Battle Report! 1000pts Black Templar vs Necrons!

Hey guys, Grandpa Rhino here, making the first battle report in quite a while. Sorry for that. Anyway, to the report!

I went down to my local place this weekend looking for a game because I promised Kasrkar I'd make a report. I got there a little late but managed to squeeze in most of a game, and this is that game. By the way, I gotta say I'm really loving this new place. The Games Workshop in Bowie. The vibe there is really great, really friendly, and everybody knows their stuff. If you're in the area, you should head over!

The Black Templars

HQ:

Emperor's Champion w/ Accept Any Challenge No Matter The Odds (What a mouthful...) -140

Elite:

6 Sword Brethren Assault Terminators, 3 w/ TH/SS, Furious Charge Veteran Skill, one with Crusader Seals -260

Troop:

5 Initiates, 4 Neophytes, w/ Powerfist and Melta, in a Rhino w/ Smoke Launchers and Searchlight -199

5 Initiates, 4 Neophytes, w/ Powerfist and Melta, in a Rhino w/ Smoke Launchers and Searchlight -199

Fast Attack:

Land Speeder Typhoon -70

Heavy Support:

Vindicator w/ Smoke Launchers and Searchlight -129

998pts

The Necrons

(Little fuzzy, and I don't know the codex. But I will try my hardest. If someone knows the codex and could correct name and point costs, I would be very grateful.)

HQ:

Imotekh the Stormlord

Troop:

10x Immortals

5 Warriors w/ Ark?

Fast Attack:

5 Wraiths, one w/ coil, the rest with pistols

Heavy Support:

Barge

Barge

995 points

Deployment

The game was Dawn of War Annihilation 

He wins the roll-off and goes first

His deployment:

He's got the immortals with Imotekh on his right flank, the Ark with warriors on his left, and the Five wraiths backed up by the two barges in the middle.

My deployment:

Now, let me explain. I don't know the Necron codex. So. I assumed everything he had could destroy anything I had, and I felt like the only safe way to go would be to castle, and this was really the only terrain on my table half. We added another piece on after I deployed to even it, and my Land Speeder was in reserve. I try to seize and fail.

Turn 1

He moves up with everything, except zooms one barge to his right, probably to try and flank me, but I don't believe that thing is quite fast enough to get there in time to help him. For shooting it is of course night fight due to Dawn of War, but he is very afraid of my Vindy, and shoots at it with his barge in the middle, he does nothing, but I realise that thing only has S7 and S5. And if he stays afraid of the Vindy I have nothing to worry about. 

I peak my vindy out from behind the corner, with the rhino moving to cover its side armor, and the termies moving up to the wall to get ready to counter assault, also they cover the rear amor of my tanks in case a mystical angry Sasquatch appears behind my lines. I want to shoot at his barge and try to spot it with the rhino's searchlight, but begin a game of lower-than-my-usual-rolling. In hindsight I should have pivoted the vindy and shot the wraiths. But oh well. He also fails to see the barge. 

Turn 2

My apologies, I forgot to take a picture of his movement. But this pic taken at the end of my turn shows he moved his wraith's up. Also his immortals moved into a building and the second barge came into sight although far away. His shooting was again unsuccessful. On my turn I moved the Termys through the building to assault his wraiths, I rolled a five and was in. I move my rhinos to give my vindy cover, remembering that evil Sasquatches are only in my daydreams. I again roll low and cannot see a thing. In the assault, things go bad. For one I roll pretty shamefully considering I'm usually a great roller in the assault, and I didn't expect wraiths to freaking have two wounds each and a 3+ invuln. We both end up with two guys dead. As this pic shows:

Turn 3

Neither of us really moved, but he continues to have wonderful nightfight rolls, and blows off my vindy's gun with the flanking barge, and immobilized the painted rhino with the center one. The assault continues with neither side taking any casualties. Pfft.

I figure screw it. Firefights are for guardsmen, Charge! This seems to please my dice a little, and things start to turn around. I move up my Vindy and functioning Rhino to be mobile cover should I win the assault, or the troops in my rhino to be reinforcement if things go bad. I keep the guys in my other rhino back to wait for that arc to get closer. This new Berserk tactic seems to please my dice, and I kill two wraiths, losing one lightning claw guy. (Thats four wounds to one remember, against a 3+ invul. Better than it sounds.)

Turn 4 

The place was starting to close up so this was our last turn. He didn't move in favor of more shooting, and immobilized both my cover vehicles, and wrecked the painted rhino killing more guys than I expected. But I wiped out his Wraiths in the assault phase. Sorry I didn't take a picture for his turn because he didn't move.

On my turn, I moved out and assaulted all his vehicles, on a rush for kill points, I will show the results.

                                                  There was a Barge where that squad is.

                  There was an arc where that squad is, he didn't bother getting his warriors out though.

                                             And there was a Barge where those Termies are.

A 4-1 victory for the Templars! I felt bad accepting this victory, as the game ended right at the worst time for him. He may have still lost, but it wouldn't have been by as much. It was an okay game. I need to learn to  not always just try to castle. It suits my army against other assault armies, but I need to take my combat advantage against shooters. My opponent was a good guy, although sadly I don't remember his name, maybe next time! I'll try to make another battle report over this coming weekend, but I'm still working on getting my list comfortable at 1500, hopefully soon! Until next time, goodbye from Grandpa Rhino.

A (somewhat unexpected) Dark Eldar tournament report!

Hello all, and time for yet another tournament report as I attempt to perfect my Dark Eldar list and tactics! This tournament was 1500 points, and the funny thing is, I knew Kasrkar was going to be there with his dreaded Guard, but I didn't think I'd be going. I had a prior engagement beforehand, and I figured I'd go and watch Kasrkar dominate his way to the top, and then get in a game with the man in question afterwards. However, when I showed up, the guy running the tournament said they had an odd number of guys, and that he'd let me jump in with 10 points as if I'd gotten a draw, since I missed the first round. So, I wrote up a list in 5 minutes that looked like:

Haemonculus with Shattershard, venom blade

5 Incubi with Klaivex, venom with 2 Splinter cannons

3 Trueborn with 2 Splinter Cannons, raider with Flickerfield

9 Wyches with haywires, hydra gauntlets, Hekatrix with agonizer, raider with Flickerfield

5 Wyches with Haywire Grenades, venom with 2 Splinter cannons

5 Warriors with Blaster, venom with 2 splinter cannons

5 Warriors with Blaster, venom with 2 splinter cannons

5 Warriors with Blaster, venom with 2 splinter cannons

Ravager with Flickerfield

Ravager with Flickerfield

Razorwing with Flickerfield

Like 1,499 points or something. Just under 1,500 for sure. Not one of my usual lists, trying MSU for the first time really. We'll see how it goes.

So, round 1 which I missed, Kasrkar faced a Grey Knights guy with a Land Raider of each type, a Stormraven, A dreadnaught with a Lascannon, Coteaz, a Libby, and a bunch of random henchmen. Anyway, Dawn of War, seize ground, turn 1 nothing much happened, turn 2 Kasrkar killed all the Raiders and the Stormraven. He tabled his opponent, but was prevented from achieving the secondary and tertiary. So he wound up with 15/20 points, and everyone got set for round 2...

Round 2 vs. Thomas' Crimson Fists!

His list:

Pedro

Chapter Master with Plasma Pistol, powerfist

9 Sterngard with Powerfist, plasma pistol, 2 lascannons, 2 combi-meltas

10 Tacs with Lascannon, Plasma Gun, sergeant with Plasma Pistol, Powerfist

10 Tacs with Lascannon, Plasma Gun, sergeant with Plasma Pistol, Powerfist

10 Tacs with plasma cannon, Plasma Gun, sergeant with Plasma Pistol, Powerfist

10 Tacs with plasma cannon, Plasma Gun, sergeant with Plasma Pistol, Powerfist

So, quite the large army.

Mission:

Primary: Capture and Control

Secondary: Kill the Traitor, each player gives the other a model to be the traitor, you must kill your traitor.

Tertiary: Table quarters, have the most VPs in a table quarter.

Deployment: Spearhead

So he wins the roll off, and deploys his Sterngard with the Chapter Master, and separately my traitor, in a building in his quarter, and one Lascannon tac squad next to the building, everything else in and around a crater that had his C&C marker in it. My deployment was all of my ships deployed around a building in my quarter that held my C&C marker, using my ravagers to give cover to the rest of my army, since they won't be much use this game (or so I thought).

The Game:

I try to seize, and fail! He goes right to shooting, and calls down 2 bombardments turn 1, and added in with all the lascannons, he wrecks my Razorwing, took all the weapons off a warrior venom, and immobilized the Raider with my wyches in it. My turn, I zerg up the middle, and kill half the Sterngard, and half of a squad of tacticals, who run off the table. The rest of the game is essentially me pushing forward and shooting, and him immobilizing my vehicles. He calls it turn 4, as I am about to launch a game-ending assault.

Result: Win for the Dark Eldar, 20/20 possible points!

A terrible matchup for Thomas, but he took it in stride. Kasrkar played on the table next to me this game, and his game only lasted 2 turns. It was against a wych-heavy Dark Eldar player, and he killed basically everything turn 1, and they called the game at the exact same time as we called ours. So Kasrkar was on table 1 for round 3 against some Khorne CSMs, and I was on table 2 vs:

Round 3 vs. John's Grey Knights!

His list:

Draigo (sigh)

Librarian with Vortex of doom, might of titan, sanctuary, shrouding, 2 servo-skulls

Vindicare Assassin

5 Paladins with 2 MC psycannons, 4 Halberds, 1 MC hammer

10 Strikes with MC hammer, Warding stave

Stormraven

Psybolt dread

So, not too many models. I wasn't too scared going into this game, although that opinion changed midway through the game.

Mission:

Primary: VPs, need to win by at least 200

Secondary: Eliminate highest point enemy HQ

Tertiary: Table your opponent

Deployment: Pitched battle

So he wins the roll-off, and, bizarrely it seemed, decided to go second. Perplexed, I set up in the center of my deployment zone, set up for the alpha-strike. Then in his deployment, he said he was deepstriking everything. I probably should have seen that coming, but oh well. He set up his servo-skulls down the center line of the table. He then infiltrated his Vindicare in a ruin in the middle of the table.

The Game:

He tries to seize, and fails. First turn I move up and lance the Vindicare to death, and in my second turn I turbo far away from his servo skulls. Well, turn 2 he rolls for reserves, and gets nothing. Turn 3, I turbo again. His turn 3, everything comes on, and all hell breaks loose. Everything lands on target, Draigo with the Pallies, and the Dread and strikes with the Libby hopping out of the raven. Shooting, he kills one ravager, and the Raider with my wyches in it. My turn, it is time for retribution! I set both squads of wyches up to assault the strikes, and everything else moves away from the Paladins. Shooting, I fire a lot of stuff into the paladins, and kill 1 paladin outright, wound the rest, and put 2 wounds on Draigo. Shattershard takes care of the Libby and 2 strikes, and splinter fire accounts for 1 more strike. Raven is immobilized by blasterfire from the warriors.

The rest of the game is the wyches assaulting the strikes and them doing jack to each other, the raven and dread killing my vehicles, and the paladins eating 200+ splinter shots and 15 lances, and there were still 2 wounded paladins and draigo on 1 wound left. As it turned out, I won primary by like 300 VPs, and we tied secondary and tertiary. Had it gone into extra turns, I would have tabled him for sure. John was a good guy, and very good player, and no matter how many guys I killed, he was a great sport.

Result: Win for the Dark Eldar, 15/20 points!

That last game turned out to be pretty tight down the stretch. Oh yeah, and Kasrkar killed the CSMs. Just blew apart defilers and dreads without a second thought. Pretty crazy.

Tournament results:

I was hoping Karkar would draw, and I would massacre, meaning I would leapfrog him, and get the top spot, but that didn't happen. So I had to contend with second, whilst Kasrkar took the top spot. Kasrkar's round 1 opponent took 3rd. In addition to other prizes, Kasrkar got the 25th anniversary special model. I got anther box of warriors, destined to become Trueborn, so that I can kill tanks for once.

So, anther tournament over. Any comments? Criticisms? Witticisms? Any kind of -cisms?

Chaos Daemons Progress Report

Greetings, everyone!

While I may have only mentioned my daemons army a couple of times, the time has come to actually make a post dedicated to them.

Since I started the army, I have placed high in a few tourneys, gotten a few conversion ideas, and made a couple of trades. As such, the daemons have been growing remarkably fast for an army that I am not spending any money on.

My army is roughly 1500-1600 points now, assuming that I don't give everything a ton of dumb upgrades. Here is a list of daemon things I have, as well as how I obtained them without spending any cash:

2 Tzeentch heralds on chariots (converted from stuff bought w/ store cred from tourneys)

28 pink horrors (store cred from tourneys)

10 bloodletters (store cred from tourneys)

10 fiends of slaanesh (converted w/ stuff from store cred from trading)

2 daemons princes (1 converted from stuff bought w/ store cred from tourneys, 1 scratch converted)

The daemons have really become more of a modelling project than I'd have liked, but I've been jumping whenever I see something I can convert. I will be honest though, I'm pretty proud of my conversions. It makes the army feel much more personalized. I will attempt to get some pictures soon.

Anyway, I have been basing my lists (and units I get) off of a technique I developed very recently. Below is my 1500 point list with infomation on the technique/tactics I use with each unit.

HQ:

-Herald of Tzeentch, Master of Sorcery, We Are Legion, Bolt of Tzeentch, Chariot of Tzeentch

-Herald of Tzeentch, Master of Sorcery, We Are Legion, Bolt of Tzeentch, Chariot of Tzeentch

Being jetbikes, these guys can hover outside of assault range and bring down tansports with bolt. Their job is also to flank medium tanks like predators or vindicators and get side armor shots. They can do all this while splitting their fire and bringing down marines with their 24" S5 AP3 assault 3 gaze.

Elites:

-5 Fiends of Slaanesh, 1 has Unholy Might

-5 Fiends of Slaanesh, 1 has Unholy Might

Unless I roll badly, fiends can pretty much beat or match about anything in combat. 6 rending attacks per dude on the charge at S5-6 is pretty brutal. Especially when you strike before marines. Oh yeah...and they are beasts. I primarily use fiends to bust me out of tough situations, break an enemy line, or hang back and give me a devastating counter-charge. They are the type of unit that has a lot of utility, and they are a bargain for their point costs.

Troops:

-6 Pink Horrors, Bolt of Tzeentch, Changeling

-6 Pink Horrors, Bolt of Tzeentch

-6 Pink Horrors, Bolt of Tzeentch

-6 Pink Horrors, Bolt of Tzeentch

Probably one of the least point efficient units in the game, but the only troops choice I can take that has the ability to shoot and pop tanks. Luckily, 4+ invulns keep these guys alive, even in smaller squads. Since most people castle up against daemons, I've seen success in surrounding your enemy with horrors. The horrors can shoot stuff up, and when the enemy tries to charge them, it's good to have something scary hiding behind them for a counter-charge.

-7 Bloodletters

Super cheap unit that will pretty much wipe out any space marine unit before it gets to attack. Bloodletters get misused a lot, though, since people always just deepstrike them right in front of the enemy. While my experience with bloodletters is limited, I use them as a counter-charge unit and hide them behind terrain near the horrors.

Heavy Support:

-Daemon Prince, Mark of Tzeentch, Bolt of Tzeentch

Not very cost efficient, but he is BS5, and he helps fill the gap in the daemons codex where mass, ranged, anti-tank should be. This guy really doesn't matter a lot in some games, so from time to time it is fun to just deep strike him behind the enemy and try to get him into the assault.

-Daemon Prince, Mark of Nurgle, Wings, Iron Hide, Noxious Touch, Cloud of Flies, Daemonic Gaze

A lot of points go into this daemon prince, but he is tough (T6, 3+, 5++, W4), killy (Avg. of 6 dead marines before they can attack when he charges), and fast (jump infantry). A very good counter-charge unit. He is also able to jump on badly positioned units pretty well.

So, my list comes to 1500 on the dot, and as you can see, my technique revolves heavily on trapping my enemy and getting off a lot of good counter-charges while using the horrors as bait. It has worked well so far, but I have a lot to learn.

Anyway, this is the stage that the daemons are at. I will make it a goal to get a picture battle report to you guys by the end of the week with my daemons.

Oh, and one more thing. Mostly due to my recent tourney victory that Jaybie posted about, I have about $70 store credit that I will spend on the daemons. What do you think I should get? I am thinking Fateweaver perhaps...or 8 more fiends to give me 3 units of 6.

Hope you all are having a nice Spring Break!

-Kasrkar

Oops

Today, I received a text from Jaybie today. It was him yelling at me for not posting on the blog. This text message made me remember one very important fact, and that fact is that I am a writer on a 40k blog. For the last 5 months I have been kept very busy by school, my job as a media technician, and my second job as a Skyrim player. While I cannot say that this will change, I can say that I am going to say for the millionth time that I will try to post more.

So, while it feels like every time I post I have to update what's been going on for the last several months, I will just say that not much has happened. I have been to several tournaments in the last 5 months, some I have no doubt placed in, and the last couple I have gotten 4th with W/W/L and W/D/D.

It is noteworthy that at the tournament before last, I went against the one and only Blackmoor and his Draigowing. I can say from personal experience that he is an amazing player, and I just barely managed to beat him by a mere 2 kill points with my guard.

Anyway, I will jump into the actual post now.

I have not been playing a lot lately, but I've come to a very evident conclusion about my guard. They simply are not the most mentally challenging to play. They can be mentally challenging to succeed with, as Jaybie found out when he tried to use them against my daemons, but they have gotten a little bit old.

The point is, I have not ranked 4th in the last couple of tournaments due to large errors. At no point in the games was I in a situation where I could have made a critical mistake. Most losses/draws with them have been due to bad dice or single critical die rolls. This made me realize that my playstyle is a bit dry.

I think that as a 40k player, I should be able to make critical errors, and not be rewarded by sitting in a corner and shooting the bad guys. This is why I want to start playing my daemons and eldar more. I have also been very inspired by Blackmoor claiming 1st place with his daemons and then footdar in his last 2 tournaments.

So, long story short, I have changed my footdar list around a little bit so that I can use it in larger scale games and not just 1000pts. I plan on getting some practice games in soon, and I will post those if I remember. (I won't lie, you've seen my posting history. I probably will forget).

Here's the first draft of the updated Footdar. It is heavily influenced by Blackmoor, so go check his list/blog out to compare if you'd like.

Footdar V.2! 1,750 pts

HQ:

-Eldrad Ulthran

What did you expect? A normal farseer?

-Avatar

I've heard the idea of swapping him out for a fortune/doom farseer, and I'm not sure which I should roll with. The avatar serves as an amazing counter-assault unit, but another farseer would give me 3 fortunes per turn. And I could give the farseer eldritch storm, which has actually become one of my favorite abilities. (It would allow more rear/side armor shots on bigger vehicles.)

Elites:

-10 harliquins, 10 kisses, shadowseer, death jester

I need a solid counter assault unit, and Blackmoor uses clowns. The simple fact that the shadowseer can prevent them from being shot up while they wait is invaluable. Plus they are pretty freaking fast, and hit hard.

Troops:

-10 guardians, scatter laser

-10 guardians, scatter laser

-10 guardians, scatter laser

I love my little 10 man SL guardian squads. They may suck at shooting, but with as many shots as they can pump out, they will hit something. Plus they can kill rhinos/razorbacks.

-10 dire avengers, exarch w/ 2 catapults, bladestorm

-10 dire avengers, exarch w/ 2 catapults, bladestorm

Every time I mention Footdar, my fellow eldar players start raving about dire avengers, so I've decided to try and play them a bit more.

Heavy Support:

-Wraithlord, bright lance, EML, 2 flamers

-Wraithlord, bright lance, EML, 2 flamers

I really like wraithlords, and I have never used this build with them actually. I feel that it is a necessary build in today's metagame, though.

-3 war walkers, 6 Scatter lasers

What can I say? 24 S6 shots makes me salivate, especially when those shots are guided.

So, my total comes to 1,724. I'm thinking about dropping the upgrades on the dire avengers for 64 points and getting a 5 man squad of fire dragons. Or I could drop the dire avenger upgrades and a single harlie, which would allow me to get a 5 man warp spider squad. Anyway, since I made this list almost entirely based on units I want to get better with and comments from my peers, I would really appreciate your own comments. I'm going to make a post on my daemons and their progress soon, maybe tonight.

Thanks for reading, and happy Valentine's Day in advance.

-Kasrkar

Dark Eldar Tournament report!

Hello all! It's Jaybie coming at you with a tournament report with the Dark eldar! I played this tournament at a different store than I usually do, which just opened near me. It was very well run, and they did some things differently than what I'm used to. Notably, that the missions were all battle point based.

Each mission had a Primary objective worth 10 points, secondary worth 6 points, and tertiary worth 4 points. So, a massacre would get you 20 points.

I took the list that I detailed in my last post. It's not built to be super competitive, but it can win, and is really fun to play with. On to the games!

Game 1 vs. Daniel's Grey Knights!

His list:

Draigo

Librarian with Sanctuary, Shrouding, 2 other powers that were never used

10 Paladins with BroBanner, 4 psycannons, everyone else wound allocated out

10 Strike Squad with Master-crafted hammer, 2 psycannons

3 Psydreads

Ouch! Lots of hurt in that army. Only 25 models too, lol.

The mission:

Primary: Seize ground, 3 objectives

Secondary: Win more rounds of assault

Tertiary: Kill the most expensive enemy HQ (Draigo for him, Vect for me)

Deployment for all 3 games was pitched battle.

The Game:

I won the roll off, and took second turn. He deployed his paladins and HQs in a blob in a big piece of terrain to the right flank, all the Dreads behind them, the Strikes in reserve. Grand strategy made the 3 dreads troops. I deployed my ships behind a building opposite him. I then seized with Vect!

He began a slow advance, shooting at my vehicles. He did little damage, killing a few vehicles in the early game, and my venoms torrented his Paladins, causing a wound on ever single one. I immobilized and knocked all the weapons off of one of his dreads. However, once his Pallies got in range, my ships started popping left and right. I still had a chance to draw, or even win, but then I showed my inexperience against the GKs and charged the Pallies with my Wyches and Vect, and surrendered all three objectives in one fell swoop. The rest of the game was mostly just cleanup for him.

Result: Loss, 0/20 points.

Well, I underestimated those Paladins something fierce! Those Dreads are hard to kill, too. Daniel was a great opponent. He knew what he was doing, and made me pay for every mistake I made. He also kept a great demeanor through it all, even when he failed to penetrate my Ravager with all of his dreadnoughts!

Game 2 vs. Mark's Orks!

His list:

Ghaz

Big Mek with Kustom Force Field, heavy armor, cybork body

10 Nobz with various weapons, every damned save in the book, trukk with every upgrade

10 Ard boyz with shootas, trukk with everything

10 Boyz with Nob with power klaw, trukk with everything

Deff Dred with 4 CCWs, extra armor, grot riggers

4 bikes with power klaw

4 bikes with power klaw

3 bikes with power klaw

Mission:

Primary: Capture and Control

Secondary: Table Quarters (Control goes to whoever has most VPs in the quarter, HQs and vehicles don't count)

Tertiary: Kill your "Traitor" (Each person gives one of their models to the other person, they are ICs. I gave a warrior, he gave and Ork boy)

So, this guy is good, as he had nearly beaten some Mech BAs in the last round, and with only 2 models left! I figured I would have to use my experience against Orks to the full!

I won the roll off to go first, and let him go first. He deployed very aggressively, only leaving the boyz and their trukk with my traitor back at his objective. I deployed along my board edge. I do not attempt to seize.

The Game (You just lost it!):

He rushed everything at me, shot a little, and didn't do anything. I shuffled around, and shot down a unit of bikes, and immobilized his two trukks that were rushing up. turn 2 he Waaghed, and assaulted my vehicles. He killed my Voidraven, and a venom.

In retaliation, I assaulted both of his bike squads, one with Incubi, the other with Malys's unit, and his big Nobstar+Ghaz with Malys (Multi assaults, ftw) and Vect's unit. All targets were destroyed, with Vect himself killing Ghaz in a (not so) dramatic duel. That was basically game, but we played on. I killed the rest of his stuff, but one awesome boy squad killed my raider AND Malys in turn 6. They were then avenged by the Incubi.

Result: Win, 20/20 points.

Mark was a very crafty player, who went on to beat his own son's Tyranids in the final game. He was stunned by the amount of damage my army was able to do, but took it all in stride, like a true sportsman.

Game 3, vs. Corey's Eldar!

His list:

Avatar

Farseer with Guide, doom, Eldrich storm, spirit stones, Runes of Warding, Runes of Witnessing

10 Scorpions with exarch with the crazy weapon that makes your strength get bigger

5 Wraithguard with Warlock with some psychic power, Serpent with Missile Launcher

3 units of 10 Pathfinders (!)

5 Warp spiders with the deepstrike thing.

Fire Prism with Holo-field

Mission:

Primary: VPs (Win by 250)

Secondary: Table your opponent

Tertiary: Table your opponent by turn 5

So, a perfect mission for a grudge match between the Eldar and the Dark Eldar.

I won the roll, and chose to go second, reasoning that even if I didn't seize, his army didn't have enough firepower to scare me overmuch. He deployed his Prism on the far right, and his Avatar, Farseer, and serpent with Wraithguard to the left. I deployed centrally, in a fleet. Corey then infiltrated his scorpions and two units of pathfinders about 18" from my dudes, and his other pathfinders in a building on the right. His Spiders are in reserve, to deepstrike.

The game:

I seize (Thank you Vect!). My dudes decide to just go for it. Vect and his girls run up and fleet so as to be in assault range of his Scorpions and a unit of Pathfinders, and the Incubi disembark 1" away from some Pathfinders. The rest of my ships zerged up, ready to shoot at his stuff! In shooting, I shook both of his vehicles, and put 2 wounds on the Farseer. In Assault, the Incubi wiped the Pathfinders without a problem, and Vect alone killed 6 of the scorpions! I killed everything that I assaulted. In his turn, the Pathfinders in the building killed 4 of the Incubi, and the Klaivex passed LD.

The rest of the game was pretty much cleanup for me. He conceded turn 3, with only the Spiders in reserve left.

Result: Win, 20/20 points.

That was a terrible matchup for Corey. I got lucky on my fleet rolls to be able to get off that massive turn 1 assault. Vect was the star of the show, killing 6 Scorpions, 5 Wraithguard, and soloing the Avatar.

So, at the end of the Tournament, I have 40/60 points. Not great, but not bad either. Daniel, my round one opponent, took a tough loss to some FootDar on table one, putting him at 40 points like me. It turns out we tied for 3rd! Admittedly, I got a couple of good matchups to get me there, but doesn't everyone? At least it wasn't my usual Blood angels, then Guard, then Guard again!

So, post tournament thoughts on the Dark Eldar:

This list is fun, but if I want to win consistently, I'm going to have to make some major changes. Vect is fun, but he has to go. He's just too many points! I need more Troops, probably 6. I need more anti-tank, which means more Wyches in Raiders, maybe a 3rd squad. Malys I think I will keep for 1750, just because she is useful. Full post coming later!

So, that's it for today. Comments?

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.

Back from the dead and Tournament Report!

Hello everyone! It's Jaybie, back from the grave! I do have an explanation, though. I am an actor by trade and have had 2 shows in quick succession. But I finally have some time to post! So, why not start it off with a tournament report?

I went to a 1750 point tournament at my local game store this past weekend. The turnout was very good, with 18 players. Amongst the armies there were:

3 Chaos space marines

1 Space wolf

1 Black templar

2 IG

2 Grey Knights

1 Necron

1 Daemons

1 Orks

1 Tyranid

1 Blood Angels

2 Dark Eldar

2 Vanilla Marine

So almost all of the races were represented except Tau and Dark Angels.

So, my list for the event was:

Demon Prince with Lash of submission, wings, MoS

Demon Prince with Lash of submission, wings, MoS

3 Chaos Terminators with 3 combi-meltas, powerfist

Dreadnought with TL autocannon, Heavy flamer

8 Khorne Berzerkers with powerfist, Rhino

8 Khorne Berzerkers with powerfist, Rhino

7 Plague Marines with Powerfist, 2 meltaguns, Rhino

2 Obliterators

2 Obliterators

5 Havocs with 2 Lascannons, 2 Missile Launchers

Total: 1,746 points!

Game 1:

Vs. Blood Angels

Capture and Control, Dawn of War

His List:

Mephiston

2 Sanguinary Priests with Jump packs

5 Scouts with 4 snipers, Missile launcher

10 Assault Marines with Jump Packs, Melta, Flamer, Sergeant with Power Weapon, storm shield

10 Assault Marines with Jump Packs, Melta, Flamer, Sergeant with Power Weapon, storm shield

5 Assault marines with flamer, power weapon, Razorback with TL Assault cannon

5 Assault marines with flamer, power weapon, Razorback with TL Assault cannon

Baal Predator with TL Assault Cannon, heavy bolters

Baal Predator with TL Assault Cannon, heavy bolters

Dreadnaught with TL autocannon, Assault cannon

Well, that's a lot of Strength 6 shooting! My Dark eldar would not like this list, but my Chaos really don't care too much. I was wary of Mephiston, and the big Assault squads with power weapons.

Deployment, we roll off, I win and give turn 1 to him, I want my turn 5 objective grabs. Just a note, in this tournament the universal tiebreaker was VPs. He deployed two Razorbacks, everything else coming on turn 1. His scouts infiltrate in a building in his deployment zone. I set up two rhinos 7" from the board edge, and a daemon prince behind a pile of boxes. The board was well set up, with one ruin in each table quarter, a pile of boxes in my deployment zone, and a big ruin in the center. I chose not to seize (Obviously)

His turn one, none of his stuff gets red thirst, and everything walks on, , one squad of 5 assault marines hops in a razor, and starts going toward my objective (Which is behind the boxes). Everything else runs. His shooting manages to kill one rhino. My turn, my stuff came on, except my terminators (in reserve). Shooting did jack, I managed to double lash a squad of 10 assault marines who had gotten a little too close, and assault them with a prince. I won combat, but the marines stuck around.

Turn 2 his stuff opened up on my stuff, killing all but one havoc, who passed morale. The assault continued, prince won again, but they continued to fight. My turn I kind of go crazy, My Berzerkers getting off a huge multi-assault on his Baals, and my prince on one of his razors, all destroying their targets. Plasma cannons killed the scouts and 6 assault marines. Berzerkers charged into the prince combat, and finished off the Blood angels.

After that, It was just a matter of cleaning up. Mephiston caused some damage, but it was too little too late. I nearly tabled him, and prepared for round 2. Ben was a great opponent. He hadn't been playing for very long, and this was his first tournament.

Round 2, vs. Imperial Guard!

*sigh*

His list:

Primaris Psyker

10 Psykers and 1 overseer with Chimaera with heavy flamer

10 vets with flamer

10 Vets with flamer

10 vets with 2 flamers

2 Vendettas w/ heavy bolters

Vendetta w/ heavy bolters

2 Hellhounds

Manticore

Leman russ battle tank

Gryphon and Colossus

Well, to say I underestimated this list would be an understatement. No Meltas? MADNESS! But I played very poorly.

Annihilation, pitched battle.

I won the roll off, and in my first of many mistakes this game, gave him first turn. Then I reserved my whole army. I did this based off a recent game against Kasrkar's guard where I held my whole army in reserve and drew, and had 2 meltas, 2 lascannons, and a missile launcher been able to kill a vendetta, I would have won. However, this list was entirely different.

Let me just say that this guy was a pro. He was very gracious and joking during the whole game, and a very good guy. It was almost worth having my army trashed! I believe in the end he killed almost my entire army, and I killed one of his tanks. Anyway, a crushing defeat for the Chaos. This guy went on to get 3rd.

Round 3 vs. Imperial guard!

*Double sigh*

His list, as far as I could tell (We'll get into that):

Lord Comissar w/ wargear that seemed to change over the course of the game, but seemed to have some combination of a Power fist, power weapon, carapace armor, iron halo, adamantium mantle (?)

Lord Commissar with same as above

Platoon command squad with lascannon?, chimaera

Infantry squad with heavy bolter, priest with eviscerator, chimaera

Infantry squad with Heavy bolter, commissar, chimaera

50 conscripts

Platoon command squad with lascannon?, the guy who makes conscripts come back, chimaera

Infantry squad with lascannon, priest with eviscerator, chimaera

Infantry squad with lascannon, commissar, chimaera

50 conscripts

Manticore

Leman Russ punisher with 3 heavy bolters, heavy stubber, stormbolter

Vanquisher with lascannon, Pask

Spearhead, 3 objectives

I win the roll-off, and give him first turn.

Okay, so I give him my army list at the start of the game, and ask to see his. What does he come up with? A sheet that has the details of his heavy support, A sheet that details his HQ, and that's...it? His excuse: "I wrote this at like 3 this morning, so if it's not totally accurate, don't blame me." Well, I had played this guy before, and his lists are never 100 percent accurate...more like 10 percent.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, he castled, I pinned him in his quarter, killed his vehicles, and used them as cover to hold objectives. I won on VPs. I will not talk much about this game, because it was VERY frustrating.

So, at the end of the day I came in 4th or so. The guard guy I played in round 2 barely beat some Draigowing to get 3rd, Demons won, and Necrons got 2nd.

So, changes to my army?

Out with the dread. He really added nothing to the army, and just died. Also, dropping the havocs, adding more obliterators. I really don't like the fact that Havocs can't move and fire, or deepstrike. Maybe more termicide, because they really did well, earning their points back in every game, and removing a lot of firepower from the enemy armies.

Anyway, ta-ta for now! There's a 1750 point tournament this weekend, at a new gaming store that is mercifully only 10 minutes away, as opposed to the 35-40 for most stores around here. I think I'll give my dark eldar a spin there.