War of the Roses England ETC Tournament!!

Off we go!
Today is the War of the Roses - an 1850, 5 game 2 day tournament run by the England ETC team (Big Mike in particular) and has basically no comp at all.
This will, undoubtedly, lead to some horrible armies and a sneak peak at some of the playtesting/lists for the England team - always interesting.
NOTE: With a toe or two still in the camp, I do know these already, but I refer to the general tournament attendees.

It's looking reasonably well attended with around 35 players.

That'll do me - this is, shockingly, my first 2 day tournament in OVER A YEAR! Wow!
The last one was the Caledonian Uprising 2014!
Man, that was SOOO long ago!
I ended up, officially 34/35th I think after a big ol' points deduction for a list change last minute, busting me from, in Battle points, high teens (out of 110 players).. which was a real shame, but ...my own fault!
I also won Most Sporting which was nice.

More recently, I took Best General and 2nd place overall at the recent LazrBlast single day event in Norwich.

I find myself quite excited! I've not gotten a weekend of geekery in for bloody ages and the chance to see top level play again helps to keep me excited and up for this game.

I'm running a SM Bike and Centurion Pod list using Flesh Tearers Strike Force.
(Again, I'm keeping some of the blog's Blood Angel roots alive! I really like the BA book and with Pods becoming a major focus for me over the next few months... we'll see more of it! Interestingly, note Torrent of Fire and Nick Nanavanti toying with an excellent unit - the Frag-Furioso!)

The other lists have not been published as yet and the first round match ups are not out yet, I assume they are being done on the day...today... I forget I'm writing this in advance!

My list is:

Khan (Warlord)

3 x 5 Bikes with double Meltaguns and a Combi-Melta

3 x 5 Bikes with double Gravguns and a Combi-Grav

2 x 3 Centurions with Grav Cannons, Hurricane Bolters, Omniscope

 

Mephiston

5 Bolter Scouts

3 x Drop Pods

This allows me to drop Meph and both units of Cents in on the first turn with the scouting bikes to create a truly lethal Alpha Strike.

Going second, I can scout/deploy the bikes out of sight or range and try and get the first strike myself using speed and pods.

Maelstrm is in use here and although you can only score 2 tactical cards per urn, the speed and positioning of the army allows me to maximise opportunities to score.

I was going to run Adamantium Lance with Astra Militarum allies, but as there is currently a vote in play to ban/allow Ad Lance and the iKnight codex from the ETC, I thought it would be better to run something that is more likely to be seen as practice for the England boys.

So - fingers crossed. I'm hoping for a Top 10, but that means pushing someone in the England set up out of the picture... so a tough, tough nut to crack!
Given my recent lack of experience at tournament level, perhaps I should aim for something more like going 3:2 over the weekend!

Wish me luck and I'll provide feedback on the lists and the games next week!

Imperial Knights - no tournament love?

I must have more time on my hands at work these days - two posts in the same... year!

The ETC is currently voting to include or don't include super heavies. Or whether to ban entirely or make an exception for iKnights.

The UK GT is finalising its rules for 2015/16 season and a combined 400 points can be spent on Forgeworld and Superheavies combined.. So it looks like a max of 1 iKnight or Wraithknight.

The question is, do UK tournies follow suit?

The ETC has a tremendous ripple effect on tournaments and in whether the casual tournament player knows it or acknowledges it, the decisions made on this high play level influence what they see on the tabletop.

If you don't think the ETC has an impact, the UK Indy GT certainly does - dropping to 1500, no Maelstrom cards - just a select combined mission pack, and a 400 point cap on FW and Superheavies.

Wow.

I am going to try and get back on the the UK scene a bit more this year, hit the GT qualifiers and then hopefully qualify for the Final next year. I am confident that if I read the meta right I can more than qualify, but the question today is:

Is this the right direction for UK play?

Are iKnights THAT hard to kill/dominant in the game for a tournament player? In the era where GW are allowing us to play with our toy soldiers in almost any way we see fit (ASIDE: remember when you played 40k as a little kid and you just made it up as you went along, confident that your imagination would guide you right for FUN... this is it, but with rules to guide us now that we are more advanced mentally - or not!!) is it right to buck this trend, to rebel against the tide of new releases?

If this is the direction our game is heading - Epic but on a heroic scale (which I for one, am not against!) then shouldn't the UK scene be trying to roll with the punches rather than hit back against an opponent that simply can't feel the blows?

Demon Summoning - What's the deal now?

Yeah, yeah - I'm 6th month's late on this..
I didn't like the concept when it first hit.
Felt it was
a) too time consuming
b) not smashy enough (I like to smash - that's what she said! self-snowmobile whoot!)

However - I have a heavily comped tournament (only a 40+ player one day bad boy to be fair...) coming up and I am trying to create competitive lists within its constraints.
As explored the other day, this rules out new Necrons (which I love), new Harlies (love - too new) and several other highly competitive builds (Nids for example).

I tried a Demon Summoning list last night at Sons of War. Had a great game vs CentStar - wracked up 18-10 on Maelstrom (it uses Maelstrom Missions only)..

After a little tweaking after thoughts, the list is:

Lord of Change - Lvl 3, 2 Greater Rewards
2 Heralds of Tz, Disc, Lvl 3, 1 Exalted
3 x 10 Tz Horrors
2 x 3 Nurglings
2 Demon Prince of Tz, Lvl 3, Wings, Armour (one with 2 Greater, one with 1 Greater/1 Exalted
9 Screamers

The idea is to grab sacrifice on the Nurglings first turn and get another couple of Heralds for the Council.
Comp is max 2 of the same unit (outside troops/inc. however transports e.g. max 2 wave serpents) and max 15 power dice to be generated per turn... so no 4 heralds or 3 Tz Princes

In testing - I focus on Sacrifice to generate another pair of Heralds on Discs.
These can turbo boost the turn they come in which means I have a great shot at maximising Maelstrom points and of course can join them to the Screamer Council in subsequent turns.
it also gives me a shot at grabbing any of the powers I don't get during the pre-game roll off for Psychic powers.
For example, I did NOT get Cursed Earth at the start of the game, but I did when I got my 3rd summoned Herald in turn 2...
I didn't actually use it...
I used the Nurgling Swarms in the first turn to put a wound onto in order to generate a Herald.

I of course stacked a load of dice on 4++ Divination power and talked this up as the "BIG" power to be getting off each turn to protect the council.
Of course it is... BUT, with Cursed Earth and Grimoire it's quite nice anyway..

it should be noted that another element of the comp is the limit to 2++ rerollable saves. They become the 2++/4++ reroll that is used by several tournaments. So actually, 3++/3++ is not all that bad...if I fail to get the 4++ or it gets stopped.

I only used "Summoning" three times and was stopped on one occasion - GK Cent Star has plenty of power dice too...

I did however, find summoning Screamers to be useful for the objective claiming/denial I mentioned with the Heralds. Their turbo boost can be wonderful to get to objectives.
They did give up a point once when my opponent drew the "Blood and Guts" card, gaining a point from killing a unit in CC.

I was very impressed with the board control, speed, objective claiming/denial and survivability of the list.

I was not impressed with the killing power. I found Flickering Fire to be..frankly, wank. Granted, I had mainly Dreadknights and Invisible CentStar to deal with ...so I just felt like killing stuff was fruitless - just put my units at risk and what not. I did kill his Strike Squads for easy "kill a psyker"/"kill a unit" points ... And I thought I could tie up the CentStar with the Screamer star of just summoned crap for a turn and pump all my denial dice into Gate. That'd keep them locked down and inactive...

As it was - I liked the way the Summoning/Mobile Demons worked for this game... I do wonder if I needed the fliers, but they were useful for Vector Strikes on Dreadknights and for drawing fire from the CentStar - he took two turns (over the game) to kill a Demon Prince ...

So thoughts please on Summoning Mobile Demons for a Maelstrom only tournament?
Think it's probably a really good shout, but damn...it needs some painting!!

War of the Roses Batreps - Intro and Games 1 and 2 - Yes that means I finally went to a Tournament again :) - The Voice

So, yea, I fell out with 40k for a bit and fell in love with X Wing.

But with 6th on the way out and 7th incoming I thought id give the old bird one more spin on the dance floor. I have a bit more time now anyway and fancied seeing all the guys. (Love you guys :P)

This was made easier due to the "Highlander" side competition (where every troop is slightly different and you cant duplicate anything else, and no allies. Plus all the non beardy lists could only play each other.) "Perfect" I thought and signed up; figuring id get all the fun of going without the pressure or bs of playing O'vesa's or Pasks or Deathstars ETC,....

......so, yea they cancelled the highlander......

X-Wing Tournament Report - Chaos City Store Championship

Last weekend I attended my first X-wing tournament, an official Store Championship at Chaos City Comics in St Albans.  In addition to being my first tournament, it was the first time the store had run one.  This considered, they did a pretty good job.  The only issue was the fact that the tables were smaller than regulation.  They were the correct width but the length was 6 inches shorter than normal.  The store was very open about this from the start, and it was made apparent in all their adverts, so I had no problem with it, and I don't think anyone else did either.  It just meant you had to adjust starting moves accordingly.  It was a four game event with 75 minute rounds, which turned out to be the perfect amount of time. very few people failed to finish each round, and it was always the same people, so I guess they were just slow players.

I had no idea how hard the field would be, and my only thoughts were that the current meta is supposedly very rebel based, so I came up with something to combat that threat, but which i felt might be able to hold its own against Imperial squadrons.  I was playing around with Squadron Builder a few weeks ago and came up with the following: 

B-wing - Dagger Squadron, advanced sensors

B-wing - Dagger Squadron, advanced sensors

Y-wing - Gold Squadron, ion cannon

Y-wing - Gold Squadron, ion cannon

Pros of the list

• Durability - you have 16 hull and 16 shields in total.
• Maneuverability/ability to stay on target (turrets, advanced sensors) even while ion’d.
• Complimentary dials enable formation flying.
• I like pilot skill 4 ships, as they are cheap, yet enable you to fire before the majority of other non-named pilots.
• Brutally effective against anything with agility 1 and very good against agility 2. 

Cons of the list

• You are amazingly easy to hit, and therefore easy to focus fire down.
• Not enough damage output to regularly put hits on agility three ships.
• Slow overall speed (4 forwards are red).

It turned out that this is a well known list nicknamed 'Golden Daggers' and is pretty widely used, but I wasn't aware of that until after the first game of the tournament.  I went into the event with genuinely zero expectations, so let's see how I fared. 

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...

Back from Caledonian Uprising!

Made it home safely (with a few minor detours on the way home *cough* Ven Bro can’t navigate *cough* ;P ) after a great weekend of gaming!

Me vs. Sheridan's 'Crons

Oliver here, with a short summary of my Cally experience.

Overall I had two draws and three wins, netting me a total of 63 points in Generalship. This put me in tied for 20-22 place out 115 in Generalship, something I am fully content with for my first showing on the UK tourney scene. 

My overall performance throughout the 5 games I felt could improve. I need to become better at making decisions under pressure, and plan ahead to limit the amount the amount of tough decision I have to make late game when I am tired… All of that will hopefully come with more practice with the list and tournament gaming here in the UK.

On to a short rundown of my games. If you want to know what list I ran, it can be seen here:

Game 1 vs. Scott Milne (Scottish ETC player), CSM/CDM 
Scott ran 2 Spawnstars with a Sorcerer on steroids in each, along with a big unit of Plague Drones, and a Heldrake. Mission was Crusade/KPs with Dawn of War

• Scott started and advanced on me, but failed Grimoire on the Drones.
• Some poor shooting by me (forgot stealth and shrouded on the Drones like an idiot..) only saw a few Drones getting killed T1.
• T2 Scott charges the Drones into the O'vesastar - no wounds in CC and I HitnRun out
• I proceed to nuke Scott's troops, while hiding my Single suits on ruins/impassable terrain to prevent Scott from charging them.
• Late game I shifted my army away to the left flank, securing it by killing off one of the Spawnstars. In the last turn both I and Scott have one objective with KPs being tied after Scott killed a Single Crisis suit with a boltgun on the Sorcerer last turn :-(
• 10-10 draw

Game 2 vs. Mark Pocock (Markymark on the blog/ English ETC candidate). CDM
Mark was rocking the double trouble Screamerstar which can be checked out here. Mission was KPs/Scouring with Vanguard Strike.

• Mark got 1st turn and took it, got Forewarning but no Misfortune (phew)
• I deployed very spread out with O'vesa central, to avoid those pesky multycharges
• Turn 1 he advanced to midfield with the council and shot at the O'vesastar, but the Talisman did its job nicely... In my T1 I moved towards the council aiming to tie it up, while the rest of the army continued down either flank
• Having failed to get Scriers Gaze off, most of Marks troops came in T2. He managed to kill a Sky Ray with some Horrors, and the council charged the (stubborn) O'vesastar. What would follow the next couple of player turns was me tying the council up in Mark's turn, then HitnRunning out to Target Lock on some troops with the Burst Tide. Subsequently I would charge into the council in the end of my turns to lock it up again. 
• The rest of the army took care of Marks troops, but his second Screamer unit managed to do a number on me. I did a stupid decision when charging a Riptide into 4/5 Horrors, thinking he could handle them in a round or two - the combat ended up lasting like 3 game turns -.-
• In T5 Mark flew up Fatey. Seeing an opportunity to get a KP and Warlord kill, I decided not to go for the council, instead grounding and charging Fatey with the O'vesastar (to which I had joined a cheeky Solo-Suit). Fatey died, and the O'vesastar grabbed an Objective, while Mark's scoring Screamerstar held another. We tied in KPs and I won the Tertiary obejctives.
• Another 10-10 draw 

O'Vesa Tau - Most Sporting Award?

I'll try and keep this brief and take time to go into detail into each game at a later date but I thought I should update the blog a bit as it seems like ages since I actually posted...

Before I start, I did walk away with a trophy, one I have never won before... Most Sporting/Best Sport! Love it!

O'Vesa Tau = Most Sporting game you will have all weekend!  I was genuinely not expecting it, I try and be a good guy when I play in tournaments.. sometimes like everyone else I get too wrapped up in the game.. at the first Death or Glory tournament I got caught up in an argument over whether I could see Mephiston with some Sniper Drones it was silly and we resolved it, but I felt a bit of a dick afterwards.. funnily enough, at that tournament I ended up 6th on generalship, but something like 3rd overall after 'Most Sporting' votes... perhaps there is a trend here.. Maybe I am a good lad to play.

So I guess it goes to show that even running Tau and the most popular Deathstar Tau build out there right now, you can still be a good guy and have good games with people. Warhammer is more than just a strategy game, the joy of it over computer games etc is that it is truly an interactive game for 2 people. Sometimes I think some of us forget that there are two players and that it should be a fun and relaxing environment. Now, don't get me wrong.. I'm a very competitive guy... I'm ranked 15th in the country, have won multiple events and played for the England ETC team this year. I'm also "Most Sporting Cally 2014" - an award I am immensely proud of.

Overall I scored 66/90 possible tournament points. This would place me in 16th or 17th (and be one of MY WORST RESULTS EVER) however, unfortunately for me... I changed my list the day after submission after playtesting some more and confirming my fears that I was vulnerable to certain match ups. This cost me 10 tournament points (which I knew it would) and placed me in 35th overall.

*Making it my absolute worst ever performance in terms of position...*

35th out of 114. Top third.....? Am I happy with that.

No. Not really. I was aiming for top 10 again.. I would have been close if I hadn't had my admin scores penalised, but that is the way the scoring works... so no bitching here folks :)

However, on pure gaming ability (and not my admin failure) am I happy with 16/17th? Yeah sure I am.

I won 3, drew 1 and lost 1 from the five game tournament.

I think I could have won the draw given more practice against the build, but I think my list suffered in the match up and whilst I could have clawed a few more points out of the game, I am unsure on how to win that scenario vs the list I played (Andy Oakham and his O'vesa in Hammer and Anvil, 3 Relics, Home and Away mission primary, KP secondary is the one I lost and think I would struggle with if I played it again)

I played the following:

Game 1 - Chris Scothorne's (regular northen tournament player, lovely bloke) AV13 Necron Wall: Win 15-5

Game 2 - Alex Bongers' (Belgium ETC, great sport) Ravenwing Bikes (Built ala Neil Kerr)
Win 19-1   

Game 3 - Andy Oakham's (Welsh ETC and overall top tournament lad) O'Vesa Tau
Loss 13-7

Game 4 -  Matt Robertson's (Welsh ETC Capt and top boy) 3 FMC/3 Heldrake CSM/CD  
Draw 10-10

Game 5 - Mark Pocock's (Sons' very own MarkyMark; tournament player/ possible England ETC lad) Redundant Screamer Council
Win 15-5

It was held up at the North West Gaming Centre in Stockport - a venue I have not made the journey to before. When the Blog Wars tournaments moved to the far north I decided not to go, it's a bit too far for a one day tournament. having done it for a weekend, I am cemented in my view on that.
Driving up to Stockport from Cambridge on Friday night, 2 intense gaming days and then driving back on Sunday after Awards made for a very tiring weekend. My classes have been somewhat sedate this week... good job my contact time is less than a normal teacher or I'd be fucked! haha

In depth reports on the games and tactical lessons learnt to follow over the course of the next week, interwoven with more hobby updates on my Bikes and I'm "rusting" up my Crons after being inspired by and discussing hobby stuff with Andy O... But if they are reading, I just want to say a massive thank you to my opponents from the weekend and thank you to the Scottish ETC team for their work in organising the event and to Tim King for being a hero.

Caledonian 2014, olliswe's 1st Round Matchup

Hi guys!

This will be a short one going through the list I'm facing round 1 at  Caledonian Uprising, and a preview of the list I'll be running.

As you know, I'll be taking the O'vesa star with Riptide support. Not 100% satisfied by the list, but oh well... that's life... Would have liked to tweak around a bit on the loadout of my suits. Anyways, here it is:

Oliver Iyer
PRIMARY DETACHMENT: Farsight Enclaves – a Codex: Tau Empire Supplement
Farsight
O'vesa

Riptide, HBC, SMS, EWO, Target Lock, Talisman, 2 Shielded Missile Drones
Riptide, Ion, PosRelay, EWO
Riptide, Ion, EWO

3 Crisis Suits, TL MPs
Solo Suit, 2xflamer
Solo Suit
Solo Suit
10 Kroot

Skyray, BSF
Skyray, BSF

ALLIED DETACHMENT: Codex: Tau Empire
Commander Batman w. HitnRun and Onager Gauntlet

10 Kroot

List is simple, just the way I like it ;) Not many units to give you a headache.... A lot of surviveability but lacking a bit on volume of fire and marker light support. Ripple fire SMS is great in the objective based mission Cally are running - killing troops will win you the game 9 times out of 10. I went for 2 units of kroot because they're great for blocking etc.

The lineup!

Alright, on to the first round matchup!

99 )- Scott Milne
Primary: Chaos Space Marines = 1049pts
HQ1: Sorcerer (60) Force Axe (0) Bike (20) Gift of Mutation (10) Sigil of Corruption (25) Spell Familiar (15) Melta Telepathy dudes that chill with the spawn
Bomb (5) +2 Mastery Level (50) = [185pts]
HQ2: Sorcerer (60) Force Axe (0) Bike (20) Gift of Mutation (10) Sigil of Corruption (25) Spell Familiar (15) +2
Mastery Level (50) = [180pts]
Troop 1: 10 Cultists (50) Champion (0) +1 Additional Cultist (4) = [54pts]
Troop 2: 10 Cultists (50) Champion (0) = [50pts]
Troop 3: 10 Cultists (50) Champion (0) = [50pts]
Fast Attack 1: 5 Spawn (150) MoN (30) = [180pts]
Fast Attack 2: 5 Spawn (150) MoN (30) = [180pts]
Fast Attack 3: Heldrake (170) Baleflamer (0) = [170pts] Needs to die... 
Allies: Chaos Deamons = 801pts
HQ1: Herald of Nurgle (45) Exalted Reward (30) Locus of Fecundity (25) = [100pts] Footsloggin herald= no Jetpack move for Drones if he's joined. Gives them 5+FnP and Grimoire.
Troop 1: 10 Horrors (90) +1 Additional Horror(9) Iridescent Horror(5) =[104pts] 
Troop 2: 10 Horrors (90) +1 Additional Horror(9) Iridescent Horror(5) =[104pts]
Fast Attack 1: 9 Plague Drones (294) Death Heads (45) Rot Proboscis (35) Plaguebringer (5) Greater Reward (20) = Poison 3+ and a cheeky Instant Death Plaguebringer, death heads are two poison 4+ shots per dude.
[493pts]
Total=1850pts

Ok... 63 T5/T6 wounds... That's gonna be a real PITA....

A few key pointers I want to point out:

• Plague drone deathstar will most likely be rocking 3++ with 5+FnP, Poison 3+ in combat. Plan with these is to just ignore them (unless Grimoire failes), maybe tie up with O'vesastar if they get close...
• Target priority T1 will be one of the Spawnstars - easy target and potentially a warlord kill.  Hallucination/Psychic shriek can be a real PITA if let loose..
• Heldrake needs to die when it come in, will probably not shoot missiles on Skyrays T1 for this reason.
• Once troops get in they'll eat SMS, and then I will just try to mitigate damage from whatever is left of the 2nd Spawnstar/the drones
• If Scouring is primary (mission is randomly determined) I'll go and die in a ditch... covered in petrol... on fire... let's hope that doesn't happen.... Jokes aside, his 4 damage dealers will be priority throughout the game in that case. + I'll get extra points for killing them, so that's nice.
• If deployment is Vanguard strike, I might just consider a Kroot-wrapped castle in the corner... He's got so little shooting that it might just pay off. 
• In Hammer and Anvil I'll deploy halfway up the DZ and slowly back away while killing the Spawstars.

That's me for now, one lecture left and then it's Cally-time!! Wish me luck!

Awesome 40k Global Community Video

Starring me!!
It's gotta be good right?!

This was a 7-8 minute video Interview with the 40K Global Podcast/blog team after my first round match up with BJ Mason at the recent Death or Glory tournament.

I beat BJ first game, but only through First Blood! Damn close game...

Here, I talk through my 1850 list that I used at this event and perhaps more importantly, how I use it.

Check it out HERE at the 40K Global website.

You also get a few shots of my painted Tau army on the tabletop and a few cheeky scenes of mid-game action captured by the impressive camera work and editing of John ...er...shit... Stuart? I think.. I'm sure you can get more detail off of the 40k guys if you want John down at your event and covering the action.

It's weird as fuck seeing yourself on a video..let alone hearing yourself! I hate the sound of my voice on camera... very much NOT what I hear in my head when I speak!

It was a cool touch to have a chat on video and I think I'd like to see more of this in the 40K community - its relatively straight forward to do with the right equipment and it can be a really fun way to spend 10 minutes debriefing after a hard fought tournament game.

Check out the rest of the videos at the 40K global YouTube channel HERE... including Franco eating 5 Big Macs... an impressively disgusting feat!

Laters.

Battlefield Birmingham - Sons Triumphant!

Last weekend was Battlefield Birmingham 4 - a 1500pt, 5 game 40K tourney with 54 players.
Its a solid event competitively speaking, attracting players from all over the country, with a slight northen bias.
I attended with 3 of the Cambridge Sons - trusty Bringer of Death/Steve, Adam and Sam - both of whom are new to the tournament scene (Adam attended the smaller War of the Roses tournament earlier in the year as his virgin tourney).

I rocked a standard and efficient Tau list of:
Buff Commander
Dual Riptides
Crisis - Missiles n Markers
Kroot troops
Dual Skyrays
Max missile broadsides

No frills but also no spills - no things to trip me up like not getting psychic powers; I was really close to bringing the Tigurius/Farsight Bomb but decided if I didn't get Gate, I'd be screwed.

When the smoke had cleared..... I won my final tournament of the calendar year! Chuffed isn't the word!
Below is a recap and photos from the weekend....

Death or Glory 2 Tournament: Ashtead - 1850pts - 8/9th March

 

 

Morning guys,

 

Death or Glory have released the details for their second tournament.

 

The first was a real success and had a superb turnout of 40 players.

 

This time the guys have DOUBLED the entry and it is going to be EPIC!

 

At 82 players, this will be one of the biggest events in the tournament calendar and you'd be a fool to miss out...

 

See details below from Mike Marlow - one of 4 top boys who run the blog/podcast:

 

 

 

"...Welcome to the second Death or Glory Tournament! This time we've increased the tournament places to 82 and we've got a painting competition running alongside the main tournament.

It is based very close to the previous venue in ashtead just off junction 9 of the M25. It'll once again be a 5 game event run by the Death or Glory Blog/podcast team.

Same deal as last time, email your entry to Deathorgloryblog@outlook.com and you have 2 weeks to pay. Please only pay after email confirmation that a place is available

Check out the rulespack below.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/171945375/DOG2-Rulespack-8-9th-March

..."

 

I think this one will sell out sharpish so get your place now!!

 

Later peeps...I'm off to "teach" (otherwise known as 'figure out what the fuck I'm taking to Battelfield Birmngham this weekend'!!!!!!)

Warning, Rant Ahead - 40k Throne of Skulls Review

Last weekend I attended my first ever Throne of Skulls tournament at Warhammer World.  This was my first tournament of any kind since 6th edition was released, and my first ever Throne of Skulls, so I thought I would write a review of what I thought of Games Workshop's flagship events, with a few additional related thoughts.  I will split it into two parts, the event itself, and then the players attending it.

*NEW UK TOURNAMENT* - Death or Glory 1850 September 7/8th

Bit of community love here guys.

Now, regular readers know we love a cheeky tournament or two here at Sons'...

The Death or Glory blog boys (Rich Fielder, Mike Marlow etc etc) have been prolific gamers on the tournament scene, they have a decent podcast they throw out and now....

A tournament.
Excellent work lads.

The tournament is 1850, 5 games over 2 days...based down in Surrey on September 7/8th 2013.
£15 entry for the tournament. 

You can find the rules pack to download HERE
And the blog HERE.

It's a few months away yet, so an excellent opportunity to get into a first tournament, or for tourney regulars...to run it past the wife!

I'll have just come back from the ETC in Serbia...but I reckon I'll be ready for some action by September!
Whether the wifey is though is another matter!
Whatever happens, I'll be looking to attend and maybe drag some of the other Sons' down from either the blog and/or the club...

Upcoming Tournaments: My plans for the year

I'm always facing such tough decisions... no, really..

Often I find it difficult to attend the number of tournaments that I would like to. So I need to plan out my calendar quite far in advance.

I am often jealous of guys who can just rock up to tournament after tournament, clocking up the rep.. But I simp can't..I love a weekend of 40k, it's a brilliant way to cram in loads of gaming and just indulge in general geekery.

Caledonian has been and gone and was a cracking start to the year.

The UK40KGT is next up, end of March in fact..so very close.. Here I will be attempting to place Top Ten as my goal. It'll be possibly the most competitive field I have been in - with the likes of Caledonian and Brighton Warlords there are always tough players, but it is also an open field of players.. With the GT being qualification only it will eliminate some of the more laid back players and will only be the top half of all qualification tournaments .. Creating a tougher field of players.

War of the Roses (the England ETC Team fundraiser tournie, the Caledonian equivalent) will hopefully run again this year...again something I missed out on last year. June is a possibility here for it, and would fit nicely with my calendar.. 

Blog Wars 5 is 22nd June and I am looking to defend my undefeated title for the 5th time. This time we have a field of 40 competitors over the 3 game, single day format and winning based just on 3 games will be a tricky task to say the least! Plus, there will be a prize for any gamer who beats me! lol.. so I may be facing something of an uphill struggle lol!

Ribble Rumble is something I missed out on last year and I would like to try and make it this year. It is running on the 27/28th July and I am keen to keep my eye on the ticket situation..

9-11th August is the ETC. This is one of my biggest events, if not the biggest on the tournament calendar this year. Can't really say much here about ... It's all very hush, hush..except to say I am looking seriously into rhino-rush Blood Angels as a hard counter to all the current meta armies.. Or am I?

After this...my calendar is pretty clear.. I am hoping that the Brighton Warlords will have events in the second half of the year and I will be able to attend..
I love heading down to Brighton, it's a cracking event and a cracking team/group of lads that run it.. I'm not sure about the current stance of no allies and smaller points games.. But hopefully that will change as the guys get more accustomed to 6th ed 40k.. Pete says it is too broken.. But when everything is broken cause nothing is balanced.. Well, you need to accept that and go from there.. Id definitely like to head down to Brighton again later in the year.. I wonder if it will still be smaller points (1500) and no allies by then.. I hope not.

So those are my tournament plans pretty much for the year.. there are some later in the year that I fancy (Northern Warlords GT for example) and again there are tournaments that I wish I could have attended (already! It's only February!! Battlefield Birmingham basically) but couldn't.. ah well, can't get to them all!

What tournies do you guys head to and never miss? Which tournaments are 'must do' events for you? Have I missed essential tournies off the list?

Maybe next year I might make it to NOVA baby!

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.