Dark Eldar for a tournament this weekend!

Hi, all!

So, a new game store opened near my place. I've been taking my chaos to RTTs lately, so I thought I'd change it up a little. Here are my dark eldar at 1750 points

Asdrubael Vect

Lady Malys

5 Incubi with Klaivex, venom with 2 scannons

3 Trueborn with 2 scannons, venom with 2 scannons

9 Wyches with hydra gauntlets, haywire grenades, Hekatrix with Agonizer, Raider with FF, Grisly trophies

8 Wyches with hydra gauntlets, haywire grenades, Hekatrix with Agonizer, Raider with FF, Grisly trophies

5 Warriors with blaster, venom with 2 scannons

5 warriors with blaster, venom with 2 scannons

Ravager with 3 Dark lances, flickerfield

Ravager with 3 Dark lances, flickerfield

Voidraven with flickerfield

Total: 1,750 points

Now, there are some choices in there that a lot of people don't usually take. I will explain the uses of these units:

Malys:

I really like what she adds to the army. She's a little bit of a shocker to a lot of people, with her redeployment. Often during dawn of war i will deploy Vect and some wyches in a raider as far up as possible, and hoping to kill him early, the enemy will deploy a couple of razorbacks or something, then I can pull him back to come on turn 1, and then kill the razors with ravagers, all while cackling maniacally, of course. Also, 8 power weapon attacks are not to be sniffed at.

Vect:

He is my sledgehammer, honestly. He is possibly the best pure assault character in the game, even topping Mephiston I think. He will rip through MEQs and HQs like nothing. But be careful he doesn't get gang-tackled, because once that shadowfield goes down, Vect will soon follow.

Incubi w/ out grenade support:

A lot of people will use these guys as a spearhead unit, to just bash face, with an archon with a PGL, of course. However, I use them differently, and very effectively. See, I usually keep my venoms in a fleet, very tightly packed, all shooting at the same 1-2 targets. The downside to this is that a lot of the time, people will multiple assault and beat up my poor paper airplanes. The Incubi are there to dissuade such units from attempting such moves. Also, if there's a tactical squad out of cover, they are the perfect unit to handle them.

Voidraven:

The Strength 9 lances are really useful to pop dreadnoughts. I also like to point out that it is the most durable vehicle in the Dark Eldar army!

Now as to the whole army, there is one thing you probably noticed: A lack of anti-tank. That is true, however, I've found that if you just kill or suppress a few key vehicles per turn, you're okay. Also, people will often use their ravagers to shoot a tactical squad. What i do is if there are no vehicles or monsters in line of sight, i will just turbo boost for the 4+ cover, or behind terrain, etc.

I have only played 1 games with this list, against Deathwing, in killpoints dawn of war. I got a 1st turn assault on some termies with a squad of wyches and Vect, who were then countercharged by a squad of terminators, who were then charged by Malys and her girls. At the end of this huge assault, the only survivors were Malys, and 15 wyches. The rest of my army was able to shoot the rest of his army to bits, except for one dreadnought who rampaged through my dudes.

My bad habit with this list is to shove the wyches+HQs up the center on a turn 1-2 assault, kill some stuff, then they get shot to death, and that's a lot of my army gone. What I will try to do is to play a little less aggressively.

We'll see how it goes. Expect an after-action report. Farewell until then!

P.S. I'll try to get Kasrkar and GR to post more.

Dark Eldar alpha-strike army

Hello, all! Sorry for not posting lately, I've been on vacation for quite a while, but now I'm back, and another army list which people have talked about but not dared to make: The Dark Eldar Alpha-strike. So, let's look at what will go in it...

HQ
Well, there's only one elf for this job: Asdrubael Vect! In the Dais of Destruction, he comes in at a hefty 440 points, and that's before his retinue (stripped-down wyches). Still, however, there's one more piece of the puzzle left, and that's why I'll also add the Baron. Why the baron? Because he's incredible, that's why. 105 points, but mostly, re-roll to see who goes first, which is imperative for an Alpha-strike army. Coupled with Vect's ability to seize the initiative on a 4+, that means you have an 87.5% chance of getting the first turn, pretty good odds in my opinion. So, for HQ, we have a total of 545 points. Hefty, but necessary.

Troops
So for troops, what will we take? Well, the answer is of course, lotsa darklight weapons! One unit of 9 wyches with Hydra gauntlets will accompany Vect, as his mandatory retinue. Then 2 further units of Warriors with a dark lance, both in Raiders with darklances, gives you 4 more strength 8 lance shots. Why no blaster? Well, in a perfect world, you'll want to be going first, with your army all deployed, ready to kill, and seeing as in a standard mission no-man's land is 24", that 18" range suddenly doesn't look so scary. Finally, the mandatory unit of Hellions to go with the Baron. 1 unit of 15 (Ala GoatBoy) should be sufficient for our purposes, aka, killing things in Close Combat.

Fast Attack
2 units of 6 Reavers with 2 blasters apiece. Why? Well, for extra lance shots, of course, but also for their speed. Finally, 1 unit of 5 with one blaster.

Heavy Support
Finally, 3 Ravagers. Not much to say about these, but 9 more dark lance shots is invaluable. also, coupled with an affordable 315 for the lot, it's pretty nice.

So, the final list looks like:

Asdrubael Vect w/ Dais of Destruction, 9 Wyches w/ Hydra Gauntlets

The Baron

x2 10 warriors w/ Darklance, Raider

15 Hellions

2x 6 reavers w/ 2 blasters

5 reavers w/ blaster

3 Ravagers

total: 1,999 points.

I wouldn't take this list to a tournament, certainly, but with 21 Lance shots hitting the enemy turn 1, It's certainly not weak, either. Leave any comments or additional tactics, they will be appreciated!

Chaos is for fighting...?

Hello, everyone, The Verderer here with some interesting tactics that you may have thought of...But probably not. It all comes down to this: Chaos is considered to be a "fighty" army. Khorne Berzerkers, Demon Princes, Chaos Terminators, etc. are all very fighty, and are therefore seen on a lot of gaming tables. But does it have to be that way?

The current metagame calls for lots of high-strength, low AP shots, and plenty of vehicles. As you can guess, this is not Chaos Space Marines' strength, which leads to many people assuming that they are useless, and either selling their models or proxying them as Wolves or Blood Angels. However, I believe that Chaos can keep up with the metagame. Not with Lash, not with Berzerkers, but with shooting power.

So, in a list like this, you will, of course, look straight at Obliterators. They are an obvious choice for shooty lists, seeing as they have lascannons, and, more importantly, the ever-feared plasma cannon. Two units of these are invaluable in a list like this. Why only two? You shall see...

Next up is troops. You're going to want troops who can shovel out an incredible amount of shots, at pretty long range. Solution? Noise Marines with Sonic Blasters. A unit of 7 can send out an impressive 21 shots when standing still, or 14 shots while on the move, both at 24" range. That's not even mentioning the Blastmaster, which can pin enemy units, giving you another round of firing. Very good in my book, we will want to load up on these.

Next up is HQ. Who to lead a shooty army? A Tzeentch demon prince immediately springs to mind, but the enemy is probably going to reach your line at some point, let's face it. Therefore, you will need something to counter attack with. My solution to that is simple: Chaos Lord with a Demon Weapon, perhaps with some terminators or Berzerkers for a counter attack. Cheap and effective, just the way I like it.

Now, with some points left, lets look back at the Heavy Support section. With one slot left, I see one last obvious choice: A Defiler. This beast will be able to take out entire marine units with one shot, and handle itself well in combat. And, if the battlecannon should be destroyed, you can use its secondary weapons, or use it as a wall to block enemy units.

So, piecing it all together, the list would look something like this:

Chaos lord w/ Demon Weapon, Terminator Armor

5 Terminators w/ Icon of Slaanesh, Reaper Autocannon, chainfist

8 Noise Marines w/ 7 Sonic blasters, blastmaster

8 Noise Marines w/ 7 Sonic blasters, blastmaster

8 Noise Marines w/ 7 Sonic blasters, blastmaster

8 Noise Marines w/ 7 Sonic blasters, blastmaster

Defiler w/ Havoc Launcher

2 obliterators

2 obliterators

total: 1,750 points

Pretty much, castle up! The noise marines should be in front, then the terminators behind them, and then finally the defiler and oblits. In the case of objectives, advance slowly, and keep firing, and/or Deepstrike oblits.

Well, that's all for today. Leave any questions or such as comments!

Building an Uber-army

I'm sure all of you (as long as you aren't extreme noobs) have heard of such deadly army lists as the Alpha-strike, the Leafblower, and The Kult of Speed, and I'm also sure that some of you have no idea how to construct an excellent tournament list. Well, today, I will help you on your way to becoming the next Phil Kelly, aka, being able to win games at will. There are three schools of thought on how to make a competitive tournament list. The first one is the way that most gamers in Europe tend to use, which is achieved by getting, in every unit, the best value for your points. Such as, if you need tank killing, and you can get a land raider, or a squad of devastators with missile launchers. Both would be about the same in effectiveness (using mathhammer), but the Land raider is considerably more expensive. There, problem solved. The second way is a tactic used mostly by players in the US, and is much more straightforward. It relies on getting about a million super units, to act as wrecking balls, that tear through the enemy army in an unstoppable tornado of las-bolts and chainswords. These types of armies rely heavily on such units as Nob bikers, Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield terminators, and the like. The third and final way to do it is my favorite, and probably the best, as well as being the most fun. The third choice is to find a special character in your army list who gives your army some special ability or other, or makes certain unit types better, or troops, and them milk him for all he is worth. I have several examples for this. Take Sammael, from the Dark Angels codex, for instance. He is a pretty good character, and can be put in a 14 14 10 land speeder for free. But his main ability is to make all Ravenwing attack squadrons become troops. If you choose to base an army around him, you will have a small but elite force of bikers and attack bikers, all able to capture objectives, and all able to make use of the Outflank rule, thanks to the Scout special rule. It will also be extremely hard to kill, with each of the scoring models having toughness 5. Another example is another Space Marine character: Vulkan He'stan. By taking him, all flamers, heavy flamers, meltaguns and multi-meltas become twin-linked, and all Thunder Hammers become master-crafted. Due to the amount of mech in 5th edition, having all meltaguns twin-linked for free is practically to good to be true. The rest of the army them becomes very easy to build: Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield terminators, melta-maxed tactical squads, and multi-melta/heavy flamer land speeders. So you see, not too hard to make a good army list. Even if you aren't Space Marines, there are plenty of other characters that benefit your army, such as Epidemius for the Chaos Daemons, Wazdakka for the Orks, etc. Well, that's all for today, see you all soon, and may your dice ever roll 6s!

Collecting Space Wolves

As I have mentioned before, I play Chaos normally, but they were built with the intention of being more of a "friendly" army. However, I'm beginning to think about possibly entering a tournament or two, and the first army that came to mind were the Space Wolves. They have a similar play style to Chaos, except for everything is better. Besides, they look really cool! Seeing as the normal tourney size army in the nether regions of the known world where I come from is 1,750 points, you have room for some very nicely sized armies. The army list that I am going to collect to is fairly versatile, has a good model count, and is terrifying in combat, while also being competent from range.

Wolf Lord w/ Thunderwolf, Thunder Hammer, Storm Shield, Wolftooth necklace, Saga of the Bear.

Wolf Lord w/ Thunderwolf, Wolf claw, Storm Shield, Wolftooth necklace, Saga of the Warrior Born.

Master of Runes w/ Jaws of the World Wolf, Tempest's wrath, meltabombs

5 Wolf Guard, all w/ Powerfist, Stormbolter

(x4) 7 Grey Hunters w/ Meltagun, Mark of the Wulfen, Wolf Standard, Rhino

10 Fenrisian Wolves

6 Long Fangs w/ 5 missile launchers, pack leader

So, the Wolf Guard will split amongst the Grey Hunter squads and the Long Fangs, the two Wolf Lords will join the Fenrisian Wolves to form a close combat juggernaut. Standard deployment for this army will be as follows; Long Fangs in the position which gives them the best line of sight to the battlefield, the rhinos with the Grey Hunters and the Master of Runes will deploy in a wall, with the Wolf Lords and Fenrisian wolves behind them. After that, general advance, pretty Space Wolf-ish stuff, aka, kill everything, show no mercy, loot and pillage, etc.

Tau Empire: Putting it all together

Over the last couple of days, I have discussed the ups, downs, tactics, and upgrades that you can use for various units. Now, It's time to put my money where my mouth is, and put all of that into one, mega-uber-destructor army. So, here goes:

Shas’el commander w/ Hard-wired multi-tracker, plasma rifle, Missile pod, hard-wired drone controller with 2 shield drones. 2 Crisis bodyguards w/ Hard wired multi-trackers, plasma rifles, missile pods, targeting arrays.

3 Crisis Battlesuits, all with twin-linked flamers, drone controller, 2 gun drones

(x3) 6 Fire Warriors w/ Devilfish APC w/ Disruption Pod, Smart Missile System, Targeting Array, Multi-tracker

2 Broadside battlesuits w/ Advanced stabilization Systems, Shas'vre w/ Hard-wired drone controller, 2 gun drones

(x2) Sky Ray w/ smart missile system, multi-tracker, targeting array, disruption pod

This is a very mobile, very shooty, and overall, very scary list. Deployment for this army is very simple. On the flank with the most cover, you deploy your Broadsides. Then, have all of your tanks in the center of the battlefield, in a wall that will demolish your enemy's army. What you do with the battlesuits is up to your personal preferences, but you usually want to advance with them, along with the rest of the army. Now, one last thing, which seems obvious, but bears repeating: Stay out of assault range of enemies at all times! Once in assault, this army is finished, but with some canny maneuvering, you can stay in rage with your weapons, while staying more than 6" away from the enemy.

Ork Nob Tactics

So, for the first Tactics article on My Brother, My Enemy, I'll be looking at Ork Nobz. My brother actually fields a very large squad of these in a truck, and don't get me wrong, it's a pain in the rear, but they aren't as effective as they could be. First let's just look at the basic stats. For 20 points, they are relatively cheap, with a good statline. Their one weakness seems to be their 6+ armor save. To rectify this, you're going to want to do one of three things; get Meganobz instead, put them in a Battlewagon, or, and this is the best option, put them all on Bikes. no matter what configuration you put them in, however, you need to give them a Painboy. I've played against a big squad of these guys led by a Painboy, and have decided that you need one. Another nice upgrade is the Waaagh! Banner, giving them a formidable WS5. Other upgrades are:

Bosspole: Useless, don't want to kill your own men.

Big Choppa: Mmmm, maybe, if you have the points.

Power Klaw: At least 3 of these in a mid-sized squad.

Stikkbombs: You'll probably be striking last anyway, but why not?

Twin Linked Shoota: Errr, no.

Kombi-Weapons: Possibly, if on foot.

Eavy Armor: Bikes are better, but I think it could be useful.

Ammo Runt: I don't think so.

Here is what I think is the optimised unit of Nobz:

7 Nobz w/ bikes, 3 power claws, Waaagh banner, painboy

Total points: 435 points.

Expensive, I know, but totally worth it. Toughness 5 and FNP makes them pretty much as hard as Plague Marines, and then you look at the 4+ armor, 4+ cover, and 3+ Invulnerable save if they turbo-boost, and see that they are pretty much unkillable, and will dish out some massive hurt, with each one with a choppa and slugga will do 5 S5 attacks on the charge, at I4. In fact, you could probably make an army with two of these, 2 Warbosses on bikes, to make these guys Troops, and then some boyz in trukks. That's a good list. I may have to look into this.

Standard Army List

Okay, here is my standard Chaos Space Marine list (1500):

Chaos Sorcerer w/ Lash of submission, Mark of Slaanesh, meltabombs

5 terminators w/ 5 chainfists, 4 combi-meltas, reaper autocannon, icon of Nurgle

9 Khorne Berzerkers w/ Skull Champion w/ Powerfist, personal icon, Chaos Rhino

9 thousand Sons w/ aspiring Sorcerer w/ Bolt of Change, personal icon, meltabombs, rhino

10 Plague Marines w/ 2 meltaguns, champion w/ powerfist, personal icon, rhino

Vindicator w/ Demonic Possession

It's not great, but it has won me plenty of games, and I like it!