The Swollen Third Sphere Game 2

I played another 1850 game with my Tau on Sunday against Hart’s Chaos Space marines/Chaos Daemons hybrid list. It was an Emperor’s Will/Vanguard Strike game. I had little problem shooting the everliving hell out of his army, but it came down to his Nurgle Lord with one wound sliding into home to contest my home objective at the last second, and the game ended on Turn 5, so he took it 4-1 (I got first blood). Some further notes on Tau after this game:

I love gun drones. They seriously put out a ton of shots together with the Ethereal Storm of Fire bubble, and are also handy to have in the same area as your fire warriors for providing supporting fire. BS2 is no big deal when the guns are twin-linked and S5. Plus they can move out, pour shots into enemies, and pull back to serve as assault screens. Since any of the heavy tanks and the devilfish already have one gun, taking SMS instead means one gun would usually be snap-fired (unless you’ve got great cover). I’d rather have the cute little drones to fly around and be annoying, especially since they don’t give up kill points.

Since the Sky Ray is my only unit (currently) with skyfire, and I’ve only played against Chaos armies with dragons so far, it can be a little bit challenging to bring down dragons the first time they show up on the table. But for the second time, at some point the dragon flew over my fire warrior nest, and with help from the Sky Ray markerlights, enough S5 infantry survived to snap fire into the rear armor 10 and wounded or destroyed it. It’s always a tough call on how many Sky Ray seeker missiles to commit to a particular target. I have been throwing 3-4 at a time up at the dragons, and it has not been enough to do the job. It just seems like a waste to go ahead and launch all 6 at once, leaving the Sky Ray to just be a roving double markerlight vehicle (if it doesn’t move). I eagerly anticipate fighting other races’ fliers to see if I can do any better against AV 10 or 11. Flying monstrous creatures have so far not been a problem given the amount of pulse rounds I can put out at close range.

Disruption pods, still worth it. I made plenty of cover saves this game because of them.

I’m iffy on my TL-flamer/burst cannon crisis team, since they are sort of a delicate one-trick pony, but they only cost 126 points, so it’s not like I’d get much by cashing them back in. Plus they give me a deep-strike unit that I can either take to the backfield for contesting and/or the Linebreaker point, or use my Ethereal’s a homing beacons on my gunline for some accurate anti-swarm flames.

Still waiting on my Broadsides to come in… don’t think GW has even shipped them to the states yet. Bah. Playing with a second hammerhead and the stealth suits (especially their homing beacon) is still fun for now.

The Tau firebase is very difficult to get close to and not get the hell blasted out of you. If they don’t make the charge in one fell swoop, they are probably within range of an Ethereal Storm of Fire barrage during the Tau turn, they must then survive all the supporting fire overwatch, which is also enhanced by Storm of Fire. Things that can charge from great distances, such as Maulerfiends or beasts, are high priority targets. But even if an enemy does make it through gun drone screens to a fire warrior squad, the fire warriors will either be wiped out or break, and the assaulters will probably not survive a second turn to take anything else out. It looks like the key to assaulting Tau is either getting them to spread out somehow, or whittling down the firebase with your own shooting before jumping in for up-close carnage. Obviously, heldrakes can be a big problem to keeping up your gunline resilience. I’m trying to get better at model placement to control Heldrake movement over and around my firebase. Again, if you can make them fly past you and get your pulse rifles in the rear armor, bringing them down becomes a much more reasonable proposition.

Having 3d6 jet pack moves with my Shadowsun/low-AP crisis suits is cra-mazing. Given their awesome range, as long as you are within 12 inches, you are putting in 6 S6 AP2 shots and 5 S8 Ap1 shots, re-rolling ones, and then bouncing away up to 18 inches. I wish I could afford to put another few drones with that unit to soak up wounds from things like the baleflamer or krak missiles, but I’m not sure how to get the points. I did give the fusion/plas suits advanced targeting systems this time, but it didn’t do much for this particular game (Hart made great look-out-sir rolls and cover saves for his Nurgle Lord and accompanying plague marine unit).

Last Few Weeks Whathaveyou

 A few pictures from the last few weeks of 40k for me. Even if I can't seem to find the time or desire to write a full post on a single subject, I feel compelled to at least briefly keep tabs on what I've been doing. The above game was my necrons, including a then-newly-painted Triarch Stalker, against Bigred Larry's pre-Heresy Deathguard. If I remember right, Larry came away the victor by one point. Bigred turned it into a battle report for BOLS that made it to the site not too long ago. This was a really fun game, as I brought some new and old things and was playing with a pretty mixed demo-type army (always my favorite). The Pre-Heresy Deathguard had some interesting little tricks, though I was able to keep his super double plasma pistol guy from making his money back.

On the second weekend in January I drove up to Killeen for a one day, 3-game tournament at Battlefield Games. Big store, plenty of merchandise, nice staff and players. I was playing with a resorb foot lord in a big blob of warriors, two more 10-man warrior squads, a triarch stalker, a 10-man tesla immortal squad, 2 5-man immortal squads with stormteks in Night Scythes, 6 wraiths with 3 whip coils, 1 gloom prism spyder, and 2 annihilation barges. I came up against another Necron player in the first game playing 2 destroyer lords, 3 squads of 20 warriors, 2 or 3 squads of 5 immortals, 6 separate tomb spyders, and 3 scarab swarms. I made a big error in letting the scarabs make a first turn charge into my big warrior unit and accidentally sacrificed the lord, which basically meant the rest of my army was tied up in fending off scarabs and spyders for the remainder of the game. I think if we'd had time for a 7th turn, I might have snuck away with earned more points, but as it was, my very friendly but very boring army-having opponent won pretty big. At least his silver tide was fully painted!

The second mission was pretty whacked (no units could cross the space between vanguard strike deployment zones for at least 3 turns, and I drew double manticore guard as my opponent!) but I managed to pull out a win nonetheless. The main mission was based on getting the most points in models into the center. In just 2 turns, I was able to pile in and fight off his guard in order to pull out a massacre. Still, having the crap blasted out of you for 4 turns while you basically just fidget, not cool! For the third game I played a killpoints match against the new Dark Angels and completely wiped out my opponent's  mixed ravenwing/deathwing army after he basically came at me piecemeal as I was castled up. I fought off a big squad of ravenwing with my wraiths, shot up the small second unit with my firing line, and picked off a couple deathwing squads with the stalker and immortals. Late in the game, the stalker let me pour fire into his belial megaunit until the squad's apothecary just couldn't keep up with the damage I was dealing and he gave up the game. I ended up winning best appearance, and I think second overall (glad I brought the display board!). I will definitely head up there again for another 40k tourney later this year.

I was in Lubbock for a few days work and so I set up a game with a regular (Mitchell) at Stormcrow Games. This was a big store with plenty of space and tables. The folks were very friendly here too. I was playing another pretty mixed army with no flyers (couldn't fit em in my carry-on), a douchecanoe, a squad of spyders and scarabs, a stalker, an annihilation barge, and a bunch of infantry. For what I would consider balanced games, the stalker is so, so money and really should be taken out immediately. He enables you to lay down some serious rain when you need it most. He got bad reserve rolls for his dakkajet to come in, and he only managed to chew through my skirmish units before I mowed down almost his entire force. I held my flank with my canoelord, who, after getting his ride shot out from under him, stopped an entire battlewagon along with the choppa boys and weirdboy inside to prevent them from scoring an objective. A nice win, hopefully I will be welcome back in the future (if only for revenges sake)!

While I was at Stormcrow, I picked up a lonely metal farseer on their rack. This was the version with the singing spear making the devil horns - I already had the one with the staff and shuriken pistol, and I've been wanting to play with a legit second farseer lately, so I had to get him. Only now him is a her, since I adapted the head and sword arm to a female Shining Spear body and added a few more accoutremonts to finish the ladyseer out. I have an 1850 build I want to try with the two farseers and a 4-warlock seer council, 10 dire avengers in a scatter laser/shuriken cannon wave serpent, 4 squads of 3 jetbikes, a vyper squadron with scatter lasers and shuriken cannons, 2 fire prisms, and a falcon with 6 fire dragons including a pike exarch (super bonus melta killzone lol). Not a super competitive build but zappy and fast enough to take a bite while I use invisibility and fortune to keep my own damage dealers alive.

 Here's the pair:

The Awakening of the NDG

I haven't been able to muster the guster for a 40kology post in a long time, but I probably don't have that many readers anyway (not a pity party!). First thing, I HAVE been playing quite a bit, and only with the reawakened Necrones de Guerra. I made a video battle report a week or so ago that was going to be the start of something great, but but windows movie maker sucks a bag of assholes and I don't have the coin for an Apple, so for now that idea is sitting the bench. Also, my camera doesn't take high res video anyway, so nothing lost, etc.

So, the Necrons. This is my new favorite army, for sure. And my Berzerker Blood Angels were the culmination of a 15-year love affair with khorny skulltaking, so that's saying something. Maybe it's the rules, maybe it's the models, maybe it's the fact that only a few people locally are playing Necrons and I started out with a full army on day 1. I've had a fairly even mix of wins and losses but always enjoyed myself. I will note that against strongly competitive army lists, I haven't done so well. But screw those types anyway, who cares. So boring. Here's my favorite units to play:

* The Stormlord - If you've played only one game against the Stormlord, you might think he's either total cheese or a waste of points. If you've played two, you might be more lukewarm about him. In any case, I think he is a great idea for a Necron special character. The nightfighting and lightning can really change up your normal game, are great fluff-wise, and both come in handy against those little-shooting-box armies. And now that they faq'd the chronometron (though I still don't get what "phase" the beginning of the turn is), you're much more likely to keep it going for at least the first two to three turns. And destroying someone's most beloved vehicles before they have a chance to do anything is cracktastic. You know it's bad for you, but what a rush. And it's often more entertaining than devastating for the enemy. The last game I played, lightning wiped out both of Robert's small ratling squads in a single turn. Not a real gamechanger but totally hilarious: the shortest guys on the table!

* Wraiths - These guys are my linebackers. Whatever comes at you, they're likely to either wipe them out or tarpit them until you can move up some more gauss. Since I bumped my original squad of four up to six wraiths, I've only been loving them more. I just run em with 4 or 5 lash whips in there. Well worth the points. Sometimes I'll run a destroyer lord with them, burying him real good in a dense layer of wraithfat, and either charge them all in together or break him out of the squad at the last minute to go carve open some nearby tanks or stragglers. You have to watch out for whole gangs of powerfists, but you can usually see guys like that coming a ways off.

* Annihilation Barge - I magnetized my single barge, so for a while I was running Anrakyr the Traveler in a command barge. I had a lot of fun skimming around firing other people's vehicles at themselves, scything up their other vehicles, or just using that flat-out cover save to be a general pain in the ass to finish off. But after the FAQ took all the fun out of ole Ann-Racky, I switched to the slower, shootier barge species. Short range, but by the time nightfighting has run out, there's plenty of enemy stuff within 24 inches anyway.

* C'tan - Another fun unit that can make for a totally different game with the inevitable writhing worldscape ability. I was running mine with spirit dust for a while, but recently I switched to pyreshards, which I think are better and more S4 dice rolling fun! Stealth and grenades were just not adding that much to the C'tan experience. He usually underperforms in assault, so he usually camps out behind a nearby monolith or pick your targets carefully.

* Scarabs - Ok, ok, scarabs are cool too. I start with six and usually wait until I have Spyder'd them up to ten or twelve to let them off of the scarab leash. Those are really small leashes! Usually I'm totally fine with sacrificing a 90 point unit to take out a charging land raider, and I'm even more fine if they can stick around a little bit longer to annoy something else.

Here's some random pictures from recent games:

Against Brandon's Space Marines:



Against Kings' Mant-ass Warriors:



Against Will's Salamanders:



Against Rob's Dark Eldar:



And another game against Kings' Mant-assers:



Here's a bonus battle report against Kings' guard

Return of the Necrones de Guerra

A while back I bought my buddy Mack's Necron army. They've lain dormant waiting for the new codex and I'm excited to get them back on the battlefield. I took them out for a trial run the other day against Robert's Tzeentch demon army and ended up squeaking out a win, but more importantly, got to really experience how different they feel from other armies, including the Necrons of the previous codex. I had just enough models to put together a classic 2k list, with a modern general:

Imotekh Stormlord
Cryptek - harbinger of despair with nightmare shroud and veil of darkness
Destroyer Lord - warscythe, resurrection orb, semipternal weave
C'tan Shard - worldscape, dust
4 x 10 warriors
4 Wraiths - 4 lash whips
5 Destroyers
8 Scarab Swarms
Tomb Spyder - gloom prism, fabricator claw
Monolith

Robert was running a Lord of Change, 2 Tzeentch heralds on chariots, 3 squads of flamers, 4 squads of horrors including the Changeling, and 2 Tzeentch demon princes. We were playing for 4 objectives with Dawn of War Deployment and I went first. Things looked bleak when the Stormlord's gimmick stopped on the second turn before he had even dropped anything in, and then when he did, he wiped out Imotekh, the cryptek, and the attached warrior squad right away. I had nothing left to do except buckle down and go after the horrors and be prepared to fight for a draw. The destroyers, c'tan, and wraiths were able to take care of that fairly quickly. The warriors went down pretty easily, with the reanimation not having much of a positive effect. Because he didn't have much in the way of heavy strength guns, the monolith survived for quite a while but didn't do all that much damage. I did manage to suck up a few flamers with the door, which was probably the high point of the game. The scarab swarms didn't have any vehicles to eat, but they surprised a unit of flamers that would have otherwise wiped out my last troops unit. One of his chariots was mishapped to a far corner of the board late in the game, while the other one and the Lord of Change raced to push me off my last objective. The surviving wraiths and scarabs and the tomb spyder successfully held them at bay and I won 1-0.

After further consideration, I want to try playing with Nemesor Zandrekh for a while. At 185 points, he is a steal. He has great equipment choices, and for only 5 points above a similarly equipped lord, you're getting his master strategist buff/nerf powers (along with the dubious phased reinforcement ability). I think the nerf part of that ability is the more useful one, though stealth and tank hunters for my own guys will be nice, too. I want to try pairing him with a troop squad and a cryptek with a chronometron and try to keep him and his buds alive for a while. I picked up an annihilation barge that I'm pretty stoked on using. I had to repose and rebase all the models and fix a few broken ones, and since I'm already missing a few arms and legs here and there, I thought I'd go for a complete broke-down, emerging-from-the-swamp look. I'm going to take advantage of their already rusty-looking paint job, somehow incorporate water effects into the bases, and judiciously apply some hanging seaweed-looking goop from their limbs. I eventually want to paint the neon gun tubes, too, since none of the newer models use them and I always thought they looked a little off when light is generally painted on any other 40k miniature, rather than using some kind of effect that depends on the actual physical properties of the miniature.

Lately I'm generally over the competitive approach to 40k. I still prefer 1500-2000 point games with standard missions, but since I barely have enough time as it is to build, paint, and play for fun, I'm not inclined to spend that precious time messing with any kind of spam. If a unit is halfway decent, has a neat effect, and/or just looks cool, I'll include one in my collection; otherwise, I probably won't be motivated enough to paint it.

Action Report: Berzerkers vs. Space Marines

The Guillotine had their battlefield debut last night against my buddy Brandon's Void Dragon (vanilla) space marines. We rolled for a spearhead killpoints matchup, and I won the roll to go first. I decided to use the list I've described, but to drop a few marines from one assault squad and add in a jump pack chaplain. I joined Dante, the chaplain, and the jump priest to the jump assault squad, and threw the large foot assault squad, foot priest, and furioso in the storm raven. I had decided that I'd deep strike more if I got second turn, but when I got first, I just decided to group everybody together at the front line and go for the throat:



Here was Brandon's list:



Vulkan
5 th/ss terminators
Ironclad dreadnought with 2 missiles
10 sternguard with 3 combiplasmas, 3 combimeltas, fist sergeant, and rhino with hunterkiller
Tactical squad with flamer, multimelta, and TL assault cannon razorback
2 squads of 5 scouts with sniper rifles and missile launchers
Land raider crusader
2 multimelta heavy flamer land speeders
1 heavy bolter assault cannon land speeder
Thunderfire cannon



I moved forward first turn, shot the storm raven at one of the land speeders and stunned and immobilized it. In return, he exploded the storm raven and put a bunch of wounds on the assault squad with the thunderfire. Feel no pain helped, but not all that much. The jump priest died in the initial barrage, too. If I'd have deep struck the assault squad, they would have only had to weather one turn of shooting before getting to assault. As it was, the terminators jumped into them the next turn and wiped out the whole bunch with no trouble at all. Dante needs to stay away from thunder hammers!

We traded punches for the rest of the game. The furioso dropped a second land speeder and a scout squad before getting rended by a land speeder assault cannon. My foot assault squad and the sanguinary guard wiped the terminators with shooting and furious charge, dropped the ironclad with infernus pistols, but were then blown out of the woods by combined shooting from Brandon's whole army. The bikes chopped through one scout squad, then took off across the battlefield to run down one of the combat squaded tac units. The game ended on the 5th turn with Brandon up 9-8. A very bloody game! My MVP was probably the foot priest who enabled his squad and the sanguinary guard to kill the terminators.

Any advice on using the storm raven or deep striking with blood angels in general?

Action Report: Tyranids vs. Space Marines (The Anger Sharks) 12-8-07

Last Saturday I got in a 2000 point game at Ninja Pirates against Russell and his DIY chapter (using the Blood Angels codex). He had 3 Baal predators (I'm pretty sure we covered every triple testicle joke imaginable), a couple of standard assault squads, a veteran assault squad, 2 melta/asscan land speeders, a death company and chaplain, and a sanguiniously winged librarian with might of heroes. I was running the 2 squads of 3 winged talon/rending warriors for the first time, mixed in with my usual bug army: 2 sniperfexes, 3 scream-blast zopes, 5 6-man genestealer squads, a lictor, a simple dakkafex, a broodlord with a 6-man genestealer squad, and a flying dakkarant. The mission was cleanse, and I believe Russell went first.

This was a great game. The predators and land speeders chewed up several genestealer squads early on, including the Broodlord's team, leaving the stragglers to try and rip up assorted vehicles and assault jump squads. The Hive Tyrant was supporting a stealer squad moving into an adjacent quarter until things started to go bad for me in the middle. The winged warriors had been sent packing, and only one stealer squad remained to fight a standard assault and veteran squad, while nearby the Death Company hacked apart one carnifex and headed towards another. The Tyrant flew over, and together with the dakkafex they put the kibosh on the Death Company in shooting and assault. Eventually the Tyrant was killed, in a manner that eludes me just now, as well as one of my zoanthropes. Near the end of the game, Russell was looking to occupy my home quarter, as well as one of the adjacent quarters, with his maimed but essentially intact landspeeders and predators. The lictor and genestealers had managed to finish off the veterans and assault marines after sustaining heavy losses. Then, in stunning succession, a small squad of genestealers and two of the carnifexes leapt from cover to destroy all 3 of his predators in one turn. It was not enough to keep him from holding my home quarter, however, and when the smoke cleared, he had earned enough victory points to secure a crushing victory. Scree! The bugs scattered into the woods.

I think my main mistake was giving up so many troops to the ridiculous Baal loadouts. I extended myself too far, and thanks to his overcharged engines he managed to fend off two or three units at a time, whittling them down all the while. The armored part of his force is definitely the sharp end against nids. After this game, I decided to ditch the Broodlord entirely and drop a few other upgrades to buy scuttlers for all the stealer squads. The hive tyrant can live without enhanced senses, considering the rerolls he gets for shooting, but he'll keep toxin sacs for the extra odds against marines and vehicles in assault. He's a little cheaper in any case. The warriors are also cheaper now, after I took away their toxin sacs and adrenal glands. They can be startlingly ephemeral in the face of any decent size group of enemies. From now on they'll be either providing mobile synapse and counterassault for the guns of the army, or sneaking up on the more static portions and tying them up for a turn or two. The fexes and zopes were shooting like shit this game, but that happens sometimes. And psychic scream: you're definitely on a fast track to excision. Shape up or ship out!

Action Report: Imperial Guard vs. Death Guard 12-6-07

I played a 2000 point cleanse mission against Bigred from BOLS last Thursday using my imperial guard army. He was trying out for the first time his updated 2k death guard list, featuring a nurgle bike lord, three squads of 10 plaguemarines, five squads of 6 lesser demons, and three vindicators. In other words, a tar pit and a half. I knew going in that the bike lord and all the demons he would be able to summon were going to be my main threat. And I was right. I was able to destroy the vindicators fairly easily in the first two turns, but just as I feared, the bike lord pulled up in right front of my gun line in the second turn and started pooping out demons, who in turn began assaulting my squads immediately, tying up their guns and clogging up valuable LOS lanes for everyone behind them. And in case you're wondering, yes, red's mix of nurglings and plaguebearer bases does indeed extend his potential summoning turn charge. I was eventually able to kill a bunch of them with tank shooting, but the wave of plaguemarines following them wiped out just about everything I had. In the end, we both held an adjacent quarter and each other's home quarter (I managed to land grab with some deep-striking vets and a sentinel), but he swamped me with victory points from all the inflicted casualties. A loss for the Tiefwalders, but nevertheless it was a fun game with a very agreeable opponent.

The game pretty well summed up the main issues I have with my guard army. It's great for putting out tons of fire, and has a few fun little tricks, but if a few infantry units get pulled into assault, it's pretty much over. Consolidation and massacre moves allow enemies to get deeper and deeper into my lines, until they're eventually close enough to melta my tanks. Any squads that try to move away from the frays lose their shooting and they can't ever move far enough away to escape assault themselves in subsequent turns. It's a good army in the first couple of turns but gets shitty late-game, especially against any assault-themed force with a decent amount of intervening terrain. Next game I'm going to try using an eversor (and the requisite cheap inquisitor) for counterassault. Maybe down the line I'll be able to make those piggy rough riders and be able to go back to a pure guard force again.

Action Report: Tyranids vs. Imperial Guard 1500

I got in a game on Saturday against Kingsley while he was in town for the holidays. I used the same 1500 tyranid list I used at the last Ninja Pirates tournament, with the bonded exoskeleton (+1 T) biomorph on the two fexes instead of spine banks and the zoanthropes' psychic scream. Kingsley had his guard army: HQ, anti-tank squad, infantry platoon with three squads, armored fist squad, two sentinels, two leman russes, and storm trooper and veteran squads. I was going to write up a full battle report, but it was really too one-sided to be very interesting. I was almost completely wiped out by the end of the third turn. None of my genestealers survived to assault and most of my big bugs were killed. In retrospect I think I spread my forces too thin across a long front; it might have been better to focus my forces on one side. I probably would have still taken heavy casualties, but then at least a few units might have made it into close combat. Kudos to K’s bug hunters!

We did talk a little about a possible 2000 point comp. Since I’m so eager to get cracking on my Saim Hann army, I don't really want to get any more models for the nids, so I wanted to work with what I currently have: a broodlord, a lictor, an old dakkafex, and five warriors. I also had a few old gargoyles lying around, so I took their wings and pinned them to the backs of the warriors.

They might not look as cool as the newest warrior minis, but the price is right and they'll definitely be more effective than they would be walking or leaping. Also, I want to bring back psychic scream and get rid of the bonded exoskeleton. Since people are normally shooting at the fexes with high strength, low AP guns anyway, the extra toughness doesn't seem to make them that much more survivable to be worth the 40 points. Plus they're usually far enough back to have to worry about mass lasgun fire anyway. And long live the screamer choir!

Here's the first 2000 point list I'll be playtesting:

HQ

Hive Tyrant - 2 twin-linked devourers, toxin sacs, enhanced senses, warp field, wings

Broodlord
6 Genestealers - extended carapace

ELITES

Lictor

Carnifex - 2 twin-linked devourers

TROOPS

6 Genestealers - extended carapace

6 Genestealers - extended carapace

6 Genestealers - extended carapace

6 Genestealers - extended carapace

6 Genestealers - extended carapace

FAST ATTACK

3 Tyranid Warriors - scything talons, rending claws, adrenal glands (+1 WS), toxin sacs, wings

3 Tyranid Warriors - scything talons, rending claws, adrenal glands (+1 WS), toxin sacs, wings

HEAVY SUPPORT

3 Zoanthropes - psychic scream, warp blast

Carnifex - venom cannon, barbed strangler, enhanced senses, extended carapace, reinforced chitin

Carnifex - venom cannon, barbed strangler, enhanced senses, extended carapace, reinforced chitin

Action Report: Tyranids vs. Chaos

My blasted allergies kept me out of the first week of the assault on Terra on Thursday, so I made up for it today by meeting with Rob for a little 1500 point game up at BFG. A host of Thousand Sons marines under the sway of a slaanesh sorcerer searching for lost magicks has stumbled upon the outrunners of a tyranid invasion, and a crappy, decrepit old gryphon statue will soon become the nexus for a battle royale!

I had a winged warp field dakka tyrant, six squads of six genestealers, three zoanthropes with warp blast and psychic scream, and two carnifexes with venom cannons, barbed stranglers, and extra toughness. He had a slaanesh lash sorcerer, three squads of nine Thousand Sons (with sorcerers), and two squads of nine havocs with four lascannons each. Our random mission was Take and Hold alpha.

The cover was a mix of forest area terrain and 4+ ruins and walls. I started most of my shooters on my right behind a big forest with the genestealers lined up along my middle ready to sprint forward. I drew first turn and advanced all the stealers toward his position. Two of the squads hid in cover on my right. Due to some shite distance and line of sight estimates on my part, I wasn't able to get any good shooting in on the first turn. A barbed strangler kill failed to pin one of the havoc squads. He pressed the advantage and creamed three of my stealer squads with his havocs and thousand sons, sending a few survivors fleeing for the hive tyrant on my far right. Another of the squads he lashed backwards, though they passed their pinning test. On my second turn, the lashed squad sprinted back towards the chaos lines, mostly to draw fire away from the big bugs; I realized at this point that all the stealers were going to be AP3'd toast in the end and it was up to the big guys to secure the objective. My zopes moved up and put scream and warp blast pressure on one squad of havocs, while the tyrant and one of the fexes shot up one of the thousand sons squads. In spite of the tyrant inflicting 11 wounds, only of them one fell. However, the zoanthropes and my other gunfex inflicted enough casualties on the havocs to send them fleeing back towards their table edge, unable to regroup. The Thousand Sons barely winced at the casualties and proceeded to double-tap the surviving genestealer squads to death, leaving only two or three stragglers left on the board. His other havoc squad moved out of their terrain piece and moved forward to a better firing position. The tyrant and one of the fexes moved up some more and let fly on the thousand sons again, this time dropping seven of the dusty automatons, leaving only the sorcerer.

On his next turn, he lashed the hive tyrant towards his own position and charged in with one full squad of sons and the leftover sorcerer. Though the Hive Tyrant finished off the straggler, he was killed in the end by the other sorcerer's force weapon (he just barely passed the psychic test due to the psychic scream interference). Scree! Down goes the hive tyrant. His second havoc squad inflicted two wounds on one of my gunfexes and another thousand sons squad finishes off a few remaining genestealers. Mourning the tyrant, the fexes and zoanthropes brought down a few more thousand sons through combined fire. His havocs finished off the wounded carnifex but couldn't inflict any casualties on the other fex or the zoanthropes with his inferno bolts.

On the final turn, my second carnifex charged into the squad of thousand sons that were holding the center. It killed one marine, and a failed "fearless" armor save brought down a second, taking them below scoring capacity. In a last ditch bid for the win, his HQ sorcerer and the last scoring squad of thousand sons charged into the fray with the big beast, but their force weapons were unable to wound it. Instead, it raised up a mighty hoof and squashed one last thousand son taking the last squad below scoring. Victory Tyranids!

This was an awesome game, really a lucky finish for the bugs. I might have deployed everyone more centrally and had a greater number of genestealers survive to assault, but those lascannons would have eaten up my big creatures pretty easily, and the 4+ save on thousand sons makes rending mostly moot anyway. The Tyrant is still my favorite unit in the entire army, and I was once again convinced of the zoanthropes' merits (though they did shoot worse than average in this game). I could switch them out for a third gunfex but I like the variety of tricks.

Action Report: Tyranids vs. Chaos 10-15-07

Me and the missus played an extremely fun 1500 point game the other night pitting bugs against new chaos. Incidentally, I think it will be fun to call it new chaos forever. The mission was cleanse. C2’s list included a bike lasher, 10 terminators, 10 berzerkers with a rhino, 10 thousand sons with a rhino, and 10 havocs with a lascannon, missile launcher, and 2 heavy bolters. I played bugs and used a psychic scream dakkarant, three squads of 12 genestealers, 3 squads of 12 gaunts with fleshborers, a sniperfex with a venom cannon and barbed strangler, and 3 zoanthropes with 2 psychic screamers and 1 synapse creature. I think the lists meshed well to create an interesting game but they probably both need a little tweaking (I’ll get to that).

The dakkarant is awesome, like a mobile heavy bolter squad re-rolling hits and wounds. At least three times I inflicted 10 armor saves on various chaos units with the big guy. The fex was hit or miss (hur hur) but when he landed those barbed strangler shots into massed troops it always did some pretty good damage. The infernal thousand sons can and did decimate genestealers at short range; I’ll have to remember to watch out for that. Probably the most interesting elements of the game were the bike lasher and the psychic scream choir. The sorcerer kept a large genestealer squad at bay for the entire game just by himself and it really weakened my whole approach on that particular side. On the last turn, after confirming that lash can indeed move monstrous creatures, she almost kept me out of one of the adjacent quarters by pushing the hive tyrant 8 inches back (a squad of genestealers was barely able to sneak in right at the end and keep it). The multiple approaching psychic screamers made powers and other important leadership tests (target priority, pinning) increasingly difficult, and that coupled with the fact that C2 was rolling pretty poorly for the entire game ensured the Tyranid win. I was able to wipe out the havocs and thousand sons entirely, plus half of the berzerkers, losing two gaunt and two genestealer squads in the process. If I remember correctly, I believe controlling the two adjacent quarters gave me a crushing victory rather than a solid or a draw.

While I was impressed with how new chaos held up to the bug advance, I don’t know how good of an all-comer list it really is. I might drop some squad sizes down a tad (havocs, berzerkers) and change the havocs gun loadout to try and fit in an obliterator or two just for more high strength, low AP weaponry. I’m changing up the tyranid list also, mainly to excise the pointless gaunts, but also take the 3 genestealer squads down to 10 (or maybe 5 squads of 6?), add a broodlord and retinue, and a second carnifex with talons, tusks, and carapace. Without the gaunts I really don’t see a reason to have a second synapse creature in the zoanthropes, since everyone’s Ld 10 and all but the genestealers will likely stay in range of his bubble, as he’ll be hiding behind carnifexes until he gets into shooting range anyway. Just one more scream to add to the choir!

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.

Action Report: Space Wolves vs. Eldar 8-19-07

When word reached the Fang that a small group of Eldar pirates were ravaging farmland on the nearby titheworld Nipir, Trefain the Elder and Tor the Giant of Lors the Grim’s Great Company were dispatched to repel the invaders. The aliens were led by an enormous Avatar of Khaine, fighting side by side with an ancient Wraithlord. The few small squads of accompanying infantry were further supported by a fire prism tank. Though our heroes were briefly given pause by the appearance of such powerful entities and armor leading what appeared to be a small reconnaissance force, they nevertheless relished the chance for battle and quickly boarded their transports. Trefain and Baldur the Marked led a pack of Blood Claws and attack bikes towards the enemy’s right flank. Emerging from their speeding rhino in the midst of a thick fog of dreamsmoke, they cut through an entire squad of Dire Avengers with impunity. Then the Avatar joined the fight, immediately launching a flurry of blows at the aged Rune Priest. Several times the creature’s awesome flaming blade was deflected by Trefain’s antiquated force shield, but eventually the demon’s speed was too much and the old wolf suffered a grievous wound and fell. The rest of the pack fought on to the death, nearly bringing down their gigantic foe, but in the end the mighty Avatar strode away alone. On the other side of the battle, Tor the Giant and Hurki’s Grey Hunters descended into the midst of the enemy’s left. Emerging from his drop pod, Tor purged nearly an entire squad of aspect warriors with shot and flame, when a delicate eldar grav craft appeared suddenly behind him and disabled him with a single powerful shot. Hurki and his pack lasted longer, their plasma and bolter fire completely wiping out a unit of harlequins prancing their way through a nearby forest. When the towering wraithlord jumped into their midst, the most experienced grey hunters struck back hard with their powerfists. The pack was close to victory when the indomitable spirit inside the wraith construct surged one last time and wiped them out. A bitter defeat for the Space Wolves!

Action Report: 54th Tiefwalder vs. Ultramarines 7-06-07

I played a game down at Battleforge last night against F., who I've played a couple of times before. We rolled the take and hold game type and I picked my side. The last match I played on this table I was on the other side against Thousand Sons, and it felt like too many lines of sight were blocked for me, not to mention it created a ton of ways for assault troops to approach unseen.

F. was rolling with some 82 marines, consisting of command squads, tac squads, assault squads, devastator squads, and scout squads. I switched out sharpshooters for a powerfisted, hardened fighter commissar in my command HQ squad. I would say the results of that decision were pretty even - many ones went by that I would have liked to re-roll, but the commissar finished off a lone assault squad survivor that was cutting into me, as well as inflicting the last wound on his flying lightning claw captain who was about to do the same.

I separated my main battle tanks and he was able to keep them running or shaken for most of the game. The regular leman russ in particular had some shite shooting. The hellhound got in one round of shooting before assault marines busted him up. The basilisk also went out fairly early. For some reason I decided to get cute and deep strike my sentinels, when I should have just started them on the board from the beginning. Only one of them got off a decent shot, finishing off the last member of one of his two devastator squads. The veterans, on the other hand, performed like fucking champs and burned four or five assault marines with plasma and melta fire. God love that BS4! Everyone else did about average, wiping out two whole assault squads, one each of his dev and tac squads, and a big squad of assault scouts. It was a victory for him, no doubt, but we didn't calculate the margin (it was fairly large, I'd say).