WarGamesCon is next week - w00t !! (Austin, Texas)

Next week is WarGamesCon (WGC). My how fast this has slipped up on me !! Last year I brought my Blood Angels Descent of Angels army and this was my favorite event by far. This year I'll be bringing my Grey Knights Draigowing army. Some people have asked why I'm not bringing my dark eldar - the answer is simple... They are too much of a pain to transport. It would definitely be interesting to see how my dark eldar would fare at a large event such as WGC but I don't want to risk the army suffering any major damage while in flight. I've got the Sabol Armored Company hard case for all my skimmers and there is no way that is going to fit overhead on the plane.

So it's an all terminator list featuring Lord Kaldor Draigo, a Librarian, one squad of Paladins, one squad of Grey Knight terminators and a Landraider Crusader. If I don't break the two troops into combat squads that's only five killpoints and I think that would definitely make for some very interesting games. Last year WGC did not use killpoints as an objective though so I'll just have to wait and see what the good fellows from BoLS have in store for us players next week in terms of their missions. I've heard they'll have more and better terrain so that should help my army a bit.

I don't have any big expectations of placing high this year and the amount of play testing I've done in preparation is nothing near the number of games I played last year to sort all the kinks out of my DoA army. The army I most fear is none other than dark eldar as the dark kin can run circles around my army and all those dark matter weapons can quickly insta-gib my Paladins - it's kind of ironic to say the least. I am thinking there will be a good number of dark eldar armies there so I'll just have to take it on the chin... Such is life. ; )

So I'm going to Austin to have some fun games and spend time with the friends. I know some other member of my club (40kWC) will be bringing Grey Knights as well but their armies are a lot different than mine. My army is designed primarily to shoot as it's their greatest strength then end games with strong mėlee. It would have been nice if I could have play tested the army more but I had it painted on commission (by my good buddy Kenny Boucher of Next Level Painting in Colorado Springs, CO) so there wasn't much time to get ready. I pretty much know what the army can do so that will have to be good enough. Hopefully I can get in a couple games over the coming 4th of July weekend. It is definitely a beautiful army with lots of conversions and I'm really excited about seeing it in action on the tables. My army counts as the first company of the Knights of Blood... Yes I'm still a Son of Sanguinius at heart. xD

I'm playing in the 40k team tourney on Friday evening with a good friend and I'm very much looking forward to that as well as the 40k GT. I'll try my best to take good notes (maybe some pix as well but no promises there) so I can post some batreps here soon afterwards.

40k team tourney round 2 batrep (cont'd)

Pretty lame to not finish the second batrep - my apology! I had a long day yesterday and couldn't keep my eyes open to finish it.



Our two opponents in the second round were great - the game was a blast to play for sure. One of our opponents I seem to always play at every team tournament at Coliseum of Comics - he was the dark eldar player and had a very nice looking army.

I'm going to just write a synopsis for this report as well... It was one of those games where everything seemed to go right for us and everything went wrong for our opponents. Their outflanking units seemed to always come in one turn ahead of ours then we would get the free shots and charge right into assaults. Fire Warriors and Kroot don't stand much of a chance in close combat versus an evil Druchii and Wyches. One of the Crisis teams mishapped when they arrived and the other broke on a morale check the first time we shot at them then they ran off the board. The Duke and his squad of Warriors charged one of my squads of Warriors, lost combat by one wound then were swept... It was definitely one of those games.

The win put my team on one of the top tables and we found ourselves facing another team of Blood Angels and dark eldar - a true mirror match ! What made it interesting is our opponents were running DoA and WWP. These opponents were awesome as well. I'll post the batrep later tomorrow.

Round 2 40k batrep • Part I

This is the second batrep from the team tournament this past weekend in Kissimmee, Florida at Coliseum of Comics. My partner and I were playing Blood Angels and dark eldar. Our army lists are posted in the introductory article. The second round saw us facing the Tau Collective - that is Tau and dark eldar - our opponents' theme came from the new dark eldar codex - there was a point in time during the early Tau expansion when the dark eldar came to the Tau seeking an alliance under the dark guise as eldar... Those silly Tau can be so gullible at times. It was pretty funny... My partner and I had a good laugh. : )


Here are our opponents' army lists again to my best recollection...

Dark Eldar
The Duke (special character not mounted on a skyboard)

5x Warrior - blaster
Raider - flickerfield

5x Warrior - blaster
Venom - dual mounted splinter cannons

5x Warrior - blaster
Venom - dual mounted splinter cannons

Razorwing jetfighter - flickerfield
Razorwing jetfighter - flickerfield

Ravager - 3x dark lance & flickerfield


Tau
Shaso w. 3x Crisis Suit (rockets & plasma) + 2x shield drone

4x Crisis Suit (rockets & plasma)

10x Fire Warrior
10x Fire Warrior

5x Warrior
Devilfish

10x Kroot
10x Kroot

Hammerhead - railgun


Mission
Another interesting mission - each team had to pick eight of their units that counted as killpoints - one HQ and two Troop choices from each army automatically counted so really you were just picking one or two from each list along with the mandatory units.

We chose the following:

Archon, 2x Warriors, Reaver jetbikes, Librarian, 2x assault squad & Whirlwind


Our opponents chose the following:

Shaso & Crisis Suits, 2x Fire Warriors, Duke, 2x Warriors, Razorwing jetfighter


Note that transports for the selected units did not count towards the killpoints.

Also any unit held in normal reserve could outflank (I liked that one a lot).


Deployment
Dawn of War

Again we won the roll for deployment and chose to go first. I'd like to note that looking back I think it's actually a mistake to choose to go first in DoW as your opponent will have the opportunity to shoot more of your army than you will theirs during the first turn if they hold the majority of their army off the table and roll in collectively as a whole. Night fighting during the first turn kind of throws a monkey wrench into this strategy as you might not be able to spot anything. Still in the future I think I'll typically opt to go second from now on when the choice is mine.

I opted to hold the following two units of mine in normal reserve:

Reaver jetbikes & Ravager

Everything else in my army would fly in the first turn.

My partner opted to roll all his units onto the table the first turn. The Tau opted to fly on with his Hammerhead the first turn holding everything else in his army in normal reserve (Suits would deepstrike). The other dark eldar player opted to hold everything in normal reserve so he could outflank his entire army.

Our opponents were able to seize the initiative but it didn't make much of an actual difference game wise since my partner and I started the game with everything off the table.


Combat Drugs
I got +1S and my opponent got to roll 3d6 when moving through difficult terrain (that one is kind of crappy compared to all the rest).


Pre Game Analysis
Again our team was faster as a whole and had lots of long ranged guns (dark lances & lascannons) all which can move 12" and shoot. We figured that a lot of the enemy units would choose to outflank so our plan was to bring in the allied armada towards the center of our long board edge then later strategically fan out to deal with any enemy outflankers. We deployed in such a manner as to screen my skimmercraft, protecting them from long shots coming from the deep striking Suits and enemy fliers.


I'll have to finish this batrep tomorrow evening as I've had a long tiring day and am out of town... Up in Canada (eeeeh).

Round 1 40k team tourney batrep

So the first round was versus the ringer team playing Space Marines and eldar. Here are their army lists to the best of my recollection...





Space Marines
Chaplain - terminator armor

10x tactical Marine - missile launcher & meltagun
Razorback - twin linked heavy bolter

10x tactical Marine - missile launcher & meltagun
Rhino

5x terminator - assault cannon

5x Space Marine bike - heavy bolter

Landspeeder Typhoon

Predator - autocannon turret & heavy bolter sponsons


Eldar
Farseer - Runes of Witnessing & Fortune

4x Dire Avenger
Exarch - Shimmerfield
Wave Serpent - twin linked bright lance

4x Dire Avenger
Exarch - Shimmerfield
Wave Serpent - twin linked bright lance

4x Dire Avenger
Exarch - Shimmerfield
Wave Serpent - twin linked bright lance

Falcon

Fire Prism


Mission
The primary objective was as follows - there were four objectives, each placed in the center of a table quarter prior to the first turn. At the start of each turn each objective scattered 6+2d6" - if you rolled a HIT then that objective did not scatter and if an objective hit a table edge it came onto the opposite table edge the remaining distance. So for example suppose an objective was 7" from your own table edge and scattered back 15" - it would move off the table and come in on the opposite table edge 8". Whichever team controlled the most objectives at the end of the game won.

Deployment
Pitched Battle

My team won the roll for deployment and opted to go second. My partner deployed his entire army. I deployed everything except for the Reaver jetbikes. Our eldar opponent held most of his army in reserve while the Space Marines deployed everything except for the Chaplain and his terminators which were held in reserve and would deep strike.

Combat Drugs
Free Pain Token - My Archon had combat drugs so he and his Wyches started the game with two pain tokens (i.e., Feel No Pain & Furious Charge).


I'm not going to post a full batrep for this mission - instead I'll just post a synopsis for the game. I think the eldar holding the majority of their units in reserve gave us the upper hand as they had quite a few late arrivals which allowed us to focus on first destroying the Space Marine scoring units. The Archon and his Wyches quickly reached the tactical Marines and cut right through them putting the pressure on the eldar to hold objectives. Strangely enough one squad of Dire Avengers then proceeded to whittle down the Archon and the Wyches... Shimmerfield worked well for the blue Aspect Warriors - that was towards the end of the game though and the evil Druchii and his cohorts had done their share of damage. The Chaplain and terminators also arrived late as well so they didn't have as big of an impact as they could have. We focused our shooting on the eldar skimmers with lances and the Predator first preventing them from shooting much and over the course of the game we took most of them down. The scattering objectives kept things interesting and my Reavers were able to execute a late game turbo boost contesting one objective which secured the win for my team.

40k team tourney results • Introduction

I played in a team tourney this past weekend at Coliseum of Comics in Kissimmee, Florida. This is definitely one of my favorite places to play and its always worth the long drive. xD

My partner and I brought Blood Angels and dark eldar - our team was named Speed Kills... heh !


Army Lists
Here is my partner's 1000 point Blood Angels army list:

Librarian - Fear of Darkness & Shield of Sanguinius

5x assault Marine - flamer
Razorback - twin linked plasmagun|lascannon turret & dozer blades

5x assault Marine - flamer
Razorback - twin linked plasmagun|lascannon turret & dozer blades

5x assault Marine - flamer
Razorback - twin linked plasmagun|lascannon turret & dozer blades

5x assault Marine - meltagun
Rhino - extra armor

Whirlwind

Dreadnaught - 2x autocannon

Landspeeder - multi-melta & heavy flamer


Here is my 1000 point dark eldar army list:

Archon (Drachenfel) - blast pistol, haywire grenades, combat drugs & agonizer

9x Wych - haywire grenades & hydra gauntlets
Hekatrix - blast pistol & agonizer
Raider - flickerfield, show prow & grisly trophies

9x Warrior - splinter cannon & blaster
Syrabite - splinter pistol & venom blade
Raider - flickerfield

9x Warrior - splinter cannon & blaster
Syrabite - splinter pistol & venom blade
Raider - flickerfield

2x Reaver jetbike - melta lance
Arena Champion - agonize

Ravager - flickerfield & 3x dark lance


Missions
All three missions were designed by the one of the tournament organizers. They all had some special rules and were well designed. I'll describe each mission in detail in each batrep.


Opponents' Armies
The first round was versus the ringer team - Space Marines and eldar. The second round was versus the Tau Collective - Tau and dark eldar. The third and final round was versus an awesome pair of fellows also fielding Blood Angels and dark eldar - so basically a mirror match with a very interesting customized scenario. All of our opponents were great to play and I got to see some beautiful armies indeed ! I'll post up our opponents' army lists in each batrep.


Pre Tournament Analysis
My partner and I both felt that our combined speed would be powerful and this definitely turned out to be the case. A plethora of lightly armored vehicles that can all move 12" and fire a heavy weapon is powerful versus mechanized armies which is mostly what we faced off against each round plus with flickerfields and the Shield of Sanguinius across the board we had some fairly decent protection as well. Sure AV10|11 is fairly easy to pop but if we could shake|stun most of our opponents' mech that was not going to really be a problem. We only had one dedicated assault unit (my Archon and Wyches) so I would have to be careful with them and choose the right enemy units to engage... Typically my philosophy is to focus on destroying the opponent' scoring units first in melee.

Team tournament tomorrow

A buddy of mine and I will be traveling over towards central Florida to play in a team tournament, 1000 points per player. I spent the better part of the week assembling a new vehicle for my army... It was really complicated. I just have to prime it tonight and I'll be good to go. My team's theme is speed and lots of shooting - should be interesting to see how it plays out over the course of the day. The store usually packs them for their tournaments so this should be a good one indeed.

Take a guess at what armies we will bring. There should be some batreps.

For Brian

Marky got with Sharon
And Sharon got Cherese
She was sharing Sharon's outlook
On the topic of disease
Mikey had a facial scar
And Bobby was a racist
They were all in love with dyin'
They were doing it in Texas
Tommy played piano
Like a kid out in the rain
Then he lost his leg in Dallas
He was dancing with a train
They were all in love with dyin'
They were drinking from a fountain
That was pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain











I don't mind the sun sometimes
The images it shows
I can taste you on my lips
And smell you in my clothes
Cinnamon and sugary
And softly spoken lies
You never know just how you look
Through other people's eyes

Some will die in hot pursuit
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain

I don't mind the sun sometimes
The images it shows
I can taste you on my lips
And smell you in my clothes
Cinnamon and sugary
And softly spoken lies
You never know just how you look
Through other people's eyes

(In Reverse: 
I don't mind the sun sometimes
The images it shows
You never know just how you look
Through other people's eyes)

Another Mikey took a knife
While arguing in traffic
Flipper died a natural death
He caught a nasty virus
Then there was the ever-present
Football player rapist
They were all in love with dyin'
They were doing it in Texas
Pauly caught a bullet
But it only hit his leg
Well it should have been a better shot
He got him in the head
They were all in love with dyin'
They were drinking from a fountain
That was pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain

I don't mind the sun sometimes
The images it shows
I can taste you on my lips
And smell you in my clothes
Cinnamon and sugary
And softly spoken lies
You never know just how you look
Through other people's eyes

BeakyCon Missions Format § Overall Scóring Formàt

Hi y'all

I am going to post my proposed missions format for the GT. Feel free to let me know what you think as I'm open to any good suggestions. Note that my system is based upon how other tournament organizers are running their GTs such as Adepticon, NOVA and WarGamesCon (formerly known as BoLScon).


MISSIONS FORMAT § OVERALL SCORING SYSTEM

Win|Loss System
There are no ties - you either win or lose each round. There will enough rounds played so at the end of the second day there is one player who is undefeated and is crowned the Warmaster (i.e., Best General).

Multiple Objectives
Each mission will have three objectives. Whichever player wins the most objectives in a mission wins the game. Two objectives for each mission will come from the main rulebook (i.e., Capture & Control, Seize Ground and Annihilation). The third objective will be something different such as table quarters or have the most scoring units in your opponent's deployment zone. So for example if one player takes one of the objectives and the other two objectives are drawn then that player wins the game. If both players draw on the three objectives then the tie breaker goes to pure victory points - that is whichever player has the most victory points wins the game.

At the start of the tournament you'll be given two red Beaky poker chips to use as objective markers for Seize Ground and one black Beaky poker chip to use as an objective marker for Capture and Control. You'll also be given some Beaky dice. These are for you to keep as mementos from the GT.

Deployment
Deployment comes from the main rulebook - Dawn of War, Pitched Battle or Spearhead. We might also use the old Cleanse deployment from 4th edition as well (i.e., diagonal lines across the table).

Number of Turns per Round
There will be six turns per round - no random game length. Each round is 2.5 hours long. You will be notified when there are 30 minutes left to play. Don't start a turn both players can't finish.

Overall Battle Points Scoring
Each round you will record if you won or lost and how many objectives you took. The total number of objectives scored over the course of the tournament is to track how well you did overall and place players from 2nd to last place for battle points.

You will also record how many turns you were able to play each round.

Pairings
Pairings are random the first round and you can submit a list of your friends you came with so you don't have to play them during the first round (no more than up to five friends can be submitted). Pairings will be based on the Swiss system after the first round. For example if you are 3 - 0 after the first three rounds then you'll play someone else with three wins in the fourth round. That is, you'll always play someone else with the same record (wins and losses) each round after the first round.

Army Composition
There is no composition so you can design your army however you wish with no penalties or restrictions. You do have to follow the guidelines for the standard force organization chart (FOC) in the main rulebook.

Sportsmanship
I'm still working on how this will be scored. I like this system:

1) Did your opponent arrive at least five minutes early to the table for your game? (1 pt)
2) Did your opponent provide you with their army list (legible and simple to understand) prior to the roll for deployment? (1 pt)?
3) Did your opponent bring their own dice, measuring tape and templates? (1 pt)
4) Did your opponent work with you in a friendly manner to resolve any disputes of the rules? (1 pt)
5) Did your opponent play the game in timely fashion? (1 pt)

You will also be asked at the end of the tournament who was your most favorite opponent - this will be used for tie breakers if necessary to decide who wins the Best Sportsmanship award.

Battle Points versus Soft Scores
Battle points and soft scores are separated:

• The Best General award is based solely upon battle points.
• The Player's Choice award is based solely upon votes from players for their favorite army.
• The Best Army award is based solely upon a set of criteria scored by a panel of judges.
• The Best Sportsmanship award is based solely upon the players' scoring of their opponents.

Question
Should there be an award for the Best Overall player? This would be awarded to whomever scored highest collectively for battle points, army appearance and sportsmanship. If there is enough feedback to support this award then it will be added as a fifth and the top award.

Note
Any player cannot win more than one award total.


That's it for now - please let me know what you think.

G

New Sponsor for BeakyCon • Battlefoam

I just found out this afternoon that Battlefoam will be sponsoring BeakyCon.

: )

My 2000 point dark eldar list and why it works for me

I am a long time Space Marine player... I know... boo hiss... heh!

Over the course of my time in the hobby I have played all of the following armies:

Imperial
Blood Angels (3ed, 4ed & 5ed)
Dark Angels (3ed incl. Deathwing & Ravenwing)
Grey Knights (3ed - as allies)
Space Wolves (3ed & 13th Company)
Ultramarines (4ed)

Chaos Space Marines
Black Legion (3ed & 4ed)
Deathguard (4ed)
Emperor's Children (4ed)
Thousand Sons (used the Lost and the Damned rules)
World Eaters

Miscellaneous
Chaos Daemons (5ed)
Dark Eldar (5ed)
Sisters of Battle (3ed - as allies)

I also have experimented with Necrons and Orks but never owned an army for either race. So I see the world of 40k mainly from the point of view of a Space Marine, that is I learned the strengths and weaknesses of other races while fighting them with my Space Marines.

It is often said that Space Marines are a jack of all trades and master of none but I think that's untrue. For instance Blood Angels excel at melee and can beat armies such as Tyranids simply by out slugging them over the course of swift and intense protracted assaults. What is true is that generally speaking Space Marines have access to solid units for just about every aspect of the game. To me their best attributes are ATSKNF, T4, 3+ Sv, WS4|BS4 and the ever ubiquitous bolter. Assault is my favorite phase of the game but it's important to incorporate other elements into your armies and this brings me to the subject of this article... dark eldar. Some friends encouraged me to give them a try when the new codex was released so on a whim I picked them up for something different. I expected to have to undergo a long and steep learning curve but it turned out not to be the case and I even won my first game, which was versus Space Wolves.

The main strengths of dark eldar are speed, firepower and awesome melee. People love to say a stiff breeze will knock them over but it's not true anymore at all especially now that dark eldar have access to pain tokens. Once a unit of T3 dark eldar have gained FNP they can stand up to some shooting if they are in cover. I'm a big fan of wargear - at first I used options only very sparely when designing my lists such as flickerfield for all my skimmers but over time I started to add in more options such as haywire grenades, agonizers and blast pistols.

Of course there has to be a balance between taking options versus fielding more units. Some people love to min|max their dark eldar fielding the race as an MSU style army and it's very easy to do - especially with the introduction of the new venom. I've seen my share of lists that feature lots of five man Warrior squads with a blaster each riding in venoms with dual mounted splinter cannons plus three man squads of Trueborn with blasters riding in venoms as well and of course the mandatory three ravagers all armed with dark lances. I'm not here to say that's a bad approach but in all honesty I think there are better ways indeed. Remember the following:

• Splinter (poisoned) weapons are harmless versus armor, and
• Blasters/dark lances are not so good at killing lots of infantry

So a smart player should try to create a mismatch versus dark eldar as follows - give the splinter weapons nothing to shoot at except for armor and force the dark eldar player to shoot at their infantry with blasters and dark lances. It sounds simple enough but may require some practice to perfect.

Here is my most current 2000 point list:

HQ
Vect
Succubus - blast pistol, agonizer and haywire grenades

Elites
4x Incubi incl. Klaivex - demiklaives
Venom - dual splinter cannons & grissly trophies (flickerfield is built into the base cost)

9x Trueborn incl. Drachon - 3x blaster, splinter cannon, 5x shard carbine; agonizer & blast pistol
Raider- flickerfield

Troops
9x Wych incl. Hekatrix - haywire grenades, hydra gauntlets; agonizer & blast pistol
Raider - show prow, enhanced aethersails & tormentor grenade launcher

10x Warror incl. Syrabite - splinter cannon & blaster; venom blade & splinter pistol
Raider - flickerfield

10x Warror incl. Syrabite - splinter cannon & blaster; venom blade & splinter pistol
Raider - flickerfield

Fast Attack
6x Reaver jetbike incl. Arena Champion - 2x melta lance; agonizer

Heavy Support
Voidraven - flickerfield
Ravager - 3x disintegrator & flickerfield


Unit Analysis & Army Breakdown

Kabalite Units - Trueborn & Warriors
This is my main firebase and is there for mainly anti infantry. Each squad of Warriors can generate up to 19 poisoned shots per turn. If I were to focus both units on one target that totals 38 shots. Seeing that they are poisoned (always wounds on 4+) they can demolish a squad of Thunderwolves with no problem. These units also do quite well in melee versus guardsmen... They're not going to beat down a squad of Marines in a fist fight but they can cut right through the scrubs of 40k and I think that's worth remembering.

Trueborn are the Sternguard equivalent of dark eldar with their vast arsenal of guns to choose from their armory. I prefer a mix of blasters and poisoned weapons so that they are a real threat to any enemy unit. The splinter cannon can lay down four shots on the move (assault mode) while the shard carbines can lay down 3 shots apiece up to 18" range and are assault weapons as well. So that's 15 poisoned shots at 1.5 times the rapid fire range of a splinter rifle plus four blast weapons. Trueborn have 2 base attacks and are I5 just like the Warriors so they can put up a decent fist fight say versus a Space Marine combat squad. I use mine primarily for shooting just as they are intended but I wouldn't hesitate to charge them into a squad of depleted Tactical Marines following a solid round of shooting to root the enemy off an objective and finish them. The Drachon has an agonizer just for that reason and she's taken her fair share of enemy skulls in melee. Trueborn are definitely one of my favorite units... Period.

Melee - Vect|Incubi & Succubus|Wyches
Vect and his Incubi are street fighters bar none. The Incubi are basically ablative wounds for Vect plus they are very nasty in close combat as well. Basically you want to limit the number of saves Vect has to take on his shadowfield... once it's gone it's gone for good. It's very easy to hide the venom and the unit has a large charge arc (up to 26" if you roll a 6 for fleet). While the Succubus and her Wyches are an excellent and often underrated melee unit Vect is the real deal and makes a fine addition to any army at 1850 points or more.

Players tend to greatly underestimate the strength of wyches - they can fight just about any enemy unit and often come out on top. I've got two agonizers and two blast pistols in my combined unit plus hydra gauntlets... That's a lot of high speed hitting power. Like I said they are underestimated by many. Mine have gone right through the flank of a Tyranid army that included a Mawloc, two squads of genestealers and a brood of gaunts. I'd say that's fairly impressive indeed.

Tank Busting - Voidraven & Reavers
My Voidraven and Reavers are there for when I need an enemy tank to die. They can both nuke AV14. The Voidraven is another unit that is often underrated - in fact I'll go so far as to say I am the only person I know of that uses one. Sure a Ravager is cheaper and has three shots as opposed to two but when you compare a S9 lance to S8 you'll find that basically this is the dark eldar equivalent of a lascannon plus it's a lance as well. A game can hinge on destroying one big enemy tank and that is why I run both of these units. If one doesn't get you then the other will. It's important to have some redundancy built into your army. The Voidraven also comes with the void mine... it might not last long enough to ever drop the mine but when it does it's really nasty (S9 AP2 small blast). If you are sneaky you can drop the mine such that the center is over an enemy tank and the outer part of the blast circle covers some enemy troopers trying to hide behind their tank. The Voidraven can move up to 36" flat out so not much can hide from it.

My Reavers are primarily intended for popping enemy tanks with their melta lances but they are not bad at shooting enemy infantry if you find yourself in a tight spot. They are T4, 2 attacks base and I6 plus have combat drugs so you can throw them into an assault if things are getting really desparate and that is why my Arena Champion has an agonizer. I don't want them in an assault unless it's absolutely necessary. They can actually do some decent damage versus genestealers if they have FNP (shoot first then charge of course).

Killer of the Elite - Ravager
I have learned from experience that sometimes it pays to have one unit that is good at killing terminators and that is the primary purpose of my Ravager, as such it's armed with three disintegrator cannons. Sure it's pretty darn good at shooting just about any infantry unit but when you need to kill some terminators in a hurry look no further.





Conclusion
So can you see any apparent parallels between my army and Space Marines? I'm curious.

Dark eldar No no #1

I am really enjoying dark eldar but often I make the same mistake early in games and that is ramming vehicles with S10 attacks with my wyches' raider (shock prow). It is always a temptation because it's there but most often it's just not worth it. Invariably the raider is destroyed along with most of the Wyches. My advice is just tank shock enemy infantry and take the tormentor grenade launcher for enemy -1 leadership. I've learned to put Vect in a venom with four Incubi and it's working for me.

Pitfalls of Net Lists * Part 2

Okay this is my second article on net lists. I'm going to call out some of the more popular ones and cover their pros and cons individually.







Nob Bikers
You've got two warbosses on bikes each armed with a power klaw and each warboss has a squad of 9 - 10 nob bikers including a painboy. The nobs typically have 3 - 4 power klaws and the painboy has its 'urty syringe. Both squads of nob bikers count as troops. Typically there are 1 - 2 boss poles in each squad. Nob bikers always have a 4++ cover save due to their war bikes, they've got the 3++ cover save whenever they turbo boost plus they've got FNP from the painboy as well. This was one of the first true deathstar units to pop up during the advent of 5th edition - fast, shooty (twin linked dakka gunz) plus they hit like a ton of bricks in close combat. Nob bikers were also one of the first deathstars to feature an entire multi-wound unit with fully complex wound allocations as you can equip each nob with unique options such as kombi guns. Nob bikers were the brainchild of a group of gamers that wanted to design an army so that a noob they played with could finally win some games... Little did they know they had created a virtual monster. The cries of cheesy cheese were rampant around the interwebz when word got out. Nob biker armies were wrecking lots and lots of face. It was hard enough to kill one squad and on top of that you had to kill two of them to win.

The Sudden Demise of Nob Bikers
The new release of Imperial Guard brought the Psyker Battle Squad (PBS) - score enough wounds to force a morale check then hit them with the PBS Weaken Resolve psychic power - those nob bikers are going to run away like little girls and with an army like IG it shouldn't be much of a problem to force that morale test from shooting. Overnight nob bikers went by the wayside just like that... In fact you rarely ever see them any more. By the time Adepticon had rolled around other players had figured out how to affectively counter this army.


Battlewagon Orks
This list features Ghaz in a battlewagon with a squad of nobs, a Big Mekk with KFF, some Boyz in battlewagons, a large squad of burnaz in another battlewagon, plus maybe some Trukkz filled with more Boyz and a couple squads of grots to come in from reserve and take objectives in their deployment zone. The battlewagons ride together side by side for protection from the KFF (4++ cover save). The advent of deffrollaz being able to ram enemy vehicles made this net list an overnight sensation. This army though often relies upon going first to win and has no mechanism to increase those odds which is an inherent weakness when it comes to competitive play. I could be wrong but I don't remember this army winning any major events. This is one of the weaker net lists in my opinion as it has serious problems versus other net lists such as Leafblower and razorspam... So while it had it's hey day it never really peaked like other net lists mentioned here. Orks in general still can place high (2nd or 3rd) but they just don't seem to bringing home the gold anymore. They have slipped towards the top of the 2nd tier in my opinion - players no longer build their lists to counter orks so they still measure some degree of success albeit no longer at the top of the heap.


Fateweaver|Crusher Spam
Here you've got Kairos surrounded by up to three full squads of Blood Crushers. This was the first army to coincide with the advent of 5th edition and feature multi-wound units with complex wound allocations. Kairos would stay close by so that the Blood Crushers could all reroll any failed saves. This army won an Ard Boyz finals a few years ago... Some shenanigans were reported - you can look elsewhere about those details. Again another totally brutal army that brought about many cries of cheesy cheese again.

The Sudden Demise of Fateweaver|Crusher Span
Again the unit of PBS from the IG codex saw an end to the reign of this monster army list... Shoot up Kairos then hit the daemon with Weaken Resolve and the little bitch ran right back to the warp just like that.


Lash Spam
As far as I know this was the first of the more popular net lists in 5th edition. While the new Chaos Space Marine codex was released towards the tail end of 4th edition this army saw a lot of play during the early phase of 5th edition. Basically you've got two winged lash princes, Deathguard in rhinos with dual meltaguns plus three full squads of Oblierators. Some Chaos players use Berzerkers instead of Plague Marines. A very simple army to play plus it's still actually a competitive list (see my comments below)... This army still can destroy opponents with no psyfense or heavy mech.

Lash spam is an interesting net list... As mech became the king of 40k this list waned in the power level as lash is ineffective versus embarked squads. Players also started to add some psyfense which also hurt lash spam... The army quietly disappeared from the competitive scene. So players forgot about this old net list and then I saw it start to re emerge and it's performing quiet well in the right environments.


Leafblower
Here is another net list that won an Ard Boyz final not once but twice. If this army went first you're in for a rough ride. This became a heavily copied net list after the first Ard Boyz win.

Slow Demise of the Leafblower
IG has finally lost access to the Inquisitor|Mystic so they no longer have any psyfense and lost their best counter to deepstriking armies - a Blood Angels DoA army loaded with ample melta weaponry can slag the parking lot. Grey Knights are also well equipped to manhandle this army.


Space Wolf Razorspam
Here you've got lots of five man Grey Hunter squads riding in razorbacks, three squads of Long Fangs with razorbacks plus dreadnaughts. This army can lay down a withering amount of high strength firepower and can be a nightmare for other mechanized armies. This is a textbook MSU army. I won't say this army has fallen from the top yet but I think any mechanized list with lots of AV11 chassis is prone to an enemy alpha strike. I've fought a couple of these lists with my dark eldar and blasted them right off the table.


Deathwing
The release of the revised FAQ that gave Dark Angels access to the 3++ stormshield and two shot cyclone missile launcher saw the overnight birth of the Deathwing net list. The Deathwing net list is fairly new as compared to the others mentioned here. You can easily be looking across the table at 40 or more Deathwing terminators. Each squad is all equipped with thunderhammers and stormshields plus the cyclone missile launcher. It's an entire army with 2+/3++ fearless scoring units. Some players take a couple of Ravenwing biker squads for melta weapons and teleport homers. This is a very tough army to face off against unless you've got all the right tools.


Other Net Lists and Trends
I don't think net lists will go by the wayside any time soon but there has been a recent trend by GW to release balanced codices so maybe they won't be quite as prevalent at tournaments. That said certainly there are others and more will continue to crop up... For example dark eldar lends itself well to spamming MSU with their Warriors and Trueborn riding in venoms with dual mounted splinter cannons. Grey Knights can spam psycannons and psyflemen dreadnaughts. 6th edition should release within the next year and that will throw a monkey wrench into the proverbial machine. I don't fear net lists as I know how to counter them by building my armies accordingly. In fact I usually beat them.

What kills a game...

There is some local talk about where is GW gaming systems and this little gem popped up and I thought I would share it here...





















> If I may add to the conversation, I also have some opinions on the waning of fantasy.
> 
> Now, I'm not a hardcore Fantasy veteran dating way back. In fact, I
> played some 40k when I was young, jumped back into it a decade or so
> later. I always thought Fantasy looked amazing, and the armies were
> really evocative, so I jumped into 7th Edition with arms outstretched. I
> even bought the hardcover book with the limited edition tote bag and
> all. 
> 
> Unfortunately I jumped into fantasy with Ogres at a time when learning
> to play with Ogres was like learning about sex by putting on a gimp
> outfit and walking into a fetish club. So I got creamed, over and over
> again, and did all that I could to learn how to play the game. But it
> as a chore. I found Warhamer 7th horrendously fiddly, and some of the
> rules seemed inane. For example, to my noob eyes, the whole "guess
> range" of artillery seemed like a rule to allow experienced players to
> snipe whatever they wanted while making new players flounder all the
> time. Yeah, I get that the battle boards delineate everything into a
> grid nicely, but some of us aren't as great at math. I also thought it
> silly how one guy will come up to my battle line, kill five people, and
> thirty others would stand there slack-jawed, maybe too intimidated to
> do anything but wait until next turn, when they coul get killed again.
> The examples are endless.
> 
> Anyway, when 8th was in the horizon and I read about how they were
> revamping the system, I was excited. Preordered my book and started
> building a new army.
> 
> Here we are, and 8th has been out for a while. And while people still
> play it, the population has dwindled. It's just not doing good. Why?
> 
> Here's what I see down here:
> 
> 1. Veterans will not stop complaining about the new rules. Like,
> nonstop. I'm not saying that they don't have merit in some of their
> complaints, but sometimes I wonder if the game moved on and they just
> don't want to adjust. Instead of talking about what changed and how
> they can adapt their army to it, they complain about how it doesn't
> work anymore.
> 
> Do you know how hard it is to get people to try a game when the players won't stop complaining? 
> 
> 2. People keep complaining about how all the tactics are gone and the
> game is too easy and cheap to win. Yet somehow in 7th no one had any
> complaints about how their Dark Elves or Demons gang raped Ogres
> consistently. Winning seems to be a problem when they're not the ones
> doing it.
> 
> 3. They complain about how things are overpowered. Yet they can't stop
> talking about the brutal killer combos they have in their own lists.
> 
> 4. Comp. The veterans decide that since they knew 7th so well, it gives
> them the authority to rewrite 8th into 7.5 to fit their vision. This
> one really gets me. From being told that I can't use certain units in
> my army just because, to completely arbitrary shit like "Empire are
> not allowed to field gunlines unless they're painted as Nuln" and comp
> scoring questions such as "Does your opponent's army look like an
> army?" (as opposed to what, an aborted fetus? And yes, both of these
> are comp questions that have shown up here in Miami). For every comp
> rule added to nerf one army, another gets a boost, it all just reeks of
> perception and amateur game design.
> 
> This one really alienates players. Who wants to paint regiment after regiment to field some other guy's dream army?
> 
> 5, Elitism. I'm tired of hearing about how 40k is simplistic, a dice
> fest, etc. Talk to me about what's good in fantasy, not about what's
> bad in everything else. It's like voting for a politician based on
> nothing but smear campaigns.
> 
> So these are some of the things I've seen. 8th may have made a lot of
> missteps, but you know what? I don't know that. I can't see the game
> past the bullshit. I haven't even finished assembling my army. It's
> hard to get excited about a game past the negativity of the fan base.
> How do you convince me or any other noob to try a game, when all we
> hear is how good it used to be and how it sucks now? I'm not advocating
> fanboyism, but some balance in the gaming world would be nice. 
> 
> Again, this is just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Nice shot...

I wish I would've met you

Now it's a little late

What you could've taught me

I could've saved some face

They think that your early ending

Was all wrong

For the most part, they're right

But look how they all got strong

That's why I say

Hey man nice shot

What a good shot man

That's why I say

Hey man nice shot

What a good shot man

A man has gun

Hey man, have fun

Nice shot

Now that the smoke's gone

And the air is all clear

Those who were right there

Got a new kind of fear

You'd fight and you were right

But they were just too strong

They'd stick it in your face

And let you smell

What they consider wrong

That's why I say

Hey man nice shot

What a good shot man

That's why I say

Hey man nice shot

What a good shot man

A man has gun

Hey man, have fun

Nice shot

A man has gun

Nice shot man

Hey, nice shot man

I wish I would've met you

I wish I would've met you

I wish I would've met you

I wish I would've met you

I'd say nice shot