Sunday, September 30, 2007

Task Force Manticore: Witch Hunters 2500

HQ

Canoness - inferno pistol, blessed weapon, cloak of St. Aspira, mantle of Ophelia, jump pack, book of St. Lucius, frag grenades

Inquisitor Lord - liber heresius, psychic hood, carapace armor, auspex, 2 Chirurgeons, 1 Acolyte (carapace armor), 3 Heavy Bolter Servitors

ELITES

Eversor Assassin

3 Death Cult Assassins

TROOPS

10 Sisters of Battle - meltagun, storm bolter, imagifer
Veteran Sister Superior - book of St. Lucius

10 Sisters of Battle - meltagun, storm bolter, imagifer
Veteran Sister Superior - book of St. Lucius
Rhino - extra armor, smoke launchers

Infantry Platoon
Command Squad - Officer (bolter), 2 plasma guns, lascannon
2 Infantry Squads - plasma gun, lascannon

Armored Fist Squad
Infantry Squad - plasma gun, lascannon
Chimera - multilaser, hull heavy bolter, smoke launchers, extra armor

Armored Fist Squad
Infantry Squad - plasma gun, lascannon
Chimera - multilaser, hull heavy bolter, smoke launchers, extra armor

FAST ATTACK

8 Seraphim - 2 hand flamers
Veteran Sister Superior - power weapon

2 Sentinels - autocannons

1 Sentinel - autocannon, searchlight

HEAVY SUPPORT

Leman Russ - hull heavy bolter, sponson heavy bolters, heavy stubber, extra armor, rough terrain modification

Exorcist - extra armor

10 Retributors - 4 heavy bolters, imagifer
Veteran Sister Superior - book of St. Lucius

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Tournament: Thor's Hammer ('Ard Boyz) 9-22-07

I was looking forward to the 'Ard Boyz tournament since it was first announced (to me, at least) at the citywide a couple of months back. I like to play the field when it comes to regular weekend tourneys, but I really wanted to optimize the chances of making it to the regionals. After some deliberation, I decided to play at Thor's Hammer, having had the most success with my Guard and Witch Hunter armies on their particular terrain boards. There was a total of 18 contenders, made up of some familiar faces, some strangers, and everyone stayed for the whole shebang, playing through to the end. The Emperor was shining down on my little coed company of heroes, and after three great games I came in at first place! Very satisfying, and I picked up some nice reinforcements for my future Eldar army. What's the prize at the crack smoking contest? More crack, of course.

With the increased points limit, I saw an excuse to add a servitor/chirurgeon Inquisitor retinue and Eversor/Death Cultist "demise" combo to my usual witch hunter/inducted guard list. I don't know if I always played them as described in the BOLS tactica, but these units were absolutely critical to my success today. Hardly anyone shoots at the inquisitor's servitors! I love it! Even though they're aggravating plenty of squads with BS4 heavy bolter fire, I think they just kinda fade into the background. Unless an enemy is totally committed to wipe out the unit (and devoting plenty of fire to a backfield pest unit rather than a forward assault/objective taker unit), the one or two wounds that come their way pretty much evaporate, especially with a cover save. I remembered many of the more elusive Witch Hunters rules today, with the notable exception of the Eversor's self-destruct. Verdammt! Such a complicated list. It just so happened that none of my opponents fielded any psychic offense, so the psychic hood was something of a waste, but I will still keep it to deal with Eldar and Chaos (and any Wierdboyz down the line). The liber heresius gave me table edge choice each match, and I rolled first turn in every game. Overall my luck was excellent, but I also had a couple of downswings that temporarily threatened to cast me into the abyss. Another big factor was surprise - few people are extensively familiar with the Hereticus' capabilities. But then again, noone expects the Inquisition! Burn the heretic! Kill the mutant! Purge the unclean!

Game 1 - Space Marines (White Scars) - Seek and Destroy


First round I drew the lava board against Russell's Star Wars Storm Trooper army (complete with galactic empire logo banners and a Vaderesque Emperor's Champion). The mission was seek and destroy (annihilation). I guess I just thought of White Scars as a vanilla dex list with a specific assembly of traits (bike-heavy), but Russell's armybuilder list was printed as if W.S. were a chapter with their own codex. Maybe the truth is somewhere in the middle...? In any case, it was a fairly diverse assembly of marines with a couple of small bike squads, a rhino tac squad, sniper scouts, rocket launcher dev squads, an assault squad led by a chaplain, a rhino command squad, and a venerable dreadnought. I was able to infiltrate the Eversor fairly far forward, and first turn he jumped around the center hill to cut through one of the bike squads, following up into the assault squad that had just jumped past. First turn also let me stop his command squad's rhino in its tracks, which was something of demoralizer for him. I used the Chimera and Rhino to screen out the scouts and dreadnought, wiped out the other flank with the seraphim and exorcist, and used the firing line to erase everyone else in sight. The death cultists didn't see any action but stayed around to counter-attack anyone who got too close. The eversor did quite enough by himself! In the end, I had nearly 2300 points left on the board and I had killed everything but the dread, the scouts, and one devastator squad. Witch Hunters win, massacre!

Game 2 - Chaos - Take and Hold


I had only witnessed Sam's Chaos Rhino Emporium from afar at Battleforge, until we were paired together for the second round on one of the felt tables, fighting the take and hold mission. First turn let me take down a couple transports right off the bat, leaving their riders stranded in the B.O.B. The other rhino squads drove forward towards the center objective and deployed behind them. With not much else to shoot at, I quickly took the rest of the empty whips out, giving him some permanent cover to huddle behind and wait to grab the objective. I hereby call that an ARR! (Artificial Rhino Reef). His havocs also became early target priorities, and I either destroyed or screened out both units effectively for the entire game. They also missed quite a bit (I have noticed that my own havocs fail to deliver in key situations, even though they're technically relatively good shooters), and only took out two of my sentinels and a guard squad. Other than my Leman Russ, he was unable to reduce my heavy firepower by much, and so his deep-striking obliterators and terminators didn't last too long once they arrived. Due to some poor placement on my part, he shot up the eversor early on, and though the two death cultists nearby survived to charge one of the marine squads, they didn't make much of an impact and were wiped out handily by the unit's powerfist champion. In the end, I had four scoring units within the center ring to his three, and won bonus match points for winning the objective. Witch Hunters win, solid victory, objective accomplished!

Game 3 - Tyranids - Recon


Third game on the same felt board, mission: recon. Steve had a big bug list with an even mix of gaunts and genestealers mixed in. Seeing as how I'd never actually played against a bugzilla list before, I don't think I consciously designed the witch hunter/guard army to deal with it, but in this game it felt pretty goddamn tailor-made. Not to mention the dice were hot for me, too. The canonness, seraphim, and sisters on my right flank repelled the flying hive tyrant, minifex, gaunts, and genestealers, while my left harrassed a venomfex and more genestealers. In the middle, my main gunline did their best to repel the approaching gaunts and various fexes. The large spinegaunt squad crashed into the two armored fist units, and were repelled or tied up in assault for most of the game. I killed a ton of fodder with mass heavy bolters early on, but even then I was cringing about the approaching wave of monstrous creatures about to crash on my shores. A couple of the large ones made it, but the citizen soldiers of the Imperium turned up the heat right at the last minute and wiped out everything but the guarded hive tyrant and less than half of the spinegaunts. When one of the last heavy fexes went rampaging into my retributor squad, the cannoness and eversor burst from the nearby building and charged into assault. The eversor wounded the big beast a time or two, but it was the canoness who used one last faith point for hand of the emperor to fell the big lug. I have no problem saying that heretofore I was pretty scared of the big bug comp, and while I don't know if I'll fare so well against it next time, it was nice to stand up to it at least once and come out on top. Witch Hunters win, major victory, objective accomplished!

Sunday, September 9, 2007

Tournament: Battleforge Games 9-8-07

I played in the usual monthly tournament yesterday, taking the Purging of Tir IV Witch Hunters/Guard list. I broke even, winning a slaughter first round, losing by slaughter the second round, and fighting out a draw in the third. I didn't place or anything but it was some good experience with the girls.

Game 1 - Space Marines - Cleanse


My first opponent, playing on the chaos board, was probably the youngest I've ever been paired against. After we straightened out a small issue with his list we set into the mission: Cleanse. I personally have had great luck with my witch hunter/guard army in cleanse missions, they can usually sweep out to become fairly intractable in the adjacent quarters. He had some small tac squads, assault marines, a small terminator squad, and a couple of devastator squads. I lost the Leman Russ when he rolled first turn and destroyed it with a chance glancing krak missile. My canonness and seraphim started the tourney out with a bang, jumping into and wiping out his assault squads with divine guidanced flamers and great rounds of close combat. The eversor (I forgot my own at home and borrowed one of Mkerr's models - thanks Mkerr) wasn't shy either and together my assault wing rolled him up from one side and almost all the way into his home quarter. My guard heavy weapons and Exorcist chewed up the terminator and devastator squad in the other adjacent quarter well enough to claim it as well. Witch Hunters win, victorious slaughter.

Game 2 - Thousand Sons (Chaos) - Take and Hold


Second match was against Robert, again on the chaos board, who had a great-looking Thousand Sons army with a greater demon, nine double-wound terminators, two squads of flamers, two squads of Thousand Sons in rhinos, and a couple of predators. I rolled first turn and launched towards the center. My eversor was able to dash over to his lascannon predator and attach a meltabomb, but I rolled a '1' for the damage result and his demonic possession meant I accomplished absolutely nothing. I should have known from my previous match against a tzeentch army to approach them a bit more warily. I was able to tie up the lord of change with a single squad of sisters for three turns, but the sheer numbers and resilience of the terminators and flamers that teleported into the center of the table was too much for all the heavy weapon and divine guidance I could dish out. I don't know how much it would have affected things but I did forget about the sisters' shield of faith ability in the midst of all the tzeentch magic shooting around. Lesson learned. In the end, his many units near the center objective gave him a ton of points and I lost by victorious slaughter.


Here's a picture of the Lord of Change fighting my battle sisters. I know this came out pretty bad but it was a cool fight and the sharpen effect on my photoprocessor janked it up in a neat way.

Game 3 - Space Marines - Recon

* Crap! No Photo! *


My third opponent, playing on the desert board, was another basic space marine army, with a specialization in venerable dreadnoughts and terminator squads. He had a couple small tac and dev squads as well as a predator annihilator. I managed to roll first turn but could only stun the predator. Unfortunately the eversor had a poor avenue of approach and had to wait for the seraphim to catch up before moving in, screened behind some dummy chimeras. Later, both of his terminator squads deep struck into my left side, behind the seraphim. The assassin jumped to engage one squad, but the seraphim lost three of their number and i rolled double 6's to break and high tail it for my table edge. The next turn I forgot about the "light of the emperor" act of faith (allows them to regroup automatically), and they continued their exodus off the table edge, because I figured the enemy terminators were too close to allow my birds to stop and regroup. Aw shucks. A guard squad and sisters squad died fighting back the terminator captain and one of the dreds as they advanced on one of my objectives. Luckily on my last turn the sentinel and disabled exorcist jumped forward to contest the objective. On my right my cannoness and immolator shot up the very edge of the board to try and sweep around into one of his objective markers. They overran the commander and marine squad protecting it but the immolator was destroyed in our last turn, denying me the objective. After the dust settled, he controlled two objectives and I controlled just one. Technically the game was a draw but he was only short of a victory some 50 points. It was probably the most enjoyable game overall, with some great shooting and assault on both sides, and then a bystander pointed out my "light of the emperor" oversight in a way that was a bit irritating. If you want to comment about someone's mistake, something which I understand comes from a good place, i.e., you wanting to be helpful and share from your own experience, still - don't start the conversation out with "Can I ask you a question?" and say things like, "I was just really confused when you did that." If you want to discuss the issue, just come right out and give the advice you want to give. The studious, incredulous routine comes off as disengenuous and arrogant and does a disservice to the friendly and benevolent fellow enthusiast you may otherwise be. I appreciate the heads up, but I'm just saying.

No worries, it was three fun games, and I'm excited about getting my 2500 hereticus army together soon. After some advice and consideration, I'm going down to 8 seraphim to make both divine guidance AND spirit of the martyr more dependable in the early game. A squad size of seven would actually be the sweet spot - 81% to roll above and below seven with an imagifer or VSSS - but I like round numbers for victory points/scoring unit purposes. I converted three repentia into death cultists and swapped them, one sisters rhino, and two more sentinels in for the big ole repentia squad. Good riddance. I think it's the right decision. I got my servitors in and converted up their heavy bolter arms from three I had left over from guard weapons teams. Also in my order was my last chaos terminator, making ten in total.

Friday, September 7, 2007

The Purging of Tir IV: Witch Hunters 2000

HQ

Cannoness - jump pack, frag grenades, blessed weapon, inferno pistol, cloak of St. Aspira

ELITES

Inquisitor - hammer of the witches, liber heresius

Eversor Assassin

TROOPS

9 Battle Sisters - meltagun, storm bolter, imagifer
Veteran Sister Superior - book of St. Lucius

9 Battle Sisters - meltagun, storm bolter, imagifer
Veteran Sister Superior - book of St. Lucius

Infantry Platoon
Command Squad - junior officer with bolter, 2 meltaguns, 2 plasma guns
Squad 1 - plasma gun, lascannon
Squad 2 - plasma gun, lascannon

Armored Fist Squad - plasma gun, lascannon
Chimera - extra armor, smoke launchers

Armored Fist Squad - plasma gun, lascannon
Chimera - extra armor, smoke launchers

FAST ATTACK

Sentinel - lascannon

9 Seraphim - 2 twin flame pistols
Veteran Sister Superior - eviscerator, plasma pistol, book of St. Lucius

HEAVY SUPPORT

Exorcist - extra armor, dozer blade

Leman Russ - sponson heavy bolters, hull heavy bolter, heavy stubber, extra armor, rough terrain modification

Immolator - extra armor, smoke launchers

Monday, September 3, 2007

Action Report: Imperial Guard vs. Chaos 9-03-07

Toggog's newly reorganized band of marauders conducted a surprise raid today, fighting the Tiefwalder Red Rifles for control of a power substation in the forested wilds of Tiefwald itself. The newest arrivals served their master well and their abilities complemented the force nicely. Toggog himself was downed early by heavy ordnance and ambushing veterans, but Sorcerer Aziz survived nearly the entire battle, seducing several units out of cover and wiping out two infantry squads by himself, normally by overrunning them after they broke and ran from close combat. The havocs killed some infantry but were unable to damage any vehicles; they were destroyed in the end. Two berzerkers survived an initial devastating earthshaker hit to help the obliterators teleport right next to the leman russ. Immediately they opened up with their multimeltas and destroyed it. The berzerkers were finally wiped out after that but the obliterators would survive to destroy a hellhound and contest their sector. On the other side of the battle, the Thousand Sons burst forward early and, for a short time, kept cover behind their rhino, opening up on one squad dragged into range by the dread Sorcerer Aziz. However, the emperor smiled on Tiefwald, and the biggest guns of the Big Green aimed straight and true, quickly reducing the Thousand Sons to ashes. Behind their smoldering remains, a huge Terminator squad hurried over to contest the adjacent sector. At the very climax of the battle, they fell under a mass of fire from infantry and armor and not enough survived fight off the nearby Imperial forces. The buildings and landscape were scorched and pockmarked by ordnance and small arms but the substation and the sector was back under control, at least for the time being. Imperial Guard wins, solid victory!

Overall I liked how the rumored Chaos played out, even if they didn't win their first game. I got first turn and was able to put a couple of early wounds on the demon prince, facilitating his early demise. He was on his way to surely wreak major havoc when I scored hits with both my deep-striking veteran squads, right next to him, mucho BS4 melta and plasma, adios. The big prince is cheaper now, true, but his old demon armor and feel no pain will be sorely missed under heavy fire like that. Gone before their time, the thousand sons were basically knocked out in one turn by the demolisher and basilisk's combined pieplates - I had some great luck with scattering this game. The Terminators were thick and it took my Guard-quantity guns to make a dent in them. They might have been better off deep-striking, maybe not, I can't really decide. It's a big risk to keep their expensive unit in limbo, but their early turns were mostly spent moving up - although to be fair, I did manage to pin them first turn on a freak leadership roll with the ratlings after only killing one! Cheesy. I'm seriously considering dropping their icon of tzeentch for a cheaper chaos glory version. I think the points will be better spent elsewhere, like getting two more havocs or a icon of khorne on the bikes (who honestly deserve it for their berzerker paint scheme and iconography). I really liked how the deep-striking obliterators turned out, coming in relatively late in the game and into a place where I couldn't put much fire into them. That accurate teleport is gold for them. And last but not least: lash! Well, what can I say? It worked just like it was supposed to, rolling 8's for the movement almost every time, really screwing up one end of my gun line by yanking fools out of cover and into shooting and assault range of the thousand sons and terminators. C2 kept him separate from the other assault units, and he definitely dealt his fair share of damage, but I think he might have been more effective working with them in concert. Still, it was the first game with the new configuration and next game I expect the list to be that much more deadly.

Saturday, September 1, 2007

Project Updates...

I finished converting a bike for my half-a-sorcerer and applied some Citadel black spray primer. Unfortunately it came out wet as hell and gloppy. I had to do some emergency toothbrush action to get most of it out of the cracks before it set. It may not make too much of a difference in the end (at least I hope not), but annoying nonenetheless. Their white spray seems more powdery but the black one came out too wet and thick. It was difficult to get even coverage without applying it too thick and losing details. I'm undecided on how my Thousand Sons will end up but I think I'm going to give them a white base to be sure. Those models are too interesting to glop up with that shitty black.

In the rulebook, I can't find any reason that a biker wouldn't get +1 for 2 close combat weapons in assault. Maybe I'm crazy and that was a 3rd edition thing, and they just haven't equipped bikers with bolt pistols and close combat weapons before the upcoming chaos book. That means that my champion will get 5 power weapon attacks charging, one other biker will get 4, and the two with meltaguns will get 3 each. Not too bad for a screen/mobile teleport homer.

My Eversor is all painted up and just needs basing, and the last of my Inquisitor retinue is coming in soon. I also got a bird to serve as my Space Wolf Rune Priest's Chooser of the Slain. A great piece of wargear and it's a vulture to boot. Thanks to Aventine for helping me out with that.