Holiday gaming!

I got in 2 games on Memorial Day with my Blood Angels, using my shooty style lists.  Both were very solid wins, and I had a lot of fun with all the firepower I brought to the table.

First game was 1500pts:

HQ: Captain, Dual LC, Jump Pack
Troop: 10 Assault, 2x Melta, Fist
Troop (x2): 5 Assault, power weapon, melta, Las-plas
Fast (x2): Baal; HB
Fast: Attack Bike, MM
Elite: Priest x2, 2 power weapons, 1 jump pack
Heavy: Pred, LC
Heavy: Devastators, 4x ML

I played against a super elite Blood Angels list.

HQ: Sanguinor
HQ: Astorath
Troop: 10 Assault, 2 melta, Sgt with plasma pistol and power weapon.
Troop: 6 DC including Lemartes, jump packs
Troop: DC Dread, talons
Heavy: Stormraven, Typhoon

It was Annihilation, DoW.  He put Sanguinor on the table and moved him up a little. I deployed a MSU squad far enough away to avoid the charge.  First turn he moved up a little. When I rolled on, my Baals and jump pack guys killed Sanginor, and the Predator and razorbacks downed the stormraven.  The Death Company and dread did a lot of damage though, killing the devastators, the attack bike, the captain, both priests and jump pack guys, and one of the MSU squads with their razorback.  The re-rolls Lemartes gives them is just amazing, he alone killed 7 assault marines on one charge.

In the end though, I just had more bullets then he had guys, with the Baals putting on average 8 wounds each every turn.  I completely tabled him.

Second game was against Codex Marines @1750

HQ: Pedro

Troop: Tactical, lascannon, melta, rhino with HK
Troop: Tactical, lascannon, flamer, rhino with HK

Elite: 5 Sternguard, 5x combi-melta, las-plas razorback
Elite: Venerable Dread, plasma cannon
Elite: 5 shooty terminators, Assault cannon

Heavy: Devastators, 4x ML
Heavy: LRC, MM

I added a Librarian and 6 DC in a Rhino with a power weapon, and dropped the Attack Bike. Game was pitched battle, capture and control.  I parked a MSU squad on my objective, he parked the Sternguard razorback on his almost directly opposite.  He combat squadded the tacticals, lining up the lascannons and devastators in a firing line.

I got to go first, and took both weapons of the razorback, and stunned a rhino.One MSU with priest and DC rhino ran up the field towards his firebase. He kept the Dread and LR with termies in reserve, which ended up hurting as the dread didn't come in until turn 4, and the LRC on turn 5.  By then I had killed everything else on the table, and lost the jump pack unit to shooting (plasma cannons = bad) and assault from the Dread. The termies came on and were only able to take out a MSU squad and DC rhino before the game ended with me still camping on my objective.  I doubt he could have gotten to me anyway. Having to wait so long for the LRC really ended up being his biggest problem.

Overall I'm very happy so far with my shooty list.  I will be playing my 2k Mephiston version this week, getting ready for OFCC. The best part is if I take this list, I don't have to finish the Stormraven..:)

Finding myself disillusioned by Stormravens..

I *love* the Stormraven model, unlike most people I guess.  However the more I play it, the more I realize just how fragile it really is. It's a big investment in and of itself, not including the passengers. I was planning on taking 2 of them to OFCC, and I might still but I need to play it some to see if 2 is really better then 1.

But in the meantime I've come up with a new 2k list, which is quite a bit different. No stormravens, no termies, no dreads at all!  Just lots of long-range and medium range shooting.

HQ: Captain, jump pack, dual lightning claws, meltabombs

HQ: Mephiston

Troops: 10 Assault Marines, 2x melta, fist

Troops (x3): 5 Assault Marines, power weapon, metla; Razorback, searchlight, Las-Plas

Elite: 2 Sanguinary High Priests, one with jump pack, both with power weapons

Fast (x2): Baal; Heavy bolters

Fast: 2 Attack Bikes, MM

Heavy: Predator; LC sponsoons, searchlight

Heavy: Devastators; 4x ML

1999pts

This provides me a nice firebase with 3 lascannons, 1 predator and 4 ML all under shield and FNP.  FNP devastators are actually quite hard to dislodge from cover, especially if the roll for red thirst. They stand up to Venoms quite nicely.  The Baals are serious anti-infantry firepower, and take the place of Blood Talon dreads.  The jump pack squad can come in almost anywhere with DoA with 12 FNP Marines and cause a whole lot of trouble or at least cause all guns to turn around away from my firebase.

I think it is a lot more effective then the dual flyer list.  I will be playtesting a lot over the next 2 months. We'll see..

Another loss at the hands of Dark Eldar

But it was a much, much better game then last time.

My list:
HQ: Captain, Dual LC, Jump pack

HQ: Librarian (Shield, Unleash rage)

Troop: 10 Assault marines, 2x melta, fist

Troop (x3): 5 Assault marines, melta, power weapon; Las-plas razorback

Elite: Sanguinary Priest x2, one with jump pack and power weapon, one with power weapon

Heavy: Predator, LC sponsoons

Heavy: Devastators, 4x ML

Fast (x2): Baal, Heavy bolters

So what was so different? Well basically I dropped the stormraven and passengers (termies, dread) for more firepower.  It worked really well against the Dark Eldar, especially with seizing the initiative.  I felt like I could do enough damage (and I did), so that I was able to keep my opponent on his heals. It took 3 full witch squads to take out my jump pack guys..which is a more then I thought. Even at that I could have stayed stuck in one more turn if I had made one more save.  Interesting, eh? 

After the game my opponent and I had a big debate on weather or not I should have moved out of my castle sooner.  Like turn 2.  My side was that running strait into 8 blasters and 20 haywire grenades was no way to win.  I still lost, but a couple of rolls another way would have made it at least a tie if not a win.  It was a loss I didn't feel was a bad loss..just like when I was playing Blood Angels with my Orks at the last tournament. 

I might have been overly focused on destroying vehicles.  Maybe. Maybe I was overly concerned about running up into still formidable firepower. I don't think I could have played much different, except re-position my jump pack guys so they couldn't be assaulted by 2 witch squads the first turn.

Stone Alter terrain done

 

Finished the stone alter - swamp terrain to match the tree stand I made a while ago. Simple build, quick and fun to make.  The tree stand was pretty epic, took a lot of time and effort. This was super quick by comparison. The stone tablet is plaster, I made my own mold from plasticard and hot glue. I was originally going to break it for a ruin, but I liked the smoothness so much I left it as-is lol.

1500pt tournament afterthoughts

Another Sunday tournament down at Ancient Wonders in Tualatin, Oregon.  This was the same place that last time I went I took my meta-denial list and completely smashed face. So this time I wanted to tone down my army a bit.  I went with..battlewagon spam!!

HQ: Warboss, Cybork, PK, Squig, kombi-skorcha

HQ: Mek, KFF, Cybork, Burna

Troop: 3 Meganobz, 2x kombi-skorcha

Battlewagon: Deffrolla, armor plates, riggers, kannon, big shoota

Troop: 20 Shootaboys, 2x Rokkit, Nob w/PK&BP

Troop: 19 Sluggaboys, Nob w/PK&BP

Troop: 19 Sluggaboys, Nob w/PK&BP

Elite: 15 lootas

Heavy: Battlewagon: Deffrolla, armor plates, riggers, kannon, big shoota

Heavy: Battlewagon: Deffrolla, armor plates, riggers, kannon, big shoota

This was the first time I really played such a list, and it's only like the 4th time I've ever played meganobz lol.  I have to say it is quite effective..if you can make your cover saves early.  It only takes a turn or 2 of movement to get everything over to the other side of the table and start beating face.  I can see the lootas are extraneous, but not useless. For the same points I can take another battlewagon and still have a few lootas hanging out for a distraction.  But I do really like having that unit of boys on foot, they work great as objective campers allowing the mobile units to get the job done.

The first game was by far the best, and despite losing completely on objectives, I nearly tabled him (just 8 infantry and 2 vehicles left).  It was such a great game though I didn't mind losing that much.  I brought this list to have fun, not to win.  If I had moved my lootas to contest the objective instead of shooting the Razorback, it would have at least been a tie.

The other two games though, had a lot of rule issues..like trying to rotate an immobile dread and taking saves on firewarriors one at a time.  It kind of got frustrating, and I felt like I was coming across as a dick, when in fact I was just trying to follow the rules...especially since I was completely dominating both of the games.  Live and learn.

The truth is this list is really fun to play, especially when rolling over vehicles. But it is completely dependent on luck..make those KFF saves, you can't lose. Fail and ..you're in world of hurt.  Need Snikrot or some other way to mitigate the luck factor. Not sure if I will keep trying this style or stick with the nob bikers.

All or none..

 It seems my Blood Angels are a fickle army. Sometimes they just don't want to work right.  It wasn't dice, it was just simply my list was outmatched. Maybe if I had been a tad less aggressive.  Or maybe even more aggressive.  I'm not sure. I honestly have no idea how or if I could have played this game better. If I had kept my jump guys back a bit more I would have been out of charge range, and that might have changed the game enough to give me a chance. At least I would have been able to shoot a meltagun..maybe.  I thought my list had enough long-range shooting.  But the more I play I realize a lot of that is tied up in the Stormraven..

I like the Stormraven model so much, it's hard to drop it...not sure yet.

XV-9 Hazard

My two XV-9's one with burst cannons, one with phased ion guns. I would love to actually play these guys someday..