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First Stab a Tau Lists

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So, here are some first cuts at some Tau Empire lists. I’ve been following The Tau of War for kind of a long time.  While I haven’t feverishly analyzed his lists, I’d like to think that a few things that maybe sunk in:

  • Fire Warriors are for objective holding, not for leveraging 30″ Pulse Rifle shots.  They belong in Devilfish that stay off the table as long as possible.  Small squads, good.  Big squads, wasteful.
  • Shas’el w/ Targeting Arrays are almost as good as Shas’o but cost 15 points less.
  • Shield Drones are good for Broadsides.  Gun Drones are almost as good, and are cheaper for everything else.

… that sort of thing.

I’ve taken some quick stabs at 1,000 point and 1,500 point lists; I don’t have any illusions about them being great, or even good… but they’re a starting point.

The 1,000 point list, in particular, seems awful… light to me.  10 Kroot, 5 Suits, 2 vehicles and some stuff that hides off the table as long as possible skeeves the crap out of me.  It’d probably be worth converting that Hammerhead into more Kroot or Stealthsuits or something.

HQ
Shas’el – Missile Pod, Plasma Rifle, HW Multi-tracker, Targeting Array

Elites
Crisis Team x2 – Missile Pod x2, Flamer x2

Troops
Fire Warriors x8
– Devilfish – D. Pod
Fire Warriors x8
– Devilfish – D. Pod
Kroot x10

Fast Attack
Piranha x1 – Fusion Blaster, D. Pod, Flechette Discharger

Heavy Support
Broadsides x2 – Targeting Array x2
Hammerhead – Railgun, SMS, D. Pod, Decoy Launchers

The 1,500 list just stacks on top of that.  Doubles down on the Shas’el, adds a small Stealth Team, upgrades the Broadsides a smidge and adds the Barracuda.

Why the Barracuda?  It’s IA, not codex, and points-heavy, I know.  Really, I’m throwing it in there ’cause I want motivation to finish putting the thing together and paint it.  I expect a few games after putting it on the table, it’ll be replaced with Pathfinders, another Piranha, and more suits of some sort.

HQ
Shas’el – Missile Pod, Plasma Rifle, HW Multi-tracker, Targeting Array
Shas’el – Missile Pod, Plasma Rifle, HW Multi-tracker, Targeting Array

Elite
Crisis Team x3 – TL Missile Pod x3, Flamer x3, Team Leader w/ Bonding Knife
Stealth Team x3

Troops
Fire Warriors x8
– Devilfish – D. Pod
Fire Warriors x8
– Devilfish – D. Pod
Kroot x10

Fast Attack
Piranha x1 – Fusion Blaster, D. Pod, Flechette Discharger

Heavy Support
Broadsides x2 – Targeting Array x2, Team Leader w/ HW Drone Controller, Shield Drones x2
Hammerhead – Railgun, SMS, D. Pod, Decoy Launchers
Barracuda

Any thoughts?

(No clue on the source of the Fire Warrior image.  Clearly w/o permission.)

Considering the Greater Good

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One of my friends, as I’ve mentioned, is starting to sip the 40K Kool-Aid, and is considering buying into the game.  Another friend, likely motivated at least a little bit by said Kool-Aid sipping, is finally taking a long-postponed plunge into the game (the high quality and low price point of the Wargames Factory Shock Troopers probably didn’t hurt, either).  I’ll be walking them through how to play the game and letting them get a feel for the armies they’re interested in tomorrow night.

It’s got me thinking about how nice it’ll be for them to progress in the game at roughly the same pace.  It’s also got me thinking that this is a great opportunity to start a new army; one I can grow at the same pace theirs do.  I don’t need another army, though, and I’m not altogether sure I want one.  I’m only just now really getting to the point where I can cut loose with my Daemons.

At the same time, I’m thinking about the upcoming Forge World Friendly tournament, where players will be encouraged to put as much FW resin on the table as their hearts desire.  I’ll be running, not playing in the event, but that doesn’t mean I’m not thinking about FW resin… and when I think about FW resin, I think Tau.

The Tau Empire was my first 40K army.  I’d only bought into it because I figured I’d get tired of painting Skaven.  I made the switch to Dark Angels about a year later, then 5th came out, and I’ve never really come back to the Tau.  I’ve never figured out how to play them in 5th though, to be fair, I’ve never really tried.

It’s a shame, too, because my Tau aren’t fully painted, and I’ve got some cool stuff just waiting to hit the table.  It’s kind of criminal that I’ve got a shoebox with a Barracuda, Remora Drones and Shas’o R’myr just… sitting, unassembled, in it.

Plus, I’ve come a really, really long way in terms of my painting skill.  When I started painting my Tau, I hadn’t really done any miniature painting in nearly ten years.  I’m much better, now.

See what I mean?  It’d be nice to revisit the army.

Right now, I’m telling myself that the Tau would be a better match up against my friends’ new armies.  Certainly better than the Daemons, which are a quirky army before to zero in on filling it with nothing but things that scream, “BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD.”  That, and starting small will help me relearn the army.  I can’t sit down and write a 2,000 point list for them; I just can’t.  A 1,000 point list, though, is kinda doable and growing it to 1,500 shouldn’t be too hard.

So, for the next little bit, while I wrap up Sternguard and get my Khornate conversions for non-Khornate models lined up (still need to post about Tzeentch), I’m going to be doing some thinking about what a small Tau Empire list might look like.  I do know that any list will see a lot of that resin.

So, who knows?

(Tau Pathfinder image is by slipgatecentral.  Used w/o permission.)

Revising the Dark Angels?

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When Ron posted about his Deathwing, I have to admit that I made a face.  
His list isn’t codex legal, it’s just stuff that he wants to play, in terms of theme, fluff, and Unforgiven.  This sort of thing is totally fine for casual games, or games in a small group.  Jervis isn’t going to kick his door in and arrest him for Doing It Wrong or anything… but it’s not entirely portable.  It’s not the sort of thing you can take to a tournament.  With as large a player base as we have in the IFL, it’s not the sort of thing you can just drop on the table without some warning.
Boy, it’s a nice idea, though, isn’t it?  In many ways, I’m frustrated by the inconsistencies between the Dark Angels codex and the Space Marine codex.  I don’t expect the two books to be the same (because, in that case, we wouldn’t need two books), but the disparity between how things work in one book and how they work in another is just headache inducing.
This isn’t helped by the fact that we’re not going to see an update any time soon.  If GW keeps up their pattern alternating between Imperial and non-Imperial codices, maybe we could see an update sometime in 2011.  (It sounds like Grey Knights are dropping late this year, which covers pretty much all of the Imperial books save Black Templars and Dark Angels.)
It’s a bit of a touchy subject for me: I’ve been rolling with the DA codex and plan to continue to do so (when running my Dark Angels and not my Khornate Daemons)… but I’m quite frustrated by the difference.  Folks who cannot understand that frustration really tick me off.  I gave the Imperial Vox Cast a try until they went on a rant about people who play Dark Angels should quit their bitching, etc.  Uh-uh.  :stop:  :delete:
Some folks have taken it upon themselves to try to reconcile the two books:  
Austin‘s taken a stab, with what’s basically a single page document that suggests using the DA book, but with rules, costs and unit options for certain units taken from the Space Marine codex.  It’s pretty spartan, but not bad.  Worth checking out.
The most recent issue of the AstroMag (#6) has a segment in that summarizes a much more in-depth attempt by Captain Kellen to bring the Dark Angels codex in line with the Space Marine book.  The full treatment can be found here (not really a page there, just a file host).  It’s 60 pages, including fiction and art; the Astromag article summarizes the changes.  What’s really great about this approach is that he tries to justify every choice he makes (in the full document).  There’s a lot to be said to be said for that sort of transparency.
I’m on board with almost all of his changes.  He makes good cases for them and, in many ways they’re a superset of the changes Austin proposes: just basic stuff that says a Cyclone Missile Launcher is a Cyclone Missile Launcher is a Cyclone Missile Launcher, you know?  He goes a bit further, though, and brings over units: he makes a fluff-based claim to Sternguard Veterans and Sgt. Telion Naaman, for example, but cannot do so for other units like Ironclad Dreadnoughts or Land Raider Redeemers.

The only place I disagree with him is where it comes to Librarians.  I’m on board with not bringing over the full list of Space Marine psychic powers… but his arguments for simply using the powers in the Dark Angels book don’t hold up.  “It has been clear that the Dark Angels have different powers than other chapters,” he says… but the basic Dark Angel psychic powers, Hellfire and Force Barrier aren’t really different from The Avenger or Force Dome.  The former is an unreliable version of the Space Marine power and the latter has the same fluff as the Space Marine power, but is mechanically useless.  I’d swap the powers: The Avenger for Hellfire and Force Dome for Force Barrier and leave Mind Worm.  Mind Worm might not be all that useful, but it is unique.

I also don’t like his treatment of Ezekiel’s Psychic Hood.  The table-wide psychic hood is one of the extremely few things the Unforgiven have going for them, but I really feel that if we’re updating equipment and options, we have to take the bad with the good.  That means making the Psychic Hood 24″, you know?  I get why he made the choice, but I disagree.

I’m not likely to crack either of these approaches open and, even if I did, I doubt it would change my list in any substantial way… it’d just synchronize the way equipment behaves.  I honestly don’t see having a better Storm Shield changing the number of Storm Shields I take, you know?

I thought I’d bring it because, between thinking about running Deathwing at ‘Ard Boyz (using the unmodified Dark Angels codex) and Ron’s confession that he’s running fast and loose with the codex, it’s rattling around in my forebrain.

What do y’all think?

(Images are from the Deathwatch RPG site and classic GW DA art.)

‘Ard Boyz 2010

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I thought I’d be missing out on ‘Ard Boyz this year because we’ll be celebrating the extremely awesome Mrs. Rushputin’s birthday on that Saturday.  I was okay with this, because I’ve never actually played in an ‘Ard Boyz; I ran the first one for Game Parlor and… missed the second one for reasons that escape me (probably work).

As it turns out, however, for whatever reason (I’m sure there’s a good one, possible that I’ve missed) my FNVLGS* The Game Vault will be hosting theirs on that Sunday, rather than that Saturday.  Between this extremely convenient scheduling fluke and the slightest bit of prodding from Casey, I’ve decided to head out to it.

Now, I can’t run my Daemons at 2,500.  It just can’t happen.  My Tau, I’ve yet to figure out how to play in 5th… it could happen but, let me assure you, it won’t.

That leaves my largest army, and one of my favorites: my Dark Angels.  This is particularly convenient, because during the first ‘Ard Boyz, I wrote up a DA list to run at ‘Ard Boyz.  All Deathwing.

Two HQs.  Nine Deathwing Terminator Squads.  47 models.

I have no illusion that this is a particular ‘ard list or anything, but it should be fun.

Deathwing ‘Ard Boyz
2,500 points

HQ
Belial – Sword of Silence, Storm Bolter
Grey Knight Grandmaster – Nemesis Force Weapon, Storm Bolter, Psychic Hood, Ungents of Warding

Elites
Deathwing Terminators x5 – Cyclone Missile Launcher
Deathwing Terminators x5 – Lightning Claws x1, Thunder Hammer, Heavy Flamer
Deathwing Terminators x5 – Lightning Claws x1, Chainfist, Assault Cannon

Troops
Deathwing Terminator Command Squad x5 – Apothecary, Standard, Lightning Claws x3, Thunder Hammer x1, Chainfist,  Heavy Flamer
Deathwing Terminators x5 – Cyclone Missile Launcher
Deathwing Terminators x5 – Cyclone Missile Launcher
Deathwing Terminators x5 – Cyclone Missile Launcher
Deathwing Terminators x5 – Lightning Claws x1, Chainfist, Assault Cannon
Deathwing Terminators x5 – Lightning Claws x1, Chainfist, Assault Cannon

That leaves me with 5 points to throw in an extra chainfist somewhere, I dunno.

They Grey Knight Grandmaster is a new thing for me.  I’ve never run one before.  He’s taking the place of my Terminator Librarian (ironic, because my Terminator Librarian will be taking his place as a model); I think he’ll do everything the Librarian does, only better and for marginally fewer points.  For 20 points more, he’s got more wounds, more attacks (with the +2 strength of the Nemesis Force Weapon).  No, he doesn’t have any psychic powers, but who cares?  I sure as hell never took the Dark Angels Librarian for his psychic powers; he’s there to add punch to the assault Deathwing Command Squad and to run psychic defense: he’s got the same table-wide Psychic Hood the Dark Angels Librarian has… throw the Ungents of Warding in for a few more points, and things are even better.

Ungents of Warding?  That’s freaking how Blessing of the Blood God should work for Khornate Daemons: ignore psychic powers on a 4+.  Period.

Anyway, Belial chills with one of the Cyclone Missile Launcher squads.  The Grandmaster goes with the Command squad.  Given that I’ve been rocking the Daemons for the past however long, I’ll probably just Deep Strike everything in.  Five squads come in on the first turn via Deathwing Assault.

Could I run this with Space Wolves?  Maybe.  Probably.  Who cares?  I’m throwing down for the Lion, not the Wolf.

(Now, I’ve just got to assemble the last 16 terminators or so.)

* Friendly Not-Very-Local Game Store.  The Game Vault’s anywhere between 45 minutes to two hours away from where I live in Manassas, depending on the how generous Northern Virginian traffic feels like being.

Demo Lists

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A friend of mine who’s been slowly drinking the 40K Kool-Aid by reading Black Library books is starting to consider buying into 40K.

I’ve had him take a look at the armies, to pick ones that he thinks are Cool (because that’s the most important reason to play an army) and, having picked a few, we’d proxy up a few demo lists to get a feel for how they play (because having a playstyle you enjoy is the second most important reason to play an army).

He’s settled on Blood Angels and Imperial Guard.  Both are choices I think we can all agree are objectively A-OK.

So, I’ve thrown together a list for each, both at approximately 1,000 points.  I’m not looking for gimmicky builds or extreme points-efficiency… just lists that capture the overall feel of the army.  It doesn’t take a min-maxed list to reveal that Tau like to shoot things and Orks like to krump things, for example.

Here’s what we’ll put on the table:

Blood Angels

HQ
Captain – Jump Pack, Lightning Claws

Elites
Sanguinary Priest – Powersword

Troops
Assault Squad x10 – Jump Packs, Meltaguns x2, Powerfist
Assault Squad x5 – Meltagun
 – Razorback – TL Heavy Bolters
Tactical Squad x10 – Plasmagun, Missile Launcher, Powerfist
 – Rhino

Fast
Baal Predator – HB Sponsons

Imperial Guard

HQ
Command Squad – Bodyguard, Carapace Armor, Meltagun x2, Powerfist
– Chimera

Troops
Infantry Platoon
– Command Squad – Vox, Meltagun x2, Powerfist
– Infantry Squad – Vox, Flamer
– Infantry Squad – Vox, Grenade Launcher
– Heavy Weapons Squads – Heavy Bolter x3
Veteran Squad – Vox, Meltagun x3, Powerfist
– Chimera

Fast
Hellhound x1 – Smoke Launchers, Heavy Flamer

Heavy
Leman Russ Battle Tank – HB Sponsons
Griffon

I figure we’ll put both on the table and take turns with them.  Or maybe I’ll work up a 1,000 point Tau list or something… I definitely won’t run the Daemons; they’re a mite rock-paper-scissors, and therefore would make for lousy examples.

EDIT: Mike Van Brandt suggested an even better IG list:

Imperial Guard

HQ
Company Command Squad – Standard, Meltagun x2, Flamer
– Chimera

Troops
Infantry Platoon
– Command Squad – Flamer x3
— Chimera
– Infantry Squad – Flamer
– Infantry Squad – Flamer
– Infantry Squad – Flamer
– Heavy Weapons Squad – Autocannon x3
– Heavy Weapons Squad – Autocannon x3
Veteran Squad – Vox, Meltagun x3
– Chimera

Fast Attack
Scout Sentinels x3 – Multilasers

Heavy Support
Leman Russ Demolisher – Heavy Flamer

Bloodthirster vs. Daemon Prince

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More than anything, this is really just a heads-up to people I might play.  I’d like to document what I’m doing and why.

What

For pickup games, or pretty much any game that isn’t a tournament (and unless I’m running a Khornate Daemon list that includes both Bloodthirsters and Daemon Princes), I am going to use the Daemon Prince models I’ve converted as Bloodthirsters.

With a tournament, when I’m lugging around my huge display board and all that other stuff, things’ll be different… but on an arbitrary Tuesday, this is how it’s going to be.

Why

Although I rather dislike the Bloodthirster model, that’s really not why I’m doing this.

Practicality drives this.  Bloodthirsters are big, top-heavy and metal.  While I keep the majority of my army magnetized to plastic drawers, I’ve got a separate little foam thing I have to pack my Bloodthirsters in.  This isn’t crippling or anything, but it is annoying.  (Don’t get me started on my Soul Grinders.)

My Daemon Princes are plastic, light, and can be transported in the same drawer as my Bloodcrushers.  By using them instead of the Bloodthirster model, I reduce the amount of space my army consumes during transport by nearly half.

Also, they’re converted.  Not heavily converted or anything, but a little.  Enough to make them personal.  I like the models more, and that’s worth a lot!

How

I think I can justify this.

The Bloodthirster has enormous wings, yes.  Huge wings.  Its wings account for twice of its height.  The wings on the Daemon Prince aren’t very big, but that’s okay.  The wings don’t count..

Line of sight must be traced from the eyes of the firing model to any part of the body of at least one of the models in the target unit (for ‘body’ we mean its head, torso, legs and arms). Sometimes, all that may be visible of a model is a weapon, an antenna, a banner or some other ornament he is wearing or carrying (including its wings and tail, even though they are technically part of its body). In these cases, the model is not visible. These rules are intended to ensure that models don’t get penalised for having impressive standards, blades, guns, majestic wings, etc.

– Warhammer 40K, pg 16

So, wings and such are to be ignored for the purposes of Line of Sight.  We can ignore them.

Look at the bodies.  They’re very close to being the same size.  For game purposes, the Minotaur model and the Bloodthirster model are the same size.  They’re on the same size base (60mm) and are very close in terms of height and width.

So, when I put the Minotaur Princes on the table as Bloodthirsters, I do so because they’re just about the same size.  It’s a hair shorter, but negligibly so.  Besides, I don’t think drawing line-of-sight to a Bloodthirster has ever been a problem for my opponents.

(And I’m talking the current Bloodthirster, not the classic Greater Daemon of Khorne who is, I think, about the size of a terminator.)

Conclusion

Like I said, this’ll just be for pickup games, and for games that I don’t plan on running both Bloodthirsters and Daemon Princes.  And, hell, once I stop agonizing over ordering some Battlefoam, everything’ll be packed in together, and it’ll be a non-issue.  But, until then…

6/19 – 40K ForgeWorld-Friendly Tournament

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Something that came out of the discussion about how to run the IFL RTT this past weekend was an observation that, before 5th Ed. came out, Flyers and other units from Imperial Armour books were par for the course at IFL tournaments.  When 5th ed came out, that vanished.

Now, I’ve got opinions about the default inclusion of Forgeworld rules that don’t necessarily jive, I think, with the wider 40K blogosphere (there’s a blog post on that rattling around in my head)… but regardless of what I think should and shouldn’t belong in a tournament baseline, there’s always room for tournaments that step away from the baseline.

So, I’ll be running a tournament with the express purpose of encouraging folks to break out their ForgeWorld models.

When: 6/19
Size: 16 Players
Registration Fee
This is not an IFL Member’s only event.  Everybody’s welcome!
Preregistration is $5 for IFL Members,  $10 for non-IFL Members.  Registration at the door is $10 for IFL Members, $15 for non-IFL Members.
Pre-registration can be given to any IFL council member (Ben, Chris K, Chris S, Doug or Me) or gifted via PayPal to Treasury@IronFistLeague.com (be sure to note in your payment what you are paying for).
Army Composition
  • 2,000 points
  • Legal GW Codices and Army Lists from Imperial Armour books only.
  • Forge World and GW Datasheet models and units are allowed. However:
    • See the Adepticon 2010 Imperial Armor & Apocalypse Units document to reference what armies can take what, as well as where to find the most recent rules for those models and units.
    • No Superheavies or gargantuan creatures.  On the off chance that doesn’t cover everything, no models with structure points, power fields or void shields.  No units identified as “WMD” in the Gladiator document.
    • You must provide rules for anything you put on the table.  If you do not have a hard copy of the rules (the FW book, a photocopy of the rules, etc.) for a model/unit, you may not put it on the table.
    • Be prepared to answer questions about your units.  Be prepared to repeat yourself.
  • The rules for Flyers found in Apocalypse will be used, rather than the rules for Flyers found in the various Imperial Armour books, with the following changes to update them to 5th Edition:
    • Flyers without  Hover Mode must always begin the game in reserve.
    • Blast weapons that do not have the anti-aircraft special rule cannot hit flyers
    • Units embarked in a flying transport that is not in Hover Mode never count as scoring units so long as they are embarked.
  • All models must be painted to, at minimum, the Three Color standard.
Scoring
  • Battle Points – (5-20 points, plus 4 possible bonus points/game) Scenarios will fundamentally be based on the rulebook missions, tweaked with some rules from the Battle Missions book.  VP will be tracked, at the very least, for tie-breaking.
  • Appearance – (0-30 points) Scored using the Army Appearance Checklist found in the Grand Tournament 2008 Packet.  This score will be reduced to 75% (that is, calculated score * .75).
  • Sportsmanship – (0-10 points/game) Scored using the Army Appearance Checklist found in the Grand Tournament 2008 Packet.
  • Favorite Player – (2 points/vote) Each player will note their favorite player.  Criteria for this is up to the player: you like their army the most, their attitude the best, or they paid you $10.
Prizes
100% of entry fee, plus (possibly, waiting on a vote) prize support from the IFL, will be split across the following prizes:
  • Highest Overall (40%)
  • Most Battle Points (30%)
  • Highest Soft Score (30%) (Everything but Battle Points)
Ties for overall will be broken by soft scores, then battle points, then overall VP.  Ties for battle points will be broken by overall VP, then soft scores.  Ties for soft score will be broken by battle points, then overall VP.
Sign up in this thread here, please, or in the comments on this thread.  If we run out of space, I’ll fill spaces by timestamp.

I’m pretty confident about the format here.

Sportsmanship and Appearance scores are there, and are objective.  Everyone showing up knows how they’ll be calculated.  I think that’s key.

The GT Sportsmanship checklist kinda-sorta covers comp the way I think it should be expressed.

Discounting bonus points and favorite player votes, hard and soft scores both roll up to the same maximum point level.  This is either very clever or a big mistake… but it’s intentional, regardless.

Shockingly, I’ve already written up the scenarios.  I think they’ll be fun; different enough from standard games to be interesting, but without too many special rules to make them goofy.

If you’re in the area, and can make it out to Game Parlor Chantilly, this should hopefully be a really good time!

IFL 2nd Quarter RTT

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We had the IFL 40K RTT yesterday.

The format was… imperfect.  Due to the excessive squeaking of a couple of squeaky wheels, the format was changed at the last minute to something that was pretty clearly put together by a Fantasy player without much familiarity with 40K.  Given that that’s what the TO was (non-40K-playing fellow council member Ben was doing the 40K playing council members a solid and running the 40K tournament so they could all play), this isn’t enormously surprising.

That’s not to say that it was a bad format.  Just not perfect.

All of the games had a special scenario rule.  Victory conditions were based entirely on Victory Points (with a margin of >= 300 points required for a win vs. a draw), and there were a couple of bonus victory points.

The problem with relying on VP is that they remove all of the checks that KP impose on the game.  They might not be perfect, but they really do provide a disincentive to loading up on transports and minimum strength units.

Also, it was at 1,800, which is a weird points level.  I’m quite certain this wasn’t intentional: just a non-40K player quickly trying to change tournament rules while 1) annoyed and 2) on vacation.

My List

HQ
Bloodthirster – Unholy Might
Bloodthirster – Unholy Might

Elites
Bloodcrushers x4 – Fury of Khorne, Icon, Musician

Troops
Bloodletters x16 – Fury of Khorne, Icon
Bloodletters x8 – Fury of Khorne, Icon

Fast Attack
Flesh Hounds x8 – Karanak
Flesh Hounds x8 – Fury of Khorne

Heavy Support
Soul Grinder – Phlegm
Soul Grinder – Phlegm

In each game, I blew every single Powers of Chaos roll, and ended up with my Reserves Wave coming in at the beginning of each game.  Once is odds.  Three times is just goofy.  The scatter dice made up for it, though, as I nailed an unbelievable number of Deep Strike rolls: I think I don’t think I scatter more than twice in a single game.

Game 1

vs. Jeff Payne’s Eldar

HQ
Eldrad
Yriel

Elites
Striking Scorpions x10 – Exarch w/ Stalker & Scorpion Claw
– Wave Serpent – TL Shuriken Catapults, TL Shuriken Cannon, Spirit Stones

Troops
Storm Guardians x11 – Warlock w/ Embolden & Singing Spear, Fusion Gun x2
– Wave Serpent – TL Shuriken Catapults, TL Bright Lances, Spirit Stones
Storm Guardians x11 – Warlock w/ Destructor, Flamer x2
– Wave Serpent – TL Shuriken Catapults, TL Bright Lances, Spirit Stones
Guardian Jetbikes x8 – Warlock w/ Embolden, Singing Spear, Shuriken Cannon x2, TL Shuriken Catapults x4

Fast Attack
Vyper – Scatter Laser, TL Shuriken Catapults

Heavy Support 
Fire Prism – Holo-Field, Spirit Stones
Fire Prism – Holo-Field, Spirit Stones

Scenario rules involved a single Night Fight-style roll that affected all units on the table and got progressively worse as the game progressed.  Turn 1 was 6d6+6″ on down to Turn 7 as d6+6″.

It’s weird; every time I have a Disagreement with another IFL member, it turns out that within a couple of weeks, I’m at a tournament at Game Parlor Woodbridge playing them and the game proves theraputic.

Jeff and I had a very good game that, given the circumstances, was much closer than it should have been.

Mechanized is something that gives my army heartburn, and mechanized Eldar is even worse.  Jeff decided to throw caution to the wind and get in my face with the Guardians.  This actually worked quite well: a 5+(i) is still only a 5+ save, after all.

There was a lot more back and forth than there needed to be in that game, and I’m thankful for it.  It certainly made it a fun game.

I lost, of course.

Game 2

vs. Frank Abel‘s Space Marines

HQ
Shrike
Librarian – Terminator Armor, Epistolary, Avenger, Null Zone, Storm Shield

Elites
Assault Terminators x6 – Lightning Claws x1, Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield x6
Venerable Dreadnought – Multi-Melta, DCCW w/ Heavy Flamer, Extra Armor

Troops
Tactical Squad x10 – Meltagun, Lascannon
– Razorback – TL Assault Cannon, Dozer Blade, Extra Armor
Tactical Squad x10 – Meltagun, Lascannon
– Razorback – TL Assault Cannon, Dozer Blade, Extra Armor
Tactical Squad x10 – Flamer, Plasma Cannon

Heavy Support
Land Raider Crusader

Scenario was especially weird: all movement was cut in half, even fleeing, running, and the assault fall-in.  Also, all line of sight was reduced to 20″.  Think about that.

Frank is really my kryptonite.  I don’t think I’ve ever beaten him; it’s weird.

The range restriction on shooting didn’t handicap him nearly as much as it could have because I was all up in his face as quickly as possible.  The movement penalty was a huge problem for me, though.  Early on his Librarian and the Terminators assaulted the Bloodthirster, who pasted the Librarian as quickly as possible.  (Null Zone bad!)

The terminators, and then Shrike, ended up chewing their way through the small unit of Bloodletters before getting stuck in with the large unit in a combat that lasted the rest of the game.  Bloodthirsters died to massed fire, which is usually what kills them.

In the end, it was a pretty close game.  Had my last Bloodcrusher survived long enough to toss some attacks on Shrike in the last round, we’d probably have drawn.  A very good game, though.

Game 3

vs. Scott Ripley’s Blood Angels

(probably going to get this wrong, but we’ll try)

HQ
Company Captain – Combi-melta, Power Weapon

Elites
Furioso Dreadnought – Librarian, Blood Lance, Sanguine Sword, Extra Armor, Magna-Grapple
Furioso Dreadnought – Blood Talons, Extra Armor, Magna-Grapple
Sanguinary Priest – Powerfist, Meltabombs
Corbulo

Troops
Scouts x 5 – Sniper Rifle x5
Tactical Squad x10 – Missile Launcher, Power Sword, Plasmagun
– Rhino – Extra Armor
Assault Squad x10 – Hand Flamer, Power Weapon
– Razorback – TL Lascannon, Extra Armor

Fast Attack
Vanguard Veterans x5 – Power Weapon, Meltabombs, Plasma Pistol

Heavy Support
Devastator Squad x5 – Lascannon x2, Missile Launcher x2
Storm Raven – TL Lascannon, TL Multimelta, Extra Armor, Locator Beacon

Scenario involved d3 Strength 6 meteors falling from the sky and hitting non-vehicle units on a 6 and vehicles on a 5 and a 6.  Ultimately, they really didn’t cause anything to happen, though.

This game was… not great.  Scott’s models weren’t even in the neighborhood of WYSIWYG.  I’m down with the occasional, “This Stormbolter is really a Heavy Flamer,” sort of thing.  This was altogether different.  Guys had weapons that they didn’t have, all sorts of things.

Also, he started his entire army in Reserve.  Now, I get that this sounds a little hypocritical coming from a Daemon player (trust me: I’d love to be able to bring them all in at the beginning of the game), but I’ve found that keeping your entire army in reserve is a great way to start the game off on the wrong foot.

Finally, his converted Storm Raven was… let’s charitably call it enormous.  Built out of a Star Wars shuttle with a Rhino stuck on the front, it was at least 4″x12″.  That would probably be okay, except then he stuck Corbulo with his aura effect in it… that aura had a range that covered something like a third of the table!

I wiped out his Devastators with a Soul Grinder in the second turn, which meant he really didn’t have anything with which to deal with my Bloodthirsters.  He threw his Dreadnoughts at them.  This was, in a word, awesome.  Khorne created Bloodthirsters with the express purpose of completely bitchifying Dreadnoughts.  The Furioso wouldn’t even get the chance to think about swinging before the ‘Thirster would vomit five penetrating hits into its face.  The sheer pwnitude involved in ‘Thirster-on-Furioso action was enough to really improve my attitude about the game.

Overall, I made it out of the day 1/2/0, which isn’t anything to complain about.  I had two good games, plus a third that ended on an up-note.

More significantly, I won the Player’s Choice award!  It was supposed to be a conflation of all of the various soft scores, but it looks like it worked out to be mostly an Appearance ranking thing.  I’m very flattered and proud about this.  Honestly, I think the display board is what pushed it over the edge: there were a lot of really awesome armies there (like Doug’s and Kevin’s, which were my two favorites).

Got My Game On

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I managed to get in several games this week!

Battle Missions

Tuesday, I met up with Jeff to throw down some Battle Missions.  (My first time actually using the book.)

He was running his very cool Gue’vesa IG army: everything’s converted up to be Tau-ish, from his Valkyrie converted from Devilfish, Piranha and Valk parts to his robotic Sisters of Battle built from Necron and Tau bits.  Both games were at 2,000.

I was running the same 2,000 point Khornate Daemon list I ran at Battle for the Cure.

Warp Rift

We decided to kick things off with a Chaos Daemon mission: I rolled for it and got Warp Rift.  (12″ around “rift” in the center of the board.  Defender deploys anywhere 12″ away from the rift.  Daemons can Deep Strike as normal, or can “walk on” the table from the rift.)

I lost, by kind of a lot.  I had trouble getting past the leafblower: something would get to one of his squads, obliterate it and then get blown away by the squad behind the freshly deadified squad.  Still, it was a neat mission, and was a fun game.  I’ll definitely have to build a Warp Rift terrain piece to use for this in the future.

War of Attrition

We had time for another game before closing and we’d decided that it was only fair to play an IG mission.  Two of the missions looked… bad for us due to the nature of my army.  We weren’t going to get a good game out of Bloodletters slogging a quarter of the way across the board before being blasted away by lasguns, so we settled on War of Attrition: deployment zones that put us near each other and the ability to recycle Troops choices.

I fiddled with my list a bit, as I don’t consider my 2K list to be very good: split up the 16 ‘Letter squad into 2×8 ‘Letter squads and swapped out two Daemon Princes for two Soul Grinders.

Suprisingly, this game felt closer, though I still got my teeth kicked in.  It ultimately boiled down to one side of the board seeing us trade a Bloodletter squad for two infantry squads each turn (because the Bloodletters would come on close enough to assault that turn and the Guardsmen would come on close enough to rapid fire them into nothingness; rinse and repeat) and big nasty things trashing tanks and being blown away on the other side.

Again, also a lot of fun.

Conclusion

I’m definitely sold on Battle Missions.  They’re fun, thematic and don’t require custom army lists.

One thing that I noticed is how differently they played from the core missions despite the changes being relatively subtle.   There’s a lesson here: a light touch.  There’s an inclination in scenario writing to throw a lot of different things in, and I think this does a great job of showing how just a few small changes makes for a significantly different game.

I expect that my default 40K setting for the next several months (at least) will be, “Let’s try some Battle Missions.”

Malifaux

The next day, I met Thalaric at Game Parlor to have him walk me though how to play Malifaux.  I don’t really process or understand rules until I see them in action and, frankly, Malifaux system is so different there’s no way I could have grokked them without having someone sit down with me and answer a question every 30 seconds.

I was running the Witch Hunters crew I picked up at Madicon, Chris started out running the Cult of December.

The first game probably doesn’t even qualify as a game.  More a matter of going through the motions.  “There’s no reason to cast Flaming Bullets on Samael, but I’m going to do it because I need to understand how it works.”  That sort of thing.

Second game was a bit more of the same, but it progressed much more smoothly.  Also, it became clear that Sonia Criid vs. Rasputina is not a good matchup, as the former is really pretty much designed to kick the latter in the face, hard.

Third game was more of an actual game.  Chris switched over to his Viktorias crew.  The game was surprisingly close… a very close win for me.

The game was interesting enough for me to decide to buy a few more minis for it, though my opinion of the game remains… complex.  I’d like to get in a few more games before I write up a full post about the game.

Battle for the Cure!

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Saturday was Battle for the Cure… the first of what is bound to be many.

To say that it was successful would be to understate.  Game Vault was, as always, an excellent host.  Turnout was great. (With 24/25? people?)  The scenarios were solid.  We raised an $1,405 for the Race for the Cure.

That’s right.  $1,405.

The silent auction did well; there were a lot of things (backpacks, Flames of War sets) donated by Game Vault and Games Workshop, several painted minis (one of which, an Azrael painted by double-Golden Daemon and Forgeworld Best in Show winner Andrew Wylie, went for ~$110!) as well as several folks offering painting services.  My offer to paint a squad of ~10 models ended up going for $130!  (A sum that is as ridiculous as it is flattering.)  Frank did a magnificent job putting it all together.

All three of my games were extremely close.

My list:

MAXIMUM KHORNAGE
Chaos Daemons – 2,000 points
HQ
Bloodthirster – Death Strike, Unholy Might
Bloodthirster – Death Strike, Unholy Might
Elites
Bloodcrushers x4 – Fury of Khorne, Icon of Khorne, Instrument of Khorne
Troops
Bloodletters x16 – Fury of Khorne, Icon of Khorne
Bloodletters x8 – Fury of Khorne, Icon of Khorne
Fast Attack
Flesh Hounds x8 – Karanak, Fury of Khorne
Flesh Hounds x8 – Fury of Khorne
Heavy Support
Daemon Prince – Mark of Khorne, Death Strike, Instrument of Chaos, Iron Hide
Daemon Prince – Mark of Khorne, Death Strike, Instrument of Chaos, Iron Hide
Daemon Prince – Mark of Khorne, Death Strike, Instrument of Chaos, Iron Hide

Game 1

My first game was against fellow IFLer Mike Gatewood’s Eldar.  Scenario was built around getting to an objective in the middle of the board and hanging onto it.  Secondary victory condition was modified Kill Points, tertiary was table quarters.

The first half of the game was him charging me, me counter-charging him, him counter-charging me, and so on.  It looked like the bulk of the game was going to be spent in a big furball that sucks up every unit on the board until… :pop: all of his models in the throwdown evaporated.  A lot of back-and-forth.

Other highlights included five Bloodletters pwned the Avatar in one round of combat, as well as an unending battle between a Daemon Prince and a Wraithlord.  (Toughness 8 is tough!).

I ended up losing, but it was close. His third Wraithlord’s Move Through Cover roll was responsible for a 17 point swing: had he rolled nothing higher than a 4, I’d have pulled it off.  He rolled a 5, though, and killed the crap out of the scraps of Bloodletters that were holding onto the objective.

A really great, close game.

Game 2

My second game was against another fellow IFLer, Mark Callan, and his Salamanders.  Scenario was built around a “three day battle:” odd numbered turns had Dawn of War.  Five objectives.  Secondary was normal Kill Points, tertiary was table quarters.

This game was hard to judge.  I was unable to get a single wound through a Stormshield.  If you had a Stormshield, you were invincible.  I have to admit that this got a little frustrating.

Again, a lot of back and forth.  I killed the living crap out of anything that didn’t have a Stormshield, though.

What was shocking was that we tied in every way: we tied on objectives, we tied on Kill Points, we tied on table quarters.  I won the game with one point: I had a unit in his deployment zone, which good for a single bonus point.

It was a good game.  The Storm Shield thing drove me up a wall, but it was exciting and close despite that.

Game 3

I have to admit that I forgot the name of my third opponent.  He was running Space Wolves.  Scenario was built around a extra “runner” character and having them camp an objective in the center of the table.  Again, Kill Points, quarters.

This game started out a bit frustrating.  It was hard to tell where one squad started and the other ended (because they were a mishmash of marines, space wolves and chaos marines).  His Thunderwolves were on cavalry bases, of all things.  (“Canis Wolfborn being on a big base doesn’t mean all Thunderwolves are supposed to be on a big base.  Besides, they don’t even sell big bases.”  I expressed 1) why that that’s pure ridiculosity and 2) that they do sell them.  He spaced them out as a result, though, so I really can’t complain.)

It chugged along.  Not a whole lot of back and forth initially: just starting at one end and chewing it up.  Had extremely good luck chasing the Thunderwolves and a full squad of Grey Hunters off the table.

The last three rounds saw everything I had trying to kill his runner and him trying to kill mine.  Ultimately, I was able to wear his runner down and, in the very last round of the game, free my runner from combat.

I’m curious to see the final scores, but I can’t complain about three close games (or two wins).

The event was extremely successful, so we’re definitely going to see a repeat next year.  Hopefully, with more lead-in, we’ll be able to get the extra support we almost got this year (but couldn’t, because we didn’t have enough lead-in).