Cutting open a Grey Knight

So. After an eventful day at work on Wednesday that included sexual harassment training, I rolled over to Games Workshop to play jo and his 6 model army.

For those not aware, this army has two Paladins, Draigo and two Dreadknights that both have teleport homers. Oh and a Fortress of Redemption. Yeah. My army on the other hand had over 100 gaurdsmen with a lot of plasma and melta, 3 mortars (yeah!) and 6 lascannons backed up by 6 autocannons. A 700point troops choice. Also I had ratlings, penal legion and a couple of squads of storm troopers to help max out on the heavy weapons.

We play the Relic, with standard deployment. Jo won and put his fortress down next to... the fortress of redemption that was on the board. Hmmm. The paladins and draigo manned his fortress, whilst the two flying Dreadknights stood on the battlements of the other one ready to wiz onto the objective in his first turn. I blanketed my deployment zone (literally) with all sorts of stuff, infiltrated the ratlings and outflanked a squad of storm troopers who had meltaguns. (and completely forgot about the penal legion until like, turn 4?)

I didn’t seize, and jo teleported in, took the relic with one and stood in front of the first one with the second one. He shot me up good, but didn’t take down any complete unit, meaning that he didn’t get first blood. Admittedly this could be because its hard to tell where units end and begin, but the ones he shot up either held or rallied. And crucially, he didn’t run with the relic holding dreadknight because he thought it was 6inch per turn, where as it is actually 6 inch per phase.

I then killed the dreadknight that was holding the relic. Sounds easy I know, but I did basically shoot my whole army (which is just a gun line) at this one guy. So he should have died lol. (first blood!)Next turn, he picked up the relic with the other dreadknight, and shot me some more, and ran with it to take it back towards his double fortress. I then shot off this dreadknight. Two in two turns. Highlight of the match occurred for me at this point, as I killed it with ratlings (took its final wound off).

The rest of the game revolved around a mad rush for me towards the objective,(including with the mortar team, who did die on the way) and jo’s three men and double fortresses trying to shoot me off. Turns out buildings are spectacularly hard to kill, especially multipart ones. I didn’t kill either, but did manage to get both paladins. Leaving draigo alive in a silo and actually in combat with him... err I won with linebreaker, first blood and holding onto the relic. Jo got kill the warlord.

I could tell that this army isn’t that fun to play against, partly because its hard to tell what has shot. I think I am going to have to come up with an easy to understand way of representing whos’ shot (possibly turning them the wrong way round). All in all, doubling the amount of heavy weaponary I have (and not playing dan) improved the result drastically. Plus, scattering the lascannons and autcannons into squads as well as having heavy weapons platoons of each meant they couldn’t all be so quickly picked off, because I will admit, having 3 lascannons hanging out together is pretty much always the first target.

Boldly Going to the Next Level

With the advent of 6th, many people will have looked at their armies, and said. Man that (outflanking guard army) doesn’t work anymore. I’d better get re-arranging my plastic crack!

May I present, the newly promoted Wesley Crusher:

Upgraded to platoon Sergeant, this plot hero now sports a plasma pistol, and a lightsaber. Which, since the codex says “power weapon” will count as a power axe, as he will be striking after space marines anyway, and they are his main target. At least to begin with, we will have to see how it goes. In other news, I am getting back in the saddle and playing some games tomorrow, against Dark Eldar and some form of Dark Angels. I think Ian said Deathwing. Eurgh.

I have also spent the last couple of weeks painting up some heavy weapons bases. My army consists of a lot of pinning weaponry, and the ability to blast snipe. So there are at least some of the mortars I intend to use. The heavy weapons base is great because if you have spare bases you can get 9 heavy weapons out of one box. 3 missile launchers, and either use the mortar stands for mortars or for one of the other weapons. So long as you have some spare guys lying around, you should have enough bodies for the missiles, and from there its a dream! Anyways, pics below - quite pleased with the freehand on the lascannons:

Trying to break 6th edition....

A conundrum!

So, being sick has given me more time to read the 6th edition rulebook. I am 60% sure this is right, so I thought I would put it to the general test. So here goes.

Turning to page 79 of the 40k 6th edition rulebook, we find the rules for disembarkation. Now, as is reasonable and linked in from 4th and 5th edition, there can be no rhino rush disembarks. However, what is a subtle change is that if you disembark from a vehicle, you cant assault. Even if the veichle hasn’t moved. “After disembarking, models can shoot, cointing as having moved, or choose to run in their subsequent shooting phase, but cannot declare a charge in their subsequent assault phase”

This all makes sense. But however what happens if you wreck/ explode the transport vehicle? Does this mean that in their subsequent assault phase they count as having moved? Because if you turn to page 80, then models have to immediately disembark in “the usual manner” which would mean that in their “subsequent assault phase” (their next turn) they couldn’t assault. Nor could they move, as they would have counted as moving. Basically, do you get two bites of the cherry to shoot the unit? (your turn when you blow the tank up, then they can’t move in their turn, then again in your turn.)

Dont get me wrong, I'm pretty sure that this contravenes the don’t be a dick rule that applies to all aspects of the hobby, but rules as written all for a slight manipulation on this... it is implied that they are almost pinned without even failing their pinning test. Or am I just pushing the rules beyond their limits?

Not This Kind of Snapshot

So, 6th edition 4 games in.

My first thoughts include... you can’t assault out on an enclosed vehicle, even if its remained still. Don’t know if I like that. Since fourth there seems to be a progressive nerfing of transports.

No assaulting from reserve. Booooooooooo. Coupled with no more than half you army in reserve this is a complete shutdown of my imperial guard rebel alliance. It would not work. I have tried it out yet, but I am not hopeful. No more outflank shenanigans. I have heard some thoughts from others that they are pleased with because it stops Shrike armies. But to be honest, I think that being able to react to that kind of army is a skill. The rules weren’t broken here, but they have been fixed. If you are going to get outflanked by genestealers, then either don’t deploy near the edge, or make them kill what you want them to kill. Then shoot the life out of them. There is 50% less tactics in this area now unfortunately. I can now not do something with one of the most charecterful units in the space wolf codex that I have been doing since 3rd edition. People just wont take them, they aren’t scary anymore

AP values on CC weapons, I like.

Buildings are big castles. Great if they have battlements. I think that this will do exactly what GW wants it to, and that is sell more bastions, fortresses of redemption etc. They can be a real game changer.

Guard Rock. My 500 point list has over the course of 3 games been magnificent. 55 points for 10 men with a mortar? Yes please. Footgaurd are my new fav thing. Orders completely cover me for the Flyers snapshot issue, I will just twin link those Lasscannons.....

The allies section is very cool. I think that Tyranids should have been able to desperate ally with Guard, to represent stealer cults. Other than that, it could lead to a big dusting off of models, but with a lot of cherry picking.

I freaking love overwatch... I snapshot with a Krak missile and downed a Dark Eldar Cronos on its last wound the other day. Very cinematic.

I am loving the precision shots rule. And because of this, will be splashing eldar rangers. With a Faseer for psychic D-Fence.

Think that about covers it for now, thanks for sharing! Luke

Something New Today

My New Project.

Sooooooo. In case you have been living in a fantasy shaped (or LOTR shaped – lol as if) hole for the last 2 years, you will be aware that 6th edition us upon us this weekend. To celebrate, my local store is opening at midnight, and running a tourney from next week.

Here is one of my army lists

Farseer, Runes of Warding, Spirit Stones, Guide, Doom. 135 Points

Dire Avengers (6) Exarch With Bladestorm, Wave Serpent – Shuriken Cannons 199 Points

Guardians (10) Shuriken Cannon 85 Points

Fire Dragons (5) 80 Points

499 Points

So, Eldar? Oooo Scary. I fancy a change, and have been playing High Elves. I'm thinking I might try this list, see how it plays. The Dire Avengers drive by with Farseer to guide/doom combo to hopefully maul of a unit in one turn with Bladestorm. I think I would fall down against horde armies, and maybe box armies. The problem is that I only have short range anti tank. Also, Runes Of warding (take psychic tests on 3D6) I'm hoping will be very broken in this edition!

The Guardians hold the home objective, plus being able wander forwards with the platform. I'm thinking that if 6th turns out the way I think I will, then I'm going to need snipers. Lots of Rangers. Would I buy a bastion for a silly cover save? Maybe. Maybe. I might even make a bastion with a similar footprint to look like Eldar Webway Portals.

So, What do people think? Will this list work at 500 points? Should I just take space marines to learn the new edition?

Blog Wars Three Round Up

WARNING... this is going be a long, and texty post.

So, Me, Pete, Dan and Ian went to Blog wars 3 today. Awesome tourney, I think I actually preferred it to throne of skulls. The guys at Malestrom were excellent, and Alex Brown who runs From the Fang was a great host/organiser. Kudos to him. Check out his blog, for everything, ever. http://fromthefang.blogspot.co.uk/

The Games, in Summary. So, of the four of us, I placed last. Good stuff. I finished 20th out of 26th, with loss, draw and draw for 28 points. Pete got Loss, Win, Loss for 30 points (I think) Dan came 5th with Loss, Win, Win and the Mr Ian King placed 6th with Win, Loss, and Win, only three Game points behind Ian. Pete faced big bugs twice and got a bit frustrated, Dan got run over by the defending champion on the way to his victory, and Ian continues to punch very hard, and very fast at tourneys.

My Day.

First Game, I faced James from Sheep of war. An excellent opponent, he had a Jokaero themed list, with purifiers. Despite the fact that it was completely monkeys, he had a pretty hardcore list with three psyfldreads, Coteaz and lots of rending Lasscannons. I ended up going down 9 – 11 bottom of turn 7. I was winning bottom of turn 5, and drawing bottom of 6 I think. Highlight for me was charging Luke Skywalker into Coteaz, chopping his head off with a lightsaber and eating a Deamonhammer. Only to get back up in my go.

So I strolled back to where I belonged, in the bottom half. Game 2 saw me face a really cool guy (who I am really sorry but can’t remember his name! It may have been James I think) they were very pretty Tyranids. Lots of BIG bugs, including two Trygons, Swarmlord, Two Tervigons and 4 Hivegaurd. Highlight would have been blowing away two Trygons with the right amount of shooting. Yes, it was a lot of plasma and Lasscannon, but it was nice that it works! I should have lost this game. I know this feeling so well from the other side, you are all over your opponent, then they just realise that actually they can still get something out of the game. About my turn 4 (of 7) I realised that a draw was the best I could probly get. Whilst I was winning on 1 table quarter bottom of turn 5 (love love love going second with this list!) it ended in a draw, and after a couple of crucial roles I was able to get a draw. Which was very hard earned, and in some respects felt like a win. Total respect for the guy I played, he was brilliant with everything and I couldn’t fault him.

My Third game saw me jazz dance one table down despite my draw to 10 of 13. This time I faced a chap who I believe may have been called Scott, friends with Alex. His painting was simply beastly, total respect to him for that. He had three Predators, Mephiston (my auto loose choice) and land raider (can’t hurt those) and some other mech MSU stuff. He was I think, expecting me to outflank, but I don’t think he was expecting me to spend literally every turn chasing his predators around his back field. What units did I use for this you ask?

On their last outing for a while, I used Penal Legion. 240 points of Wesley Crusher, Starbuck and Daniel Jackson kept 540 points of Blood Angels Tanks occupied for 6 turns. Two squads with fleet, furious charge and counter attack plus Wesley rending for fun killed one and stopped the other two shooting for at 70% of the game. Brilliant. I have to say, he is the nicest opponent I have played probably all year. As for the result, it ended in a draw, but I think that is slightly because every single one of my units punched well above their weight. That is the stuff that dreams are made of.

So I ended with 28 points, in 20th place. Not too shabby. I wasn’t last, I didn’t win but I had loads of fun and really enjoyed a day out with guys. Congrats to the defending champ, the steamroller with nothing but a kill setting... Atreides from SoS! Are we going next time? If Alex will have us, hell yes.

Blog Wars 3 Build Up

So, time for a round up of my army when it comes to the hottest tournament this side of Adepticon (at least geographically.)http://fromthefang.blogspot.co.uk/ is the site, and Alex is actually appealing for an extra participant as we speak! get in there!

My Army is Imperial Guard, based largely around the rebel alliance. There are xwings, Luke Skywalker, and my newly converted Chimera. Whilst I don’t intend to give away the secrets (the army is so fluffy if you blow on it, it will fall over so I need all the help I can get!) suffice to say that my main tactic is to run at the enemy and hope for the best. Try and destroy the metal boxes, and then charge. (With guardsmen? – wow) I'm simply trying to save the galaxy from the empire, one glorious death at a time.

My special character will be Yarrick, as both he and Luke Skywalker lost a hand at one point, they both have that insane wish not to die, and are both balls cool as hell. (not sure that last bit counts as a sentence). In all honesty, this army does not work at 1750, unless I bought 3 hydras. but they are more money than I have. so I haven’t bought them. Its much better at 1500. I spent the extra 250 points on a command squad, I mean come on!

Pictures! Each one of these counts as 1000 words....