Mysterious Terrain

Picture from local tournament 8/5/2012

First 6th Edition Game: 1000pts IG vs Fire Hawks

Tonight I tried out the new rules with Realgenius (Jim) tonight, and of course had lots of fun. 

Ratlings!

Since this was the first game and all I didn't have a real grasp on the wound allocation part of the game, but that will just come with practice. There were a couple of times I left important models out in cold which were quickly picked off.

I ended up winning the game but it hardly mattered as it was both our first game with the new rules and neither of us had particularly powerful lists.

Things I liked:

Cover: We didn't have any ruins so everything was 5+ save. I think most IG armies will contain at least one Battle Tank now. NTM Stealth and Camo cloaks stack now so there are a few units here and there that can still get good cover... Harker and Telion can both do this if you pay the points for it.

Wall of Death: Over watching with flamers is pretty cool! I had 4 flamers in a chimera and they killed three Vanguard Vets before they got assaulted! 

Fliers: My Vendetta didn't come in until turn 4, but when it did that Stormraven was toast. I wonder if I will ever put anything inside of it now or just use it as a gun platform? As is, it is one of the best units at shooting other fliers out of the sky.

Psychers: I took a Sanctioned Psycher as well as a Psychic Battle Squad. Combined they did a lot of damage... Psychic Shreek does 3D6 wounds minus the enemy leadership. This combined with PBS reducing the Ld to 2 made for a pretty ridiculous combo. I think the PBS will be coming back into my army. I had dropped them for a while but I can't pass up that combo.   

Deathwatch Librarian

I am kinda in-between projects right now. Without any big tournament nearing to give me motivation to paint just one army I am sure I will be painting a few new models for each of my existing armies to compensate/complement the new changes that 6th edition will bring.

Here is my Deathwatch Librarian I finished tonight to be added to my Mantis Warriors army or allied to my Imperial Guard... I used to be able to field this guy back in 4th edition but here he is finally with paint!

...and I got a little work done on this Corsair Raider

Wargames Con 2012

Wargames Con 2012 is in the books! and boy do I feel like shit but smiling :)

Wargames Con: DAY ONE!

Oh shit, day one of Wargames Con is in the books and I'm drunk and tired as hell... lets see what happened...

Alamo 40K Tournament 2012: Random Pics from the Hall

So the Alamo 40k tournament in San Antonio, TX is in the book. It was a fantastic time as always but this year was possibly the most fun yet. A huge thanks to all the tournament organizers, the location manager, and to MarkT who I asked to car pool with about 4 hours before we left! Also a big thumbs up to having a bar in the tournament with cheap beer and a big thumbs down to Minus6 for "Icing" me (if you don't know what that is, look it up on YouTube lol).

Tomorrow I will take the time to do my Game Report which had an interesting outcome to say the least... for now here are all the random pics I got from the weekend that weren't specifically from my games. Enjoy...

May 6th, 2012 Dragon's Lair 1850pt Tournament

Today was the monthly 40k Tournament at Dragon's Lair; 1850pts~ three rounds, Swiss style, three equally weighted objectives per round. I've been completely focussed on Chaos at the moment getting ready for Alamo GT in two weeks so this was a good opportunity to take the Nurgle out for a test run. To be honest, I am not nearly as excited about this army as I was when I started it, and the prospect of a new and exciting codex in just a few months is only making the old stale Codex seem older and staler... but enough naysaying; ONTO THE TOURNAMENT REPORT!

ROUND ONE
Space Wolves (Brandon)
Pitched Battle
1) Seize Ground
2) Kill a Single Enemy Troop of Your Choice
3) Capture and Control (except with two diagonally opposite table quarters)

~this is going to be the format of Wargames Con so it is really nice getting used to the Mission format as well as the objectives themselves. Three equally weighted objectives each game with the possibility to split most of them. 

Brandon took a somewhat "elite" Space Wolf list; Bjorn the Fell Handed, tricked out Lord on Thunder Wolf w/ 4 Thunderwolf Friends, Run Priest w/ Living lightning w/ Longfangs; 5 missiles and wolf guard; cyclone, two 5 man Grey Hunters w/ melta and wolf guard with combi-melta in HB razorback, two units of 5 wolf scouts w/ wolf guard, and 5 grey hunters w/ flamer in drop pod.

I decided to mark one of the units of Grey Hunters w/ melta gun since I assumed it would be most likely get close enough to use his special weapon while Brandon marked the Lesser Daemons. Brandon used Bjorn to get first turn and get up Long Fangs w/ Ruin Priest and Bjorn in the center of his table edge with the Thunder Wolf Friends on an extreme flank. I hid one Rhino w/ plasma guns in a Ruin on an objective with the other three making use of cover facing the Thunder Wolves. The Oblits, and Daemons were all in reserve.

The first two turns Brandon spot all those missiles and Living Lightning fingers at my Rhinos (claiming cover) but only managed to immobilize or stun them. This meant that his Thunder Friends charged into APCs and not the juicy innards. I countercharged with my entire army into the Thunders and Killed all of them but the Lord in one round, the Lord went down two turns later after malling (but not completely wiping out) two Plague Marine Squads and the Possessed.

With the only combat unit in his army destroyed and most of my Rhinos now immobilized or destroyed the rest of the game was spend trading shots and trying to maneuver onto objectives. One unit of Wolf Scouts came in behind the Plasma Squad on objective, but with the help of the summoned daemons I was able to hold, while the other unit came on to threaten two Plague Marines sitting on another objective but a Nurgle Lord intercepted them and rolled like a boss, killing all 6 at I6 before they could swing back!

I won objectives, I killed his melta squad and we tied the table quarters.

Chaos 25VP and Space Wolves 5VPS


ROUND TWO
Nurgle Chaos Space Marines (Josiah)
Dawn of War
1) KPs
2) Single Objective in the Center
3) Get Any Unit within 6" of Enemy Board Edge

Josiah took almost the exact same list as me (not a deep pool of possible Nurgle units in the book unfortunately). Typhus in Land Raider, Summoned Greater Daemon, 4 Plague Marine units, 2*double melta and pf, double plasma, and double flamer, and 7 Nurgle Marked Terminators.

Josiah and I almost never have a hard fought game, someone always stomps the other's army into the ground and this was no different. Considering how similar our lists were, would it surprise you that I was tabled in 7 turns having only scored a single KP? Yep that's what happened, oh well.

Me 0VP Josiah 3VP


ROUND THREE
Imperial Guard (John Cook)
Dawn of War (again really?)
1) Seize Ground
2) Kill an Enemy HQ
3) Capture and Control
how similar does this look to the first mission to you?


John was really bummed cuz the lost a couple of this Pretorian models somewhere after the first round, sucks, NTM he plaid Josiah game one so this was his second match against Nurgle... in my opinion IG is the best possible match up for Nurgle ~ masses of lasguns, heavy bolters, multi-lasters, flamers and auto cannons are pretty useless against Plague Marines and he didn't have a single plasma gun.

Command HQ in Chimera w/ Lord Commissar and Officer of the Fleet, Command Squad in Chimera, two infantry Squads in Chimeras just with an Autocannon, two three man Lascannon teams near Commissar for Ld boost, melta Vets w/ demolition charge in Vendetta, 10 man unit in Valkyrie, Psychic Battle Squad in Chimera, two Hydras and Manticore.

Dawn of War meant he could still set up his entire platoon, but I deployed first with a Rhino w/ Plague Marines and Lord dead center. I moved up and popped smoke; he shot his ENTIRE ARMY at that single Rhino and unit inside. When the dust settled I had a pf champion and the Lord left (I told you PMs can soak up IG fire). Those two models moved up and each killed an infantry squad in return. Turn two John shot his ENTIRE ARMY at those two models finally killing them (good for him).

While he was focussing all that shooting at 400pts I was able to move my other units into pretty good position close to his lines unmolested. The Possessed rolled Fleet for their Possession and, despite having to come in from my board edge were able to get a multi-charge off on three units on turn three.

By the end of the game we had both done a number to each other's armies, but because my army has so little shooting both his Fliers were alive allowing him to last turn score/contest. We ended up tying Seize Ground, tying Capture and Control, and we both killed each other's HQ...

Chaos 20VP and IG 20VP 


~three games with the Chaos today and I went 1/1/1 which has been about my average the last two years at Alamo there is still room for improvement. Josiah ended up winning the tournament with his Nurgle Chaos, good for him, so there might be hope for me at Alamo with a similar list!

Battle Report 2000pts 11/27/11: IG vs Necrons

Bully Mike from 40kology is a great opponent. We've been playing against each other mostly in tournaments for the last three years, but yesterday we met up for a friendly game to test out his Necrons. Before this game Bully had only played two games with the new book, the last of which he won against my Mantis Warriors at KPs 9-4. In reaction to how well the Monolith and Citan did last game, I decided to bust out the IG and see if the Necron shooting could match the hammer of the Imperium!

Imperial Guard List

Command HQ; plasma*4, chimera

Infantry Command; flamer*4, chimera
Infantry Squad; grenade, power weapon, commissar, power weapon
Infantry Squad; grenade, power weapon
Infantry Squad; grenade, power weapon
Special Weapon Squad; melta*3
Heavy Weapon Squad; missiles*3
Heavy Weapon Squad; autocannon*3

Veterans*10; melta*3, chimera
Veterans*10; melta*2, flamer, chimera

Vendetta (special weapon squad rides here)
Scout Sentinels*3; lascannon*2, autocannon
Hellhound; smoke launchers

Demolisher; lascannon
Demolisher; lascannon
Manticore; camo netting

Although this is not the most tailored IG army, it is far more powerful that something I would generally bring to a friendly match; especially against someone whose only played a few games with their own codex. In the last game Bully took a very similar army, but I took a more close combat oriented SM army. His Monolith and the Citan really did a number me. He Portaled several units away from my assault units which essentially took them out of the game and the Citan's Rising World Scape managed to Immobilize my Landraider, kill two TH termis and about 6 or 7 SMs by turn 3! In this game, with a shooty army, my goal was to mitigate those specific threats while taking a large number of armored vehicles to test the waters against mass amounts of Gauss and Scarab attacks.

Necron List

Storm Lord; Command Barge
Destroyer Lord; res orb, war scythe

Warriors*10
Warriors*10
Warriors*10
Warriors*10

Spiders*2 (different wargear)
Scarab Swarm*8

Wraiths*4

Regular Destroyers*5
Citan; rising world scape, dust one (i think=stealth and grenades)
Monolith

BullyMike bought this army prebuilt and painted a couple years ago when no one wanted Necrons. Besides the new vehicle and new Special Character he is pretty much using every model he bought back then, which is pretty cool that it still came out to 2000pts! Because he is essentially using ever model he owns, his list has not seen much change in the last three games played. Mostly all he's done is switched out special characters and alternated between Annihilation Barge and Command Barge. It should also be noted that he won against Daemons and SMs in the first two games...

Mission: Seize Ground 5 Objectives

Deployment: Pitched Battle

Necrons Deployed First and set up in the forest along the entire length of this board edge. Monolith in the middle with the Spiders and Scarabs. Destroyers, Command Barge, and Wraiths on the left flank.

Imperial Guard Deployed Second with Demolisher tanks on left flank opposite the majority of the Necron heavy hitters. Command HQ was straight in the middle with Heavy Weapon squads on either side. Two infinity squads combined with commissar also in the middle to advance on center objective. Manticore in far right building and beyond that, Hellhound, Infantry Command with flamers and the three Sentinels deployed on extreme right flank facing single Necron Warrior Squad. The two melt vet units were in reserve, as well as one 10man infantry unit and the Vendetta Out Flanked.

TURN 1

Top Turn 1 was Night Fight thanks to the Swarm Lord. His lighting only hit one unit but managed to kill all three Autocannon Weapon Teams. That sucked but it could have been worse. Apart from that he had really good run rolls so almost everything made it to center field. He also 'Portaled' his Wraiths through the Monolith.

Bottom Turn 1 was still night fight so I used a lot of search lights and since he was half way across the board already, most everything got to shoot. I failed my orders and most everything else missed or did no damage. Demolisher tank in center penetrated the Monolith but only stunned it, and the Demolisher on the left only glanced the Command Barge which shook it. On the far right flank my Hellhound did major damage to his Warriors and only three remained after Reanimating!  In the center my Command HQ moved into range of the Wraiths and unleashed 8 plasma gun shots. All four guns overheated killing three while only doing one wound to the Necron snakes! 

TURN 2

 Top Turn 2 started with the Storm Ending (w00t) and a general advance. The three pitiful Necron Warriors on the Right Flank Portaled through the Monolith away from the armored advance; essentially conceding that objective to the Imperial Guard. The Wraiths assaulted the Command HQ Chimera; stunning it and popping off a gun. The Scarabs rolled all 6's for their movement for the second turn in a row and easily assaulted the Center Demolisher ever though it moved backwards. 40 attacks, 20 hits, 10 points of reduced armor... thank you back armor 11! The Destroyer Lord detached from the Destroyer Squad and made an attempt to attack the Left Demolisher on his own. He missed with all his attacks...

Bottom Turn 2 my Vendetta arrived on the left flank, and between it and the Melta Special Weapon squad inside, they were able to kill the Destroyer Lord who failed to reanimate. My center Demolisher, who now had Armor Value 4/3/1 (we called it "see through") moved backwards and dropped its shell on the Scarabs. The Swarm went to ground which saved two. My 10 man infantry unit came in from reserve in the center near the Wraiths and shot them up, doing no damage. My right flank units swung around the buildings and shot the Citan, only doing a single wound. My Infantry blob squad assaulted the center Warrior unit and brought it down to 4 with mass power weapon attacks.

TURN 3

Top Turn 3 the Storm Lord hopped off his Command Barge and assaulted the 10 man infantry unit that just arrived and murdered them. The Citan charged into the blob squad, and although killed three, the combined power weapons managed to take out the remaining 4 Warriors so the Citan took his second wound from fearless saves. The Monolith, now able to move, advanced to mid field and shot the "see through" Demolisher in the center and easily destroyed it. The Destroyers shot at the Vendetta but failed to roll and 6's. The Wraiths moved and assaulted the Hellhound, but because it had moved at Cruising Speed, they only Stunned it. On the far left, with a decent run roll, a Necron Warrior Unit advanced onto an objective near the Vendetta.

Bottom Turn 3 the two Melta Veteran units in Chimeras arrived up the middle and one of them destroyed the Command Barge. The Vendetta gathered up the Special weapon squad and moved to contest the left most objective and shot at the approaching Destroyers, killing one... oh wait, it reanimated! The stunned Hellhound popped smoke in anticipation for a point blank shot from the Manticore at the Wraiths who were still fighting it in combat. The Manticore did 9 hits on the 4 models and with bad armor save rolls, killed them all! On the far right flank the Infantry Command Squad in Chimera advanced onto an objective on that side of the board. The blob squad, unable to hurt toughness 7 Citan, lost a few more models, but held due to the Commissar.

TURN 4

Top Turn 4 the Storm Lord climbed up the ruined building where the Heavy Weapon Squad was missing with missiles all game and easily wiped them out. The Warrior Squad in the center of the Necron back field Portaled through the Monolith to escape the Hellhound that was now free of the Wraiths. After moving through the portal, only three Warriors were in range of the Vendetta, but one got a 6 which and immobilize it! Go Gauss Go! The Destroyers remained in cover and also shot at the Vendetta but were unable to damage it. The Spiders and remaining two Scarab bases charged into the IG blob squad. The Citan took out a couple but the power weapons all targeted the Spiders and Impressively did two wounds to each! 

Bottom Turn 4 the Manticore unleashed its final salvo of missiles and took out a handful of Warriors that had come through the Monolith Portal. The Citan missed with all of his attacks, and the combined Spiders and Scarabs killed everyone but the Commissar who proudly held, meaning my right flank was safe for another turn as all other units had been Portaled away from that flank by the Monolith. The Deolisher and the Chimera with Melta Vets on the left advanced and shot at the Destroyers, but were only able to kill one after reanimation. At this point in the game, the IG held one objective and were contesting the only Necron held Objective.

TURN 5

Top Turn 5 the Destroyers moved and contested the objective near the Melta Vets on the left and Stunned their Chimera while the Storm Lord assaulted and destroyed the Command HQ Chimera which had until now been stunned the entire game. The Citan finished off the Commissar and consolidated with the Spiders and Scarabs towards the IG right flank. Combined Gauss fire from the remaining Warrior Squads on the left targeted the Vendetta but did not damage it not enough to destroy it.

Bottom Turn 5 the Melta Vets in the center moved to claim the center objective in the building but because the Citan was still rising my damn world scape, their Chimera immobilized itself just shot. Ugh. My Hellhound swung around the ruins that the blob squad combat had been occupying for the majority of the game and placed its template so that it was hitting both Spiders, both Scarabs and the Citan... Yatzee! 5 ones lol. The Sentinels and the Infantry Command Chimera all shot at the Citan but did nothing. However, after shooting at the Monolith all game, my remaining Demolisher Cannon penetrated and destroyed it. We rolled for the game to continue ended on turn 5.

 Objective 1: Contested

Objective 2: Contested

 Objective 3: so close, Unclaimed

 Objective 4: Unclaimed

 Objective 5: Imperial Guard Claimed

So this turned out to be a VERY close game at turn 5. We both had some really bad rolling during the first two turns. The Storm Lord's lightning clouds ended after only striking down one unit and hitting no tanks and the Destroyer Lord failed to reanimate after not even hitting the Demolisher tank in combat. The first three times I had Penetrating hits on the Monolith they rolled 1s or 2s and my Command HQ lost 3 out of 4 plasma guns in their first volley! 

This game was a lot of fun and could have easily ended in the hands of the Necrons. Had the game gone an extra turn I might have been able to put models on one or two more objectives, but with the Storm Lord running around my back field and the Citan still with two wounds, it is unlikely that I would have been able to kill either of them and they would have easily contested any additional Objectives I might have tried to claim. I think any additional turns would have only helped the Necrons.

Personally I really enjoy playing against the Metal Undead. They have a lot of interesting units and nothing, initially, screams cheese except perhaps the Citan's Rising World Scape; but even that had little effect on a mostly static gun-line.

Retrofitting Guard Tanks

While I plan to update my Imperial Guard army to become more competitive, I also would like to add some off beat units to the collection so I can have some fun with them too. Probably the main reason the Guard have been on the shelf so long is because I could tell my opponents weren't having any fun playing against them either.

Here is the beginnings of my Eradicator Nova Cannon turret. I used this tank recently against an Eldar army. I deployed it horribly out of position, but still managed to let loose a shot that killed almost an entire Seer Council! 

 Yes that is triple heavy flamers! Such a terrible choice.

I picked up a broken Hellhound off a friend of mine recently and have been working on turning it into yet another Chimera... that puts me up to 5! Yeah not really a good thing...

Gone but Not Idle!

It has been about a month since my last post which sucks but I am back to show off a few WIP pics of what I've been up to lately. For about three months leading up to WarGames Con I was very motivated to work on Mantis Warriors for the Narrative Track and Death Guard for the Team Tournament. Once that rapped up I lost all motivation to continue with those projects (even though I fell short with my ultimate goals) and have only played one game in the last month.

For the remainder or the year I plan on putting the majority of my attention towards Dark Eldar and updating my IG with a few new units I've had laying around unpainted.

Onto the pics

Was a Valkyie. Now a Vendeta!

 Rounding out the last few models in my Beast Master unit.

Nurgle basing theme.

Imperial Guard List Thoughts: 2000pts

I've been out of town a lot lately for work which has kept me from making a proper post, but I've been making good progress on my Nurgle Army for WarGames Con-Team Tournament next month. Look for pictures this weekend!

After WarGames Con is over I plan on putting the Mantis Warriors aside for the rest of the year and instead concentrate of making my IG army competitive and (more importantly) fun to play with again. I had a lot of success with my IG back when the 5th edition codex came out, but eventually they became boring and difficult to win with against the speed to Blood Angels.

Below is a hybrid mech/swarm list I would like to try out. It has a lot of scoring units, with plenty of mobility and a couple of decent tar pit units (30 man blob squad w/ commissar and an Armored sentinel).  Normally my lists have a lot of outflanking units but this army takes the enemy straight on will hopefully hold out.


HQ

(120) Command HQ; plasma gun*4, plasma pistol

(55) Chimera

TROOPS

(50) Platoon Command; flamer*4
(55) Chimera

(110) Infantry Squad; power weapon, grenade launcher, commissar; power weapon

(65) Infantry Squad; power weapon, grenade launcher
(65) Infantry Squad; power weapon, grenade launcher

(55) Infantry Squad; flamer

(55) Chimera

(75) Heavy Weapon Squad; auto cannon*3

(90) Heavy Weapon Squad; missile launcher*3

(125) Veterans*10; plasma gun*3, plasma pistol

(125) Veterans*10; plasma gun*3, plasma pistol
(110) Veterans*10; melta*3, plasma pistol

(55) Chimera

FAST ATTACK

(100) Valkyrie

(100) Valkyrie
(80) Armored Sentinel; lascannon, camo netting

HEAVY SUPPORT

(170) Battle Tank; heavy bolter*3

(180) Demolisher Tank; las cannon

(160) Manticore

I know this list is pretty typical of IG with nothing too crazy but any thoughts would be helpful.