O'vesa Death Star Versus AV13 Necron Spam

 

And the robots went in 2 by 2...

'Sup folks.
My most recent tournament write up continues with a look at my games, who I played, what I did wrong, how I can improve in the future etc.

Tournament was 1850, 5 games - Caledonian Uprising 2014... 116 players.. pure class.

First game up was a tough one, there were certainly easier match up's out there.. but that said, there were also harder ones.
I was playing Chris Scothorne who is a regular tournament player located in the North, plays a lot of his games at Outpost Gaming..
He was running an AV13 Necron army:

2 Overlords, 2 x 3 'bot Courts with S8, AP1 Lance
3 Ghost Arks with 6 dudes in
1 Night Scythe with 9 Sniper fucks
3 Annihilation Barges

8 Av13 vehicles with skimmer saves is not easy. It doesn't matter if you are a cheesy mother fucker running Farsight Tau ( yay! ), if you just don't roll hot, it won't go down!
Now, statistically this was not too bad for me, I just needed to remain in cover from the Lances and Deathmarks (in case of rend) and then just smash my way through the troops and kill them.

The primary was Crusade (5 objectives) with KPs secondary. Tiebreakers as per.

So killing those shitty troops was going to be quite important..

I got first turn and proceeded to push on with my plan.. Firstly, each Sky Ray pummelled a Ghost Ark each, the idea here being to add Markerlights so that the 2 TL, S9 Nova Charged, Ordnance Ap2, Ignores Cover, Tank Hunting  pie plates could hit with a bit more ease...and secondly..being S8 each missile actually had a shot at opening up a Ghost Ark. Over six shots, the chances are not that low..especially given the skimmers hadn't moved yet. So I had a go with that.. then the Ordnance... then the target lockable broadsides were left to clean up troop units and clear it out on turn 1..

Except.. as I said, if you just don't roll high..even with Tank Hunters and 2 dice per Ordnance blast.. you ain't getting anywhere.. and so I just put a few hull points on most Arks, but I was lucky enough to get one Ark for First Strike..I also used a Broadside to pummel the troop unit inside, leaving just one of the 2 Lance Crytpeks in that unit.



Bottom of T2 - Dead Barges, 1 dead Ark, 1 Warlord, 1 Troop

His turn 1, he pushed up into my face with his 2 Overlords on Barges, basically forcing me to deal with them. He threw the Ghost Arks up to get them into range of the Gauss and did the same with the Annihilation Barges.

His shooting was relatively ineffectual, killing a missile drone and a hull point on one Sky Ray.

Turn 2, a couple of solo suits came on, including one in his top right corner to dual flame the cryptke that was annoying me over there.. it still scored, was easy to hide and had a long range Ap1, S8 weapon.. I like my Cypteks extra crispy.
O'Vesa, broadsides and skyray SMS were all used to smash the Overlord Barges, then I had to charge to kill one of them. I failed Mindshackle on a Shielded Missile Drone and it killed itself, O'Vesa then smashed the Overlord to death. The other Riptide had split off and charged the other Overlord..and remained there for a few turns :( 

General depiction of the games unfolding nature.  

Necron 2: Not much. Few Gauss shots everywhere.. 2+ saves and Av13 kept me safe.

Tau 3: More troops come on, about which I am less than happy. I kill off the Ghost Arks, but that is it..the shitty combat between a Riptide and an Overlord continues.
Necron 3: No reserves. A few Gauss shots.. Combat, the Riptide Overlord continues.

Tau 4: O'vesa and Broadies push up to kill troops as do the Skyrays. Flamer suits by the way have been chasing around Crypteks and not doing anything only to then run away in the assault phase to get into cover and hope to not die to horrible lashing from the Lance. Finally, the Riptide treads on the Overlord with a Smash and gets out of there... just in time for..
Necron 4: Deathmarks come in from Night Scythe and get intercepted by 2 Pieplate Riptides. Kill loads of the fuckers, half get back up, it goes from 9 Deathmarks down to 4 after Reanimation.
Troops are all but dead, push in the midfield for more fire into my drop troops. Kill a few.

Turn 5: I move onto objectives, claim a few, kill his troops off and even have time to kill an Annihilation Barge with extreme prejudice from point blank with the solo Riptide.

Game ends 15-5 to me.
I could have pushed for more I think. I certainly think there are ways for me to have gotten more points - I needed to keep my troops alive a bit more and should have been sneakier with them. But the board didn't really have the same level of LoS blocking terrain that was prevalent that weekend. Hills for example were too small to hide even a single Crisis suit behind.
Nevermind.
I stuck to my pregame plan and it paid off.
Chris was a lovely bloke and we had a few laughs and good chat all the way throughout. The kind of game I enjoy - tough, not giving or taking anything with banter and laughs.
I'd happily play Chris again at any event and look forward to future run ins with his robots in disguise.

Next game pushed me up to an ETC player from Belgium running Neil Kerr's Ravenwing bike build from last years ETC...one that has so many tactical options that it is very difficult to beat it big..especially when the dual packs of Black Knights score too in Scouring.. he had 14 scoring units!!!
Keep reading later this week for that bad boy...

Deadly Death Star fight to the Death - O'vesa vs. Seer Council

“Now witness the firepower of this fully ARMED and OPERATIONAL Death Star!”

Is basically what 40k is all about these days... Whether it’s Seer Council, Screamer Star, Farsight Bomb (that all of the sudden have created a liking for the Red Scorpions Chapter????) Centurion Bomb or whatever else, top tables around the world are sprawling with shit-expensive units that are nigh unkillable.

Hey guys, my name is Oliver and I am a new writer on this blog. I’m Swedish/German/Indian, and 18 years old/young, currently living in Denmark and England.

This year I started Uni at Cambridge, and met Venerable Brother at Sons of War (the local club). For any Danish tournament-goers out there, you might recognize me as a very tall and skinny dark-haired guy with a weird accent.

 I’ve been playing 40k competitively for about 2 years now (even though school + not having a car has made it hard to keep up some times), but still find that my skill at the game is lacking… But I intend to change that this coming year :)

I myself have jumped on the Death Star bandwagon – after playing “standard” Tau for quite a while, I’ve now turned to the O’VESA STAR. I’ll probs be taking this list to Caledonian Uprising in January, so currently I’m busy practicing away with it.

Farsight Primary and Tau allies @1850

Farsight

O’vesa

Commander Batman (w. Hit and Run and Onager Gauntlet)

Riptide, Ion, Interceptor  x 2 (One with positional relay)

Riptide, HBC,  Velocity Tracker,  Target Lock, Talisman of Arthas Moloch, 2 Shield Drones  (joins O’vesa, Farsight and Batman)

10 Kroot x 2

3 Crisis Suits, 3 Missile Pods

1 Crisis Suit, 2x Flamer

1 Naked Crisis Suit  x2 (Monat)

Skyray, BSF x 2

This is a very vanilla list that you’ll probably see at any major GT around the world. If you want a more thorough explanation of it, click here.

Alright, let’s get in to the meat of things. My first post will be a batrep of my Cally-prep with the list. This one will be vs. one of Denmark’s best players, playing the deadly SEER COUNCIL. Let's get ready to rumble!

Ravenwing 1850 Battle Rep: Never Give Up!

Just a very quick one highlighting a cool game from the Sons of War Cambridge gaming club (my club..what, it's a shameless plug for my club on my blog bitches! lol) this last week..

I was getting in a test game with my Azrael/multiWing/Blob list..

Mission: The Scouring,

Deployment: Hammer and Anvil

I was playing against a very shooty (anti infantry anyway) GK foot list - loads of Psybolts! Something like:

Coteaz
Grand Master - MC Sword, Rad, Psychotroke
Paladins x 6/7 Psycannons, Psybolts, Hammers, Halberds

War Band - Jokearo, 3 HB Servitors, 2 Plasmagun douches, 3 acolyte douches (they end up with Rending.. not bad)

3 x 10 Strikes - 2 Cannons, Psybolts

2 x Psyflemen

Dreadknight - Jump, Heavy Incinerator, Sword

I'm running the IG/DA Azrael Blob.. my extra Ravenwing bikes didn't arrive in time :(

Azrael

Libbie

Primaris Psyker
2 x 5 Deathwing - Asscannons
2 x 6 Ravenwing - 2 Plasmaguns, MM Attack Bike
5 x Assault Marines, 2 Flamers, Combi Flamer - Drop Pod
Platoon Command - Autocannon
50 man Blob - 5 Power Axes, Autocannons




It's fun.. but there are some elements I just wouldn't include anymore like the Termies or the Assault Squad.
MAWR Ravenwing!

Anyway, this is the story of the Blob and 2 Bikes.

The photo is of the start of the game at deployment, so obviously I haven't got about 605 points on the board with Deathwing and Assault Squad.

I've combat squadded the Bikers because he has a small number of high output units that will maul the bike squads.. so let's let him kill off 3 men with a full Strike Squad with Psybolts..this leaves the other half to do something next turn before they die too..

Anyway, Turn 1 he goes first and just Warp Quakes really.. in his end he has the "4" and both "3" point Objectives.. why move? The Dreadknight is scoring so I think he is keeping it safe for a last minute contest and mayhem later.

My Turn 1 I've scouted the bikes and now I bring my Bikes up, but not too close.. and drop in the Termies via DWA (obviously before the bikes move) and the Drop Pod comes in and... MISHAPS.. and dies after scattering 10" into his Warp Quake net work.. balls. First blood goes to him. The blob moves up and snap fires (with Prescience) the Autocannons one of his Dreads..and pens...explodes it.
I kill all bar one dude in a Strike Squad and then.....

Turn 2 he savages my Dark Angel elite... he kills all bar one Terminator from each group and kills all the bikes except 2 - 1 in each unit. This is despite me trying to block LOS to as many bikes as possible and having a 2+ armour save on Termies.. hmm.. I think I passed... 2. Feck.

My turn, the bikes turbo boost into the back field and I take 2 turns with the blob legging it up field and dealing with the Dreadknight.. yup.. the blob slaughtered the Dreadknight over a couple of assault phases..

The Blob then killed off the Paladins and Grand Master... depsite Rad and Psychotroke Grens..

The Blob then stand in the middle of his D-Z and take a mauling from the remaining GK units, one of which then charges the blob, only to die from Azrael and then the Power Axe serges...

In my final turn.. the blob (which is now actually only 4 dudes, 4 serges, Primaris and Azrael) slaughter Coteaz and his unit to claim the "4" point objective..

Remember those bikes? yup, well each of them was position exactly 27" from the two flanking objectives.. I killed off one GK Strike squad on one (the one that assaulted me) and therefore the bike claims it, then the other bike denies on the right flank.. whilst the Platoon Command Sqaud in my D-Z ...miles away from the action.. claims a "1" point Objective.. I get Line Breaker and Warlord too..

Tactical play wins the day!

Best decision of the day? Combat Squadding the Ravenwing and taking the extra 10 men in the Blob to round out the points..

Love games like this. The Blob ate everything. Brilliant.. Ravenwing needed more of them and a dakka banner..just so they can play support role with the blob rather than sweeping in and putting pressure.. if that pressure can come from range, then so much the better it is..

Going to try this...maybe tonight vs Bringer and his Demons/CSM with just 2 Heldrakes... lol:

Azrael
Libbie - Bike
Ravenwing Command - Bolter Banner, Grenade Launcher
4 x 6 Ravenwing w Bolters, MM Attack Bike
6 x Ravenwing w Bolters

Primaris Psyker (Biomancy) Force Axe
PCS
4 x 10 man Blob, 4 Force Axes

Less dakka in the Blob, but more bikers who can apply that pressure from afar.. although it is a funny one.. I kinda want to throw the RC forward to make use of the RGL's Rad Shell.... but that means putting everyone forward! And that'll end up like the above game! I coudl go Sammael in this list.. but then the Blob wouldn't have a 4++ and Furious Charge lol! Or potential FNP from Biomancy dude.. Plus, if he gets Enfeeble... I can do it from further afield..

Caledonian Game 5/5: Table 1 - FTW!

Final game in the 84 player, 1850 40k tournament held at Maunsfeld Gaming, UK.
I've won the previous 4 games with all the style and panache you expect from me..
I've had Invisi-Council Eldar from the UK's number 2 player
I've had Double Jaws podding Wolves with Null Zone SM allies from an ex-England ETC player/organiser
I've had Double Jaws podding Wolves with Null Zone SM allies (again) from the current Scottish ETC Captain
I've had Wraith/Air Crons from a Top 10 ranked player

I've lined up for myself in the final round.. Josh Roberts with Wraith/Air Crons...
The Giant Slayer!
The Prodigy!
The lean, mean, Reanimating Machine!
The Messiah of Tesla Fire! (pronounced "Fiah" lol) (double lol.. I like that! I may use that more..)
The England Number 1!
Team England ETC Captain!

Yeah. I lost.
Came 9th.
Don't talk to me, don't even fucking look at me. ... 'm disgusted. Still lol ;)
I don't lose.
Or do I?
I don't
Or do you?
No.
Yes.
Apparently. Fuck.

NOTE: All stats correct at time of tournament.

Alright, let's get down to it then:

Mirror Match - Necrons Vs Necrons at Caledonian 2013

Round 4 of one of the UK tournament calendar spotlights...2013's Caledonian Uprising.
84 players.
High calibre competition and excellent organisation.
Round 4 finds me on table 2 after a cracking first day.

I am at this point slightly miffed.
I practiced a lot verus daemons in order to get prepared for the daemon spam that I envisaged seeing.
There were plenty up on the top tables, but no... I get to play two Necron games Day 2, lol.
Serves me right I guess.

So Rob Sims Crons:

2 x D Lord - Scythe, Shackles, Semp  ( 1 is Warlord obv)

10 Immortals - Tesla

4 x 5 Warriors in Night Scythes

2 x 6 Wraiths

3 Annihilation Barges

Deployment: Dawn Of War
Mission: Crusade

Rob goes first, deploying with Wraiths up front of his Barges over to the left hand side of the board. This is where the greatest density of objectives are, although as you can see across these photos, they are well spread, one objective in each table quarter, one in the middle of the board (NOVA style).
He deploys his Immortals across in the tower on the right, on an objective and looking to hold down a flank.

The key error here is that I can't really out-CC him as he has the D Lords, but I can ignore them.. I'm not planning on ignoring them totally.. what I'm planning on doing is using the psychological threat of force to bully him and keep him playing defensive.
I can't do that all game, but the longer it goes on the better.

I deploy my Wraiths out of sight, my Immortals out of sight on the extreme left behind a ruin and push all the Barges and Overlord on the right, opposite the Immortals and where they can move up the board edge.

Largely, the plan here is to reverse the deployment zone into Hammer and Anvil, forcing his Wraiths to come along the length of the board and away from the action - or, failing that stay out gaurding objectives til I get the last minute, last turn dash to contest...keeping 750 points out of the game.
If he realises what I'm doing and commits them.. fine, I'll deal with them but the longer I don't have to, I can maul the rest of the army.

Turn 1 and Rob realises that I'm going for his Immortals and moves and runs them back off the objective towards the safety of the herd. He adjusts his army slightly, checking I am out of retaliatory fire range and that's that. Turn 1 for him done. He is patiently waiting his fliers to come in and then strike in a coordinated mess. Fair enough, let's divert a little more attention.

My turn 1, I move 30" with my Overlord into the top right corner of the board, looking to keep those Immortals  on the run and away from that objective.. I push my Barges up the field so that they can get some cover and so that they are going to be in range next turn of any centrally placed fliers.
Why would they be in the middle... ?
Well, I'm going to give them some bait.
Tempting bait.
I move one unit of Wraiths up and out of their terrain piece into a position so that they can't be shot the Immortals or by 2 of the Annihilation Barges.
My Immortals continue to play the waiting game as well, waiting for flier support.

Turn 2 and Rob and I agree that in this situation he either wants all or none of his fliers.
He gets them all...

Cally Game 3 - Necrons Vs Wolves w Marines (AGAIN)

Game 3 was up on Table 5, I was moving into the position I wanted to be in, namely tougher games versus tougher oppoenents that would help me to improve my standing from last year (11th) and meet this years target of Top 5... which I missed out on by 4 spots due to the way the final game turned against me.. d'oh!

But anyway, more on that in due time. Back in time to the end of the first day and two solid wins for me. 2 solid wins as well for Bernard Lee from the Scottish ETC team who is running a very similar list to Chris Green (of yesterdays post fame HERE).

Mission: Puge (Kill Points)
Deployment: Hammer and Anvil

Bernard Lee - Space Wolves with Space Marine Allies

2 Rune Priests, Jaws, Runic Axe, stuff.

3 Wolf Guard w Combi Melta

8 Grey Hunters, Standard, Meltagun, Power Axe - Drop Pod

8 Grey Hunters, Standard, Meltagun, Power Axe - Drop Pod

10 Grey Hunters, dual Plasmagun, Standard, Power Axe - Drop Pod

5 Hunters, Meltagun - Drop Pod

3 Hyperios Missiles

Libbie, Termie, Null Z, Gate

10 Sternguard - 5 Combi Plasma - Drop Pod

5 Scouts

3 Attack Bikes - MM

Thunderfire

Bernard was a good lad from the Scottish Team but made a couple of mistakes. The biggest of these came at set up when Bernard rolled and switch out the Psychic Powers of his Rune Priests rather than keeping his Jaws.
I am really nto sure what the argument is there, perhaps - and I guess this is logical-ish, he didn't want to give up the Warlord Secondary or the KPs for his 2 Rune Priests and was going for Iron Arm etc on his Priests? Perhaps enfeeble as well so the drop pod bolter marines could do significant harm to my army.. perhaps Bernard was thinking more in line with Dark Angels (6th ed codex proper - buffing and debuffing armies, also a la Tyranids) and the way they work now.

I can see some logic in that, but I am an army of I2 models..

God send in disguise I can tell you. Bernard did still have a damn decent amount of shooting and between his Sternguard (I love Sternguard in a Wolves army) and podding Marines/Hunters and the THunderfire lobbing shells into me.. I knew I was in for a rough ride.
He got to go first, perfect for him, tough for me to deploy - but that said, I knew if I could deploy right I would weather the hail in the first turn and have the right tools to deal with things in the later game.

SO with that in mind... I used a defensive deployment based around a terrain/piece/building (impassable) with my Wraiths upfront and then a layer of Warriors, followed by barges, with both Immortal groups in the very back corner of my board.
By doing this I negated the full effect of:
a) Rapid Fire combi plasma from Sternguard
b) Short Ranged melta from the Grey Hunter packs.
- I ensured that all 4 Barges had a 4+ cover from the buildings from all accessible angles.
- All Immortal units were outside of 12" and in cover from the Plasma units
- There were no Pod shaped holes in my deployment due to the judicious use of all 3, 5 man Warrior squads and both Immortals.

In this manner, Bernard could happily rapid fire Warriors if he got very close to the Wraith on the drop, or he could drop and get the Wraiths.
His other option, which of course negates the limited mobility of a drop pod, was to drop down further away and wait for the other pods to come in up close and provide a single killing blow.. Of course this would mean no killing on turn 1 and I would get first blood and still maul his 30 marines that were on the board.
So he doppped up close.

Bat Rep: Necrons Vs SW/SM - Double Jaws Priests!

Game 2 at Caledonian on Table 14 (I think lol) against Chris and his SM/SW combo. Chris made early game banter about his joining up with the English ETC Team and "hadn't I done the same?", "Killswitch taking the piss endlessly if Chris lost to me" well..... that didn't turn out so well for him. Whilst playfully establishing his own position in the gamer hierarchy, he was also just making conversation and I can confirm that Chris was also a top lad, took everything well, could see most things coming - even if it was a little too close to it happening.. but a solid player.

I guess that's what you get most of the time after a round 1 win.. other players on a win.. but you can never really tell if that player is any good or whether they just pulled out the luck of the draw with a good match up..

Opponent: Chris Green
Mission: Relic & Bore Draw combined
Deployment: Dawn of War

Chris's army was:
Wolves:
2 Jaws Rune Priests (the other powers weren't used)
4 Wolf Guard in a Pod with Combi Melta (yup...done that before!)
10 GH in a Pod with 2 Meltaguns, Power Axe, Wolf Standard
8 GH in a Pod with Meltaguns
10 GH on foot with Plasmaguns and Terminator Wolf Guard w. CML
2 x 5 Long Fangs - 4 ML
Aegis w. Quad Gun
Space Marine Allies

Libbie - Null Zone, Gate
Tac Squad - ML, plasmagun
Storm Talon - Skyhammer Missiles, TL AC
Vindicator - Siegeshield

I won the roll off for deployment and went first, dictacting where the battle would be fought as his mobility was limited realistically to drop pods. I wanted him in and away from my objective.

My objective was in the bottom right of my deployment zone, his in the centre-right (my centre-left) of his zone. Relic was in the centre between two ruins.

My plan was to leg it across the field, blasting with Tesla and Gauss as I went to gun down his realtively small army. There are not a great number of Marine bodies in the army.. 300 points are in the HQs, but in no more than 6 T4 3+ saves...and the flier is over costed for what it does. Given as well that the drop pods would not bring every marine onto the table for at least a turn, I can use my firepower to my advantage. The Vindicator is a scary prospect, of course, but it has to come a little forward and then I can Haywire the shit out of it.. realistically as long as it is 6-8" on from his table edge, I should be able to bring the Haywires on from reserve and kill the Vindi...

Caledonian Game 1: Invisi-Council of DOOOM!

So as I posted at the end of last week, Caledonian 1850, 5 game, 84 player 40k tournament was last weekend.
I came 9th and was playing for the tournament on top table in the last game.
This week I am going to throw up all my Battle Reports, which will be brief but informative and have well detailed photos for almost every turn, most certainly for key moments.
(This paragraph will be the same all week lol, so don't read it again tomorrow!)

Game 1: 
Opponent: Gaz Jones - Eldar w. Dark Eldar 
Deployment: Vanguard 
Mission: Scouring - the 5 objectives are the blue discs you can see above

Gaz Jones: 

Eldrad

Farseer - Jetbike, Fortune, Doom, Mind War, Eldritch Storm, Stones

Baron

Seer Council x 7 (enhance, embolden, 5 destructors)

5 Fire Dragons - Exarch, Crack Shot, Tank Hunter

5 Pathfinders

3 Guardian Jetbikes

3 Guardian Jetbikes

5 DE Warriors

3 War Walkers - 6 Missiles

3 War Walkers - 6 Missiles

Bastion - Quad Gun

He won the roll off due to the Baron's +1 ability and went first - he needed to get the Council Fortuned, Guide some War Walkers and try for First Blood. Which he got on an Annihilation Barge.

Eldrad redeployed the Eldar as shown from their original strung out position across the hypotenuse of the table to the huddle in the corner.
Whilst I was aware of the Eldrad redeploy shenanigans, it didn't effect me too much as I felt that this game had a certain "feel" to it. I wanted to keep my Wraiths back as in my planning they do not come into the 'anti-Council' plan until after the Baron is dead so they can't hit and run. However, with Eldrad keeping his powers and the secondary Farseer going for Invisibility I felt the Council would be far less aggressive. Gaz and I were open and frank about the ideas and the way the game was going to be played as we could both see a lot of the key points from the off.

Ignore my flier, it's just sat there out the way.. 

With the Council in a far more defensive role, primarily due to the attaching of Eldrad on foot as an anchor point, I viewed the Council as some sort of wushu bamboo tree - waving all over the place, bending, but never breaking. I'd need to stick to my original planning for the overall game, but largely ignore the Council through steady and calculated range manipulation - whilst the Council could cover a very good distance, they could not be everywhere at once if I pushed on multiple, disparate fronts.

The objectives were spread across the board, with a couple in great position for me, most notably behind the large blocking fantasy piece on the left. My Veil Immortals could sit here all game, denying enemy attempts to claim that or engage them, then teleport to a more valuable objective or contest one of Gaz's late in the game to swing the match up in my favour.



Turn 1: There is very little action on Turn 1 save for the Council getting Invisibility off, Fortune off, Guide off on both units of War Walkers - this leads to a dead Barge after a scout and move gives them a good position which denies my cover. My bad. Meh. Warming up lol.

My 1, I kill 3 Fire Dragons. Meh. Warming up lol. I also turbo boost my Overlord down to the fantasy house you can see in the top of the above left picture. This is an extremely long charge for the Council by the time they are in a position to see the target unit (me) - the Overlord is aiming to smash the Bastion next turn.

Ven's Blog Wars 4 Bat Reps

*PICS TO BE UPDATED LATER*

This last weekend was Blog Wars 4. The 4th (unsurprisingly, its a bit Ronseal) such event ran by Alex from From the Fang. For those not in the know it is a one day, 1850, 3 game, standard mission tournament with a single stipulation - you must include a Special Character in your force, ideally from your Primary Detachment.

I have won the previous 3 and was gunning for a 4th title.
The mission packs, entrants and details can be found here.

I ran the following after I couldn't finish my Nids in time.. which I think would have fared equally well in my match ups. If not better.. But anyway, I ran my Necrons - tweaked for the scenario:

Obyron

10 Immortals - Gauss

10 Immortals - Gauss

5 Warriors - Night Scythe

5 Warriors - Night Scythe

5 Warriors - Night Scythe

5 Warriors - Night Scythe

6 Wraiths

6 Wraiths

Annihilation Barge

Annihilation Barge

Annihilation Barge

Lots of shooting, lots of highly mobile troops, Aircraft, wraiths for distraction/tie ups.. should be good...what did I face?

Game 1 - Necrons/Blood Angels by Andy BG from Iron Legion
Game 2 - Grey Knights by Matt Greenwood from From the Fang
Game 3 - Eldar/Dark Eldar by Frank Marsh from Generation 40k
"Unofficial" Game 4 - Eldar/Dark Eldar by Frank Marsh from Generation 40k

You can guess, I am sure, that due to the speed of Game 3, we were able to get in another game.. but who took a 50 min destruction-style spanking? Read on, reader, read on..

THIS IS WORDY! 10 MINS READING TIME PROBS! Worth it though o' course..

Blog Wars 4 . Bat Reps...

So it was full of Gusto I breezed in to my second Blog Wars with my tourney untested new marine creation, I was hopeful as in play testing the "tool kit" army seemed to be working well and had yet to be trounced (which is not the same as "not lost" :P )

Anyway this was the list I took. The inclusion of Chronus was due to the mission pack making special characters score or give away extra vps but you HAD to take one. Either way a scoring predator that could then cheekily throw the character from the wreckage to go and hide in a squad seemed a good bet. The fact he then gave me immune to stunned and shaken and bs5 was just icing on the cake:

Libby - Gate and Null Zone
10 Sternguard in a pod
Iron Clad with 2 hunter killers in pod

10 tacs with the holy trinity of melta in pod
10 tac with missile, plasma and assault cannon razorback
10 sniper scouts with Telion
Aegis with Las

Storm talon with cyclone
Vindicator
Thunder Fire
Dakka Pred with Chronus

Let's see how I got on then..

Necron Bat Rep: Gauntlet Game 1 - Draigowing w. IG

This is a bit pic heavy, hope you guys appreciate it.. I found it an interesting activity. 


Mission: Scouring

Deployment: Vanguard

GK win roll of to choose half first, they choose the top right.
GK deploy Aegis Defense Line (ADL). Two layered, one in position to give cover to Blob and the other on the front line to give cover to Paladins to stop S8+ (none present in this list, but a damn good 'best practice' to get into).
Night Fight is in.
Draigo –Dust of a thousand worlds (useful)

Necron Over-War-Lord – minus 1 to enemy reserves (irrelevant)

Pal's up front going for mid table Turn1

GK win roll of to deploy first and go first. Both advantages at the early stage going to GK. 

GK Deployment – on the 12” – Draigo & Paladins going to scout via Grand Strategy. Solodin on the Quad Gun, holding home objective. Blob going to push first turn..but holding another objective.

NOTE: It turns out I don't have 60 Guardsmen, so the rest of them (20) are hiding invisibly in between their buddies in the same outline and shape. Irrelevant for this exercise as no real templates. 

Necrons deploy defensively trying to outrange the 48” guns.. awaiting flier support. This is a tricky process that I have been working on over the last 8-9 play test games. Especially tough with 48" range guns on the GK's - Psyfle's, Auto and Quad..

However, thanks to pre-measuring, this is quite safe to do.. ruins and other terrain on the table help to give decent saves, Night Fight being in on Turn 1 really helps. Ruins plus Shrouding equals pretty damn safe..

Paladins scout, Necrons have no interest in Seizing. 

BatReps in Brief: Day 1 1850 Tournament

Wolf on Wolf action - Game 3 Deployment

Report time for the 1850 tournament I just won down at the Brighton Warlords. This was a solid performance for me, I did make a couple of small tactical errors, but killed and maimed beautifully across the weekend.
These are not full blown reports, but they are blow by blow accounts as accurately as I can remember, but concise enough to not bore you to death (hopefully). If some things come across as simple.. just remember...it's not easy being this good lol! But seriously, I may come across as simple or that each victory was straightforward, but there is more going on behind the scenes...from Game 1 onwards it's all about 3 key things that I really think provide an edge:
Target priority, deployment and knowing your enemy.

For what it's worth - I was pressured going into this tournament, I only have 4 tournaments on Rankings UK, one of which was last years July Brighton. That dropped off and therefore I needed to perform at this one if I wanted to maintain my Top 16 position.
Which I have.. 13th currently.
 If I want to get higher, I need to go to bigger tournaments where there are more points available. I did this at Caledonian and Jolly Toys, but it's gonna be Brighton again in October and then maybe Northern Warlords GT in September, but it is a long way.. But I have til November to replace the final 4th tournie that could be used for points.. I think I will aim for 2 more tournies this year. The ones I talk about above.. that'll give me a good shot of being part of the Masters.

Anyway, onto the games.


Game 1: Space Marines - Scouring (WIN), Dawn Of War (old Pitched Battle)

Calgar
5 TH/SS Termies
Spartan Assault Carrier
2 x 10 Tac Marines
5 Assault Marines
Chaplain
2 x Mortis Contemptor Dreads

Caledonian Uprising - a brief rundown (part 2)

Today I'll have a quick look at game 4 to 6 and give a quick summary of what I learned at Caledonian.

Game 4 - Foot Horde Necrons

In the list of armies you don't want to face with a mech guard list in a dawn of war game, a horde of Necrons rates pretty near the top.  When he won first turn I knew it would be even worse.  Luckily the primary was seize ground. 

His army consisted of two squads of 15 warriors, two squads of 10 warriors, 2 squads of 10 immortals, 2 units of 6 scarabs, a unit of 6 wraiths, and a shedload of overlords, lords, crpyteks and assorted nastiness.  Not to put too fine a point on it, I was bricking it.

UK Masters Day 1

So, what happened at the Masters? Was certainly a hard weekend of gaming, with some of the best players around the UK pitted against one another. The way the system works is the winner gains 15 points, the lose 5, and draw 10 each. Then VP difference gives or deducts between 0-5 points depending on the difference.

For those wandering, the lists can be found HERE stolen for Kirby's blog like a boss ;)

I took a fairly strange pick, both army lists I had never used before, but fancied something a bit different and challenging from the norm. Was also hoping to catch a few players off guard, but I think that happened only once in my games (see bellow).

So a quick recap of my games:

Ven's Necrons at Caledonian Part 2

Following on from this post where you can find games 1 - 3. So second day and 3 more games, 2 wicked, 1 made 'meh' by a single moment of stupidity from the dude I was playing.

Continue for Games 4 - 6

Caledonian Uprising - a brief rundown (part 1)

Caledonian Uprising, a two day event with 6 games at 1850 points, and over 100 players.  This was the largest 40k event I have ever had the pleasure of attending and I enjoyed almost every second of it.  Most of this post will be a series of very short battle reports, but first i will say a few things about the event itself.

Firstly, it was extremely well run.  I mean this very sincerely, there was not a single thing I think the organisers could have done to improve the smooth running of the event.  All the games started and ended on time, the missions and scores were announced so all could hear, and with enough time to find your table.  Above all, the few rules queries and rulings that myself and various opponents did require were dealt with extremely fast and each time a ruling was made, multiple judges were involved and the reasoning was discussed properly and openly.

Secondly, the soft scores were quite interesting.  There has been some kerfuffle over this because some people think the soft scores are weighed too heavily.  Purely on a personal level I disagree.  I do this hobby because I enjoy all aspects of it, and I don't want to go to a big professional event and see a load of grey plastic after I have spent a lot of effort on my own army.  Getting almost max soft scores is not hard, you need a painted army and not to play like a dick, and that is pretty much it.  Most people only dropped about 4 points out of 50 for painting and sportsmanship so it was largely irrelevant anyway.  

So, on to the games. 

Venerable's Necrons at Caledonian Uprising Part 1

Hey hey.

Going to keep this simple.

I had an amazing time.

It was amazingly well run.

Genuinely.

I won 4 games.

I lost 2 games.

I came 11th.

From 116 players.

Good times.

Going to smash out some very brief  rundowns.

Tolworth Mayhem - a "brief" tournament report

My apologies, this turned out to be anything but brief!!

Last weekend I attended the Tolworth Mayhem Oktoberfest tournament.  It was a six game affair with custom missions that I gather the club has been refining for the better part of a decade.  This really showed, as it was the most smoothly run and professionally organised tournament I have yet attended, as well as the largest.This was the first battle points event I have been to, and i have to say I loved it. The missions were so balanced that unless you completely dominated your opponent there was no way you could get full points.  Also, a massacre did not automatically give you the full 20 points, you had to complete the objectives set first.

First of all I will get a few minus points out of the way so I can get onto the mini-batreps for each game.

1. The terrain was poor.  the quality of the actual pieces was excellent, but there was far, far too little that blocked line of sight.  This meant that shooting armies dominated utterly and completely.  Additionally, some boards (the themed ones) were horrifically unbalanced.  For example, one board was completely composed of trenches, and was thus fully difficult terrain.  Another was simply two lines of forts with a two foot gap in the centre with no cover in it.  yes, really.
2. The way sportsmanship was scored was terrible.  At the end of each day, you had to rate your three opponents from best to worst.  Since everyone else knew each other, guys who came on their own (and there were quite a few of us) or teams who had not attended before (you cant play your own team members) got fucked, as people voted for their mates.  I firmly believe that sportsmanship should be a given at events like this, and if you want to make a special award it should be by nomination only. 

I will state again that these are two extremely minor points and they did not detract from my enjoyment at all.  anyone who wished to play an assault army though, or even a midfield one in some cases, should be very concerned about the first point.   However, everything else about the event was amazing.  The food was great, the quiz and raffle were good diversions, and the quality of players, lists, refereeing, and sportsmanship was quite brilliant. 

Starsmash 2011 Tournament Report - Part 2

Sorry for the delay of this guys, been extremely hectic at home with work, Gym and trying to get the Ex back :(. Appologies for the lack of images, I completely forgot and was too tired to remember.

So onto Day 2 of this years Starsmash 2011 Tournament report. We (Brighton Warlords) arrived fairly early, filled with a “fresh” breakfast straight from the local McDonalds. I unleashed hell in the bathroom before the tabletop after this, but lets just say I was more than happy with releasing such a god like log. I would have left it for all to praise but thought it may offend some of those lesser men amongst us.

So onto the round 4.

Starsmash 2011 Tournament Report

I attended the Starsmash tournament at the weekend. Still recovering from the sleepless nights, hence the late post. Starsmash was a 1500pt tournament held in Reading by the one and only Reading Spiky Club. These boys are great at organising events, ranging from doubles to campaign weekends, they hold all sorts of different types of tournaments every year. I could not recommend them any less, so if you are planning to attend any tournaments in the coming year around London, keep your eye on the Spiky lads who post up their events on the Warhammer forums (warhammer.org.uk).

The tournament used Battle point’s on top of the usual win/draw/loss format. 30 pts for a win, 10 for a draw, 1 for a loss. Battle points were fairly simple, 2 points for killing the most expensive HQ, 2 points for killing the most expensive non HQ unit & 2 points for having a scoring unit closer to the tables centre than your opponent.

So onto the event....