Monday, February 28, 2011

Pre tournament game Vs Andrew Gonyo (target)

Friday night I got a game in with Andrew Gonyo, (target) in a match at open gaming. As much as it pains me to say this he is a great player who won conflict last month and won overall at this event as well. He's been invited to both Vegas and the nova invitational as I have and we had a great chill game.

The list I brought
HQ

3 Heralds of tzeenth in charriots- bolt breath gaze

Elites
3 units of 6 fiends

Troops
5 units of 7 bloodletters- 2 squads had icons
5 horrors- bolt changeling

Fast
3 units of 5 screamers

The list I would have liked to bring had another squad of bloodletters instead of the horrors, but I didn't feel like buying and building and paint another box of bloodletters.

His list from memory
HQ CCS
- 4 meltas astropath
chimera

Elites
Marbo...
lol (he added this guy and demo charges to a unit to bring his GT winning 1750 IG
to 1850)

Troops
3 Vet Squads- 3 meltas each, 1 squad had demos, all in chimeras
PCS
- 4 meltas, al raheim
chimera
2 infantry squads with meltas
chimeras

Fast
3 Vendettas

Heavy
2 hydras (seperate squads)
1 manticore

Just a note! I had taken pictures of my first tournament game, but found it very distracting to my play as the games grew more close and intense and eventually forgot about taking pictures entirely. I do apologize.

We played the 1st mission of the tournament in our warm up game.

Mission-
DoW KP
's

I win the roll for first and I think I took it, it's beneficial for me to take it in dawn of war. He opts to have his whole army come in turn 1 except for al raheim who will outflank.

My Turn 1
I want 2 fiend squads, 2 bloodletter squads 1 bloodletter squad with the icon 1 screamer squad and 1 herald and I get it! There is a large piece of area terrain in the center of the table and I deep struck 1 fiend squad on each side of it and the ran the both into it to get cover. The bloodletters came up in front of the fiends to tempt him to come on near them and heavy flamer them. I had the screamers deep strike back, planning to turbo boost them based on where I needed them most. I had 1 squad of bloodletters mishap and die as well as my herald mis hap and die. Not a great start but I'm in a good position.

His Turn 1
Everything rolls on. He realizes he has too many tanks and he need to boost his vendettas 24" up the flanks to kepp his parking lot from getting too full and to try and force me to turn around to catch them. The manticore and hydra come on in a corner with 2 vet squads and the
CCS
. The other hydra and vet squad come in the opposite corner. I think with all his shooting and night fight he killed a bloodletter and wounded a fiend.

My Turn 2
I got 2 more bloodletters and but again 1 squad mishapped and died.... The other landed safely in front of the 2 vet squads and
CCS. The horrors came in the corner as I knew it would be best to try and shoot the vendettas. A screamer squad also came in, in front of his main fire base threatening the hydra and manticore.. On to movement, my feinds each headed for their respective target corners, 1 headed for the hydra ad vet squad along with a squad of bloodletters the other headed towards the CCS and 2 vet squads with a squad of blood letters, the support of the bloodletters and screamers that deep struck in and the sceramers which boosted. Horrors missed with their bolt at the venddetta. My fiends and letters charge. In the left I wrecked the chimera and was prepared to be lit up by a vet sqyad and a hydra, but I knew that wouldnt be rnough to stop my fiend and bloodletters. On the right I multi charged 2 chimeras with the fiends and hit the CCS chimera with the bloodletters. I exploded the CCS
chimera and immobilized a vet chimera and shook the other.

His Turn 2
Al raheim comes on the right side since more stuff is going on over there. He deploys along the half way point of the board and and tries to get rid of my screamers but fails. Marbo comes in on the other side hoping to sway the battle over with the hydra and vet squad vs fiends and letters in his favor. I think he took out 2 fiends with his demon charge, and another one with the hydra and 1 more with the vet squad. Leaving me with 2. Back to the right, he uses a manticore on the buched up screamer squad the deep struck and removes them all with just 1 missile. His shooting is ineffective killing a fiend or 2 and reduce the bloodletters to 4.

My Turn 3
I get a charriot to show up off the icon in a place where it can bolt a vendetta and breath of chaos it and the chimera near by. Another charriot comes up in the middle of the table. And the last screamer squad shows up, in a position where they can charge the platoon chimeras next turn My 3rd fiend squad came in off the icon near my charriot just for insurance. My fiends re charge the 2 chimeras but whiff and only weapon thestroy and stun and shake them a lot. The bloodletters charge the
CCS
kill 3 or 4 and get hurt. My screamers fly over the chimeras screening his manticore and hydra from my fiends and charge them both. I wreck the hydra and stun the manticore. I bolt down a vendetta with the horrors. And, a squad of 7 bloodletters multicharge al raheims chimera and an infantry chimera and wreck both of them. The fiends on the left kill marbo and the blooldetters finish the Vets and hydra.

His Turn 3
He's in a lot of trouble. His birds fly around. His ;ast mobile chimera runs 12" but cant escape my screamers that came down last turn. And alll his infantry get out. He usues his stunned tanks to screen them and they kill my screamers that flew into the manticore and hydra. He kills a few more fiends with
las
cannons from the vendettas. And his infantry quad and al raheims squad shoot up my bloodletters.

My Turn 4
I charge my screamers into his chimera that ran away ad wrecked it. My last squad of bloodletters charge al raheim and
PCS and the infantry squd and rape them. My fiends that came in last turn jumped around and charged a vendetta and wrecked it. The fiends that were knocking on the chimeras doors finished them finally. And my bloodletters finished his CCS
in combat,

Hist Turn 4
He does what he can and shoots what he can not much. He is able to screen his last infantry squad from the fiends by hiding them between a combat and impassable terrain. The manticore shoots my bloodletter squad of 3 for the
KP
but fails to kill it so he wastes his vendettas on it.

My Turn 5
I finish the manticore and position around.

His Turn 5
He shoots what he can, and finishes another squad for the
KP
.

We call it here since we want to get some food.  The score was 14-10 in my favor I think.

A great fun game, he made some mistakes though, but he did pretty well considering my army has never lost to mech guard and it was his worst mission. And more impressively he hasnt played since the conflict
GT
which was the second week of January.

I'll get to round one soon.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Battle reports coming soon!

Went to SVDM this weekend!  Didn't do nearly as well as expected!  But it happens lol.  I'll start writing up reports tomorrow hopefully.

Until then tell me wha tis fundamentally wrong with this list.  It is considered bad nowadays, but was on the top tables of the GT all weekend.  And, not for a lack of good armies, 1st and 2nd both went to mech guard...  The list played my friend Simon Leen's immolater spam with 11 vehicles and 26 or something meltas in an objective game and tabled it.  For those of you who don't know Simon has been invited to both vegas and the nova invitational.

HQ
Sorcerer- lash 125
Sorcerer- lash 125

Troops
5 Plagues- 2 meltas, rhino 170
5 Plauges- 1 melta 1 flamer, rhino 165
8 Berzerkers- power fist, rhino 243
8 Berzerkers- power fist, rhino 243

Heavy
3 Obliteraters 225
3 Obliteraters 225
3 Obliteraters 225

1746

Whats wrong?

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Finished!

I finished painting and basing everything.  Just need to type up my list and pack, and I'll be good to go!

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

brief schedule of how bad i am at planning

Well I finally got everything put together!

But I still have to paint 12 fiends and 3 screamers before I'm good to go.

Here's what I'm looking at as far as my life schedule in depth.  These are all rough times of course, I can't actually plan this well!

Wednesday
5:00pm (current time)- wait about an hour before I can get my car to go get my paints from my local store.
6:30pm- roughly the time i get back, and eat a quick dinner.
7:00pm- paint for about an hour!
8:00pm- guests coming over, need to entertain until 9.
9:00pm- 11:00 or so would be more painting and working on my history paper.
11:00pm- shower then go to sleep since I have to get up early

Hopefully after tonight the skin will be done on all the fiends. 

Thursday
7:00am-3:00pm- school...
3:30- 10:00 hopefully this should be all I need to finish up my painting.  I know I'm going to be taking a bunch of breaks in there and stuff, and after 6 hours of painting, I'm going to just want to take it easy.

Friday
7:00am-12:00pm- school, I'm leaving early to make my life easier lol.
12:30- finish up everything that didn't get done on my army, type up my army list.
2:00- go visit my amazing girl friend at work since i wont being seeing her all weekend :(
3:00- hopefully leave for pennsylvania
5ish I'm scheduled to play one of my friends from Maryland who recently won the conflict GT in New York.

And that's about it.  Hopefully it all works out!

Monday, February 21, 2011

Tyranids 2000 branching into the unknown

5 tervigons- adrenals, toxin sacs, catalyst
minimum gaunts
9 hive guard
2 tyranofexes or 3 trygons, take your pick

... I'm pretty sure we've all see that on the internet at least 200 times.  Maybe more.  Maybe with some variation like cutting a trygon and tervigon and picking up the swarmlord!  Same thing...

It's boring, and hardly uses any of the other competitive tools our not so wonderful book gives us.  Tools like our reserve modifiers, ymgarls, zoanthropes, a plethora of outflankers, broodlords, gargoyles, raveners, carnifexes, and biovores, yes even biovores lol.

Well how about a list with some variey for crying out loud!  Maybe even a list that plays the way tyranids should be played.  As in, little bugs swarm the enemy and tie them up so that the bigger killier monsters can eat them.  But let's not get ahead of ourselves here this is competitive 40k, and that means that we need to spam the best units ever!

Well that's why your tyranid army wont win a tournament.  Because, it's spam.  Maybe guard can work because they spam chimeras, and space wolves can spam missles, but tyranids don't work when they spam units.  Tyranids need army wide synergy that can only be achieved by taking many different units.

What does the above tyranid list having going for it as far as synergies?  "Well it shoots you, then when you get close it swarms you with gants!"  That's not real synergy.  "But, what if you replace a tervigon with a tyrant with old adversary?  That makes all your gants better!"  Well yeah that's synergy, but that's just not going to be enough to make tyranids competitive.  I'm talking everything needs to work in tandem, as a cohesive instrument where everything has a purpose.

This style list building is much the opposite of my latest demon list, which is realtively void of tactics other than hit your over and over with fast rending and power weapons attacks until you fall over.  Anyone who understands how to deep strike properly can play my demon army.  But, it takes a true 40k genius to make tyranids work. 

HQ
Swarmlord 280
Guard 60

Elites
2 Hive Guard 100
2 Hive Guard 100
5 Ymgarls 115

Troops
5 Genestealers- broodlord 116
5 Genestealers- broodlord 116
10 Gaunts 50
10 Guants 50
Tervigon- adrenals, toxin sacs 195
Tervigon- adrenals, toxin sacs 195

Fast
5 Raveners- rending claws 175
5 Raveners- rending claws 175

Heavy
2 Biovores 90
2 Biovores 90
2 Biovores 90

1997.

List inspired by Hulksmash and Jy2, credit given where credit is due.  Although, it is still completely my list.

Now what does this list bring?

Well let's see what do tyranids struggle with?  Guard and spacewolves.  And double lash but no one plays that anymore lol.  Everything else folds pretty well to every decent tyranid list. 

Against guard we have tons of threats, especially since their vehicles are mostly static.  The raveners hit the center turn 2, and if they deploy in the corners they are hit by my outflankers.  That's real synergy right there.  So what does guard shoot?  The hive guard in cover?  The raveners that are knocking on their door also in cover?  Or the monsters?  Too many decisions, and for 1 turn of shooting from not close range.  All of that si messing with you along with 15 stealers that you cant shoot on turn 2.  Also those broodlords have a nice aura of despair, was that a -2 leadership for your units that are going to be bailing out of transports?  Oh re they pinned now? That's what I thought, real synergy right there.

Against space wolves you're afraid of 2 things.  Jaws, and long fangs.  Tyranids just dont have a way to deal with jaws, but hopefully aura of despair and shadow of the warp combined will shut it down.  Moving on, long fangs, we have 6 biovores.  That's 6 large blasts a turn, that cause pinning, coupled with aura of despair and you're going to see long fangs getting pinned and not shooting you up, quick.  Then between the raveners hitting turn 2, and the stealers and ymgarls, and hive guard, they should be demeched quickly enough.  Isn't that cool?

Point is, point and click doesn't work with tyranids.  Good tyranid lists need to be carefully and properly constructed.  And take months of gaming to master, they are not an army for a noob to just pick up and take to a gt.

Oh dear...

12 fiends to build and paint, 6 screamers to build and paint, 5 days....

enough said....

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Quick army update

2 weeks ago I had 8 fiends to buy/build/paint, 12 screamers to buy/build/ paint, 3 charriots to paint, and 30 bloodletters to paint, and 4 more fiends to paint.  This was all in preparation for SVDM which is now in less than 2 weeks.

Over the past 2 weeks I've painted 24 bloodletters, 6 screamers, and 3 charriots.  So, really just 6 more bloodletters, 4 fiends to paint, 8 fiends and 6 screamers which I still need to acquire...

I'm not too worried about getting it all painted in time now though the fiends could make it realy rough.  My real worry is no being able to get it all in time.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Black Templars 1500

Well I've given dark angels a whirl under the new FAQ.  Here's what I'd do for Black Templars.

HQ
Emporers Champion- accept any challenge or something (the prefered enemy vow) 140

Elites
5 Termies- 2 Cyclone missles, ank hunters 265

Troops
5 Initiates- las cannon melta gun 105
5 Initiates- las cannon melta gun 105
5 (which hunter) IST's- 2 meltas 70
Rhino 50
5 (which hunter) IST's- 2 meltas 70
Rhino 50

Fast
Land Speeder- typhoon 70
Land Speeder- typhoon 70
Land Speeder- typhoon 70

Heavy
Predator anhilator- side las cannons 145
Predator anhilator- side las cannons 145
Predator anhilator- side las cannons 145

11 las cannons, 6 missles, 4 tank hunting missles, and 6 meltas.  And a termie unit for counter charging if need be.  That is A LOT of fire power at 1500.  And army wide preffered enemy is pretty good too.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Random tyranid thought

Had an idea today about maxing out on raveners.  27 raveners with rending claws comes out to 945 points.  That's a decent back bone for an army.  Just got to watch out for those hidden power fists lol.  From here all we need to add is some long range fire power, some troops (tervigons), and some out flanking goodness.

HQ
Tervigon- AG TS catalyst clusters 195

Elites
2 Hive Guard 100
2 Hive Guard 100
2 Hive Guard 100

Troops
10 Gaunts 50
10 Gaunts 50
Tervigon- AG TS catalyst clusters 195
Tervigon- AG TS catalyst clusters 195
5 Genestealers- toxin sacs 85
5 Genestealers- toxin sacs 85

Fast
8 Raveners- rending claws 270
8 Raveners- rending claws 270
8 Raveners- rending claws 270

So there you go.  1995.  It deploys like a brick, Everything should have cover as in true tyranid fashion.  And stealers out flank to keep people from hugging their corner.  The question is where does your S8 go?  Tervies?  Hive Guard?  Raveners?  Think its got potential?