Shrikenator Dreads Lose by a Nose...er Tentacle Thing

If you have been following my writing this week, you know I have been taking a look at a Dread Heavy Codex Marine list again.  After some thought, I found what I thought to be a fairly interesting and possibly competitive list.  I have come to think of it as my Shrikenator Dread list.  You can see the list I decided on below.

MotF-100pt.
Kayvaan Shrike- 195pt.

Rifleman-125pt.
Rifleman-125pt.
10 Terminators-thunder hammer/storm shield- 400pt

5 marines- las/plas razorback-165pt.
5 marines- las/plas razorback-165pt.
5 marines- las/plas razorback-165pt.
5 scouts- sniper rifles, missile launcher, camo cloaks- 100pt.

Dreadnought-MM/DCCW with heavy flamer, pod-150pt.
Dreadnought-MM/DCCW with heavy flamer, pod-150pt.
Dreadnought-MM/DCCW with heavy flamer, pod-150pt.

I got a chance to play most of a game on Vassal last night to try the list out.  In all, I think it worked pretty close to what I thought it would.  I got to play a Tyranid army that was pretty competitive from what I know about Nids.  It had:

Hive Tyrant-HVC, Hive Commander, Lash whip/Bonesword, Paraxysm, Leech Essence- 220

3 Zoanthropes 180
3 Hive Guard 150
3 Hive Guard 150

Tervigon- Toxin Sacs, Adrenal Glands, Catalyst, Onslaught, Cluster Spines- 210
10 Termagaunts 50
7 Genestealers-Toxin Sacs- 119
7 Genestealers-Toxin Sacs- 119

7 Genestealers-Adrenal Glands- 119

20 gargoyles 120
4 Raveners- rending 140

Trygon- adrenal glands 210
Trygon- adrenal glands 210

We played sieze ground with pitched battle deployment.  We rolled up 4 objectives for our game.  I won the roll off and gave first turn to my opponent. Unfortunately, because I am getting old and have to take care of a baby that doesn't care if I'm tired, I had to cut the game off after turn 4.  That said, it felt like a full game and I had a good time. 

For this game, I knew I had to keep the nids contained and try to get my terminators into them while my fire support went for their MCs and Elite choices.  This worked out to some degree, but ultimately, I just couldn't cause the wounds on the MCs that I needed to and the Zoanthropes failed perhaps 3 saves the entire game.

Below you will see how the game went.

As you can see, it was going to be a fight for the midfield as the objectives were placed in order to pull us to the center of the board. My opponent seemed to know what he was doing as he deployed centrally, layering units to gain cover saves where possible. I deployed trying to shield my razorbacks from as much incoming fire as possible, not knowing the hive guard don't need line of sight and that I get no cover from them.  Ugh.  Otherwise, you can see my primary fire base in the upper lefthand ruin that my MotF bolstered to give everything a good cover save.  Shrike and his terminator combat squad infiltrated forward to line up for assault against the trygons while the other combat squad was going to slow pull left to support.  It was my hope to use pods to close off the right side of the table, forcing my opponent to move left into my fire support.

After turn 1, you can see that this was basically working.  My pods came in to cordon off the right "alley" and use their flamers and meltaguns to deplete his zoanthropes and hive guard.  Unfortunately, my opponent's 3++ saves were golden and I did no damage to the zoans while I took out a handful of termagants and a single hive guard.  His Hive Tyrant was able to stun my left razorback and that was about it. 

Turn 2, is where I realized that I should have deployed my dreads in my battle line to serve as support and simply drop the pods empty for cordoning. The zoans and hive guard made short work of my two dreads popping them super easy.  As a matter of fact, with the exception of the one razorback that kept getting stunned or shaken, my opponent had ridiculously good damge table rolls the whole game.  By the end of turn 2, my terminators and Shrike had accounted for the unit of gargoyles and a spawned termagant squad. In both cases, my opponent showed that he knew what he was doing by using those units to block access to his trygons, hive tyrant, and tervigon, all of which would have been fairly easy to kill with my terminators, I believe.  In this turn, he also got a single squad of stealers in and popped a rifleman dread.  I then shot them to pieces with the MotF, scouts, and remaining rifleman. 

Massive assault ensues, with two stealer units and two trygons assaulting Shrike's squad and about 20 termagants assaulting my other squad.  Through 2-3 turns of combat, Shrike's squad is slowly whittled down, but they do well to mess up those units' advance.  The other terminators likewise die to torrents of wounds, but also slowly whittle down the termagants. 

In the final turn, my opponent moves forward to claim/contest objectives.  I respond, but can't do enough damage to the zoanthropes, trygon, or stealers on the left side and end up losing 1 objective to 0. 

This game was a real learning experience.  I don't have much experience against Nids.  There aren't many Nids players in my area, so I came in with a distinct lack of knowledge.  To compound the issue, my army has a distinct weakness at taking out hordes.  My three pod dreads have flamers and I have a bit of dakka, but not enough to seriously do the damage needed.  I think I may have been too defensive with my tac squads and razors as well.  Had I moved them up earlier, I might have walled off a couple of the objectives near me. Alas, you live and learn. 

So, game 1 with the Shrikenator Dreads is chalked up to a learning experience.  I would love to hear any comments you might have about what you think about the game. 

Other Battle Reports:
Space Wolf Razorspam vs. Horde Orks- a Vassal Report
Sanguinary v. Grey Knights
Vulkan Ain't No Joke
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Chasing a Tangent: The Crazy List Idea

Well, I got one response to my call for list help, though I got quite a bit of good information and discussion on why to use or not use Ironclads.  You can see a proposed list in the comments section of my original post, Chasing a Tangent.  Thanks Student Teacher!  You can see the Ironclad discussion in my post, Ironclads: Any Good?  Thanks to those guys for offering their input. 

So, here are the things I have learned about a dread heavy list from past experience. You may get a lot of this from reading my other posts mentioned above, but I am going to consolidate them here.

Courtesy of Strangelooper's Cangames 2011 Report

To begin with, the list will obviously need a Master of the Forge.  He is the only way to get more than 3 Dreadnoughts.  Since he comes stock with a 2+ save (not much without an invul, but not bad either) and 2 power fist attacks, I generally leave him cheap with just a bolter.  100pt. done.

Then the choices start.  How do we want to kit out the Dreadnoughts?  Well, I have come to the conclusion that my dread list is going to only have 5 dreads.  I need a solid combat threat and the best one Codex Marines have comes in the form of thunder hammer/storm shield terminators, but more on them later.  Thus, I have a spot for a maximum of 5 dreads.  Cool.  I generally split my dreads into two categories in my head, ranged support and close combat/melta support.  The hands down winner for the ranged support is the jack-of-all-trades, Rifleman Dread.  Two twin-linked autocannons putting down 4 S7 AP4 shots is great and can handle light mech and infantry with a fair amount of ease.  Since I am going to have other ranged option for support, this is where I will make my dividing line.  Two Riflemen will fill my elite slots beside my terminators.  This leaves 3 spots for dreads left.

After hashing it out, playtesting, and finding out what works, I realized that I need dreads that can get close in quickly, pop mech or toast infantry with equal ease, and provide enough threat in order to make my opponent make some mistakes while I close on them.  With that in mind, I have come up with two possible options: the simple MM/DCCW vanilla Dreadnought or an Ironclad with meltagun and heavy flamer.  The best delivery method for each is a drop pod as with three dreadnoughts in drop pods, I have two coming down turn 1 and the third hopefully coming down soon after.  This gets them across the board quickly and puts them in threat range.

As discussed in earlier posts, the Ironclad looks like it should win hands down with AV13 on front and sides, two DCCWs, extra armor, and other nice upgrades.  As stated though, my issue with this guy is his range.  With no solid weapon option for popping mech with a range over 12" (meltagun), he has to stay in close and if he doesn't pop armor, he is more than likely going to be avoided by vehicles moving flat out to stay away from him.  I have seen this done several times. Of course, he can take HK missiles, but I haven't had much luck with those in my experience.  Another note to mention is that at close range, AV13 and AV12 will die to melta with equal ease. 

The vanilla dread though, has a multi-melta which gives a significant range boost thus keeping most units within threat range.  On top of that, it can take the heavy flamer on it's DCCW which significantly boosts its ability to take on squads in close combat since it loses an attack versus the Ironclad. No biggie though.  On top of that, a vanilla dread saves me 50pts. versus an Ironclad with HK missiles, totaling 150pt. saved across the three remaining slots.  Not bad at all. 

So, that leaves me with the following:

MotF-100pt.
Rifleman-125pt.
Rifleman-125pt.

Dreadnought-MM/DCCW with heavy flamer, pod-150pt.
Dreadnought-MM/DCCW with heavy flamer, pod-150pt.
Dreadnought-MM/DCCW with heavy flamer, pod-150pt.

That's 800pt. which gives me 1200pt to play with.  As mentioned I want a solid combat threat and the best one I have is hammernators.  To make best use of the remaining slot, I think taking a squad of 10 for 400pt is solid.  That gives me the ability to have one nasty unit or two solid threats via combat squadding. 

I am now left with the options for filling my troop choices.  As mentioned earlier, I really need some more ranged firepower, so though it may seem spare I am going to go with 3 min sized tac squads in las/plas razorbacks.  That gives me 3 more heavy weapons platforms and three scoring options, though they are a bit skinny with only 15 marines to provide objective support.  To bolster that a bit, I will add a home camping squad of scouts with sniper rifles, missile launcher, and camo cloaks. The MotF can bolster a building for them to be in with a 2+ cover and he can join the unit to help babysit them/stay safe.  If I keep my rifleman dreads close, he can zoom over and affect repairs if they become damaged. That brings us to the following:

MotF-100pt.

Rifleman-125pt.
Rifleman-125pt.
10 Terminators-thunder hammer/storm shield- 400pt

5 marines- las/plas razorback-165pt.
5 marines- las/plas razorback-165pt.
5 marines- las/plas razorback-165pt.
5 scouts- sniper rifles, missile launcher, camo cloaks- 100pt.

Dreadnought-MM/DCCW with heavy flamer, pod-150pt.
Dreadnought-MM/DCCW with heavy flamer, pod-150pt.
Dreadnought-MM/DCCW with heavy flamer, pod-150pt.

This gives me exactly 205pt to play with.  I guess technically, I should put that into another troop choice or triple landspeeders, but here is where I think I can add a twist to really create pressure on my opponent: Kayvaan Shrike.  Yep.  Add Shrike and all of a sudden I have fleet terminators, of which all or one combat squad can infiltrate if Shrike joins them.  This makes them a very solid, aggressive combat threat that will be hard to remove.  This is where I imagine this army doing well.  The terminators infiltrate and move aggressively forward.  The first two dreads drop in on the flanks or behind my opponent and start to pop mech with my ranged support.  These units form my noose.  As it tightens, my opponent should hopefully become paralyzed in how it deals with the incoming threats allowing me to slowly move up my razorback to claim objectives.  The dreads, pods, and terminators will contest objectives on my opponents' side of the board and hopefully net some solid KP in those type of missions. 

So, the final list as I see it:

MotF-100pt.
Kayvaan Shrike- 195pt.

Rifleman-125pt.
Rifleman-125pt.
10 Terminators-thunder hammer/storm shield- 400pt

5 marines- las/plas razorback-165pt.
5 marines- las/plas razorback-165pt.
5 marines- las/plas razorback-165pt.
5 scouts- sniper rifles, missile launcher, camo cloaks- 100pt.

Dreadnought-MM/DCCW with heavy flamer, pod-150pt.
Dreadnought-MM/DCCW with heavy flamer, pod-150pt.
Dreadnought-MM/DCCW with heavy flamer, pod-150pt.

This comes in at 1990pt. with 4 scoring options, solid combat threat along with the ability to open up transports with a fair amount of ease.  I can add searchlights to dreads or a combi-weapon to a sarge to fill out the last 10pt. In my head it works.  In reality, it may not.  I see two potential fixes if it doesn't work.  1 would be to drop Shrike for Vulkan to make the army a bit more reliable (dreads and terminators anyway), or drop Shrike for three speeders, probably multi-melta/heavy flamer to help with opening up armor. 

So there you have it, my crazy dread heavy idea.  What do you think?  Feel free to tear it apart if you like.  I am not attached to it as I haven't had an opportunity to actually play it yet.  It is just an army that I think would work well and provide a solid threat.  I am interested to get feedback. So, let a rip!


Other useful articles:
Strictly Average
For kicks
Heading in another direction
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Ironclads: Any Good?

courtesy of the Dakkadakka Howling Griffons project

Student Teacher has already mentioned a dread list with Ironclads. I understand the allure of front and side AV13, free extra armor, and dual dccw but I have one significant beef: range. Without HKs and a storm bolter they don't have very good range. Generally they take a meltagun for popping armor and a flamer for anti infantry purposes. Unfortunately those both work at short ranges. I have found that mech armies generally don't have much trouble avoiding ironclads. I have even used them with drop pods. Still no gravy. So, readers, interwebs elite, tell me why ironclads merit attention in a dread heavy build for Codex Marines.  I personally think that regular MM/DCCW dreads fit the bill just fine.

Also, keep list ideas coming. I am anxious to see how people envision this type of list looking. For more details check out my last post outlining my criteria for building a C:SM dread list.

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Chasing a Tangent

We are spending the long weekend visiting some relatives out of state, but not far enough away that we had a good 5-6 hour drive.  That allowed me to do a bit of zoning out, a bit of thinking, and a bit of Thoughthammering(registered trademark).  I find myself thinking about 40k a lot and this drive was no different.  I chose to listen to the 11th Company for a bit while my wife and son were asleep.  It got me thinking of an old idea. 

I started this blog several months ago with the idea (in my second post no less) for an army of 6 dreadnoughts led by a Master of the Forge.  It was to be my second army, the first being my Black Templars.  It actually took on several incarnations.  As time went on I moved on to other armies.  Having played a bit with Black Templars and Codex Marines and then having moved on to Space Wolves and Blood Angels to gain more experience from a competitive perspective, I kind of want to go back and revisit this idea.  I love the idea of an army of massive behemoths laying waste to their enemies via large quantities of heavy weapons and crushing close combat claws. 

That's where you come in, readers.  I want to seek some help from you.  I want to open up the floor for suggestions for a dread army.  The requirements are easy.  It must be Codex:Marines.  It must be 2,000 points.  It must have a Master of the Forge.  It must have 5 dreadnoughts minimum (giving you some leeway for an elite or heavy choice other than dreads).  So, let me hear your thoughts.  I have an idea, but I don't want to unveil it until I get a few comments back.  I am interested to see what you can come up with.  AbusePuppy, Lord Rao, some of you other guys, I am ready to receive the benefit of your wisdom and knowledge. 

Hit me with your best shot.



Some Dreadnought Army Battle Reports:
Test drive....bumpy
I'm an idiot
Putting the First Feather in the Cap
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Strictly Average

I have been thinking about all of the variations of armies I can create with current model collection and I got to thinking about a question:  What makes a plain 'ol Space Marine army?  What counts as your average Space Marine army?  For the purpose of this post I am going to limit that to Codex Marines as all of the chapters have their "average" builds.  My purpose here is to examine what makes a totally vanilla, strictly generic list. 

Here are a few of the things I have noticed as models included in most average gameplay lists.

HQ

Libby- This guy is your bog standard HQ choice.  He has more utility than a captain or chapter master though he isn't as tough in combat.  He is also cheaper than the named characters.

Elite
Terminators and Dreads- These seem to be the general all-purpose no brainer inclusions.  The dreadnoughts tend to come in the rifleman (2x TL autocannons) variety more often than not while the terminators are almost always toting thunder hammers and storm shields. 

Troops
Hmmm....Tac Squads- I see quite a bit of variation in weapons choices here, but tac squads tend to come in two varieties, 10-man squads for the weapon choices or 5-man squads for the razorback options. 

Fast
Melta/Flamer Land Speeders- These are the ultimate in terms of duality and expendability.  At 70pts, they can take out tanks, infantry, or just block movement and provide target saturation. 

Heavy
Predators- The cheap kind, autocannon and heavy bolter sponsons, for the same reason you take melta/flamer speeders.  They can perform dual roles, are cheap, and can provide a decent threat. 

So, these seem to be the winners by majority.  I am not saying that they are the only thing that can be used to make a list, but they are usually part of the original recipe of chicken here. 

Here is a list I put together (quickly) using these elements:

Libby-terminator armor, storm shield, null zone, gate of infinity- 140pt.

Dreadnought- 2x TL autocannons- 125pt.
Dreadnought- 2x TL autocannons- 125pt.
10 Assault Terminators- th/ss- 400pt.

10-man Tac Squad- multi-melta, melta, power weapon (more annoying than you would think), rhino- 225pt.
10-man Tac Squad- multi-melta, melta, power weapon, rhino- 225pt.
5-man Tac Squad- melta bombs, lascannon/TL plasma razorback- 170pt.
5-man Tac Squad- lascannon/TL plasma razorback- 165pt.
5-man Scout Squad- sniper rifles, camo cloaks, missile launcher, teleport homer

Landspeeder- multi-melta/heavy flamer- 70pt.
Landspeeder- multi-melta/heavy flamer- 70pt.

Predator- autocannon, heavy bolter sponsons- 85pt.
Predator- autocannon, heavy bolter sponsons- 85pt.

2,000pt exactly

As mentioned, this rings in somewhere close to a bog standard list.  The scouts infiltrate.  The libby goes with the terminators who stay in a ten man squad or combat squad to provide additional threats.  The libby gates the terminators forward using the teleport homer on the scouts.  The two rhinos move up to midfield to become melta bunkers under cover from the dreads, razorbacks, and predators.  The speeders deepstrike in to pop armor or deploy to zoom forward, block movement, and pop armor. 

It has your basic all-comers elements as well.  There is the ability to take out armor with autocannons, melta, lascannons, and plasmaguns.  It has elite/heavy infantry in the form of the hammernators.  It has the ability to torrent fire to some extent.  Most of the units can fulfill dual roles.  It has plenty of scoring ability. 

But it doesn't stand out as anything special.  I am not mentioning anything that most of you wouldn't already be thinking.  That's why this list is strictly average. 

So, here's your homework.  Come up with your version of strictly average from the C:SM and post it in a comment.  Let's compare.  Am I coming to totally weird conclusions?  Do you agree or disagree with my estimate as to what serves as average?  Let me know.

Vulkan Take 2- Modest Embellishments

I am adding this picture again because I actually began to use it to help me work on my Vulkan model.  After receiving some input that he wasn't spiffy enough, I went back and sought to add in some embellishments. It is important to note that I am doing this as a counts-as Vulkan, so I am not looking to make an exact mock up.  As a matter of fact, his paint scheme won't be a Salamander scheme.  I am a budget gamer, so I seek to make WYSIWYG models that looks decent.  I am not looking for a precise correlation, just easy recognition.  So here were are now. 

 So, above you can see that I spiffied up his Guantlet of the Forge with a simple emblem made from greenstuff.  I also filled in the gaps between the flamer head and the powerfist.

 Vulkan's spear has a curved blade in the picture above, so I sought to make the spear a bit nicer.  It now has a curved blade and I have wrapped the lower haft with greenstuff, which I will probably paint like parchment.  You can also see a bit of his right leg.  In the picture above, Vulkan has an articulated greave on his right leg.  I did that here, but it need to be cleaned up and it is hard to get to with my file.  I may need to remove the old boy from his base, clean him up down south and then re-glue him.  Finally, I embellished his shoulder pad with another circle emblem.  This is an easy fix and it doesn't stick out from the should too much and make him look awkward.

Lastly, you can see that I add more scaly hide to his loincloth.  You can see a bit of the articulated greave on the right leg and I also add some raised molding to the left greave and knees pad.  Again, I am thinking I need to remove him from his base and filed and cut some of it up to get a cleaner, smoother look. 

So, there is Vulkan, I won't add any more to him, but I will continue to clean him up until I am satisfied with him.  Tell me what you think?  Does he do the character justice?  Thanks for reading.

Live Long and Prosper... Making Vulkan

Yesterday in North Texas it snowed, it sleeted, and the temps dropped to below freezing.  Due to this, I have gotten to stay home for two days from work.  I might have another day off tomorrow.  To this end, I decided yesterday to throw together a Vulkan list. If you have read my blog before, you know that I like dreadnoughts...a lot.  I have been trying to put together a dread heavy list for some time now.  Last night I found a list that has proven truly fun to play and that fulfills my requisites for a dread list.  You can see it here: Vulkan Ain't No Joke.  So, I played the list on Vassal and I loved it.  I was just missing one element that would allow me to play this army on the table top.  Vulkan.  I have the MotF, the terminators, the dreads, and even the other bits and bobs needed to make the list, but alas the big guy, himself, I don't own. 

Well, when there are temporary rolling black outs, the temp is in the teens, and your heater is laboring rather uselessly to make the house warm, you have plenty of time to apply some creative handiwork to Warhammer.  So, I went about making Vulkan. What I am about to show you is currently very WiP.  I need to clean up a lot of details, but he is looking very similar to the GW model and at least won't be mistaken for something else. 

Here he is, so far:

Here's the run down of how I made him. 
The body:
- Assault marine running legs
- Normal Marine torso
- Gorget made from greenstuff and plasticard
- Loincloth taken from terminator sprue
- Head from normal marines with greenstuff head crest
Right arm and Spear of Vulkan
- Power axe arm from assault marine sprue trimmed down to just the handle
- Regular blank shoulder pad
- Chainsword motor housing
- Power sword blade trimmed down to fit over the motor housing
- Brass rod for spear shaft
- Power axe pommel from assault marine sprue
- Purity seal from ....
Left arm and Gauntlet of the Forge
- Powerfist arm with closed fist from terminator sprue
- Flamer head shaved from normal flamer
- Hose from dreadnought heavy flamer
- Greenstuff should pad
- Shaved down terminator codpiece overlaying the shoulder pad
Back
- Power pack with iron halo from the commander sprue
- Cape from WFB chaos warrior sprue with loads of greenstuff on it. 
Base
- Terminator base
- Plasticard moon crater mold with green stuff to cover and connect to base

So, that is it.  I will need to trim, file, and sand some stuff down before priming and painting, but he looks somewhat decent.  Give me your thoughts, internet readers.  I seek input.

The itch....

...no, not that itch.

As you all know, when you play Warhammer of any type for any amount of time, you usually don't stick to just one army.  You eventually get the itch.  You either see the newest army off the line, or see an army that speaks to you tactically and fluff-wise. 

I have collected and played 5 WFB armies, selling all but my Dark Elves and now I have a large-ish (3-4K) army of space marines that I am using to play as many of the Marine Codices are possible.  I tell myself that Marines will be my last army ever and I have stuck with that.  Unfortunately for my wallet, I have also decided to continue to purchase the odd model or so to add to my army.  It continues now.

Since my most current version of my Vanilla Marines army, the Valhallan Immortals, has metamorphasized from tac squads in rhinos and razorbacks with odd bits of support to, now, a 6 dread/biker army, I have decided that the only logical conclusions would be to also have the ability to run a biker army!  My current project is to collect the pieces and bitz needed to do this.  I have 2 full bikers squads with attack bikes, another attack bike, a captain, and a MotF on bike, so my next goal is to put together the ever feared biker command squad.  I am going to run the interweb TM standard command squad.  It looks like this:

Command squad- bikes, 3x meltagun/lightning claw/storm shield, powerfist/storm shield, apothecary

These guys will run around and scare stuff and cause damage.  I hear that they are quite effective.  Currently, my plans are to run only one as I already have the captain and I want to convert up a librarian on bike to go in the army as well. 

What are your thoughts are all biker armies?  I hear they are viable at higher points levels.  Anyone have experience with them?  I may not go full-on biker.  I may add in a cheap dreadnought or some speeders to help out.  Give me your input.  Am I crazy? 

For kicks

Over the holiday my brother and his family came into town to celebrate Thanksgiving, etc. with us.  He is the guy who got me into WFB a long time ago.  He stopped playing a year or two ago though because of family/work obligations.  He never got into 40k, so I thought I would show him a good time and play a game with him.  We played a 1K game, vanilla marines vs. space wolves.  He wanted the marines, so I took my wolves.  In the end, I won, but it was due to the fact that I had all of the know-how.  Anyway, to the point.  I really enjoyed the way his army played at 1K so I figured I would try to scale it up for some 2K fun.  Here it is:  Let me know what you think.


Libby- terminator armor, storm shield, null zone, avenger

Dreadnought- 2x TL autocannons
Dreadnought- 2x TL autocannons
5 Terminators- TH/SS, riding in an LRC with melta and extra armor

Tac squad- missile launcher, flamer, combi-melta riding in a TL plasma/las razorback
Tac squad- missile launcher, flamer, combi-melta riding in a TL plasma/las razorback
Tac squad- multi-melta, melta, meltabombs, riding in a rhino

Landspeeder- multi-melta, heavy flamer
Landspeeder- multi-melta, heavy flamer
2x attack bikes- multi-meltas

Pred- autocannon, heavy bolter sponsons
Pred- autocannon, heavy bolter sponsons

2,000pt

What does it have?

A hammer unit (combat)- hammernators with libby in LRC
Anti-tank- 2 missile launchers, 6 multi-meltas, 3 melta shots, 6 autocannons, razorbacks
Anti-infantry- dreads, tacs, speeders, dakka preds

It has a little bit of everything, so I think it will do okay. What are your thoughts?  Does it look competitive? 

Taking a different tact

I have had quite a few good runs with my Valhallan Immortals, but I am starting to see a flaw in running the ironclads, short range.  The ironclads are great in pods as they can pod in, get off a melta shot and possible heavy flamer shot into rear armor.  If this works, they could easily pop a transport.  The issue comes though, in the situation where I don't.  Either they miss or I roll low on the vehicle damage table.  If this happens, usually the opponent zooms away and then my ironclads are toast.  So, what do I do?  I am thinking about downgrading these guys back to regular dreads.  They would have a multi-melta and heavy flamer and remain in pods.  If I did that, I would save a bunch of points to spend on my troop selections.  So, I am toying around with this idea to get more out of my units and points:

MotF-conversion beamer, bike
Khan- bike

Dread- 2x TL autocannons
Dread- 2x TL autocannons
Dread- 2x TL autocannons

Biker squad- 8 bikes, 2x meltas, powerfist, multi-melta attack bike
Biker squad- 8 bikes, 2x meltas, powerfist, multi-melta attack bike

Multi-melta attack bike
Landspeeder- multi-melta, heavy flamer
Landspeeder- multi-melta, heavy flamer

Dread- multi-melta, flamer/DCCW, pod
Dread- multi-melta, flamer/DCCW, pod
Dread- multi-melta, flamer/DCCW, pod

1995pt. total

This gives me an additional troop choice over my last incarnation of the list when the bike squads combat squad. I am tempted to run assault bike squads and anti-tank bike squads.  This would consist of Khan and the Motf in a squad with a fist and 4 bikes while 2x meltas, 1 bike, and the attack bike would zoom forward to take care of armor.  Is this too extreme a split?  Should I keep the meltas and attack bike separate?  With the switches, I have been able to crowbar in 2 speeders to add a little bit of uncertainty as well.  That should be fun.  So what do you think?  Is this a step forward from using 3 ironclads? 

A Rose of a different color

So, I have been asked to do a quick synopsis of the differences between Long Fangs, BA Devs, and Vanilla Devs.  Really, their rolls are the same.  How you kit them and their unique abilities to perform their rolls are where the differences begin. 

Long Fangs

Long Fangs are fairly simple.  They can take up to 5 heavy weapons (1 more than either of the other codices) and can take as few as 1 heavy weapon.  The best part about them though, besides their cheap price tag, is that they come stock with the ability to split fire.  This makes them a much more dangerous unit as they don't have to expend superfluous shots on a single unit.  They can split fire and tempt fate hoping to take out twice as many vehicles.  Very nice.  On top of this, they can reroll night fight rolls which can help as they are usually located a good distance from most targets.  Finally, they come with counterattack so most light distraction units typically won't be able to hold them down for long.

Long fangs come in as the cheapest devstator equivalent option. With a 5 man squad containing 4 missile launchers weighing in at 115pt. or 140pt. for a 6 man squad with 5 missile launchers.

What's unique about them? 

I think one of the more intriquing things about long fangs and space wolves in general is that they can have a wolf guard join them.  So, why kind of wolf guard would want to join a long range heavy weapon squad? How about a long range, heavy weapon toting wolf guard.  I feel that the best wolf guard upgrade that can be added to long fangs would be a wolf guard in terminator armor with a cyclone missile launcher.  This beefs up to their ranged fire by an additional 2 shots.  It also allows the unit to soak krak missiles as the terminator can use his 2+ armor save to soak the damage.  Finally, the wolf guard adds an element of close combat protection as no one wants to mess with a unit that has counterattack and a terminator with a power weapon/fist. 

I run my long fangs in units of 5 with 4 missiles and one has a wolf guard terminator with cyclone missile join. This unit costs 178pt. and puts out 6 missiles shots a turn.  If for some reason it needs to move, the terminator can still at least fire 2 shots in the turn it moves. 

Vanilla Devstators

The vanilla marine devstators are decidedly more...vanilla.  They can take up to 4 heavy weapons.  Their sargeant model has a signum which allows one model to fire at BS5 if he doesn't shoot, which he rarely does.  Now, here's the catch.  You can shoot at two different targets with one squad of devastators.  You just have to have 10 models and combat squad them to do so.  What does this mean?  The same thing that I think happens to be a downfall for vanilla marines.  You have to take additional models to get the full array of abilities for a unit and those models don't do much for you.  So, for a whopping 230pt. (assuming you are taking missiles) I can take 10 devastators and combat squad them into two squads with two heavy weapons apiece. The additional guys will end up attacking as bullet catchers for your heavy weapons.  If this isn't the route for you, you can go minimal and pay 150pt. for 5 models (4 missiles).  Not as cheap as long fangs, but this will suffice as it still outshines many of the other heavy slot options.

What's unique about this unit? 

Not much in comparison to the others.  You can't really add to the unit.  The best thing they have going for them is the ability to combat squad, but that requires that you spend extra points on models you don't need to allow them to shoot at two different targets. Meh.

Blood Angel Devstators

These are essentially vanilla devastators who got cheaper.  Seeing as how the BA codex came out after C:SM, the designers dropped the points cost to a more effective amount.  A unit of 5 models with 4 missiles will run you 130pt. So the bottom lines shows us a 20pt. savings.  From a paper perspective they are devstators in almost every way.

What makes them unique?

There are two big things that make BA devs better, in my opinion, than vanilla devs. 

1) Red thirst- On a roll of "1" (or 3+ with Astorath) your devstators gain fearless and furious charge abilites.  Not too bad.  The fearless part is great.  This means they won't run away if they take some casualties.  The furious charge rule is somewhat useless unless they are the last thing standing and you need to flush out some enemy troop choices.  If that is the case, why aren't you lobbing krak and frag missiles on them? In all, this is good for the fearless.

2) Sanguinary Priests- If you can manage to keep a sanguinary priest in or around a dev unit, it will gain FnP.  This is great as it makes them far more resilient.  In cover, with a 3+ save and FnP makes devstators pretty darn hard to get rid of.  The issue would be that you have a sanguinary priest babysitting devs instead of in the front lines with your fighting force.  If you can swing this and manage to keep FnP bubbles around your front lines then you are golden.  In all, BA devs stand out as being the most resilient devs of the three codices due to sanguinary priests.

Which one is best? 

Once again, I base my opinion of which one is best based on points/kill effectiveness.  Long fangs are the cheapest by as few as 15 points and as many as 115 points depending on what you do with your units. They come stock with the ability to shoot at two targets and are able to handle most light units that attack them.  I find this very effective and points efficient.

BA devs are super resilient and if all of the dice rolls work out, can be fearless to boot.  Don't imagine that you will be able to shift them without some seriously focused firepower.

The marine devs seem to be the redheaded stepchild of the group.  The combat squad ability would be a huge benefit if you didn't have to pay an additional 80pt. (opn useless models) to make it work. The only thing that might be considered an advantage over the other two codices is combat tactics.  If they are in range to be assaulted and are force to take a morale test, they could auto fail it in order to keep themselves from dying to assault.  I feel that this is kind of stretching due to a) they will probably be close to a board edge being long range units, and b) if your opponents on assault your board edge, then you have probably already lost the game. 

So, that about wraps up my look at the various devastator equivalents.  Which one will you choose?

What have I done!?!

I have been thinking about my Valhallan Immortals list and am totally rethinking how it works.  As you may know from what I have written already, it revolves around the Master of the Forge and 6 Dreads.  Those are the non-negotiables.  That means with the about 1,000pt. left, I need to create a list that is hard to take out and that can help add pressure so that my dreads can get into assault or shoot the right targets.  The list has gone through a ton of renditions.  I thought at first that the best thing would be to have jump troops to come in and handle things.  Nope.   The vanguard vets are simply to expensive for what they do and we all know that vanilla marines are fail, so they were out.  Next I thought about trying heatseeker scouts comprised of scouts in a landspeeder storm with combi-melta and power fist.  Scouts die too easily and in a list like this, they are easy points, so they are out.  So, now I am working with a captain on bike with a bike squad and two tac squads with razorbacks.  This is getting better, but the missile launcher combat squads have a lot of trouble staying alive and usually don't put out enough long range damage to warrant their place in the army.

So, I am left with going all bikes and dreads.  Above you can see the beginnings of my collection of marine bikers.  In front are my captain/Khan model and a MotF on bike.  For now he is going to rock the servo harness and a power weapon.  This is what I have.  What do you think?

MotF- bike, servo harness, pistol/power weapon
Khan- bike

Dread- 2x TL autocannons
Dread- 2x TL autocannons
Dread- 2x TL autocannons

6 man bike squad- 2x meltas, powerfist
5 man bike squad- 2x meltas, powerfist (khan here)
5 man bike squad- 2x meltas, powerfist (motf here)

attack bike- multi-melta
attack bike- multi-melta
attack bike- multi-melta

Ironclad- melta/flamer, pod
Ironclad- melta/flamer, pod
Ironclad- melta/flamer, pod

So khan outflank the majority of the army.  The ironclads pod in.  The motf can come on turn 1 and hang out with the rifleman dreads or he can tag along in a squad and help them to be a more combat viable unit.  The idea is to have an army that is hard to kill via armor/cover or simply because you can't catch it.  Turbo-boosting bikes anyone?  It has plenty of melta.  It can get in your face quickly.  The only thing I am thinking of is that it might need more combat punch.  If so, I think a biker command squad would be a must.  So, what say you?  Will this work?  Is it crazy?

Heading in another direction

I have been thinking a lot about my Valhallan Immortals army and I am wondering if they might need to go in another direction, i.e. no infantry, all bikes and dreads. 

First things first.  The dreads and MotF is staying put.  After getting a shout-out from Fritz over at Fritz40k, I have thought about my army and how it can have some real bang at the beginning and provide a solid threat throughout.  Here is what I have come up with. 

Biker Dreads

HQ
MotF- bolter servo harness, bike
Captain- relic blade, storm shield, bike

Elite
Dreadnought (Rifleman)- 2x TL autocannons
Dreadnought (Rifleman)- 2x TL autocannons
Dreadnought (Rifleman)- 2x TL autocannons

Troop
6 Man Bike Squad- 2x meltas, 2x bolters, 1x powerfist, 1x multi-melta attack bike
6 Man Bike Squad- 2x meltas, 2x bolters, 1x powerfist, 1x multi-melta attack bike
6 Man Bike Squad- 2x meltas, 2x bolters, 1x powerfist, 1x multi-melta attack bike

Fast
1x multi-melta attack bike
1x multi-melta attack bike

Heavy
Ironclad Dread- DCCW/flamer, Hammer/melta, 2x HK missiles
Ironclad Dread- DCCW/flamer, Hammer/melta, 2x HK missiles
Ironclad Dread- DCCW/flamer, Hammer/melta, 2x HK missiles

This army definitely operates around a fast and slow principle.  We have the rifleman dreads and possibly ironclads staying back and hold on to my side of the board.  Turn 1 will see up to 12 autocannon shots and 6 HK missile shots sent into transports and tanks.  My bikes will turbo-boost across the board.  Turn 2 will see 12 autocannon shots, 6 melta shots, and 5 multi-melta shots go into armor while squads also are used to bog down and take out weakened and de-meched units.  As the lock in units, the ironclads can assault in to help finish off squads.  The captain and MotF will start in squads but possibly leave to act as force multipliers where needed as things heat up.  The MotF will also try his best to keep my dreads running especially as the ironclads get into range of melta. 

So, what do you think?  Would this work? Anyone out there try anything like this before?  My main concern is that the ironclads will be too slow to be of any real use.  Currently, I run them in pods to get them across the board and in my opponents' hair.  That works great.  Let me know what you think.

The pups roll marines

As I have mentioned previously, my local gaming store is throwing an 1,850pt. RTT in two weekends.  I have two goals for this tournament. 

1) Like everyone who pays to play in a competitive event, I want to win my games.  It is going to have 4 games.  I want to win 3 if not all of my games. 

2) I want to get some sort of recognition for painting whether it be best army or player's choice, or whatever they may have. 

I have put together a Space Wolf army centered around the fluff of a Black Tempar penitence crusade. Here is the list I am going use:

Rune priest-chooser, wolf tale talisman, living lightning, jaws of the world wolf

5 scouts with melta, WG with combi-melta/power weapon/meltabombs
5 scouts with melta, WG with combi-melta/power weapon/meltabombs
6 Wolf Guard spread throughout the army

5 grey hunters with melta, WG with power weapon/pistol, riding in TL las razorback
5 grey hunters with melta, WG with power weapon/pistol, riding in TL las razorback
5 grey hunters with melta, WG with power weapon/pistol, riding in TL las razorback
10 grey hunters with 2x melta, Mark of the Wulfen, Wolf standard, power weapon, riding in rhino

1x Thunderwolf cav with thunder hammer/storm shield
1x Thunderwolf cav with wolf claw/storm shield/meltabombs
1x Thunderwolf cav with ccw/storm shield/meltabombs

5 long fangs with 4x missile launchers and WG terminator with cyclone missile launcher
5 long fangs with 4x missile launchers
5 long fangs with 4x missile launchers

The army is painted and based.  I have yet to finish the display board, but it is close.  So, I am now trying to get in practice games.  So far, I have had two.  My first, last week, was against a mech spam IG player. with vets in chimeras, 2 vendettas, a colossus, and two leman russes.  We played capture and control with spearhead deployment.  After a truly bloody battle, I pulled out a draw by about an inch and a half. I wasn't aggressive enough.  I played too conservatively and ended up not getting my stuff across the board to him.

Today, I played my second practice game against a Vanilla Marine gunline army.  We played seize ground with 3 objectives and had dawn of war deployment.  This was a fun game, but my opponent had some very bad early turns and ended up getting beaten pretty badly.  If he had not conceded, I think I would have tabled him in the bottom of the 7th turn.

He took:
Libby-avenger, null zone

2 5 man sternguard squads with 2 lascannons in rhinos
3 10 man tac squads with missile/flamer, 2 had a combi-flamer in them.  All had Tl plasma/las razorbacks
3 landspeeder typhoons
2x TL lascannon/heavy bolter preds
1 Dakka Pred

So lots of shots, but not much combat power.  I had a bit more balanced list, but would have to cross the table under heavy fire. 

I didn't take pictures of the table top until turn 3, even though Vassal has a button for snapshots. Sorry for that.  Next time I will remember to do that.

He took the top half of the table and deployed forward with a missile combat squad in the left forest (see pics below starting with turn 3), a razorback on one side of the central hill in his deployment zone, one on the left, and another missile tac squad in the forest on the right.

I decided to put both a razorback and a rhino on my extreme right flank and rush the objective on that side.

He had the top of turn 1, so I hope for bad night fight rolls and told him good luck. Two speeder, the dakka pred, and a las/bolter pred roll up on my right flank along the board edge to shoot my two tanks.  Next to them the final missile combat squad runs into the forest.  The sternguard squads roll onto the board on either side of the hill with the 3rd tac squad razorback coming in to the left of the hill as well.  On the far left, the other las/bolter pred comes on with the third speeder.  Shooting blew up my razorback killing a guy or two and stunned/destroyed the storm bolter on my rhino.  Not too bad for the heaps of shooting he had. 

I brought my stuff on by putting my thunder hammer and wolf claw twolves on the left flank to go after the missile combat squad camping on the objective.  I put my rune priest and cyclone terminator with long fang squad into the forest on my side.  Two razorbacks moved on in the middle of the board behind the pipes, a fang squad came on behind them, my demeched grey hunters ran into the ruin in my lower right hand corner.  My ccw twolf came onto the board left of the building but moved into cover.  Finally, my last fang squad came in on the right side to start shooting at his right flank artillery.In shooting, I managed to stun his left speeder and shake/stun a smattering of other vehicles. My rhino and two razorbacks popped smoke.

Turn two started and he shuffled stuff around, but mostly tried maintain lines of fire.  His left sternguard squad moved onto the hill to bunker in their rhino.  Shooting did a whole lot of nothing.  This is where his dice completely failed him.   My right rhino got some more shaken results, but was otherwise okay.  About 2/3 of his army shot at the razorback in the middle of my board edge behind the pipes and did nothing.  He either missed or rolled 1s and 2s to pen.  It was pretty terrible. 

In my turn 2, no reserves came in.  So much for early tank popping.  I moved up my thunder cav on the left flank towards the objective camping tacs.  Low run moves allow only my thunderhammer wolf to get into them during assault.  He beat them and sent them running.  The fangs with the terminator took the typhoon launcher off of the left speeder.  In the middle my shooting managed to pop the razorback to the left of the hill disgorging its contents and perhaps killing a model.  On the right, my rhino brazenly moved onto the right objective to camp until next turn.  My right fang squad and right most razorback managed to stun and shake his two speeders over there keeping them from adding to the fire heaped upon my rhino. Here is the game as it stood at the beginning of turn 3.

Turn 3 started out with the left pred taking out my thunderhammer twolf in a flashy array of bolter shots and lascannon fire.  He moved his speeders to prevent them from being destroyed, and I think he killed a long fang or two on my right flank, but otherwise did very little.  This was yet another turn of his dice crapping on him.

In my turn, I began to open things up.  Both scouts came on.  I rolled a 2 for board edge for one squad and came on near his right pred bunker.  I rolled a 1 for the other squad and they came on near his 3rd pred.  I got the two stastically lowest outcomes and still manage to do the right thing.   Both scouts proceeded to pop a pred apiece.  My center shooting took out the sternguard rhino on the hill, pinning the squad.  My grey hunters in the rhino hopped out and meltagunned the other sternguard squad's rhino, but managed to roll double 1s for the assault through difficult terrain and end up staying put.  My wolf claw twolf moved up to get into assault range for next turn while my ccw twolf assaulted the libby's razorback doing nothing to it. 

In turn 4 he tried to scrape things back.  The running tac squad on the left finally ran off the board escorted by my scouts. The speeder killed two of them for their trouble.   His central speeder tried to assassinate my twolf after the libby cast null zone.  He only did 1 wound.  His hilltop sternguard managed to immobilize my right razorback. The libby's squad got out of its razorback and the sternies, missile tac squad in the woods, and the libby's squad all shot at my grey hunters.  Sum result, 5 dead grey hunters who pass their morale.  The dakka pred took out all of my right scout squad except for the wolf guard and the melta.  The right speeder shot down my remaining two long fangs. 

In my turn, my surviving grey hunters' rhino moved up to contest the objective it is near and box in the libby and his squad.  My grey hunters shot at them kill 2-3 causing a morale test that they fail.  Being boxed in, they all died on the spot.  Nice.  The depleted grey hunter squad from the beginning of the game moved up tentatively to try and handle the speeder there.  My scouts in the upper right hand corner took out the dakka pred.  My CCW twolf assaulted the sternies killing 1 only to be killed for his trouble.  Middle of the board shooting accounted for a dead speeder, and several dead marines from the two combat squads in the ruin on the middle left side of my opponent's side.  The wolf claw twolf assaulted the razorback only managing to immobilize and shake it.  My scouts tried to shoot down the speeder, but couldn't.  They then assault only to wiff. 

Getting desperate to kill my last twolf, he unloaded the razorback and moved up all of his remaining tac marines.  They unloaded doing only a single wound to him.  The speeder moveed and shot at my scouts missing them.  The sternies and missile tac squad in the upper right hand piled in more shots and wiped out my grey hunter squad near the objective. 

I responded by opening up big again.  My twolf assaulted the tac squad near the objective on the left killing all but the sargeant who held and passed 4 fearless wounds.  My scouts managed to miss the speeder with shooting, but immobilize it in assault.  My center fire opened up big again killing the left side razorback, a couple of tac marines, and half the right sternguard unit.  All pass moral though.  Finally, my grey hunters on the right side managed to immobilize and shake his speeder. 

We roll and end up playing turn six, though my opponent wants to quit.  I reminded him that he had a chance to win if he could shift my twolf and my rhino from the objectives they are holding.  In response, he moved all of his left side tac marines in to assault with the twolf.  They all wiffed and I killed two, winning and sending two squads running.  The lone sargeant from last combat stayed around though.  My scouts on that side lost a couple of guys to his speeder.  His missile tac squad on the left moved up to get near the objective with my rhino while the sternguard blew it up.  The tacs then ran onto the objective now also in difficult terrain. 

In my turn, I realized that I need to get rid of those tacs and sternies.  My grey hunters abandoned trying to attack the speeder and moved towards the tac squad on the objective.  They shot and assaulted the marines, killing them to a man, but I lost all but my wolf guard.  My middle shooting killed all of the right most sternguard with the help of my scouts via shooting while my terminator/priest long fang squad opened up on the other sternguard squad and shot it down to 2 marines who pass morale.  My thunderwolf finally killed the sargeant in combat with him and consolidated to walk the fleeing tac marines off the board.  The scouts finally blew up the speeder over there.

We rolled for the 7th turn and got it.

My opponent valiantly tried to shoot something but managed to only blow up a razorback sitting on my objective.  The grey hunters left behind passed all of their tests.  At this point he called it. 

This was a great game and showed me that being aggressive can pay off more.  I tend to be more defensive, but putting the rhino, scouts, and twolves into my opponent's face really put him on the back foot. Combined with abismal rolls in turns 2 and 3, this game quickly became an uphill battle for him.  In the end, I think this army will look good on the table and play well enough to give me a decent chance to win some.

Please leave comments and let me know what you think.  Thanks for reading.

Curses! A Battle Report

Man!  I am pretty ticked off.  I was running a great game in Vassal and I got kicked from the server for some odd reason and lost my opponent.  I'm pretty bummed.  This was turning into what looked like a sure victory for the the Valhallan Immortals. 

I have put together a new list for my 6 Dread list, now with added Khan!  Here is what I took:

MotF-pw, pistol, harness
Khan on bike

Ironclad-dccw/heavy flamer, seismic hammer/melta, pod
Ironclad-dccw/heavy flamer, seismic hammer/melta, pod
Ironclad-dccw/heavy flamer, seismic hammer/melta, pod

Rifleman dread
Rifleman dread
Rifleman dread

5 tacs with combi-melta/meltabombs in las/plas razorback
5 tacs with combi-melta/meltabombs in las/plas razorback
Bike squad- bolter, 2x melta, sarge with powerfist, multi-melta attack bike

Multi-melta attack bike
landspeeder-heavy flamer, multimelta
landspeeder-heavy flamer, multimelta

The great thing about Vassal is that people take weird lists because they are free to play.  So, my opponent took

2x farseers both with singing spears, both with runes of 3D6 psychic test, and both with 2 spells a turn, they both had mind war and then had a smattering of fortune and doom.  They rode on bikes.
They were kept company by 8 warlocks with bikes, 4 flamers, 1 embolden, and 1 enhance

To round out the army were 3 units of 10 wriathguard with spiritseers, 3 wraithlords with sword and flamers, and 3 vypers with missile launchers

So, not an optimized list. The game ended in turn three because I lost contact with the server, but was decided in my favor.  We were playing capture and control with pitched battle deployment.  Here is what the game looked like at the top of Turn 3 right before his assault phase:

So, here's a quick recap.  He got turn 1 and took it.

He deployed everything behind his building with the vypers and seer council on the right side of it and the wraithlord on the left side.  I deployed my three riflemen in the central difficult terrain for cover.  My one tac squad sat on their objective while their razorback decided to do some lascannon sniping at wraithlords. 

In turn one he moved up, turboboositng to get cover saves.  The seer council went in-between the right two midfield terrain pieces.  The three vypers moved around the far right midfield terrain piece with one landing in terrain.  My opponent failed the dangerous terrain test and lost the vyper.  An ominous start.  The wraithlord moves west a bit while the wraithguard hunkered down by their objective. 

In  my turn one, I dropped my two ironclads in and you can see where their pods ended up.  Both decided to shoot at the middle vyper doing nothing.  Finally, my green rifleman shot it out of the air despite a 3+ cover save.  The other two dreads were able to kill two of the seer council while the razorback wound the middle wraithlord. 

In turn two, he completely wiffed with his singing spears, but assaulted my ironclad...which he was still in combat with 3 combat phases later.  His dice were crap. He did manage to blow off an arm and immobilize it.  The vyper moved around behind my other ironclad, but missed at point blank range with his missile launcher. His wraithlords moved into cover to avoid getting shot up.

In my turn two, both speeders came on where they are shown above and the bikes moved on.  Everything else moved around to shoot at wraithlords.  My ironclad turned and moved into range to shoot and assault the vyper.  It immobilized the vyper with it's flamer and then blew it up in assault.  Combined shooting put the far left wraithlord down to a wound as well as the middle one.  Again, his council failed to impress managing only to blow off my ironclad's other arm and stun and shake it.  This is good for me because he should blow it up in his turn meaning I get to shoot him in my turn.... excellent.

In turn three.  His stuff begins to move west towards my bikes and speeders which is pointless as I plan on shooting down wraithlords and then getting the heck away from crazy guns that wound on 2+ at AP2.  Most importantly, his seer with fortune fails his psychic test with 6,6,5.  This is where I got kicked, but I am going to imagine what would happen next.....

Imagine a perfect world if you will.  A world where your strategies and plans happen without flaw.
In the assault phase, his council would finally blow up my ironclad freeing me up to shoot him to death in my turn 3.

In turn three, three rifleman dreads, a MotF, an Ironclad, and two pods will open up into a seer council without fortune.  Many will die.  Councils without fortune are wasted points.  If I don't kill them all, the ironclad will assault and tie them up some more if not kill them off.  My speeders and bikes will move into position to shoot down the two wraithlords on 1 wound while conveniently staying out of range of the wraithguard behind.  At this point I would have 1 razorback, 1 attack bike, and 1 pod coming on the board from reserve on a 3+.  Two units should come in statistically.

So, turn 4 rolls around and my opponent will probably start trying to pull out a draw.  1-2 units of wraithguard will pull back towards his home objective.  The other one may try to get into range to shoot something, but you will notice from the picture that even at 12" meltagun range, I can still shoot the farthest left wraithlord without getting into range ofthe wraithguard's guns even if they move 6 inches.  So, he may be aggressive, but I figure probably indecision will hit.  The seer council is in trouble, let's say that they get lucky and destroy my dread and move up to shoot down a rifleman.  If they kill it, they have nothing to assault and will eat more shots from pods, rifleman dreads, and motf.  If they don't destroy it, they have to kill it in assault.  I will by then have spread out my units so they can't be easily multi-assaulted. 

In my turn 4, the third wraithlord will die, the seer council will die and my speeders will move into flame his wraithguard units.  He will probably retailiate and shoot them both down, but they will be weakened enough and tightly enought packed that my bike squad should be able to multi-assault them and destroy them in combat.  Furious charge bikes for the win!  I will add my razorbacks and bikes shooting before I do so. 

Turn 5 is mopping up and pulling out a 2-0 objective win.

....End perfect world scenario.

In the end, his army was severely outmatched.  His wraithguard were doing nothing, his wraithlords would never catch my units, and his seer council had a lot of firepower to contend with after blowing up my ironclad.  Eldar need mech to be somewhat competitive.  This player didn't bring any (unless you really want to count 3 vypers) and he was getting smacked around. It didn't help that Java obviously loved my dice rolls more than his.  2 seers and 6 warlocks should be able to do more than weapon destroy and immobilize a dreadnought, but it was just not happening tonight. 

If only Vassal hadn't failed me.

Let me hear your thoughts about this.  Is my prediction about the fate of his army fairly accurate?  Do you think it could have gone a different way? Any thoughts on my new list and adding khan to add the outflanking element?  Let me hear from you.  Thanks.

DiY Twin Linked Autocannon Arms for Dreadnoughts

As I have tested my Codex Marine MotF list, I have come to realize the rifleman dreads (2x TL autocannons) are simply the best way to bring long range supression/anti-tank fire.  Sure the TL lascannon/missile launcher variety is good, but it is more expensive and puts out less shots.  To this end, I have decided to go ahead and model three of my dreads as rifleman dreadnoughts. 

Now, I teach.  I don't know how teachers are treated in other countries, but here in the US, garbagemen get paid better. I am always trying to come up with decent conversions for make cost effective models.  To that end,  I have come up with the following option.  You can find packs of three autcannons from $3-$7.  So for 3 dreads, I think I spent about $20-$25 outside of shipping.  Not bad since the Forgeworld autocannon arms cost around $11 per arm.  I ended up saving about $20. 

Per dreadnought you will need:

4 IG heavy weapons team autocannons and ammo canisters (the ones that are hollow on the inside)
a hobby knife
a file
super glue
plastic snips
plasticard
greenstuff

The first step is to make some inital cuts.  You can use a hobby knife or your snips.  Below you can see that the red lines represent where you should cut.

One you have cut, use the file to flatten out the area you cut on the autocannons.  It isn't actually flat.  Once both gun mounts are flat, glue them together and glue one ammo cannister to one of the autocannons.  At this point you should look like this.

Here is the tricky part.  As you can see, because of the way we glued the guns, you have one ammo feed on the outside and one on the inside of the arm.  What you need to do now is carefully use your hobby knife to cut the inside aiming ammo feed off.  It should be the one you haven't glued a cannister to yet. Also cut off the handle to the crank on the gun.  Then turn around the ammo feed bit you cut off and attach cannister to it.  Now your arms should have the ammo cannisters both on the same side and look like this:

Now, you have some decisions to make.  The arms won't fit on exactly as they are, so you have options. A) You can do what I did and add magnets so that the arms are easily switchable.  B) You can cut out a circle to fit the posts on the body.  This is a bit more laborious and requires taking off a little at a time because if you go too far, you can have arms that won't point out.  They sag.  Finally, I don't like exposing the space that the backs of the guns show, so I used plasticard and greenstuff to fill in the gaps and cover it up yielding a final-ish product that looks like this:

When you are done, you can file down the greenstuff to make a nice eaven covering and voila! You have TL autocannon arms.  Total time spent on creation is about 30 minuts per arm.

In the end, you will have a guy that looks something similar to this:

I hope you enjoyed this.  If you did, or if you didn't, let me know.  I am desparate for some comments at this point.  Thanks for reading.

Other articles you might find useful:
That's attractive: Uses for magnets in 40k
Tutorial: How-to Rock Bases on the Cheap
Magnetizing a Stormraven?!?



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Putting the First Feather in the Cap

I took my newly modified verison of the Valhallan Immortals out for a test drive last night and finally got my first win!  Suffice it to say that I am stoked.

I played a Nid player on Vassal and he started the game by saying, "Can I take a odd list?"  I said sure because my list is fairly odd as well. This is what he took:

HQ

Tyranid Prime- 80

Elites

3x Zoans, pod with TL Deathspitter- 230

Deathleaper- 140

Troops

3x Rippers- 30

3x Rippers- 30

Heavy

3x Carnifex, Frag spines - 495

3x Carnifex, Frag spines - 495

3x Carnifex, Frag spines - 495

Total- 1995

As you can tell, this is not a good list at all.  It is far from optimized, BUT it has 9 carnifexes!  Yikes.  That freaked me out a little. 

I took:

HQ
MotF-pw/pistol, harness
Captain- bike, relic blade, storm shield, meltabombs

Elite
Dread- 2x TL autocannons
Dread- 2x TL autocannons
Dread- 2x TL autocannons

Troop
10 man Tac squad- missile, flamer, sarge with combi-melta, meltabombs, rhino (combat squadded)
10 man Tac squad- missile, flamer, sarge with combi-melta, meltabombs, rhino (combat squadded)
Bike Squad- bolter bike, 2x melta bikes, sarge with fist, multi-melta attack bike

Fast
Landspeeder Tornado- multi-melta, h. flamer
Landspeeder Tornado- multi-melta, h. flamer

Heavy
Ironclad, DCCW/h. flamer, Seismic Hammer/melta, pod
Ironclad, DCCW/h. flamer, Seismic Hammer/melta, pod
Ironclad, DCCW/h. flamer, Seismic Hammer/melta, pod

2,000pt.

We played sieze ground with 5 objectives and Dawn of War. I won the roll and made my opponent go first.  This mission screwed him over pretty bad because he had two 3 man units of ripper swarms to claim objectives.  Those are terribly easy to kill, even if one is being babysat by a Prime (who was completely naked, no upgrades).  So, this looked like an autowin for me as long as I didn't play like a moron or as long as those fexes didn't get across the board to me to rip my army apart.  It was a game of 5 units, my three troops versus his 2 troops.  In the end, all of my other stuff was expendable as long as I could keep his big meanies away while I dealt with his troop choices. 

So here is the big reveal.  I have a pic of the game in turn 7.  We actually stopped at Turn 6, but my opponent wanted to play it out for fun.  I decided to go for it.  What you see if midway through Turn 7.

For deployment, he decided to put his prime with ripper swarm and solo ripper swarm in the ruin on the far left.  I put two combat squads with bolters and missile launchers in the building in the upper right which I bolstered with my MotF.  He had his fexes come on Turn 1, while the leaper and zoans reserved.  I had my rifleman dreads and bike squad come on Turn 1 and reserved everything else to deny any easy kills.

The first few turns went quickly as I find they normally do in dawn of war scenarios.  My opponent's Prime and rippers went to ground to gain a great cover save, His fexes entered the bottom of the table, one unit on the left of the trees, one one the right, and one on the far right board edge.  At this point, I knew he had taken the bait of my two missile launcher combat squads.  His first two turns consisted of the fexes moving up and running.  The prime and swarms stayed put. 

My first two turns saw my dreads enter the board in the upper left hand corner getting into firing positions to start smacking down his fexes.  My bikes came onto the table on my extreme left board edge and moved along the edge to get to his ripper swarms as quickly as possible.  My two ironclads podded on.  The first one hit home south of the ruin with the ripper swarms.  The second one aimed for the north side, but deviated north almost to the board edge. Both sought to close with the rippers quickly to help flush them out of the building.  In turn 2, my bikes were in range to shoot then assault the ripper swarm with prime, while the bottom ironclad help toast some with his heavy flamer.  2+ cover save my butt. The bike squad ended up offing 1 ripper unit and the prime with only the loss of the bolter biker. 

My dreads were able to kill off  1 carnifex from the left squad and knock 3 wounds of another before they finally got into my southern ironclad.  He was held up by assaulting rippers.  I couldn't do enough damage to be free of them and get away from the carnifexes.  He died, but took a carnifex with him while the remaining carnifex was summarily destroyed by intensive autocannon fire.  

On the right flank, I ended up dropping a pod onto an objective to 1) contest should it survive, and 2) provide bait to keep the carnifexes away from my left flank where my troop choices were.  The ironclad inside ended up getting shot by the spore.  The bottom missile combat squad was attacked by the death leaper that deepstriked into their building while the top squad got shot up by zoans and then failed morale and booked it off the table.  In the end, I sent in both of my speeders to that corner to keep the zoans busy.  One scattered onto terrain, failed the dangerous terrain and wrecked.  The other survived and was the zoans' plaything for a turn or two. 

In the end, his remaining two carnifex squads started to cross the board towards my units, but two failed instinctual behavior tests caused them to veer back to the right side of the board, buying me time.  In the end, my rhinos came on and one claimed the upper lefthand objective, one contested the lower lefthand objective due to the deathleaper going back into reserve and then deepstriking close to it.  My shooting couldn't finish him off.  The bike squad meandered around the board edge after killing the prime and company and ended up claiming the bottom center objective.  So, in the end, a 2-0 victory.  I may even have been able to whittle down the second carnifex squad as it was down to 2 fexes by the end of the game. 

Ultimately, I saw a few things in this game.

1) The bikes are starting to be my MVPs.  They rocked this game.  I am going to start toying with all bikes and 6 dreads.  I think that would be solid. 
2) In contrast, the speeders just weren't doing it for me.  I think I could replace the two with 3 multi-melta attack bikes and I would be set. 
3) Heavy flamers on the ironclads paid out way better in this game than storm bolters have.  I haven't really needed the grenades on them so I think it was a fair trade. I also like having all three in pods.  It puts them in your face very quickly. 
4) Autocannons rock!  I know that they take out light mech well, but when you are pumping 12 shots a turn into targets, they tend to fail saves with regularity.  I love the 3 rifleman dreads more than their old missile/TL lascannon setup.  I won't be going back to that. 

In the end, I think that this list really does well with objective games, primarily due to the ability to throw non essential units in the way to prevent my troop choices from dying.  I also think I was helped along by a severely unoptimized list from my opponent. 

So, there you have!  The first win of what I hope are many more to come as I continue to tweak the list. I would love to hear comments about what went on, how you like the list, and what you think might improve it.