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? 

Well...that went fast

I just got in a game against the new Dark Eldar.  Man was it wonky!  I played using my new modified Valhallan Immortals.  Here is the list:

MotF-conversion beamer, bike
Khan- bike

Dreadnought- 2x TL autocannons
Dreadnought- 2x TL autocannons
Dreadnought- 2x TL autocannons

5 bikes-2 bolter, 2 melta, 1 fist
5 bikes-2 bolter, 2 melta, 1 fist
5 bikes-2 bolter, 2 melta, 1 fist

Multi-melta attack bike
Multi-melta attack bike
Multi-melta attack bike

Ironclad- flamer, melta, HK missile, pod
Ironclad- flamer, melta, HK missile, pod
Ironclad- flamer, melta,  pod

He took:

Asdrubal Vect

Haemonculus (With Incubi #1)-Splinter Pistol and Animus Vite, Gnarlskin

8 Incubi- raider, flickerfields, night shields

10 Wracks- acolith, raider with flickerfields

10 Wracks- acolith, raider with flickerfields

10 Wracks- acolith, raider with flickerfields

10 Wracks- acolith, raider with flickerfields

9 Wracks- acolith, raider with flickerfields

9 Wracks- acolith, raider with flickerfields

Ravager- 3x dark lances, flickerfields, nightshields

Ravager- 3x dark lances, flickerfields, nightshields

Void Raven- 2x void lances, 1x void mine

I had no idea what I might be getting into with this type of army.  I have had a cursory look through the new codex, but can't say I know a ton about the army.  Suffice it to say that I figured I would be in for a learning experience.

If you look at the pictures, you can see the layout.  All woods were difficult and gave infantry a 4+ cover.  The hills with woods also gave vehicles cover. 

We rolled annihilation and pitched battle and my opponent won the turn.  He basically spread his forces across his table edge (the bottom).

I put my MotF behind the hill in my upper righthand corner and put my rifleman on the hill in the woods for cover so that they would be able to shoot from turn 1 (if they survived).

Turn 1

My opponent moved everything up to shoot except the ravagers who moved flatout to get cover.  Everything proceeded to shoot....and either failed to hit my dreads or I passed cover.  The trees were very thick on their hill.

I in turn dropped two ironclads behind his lines in my turn 1.  You can see where they landed in the picture below.  In my shooting phase, the MotF had moved around the hill and opened up on the far right raider. His aim was dead on and he exploded it (thank you opened topped!).  I didn't kill anything, but that was one less raider to worry about.  My right most ironclad opened up on the next raider and exploded it! This killed 3 models from the unit in the raider who eventually failed morale and ran for the table edge.  this also killed a few models out of the squad to the right, but they passed morale. My other ironclad wasn't so lucky and my riflemen, though resilient didn't wound anything.

Turn 2

My opponent knew he was in trouble with those ironclads, so he spread out his forces a bit.  I think he made a big mistake here because he turned both ravagers, the void raven, and a raider to face my central ironclad.  I think he decided to focus too much firepower on it making the remaining portions of his army less productive.  Reliably, the ironclad died.  You can see the crater where he stood just north of the central drop pod.  He also did something odd.  He ran his unit that was falling back causing them to run off the board.  I questioned him and he said that they would have died anyway.  Seems like kind of a waste.  They would have taken my ironclad away from the bulk of his force if they had stayed on the board.

In my turn, I got in two bike squads and an attack bike.  I opened up everywhere but the only significant damage came as follows.  The black bike squad killed a few wracks and were ready to assault them.  The ironclad managed to immobilize the raider he was near.  The MotF immobilized the raider next to the ravager and the riflemen had just opened up 1 raider in the center and had gotten a explodes! result on the raider next to it when my opponent called the game.  Sure, he was busted up, but I thought it was pretty premature.  My plans for the rest of the turn were to use the black rifleman to shoot the right raider.  If he wasn't successful, my ironclad was going to assault into it.  My teal bikes were ready to assault the ravager in front of them and my black bikes were in position to assault the wracks in front of them. 

The way I see it, he was right in that he would have had an immensely hard game going uphill for the rest of the time, but he would have still had a mobile raider, ravager and void raven.  They could have started either picking off bikes or going after my dreads.  I am pretty sure my MotF would be dead the next turn unless he missed with a dark lance.  It was a gamble I was willing to take as if my MotF had popped that raider, he would have been in some serious trouble. 

As it stood, I still had khan+squad, an ironclad, and 2 attack bikes still to come in, so I think I would have pulled out an easy win here based on what happened. 

The map below is the game when my opponent called it.  The raider in the central wood next to the brown squad had just exploded. 

This was a fun game, but I think I may have an army that really can do bad things to DE.  I will have to try a few more games before I pass judgment with certainty, but their AV10 or 11 and open topped status really sucks when you bring a lot of long ranged heavy weapons to the board. 

Any thoughts?  I think my opponent was unlucky for the most part.  We didn't really play much of a game for him to make mistakes besides focusing too much fire on the single ironclad.  What do you see?

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.

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.

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.

I'm an idiot

So, I just played a guy who brought a fairly simple CSM list.  He had two warptime princes, a summoned greater daemon, 3 units of marines with 2x meltas and power weapon in rhinos, 10 terminators with tons of combi-meltas, and 3 havoc squads with 4x autocannons apiece. 

I played like a mook.  Seriously.  I just gave the guy points.  My dread list is really a castle/shooty list that waits to capitalize when the opponent is out of place and whittled down.  I just don't get that.  My other problem is that I played with bikes for the first time tonight.  Yeah, I just gave them away to the daemon princes.  Stupid error.  So, I am really steamed right now simply because I played like an moron.  Face Palm should be tattooed on my forehead.  Here is the list I took:

HQ

MotF- power weapon/pistol, servo harness

Captain- bike, lightning claw, storm shield

Elite

Dreadnought- TL autocannon, TL autocannon

Dreadnought- TL autocannon, TL autocannon

Dreadnought- TL autocannon, TL autocannon

Troop

10 tactical marines- missile launcher, flamer, sergeant with combi-melta/meltabombs, riding in rhino (#1)

10 tactical marines- missile launcher, flamer, sergeant with combi-melta/meltabombs, riding in rhino (#2)

Bike Squad- 2x melta bikers, 1x bolter biker, powerfist sergeant, multi-melta attack bike

Fast

Landspeeder tornado- multi-melta, heavy flamer

Landspeeder tornado- multi-melta, heavy flamer

Heavy

Ironclad Dreadnought- dccw/storm bolter, seismic hammer/meltagun, ironclad assault launchers, drop pod

Ironclad Dreadnought- dccw/storm bolter, seismic hammer/meltagun, ironclad assault launchers, drop pod

Ironclad Dreadnought- dccw/storm bolter, seismic hammer/meltagun, ironclad assault launchers, drop pod

What do you think?  Am I asking for too much.  Is this list just too full of fail to worry over?  I love the theme and painting it has been fun, but man, oh man has it been a beating to play and tweak as I have just been smacked around the table.  I will keep on going though.  One thing I wish I could wiggle in some points for would be heavy flamers on the ironclads.  They don't have enough pre-assault killiness to make them truly deadly in combat. I think the heavy flamers would really make them a close up threat. Leave comments, jokes, and insults.  I deserve them tonight.

Hobby update

I got in some more IG autocannons from the heavy weapon team kit.  They look like this:

I have found that if you cut off the post that connects the gun to its tripod stand, you can easily glue together two of the guns to create a quick and fairly easy TL autocannon arm for a dreanought.  Here are my dreads sporting their new gear.

And from the side.

I did add a small piece of plasticard to the connection point to make it look a bit smoother.  I also had to fill the gaps with some greenstuff.  The main work came from having to rearrange the ammo cannisters so that they both lined up on the same side. This took a quick slice of my hobby knife and some super glue.  Altogether, a pretty easy conversion and I figure it saved me a bundle over the 12pound price that forgeworld charges. 

Enjoy.

Test drive....bumpy

I took the following list out for a spin on Vassal.

HQ

MotF- power weapon/pistol, servo harness

Elite

Dreadnought- TL Lascannon, missile launcher

Dreadnought- TL Lascannon, missile launcher

Dreadnought- TL Lascannon, missile launcher

Troop

10 tactical marines- missile launcher, flamer, sergeant with combi-melta/meltabombs, riding in rhino (#1)

10 tactical marines- missile launcher, flamer, sergeant with combi-melta/meltabombs, riding in rhino (#2)

10 Scouts- 4x bolters, 1x missile, 4x ccw/pistol, sergeant with powerfist/combi-melta

Fast

Landspeeder tornado- multi-melta, heavy flamer

Landspeeder tornado- multi-melta, heavy flamer

10 assault marines- 2x flamers, sergeant with powerfist

Heavy

Ironclad Dreadnought- dccw/storm bolter, seismic hammer/meltagun, ironclad assault launchers

Ironclad Dreadnought- dccw/storm bolter, seismic hammer/meltagun, ironclad assault launchers

Ironclad Dreadnought- dccw/storm bolter, seismic hammer/meltagun, ironclad assault launchers

I played against a Grey Knight player.  He has:

Brother Captain

3x squads of 8 grey knights
3x land raiders
3x inquisitors with 1x sage, 1x mystic, 2x bolters, 1x plasma cannon

This is the proverbial rock to my scissors.  I couldn't touch all of that AV14.  I even got my landspeeders into range. I just couldn't hit.  It was quite nasty.  I ended up losing a regular dread, both rhinos, and both landspeeders.  He lost one grey knight squad. 

I had someone suggest adding a bike squad to balance things out a bit.  I think that would definitely give me a bunch of added melta.  I think I also need to pod in my ironclads. They were a non issue in this game. Their difficult terrain and run rolls were terrible and so, they did nothing all game.  This list needs a lot of fine tuning.

Models finished this week

Well, I have made progress on my armies.  I finished 9 grey hunters for my Space Wolves army, but I didn't get any pictures.  I did, however, finish a rhino, 2 las/missile dreads, and a squad of scouts in the past week.  Fortunately, I have taken pictures of them.  Here they are.

Here are my most recent scout additions. The squad won't run like this, but I need all of the models.  Included here is a sargeant with powerfist and combi-melta (sculpted rather poorly from greenstuff), a heavy bolter scout (who will count as a missile launcher until I can figure out a good conversion), and three bolters.  I have 10 CCW/pistol scouts, that are painted in another scheme.  I will get to them later.

 Here is one of my Tac squads pimpin' rides.  Nothing special really.  Just a rhino

 Here are two of my three las/missile dreads.  The other one is primed.  I am waiting to get some more white to air brush him.  I am also hoping to score some more imperial guard autocannons.  I discoverd a fairly easy way to make TL autocannons and I want to experiment with them as well.



Finally, is a group picture.  So, basically, I need to paint 4 dreads, 20 odd tac marines, 10 assault marines, 5 scouts, and two speeders and I will have an army! pshhh.....easy......ehhhh

Thanks for looking.  Any constructive criticism or questions are appreciated.

The Valhallan Immortals v.2

So, after thinking about it, I have come to realize that vanguard vets really do suck for their points.  Sure they can take extra weapons and melta bombs, but for the price tag they carry, they just can't work out well.  So, I have dropped them and various other things so that I can take a 10 man assault squad with two flamers and a powerfist.  Here is the updated list.

HQ
Master of the Forge- bolt pistol/power weapon, servo harness- 115pt.

Elite
Dreadnought- TL lascannon, missile launcher- 145pt.
Dreadnought- TL lascannon, missile launcher- 145pt.
Dreadnought- TL lascannon, missile launcher- 145pt.

Troop
Tac Squad- missile launcher, flamer, sargeant with combi-melta and meltabombs, riding in a rhino- 220pt.
Tac Squad- missile launcher, flamer, sargeant with combi-melta and meltabombs, riding in a rhino- 220pt.
10 scouts- 4 ccw/pistol, 4 bolter, 1 missile launcher, sargeant with powerfist, meltabombs and combi-melta- 190pt.

Fast
Assault squad- 2x flamers, powerfist- 235pt.
Landspeeder Storm- multi-melta- 65pt.
Landspeeder- multi-melta, flamer- 70pt.

Heavy
Ironclad- DCCW/stormbolter, seismic hammer/melta, ironclad assault launchers- 150pt.
Ironclad- DCCW/stormbolter, seismic hammer/melta, ironclad assault launchers- 150pt.
Ironclad- DCCW/stormbolter, seismic hammer/melta, ironclad assault launchers- 150pt.

2,000pt.

So, I have freed up some points by dropping venerable status on my elite dreads.  I have also changed the vanguard to a regular assault squad.  This has allowed me to put assault launchers on my ironclads and to get 5 more scouts for home base objective holders.  So, after my last post about needing additional anti-armor fire, I think I have a sizeable amount.  I am running 3 TL lascannons, 5 missile launchers, 3 meltas, 2 multi-meltas, and 3 combi-meltas.  Along with this, every infantry squad has meltabombs and/or a powerfist.  Hopefully, I can disable vehicles quickly and take care of the contents with torrents of fire.  I also am toting 4 flamers, and a heavy flamer alongside the ability to switch to frag missiles to handle infantry units.  This army will be a real challenge to master, but I think it will be loads of fun.