battle Reports forum, the thread is entitled 3 Kornìsh Batreps (+ a few more from time to time). There will be 12 total playing and it is an opportunity for me to catchup with some old friends of mine. They have an award for painting so I am mostly gunning for that one. As you probably know I didn't paint my army but I built it from the ground up and it is heavily converted. I had a bad experience in my last tourney during the last round so I am hoping tomorrow the event will be better run. A lot of the time I am an outsider to a store because I only play in tournies. I hate to have to say it but it seems like often the locals will help the locals. Fortunately it's not always the case but it does happen. I think a lot of the time the TO doesn't even realize it when they tilt the deck, they just do it without thinking about it.
Anyways I might post some of the batreps here with pictures from my camera if I see some interest (hint, hint). You can learn a lot from reading a good batrep, it's where the rubber meets the road. Tomorrow I'll be running the two large squads of Bloodletters again as they worked out very well in the last tourney two weeks ago. There will be a good mix of armies tomorrow so maybe I'll get to play against something different like IG.
G
Anyways I might post some of the batreps here with pictures from my camera if I see some interest (hint, hint). You can learn a lot from reading a good batrep, it's where the rubber meets the road. Tomorrow I'll be running the two large squads of Bloodletters again as they worked out very well in the last tourney two weeks ago. There will be a good mix of armies tomorrow so maybe I'll get to play against something different like IG.
G
Thursday, December 03, 2009
Selling Out
You might not be aware but popular blogs that run ads can generate a lot of $$$. I have heard tell from a cab driver in the windy city that there is a group of bloggites that make so much $$$ from their blog that as a group they can travel around the country to play at major events and cover all their expenses without forking one dime from their own pockets. Must be nice.
I will never run ads on this blog. Never.
When people who play the game as a pastime can make enough $$$ to cover all their expenses is it still a pastime? I seriously have to question anyone who passes themself off as a hobbyist when they are pulling down the $$$ talking about it. I would rather post a few articles that I really care about rather than spew nonsense to keep the $$$ rolling in. Someone once said that we as gamers are purely amateurs but I think that is no longer the case. Oh well.
G
I will never run ads on this blog. Never.
When people who play the game as a pastime can make enough $$$ to cover all their expenses is it still a pastime? I seriously have to question anyone who passes themself off as a hobbyist when they are pulling down the $$$ talking about it. I would rather post a few articles that I really care about rather than spew nonsense to keep the $$$ rolling in. Someone once said that we as gamers are purely amateurs but I think that is no longer the case. Oh well.
G
Wednesday, December 02, 2009
40k Archtypes
An archtype is a term invented by the famous Carl Jung who is also well known for other terms such as extraverts and introverts. Basically an archtype is a template for certain types of personalities that are easily recognized. I think we have quite a few when it comes to 40k. Here are some off the top of my head:
Fanboy - This type loves all things GW. They rarely ever have a bad thing to say about GW. It seems like most Space Marine players are lumped into this category. We all know that Space Marines have the most armies/codices, models, everything plastic, most of the Black Library 40k novels are about Space Marines... blah, blah, blah. It's unfair in my opinion but apparently a lot of people that play other armies feel this way. What I find funny is that a lot of the people that don't play Space Marines eschew a prevalent stance that Chaos Space Marines don't fall into this camp. CSM are basically warp enhanced veteran Space Marines. To me this is a contradiction but that is just the way it is.
Always unhappy about something - This is the player on the opposite end of the spectrum from the fan boy and they always have something to complain about that is bothering them. This is a very broad category. It seems like most anything and everything gets under their skin and they always have an axe to grind. It might be the latest price hike, White Dwarf sucks, why oh why were Squats dropped, etc. ad nauseum. This camp is very vocal online and make their position known to everyone. They are not happy so should anybody else be?
I find myself somewhere in the middle. I've been playing MEQ for over 10 years now and finally put together an army that is not another CSM/SM chapter. I'm really excited about playing daemons as you can all probably tell. So while I am sympathetic to all things power armor I am also able to see the other side of the proverbial story. I do get fed up with the nonstop bitchfests and butthurt we all read on the Internet... To me if the game makes you that unhappy then maybe it's time to find something else to play. Certainly there are a lot of alternatives available. I've tried my hand at a few other games and I have found them all to have just as many perceived problems as 40k, if not more. Warmachine plays too much like a card game. I did really like the version of Starship Troopers with the rules written by Andy Chambers... It is pretty darn awesome and circumvented some of the problems with 40k; for example anytime you want you can measure any distance on the table. The human jump infantry play(ed) a lot like the Tau - sort of a cross between Fire Warriors and battlesuits. I played a couple of demo games and even bought some models but at the end of the day whenever it comes to starting up a new gaming system I drop it because I am a hardline advocate of 40k... I just can't bring myself to put time and energy into another system that could be funneled into 40k.
There are other archtypes as well but I think these fall under subsets of the first two I listed. You have people that advocate strong comp rules and then there are those that want no comp at all. I think people go through a phase of calling armies cheesy that they can't beat during their early years as a gamer. Some people seem to get stuck in this mode though unfortunately. To me an army that is hard for mecto beat is a challenge and typically I welcome it. If all our games are nothing more than an exercise in clubbing baby seals then we will never grow as master strategists and veteran gamers. I understand that some people say for them the game is purely a social venue but when you get right down to it I think everyone really enjoys the feeling that comes with winning a game. Personally I feel that people who play purely to socialize should refrain from playing in tournaments as they seem to have a tendency to ruin it for everyone else. It's no fun for either player when one of the two constantly berated the other player's army for whatever reason.
What's really annoying are those people who get stuck in one edition of the game and cannot adapt to the next edition. I remember a forum that was solely dedicated to 2nd edition well into the end of 3rd edition. It was hilarious to read their rants and I'll leave it at that for now.
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Fanboy - This type loves all things GW. They rarely ever have a bad thing to say about GW. It seems like most Space Marine players are lumped into this category. We all know that Space Marines have the most armies/codices, models, everything plastic, most of the Black Library 40k novels are about Space Marines... blah, blah, blah. It's unfair in my opinion but apparently a lot of people that play other armies feel this way. What I find funny is that a lot of the people that don't play Space Marines eschew a prevalent stance that Chaos Space Marines don't fall into this camp. CSM are basically warp enhanced veteran Space Marines. To me this is a contradiction but that is just the way it is.
Always unhappy about something - This is the player on the opposite end of the spectrum from the fan boy and they always have something to complain about that is bothering them. This is a very broad category. It seems like most anything and everything gets under their skin and they always have an axe to grind. It might be the latest price hike, White Dwarf sucks, why oh why were Squats dropped, etc. ad nauseum. This camp is very vocal online and make their position known to everyone. They are not happy so should anybody else be?
I find myself somewhere in the middle. I've been playing MEQ for over 10 years now and finally put together an army that is not another CSM/SM chapter. I'm really excited about playing daemons as you can all probably tell. So while I am sympathetic to all things power armor I am also able to see the other side of the proverbial story. I do get fed up with the nonstop bitchfests and butthurt we all read on the Internet... To me if the game makes you that unhappy then maybe it's time to find something else to play. Certainly there are a lot of alternatives available. I've tried my hand at a few other games and I have found them all to have just as many perceived problems as 40k, if not more. Warmachine plays too much like a card game. I did really like the version of Starship Troopers with the rules written by Andy Chambers... It is pretty darn awesome and circumvented some of the problems with 40k; for example anytime you want you can measure any distance on the table. The human jump infantry play(ed) a lot like the Tau - sort of a cross between Fire Warriors and battlesuits. I played a couple of demo games and even bought some models but at the end of the day whenever it comes to starting up a new gaming system I drop it because I am a hardline advocate of 40k... I just can't bring myself to put time and energy into another system that could be funneled into 40k.
There are other archtypes as well but I think these fall under subsets of the first two I listed. You have people that advocate strong comp rules and then there are those that want no comp at all. I think people go through a phase of calling armies cheesy that they can't beat during their early years as a gamer. Some people seem to get stuck in this mode though unfortunately. To me an army that is hard for mecto beat is a challenge and typically I welcome it. If all our games are nothing more than an exercise in clubbing baby seals then we will never grow as master strategists and veteran gamers. I understand that some people say for them the game is purely a social venue but when you get right down to it I think everyone really enjoys the feeling that comes with winning a game. Personally I feel that people who play purely to socialize should refrain from playing in tournaments as they seem to have a tendency to ruin it for everyone else. It's no fun for either player when one of the two constantly berated the other player's army for whatever reason.
What's really annoying are those people who get stuck in one edition of the game and cannot adapt to the next edition. I remember a forum that was solely dedicated to 2nd edition well into the end of 3rd edition. It was hilarious to read their rants and I'll leave it at that for now.
G
Friday, November 27, 2009
More Gwarish monkeigh business...
No sooner is Gwar banned then he comes right back and posts as Gwar2, thus violating another forum rule (can't have multiple user accounts) and is banned again. Next he persuades another Dakka member to post for him and some of his cronies post that the Dakka mod team has been unfair to Gwar... Mob rules mentality at it's finest there. I would have to say that if Dakka lifts the ban it would set a bad precedent. Gwar has received special favors often on Dakka such as having his locked threads re-opened on his request. Amazing really.
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Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Some pictures of my daemon army
All models were painted on commission by Brandon Palmer of GMM Studios.
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Gwar!
So Gwar! has been banned yet again from the land of Dakka Dakka and vowed he will never return. I hope he keeps his word and it is a really great feeling to know he is not posting there.
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Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Monday, November 23, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
BOLTER BEACH GT • June 2010 • Sarasota, FL
•40k
•Fantasy
•Flames of War
Myself and my good friend Yuri the Devil will be running a huge GT down here in Florida next summer. Yuri has successfully run both Hurricon and Recon for the past five years now. I have run two successful GTs in North Carolina. We will have Brandon Palmer from GMM Studios as our painting judge. You can expect 50 tables each for both 40k and Fantasy.
The event will be held right across the street from the airport and there are hotels in short walking distance. Sarasota is the home of Stephen King and has some of the world's most beautiful beaches. If you bring your family Disney World, Universal Studios and Sea World are all only an hour away.
You can expect a reasonable price for admission too. We will see to it that everyone has a great time too! I am also working with GW to have this added to their circuit for 2010. With both the Necromicon and the Big Waaagh out this will definitely be the BIG event in the southeast for 2010.
G
•Fantasy
•Flames of War
Myself and my good friend Yuri the Devil will be running a huge GT down here in Florida next summer. Yuri has successfully run both Hurricon and Recon for the past five years now. I have run two successful GTs in North Carolina. We will have Brandon Palmer from GMM Studios as our painting judge. You can expect 50 tables each for both 40k and Fantasy.
The event will be held right across the street from the airport and there are hotels in short walking distance. Sarasota is the home of Stephen King and has some of the world's most beautiful beaches. If you bring your family Disney World, Universal Studios and Sea World are all only an hour away.
You can expect a reasonable price for admission too. We will see to it that everyone has a great time too! I am also working with GW to have this added to their circuit for 2010. With both the Necromicon and the Big Waaagh out this will definitely be the BIG event in the southeast for 2010.
G
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Game winning attitude
Okay I've talked a bit about the three phases and deployment. What I think is the most important aspect of the game is going in feeling confident you can win. Someone once told me that over 90 percent of games played are decided in the first five minutes while you and your opponent size each other up. If you are playing in a tournament always ask your opponent to show you their army list. Take a good look at the army list and make sure you understand it. If you have any questions then ask.
The ability to have a game winning attitude is very important. It means you fully understand what your army can and cannot do. It means understanding what your opponent's army can and cannot do. You understand the mission rules and you have a plan how to win. Some people say the best made plans crumble during the first turn... It's not true. You play a lot of games and are a student of the game. There are only so many variables and you can boil them down.
Typically if I lose a game it's because I am not that familiar with what my opponent is playing. That's my fault so I have to chalk up the loss to gaining experience. All armies have specific attributes that are common. Special rules are huge. Each army has a certain amount of special rules... Some are very powerul and some are there for fluff. It's very important to be familiar with the special rules. Look at dark eldar as an example... Same set of rules for well over 10 years now but you rarely ever see this army so if you aren't familiar with them it's a huge advantage for your opponent. You always hear how awesome are dark eldar but I think most of the time when you read about how they tore someone a new arsehole most likely the loser had no idea what they were facing. Dark eldar is the most fragile list in the game and they oy have a few good units to choose from. Once you know how to beat them it's a done deal. Daemon Hunters and Witch Hunters are in the same boat... All three races only have one codex. Sisters of Battle and Necrons evolved from a couple of pages of rules back when GW used to put out Chapter Approved articles. They are a big corporation now so stuff like that doesn't happen anymore. You rarely ever see any of these armies winning a big tournament... There are certain armies that steam roller them.
So it is important to be familiar with everything. Preparation is the key to success.
G
The ability to have a game winning attitude is very important. It means you fully understand what your army can and cannot do. It means understanding what your opponent's army can and cannot do. You understand the mission rules and you have a plan how to win. Some people say the best made plans crumble during the first turn... It's not true. You play a lot of games and are a student of the game. There are only so many variables and you can boil them down.
Typically if I lose a game it's because I am not that familiar with what my opponent is playing. That's my fault so I have to chalk up the loss to gaining experience. All armies have specific attributes that are common. Special rules are huge. Each army has a certain amount of special rules... Some are very powerul and some are there for fluff. It's very important to be familiar with the special rules. Look at dark eldar as an example... Same set of rules for well over 10 years now but you rarely ever see this army so if you aren't familiar with them it's a huge advantage for your opponent. You always hear how awesome are dark eldar but I think most of the time when you read about how they tore someone a new arsehole most likely the loser had no idea what they were facing. Dark eldar is the most fragile list in the game and they oy have a few good units to choose from. Once you know how to beat them it's a done deal. Daemon Hunters and Witch Hunters are in the same boat... All three races only have one codex. Sisters of Battle and Necrons evolved from a couple of pages of rules back when GW used to put out Chapter Approved articles. They are a big corporation now so stuff like that doesn't happen anymore. You rarely ever see any of these armies winning a big tournament... There are certain armies that steam roller them.
So it is important to be familiar with everything. Preparation is the key to success.
G
Anti Deployment
What is anti deployment? Anti deployment is starting with units in reserve. It used to be that each player would take turns deploying one unit at a time. Now one player first deploys their army then the other player deploys theirs. I have noticed a lot of players don't use the ability to hold units in reserve and I think they are missing out on a great tactic. I sometimes like to hold my best assault units in reserve and then bring them in. For the spearhead deployment your reserves can come in across the entire long table edge, not just your table quarter. This prevents the opponent from shooting them. This is a fantastic tactic for orks... Basically you take a strong unit such as Nobz with a warboss and put them in a trukk or battlewagon, don't forget the red paintjob. The turn they come in the transport moves 13" then the squad disembarks another 2". The warboss then calls down the Waaagh for a d6" fleet move and then they can charge up to 6 more inches. 13" + 2" + d6" + 6" = 21" + d6", or all the way up to 27" total. If it were me I'd always run Ghaz for this style army, you can't beat the guaranteed 6" fleet. Suddenly enemy units over halfway across the table are getting pounded by a huge power klaw. I think of this as an advanced anti-deployment tactic since I don't see many ork players using it. If the mission is objective based then place one of your objectives to lure in the opponent.
Using anti deployment has been with us a long time... Wolf Scouts, webway portals, terminators, drop pods and the monolith all come to mind. I personally think that drop pods were played out a long time ago but for some it's a brand new way of playing SM. I even used the old rules for drop podding prior to the release of the 4th edition SM codex... You had to go all drop pod though and there have always been some restrictions on what you can place in a drop pod. It was a great way to quickly close with the old static armies such as Iron Warriors. I have always been a big proponent of anti deployment and it only makes sense that I play daemons now as just like an old drop pod army everything starts in reserve. Deployment is meaningless to a daemon army and this is one of their biggest advantages.
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Using anti deployment has been with us a long time... Wolf Scouts, webway portals, terminators, drop pods and the monolith all come to mind. I personally think that drop pods were played out a long time ago but for some it's a brand new way of playing SM. I even used the old rules for drop podding prior to the release of the 4th edition SM codex... You had to go all drop pod though and there have always been some restrictions on what you can place in a drop pod. It was a great way to quickly close with the old static armies such as Iron Warriors. I have always been a big proponent of anti deployment and it only makes sense that I play daemons now as just like an old drop pod army everything starts in reserve. Deployment is meaningless to a daemon army and this is one of their biggest advantages.
G
Deployment and anti deployment
The role of deployment has changed quite a bit with the advent of 5th edition. There was a time when you coukd setup a serious gunline and blast away. Back then a game could well be decided by whoever got to go first. To me these were the most boring games and could be tough to win. I rarely ever play gunline but I have, mostly with Dark Angels or vanilla SM prior to the release of their new rules and 5th edition. Now the ability to hold your entire army in reserve really can befuddle any opponent running a gunline army. Cover saves have also hurt gunlines. I am all for the new rules and think the more dynamic 5th edition has been a great change for the game.
Deployment is still very important and I think it's still the most important phase of the game. Look at this way, a bad deployment can kill you before the first dice is rolled. I believe an army should always be deployed such that your units can support each to the hilt. Tyranids have always been about sending in several waves... Tyranid players that can't grasp this important concept rarely if ever win versus a good player that recognizes the Nid army was hastily deployed. Nidz are pretty much designed to be played in waves with synaspe. One big change is how does the Nid player go about using their troops. I see a lot of outflanking genestealers, it sounds like a good idea but it is random in that your bugs might come in on the wrong side or your opponent simply castles in the center position of their DZ
Back to first turn and gunlines before 5th edition. I remember reading a batrep from an old White Dwarf. This was back when the studio produced goof batreps with complete army lists and it wasn't decided prior to the game who would win. The mission was victory points and the two armies were guard and dark eldar... More to come soon!
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Deployment is still very important and I think it's still the most important phase of the game. Look at this way, a bad deployment can kill you before the first dice is rolled. I believe an army should always be deployed such that your units can support each to the hilt. Tyranids have always been about sending in several waves... Tyranid players that can't grasp this important concept rarely if ever win versus a good player that recognizes the Nid army was hastily deployed. Nidz are pretty much designed to be played in waves with synaspe. One big change is how does the Nid player go about using their troops. I see a lot of outflanking genestealers, it sounds like a good idea but it is random in that your bugs might come in on the wrong side or your opponent simply castles in the center position of their DZ
Back to first turn and gunlines before 5th edition. I remember reading a batrep from an old White Dwarf. This was back when the studio produced goof batreps with complete army lists and it wasn't decided prior to the game who would win. The mission was victory points and the two armies were guard and dark eldar... More to come soon!
G
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
The movement phase & deployment
Personally I think the movement phase is the most important. All of the best players I have faced excel in this phase of the game. In 4th edition most transports were death traps so armies such as the 13th Company and Necrons had a big advantage since they could move long distances quickly without using transports. Both the Necron Lord with Veil of Darkness and the Rune Priest with Gate could teleport/deep strike anywhere on the table carrying a powerful unit along with them. Blood Angels was another army that could cover a lot of ground quickly due to strong jump infantry units such as Death Company and Honorguard... Death Company at one time could choose to rage as well for an additional d6 movement. I felt that Blood Angels was one of the fastest armies around.
The beauty of mech is twofold now in 5th, transports are resilient providing protection for your infantry plus you can cover up to twice as much ground as a foot slogging unit not accounting for running. Mech has hurt armies like Nidz and Necrons due to the resilience of mech. Landraiders are a true terror again. Everything seems to follow cycles. If these two armies are buffed up when they receive their new codices for 5th edition they could seriously affect the metagame... My prediction is that they will indeed.
It's hard for me to lay down simple tactics for the movement phase. There are a lot of variables. The role of a transport changes quite a bit depending on which army you play... tactical squads typically will sit in their rhinos and pillbox. Wyches in raiders want to move in and assault as soon as possible, same thing with boyz in trukkz and battlewagons. The monolith is probably the strangest transport in the game. I'm not a big fan of drop pods (except for dreadnaughts) and for the most part I think they have been played out plus they don't have an answer to the cheap Inquisitor/Mystics unit. On that note I would love to Inquisitor/Mystics removed as an allied choice for armies such as IG... they are too cheap for what they have to offer and to me that equals broken.
In terms of wargear I do think that dozer blades should be must have for transports... Dozer blades are typically very cheap as compared to extra armor. I only take extra armor for dreadnaughts and landraiders. The chances of immobilizing with dozer blades is 1 in 36 (6*6).
The beauty of mech is twofold now in 5th, transports are resilient providing protection for your infantry plus you can cover up to twice as much ground as a foot slogging unit not accounting for running. Mech has hurt armies like Nidz and Necrons due to the resilience of mech. Landraiders are a true terror again. Everything seems to follow cycles. If these two armies are buffed up when they receive their new codices for 5th edition they could seriously affect the metagame... My prediction is that they will indeed.
It's hard for me to lay down simple tactics for the movement phase. There are a lot of variables. The role of a transport changes quite a bit depending on which army you play... tactical squads typically will sit in their rhinos and pillbox. Wyches in raiders want to move in and assault as soon as possible, same thing with boyz in trukkz and battlewagons. The monolith is probably the strangest transport in the game. I'm not a big fan of drop pods (except for dreadnaughts) and for the most part I think they have been played out plus they don't have an answer to the cheap Inquisitor/Mystics unit. On that note I would love to Inquisitor/Mystics removed as an allied choice for armies such as IG... they are too cheap for what they have to offer and to me that equals broken.
In terms of wargear I do think that dozer blades should be must have for transports... Dozer blades are typically very cheap as compared to extra armor. I only take extra armor for dreadnaughts and landraiders. The chances of immobilizing with dozer blades is 1 in 36 (6*6).
Monday, November 16, 2009
More thoughts on using tactics in 40k
Okay we all know the game is three phases per player turn. Move, shoot and assault. A good friend of mine once said that if you can dominate any two phases you should win. I think this is true. 5th edition has made the game much more dynamic. Sure you can build an IG army full of mech that sits and shoots but the codex gives you some great new rules such as lumbering that makes it easy to move and still shoot a lot. IG is one of those armies that still doesn't have an auto win net list like lash spam, nob bikers and fateweaver crusher spam but we have all seen that IG is winning their share now. The codex is complex and you have a lot of options now. The new orders seem okay but much like doctrines it's not part of the winning core. To me it's funny that GW scaled back CSM but then later came out with the IG codex.
So back on topic this thread is about the phases of the game and how to maximize what they can do for you. I've covered shooting in good detail already and provided some thoughts on assaults. If you read on of my entries on Blood Angels tactics I wrote about linking assaults. Linking your assaults is very powerful for close combat oriented armies and I had a lot of success with this tactic versus horde style armies such as Nidz and Orks. Linking assaults helps small powerful elite armies to beat hordes. If you stop to think about it horde armies typically have the following characteristics:
*Many cheap units (gaunts, slugga boyz etc.)
*A few uber units - Nidz have their monsterous creatures and orks have their warbosses and Nobz
*Ability to make the many cheap units fearless
Those large swarms look intimidating and they make for effective screens to protect the uber units. However with the new assault rules it's easy to make horde armies inherent advantages work against themselves. The trick is to multi charge and link your assaults. Horde armies are not going to sit back, they are going to come right at you. Both orks and Nidz have some problems dealing with mech lists, lootaz being a notable exception to lightly armored transports. Linking assaults means that you will let the hordes approach, charge your mech wall and then you counter assault. You hit them with everything and make sure that all combats are linked together by charging each of your units into multiple enemy units. Stuff like power fists should preferably target the big stuff. You have the upper hand since you charged the horde, you score a lot more wounds then each and every enemy unit must take all those additional armor saves since you won combat. Being fearless coupled with terrible armor saves is not a good thing. The cheap units die in droves and even the uber units get torn up. When it's all over and done with your small but powerful elite army suddenly has numerical superiority. This tactic can work against any foot slogging army if your opponent keeps his units close together. I've used this tactic to table many armies.
So to me that is what close combat is all about. One super turn of assault that cripples the enemy. It can be done and works best versus hordes.
G
So back on topic this thread is about the phases of the game and how to maximize what they can do for you. I've covered shooting in good detail already and provided some thoughts on assaults. If you read on of my entries on Blood Angels tactics I wrote about linking assaults. Linking your assaults is very powerful for close combat oriented armies and I had a lot of success with this tactic versus horde style armies such as Nidz and Orks. Linking assaults helps small powerful elite armies to beat hordes. If you stop to think about it horde armies typically have the following characteristics:
*Many cheap units (gaunts, slugga boyz etc.)
*A few uber units - Nidz have their monsterous creatures and orks have their warbosses and Nobz
*Ability to make the many cheap units fearless
Those large swarms look intimidating and they make for effective screens to protect the uber units. However with the new assault rules it's easy to make horde armies inherent advantages work against themselves. The trick is to multi charge and link your assaults. Horde armies are not going to sit back, they are going to come right at you. Both orks and Nidz have some problems dealing with mech lists, lootaz being a notable exception to lightly armored transports. Linking assaults means that you will let the hordes approach, charge your mech wall and then you counter assault. You hit them with everything and make sure that all combats are linked together by charging each of your units into multiple enemy units. Stuff like power fists should preferably target the big stuff. You have the upper hand since you charged the horde, you score a lot more wounds then each and every enemy unit must take all those additional armor saves since you won combat. Being fearless coupled with terrible armor saves is not a good thing. The cheap units die in droves and even the uber units get torn up. When it's all over and done with your small but powerful elite army suddenly has numerical superiority. This tactic can work against any foot slogging army if your opponent keeps his units close together. I've used this tactic to table many armies.
So to me that is what close combat is all about. One super turn of assault that cripples the enemy. It can be done and works best versus hordes.
G
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Tactical thoughts on 40k
I've seen a lot of people say that you don't see any good tactics posted on the Internet. Supposedly list building trumps tactics and strategy. Well I have always tended to stick to the following tactics:
•Shooting
-Target selection/ If I am up against an army that is better in assault then I will typically target their faster units first in attempt to take them out before they reach my line. Next I will shoot the slower units that can unleash hell once they get stuck... If they are in a transport then you've got to at least take out their ride and make them foot slog. Also I always favor high odds that have the best chance of paying off as opposed to high risks that require a lot of luck.
I believe in the concept of Focused Fire. Once you have selected a target keep shooting it until it's dead. Too many times I've seen people spread their shooting around. This let's remnant units win games. How many times have I seen a couple of genestealers pop five terminators? Believe when I say it happens. Or when a single Marine runs on top of an objective. I remember once watching a gladiator match at Adepticon. My friend was running L&tD... He charged a Blood Angels Sanguinary High Priest joined with a squad of assault Marines. The Blood Angels assault squad was destroyed and the priest broke but did not fall back far enough to be able to regroup. My friend decided the next turn to ignore the priest and assaulted another unit getting stuck in. The Sanguinary High Priest then regrouped and lead three small las/plas squads into a counter charge... Preferred Enemy + furious charge... They destroyed a large block of mutants which won the game for the BA player. Now if my friend had charged the priest again it would have gone the other way for sure. So you have to remained focused at all times, especially when you are winning a close game.
I see shooting as broken up into three phases: long range, mid range and short range. Against assault armies you are waiting for them to move inside your midrange arc... The short ranged units move up and suddenly you can blast them with everything. It's good to have a balance between the three ranges. You don't want too much of any one type.
• Assaults
Assaults win games and this is most especially where you want to focus on high odds. If I have an IC joined to a unit I'll put all of his attacks on the enemy unit and ignore the enemy IC... generally your IC will hit first, hit on 3+, ignore armor and has a lot of attacks. Kill the enemy squad and their IC will break and possibly you can overrun it too. If you focus on the enemy IC it's harder to hit and typically has a better save so you are wasting attacks that could have killed more. You also want to charge multiple units so you can tie them up. Coordinating your charges is very important.
• Mission Objectives
How often do I see people say one army can beat another solely based upon the two lists? It just does not work that way. If you focus on objectives rather than trying to table your opponents you'll be in a much better position to win late in the game. By playing smart you can neutralize your opponent's best units and force them to not use them as best intended. Killpoints are all about tabling but when it comes to controlling objectives that is a completely different ball of wax.
•Shooting
-Target selection/ If I am up against an army that is better in assault then I will typically target their faster units first in attempt to take them out before they reach my line. Next I will shoot the slower units that can unleash hell once they get stuck... If they are in a transport then you've got to at least take out their ride and make them foot slog. Also I always favor high odds that have the best chance of paying off as opposed to high risks that require a lot of luck.
I believe in the concept of Focused Fire. Once you have selected a target keep shooting it until it's dead. Too many times I've seen people spread their shooting around. This let's remnant units win games. How many times have I seen a couple of genestealers pop five terminators? Believe when I say it happens. Or when a single Marine runs on top of an objective. I remember once watching a gladiator match at Adepticon. My friend was running L&tD... He charged a Blood Angels Sanguinary High Priest joined with a squad of assault Marines. The Blood Angels assault squad was destroyed and the priest broke but did not fall back far enough to be able to regroup. My friend decided the next turn to ignore the priest and assaulted another unit getting stuck in. The Sanguinary High Priest then regrouped and lead three small las/plas squads into a counter charge... Preferred Enemy + furious charge... They destroyed a large block of mutants which won the game for the BA player. Now if my friend had charged the priest again it would have gone the other way for sure. So you have to remained focused at all times, especially when you are winning a close game.
I see shooting as broken up into three phases: long range, mid range and short range. Against assault armies you are waiting for them to move inside your midrange arc... The short ranged units move up and suddenly you can blast them with everything. It's good to have a balance between the three ranges. You don't want too much of any one type.
• Assaults
Assaults win games and this is most especially where you want to focus on high odds. If I have an IC joined to a unit I'll put all of his attacks on the enemy unit and ignore the enemy IC... generally your IC will hit first, hit on 3+, ignore armor and has a lot of attacks. Kill the enemy squad and their IC will break and possibly you can overrun it too. If you focus on the enemy IC it's harder to hit and typically has a better save so you are wasting attacks that could have killed more. You also want to charge multiple units so you can tie them up. Coordinating your charges is very important.
• Mission Objectives
How often do I see people say one army can beat another solely based upon the two lists? It just does not work that way. If you focus on objectives rather than trying to table your opponents you'll be in a much better position to win late in the game. By playing smart you can neutralize your opponent's best units and force them to not use them as best intended. Killpoints are all about tabling but when it comes to controlling objectives that is a completely different ball of wax.
Friday, November 06, 2009
Battle of the Stores • Ard Boyz Florida style with a twist...
Tomorrow the Skul N Bonz club will be hosting a major tournament for central Florida at their same named store in New Port Richey. I only live about 30 minutes by car and qualified but I had already been invited to play in a big team tournament event up in Tennessee. Three champions from each of the stores participating in the event will play three rounds (1850 points). It's all based upon battle points so whichever store racks up the most battle points after three rounds is the winner. I think it's a great idea. I do wish that some of the better players could have made it out though, but still there will be plenty of competition there tomorrow. Here are the eight stores participating:
Anthem Games (Tampa)
Armada Games (Tampa)
Coliseum of Comics (Kissimmee)
Darkside Comics (Sarasota)
Pop's Comics (Sarasota)
Rhurbarb Games (Orlando)
Sci Fi City (Orlando)
Skul N Bonz (Orlando)
Like I said some of the better players from the central Florida area aren't going so from what I have heard there will be some younger players there representing their stores, which I think is kind of cool. I am pulling for Coliseum of Comics as I consider that my home store even though it's a bit off down I-4. I like Clark and Lance of Skul N Bonz so I hope they do well too. Hopefully there won't be any drama. I've always had a good time whenever I at Skul N Bonz.
G
Anthem Games (Tampa)
Armada Games (Tampa)
Coliseum of Comics (Kissimmee)
Darkside Comics (Sarasota)
Pop's Comics (Sarasota)
Rhurbarb Games (Orlando)
Sci Fi City (Orlando)
Skul N Bonz (Orlando)
Like I said some of the better players from the central Florida area aren't going so from what I have heard there will be some younger players there representing their stores, which I think is kind of cool. I am pulling for Coliseum of Comics as I consider that my home store even though it's a bit off down I-4. I like Clark and Lance of Skul N Bonz so I hope they do well too. Hopefully there won't be any drama. I've always had a good time whenever I at Skul N Bonz.
G
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Monday, November 02, 2009
MY FIVE CRITERIA FOR BUILDING A NEW ARMY
Here are my guidelines for building an army:
1) THEME!!!
Theme is always most important to me. I want every army I design to reflect the background for that race. I consider myself somewhat of a fluff Nazi; for example, I don't like the new CSM codex because it's very hard if not almost impossible to build a pure cult army. If you like Black Legion then count yourself as one of the lucky ones out there. That's just me though and I don't necessarily begrudge others for building armies that don't reflect their background material well. I know what you are thinking... Dante and Corbulo, everyone who plays BA are running that combination. While that is true I can say that as far as I know I was one of the first BA players to run them together. I'm not patting myself on the back, it wasn't my original idea but it was not commonly seen when I first started to use them together.
2) Effectiveness!
I want an army that is balanced and can win it's share of my games. I always put theme first BUT I always want to build an army that is good. You won't see me running a squad of scouts in my BA army... you won't see me running a pack of Flesh Hounds in my KDA. I want every unit I select to be a good choice period. I believe in synergy and that is where running a combination like Dante and Corbulo comes into my thought process. If a unit is almost too good not to take that in itself is not a good reason in my mind not to take it. I think some people intentionally handicap themselves - they don't want to be seen taking an army that could be perceived as WAAC. If you have a great theme how can anybody say your army is WAAC? I don't like a lot of spam as to me that hurts your theme. Theme and composition are two totally different concepts and some people don't understand the difference. Take my BA as an example. I have had some tell me they love the list as it is no longer frequently seen nor is it considered top tier anymore. I have also had people tell me that running two special characters is totally WAAC.
3) UNIQUE!!!
I always want to play unique armies that are not frequently seen. If the army happens to become popular later that is no fault of my own. I ran a completely unique 13th Company that was also a great army. I had a lot of people tell me to my face it was crap but I proved them wrong. My original BA army was unique - full Honorguard, two dreadnaughts in drop pods, terminators and scouts... Both the 13th Company and original BA armies can no longer be played now under 5th edition and are defunct. The beauty of running a unique army in tournaments is that your opponents will have problems figuring out how to react to it and that's a big advantage. It's great to build an army that no one ever expects to see; I think Marc is the best in this category.
4) Appearance
I want to field beautiful armies period. This includes both painting and more importantly to me unique conversions.
5) The Fun Factor
If an army is not fun for me to play then I have no desire to build it. I can figure out by reading the codex if I would enjoy playing the army. I don't want to play any army unless it makes me feel inspired. I don't want to play a weak list to challenge myself. You are tying one arm behind your back if you take such an army to a competitive event such as Adepticon. I know it's all in the mind, what one person perceives as weak another might see as very strong. Many people have told me I need to stop playing MEQ. To me that statement in and of itself is not a good reason to not play MEQ. Two or three years ago I bought everything I needed to build a Feral Ork army. As soon as I heard rumors the list would be removed from GTs I immediately stopped working on the army and I'm very glad of that decision. I'm playing KDA now but if you stop to think about it the Bloodthirster and Blood Crushers both have 3+ armor saves plus my two Soul Grinders have front and side AV13 so for all practical purposes it has greater armor saves overall inherently built into it's design of mine. Sure the Bloodletters don't have that great a save but often a 5+ invulnerable save is better than a 3+ armor save plus if they go to ground in cover then it's just as good as Marines with the exception of most flamer template weapons. Probably my next army will not be MEQ and that is because I don't like the new SM codex and I finally looking forward to playing something else after all these years. Heh!
So those are my five criteria I use to select an army that I will actually build and play.
G
1) THEME!!!
Theme is always most important to me. I want every army I design to reflect the background for that race. I consider myself somewhat of a fluff Nazi; for example, I don't like the new CSM codex because it's very hard if not almost impossible to build a pure cult army. If you like Black Legion then count yourself as one of the lucky ones out there. That's just me though and I don't necessarily begrudge others for building armies that don't reflect their background material well. I know what you are thinking... Dante and Corbulo, everyone who plays BA are running that combination. While that is true I can say that as far as I know I was one of the first BA players to run them together. I'm not patting myself on the back, it wasn't my original idea but it was not commonly seen when I first started to use them together.
2) Effectiveness!
I want an army that is balanced and can win it's share of my games. I always put theme first BUT I always want to build an army that is good. You won't see me running a squad of scouts in my BA army... you won't see me running a pack of Flesh Hounds in my KDA. I want every unit I select to be a good choice period. I believe in synergy and that is where running a combination like Dante and Corbulo comes into my thought process. If a unit is almost too good not to take that in itself is not a good reason in my mind not to take it. I think some people intentionally handicap themselves - they don't want to be seen taking an army that could be perceived as WAAC. If you have a great theme how can anybody say your army is WAAC? I don't like a lot of spam as to me that hurts your theme. Theme and composition are two totally different concepts and some people don't understand the difference. Take my BA as an example. I have had some tell me they love the list as it is no longer frequently seen nor is it considered top tier anymore. I have also had people tell me that running two special characters is totally WAAC.
3) UNIQUE!!!
I always want to play unique armies that are not frequently seen. If the army happens to become popular later that is no fault of my own. I ran a completely unique 13th Company that was also a great army. I had a lot of people tell me to my face it was crap but I proved them wrong. My original BA army was unique - full Honorguard, two dreadnaughts in drop pods, terminators and scouts... Both the 13th Company and original BA armies can no longer be played now under 5th edition and are defunct. The beauty of running a unique army in tournaments is that your opponents will have problems figuring out how to react to it and that's a big advantage. It's great to build an army that no one ever expects to see; I think Marc is the best in this category.
4) Appearance
I want to field beautiful armies period. This includes both painting and more importantly to me unique conversions.
5) The Fun Factor
If an army is not fun for me to play then I have no desire to build it. I can figure out by reading the codex if I would enjoy playing the army. I don't want to play any army unless it makes me feel inspired. I don't want to play a weak list to challenge myself. You are tying one arm behind your back if you take such an army to a competitive event such as Adepticon. I know it's all in the mind, what one person perceives as weak another might see as very strong. Many people have told me I need to stop playing MEQ. To me that statement in and of itself is not a good reason to not play MEQ. Two or three years ago I bought everything I needed to build a Feral Ork army. As soon as I heard rumors the list would be removed from GTs I immediately stopped working on the army and I'm very glad of that decision. I'm playing KDA now but if you stop to think about it the Bloodthirster and Blood Crushers both have 3+ armor saves plus my two Soul Grinders have front and side AV13 so for all practical purposes it has greater armor saves overall inherently built into it's design of mine. Sure the Bloodletters don't have that great a save but often a 5+ invulnerable save is better than a 3+ armor save plus if they go to ground in cover then it's just as good as Marines with the exception of most flamer template weapons. Probably my next army will not be MEQ and that is because I don't like the new SM codex and I finally looking forward to playing something else after all these years. Heh!
So those are my five criteria I use to select an army that I will actually build and play.
G
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Holding objectives • Space Marines & Khornate Daemons
I saw a tactical article on another 40k blog and thought I would post one here. Mine focuses on SM/CSM and Khornate Daemons. I will also discuss how to take objectives from the opponent with these armies.
_Space Marines_
First I'll say that I am not a fan of 5th edition Space Marines. To me they are boring and you tend to see a lot of the same lists... Vulkan Marines seem to be the most prevalent. I don't think that scouts are good at holding objectives. They are roasted by heavy flamers and are vulnerable to assaults. A 2+ cover save doesn't help you in either case. Scouts have their uses though but that is another discussion. To me it's obvious tactical Marines embarked in an obscured rhino is your best bet. Your opponent will first have to wreck/destroy the rhino before they can get at the Marines. Tactical Marines in a rhino can pillbox - that is, remain embarked and fire the heavy weapon from within the safety of their transport. I am not an advocate of combat squads, so no razorbacks. A combat squad dies quickly from small arms fire, ordnance and other shooting... Plus they will fold quickly in an assault. So to me one of the best units for holding an objective is a full squad of tactical Marines inside a rhino. I'll go so far as to say they should be equipped with a lascannon, meltagun and power fist. I'm not a big fan of multi-meltas for tactical squads as they are short range compared to the lascannon. The meltagun is there for duality, the squad can tank hunt if necessary. Finally the power fist is there in case they are assaulted. If you are trying to hold an objective then choosing to break is not a good thing. Sure you might be able to counter charge the next turn but there is also the chance that they won't fallback far enough and will remain broken.
_Chaos Space Marines_
CSM has a lot more choices and I think a good one is a squad of lesser daemons. Sure they are not inside a transport but they are relatively cheap and if they go to ground in cover they have a 3+ cover save and are T4. CSM also have access to their equivalent of the tactical squad but you rarely see them as there are other choices that are stronger all around. Nurgle Marines are probably the best choice and with the ability to take two meltaguns they never need to leave their rhinos. We all know that Nurgle Marines are very popular now. Thousand Sons are not worth their points and Berzerkers were made to take objectives, not hold them.
_KDA_
You only have one choice, Bloodletters. It's not in their calling to hold objectives but that's all you've got. The best thing to do is take large squads so they'll hold up to shooting. They are also T4 just like CSM lesser daemons. No one wants to charge a large squad of Bloodletters sitting in cover... They'll maul you. The flipside is just to land them beside enemy objectives and take theirs, more on that right below.
[b]TAKING OBJECTIVES[/b]
This is much harder for Space Marines as compared to CSM and KDA. It's not like a squad of tactical Marines are going to roll up in a rhino and blast a squad of Plague Bearers or Nurgle Marines off an objective. So first you have to clear the objective with another unit(s) and then move on your tactical Marines. Units such as Berzerkers, Nurgle Marines and large squads of Bloodletters can do the job by themselves. One of the greatest strengths of any daemon army in general is that your entire army arrives via deep strike and is not affected by deployment. That's extremely powerful if you stop to think about it. People say daemon armies are random due to which wave comes in first and bad scatters. If you know what you are doing it's not bad at all though. What you need are strong units that can endure one round of enemy shooting then it begins to work in your favor. If your secondary wave comes in first then you'll just have to play mote conservatively... It just takes a little longer, that's all.
G
_Space Marines_
First I'll say that I am not a fan of 5th edition Space Marines. To me they are boring and you tend to see a lot of the same lists... Vulkan Marines seem to be the most prevalent. I don't think that scouts are good at holding objectives. They are roasted by heavy flamers and are vulnerable to assaults. A 2+ cover save doesn't help you in either case. Scouts have their uses though but that is another discussion. To me it's obvious tactical Marines embarked in an obscured rhino is your best bet. Your opponent will first have to wreck/destroy the rhino before they can get at the Marines. Tactical Marines in a rhino can pillbox - that is, remain embarked and fire the heavy weapon from within the safety of their transport. I am not an advocate of combat squads, so no razorbacks. A combat squad dies quickly from small arms fire, ordnance and other shooting... Plus they will fold quickly in an assault. So to me one of the best units for holding an objective is a full squad of tactical Marines inside a rhino. I'll go so far as to say they should be equipped with a lascannon, meltagun and power fist. I'm not a big fan of multi-meltas for tactical squads as they are short range compared to the lascannon. The meltagun is there for duality, the squad can tank hunt if necessary. Finally the power fist is there in case they are assaulted. If you are trying to hold an objective then choosing to break is not a good thing. Sure you might be able to counter charge the next turn but there is also the chance that they won't fallback far enough and will remain broken.
_Chaos Space Marines_
CSM has a lot more choices and I think a good one is a squad of lesser daemons. Sure they are not inside a transport but they are relatively cheap and if they go to ground in cover they have a 3+ cover save and are T4. CSM also have access to their equivalent of the tactical squad but you rarely see them as there are other choices that are stronger all around. Nurgle Marines are probably the best choice and with the ability to take two meltaguns they never need to leave their rhinos. We all know that Nurgle Marines are very popular now. Thousand Sons are not worth their points and Berzerkers were made to take objectives, not hold them.
_KDA_
You only have one choice, Bloodletters. It's not in their calling to hold objectives but that's all you've got. The best thing to do is take large squads so they'll hold up to shooting. They are also T4 just like CSM lesser daemons. No one wants to charge a large squad of Bloodletters sitting in cover... They'll maul you. The flipside is just to land them beside enemy objectives and take theirs, more on that right below.
[b]TAKING OBJECTIVES[/b]
This is much harder for Space Marines as compared to CSM and KDA. It's not like a squad of tactical Marines are going to roll up in a rhino and blast a squad of Plague Bearers or Nurgle Marines off an objective. So first you have to clear the objective with another unit(s) and then move on your tactical Marines. Units such as Berzerkers, Nurgle Marines and large squads of Bloodletters can do the job by themselves. One of the greatest strengths of any daemon army in general is that your entire army arrives via deep strike and is not affected by deployment. That's extremely powerful if you stop to think about it. People say daemon armies are random due to which wave comes in first and bad scatters. If you know what you are doing it's not bad at all though. What you need are strong units that can endure one round of enemy shooting then it begins to work in your favor. If your secondary wave comes in first then you'll just have to play mote conservatively... It just takes a little longer, that's all.
G
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
Troop Choices and Heavy Support for KDA
I've said quite a bit about Grinders versus Daemon Princes in KDA as your staple heavy support. You can find it under the comments posted to the first article. I rephrase here again. KDA has no shooting except if you opt for Grinders. That's just the way it is unless you want to pay 15/20 points to arm a herald (BS3) or the Bloodthirster (BS4) with the equivalent of a plasma pistol that doesn't overheat. I don't think these guys spend much time at the range shooting so to me I'd rather use those points for another Icon.
This army needs some shooting and that's where the Grinder comes in to the equation. I run two both with tongue and phleghm. Tongue is a 24" railgun. Phleghm is the equivalent of a battlecannon but does not count as ordnance so you can fire it and the harvester gun. I run two and stick them both in the same wave. They can protect the Blodletters and keep them out of harm's way. Two pieplates per turn adds up quickly and works wonders versus horde armies such as Tyranids and Orks. They are also able to fleet and are monsters in close combat. Even the relic blade can't pierce their armor and against lower strength MCs they night just get lucky. They hit first against Carnifexes and can beat them down if they can kill them before they swing back. Their only rear weakness is meltas and high strength MCs. You have to screen them if you want to ward off melta shots. Personally I think they are much more effective versus daemon princes and the Khornate daemon prince doesn't have much going for it versus the others which have no real place in a KDA. Tongue is excellent versus rhinos and chimeras... It's very important to crack them open early and exposed their passengers.
Bloodletters are your only real choice. If they go to ground in cover that's a 3+ save... Coupled with T4 they are as hard to eliminate as your Space Marine. You'll need at least 3 big blocks and one unit should have an icon. I've taken out big squads of termies with them on the charge so they are okay in close combat as well.
Flesh Hounds.... A fast attack unit, not worth the points to me at all... I'd much rather have
more Bkoodletters to be honest.
G
This army needs some shooting and that's where the Grinder comes in to the equation. I run two both with tongue and phleghm. Tongue is a 24" railgun. Phleghm is the equivalent of a battlecannon but does not count as ordnance so you can fire it and the harvester gun. I run two and stick them both in the same wave. They can protect the Blodletters and keep them out of harm's way. Two pieplates per turn adds up quickly and works wonders versus horde armies such as Tyranids and Orks. They are also able to fleet and are monsters in close combat. Even the relic blade can't pierce their armor and against lower strength MCs they night just get lucky. They hit first against Carnifexes and can beat them down if they can kill them before they swing back. Their only rear weakness is meltas and high strength MCs. You have to screen them if you want to ward off melta shots. Personally I think they are much more effective versus daemon princes and the Khornate daemon prince doesn't have much going for it versus the others which have no real place in a KDA. Tongue is excellent versus rhinos and chimeras... It's very important to crack them open early and exposed their passengers.
Bloodletters are your only real choice. If they go to ground in cover that's a 3+ save... Coupled with T4 they are as hard to eliminate as your Space Marine. You'll need at least 3 big blocks and one unit should have an icon. I've taken out big squads of termies with them on the charge so they are okay in close combat as well.
Flesh Hounds.... A fast attack unit, not worth the points to me at all... I'd much rather have
more Bkoodletters to be honest.
G
Sunday, October 25, 2009
More on KDA...
Here is my current 1850 point list:
Bloodthirster/Unholy Might, Blessing of the Blood God
_He is the best of the bunch and highly appropriate for KDA. He is very fast, very strong and highly resilient with T6 and WS10. I6 on the charge, he will hit first most of the time. Armor save 3+, invulnerable save 4+ and 4 wounds. Only the Tzneetch greater daemon has a better save (3+ invulnerable) but just can't dish it out in close combat. The thing I'd he is still not my best unit.
Skulltaker/Juggernaught
_Kind of pricy but so what. This is the guy who inspired me to build the army! He has WS7 so any unit with WS3 is only hitting on a 5+. He rends on 4+ and any unsaved wound is instant death. He is very Killy but he needs some help so I typically run him with another herald...
Herald/Juggernaught, Unholy Might, Fury, Blessing of the Blood God
_This is my ace versus armor. He auto pens walkers when he rends, even when taking the charge. He has taken out landraiders and no one ever saw that coming.
6x Crushers/Instrument, Icon, Fury
_This forms my deathstar along with the two heralds. They can suck up a lot of pain and dish it right back out. I like to deep strike the unit right in front of the enemy line. They shoot the hell out of them then possibly charge them. When all the smoke clears they are still there and ready to go. It's just plain sick as can be.
Next up I'll discuss my troops and heavy support.
G
Bloodthirster/Unholy Might, Blessing of the Blood God
_He is the best of the bunch and highly appropriate for KDA. He is very fast, very strong and highly resilient with T6 and WS10. I6 on the charge, he will hit first most of the time. Armor save 3+, invulnerable save 4+ and 4 wounds. Only the Tzneetch greater daemon has a better save (3+ invulnerable) but just can't dish it out in close combat. The thing I'd he is still not my best unit.
Skulltaker/Juggernaught
_Kind of pricy but so what. This is the guy who inspired me to build the army! He has WS7 so any unit with WS3 is only hitting on a 5+. He rends on 4+ and any unsaved wound is instant death. He is very Killy but he needs some help so I typically run him with another herald...
Herald/Juggernaught, Unholy Might, Fury, Blessing of the Blood God
_This is my ace versus armor. He auto pens walkers when he rends, even when taking the charge. He has taken out landraiders and no one ever saw that coming.
6x Crushers/Instrument, Icon, Fury
_This forms my deathstar along with the two heralds. They can suck up a lot of pain and dish it right back out. I like to deep strike the unit right in front of the enemy line. They shoot the hell out of them then possibly charge them. When all the smoke clears they are still there and ready to go. It's just plain sick as can be.
Next up I'll discuss my troops and heavy support.
G
Khornate Daemonic Army (KDA)
About six to seven months ago I read a Fantasy novel entitled Blood for the Blood God. The main character was the Skulltaker and he was depicted as a mortal champion of Khorne, heavily enhanced though. The story is a tale of cold blooded revenge and I loved it. In fact I loved the story so much I was infused with the desire to create a pure Khorne daemon army. I am not a big fan of daemon armies thst feature units from the different gods and I also wanted to build an army that would have an excellent theme. The Skulltaker riding a juggernaught is my central character and he leads a large unit of Blood Crushers with another Herald that is his lieutenant. I used the new Fantasy Khorne Lord mounted on a juggernaught to represent the Skulltaker. All of my Crushers and Bloodletters are highly converted... Brandon Palmer from GMM Studios was commissioned to paint the army and he did an amazing job! I will have to say this is by far my favorite army yet.
Funny things on the Internet... You know that whatever you say there will always be at least one person that will want to throw cold water on your heart's desire. Case in point... There is general consenus that daemons are weak versus mech but in reality you can build an army that easily counters mech. I have a Bloodthirster (beautiful model from the nice folks up in Canada from Ultraforge) and two Grinders both with tongue and phleghm to deal with mech. Tongue is basically a 24" railgun and it wrecks rhinos very efficiently. That's why I take two Grinders and typically drop them on the same wave... You start popping those CSM rhinos and your opponent is going to have some problems.
Another Internet myth is that Crushers are screwed when charged by walkers. First no one can say that a walker is guaranteed to charge the Crushers. They move at exactly the same speed! What I have found is that my opponents are afraid of my Thirster and two Grinders... But if they do indeed charge my Crushers I have a Herald with Unholy Might and Fury... He is S7 on the charge and auto pens AV12 whenever he rends irregardless of who charges. I also have a Crusher in the squad with Fury and he pens 67% of the time when he rends if he is charged. Statisically it won't take more than two full turns for my Crushers to pop a walker and it could most certainly happen a whole sooner. My point here is that the Crushers are not my primary threat for walkers BUT they can deal with them AND it's great to see the look on my opponent's face when my Herald destroys their landraider... It does happen too!
G
Funny things on the Internet... You know that whatever you say there will always be at least one person that will want to throw cold water on your heart's desire. Case in point... There is general consenus that daemons are weak versus mech but in reality you can build an army that easily counters mech. I have a Bloodthirster (beautiful model from the nice folks up in Canada from Ultraforge) and two Grinders both with tongue and phleghm to deal with mech. Tongue is basically a 24" railgun and it wrecks rhinos very efficiently. That's why I take two Grinders and typically drop them on the same wave... You start popping those CSM rhinos and your opponent is going to have some problems.
Another Internet myth is that Crushers are screwed when charged by walkers. First no one can say that a walker is guaranteed to charge the Crushers. They move at exactly the same speed! What I have found is that my opponents are afraid of my Thirster and two Grinders... But if they do indeed charge my Crushers I have a Herald with Unholy Might and Fury... He is S7 on the charge and auto pens AV12 whenever he rends irregardless of who charges. I also have a Crusher in the squad with Fury and he pens 67% of the time when he rends if he is charged. Statisically it won't take more than two full turns for my Crushers to pop a walker and it could most certainly happen a whole sooner. My point here is that the Crushers are not my primary threat for walkers BUT they can deal with them AND it's great to see the look on my opponent's face when my Herald destroys their landraider... It does happen too!
G
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Winning with PDF Blood Angels
I was asked to post my thoughts on winning with Blood Angels so I decided to post here so I can share my thoughts with everyone. Typically I am against net lists as I don't think they help anyone to become a better player but... I am putting my Blood Angels aside after playing them for the past few years so I can start playing daemons, and a new codex is not far off so what I say here will only hold true for a few more months.
If you want to play this army competively there is only one template that works -> Dante & Corbulo. Some people simply hate special characters so you'll get dinged on your soft scores from time to time but on the other hand most people are not familar with the new Blood Angels and the general consensus is that Blood Angels are at best a mid tier list. I played one person in the third round of the Ard Boyz semi finals this year who was fielding a dual lash list - he was not familiar with Blood Angels, the game ended in a draw and afterwards he vehemently accused me of serious cheating allegations, most of which were based on his lack of knowledge of the army and it's rules. That is a very extreme case but I thought I should mention it. There are people who think they should be able to roll Blood Angels and when they lose they'll blame it on anything but their lack of effective tactics to counter this army. So just be aware of that.
I think 40k is all about what I call the force bubble theory. Mostly you ate playing to control objectives so if you place them as closely together as possible then force multipliers become much more potent since you will end up playing the game on only a fraction of the tabletop. To me the combination of Dante and Corbulo is currently one of the strongest force multipliers in the game... Dante grants preferred enemy to any friendly BA unit within 12" and also drops enemy units by -1 WS that are within 6". Corbulo grants furious charge to any friendly BA unit within 12" and has a narcethium that allows you to ignore one failed armor save to any friendly BA unit within 6" once per player turn... that might not sound as good as FNP but if you have a strong unit such as a veteran assault squad or assault terminators the ability to ignore two wounds per turn is quite valuable. It can be used on a unit locked in close combat as long as Corbulo is not engaged but it does not work against instant death or attacks that ignore armor saves in close combat. I keep Corbulo in a landraider and he never disembarks unless the tank is destroyed. You can measure from the of the landraider when using his powers which greatly extends the range. This in turn increases the effective zone of your force bubble. What you want to do in objective based games is to get on top of the objectives as quickly as possible, wait for the enemy to approach while you shoot them then counter assault. This simple tactic is tried and true, it's won me many many games! I'll talk about killpoints later.
Here are the units I recommend:
Dante & Corbulo
9x VAS/2x meltagun, 3x power fist
10x tactical Marine/lascannon, meltagun, power fist - rhino
5x terminator/4x pairs of lightning claws, thunder hammer & storm shield
landraider
Death Company without jump packs
There are some other good choices such as Baal Predators, our special dreadnaughts and Honorguard but the choices I listed above are all i use. I know a lot of BA players that tout their regular assault squads (count as troop choices) but to be honest they are very expensive and in all actuality they don't do that well in close combat. On the other hand tactical Marines are excellent for holding objectives plus with preferred enemy and furious charge it can be argued that they are better than Khorne Berzerkers.
I highly recommend a heavily mechanized list. You will have to learn about rhino tactics to play this style and it perfectly dovetails with my counter assault tactics. If you are playing against another army that is strong in assault bait the player telling them that your Blood Angels can pound them... Invariably they will move their army straight towards yours and then you can counter assault. It works like a charm. Rhinos are very durable and you can use them to shield your army from enemy shooting. The landraider allows you to assault from a moving transport with those assault terminators... It's amazing to me how often people don't see that coming. I learned that tactic playing Matt back in the 2007 Chicago GT when brought Al's Space Wolves. The landraider also gives you two twin linked lascannons which I believe is the best answer to lightly armored mech lists. The landraider is extremely resilient, great at shooting armor and can deliver a powerful unit into the heart of the battle. Those assault terminators will have furious charge plus can reroll hit and wounds... It's a very powerful unit indeed.
In terms of killpoints I try to minimize the use of units that give up easy killpoints such as the popular MMAB and rhinos. Yes you need the rhinos but don't go overboard. Giving away a lot of easy kill points will lose games.
Here is a sample list I like a lot:
Dante joined to VAS
VAS/ as listed above
Corbulo and 5x DC in a rhino
5x assault terminators in a landraider
2x 10x tactical Marine/ as listed above
This is a small elite army. You only have three rhinos but coupled with the landraider you have a heavy mech list with only three easy killpoints. You have three heavy hitting assault units - VAS, terminators and Death Company. The tactical Marines can assault as well if you find yourself in a pinch.
Here is an advanced tactic I referred to as Linking Assaults:
Linking Assaults
This is what i refer to as an advanced tactic. It works extremely well versus horde armies such as Tyranids and Orks. Form your rhino wall such that the opponent cannot outflank you your wall. They will head straight towards the rhinos and charge them. The rhinos are destroyed and your troops disembark on the side opposite to the attackers. You have held back your landraider and the VAS. Your turn your troops move through the wrecked transports so they can shoot and assault. The VAS flies up into the center to shoot and charge as well. The landraider comes around the side to deliver the terminators. Position your units such that they all charge multiple units and it should form one long chain so you have basically one big combat. Put your power fists on monsterous creatures/warbosses and the rest of your Marines assault the squishy models, such as gaunts, orks and genestealers... Don't be afraid to charge genetstealers in this situation... You can shoot them first to thin down their numbers. Here is the net result - you kill a ton of squishies and put a few wound on the big nasties. The enemy loses the overall combat by 10+ wounds. Tyranids are fearless due to synapse and orks are fearless due to mob size... So each individual enemy unit has to take all those combined armor saves. Gaunts, genestealers and orks die in droves while the big nasties as also fail some saves as well since there are so many to take! The enemy line will crumble in one turn. I also once used this tactic to kill 25 assault terminators in just one round of close combat... It's just simply that good. You can win the game in one turn. It takes some practice to be able to pull this off but you'll figure it out soon enough.
I hope this helps shed some insight into this wonderful PDF army.
G
If you want to play this army competively there is only one template that works -> Dante & Corbulo. Some people simply hate special characters so you'll get dinged on your soft scores from time to time but on the other hand most people are not familar with the new Blood Angels and the general consensus is that Blood Angels are at best a mid tier list. I played one person in the third round of the Ard Boyz semi finals this year who was fielding a dual lash list - he was not familiar with Blood Angels, the game ended in a draw and afterwards he vehemently accused me of serious cheating allegations, most of which were based on his lack of knowledge of the army and it's rules. That is a very extreme case but I thought I should mention it. There are people who think they should be able to roll Blood Angels and when they lose they'll blame it on anything but their lack of effective tactics to counter this army. So just be aware of that.
I think 40k is all about what I call the force bubble theory. Mostly you ate playing to control objectives so if you place them as closely together as possible then force multipliers become much more potent since you will end up playing the game on only a fraction of the tabletop. To me the combination of Dante and Corbulo is currently one of the strongest force multipliers in the game... Dante grants preferred enemy to any friendly BA unit within 12" and also drops enemy units by -1 WS that are within 6". Corbulo grants furious charge to any friendly BA unit within 12" and has a narcethium that allows you to ignore one failed armor save to any friendly BA unit within 6" once per player turn... that might not sound as good as FNP but if you have a strong unit such as a veteran assault squad or assault terminators the ability to ignore two wounds per turn is quite valuable. It can be used on a unit locked in close combat as long as Corbulo is not engaged but it does not work against instant death or attacks that ignore armor saves in close combat. I keep Corbulo in a landraider and he never disembarks unless the tank is destroyed. You can measure from the of the landraider when using his powers which greatly extends the range. This in turn increases the effective zone of your force bubble. What you want to do in objective based games is to get on top of the objectives as quickly as possible, wait for the enemy to approach while you shoot them then counter assault. This simple tactic is tried and true, it's won me many many games! I'll talk about killpoints later.
Here are the units I recommend:
Dante & Corbulo
9x VAS/2x meltagun, 3x power fist
10x tactical Marine/lascannon, meltagun, power fist - rhino
5x terminator/4x pairs of lightning claws, thunder hammer & storm shield
landraider
Death Company without jump packs
There are some other good choices such as Baal Predators, our special dreadnaughts and Honorguard but the choices I listed above are all i use. I know a lot of BA players that tout their regular assault squads (count as troop choices) but to be honest they are very expensive and in all actuality they don't do that well in close combat. On the other hand tactical Marines are excellent for holding objectives plus with preferred enemy and furious charge it can be argued that they are better than Khorne Berzerkers.
I highly recommend a heavily mechanized list. You will have to learn about rhino tactics to play this style and it perfectly dovetails with my counter assault tactics. If you are playing against another army that is strong in assault bait the player telling them that your Blood Angels can pound them... Invariably they will move their army straight towards yours and then you can counter assault. It works like a charm. Rhinos are very durable and you can use them to shield your army from enemy shooting. The landraider allows you to assault from a moving transport with those assault terminators... It's amazing to me how often people don't see that coming. I learned that tactic playing Matt back in the 2007 Chicago GT when brought Al's Space Wolves. The landraider also gives you two twin linked lascannons which I believe is the best answer to lightly armored mech lists. The landraider is extremely resilient, great at shooting armor and can deliver a powerful unit into the heart of the battle. Those assault terminators will have furious charge plus can reroll hit and wounds... It's a very powerful unit indeed.
In terms of killpoints I try to minimize the use of units that give up easy killpoints such as the popular MMAB and rhinos. Yes you need the rhinos but don't go overboard. Giving away a lot of easy kill points will lose games.
Here is a sample list I like a lot:
Dante joined to VAS
VAS/ as listed above
Corbulo and 5x DC in a rhino
5x assault terminators in a landraider
2x 10x tactical Marine/ as listed above
This is a small elite army. You only have three rhinos but coupled with the landraider you have a heavy mech list with only three easy killpoints. You have three heavy hitting assault units - VAS, terminators and Death Company. The tactical Marines can assault as well if you find yourself in a pinch.
Here is an advanced tactic I referred to as Linking Assaults:
Linking Assaults
This is what i refer to as an advanced tactic. It works extremely well versus horde armies such as Tyranids and Orks. Form your rhino wall such that the opponent cannot outflank you your wall. They will head straight towards the rhinos and charge them. The rhinos are destroyed and your troops disembark on the side opposite to the attackers. You have held back your landraider and the VAS. Your turn your troops move through the wrecked transports so they can shoot and assault. The VAS flies up into the center to shoot and charge as well. The landraider comes around the side to deliver the terminators. Position your units such that they all charge multiple units and it should form one long chain so you have basically one big combat. Put your power fists on monsterous creatures/warbosses and the rest of your Marines assault the squishy models, such as gaunts, orks and genestealers... Don't be afraid to charge genetstealers in this situation... You can shoot them first to thin down their numbers. Here is the net result - you kill a ton of squishies and put a few wound on the big nasties. The enemy loses the overall combat by 10+ wounds. Tyranids are fearless due to synapse and orks are fearless due to mob size... So each individual enemy unit has to take all those combined armor saves. Gaunts, genestealers and orks die in droves while the big nasties as also fail some saves as well since there are so many to take! The enemy line will crumble in one turn. I also once used this tactic to kill 25 assault terminators in just one round of close combat... It's just simply that good. You can win the game in one turn. It takes some practice to be able to pull this off but you'll figure it out soon enough.
I hope this helps shed some insight into this wonderful PDF army.
G
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
YMDC and further comments regarding accusations of cheating
Well first I would like to say that it looks like Dakka Dakka's YMDC forum is back in good form and has returned to a level of respectibility that I feel comfortable with posting there again. Gwar! Is like a bad case of Herpes and seems to have gone dormant again... Thank Jebus for small miracles and hopefully he has received his last and final warning. The debacle that was his SW FAQ I found to be a complete farce. First I am in no way an advocate of RAW. in fact I will go so far as to say that I believe RAW is ruining the game. Here is a good example... the landraider redeemer comes with hellstorm cannons which are described as flamers but it's name states it's a cannon... Oh boy! So if you field Vulkan supposedly by RAW you cannot twinlink the hellstorm cannon. It is described in it's entry as a flamer and uses the template. It used as exactly the same as a flamer, albeit one Hell of a flamer... BUT and this is a big BUT, because it is named a cannon any RAW advocate will tell you it is indeed a cannon and not a flamer. It's most obviously not a cannon. The word cannon brings to mind a long barreled piece of artillery that lobs shells across the battlefield. Silly really when stop to think about it in my opinion.
Onto the next subject, I have been visiting the blog named Strictly Average on occasion to answer comments concerning two of my games that got a lot of coverage on 40k forums and blogs. I have already addressed my game with Nick Aad in the Ard Boyz semi finals played this past August so for now I'll simply leave it at that. Another game in which my character was called into question was against Adam Trike from Wyoming during a WC tournament held in Colorado Springs this past summer. Adam posted his battle reports from the tourney and went at great length to describe his game against me as simply his worst 40k experience ever. He lost because we played a fifth turn. There was less than ten minutes of regulation time left and he pleaded with the TO to play a fifth turn. He told me he just wanted to move some of his attack bikes and it would not affect the outcome of the game? Why play another turn? The TO said go ahead and play another turn. I killed his attack bikes and was able to take another objective for the win. If we had not played the fifth turn the game would have ended as a draw. During the game Adam used Dante's and Corbulo's powers to boost a unit of allied Grey Knights. This was clearly illegal as these two charcaters can only affect friendly Blood Angel units. Now Adam stated online that I cheated but here he was cheating himself. When questioned on it Adam stated that he was not aware he shouldn't have done that. So my question is how can we trust the statements from s person playing the same army when he himself does not thoroughly know the rules well? I was also told that Adam did not roll for the overcharged engines for his rhinos. This is hearsay but there it is. Adam denied this allegation. I'm not saying he did but it's worth noting. Adam also received the rock bottom worst scores of everyone there at that tournament for sportsmanship. Not good. My first game in that same tournament I spent a lot of time explaining the rules for Chaos daemons to a friend of Adam's that came to play. I could have played for the massacre but instead chose to play for a major victory instead so I could help my opponent learn his rules. Adam's friend described Adam as someone who is extremely competitive and ruins game play irregardless of whatever game it is they are playing. Adam got into a big argument at the end of the game prior to ours and I watched it all okay out. Adam kept arguing until the TO finally decided to roll a d6 to make the decision... He got the call and was able to win. Obviously thst colored my opinion of Adam and the same type of incident occurred during the end of our game but this time I got the call and won as a result. Adam said thst I was lying. I wasn't and I'll just leave it at that for now. I have buried the hatchet with Adam but that said I sure hope I don't ever have to play him again. All the things he said about me clearly applied to him. It's funny to me when a person cannot or will not see that they exhibit the same behaviour they are complaining about.
G
Onto the next subject, I have been visiting the blog named Strictly Average on occasion to answer comments concerning two of my games that got a lot of coverage on 40k forums and blogs. I have already addressed my game with Nick Aad in the Ard Boyz semi finals played this past August so for now I'll simply leave it at that. Another game in which my character was called into question was against Adam Trike from Wyoming during a WC tournament held in Colorado Springs this past summer. Adam posted his battle reports from the tourney and went at great length to describe his game against me as simply his worst 40k experience ever. He lost because we played a fifth turn. There was less than ten minutes of regulation time left and he pleaded with the TO to play a fifth turn. He told me he just wanted to move some of his attack bikes and it would not affect the outcome of the game? Why play another turn? The TO said go ahead and play another turn. I killed his attack bikes and was able to take another objective for the win. If we had not played the fifth turn the game would have ended as a draw. During the game Adam used Dante's and Corbulo's powers to boost a unit of allied Grey Knights. This was clearly illegal as these two charcaters can only affect friendly Blood Angel units. Now Adam stated online that I cheated but here he was cheating himself. When questioned on it Adam stated that he was not aware he shouldn't have done that. So my question is how can we trust the statements from s person playing the same army when he himself does not thoroughly know the rules well? I was also told that Adam did not roll for the overcharged engines for his rhinos. This is hearsay but there it is. Adam denied this allegation. I'm not saying he did but it's worth noting. Adam also received the rock bottom worst scores of everyone there at that tournament for sportsmanship. Not good. My first game in that same tournament I spent a lot of time explaining the rules for Chaos daemons to a friend of Adam's that came to play. I could have played for the massacre but instead chose to play for a major victory instead so I could help my opponent learn his rules. Adam's friend described Adam as someone who is extremely competitive and ruins game play irregardless of whatever game it is they are playing. Adam got into a big argument at the end of the game prior to ours and I watched it all okay out. Adam kept arguing until the TO finally decided to roll a d6 to make the decision... He got the call and was able to win. Obviously thst colored my opinion of Adam and the same type of incident occurred during the end of our game but this time I got the call and won as a result. Adam said thst I was lying. I wasn't and I'll just leave it at that for now. I have buried the hatchet with Adam but that said I sure hope I don't ever have to play him again. All the things he said about me clearly applied to him. It's funny to me when a person cannot or will not see that they exhibit the same behaviour they are complaining about.
G
Saturday, October 03, 2009
How I used to play Deathguard when CSM had a good codex
Chaos Lord/Daemonic Strength, Rune, Manreaper, terminator armor, sorceror w. Gift of Chaos, Nurgle's Rot
Chosen: 13x terminators/sorceror upgrade w. Gift of Chaos, 2x reaper autocannons, 4x power fist
7x Possessed/Mark of Nurgle, power fist
The rest of the army was large squads of Plague Bearers. The Possessed would start on the table alone with everything else in reserve. Only the Lord and Chosen had an icon so the daemons had to wait at least at additional turn until they arrived before they could be summoned. The strengths of the army was all T5 and all 5+ INV save. The Plague Bearers would come in huge hordes and swarm the enemy. I used this list in a cityfight campaign and ended up doing very well. There was a very good Dark Eldar player originally from Georgia and I smoked him when we finally played. The original cityfight had some interesting rules which made their way into 5th edition such as not being able to consolidate into a fresh combat and that really hurt the Dark Eldar. My daemons took down his Talos early on and by the end of the game it was all down to just my Lord and three spawns versus a squad of Warriors duking it out to control the central building. The agonized quickly cut through my spawn but the manreaper was the game winner. I never saw him again after that game.
G
Chosen: 13x terminators/sorceror upgrade w. Gift of Chaos, 2x reaper autocannons, 4x power fist
7x Possessed/Mark of Nurgle, power fist
The rest of the army was large squads of Plague Bearers. The Possessed would start on the table alone with everything else in reserve. Only the Lord and Chosen had an icon so the daemons had to wait at least at additional turn until they arrived before they could be summoned. The strengths of the army was all T5 and all 5+ INV save. The Plague Bearers would come in huge hordes and swarm the enemy. I used this list in a cityfight campaign and ended up doing very well. There was a very good Dark Eldar player originally from Georgia and I smoked him when we finally played. The original cityfight had some interesting rules which made their way into 5th edition such as not being able to consolidate into a fresh combat and that really hurt the Dark Eldar. My daemons took down his Talos early on and by the end of the game it was all down to just my Lord and three spawns versus a squad of Warriors duking it out to control the central building. The agonized quickly cut through my spawn but the manreaper was the game winner. I never saw him again after that game.
G
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
This is how it works...
All the moderators at Dakka Dakka are Gwar's bitches. Last night Frazzled locked down Gwar's SW FAQ thread in YMDC. Gwar then starts a post in General Discussion crying like a baby how unfair it was that Frazzled locked his thread. Yakface comes on and posts an apology to Gwar. The SW FAQ is unlocked and Gwar's crybaby thread is conviently deleted.
That's how it works.
G
That's how it works.
G
The truth about hte Ard Boyz semi finals
This is from Bruce's blog Strictly Average:
http://strictlyaverage.blogspot.com/2009/08/passing-along-passive-cheating.html
Apparently I have played Bruce in the past. The link above is his response to Nikk Aad's accusations that I cheated during our third round game in the 2009 Ard Boys semi finals at Tate's Gaming Satellite in south Florida. This is my reply on Bruce's blog:
Hi. I want to thank you for being objective about your review of the event. I chose not to speak much about it publicly at the time because I felt bad for Nikk that he came out and said he felt cheated. Some time had passed, the Ard Boyz is over and now I would like to clear up some issues surrounding the game and Nikk.
First Nikk never was a member of the Wrecking Crew (WC). He simply joined our forums and put WC in front of his username. Our club was large enough that everyone took it for granted that one of our leaders (Kenny Boucher and Marc Parker) had granted him membership. Nikk played this well and we fell for it. After the shit storm hit the fan with his post on the WC forums we did some research and found out that in fact Nikk was never approved as a member.
More about his character... as soon as the third round was over Nikk said he would not be able to afford the trip to Chicago for the finals. The TO immediately went looking for the person (Gabe Dobkins) who took 4th place to let him know he would be able to go. Nikk in the meantime was trying to sell his spot and when he learned that Gabe would get his spot suddenly Nikk said he would be able to go.
Nikk asked me during the game to see my codex. I was playing Blood Angels with Grey Knights as an allied troop choice so I asked him which one he would like to see and what was his question. He never answered me and after the game was over he stated he wanted to see the SM codex because he had a question regarding whether or not a combi melta benefits from Vulkan. He had gotten into a big argument with some other members of WC a week or two about this while playing with them in the Miami area. I thought this was very odd of him to ask during the game in which he stated I was slow playing.
About the accussations of slow playing... I had a terrible headache and there were no sideboards to place your army so I put mine on the closet counter at the store. It took time to pull out units when I disembarked them. Nikk was beside himself when I asked an employee if I could have an aspirin and a diet Coke. Nikk always took his time during his turns and then would stare at me and tell me to hurry up during my turns.
What bothers me the most is that Nikk never approached me to discuss these issues and posted about later that night on the WC forums. He said in his post that he did not want to go public but sure enough some asshat from my local area linked his post on the B&C and Dakka Dakka. I think Nikk is smart enough to know that his post on the WC forums would be highly visible. Stelek also posted it on his blog - I stand no chance there of having an opportunity to explain my point of view fairly.
Are any of Nikk's accusations true? What about his game play during the match. I had some issues with him such as rolling dice behind terrain where I could not see the results and not taking DT tests for his Oblits when they DSd into DT. I can say here that what he said is not true and I responded point by point on Dakka Dakka. I'm not going to go through that exercise again.
Publicly I have offered an olive branch to Stelek recently. I will see how it goes. I would like to develop a relationship with Stelek where I can have an adult conversation with him. I think the way he handled it when he posted Nikk's link was unfair. Stelek ripped me hard on his blog and stated that WC players were traveling to stores further away to avoid playing each other in the prelims and semis. I traveled to Tate's Gaming Satellite rather than play at Sci-Fi City (a store I don't like). There were no WC members at Sci-Fi City while there were four of us at Tate's.
http://strictlyaverage.blogspot.com/2009/08/passing-along-passive-cheating.html
Apparently I have played Bruce in the past. The link above is his response to Nikk Aad's accusations that I cheated during our third round game in the 2009 Ard Boys semi finals at Tate's Gaming Satellite in south Florida. This is my reply on Bruce's blog:
Hi. I want to thank you for being objective about your review of the event. I chose not to speak much about it publicly at the time because I felt bad for Nikk that he came out and said he felt cheated. Some time had passed, the Ard Boyz is over and now I would like to clear up some issues surrounding the game and Nikk.
First Nikk never was a member of the Wrecking Crew (WC). He simply joined our forums and put WC in front of his username. Our club was large enough that everyone took it for granted that one of our leaders (Kenny Boucher and Marc Parker) had granted him membership. Nikk played this well and we fell for it. After the shit storm hit the fan with his post on the WC forums we did some research and found out that in fact Nikk was never approved as a member.
More about his character... as soon as the third round was over Nikk said he would not be able to afford the trip to Chicago for the finals. The TO immediately went looking for the person (Gabe Dobkins) who took 4th place to let him know he would be able to go. Nikk in the meantime was trying to sell his spot and when he learned that Gabe would get his spot suddenly Nikk said he would be able to go.
Nikk asked me during the game to see my codex. I was playing Blood Angels with Grey Knights as an allied troop choice so I asked him which one he would like to see and what was his question. He never answered me and after the game was over he stated he wanted to see the SM codex because he had a question regarding whether or not a combi melta benefits from Vulkan. He had gotten into a big argument with some other members of WC a week or two about this while playing with them in the Miami area. I thought this was very odd of him to ask during the game in which he stated I was slow playing.
About the accussations of slow playing... I had a terrible headache and there were no sideboards to place your army so I put mine on the closet counter at the store. It took time to pull out units when I disembarked them. Nikk was beside himself when I asked an employee if I could have an aspirin and a diet Coke. Nikk always took his time during his turns and then would stare at me and tell me to hurry up during my turns.
What bothers me the most is that Nikk never approached me to discuss these issues and posted about later that night on the WC forums. He said in his post that he did not want to go public but sure enough some asshat from my local area linked his post on the B&C and Dakka Dakka. I think Nikk is smart enough to know that his post on the WC forums would be highly visible. Stelek also posted it on his blog - I stand no chance there of having an opportunity to explain my point of view fairly.
Are any of Nikk's accusations true? What about his game play during the match. I had some issues with him such as rolling dice behind terrain where I could not see the results and not taking DT tests for his Oblits when they DSd into DT. I can say here that what he said is not true and I responded point by point on Dakka Dakka. I'm not going to go through that exercise again.
Publicly I have offered an olive branch to Stelek recently. I will see how it goes. I would like to develop a relationship with Stelek where I can have an adult conversation with him. I think the way he handled it when he posted Nikk's link was unfair. Stelek ripped me hard on his blog and stated that WC players were traveling to stores further away to avoid playing each other in the prelims and semis. I traveled to Tate's Gaming Satellite rather than play at Sci-Fi City (a store I don't like). There were no WC members at Sci-Fi City while there were four of us at Tate's.
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