BR: BA vs. GK, SW vs. BA

Fun times to be had!

Well guys, no pictures, but I do have some hysterical fun times to tell you.  My friend took all the pictures so I'll probably just upload them later.  Don't worry, the BRs I'm going to share to you will be pretty epic.  First thing's first:  We played two games tonight, one with my Blood Angels vs. his Grey Knights, and then another with my Space Wolves vs. his Blood Angels.  Which one is more awesome?  I'll let you folks decide.

My list:
Dante
Librarian w/ JP, Sanguine Sword and Unleash Rage
3x 10x ASM w/ Fist/Infernus and 2x Meltaguns
5x Sanguinary Guard w/ CBanner and Fist
Chaplain w/ JP
2x Sanguinary Priests w/ JPs
3x AC/LC Predators

His list:
Draigo
Librarian w/ MC Halberd, 3x Skulls
Sanctuary, Shrouding, Might and Vortex
10x Paladins, 4x Psycannons, BBanner, the works
5x Paladins, BBanner, 2x Psycannons
2x Rifledreads
Dreadknight w/ Heavy Incinerator, Teleporter



This one was capture objectives and table corners.  Everything but the Dreads were in DS.

• The game started out pretty boring, a few Lascannon shots here and there from my Preds.  Opening volley immobilized both of his Dreads behind mid-level cover which gave him and me 4+ cover from any shots from his Dreads for the rest of the game.
• I deployed everyone and everyone just hovered around my Preds and waited for his reinforcements to come in.  
• His Dreadknight came down and flamed a bunch of dudes but didn't get much result out of that.  He was quickly assaulted by Dante's unit (10x ASM and a Chaplain), the Libby's unit and the Sanguinary Guard for an easy kill.
• Next round his Draigo came in on the opposite side of my ASM; which shot the hell out of one of my Preds.  His other Dreads started to kick through my cover saves and disabled more of my Preds (rendering them immob/stunend).
• Since I was far away from Draigo, I had to move the rest of my jumpers in ASAP.  Draigo was with the smaller squad, but it was still a deadly force to be reckoned with.  I got in closer to Draigo's unit with Dante's squad, ASM squad A, B and the Libby squad.  To successfully defeat Paladins in combat, BA's have to put their superior numbers into play.  Assaulting squads individually just means certain death.
• To get into position, I sacrificed one of my Preds by boosting 18" and generating a smaller cover/gap for my jumpmans to move into.
• This did not help me next turn as his giant squad of Paladins + Libby comes streaming down and inflicting 21 wounds onto my Libby squad.  Six marines go down through 3+s and FNPs but I was able to pass morale.  Draigo's squad destroys another Pred while his Rifles work on the last one.
• I shoot Draigo's squad with my entire army before charging in.  Without the cover he needs from the terrain and the Libby to give him Shrouding, my metaguns kick in full force and drops 3 Paladins before I charge in with everything I got.  With the Deathmask of Sanguinius reducing Draigo down to 3 wounds, he takes another 2 from shooting (2 melta shots).  Down to his last wound, all of my guys hit that unit and kill Draigo before he can swing (I4 vs. my FC Sanguinary Guard).
• My positioning and massacre roll helps to keep space between me and the giant Libby squad.  Paladins are hard as rock, but they're insanely slow once they reach the battlefield.  With a full jump pack army, I am able to negotiate the terrain around him and surround the remnants of his army.  His Psycannons drops a few marines from Dante's squad, but nothing can stay my wrath next turn.
• I surround him with everyone and shoot him with everything I got.  Once the meltagun barrels cool, he has 5 Paladins left and his Libby down from a full squad.  The ones remain have Halberds.  I assault with everything I have and several Blood Angels die, but not before 4 Fists, Dante, the Chaplain and Sanguinary Guard clean up the rest of his army.

Let the meltas roar and the chainswords sing!

PRO TIP - Victory in numbers
BA jumpers vs. Paladins might seem like suicide at first, but you really need to determine which fights you can win and which fights to avoid.  Sending in units of BA into I6 Halberds could mean certain death, but all this depends on how many Paladins they have, how many wounds you can inflict beforehand, and how many units you have at your disposal.  Use your mobility and the terrain to negotiate victory on your terms.  Do not attack when you don't feel like you can win, and always use your superior maneuverability and numbers to overwhelm his forces.  Paladins are nigh immune to small arms fire, so it's up to the weight of your meltaguns and power fists to work his ranks.  To do this, you need bodies.  Many Blood Angels will die in the process, but their sacrifices will not be in vain.


This next game is pretty hysterical:

My list:
Ragnar
Rune Priest
3x 10x Grey Hunters in Rhinos, WG Fist/CbM, Melta, Banner, Wulfen
10x Grey Hunters w/ Arjac in LRC w/ MM/EA
2x AC/LC Preds

His list:
Mephiston
5x Honor Guard (assorted CC) in Storm Raven
3x 10x ASM w/ Fist/Infernus, 2x Meltaguns
2x Sanguinary Priests w/ JPs
Vindicator
Rifledread


Game was Kill Points and Dawn of War.

• Typical of DoW, nothing happens first turn as we push models onto the table.
• Second turn, I light up his Vindicator with my AC/LC Preds and I immobilized it and rip the gun off.  That is one sad Vindie.  His return fire from his Rifledread doesn't do anything.
• His BAs fly towards the center of the table in unison while my Grey Hunters in RBs + the LRC moves up the middle to meet him.
• With his BAs flying closer to me, Ragnar and his unit (10x GH w/ Arjac) rushes forward in the LRC and disembarks for some First Blood.  Arjac throws his hammer at someone's face, meltaguns goes off and bolt pistols were fired.  Some poor rolling from the BAs saw half the squad die and they fail their morale test.  They fly back 3d6 while the rest of my dudes are sitting out in open terrain in the middle of the map.  Awesome.
• Next round, his cowardly squad decides they want another shot at Ragnar so they move up.  Everyone of his dudes moves up at this moment and the fireworks starts.  One of his squads blows up the LRC behind Ragnar and explodes it on a 6.  All of my dudes get caught in the explosion and so does 8 of his guys.  He saves all of his and two of my Grey Hunters go down.  Another one of his squads lights up a Rhino and explodes it as well.  The Grey Hunters inside fair a little better despite some insane wound rolls and only two die.  He says why not and assaults Ragnar and his unit.  Counter-attack goes off and Ragnar tears into 3 of them before the rest of the squad finishes off the rest of the unit.  Only 3 Grey Hunters die the process.
• Here's the big turn.  Everyone's in the middle of the map and there's much blood to be had.  The Space Wolves decide it's time to show the Blood Angels how to properly assault.  Everyone disembarks from their Rhinos and get into charge range of the Angels.  Ragnar lets out a terrifying Wolf Howl and the entire Space Wolf army goes berserk.  After all shots are fired and a measly 2 BA die from meltas, Ragnar runs headfirst into the first unit of ASM with Wolf Standard on.  He killed 3 last round, has +2 attacks from his D3 attacks this turn, and 5 attacks base for a total of 10 attacks:  He misses with 1 and wounds with all.  Ragnar single-handily kills an entire squad of Blood Angels.  Next round, if anyone decides they want a piece, they will have to deal with Ragnar with 14 attacks.  With the help of Wolf Standard and a 12" bubble of Furious Charge, the other BA unit melts under the onslaught of 2 rabid Grey Hunter squads and the Wolves massacre closer to the immobilized Rifledread.
• Long story short:  Arjac destroys the Dreadnought before dying to Mephiston and the Honor Guard that came down from the Storm Raven.  The SR blew up a Predator before getting destroyed by Grey Hunters afterwards.  Mephiston goes on to tear Ragnar's head off.  Mephiston goes down from being swamped by 2 squads of pissed off Grey Hunters w/ Wulfen and 2 hidden Fists.

Ragnar wolf howls his brothers into a killing frenzy.

PRO TIP - Tactical and flexible

Grey Hunters are best utilized in a supportive role in mid-field.  With their healthy array of upgrades, Counter-attack and mobility, Grey Hunters are the workhorse of the Space Wolf army.  Greys are best used in conjunction with other units; either more Greys or Wolf Guard Terminators.  The objective of the Space Wolf player would be baiting your opponent into likely targets and then springing the trap with sheer weight of fire.  There is nothing that 30+ Grey Hunters can't do in the right circumstances, so its up to you to determine when to use them.  Like the saying goes:  There is no such thing as overkill.

Why does everyone have Grey Knights?

I've been out of it for a couple of months now because of the whole house thing, but I kept up with blog feeds and tournament reports.  As if the metagame wasn't stale already, it seems like everyone and their mother plays with Grey Knights now.  That's all I see on major gaming forums, all I see on major blogs and frankly I'm sick of it.  This is probably the biggest bandwagon in the history of 40K.  I've been playing the game since 3rd and I can't remember when everyone played the same army.

Am I crazy?  But come on..
Cheers to the death of originality and fun.  I'm gonna start posting more fun BA and SW stuff soon.

Playing some Space Marine!

Come at me bro.

Have you guys played it yet?  I'm loving the Multiplayer especially.  I haven't played single-player at all, but I've been hacking away at some faces in MP.  My main class is Assault, but I do like to roll Tacticals every now and then.

Chainsword/Bolt Pistol

Swordsman's Zeal

Air-cooled Thrusters

A lot of people complain that everything's overpowered, but hey you know what?  If everything seems imbalanced, then I'm willing to bet it's balanced.

Sample Ogres list

So I've been toying around with the new Ogres army book recently and man do I think Ogres are funny.  Truth be told, I've been looking around for an army that's on the opposite end of my High Elves and I think I might of found the right one.  High Elves are small in stature, elite, loves Dragons and has powerful game-changing magic.  Ogres are big and fat, ugly as sin, has a pretty small army size (I guess they're elite?), and are just overall hysterical because they're physically everything High Elves aren't.

I don't know, what do you guys think?  What would you say are the opposite of High Elves?  I already have a VC army sitting in the closet, but I don't think I'll break them out just yet.  From the looks of things, 8th Ed. is heading in a great direction and all the books I've seen so far are balanced.  For the first time in forever, Games Workshop has been writing balanced books.  I know right?  Crazy..

As for my Ogres list, check this thing out:

2501

Tyrant = 322
Heavy Armor, Great Weapon
Dragonhelm, Giantbreaker, 4+ Ward
Other Tickster's

The Tyrant here is supposed to be me on the battlefield.  A personal avatar if you will.  He's big, powerful, is swinging at S8 (-5 to your armor!) and has a 4+/4++ save.  Not the best save in the world, but with his ability to make other folks re-roll successful ward saves, he's bound to do a lot of damage.  With S8 attacks, anything with a 2+ save gets no armor saves against him.

Lv.4 Slaughtermaster = 285

Maybe I only need a Lv.3 with Ogres, but I decided to spend the extra 35 pts to bump the Slaughtermaster up to a Lv.4.  Time will tell if I need more on him.. but for now he's running naked.

Bruiser = 191
BSB, Great Weapon
2+ save, Dragonfire

Simple Bruiser BSB with a 2+ save and the Ironcurse item to give the unit a 6+ save from Warmachine fire. Better than nothing I suppose.. the other contender is the 2+ ward vs. fire/flaming attacks.

Lv.1 Firebelly = 154
Great Weapon
Scroll

Just a scroll caddy + S4 breath in close combat.  The Firebelly also allows me to take away those Regen saves so my Tyrant and Bruiser can go to town.

7x Ogres (Ironfists) = 259
Full Command

The Slaughtermaster chills in this unit and just buffs up the rest of the army and provides dispel support.  When needed, they go charging in after the main blocks of units engage.

9x Ironguts = 422
Full Command

The main fighting force of the army right here.  With 9x of these dudes, the Tyrant, BSB and Firebelly, I form a 4x3 unit of face-breaking fun.  One of the strongest units in the entirety of Warhammer, anything that gets caught in its path gets completely trampled into the ground.  Now.. if only I can get into combat without getting molested by Purple Sun or Pit of Shades..

6x Leadbelchers = 258

These guys are at 6x right now but I'm also thinking about dropping them to 4x (in 2x2).  Right now with 6, they're putting out 6d6 BS3 S4 armor piercing shots with no moving to fire penalty at 24".  That's pretty damn impressive.  But with 2x2, they're small and agile enough to shoot down Eagles on my flanks and with the extra points, I can buy Sabretusks to go Warmachine hunting.  I don't know, what do you guys think?

4x Mournfang (Ironfists) = 360
Full Command
Dragonhide Banner

A huge threat to anything that lives and breathes.  On the charge, they put out 4d3 S5 impact hits, 16 WS3 S5 attacks, 13 WS3 S4 attacks, re-rolls all 1s to hit, wound and failed armor saves (Wolf Standard in WHFB wtf!), has a 2+ armor save with parry and is T4 with 3 wounds each.  Talk about the bulkiest heavy cavalry to ever grace the game of Warhammer.  Damn.  If I want the unit I'm holding onto to stay still, I just pop the Dragonhide Banner's S3 breath attack and everyone that gets hit is striking last next turn.  Ridiculous.

Thundertusk = 250

It's a freaking mammoth, why not?  Comes stock with 6" ASL aura to all enemy models effected, built in Stonethrower, Bolt Thrower and random 12" S6 Killing Blow ranged attack.

Ogres, Sisters and other news

It's been a long time since I made an update and I apologize for that.

First, I'd like to say that I'm officially an homeowner.  I'm now knee deep in moving so I'll remain elusive until that's all done.  Then there's a few repairs I need to do with the house so who knows when I'll get back to minis.  However, I have been keeping up with my minis news via White Dwarf, updates from every known forum on the internets and from my fellow bloggers.  Thanks everyone!

The second thing I'd like to talk about is the Sisters codex.  I was disappointed when I checked out the first WD where it had the special rules.  I was disappointed again after seeing their point costs in the 2nd WD.  Needless to say, I think they're going to be a middle of the ground army that adheres to fluff and fun more so than competitive play.  They're just not that good, especially now that their Faith points are not guaranteed and the powers themselves are weaker.  Kirby said it pretty well in his review here.  One of my biggest gripes with the codex is how unreliable their FP system is.  Sure, you can stack HQs in the unit to make it more reliable, but putting more RNG in a RNG-based game is not good game design imo.  It simply takes away with what you can do with them in the future.

I guess my only other follow-up for 40K is the Nova open.  It's been a while since I commented on the metagame, and the only thing I have to say about it is that it sucks.  There's just so many MEQ players these days that tournaments don't facinate me anymore.  Grats on the Draigo player taking GK to the final rounds, can't say I saw that coming.  Wonder what his list was.

And lastly, I want to say that I'm very excited to get my Ogre Kingdoms book in the mail.  For the first time in a long time, it appears that GW has finally gotten their shit together in terms of designing books.  If you look at the current trend of 8th Ed. books, all the books are balanced and tame compared to the 7th Ed. atrocities.  I still think the super killy spells is bad news bears in terms of game design, but the balance of 8th Ed. Fantasy is going in a great direction.  This, on top of the ridiculously awesome models they've been putting out is nothing short of awesome.  Let's just hope GW keeps this up.

That's it for now guys.  Let me know what you think.