3rd DC army batrep * Tales of brave Urides - War with Dark Angels !!

The last game was versus a somewhat interesting Dark Angels army:

Belial, Master of the Deathwing
5x Deathwing terminator:
* pair of lightning claws
* assault cannon & power fist
* stormbolter, power fist & standard
* 2x (stormbolter & chainfist)
5x Deathwing terminator:
(same as above minus standard)

5x Deathwing terminator:

(same as above)

5x Deathwing terminator:

(same as above)

5x tactical Marine/flamer

5x tactical Marine/flamer

Landraider/extra armor

landraider Crusader/extra armor

DC army • 2nd batrep - Tales of brave Urides * Civil War !!

My next round was versus my very good friend Shane Brayla who hails from Daytona. We spent a lot of the day together talking and having fun hanging out. He is also a huge fan of Blood Angels and brought a more conventional jump infantry list:

Dante
The Sanguinor

2x Sanguinary Priest (jump packs)/power sword x2
Chaplain (jump pack)

Sanguinary Guard/Chapter Banner, infernus pistol & power fist
10x assault Marine (jump packs)/2x meltagun, power fist
10x assault Marine (jump packs)/2x meltagun, power fist

8x Devastator/4x lascannon

DC army - 1st batrep • Tales of brave Urides * Tyranid Assault !!

Here is a list of my opponents, their armies, and their final rank:

Dustin, Tyranids - 3rd Place
Shane, Blood Angels - 2nd Place (Best General)
Boyd, Dark Angels - 4th Place (Best Army/Paint)

So I did play the top players throughout the tourney. Shane regularly wins quite a few RTTs in central Florida too.

My general deployment was always to hold everything in reserve:
Astorath + DC + DC dread mounted in Stormraven (Unit #1)
Lemartes + DC + DC dread mounted in Stormraven (Unit #2)
Chaplain + DC (Unit #3)

Units 1 & 2 come in from my board edge while Unit 3 deepstrikes.

Tales of brave Urides • DC army batreps • RTT in Kissimmee, FL

Scored three massacres at an RTT today in Kissimmee, Florida. Still waiting to hear the results announced. Here is my 1850 point army list:

Astorath
5x DC Marine (jump packs)/2x power sword + power fist
Lemartes + 5x DC Marine (jump packs)/2x power sword + power fist + infernus pistol

Chaplain (jump pack)/infernus pistol
5x DC Marine (jump packs)/power fist

DC dreadnaught/Blood Talons + heavy flamer
DC dreadnaught/Blood Talons + heavy flamer

Stormraven/TL lascannon + TL multi-melta, extra armor
Stormraven/TL lascannon + TL multi-melta, extra armor

Batreps to follow

G

American Tournament Championship (ATC)

The 40k Wrecking Crew is currently working on the creation of an American Championship Tournament for clubs in the US, Canada and Mexico. If you belong to a club and are interested I recommend you follow this link:

American Championship Tourney

This will follow the same set of guidelines used by the ETC over in Europe.

Hidden Strength

Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look there.

Strength of Schedule (SoS) as a scoring rubric for competitive events

A local poster was kind enough to explain to me how to use SoS as a scoring rubric for competitive gaming. It's really quite simple. Basically you give each player bonus points based upon their competitors' wins. So for example suppose player A played against players B, D and F. Here are the W/L for his opponents:

B: 2W - 1L
D: 3W - 0L
F: 1W - 2L

Player A would score a total of 6 bonus points. You could use these bonus points as a tie breaker. Assume that the tournament is setup such that you can only win or lose each round (ala NOVA system component).

G

Don't drink hte blue koolaid...

So now in addition to some people telling us we should always use the INAT FAQ we now have a new crowd telling us we really need to adopt the NOVA system. Uggggh. Is saw this comment elsewhere on the Internet and have to agree with the sentiment:

My complaint is simple the media blitz is ridiculous. Every topic is defended with zealous by all his sycophants on the internet. The majority of which either have a blog or spend a good portion of their lives on internet forums posting. They are on every site talking about and defending their arguments.


I always say think for yourself like the lyric from the song by Tool about learning how to open your third eye. It just seems like these days there is a vocal minority bent on telling us how we should play 40k.


G

Bolter Beach II - It's Coming !!

I have spoken this week with my good buddy and partner Yuri - we are currently planning to run Bolter Beach II the last weekend of January 2011. We will be making some changes to the previous format borrowing some ideas from the good fellows over at BoLS and Mike Brandt of the NOVA Open. What you can expect are more great missions, another awesome team tournament and lots and lots of prize support again. I am going to try to get the event on the GW circuit so we can give out some more Golden Tickets to Las Vegas for the upcoming Throne of Skulls GT.

The sudden demise of Imperial Guard

Has anyone noticed that IG seemed to have lost a step? The army as a whole had a poor showing at both BoLScon and the recent NOVA Open. I used to hate to have to face IG across the table but now with my jump heavy BA army I am always looking forward to tearing them a new one. It seems like collectively we have finally figured out how to silence the big guns.

Thoughts ?

G

The Success that is NOVA Open

I would like to say here congratulations to Michael Brandt for his big success with NOVA Open. What a big hit for his first major event. I like all of his hard work and the level of detail he put into it. It sounds like everyone there had a fantastic time and I respect that a lot.

Peace !

G

Using Sanguinary Guard as a troop choice

This is another tactical article about Blood Angels. The base assumption is you will use Dante as an HQ so that you can field the Sanguinary Guard as a troop choice. There are plenty of Blood Angels players running several units and they are having some success. The Vanus Temple is a great blog to read if you are interested on using Sanguinary Guard as a troop choice and there are some good article there on how to paint them using very simple techniques. The author of the Vanus Temple is given credit with originating the idea of a full Sanguinary Guard army and was the first known to build one. Here is a link to the Vanus Temple:

http://www.the-vanus-temple.com/

This article focuses on using one squad of Sanguinary Guard as a retinue for commander Dante.

Vanguard veterans for Blood Angels • What they have to offer you as a competitive gamer

I have been running a squad of Vanguard veterans since BoLScon and they have been an ace for me. With the Descent of Angels (only scatter 1d6 instead of 2d6 plus you can reroll reserves for jump units) you have a unit that is very reliable at assaulting the turn they arrive via deepstrike due to their Heroic Intervention special rule.

Second article on army composition scoring

Okay so I will continue on some more about providing criteria to judge army composition.

NOTE - Nothing seems to steam people up like the subject of army composition. While some people like it others are adamantly against it.

New formula to measure success...

I came up with this idea after reading an article on Danny Internet's blog entitled Bald and Angry. As you will note the formula is devoid of factors such as sportsmanship and army composition. It is designed purely to determine which player was the best general and to a degree filters out winning the majority of your games versus n00bs.

I am an engineer by trade and have a very strong background in mathematics. Being an engineer is all about being practical. I often will derive equations to measure specific values and see how some process or piece of equipment is performing

So what if we were to derive some simple equations/formulas to rank players/armies? For example, consider the following one to determine the overall winner at a tournament:

A = {B*b + C*c}/N

where

A = normalized total score
a = 1st weighting factor
B = total number of won games; for example, 5 would be the highest possible for a five round tournament
b = 2nd weighting factor
C = strength of competition; this score would be based upon how well each of your opponents scored overall and you would only receive points towards this variable for the games you won
c = 2nd weighting factor
N = normalizing factor; basically you take everyones' overall score (A) and divide it by the maximum total score. This step is not necessary but it's an easy way to present the final scores so that the players can see where they ranked overall.

The two weighting factors (b & c) are there to adjust the overall weight of B (number of games won) versus C (strength of your opponents). For example you might want A to potentially count for twice as much as B.

This equation eliminates battle points, reflecting only your wins and strength of schedule, so theoretically it would be impossible for a player who won more games versus baby seals to win an event over another player would won more games versus tougher opponents.

G

Rules for army composition • CSM as 1st example now included

Hey guys !

I am going to be starting a new project soon where I'll be working on the developments of a set of rules to grade army composition. I'll first start off with a codex that was created for 5ed and is fairly simple. My first choice is to start with orks since they fit the bill. Another possible choice might be Chaos Space Marines or Chaos Daemons as these are both simple in my mind. I know you are probably thinking Orks and CSM were both released at the tail end of 4ed but I ask that you bare with me and see where I'm going. Something interesting is I will use the effectiveness of an army list as part of the evaluation process. Certainly a Gamer should be rewarded for that aspect.

Busy week

Wow this has been a very busy week so far and it's still only Tuesday. I have been helping my company run a school this week and finally meeting some of the people I email and talk to on the phone. It's been a lot of fun so far and also very time consuming. People have come from all around the world to attend... I was talking to a gentleman from Ghana who runs a hydro generator plant, a friend from Balboa and some engineers from the Philliphines. Tomorrow night I'll have to start packing for the trip up to DC to play in the NOVA Open. I get back home Monday afternoon and have to fly right back out to visit a customer in Alabama to conduct some more training. It has been pretty much non stop and has been a bit stressful but a lot of fun. I'm still tweaking my army list for NOVA so we shall see what comes from that.

Got to me Brent from Strictly Average last weekend and will be hooking up with some more friends this weekend for sure.

G

Last Mercy

Another day, another full seizure,
Another pill, you spiral down deeper,
Another cut by a surgical butcher,
It's just a way of prolonging the torture

I won't say I don't know what I'm doing,
I won't say that I'm sorry (I'm sorry)

I can't bring you back,
I can't leave you helpless (helpless),
I'll make the pain rest in peace (rest in peace)

I'll turn off the lights,
Swallow your last breath (last breath),
So close your eyes, fall asleep (close your eyes)

I'll never hurt you (hurt you),
I'll never hurt you (hurt you)

The sun shines on this deadly new morning,
The church bells ring an early warning,
Your eyes shine as I turn on the motor,
The tears fall as the mercy gets closer

I won't say I don't know what I'm doing,
I won't say that I'm sorry (I'm sorry)

I can't bring you back,
I can't leave you helpless (helpless),
I'll make the pain rest in peace (rest in peace)

I'll turn off the lights,
Swallow your last breath (last breath),
So close your eyes, fall asleep (close your eyes)

I'll never hurt you (hurt you),
I'll never hurt you (hurt you)

I can't bring you back,
I can't leave you helpless (helpless),
I'll make the pain rest in peace (rest in peace)

I'll turn off the lights,
Swallow your last breath (last breath),
So close your eyes, fall asleep (close your eyes)

I'll never hurt you (hurt you),
I'll never hurt you (hurt you)

2nd battle

2nd battle...

This time I'm up on the top table versus horde orks:

Warboss - power klaw
Big Mekk - KFF & power klaw

Snikrot & kommandos
15x Loota

30x shoota boyz - 3 rokkits, power klaw & boss pole
30x shoota boyz - same
30x shoota boyz - same
30x shoota boyz - same
Grots
Grots

3rd battle

3rd battle versus a classic Space Wolf army...

Very interesting mission - deployment is pitched battle and any non vehicle unit you get into the enemy half of the table scores you a battle point. You can also score some additional points by killing an enemy HQ selected by your opponent - I chose my Bloodthirster. Here was my opponent's abbreviated army list (very beautifully painted and modeled):

Rune Priest
Rune Priest
Wolf Priest - jump pack

• 5x Grey Hunter - meltagun, Wulfen, plasma pistol, w. WGL/combi melta & power fist; laserback
• 5x Grey Hunter - plasma gun, Wulfen, plasma pistol w. WGL/combi plasma & power fist; laserback
• 8x Grey Hunter/meltagun, Wulfen, plasma pistol w. WGL/plasma pistol & power fist; rhino {one Rune Priest here}
• 8x Grey Hunter/plasmagun, Wulfen, plasma pistol w. WGL/plasma pistol & power fist; rhino {one Rune Priest here}

9x Storm Claws - power fist & Wulfen

5x Long Fangs - 3x ML & 2x LC; bolterback
5x Long Fangs - 3x ML & 2x LC; bolterback
4x Long Fangs - 3x ML & LC

A very shooty SW army for sure and very tactical. It should be no problem for me to get lots of my units into his half of the table but I'll need to stop his rhino squads and possibly razorbacks he if decided to mount an armored rush to my side of the table.

This game I lose the roll and have to go first. I do get my preferred wave though finally...

Soul Grinder, Soul Grinder, Bloodletters

I decided to go with a small initial wave and see how my opponent was going to react, then my heavy hitters could come in and turn the tide. This turned out to be a very close game and I needed a win since I was the only player to win the first two games but did not get any points for the secondary objectives. So again I was on the top table and the TO moved us to a very nice tabletop from GW with ample terrain (but not too much either).

So both walkers land and I try to position them so they drop their pieplates but get cover from all the combined SW shooting. He had lots of firepower I would have to weather the first couple of turns so I knew it would be rough. The Bloodletters landed beside a building off to my far left keeping them out of harm's way. One of my walkers dropped a pieplate that hit all four Long Fangs but they made all their cover saves (drat !!). The second walker dropped his pieplate on a laserback and popped it. Not a great start but then again I was waiting to see what my opponent would do. The Space Wolves then countered with little movement and managed to destroy one of my walkers.

Second turn in comes the rest of my army and I roll a hit for each unit !! Big squad of Bloodletters land in temple close to the SW (they will be able to assault the next turn)... I pass all my dangerous terrain tests and they run up right on the edge of the temerity staring down the Space Wolves. Crushers land right in front of the SW gunline, they also will be able to assault next turn. I bring in Big Pappy and Junior over to my far left to run down a couple of rhino squads. My walker then fires another pieplate and this time kills a couple of Long Fangs but they hold. So now it's the SW turn - they will have to shoot as much as possible while they still have the majority of their guns. Most of the ranged shooting is targeted at Big Pappy but he manages to survive with one wound left. All the rapid fire goes into the big squad of Bloodletters and they are whittled down to half size then the Wolf Priest leads the Sky Claws on a charge into the survivors. Six Sky Claws are shredded and I lose three more lesser daemons.

3rd turn is obviously going to be a big turn as now all my heavy hitters are in position to charge. Crushers spread out to hit as many units as possible plus lend a claw to my Bloodletters engaged with the Wolf Priest & Sky Claws. They sally forth destroying a squad of Grey Hunters and two squads of exposed Long Fangs plus wipeout the Wolf Priest and last of the Sky Claws. Nicely done. Big Pappy and Junior tagteam a rhino squad over to my far left and explode it surrounding the survivors. SW answer back with the other two squads of Grey Hunters mounting up and making a forward run towards my half of the table with the pair of Rune Priests in tow. I won't be able to catch them as Big Pappy and Junior are on the opposite side of the table. So it ends up my opponent can get four separate units into my half (Grey Hunter x2 & Rune Priest x2) while I end up with five in his half (Big Pappy, Junior, both squads of Bloodletters and my Crushers). Note that my two Heralds split off to go after the embarked units tearing through the last squad of Long Fangs but were both eventually gunned down by rapid fire.

So like I said a very close game. I seal the deal with three wins, taking my second best overall with my KDA.

G

3 battles

Felt like shit this morning when I woke up, not really in the mood to play again right after BoLS but I heard some bird pecking at my bedroom window so I took it as a sign to go and play at a local RTT today.

The matchups were as follows - Chaos Space Marines, horde orks and then finally Space Wolves. I was happy not to have to play some other armies so I think Khorne was smiling upon me. Here is my abbreviated list:

Bloodthirster
Skulltaker/juggernaught
Herald of Khorne/juggernaught

6x Blood Crushers

8x Bloodletter
15x Bloodletter

Soul Grinder
Soul Grinder
Daemon Prince (Mark of Nurgle)

Some people crack on my list saying the Nurgle Prince is not fluffy but in my opinion with all the blood letting and rampant death there is a place for him, he is a gift to the army from Lord Nurgle and is a stoic attachment.

I felt I was very lucky to pull three T4 armies, two of which were MEQ. Both the horde orks and Space Wolves proved to be a challenge for me. The missions were a bit unique, well designed and fun to play.

My first opponent was playing Chaos Space Marines and fairly new to the game. We had a good time. The combination of invulnerable saves plus all the high initiative attacks that ignore armor saves were too much for them and I ended up with a major victory. Here was his abbreviated list:

Tzneetch Prince/wings & warp time

5x Chosen/2x meltagun - rhino
5x Chosen/2x meltagun - rhino

10x Chaos Space Marines/2x meltagun
10x Chaos Space Marines/2x meltagun
10x World Eaters/power fist

Landraider
2x Oblit
2x Oblit

I split my waves as follows:

Preferred: Bloodthirster, Daemon Prince,Heralds+Crushers, Soul Grinder
Secondary: Bloodletters, Bloodletters, Soul Grinder

The mission was spearhead deployment & two objectives. I placed my objective close to the center of the table between two pieces of terrain and my opponent placed his closer to his back corner. I won the roll and opted to go second but my secondary wave came in first. I dropped the Soul Grinder in front of my objective with both troops coming in on either side of my objective. My opponent held his two Chosen squads in reserve and castled the rest of his army. First turn saw the landraider carrying the World Eaters move forward 12" with the rest of his army moving up behind it; one squad of Chaos Space Marines held back sitting on his objective. Not much happened I his shooting phase with my first Soul Grinder shrugging off some stray lascannon shots.

Next turn the forces of CSM pushed forward again and destroyed my first Soul Grinder. I got in all my reserves placing the two Heralds and Blood Crushers beside his objective to move in and contest/destroy. Second Soul Grinder wasted a squad of CSM with a well placed pieplate.

Third turn it got a bit bloody with the Berzerkers charging my second Soul Grinder, immobilizing it and the Tzneetch prince assaulted my 8 man squad of Bloodletters. I countered charging the greater daemon into the landraider and destroyed it while my Nurgle Prince jumped on the Tzneetch prince and aet it. Crushers hit the CSM on his objective and aet them while Skulltaker split off and aet a squad of Oblits. I could not take both objectives and settled for a major win clearing off everything but one squad of Oblits and one squad of Chosen. I only lost the one Soul Grinder.

G

Can Landraider SPAM work for Blood Angels * Guest article by Paul Murphy

Paul is a good friend of mine and fellow member of 40k Wrecking Crew. Paul came in second place at BoLScon this past weekend, 2nd place at Bolter Beach back in June. Paul won best overall in a GW GT at Baltimore with Blood Angels.

Paul has great street cred as a competitive gamer so I asked him to write an article for my blog. Here is is.



Can Land Raider Spam work for the Blood Angels?

Spam of any kind can typically work. It ensures that you have the redundancy built into your list that if you lose a unit or two early in the game that your plans might not completely fall apart.

Unfortunately with a land raider list you only have a few units.

I think the reason that a LR spam list might work is the FAQ that gives the Shield of Sanguinius power the ability to work on vehicles. I believe that this was always the intent but the interwebz RAW people believed differently and there was much debate.

The list I put together is pretty simple.

Lib w/ shield and sword

Lib w/ shield and sword

Priest x 2

Assault Squad
10 man
MG x 2
Fist
Land Raider Crusader w/ multi melta

Assault Squad
10 man
MG x 2
Fist
Land Raider Crusader w/ multi melta

Assault Squad
10 man
MG x 2
Power Weapon
Land Raider Crusader w/ multi melta

Assault Squad
5 man
MG x 1
Land Raider Redeemer w/ multi melta

2000 points on the nose

The hurricane bolters are subtly strong. They can pretty much always fire due to being defensive weapons and punishing your opponent with tons and tons of str 4 shots isn’t bad either. The pure volume of fire will kill terminators and hordes alike.

The army does have a decent amount of mid range fire – being incredibly deadly at 24 inches.

You have one ‘throw away’ unit in the 5 man squad in the LR.

In some games you’ve got the potential to combat squad your 10 man units and then hide them behind your huge land raider profiles.

The Shield power gives your LR’s a 5+ cover save. That is hard to argue with since land raiders are so big that they rarely get one.

Melta is king in 5th. We know that. The other side of that is that there are a lot of people who are no longer taking the long range weapons, like las cannons, that can really damage some of these higher armor value vehicles.
The Crusaders can hang back and pick off enemy transports or soften up enemy infantry for your counter charge or surge forward and use their multi meltas to pop enemy hard target vehicles.

Once you get someone’s troops on the ground they are as good as dead.

What are the draw backs? Drop pods put a hurting on you. If you are playing a drop pod force then you want to go 2nd and keep your army in reserve.

I am not a fan of not starting with all my toys on the table but I am also not a fan of some jerk wad podding in right next to my expensive tanks and blowing them up with a cheap melta gunner.

Even with the Shield power it wouldn’t be worth risking it hoping you can roll a 5+.

There are some IG units that can really hurt too like the Medusa, Manticore and the Vanquisher.

One of these on the table is not worth putting everything in reserve but you definitely want to make it priority one to take these things out.

The original question was: Is land raider spam a viable list? I think so. It might be fun to play. Land Raiders have always been fun to play with but they are expensive point and money wise. At least with the BA you get a slight points break on them.

Day 2 batreps from BoLScon

= 2nd Day =

• 5th game versus Salamanders (player rating = 3)
Wow for some reason I am drawing a blank on this game. I guess being old and having to get up at the crack of dawn after a night of serious drinking will do that to you. What I do remember is my opponent's army was a classic Salamander list lead by Vulkan. All that twin linked melta is not that effective versus an army such as mine, seeing I had very little in the way of armor. His thunder termies with Vulkan in a Crusader got heavily toasted by Dante and his Corp of Sanguinary Guard then charged; the thunder termies were wiped out to the man before they could swing then Vulkan whiffed and ran off the table. I scored a major victory this round and it was good to a win under my belt for the start of the second day.

• 6th game versus Blood Angels (player rating = 3)
This was an interesting mission with one objective placed in the center of the table. You scored points toward the primary each turn you ended with a scoring unit on the objective uncontested during your opponent's turn. Here is my opponent's list:

Librarian/Might of Heroes & Unleash Rage, terminator armor & stormshield

Sanguinary Priest
6x assault terminator/3x pair of lightning claws & 3G thunderhammer & stormshield - landraider Crusader/pintle mounted multi-melta

5x assault Marine/meltagun - landraider redeemer/pintle mounted multi-melta
5x assault Marine/meltagun - landraider/pintle mounted multi-melta
10x assault Marine/2x flamer, hand flamer & power fist - landraider Crusader/pintle mounted multi-melta

This was another game wherein my dice were burning hot. My Stormraven wrecked three of my opponent's landraiders on glancing hits from either the Bloodstrike missiles or twin linked multi-melta. It was crazy. I knew I needed to massacre my opponent to win since he went first and had a scoring unit on the objective starting on the first turn. This was the game in which my Vanguard veterans scattered into a squad of assault Marines and mishapped. It was okay though since by then it was the 3rd turn and I wiped him out to the last Marine the following turn. So this game I scored full points moving up to table #7 for the seventh and final round.

• 7th game versus IG (player rating = 4)
The primary for this mission was the one where you place one objective in each deployment zone with Dawn of War. Massacre if you hold both objectives, minor win if you hold one and contest the other, draw if both players hold one objective and a big fat loss if you control neither objective. My opponent had a classic mech IG list:

CCS/MotF, 3x meltagun - chimera
CCS/Astropath, 3G plasmagun - chimera

Battle Psyker Squad - chimera

Several squads of vets - some mounted in chimeras & some riding in the Vendettas

3x Vendetta

2x Demolisher
2x Hydra

This game I felt I would have to play for a draw versus all that firepower placing my objective close to my table edge beside a building that was walled up, excellent for blocking off enemy LOS. This was the game in which I combat squadded by assault Marines attaching the Chaplain to one squad that would deepstrike; the other combat squad I placed behind the building close to the objective so they could make a run onto my objective on turn 6 (I got to go second). There was a big hill providing intervening terrain in the center of the table and my opponent placed his objective behind it. It was a bloody game for sure with both sides taking lots of causalities over the course. I kept the Sanguinor and the Furioso in the Stormraven and when it came in from reserve I parked my gunship beside my building blasting away at incoming chimeras. I sent commander Dante and his Sanguniary Guard out to contest the enemy objective along with the Vanguard veterans. They both blew up a chimera, killed some vets then were tormented to death. The rest of forces holed up around my objective fighting off wave after wave of incoming guardsmen. By the last turn all I had left was the Furioso and two assault Marines. There were two remnant squads of vets and one CCS holding my objective. The Furioso came out from behind the building dosing two squads of guardsmen with the heavy flamer then charged the remainder slicing them apart with it's Blood Talons. Only two guardsmen left for my two assault Marines to tackle and I would secure the draw. Bolt pistols fired, both missing then I charged in routing them and consolidated onto my objective. I didn't score any points for the secondary or tertiary nor any of the tactical bonuses. This opponent was quite cagey and played it very well using the strengths of his army to their best. The Sanguinor must have been tired out as he did squat this game and was torrented off the table by the Hydras.

So that was it. I had a great time and would recommend BoLScon to anyone. All the missions were well designed, great staff of TOs and some fantastic opponents.

G

Chaos Space Marine versus hte Plague Bunny

Blood Angels batreps following BoLScon

So I had the opportunity to play seven games this weekend. Here is my army list again:

- HQ-
The Sanguinor
Commander Dante

- Elites -
Chaplain/jump pack, infernus pistol
Sanguinary Priest/jump pack, infernus pistol, power sword
Furioso dreadnaught/extra armor, heavy flamer & Blood Talons

- Troops -
10x assault Marine (jump packs)/2x meltagun, thunderhammer & stormshield
5x Sanguinary Guard/Chapter banner, 2x infernus pistol, power fist

- Heavy Support -
Stormraven/extra armor, twin linked assault cannon & twin linked multi-melta

- Fast Attack -
6x Vanguard veteran (jump packs)/
* thunderhammer & stormshield (sergeant)
* lightning claw & stormshield
* lightning claw & stormshield
* lightning claw & stormshield
* power sword & infernus pistol
* bolt pistol & chainsword

I always opted to start the game with the Sanguinor and the Furioso embarked in the Stormraven. All units were always held in reserve with the Stormraven flying onto the table & all other units deepstriking. Typically I would join Dante and the Priest with the Sanguinary Guard while the chaplain would join the assault squad. Only once did I break the assault Marines into two combat squads. So basically all my units were fearless except for the Vanguard veterans... You can't use Heroic Intervention if a character is attached to the Vanguard veterans. The main purpose of the Vanguard veterans was to create discord for my opponent by assaulting an enemy unit out in the open. While they didn't always get their points back they did serve very well as a distraction and always destroyed at least one enemy unit except for the one game when they mishapped; there was also one game when they scattered outside of their charge arc. To me they did perform very well in 6 games out of 7 so I think they are an awesome unit and well worth their points. The one game when they scattered outside their charge arc they were able to survive a turn of heavy enemy shooting thanks to their stormshields then the next turn they were able to launch an assault.

Sanguinor's Blessing was always useful as my two sergeants were both armed with a thunderhammer and stormshield - the +1WS, +1W and +1A is a true blessing indeed! Dante's curse was also very helpful as well, dropping one enemy HQ by -1WS, -1W and -1A... This proved quite useful versus enemy Librarians as my opponents had to seriously consider taking a psychic test since one Perils of the Warp would suicide them.

The Sanguinary Guard were great at coming in from reserve, destroying a tank with their infernus pistols. They were also an excellent assault unit lead by Dante. They were also very good at holding an objective towards the endgame due to their 2+ armor save coupled with Feel No Pain due to the Priest. Dante could soak a couple of wounds as well to help keep them in the game.

So I was playing an army that could field a maximum up to three scoring units if I combat squadded by assault Marines:


Here is what I faced off against and the skill level I rank each opponent (1-5, 1 = newb, 3 = intermediate level, 5 = warmaster). Note that each mission had three objectives and the primary always was based upon holding the most objectives.

• 1st game vs. Blood Angels (rating of 1)
So I got lucky and played someone completely new to the game. It's important to rack up the massacres when you have the opportunity so I did. He was running the Sanguinor with six full assault squads. My army has lots and lots of weapons that ignore armor saves in close combat so it was fairly easy to rip through one to two assault squads per turn. I obviously used Dante's curse versus my opponent's Sanguinor which meant my Sanguinor was able to kill him in the first round of assault before my opponent's HQ could swing back. My Stormraven was pretty much untouchable as the only shooty weapons he had were meltaguns and my opponent opted to start with all his squads deployed on the table, so no opportunity to snipe my gunship with a deepstriking melta squad.

• 2nd game versus Blood Angels (rating of 3.5)
My second opponent was a good player with a list that scared me:

Librarian

Sanguinary Priest/power sword
Furioso dreadnaught/extra armor & Blood Talons

5x assault Marine/meltagun - razorback/twin linked assault cannon
5x assault Marine/meltagun - razorback/twin linked assault cannon
5x assault Marine/meltagun - razorback/twin linked assault cannon
10x assault Marine (sans jump packs)/2x meltagun, power fist & infernus pistol

Baal predator/flamestorm cannon

Dreadnaught/2x autocannon
Dreadnaught/2x autocannon
Stormraven/extra armor, twin linked lascannon & twin linked lascannon

My opponent was using the Blood Angels codex as a counts as Iron Warriors army and it looked really cool! He started off with the Librarian and Priest joined with the ten man assault squad embarked and Furioso in his Stormraven. He went first and opted to start off deployed in a castle with all his unit on the table. There were five objectives with the Spearhead deployment so I made sure to place my objectives outside of his table quarter so he could not spend the entire game sitting back shooting my units, which worked well since his mobile units quickly left his pair of rifleman dreads behind taking them effectively out of the game. My dice were burning hot this game which really helped a lot. My first task at hand was to destroy his Stormraven so I could stop the mobile assault from happening - my gunship came in from reserve moving 6" onto my table edge and I fired everything into his Stormraven, which had moved fast the previous turn. He blocked all of shots with his cover saves except for one from the multi-melta which glancing wrecked it. To top that off the next turn his Furioso charged my Vanguard veterans in cover, the VV sergeant had the Sanguinor's blessing so he was able to strike simultaneously with the raging dreadnaught and destroyed it. The blast radius was 6" and all three of his five man assault squads took several wounds, failed their armor saves then fled. I melta'd all his tanks the next turn while Dante and the Sanguinor along with my Sanguinary Guard ripped through his Librarian and ten man assault squad. My dice were definitely blessed that game and I felt very lucky to have come away with a major win against a very good player.

• 3rd game versus Space Wolves (rating of 3)
This opponent had a very unique list:

Logan Grimnar
Rune Priest
6x Wolfguard squads/meltagun*, 7x stormbolter*, 1 power sword*, 2x cyclone missile launcher & power fist**
* power armor, ** terminator armor

So basically 6 squad of ten Marines with Logan and the Rune Priest. That was a lot of Marines to handle. This game had 3 objectives with one on the middle and one in each neutral table quarter (Spearhead deployment). My opponent opted to go first. I was banking on my superior mobility to win this game but as it turned out we both ended up holding one objective so it was a draw. The turn I charged Logan with Dante and his Sanguinary Guard, Logan survived the initial onslaught with one wound remaining and was just able to kill all my Sanguinary Guard, then he bit it failing an armor save due to No Retreat. I look back on this game thinking I could have played it a little better foolishly losing a few units early in the game such as my Vanguard veterans and my Furioso. I still scored well overall taking points for the secondary and tertiary objectives plus half points for the primary. My opponent scored a couple more points for tactical bonuses so I slipped back a few tables while he remained on table #3 for the fourth game and was massacred by my buddy's IG. So probably it was a blessing in disguise that I dropped back a bit... Those are the breaks. Hee!

4th game versus eldar (rating of 4.5)
This was probably my favorite game of the event. I was playing Mike Watkins from Fort Collins, Colorado with his beautiful mechdar:

Eldrad
Avatar

10x Striking Scorpions/power fist
5x Fire Dragons/wave serpent
5x Fire Dragons/wave serpent

5x Dire Avengers/wave serpent
5x Dire Avengers/wave serpent
5x Dire Avengers/wave serpent
10x Dire Avengers/wave serpent

3x War Walkers

Wow only six wave serpents to deal with this game... Scary. This game the objective was whoever held the most pieces of terrain. There was no way I was going to split my assault Marines into combat squads with all that xenos ranged firepower! I knew the only way to win was to kill all his scoring units so that was my plan. I also wanted to make sure I killed the Avatar for a moral victory. The plan went well but not all the way. I was able to pop all of the Dire Avengers' transports and killed three of the four squads, plus the Scorpions and the Avatar. Unfortunately I wasn't able to reach the 10 man squad and Mike wisely straddled them across two pieces of terrain while my Sanguinary Guard could only claim one. My assault squad lead by my chaplain fought bravely versus the Scorpions and died to the last man. The Sanguinor came in strong though finishing off the last of the Scorpions then assassinated the Avatar before succumbing to torrent from the War Walkers. The last turn my Stormraven swooped in towards the last squad of Dire Avengers then was destroyed by eldar gunfire - the ensuing explosion killed four of the Avengers and they just passed their leadership test by a 9 on 9. It was just that close and a very exciting end to the first day.

More batreps to follow.

G

Thoughts on playtesting

Note - This article is primarily intended for tournament gamers.

So you want to build a new army to play at tournaments. First you study the codex then surf the web looking for some good tips. Finally you come up with a list you think will be competitive and that you would enjoy playing. It's very important to build an army that will enjoy playing. So now you are ready to start playtesting so you can weed out the bugs and tweak your list to maximum efficiency. I rarely ever play pickup games at my FLGSs so for me playtesting is about as close as I come to casual play and that is important as well. Maybe you have designed what you believe to be a well balanced army or maybe you went for an over the top list that is a close combat monster. One thing I have learned is that no matter what I first cook up I will find some problems the first time I actually play the list. That is just the way it is, especially more so when you are playing a codex you are not familiar with and have no real prior experience. A good example for me would be something like eldar or Tau as I have almost exclusively played Space Marines or Chaos Space Marines over the years. The less familiar you are with a new army the more time it will take to debug and get just right. Therefore, it's ideal to choose people to playtest that will help you. You are not going to gain much playtesting with people who are just looking for another win and not offer you any vital feedback. I recently did some playtesting with a guy that simply told me I needed to playtest more to figure out how to build a better list - that was it as far as any advice he had to offer.

What you really need when you playtest is someone who will both give you some challenging games as well as good advice how to improve your army. Your playtesting pal should be the kind of person that will remind you about your army's special rules during a game and help you learn how to play your army. People that simply want another win to notch on their belt aren't going to help you build a better army. It's also quite useful if you can find someone you trust that plays several different armies... Sure you can figure out how to build a list that beats the snot out of Thunderwolves but how will it perform against other top tier lists such as IG or battlewagon orks? You might find it useful if you can develop a circle of trusted friends so that you can playtest with different people. This will provide you with the opportunity to gain advice from different perspectives, which is the best.

You can always take your new creation to an actual tournament to see how it fares. This will present you with the opportunity to play in competitive games and learn under actual tournament conditions. I do this from time to time but I don't go into it expecting to win anything. So if you take this approach be prepared to lose, but you will definitely have an opportunity to learn from your mistakes in an unforgiving environment. I think some people this can work well but for others they might become disappointed and possibly decide to just drop the army altogether if they don't have the level of success they originally envisioned. I've actually seen this happen too. So ideally it's always best to playtest first as much as possible before you take your new army to a tournament but eventually you will finally take your army to a competition so be prepared. You might not win much at first but you are learning and that is what is most important.

G

BoLScon report

Here is my list (2000 points):

Commander Dante
The Sanguinor

Furioso dreadnaught/extra armor, Blood Talons, heavy flamer
Sanguinary Priest/infernus pistol & power sword, jump pack
Chaplain/infernus pistol, jump pack

Sanguinary Guard/Banner, 2x infernus pistol, power fist
10x assault Marine/2x meltagun, thunderhammer & stormshield

6x Vanguard Veteran/3x lightning claw & stormshield, bolt pistol & chainsword, infernus pistol & power weapon, thunderhammer & stormshield (sergeant)

Stormraven/extra armor, twin linked multi-melta & twin linked lascannon

This was the seven game GT with four games on Saturday and another three today. It was one heck of a tournament, in fact it was by far my favorite I have ever attended. The BoLS guys are awesome people. I believe there was over 150 playing in the GT and only the top 25 percent could make the cut into the upper bracket for the second day.

I have been agonizing over my list and ended up going with what I thought would be the most fun to play. My army ended up doing well overall and I quite happy with the results. Here is a synopsis of my games:

• 1st round versus Blood Angels
- my opponent is very new to the game so I had got the luck of the draw. He was running the Sanguinor with 6 full assault squads - 2x meltagun & power fist per unit. He didn't have any long ranged firepower so the Stormraven was pretty much untouchable. I mounted the Sanguinor and the dreadnaught in the Stormraven. I won this game by a massacre scoring full points.

• 2nd round versus Blood Angels
This opponent had a scary list - three squads of five assault Marines with meltagun in razorbacks with twin linked assault cannon, 10 assault Marines with two meltas & a powerfist, flamestorm Baal predator, Librarian, Priest, Stormraven, etc. I had some amazing luck with the dice this game as I was both undermanned and outgunned. I ended up with a major win.

• 3rd round versus Space Wolves
This was a very novel army - Logan Grimnar, Rune Priest, six squads of Wolfguard with storm bolters and two cyclone missile launchers per unit. I ended up with a draw this game.

• 4th round versus mechdar
Awesome opponent. He had four scoring units in serpents. I managed to kill three of them but his last scoring unit made it out alive conga lining to hold two objectives while my Sanguinary Guard only held one. Very smart player who probably had it all figured out before we rolled the first dice. Well at least I made him sweat a bit.

So that was the end of the first day - two wins, a draw and a loss. I had done well enough to make it into the championship round. Today I faced off against a Vulcan army (major win), Blood Angels yet again (massacre) and finally mech IG for a draw. I had some really hot dice until the last the last game so I can't complain about my luck. To be honest I am surprised I did as well as I did. It was a great time and I can't ever remember playing so many awesome people. I will definitely be back next year again.

Got to spend some quality time with Brent from Strictly Average... Good guy for sure. Also got to finally meet Tasty Taste, very surprised to discover he's not Asian.

G

Epic gaming moment at BoLScon • BA vs BA

Vanguard veteran gain the Red Thirst & their sergeant receives the Angel's Blessing from the Sanguinor. Vanguard veterans deep strike onto battlefield, assault and destroy squad of Honor Guard then consolidate into cover. Furioso with Blood Talons from enemy army moves into position to assault. Three squads of enemy assault Marines disembark to further surround Vanguard. Meltas, assault cannons and bolt pistols torrent Vanguard but they pass all their saves (friendly Priest in range to grant Feel No Pain. Vanguard destroy another squad of assault Marines who charge in with lightning claws and power weapon. Furioso charges the Vanguard sergeant and swings simo due to charging into terrain. Vanguard sergeant unleashes with three attacks, scoring two pens... Dreadnaught is destroyed on a 6 and ensuing explosion causes multiple wounds on the other enemy assault squads - they fail some saves and then fail their morale fleeing off the table. Vanguard sergeant is immersed in the aftermath of the destruction watching as the burning wreckage fills the air with the dead. Epic gaming moment.

G