Monday 23 February 2015

Necrons, Harlequins and Bikes...and "COMP"

Hey folks - ended up with a longer break than intended - 4 weeks since last post!
Still I remember a post from Dethtron (remember Dethtron?) years ago about good blogging - never blog unless you have something interesting to say...

I tried CentStar quite a bit. It was solid and even deadly - but erratic at times and often a trap!
Admiral Ackbar was right...

So for my next tournament - a small, comped one-dayer in early March I am NOT going to be running it.

So what's the 'comp' - only 2 of the same unit (anything including the same dedicated transports (i.e. to stop Serpent spam))... so no Trip-tide, no Serpent spam.. There is also no Formations or dataslates like Belakor.
They also allow super heavies up to 550 points but no ranged D.
However, if the unit is a TROOP unit you may spam it as much as you like.. e.g. 6 units of Space Marines tacs, but only 2 rhino's, 2 razorbacks and 2 drop pods to transport them (if desired).

Issue for me? Yeah, "themes" allow spammed units - Ravenwing, full Drop Pod army, mono-god Demon list..are to be allowed.
Oh and IG Russes can be taken in 2 units in Heavy and one in Command - 9 Russes...fun.

Imperial Knights will be seen too.

Whilst this is good as we won't be seeing 3 Hive Tyrants (only single CAD, 1 Allied max 750 points, no self-allying outside of marines) or serpent spam, there is still plenty to go on - for example, in this format - Screamer Star could do very well... "mono-god" after all...

New Necrons are allowed - but not in Decurion and not in any of the newly designed formations. So you can take 9 Russes of any sort or Screamer Council, but you can't take a Destroyer Cult?
Poor design.
But you live with what you have and work to the best of your abilities... So I came up with this:

"Savage Scars" 1850
Primary: White Scars Space Marine
Allied: Champions of Fenris

Chapter Master - Artificer, Shield Eternal, Power Fist, Auspex, Bike
Khan on Moondrakken
Command Squad - bikes, 4 Grav guns, Apothecary
2 x 5 Bikes with combi Grav, 2 Grav Guns
2 x 5 Bikes with combi Melta, 2 Melta Guns
 
Wolf Guard Battle Leader, Runic Armour, Storm Shield, Power Fist, Thunderwolf, 2 Fenrisian Wolves
2 x Iron Priests-  Thunderwolf
8 Wolf Guard in Drop Pod, 8 Combi Meltas

The Champions of Fenris detachment has, in case unfamiliar, it's own FOC and does not change when allied unlike the Allied Detachment example given in the BRB. This allows for 1 HQ, 2 Elites to be the minimum, then a further 3 HQs and 6 Elites (plus other stuff) giving me the opportunity to create a decent death star :)

The idea is that the Wolves join Master, Khan and Command Squad for a scouting deathstar of awesomeness BUT without too crazy an investment in them detracting from the rest of the army.

I find that Inquisitors have decreased in their popularity and I'm hoping the same is present here.. if not, a scout and a 12" move in turn 1 should still deliver a pretty decent alpha strike. If there is no "counter-scouting", then this army delivers an absolutely crippling alpha strike...followed by a pretty bloody lethal second turn charge.

This format - 3 games over 1 day using only Maelstrom missions encourages a very ground based, mobile army that can grab as many points as possible in order to win.

This army is, naturally, a gamble - whilst I think I can take a first turn punch as well as give it, it is harder to recover - but we know bikes, even one or two in a unit, can score and be a real pain for the rest of the game. Given MSU style armies, I can split the deathstar into several components and just go for it.. It also gives me the potential to grab crazy pointed Maelstroms like "control every objective"...

Now, I did think about lots of other horrible armies: Nids with Demons for example -

2 x Hive Tyrant - Wings, E-grubs, 2 Brainleech Devs
Lictor
Lictor
Venomthrope
Mucolid Spore
Mucolid Spore
Mucolid Spore
Mucolid Spore
2 Hive Crones
Mawloc
 
Lord of Change - Lvl 3, Exalted, Greater
Min Nurglings
Tz Demon Prince, 3+, Wings, 2 Greater
(695 allied :) - under the 700 limit just!)

This gave me 6 fliers in a very restricted format - sure I could 5 with pure Nids, but I get some crazy demon summoning in here too...
BTW, the comp also is ONLY demons and Chaos can summon, no Eldar Anathlan Farseer shite. More comp...

It also gave me a couple of Lictors to drop in and a Portal Glyph plus summoning (Tz Heralds on Discs) for objective grabbing via Summoning and the 1 WC bad boy...
The spores are an interesting distraction, the Mawloc also allows for objective grabbing..

New Necrons:

Or I wanted to try the new Necrons desperately, but this is about the best I can do with the COMP confines:
 
Mephrit Dynasty
Command Barge - Phase Shifter, Warscythe, Res Orb, Solar Thermasite
Command Barge - Phase Shifter, Res Orb, Voidreaper
2 x 5 Immortals
15 Warriors
6 Wraiths - 6 Whip Coils
6 Tomb Blades - TL Gauss Blasters, Shield Vanes, Shadowlooms
9 Scarabs
3 Spyders
2 units of 3 Heavy Destroyers

Spyders move up first turn and generate 3 more Scarabs, this enables an incredibly likely first turn charge into anything that really threatens the Wraiths and the 2 Barges - the elimination process is supported by the Heavy Destoryers combining to try and take down something or weaken it before they charge, then they sweep in and make a mess of things.
Quite a few mobile elements to try and grab objectives too... which is the name of the game!

I may still run these pending playtesting this week - lists are due at the end of the week!

New Harlies:
Not allowed for this tourney - but they are my next project! The Necrons are an army that I have built and painted so no need for work there...just fun playing! Bikes are almost totally done..so time to really work on a new army.. this is my plan:
 
Harlequin Masque:
3 x 7 Harlies, 5 Kisses, 3 Neuro Disruptors
4 Lvl 2 Shadow seers
1 Death Jester
1 Solitaire
2 x 2 Sky Weavers
1 x 3 Void Weavers, Haywire
 
2 Lvl 3 Farseers, Bikes
2 x 3 EJB

1847 of fun..
I'll explain the idea (which is simple really) in a separate article

Let me know your thoughts on all of this shite!
Peace!


7 comments:

  1. That's the funniest thing about most 'Comp' systems- they can be gamed just as easily (in a negative, exploitative way) as regular old list building.

    I suppose limiting everything to 2 of the same units max some armies (GK, DE, Astra Militarum and Harlies, right off the top of my head) will have a hard time putting something competitive on the table.
    Beakies, Eldar, Necrons, Tau...not so much as they have a decent variety of powerful units in every slot.

    Sigh @ arbitrary comp.
    'I dinna like da Wave Serpents. We've gotta stop them. What to do?'
    I've got it- we'll make everyone suffer, but a Serpent Spam list will NOT win this event.
    :D
    Dual iKnights is okay though.
    Really weird comp...

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    1. Hey SinSynn - yeah you are right of course.. the comp systems can still be played... I'm doing my best to "exploit" it :)

      Harlies not allowed at this event, but yeah from my earliest attempts with them, they'd struggle and not just due to lack of unit diversity, but because some of the formations and their FOC are so limited.. actually, it kinda is due to lack of units lol

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  2. And yeah I remember Dethtron.
    He was my boss at the House of Paincakes forever, and still lurks about to deliver a kidney shot to fools in the comments sometimes.
    And apparently he has a keyboard now. At least that was what he was all psyched up about on his FB page the other day.

    Creator of the Legendary Red Snowmobile and the awesomeness that was Friday Night Internet Fights.
    :)

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    Replies
    1. ah, the golden age of 40k blogging. probably due to it being the golden age of 40k. that could just be my opinion, but i'm pretty sure it's also true.

      Delete
    2. I'd definitely agree with their being a "golden age" of 40K blogging.. it's a lot harder to find really quality content these days - however, it could be (as you say) all about perspective.
      Take YTTH - amazing resource for a couple of years when we were learning and developing our "competitive 40k" game, then became less useful as we began to form opinions equal to if not better than/more relevant to our meta... Then it just died when Stelek got bored of 40K...

      But I guess, if you are new to 40k or just taking steps into the competitive world of tournaments etc, then the blogs that are up and running now are just as useful...

      Though snowmobiles were fun and FNIF was often hilarious...

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  3. I still struggle with my opinion on comp.

    We've all been to enough 40K tournies to know that the field of entrants and their goals are wide enough that sometimes restrictions might "favor" over half the participants.

    For every Venerable, there is 2 or 3 guys that just want to rock up with their newly minted X army or their stunningly gorgeous "1 of each unit, all converted, hobbyporn" army. Sometimes they cross over (Atreides ...)

    This is a long beckon away from say a competitive eSports event (my background) - where people are either there to win, or often invited or qualified for the event, meaning everyone has the same goal - to go home with as much cash in their pocket and as much exposure to atrract more sponsors and keep playing for money as much as possible.

    But, limitation breeds creativity and I really like what some guys do with these comp lists. Sometimes I find it too easy/obvious to find the best X list and only have minor variations for expected meta games.

    As for your "only if you have something to say" - it doesnt always have to be 40K specific - sometimes it can be about mindset or just some thoughts about up coming tournaments or practice - what you want to focus on.

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    Replies
    1. I should qualify that "i find it too easy" - I actually meant I find that some people find it too easy - not me personally, I couldnt write a 40K army list to save my life these days.

      Delete