Upcoming Battle: Tau vs Imperial Guard - 500 point Training

It looks like our normal Friday group is going to be a little light this week with only Scott and Austin showing up. So we are going to take the opportunity to do a little bit of training and see if we can get Austin up to speed with the Tau. This should be a simple battle since we are going to be working with him on list building and tactics so instead of rolling everything randomly I am just going to say that we will be playing the Crusade mission on a Dawn of War battlefield with 3 objectives. We will not be using Night Fight, Variable Game Length, or Mysterious Objectives for this battle.

Scott will be the arbiter for the game and as such will be setting up the table and objectives. I will have my list up sometime this week and will not be changing it after I do so since I want to give Austin plenty of time to look it over and build a list to counter it. I will try and post the first draft of Austin's list when i get it and maybe say a few words about it and possibly offer some suggestions. Scott and myself will probably pick the list apart off line before hand and I can post the run down of our discussion at some point.

Imperial Guard POV: Blood Angels vs Imperial Guard

I must say that I was very surprised by my Imperial Guard this time around. The difference between an Imperial Guard army where you use Orders all game versus one where you forget to use them until turn 3 is huge. Now with those orders I did forget that I could go to ground to get the cover save bonus and then use the "Get Back in the Fight" order to shot normally, but that would have only been effective on 2 occasions and then I only lost 3 or so guard from the squad. I also saw vast improvement in my Leman Russ since I remembered that it was a Heavy Vehicle, in this game it made a excellent mobile gun platform. With a stroke of luck at the beginning of the game, I had actually taken out most of what the Blood Angels had taken to deal with it. So it was a bit of a nuisance for Scott the rest of the game. Unfortunately the accuracy of the Leman Russ went down hill a bit near the end of the game and while it did a great job at first it just couldn't deal with targets on the other side of the table.

The game went a full 7 turns and if it had ended on turn 5 I would have walked away with the win. Since it went to turn 7 I didn't really have to staying power on the right side of the board. This was mostly due to the lack of infantry I had on hand. While the list I had wasn't what I would have liked to have taken it was better than I gave it credit so I will no longer call it a sucky list and just say it was a challenging list.

Since Friday I did have a run of luck in finding enough of my old Last Chancers to build out a Veteran Squad which gives me the men to take a minimum Platoon. My wife was also nice enough to buy me a Cadian Command Squad which gets me enough stuff to fill out a couple special weapon roles as well as a Master of Ordnance. With this I can now sit down and see about a my infantry heavy list and gives me a little more in the way of options.

Upcoming Battle: Blood Angels vs. Imperial Guard - What I am taking - Update!

So I found my self reading over some of the rules for the Leman Russ MBT at lunch today and realized that I had made a huge mistake the last time I had played it. In fact I completely forgot it was a Heavy vehicle and on top of that I misread the rules for Ordnance weapons. So upon being enlightened by my 5th or 6th reading of these rules I am going to swap out my Exterminator for a standard Leman Russ. The point cost are the same and I will keep the existing load out. I am literally just swapping out the turret gun. I am not looking for an advantage or anything like that, I just wanted to make sure I got this right while it was still fresh in my mind.

Not sure how catching up on Rugby news made me want to double check the vehicle rules again but I will take it.


So everything is still the same with that one exception and the updated list is here.

Company Command Squad w/ Flamer and Missile Launcher. Chimera w/ Hull Heavy Flamer, Turret Heavy Bolter, Pintle Heavy Stubber, and a Hunter-Killer Missile.

2x Veteran Squad w/ Flamer and Autocannon

Leman Russ MBT w/ Hull Lascannon and Sponson Heavy Bolters.

Upcoming Battle: Blood Angels vs. Imperial Guard - BA - What I am taking

 

So in this battle I have decided to take some things that I have not used before. First is the Librarian which gives me the use of Psychic powers. This will be interesting to try for the first time. I have seen others use them and they seem pretty strong HQ's but that is IF I remember to use his abilities. Second is the Scout Squad which to me isn't much different than a Tactical Squad but they are a bit more squishy. Lastly will be a Hunter-Killer Missile. Won't get a lot of use out of this since it's a one shot deal but I still have never used it. So full details below on my list.

Librarian w/ Blood Boil and Blood Lance

2x 5 man Tactical Squad w/ Flamer and Missile Launcher in first squad w/ Meltagun and Plasma Cannon in second squad.

5 man Scout Squad w/ boltguns and Missile Launcher.

Predator w/ Sponson Heavy Bolters and Hunter-Killer Missile.


This should be an interesting battle for 2 reasons. One is because I have not gone against the IG before and the second is because I have never gone against Jeff before. I know how tactical he can be so it will be fun going up against him for the first time.

Upcoming Battle: Blood Angels vs. Imperial Guard - What I am taking

So I am taking the same thing as i did against the CSM. I haven't had the money or opportunity to get more guard for my army though in truth it looks like I am only 2 Cadian Command Squad boxes and an Aegis box away from having the 500 point army I would like to start with. Instead of that I have the following.

Company Command Squad w/ Flamer and Missile Launcher. Chimera w/ Hull Heavy Flamer, Turret Heavy Bolter, Pintle Heavy Stubber, and a Hunter-Killer Missile.

2x Veteran Squad w/ Flamer and Autocannon

Exterminator Leman Russ MBT w/ Hull Lascannon and Sponson Heavy Bolters.


I don't really have much to say about this list since I believe i ranted about it earlier in the week. The only thing I can do to make sure I have a chance of using these guys effectively is to remember my orders and to remember that the Exterminator is a Heavy Vehicle. I realized sometime yesterday that it was indeed heavy and is considered stationary for firing even if it moved. This little bit of info makes it a much better weapon platform and I completely forgot about it in the last game.

So what I need to do is, keep out of charge range, remember and use my orders every turn, use my Exterminator as a heavy vehicle, make sure that I block what i need to block with the chimera and pray that I can take some objectives by at least turn 4.

Yeah, sure I can do that

Erik Morkai's Great Company

Apparently my wife likes wolves and if I could get her to play 40k she would be playing Space Wolves. I don't know why she likes wolves but when she played the Wolfen in Confrontation she was unbeatable. Thus far she has avoided playing 40k, possibly due to no 6e rules, no 13th company, no rules for Morkai's Great Company. Oh wait they have rules for 6e through the FAQ and sometime next year the 6e Codex is rumored to appear. While we haven't seen the 13th Company since 4th edition there are some unofficial special rules on the internet for Erik Morkai. Yeah I spent several days scouring the internet in order to get some leverage in order to get my wife to beat me at 40k. Below are the rules I found for Erik Morkai and they look pretty good, everything he has can be taken by any normal Wolf Lord except his Saga and Silent Killers. These perks are balanced a bit by the fact that he can never have more than one Rune Priest in his army. Seeing as I have been on the receiving end of Njal in the past, Space Wolves only really need one Rune Priest on the board at a time. So the Rules for Erik Morkai are posted below and the original Librariun Online post in linked as well.



Varedis33 over at Librarium Online posted these rules for him on their forums


Wolf Lord Erik Morkai……………….. 210 pts
WS BS S T W I A Ld Sv
6 5 4 4 3 5 4 10 2+/5++
Composition: 1 (Unique)
Unit Type: Infantry

War gear: Wolftooth Necklace, Runic Armor, Bolt Pistol, Frag and Krak Grenades, Belt of Russ
- are two Frost Axes which add +1 each to its user Strength and allows its wielder to re-roll any failed `'to wound' rolls.

Special Rules: And They Shall Know No Fear; Independent Character; Acute Senses; Counter-attack; Silent Killers, Saga of the Hunter

Silent Killers – Erik’s preferred tactics for his company are specialized in stealth mission that requires patience and silence. The large number of Wolf Scouts in Morkai`s company who lie in wait, often behind enemy lines, have launched ambushes that have won many battles and skirmishes. If Erik is leading the army then all Wolf Scout squads count as a Troops choice.

Saga of the Hunter – Erik`s Saga of the Hunter gives him the Stealth Special rule (+1 cover save). He (and any Fenrisian Wolves or Wolf Scouts he is leading) may enter the table from Reserve using the Outflank special rules.

Never Forgive: Erik's twin brother, Irnist the Wise, was elevated to the Space Wolves with him, but later left his side to join Logan Grimnar's entourage as a Rune Priest, something for which Erik has never truly forgiven him. Therefore, if Erik is leading the army, Rune Priests are 0-1 in the Force Organization chart.


 I don't have any problems with the rules above and for the most part you are taking him for the Wolf Scouts and as far as I can tell are pretty balanced for what you get. I don't think this one bit of information along with the lore that goes with him will get my wife to pick up the army but I probably could throw together 500 points worth if she did decide to play a game with them.

Here is hoping though.

Imperial Guard: My Painted Army

So it looks like George uploaded the pictures he took from over the weekend. He took some of Scott's Blood Angels, his own Eldar, and some of my Imperial Guard. I will let the two of them post and talk about their own armies and will show you mine right now.

This is about all I currently have painted, the only things missing are a couple more guardsmen and a Leman Russ MBT. I am doing them in a urban camouflage that isn't to hard to do, it just takes a while to get it done. 

My Leman Russ Exterminator, this was actually painted at the tail end of 4th edition and has been sitting in my garage ever since. It finally saw battle last Friday and it did pretty well for it's first outing.

Yes I am using the Colonel Commissar Gaunt model for my commander and Colonel Shaeffer model (left) will be for my Platoon Commander. The model to the right is the Hero model from the Last Chancers box set. I was thinking about using him as a sergeant.

This is the finished product of one of my flame troops. I only need to paint 3 or 4 more to have the group complete. I went with the red tanks more for me to be able to easily spot them on the table.

One of my two Autocannons, I have another autocannon and a missile launcher in various degrees of completion.

And finally some of the basic guardsmen, if nothing else they do show off the camouflage rather nicely.