More 6th experiences

I was thinking what a letdown it was that there were no new fortifications released with the Chaos book, and how awesome and narritave-y it would have been for each new book to include a codex-specific fort. So much opportunity wasted! Chaos could have really been a chance to introduce out-of-the-box style fortifications, like a temple that could help units deep strike if another unit was occupying it or something (ie summoning circle). In other words, the potential for more interactive terrain. I mean static deep-strike assistance is not really game breaking... but then again GW took away Chaos' deep-strikey icons for infantry. And it seems like a very conscious (and obnoxious) decision to disallow any CSM/demons synergy besides the allies rule. 

Otherwise, I like the chaos book so far, though it made my particular collection a little tough to work with, but thems the breaks. I've really enjoyed playing a lvl3 tzeentch terminator sorceror with some tzeentch terminators to back up Abaddon. After the obligatory tzeentch power (preferably gift or doombolt), I usually start rolling on the telepathy chart. Either hypnosis or invisibility is my goal, but psychic shriek and the one that takes away fearless are not shabby either. I'm still using my old cults as troops, with 3 squads of chosen and one of thousand sons, along with some autocannon havocs and obliterators. Against balanced marine lists so far I have done extremely well, but I still haven't played Grey Knights with Abby yet, and I anticipate they would be tougher. Against xenos... I think I have lost one or two times, can't recall right this second. Mostly I have been creating a rhino corral and slowly advancing in the desired direction. In my experiences, Abby's 12" preferred enemy rule greatly enhances the obliterators and havocs at range, and all the other guys close-in. The rhinos are really for an assault speed bump, deep strike buffer, and portable cover more than mobility, but in a game where they're likely to get shot up first turn, I'll keep most of them empty so my troops don't get stunned into inaction when their cars do. Thousand sons practically beg to walk'n'spray anyway, and the khorne guys love to get in and start taking skulls rather than take 2 turns to get into a scrum - though since they have bolters, they do all right jumping out from a rhino than other assault troops. I actually like Chosen quite a bit with their full equipment loadout. With everyone walking, they can put out more long range bolter shots anyway. But like I said, most of my luck has been against balanced marine lists, and overall I would consider this mostly a "fun" army given its limited numbers and flyer defense.

I also started incorporating the aforementioned telepathy superstars into my Saim Hann build by including a second farseer to fly around with the seer council. Invisible fortuned jetbikes are the shit. Plus they have embolden to help reroll failed leadership tests, so getting the powers off is pretty likely. Also I've noticed fire prisms got a nice boost from the new rules for blasts against vehicles. The jetbike/skimmer eldar are not too shabby overall but can have trouble putting out damage if they take some key losses early.

Necrons would probably be my most competitive army right now, just based on their decent survivability and trick plays. The douche canoes seek out trouble better than a teen actor, so I typically use them to destroy or entangle the more devastating portions of an enemy force, while everything else hacks away at infantry and other scoring units. Obviously I can't complain about Night Scythes at all, and they make the double-despair-mark squad a great free safety against any death star unit trying to ruin my day. 

My Berzerker/Blood Angels have done ok. Longer charge ranges can only help these guys, given that I use mostly jump or bike infantry. You have to be more careful with a blood claw dreadnought; terminators will now stop these guys cold. Dante's still a beast and axe-wielding (ex)sanguinary guardsmen are great too. I think the blood angels rules still suit my berzerkers much better and more characterfully than the new chaos rules do, though I do like khorne bikers and raptors in the 6th ed chaos book. I just can't find the points for them.

Guard does just ok; I play 

Chaos 6th Edition Army

Here's my Black Legion Chaos army in it's latest 6th edition incarnation. Not a power army by any means but I like the fluffy fluff and it's something I can play right away without buying anything new. I played one game with Abaddon against Space Wolves and the preferred enemy and hatred did let them hang in there well. Still, losing one or two squads can hurt. For my particular purposes, I think Slaanesh and Khorne Chosen are just as good as Noisemarines (don't have any sonic weapon models, but I have given my pink chosen squad bareheads, mouthpieces, and modified their backpack exhaust ports to be big speakers), and the number of attacks they can put out is very nice. Obviously the army doesn't have much anti-flyer at all and would struggle against a heavy flyer enemy.

Here's the 2k list:

Abaddon

Sorceror - mark of tzeentch, spell familiar, +1 level, terminator armor

4 Chosen Terminators - mark of tzeentch, champion with chainfist, 1 powerfist, 2 power axes, 1 reaper autocannon, and 3 combi-plasmas

8 Thousand Sons + Aspiring Sorceror - power axe
Rhino

8 Chosen - mark of khorne, 2 meltaguns, champion with powerfist
Rhino

7 Plaguemarines - 2 meltaguns, champion with powerfist
Rhino

6 Chosen - mark of slaanesh, 5 flamers, champion with power weapon
Rhino

3 Obliterators

Defiler - extra powerfist, power scourge

Thoughts on 6th: Necron Edition

Just a few thoughts about 6th Edition and how it affects Necrons... the caveat being, my understanding of 6th is evolving so I might be getting some of these wrong:

The benefit of deep-striking during the enemy turn seems pretty clear now, allowing you the ability to actually do anything in the turn on which you essentially arrive.

Challenges should help get the mindshackle scarabs into the brains of important folks in a mass assault, which is good, since we can still get run over'd.

Thanks for the teleportation beam bonus!

Thanks for AP1 warscythes!

Thanks for 4 hull points on all my larger vehicles!

Since Crypteks are characters, lanceteks can snipe folks with S8 AP2 lances on 6's, yay! I will have no compunction about trying to run away from a challenge with a cryptek. And since they have longer range anyway, there's no need for them to be in the back, so you can leave them last for allocating unsaved wounds. I still think that example for rolling mass wounds on page 16 ("Fast Dice") is pretty screwy.

Catacomb command barges! My lords fight from the barge? I can charge with them? They get +1 to armor saves? I'll leave the weave at home, thanks for 15 points. D6 hammer of wrath attacks from the dang thing?

It's hard to tell what kinds of rules TOs will keep in effect, like the nightfighting, but if it is always included, that's just more turns where Necrons are at an advantage. Solar pulses can either extend the cover benefits, or get rid of them in our own turns to pop a few more pimples with sniping lanceteks.

Scarab Swarms got what seems like a huge boost with the new movement and fearless rules. They move 12" in movement, they aren't slowed by difficult terrain and aren't damaged by dangerous terrain, and they won't be gakked by fearless wounds for losing combat, making them even more of a tarpit after they pop that landraider.

All glancing hits remove a hullpoint. In most cases, you need to pop three hullpoints to wreck a vehicle. Rapid fire guns move and shoot 24". I can wreck a landraider with 5 warriors about 50% of the time. Corollary: no need to pay for a phaeron anymore! What a useless rule now.

The Monolith looks like a perfectly fine choice now, since everything under a big blast hits at full strength! Monoliths can only snap fire with the gauss arrays after shooting the particle whip, but it's something! And I think it gets a 5+ jink save if it moves! Hilarious.

Wargamescon 2012

Wargamescon has come and gone once again, and here I am struggling to make any sense out of it all. I knew I should have written this immediately afterwards! I played in the Pairs Tournament on Friday, and the Championship Tournament on Saturday and Sunday.

This year, the tourney was held at the Rennaisance Hotel in the Arboretum, and the convention hall was huge! There was Fantasy and Warmachine/Hordes on one side, and Flames of War, 40k Narrative, and several vendors on the other side, with the largest portion in the middle set up for 40k. It was great to have it all in one big ass space so you could browse all the shenanigans between games. The organizers did a superb job and I had a blast.

For the pairs tournament, I brought my Berzerker Blood Angels and teamed up with Kingsley's Plaguemarines. Here was our list:

Blood Angels
Dante
Furioso Dreadnought - frag cannon, heavy flamer, Drop Pod
Librarian - shield of sanguinius, unleash rage, jump pack
Sanguinary Priest - power weapon, jump pack
10 Assault Marines - 2 meltaguns, sergeant with power fist, jump packs
5 Assault Marines - Razorback with TL plasmagun/lascannon

Chaos Space Marines
Chaos Lord - wings, mark of nurgle, demon weapon
Chaos Lord - wings, mark of nurgle, demon weapon
5 Plaguemarines - 2 meltaguns, Rhino
5 Plaguemarines - 2 meltaguns, Rhino
2 Obliterators
2 Obliterators

We played first against a mixed Deathwing/Ravenwing (using Black Templars rules to cheese in the cheaper land speeders):

In particular, Dante and his unit attracted a ton of fire. Their reserves came in very scattershot and we were able to pick them off one by one. Late game contesting speeder shenanigans didn't keep us from winning this one.

Second game we faced off against a duo playing space wolves/grey knights. There was some kind of random warping special rule in play which drove us crazy the whole time, and ended up scattering half my army (Dante's big unit) right into one of the wolves' firing nests. There was a big battle in the middle between my furioso, some plague marines, both chaos lords, and the grey knights' terminators/praetorians/whatever. We lost this one!

After a frustrating game, we found out we were matched against another local duo, Mike and Tyson, and decided to play a little Beerhammer. Any finished beer vessel must immediately be placed on the table, creating an impassible terrain piece that blocks line of sight:

I'm pretty sure we lost, but I don't quite remember what happened at the end. Mostly.

Here's a couple shots of the huge narrative tables:

 

Here was one of the two amazing Tzeentch towers in play:

Here are some of the armies from the hall during the Championship:

As always, Michael Strange brought a cool army. Then some dickass piece of shit stole two of his chimeras. If whoever stole them is reading this, I hope you die out of cancer.

I spent several sleepless nights the week before finishing up a night scythe and an annihilation barge and brought my Necrons:

Overlord - warscythe, mindshackle scarabs, semipternal weave, phase shifter
Catacomb Command Barge
Royal Court #1 - 2 crypteks (harbingers of destruction) - 1 solar pulse

Overlord - warscythe, phaeron, resurrection orb
Royal Court #2 - 2 crypteks (harbingers of destruction) - 1 solar pulse
5 Immortals
5 Immortals
5 Warriors - Night Scythe
15 Warriors - Ghost Ark
5 Wraiths - 4 whip coils
3 Tomb Spyders - gloom prism, repair claw array
Monolith
Annihilation Barge

Game 1 - Orks

Deployment: Spearhead
Primary: Sieze Ground
Secondary - Eliminate an enemy troop choice selected before deployment
Tertiary - Highest number of victory points in non-deployment quarters

For my first match I was paired against Will's orks. He was playing with Ghaz, and a second warboss in a single battlewagon, a big nob biker squad, two or three 30-man boy squads, a grot herd, and three dakkajets. This was the first of several people I played against that were from Arkansas. I faced off against his Lysander/Tigurius marines last year. Not so lucky this year! I came in fast and loose and lost my big warrior squad right away to a single waagh dakkajet blast when I left them out of cover. My bargelord and the wraiths could not finish off the Nob bikers in time for the boyz squads to roll over everything and gave me a big size 20 donut! Down to the bottom dregs with me!

Game 2 - Blood Angels

Deployment: Dawn of War
Primary: Annihilation
Secondary - Have the highest number of units within 12" of the center
Tertiary - Have a unit within 6" of the enemy board edge (both players can achieve)

Clayton was running Mephiston, a librarian with fear of darkness and shield, honor guard in a drop pod, a furioso with a magnagrapple and frag cannon in a drop pod, a furioso dreadnought with blood talons, one sanguinary priest, a 10-man close combat scout squad, a 10-man sniper scout squad, 2 flamestorm baal predators, a minimum scout bike squad, a stormraven, and a vindicator. Clayton had bad luck with his dice and reserves rolls, and I was able to repel most of his attacks on my center core while the wraiths and barge lord wreaked havoc in his backfield. I came out with full points. Clayton was a great sport and would love to play against him again.

Game 3 - Space Wolves

Deployment: Pitched Battle
Primary Objective: Seize Ground
Secondary Objective: Destroy half your opponent's starting kill points
Tertiary Objective: Control the largest number of table quarters with victory points

No pic on this one. I think this guy's name was Brandon? He was playing with a space wolves parking lot nearly identical to the one I played at the end of the tournament. The game was just a little tense as a couple rule misunderstandings on his part led to an awkward start. I rolled up a bunch of razorbacks and rhinos with the scarabs, and disabled the rest of the vehicles pinned in his backfield. I was able to achieve the primary and tertiary but not the secondary.

Game 3 - Blood Angels

Deployment: Pitched Battle
Primary Objective: Capture and Control
Secondary Objective: Annihilation
Tertiary Objective: Have at least 50% of your remaining units in your opponent's deployment zone

This was an exciting game. Norman was playing with Mephiston, a librarian, two sanguinary priests with combimeltas and lightning claws, four assault squads in las/plas razorbacks, one 10-man assault squads, two assault cannon baal predators, and two missile launcher devastator squads. This game started out horribly for me. First turn he spotlit and destroyed the ghost ark and annihilation barge. Second turn, he tank shocked my large warrior squad off the board edge and destroyed the monolith. While his assault squad and a couple razorbacks rolled both of my immortal squads in my center and left, I managed to fight off Mephiston and the baal predators with scarabs and the wraiths. My barge lord moved flat out for his table edge and just tore up his backfield real good. Just by himself, I think he wiped out two squads, a sanguinary priest, and a couple vehicles. My night scythe came on right at the end to contest my objective. He destroyed it, but then on my last turn they came back on the board to keep contesting. It ended up with us drawing the primary, he won the secondary, and we both achieved the tertiary because I only had the warriors and barge lord left! A nailbiter.

Game 5 - Orks

Deployment: Spearhead
Primary Objective: Capture and Control
Secondary Objective: Victory Points (300 point victory margin)
Tertiary Objective: Seize ground with three objectives, one in the center and one in each of the non-deployment quarters

I have to admit I groaned a bit when I realized I was facing off against Orks at the top of Day 2! Justin was playing with Ghaz, a big mek, two squads of eight lootas, a small meganobz squad in a battlewagon, three 20-man boyz squads in a battlewagon, and 15 stormboyz. I decided I was going to have nothing to do with the mean greenies and started off far in my own table quarter, keeping the wraiths, monolith, night scythe, and barge lord in reserve. He pulled far enough away so that when my reserves came on, he had to redeploy quite a bit to reach my stuff. The wraiths got tied up in the stormboyz defending his home objective but could just not overcome them, especially after the lootas jumped in, but it was a worthwhile distraction. The barge lord harrassed the center while my immortals, scarabs, and spiders fought off the nobs and boys attacking my home objective. Ghaz in particular got distracted going after immortals and I was able to slowly chew him up with gauss and tesla. It was a close game that turned more in my favor as time went on. I was able to teleport the big warrior squad through the monolith at the last second (immobilized on dangerous terrain!) and pulled out a 30-0 win in the last turn.

Game 6 - Grey Knights

Deployment: Dawn of War
Primary Objective: 5 Objective Seize Ground, with one in the center and the other four in the center each quarter
Secondary Objective: Capture and Control, with the objective to the left of each player's deployment edge serving as their home objective
Tertiary Objective: Destroy a selected enemy HQ

Another groan on seeing my matchup for this one! Grey Knights are not my favorite army to play against (maybe it's just me). Eric was playing with a librarian, Coteaz, two venerable psyflemen, two normal psyflemen, one dreadknight with a sword and incinerator, four three-man acolyte razorback squads, two five-man death cultist squads, and two stormravens. When he shunted his dreadknight all the way across the board and threatened to wipe out my big warrior squad with his incinerator, I had to charge it and fight it off with my overlord. In the first round of combat, the dreadknight passed the shackle test and knocked the overlord down, but he got back up again and finally overcame several turns later (the big bastard was great at making 5+ saves!). The bargelord then crossed the board and contested the two razorback units holding his second seize ground objective. We contested the center objective, we both got our home objectives, and I managed to defend my second seize ground objective. As it was, I won the primary and drew the secondary and tertiary. Tough game!

Game 7 - Space Wolves

Deployment: Pitched Battle
Primary Objective: Annihilation
Secondary Objective: Seize Ground, 3 objectives
Tertiary Objective: Capture and Control

Unfortunately I forgot my third opponent's name, nice guy though (another Arkansan!). He was playing with a couple jaws rune priests, a couple razorback grey hunter squads, a few rhino grey hunter squads, and three big long fang squads. I neutralized two of his long fang squads early on and generally moved toward his middle. I think the main thing that helped me is that he was un-wolfy and pulled his firing line backwards when he should have charged in headlong. Anytime I got in assault with a big group of guys, he wiped me out. But it only happened once or twice, and by then those units had already destroyed one or two of their own. This was a great game for the monolith, which just pulled up into the ruined building and killed probably 10-12 grey hunters with the particle whip. I won the first two objectives and tied the other two. Good game!

In the end I think I came out something like 5th of 118 in the b-bracket with all scores combined. I was pretty wiped out by the end, and very ready for sixth...

Psyche! You'll get nothing but fear and paranoia on 6th from me, but there's plenty about that on the internet already. It just seems a lot more laborious. But I probably thought that same thing five years ago. Oh well there's no going back for me anyway, too invested!

Tournament: Dragon's Lair 6/3/12

I brought the Stormlord and company to another 1250 tournament at Dragon's Lair this past Sunday and won first place along with quarter champion (snaps). I changed the list since the last tournament to include immortals and a couple lanceteks.

Imotekh the Stormlord
1 Harbinger of Eternity - chronometron (joined with the ark warriors)
2 Harbingers of Destruction (1 joined up with each immortal unit)
5 Warriors Ghost Ark
5 Immortals
5 Immortals
6 Wraiths - particle caster, 4 whip coils
7 Scarab Swarms
2 Tomb Spyders - 1 gloom prism
1 Annihilation Barge

Game 1: Space Marines 

My first game was against Liam, a younger new player, who was playing with Space Marines. He had a couple tac squads and a rhino, a small regular terminator squad, a multimelta dread, and I don't remember what all else. We were playing capture/control, three seize ground objectives, and a third mission I don't remember either. I ended up with full points.

Game 2: Blood Angels

My second game was against Brandon's Blood Angels, where he was playing Dante, the Sanguinor, a Sanguinary Priest, and three squads of Sanguinary Guard. He had bad reserve rolls, even with Descent of Angels, and only the Sanguinor and 2 squads of guard (not Dante's priest squad) came down second turn. I think they probably wrecked the ghost ark before my return shooting and the Wraiths laid them all low. When the remaining squad came in, they fought me back a bit, but between the Tomb Spyders, Scarabs, and the Stormlord, I finished them up for the win.

Game 3: Imperial Guard

My last game was against an imperial guard player with an infantry platoon with a flamer command, two infantry squads, several heavy weapon squads, one or two squads of melta vets, two squads of melta command HQs, a basilisk, a leman russ demolisher, and a few chimeras. It was a very hard fought battle, with plenty of casualties on each side, and we ended up drawing two of the objectives and I won the third objective.

I came in first in the tournament and also took home the quarter champion cup. Necrons OP @ 1250!!! I really liked the small immortal/lancetek squads, but at the same time, I never benefitted from the Ghost Ark's repair barge ability since I only had the one small warrior squad. I thought the Stormlord worked out just fine once again at this smaller point level, and I still think his high point cost is well worth the multiple ways by which he can affect the game. Nightfighting at 1250, with generally fewer eyes/searchlights in each army, plays a bigger part than at 2000, but at the same time, the lighting power is less destructive. The second and third games were nailbiters, and even though the first game was a little one-sided, my opponent was a good sport. A good Sunday! Thanks to my opponents and the TOs.