Happy Birthday To Me!

It's my birthday! :P

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I'd like to say that I'm thankful for being surrounded by family and friends, and being lucky enough to have a very supportive and carring family aswell.

Also it's my gaming off season right now, hence the lack of blog activity and for that I apologize. I'll post more frequently as I have time but don't count on much regularity for now.

Back from the Bizarre!

Yesterday was the annual Bizarre Bazzar at my local store. It's basically a day which everyone can come in with all of their useless minis and gaming supplies and either trade ir for other people's or sell it for store credit. I brought in most of my tournament winnings along with all the random models that collected over the years.

I walked away with a nice sheet of foam, a new case, a skaven army worth around $800, some awesome demons, and $205 store credit. And, I ended up getting rid of 11 genestealers still on sprue, 3 unopened boxes of raveners, an unopened box of demonettes, 2 unopened boxes of dark eldar mandrakes, 9 of my piranahs, the sky ray, a hammerhead, and tau battle force.

I now have cleaned out a third of my gaming closet, and came up way postive on spendings.  I'd call it successful!

Got my Tau!

So my tau finally came in, only 2 weeks late at that!  I can't really complain since it's a free army from 'Ard Boyz.

I would like to share with you all exactly what I got though,

3 Battleforces- a battle force includes 12 fire warriors, 12 kroot, 4 drones, 1 battlesuit, 3 stealth suits, and a devilfish.  Not so bad.
2 Hammerheads
1 Skyray... It's free so no complaints lol
15, I shit you not, 15 Piranahs!  I mean it is free but what the hell am I going to do with 15 piranahs!?

Usually when I win items like this at tournaments that I don't want I can sell it off to my local store for store credit, however they don't want anything to do with that many piranahs.  Any ideas on what I can do?  Aside from ebay that is...

New Necrons Not So Scary?

I played a good deal against the new necron codex today and helped try out 2 drastically different armies and found some strengths in both of them.

The first list we tried was fairly successful, and it played a lot like old necrons but better.  It had the Stormlord, 2 monoliths, 2 c'tan, 5 units of 5 warriors, and 30 scarabs or so. 

My grey knights got thrashed up pretty bad but managed to win.  We discovered a lot of cool things from this test but most importantly we learned that necrons can actually be pretty scary assult army, although it's tricky to use.  Also scarabs are pretty nasty little suckers, but they are really fragile even with stealth. 

I'll get into more details about where I think necrons are headed after I tell you a little about my second game.

The next list we tried was created more out of the fact that we knew what all the units above now did, let's try to explore.  We tried a glass hammer fast paced necron list.  It had 2 destoryer lords, 2 max wraith squads, 3 doom scythes, and 4 warrior squads in night scythes (I think that's what they're called)

My grey knights lost 8 vehicles turn 1 and I was tabled by turn 3, but with even 1/3 of my army I was almost able to kill my opponent.  From this we learned that necron transports are just not worht it, they are way too fragile for how expensive they are.  We also learned that wraiths are pretty nuts, and Doom Scythes are unbievably destructive and way too easy to kill.  I lost all 8 vehicles turn 1 to my opponent's 3 doom scythes.

So, after combing what we've learned from the 2 games here's what we've come up with.  A competitive necron list should contain the following units.

Stormlord or 2 Destroyer lords, the destroyer lords give some nice anti tank and can soak up hits for wratihs, the stormlord gives nightfight and hurts things, 4+ sieze is also really powerful against alpha strike armies,  I'm not sure which is better, although I'm leaning towards stoormlord. 

We haven't tested any other HQ's yet so we can't comment on them, but those seemed to do fairly well.

From what we gathered about elites the only ones worth bringing are the c'tan and man are they nasty.  The difficult is dangerous terrain power is just plain rude, I was terrified to take dangerous terrain tests where unnecessary and it really hurts my board control.  Being able to be teleported through the monolith is very powerful aswell and lets you catch a lot of palyers off guard. 

For troops warriors are the only ones worth bringing and they aren;t going to kill anything.  Accept that and move on with your list lol.

In fast we actually found wraiths to outshine scarabs since they can kill things aside from vehicles, and can still be used as an effective tar pit.

For heavies we've only tested the monolith and doom scythe, but we were very pleases with both even if the monolith is vulnerable to rending and melta.  You can't rely too heavily on the doom scythe though, since small elite armies, or armies that like to spread out will bring it down.

If I were to run a necron army personally I would run somwthing simillar to this

HQ
The Stormlord

Elites
2-3 C'tan

Troops
4 units of 5 warriors

Fast
2-3 units of 6 wraiths

Heavy
2-3 monoliths
0-1 doomscythe

What have your experiences been?

Some quick Draigowing thoughts

HQ
Draigo 275
Coteaz 100

Troops
10 Paladins- 4 psy cannons, 3 hammers, 1 staff, 6 halberds, 5 master crafted weapons 675
5 Henchmen- psyback 70
5 Henchmen- psyback 70
5 Henchmen- psyback 70

Fast
10 Intercepters- 2 incineraters, psybolts, demon hammer 335

Heavy
Dreadnaught- 2 twin linked auto cannons psybolts 135
Dreadnaught- 2 twin linked auto cannons psybolts 135
Dreadnaught- 2 twin linked auto cannons psybolts 135

2000

Adepticon Championships sold out!?

In under 24 hours the adepticn championship has sold out!  Hopefully they can put me on a waiting list so I can actually play.

Happy Halloween!

Go eat some candy and try not to scare away the little kids with your fat gamer stank!  But in all seriousness have a great night!

Sorry about not posting much

It's been about about a week since my last post and I sincerely apologize.  School was realy taking its tole on me last week and I had to change my oil today and it snowed up in Jersey so I had to deal with that. 

Let me just do a quick post on what I've been up to though.

I decided against mechanicon for 3 reasons, a lot of my friend from Jersey aren't going, (I don't think any are) so I would have to drvie down by myself, although that's not that big of a deal.  125 for what is essentially 5 games is just too steep since I can't be present on Friday to make the convention worth it.  And, it's just easier not to go.  My life has been pretty hectic and everything, college apps being due relatively soon along with school work piling on, I also have a wedding to go to in a few weeks in Maryland, it's just too much traveling. 

Now I have decided to go to Templecon this year, and play in their warhammer tournament as well as their warmahordes events.  I'm not that strong in warmachine and hordes, but I am trying to get better with my skorne and I'm playing more frequently against better opponents (although I do consistently lose).  Most of my friends are going so it would be a good chance to get out there and have some fun.

Also I got a mesage earlier this week from hulksmash (and Andrew Gonyo) asking me to be part of their team for the adepticon team tournament.  I humbly accepted and I'm thrilled about this event.  I was on the fence about going but now I'm pretty much sold.  I'm going to be playing some awesome guys in an event I've heard great things about, with Hulksmash, Dash of Pepper, and Target (Andrew Gonyo) who are all good friends of mine.

Personal thoughts on Table edge blocking and Mechanicon?

Since for whatever reason I can't comment, I'll continue to make new posts as necessary.  This is in responce to the discussion going on in my previous post.

I personally would only block the table edge if the opponent I'm playing is someone who would do it to me, is not a friend of mine, and it is in the setting of a high stakes tournament.  There aren't many people on that list, and even fewer would fall for it but still.  I would never do it to someone I've just met.  I had the chance to just recently at a tournament against someone I hd never played before and wanted to get off on the right foot so withheld.  Nor would I do it to a friend, I enjoy playing games of 40k, not just winning them ruthlessly, as competitive as I am, making friends and having fun is the primary goal for me.

However, I would do it to almost anyone who wouldn't immidiately lose the game.  In the example I used earlier I talked about kroot blocking a board edge in dawn of war to kill long fangs.  I find that much more acceptable since I employed a tactic to give me an advantage in a game.  My opponent has to pay for their mistakes dearly, but can still come back and win.  The loss of long fangs in a space wolf army, while significant, is not fatal.  That is much different then blocking a tyranid army from coming on since there are no vehicles to tank shock with or jump infantry to fly over with.  That is no longer giving you an advantage in a game, that is depriving both you and your opponent of the opportunity to play a game. 

I've had my board edge blocked as a tyranid player uring a tournament.  I know how it feels to be given an auto loss.  I wouldn't put a friend, peer, or new acquaintance in that situation ever.  I would put some dick hole that keeps getting 0's for sports for justified reasons in that situation.  I might block off the board edge to kill some long fangs, or stop al rahem from coming in on the correct side to a friend, peer, or new acquaintance, but that is what they must deal with for their mistakes.  It would almost be disrespectful for me to not stop them, as it would mean I'm not playing my best.  It would not cost them the game, or deprive them of the opportunity of playing it, but it would punish them for their mistake.

On another note, Mechanicon.

Here's why I would go to mechanicon, my friends are going, it's relatively close, I've gone the past 2 years and I haven't been let down, a good friend of mine, Tony Spino is running it.

Here's why I wouldn't, it's $125, expensive for a GT, it's only 5 rounds, I would want to have fun more than win so I'd probably play my tyranids since my tau haven't even arrived yet and I can't borrow Rich's forever, I'd have to kill a weekend which I could spend doing other things.

I'm honest fairly distraught about whether I should go or not.  Who else is going?  Why should I/should I not go?

Because my blob sucks, replies to the tau list.

For whatever reason the blog won't let me comment. It says there's a problem with my email address, but I can still post new topics, and I recieve emails about the blog just fine. If anyone has any ideas on this I'd be very thankful for help.

Onto the comments!

As far as why 12 kroot are better than 10, it's actually very situational and abstract. Although, Andrew was kind of close.

In Dawn of war you can deploy up to 2 troops, or infiltrate them. 12 kroot can cover 36" of board space, so 2 units can cover 72. If your enemy has not deployed and has elected a large portion (or all) of his army to come on turn 1 (or through reserves) via his own table edge, than any infantry/mosterous creatures/walkers will be destroyed upon arrival. This is nothing to base a strategy over, but if it auto kills say 15 long fangs, or dreadnaughts in a GK army, or a bunch of bikes or something it's more than worth the sacrifice of 20 kroot. Be wary of tank shocks, coming onto the table is sequential so someone could just tank shock their way on with all of their vehicles and a kroot squad breaks then they can suddenly come on in those 36". Just something to think about.

Moving on lol

Benjamin I appreciate the link! I don't really agree with a lot of what he's saying but I'm sure he's more experienced than myself so I have to respect it.

Eric that was a great game man! I agree about the gun drone issue, 2 is really helpful. But, I've often found 1 to suffice a lot of times. You can't really get by without 1, but you can without 2. The second just helps the cause but isn't necessary.

Old Shatter Hands- Coming from you it means a lot to say that I've already mastered tau. I might be good at list building, but I'm no master at them on the table. I've caught tons of mistakes and sloppy game play so far, and that's terrible when playing tau. I understand the use piranahs have in a lot of cases, but I guess it's deploying them which is my problem. I try not to make them priority targets for my opponents, but they always seem to be the first things to die lol. I must not be trying hard enough.

And lastly, Old shatter Hands and Andrew, I keep going back and forth between the broadsides and the hammerhead. It's only 1 less rail gun shot and it can be shaken, stunned, weapon destryed, or wrecked more easily. But it gives me more mobility, and a railgun that can very easily get side shots. It also gives me another place to hide my battle suits which is always nice. Against bad players it's a bullet magnet lol. And, it gives me the option of covering a short edge with vehicles, very helpful at times.

I'd like to continue this discussion so keep the comments coming!

Some thoughts on Tau Post BFS

Here are a few things I've learned from my games last weekend. Then I'm going to try throwing around some ideas for how to improve my tau list.

1. Things that can't move, suck! Man, I love my broadsides but wow did no moving blow. Just a couple inches here or there to get LOS oon a target, or get out of threat range, or be a screen without sacrificing fire power. That would have made a world of difference in a lot of my games.

2. I have no freaking clue how to use prianahs properly lol. I used them correctly against Eric in round 4, and that's all. Either I sacrificed them prematurely, and didn't get enough use out of them, or I presented them as a viable target and they died. Either way, for me to use this unit I have to learn what to do with it!

3. Kroot win games, but too many kroot isn't a good thing. After my first few test games with tau (before BFS) I found kroot to be ridiculous for 7 points each, to the point where I actually wanted 80-100 in my list. I hated being limited to the 30 that my friend Rich owned but them's the breaks. That was foolish, while kroot are great, taking more than 10 in a unit is an iffy prospect, and taking more than 12 is just not worth it.

Bonus points if you can tell me why taking 12 has better advantges to taking 10 (other that just getting 2 more kroot on the table lol)

4. We all know the difference between BS 3 and BS 4 is enormous, but the same holds true to the difference between BS 3 twin linked and BS 4 Twin linked. When I played against Rich's tau and he was paying so many points to upgrade his suits to BS 4, I thought it was foolish considering they were already twin linked, man was I wrong.

5. The Tau player must learn when to castle and when not to castle. It's funny, with most of my armies I've pretty much mastered when to throw up screens, spread out, castle etc. with ease. Not at all with tau, which is a shame considering it's the basis of their army tactics.

6. 2 Devilfish, 1 Hammerhead (or any combo of them) + 3 piranahs can cover an entire short table side when spaced properly. Very handy against those khan and al rahem players.

7. Plasma, while stupidly useful, is just too over priced.

8. Marker lights are hot! The guys who get them (pathfinders and drones) not so much... going into the tournament I figured I would need to cut a piranah for a unit of path finders. Coming out of the tournament I don't know how I feel about relying on up to 8 T3 4+ sv stationary infantry in cover.

9. Flamers for the win. Seriously flamers would have made a world of difference in so many games.

With all that in mind, here is what I've come up with.

HQ
Shas'el- twin linked missile pod, flamer, gun drone 82
Body Guard- twin linked missile pod, flamer, HW target array 77

Shas'el- twin linked missile pod, flamer, gun drone 82
Body Guard- twin linked missile pod, flamer, HW target array 77

Elites
2 Battlesuits 125
Suit A- twin linked missile pod, target lock
Suit B- Team leader, twin linked missile pod, flamer, HW target lock, 1 gun drone

2 Battlesuits 125
Suit A- twin linked missile pod, target lock
Suit B- Team leader, twin linked missile pod, flamer, HW target lock, 1 gun drone

2 Battlesuits 125
Suit A- twin linked missile pod, target lock
Suit B- Team leader, twin linked missile pod, flamer, HW target lock, 1 gun drone

Troops
6 Fire Warriors 60
Devilfish- distruption pod 85

6 Fire Warriors 60
Devilfish- distruption pod 85

10 Kroot 70

10 Kroot 70

10 Kroot 70

10 Kroot 70

Fast
Piranah- fusion blaster, distruption pod, target array 75

Piranah- fusion blaster, distruption pod, target array 75

Piranah- fusion blaster, distruption pod, target array 75

Heavy
2 Broadsides 180
Broaadside A- Advanced Stabilization system
Broadside B- Team leader, Advanced Stabilization system, 1 gun drone

2 Broadsides 180
Broaadside A- Advanced Stabilization system
Broadside B- Team leader, Advanced Stabilization system, 1 gun drone

Hammerhead- rail gun, burst cannons, distruption pod, target array, multi tracker 170

Thoughts?

Xenos need to represent!

I found it incredibly disheartening that there were no tyranids present at all at BFS, and no xenos at all in the top bracket other than my tau, not even dark eldar! I'm taking it upon myself to correct this. Xenos armies have their place in 40k competitively speaking and just because they require more thought that imperial armies does not mean they should be neglected.

The tau I won at 'ard boyz, while still my army, are going to be in the usage of a couple friends of mine. I chose tau partly for the challenge, and partly because a couple friends of mine both like tau and want to get into the game but can't afford it. So, while my army soon arrive (1-3 weeks according to GW) I will be working on tyranids! I'm going to make them my main tournament army for awhile, because I personally have the most fun with them and there are a lot of nuances in there game play that I really need to hammer down. I have to play test some more against dark eldar but if I can handle them I think I can stand a good shot against just about anything.

My tyranids also provide the most tactical challenge to me, and while the tau are a tougher army to use, I'm not really a fan of sitting back and shooting. I am tired of grey knights simply they make the game too easy for me, I actually became a worse player from playing them for so long... My tactics consisted of "table opponent in 4 turns, rush to objectives on the 5th". That's not what I want because that's not fun for me, or argueably more important my opponent. A game which both players are pushed to their tactical limits, calculating every move and placement for a planned victory in 3 turns is fun and rewarding. Because of this I think I'm going to take tyranids out again.

While my tyranids are all built and painted decently, with most of the big monsterss converted, I can do better. I really want to make my tyranids stand out and pop with their paint score, not that it will be easy. I will slowly refine them to a point which every single model in converted and painted with out detail spared(at least for my 2000 point list).

Tau at BFS Roumd 2

Round 2 I'm looking at the people who have won and I'm only really afraid of descent of angel's lists. So of course I pulled Simon Leen, a good friend of mine and a great player and his DoA list. At least I knew this game would be fun!

HQ
BS4 HQ (shas'el) w/plasma, missile, multi tracker, 2 gun drones, black sun filter.
Shas'el w/plasma, missile, multi tracker.
2 bodyguards 2 Crisis with TL-missiles, targeting arrays (BS4 as well), team leader w/ a gun drone.

2 Crisis with TL-missiles, targeting arrays, team leader w/ a gun drone.
2 Crisis with TL-missiles, targeting arrays, team leader w/ a gun drone.
2 Crisis with TL-missiles, targeting arrays, team leader w/ a gun drone.

6 FCW in Devilfish w/Disruption Pod
6 FCW in Devilfish w/Disruption Pod
10 Kroot
10 Kroot
10 Kroot

Piranha w/fusion, targeting array, disruption pod
Piranha w/fusion, targeting array, disruption pod
Piranha w/fusion, targeting array, disruption pod

Hammerhead w/rail, 2 burst, targeting array, disrup pod, multitracker.
2 broadsides w/targeting arrays, team leader w/target lock, 2 gun drones
2 broadsides w/targeting arrays, team leader w/target lock, 2 gun drones

Something like that lol.

His list was

HQ
Librarian- jump pack, shield and sword

Elites
2 Priests- jump packs

Troops
10 Assualt Marines- 2 meltas, fist
10 Assualt Marines- 2 meltas, fist
10 Assualt Marines- 2 meltas, fist
10 Assualt Marines- 2 meltas, fist
5 Assualt Marines- 1 melta, fist

(I think 1 or 2 of these squads had power weapons but it didn't matter)

Fast Attack
5 vanguard- Jump Packs, 2 power weapons, 1 power fist, 3 sotrm shields

Heavy
5 Devestaters- 4 missiles
5 Devestaters- 4 missiles
5 Devestaters- 4 missiles

The mission was spearhead table quarters with objectives secondary.

I won the roll for first and was terrified of him blitzing me so I took it. This eventually screwed me in the end, but it's better than being screwed in the begining I suppose.

I deployed keeping everything close but spreading out as much as possible, as I didn't want him deep striking in my deployment zone. He deployed his devestaters in cover and elected everyone else deep striking. My kroot infilrated to centerfield and spread out.

I shot up his devestaters for 2 turns while he was waiting for his reserves. There were 3 devestaters left by the end of my 2 turns.

He rolled for deepstrike and got his entire army on thanks to the reroll. They didn't have mny good places to go so they hung out behind the los blocking hill in the middle of the table. His vanguard deep struck by 2 squads of kroot, multicharged them and made 5 out of 5 saves and swept both squads. He forgot to shoot his 3 missiles but I allowed him to after the assualt phase, then he proceeded to blow up a devilfish that was sneaking into 1 of his quarters.

On my turn I ran away from the middle as fast as possible, then I shot at his vanguar who must passed 20/25 saves but they did eventually all go down. I also shot at his 5 man assualt squad that did not have feel no pain. My fire warriors from the devilfish moved deeper into his quarter where they hoped they would be ignored since killing them would mean going the opposite direction of my army.

Sime decided o play the mission on this one and jumped his 10 mas assualt squad over to the fire warriors and killed them. He did make the mistake of keeping them out of FNP range. At some point he also killed the 3rd kroot squad. For the most part he chilled out behind the hill.

I then shot everything at his 10 man squad outside of FNP range sinc eit had just killed my fire warriors. I managed to kill all of them.

Simon didn't really do muchon his turn 4, but he strung out a ten man assualt squad with a priest and libby to hold 2 objectives at once.

I moved a dron from a wrecked piranah in to constest the center objective. He was on my side of the hill so if Simon killed him he would bring himself into LOS.

On Simon's turn he didn't take the drone that was bait, mainly because he forgot it was there lol, and just hung out.

The game ended, 2-2 quarters, 2-1 objectives (since I only had 1 troop choice left. It was a good game, and although Simon felt bad about not really playing it I had fun. He's a great guy and a good friend to joke around with.

I'm 1-1 but I still have a shot at making top bracket.

Tau at BFS Riund 1 and Necrons!

First according to my buddy old shatter hands Necrons are less than 2 weeks away! Let's hope this is true if only because they are xenos. I'd love to see some love for these age old robots and I'm tired as crap of playing power armor or IG 4/5 of my games with the last 1/5 being dark eldar. I want diversity and hopefully necrons will help!

That said, here's the tau list I brought.

HQ
BS4 HQ (shas'el) w/plasma, missile, multi tracker, 2 gun drones, black sun filter.
Shas'el w/plasma, missile, multi tracker.
2 bodyguards 2 Crisis with TL-missiles, targeting arrays (BS4 as well), team leader w/ a gun drone.

2 Crisis with TL-missiles, targeting arrays, team leader w/ a gun drone.
2 Crisis with TL-missiles, targeting arrays, team leader w/ a gun drone.
2 Crisis with TL-missiles, targeting arrays, team leader w/ a gun drone.

6 FCW in Devilfish w/Disruption Pod
6 FCW in Devilfish w/Disruption Pod
10 Kroot
10 Kroot
10 Kroot

Piranha w/fusion, targeting array, disruption pod
Piranha w/fusion, targeting array, disruption pod
Piranha w/fusion, targeting array, disruption pod

Hammerhead w/rail, 2 burst, targeting array, disrup pod, multitracker.
2 broadsides w/targeting arrays, team leader w/target lock, 2 gun drones
2 broadsides w/targeting arrays, team leader w/target lock, 2 gun drones

Something like that lol.

It was a Nova format tournament but since it only had 56 people as opposed to the 64 intended 5 3-1's got into the top bracket on day 2. I had a fantastic time at this tournament and it's always a blast to play with the guys from BFS. Also I had n awesome time catching up with my friends from CT, MA, NY, and VA/DC area.

Round 1 I found myself up against dark eldar with a pretty solid list.

It went aomething like this.

HQ
Baron (with scourges)
Haemonculus (with witches)

Elites
4 Trueborn- blasters
Venom
4 Trueborn- blasters
Venom
4 Trueborn- blasters
Venom

Troops
5 Warriors- blaster
Venom
5 Warriors- blaster
Venom
5 Warriors- blaster
Venom
5 Warriors- blaster
Venom
9 Witches- witch things
Raider

Fast
5 Scourges- 2 heat lances
5 scourges- 2 heat lances

Heavy
Ravager
Ravager
Ravager

The name of the game was DOW KP's. My opponent won the roll for first and too it. He deployed his witches, raider, and hamie all in the center with everything else coming out on turn 1. His scourges were deepstriking.

I then deployed nothing, bringing everything on turn 1.

He came on and boosted everything behind a hill for cover and preyed night fight would keep him safe.

I came on, I split my army in the 2 corners, I had most of my suits (including 1 broadside squad), 1 devilfish and a unit of kroot on 1 flank, and I had a hammer head, a unit of suits, a unit of broadsides, a devilfish, and a unit of kroot in the other. I had the piranahs and a squad of kroot in the middle.

On his turn 2 his scourges came in with the baron and got ballsy. They deep struck within heat lance rang of everything on my riht flank (the one with the hammerhead). Both units rolled hits though. Then his withes boosted over to that flank for support. Everything else moved up to mid field and started shooting. I think the net loss from his alpha strike was a bunch of drones, a unit of kroot, a devilefish, and a piranah.

So things were looking grim but I had a plan. I brought all of ny suits onto his venoms and raveagers and such. I exploded 6 skimmers this turn, 1 of which being the withes'. I then prepared for the inevitable loss of my right flank.

On his turn his fire power was almost depleted so that was good, all of his scourges and baron charged a unit of broadside and actually lost combat and ran.

Tau combat win count: 1

His witches charged a unit of suits and hammerhead and klled all of it. Their hameonculus detached to shattershard my kroot, but I passed most of my T tests and when he charged in I killed him.

On my turn I boosted a piranah over to keep the scourges running, then I proceeded to kill all of his remaining skimmers except for 1 venom. I also started to shhot away his infantry, either he went to ground to keep his quads barely alive or he died.

His witches finished off some firewarriors and my broadsides (whatever was still left on the right flank) but teh damage was done. It was about turn 4 and 10/11 vehicleas were dead. His infantry were dead or pinned, and baron and the scourges were running off teh table. The witches were even trapped on the wrong side of the board with no skimmers to come to their rescue.

The rest of the game was me cleaning up and claiming bonus stuff.

It was a fun game and my opponent knew his army and what to do with it. The game really broke down when 2 broadsides made close to 400 points flee in close combat. It was a tough match for him since litterall every weapon in my army can pen his tanks and wound his infantry on 2's. It also didn't help that I never failed a leadership test lol.

Back from BFS!

A great weekend catching up with some friends like Simon Leen, Bill McFadden, Mike Brandt, Alex Fennell, Ragnar Arneson (sp?), Eric Hoeger, Mike Somerville, Ed Miller, Dan Mautlich, Chris Dubuque, and tons more! I had a really fantastic time.

I'd like to thank Ed, Bob, and John for running a wonderful tournament! It was a blast. And Fritz for running the 500 poitn tourney which was pure sillynes but I nice way to de-stress after losing round 1 of day 2.

I certainly would also like to congratualte Mike Brandt for ren man, Neil Gilstrap for tournament champion, and Ragnar for just kicking ass with CSM!

For those of you who don't know I borrowed my friend Rich's TAU! They were a blast to play and only one game made me feel like I couldn't do much. I went 3-2 but made it into the top bracket, then won most kills in the 500 point tournamt lol. I played 3 friends of mine who I don't get to play often at all, Ragnar, Eric, and Simon and all were fantastic games. My other 2 games were very nice and relaxed aswell.

But nothing compares to the crazy fun I had in the 500 point tournament. That thing was just an awesome joke where kroot were killing everything! No one took it seriously and everyone was playing for fun and laughs which was the best part!

A quick recap of my games will be coming and I learned a lot about tau for when I do eventually get my army. I have some pretty unorthodox ideas I want to try so we'll see what heppens!

I'm famous!

I did an interview with Pat from 11th company, check it out! It's episode 88 and my little secion starts at 42:12. http://www.tangtwo.com/11thcompany/episodes.cfm

Blobs Park Round 3

I finally made it to table one! And I got paired up against blood angels!

My list was as follows-

HQ
Swarmlord 280
Guard- lash whips 65

Elites
2 Hive Guard 100
2 Hive Guard 100
8 Ymgarls 184

Troops
10 Gaunts 50
10 Gaunts 50
5 Stealers 70
5 Stealers 70
Tervigon- adrenals, sacs, clusters, scything talons, catalyst, 200
Tervigon- adrenals, sacs, clusters, scything talons, catalyst, 200

Heavy
Trygon- adrenals 210
Trygon- adrenals 210
Trygon- adrenals 210

His list was a little silly.

HQ
Mephiston
Sanguinor

Elites
2 priests-power weapons

Troops
5 Assualt marines- melta power weapon
Land Raider

5 Assualt marines- melta power weapon
Land Raider

5 Assualt marines- melta power weapon
Land Raider- redeemer

5 Assualt marines- melta power weapon
Land Raider- redeemer

The mission was Dawn of war objectives, we placed the objectives pretty centrally. He won the roll for first and started a raider and mephiston half way up the board.

I chose to bring everything on turn 1.

He brought his army on and chilled out, then I brought my army on behind a nice gaunts wall. I took note that he clustered all of his forces on one side of the table, giving me free rain on 3 objectives. If I could box him in successfully I'd have the game.

He focus fired and a trygon and brought one down on turn 1. Then I shook 2 of his vehicles land raiders, significantly reducing his fire power. He decided that being aggressive was the right play, relying on me not making my 6's to hit his land raider. His 2 redeemers drove 12" up, and meohiston hid behind them as a counter charge. In responce I spat out gaunts and moved them around his land raiders, tying up mephiston for a turn. A trygon and swarmlord charged 1 redeemer and exploded it, another trygon charged the other redeemer and exploded it.

Fun Fact! Scything talons on trygons means 2 hits on average against vehicles that move over 6"!

My ymgarls stealers popped up and charged 1 of his regular land raiders and stunned it.

My outflanking stealers came on in control of the objectives that he more or less abandoned.

In an effort to contain my army, he charged sanguinor into a trygon and tied it up for 3 rounds. 1 Squad got out and tried to shoot away the stealers, after their shots plus 2 heavy bolters, I was left with 3 ymgarls. Mephiston killed off the last of the gaunts lol. On my turn a trygon fleeted 5" into another land raider and ripped off all off its las cannons and immobilized it. Swarmlord charged into mephiston and killed him. Note I cast paroxysm on mephiston so it was actually better to grant swarm lord furious charge rather than prefered enemy. My 3 ymgarls got FNP and charged his 5 marines, they eventually killed them on the bottom of 6.

His 1 land raider that was happy drove 12" away securing an objective, and 2 5 man squads that were forced out charged a tervigon and killed it. Damn furious charging power weapons! Sanguinor finally died in close combat. My trygon whiffed really hard against his useless land raider lol.

It's around turn 5 or 6 now so I mvoe swarmlord over to kill the 2 5 man squads with that charged the tervigon. They both got good consolidation rolls and made it impossible for swarmlord to multicharge them on his own, so I spat out some gaunts and they did the multi charging, then when we consolidated swarmlord got to fight both squads.

This game is pretty much over, I have 3 objectives to his one and all but 1 bonus point, because swarmlord couldn't kill 3 marines in 1 round!

It was a good game and pretty tactical.

I'm sitting 2 points shy of max battle points and at 5600 of 6000 VP's in first place! With tyranids! Only downside is that my next round opponent is space wolves.

Battle For Salvation Next Weekend!

I've been struck by list ADD pretty recently, not just list actually, army ADD. I went from demons to grey knights to tyranids, to demons since this year's start. As you good little blog followers now I have the BFS GT coming up next weekend and I've been all over the place on what to bring. I've now decided, but I'm going to keep it a secret from you guys until the big day. I just want those attending to know, you guys are in for it now. *cough Mike Brandt and Alex Fennell cough*.

Blobs Park Round 2

Round 2 of Blobs Park and I'm already paired up against the big kids lol

My list

HQ
Swarmlord 280
Guard- lash whips 65

Elites
2 Hive Guard 100
2 Hive Guard 100
8 Ymgarls 184

Troops
10 Gaunts 50
10 Gaunts 50
5 Stealers 70
5 Stealers 70
Tervigon- adrenals, sacs, clusters, scything talons, catalyst, 200
Tervigon- adrenals, sacs, clusters, scything talons, catalyst, 200

Heavy
Trygon- adrenals 210
Trygon- adrenals 210
Trygon- adrenals 210

My opponent was running something like this

HQ
Crowe
Libby- sactuary, might, quickening, shrouding, other things

Elites
Vindicare

Troops
5 units of 5 purifiers- 2 psy cannons, 2 halberds, demon hammer each
1 unit of 10 ourifiers- 2 psy cannons, 6 halberds, 2 demon hammers
6 rhinos

Heavy
2 Dreads- 2 auto cannons, psy bolts

I've always said as a grey knight player I consider well played tyranids are hard match up. time to back up my words, but this time I get to be the tyranid player.

My opponent had never played tyranids before, so was a little unsure of what to do, but he got the main idea of shoot the piss out of me and stay in cover.

The mission was kill points spearhead. He won the roll for first but gave it to me thankfully. Note, this was due to having never played nids before, he wanted to see what I'd do. After the game he acnowledged this as a mistake.

I deployed in a nice solid wall, he deployed very tightly in his corner. I thought that my outflanking stealers would be key in this one since he was so close to a side edge. I also put the ymgarls in a place where they could hit almost anything they wanted.

On my first turn I ran up with everything. I feel no pained a unit of hive guard and swarmlord. On his turn he moved up just a little with everything and disembarked everyone. Stupid amounts of psy cannon, auto cannon, and bolter shots I was left with a tervigon at 1 wound and a tervigon at 3 wounds.

Then my stealers all came in. The ymgarls came in from their piece of terrain, were granted feel no pain, and preferred enemy. Then they charged into 2 units of purifiers (1 being the really big one). They killed all the psy cannons from each squad and a couple halberds, but they all went down before the hammers even struck. My opponent seemed to roll something like all hits all wounds. My other stealers came in on the opposite side of the board, despite the rerolls. That's like failing 4 3+ saves consecutiely.

Well with my stealers dead or useless, and my tervigons on their last legs I continued the bum rush. 1 trygon got a nasty charge off and wiped a purifier squad. Swarmlord was nearby to keep him from getting his force weapons off. And the hive guard took out a rhino and the vindicare. I put feel no pain on swarmlord. I also moved the tervigons back to make them unappealing targets.

Hopefully I've put too much in his face at once (although it should be more). He's looking at 3 unmolested trygons and swarmlord with fnp all threatening charges next turn. I've reduced his psy cannon cound by 6, which is half, and I've killed the vindicare so it should get a lot easier now. I'm actually feeling pretty good about this.

Then my opponent decides to not care that half his firepower is gone. He answered it like a man. He shot his whole army at swarmlord and killed him and his guard completely in one turn. I didn't make one FNP save if I recall correctly. I'm thinking it took his whole army to do it and he's about to lose another 3 units to trygons so I should be fine right? Wrong, Crowe, the 150 point tax charged a trygon and force weaponed him!

Note that after the game I found out that crowe doesn't have a force weapon. It turns out that it had no impact on the outcome of the game so I wasn't too angry but I did bring it to my opponent's attention when I found out. He was in no was whatsoever cheating by the way, it was an honest mistake. I pay grey knights too, I'm pretty surprised I didn't catch it honestly.

So on with the battle report. For someone who lost killing power, I felt like he gained some after his last turn. I'm no longer winning on kill points, and my threats are severely dissapearing. Here's what I did. I spawned about 25 guants who all shot and charged crowe and killed him. I also knocked out 2 more rhinos with the hive guard, and my trygons charge 2 squads and killed them. The tervigons threw FNP on themselves.

Well that was a great turn, I did everything I could to kill what I could, only problem was that to get him in range of shadows I had to move the tervigons up.

He has now been reduced to very minimal firepower, and can't even manage to kill a tervigon with feel no pain. He does charge the 3 wounded tervigon with 5 purifiers
and the libby and fails to kill him somehow. On my next turn the hie guard pop the last of his rhinos and the trygons finish off 2 more squads, including the libby.

This game is just about over, it ends up going until turn 6 where my opponent is left with an empty rhino in the corner of the board and I still have a tervigon with a wound, 2 trygons, the hive guard, and all the little guys.

I had some pretty abismal luck when it came to keeping my monsters alive, like swarmlord just rolling over, and crowe pretending to have a force weapon and killing a trygon. But, my opponent never got his force weapon off past shadows aside from that so I was rather lucky. Had those trygons been forced weaponed I probably would have lost.

It was a great game against a fun opponent. And, it goes 1 step further to proving my point that tyranids can compete.

Responce to Bak

Because this blog is dumb and wont let me comment normally.

My opponent is very good at the game, he doesn't make play mistakes all that often.

I don't know if I can really say that he made mistakes or not. The safer route wold have been to come in 48" away and blast away at my trygons with krak missiles and then charge. But, that may have taken too long, and would have almost guarateed he wouldn't have gotten many battle points off of me. When you take into consideration that it's a battle point tournament with 90 people and only 4 rounds a small win might as well be a loss, so the best play he had would probably have been to try and take me out and play for the masacre, regardless of what the repercussions would have been otherwise. In a Nova format game where all you have to do is win, he probably would have been better off sitting back and pummeling me with missiles, if he had done that I'm not sure what I would have wom. But, at Blobs Park, a minor win, is more like a mutual loss.

Demons returning to BFS?

I have the sudden burning desire to bust out the demons! Perhaps I'll take them to BFS. If I were to this is a list I'm considering.

HQ
Fateweaver 333

Elites
6 Fiends 180
6 Fiends 180
6 Fiends 180

Troops
5 Bloodletters 80
5 Bloodletters 80
5 Bloodletters 80
5 Bloodletters 80
5 Bloodletters- icon 105
5 Horrors- Bolt Changeling 100

Fast
10 Screamers 160
10 Screamers 160
20 Seekers 280

1998. It's fast, deadly, surprisingly tough, only gives up 12 KP's and has 6 scoring units. It's time to prove demons can still compete!

Bugs at Blobs Park!

I got back from Blobs park around 11am today (Sunday) and I had a great time. The only thing I'm stingy about is the 5 hour car drive it took because I had to go out of my way, although some of my friends were nice enough to let me crash at their house for the night.

The rounds were a little long which is rarely a complaint I have. But, for someone who commonly finishes games in an hour I often found myself hanging around for 2 hours doing nothing between games. It would have been nice to finish before 11pm and have shorter rounds honestly.

The seperation of scores probably should have been higher, and I don't agree with a lack of best general prize. I managed to go 4-0 with 4 masacres, only missing 2 bonus points in the whole tournament, and I still lost to Dameon Green who lost a game and missed 4 bonus points throughout the tournament. Not to take away from him, his army is drop dead gorgeous and he earned it, but I felt a little robbed not getting proper recognition for having the most battle points.

That said, the prize support was fantastic! I would have liked to see some trophies or plaques, because I find that stuff to have sentimental value, as oopposed to just profit. But, I won best xenos player (and best general, not that there was a prize for that) and got myself a dark eldar army!

But seriously other than that (one of which isn't the tournament's fault) it was a great event, the food was good and not to expensive. the bathroom could use work though lol. It was great to catch up with all of my friends from the VA, DC, PA area. Anyway enough about the tournament my opinions about it, let's get onto the battle reports.

I brought tyranids to this one, mainly for funsies, and boy it was a great time. I've been playing nids lot latley and I've been having a blast!

Here's the list I brought,

HQ
Swarmlord 280
Guard- lash whips 65

Elites
2 Hive Guard 100
2 Hive Guard 100
8 Ymgarls 184

Troops
10 Gaunts 50
10 Gaunts 50
5 Stealers 70
5 Stealers 70
Tervigon- adrenals, sacs, clusters, scything talons, catalyst, 200
Tervigon- adrenals, sacs, clusters, scything talons, catalyst, 200

Heavy
Trygon- adrenals 210
Trygon- adrenals 210
Trygon- adrenals 210

Round one I got paired up against my buddy Vaiden or however the hell you spell it. We played last round at BFS were I edged his guard out with demons. This time he brought his deathwing ravenwing combo and I brought my nids.

He was running something like this.

Belial
Sammael
4 units of 5 TH SS termies with cyclones, 1 was the command squad with FNP and the banner.
2 units of 3 bikes each with 2 meltas
2 attack bikes with multi meltas
2 predators- AC HB
1 typhoon

The mission was capture and control seize ground and we both put our objectives in the middle of our deployment zone so that the outflankers couldn't wreak havoc. I got first turn and pushed up with everything, then he deepstruck 2 terminater squads in. He had his command squad with belial drop behind a regular terminater squad as a counter charge unit. Then he shot a tervigon down with 6 missiles and 2 meltas.

The problem with deathwing is that they have great mobility when the deep strike being able to come in wherever they want, and they have 2 48" missile shots per unit, menaing they can come in wherever they want and threaten you. That makes it very hard to battle them, since you can't predict any of their moves with any accuracy. The game doesn't really start until they come down, so until then all you can do is get some board control and hope for the best.

In my following turn I charged 2 trygons into his 5 terminaters, and I ran swarmlord over to be a countercharge, for when his deathstar countercharges. My trygons charged is and actually killed all the terminaters, then they got nice consolidations and actually got out of his unit's threat range. My Ymgarls came in and had charge range to his whole army, I charged them into sammael and took off hsi assualt cannon, a predator and wrecked it and, 5 terminaters to tie them up.

In his turn he could do little to rebuttle, but deepstrike a squad in my back field, threatening my objective. He also freed his termies from my ymgarls. I countered by chargins swarmlord, a trygon, and 10 outlfnaking stealers into his deathstar. He didn't know swarmlord makes you re roll successful invuls, needless to say his unit was wiped in a turn. Another trygon charged his bikes and wiped them, and the last trygon charged the termies that the stealers were previously fighting, and got his ass kicked. My Hive guard were picking away at his predators and attack bikes. For now I ignored his squad threatening my objective.

He couldnt do much to stop me now, his termie squad that killed the stealers and trygon charged into another tyrgon and killed it, at this point I've only killed 1 of these termies on roids.

I pushed up at this point, engaging the bikes where I could and killing them. I also got right up in his termies face with swarmlord and some stealers. A trygon charged into my backlines and killed sammael, stopping his chance of boosting to contest an objective and threatening the termies that were threatening my back lines.

On his turn his termies that were in my backfield charged some gaunts and killed them and his other termies squad ran right at my stealers, avoiding swarmlord and killed them.

On my turn swarmlord killed his termies and some gaunts jumped over to his objective. My trygon, 12 spawned gaunts, and a tervigon charged into his termies in my backfield and killed them.

The game ended there on turn 6, where he had been tabled. I missed 1 bonus point this game. I felt pretty good about this game, but I knew my next one would be tough since I did so well in this game.

Blobs park list ideas

I'm bringing tyranids and here are the 2 options I'm considering.

HQ
Swarmlord 280
2 guard- lash whips 130

Elites
3 Hive Guard 150
3 Give Guard 150
10 Ymgarls 230

Troops
10 Gaunts 50
10 Gaunts 50
Tervigon- adrenals, toxin sacs, clusters, catalyst 195
Tervigon- adrenals, toxin sacs, clusters, catalyst 195
5 Stealers 70
5 Stealers 70

Heavy
Trygon- adrenals 210
Trygon- adrenals 210

Or the list I'm leaning towards

HQ
Swarmlord 280
Guard- lash whips 65

Elites
2 Hive Guard 100
2 Hive Guard 100
8 Ymgarls 184

Troops
10 Gaunts 50
10 Gaunts 50
5 Stealers 70
5 Stealers 70
Tervigon- adrenals, sacs, clusters, scything talons, catalyst, 200
Tervigon- adrenals, sacs, clusters, scything talons, catalyst, 200

Heavy
Trygon- adrenals 210
Trygon- adrenals 210
Trygon- adrenals 210

I need to decide before I go to bed tonight since I'm leaving straight from school tomorrow, let me know what you think as soon as you can please sorry for the late notice.

Blobs park and bugs?

Well I'm fairly decided on bringing tyranids to blobs park. I'm having a ton of fun with them and, much like my demons, they really make me think. A lot of my friends are heading there like Andrew Gonyo, Brad Park, Ted Nagel, Justin Cook and his crew, even the ellusive Mike Brandt.

As much as I'd love to win it with tyranids my expectations are fairly low. I'm starting to find that the only reason I'm doing so well with tyranids is because I keep out outplaying people (not to sound conceeded), but they really aren't that great of an army. At Ard Boyz I played against a mech eldar player with an unoptiized list, it had howling banshees for crying out loud! And, simply because he was roughly the same skill level as me (possibly better) he nearly beat me. I have never lost to an eldar player before with tyranids or demons, regardless of what the internet says about the match up lol. I suppose that just goes to show how much of a difference play skill does make. But I am starting to find that when paired up with someone of equal skill to me, and they're playing blood angels, wolves, guard, or any of those heavy hitters (barring grey knights surprisingly) that I really shouldn't stand a chance.

Not that I'm making excuses either, I'm still going to play nids, knowing full well that if I bring grey knights I'll have a much better chance of victory. I'm heading out there to have fun!

Back from ard boyz!

Yesterday was the ard boyz semi finals. I went to the location in central Jersey, which suprisingly only had 13 attendees, 4 of which I played regularily lol. To make things even more awesome I brought my tyranids! The same list that I ran at the preliminaries.

Swarmlord 280
2 Guard- lash whips 130
10 ymgarls 230
3 hive guard 150
3 hive guard 150
4 Tervigons- adrenals, sacs, catalyst, clusters 195 ea. (1 was HQ)
3 units of 10 gaunts 50 ea.
3 Trygons- adrenals 210 ea.

Round one I played against a fantastic eldar player. His army was fully painted and drop dead beautiful at that. He knew his army and played very well. The mission was pitched battle VP's, and each player selected 1 troop model to be their messanger, if that models gets into the enemy's deployment zone they get 500 VP's. Turn 1 he scored his messanger into my deployment zone, and by turn 2 he blew up my messanger. My ymgarls came up but no one was near them so thy just stood there. Most of this game was keep away, while I killed whatever I could catch. In the end the VP total was 1480 to 1320 or something, giving us both a draw (in his favor). I was very pleased with that considering it was mech eldar against a great player and he scored an additonal 500.

Next round I found myself against George, a friend of mine who plays orks, who I also got to play at the Nova Open. He brought a horde with 45 lootas, 180 boyz, 3 deff koptas and ghazghkul. It was pitched battle, control the center, so we can all guess how this game was going to go, Charge! I won the roll for first and feel no pained 3 tervigons and swarmlord. Then my hive guard blew up 2 deff koptas. He ran right at me with 150 boyz, and one squad was congo lined in front as a screen. His lootas almost killed a tervigon. My ymgarls came in and multi charged 2 squads of orks and 1 squad of lootas, then 40 gaunts and a trygon charged into that combat also, the stealers morphed fro toughness and were granted feel no pain so they lonly lost 4, and I won combat by 32 I beleive and wiped everything. George charged back with his remaining 90 orks and ghazghkul, killing all my gaunts and getting stuck with with swarmlord and a tervigon. The lootas almost killed another tervigon. The ymgarls charged another loota squad and killed them I then spawned another 30 gaunts or so, made verything 1 big combat with them, charged all 3 trygons in and started going to town. This combat was a 2 by 2 section in the middle of the board. In the end George did 2 wounds, and I did 56, meaning I won by 54. George has now lost everything except a loota squad and we called it there.

I'm in 3rd going into last round and I get paired against my friend Vinny. He usuallt plays guard but this time he's running wolves. The table we got was pretty strange, there were lots of large impassible rocks everywhere which were even tall enough to give trygons cover. He won the roll for first and deployed his 21 missiles 5 las plas backs and jaws all centrally (it was spearhead by the way) I opted to reserve everything, and deepstrike the trygons. He shuffled around a bit waiting for me to come on. When I did come on I only got 1 trygon and no stealers, along with 3 tervigons 20 gaunts 1 hiveguard and swarmlord, so I was pretty much confined to 6" up. My hive guard came in and knocked out a rhino. Then everyone else took cover and hoped for the best.

On his turn we got to roll for what the objective was, it was random. On a 1-2 it was KP's, on a 3-4 it was quarters, on a 5-6 it was terrain features, we rolled table quarters, to capture a quarter you had to have more scoring unit in it than your opponent.

He fired 21 missiles into my hive guard and failed to kill them thanks to cover and fnp. A couple las plas backs finished them off though, then he tried to jaws through swarmlord and a tervigon but he rolled an 11! Even without shadows. He had scouts come on and multi charge a tervigon and 20 gaunts, and he got his ass kicked. Next turn my ymgarls came in and were given prefered enemy and fnp then they multi charged a long fang squad a the rune priest with jaws and his grey hunter squad and kileld everything but a couple long fangs. The rest of my amy came in and I blitzed his right flank very hard, with 3 trygons. I also knocked out another 2 razorbacks. With the rune priest gone swarmlord and the tervigons can be aggresive, and I can start spawining gaunts since it's quarters. vinny's in trouble, he detaches logan from his wolf guard death star and charges my stealers, killing 4. The he fires his whole army at my trygons, killing 1, and leaving another at 1 wound. I retaliate with a mass killing of vinnys's troops on his right flank with the trygons. I sent the wounded trygon after some grey hunters, wiping them, and I sent the strong one into his death star. Swarmlord hit logan and killed him, and his guard multi charged into his death star making it 1 combat. I spawned even more gaunts. At this point Vinny had a few razors, and 3 grey hunter squads, and 2 lang fang squads. While I had swarmlord, 2 trygons, 4 tervigons and 80 or so gaunts. He did what he could on his turn, killing a trygon, and a tervigon, but I just kept spawning and killing. It ended on turn 5 with me having 3 scoring units in 1 quarter, 2 in another, 4 in the quarter which he had 3, and 2 in the last quarter. I held all 4 quarters giving me the masacre, with 2 bonus points.

On the top table my friend Ned lost to a dark eldar player, but only minor, with no bunus points. That sling shotted me to first, with tyranids! I chose tau as the arm I would recieve. I'd like to continue proving the internet wrong about how tyranids are bad, and soo I will be doing that with tau!

Invitational round 3

Sorry for the late posts guys, school just started for me so my free time is going out the window. More to the point though my round 3 was against Mark Ferek, and no offense to my other opponents but this was the hardest game of the invitational for me. Mark was playing a descent of angels list. He really knew what he was doing, but 1 key mistake lost him the game in my opinion. Mark placed second at NOVA last year, losing to Tony in the final round, he's a great guy and really fun to play.

My list,

HQ
Coteaz 100

Elites
5 Purifiers- 2 psy cannons, demon hammer 145
Rhino- dozer blades 45
5 Purifiers- 2 psy cannons, demon hammer 145
Rhino 40
5 Purifiers- 2 psy cannons, demon hammer 145
Rhino 40

Troops
5 Strikes- psy cannon, demon hammer 120
razorback- psy bolts, dozer blades 55
5 Strikes- psy cannon, demon hammer 120
razorback- psy bolts 50
5 Strikes- psy cannon, demon hammer 120
razorback- psy bolts 50
5 Strikes- psy cannon, demon hammer 120
razorback- psy bolts 50

Heavy
Dreadnaught- 2 Twin linked auto cannnon, psy bolts 135
Dreadnaught- 2 Twin linked auto cannnon, psy bolts 135
Dreadnaught- 2 Twin linked auto cannnon, psy bolts 135

1750

Mark's list,

HQ
Librarian- shield, fear, jump pack

Elites
2 Priests- jump packs, power weapons

Troops
10 Assualt Marines- 2 meltas, power fist
10 Assualt Marines- 2 meltas, power fist
10 Assualt Marines- 2 meltas, power fist
10 Assualt Marines- 2 meltas, power fist
5 Assualt Marines- 1 meltas, power fist

*I think there were some power weapons in there but I'm npt sure, it's been 2 weeks now*

Heavy
5 Devestaters- 4 missiles
5 Devestaters- 4 missiles
5 Devestaters- 4 missiles

The mission was table quarters, kill points, objectives, spearhead.

Mark won the roll for first and took it. As standrad NOVA affair we had a large piece of LOS blocking terrain in the middle of the board. This was particularily bad for me as Mark could hide behind it, going unscathed from my shooting, and then jump over it and assualt. He deployed with 48 Jump packers in a nice tight brick behinr the hill in the middle, and the devestaters percehed themselves up on some nice elevated area terrain.

I deployed in my standard castled formation, with the dread out of LOS of the devs as much as possible. I knew they would be the key to victory since Mark can't reliably kill them.

Mark moved up and hid ebhind the rock, then blew up a rhino with the devs, pretty much as expected.

I started footslogging some infantry at max raange to try to avoid an assualt marine bum rush in an attempt to plink away devestaters. I then shifted all the rest of my forces left to try and lure him away from my foot sloggers with the bulk of my army. 1 Strike squad got brave and charged an assualt squad. I killed 5 and won combat but they stayed.

He then started taking out more of my vehicles with his devestaters, my right flank is looking weak with roughly 13 marines footslogging and no vehicle support. 1 of his assualt squads got brave and jumped into the heart of my army, they melta'd a rhino and exploded it. Then they rolled a 6 for difficult terrain, and wiped my squad before I could swing. Finally, they rolled a 5 for consolidation and moved back to relative safety. My 5 man strike squad was dealt with by his countercharge.

Mark did a good job using consolidations to limit m reactions. He had a 10 man squad in front, and a 5 man squad in front lined about as a screen. Then he had 25 assualt marines, 2 priests and the librarian ready to roll right behind.

I knew it was now or never. For what it's worth, Fearspect, our judge pretty much ruled me out of the game at this point. I shot the 5 man squad to hell and back, killing 3 or so since they had fnp. I also got 2 strike squads out and ready to charge along with all 3 dreadnaughts. Since I opened up the 5 man I could now get some multi assualts in. 1 dread hit his 5 man squad (now 2 man), 1 dread hit his 10 man screening squad, and 1 dread made it to a 10 man squad in back. Then I charged 10 strikes in and made everything oen big combat.

The reason I did that was evwn though my strikes will eventually die, he will have to consolidate towards the dreads. He's pretty much stuck in combat now allowing me to just keep sending units in there until he dies.

Now Mark makes a huge tactical blunder. He sent his 5 man squad in (the one that was always 5 man) and tried to kill a dread with a S9 fist. that's a decent move. But then he also threw his 10 man squad with a priest and librarian in there to kill all my strikes. They should have jumped forward and killed the 12 marines in my backfield. He could have really gotten rid of a lot of my punch with that move. Not only finishing up 2 squads, but also making me choose where I want to go with my counter charge units.

Anyway, he now has 35ish assualt marines fighting 3 dreads, and a couple grey knights. I threw coteaz, a purifier squad, and a strike squad in there and sstart killing everything in droves with all the hammerhands and cleansing flames. Here's where I got lucky, he threw I beleive 10 WS5 power weapon attacks at my lone sergant and failed to kill him. Then in all his glory, he killed the librarian!

The game continued on with heavy bolters, and the 12 marines killing the last of his devestaters, and coteaz 3 dreads a strike squad and a purifier squad walking through his remaining assualt marines.

It was a great game, and deffinitely mine to lose. I did end up winning though, with 3 out of 5 OBJ's 4 quarters and 1750 victory points.

Nova Invitational round 2

After beating Marc Parker I found myself against Andrew Blackwell. He won The Grim GT in NY this past June to earn his ticket, with none other than demons at that. This kid is also 13 I believe (maybe 14?) Regardless, that's remarkable that someone his age could do so well with a "bad" army. PS. Demons aren't bad, they just auto lose to GK and DE. I must say I felt a little shown up as demons were my main army for so long. I needed to kick his face into the ground, as ironic as that seems. All in good fun of course.

My list,

HQ
Coteaz 100

Elites
5 Purifiers- 2 psy cannons, demon hammer 145
Rhino- dozer blades 45
5 Purifiers- 2 psy cannons, demon hammer 145
Rhino 40
5 Purifiers- 2 psy cannons, demon hammer 145
Rhino 40

Troops
5 Strikes- psy cannon, demon hammer 120
razorback- psy bolts, dozer blades 55
5 Strikes- psy cannon, demon hammer 120
razorback- psy bolts 50
5 Strikes- psy cannon, demon hammer 120
razorback- psy bolts 50
5 Strikes- psy cannon, demon hammer 120
razorback- psy bolts 50

Heavy
Dreadnaught- 2 Twin linked auto cannnon, psy bolts 135
Dreadnaught- 2 Twin linked auto cannnon, psy bolts 135
Dreadnaught- 2 Twin linked auto cannnon, psy bolts 135

1750

And his,

HQ
Fateweaver
Herald of khorne on juggernaught- herald stuff

Elites
4 Crushers- icon
4 Crushers

Troops
5 Plaugebearers
5 Plaugebearers
5 Plaugebearers
5 Plaugebearers

Heavy
Demon Prince- wings iron hide nurgle noxious touch
Demon Prince- wings iron hide nurgle noxious touch
Demon Prince- wings iron hide nurgle noxious touch

Nothing even close to resembling what I would have brought as a demon player. I think his biggest list building issues are only 1 icon, and non unique bloodcrushers. I could show you what I was thinking of bringing had I played demons if you want, but for now I'll just go on with the report.

The mission was kill point dawn of war. My worst mission, luckily I was playing demons.

So I won the roll for first and took it. I deplyed 2 strike squads up the field at the half way point. Then I casted warp quake and pushed up a little. The rest of my army rolled on in my center. I had no fear of losing my strike squads as his only shooting was fateweaver.

On his turn the only places he could go were teh 4 corners and even then he was about 8" from a warp quake zone, and 6" from the board edge. Faeweaver came down first and scattered into warp quake zone and died. My ease game just got a lot easier. The rest of his stuff came on in my left hand corner, about 10" from my models. 1 plauge bearer squad came in abother corner randomly.

I kept the pressure up accross the table with warp quakes making spreading out not really viable and only giving him the one corner he already chose to show up in the only place he could go. I threw a dread into the crushers to tie them up and I shot both the demon princes off the board.

He came on with his last prince and crusher squad in the corner with all the action. His other plauges showed up in the other corners.

I shot his last prince off the table then I moved some purifiers and a strike squad over to get ready to charge next turn. I even managed to tie up the crusher squad that just came in with another dread. I also started shooting and charging plauebearers for objectives, even nurgles minions were dying in droves.

The next turn he was stuck in combat and such, and after that I made all the crushers and dread 1 big combat by charging in a purifier squad. I emplyed a neat little trick too. His 4 man crusher squad was in base with a dread, as was his 5 man. Because of pile in moves every model was in base with the dread. So I positioned myself in the movement phase to only have to charge 1 model from each squad, that way the remaining models would still be locked with dreads, and I would only really be feeling the attacks of 2 crushers, not 9.

After 2 rounds or so his crushers were almost all gone. I believe I wiped the 4 man with herald and most of his other 4 man, but my purifiers were no more. Then I charged a stride squad in to finish them off.

It was a fun game and Andrew did what he could. He could have screened and positioned his units better, but it was a fairly hopeless situation regardless. I hope to play him again when I'm not using grey knights so we can get a more fair game in.

I won with a tabling I believe, 4 out of 5 OBJ's and he killed a purifier squad and half a dread or something.

Nova Invitational Round 1

So after getting all of 3 hours of sleep due to a combination of excitement ad restlessess it was time to roll dice. I went down stairs with my friends George and Andrew whom I shared a room with. We walked over to a near by starbucks and I kind of forced myself to eat. As a 17 year old on summer break I couldn't fathom being up at 6am, let alone eatig a full breakfast. But, I knew it was for the best so, I forced half a sandwich and a hot chocolate down my throat and called it a morning.

When I got back to the hotel I found that I was playing Marc Parker on table 7. I played on table 7 for my whiskey challeng for what it's worth. Marc is an awesome dude, and is really laid back. He is the leader of the 40k wrecking crew and has won more GT's tha anyone I know. Nothing about this game was going to be easy.

The mission was the same one we played for my whiskey challenge, hence why we practiced it. Pitched battle, Objectives, Kill Points, Quarters.

My list was,

HQ
Coteaz 100

Elites
5 Purifiers- 2 psy cannons, demon hammer 145
Rhino- dozer blades 45
5 Purifiers- 2 psy cannons, demon hammer 145
Rhino 40
5 Purifiers- 2 psy cannons, demon hammer 145
Rhino 40

Troops
5 Strikes- psy cannon, demon hammer 120
razorback- psy bolts, dozer blades 55
5 Strikes- psy cannon, demon hammer 120
razorback- psy bolts 50
5 Strikes- psy cannon, demon hammer 120
razorback- psy bolts 50
5 Strikes- psy cannon, demon hammer 120
razorback- psy bolts 50

Heavy
Dreadnaught- 2 Twin linked auto cannnon, psy bolts 135
Dreadnaught- 2 Twin linked auto cannnon, psy bolts 135
Dreadnaught- 2 Twin linked auto cannnon, psy bolts 135

1750

And his,

HQ
Cannoness- evicerater, closk, litanies, other stuff
Cannoness- evicerater, cloak, litabies, other stuff

Troops
20 sisters- 2 melta guns, evicerater, book, priest with evicerater
20 sisters- 2 melta guns, evicerater, book, priest with evicerater
Infantry Platoon- 5 infantry squads, PCS, 2 heavy weapons squads
Infantry 1- naked
Infantry 2- naked
Infantry 3- naked
Infantry 4- Auto Cannon
Infantry 5- Auto Cannon
PCS- Auto Cannon
Heavy Wep Team- 3 Auto Cannons
Heavy Wep Team- 3 Auto Cannons

Heavy
Exorcist
Exorcist
Exorcist

I've tanled with this army once before when a different member of the wrecking crew was using is, Shane (Deadshane on dakka) and I manaed to beat him down pretty hard with tyranids. Let's see if I can do it again.

I won the roll for first and took it. I deployed all nice and castled in the center. He deplyed with his exorcists mostly hidden out of LOS, with 30 guardsmen (naked ones) blobbed up as a screen in front of his army. Then the 20 remaing dudes with auto cannons camped out on the objective in his corner by the exorcists, and the PCS camped out on the other objective in his corner out of LOS. The 2 units of 20 sisters each started with a cannoness and deployed front and center behind the blob.

On turn 1 I moved up to about half way of the field with the pruifiers, with everything else trailing behind except for a razorback or 2. 1 dread shifted over and saw teh corner of an exorcist so I went for it, knocking off its weapon! The my heavy bolters and remaining dreads shread his AC teams.

He just moved up 6 inches on his turn keeping his formation intact. Exorcists both shot at dreads and exploded 2 of them.

this turn wasn't too eventful other than one close combat. I think I should have gotten out with all my strike squads and started putting bolter wounds into his sisters, but instead I just killed 3 or 4 with all my heavy bolter as I moved up 6". My last dread knocked off the weapon from another exorcist. 2 Purifier squads got out, and did I nice dose of double cleansing flame on his blog squad and killed them in 1 round.

Marcs return was pretty much as expected, he charged his sister squads into my purifiers and killed them gaining ground in mid field. His last exorcist did something cool. In combat with one squad I did something a little sneaky. I casted cleansing flame. Then attacked a sword into his cannoness. Since he was afraid of the force weapon he popped litanies, and made his 2++. I couldn't force weapon anyway so I just bluffed him right out.

I got all my strike squads and remaining purifier out. 2 strike squads went backwards to hold my backfield objectives. Everything else moved up and shot the piss out of his sisters. I got both units below 10. I charged 1 squad with 2 strike squads, and the other got charged by a purifier squad. The strike squad heled their own since Marc already popped litanies. After combat they go down to 3 or 4 girls but the eviceraters are really killing me. In the other combat I tried to clansing flame but failed, hen he kicked my ass and got free movement. Not my smartest play ever.

His free sister squad moved up to within an inch of my razorback, coteaz and his crew are right behind. He put the cannoness on one side of my razor, and the priest and sergant on the other. He opted not to shoot and just charged. He rolled a 3 with difficult terrain thanks to scatuary so his cannoness could oly get base to base with a psy cannon, and no one on the other side of my razor could get in base. I piled in and moved coteaz first into a random girl away from his eviceraters, I also moved 2 swords the ame direction (towards the cannoness) into 2 other girls. Now I have a hammer and a sword to move. Instead of having to get into base with the sisters on the other side of my tank (only place I could still make base), I moved to within 2" of the sword guys. This was all made possible because you have to keep coherency suring a charge reaction, if I moved to engage the remaining unengaged models I could not keep coherency. So much to Marc's dismay only 1 evicerater got to swing into my squad, the rest had to go into the razor. On another note he popped his book to stay alive.

The rest of this game was just clean up. I shot my whole army into his ramiaing backfield guardsmen and got his infantry platoon and PCS to run off the board. my dread blew up his exorcist. In combat I charged a strike squad into coteaz's combat to save them and ended up wiping out Marc's squad. In the other assualt I got lucky and killed his cannoness despite her 2++.

It was a great game, and just goes to show how 1 positioning mistake in a key assualt can be the difference in the game. I'd be more than happy to play Marc again and I'm deffinitely looking forward to a rematch.

I take the game, 4 objectives to 0 3 quarters to 1 (his weaponless exorcists hold one) 1840 VP's or something.

Whiskey Challenge!

I got to play my friend Andrey Gonyo and his absolutely stunning grey knights. He painted most of his army in the past 2 weeks, and I must say, it was easioly IMO the best army in the invitational, and top 10 out of the open. Everything was converted, every single model, everything was magnetized, the bases were straight up green stuffed, it was amazing. I was also sharring a hotel room with him, and as soon as we got in we showed each other our armies, and my heart sank a little. I spent countless hours on my army and then I to see that I was out done that much by someone in 2 weeks! Thankfully, he really earned his appearance award, it's not that I suck, it's that he's the man!

So onto the game. Since there's 14 reports, to do I'm not going to go into crazy turn by turn detail but I will give you the jist of what happened in all of my games.

We decided to play round one of the invitational, not because it was the hardest mission for either of us, but because e both knew that if we won round one, our confidence would be good for the rest of the day. Start strong, finish srong.

he mission was objectives primary, kill points secondary, quarters tertiary. Deployment was pitched battle.

His list was a good list to take mine out, but less balanced in a tournament setting. We both used our invitational lists.

I played this

HQ
Coteaz 100

Elites
5 Purifiers- 2 psy cannons, demon hammer 145
Rhino- dozer blades 45
5 Purifiers- 2 psy cannons, demon hammer 145
Rhino 40
5 Purifiers- 2 psy cannons, demon hammer 145
Rhino 40

Troops
5 Strikes- psy cannon, demon hammer 120
razorback- psy bolts, dozer blades 55
5 Strikes- psy cannon, demon hammer 120
razorback- psy bolts 50
5 Strikes- psy cannon, demon hammer 120
razorback- psy bolts 50
5 Strikes- psy cannon, demon hammer 120
razorback- psy bolts 50

Heavy
Dreadnaught- 2 Twin linked auto cannnon, psy bolts 135
Dreadnaught- 2 Twin linked auto cannnon, psy bolts 135
Dreadnaught- 2 Twin linked auto cannnon, psy bolts 135

1750

He played something a little more interesting, and bland at teh same time.

HQ
Coteaz
Karamazov

Elites
Ven dread- AC MM
Ven dread- AC MM

Troops
5 acolytes- storm bolters
psyback
5 acolytes- storm bolters
psyback
5 acolytes- storm bolters
psyback
5 acolytes- storm bolters
psyback
5 acolytes- storm bolters
psyback
6 deathcults, 5 crusaders, 1 banisher with evicerater (This unit slogged around on foot ith coteaz and karamazov, and was quite the interesting deathstar)
psyback

Heavy
Psyflemen
Psyflemen
Psyflemen

So he won the roll for first and took it. He deployed spread out through his deployment zone, with the deathstar in the center, and his dreads behind terrain.

I cpunter deployed by keeping everythign in the center. This is my standard deployment, and I underestimated my opponent and assumed this would work lol. A good move would have been reserving or doing a refused flank behind a rock, but I got lazy, and all those required thought.

Needless to say he made me pay for my cockyness. He knocked hout all 2 rhinos, 2 razors, and a dread all on turn 1. He made half of my army footslogging in my deployment zone! I then moved up and tried to gaint a foothold. I shot ateverything at his weak flank, which happened to be my strong flank at this point and took it right from him. But after another few turns of shooting the game was more or less over.

I had a chance on turn 4 when he decided to be fun and play aggressively. He charged his deathstar into coteaz and a purifier squad. I was planning on casting sactuary and then cleansing flame and then strike first to kill his death star and take his foot hold in the center. It all fell apart though when I failed sactuary, and then only caused 4 wounds with cleansing flame. 2 went on coteaz and karamazov, 2 went on deathcults, but they roled a 5 and 6 (at this point all the crusaders and banishers were dead). My unit and coteaz were dismantled in short order. And then my attempts to counter charge were easily thwarted since in combat they struck first with dumb numbers of attack, that hit on 3's and wounded on 2's thanks to rad grenades and hammerhand.

In the end I lost pretty handily, but it was a good wake up call. I took the rest of the event seriously. (Or at least the invitational lol) In the end I'm actually happy I lost here. It taught me how to think again.

Back from Nova!

So a long weekend of 14 games. I got there early thursday met up with my friend Andrew Gonyo, hung out for awhile, and then played my whiskey challenge against him. He then proceeded to kick my ass. A surprisingly good start actually since it really put me in my place. I've been beating up so many locals lately that I forgot what it's like to play a good player, and getting my butt kicked so hard was a great wake up call. My over-confidence flew right out the window and I really stepped it up for the rest of the weekend.

Well for those of you who don;t know, I took the invitational! Best general going 5-0 playing Marc Parker, Andrew Blackwell, Mark Ferek, Kurt Clauss, and Aaron Aelong. All great games against great opponents. For what it's worth I also took Ren Man by a mile, but I couldn't win 2 prizes so they gave it to my 5th round opponent Aaron.

In the open I went undefeated day one, and scrubbed out quite hard day 2, losing twice. Once, where I had no business losing, I just made a really dumb move. (Like walking off objectives lol). You win some you lose some I suppose. A bunch of my friends placed well, with 3 of them taking their brackets.

Congrats to Tony for taking the Open 2 years in a row. Maybe one of these days we'll actually get to play lol.

i'll get battle reports up in the next few days. Sorry if this is all over the place with infomation and incoherent, it's been a long weekend.

Painting like crazy!!!

I have 3 more dozer blades, and 10 more grey knights to get done. Then I just need to finish priming my display board. I'd also like to get some free hand on my tanks, time permitting. This is really cutting it close for me. Hopefully I can make it in time! I leave Thursday morning, that means I have tonight and then 3 more days. Tomorrow I'm busy from 12 onward, and I'll probably only get a little done Tuesday. But, Wednesday, shit is going down as far as painting. Now, I'm going to get some more paint on my army for an hour or two.

Pics before I leave and a complete battle report of the invitational, and the open.

Tyranids took ard boyz! Round 1

So I don't have enough time to do a full set of 3 real battle reports, but here's some brief descriptions of my games.

The list I brought was,

Swarmlord 280
2 Guard- lash whips 130
10 ymgarls 230
3 hive guard 150
3 hive guard 150
4 Tervigons- adrenals, sacs, catalyst, clusters 195 ea. (1 was HQ)
3 units of 10 gaunts 50 ea.
3 Trygons- adrenals 210 ea.

Round one I got paired up against a space marine bike ulkan list played by a friend of mine, Ben.

His list from memory,
Vulkan
Captain on bike- relic blade, combi melta
Command Squad- apothecary, bikes, 4 plasma guns
2 units of 5 bikes- 2 meltas, combi melta, multi melta attack bike
2 units of 5 bikes- 2 flamers, combi flamer, multi melta attack bike
5 TH SS termies
Land Raider Redeemer- multi melta
Random techmarine
3 Vindicaters
3 lone land speeders- MM HF

It's got some nteresting stuff. It has all the tools it needs. It just depends how he plays it. From my perspective if he plays properly I have no business winning this game.

The mission was pitched battle, modified KP's. We each gave the opponent traitor, if we kill the traitor he's worth 5 KP's. He gave me a bike, I gave him a guant.

I won the roll for first and took it. I deployed with a gaunt wall up, and a wall of monsters and hive guard behind. I left one squad of gaunts with the traitor in reserve.

He deployed in a refused flank set up with eveything in one corner. This was his mistake since I could bring my whole army at him in one direction. Had he deployed in both corners I would have had to split up, and he could have used his superior mobility to isolate and destroy me.

With the stealers I had to make a decion, whether they should come up in a terrain piece near teh heart of his army, or a terrain piece in the center. The one closer to him was riskier since he could block it off entirely if he saw it coming, but id he didn't I could win the game right there. I chose to go the safe route and put them in the center. On a side note he made no effort ro cover the terrain piece near him.

Turn 1 I moved up and shot a vindicator or something. i'm almost half way up the field after running and everything. Then he pushed forward on his first turn, blew awa my gants and almost killed a trygon. My next turn the ymgarls came in and multi charged 2 biker squads, one of which had the traitor. I also put I threw the wounded trygon out to die in order to kill the land raider, but failed. The hive guard started blowing open speeders. And I moved up some more and replemished my gaunt wall. Also, I made the bikes and traitor run off the table.

He then shot me to bits, I think he killed all of my gaunts, the wounded trygon and a fresh tervigon. He only killed 5 stealers, thanks to FNP and cover. Vulkan and his boys got out and charges a trygon and raped him. I rebuttled with spawning gaunts everywhere tying up all of his remaining bikes. Throwing swarlord at vulkan and instakilling him. The stealers ate a vidicater and so did the hive guard. At this point the game was just clean up. His shooting was next to gone. My army was in combat. His only countercharge unit was not going to get free from swarmlord. The only thing he really has is his land raider.

The game ends 25-0 I believe after bonus points.

Ard Boyz Results!

Took first by a mile with tyranids. We only got 10 players but it wasn't bad as faar as competition level. I beat up vulkan biker marines, horde orks, and horde orks.

Brief battle reports to follow, and some list analysis.

Updates!

My lists are finalized for the open and the invitational. I caved and I'm bringing Grey Knights to both lol. I'll put the lists up in a bit. I still have 9 purifiers, 9 strikes, coteaz, and 5 sets of dozers to do in 13 days. And, an untouched display board. And, not much is getting done this weekend between ard boyz Saturday and a warmachine tournament Sunday. I don't really like warmachine all that much, but I'm having quite a warmachine boner lately so I've decided to play.

On another note I've come to the realization that I'm just not going to own enough grey knights to run the ard boyz list I want. So, tyranids it is!

Here's the list

Swarmlord 280
2 Guard- lash whips 130
Tervigon- Adrenals, Sacs, Catalyst, Clusters 195
3 Hive Guard 150
3 Hive Guard 150
10 Ymgarls 230
10 Gaunts 50
10 Gaunts 50
10 Gaunts 50
Tervigon- Adrenals, Sacs, Catalyst, Clusters 195
Tervigon- Adrenals, Sacs, Catalyst, Clusters 195
Tervigon- Adrenals, Sacs, Catalyst, Clusters 195
Trygon- Adrenals 210
Trygon- Adrenals 210
Trygon- Adrenals 210

So far it's won both its test games. First against draigo wing in the kill point mission by tabling it on turn 5. And next against a descent of angels list with mephiston and a land raider.

Lots of interesting stuff here. Now I'm hungry.

Painting like crazy

Nova. Less than 3 weeks. Painting. 1 Razorback, 1 dread, 3 rhinos, 6 sets of dozer blades, 10 purifiers, 11 strikes, coteaz, untouched display board. I'm screwed as each model takes about an hour and half, 3-4 for tanks.

Expect pics soon, and a full battle report of all 14 games.

Catching up and nova talk with Hulksmash

So I've been pretty busy lately. I started seeing someone new so I've been very busy with that. I've also been studying (albeit not too much) for the SAT's so I haven't had too much time for gaming. I went to a baloon festival with my new lady friend yesterday and got home rather late, but I still managed to check the interwebs for the latest and greatest about warhammer. Apparently Hulksmash had PM'd me about what he's bringing to the open. We're both in agreement to bring our nastiest list for the invitational, but we're both at a loss for the open.

After some collaboration we're basically in agreement that we'll both bring nids, if we both agree to bring nids haha. If not he'll just bring his undefeated wolves, and I'll bring my next to undefeated grey knights and just win or somethig lame like that.

So based on the principle f I don't want to have to paint more gaunts and these are the models I have on hand here's what I'm thinking for the open with nids.

HQ
Swarmlord 280
Guard- lash whips 65

Elites
3 Hive Guard 150
3 Hive Guard 150
5 Ymgarls 115

Troops
Tervigon- adrenals, toxin sacs, catalyst, clusters 195
Tervigon- adrenals, toxin sacs, catalyst, clusters 195
10 gaunts 50
10 gaunts 50
5 genestealers 70
5 genestealers 70

Heavy
Trygon 200
Trygon 200
Trygon- Adrenal Glands 210

It's going back to all my favorite things about the new tyranid book, and it's slightly less spammy. I think what i'm going to miss the most is not haaving 4 tervigons. On the bright side, I have less of an auto loss to jaws and mephiston. But dark eldar and guard got a lot harder.

What do yout think?

Stelek wants a challenge

Stelek made a shoutout for a whiskey challenge match at Nova.

http://yesthetruthhurts.com/2011/07/i-need-a-volunteer-for-an-ass-kicking-contest/

I first called him out with grey knights, but now I'd really like to show him up with some demons. Hopefully he'll accept my challenge. We'll see ;)

I like free armies

So looking into ard boyz, I see the oppurtunity for a free army. Now, I want the best shot I can give myself without buying a ton of crap and feeding into the system.

So here's what I'm looking at

Grey Knights 2500

HQ
Coteaz 100

Elites
10 Purifiers- 2 psy cannons, 2 incineraters, 2 hammers 270
Rhino- dozers 45

10 Purifiers- 2 psy cannons, 2 incineraters, 2 hammers 270
Rhino- dozers 45

10 Purifiers- 2 psy cannons, 2 incineraters, 2 hammers 270
Rhino- dozers 45

Troops
5 Strikes- psy cannon, demon hammer 120
Razorback- psy bolts, dozer blades 55

5 Strikes- psy cannon, demon hammer 120
Razorback- psy bolts, dozer blades 55

5 Strikes- psy cannon, demon hammer 120
Razorback- psy bolts, dozer blades 55

5 Strikes- psy cannon, demon hammer 120
Razorback- psy bolts, dozer blades 55

5 Strikes- psy cannon, demon hammer 120
Razorback- psy bolts, dozer blades 55

5 Strikes- psy cannon, demon hammer 120
Razorback- psy bolts, dozer blades 55

Heavy
Dreadnaught- 2 twin linked auto cannons, psy bolts 135
Dreadnaught- 2 twin linked auto cannons, psy bolts 135
Dreadnaught- 2 twin linked auto cannons, psy bolts 135

Well even without testing, I'm sure it'll work, and I don't think I actually have to buy anything. Maybe one more box of grey knights?

Thoughts?

Tyranids are retuning! To nova?

I'm acutally really tempted to bring my tyranids to Nova open just to see how it goes. The liklyhood of me winning the open with grey knights is actually there, especially since the army is started to look really good, but I'm not sure if it's worth it. I'm hving a lot of fun with my tyranids now, and I think I'm actually better with them now then I was. I want to try to get some test games in against guard, wolves, grey knights, blood angels and dark eldar and if they can hold their own against that I should feel good.

I played this 1500 point list yesterday against a friends eldar, and won handily, but only because it ended turn 5 and he misdeployed.

2 Tervigons- adrenals, toxin sacs, cluster spines, catalyst 195 ea.
2 units of 10 gaunts 50 ea.
2 units of 3 hive guard 150 ea.
2 trygons 200 ea.
5 ymgarl stealers 115

It worked farily well and I completely forgot to roll for my ymgarls all game and still managed to win so that made me feel good.

If I brought nids to the open it would be something like 4 Tervigons, 3 Trygons, 20 gaunts, 6 hive guard, 8 ymgarls. I think that's just under 2k.

What do you think?

Tyranids! Om nom nom

Just some thoughts i've been having. There isn't much left for me to explore with tyranids and I think this could hold its weight. Albeit it's rather boring, but it does have the horde feel at least.

HQ
Tervigon- Adrenals, toxins, catalyst, crushing claws 220
Tervigon- Adrenals, toxins, catalyst, crushing claws 220

Elites
3 Hive Guard 150
3 Hive Guard 150
3 Hive Guard 150

Troops
Tervigon- Adrenals, toxins, catalyst, crushing claws 220
Tervigon- Adrenals, toxins, catalyst, crushing claws 220
Tervigon- Adrenals, toxins, catalyst, crushing claws 220
20 gaunts 100
20 gaunts 100
20 gaunts 100

Fast
20 gargoyles- adrenal glands 150

Just be terrified of Jaws and mephiston. After that not much else can stop this. If only jaws and mephiston didn't find their ways into most BS and SW builds.

Thoughts?

Man life sucks!

Life just always seems to get in the way of wargaming lol. Sorry I haven't been blogging much, but life has been pretty busy. What would guys like my next post to be about? More optimized lists, game theory (what specifically), meta game changes, I'm all ears!

Stepping up your play testing

Today my friend Rich and I wanted to get a good solid day of wargaming in. We played 2 games my grey knights against his tau. (yes tau, they are actually the only army with a winning record against me. when played properly they are absurd). The first was a game where he went first, but I still managed to win. The second was a game where I went first and managed to lose, oddly enough. Either way we had time to play another game but neither of us really wanted to play another grey knights vs tau match and I didn't bring my other armied with me. In the end he asked me to proxy up some dark eldar and play as them to give his tau a real test.

What I learned from dabbling into the darkness was all of the weaknesses and thought processes of the dark eldar player. Since I'm always on the receiving end of the army, I always see them from my perspective, which is this scary 12+ tank meeace with 25+ lances and 108 poison shots. Now that I've played as them I understand how hard it is to deal with an army that can shoot back, much like my grey knights can. How a couple bad rolls for damage, or some good rolls for cover could spell the end of the game. Despite its spammy nature, it's actually a much more luck dependent army that I originally thought.

The point is I know demons, tyranids, and now grey knights like the back of my hand. Against an opponent playing one of those armies I have a sever advantage due to my experience. So what I'm saying is maybe instead of play testing how your army works against certain armies, try plaaying those armies and see what they have to worry about and thought processes you have as your opponent.

I for one can tell you, against willing opponents I will be proxying some of the natiest lists I can think of to try and further my skills as a general

Italy ETC lists

PLAYER 2: Marco "Rainulf" Elitropi
ARMY DESCRIPTION : Grey Knights

HQ1: Ordo Malleus Inquisitor (25) upgrade to a Psyker with Psychic Communion (30) 3 Servo Skulls (3*3) Power Armour (8) Bolt Pistol and Force Sword (0) [72]
HQ2: Ordo Malleus Inquisitor (25) upgrade to a Psyker with Psychic Communion (30) 2 Servo Skulls (3*2) Power Armour (8) Bolt Pistol and Force Sword (0) [69]
Elite1: 3 Warrior Acolyte (4*3) 3 Meltagun (10*3) riding in Transport1 [42]
Elite2: 3 Warrior Acolyte (4*3) 3 Meltagun (10*3) riding in Transport2 [42]
Troop1: Grey Knight Strike Squad (100) Psycannon (10) Nemesis Daemon Hammer (10) riding in Transport3 [120]
Troop2: Grey Knight Strike Squad (100) Psycannon (10) Nemesis Daemon Hammer (10) riding in Transport4 [120]
Troop3: Grey Knight Strike Squad (100) Psycannon (10) Nemesis Daemon Hammer (10) riding in Transport5 [120]
Troop4: Grey Knight Strike Squad (100) Psycannon (10) Nemesis Daemon Hammer (10) riding in Transport6 [120]
Troop5: Grey Knight Strike Squad (100) Psycannon (10) Nemesis Daemon Hammer (10) riding in Transport7 [120]
Troop6: Grey Knight Strike Squad (100) Psycannon (10) Nemesis Daemon Hammer (10) riding in Transport8 [120]
HS1: Dreadnought (115) Twin-linked Autocannon (10) Twin-linked Autocannon (5) Psybolt Ammunition (5) [135]
HS2: Dreadnought (115) Twin-linked Autocannon (10) Twin-linked Autocannon (5) Psybolt Ammunition (5) [135]
HS3: Dreadnought (115) Twin-linked Autocannon (10) Twin-linked Autocannon (5) Psybolt Ammunition (5) [135]
Transport1: Razorback (45) Twin-linked Heavy Bolter (0) Psybolt Ammunition (5) Elite1 [50]
Transport2: Razorback (45) Twin-linked Heavy Bolter (0) Psybolt Ammunition (5) Elite2 [50]
Transport3: Razorback (45) Twin-linked Heavy Bolter (0) Psybolt Ammunition (5) Troop1 [50]
Transport4: Razorback (45) Twin-linked Heavy Bolter (0) Psybolt Ammunition (5) Troop2 [50]
Transport5: Razorback (45) Twin-linked Heavy Bolter (0) Psybolt Ammunition (5) Troop3 [50]
Transport6: Razorback (45) Twin-linked Heavy Bolter (0) Psybolt Ammunition (5) Troop4 [50]
Transport7: Razorback (45) Twin-linked Heavy Bolter (0) Psybolt Ammunition (5) Troop5 [50]
Transport8: Razorback (45) Twin-linked Heavy Bolter (0) Psybolt Ammunition (5) Troop6 [50]

Total [1750]

Kind of annoying to read, but get over it. It's got 8 razorbacks, that's pretty awesome. Some psychic communion which is nifty, and 6 strike squads which lay down quite a bit of fire power and close combat capability. I do think this army will struggle with land raiders and hordes which is why I don't reccomend it for normal play, but it does work for ETC where you can sort of pick your match up.

HQ1 : Emperor's Champion (90) Accept any Challenge (50) [140]
HQ2 :Marshal (80), Auspex (2) Terminator Armour (25) [107]
HQ3 :Command Swd. Brth. Terminator Squad (retinue of the marshal) (160) 2 Cyclone Missile Ln. (25*2) 1 Chainfist (5) Tank Hunter Skill ( 3*5 ) Storm Bolter(5x) Power Fist (3x) [230]
Elite 1 : Swd. Brth. Terminator Squad (200) 2 Cyclone Missile Ln. (25*2) 1 Chainfist (5) Tank Hunter Skill ( 3*5 ) Storm Bolter(5x) Power Fist (4x) [270]
Troop1 : Crusader Squad (80) Lascannon (15) Pistol & CCW (4x)[95]
Troop2 : Crusader Squad (80) Lascannon (15) Pistol & CCW (4x)[95]
Troop3 : Crusader Squad (80) 1 additional initiate (16) Meltagun (10) Pistol & CCW (4x) Power Fist (15) 3 Neophytes (10*3 ) Bolt Pistol & CCW (3x) in Transport1 [151]
FA 1: 3 Land Speeder (50*3) heavy bolter (free) 3 typhoon missile launcher (20*3) [210]
FA 2: 3 Land Speeder (50*3) heavy bolter (free) 3 typhoon missile launcher (20*3) [210]
FA 3: 3 Land Speeder (50*3) heavy bolter (free) 3 typhoon missile launcher (20*3) [210]
Transport1 : 1 Drop Pod (30) Troop3 [30]

Total [1748]

This is pretty eh. I like it up unntil we get to the 630 points in speeders. They just aren't survivable to take like that, especially if they are your only tanks. Interesting nonetheless.

HQ1: Librarian (100) bolt pistol and force sword (0) unleash rage & shield of Sanguinius [100]
Elite1: Terminator Assault Squad (200): 2 pairs of lightning claws (0) 3 thunder hammers and storm shields (5*3) in Transport1 [215]
Elite2: Terminator Assault Squad (200): 2 pairs of lightning claws (0) 3 thunder hammers and storm shields (5*3) in Transport2 [215]
Elite3: 2 Sanguinary Priests (50*2) bolt pistols & chianswords (0) [100]
Troop1: Assault Squad (100) 5 Additional Assault Marines (18*5) 2 melta guns (10*2) power fist (25) [235]
Troop2: Assault Squad (100) 5 Additional Assault Marines (18*5) 2 melta guns (10*2) power fist (25) [235]
Troop3: Assault Squad (100), lose jump packs (-35 for Transport3)(0) in Transport3 [100]
Transport1: Land Raider Redeemer (240) extra armour (15) multimelta (10) Elite1[265]
Transport2: Land Raider Redeemer (240) extra armour (15) multimelta (10) Elite2[265]
Transport3: Razorback(20) twin linked heavy flamer (0) Troop3 [20]

Total [1750]

Now I can get behind this, some furious charging feel no paining termies rushing full speed at you, with actual support from the rest of the army. I'm a fan.

That's really all I saw that was note worthy from Italy. What do you think?